is meet for the safety of Mens Health that none practise Physick but a Licensed Physician And until there be a greater want of Divines or Physicians than now there is it is pitty that such as are not Licensed should be permitted The Third part of Conformity begins p. 208. concerning the Renunciation of the Covenant whereof he treats § 11. and 12. Ministers saith he must onely subscribe that there is no Obligation on me or any other person from the Oath c. to endeavour any change or alteration of Government in the Church to which he adds the Oxford Oath That we will never endeavour any alteration And the Articles for Prelacy the Ordination promise and Oath of Canonical Obedience Against all which he Objects that even those Non-conformists that are for the lawfulness yea the need and desireableness of Bishops and Arch-bishops are unsatisfied in these things That some Hundred of Parishes are without any particular appropriate Bishops and consequently are without the Discipline of such Bishops and so are no Churches but only parts of a Diocesan Church that the Bishops have more work than they can do and the Keys are to be exercised by Lay-men Answ I have already shewed Mr. Baxters judgment of Bishops and Lay-Chancellours and shall only add that the Laws which Impower the Ministry with the Exercise of Discipline are so full and exact that if each Minister did faithfully perform his duty there would be no need to complain for want of work or of authority to do it effectually Every Minister is to admonish his Parishioners not to delay the Baptism of their Children whereby they are entred into a Covenant with God and by their Sureties ingaged to Faith Repentance and new Obedience as soon as they come to years of Discretion they are to be instructed out of the Church Catechism every Sunday which Catechism Mr. Baxter himself commends to be better for its Method than most others Then upon their knowledg of the Principles of Religion and owning their Baptismal Vows whereof the Minister is to take cognizance and certify to the Bishop they are to be Confirmed and none but such are to be admitted Communicants and none but Communicants to be admitted as Godfathers c. The Minister ought both publickly and privately to admonish such as are scandalous and to deny them the Communion until they manifest their Repentance which is a kind of Excommunication He is constantly to Celebrate publick Worship to Preach the Word of God and Administer the Holy Sacraments frequently to visit his Parishioners that he may know the State of his Flock to instruct the Ignorant rebuke the Wicked incourage the Good to visit the Sick absolve the Penitent and to strengthen them by the Word of God and the Comforts of the Holy Sacrament against the fear of death If these things were duly done as they might and ought to be there would be no cause to complain either that the Bishop hath too much or the Pastor too little work the fault is not in the Laws or Constitution of Government but in the want of due Execution To omit the many impertinencies in the 12. § there are Three things only on which he grounds his Plea for the Covenant The First is p. 214. Whether when Charles the II. had though injuriously been drawn to take the Covenant it doth not oblige those that took it afterward and whether the King having taken it no one person be bound by it p. 143. Answ Mr. Baxter leads me by this Question to consider how His Majesty was dealt with by the Scots in this matter how they tortured him with various temptations of hopes and fears and so affronted him with many horrible Reproaches of his own Sins as well as of the Sins of His Father and Grandfather that he often attempted to leave them what Provocations he met with in private may be guessed at by their publick Actions The Thursday before the Coronation was set apart as a Solemn day of Humiliation throughout the Land for the Sins of the Royal Family Robert Douglas in the Coronation Sermon told the King That His Grandfather King James remembred not the kindness of them who had held the Crown upon his Head yea he persecuted faithfull Ministers he never rested till he had undone Presbyterial Government and Kirk Assemblies setting up Bishops and bringing in Ceremonies In a word he laid the foundation whereupon his Son our late King did build much mischief in Religion all the days of his Life 73. P. 52. He tells the King to his Face That a King abusing his Power to the overthrow of Religion Laws and Liberties which are the fundamentals of that Covenant may be controlled and opposed And if he set himself to overthrow all these by Arms they who have power as the Estates of the Land may and ought I suppose by obligation of the Covenant to resist by Arms because he doth by that opposition break the very Bonds and overthrow the Essentials of this Contract and Covenant This may serve says he to justify the proceedings of this Kingdom against the late King who in a Hostile way set himself to overthrow Religion Parliaments