viz. That there is a real difference between that conformity which is requir'd of a Clergy man and that which is required of a Lay-man You add further The use I would make of this acknowlodgment is this that whatever objections there may be against conforming as a Minister there are none against conforming as a private Christian and therefore that nothing he hath said ought to disswade private Christians from conforming to the Church of England by his own confession I answer Let the persons concerned judge and do according as God and a good Conscience shall dictate unto them but as for mine own part were I one of them I should not cordially chuse and approve of him to be my Shepherd nor easily assent and consent to sit under his Pastoral charge if good Pasture might be found and had elsewhere who entreth not by the door into the Sheepfold but climbeth up some other way especially if this other way appeared to me to be too too like the way which David most devoutly prayed against Psal 119.29 Remove from me the way of lying Amen The Second Part. AFter a Confutation in Quarto another is brought to my hands in Folio I have kill'd him for a Villain said he on the Stage and made him an Example What have you kill'd him kill him again I was kill'd sufficiently as one would think by my first Antagonist notwithstanding to make sure work another comes in with his deadly stab and will needs kill me the second time and yet I find and feel a quite contrary effect and even return into life by this renewed death while the first of these as it were with a strong puff of wind blows out my Candle and the second with a sharper blows it in again and my Candle burns still as bright as ever For comparing one Confutation with another I am the better informed to answer them both and continue more stedfastly the same what I was in my first opinion inasmuch as in several things mine Opponents are not more contrary to me than contrary to themselves in what they write against me though yet in their spirit and temper they are one full of wrath censure and bitterness a man that shall touch them must be fenced with Iron and the Staff of a Spear else they will pierce and gore intollerably I have scuffled with the first as well as I could and am now come to encounter the last Sir Your Introduction is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the common place called Reviâ—ing and Reproaching and though it be particularly calculated for a Preface against me yet it may indifferently serve as a general Exordium to any Philippick against the whole Tribe of the Non conformists in all Controversies whatsoever I have heard of one beholding a great pair of Gates to a very little City said facetiously to the Citizens Pray shut your Gates lest the City run out and be lost such me thinks is your large beginning above the proportion of the following matter it being more than a sixth of the whole O how copious and fluent are you in this kind of Rhetorick how is your Pen as the tongue of a ready Speaker None I dare say about the Bridge can out-do you or put you down but I check my self for I have a better answer prepared to my hand in which I shall acquiesce not rendring evil for evil or raiâ—ing for railing but contrariwise blessing I bless the Lord Jesus that I am accounted worthy among my Brethren to suffer shame for his Name and I pray God to bless you in turning your heart from your causless prejudice and wrathful indignation against us This is all I have to reply to your Premises and now come to the work before us I could not declare my assent and consent mine unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained in and prescribed by the Book of Common-Prayer This you say may be one of my chief scruples that I could not prevaricate with Authority had there been allowed a lâ—ttle Equivocation and might I have been permitted to give an assent and consent which were not unfeigned the task had not been so intollerable but to require such an assent and consent searches men to the bottom and beats the Hypocrite out of all his Subterfugies who can bear it I answer The declaring of my unfeigned assent and consent is a great scruple to me though not hereby to be kept from a little Equivocation with man but from a down-right lying before God and against mine own Conscience and the rather as you truly observe because such an unfeigned assent and consent search me to the bottom yet not because I am an Hypocrite according to your supposition but because I am none my tongue and my heart being as they ought to be perfect Unisons and going together For if I were an Hypocrite indeed I could easily find my several Subterfugies and no such Declaration should be ever able to bear me out of them Herein therefore you are out But in the interim upon the whole matter you plainly infer what was denied by your Fore-man that Conformity is now much stricter than in former days and this also designedly You say Because of some possible Errata or faults that may escape in the printing of the Book of Common-Prayer or otherwise I scruple to give my unfeigned assent and consent unto all and every thing contained in it but this is a weak foundation and the Cavil trivial and therefore you leave me to be noted in my folly I answer It is you and not I who make such Errata properly so called which may be found in the Common-Prayer Book as well as in any other Book wholly besides the intention of the Composers of them to be the true proper and main ground of my bogling at the Declaration for I plainly by name except against the Order appointed for reading the holy Scriptures against the Order appointed for the administration of Baptism and so against the Order appointed for the burying of the Dead Now the things wherein I except against these in my apprehension are not Errata but Errors not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 however I am sure they are not escapes by accident and besides the intention of the Law-makers but are both contained in and prescribed by the Book as some of the substance and chief matter of it and this too confirmed by the Rubrick By what I have now spoken I clearly free my self from the absurdity of calling Errata the Contents of any Book or Writing as you would fasten upon me against all apparent truth and reason And whereas you say My scruple cannot affect you here because though such Errata may be contained in yet they are not prescribed by the Book of Common-Prayer I have evidenced the contrary in the instances forementioned wherefore the Coat you would put upon me is more proper for another who lets the true
