least in the Ordinary Service only I read the Confession the Lord's Prayer all the Versicles and the Psalms for the day Then after the first Lesson in the Forenoon Benedictus or Iubilate and in the Afternoons Cantate After the second Lesson also sometimes the Creed sometimes the Ten Commandements and sometimes neither but only sang a Psalm and so to Sermon But in all that while in the Administration of the Sacraments the Solemnization of Matrimony Burial of Dead and Churching of Women I constantly used the ancient Forms and Rites to every of them respectively belonging according to the appointment in the Book only I was careful in all the rest to make choice of such times and opportunities as I might do them with most secresie and without disturbance of the Souldier But at the Celebration of the Eucharist I was the more secure to do it publickly because I was assur'd none of the Souldiers would be present After their departure I took the liberty to use either the whole Liturgy or but some part of it omitting sometimes more sometimes less upon occasion as I judg'd it most expedient in reference to the Auditory especially if any Souldiers or other unknown persons hapned to be present But all this while the substance of what I omitted I contriv'd into my Prayer before Sermon the phrase and order only varied which yet I endeavour'd to temper in such sort that any person of ordinary capacity might easily perceivve what my meaning was and yet the words left as little liable to exception or cavil as might be About two years ago I was advertis'd but in a friendly manner by a Parliament man of note in these parts that at a publick Meeting at Grantham great complaint was made by some Ministers of the Presbyterian Gang as I afterwards found of my refractoriness to obey the Parliaments Order in that behalf The Gentleman told me withal That although they knew what my judgment and practice was yet they were not forward to take notice of it before complaint made which being now done in so publick a manner if they should not take notice of it the blame would lie upon them He therefore advised me to consider well what I had to do for I must resolve either to adventure the loss of my Living or to lay aside Common Prayer which if I should continue after complaint and admonition it would not be in his power nor in the power of any Friend I had to preserve me The effect of my then Answer was That if the case were so the deliberation was not hard I having long ago considered of the case and resolved what I might do with a good Conscience and what was fittest for me in prudence to do if I should ever be put to it viz. to forbear the use of the Common Prayer Book so far as might satisfie the letter of the Ordinance rather than forsake my Station My next business then was to be-think my self of such a course to be thenceforth held in the publick work in my own Parish as might be believed neither to bring danger to my self by the use nor to give scandal to my Brethren by the disuse of the establish'd Liturgy And the course was this to which I have held me ever since I begin the Service with a Preface and an Exhortation infer'd to make Confession of Sins which Exhortation I have fram'd out of the Exhortation and Absolution in the Book contracted and put together and exprest for the most part in the same words and phrases but purposely here and there transplac'd that it might appear not to be and yet to be the very same Then follows the Confession it self in the same Order it was enlarg'd only with the addition of some words whereby it is rather explain'd than alter'd The whole frame whereof both for the fuller satisfaction in that particular and that you may conjecture what manner of addition and change I have made proportionably hereunto yet none so large in other parts of the holy Office I have here under-written O Almighty God and merciful Father we thy unworthy Servants do with shame and sorrow confess that we have all our life long gone astray out of thy ways like lost sheep and that by following too much the vain devices and desires of our own hearts we have grievously offended against thy holy laws both in thought word and deed We have many times left undone those good duties which we might and ought to have done and we have many times done those evils when we might have avoided them which we ought not to have done We confess O Lord that there is no health at all nor help in any Creature to relieve us but all our hope is in thy mercy whose justice we have by our sins so far provoked Have mercy upon us therefore O Lord have mercy upon us miserable Offenders Spare us good Lord who confess our faults that we perish not but according to thy gracious promises declared unto mankind in Christ Iesu our Lord restore us upon our true Repentance into thy grace and favour And grant O most merciful Father for his sake that we henceforth study to serve and please thee by leading a godly righteous and sobèr life to the glory of thy holy Name and the eternal comfort of our own Souls through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen After the Confession the Lord's Prayer with the Versicles and Gloria Patri and then Psalms for the Day and the first Lesson After which in the Forenoon sometimes Te Deum but then only when I think the Auditory will bear it and sometimes an Hymn of mine own gathered out of the Psalms and Church Collects as a general Form of Thanksgiving which I did the rather because I have noted the want of such a Form as the only thing wherein the Liturgy seem'd to be defective And in the Afternoon after the first Lesson the 98 th Psalm or the 67 th then the second Lesson with Benedictus or Iubilate after it in the Forenoon and Afternoon a singing Psalm Then followeth the Creed with Dominus Vobiscum and sometimes the Versicles in the end of our Letany From our Enemies defend us if I lik'd my Auditory otherwise I omit the Versicles After the Creed and instead of the Letany and the other Prayers appointed in the Book I have taken the substance of the Prayer I was wont to make before Sermon and dispos'd it into several Collects or Prayers some longer and some shorter but new modell'd into the language of the Common Prayer Book much more than it was before And in the Pulpit before Sermon I use only a short Prayer in reference to the hearing of the Word and no more So that upon the matter in these Prayers I do but the same thing I did before save only that what before I spake without Book and in a continued Form in the Pulpit I now read out of a written Book broken into parcels and
