2. But instead of amending any thing amiss or disliked in the Liturgy some things were added to make it more offensive viz Sundays are more expresly reckoned as Church-Feasts than in the former book the new book saith thus a Table of all the Feasts that are to be observed in the Church of England through the year all Sundays in the year The former book thus these holy days to be observed and no other all Sundays in the year The word Holy-day which was somewhat suspicious is now changed to Feast-day and Sundays put in the number of Feast-days without any distinction which makes it more evident that they are accounted but Church Festivals The 29 of September in the old book is appointed a Festival to Michael the Arch-Angel the new book adds and to all Angels so that this is a Festival in the honour of all the Angels as the First of Novemb. is in honour of all the Saints also two new Holy-days are added never before enjoyned by the former book viz St Pauls Conversion and St Barnabas Moreover in the book of Consecration several passages are added declaring Bishops to be a distinct order from the Presbyters and the 36th Artic. is appointed to be understood of this book herein they contradict the Law and the Judgment of all our first Reformers in K. Edw. and Q. Eliz. days and the very book of Consecration it self 3. Nevertheless all Ministers are to approve this book and that by a publick declaration in the Congregation when they first enter upon their Ministry in these words and no other I vid. Act. of unif Ann. 14 Can. 2. A B do here declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the book entituled the book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church according to the use of the Church of England together with the Psalter of Psalms of David pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches and the form or manner of making ordaining and consecrating of Bishops Priest and Deacons It is said in excuse of this imposition that it is only a consent to the use not an approbation of the truth and goodness of all contained in the book because the words immediate foregoing are that Ministers should declare their unfeigned assent and consent to the use of all things in that book contained and prescribed Be it so and that the words Assent and Consent signifie the same things after the manner of Lawyers though some doubt it and those words to the use c. are not expressed in the form of a Declaration which they ought to have been yet we must observe First That this was a further alteration of the Case of Conformity to make it more intollerable Q. Eliz. Act of Uniformity only required that Ministers should be bound to read the book of Common Prayer and no other Liturgies or forms of prayer in publick The Canons went further and did require they should subscribe at their Ordination before the Bishop that the book of Common Prayer and of Ordination hath nothing in it contrary to the word of God that it may be lawfully used and that he himself will use that and no other but this new Declaration is to be made publickly before the Congregation on forfeiture of their Ministry and place that so there may be no favour shewed to any Also it requireth unfeigned Assent and Consent which cannot mean less then an hearty approbation of the use of what is enjoyned which is much more then barely to judge that nothing is contrary to Gods word and that they may be Lawfully used This Assent and Consent is to be made to all and every thing contained in and prescribed by the book of Common Prayer c. and then the particulars are specified viz the Prayers the Administration of Sacraments and of other Rites and Ceremonies and the book of ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons and the Psalter or Psalms of David as they use to be said in the Church of England Here is nothing omitted of all those things the Non-Conformists used to object against some as unlawfull and others as inconvenient and not for edification yet now they must from their hearts allow the use of them each one in particular not omitting the corrupt translation of the Pslams contradicted by our own allowed Bibles which how they could do who long contended that many of these things ought to be reformed let all that have Conscience judg The Non-Conformists think no form of words could have been contrived more spitefully either to keep them from conforming or to make them lay wast their Consciences if they did conform besides that they know from the mouths of the compilers that they did design it for these ends that they might either root out every branch of Conformity out of mens judgments or every Non-Conformist out of the Church 4. The Act requires this Assent and Consent not only of all that should hereafter enter the Ministry but of all those likewise that were already Ministers and were either Pastours or Lecturers in any Congregation and this Declaration to be made together with the subscription hereafter to be mentioned by a certain day viz before the 24th of August Anno 1662 whereas it is generally known that the book of Common Prayer