to all men forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sins alway for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost Acts 4. 2 c. 3. Experience assureth us that from the beginning of the Church to this present day Christ never gave too many able faithful Ministers to his Church Supernumeraries of such were never its disease nor the amputation of them its cure There is still need of the Lords-prayer Thy Kingdom come And Pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers c. That man is but a Christian or a Pastor in jest and Image and not in earnest and reality who thinketh that the Pastors now allowed are so sufficient for the great employment of the Ministry that more are but supernumerary and the rest may be spared without any detriment to the souls of men Even in the Apostles age of Miraculous gifts Dr. Hammond thinketh the Pastors were so scarce that every Episcopal Church had no more than one Bishop with some Deacons without ever a subject-Subject-Presbyter And that there was de facto none of the Order of subject-Presbyters in Scripture-times And so think all the Presbyterians too And it is a notorious truth that afterwards the Presbyters were so low in abilities that publick preaching in the Church was mostly used by the Bishops only And many Countries have lost the Gospel for want of Preachers And wherever ignorance and prophaneness have broken in upon the Church as the Greeks Abassines Armenians Moscovites Papists and too many Protestant Churches it hath commonly been by the decay of able godly faithful Pastors And if one City or Parish of ten thousand have had too many their near neighbours have so much wanted them that they could not be esteemed supernumerary And in England there are few Parishes which need not helps even where the ablest men are placed much more where Is it seasonable then or doth it answer the Will or Providence of to call in so many when the Church hath always had too few 4. The punishment which you inflict upon the Ministers doth fall a thousand times more heavily on the souls of the innocent people who without being accused or speaking for themselves in a Legal trial have so great a penalty inflicted on them as none but a believer that judgeth of things in reference to Eternity is able to estimate a right Alas to the Preacher the suffering is small in comparison of the peoples What if they live poorly what if they want house or clothes or bread How small a matter is that in comparison of the want of knowledg and faith of grace and salvation I confess their sufferings will cost them dear that are the true cause when Christ condemns those that do not relieve them But to themselves it is no such dreadful business Nay if they were but discharged in conscience from the Ministerial Office most of them might live in much more peace and plenty in the world There are many other Callings to betake themselves to in which they might live quietly and not be as the Hare before the Hunters pursued from place to place with cryes as if they that will imitate Paul in labours must bear also his reproach as pestilent fellows and movers of sedition among the people that do contrary to the decrees of Cesar and turn the world upside down Yea many are already turned Physicians and they have better words and kinder usage But every man that hath the eyes of a Christian in his head and seeth what the people of England VVales and Ireland are for members and for quality and seeth and heareth also what Ministers for number and quality do instruct them doth know as certainly that many hundred thousand souls do wofully need more Ministerial helps as he knoweth that five hundred Scholars do need more than one School-master or five hundred sick men need more than one Physician But O what a plague is it to the Church and World to have Ministers who when they read of the necessity of knowledg holiness and salvation do neither believe Christ nor themselves Argue not the people into such hard thoughts of you as if this were your case by perswading them that it is no matter whether their souls have any more Ministerial helps than now is given them Either you believe that where the Gospel is hid it is hid to them that are lost and that the cure of gross ignorance hard-heartedness unbelief and sensuality are of necessity to salvation or not If not deal openly and silence both your selves and us If yea then either you know how these maladies abound in the people and how much labour the cure doth usually cost or not If not then take not on you to be Pastors or English men or competent Judges of any of the peoples cases and concernments but confess that these are matters that you are strangers to But if you do know this then I need to say no more to you but to desire you to fuppose that soul-necessities are not the less because men complain not of them but greatest where there is the greatest insensibility and contentedness with them The Turks and Heathens cry not out for the help of Christian Pastors The worldling drunkard and fornicator is most miserable that would have no reproof or help Suppose therefore that their necessities are instead of cryes and that you hear them calling to you for help O pity the many hundred thousand souls that are drowned in ignorance unbelief insensibility worldliness and sensuality that are utter strangers to that life of faith and love and holiness without which none can please or see God and must quickly be converted and made new creatures or they are lost for ever Or suppose that their necessities being their complaints you heard them expostulating with you for their souls O take not from us that means which God by Nature and by his Institution hath made so needful to our salvation Alas our ignorance and deadness and worldly-mindedness and fleshly affections are too hardly cured by all the best means and diligence that can be used what shall we do then if you deprive us of that which we have enjoyed Alas say not that the reading of the Scriptures and a few lifeless notes of a Sermon will serve turn We confess that it should do so if our disease were so light as to need no more the thing it self is good and every word of God is precious but it is the nature of our disease to be read asleep and hardned in our sins by the customary hearing of a few good words in a sleepy saying tone It is the skilful choice of pertinent Truths convincingly and clearly uttered and closely applied with life and seriousness that our case requireth We confess that if a School-boy or a raw ignorant youth from the University did but read a chapter or say over a less pertinent cento of good words we should be moved