in that also wherein we are not fully satisfied viz. the leaving of so much power in so many Persons and those many of them of mean quality for the keeping back of thousands of well-meaning Christians from the benefit and comfort of the blessed Sacrament an Austerity for which there appeareth not to us any probable warrant from the Word of God but which seemeth rather repugnant as to the general Principles of Christian Prudence and Charity so to the directions and practice of St. Paul in particular who in a Church abounding with sundry errours and corruptions both in Faith and Manners having first given order for the Excommunicating of one only person that by shameless continuance in a notorious sin had brought a foul scandal upon the Gospel sufficing himself then with a general proposal of the great danger of unworthy communicating remitteth every other particular person to a Self-examination without any order either to Ministers or Lay-Elders to exclude any from the holy Communion upon their Examination As to the Ordinance concerning the Directory in particular we cannot without regret of Conscience during our present Judgment and the continuance of the present Laws consent to the taking away of the Book of Common Prayer 1. Which by our Subscriptions most of us have approved with a solemn promise therewithal in the Publick Service to use the form prescribed therein and no other 2. Which according to our said Subscription and Promise and our bounden duty according to the Statute in that case provided we have hitherto used in our Churches Chappels and other Oratories to the great benefit and comfort of our souls 3. Which we verily believe not to contain any thing which with such favourable construction as of right ought to be allowed to all manner of Writings is not justly defensible which hath not been by learned and godly men sufficiently maintained against such Exceptions as have been heretofore taken thereat and which we are confident by the Assistance of Almighty God we shall be able to justifie as occasion shall be offered against all Papists and other Oppugners or depravers thereof whatsoever 4. Which is established by an Act of Parliament made in peaceable times by as good and full authority as any under Heaven can have over us which doth so weigh with us that as it freeth us from the necessity of giving in any particular Exceptions against the Directory or any thing therein contained so it layeth an inevitable necessity upon us of continuing the form of Prayer therein enjoyned and of not admitting any Directory or other Form to the prejudice thereof till the said Act shall by the like good and full Authority be repealed In which Statute there is not only an express Command given to all Ministers for the using of the same but there are also sanctions of severe punishments to be inflicted upon such of them as shall refuse so to do or shall preach declare or speak any thing to the derogation or depraving of the Book of Common Prayer or of any thing therein contained or of any part thereof with punishments also to be inflicted upon every other person whatsoever the Lords of the Parliament not excepted that shall in like manner declare or speak against the said Book or shall by deed or threatning compel or otherwise procure or maintain any Minister to say open Prayer or to minister any Sacrament in any other manner or form than is mentioned in the said Book or shall interrupt or hinder any Minister in the use of the said forms as by the words of the said Statute more at large may appear Which Statute also hath had such universal powerful influence into the succeeding times that in all such Statutes as have been since made against Popish Recusants the refusing to be present at Common Prayer or to receive the Sacrament according to the forms and rites mentioned in that Book is expressed as the most proper legal character whereby to distinguish a Popish Recusant from a true Protestant Insomuch that use hath been made of that very Character in sundry Acts since the beginning of this present Parliament for the taxing of double payments upon Recusants THus have we clearly and freely represented our present Judgment concerning the said Covenant Negative Oath and Ordinances which upon better information in any particular we shall be ready to rectifie Only we desire it may be considered That if any one single scruple or reason in any the Premisses remain unsatisfied though we should receive full satisfaction in all the rest the Conscience would also remain still unsatisfied And in that case it can neither be reasonable for them that cannot satisfie us to press us nor lawful for us that cannot be satisfied to submit to the said Covenant Oath and Ordinances QUINTIL Quis damnaverit eum qui duabus potentissimis rebus defenditur jure mente ROM XIV 22. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth A SERMON OF RICHARD HOOKER Author of those LEARNED BOOKS OF Ecclesiastical Politie Found in the Study of the late Learned Bishop Andrews LONDON Printed for Richard Marriott 1678. A SERMON OF Richard Hooker c. MATTH VII 7. Ask and it shall be given you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you For whosoever asketh c. AS all the Creatures of God which attain their highest perfection by process of time are in their first beginning raw so man in the end of his race the perfectest is at his entrance thereunto the weakest and thereby longer enforced to continue a subject for other mens compassions to work upon voluntarily without any other perswader besides their own secret Inclination moving them to repay to the common Stock of Humanity such help as they know that themselves before must needs have borrowed the state and condition of all slesh being herein alike It cometh hereby to pass that although there be in us when we enter into this present world no conceit or apprehension of our own misery and for a long time after no ability as much as to crave help or succour at other mens hands yet through his most good and gracious Providence which feedeth the young even of feathered Fowls and Ravens whose natural significations of their necessities are therefore termed in Scripture Prayers and Invocations which God doth hear we amongst them whom he values at a far higher rate than millions of brute Creatures do find by perpetual experience daily occasions given unto every of us religiously to acknowledge with the Prophet David Thou O Lord from our birth hast been merciful unto us we have tasted thy goodness hanging even at our Mothers Breasts That God which during Infancy preserveth us without our knowledge teacheth us at years of discretion how to use our own Abilities for procurement of our own good Ask and it shall be given you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto
now grown both as numerous and as powerful as the former for though they differed much in many Principles and preach'd against each other one making it a sign of being in the state of grace if we were but zealous for the Covenant and the other that we ought to buy and sell by a Measure and to allow the same liberty of Conscience to others which we by Scripture claim to our selves and therefore not to force any to swear the Covenant contrary to their Consciences and loose both their Livings and Liberties too Though these differed thus in their conclusions yet they both agreed in their practice to preach down Common Prayer and get into the best sequestred Livings and whatever became of the true Owners their Wives and Children yet to continue in them without the least scruple of Conscience They also made other strange Observations of Election Reprobation and Free-will and the other Points dependent upon these such as the wisest of the common people were not fit to judge of I am sure I am not though I must mention some of them historically in a more proper place when I have brought my Reader with me to Dr. Sanderson at Boothby Pannel And in the way thither I must tell him That a very Covenanter and a Scot too that came into England with this unhappy Covenant was got into a good sequestred Living by the help of a Presbyterian Parish which had got the true Owner out And this Scotch Presbyterian being well settled in this good Living began to reform the Church-yard by cutting down a large Ewe Tree and some other Trees that were an ornament to the place and very often a shelter to the Parishioners who excepting against him for so doing were answered That the Trees were his and 't was lawful for every man to use his own as he and not as they thought fit I have hear'd but do not affirm it That no Action lies against him that is so wicked as to steal the winding sheet of a dead body after 't is buried and have heard the reason to be because none were supposed to be so void of humanity and that such a Law would vilifie that Nation that would but suppose so vile a man to be born in it nor would one suppose any man to do what this Covenanter did And whether there were any Law against him I know not but pity the Parish the less for turning out their legal Minister We have now overtaken Dr. Sanderson at Boothby Parish where he hop'd to have enjoy'd himself though in a poor yet in a quiet and desir'd privacy but it prov'd otherwise For all corners of the Nation were fill'd with Covenanters Confusion Comittee-men and Soldiers serving each other to their several ends of revenge or power or profit and these Committee-men and Soldiers were most of them so possest with this Covenant that they became like those that were infected with that dreadful Plague of Athens the Plague of which Plague was that they by it became maliciously restless to get into company and to joy so the Historian saith when they had infected others even those of their most beloved or nearest Friends or Relations and though there might be some of these Covenanters that were beguil'd and meant well yet such were the generality of them and temper of the times that you may be sure Dr. Sanderson who though quiet and harmless yet an eminent dissenter from them could not live peaceably nor did he For the Soldiers would appear and visibly disturb him in the Church when he read Prayers pretending to advise him how God was to be serv'd most acceptably which he not approving but continuing to observe order and decent behaviour in reading the Church Service they forc'd his Book from him and tore it expecting extemporary Prayers At this time he was advis'd by a Parliament man of power and note that lov'd and valued him much not to be strict in reading all the Common Prayer but make some little variation especially if the Soldiers came to watch him for then it might not be in the power of him and his other Friends to secure him from taking the Covenant or Sequestration for which Reasons he did vary somewhat from the strict Rules of the Rubrick I will set down the very words of Confession which he us'd as I have it under his own hand and tell the Reader that all his other variations were as little much like to this His Confession O Almighty God and merciful Father we thy unworthy Servants do with shame and sorrow confess that we have all our life long gone astray out of thy ways like lost sheep and that by following too much the vain devices and desires of our own hearts we have grievously offended against thy holy Laws both in thought word and deed we have many times left undone those good duties which we might and ought to have done and we have many times done those evils when we might have avoided them which we ought not to have done We confess O Lord that there is no health at all nor help in any Creature to relieve us but all our hope is in thy mercy whose justice we have by our sins so far provoked Have mercy therefore upon us O Lord have mercy upon us miserable offenders spare us good God who confess our faults that we perish not but according to thy gracious promises declared unto mankind in Christ Iesus our Lord restore us upon our true Repentance into thy grace and favour And grant O most merciful Father for his sake that we henceforth study to serve and please thee by leading a godly righteous and a sober life to the glory of thy holy Name and the eternal comfort of our own souls through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen In these disturbances of tearing his Service Book a Neighbour came on a Sunday after the Evening Service was ended to visit and condole with him for the affront offered by the Soldiers To whom he spake with a composed patience and said God hath restored me to my desir'd privacy with my wife and children where I hop'd to have met with quietness and it proves not so but I will labour to be pleas'd because God on whom I depend sees 't is not fit for me to be quiet I praise him that he hath by his grace prevented me from making shipwrack of a good Conscience to maintain me in a place of great reputation and profit and though my condition be such that I need the last yet I submit for God did not send me into this world to do my own but suffer his will and I will obey it Thus by a sublime depending on his wise and powerful and pitiful Creator he did chearfully submit to what God had appointed justifying the truth of that Doctrine which he had preach'd About this time that excellent Book of the King's Meditations in his Solitude was printed and made publick and Dr. Sanderson was