came not out of the press abroad till within two or three days of that said 24th of August so that it was impossible that it should be seen much more that it should be considered by half the Ministers in England before that day and those that were resolved to keep their Places did a great part of them subscribe before they had read the book which practise doth manifest a further design to root out all that made any Conscience of what they said or subscribed seeing they must doe it without consideration or loose their places however to devise and impose new Terms of Communion upon men that are in the quiet possession and practice of their ministry is very unjust and contrary to all peace and by this practise men shall never be at quiet for though they have conform'd to all things enjoyned they know not how soon a prevailing faction will enjoyn them more nor what that will be especially the things enjoyned in the Declaration and Subscription being such as was known before hand many of the Ministers in place could not subscribe to with safe Consciences It is apparent that their design was not the peace of the Church but to remove them out of the Church 5. It is further required that all should have Episcopal Ordination who should in any sort exercise the Ministry had this concerned only those that should thereafter come to be ordained it had been more tolerable though it would have been contrary to Q. Eliz. moderation and reflecting upon all other reformed Churches An. Eliz. 13. who have not Episcopal Ordination
were indeed some appointed by K. Edward to collect a body of good and useful Rules out of the Canon Law to be the Rule of Discipline for this Church but he dying that work was never finished so that the Rule now is the whole Canon-Law or so much as every Bishop pleaseth to use in his own Diocess The Bishops made a few Canons of their own 1603. but they are such as only strengthen their own power in imposing and enforcing those things which the Non-Conformists had long desired might be amended As to the Officers that Administer the Discipline They are Chancellors and Commissaries and Civilians by Profession no Ecclesiastical Officers yet these Rule over the Ministers of Christ Admonish Suspend Deprive them of their places and Excommunicate both them and the People when they please This they have no power to do nor can the Bishop delegate his pewer of Governing to them any more then his power to Preach the Word and Administer the Sacraments both being parts of the Ministerial Office This they thought was to change the Constitution of Christs Church at pleasure They were also offended at the Administration or use of the Discipline That being such as the Officers were because the Church in its Constitution and frame kept so near the Roman model Therefore the Bishops have ever found it necessary to exercise Church Discipline mostly against those that disliked or dissented from the Liturgy and Government and to connive at the loose and prophane to hold them in some external obedience to them Hence it came to pass where one Minister hath been admonished suspended deprived for Heresie in Doctrine or Un-godliness of Life ten have been so dealt with for Non-Conformity and where one of the People have been censured for scandalous sins an hundred have been troubled and punished for going to hear a good Minister out of their own Parish when they had an ignorant drunkard at home for not having their Children Crossed in Baptism for scrupling to kneel at the Sacrament and such other great Crimes against the Liturgy What was this but to alienate the Church of Christ to the Governours and to make it to serve them more then him and only to use his Name and Authority to press their own Laws and maintain their own power R. 4. They were dissatisfied at the Ceremonies imposed in the Liturgy In the general they acknowledge that it was lawful for any Church to consent to and lay upon her self necessary Rites and Customs such as Circumstances of time and place and other emergencies might make necessary for the present time but that such Ceremonies should be such whose necessity was apparent to all and whose lawfulness might be scrupled justly by none of common understanding and that should be taken up by the general Consent of the People as well as commanded by Rulers as the Feast of Purim was by the Jews Esther 9.23.27 And those necessary things enjoyned Acts 15 23.25.28 And that when the necessity ceaseth those Customes should cease also But they thought it utterly unlawful to devise Rites or Ceremonies for which there was neither apparent necessity nor usefulness or to impose those upon the people which from the beginning were doubtful and offensive especially to make them parts of Divine Worship or additions to it as it were to render it more edifying beyond the natural and common Civil circumstances of Order Method or Decorum and such they thought it manifest our imposed Ceremonies were which are declared to be retained some because they served for decent order in the Church for which they were at first devised others for