be reputed the most sapient and judicious amongst men It appears by the woful event that more than a thousand Non-conforming Ministers could not thus construe the words of the Declaration when it was first put unto them and required of them which with some other things commanded made them to turn out and lose all rather than lose their Souls in doing what was clearly against their Consciences So that it is not perverseness and folly what-ever you say or think to stick at the words assent and consent but rather from the dictates of a sound mind influenced and awed by the fear of the Lord. Sir Far beyond my desert by the good Providence of God I have had the favour and countenance of several great Persons of Quality who have received me very lovingly and familiarly This I speak my Witness is in Heaven neither to vaunt my self with the glory of it nor yet to put you under any disarray again by the vanity of my pretension but to acquaint you with something to our purpose in the matter before us A little before the black Bartholomew one of the foresaid in discourse enquired of me what mine intentions were and whither I would conform yea or not I answered his Lordship such things were required and enjoyned as I could not swallow and therefore should be necessitated to march off and sound a Retreat His Lordship seemed to be much concerned for me using many Arguments as good as ever I have heard or read from any to reconcile me to a compliance but perceiving me not to be overcome by them while I urged some of these things now mentioned as a just cause of my refusing at last he said with a sigh I wish it had been otherwise but they were resolved either to reproach you or undo you Of which wise and weighty Apothegm I leave you to be the Interpreter Was not Conformity contrived in such a way and manner on purpose either to expose us to common Infamy as Persons who would say and swear and do any thing rather than lose our Livings or else to ruine and undo us by turning us out a grazing in the woful wild of extreme poverty and want About a year after another great Peer ordered me to wait on his Lordship and proposed something to be done by me with reference to the Liturgy which as I thought in my then present circumstances having neither call nor necessity to do I humbly craved leave of his Lordship to be excused therein and speaking yet further about the strict and hard terms of Conformity his Lordship replied I confess I should scarcely do so much for the Bible as they require for the Common-Prayer Both these I assure you are great and learned Noble-men and as far from being Presbyterians as your self yet you may see their Resentments as to what was commanded how little they were pleased with such high and rigorous proceedings and how in the bottom of their hearts they were rather the Advocates than the Accusers of the Non-consenters Yea I perswade my self that many among your selves had scruples more than a few or easie and would then with all their hearts have declined the Test of assent and consent if by any other means they could have escaped the danger it is well for them if they tentured not their Consciences while they tendered their worldly interests and necessities but to chuse to do it from any free act of their own option and will as what was desired and delighted in by them setting aside some high Prelatical Church-men who returned in anger and meditated retaliation was not to be found in the Bosom of many yet even these are called forth to declare their unfeigned assent and consent c. than which words I know none more significant of heart and good will of love and choice as to all and every thing contained in and prescribed by the Book of Common-Prayer For I pray Sir were you to express your judgment and affection in any matter and how your whole soul and mind is fully pleased satisfied and gratified therein and this beyond all demur and exception how could you more clearly discover your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of an unfeigned assent and consent unto it for mine own part I profess I know not Therefore it is well remarked by you that assent and consent and approve are words synonymous But you say Cannot we approve of the use of a Book or approve of a Book as lawful to be used as well as assent and consent to the use of it Yes surely But you mistake me for I neither can assent nor consent nor approve of the Book or the use of the Book so as hereby to witness mine own will or desire for the same yet I can use it in submission to Command if I shall judge it not simply unlawful and sinful to do it I can as I have said silently and patiently swallow down some Gnats if my Superiours will have it so but if I shall be required to say I assent and consent and approve of swallowing down Gnats this alters the case and now I can no more swallow them down than if they were Camels Wherefore eo nomine upon the very same account as you ingenuously confess you would be a Non-conformist to any Church in the World I am at this present to the Church of England And upon the same score I think present Conformity harder than formerly the now Declaration being much more comprehensive in its own nature and taking in much more of our mind will and approbation as to all and every thing recounted and specified therein than any foregoing subscription especially than that mentioned by your self in the time of Queen Elizabeth wherein the Clergy were only required to subscribe this promise I shall read the Service appointed plainly distinctly and audibly that all people may hear and understand As for the Articles published by the Authority of King Edward the VI. and particularly that concerning the Book of Common-Prayer with subscription thereunto I have not seen them except in your Quotation and therefore can say nothing in the case one way or other but I have two Books of Common-Prayer printed in his days the first about the middle the second in the last year of his Reign in neither of which is to be found any Rubrick asserting the certainty of Childrens undoubted Salvation out of Gods Word though they are baptized and die before actual sins there is not I say one syllable to the said purpose in either of them Even this very particular would have rendred Subscription more facile and passable to me had I lived in those days As for the subscription of the three Articles in the time of King James I acknowledge this was one Quod Liber Publicae Liturgiae c. That the Book of Common-Prayer contains in it nothing contrary to the Word of God c. Unto