Episcopacy and Conformity much more for being in arms against the Parliament or Preaching against them And I published it as our earnest request that all men that were utterly ignorant Heretical and scandalous or of vicious debauched lives might be cast out without respect to other opinions or Civil causes and that all the rest might unite their labours and be encouraged This is yet in Print And I met with few of my acquaintance in the Ministry that were not of the same mind And I had some more trial as to practise when Cromwell forbad as even now I said the sequestred Ministers to live within two miles of their old Benefice and commanded tâ—em to quit the houses our Vicar was never disturbed nor I never came within the house I never forbad him to preach And at a Chappel we had another conformable Minister that read Common-prayer and said somewhat like a Sermon often one Mr. Turner infamous for ignorance drunkenness railing and living by unlawful marryings and making his Ministry a scorn This Curate I connived at many a year till his death I provided a Preacher at first once a day and afterwards twice to be resident on the place I allowed Mr. Turner his Stipend but intreated him not to meddle with the Ministry For besides his vicious life I examined him and could not perceive that he understood scarce any Article of the Faith nor had the fortieth part of the knowledg or ability of many of the Wevers or some of the Plowmen of the Parish Musculus his Common-places Englished was all the Books that I could perceive he had and that he Preached out of But he would continue to read Common-prayer and did though he might have had his Stipend as much without it Judg by this whether we were over-forward to silence the Sons of the Church or cast them out 3. But what reason or conscience is it that if you can say Cromwell or the Parliament or Rump cast out such Ministers that therefore we that had no hand in it must be silenced Or if you can name forty Ministers in England as I cannot that consented unto this that therefore eighteen hundred that never consented should be forbidden to Preach Yea those that declared themselves to be against it 4. And you know that even the Usurpers allowed the Wives of the sequestred Ministers the fifth part For my part I never asked you so much 5. And either the unjust silencing of Ministers by the Usurpers was well done or ill done If ill done it should be your warning to take heed of sinning as they did for sure their practices seem not so right and lovely to you as to be worthy of imitation They Beheaded Mr. Love and Imprisoned many London Ministers and others for the Kings sake and you think not sure that you must therefore do so too 8 Obj. But we are not to distinguish of Nonconformists when Conformity is necessary to the order of the Church If a few honest men suffer among a company of Schismaticks Presbyterians Independents Rebells they must take it patiently and not blame their Rulers but themselves that chuse so bad companions The greater part of you deserve it Ans. We are not blaming our Governours but our selves not for our Nonconformity but for serving God no more diligently when we had time But 1. can you not distinguish and yet be just what not the innocent from the guilty nor friends from foes This is not the first confusion and evil that want of distinguishing hath caused in the world 2. If your I say your Conformity be more necessary than all our Preaching and Ministry and will help more souls to Heaven go on with it and let it prosper But be sure that you are not mistaken 3. Are Presbyterians so intollerable a sort of people Or will the bare opinion that singular Churches have all Church-power of Christs institution among themselves while they submit to the Civil Government prove men otherwise sober to be unsufferable You know Dr. Hammord and other Episcopal Divines do assert an Independency of Diocesan Churches which he saith de facto in Scripture-times had no Presbyters but one Bishop and his few Deacons And you know Dr. Stillingfleet of whose judgment Bishop Reinolds and many Conformists have profest themselves to be maintaineth that no one form of Church-Government is of Divine Right and Institution And if so then the Independents and Presbyterians refuse none that is of Divine Institution 4. But are you sure that you mistake not to the injury of the sufferers I can tell the world and you that I knew but one Presbyterian Minister in all VVorcestershire and that one was not of our Association nor any one Independent associated with us though there were three worthy Ministers in the County so esteemed there was not one of the Associated Ministry that was so much as reputed Presbyterian or Independent but Episcopal some were that now conform much less Anabaptists or of any other Sect but held the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and loved a Christian as a Christian and were for the uniting of all the Churches that are sound in the faith and in the things necessary to Church-Communion even upon the ancient Primitive terms And when I think of the Association of VVestmorland VViltshire Dorcetshire and other Countrys I have reason by their Articles to think they were of the same mind And must such abundance be silenced for the opinions of a few whom they never signified any consent to 9 Obj. If you are suffered to Preach you will but confirm the people in their Nonconformity and dislike of the Government For though you say nothing of it they will become a faction for the sake of your opinions and what confusion will it cause to have one party of the Church for one Preacher and another for another yea as you would have it for one to cross the baptized child and another not or for one to wear a Surplice and another a Gown Ans. 1. There is nothing in this imperfect life that shall attain perfection nor can any publick good be done without any inconveniencies But O cure not an inconvenience with a mischief Kill not a fly that sitteth on your brothers forehead with a Beetle or a Butchers axe It 's strange that wise men can be so partial or narrow-sighted as to look so intensly after their own desires or interests as to spy out possibilities of inconvenience and never see the loss of souls and great calamities that attend the other way 2. And indeed are you conscious of no frailties in your selves which are as great an inconvenience to the souls of men and the successes of the Gospel and honour of the Church as different practisings of the Cross or Surplice Are you humble men and teachers of humility Do you know your selves and teach the people to know themselves Are you penitent men and Preachers of Repentance and yet have never found