edification Pref. to the Common Prayer Book And again that the imposers were content with those Ceremonies which do serve to a decent order and Godly Discipline and such as be apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to God by some notable and special signification whereby he might be edified Three Ceremonies were at first imposed The Cross in Baptism The Surplice in Reading the Service And Kneeling in Receiving the Lords Supper Against these they excepted severally 1. Against the Crosse that it was abused to great superstition and Idolatry in the Church of Rome and particularly when it was used in Baptism having Divine power ascribed to it of driving away the Devils giving grace c. Therefore being neither commanded of God nor used in this manner in the primitive Church viz. To admit Members into the Church by it it ought to be rejected Also that it did reflect very dishonourably on Baptism it self as if that were not full and plain enough to set forth the blood of Christ and Remission of sins by it or our engagement to Christ and therefore it was needful to adde a more plain and direct sign of his death and suffering for us and of what we must be willing to suffer for him above all that the Cross was made and here used as a Sacrament being declared to be a token of the Childrens owning the Faith of Christ Obedience to him and perseverance to the end Is not this the nature and end of Receiving Baptism it self Why is not that sufficient but the Cross is presently added without any note of distinction as it were to signifie the same things more plainly and fully and to lay a greater obligation on the Child then what was laid on it in Baptism and this is a Sacrament as much as man can make Indeed it wanteth the promise of Divine Grace but this also is presumed upon forasmuch as this seems cheifly to be intended in those words of some of the Ceremonies being apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty by some notable and special signification whereby hemight be edified 2. Against the Surplice they object that was a Ceremony on purpose devised to add decency and splendour to the Worship of God and therefore it must be used in that Worship only and such Ceremonies are unlawful additions to Gods Worship And those circumstances or accidents of the Service in their absolute nature yet relatively in as much as they better the Worship and increase Edification they are made moral parts of Worship even as it was a part of Worship for the Preists of old to put on their Sacred vestments to sacrifice in though the vestments themselves absolutely and naturally considered were but circumstances of the Worship Also that the Surplice seemed to be taken from the Ceremonial-Law and to be at least an imitation of those Preists Garments As many other Ceremonies used in the ancient Church were either taken from the Jews or devised to imitate and be like them Now our Saviour having abolished the old Ceremonies gave no leave to his Church to devise new ones neither did he abolish them as Types and Shadows of himself only but also as Yokes and Burthens as carnal Ordinances and servile Customs wherein his People were kept in great Bondage
till his coming in the flesh Gal. 5.1 Acts 15.10 Gal. 4.1 2 3. John 1.17 Therefore esuch Ceremonies were utterly unnecessary since the full discovery of the Gospel yea they disparage the Gospel as if that was not plain and sufficiently apt to teach Faith or Holiness without their help And besides they take off mens minds from the Worship of God partly by pleasing their eyes and fancies with an external shew and partly by busying their thoughts about the meaning of them and how to improve them if they be serious in the use of them They also bring the People again into bondage and fill the Church with carnal Ordinances and beggarly institutions and men are sensibly taught to content themselves with outward forms and modes of Service and to think God is content with them also and further the use of the Surplice in Divine Service kept up too much resemblance betwixt our Ministers and the Priests of Rome and the ignorant might be tempted to think there was very little difference betwixt our Church and Rome seeing we came so near them in their Service and in the manner and circumstances of the Service also Nevertheless they accounted it not unlawful to have continued the use of the Surplice till the People were weaned from it and accordingly many did use it it being not in it self unlawful as the use of the Crosse was 3. Against Kneeling at the Lords Supper they pleaded that it should by no means have been retained in our Church being brought into the Church at first only upon the opinion of Transubstantiation and worshiping the Sacrament and very apt to continue the same opinion in the People It is also certain our Saviour neither used nor appointed that gesture nor gave his Church Authority to enjoyn any other then what he used as a standing precept for thereby he and his practice should be taxed as not using the most fit gesture nor is this gesture at all proper to this Ordinance