The Epistle to the READER.
James Dodson
[iii.]
The Epistle to the READER.
Courteous Reader,
I am not insensible that the subject matter of these papers, and the season of their publication, may expose them and their Author to the censure of the Committee of discretion; which if they do, I cannot but let thee know, this will not be the first time I have fallen under their correction; for, such was my loyalty to the King’s Majesty in His late unjust exile; and the cogency of the Covenant on my conscience, that my preached Sermons, and Printed papers, were very frequently under the examination of this Committee; constituted not only of my envious enemies, (desirous to discover in me a rashness which might prove my ruin,) but also my trembling friends, and timorous brethren in the Ministry, who thought any who stepped before them in duty, thrust themselves into present danger; and yet no judgement could pass against me, save only the state of affairs might have made him more politick; but that it is truth he spake, and a Ministers duty to speak, it could never be denied.
I presume, men to whom I am in any measure known, will not judge me such a fool as not to discern the current of the times, countenance of the Court, clamors of the Country, contradictions of rising persons in the Church and Commonwealth to what is herein asserted; the compliance and connivance of many my brethren in the Ministry under the same Oath herein vindicated; and the cooled courage of the first Composers, earnest Instigators, and zealous Promoters of the Solemn
[iv.]
League and Covenant: and that in dissenting from them, and opposing my private apprehensions to their more prudent affections, I must needs expose my self to the reproach of singularity, inconsiderate heat, peevishness of spirit, and contract on my self the frowns of men in power, and frettings of my complying brethren, and fellow-confederates, and fail the expectations of my own preferment, which my courage and constancy for His Majesty’s just interest in the worst of oppressing times, and utmost of opposition, (wherein many who now vilify the Covenant, durst not speak, nay did basely comply and promise, to be true and faithful to the Common-wealth of England, as it was then established without a King and House of Lords,) had heightened in both my friends and foes; against which, when I reason with flesh and blood, and consult a proud heart within, and numerous family without me, I find sufficient Arguments, (according to the dictates of nature,) to determine folly against my self; but I hope I have not so learned Christ.
True piety doth suggest and convince me, that wisdom towards God is folly to the world; and the Watchman’s prudence is to proclaim an approaching evil whilst at a distance, capable of diversion, and escape; and that the most wise of God’s Ministers in all ages judged it their duty to oppose God’s Word to men’s prevailing lust, and present propensity unto wickedness: Elijah-like to stand alone, and speak the mind of God, when for so doing they may be branded as the troublers of Israel, when indeed their sin, not the preachers speech, doth cause the commotion; with Micaiah to denounce the danger of Ahab’s design, though 400 Prophets encourage it, and King, and the Court incline to it: and with Jeremiah, to say to the King, Keep thy Oath, and thou shalt be delivered, when Princes and Prophets persuade the breach thereof, and himself must down into the Dungeon as a preacher of sedition. Few men will deny, that Roger Bacon
[v.]
in his plain preaching to King Henry 3. that if he did not remove his malignant councilors, Peter Bishop of Winchester, and Peter de Rivallis, he could never be at quiet, played a wiser part, than did the Bishop; who, to please the King’s humour, preached up the King’s prerogative to such a pitch, as brought himself under an Anathema; from which he was forced to appeal to Rome for relief: and all good Protestants will conclude Cranmer was much wiser in alone withstanding King, Council, Parliament, Lords temporal and spiritual, in the case of King Henry 8 his six Popish Articles, than in that Court-compliance, which caused that doleful complaint in the midst of the fire, This my unworthy right hand.
Magnanimity is a virtue not the least necessary to a man, but most necessary to a Christian, and most of all to a Minister, who should like his Steeple stand in all storms, (raised under and by the variations of human affairs,) and not like the Weather-cock, turn with every wind. I am ashamed to think with what vigour some asserted the Obligation of the Covenant in reference to Religion, when the civil part thereof was clouded and broken; and now would vindicate the civil part thereof, whilst Religion is specially concerned: Like wise Archers, level at the mark because of spectators observation, but resolve to shoot fair and far off; whilst others wholly couch it, are ready to cast it off, or by false glosses, and frivolous interpretations evade it, and study how to charm others into the same silence, I had almost said sin.