terms of the Churches union and communion and we shall not be unthankful to you if you will make that and only that to be so now I do not say that you should make all that necessary which was then used on terms of liberty and indifferency they had then their necessaries for uâ—ion and their unnecessaries which were used at liberty as every Church saw good Impose no more than they imposed no more of Liturgy no more of Ceremony no more Subscriptions Promises or Oaths and it will heal us all Impose Liturgy no further than they then did which at the most was but every Bishop on a particular Church that was united for personal not representative communion and was no bigger than one of our Parishes for number of souls If these terms will not serve you neither you shall not with us have the reputation of the best friends of Antiquity Unity Love or Peace Q. 3. What harm would it do if the Churches were healed by such means as all the most grave experienced Conciliators have pitched upon as the only way at least in all the Protestant Churches We are contented with Lerinensis terms Quâ—d ab omnibus ubique semper receptunest All the famous reconcilers of the last age and this Acontius Melancthon Pelargus Duraeus Calixtus Lud. Crocius Joh. Bergius Conradus Bergius Junius Paraeus Hottonus Amyâ—aldus Usher Morton Hall Davenant Chillingworth Hales Bucer Burroughs Stillingfleet and every man that ever wrote a rational Irenicon conspire in this one necessary means the forbearing all imposition of doubtful unnecessary things as necessary to actual unity and communion and the centering and cementing all on the terms of the few certain greâ—t and necessary things which we are commonly agreed in or as Rupertus Meldenius his oft-cited words are In necessariis unitas in non-necessariis libertas in utrisque charitas Do you think verily that all these were mistaken and that you are wiser than they who have studied the art of peace as much as you have done the arts of victory and getting down those whom you first make and then call your adversaries I know you will still say These are good terms for our union with neighbour churches but not for our church within it self To which I have answered you already and now add 1. Every company of Christians associated for personal communion in Gods publick Worship as distinct from distant communion in Spirit only and from communion by Delegates or Representatives is a true particular church taking Pastors and people to be the parts thus associated Every such Church had a Bishop in Scripture-times as Dr. Hammond in his Annot. will tell you over and over and in Ignatius his time too For he saith That to every Church there was one Altar and one Bishop with his fellow Presbyters and Deacons And this one Altar which shewed only one place of meeting for ordinary publick Communion and one Bishop were the notes of Unity to every one Church as Mr. Mede also fully openeth it And Dr. Hammond will further bear witness what every Bishop with his Church is in 1 Tim. 3. And such all the particular Churches of the whole world considered together under the Supreme Head Christ Jesus dispensing them all by himself and administring them severally not by one Oeconomus but by the several Bishops as inferior Heads of Unity to the several bodies so constituted by the several Apostles in their plantations each of them having an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a several distinct commission from Christ immediately and subordinate to none but the supreme Donor or Plenipotentiary And before so was every such regular Assembly of Christians under a Bishop an Oeconomus set over by Christ the house of God Mark all this then and let your Impositions be measured by this Rule so that either you will have the many Churches in one Kingdom to be united on terms of Regiment or only on terms of Concord On the terms of the extrinsick accidental Regiment we grant that all the Kings Subjects are united and that he hath power circa sacra But so you might have said of all the Roman Empire And so if the Christian part of the World had all one Monarchy your own Concession must be overthrown that neighbour Churches must unite on necessary terms leaving indifferent ones to liberty or else you will see that the case of the Catholick Church under such an Empire would be the same with a National Church under one King And our Churches are as much to be accounted Neighbour-Churches as those in such an Empire would be But if you speak of one Essential Constitutive Ecclesiastical Head and Governour we know none such any more than one Pope Therefore it must be an Union of Concord by which you call many Churches in a Nation one or an extrinsick accidental Union And consequently it is an improper speech because it is not locutio formalis sed accidentalis for the form denominateth We being therefore One Church but Accidentally by one King and by Concord as several agreeing Churches may be called it followeth that we must hold our Concord accordingly with those at home as well as with those abroad upon terms of equal charity and liberty except what the King will take away For as for Councils even General ones much more Provincial it is not Bishop Ushers opinion only but ordinary with Protestants that they are to the particular Bishops not directly Regimental but means of Agreement Mark your Bishop Bilsons words of Christ. Subject pag. 229. To Councils such as the Church of Christ was wont by her Religious Princes to call we owe communion and brotherly concord so long as they make no breach in faith nor in Christian charity Subjection and servitude we owe them none The blessed Angels profess themselves to be fellow-servants of the Saints on earth Rev. 22. What are you then that with your tribunals and jurisdictions would be Lords and Rulers over Christs inheritance 2. The same Reasons which require you to agree only on necessary terms with foreign Churches will oblige you to the like course at home The judgments of Natives are of the same temper and their differences will be as certain and constant and your charity to them should be no less than to strangers Only this we all confess 1. That all the Churches must agree in their subjection to the same King 2. And every particular Church must agree with their particular Pastors in the exercises of Communion 3. And that Concord in one Translation one Meeter and such like is desirable not so much because we are under one King as because we are neighbours and of one language and would be desirable if we were of several Kingdoms in the same propinquity But it is not to be procured at a price which is above its worth 3. When you profess Concord with the foreign Churches upon Catholick terms and deny the same to the Churches that are under one King you
