Power that they had by the meer Interest of their Gifts and Priviledge of being Eye Witnesses of the Works of Christ and Ear Witnesses of his Words Answ. 7. The extraordinary Gifts of the Apostles and the Priviledge of being Eye and Ear Witnesses to Christ were Abilities which they had for the infallible Discharge of their Function but they were not the Ground of their Power and Authority to govern the Church That the Seventy and so other Presbyters were inferior to the Apostles and under their Government doth appear to me though at their first sending by Christ they were immediately subject to Christ the Apostles not being then established in the Government of the Church but when Christ authorised his Apostles with the Power of Government Potestas Clavium was committed to them only not to the Seventy and so we must conceive that the Colledge of Apostles were invested with the Government of the Church and the Seventy not having the Keys committed to them were under the Authority of the Apostles and so were Presbyters to the Apostles Successors Prop. 3. If the Apostles Example will prove the right of an unfixed ambulatory Episcopacy yet I would see how it appears that ever they were fixed to particular Charges or ever any of them had a distinct and limited Diocess where the rest had not Charge as well as they Answ. 8. I conceive the Apostles as Apostles had an unlimited and as you call it an unfixed ambulatory Episcopacy being sent into the whole World and not by Christ's Institution confined to any one fixed Seat but yet that hinders not but that by Consent and Agreement among themselves they might have a Distribution of their several Circuits as it is seen in the Agreement between St. Peter and St. Paul which as it did not exclude their original Power over all Churches so it did accommodate them to a more opportune Discharge of their Function and accordingly they setled their Successors in those Places not committing to them an universal Jurisdiction which was a Personal Priviledge of their Apostleship Prop. 4. I am satisfied that very early after the Apostles the common Government of each Church was by a Bishop and Presbytery but yet I can see no Evidence that this Church for 150 or 200 Years was any more than one Congregation like one of our Parishes for Number of People which was congregated in a City and from the circumjacent Villages as our Independant or Anabaptist Churches now are while the Multitude were Infidels I would therefore crave any clear Proof that the first fixed Bishops ruled any more standing Congregations having ordinarily Assemblies and Communion in the Lord's Supper than one only and whether the multiplying of Believers did not make a real Change of the former Species of Government while the Bishop of the City took on him the Government of many particular Churches who had but one before and whether Bishops should not have been multiplied as fast as Churches were and Presbyters were Answ. 9. That the Government of the Churches was not only Vicatim but Regionatim appears by those Deputies and Successors which the Apostles constituted in particular Titus is authorised to ordain and govern not one Parish but the many Churches in Crete That those primitive Bishops did employ their ordinary Function of Preaching and adminstring the Sacrament in their City of Residence may well be granted which hinders not but that they might have Inspection into the circumjacent Villages for ordaining of Presbyters and other Administrations of Government and what needed a Colledge of Presbyters residing in the City with the Bishop if they were not sent out by him to officiate in those Villages adjacent as the Number of Believers required not did the multiplying of Believers in the adjacent places require several Bishops in several Congregations independent on the City Bishop but the ordinary Discharge of those Places was committed to them in Subordination to the city-City-Bishop and Presbyters there assembled as occasion required In this Case it fared with the Church as in Philosophy they say it is in the matter of Nutrition and Augmentation where the form is not multiplied but only extended ad novam materiam These Answers not changing my Judgment I made the following Notes upon them Ad 1. Every Church Primae magnitudinis speciei should be as great and no greater than is capable of PERSONAL Communion as our greater Parishes and every such Church had of old a Bishop One Altar and one Bishop was Ignatius's Note of one Church and such a one may maintain divers Ministers and the Rich should not burden the Church for maintenance but help freely Ad 2. This is a President of a Synod of Bishops Ad 3. I thank you for granting Presbyters to be Church-Rectors Ad 4. If he be but a President he is but a Bishop Primi Ordinis of one Church as the rest But if he be the stated Rector of many Churches he is really an Archbishop Ad 5. This was written when our Diocesane Frame was taken down to reconcile them that were for and them that were against such Bishops pro tempore If you take liberty to cast off the Example of Cyprian's times on pretence that the Case is altered by the Kings Laws then you will never know where to rest while Laws are alterable Qu. Whether the Practice of the Church till Cyprian's time be not a probable Notice to us what was the Apostolical instituted Government If not why use you the Argument of Antiquity for Episcopacy If yea Qu. Whether Rulers may alter the Apostolick Institution and the Office and work of Presbyters may be changed on pretence that now Bishops can do it without them He that ever tryed true Discipline will find one Parish big enough for one Man's or divers Mens right Performance of it and Six hundred or a Thousand Parishes too many Alas do you think it Lawful to ordain insufficient unmeet Men if the Law of the Land so command you what then are Christ's Laws for Ad. 6. Here I granted you the major of your grand Argument for Episcopacy Ad 7. The Apostles Superiority of Power I deny not but that the Power of the Keys was given to the Apostles only I deny If Christ immediately gave it to no other yet by his Spirit he did and by the Church-Law which he left to be the Instrument of continued conveyance and Title by which the Apostles were to invest others with that Power which the Schoolmen ordinarily acknowledge to belong to Presbyters as such who may use them to the People Ad 8. 1. De facto it is no where proved truly that the Twelve or Thirteen Apostles did by consent limit their Provinces But contrarily that they Officiated together at Ierusalem and Peter if at Rome as some think he was and Paul in the same Diocess at Rome c. and Paul and Iohn at Ephesus and Timothy also as is said 2. If they had this had been
doubt that neither the Episcopal Presbyterian nor Independant way alone will well settle the Church But that each of the three Parties and those called Erastians have somewhat of the Truth in peculiar and somewhat of Faultiness and if ever the Church be well setled it must be by taking the best and leaving out the worst of every party and till that can be done we must bear with what we cannot amend Octobo 9. 1688. Mr. J BEcause your Friend refuseth Conference though I promised secrefie and a loving Debate I will for your sake answer your Questions my self which I take to be these Two I Whether you ought not presently to fix your self in a particular Church and not continue any longer occasional Communion with many II. What Church you should be a fixed Communicant in I. As to the First I know not well what is meant by fixed Membership by the Author of the Writing which you shewed me you must be a fixed Member of Christ and the Church Universal or else you are no fixed Christian But as to particular Pastors and Congregations Order and Concord and Edification are the general Rules which tell you where to fix and how far 1. You ought not to commit any real Sin for Communion with any Church 2. Though you may and must join with faulty Assemblies and Worship yet you must not justifie their Faults nor profess your Consent to them nor promise that you will never endeavour any Amendment of them 3. There must be no Self-obliging unnecessarily Liberty is not so contemptible a thing that we should cast it away for nought much less must you bind your self contrary to God's Providence or without excepting Alterations by it 4. Your Church-Membership as to particular Congregations must have no greater fixedness than your Habitation and other Obligations You may remove your Congregational Relation when you remove your Dwelling and none can hinder you from removing both when your Interest requireth it Suspect them that would make you their Propriety II. As to the Second where you should fix 1. You are in your Father's House under his Government and must obey him in all lawful things and must not go against his Consent 2. You are a Member of a Christian Family and no Scripture tells us of the Members of one Christian Family being of divers Churches nor alloweth it 3. Scripture knoweth no particular Churches but what were bounded by Neighbourhood and Cohabitation except Hereticks There were never Churches gathered out of Churches then nor two approved Churches of the same Language in the same Bounds 1. I do hereby undertake to prove against any Disputer that there is no Form so agreeable to God's Word as this following 1. A Christian Kingdom consisting of a Christian King or supreme Power and particular confederate Churches being the Burgesses and peaceable Unbelievers that tolerated Aliens or Catechumens 2. A reformed Episcopacy Successors to the Evangelists that without the Sword or Force had the Care of many Churches 3. Reformed Parish-Churches consisting of Godly Pastors and professed Christian Cohabitants the incapable being Catechumens which made the old Nonconformists declare that they were so far from being against Parish-Churches that their Lives would be a burden to them if they were not restored to them The first Church State that Christ himself made was the Platform of a Christian Kingdom Church offering to make Iudaea such setting Twelve Apostles over the Twelve Tribes and Seventy two Disciples the Number of their great Council and so would have gathered all Ierusalem's Children to himself as a Hen gathereth her Chickens Mat. 23. which they refusing he declared that the Kingdom of God should be taken from them and given to a Nation that would bring forth the fruit thereof and so they were cut off for their Unbelief and we graffed in to the same Olive or political State the Mosaical Law only changed for Christ's Law And as all the Prophets foretold this that Christ's Church should be a Davidical Kingdom so after Two Hundred Ninety Four Years Tryal it was set up and the Pagan Empire Babylon did fall and Christ reigned by Christian Emperors and his enemies were made his Footstool and the Kingdoms of the World became the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ consisting of Churches confederate for Unity and the Nations brought in their Glory to it and the Fulness of the Gentiles came in and all the Israel of God were saved Iudaea becoming the most Christian Nation in the World And Heaven and Earth rejoiced at the Fall of Babylon and this new Ierusalem's iniâ—ial Sâ—aâ—e And sure it is such a Kingdom-Church which those expect that talk of the future Thousand Years Reign of Christ. As Teachers are under him as Prophet and Priests as he is Priest so are Christian Kings as he is King and bad Kings are no more Reason against his Institution than bad Teachers and Priests 2. There are Three Sorts of Pastors or Bishops in Christ's Church I. Such as were to gather many Churches out of Infideâ—s and to set Elders or fixed Bishops over them and then oversee both the Elders and People Such Christ made the Apostles whose Office was partly extraordinary and temporary and is so far only ceased and partly ordinary and continued and so Christ promised to be with them to the end of the World And such were Evangelists sent forth with and by the Apostles to gather and oversee many Churches and Pastors Such were Titus Timothy Luke Mark Barnabas Silas and many more God never recalled this Order of Ministers if any say he did it lyeth in them to prove it This was the first sort of Pastors II. The Second Sort were the fixed Elders which these ordained in every Church who were all Bishops over the Flocks and so called but under the general Ministers who yet had none of them any forcing Power by the Sword these two God instituted III. The Third Sort between these Two was a President Pastor in every particular Church like the President of a Colledge who had some moderating guiding Power among the rest of the Elders This was set up to avoid Division among the Elders every Church having usually many and received even in some of the Apostles Days and never rejected for a Thousand Years 3. Particular Churches in Scripture Times were distinguished by the places of their Neighbourhood as I said before and there were never two Churches in the same Bounds except Hereticks and Men of divers Languages From this it is plain that the most Divine From of Government is 1. A Christian Kingdom 2. With Reformed General Ministers 3. And Reformed Parish-Churches having fixed Pastors and where it may be our Chief c. Moreover as to your fixing the Churches in Question with you I suppose are not the Papists the Quakers the Familists c. But the Episcopal the Presbyterian the Independent and the Separatist if not the Anabaptists also I. The Episcopal are of Two Sorts
indeed I had such clear Convictions my self of the madness of secure presâ—mptuous Sinners and the unquestionable Reasons which should induce men to a holy Life and of the unspeakable greatness of that Work which in this hasty Inch of Time we have all to do that I thought that Man that could be ungodly if he did but hear these things was fitter for Bedlam than for the Reputation of a sober rational Man And I was so foolish as to think that I had so much to say and of such Convincing Evidence for a Godly Life that Men were scarce able to withstand it not considering what a blind and sensless Rock the Heart of an obdurate Sinner is and that old Adam is too strong for young Luther as he said But these Apprehensions determined my choice § 17. Till this time I was satisfied in the Matter of Conformity Whilst I was young I had never been acquainted with any that were against it or that questioned it I had joyned with the Common-Prayer with as hearty â—ervency as afterward I did with other Prayers As long as I had no Prejudice against it I had no stop in my Devotions from any of its Imperfections At last at about 20 years of Age I became acquainted with Mr. Simmonds Mr. Cradock and other very zealous godly Nonconformists in Shrewsbury and the adjoyning parts whose fervent Prayers and savoury Conference and holy Lives did profit me much And when I understood that they were People prosecuted by the Bishops I found much prejudice arise in my heart against those that persecuted them and thought those that silenced and troubled such Men could not be the genuine Followers of the Lord of Love But yet I resolved that I would study the Point as well as I was able before I would be confident on either side And it prejudiced me against the Nonconformists because we had but one of them near us one Mr. Barnel of Uppington who though he was a very honest blameless Man yet was reputed to be but a mean Scholar when Mr. Garbet and some other Conformists were more Learned Men And withal the Books of the Nonconformists were then so scarce and hard to be got because of the danger that I could not come to know their reasons Whereas on the contrary side Mr. Garbet and Mr. Samuel Smith did send me Downham Sprint Dr. Burges and others of the strongest that had wrote against the Nonconformists upon the reading of which I could not see but the Cause of the Conformists was very justifiable and the reasoning of the Nonconformists weak Hereupon when I thought of Ordination I had no Scruple at all against Subscription And yet so precipitant and rash was I that I had never once read over the Book of Ordination which was one to which I was to Subscribe nor half read over the Book of Homilies nor exactly weighed the Book of Common-Prayer nor was I of sufficient Understanding to determine confidently in some Controverted Points in the 39 Articles But my Teachers and my Books having caused me in general to think the Conformists had the better Cause I kept out all particular Scruples by that Opinion § 18. At that time old Mr. Richard Foley of Stourbridge in Worcestershire had recovered some alienated Lands at Dudley which had been lest to Charitable Uses and added something of his own and built a convenient new School-House and was to choose his first School-Master and Usher By the means of Iames Berry who lived in the House with me and had lived with him he desired me to accept it I thought it not an inconvenient Condition for my Entrance because I might also Preach up and down in Places that were most ignorant before I presumed to take a Pastoral Charge to which I had no inclination So to Dudley I went and Mr. Foley and Iames Berry going with me to Worcester at the Time of Ordination I was Ordained by the Bishop and had a Licence to teach School for which being Examined I Subscribed § 19. Being settled with an Usher in the new School at Dudley and living in the House of Mr. Richard Foley Junior I there preached my first Publick Sermon in the upper Parish Church and afterwards Preached in the Villages about and there had occasion to fall afresh upon the study of Conformity For there were many private Christians thereabouts that were Nonconformists and one in the House with me And that excellent Man Mr. William Fenner had lately lived two miles off at Sedgeley who by defending Conformity and honouring it by a wonderfully powerful and successful way of Preaching Conference and holy Living had stirred up the Nonconformists the more to a vehement pleading of their Cause And though they were there generally godly honest People yet smartly censorious and made Conformity no small fault And they lent me Manuscripts and Books which I never saw before whereupon I thought it my Duty to set upon a serious impartial Trial of the whole Cause The Cause of Episcopacy Bishop Downham had much satisfied me in before and I had not then a sufficient Understanding of the difference betwixt the Arguments for an Episcopacy in general and for our English Diocesans in particular The Cause of Kneeling at the Sacrament I studied next and Mr. Paybody fully satisfied me for Conformity in that I turned over Cartwright and Whitgift and others but having lately procured Dr. Ames fresh suit I thought it my best way to study throughly Dr. Burges his Father-in-law and him as the likeliest means to avoid distraction among a multitude of Writers and not to lose the Truth in crowds of Words seeing these two were reputed the strongest on each side So I borrowed Amesius his Fresh Suit c. and because I could not keep it I transcribed the strength of it the broad Margin of Dr. Burges his Rejoynder over against each Paragraph which he replied to And I spent a considerable time in the strictest Examination of both which I could perform And the result of all my Studies was as followeth Kneeling I thought lawful and all meer Circumstances determined by the Magistrate which God in Nature or Scripture hath determined of only in the General The Surplice I more doubted of but more inclined to think it lawful And though I purposed while I doubted to forbear it till necessity lay upon me yet could I not have justified the forsaking of my Ministry for it though I never wore it to this day The Ring in Marriage I made no Scruple about The Cross in Baptism I thought Dr. Ames proved unlawful and though I was not without some doubting in the Point yet because I most inclined to judge it unlawful never once used it to this day A Form of Prayer and Liturgy I judged to be lawful and in some Cases lawfully imposed Our Liturgy in particular I judged to have much disorder and defectiveness in it but nothing which should make the use of it in the ordinary Publick
prosecute them or cast them out as it is against the nature of the body to dismember it self by cutting off any of the parts And it is easie to bring such Persons to Agreement at least to live in Charitable Communion But on the other side the Carnal Selfish and Unsanctified of what Party or Opinion soever have a Nature that is quite against holy Concord and Peace They want that love which is the natural Balsom for the Churches wounds They are every one Selfish and ruled by Self-Interest and have as many Ends and Centres of their Desires and Actions as they are individual Men. They are easily deceived and led into Errour especially in Practicals and against Spiritual Truths for want of Divine Illumination and Experience of the Things of God and a Nature suitable thereto Their Designs are Carnal Ambitious Covetous as Worldly Felicity is their Idol and their End God is not taken for their highest Governour his Laws must give place to the Desires of their Flesh Their very Religion is but Pride and Worldliness or subject to it They have a secret Enmity against a holy spiritual Life and therefore against the People that are holy They love not them that are serious in their own Religion and that go beyond their dead Formality This Enmity provoked by Self-interest or Reproof doth easily make them Persecutors of the Godly if they have but power And their carnal worldly hearts incline them to the carnal worldly side in any Controversies about Religion and to corrupt it and make it a carnal thing These Hypocrites in the Church do betray its Purity and Peace and â—ell Christ's Interest and the Gospel for as small a price as Iudas sold his Lord for And though in a time when God's Providence setteth his own Cause on the higher ground and giveth it the advantage of holy Governours these Men may possibly be serviceable to its welfare as finding it to serve their carnal Ends yet ordinarily they will â—ell the Peace of the Church for Preferment and are either imposing persecuting Dividers or discontented humourous Dividers and hardly brought to the necessary terms of a just and holy and durable Peace of whom I have more largely written in my Book called Catholick Unity These and many more Impediments do rise up against all conciliatory endeavours § 22. But I found not all these alike in all the disagreeing Parties though some of both Sorts in every Party The Erastian Party is most composed of Lawyers and other Secular Persons who better understand the Nature of Civil Covernment than the Nature Form and Ends of the Church and of those Offices appointed by Christ for Men's Spiritual Edification and Salvation The Diocesan Party with us consisted of some grave learned godly Bishops and some sober godly People of their mind and withal of almost all the carnal Politicians Temporizers Prophane and Haters of Godliness in the Land and all the Rabble of the ignorant ungodly Vulgar Whether this came to pafs from any thing in the Nature of their Diocesan Government or from their accommodating the ungodly Sort by the formal way of their Publick Worship or from their heading and pleasing them by running down the stricter sort of People whom they hated or all these together and also because the worst and most do always fall in with the Party that is uppermost I leave to the Judgment of the considerate Reader The Presbyterian Party consisted of grave orthodox godly Ministers together with the hopefullest of the Students and young Ministers and the soberest godly ancient Christians who were equally averse to Persecution and to Schism and of those young ones who were educated and ruled by these As also in those places where they most prevailed of the soberest sort of the well-meaning Vulgar who liked a godly Life though they had no great knowledge of it And this Party was most desirous of Peace The Independant Party had many very godly Ministers and People but with them many young injudicious Persons inclined much to Novelties and Separations and abounding more in Zeal than Knowledge usually doing more for Subdivisions than the few sober Persons among them could do for unity and Peace too much mistaking the Terms of Church Communion and the difference between the Regenerate invisible and the Congregate or visible Church The Anabaptists Party consisted of some but fewer sober peaceable Persons and orthodox in other Points but withal of abundance of young transported Zealots and a medley of Opinionists who all hasted directly to Enthusiasm and Subdivisions and by the Temptation of Prosperity and Success in Arms and the Policy of some Commanders were led into Rebellions and hot Endeavours against the Ministry and other Ioandalous Crimes and brought forth the horrid Sects of Ranters Seekers and Quakers in the Land § 23. But the greatest Advantage which I found for Concord and Pacification was among a great number of Ministers and People who had addicted themselves to no Sect or Party at all though the Vulgar called them by the Name of Presbyterians And the truth is as far as I could discover this was the Case of the greatest number of the godly Ministers and People throughout England For though Presbytery generally took in Scotland yet it was but a stranger here And it found some Ministers that lived in conformity to the Bishops Liturgies and Ceremonies however they wisht for Reformation and the most that quickly after were ordained were but young Students in the Universities at the time of the change of Church Government and had never well studied the Point on either side And though most of the Ministers then in England saw nothing in the Presbyterian way of practice which they could not cheerfully concur in yet it was but few that had resolved on their Principles And when I came to try it I found that most that ever I could meet with were against the Ius Divinum of Lay Elders and for the moderate Primitive Episcopacy and for a narrow Congregational or Parochial Extent of ordinary Churches and for an accommodation of all Parties in order to Concord as well as my self I am sure as soon as I proposed it to them I found most inclined to this way and therefore I suppose it was their Judgment before Yea multitudes whom I had no converse with I understood to be of this mind so that this moderate Number I am loth to call them a Party because they were for Catholicism against Parties being no way pre-engaged made the Work of Concord much more hopeful than else it would have been or than I thought it to be when I first attempted it § 24. Things being in this Case I stood still some years as a looker on and contented my self to wish and pray for Peace and only drop now and then a word for it in my practical Writings which hath since been none of my smallest troubles The Reasons were 1. Because I was taken up in Practicals and in such
me for which I thank you and rest Yours in the best Bonds R. Vines § 27. Something also I wrote to Reverend and Learned Mr. Th. Gataker whose Judgment I had seen before in his own Writings And having the encouragement of such Consent I motioned the Business to some London Ministers to have it set on foot among themselves because if it came from them it would be much more taking than from us But they thought it unfit to be managed there for several Reasons and so we must try it or only sit still and wish well as we had done § 28. Next this the state of my own Congregation and the necessity of my Duty constrained me to make some Attempt For I must administer the Sacraments to the Church and the ordinary way of Examining every Man before they come I was not able to prove necessary and the People were averse to it So that I was forced to think of the matter more seriously and having determined of that way which was I thought most agreeable to the Word of God I thought if all the Ministers did accord together in one way the People would much more easily submit than to the way of any Minister that was singular To attempt their Consent I had two very great Encouragements The one was an honest humble tractable People at home engaged in no Party Prelatical Presbyterian or Independant but loving Godliness and Peace and hating Schism as that which they perceived to tend to the ruine of Religion The other was a Company of honest godly serious humble Ministers in the Country where I lived who were not one of them that Associated Presbyterian or Independant and not past four or five of them Episcopal but dis-engaged faithful Men. At a Lecture at Worcester I first procured a Meeting and told them of the Design which they all approved They imposed it upon me to draw up a Form of Agreement The Matter of it was to consist So much of the Church Order and Discipline as the Episcopal Presbyterian and Independant are agreed in as belonging to the Pastors of each particular Church The Reasons of this were 1. Because we all believed that the practice of so much as all are agreed in would do very much to the Order and Reformation of the Churches and that the controverted Parts are those of least necessity or weight 2. Because we would not necessitate any Party to refuse our Association by putting in a word which he disowneth for we intended not to dispute one another into nearer Agreement in Opinions but first to agree in the practice of all that which was owned by us all According to their desire I drew up some Articles for our Consent which might engage us to the most effectual practice of so much Discipline as might reduce the Churches to order and satisfie Ministers in administring the Sacraments and stop the more religious People from Separation to which the unreâ—ormedness of the Churches through want of Discipline inclined them and yet might not at all contradict the Judgments of any of the three Parties And I brought in the Reasons of the several Points which after sufficient Deliberation and Examination with the alteration of some few words were consented to by all the Ministers that were present and after several Meetings we subscribed them and so associated for our mutual help and concord in our Work The Ministers that thus associated were for Number Parts and Piety the most considerable part of all that County and some out of some neighbouring Counties that were near us There was not that I know of one through Presbyterian among them because there was but one such that I knew of in all the County and he lived somewhat remote Nor did any Independant subscribe save one for there were that I knew of but five or six in the County and two of the weightiest of them approved it in words and the rest withdrew from our Debates and gave us no reason against any thing proposed Those that did not come near us nor concur with us were all the weaker sort of Ministers whose Sufficiency or Conversation was questioned by others and knew they were of little esteem among them and were neither able or willing to exercise any Discipline on their Flocks As also some few of better parts of the Episcopal way who never came near us and knew not of our Proposals or resolved to do nothing till they had Episcopacy restored or such whose Judgments esteemed such Discipline of no great necessity And one or two very worthy Ministers who approved of our Agreement subscribed it not because they had a People so very Refractory that they knew they were not able to bring them to submit to it Having all agreed in this Association we proposed publickly to our People so much as required their Consent and Practice and gave every Family a Copy in Print and a sufficient time to consider and understand it and then put it in Execution and I published it with the Reasons of it and an Explication of what seemed doubtful in it in a Book which I called Christian Concord which pleased me and displeased others § 29. There were at that time two sorts of Episcopal Men who differed from each other more than the more moderate sort differed from the Presbyterians The one was the old common moderate sort who were commonly in Doctrine Calvinists and took Episcopacy to be necessary ad bene esse Ministerii Ecclesiae but not ad esse and took all those of the Reformed that had not Bishops for true Churches and Ministers wanting only that which they thought would make them more compleat The other sort followed Dr. H. Hammond and for ought we knew were very new and very few Their Judgment was as he afferteth in Annot. in Act. 11. in Desertat that all the Texts of Scripture which speak of Presbyters do mean Bishops and that the Office of Subject-Presbyters was not in the Church in Scripture Times but before Ignatius wrote it was but that the Apostles planted in every Church only a Bishop with Deacons but with this intent asserted but never proved that in time when the Christians multiplied these Bishops that had then but one Church a piece should ordain Subject-Presbyters under them and be the Pastors of many Churches And they held that Ordination without Bishops was invalid and a Ministry so ordained was null and the Reformed Churches that had no Bishops nor Presbyters ordained by Bishops were no true Churches though the Church of Rome be a true Church as having Bishops These Men in Doctrine were such as are called Arminians And though the other sort were more numerous and elder and some of them said that Dr. H. Hammond had given away their Cause because hereby he confesseth that de facto the Churches were but Congregational or Parochial and that Every Church had a Bishop and no Subject Presbyters were ordained by the Apostles or in Scripture
may read them After this I received from Sir Ralph Clare these ensuing Papers as from some Courtiers which are of the same Strain with Dr. Gunning's which with my brief Answer I adjoin SIR THE Influence and Power you have in the present Pastor of your Church who is much famed abroad and had in a reverend Esteem as well for Piety of Life as for his Learning Moderation and desiring the Peace of the Church gives Encouragement to your old Acquaintance and Associate in that One-glorious Court of England to desire the Favour that this inclosed Paper may be presented to his Christian View and Consideration presuming so great is his Charity that he will not leave any wounded Soul unhealed wherein he is able to bestow his Balm In this he extends not his Charity alone as to a single Person but in me there are many more of your Friends included who would have appeared in Person or met in Conference were is not our Mansions are at too great a distance and the Malignity and Iealousy of Times challenges Retirements rather than Assemblies It is not civil in us to chalk the Method of Answering the Queries yet for Easement Sake and Brevity it will be satisfactory his free Concession of any Proposals in the Affirmative to be true without any Enlargement of Reasons and for those Queries which may and must admit Divisions Distinctions and Discourse on the Case let the reverend Gentleman use his own Form Iudgment and Discretion as believing he will proceed with such Candor and Impartiality as becometh a Man of his Calling and Eminency waving all By-Interests and Relations to any Party or Faction either regnant or eclipst which Act will deservedly heighten the high Esteem he is valued at and your self by this Honour done engage me and many more of your old Friends in me to subscribe our selves Your Servants Theophilus Church A feigned Name April 20. 1655. Certain Queries and Scruples of Conscience offered to some Learned Divines for Resolution and Satisfaction 1. WHETHER may a Christian Magistrate tolerate Liberty of Conscience in Religion and Church Discipline without Scandal 2. Whether may and ought a tender Conscience exercise and use his Liberty and Freedom without Violence inforced by Superiors 3. Whether in Matters of Government Ecclesiastical depending only of Fact the general and perpetual Practice of the Church from Age to Age be not a sufficient Evidence and Warrant of the Right Truth and certainty of the thing 4. Whether the Vocation of Bishops be an Order Lawful in it self 5. Whether the Regiment Ecclesiastical by Bishops hath not continued throughout the Christian Church ever since the Apostles untill Calvin's days No Church Orthodox dissenting 6. Whether was there ever since the Apostle's days so much as one national Church governed by a Presbytery without a Bishop untill Calvin's Days If so where was the Original in what Place by what Persons of what continuance and how was it lost or changed into Episcopacy and upon what Grounds or Motives 7. Whether the present Ministry in the Church of England as it now separated from their lawful Superiors or Bishops be not Schismatical 8. Whether all these Ministers that have taken the Oath of Canonical Obedience to their Bishops and have backsliden and submitted to those Powers that violently deprived the said Bishops of their legal Powers and Iurisdictions by yielding a voluntary Obedience to their Ordinances are not under a high Censure of Perjury and Schism 9. Whether those Ministers now pretended to be made and ordained in the Church of England only by their Fellow Ministers without a Bishop be true Ministers or no or else meer Lay Persons and bold Usurpers of the Sacred Function and Order like Corah and his Complices 10. Whether all those Ministers which are now in actual possession of the late Incumbents Parsonages and Cures of Souls and deprived for their only adhering and assisting their late lawful Prince and their Governour and also their Bishops to whom they owed all Canonical Obedience without and beside any Legal Induction or Admission may not be reputed as Intruders and false Shepherds 11. Whether it had not been an excellent part of Christian Perfection rather to endure passively lost of Liberty Estate and even of Life it self for the maintenance and defence of the Iust and Legal Rights invested in the Church and the Bishops it 's Superintendent Pastors and the Liturgy and Service of the Church than carnally for Self-interest and Ends to comply and submit even against their knowing Consciences to a violent and meer prevailing power and force in the abolishing of Episcopal Power and the daily Prayers and Service used in the Church 12. Whether all such Persons be not guilty of Schism and of Scandal given which Communicate and be present in such Ministers Congregations and Assemblies whether in Church or in private Meetings to hear their Prayers or Sermons or receive their Sacraments according to the now present mode and form more especially in the participation with them in the Sacrament of the Eucharist Or how far may a good Christian Communicate with such without just Scandal given or taken 13. Whether it be lawful and just for any Orthodox Minister or Episcoparian to accept of any Benefice with Cure of Souls as the state of the English Church now standeth visible and ruling without guilt of Schism by compliance to their Form 14. Whether as the Condition of the present Church of England is The Ministers thereof may not legally and so justifiably exercise and use against the late Liturgy of the Church there being no Statute Law prohibiting the same And whether those that continue the Observation of the late Directory be not perturbers of the Peace of the Church especially since the limitation of trial by a pretended Legality and Command for its observance is expired and not reconfirmed 15. Whether the old Iewish Church had not set Forms of Prayer whether St. John the Raptist our Saviour's Praecursor and our blessed Saviour himself taught not their Disciples set Forms of Prayers and whether the Christian Church especially since the time of Peace from the violence of Heathenish Persecution had not nor generally used set Forms of Prayer And whether the Ministers now ex tempore Prayers in the Church be not as well a set Form of Prayers to the Auditors whose Spirits are therein bounded as any set Form of Prayer used in the Church 16. Whether may a Christian without Scandal given appear to be a Godfather or Godmother to a Child in these New Assemblies where the Minister useth his own Dictates and Prayers and not of the ancient Liturgy except the Words of Baptism I Baptize thee A. B. in the Name of the Father c. 17. Whether any Supream Earthly Power or Powers Spiritual or Temporal joint or separate can alienate and convert to secular uses or imployments any Houses Lands Goods or Things once devoted offered and dedicated to God and his Church
no fixing any more Diocesses in the World than Twelve or Thirteen and whoever since pretended to succeed them in those Twelve or Thirteen Diocesses 3. And if following Bishops or Princes fixt Diocesses that is no divine nor unalterable Law 4. We never read that an Apostle claimed any Diocess as proper to him or forbad any other to officiate in it or blamed them for so doing 5. It is certain that while they went themselves from Country to Country they fixed Bishops to every Church or City Act. 14. 23. Yit 1. 5 6. Ad 9. 1. The Apostles fixed not Bishops of the lowest Rank Vicatim nor Rigionatim but in every Church which was then in every City where were Christians even the same Church that had Deacons and Presbyters fixed 2. Bishops preached to Infidels to whom they were not Bishops but Preachers 3. The Christians of neighbour Villages came to the city-City-Church and when they had Oratories or Chappels there it made them not another Parish and excluded not such from personal Communion with the Bishops Church nor extended to such as by Distance or Numbers were uncapable of such personal Communion 4. Titus was either an ambulatory Evangelist to go about as the Apostles gathering and Setling Churches as I think or if fixed he was an Archbishop who was to settle Bishops under him in every City as Dr. Hammond judged It followeth not that a meer Bishop may have a Multitude of Churches because an Archbishop may who hath many Bishops under him 5. As the Magnitude of human Body so also of a particular Church hath its Limitation suited to its Ends Communion by Delegates or Officers only is the Case of many Churches associated But Personal Communion in Doctrine Worship Conversation and Discipline is the End of each particular Church and if you extend the Form to more than are capable of that End even to many such Societies by so doing the Species is changed § 38. About this time a reverend learned Brother Mr. Martin Iohnson being of the Judgment of Dr. Hammond and Dr. Gunning and yet a Lover of all honest peaceable Men and constant at our Meetings Lectures and Disputations was pleased to write to me about the Necessity of Episcopal Ordination I maintained that it was not necessary ad esse Ecclesiae and that he might be a true Minister who was ordained by Presbyters and that in Cases of Necessity it was a Duty to take Ordination from them He opposed this with Modesty and Judgment being a very good Logician till at last he yielded to the Truth These Letters with their Answers are added in the Appendix § 39. A little after this an Accident fell out that hindered our Concord with the Episcopal Party and is pretended at this Day by many to justifie the Silencing of all the Ministers that were afterward put out Oliver Cromwell who then usurped the Government being desired by some to forbid all Ministers of all Parties whatsoever to officiate who were notoriously insufficient or scandalous taketh hence Occasion to put in with the rest all those that took part with the King against the Parliament and so by offending them hindred our Agreement with them which provoked me then to protest against it and publish my Judgment against the hindering of any Man to preach the Gospel upon the Ground of such Civil Controversies as those § 40. And about the same time Experience in my Pastoral Charge convinced me that publick Preaching is not all the ordinary Work of a faithful Minister and that personal Conference with every one about the State of their own Souls together with Catechising is a Work of very great Necessity For the Custom in England is only to catechise the younger sort and that but by teaching them the Words of the Catechism in the Liturgy which we thought besides the Doctrine of the Sacrament had little more explicatory than the Words themselves of the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue Therefore I propounded the Business to the Ministers and they all upon Debate consented that I should â—â—rn our brief Confession into a Catechism and draw up a Form of Agreement for the Practising of that Duty I drew up the Catechism in Two leaves in 8 vâ— comprehending 〈◊〉 is necessary to be believed consented to and practised in as narrow â— room and just a Method as I thought agreeable to the Peoples Understandings And I proposed a Form of Agreement for the Practice which might engage the 〈…〉 to go through with the Work And when I brought it in it was conseâ—â—ed to and subscribed and many neighbouring Ministers of other Countries desired to join with us and we printed the Catechism and Agreement together § 41. Of all the Works that ever I 〈◊〉 this yielded me most Comfort in the practice of it All Men thought that the People especially the ancienter sort would never have submitted to this Course and so that it would have come to nothing But God gave me a 〈◊〉 willing People and gave me also interest in them and when I had 〈◊〉 and my People had given a good Example to other Parishes and especially the Ministers so 〈◊〉 concurring that none gainsayed us it prevailed much with the Parishes 〈◊〉 I set two Days Week apart for this Employment 〈◊〉 faithful unwearied Assistant and my self took fourteen Families every Week those in the Town came to us to our Houses those in the Parish my Assistant 〈…〉 to 〈◊〉 Houses besides what a Curate did at a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 to us a Family only being present as a 〈◊〉 and no Stranger admitted after that I first helpâ— them to understand it and next enquired modestly into the State of their Souls and lastly endeavoured to set all home to the convincing awakening and resolving of their Hearts according to their several Conditions bestowing about an Hour and the Labour of a Sermon with every Family and I found it so effectual through the Blessing of God that few went away without some seeming Humiliation Conviction and Purpose and Promise for a holy Life and except half a dozen or thereabouts of the most ignorant and senseless all the Families in the Town came to me and though the first time they came with Fear and Backwardness after that they longed for their turn to come again So that I hope God did good to many by it And yet this was not all the Comfort I had in it § 42. For my Brethren appointing me to preach to them about it on a Day of Humiliation at Worcester when we set upon it I printed the Sermon prepared for that use with necessary Additions containing Reasons and Directions for this Work in a Book called The Reformed Pastor which excited so many others to take the Course that we had taken that it was a far greater Addition to my Comfort than the profiting of the Parish or County where we lived Yea a Reverend Pastor from Switzerland wrote me word that it excited
Divisions or satisfying the Desires and Consciences of multitudes of Persons truly fearing God And if we may not have Discipline to promote a just Reformation of Manners we shall still have irregular Attempts of Reformation But it is not the Name that we insist on Call them Rural Deans or Arch-Deacons or what you please so be it they may be authorized to do the things â—ere desired even to exercise that Discipline which one Bishop in a County cannot exercise 6. A General Care is one thing and the Special Charge of the particular Pastor is another The former extendeth no further than to oversee the particular Pastors and to receive Appeals in extraordinary Cases from any of the People and to teach them in course while as Visitors they pass from one Parish to another and in the same manner to administer Sacraments and personally exercise Parish Discipline But the Special Charge containeth an Obligation to watch over each particular Person in an ordinary teaching them publickly and privately as they have occasion and opportunity and plucking up all Weeds of Heresie and Profaneness that shall spring up among them resolving Doubts convincing Gainsayers and ordinarily guiding them in Publick Worship calling the Offenders to Penitence and absolving the Penitent and binding over the Impenitent to the Judgment Seat of Christ and requiring the People to avoid them If you impose on every Diocesan Bishop besides the fore-described General Care this Special Charge over every Soul as every Pastor of a particular Church hath you will take an effectual Course to keep the most pious modest and thoughtful Persons out of that rank And your Phrase of Intrusting so much as is found necessary in the hands of the Rector of each Parish seemeth to intimate that you take those Rectors not only for Men of a distinct Order or Office from the Bishops but also of an Office that it is not of Divine Institution and described by God but of Humane Institution and left to the Bishop's Discretion what it shall be and how much power such shall have and that they are to be intrusted with it from the Bishops as the Italians in Concil Trident. would have had the Bishops to have theirs from the Pope If this be your meaning it will not reconcile If it be not then the Rectors of each Parish may knowâ— their Office from the Holy Scripture and receive it as from Christ who hath instituted it and entrusted them with it 7. We desire the Scripture Confession but to the Extent and Securing of our Peace and Concord If Papists would agree upon such a Confession yea on a Subscription to the whole Scripture we should rejoice But they cannot do it without ceasing to be Papists And many may rise up among our selves that may scruple some words in the 39 Articles that are not fit ergo to be persecuted and cast out of the Church as Mr. Chillingworth's Instance proves 1. As he that should scruple some one word of no great weight in Athanasius's Creed contrary to Art 8. 2. Or the absolute Exclusion of Works in the Article of Justification Art 11. 3. Or the displeasingness and sinfulness of Works before Faith and their not making Men meet to receive Grace Art 13. 4. And that voluntary Works besides or above God's Commandments cannot be taught without Aâ—â—ogancy and Impiety vide Annot. Dr. H. H. in 1 Cor. 9. 16 17. Art 14. 5. If any think that the Virgin Mary or Infants offended not in many things Art 15. We question whether it be according to the Ancient Simplicity or Charity to cast out all these from our Churches 6. And what if Dr. Taylor and many others cannot Subscribe to Art 9. and 2. 7. And if a Man believe not that by good Works a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a Tree discerned by the Fruit should he be presently cast out Art 12. 8. The 21 Art concludeth that General Councils may not be gathered together without the Commandment and Will of Princes and some think it may as well besaid that we may not meet for Publick Worship without their Command and Will and that this proveth that there never was a General Council nor ever will be because the Princes Infidels and Christians in whose Dominions the Bishops live never did or will generally Consent to have their Subjects go to a General Council 9. The 31st Art concludeth that there is none other Satisfaction for Sin but Christ's alone which many beside Grotius do contradict 10. Many dare not Subscribe to the 34th Art without restrictionâ— 11. Many good Men dare not so fully approve of all the Homilies as Art 35. dothâ— 12. Many have refused Subscription because of Art 36 it being hard so far to justifie every word in such Humane Writings as the Book of Consecration is Now it seems against our Unity to make such a Test of it as all Persons tolerable cannot agree in And it seems contrary to the Ancient Simplicity which required no other Test than the Scriptures and the Creeds And it hardeneth the Papists to call on us to prove a Succession of Protestants from the first Ages that is of Men that have held all the 39 Articles But yet we highly value the 39 Articles as found and moderate and if we can procure no nearer a recourse to Scripture and Ancient Simplicity we shall cheerfully submit to the 39 Articles if the Doctrine of Bishops and Ceremonies might be left out as Matters of Practice and not of Faith as long as we are responsible for any Disobedience And it 's hard if such things must be Subscribed as of Necessity to our Church Communion or Ministry And that these have been excepted against by the Old Nonconformists I suppose you know And if you could be content with a Scripture Confession if Rome would yield to it why should you deny to your Brethren at home that which you would grant the Romanists and therefore confess you may lawfully grant Let us lay down such a Rule of Concord as is fit for all to yield to and then leave all to accept it as they please and so they cannot blame our Religion nor maintain their Alienation But if we will not be content with a Rule that 's fitted for Universal Concord we keep Men from it And seeing you now say It 's reasonable that we be clog'd with no more why might not the same have been said of some of the fore-mentioned Passages if they had been left out 8. But the Doubt is Whether you will allow the Title of the Ministers now in possession except as before excepted or whether you will rather judge all their Titles void that were not Ordained by Diocesan Bishops Lastly We desire to know whether all the rest not touched on and excepted against in these Notes have your Consent as that Bishops be chosen by the whole Clergy and Ordain not and Censure not without their Synods c. O how easie were a
Coactive Power but where it must be used that it be by Magistrates And that your Execution be not annexed to their Iudgments nor any Man punished by you meerly because he is Excommunicate that is sorely punished by them 3. Every stated full Congregation that had unum Altare was by Divine Institution to have a Bishop of their own or many if they could be had which Bishops were called Elders also in the Scripture And for Order sake where there were many of these the Churches soon placed the Precedency and Moderatorship in one whom they called by Eminency the Bishop 4. Because in the beginning there were no stated Churches or Altars ordinarily but in Towns and Cities therefore the same Apostles that ordained Elders in every Church are said also to appoint that they be Ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oppidatim in every Town or City And it being long before the Villages had Churches they were the Parish or Diocess of the Bishops of the Town And when Rural Bishops were placed in those Churches they were subjected to the City Bishops when every Church as in the beginning should have had a Bishop of their own 5. If you will return to the Scripture Pattern every stated Congregation that hath one Altar must have Pastors that have the Government of the People and if you will return to the primitive Episcopacy eminently so called every one of these Churches should have a Bishop with Fellow Presbyters as his Collegues or Deacons at least in smaller Churches 6. If you will return to the first and lowest degree of Corruption of Church-Order you must have a Bishop and Presbytery in every City and Town only such as our Corporations and Boroughs are who must take care also of the adjacent Villages 7. For the maintaining of Unity and Concord and Edifying each other by Communion these Bishops held ordinary Synods or Meetings in which by Agreements called Canons no proper Laws they bound up themselves in things of mutable Determination and also tied themselves to their Duties 8. Besides these particular Bishops there were General Overseers of the Church such as the Apostles Evangelists and others that fixed not themselves in relation to any one particular Church but the Care of many And that these have Successors in this ordinary part of their Work we do not gainsay But we humbly crave that if our Diocesans will be such they be taken for Archbishops or General Pastors and that they take only a General Charge of the Flock overseeing the particular Pastors or Bishops and receiving Appeals in some Special Cases and not a particular Charge of each Soul as the particular Bishops have And therefore that they be not charged with ordinary Confirming or admitting into the state of Adult Members all the People which will bind them in Conscience to know and try them all or most Nor yet to receive Presentments of all Scandals nor to Excommunicate and absolve or impose Publick Penitence on all that these belong to 9. If these things may not be granted we must be bold to leave our Testimony that Diocesans assuming the particular Government of all the People in so many Churches as they have in England are destructive 1. To the very being of all the particular Churches save the Cathedral or City where they are It being that old Maxim Ubi non est Episcopus non est Ecclesia viz. in sensu politica 2. And to the Pastoral Office of Christ's Institution 3. And to the most ancient Episcopacy Whenas by the establishing of these Parochial Bishops at least Oppidatim the Diocesans may become of great use for the Work of General Oversight We refuse not General Officers so they overthrow not the particular Officers and Churches As if General Officers in an Army or Navy would be the sole Commanders and depose all the Captains and consequently make the Discipline impossible 10. We most earnestly beseech your Majesty that in Matters of Doctrine Discipline and Worship the Modes and Circumstances and Ceremonies may not be made more necessary to our Ordination Institution Ministration or Communion than God hath made them either in Scripture or in the Nature of the thing lest they be still the Engines of our Divisions and Calamity but that we may hold our Concord and Communion in Necessary things according to the Primitive Simplicity and may have Liberty in things Unnecessary as to Subscriptions Promises and Practice that so the Churches may have Peace and Charity in both And that our Discipline which operateth on the Will may not be corrupted by unnecessary and unseasonable violence nor any permitted much less constrained to be Members of our Churches and Communion that vilifie such Priviledges and cannot be moved by our Exhortations nor feel the weight of a meer Excommunication Though a gentle Force is necessary to compel the Learners or Catechumens to submit to the necessary means of their Instruction and to restrain the petulant from abusing the Worship and Worshippers of the Lord. He that will rather be cast out of the Church by Excommunication than repent and amend his wicked Life is so unfit to be a Member of the Church that it is most unfit to drive him into it by Imprisonment Mulcts or Secular Force And this is that which doth corrupt and undo the Church I shall here Annex Archbishop Usher's Model of Government which we now also presented The Reduction of Episcopacy unto the Form of Synodical Government received in the Ancient Church proposed in the Year 1641. as an Expedient for the prevention of those Troubles which afterwards did arise about the Matter of Church-Government Episcopal and Presbyterial Government conjoyned BY the Order of the Church of England all Presbyters are charged to minister the Doctrine and Sacraments and the Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded and as this Realm hath received the same And that we might the better understand what the Lord had commanded therein the Exhortation of St. Paul to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus is appointed to be read unto them at the time of their Ordination Take heed unto your selves and to all the Flock among whom the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to rule the Congregation of God which he hath purchased with his Blood Of the many Elders who in common thus ruled the Church of Ephesus there was one President whom our Saviour in his Epistle to the Church in a peculiar manner stileth the Angel of the Church of Ephesus And Ignatius in another Epistle written about twelve Years after to the same Church calleth the Bishop thereof Betwixt which Bishop and the Presbytery of that Church what an harmonious Consent there was in the ordering the Church-Government the same Ignatius doth fully there declare by the Presbytery with d St. Paul understanding the Company of the rest of the Presbytery or Elders who then had a Hand not only in the delivery of the Doctrine and Sacraments but also
suggest nor did we ever hear any just Reasons given for their diâ—ient from the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy or Prelacy as it was stated and established in this Kingdom Which we believe to be for the main the true ancient primitive Episcopacy and that to be more than a meer presidency of Order Neither do we find that the same was in any Time ballanced or managed by any Authoritative Commixtion of Presbyters therewith Though it hath been then and in all Times since usually exercised with the Assistance and Counsel of Presbyters in subordination to the Bishops § 8. And we cannot but wonder that the Administration of Government by one single Person should by them be affirmed to be so liable to Corruptions Partialities Tyrannies and other Evils that for the avoiding thereof it should be needful to have others joyned with him in the power of Government Which if applyed to the Civil State is a most dangerous Insinuation And we verily believe what Experience and the Constitutions of Kingdoms Armies and even private Families sufficiently confirmeth in all which the Government is administred by the Authority of one single Person although the Advice of others may be requisite also but without any share in the Government that the Government of many is not only most subject to all the aforesaid Evils and Inconveniencies but more likely also to breed and soment perpetual Factions both in Church and State than the Government by one is or can be And since no Government can certainly prevent all Evils that which is liable to the least and sewest is certainly to be preferred As to the four particular Instances of things amiss c. § 9. 1. We cannot grant that the Extent of any Diocess is so great but that the Bishop may well perform that wherein the proper Office and Duty of a Bishop doth consist which is not the personal Inspection of every Man's Soul under his Government which is the Work of every Parochial Minister in his Cure but the Pastoral Charge of overseeing directing and taking care that the Ministers and other Ecclesiastical Officers within his Diocess do their several respective Duties in their several Stations as they ought to do And if some Diocesses shall be thought of too large Extent the Bishops may have Suffragan Bishops to assist them as the Laws allow It being a great mistake that the Personal Inspection of the Bishop is in all places of his Diocess at all times necessary For by the same reason neither Princes nor Governours of Provinces nor Generals of Armies nor Mayors of great Cities nor Ministers of great Parishes could ever be able to discharge their Duties in their several Places and Charges § 10. 2. We confess the Bishops did as by the Law they were enabled depute part of the Administration of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions to Chancellors Commissaries and Officials as Men better skill'd in the Civil and Canon Laws But as for Matters of more Spiritual Concernment viz. the Sentences of Excommunication and Absolution with other Censures of the Church we conceive they belong properly to the Bishop to decree and pronounce either by himself where for the present he resideth or by some grave Ecclesiastical Person by him Surrogated for that purpose in such Places where he cannot be Personally present Wherein if many things have been done amiss for the time past or shall be seasonably conceived inconvenient for the future we shall be as willing to have the same Reformed and Remedied as any other Persons whatsoever § 11. 3. Whether a Bishop be a distinct Order from Presbyter or not or whether they have power of sole Ordination or no is not now the Question But we affirm that the Bishops of this Realm have constantly for ought we know or have heard to the contrary Ordained with the Assistance of Presbyters and the Imposition of their Hands together with the Bishops And we conceive it very fit that in the exercise of that part of their Jurisdiction which appertaineth to the Censures of the Church they should likewise have the Advice and Assistance of some Presbyters And for this purpose the Colledges of Deans and Chapters are thought to have been instituted that the Bishops in their several Diocess might have their Advice and Assistance in the Administration of their weighty Pastoral Charge § 12. 4. This last dependeth upon Matter of Fact Wherein if any Bishops have or shall do otherwise than according to Law they were and are to be answerable for the same And it is our desire as well as theirs that nothing may be done or imposed by the Bishop but according to the known Laws For Reforming of which Evils c. § 13. 1. The Primates Reduction though not published in his Life time was formed many years before his Death and shewed to some Persons ready to attest the same in the Year 1640. but it is not consistent with two other Discourses of the same Learned Primate viz. the one of the Original of Episcopacy and the other of the Original of Metropolitans both printed in the Year 1641. and written with great diligence and much variety of ancient Learning In neither of which is to be found any mention of the Reduction aforesaid Neither is there in either of them propounded any such Model of Church Government as in the said Reduction is contained Which doubtless would have been done had that Platform been according to his setled Judgment in those Matters In which Reduction there are sundry things as namely the Conforming of Suffragans to the number of Rural Deaneries which are apparently private Conceptions of his own accommodated at that time for the taking off some present from Animosities but wholly destitute of any Colour of Testimony or President from Antiquity nor is any such by him offered towards the proof thereof And it would be considered whether the Final Resolution of all Ecclesiastical Power and Jurisdiction into a National Synod where it seemeth to be placed in that Reduction without naming the King or without any dependance upon him or relation to him be not destructive of the King's Supremacy in causes Ecclesiastical It is observable nevertheless that even in the Reduction Archi-Episcopacy is acknowledged As for the super-added Particulars § 14. 1. The Appointment and Election of Suffragans is by the Law already vested in the King whose Power therein is by the Course here proposed taken away § 15. 2. What they mean by Associations in this place they explain not but we conceive it dangerous that any Association whatsoever is understood thereby should be made or entered into without the King's Authority § 16. 3. We do not take the Oaths Promises and Subscriptions by Law required of Ministers at their Ordination Institution c. to be unnecessary although they be responsible to the Laws if they do amiss it being thought requisite as well by such Cautions to prevent Offences as to punish Offenders afterwards Upon all which Consideration it is that
passion or prejudice give us such a further assistance towards a perfect Union of Affections as well as Submission to Authority as is necessary And we are the rather induced to take this upon us by finding upon the full Conference we have had with the Learned Men of several Perswasions that the Mischiefs under which both the Church and State do at present suffer do not result from any formed Doctrine or Conclusion which either Party maintains or avows but from the Passion and Appetite and Interest of particular Persons who contract greater Prejudice to each other from those Affections than would naturally arise from their Opinions and those Distempers must be in some degree allayed before the Meeting in a Synod can be attended with better Success than their Meeting in other places and their Discourses in Pulpits have hitherto been and till all thoughts of Victory are laid aside the humble and necessary Thoughts for the vindication of Truth cannot be enough entertained We must for the Honour of all those of either Perswasion with whom we have conferred declare That the Professions and Desires of all for the Advancement of Piety and true Godliness are the same their Professions of Zeal for the Peace of the Church the same of Affection and Duty to us the same They all approve Episcopacy They all approve a Set-From of Liturgy And they disapprove and dislike the Sin of Sacriledge and the Alienation of the Revenue of the Church And if upon these excellent Foundations in Submission to which there is such a Harmony of Affections any Super-structures should be raised to the shaking those Foundations and to the contracting and lessening the blessed Gift of Charity which is a Vital part of Christian Religion we shall think our self very unfortunate and even suspect that we are defective in that Administration of Government with which God hath intrusted us We need not profess the high Affection and Esteem we have for the Church of England as it is established by Law the Reverence to which hath supported us with Gods Blessing against many Temptations Nor do we think that Reverence in the least degree diminished by our Condescensions not peremptorily to insist upon some Particulars of Ceremony which however introduced by the Piety and Devotion and Order of former Times may not be so agreeable to the present but may even lessen that Piety and Devotion for the improvement whereof they might happily be first introduced and consequently may well be dispensed with And we hope this Charitable compliance of ours will dispose the Minds of all Men to a chearful Submission to that Authority the preservation whereof is so necessary for the Unity and Peace of the Church and that they will acknowledge the Support of the Episcopal Authority to be the best Support of Religion by being the best means to contain the Minds of Men within the Rules of Government And they who would restrain the Exercise of that holy Function within the Rules which were observed in the Primitive Times must remember and consider that the Ecclesiastical Power being in those blessed Times always subordinate and subject to the Civil it was likewise proportioned to such an Extent of Jurisdiction as was agreeable to that And as the Sanctity and Simplicity and Resignation of that Age did then refer many things to the Bishops which the Policy of succeeding Ages would not admit at least did otherwise provide for so it can be no Reproach to Primitive Episcopacy if where there have been great Alterations in the Civil Government from what was then there have been likewise some Difference and Alteration in the Ecclesiastical the Essence and Foundation being still preserved And upon this Ground without out taking upon us to Censure the Government of the Church in other Countries where the Government of the State is different from what it is here or enlarging our self upon the Reasons why whilst there was an Imagination of Erecting a Democratical Government here in the State they should not be willing to continue an Aristocratical Government in the Church it shall suffice to say That since by the wonderful Blessing of God the Hearts of this whole Nation are returned to an Obedience to Monarchique Government in the State it must be very reasonable to Support that Government in the Church which is established by Law and which with the Monarchy hath flourished through so many Ages and which is in truth as ancient in this Island as the Christian Monarchy thereof and which hath always in some respects or degrees been enlarged or restrained as hath been thought most conducing to the Peace and Happiness of the Kingdom and therefore we have not the least doubt but the present Bishops will think the present Concessions now made by us to allay the present Distempers very just and reasonable and will very chearfully Conform themselves thereunto 1. We do in the first place declare That as the present Bishops are known to be Men of Great and Exemplary Piety in their Lives which they have manifested in their notorious and unexampled Sufferings during these late Distempers and of great and known Sufficiency of Learning so we shall take special Care by the Assistance of God to prefer no Men to that Office and Charge but Men of Learning Vertue and Piety who may be themselves the best Examples to those who are to be Governed by them and we shall expect and provide the best we can that the Bishops be frequent Preachers and that they do very often preach themselves in some Church of their Diocess except they be hindered by Sickness or other bodily Infirmities or some other justifiable occasion which shall not be thought justifiable if it be frequent 2. If any Diocess shall be thought of too large an Extent we will appoint Suffragan Bishops for their Assistance 3. No Bishop shall Ordain or Exercise any part of Jurisdiction which appertains to the Censures of the Church without the Advice of the Presbyters and no Chancellour shall exercise any Act of Spiritual Jurisdiction 4. As the Dean and Chapters are the most proper Council and Assistants of the Bishop both in Ordination and for the other Offices mentioned before so we shall take care that those Preferments be given to the most Learned and Pious Presbyters of the Diocess that thereby they may be always at hand and ready to advise and assist the Bishop And moreover That some other of the most Learned Pious and Discreet Presbyters of the same Diocess as namely the Rural Deans or others or so many of either as shall be thought fit and are nearest be called by the Bishop to be present and assistant together with those of the Chapter at all Ordinations and at all other Solemn and Important Actions in the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction especially wherein any of the Ministers are concerned And our Will is that the great Work of Ordination be constantly and solemnly performed by the Bishop in the
those whose Liberty is desired Not that we are against subscribing the proper Rule of our Religion or any meet Confession of Faith Nor do we scruple the Oath of Supremacy or Allegiance Nor would we have the Door left open for Papists or Hereticks to come in 2. We take the boldness to say that since we have had the Promises of your gracious indulgence herein and upon divers Addresses to your Majesty and the Lord Chancellor had comfortable Encouragement to expect our Liberty yet cannot Ministers procure Institution without renouncing their Ordination by Presbyters or being re-ordained nor without Subscription and the Oath of Canonical Obedience 3. We must observe with Fear and Grief that your Majesty's Indulgence and Concessions of Liberty in this Declaration extendeth not either to the abatement of Re-ordination or of subscriptional Ordination or of the Oath of Obedience to the Bishops We therefore humbly and earnestly crave that your Majesty will declare your Pleasure 1. That Ordination and Institution and Induction may be conferred without the said Subscription or Oath And 2. That none be urged to be reordained or denied Institution for want of Ordination by Prelates that was ordained by Presbyters 3. And that none be judged to have forfeited his Presentation or Benefice nor be deprived of it for not reading those Articles of the 39 that contain the controverted Points of Government and Ceremonies Lastly We humbly crave that your Majesty will not only grant us this Liberty till the next Synod but will indeavour that the Synod be impartially chosen and that your Majesty will be pleased to endeavour the Procurement of such Laws as shall be ne-necessary for our security till the Synod and for the Ratification of moderate and healing Conclusions afterwards and that nothing by meer Canon be imposed on us without such Statute Laws of Parliament These Favours which will be injurious to none if your People may obtain of your Majesty it will revive their Hearts to daily and earnest Prayer for your Prosperity and to rejoice in the thankful Acknowledgment of that gracious Providence of Heaven that hath blessed us in your Restoration and put it into your Heart to heal our Breaches and to have compassion on the faithful People in your Dominions who do not petition you for Liberty to be Schismatical Factious Seditious or abusive to any but only for leave to obey the Lord who created and redeemed them according to that Law by which they must all be shortly judged to everlasting Joy or Misery And it will excite them to and unite them in the cheerful Service of your Majesty with their Estates and Lives and to transmit your deserved Praises to Posterity A little before this the Bishops Party had appointed at our Request a Meeting with some of us to try how near we could come in preparation to what was to be resolved on Accordingly Dr. Morley Dr. Hinchman and Dr. Cosins met Dr. Reignolds Mr Calamy and my self and after a few roving Discourses we parted without bringing them to any particular Concessions for Abatement only their general talk was from the beginning as if they would do any thing for Peace which was fit to be done and they being at that time newly elect but not consecrated to their several Bishopricks we called them my Lords which Dr. Morley once returned with such a Passage as this we may call you also I suppose by the same Title by which I perceived they had some Purposes to try that way with us § 107. This Petition being delivered to the Lord Chancellor was so ungrateful that we were never called to present it to the King But instead of that it was offered us that we should make such Alterations in the Declaration as were necessary to attain its Ends But with these Cautions that we put in nothing but what we judged of flat necessity And 2. That we altered not the Preface or Language of it For it was to be the King's Declaration and what he spake as expressing his own Sense was nothing to us but if we thought he imposed any thing intollerable upon us we had leave to express our Desires for the altering of it Whereupon we agreed to offer this following Paper of Alterations letting all the rest of the Declaration alone But withal by Word to tell those we offered it to which was the Lord Chancellor That this was not the Model of Church-Government which we at first offered nor which we thought most expedient for the healing of the Church But seeing that cannot be obtained we shall humbly submit and thankfully acknowledge his Majesty's Condescention if we may obtain what now we offer and shall faithfully endeavour to improve it to the Churches Peace to the utmost of our Power Having declared this with more we delivered in the following Paper The Alterations of the Declaration which we offered 1. WE do in the first place declare that our Purpose and Resolution is and shall be to promote the Power of Godliness to encourage the Exercises of Religion both publick and private and to take care that the Lord's Day be appropriated to holy Exercises without unnecessary Divertisements and that insufficient negligent non-resident and scandalous Ministers be not permitted in the Church And as the present Bishops are known to be Men of great and exemplary Piety c. 2. Because the Diocesses especially some of them are thought to be of too large Extent we will appoint such a Number of suffragan Bishops in every Diocess as shall be sufficient for the due Performance of their Work 3. No Bishops shall ordain or exercise any part of Jurisdiction which appertains to the Censures of the Church without the Advice and Consent of the Presbyters and no Chancellors Commissaries Archdeacons or Officials shall exercise any Act of Spiritual Jurisdiction 4. To the end that the Deans and Chapters may be the better fitted to afford Counsel and Assistance to the Bishops both in Ordination and in the other Ordinances mentioned before we will take care that those Preferments be given to the most learned and pious Presbyters of the Diocess And moreover that at least an equal Number of the most learned pious and discreet Presbyters of the same Diocess annually chosen by the major Vote of all the Presbyters of that Diocess shall be assistant and consenting together with those of the Chapter at all Ordinations and all other Acts of spiritual Jurisdiction Nor shall any Suffragan Bishops ordain or exercise any act of spiritual Jurrisdiction but with the Consent and Assistance of a sufficient Number of the most Judicious and pious Presbyters annually chosen by the major Vote of all the Presbyters in his Precincts And our will is that the great Work of Ordination be constantly and solemnly performed at the four set times and Seasons appointed by the Church for that purpose 5. We will take care that Confirmation be rightly and solemnly performed by the Information and with the Consent of
Governour of the lower Governours and the Flocks and indeed are all Archbishops though they have the Name of Bishops still Most of the Ministers were satisfied but to me remained unsatisfied to the end § 129. But at the next Meeting those that were satisfied resolved upon Thanksgiving to the King and they drew up this following Writing To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The humble and grateful Acknowledgment of many Ministers of the Gospel in and about the City of London to his Royal Majesty for his gracious Concessions in his Majesty's late Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs Most Dread Sovereaign WE your Majesty's most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects Ministers of the Gospel in your City of London having perused your Majesty's late Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs and finding it to the joy of our hearts so full of Indulgence and gracious Condescension we cannot but judge our selves highly obliged in the first place to render our unfelgned Thanks to our good God who hath so mercifully inclined your Majesty's Royal heart to this Moderation and next our most humble and hearty Acknowledgments unto your Sacred Majesty that we may testifie to your Royal Self and all the World our just Resentment of your Majesty's great Goodness and Clemency therein expressed May it please your Majesty The Liberty of our Consciences and the free Exercise of our Ministry in the Work of our Great Lord and Master for the Conversion of Souls ought to be and are more dear to us than all the Profits and Preferments of this World and therefore your Majesty's Tenderness manifested in these so high Concernments doth wonderfully affect us and raise up our Hearts to an high pitch of Gratitude We cannot but adore Divine Goodness for your Majesty's stedfast adherance to the Protestant Religion notwithstanding all Temptations and Provocations to the contrary and your professed Zeal for the Advancement and Propagation thereof declaring that nothing can be proposed to manifest your Zeal and Affection for it to which you will not readily consent Your Majesty has graciously declared That your Resolution is and shall be to promote the Power of Godliness to encourage the Exercises of Religion both publick and private to take care that the Lord's day be applyed to holy Exercises without unnecessary Divertisements and that insufficient negligent and scandalous Ministers be not permitted in the Church Your Majesty hath granted that no Bishop shall Ordain or Exercise any part of Jurisdiction which appertains to the Censures of the Church without the advice and assistance of the Presbyters and neither do nor impose any thing but what is according to the known Laws of the Land Excluded Chancellours Commissaries and Officials from Acts of Jurisdiction so happily restored the Power of the Pastors in their several Congregations and granted a Liberty to all the Ministers to assemble Monthly for the Exercise of the Pastoral perswasive Power to the promoting of Knowledge and Godliness in their Flocks Your Majesty hath graciously promised a Review and effectual Reformation of the Liturgy with additional Forms to be used at Choice And in the mean time that none be punished or troubled for not using it Your Majesty hath graciously freed us from Subscription required by the Canon and the Oath of Canonical Obedience and granted us to receive Ordination Institution and Induction and to exercise our Function and enjoy the profit of our Livings without the same Your Majesty hath gratified the Consciences of many who are grieved with the use of some Ceremonies by indulging to and dispensing with their omitting those Ceremonies viz. Kneeling at the Sacrament the Cross in Baptism bowing at the Name of Jesus and wearing of the Surplice All this your Majesty's Indulgence and tender Compassion which with delight we have taken the boldness thus largely to Commemorate we receive with all humility and thankfulness and as the best Expression thereof shall never cease to pray for your Majesty's long and prosperous Reign and study how in our several Stations we may be most Instrumental in your Majesty's Service And that we may not be defective in Ingenuity we crave leave to profess that though all things in this Frame of Government be not exactly suited to our Judgment yet your Majesty's moderation hath so great an influence upon us that we shall to our utmost endeavour the healing of the Breaches and promoting the Peace and Union of the Church There are some other things that have been propounded by our Reverend Brethren which upon our knees with all humble Importunity we could beg of your Majesty especially that Re-ordination and the Surplice in Colledges may not be imposed and we cannot lay aside our Hopes but that that God who hath thus far drawn out your Majesty's Bowels and Mercy will further incline your Majesty's Heart to gratifie us in these our humble Desires also That we be not further burthensome we humbly beg leave to thank your Majesty for the Liberty and Respect vouchsafed to our Reverend Brethren in this weighty Affair of Accommodation The God of Heaven bless your Majesty and all the Royal Family Your Majesty's most Loyal Subjects Sa. Clark Tho. Case Io. Rawlinson Io. Sheffield Tho. Gouge Gab. Sanger Will. Cooper Will. Whittaker Tho. Iacomb Tho. Lye Io. Iackson Io. Meriton Eli. Pledger Will. Bates Io. Gibbon Mat. Poole With may others This Address was Presented to his Majesty at Whiteball Nov. 16. by some of these Ministers to whom he was pleased to return a very gracious Answer London Printed by his Majesty's Approbation for Ioh. Rothwel at the Sign of the Fountain in Cheapside in Goldsmiths Row 1660. § 130. Whether this came to the King's Ears or what else it was that caused it I know not but presently after the Earl of Lauderdale came to tell me that I must come the next day to the King Who was pleased to tell me that he sent for me only to signifie his Favour to me I told him I feared my plain Speeches Octob. 22. which I thought that Cause in hand commanded me might have been displeasing to him But he told me that he was not offended at the plainness or freedom or earnestness of them but only when he thought I was not in the right and that for my free Speech he took me to be the honester Man I suppose this Favour came from the Bishops who having notice of what last past did think that now I might serve their Interests § 131. The Question now is What we got by procuring this Declaration of the King 's and how it was accepted by the People 1. I thought it no small gain though none of it should be fulfilled that we had got so much from the hand of a King to take off prejudice among the People and abate the violence of cruel Men and to stand on record to Posterity that once so much was granted us by the King for if ever there be any inclinations to Peace and Charity hereafter that which once