the use of indifferent things The Romans Corinthians and others to whom St. Paul wrote about these matters being not limited any way in the exercise of their liberty therein by any over-ruling Authority But where the Magistrates have interposed and thought good upon mature advice to impose Laws upon those that are under them whereby their liberty is not infringed as some unjustly complain in the inward judgment but only limited in the outward exercise of it there the Apostolical directions will not hold in the same absolute manner as they were delivered to those whom they then concerned but only in the equity of them so far forth as the cases are alike and with such meet qualifications and mitigations as the difference of the cases otherwise doth require So that a man ought not out of private fancy or meerly because he would not be observed for not doing as others do or for any the like weak respects to do that thing of the lawfulness whereof he is not competently perswaded where it is free for him to do otherwise which was the case of these weak ones among the Romans for whose sakes principally the Apostle gave these directions But the Authority of the Magistrates intervening so alters the case that such a forbearance as to them was necessary is to as many of us as are commanded to do this or that altogether unlawful in regard they were free and we are bound for the Reasons already shewn which I now rehearse not But you will yet say for in point of obedience men are very loath to yield so long as they can find any thing to plead those that lay these burdens upon us at leastwise should do well to satisfie our doubts and to inform our Consciences concerning the lawfulness of what they enjoyn that so we might render them obedience with better chearfulness How willing are we sinful men to leave the blame of our miscarriages any where rather than upon our selves But how is it not incongruous the while that those men should prescribe rules to their Governours who can scarcely brook their Governours should prescribe Laws to them It were good we should first learn how to obey ere we take upon us to teach our betters how to govern However what Governours are bound to do or what is fit for them to do in the point of information that is not now the question If they fail in any part of their bounden duty they shall be sure to reckon for it one day but their Iailing cannot in the mean time excuse thy disobedience Although I think it would prove a hard task for whosoever should undertake it to shew that Superiours are always bound to inform the Consciences of their Inferiours concerning the lawfulness of every thing they shall command If sometimes they do it where they see it expedient or needful sometimes again and that perhaps oftner it may be thought more expedient for them and more conducible for the publick peace and safety only to make known to the people what their pleasures are reserving to themselves the Reasons thereof I am sure in the point of Ecclesiastical Ceremonies and Constitutions in which case the aforesaid Allegations are usually most stood upon this hath been abundantly done in our Church not only in the learned writings of sundry private men but by the publick declaration also of Authority as is to be seen at large in the Preface commonly printed before the Book of Common Prayer concerning that Argument enough to satisfie those that are peaceable and not disposed to stretch their wits to cavil at things established And thus much of the second Question touching a doubting Conscience whereon I have insisted the longer because it is a point both so proper to the Text and whereat so many have stumbled There remaineth but one other Question and that of far smaller difficulty What is to be done when the Conscience is scrupulous I call that a scruple when a man is reasonably well perswaded of the lawfulness of a thing yet hath withal some jealousies and fears lest perhaps it should prove unlawful Such scruples are most incident to men of melancholy dispositions or of timorous Spirits especially if they be tender conscienced withal and they are much encreased by the false suggestions of Satan by reading the Books or hearing the Sermons or frequenting the company of men more strict precise and austere in sundry points than they need or ought to be and by sundry other means which I now mention not Of which scruples it behooveth every man first to be wary that he doth not at all admit them if he can choose Or if he cannot wholly avoid them that secondly he endeavour so far as may be to eject them speedily out of his thoughts as Satan's snares and things that may breed him worfer inconveniencies Or if he cannot be so rid of them that then thirdly he resolve to go on according to the more profitable perswasion of his mind and despise those scruples And this he may do with a good Conscience not only in things commanded him by lawful Authority but even in things indifferent and arbitrary and wherein he is left to his own liberty REASONS Of the present JUDGMENT OF THE University of OXFORD Concerning The Solemn League and Covenant The Negative Oath The Ordinances concerning Discipline and Worship Approved by general consent in a full Convocation Iune 1. 1647. And presented to Consideration LONDON Printed for Richard Marriott 1678. A Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and Defence of Religion the honour and happiness of the King and the Peace and Safety of the three Kingdoms England Scotland and Ireland WE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commmons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland by the Providence of God living under one King and being of one Reformed Religion having before our eyes the glory of God and the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ the honour and happiness of the King's Majesty and his Posterity and the true publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private Devotion is included and calling to mind the treacherous and bloody Plots Conspiracies Attempts and Practices of the Enemies of God against the true Religion and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick Testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstrance Protestations and Sufferings for the preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and the Example of God's People in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to