It is worth remembrance, that religion and its reformation never was, nor must now be expected to be the result of an ordinary measure of resolution: It is needless to recite the boldness of the Apostles and Primitive Fathers against the contradiction of the Pagans; Alexander and Athanasius that πρόβολον τῆς ἀληθείας [bulwark of the truth] against the Arian Empire, in promoting and defending the true religion: or Wickliff, Hus, and Luther, and others, in the first reformation; and the
[vi.]
conflicts of England’s Nonconformists against the remainders of corruption, and Romish relics in our Church, unto a Solemn Covenant for their extirpation.
Zeal, courage, and constancy, suit not any act so well as the asserting the Obligation of a Sacred Oath, to which King and Kingdom are the subjects, and of which God is object and avenger; so that in hanc arenam descendere [to descend into this arena], to enter a controversy in defence thereof, is pro aris & focis, certare [to fight for religion and home], to fight for God and our Country, that the one be not dishonoured, or the other destroyed by perjury: Dr. Sanderson [De juram. vel. 4. Sect. 14. pag. 123.] notes courage as a necessary bar to the swearing of a forced Oath; I am sure it is much more such to the breaking of it when sworn; he makes it essential to piety, Viro forti, id est pio, pius enim esse nequit qui non est fortis [To a brave man, that is, to a godly man; for he cannot be godly who is not brave]; to him I must needs subscribe, whilst Solomon seems to have been his Dictator, the righteous are bold as a lion, but the sluggard crieth, there is a lion in the way, and fools wait wind and weather to the losing seed-time and harvest: I deny not wisdom to watch and wait opportunity of action; but that general distaste, and dissent, direct contradiction, or declared inhibition of some luke-warm declension of others, danger and difficulty unto an improbability of effect, should demur to a positive duty, (such as is Ministerial exaction of the Oath of God,) is plain folly, and to divert it is predominate iniquity: Obvia quæ se offerunt nemo à bene faciendo cessare debeat [No one ought to cease from doing good because of the obstacles that present themselves], is a divine rule meetest for Divines to practice in religious discharges: [Cicero, de Officiis, lib. 3. p. 404.] Regulus is no little renowned for his fidelity to his forced Oath, Cum vigilando necabatur, erat in meliore causa quam si domi senex captivus perjurus & consularis remansisset [When he was slain while keeping watch, he was in a better cause than if he had remained at home an old captive, perjured, and of consular rank]; and methinks the dying profession of Mr. Christopher Love, in reference to this very Covenant, I had rather die a Covenant-keeper, than live a Covenant-breaker [Speech on the Scaffold], should yet have some influence on London Ministers.
[vii.]
Let men count me fool and firebrand, or what they please, my record is above, and witness is on high. I must tell thee, as no persuasion of my friends, threats of foes, loss of estate, danger of liberty, declension of brethren, could constrain my silence in the civil part of the Covenant which concerned Cæsar: so I cannot but speak unto the religious part of it which concerneth God and his Church; the things therein sworn to be extirpated, being generally evil; and the best, (viz.) Episcopacy, (which Smectymnuus [Answer to the Remonstrant. p. 30, 31.] tells us in its best and primitive institution was of diabolical occasion, and mere human, not apostolical prescription; a remedy ineffectual to its designed end, and only became a stirrup to Antichrist; which I hope none of them will be persuaded to hold, is only good in that particular which is common to other governments; and not divine, or necessary, but within human power to be discharged, or continued: And in conscience of its obligation, I have this once, and again put pen to paper, whereby, if I may do God and his Church, the King and Kingdom, any service, I shall be glad, like unto Alexander’s souldier, to be found in the fashion of a fool; being resolved, in the discharge of duty, to seek dignity, according to old Strato’s direction, by turning my back on the rising Sun; and withstand S. Peter’s temporizing, (to the stumbling of the weak, and strengthening of the wicked,) unto his very face; for he will be found worthy to be blamed: Let men’s spirits be composed, the case of conscience be candidly discussed, the bond of the Covenant be by right and religious reason discharged, none shall more cheerfully submit than my self; but if the Covenant be slighted as of no use, by Jesuitical Sophisms made void, by violence violated, or by false glosses and interpretations evaded; faithfulness unto it, and the zeal of a Minister, (bound to speak in God’s Name, that his anger may be silent,) and love and loyalty to King and Kingdom, (studious of what may profit
[viii.]
