others will call that Solitude which you call concord uniformity and peace And our unity will be like theirs in Moldavia and VValachia And who shall compensate the Kings damage 3. And Foreign Churches and posterity will be brought by it to so great a hatred of Prelacy that they will never be reconciled to it more but prefer a poor and humble Ministry And indeed it is already so known by its fruits that I am much in doubt the experience of it will alienate the people from that Primitive lawful Episcopacy which I would have them to desire They say already Give us the old honest humble serious Puritans that lived not upon Gold and Worldly greatness and cherished not mens sins that they might cherish them Fruatur vocibus obscaenis omnique libidinis arte Qui Lacedomonium Pytismate lubricrat orbem Namque ibi fortunae veniam damus alea turpis Turpe adulterium mediocribus haec eadem illi Omnia cum faciant Hilares nitidique vocantur Juv. I suppose you know how much it alienateth men from Popery that their Religion must be fed and live by blood yea by precious blood Some of you have written your wishes that the course had been followed which was begun in the days of Whitgift and Bancroft when divers Nonconformists were hanged And some have written that it was not for Religion but for Treason As for Hacket and Coppinger it 's known they were crackt-brain'd men pretending to be sent to judge the World whom the Nonconformists condemned which Bancroft himself in part confesseth And whereas Dr. Sutliffe conjectured that Cartwright was privy to all Mr. Simeon Ash gave me a Manuscript supposed to be Mr. Cartwrights own writing fully confuting that accusation And as for the rest it 's true that the Bishops then laboured by exposition of a Law to make Treason by consequence of that which was spoken against themselves But it will be long ere the confutation of that is well answered which is written by some one learned in the Law called A Petition to her Majesty c. And what the same Author saith Pag. 25. of that Pious man Mr. Udal will by others and perhaps one day by your consciences be thought on with respect to the 2000 silenced Ministers of late and the many that have dyed in and by imprisonment and much more of so many as if you prosecute what you have begun you must destroy His words are That the Bishops should be so unnatural as to seek the life of a right godly and faithful Preacher of the Gospel I mean Mr. Udal to whom Life was offered if he would take his Oath that he did not make a book whereof he was supposed to be Author A rare example that a man should be known standing at a bar shackled in bolts but quaere quo jure and coupled with a murderer whose conscience was thought so faithful and sound by the Judg himself that he would not swear falsly to gain his life He had not learnt some mens rules for expounding Oaths Nor loved his life so well as some men do a Benefice But were no worse men suffered 8. You may have all that is truly desirable and to be expected in this world as necessary to Unity and Concord to Order and Decency and to your own honour accomplished ten thousand times easilier surer and better by obvious honest lawful means God never putteth men upon such bloody and desperate courses as some advise It is no necessity of Gods making that is pleaded for such means but of their own sinful making or false imagining God never wanteth lyes or cruelty to his service or glory They are usually wicked selfish ends whatever is pretended for which men chuse and use such means Or if the ends were never so good they will not justifie such means nay good ends will condemn them as contrary incongruous and destructive But when there are easie suitable and honest means enow at hand the choice of such as are forementioned beseemeth none but those whose design is to destroy If you say What be those means They are easily told you but your little self-interests will not give you leave to think them tolerable I shall tell you more particularly anon I will now speak but of the generals Quest. 1. What if you would learn of the Holy Ghost to impose no other than Necessary things Act. 15. What if you had the patience to endure the Apostolick Primitive way of Discipline and Worship and suffered men to go to Heaven in the same way as the Apostles and Christians of those times did What if you kept all that Wisdom to your selves in which you excel the Apostles and put no more upon the Churches than they did Would the inconveniences of this weigh down the mischiefs which are now upon the Churches throughout the world by the contrary course Let not your passion make you run away with a conceit of an intollerable conclusion and say I would reduce you to the Primitive poverty or persecution No I talk not of matters extrinsick to Discipline and Worship for faith we will yet suppose we are agreed in I suppose you think not that Poverty or Riches are parts of the instituted worship of God I am as far from expecting that you should consent to be as poor and persecuted as the Apostles as that you should be as good as the Apostles Those that you have to do with believe that the Scripture hath more exactly determined how God will be worshipped than hâ—w much a year shall be the Revenues of a Bishop We meddle not with your Lands or Lordships whatever our own opinion be of such matters Though we are ambitious of your higher and wealthier condition yet we neither envy it nor think it our duty to diminish your wealth But the question is If you let men worship God without any more yokes or burdens than Christ and his Apostles laid upon the Churches what harm would it do Did they then want any needful uniformity Did they not pray decently without a Surplice Did they not baptize decently without the Cross If you say that they had their rites of decency then though not the same that we have now I answer Impose no other than they imposed Leave those free which they left free Though you think your own to be better than theirs so do not all Christians If it be mens infirmity to think that the Scripture-rites are better than yours yet what harm will it do you to bear with that infirmity What if you required no more Oaths of obedience to the Bishops than the Apostles required to themselves or to any Pastors of the Church What if you required no Subscription to any thing as certain truth but only to the infallible Oracles of the Spirit Nay the Apostles required not any to subscribe to all the books of Sacred Scripture but only to receive them in general as the Doctrine of Christ and the Holy Ghost and they