only to the Holy Canonical Scriptures in general and to the Creeds and 36 Articles in particular And no Oath Promise or Consent he required save only the renewing of the Covenant which in Baptism we made to God and a promise of Fidelity in our Ministry and the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to the King And for all lesser matters let it suffice that the Laws may restrain us from preaching against any Established Doctrine or against Episcopacy Liturgy or Ceremonies and from all Male-Administrations or Church-Tyranny or Injustice about the Sacraments and that we be punishable according to the quality of the Offence II. The Fire having now caused a Necessity of many more publick Assemblies for God's Worship besides those in the yet standing Parish-Churches we humbly conceive that it would much conduce to the re-edifying of the Churches and City and the contenting of many and the drawing off the people from more private Meetings if a competent Number of the Ruin'd Cnurches be allowed to such sober Protestants as will repair them with the same liberty and Security for possession as the French and Dutch in London have their Churches the people chusing their Pastors and maintaining them Or if his Majesty's Bounty allow them any Stipend that none have that Stipend whom his Majesty approveth not And that the Pastors be not suffered to introdâ—ce there any Heresie or Idolatry but shall preach the Doctrine of the sacred Scriptures not opposing the Doctrines or Orders of the Church and shall worship God according to the Liturgy or the Assembly's Directory or the Reformed Liturgy offered by the Commissioners 1660. as they desire III. That all such be capable of Benefices who subscribe and swear as is aforesaid and being of Competent Abilities shall be lawfully Ordained or if already ordained are confirmed by the late Act or shall be confirmed by any Commissioned by his Majesty they being obliged some time to read the Liturgy and sometimes to administer the Sacrament according to it abating the Ceremonies And to be often present when it is read which shall be ordinarily or constantly done and the Sacrament administred as oft as is required by Law by himself or some other allowed Minister And that those who will only subscribe and swear as is abovesaid being ordained also as aforesaid but cannot so far conform to the Liturgy may be allowed to preach and Catechize publickly as Lecturers or Assistants to some others and to have such further Liberty about the Sacraments as by just Regulations shall be made safe to Religion and the publick peace There is another way which would satisfie almost all by allowing each party such a Minister whose Ordination and Ministration they do make no scruple at which would prevent all private Churches and perhaps all Face of Schism among us which is if in every Parish where any party dissenteth from the Established way the Dissenters be left at liberty either to communicate with any Neighbour-Parish or to chuse an Assistant for the Incumbent which Assistant shall be maintained by themselves unless the Incumbent will voluntarily contribute And shall officiaâ—e one half of the Day as the Incumbent doth the other having leave to do it according to the foresaid Directory or the Additional Liturgy offered 1660. or at least to have the use of the Church at such Hours as the Incumbent doth not there officiate The people receiving the Communion from each according to their several Iudgments And though so great a Rupture as ours is cannot be cured without some inconveniences which may be here objected yet such Laws may be made for the Regulation of this Liberty as may restrain all Faction Contention and Mutual Contempt or Injuries and even the Naming themselves Members of distinct Churches as might be shewed § 66. The Copy of the Lord Keeper's or Dr. Wilkins's Proposals In order to Comprehension it is Humbly Offered 1. That such persons as in the late times of disorder have been ordained by Presbyters shall be admitted to the Exercise of the Ministerial Function by the Imposition of the Hands of the Bishop with this or the like Form of Words Take thou Authority to Preach the Word of God and to Minister the Sacraments in any Congregation of the Church oâ— England where thou shalt be lawfully appointed thereunto An Expedient much of this Nature was practised and allowed of in the Case of the Catharists and Melesians Vid. 8th Canon Concil Nic. â—ynodical Epistle of the same to the Churches of Egypt Gelasius Cyzicenus Hist. Con. Nic. 2d part 2. That all persons to be admitted to any Ecclesiastical Function or Dignity or the Employment of a School-master after the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy shall instead of all former Subscriptions be required to subscribe this or the like Form of Words I A. B. do hereby profess and declare That I do approve the Doctrines Worship and Government Established in the Church of England as containing all things necessary to Salvation and that I will not endeavour by my self or any other directly or indirectly to bring in any Doctrine contrary to that which is so Established And I do hereby promise That I will continue in the Communion of the Church of England and will not do any thing to disturb the Peace thereof 3. That the Gesture of Kneeling at the Sacrament and the use of the Cross in Baptism and bowing at the Name of Iesus may be left indifferent or may be taken away as shall be thought most expedient 4. That in Case it be thought fit to review and alter the Liturgy and Canons for the satisfaction of Dissenters that then every person to be admitted to preach shall upon his Institution or Admission to preach upon some Lord's Day within a time to be limited publickly and solemnly read the said Liturgy and openly declare his Assent to the Lawfulness of the use of it and shall promise That it shall be constantly used at the time and place accustomed In order to Indulgence of such Protestants as cannot be comprehended under the publick Establishment it is Humbly offered 1. That such Protestants may have liberty for the Exercise of thâ—r Religion in publick and at 〈◊〉 Charges to build or procure places for their publick Worship either within or near Tâ—â—s as shall be thought most Expedient 2. That the Names of all such persons who are to have this Liberty be Registred together with the Congregations to which they belong and the Names of their Teachers 3. That every one admitted to this liberty be disabled to bear any publick Office but shall fine for Officers of Burden 4. And that upon shewing a Certificate of their being listed among those who are indulged they shall be freed from such legal penalties as are to be inflicted on those who do not frequent their Parish-Churches 5. And such persons so indulged shall not for their meeting in Conventicles be punished by Confiscation of Estates 6. Provided that they be
Bishops had their first Ordination of them by Pomeranus and others that were no Bishops And most Protestants hold That Baptism is null which is not performed by a Minister of Christ. Because no one else is Authorized to deliver God's part of the Covenant or to receive the Covenanter or invest him in the Christian State and Privileges VI. We dare not so far strengthen the cause of the Anabaptists as to declare thus far That all the People of England and all Protestant-Churches as were Baptized by such as had not Ordination by Diocesans are to be Re-baptized VII We dare not so far harden the Papists and honour their cause nor tempt the People to Popery as to seem to consent that their Churches Ministry and Baptism is true and the Protestant Ministry Churches and Baptism is false Nor dare we teach them if which God forbid they should get the power of governing us to call us all again to be Re-ordained and Re-baptized Our Liturgy bidding us to take private Baptism as valid if the Child was Baptized by any Lawful Minister intimating that else it is invalid and so that seemeth the Iudgment of the Church of England VIII We dare not tempt any other Sects or Vsurpers to expect that as oft as they can get the upper hand we must be Re-ordained and Re-baptized at their pleasure IX We dare not make a Schism in our Congregations by tempting the Pastors to reject most of the People from the Communion as unbaptized Persons X. We dare not dishonour the King and Parliament so far as to encourage them to confirm these Errors by an Act of Parliament Enacting really Re-ordination And I R. B. must profess That having eight Years ago written a Treatise purposely to prove the validity of the late Ordination by the Synods of Presbyteries in England though I never practised any my self and having openly called for some Coufutation of it I never could procure any to this day And therefore am the more excusable if I err Though I was my self Ordained by a Bishop Note That by Ordination we mean the Solemn Separation of a Person from the number of the Laity to the Sacred Ministry in general and not the designation appointment or determination of him to this or that particular Flock or Church nor yet a meer Ecclesiastical Confirmation of his former Ordination in a doubted Case Nor yet the â—agistrate's License to exercise the Sacred Ministry in his Dominions All which we believe on just Occasion may be frequently given and received And we thereby profess to consent to no more § 72. Besides the foresaid Alterations of their Proposals we offered them this following Emendation of the Liturgy containing in some Points less and in some Points more than their own Proposals for in this Dr. Wilkins was not streight The most necessary Alterations of the Liturgy THat the old Preface be restored instead of the new one The Order for all Priests Deacons and Curates to read the Liturgy once or twice every Day to be put out The Rubrick for the old Ornaments which were in use in the second Year of Edw. VI. put out The Lord's Prayer to be used intirely with the Doxologies Add to the Rubrick before the Communion thus Nor shall any be admitted to the Communion who is grosly ignorant of the Essentials of Christianity or of that Sacrament or who is an Atheist Infidel or Heretick that is denyeth any Essential part of Religion nor any that derideth Christianity or the Holy Scriptures or the strict obeying of God's Commands Read the Fourth Commandment as it is in the Text viz. God blessed the Sabbath Day Add to the Communion Rubrick None shall be forced to Communicate because it is a high Privilege which the Unwilling are unworthy of and so are those who are conscious that they live impenitently in any secret or open hainous sin And because many conscionable Persons through Melancholy or too hard thoughts of themselves have so great fears of unworthy receiving that it were like to drive them to despair or distraction if they are forced to it before they are satisfied Therefore let Popery and Prophaneness be expressed by some fitter means than this In the Prayer before the Consecration Prayer put out That our sinful Bodies may be made clean by his Body and our Souls washed by his precious Blood and put it thus That our sinful Souls and Bodies may be cleansed by his Sacrificed Body and Blood Alterations very desirable also THE Lord's Prayer and Gloria Patri seldomer used Begin with the Prayer for the second Sunday in Advent for Divine Assistance or some other Let none be forced to hear the Decalogue kneeling because the Ignorant who take them for Prayers are scandalized and hardened by it Let none be forced to use Godfathers at their Childrens Baptism who can either Parent be there to perform their Duty Or at least let the Godfathers be but as the ancient Sponsors whose Office was 1. To attest the Parents Fidelity 2. And to promise to bring up the Child in Christian nurtue if the Parents dye or prove deserters Because Ministers subscribe to the 25th Article of the Church's Doctrine which saith Those Five commonly called Sacraments that is Confirmation c. are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles For they have not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God Therefore in the Collect for Confirmation put out Upon whom after the Example of the Holy Apostles we have now laid our Hands to certifie them by this sign of thy favour and gracious goodness toward them Holidays left indifferent save only that all be restrained from open labour and contempt of them Especially Holy Innocents-Day St. Michael's Day and All-Saints because there is no certainty that they were Holy Innocents And its harsh to keep a Holiday for one Angel And all true Christians being Saints we keep Holidays for our selves The Book of Ordination restored as it was Let there be liberty to use Christ's own Form of Delivery recited by St. Paul 1 Cor. 11. changing only the Person Take Eat this is Christ's Body which c. Let Christian Parents be permitted to offer their own Children to God in Baptism and enter them into the Holy Covenant by using those Words that are now imposed on the Godfathers That where any Minister dare not in Conscience Baptize the Child of proved Atheists Infidels gross Hereticks Fornicators or other such notorious Sinners as the Cannon forbiddeth us to recive to the Communion both Parent being such and the Child in their power and possession that Minister shall not be forced to do it but the Parents shall procure some other to do it For â—â—â—t thou be Baptised put â—ilt thou have this â—â—ld Baptized The Cross and the Surplice left at liberty and kneeling at the Act of Receiving and bowing at the Name â—esus rather than â—hrist God
am sure if not all quiet in their Habitations even in the Kings Quarters not so much as taking the Covenant so that I know not how you can except against them as casting out the Bishops What tell you them of other Mens Actions could they help it what if it be in a time when Bishops were so Ejected when you cannot prove them guilty of it 4. The Covenant it self doth not reject all Bishops but only such as stood in England and so concatenated to Chancellors Deans c. and with such an Explication Mr. Coleman gave it to the House of Lords If therefore you could prove that the Associated Ministers have taken the Covenant which you have not done yet that proves not that they were the Ejectors of the Bishops 6. There is no Bishop that we know of over this Diocese 7. You cannot prove that those that were Ordained by meer Presbyters might have had Episcopal Ordination of which more anon 8. It is not the Regularity of the Ordination that we desire you to acknowledge but only its being so that it is not a nullity So that you may see how unfaithfully you stated the case which is rather this Whether when the Bishop of this Diocess is dead and the rest taken down by the Reigning Power and we know not where to have Episcopal Ordination or at least without the great suffering of the Bishops on whom the present Powers will inflict so great a penalty if they Ordain if in this case any be Ordained by meer Presbyters are we bound to judge them no Ministers yea and to refuse Associating with others for their sakes Whether our Church doors must be shut up and Gods publick Worship thrown away till the Rulers will permit and the Presbyters and People admit Bishops again and Ministers and Churches all be null yea I do no find you prove that our Agreement requires any such acknowledgment as your self intimateth of which next Except Sect. 3. Mr. Baxter himself I name for one a Principal of this Association and protesting it one end of this Association that they may be acknowledged for true Presbyters and Pastors of their Churches by all who enter into this Agreement vid. p. 14. and the two last lines and p. 15. for eight lines also p. 14. Reas. 11. and Reas. 12. p. 47. mid and p. 49. fin Reply to Sect. 3. For my self I think you have more against me than any other Man in your Association But yet 1. you have not proved that I had not Episcopal Ordination which indeed I had 2. Nor that I consented to the removal of their Calling If I did so yet till you can know it you have no just ground for your alienation 3. If I did consent yet that nulleth not my former Call 4. You know not if I did whether I repent or not 5. No man must be rejected for a fault supposed without a just Tryal in all Equity you should hear me speak for my self I have publickly offered satisfaction to any that are offended with me 6. What if I only were faulty would that warrant you to separate from all the rest for my sake 7. But what do you alledge against me That I would have an acknowledgment that we are true Presbyters and Pastors A heinous Crime that I will not yield to have Gods Church among us unchurched by the Papists and his Worship cast aside for want of true Ministers 8. But what are all these Words of mine to the Agreement Those are but mine own Thoughts which none are desired to consent to You should have produced somewhat from our Articles of Concord and not from my Words Except to Sect. 4. Do they take in your acknowledged Grounds of all parts Episcopal and all who would have us acknowledge them Presbyters ordained in this Church without Bishops not by necessity as in the Churches wherein no Protestant Bishop could be had unless their Christian Charity can take Countenance to say that none of our Bishops were Protestants and that then they must have had no Ordination at all or Ordination by Papists requiring of them the Acknowledging the Popes Ecclesiastial Supremacy which was the confessed Case of those Protestants beyond Seas from whence they would fain borrow a Cloak for their Fact but the Covering is too short though they argue while the World endures there is a vast difference betwixt necessity and voluntary Engaging by Covenant and relinquishing casting off and laying by true Catholick Protestant Bishops Reply to Sect. 4. Yes Sir I am confident I take in the Grounds of the Episcopal Protestants But I dare not say yours for I do not know you nor are you able to manifest the contrary 1. Necessity may justify some things that else were unjustifiable and the absence of such Necessity may prove them sinful But if Presbyters may justly ordain in case of necessity then you will hardly prove our Ordination null for want of that Necessity though you should prove it irregular It seems you think that Lay Men may baptize in case of necessity if so you may prove it sinful but hardly null where Necessity is not 2. It is an incredible Assertion against the Sun that all those Protestants beyond Sea had such a Necessity and could not have Protestant Bishops Put out Mens Eyes and then tell them this Were the Low Countries so far from England that they could not possibly have borrowed a Bishop to Ordain Was not Bishop Carleton at the Synod of Dort with them why did not that Synod desire this Curtesy It is said he protested for Bishops in the open Synod and that he took their Silence for Consent and also that some after told him that they would have them if they could as if Silence were any Sign of Consent against their own established Discipline Who knows not that their loathness to displease King Iames of whom they had then so much need might well cause them to keep Silence about that which was not the Business of the Assembly as long as they held their present Government and if some said they would have Bishops if they could it is plain it was but few for if most had been willing what hindered them If you say the Civil Powers I answer 1. The Ecclesiasticks so taught them and desired the Presbyterian Government of them 2. They might have run the hazard of a Persecution as well as we and the civil Rulers of this Nation are as much at least against it as theirs So some gather from Moulin's Word to Bishop Andrews and some few other Mens that the French Churches would fain have Bishops as also they are said to have offered Obedience to the Papist Bishops if they would turn Protestants when as it is known they are against Bishops and if any particular Persons are for it it is against the Establishment of their Churches Perhaps they might think their Form of Government not of such Moment as to reject Episcopacy if it might come
in with such an Advantage as the turning of the Papist Bishops would have brought But what is that to prove that they would have Bishops and could not Grotius knew France as well as you whoever you are and he tells us another Story of them Discus Apologet. Rivet That they wilfully cast out the Order of Bishops as far as their Authority could reach what impossibility hath their been these hundred Years for France Belgia Helvetia Geneva with the rest of the Protestant Churches to have had Bishops if they had been willing They had Hermannus of Colen Vergerius of Iustinop came among them Spalatensis would have ordained some in his Passage if no English Bishop could have been got thither how easy had it been to have sent one to receive Episcopal Consecration here and then to have gone home and ordained more It may be you would make us believe the like of the Church of Scotland too that they would fain have Bishops and could not If you alledge 〈◊〉 Inconvenience that necessitates all these Protestant Churches to continue without Bishops even to this Day I say 3. Our Necessity is as great as any of theirs for ought you can manifest to the contrary for 1. Our Rulers are as much against them 2. We cannot exercise publickly our Ministerial Office unless we be ordained according to the Laws of the present Rulers 3. There is a heavy Penalty ordained to all Ordainers that do otherwise 4. We have no Bishop in our Diocess 5. We read Canons that null Bishops Ordination out of their Diocesses 6. We know not of above two Bishops in England nor where to find the rest that are latent and we hear those two will not ordain 7. Divers of them were justly ejected for destroying the Church and we cannot take them for Bishops 8. We are but Subjects and a small part of the Ministry and cannot set up Bishops among our selves if we were of that Judgment as much as others But Nations Commonwealths and Free-cities might if they would The Cloak which you say is too short is indeed much larger than our Case requires If our Nation or any part of it did voluntarily cast off Bishops so did the Protestant Churches and continue to keep them out to this Day But you cannot prove that the Ministers of this Association did cast them off And for your surmise of the Countenance of our Christian Charity I answer we never yet gave you Cause to suppose that we distinguish not between Protestant Bishops and Papists Except to Sect. 5. An Argument a Fortiori all Logick admits of but I never heard a Suspicion of any Firmness in concluding ab Imbecilliori thus Perhaps perhaps I say and as many Moderns would charitably think they may be true Presbyters who were ordained by Presbyters where morally to speak and as to consciential possibility there was an impossibility of procuring Orders from any Bishops but such as would oblige them to betray both Presbyters and Bishops Authority to Papal Usurpation and arrogated Supremacy therefore we also who might have had Ordination by Bishops and those such who have as well as we oft hindred that papal Usurpation yea had renued that Duration by an Oath in Synod a little before these late sad Schisms and this new attempted Ordination and chose to be ordained without them contrary to all the Canons of the Church Universal of all Ages till these last Ages of this Cotroversy We I say also for all that are true Pastors and Presbyters and we will be acknowledged for such in this Agreement and others to be Popish Divines lurking under the Name of Episcopal Divines Lo here a goodly Consequence and a Christian Presbyterian Charity Reply to Sect. 5. 1. Our Argument is not only a pari but a fortiori as is manifested 2. You give us reason here to fear that your self are one of those Persons whom we except against and that it is your own Cause that you strive for and that your Guilt is it that makes you angry for you seem to me to intimate to us that you own not their Opinion that make the Protestant Ministers to be Ministers indeed and consequently their Churches true organized Churches for all the necessity which you pretend they had for you make it but a perhaps and your double that perhaps that we may see you own it not and you say it is as many would think as if it were but their Thought and as if you were none of those many And it is but the Moderns that so think as if you intimated that Antiquity iudged otherwise which doubtless you prefer before the Moderns and you say they would think it intimating that Will prevails against Judgment or Judgment follows not that Will yea it is charitably that they would think it as if Affection misled them and other Passages afterward do yet further reveal your Mind in this though you are loath I perceive to speak out because of the harshness of it to Protestants Ears I therefore again say 1. Those churches were not nor are to this Day under any impossibility of having Bishops if they judged them necessary 2. That you prove not what you say that they in this Country might have had Ordination by a Bishop who were ordained by Presbyters only We leave therefore our Consequence and our Christian Presbyterian Charity to a more equal Judge whether that Man be like to be a Protestant that taketh the Church of Rome for a true Church and all the reformed Churches except the Episcopal for no true Churches and that taketh their Priests for Lawful Ministers and all the Protestant Ministers for none except those that were ordained by Bishops nay that argue as here you do to have us and consequently all so ordained disclaimed by Pastors and People and consequently all our Churches nullified and publick Worship forsaken Are we so blind as not to see that you thus not only prefer the Papists before us as much as a true Ministry before no Ministry and a true Church before no Church but hereby would deliver us up into their Hands If we dispute with them in the hearing of the People and confess that their Church is true and ours is not may not the People easily see that it 's better join with them than with us and would not you your self rather submit to a Mass Priest than to those whom you take for no Ministers at all If you say you would have us submit to neither but to the Episcopal yet 1. It follows nevértheless that the Papists of the two are to be preferred as true Ministers before them that are none 2. And if we dispute with the Papist which is the true Church and set against them only Eleven or Twelve for so many you reckon on English Bishops and if there be any Irish or Scotish with those of the Clergy that adhere to them Quality and Number considered whom the People know not where to find nor can
enjoy what Success is such a Dispute like to have either with the People or with the Adversary will they not tell us our Church is invisible especially when these few Bishops are dead Except to Sect. 6. 2. Whether in this Worcestershire Association whosoever will enter into it doth not therein oblige himself to acknowledge that Presbyters while there remain alive fourteen or thirteen or twelve Catholick Protestant Bishops may proceed to publick Excommunications and Absolutions in foro Ecclesiastico without asking those Bishops Consent allowance or taking any notice of them See Resolution 12 13 14 15. and the Scope of the whole Book Reply to Sect. 6. To your second Question I answer The Term Excommunication we use not This Term is used to signify sometimes a delivering up to Satan and casting out of the Catholick Church sometimes only a Ministerial Declaration that such a Person should be avoided by the People acquainting them with their Duty and requiring them to perform it sometimes it signifies the Peoples actual Avoidance In the former Sense we have let it alone and that which you call your Excommunicatio Major we meddle not with much less do we usurp a compelling Power for the Execution The other we know to be consistent with the Principles of Episcopal Protestants if not also with Papists yea even when there is a Bishop resident in the Diocess it being but part of our teaching and guiding Office as Presbyters of that Congregation but I have said enough of this in my Explications already 2. But what if there be twelve latent Bishops in England when for my part I I hear not of above two or three have they Power not only to ordain but also to govern other Diocesses which have no Bishops Yea must they needs govern them 1. Woe then to the Churches of England that must live under such Guilt devoid of all Government 2. Woe to the Sinners themselves that must be left without Christ's Remedy 3. Woe to particular Christians that must live in the continual Breach of God's known Law that saith with such go not to eat c. for want of a Bishop to Execute it 4. Woe to the few Bishops that be for it all the Authority be in them then the Duty and Charge of executing it is only on them and then they are bound to Impossibilities one Bishop must Excommunicate all the Offenders in a great part of the Land when he is not sufficient to the hundredth part of the Work Then when all the Bishops in England are dead save one or two they are the sole Pastors of England and all Discipline must be cast away for want of their Sufficiency Then it seems the Death of one Bishop or two or three doth actually devolve their Charge to another and who knoweth which other This is new Canon Not only Protestant Bishops but some Papists confess that when a Bishop is dead the Government remains in the Presbyters till another be chosen sure they that govern the People at least with him whilst he is living as is confessed need not look on it as an alien supereminent transcendent Work when he is dead Bishop Bromhall against Mil. p. 127. gives People a Judgment of Discretion and Pastors a Judgment of Direction and to the chief Pastors a Judgment of Jurisdiction You may go well allow us by a Judgment of Direction to tell the People that they should avoid Communion with an open wicked Man even while a Bishop is over us Selden de Syne c. 8 9 10. and will tell you another Tale of the way of Antiquity in Excommunication and Absolution than you do hear But of this enough in the Books Except to Sect. 7. 3. Doth not he oblige himself also to acknowledge that not only Presbyters incommuni governing but one single one of them may proceed to Excommunicatiand Absolution in foro Ecclesiastico Reply to Sect. 7. Your third Question I answer by a Denial There is no such Obligation The Declaration of the Peoples Duty to avoid such an one is by one so is every Sermon so is your Episcopal Excommunication Doth not one and that a Presbyter declare or publish it But for advising and determining of it we have tyed our selves not to do it alone though for mine own private Opinion I doubt not easily to prove that one single Bishop or Pastor hath the Power of the Keys and may do all that we agree to do Except to Sect. 8. 4. That not only one single Presbyter but one whose Ordination was never by any Bishop to be Presbyter where also Bishops were that might have been sought unto hath that Power also of Excommunication c. Reply to Sect. 8. Your fourth is answered in the rest if his Ordination have only in the Judgment of Episcopal Protestants yea of some Papists an Irregularity but not a Nullity then he hath Power to do so much as we agree on Your Exception is as much against his other Ministrations Except to Sect. 9. I speak only of the Essence of their Association not insisting on what Mr. Baxter declares to the World that in some Cases the People not satisfied with the Bishops or Presbyters Ordination may accept or take a Man of themselves without any Ordination by Bishops or Presbyters to be their Pastor and Presbyter with Power of Excommunication and Absolution in himself alone without the People see p. 83. Reply to Sect. 9. That this may be done in some Cases I have lately disputed it with a learned Man of your Party and convinced him And methinks Nature should teach you if you were unordained but qualified by Gifts cast among the Indians that you should not let them perish for want of that publick constant teaching which is Ministerial or of Sacraments and Discipline only for want of Ordination that the Substance of Duty should not be thrown by for want of that Order which was instituted for its Preservation and not for its Destruction You dare scarce openly and plainly deny that Necessity warrants the Presbyters of the Reformed Churches to ordain And I doubt you allow it them then on no other grounds then what would warrant this that I am now pleading for Except to Sect. 10. And for any Votum or desire of Bishops Protest Bishops if they might have them or access unto them which was so oft the publick avowed Desire of the chiefest Reformers and Protestants beyond Sea much unlike the Spirit of our Presbyterians see what Mr. Baxter gives us to know p. 85. where comparing our present Bishops with a Leader in an Army he faith Nay it is hard trusting that Man again that hath betrayed us and the Church ibid. These have so apparently falsified their Trust that if we were fully resolved for Bishops yet we cannot submit to them for Ordination or Jurisdiction and then he proves it by Canon he thinks that the Presbyters now should not submit to the present Bishops by Canon Concilii Rbegien ut
perversi ordinatores nullis denuo ordinationibus intersunt and least you may reply that he speaks not this of all our present Bishops he immediately subjoins these Words Where then shall we have a Bishop to ordain of the old accused Tribe Is not this Christian Filial Duty of Presbyters toward the Bishops their Fathers Reply to Sect. 10. 1. For that Desire you again mention of Bishops in the Reformed Churches it is an unproved vain Assertion against full Evidence It is only of a few particular Persons in those Churches that you can prove it If so many Writings against Bishops and Constitutions and actual Practice will not prove them willing to be without them or at least not necessitated there is no Proof of any Man's Will or Necessity 2. What I said I must needs maintain till you say somewhat to change my Judgment I am past doubt it 's ill trusting the Betrayers and Destroyers of the Church with the Government of it And this I did prove and can with great Ease and Evidence prove it more fully 3. I pray you do not persuade Men that by the old accused Tribe I meant all the late English Bishops they were not all accused of destroying or betraying the Church that I ever heard of Where be the Articles that were put in against Usher Hall Davenant Potter Westfield Prideaux c. All those that I call the accused Tribe you may find Articles against in Parliament for their Devastations or Abuses Should the Arrians or other Heretick Bishops say to those that forsook them as you do of me is not this Christian Filial Duty of Presbyters towards the Bishops their Fathers There is no Duty to any Episcopal Father that will hold against God and his Church Take heed of making their Sins your own Except Sect. 11. And elsewhere by Irony he adds O what a rash thing it was to imprison though when he was imprisoned I believe it was by the Name of Dr. Wren or Bishop Wren for excommunicating depriving c. p. 51. and p. 68. To begin at home it is most certain according to many ancient Canons which are their Laws our English Bishops were incapable of ordaining for they lost their Authority by involving themselves in secular and publick Administrations Canon 80. Apostolig N B. That Canon is 30. beyond the Canons Apostolical for even the Papists themselves admit but of fifty genuine and he would eject all our Bishops by the 80th Canon Apostolical Lost their Authority also for neglect of instructing their Floâ—â— most or many of them and many more for non Residence c. Reply to Sect. 11. And why not Wren without any further Title as well as Calvin Luther Beza Zanchy Grotius c. 2. Let the indifferent Reader peruse all my words and blame me if he can What seems it so small a matter in your eyes to expel so many thousand Christian Families and silence and suspend and deprive so many able Ministers in so small a room and so short a time as that it is disobedience to our Fathers not to consent to their punishment It seems then these silly Lambs must be devoured not only without resistance but without complaint or accusing the Wolves because they say they were our Fathers God never set such Saturnine Fathers over his Church so as to authorize them in this or to prohibite a just remedy He never gave them power for Destruction but for Edification 3. What I said of our Bishops incapacity upon that reason was expresly ad hominem against mine own Judgement viz. upon supposition that those Canons are of such force as those imagine against whom I dispute 4. The Canon 80 Apost was also brought ad hominem for though it be confessed not of equal Antiquity with the rest yet for that Antiquity they have it is known how much use those men make of their supposed Authority But are there not enough others that may evince the point in hand besides that you may easily know it and in many Canons that null their Office who come in by the Magistracy Exception to Sect. 12. And whereas we are ready to make good against all the Papists in the world that our English Protestant Bishops had due Ordination in Queen Eliz. and King Edwards time by such who had been Ordained in King Henry the Eighths time Mr. Baxter tells us the Popish Bishops who Ordained in the days of Hen. 8. and many Ages before had no power of Ordination and this he speaks as his own judgment not only from the consequences of his Adversaries for he adds this I prove in that they received their Ordination from no other Bishops of the Province nor Metropolitan but only from the Pope singly yet this is all the Argument he hath to overthrow consequentially upon our objections the Ordination of those Protestant Bishops which himself acknowledges Learned Pious Reverend Men and all that Ordained or were Ordained in Hen. 8. 7. and many Ages before as he saith And indeed if his Discourse were of any force not only in our English Church but also in all the Churches of the West France Spain Polonia Swedland Denmark and throughout the Empire of Germany for these and those many Ages before which he speaks of and all this that our new Presbyterians of Enngland Volunteers in Ordaining and being Ordained without Bishops without pretence of necessity yea or difficulty or colour of difficulty except what themselves had created wherein they have as little Communion with the Protestants beyond seas as they have with the Episcopal Protestants of the true Reformed Church of England may be acknowledged good and lawful Presbyters and Pastors with power conjunctim divisim any one of them alone as Mr. Baxter thinks to Excommunicate and Absolve in foro Ecclesiastico Reply to Sect. 12. The word Due may signifie either such as is not null or else such as is fully regular or else such as they had Authority to perform who did ordain though they might have some Faults or Irregularities If you take it in the first Sense many will yield it who yet deny it in the last as supposing in some Cases Ordination Passive may be valid and so due in the Receiver when yet Ordination Active is without all just Authority in the Ordainer Though this may seem strange I am ready to give some Reasons for it It must be in the last Sense conjunct with the first that you must take the Word Due if you will speak to the point in Hand 2. I do expresly say there that it is according to the Doctrine of the Objectors consequentially that I affirm this not affirming or denying it to be mine own Judgment and to that end bring the Proof which is mentioned And yet you are pleased to affirm that I speak it as my own Judgment and not only from the Consequences of Adversaries Supposing your Grounds which I confidently deny that an uninterrupted Succession of due Authoritative Ordination
is necessary absolutely to the Being of the Ministerial Calling I doubt not but all the unhappy Consequences will be unavoidable which you mention concerning the Churches of all the West But whether it be you or I that is to be blamed for those Consequences it is not your Word only that must determine and I am willing to try by weight of Reasons Except to Sect. 13. And now for the Proof of all this the whole weight is laid by this Book 1. Upon an Argument a comparatis If they the Protestants beyond Seas are lawful Pastors and Presbyters whose Necessity and Plea of Necessity publickly to have been made by those these our new Presbyterians cannot deny then our new ordained ones by Presbyters are Presbyters also though they want all such Pretence all colour of Necessity for themselves were the first Authors of it to those that ejected them which yet did not bring a Necessity neither which we all know If Necessity be pleaded to be above Ecclesiastical Laws as sometimes it hath dispensed even with divine positive Laws themselves then they pro imperio will be above them by their own Magisterial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by Consequence if they will take this to themselves that whatsoever is lawful to others upon necessity is and shall be lawful to themselves without Necessity they may in the next place Pope-like take to themselves to dispense with divine positive Laws also because necessity has sometimes dispensed with them Reply to Sect. 13. 1. You may as well say we dare not say the Sun Shineth as that we dare not deny the Protestant Churches to have been without Bishops to this day through necessity against their Wills when in almost all of them the full Power Civil and Ecclesiastical is supposed to be among themselves though I deny not but some particular Persons among them would fain have Bishops yet I think very few in comparison of those that were willing to be rid of them when they were received here 2. You boldly affirm without Proof that the Ministers of this County who were not ordained by Bishops were Ejectors of them or Authors of the Necessity 3. I shewed you before we have more Necessity than you mention and besides a Necessity whereof we are not guilty there may be a culpable Necessity which yet may free our calling from a nullity though not our selves from Sin What if God should permit all the Churches of Ethiopia or the Greeks to deny the Ius Divinum of Episcopacy which is possible as well as to permit the Reformed Churches to do i◠aud so to set up Ordination by meer Presbyters while I speak to you on your own Grounds I suppose this to be their Error and so their Sin yet would you presently unchurch them all and rather have God's Worship forborn as to the Publick There be many among us who are against Diocesan Bishops who give us good testimony of a sincere Heart impartial studying of the Point with as much self-denial and earnest Prayer for God's Direction as any Episcopal Man that ever I knew and yet remain against Episcopacy This kind of Necessity may sure free their Calling from the Charge of Nullity which needs not this Plea though it could not free them from the Charge of Error Except to Sect. 14. Instead of answering one Word to Ignatius God's Holy Saint and Martyr his renowned Epistles which he knew lately vindicated or to all the ancient Fathers avowing in terminis the jus divinum of Bishops above Presbyters and the Bishops sole Power of ordaining or producing any to the contrary he fills up his Books with Citations of modern Mens Writings which they all wrote charitably for the Patronage of those poor afflicted Protestants who had no Bishops because they could have none So that as well his Authorities as his Reasons are all drawn a loco comparatorum arguing weakly from the Priviledge of necessity to their licentiousness with or without Necessity which is one continued Sophism Reply to Sect. 14. 1. Though Ignatius were both a Saint and Holy yet I know not what call I had in those Papers to meddle with him Unless I must needs dispute the point of Episcopacy which I did disclaim 2. As I would not undervalue the late Vindicacation of Ignatius so I would not have you so far overvalue it as to think it should so easily and potently prevail 1. With all those that see not any Cogency in the Arguments or sufficiency in the Answers to the contrary Objections 2. Or with hose that will take Scripture only for the Test of this Cause 3. Or with those that are confident that you can never prove that Ignatius speaks of Diocesan Bishops but only of the Bishops of particular Churches 3. Your talk of all the Ancient Fathers avowing in terminis the Bishops sole Power of ordaining doth but discredit the rest of your Words You suppose us utter Strangers both to those Fathers and the English Bishops who maintain that Presbyters must be their Coadjutors in Ordination 4. What if I should grant that all the Fathers would have Bishops to have the sole Power of Ordaining ordinarily and for Order Sake And that it is a Sin of Disorder where unnecessarily it is done otherwise that 's nothing to the Question that I had in hand which is whether such Ordination by Presbyters be not only irregular but null and whether an uninterrupted Succession be necessary to our Office 5. I plainly perceive here again that you are loath to speak out your Mind but you seem to dissent from these charitable Maintainers of the Protestants Why else do you set Ignatius and the ancient Fathers as the Party that I should have respected instead of these if you did not think that the Fathers and these Men were contrary 6. My Business was to prove that according to the Principles of the Protestant Bishops in England our Ordination was not null eo Nomine because without a Bishop now I am blamed for proving this by Modern Writers and not Fathers If you will disclaim the Modern Protestant Bishops do not pretend to be of their Party but speak plainly If I fill up my Book with such Citations then I hope I was not deficient in bringing the Testimonies of the Protestant Episcopal Divines and yet many more I could cite to that end 7. To that of the Protestants Necessity enough is said till your Words are canonical or your Proof stronger I do not think but there are some Protestant Bishops so called at least in France and Holland now that went out of Britain and Ireland why cannot they ordain them Bishops in their extream Necessity Why did the angry Bishops so revile poor Calvin Beza the Churches of Geneva Scotland and many others for casting out Bishops and setting up Presbytery if all were done on a justifiable Necessity But enough of this Except to Sect. 15. But that these Authors cited by him may be authentical all the
say that God will make their Acts as useful to the honest Receiver as if the Ordainer had done it by just Authority and another to say that such an Ordainer had Authority because his Incapacity was not known or judged that is because it was not then known that he had none 2. Moreover if the Catholick Churches Acceptation and Reputation which you mention would serve turn then 1. It were well worth the knowing what you mean by the Catholick Church do you mean the whole or only a Part If the whole then few Ministers or Bishops must be so accepted for who is known to all Christians in the World If a Part then what Part must it be what if one Part repute him a true Minister or Bishop and the other a false or none which is very common If you say it is the People over whom he is Pastor then nothing more common then for them to be divided in their Judgments If you say it is the greater part then we shall be at utter Uncertainties for our Succession as little knowing what the greater part of the People thought of our Predecessors if you mean the Superior Bishops then a Metropolitan it seems is the Catholick Church when a Bishop is to be judged of and it is like a Patriarch for a Metropolitan and the Pope for him But as 1. We know not how these judged of our Predecessors 2. So we little believe that these Mens Judgments can make a Man to be a Bishop that is none or make him have a Power which else he had not this is worse than the Doctrine which hangs the Efficacy of the Sacraments on the Priests Intention It 's like the Faith of some that think to make a Falsehood become true by believing it true 3. And you know it is the Pope whose Succession we are questioning and which is the Catholick Church that must accept and repute him a true Pope If the Council of Basil were the Catholick Church then you know how Eugenius was reputed and then where is our Succession I doubt not but true Christians that are not guilty of the Nullity of the Ordination nor knew it may have the Benefit and Blessing of such a Man's Administrations and they may be valid to the Receiver But that is on another ground which I have lately manifessed to another in debating this Cause and not that the Administrator had any true Ministerial Authority from God Again I refer you to my Answer to Bellarmine and others in those Papers Except to Sect. 18. V.G. Put case one not baptized thought to have been baptized had per ignorantiam facti been promoted to be Bishop Archibishop or Patriarch yet so long as the Church knew it not nor himself perhaps but did accept him bona Fide though ipso Facto had it been known such had been uncapable of Episcopal Order yet being so accepted by the Catholick Church Ordinations done by him were not null nor did he interrupt the Succession but latente omni defectu baptismi he was a true Bishop though after his Death by any Writing they had come to discover it for the Church as all Judicatures rightly proceeds secundum allegata probata the same I say of secret Symony V. S. But on the other side to speak now to the Presbyterian Case Reply to Sect. 18. Nay then put Case the Man were not Ordained and the Church took him to be Ordained you say the Church must proceed secundum allegata probata doth not this give up your Cause and yield all that I plead for which is that an authoritative Ordination and so an uninterrupted Succession is not simply and absolutely necessary to the being of the Ministry For you confess your Churches Reputation may serve without it By the way take head least you either make the People to be none of the Catholick Church or at least you give a Power to the People to make Ministers Bishops and Popes by their bare Thoughts without Ordination or so much as Election But then you will remember that if Reputation without just Ordination may serve turn I know not but those among us may be Ministers whom you disclaim For the Pastors and People of all the Protestant Churches in Europe except your selves here do take such for Ministers so far as it is possible by Writings Professions and Practices to know their Minds and I hope they are as good a part of the Catholick Church as the Pope and his Consistory are If Reputation then will make Pastors without Ordination we may have as good a Plea as those you plead for For the case of Symony you mention see what I cited out of Dr. Hammond and you know sure that many Canons make Ordinations null and the Office null ipso Facto whether ever the Party be questioned in Judgment or not such Canons and Laws are equal to Sentences A Case also may be known that is never questioned and Judged who could question the Sodomitical unclean murderous Popes though it was commonly known I take it for granted therefore that the Knowledge degraded them without a Judgment according to your own Words here unless one part of them contradict the other Except to Sect. 19. The same ancient Church which did make void and annul constantly all Ordinations made by meer Presbyters whether they Schismatically arrogated to themselves to be Bishops and were not nor so reputed by the Church or otherwise upon any Pretention whatsoever for at that time no necessity could be with any Colour nor was pretended Reply to Sect. 19. 1. But is it the Judgment of the Ancient Church that will serve to degrade or null a Minister of this Age If so then all your former Arguing is in the Dust For though your Popes had none to Judge them Wicked and Uncapable then yet the ancient Church before them did make void and null the Office and Ordinations of such as they If it must be a present Power that must do it we have not yet been called to any Judicature about it 2. Your Parenthesis seems to intimate that if the Presbyters be but Reputed Bishops by the Church then their Ordinations are not null All 's well on our side then except you only or the Romanists be the whole Western Church For not only Pastors and People here do take Presbyters to be Bishops having Power of Ordination but so do the rest of the Reformed Churches or at least most of them They think that the primitive Bishop was the Bishop of one particular Church and not of a Diocess or many Churches 3. You talk of necessity again but you would not say that necessity would have excused them then if there had been such though it seems you would be thought to judge of the Reformed Churches as the Protestant Bishops do or else hide your Judgment in part Except to Sect. 20. These Three Fallacies are the Summ of all his Arguments rather popular Calumnies for want of Argument
Ordainer to do it where it will be needful to consider what is of Necessity to the Constitution of such Authority and what destroys it Before all which it would be necessary to know what the Ordainer's Work is and to what and how far his Power extends But this I am not now to meddle in That a Divine Ordination is of Necessity to the Ligitimation of our Calling in foro Dei I grant as also in foro Conscientiae Ministrantis That authoritative Ordination of Men is necessary Ordinis Gratiâ when it may be obtained and where God's Providence doth not make it naturally or morally impossible I also grant That Imposition of Hands with solemn Prayer is the most convenient manner and necessary for the Ordainer to use Necessitate Praecepti Medii ad bene esse Ordinationis I also grant That the Power of Ordaining is ordinarily only in the Hands of Christ's Ecclesiastical Ministers I acknowledge whether Bishops or Presbyters we now question not and that it is not divolved to any others but in Case of Necessity The Things then that I deny are that Imposition of Hands or present Prayer or the Presence of the Ordainer are of Necessity to our Office That the true just Authority of an Ecclesiastical Ordainer is of Necessity to the being of our Office And consequently that an uninterrupted Succession of Just Authoritative Ecclesiastical Ordination from the Apostles is of absolute necessity to the being of our Calling Nay that any Authoritative Human Ordination at all besides the Peoples meer Consent is of such absolute indispensable Necessity ad esse Officii all this I deny And my Opinion is that in Case of a failing of all Ecclesiastical Authoritative Ordination the Magistrates Ordination may suffice ad esse Officii And in case both fail the Peoples meer Acceptance Consent or Election may suffice supposing the Person meetly qualified And whether you will call this act of the People a Constitution or Ordination or not I am indifferent Certainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oft signifies the Constituting which is not an Act of Government or superior Authority But no Term hath so much need of Explication as the Word Office or Ministry which is the Terminus of Ordination An Office is a stated Power or Authority or Faculty with Duty of doing certain Works to certain Ends. The Ministerial Office of a Presbyter is to be differenced ab objecto a fine The Authority and the Duty in a lawful Officer go together Such a one only is in sensu primario proprio an Officer But he that is a Usurper or hath no lawful Call may yet both 1. Have all the Duty of that Office lying upon him and by his own Intrusion oblige himself to the Performance and yet want the true Authority for performing it seeing he came in without God's Call and there is no Power but of God 2. And he may have the Name of an Officer though given him but analogically or in sensu secundario ecclesiastico 3. And the Church may owe him that Respect and Observance due to a lawful Officer the Reason is because it is one thing to know who is a truly lawful Officer as in Matter of Membership I am bound to use many as true Christians even all that have the Profession of such who yet are not such So am I bound to take all those for lawful Officers that have the external Tokens of such seeing we cannot know any further though they be not such indeed 4. And all that Man 's Ministerial Actions are valid to the Church that doth her Duty in observing him and yet they are all null or unlawful and flat Sins to the Performer The Reason of the later is both because no Mna can lawfully do that which he hath no Authority given him for and because nemini ex proprio crimine debetur beneficium and Ergo his Usurpation cannot secure him The Reason of the former is because Duty and Benefit go together and therefore the Church that performeth but her Duty in taking those to be truly called Pastors that seem so to be having those Tokens which she is bound to judge by as probable must needs have the Benefit of his Ministry in their way of Duty for God requireth no Duty in vain As also because nemini debetur pâ—na ex aliena culpa qua talis est Now whether we shall dispute de necessitate ordinationis ad officium verum legitimum proprie primario sic dictum in foro Dei Or only as ad Officium analogicum secundario minus proprie in foro tantum ecclesiae sic dictum is to be considered How far your Sense will concur I know not but in respect of both these do I hold my former Negations Yet further before I either answer your Arguments or determine of the Sense of our Question it is very necessary that the end of our Enquiry be understood which in order must go before the means I take it for granted that you do not dispute this question as necessary to be determined in order to our Association before you can join with the present Ministry Or yet as necessary to the Determination of that further Question whether those are true Ministers that are not Ordained by Bishops and those true Organized Churches that have only such Ministers for if I thought this were your end 〈◊〉 would dispute many other Questions first before we came to this and try first whether you could prove that the Presbyterian Churches cannot produce a Succession of true Ordination on the same Grounds as the Episcopal for the main But I suppose your Ends are some other and in special those mentioned in your Paper I conjecture that I shall nearest approach your Sense if I state the Question thus Whether an Ordination by Ecclesiastical Men having just Authority thereto be in all Times and Cases since the Apostles of absolute Necessity to the very being of the Ministerial Office both coram Deo coram Ecclesiâ and consequently an uninterrupted Succession of such Ordination be of the same Necessity For if I should put the Question about Imposition of Hands or de modo aliquo ordinandi I know not but I might miss of your Sense on one Side and on the other if I should extend it to all Ordination whether by Magistrates or others Ad 1 um Your First Argument I suppose should be formed thus That which the English Bishops thought necessary to prove against the Papists that is necessary to be proved against them But the English Bishops thought it necessary against the Papists to prove the Non-interruption of their Succession in just Ordination Ergo Resp. 1. Concedo totum It was necessary to prove it against the Papists arguing ad Hominem because it is the way of fuller Conviction and Satisfaction when a Man can confute an Adversary on his own Grounds It will much shorten the Dispute when we shew them that though we should
grant the Necessity of such Succession yet we need not grant the Nullity of our Calling 2. I deny that the English Bishops much less the Church of England did ever judge it necessary any farther than ad Hominem 1. Because it is apparent that they do ordinarily in their Writings speak against the Papists supposed Necessity of Ordination as I instanced out of some of them in my Book It is known to be a Point wherein the Protestants have commonly opposed the Papists 2. It is known to be but the later declining Generation of Bishops such at Montague Laud and their Confederates most in King Charles his Days very few in King Iames's and scarce any at all in Queen Elizabeth's that do join with the Papists in pleading the Necessity of Succession Even such Men as were as zealous against Queen Elizabeth's Episcopal Protestants as against the Papists at least many of them 3. The rest do expresly mention Succession and confute the Fâ—ble of the Nag's-Head Ordination in Cheapside to prove the Papists Slanderers So much to your Minor 3. If that will not serve I deny your Major All is not necessary that they thought necessary Protestants pretend not to Infallability in Controversals Many more perhaps ten to one at least of the English Clergy held it not necessary unless as aforesaid Ad 2 um Your second Argument hath all the Strength in it or rather shew of Strength â— first we must needs distinguish of your Terms Mediately and Immediately A Constitution may be said to be from Christ mediately either in Respect to a mediating Person or to some mediating Sign only Also it may be said to be mediante persona 1. when the Person is the cause totalâ—â— subordinata constituendi as having himself received the Power from God and being as from himself to convey it unto Man 2. Or when the Person is but Causa per accidens 3. Or when he is only Causa sive qua non vel quatenus impedementa â—emovit vel quatenus ejus Actiones sunt conditiones necessarie And so I answer 1. Immediately in the first absolute Sense excludendo personâ—â— res no Man ever had any Right communicated or Duty imposed on him by God unless perhaps the immediate Impress or supernatural Revelation of the Holy Ghost to some Peophet or Apostle might be said to do this Moses himself had the Ten Commandments written in Stone which were signa mediantia Those that heard God speak if any immediately without Angelical Interposition did receive God's Commands mediante verborum signo So did the Apostles that which they had from the Mouth of Christ. 2. God is so absolutely the Fountain of all Power that no Man can either have or give any Power but derivatively from him and by his Commission Man being no farther the Efficient of Power than he is so constituted of God the general way of his giving it must be by the Signification of God's Will and so far as that can be sufficiently discovered there needs no more to the Conveyance of Power Whether Men be properly efficient Causes of Church Power at all is a very hard Question especially as to those over whom they have no superior governing Power As Spalatensis hath taken great pains to prove that Kings or other Sovereigns of the Common-wealth have their Commission and Power immediately from God though the People sometimes may choose the Man for the Power was not given to the People first and then they give it the King but God lets them name the Man on whom he will immediately confer it so possibly may it be in Ordination of Church-Officers Three ways do Men mediate in the Nomination of the Person 1. When they have Authority of Regiment over others and explenitudine potestatis do convey efficiently to inferior Officers the Power that these have Thus doth the supream Rector of the Commonwealth to his Officers and Ergo they are caled the Kings Officers and he hath the choice of the very Species as well as of the individual Officers Now this way of mediating is not always if at all necessary or possible in the Church for the Papists themselves confess that the Pope is Ordained or authorized without this way of Efficiency for none have a Papal Power to convey to him His Ordination cannot be Actus Superioris And the Council of Trent could not agree whether it were not the Case of all Bishops to hold their Office immediately from Christ though under the Pope or whether they had their Power immediately from the Pope as the prime Seat on Earth of all Church Power who is to convey their Parts to others How the Spanish Bishops held up their Cause is known And it was the old Doctrine of the Church that all Bishops were equal and had no Power one over another but all held their Power directly from Christ as Cyprian told them in the Council of Carthage Add to this that the true old Apostolical Episcopacy was in each particular Church and not over many Churches together I speak of fixed Bishops till the matter becoming too big to be capable of the old Form Corruptio unius fuit generatio alterius and they that upon the increase of Christians should have helpt the Swarm into a new Hive did through natural Ambition of ruling over many retaine divers Churches under their Charge and then ceased to be of the Primitive sort of Bishops Non eadem fuit res non munus idem etiamsi idem nomen retinerent So that truly our Parish Ministers who are sole or chief Pastors of that Church are the old sort of Bishops for as Ambrose and after him Grotius argues qui ante se alterum non habebat Episcopus er at That is in eadem Ecclesia qui superiorem non habet So that not only all Diocesan Bishops but also all Parochial Bishops are Ordained per pares and so not by a governing Communication of Power which is that second way of Ordination when men that are of equal Authority have the Nomination of the Person Now whether or no he that ordaineth an Inferior as a Deacon or any other do convey Authority by a proper Efficiency as having that first in himself which he doth Convey yet in the Ordination of Equals it seems not to be so for they have no Government over the particular Persons whom they Ordain or Churches to whom they Ordain them nor could they themselves exercise that governing Power over that other Congregation which they appoint another to so that they seem to be but Causae Morales or sine quibus non as he that sets the Wood to the Fire is of its burning or as he that openeth you the Door is of your bringing any thing into the House So that if you will call the Ordainer of an Inferior causam equivocam and the Ordainer of an Equal causam univocam yet it is but as they morally and improperly cause The Third way of Mediating in the
Rome where none shall be admitted that will not swear to do wickedly and to false Ways And in the great Arrian Defection when scarce Six or Seven Bishops were to be found that did not turn Arrians among whom the Bishop of Rome was one that revolted and they would ordain none but those that would be of their Way and so would engage Men against Christ. God did not give them Power to destroy the Church but to preserve Order and propagate it They can do nothing by any Power from God against the Truth but for the Truth When Ergo They will not ordain to the Preservation but to the apparent Destruction of the Church we are not obliged to receive their Ordination And that the failing of regular Ministerial Ordination doth not destroy the Ordination or Law of God de Specie conservandâ and that it was never the Will of God that there should be no Ministry at all longer than they might be so regularly Ordained appears thus 1. The Office of the Ministry is of standing Necessity to the very Being of a Political Church whereas the Ecclesiastical Authoritative Ordination is but necessary to the well being and ordering of it Ergo the failing of the later causeth not a failing of the former The Reason of the Consequence may appear in that God hath oft suffered his Church in all Ages to fall into Disorders and Distempers when yet he hath preserved the Being 2. God hath not inseparably tyed a necessary certain End to one only mutable uncertain means But the Office of the Ministry is the necessary certain End of Regular Ecclesiastical Ordination viz. by one in Just Power and this is a mutable uncertain means Ergo God hath not tyed the Office of the Ministry to this alone The Necessity of the Ministry and the certain Continuance of it to the Church I suppose will be granted even to every Church while it remains a Church Political The Uncertainty and Mutability of that means is before proved 3. God hath not put it into the Power of Bishops or other Ordainers to destroy his Church for ever but if the Ministry were inseparably annexed to their authoritative Ordination it would be so Ergo It is in the Power of their Wills whether they will ordain any other Bishops to succeed them which if they should not do the Succession is interrupted and the Office must for ever fail If you say it is not to be supposed that all will deny to Ordain others I answer 1. What Promise or Certainty of the contrary 2. It is not possible their own Judgments may be turned against Bishops and so renounce that Calling or may they not turn most of them Heretical and so will ordain none that will not be so too As it was actually when the whole World turned Arrian except six or seven Bishops there were none left and a tenth Part nay the Hundredth part of the Church could not have recourse to six or seven persecuted Bishops hidden in Wildernesses or Corners or Fugitives that Men knew not where to find And that it was then unlawful to have submitted to the Arrians Ordination on their Terms I suppose will not be denied And the few that do not turn Hereâ—icks may yet clogg their Ordinations with such unlawful Impositions and Engagements as that no Man fearing God may justly submit to them which is at best the Case of all the Romish Church as is said So that if all Men else obey God they must not be Ordained by these Men and consequently these Men have Power to destroy the Church which if it were affirmed but of the Churches in one Nation is not true No nor of one Congregation for the Sense of the Precept for Ordination is this That the Churches may be edified and well guided and my Worship rightly performed do you ordain Elders c. 4. God hath made it indispensably necessary to his People to the World's End to assemble in solemn Congregations and then to perform his publick Worship viz. In Prayer Praises Sacraments Preaching and Hearing c. But without the Ministry this cannot be performed Ergo he hath made it indispensably necessary that they have a Ministry and consequently the failing of Authoritative Ecclesiastical Ordination doth not destroy the Ministry Both by necessity of Precept and of Means is Publick Worship necessary to the World's End Ordinary teaching publickly and being the Mouth of the People in Praising God and Administring Sacraments and blessing the People c. are Ministerial Actions Now suppose you come into a Nation or Country where such Ordination fails as if you had lived in the Reign of the Arrians durst you absolve all the Churches from all God's Publick Worship Durst you have said to whole Countries Never Assemble to Worship God by Solemn Praises Never baptize any Never communicate in the Lord's Supper This were to contradict a Precept in Force that binds them to do what you forbid them and it were to destroy their Souls and bid them forsake God and quench his Graces For without God's Publick Ministerial Ordinances Grace and Christianity it self could not be long continued at least ordinarily and in many Witness the Unchristianing of the vast Kingdom of Nubia for want of Ministers If you would have such to appoint Private Men to do these Things pro tempore in this Case of Necessity that is to grant all for then the People do make those Private Men Ministers pro tempore whether they give them that name or not for the Office is but Power to do those Works which belong thereto and if they have Power to do the Work they have the Office The like may be said of those Reformed Christians that live under the Romish Power if they must have no Miniâ—â—â—rs they must have no Worship or Sacraments which Ministers are to perform If they must have Ministers either Romish or Reformed Not Romish for they cannot follow them or join with them but by known sinning in wicked Engagements and wicked Actions Not Reformed if there be a Necessity of Authoritative Ordination For the Romish Bishops if they have Authority will not Ordain without forcing Men to open Sin nor may any Pious Man submit to their Ordinations on their Terms and many People cannot have Reformed Bishops no nor Presbyters to ordain them 5. The Law of Nature and the express unchangable written Word agreeing thereto do require Men to do the Offices of Ministers who have a fitness for it and where there is an undeniable Necessity of their Help But the failing of Authoritative Ecclesiastical Ordination will not dispence with the Law of Nature and the express moral written Law agreeing therewith Ergo It will not dispense with such Men for the neglect of such Ministerial Works I think none will question the Minor For the Major understand that those whom I call fit are they that have the Qualifications which I mentioned before Here I take it as undenyable that Duty and
separated to God's Service those of the Sons of Asaph and of Heman and of Ieduthun who should prophesie with Harps c. 1 Chron. 25. 1 6. They were for the Service of the House of God according to the King's Order so 1 Chron. 16. 4. so did Solomon 2 Chron. 8. 14 15. The Magistrates Power in Church Matters was no Ceremony or Temporary Thing 13. When any Officers of the Temple were discovered to have no just Title and thereupon were put out yet none of their Actions while they were in Place were censured null Ergo if now any be discovered to have no just Title his former Actions are not to be judged null The Reason of the Consequence lyeth in the Equality of the Case The Antecedent is proved from Ezra 2. 62. Neb. 7. 64 65. They sought their Register among those that were reckoned by Genealogy but they were not found therefore were they as polluted put from the Priest hood So Neh. 13. 29 30. And therefore the Ordination done before such Ejection is not null And that the individual Person to receive this Power may be determined of in case of necessity without an Ecclesiastical Authoritative Determination may further appear thus 1. If the individual Person may be determined of ordinarily or sometimes by the Peoples Election to be presented to the Ministers for their Ordination or Confirmation then may the individual Person be determined of by the People to be presented to God immediately for his Ordination in case there be no Ordainers to be had But the Antecedent is true Ergo the Antecedent is proved 1. From the Apostles Instruction to the Church of Ierusalem Act. 6. 3. Choose you or look you out seven Men of honest Report full of the Holy Ghost and Wisdom whom we may appoint over this Business They describe the Men and leave them to nominate them that were such And if the Church can do this to present to the Apostles then it seems they are competent Discerners of Such If the Apostles had said We do appoint and authorize the seven Men whom you shall choose so that they be such and such Men the Ordination had been as valid on Supposition of such an Election as it was when it followed the Election And if the Apostles might have so done no doubt God may so do by his Law For he doth the same viz. describe the Persons and confer the Power particularly and on an Individuum vagum and sometimes quasi signatum and if popular Election can make it an Individuum determinatum then all is done 2. And the Church hath continued this Custom so far that Councils decreed Ordinations invalid without Elections of the People yea if they were but afrighted and over-awed and did it not freely Insomuch that Cyprian faith Plebs maximam habet potestatem vel dignos Sacerdotas elegendi vel indig nos recusandi Till the bloody bout in the choice of Damasus it is known that the Peoples Election was the principle Determiner of the individual Person or at least did much in it For the Consequence the Reason of it lyes here in that Scripture may apparently suffice for all except the Nomination of the Individual as you seem to intimate in laying the stress of all your Argument upon this that it meddles with no Individuum of these times The Law gives Authority to that individual Person that is justly nominated or determined of But a right qualified Man chosen only by the People in case there be no Ordainer is justly determinated of or nominated Ergo The Law gives Authority to such Where note that the Law needs no other Condition to the actuating of its Conveyance but only the Determination of the recipient Person Then note that regularly Officers and People are to join in this Determination of the Person The People sometime being in electing and the Officers conclusively determine and sometimes the Officers begin and the People after consent but both must concur and all that both can do is to determine of the Man whom God by his Law shall authorize though the very determination it self as by the Officers is an Act of Authority Now whenever two Parties are made Con-causes or are to concur in such Determinations when one Party faileth the Power and Duty is solely in the other At least it is hence apparent that there is a possible way left for the determining of Individuums in this Age. 2. If the Law do so far describe the Persons to receive Power as that a Bishop can nominate the Persons by the Light of that Description then it doth so far describe the Persons as that others may nominate them by the Light of that Description But the Antecedent is true Ergo The Antecedent you will own or else farewell all Episcopal Ordination The Consequence is plain in that others may be able to see that which a Bishop can see and in necessity at least may do it This therefore wholly answers your Argument against the Law being a sufficient Medium eo nomine because it meddles not with Individuums for it meddles with none of the Individuals which Bishops determine of and yet it is the Law that conveys the Power when the Bishop hath determined of the Person to receive it as Spalatensis hath largely proved of Kings Law is God's Instrument of conveying Right and imposing Duty though Men may be the Media Applicationis The Law is to be conceived as in this Form I do authorize the Persons that shall be justly determined of according to this Description And because Ministerial Determinations are the ordinary regular way with the Peoples Consent it is q. d. Ordinarily I do authorize the Persons whom Ecclesiastical Power shall determine of according to this Description So that it is God by his Law that gives the Power As when a Corporation is to choose their Bailiff or Major it is the Law or Charter that is the immediate Instrument of effective Conveyance of the Power though the Choosers are the Media Applicationis and perhaps some capital Burgesses may have the chief Power in choosing him ordinarily 3. If the People may per Iudicium Discretionis discern whether a Bishop have ordained them one agreeable to the Scripture Description then may they also discern whether a Man be agreeable to it though unordained But the antecedent is true Ergo Were not the People to judge of this then they must receive any Heretick or Infidel without Tryal if ordained their Bishop But that is not true Though the Officers contradict it yet the People of themselves are bound to reject a Heretick Bishop 1. It is a general Precept A Man that is a Heretick avoid and with such no not to eat If a Bishop ordain over this Church a common unreformed Drunkard Rayler c. The Holy Ghost bids us not to eat i. e. have Communion with him 2. Cyprian determines it that Plebâ— obsequens praeceptis Dominicis Deum metuens a Peccatore praeposito
may say as much for the proving of the Universal Churches Practice in this Point as in most it being of constant and solemn use and none that I know of that ever opposed it But if you hold this universal Practice to be the other part of God's Law and do lay any thing much on it in other Points especially in Doctrinals I would advise you to get better Proof of the Universality than others use to bring who go that way As the Romish Church is not the the Universal nor the Romish and Greek together so the Opinion of four or five or more Fathers is no Evidence of the Judgment of the universal Church Till they are better agreed with themselves and one another it is hard taking a view of the Judgment of the Church universal in them in controverted Points Till Origen Tertullian c. cease to be accounted Hereticks till Firmilianus Cyprian and the Council of Carthage be better agreed with Stephen Bishop of Rome till Ruffinus cease to be a Heretick to Hierom and many the like Discords it 's hard seeing the Face of the Church universal in this Glass I was but even now reading in Hierom where he tells Austin that there were quaedam Haeretica in his Writings against him when yet to the impartial Reader the angry Man that morosus Senex had the unsounder Cause As long as the Writings of Clem. Alexandr Origen â—atianus pretended Dyonisius Lactantius with so many more do tot erroribus scatere as long as many Councils have so erred and Council is a great Council and someâ—things are imposed by them under the terrible Pennalty of Anathematizing which Rome it self doth take unlawful to be observed these are not perfect Indices of the Mind of Christ or the universal Church Read Baronius himself Tom. 3. what abundance of Errors in History he chargeth upon Epiphanius and others I suppose you to have read Daille and the Lord Digby on this yet think not that I would detract from the due Estimation of the Fathers or Councils or from the necessity of Tradition to the use which I have expressed in the Preface to the Second part of my Book of Rest. But I know not well in the matter of Not-kneeling and Not-fasting on the Lord's Day Not-reading the Books of Heathens c. how a Man should obey both the former Councils and the present Church of Rome it self yea or how in matter of giving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to Insants and other things the present Church and the former do agree And I would know whether it was not the Practice of that which you call the universal Church then which the following Ages did alter and contradict But all this part of the Answer is but occasional as to your Amplifications and not to the matter under debate I further answer you therefore that the universal Practice of the Church doth prove no more but that it was done and therefore by them judged a Duty to be done and so not to be omitted while they could use it all which I grant you I am not one that would have Ordination used without Imposition but in case of necessity But it follows not from all this that it is essential to Ordination suppose a Church institute a new Ceremony that every Bishop ordained shall have a Helmet on to signify that he must fight valiantly as a Captain under Christ and the Ordainer must lay his Hands on this If I can prove that it hath been the universal Practice of the Church in nudum apertum caput manus imponere doth it follow that this is essential and the contrary null If you ask what necessity there can be of Ordination sine manum Impositione I answer very great and ordinary viz. ut absentes ordinentur for want of which the Church hath suffered and may suffer very much When a Man is in remote Parts of the World and perhaps too scrupelous of playing the Bishop without Ordination if he must travel over Land and Sea for Ordination his Life may be gone or most of it spent while he is seeking Authority to use it for his Master If a few only of the Ordainers were left in a Country or in many Nations and those imprisoned or forced to hide themselves they might by an Instrument under their Hands Ordain when they could not at all or to one of a hundred by Imposition of Hands But yet all this is but the least necessary part of my Answer to your Argument To your Consequence therefore I answer by denying it If the Succession be interrupted what necessity is there that the next must come in without Imposition of Hands what shew of such a Consequence May not the illegitimate Ordainer imponere manus Or may he not himself enter by Imposition of Hands and yet be illegitimate and his Calling null If you think not only Imposition to be essential but also that nothing else is essential or that all are true Ministers that are ordained by a lawful Bishop per manum impositionem then do you egriously tibi ipsi imponere Suppose a lawful Bishop should ordain a Man into an unlawful Office as to be the universal Bishop or should ordain a known Heathen to be a Bishop by Imposition of Hands were not this null Yea and many a lower case as in case of Symony c. if Councils be of any Authority Here then the Succession is interrupted and yet this Man may Ordain others by Imposition of Hands Suppose in the case of Pope Ione the Succession interrupted for want of a capable Sex and yet she might Ordain by Imposition of Hands Lastly I answer This Argument can pretend to prove no more than the former That Ordination is essential to the Call of the Ministry Ergo So far as that is disproved so far is this And indeed it had been stronger arguing a Necessitate Ordinationis ad necessitatem impositionis manuum than e contra because all Arguing should be a Notiore But sure the Necessity of Imposition of Hands is minus notum then the necessity of Ordination Many a Thousand will yield that Ordination is essential I believe that will not yield it of that Imposition Having done with all that I find in this Paper I add this cross Argument for the enervating of all or if you will of your Second which is all If your Arguments do tend as well to prove the absolute Necessity of an uninterrupted Succession quoad modum as to every Mode and Circumstance in Ordination which the Apostles have required as due without express Dispensation for Omission as of legitimate Ecclesiastical Ordination it self then they are unsound At verum prius Ergo The Antecedent is proved thus The full Strength of all your Arguments is here Christ or his Apostles or the Church since have mentioned no other way of Conveying Ministerial Power but by Ordination and Imposition of Hands Ergo There is no other way and this is necessary