Glory of God and the Publick Good for the preservation of our Families our Flocks and our Functions And that with the good leave and allowance as we have great reason to believe of such as have power to dispense with us and the Laws in that behalf This if we shall do bonâ fide and with our utmost endeavours in singleness of heart and with godly discretion perhaps it will not be enough to prevail with either the censure of inconsiderate and inconsiderable persons or the ill use that may be made of our Example through the ignorance or negligence of some scandalum pusillorum or through the perversness and malice of others scandalum pharisaeorum as the Schools term them But assuredly it will be sufficient in the sight of God and the witness of our own hearts and to the Consciences of charitable and considering men to acquit us clear of all guilt either of Scandal or Schism in the least degree Which we may probably do by observing these ensuing or such other like general Directions The liberty of using such meet accommodations as the circumstances in particular Cases shall require evermore allowed and reserved viz. 1. If we shall decline the company and society of known Schismaticks not conversing frequently or familiarly with them or more than the necessary affairs of life and the rules of Neighbourhood and common civility will require especially not to give countenance unto their Church Assemblies by our presence among them if we can avoid it 2. If we shall retain as well in common discourse as in our Sermons and holy Offices of the Church the old Theological and Ecclesiastical terms and forms of Speech which have been generally received and used in the Churches of Christ which the people are well acquainted with and are wholsome and significant and not follow our new Masters in that uncouth affected garb of Speech or Canting Language rather if I may so call it which they have of late taken up as the signal distinction and characteristical note of that which in that their new Language they call The Godly Party or Communion of Saints 3. If in officiating we repeat not only the Lord's Prayer the Creed the ten Commandements and such other passages in the Common Prayer Book as being the very words of Scripture no man can except against but so much of the old Liturgy besides in the very words and syllables of the Book as we think the Ministers of State in those parts wherein we live will suffer and the Auditory before whom we officiate will bear sith the Officers in all parts of the Land are not alike strict nor the people in all Parishes alike disaffected in this respect 4. If where we must of necessity vary from the words we yet follow the Order of the Book in the main parts of the holy Offices retaining the substance of the Prayers and embellishing those of our own making which we substitute into the place of those we leave out with phrases and passages taken out of the Book in other places 5. If where we cannot safely mention the Particulars mentioned in the Book as namely in praying for the King the Queen the Royal Progeny and the Bishops we shall yet use in our Prayers some such general terms and other intimations devised for that purpose as may sufficiently convey to the understanding of the people what our intentions are therein and yet not be sufficient to fetch us within the compass of the Ordinance 6. If we shall in our Sermons take occasion now and then where it may be pertinent either to discover the weakness of the Puritan Principles and Tenets to the people or to shew out of some passages and expressions in the Common Prayer the consonancy of those Observations we have raised from the Text with the Judgment of the Church of England or to justifie such particular passages in the Letany Collects and other parts of our Liturgy as have been unjustly quarell'd at by Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists or other by what Name or Title soever they are called Puritan Sectaries Thus have I freely acquainted you both with my practice and judgment in the Point propos'd in your Friend's Letter How I shall be able to satisfie his or your judgment in what I have written I know not however I have satisfied both your desire and his in writing and shall rest Your Brother and Servant in the Lord Rob. Sanderson PAX Ecclesiae BY THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER in GOD ROBERT SANDERSON LATE Lord Bishop of Lincoln LONDON Printed for Richard Marriott 1678. PAX ECCLESIAE ALL the Decrees of God are eternal and his Counsels therein unsearchable In Eternals there is neither prius nor posterius and ergo considered in themselves and as they are in God all the Decrees of God concerning the whole course of man's salvation are simul semel and because eternal ergo also coeternal Yet considered either in regard of their Objects or respectively to our apprehensions there must some order be conceived among them whereby one may be said to be before or after another ordine naturae ordine intelligendi For as in order of nature the intention of the end is before the deliberation concerning the means the causes before the effect the subject before the properties and accidents c. so we are not able to conceive of the Decrees of God unless we rank them in some such order as seemeth most agreeable to the condition of their proper objects as ex gr those wherein the end or cause or subject is decreed to be ordine intelligendi before these wherein are decreed the means effects or accidents But because the Counsels of God herein are incomprehensible and unsearchable to our weak and finite understandings it hence cometh to pass 1. That they who have the greatest serenity of natural understanding and the largest measure of Divine Revelation withal must yet confess the unfathomed depth of the judgments and ways of God which are abyssus multa rather to be admired than searched into so as they are not to hope or look after such a way of opening these Mysteries as shall be quietativa intellectus so totally and absolutely but that some difficulties will still remain to make us cry out with St. Paul O altitudo Otherwise these great and hidden Mysteries of God should be no Mysteries 2. That men who cannot content themselves to be wise according to sobriety whilst they have thought by searching into the Counsels of God to bring the Mysteries of Faith within the comprehension of Reason have become vain in their imaginations and enwrapped themselves unawares in perplexed and inextricable difficulties for the unwinding themselvs where-from they have been afterwards sometimes driven to devise and maintain strange Opinions of very perillous and noysome consequence which hatch been the original of most Heresies and Schisms in the Church 3. That men also of sober Understandings keeping within the due Bounds of their Gifts