loved and honoured him more though with some weak partial persons it was otherwise If then we have any Interest opposite to yours it is not Riches it is not Power we wisht no more than to be Pastors to the Volunteers of a Parish-Church And what more do the Independents wish than that persons have the same liberty to chuse to whom the Pastoral care of their Souls shall be entrusted as they have to chuse Physicians or Schoolmasters and Tutors for their Children and Wives or Servants Husbands or Masters in the family living under Laws of sobriety and peace And if you think that our cross interest is the praise of a few that follow us in a reproached suffering state you think we have a very low mind and game Why then do we so much desire to be out of this state and to take up with reformed Parish-interest And why doth not a far stronger worldly interest more prevail with us But such accusations are answered in this book As for that party of men among us Archbishops Bishops and Doctors that have made it their office and interest to set up as for Christ 1. A Catholick Church formed by a vicarious Universal Government viz. A General Council or a feigned Universal Colledge of Bishops 2. And the Patriarchal power which was in the Roman Empire 3. And the Pope as the President or Principium unitatis Catholicae 4. And the same Pope as our Western-Patriarch and the six or eight first General Councels as the Laws or Rule of Government and so would bring us under a foreign Jurisdiction and turn the orders of a Catholiok Empire into those of the Catholick Church through the World 6. And that pretend that the Papists Churches have an uninterrupted valid succession and therefore are true Churches and that the Protestant Churches that have no uninterrupted Canonical Episcopal succession are no true Churches nor have valid Sacraments or any ordinary title to salvation I say as for this party of men whose Writings and Names I need not tell you of we profess that we have no hope that ever they will be reconciled to us because it will not stand with their desired reconciliation described by themselves with a more powerful and numerous party which they prefer before us And though as much as in us lyeth we must live peaceably with all men we can never receive their unpeaceable principles and terms And it much more alienateth us against the Church of Rome to find that the nearer any are to them the more they are for uncharitableness and cruelty and trust not to the Church-Keys but to the Sword as if blood banishment or destroying conscionable Christians that are not of their minds were the strength of their Religion and Church and still cry Strike home and execute the Laws Abate nothing Tolerate none of them Let them make their task and have no straw Away with them as pestilent fellows and movers of seditions just contrary to the Christian Nature and Interest and Law And if he that dwells in Love dwells in God and God in him who dwells in them that dwell in wrath and imitate Cain and bear thorns and thistles and devour the flocks which they should gather and feed and shew that they love their brethren by destroying them Right Reverend Fathers and Lords we have far better thoughts and hopes of you and though I have beg'd in vain these Twenty years for Peace and Concord of others of your Order I address my self to you beseeching you patiently to read this Apology and pardon the earnestness of it for it is for a weighty cause It was most written 1668 or 1669 before most of you were Bishops Dr. Stillingfleet hath newly told us that If we will but allow that by virtue of the Rule Phil. 3. Men are bound to do all things lawful for preserving the peace of the Church we have no further difference about this matter pag. 176. We have still allowed it we have solemnly protested it Were it lawful to us to conform and cease our Ministry which we were vowed to we would do it I beg of you as on my knees for your own sakes for Englands for the Churches for Christs that you will agree with us on these terms I ask nothing of you for my self I need nothing that you can give me My time of service is near an end But England will be England and Souls and the Churches peace will be precious and the Cause will be the same when all the present Nonconformists are dead And Bishops must dye as well as we Our Lord delayeth not his coming to encourage any to smite their fellow-servants If it be not a Lawful thing for the peace of the Church to forbear the dividing Impositions and Prosecutions I need not name them then let us all suffer still But if it be do not only privately wish but zealously as Lovers of the Church endeavour and that with speed and all your might for Peace to abate what may lawfully be abated It is not in our power to procure Union For sin and self-condemning will not do it How much is in yours the Lord cause you to know and practice I rest Your Servant R. B. AN APOLOGY FOR THE SILENCED MINISTERS Especially for their not ceasing to Preach Christs Gospel Being the Third Part of their Plea for Peace Humbly directed to those of the Lord Bishops and to the rest of the Conformable Clergy of their mind who have procured our Silence and Sufferings or the continuance thereof Most Reverend and Right Reverend Lords and Fathers and Reverend Brethren HAVING once tryed in vain though by the favour of His Majesties Gracious Encouragement and Commission what speaking might do and since that tryed as much in vain what silence in this kind will do I have resolved once more before the expiring of my gasping hopes to resist despair and to try whether so many years experience hath opened your ears and hearts to the Reasons and humble Requests of those who not so much for their Sufferings as for the Souls of men do daily eat the bread of sorrow At least before I resign this Skeleton to the dust to leave one more testimony of my zeal for Unity and Peace and make one more attempt for the Gospel and the Church of Christ that I may not appear before my Judg in the guilt of negligence cowardize or unprofitableness Not to be your Accuser nor a Justifier of any of the weaknesses or miscarriages of the present Nonconformists nor yet of those of former times but humbly to re-mind you of the things that concern the interest of Christ the people and your selves When it pleased the most Gracious Soveraign of the World to restore his Majesty by the concurrence of the desires of his Subjects and the wonderful dissolution of that Army and Government which resisted his returns as we knew that our divisions had been our sin and ruine and our enemies strength and that