but thwarteth the two main ends of it viz. Free Communion with Christ in the participation of his benefits and the Renewing of Love and Strengthning Communion among the People for it is a gesture of great awe reverence and distance not fit for Meditation on the promises or consideration of the death of Christ or the incomprehensible love that he manifested theerein Also by Kneeling the People were severed from each other and could not be at the Table many together very unlike to a feast of Love nay the presence of many would be an hindrance and not a furtherance of Affection and Devotion Both these inconveniencies were greatly increased when the People were forced to come up to the Table at the upper end of the Chancel and there to kneel before the rails a few at a time for they must come to but one side of the Table for this was much more unlike a Supper of Love betwixt Christ and his Spouse and betwixt fellow Members of the same body yet they accounted not this gesture in it self unlawful but that they who would might use it and it might be retained in the Church till the People could freely leave it off but that it was unfit to be imposed and purposely kept up much more to be enforced with the highest penalty upon those that were dissatisfied with it The Non-conformists were much strengthened in their dissatisfaction with the Established Church way because instead of obtaining any redress and reformation all the impositions were continued and things made worse and the imposers went backward rather then forward notwithstanding the Non-conformists increased in number both in Ministers and People and at length became a very considerable part of the Church whose complaints ought therefore to have been considered and redressed There is a passage in the 20th Aritic to be subscribed by all Ministers that the Church hath power in matters of Faith This the Non-Conformists disliked unless more explained Therefore the Parliament in the 13 Eliz. which established those Articles by Law caused that passage to be left out Bishop Laud confesseth that it was not to be found in the Original of the Articles of that year B. Laud's Speech in the Star Chamber viz 1570 yet the Bishop continued the passage in the Articles and required subscription to it Also that Parliament ennacted that if any Minister was admitted into our Church having other Ordination than what was established amongst us he should declare his Assent and subscribe to all the Articles of Religion which only concern the Confession of the True Christian Faith 13 Eliz. Cap. 12. and the Doctrine of the Sacraments By this they gave indulgence to those that were not satisfied with the Episcopal Ordination and could not subscribe to the 39 Artic. absolutely because the approbation of the Homilies and Book of Consecration with the fore-mentioned passage were included in them being content that they subscribed to the Doctrine of Faith Artic. 35.36 and of the Sacraments contained in the Articles but the Bishops would not allow this indulgence at least not long nor generally but urged absolute subscription to the great trouble of many Non-conformists Nor could any amendment of the Liturgy ever be procured but on the contrary some passages left out that reflected much on the Papists as that Petition in the Letany from the Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome good Lord deliver us and a whole Prayer in the office for Gun-powder Treason expung'd by B. Laud wherein it was said that the Religion of Papists is Rebellion their Faith faction and their practice the Murthering of Souls and Bodies Nor were any of the Ceremonies taken away or their imposition remitted but rather more added to them by the Bishops Cannons though not by Parliament The Cross in Baptism was confirmed and inforced Can. 30. Under K. James and the explication there given increased the suspition of the unlawfulness of it they also brought in bowing at the name of Jesus Can. 18. And their dipping of Children in Baptism turning the Communion Tables into Altars bowing towards them or towards the East for they agree not what it was they bowed toward were brought in by B. Laud and pressed with great Rigour though never established by Law In Q. Eliz. Reign they were content that Ministers Read the Service Book without declaring their judgment concerning it only it was said in the 39 Articles viz Artic. 36. That the Book of Consecration contained nothing that was in it self superstitious or ungodly But Arch Bishop Whitgift devised a subscription of his own and imposed it upon all to be ordained after that time which was at length turned into a Cannon Can. 36. Artic 2. In these words that the Book of Common Prayer and of Ordaining Bishops Priests and Deacons containeth nothing in it contrary to the Word of God and that it may Lawfully be used and that he himself will use the form in the said Book prescribed in publick Prayers and Administration of