more than please,) will constrain an out-cry, and constant call, Oh regard the Covenant, the Solemn League and Covenant!
The degrees of reformation obtained, before this Covenant was made, were matter of joy to the Church, and ground of praise to God, but not of content and full satisfaction, whilst higher degrees were desirable, and to be pursued; and though we now should obtain another step to what we then had, but yet, not only short of, but inconsistent with the degree covenanted or sworn; I deny it not to be materially good, yet cannot but judge it to be a formal evil. I fear a breach of the Covenant, unless, we can find a medium between perjury and non-performance, (quo ad Captum [according to capacity],) of the thing sworn to God: I can cheerfully embrace every degree of good, but not triumph in that good which falls short of engagement unto God; Reformation is not more joyous, than the retrogradation thereof is grievous to a serious spirit; that the child stick in the birth, is dangerous; but its return into the womb is so apparent an hazard to mother and child, it admits no moderation in midwife or assistants, but provoketh earnest and utmost diligence for delivery: I tremble to think what may yet become of the reformed Churches, if England’s reformation, after so long and sad a travel, be returned backwards, and that against the strength of a Solemn League and Covenant: I pray God we be not courted into the Cassandrian accommodation, into which England’s Prelates could not cudgel us: it bodes no good, when Sacred Oaths are conceived to be Court complements, State stratagems to be once used to effect a present design, and so laid aside to be no more regarded; or like riders knots, with which men, at pleasure, play fast and loose.
I am not so rigorous as to extort the sense of an Oath beyond what its genuine construction will bear: nor can I allow a signification more lax than the scope, Grammatical expositions, and Logical resolution of the words will admit. Some wits can
[ix.]
find, or rather fancy starting-holes in the strictest and plainest bonds, Proteus-like, turning any thing into any shape; thereby thinking to speak the weakness of an Oath, they shew themselves notoriously wicked.
——— Mille adde catenas,
Effugiet tamen hæc sceleratus vincula Proteus. [Hor. lib. 2. Satyr. 3.]
[Add a thousand chains;
Still that villainous Proteus will slip out of them.]
But the words of this Covenant are plain and clear to every common capacity; and in no part more clear than in that under present controversy, (viz.) Reformation of Religion, wherein the Word of God is made the lanthorn to direct our course; and best Reformed Churches our lanched [launched] heights to detect our dangers in every time of Doubt: In the evils to be removed, that which might occasion the greatest doubt, is made most plain by the description of the object and denomination of the act. The Object is expressed by a term Prelacy, though general in its signification, yet by long and common appropriation, as obvious to vulgar capacity to denote a special kind of government in the Church, as tyranny in reference to the Common-wealth: Yet it is restrained by a more particular denomination Hierarchy, holy government by the order of holy high Priesthood, (as some do fancy,) and special description by its enumerated substantial parts, Archbishops, Bishops, Deans, Deans and Chapters, in which it formally existed, and separable adjuncts, Commissaries, Chancellors, and other Officers depending thereupon; so that these not in sensu composito [in the composite sense], (that the removal of any one Officer might suffice,) but complexo [in the complex], the Government containing all or any of these, is the object sworn against, appears to every unprejudiced Reader: and so it squares with the Act expressed by the most significant word which could be devised, viz. Extirpate; which certainly every ordinary reader knoweth to amount unto more than mutation, by dismembering some separable
[x.]