Conformists and Nonconformists The Episcopal Conformists are of Two Sorts some lately sprung up that follow Archbishop Laud and Dr. Hammond hold that there are no Political Churches lower than Diocesan because there are no Bishops under them and so that the parish-Parish-Churches are no Churches properly but part of Churches nor the Incumbants true Bishops but Curates under Bishops nor the Foreigners true Ministers or Churches that have no Diocesan Bishops This Party called themselves the Church of England 1658 1659. When we knew but of Four or Five Bishops left alive who Dr. Hammond said with that Party of the Clergy were of his Mind And these seemed uppermost in 1660 and 1661. and were the men whom I disputed with in my Treatise of Episcopacy The other Episcopal Conformists are they that follow the Reformers and hold the Doctrine of the Scripture as only sufficient to Salvation and as explicatory of it the Thirty Nine Articles the Homilies Liturgy Book of Ordination Apology c. These take the Parish-Pastors for true Rectors and the Parish-Churches for true Churches but subordinate to the Diocesans and to be ruled by them But the Laws have imposed on them some Declarations and Subscriptions which they think they may put a good Sense on though by stretching the Words from their usual Signification The Bishops and Deans are chosen by the King indeed and by the Prebends in shew The Incumbant are chosen by Patrons ordained by Diocesans with Presbyters and accepted by Consent of the Communicants of the Parish The Episcopal Government is managed partly by the Bishops and partly by Lay-Civilians and Surrogates The Episcopal Nonconformists are for true parish-Parish-Churches and Ministers reformed without swearing promising declaring or subscribing to any but sure clear necessary things desiring that the Scripture may be their Canons disowning all persecuting Canons taking the capable in each Parish for the Communicant and Church and the rest for Hearers and Catechized Persons desiring that the Magistrate be Judge whom he will maintain approve and tolerate and the Ordainers Judges whom they will ordain and the People be free Consenters to whose Pastoral Care they will trust their Souls desiring that every Presbyter be an Overseer of the Flock and every Church that hath many Elders have one Incumbent President for Unity and Order and that Godly Diocesans may without the Sword or Force have the Oversight of many Ministers and Churches and all these be confederate and under the Government of a Christian King but under no Foreign Jurisdiction though in as much Concord as is possible with all the Christian World And they would have the Keys of Excommunication and Absolution taken out of the Hands of Lay-Men Chancellors or Lay Brethren and the Diocesans to judge in the Synods of the Presbyters in Cases above Parochial Power That this was the Judgment of the Nonconformists that treated for Peace in 1660. and 1661. is to be seen in their printed Proposals in which they desired Archbishop Usher's Model of the Primitive Episcopacy joined with the Synods of Presbyters II. The Presbyterians are for Parish-Churches as aforesaid guided by Elders some teaching and some only ruling and these under Synods of the like Class without Diocesan or Parochial Superiors and all under a National Assembly of the same as the Supreme Church Power III. The Independants are for every Congregation to have all Church Power in it self without any superior Church-Government over them whether Bishops or Synods yet owning Synods for voluntary Concord Of these some are against local Communion with the aforesaid Churches and for avoiding them by Separation some as if they were no Churches and had no true Ministers some for Forms of Prayer some for faulty Communicants some for Episcopal Ordination and some for subscibing and some for all these and many other pretended Reasons But some Independants are for occasional Communion with the other Churches and some also for stated Communion in the Parish-Churches for which you may read Mr. Tomes's the chief of the Anabaptists in a full Treatise and Dr. Thomas Goodwin on the first of the Ephesians earnest against Separation as the old Nonconformists were Now which of all these should you join with I affirm that all these except the Separatists are parts of the Church of England as it is truly essentiated by a Christian Magistracy and confederate Christian particular Churches All are not equally sound and pure but all are parts of the Church of England Liturgies and Ceremonies and Canons and Chancellors are not essential to it as a Church or Christian Kingdom But it is now a Medly less concordant than is desirable but you are not put upon any such Disputes whether you will call the present Church of England Roman as denominated from the King that is the Head or whether you will say that King and Parliament conjunct are that Head and so it is yet Protestant because the Laws are so or whether you will denominate it materially Protestant because the Clergy and Flocks are so your Doubt is only what Congregation to join with I answer That which all your Circumstances set together make it most convenient to the publick good and your own Though I hold not Ministerial Conformity lawful I take Lay-Communion in any of these except the Separatists to be lawful to some Persons whose case maketh it fittest But I judge it unlawful for you to confine your Communion to any one of them so as to refuse occasional Communion with all save them 1. The Parish-Churches have the Advantage of Authority Order and Confederacy and the Protestant Interest is chiefly cast upon them therefore I will not separate from Lay-Communion with them though they need much Reformation 2. You must not go against your Father's Will no nor divide the Family without necessity The same I say of your Husband when you are married 3. The Nonconforming Episcopal and Presbyterians have not such Churches as they desire but only temporarily keep Meetings like to Chappels as Assistants to others till Parishes are reformed 4. I think it a stated sinful Schism to fix as a Member of such a Church and Pastor as is of the Principles of the Writing which you shewed me I. Because they grievously slander the Parish-Churches and Ministers as none and their Worship and Government as far worse than it is II. Because they Renounce local Communion with almost all the Body or Church of Christ on Earth by renouncing it on a Reason common to almost all III. Because they separate from such Churches as Christ and his Apostles joined with and so seem to condemn Christ and his Apostles as Sinners Christ ordinarily joined with the Iews Church in Synagogues and Temple-Offices when the High-Priest bought the Place of Heathens and the Priests Pharisees and Rulers were wicked Persecutors and the Sadduces Hereticks or worse he sent Iudas as an Apostle when he knew him to be a Theif or a Devil The Apostles neither separated nor allowed Separation from
and Men cannot be Pastors against their wills and the will of their Diocesans That I contradict my Treatise of Episcopacy in denying this With more like this To which I say I. If the Parish Congregation were but part of a Church you might joyn with it as a part as well as with part of an Independent Church And they that can hear a Lay-man with the Separatists might hear the Ministers thereâ— II. Whether I contradict my self or not is nothing to your Cause and Conscience I undertook not when I wrote that none should wilfully or ignorantly misunderstand me The formal Notion of a National Church is nothing but a Christian Kingdom The Matter is Christian Rulers and Subjects and as ordered Confederate particular Churches England hath been such for many Ages Here from the Reformation they owned the Sovereign Power as the Head of the Political National Church as Christ is of the Universal under him They owned Parish-Churches under Diocesans and true Ministers therein Their Books shew their Judgment their Articles Apology Homelies Liturgy Ordination Canons c. These Books are still owned by the Church But at last a new sort of Bishops rose up that would have made the Parish Churches to be no proper Churches but like Chappels under the Diocesan These called themselves the Church of England when there were but about four or five Bishops left alive who Dr. Hammond said were of his mind Some such domineered afterward and would have set up that way but never prevailed either to retract the Churches Books and Laws nor to get the major part of the Clergy to own them Now all the vain question here is Which of these two Parties shall be called The Church of England Neither of them alone They are two disagreeing parts of it I argued against the last professing not to do it against the first which your Counseller would take no notice of And what 's all this to you If you will not be of the National or Diocesan Church you may be of a Parish Church III. I proved that if all the Bishops and Parliament had said The Parish Ministers are no true Pastors this would not have made them none though they might be guilty of deposing them as far as they could no more than it would make the Nonconforming Ministers and Churches to be none Because we all take the Office as instituted by Christ and Men to be but investing Servants to him having no power to alter it And as in the Marriage the Husband shall have power over the Wife though he that marry them say Nay so shall an ordained Elder be a true Pastor though the Ordainer say Nay IV. I proved that the old Church Books and Doctrine are in force still by Law and the Kingdom and Church are sworn or bound not to endeavour any alteration in the Government of the Church Therefore not to put down the Parish Ministry and Churches Therefore this is the Sence of the Church of England though not of the new Faction that usurped that Name V. Though a Man cannot be a Pastor against his will yet he may be one without his knowledge if by Errour he think he is none For he may consent to all the Office while he thinks it is not all and denieth the Name If a Man think that a Deacon may do all essential to a Pastor and so that he is but a Deacon he is nevertheless a Pastor if he consented to the Work Many thousands are Christians that think they are not and do truly consent to Christianity while they think they do not And why may it not be so also to the Ministry VI. But our Case needeth none of these Reasons For where there is all that is essential to true Pastors and Churches there are true Pastors and Churches But by God's great mercy in many thousand Parishes in England there is all that is essential to true Pastors and Churches Therefore they are such When you will call me to dispute it with any Denier I will fully prove to you That there is great need of Reformation 1. That the Church of England as it is a Christian Kingdom containing Confederate Churches under a Christian King and Laws is that very Form that Christ offered to settle in Iudea and did settle by Constantine 2. That if the Diocesans be good Men and lawfully chosen as they are meer Successours of Timothy and Titus and others that had the oversight of many Churches and Pastors by the Word they are righter than the Opposers 3. That the Incumbents of the Parish-Churches have a valid Ordination by such Bishops and Presbyters righter than the Dividers 4. That many thousands of such Pastors are Men of competent Abilities and many of greater Ministerial Abilities than most of us Nonconformists yea that no known Nation under Heaven hath in so small a compass so many able Ministers as England And that to deny it and separate is great ingratitude towards God 5. That Parish Bounds are a laudable Distribution of Churches the capable Members being Communicants and the rest Catechumens 6. That the ordinary Communicants in multitudes of Parishes are Membrs that have all that is essential to Church-Membership 7. That the Pastors have power from God for all their Work and Mens denial even the Ordainers nullifieth not that Power when they are in general ordained Presbyters 8. That by the Law of the Land they have all Power essential to Pastors They may keep from Communion all that are not Confirmed and there have owned their Baptismal Covenant or are ready and desirous so to do and therefore may try their readiness This is required by the Liturgy And they may deny the Sacrament to all that live in scandalous Sin And they must prosecute such to the Bishops Courts The Law calleth them Rectors Rulers and they own themselves for such And even the Canons that are their worst restraints do own the same and so do the rest of the Church-Books and Laws that they all subscribe to and promise not to alter Ask them whether they take not themselves for true Pastors if you would know whether they consent to be such 9. Though some late Innovators that called themselves The Church of England would as far as they could have nullified in some part the Parish Ministry and Churches and the Canons themselves do sinfully limit the Exercise of their Power the Cause of our Calamities yet this nullifieth not the Office and Churches the Essential Power being setled both by God's Laws and the Churches and the restraint of Exercise nulleth not the Power 10. That to Exclude any from Communion that are Baptized and at Age have owned their Christianity and are not proved by sufficient witnesses to have nullified that Profession by Apostasie Heresie or a wicked or scandalous Life is Church Tyranny and Injustice of which all are guilty that do it or desire it 11. That if this Discipline be neglected by the Ministers sinful Sloth or by the
Rector of his Parish Church shall as such have power to Preach to them without any further License and to judge according to God's Word to whom and how to perform the proper Work of his Office on what Text and Subject to Preach in what Words and Order to Teach and Pray But if Canons also be made a Rule they shall not oblige him against the Word of God And if for Uniformity or some Mens disability he be tyed to use the Words of prescribed Forms called a Liturgy he shall not be so servilely tyed to them as to be punishable for every Omission of any Collect Sentence or Word while at least the greatest part of the Service appointed for the Day is there read and the Substance and Necessary Part of the Offices be there performed no though he omit the Cross in Baptism and the Surplice and deny not Communion to those that dare not receive it kneeling And if any worthy Minister scruple to use the Liturgy but will be present and not Preach against it he shall be capable notwithstanding of preaching as a Lecturer or Assistant if the Incumbent Pastor do Consent VII No Oath Subscription Covenant Profession or Promise shall be made Necessary to Ministers or Candidates for the Ministry besides the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy and Subscribing to the Sacred Canonical Scriptures and to the ancient Creeds or at the most to the Articles of the Church excepting to them that scruple the Twentieth Thirty fourth and Thirty sixth as they speak only of Ceremonies Traditions and Bishops and the necessary Renunciation of Heresie Popery Rebellion and Usurpation and the Promise of Ministerial Fidelity according to the Word of God Or at least none but what the Reformed Churches are commonly agreed in And let none be capable of Benefices and Church-Dignities or Government in the Universities or Free-Schools who hath not taken the said Oaths Subscriptions and Renunciations VIII Let none have any Benefice with Cure of Souls who is not Ordained to the Sacred Ministry by such Bishops or Pastors as the Law shall thereto appoint for the time to come But those that already are otherwise Ordained by other Pastors shall not be disabled or required to be Ordained again And let no Pastor by Patrons or others be imposed on any Parish Church without the consent of the greater number of the stated Communicants And at his Entrance let some Neighbour Ministers in that Congregation declare him their Pastor as so Consented to and Ordained and preach to them the Duty of the Pastor and Flock and pray for his Success IX If any Pastor be accused of Tyranny Injury or Mal-administration he shall be responsible to the next Synod of Neighbour Pastors or to the Diocesan and his Synod or to the Magistrate or whomsoever the Law shall appoint and if guilty and unreformed after a first and second Admonition shall be punished as his Offence deserveth but only in a Course of Justice according to the Laws and not Arbitrarily Nor so as to be forbidden his Ministerial Labours till he be proved to do more hurt than good And if the supposed Injury to any who is denied Communion be doubtful or but to one or few let not for their sake the Church be deprived of their Pastor but let the Person if proved injured have power to forbear all his Payments and Tythes to the Pastor and to Communicate elsewhere X. Because Patrons who choose Pastors for all the Churches are of so different Minds and Dispositions that there is no certainty that none shall be by them Presented and by Bishops Instituted and Inducted to whom godly Persons may justly scruple to commit the Pastoral Conduct of their Souls whose Safety is more to them then all the World And because there may be some things left in the Liliurgy Church Government and Orders which after their best search may be judged sinful by such godly and peaceable Christians as yet consent to the Word of God and all that the Apostles and their Churches practised And Humanity and Christianity abhor Persecution and Human Darkness and great Difference of Apprehensions is such as leaveth us in Despair of Variety and Concord in doubtful and unnecessary Things Let such Persons be allowed to assemble for Communion and the Worship of God under such Pastors and in such Order as they judge best Provided 1. That their Pastors and Teachers do take all the foresaid Oaths Professions and Subscriptions before some Court of Judicature or Justices at Sessions or the Diocesan as shall be by Law appointed who thereupon shall give them a Testimonial thereof or a written License of Toleration 2. That they be responsible for their Doctrine and Ministration and punishable according to the Laws if they preach or practice any thing inconsistent with their foresaid Profession of Faith and Obedience or of Christian Love and Peace 3. That their Communicants pay all Dues to the Parish Ministers and Churches where they live And if such People as live where the Incumbent is judged by them unfit for the Trust and Conduct of their Souls shall hold Communion with a Neighbour Parish Church they shall not be punishable for it They paying their Parish Dues at home Nor shall private Persons be forbidden peaceably to pray or edifie each other in their Houses XI Christian Priviledges and Church Communion being unvaluable Benefits and just Excommunication a dreadful Punishment no unwilling Person hath right to the said Benefits Therefore none shall be driven by Penalties to say that he is a Christian or to be Baptized or to have Communion in the Lord's Supper Nor shall any be Fined Imprisoned or Corporally and Positively punished by the Sword meerly as a Non-Communicant or Excommunicate and Reconciled but as the Magistrate shall judge the Crimes of themselves deserve But if Non-Communicants be denied all Publick Trust in Churches Universities or Civil Government it is more properly the Securing of he Kingdom Church and Souls then a punishing of them But all Parishioners at Age shall be obliged to forbear reproaching Religion and profaning the Lord's Day and shall hear publick Preaching in some allowed or tolerated Church and shall not refuse to be Catechized or to confer for their Instruction with the Parish Minister and shall pay him all his Tythes and Church Dues XII The Church Power above Parish Churches Diocefan Synodical Chancellors Officials Commissaries c. we presume not to meddle with But were it reduced to the Primitive State or to Archbishop Usher's Model of the Primitive Government yea or but to the King's Description in his Declaration 1660. about Ecclesiastical Affairs and if also the Bishops were chosen as of old for Six hundred years and more it would be a Reformation of great Benefit to the Kingdom and the Churches of Christ therein But if we have but Parish Reformation Religion will be preserved without any wrong or hurt to either the Diocesans or the Tolerated And if Diocesans be good Men
restoring the Liberty of choosing Bishops and the Priviledge of enjoying them in the Synods Clergy and People of each Diocess so evident is the right of Synods Clergy and People in the making of those of whom they consist and by whom they are to be Governed that I need make no other reason of the neglect of Episcopacy than the neglect of it As for them that must needs have all our Cure dispatcht in fewer words than this half Sheet of Paper containeth they are unfit Men to do so great a Work and will do it accordingly if at all Statute Books and Councils are much greater Sir though Experience depress my Hopes the Case exciteth my Desires which I here offer you not for my self who am not capable of any Kindness from King Parliament or Prelateâ— that I know of unless it be to do me no harm and much I aâ— sure they cannot do me but for Publick Good which is the great Desire of Your Servant Richard Baxter Nov. 9. 1680. The Reasons of these several Articles I. WE cannot treat of the Government and Concord of Christians till we agree what a Christians is and who they are who are the Subjects So for the IId. III. 1. If Ministers be commanded to Baptize those Children who are brought by no Parent or Pro-parent who taketh the Child as his own and undertaketh his Education it will cast out Multitudes of faithful Ministers who know no right that the Children of Atheists and Infidels as such have no Baptism 2. This Article for owning the Baptismal Covenant is but what the Liturgy pleads for But when it is said We shall admit none to the Sacrament but those that are Confirmed or desire it it supposeth that they must give us notice of it IV. This is only for a liberty to help memory in great Parishes where it is impossible to remember all the Communicants and avoid confusion by the unknown V. Without this much power in the Parish Minister the thing must be undone it being impossible for the Diocesan alone to do it and the ancient Discipline will be unavoidably cast out of the Church But if the Bishops will not yield to this much that will instead of an Appeal from the Incumbent take the whole Work of Publick Admonition and Censure on themselves We shall submit to the Obliteration of all those underlined Words and thankfully use the Power of Suspending our own Acts and that also under the Government and Correction after mentioned VI. 1. How is he by Office a Teacher who hath not Authority to Teach 2. We ask none of the Bishop's Office for him but his own We leave him under Government and responsible for his Mal-administration 3. No Man's Ministry is safe if he may be Suspended for not saying his Lesson as prescribed just to a Sentence 4. This will make no Alteration in the Publick Offices of the Churches VII Christ hath made the Symbols of Christianity and Communion And he that in these Things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of wise Men Rom. 14. 18. 2. Needless Oaths and Covenants and Professions are more useful to Satan as Engines to tear than to the Church as means to Concord 3. But if under the Pretenses of Renouncing Heresie Popery Rebellion and Usurpation Men will draw up ensâ—aring words against the Law of Nature or Scripture it is no such Snares that will heal the Churches To say I renounce all contrary to this Profession is enough To the Renunciation of Popery there needs no more than the Oath of Supremacy it self if to the renunciation of Forreign Iurisdiction were but added Civil or Ecclesiastical 4. If the Church Articles were more exact it were better VIII 1. Those that cannot submit to a Legal Ordination must be content with Toleration 2. The questioning of those already Ordained need not make a breach as long as no Patron is forced to present such nor the major part of Communicants forced to accept them nor the minor if they dissent forbidden their Communion elsewhere And this quarrelling at each others Ordination is endless As the Bishops say on one side None should be Ordained without a Bishop so they say on the other side 1. The chief Minister of every Church is a Bishop specially of a City Church 2. That Ordination is valid which is better than the Papists For 1. we Re-ordain them not 2. Our Bishops claim Succession from them But the Ordination used here after 1646. is better than the Papists For 1. Theirs is to an unlawful Office to be Mass-Priests 2. It is into a false Church that is as headed by a pretended Universal Head 3. And it is from the Pope who as such hath no power They profess themselves his Subjects 4. And the Roman Seat hath had oft and long Intercisions 5. They say that Ordination is valid which is better than the English Diocesans But c. 1. The English Diocesans is derived from Rome which wanted power and was as aforesaid false and interrupted 2. They have neither the Election or known Consent of the Clergy or People but are chosen by the King And the old Canons for many Hundred years null such Bishops 3. It is meet that the Temples Tythes and Pastoral Office go together to the same Men and therefore that the Patron Communicants and Ordainers do all agree But if they cannot agree the Patron or Magistrates Judge who shall have the Temples and Tythes Memorandum Here wants the Reasons of the rest of the Articles if not something more to the Eighth Article FINIS An. 1664 An. 1634 An. 1640 An. 1639 An. 1640 An. 1641 An. 1641 An. 16. 14 An. 16 45 An. 1648 An. 1649 Mr. Eaton wrote a Book to prove that the Oath of Allegiance nor the Covenant bind not An. 1651 * Capt. Adams †Mr. Gibbons Very like to Maximus in the days of Gratian and Theodosius An. 1653 A post humous Book of Mr. Sterry's is since Published They were so very few and of short continuance that I never saw one of them * As it is currently reported without any Contradiction thâ—t ever I heard of Mean men in their rising must adhere to a Faction but great Men that have strength in themselves were better to maintain themselves indifferent and neutral yet even in beginners to adhere so moderately as that he be a Man of that one Faction which is most passable with the other commonly giveth best way The lower and weaker Faction is the firmer in Conjunction And it is often seen that a few that are stiff do tire out a great number that are more moderate when one of the Factions is extinguished the other remaining subdivideth It is commonly seen that Men once placed take in with the contrary Faction to that by which they enter Lord Verulam Essay 51. p. 287. * The advantage of Mens present cruel Malice was only from the Epistle of 2 Books wherein I never justified his Usurpation But Iudicis officium
conciliatory endeavours and yet gives an Account how he resolv'd to set upon reconciling work in order whereto the Worcestershire Agreement was form'd which was not altogether without its success from p. 139. to p. 150. Nineteen Quaeries about Ecclesiastical Cases drawn up by an Episcopal man in the late Times and convey'd to him by Sir Ralph Clare with his Answer to them from p. 151. to p. 157. A Letter of his in answer to Sir Ralph Clare his Parishioner who would not Communicate with him unless he might receive kneeling and on a distinct day and not with those who received sitting p. 157 c. A Letter from the associated Ministers in Cumberland and Westmoreland to the associated Ministers in Worcestershire p. 162. an Answer to it p. 164. Many other Counties begin to associate for Church Discipline the Articles agreed to by the Ministers in Wiltshire p. 167. A Letter from the associated Churches in Ireland to Mr. Baxter and the associated Ministers in Worcestershire p. 169. the Answer to it p. 170. A second Letter from the Irish Ministers p. 171. A Letter of Mr. Baxter's to Bishop Brownrigg about an Agreement between the Presbyterian and Episcopal Party p. 172. The Bishops Reply to it containing his Iudgment about Church Government p. 174 175 c. Mr. Baxter's Notes on the Bishop's Answer p. 178. After this he upon occasion of the passing of Letters between him and Mr. Lamb and Mr. Allen two Anabaptist Freachers to disswade them from separation propounds and answers this Question Whether it be our duty to seek peace with the Anabaptists and proposes a method of managing a Pacificatory attempt with them p. 181. c. A personal Treaty of his with Mr. Nye about an Agreement with the Independants and a long Letter to him about that affair p. 188 c. Proposals made by him in Cromwell's time for a general holy Communion Peace and Concord between the Churches in these Nations without any wrong to the Consciences or Liberties of Presbyterians Congregational Episcopal or any other Christians p. 191 c. The occasion of choosing a Committee of Divines to make a Collection of Fundamentais of which Mr. Baxter was one p. 197. His own Iudgment of Fundamentals ib. and p. 198. The proceedings of the Divines in this matter p. 199. Papers deliver'd in by Mr. Baxter to them on points wherein he differ'd from them p. 200 c. An Account of his preaching before Cromwell and personal Conference with him afterwards in private and a second Conference with him in his Privy Council p. 205. of what past between him and Dr. Nich. Gibbon ibid. Of his Acquaintance and Conversation with Archbishop Usher while he continued at my Lord Broghil's where a particular account is given of the Learned Primates Iudgment about Universal Redemption about Mr. Baxter's terms of Concord and about the validity of Presbyters Ordination p. 206. Of the Carriage of the Anabaptists after the Death of Cromwell p. 206. and the general Confusion of the Nation p. 207. New Proposals he made to Dr. Hammond about an Agreement with the Episcopal Party by Sir Ralph Clare's means p. 208. Dr. Hammond's Answer and Mr. Baxter's Reply p. 210. Of General Monk's march to London and the common sentiments and expectations of people at that time p. 214. of his preaching before the Parliament the day before they voted the King back p. 217. of his Conference with Dr. Gauden and Dr. Morley p. 218. What past between one William Johnson a Papist and Mr. Baxter in particular with reference to the Lady Anne Lindsey daughter of the Countess of Balcarres whom he had seduc'd and afterwards stole away and convey'd into France p. 218 c. Two Letters of Mr. Baxter's to this young Lady one before she was stole away and the other while she was in a Nunnery in France p. 221 c. Of peoples various expectations upon the King's return p. 229. Of some of the Presbyterian Ministers being made the King's Chaplains and Mr. Baxter among the rest ibid. several of them together wait on his Majesty The sum of Mr. Baxter's Speech to the King p. 230. the King receives them graciously and orders them to bring in Proposals in order to an Agreement about Church Government p. 231. where upon they daily met at Sion Colledge for Consultation p. 232. Their first Address and Proposals to his Majesty about Concord p. 232 c. the brief sum of their judgment and desires about Church Government p. 237. Bishop Usher's Model of Government to which they all agreed to adhere p. 238. Five Requests made to the King by word of mouth suiting the Circumstances of Affairs at that time p. 241. The Answer of the Bishops to the first Proposals of the London Ministers p. 242. the Ministers defence of their fore-mention'd Proposals p. 248. His Majesty's Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs as it was first drawn up and shown to the Ministers by the Lord Chancellour p. 259. The Ministers Petition to the King upon their sight of the first draught of this Declaration p. 265. the Alterations of the Declaration which they offer'd p. 275. a Conference between several Divines of each side about the fore-mention'd Declaration before the King at the Lord Chancellours and the effects of it p. 276. of the coming out of the Declaration with amendments p. 279. Of Mr. Baxter's preaching before the King and printing his Sermon and the false accusation of him by Dr. Pierce on that occasion p. 279. a Character of Dr. Pierce and Account of his enmity against Mr. Baxter p. 280. of the offer of a Bishoprick made to Mr. Baxter with some others who joyntly demurr'd about the acceptance p. 281. Mr. Baxter refuses to accept the terms proposed in the fore-mention'd Declaration and sends a Letter to the Lord Chancellour containing his Reasons p. 282. Dr. Regnolds accepts a Bishoprick other Preferments offer'd to other Presbyterians who refus'd them p. 283. An Address of Thanks to the King from the London Ministers for his Declaration p. 284. a Censure of this Declaration p. 286. How well this Declaration was put in Execution p. 287. Mr. Crofâ—on's writing for the Covenant and imprisonment in the Tower p. 288. A false report spread about of Mr. Baxter by Mr. Horton Chaplain to the Earl of Manchester p. 289. an account of Mr. Baxter's transactions with the Lord Chancellour about the Affairs of New-England p. 290. a Letter to Mr. Baxter from the Court and Government of New-England p. 291. another from Mr. Norton p. 292. another from Mr. Elliot p. 293. Mr. Baxter's answer to Mr. Elliot p. 295. Mr. Baxter's endeavours to be restor'd to the People of Kidderminster from whom he was separated upon the return of the sequestred Ministers to their Livings p. 298. A Letter of my Lord Chancellours to Sir Ralph Clare about Mr. Baxter's return to Kidderminster p. 299. Of the Rising of the Fifth Monarchy men under Venner about this time p. 301.
alter it and the King's Approbation of these Canons made them sufficiently obligatory unto us Those that were against it said I. That Episcopacy was either contra jus Divinum or at best not Iure Divino and therefore mutable when the King and Parliament pleased 2. Or at least that it was undeniable That Archbishops and Deans and Chapters and Arch-deacons c. were not all Iure Divino nay that the English frame of Diocesans having many hundred Parish Churches under one Bishop in fini gradus was not only against the Word of God but destructive of all the Episcopacy which was known in the Church at least for 200 years 3. They said that it was intolerable to swear to a blind Et caetera for litterally it included all the Officers of the Ecclesiastical Courts that are now in Exercise of the Government Lay-Chancellors that use the Keys for Excommunication and Absolution Surrogates Commissaries Officials and the rest And was it ever known that all the Clergy was sworn to such an Anomalous Rabble 4. They said that for ought they knew this Goverment in whole or in some part might be altered by the King and Parliament by a Law And to tie up our selves by an Oath that we would never obey such a Law nor consent to that which the King might command us this they thought was a Bond of Disobedience next to a Rebellion 5. They said that it was against the Subjects Liberty which alloweth them soberly to Petition the King and Parliament for a Redress of any Grievance And if now a Lay-Chancellor's use of the Keys e. g. were no burden to the People we know not how God may make such Alterations by his Providence as may make that a Grievance which now is none 6. And they said it was against the Priviledges of Parliament that such an Oath should be devised and imposed upon the Subjects without a Law or the Parliaments consent These and other Reasons were pleaded against it And afterward when the Parliament took it into consideration it was Condemned on these and other Accounts The Ministers of the Country met together at Bridgnorth to Debate this Business that they might have no Division and some few were for the Oath but more against it This put me upon deeper Thoughts of the Point of Episcopacy and of the English frame of Church-Government than ever I had before and now I had the opportunity of seeing some Books which I never had before My very dear Friend Mr. William Rowley a Gentleman of Shrewsbury sent me Gersomus Bucerus his Dissertatio de Gubernatione Ecclesiae and Didoclaves Altare Damascenum and shortly after I had Parker de Polit. Eccles◠and Baynes's Diocesanes Trial and I received Bishop Downham and compared his Reasons with Bucers Didoclaves c. And though I found not sufficient Evidence to prove all kind of Episcopacy unlawful yet I was much satisfied that the English Diocesan frame was guilty of the Corruption of Churches and Ministry and of the ruine of the true Church Discipline and substituting an heterogeneal thing in its stead And thus the Et caetera Oath which was imposed on us for the unalterable subjecting of us to Diocesans was a chief means to alienate me and many others from it For now our drowsie mindlesness of that subject was shaken off by their violence and we that thought it best to follow our business and live in quietness and let the Bishops alone were rowzed by the terrours of an Oath to look about us and understand what we did § 23. This Oath also stirred up the differing Parties who before were all one Party even quiet Conformists to speak more bitterly against one another than heretofore And the dissenting Party began to think better of the Cause of Nonconformity and to honour the Nonconformists more than they had done And it fell out that at the same time when we were thus rowzed up in England or a little before the Scots were also awakened in Scotland For when all was quiet there under a more moderate Episcopacy than we had then in England though that Nation had been used to Presbytery a new Common-Prayer Book that is the English one with some few Alterations was framed and imposed on the People of Scotland who having not been used to that way of Worship one Woman in Edenburgh cried out in the Church Popery Popery and threw her Stool at the Priest and others imitated her presently and drove him out of the Church and this little Spark set all Scotland quickly in a Flame Insomuch that other Places taking as much distaste at the Common Prayer and at the Bishops also for its sake and for fear of the Silencing of their Ministers and some Ministers increasing their distaste the Lords presently were divided also insomuch that the King was fain to instruct the Earl of Trequaire as his Commissioner to suppress the Maiecontents But in a short time the number of them so encreased that the King's Commissioners could do no good on them but they got the power of all the Land because the far greatest part of the Nobility with the Ministry were conjoyned Hereupon they all entered into a National Covenant to the same purpose as formerly that Nation had done but they did it without the King's Authority The Oath or Covenant was against Popery and Prelacy and Superstition and to uphold the Gospel and Reformation The Aberdeen Doctors dissented from the Covenant and many Writings past on both sides between the Covenanters and them till at last the ensuing Wars did turn the Debates to another strain § 24. It fell out unhappily that at the same time while the Scots were thus discontented the King had imposed a Tax here called Ship-money as for the strengthning of the Navy which being done without Consent of Parliament made a wonderful murmuring all over the Land especially among the Country Nobility and Gentry for they took it as the overthrow of the Fundamental Laws or Constitution of the Kingdom and of Parliaments and of all Propriety They said that the Subjects Propriety in his Estate and the Being of Parliaments and that no Laws be made nor Moneys taken from the Subjects but by the Parliaments Consent are part of the Constitution of the Republick or Government And they said that the King having long disused Parliaments upon Displeasure against them because they curbed Monopolies and corrected Abuses of Officers c. had no way to lay them by for ever but to invade the Subjects Propriety and to assume the power of laying Taxes and raising Moneys without them and that if thus Parliaments and Propriety were destroyed the Government was dissolved or altered and no Man had any Security of Estate or Liberty or Life but the Pleasure of the King whose Will would be the only Law They said also that those that counselled him to this were Enemies to the Commonwealth and unfitter to counsel him than Parliaments who are his highest Court and Council The
poor Plowmen understood but little of these Matters but a little would stir up their Discontent when Money was demanded But it was the more intelligent part of the Nation that were the great Complainers Insomuch that some of them denied to pay the Ship-money and put the Sheriffs to distrain the Sheriffs though afraid of a future Parliament yet did it in obedience to the King Mr. Hampden and the Lord Say brought it to a Suit where Mr. Oliver St. Iohn and other â—Lawyers boldly pleaded the Peoples Cause The King had before called all the Judges to give their Opinions Whether in a Case of need he might impose such a Tax or not And all of them gave their Opinion for the Affirmative except Judge Hatton and Judge Crook The Judgment passed for the King against Mr. Hampden But this made the Matter much more talk of throughout the Land and considered of by those that thought not much of the Importance of it before § 25. Some suspected that many of the Nobility of England did secretly Consederate with the Scots so far as to encourage them to come into England thinking that there was no other way to cause the Calling of a Parliament which was the thing that now they bent their minds to as the Remedy of these things The Earl of Essex the Earl of Warwick the Earl of Bedford the Earl of Clare the Earl of Bullingbrook the Earl of Mulgrave the Earl of Holland the Lord Say the Lord Brook and I know not how many more were said to be of this Conâ—ederacy But Heylin himself hath more truly given you the History of this That the Scots after they came in did perswade these Men of their own danger in England if Arbitrary Government went on and so they petitioned the King for a Parliament which was all their Consederacy and this was after their second Coming into England The Scots came with an Army and the King's Army met them near Newcastle but the Scots came on till an Agreement was made and a Parliament called and the Scots went home again But shortly after this Parliament so displeased the King that he Dissolved it and the War against the Scots was again undertaken to which besides others the Papists by the Queens means did voluntarily contribute whereupon the Scots complain of evil Counsels and Papists as the cause of their renewed dangers and again raise an Army and come into England And the English at York petition the King for a Parliament and once more it is resolved on and an Agreement made but neither the Scottish or English Army disbanded And thus began the Long Parliament as it was after called § 26. The Et caetera Oath was the first thing that threatned me at Bridgenorth and the second was the passage of the Earl of Bridgwater Lord President of the Marches of Wales through the Town in his Journey from Ludlow to the King in the North For his coming being on Saturday Evening the most malicious persons of the Town went to him and told him that Mr. Madestard and I did not sign with the Cross nor wear the Surplice nor pray against the Scots who were then upon their Entrance into England and for which we had no Command from the King but a printed Form of Prayer from the Bishops The Lord President told them That he would himself come to Church on the morrow and see whether we would do these things or not Mr. Madestard went away and left Mr. Swain the Reader and my self in the danger But after he had spoken for his Dinner and was ready to go to Church the Lord President suddenly changed his purpose and went away on the Lord's Day as far as Lichfield requiring the Accusers and the Bailiffs to send after him to inform him what we did On the Lord's Day at Evening they sent after him to Lichfield to tell him that we did not conform but though they boasted of no less than the hanging of us they received no other Answer from him but that he had not the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and therefore could not meddle with us but if he had he should take such order in the business as were fit And the Bailiffs and Accusers had no more wit than to read his Letter to me that I might know how they were baffled Thus I continued in my Liberty of preaching the Gospel at Bridgenorth about a year and three quarters where I took my Liberty though with very little Maintenance to be a very great mercy to me in those troublesome times § 27. The Parliament being sate did presently fall on that which they accounted Reformation of Church and State and which greatly displeased the King as well as the Bishops They made many long and vehement Speeches against the Ship-money and against the Judges that gave their Judgment for it and against the Et caetera Oath and the Bishops and Convocation that were the formers of it but especially against the Lord Thomas Wentworth Lord Deputy of Ireland and Dr. Laud Archbishop of Canterbury as the evil Counsellers who were said to be the Cause of all These Speeches were many of them printed and greedily bought up throughout the Land especially the Lord Falklands the Lord Digbies Mr. Grimstones Mr. Pims Mr. Nath. Fiennes c. which greatly increased the Peoples Apprehension of their Danger and inclined them to think hardly of the King's Proceedings but especially of the Bishops Particular Articles of Accusation were brought in against the Lord Deputy the Archbishop the Judges Bishop Wren Bishop Pierce and divers others The Concord of this Parliament consisted not in the Unanimity of the Persons for they were of several Tempers as to Matters of Religion but in the Complication of the Interest of those Causes which they severally did most concern themselves in For as the King had at once imposed the Ship-money on the Common-wealth and permitted the Bishops to impose upon the Church their displeasing Articles and bowing towards the Altar and the Book for Dancing on the Lord's Day and the Liturgy on Scotland c. and to Suspend or Silence abundance of Ministers that were conformable for want of this Super-canonical Conformity so accordingly the Parliament consisted of two sorts of Men who by the Conjunction of these Causes were united in their Votes and Endeavours for a Reformation One Party made no great matter of these Alterations in the Church but they said That if Parliaments were once down and our Propriety gone and Arbitrary Government set up and Law subjected to the Prince's Will we were then all Slaves and this they made a thing intolerable for the remedying of which they said every true English Man could think no price to dear These the People called Good Commonwealth's Men. The other sort were the more Religious Men who were also sensible of all these things but were much more sensible of the Interest of Religion and these most inveyed against the Innovations in the
advantage to violate that which he is forced to and to be avenged on you all for the displeasure you have done him He is ignorant of the Advantages of a King that cannot foresee this These were the Reasons of many that were for pleasing the King But on the other side there were Men of divers tempers Some did not look far before them but did what they thought was best at present whether any designed the subduing of the King and the change of Government at that time I cannot tell For I then heard of no notable Sectary in the House but young Sir Henry Vane whose Testimony was the Death of the Earl of Strafford when other Evidence was wanting and of whom I shall say more anon But the leading and prevailing part of the House were for the Execution of Strafford and for punishing some Delinquents though it did displease the King And their Reasons as their Companions tell us were such as these They said If that be your Principle that the King is not to be displeased or provoked then this Parliament should never have been called which you know he was forced to against his Will and then the Ship-money should have gone on and the Subjects Propriety and Parliaments have been overthrown And then the Church Innovations should not have been controuled nor any stop to the Subverters of our Government and Liberties attempted then no Members should speak freely against any of these in the House for you know that all these are very displeasing And then what do we here Could not the King have pleased himself without us Or do we come to be his Instruments to give away the Peoples Liberties and set up that which was begun Either it is our Duty to reform and to recover our Liberties and relieve our Country and punish Delinquents or it is not If it be not let us go home again If it be let us do it and trust God For if the fears of foreseen Oppositions shall make us betray our Country and Posterity we are perfidious to them and Enemies to our selves and may well be said to be worse than Infidels much rather than they that provide not for their Families when Infidels have not thought their Lives too good to save the Commonwealth And as for a War the danger of it may be avoided It is a thing uncertain and therefore a present certain Ruine and that by our own hand is not to be chosen to avoid it The King may fee the danger of it as well as we and avoid it on better Terms Or if he were willing he may not be able to do any great harm Do you think that the People of England are so mad as to fight against those whom they have chosen to represent them to destroy themselves and the hopes of their Posterity Do they not know that if Parliaments be destroyed their Lives and Estates are meerly at the Will and Mercy of the Conquerour And do not you see that the People are every where for the Parliament And for Revenge what need we fear it when the Parliament may continue till it consent to its Dissolution And sure they will not consent till they see themselves out of the danger of Revenge Such as these were the Reasonings of that Party which prevailed But others told them That those that adhered to the Bishops and were offended at the Parliaments Church Reformations would be many and the King will never want Nobility and Gentry to adhere to him and the Common People will follow their Landlords and be on the stronger side and the intelligent part who understand their own Interests are but few And when you begin a War you know not what you do Thus were Mens minds then in a Division but some unhappy means fell out to unite them so as to cause them to proceed to a War § 39. The things that heightned former Displeasures to a miserable War were such as follow on both Parts On the Parliaments part were principally 1. The Peoples indiscretion that adhered to them 2. The imprudence and violence of some Members of the House who went too high 3. The great Diffidence they had of the King when they had provoked him On the other side it was hastened 1. By the Calling up of the Northern Army 2. By the King 's imposing a Guard upon the House 3. By his entring the House to accuse some Members 4. By the miscarriage of the Lord Digby and other of the King's Adherents 5. But above all by the terrible Massacre in Ireland and the Threatnings of the Rebels to Invade England A little of every one of these § 40. 1. Those that desired the Parliaments Prosperity were of divers sorts Some were calm and temperate and waited for the Fruits of their Endeavours in their season And some were so glad of the hopes of a Reformation and afraid left their Hearts and Hands should fall for want of Encouragement that they too much boasted of them and applauded them which must needs offend the King to see the People rejoyce in others as their Deliverers and as saving them from him and so to see them preferred in Love and Honour before him But some were yet more indiscreet The remnant of the old Separatists and Anabaptists in London was then very small and scarce considerable but they were enough to stir up the younger and unexperienced sort of Religious People to speak too vehemently and intemperately against the Bishops and the Church and Ceremonies and to jeer and deride at the Common Prayer and all that was against their minds For the young and raw sort of Christians are usually prone to this kind of Sin to be self-conceited petulant wilful censorious and injudicious in all their management of their Differences in Religion and in all their Attempts of Reformation scorning and clamouring at that which they think evil they usually judge a warrantable Course And it is hard finding any sort of People in the World where many of the more unexperienced are not indiscreet and proud and passionate These stirr'd up the Apprentices to joyn with them in Petitions and to go in great numbers to Westminster to present them And as they went they met with some of the Bishops in their Coaches going to the House and as is usual with the passionate and indiscreet when they are in great Companies they too much forgot Civility and cried out No Bishops which either put them really into a fear or at least so displeased them as gave them occasion to meet together and draw up a Protestation against any Law which in their Absence should be passed in the Parliament as having themselves a place there and being as they said deferred from coming thither by those Clamours and Tumults This Protestation was so ill taken by the Parliament as that the Subscribers of it were voted Delinquents and sent to Prison as going about to destroy the power of Parliaments and among them even Bishop Hall
Soldier saith It is my Commission and the High Court of Parliament saith It is the Law declared in a Court of Justice a Parliament seemeth to be the properest Judge As in Controversies of Physick who is to be believed before the Colledge of Physicians Or in Controversies of Religion who before a General Council If the House of York and Lancaster â—ight for the Crown and both Command the Subjects Arms. the poor Peasants are not able to judge of their Titles And if a Parliament shall not judge for them who shall These were the Reasons which caused Men to adhere to the Parliament in this War § 55. For my own part I freely confess that I was not judicious enough in Politicks and Law to decide this Controversie which so many Lawyers and Wise men differed in And I freely confess that being astonished at the Irish Massacre and perswaded fully both of the Parliaments good endeavours for Reformation and of their real danger my Judgment of the main Cause much swayed my Judgment in the Matter of the Wars and the Arguments à fine à natureâ necessitate which common Wits are capable of discerning did too far incline my Judgment in the Cause of the War before I well understood the Arguments from our particular Laws And the Consideration of the Quality of the Parties that sided for each Cause in the Countries did greatly work with me and more than it should have done And I verily thought that if that which a Judge in Court saith sententially is Law must go for Law to the Subject as to the Decision of that Cause though the King send his Broad Seal against it then that which the Parliament saith is Law is Law to the Subjects about the Dangers of the Common-wealth whatever it be in it self and that if the King's Broad-Seal cannot prevail against the Judge much less against their Judgment I make no doubt but both Parties were to blame as it commonly falleth out in most Wars and Contentions and I will not be he that shall Justifie either of them I doubt not but the Headiness and Rashness of the younger unexperienced sort of religious People made many Parliament Men and Ministers overgo themselves to keep pace with those hot Spurs no doubt but much Indiscretion appeared and worse than Indiscretion in the tumultuous Petitioners and much Sin was committed in the dishonouring of the King and provocation of him and in the uncivil Language against the Bishops and Liturgie of the Church But these things came principally from the Sectarian separating Spirit which blew the Coals among foolish Apprentices And as the Sectaries increased so did this Insolence increase I have my self been in London when they have on the Lord's Days stood at the Church Doors while the Common Prayer was reading saying We must stay till he is out of his Pottage And such unchristian Scorns and Jests did please young inconsiderate Wits that knew not what Spirit they were of nor whither such unwarrantate things did tend Learned Mr. Iohn Ball though a Nonconformist discerned the stirrings of this insolent Sectarian Spirit betimes and fell a writing against it even then when some were crying out of Persecution and others were tender of such little Differences One or two in the House and five or six Ministers that came from Holland and a few that were scattered in the City which were the Brownists Relicts did drive on others according to their own dividing Principles and sowed the Seeds which afterward spread over all the Land though then there were very few of them in the Countreys even next to none As Bishop Hall speaks against the justifying of the Bishops so do I against justifying the Parliament Ministers or City I believe many unjustifiable things were done but I think that few Men among them all were the Doers or Instigaters of it But I then thought that whosoever was faulty the Peoples Liberties and Safety could not be forfeited And I thought that all the Subjects were not guilty of all the Faults of King or Parliament when they defended them Yea that if both their Causes had been bad as against each other yet that the Subjects should adhere to that Party which most secured the welfare of the Nation and might defend the Land under their Conduct without owning all their Cause And herein I confess I was then so zealous that I thought it a great Sin for Men that were able to defend their Country to be Neuters And I have been tempted since to think that I was a more competent Judge upon the Place when all things were before our eyes than I am in the review of those Days and Actions so many Years after when Distance disadvantageth the Apprehension A Writer against Cromwel's Decimation recanting his great Adherence to the Parliament in that War yet so abhorreth Neutrality that he likeneth him rather to a Dog than a Man that could stand by when his Country was in such a case But I confess for my part I have not such censorious Thoughts of those that then were Neuters as formerly I have had For he that either thinketh both sides raised an unlawful War or that could not tell which if either was in the right might well be excused if he defended neither I was always satisfied 1. That the Dividers of the King and Parliament were the Traitors whoever they were and that the Division tended to the Dissolution of the Government 2. And that the Authority and Person of the King were inviolable out of the reach of just Accusation Judgment or Execution by Law as having no Superiour and so no Judge 3. I favoured the Parliaments Cause as they professed 1. To bring Delinquents to a Legal Trial 2. And to preserve the Person and Government of the King by a Conjunction with his Parliament But Matters that Warrs and Blood are any way concerned in are so great and tenderly to be handled that I profess to the World that I dare not I will not justifie any thing that others or I my self have done of any such consequence But though I never hurt the Person of any Man yet I resolve to pray daily and earnestly to God that he will reveal to me whatever I have done amiss and not suffer me through Ignorance to be impenitent and would forgive me both my known and unknown Sins and cleanse this Land from the Guilt of Blood § 56. Having inserted this much of the Case of History of those Times I now proceed to the Relation of the Passages of my own Life beginning where I left When I was at Kidderminster the Parliament made an Order for all the People to take a Protestation to defend the King's Person Honour and Authority the Power and Priviledges of Parliaments the Liberties of the Subject and the Protestant Religion against the common Enemy meaning the Papists the Irish Massacre and Threatnings occasioning this Protestation I obeyed them in joyning with the Magistrate in offering
The Synod stumbled at some things in it and especially at the word Prelacy Dr. Burges the Prolocutor Mr. Gataker and abundance more declared their Judgments to be for Episcopacy even for the ancient moderate Episcopacy in which one stated President with his Presbytery governed every Church though not for the English Diocesan frame in which one Bishop without his Presbytery did by a Lay-Chancellour's Court govern all the Presbytery and Churches of a Diocess being many hundreds and that in a Secular manner by abundance of upstart Secular Officers unknown to the Primitive Church Hereupon grew some Debate in the Assembly some being against every Degree of Bishops especially the Scottish Divines and others being for a moderate Episcopacy But these English Divines would not Subscribe the Covenant till there were an alteration suited to their Judgments and so a Parenthesis was yielded to as describing that sort of Prelacy which they opposed viz. That is Church Government by Archbishops Bishops Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy All which conjoyned are mentioned as the Description of that Form of Church Government which they meant by Prelacy as not extending to the ancient Episcopacy When the Covenant was agreed on the Lords and Commons first took it themselves and Mr. Thomas Coleman preached to the House of Lords and gave it them with this publick Explication That by Prelacy we mean not all Episcopacy but only the form which is here described When the Parliament had taken it they sent it to all the Garrisons and Armies to be taken and commended it to all the People of the Land And when the War was ended they caused all the Noblemen Knights Gentlemen and Officers which had been against them in the Wars to take it before they would admit them to Composition and take it they did And they required that all young Ministers should take it at their Ordination The Covenant being taken the Scots raised an Army to help the Parliament which came on and began to clear the North till at York fight the Scots Army the Earl of Manchester's Army and the Lord Fairfax's small Army joyned Battel against Prince Rupert's Army and General King's Army and the Earl of Newcastle's Army where they routed them and it was thought about 5000 were slain upon the place besides all that died after of their wounds After this the Scots Army lay still in the North a long time and did nothing till thereby they became odious as a burden to the Land The Scots said that it was caused by the Policy of the Sectaries that kept them without pay and without orders to March Their Adversaries the Vanists and the Cromwellians said it was their own fault who would not March. At last they were Commanded to besiege Hereford City where they lay a long time till the Earl of Montross having raised an Army in Scotland against them for the King had made it necessary for them to return into their own Country and leave Hereford untaken and the People clamouring against them as having come for nothing into the Country Some Months after they were gone Col. Iohn Birch and Col. Morgan took Hereford in an hour without any considerable bloodshed The Waters about the Walls being hard frozen the Governour sent Warrants to the Constables of the Country neer adjoyning to bring in Labourers to break the Ice Col. Birch got these Warrants and causeth one of his Officers in the Habit of a Constable and many Soldiers with Mattocks in the habit of Labourers to come the next morning early to the Gates and being let in they let in more and surprized the Town This much I thought good to speak altogether here for brevity of the Scots Army and Covenant and now return to the new modell'd Army § 71. The English Army being thus new modell'd was really in the hand of Oliver Cromwell though seemingly under the Command of Sir Thomas Fairfax who was shortly after Lord Fairfax his Father dying Cromwell's old Regiment which had made it self famous for Religion and Valour being fourteen Troops was divided six Troops were made the Lord Fairfax's Regiment and six Troops were Col. Whalley's Regiment and the other two were in Col. Rich's and Sir Robert Pye's Regiments The Confidents of Cromwell were especially Col. Ireton and Major Desborough his Brother-in-law and Major Iames Berry and Major Harrison and Col. Fleetwood and as his Kinsman Col. Whalley and divers others But now begins the Change of the old Cause A shrewd Book came out not long before called Plain English preparatory hereto And when the Lord Fairfax should have marched with his Army he would not as common Fame faith take his Commission because it ran as all others before for Defence of the King's Person for it was intimate that this was but Hypocrisie to profess to defend the King when they marcht to fight against him and that Bullets could not distinguish between his Person and another Man's and therefore this Clause must be left out that they might be no Hypocrities And so had a Commission without that Clause for the King And this was the day that changed the Cause § 72. The Army being ready to march was partly the Envy and partly the Scorn of the Nobility and the Lord Lieutenants and the Officers which had been put out by the Self-denying Vote But their Actions quickly vindicated them from Contempt They first attempted no less than the Siege of Oxford but in the mean time the King takes the field with a very numerous well-recruited Army and marcheth into Northamptonshire into the Parliaments Quarters and thence strait to Leicester a Town poorly fortified but so advantagiously situated for his use as would have been an exceeding Loss to the Parliament if he could have kept it It was taken by Storm and many slain in it General Fairfax leaveth Oxford and marcheth through Northamptonshire towards the King The King having the greater number and the Parliaments Army being of a new contemned Model he marcheth back to meet them and in a Field near Naseby a Village in Northamptonshire they met Cromwell had hasted a few days before into the associated Counties which were their Treasury for Men and Money and brought with him about 500 to 600 Men and came in to the Army just as they were drawn up and going on to give Battel His sudden and seasonable coming with the great Name he had got by the Applauses of his own Soldiers made a sudden Joy in the Army thinking he had brought them more help than he did so that all cried A Cromwell A Cromwell and so went on and after a shor◠hot Fight the King's Army was totally routed and put to flight and about 5000 Prisoners taken with all his Ordinance and Carriage and abundance of his own Letters to the Queen and others in his Cabinet which the Parliament printed as thinking such things were there contained as greatly disadvantaged the
sporting with them but he thought Secrecy a Vertue and Dissimulation no Vice and Simulation that is in plain English a Lie or Perfidiousness to be a tollerable Fault in a Case of Necessity being of the same Opinion with the Lord Bacon who was not so Precise as Learned That the best Composition and Temperature is to have openness in Fame and Opinion Secrecy in habit Dissimulation in seasonable use and a power to feign if there be no remedy Essay 6. pag. 31. Therefore he kept fair with all saving his open or unreconcileable Enemies He carried it with such Dissimulation that Anabaptists Independants and Antinomians did all think that he was one of them But he never endeavoured to perswade the Presbyterians that he was one of them but only that he would do them Justice and Preserve them and that he honoured their Worth and Piety for he knew that they were not so easily deceived In a word he did as our Prelates have done begin low and rise higher in his Resolutions as his Condition rose and the Promises which he made in his lower Condition he used as the interest of his higher following Condition did require and kept up as much Honesty and Godliness in the main as his Cause and Interest would allow but there they left him And his Name standeth as a monitory Monument or Pillar to Posterity to tell them The instability of Man in strong Temptations if God leave him to himself what great Success and Victories can do to lift up a Mind that once seemed humble what Pride can do to make Man selfish and corrupt the Heart with ill designs what selfishness and ill designs can do to bribe the Conscience and corrupt the Iudgment and make men justifie the greatest Errours and Sins and set against the clearest Truth and Duty what Bloodshed and great Enormities of Life an Erring deluded Judgment may draw Men to and patronize and That when God hath dreadful Judgments to execute an Erroneous Sectary or a proud Self-seeker is oftner his Instrument than an humble Lamb-like innocent Saint § 145. Cromwell being dead his Son Richard by his Will and Testament and the Army was quietly setled in his place while all Men look'd that they should presently have fallen into Confusion and Discord among themselves the Counties Cities and Corporations of England send up their Congratulations to own him as Protector But none of us in Worcestershire save the Independants medled in it He interred his Father with great Pomp and Solemnity He called a Parliament and that without any such Restraints as his Father had used The Members took the Oath of Fidelity or Allegiance to him at the Door of the House before they entred And all Men wondred to see all so quiet in so dangerous a Time Many sober Men that called his Father no better than a Trayterous Hypocrite did begin to think that they owed him Subjection They knew that the King was by Birth their Rightful Sovereign and resolved to do their best while there was hopes to introduce him and defend him But they were astonished at the marvellous Providences of god which had been against that Family all along and they thought that there was no rational probability of his Restoration having seen so many Armies and Risings and Designs overthrown which were raised or undertaken for it They thought that it is not left to our liberty whether we will have a Government or not but that Government is of Divine Appointment and the Family Person or Species is but of a subservient less necessary determination And that if we cannot have him that we would have it followeth not that we may be without That twelve years time from the Death of the last King was longer than the Land could be without a Governour without the Destruction of the Common Good which is the End of Government Therefore that the Subjects seeing they are unable to restore the King must consent to another That the House of Commons having sworn Allegiance to him have actually subjected the Nation to him And though his Father Trayterously made the Change yet the Successor of a Traytor may by the Peoples consent become a Governour whom each Individual must acknowledge by Subjection That the Bishops and Churches both of East and West as all History sheweth have professed their Subjection to Usurpers in a far shorter time and upon lighter Reasons That this Man having never had any hand in the War but supposed to be for the King nor ever seeking for the Government and now seeming to own the Sober Party was like to be used in the healing of the Land c. Such Reasonings as these began to take with the minds of many to subject themselves quietly to this Man though they never did it to his Father as now despairing of the Restitution of the King And I confess such Thoughts were somewhat prevalent with my self But God quickly shewed us the root of our Errour which was our limiting the Almighty as if that were hard to him that was impossible to us So that the Restoration of the King which we thought next impossible was accomplished in a trice And we saw that twelve or eighteen years is not long enough to wait on God The Army set up Richard Cromwell it seemeth upon Tryal resolving to use him as he behaved himself And though they swore Fidelity to him they meant to keep it no longer than he pleased them And when they saw that he began to favour the sober People of the Land to honour Parliaments and to respect the Ministers whom they called Presbyterians they presently resolved to make him know his Masters and that it was they and not he that were called by God to be the chief Protectors of the Interest of the Nation He was not so formidable to them as his Father was and therefore every one boldly spurned at him The Fifth Monarchy Men followed Sir Henry Vane and raised a great and violent clamorous Party against him among the Sectaries in the City Rogers and Feake and such like Firebrands preach them into Fury and blow the Coales But Dr. Owen and his Assistants did the main Work He gathereth a Church at at Lieutenant General Fleetwood's Quarters at Wallingford House consisting of the active Officers of the Army this Church-gathering hath been the Church◠scattering Project In this Assembly it was determined that Richard's Parliament must be dissolved and then he quickly fell himself Though he never abated their Liberties or their Greatness yet did he not sufficiently befriend them Dictum factum almost as quickly done as determined Though Col. Richard Ingolsby and some others would have stuck to the Protector and have ventured to surprise the Leaders of the Faction and the Parliament would have been true to him yet Berry's Regiment of Horse and some others were presently ready to have begun the Fray against him and as he sought not the Government he was resolved it should cost no
or to turn to something else which though there be some reason for it I feel cometh from a want of Zeal for the Truth and from an impatient Temper of Mind I am ready to think that People should quickly understand all in a few words and if they cannot lazily to despair of them and leave them to themselves And I the more know that it is sinful in me because it is partly so in other things even about the Faults of my Servants or other Inferiours if three or four times warning do no good on them I am much tempted to despair of them and turn them away and leave them to themselves I mention all these Distempers that my Faults may be a warning to others to take heed as they call on my self for Repentance and Watchfulness O Lord for the Merits and Sacrifice and Intercession of Christ be merciful to me a Sinner and forgive my known and unknown Sins THE LIFE OF THE REVEREND Mr. Richard Baxter LIB I. PART II. § 1. IN the Time of the late unhappy Wars in these Kingdoms the Controversies about Church Government were in most Mens mouths and made the greatest Noise being hotly agitated by States-men and Divines by Words and Writings which made it necessary to me to set my self to the most serious study of those Points The result of which was this confident and setled Judgment that of the four contending Parties the Erastian Episcopal Presbyterian and Independant each one had some Truths in peculiar which the other overlookt or took little notice of and each one had their proper Mistakes which gave advantage to their Adversaries though all of them had so much truth in common among them as would have made these Kingdoms happy if it had been unanimously and soberly reduced to practice by prudent and charitable Men. § 2. 1. The Erastians I thought were thus far in the right in asserting more fully than others the Magistrates Power in Matters of Religion that all Coercive Power by Mulcts or Force is only in their hands which is the full sence of our Oath of Supremacy and that no such Power belongeth to the Pastors or People of the Church and that thus as Dr. Ludov. Molinaeâ—â— pleadeth there should not be any Imperium in Imperio or any Coercive Power challenged by Pope Prelate Presbytery or any but by the Magistrate alone that the Pastoral Power is only Perswasive or exercised on Volunteers yet not private such as belongeth to every Man to perswade that hath a perswading Facultyâ— but Publick and Authoritative by Divine appointment And not only to perswade by Sermons or general Speeches but by particular oversight of their particular Flocks much like the Authority of Plato or Zenâ— in his School or a Master in any Academy of Volunteers or of a Physician in his Hospital supposing these were Officers of God's Institution who could as the ground of their perswasitantâ— produce his Commission or Command for what they said and did But though the Diocesans and the Presbyterians of Scotland who had Laws to enable them opposed this Doctrine or the Party at least yet I perceived that indeed it was but on the ground of their Civil Advantages as the Magistrate had impowered by them by his Laws which the Erastians did not contradict except some few of the higher 〈◊〉 sort who pleaded as the Papists for somewhat more which yet they could not themselves tell what to make of But the generality of each Party indeed owned this Doctrine and I could speak with no sober Judicious Prelatist Presbyterian or Independant but confessed that no Secular or Forcing Power belonged to any Pastors of the Church as such and unless the Magistrates authorized them as his Officers they could not touch mens Bodies or Estates but the Conscience alone which can be of none but of Assenters § 3. 2. The Episcopal Party seemed to have reason on their side in 〈◊〉 that in the Primitive Church there were some Apostles Evangelists and others who were general unfixed Officers of the Church not tyed to any particular Chaâ—ge and had some Superiority some of them â—â—over-fixed Bishops or Pastors And though the extraordinary Parts of the Apostles Office ceased with them I saw no proof of the Cessation of any ordinary part of their Office such as Church Government is confessed to be All the doubt that I saw in this was Whether the Apostles themselves were constituted Governours of other Pastors or only over-ruled them by the Eminency of their Gifts and Priviledge of Infallibility For it seemed to me unmeet to affirm without proof that Christ setled a Form of Government in his Church to endure only for one Age and changed it for a New one when that Age was ended And as to fixed Bishops of particular Churches that were Superiours in degree to Presbyters though I saw nothing at all in Scripture for them which was any whit cogent yet I saw that the Reception of them in all the Churches was so timely even in the days of one of the Apostles in some Churches and so general that I thought it a most improbable thing that if it had been contrary to the Apostles mind we should never read that they themselves or any one of their Disciples that conversed with them no nor any Christian or Heretick in the World should once speak or write a word against it till long after it was generally setled in the Curches This therefore I resolved never to oppose § 4. 3. And as for the Presbyterians I found that the Office of Preaching Presbyters was allowed by all that deserve the Name of Christians and that this Office did participate subserviently to Christ of the Prophetical or Teaching the Priestly or worshipping and the Governing Power and that both Scripture Antiquity and the perswasive Nature of Church Government clearly shew that all Presbyters were Church Governours as well as Church Teachers and that to deny this was to destroy the Office and to endeavour to destroy the Churches And I saw in Scripture Antiquity and Reason that the Association of Pastors and Churches for Agreement and their Synods in Cases of Necessity are a plain duty and that their ordinary stated Synods are usually very convenient And I saw that in England the Persons which were called Presbyterians were emiment for Learning Sobriety and Piety and the Pastors so called were they that went through the Work of the Ministry in diligent serious preaching to the People and edifying Mens Souls and keeping up Religion in the Land § 5. 4. And for the Independants I saw that most of them were Zealous and very many Learned discreet and godly Men and fit to be very serviceable in the Church And I found in the search of Scripture and Antiquity that in the beginning a Governed Church and a stated worshipping Church were all one and not two several things And that though there might be other byâ—Meetings in places like our Chappels or private Houses
for such as Age or Persecution hindered to come to the more solemn Meetings yet Churches then were no bigger in number of Persons than our Parishes now to grant the most And that they were Societies of Christians united for Personal Communion and not only for Communion by Meetings of Officers and Delegates in Synods as many Churches in Association be And I saw if once we go beyond the bounds of Personal Communion as the end of particular Churches in the Definition we may make a Church of a Nation or of ten Nations or what we please which shall have none of the Nature and Ends of the Primitive particular Churches Also I saw a commendable care of serious Holiness and Discipline in most of the Independant Churches And I found that some Episcopal Men as Bishop Usher himself did voluntarily profess his Judgment to me did hold that every Bishop was independant as to Synods and that Synods were not proper Governours of the particular Bishops but only for their Concord § 6. 5. And for the Anabaptists themselves though I have written and said so much against them as I found that most of them were Persons of Zeal in Religion so many of them were sober godly People and differed from others but in the Point of Infant Baptism or at most in the Points of Predestination and Free-will and Perseverance as the Iesuits differ from the Dominicans the Lutherans from the Calvinists and the Arminians from the Contra-Remonstrants And I found in all Antiquity that though Infant Baptism was held lawful by the Churchâ— yet some with Tertullian and Nazienzen thought it most convenient to make no haste and the rest left the time of Baptism to every ones liberty and forced none to be baptized Insomuch as not only Constantint Theudâ—sius and such other as were converted at Years of Discretion but Augustine and many such as were the Children of Christian Parents one or both did defer their Baptism much longer than I think they should have done So that in the Primitive Churchi some were Baptized in Infancy and some at ripe Age and some a little before their Death and none were forced but all left free and the only Penalty among men of their delay was that so long they were without the Priviledges of the Church and were numbred but with the Catechumens or Expectants § 7. 6. As to Doctrinal Differences also between Arminians and Anti-Arminians I soon perceived that it was hard to find a Man that discerned the true State of the several Controversies and that when unrevealed points uncertain to all were laid aside and the Controversies about Words were justly separated from the Controversies about things the Differences about things which remained were fewer and smaller than most of the Contenders perceived or would believe § 8. 7. Yea I found that our Doctrinal Controversies with the Papists themselves were very much darkned and seldom well stated and that in the Points of Merit Justification Assurance of Salvation Perseverance Grace Free-will and such others it was common to misunderstand one another and rare to meet with any that by just Distinction and Explication did well state the Controversies and bring them out of the Dark § 9. What I begin to write about any of these Doctrinal Differences in my Aphorisms Confession Apologie c. I will now pass by and the manifold Censures and Encounters which I had thereupon and the many Manuscripts of worthy Brethren animadverting upon my Aphorisms which I was privately put to answer Because it is not such Differences that now I am to speak of § 10. I perceived then that every Party beforementioned having some Truth or Good in which it was more eminent than the rest it was no impossible thing to separate all that from the Error and the Evil and that among all the Truths which they held either in Common or in Controversy there was no Contradiction And therefore that he that would procure the Welfare of the Church must do his best to promote all the Truth and Good which was held by every part and to leave out all their Errors and their Evil and not take up all that any Party had espoused as their own § 11. The things which I disliked as erroneous or evil in each Party were these 1. In the Erastians I disliked 1. That they made too light of the Power of the Ministry and Church and of Excommunication and did not distinguish sufficiently of a persuasive Power which is but private and is founded only in the Reason of the Speaker and a persuasive Power which is publick in an Officer of Christ which Camero well calleth Doctoral and is founded conjunctly in his Authority by God's Commission and his Arguments 2. That they made the Articles of the Holy Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints too insignificant by making Church Communion more common to the impenitent than Christ would have it and so dishonoured Christ by dishonouring his Church and making it too like to the Heathen World and breaking down the Hedge of Spiritual Discipline and laying it almost in common with the Wilderness 3. That they misunderstood and injured their Brethren supposing and affirming them to claim as from God a coercive Power over the Bodies or Purses of Men and so setting up Imperium in Imperio whereas all temperate Christians at least except Papists confess that the Church hath no Power of Force but only to manage God's Word unto Mens Conscienceâ—◠§ 12. In the Diocesane Party I utterly distiked 1. Their Extirpation of the true Discipline of Christ as we conceive by consequence though not intentionally not only as they omitted it and corrupted it but as their Principles and Church State had made it unpracticable and impossible while one Bishop with his Consitory had the sole Government of a thousand or many hundred Churches even over many thousands whose Faces they were never like to see not setting up any Parâ—chia Government under them But just as if the Archbishopsâ— or rather the Patriarchs in Câ—nstantiâ—â—'s days should have deposed all the Bishops in the Empire and have taken all their Charges upon themselves 2. That hereby they altered the Species of Churches and either would deâ— all particular Churches and have none but associated Diocesane Churches who hold the Communion by Delegates and not personally or else they would turn all the particular Parochial Churches into Christian Oratories and Schools while they gave their Pastors but a Teaching and Worshiping Power but not a Governing 3. That hereby they altered the ancient Species of Presbyters to whose Office the Spiritual Government of their proper Folks as truly belonged as the Power of preaching and worshipping God did 4. That they extinguished the ancient Species of Bishops which was in the times of Ignatius when every Church had one Altar and one Bishop and there were none but Itinerants or Archbishops that had many Churches 5. That they set up Courts that were more Secular
