be medling again The respect I bore to his person and great learning and the long acquaintance I had had with him in Oxford drew me to the reading of that whole Book But from the reading of it for I read it through to a syllable I went away with many and great dissatisfactions Sundry things in that Book I took notice of which brought me into a greater dislike of his Opinion than I had before But especially these three First that he bottometh very much of his Discourse upon a very erroneous Principle which yet he seemeth to be so deeply in love with that he hath repeated it I verily believe some hundreds of times in that work to wit this That whatsoever is first in the intention is last in execution and è converso Which is an Error of that magnitude that I cannot but wonder how a person of such acuteness and subtilty of wit could possibly be deceived with it All Logicians know there is no such universal Maxim as he buildeth upon The true Maxim is but this Finis qui primus est in Intentione est ultimus in Executione In the order of final Causes and the Means used for that end the Rule holdeth perpetually But in other things it holdeth not at all or but by chance or not as a Rule and necessarily Secondly that foreseeing such Consequences would naturally and necessarily follow from his Opinion as would offend the ear of a sober Christian at the very first sound he would yet rather choose not only to admit the said harsh Consequences but professedly indeavour also to maintain them and plead hard for them in large Digressions than to recede in the least from that opinion which he had undertaken to defend Thirdly that seeing out of the sharpness of his wit a necessity of forsaking the ordinary Sublapsarian way and the Supralapsarian too as it had diversly been declared by all that had gone before him for the shunning of those Rocks which either of those ways must unavoidably cast him upon he was forced to seek out an untroden Path and to frame out of his own brain a new way like a Spider's web wrought out of her own bowels hoping by that device to salve all Absurdities could be objected to wit by making the glory of God as it is indeed the chiefest so the only end of all other his Decrees and then making all those other Decrees to be but one entire coordinate Medium conducing to that one end and so the whole subordinate to it but not any one part thereof subordinate to any other of the same Dr. Twiss should have done well to have been more sparing in imputing the studium Partium to others wherewith his own eyes though of eminent perspicacity were so strangely blindfolded that he could not discern how this his new Device and his old dearly beloved Principle like the Cadmean Sparti do mutually destroy the one the other This Relation of my pass'd thoughts having spun out to a far greater length than I intended I shall give a shorter accompt of what they now are concerning these points For which account I referr you to the following parts of Dr. Hammonds Book aforesaid where you may find them already printed And for another account at large of Bishop Sanderson's last Judgment concerning God's Concurrence or Non-concurrence with the Actions of men and the positive entity of sins of commission I referr you to his Letters already printed by his consent in my large Appendix to my Impartial inquiry into the Nature of Sin §. 68 p. 193. as far as p. 200. Sir I have rather made it my choice to transcribe all above out of the Letters of Dr. Sanderson which lie before me than venture the loss of my Originals by Post or Carrier which though not often yet sometimes fail Make use of as much or as little as you please of what I send you from himself because from his own Letters to me in the penning of his life as your own Prudence shall direct you using my name for your warranty in the account given of him as much or as little as you please too You have a performance of my promise and an obedience to your desires from North-Tidworth March 5. 1677 8 Your affectionate humble Servant Tho. Pierce THE BISHOP OF LINCOLN'S LETTER My worthy Friend Mr. Walton I Am heartily glad that you have undertaken to write the Life of that excellent person and both for learning and piety eminent Prelate Dr. Sanderson late Bishop of Lincoln because I know your ability to know and integrity to write truth and sure I am that the life and actions of that pious and learned Prelate will afford you matter enough for his commendation and the imitation of Posterity In order to the carrying on your intended good work you desire my assistance that I would communicate to you such particular passages of his life as were certainly known to me I confess I had the happiness to be particularly known to him for about the space of 20 years and in Oxon to injoy his conversation and his learned and pious Instructions while he was Regius Professor of Divinity there Afterwards when in the time of our late unhappy confusions he left Oxon and was retir'd into the Countrey I had the benefit of his Letters wherein with great candor and kindness he answered those doubts I propos'd and gave me that satisfaction which I neither had nor expected from some others of greater confidence but less judgment and humility Having in a Letter named two or three Books writ ex professo against the being of any original sin and that Adam by his fall transmitted some calamity only but no Crime to his Posterity The good old man was exceedingly troubled and bewailed the misery of those licentious times and seem'd to wonder save that the times were such that any should write or be permitted to publish any Error so contradictory to truth and the Doctrine of the Church of England established as he truly said by clear evidence of Scripture and the just and supreme power of this Nation both Sacred and Civil I name not the Books nor their Authors which are not unknown to learned men and I wish they had never been known because both the Doctrine and the unadvis'd Abettors of it are and shall be to me Apocryphal Another little story I must not pass in silence being an Argument of Dr. Sanderson's Piety great Ability and Judgment as a Casuist Discoursing with an honourable Person whose Piety I value more than his Nobility and Learning though both be great about a Case of Conscience concerning Oaths and Vows their Nature and Obligation in which for some particular Reasons he then desired more fully to be inform'd I commended to him Dr. Sanderson's Book De Iuramento which having read with great satisfaction he as'kd me if I thought the Doctor could be induced to write Cases of Conscience if he might have an honorary Pension
allow'd him to furnish him with Books for that purpose I told him I believ'd he would and in a Letter to the Doctor told him what great satisfaction that Honourable Person and many more had reaped by reading his Book De Iuramento and ask'd him whether he would be pleased for the benefit of the Church to write some Tract of Cases of Conscience He reply'd That he was glad that any had received any benefit by his Books and added further That if any future Tract of his could bring such benefit to any as we seem'd to say his former had done he would willingly though without any Pension set about that work Having receiv'd this Answer that honourable Person before mention'd did by my hands return 50 l. to the good Doctor whose condition then as most good mens at that time were was but low and he presently revised finished and published that excellent Book De Conscientiâ A Book little in bulk but not so if we consider the benefit an intelligent Reader may receive by it For there are so many general Propositions concerning Conscience the Nature and Obligation of it explained and proved with such firm consequence and evidence of Reason that he who reads remembers and can with prudence pertinently apply them Hic nunc to particular Cases may by their light and help rationally resolve a thousand particular doubts and scruples of Conscience Here you may see the charity of that Honourable Person in promoting and the Piety and Industry of the good Doctor in performing that excellent work And here I shall add the Judgment of that learned and pious Prelate concerning a passage very pertinent to our present purpose When he was in Oxon and read his publick Lectures in the Schools as Regius Professor of Divinity and