which I had rather and should much sooner subscribe than declare my unfeigned assent and consent supposing the same Book of Common-Prayer to all and every thing contained in and prescribed by it For though I cannot prove such and such things to be absolutely contrary to or against Gods Word yet I cannot therefore presently affirm them to be according to Gods Word either as expresly revealed or positively commanded by the Sacred Canon which yet I must be able to do before I can declare my unfeigned assent and consent to the said particulars else I should strangely violate my Conscience and blindly rush forward at all adventures without all reason or judgment As for example though I cannot say concerning Children baptized and dying before actual sin that their undoubted Salvation is absolutely contrary to the Word of God yet never the more can I affirm that their undoubted Salvation is certain and express by the same Therefore though perhaps I might subscribe to the former yet I could not declare my unfeigned assent and consent to the latter One thing I take notice of in these Subscriptions and I wish you would also for your better information viz. That assent and consent relate unto the acknowledgment or avouching the truth and goodness of the things assented and consented to as well as to the use The Great Ends generally mentioned for these Declarations and Subscriptions are Unity and Uniformity in the matters of Religion and Worship whereas the contrary effects of animosity and difference have wofully followed hereupon time after time as we have seen by long and sad experience in continual breaches and dissentions There is and will be a judicium discretionis in every person who will be a Judge in his own concern contra Gentes his own mind and apprehension shall and will dictate to him what is right and what is wrong what is good and what evil both to be believed and practised by him the greatest Authority of his Superiours and the wisest Models of their devised forms for his devotion in any wise notwithstanding nothing shall be able further to subjugate his thoughts to any Idea or System of Service than to what may be truly said to be his own I mean according to his own understanding and therefore much less to an oneness and sameness of opinion and judgment of it with those that are above him though commending and commanding it to be received and observed meerly because they are so Wherefore as it is the wisdome of the Church to chuse such a Creed as all who stile themselves Christians do universally agree in so likewise it would be the highest prudence to pitch upon such a Declaration which all Ministers might securely and freely assent and consent unto without all scruple or hesitation as the Test of their Conformity I will not presume to mention the nature and quality of such an one but shall leave it wholly to my Superiours and Betters And let these in Gods Name enjoyn all Ministers both to declare and do whatsoever the Word of God requires of them to capacitate them for Church-work and no more then should I expect Unity and Uniformity in all things of moment with peaceable toleration and forbearance in the rest to the glory of God and the greatest edification of the Church and never before Then also I would be among the first who would humbly offer my self as a Candidate to that high and holy Function though in the meanest and poorest place of preferment But it is high time to come to particulars I cannot approve of the Order appointed for the reading of the Scriptures my reason was because many Books of Apocrypha are commanded to be read for the Lessons of the day as the fabulous Legends of Tobit and his Dog Bell and the Dragon c. while some Books of the Sacred Canon are wholly left out c. This I perceive touches you to the quick this is confidence and impudence this is matter of exclamation against our invenomed tongues and pens and against our persons as Pharisaical Schismaticks and what not I see your zeal for Apocrypha will cause you presently to fly on the faces of those who shall dare to speak a word in any diminution or derogation of it and this only too as it Rivals the Holy Canon Yet say what you can in the justification of Apocrypha how the stories therein were received by many of the Ancient Fathers for truth and reality and how supposing them fiction and fancy profitable they are for instruction comfort reproof as the Parables of Christ himself so many say they can profit as much at a Play as at a Sermon yet Apocrypha is Apocrypha still and those very Books appointed ro be read full of absurdities and impossibilities as I could easily demonstrate in several notorious circumstances but this would be actum agere since it hath been sufficiently manifested by many Protestant Pens against the Papists here therefore I shall leave you to be censured and chastised of all who are not of the red Letter or looking that way As for mine own part I ran over the Kalender and saw there one whole Month together viz. October filled with Apocryphal Books Forenoon and Afternoon appointed for the Lessons of the day the same likewise in November unto the twenty fourth day of it besides what went before in September of the same kind while some Books Canonical are wholly left out which I did not approve of neither can I find any thing of better information from your self to change my mind and the rather because I am fully perswaded some parts of Scripture are omitted and shut out which contain in them more to the profit and edification of the Hearers than all the Books of Apocrypha put together yea it were little less than a Blasphemy to say and think otherwise Let us not presume to be wiser than God But you say Nothing of Apocrypha is appointed for Sundays whoever laid this to your charge Yet if you speak truth then some of your Ministers are not well skill'd in the order of reading who as I am told by Ear-witnesses do sometimes on Sundays read out of Apocrypha whether they then read according to the common Monthly Kalender and not according to the proper Lessons appointed for Sundays or whether they so read when an Holy-day whose proper Lesson is out of Apocrypha falls to be on a Sunday when there is proper against proper and the Minister left at discretion which of the propers he will chuse I shall not trouble my self about it but leave it in medio to the wise and learned in the case You say in our Conventicles we read little of Scripture indeed too little Pudet haec opprobria nobis and wish it were otherwise with all mine heart for I am as far from assenting and consenting to any such omission and neglect as I would be to all and every