Controversies as tended to Doctrinal Agreement 2. Because I looked when some abler and more eminent Divines attempted it 3. But the chief Reason was Despair I was so consâ—lous of my meanness and in considerableness in the Church that I verily thought but very few will regard what I said But when I once attempted it God convinced me of this Errour and shewed me how little Instruments signifie when he will work and that his Ministers and People were more humble to hear the meanest of their Brethren than I before believed At last the workings of my earnest Desire and the apprehension of my Duty to do my best and leave the Success to God engaged me as followeth § 25. I first began in Conference and Writing to Reverend Mr. Anthony Burgess and some others to put the main Question Whether all Church Government be not as Camero holdeth only Perswasive not by private but publick or authorized Doctoral Perswasion and so can work on none but the Conscientious or Assenters And whether the usurpation of a strictly Legislative and Judicial Power save only to judge what we are to execute or a power of binding Dissenters even Clave errante especially binding Magistrates to execute by Corporal Penalties and Mulcts and other Punishments Eo nomine because by Excommunication the Church hath punished them I say whether this be not a robbing the Magistrate of his Power and making the Exercise of the Keys to be too like a Coercive Secular Judgment and so the Ground of all the Quarrels in the Church For I saw plainly that the Papists and those Prelates and Presbyterians who are for such an unexamined Judicial Power do but strive for that which belongeth to none of them all Upon the raising of these doubts I was suspected to be an Erastian and had no other Answer or Satisfaction But the study of the Point somewhat cleared my own Judgment § 26. Next this I wrote to Reverend and Judicious Mr. Richard Vines about an attempt for Concord with all but especially the Episcopal Party And also about Lay-Elders and his Judgment fully concurred with me and besides others he wrote to me the following Letter SIR THough I should have desired to have understood your thoughts about the Point of Sacriledge that so I might have formed up my thoughts into some better order and clearer issue than I did in my last yet to shew unto you how much I value this Correspondence with you I am willing to make some return to your self And first touching the Schoolmaster intended c. The Accommodation you speak of is a great and a good work for the gaining into the Work such useful parts and interests as might very much heal the Discord and unite the strength of Men to oppose destructive ways and in my opinion more feasible with those men than any other if they be moderate and godly for we differ with them rather about some Pinacles of the Temple than the Foundation or Abbuttresses thereof I would not have much time spent in a formula of Doctrine or Worship for we are not much distant in them and happily no more than with one another But I would have the Agreement attempted in that very thing which chiefly made the Division and that is Government heal that breach and heal all there begin and therein labour all you can What influence this may have upon others I know not in this exulceration of mens minds but the Work speaks it self good and your Reasons for the attempting of it are very considerable For the Assembly you know they can meddle with just nothing but what is sent unto them by Parliament or one House thereof as the Order faith and for that reason never took upon them to intermeddle therein What they do in such a thing must be done as private persons and not as in the capacity of Assembly-men except it come to them recommended by the Parliament The great business is to find a temperament in Ordination and Government in both which the Exclusion or Admittance of Presbyters dicis Causa for a shadow was not regular and no doubt the Presbyters ought and may both teach and govern as men that must give account of Souls For that you say of every particular Church having many Presbyters it hath been considered in our Assembly and the Scripture speaks fair for it but then the Church and City was of one Extent No Parishes or Bounds assigned out to particular men as now but the Minister preached in circuita or in common and stood in relation to the Churches as to one Church though meeting haply in divers houses or places as is still the manner of some Cities in the Low Countries If you will follow this model you must lay the City all into one Church particular and the Villages half a dozen of them into a Church which is a business here in England of vast design and consequence And as for that you say of a Bishop over many Presbyters not over many Churches I believe no such Bishops will please our men but the Nation as you conceive it hath been and is the Opinion of learned Men. Grotius in his Commentary on the Acts in divers places and particularly cap. 17. saith That as in every particular Synagogue many of which was in some one City there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such was the Primitive Bishop and doubtless the first Bishops were over the Community of Presbyters as Presbyters in joint relation to one Church or Region which Region being upon the increase of Believers divided into more Churches and in after times those Churches assigned to particular men yet he the Bishop continued Bishop over them still For that you say he had a negative voice that 's more than ever I saw proved or ever shall I believe for the first two hundred years and yet I have laboured to enquire into it That makes him Angelus princeps not Angelus praeses as Dr. Reignolds saith Calvin denies that and makes him Consul in Senatu Or as the Speaker in the House of Parliament which as I have heard that D. B. did say was but to make him Foreman of the Iury. Take heed of yielding a Negative Voice As touching the introduction of Ruling Elders such as are modelled out by Parliament my judgment is sufficiently known I am of your judgment in the Point There should be such Elders as have power to preach as well as rule I say power but how that will be affected here I know not except we could or would return to the primitive nature and constitution of particular Churches and therefore it must be helped by the combination of more Churches together into one as to the matter of Government and let them be still distinct as to Word and Sacraments That is the easiest way of Accommodation that yet occurs to my thoughts Sir I fear I trouble you too long but it is to shew how much I value you and your Letters to
without grand Sacriledge and Prophaneness although by Corruption of Persons and Times they have been either superstitiously abused or too prophanely employed but rather to reduce them to their primitive Use and Donation 18. Whether the ancient Fasting Days of the Week and Festivals of the Church setled both by Provincial Synods in the Year 1562. and 1640. and confirmed by the then Regal Power and also by several Statutes and Laws ought not by all persons in Conscience to be still observed until they be abrogated by the like Powers again or how far the Liberty of Conscience therein may be used in observing or not observing them the like for the usage of the Cross in Baptism and the humble posture of Kneeling at the receiving of the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper 19. Which way of security and peace of Conscience may a quiet Christian order and dispose himself his Wife Children and Family in his Duty and Service towards God and enjoy the right use and benefit of the Sacraments and other holy Duties as long as that part of the Catholick Church wherein he lives is under persecution and the visible Ruling Church therein is faln Schismatical if not in many particulare Heretical April 20th 1655. May 14th 1655. An Answer to the foregoing Questions sent to Sir R. Clare Ad Quest. 1m. EIther that Conscience owneth the right Religion and Discipline only or the right with some tolerable accidental Errours or a wrong Religion and Discipline in the Substance The first the Magistrate must not only tolerate but promote The second he must tolerate rather than do worse by suppressing it The third he must suppress by all lawful means and tolerate when he cannot help it without a greater Evil. I suppose no Judicious Man will expect an exact Solution of so Comprehensive a Question in few words And I find not that a large Discussion is now expected from me There are four or five Sheets of my Manuscripts in some hands abroad on this Point which may do more towards a satisfactory Solution than these few words Ad 2m. Either the tender Conscience is in the right or in the wrong If in the wrong the Magistrates Liberty will not make a Sin to be no Sin but the Party is bound by God to rectifie his Judgment and thereby his Practice If in the right it is a strange Question Whether a Man may obey God that hath the Magistrates leave till he be enforced by Mens violence Doth any doubt of it Ad 3m. Matter of Government depending only on Fact is a Contradiction Seeing Government consisteth in a Right and the Exercise of it I am not able therefore to understand this Question Yet if this may afford any help toward the Solution I affirm That the general and perpetual practice of the Church from Age to Age of a thing not forbidden by the Word of God will warrant our imitation I say of a thing not forbidden because it hath been the general and perpetual practice of the Church to Sin by vain Thoughts Words imperfect Duties c. wherein our imitation is not warrantable The general and perpetual practice includeth the Apostles and that Age. But what is meant by Evidencing the Right of a thing that dependeth only of Fact or by Evidencing the Truth and Certainty of a Fact by general and perpetual practice which is to prove idem per idem I will not presume that I understand Ad 4m. I know not what Bishops you mean A Congregational Bishop overseeing the People is undoubtedly lawful so is a Congregational Bishop being President of a Presbytery which is over that Congregation Where many Congregational Officers are associated I do not think that a President for a time or during his fitness standing and fixed is unlawful The like I may say of a President of many of those Associations again associated as in a Province or Diocess And I believe it were a very easie work for wise godly moderate men to agree about his Power And I would not seem so censorious as to proclaim that England wanteth such further than the actual want of such Agreement or just endeavours thereto doth proclaim it I am satisfied also that the Apostles themselves have de jure Successors in all that part of their work which is to be perpetuated or continued till now though not in their extraordinary Endowments and Priviledges But if the sence of your Question be Whether one Man may be the standing chief Governour of many particular Churches with their Officers having either sole power of Ordination and Jurisdiction as some would have or a Negative Voice in both as others it would seem great arrogancy in me to be the confident Determiner of such a Question which so wise learned godly sober Men have said so much of on both sides already Ad 5m. 1. He that knows how short Church History is in these Matters for the first Age after the Apostles at least and hath read impartially what Gersom Bucerus Parker Blondellus Salmasius Altare Damascen have said on one side and Saravia Downham Dr. Hammond c. on the other would sure never expect that I should presume to pass any confident Sentence in the Point And it 's like he would be somewhat moderate himself 2. I say as before I know not what you mean by Bishops I am confident that the Church was not of many Hundred years after Christ governed as ours was lately in England by a Diocesan Bishop and a Chancellor excluding almost all the Presbyters 3. Why do you say Since the Apostles days when you before spoke of the General and perpetual practice of the Church Ad 6m. The word National Church admits of divers sences As it was usually understood in England I think there was none for divers hundred years after Christ either governed by Bishops or without them They that will look after the most encouraging Presidents must look higher than National Churches Ad 7m. The Question seems not to mean any particular truly-schismatical Party of Ministers but the generality that live not under the Bishops and so I answer negatively waiting for the Accusers proof Ad 8m. 1. I know not what the Oath of Canonical Obedience is therefore cannot give a full Answer I know multitudes of Ministers ordained by Bishops that never took any such Oath 2. The Powers that violently took down the Bishops were the Secular Powers None else could use violence And it were a strange Oath for a Man to swear that he would never obey the Secular Powers if they took down the Bishops when the Holy Ghost would have us obey Heathen Persecutors 3. If it were so great a Sin to obey those Powers I conceive it must be so to the Laity as well as the Ministry And I knew but few of the Episcopal Gentry or others called to it that did refuse to take the Engagement to be true and faithful to that Power when the Presbyters here accused durst not take it
a sober Christian hath the least reason to scruple Communion in Will you have a Pastor that shall not speak in the Name of the People to God or will you call his Prayers his own which he puts up by Virtue of his Office according to God's Word Ad 17m. I think they cannot without Sacriledge make such Alienation except where God's Consent can be proved For Example if the Ministers of the Church have full as much means given as is fit for the Ends to which it is given and yet the People will give more and more to the Burden and ensnaring of the Church and the impoverishing or ruin of the Common-wealth here I think God consents not to accept that Gift and therefore it was but an Offer and not plenarily a Gift for want of Acceptance for he accepts not that which he prohibits Here therefore the Magistrate may restore this to its proper use But whether this were any of the Case of these Sacrilegious Alienations too lately made in this Land is a farther Question I apprehend a deep Guilt of Sacriledge upon some Ad 18m. The Particulars here mentioned must be distinctly considered 1. About Fasts and Feasts the Question as referring to the Obligation of the Laws of the Land is of the same Resolution as all other Questions respecting those Laws which being a Case more out of my way I shall not presume to determine without a clearer Call Only I must say that I see little Reason why those Men should think themselves bound in this who yet suppose themselves loose from many other Laws and who obey many of the Laws or Ordinances of the present Powers 2. I much fear that not only the Querist but many more are much ensnared in their Consciences by misunderstanding the Nature and use of Synods It 's one thing for an Assembly of Bishops to have a superior Governing Power directly over all particular Churches and Bishops and another thing for such an Assembly to have a Power of determining of things necessary for the Concord of the several Churches I never yet saw it proved that Synods are over Bishops in a direct Governing Order nor are called for such Ends but properly in ordine ad Unitatem and so oblige only more than single Bishops by Virtue of the General Precept of maintaining Unity and Concord This is the Opinion of the most learned Bishop and famous antiquary that I am acquainted with 3. And then when the end ceases the Obligation is at an End So that this can now be no Law of Unity with us 4. All human Laws die with the Legislator farther than the surviving Rulers shall continue them The Reason is drawn from the Nature of a Law which is to be jussum Majestatis in the Common wealth and every where to be a sign of the Rectors Will de debito vel constituendo vel confirmando Or his Authoritative Determination of what shall be due from us and to us Therefore no Rector no Law and the Law that is though made by the deceased Rector is not his Law but the present Rector's Law formally it being the signifier of his Will And it is his Will for the continuance of it that gives it a new Life In all this I speak of the whole Summa potestas that hath the absolute Legislative Power If therefore the Church Governors be dead that made these Laws and no sufficient Power succeeds them to continue these Laws and make them theirs then they are dead with their Authors 5. The present Pastors of the Church though but Presbyters are the true Guides of it while Bishops are absent and the true Guides conjunctly with the Bishops if they were present according to the Judgment of your own side Whoever is the sole existent governing Powerâ— may govern and must be obeyed in things Lawful Therefore you must for all your unproved Accusation of Schism obey them The Death or Deposition of the Bishops depriveth not the Presbyters of that Power which they had before 6. Former Church Governors have not Power to bind all that shall come after them where they were before free But their Followers are as free as they were 7. The Nature of Church Canons is to determine of Circumstances only for a present time place or occasion and not to be universal standing Laws to all Ages of the Church For if such Determinations had been fit God would have made them himself and they would have been contained in his perfect Word He gives not his Legislative Power to Synods or Bishops 8. Yet if your Conscience will needs persuade you to use those Ceremonies you have no ground to separate from all that will not be of your Opinion 9. For the Cross the Canons require only the Minister to use it and not you and if he do not that 's nothing to you 10. Have you impartially read what is written against the Lawfulness of it by Amesius's fresh Suit Bradshaw Parker and others If you have you may at least see this that it 's no fit matter to place the Churches Unity or Uniformity in and they that will make such Laws for Unity go beyond their Commission Church Governors are to determine the Circumstances pro loco tempore in particular which God hath in Word or Nature made necessary in genere and left to their Determination But when Men will presume beyond this to determine of things not indeed circumstantial or no way necessary in genere nor left to their Determination as to institute new standing Symbols in and with God's Symbols or Sacraments to be engaging Signs to engage us to Christ and to Work Grace on the Soul as the Word and Sacraments do that is by a moral Operation and then will needs make these the Cement of Unity this is it that hath been the Bane of Unity and Cause of Divions 11. Kneeling at the Sacrament is a Novelty introduced many hundred years after Christ and contrary to such Canons and Customs of the Church to which for Antiquiâ—y and Universality you owe much more respect than to the Canons of the late Bishops in England 12. If your General Rule hold that you stand bound by all Canons not repealed by equal Power you have a greater burden on your back than you are aware of which if you bore indeed you would know how little this usurped Legislative Power befriends the Church And among others you are bound not to kneel in the Church on any Lord's Day in Sacrament or Prayer Grotius de Imperio Sumpotest would teach much more Moderation in these Matters than I here perceive Ad Q. 19m. 1. It 's too much Self-conceitedness and Uncharitableness to pass so bold a Censure as your Supposition doth contain of the visible ruling Church being Schismatical and so Heretical Which is the ruling Church I know none in England besides Bishops that pretend to rule any but their own Provinces and but few that pretend Order to Regiment Perhaps when the
their Consciences Why do they not obey the present Secular Powers in all other things It is known the King consented to relax this And however this is little to them that go on the Ground of Divine or Ecclesiastical Right And if we must so plunge our selves into Enquiries after the Rights of Secular Governours before we can know whether to stand or set at the Sacrament we are all uncertain what to do in greater Matters for there are as apparent grounds for our uncertainty of five hundred years old and more which this is no place to dive into And it would be as unlawful on this ground to read any other Psalm or Chapter but what was of old appointed for the Day as to forbear kneeling at the Sacrament And perhaps on the Opponents grounds it would be still as sinful to restrain a Child or Servant from Dancing on the Lord's Day And if it be Ecclesiastical Authority that they stick at that must be derived from Christ and so Originally Divine or it is none And then not to wade so unseasonably into the main Controversie 1. Before they have proved their Legislative Authority 2. And that this Congregation is Iure Divino part of their Charge and under their Jurisdiction 3. And that they had power to contradict the Examples of Christ and his Apostles herein and the constant practice of the Primitive Church and the Canons of Councils even General Councils 4. And that their Canons are yet in force against all these I say before all this be well done we shall find that there must go more than a slight Supposition to the making good of their Cause According to their own Principles a lower Power cannot reverse the Acts of a higher But the General Councils Nice and Constantinople that forbad Kneeling on any Lord's Day was a higher Power than the English Convocation Ergo The English Convocation cannot Repeal its Acts. Though for my own part I think that neither of their Acts do need any Repeal to Null them to us in such Cases 5. Besides this if these Canons bind Conscience yet it is either by the Authority that Enacted them or by the Authority of the present Church-Governours that impose them If old Canons bind without or against the present Power then the same Canon that forbiddeth Kneeling bindeth and many an hundred more a great part of which are now made no Conscience of If it be the present Authority that is above the Ancient then 1. They that pretend to such Authority over this Congregation should produce and exercise it For if we know them not not receive any Commands from them we are capable of no Disobedience to them 2. And in the mean time We that are in the place must take it as our Charge or do the Work or for ought I know it will in most Places be undone For the Authority is for the Work 3. We use to take it for the great partiality at least of the Church of Rome that will be judged by none but the present Church that is themselves when we would be tried by the Scripture or the Ancient Church In a word I do not think that when Circumstances tending to Order and Decency are so mutable that God ever gave power to any Bishops to tie all Congregations and Ages to this or that Sacrament Gesture nor at all to make them so necessary as that Bodily Punishment or Excommunications should be inflicted on the Neglecters of them And I think that Calling which hath no better Work than this to do is not worth the regarding And here I should propound to the contrary-minded one Question Whether if a Bishop should command them to stand or sit they would do it Yea or if a Convocation commanded it If they say Yea then must they lay by all their Arguments from pretended irreverence to prove Sitting evil for I hope they would not be irreverent nor do evil at the command of a Bishop or Convocation And then let our Authority from Scripture Example and the Universal Church and a General Council and the present Secular Power and the late Assembly and Parliaments and the present Pastors or Presbyters of the Congregations I say let all this be set against the present Countermand of I know not who nor for what Reason as being not visible But if they say They would not obey the Bishops if they forbad them Kneeling then let them justifie us that obey them not when they command us to Kneel having so much as is expressed to the contrary Thus Sir I have first given you my Reasons about the Gesture it self And of putting it into each Persons hands I have thus much more to say 1. I know nothing to oblige me to it 2. Christ himself did otherwise as appeareth in Matth. 26. 26 27. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take ye eat ye drink ye all of it doth shew that it was given to them all in general and not to each man singly 3. And in this also Antiquity is on my side the contrary being much later More Reasons I have that I shall not now trouble you with To this I may well add That no Man can have any Rational pretence that I know of against the Receiving of the Sacrament upon such a General Delivery 1. Because the contrary was never yet pleaded necessary Iure Divino that I know of 2. And if it were a Sin it would be the Ministers Sin so to deliver it and not theirs who as they have not the Rule of his Actions so they shall not Answer for them Having thus told you my thoughts of the Matters in doubt I shall next tell you my purpose as to your Motion 1. I did never hitherto to my remembrance refuse to give the Sacrament to any one meerly because they would not take it Sitting or Standing nor did ever forbid or repel any on that account nor ever mean to do If any of my Charge shall take it Standing or Kneeling I shall not forbid them on any such account 2. If they further expect that I should put it into each Man's hands individually I may well expect the liberty of guiding my own Actions according to my own Conscience if I may not guide theirs It is enough that in such Cases they will refuse to be Ruled by me they should not also usurp the ruling of me but let us be equal and let me have my liberty as I am willing to let them have theirs and if I sin they are not guilty of it Nor have they any ground to refuse the Sacrament rather than so take it 3. Yet if any of my Pastoral Charge shall be unsatisfied if they will but hear my Reasons first and if those Reasons convince them not if they will profess that they think it a Sin against God for them to Receive the Sacrament unless it be put into their hands Kneeling and Ergo that they dare not in Conscience take it otherwise I do purpose to
Sense we have of the extraordinary want of faithful and able Ministers to carry on the Lords Work in this dark Land together with the daily Cryes from many Places of People that are perishing for want of Bread presseth us to renew our former Request to you for Help in this Day of our Necessity and we are somewhat the more emboldned thereto by the Appehension we find you to have of our Condition however for the present you find not how to help us â—our great Plenty together with your Association and nearness of Habitations making your Pastors and People as one besides the Universities are with you which blessed be God are well replenished with many gracious Plants to whom your Unamity will doubtless be a very great Encouragement to settle amongst you whereas our distance from them together with those sad Reports which are cast upon this Land render us hopeless of any considerable Supply that way These things we humbly offer as Motives to you for sparing some that may be helpful to us in this Day of our Extream Necessity And now dear Brethren most thankfully accepting your Love we recommend your Persons Labours and Flocks to the Care and Oversight of our Lord Iesus Christ who is the Chief Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls whose Grace be with yeu Amen Your Brethen unfeignedly loving you in the Lord Sam. Winter Tho. Hook Ol. Huchinson William Markham Iohn Price Elders of the Church of Christ in Dublin whereof Dr. Samuel Winter is Pastor Dublin Ian. 16th 1655. In the Name and by the Appointment of the rest of the Associated Churches in Ireland § 37. About this time Mr. Vines extolling the Judgment and Learning of Dr. Ralph Brownrigg Bishop of Exeter and advising me to chuse him as the fittest Man to treat with for Concord with the Diocesane Party I wrote to him to that End and sent with all some Terms of Concord He returned me a very kind Letter professing his Willingness to prosecute that Work and withal an answer to my Proposals which granted the main Matters which I desired and would have united us all if such terms had been granted when the King came in and setled the Church Government for he granted with Bishop Usher that every Presbyter is and must be a Governor as well as a Teacher of his own Flock and that subordinate Assemblies like Rural Denaries might be set up in every Market Town or in certain Divisions for the Performance hereof But because I found him too tenacious of the titular Honours of the Bishops which though I could have consented to my self yet those times would not permit I wrote to him no more and seeing we were not like that way to attain our Ends which was a present Union with that Party But had I foreseen what since is come to pass I would have prosecuted it farther that I might have had more of his Confessions to testify against unpeaceable Men. The Letter I wrote to him was as follows Most Reverend and much Honoured Sir THat I am utter Stranger to you should make this Address I suppose will be no stranger matter to you than that the Weak should seek for help unto the Strong and that the Laws of Nature and of Grace should tye us to a mutual Communication according to our powers So much of my own time being spent in such Paper Converse with Men whose Faces I never saw hath somewhat hardened me to this Attempt And I know that as far as you excel me in true Wisdom and Humility so far will you excel in Condescension to Inferiours and in Readiness to do good and therefore I have no doubt of your favourable Acceptance of this Address if there be nothing in the Matter or Manner to hinder I shall take leave first to tell you my General Errand with the Ground of it and then my Particular one Nature inclineth us to desire to know and Grace to desire the right Knowledge of God and of his Will from himself only who is the Father of Lights must we have this Light and from him by his appointed Means and Revelations If I learn not of those that God hath taught but expect all immediately from himself I may live in Darkness Where I hear of the greatest Revelation from Heaven thither do I take it for my Duty to Address my self and if there were inspired Prophets now as heretofore I would go to them But seeing God now taketh another way I think I ought to follow him and to be a Learner if possible of those whom he hath any way most eminately illuminated And though my Actions may be more ruled by many than by one where they have more Authority yet my Judgment may be better informed by one that excelleth in Light than by many others While I have made enquiry after these Divine Communications the concurrentâ— Vote of my most learned sober judicious Friends hath directed me first to you as the Man who for clearness and soundness of Iudgment is the Oracle of this our Theological World Though I may Learn of many hundreds yet did I know where so well to profit and were so strong a Iudgment as common as many other excellent Qualifications in learned Men I should have taken up nearer home and not presumed to have invited you to any trouble My first Question therefore is in general Whether you Mind and Leisure will vouchsafe me the Liberty now and then to intrude for the Resolution of some Difficulties not frequently nor contentiously but seldom and as a meet Learner If you are unwilling or not vacant say so and rid your self of this Trouble in a word And though the greatest Matters that I would enquire about are Points of Faith wherein if you have taken notice that I have wronged the Church by any of my crude and hasty Writings your Check would tend to a Reformation and be welcome yet the particular that at present I shall try your willingness in is in Point of Discipline I have long been very sensible of the sad Divisions of the Reformed Churches hereabouts and especially in England and longed to see the day that some wise compassionate Hand would rightly attempt the Cure As ignorent Men know not so much as the Difficulty of things so I have thought that if there were no greater Hinderance in Mens Affections than in their Principles it would be an easie matter speedily to Reconcile the moderate Episcopal and Presbyterian Divines My earnest Request to you is that you will be pleased freely to tell me your Thoughts how far this Accommodation following may tend to a closure 1. In every Parish where there are more Presbyters than one let one be the Chief and his Consent chiefly taken in the Guidance of the Church 2. Let many such Churches be associated call it a Classis or what you will and let the fittest Man be your President as long as he is fit that is during Life unless he deserve a
Removal 3. Let divers of these Classes meet once or twice a year in a Provincial Assembly and let the fittest Man in the Province be their standing President Hitherto there is no Concession on the Presbyterian side but that the President pro tempore be turned to a standing President nor any on the Episcopal side but that most necessary one that every Presbyter be acknowledged a Church Guide and not a meer Preacher 4. Let it be left to each Man's Conscience whether the President be called by the Name of Bishop President Superintendent Moderator c. seeing a Name is no meet Reason of a Breach 5. Let no Man be forced to express his Judgment de Iure whether the President have a Negative Voice in Ordination or Excommunication nor whether he be distinct in order or only in degree seeing it is not the unonimous and right belief concerning these things that is of Necessity for then they must have been in our Creed but the unanimous and right practice But let all agree that they will joyn in these Classical and Provincial Assemblies and then only Ordain and that they will not Ordain but when the President is one unless in case of flat necessity which is never like to befal us if this way be taken My Question now is Whether the godly moderate Episcopal and Presbyterian Divines on supposition that they can at present come no nearer to each other may not and ought not thus far to close and thus live in Christian Love and Unity seeing that we are bound to Concord in Practice so far as we agree in Judgment and seeing that if any nearer Closure be yet necessary in such United Bodies and Amicable Associations Assemblies and Correspondencies its most likely to be attained this way and indeed no other that I can as yet discern These Terms I once propounded to one most Reverend Prelate now near you who told me That with moderate Men they might suffice for an Union If you are of the same Judgment I should have the stronger hopes and if you are not I shall the sooner let them fall Were your leisure such as to admit of further trouble I would crave a word for the Resolution of my own Judgment in these Points 1. I am satisfied that the Apostles have Successors in all those Works that are of standing Necessity and that Church-Government is one of those Works and that its improbable that Christ should settle one Species of Church-Government in the Apostles Hands for an Age and then change it for ever after and that they that affirm such a Change must prove it and this Argument sticks close But then I would crave one of your strongest Arguments to prove though I know that the Presbyterians grant it that indeed the Apostles had a power by Office to Govern the Seventy or the Presbyters as inferiour Officers besides the power that they had by the meer interest of their Gifts and priviledge of being Eye-witnesses of the Works of Christ and Ear-witnesses of his Word 2. If the Apostles Examples will prove the Right of an unfixed Ambulatory Episcopacy yet I would see how it appears that ever they were fixed to particular Churches or ever any of them had a distinct and limited Diocess where the rest had not Charge as well as they 3. I am satisfied that very early after the Apostles the common Government of each Church was by a Bishop and Presbytery but I can yet see no Evidence that this Church for 150 or 200 Years was any more than one Congregation like one of our Parishes for number of People which was Congregate in a City and from the Circumjacent Villages as our Independant or Anabaptist Churches now are while the Multitude were Infidels I would therefore crave one clear Proof that the first fixed Bishops ruled any more standing Congregations having ordinary Assemblies and Communion in the Lord's Supper than one only And whether the multiplying of Believers did not make a real Change of the former Species of Government while the Bishop of the City took on him the Government of many Particular Churches who had but one before and when Bishops should have been multiplied as fast as Churches were and as Presbyters were Some Passages in the eldest Writers incline me to these Thoughts of which if they be wrong your Correction will be most acceptable May I crave if not your Solution of all these Doubts yet at least your Advice in the first Case of Practice and your Pardon of my Boldness I shall under great Obligations remain A humble Reverencer of your great Abilities and Dignity Rich. Baxter Kiderminster in Worcestershire June 8. 1655. If you return any thing Mr. Underhill at the Anchor and Bible in Paul's Church-yard will convey it me To the very Reverend and much Honoured Dr. Brownrigg Bishop of Exeter These Whereto the Bishop made this short Reply Worthy Sir I Have received your kind and â—â—â—â—teous Letter the Evidence of your very pioâ—â— and peaceable Spirit which I heartily desire may be a Provocation to others to lead them into the ways of Peace Sir Your Esteem of me and of my Abilities is the Errour of your Love and of those that have represented me to you in too great a Character quod non humiliter tantùm sed veraciter dico only I shall desire to be serviceable to God and his Church in what I am able Your Letter came to my hands at the time of my removal from Highgate into the Country here I have continued many Months suffering the trouble and pain of the Stone which which hath put me into a long and tedious Course of Physick Now I am upon my Iourney homewards from whence God willing I will write to you being truly sensible of your Religious Endeavours for so good a Work as the Composing of those woful Rents made in this Church The God of Truth and Peace guide us into the Ways of Truth and Peace to whose Grace and Blessing I do heartily recommend you resting SIR Your very respectful Friend who embraceth your Love and returns his to you very heartily Ra. Exon. Highgate July 3. 1655. And not long after I received this Answer Worthy Sir I Am indebted to you for an Answer to your Inquiries which I received from you It should have been more speedy but in truth I brought from London my crasie and ill-affected Body which since my coming home hath bred me much pain of the Stone and taken up my time in suffering those Distempers and using the Remedies prescribed to me I have now sent you my Thoughts which I doubt not but you will receive as candidly as I impart them to you The Age is quarrelsome but I apprehend you as one of a peaceable Spirit aiming only at the Settlement of our unhappy Distractions The God of Peace compose all our hearts to Peace and make the Rents of our Church to be the Matter of our chief Compassion Charitas Ecclesiae
omnes omnium Charitates inse complectitur Sir I have sent you my Answer written with a more legible hand and with some regard of ease to my self in transcribing with my very hearty love recommended and assured to you I commend you to the Grace and Blessing of Almighty God resting Your very respectful Friend Ra. Exon. Austie in Hartfordshire Iuly 21. 1655. Bishop Brownrigg ' s Answer about Government Prop. 1. YOur first Proposal is In every Parish where there are more Presbyters than one let one be the Chief and his Consent chiefly taken in the guidance of the Church Answ. 1. This Case is rarely to be found in the Parishes of England nor can there be a sufficient Maintenance for a Plurality of Presbyters in our Parochial Congregations yet if such be found it may be a good means to preserve Order and Peace that the ordering of Affairs which shall be referred to them be managed by him that hath the Praesecture of that Parish I wish that in those Churches which beside the Incumbent have had Lecturers this Rule had been observed Prop. 2. Let many such Churches be associated call it a Classis or what you will and let the fittest Man be their President as long as he is fit that is during life unless he deserve a removal Answ. 2. This Proposal looks like our Rural Deaneries or Choriepiscopal Order which hath been laid much aside but for the reducing of it and to make it profitable I wish that it may be bounded with fit Canons prescribing what they may do and with intimation from the Bishop and his Inspection and that such a Dean or President may be continued for Life that being a means to breed Experience if he do not deserve a removal Prop. 3. Let divers of these Classes meet once or twice a Year in a Provincial Assembly and let the fitâ—est Man in the Province be their standing President Answ. 3. This Course hath been by Law and Practice already used in our Church in the Archidiaconal Visitations and Synods which may be more quickened and actuated by sit Canons for their Direction what and who the President must be may be provided for by Canons and his Station continued and that Presbyters having Cure of Souls should not be accounted meer Preachers but Church-Guides and as they are already acknowledged Rectors of Churches Prop. 4. Let it be left to every Man's Conscience Whether the President be called by the Name of Bishop President Superintendent Moderator c. seeing that a Name is no meet Reason of a Breach c. Answ. 4. If by President you understand him that must moderate the Half-year or yearly Synods under the Inspection of the Diocesan as his Order may be newly framed so his Name may be newly imposed but that the Primitive Name of Bishop should be turned into a new Name is as you say no meet Reason for a Breach and we see Presbyters assume that Name to themselves and to put a new Name upon an old Institution is as Augustine speaks in the like Case Indoctis struere fallaciam doctis facere injuriam Prop. 5. Let no Man be forced to Express his Iudgment de Jure Whether the President have a Negative Voice in Ordination or Excommunication or whether he be distinct in Order or Degree seeing it is not the unanimous and right Belief of these things that is of Necessity for then they must have been in our Creed but the unanimous and right Practice but let them all agree that they will constantly joyn in these Classical and Provincial Assemblies and then only Ordain and that they will not Ordain but when the President is one unless in Case of flat Necessity which is never like to befall us if this may be takenâ— Answ. 5. If by President you understand the Diocesan then that the Bishop should be deprived of his Negative Voice in Ordination or Excommunication and so I conceive in other Censures and Acts of Government is to make him a meer Shadow without any Authority like our Scrutators in our University to propound Graces and collect Suffrages and pronounce Sentence Surely St. Paul invested Timothy and Titus with more Power and Authority both for Ordination and Censures but then to remedy the Inconveniencies of a wilful Negative it 's fit that an Appeal may be made to a Provincial Synod that may examine and if need be rectifie what was amiss in the Negative That Church Businesses were Ordered by the Concurrence of more Presbyters besides the Bishop in Cyprian's time was fit at that time when the Government of Church Affairs was Arbitrary and not Regulated by Law in which Case it was safest for the Bishop to have the Consent of others with him This is not our Case we have express Canons and Laws laid upon Bishops beyond which they cannot go and so may well be intrusted with the Execution of the Sentence of the Law the Sentence of the Judge being only Declarativa Executiva and if he transgress those Rules prefixed he is liable to Censure In our Church plurimum legi minimum Episcopo relinquitur as we see in Civil Matters one Justice of Peace hath the Power of Executing the Sentence of a Law or Statute but no Arbitrary Power granted to him That the Bishop be distinct from the Presbyter whether ordine or gradu is the Schoolmens Debate and I conceive may have such accord as may not ingender strife That Ordination be by the Assistance of Presbyters is already required in our Form of Ordination and if it be fixed to the Times of Synods it may be easily granted and sure that Blame that hath been laid upon our Bishops for Ordaining of insufficient Men is most what an undue Charge the Law of the Land hath set that lowness of sufficiency in Men to be ordained and instituted that if a Bishop refuseth to give Orders or Institution to a Man presented by the Patron he is punishable by the Judges As I have heard Archbishop Abbot was fined an Hundred pounds in case he did not admit a Clark so meanly qualified as the Law requires Some other Proposals are added in the End of your Letter Prop. 1. I Am satisfied that the Apostles have Successors in all those Works that are of standing Necessity and that Church Government is one of those Works and that it is improbable that Christ should settle one Species of Church Government in the Apostles Hands for an Age and then Change it for ever after and they that affirm such a change must prove it Answ. 6. Supposing what the Apostles did in ordering of Church Government to be in the Name and by the Authority of Christ this Assertion I conceive to be very true and it doth infer a Subordination of all Officers and Members of the Church to the Apostles and those that were their Successors Prop. 2. Whether the Apostles had a Power by Office to govern the LXX and the Presbyters as inferior Officers besides the
by Laws 6. If there be Bishops in the Church sure they must have the superintendent Care and so Power over the whole Flock Presbyters and People yet so that for the Exercise of it they intrust to the Rector of each Parish with what shall be found necessary for the Souls of the People in daily Administration 7. I cannot think it meet that the 39 Articles which are the Hedge between us and the Papacy should be removed and Articles in bare Scriptureâ—terms substituted in their room unless by this means the Papacy receding also an universal Peace might be hoped which is a thing beyond our Prospect That no more Articles be added to clog our Communion is very reasonable That any of these established are excepted against by those in Relation to whom we now consider is more than I have heard 8. For the not removing any Minister but upon weighty Cause and not punishing Offenders by other than Ecclesiastical Censures leaving the rest to the Civil Magistrate I see no matter of Debate between us R. B.'s Reply THE Strictures returned instead of Abatements for Accommodation refer almost all the Matters in Difference to the Civil Magistrate We know that whoever is in possession of the Magistracy will be the Judge of his own Actions and give us Laws according to his Judgment Our Motion is not for Divines to do any of the Magistrates Work But when Magistrates against Episcopacy are up we would have Divines endeavour in their places to draw them from injuring the Brethren that are for Episcopacy And when Magistrates that are for Episcopacy are up we would have Divines endeavour in their places to draw them from injuring the Brethren that cannot comply with it any nearer than on the fore-expressed Terms And that the Party that is still under might not be look upon and used as a Sect and Division might not be cherished among us we much rather desire an Accommodation than a Toleration that we may be but one Bodyâ— and stick together whatever Changes come To this end we first desire that our Rule for Doctrine Discipline and Worship be such as may serve for an Universal Concord and next that we may be secured from Encroachments on our just Liberty and such Impositions besides or above the Rule as we know will cause Divisions and Persecutions That which we desire to these Ends from the Divines to whom we offer our Proposals is that they will express their own Desire that so much may be granted by the Magistrate as they find meet to be granted and agreeing on the fittest Terms among themselves will profess and promise their faithful Endeavours in their Places and Capacities to procure the Concession and Approbation of these Terms from the Magistrate And this any single person may to prepare for a further Communication consider of and consent unto viz. to improve his Interest to these Ends. Now to the Particulars 1. We desire that you will profess your Judgment and promise your just Endeavours in your place that no Laws may be made or continued that are contrary to these Christian Duties and I know of none such existent And then we consent that all Persons be responsible for their Miscarriages 2. This is the chief of our Desires that you will profess your desire and promise your endeavour in your place that the power mentioned in the eighth Article may by Law be granted to the Rectors of each Parish we suppose that their Office is of Divine Institution and therefore that Magistrates may not change it what is by Law established the Possessors of the Government will still be Judges of Did we believe that the Pastors of particular Churches are not of Divine Institution unchangeable by Man or that Diocesan Bishops could exercise Christ's Discipline over so many hundred Parishes so that it would not certainly be cast out by their undertaking it we would not have insisted on this Article but yield that Rectorsâ— shall never Rule 3. We might hope that the Ceremonies might be left indifferent and so there might be no Divisions about them As we find it now by Experience in our Assemblies in the singing of Psalms the Gesture is left indifferent and there is no trouble about it So in many places the Sacrament Gesture is left indifferent and one kneeleth and another standeth and another sitteth and there is no disturbance about it but Custom having taken off their Prejudice they have the Charity to bear with one another And some Congregations sing one Version of the Psalms and some another and though Uniformity in that be much more desirable than in a Cross or Surplice or Kneeling at Receiving the Eucharist yet there is no disturbance among us about it And when our Unity is not laid upon our Uniformity in these unnecessary things we shall not be necessitated to persecute one another about them nor to make Sects by our Toleration of Dissenters And doubtless if your Toleration be of all that profess Tenderness of Conscience in these Points you will find such abundance of godly Men avoid your Ceremonies and accept of your Toleration that you will think your selves necessitated to persecute them as dishonouring you and discouraging Uniformity by their dissent But if you tolerate some and not others that can lay the same claim to it your partiality will quickly break all into pieces We are certain that leaving these unnecessary things at liberty to be used only by those that will is the way to Unity But if this cannot be attained we shall be glad of a Toleration in our Publick Charges 4. The Patron 's Right of Nomination may be preserved though the Communicants have their Consent preserved without which none is to be obtruded on them Though in case of unreasonable refusal of fit men much means may be used by Church-Officers and Magistrates to bring them to consent But how can People be governed in the Worship of God and in a Holy Life by any Pastor without their own consent 5. The multiplying of Bishops is in our Account the making Discipline become possible that else is not to any purpose And though our own Judgment be that every Parish that is great should have a Bishop and Presbytery yet we yield to you for Concord and Peace that there be a Bishop and Presbytery in every City that is Corporation or Market-Town and these as is expressed in the Articles to have one in every County or Diocess to whom they shall be responsible We desire only the profession of your Consent to this Change and promise of your promoting it in your place by just means that so our Differences may be ended But if this cannot be granted and no particular Pastors tolerated to exercise Discipline in their own Parishes but all must be done by the Bishop and his Court we must take it as equipollent to this Conclusion Discipline shall be cast out of the Churches And then we have no hopes of the healing of our
Peace on these Terms how easily and safely might you grant them without any wrong to your Consciences or the Church Yea to its exceeding benefit How lowd do our Miseries cry for such a Cure How long hath it been neglected If there be any more than what is here granted by us that you think necessary for us to yield to on our parts we shall gladly revive your Demands and yield for Peace as far as is possible without forsaking our Consciences And what shall be agreed on we shall promise faithfully to endeavour in our places that the Magistrate may consent to it The inclosing Paper signified a readiness to yield to an Agreement on the primitive Simplicity of Doctrine Discipline and Worship as Dr. Heylin also doth We are agreed and yet never the nearer an Agreement O that you would stand to this in the Particulars We crave no more Q. 1. Did the â—â—imitive Church require Subscription to all in our 39 Articles or to any more than the words of Scripture and the Ancient Creeds in order to Mens Church-Communion and Liberty Were such Volumes as our Homiliâ—s then to be subscribed to Q. 2. Were any required as necessary to their Ministry in the Primitive Times to Subscribe to the Divine Right of Diocesan Prelacy and promise or swear Obedience to such Or to Subscribe to all that is contained in our Book of Ordination Q. 3. Were all most or any Bishops of the first Age of the lowest rank now distinguished from Archbishopâ— the fixed Pastors of many particular Churches or of more Souls than one of our ordinary or greater Parishes Much less of so many as are in a Diocess Let us but have no more Souls or Congregations under the lowest rank of Bishops now than were in the first Age or second either ordinarily and we shall soon agree I think in all the Substance of Government Q. 4. Was our Common Prayer used and necessary to a Pastor's Liberty in the first or second Age Or all that is in it Or will you leave out all that you cannot prove to have been then used and that as necessary as now it is supposed Q. 5. Were the Cross Surplice and Restriction to kneeling in receiving the Eâ—charist enjoyned by Peter or Paul or any in the first Age or second either or many after If you say that some Form of Prayer was used though not ours I answer 1. Prove it used and imposed as necessary to the Exercise of the Ministry and that any was enjoyned to Subscribe to it and use it on pain of Deprivation or Excommunication 2. If the first supposed Book of Prayers was necessary in Specie for continuance we must have it and cast away this thatâ—s pleaded for If it were not then why may you not as well dispense with this and change it seeing you cannot plead it more immutable than the supposed Apostolical or Primitive Prayer Book 3. When Forms of Liturgy came up had they not divers in the same Empire and also changed them in particular Churches as the Controversie between Basil and the Church of Neocaesarea shews c. And why then may not as much be granted now in England at least to procure Unity and Peace in other things after so long uncharitable Alienations and doleful Effects of them in the Church and State N. B. That the foresaid Exceptions against imposing the Subscription of the 39 Articles are urged ad hominem because though the Doctrinal Part of those Articles be such as the generality of the Presbyterians would Subscribe to yet I see not how the Reverend Brethren on the other side can possibly Subscribe them as reconcileable to the Principles published by many of them § 67. Shortly after this when Sir George Booth's Rising failed Major General Monk in Scotland with his Army grew so sensible of the Infolencies of Vane and Lambert and the Fanaticks in England and Ireland who set up and pull'd down Governments as boldly as if they were making a Lord of a Maygame and were grasping all the Power into their own Hands so that he presently secured the Anabaptists of his Army and agreed with the rest to resist these Usurpers who would have England the Scorn of all the World At first when he drew near to England he declared for a Free Commonwealth When he came in Lambert marched against him but his Soldiers forsaking him and Sir Arthur Haselrigge getting Portsmouth and Col. Morley strengthning him and Major General Berry's Regiment which went to block it up revolting to them the Clouds rose every where at once and Lambert could make no resistance but instead of fighting they were fain to treat And while Monk held them Treating his Reputation increased and theirs abated and their Hearts failed them and their Soldiers fell off and General Monk consulted with his Friends what to do Many Countreys sent Letters of Thanks and Encouragement to him Mr. Tho. Bampfield was sent by the Gentlemen of the West and other Countreys did the like so that Monk came on but still declared for a Commonwealth against Monarchy Till at last when he saw all ripened thereto he declared for the King The chief Men as far as I can learn that turned his Resolution to bring in the King were Mr. Clarges and Sir William Morrice his Kinsman and the Petitions and Affections of the City of London principally moved by Mr. Calamy and Mr. Ash two ancient leading able Ministers with Dr. Bates Dr. Manten Dr. Iacomb and other Ministers of London who concurred And these were encouraged by the Earl of Manchester the Lord Hollis the late Earl of Anglesey and many of the then Council of State And the Members of the Old Parliament that had been formerly ejected being recalled did Dissolve themselves and appoint the Calling of a Parliament which might Re-call the King When General Monk first came into England most Men rejected in hope to be delivered from the Usurpation of the Fanaticks Anabaptists Seekers c. And I was myâ—self so much affected with the strange Providence of God that I procured the Ministers to agree upon a Publick Thanksgiving to God And I think all the Victories which that Army obtained were not more wonderful than their Fall was when Pride and Errour had prepared them for it It seemed wonderful to me that an Army that had got so many great and marvellous Victories and thought themselves unconquerable and talkt of nothing but Dominion at home and marching up to the Walls of Rome should all be broken and brought into Subjection and finally Disbanded without one blow stricken or one drop of Blood shed and that by so small a power as Monk's Army in the â—â—â—ginning was So Eminent was the Hand of God in all this Change § 68. Yet were there many prudent pious Men that feared greatly the return of the Prelates an exasperated Party that had been before subdued and as they saw that the Fanaticks would bring all to Confusion under
Duties will permit I have done my part in urging you and them with my offer till you call me unto more In the mean time Madam may I intreat you to read impartâ—ally and deliberately 1. My little Book called The Trâ—â— Catholick and Catholick Church c. which I shall send or bring you 2. My Preface before the Disputation with Mr. Iohnson and the Letters in the end and the Second Part and then the first 3. My two first Books against Popery The Safe Religion and The Key For your former reading of them before any doubting had made you observe the stress of Arguments is nothing if you will but now read them again impartially after your contrary Conceptions continue a Papist if you can And truly if you will not do thus much for your own Soul because Men engage you to the contrary that dare not appear to make good their own Cause I must be a Witness against you before the Lord that you wilfully resused Instruction and sold your Soul at too cheap a rate I tried when I was last with you to revive your Reason by proposing to you the Infallibility of the Common Senses of all the World and I could not prevail though you had nothing to answer that was not against Common Sense And it is impossible any thing controverted can be brought nearer you or made plainer than to be brought to your Eyes and Taste and Feeling and not yours only but all Mens else Sense goes before Faith Faith is no Faith but upon Supposition of Sense and Understanding if therefore Common Sense be fallible Faith must needs be so But methinks yet I should have hope of reviving your Charity You cannot be a Papist indeed but you must believe that out of their Church that is out of the Pope's Dominions there is no Salvation and consequently no Justification and Charity or saving Grace And is it possible you can so easily believe your religious Father to be in Hell your prudent pious Mother to be void of the Love of God and in a state of Damnation and not only me that am a Stranger to you but all the Millions of better People in the World to be in the same State of Gracelesness and Damnation and all because we believe not that the Pope is Christ's Vicar General or Deputy on Earth and dare not subject our selves to his usurped Dominions When we are ready to protest before the Lord as we shall answer it at his Bar that we would be his Subjects but for Fear of the high Displeasure of the true Head and King of the Church and for fear of sinning and Damning our own Souls And that we are heartily willing to read and study and pray and hear all that can be said for them and some of us read as much of their Writings as of our own and more and would not stick at Cost or Pains or Loss or Shame were it to travail over Land and Sea to find out that they are in the Right if that would do it and they be so indeed But the more we study the more we pray to God for his Assistance the more diligently we search we are the more resolved and convinced that their way as it differeth from ours is false and that they are the most Superstitious Tyrannical Leprous part of the Catholick Church condemning the main Body because they will not be under their abominable Dominion and will not sin as much as they We hold all that was held necessary by the Apostles and the ancient Church and we dare not make a new Faith to our selves as the Papal Sectaries have done Must we renounce both our Sense and Reason and put out the Eye of Natural Understanding and also renounce the Catholick Church and Christian Charity and step into the Throne and pronounce Damnation not only upon all the Saints of God that we have been acquainted with our selves but also on the Body of Christ which he died for even on the far greatest part of the Universal Church and all this because they will not depart from the Word of God to corrupt his Doctrine Discipline and Worship and herein obey an usurping Vice Christ must we do all this or else be judged to Damnation by the Sectaries of Rome For my part I shall be so far from fearing their Sentance that I appeal to Christ whose Body they condemn and I had rather be tortured in their Inquisition and cut as small as Herbs to the Pot and be accounted the odiousest Wretch on Earth than be guilty of being a Papist at all but especially on such hellish Terms as these If the greater part of the Church must be damned as no part of the Church it will be impossible to prove your Sect or Fragment to be the Church any more than any other Christ is the Saviour of his Body Eph. 5. 23 and to him as to its Head it 's subject ver 24. and this Body is that which is sanctified by him ver 26. And by one Spirit all his Members are baptized into one Body 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. Did you never note where the Unity of the Body is fulliest described that Apostles themselves are made but Members and Christ only the Head 1 Cor. 27 28 29. Eph. 4. 4 5 7 11. There is but one Lord c. but diversity of gifts of whom the Apostles are the chief And when Thousands were added to the Church even such as should be saved Acts 2. 47. what made them Christians but the Baptismal Covenant and what were they Baptized into but into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Peter or Paul baptized none into their own Names nor dare the Pope himself lest his Innovation be too visible Christ hath said He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved Mark 16. 16. Did they ever then subject any Baptism to the Bishop of Rome Was the Eunuch Acts 8. subjected to the Pope that only saith I believe that Iesus Christ is the Son of God and was Baptized If men could not be saved without believing in the Pope and being subject to the Church of Rome how comes it to pass that none of the Apostles preached this necessary Article of Faith Why did they never say You must believe in or be subject to the Pope of Rome or you cannot be saved Would they be so unfaithful as to hide a necessary Article Why did Peter himself Acts 2. by Baptism take Three thousand into the Church without preaching any of this Doctrine to them The Gospel professeth that he that hath the Son hath Life 1 Joh. 5. 11 12. and whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3. 16. and that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus that walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And now up steps a Man of Rome and presumeth to Reverse the Gospel and say It 's no such matter for all this they shall not be
whole Christian World 5. That the Church is the Pillar and Ground of Truth the Possessors Keepers and Teachers of God's Oracles and that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it is most sure and comfortable Truth But what is this to Rome any more than to Ierusalem or Alexandria The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Body of Christ the Universality of Christians the true Catholick Church But it may prevail against Corinthians Gallateans Romans or any particular part As it prevailed against Pope Iohn XXII alias XXIII to make him deny the Resurrection and against Pope Eugenius to make him a Heretick if General Councils are to be believed 6. As to what you say of Apostles still placed in the Church When any shew us an immediate Mission by their Commission and by Miracles Tongues and a Spirit of Revelation and infallability prove themselves Apostles we shall believe them Till then we remember that Church that was commended for trying them that said they were Apostles and were not and finding them Lyers Rev. 23. Peter and the Twelve Apostles with him we acknowledge and Paul we acknowledge but know none properly called Apostles living now But if it be only the Name and not the Office that you differ about and by Apostles you mean not Men immediately sent by Christ to preach the Gospel with a Spirit of Miracles and Infallability which is our Sense of that Word but some other sort of Men then if they be ordinory Pastors or Bishops it s no matter of Difference if not you must describe them before we can know them They are to blame whoever they be that they call not themselves Apostles and tell us where who and how many they are if they are so indeed 7. They were to be accounted Heathens and Publicans that heard not the Church admonishing them But sure other Pastors besides Apostles must admonish and be heard And other Churches besides the Roman must hold or refuse Communion as is there signified either you will erroneously have that Text understood of the Universal Church or else truly of a Particular Church If the former what 's that to the Roman Church that is but a corrupted Part If the latter it 's no more to the Roman than any other which are particular Churches also surely this is plain Truth if you are willing to see 8. You say The Faith of which Believers were was that of the Romans spread through the World Answ. Yes and it was the Faith of the Ephesians Philippians Colâ—ssians too and all one The Romans had not a Faith of their own specifically different from others Nor did the Holy Ghost by the Apostles ever give one Word of Command to other Churches to conform their Faith to Rome or take that Church for their Mistress or Sovereign These Fancies Pride hath set up against Christ The Faith of Ierusalem was as much known through the World as that of Rome and sure you think not that being known through the World made them the Rule or Rulers of the World 9. Upon Observation you find this Church shining as a Light and set as a City on a Hill And was not Ierusalem Antioch Alexandria Ephesus c. so too Sure they were All faithful Preachers of the Gospel especially the Apostles were observable as such Lights and City to the World that wondred at their Doctrine which is all that Christ there saith and as I said the universal Church is more observable than the Roman Sect And other particular Churches are and were as Light and Conspicuous as it And the most conspicuous Church hath from thence no Pretence to be the rule or Ruler of the rest 10. You say This Church hath been ever triumphant ever Heresies Answ. 1. What! when Honorius was by two or three General Councils condemned for a Heretick Pope Iohn XXII and Eugenius as beforesaid for that and worse with many more 2. Woe to the Churches if others had not conquered Heresy better than the Roman Party hath done 3. And veriâ—y did you think that a particular Church is therefore the Rule or Ruler to the rest because it triumpheth over Heresy 11. You add immoveable in Persecutions Answ. 1. For they have been the great Persecutors as Leeches sucking and swell'd with the Blood of Thousands and Ten Thousands of the Saints and Martyrs of Jesus O the Blood that will be found among them when the righteous Judge of all the World shall make Inquisition for Blood among their Massacrees and Inquisitions 2. Was that Church unmoveable in Persecution when the Head of it Pope Marcellinus offered Incense to Idols And Liberius subscribed to the Arrians and against Athenasius What should I tell you of more who I perceive are made believe the Crow is white 3. Again it is a pitiful Proof of their Rule to prove them immutable in Persecution The Church hath many Heads if every Church or Bishop be its Head that hath stood fast in Persecution 12. You add And always watchful in the Succession of Pastors I give you the same Answers 1. watchful indeed when their own Church Histories tell us of such Multitudes that came in by Symony or Poison or other Murder or Violence that have been Hereticks as aforeshewd or Adulterers Murderers and such impious Wretches as the Cannons depose and when Iohn XII or XIII was deposed by a Councell for ravishing Maids and Wives at his Doors and abundance more such Villanies and Iohn XXII for worse and when Eugenius continued the Succession when a general Council bad judged him a Heretick wicked deposed c. and when they have had such abundance of Schisms having two three or four Popes alive at once and one Schism of Forty Years in which no Man knew or knows to this Day which was the true Pope and when meer Possession is it that must prove their Succession For besides these Incapacities Mr. Iohnson you may see confesseth that no one way of Election by Cardinals People Emperors Bishops Councils c. hath been held or is necessary nor any Consecration necessary at all to the being of the Pope And if a Succession of bare Possession serve how many Churches have the like Yea 2. Constantinople Ethiopia Armenia and many other Churches have had a far more regular Succession than Rome of at least as good 3. And it 's a pitiful Argument that because a Church hath had a Succession of Pastors therefore they are the whole Church and others are no part or therefore they are the 〈◊〉 and Rulers to the rest or therefore we must be of that Particular Church only Surâ— none denies the Succession of Pastors in England as to meer possession of the Place if that will serve the turn 13. To what you say of being 〈◊〉 Holy Catholick and Apostolick and cannot deceive you I answer 1. O dreadful Delusion that a Church headed with horrid Monsters and not Men 〈◊〉 their own Histories describe a multitude of their Popes should
and those of them that had taken the contrary Course had thereby broken themselves to pieces Wherefore I humbly craved his Majesty's patience that we might have the freedom to request of him that as he was our lawful King in whom all his People save a few inconsiderable Persons were prepared to Centre as weary of their Divisions and glad of the Satisfactory means of Union in him so he would be pleased to undertake this blessed Work of promoting their Holiness and Concord for it was not Faction or Disobedience which we desired him to indulge And that he would never suffer himself to be tempted to undo the Good which Cromwell or any other had done because they were Usurpers that did it or discountenance a faithful Ministry because his Enemies had set them up But that he would rather out go them in doing good and opposing and rejecting the ignorant and ungodly of what Opinion or Party soever For the People whose Cause we recommend to him had their Eyes on him as the Officer of God to defend them in 〈◊〉 possession of the helps of their Salvation which if he were pleased to voucâ—â—â—â—â— them their Estates and Lives would cheerfully be offered to his Service And I humbly besought him that he would never suffer his Subjects to be tempted to have favourable Thoughts of the late Usurpers by seeing the Vice indulged which they suppressed or the godly Ministers or People discountenanced whom they encouraged For the Common People are apt to judge of Governours by the Effects even by the Good or Evil which they feel and they will take him to be the best Governour who doth them most good and him to be the worst that doth them most hurt And all his Enemies cannot teach him a more effectual way to restore the Reputation and Honour of the Usurpers than to do worse than they and destroy the Good which they had done that so he may go contrary to his Enemies and so to force the People to cry out We are undone in loss of the Means of our Salvation It being a hard matter ever to bring the People to love and honour him by whom they think they are undone in comparison of those that they think made them happy though the one have a just Title to be their Governour which the other hath not And again I humbly craved That no misrepresentation might cause him to believe that because some Fanaticks have been Factious and Disloyal therefore the Religious People in his Dominions who are most careful of their Souls are such though some of them may be dissatisfied about some Forms and Ceremonies in God's Worship which others use And that none of them might go under so ill a Character with him by misreports behind their backs till it were proved of them personally or they had answered for themselves For we that better knew them than those that were like to be their Accuseâ—s did confidently testifie to his Majesty on their behalf that they are resolved Enemies of Sedition Rebellion Disobedience and Divisions which the World shall see and their Adversaries be convinced of if his Majesty's Wisdom and Clemency do but remove those Occasions of Scruple in some Points of Discipline and Worship of God which give Advantage to others to call all Dissenters Factious and Disobedient how Loyal and Peaceable soever And I humbly craved That the Freedom and Plainness of these Expressions to his Majesty might be pardoned as being extracted by the present Necessity and encouraged by our revived hopes I told him also that it was not for Presbyterians or any Party as such that we were speaking for but for the Religious part of his Subjects as such than whom no Prince on Earth had better and how considerable part of the Kingdom he would find them to be And of what great advantage their Union would be to his Majesty to the People and to the Bishops themselves and how easily it might be procured 1. By making only things Necessary to be the Terms of Union 2. And by the true Exercise of Church Discipline against Sin 3. And not casting out the faithful Ministers that must Exercise it nor obtruding unworthy Men upon the People And how easie it was to avoid the violating of Mens Solemn Vows and Covenants without any hurt to any others And finally I requested that we might but be heard speak for our selves when any Accusations were brought against us These with some other such things I then spake when some of my Brethren had spoken first Mr. Simeon Ash also spake much to the same purpose and of all our Desires of his Majesty's Assistance in our desired Union § 91. The King gave us not only a free Audience but as gracious an Answer as we could expect professing his gladness to hear our Inclinations to Agreement and his Resolution to do his part to bring us together and that it must not be by bringing one Party over to the other but by abating somewhat on both sides and meeting in the Midway and that if it were not accomplished it should be long of our selves and not of him Nay that he was resolved to see it brought to pass and that he would draw us together himself with some more to this purpose Insomuch that old Mr. Ash burst out into Tears with Joy and could not forbear expressing what Gladness this Promise of his Majesty had put into his heart § 92. Either at this time or shortly after the King required us to draw up and offer him such Proposals as we thought meet in order to Agreement about Church Government for that was the main Difference if that were agreed there would be little danger of differing in the rest And he desired us to set down the most that we could yield to § 93. We told him 1. That we were but a few Men and had no Commission from any of our Brethren to express their Minds And therefore desired that his Majesty would give us leave to acquaint our Brethren in the Country with it and take them with us The King answered That that would be too long and make too much Noise and therefore we should do what we would our selves only with such of the City as we would take with us And when we then professed that we presumed not to give the Sense of others nor oblige them and that what we did must signify but the Minds of so many Men as were present He answered That it should signify no more and that he did not intend to call an Assembly of the other party but would bring a few such as he thought meet and that if he thought good to advise with a few of each side for his own Satisfaction none had cause to be offended at it § 94. Also we craved that at the same time when we offered our Concessions to the King the Brethren on the other side might bring in theirs containing also the uttermost that they could abate and
Liturgy and Ceremonies we most humbly represent unto your Majesty 1. First For Church-Government that although upon just Reasons we do dissent from that Ecclesiastical Hierarchy or Prelacy disclaimed in the Covenant as it was stated and exercised in these Kingdoms yet we do not nor ever did renounce the true Ancient and Primitive Presidency as it was ballanced and managed by a due Commixtion of Presbyters therewith as a fit means to avoid Corruptions Partiality Tyranny and other Evils which may be incident to the Administration of one single Person Which kind of attempered Pesidency if it shall be your Majesty's grave Wisdom and gracious Moderation be in such a manner constituted as that the forementioned and other like Evils may be certainly prevented we shall humbly submit thereunto And in Order to an happy Accommodation in this weighty Business we desire humbly to offer unto your Majesty some of the Particulars which we conceive were amiss in the Episcopal Government as it was practised before the Year 1640. 1. The great Extent of the Bishops Diocess which was much too large for his own personal Inspection wherein he undertook a Pastoral Charge over the Souls of all those within his Bishoprick which must needs be granted to be too heavy a Burthen for any one Man's Shoulders The Pastoral Office being a Work of Personal Ministration and Trust and that of the highest Concernment to the Souls of the People for which they are to give an Account to Christ. 2. That by Reason of this Disability to discharge their Duty and Trust personally the Bishops did depute the Administration of much of their Trust even in matters of spiritual Cognizance to Commissaries Chancellors and Officials whereof some were Secular Persons and could not administer that Power which originally appertaineth to the Pastors of the Church 3. That those Bishops who affirm the Episcopal Office to be a distinct Order by Divine Right from that of the Presbyter did assume the sole Power of Ordination and Jurisdiction to themselves 4. That some of the Bishops exercised an Arbitrary Power as by sending forth their Books of Articles in their Visitations and therein unwarrantably enquiring into several things and swearing the Church-Wardens to present accordingly So also by many Innovations and Ceremonies imposed upon Ministers and People not required by Law and by suspending Ministers at their Pleasure For reforming of which Evils we humbly crave leave to offer unto your Majesty 1. The late most Reverend Primate of Ireland his Reduction of Episcopacy unto the Form of Synodical Government received in the ancient Church as a Ground-work towards an Accommodation and fraternal Agreement in this Point of Ecclesiastical Government Which we rather do not only in regard of his eminent Piety and singular Ability as in all other Parts of Learning so in that especially of the Antiquities of the Church but also because therein Expedienâ— are offered for healing these Grievances And in order to the same end we further humbly desire that the Suffragans or Corepiscopi mentioned in the Primate's Reduction may be chosen by the respective Synods and by that Election be sufficiently authorized to discharge their Trust. That the Associations may not be so large as to make the Discipline impossible or to take off the Ministers from the rest of their necessary Imployments That no Oaths or Promises of Obedience to the Bishops nor any unnecessary Subscriptions or Engagements be made necessary to Ordination Institution Induction Ministration Communion or Immunities of Ministers they being responsible for any Transgression of the Law And that no Bishops nor any Ecclesiastical Governors may at any time exercise their Government by their own private Will or Pleasure but only by such Rules Canons and Constitutions as shall be hereafter by Act of Parliament ratified and established and that sufficient Provision be made to secure both Ministers and People against the Evils of Arbitrary Government in the Church 2. Concerning the Liturgy 1. We are satisfied in our Judgments concerning the Lawfulness of a Liturgy or Form of publick Worship provided that it be for the matter agreeable unto the Word of God and fitly suited to the Nature of the several Ordinances and the necessity of the Church nether too tedious in the whole nor composed of too short Prayers unmeet Repetitions or Responsals nor too dissonant from the Liturgies of other Reformed Churches nor too rigorously imposed nor the Minister so confined thereunto but that he may also make use of those Gifts for Prayer and Exhortation which Christ hath given him for the Service and Edification of the Church 2. That inasmuch as the Book of Common Prayer hath in it many things that are justly offensive and need amendment hath been long discontinued and very many both Ministers and People Persons of Pious Loyal and Peaceable Minds are therein greatly dissatisfied whereupon if it be again imposed will inevitably follow sad Divisions and widening of the Breaches which your Majesty is now endeavouring to heal We do most humbly offer to your Majesty's Wisdom that for preventing so great Evil and for setling the Church in Unity and Peace some Learned Godly and Moderate Divines of both Perswasions indifferently chosen may be imployed to Compile such a Form as is before described as much as may be in Scripture words or at least to Revise and effectually Reform the old together with an Addition or Insertion of some other varying Forms in Scripture phrase to be used at the Minister's Choice of which Variety and Liberty there be Instances in the Book of Common Prayer 3. Concerning Ceremonies We humbly represent that we hold our selves obliged in every part of Divine Worship to do all things decently in order and to Edification and are willing therein to be determined by Authority in such things as being meerly Circumstantial are common to Humane Actions and Societies and are to be ordered by the Light of Nature and Christian Prudence according to the General Rules of the Word which are always to be observed And as to divers Ceremonies formerly retained in the Church of England We do in all Humility offer unto your Majesty these ensuing Considerations That the Worship of God is in it self perfect without having such Ceremonies affixed thereto That the Lord hath declared himself in the Matters that concern his Worship to be a Iealous God and this Worship of his is certainly then most pure and most agreeable to the Simplicity of the Gospel and to his holy and jealous Eyes when it hath least of Humane Admixtures in things of themselves confessedly unnecessary adjoyned and appropriated thereunto upon which account many faithful Servants of the Lord knowing his Word to be the perfect Rule of Faith and Worship by which they must judge of his Acceptance of their Services and must be themselves judged have been exceeding fearful of varying from his Will and of the danger of displeasing him by Additions or Detractions in such Duties wherein they must