by the truth of his Positions and evidences of his Proofs gave great content and satisfaction to all his hearers especially in his clear Resolutions of all difficult Cases which occurr'd in the Explication of the subject matter of his Lectures a Person of Quality yet alive privately asked him What course a young Divine should take in his Studies to inable him to be a good Casuist His answer was That a convenient understanding of the Learned Languages at least of Hebrew Greek and Latin and a sufficient knowledge of Arts and Sciences presuppos'd There were two things in humane Literature a comprehension of which would be of very great use to inable a man to be a rational and able Casuist which otherwise was very difficult if not impossible 1. A convenient knowledge of Moral Philosophy especially that part of it which treats of the Nature of Humane Actions To know quid sit actus humanus spontaneus invitus mixtus unde habent bonitatem malitiam moralem an ex genere objecto vel ex circumstantiis How the variety of Circumstances varies the goodness or evil of humane Actions How far knowledge and ignorance may aggravate or excuse increase or diminish the goodness or evil of our Actions For every Case of Conscience being only this Is this action good or bad May I do it or may I not He who in these knows not how and whence humane Actions become morally good and evil never can in Hypothesi rationally and certainly determine whether this or that particular Action be so 2. The second thing which he said would be a great help and advantage to a Casuist was a convenient knowledge of the Nature and Obligation of Laws in general To know what a Law is what a Natural and a Positive Law what 's required to the Latio dispensatio derogatio vel abrogatio legis what promulgation is antecedently required to the Obligation of any Positive Law what ignorance takes off the Obligation of a Law or does excuse diminish or aggravate the transgression For every Case of Conscience being only this Is this lawful for me or is it not and the Law the only Rule and Measure by which I must judge of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of any Action It evidently follows that he who in these knows not the Nature and Obligation of Laws never can be a good Casuist or rationally assure himself or others of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of Actions in particular This was the Judgment and good counsel of that learned and pious Prelate and having by long experience found the truth and benefit of it I conceive I could not without ingratitude to him and want of charity to others conceal it Pray pardon this rude and I fear impertinent Scrible which if nothing else may signifie thus much that I am willing to obey your Desires and am indeed London May 10. 1678 Your affectionate Friend Thomas Lincoln ERRATA In the Preface Page the last after that read I. In the Life P. 20. l. 5. for renew r. review p. 26. l. 16. for warily r. rarely p. 30. l. 13. for relate r. dilate p. 37. l. 11. for cautious r conscious p. 58. l. 10 for inmate r. innate p. 63. l. 5. for predestination r. predestinarian p. 126. l. 4. for complying r. complaining p. 161. l. 1. for propositions r. prepossessions Bishop Sanderson's JUDGMENT Concerning SUBMISSION TO Usurpers LONDON Printed for Richard Marriott MDCLXXVIII Bishop Sanderson's JUDGMENT Concerning SUBMISSION TO USURPERS SIR WHEREAS you desire to know what my judgment and practice is concerning the using or forbearing the establish'd Liturgy either in whole or in part in the publick Service of God and Office of the Church If it be any satisfaction to your Friend I shall fully acquaint you what my practice is whereunto if my own Judgment be not conform I am without all excuse my own condemner and upon what considerations I have according to the variation of the times varied from my self therein So long as my Congregation continued unmixt with Souldiers as well after as before the Promulgation of the Ordinance of the two Houses for the abolishing of the Common Prayer I continued the use of it as I had ever formerly done in the most peaceable and orderly times not omitting those very Prayers the silencing whereof I could not but know to have been chiefly aim'd at in the Ordinance viz. three for the King and Queen and Bishops and so I did also though some Souldiers were casually present till such time as a whole Troop coming to Quarter in the Town with a purpose to continue a kind of Garison or Head-quarter among us were so enrag'd at my reading of it the first Sunday after they came that immediately after Morning Service ended they seiz'd upon the Book and tore it all in pieces Thence-forward during their continuance there for full six months and upwards viz. from the beginning of November till they were call'd away to Naseby Fight in May following besides that for want of a Book of necessity I must I saw that it also behoov'd me for the preventing of farther Outrages to wave the use of the Book for the time at
now grown both as numerous and as powerful as the former for though they differed much in many Principles and preach'd against each other one making it a sign of being in the state of grace if we were but zealous for the Covenant and the other that we ought to buy and sell by a Measure and to allow the same liberty of Conscience to others which we by Scripture claim to our selves and therefore not to force any to swear the Covenant contrary to their Consciences and loose both their Livings and Liberties too Though these differed thus in their conclusions yet they both agreed in their practice to preach down Common Prayer and get into the best sequestred Livings and whatever became of the true Owners their Wives and Children yet to continue in them without the least scruple of Conscience They also made other strange Observations of Election Reprobation and Free-will and the other Points dependent upon these such as the wisest of the common people were not fit to judge of I am sure I am not though I must mention some of them historically in a more proper place when I have brought my Reader with me to Dr. Sanderson at Boothby Pannel And in the way thither I must tell him That a very Covenanter and a Scot too that came into England with this unhappy Covenant was got into a good sequestred Living by the help of a Presbyterian Parish which had got the true Owner out And this Scotch Presbyterian being well settled in this good Living began to reform the Church-yard by cutting down a large Ewe Tree and some other Trees that were an ornament to the place and very often a shelter to the Parishioners who excepting against him for so doing were answered That the Trees were his and 't was lawful for every man to use his own as he and not as they thought fit I have hear'd but do not affirm it That no Action lies against him that is so wicked as to steal the winding sheet of a dead body after 't is buried and have heard the reason to be because none were supposed to be so void of humanity and that such a Law would vilifie that Nation that would but suppose so vile a man to be born in it nor would one suppose any man to do what this Covenanter did And whether there were any Law against him I know not but pity the Parish the less for turning out their legal Minister We have now overtaken Dr. Sanderson at Boothby Parish where he hop'd to have enjoy'd himself though in a poor yet in a quiet and desir'd privacy but it prov'd otherwise For all corners of the Nation were fill'd with Covenanters Confusion Comittee-men and Soldiers serving each other to their several ends of revenge or power or profit and these Committee-men and Soldiers were most of them so possest with this Covenant that they became like those that were infected with that dreadful Plague of Athens the Plague of which Plague was that they by it became maliciously restless to get into company and to joy so the Historian saith when they had infected others even those of their most beloved or nearest Friends or Relations and though there might be some of these Covenanters that were beguil'd and meant well yet such were the generality of them and temper of the times that you may be sure Dr. Sanderson who though quiet and harmless yet an eminent dissenter from them could not live peaceably nor did he For the Soldiers would appear and visibly disturb him in the