yet it is not prescribed by the Book of Common-Prayer that is it is never to be used and we assent and consent only to the use of those things which are both contained in and prescribed by that Book This word both thrust in by your self as you imagine gives you your quietus est Hitherto I have taken you for a Divine but now one would think you some cunning subtil Lawyer with your Tricks and Quirks you have found out an unexpected Loop-hole to escape and baffle your Bond which hath lost all force and vertue of Obligation in sensu diviso because it only binds in sensu composito Yet pardon me Sir for I must assume the liberty to keep this Yoke still upon your Neck shake it off how you can But how Thus You dare not but acknowledge that the great and learned Sages of the Church who composed and worded this Declaration were compotes mentis and understood what they did better than your self or any such Expositor and therefore had as it hath been shewn already when they put in these words assent and consent into the said Declaration credenda as well as agenda in their thoughts and intentions they had equally an eye to both these in the time of the composing it Besides what is there spoken for the clearing of this truth I am now further confirmed in my Opinion by the two following Participles contained in and prescribed by which very naturally and almost necessarily answer the foregoing Substantives Assent and Consent to such an end and purpose as thus I declare my unfeigned assent to all and every thing as truth and right to be believed which is contained in the Book of Common-Prayer and I declare my unfeigned consent to all and every thing as good and eligible to be practised and observed which is prescribed by the Book of Common-Prayer Here is Grammar and sense and I suppose the very sense intended by the Law-makers Surely they well weighed every several and distinct word in such a set and solemn Protestation and therefore every several distinct word in it hath its several distinct weight and purpose for far be it from me to charge such considerate Composers as guilty of any Tautology much less of Battology unto which you will cause them to approach too near if assent and consent unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book c. do refer to and terminate upon use and practice only without any further aim then it had been fully enough to say I declare my unfeigned consent to all and every thing prescribed by the Book of Common-Prayer and no need at all either of the word assent or of the word contained in to be once mentioned or thought upon You therefore deserve a rebuke from your Superiours for your presumptuous intrusion who made you of their counsel why should you leave out or put in any thing without their Commission why should you insert the word use which they never inserted But then you go further for having inserted the word use you say confidently enough that assent and consent to all and every thing contained in and prescribed by centre wholly upon the word use and have no other matter to respect and then again from hence you think you have gained another point concesso uno absurdo c. of freeing your self from the difficulty and pressing force of the Exception against Christned Infants their certain and undoubted Salvation dying without actual sin by saying You are not bound to give assent and consent to this Rubrick because though it be contained in yet it is not prescribed by the Book of Common-Prayer that is it is never to be used and we assent and consent only to the use of those things which are both contained in and prescribed by that Book But this is a deep fetch and a fine subtilty of your own never to be allowed What think you of the Church Catechism wherein we have a Compendium of the Churches Faith what does not the Declaration bind you to believe it your self as well as to teach it the Children what think you of the Creed does the Declaration only bind you to rehearse the Articles of it before the Congregation and not believe them your self Surely to the latter as well as the former Every Collect every Prayer has in it a Credendum as well as an Orandum and without the first the last cannot be performed since Faith is of the very essence of Prayer properly so called But what do you imagine the Declaration binds the Minister only to say over those Prayers and not to pray them or pray in them that is not to believe what he prays for to be right and according to Gods holy will and pleasure This seems to me highly Paradox and of a most dangerous consequence Grant you this Postulate and you spoil the whole Declaration as to the great intents and purposes of it for who may not declare in these words I assent and consent to all and every thing c. if nothing of belief but only use and submission be intended by them I have heard of some Jews continuing such without any change of their Religion officiating as Priests among the Papists and Celebrating Mass now why may not such Jews yea Turks also thrust in among our Clergy if by declaring their unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book of Common Prayer they signifie no more than that they will read over those Prayers perform those Offices and Ceremonies and submit to the use and doing of every thing enjoyned but in the interim without being obliged at all to believe the things so contained in and prescribed by the Book and so said and done by them to be right good and justifiable They may act as upon a Stage for a livelihood and have no concern about the thing acted or whom they personate Therefore Sir I tell you again you cannot wave the dispute but are bound to believe as well as to do all and every thing contained in and prescribed by the Book of Common-Prayer and to believe this in particular concerning the undoubted Salvation of Children baptized and dying before actual sin and this too as a truth asserted plainly and evidently out of Gods Word past all cavil or gain saying Wherefore I humbly and earnestly entreat you as a most learned Textuary to quote the place and satisfie my scruple for until then I dare not declare my unfeigned assent and consent unto such a doubtful and questioned Proposition contained in the Book But you would know of me whether nothing be undoubtedly certain by Scripture but what we have an express Text for Yes many things are undoubtedly certain by Scripture not only in terminis expressâ—s but also by an undeniable consequence wherefore let what is asserted concerning the undoubted Salvation of such Infants be confirmed and
