though we conform not so far as to declare our Assent and Consent to the use of the Calendar Prescript or Directory which requireth them to be read in the Mornings from Septemb. 27. and 28. till Novemb. 24. even Bell and the Dragon Susanna Tobit when as the Vulgar understand not the word Apocrypha sufficiently to distinguish them from the sacred Scriptures when they are equally called the Lessons and read in the same order And we are confirmed in this part of our Non-conformity by the Articles of Religion which discard the Apocrypha and by the Learned Treatise of the late Bishop Cousins who hath fully proved that the ancient Churches received not those Books into the Canon and by many Doctors of the Church of England that charge them with Untruths Some of us have seen the Writing as on good reason is supposed of a present Learned worthy Bishop who sheweth that the words of the Angel in Tobit are a Lye who said that he was the Son of Ananie of the Tribe of Naphtali And that so is his saying that the smoke of a Fishes heart will drive away all Devils that they shall never return when Christ tells us of some that go not out but by Prayer and Fasting XXXVI We are far from designing any abasement of the Clergy nor do we deny or draw others to deny any due Reverence and Obedience to them And though we know that the bare Title and Office will never preserve sufficient respect for the honour of the Clergy and the success of their work without competent qualifications and labours of the persons yet would we rather hide than open or reproach the faults of such as are tolerable in that sacred Office and would do our best for their work sake to promote the esteem even of those that differ from us and of some that persecute us We know that the People are exhorted to know those that labour among them and are over them in the Lord and to esteem them highly in love for their work sake 1 Thess 5. 12 13. And to obey them that have the Rule or Guidance of them and to submit themselves Heb. 13. 17. 24. And that the Elders that Rule well are worthy of double honour especially they that labour in the Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. 5. 17. We that take it for our Duty to honour all men and submit our selves to one another would not deny any due honour to any of the Clergie that have any preeminence either in age grace gifts or by the Magistrates appointment as his Officers as aforesaid or any way given them by Christ We take it not for a Priviledge to be from under Government XXXVII Our Non-conformity consisteth not in denying a National Provincial or other Church Form of mans invention and institution On these Suppositions 1. So it be presupposed that there is somewhat of Divine Institution predetermined by Christ and his Spirit in the Apostles that is 1. That there be such Doctrine worship and Discipline as he hath commanded 2. That there be such Pastors to exercise them whose Office he hath described 3. That there be such stated Congregations or Societies in which they shall be used even Neighbour Christians associated for Personal Communion therein 4. That all these Churches enjoy the Priviledges granted them by Christ and live in love peace and concord and hold such just correspondence as is necessary thereto and to the Common End and Good All this is of Divine appointment 2. So that these Divine Institutions be not violated by Humane or by the power of man 3. So that Humane Churches be not made equal and co-ordinate to the Divine much less superior and superordinate as if they were to Christs instituted Churches what a Kingdom is to a City or a Regiment to a Troop and Christs Churches were but similar parts of the Humane Churches that must rule them But as the King is Episcopus exterior or the Governour of the Churches so far as the Sword is to be used so circa sacra we have before said that he may make his own Officers and consequently Provinces for them and Orders of their exercise And the Churches in his Dominions may be so called one National Church as he is the exterior Civil Governour of them all by the Sword which indeed is but to be a Religious or Christian Kingdom as also ab accidente as these many Churches are under one Christian yea were he an Infidel King and as hereby they have the advantage of fraternal association and correspondency for concord But proper Denominations are from the Essential Form XXXVIII It is no part of our Non-conformity to be against the due Use or Authority of Councils or Synods of the Clergy We hold that when one is cast out of one Church for a cause belonging to the Cognisance of many many may have occasion to take Cognisance of it And the edification of each other the satisfactory Debate of Difficulties the preservation of mutual Love Peace and Concord may make Synods to be useful But yet we hold that the major Vote of Bishops in a Council are not thereby the proper Governours of the minor dissenting part nor of the absent Bishops but that Councils are for Counsel and Concord and not for direct Regiment of each other though together and asunder the Pastors are all Governours of the Flock And some of us have long ago publickly proved that Councils were called General at first but with respect to the Dominions or Empire of one Prince and not as if they were Universal as to all the Christian World and that absolutely Universal Councils never were or ought or can or ever will be called and that to pretend that a Papal or Imperial General Council is the Universal Law-giver of the World and that they have a promise of Infallibility in what ever they determine and that we receive our Faith in Christ upon their Infallibility given by him and so we must know that Christ maketh them Infallible before we can