Church when he read Prayers pretending to advise him how God was to be serv'd most acceptably which he not approving but continuing to observe order and decent behaviour in reading the Church Service they forc'd his Book from him and tore it expecting extemporary Prayers At this time he was advis'd by a Parliament man of power and note that lov'd and valued him much not to be strict in reading all the Common Prayer but make some little variation especially if the Soldiers came to watch him for then it might not be in the power of him and his other Friends to secure him from taking the Covenant or Sequestration for which Reasons he did vary somewhat from the strict Rules of the Rubrick I will set down the very words of Confession which he us'd as I have it under his own hand and tell the Reader that all his other variations were as little much like to this His Confession O Almighty God and merciful Father we thy unworthy Servants do with shame and sorrow confess that we have all our life long gone astray out of thy ways like lost sheep and that by following too much the vain devices and desires of our own hearts we have grievously offended against thy holy Laws both in thought word and deed we have many times left undone those good duties which we might and ought to have done and we have many times done those evils when we might have avoided them which we ought not to have done We confess O Lord that there is no health at all nor help in any Creature to relieve us but all our hope is in thy mercy whose justice we have by our sins so far provoked Have mercy therefore upon us O Lord have mercy upon us miserable offenders spare us good God who confess our faults that we perish not but according to thy gracious promises declared unto mankind in Christ Iesus our Lord restore us upon our true Repentance into thy grace and favour And grant O most merciful Father for his sake that we henceforth study to serve and please thee by leading a godly righteous and a sober life to the glory of thy holy Name and the eternal comfort of our own souls through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen In these disturbances of tearing his Service Book a Neighbour came on a Sunday after the Evening Service was ended to visit and condole with him for the affront offered by the Soldiers To whom he spake with a composed patience and said God hath restored me to my desir'd privacy with my wife and children where I hop'd to have met with quietness and it proves not so but I will labour to be pleas'd because God on whom I depend sees 't is not fit for me to be quiet I praise him that he hath by his grace prevented me from making shipwrack of a good Conscience to maintain me in a place of great reputation and profit and though my condition be such that I need the last yet I submit for God did not send me into this world to do my own but suffer his will and I will obey it Thus by a sublime depending on his wise and powerful and pitiful Creator he did chearfully submit to what God had appointed justifying the truth of that Doctrine which he had preach'd About this time that excellent Book of the King's Meditations in his Solitude was printed and made publick and Dr. Sanderson was
common people were amaz'd grown giddy by the many falshoods and misapplications of Truths frequently vented in Sermons when they wrested the Scripture by challenging God to be of their party and call'd upon him in their prayers to patronize their Sacriledge zealous Frenzies in this time he did so compassionate the generality of this misled Nation that though the times threatned danger yet he then hazarded his safety by writing the large and bold Preface now extant before his last 20 Sermons first printed in the year 1655. In which there was such strength of reason with so powerful and clear convincing applications made to the Non-conformists as being read by one of those dissenting Brethren who was possess'd with such a spirit of contradiction as being neither able to defend his error nor yield to truth manifest his Conscience having slept long and quietly in a good sequestred Living was yet at the reading of it so awakened that after a conflict with the reason he had met and the dammage he was to sustain if he consented to it and being still unwilling to be so convinced as to lose by being over-reason'd he went in haste to the Bookseller of whom 't was bought threatned him and told him in anger he had sold a Book in which there was false Divinity and that the Preface had upbraided the Parliament and many godly Ministers of that party for unjust dealing To which his Reply was 't was Tim. Garthwaite That 't was not his Trade to judge of true or false Divinity but to print and sell Books and yet if he or any friend of his would write an Answer to it and own it by setting his Name to it he would print the Answer and promote the selling of it About the time of his printing this excellent Preface I met him accidentally in London in sad-coloured clothes and God knows far from being costly the place of our meeting was near to little Britain where he had been to buy a Book which he then had in his hand we had no inclination to part presently and therefore turn'd to stand in a corner under a Penthouse for it began to rain and immediately the wind rose and the rain increased so much that both became so inconvenient as to force us into a cleanly house where we had Bread Cheese Ale a Fire for our money This rain and wind were so obliging to me as to force our stay there for at least an hour to my great content and advantage for in that time he made to me many useful observations with much clearness and conscientious freedom I shall relate a part of them in hope they may also turn to the advantage of my Reader He seem'd to lament that the Parliament had taken upon them to abolish our Liturgy to the scandal of so many devout and learned men and the disgrace of those many Martyrs who had seal'd the truth and use of it with their blood and that no Minister was now thought godly that did not decry it and at least pretend to make better Prayers ex tempore and that they and only they that could do so prayed by the Spirit and were godly though in their Sermons they disputed and evidently contradicted each other in their Prayers And as he did dislike this so he did most highly commend the Common Prayer of the Church saying The Collects were the most passionate proper and most elegant expressions that any language ever afforded and that there was in them such piety and that so interwoven with instructions that they taught us to know the power the wisdom the majesty and mercy of God and much of our duty both to him and our Neighbour and that a Congregation behaving hemselves reverently putting up to God these joynt and known desires for pardon of sins and praises for mercies receiv'd could not but be more pleasing to God than those raw unpremeditated expressions to which many of the hearers could not say Amen And he then commended to me the frequent use of the Psalter or Psalms of David speaking to this purpose That they were the Treasury of Christian Comfort fitted for all persons and all necessities able to raise the soul from dejection by the frequent mention of God's mercies to repentant sinners to stir up holy desires to increase joy to moderate sorrow to nourish hope and teach us patience by waiting God's leasure to beget a trust in the mercy power providence of our Creator to cause a resignation of our selves to his will then and not till then to believe our selves happy This he said the Liturgy and Psalms taught us and that by the frequent use of the last they would not only prove to be our souls comfort but would become so habitual as to transform them into the image of his soul that composed them After this manner he express'd himself concerning the Liturgy Psalms seem'd to lament that this which was the Devotion of the more Primitive times should in common Pulpits be turn'd into needless debates about Free-will Election and Reprobation of which and many like Questions we may be safely ignorant because Almighty God intends not to lead us to Heaven by hard Questions but by meekness and charity and a frequent practice of Devotion And he seem'd to lament very much that by the means of irregular and indiscreet preaching the generality of the Nation were possess'd with such