the judgment of the Magistrate and forbear But if our Ministry be notoriously and undoubtedly necessary to the just ends which is the edification of mens souls we will obey God in Preaching as far as we are able and humbly and patiently bear what is laid upon us by our Rulers 13. But in this case we will not intrude into the publick Temple much less lay any claim to the Tythes or publick maintenance for these are all at the Kings disposal 14. Nor do we take our selves bound by Christ to one place or one time or manner of teaching or to speak always to a great Assembly But all these are circumstances which we must fit to the end and success of our work And must take that course and with that variation which tendeth to the Churches good Christ that bid his Apostles when they were persecuted in one City fly to another alloweth us to be where we may serve him best If forbearing all Preaching for some days or weeks would tend to the Churches good as by procuring us liberty afterward c. it is lawful to forbear If Preaching often to a few be more for the Churches good than to preach but once or twice to many we may then lawfully chuse the smaller number So that in such circumstances that may be one mans duty which is anothers sin 15. We take it to be our duty in all such Preaching to take heed of any thing that tendeth to the division of the peoples minds or to the hinderance of the lawful publick Ministry or to their just discouragement But contrarily to concur and live with such Ministers If possible and as much as in us lieth Rom. 12. 18. in peace and mutual love and to do all that we can to promote their reputation with the people and to work all unjust prejudice and partiality out of their minds And not only to draw them to a due attendance in the publick Assemblies but also as far as reason will allow us to prefer still the publick Ministers labours honour and interest in the people before our own and to reprove all censorious whispers and obloquy which we shall hear against them behind their backs 16. And as for maintenance we expect not any unless any Minister be so poor as for food and raiment and the necessities of life to live upon the alms of others which is the case of very many In which case we hold it our duty not at all to be chargeable to censorious murmuring dissenters but only to the willing and that if God shall humble us to the begging of our bread we should not be so proud as to disdain it or to murmur at his Providence nor yet so selfish as to forsake and change our calling because we have no better maintenance But rather be thankful that we are kept from the temptations of grandure and fulness by which we see so many ruined and so great a part of the Clergy throughout the Christian world to be blinded and drowned in those ways of idleness sensuality cruelty and contention which prove the division the defilement and the dishonour of the Church For as we believe a life to come and that the preferring of the pleasures of this world before it is the thing that keepeth men from Heaven and is the common cause of mens damnation so we believe that no condition doth so much tempt men into this damning love of the world as that wherein the world is made most pleasing and most lovely to them And he that aboundeth in it with wealth and honour is liker of the two to overlove it than he that meeteth with labour poverty and reproach Yet will we not as begging Friers renounce Propriety nor cast away any talent which our Master giveth us to improve nor yet be so impudent as to be unnecessarily burdensome or lose our liberty by making our selves beholding and dependent but we take it to be our part to labour faithfully in our work and leave it to God what provisions he will allow us And those of us that want not but have to spare to contribute to the relief of them that want And we may be the more patient while we remember in how much purity the Primitive Churches were kept in their poverty and low estate as also the Churches of the poor Waldenses and those in Piedmont to this day and the Hodie venenum c. the corruptions divisions and calamities that have followed the worldly exaltation of the Clergy both in East and West Therefore we humbly submit to his gracious Providence that thus saveth us from the love of the world so inconsistent with the love of God 1 Joh. 2. 15 17. We take it also to be our duty the greater our restraints and sufferings are the more to take heed lest any dishonour or murmuring at our Rulers should thence arise and be cherished in our hearers minds which though it be not absolutely in our power to cure we must do our best It is a humane thing to pity the sufferers And if our Doctrine and our lives do make the people think well of us they are so much the readier to think ill of those by whom we suffer Which those well perceive who have the sight that their interest made it necessary to make us odious by voluminous reproaches But that is not the way with any but strangers For when those that know us know that we are slandered it doth but increase their dislike of the reproachers And they can read our lives as easily as the revilers books The only way to change their opinion of us were for us to change our Doctrine and our lives and to preach ill and live ill But that is a way that we must not take to gratifie any that would build their ends and honour on our contempt But yet the honour of our Rulers must be more precious to us than our own For it is more necessary to the common good And therefore we take it for our duty not to blazon and aggravate our sufferings too much in the hearing of the people much less to accuse our Rulers of them but to take to our selves the blame of all as far as is true and to confess which is the truth that it is for our own and the peoples sins we should have laboured harder while it was day as foreseeing the night when none can work Joh. 9. And the people should not have forfeited their food by fulness and neglect And alas how many sins of theirs and ours have had a hand in this calamity We take it to be our duty if we hear any speak a dishonouring word against the Powers which God hath set over us to reprove them and better instruct them in their duty and to warn them that they make not any of their love or pity to us an occasion of their sin And to remember them how much the common good and all our peace is beholden to Magistracy notwithstanding the