believe that he is Christ These and such other nonsense cheats which some are now agitating are fit to delude none but the grosly ignorant that are prepared for deceit XXXIX Yet we deny not but that God having first bound us to Unity and Concord as far as we can â—ttain with loving forbearance in the rest when a lawful Synod or Council hath determined of a way of Concord on lawful Terms in matters under their Power there is an Obligation on all the particular Members to forbear breaking that Union and violating those lawful Terms of Concord For where there is not a Governing Law there may be an Obliging Contract or Consent And whereas even the Papists now usually teach that even a Councils Decrees bind not the Churches at least those that had no Delegates till by actual reception they consent be it known to the World that on these Terms the Non-conformists in London seem to have some excuse if it
Hour when it is offered them by the Mother because that Hour was antecedently indifferent yea if Children or Servants refuse their set Meals on that account it were just if hunger teach them more wit and obedience If Children will think they betray their Liberties if they learn that Catechism or words of Prayer which the Parents teach them even set Forms or if they will not read hear or learn or pray at the Hour appointed by their Parents because it was antecedently indifferent or if they will not go to the Church at the Hour set them by the Minister because it was before a time indifferent how should they be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord 2. We would ask such a one Whether this be an obeying of that Command Col. 3. 20. 22. Children obey your Parents in all things for this is well-pleasing to the Lord Servants obey in all things your Masters according to the Flesh Are things lawful none of the All things 3. If Obedience must be only to things antecedently necessary may not the Child in such expect Obedience from the Father in some sort as well as the Father from the Child We mean material Obedience that the thing be done 4. We hope they will not say the same to God that they will obey him in nothing antecedently indifferent And that is because the very nature of obedience is contrary And if so is it no subordinate obedience that is due to Parents and other Superiors Government as such can make that a Duty which antecedently was none or else all Children and Servants live in constant sin Therefore Obedience as such consisteth in obeying such Government For though the chief work of all Rulers is to urge the observation of Gods own Laws yet their secondary work is as Corporations have By-Laws about Particulars under the Universal Laws of the Kingdom so to determine of subservient Particulars And if their Principle practised in Families and Schools would overthrow all Family and School Order and Obedience and utterly subvert the Education of Mankind let them consider why it should be brought into Kingdoms Cities or Churches 5. And we would ask them Whether they live not themselves in the practice of the contrary Do not all Sects even Quakers meet at the Place and Time which their Leaders do appoint them Do they not hear the words which the Leader chuseth for their Ears Do they not command their own Servants and Children things or circumstances antecedently indifferent Did we hold such Principles we should have less reason to lament the sin of those who have of late written Accusations against us as Subverters of Government Order and Obedience And if any one can find any word of such importance in any one called a meer Non-conformist which we know not of we have no more to do with it than the Church of England hath with words of Untruth Cal 〈◊〉 mny Errour or Non-sense which we read in the Books or hear in the words of any Conformists of which we are not willing to imitate such as gather Catalogues or Dunghills of them And the rather because 1. We Licensed not such Books 2. Nor Ordained such to the sacred Ministry 3. Nor have the Government of them and therefore are not responsible for them As for those men that have perswaded the ignorant in Print that we hold the things to which we deny Conformity to be Indifferent or Lawful and avoid them only as Inconvenient or Offensive to the Weak and that some of us were forced at the Savoy to assert that Nothing may be commanded by Authority which may by accident become Unlawful to the Subject or become his sin by abuse it is a subject of which we shall here say no more but that we will not here do so great a dishonour to the Authors as some of them have done to themselves that is to tell the world their Names the rest that concealed them had more tenderness it seems of their Reputation than of their Consciences What sort of Men believe them it is easie to conjecture It is no fault of the Earth to bear them nor of the Sun to shine upon the Writers or the Believers and we hope it is none in us to hear and bear the Calumny nor in our circumstances that we have not farther provoked them by answering for our selves We must lament the temptations and dangers of the Age and the sinful alienation of Minds Divisions and Distractions which Incendiaries have caused and still cause But for our selves we do with peace read and remember Luke 8. 17. Nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest neither any thing hid that shall not be known and come abroad Jam. 5. 7 8. Be patient Brethren to the coming of the Lord stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh Matth. 5. 11 12. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly or my sa 〈◊〉 e Rejoice and be exceeding glad c. Psal 37. 13. The Lord shall laugh at him for he seeth that his day is coming Psal 146. 