Diocess whereby an Episcopal Charge and care can no more be performed or Discharged in the sight of God As over the Diocess of London and all English Plantations while so much Time is spent at Court and in secular affairs than the Italian Bishop can be Metropolitan of the Christian World 6 Though they have Forms prescribed for many things yet no Forms nor Directions for tryal and examination of Candidates or Expectants for Ordination to the Ministry For turning one of the 39 Articles into Latin and proving it from Scripture is already done to their hands so that any Grammarian or School Boy may do it IV Lastly We dissâ—nt from the Discipline and Censures of the Church of England and though they are without all Church Discipline and Censure in every Plantation of America yet as it is managed in England many of your own Sons dislike it as well as we especially in these particulars 1. It s absoluteness being exercised by a sole Authority in the breast of a particular Diocesan acting all in his own name without Commission or Warrant from any other and Sir Francis Bacon who was highly for the Church of England tells us the Bishop gives orders alone excommunicates alone and affirms it to be without Example in all good Government for Kings and Monarchs have their Councellours the Courts of Kings bench Common Pleas and Exchequer have many Judges and the Chancellor hath the assistance of 12 Masters of Chauncery And I am assured the Scripture warrant is directed to a number Dic Ecclesiae tell the Church 2. The Authority Power of Discipline is generally managed by Delegation or Deputation of Lay Persons as Chauncellours Officials Registers Sumners Canonists c. choosing such as helps in Government rather than the Clergy which the Lord Verulam affirms to be contrary to all rules of good Government for Offices of confidence and skill cannot be exercised by Deputies the confidence and trust being Personal and Inhaerent cannot be transposed to an ignorant and unqualifyed Lay-Person more than such can be deputed to Preach the Word and Administer the Sacraments 3. The English Church-Discipline is turned into a meer Money matter and the use of Christs Keyes is made Mercenary punishing the Purses and not afflicting the Consciences of the Delinquents as a great man of the Church in a Sermon Preached at one of the Vniversities told them Claves Christi pulsant crumenas non verberant Conscientias And Hickringale assures us from his certain knowledge that Guinea's will procure Absolutions from Drs Commons without any Confession or shew of Repentance yea without a sight of the guilty party a more bare-faced practice than of the Romish Churches who always use Confession and Pennance for a Cloak I hope these things will engage you to be more favourable and charitable to Dissenters until you more rationally weigh and confider the grounds and reasons of their Dissent for they may sometimes and in some cases be the purer better part of a Nation as the Church of Israel in Egypt and in all their other Captivities were Dissenters The three worthies in Daniel were Dissenters in Babylon and Daniel under Darius was a Dissenter Our Saviour all his Disciples and Apostles with their Christian followers were Dissenters until Constantines Reign and all Christians in Mahometan Dominions and Pagan Countries all Protestants in Popish Countries and your selves in Scotland and all forreign parts are Dissenters and it were hard and uncharitable to condemn all these as Traytors and Schismaticks In favour of some Dissenters I shall only lay down one saying from your Hale of Schism All pious assemblies in times of persecution and corruption are the only lawful Congregations and the publick Assemblies though according to form of Law are indeed nothing but Riots and Conventicles if stained with Corruption and Superstition Therefore let us still value and esteem unity in Doctrine and Worship and the greater and more weighty matters preferring it before an exact and accurate Vniformity in every Punctilio of Circumstance and Ceremony which no Nation hath hitherto attained the Church of England not excepted for what uniformity is between your Cathedral and Parochial Worship between such Churches as have Organs and those that want them between such as Sing or Chant the Service and such as do not between such as read the whole Service and others that Mince it and read but a part between those that begin with a free Prayer and such as do not And in the same Congregations what Uniformity is between such as use Responses and such as do not between such as Bow to the East or the Altar and such as do not between such as bow the knee and those that only bow the head at the Name or Word Jesus What uniformity between such as Sing Psalms and most that do not And I find many of the Sons of the Church break uniformity and Canons as well as their Neighbours what uniformity-act or Common Prayer allows any to begin with a Prayer of their own as the greatest and best have done though others call it a Geneva trick What uniformity-act enjoins Organs and Singing Boyes and where is bowing to the East and Altar with all other Church Honours commanded What warrants the use of the publick Form for private Baptism why is the burial Service read over any Dissenters that are all excommunicated by your Canons Let me humbly and earnestly with all Submission address the conformable Clergy in this Island to instruct their People that they and we profess the same Christian and Protestant Religion only with some alterations in external Ceremonies and circumstances that we may unite in affection and strength against the common Enemy of our Reformation and concur in the great work of the Gospel for the manifestation of Gods Glory and the Conviction Conversion and Salvation of