other Nor did I ever hear man or woman blame him for any word or deed nor ever heard him ask what money he should have but took it as it came And was indeed as a willing and loving servant unto all and was beloved by all though we had many more affectionate taking Preachers 7. I gave to every family in Town and Parish being beside a great Borough about twenty Villages a Catechism and some of my lesser Books and of every Book I wrote usually as many as my Purse could well afford And to every Family a Bible which either for want of money or of willingness to buy had none where any one in the house could read 8. After the Lecture at evening as many as had leisure and will assembled at my Lodgings where one of them repeated the Sermon and any one that would did by word or writing put in such doubts about the things delivered the solution of which would tend to their further satisfaction which I then answered And if they had any other cases of Conscience they offered them to me in writing that I might see whether they were fit for publick mention and then we sung a Psalm and I or one of them did pray 9. All the Ministers of the County whose names are Printed in our Book of Concord did agree seeing the Rulers that then were did leave all Discipline to the Churches will and constrained none and seeing we were divided about Church-Government to the great damage of the Church That we would all practise so much of the spiritual discipline as all three parties Episcopal Presbyterian and Independents were agreed in which we thought enough for our union and reformation and leave the rest without the compass of our agreement that so the Episcopal party might not say that we break the Laws or shut them out nor the rest say that our narrow principles excluded them from our Communion 10. Accordingly once a mouth I had a meeting to hear and admonish them that after more private reproof had refused repentance for heinous and notable offences where were present three Justices of the Peace as at their monthly meeting to do that which belonged to the Magistrate and see that we did not usurp their power and above twenty of the Seniors of the Town and Parish not as Lay-Elders or Officers to vote but as those of the people that had best leisure and advantage to see that we did the Church no wrong and two or three Pastors and three or four elected Deacons Where our chief trouble was with drunkards exhorting them to repentance and praying with them and to keep peace among the neighbours and maintain their unity 11. The next day of every month the Neighbour-ministers met at the Lecture and afterward at an Ordinary in an honest neighbours private house where if any of our Parishes obstinately refused repentance for drunkenness or such open heinous sin he was gently admonished and exhorted before all the Ministers But our usual work was a Disputation on some useful point in Divinity to exercise and edifie the younger sort where were usually present about twenty and among them some of the most learned sober Episcopal Divines that were in these parts who were constant or frequent helpers of us Mr. Thomas Good Mr. Mar. Johnson c. 12. Those open great offenders who before these Ministers also refused to profess Repentance I did three Lords-days as gently and affectionately as I could admonish publickly before all the Church and after that some days publickly prayed for their Repentance which if they refused not they there consest their sin and desired the Churches prayers for their pardon and reformation But if they still refused I declared them unfit for the Communion of the Church according to the Laws of Christ and required the Church to avoid their Communion and we used no other Excommunication But this discipline we used on none but those that consented to it before and not over any that would rather forsake our Communion than submit to it lest they should think I did them wrong 13. The people of the place also did for ought I know as much as I for the promoting of their neighbours good 1. By their unity and concord 2. By their humility and blameless lives 3. They met in the houses of many of those that were ablest to help them on Saturday nights to call to mind the last Lords-days Exhortations and on the Lords-days twice to repeat the Sermons preacht that day and sing a Psalm and pray together and no more The Reasons of these meetings I refer not to the enemies of all things that favour of diligence for a mans soul but to all that know what a soul is worth and what is due from the Creature to his Creator and what is necessary to the information of an ignorant man 1. Many families had no one that could read and such were also the most ignorant so that they could not do any thing in a holy use of the Lords-day but what they did at Church unless they took their neighbours help And time on any day is precious and not to be cast away in vain 2. These persons and many more could remember but little of a Sermon by once hearing yea twice was too little with the most And we preach not only to be heard and admired but to edifie souls and how great a discouragement is it to a faithful Minister to bestow his time and labour in preparing and speaking that which so nearly concerneth his auditors and to cast it as seed by the high-way side and to have it all die in the hearing and carried no further than the Church-doors If I taught a School of boys or sent my servant but on certain businesses for my self I should not be willing that all my words should go no further And old ignorant men do hardlier learn than boys and heavenly Doctrine is more hardly remembered than common business in the world 3. If the Lords-day had been but a time of leave to use such helps and not of duty we should take it for a great mercy to have leave to spend that time in seeking God and life everlasting which else would be lost or spent in trifles 4. Our people were generally poor labourers that could spare so little time for such things on the week-days but what they did in their Shops at their work that it must be now or not at all 5. Common charity and many Scripture-precepts oblige all good Christians to help to edifie and save their neighbours by all just and lawful means 6. We found by great experience that it greatly increased knowledg and obedience and piety in the people 7. And so far was it from causing sects or heresies or contempt of Ministers or private mens Preaching that it was the chief of all means that ever I found successful against these exorbitancies so that when those Pastors that cried down such meetings as Conventicles and
