houfe of lords, but for abolishing epifcopacy itfelf.' Nay, he perfuades us to receive epifcopacy, and defends it by the very fame reasons and arguments, which with a great deal of earneftnefs he had confuted himself in that former book; to wit, that bishops were neceffary and ought to have been retained, to prevent the fpringing up of a thousand pernicious fects and herefies.' Crafty turncoat! are you not afhamed to fhift hands thus in things that are facred, and (I had almost faid) to betray the church; whose most folemn inftitutions you feem to have afferted and vindicated with fo much noife, that when it fhould feem for your intereft to change fides, you might undo and fubvert all again with the more difgrace and infamy to yourfelf? It is notorioufly known, that when both houfes of parliament, being extremely defirous to reform the church of England by the pattern of our reformed churches, had refolved to abolith epifcopacy, the king first interpofed, and afterwards waged war against them chiefly for that very caufe; which proved fatal to him. Go now and boaft of your having defended the king; who, that you might the better defend him, do now openly betray and impugn the caufe of the church, whose defence you yourself had formerly undertaken; and whofe fevereft cenfures ought to be inflicted upon you. As for the prefent form of our government, fince fuch a foreign infignificant profeffor as you, having laid afide your boxes and defks ftuffed with nothing but trifles, which you might have fpent your time better in putting into order, will needs turn bufybody, and be troublesome in other men's matters, I fhall return you this anfwer, or rather not to you, but to them that are wifer than yourself, viz. That the form of it is fuch as our prefent diftractions will admit of; not fuch as were to be wished, but fuch as the obftinate divifions, that are amongst us, will bear. What ftate foever is peftered with factions, and defends itself by force of arms, is very just in having regard to thofe only that are found and untainted, and in overlooking or fecluding the reft, be they of the nobility or the common people; nay, though profiting by experience, they fhould refufe to be governed any longer either by a king or a house of VOL. III. I lords. lords. But in railing at that fupreme council, as you call it, and at the chairman there, you make yourself very ridiculous; for that council is not the fupreme council, as you dream it is, but appointed by authority of parliament, for a certain time only; and confifting of forty perfons, for the most part members of parliament, any one of whom may be prefident, if the reft vote him into the chair. And there is nothing more common, than for our parliaments to appoint committees of their own members; who, when fo appointed, have power to meet where they please, and hold a kind of a little parliament amongst themfelves. And the moft weighty affairs are often referred to them, for expedition and fe crecy; the care of the navy, the army, the treasury; in fhort, all things whatsoever relating either to war or peace. Whether this be called a council, or any thing elfe, the thing is ancient, though the name may be new; and it is fuch an inftitution, as no government can be duly administered without it. As for our putting the king to death, and changing the government, forbear your bawling, don't fpit your venom, till, going along with you through every chapter, I fhow, whether you will or no, "by what law, by what right and justice" all that was done. But if you infift to know "by what right, by what law;" by that law, I tell you, which God and nature have enacted, viz. that whatever things are for the univerfal good of the whole ftate, are for that reafon lawful and juft. So wife men of old ufed to answer fuch as you. You find fault with us for "repealing laws, that had obtained for fo many years;" but you do not tell us whether thofe laws were good or bad, nor, if you did, fhould we heed what you faid; for, you buty puppy, what have you to do with our laws? I wifh our ma giftrates had repealed more than they have, both laws and lawyers; if they had, they would have confulted the intereft of the chriftian religion, and that of the people better than they have done. It frets you, that "hob goblins, fons of the earth, fcarce gentlemen at home, fcarce known to their own countrymen, fhould prefume to do fuch things." But you ought to have remembered, what not only the fcriptures, but Horace would have taught you, viz. Valet Valet ima fummis Mutare, & infignem attenuat Deus, The power that did create, can change the scene But take this into the bargain. Some of those who, you fay, be fcarce gentlemen, are not at all inferiour in birth to any of your party. Others, whofe ancestors were not noble, have taken a courfe to attain to true hobility by their own industry and virtue, and are not inferiour to men of the nobleft defcent. They had rather be called "fons of the earth," provided it be their own earth (their own native country) and act like men at home, than, being deftitute of houfe or land, to relieve the neceffities of nature in a foreign country by felling of smoke, as thou doft, an inconfiderable fellow and a jack-straw, and who dependest upon the good-will of thy mafters for a poor ftipend; for whom it were better to difpense with thy labours, and return to thy own kindred and countrymen, if thou hadft not this one piece of cunning, to babble out fome filly