dangerous mistakes as to think They might be religious first and then just and merciful that they might sell their Consciences and yet have something left that was worth keeping that they might be sure they were elected though their lives were visibly scandalous that to be cunning was to be wise that to be rich was to be happy though their wealth was got without justice or mercy that to be busie in things they understood not was no sin These and the like mistakes he lamented much and besought God to remove them and restore us to that humility sincerity and singleheartedness with which this Nation was blest before the unhappy Covenant was brought into the Nation and every man preach'd and pray'd what seem'd best in his own eyes And he then said to me That the way to restore this Nation to a more meek and Christian temper was to have the Body of Divinity or so much of it as was needful to be known to be put into 52 Homilies or Sermons of such a length as not to exceed a third or fourth part of an hours reading and these needful Points to be made so clear and plain that those of a mean capacity might know what was necessary to be believed and what God requires to be done and then some applications of trial and conviction and these to be read every Sunday of the year as infallibly as the blood circulates the body and then as certainly begun again and continued the year following and that this being done it might probably abate the
was That he declin'd reading many but what he did read were well chosen and read so often that he became very familiar with them and said they were chiefly three Aristotle's Rhetorick Aquinas's Secunda Secundae and Tully but chiefly his Offices which he had not read over less than 20 times and could at this Age say without Book And told him also the learned Civilian Doctor Zouch who died lately had writ Elementa jurisprudentiae which was a Book that he could also say without Book and that no wise man could read it too often or love or commend too much and told him these had been his toyl But for himself he always had a natural love to Genealogies and Heraldry and that when his thoughts were harassed with any perplext Studies he left off and turned to them as a recreation and that his very recreation had made him so perfect in them that he could in a very short time give an account of the Descent Arms Antiquity of any Family of the Nobility or Gentry of this Nation Before I give an account of Dr. Sanderson's last sickness I desire to tell the Reader that he was of a healthful constitution chearful and mild of an even temper very moderate in his diet and had had little sickness till some few years before his death but was then every Winter punish'd with a Diarrhea which left him not till warm weather return'd and remov'd it And this distemper did as he grew elder seize him oftner and continue longer with him But though it weakned him yet it made him rather indispos'd than sick and did no way disable him from studying indeed too much In this decay of his strength but not of his memory or reason for this distemper works not upon the understanding he made his last Will of which I shall give some account for confirmation of what hath been said and what I think convenient to be known before I declare his death and burial He did in his last Will give an account of his Faith and Perswasion in point of Religion and Church Government in these very words I Robert Sanderson Dr. of Divinity an unworthy Minister of Iesus Christ and by the providence of God Bishop of Lincoln being by the long continuance of an habitual distemper brought to a great bodily weakness and faintness of spirits but by the great mercy of God without any bodily pain otherwise or decay of understanding do make this my Will and Testament written all with my own hand revoking all former Wills by me heretofore made if any such shall be found First I commend my Soul into the hands of Almighty God as of a faithful Creator which I humbly beseech him mercifully to accept looking upon it not as it is in it self infinitely polluted with sin but as it is redeemed and purged with the precious blood of his only beloved Son and my most sweet Saviour Iesus Christ in confidence of whose merits and mediation alone it is that I cast my self upon the mercy of God for the pardon of my sins and the hopes of eternal life And here I do profess that as I have lived so I desire and by the grace of God resolve to dye in the Communion of the Catholick Church of Christ and a true Son of the Church of England which as it stands by Law established to be both in Doctrine and Worship agreeable to the Word of God and in the most and most material Points of both conformable to the faith and practice of the godly Churches of Christ in the primitive and purer times I do firmly believe led so to do not so much from the force of custom and education to which the greatest part of mankind owe their particular different perswasions in point of Religion as upon the clear evidence of truth and reason after a serious and unpartial examination of the grounds as well of Popery as Puritanism according to that measure of understanding and those opportunities which God hath afforded me and herein I am abundantly satisfied that the Schism which the Papists on the one hand and the Superstition which the Puritan on the other hand lay to our charge are very justly chargeable upon themselves respectively Wherefore I humbly beseech Almighty God the Father of Mercies to preserve the Church by his power and providence in peace truth and godliness evermore to the worlds end which doubtless he will do if the wickedness and security of a sinful people and particularly those sins that are so rise and seem daily to increase among us of Unthankfulness Riot and Sacriledge do not tempt his patience to the contrary And I also farther humbly beseech him that it would please him to give unto our gracious Sovereign the Reverend Bishops and the Parliament timely to consider the great danger that visibly threatens this Church in point of Religion by the late great increase of Popery and in point of Revenue by sacrilegious enclosures and to provide such wholesome and effectual remedies as may prevent the same before it be too late And for a further manifestation of his humble thoughts and desires they may appear to the Reader by another part of his Will which follows As for my corruptible Body I bequeath it to the Earth whence it was taken to be decently buried in the Parish Church of Bugden towards the upper end of the Chancel upon the second or at the farthest the third day after my decease and that with as little noise pomp and charge as may be without the invitation of any person how near soever related unto me other than the Inhabitants of Bugden without the unnecessary expence of Escocheons Gloves Ribons c. and without any Blacks to be hung any where in or about the House or Church other than a Pulpit Cloth a Hearse Cloth and a Mourning Gown for the Preacher whereof the former after my Body shall be interred to be given to the Preacher of the Funeral Sermon and the latter to the Curat of the Parish for the time being And my will further is That the Funeral Sermon be preached by my own Houshold Chaplain containing some wholesome discourse concerning Mortality the Resurrection of the Dead and the last Iudgment and that he shall have for his pains 5 l. upon condition that he speak nothing at all concerning my person either good or ill other than I my self shall direct only signifying to the Auditory that it was my express will to have it so And it is my will that no costly Monument be erected for my memory but only a fair flot Marble stone to be laid over me with this Inscription in legible Roman Characters Depositum Roberti Sanderson nuper Linâ—â—lniencis Episcopi qui obiit Anno Domini MDCLXII aetatis suae septuagesimo sexto Hic requiescit in spe beatae resurrectionis This manner of burial although I cannot but foresee it will prove unsatisfactory to sundry my nearest Friends and Relations and be