Episcopacy and Conformity much more for being in arms against the Parliament or Preaching against them And I published it as our earnest request that all men that were utterly ignorant Heretical and scandalous or of vicious debauched lives might be cast out without respect to other opinions or Civil causes and that all the rest might unite their labours and be encouraged This is yet in Print And I met with few of my acquaintance in the Ministry that were not of the same mind And I had some more trial as to practise when Cromwell forbad as even now I said the sequestred Ministers to live within two miles of their old Benefice and commanded tâ—em to quit the houses our Vicar was never disturbed nor I never came within the house I never forbad him to preach And at a Chappel we had another conformable Minister that read Common-prayer and said somewhat like a Sermon often one Mr. Turner infamous for ignorance drunkenness railing and living by unlawful marryings and making his Ministry a scorn This Curate I connived at many a year till his death I provided a Preacher at first once a day and afterwards twice to be resident on the place I allowed Mr. Turner his Stipend but intreated him not to meddle with the Ministry For besides his vicious life I examined him and could not perceive that he understood scarce any Article of the Faith nor had the fortieth part of the knowledg or ability of many of the Wevers or some of the Plowmen of the Parish Musculus his Common-places Englished was all the Books that I could perceive he had and that he Preached out of But he would continue to read Common-prayer and did though he might have had his Stipend as much without it Judg by this whether we were over-forward to silence the Sons of the Church or cast them out 3. But what reason or conscience is it that if you can say Cromwell or the Parliament or Rump cast out such Ministers that therefore we that had no hand in it must be silenced Or if you can name forty Ministers in England as I cannot that consented unto this that therefore eighteen hundred that never consented should be forbidden to Preach Yea those that declared themselves to be against it 4. And you know that even the Usurpers allowed the Wives of the sequestred Ministers the fifth part For my part I never asked you so much 5. And either the unjust silencing of Ministers by the Usurpers was well done or ill done If ill done it should be your warning to take heed of sinning as they did for sure their practices seem not so right and lovely to you as to be worthy of imitation They Beheaded Mr. Love and Imprisoned many London Ministers and others for the Kings sake and you think not sure that you must therefore do so too 8 Obj. But we are not to distinguish of Nonconformists when Conformity is necessary to the order of the Church If a few honest men suffer among a company of Schismaticks Presbyterians Independents Rebells they must take it patiently and not blame their Rulers but themselves that chuse so bad companions The greater part of you deserve it Ans. We are not blaming our Governours but our selves not for our Nonconformity but for serving God no more diligently when we had time But 1. can you not distinguish and yet be just what not the innocent from the guilty nor friends from foes This is not the first confusion and evil that want of distinguishing hath caused in the world 2. If your I say your Conformity be more necessary than all our Preaching and Ministry and will help more souls to Heaven go on with it and let it prosper But be sure that you are not mistaken 3. Are Presbyterians so intollerable a sort of people Or will the bare opinion that singular Churches have all Church-power of Christs institution among themselves while they submit to the Civil Government prove men otherwise sober to be unsufferable You know Dr. Hammord and other Episcopal Divines do assert an Independency of Diocesan Churches which he saith de facto in Scripture-times had no Presbyters but one Bishop and his few Deacons And you know Dr. Stillingfleet of whose judgment Bishop Reinolds and many Conformists have profest themselves to be maintaineth that no one form of Church-Government is of Divine Right and Institution And if so then the Independents and Presbyterians refuse none that is of Divine Institution 4. But are you sure that you mistake not to the injury of the sufferers I can tell the world and you that I knew but one Presbyterian Minister in all VVorcestershire and that one was not of our Association nor any one Independent associated with us though there were three worthy Ministers in the County so esteemed there was not one of the Associated Ministry that was so much as reputed Presbyterian or Independent but Episcopal some were that now conform much less Anabaptists or of any other Sect but held the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and loved a Christian as a Christian and were for the uniting of all the Churches that are sound in the faith and in the things necessary to Church-Communion even upon the ancient Primitive terms And when I think of the Association of VVestmorland VViltshire Dorcetshire and other Countrys I have reason by their Articles to think they were of the same mind And must such abundance be silenced for the opinions of a few whom they never signified any consent to 9 Obj. If you are suffered to Preach you will but confirm the people in their Nonconformity and dislike of the Government For though you say nothing of it they will become a faction for the sake of your opinions and what confusion will it cause to have one party of the Church for one Preacher and another for another yea as you would have it for one to cross the baptized child and another not or for one to wear a Surplice and another a Gown Ans. 1. There is nothing in this imperfect life that shall attain perfection nor can any publick good be done without any inconveniencies But O cure not an inconvenience with a mischief Kill not a fly that sitteth on your brothers forehead with a Beetle or a Butchers axe It 's strange that wise men can be so partial or narrow-sighted as to look so intensly after their own desires or interests as to spy out possibilities of inconvenience and never see the loss of souls and great calamities that attend the other way 2. And indeed are you conscious of no frailties in your selves which are as great an inconvenience to the souls of men and the successes of the Gospel and honour of the Church as different practisings of the Cross or Surplice Are you humble men and teachers of humility Do you know your selves and teach the people to know themselves Are you penitent men and Preachers of Repentance and yet have never found