Enemy alone and fights against his own shadow as if it were an armed man and then triumphs like a Thraso in his wonderful Manhood for vanquishing such an Appearance But say you Do we not think we may safely assent and consent to the Contents of any Writings that pass an Estate for fear of Errata which by frequent copying out and transcribing the enrolled Deeds may happen to be there I answer I never yet heard of any such Writings of Conveyance or Charters of Liberties and Properties where the Parties concerned were called to declare their unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained in them or else should be punished with the loss of their Temporal Rights which yet is the penalty of all those who will not assent and consent to all and every thing contained in the Book of Common-Prayer I have sometimes seen the Accounts of Merchants adjusted and subscribed by their names but with this Proviso saving all errours in them unknown to our selves Now upon this condition you and I will quickly compromise the difference let me insert these words Saving all errours which may be found therein as your Fore-man was good at inserting and I will readily declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained in and prescribed by the Book of Common-Prayer But I charge my Governours at least by insinuation with a pretending to an Infallibility in their requiring an unfeigned assent and consent to all things devised and prescribed by them but this is an odious Inference I answer How odious soever yet if the Charge be true the odiousness is not at all to be imputed to the Insinuation but wholly to the Injunction But say you This is destructive to the reason of all Laws and by this Argument every Law-giver must be supposed to be Infallible the end of all whose Injunctions are to be assented and consented to I answer This is nothing destructive to other Laws because Law-makers in making those Laws never require of the people any such unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained in and prescribed by their Institutes but only submission and obedience Secular Laws reach only to compliance of the outward man and not meddle with our thoughts and Conscience whereas this Declaration requires the inward approbation of the mind will and heart as well as the outward observation in matter of practise which is one great ground of our Quarrel against it But say you If it be necessary there should be a Rule of Uniformity 't is necessary that men subscribe to it not as an absolute Rule of Conscience but as a Rule of Peace and Ordor and this is all the Church requires that they so far submit their wills and understandings to their Governours as for these ends to conform to what they have prescribed I answer We must and ought to submit our will and understanding to the prescription of our Governours both in Conformity and in every case so far forth as Conscience will allow us and no further Conscience will intermeddle and be inquisitive into all our actions whether we will or no and if Truth and Right be not at the bottom Peace and Order which otherwise in general should prevail much with us will never be able to free and justifie us from the inward severe censure and condemnation of it The Composers of this Book of Common-Prayer thought all things therein right and good in every particular but unto this I replied Though this was their perswasion yet it might not be every mans perswasion and therefore I said I thought it not equal to compel all others jurare in verba Magistri to declare themselves to be fully of the same mind and judgment with them my reason was Hast thou Faith have it to thy self force it not upon others compel them not to think as thou thinkest and to declare as thou declarest Now you would know of the scrupulous Non-conformist whether this rule be given to the publick Officers of the Church or to the private Christian I answer This Rule is given to all Christians whether publick or private according to the several occurences which may befal them You should have rather queried About what this rule is given I would have told you that it was given concerning things which are not evidently and certainly true and good in their own nature beyond all doubtful disputation now such are many things contained in the Liturgy as the reading of Apocrypha signing with the sign of the Cross c. these things are not of an infallible truth nor are we sure of the goodness of them in their own nature by the Word of God wherefore here the forementioned rule is most apposite and necessary Hast thou Faith have it to thy self in these uncertain doubtful matters compel not others to judge as thou judgest nor to affirm what thou affirmest But say you Why or how then can there be any publick Sanctions in the world I answer There should be no publick Sanctions especially in the matters of God and his Worship unto which every private Professor shall be called and necessitated to give his unfeigned assent and consent as we are bound to do in all things with reference to the Liturgy but the truth and goodness of them in their own nature should instantly and apparently be seen by every eye beyond all scruple or doubtful hesitation for otherwise whosoever shall so declare his unfeigned assent and consent will either do it blindly at all adventures or else unfaithfully with a wavering uncertain judgment or else wickedly against his own mind and thoughts Wherefore the highest of publick Magistrates may not abuse their Power into any oppressive compulsion but are bound for Peace sake and for Conscience sake not to bind the Consciences of the people to believe and imbrace their private particular Sentiments as if they were Oracular and beyond all questioning but leave them to their own liberty to judge as they please until such time as they are better informed and more fully convinced But say you A publick Church-Officer may reject an Heretick I answer What is this to the matter before us Because he may reject an Heretick that is one who denies the Fundamentals of Religion and Godliness therefore he is above this rule Hast thou Faith have it to thy self and may compel those under him to believe what he believes and say what he saith From such a kind of wild reasoning libera nos I profess I am at my wits end here as in several other places to find what you drive at how then shall I fence my self against you I wished as to the Liturgy our Law-givers had required no more than use and submission as preceding Governours hâ—d done before them You say And what is more required I answer Very much for when I declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing c.