in the Administration of the Discipline of Christ. For further Proof whereof we have that known Testimony of Tertullian in his general Apology for Christians In the Church are used Exhortations Chastisements and divine Censures for Judgment is given with great Advice as among those who are certain they are in the sight of God and it is the chiefest foreshewing of the Judgment that is to come if any Man hath so offended that he be banished from the Communion of Prayer and of the Assembly and of all holy Fellowship The Presidents that bear rule therein are certain approved Elders who have obtained this Honour aud not by Reward but by good Report Who were no other as he himself elsewhere intimateth but those from whose hands they used to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist For with the Bishop who was the Chief President and therefore styled by the same Tertullian in another place Summus Sacerdos for distinction sake the rest of the Dispensors of the Word and Sacraments were joined in the common Government of the Church And therefore in matters of Ecclesiastical Judicature Cornelius Bishop of Rome used the received Form of gathering together the Presbytery Of what Persons that did consist Cyprian sufficiently declareth when he wished him to read his Letters to the flourishing Clergy that there did reside or rule with him The presence of the Clergy being thought to be so requisite in matters of Episcopal Audience that in the fourth Council of Carthage it was concluded that the Bishop might hear no Man's Cause without the Presence of the Clergy which we find also to be inserted into the Canons of Egbert who was Archbishop of York in the Saxons Times and afterwards into the Body of the Canon-Law it self True it is that in our Church this kind of Presbyterian Government hath been long disused yet seeing it still professeth that every Pastor hath a right to rule the Church from whence the Name of Rector also was given at first unto him and to administer the Discipline of Christ as well as to dispence the Doctrine and Sacraments And the restraint of the Exercise of that Right proceedeth only from the Custom now received in this Realm No Man can doubt but by another Law of the Land this Hindrance may be well removed And how easily this ancient Form of Government by the united Suffrages of the Clergy might be revived again and with what little shew of Alteration the Synodical Conventions of the Pastors of every Parish might be accorded with the Presidency of the Bishops of each Diocess and Province the indifferent Reader may quickly perceive by the perusal of the ensuing Proposition I. In every Parish the Rector or the incumbent Pastor together with the Church-wardens and Sidemen may every Week take notice of such as live scandalously in that Congregation who are to receive such several Admonitions and Reproofs as the quality of their Offence shall deserve and if by this means they cannot be reclaimed they may be presented unto the next Monthly Synod and in the mean time be debarred by the Pastor from access unto the Lord's Table II. Whereas by a Statute in the Twenty sixth of King Henry VIII revived in the first Year of Queen Elizabeth Suffragans are appointed to be erected in twenty six several Places of this Kingdom the Number of them might very well be conformed unto the Number of the several rural Deaneries into which every Diocess is subdivided which being done the Suffragan supplying the place of those who in the ancient Church were called Chorepiscopi might every Month assemble a Synod of all the Rectors or incumbent Pastors within the Precinct and according to the major part of their Voices conclude all Matters that should be brought into Debate before them To this Synod the Rector and Churchwardens might present such impenitent Persons as by Admonition and Suspension from the Sacrament would not be reformed who if they should still remain contumacious and incorrigible the Sentence of Excommunication might be decreed against them by the Synod and accordingly be executed in the Parish where they lived Hitherto also all things that concerned the Parochial Ministers might be referred whether they did touch their Doctrine or their Conversation As also the censure of all new Opinions Heresies and Schisms which did arise within that Circuit with Liberty of appeal if need so require unto the Diocesane Synod III. The Diocesane Synod might be held once or twice in the Year as it should be thought most convenient therein all the Suffragans and the rest of the Rectors or Incumbent Pastors or a certain select Number out of every Deanery within that Diocess might meet with whose Consent or the major part of them all things might be concluded by the Bishop or Superintendant call him whither you will or in his Absence by one of the Suffragans whom he should depute in his stead to be Moderator of that Assembly Here all matters of greater Moment might be taken into Consideration and the Orders of the Monthly Synods revised and if need be reformed And if here also any matter of Difficulty could not receive a full Determination it might be referred to the next Provincial or National Synod IV. The Provincial Synod might consist of all the Bishops and Suffragans and such of the Clergy as should be elected out of every Diocess within the Province The Primate of either Province might be the Moderator of this Meeting or in his room some one of the Bishops appointed by him and all Matters be ordered therein by common Consent as in the former Assemblies This Synod might be held every third Year and if the Parliament do then sit according to the Act for a Triennial Parliament both the Primates and Provincial Synods of the Land might join together and make up a National Council wherein all Appeals from inferior Synods might be received all their Acts examined and all Ecclesiastical Constitutions which concern the State of the Church of the whole Nation established May it please your Grace I would desire you to consider whether Presentments are fit to be made by the Churchwardens alone and not rather by the Rector and Churchwardens Then whither in the Diocesan Synod the Members of it be not too many being all to judge and in their own cause as it may fall out Therefore after this Clause and the rest of the Rectors or incumbent Pastors whether it be not fit to interline or four or six out of every Deanery Ri. Holdsworth We are of Judgment that the Form of Government here proposed is not in any point repugnant to the Scripture and that the Suffragans mentioned in the second Proposition may lawfully use the Power both of Jurisdiction and Ordination according to the Word of God and the Practice of the ancient Church § 97. When we went with these foresaid Papers to the King and expected
that it is unlike the primitive Episcopacy But if that which must convince you must be brought nearer your Eyes by God's help we 〈◊〉 to do that fully whenever we are called to it 8. The Words which you here except against with Admiration of the Corruptions Partialities Tyranny which Church-Government by a single Person is lyable to was taken by us out of the Book commonly ascribed to King Charles himself called Icon. Basil. but we purposely supprest his Name to try whether you would not be as bitter against his Words as against ours and did not esteem Fidem per personas non personas per fidem And further we reply it is one thing for a Bishop to rule alone when there are no Presbyters or to rule the Presbyters themselves alone and another thing when he hath Presbyters yet to rule all the Flock alone for by this means he quoad Exercitium at least degradeth all the rest or changeth their Office which is to guide as well as to teach As if the General of an Army or the Collonel of a Regiment should rule all the Souldiers alone doth he not then depose all his Captains Lieutenants Cornets Corporals Serjeants c. But especially it is one thing for Ignatius his Bishop of one Church that had but one Altar to rule it alone though yet he commandeth the People to obey their Presbyters and another thing for an English Diocesan to rule a Thousand such Churches alone And when all is done do they rule alone indeed Or doth not a Lay-Chancellor exercise the Keys so far as is necessary to suppress private Meetings for Fasting and Prayer c. and to force all to the Sacrament and enforce the Ceremonies and some such things and for the great Discipline it is almost altogether left undone We are sorry that you should be able to be ignorant of this or if you know it that such Camels stick not with you but go down so easily Instances of things amiss § 9. 1. That which you cannot grant that the Diocesses are to great you would quickly grant if you had ever conscionably tryed the task which Dr. Hammond describeth as the Bishops Work yea but for one Parish or had ever believed Ignatius and other ancient Descriptions of a Bishop's Church But is it faithful dealing with your Brethren or your Consciences pardon our Freedom in so weighty a Case to dispute as though you made a Bishop but an Archbishop to see by a general Inspection of the Parish-Pastors that they do their Office and as if they only ruled the Rulers of the particular Flocks which you know we never strove against when as no knowing English Man can be ignorant that our Bishops have the sole Government of Pastors and People having taken all Jurisdiction or proper Government or next all from the particular Pastors of the Parishes to themselves alone Is not the Question rather as whether the King can rule all the Kingdom by the Chancellor or a few such Officers without all the Justices and Mayors or whether one Schoolmaster shall only rule a thousand Schools and all the other Schoolmasters only teach them You know that the depriving of all the Parish Pastors of the Keys of Government is the matter of our greatest Controversies Not as it is any hurt to them but to the Church and a certain Exclusion of all true Discipline And whether the Office of the Bishops of particular Churches infimi Ordinis velâ— gradus be not for Personal Inspection and Ministration as well as the Office of a Shoolmaster or Physician you will better know when you come to try it faithfully or answer fearfully for Unfaithfulness We know that the knowing Lord Bacon in his Considerations saith so as well as we And for what you say of Suffragâ—â—s you know there are none such § 10. 2. We are glad that in so great a matter as Lay-Chancellors Exercise of the Keys in Excommunications and Absolutions you are forced plainly and without any Excuse to confess the Errors of the way of Government And let this stand on Record before the World to Justify us when we shall be silenced and reproached as Schismaticks for desiring the Reformation of such Abuses and for not swearing Canonical Obedience to such a Government § 11. 3. And you have almost as little to say in this Case Mark Reader that we must all be silenced and cast out of our Offices if we subscribe not to the Book of Ordination ex Animo as having nothing contrary to the Word of God And the very Preface of that beginneth with the Affirmation of this Distinction of Orders Offices Functions from the Apostles Days and one of the Prayers ascribeth it to the Spirit of God and yet now it is here said that whether a Bishop be a distinct Order from a Presbyter or not is none of the Question That must be none of the Question when the King calleth them to treat for a Reconciliation or Unity which will be out of Question against us when we are called to subscribe or are to be forbidden to preach the Gospel And let what is here confessed for Presbyters Assistance in Ordination stand on Record against them when it is neglected or made an insignificant Ceremony § 12. 4. In the last also you give up your Cause and yet it 's well if you will amend it Whether the Canons be Laws let the Lawyers judge And whether all the Bishops Books of Articles as against making Scripture our Table-talk and many such others be either Laws or according to Law let the World judge The Remedies offered for reforming these Evils § 13. 1. Whereas to avoid all Exception or frustrating Contentions or Delays we offered only Bishop Usher's Platform subscribed also by Dr. Holdsworth that the World might see that it is Episcopacy it self that we plead for you tell us that it was formed many Years before his Death and is not consistent with two other of his Discourses In which either you would intimate that he contradicteth himself and could not speak consistently or that he afterward retracted this Reduction For the first We must believe that many Men can reconcile their own Writings when some Readers cannot as better understanding themselves than others do And that this reverend Bishop was no such raw Novice as not to know when he contradicted himself in so publick and practical a Case as a Frame of Church-Government Nor was he such an Hypocrite as to play fast and loose in the things of God But upon Debate we undertake to vindicate his Writings from this Aspersion of Inconsistency only you must not take him to mean that all was well done which as an Historian he saith was done And as to any Retraction one of us my self is ready to witness that he owned it not long before his Death as a Collection of fit Terms to reconcile the Moderate in these Points and told him that he offered it the late King And
whereas you tell us that the conforming of Suffraganes to Rural Deaneries and other such are his private Conceptions destitute of any Testimoney of Antiquity We answer No marvel when Rural Deaneries were unknown to true Antiquity And when in the Ancientest Church every Church had its proper Bishop and every Bishop but one Church that had also but one Altar But surely the Corepiscopi were no Strangers to Antiquity as may appear before the Council at Nice in Concil Ancyran Can. 12. and in Concil Antiochin Can. 10. c. It was unknown in the days of Ignatius and Iustin Martyr that a Church should be as large as a Rural Deanry containing a dozen Churches with Altars that had none of them peculiar Bishops But it was not strange then that every Church had a Bishop and if it were Rural a Chorepiscopus As also you may gather even from Clemens Romanus The Quarrel which you pick with the Archbishops Reduction for not Naming the King as if he destroyed his Supremacy is such as a low degree of Charity with a little Understanding might easily have prevented Either you know that it is the Power of the Keys called Spiritual and proper-Ecclesiastical and not the Coercive Power circa Ecclesiastica which the Archbishop speaketh of and all our Controversie is about or you do not know it If you do know it either you think this Power of the Keys is resolved into the King or not If you do think so you differ from the King and from all of your selves that ever we talked with and you contradict all Protestant Princes that have openly disclaimed any such Power and published this to the World to stop the Mouths of Calumniating Papists And we have heard the King and some of you disclaim it And how can you then fitly debate these Controversies that differ from all Protestant Kings and from the Church But if you your selves do not so think had you a Pen that would charge the Archbishop for destroying the King's Supremacy for asserting nothing but what the King and you maintain And if you knew not that this Spiritual Power of the Keys as distinct from Magistratical Coercive Power is the Subject of our Controversie we dispute to good purpose indeed with Men that know not what Subject it is that we are to dispute about so that which way soever it go you see how it is like to fall and how Men that are out of the dust and noise will judge of our Debates And here we leave it to the Notice and Observation of Posterity upon the perusal of all your Exceptions How little the English Bishops had to say against the Form of Primitive Episcopacy contained in Archbishop Usher's Reduction in the day when they rather chose the increase of our Divisions the Silencing of many Hundred faithful Ministers the scattering of the Flocks the afflicting of so many thousand godly Christians than the accepting of this Primitive Episcopacy which was the Expedient which those called Presbyterians offered never once speaking for the Cause of Presbytery And what kind of Peace-makers and Conciliators we met with when both Parties were to meet at one time and place with their several Concessions for Peace and Concord ready drawn up and the Presbyterians in their Concessions laid by all their Cause and proposed an Archbishops frame of Episcopacy and the other side brought not in any of their Concessions at all but only unpeaceably rejected all the Moderation that was desired Lastly They hear desire it may be observed that in this Reduction Archiepiscopacy is acknowledged And we shall also desire that it may be observed that we never put in a word to them against Archbishops Metropolitans or Primates and yet we are very far from attaining any Peace with them And we desire that it may be observed also that understanding with whom we had to do we offered them not that which we approved our selves as the best but that which we would submit to as having some Consistency with the Discipline and Order of the Church which was our End Of the Superadded Particulars § 14. 1. This is scarce Serious The Primate's Suffragans or Chorepiscopi are Rural Deans or as many for number The Suffragans you talk of by Law are other things about Sixteen in all the Land The King's Power is about the Choice of them as Humane Officers but as Pastors of the Church or Bishops the Churches had the Choice for a Thousand years after Christ through most of the Christian World And what if it be in the King's power Is it not the more reasonable that the King be petitioned to in the Business The King doth not choose every Rural Dean himself And is it any more destructive of his Power to do it by the Synods than by the Diocesan This use the Name and Power of Kings is made of by some kind of Men to make a noise against all that cross their Domination but all that is exercised by themselves is no whit derogatory to Royalty And yet how many Men have been Excommunicated for refusing to Answer in the Chancellor's Courts till they profess to sit there by the King's Authority § 15. We much doubt whether you designed to read the Archbishop's Reduction when you answered our Papers If you did not why would you choose to be ignorant of what you answered when so light a Labour might have informed you If you did how could you be ignorant of what we meant by Associations when you saw that such as our Rural Deaneries was the thing spoken of and proposed by the Reduction And 1. Are the Rural Deaneries think you without the King's Authority If not what mean you by such Intimations unless you would make Men believe that we breathe Treason as oft as we breathe as the Soldier charged the Country-man for whistling Treason when he meant to plunder him 2. And what though Associations may not be entered into without the King's Authority Do you mean that therefore we may not thus desire his Authority for them If you do not to what sence or purpose is this Answer Sure we are that for Three hundred years when Magistrates were not Christian there was Preaching Praying and Associating in particular Churches hereunto without the Kings Authority and also Associating in Synods And after that for many a Hundred year the Christian Magistrates confirmed and over-ruled such Associations but never overthrew them or forbad them § 16. But the Apostles of Christ and all his Churches for many hundred years thought all these Subscriptions and Oaths unnecessary and never prescribed nor required either them or any such So unhappy is the present Church in the happy Understandings of these Men of Yesterday that are wiser than Christ his Apostles and Universal Church and have at last found out these necessary Oaths and Subscriptions And you are not quite mistaken Necessary they are to set up those that shall rule by Constraint as Lords over God's Heritage and
Christians and enough for any one of the Reformed Churches had they possessed them to have gloried in and many far meaner are yet the glory of the Ancient Churches and called and reverenced as Fathers But we doubt this same Spirit will make you think that many Hundred more are but a few to be Silenced e're long And then your Clemency will comfort the poor People that have ignorant or deboist Readers instead of Ministers for too many such we have known that it was their Pastors faults that obstinately refused to Conform when they had promised it that is that repented of the Sin of their Subscription when they discerned it And had they never been ignorant enough to Subscribe they had never entered And the many hundreds which you thus keep from the Ministry you make nothing of § 26. Whether Diocesanes be a lawful Authority as claiming Spiritual Government and how far Men may own them even in lawful things are Controversies to be elsewhere managed We justify no Man's leaving his Ministry upon the Refusal of any thing but what he judged unlawful yea and what was really so § 27. Whether any Offence were given though not enough to warrant Separation let our Argumentations on both sides declare The said Declaration of the Churches Sense is not the smallest part of the Scandal Calling a humane Sacrament indifferent or no Sacrament proveth it not to be as it is called That the Nonconformists were the Cause of Separation who did most against it is easily said and as easily proved as the Arrians proved that the Orthodox were the cause of the Schism of the Luciferans who separated from the Church for receiving the Arrians too easily to Communion § 28. Church Matters in this much differ from Civil Matters and its one thing to change a Church Custom when it dangerously prevaileth to corrupt Mens Understandings and another thing when there is no such Danger So Hezekiah thought when he destroyed the Brazen Serpent and Paul who before circumcised Timothy when he said If ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing Could Men have foreseen that the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome in the imperial Churches would have been sublimated to such a challenged Supremacy over all the Christian World we suppose the Ancients would have held it their Duty to have removed the Primacy to some other Seat § 29. According to your Councils will you be judged of God The Not-abating of the Impositions is the casting off of many hundreds of your Brethren out of the Ministry and of many thousand Christians out of your Communion But the abating of the Impositions will so offend you as to silence or excommunicate none of you at all For e. g. we think it a Sin to Subscribe or swear canonical Obedience or use the transient Image of the Cross in Baptism and therefore these must cast us out But you think it no Sin to forbear them if the Magistrate abate them and therefore none of you will be cast out by the Abatement But it seemeth that your Charity judgeth the bare displeasing of your Apetite to the Ceremonies is a greater evil than the silencing and excommunicating all us your poor Brethren though our Imprisoment follow Nay this is not all For your Displeasure will be only that another Man subscribeth not crosseth not c. while you may do it your selves as much as you please Whether the casting out of so many Ministers and Christians for such things do more subserve the main ends of publick Government than the forbearance would do if you know not we leave you to God's Conviction As also whether these things be well imposed and Mens Obedience to Authority and the Peace of the Church and its Uniformity or Unity be well and justly laid upon them Such Concessions indeed might bear you out far Concerning particular Ceremonies § 30. Why then is it not as meet that one Gesture be used by all in singing Psalms or hearing Sermons Why doth the Ministers stand in Prayer even in the Sacrament Prayer while the People kneel We speak against none of your Liberty in using either kneeling or Holy-days and perhaps some of us mean to use both our selves but only beseech you that they may be no more imposed than the ancient Church imposed them and we desire no more and if you reverence Antiquity why will you not imitate it in point of Imposition as well as in the thing it self But yet that Antiquity was against Kneeling on the Lord's Day at the Sacrament and that they had but few of our Holy-days for many hundred Years we suppose you are not ignorant § 31. It 's well you have no more to say against Liberty to forbear the other three Ceremonies the more unexcusablde will you be when you silence and excommunicate those that use them not § 32. And its strange that meaner understandings than yours cannot see why Men should forbear that which is not to be valued with the Churches Peace A Lye or a false Subscription is not to be valued with the Churches Peace And is it therefore a Wonder to you that Men should scruple them It is fitter Matter for the Wonder of good Men that after so long Experience those that will needs be the Lords and Governors in spiritual Matters should so resolvedly lay the Churches Peace upon such things as these where they know beforehand that Men of no Conscience will all be peaceable and thousands of godly People are unsatisfied and that they will needs take all for Disturbers of the Peace who jump not with their Humour in every Ceremony how willing soever to be ruled by the Laws of God § 33. We are glad that you justify not Innovation and Arbitrariness and yet desire not such a Cure as some do by getting Laws which may do their Work § 34. If your want of Charity were not extraordinary it could not work effectually to the afflicting of your Brethren and the Church when we tell you what will end your Differences you know our Minds so much better than our selves that you will not believe us But you will be confident that we will come on with new Demands This is your way of Conciliation when you were to bring in your utmost Concessions in order to our Unity and it was promised by his Majesty that you should meet us half way you bring in nothing and persuade his Majesty also that he should not believe us in what we offer that it would be satisfactory if it were granted You say that it will give Dissatisfaction to the greater Part of his Majesty's Subjects We are more charitable than to believe that a quarter of his Majesty's Subjects are so uncharitable as to be dissatisfied if their Brethren be not silenced and excommunicated for not swearing subscribing or using a Ceremony while they may do it as much as they list themselves And whereas you say that there is no assurance given that it will content all Dissenters
Resolution to become the effectual Moderator in our Differences and your self to bring us together by procuring such mutual Condescâ—ntions as are necessary thereto and also by your gracious Acceptance of our Proposals which your Majesty heard and received not only without blame but with Acknowledgment of their Moderation and as such as would infer a Reconciliation between the differing Parties that we must needs say the least Abatement of our Hopes is much the more unwelcome and grievous to us And it is no small Grief that surprizeth our Hearts from the Complaints of the Students ejected in the Universities and of faithful Ministers removed from their beloved Flocks and denied Institution for want of Subscription Re-ordination or an Oath of Obedience to the Bishop but especially from many Congregations in the Land that cry out they are undone by the loss of those Means of their Spiritual Welfare which were dearer to them than all Worldly Riches and by the grievous Burden of Ignorant or Scandalous or dead unprofitable Ministers set over them to whom they dare not commit the Guidance and care of their Immortal Souls and whose Ministry they dare not own or countenace lest they be guilty of their Sin And it addeth to our Grief and Fear in finding so much of the proposed necessary Means of our Agreement especially in the point of Government here passed by in your Majesty's Declaration as if it were denied us But yet remembring the gracious and encouraging Promises of your Majesty and observing your Majesty's Clemency in what is here granted us and your great Condescention in vouchfasing not only so graciously to â—hear us in these our humble Addresses and Requests but also to grant us the Sight of your Declaration before it is resolved on with Liberty of returning our Additional Desires and hope that they shall not be rejected we re-assume our Confidence and comfortably expect that what is not granted in this Declaration that is reasonable and necessary to our Agreement shall yet be granted upon fuller Consideration of the Equity of our Requests As our Designs and Desires are not for any worldly Advantages or Dignities to our selves so have we not presumed to intermeddle with any Civil Interest of your Majesty or any of your Officers nor in the matters of meer Convenience to cast our Reason into the Ballance against your Majesty's Prudence but meerly to speak for the Laws and Worship and Servants of the Lord and for the Peace of our Consciences and the Safety of our own and Brethrens Souls It lifts us up with Joy to think what happy Consequents will ensue if your Majesty shall entertain these healing Motions How happily our Differences will be reconciled and the exasperated Minds of Men composed How Temptations to Contention and Uncharitableness will be removed How comfortably your Majesty will reign in the dearest Affections of your Subjects and how firmly they will adhere to your Interest as their own How chearfully and zealously the united parts and Interests of the Nation will conspire to serve you What a Strength and Honour a righteous Magistracy a learned holy loyal Ministry and a faithful praying People will be to your Throne And how it will be your Glory to be the King of the most religious Nation in the World that hath no considerable Parties but what are Centered under Christ in you What a Comfort it will be for the Bishops and Pastors of the Church to be honoured and loved by all the most religious of their Flocks to see the Success of their Labours and the Beauty of the Church promoted by our common Concord and Brethren to assemble and dwell together in Unity serving one God according to one Rule with one Heart and Mouth And on the contrary it astonisheth us to foresee the doleful Consequents that would follow if which God forbid your Majesty should refuse the most necessary moderate Ways of Concord and be engaged by a party to exalt them by the Suppression of the rest How woful a Day would it prove to your Majesty and your Dominions in which you should thus espouse a Cause and Interest injurious to the Interest of Christ and the Cause of Unity and Love and contrary to your Majesty's gracious Inclinations be engaged unawars in a seeming necessity to deal hardly with the Ministers and Servants of the Lord How considerable a part of the Three Nations for Number Wisdom Piety and Interest you would be drawn to govern with a grievous Hand and to lay them under the greatest Sorrow who restored and received your Majesty with Joy How the Dissent of Ministers from the Government and Ceremonies of the Church were it expressed but by their Groans and Tears and moderate Complaints to God or Not-praying for that Church Government which they dare not pray for would be reckoned as Discontent and Sedition and it would be judged a Crime to feel when they are hurt What Occasion this would give to irreligious Temporizers to arrogate the Name of your Majesty's best Subjects and to let out their Malice against the Upright and make Religion a Reproach And then what a Hindrance that would be to the Conversion and saving of the Peoples Souls and what a fruitful Nursery of all Vice How grievously Charity would be overthrown while the People are engaged in the hardest Thoughts and Speeches of each other What a Temptation it would be to the afflicted part to abate their Honour and due Respect to those they suffer by when they are deprived of that which is dearest to them in the World and when the Groans and Cryes of afflicted Innocents arrive at Heaven and have awakened the Justice of the King of Kings the greatest cannot stand before him And what a Snare and Grief will it be to the Bishops and Pastors of the Church to be esteemed Wolves and to be engaged to suppress them as their Adversaries that else might be the Honour of their Ministry and the Comfort of their Lives And when Divisions and separated Assemblies are thus multiplied the People being driven from the publick Congregations either it will bring them under Trouble or let in Papists and others that are intollerable into an equal Tolleration and such Discontents and Distractions in the Church will not be without their Influence on the State And by all this how much will Satan and the Enemies of our Religion be gratified and God dishonoured and displeased And seeing all this may safely and easily be now prevented we humbly beseech the Lord in Mercy to vouchsafe to your Majesty a Heart to discern of time and Judgment And as these are our General Ends and Motives so we are induced to insist upon the Form of Synodical Government conjunct with a fixed Presidency or Episcopacy for these Reasons 1. We have reason to believe that no other Terms will be so generally agreed on And it is no way injurious to Episcopal Power but most firmly establisheth all in it that can
pretend to Divine Authority or true Antiquity It granteth them much more than Reverend Bishop Hall in his Peâ—â—re-maker and many other of that Judgment do require who would have accepted the fixing of the President for Life as sufficient for the Reconciliation of the Churches 2. It being most agreeable to the Scripture and the Primitive Government is likest to be the way of a more Universal Concord if ever the Churches arrive on Earth at such a Blessing However it will be most acceptable to God and to well informed Consciences 3. It will promote the Practice of Discipline and Godliness without Disorder and promote Order without the hindering of Discipline and Godliness 4. And it is not to be silenced though in some respects we are loath to mention it that it will save the Nation from the Violation of the Solemn Vow and Covenant without wronging the Church at all or breaking any other Oath And whether the Covenant were lawfully imposed or not we are assured from the Nature of a Vow to God and from the Cases of Saul Zedekiah and others that it would be a terrible thing to us to violate it on that pretence Though we are far from thinking that it obligeth us to any Evil or to go beyond our Places and Callings to do Good much less to resist Authority yet doth it undoubtedly bind us to forbear our own Consent to those Luxuriances of Church-Government which we there renounced and for which no Divine Institution can be pretended It is not only the Presbyterians but multitudes of the Episcopal Party and the Nobility Gentry and others that adhered to his late Majesty in the late unhappy Wars that at their Composition took this Vow and Covenant And God forbid that ever the Souls of so many thousands should be driven upon the Sin of Perjury and upon the Wrath of God and the Flames of Hell Or that under Pretence of calling them to repent of what is evil they should be urged to commit so great an Evil. If once the Consciences of the Nation should be so debaâ—ched what good can be expected from them or what Evil shall they ever after be thought to make Conscience of or what Bonds can be supposed to oblige them or how can your Majesty place any Conâ—idence in them notwithstanding the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy which they take or how can they be taken for competent Witnesses in any Cause or Persons meet for human converse or how should those Preachers be regarded by their Auditors that dare wilfully violate their solemn Vows and it would be no Comfort nor Honour to your Majesty to be the King of a Persideous Nation And whatever Palliation Flattery might at Hand procure undoubtedly at distance of time and place where Flattery cannot silence Truth it would be the Nations perpetual Infamy And what Matter of Reconciliation would it be to the guilty Papists when we blame their impious Doctrines that have such a tendency How loose would it leave your Majesty's Subjects that are once taught to break such sacred Bonds Till the Covenant was decried as an Almanack out of date and its Obligation taken to be null that odious Fact could never have been perpetrated against your Royal Father Nor your Majesty have been so long expulsed from your Dominions And the Obligation of the Covenant upon the Consciences of the Nation was not the weakest Instrument of your Return We therefore humbly beseech your Majesty with greater importunity then we think we should do for our Lives that you will have Mercy on the Souls and Consciences of your People and will not urge or tempt them to this grievous Sin nor drive them on the insupportable Wrath of the Almighty whose Judgment is at hand where Princes and People must give that account on which the irreversible Sentence will depend For the honour of our Religion and of your Majesty's Dominions and Reign we beseech you suffer us not to be tempted to the violating of such Solemn Vows and this for nothing when an Expedient is before you that will avoid it without any detriment to the Church nay to its honour and advantage The Prelacy which we disclaimed is That of Diocesans upon the Claim of a Superiour Order to a Presbyter assuming the sole Power of Publick Admonition of particular Offenders injoyning Penitence Excommunicating and Absolving besides Confirmation over so many Churches as necessitated the Corruption or Extirpation of Discipline and the using of Humane Officers as Chancellors Surrogates Officials Commissaries Arch-Deacons while the undoubted Officers of Christ the Pastors of the particular Churches were hindered from the Exercise of their Office The Restoration of Discipline in the particular Churches and of the Pastors to the Exercise of their Office therein and of Synods for necessary Consultation and Communion of Churches and of the Primitive Presidency or Episcopacy for the avoiding of all shew of Innovation and Disorder is that which we humbly offer as the Remedy beseeching your Maiesty that if any thing asserted seem unproved an Impartial Conference in your Majesty's hearing may be allowed us in order to a just Determination Concerning the Preamble in your Majesty's Declaration we presume only to tender these Requests 1. THAT as we are perswaded it is not in your Majesty's Thoughts to intimate that we are guilty of the Offences which your Majesty here reciteth so we hope it will rather be a motive to the hastening of the Nation 's Cure that our Unity may prevent Mens Temptations of that Nature for the time to come 2. Though we have professed our willingness to submit to the Primitive Episcopacy and a Reformed Liturgy hoping it may prove an Expedient to an happy Union yet have we expressed our dislike of the Prelacy and present Liturgy while unreformed And though Sacriledge and unjust Alienation of Church-Lands is a Sin that we detest yet whether in some Cases of true Superfluities of Revenues or true Necessity of the Church there may not be an Alienation which is no Sacriledge and whether the Kings and Parliaments have been guilty of that Crime that have made some Alienations are Points of high Concernment of which we never had a Call to give our Judgment And therefore humbly beseech your Majesty that concerning these Matters we may not to our Prejudice be otherwise understood than as we have before and here expressed 3. That as your Majesty hath here vouchsafed us your gracious Acknowledgment of our Moderation it might never be said That a Ministry and People of such moderate Principles consenting to Primitive Episcopacy and Liturgy could not yet be received into the Settlement and countenanced Body of your People nor possess their Stations in the Church and Liberty in the Publick Worship of God 4. And whereas it is expressed by your Majesty That the Essence and Foundation of Episcopacy might be preserved though the Extent of the Jurisdiction might be altered this is to us a ground of Hope
It is the very Nature and Substance of the Office of a Presbyter to have the Power of the Keys for binding and losing retaining or remitting Sin which therefore together or apart as there is occasion they are bound to Exercise And this being the Institution of Jesus Christ cannot be altered by Man In their Ordination according to the established Order in England it is said Whose sins thou dost remit they are remitted whose sins thou dost retain they are retained And they are commanded to Minister the Doctrine Sacraments and Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded and as this Realm hath received the same as expresly as the Bishops are And as the late Primate of Ireland observeth in his Reduction That they may the better understand what the Lord hath commanded the Exhortation of St. Paul to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus is appointed to be read to them at the time of their Ordination Take â—eed to your selves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to feed or rule the Congregation of God which he hath purchased with his blood And it is apparent in this Acts 20. 17 18 28. and 15. 23 25. and 16. 4. 1. Thess. 5. 12 13. 1 Tim 3. 4 5. and 5. 17. Heb. 13. 7 17 24. and other places that it is the Office of a Presbyter to Oversee Rule and Guide the Flock which the Ministerial Rule which consisteth in the Exercise of the Keys or Management and Personal Application of God's Word to the Consciences and Cases of particular Persons for their Salvation and the Order of the Church the Coercive Power belonging to the Magistrate And this was the Practice in the Ancient Church as appeareth undeniably in Ignatius Tertullian Cyprian Hierom Chrysostom c. Concil Carthag 4. Can. 22 23 29 32 34 35 36 37. as is confessed by the chiefest Defenders of Episcopacy 2. If all Presentments and Appeals be made to the Bishop and his Consistory alone it will take from us the Parish Discipline which is granted us and cast almost all Discipline out of the Church As is most apparent to them that by experience are acquainted with the quality of our Flocks and with the true Nature of the Pastoral Work Considering 1. How many hundred Churches are in a Diocess 2. How many thousand Persons are in very many Parishes and of those what a number are obstinate in wilful gross Ignorance or Scandal refusing to be instructed or admonished by their Pastors 3. How long and earnestly and tenderly Sinners must be dealth with before they are cut off by Solemn Excommunication 4. How unsatisfactory it must be to the Conscience of a Bishop or Synod to cut off a Man as impenitent upon the bare report of a Minister before by full Admonition they have proved him impenitent themselves especially when too many Ministers are to say nothing of Passion that might cause partial Accusations unable so to manage a Reproof and Exhortation as is necessary to work on the Consciences of the People and to convict Resisters of flat Impenitency 5. What abundance of Work the Bishop will have besides Constant preaching will require time for preparation Visiting the several Churches Confirming all the Souls in so many hundred Parishes which alone is more than any one Man can do aright if he had nothing else to do Ordaining Instituting and Examining the Persons so far as to satisfie a tender Conscience that takes not all on trust from others and is but the Executor of their Judgments These and much more with the care of Church-buildings Lands and his own Affairs and Family and Sicknesses and necessary absence sometimes will make this great additional Work which must be constantly performed for so many hundred Parishes to be impossible 6. Reproofs and Suspension would so exasperate the Scandalous that they would vex the Pastors with numerous Appeals 7. The Pastors will be undone by travelling and waiting and maintaining such a multitude of Witnesses as is necessary for the prosecuting of Presentments and answering so many Appeals 8. The Business will be so odious chargeable and troublesom that Witnesses will not come in 9. The Minister by these Prosecutions and Attendances will be taken off the rest of his Ministerial Work 10. Bishops being but Men will be tempted by this intolerable Burden to be weary of the Work and slubber it over and cast it upon others and to discountenance the most conscionable Ministers that most trouble them with Presentments which when the Offenders perceive they will the more insult and vex us with Appeals So that the Discouragements of Ministers and the utter Incapacity of the Bishops to perform a quarter of this Work will nullifie Discipline as leaving it impossible Experience hath told us this too long And then when our Communion is thus polluted with all that are most incapable through utter Ignorance Scandal and Contempt of Piety 1. Ministers will be deterred from their Administrations to Subjects so uncapable 2. Bishops that are tender Conscienced will be deâ—erred from undertaking so impossible a Work and of so ill Success 3. And Men that have least tenderness of Conscience and Care of Souls and Fear of God's Displeasure will seek for and intrude into both places 4. And the tender conscienced People will be tempted to speak hardly of such undisciplined Churches and of the Officers and to withdraw from them 5. And hereby they will fall under the Displeasure of Superiours and the Scorn of the Vulgar that have no Religion but what is subservient to their Flesh. 6. And so while the most pious are brought under Discountenance and Reproach and the most impious get the Reputation of being most Regular and obedient to their Rulers Piety it self will grow into disesteem and Impiety escape its due disgrace And this hath been the Cause of our Calamities 3. As to the Liturgy it is Matter of great Joy and Thankfulness to us that we have heard your Majesty more than once so resolutely promising That none shall suffer for not using the Common Prayer and Ceremonies but you would secure them from the Penalties in the Act for Uniformity as that which your Declaration at Breda intended and to find here so much of your Majesty's Clemency in your gracious Concessions for a future Emendation But we humbly crave leave to acquaint your Majesty 1. That it grieveth us after all to hear that yet it is given in Charge by the Judges at the Assizes to indict Men upon that Act for not using the Common Prayer 2. That it is not only Some absolete words and other expressions that are offensive 3. That many scruple using some part of the Book as it is lest they be guilty of countenancing the whole who yet would use it when reformed Therefore we humbly crave that your Majesty will here declare That it is your Majesty's pleasure that none be punished or troubled for not using the Book of Common Prayer
the Minister of that Place Who shall admit none to the Lord's Supper till they have made a credible Profession of their Faith and promised Obedience to the Will of God according as is expressed in the Consideration of the Rubrick before the Catechism and that all possible Diligence be used for the Instruction and Reformation of scandalous Offenders whom the Ministers shall not suffer to partake of the Lord's Table until they have openly declared themselves to have truly repented and amended their former naughty Lives as is partly expressed in the Rubrick and more fully in the Canons Provided there be place for due Appeals to superior Powers 6. No Bishops c. 7. We are very glad to find that all with whom we have conferred do in their Judgments approve a Liturgy or a set Form of publick Worship to be lawful which in our Judgments for the Preservation of Unity and Uniformity we conceive to be very necessary And although we do esteem the Liturgy of the Church of England contained in the Book of Common-Prayer and by Law established to be the best that we have seen and we believe that we have seen all that are extant and used in this part of the World and we know what Reverence most of the reformed Churches or at least the most learned Men in those Churches have for it yet since we find some Exceptions made against several things therein We will appoint an equal Number of learned Divines of both Persuasions to review the same and to make such Alterations as shall be thought most necessary and some additional Forms in Scripture Phrase as near as may be suited unto the Nature of the several Ordinances and that it be left to the Minister's choice to use one or the other at his Discretion In the mean time and till this be done although we do heartily wish and desire that the Ministers in their several Churches because they dislike some Clauses and Expressions would not totally lay aside the use of the Book of Common Prayer but read those Parts against which there can be no Exception which would be the best Instance of declining those Marks of Distinction which we so much labour and desire to remove Yet in compassion to divers of our good Subjects who scruple the use of it as now it is our Will and Pleasure is that none be punished or troubled for not using it until it be reviewed and effectually reformed as aforesaid In the Preface concerning Ceremonies we desire that at least these Words be left out Not that themselves do in their Iudgments believe the Practice of these particular Ceremonies which they except against to be in it self unlawful As concerning Ceremonies our Will and Pleasure is 1. That none shall be required to kneel in the act of receiving the Lord's Supper but left at Liberty therein 2. That the religious Observation of Holyâ—days of human Institution be left indifferent and that none be troubled for not observing of them 3. That no Man shall be compell'd to use the Cross in Baptism or suffer for not using it 4. That no Man shall be compelled to bow at the Name of Jesus 5. For the use of the Surplice we are contented that all Men be left to their Liberty to do as they shall think fit without suffering in the least Degree for wearing or not wearing it And because some Men otherwise pious and learned say they cannot conform unto the Subscription required by the Canons nor take the Oath of Canonical Obedience we are content and it is our Will and Pleasure so they take the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy that they shall receive Ordination Institution and Induction and shall be permitted to exercise their Function and to enjoy the Profits of their Livings without the said Subscription or Oath of Canonical Obedience And moreover that no Persons in the Universities shall for the want of such Subscription be hindred in taking their Degrees Lastly That such as have been ordained by Presbyters be not required to renounce their Ordination or to be re-ordained or denied Institution and Induction for want of Ordination by Bishops And moreover that none be judged to forfeit their Presentation or Benefice or be deprived of it for not reading of those of the 39 Articles that contain the controverted Points of Church-Government and Ceremonies § 108. After all this a Day was appointed for his Majesty to peruse the Declaration as it was drawn up by the Lord Chancellor and to allow what he liked and alter the rest upon the hearing of what both sides should say Accordingly he came to the Lord Chancellor's House and with him the Duke of Albermarle and Duke of Ormond as I remember the Earl of Manchester the Earl of Anglesey the Lord Hollis c. and Dr. Sheldon then Bishop of London Dr. Morley then Bishop of Worcester Dr. Hinchman then Bishop of Salisbury Dr. Cosins Bishop of Durham Dr. Gauden after bishop of Exeter and Worcester Dr. Barwick after Dean of Paule Dr. Hacket Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield with divers others among whom Dr. Gunning was most notable On the other part stood Dr. Reignolds Mr. Calamy Mr. Ash Dr. Wallis Dr. Manton Dr. Spurstow my self and who else I remember not The Business of the Day was not to dispute but as the Lord Chancellor read over Declaration each Party was to speak to what they disliked and the King to determine how it should be as liked himself While the Lord Chancellor read over the Preface there was no Interruption only he thought it best himself to blot out those Words about the Declaration in Scotland for the Covenant That we did from the Moment it passed our Hand ask God Forgiveness for our Part in it The great matter which we stopt at was the Word Consent where the Bishop is to confirm by the Consent of the Pastor of that Church and the King would by no means pass the Word Consent either there or in the Point of Ordination or Censures because it gave the Ministers a negative Voice We urged him hard with a Passage in his Father's Book of Meditations where he expresly granteth this Consent of the Presbyters but it would not prevail The most that I insisted on was from the end of our Endeavours that we came not hither for a Personal Agreement only with our Brethren of the other way but to procure such gracious Concessions from his Majesty as would unite all the soberest People of the Land And we knew that on lower Terms it would not be done Though Consent be but a little Word it was necessary to a very desirable end if it were purposed that the Parties and Divisions should rather continue unhealed then we had no more to say there being no Remedy But we were sure that Union would not be attained if no Consent were allowed Ministers in any part of the Government of their Flocks and so they should be only Teachers without any Participation and
the ruling of the People whose Rectors they are called And when I perceived some Offence at what I said I told them that we had not the Judgments of Men at our command We could not in reason suppose that our Concessions or any thing we could do would change the Judgments of any great Numbers and therefore we must consider what will unite us in case their Judgments be not changed or else we labour to no purpose § 109. But Bishop Morley told them how great our Power was and what we might do if we were willing and he told the King that no Man had written better of these Matters than I had done and there my five Disputations of Church Government c. lay ready to be produced and all was to intimate as if I now contradicted what I had there written I told him that I had best reason to know what I had written and that I am still of the same mind and stand to it all and do not speak any thing against it A great many words there were about Prelacy and Re-ordination Dr. Gunning and Bishop Morley speaking almost all on one side and Dr. Hinchman and Dr. Cosens sometimes and Mr. Calamy and my self most on the other side But I think neither Party doth value the rambling Discourses of that Day so much as to think them worthy the recording Mr. Calamy answered Dr. Gunning from Scripture very well against the Divine Right of Prelacy as a distinct Order And when Dr. Gunning told them that Dr. Hammond had said enough against the Presbyterains Cause and Ordination and was yet unanswered I thought it meet to tell him that I had answered the Substance of his Arguments and said enough moreover against the Diocesan Frame of Government and to prove the validity of the English Presbyters Ordination which indeed was unanswered though I was very desirous to have seen an Answer to it which I said because they had got the Book by them and because I thought the unreasonableness of their dealing might be evinced who force so many hundreds to be Re-ordained and will not any of them answer one Book which is written to prove the validity of that Ordination which they would have nullified though I provoked them purposely in such a Presence § 110. The most of the time being spent thus in speaking to Particulars of the Declaration as it was read when we came to the end the Lord Chancellour drew out another Paper and told us that the King had been petitioned also by the Independants and Anabaptists and though he knew not what to think of it himself and did not very well like it yet something he had drawn up which he would read to us and desire us also to give our Advice about it Thereupon he read as an Addition to the Declaration That others also be permitted to meet for Religious Worship so be it they do it not to the disturbance of the Peace and that no Iustice of Peace or Officer disturb them When he had read it he again desired them all to think on it and give their Advice But all were silent The Presbyterians all perceived as soon as they heard it that it would secure the Liberty of the Papists and one of them whispered me in the Ear and intreated me to say nothing for it was an odious Business but let the Bishops speak to it But the Bishops would not speak a word nor any one of the Presbyterians neither and so we were like to have ended in that Silence I knew if we consented to it it would be charged on us that we spake for a Toleration of Papists and Sectaries But yet it might have lengthened out our own And if we spake against it all Sects and Parties would be set against us as the Causers of their Sufferings and as a partial People that would have Liberty our selves but would have no others have it with us At last seeing the Silence continue I thought our very Silence would be charged on us a Consent if it went on and therefore I only said this That this Reverend Brother Dr. Gunning even now speaking against Sects had named the Papists and the Sâ—â—inians For our parts we desired not favour to our selves alone and rigorous Severity we desired against none As we humbly thanked his Majesty for his Indulgence to our selves so we distinguish the tolerable Parties from the intolerable For the former we humbly crave just lenity and favour but for the latter such as the two sorts named before by that Reverend Brother for our parts we cannot make their Toleration our request To which his Majesty said That there were Laws enough against the Papists and I replyed That we understood the Question to be whether those Laws should be executed on them or not And so his Majesty brake up the Meeting of that Day § 111. Before the Meeting was dissolved his Majesty had all along told what he would have stand in the Declaration and he named four Divines to determine of any Words in the Alteration if there were any difference that is Bishop Morley Bishop Hinchman Dr. Reignolds and Mr. Calamy and if they disagreed that the Earl of Anglesey and the Lord Hollis should decide it As they went out of the Room I told the Earl of Anglesey That we had no other business there that day but the Curches peace and welfare and I would not have been the Man that should have done so much against it as he had done that day for more than he was like to get by it for being called a Presbyterian he had spoken more for Prelacy than we expected And I think by the Consequent that this saying did some good for when I after found the Declaration amended and asked him how it came to pass he intimated to me that it was his doing § 112. And here you may note by the way the fashion of these Times and the state of the Presbyterians Any Man that was for a Spiritual serious way of Worship though he were for moderate Episcopacy and Liturgy and that lived according to his Profession was called commonly a Presbyterian as formerly he was called a Puritan unless he joyned himself to Independents Anabaptists or some other Sect which might afford him a more odious Name And of the Lords he that was for Episcopacy and the Liturgy was called a Presbyterian if he endeavoured to procure any Abatement of their Impositions for the Reconciling of the Parties or the ease of the Ministers and People that disliked them And of the Ministers he was called a Presbyterian that was for Episcopacy and Liturgy if he conformed not so far as to Subscribe or Swear to the English Diocesan Frame and all their Impositions I knew not of any one Lord at Court that was a Presbyterian yet were the Earl of Manchester a good Man and the Earl of Anglesey and the Lord Hollis called Presbyterians and as such appointed to direct and help
the things granted should be reverst which God forbid I must profess to your Lordship that I am utterly against accepting of a Bishoprick as because I am conscious that it will over-match my sufficiency and afright me with the remembrance of my Account for so great an Undertaking c. so specially because it will very much disable me from an effectual promoting of the Churches Peace As Men will question all my Argumentations and Persuasives when they see me in the Dignity which I plead for but will take me to speak my Conscience impartially when I am but as one of them so I must profess to your Lordship that it will stop my own Mouth so that I cannot for Shame speak half so freely as now I can and will if God enable me for Obedience and Peace while I know that the Hearers will be thinking I am pleading for my self Therefore I humbly crave 1. That your Lordship will put some able Man of our perswasion into the place which you intend me Though I now think that Dr. Reignolds and Mr. Calamy may better accept of a Bishoprick than I which I hope your Lordship will promote I shall presume to offer some Choice to your Consideration Dr. Francis Roberts of Wrington in Somersetshire known by his Works Mr. Froyzal of Clun in Shropshire and Hereford Drocess a Man of great worth and good interest Mr. Daniel Cawdrey of Biiling in Northamptonshire Mr. Anthony Burgess of Sutton-Coldfield in Warwickshire all known by their printed Works Mr. John Trap of Glocestershire Mr. Ford of Exeter Mr. Hughes of Plymouth Mr. Bampfield of Sherborne Mr. Woodbridge of Newbury Dr. Chambers Dr. Bryan and Dr. Grew both of Coventry Mr. Brinsley of Yarmouth Mr. Porter of Whitchurch in Shropshire Mr. Gilpin of Cumberland Mr. Bowles of Your Dr. Temple of Brampston in Warwickshire I need name no more 2. That you will believe that I as thankfully acknowledge your Lordship's Favour as if I were by it possessed of a Bishoprick And if your Lordship continue in those Intentions I shall thankfully accept it in any other state or relation that may further my Service to the Church and to his Majesty But I desire for the forementioned Reasons that it may be no Cathedral Relation And whereas the Vicar of the Parish where I have lived will not resign but accept me only as his Curate if your Lordship would procure him some Prehendary or other place of Competent Profit for I dare not motion him to any Pastoral Charge or Place that requireth preaching that so he might resign that Vicaridge to me without his Loss according to the late Act before December for the sake of that Town of Kidderminster I should take it as a very great favour But if there be any great Inconvenience or Difficulties in the way I can well be content to be his Curate I crave your Lordship's pardon of this trouble which your own Condescension hath drawn upon you and remain Your Lordships much obliged Servant Rich. Baxter Nov. 1. 1660. I have presumed to tender you the inclosed List of desired Members of the Indian Corporation supposing your Lordship will Name what Persons of higher Quality you see meet And also the French Project with this of London for a Corporation for the Poor that by such Generals you may be prepared to receive the Londoner's Petition when it is offered § 124. Mr. Calamy blamed me for giving in my Denial alone before we had resolved together what to do But I told him the truth that being upon other necessary Business with the Lord Chancellour he put me to it on the sudden so that I could not conveniently delay my Answer § 125. And Dr. Regnolds almost as suddenly accepted it saying That some Friend had taken out the Conge d'eslier for him without his knowledge But he read to me a Profession directed to the King which he had written wherein he professed that he took a Bishop and Presbyter to differ not ordine but gradu and that a Bishop was but the Chief Presbyter and that he was not to Ordain or Govern but with his Presbyter's Assistance and Consent and that thus he accepted of the place and as described in the King's Declaration and not as it stood before in England and that he would no longer hold or exercise it than he could do it on these terms To this sence it was and he told me that he would offer it the King when he accepted of the place but whether he did or not I cannot tell He dy'd in the Bishoprick of Norwich An. 1676. § 126. On Friday Novemb. 2. being All-Souls-day the Queen came in And there were that day on the Thames three Tydes in about Twelve hours to the common admiration of the People § 127. Mr. Calamy long suspended his Answer so that that Bishoprick was long undisposed of till he saw the issue of all our Treaty which easily resolved him And Dr. Manton was offered the Deanery of Rochester and Dr. Bates the Deanery of Coventry and Lichfield which they both after some time refused And as I heard Mr. Edward Bowles was offered the Deanery of York at least which he refused and not long after died of the stone § 128. When the King's Declaration was passed we had a Meeting with the Ministers of London called Presbyterian that is all that were neither Prelatical nor of any other Sect to consult with them about their returning Thanks to the King for his gracious Declaration that so it might appear that those that were not with us were thankful for it as well as we At the first Meeting the City Ministers first voted their Thanks to be given to us for our Labours in procuring it Nemine contradicente But old Mr. Arthur Iackson a very worthy Man and Mr. Crofton spake against returning Thanks to the King Not that they were not truly thankful but because their Thanks would signifie an approbation of Bishops and Archbishops which they had covenanted against This I undertook to confute by proving that the Bishops and Archbishops in the King's Declaration are not ejusdem speciei with what they were before And that there is the same Name but not the same Thing and withal by proving that the Covenant did not meddle against all Bishops and Archbishops but only those of the English Diocesan Species And that there was a Specifical Difference I proved in that by the King's Declaration the Essentials at least of Church-Government is restored to the Pastors whereas before the Pastors had no Government and this altereth all the Frame as much as if you let the Foundation Walls and Roof of your House stand and all that is visible without but within you pull down the Partitions and turn it into a Church For before every Bishop was the lowest and sole Governour with his Court and Consistory of many hundred Churches and now every Pastor is the lowest Governour of his Flock and the Bishop is but the Superiour
hath been granted will be easilier granted again than that which was never granted before This Testimony is more worth than all our labour for it 2. The Ministers and People of the Land that were concerned in it had a Twelve months time by it in their Ministerial Liberty and Maintenance for this suspended the Execution of the old Laws which were in force against them till the new ones were made 3. We got which was a valuable benefit the Liberty in our Treaty to speak for our Cause under the protection of the King's Commission and justly to state our Differences which else would have been fasly stated to our prejudice and none might have contradicted them § 132. But for the fulfilling of it there was nothing at all done which the Declaration mentioneth save only this years Suspension of the Law against us And some Men were so violent at a distance in the Country that they indicted Ministers at the Assizes and Sessions notwithstanding the Declaration taking it for no Suspension of the Law which put us on many ungrateful Addresses to the King and the Lord Chancellour for their Deliverance For the Brethren complained to us from all Parts and thought it our Duty who had procured the Declaration to procure the Execution of it And when we petitioned for them they were commonly delivered from that Suffering But as to the Matter of Church-Government mentioned in the Declaration 1. The Power of Godliness hath been promoted as the Act of Uniformity and the Act against Conventicles and the Ejecting of 1800 Ministers at once and many Hundred before with much more to the same purpose express 2. The publick and private Exercises of Religion have been encouraged just as those two forementioned Acts express Of which to English-men I need not give an Exposition 3. Of the applying the Lord's Day wholly to holy Exercises without unnecessary Divertisements I have least to say because in these Times we expect only Liberty to do so our selves leaving all others to take their own way And through God's mercy we have liberty to meditate or pray in our Closets and to pray in our Families so there be not above four others present and to hear Common Prayer and Sermon too in Publick in those Parishes that have a Minister that can and will preach And if others think a Play or publick Games or Drinking or Ryoting to be necessary Divertisements they cannot constrain us to the like 4. That Clause of not permitting insufficient negligent scandalous Ministers for the word Non-resident could not pass I believe is executed according to the Judgment of the Executors for I suppose they take him that cannot discern the lawfulness of the Subscriptions Declarations and Practises of Conformity about Oaths Prelacy and Ceremonies to be more insufficient for the Ministry how learned and able otherwise soever than an ignorant Reader is And I suppose they take one that renounceth not the Obligations of the Vow and Covenant and Subscribeth not to Prelacy and Ceremonies to be more scandalous than a Drunkard or a Whoremonger and one that neglecteth any of these to be more negligent than he that neither preacheth to his Flock nor personally instructeth them § 133. As to the Appointment of such a number of Suffragan Bishops in every Diocess as is necessary to the due performance of the Work there was never a one appointed in any one Diocess in the Land that ever I heard of but yet this may be thus far excused that the Parliament having done so much of the Work of Church Discipline themselves as to cast out 1800 of us at once there was the less need of Suffragans afterwards and the Bishops themselves were sufficient to cast out or keep out the rest if ever any such more as we should seek to get into the Ministry § 134. That no Bishop shall ordain or exercise any part of Iurisdiction c. without the Advice and Assistance of the Presbyters may be performed for ought I know for perhaps the Bishop or Chancellor hath the Advice of his Chaplain in private to do it himself and I believe many of his Presbyters assist him by their Information telling him who they be that scruple Ceremonies and who meet in private to Worship God and what nonconformable Ministers presume to preach the Gospel § 135. That no Lay Chancellor Commissaries or Officials as such shall excommunicate absolve c. may for ought I know be fulfilled For though they do it Familiarly as they did before and few Countries have not some that are excommunicated by them for not receiving the Sacrament against their Consciences or some such Matter Yet whether they do it as such or in any other unknown Capacity is more than a Stander-by can tell and they say that when it comes to the Sentence of Excommunication some of them use a Priest pro Formâ § 136. Nor did I ever yet hear of an Archdeacon who exercised his Iurisdiction by the Advice and Assistance of six Ministers chosen as is there mentioned p. 11. § 137. Nor did I ever hear that an equal Number to the Canons and Prebends were annually or ever once chosen in any one Diocess by the Vote of the Presbyters to be always assisting to the Bishop in all Church-censures c. But indeed the Suffragans did never exercise their Iurisdiction without them because such Suffragans never were § 138. Nor did I ever hear that the Ministers Consent was desired for the Confirming of any in his Parish nor of any other than the old way of Confirmation that is for any that will run into the Church though never so unknown to kneel down and have the few Words mentioned in the Liturgy said with the Bishop's Hand on his Head § 139. Nor did I yet ever hear of any one who before he was admitted to the Sacrament was called to any other credible Profession of Faith and Promise of Obedience than to stand up at the Creed or to be present at the Common-Prayer Nor of refussing Scandalous Offenders till they have openly declared themselves to have truly repented and amended their former naughty Lives But I have oft heard them threatned for not receiving § 140. Much less did I ever hear of any such thing as a Rural Dean with his Neighbour-Minister meeting monthly or ever once for any of those excellent Works there mentioned Nor of any Attempt of such a thing § 141. As for the Bishop's not using Arbitrary Power but according to the known Law of the Land I suppose they take the Canons to be the Law of the Land or according to it which other Men never dream'd of that desired that Provision § 142. And whether ever the Alterations mentioned were made of the Liturgy and the additional Forms in Scripture Phrase suited to the Nature of the several Parts of Worship you may know by perusing it and by that which here followeth § 143. Yet I think
have been with them upon the lowest lawful Terms Some laughed at me for refusing a Bishoprick and petitioning to be a reading Vicar's Curate But I had little Hopes of so good a Condition at least for any considerable time § 152. The Ruler of the Vicar and all the Business there was Sir Ralph Clare an old Man and an old Couâ—tier who carried it towards me all the time I was there with great Civility and Respect and sent me a Purse of Money when I went away but I refused it But his Zeal against all that scrupled Ceremonies or that would not preach for Prelacy and Conformity c. was so much greater than his Respects to me that he was the principal Cause of my Removal though he has not owned it to this Day I suppose he thought that when I was far enough off he could so far rule the Town as to reduce the People to his way But he little knew nor others of that Temper how firm conscientious Men are to the Matters of their everlasting Interest and how little Mens Authority can do against the Authority of God with those that are unfeignedly subject to him Openly he seemed to be for my Return at first that he might not offend the People and the Lord Chancellor seemed very forward in it and all the Difficulty was how to provide some other Place for the old Vicar Mr. Dance that he might be no loser by the Change And it was so contrived that all must seem forward in it except the Vicar the King himself must be engaged in it the Lord Chancellor earnestly presseth it Sir Ralph Clare is willing and very desirous of it and the Vicar is willing if he may but be recompenced with as good a Place from which I received but 90 l. per Annum heretofore Either all desire it or none desire it But the Hindrance was that among all the Livings and Prebendaries of England there was none fit for the poor Vicar A Prebend he must not have because he was insufficient and yet he is still thought sufficient to be the Pastor of near 4000 Souls The Lord Chancellor to make the Business certain will engage himself for a valuable stipend to the Vicar and his own Steward must be commanded to pay it him What could be desired more But the poor Vicar was to answer him that this was no security to him his Lordship might withhold that Stipend at his Pleasure and then where was his Maintenance give him but a legal Title of any thing of equal value and he would resign and the Patron was my sure and intimate Friend But no such thing was to be had and so Mr. Dance must keep his Place § 153. Though I requested not any Preferment of them but this yet even for this I resolved I would never be importunate I only nominated it as the Favour which I desired when there Offers in general invited me to ask more and then I told them that if it were any way inconvenient to them I would not request it of them And at the very first I desired that if they thought it best for the Vicar to keep his Place I was willing to take the Lecture which by his Bond was secured to me and was still my Right or if that were denied me I would be his Curate while the King's Declaration stood in force But none of these could be accepted with Men that were so exceeding willing In the end it appeared that two Knights of the Country Sir Ralph Clare and Sir Iohn Packington who were very great with Dr. Morley newly made Bishop of Worcester had made him believe that my Interest was so great and I could do so much with Ministers and People in that Country that unless I would bind my self to promote their Cause and Party I was not fit to be there And this Bishop being greatest of any Man with the Lord Chancellor must obstruct my Return to my ancient Flock At last Sir Ralph Clare did freely tell me that if I would conform to the Orders and Ceremonies of the Church and preach Conformity to the People and labour to set them right there was no Man in England so fit to be there for no Man could more effectually do it but if I would not there was no Man so unfit for the place for no Man could more hinder it § 154. I desired it as the greatest favour of them that if they intended not my being there they would plainly tell me so that I might trouble them and my self no more about it But that was a favour too great to be expected I had continual encouragement by Promises till I was almost tired in waiting on them At last meeting Sir Ralph Clare in the Bishop's Chamber I desired him before the Bishop to tell me to my face if he had any thing against me which might cause all this ado He told me that I would give the Sacrament to none kneeling and that of Eighteen hundred Communicants there was not past Six hundred that were for me and the rest were rather for the Vicar I answerd That I was very glad that these words fell out to be spoken in the Bishop's hearing To the first Accusation I told him That he himself knew that I invited him to the Sacrament and offered it him kneeling and under my hand in that writing and openly in his hearing in the Pulpit I had promised and told both him and all the rest that I never had nor never would put any Man from the Sacrament on the account of kneeling but leave every one to the Posture which they should choose And that the reason why I never gave it to any kneeling was because all that came would sit or stand and those that were for kneeling only followed him who would not come unless I would administer it to him and his Party on a day by themselves when the rest were not present and I had no mind to be the Author of such a Schism and make as it were two Churches of one But especially the consciousness of notorious Scandal which they knew they must be accountable for did make many kneelers stay away And all this he could not deny And as to the second Charge there was a Witness ready to say as he for the truth is among good and bad I knew but one Man in the Town against me which was a Stranger newly come one Canderton an Attorney Steward to the Lord of Abergeveny a Papist who was Lord of the Mannor and this one Man was the Prosecutor and witnessed how many were against my Return I craved of the Bishop that I might send by the next Post to know their Minds and if that were so I would take it for a favour to be kept from thence When the People heard this at Kidderminster in a days time they gathered the hands of Sixteen hundred of the Eighteen hundred Communicants and the rest were such as were from home And
Antbony Tuckny Dr. in Divinity Iohn Conant Dr. in Divinity William Spurstow Dr. in Divinity Iohn Wallis Dr. in Divinity Thomas Manton Dr. in Divinity Edmund Calamy Batchelour in Divinity Richard Baxter Clerk Arthur Iackson Clerk Thomas Case Samuel Clark Matthew Newcomen Clerks and to our trusâ—y and well-beloved Dr. Earles Dean of Westminster Peter Heylin Dr. in Divinity Iohn Hacket Dr. in Divinity Iohn Barwick Dr. in Divinity Peter Guâ—â—ing Dr. in Divinity Iohn Pierson Dr. in Divinity Thomas Pierce Dr. in Divinity Anthony Sparrow Dr. in Divinity Herbert Thorndike Batchelour in Divinity Thomas Horton Dr. in Divinity Thomas Iacomb Dr. in Divinity William Bates Iohn Rawlinson Clerk William Cooper Clerk Dr. Iohn Lightfoot Dr. Iohn Collins Dr. Benjamin Woodbridge and William Drake Clerk Greeting Whereas by our Declaration of the Five and twentieth of October last concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs we did amongst other things express an esteem of the Liturgy of the Church of England contained in the Book of Common Prayer and yet since we find some Exceptions made against several things therein we did by our said Declaration declare we would appoint an equal number of Learned Divines of both Perswasions to review the same and to make such Alterations therein as shall be thought most necessary and some additional Forms in the Scripture phrase as near as might be suited to the nature of the several Parts of Worship we therefore in accomplishment of our said Will and Intent and of our continued and constant Care and Study for the Peace and Unity of the Churches within our Dominions and for the removal of all Exceptions and Differences and Occasions of Differences and Exceptions from amongst our good Subjects for or concerning the said Book of Common Prayer or any thing therein contained do by these our Letters Patents require authorize constitute and appoint you the said accepted Archbishop of York Gilbert Bishop of London Iohn Bishop of Durham Iohn Bishop of Rochester Henry Bishop of Chichester Humphrey Bishop of Sarum George Bishop of Worcester Robert Bishop of Lincoln Benjamin Bishop of Peterburgh Bryan Bishop of Chester Richard Bishop of Carlisle Iohn Bishop of Exeter Edward Bishop of Norwich Anthony Tuckney Iohn Conant William Spurstow Iohn Wallis Thomas manton Edmund Calamy Richard Baxter Arthur Iackson Thomas Case Samuel Clark and Matthew Newcomen to advise upon and review the said Book of Common Prayer comparing the same with the most ancient Liturgies which have been used in the Church in the primitive and purest Times And to that end to assemble and meet together from time to time and at such times within the space of four Kalender Months now next ensuing in the Masters Lodgings in the Savoy in the Strand in the County of Middlesex or in such other place or places as to you shall be thought fit and convenient to take into your serious and grave Considerations the several Directions Rules and Forms of Prayer and Things in the said Book of Common Prayer contained and to advise and consult upon and about the same and the several Objections and Exceptions which shall now be raised against the fame And if occasion be to make such reasonable and necessary Alterations Corrections and Amendments therein as by and between you and the said Archbishop Bishops Doctors and Persons hereby required and authorized to meet and advise as aforesaid shall be agreed upon to be needful or expedient for the giving Satisfaction unto tender Consciences and the restoring and continuance of Peace and Unity in the Churches under our Protection and Government But avoiding as much as may be all unnecessary Alterations of the Forms and Liturgy wherewith the People are already acquainted and have so long received in the Church of England And our will and pleasure is that when you the said Archbishop Bishops Doctors and Persons authorized and appointed by these our Letters Patents to meet advise and consult upon about the Premises aforesaid shall have drawn your Consultations to any Resolution and Determination which you shall agree upon as needful or expedient to be done for the altering diminishing â—r enlarging the said Book of Common Prayer or any part thereof that then you forthwith certifie and present unto us in Writing under your several Hands the Matters and Things whereupon you shall so determine for our Approbation And to the end the same or so much thereof as shall be approved by us may be established And forasmuch as the said Archbishop and Bishops having several great Charges to attend which we would not dispense with or that the same should be neglected upon any great occasion whatsoever and some of them being of great Age and Infirmities may not be able constantly to attend the Execution of the Service and Authority hereby given and required by us in the Meetings and Consultations aforesaid We Will therefore and do hereby require and authorize you the said Dr. Earles Peter Heylin Iohn Hacket Iohn Barwick Peter Gunning Iohn Pearson Thomas Pierce and Anthony Sparrow and Herbert Thorndike to supply the place or places of such of the said Archbishop and Bishops other than the said Edward Bishop of Norwich as shall by Age Sickness Infirmity or other occasion be hindred from attending the said Meeting or Consultations That is to say that one of you the said Dr. Earles Peter Heylin Iohn Hacket Iohn Barwick Peter Gunning Iohn Pearson Thomas Pearce Anthony Sparrow and Herbert Thorndike shall from time to time supply the Place of each one of them the said Archbishop and Bishops other than the said Edward Bishop of Norwich which shall happen to be hindred or to be absent from the said Meeting or Consultations and shall and may advise and consult and determine and also certifie and execute all and singular the Power and Authority before mentioned in and about the Premises as fully and absolutely as such Archbishop or Bishops which shall so happen to be absent should or might do by Vertue of these our Letters Patents or any thing therein contained in case he or they were personally present And whereas in regard of the Distance of some the Infirmities of others the multitude of constant Imployments and other incidental Impediments some of you the said Edward Bishop of Norwich Anthony Tuckney Iohn Conant William Spurstow Iohn Wallis Thomas Manton Edmund Calamy Rich. Baxter Arthur Iackson Thomas Case Samuel Clarke and Matthew Newcomen may be hindred from the constant Attendance in the Execution of the Service aforesaid We therefore will and do hereby require and authorize you the said Tho. Horton Thomas Iacomb William Bates Iohn Rawlinson William Cooper Iohn Lightfoot Iohn Collins Benjamin Woodbridge and William Drake to supply the Place or Places of such the Commissioners last above mentioned as shall by the means aforesaid or any other Occasion be hindred from the said Meeting and Consultations that is to say that one of you the said Thomas Horton Thomas Iacomb William Butes Iohn Rawlinson William Cooper Dr.