ever it be the question only VVhether this man or that man be fittest to have his countenance and maintenance and to be by him allowed to preach when only one of the two is needful we shall never speak against him for chusing according to his judgment as long as meer hereticks impious or intollerably unable ones are not chosen But if many hundred worthy Ministers shall be forbidden to Preach at a time and in a Land where many hundred thousand souls do wofully cry out for help as lying in damnable ignorance and sensuality and ungodliness in this case we say that no Rulers may forbid such Preaching 3. The Objectors seem to intimate dangerous Doctrine that if a King should not be a Christian or of the right Religion he lost his power over the Church which is false however maintained by the Papists The Heathen and Infidel Rulers had the Government of all their Subjects Christians and Apostles as well as others They wanted aptitude to do it well and therefore some of them persecuted But they wanted not Authority a King loseth not his Authority when ever he loseth his aptitude to use it rightly Christian Kings only can rule the Church well but others also are its authorized Rulers and there is no external coactive power at all but in the Kings or Magistrates be they Christian or Infidel 4. Christ himself did not set up a Kingdom of this world or worldly nor exempt himself from the Government of the Rulers Nor did his Apostles exempt themselves or the Church Paul Rom. 13 c. and Peter call on all Christians to honour the King and to be subject to the higher powers for conscience sake Mark then in this how little our case doth differ from the Apostles when they were forbidden to preach not by Usurpers only but by lawful Rulers to whom they professed conscientious subjection and yet must obey God rather than those very Rulers 5. Christian Rulers are the Churches nursing Fathers and have more obligation than others to build it up but no more power to pull it down They have all their power as Paul had his For edification and not for destruction It was never referred to them to judg as I have before said whether there shall be a Church or a Christ or a Ministry or whether souls shall be saved or damned or the Gospel Preached where it is necessary to Salvation or not But only by whom and in what order which best furthereth mens Salvation it shall be Preached If a Magistrate as a Magistrate may not forbid necessary Preaching much less may a Christian Magistrate as Christian who is more obliged to promote it This therefore altereth not the case 6. The Sanhedrin and Herod and other Jewish Rulers had such real Authority as Christ did not disown of the same nature with Jehoshaphats and Hezekiahs If therefore these were not to be obeyed when they forbad necessary Preaching then lawful Rulers in that case are not to be obeyed 7. The Arrian Emperours had lawful Power of coactive Government over the Church and yet the Orthodox Bishops never thought it their duty to cease Preaching in Conscience of obeying their commands Though they were forced oft to quit their present Stations Let not any Cainite here say that I compare our Rulers to Arrians For I only argue that if an Arrian Emperour had true Authority and yet when he thus abused it was not to be obeyed by forbearing to Preach the same must be said of others that have authority in case of the like Prohibitions 8. Christ setled Pastors over his Churches 300 years before there were any Christian Princes or States By which he shewed that though Princes are the true Rulers of Pastors yet Pastors are more necessary to the Being of the Church and to Salvation of the people than Princes are and that Pastors hold not their office from Princes nor at their will unless you think they had no true power till Constantines reign 9. Magistrates may not hinder a sufficient number from entering into the Ministry else the meaning of Christ must be Pray the Lord of the harvest to perswade Kings and Rulers to give leave to men to become labourers Therefore they may not hinder a sufficient number from labouring when they are entered 10. Magistrates cannot dispense with absolute lawful Vows to God at least about necessary duty This all Protestant Divines maintain in their Writings against the Papists who plead for the Popes power to dispense with Vows But our enterance into the Ministry had the nature of an absolute lawful Vow and was done by the Magistrates encouragement For in it we did solemnly devote our selves to the Sacred office and work 11. Magistrates are Christs Officers and Servants and have no power but from him and for him as the Justice and Constable are under the King Therefore they have no power against him Therefore they have no power to forbid the necessary Preaching of the Gospel and where it is not necessary we confess their power 12. If the Magistrate might degrade Ministers or absolutely forbid their work then it would follow that one Prince hath the Government of all other Princes Dominions or else that all Princes on earth must agree to the degrading of a Minister For it is fully proved by Divines of all parties except some of the Independents that Ministers at their Ordination are as Christians at their Baptism entered into a Relation to the Universal Church and not only to one particular Church And therefore he that is removed from one Church or Kingdom is not removed from the Ministerial office which continueth as towards an indefinite object Yea we are first in order of nature related to the unconverted world as we have capacity Go teach all Nations baptizing them will be Christs Law to the end of the world And if they cannot degrade they cannot take away the power of exercising the office statedly but only suspend it for a time or limit the exercise or regulate it by their governing power on just occasions and governing an office is not nullifying or destroying it Obj But if the Magistrate may suspend them and deny them liberty in his dominions then it is he and not every Minister that is to judg who deserveth such restraint 1. If you speak of publick judgment which is the publick decision of a controverted cause no doubt it is only the Magistrate that is Judg in foro civili No Pastor may enter into the Judgment seat and judg his own cause But if you speak of a private judgment of discerning every mans reason is the discerner of his own duty for he cannot do it without discerning it 2. The Magistrate is to judg publickly but not as he list as left to his own will but as an officer of Christ under the regulation of his Laws as our Judges are regulated by the Kings Laws The King may judg between an Infidel and a Christian whether Christ be the