sad distractions In the sixth Article we are altogether unsatisfied 1. The whole Article being grounded upon a supposition which hath not yet been evidenced to us viz. that this Cause meaning thereby or else we understand it not the joyning in this Covenant of mutual defence for the prosecution of the late War was the Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms and that it so much concerned the glory of God and the good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King 2. If all the Premisses were so clear that we durst yield our free assent thereunto yet were they not sufficient to warrant to our Consciences what in this Article is required to be sworn of us unless we were as clearly satisfied concerning the lawfulness of the means to be used for the supporting of such a Cause For since evil may not be done that good may come thereof we cannot yet be perswaded That the Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace may be supported or the Glory of God the Good of the Kingdoms and the Honour of the King sought to be advanced by such means as to our best understandings are both improper for those Ends and destitute of all warrant from the Laws either of God or of this Realm Lastly in the Conclusion our hearts tremble to think that we should be required to pray that other Christian Churches might be encouraged by our example to joyn in the like Association and Covenant to free themselves from the Antichristian yoke c. Wherein 1. To omit that we do not know any Antichristian yoke under which we were held in these Kingdoms and from which we owe to this either War or Covenant our freedom unless by the Antichristian yoke be meant Episcopal Government which we hope no man that pretendeth to Truth and Charity will affirm 2. We do not yet see in the fruits of this Association or Covenant among our selves any thing so lovely as to invite us to desire much less to pray that other Christian Churches should follow our example herein 3. To pray to the purpose in the conclusion of the Covenant expressed seemeth to us all one in effect as to beseech Almighty God the God of Love and Peace 1. To take all love and peace out of the hearts of Christians and to set the whole Christian world in a combustion 2. To render the Reformed Religion and all Protestants odious to all the world 3. To provoke the Princes of Europe to use more severity towards those of the Reformed Religion if not for their own security to root them quite out of their several Dominions 4. The tyranny and yoke of Antichrist if laid upon the nooks of Subjects by their lawful Sovereigns is to be thrown off by Christian boldness in confessing the Truth and patient suffering for it not by taking up Arms or violent resisting of the Higher Powers §. VI. Some considerations concerning the meaning of the Covenant OUR aforesaid Scruples are much strengthened by these ensuing Considerations First That whereas no Oath which is contradictory to it self can be taken without Perjury because the one part of every contradiction must needs be false this Covenant either indeed containeth or at leastwise which to the point of Conscience is not much less effectual seemeth to us to contain sundry Contradictions as namely amongst others these 1. To preserve as it is without change and yet to reform and alter and not to preserve one and the same Reformed Religion 2. Absolutely and without exception to preserve and yet upon supposition to extirpate the self-same thing viz the present Religion of the Church of Scotland 3. To reform Church Government established in England and Ireland according to the Word of God and yet to extirpate that Government which we are perswaded to be according thereunto for the introducing of another whereof we are not so perswaded 4. To endeavour really the extirpation of Heresies Schisms and Prophaneness and yet withal to extirpate that Government in the Church the want of the due exercise whereof we conceive to have been one chief cause of the growth of the said evils and do believe the restoring and continuance thereof would be the most proper and effectual remedy 5. To preserve with our estates and lives the liberties of the Kingdom that is as in the Protestation is explained of the Subject and yet contrary to these liberties to submit to the imposition of this Covenant and of the Negative Oath not yet established by Laws and to put our lives and estates under the arbitrary power of such as may take away both from us when they please not only without but even against Law if they shall judge it convenient so to do Secondly We find in the Covenant sundry expressions of dark or doubtful construction whereunto we cannot swear in judgment till their sense be cleared and agreed upon As Who are the Common Enemies and which be the best Reformed Churches mentioned in the first Article Who in the fourth Article are to be accounted Malignants How far that phrase of hindring Reformation may be extended What is meant by the supreme Iudicatory of both the Kingdoms and sundry other Thirdly By the use that hath been made of this Covenant sometimes to purposes of dangerous consequence we are brought into some fears and jealousies lest by taking the same we should cast our selves into more snares than we are yet aware of For in the first Article 1. Whereas we are to endeavour the Reformation of Religion in this Kingdom in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches 1. The Reformation in Worship whereby we could not suppose any more was intended according to their former Declaration than a review of the service-Service-book that the translations might be in some places amended some alterations made in the Offices and Rubricks or at most some of the Ceremonies laid aside for the reasons of expediency and condescension hath produced an utter abolition of the whole form established without substituting any other certain form in the room thereof 2. The Reformation in point of Discipline and Government intended so far as by the overtures hitherto made we are able to judge is such as we conceive not to be according to the Word of God nor for any thing we know according to the example of any Church that ever was in the World best or worst since the Creation 2. In the second Article our grief and fears had been less if we could have observed the extirpation of Popery Heresie Schism and Prophaneness to have been as really intended and set on with as much speed and animosity as the extirpation of Prelacy and that which some call Superstition But when we see under the notions of rooting out Prelacy and Superstition so much quickness used to fetch in the Revenues of the Church and the sacred Utensils no otherwise guilty of Superstition for ought we know
