which must needs be of dangerous consequence to this State!" We disavow any such inference, unless by the "State," Edwards means "Presbyterial government," and its preservation at the expense of the sacrifice of other men's "consciences;" which we think he must have meant, and so found it expedient to practise an old saw which he had charged upon the Apologists, "like the lapwing, to cry furthest off the nest. "b That we are not wrong in our conjecture, we gather from his own words a few pages onward, where he writes, "We who have written anything against your way, have not so much prepossessed the people's minds' against your tenets,' as laboured to dispossess them. We have played the after game too much, you the fore game." " And again: "It would grieve an ingenuous and conscientious man”—mark, a scientious man"-"to see wherever one comes, how many good people of the kingdom are 'prepossessed' by being prejudiced against Presbyterial government, That it will be worse than the Hierarchy, and more tyrannical to the consciences and liberties of the People: with such like. There was, therefore, and is, much need to cast out these Devils, and to unpossess the people possessed!" His lamentations are not yet exhausted, for he goes on," such is the nature of your errors, that hitherto few who take hold of them ever return;" and a pun is emitted with the last sigh, "like 'Goodwin' sands, that if a ship once strike upon them, there is no fetching her off!" a

d

con

These incorrigible Apologists had yet more vituperation to undergo, though with an infusion of something of another quality, "Whence," he asks now, "have come all the rents and divisions, to speak of, in the godly Protestant party; all the lets, stops, and delays, in the intended Reformation; but from you, and by occasion and means of you? The authority of your names, holding these opinions,-having the reputation of scholars, and of excellent preachers,-whereby you are cried up of many and so much followed; your interest and favour in too many considerable persons, have drawn so much, [that] had it not been for your sakes, these rents and divisions had never come to this head! There had not been that connivance; nor such delays of settling government, etc. Most of the rest of your way were, in comparison, contemptible both for name and gifts, and could not have done that hurt." e

Why were you not contented with the giving of the first 'blow,' and the first occasion of the quarrel, both by your former preaching and practising, but to add this second' great blow,' the writing of this Apologetical Narration;' which, though it be not on your parts the beginning of strife, yet it will prove as the breaking in of waters, and as the kindling of a fire not likely to be put out in haste."f

"The Assembly being upon the very borders of the points in difference,.. this Apology' was made for want of patience to wait, and out of that common design of acting' for yourselves and way, and to lay in something beforehand with the Parliament and the People; whatever the Assembly might chance to conclude: in a word, to play the foregaine, and to prepossess the minds of men with a further high P. 236.

a P. 228. b P, 212.

P. 233. d P. 234. • P. 235.

а

opinion of you and your way. But I believe God hath turned all to the contrary, taking the wise in their own craftiness;' and this Apology' hath and will make more against you than any one thing you ever did!" b "So soon as ever I read it over with deliberation I presently apprehended it the beginning of your fall, in regard of your church way... I believe this Apology,' considering all circumstances, was born and brought forth the most out of due time and order of any book put forth this forty years." c

"I cannot let pass, without some animadversions, the phrase used by you, of your being Members of the Assembly, 'We have adventured ourselves:' a very significant and true expression. For I believe you account this Assembly a great adventure' for your church way; and such a bottom as you would not have put it in, at least not so soon if all the ways you could have devised under heaven would have hindered it. But it happened to you according to the proverb, 'Nothing venture, nothing have;' for, supposing there must be an Assembly, you might perhaps, by being Members' of it, do yourselves and way some good; but by declining and refusing it, you had been certainly lost!" d