Laws and Liberties Thus was the Kings Crown lined with Thorns and he had Gall and Vinegar given him to drink instead of the Royal Unction which that prophane Scot thus derides p. 34. The Bishops behoved to perform this Rite and the King behoved to be Sworn to them But now by the Blessing of God Popery and Prelacy are removed let the anointing of Kings with Oyl go to the door with them and let them never come in again If the King ought by the Laws of the Kingdom to have been Sworn to the Bishops this may make void the Obligation of the Covenant for the Coronation Oath is a right of the Subject and concerns their interest and security and the King as Heir to the Crown is obliged to that Oath and if any subsequent Oath may violate that in one particular it may also in others and then farewel to Magna Charta the priviledges of Parliament and Liberty of the Subject See more in the Review of the grand Case p. 139. 140. P. 92. He tells the King That God in his Righteous judgments suffereth Subjects to conspire and rebel against their Princes because they rebel against the Covenant made with God and adds I may say freely that a chief cause of the Judgment upon the Kings House hath been the Grandfathers breach of Covenant with God and the Fathers following steps in opposing the work of God and his Kirk within these Kingdoms and probably too many do still think they may rebel again in Defence of the Covenant But I argue from the manner of the Kings taking the Covenant as it is related p. 75. c. that the King is not obliged by it to make any alteration in the Government of our Church for thus it is related That the National Covenant and the
THE Non-Conformists PLEA FOR PEACE IMPLEADED In Answer to several late Writings of Mr. BAXTER and others pretending to shew Reasons for the sinfulness of Conformity It is the Nature of Sin especially Pride to be unreasonable unpeaceable and a troubler of the Soul the Church and the World Mr. Baxters only Way of Concord p. 152. LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1680. THE INTRODUCTION I Shall not be so troublesome to my Reader as to lead him through all that dark and dirty Labyrinth wherein Mr. Baxter hath lost himself but pass directly to that part of his Late Writings wherein he pretends to do what he had long threatned to give Reasons for the sinfulness of Conformity In the Epistle to the Plea he says many Impositions were layd on them which they durst not do because they fear God and that nothing less than Sin should hinder their Conformity and p. 135. That they gave in Eight particulars to the Commissioners at the Savoy which they took to be flat Sins but had not time fully to discourse one of them by which I guess that kneeling at the Sacrament for that was then discoursed of was one and the chief of those many hainous Sins in Conformity what the other Seven were I cannot find but I believe he hath mentioned them in this Plea though he be ashamed to call them Reasons and says he will not urge the case but barely mention matters of Fact and tell us what it is they dare not do And if we be so hardy as to bear this we may when he can get leave have more P. 119. of the Plea we do not here tell men unless by the by in stating some few questions what it is that we account Good or Evil much less do we here give the Reasons of our Cause he dares not be so bold yet as to venture by it to displease us But this Hypocrisie is so thin that the weakest Eye may look through it for whereas the Right Reverend and Learned Bishop of Ely had told Mr. Baxter as he confesseth in his Preface to the Late Book of Concord that he would petition Authority that they the Non-Conformists might be compelled to give their Reasons He there says To answer the earnest demand of our Reasons by you the Lord Bishop of Ely I have published an Historical Narrative of our Case and Judgment in a Book called the Non-Conformists Plea for Peace And if he may be believed they are not only Mr. Baxters Reasons but of many others for p. 3. it is said We that publish this here give an account of our own Judgment and those that we are best acquainted with how far we hold it lawful or unlawful to gather or to separate from Churches or to differ from what is established by Authority So that plainly that Book was published to answer the Bishop of Ely's demand of their Reasons for the Sinfulness of Conformity But where is that allowance from Authority which he pretends to have so long waited for and begged on his Knees And where is that care not to displease or provoke the Conformists by shewing the many heinous Sins in their Conformity when without leave of God or Man he not only endeavours to displease but to ruine us If any thing may be this is worse than his Hypocrisie it is meer distraction and rage when our common adversaries the Papists are undermining our Foundations and there wants but a blow to throw down the whose Fabrick of the best of Protestant Churches for any one that bears the name of Protestant thus