the Sacraments and no other The Bishop knew that the Non-Conformists thought the Cross in Baptism prescribed in the Common Prayer Book unlawfull and against the Word of God and that some of them thought the order of Bishops unlawfull also and all of them the order of Deacons as prescribed by that Book and yet here they must subscribe not only that they will use the book and no other form in publick but that it contains nothing contrary to the Word of God This subscription was not only imposed on those that should hereafter be ordained but it is also decreed that no man shall be suffered to Preach or Catechize or be a Lecturer or read any Lecture in Divinity in the Universities Cathedral or Colligiate Churches or in City Market Town Church or Chappel whatsoever within this Realm unless he first subscribed to this Article with two others contained in this Cannon and by means hereof many worthy Ministers were quickly turned out of their Livings though the Lawyers generally declared that it was against the Laws of the Land that any man should be turned out of his Free-hold such as Ministers Livings are without an Act of Parliament and to make all sure they ordained Cannon 55 that Preachers before all Sermons Lectures or Homilies should only invite the people to pray naming a few heads of Prayer which respect the publick only and none concerning the people in particular so that now no other Prayer must be used in publick but those in the Service Book which made the Burthen more intolerable Moreover in this Book of Canons they ordain that Ministers shall admit none to the Lords Supper that will not kneel or that come not to the Prayers or that speak against the Book of Common Prayer or Ceremonies or the book of Consecration of Bishops Can. 27. c. Till they acknowledge their Fault in word or writing if they can That Fathers shall not be God-Fathers to their own Children nor so much as urged to be present at their Baptism In a word all that the Bishops knew that the Non-Conformists were dissatisfied with Can. 29. in the Service Book were established by these Cannons and they rigorously prosecuted upon them from that time viz 1603 to 1640. For the Government of the Church by Bishops and administration of that Government by Lay-Chancellours Commissaries c. in Q. Eliz. time the Governours were contented with a peaceable submission from the Non-Conformists but under K. James the Cannons fore-named enjoyned all Ministers to subscribe that there was nothing in the Book of Consecration of Bishops Priests and Deacons contrary to the Word of God And now B. Billson and B. Andrews pleaded for the Divine Right of Episcopacy and B. Laud imposed an Oath commonly called the Oath Caetera upon the Clergy whereby they should promise not to endeavour to alter the Government of the Church as it was established by Arch-bishops Bishops Deans c. And thus all the moderation that had been used by the former Bishops in pressing things scrupled was turned into the most rigorious imposition of them yea and of additions to them also as if Rohoboam's success should terrify no man from acting according to his answer to the People that he would add to their burthens and change their Whips into Scorpions and this leads to the next reason of the Dissent of those former Non-Conformists Rea. 6. The Tyrannical Imposition of the Lyturgy and all that belonged to it was a great means to increase their dissatisfaction There had been a passage in the Preface of the Common Prayer book that the first Reformers had gone as farr as they could in reforming the Church considering the times they lived in and they hoped those that came after them would as they better might do more And indeed this was the Ground of the submission and patience of the Non-Conformists viz a perswasion that the first Reformers at least the best of them did not intend their moddle as a ne plus ultra and therefore they still hoped that by Patience and peaceable endeavours things might by begrees be brought to a better pass accordingly they presented an admonition to the Parliament Anno 1570. And again a Petition to K. James called the Millinary Petition for ease and redress but alas as that passage of the Reformers is left out of the Preface to the service book so the expungers of it fixed a just contrary mark to themselves which they aim at to this day in all their proceedings viz that there was no necessity of any farther Reformation then what was established by Q. Eliz. and that all must be compelled to approve of that as sufficient and to submit to the Rules of it The better to prosecute this design they have ever laboured to set the Princes against the Non-conformists and themselves have used the Spiritual Sword chiefly against them they did what they could to prejudice that Excellent Princess Q. Eliz. against them so that in her Reign especially when Whitgift was Arch-Bishop the Non-Conformists were turned out of Universities as Dr Sampson Dean of Christs-Church in Oxford Mr Cartwright Margarite Professour at Cambridge and many others many were turned out of Livings some worthy men imprisoned and Mr John Vdall Minister of Kingston upon Thames was sentenced to dye for high Treason against the Queen in Defaming her Government which saith Dr