in the reading Desk or Pue Between which Prayers and the singing Psalms before the Sermon I do also daily use one other Collect of which sort I have for the purpose compos'd sundry made up also as the former for the most part out of the Church Collects with some little enlargement or variation as namely the Collects Adventual Quadragesimal Paschal or Pentecostal for their proper seasons and at other times Collects of a more general nature as for Pardon Repentance Grace c. And after one or more of them in the Forenoon I usually repeat the Ten Commandements with a short Collect after them for Grace to enable us to keep them This hath been my practice and is like still to be unless some happy Change of Affairs restore us the liberty of using the old way again or it be made appear to my Understanding by some able charitable Friend That I therein have done otherwise then I ought to have done For I may say that I have not yet met with any thing in Discourse either with my own Reason or others of sufficient strength to convince me that I have done any thing but what may stand with the Principles as well of Christian Simplicity as Prudence There are but three things that I know of that are of any consideration oppos'd viz. 1. The Obligation of the Laws 2. The Scandal of the Example 3. The unseemly symbolizing at least with Schismaticks if not partaking with them in the Schism The first and strongest Objection which I shall therefore propose to the most advantage of the Objector is that which is grounded upon the Laws and their Obligation For it may be Objected That every humane Law rightly establish'd so long as it continueth a Law obligeth the Subject and that for Conscience sake to the observation thereof in such manner and form as in the same Law is prescribed and according to the true meaning and intention of the Law-giver therein That a Law is then understood to be rightly establish'd when it containeth nothing but what is honest and lawful and is enacted by such person or persons as have full and sufficient authority to make Laws That a Law so establish'd continues a Law and is so in force till it be either Repealed by as good and lawful Authority as that by which it was made or else antiquated by a long continued uninforc'd disuse with the tacit or presumed consent of the Law-giver That the Act printed before the Common Prayer Book and entituled An Act for the Uniformity was such a Law being it was established in a full and free Parliament in peaceable times and ratified by the Royal Assent That it still continues in force and being not yet Repealed but by such persons as at least in the Opinion of those that maintain the Dispute for want of the Royal Assent have not a sufficient right or authority to do such an Act nor disused but of late times and that by enforcement and as is presum'd much against the mind of the Law-giver That therefore it still retains the power of obliging in part of Conscience that power being so essential and intrinsecal to every Law quatenus a Law that it can in no wise be sever'd from it And that therefore no Minister publickly officiating in the Church can with a good Conscience either omit any part of that which is commanded by the aforesaid Law or use any other Form than what is contained in the foresaid Book but must either use the Form prescribed in the Book or else forbear to officiate The Answer to this Objection granting all in the Premisses besides dependeth upon the right understanding of that which is affirmed concering the Obligation of the Laws according to the intention of the Law-giver which if it should be understood precisely of that particular actual and immediate intention which the Law-giver had declared by the words of the Law in which sense only the Objection proceedeth will not hold true in all cases But there is suppos'd besides that in Law-giver a more general habitual ultimate intention of a more excellent and transcendent nature that the former which is to have an influence into and over-ruling power over all particular Laws viz. an intention by the Laws to procure and promote the publick good The former intention binds when it is subservient to the latter or consistent with it and consequently bindeth in ordinary cases and in orderly times or else the Law is not a wholesome Law But when the observation of the Law by reason of the conjuncture of circumstances or the iniquity of the times contingencies which no Lawgiver could either certainly foresee or if foreseen sufficiently provide against would rather be prejudicial than advantageous to the Publick or is manifestly attended with such inconveniencies and sad consequents to the Observers as all the imaginable good that can redound to the Publick thereby cannot in any reasonable measure countervail In such case the Law obligeth not but according to the latter and more general intention only even as in the operations of nature particular Agents do ordinarily move according to their proper and particular inclinations yet upon some occasions and to serve the ends and intentions of universal nature for the avoiding of some things which nature abhors they are sometimes carried with motions quite contrary to their particular natures as the Air to descend and the Water to ascend for the avoiding of vacuity c. The common received Maxim which hath been sufficiently misapplied and that sometimes to very ill purposes since the beginning of these unhappy divisions in the true meaning of it looketh this way Salus populi suprema Lex the equity of which Maxim as it leaveth in the Law-giver a power of dispensing with the Law which is a suspending the Obligation thereof for the time in respect of the proper and particular intention so he shall see it expedient in order to the publick good so it leaveth in the Subject a liberty upon just occasions as in cases of great exigency and for the preventing of such hazards and inconveniencies as might prove of noysome consequence to the Publick to do otherwise than the Law requireth And neither is the exercise of that power in the Lawgiver to be thought an unreasonable Prerogative nor the use of this liberty in the Subject an unreasonable presumption inasmuch as the power of dispensing with particular Laws is such a Prerogative as without which no Commonwealth can be well govern'd but Justice would be turn'd into Gall and Wormwood Nor can the Supream Governour without forfeiture of that faithfulness which he oweth to the Publick Weal devest himself thereof And he that presumeth of the Law-givers consent to dispense with him for the Observation of the Law in such needful cases where he hath not the opportunity to consult his pleasure therein presumeth no more than he hath reason to do For it may well be presum'd that the Law-giver
the publick Stage by occasion of the passages betwixt Mr. Mountague and his Opposers as that a dangerous Schism is like to ensue thereupon unless by the goodness of God and the Wisdome of the Church and State it be speedily prevented Those general Directions now already laid down for the preservation of the Churches Peace will not reach home for the securing of our peace and preventing farther evils as the case now standeth with us but it is needful the Church should interpose herein both by farther Explanation of her Doctrine in the points questioned and by the Exercise of her Discipline upon such persons as will not rest in her determinations And this necessity will the more appear if we consider upon what advantages the Arminian party hath and yet doth gain strength to it self viz. 1. The weakness of sundry of those Exceptions which were taken at Mr. Mountague's Answer to the Gagge by those that first openly ingaged themselves for that business which hath not only brought prejudice to their persons but also given disadvantages to the Cause even in those Exceptions which were just and material 2. The publishing of Mr. Mountague's Appeal with Allowance which both hath given confidence to sundry who before were Arminians but in secret now to walk unmasked and to profess their Opinions publickly in all Companies and that with some disdain of opposition and doth also incourage sundry others to shew an inclination to that side which they see to be countenanced in such publick sort 3. The plausibleness of Arminianism and the congruity it hath in sundry Points with the Principles of corrupt Nature and of carnal Reason For it is a wonderful tickling to flesh and blood to have the powers of Nature magnified and to hear it self flattered as if she carried the greatest stroke in the work of Salvation especially when these soothings are conveyed under the pretence of