to help on their Design and justify it too by declaring many heinous Sins in the Constitution of it and to cry down with it down with it even to the ground But God be thanked his Malice is as Impotent as his Words for after Eighteen years swelling and labouring parturiunt montes and there appears not so much as a Mouse to affright us all vanisheth like the noise of Armies under ground wherewith his Predecessors amused the Nation their long confinement hath made them so weak or rather their weakness hath caused their so long confinement that Mr. Baxter dares not call them Reasons and I hope the Nation are sufficiently instructed how unreasonable it is to be affrighted and run into confusion upon such empty noises as these I have here considered only the Arguments which concern Ministerial Conformity that of Lay-persons being consequent to it And when the most Learned Non-conforming Ministers have in former and latter times yielded Conformity to our publick Ordinances themselves and by Example and Arguments too for Mr. Baxter says they wrote more against Separation than the Conformists themselves wherein Mr. Baxter also hath done his part And when I have reason to think the greatest part of the Non-Conforming Clergy are of the same mind because I know how great an influence they have on the Consciences of their people with whom they familiarly converse and who especially advise them in what concerns their common Cause yet no person of any Note that I have heard of in all that party who were in places of Trust and publick Imployment did on the late Test refuse to Communicate with the Church of England And lastly when all our United strength is too little to withstand the attempts of our common Adversaries It is a wonder to me with what Confidence and with what Design these circumstances considered he should not only Proclaim Conformity on the Ministers part to be impossible but endeavour also with all his might to withdraw the Laity from our Communion unless it be to expose us all to Confusion again But I hope the Nation have been sufficiently taught by experience not to intrust the Conduct of their precious Souls as well as the Safety of their Lives and Estates to such Giddy and Unstable Men. Especially when they shall consider on what frivolous pretences they still seek to perpetuate the distractions of Church and State and now when we are in greatest danger exert their utmost Art and Strength to divide and destroy us Pudet haec opprobria vobis Et dici potuisse non potuisse refelli The Controversie concerning the sinfulness of Conformity will be reduced to a narrow compass if there be an agreement in these particulars First what are the parts of the Book of Common-Prayer to which we are to declare our Assent and Consent Mr. Baxter contends that all things named as the Contents of the Book are parts of that Book to the use whereof we declare our Assent c. p. 159. of the Plea There is not a word in the Book that was not intended for some use the Preface the Calender and Rubrick have their uses And p. 203. we have reason to doubt whether the Act for Conformity it self be not a part of the Book which we must Subscribe Assent and Consent to because this Act is named among the Contents of the Book
indifferent between God and the Devil P. 20. Some of the Non-conforming Ministers will think these passions of the people needful to check the fierceness of the Afflicters though it do but exasperate and therefore will let them alone Some of the Younger or more injudicious hot-brain'd sort of the Non-conforming Ministers will put them on and make them believe that all Communion with any Conforming Ministers or their Parish Churches is unlawful and their Forms of Worship are sinful and Anti-Christian and that they are all temporizers and betrayers of truth and purity that Communicate or Assemble with them And P. 22 23. They will carry about among themselves viz. the Heretical patty false reports and slanders partly because they think that humane converse bindeth them to believe the reports which those that are accounted good Men utter And partly because that they will think that the upholding of their cause which they think is Gods doth need the suppression of these Mens Credits and Reputation that are against it P. 25 26. The Godly and Peaceable Conformists will get the Love of the Sober by their Holy Doctrine and Lives but will be despised by the Sectaries because they Conform And will be suspected by the Proud and persecuting Clergy as leaning to the dissenters and thereupon will be under continual jealousies and rebukes And perhaps new points of Conformity shall be devised to be imposed on them which it is known their consciences are against that so they also may be forced to be Non-conformists because secret Enemies are more dangerous than open Foes And so part of them will turn down-right Non-conformists and the other part will live in displeasure till they see an opportunity to shew it And these are the likeliest to cross