I speak as much as can be spoken in words to express my love approbation and choice concerning all and every thing contained in and prescribed by the Book as most true and unquestionable to be believed as most eligible and desirable to be observed in every Office Service Rite Ceremony and Circumstance thereof but when I only submit to the use of the Liturgy I yield for peace and order's sake to my Superiours in things not simply sinful and unlawful though in themselves far from perfection and far from my desire in my own free choice and election And what I have now asserted with little less than a contradiction to your self you have acknowledged already in your foregoing discourse Paragraph 4. And in this very Paragraph you do it again when you say 'T is our Zeal too they are offended at that beyond what our preceding Governours did with reference to this Book of Common-Prayer we thus strictly enjoyn that Ministers do declare their unfeigned assent and consent but are not the men we have to deal with those that are gone off from all obedience to Church and State and is it not reason we take some pledge of them for their future integrity Is any man found guilty of a much less hainous Indictment and yet discharged without giving Sureties for his behaviour Shall men who have broken through Oaths of Allegiance shall such men be displeased if we cannot take the Viper into our Breast without pulling out the Sting That we dare not admit men of these Principles and Practices to come into the Church without giving such Caution of their being in good earnest as may justifie those in admitting them who have the care of the Publick Now what is the purport and meaning of all these words and many more of the same nature but plainly to tell us that an harder Yoke is now put upon our Necks than upon Ministers in former days and that our Governours had all reason to make our Bonds stronger as for the punishment of by-past miscarriages so for the prevention of future relapses Here therefore you forget your self But you say It is not necessary to the assent and consent here required that every particular person should take upon him expresly to determine in all these points 't is sufficient that nothing is sinful much less doth it become his humility to oppose the Opinion he hath of a thing 's being good and expedient to the sense and reason of his Governours 't is matter of obedience belongs unto him c. I answer Though this be your mind and judgment I am clearly of another Opinion I must determine in all points whether the things be right and good yea or not before I can assent and consent unto them I must be well ascertained what I affirm for a truth to be a truth indeed else I may be guilty of some degree of lying in speaking the very truth It is not contrary to humility but the just and due exercise of reason to search into the goodness and expediency of whatsoever I am called to assent and consent unto by whomsoever commanded yea and to oppose my private Opinion to the sense and reason of my Governours if what they stile sense and reason shall evidently appear to be without sense and reason and at the widest distance in a contrary way Every man is bound to see with his own eyes and to judge from his own understandings if he will act like a rational Creature it is not the part of Gospel-humility but of Sheepish stupidity to follow our Leaders not at all considering or judging of the way but by a blind Implicit Faith and submission yielding to be turned into every path meerly because it is their pleasure and appointment Thus far in general now in particular I excepted against the order and appointment for the reading of the holy Scriptures because many Books of Apocrypha are commanded to be read for the Lessons of the day as the Book of Tobit Bell and the Dragon c. while some of the Sacred Canon are wholly left out c. Now for the removing this Exception you say We desire that our Governours be not blamed if according to their best discretion they have chosen out such parts of Scripture to be read in the Congregation which are most intelligible and if they have omitted others which they thought would not be for the edification of a vulgar Auditory and if they have mixed some of Apocrypha as may be of wholesome instruction I answer Though you would not have your Governours blamed for this mixture yet some others will question their zeal and discretion herein and think they have just reason so to do For who shall presume to be wiser than Christ for the good nurture of his Church who shall take on them to determine which is most intelligible and most edifying to the people either the holy Scripture or any other writings I am sure he that knows it hath said All Scripture and therefore that part of Scripture also which is left out of the Kalendar is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished to all good works There is no such testimony left on Record concerning any of the best parts of Apocrypha though some of those appointed to be read in the Congregation are far from the best to say no more Therefore this appointment by our Governours may well be scrupled but then the other appointment upon this appointment is most highly to be blamed I mean in their requiring all Ministers to declare an unfeigned assent and consent to this their appointment though in their own hearts at least many of them do not approve of this order but wish it were otherwise But is this a reason say you to break Communion with a Church let any man judge To this I have answered already for though I would read some Books of Apocrypha rather than break Communion with the Church as possibly not being in it self sinful and unlawful yet I would rather break Communion a thousand times over with the best Church in the world than be a wilful transgressor and such should I be in a notorious manner if a Lye be a transgression and I should lye most egregiously to declare my unfeigned assent and consent that is my will and desire to read the Apocrypha rather than Scripture in the hearing of the people for in the bottom of my Soul and in the truth of my Reins I am utterly against it I excepted against the order appointed for the Ministration of Baptism because of the strict requiring of Godfathers and Godmothers to stand as Sureties and Undertakers for the Child brought to his Christendom and this upon several accounts as First Because it is unscriptural Unto this you say It cannot be supposed that this order of Godfathers