vindicating the dispensations of God's Providence from the Imputation of Injustice 4. The harshness of that Opinion which Calvin and Beza are said to have held and many Learned men in our Church are said to have followed concerning the Decrees of Reprobation and Election without respect had to Adam in the one or to Christ in the other whereas the inconveniencies which either do ensue or seem to ensue upon the Opinion may be fairly waved another way and yet without Arminianism 5. The manifold cunning of the Arminians to advance their own party as viz. 1. In pleading for a liberty for every man to abound in his own sense in things undetermined by the Church that so they may spread their own Tenets the more freely whereas yet it is too apparent by their writings and speeches that their intent and indeavour is to take the benefit of this liberty themselves but not to allow it to those that dissent from them 2. In bragging out some of their private Tenets as if they were the received established Doctrine of the Church of England by forcing the words of the Articles or Common Prayer Book to a sense which appeareth not to have been intended therein as Mr. Mountague hath done in the Point of falling from grace Whereas the contrary Tenet viz. of the final perseverance of the righteous in grace and faith may be by as strong evidence every way and by as natural deducement collected out of the said Books as shall be easily proved if it be required 3. In seeking to derive envy upon the opposite Opinions by delivering them in terms odious and of ill and suspicious sound as viz. irresistibility of grace irrespective decree c. whereas the soberer Divines of the opposite party ordinarily do not use those terms nor yet well approve of them unless understood cum grano salis But themselves rather are so exorbitant in their phrases and terms as it were well if a good quantity of Salt could so correct some of them as to render them if not wholesome at least savoury 4. Which is the most unjust and uncharitable course of all the rest and whereby yet I verily think they have prevailed more than by all the rest in seeking to draw the persons of those that dissent from them into dislike with the Sate as if they were Puritans or Disciplinarians or at least that way affected Whereas 1. The Questions in debate are such as no way touch upon Puritanism either off or on 2. Many of the Dissenters have as freely and clearly declared their Judgments by preaching and writing against all Puritanism and Puritanical Principles both before and since they were interessed in these Controversies as the stoutest Arminian in England hath done I am not able to pronounce absolutely neither of other men but so far as hath occurred to my observation I dare say it I find more written against the Puritans and their Opinions and with more real satisfaction and upon no less solid grounds by those that have and do dissent from the Arminian Tenets than by those that have or do maintain them Could that blessed Arch-bishop Whitgift or the modest and learned Hooker have ever thought so much as by dream that men concurring with them in Opinion should for some of these very Opinions be called Puritans III. Series Decretorum Dei Sithence most of the differences now in question do arise from the different conceits which men have concerning the Decrees of God about man's Salvation and the execution of those Decrees it could not but be a work of singular use for the composing of present and the preventing of farther differences if some learned and moderate men all prejudice and partiality laid aside would travel with faithfulness and sobriety in this Argument viz. to order those Decrees consonantly to the tenor of Scripture and the Doctrine of the ancient Church as to avoid those inconveniencies into which the extreme Opinions on both hands run For considering often with my self that the abettors of either extreme are confirmed in their Opinions not so much from the assurance of their own grounds as from the inconveniencies that attend the opposite extreme I have ever thought that a middle way between both might be fairer and safer to pitch upon than either extreme What therefore upon some agitation of these Points both in Argument with others upon occasion and in my private and serious thoughts I have conceived concerning the ordering of God's Decrees desiring ever to keep my self within the bands of Christian sobriety and modesty I have at the request of some Friends here distinctly laid down not intending hereby to prescribe unto other men nor yet to tie my self to mine own present Judgment if I shall see cause to alter it but only to present to the abler Judgments of some learned Friends that way which hath hitherto given me better satisfaction than any other and which I have not yet observed to be subject to so great difficulties and inconveniencies neither in the substance of the matter nor in the manner of explication as the
supernatural doctrine of faith and holiness which God hath revealed to his Church for the attainment of everlasting salvation whereupon they would impose upon Christian people that with an opinion of necessity many things which the Scriptures require not and that is a superstition These wry too much on the right hand ascribing to the holy Scripture such a kind of perfection as it cannot have of being the sole directour of all humane actions whatsoever whereupon they forbid unto Christian people and that under the name of sin sundry things which the holy Scripture condemneth not and that is a superstition too From which superstition proceedeth in the second place uncharitable censuring as evermore they that are the most superstitious are the most supercilious No such severe censurers of our blessed Saviour's person and actions as the superstitious Scribes and Phariseees were In this Chapter the special fault which the Apostle blameth in the weak ones who were somewhat superstitiously affected was their rash and uncharitable judging of their brethren And common and daily experience among our selves sheweth how freely some men spend their censures upon so many of their brethren as without scruple do any of those things which they upon false grounds have superstitiously condemned as utterly unlawful And then thirdly as unjust censures are commonly entertained with scorn and contumely they that so liberally condemn their brethren of prophaneness are by them again as freely slouted for their preciseness and so whiles both parties please themselves in their own ways they cease not mutually to provoke and scandalize and exasperate one the other pursuing their private spleens so far till they break out into open contentions and oppositions Thus it stood in the Roman Church when this Epistle was written They judged one another and despised one another to the great disturbance of the Churches peace which gave occasion to our Apostles whole discourse in this Chapter And how far the like censurings and despisings have embittered the spirits and whetted both the tongues and pens of learned men one against another in our own Church the stirs that have been long since raised and are still upheld by the factious opposers against our Ecclesiastical constitutions government and ceremonies will not suffer us to be ignorant Most of which stirs I verily perswade my self had been long ere this either wholly buried in silence or at leastwise prettily well quieted if the weakness and danger of the errour whereof we now speak had been more timely discovered and more fully and frequently made known to the world than it hath been Fourthly Let that Doctrine be once admitted and all humane authority will soon be despised The commands of Parents Masters and Princes which many times require both secrecy and expedition shall be taken into slow deliberation and the equity of them sifted by those that are bound to obey though they know no cause why so long as they know no cause to the contrary Delicata est obedientia quae transit in causam deliberativam It is a nice obedience in St. Bernard's judgment yea rather troublesome and odious that is over-curious in discussing the commands of superiours boggling at every thing that is enjoyned requiring a why for every wherefore and unwilling to stir until the lawfulness and expediency of the thing commanded shall be demonstrated by some manifest