others will call that Solitude which you call concord uniformity and peace And our unity will be like theirs in Moldavia and VValachia And who shall compensate the Kings damage 3. And Foreign Churches and posterity will be brought by it to so great a hatred of Prelacy that they will never be reconciled to it more but prefer a poor and humble Ministry And indeed it is already so known by its fruits that I am much in doubt the experience of it will alienate the people from that Primitive lawful Episcopacy which I would have them to desire They say already Give us the old honest humble serious Puritans that lived not upon Gold and Worldly greatness and cherished not mens sins that they might cherish them Fruatur vocibus obscaenis omnique libidinis arte Qui Lacedomonium Pytismate lubricrat orbem Namque ibi fortunae veniam damus alea turpis Turpe adulterium mediocribus haec eadem illi Omnia cum faciant Hilares nitidique vocantur Juv. I suppose you know how much it alienateth men from Popery that their Religion must be fed and live by blood yea by precious blood Some of you have written your wishes that the course had been followed which was begun in the days of Whitgift and Bancroft when divers Nonconformists were hanged And some have written that it was not for Religion but for Treason As for Hacket and Coppinger it 's known they were crackt-brain'd men pretending to be sent to judge the World whom the Nonconformists condemned which Bancroft himself in part confesseth And whereas Dr. Sutliffe conjectured that Cartwright was privy to all Mr. Simeon Ash gave me a Manuscript supposed to be Mr. Cartwrights own writing fully confuting that accusation And as for the rest it 's true that the Bishops then laboured by exposition of a Law to make Treason by consequence of that which was spoken against themselves But it will be long ere the confutation of that is well answered which is written by some one learned in the Law called A Petition to her Majesty c. And what the same Author saith Pag. 25. of that Pious man Mr. Udal will by others and perhaps one day by your consciences be thought on with respect to the 2000 silenced Ministers of late and the many that have dyed in and by imprisonment and much more of so many as if you prosecute what you have begun you must destroy His words are That the Bishops should be so unnatural as to seek the life of a right godly and faithful Preacher of the Gospel I mean Mr. Udal to whom Life was offered if he would take his Oath that he did not make a book whereof he was supposed to be Author A rare example that a man should be known standing at a bar shackled in bolts but quaere quo jure and coupled with a murderer whose conscience was thought so faithful and sound by the Judg himself that he would not swear falsly to gain his life He had not learnt some mens rules for expounding Oaths Nor loved his life so well as some men do a Benefice But were no worse men suffered 8. You may have all that is truly desirable and to be expected in this world as necessary to Unity and Concord to Order and Decency and to your own honour accomplished ten thousand times easilier surer and better by obvious honest lawful means God never putteth men upon such bloody and desperate courses as some advise It is no necessity of Gods making that is pleaded for such means but of their own sinful making or false imagining God never wanteth lyes or cruelty to his service or glory They are usually wicked selfish ends whatever is pretended for which men chuse and use such means Or if the ends were never so good they will not justifie such means nay good ends will condemn them as contrary incongruous and destructive But when there are easie suitable and honest means enow at hand the choice of such as are forementioned beseemeth none but those whose design is to destroy If you say What be those means They are easily told you but your little self-interests will not give you leave to think them tolerable I shall tell you more particularly anon I will now speak but of the generals Quest. 1. What if you would learn of the Holy Ghost to impose no other than Necessary things Act. 15. What if you had the patience to endure the Apostolick Primitive way of Discipline and Worship and suffered men to go to Heaven in the same way as the Apostles and Christians of those times did What if you kept all that Wisdom to your selves in which you excel the Apostles and put no more upon the Churches than they did Would the inconveniences of this weigh down the mischiefs which are now upon the Churches throughout the world by the contrary course Let not your passion make you run away with a conceit of an intollerable conclusion and say I would reduce you to the Primitive poverty or persecution No I talk not of matters extrinsick to Discipline and Worship for faith we will yet suppose we are agreed in I suppose you think not that Poverty or Riches are parts of the instituted worship of God I am as far from expecting that you should consent to be as poor and persecuted as the Apostles as that you should be as good as the Apostles Those that you have to do with believe that the Scripture hath more exactly determined how God will be worshipped than hâ—w much a year shall be the Revenues of a Bishop We meddle not with your Lands or Lordships whatever our own opinion be of such matters Though we are ambitious of your higher and wealthier condition yet we neither envy it nor think it our duty to diminish your wealth But the question is If you let men worship God without any more yokes or burdens than Christ and his Apostles laid upon the Churches what harm would it do Did they then want any needful uniformity Did they not pray decently without a Surplice Did they not baptize decently without the Cross If you say that they had their rites of decency then though not the same that we have now I answer Impose no other than they imposed Leave those free which they left free Though you think your own to be better than theirs so do not all Christians If it be mens infirmity to think that the Scripture-rites are better than yours yet what harm will it do you to bear with that infirmity What if you required no more Oaths of obedience to the Bishops than the Apostles required to themselves or to any Pastors of the Church What if you required no Subscription to any thing as certain truth but only to the infallible Oracles of the Spirit Nay the Apostles required not any to subscribe to all the books of Sacred Scripture but only to receive them in general as the Doctrine of Christ and the Holy Ghost and they