allow'd him to furnish him with Books for that purpose I told him I believ'd he would and in a Letter to the Doctor told him what great satisfaction that Honourable Person and many more had reaped by reading his Book De Iuramento and ask'd him whether he would be pleased for the benefit of the Church to write some Tract of Cases of Conscience He reply'd That he was glad that any had received any benefit by his Books and added further That if any future Tract of his could bring such benefit to any as we seem'd to say his former had done he would willingly though without any Pension set about that work Having receiv'd this Answer that honourable Person before mention'd did by my hands return 50 l. to the good Doctor whose condition then as most good mens at that time were was but low and he presently revised finished and published that excellent Book De Conscientiâ A Book little in bulk but not so if we consider the benefit an intelligent Reader may receive by it For there are so many general Propositions concerning Conscience the Nature and Obligation of it explained and proved with such firm consequence and evidence of Reason that he who reads remembers and can with prudence pertinently apply them Hic nunc to particular Cases may by their light and help rationally resolve a thousand particular doubts and scruples of Conscience Here you may see the charity of that Honourable Person in promoting and the Piety and Industry of the good Doctor in performing that excellent work And here I shall add the Judgment of that learned and pious Prelate concerning a passage very pertinent to our present purpose When he was in Oxon and read his publick Lectures in the Schools as Regius Professor of Divinity and by the truth of his Positions and evidences of his Proofs gave great content and satisfaction to all his hearers especially in his clear Resolutions of all difficult Cases which occurr'd in the Explication of the subject matter of his Lectures a Person of Quality yet alive privately asked him What course a young Divine should take in his Studies to inable him to be a good Casuist His answer was That a convenient understanding of the Learned Languages at least of Hebrew Greek and Latin and a sufficient knowledge of Arts and Sciences presuppos'd There were two things in humane Literature a comprehension of which would be of very great use to inable a man to be a rational and able Casuist which otherwise was very difficult if not impossible 1. A convenient knowledge of Moral Philosophy especially that part of it which treats of the Nature of Humane Actions To know quid sit actus humanus spontaneus invitus mixtus unde habent bonitatem malitiam moralem an ex genere objecto vel ex circumstantiis How the variety of Circumstances varies the goodness or evil of humane Actions How far knowledge and ignorance may aggravate or excuse increase or diminish the goodness or evil of our Actions For every Case of Conscience being only this Is this action good or bad May I do it or may I not He who in these knows not how and whence humane Actions become morally good and evil never can in Hypothesi rationally and certainly determine whether this or that particular Action be so 2. The second thing which he said would be a great help and advantage to a Casuist was a convenient knowledge of the Nature and Obligation of Laws in general To know what a Law is what a Natural and a Positive Law what 's required to the Latio dispensatio derogatio vel abrogatio legis what promulgation is antecedently required to the Obligation of any Positive Law what ignorance takes off the Obligation of a Law or does excuse diminish or aggravate the transgression For every Case of Conscience being only this Is this lawful for me or is it not and the Law the only Rule and Measure by which I must judge of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of any Action It evidently follows that he who in these knows not the Nature and Obligation of Laws never can be a good Casuist or rationally assure himself or others of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of Actions in particular This was the Judgment and good counsel of that learned and pious Prelate and having by long experience found the truth and benefit of it I conceive I could not without ingratitude to him and want of charity to others conceal it Pray pardon this rude and I fear impertinent Scrible which if nothing else may signifie thus much that I am willing to obey your Desires and am indeed London May 10. 1678 Your affectionate Friend Thomas Lincoln ERRATA In the Preface Page the last after that read I. In the Life P. 20. l. 5. for renew r. review p. 26. l. 16. for warily r. rarely p. 30. l. 13. for relate r. dilate p. 37. l. 11. for cautious r conscious p. 58. l. 10 for inmate r. innate p. 63. l. 5. for predestination r. predestinarian p. 126. l. 4. for complying r. complaining p. 161. l. 1. for propositions r. prepossessions Bishop Sanderson's JUDGMENT Concerning SUBMISSION TO Usurpers LONDON Printed for Richard Marriott MDCLXXVIII Bishop Sanderson's JUDGMENT Concerning SUBMISSION TO USURPERS SIR WHEREAS you desire to know what my judgment and practice is concerning the using or forbearing the establish'd Liturgy either in whole or in part in the publick Service of God and Office of the Church If it be any satisfaction to your Friend I shall fully acquaint you what my practice is whereunto if my own Judgment be not conform I am without all excuse my own condemner and upon what considerations I have according to the variation of the times varied from my self therein So long as my Congregation continued unmixt with Souldiers as well after as before the Promulgation of the Ordinance of the two Houses for the abolishing of the Common Prayer I continued the use of it as I had ever formerly done in the most peaceable and orderly times not omitting those very Prayers the silencing whereof I could not but know to have been chiefly aim'd at in the Ordinance viz. three for the King and Queen and Bishops and so I did also though some Souldiers were casually present till such time as a whole Troop coming to Quarter in the Town with a purpose to continue a kind of Garison or Head-quarter among us were so enrag'd at my reading of it the first Sunday after they came that immediately after Morning Service ended they seiz'd upon the Book and tore it all in pieces Thence-forward during their continuance there for full six months and upwards viz. from the beginning of November till they were call'd away to Naseby Fight in May following besides that for want of a Book of necessity I must I saw that it also behoov'd me for the preventing of farther Outrages to wave the use of the Book for the time at