reason or undoubted authority from the Scriptures Lastly The admitting of this Doctrine would cast such a snare upon men of weak judgments but tender consciences as they should never be able to unwind themselves again Mens daily occasions for themselves or friends and the necessities of common life require the doing of a thousand things within the compass of a few days for which it would puzzle the best Textman that liveth readily to bethink himself of a sentence in the Bible clear enough to satisfie a scrupulous conscience of the lawfulness and expediency of what he is about to do for which by hearkening to the rules of reason and discretion he might receive easie and speedy resolution In which cases if he should be bound to suspend his resolution delay to do that which his own reason would tell him were presently needful to be done until he could haply call to mind some precept or example of Scipture for his warrant what stops would it make in the course of his whole life what languishings in the duties of his calling how would it fill him with doubts and irresolutions lead him into a maze of uncertainties entangle him in a world of woful perplexities and without the great mercy of God and better instruction plunge him irrecoverably into the gulph of despair Since the chief end of the publication of the Gospel is to comfort the hearts and to revive and refresh the spirits of God's people with the glad tidings of liberty from the spirit of bondage and fear and of gracious acceptance with their God to anoint them with the oyl of gladness giving them beauty for ashes and instead of sackcloth girding them with joy we may well suspect that Doctrine not to be Evangelical which thus setteth the Consciences of men upon the rack tortureth them with continual fears and perplexities and prepareth them thereby unto hellish despair Quest. What are the dreadful consequences of scrupling some indifferent things Answ. Although difference of judgment should not alienate our affections one from another yet daily experience sheweth it doth By reason of that self-love and envy and other corruptions that abound in us it is rarely seen that those men are of one heart that are of two minds St. Paul found it so with the Romans in his time whilst some condemned that as unlawful which others practised as lawful they judged one another and despised one another perpetually And I doubt not but any of us that is any-whit-like acquainted with the wretched deceitfulness of man's heart may easily conclude how hard a thing it is if at all possible not to think somewhat hardly of those men that take the liberty to do such things as we judge unlawful As for example If we shall judge all walking into the fields discoursing occasionally on the occurrences of the times dressing of meat for dinner or supper or even moderate recreations on the Lord's day to be grievous prophanations of the Sabbath how can we chuse but judge those men that use them to be grievous prophaners of God's Sabbath And if such our judgment concerning these things should after prove to be erroneous then can it not be avoided but that such our judgment also concerning the persons must needs be uncharitable Secondly This mis-judging of things filleth the world with endless niceties and disputes to the great disturbance of the Churches peace which to every good man ought to be precious The multiplying of Books and writings Pro and Con and pursuing of arguments with heat and opposition doth rather lengthen than decide Controversies and instead of destroying the old begetteth
the use of indifferent things The Romans Corinthians and others to whom St. Paul wrote about these matters being not limited any way in the exercise of their liberty therein by any over-ruling Authority But where the Magistrates have interposed and thought good upon mature advice to impose Laws upon those that are under them whereby their liberty is not infringed as some unjustly complain in the inward judgment but only limited in the outward exercise of it there the Apostolical directions will not hold in the same absolute manner as they were delivered to those whom they then concerned but only in the equity of them so far forth as the cases are alike and with such meet qualifications and mitigations as the difference of the cases otherwise doth require So that a man ought not out of private fancy or meerly because he would not be observed for not doing as others do or for any the like weak respects to do that thing of the lawfulness whereof he is not competently perswaded where it is free for him to do otherwise which was the case of these weak ones among the Romans for whose sakes principally the Apostle gave these directions But the Authority of the Magistrates intervening so alters the case that such a forbearance as to them was necessary is to as many of us as are commanded to do this or that altogether unlawful in regard they were free and we are bound for the Reasons already shewn which I now rehearse not But you will yet say for in point of obedience men are very loath to yield so long as they can find any thing to plead those that lay these burdens upon us at leastwise should do well to satisfie our doubts and to inform our Consciences concerning the lawfulness of what they enjoyn that so we might render them obedience with better chearfulness How willing are we sinful men to leave the blame of our miscarriages any where rather than upon our selves But how is it not incongruous the while that those men should prescribe rules to their Governours who can scarcely brook their Governours should prescribe Laws to them It were good we should first learn how to obey ere we take upon us to teach our betters how to govern However what Governours are bound to do or what is fit for them to do in the point of information that is not now the question If they fail in any part of their bounden duty they shall be sure to reckon for it one day but their Iailing cannot in the mean time excuse thy disobedience Although I think it would prove a hard task for whosoever should undertake it to shew that Superiours are always bound to inform the Consciences of their Inferiours concerning the lawfulness of every thing they shall command If sometimes they do it where they see it expedient or needful sometimes again and that perhaps oftner it may be thought more expedient for them and more conducible for the publick peace and safety only to make known to the people what their pleasures are reserving to themselves the Reasons thereof I am sure in the point of Ecclesiastical Ceremonies and Constitutions in which case the aforesaid Allegations are usually most stood upon this hath been abundantly done in our Church not only in the learned writings of sundry private men but by the publick declaration also of Authority as is to be seen at large in the Preface commonly printed before the Book of Common Prayer concerning that Argument enough to satisfie those that are peaceable and not disposed to stretch their wits to cavil at things established And thus much of the second Question touching a doubting Conscience whereon I have insisted the longer because it is a point both so proper to the Text and whereat so many have stumbled There remaineth but one other Question and that of far smaller difficulty What is to be done when the Conscience is scrupulous I call that a scruple when a man is reasonably well perswaded of the lawfulness of a thing yet hath withal some jealousies and fears lest perhaps it should prove unlawful Such scruples are most incident to men of melancholy dispositions or of timorous Spirits especially if they be tender conscienced withal and they are much encreased by the false suggestions of Satan by reading the Books or hearing the Sermons or frequenting the company of men more strict precise and austere in sundry points than they need or ought to be and by sundry other means which I now mention not Of which scruples it behooveth every man first to be wary that he doth not at all admit them if he can choose Or if he cannot wholly avoid them that secondly he endeavour so far as may be to eject them speedily out of his thoughts as Satan's snares and things that may breed him worfer inconveniencies Or if he cannot be so rid of them that then thirdly he resolve to go on according to the more profitable perswasion of his mind and despise those scruples And this he may do with a good Conscience not only in things commanded him by lawful Authority but even in things indifferent and arbitrary and wherein he is left to his own liberty REASONS Of the present JUDGMENT OF THE University of OXFORD Concerning The Solemn League and Covenant The Negative Oath The Ordinances concerning Discipline and Worship Approved by general consent in a full Convocation Iune 1. 