are so large and the Churches so small and the Preachers voice so low that one of ten or twenty of the Parishioners cannot hear if they were never so willing 7. That many Ministers are insufficient and the Parson of the Parish where I live hath been suspended ab officio these two or three years or at least hath not officiated 8. That therefore the silence of all the Nonconformists is like to prove the damnation of many thousand souls 9. That if the King only forbid us preaching and not the Bishop we are not bound to such silence as he requireth 10. That our Bishops are not chosen by the Presbyters of the Diocess or the people but by the King whatever formality seem to contradict this 11. That the extent of their Diocesses is not jure divino 12. That none of them is jure divino the Bishop of me or any other such 13. That National Churches are but of humane institution 14. That what man instituteth man may abrogate or undo 15. That if King or Bishop forbid me to relieve the poor in true necessity or to feed any family or teach them I must not obey 16. That the prime part of Religion is in positives and but the second in negatives and therefore sins of omission are the first sins 17. That no sin must be matter of obedience to Bishops or any man 18. That the Apostles had their power to edification and not to destruction 19. That in case of controversies of Faith the Church may not judg in partem utram libet but only for the truth 20. That all Bishops power is limited and not absolute 21. That when they command without power only passive obedience is due 22. That Bishops are not made Judges whether there shall be preaching and worshipping God or not but only to order it aright and judg by whom it shall be done 23. That Bishops cannot dispense with the Law of God nor humane power prevail against Divine 24. That order is for the end and for the thing ordered and not against it 25. That natural morals are to be preferred caeteris paribus before positives much more before humane orders and God will have mercy and not sacrifice 26. That the silencing of the faithful Preachers of the Gospel greatly pleaseth the Devil and that he is so far of the Silencers mind 27. He accuseth not the silenced Ministers with any false doctrine 28. He chargeth them not with Immoralities or a bad life saving his supposed sin of Schism for preaching Christs Gospel when forbidden 29. He confesseth that Paul must preach though forbidden and that he chargeth Timothy before God and Angels to preach in season and out of season 30. He confesseth that the Pastors for 300. years preached when lawful Magistrates were against it and for bad them 31. I acquaint him that I my self have the Bishops ordination the Bishop of the Diocess License not repealed and the Kings License and yet unless I will say that I trust to the Bishops License as that without which all were Schism it is Schism still so that it seemeth to be made necessary not only to have it but to believe in it or trust it On the other side we grant as followeth 1. That we must not over-value our own grace or gifts nor undervalue other men nor pretend that our labours are more necessary than they are 2. We must not disobey our lawful Rulers by omission or commission in any thing which it belongeth to their office or power to command or forbid us 3. That if they command or forbid without power that which belongeth not to their office as that which belongeth to a mans private Trade or self-government or family-government c. if it be not in it self evil we should materially obey them finis gratia to preserve order and reverence to their office and that we embolden not men to disobey in other things though formally that particular injunction be powerless of itself 4. That if they command us that which God forbiddeth or forbid that which God commandeth we must patiently suffer what unjust punishment they inflict on us for not obeying them and not resist them in their executions by force Though we cannot say that this hath no exceptions as if a Bishop would ravish a woman she may resist him to save her chastity yet at least no resistance is lawful which deposeth the Governour or disableth him to govern 5. We think it not lawful to invade or take the publick Temples or Tythes or other maintenance of the publick Ministers against the Kings will or without authority 6. We believe that lawful Rulers have power to forbid such ministers to preach in this or that place or any where in their dominions whose preaching is such as tendeth to do more harm than good 7. Had we any reasonable conviction that our Ministry is unnecessary we would obey our Rulers though they silenced us causlesly and would seek some other place or way of serving God 8. In those times places and circumstances which perswade us that more hurt than good will come by it if we preach we will then and there forbear it though it be not as an act of formal obedience nor a desertion of our Office or of the exercise of it at other times 9. We judg it our duty to further the good success of the Conformable Ministers to the utmost of our power 10. And we take Schism to be a great sin and that which we are bound to do the best we can not only to avoid our selves but to cure or hinder in others But we cannot in our present case give over the preaching of Christs Gospel for the Reasons before given 1. We judg it a violation of the grand Law of Charity to agree with the Bishops that the people shall be damned by thousands and content our selves that not we but they shall answer for it 2. We judge it perfidiousness to violate our Ministerial Covenant with God in which we gave up our selves to his service 3. We judge it also heinous sacriledge it being a holy work to which we are devoted 4. It is an Idolatrous setting up mans will and power above and against Gods 5. It is a preferring of pretended Order before the thing ordered and that which is less than sacrifice even sin before Mercy yea the greatest mercy 6. It is a pleasing of the Devil who is the great enemy of Preaching the Gospel and of sinners repentance and salvation and whose instruments the hinderers of the Gospel are we leave to consideration 7. It is a contradicting of the prayer taught us by Christ Pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers For we are sure he hath not sent forth supernumeraries 8. It is a wilful running on Christs damning sentence after his premonition Matth. 25. by omitting greater matters than feeding cloathing visiting c. 9. It will be a burying our talent with the unprofitable servant and denying God