and weaken the Worldly persecuting Clergy of any Men. Certainly this was no Prognostication in 1661. but an History of what was done betwixt that and 1680. Concerning Princes he says he will give no other Prognosticks but Christs which yet Christ never applyed to Princes That it will be as hard for a rich Man i. e. for a Prince in his sense to enter into Heaven as for a Camel to go through a Needles Eye P. 34. The Magistrates may guess by this what Charity Mr. Baxter hath for them That this was no Prognostication but a Plot of Mr. Baxters to imbroil the Nation may farther appear by what he writes P. 122 123. Of his Way of Concord where he thus carries on the design He supposeth a Decree that none shall Preach the Gospel but those that subscribe swear promise or profess or do somewhat accounted sinful that strict Laws are made to punish such as disobey lest their Commands be contemned then that the Preachers will be cast out and silenced yet they still believe that God Commands what Man forbids and that it is a damnable Sin no less than Sacriledge and Cruelty to Souls to forsake their calling and duty The Preachers then must be fined imprisoned or banished for Preaching and the people for publick Worshipping but when fined they will go on still nothing can remedy it but either perpetual Imprisonment Banishment or Death When this is done more will arise of the same mind and continue the work And the Prelates that cause this will be taken by the suffering people for Thorns and Thistles and grievous Wolves and the Military Ministers of the Devil The indifferent common people will look on the persecutors as the Enemies of good Men and of publick peace that do all this by Pride and Domination The ungodly rabble of Drunkards Swearers Adulterers and such like hating godliness and strict living will cry up the Prelates and Triumph over the sufferers Thus the Land will be divided the Prelates and other Persecutors with the dirty malignant rabble of the licentious will make one party these will call themselves the Orthodox and the Church the sufferers and those that pitty them will be the other The conjunction of the debauched and malignant rabble with the Prelates will increase sober Mens disaffection to them and make Men take them for Patrons of impiety and how sad a Condition must such Churches be in This Prophesie is the same for substance and I cannot think it much different in the circumstance of time the design of this is the same which in the Title Page of his Prognostick he says is to instruct the Sons of Love and Peace in their duties But how ill doth such Railery become a dying Man or a mortified Christian to defame the present Governours and teach others to do the same If St. James speaks truth This Mans Religion is vain Ch. 1.26 And under this Artifice of pretended Prophesies Mr. Baxter strikes at the Root of all Authority For if Men may be excused from Obeying the Laws by pretending something sinful in them which yet they know not when they know certainly that disobedience is a sin Then on the same grounds that the Presbyterians disobey their Rulers the Independents may disobey them and the Anabaptists both and Children and Servants their Parents and Masters And then any Man as well as Mr. Baxter might Prognosticate that there can be no peace where such Principles and Practices are incouraged And now I appeal to the Christian Reader whether these suggestions were fit Legacies for a dying Man to bequeath to a divided and dying people of which he tells the Reader he was taking his farewel in 1661. but lived to publish them in 1680. that is near Twenty years after when the age was almost ruined by the practice of such unchristian intimations and both sides were preparing for the increase of their fury and extremities and at last for Repentance or ruinous Calamity if they do saith Mr. Baxter p. 31. as I have described And he could not but think that with a great many his Descriptions would go for Prescriptions and be as a Rule and Law for too many to walk by For in the Title Page he says it was published to instruct the Sons of Love and Peace in their duties and expectations These things considered I can have no better esteem of Mr. Baxter's than I had of Lillies Prognostications which were designs to revive and support The good old Cause Having considered the first part of the Prognostication which concerns things that are past there need no reflections on the second part because it concerns things that never shall be I only observe that the evils which he speaks of are generally effected but the good things are Calculated for the golden Age of Love and when that revolution will be if ever it be his Prophetick Spirit cannot discern If ever it be it will be when all Men are of one mind that is of Mr. Baxters mind who is seldom of the same mind with himself and so it is like never to be And therefore I advise the Printer though not for his own profit yet for Mr. Baxters Credit and the publick Welfare to lay up this