Consecrated Bread and Wine which is here omitted The Minister is causelesly tied to meet the Corps just at the Church Style and to use the oft-repeated Lord have Mercy upon us Christ have Mercy upon us Lord have Mercy upon us And it is a Confusion perilous to the living that we are to presume that all we bury be of one sort viz. Elect and Saved when contrarily we see multitudes die without any such Signs of Repentance as rational Charity can judge sincere It is disorder that Women be not at all required beforehand to desire any publick Prayers for their safe Deliverance and yet when they are delivered that a Thanksgiving on the Lord's Days such as is for other great Deliverances will not serve the turn without a special Office which if performed on the Lord's Day will be an Impediment or Disturbance to the publick Worship And while an inconvenient Psalms and Repetitions and Responds be used the Prayer is defective as will appear by comparing it with what we offer It is a perilous Disorder that Penance as it is called be used by notorious Sinners at a stated time the beginning of Lent which should be used rightly to restore the Person whenever he is fallen And this is not to be wished in this Disorder to be restored again no more than that Physick be given only at Lent in acute Diseases which must be medicated out of Hand In the repeating of the Curses the People should be better taught to know the difference of the Law and Gospel and then that excellent dehortation may be well used But this pertaineth to the ordinary preaching of the Word Of the Responds and the doubtful Phrase thou hatest nothing tâ—at thou hast made we have spoke before Other Omissions and Disorders appear by comparing it with what we offer We only add upon the whole these further general Remarks 1. It is a great Disorder that we have so many Prayers instead of many Petitions in one Prayer The Gravity and Seriousness requisite in our Prayers to God and the Examples left on Record in Scripture do persuade us when we have many Petitions at once to put up to God which all have a Connexion in Nature and Necessity that there should be such a Connexion of our Desires and Requests and many of them should constitute one Prayer whereas the Common-Prayer-Book in its numerous Collects doth make oft times as many Prayers as Petitions and we undecently begin with a solemn Preface and as Solemnly conclude and then begin again as if before every Petition of the Lord's Prayer we should repeat Our Father which art in Heaven and after every Petition For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory Yet we deny not that when we have but some one Particular Request to put up without Connexion with others we may then make a Prayer of that alone 2. Hence it comes to pass that the holy and reverend Name of God is made the matter of unnecessary Tautologies while half the Prayer is made up of his Attributes and Addresses to him and with Conclusions containing the Mention of his Name and Kingdom and the Merits of his Son even in holy Worship we should fear using God's Name unreverently and in vain 3. And it is a great Disorder that so much of the publick Prayers should be uttered by the People as in the Responds and that they only should put up the petitioning part while the Minister doth but suggest to them or recite the Matter of the Petitions as in the Litany seeing the Minister is by Office to be the Mouth of the People and God and Scripture intimateth that ordinarily their Part was but to say Amen and it seemeth to many sober People who are much offended at it to be a very confused and unseeâ—â— Murmur that is caused in most Congregations by the Peoples speaking Especially when in reading the Psalms the People say every second Verse which cannot be heard and understood by such as cannot read or have no Books and then the other Verse which the Minister saith is not understood because we hear not the annexed Verse which containeth part of the Sense And so the whole reading Psalms are almost as in Latin to them that cannot read themselves And that all this is really Disorder and contrary to Edification appeareth both in the Reason of the thing and in that the Prayers mentioned in Scripture are of another Order and in that they are not according to the Method of the Lord's Prayer which is the perfect Rule of Prayer in all universal Prayers which consists not of occasional Particulars and in that the most sensible experienced praying Christians find it by Experience to hinder their Edification and their Testimony should be preferred before that of ignorant unexperienced partial or ungodly Men or at least a Course taken which is agreeable to both sorts and hindereth the Edification of neither And lastly those very Men that will not reform any of this Disorder in the Liturgy do nauseate and condemn the Prayers of a weak Minister or private Christian if they have but the fourth part of the very like Disorders Repetitions Tautologies or Defects as the Liturgy hath For these Reasons a proportionable Reformation is desired Besides all forementioned there is in two months space no less than one hundred and nine Chapters of the Apocrypha appointed to be read as Lessons just in the time manner and Title as the Chapter of the holy Scriptures be even the Stories of Tobit and Iudith being part and also of Bel and the Dragon and Susanna which Protestants hold to be but Fables But those Exceptions which we actually offered to the Bishops were as follows The Exceptions against the Book of Common-Prayer ACknowledging with all humility and thankfulness his Majesty's most Princely Condescention and Indulgence to very many of his Loyal Subjects as well in his Majesty's most gracious Declaration as particularly in this present Commission issued forth in pursuance thereof we doubt not but the right Reverend Bishops and all the rest of his Majesty's Commissioners intrusted in this Work will in imitation of his Majesty's most prudent and Christian Moderation and Clemency judge it their Duty what we find to be the Apostles own Practice in a special manner to be tender of the Churches Peace to bear with the Infirmities of the weak and not to please themselves nor to measure the Consciences of other Men by the Light and Latitude of their own but seriously and readily to consider and advise of such Expedients as may most conduce to the healing of our Breaches and uniting those that differ And albeit we have an high and honourable esteem of those godly and learned Bishops and others who were the first Compilers of the publick Liturgy and do look upon it as an excellent and worthy Work for that time when the Church of England made her first step out of such a Mist of Popish Ignorance and Superstition wherein
they confuted our Proofs We told them that the End being to satisfy tender Consciences and procure Unity those tender Consciences did themselves profess that without some Alteration and that considerable too they could not be satisfied and Experience told them that Peace and Unity could not without it be attained But still they said that none was necessary and they would yield to all that we proved necessary And here we were lest in a very great Strait If we should enter upon Dispute with them we gave up the End and Hope of our endeavours If we refused it we knew that they would boast that when it came to the setting to we would not so much as attempt to prove any thing unlawful in the Liturgy nor durst dispute it with them Mr. Calamy with some others of our Brethren would have had us refuse the Motion of disputing as not tending to fulfil the King's Commands We told the Bishops over and over that they could not choose but know that before we could end one Argument in a Dispute our time would be expired and that it could not possibly tend to any Accommodation And that to keep off from personal Conference till within a few Days of the Expiration of the Commission and then to resolve to do nothing but wrangle out the time in a Dispute as if we were between jeast and earnest in the Schools was too visibly in the sight of all the World to defeat the King's Commission and the Expectations of many Thousands who longed for our Unity and Peace But we spoke to the Deaf they had other Ends and were other Men and had the Art to suit the means unto their Ends. For my part when we faw that they would do nothing else I persuaded our Brethren to yield to a Disputation with them and let them understand that we were far from fearing it seeing they would give us no hopes of Concord but withal first to profess to them that the Guilt of disappointing his Majesty and the Kingdom lay not upon us who desired to obey the King's Commission but on them And so we yielded to spend the little time remaining in disputing with them rather than go home and do nothing and leave them to tell the Court that we durst not dispute with them when they so provoked us nor were able to prove our Accusations of the Liturgy § 193. When this was resolved on we spent many Hours with them about the Order of our Disputation I offered them to spend one half of the time in the Opponents part if they would promise to do the like the other half of the time when we had done that our Disputation might be on equal Terms They refused this and answered That it belonged to us only to argue who were the Accusers and not at all to them who were on the Defence I told them it was we that are the Defendants against their Impositions They command us to do such and such things or else we shall be excommunicate silenced imprisoned and undone We desend our selves against this cruelty by calling upon them to shew their Authority from God for such Impositions Therefore we still call upon them to prove that God hath authorised them to any such thing And if they refuse this they do give up their Cause We offered first to prove the unlawfulness of their Impositious if they would afterward prove the lawfulness of them or their Power so to impose them On these Terms we stood with them about two Days and they would not yield to prove any thing at all At last I oft declared to them that we would do our part and prove their Impositions unlawful whether they would do their part or on but with an open Declaration that we took them for Deserters of their Cause At last Dr. Pierson alone undertook that he would dispute for their Part when we had performed ours and we accepted of his Undertaking § 194. Upon this seeing it was to be all done in Writing the rest of the Commissioners on both sides did choose three of a Party to manage the Dispute that the other might withdraw themselves because they had no more to do The Bishops chose Dr. Pierson Dr. Gunning and Dr. Sparrow The other side chose Dr. Bates Dr. Iacomb and my self for I never medled with the choice of any only I would â—ain have had Mr. William Moses Mr. Gibbons and Mr. Matthew Pool into the Commission that I might have had their help in Disputing because they were very quick ingenuous Men and I could not prevail The rest of our Brethren presently withdrew and not a Man of them came near us any more as supposing it contrary to the Agreement But the Bishops came some of them from day to day indeed on the second day they asked whether any more them the Disputants might be present And I answered them That we cared not how many of them were present And after that others that were not in the Commission asked whether they might be present and I told them the same So that there came Dr. Pory Dr. Crowther and almost the Room full of them with two or three Scholars and Lay-men that as Auditors came in with us Mr. Miles Mr. Tillotson c. § 195. When I began our first Argument to prove their Impositions sinful Bishop Cosins was offended at the Word sinful and told me that I condemned all the Churches of Christ who all of them imposed some Gesture or other as much as that came to and what intollerable Boldness was it in us to charge all the Churches of Christ with Sin I answered him 1. That many of the reformed Churches did not impose any such thing on their Terms that is to reject all from the Ministry and Communion that conformed not 2. It was no Arrogance nor Uncharitableness to charge all the Church and World with Sin But he that saith he hath no Sin is a Lyar In many things we offend all It is the Priviledge of the Triumphant Church to be without Sin This they stormed at and yet could not tell how to deny it Bishop Lany said That justified Persons have no Sin and are no Sinners because Iustification taketh it away But when I answered him by opening the Nature of Justification and shewing that it took not away the Sin it self but the Guilt which is the Obligation to Punishment he was confounded and unsaid all again and knew not what he said I told him that he might see how near we came to him I confessed that if the Controversy were but de Nomine and he took Justification as some do for Sanctification or a Change of our Qualities and Actions then I granted him that it took away Sin it self but not perfectly and therefore Sin still remained Here he and some more said that no Man before me ever took Justification in any such Sence and they laughed at me I answered that I was glad to hear him say so
for my fear that he symbolized with the Papists was abated now I perceived that he knew not what they held And Dr. Gunning answered against him and said that the Papists do so use the Word I went on and told him That I also granted that a Man for a certainspace might he without any Act of Sin end as I was proceeding here Bishop Morley interrupted me according to his manner with vehemency crying out what can any Man be for any time without Sin And he founded out his Aggravations of this Doctrine and then cryed to Dr. Bates what say you Dr. Bates is this your Opinion Saith Dr. Bates I believe that we are all Sinners but I pray my Lord give him leave to speak I began to go on to the rest of my Sentence where I lest to shew the Sense and Truth of my Words and the Bishop whether in Passion or Design I know not interrupted me again and mouthed out the odiousness of my Doctrine again and again I attempted to speak and still he interrupted me in the same manner Upon that I sat down and told him that this was neither agreeable to our Commission nor the common Laws of Disputation nor the Civil Usage of Men in common Converse and that if he prohibited me to speak I desired him to do it plainly and I would â—â—sist and not by that way of interruption He told me I had speaking enough if that were good for I spake more than any one in the Company And thus he kept me so long from uttering the rest of my Sentence that I sat down and gave over and told him I took it for his Prohibition At last I let him talk and spake to those nearer me which would hear me and told them that this was it that I was going to say That I granted Bishop Lany that it was possible to be free from acting Sin for a certain time that so he might have no matter of Objection against me and that the Instances of my Concession were these 1. In the time of absolute Infancy 2. In the time of total Fatuity or Madness as natural Ideots that never had the use of Reason 3. In the time of a Lethargy Carus or Apoplexy or Epilepsie 4. In the time of lawful sleep when a Man doth not so much as dream amiss And whether any other Instances might be given I determined not But as I talked thus Bishop Morley went on talking louder than I and would neither hear me nor willingly have had me to have been heard Behind me at the lower end of the Table stood Dr. Crowther and he would consute me and I defended Dr. Lany in that Ieroboam made Israel to Sin What gather you thence quoth I that they had no Sin but that or never sumed before He answered yes and with a little Nonsence would defend it that Israel sinned not till then When I had proved the contrary to him in the general Acceptation of the Word Sin I told him that if he took the Word Figuratively the Genus for a Species I granted him that they sinned not that Species of Sin which Ieroboam taught them which is in the Text emphatically called Sin If he meant that they sinned no Sin of Idolatry or no National Sin till then It was not true and if it were it was nothing to our Question which was about Sin in the General or indefinitely He told me they Sinned no National Sin till then I asked him whether the Idolatry the Unbelief the Murmuring c. by which all the Nation save Caleb and Ioshua fell in the Wilderness and the Idolatry for which in the time of the Judges the Nation was conquered and captivated were none of them National Sins I give the Reader the Instance if this Odious kind of Talk to shew him what kind of Men we talkt with and what a kind of Task we had § 196. And a little further touch of it I shall give you When I beg'd their Compassion on the Souls of their Brethren and that they would not unnecessarily cast so many out of the Ministry and their Communion Bishop Cosins told me that we threatned them with Numbers and for his part he thought the King should do well to make us name them all A charitable and wise Motion To name all the Thousands of England that dissented from them and that had sworn the Covenant and whom they would after Persecute § 197. When I read in the Preface to our Exceptions against the Liturgy That after twenty years Calamity they would not yield to that which several Bishops voluntarily offered twenty Years before meaning the Corrections of the Liturgy offered by Archbishop Usher Archbishop Williams Bishop Morton Dr. Prideaux and many others Bishop Cosins answered me That we threatned them with a new War and it was time for the King to look to us I had no shelter from the Fury of the Bishop but to name Dr. Hammond and tell him that I remembred Dr. Hammond insisted on the same Argument that twenty Years Calamity should have taught Men more Charity and brought them to repentance and Brotherly Love and that it is an Aggravation of their Sin to be unmerciful after so long and heavy Warnings from God's Hand He told me if that were our meaning it was all well And these were the most logical Discourses of that Bishop § 198. Among all the Bishops there was none who had so promising a Face as Dr. Sterne the Bishop of Carlisle He look'd so honestly and gravely and soberly that I scarce thought such a Face could have deceived me and when I was intreating them not to cast out so many of their Brethren through the Nation as scrupeled a Ceremony which they confess'd indifferent he turn'd to the rest of the Reverend Bishops and noted me for saying in the Nation He will not say in the Kingdom saith he lest he own a King This was all that ever I heard that worthy Prelate say But with grief I told him that half the Charity which became so grave a Bishop might have sufficed to have helpt him to a better Exposition of the Word Nation from the Mouths of such who have to lately taken the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and sworn Fidelity to the King as his Chaplains and had such Testimonies from him as we have had and that our case was sad if we could plead by the King's Commission for Accommodation upon no no better Terms than to be noted as Traytors every time we used such a Word as the Nation which all monarchical Writers use § 199. Bishop Morley earnestly pleaded my own Book with me my fifth Disput. as he had done before the King And I still told him I went not from any thing in it He vehemently aggravated the mischiefs of Conceived Prayer in the Church and when I told him that all the Action of Men would be imperfect while Men were imperfect and that the other side also had its
inconveniences he asked me whether I thought the inconveniences of Extemporary Prayer were not rather to be avoided than those of imposed Forms I told him that we should do our best to avoid the evils or abuse of both He asked me how that should be I answered him not by disclaiming the use of Forms or of conceived Prayer but using both in their proper seasons And as I was going on the Company fell into a laughter at me as if I had spoken for some foolish thing when I spoke but for that which the Ministers of England have used ever since the Reformation and most that have any Zeal do use by their allowance to this day praying Extempore in the Pulpit § 200. I oft made it my earnest request to them but that we might have our proper turns in speaking and that we might not interrupt one another but stay the end but I could never prevail especially with Bishop Morley who when any thing was spoken which he would not have to be spoken out would presently interrupt me and go on in his way I told them that if they took this Course I judged all our Conference fruitless to the hearers for my Speeches were not incoherent but the end and middle must be joyned to the beginning to make up the sence and that as the End is first in the intention but last in execution so I usually reserved the chief part of what I had to say to the last to which the beginning was but preparatory And therefore I had rather they forbad me to speak any more◠than let me begin and then not suffer me to go on any further The Bishop answered that I spake so long and had so many things that their memories could not retain them all and should lose the first if they stayed till the last and that I spake more than any other I told him that as to my speaking more than others it was my duty yea to speak as much as all the rest except when my Brethren saved me that labour If they thought I spake too much they would tell me so And for others one side was to speak as oft as the other side If we had consented that they should fill the room when we were but Three and then every one in the Room should speak as much as one of us we had made a fair bout of it I cared not how many of them spake if they were but willing to be answered But if five of them must speak and but one of them be answered they would say that all the rest were unanswerable And for my length I told him that we consented that one of themselves should be always in the Chair as they had been and whenever the Chair-man interrupted me and told me I had spoken long enough I was willing to be silent but that was never done or let us turn the Quarter-Glass and see that one speak no longer than the other And for the weakness of their memories I supposed they were on equal Terms It was as hard for us to remember what they said and if we could not we would either take Notes or ask another or pass by what we forgot rather than overthrow all Order in Discourse and speak in Confusion like People in a Fair. And for my part I thought that a continued Speech without vain words doth best spare time seeing that when I may thus set all the parts of my sence together when the broken parcels signifie nothing I can better make known my meaning in a Speech of half a quarter of an hour than in two days rambling Discourses where Interruptions and Interlocutions toss us up and down from thing to thing and never let us see the sence and reason of each others in that Connexion and Harmony which is its Light and Strength But all these words were cast away and they had seldom Patience to forbear an Interruption § 201. One learned Doctor behind me that was no Commissioner desired to be heard as if he had some unanswerable Argument And it was a Question Whether all that scrupled Conformity whom we pleaded for were not such as had been against the King I answered him 1. That the King himself had given sufficient Testimony of many of them 2. That there is not one Minister of twenty that we plead for that had ever any thing to do in the Wars or against the King most of them being then Boys at School or in the University 3. That Men on both sides had been against the King Hereupon Bishop Morley asked me whether ever I knew a conformable Man for the Parliament against the King Yes my Lord quoth I many a one Name one quoth some of them Yes a Bishop yea an Archbishop quoth I At which they all hearkened as at a wonder Do you not know quoth I that the Archbishop of York Dr. Williams sometime Lord Keeper of England was a Commander of the Forces for the Parliament in Wales At which they were silent and that Argument was at an end § 202. When I told them that if they cast out all the Non-conformits there would not be tolerable Ministers enow to supply the Congregations Bishop Morley answered that so it was in the late Times and that some Places had no Ministers at all through all those Times of Usurpation and named Aylesbury which he knew to have had none upon his own knowledge I told him that I never knew any such and therefore I knew there were not many such in England And if it were so I hoped that he would not plead for such a Mischief by the Example of the Usurpers But since I have enquired of the Inhabitants about Aylesbury and they unamously professed that it was notoriously false and named me the Ministers that had been there successively and usually two at once § 203. Also the said Bishop when I talkt of silencing Ministers for things indifferent told me That we should remember how we did by them and that we talkt not then as now we do I answered him That I was confident there was no Man there present that had ever a hand in silencing any of them For my own parts I had been in Judgment for casting out the utterly Insufficient and notoriously Scandalous indifferently of what Opinion or Side foever but I had publickly written against the silencing or displacing any worthy Man for being against the Parliament And if it had been otherwise he should take warning by others Faults and not imitate them and do evil because Cromwell did so § 204. Upon this Dr. Walton Bishop of Chester said Indeed Mr. Baxter did write against the Casting of us out But Mr. Baxter did not you say That if our Churches had no more than bare Liberty as others had without the compulsion of the Sword that none but Drunkards would joyn in them I answered No my Lord I did not I only said that as they had been ordered if they had but
equal liberty for Volunteers they would be like Aleâ—houses where many honest Men may come but the number of worse Comers is so great as maketh it dishonourable There is no impleading Mens Writings unless the Book be opened and the words and context well perused § 205. Dr. Bates urged Dr. Gunning that on the fame reasons that they so imposed the Gross and Surplice they might bring in Holy Water and Lights and abundance of such Ceremonies of Rome which we have cast out He answered Yea and so I think we ought to have more and not fewer if we do well or to that fence § 206. They told us of the Antiquiry of Liturgies And I earnestly intreated them to let true Antiquity be imitated by them and desired any of them to prove that ever any Prince did impose one Form of Prayer or Liturgy for Uniformity on all the Churches in his Dominions Yea or upon any one Province or Country under them Or that ever any Council Synod or Patriarchs or Metropolitans did impose one Liturgy on all the Bishop and Churches under them I proved to them not only from the instances of Basil and the Church of Naeocesarea but others that every Bishop then chose what Forms he pleased for his own Church They could deny none of all this But Antiquity is nothing to them when it makes against them § 207. Towards the end of our Meetings Bishop Cosins taking the Chair told us That a very worthy Person had offered unto his Superiours a Paper containing the way to our Reconciliation which he thought so reasonable and sit that he desired us to take them into our Consideration and so delivered me the Paper I asked him from whom he expected an Answer He said from me I told him that he might well know that I would enter upon no new Debates without the Consent of my Brethern present and whether they would meddle in it and undertake new Work without the Consent of our Brethern who are absent I could not tell especially when long and wandering Discourses had already taken up almost all our time But upon perusal of the Paper I perceived that it was a cunning Snare for us but advised our Brethern present that we might promise them an Answer by the next Morning but only in the name of us three and that our Brethern absent should not be judged to be concerned in it This I the rather did because I perceived it came by the notice of some above us who would enquire after it and that an Answer in Writing would be a better spending of our time than that rambling Discourse which there we spent it in where a multitude of Men would needs speak and yet would be angry if they were answered The Paper with the Answer is as follows The Paper offered by Bishop Cosins as from some considerable Person A way humbly proposed to end that unhappy Controversie which is now managed in the Church that the Sore may no longer rankle under the Debate nor Advantages be got by those that love Division 1. THat the Question may be put to the Managers of the Division Whether there be any thing in the Doctrine or Discipline or the Common Prayer or Ceremonies contrary to the Word of God and if they can make any such appear let them be satisfied 2. If not let them then propose what they desire in point of Expediency and acknowledge it to be no more 3. Let that then be received from them and speedily taken into the Consideration and Iudgment of the Convocation who are the proper and authentick Representatives of the Ministry in whose Iudgment they ought to acquiesce in such Matters and not only so but to let the People that follow them know that they ought not to disturb the Peace of the Church under the pretence of the Prosecution of Expediency since the Division of the Church is the great Inexpedient The Answer to the foresaid Paper Right Reverend C. AS it was your desire that we should return an Answer to these Three Proposals only in our own Names who are but Three so we must here profess therefore that it is not to be taken as the Act of the rest of our Brethren the Commissioners but as part of the Conference to which we are deputed And though we are the Managers of the Treaty for Pacification or Agreement and not the Managers of the Division and therefore cannot take our selves to be the Persons meant by the Author of the Proposals yet we are glad to take the opportunity of your invitation to profess that the principal part of these Proposals is so Rational Regular and Christian-like that we not only approve of but should be fully satisfied as to the Debates before us with the real grant of the first alone and not be wanting in our Duty according to our Understanding and Ability in endeavouring to accomplish the Ends of your Desires in the rest More particularly Ad 1 m Though we find by your Papers and Conference that in your own personal Doctrines there is something that we take to be against the Word of God and perceive that we understand not the Doctrine of the Church in all things alike yet we find nothing contrary to the Word of God in that which is indeed the Doctrine of the Church as it comprehendeth the Matters of Faith distinct from Matter of Discipline Ceremonies and Modes of Worship As to Discipline there was given into his Majesty before his Declaration came forth a Summary of what we think to be contrary to the Word of God which we shall more fully give in to you or any others whenever we are 〈◊〉 called to it For the Common Prayer and Ceremonies we have in our Exceptions and Reply delivered you an Account of what we take to be unlawful and inconvenient And we humbly crave that our Reasons may be yet impartially considered At present we shall humbly offer you our Judgment concerning the following Particulars and profess our readiness to make it good when we are called to it It is contrary to the Word of God 1. That no Minister be admitted to Baptize without the prescribed use of the Transient Image of the Cross. 2. That no Minister be permitted to read or pray or exercise the other parts of his Office that dare not wear a Surplice 3. That none be admitted in Communion to the Lord's Supper that dare not receive it kneeling and that all Ministers be enjoyned to deny it to such 4. That Ministers be forced to pronounce all baptized Infants to be Regenerate by the Holy Ghost whether they be the Children of Christians or not 5. That Ministers be forced to deliver the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ unto the unfit both in their Health and Sickness and that with personal application putting it into their hands and that such are forced to receive it though against their own wills in the Conscience of their Impenitency 6. That Ministers
be forced to Absolve the unfit and that in absolute Expressions 7. That they are forced to give thanks for all whom they Bury as Brethren whom God in mercy hath delivered and taken to himself 8. That none may be a Preacher that dare not Subscribe that there is nothing in the Common Prayer Book the Book of Ordination and the Nine and thirty Articles that is contrary to the Word of God These are most of the things which we judge contrary to the Word of God which at present come to our remembrance So we humbly desire that whenever you would have us give you a full enumeration of such we may have leave to consult with the rest of our Brethren and deliver it to you by our Common Consent And we humbly crave that all these Points may be taken into serious Consideration and those of them which we have not yet debated we are ready to debate and give in our Arguments whenever we are called to it to prove them all contrary to the Word of God And may we be so happy as to have this Proposal granted us we shall undoubtedly have Unity and Peace Ad 2 m We suppose according to the Laws of distinguishing you speak in this second Proposal of all things so inexpedient as not to be contrary to the Word of God Otherwise the greatest Sins may be committed by inexpediences As a Physician may murder a Man by giving him inexpedient Medicines and a General may destroy his Army by inexpedient ways of Conduct and Defence And the Pastor may be guilty of the Damnation of his People by Doctrines and Applications inexpedient and unsuitable to their state And a way of worship may be so inexpedient as to be sinful and loathsom unto God such is the Battology or thinking to be heard for affected Repetitions or Bablings Pharisaical Thanksgivings that Men are better than indeed they are with abundance such like But supposing that you here speak of no such inexpedient things but such as are not contrary to the Word of God We add Ad 3 m We are thankful that in such Matters we may have leave to make any such Proposals as are here mentioned but we shall not be forward to busie ourselves and trouble others about such little things without a Special Call If the Convocation at any time desire an account of our Thoughts about such Matters we shall readily produce them And for acquiescing in their Judgments in such Matters what we Three do in that point is but of small consequence And for others seeing the Ministers that we speak for were many Hundreds of them displaced or removed before the advice of the Convocation and others denied their Votes because not Ordained by Diocesans and others not approving the Constitution of our Convocations durst not meddle in the choice We cannot tell how far they will think themselves obliged by the Determination of this Convocation But this can be no matter of impediment to your Satisfaction or ours For we are commonly agreed that we are bound in Conscience to obey the King and all his Magistrates in all lawful things and with Christian patience to suffer what he inflicteth on us for not obeying in things unlawful And therefore while we acquiesce thus far in the Judgment of those who must make the Decrees of the Convocation to be civilly obligatory and the King intendeth to take their Advice before he determine of such Matters It is all one as to the end as if we directly did thus far acquiesce in the Judgment of the Convocation if the King approve it But if the King and Parliament dissent or disallow the Convocation's Judgment as it is possible they may have cause to do would you have us acquiesce in it when King and Parliament do not And for the last part of the Proposal by God's Assistance if you do not silence or disable us we are resolved faithfully to teach the People that the Division of the Church is worse than inexpedient and the Peace of it not to be disturbed for the avoiding of any such inexpediences as are not contrary to the Word of God We conclude with the Repetition of our more earnest Request That these wise and moderate Proposals may be prosecuted and all things be abated us which we have proved or shall prove to be contrary to the Word of God But if we agree not on those things among our selves according to his Majesty's Commission the World may know we did our parts When the Liberty of using the Alterations and Additional Forms which were offered to you according to his Majesty's Declaration would end all our Differences about Matters of Worship And when you have had them in your hands so long since you called for them and have not notwithstanding the Importunity of our Requests vouchsafed us any Debates upon them or Exceptions against them but are pleased to lay them by in silence We once more propose to you Whether the granting of what you cannot blame be not now the shortest and the surest way to a general Satisfaction Note here That I offered to my Brethren two more Particulars as contrary to the Word of God which were 1. That none may have leave in Publick Worship to use a more suitable orderly way but all are confined to this Liturgy which is so defective and disorderly which we are even now ready to manifest if you will receive it 2. That none may be a Minister of the Gospel that dare not subject himself by an Oath of Obedience to the Diocesans in that State of Government which they exercised in this Land contrary to the practice of all Antiquity These Ten Things I offered as contrary to the Word of God but the two Brethren with me thought these two last were better left out lest they occasion new Debates though they judged them true § 208. When I read and delivered these Papers the Bishops were much displeased that I should charge so many things on the Church as Sins Where you may note the marvellous oscitancy of these men that when they had treated with us so long and received so many large Exceptions and Replys and in all had heard us open the sinfulness of their way they should yet imagine that we had accused their way but of inexpediency and think to gratifie themselves by such a poor device But their main design was to divide us while they set us upon distinguishing all their sins from their inexpediences and they thought that one would take that for inexpedient only which others took to be sin And they considered not that we were now treating what should be imposed and not what should be obeyed if it were imposed and that we would charge Sin upon their Impositions in many points which might lawfully be done when Imposed rather than to forsake the Churches And if I did the Church any Service in all these Debates it was principally by frustrating their evil design of dividing us so
his Discources Of Dr. Pierce I will say no more because he hath said so much of me On our part Dr. Bates spake very solidly judiciously and pertinently when he spake And for my self the reason why I spake so much was because it was the desire of my Brethren and I was loth to expose them to the hatred of the Bishops but was willinger to take it all upon my self they themselves having so much wit as to be therein more sparing and cautelous than I and I thought that the Day and Cause commanded me those two things which then were objected against me as my Crimes viz. speaking too boldly and too long And I thought it a Cause that I could comfortably suffer for and should as willingly be a Martyr for Charity as for Faith § 237. When this Work was over the rest of our Brethren met again and resolved to draw up an Account of our Endeavours and present it to his Majesty with our Petition for his promised help yet for those Alterations and Abatements which we could not procure of the Bishops And that first we should acquaint the Lord Chancellour withal and consult with him about it Which we did and as soon as we came to him according to my expectation I found him most offended at me and that I had taken off the distaste and blame from all the rest At our first entrance he merily told us That if I were but as fat as Dr. Manton we should all do well I told him if his Lordship could teach me the Art of growing fat he should find me not unwilling to learn by any good means He grew more serious and said That I was severe and strict like a Melancholy Man and made those things Sin which others did not And I perceived he had been possessed with displeasure towards me upon that account that I charged the Church and Liturgy with Sin and had not supposed that the worlt was but inexpendiency I told him that I had spoken nothing but what I thought and had given my Reasons for After other such Discourse we craved his Favour to procure the King's Declaration yet to be past into an Act and his Advice what we had further to do He consented that we should draw up an Address to his Majesty rendering him an account of all but desired that we would first shew it him which we promised § 238. When we shewed our Paper to the Lord Chancellour which the Brethren had desired me to draw up and had consented to without any alteration he was not pleased with some Passages in it which he thought too pungent or pressing but would not bid us put them out So we went with it to the Lord Chamberlain who had heard from the Lord Chancellor about it and I read it to him also and he was earnest with us to bloe out some Passages as too vehement and such as would not well be born I was very loth to leave them out but Sir Gilbirt Gerrard an ancient godly Man being with him and of the same mind I yielded having no remedy and being unmeer to oppose their Wisdoms any further And so what they Scored under we left out and presented the rest to his Majesty afterwards But when we came to present it the Earl of Manchester secretly told the rest that if Dr. Reignolds Dr. Bates and Dr. Manton would deliver it it would be the more acceptable intimating that I was grown unacceptable at Court But they would not go without me and he profest he desired not my Exclusion But when they told me of it I took my leave of him and was going away But he and they came after me to the Stairs and importuned me to return and I went with them to take my Farewel of this Service But I resolved that I would not be the Deliverer of any of our Papers though I had got them transcribed and brought them thither So we desired Dr. Manton to deliver our Petition and with it the fair Copies of all our Papers to the Bishops which was required of us for the King And when Bishop Reignolds had spoken a few words Dr. Manton delivered them to the King who received them and the Petition but did not bid us read it at all At last in his Speeches something fell in which Dr. Monton told him that the Petition gave him a full account of if his Majesty pleased to give him leave to read it whereupon he had leave to read it out The occassion was a short Speech which I made to inform his Majesty how far we were agreed with the Bishops and wherein the difference did not lye as in the Points of Loyalty Obedience Church Order c. This Dr. Monton also spake And the King but the Question But who shall be Iudge And I answered him That Judgment is either publick or private Private Judgement called Discretionis which is but the use of my Reason to conduct my Actions belongeth to every private rational Man Publick Iudgment is Ecclesiastical or Civil and belongeth accordingly to the Ecclesiastical Governours or Pastors and the Civil and not to any private Man And this was the end of these Affairs § 239. I will give you the Copy of the Petition just as I drew it up because 1. Here you may see what those words were which could not be tolerated 2. Because it is but supposing the under-scored Lines to be blotted out and you have it as it was presented without any Alteration For those under scored Lines were all the words that were left out To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The due Account and humble Petition of us Ministers of the Gospel lately Commissioned for the Review and Alteration of the Liturgy May it please your Majesty WHen this distempered Nation wearied with its own Contentions and Divisions did groan for Unity and Peace the wonderful Providence of the most Righteous God appearing for the removal of Impediments their Eyes were upon your Majesty as the Person born to be under God the Center of their Concord and taught by Affliction to break the Bonds of the Afflicted and by Experience of the lad Effects of Mens Uncharitableness and Passions to restrain all from Violence and Extremities and keeping Moderation and Mediocrity the Oyl of Charity and Peace And when these your Subjects Desires were accomplished in your Majesty's peaceable possession of your Throne it was the Joy and Encouragement of the Sober and Religions that you began the Exercise of your Government with a Proclaimation full of Christian Zeal against Debauchery and Prophaneness declaring also your dislike of those who under pretence of affection to your Majesty and your Service assume to themselves the liberty of Reviling Threatning and Reproaching others to prevent that Reconciliation and Union of Hearts and Affections which can only with God's Blessing make us rejoyce in each other Our Comforts also were carried on by your Majesty's early and ready Entertainment of
seeing it is but supposing them to be Men not yet in Heaven and this may be impured to every one that differeth in Opinion from another And we beseech your Majesty to believe that as we seek no greater Matters in the World than our daily bread with Liberty to preach the Gospel and Worship God according to his Word and the practise of the Primitive purest Church so we hope it is not through pusillanimity and overmuch tenderness of Suffering that we have pleaded so much for the avoiding of Suffering to our Selves or others May none of our Sufferings hinder the Prosperity of the Church and the good of Souls of Men May not our dread Soveraign the Breath of our Nostrils be tempted by mis-representations to distast such as are faithful and unawares to wrong the interest of Christ and put forth his hand to afflict those that Christ would have him cherist left their Head should be provoked to jealousie and offence May not the Land of our Nativity languish in Divisions nor be filled with the Groans of those that are shut out of the holy Assemblies and those that want the necessary breaking of the Bread of Life Nor be disappointed of its expected Peace and Ioy Let not these things befall us and we have enough And we suppose those that think the Persons inconsiderable in number and quality for whom we plead will not themselves believe that we have done this for Popular Applause This were not so much to seek the Reward of Hypocrites as to play the Game of Fools seeing the Applause of inconsiderable Men can be but inconsiderable and we know our selves that we are like thus to offend those that are not inconsiderable The Lord that searcheth hearts doth know that it is not so much the avoiding of Suffering to our selves or any particular Persons that is the end of our Endeavours though this were no ambitious end as the Peace and Welfare of the Church and Kingdoms under your Majesty's Government We know that supposing them that are for the Ceremonies to be as pious and charitable as the rest it cannot so much offend them that another Man forbeareth them as it must offend that other to be forced to use them and we know that consciencious Men will not consent to the practice of things in their Judgments unlawful when those may yield that count the Matters but indifferent And for the management of this Treaty it being agreed at our first meeting that nothing be reported as the Words or Sence of either Part but what is by them delivered in writing we humbly crave that your Majesty receive no more as ours and that where is charged on any particular Person he may be answerable for himself And though the Reverend Bishops have not had time to consider of our Additions to the Liturgy and of our Reply that yet they may be considered before a Determination be made And though we seem to have laboured in vain we shall yet lay this Work of Reconciliation and Peace at the feet of your Majesty beseeching you to prosecute such a blessed Resolution till it attain success We must needs believe that when your Majesty took our Consent to a Liturgy to be a Foundation that would infer our Concord you meant not that we should have no Concord but by consenting to this Liturgy without any considerable Alteration And when you comforted us with your Resolution to draw us together by yielding on both sides in what we could you meant not that we should be the Boat and they the Bank that must not stir And when your Majesty commanded us by your Letters Patents to treat about such Alterations as are needful or expedient for giving Satisfaction to tender Consciences and the restoring and continuance of Peace and Unity we rest assured that it was not your sence that those render Consciences were to be forced to practise all which they judged unlawful and not so much as a Ceremony abated them Or that our Treaty was only to convert either part to the Opinion of the other and that all our Hopes of Concord or Liberty consisted only in Disputing the Bishops into Nonconformity or coming in every Ceremony to their minds Finally as your Majesty under God is the Protection whereto your People flie and as the same Necessities still remain which drew forth your gracious Declaration we most humbly and earnestly beseech your Majesty that the Benefits of the said Declaration may be continued to your People and in particular That none be punished or troubled for not using the Common Prayer till it be effectually reformed and the Additions made as there expressed We crave your Majesty's pardon for the tediousness of this Address and shall wait in hope that so great a Calamity of your People as would follow the loss of so many able faithful Ministers as rigorous Impositions would cast out shall never be Recorded in the History of your Reign but than these Impediments of Concord being forborn your Kingdoms may flourish in Piety and Peace and this may be the signal Honour of your happy Government and your Joy in the Day of your Accounts Which is the Prayer of Your Majesty's Faithful and Obedient Subjects § 240. And in the Conclusion of this Business seeing we could prevail with these Prelates and Prelatical Men after so many Calamities by Divisions and when they pretended Desires of Unity to make no considerable Alterations at all the Reason of it seeming unsearchable to some was by others confidently conjectured to be these 1. They extremly prejudic'd the Persons that sought this Peace and therefore were glad of means to cast them out and ruin them 2. The Effects of the Parliament's Conquest had exasperated them to the height 3. They would not have any Reformation or Change to occasion Men to think that ever they were in an Errour or that their Adversaries had reasonably desired or had procured a Reformation 4. Some confidently thought that a secret Resolution to unite with the Papists at least as high as the old Design which Heylin owneth in Laud's Life was the greatest cause of all And that they would never have lost so great a Party as they did but to gain a greater at home and abroad together § 241. And here because they would abate us nothing at all considerable but made things far harder and heavier than before I will annex the Concessions of Archbishop Usher Archbishop Williams Bishop Morton Bishop Holdsworth and many others in a Committee at Westminster before mentioned 1641. A Copy of the Proceedings of some Worthy and Learned Divines touching Innovations in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England Together with Considerations upon the Common Prayer Book Innovations in Doctrine 1. Quaere WHether in the Twentieth Article these Words are not inserted Habet Ecclesia authoritatem in Controversiis fidei 2. It appears by Stetfords and the approbation of the Licensers that some do teach and preach That Good
fourth sort are the Independents who are for the most part a serious godly People some of them moderate going with Mr. Norton and the New-England Synod and little differing from the moderate Presbyterians and as well ordered as any Party that I know But others of them more raw and self-conceited and addicted to Separations and Divisions their Zeal being greater than their Knowledge who have opened the Door to Anabaptists first and then to all the other Sects These Sects are numerous some tolerable and some intolerable and being never incorporated with the rest are not to be reckoned with them Many of them the Behmâ—nists Fifth-Monarchy-men Quakers and some Anabaptists are proper Fanaticks looking too much to Revelations within instead of the Holy Scriptures And thus I have truly told you of all the Sorts among us except the Papists who are sufficiently known and are no more of us than the other Sects are The Atheists and Infidels I name not because as such they have no Pastors § 286. Next it will not be amiss if I briefly give you the Sum of their several Causes and the Reasons of their several Ways I. The Conformists go several Wâ—ys according to their forementioned Differences 1. Those that are high Prelatists say 1. For Episcopacy it is of Divine Institution and perpetual Usage in the Church and necessary to Order among the Clergy and People and of experienced Benefit to this Land and most congruous to Civil Monarchy and therefore not to be altered by any no not by the King and Parliament if they should swear it Therefore the Oath called the Et caetera Oath was formed before the War to Swear all Men to be true to this Prelacy and not to Change it 2. Those that are called Conforming Presbyterians and Latitudinarians both say that our Prelacy is lawful though not necessary and that Mr. Edward Stillingfleet's Irenicon hath well proved That no Form of Church Government is of Divine Institution And therefore when the Magistrate commandeth any he is to be obeyed But since they grew up to Preferment they grow to be hot for the Prelacy § 287. And therefore as to the Covenant they all say 1. That the End of it was Evil viz. To Change the Government of the Church without Law which was setled by Law 2. That the Efficient Cause was Evil or Null viz. That the Imposers had no Authority to do it 3. That the Matter was Evil viz. to extirpate and change the Government of the Church by Rebellion and Combination against the King 4. That the Swearers Act in taking it was sinful for the foresaid Reasons 5. That the King's Prohibition and disowning it did nullifie all the Subjects Obligations if any were upon them by virtue of Numb 30. 6. That the People being all Subjects cannot endeavour the Change of Church Government without the King 7. That King Charles took not that same Covenant but another 8. That he was forced to it 9. That he was virtually pre-engaged to the contrary Matter in that he was Heir of the Crown and bound to take the Coronation Oath 10. That to cast so many Men as the Bishops out of all their Honours and Possessions is Injustice which none can be obliged to do 11. That if it were lawful before to endeavour an Alteration of the Government of the Church yet now it is not when King and Parliament have made a Law against it These are Mr. Fulwood's and Mr. Stileman's Pleas and the Sum of all that I have heard as to that Point § 288. But further as to the Interpretation of the Words of the Declaration hereabouts the Latitudinarians and Conforming Presbyterians and some of the Prelatists say as followeth 1. That the Declaration includeth not the King when it saith There is no obligation on me or any other person which they prove because that Laws are made only for Subjects and therefore are to be interpreted as speaking only of Subjects 2. Because the King is meant in the Counterpart or Object viz the Government of the State which is not to be altered 2. They say that it is only Rebellions or other unlawful Endeavours that are meant by the words to Endeavour 3. They say that by any Alteration is meant only any Essential Alteration and not any Integral or Accidental Alteration of the Government 4. And the leading Independents have taught them also to say that this Covenant was essentially a League between two Nations upon a certain occasion which therefore if ever it did bind is now like an Almanack out of date Et cessat obligatio cessantibus personis materiâ fine 5. They principally argue that all Mens words are to be taken charitative in the most honest and favourable sence that they will bear much more the King 's and Parliaments Therefore Charity permitteth us not to judge them so inhuman irrational irreligious and cruel as to command Men to be perjured and to change the constituted Government by prohibiting King Parliament or People to do any thing which belonged to them in their places These are the Reasons for the lawfulness of declaring against the Obligation of the Covenant § 289. 3. In the same Declaration it is professed That it is not lawful on any pictente whatsoever to take up Arms against the King or any Commissionated by him c. Concerning this they are also divided among themselves One Party say That this is true universally in the proper sence of the words The other say That it is to be understood of such as are legally Commissioned by him only and that if he should Commission two or three Men or more to kill the Parliament or burn the City or to dispossess Men of their Freeholds it were lawful forcibly to resist Or if the Sheriff be to raise the Posse Comitatus in obedience to a Decree of a Court of Justice to put a Man into possession of his House he may do it forcibly though the Defendant be Commissioned by the King to keep it Because they say that the Law is to be taken sano sensu and not as may lay the Law-givers under so heavy an Accusation as the literal unlimited sence would do § 290. 4. The fourth Matter of Difference being the Oath of Canonical Obedience they here also differ among themselves 1. Some of them think that as the Necessity of Monarchy and our Relation to the King doth make the Oath of Allegiance necessary or very meet so the Necessity of Prelacy and our Relation to the Prelates doth make the Oath of Obedience to them justifiable and meet For that which must be done may be promised and sworn 2. Others of them say That it is only to the Bishops as Magistrates or Officers of the King that we swear to them 3. And others say That as we may be subject to any Man in humility so we may promise or swear it to any Man And it being but in licit 〈◊〉 honestis that what we may
Guilt of the Division caused by it But when they are Imposed we may do that which in it self is lawful without any consent to the Imposition at all Yea and that which as imposed tendeth to Division may upon supposition that it will be and is imposed be practised sometimes as the way to Unity and to avoid Division § 310. 7. Lastly it is said That the Necessity which is pretended for this Conformity is none at all For 1. As to a Necessity of Communion with the Church Catholick it requireth not Personal Local Communion with each particular Congregation but that at a distance we own them so far as they are to be owned 2. And for the Escaping of Punishment from Men there is no necessity of it nor yet of our Personal Liberty to preach the Gospel when we cannot do it upon lawful Terms But to this the moderate Nonconformists say That 1. our Catholick Communion requireth that we in Judgment or Practice separate from no Church of Christ which forceth us not to sin but hold Communion with them as we have a Call and Opportunity And that we must not separate from one upon a Cause that is common to almost all 2. That though there be no Necessity of our escaping Persecution nor any absolute Necessity of our Personal Preaching yet there is of this last an ordinate Hypothetical Necessity laid upon us by God himself and wo to us if we preach not when we may So that you see that these general Reasons which some Nonconformists extend to all the moderate allow only as Seconds against those things which first are proved unlawful § 311. I. For the particular Controversie about Diocesans 1. Some of the Nonconformists are against all Bishops as distinct from Presbyters by any other than a Temporary Presidency or Moderatorship But the most of them of my Acquaintance are for the lawfulness of some stated Episcopacy that is that there be fixed Presidents or Bishops in every particular Church they take to be lawful as of Humane Constitution and Ecclesiastical Custom contrary to no Law of God 2. That there be more general Overseers of many of these Bishops and Churches as the Apostles were though without their extraordinary Call and Priviledges they think also lawful if not in some fort of Divine Institution 1. Because Church-Government being an ordinary standing work in that the Apostles were to have Successors 2. Because they think it incredible if the Apostles had been against particular Primitive Episcopacy that no Church or Person would have been found on Record to have born witness against it till it had been so universally received by all the Churches But they are all agreed that the English Diocesan Frame of Government and so the Popish Prelacy is unlawful and of dangerous tendency in the Churches And that this Controversie may be understood the English Frame must here be opened § 312. There are in England two Archbishops and under one of them four Bishops and under the other One and twenty Bishops In all Five and twenty Bishops with Two Archbishops Every Bishop hath a Cathedral Church which is no Parish Church nor hath any People appropriated to it as Parishioners But a Dean with a Chapter of Prebends or Canons are the Preachers to it and Governours of I know not whom In some Bishopricks are Three hundred some Four hundred some Five hundred some One thousand some Twelve hundred Parishes and some more In the greatest Parishes of London are about Threescore thousand Souls as Martyns Stepney Giles Cripplegate in others about Thirty thousand as Giles's in the Fields Sepulchres in others about Twenty thousand and in the lesser Parishes fewer Usually the greater Country Parishes in Market Towns have about Four thousand or Three thousand or Two thousand Souls and the ordinary Rural Parishes about One thousand in the bigger sort and Two hundred or Three hundred in the lesser some more and some less In these Parishes the Ministers who have watched over them and of late times instructed and catechised every Family and Person young and old apart in many places do find that the number of those that are ignorant of the Person and Office of Christ and the Essentials of Christianity and of all Religion and of those that are ordinary Drunkards Whoremongers Prophane Swearers Cursers Railers or otherwise notoriously Scandalous or Ungodly is not small For the Government of these besides preaching to them and exhorting them and giving them the Sacraments the Parish Minister hath no power He hath no power of judging whole Children he shall baptize but must refuse none though the Parents be professed Heathens or Infidels if Godfathers and Godmothers bring them to be baptized who yet never adopt them nor meddle more as Owners of them with their Education and perhaps know not what Baptism or Christianity is themselves They have no power to judge what Persons of their Parish shall be confirmed or admitted into the number of Adult Communicants so that all their Flocks are imposed on them They have no more power than any private Man to admonish the Scandalous before Witness or to admonish them before the Church or pray for their Repentance by Name or to judge who is to be cast out of the Communion of the Church or to be Absolved nor to deny the Sacrament to any unless for a particular time when he is just going to Administer it he see any there that are notoriously guilty and he take them then aside and they will not so much as say We will do better And it is uncertain whether he may Suspend any of these but the Malicious that will not be reconciled So that the Ministers may read Prayers and Preach and may read an Excommunication or Absolution when it is sent them and may if they please joyn with the Churchwarden as Informers to present some Men to the Bishops Court but Church-Government is denied them The Government then of all these Churches and Exercise of Holy Discipline belongeth to the Bishops in Title but the Bishops do and must Exercise it in their Courts or Consistories In every Diocess there is one of these Courts where the Ordinary Judge is the Bishop's Chancellour a Lay-man and a Civil Lawyer though in many Cases the Bishop may fit himself if he please The Court hath also a Register and Proctors to plead Mens Causes as Counsellers in Civil Courts And they have some Fellows called Apparators who are their Messengers for Citation besides the Churchwardens Presentments who bring them in Custom This Court is to hear all considerable Causes and determine them by Excommunications or Absolutions and to send their Excommunications or Absolutions written to the Parish Priest who is to read them But pro forma when the Lay-Chancellour hath resolved who shall be Excommunicated they have a Clergy-Presbyter present to speak the Sentence in the Court who yet hath no power but of meer Pronunciation but is a Ceremony to put off the Odium from