say that they are certain of their own Salvation I know that many excellent Protestants have made it the sense of that article of the Creed I believe that my own sins are pardoned and say that this Proposition My sins are pardoned is de fide Divina And yet I know that in propriety and strictness of speech which should be used in Controversies it is not true I know that many of the School-mens assertions are commonly rejected as erroneous because they are not commonly understood I know that Luther maketh the Doctrine of Justification to be Articulus stantis vel cadentis Ecclesiae and yet I know that Ludovicus le Blank of Sedan in his Theses hath greatly narrowed the difference and understands it much better than Luther seemeth to have done Which I may say also of Bucer Conradus Bergius In Praxi Cathol Ludov. Crocius and many other such Conciliators And that Luther on the Galatians is so acceptable to the Antinomians that I conceive divers passages in it have need of as candid an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Doctrine of Scotus and many Papists on that point I am my self a Christian and that is my Religion and I own the name Protestant for no greater reason than because it is the Protestant Religion to be meer Christians and to protest against the Roman Superadditions and depravations of it And so to be a Protestant and to be a meer Christian adhering to Scripture sufficiency as the test and terms of Union and Communion are all one Yea if any one doubted of the Canonicalness of the Canticles Esther or some one or few Books and acknowledg the main body of the Scriptures and the ancient articles of faith I would not cast such a one from my Communion And these terms or none I have foretold it you oft must heal the Church if ever it be healed And till the Papists will see the equity of these terms it is our great advantage that the certain truth of all our Religion is so fully acknowledged But 2. as long as we let others alone with their additions why may they not live in peace with us and let us alone without them All men are united in the Essentials of Humanity though they are not all of one complection stature or degree of strength And if any be so peevish that he will associate with none that are not of his own complection the separation is the effect of his folly which may possibly be cured and till it be cured both the fault and the suffering is his own If a Law were made that none shall live in the Kings Dominions but men of a Sanguine complection and of a strait and comely person and of such a proportion of tallness and of strength and of flaxen hair this Law would necessitate a separation and diminution of the Kings subjects from generation to generation But if the Law be that all English men that will live after the rules of Reason Honesty and Society shall have the priviledges of subjects if an hundred thousand had got a conceit that they may not lawfully be of the same Kingdom with any but men of their own complection and stature as aforesaid this is a cureable folly and the Law-makers may say we have done our parts for universal society and it is not we that make it impossible or hinder it and men in time may come to reason We refuse not them but they refuse us If you make things necessary and of common agreement to be your terms of Union Greeks Abassines Armenians Romans may take their own way and every one without injury enjoy his own be it wisdom or folly upon these terms But if you unite upon any other terms you make Laws for schism even for the exclusion of all that are not of your mind For Hales his Doctrine is true in the judgment of all men save the guilty that the Imposer of unnecessary doubtful things is the Schismatick or cause of all the schism So that there is no true union to be expected with Rome or any others but on the terms of primitive simplicity or which all true Christians are agreed in And they are no good terms which induce the authors through the force of interest to say that none in the world are good Christians that are not of their cut and strain and wear not their livery and lace not their coats in the Imposers mode 4 And as long as we take nothing from the men of various modes and fashions by unity in the Essentials of Humanity and Christianity to imagine that it is the way to union to force all Dissenters to their modes is but to renounce union and to gratifie a distant party so far as to make them laugh at us as fools and hope ere long to get us at their mercy and thereby to lose disoblige and destroy those that are nearer to us and would indeed be our friends and strength and to become enemies to our own families rather than to displease the people of France by not wearing their fashions 5. And if you had attained a seeming union with the Papists you are not sure it will hold seven year For their Religion still thriveth and thereby changeth and is yet far short of its maturity in all likelihood For General Councils make their Religion and who knoweth how many General Councils of forty Bishops perhaps like that at Trent for a great part of the time there may yet be and what alterations of Religion they may make And are you sure you can go along with them in all as far as they will go If you must break at last unite not on such mutable terms at first But there 's no talking to men whose interest and passion and partiality is the maker of their Religion It is not my purpose to speak any of this either to one of Grotius's mind if Saraviad and the Book called Grotius Papirans be credible or if he be that man that wrote the Discussio Apolog. Rivet who would have us unite upon the acceptance of all the Councils even that of Trent nor to such as come as near them as Mr. Thorndike nor any of that degree of affinity For I suppose they are already gone out of the hearing of such a voice as mine Yet still remember that I am not setting a Law no not Christs Law to your selves for the rule of your own opinions or practices If you will please the Papists by coming yet nearer them even nearer than the learned Forbes Bishop of Edenburgh did if you will have more of their Doctrine Discipline and Worship take it if it will do you any good But why must all others needs be of your judgment or those be of your way that are not of your judgment And why cannot you unite with the Papists if you will without destroying the Protestants or renouncing them Unite in things necessary and hold and use the rest as matters of liberty and it will