determination of God their judge And this also you seem to to acknowledge and concede for in making good those words since it hath pleased God of his great mercy to take unto himself you say That it is not necessary the Words in great mercy should refer to the Persons taken away for it may be mercy and a great mercy to them who suffered by their injury or ill Examples supposing them to be such in whom no shew of goodness did appear I answer I thank you heartily for this new Notion which never before came upon the imagination of my thoughts nor perhaps of any other so that you may say in a boast as Zabbarel if I hit right upon his name Ego primus hoc inveni Verily the Gens Togata I mean all of the Clergy are much your Debtors and I hope in gratitude will highly extoll the acumen of your wit and the pregnancy of your invention For a recompence I think my self bound to tell you a story which this rare piece of Fancy of yours brought fresh into my remembrance In those days when the Book of sports and pastimes as Lawful and expedient to be indulged to youth and fit to be exercised on the Lords day was commanded to be published and accordingly was read in most Congregations Deus bone What are the best of men the Tribe of Levi the Sons of the Church themselves when they come to be Tryed Yet there were some of them Non-conformists to the rest who neither could nor would do what was then required what ever they suffered One of them a most worthy Preacher was desired by some of his Chief Parishoners to visit his friends in another County and to absent himself from them three weeks or a month together and in the interim they procured an Old certain Saint John a very obscure person who neglected his dress but cherished the Hair of his face and beard at a strange rate to do this good turn for him who by the like Crotchet of an extraordinary fancy was ready at their service and made no bones of it He comes therefore and appears in the Desk after the manner of some Wild Satyr out of a Wood and for the better grace of the matter what he spake was with a Twanging Tone out of his Nose Well he sets upon the performance of the work and reads over the Book of Sports distinctly and audibly but when he had done he added as followeth Beloved Brethren Here the King gives you liberty to play on Sundays and to exercise youth in vain sports and pastimes which to do is aprofanation of the Sabbath and a breach of Gods Holy commandment but now brethren do you understand the Kings mind and his true intent and meaning herein Why I will tell you my brethren a Father has a stubborn rebellious Child and he sees his Temper and spirit from time to time aukward and cross to do any thing he is bidden but rather more resolved and forward to do the contrary wherefore the Father when he would have anything done by this perverse and froward boy forbids him the doing of it but what indeed he would not have done he charges him to do it Thus in like manner my brethren Our good and gracious King has commanded us to observe the Sabbath in coming to Church and in a Religious serving and Worshipping of God by many good preceeding Laws and Orders for that end and purpose but still such is our contumacy and wickedness that we drink and play and have our Dances and Revels on that blessed day in a shameful manner wherefore he seeing our perverse Rebellious carriage against his former good Precepts he speaks unto us by contraries He bids now play on Sundays but his true meaning is that we should no longer play as formerly we have done but keep God's Sabbath better and more Religiously this is all our good and gracious King judging of us according to our wonted crosseness intended in publishing this book of liberty and I hope will follow upon the reading of it Here was a strange unexpected and unlooked for enucleation of the mind of the King as now yours is of the words of the Liturgy When I heard this relation first I was hugely pleased with it and said it was pity some Courtier had not not acquainted the King with it who certainly would have rewarded this rare interpreter with a Dean's or Prebend's place for his eminent understanding and service herein I wish you the same success in your parallel Atchievement But in the interim we must consider whether those words in great mercy can admit of any such avulsion from the words following which relate unto the dead to be an Apostrophe to them that are living Let us read them and weigh them For as much as it hath pleased God of his great mercy to take to himself the Soul of our dear brother here departed c. Therefore the person here spoken of cannot be as you would suppose him a man of an ill example an injurious person and in whom no shew of goodness did ever appear for he is a brother a dear brother and his Soul now taken to God and accordingly these words in great mercy must refer unto himself the person taken away and not unto others unto whom this his being taken away was rather in judgment and for Correction by the loss of such a dear brother Notwithstanding procure a Rubrick to confirm your interpretation for until then according to your own look I may not believe it but when I shall see that once affixed let the turning of these words in great mercy from the dead to the living be proper or improper it shall be all one in the Case for your sense of them shall be most authentick with me You have yet another Salve for the sore place to justifieth is last Office for the dead in these words Nor have I ever thought the person Officiating obliged to use this form of burials intirely in all Cases something I conceive may be left to the discretion of the Priest especially with the advice of his Ordinary c. Your meaning plainly is this that you may leave out some part of what is appointed to be read for the burial of the dead if the persons buried be not subjects proper for it but utterly the contrary As for Example if the person to be buried has been a notorious flagitious offender from first to last then after your own discretion especially with the advice of your Ordinanry you may leave out the words in great mercy and to himself dear and the like and read only thus For asmuch as it hath pleased God to take the Soul of our brother we therefore commit his body c. Thus likewise in the close you may omit those words as our hope is this our brother doth and read it thus That when we shall depart this life we may rest in him and at the general