Fuller was somewhat hard being but a remote consequence for all that was alledged against him was that in a Preface to a certain book he had sharply taxed the Remissness of the Bishops Government And now such was the Rigour of Prosecutions against the Non-Conformists and the remisness of Discipline toward the ignorant and scandalous both Ministers and People that it gave occasion to many to separate from and renounce the Church of England as no true Church who were then called Brownists when K. James came to the Crown the Bishops so quickly incensed him against the Dissenters that in the conference at Hampton-Court appointed on purpose to hear their exceptions he would scarce give them leave to speak he sent them away with taunts and threats and often declared that were men never so able and pious yet the Church had better want their labours then have her Orders broken by their Non-Conformity which maxime I am sorry to find Dr Stillingfleet to espouse Under K. Charles the 1st the Bishops had so wholly engaged the civil power in their cause that it was almost the only concern of the Government how to bring all the Non-Conformists in England to submit or to leave the Land and to bring Ireland to the same plat-form with England and to set up Bishops Lyturgies and Ceremonies in Scotland and now Ministers and People were driven many thousands into New-England Holland and other Forreign Parts they were suspended silenced deprived of their Livings imprisoned fined set in the Pillory stigmatized had their ears cut off banished into remote Islands and many
and yet do receive and permit our Ministers among them that are Episcopally ordained but to impose upon them that were Ministers already and had performed all offices as Ministers many years and many of them with good success and who could not if they would be ordained by Bishops for near twenty years before there being also no Law or Canon requiring all the Ministers of the Church of England to be ordained by a Bishop as necessary to their Ministry I say now to impose upon these men that they must leave their places or be ordained by the Bishop was purposely to cast a stumbling block before them not easily to be passed over for hereby they must acknowledge Presbyterian Ordination to be unlawfull contrary to the judgment and practise of all Ages and Churches Vid. Blandel Apol. C. 2. and Masons vind of the Ordin of Ref. Churches and particularly of our own till this time and also acknowledge themselves all this while to have been no Ministers and their Baptism to be no Baptism unless Lay-men may Baptize which is contrary to the Common Prayer book reformed by K. James in that point who could do this that have not consigned over their Conscience to the will of men 6. The Act further requires that all Ministers whether ordained or to be ordained should before the Ordinary make this following subscription I. A. B. do declare that it is not Lawfull upon any pretence whatsoever to take arms against the King and that I do abhor that trayterous position of taking Arms by his authority against his Person or against those that are Commissioned by him and than I will conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England as it is now by Law established and I do declare that I do hold there lies on Obligation upon me or any other person from the Oath commonly called the Solemn League and Covenant to endeavour any change or alteration of Government either in Church or State and that the same was in it self an Vnlawfull Oath and imposed upon the Subjects of this Realm against the known Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom The two first clauses of this subscription are meerly civil concerning Civil Government and some circumstances of that Government not the substance of it and things greatly controverted amongst Lawyers and Statesmen Now to impose such things upon Ministers of the Gospel that belong not to their office to know much less to determine is very unreasonable and to impose things concerning secular affairs as Conditions or Terms of being ordained Ministers of the Gospel is a great usurpation on the Authority of Chirst as if he must not have Ministers in his Church unless they engage at the same time to serve the particular ends of a State Besides the first caluse viz. That it is unlawfull to take up Arms against the King upon any pretence whatsoever is doubtfull in the sence viz whether it respect the Law of the Land or the Law of God and therefore cannot with good Conscience be subscribed And if it be meant of the Law of God it is against the judgment of the best Lawyers as well as of the best Divines it hath no tolerable proof from Scripture They that abuse the 13th to the Romans to that purpose forget or are ignorant that Nero whom they say the Apostle meant was adjudged a publick Enemy of the Senate of Rome and sentenced to dye it is therefore a most unreasonable thing that this should be imposed to be subscribed by all young men entring into the Ministry which may by the Canons be at the Age of 24 years and by practise seldom exceeds before