1647. And presented to Consideration LONDON Printed for Richard Marriott 1678. A Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and Defence of Religion the honour and happiness of the King and the Peace and Safety of the three Kingdoms England Scotland and Ireland WE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commmons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland by the Providence of God living under one King and being of one Reformed Religion having before our eyes the glory of God and the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ the honour and happiness of the King's Majesty and his Posterity and the true publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private Devotion is included and calling to mind the treacherous and bloody Plots Conspiracies Attempts and Practices of the Enemies of God against the true Religion and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick Testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstrance Protestations and Sufferings for the preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and the Example of God's People in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to
sad distractions In the sixth Article we are altogether unsatisfied 1. The whole Article being grounded upon a supposition which hath not yet been evidenced to us viz. that this Cause meaning thereby or else we understand it not the joyning in this Covenant of mutual defence for the prosecution of the late War was the Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms and that it so much concerned the glory of God and the good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King 2. If all the Premisses were so clear that we durst yield our free assent thereunto yet were they not sufficient to warrant to our Consciences what in this Article is required to be sworn of us unless we were as clearly satisfied concerning the lawfulness of the means to be used for the supporting of such a Cause For since evil may not be done that good may come thereof we cannot yet be perswaded That the Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace may be supported or the Glory of God the Good of the Kingdoms and the Honour of the King sought to be advanced by such means as to our best understandings are both improper for those Ends and destitute of all warrant from the Laws either of God or of this Realm Lastly in the Conclusion our hearts tremble to think that we should be required to pray that other Christian Churches might be encouraged by our example to joyn in the like Association and Covenant to free themselves from the Antichristian yoke c. Wherein 1. To omit that we do not know any Antichristian yoke under which we were held in these Kingdoms and from which we owe to this either War or Covenant our freedom unless by the Antichristian yoke be meant Episcopal Government which we hope no man that pretendeth to Truth and Charity will affirm 2. We do not yet see in the fruits of this Association or Covenant among our selves any thing so lovely as to invite us to desire much less to pray that other Christian Churches should follow our example herein 3. To pray to the purpose in the conclusion of the Covenant expressed seemeth to us all one in effect as to beseech Almighty God the God of Love and Peace 1. To take all love and peace out of the hearts of Christians and to set the whole Christian world in a combustion 2. To render the Reformed Religion and all Protestants odious to all the world 3. To provoke the Princes of Europe to use more severity towards those of the Reformed Religion if not for their own security to root them quite out of their several Dominions 4. The tyranny and yoke of Antichrist if laid upon the nooks of Subjects by their lawful Sovereigns is to be thrown off by Christian boldness in confessing the Truth and patient suffering for it not by taking up Arms or violent resisting of the Higher Powers §. VI. Some considerations concerning the meaning of the Covenant OUR aforesaid Scruples are much strengthened by these ensuing Considerations First That whereas no Oath which is contradictory to it self can be taken without Perjury because the one part of every contradiction must needs be false this Covenant either indeed containeth or at leastwise which to the point of Conscience is not much less effectual seemeth to us to contain sundry Contradictions as namely amongst others these 1. To preserve as it is without change and yet to reform and alter and not to preserve one and the same Reformed Religion 2. Absolutely and without exception to preserve and yet upon supposition to extirpate the self-same thing viz the present Religion of the Church of Scotland 3. To reform Church Government established in England and Ireland according to the Word of God and yet to extirpate that Government which we are perswaded to be according thereunto for the introducing of another whereof we are not so perswaded 4. To endeavour really the extirpation of Heresies Schisms and Prophaneness and yet withal to extirpate that Government in the Church the want of the due exercise whereof we conceive to have been one chief cause of the growth of the said evils and do believe the restoring and continuance thereof would be the most proper and effectual remedy 5. To preserve with our estates and lives the liberties of the Kingdom that is as in the Protestation is explained of the Subject and yet contrary to these liberties to submit to the imposition of this Covenant and of the Negative Oath not yet established by Laws and to put our lives and estates under the arbitrary power of such as may take away both from us when they please not only without but even against Law if they shall judge it convenient so to do Secondly We find in the Covenant sundry expressions of dark or doubtful construction whereunto we cannot swear in judgment till their sense be cleared and agreed upon As Who are the Common Enemies and which be the best Reformed Churches mentioned in the first Article Who in the fourth Article are to be accounted Malignants How far that phrase of hindring Reformation may be extended What is meant by the supreme Iudicatory of both the Kingdoms and sundry other Thirdly By the use that hath been made of this Covenant sometimes to purposes of dangerous consequence we are brought into some fears and jealousies lest by taking the same we should cast our selves into more snares than we are yet aware of For in the first Article 1. Whereas we are to endeavour the Reformation of Religion in this Kingdom in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches 1. The Reformation in Worship whereby we could not suppose any more was intended according to their former Declaration than a review of the service-Service-book that the translations might be in some places amended some alterations made in the Offices and Rubricks or at most some of the Ceremonies laid aside for the reasons of expediency and condescension hath produced an utter abolition of the whole form established without substituting any other certain form in the room thereof 2. The Reformation in point of Discipline and Government intended so far as by the overtures hitherto made we are able to judge is such as we conceive not to be according to the Word of God nor for any thing we know according to the example of any Church that ever was in the World best or worst since the Creation 2. In the second Article our grief and fears had been less if we could have observed the extirpation of Popery Heresie Schism and Prophaneness to have been as really intended and set on with as much speed and animosity as the extirpation of Prelacy and that which some call Superstition But when we see under the notions of rooting out Prelacy and Superstition so much quickness used to fetch in the Revenues of the Church and the sacred Utensils no otherwise guilty of Superstition for ought we know