or Covenant doth disoblige me from any of this aforesaid nor warranteth me to disobey any lawful Command of the King or any of my Governours nor to do any unlawful thing And I renounce all Doctrines and Practices contrary to this profession Especially of those Popes and Councils of Bishops who have decreed the Excommunicating and Deposing of Kings or other Temporal Lords and the Absolving their Subjects from their Oaths and Fidelity and the rest of the Papal Usurpations and Church-Tyranny against the Rights of Princes and Christian people though judged Hereticks by Pope Prelates or Priests If this be not enough see the 2d Plea for Peace and my form of professed Loyalty in my book called The true and only way of the Concord of all Christian Churches V. And because they still cant over the mention of the late miserable Wars as if they hated the Act of Oblivion and Peace I add that malice may have no more to say that hath the shew of reason Silence and cast out all that ever had any hand in those Wars except the Conformists and no more and we will give you a thousand thanks and acquiesce in it as unexpected justice And is not all this yet enough VI. As to the particular reasons that we have against Subscribing Universally and unlimitedly without any exposition given by the Law-makers that it is unlawful to take arms against any Commissioned by the King and as referring to on any pretence whatsoever it belongeth to another discourse to render them which giveth the reasons of our Nonconformity It would be here unseasonable and they are many and great 27 Obj. But good words must not satisfie while the remembrance of your Rebellious practises yet remaineth Ans. 1. I have elsewhere told the strangers and young men that know it not that it was between two Parties of Episcopal Conformists that the War began 2. Is it not Words that you require as satisfactions in your Subscriptions and Oaths What more than Words is it that you would have 3. Are not the Laws in Power and Judges to execute them against any that shall speak or do disloyally What would you have more than Words and that mens Estates and Lives be answerable for their offences Obj. But why will you not then subscribe and swear in the words of the Law but in your own Ans. To give here the reasons of that is the unseasonable digression before disclaimed You may as well here call us to dispute over all our differences Obj. But here I am charged as an impudent falsifier of History for saying that the War began between two Parties of Episcopal Conformity which maketh me pity the World in point of History when the publick affairs of a Kingdom so openly managed shall be in such a manner controverted in the very age when they were done Divers Lords are yet living who were interessed in these matters and it is unpleasing to give men the Catalogue of great mens Names in a matter which His Majesty hath committed to oblivion But a breviate of all the necessary proof I shall draw up in a History by it self The Accusation 28 being made publickly by my old friend Dr. Thomas Good in his book called Dubitantius Firmianus I will annex a Letter which I wrote in answer to it ACCUS 28. To my Reverend and Worthy Friend Dr. Thomas Good Master of Baliol-Colledge in Oxford Reverend and Worthy Sir IT is now about a Month since I received a Letter from you for the furthering of a good work which I sent to Mr. Foley by his Son Mr. Paul Foley not having opportunity my self to see him I have stayed so long for an answer not hearing yet from him that I think it not meet any longer to forbear to acquaint you with the reasons of the delay He liveth quite at the other end of London from me and my weakness and business keep me much within doors and it 's hard to find him within except at those hours when I am constrained to be in bed But I have reason to conjecture that his answer will be 1. That the rich men whose judgments are for Conformity are far more numerous than those who are of another mind and therefore fitter to promote that work And there are so very few that do any thing for the ejected Ministers that some of them live on brown bread and water c. which hindereth those Gentlemen from other kind of charitable work 2. And I must crave your patience being confident by your ancient kindness of your friendly interpretation which I tell you that this day I heard one say We can expect that Dr. Good do make his Scholars no better than himself And what reason have we to maintain and breed up men to use us as he hath done in his late Treatise I got the Book and was glad to find much good and several moderate passages in it and I knew you so well as that I could not but expect moderation but when I perused the passages referred to I could say no more for them but that I would write to you to hear your answer about them For I confess they surprized me though at the same time I received many new Books of a sanguine complection from other hands without any admiration I. The first passage referred to was pag. 104. Which are confessedly things indifferent This is spoken indefinitely of the Presbyterians Where have I lived I know not one Presbyterian living that divideth from you for any thing which he confesseth indifferent I crave your answer containg the proof of this at least to name some one of them that we may reprove him We take Conformity to be so far from indifferent that we forbear to tell the world the greatness of the sin which we think to be in it lest men cannot bear it and lest it should disaffect the people to the Ministry of the Conformists II. Your p. 156. I pass by The main matter is p. 160 161. that though All the Nonconformists were not in actual arms against the King nor did they all as natural agents cut off his Head but morally that is very sinfully and wickedly they had their hands stained with that royal blood for whosoever did abet these sons of Belial in their rebellions treasons murders of their King and fellow subjects either by consenting to their villanies praying for their prosperity praising God for their successes c. The Charge is high If it be not true 1. They are almost as deeply wrong'd as you can wrong them 2. Our Rulers are wronged by being so provoked to abhor them silence and destroy them 3. Posterity is wronged by a misinforming History I. You are too old to be ignorant that it was an Episcopal and Erastian Parliament of Conformists that first took up these arms in England against the King The Members yet living profess that at that time they knew but one Presbyterian in the House of Commons Interest forced or