in the reading Desk or Pue Between which Prayers and the singing Psalms before the Sermon I do also daily use one other Collect of which sort I have for the purpose compos'd sundry made up also as the former for the most part out of the Church Collects with some little enlargement or variation as namely the Collects Adventual Quadragesimal Paschal or Pentecostal for their proper seasons and at other times Collects of a more general nature as for Pardon Repentance Grace c. And after one or more of them in the Forenoon I usually repeat the Ten Commandements with a short Collect after them for Grace to enable us to keep them This hath been my practice and is like still to be unless some happy Change of Affairs restore us the liberty of using the old way again or it be made appear to my Understanding by some able charitable Friend That I therein have done otherwise then I ought to have done For I may say that I have not yet met with any thing in Discourse either with my own Reason or others of sufficient strength to convince me that I have done any thing but what may stand with the Principles as well of Christian Simplicity as Prudence There are but three things that I know of that are of any consideration oppos'd viz. 1. The Obligation of the Laws 2. The Scandal of the Example 3. The unseemly symbolizing at least with Schismaticks if not partaking with them in the Schism The first and strongest Objection which I shall therefore propose to the most advantage of the Objector is that which is grounded upon the Laws and their Obligation For it may be Objected That every humane Law rightly establish'd so long as it continueth a Law obligeth the Subject and that for Conscience sake to the observation thereof in such manner and form as in the same Law is prescribed and according to the true meaning and intention of the Law-giver therein That a Law is then understood to be rightly establish'd when it containeth nothing but what is honest and lawful and is enacted by such person or persons as have full and sufficient authority to make Laws That a Law so establish'd continues a Law and is so in force till it be either Repealed by as good and lawful Authority as that by which it was made or else antiquated by a long continued uninforc'd disuse with the tacit or presumed consent of the Law-giver That the Act printed before the Common Prayer Book and entituled An Act for the Uniformity was such a Law being it was established in a full and free Parliament in peaceable times and ratified by the Royal Assent That it still continues in force and being not yet Repealed but by such persons as at least in the Opinion of those that maintain the Dispute for want of the Royal Assent have not a sufficient right or authority to do such an Act nor disused but of late times and that by enforcement and as is presum'd much against the mind of the Law-giver That therefore it still retains the power of obliging in part of Conscience that power being so essential and intrinsecal to every Law quatenus a Law that it can in no wise be sever'd from it And that therefore no Minister publickly officiating in the Church can with a good Conscience either omit any part of that which is commanded by the aforesaid Law or use any other Form than what is contained in the foresaid Book but must either use the Form prescribed in the Book or else forbear to officiate The Answer to this Objection granting all in the Premisses besides dependeth upon the right understanding of that which is affirmed concering the Obligation of the Laws according to the intention of the Law-giver which if it should be understood precisely of that particular actual and immediate intention which the Law-giver had declared by the words of the Law in which sense only the Objection proceedeth will not hold true in all cases But there is suppos'd besides that in Law-giver a more general habitual ultimate intention of a more excellent and transcendent nature that the former which is to have an influence into and over-ruling power over all particular Laws viz. an intention by the Laws to procure and promote the publick good The former intention binds when it is subservient to the latter or consistent with it and consequently bindeth in ordinary cases and in orderly times or else the Law is not a wholesome Law But when the observation of the Law by reason of the conjuncture of circumstances or the iniquity of the times contingencies which no Lawgiver could either certainly foresee or if foreseen sufficiently provide against would rather be prejudicial than advantageous to the Publick or is manifestly attended with such inconveniencies and sad consequents to the Observers as all the imaginable good that can redound to the Publick thereby cannot in any reasonable measure countervail In such case the Law obligeth not but according to the latter and more general intention only even as in the operations of nature particular Agents do ordinarily move according to their proper and particular inclinations yet upon some occasions and to serve the ends and intentions of universal nature for the avoiding of some things which nature abhors they are sometimes carried with motions quite contrary to their particular natures as the Air to descend and the Water to ascend for the avoiding of vacuity c. The common received Maxim which hath been sufficiently misapplied and that sometimes to very ill purposes since the beginning of these unhappy divisions in the true meaning of it looketh this way Salus populi suprema Lex the equity of which Maxim as it leaveth in the Law-giver a power of dispensing with the Law which is a suspending the Obligation thereof for the time in respect of the proper and particular intention so he shall see it expedient in order to the publick good so it leaveth in the Subject a liberty upon just occasions as in cases of great exigency and for the preventing of such hazards and inconveniencies as might prove of noysome consequence to the Publick to do otherwise than the Law requireth And neither is the exercise of that power in the Lawgiver to be thought an unreasonable Prerogative nor the use of this liberty in the Subject an unreasonable presumption inasmuch as the power of dispensing with particular Laws is such a Prerogative as without which no Commonwealth can be well govern'd but Justice would be turn'd into Gall and Wormwood Nor can the Supream Governour without forfeiture of that faithfulness which he oweth to the Publick Weal devest himself thereof And he that presumeth of the Law-givers consent to dispense with him for the Observation of the Law in such needful cases where he hath not the opportunity to consult his pleasure therein presumeth no more than he hath reason to do For it may well be presum'd that the Law-giver