they can be fit to judge of such points The second clause viz. I abhorre c. in its full extent is against the known Lawes and practise of the Land in divers instances given by others and practised in several Causes in his now Majesties Reign And must Ministers be turned out and be debarred of the Ministry unless they will wound their own and their Countreys Rights and liberties and that for the most part before they understand what they doe Moreover that the true meaning of these two clauses is a snare to the people and dangerous to their Rights and Priviledges contrary to all the lax interpretations devised by some appeareth beyond contradiction by the sence that the House of Peers gave of them both the words and design of imposing when they so vigorously opposed its being made a Test for all Parliament men in all future Ages And let it be remembred that these were the Law-makers and most of them persons concerned in making this Law therefore best knew the meaning of those passages and also had Authority to declare the sence of them and were yet sitting in that same Parliament that made the law The third clause in this subscription is I will conform to the Lyturgy of the Church of England This was to oblige the young Fellows of Colledges and Tutors in the Universities before they came to give Assent and Consent and to be a double cord upon the Ministry But many who could silently conform cannot solemnly subscribe a promise to conform whereby they pre-engage themselves against all change of their judgments There fourth clause is That I hold that there lies no obligation on me from the Covenant nor upon any other that took it to endeavour any alteration in Government in Church or State There is scarce a parallel in all History to this That a man should be compell'd to swear for others that they are not obliged by an Oath that they took The imposers might as well have said we will make you swear to any thing we please or else you shall not continue in the Church But the Non-conformists desire to be satisfied how the King to pass by all others who swore to prosecute the ends of the Covenant in a most Publick and solemn manner and that before he had sworn to maintain Episcopacy and agreed to take it upon mature deliberation and advice and that at Breda when he was under no fear or constraint how he should not be bound to the Reformation he then promised and what man can absolve him from that Oath especially an English Parliament when that Oath was made to the Stots it being an unquestionable rule That none can release another from a lawful Oath but those to whom the Oath was made and into whose power the Jurer hath put himself by that Oath This ought to have been first cleared and not rigorously imposed Lastly It must be subscribed That the Covenant in it self was an unlawful Oath which the Non-conformists dissallowing our English Prelacy can by no means assent to And that it was imposed against the known Lawes and Liberties of this land which few Ministers have law enough to know and therefore it ought not to be made a condition of the Ministry to subscribe it The Non-conformists find that this Act is wholly contrived to make them
disown and disparage that Reformation which they had been engaged in for twenty year and to make themselves transgressors to reproach their Brethren that were dead to disparage all the Providences of God in their behalf and to villifie the success of their own Ministry and the growth of Religion and Sobriety in the Nation which they had seen and been instruments of and moreover to engage them against all endeavor of Reformation for the future and all those principles which their pious Predecessors had delivered to them And therefore they think he that can do this is a servant of men and not of Christ They do not justifie all proceedings in the endeavours for Reformation never any such thing was attempted without many infirmities in the best and transvers designs in selfish men There were never more Heresies Schismes and Superstitions in the Church then were in the Apostles dayes and those that immediately succeeded proportionable to the number of Christians the Gospel being then but setting up in the world But the Reformation it self being good and necessary and the effects of it as to Religion manifest they cannot revile or renounce without condemning those principles which animated them to bring in the King without regard of their own peersonal peace or interest It is said that Reformation wanted Authority it did so such as should make it National but selves and Rulers ought to protect them in it and not to trouble them for it or force them from it CHAP. VI. The Judgment and Practise of the present Non-conformists concerning Communion with and Separation from the Church of England HAving given the Principle Reasons why many Ministers both formerly and in this present Age cannot conform i. e. approve and subscribe to the Lyttergy of the Church of England as it contains all things belonging to Publick Worship It is needful that we set down what are their thoughts concerning their present