to put up to God in all which they are meer Executioners of other Mens Judgments as a Cryer or such other Messenger § 316. 2. The second Charge against this Diocesan Prelacy is That it introduceth a New Humane Species or Presbyters or Spiritual Officers instead of Christ's which it destroyeth that is a sort of meer Subject Presbyters that have no power of Government but meerly to Teach and Worship That this is a distinct Species is proved in that 1. It wanteth an essential part which the other Species hath 2. From the Bishop's own profession who in the beginning of the Book of Ordination Subscribed to do declare it plainly determined in Scripture viz. That Bishops Priests and Deacons are three distinct Orderâ— which word Orders is the common term to signifie a Species of Church Officers distinct from a meer degree in the same Order or Species That this Office is New is proved 1. In that Scripture or Antiquity never knew it 2. Dr. Hammond Annot. in Act. 11. and in his Latin Book against Blondell Dissertat professeth that it cannot be proved that the word Bishop Presbyter or Pastor signifieth in all the Scripture any other than a proper Bishop or that there was any such as we now all Presbyters in Scripture times And in his Answer to the London Ministers he saith That for ought he knoweth all his Brethren of the Church of England are of his mind So that Presbyters that had no Governing Power were not in Scripture times And though he says that the other sort came in before Ignatiu's time yet 1. He saith not that this sort had no Government of the Flock but that they were under the Bishop in Government so that yet they are not the sort that we are speaking of 2. And he doth not prove any more § 317. 3. A third Charge which they bring against our Prelacy is That it destroyeth the Species or Form of particular Churches instituted by Christ The Churches which Christ instituted are Holy Societies associated for Personal holy Communion under their particular Pastors But all such Societies are destroyed by the Diocesan Frame Ergo it is destructive of the Form of particular Churches instituted by Christ. The distinguish between Personal Local Communion of Saints by Pastors and their Flocks and Communion of hearts only and Communion by Delegation or Deputies 1. We have Heart-Communion with all the Catholick Church through the World 2. Particular Churches have Communion for Concord and mutual Strength in Synods by their Pastors or Deputies 3. But a holy Communion of Souls or individual Persons as Members of the same particular Church for publick Worship and a holy Life is specifically distinct from both the former as is apparent 1. By the distinct end 2. The distinct manner of Communion yea and the matter of it And that this Form of Churches or Species is overthrown by this Prelacy they prove The Churches of Christ's institution were constituted of Governing Pastors and a Flock governed by them in Personal holy Communion every Church having its proper Pastor or Pastors But such Churches as are thus constituted are destroyed by our Frame of Prelacy Ergo The Major is confessed de facto by Dr. Hammond ubi supra as to Scripture times and sufficiently cleared in my Treatise of Episcopacy Ignatius his Testimony alone might suffice who saith That to every Church there was one Altar and one Bishop with the Presbyters and Deacons his Fellow Servants A Church of one Altar and of a thousand Altars A Church that is for Personal Communion and a Church that hath no Personal Communion with her Pastor or Bishop or with one of a hundred of her Fellow-Members a Church which is a Church indeed and that which is no Church but only a part of a Church are more than specifically distinct for indeed the Name is but equivoeally applied to them as distinct Natures or Societies Every Church univocally so called in sensu politico as a governed Society hath its pars gubernaâ—s and pars gubernata to constitute it But so have not our Parish Churches as such indeed as Oratories and Schools as instructed and worshipping Societies they have their Parochial Heads but as governed Societies they have no Heads proper to themselves nor any at all as Churches but as parts of a Church For the Diocesan is Head of the Diocesan Church as such and not of a Parochial Church as such but only as a part of the Diocesan Church And as it is no Kingdom which hath no King so it is no Political Church which hath no Governour or Pastor So that Diocesans destroy particular Churches as much as in them lyeth Unless any will say that as one King as he is persona naturalis may be three or twenty Kings as persona civilis as related to several Kingdoms and so one Bishop as persona naturalis may yet be a thousand Ecclesiastical Persons as Pastor of so many Churches But this being ridiculous and yet said by none that I have heard of I shall not stand to confute it But were it so yet a Pastor that never seeth or speaketh to his People nor hath any personal Communion in Worship with them and this according to the Constitution it self is not of the same sort with a Scripture Pastor 1 Thess. 5. 12 13. Hebr. 13. 17 c. which labour among them and preach to them the Word of God and watch for their Souls c. And consequently the Churches constituted by them are not of the same Species It is one Office personally to Teach Oversee Rule and Worship with them and another to do none of these to one of a thousand but to send the Churchwardens a Book of Articles § 318. 4. A fourth Charge is That it setteth up a New Church-Form which is unlawful instead of that of Christ's institution that is a Diocesan Church consisting of many hundred Parishes which none of them are Churches according to the Diocesan Frame but parts of one Church It hath been shewed that this Diocesan Church is of another Species than the Parochial one being for personal Communion which the other is uncapable of the far greatest part of the Members never seeing their Pastor nor knowing one another any more than if they lived in several parts of the World And that this Church Form is new is proved already that is that there was no Diocesan Church having many stated Congregations and Altars much less many hundreds and all under one only Bishop or Governour either in Scripture time or two hundred years after excepting only that in Alexandria and Rome some shew of more Assemblies than one under one Bishop appeared a little sooner Here note That it is not an Archbishop's Church that we are speaking of who is but the General Pastor or Bishop having other Bishops and Churches under him but it is a Church infimae Speciei commonly called a particular Church which hath no other Churches or Bishops under it
And that none such was in Scripture times Dr. Hammond hath manifested there being then no Presbyters distinct from Bishops as he faith on Act. 11. And that there was none such of long time after is abundantly proved in my Treatise of Episcopacy § 319. 5. The fifth Charge against the Diocesan Form is That it extirpateth the ancient Episcopacy which they prove by what is said already The ancient Bishops were the Heads of the Presbyters and People of one single Church only To every Church saith Ignatius there is one Altar and one Bishop with the Presbyters and the Deacons my Fellow Servants There was then no Bishop infimae Speciei as distinct from an Archbishop that had more than one Altar and Church But now all these Bishops of particular Churches are put down and no Church of one Altar hath a Bishop of its own but only a Church consisting of many hundred Worshipping Churches In the ancient times every City that had a Congregation of Christians had a Bishop But now every Bishop hath many Cities under him which have all but one Bishop For all our Corporations called Oppida Towns or Burroughs were then such as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signified though we have appropriated the English word City to some few that have that Title as honorary in favour from the Prince § 320. 6. The sixth Charge is That instead of the ancient Bishops a later sort of Bishops is introduced of a distinct Species from all the ancient Bishops for then there were none but meer Bishops of particular Churches and the Archbishops Metropolitans and Patriarchs that had the general oversight of these But ours are of neither of these sorts They are not Bishops of particular worshipping Churches that have one Altar but have hundreds of such Nor are they Archbishops for they have no Bishops under them But they are just such as the Archbishops or Metropolitans in those days would have been if they had put down all the Bishops that were under them and taken all the Charge of Government on themselves leaving only Teaching Priests with the People Even as the Papists feign Gregory to have meant when he so vehemently denied the Title of Universal Bishop as putting down the Inferiour Bishops Now any Man that thinketh the Species of Episcopacy described by Ignatius and used in the Primitive times to be of Divine or Apostolical Institution must needs think that a Species which having deposed them all doth stand up in their stead is utterly unlawful And therefore this Argument against Diocesans is not managed by the Presbyterians as such but by those that are for the Primitive Episcopacy § 321. 7. The seventh Charge against the Diocesan Form and that which sticketh more than all the rest is That it maketh the Church Goverment or Discipline which Christ hath commanded and all the ancient Churches practised to be a thing impossible to be done and so excludeth it and therefore is unlawful For to dispute Who shall be the Governours of the Church when the meaning is Whether there shall be any Government at all of that sort which Christ commandeth is the present practise For the clearing of this these Questions are to be debated Quest 1. Whether Christ hath instituted any Church-Discipline 2. What that Discipline is which he hath instituted 3. How many Parishes there be in a Diocess and Persons in a Parish who are to be the Objects of this Discipline 4. Who they be that in England are to exercise this Discipline § 322. 1. And for the first Question It is agreed on by all Protestants that I know of except some of those that are called Erastians I say some of them for I think there are very few even of the Erastians that deny it Dr. Hammond hath written a Treatise for it Entitled Of the Power of the Keys yea the Papists differ not from the Protestants in this point It will therefore be labour in vain to prove it § 323. 2. And as to the second Question What this Discipline is It is considerable 1. As to the Matter 2. As to the Persons 3. As to the Place 4. As to the Manner and 5. As to the End 1. As to the Matter We are agreed that it consisteth in receiving Persons into the Church in preserving and healing those that are in the Church and in casting out those from the Communion of the Church which are unfit for it and in Absolving and Restoring the Excommunicate when they are penitent And therefore it is called The Power and Exercise of the Keys By these Keys the Door is first opened to Believers and their Seed and the Bishops judge who are fit to be let in by Baptism When any are lapsed into scandalous sin they are to be proceeded with as Christ hath directed Matth. 18. 15 16 17. We must first tell men privately of their private Faults and if they hear us not we must take with us two or three if they hear not them we must tell the Church and finally if they hear not the Church they must be to us as Heathens and Publicans And whatsoever is thus bound on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever is loosed on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven vers 18. The Church is the Body of Christ his Spouse his Family his Garden It is a Communion of Saints which is to be held in it It is commanded to put away wicked Persons from among them and not to keep company if any that is called a Brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such a one no not to eat 1. Cor. 5. 11 13. And we are to withdraw our selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly and to note them and to have no company with them that they may be ashamed 2. Thess. 3. 6 14. If any come to us and bring not sound Doctrine we must not receive him into our houses nor bid him good speed lest we be partakers of his evil deeds 2 John 10. 11. A Man that is an Heretick must after the first and second Admonition be avoided as Self-condemned Tit. 3. 10 11. And the penitent must be restored and re-admitted All this is agreed on § 324. 2. And as to the Persons who are Parties in this Transaction we are agreed 1. That it is such Persons as desire Communion with us that are to be admitted being fit and such as having Communion with us become unmeet for it that are to be cast out c. so that it is to be exercised on Persons so far as they are to have Communion with us and not on those that are uncapable of that Communion 2. That sententially it must be done by the Pastor or Governour of that particular Church which the Person is to be admitted into or cast out of And by the judgment of the Pastors of other neighbour Churches when they also as Neighbours are to refuse Communion with
such things If it be said that the Magistrate may set up Civil Courts who may judge Circa Sacra I answer but 1. These judge de Sacris and Excommunicate and Absolve 2. They do it under the Name of Church-Discipline and the Power of the Keys 3. And instead of Christ's deposed Discipline § 339. 9. The ninth Charge against our Prelacy is consequential That it bringeth on us a multitude of grievous Calamities and ill Consequences by this abolition of true Discipline and the aforesaid Corruptions As for instance 1. That it giveth up our Cause to the Brownists quantum in se who say that our Churches are no true Churches and our Ministry is no true Ministry For if we have true Churches and Ministers it is either the Parochial the Diocesan or the National But 1. for the Parochial they say that they are no true Churches or Ministers for a true Church in sensu politico is constituted of the Governing part and the Governed part But a Parish Church hath no Governing part as such For the Diocesan is not the Head of it as a Parish Church but as a part of his Diocesan Church Otherwise one Man should be a Thousand Heads and Political persons And the Parson or Vicar though perhaps called Rector is only the Teacher and Priest and denied all Government Egro he is no Pastor as wanting an essential part of that Office nor the Church a true Church And for my part I know not how to confute these Men but by telling them that the Pastor of that Parish-Church must be judged of by God's description and not by the Bishop's which I doubt not is a true and satisfactory Answer And for a Diocesan Church the Brownists say that it is not only no Church of Christ's institution but contrary to it and therefore not to be acknowledged And for the National Church unless you speak equivocally they know no such thing for what is it that is the Constitutive Head of it The King is the Civil Head But the Constitutive Head of a Church must be an Ecclesiastical Head or a Clergy-man or Society of Men It cannot be an Archbishop for neither of the Archbishops pretendeth to it having but a priority of place and not any Government over one another Canterbury over York or in each others Provinces And the Convocation it cannot be because the Canon Anathematizeth them that take it not for the Representative Church of England And if it be but the Representative it cannot be the Constitutive Head For either it representeth the Governing part of the Church which is indeed the Head or the Governed part which is the Body If it represent the latter only then as such it can have no Governing power at all For as Representative it can have no more power than those that are represented But the Governed party as such have no Governing power Ergo neither have their Representers as such If they represent any higher power What is it It must be either in a single Person or a Collective Body which is one Political Person But the former is not at all pretended nor can be If it be said that they represent all the Pastors of England I answer no doubt that is the meaning of the Canon and yet no Man affirmeth that the real Body of all those Pastors in conjunction is one Collective Political Head of this Church For Parish-Ministers are only Heads of their several Parishes if so much but not of all the rest of the Parishes in the Nation any otherwise than of those in other Land 's Wherefore it is most evident that there is no such thing as a Church of England in a Political Formal sence as it hath one Constitutive and Ecclesiastical Head but only in an improper larger sence either as the Pastors of many Churches met in a Synod do make binding Agreements by way of voluntary Concord and Consent as many Kings may do in a voluntary Meeting which doth not constitute a Political Society Or else as they have one accidental Civil Head the King who is Head of all Religious Societies in his Dominions Papists Anabaptists c. But these are none of them Denominations à formâ But hence it may be noted 1. That as Bishop Usher said Synods are not properly a Superiour Governing power over the particular Bishops but only for voluntary Concord 2. That the Bishops must against their wills grant that all Parish-Ministers are de jure Church Governours or else how come their Representatives to be part of the Governing-Church even in Canon-making for common Government as they judge As for the Democratical conceit of them that say that the Parliament hath their Governing power as they are the Peoples Representatives and so have the Members of the Convocation though those represented have no Governing power themselves it is so palpably Self-contradicting that I need not confute it § 340. 2. A second evil Consequence is that by neglect of Discipline or excluding it the Vicious want that remedy which God hath provided to bring them to Repentance and Salvation That God hath appointed Discipline is proved from Lev. 19. 17. Matth. 18. 15 16 17 18. 1. Cor. 5. Tit. 1. 13 2. 15. 3. 10. 1 Tim. 3. 5 15. 5. 19 20 21 22 24. 2 Tim. 3. 5. 4. 2. 2. Thess. 3. 6 14. And as neglect of Preaching so neglect of Discipline tendeth to the hardening of Sinners in their sins And when in the Application of Baptism Confirmation the Lord's Supper Absolution and all Church Consolations to them they are all used by the Church as pardoned Sinners and judged to be such how vicious soever they will the easilier believe they are such indeed and reject all passages in Sermons that would convince them and all that would perswade them of the Necessity of a Change So that no doubt but many Thousands are hindered from Conversion and Salvation for want of Discipline § 341. 3. And it tendeth to propagate the Sin as Impunity from Magistrates or Parents would do which made the Apostle say 1. Cor. 5. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump many will be encouraged to do that which undergoeth no more censure § 342. 4. It keepeth up the Credit of Sin it self and gratifieth Satan while the Church is deprived of the Publick Means appointed by God for putting Sin to open shame and bruising the Serpent's Head by a solemn Condemnation of his Works of Darkness § 343. 5. It depriveth Holiness and Obedience of the honour which God hath appointed for it by this publick differencing Judgment of the Church which being as Tertullian calleth it praejudicium futuri judicij doth represent the Justification and Condemnation of that Day and wonderfully tend to the publick honour of Godliness and Honesty and consequently to the Conversion and Establishment of Mens Souls § 344. 6. It greatly tendeth to the dishonour of the Church by its pollution whenas Christian Societies shall be conspurcated with
those Vices which are the shame of Infidels and Heathens and those of our Communion are in their Lives no better than the Unbelieving World All Men will think that that is the best Society which hath the best People and will judge rather by Mens Lives than their Opinions § 345. 7. And hereby it greatly dishonoureth Christianity it self and when the Church is as full of Vices as the Mahomiran Societies are or the Heathen it is a publick perswading the World that our Religion is as false or bad as theirs § 346. 8. And hereby God himself and our blessed Redeemer are greatly dishonoured in the World As his Saints are his honour so when the Communion of Atheists and Prophane Persons and Oppressors and Deceivers and Fornicators and Drunkards is called by us The Communion of Saints it tendeth to make the Church a Scorn and to the great dishonour of the Head of such a Body and the Author of the Christian Faith § 347. 9. And it lamentably conduceth to the hardening of the Heathens and Infidels of the World and hindering their Conversion to the Christian Faith It would make a Believer's heart to bleed if any thing in all the World will do it to think that five parts in six of the World are still Heathens Mahometans and Infidels and that the wicked Lives of Christians with Popperies Ignorance and Divisions is the great Impediment to their Conversion To read and hear Travellers and Merchants tell that the Banians and other Heathens in Indostan Cambaia and many other Lands and the Mahometans adjoyning to the Greeks and the Abassines c. do commonly fly from Christianity as the Separatists among us do from Prelacy and say God will not save us if we be Christians for Christians are Drunkards and proud and Deceivers c. And that the Mahometans and many Heathens have more both of Devotion and Honesty than the common fort of Christians have that live among them O wretched Christians that are not content to damn themselves but thus lay stumbling blocks before the World It were better for these men that they had never been born But if all these notorious ones were disowned by the Churches it would quit our Profession much from the dishonour and shew poor Infidels that our Religion is good though their Lives be bad § 348. 10. Lastly it galleth the Consciences of the Ministers in their administrations of the Sacraments to the openly ungodly and grosly ignorant It hindereth the Comfort of the Church in its Communion It filleth the Heads of poor Christians with Scruples and their Hearts with Fears and is the great cause of unavoidable Separations among us and consequently of all the Censures on one side and wrathful Penalties on the other and uncharitableness on both sides which follow thereupon If the Pastors will not differ between the precious and the vile by necessary regular Discipline tender Christians will be tempted to difference by irregular Separations and to think as Cyprian saith That it belongeth to the People to forsake a sinful Pastor They will separate further than they ought and will take our Churches as Sinks of Pollution and fly from the noisomness of them and come out from among us for fear of partaking in our Plagues as men run out of a ruinous House lest it fall upon their Heads And then they will fall into Sects among themselves and fall under the hot displeasure of the Bishops and then they will be reproached and vexed as Schismaticks while they reproach our Churches as Hypocritical and Prophane that call such Societies the Communion of Saints This hath been and this is and this will be the Cause of Separations Sects Persecutions Malice and Ruins in the Christian World And it will never be cured till some tolerable Discipline cure the Churches § 349. 10. The tenth and last Charge against our Frame of Prelacy is That by is use of Civil or Coercive Power it at once breaketh the Command of Christ and greatly injureth the Civil Government Both which are thus proved by the Nonconformists § 350. 1. It violateth all these Laws of Christ Luke 22. 24 25. And there was a strife among them which of them should be accounted the greatest And he said unto them the Kings of the Gentles exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise Authority upon them are called Benefactors but ye shall not be so but he that is greatest among you let him be as the younger and he that is chief as he that doth serve That is it is a Ministerial Dignity and not a Magistratical which you are called to that which is allowed to Kings here is denied to Ministers even Apostles But it is not Tyranny or Abuse of Power but Secular Magistratical Power it self which is all owed to Kings Ergo it is this which is forbidden Ministers This is the very sence of the Text which is given by Protestant Episcopal Divines themselves when they reject the Presbyterians sence who say that it forbiddeth Ecclesiastical Superiority and Power of one Minister over another as well as Coercive Therefore the old Rhymer said against the Prelates Christus dixit quodam loco Vos non sic nec dixit joco Dixit suis Ergo isti Cujus sunt non certo Christi So 1. Pet. 5. 1 2 3. Feed the Flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly Not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind Neither as being Lords over God's heritage but being ensamples to the Flock But our Bishops take the oversight of those that are not among them and whom they feed not and they rule them by constraint and not as voluntary Subjects not by Ensample for one of an hundred never seeth or knoweth them but as Lords by Secular Force Dr. Hammond taketh the word Constraint here Actively not Passively not as forbidding them to Bishops against their own Wills but to Rule the People by constraint against the Peoples wills It would be tedious to recite all those Texts which command the People to imitate the Apostles as they imitated Christ who never used Magistratical force nor did any of his Apostles and say that the Weapons of our warfare are not carnals and that he that warreth entangleth not himself with the Affairs of this Life and that the Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle c. § 351. 2. And that this Coercive Church Government is an heinous Injury to Christian Magistrates even where it seemeth to be subordinate to them appeareth thus 1. Though they do mostly confess that they can exercise no Power of Coercion of themselves but by the Magistrates consent yet do they take it to be the Magistrates duty to consent to it as if he were not else a tender Nursing Father to the Church and so they lay his Conscience in Prison till he trust them with his Sword or serve them by it 2. They call their Magistratical Government by the
Name of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Government And so by the Name they seduce Mens minds to think that this is indeed the use of the Keys which God hath put into the Churches Hands 3. Hereby they greatly encourage the Usurpation of the Pope and his Clergy who set up such Courts for probate of Wills and Causes of Matrimony and rule the Church in a Secular manner though many of them confess that directly the Church hath no forcing Power And this they call the Churches Power and Spiritual Government and Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction and say that it belongeth not to Kings and that no King can in Conscience restrain them of it but must protect them in it And so they set up Imperium in Imperio and as Bishop Bedle said of Ireland The Pope hath a Kingdom there in the Kingdom greater than the Kings Against which Ludov. Molinaeus hath written at large in two or three Treatises So that when the Papal Power in England was cast down and their Courts subjected to the King and the Oath of Supremacy formed it was under the Name of Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Power that it was acknowledged to be in the King who yet claimeth no proper Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power so greatly were these Terms abused and so are they still as applied to our Bishops Courts so that the King is said by us to be Chief Governour in all Causes Ecclesiastical because Coercive Power in Church Matters which is proper to the Magistrate was possessed and claimed by the Clergy And in all Popish Kingdoms the Kings are but half Kings through these Usurpations of the Clergy And for us to Exercise the same kind of Power mixt with the Exercise of the Keys and that by the same Name is greatly to countenance the Usurpers § 352. If it be said That the Church claimeth no Coercive Power but as granted them by the King or that it is the Magistrate that annexeth Mulcts and Penalties and not the Church I answer 1. They perswade the Magistrate that he ought to do so 2. Force is not a meer Accident but confessed by them to be the very Life of their Government It is that which bringeth People to their Courts and enforceth all their Precepts and causeth Obedience to them so that it is part of the very Constitution of their Government And as to Fees and Commutation of Penance Pecuniary Mulcts are thus imposed by themselves 3. Their very Courts and Officers are of a Secular Form 4. The Magistrate is but the Executioner of their Sentence He must grant out a Writ and imprison a Man quatenus excommunicate without sitting in Judgment upon the Cause himself and trying the Person according to his Accusation And what a dishonour do these Men put on Magistrates that make them their Executioners to imprison those whom they condemn inuudita causa at a venture be it right or wrong So much of the Nonconformists Charges against the English Prelacy § 353. By this you may see what they Answer to the Reasons of the Conformists As 1. To the willing Conformists who plead a Iur Divinum they say That if all that Gersom Bucer Didoclavius Blondell Salmasius Parker Baines c. have said against Episcopacy it self were certainly confuted yet it is quite another thing that is called Episcopacy by them that plead it Iure Divino If 1. Bishops of single Churches with a Presbytery under them 2. and General Bishops over these Bishops were both proved Iure Divine yet our Diocesans are proved to be contra jus Divinum 2. To the Latitudinarians and involuntary Conformists who plead that no Church-Government as to the form is of Divine Institution they answer 1. This is to condemn themselves and say Because no Form is of God's Institution therefore I will declare that the Episcopal Form is of Divine Institution for this is part of their Subscription or Declaration when they Profess Assent and Confent to all things in the Book of Common Prayer and Ordination And one thing in it is in these words with which the Book beginneth It is evident to all Men diligently reading holy Scripture and ancient Authors that from the Apostles time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church Bishops Priests and Deacons which Offices were evermore had in such reverend estimation c. So that here they declare that Bishops and Priests are not only distinct Degrees but distinct Orders and Offices and that since the Apostles time as evident by Scripture c. when yet many of the very Papists Schoolmen do deny it And the Collect in the Ordering of Priests runs thus Almighty God giver of all good things who by the holy Spirit hath appointed divers Orders of Ministers in the Church So that in plain English they declare That Episcopacy even as a distinct Order Office and Function for all these words are there is appointed by the Spirit of God because they believe that no Form is so appointed 2. That which Mr. Stillingfleet calleth A Form is none of the Substance of the Government it self nor the Offices in the Church He granteth that 1. Worshipping Assemblies are of Divine appointment 2. That every one of these must have one or more Pastors who have power in their Order to teach them and go before them in Worship and spiritually guide or govern them But 1. Whether a Church shall have one Pastor or more 2. Whether one of them shall be in some things subject to another 3. Whether constant Synods shall be held for concord of Associated Churches 4. Whether in these Synods one shall be Moderator and how long and with what Authority not unreasonable these he thinks are left undetermined And I am of his mind supposing General Rules to guide them by as he doth But the Matter and Manner of Church-Discipline being of God's appointment and the Nature and Ends of a particular Church and the Office of Pastors as well as the Form of the Church Universal it is past doubt that nothing which subverteth any of these is lawful And indeed if properly no Form of Government be instituted by God then no Form of a Church neither for the Form of Government is the Form of a Church considered in sensu politico and not as a meer Community And then the Church of England is not of God's making Quest. Who then made it Either another Church made this Church and then what was that Church and who made its Form and so ad Originem or no Church made it If no Church made the Church of England quo jure or what is its Authority and Honour If the King made it was he a Member of a Church or not If yea 1. There was then a Church-Form before the Church of England And who made that Church usque ad Originem If the King that made it was no Member of a Church then he that is no Member of a Church may institute a Church Form but quo jure and with what
less the English that alloweth you such a sence of these two Prepositions as if of must needs mean the Species and in may mean only the Integrity or Accidents We dare not be so bold as to feign such a Difference and Latitude of sence to be in the Preposition of unless we could prove it 3. Will it not be taken for Treason if you make the same Exposition of the other Clause of the Declaration and say that the King and Parliament meant no more than to say that no Man is bound by the Covenant to endeavour an Essential or Specifick Change of State-Government or no greater Change than what may leave it still in the Species of a Monarchy Or do you believe that they meant no more and that they determined not against supposed Obligations to lower Changes of the Royal Government 4. There is not the accuratest Grammarian and Logician of them all that can tell just what may be said to Specifie a Government and what but to integrate it and just how far a Change may go before it may be called a Change of the Species 5. But suppose all this were nothing It is clearly proved that it is not the Genus of Episcopacy but the Species of English Prelacy described which the Covenant meaneth And I have proved already that a specifick alteration of this Prelacy is lawful and whether also not-necessary let the impartial Reader judge I have asked the most Learned of the Diocesan Party that I could meet with this Question Whether it be not lawful for the King and Parliament to take down Chancellors and all Lay-Judges in Spiritual Courts and Deans Arch-deacons Commissaries and the Courts themselves and to take down a Bishop of a Thousand or many Hundred Churches and to set up a Bishop in every Market Town with the adjacent Villages yea or in every great Parish to govern with his Presbyters as it was in Ignatius his days and in Cyprian's And never Man of them denied it lawful for them to make such a Change if they saw it meet I have asked them further Whether they would not call this a Change of Government de specie or according to the sence of the Act And they all confest it For if they did not the Act and Declaration would herein do them no good but leave private Men to endeavour such an Alteration which they know is all the Alteration that ever we desired of them and for which they have called us Presbyterians I have asked them further Whether a Vow turn not a licet into an oportet And they never deny it Where then can you imagine any remaining difference Why this was all that they said That it was not this Species of Prelacy but Episcopacy in genere which the Covenant meant and consequently the Act meaneth Which I have proved to be most evidently untrue there being no other Episcopacy but our Prelacy then existent nor Episcopay ever named in the Convenant in genere but this Prelacy being exactly described and this purposely for the deciding of this very Doubt by the means of Mr. Gataker Dr. Burges and many more in the Assemblies who renounced the extirpation of all Episcopacy and the Lords having taken the Covenant in that openly declared sence But suppose all this had not been so Doth not a renunciation of the Genus contain the Species And if any Man voweth against the Genus mistaking it to be all sinful will not his Vow bind him against that Species which indeed is sinful though not against the others As suppose that a Man should think that All swearing and Accusing others were a sinâ— and so to save himself from the said sins should Vow to God against them all If afterward this Man discover that some swearing before a Magistrate is a duty and some accusing of another is he not for all that still bound against prophane and rash swearing and malicious or unjust accusing which indeed are sins for therein he was not mistaken So if Men had as they did not upon mistake make a Vow against all Episcopacy or Prelacy as a sin and afterward discover that one sort is a Duty and the other a Sin do they not remain obliged against that wherein they were not mistaken 6. Lastly Let it be noted That though it be said in Declaration of Government yet it is added in the Church and not of the Church which is as much against them as the other is for them seeming to intimate that it is not the Form only Constitutive of the Church which they here intend § 389. 5. Some leading Independents say That it was essential to this Vow to be also a League and as a League it is ceâ—sed by the cessation of Persons and Occasions This shift they were put upon first themselves being the first that nullifâ—ed these Bonds that they might do what they did against the Covenant and make it as an Almanack out of date Answ. 1. Though as a Political Instrument it be called by one Name A Solemn League and Covenant and so all the parts of it do make one Instrument yet 1. The formality of it as a League and as a Vow are different 2. And as a Vow to God and a Moral Act of Man there are in it as many distinct Vows as there are Maâ—ters vowed The League is not the end of the Vow but Reformation was the professed end of both to which they were taken as co-ordinate means And therefore it as a League it were ceased it followeth not that as a Vow it is so For Men are the parties in the League but God is one of the Parties in the Vow and every individual Person is the other Party And if one Vow or Article should cease it followeth not that all the rest do so 2. It is not proved that it ceaseth as a League Though it oblige us not to war or to any thing against the King or State and though many of the Persons be dead that took it For 1. War was not mentioned in the Covenant much less as the Duty of all the Covenanters sure it was never intended that all the Women must fight 2. If it had that was but one of the means there mentioned and every Man bound himself to endeavour in his Place and Calling and that was not to fight for all 3. Therefore though the particular Occasions cease the general Cause continueth the need of Reformation and though no Man be bound to any unlawful means it followeth not that there is no bound to lawful means And though some Persons be dead not only the Nations but many individual Covenanters are living 4. And in express Terms they bound themselves all the days of their lives zealously and constantly to continue therein and therefore intended no such cessation § 390. 6. Lastly The Latitudinarians say that the general Rule is That all Sayings are to be interpreted in the best sence that the words will bear Ergo Answ.
against him 3. Lest they encourage Usurpers in these insolent Novelties and Corruptions which the ancient Churches never knew and came not into the Church till the Roman Papacy grew to some degree of Impudency in their Usurpations § 398. Yet these two things the Non-conformists are contented readily to do 1. To obey the Bishops Chancellors c. by meer Submission without an Oath in all things lawful To appear at their Courts and answer them with due reverence For they think that Subjection and Submission towards Usurpers greatly differ and that as in the late Cromwellian Usurpation in England many submitted as they would have done to a Robber whom they could not resist who yet would not swear Subjection nor do any thing which seemed to justifie his Usurpation or Title So here though they dare not state themselves by an Oath in the relation of Subjects to the Prelates yet they can obey them materially in lawful things 2. And they are willing to swear Obedience to them as they are the King's Officers commissioned by him to exercise such Coercive Power as belongeth to the Magistrate about Church Matters But not as they exercise the Power of the Keys in Absolving Excommunicating c. § 399. Object 1. It is but in licitis honestis that you swear to obey them And who will refuse things lawful and honest Answ. 1. But it is in the relation of our lawful Ordinaries that we are required to swear this Obedience to them It may be lawful and honest to do the things commanded when it is neither lawful nor honest to subject my self to the Commander as his Subject The most just Authority that is can command us nothing but licita honesta And if Cromwell or the Engaging piece of the Parliament had required me to swear Obedience to them in licitis honestis I think to have done it had been a subjecting my self to them as my Governours which had neither been licitum nor honestum If a Rebel now should usurp Authority against the King's will for the Government of Ireland or Scotland he that would go swear Obedience to him in licitis honestis I think would be disloyal 2. And it is Obedience according to the Canon which is their in licitis honestis And this is to Lay-Chancellors Exercise of the Keys and many other things which are supposed licita honesta but not yet proved to be so § 400. Object 2. What a Man may do he may swear to do But licita honesta a Man may do Ergo Answ. 1. I deny the Major as universally taken There is many a thing that may be done which may not be sworn Else you might swear to speak every word before you speak it and to do every trivial Action that you do 2. Some time the Oath reacheth further than the Act to be done even to the Relation in which it is done and the reason for which and this is the Case here So that here is a feigning of a false state of the Question which is not Whether we may swear to do licita honesta but whether we may swear to obey them as our lawful Ordinaries in licitis honestis 3. The Conclusion therefore might be granted without any Decision of the Controversie For the Question is not Whether we may swear to do such things but whether we may swear to obey those Men in that relation and to do those things sub formali ratione obedientiae Which their Loyalty to Christ their King they think prohibiteth What if you lived in a Popish Country would you swear to obey the Pope in licitis honestis If not you may see our Reasons while you give your own § 401. Object 3. The Scripture commandeth all Men to subject themselves one to another Answ. There is an Equivocation in the word subject The Text speaketh only of private submission and yielding to others voluntarily carrying our selves with that lowliness as Subjects do to their Rulers But this is nothing to publick relative stated subjection of which the Controversie is He would be but an ill Subject to the King or an ill Member of the Church who would make every man his King or his Pastor on this pretence that we must all subject our selves to each other § 402. Object 4. You are to swear Obedience to them only as Church-Magistrates appointed by the King Answ. That cannot be true because it is as our Ordinaries who have the power of Ordination Excommunication and Absolution and in the exercise of this power But the power of the Keys is not Magistratical § 403. V. The fifth Controversie is about Re-ordination Now in this the Nonconformists are the more shie 1. Because in our most Publick Meetings before the King and the Lords and the Bishops some of them as Dr. Gunning oft have openly declared that the Ordination which hath been in England without Bishops is null and those that were so Ordained without them are no Ministers but Lay-men And his Majesty himself hath signified openly his own Judgment accordingly that he would no more take the Sacrament from such then from Lay-men So that it being thus openly declared to be their sence and no one of their Bishops or Doctors contradicting it we have reason to think that by submitting to be Re-ordained Men do interpretatively confess the nullity of their former Ordination 2. And it is a new thing contrary to the Judgment and Practice of all the Reformed Churches 3. And there is a Canon among those called the Apostles which is express against it commanding the Deposition of the Ordainers and Ordained 4. I have fully proved in my Disputation of Church Government That the said Ordination without Diocesans is valid and better than the Prelates and was performed by such Bishops as were in Ignatius's days viz. City-Pastors who had Presbyters under them And no Man hath attempted to answer what I have there said 5. And at best to be Re-ordained seemeth but a taking of God's Name in vain and a solemn praying to God for that which they have already and a pretending de novo to receive that Authority which they had before And to come as upon a Stage thus ludicrously to play with holy Things to fulfil the Humours and confirm the claim of Usurpers is somewhat hard § 404. VI. The sixth Controversie is about the first Declaration I do here declare my unfeigned Assent and Consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book entituled c. Here the Non-conformists have to do with two sorts the willing and the unwilling Conformists The first say that this Declaration may be lawfully made in its proper sence The Non-conformists refer you for the Answer of this to all their foregoing Exceptions against the Book besides what they have said against our Order of Diocesans and so against the Book of Ordination which asserteth three Orders as of Divine Institution And besides
Prelatical Dignity is not some way retrenched and whether they bear still that irreconcileable hatred against good and godly Presbyterians that they may not be suffered to exercise their Charge and Duty Or if they are wholly deprived of the power and authority to serve their Parishes as to our great Scandal we are informed I had many things more to write to you but dare not trouble you most worthy Sir any further fearing to keep you from your weighty Business Only I crave very humbly your Answer and as much Information of the true present Estate as opportunity will give you leave Whether we have so much cause to fear the Introduction of Popery in England as some by the News amongst us are wholly perswaded In the mean while we will continue to pray the Lord our God and most merciful Father with all our Hearts and Souls to preserve your Person for the General Good and Edification of his whole Catholick Church that your great Light may shine more and more and so I remain Reverend and most worthy Sir Your humble and most Affectionate Servant Iohn Sollicâ—ffer unworthy Servant of Christ. Saingall in Helvetia Reformatâ 16 April 1663. The vigilant Eye of Malice that some had upon me made me understand that though no Law of the Land is against Literate Persons Correspondencies beyond Seas nor have any Divines been hindered from it yet it was like to have proved my ruine if I had but been known to answer one of these Letters though the Matter had been never so much beyond Exceptions So that I neither answered this nor any other save only by word of mouth to the Messenger and that but in small part for much of this in the latter part was Matter not to be touched Our Silencing and Ejection he would quickly know by other means and how much the Judgments of the English Bishops did differ from theirs about the Labours and Persons of such as we § 443. About this time I thought meet to debate the Case with some Learned and Moderate Ejected Ministers of London about Communicating sometimes in the Parish Churches in the Sacraments For they that came to Common Prayer and Sermon came not yet to Sacraments They desired me to bring in my Judgment and Reasons in writing which being debated they were all of my mind in the main That it is lawful and a duty where greater Accidents preponderate not But they all concurred unanimously in this That if we did Communicate at all in the Parish Churches the Sufferings of the Independents and those Presbyterians that could not Communicate there would certainly be very much increased which now were somewhat moderated by concurrence with them I thought the Case very hard on both sides That we that were so much censured by them for going somewhat further than they must yet omit that which else must be our Duty meerly to abate their Sufferings that censure us But I resolved with them to forbear a while rather than any Christian should suffer by occasion of an action of mine seeing God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice and no Duty is a Duty at all times § 444. In Iuly 1665. the Lord Ashley sent a Letter to Sir Iohn Trevor That a worthy Friend of his in whose Case the King did greatly concern himself had all his Fortunes cast upon my Resolution of the enclosed Case which was Whether a Protestant Lady of strict Education might marry a Papist in hope of his Conversion he promising not to disturb her in her Religion It came at Six a Clock Afternoon and knowing it was a Case that must be cautelously resolved at the Court I took time till the next Morning that I might give my Answer in Writing The next day the Lord Ashley wrote again with many words to incline me to the Affirmative for the Lady told them she would not consent unless I satisfied her that it was lawful Who the Lord and Lady were I know not at all but have an uncertain Conjecture So I sent the following Resolution The Case was thus expressed Whether one that was bred a strict Protestant and in the most severe ways of that Profession lived many years without giving offence to any well known in her own Country to be such may without offence to God or Man marry a profest Roman Catholick in hopes of taking him off the Errour of his ways he engaging never to disturb her My Lord's Letter was as follows SIR THere is a very good Friend of mine and one his Majesty is very much concerned for that this enclosed Case has the power of his Fortunes None but that worthy Divine Mr. Baxter can satisfie the Lady this has been the way by which the Romanists have gained very much upon us they are more powerful in perswasion than our Sex besides the putting this Case shews some inclination to the Person though not to the Religion Sir If Mr. Baxter be with you pray let me have his Opinion to this Case in writing under it Wherein you may oblige more than you think for Your very affectionate Friend to serve you ASHLEY For his much honoured Friend Sir Iohn Trevor at Acton To this Case I drew up the following Answer and sent it to Sir John Trevor to be by him conveyed to my Lord Ashley SIR THough I cannot be insensible how inconvenient to my self the Answer of this Case may possibly prove by displeasing those who are concerned in it and medling about a Case of Persons utterly unknown to me yet because I take it to be a thing which Fidelity to the Truth and Charity to a Christian Soul requireth I shall speak my Judgment whatever be the Consequents But I must crave the pardon of that Noble Lord who desired my Answer might be Subscribed to the Case because Necessity requireth more words than that Paper will well contain The Question about the Marriage is not An factum valeat but An fieri debeat There is no affirming or denying without these necessary Distinctions 1. Between a Case of Necessity and of no Necessity 2. Between a Case where the Motives are from the Publick Commodity of Church or State and where they are only Personal or Private 3. Between one who is otherwise sober ingenuous and pious and a faithful Lover of the Lady and one that either besides his Opinion is of an ungodly Life or seeketh her only to serve himself upon her Estate 4. Between a Lady well grounded and fixed in Truth and Godliness and one that is weak and but of ordinary setledness Hereupon I answer Prop. 1. In general It cannot be said to be simply and in all Cases unlawful to marry an Infidel or Heathen much less a Papist 2. In particular It is lawful in these following Cases 1. In Case of true Necessity when all just means have been used and yet the Party hath a necessity of Marriage and can have no better If you ask Who is better I answer A suitableness
as that the Bishop of the lowest degree instead of ruling one Church with the Presbyters ruleth many hundred Churches by Lay-Chancellors who use the Keys of Excommunication and Absolution c. And they take it for an Act of Rebellion against God if they should Swear never to do the Duty which he commandeth and so great a Duty as Church-Reformation in so great a Matter If it were but never to pray or never to amend a fault in themselves they durst not Swear it 12. This Oath seemeth to be the same in Sence with the Et caetora Oath in the Canons of 1640. That we will never consent to an alteration of the Government by arch-Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans c. And one Parliament voted down that and laid a heavy charge upon it which no Parliament since hath taken off 13. As the National Vow and Covenant seemeth a great Snare to hinder the Union of the Church among us in that it layeth our Union on an exclusion of Prelacy and so excludeth all those learned worthy Men from our Union who cannot consent to that Exclusion so the laying of the Kingdoms and Churches Union upon the English Prelacy and Church-Government so as to exclude all that cannot consent to it doth seem as sure an Engine of Division We think that if our Union be centered but in Christ the King of all and in the King as his Officer and our Soveraign under him it may be easie and sure But if we must all unite in the English Frame of Prelacy we must never Unite § 15. Those that take the Oath do as those that Subscribe resolve that they will understand it in a lawful Sense be it true or false and so to take it in that Sense To which end they say that nullum iniquum est in Lege praesumendum and that all publick Impositions must be taken in the best Sense that the Words will bear And by force and stretching what words may not be well interpreted But the Nonconformists go on other grounds and think that about Oaths Men must deal plainly and sincerely and neither stretch their Consciences nor the Words nor interpret universal Terms particularly but according to the true meaning of the Law-givers as far as they can understand it and where they cannot according to the proper and usual signification of the Words And the Parliament themselves tell us That this is the true Rule of interpreting their Words Beyond which therefore we dare not stretch them § 16. And therefore 14. They dare not take the Oath because if it be not to be taken in the proper or ordinary Sense of the Words then they are sure that they cannot understand it for it doth not please the Parliament to expound it And Oaths must be taken in Truth Judgment and Righteousness and not ignoranatly when we know that we understand them not § 17. The Lawyers even the honestest are commonly for a more stretching Exposition And those that speak out say That an illegal Commission is none at all But we our selves go further than this would leads us for we judge That even an illegally commissioned Person is not to be resisted by Arms except in such Cases as the Law of Nature or the King himself by his Laws or by a contrary Commission alloweth us to resist him But if Commissions should be contradictory to each other or to the Law we know not what to Swear in such a case § 18. But because much of the Case may be seen in these following Questions which upon the coming out of that Act I put to an able worthy and sincere Friend with his Answers to them I will here Insert them viz. Serjeant Fountain Queries upon the Oxford Oath We presuppose it commonly resolved by Casuists in Theology from the Law of Nature and Scripture 1. That Perjury is a Sin and so great a Sin as tendeth to the ruin of the Peace of Kingdoms the Life of Kings and the Safety of Mens Souls and to make Men unfit for Humane Society Trust or Converse till it be repented of 2. That he that Sweareth contrary to his Iudgment is Perjured though the thing prove true 3. That we must take an Oath in the Imposer's Sense as near as we can know it if he be our Lawful Governour 4. That an Oath is to be taken sensu strictiore and in the Sense of the Rulers Imposing it if that be known if not by the Words interpreted according to the common use of Men of that Profession about that subject And Vniversals are not to be interpreted as Particulars nor must we limit them and distinguish without very good proof 5. That where the Sense is doubtful we are first to ask which is the probable Sense before we ask which is is the best and charitablest Sense and must not take them in the best Sense when another is more probable to be the true Sense Because it is the Truth and not the Goodness which the Vnderstanding first considereth Otherwise any Oath almost imaginable might be taken there being few Words so bad which are not so ambiguous as to bear a good Sense by a forced Interpretation And Subjects must not cheat their Rulers by seeming to do what they do not 6. But when both Senses are equally doubtful we ought in Charity to take the best 7. If after all Means faithfully used to know our Rulers Sense our own Vnderstandings much more incline to think one to be their meaning than the other we must not go against our Vnderstandings 8. That we are to suppose our Rulers fallible and that it 's possible their decrees may be contrary to the Law of God but not to suspect them without plain cause These things supposed we humbly crave the Resolution of these Questions about the present Oath and the Law Qu. 1. Whether upon any pretence whatsoever refer not to any Commissionated by him as well as to the King himself 2. Whether not lawful extendeth only to the Law of the Land or also to the Law of God in Nature 3. Whether I Swear that it is not lawful do not express my peremptory certain Determination and be not more than I Swear that in my Opinion it is not lawful 4. What is the Traytorous Position here meant for here is only a Subject without a Praedicate which is no Position at all and is capable of various Praedicates 5. If the King by Act of Parliament commit the Trust of his Navy Garrison or Militia to one durante vita and should Commissionate another by force to eject him whether both have not the King's Authority or which 6. If the Sheriff raise the Posse Commitatus to suppress a Riot or to execute the Decrees of the Courts of Justice and fight with any Commissioned to resist him and shall keep up that Power while the Commissioned Persons keep up theirs which of them is to be judged by the Subjects to have the King's Authority 7. If a Parliament or a
Court of Justice declare That the King by his Laws commandeth us to assist the Sheriffs and Justices notwithstanding any Commission to the contrary under the great or little Seal and one shew us a Commission to the contrary which must we take for the King's Authority 8. Whether this extendeth to the Case of King Iohn who delivered the Kingdom to the Pope Or to those Instances of Bilson Barcley Grotius c. of changing the Government putting by the true Heir to whom we are Sworn in the Oath of Allegiance c. if Subjects pretend Commission for such Acts 9. Whether Parliament Judges in Court or private Men may by the King's Authority in his Laws defend their Lives against any that by a pretended Commission invadeth them or their Purses Houses or Companions 10. Whether we must take every Affirmer to have a Commission if he shew it not Or every shewn Commission to be current and not surreptitious though contrary to Law 11. Whether he violateth not this Oath who should endeavour to alter so much of the Legislative Power as is in the Parliament or the Executive in the Established Courts of Justice Or is it meant only of Monarchy as such 12. Doth he not break this Oath who should endeavour to change the Person Governing as well as he that would change the Form of Government 13. If so doth it not also tye us to the Persons of Church-Governours seeing they are equally here twisted and Church-Government preposed 14. Is it the King 's Coercive Government of the Church by the Sword which is here meant according to the Oath of Supremacy Or Spiritual Government by the Keys Or both 15. Is it not the English Form of Church-Government by Diocesans that is here meant and not some other sort of Episcopacy which is not here And doth he not break this Oath who instead of a Bishop over 500 or 1000 Churches without any inferiour Bishop should endeavour to set up a Bishop in every great Church or Market-Town or as many as the Work requireth 16. Seeing Excommunication and Absolution are the notable parts of Spiritual Government and it is not only the Actions but the Actors or Governours that we Swear not to alter and Lay-Chancellors are the common Actors or Governours whether an endeavour to alter Lay-Chancellors Government as some did that procured his Majesty's Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs be not contrary to this Oath and excluded by any alteration 17. Whether petitioning or other peaceable means before allowed by Law be not any endeavour and a violation of this Oath 18. Whether not at any time c. tye us not to disobey the King if he should command us by Consultation or Conference to endeavour it Or if the Law be changed doth not this Oath still bind us Lastly Whether this following Sense in which we could take it be the true sense of the Oath I A B do Swear That a it is not Lawful upon any pretence whatsoever b to take up Arms against the King c And that I do abhor that Traytorous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissionated by him d in pursuance of such Commission And that I will not at any time endeavour any alteration of Government either in Church or State e a In my Opinion b For the Subjects of his Majesty's Dominions c Either his Authority or his Person the Law forbidding both d Whether it be his Parliament Courts of Justice Legal Officers or any other Persons authorized by his publick Laws or his Commission supposing that no contrariety of Laws and Commissions by over-sight or otherwise do Arm the Subjects against each other e I will not endeavour any alteration of State-Government at all either as to the Person of the King or the Species of Government either as to the Legislative or Executive Power as in the King himself or his Parliament or Established Courts of Justice And therefore I declare That I take all the rest of this Oath only in a Sense consistent with this Clause implying no alteration in the Government And I will endeavour no alteration of the Coercive Government of the Church as it is in the King according to the Oath of Supremacy Nor any alienation of the Spiritual Power of the Keys from the Lawful Bishops and Pastors of the Church Nor will I endeavour to restore the Ancient Discipline by removing the Spiritual Government by the Keys out of the Hands of Lay-Chancellors into the Hands of so many able Pastors as the number of Churches and necessity of the work requireth nor any other Reformation of the Church by any Rebellious Schismatical or other unlawful means whatsoever nor do I believe that any Vow or Covenant obligeth me thereto declaring notwithstanding that it 's none of my meaning to bind my self from any Lawful Means of such Reformation nor to disobey the King if at any time He command me to endeavour the Alteration of any thing justly alterable The General Answer was as followeth UPon Serious Consideration of the Act of Parliament Entitled An Act for Restraining of Nonconformists from Inhabiting in Corporations And of the Oath therein mentioned I am of Opinion That there is nothing contained in that Oath according to the true Sense thereof But that it is not Lawful to take up Arms against the King or any Authorised by his Commission or for a private Person to endeavour the Alteration of the Monarchical Government in the State or the Government by Bishops in the Church And that any Person notwithstanding the taking of such Oath if he apprehend that the Lay-Judges in Bishop's Courts as to Sentence of Excommunication for Matters meerly Ecclesiastical or for any other Cause ought to be Reformed or that Bishopricks are of too large extent may safely Petition or use any lawful Endeavour for Reformation of the same For that such Petition or other Lawful Endeavour doth not tend to the Alteration of the Government but to the amendment of what shall be found amiss in the Government and Reformed by Lawful Authority and thereby the Government better Established And I conceive every Exposition of the said Oath upon Supposition or Presumption of an Obligation thereby to any thing which is contrary to the Law of God or the Kingdom is an illegal and a forced Exposition contrary to the intent and meaning of the said Oath and Act of Parliament for it is a Rule nullum iniquum est in Lege praesumendium And an Exposition tending to enjoyn any thing contrary to the Law of God would make the Act of Parliament void which ought not to be admitted when it bears a fair and plain Sense which is no more Than that Subjects ought not to take up Arms against their Lawful King or such as lawfully Commissionated by him and for private Persons to be unquiet in the place wherein they live to the disturbance of the Government in Church or State Iohn Fountain Feb. 6.