adjuncts thereupon dependent, as Commissaries or Chancellors: or by limitation and regulation, which yet makes the Bishops holy hands essential to all acts of confirmation of Catechumenists, or Ordination of Ministers, or Jurisdiction in the Church, though there be never so many grave, learned, and pious Presbyters and Pastors; a few of whom may be his Lordships Council, without any intrinsical authority in themselves and without him; whilst all men know to extirpate, signifieth una cum stirpe evellere [to tear out together with the root], to pluck up by the very root. In this point if the words of the Oath were not sufficiently clear, and the Lawyers rule Lex currit cum praxi [The law runs with the practice], may point us to a comment: the Petition opposed by the Remonstrant [Bishop Hall.], defended by Smectymnuus, presented to the Parliament, the debates, many speeches and resolves in the Houses which preceded and produced the advice of the Assembly of Divines, Ordinances of Parliament, and Oath of His most Sacred Majesty as King of Great Britain, in pursuit of the Covenant which ensued upon the swearing the same, hath written this sense in such legible Characters, that all may run and read it: And although I would not require anything more, I can take nothing less, (because God alloweth no abatements in an Oath,) than what hath been sworn, though it should appear good and profitable, but not necessary, necessitate præcepti divini [by necessity of divine precept].
However others may flag and faulter, or fall off from the Covenant, I must tell the assertors of the Presbyterial Government, that if they have no conscience, they are hedged into the observance of it on the account of Credit: for the University of Oxford,* (as with them combined to their reproach,) from the Jesuits and Sectaries, hath charged it to be their property, to swear one thing in their words, and in their own sense to mean another; to invent Oaths and Covenants for the Kingdom, dispense with them when you please, swear and forswear, as the wind turneth, like a godly
_____
* Reasons of the present judgement of the University of Oxford, concerning Solemn League and Covenant. Sect. 7. p. 21.]
[xi.]
Presbyter: which if any of them will dare to verify, they shall give me leave to mourn alone for their iniquity: for, (by God’s grace,) my soul shall not enter into the secrets of an Art so sinful and shameful before God and men; but study that rule, Be wise as Serpents, but innocent as Doves.
Courteous Reader, I have held thee too long in the threshold; I shall stay thee no longer than to tell thee, if in any thing I seem indiscreet, it is in venturing something of answer to the Reasons of the University of Oxford, (which every simple anti-covenanter, and scurrilous pamphleteer, (not able by the least Casuistical consideration to discharge the Covenant,) do revive, and run unto as the Gordian knot, never to be loosed; and to which my Antagonist Dr. Gauden, (beaten out of his own divinity,) doth retreat as to his impregnable Castle of confidence,) which may indeed savour something of arrogancy, in any single Opponent, by whose over-matched weakness, the cause may suffer: Give me leave to tell thee, the dread hereof hath smothered in silence what is now drawn out by the reputation of unanswerable reasons they have received amongst the enemies of the Covenant; I cannot live by an implicit faith; but in a case of conscience must examine the considerations of the most learned Society. General Councils are more authoritative and authentic than any single University; yet they have erred, and their errors have been detected by single persons: And how foolish soever I may seem, I have so much wit, as to know, Timidi & ignavi nunquam erigent Trophæum [The fearful and cowardly will never raise a trophy]; honour attends not Dastards: And again, Trophæum ferre me à forti viro pulchrum est; sin autem & vencar, vinci à tali nullum est probrum [It is honorable for me to carry off a trophy from a brave man; but if I should even be conquered, to be conquered by such a man is no disgrace]: It is an honour to Scanderbeg* to beat, not any shame to be beaten by the numerous Turks: If I be vanquished by their more learned pens, it can be to me no disgrace, nor to truth any great damage, whilst my being over-powered in so good a cause, will engage
_____
* [George Castriot / Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, the Albanian Christian prince and military commander famous for resisting the Ottoman Turks in the fifteenth century. ED.]
[xii.]
more able men, (who have any zeal for, or conscience of the Oath of God which lieth on us, our King, and Kingdom,) to appear for the relief and defence thereof: In expectation of which, I cast my self on thy candor and ingenuity.
Zach. Crofton.