Souls in this Island instructing such as are Ignorant in the principal great things of Religion promoting vertue and true holiness and Preaching down and reproving all Atheism irreligion and profanity sealing and confirming all by an universal Copy pattern and example of a holy and Ministerial Life and Conversation I have often done it and I continue to Pray for the zealous concurrence of the Secular power and Civil Magistrate to whom the Sword of Justice is committed for the terrour of the Evil doers and praise of those that do well that for promoting a visible Reformation in this Island from the Evils that have long exposed us to the heavy Judgments of a Righteous God they would first reform their own Lives and impartially execute these Good Laws according to their Oaths against all Blaspheming Cursing Swearing Whoredom Sabbath breaking all Prophanity Impiety and Irreligion that our Land may be exalted by Righteousness and Sin may no longer be our Reproach Candid Reader They frequently charge Dissenters that when others are the Ascendent they cry out against Persecution and for Moderation but when they are
a Table Feast as his was and notwithstanding the Rubrick was originally a consequence of Transubstantiation and came in with it 1200. years after our Saviour and was a stumbling block to many Reformed Protestants highly resented by Beza and many more and proved so grateful to Papists that Bonner having learned that Cranmer and Ridley had kept this and other Ceremonies said that he doubted not since their Broth went down with them so well that er'e long they should eat of their Beef too 9. We cannot we dare not in Baptism exclude the Parents from engaging and promising in behalf of their own Children and take in other Sureties whom all know and none expect they will endeavour to perform what they promise and undertake which indeed is impossible for any to perform especially when more Ignorant and more Irreligius Sureties are called in than the excluded Parents as Papists Ignorant and prophane Persons Strangers and sometimes Young Children which we apprehend to be a willful promoting of known perfidiousness and a down-right mocking of God 10 Because we find the Common Prayer Book in its several parts translated out of several Popish Books the Frayers are taken out of the Breviary the Administration of Sacraments Burial Matrimonies and Visiting of the Sick are taken out of the Romish Rituall the Consecration of the Lords Supper Collects Epistles and Gospels are taken out of the Mass Book though some things are left out as Prayers to the Virgin Mary Saints and Angels This is to us one just prejudice against the use of it 11. We cannot away with nor dare we assent to nor believe many things and sayings in the Common Prayer nor use that Corrupt Translation of the Psalms while God has provided us with a better we dare not pretend the imitation of our Saviours Miraculous Feast by that Popish and Mock-Feast of Lent consisting not in abstinence but in choosing of Meats In Te Deum we dare not say all the Earth worship thee while we are assured the greatest part are Infidels to this Day and neither Worship nor know the true God we dare not assent to the Damning Sentence of Athenasius's Creed which many of the Eldersons of your Church wished it never had been in Common-Prayer We dare not say Every person Baptised is immediately Regenerated for so all Baptised should be Saved We dare not alter add to and diminish from the Scriptures the Word of God as the Common Prayer and the corrupt Translation of the Psalms does particularly we cannot consent to the taking away of the Scripture Titles of the Psalms given from Immediate Inspiration and putting Popish and Lattine Titles in their Room In the Burial of the Dead we dare not call every one whether we know them or not our dear Sister or Brother and as a part of Publick Worship say We have a sure and certain Hope of their Resurrection unto eternal Life and to make no difference between the Wicked and Godly a Protestant and a Papist an Atheist once Baptised and a serious Christian allowing them the same Charity and Character seems an encouragement to ungodliness and a discouragement to Holiness 12. Though we are for Visiting Instructing convincing admonishing praying for and comforting the Sick according as we find their state and condition various and different Yet we apprehend the Burial Service to be Symbolizing with Rome and no part of God's Publick Worship or any Commanded part of a Ministers Work and though it is said It has no relation to the dead at all but only for the Edification of the Living why was it denyed to the Living at the Funeral of the Reverend Mr. Henry Vaughan why is it deny'd to the Living at the Funeral of Vnbaptised and Excommunicated persons Why is it read oft times when the People are gone except two that remain to cover the Corps Why do the deceased persons pay for it and lately there was a poor man to whom it was denyed because unbaptised Actions with vulgar People are more demonstrative than Words And what Edification does that afford to the Living that is read at the entry of the Church yard of which few or none hear one Word and why is not all either read in the Desk or at the Grave II. The Second thing wherein we dissent from you is your Canons which few of your selves obey and observe no not such as have Sworn Obedience to them They are most Arbitrary Decrees when not ratifyed by Authority not at all suitable to the state of the Church neither dare we take the Oath of Assent and Consent that they contain nothing contrary to the Word of God while both you and we are otherwise perswaded III. A Third thing wherein we dissent is concerning the Government of the Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops Chauncellors Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch Deacons c. as not haveing foundation in the Scriptures nor the Government of the Gospel-Churches nor agreeable to the Government of the first Centuries after our Saviour And though we are for Scripture Bishops both name and office and wish with Dr. Wild in his poetical flight Where there is one there were ten neither would refuse the Government of the first two or three hundred years after our Saviour and it is known most of the Presbyterians in England ostered to embrace Dr. Vsher his model of Church Government yet there are several things in which we dissent and which many of yours dislike in English or Diocesan Bishops or Praelacy as 1. Creating Erecting new Offices Officers besides what Christ gave to and Instituted in his Church the Names whereof are not so much as known or mentioned in the Scriptures 2. Promoting Praeeminence and destroying that Ministerial Parity our Saviour Commanded and Inoustriously maintained in his days for bidding all Mastery and Dominion over one another 3. Their asseming high and Lordly Titles and Temporal Dignities and Civil places being advanced above most Peers and States men This was offensive to good Old Latimer who in a Sermon advised King Ed. 6 to untord all the Lordly Bishops and remove them from all their Temporal Offices and Employments that they might follow their Spiritual Plough Tail 4. Their frequenting the Court attending the Council Table and sitting in Parliaments to the great neglect of their Charge and Work being above Preaching Praying and Administring of Sacraments and Church Government too therefore a Non Preaching Bishop called a Preaching Bishop a Preaching Coxcomb And what prejudice would it be to the State but what a great advantage to the Church if the Government saw it meet to revive again that old vote of a Church of England Parliament recorded in Bakers Chronicles That no Bishop should have any Vote in Parliament nor any Judicial power in the Star Chamber nor bear any sway in Temporal Affairs and that no Clergy man should be in the Commission of the Peace 5. Their Grasping at a larger Charge over many great Congregations of a Vast
the parts of Predestination A Election Reprobation Q. What is Election A. T is the everlasting Predestination or fore appointment of certain Angels and men unto everlasting life and blessedness for the praise of Gods glorious Grace and Goodness Q What is Reprobation A. It is the eternal fore-appointment of certain Angels men unto everlasting Dishonour and Destruction God of his own free will determining to pass them by refuse cast them off and for sin condemn and punish them with eternal Death And to these you may add most Church of England Books common among us as also that common Book almost in every Family The Practice of Piety So it is to be hoped you will not adventure to say the Church of Scotland holds any other Predestination than what is the Doctrine of the Church of England or that it is contrary to the word of God and a great discouragement to Piety I am very unwilling to engage in a further controversy about this Doctrine so fully handled and sufficiently vindicated already lest I should engage some of your Island in a most unnatural War against their own Mother Church and should it not be a Paradox to Barbados to hear of a Presbyterian taking up the Cudgels in defence of a fundamental established Doctrine against a Son a Member and a Minister of the English Church And seeing one hath been pleased to run upon Quaeries on this occasion I am obliged to entertain you with a few concerning the controverted Doctrine in behalf both of Dissenters and the Church of England The Quaeries are these 1. Whether God be not an absolute Sovereign power being having infinitely a greater more illimited and boundless Authority over the highest and best of his creatures without being controuled by or accountable to them I say more than the Potter has over the clay he frames at his pleasure for honourable dishonourable uses services 2. Whether God from an infinite and eternal knowledge knows infallibly the certain determined number of them that shall be Saved and shall be Damned which number shall never be encreased neither can be diminished 3. Whether it is God of his own will free grace and goodness that makes the difference between Believers and Vnbelievers 4. Whether the immutable and unchangeable Decrees of God in the execution of them rob the creature of its liberty in acting or doing 5. Whether a Sinner without the special and entire Grace of God can repent believe regenerate and save himself 6. Whether God can be accounted unjust for damning a part while he might justly have damned the whore World for their Sir 7 Whether God designed the Salvation of any without holiness faith and repentance or the damnation of any without fore-running Sin final unbelief and impenitence 8 Whether God absolutely and unchangeably determined with himself the period and end of our dayes in this life 9. Whether God the Father determined from all eternity to send his own Son our Saviour into the World all his particular Sufferings in the World 10 Whether we should decry or disown those great transcending Mysteries of God's Counsel because we cannot reach nor comprehend them with our shallow and narrow Capacities or carnal apprehensions If any intend to give any resolution to these ten Quaeries I hope I need not caution them against such things as inâ—ringe and may tend to impeach the absolute Sovereignty and Prerogative of Heaven or condemn their own Church And I assure my self they will not revive again those groundless silly and inconsequential Allegations vulgarly heaped up against this Doctrine which have been long since unswered confuted and overthrown FINIS