Catalogue of Questions for our Disputations at those Meetings and never then talkt to us of what he here writeth in a Book called Dubitantius Firmianus 2. Mr. Thomas Foley a Nonconformist Gentleman eminent for Charity having built near Stourbridge a Hospital and endowed it with about 500 l. per annum being my friend Dr. Good wrote to me to move him to give maintenance for two Scholarships in Baliol-Colledge and I wrote this Letter in answer to that but the sending was delayed till he was dead Accus 29. Another to save the Nation from the labours of a Concordant Ministry and from the blessings of Unity Peace and Innocence hath written a book lately called The Modern Pleas for Comprehension Toleration c. considered who at his enterance saith I would fain have any of our dissenting brethren to answer directly Whether there be any one thing sinful in her Communion the Churches as by Law established or only some things as they conceive inexpedient And p. 11. he saith Suppose that the terms of the Communion of the Church are not only inexpedient but really sinful if so then I shall readily grant that the Church ought not to be communicated with while the terms of her Communion are such But I shall presume to say with some confidence that it is not easie to find a considerable man among them who will not be ashamed to own it publickly or who doth himself really believe it And p. 12. I have been credibly informed not to say that I am able to make it good that Mr. Calamy did before his Majesty and divers Lords of the Council profess that there was not any thing in the constitution of the Church to which he could not conform were it not for the scandalizing of others so that in his esteem the Constitutions of the Church were in themselves innocent and the whole objection against them lay in the mistakes of other men Yet saith he p. 11. That the separation from the Church is so avowed and pressed upon the people as if that it were highly necessary and that communion with the Church was highly criminal at least in the opinion of the teachers Ans. And now Reader what a shake doth this instance give to the credit of History at least such as is written by interessed factious men yea what a reproach to humane nature For what untruth can be imagined so gross and what thing so nakedly evil as may not be expected to be found in Man yea in professed Christians yea in Divines of such a character Either this man and such others believe what they say themselves or not If not what Preachers what Christians what Men are these If they do what matter of fact can ever be so notorious as that we can hope that such men can know it What History of such Writers can deserve any credit What regard can the people be encouraged to give to the Words and Writings of such Doctors that no better know such publick notorious matters of fact and so confidently and boldly deceive the world in cases where so many thousands yea the Churches Peace and Concord is so much concerned Reader judge by these notorious evidences of fact of these mens credibility and usage 1. The judgment of the ancient Nonconformists is declared to the world by abundance of Writings in which they thought that they proved much in the English Constitutions to be sinful and such as men must suffer deprivation and death rather than consent to And are all these Writings no evidence of their judgments nor their sufferings neither 2. Since his Majesties Restoration the present Nonconformists still distinguished 1. Between Diocesan or National Churches and Parish-Churches 2. Between the Communion and Conformity of private men and of Ministers And 3. Between Approbation of the Church-Constitutions Practising all imposed and peaceable behaviour and submission And though some exasperated persons have by the late sufferings of conscionable men been tempted to separate from the Prelates and their party as far as St. Martin did from the Bishops about him and their Synods yet the main body of the Nonconforming Ministers as far as ever we could learn did judge as followeth 1. That those Parish-Churches which had true Ministers not utterly uncapable persons were true Churches of Christ. 2 That the ordinary Liturgy appointed for the publick worship was such as a good Christian may lawfully joyn in not speaking of Baptizings Burials c. in which some things they thought more dubious 3. That though combined Churches whether you call them Diocesan or National are not any otherwise a Divine Institution than as Concord is commanded us in general and may not be set up to the detriment of the particular Churches which are of Divine Institution yet a good Christian may and must live peaceably and submissively where some such combined Churches are guilty of Usurpation and sinful abuse 4. That Conformity to all the Subscriptions Declarations Oaths Covenants and Practices now imposed on Ministers would be to us a very great and heinous sin modesty forbidding us to meddle uncalled with the Consciences of the Conformists 3. Their judgment of the sinfulness of Ministerial Conformity they declared to his Majesty and the Bishops in many Writings when they had encouragement to attempt once the healing of the divisions And when because they agreed to leave out all harsh provoking words in their accusations of the Church-Orders and Ceremonies the Lord Chancellor had put into the first draught of a Declaration That we do not in our judgments believe the practice of those particular Ceremonies which we except against to be in it self unlawful In our next Address we desired that those words might be expunged and so they were Yet this extended not to Subscriptions Oaths c. And afterward many particulars were mentioned which we thought sinful and the supposition vindicated in a Reply to which the Bishops never answered And in a long Petition for Peace p. 6. we make this Protestation following Who can pretend to be better acquainted with their hearts than they are themselves For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him And they are ready to appeal to the dreadful God the searcher of hearts and the hater of hypocrisie that if it were not for fear of sinning against him and wounding their consciences and hazarding and hindering their salvations they would readily obey you in all these things That it is their fear of sin and damnation that is their impediment they are ready to give you all the assurance that man can give by the solemnest professions or by Oath if justly called to it And one would think that a little charity might suffice to enable you to believe them when their non-compliance brings them under suffering and their compliance is the visible way to favour safety and prosperity in the world And if men that thus appeal to God concerning the intention of