the service which he hath qualified us for and all our former time hath been spent in preparing for and so it is as a casting away our time and life 10. It will be a wilful compliance with Phariseism after the warning of their ill examples who preferred their orders traditions sabbaths and their own authority before the good of the peoples souls and bodies 11. It will be an encouraging compliance with Church-tyranny in exercitio if we will give over Preaching as oft as Bishops forbid us because we will not take their Oaths and be stigmatized with their PER I say supposing this had been the case 12. We think it will be a compliance with Church-tyranny quo ad titulum being ready to prove not only that the present Diocesans have no true power over us but what is given them by the King as Magistrates but also that their frame of Government is destructive of the Churches Ministry both Episcopacy and Presbytery and Discipline of Christs appointment 13. We are afraid of being guilty as things now go of mens Usurpation and injury against the King while we have the Kings License to preach and they tell us not only that the King hath not so much authority to License us as they but also that he hath less authority to silence us than they and that it is lawful to preach when Kings unjustly forbid us as the ancient Pastors did but not when these Bishops forbid us 14. In short When we think what a work it is to damn souls by starving them or to hinder their salvation our hearts dread to participate in such guilt considering 1. It is contrary to the very nature of God who is Love it self And we find that the silencers are ready to trust in Gods Love to themselves in the hour of their extremity And shall we think that he so little loveth the souls of men as to desire that they should be damned rather than saved against the will of a Diocesan 2. It is contrary to the very office and design of Christ who laid down his life a ransome for many and came to seek and to save that which was lost and would not cease when the Rulers forbad him to teach the people and demanded an account of his authority but would break even the rest of the Sabbath to save mens health telling them that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath and if Prelacy be of God it is for the peoples salvation and not their salvation to be sacrificed to a Prelates will 3. It is contrary to the sanctifying-work of the Holy Ghost who by the Gospel converteth man to God 4. It is contrary to Christs institution of the Ministerial office which was for mens salvation 5. It is contrary to our duty to the Catholick Church whose increase we must endeavour 6. It is contrary to our daily prayers To pray God to have mercy upon all men and to deny them his mercy and starve their souls is gross hypocrisie 7. It is contrary to our Baptismal-vow in which we engaged our selves to fight under Christs banner in the place where he should set us against the world the flesh and the devil 8. It is contrary to our due Love to our native Countrey for whose temporal welfare even a Heathen would have dyed 9. It is contrary to that peace of the Church which is pretended for it For it destroyeth the necessary foundations and ends of peace 10. And it is contrary to the very honour of the Prelates themselves which is set in competition with things of inestimable worth For it will make the people that believe the Gospel to take such men as prosessing themselves the Fathers of the Church do silence the faithful Preachers of it to be grand enemies of Christ and Souls and the Captains in the Army of the devil 11. All good men long for the propagating of the Gospel to the Heathen and Infidel World And shall we then be guilty of suppressing it at home 12. The Papists and all such will condemn us who will not give over Preaching even when King and Law and Bishops forbid them And shall we incur all this guilt by ceasing for nothing yea even now while we are licensed by the King We had rather be taken in the company of thieves in a pursuit than to be found among PER's and soul murderers at judgment Sion is the City of Salvation but in Babylon is found the blood of souls of whom for carnal ends they made merchandize The foregoing Reasons of our Accusation are sufficiently answered already I. Where it is said that our Calling is dependent on the Bishops I answer It is yet lis sub judice whether such a Prelacy be of God we mean the English Species that is for one man to destroy a thousand or many hundred Churches and make them but Parts of one Diocesan Church and without any Bishop under him to Rule and exercise the Power of the Keys over that one Church by a Lay-Chancellor in a secular manner and deny the Power of the Church-Keys to all the demi-demi-Presbyters If these Diocesans were of God so is not every one that by worldly power gets possession of the place being neither chosen by the Clergy or the people any more than one that forcibly usurpeth the name and dignity What maketh that man a Bishop over me any more than another man Had they said the King I should have reverenced the answer at least Though the Arrians had the same in Constantius and Valens's days But when they trust not to this but to their divine right what is it that is their title They say Consecration I answer 1. Consecration is but a Ministerial investiture like Marriage of one that before had right by election This they deny and lay all on Consecration and not Election 2. But if so then if the unjustest claimer be Consecrated he is our Bishop And then the Consecrators have more power to determine who shall be Bishops than Kings and People 3. But who be these Consecrators Are they any Bishops whatever or some in special above the rest If any then any wicked Bishops may make more and undo the Church And then what if three Bishops Consecrate one and three another and three another over one Diocess Are they all the Bishops of that Diocess or which 4. But the Objectors confess that Consecration doth but make one a Bishop without a determinate Church but to make him the Bishop of this or that Church humane application is necessary But 1. Where find they in Scripture a Bishop made that was not made the Bishop of a particular Church I believe that a Minister of Christ in general and an Evangelist in specie may be made before he is fixed to any particular Church But not a Bishop if Scripture must be the rule 2. But if he be Consecrated a Bishop and not my Bishop or any other mans this layeth on me no