4. His breath goeth forth he returneth to his Earth in that very day his thoughts perish Luke 23. 34. Father forgive them for they know not what they do FINIS THE JUDGMENT OF NON-CONFORMISTS OF THINGS SINFUL by ACCIDENT AND OF SCANDAL PUBLISHED To save Mens Souls from the Guilt of Believing those Men who tell them that the Non-Conformists Asserted that Whatever may be the occasion of Sin to any must be taken away or that Nothing may be imposed which Men may take Scandal at or by Accident turn to Sin And to help those to Repentance who have polluted their Souls with Falshood and Uncharitableness by Believing them and seconding their Reports Printed in the Year 1676. THE JUDGMENT OF NON-CONFORMISTS OF Things Sinful by Accident and of Scandal COuld we but have prevailed with Men of confused Conceptions and consounding Praâ—â—â—s to have been reconciled to Distinctness and 〈◊〉 engruity of speech or at least with Men of has 〈◊〉 e temer 〈◊〉 ty and 〈◊〉 assion to have endured it and patiently heard us distinctly tell them what we hold we might have spared this trouble to the Reader and our selves Those that cannot bear d 〈◊〉 stinct explication but in the Dungeon of Confusion still deride or r 〈◊〉 ge at the Light which rendering things intelligible doth open the unloveliness of Ignorance and the errour and sin which are its Progeny are not the Reader 〈◊〉 for whom this is published but such as have retained so much of Humane Nature as to love the Light and be willing to know the truth and to be patient of a little sober consideration that they may know it That we may make the matter in question Intelligible we must open the Nature of Morality and so of Moral Evil or Sin and what it is to be Evil by Accident
gainfuller Trade of life than spending-labour with poverty reviling scorn and imprisonments XLII To conclude As far as we are able to understand the most learned sober judicious Conformists by their own words to us and their Writings they differ not at all from us about the matter it self which we deny Conformity to but confess it to be unlawful as to the hardest points of the imposed Subscriptions Oaths and Declarations and Covenants but they only take the words in such a sense in which we our selves could take them were we perswaded that it were indeed the true meaning of them And do they that are as much as we against that sense which we disown and agree with us in the matter deserve liberty honour and preferment for otherwise interpreting the words of the Law which the Law-givers themselves will not interpret And doth our supposition that the Law-makers mean properly as they speak deserve scorn silencing and Goals from them that will not expound them to us The righteous God will be Judge between us For instance 1. By Assent in the Declaration required we understand Believing it to be true But the Conformists that we speak of understand only a Belief that I may use it 2. By all and every thing contained in the Book we suppose is meant all and every thing indeed But they say only the Forms to be used are meant and many other things in the Book not meant We find after named Unfeigned Assent and Consent unto and Approbation of the said Book and to the use of all the Prayers Rites and Ceremonies Forms and Orders therein contained and prescribed we think here Approbation and Assent are more than Consent to use and we think that the use of all the Orders is more than the use of the Forms We think that no Word in the Book was intended to be useless and that the Doctrines Calendars even that untrue one to find out Easter-day Rubricks and Directories have each their proper use We suppose that the foregoing words of the Use are the End and the Form of the Declaration is the Means to secure that Use as the End and that the Means hath more in than the End 3. Some of them suppose that denying Christendom to Christians Children for want of Crossing or Godfathers and denying Communion to true Christians that receive not kneeling are none of the Orders to be used But we think otherwise 4. Some of them think that Admitting none to the holy Communion till they be Confirmed or desirous to be Confirmed though it be the very words is none of the Orders which they Consent to use and we never knew any use it by any tryal of mens desires But we think that nothing in the Book is intelligible if such plain passages are not 5. Some of them by the words at Burial that thank God for taking to himself the Soul of this our dear Brother out of the miseries c. understand not his Salvation but his going out of this World But we think otherwise 6. When only the unbaptized self murderers and excommunicate are there excepted some say all others are meant that ought to be excommunicate and so every Priest is made the Judge who should be Excommunicate But we think that Exceptio particularis firmat regulam in non exceptis 7. They think that the Words in the Canon that Nothing in the three Books is contrary to the Word of God are meant with exceptions as to Nothing or to Contrariety But we take Nothing for Nothing and Contrary for Contrary 8. Some of them say that the Church being the Maker of these Impositions we are to take them in the Churches sense which the Bishops may signifie But we think that we must take them in the sense of the King and Parliament as the Law-makers and that no Church or Bishops can alter our Religion or Articles or Subscriptions by an Expository Power 9. Some of them think that the words on any pretense whatsoever in the Subscription have exceptions But we know not how any words can be more exclusive of exceptions 10. Some of them think that by any Commissioned is meant only Lawfully Commissioned and so Subjects are left to judge of the Lawfulness We find there no such Limitation or