also Assayling him on every side for they were sent to Seize his person and to bring him Prisoner Alas our George and Arthur are not so much if compared with this great Heroe Razis as a Grashopper with Goliah The most renowned of such Knights have lost their Spurs Ecce homines Homunciones blancati quasi libia as he said merrily in another Case which will more notoriously appear in the conclusion of this most astonishing Tragical Exploit for behold though his blood gushed out like Spouts of water yea when his blood was now quite gone and not one drop of it left in the veins which might befall him either by the violence of the aforesaid fall or from the many wounds he had received from the Swords of the Souldiers or othewise for we are left at uncertainties Yet even then he called upon the Lord of life It is written indeed of our Saviour that after he had lost much blood upon the cross he cryed out with a loud voice saying Eli Eli lama-sabachthani and yeilded up the Ghost But this was wholly and altogether above the power of nature and therefore worthily counted one of his last Miracles because great Effusion of blood does necessarily enervate the parts of the body instrumental and requisite to speech beyond the possibility of framing or uttering any articulate voice or indeed any sound at all Which therefore as some have thought the Centurion hearing and observing being as well he might be a Naturalist and a Philosoper did convince him that the person then suffering was not only a just and righteous man but also much more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meer man for he said Truly this was the Son of God Mat. 27. v. 54. Compared with Luk. 23. v. 46. Though it is evident that our Saviour had yet much of his blood remaining within him when he loudly lowed out if I may so speak with all due reverence that bitter Lamentation for afterward it is said one of the Souldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith came there out blood and water Joh. 19.34 Wherefore as for our Razis it may be said if it could be without unpardonable blasphemy Behold a greater than Christ is here for now when his blood was quite all gone he called upon the Lord of life and spirit yet this is no great matter if considered with what is still further reported of him For now notwithstanding all his blood was gone he had not only Power and vigour to call upon God but also to pluck out his own bowels surely they hung very loose and take them with both his hands it is strange that neither of them was hurt and disabled by his fall and cast them upon the Throng If this be not a Thumper I never heard one in my life But you will object and say these books of the Maccabees are not in the Kalendar neither are they appointed to be read I answer though they are not in the Kalendar yet they are in Apochrypha of which in the whole Lump you are a strenuous propugnator without any Limitation or Exception Nevertheless to give you all fair play imaginable I will return from the Maccabees to the History of Tobit and his Dog which hath its course in the Desk and that too by order as well as any part of the Holy Bible it self Tobit I say and his Dog For though you were pleased to flurt at me for mentioning of his dog and say I suppose this Author does not know that the Fifth Chapter of Tobit is left out that is out of the Kalendar where Tobit and his dog are found together yet how causelesly and weakly you do it will instantly appear insomuch that if Tobit's dog were yet alive he had reason enough to resent the injury with asnarl and not only so but also bite you by the heels for putting such a slight and affront upon him for why should you shut him out of the Holy place as an unclean thing since he is admitted and received as well as his Master Yet suppose I had not known that the Fifth Chapter was left out it would have no more challenged my knowledg or understanding then if you should be upbraided with ignorance because you know not to handle your needle nor how to cut out a gown in right Mode fashion as well as any French Taylour in the Town for what have you to do with such a knowledg and so what have I to do with the Curiosity and intreague of the Kalendar in this particular Yea I believe your self would be put to a stand to give a good and satisfactory account why only that Fifth Chapter of the whole book of Tobit should be left out Why this rather then any of the rest which are altogether Ejusdem farinae of the same leven And the rather because if you observe it in this Fifth Chapter the main plot and foundation of the whole Tragick-comedy is brought in and laid as it is usual upon the stage in some of the first scens For here is Raphael a great Angel of Heaven if you have Faith to believe brought in under the disguise of a servant and professes himself to be Azarias the Son of Ananias the great by what latitude of speech I will not undertake to resolve nor yet how decorously for it is not usual nor slightly that the Son of so great a man should need to turn serving-man Well notwithstanding he profers his service to Tobit the Son v. 6. And is entertained to waite upon him in his Travail and so they went forth both and the young mans dog with him ver 16. And it is this Raphael this servant which teaches his young Master those unheard of Rarities and puts him upon the performing those wonderful exploits in the following Acts. Davus Omnia Raphael is all in all and young Tobit is nothing without him Why therefore this necessary scene of introduction should be left out and omitted and this busie Davus and most extraordinary servant should abruptly and suddenly appear none understanding from whence or how is wholly beyond my apprehension I would gladly know whether Mr. Falkner unto whom you owe much in any of his great labours and learned Exercitations about the Liturgy has given us the true reason of this Chasme and Hiulcan leap in the Kalendar Surely there is some Mystery in it but what Raphael knows for all me In the interim it may well purple your Cheeks that you should rather then not twit me with ignorance betray your own for though the Fifth Chapter is left out and consequently Tobit and his Dog yet if you had looked forward unto the Eleventh Chapter ordered to be read there you shall find Tobit and his Dog again for thus it is recorded v. 4. So they went their way and the Dog went after them And for the better convincing you of the truth of what I now speak be pleased if you count it worth