We are indebted to Edwards for his testimony concerning one memorable circumstance in English history, from which it will be seen that Independents had no share in promoting that measure. He tells us that "The Parliament of England, upon great armies being raised against them, needing helps, calls for the kingdom of Scotland to assist them. Now, the Scots being for Presbyterial government, and against Independent; and desirous of uniformity in government between the kingdoms; therefore, for gratifying the Scots, the Assembly is like to be swayed that way! Is this 'the stream of public interest' meant by you? Oh, how unworthy an insinuation is this! And how prejudicial this will be to the Reformation in after times, I desire you to consider of in cool blood; and, what the enemies will say of it. The government and Reformation of this church was not free; not according to the Word of God; but, what Scotland would have, England's need of Scotland made them at least swayed much to take up their government! But however this is insinuated, for the holding up the credit of your Cause against the time the Assembly shall come to reject it as apocryphal, yet I must tell you [that] you foresaw' that, which is no such stream of public interest,' nor cause of disadvantage to you. For the Commissioners of the Church of Scotland were not sent hither to put their government upon us; but came as well to receive any light and help, as to give; and to come to us, in what should be found, upon debate, more agreeable to the Word, as we to come to them. And the Covenant of the kingdoms doth not tie us to the Reformation of the Church of Scotland, but binds us to Reformation according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches; and then requires both of us and them a Uniformity according to the Word of God.'.. Besides that, the Commissioners of the Church of Scotland, however they be present in the Assembly to hear debates, and to give their read P. 254

a Job v. 13.

b P. 246.

P. 247, 248.

sons, yet never gave their voices in any point that hath passed the Assembly."

"Brethren, there are many complaints, and that by your dear friends, of retarding the work of Reformation by your means. You are the remora to the ship under sails; you are the spokes in the wheels of the chariot of Reformation! Parliament complains; Assembly, city, country, all complain of the work retarded, and all is resolved into you Five principally. I could tell you many particular passages, but you know what I mean. In a word, all the prelates and the papists cannot, nor do not so much hinder the work of Reformation as you Five Members of the Assembly. And the Lord, in mercy, work so, that by occasion of you, and by means of your principles, and many persons of your church way, there do not yet rise up another 'great mountain' before Zerubbabel, to hinder the laying the 'headstone' of that building the foundation whereof is laid."

"d

c

"To speak truth, you were so much the People's darlings and favourites, having such a power both with the People and with many in Place, that not to oppose or 'reproach' your persons, but your opinions, and that collaterally and interpretatively, was enough to unsaint many men as 'good' as yourselves, and to blast them with many, for the present. "Besides our 'reproaches during the time of your exile in Holland, we have, since your return from exile, even to this present day, suffered many reproaches,' and lost all manner of ways—in name, estate, and friends-for nothing else but for appearing against the Brownists and Independents; and how much, in the mean time, most of you have gained all manner of ways, is written with a sunbeam!" e "Can any who know you, in what height you live, and what Grandees of the times you are; and how much you appear in public in the chief places of resort, and have insinuated into so many great men; believe that you would live contented with a subsistence, be it the poorest and meanest ?' Let them believe you that will! For my part, I am not satisfied in the truth of it, but do suspect that if the Parliament should make an offer to you to this purpose, [whether] you would refuse it."'

"There will be objected, a passage lately printed in a book of Mr. Simpson's, that 'There have been as great defections both of ministers and people unto errors under Presbyterial government as under any other. As is clear in the Low Countries, where so many ministers and people turned Arminians, Papists, Socinians.'. . Though the churches in the Low Countries are Presbyterial, yet withal there is a Toleration of other churches and government there; which is one of the causes of it, and hinders Presbyterial government! A Toleration will spoil any church and government. If Presbyterial government be settled, and a Toleration given in this Land, that will mar all. So that the Parliament may be pleased to take notice by this, and observe the difference between those churches which have no Tolerations, as Scotland, Geneva, and the Low Countries which grants a Toleration; the one are pure in doctrine, etc.; the other, makes ministers and people' turn Arminians,

Socinians, etc.! There is another reason why it may so fall out in the Low Countries; because Presbyterial government hath not its free course there in Synods, but it is much disturbed over [what] it is in France, Geneva, Scotland. Whereas by the Canons and Constitutions in the Netherlands, there should be a National Synod once in three years, they have not, nor can procure one in twenty years and upwards. And whereas Provincial Synods should be yearly, they have them in some Provinces but once in five, and seven, years. Besides, there are other disturbances in Presbyterial government, which hinder the free course of it in Holland: many encroachments are made upon the rights of their Church, due to them by virtue of their Discipline, and therefore established. In a word, that Anabaptistical and Familistical spirit in many; and the corrupt spirit and principles in others; with those principles of Toleration; do much check and stop Presbyterial government from having its perfect work, and bringing forth its full effects." a