Exposition 11. Some of them say that by the Government of the Church not to be altered is not meant the Lay-Chancellors use of the Keys But we think that their actual Government is the Government actually 12. Some of them say that by no change or alteration is meant only of the Essence of Episcopacy We take no alteration for no alteration 13. Some of them say that by not endeavouring is meant only not seditiously or by ill means We think That ubi DEX non distinguit non est distinguendum 14. Some of them think that no Law or words imposed must be expounded contrary to Gods Law or any former Law or to the King 's or Peoples rights But 1. That is to suppose that men cannot contradict themselves or God or do unjustly 2. And then whatever Oaths men put on us we may take them were the words never so false or impious because the meaning must still be judged good 15. Some say that we must put the best sense on imposed Oaths and Covenants and Subscriptions that the words can be subdued to We think that they must be taken in the sense of the Law-makers which is to be judged of by the usual meaning of their words unless themselves do otherwise expound them And so in many other Instances the Conformists say that they would not Conform themselves if they understood the words as we do Seeing then that all these worthy Conformists before mentioned do confess that if the words of the Laws be properly to be understood and not with their limitations then the Conformists are in the wrong and the Non-conformists in the right we conclude with these few Questions Q. 1. Whether we owe not that honour to our Law-makers as to suppose that they are able and willing to speak intelligibly Q. 2. Whether they would have men left as to the Oath of Allegiance and all other Oaths and Laws to subdue the Law-makers words to any sense that the Subject thinks lawful and to make themselves Judges of the sense by departing from the common use of the words without proof that the Law-makers meant otherwise Q. 3. Whether there be need of much Learning Conscience or Honesty to stretch the words from their ordinary sense more than to do otherwise And whether so to do would deserve honour and preferment and to do otherwise be a Crime that deserveth silencing and ruine Q. 4. Whether their way of Exposition or ours tend more to promote Perjury and Equivocation and which more secureth Truth and Honesty Q. 5. If once the Conscience of Oaths and Covenants be relaxed by stretching words to the takers interest are not the Lives of Princes left in danger and the Bonds of common Converse loosened Q. 6. If this must be the cause of our sufferings and silence is it not justice so to tell the World and write it on our Cross that we are silenced and laid in Goals because we dare not take Oaths and Covenants imposed in Terms excluding limitations and exceptions in a limited excepting sense without the Explication of the Law-makers Q. 7. And if we must be so used whether any in the whole World be more unfit to silence imprison fine reproach and ruine us for mis-understanding the words which we are to Subscribe or Promise or Covenant in viz. for taking none to mean none nothing to mean nothing not any to mean not any contrary to mean contrary all to mean all than those that while they are set to ruine us will by no intreaties after our almost fourteen Years sufferings and expectations be prevailed with to procure us an Exposition of the sense of any of these so much controverted words We are more confident that the Law-makers can more certainly and infallibly expound their own words than the Pope or Council can expound Theological difficulties And if our Accusers will not once endeavour to procure them so to do nor be intreated to consent it when Conformists and Non-conformists are chiefly disagreed about the Interpretation of them and when our preaching or silence honour or reproach maintenance or poverty liberty or imprisonment yea and much duty or sin in the Body of the Nation lyeth upon the resolution of this Controversie what is the Law-makers meaning we will still refer all to him that judgeth righteously who will shortly finally end the Controversie praying to God though Men will not hear us to open our Lips that our Mouths may shâ—w forth his praise that he will make speed to save us and make hasâ—e to help us that he whose service is perfect freedom will defend us his humbled servants in all assaults of our Enemies that we surely trusting in his defence may not fear the power of any Adversaries and that these evils which the craft and subtilty of the Devil or Man worketh against us be brought to nought and by the providence of his goodness they may be dispersed that we his Servants being hurt by no persecution may evermore give him thanks in his holy Church that in all our troubles we may put our whole trust and confidence in his mercy and evermore serve him in holiness and pureness of living that he will forgive our Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers and turn their hearts especially that he will save our Posterity from their Curse who say The Blood be on us and on our Children For we are not against such a Liturgy as this POSTSCRIPT Reader IT was intended that a short Account of the Nonconformists Judgement about the Power of Kings and the Obedience of Subjects should have been added but by reason of some Mens aptness to be offended at all such Publications and because of the present dispersion of the Collectors it is pretermitted with this Profession That they shall at all times be ready to give such Account of their Judgements when Authority shall call them or allow it as shall satisfie all impartial Men that they are haters of Disloyalty Sedition Rebellion and Schisme FINIS