prelections and fooleries at fo good a rate amongst foreigners. You find fault with our magiftrates for admitting fuch "a common fewer of all forts of fects." Why should they not? It belongs to the church to caft them out of the communion of the faithful; not to the magiftrate to banish them the country, provided they do not offend against the civil laws of the state. Men at first united into civil focieties, that they might live fafely, and enjoy their liberty, without being wronged or oppreffed; and that they might live religioufly, and according to the doctrine of chriftianity, they united themselves into churches. Civil focieties have laws, and churches have a difcipline peculiar to themselves, and far differing from each other. And this has been the occafion of fo many wars in Chriftendom; to wit, be cause the civil magiftrate and the church confounded their jurifdictions. Therefore we do not admit of the popish I 2 feet, fect, fo as to tolerate papifts at all; for we do not look upon that as a religion, but rather as a hierarchical tyranny, under a cloak of religion, clothed with the spoils of the civil power, which it has ufurped to itself, contrary to our Saviour's own doctrine. As for the independents, we never had any fuch amongst us, as you defcribe; they that we call independents, are only fuch as hold that no claffis or fynods have a fuperiority over any particular church, and that therefore they ought all to be plucked up by the roots, as branches, or rather as the very trunk of hierarchy itfelf; which is your own opinion too. And from hence it was that the name of independents prevailed amongst the vulgar. The reft of your preface is spent in endeavouring not only to ftir up the hatred of all kings and monarchs against us, but to perfuade them to make a general war upon us. Mithridates of old, though in a different cause, endeavoured to stir up all princes to make war upon the Romans, by laying to their charge almoft juft the fame things that you do to ours: viz. that the Romans aimed at nothing but the fubverfion of all kingdoms, that they had no regard to any thing, whether facred or civil, that from their very firft rife, they never enjoyed any thing but what they had acquired by force, that they were robbers, and the greatest enemies in the world to monarchy. Thus Mithridates expreffed himself in a letter to Arfaces, king of the Parthians. But how came you, whose business it is to make filly speeches from your desk, to have the confidence to imagine, that by your perfuafions to take up arms, and founding an alarm as it were, you should be able fo much as to influence a king amongst boys at play; efpecially, with fo fhrill a voice, and unfavoury breath, that I believe, if you were to have been the trumpeter, not fo much as Homer's mice would have waged war against the frogs? So little do we fear, you flug you, any war or danger from foreign princes through your filly rhetoric, who accufeft us to them, juft as if you were at play, "that we tofs kings heads like balls; play at bowls with crowns; and regard fceptres no more than if they were fools' ftaves with heads on:" but you in the mean time, you filly loggerhead, deferve to have your bones well well thrashed with a fool's ftaff, for thinking to ftir up kings and princes to war by fuch childish arguments. Then you cry aloud to all nations, who, I know full well, will never heed what you fay. You call upon that wretched and barbarous crew of Irish rebels too, to affert the king's party. Which one thing is fufficient evidence how much you are both a fool and a knave, and how you outdo almost all mankind in villany, impudence, and madness; who fcruple not to implore the loyalty and aid of an execrable people, devoted to the flaughter, whom the king himself always abhorred, or fo pretended, to have any thing to do with, by reafon of the guilt of fo much innocent blood, which they had contracted. And that very perfidioufnefs and cruelty, which he endeavoured as much as he could to conceal, and to clear himself from any fufpicion of, you the most villanous of mortals, as fearing neither God nor man, voluntarily and openly take upon yourself. Go on then, undertake the king's defence at the encouragement, and by the affiftance of the Irish. You take care, and fo you might well, left any fhould imagine, that you were about to bereave Cicero or Demofthenes of the praife due to their eloquence, by telling us beforehand, that "you conceive you ought not to speak like an orator." It is wifely faid of a fool; you conceive you ought not to do what is not in your power to do: and who, that knows you never fo little, ever expects any thing like an orator from you? Who neither ufes, nor is able to publish any thing that is elaborate, diftinct, or has fo much as fenfe in it; but like a fecond Crifpin, or that little Grecian Tzetzes, you do but write a great deal, take no pains to write well; nor could write any thing well, though you took never fo much pains. "This caufe fhall be argued (fay you) in the hearing, and as it were before the tribunal of all mankind." That is what we like fo well, that we could now with we had a difcreet and intelligent adverfary, and not fuch a hairbrained blunderbufs, as you, to deal with. You conclude very tragically, like Ajax in his raving; "I will proclaim to Heaven and earth the injuftice, the villany, the perfidioufnefs and cruelty of thefe men, and will deliver them over convicted to all pofterity." O 13 flowers! |