of old will tell posterity whether the Nonconformists preached loose licentious Doctrine 5. But the fullest decision of this case will be from their cause it self The Liturgy and Canon 1. obligeth us to refuse no Child that is offered us in baptism 2. The Rubrick pronounceth the baptized Infants so dying certainly saved not excepting any child of any Infidel or Atheist or open denier of a life to come or derider of Christ and the holy Scripture of which there are now great store 3. When the baptized Children can say the words of the Creed Lords Prayer c. though they know not what they say they are confirmed by the Bishop 4. Being confirmed they are to be admitted to the Lords-Supper though they know not what it meaneth yea they are compelled for fear of Imprisonment and ruine to communicate 5. When they are sick if they will but say they repent and desire it they must be Absolved in absolute terms though they give the Minister no satisfaction that they are truly penitent and have lived till then a most ungodly life and perhaps lie cursing and swearing and railing at a holy life on their sick-bed 6. And being dead we must pronounce our hope of every one in England except unbaptized ones excommunicate and self-murderers that God in mercy hath taken to himself the Soul of this our dear brother out of the miseries of this world Though they were professed Atheists Infidels scorners of Christ notorious adulterers or other criminals and never once so much as said I repent 7. And the Discipline of the Church being managed by one Lay-Chancellor and his Court with some small assistance in a Diocess of many hundred Parishes is utterly uncapable of calling one of an hundred to repentance or keeping clean the Church And these are much of that which the Nonconformists refuse to subscribe their full Assent and Consent to and to Covenant never to endeavour to reform for which they suffer the loss of all And now judge which side hath the looser principles and cause And add their refusal to approve of that which they fear to be in many thousands Perjury and the rest which the Conformists never scruple and try who are the looser and have the greater Latitude of Conscience And never did we yet meet with many that do believe that we live in more fulness and idleness and fleshly liberty than most of the Conformists do which we speak not as accusing any but in our necessary defence But he pretendeth to prove it 1. By our Books 2. By particular doctrines of Election Justification Good-works c. But 1. Doth not the world know that the Nonconformists offer to subscribe the same Doctrine of the Church of England as the Conformists do in the 39. Articles and the Book of Homilies If one then have a wrong faith professed so hath the other And let them that must contradict the Doctrine which they subscribe bear the greatest shame and punishment and spare us not if it be we 2. Why is there no publick accusation against us these years in which by his Majesties License we have preached openly as for any unsoundness of our doctrine 3. Who knoweth not that such accusing inferences are usually brought by all factious quarrel some Divines against their adversaries Whence such Writings as Caivino-Turcesinus c. have sprung up 4. The Reporter here either chargeth on the Nonconformists the Doctrines of the Antinomians which none have more confuted and of a few half Antinomian erroneous men against whom he might have read the Writings of Mr. Burges Mr. VVoodbridg Mr. Gibbons Mr. Warren Mr. Jessope Mr. Gataker and many other Nonconformists or else he falsifieth their doctrine He citeth the Marrow of Modern Divinity written thirty years ago by a Barber tainted with Antinomianism and though he cite the names of five Independents that then approved or commended it too hastily he never tells you how commonly both the Presbyterian and Episcopal Nonconformists and very many Independents reject and condemn it and how many have confuted it more than Conformists ever did And blessed be God that our forecited Books are visible to report our Doctrine to the World 5. But he singleth out one of us from the report of a Conforming Contradictor as making heinous sins such as Peters Lots c. consistent with true Grace Reader this is the true case in which you will still see what justice we have from this kind of men Baxter about near thirty years ago endeavoured with all his power and diligence to reconcile the Episcopals Presbyterians and Independents at least to joyn in the same Communion He found the two latter full of distast against the Prelatical party of Ministers but especially of the common people even his own hearers still saying they are swearers drunkards meer worldly loose ungodly people that have no seriousness in Religion and it is not lawful for us to have communion with such To cure them of this distast he stretcht his charity as far as he thought just to extenuate their faults and told the people That though many of these Prelatists would swear and curse and had divers such faults in the exercise of Church-communion they that were not-Pastors but private men must bear what they could not reform and withall must compassionately consider that many foul faults committed more through passion and custom than love and interest might stand with grace and Pauls counsel Gal. 6. 1 2. was to be well considered This being the scope of his discourse and the end what doth Mr. Tho. Pierce but retort it on him unthankfully to his reproach as holding too loose a doctrine Which this man here also now repeateth But as he told Mr. Pierce that for all this if one were necessary he had rather dye in the case of Noah Lot and Peter in the time of their sin than in the case of Mr. Pierce when he wrote that book being perswaded that they had then more of the love of God and man than he the same also he still professeth to this Enquirer and all of his spirit that so unthankfully requite men for perswading the people to judge as charitably as they could for Concord sake of scandalous Prelatists But if we be odious for pleading for charitable censures to such what are they that live in the sin it self and they that receive them constantly to their Communion And here as a proof he tells us how Dr. Hammond's Catechism and Mr. Fowlers book of Holiness being the design of Christianity have been censured and Mr. Baxter for daring to justifie the argument of that book p. 109. To which we say 1. We highly value Dr. Hammonds Practical Catechism And it 's strange that if one of us have justified the argument of the other that our Doctrine should not rather be gathered from such as he than from we know not whom For we must say that we know of none accounted Orthodox among us who have at all disowned