case and what their practise ought to be in reference to the Church of England that their friends may not mistake and think they maintain principles of Anarchy and Confusion which if they did they would long since have come to nought and that their ill-willers may not have oportunity to slander them by misrepresenting them as enemies to all Government and as inconsistent with themselves as this Dr. hath done Therefore 1. The Non conformists conceive the case betwixt them and the Conformists Clergy to be much the same as betwixt the Lutherans and Calvinists in Germany or betwixt the Papists and Protestants since the Council of PTrent i. e. differences are come to the highest extremity under blood and that only because it is not in Clergy mens power and are utterly irreconcileable The Lutherans formerly had some men amongst them of some moderation and the things in question betwixt them and the Calvinists wer disputed and debated and men left to their liberty both in judgment and practice but when they got strength enough then they imposed their subscriptions deposed and imprissoned the Calvinists enveighed against them with all bitterness will admit of no treaties of Reconciliation and finally are so obstinately fixed in their own way as that they will much rather go three steps backwards to Rome then come one forwards toward the Calvinists the Papists also though they earnestly opposed the Reformation yet they maintained disputes and debates held conferences and consultations with our first Reformers and forbore violence at least by means of the Princes a good while so that there was hopes the Church might have been reformed without any fatal breach hCharles 5th then Emperour and Francis the 1st K. of France and others carnestly endeavouring to bring it about but when after all the Councill that had been desired on both sides met at Trent and excluded the Protestants from voting amongst them and established all the errours and corruptions of the Church of Rome which the Protestants condemned and cursed all the Doctrines and Practises of the Protestants point by point that they should have heard and examined And finally ordered all that should be ordained to the Ministry to subscribe to this Council There was now no more hope of Reformation of the Church or of pacification betwixt dissenting parties Thus the Non-conformist being of the same date with the Conformists Bishop Hooper Bish Coverdale Mr. Rogers Mr. Bradford with others of the first Reformers being dissatisfied with the established Lyturgy and still more and more successively in after Ages were at first treated like brethren and though the Lyturgy was established by Law by K. Edw. and Q. Eliz. yet they required not subcriptions to sit or approbation of it being content with a silent practise of what was enjoyned and very frequently passed over with silence the omission or non-practise of the Ceremonies and other things enjoined till Arch-Bishop Whitgifts dayes all which time the Non-comformists had still hopes things might have been accommodated and they appplied themselves to Princes and Parliaments to that end At length the Canons in 1605 made by the whole Convocation but with as fair play as those at Trent and ratified by the King established all things that the Non-comformists complained of and that not in the gross but point by point and fortified them with the Censures of the Church against all Dissenters and finally required all Ministers to approve the Lyturgy by subscription Whereupon many werer turned out at present and many kept from the Ministry nevertheless these subscriptions were private before the Bishops and Ordinaries who might and did frequently either omit the subscription or qualifie it with such interpretations that many who were in their Judgments Nonconformists could and did still get into and continue in places and those who were driven out of one Diocess were frequently suffered to preach in another and they who could not be ordained by Bishops would procure Ordination in other Protestant Countreys so that here was a little alleviation There was also one ground of hope elft viz. these Canons were not Law another King yea the same that approved them might have altered them and therefore the Non-conformists stretched their patience to the utmost hoping that at last their afflictions might be looked on by them that had power to remedy them and some appearance of it there was under the long Parliament especially when the King and they were upon terms of pacification But behold the Conclusion We have at length the private subscription to the Common prayer Book turned into a Publick solemn Declaration in the Congregation and that in prescript form of words that there may be no moderation And this to extend to the unfeigned approbation of the use of every thing contained in the Book And these Episcopal Canons turned into a standing law which equally extends to all parts of the Realm and to all times and ages successively as much as men can oblige them so that there can easily be no alteration And besides all this they must not only