To ward off what Edwards so deeply deplores and deprecates, near "the close" of his "discourse" he writes, "I humbly beseech the Parliament seriously to consider the depths of Satan in this design of a Toleration how this is now the last plot and design; and by it would undermine and frustrate the whole work of Reformation intended. It is his masterpiece for England; and for the effecting of it, he comes and moves, not in Prelates and Bishops, not in furious Anabaptists, etc., but in holy men, excellent preachers, moderate and fair men, not for a Toleration of heresies and gross offences, but an 'allowance of a latitude to some lesser differences with peaceableness;' this is candidus ille Diabolus, as Luther speaks; and meridianus Diabolus, as Johannes Gersonius and Beza express it; 'coming under the merits of much suffering and well deserving, clad in the white garments of innocence and holiness.' In a word, could the Devil effect a Toleration, he would think he had gained well by the Reformation, and made a good exchange of the Hierarchy to have a Toleration for it!" e

In the practical application of his "discourse," Edwards says, “I shall conclude this Antapology with turning myself to the Apologists. -Brethren, I beseech and exhort you to search and try your hearts and ways, both in what may be precedent to this 'Apology,' and with what spirit and intentions you writ it; that God should thus leave you to yourselves to make such an 'Apology! Let your consciences reflect upon what is plainly laid down in this Answer, and do not seek shifts and subterfuges. Consider there is a special hand of God in it; and [that] it is not ordinary that both so many public and particular persons should appear in writing against a book, as have done against yours: the Churches beyond the seas; the Commissioners of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland; with three distinct Answers made by particular persons; besides, I hear another Answer is coming forth. Certainly, the Lord left you, to humble you; and that you might know what was in your hearts. Your great applause and being cried up by the People; your favour and power with many great

• 298.

Luther, in Loc. Comm class. v. p. 24.

• P. 303.

persons; your great estates and abundance; your confidence of carrying anything, and saying anything; your wisdom and great parts, were too strong for you, and deceived you. Let my counsel be acceptable to you repent, repent of writing this 'Apology;' give glory to God, and recant; and testify your repentance by dissolving your churches and coming in to us!” a

:

CHAP. LV.

PRYNNE AND BURTON, OPPONENTS.

It would seem to be barely credible, so few as they were ostensibly, that the Apologetical party should thus have risen into the notoriety they had already acquired. So soon does it appear truly, that by the obstacles they interposed, they were preventing their countrymen, all they could, from escaping only out of one species of intolerable bondage into another. That being so beset on either side, they were, however, ultimately driven to measures which cannot be fully vindicated, was more the fault of their condition than of their intention; which, carried out faithfully, and unalloyed with the interference of civil authority, was calculated to secure to all alike, that most equitable principle by which all degrees of all classes can alone "stand fast" in the "liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free." The peculiarity of the opposition they had to endure may be judged of, in one instance, from "Twelve Considerable Serious Questions, Touching Church Government: Sadly propounded, out of a real Desire of Unity and Tranquillity in Church and State,-to all Sober-minded Christians, cordially affecting a speedy Settled Reformation and Brotherly Christian Union in all our Churches and Dominions, now miserably wasted with Civil unnatural Wars, and deplorably lacerated with Ecclesiastical Dissensions.-By William Prynne, of Lincoln's Inn, Esq.-1644." 4to. pp. 8.

That this production was designed to serve a party, more than to serve Gospel Truth, will appear from the extreme positions which it advocates. Our own purpose in noticing Prynne's work, will be accomplished in what we shall produce in connexion with "A Vindication of Churches commonly called 'Independent:' Or a Brief Answer to two Books; the one intituled 'Twelve Considerable Serious Questions, Touching Church Government:' the other, Independency examined, unmasked, refuted, etc. :' both, lately published by William Prynne, of Lincoln's Inn, Esq.-By Henry Burton, a Brother of his, and late Companion in Tribulation.-1644." 4to. pp. 72.

After having recited from Prynne's title before the "Questions" the description of those particularly addressed, Burton tells him, in an Epistle, "Myself being one of these.. do, with the right-hand, take your propositions as made to me among the rest, craving your leave to return you a brotherly answer; and brotherly in nothing more than by b Gal. v. 1.

11.

* P. 305.

2 c