1665. The Particular Answer was as followeth NOT at present to dispute the things presupposed although I may not grant all in the Fourth and some other of the Positions to be warranted by the Law of Nature or Scripture I add as necessary to the Resolving of the Questions upon the Act of Parliament That in the Exposition of Acts of Parliament if there may be a fair and reasonable Construction made of the Words not contrary to the Law of God or Reason that Construction ought to be made thereof and that any Exposition which tends to make it sensless or contrary to the Law of God and Reason or to suppose any wicked thing enjoyned thereby is a forced Construction and contrary to Law being destructive to the very Act of Parliament I hereupon lay aside any Answer to the Fourth and Eighth Questions which may peradventure be thought meer Cavils against the Act though I knowing the Temper of the Propounder have a more charitable Opinion of him But I do apprehend that tho' there may want a Word to make a Logical Position concerning the Trayterous Position mentioned in the Oath yet there is a plain Sense in the Oath viz. That it is unlawful to take up Arms against the King and that if any would make a distinction and affirm That though the unlawfulness were admitted to take up Arms against him yet by his Authority they might take up Arms against his Person or against those that are Commissioned by him in pursuance of such Commission such an Affirmation and Position as this is Traytorous and to be abhorred and there is such a plain Sense in it as every one that hath common Reason understands it so and therefore Quod necessario subintelligitur non deest And I do not believe that any who propound the Questions to be resolved do themselves imagine that the Parliament had any thought of what is mentioned in the Eighth Question for nullum iniquum in Lege praesumendum Upon consideration of the Act I apprehend the Makers thereof had an apprehension that there were three sorts of People which might have a dangerous influence upon the King's Subjects if not rightly principled viz. Ministers or Preachers School-Masters and such as did Table and Board Children and therefore did provide to restrain them from doing hurt to the Kingdom in keeping the Ministers out of the populous Places of the Kingdom or where they were best known and most likely to prevail and that no Children might be poisoned with Principles destructive to Government The Principles which they feared were these 1. That in some Cases it might be lawful to take up Arms against the Supreme Magistrate at least by a distinction unwarrantable in taking up Arms against his Authority against his Person or such as he did Commissionate 2. That private Persons might endeavour to alter the Government in the Church or State where they lived For the discovery of such as were of these dangerous Principles I conceive the Oath is framed which is Established by this Act and any who holdeth these Principles may not safely take it but if he hold not these Principles he may And as to the Questions 1. That the Words upon any pretence whatsoever in the Oath refer only to the King himself 2. That Lawful comprehends any Law obligatory 3. That it is only according to the Opinion and Judgment of him that takes it 5. He that hath the Lawful Commission is the only Person that hath Authority by the King's Commission 6. I conceive the Sheriff 7. That Commission which is according to Law 9. I conceive they may 10. I conceive a Commission must be shewn if required and that a surreptitious and void Commission contrary to Law is no Commission at all 11. I understand not the Latitude of this Question but I conceive the Sense of the Oath is not to endeavour the Alteration of Monarchical Government in the State 12. Though I conceive it utterly unlawful to endeavour to change the Person of the Governour yet that being sufficiently provided against by the former Laws I do not conceive that it was intended by the Makers of the Law in this part of the Oath to intend more than the Alteration of the Government 13. Answered before And yet if the Person of the Supreme were included in the State-Government I do not conceive that it would extend to the Governours under him in the Church for they may be justly removed in Case of Crime c. 14. I conceive both 15. I conceive its the English Form of Church-Government and yet that is no breach of the Oath to endeavour in a lawful way to make more Bishops and lesser Bishopricks 16. I do not think the Oath bindeth not to endeavour to alter the Actors or Governours in the Church so it be done by lawful means and that it is lawful notwithstanding the Oath to endeavour to alter Lay-Chancellors in a lawful way 17. I conceive it is not 18. I conceive it doth not There are so many things put in the last Question of the Sense of the Oath as will require more discussion than the present Opportunity admits Iohn Fountain Feb. 13. 1665. Sir Iohn Maymard also told me That an illegal Commission is no Commission though privately being the King's Serjeant §19 But that all these Answers should rather resolve me not to take this Oath than any way satisfie me to take it may thus appear 1. He confesseth that the Principle feared was That in some Cases it is lawful to take up Arms against the Supreme Magistrate or by his Authority against those Commissioned by him And yet implicitly granteth it in the Cases intimated in the Eighth Question 2. He confesseth that another feared Principle was That private Persons may endeavour to alter the Government of the Church And he confesseth That by lawful means we may endeavour it in a great part of it And as to the Particulars 1. He thinketh that the Words on any pretence whatsoever refer to the King only whereas in my Conscience I think that the Authors of the Oath meant it also as to any Commissioned by him otherwise there is nothing in all this Oath against taking Arms against any Commissioned by the King so they do not pretend his own Authority for it And upon my knowledge a great part of those that Fought for the Parliament went on other grounds some thinking Parliaments and People above the King as being singulis Major universis Minor as Hooker speaks Eccles. Pol. Lib. 8. some thinking that the Law of Nature did warrant them and some that the Scripture did require them to do what they did And can I believe that it was none of the Imposers Intention by the Oath to provide against any of these Opinions If really it were not then a Man that taketh this Oath may notwithstanding it believe That though it be not lawful to take Arms against the King nor against his Armies by pretence of his
the Churches of England and faithfully to preserve the peace and happiness thereof And all those who are qualified with abilities according to the Law and take the Oaths and Declarations abovesaid shall be allowed to preach Lectures and Occasional Sermons and to Catechize and to be presented and admitted to any Benefice or to any Ecclesiastical or Academical promotions or to the teaching of Schools 3. Every person admitted to any Benefice with cure of Souls shall be obliged himself on some Lord's day within a time prefixed to read the Liturgy appointed for that day when it is satisfactorily altered and the greatest part of it in the mean time and to be often present at the reading of it and sometimes to administer the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the said Liturgies And it shall by himself or some other allowed Minister be constantly used in his Church and the Sacraments frequently administred as is required by the Law 4. The 4th was against the Ceremonies without alteration in their own words save about bowing at the Name â—esus as after 5. No Bishop Chancellor or other Ecclesiastical Officers shall have power to silence any allowed Minister or suspend him 〈◊〉 officio vel beneficio arbitrarily or for any cause without a known Law And in case of any such arbitary or injurious silencing and suspension there shall be allowed an appeal to some of his Majestie 's Courts of Iustice so as it may be prosecuted in a competent time and at a tolerable expence being both Bishops and Presbyters and all Ecclesiastical persons are under the Government of the King and punishable by him for gross and injurious male-administrations 6. Though we judge it the Duty of Ministers to Catechize instruct exhort direct and comfort the people personally as well as publickly upon just occasion yet lest a pretended necessity of Examinations before the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper or an unwarrantable strictness should introduce Church-Tyranny and wrong the faithful by keeping them from the Communion let all those be admitted to the Communion who since their Infant baptism have at years of discretion manifested to the Bishop or the Ministers of the Parish Church where they live a tolerable understanding of the Essential points of Faith and Godliness that is of the Baptismal Covenant and of the nature and use of the Lord's Supper and have personally owned before them or the Church the Covenant which by others they made in Baptism professing their Resolution to keep the same in a Faithful Godly Righteous Charitable and Temporal Life and are not since this profession revolted to Atheism Insidelity or Heresy that is the denying of some Essential Article of faith and live not impenitently in any gross and scandalous sin And therefore in the Register of each Parish let all their Names be written who have either before their Confirmation or at any other time thus understandingly owned their Baptismal Covenant and a Certificate thereof from the Minister of the place shall serve without any further examination for their admission to Communion in that or any other Parish Church where they shall after live till by the aforesaid revolts they have merited their suspension 7. Because in many families there are none who can read or pray â—or call to remembrance what they have heard to edify themselves and spend the Lords day in holy Exercises and many of these live so far from the Church that they go more seldom than the rest and therefore have great need of the assistance of their Neighbours it is not to be taken for a Conventicle or unlawful meeting when Neighbours shall peaceably joyn together in reading the Scripture or any good books or repeating publick Sermons and praying and â—ging â—salms to God whilst they do it under the inspection of the Minister and not in opposition to the publick Assemblies Nor yet that meeting where the Minister shall privately Catechize his Neighbours or pray with them when they are in sickness danger or distress tho persons of several Families shall be present 8. Whereas the Canon and Rubrick forbid the adâ—ission of notorious scandalous sinners to the Lords table be it enacted that those who are proved to deride or scorn at Christianity or the holy Scriptures or the Life of Reward and Punishment or the serious practice of a Godly Life and strict obedience to Gods Commands shall be numbered with the Scandalous sinners mentioned in the Canon and Rubrick and not admitted before repentance to the holy Communion § 69. The following paper will give you the reasons of all our alterations of their form of Words But I must add this that we thought not the form of Subscription sufficient to keep out a Papist from the established Ministery much less from a Toleration which we medled not with And here and in other alterations I bore the blame and they told me that no Man would put in such doubts but I. And I will here tell Posterity this Truth as a Mystery yet only to the blind which must not now be spoken that I believe that I have been guilty of hindering our own Liberties in all Treaties that ever I was employ'd in For I remember not one in which there was not some crevice or contrivance or terms offered for such a Toleration as would have let in the moderate Papists with us And if we would but have opened the Door to let the Papists in that their Toleration might have been charged upon us as being for our sakes and by our request or procuâ—ement we might in all likelihood have had our part But though for my own part I am not for Cruelty against Papists any more than others even when they are most cruel to us but could allow them a certain degree of liberty on Terms that shall secure the common Peace and the People's Souls yet I shall never be one of them that by any renewed pressures or severities shall be forced to petition for the Papists liberty if they must have it let them Petition for it themselves No craft of Iesuits or Prelates shall thunder me cudgel me or cheat me into the Opinion that it is now necessary for our own Ministry Liberty or Lives that we I say we Nonconformists be the famed Introducers of the Papists Toleration that so neither Papists nor Prelatists may bear the odium of it but may lay it all on us God do what he will with us his way is best but I think that this is not his way § 70. Upon these Alterations I was put to give in my Reasons of them which were as followeth The Reasons of our Alterations of your Proposals 1. I Put in Presidents c. to avoid Dispute whether such were meer Presbyters or as some think Bishops 2. I leave out time of disorder because it will else exclude all that were Ordained by Presbyters since the King came in 3. I put in Instituted and Authorized to intimate that it is not an Ordination to
Voice of the multitude is seldom intelligible Let the shorter confession and the general Prayer offered by the Commissioners 1660. be inserted as alias'es with the Confession and Litany and liberty granted some time to use them All things in the Canon contrary to any thing in this Act to be void and null And all things repeated in any former Law that is contrary to this Act. § 73. We inserted these Rubricks and Orders because they gave us more hope that the Alterations of the Liturgy would be granted than the rest And therefore we thought best to get that way as much as we could And yet we insisted most on the other part because therein it was desired that till the Liturgy was satisfactorily reformed we should not be constrained to read it but only sometimes the greater part of it Which words I offered my self lest else the whole should have been frustrate and because the very words of the Scripture the Psalms Sentences Hymns Chapters Epistles Gospels c. are the far greater part of the Liturgy so that by this we should not have been forced to use any more or any thing scrupled § 74. Before we concluded any thing it was desired that seeing the Earl of Manchester Lord Chamberlain had been our closest Friend we should not conclude without his notice And so at a Meeting at his House these Two more Articles or Proposals were agreed to be added Viz. I. Whereas the Sentence of Excommunication may be passed upon very light Occasions it is humbly desired that no Minister shall be compelled to pronounce such sentence against his conscience but that some other be thereunto appointed by the Bishop or the Court. II. That no person shall be punished for not repairing to his own parish-Parish-church who goeth to any other Parish-church or Chappel within the Diocess For by the Bishop's Doctrine it is the Diocesan Church that is the lowest Political Church and the Parishes are but parts of a Church For there is no Bishop below the Diocesan Therefore we go not from our own Church if we go not out of the Diocess § 75. When these Proposals were offered to Dr. Wilkins and the Reasons of them 1. He would not consent to the clause in the first Propos. Provided that those who desire it have leave to give in their Profession that they renounce not their Ordination c. Where was our greatest stop and disagreement 2. He would not have had subscription to the Scriptures put in because the same is in the Articles to which we subscribe I answer'd that we subscribed to the Articles because they were materially contained in the Scripture and not to the Scriptures because they were not in the Articles I thought it needful for Order sake and for the right description of our Religion that we subscribe to the Scriptures first And to this at last he consented 3. He refused the last part of the fifth for Appeals to Civil Courts saying there was a way of Appeals already and the other would not be endured 4. The two next the 6th and 7th he was not forward to but at last agreed to them leaving out the Clause in the 6th for Registring Names 5. The two last added Articles also were excepted against But in the end it was agreed as they said by the the Lord keeper's Consent that Sir Matthew Hale Lord chief Baron of the Exchequer should draw up what we agreed on into the form of an Act to be offered to the Parliament And therefore Dr. Wilkins and I were to bring our Papers to him and to advise farther with him for the wordingof it because of his eminent Wisdom and Sincerity § 76. Accordingly we went to him and on Consultation with him our proposals were accepted with the alterations following 1. Instead of the Liberty to declare the validity of our ordination which would not be endured it was agreed that the terms of Collation should be these Take thou Legal Authority to preach the Word of God and administer the Holy Sacraments in â—y Congregation of England where thou shalt be lawfully appointed thereunto That so the word Legal might shew that it was only a general License from the King that we received by what Minister soever he pleased to deliver it And if it were 〈◊〉 a Bishop we declared that we should take it from him but as from the King's Minister For the Paper which I gave in against Re-ordination convinced Judge Hales and Dr. Wilkins that the renunciation of former Ordination in England was by ho means to be exacted or done 2. Our Form of Subscription remained unaltered 3. The Clause of Appeals we left out 4. The Fourth Fifth and Seventh passed leaving out the Clause of Registring Names 5. The first of the added Articles they thought reasonable but put it out only leâ—t by overdoing we should clog the rest and frustrate all with those that we were to deal with 6. The other added Article they laid by for the same reason and also lest it should be a shelter to Recusant Papists And thus it was agreed That the Papers should be all delivered to the Lord Chief Baron to draw them up into an Act. And because I lived near him he was pleased to shew me the Copy of his Draught which was done according to all our Sense but secretly lest the noise of a prepared Act should be displeasing to the Parliament But it was never more called for and so I believe he burnt it § 77. Because they objected That by the last Article we should befriend the Papist and especially by a Clause that we offered to be inserted in the Rubrick of the Liturgy That the Sacrament is to be given to none that are unwilling of it and I stood very much upon that with them that we must not corrupt Christ's Sacrament and all our Churches and Discipline and injure many hundred thousand Souls only to have the better advantage against Papists and that there were fairer and better means to be used against them Upon their Enquiry what means might be substituted I told them that besides some others a subscription for all the Tolerated Congregation or Ministers distinct from that of the Established Ministry as followeth might discover them § 78. The Subscription of the Established Ministry I do hereby profess and declare my unfeigned belief of the Holy Canonical Scriptures as the infallible intire and perfect Rule of Divine Faith and Holy Living supposing the Laws of Nature and also my belief of all the Articles of the Creed and of the 36 Articles of the Doctrine and Sacraments of the Church of England Or else the Subscription before agreed on though this be much better supposing the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy also be taken The Subscription of all that have Toleration I A. B. do hereby profess and declare without equivocation and deceit That I believe Iesus Christ to be the only Governing Head of the Vniversal Church and the Holy Canonical
Scriptures to be the infallible intire and perfect Rule of Divine Faith and Holy Living supposing the Laws of Nature and that I believe all the Articles of the Ancient Creeds called the Apostle's and the Nicene And that I will not knowingly oppose any Article of the said Holy Canonical Scriptures or Creeds nor of the Creed called Athanasius's Nor will I publickly seditiously or unpeaceably deprave or cry down the Doctrines Government and Worship Established by the Laws This doth exclude the Essentials of Popery and yet is such as all sober peaceable Persons that need a Toleration may submit to § 79. It hath oft times grieved me in former times to hear how unskilfully some Parliament-Men went about to exclude the Papists when they were contriving how to take off the Test and Force of the Law compelling all to the Sacrament Some must have a Subscription that must name Purgatory and Images and praying to Saints and Iustification by Works and other Points which they could neither rightly enumerate nor state to fit them for such a use as this but would have made all their work ridiculous not knowing the Essentials of Popery which are only to make up such a general Test for their Exclusion § 80. But I suppose the Reader will more feelingly think when he findeth upon what terms we strive and all in vain for a little liberty to preach Christ's Gospel even upon the hardest Terms that will but consist with a good Conscience and the safety of our own Souls he will think I say what a case such Ministers and such Churches now are in And how strange or rather sad than strange is it That Christian Bishops that call themselves the Pastors and Fathers of the Church should put us on such Terms as these when Acts 28. ult Paul preached in his own House to as many as came to him none forbidding him even under Heathens c. And if the Reader be so happy as to live in Days of the Churches Peace and Liberty and Reformation he will be apt to censure us for yielding to such hard Terms as here we do Who if he had been in the time and place with us and seeâ— that we could have the Gospel upon no other Terms he would pity rather than censure the Churches and us § 81. Nay how joyfully would I believe 1400 of the Nonconformable Ministers of England at least have yielded to these Terms if they could have got them But alas all this labour was in vain For the active Prelates and Prelatists so far prevailed that as soon as ever the Parliament met without any delay they took notice That there was a rumour abroad of some Motions or Act to be offered for Comprehension or Indulgence and voted That no Man should bring in such an Act into the House and so they prevented all talk or motion of such a thing and the Lord Keeper that had called us and set us on work himself turned that way and talk'd after as if he understood us not § 82. In April 1668. Dr. Creighton Dean of Wells the most famous loquacious ready-tongu'd Preacher of the Court who was used to preach Calvin to Hell and the Calvinists to the Gallows and by his scornful revilings and jests to set the Court on a Laughter was suddenly in the Pulpit without any sickness surprized with Astonishment worse than Dr. South the Oxford-Orator had been before him and when he had repeated a Sentence over and over and was so confounded that he could go no further at all he was fain to all Men's wonder to come down And his case was more wonderful than almost any other Man's being not only a fluent extemporate Speaker but one that was never known to want words especially to express his Satyrical or bloody Thoughts § 83. In Iuly Mr. Taverner late Minister of Vxbridge was sentenc'd to Newgate-Goal for Teaching a few Children at Brainford but paying his Fine prevented it And Mr. Button of Brainford a most humble worthy godly Man that never was in Orders or a Preacher but had been Canon of Christ's Church in Oxford and Orator to the University was sent to Goal for Teaching two Knight's Sons in his House having not taken the Oxford-Oath by one Ross a Justice a Scot that was Library-Keeper at Westminster and some other Iustices And many of his Neighbours of Brainford were sent to the same Prison for worshipping God in private together where they all lay many Months six as I remember And I name these because they were my Neighbours but many Countries had the like usage Yea Bishop Crofts that had pretended great Moderation sent Mr. Woodward a worthy silenced Minister of Hereford-shire to Goal for six Months Some were imprisoned upon the Oxford-Act and some on the Act against Conventicles § 84. In September Col. Phillips a Courtier of the Bed-chamber and my next Neighbour who spake me fair complained to the King of me for Preaching to great numbers but the King put it by and nothing was done at that time § 85. About this time Dr. Manton being nearest the Court and of great Name among the Presbyterians and being heard by many of great Quality was told by Sir Iohn â—abor That the King was much inclined to favour the Non-conformists and that an Address now would be accepted and that the Address must be a thankful Acknowledgment of the Clemency of his Majesty's Government and the Liberty which we thereby enjoy c. Accordingly they drew up an Address of Thanksgiving and I was invited to joyn in the presenting of it but not in the Penning for I had marr'd their Matter oft enough But I was both sick and unwilling having been oft enough imployed in vain But I told them only of my sickness And so Dr. Manton Dr. Bates Dr. Iacombe and Mr. Ennis presented it what acceptance it had with the King and what he said to them this Letter of Dr. Manton's will tell you But the Copy of the Acknoâ—â—dgment I cannot give you for I never saw it nor sought to see it that I remember for I perceived what it aimed at Dr. Manton's Letter to me at Acton SIR I Was under restraint till now and could not send you an account of our reception with the King It was very gracious He was pleased once and again to signifie how acceptable our Address was and how much he was persuaded of our Peaceableness saying that he had known us to be so ever since his return promised us that he would do his utmost to get us comprehended within the Publick Establishment and would remove all Bars for he could wish that there had been no Bounds nor Bars at all but that all had been Sea that we might have had liberty enough but something must be done for publick Peace However we could not be ignorant that this was a work of difficulty and time to get it fully effected for our Assurance And therefore we must wait till Businesses could be ripened
under the Profession of being a Church distinct from the Church of England and neither of these is my Case 2. The Statute of the 35 of Eliz. expoundeth it accordingly charging none of Unlawful Assembling but such as Separate or Communicate not with the Church 3. There is no other Statute that saith otherwise 4. The Rubrick and Law alloweth Conformable Ministers to keep many Religious Assemblies which are not in the Church being but Subordinate as 1. At the Visitation of the Sick where no numbers of Neighbours are prohibited to be present Sermons at the Spittle Sturbridge-Faire c. 2. At private Baptisms 3. At private Communions where any Family hath an impotent Person that cannot Communicate at Church 4. At the Rogation Perambulations where it was usual to Feast at Houses in their way and there for the Minister to instruct the People and to Pray and sing Psalms 5. The Laborious sort of Conformable Ministers have many of them used to repent their Sermons to all that would Assemble at their Houses Which Repeating was as truly Preaching as if they had Preached the same Sermon in several Pulpits Therefore all Meetings besides Church-Meetings are not Conventicles nor those that are in Subordination to them 5. Even the late Expired Act against Conventicles forbiddeth no Religious Exercises but such as are otherwise than the Liturgy or Practice of the Church and distinguishing expresly between the Exercises and the Numbers doth forbid no number when the Exercises are not otherwise as aforesaid tolerating even unlawful Exercises to the number of Four but not to more The Second Proposition That my Meetings were never Unlawful Conventicles is proved 1. I do constantly joyn with the Church in Common Prayer and go at the beginning 2. I Communicate in the Lord's Supper with the Church of England 3. I am no Nonconformist in the Sense of the Law because I Conform as far as the Law requireth me having been in no Ecclesiastical Promotion May 1. 1662. the Law requireth me not to subscribe declare c. till I take a Cure or Lecture c. 4. I sometimes repeat to the Hearers the Sermon which I heard in the Church 5. I exhort the People to Church-Communion and urge them with sufficient Arguments and Preach ordinarily against Separation and Schism and Sedition and Disloyalty 6. I have commanded my Servant to keep my Doors shut at the time of Publick Worship that none may be in my House that while 7. I go into the Church from my House in the Peoples sight that my Example as well as my Doctrine may persuade them 8. In all this I so far prevail that the Neighbours who hear me do commonly go to Church even to the Common-Prayer and I know not three or two of all the Parish that use to come to me who refuse it which success doth shew what it is I do 9. I have long offered the Pastor of the Parish the Dean of Windsor that if he would but tell me that it is his Judgment that I hinder his Success or the People's Good rather than help it I will remove out of the Parish which he never yet hath done 10. I have the now-arch-Now-Arch-Bishop's License not reversed nor disabled to Preach in the Diocess of London which I may do by Law if I had a Church And I offered the Dean to give over my Meetings in my House if he would permit me to Preach without Hire sometimes occasionally in his Church which I am not disabled to do By all this it appeareth that any Meetings are not Unlawful Conventicles 11. And riotous they are not for my House being just before the Church Door the same Persons go out of the Church into my House and out of my House into the Church so that if one be riotous both must be so And I perform no Exercise at all contrary to the Doctrine or the Practice of the Church but when the Curate readeth only in the Evening and doth not Preach or Catechize when he hath done one part I do the other which he omitteth 2. The Oath cannot be imposed on me because I am none of the three sorts of Offenders there mentioned The first sort in the Act are such as have not Subscribed Declared and Conformed according to the Act of Uniformity and other Acts I am none of them because the Laws require it not of me being as aforesaid in no Church Promotion on May 1. 1662. The second sort are other Persons not Ordained according to the Order of the Church but I am so Ordained The third sort is School-Teachers which is not my Case though I have also a Liceâ—se to Teach School And that the two Descriptions of the Conventicles in the Preamble are to be the Expositions of the following prohibitous Parts of the Act is plain by the answerable distinction of them And also 1. Because the very Title and plain design of this Act is only to restrain Nonconformists 2. Because the express end and business of it is to preserve People from Seditious and Poisonous Doctrine But the Clergy which are not Nonconformists are not to be supposed to be defamed or suspected by the Laws of Preaching poisonous seditious Doctrine nor can it be imagined that they mean to drive them five Miles from all their Parishes in â—ngland if they should once be at a private Meeting or put the 40 l. Fine on them if they preach one Sermon after such Meeting to their Parishes before they have taken the Oath though no Man offer it them which would follow if it extended to them And I am exempted from the Suspicion of that Preaching 1. By being chosen and Sworn His Majesty's Chaplain in ordinary and Preaching before Him and Publishing my Sermons by His Special Commands and never since accused of ill Doctrine but the sharpest Debates written against Nonconformists do quarrel with them for quarrelling with my Doctrine 2. Some think the words have kept in the Act refer to the time past before the Act and then 't is nothing to me 3. Should I not have been Convict in my presence of some one unlawful Conventicle and of not departing after five Miles from the place for how should I be bound to forsake my Dwelling as an Offender before I knew of my Offence Lastly I told the Justices That I did not refuse the Oath but professed that I understood it not and desired time to learn to understand it if I could which they denyed me and would neither tell me who were my Accusers or Witnesses nor shew me the Words of the Accusation or Depositions nor suffer any Person but us three themselves and me to be at all present or to hear any thing that was said by them or me And though I shall never take Oaths which I cannot possibly understand nor in a Sense which is contrary to the plain importance of the Words till they are so expounded nor shall ever number deliberate Lying or Perjury with things indifferent yet
adhere to The same Sence is exprest also in Can. 10. which describeth Schismaticks Whosoever shall affirm that such Ministers as refuse to subscribe to the Form and manner of God's Worship in the Church of England prescribed in the Communion-Book and their Adherents may truly take unto them the Name of another Church not established by Law and dare presume to publish that this pretended Church hath long groaned under c. And in the 9th Canon where the Authors of Schism are thus described Whosoever shall separate themselves from the Communion of Saints as it is approved by the Apostle's Rules in the Church of England and combine themselves together in a new Brotherhood accounting the Christians who are conformable to the Doctrine Government Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England to be prophane and unmeet for them to join with in Christian Profession Pro. 3. If our manner of Religious Exercises did differ in some meer degrees or Circumstances from that which is allowed by the Liturgy and Practice of the Church it ought not no be taken to be the thing condemned in this Act. Arg. 1. Otherwise the Justices themselves and almost all his Majesty's Subjects either are already obnoxious to the Mulcts Imprisonments and Banishments or may be they know not how soon Arg. 2. And otherwise no Subject must dare to go to Church for fear of incurring Imprisonment or Banishment The reason of both is visible 1. Almost all conformable Ministers do either by some omissions of Prayers or other parts of the Liturgy or by some alterations many times do that which is dissonant from the Liturgy and practise or Canons of the Church I have seldom been present where somewhat was not contrary to them 2 Because most conformable Ministers do now Preach without Licenses which is contrary to the express Canons of the Church 3. Because few of the King's Subjects or none can tell when they go to Church but they may hear one that hath no License or that will do somewhat dissonant from the manner of the Church Pro. 4. Preaching without License bringeth me not within the Penalty of the Act. Arg. 1. Because I have the Archbishop's License Arg. 2. Because a License is not necessary for Family Instruction Arg. 3. Because else most of the Conformists would be as much obnoxious which is not so judged by the Bishops themselves § 124. 3. The Errors of the Mittimus with the explication of the Oxford Act. THis Act containeth 1. The end and Occasion that is the preserving of Church and Kingdom from the Danger of poisonous Principles II. The Description of the dangerous Persons 1. in the Preamble Where they are 1. Nonconformists or such as have not subscribed and declared according to the Act of Uniformity and other subsequent Acts. 2. They or some of them and other Persons not ordained according to the Form of the Church of England who have since the Act of Oblivion preached in Unlawful Assemblies and have settled themselves in Corporations 2. In the Body of the Act where are two parts answering the two aforesaid in the Preamble 1. The first Subject described is Non-subscribers and Non-declarers according to the Act of Uniformity c. That is Non-conformists who also have not taken the Oath which is here prescribed as a preventing Remedy 2. The second Subject is All such Persons as shall Preach in unlawful Meetings contrary to Laws which must needs refer to the second branch of the Preamble and mean only such Nonconformists and unordained Persons as shall so Preach the Word shall signifying that it must be after the passing of this Act. III. The Offence prohibited is being or coming after March 24. 1665. within five Miles of any Corporation or of any place where since the Act of Oblivion they have been Parsons Vicars Lecturers c. Or have preached in an unlawful Assembly contrary to the Laws before they have in open Sessions taken the Oath That is who have done this since the Act of Oblivion before this Act it being the purpose of this Act to put all those who shall again after this Act preach in Conventicles in the same Case with them who since the Act of Oblivion were Parsons Vicars c. That is that none of them shall come within five miles of any place where they were either Incumbents or Conventiclers before this Act since the act of Oblivion IV. The Penalty is 1. 40 l. for what is past which the after taking of the Oath will not save them from 2. And six months Imprisonment also for such of them as shall not Swear and subscribe the Oath and Declaration offered them So that in this Act the Offence it self prohibited is Coming within five miles c. But the qualification of the subject offending is absolutely necessary to it So that the Mittimus for an offence against this Act must signifie That N. N. having not subscribed and declared according to the Acts of Uniformity and other subsequent Acts or being not ordained according to the Form of the Church of England having since the Act of Oblivion preached in an unlawful Assembly and also hath so preached since this Act and hath not taken the Oath here required is proved by Oath to us to have been or come since Mar. 24. 1665. Within five Miles of a Corporation or a place where he was an incumbent or preached in a Conventicle before this Act since the Act of Oblivion and also hath refused before us to swear and subscribe the said Oath c. Now in this Mittimus 1. Here is no mention that R. B. hath not subscribed and declared already according to the Act of Uniformity or is a Non-conformist nor yet that he is not ordained according to the Form of the Church of England 2. Nor is there any mention that he hath preached in an unlawful Assembly since the Act of Oblivion much less since this Act which must be said 3. Nor that ever they had proof of his not taking the Oath before or that ever he was Convict of Preaching before he took it 4. The Offence it self is not here said to be proved by Oath at all viz. Coming or being within five Miles c. But another thing viz. his Preaching in an unlawful Meeting is said to be proved by Oath which this Act doth not enable them to take such proof of As for the Word in the Mittimus where he now dwelleth it cannot be understood as a part of Deposition 1. Because it is expressed but as the Justice's Assertion and not so much as an and or Conjunction put before it to shew that they had Oath made of it as well as of Preaching 2. Because the Word now dwelleth must be taken strictly or laxly if strictly it referreth but to the time of the Writing of the Mittimus which was two days after the Constable's Warrant and no Accuser Witness or other Person was suffered to be present and therefore it must needs
themselves believed it that the love of Kiderminster would make me Conform and they concurred in vending the Report insomuch that one certainly told me that he came then from a worthy Minister to whom the Arch-bishop of York Sterne spake these Words Take it on my Word Mr. Baxter doth Conform and is gone to his Beloved Kiderminster And so both Parties concurred in the false Report though one only raised it § 151. Another Accident fell out also which promoted it For Mr. Crofton having a Tryal as I hear upon the Oxford Act of Confinement at the King's Bench Judge Keeling said You need not be so hasty for I hear that Mr. Crofton is about to Conform And Judge Morton said And I hear that Mr. Baxter hath a Book in the Press against their private Meetings Judge Rainsford said somewhat that he was glad to hear it and Judge Morton again That it was but time for the Quakers in Buckingham-shire he was confident were Acted by the Papists for they spake for Purgatory already This Talk being used in so high a Court of Justice by the Grave and Reverend Judges all Men thought then that they might lawfully believe it and report it So Contagious may the Breath of one Religious Man be as to infect his Party and of that Religious Party as to infect the Land and more than one Land with the belief and report of such ungrounded Lies § 152. At the same time in the end of my Life of Faith I Printed a Revocation of my Book called Political Aphorisms or A Holy Common-wealth which exasperated those who had been for the Parliament's War as much as the former but both together did greatly provoke them Of which I must give the Reader this Advertisement I wrote that Book 1659. by the provocation of Mr. Iames Harrington the Author of Oceana and next by the Endeavours of Sir Hen. Vane for a Common-wealth Not that I had any Enmity to a well ordered Democracy but 1. I knew that Cromwell and the Army were resolved against it and it would not be 2. And I perceived that Harrington's Common-wealth was fitted to Heathenism and Vane's to Fanaticism and neither of them would take Therefore I thought that the improvement of our Legal Form of Government was best for us And by Harrington's Scorn Printed in a half Sheet of Gibberish was then provoked to write that Book But the madness of the several Parties before it could be Printed pull'd down Rich. Cromwell and chang'd the Government so oft in a few Months as brought in the King contrary to the hopes of his closest Adherents and the expectations of almost any in the Land And ever since the King came in that Book of mine was preached against before the King spoken against in the Parliament and wrote against by such as desired my Ruine Morley Bishop of Worcester and many after him branded it with Treason and the King was still told that I would not retract it but was still of the same mind and ready to raise another War and a Person not to be indured New Books every Year came out against it and even Men that had been taken for Sober and Religious when they had a mind of Preferment and to be taken notice of at Court and by the Prelates did fall on Preaching or Writing against me and specially against that Book as the probablest means to accomplish their Ends. When I had endured this ten Years and found no stop but that still they proceeded to make me odious to the King and Kingdom and seeking utter ruine this way I thought it my Duty to remove this stumbling Block out of their way and without recanting any particular Doctrine in it to revoke the Book and to disown it and desire the Reader to take it as non Scriptum and to tell him that I repented of the writing of it And so I did Yet telling him That I retracted none of the Doctrine of the first Part which was to prove the Monarch of God but for the sake of the whole second Part I repented that I wrote it For I was resolved at least to have that much to say against all that after wrote and preach'd and talk'd against it That I have revoked that Book and therefore shall not defend it And the incessant bloody Malice of the Reproachers made me heartily wish on two or three accounts that I had never written it 1. Because it was done just at the fall of the Government and was buried in onr ruines and never that I know of did any great good 2. Because I find it best for Ministers to meddle as little as may be with Matters of Poliâ—y how great soever their Provocations may be and therefore I wish that I had never written on any such Subject 3. And I repented that I meddled against Vane and Harrington which was the second Part in Defence of Monarchy seeing that the Consequents had been no better and that my Reward had been to be silenced imprisoned turned out of all and reproached implacably and incessantly as Criminal and never like to see an end of it He that had wrote for so little and so great displeasure might be tempted as well as I to wish that he had sat still and let GOD and Man alone with Matters of Civil Policy Though I was not convinced of many Errors in that Book so called by some Accusers to recant yet I repented the writing of it as an infelicity and as that which did no good but hurt § 153. But because an Appendix to that Book had given several Reasons of my adhering to the Parliament at first many thought I changed my Judgment about the first part of the Parliament's Cause And the rather because I disclaimed the Army's Rebellious Overthrows of Government as I had always done I knew I could not revoke the Book but the busie pevishness of censorious Professors would fall upon me as a Revolter And I knew that I could not for bear the said Revocation without those ill Effects which I supposed greater And which was worst of all I had no possible Liberty further to explain any Reasons § 154. When my Cure of Church Divisions came out the sober Party of Ministers were reconciled to it especially the Ancienter sort and those that had seen the Eviâ—s of Separation But some of the London Ministers who had kept up Publick Assemblies thought it should have been less sharp and some thought because they were under the Bishop's Severities that it was unseasonable For the Truth is most Men judged by Sense and take that to be good or bad which they feel do them good or hurt at the present And because the People's Alienation from the Prelates and Liturgy and parish-Parish-Churches did seem to make against the Prelates and to make for the Nonconformist's Interest they thought it not Prudence to gratifie the Prelates so far as to gain-say it And so they considered not from whence dividing Principles come
and to what they tend and what a disgrace they are to our Cause and how one of our own Errors will hurt and disparage us more than all the cruelty of our Adversaries and that sinful means is seldom blessed to do good § 155. But upon fore-fight of the tenderness of Professors I had before given my Book to the Perusal of Mr. Iohn Corbet my Neighbour accounted one of the most Calm as well as Judicious Nonconformists and had altered every Word that he wished to be altered And the same I had done by my very worthy Faithful Friend Mr. Richard Fairclough who Perused it in the Press and I altered almost all that he wished to be altered to take off any Words that seemed to be too sharp But all did not satisfie the guilty and impatient Readers § 156. For when the Book came out the Separating Party who had received before an odious Character of it did part of them read and interpret it by the Spectacles and Commentary of their Passions and fore Conceits and the most of them would not read it all but took all that they heard for granted The hottest that was against it was Mr. Ed. Bagshaw a young Man who had written formerly against Monarchy had afterward written for me againsâ— Bishop Morley and being of a resolute Roman Spirit was sent first to the Tower and then laid there in the horrid Dungeon where the damp casting him into the Haemorrhoids the Pain caused that Sweat which saved his Life Thence he was removed to Southbâ—y-Castle near Portsmouth in the Sea where he lay Prisoner many Years where Vivasor Powel an honest injudicious Zealot of Wales being his Companion heightned him in his Opinions He wrote against me a Pamphlet so full of Untruths and Spleen and so little pertinent to the Cause as that I never met with a Man that called for an Answer to it But yet the ill Principles of it made me think that it needed an Answer which I wrote But I found that Party grown so tender expecting little but to be applauded for their Godliness and to be flattered while they expected that others should be most sharply dealt with and indeed to be so utterly impatient of that Language in a Confutation which had any suitableness to the desert of their Writings that I purposed to give over all Controversial Writings with them or any other without great necessity And the rather because my own Stile is apt to be guilty of too much freedom and sharpness in Disputings § 157. The next to Mr. Bagshaw now again in Prison for not taking the Oath of Allegiance it self who behind my Back did most revile my Book was Dr. Owen whether out of Design or Judgement I cannot tell but ordinarily he spake very bitterly of it but never wrote to me a Word against it He also divulged his dissent from the Proposals for Concord which I offered him though he would say no more against them to my self than what I have before expressed § 158. At this time also one Hinkley of Norfield near Worcester-shire desiring to be taken notice of wrote a virulent Book against the Nonconformists and particularly some Falshoods against me and a vehement Invitation to me to publish the Reasons of my Nonconformity when he could not be so utterly ignorant as not to know that I could never get such an Apology Licensed and that the Law forbad me to Print it unlicensed and that he himself taketh it for a Sin to break that Law But such impudent Persons were still clamouring against us § 159. By this time my own old Flock at Kiderminster began some of them to Censure me For when the Bishop and Deans and many of their Curates had preached long to make the People think me a Deceiver as if this had been the only way to their Salvation the People were hereby so much alienated from them that they took them for Men unreasonable and little better than mad insomuch as that they grew more alienated from Prelacy than ever Also while they continued to repeat Sermons in their Houses together many of them were laid long in Jayls among Thieves and common Malefactors which increased their Exasperations yet more They continued their Meetings whilst their Goods were Seised on and they were Fined and Punished again and again These Sufferings so increased their Aversation that my Book against Church-Divisions coming out at such a time and a Preface which I put before a Book of Dr. Bryan's in which I do but excuse his Speaking against Separation they were many of them offended at it as unseasonable and judging by feeling Interest and Passion were angry with me for strengthening the Hands of Persecutors as they call it whereas if I had called the Bishops all that 's nought I am confident they would not have blamed me And they that fell out with the Bishops for casting me out and speaking ill of me were some of them ready to speak ill of me if not to cast me off because I did but persuade them of the Lawfulness of Communicating in their parish-Parish-Church with a Conformable Minister in the Liturgy § 160. At this time as is said the old reading Vicar dying it was cast on me to chuse the next But the Religious People who were the main Body of the Town and Parish would not so much as chuse a Man when they might have had their choice no nor so much as write or send one word to one about it lest they should seem to consent to his Conformity or to be obliged to him in his Office Whereupon I also refused to meddle in the Choice and the rather because some of the malignant slanderous Prelatists who write of me as Durel L'strange and many others have done would in likelyhood have said that I contracted for some Commodity to my self and because Mr. Foley the Patron was a truly honest Religious Man who I knew would make the best choice he could § 161. When he had chosen them a Minister whom they themselves commended for an honest Man and a good Preacher and rather wished him than another I wrote a Letter to them to advise them to join with the said Minister in Prayers and Sacrament because I had before advised them not to own the Ministry of Mr. Dance for his utter incapacity and insufficiency but if ever they had a tolerable Man to own him and Communicate with him And because he was the best that the Patron by their Consent could chuse and for many Reasons which I gave them But their Sufferings had so far alienated them from the Prelates that the very rumour of this Letter was talkt of as my Book against Divisions was so that it was never so much as read to them § 162. And here it is worth the nothing how far Interest secretly swayeth the Judgments of the best A few Ministers who have a more taking way of Preaching than the rest and being more moving and affectionate are
for that way now which most suiteth with the Inclination of the People who most esteem them which is to go far enough from the Conformists or too far but the rest who are less followed by the People are generally more for Peace and Moderation § 163. This Year the Act against Conventicles was renewed and made more severe than ever And as all that ever I spake with of it supposed with an Eye upon my Case they put in divers Clauses As that the fault of the Mittimus should not disable it that all doubtful Clauses in the Act should be interpreted as would most favour the suppression of Conventicles that they that fled or removed their Dwelling into another County should be pursued by Execution to this Sense What a strait is a Man in among People of such Extremes One side pursueth us with implacable Wrath while we are charged with nothing but Preaching Christ's Gospel in the most peaceable manner we can And the other censureth us as Compliers with Persecutors and Enemies to Piety because we desire to live peaceable with all Men and to separate from them no further than they separate from God § 164. Their own Laws against Conventicles hinder us from doing their own Wills They write and clamour against me for not perswading the People to Conformity And when I would draw them but to that Communion which I had within my self the Law disableth me to Communicate a Letter to them seeing no more than four must meet together which way among many hundred or thousand Dissenters would make many Years work of Communicating that one part of my Advice Thus do our Shepherds use the Flocks § 165. At this time Mr. Giles Firmin a worthy Minister that had lived in New-England writing against some Errors of Mr. Hooker Mr. Shepherd Mr. Daniel Rogers and Mr. Perkins gave me also also a gentle reproof for tying Men too strictly to Meditation whereto I wrote a short answer called A Review of the Doctrine of Meditation § 166. A worthy Lady was perverted from the Lord's Day to the Saturday-Sabbath desiring my Judgment and Mr. Francis Bamfield a Minster who hath lain about seven Years in Dorchester-Goal the Brother of Sir Iohn Bamfield deceased being gone to the same Opinion and many following them I wrote by the Perswasion of some Friends a small Tractate also on that Subject to prove the divine appointment of the Lord's Day and the cessation of the Iewish Sabbath § 167. Dr. Manton though he had the greatest Friends and promise of Favour of any of the Presbyterians vvas sent Prisoner to the Gatehouse for Preaching the Gospel in his own House in the Parish vvhere he had been called formerly to the Ministery and for not taking the Oxford-Oath and coming within five Miles of a Corporation where he continued six Months but it proved convenient to his â—ase because those six Months were spent in London in a hot pursuit of such private Preaching by Bands of Soldiers to the terrour of many and the death of some § 168. Madam the King's Sister dyed in France when she returned from visiting His Majesty in England to his very great grief § 169. Sir Iohn Babor talk'd to the Lord Arlington of our late Treaty upon the Lord Keeper's Invitation with Bishop Wilkins whereupon Dr. Manton sent to me as from him to Communicate the Terms and Papers But they were at Acton from whence they had driven me and I had medled enough in such Matters only to my cost So that though he said the King was to see them I could not then answer his desire and I heard no more of it § 170. Upon the Publication of my Book against Divisions and the Rumour of my Conforming the Earl of Lauder dale invited me to speak with him Where he opened to me the purpose of taking off the Oath of Canonical Obedience and all Impositions of Conformity in Scotland save only that it should be necessary to sit in Presbyteries and Synods with the Bishops and Moderators there being already no Liturgy Ceremonies or Subscription save only to the Doctrine of the Church Hereupon he expressed his great Kindness to me and told me he had the King's Consent to speak with me and being going into Scotland he offered me what place in Scotland I would choose either a Church or a Colledge in the University or a Bishoprick And shortly after as he went thither at Barnet he sent for me and I gave him the Answer following in these Papers besides what I gave him by word to the same purpose But when he came thither such Acts against Conventicles were presently made as are very well worthy the Reader 's serious Persual who would know the true Complexion of this Age. § 171. My Lord BEing deeply sensible of your Lordship's Favours and in special of your Liberal Offers for my Entertainment in Scotland I humbly return you my very hearty Thanks But these Considerations forbid me to entertain any hopes or further thoughts of such a remove 1. The Experience of my great Weakness and decay of Strength and particularly of this last Winter's Pain and how much worse I am in Winter than in Summer doth fully persuade me That I shall live but a little while in Scotland and that in a disabled useless Condition rather keeping my Bed than the Pulpit 2. I am engaged in Writing a Book which if I could hope to live to finish is almost all the Service that I expect to do God and his Church more in the World A Latin Methodus Theologiae And I can hardly hope to live so long it requiring yet near a Years labour more Now if I should go spend that one half Year or Year which should finish that Work in Travel and the trouble of such a Removal and then having intended Work undone it would disappoint me of the ends of my Life For I live only for Work and therefore should remove only for Work and not for Wealth and Honour if ever I remove 3. If I were there all that I could hope for were liberty to Preach the Gospel of Salvation and especially in some Vniversity among young Scholars But I hear that you have enough already for this Work that are like to do it better than I can 4. I have a Family and in it a Mother-in-Law of 80 Years of Age of Honourable Extract and great Worth whom I must not neglect and who cannot Travel And it is to such a one as I so great a business to remove a Family and all our Goods and Books so far as deterreth me to think of it having paid so dear for Removals these 8 Years as I have done and being but yesterday settled in a House which I have newly taken and that with great trouble and loss of time And if I should find Scotland disagree with me which I fully conclude of to remove all back again All this concurreth to deprive me of this Benefit of your Lordship's Favour But
my Lord there are other Fruits of it which I am not altogether hopeless of Receiving When I am commanded to pray for Kings and all in Authority I am allowed the Ambition of this Preferment which is all that ever I aspired after to live a quiet and peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty Diu nimis habitavit anima mea inter osores pacis I am weary of the Noise of contentious Revilers and have oft had Thoughts to go into a Foreign Land if I could find any where I might have a healthful Air and quietness that I might but Live and Die in peace When I sit in a Corner and meddle with no Body and hope the World will forget that I am alive Court City and Country is still fill'd with Clamours against me and when a Preacher wanteth Preferment his way is to Preach or write a Book against the Nonconformists and me by Name So that the Menstrua of the Press and Pulpits of some is some Bloody Invectives against my self as if my Peace were inconsistent with the Kingdom 's Happiness And never did my Eyes read such impudent Untruths in Matter of Fact as these Writings contain and they cry out for Answers and Reasons of my Nonconformity while they know the Law forbiddeth me to answer them Unlicensed I expect not that any Favour or Justice of my Superiours should Cure any of this But 1. If I might but be heard speak for my self before I be judged by them and such things believed For to contemn the Judgment of my Rulers is to dishonour them 2. I might live quietly to follow my private Study and might once again have the use of my Books which I have not seen these ten Years and pay for a Room for their standing at Kiderminster where they are eaten with Worms and Rats having no security for my quiet Abode in any place enough to encourage me to send for them And if I might have the Liberty that every Beggar hath to Travel from Town to Town I mean but to London to over-fee the Press when any thing of mine is Licensed for it And 3. If I be sent to Newgate for Preaching Christ's Gospel For I dare not sacrilegiously renounce my Calling to which I am Consecrated per Sacramentum Ordinis if I have the Favour of a better Prison where I may but walk and write These I should take as very great Favours and acknowledge your Lordship my Benefactor if you procure them For I will not so much injure you as to desire or my Reason as to expect any greater Matters no not the Benefit of the Law I think I broke no Law in any of the Preachings which I am accused of and I most confidently think that no Law imposeth on me the Oxford-Oath any more than any Conformable Minister and I am past doubting the present Mittimus for my Imprisonment is quite without Law But if the Justices think otherwise now or at any time I know no Remedy I have yet a License to Preach publickly in London-Diocess under the Arch-bishop's own Hand and Seal which is yet valid for occasional Sermons tho' not for Lectures or Cures But I dare not use it because it is in the Bishop's power to recall it Would but the Bishop who one would think should not be against the Preaching of the Gospel not re-call my License I could preach occasional Sermons which would absolve my Conscience from all Obligations to private Preaching For 't is not Maintenance that I expect I never received a Farthing for my Preaching to my Knowledge since May 1 1662. I thank God I have Food and Raiment without being chargeable to any Man which is all that I desire had I but leave to Preach for nothing and that only where there is a notorious Necessity I humbly Crave your Lordship's Pardon for the tediousness and again return you my very great Thanks for your great Favours remaining My Lord Your Lordship 's Humble Much Obliged Servant Richard Baxter Iune 24. 1670. One Reason more also as additional moveth me That the People of Scotland would have such jealous Thoughts of a Stranger especially at this time when Fame hath rung it abroad that I Conform that I should do little good among them and especially when there are Men enough among themselves that are able if Impediments were removed Another Letter to the E. of Lauderdale I Scarce account him worthy the Name of a Man much less of an English-man and least of all of a Christian who is not sensible of the great Sinfulness and Calamity of our divided and distracted Condition in his Majesty's Dominions The Sin is a Compendium of very many heinous Crimes The Calamity is 1. The King 's to have the trouble and peril of Governing such a divided People 2. The Kingdom 's to be as Guelphes and Gibelines hating and reviling one another and living in a Heart-War and a Tongue-War which are the Sparks that usually kindle a Hand-War and I tremble to think what a Temptation it is to Secret and to Foreign Enemies to make Attempts against our Peace and to read Infallibility it self pronouncing it a Maxim which the Devil himself is practically acquainted with That a House or Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand 3. The Churches To have Pastors against Pastors and Churches against Churches and Sermons against Sermons and the Bishops to be accounted the perfidiousest Enemies of the People's Souls and the Wolves that devour the Flock of Christ and so many of the People to be accounted by Bishops to be Rebellious Schismaticks and Fanaticks whose Religiousness and Zeal is the Plague of the Church and whose ruine or depression is the Pastor's Interest against whom the most vicious may be imployed as being more trusty and obedient to the Orders of the Church How doleful a Case is it that Christian Love and delight in doing good to one another is turned almost every where into wrath and bitterness and a longing after the downful of each other and to hear in most Companies the edifying Language of Love and Christianity turned into most odious Descriptions of each other and into the pernicious Language of Malice and Calumny It is to sober Men a wonderful sort of wickedness that all this is so obstinately persisted in even by those that decry the evil of it in others And to one sort all seemeth justified by saying that others are their Inferiours and to the other by saying that they are Persecuted And 't is a wonderful sort of Calamity which is so much loved that in the face of such Light and in the fore-sight of such Dangers and in the present Experience of such great Concussions and Confusions the Peace-killers will not hold their hands My Lord Many sober By-standers think That this Sin might cease and this misery be healed at a very easie Rate and therefore that it is not so much Ignorance as Interest that hindereth the Cure And they wonder who those Persons
are who can take such a State as this to be their Interest Sure I am That Peace-makers shall be Blessed as the Children of God that safe and honest Terms might easily be found out if Men were impartial and willing and that he that shall be our Healer will be our Deliverer and if your Lordship could be Instrumental therein it would be a greater honour to you in the Estimation of the true Friends of the King and Kingdom and Church and a greater Comfort to your Conscience than all worldly Greatness can afford For the Means I am not so vain as to presume to offer you any other Particulars than to tell you that I am persuaded That if there were first a Command from His Majesty to the Bishops of Chester and Norwich on one side and two Peaceable Men on the other freely to Debate and offer such Expedients as they think most proper to heal all our Divisions they would 〈◊〉 agree And when they had made that Preparation if some more such Moderate Divines were joyned to them as Dr. Stillingfleet Dr. Tillotson Dr. Outram Dr. Pierson Dr. Whitchcot Dr. More Dr. Worthington Dr. Wallis Dr. Barlow Dr. Tully Mr. Gifford c. on one side and Dr. Conant Dr. Dillingham Dr. Langley and many more that I could Name on the other side they would quickly fill up and Confirm the Concord And such a Preparation being made and shewed His Majesty certainly he would soon see that the Inconveniences of it will be so great as the Mischiefs of our Divisions are and are like to be for the further they go as a Torrent the more they will swell and Violence will not end them when it seemeth to allay them And oh what a Pleasure would it then be to His Majesty to Govern a Concordant People and to feel the Affections and Strength of a Vnited Kingdom and to have Men's Religious Zeal engage them in a Fervency for his Love and Service And what a Joy would it be to the Pastors to be Beloved of their Flocks And what a Joy to all the Honest Subjects to live in such a Kingdom and such a Church And that this Work may not seem over-difficult to you when your Lordship shall Command it I shall briefly tell you what the generality of the Sober Nonconformists hold and what it is that they desire and what it is that they refuse as sinful that when they are understood it may appear how far they are from being intolerable either in the Kingdom or the Church My Lord Pardon this boldness of Your Humble Servant Rich. Baxter Iune 24. 1670. To the Right Honourable the E. of Lauderdale His Majesty's Commissioner for Scotland §172 When the E. of Lauderdale was gone into Scotland Sir Rob. Murrey a worthy Person and one of Gresham-Colledge-Society and the Earl's great Confident sent me the Frame of a Body of Church-Discipline for Scotland and desired my Animadversions on it I had not Power to Transcribe them or make them known but you may Conjecture what they were by my Animadversions Only I may say That the Frame was very handsomely contrived and much Moderation was in it but the main Power of Synods was contrived to be in the King To the Honourable Sir Rob. Murrey this present IN General 1. The External Government of the Church is so called 1. From the Object because it is about the Body and so it belongeth both to the King and to the Pastor who speak to Men as sensible and corporeal 2. Or from the Act of Governning and so it belongeth also to both For to Preach and Admonish and give the Sacrament of Baptism by the Key of Admission and to Excommunicate c. are outward Acts. 3. From the Matter of Punishment when it is the Body immediately or the Goods that are meddled with by Penalty And so the Government belongeth to the King and Magistrates alone But this is much plainlier and fitlier distinguished as Bishop Bilson frequently and Protestants ordinarily do by the Terms of Governing by the Sword and by the Word Or by Co-active and Spiritual and Pastoral Government which is by Authoritative Persuasion or by God's Word applied to the Conscience II. Though there be an External Government in the two first Senses given by Christ as immediately to the Pastors as to the Prince they having the Keys of the Church as immediately committed to them as the Sword is to the Prince yet in the Exercise of their Office in Preaching Sacraments and Discipline they are under the Civil Government of the King who as he may see that Physicians and all others in his Kingdom do their Duties without gross abuse so may he do by Pastors tho' he cannot either assume to himself their Office or prohibit it yet he may govern them that use it and see that they do it according to Christ's Law So that under that Pretence he take not their proper Work into his own hand nor hinder them from the true Exercise III. Though there are many things in the Frame of Canons which I am uncapable of judging of as concerning another Kingdom whose Case and Customs I am not perfectly acquainted with yet I may say these three things of it in general 1. That I am very glad to see no ensnaring Oaths Declarations Professions or Subscriptions in it no not so much as a Subscription to these Canons themselves For peaceable Men can live quietly and obediently under a Government which hath many things in it which they dare not justifie or approve of It is our Work to obey it is the Magistrate's Work and not ours to justifie all his own Commands and Orders before God as having no Errors Therefore it is pity to see Subjects so put upon that which is not their Work upon the terrible Terms as some-where they are 2. I conceive that this Frame will make a Nation happy or miserable as the Men are who shall be chosen for the Work The King having the choice of all the Bishops and Moderators and the Commissioners having the Absolute Power of nullifying all if Wise and Godly Bishops and Moderators be chosen and moderate Commissioners Piety will be much promoted by these Rules of Government But if contrary it will have contrary Effects 3. Therefore supposing a choice of meet Persons though the mixtures of the Magistrates and the Churches power here be such as I cannot justifie who had rather they were distinctly managed yet I should be thankful to God if we might see but as good a Frame of Canons well used in England and should live peaceably submissively and gratefully under such a Government To the Particulars 1. The Name of Bishop appropriated to the Diocesane will stumble some who have learned that every Church hath one Bishop saith Ignatius Et ubi Episcopus ibi Ecclesia saith Cyprian Therefore they will think that you un-Un-Church all the Churches of the Land save the Diocesane And I could wish that the Name were fitted to
the thing to avoid Errour but yet I think that none should stick much at this because it is but de Nomine and afterwards you seem to leave a true Governing Power not only in the Presbyters but in the Pastors and Elders of the Parish-Churches 7. Seeing your Moderators are truly Bishops as described and others also if the Parishes be true Churches why is Ordination appropriated to the Bishops so called Do you intend that he shall do it by Consent of his Synod or a Presbytery or by his own Power alone 2. Is he to suspend depose and excommunicate by himself alone as this General seems to intimate or only in and by Consent of his Synod or Presbytery 3. The same also I ask as to his Transplanting Ministers as he sees useful for if he may do all this himself ad libitum it may discourage a Man from meddling with the Ministery when after all his Study and Labour it is at the Bishop's pleasure whether he shall Preach or be Suspended For though you after say for what Faults he shall be Suspended yet that signifieth nothing if the Bishop be Judge Of Appeals as a dear Remedy and doubtful Men will be diffident And Transplanting may undo a Minister at the Bishop's Pleasure And I doubt the absolute Deprival of the People of their Power of Consent or Dissent in this and other Cases of Title to their proper Pastors will be found 1. contrary to the nature of the Pastoral Work 2. to the Scripture 3. and to all Antiquity and practice of the Catholick Church for many Hundred Years 15. If it had been said that none but such Bishops shall have power to pronounce the Major Excommunication or that which is now called Excommunication in Scotland to which Horning c. is annexed it would have less founded to the contradiction of Antiquity c. For Suspension from the Communion which you allow to particular Churches and Presbyteries is called by many the minor Excommunication and by some a Temporary Conditional Excommunication and by others as Sir Wil. Morrice is written against as an unlawful thing 'till some just Excommunication precede 22. Might but the Moderator with his Presbytery by consent Ordain it would more satisfie 24. In Transplanting both Moderators and Pastors should not either their own Consent or the Presbytery's or People's be made necessary 31. The words of the Formula of Ordination will be material as to honest Men's reception or refusal of the Office 32. The Office of a Pastor as instituted in Scripture is not only to Baptize and celebrate the Sacrament of Communion but also to Judge by the power of the Keys whom to Baptize and to whom to give the Sacrament of Communion that is in Subordination to Christ's Prophetical Preistly and Kingly Office to be his Minister in Office 1. To teach the People 2. To go before them in Worship 3. To guide them by the Keys of Discipline And he is no true Minister that wanteth any one of these Powers however he may be hindered from the Exercise 33. At least 1. Necessity ad finem 2. Scripture 3. And the Catholick Antiquity should be so far regarded as to make the People's Consent necessary though not their Election at least when they do not by unreasonable Denial forfeit this Priviledge 35. If this be a limitation of Can. 7. it s well A. 3. viz. Supposing there be a tolerable Pastor there and no notorious necessity for some Parishes may have no Pastor some worse than none and some with us as many in London-Parishes Stepney Giles Cripplegate Sepulchres Martins c. have more Souls than ten Men can Teach and Over-see who must not therefore be forsaken and given up to Satan what-ever we suffer for endeavouring their Salvation 47. A Bishop if he please may thus causlesly keep most Ministers in his Diocess from Preaching the Gospel for the most part of their Lives I had rather be punished as a Rogue at a Whipping Post before I am fully heard and judged than have innocent Souls deprived of the usual means of their Salvation under pretence of Punishing me At least let no Suspension be valid longer than the place is competently supplied by another 48. Will no Mulcts or Stripes satisfie the Law without Silencing Men and forbidding them to endeavour Men's Salvation before their Crimes are proved such as render them uncapable of that work 49. But hath the Synod or Presbytery a Negative Voice in his punishment or not 50. For Treason and Murder there is reason for it but if every Man must be deposed from the Ministry that did ever Curse Swear or had any scandalous Vice from his Child-hood before his Ordination or Conversion I doubt the number left will be too small 53. The old Canons distinguished Some Crimes left so great a blot as made Men uncapable others did not so If such a War should break out as between the Emperor Henry IV. c. and the Pope or between the Houses of York and Lancaster the prevailing Party will force the Ministers to own him and if the other Party after prevail their Crime will be called Treason and all the Churches left desolate and the Peoples Souls forsaken by the Ministers perpetual incapacity and the King 's pardoning Power much restrained 54. Why should it be left to the Bishop's Will whether he will restore such a Penitent or not 56. Peaceable Men will consent that no Ministers should be permitted to Preach or Talk Seditiously against even those Rules of Government which they do not approve But this Penalty is so high and severe that few worthy Ministers will think their Station secure but will prepare for Banishment For 1. These Rules are many 2. And Derogatory is a large Word and will extend far 3. And there are few worthy Ministers that have no Drunkards Fornicators c. for their Enemies to accuse them E. g. if I lived in Scotland and should but read Blondel de jure Plebis in regimine Ecclesiastico and say it is sound Doctrine and this in Discourse at my own Table I might be thus troubled and banished it being derogatory to that part of the King's Rules as here exprest which deprive the People of all power of Consent c. Is it not enough that this Paper of Canons be so far equalled with God's Word yea with the very Articles of our Faith as that the open Oppugners of them have the same Penalty as open Hereticks who of old were after a first and second Admonition to be avoided And surely I think even that this is too much and yet I would have turbulent Preaching against the Government or Endeavours openly to subvert it restrained But methinks after the first and second Admonition a competent Mulct might do that sufficiently till Men go so far as to be turbulent Incendiaries 63. Shall the Presbytery have a Negative Voice in the Ordination or be Cyphers 66. It is well that the Elders Consent is
Persecution and hoped ere long to stand on his own Legs and then they should see how much he was against it By this means many score Nonconformable Ministers in London kept up Preaching in private Houses Some 50 some 100 many 300 and many 1000 or 2000 at a Meeting by which for the present the City's Necessities were much supplied For very few burnt Churches were yet built up again about 3 or 4 in the City which yet never moved the Bishops to relent and give any Favour to the Preaching of Nonconformists And though the best of England of the Conformists for the most part were got up to London alas they were but few And the most of the Religious People were more and more alienated from the Prelates and their Churches § 192. Those that from the beginning thought they saw plainly what was doing lamented all this They thought that it was not without great Wit that seeing only a Parliament was trusted before the King with the People's Liberties and could raise a War against him Interest ruling the World it was contrived that this Parliament should make the severest Laws against the Nonconformists to grind them to dust and that the King should allay the Execution at his pleasure and become their Protector against Parliaments and they that would not consent to this should suffer And indeed the Ministers themselves seemed to make little doubt of this But they thought 1. That if Papists shall have liberty it is as good for them also to take theirs as to be shut out 2. And that it is not lawful for them to refuse their present Liberty though they were sure that Evil were design'd in granting it 3. And that before Men's desigâ—s can come to ripeness God hath many ways to frustrate them and by drawing one Pin can let fall the best contrived Fabrick But still remember that all Attempts to get any Comprehension as it was then called or abatement of the Rigour of the Laws or Legal Liberty and Union were most effectually made void § 193. At this time there was Printed in Holland the Thesis or Exercise Performed at the Commencement for the Degree of Dr. of Law by one of the King's Subjects a Scots-Man Rob. Hamilton In which he largely proveth the Necessity of a standing Treasury in a Kingdom and the power of the King to raise it and impose Tributes without the People's Consent and Dedicating it to the King and largely applying it to England he sheweth that Parliaments have no Legislative Power but what the King giveth them who may take it from them when He seeth Cause and put them down and raise Taxes according to his own Discretion without them And that Parliaments and Mâ—gna Charta are no impediments to him but Toys and that what Charter the former Kings did grant could be no Band on their Successors forgetting that so he would also disoblige the People from the Agreements made by their Predecessors as e. g. that this Family successively shall rule them c. with much more Whom Fame made to be the Animater of this Tractate I pass by § 194. There was this Year a Man much talk'd of for his Enterprises one Major Blood an English-man of Ireland This Man had been a Soldier in the old King's Army against the Parliament and seeing the Cause lost he betook himself towards Ireland to live upon his own Estate In his way he fell in Company with the Lancashire Ministers who were then Writing against the Army and against all violence to King or Parliament Blood being of an extraordinary Wit falls acquainted with them and not thinking that the Presbyterians had been so true to the King he is made the more capable of their Counsel so that in short he became a Convert and married the Daughter of an honest Parliament Man of that Countrey And after this in Ireland he was a Justice of Peace and Famous for his great Parts and upright Life and success in turning many from Popery When the King was Restored and he saw the old Ministers Silenced in the Three Kingdoms and those that had Surprized Dublin-Castle for the King from the Anabaptists cast aside and all things go contrary to his Judgment and Expectation being of a most bold and resolute Spirit he was one that plotted the Surprizing of the D. of Ormond and of Dublin Castle But being deâ—ected and prevented he fled into England There he lived disguised practising Physick called Dr. Clarke at Rumford When some Prisoners were carried to be put to Death at York for a Plot he followed and Rescued them and set them free At last it was found to be He with his Son and three or four more that attempted to Surprize the D. of Ormond and to have carried him to Holland where he had a Bank of Money and to have made him there to pay his Arrears Missing of that Exploit he made a bolder Attempt even to fetch the King's Crown and Jewels out of the Tower where pretending Friendship to the Keeper of it He with two more his Son and one Perrot suddenly Gagg'd the old Man and when he cryed out he struck him on the Head but would not kill him and so went away with the Crown But as soon as ever they were gone the Keeper's Son cometh in and finds his Father and heareth the Cafe and runs out after them and Blood and his Son and Perrot were taken Blood was brought to the King and expected Death but he spake so boldly that all admired him telling the King How many of his Subjects were disobliged and that he was one that took himself to be in a State of Hostility and that he took not the Crown as a Thief but an Enemy thinking that lawful which was lawful in a War and that he could many a time have had the King in his power but that he thought his Life was better for them than his Death lest a worse succeed him and that the number of Resolute Men disobliged were so great as that if his Life were taken away it would be revenged That he intended no hurt to the Person of the D. of Ormond but because he had taken his Estate from him he would have forced him to restore the value in Money and that he never Robb'd nor shed Blood which if he would have done he could easily have kill'd Ormond and easily have carried away the Crown In a word he so behaved himself that the King did not only release and pardon him but admit him frequently to his presence Some say because his Gallantry took much with the King having been a Soldier of his Father's Most say That he put the King in fear of his Life and came off upon Condition that he would endeavour to keep the discontented Party quiet § 195. Mr. Bagshaw in his rash and ignorant Zeal thinking it a Sin to hear a Conformist and that the way to deal with the Persecutors was to draw all the People as far from
Physician 17. At Avely was silenced Mr. Lovel formerly Schoolmaster at Walverley who having been supposed still to be not only against the Parliament's Cause but for the Prelates and Conformity and never coming into our ministerial Meetings where we monthly kept up disputations and Discipline but only extraordinary constant at my Lecture at Kiderminster he was as a stranger to us all till the silencing time came and then he suffered with the most patient and resolved and hath since appeared on fuller notice a prudent and very worthy Man and is yet living in his patient Silence aged about sixty two 18. At Bromsgrove was silenced Mr. Iohn Spilsbury born in Bewdley a man accounted an Independent but of extraordinary worth for moderation peaceableness ability and ministerial diligence and an upright Life 19. At Whitley was silenced Mr. Ioseph Read born in Kiderminster and sent by me to Cambridge and after living in my House and for one Year my assistant at Kiderminster a man of great sincerity and worth 20. At Churchil was cast out Mr. Edward Boucher another young man born in Kiderminster-Parish of great humility sincerity peaceableness and good ministerial parts Brother to Iames Boucher a Husbandman who can but write his Name and is of as good understanding in Divinity as many Divines of good account and moreable in Prayer than most Ministers that ever I heard And of so calm a Spirit and blameless a life that I never saw him laugh or sad nor ever heard him speak an idle Word nor ever heard Man accuse him of a sinful Word or Deed which I note with Joy and to tell the Reader that he and others of his Temper in Kiderminster did by their Example exceedingly farther my success 21. At Clent was silenced Mr. Tho. Baldwin a godly calm sober Preacher of a blameless Life 22. From Chaddesley was cast out Mr. Thomas Baldwin Senior who had been our Schoolmaster at Kiderminster sent to me by Mr. Vines from Cambridge a good Schollar a sober calm grave moderate peaceable minister whose Conversation I never heard one Person blame for any one Word or Deed an extraordinary Preacher Wherefore I desired when I was driven from Kiderminster that the People would be ruled by him and Mr. Serjeant and he liveth yet among them and teacheth them privately from House to House He was present with me when I had Conference with Bishop Morley when he silenced me and the witness of our Discourse which with the imprisonment of the most Religious and blameless of the Flock and the experience of the Quality of some Preachers that were sent to the People in my stead and the rest of the havock made in the Churches did alienate him so much from Prelacy and Conformity and the People with him that though afterward they got a godly Conformable Minister I could not get them to Communicate with him though I got them constantly to hear him On this occasion I will mention the great Mercy of God to that Town and Country in the raising of one Man Mr. Thomas Foley who from almost nothing did get about five Thoosand Pound per Annum or more by Iron-works and that with so just and blameless Dealing that all Men that ever he had to do with that ever I heard of magnified his great Integrity and Honesty which was questioned by none And being a Religious Faithful Man he purchased among other Lands the Patronage of several great places and among the rest of Stourbridge and Kiderminster and so chose the best Conformable Ministers to them that could be got And not only so but placed his Eldest-Son's Habitation in Kiderminster which became a great Protection and Blessing to the Town having placed two Families more elsewhere of his two other Sons all three Religious worthy Men. And in thankfulness to God for his Mercies to him built a well-founded Hospital near Stourbridge to teach poor children to read and write and then set them Apprentices and endowed it with about five hund Pounds a Year per Annum Such worthy Persons and such strange Prosperity and holy use of it are so rare and the interest of my poor Neighbours in it so great that I thought meet to mention it to God's Praise and his § 203. There were more Ministers silenced of that Countrey but I will not be tedious i◠naming more of them A word of the other places where I my self had lived In Coventry both the Ministers were cast out 1. Dr. Iohn Bryan an ancient Learned Divine of a quick and active Temper very humble faithful and of a Godly upright Life who had so great a fitness to teach and educate Youth that there have gone out of his House more worthy Ministers into the Church of God than out of many Colledges in the University in that time And he had three Sons that were all worthy Non-conformable Ministers all silenced 2. Dr. Grew a Man of a different natural temper yet both Concordant lovingly in the work of God a calm Grave sober sedate Divine more retired and of less activity but godly able and faithful in his Ministry 3. At Birmingham was silenced Mr. Wills a sedate retired peaceable able Divine also born in Coventry 4. As for Mr. Anthony Burgess of Sutton Coldfield a place of near 300 l. per Annum which he left I need not describe him he was so famously known in the Assembly and London and by his many Learned Godly Writings for a Man eminently Learned and Pious And though in the old Conformity he was before a Conformable Man yet he was so far from the New Conformity that on his Death-bed he professed great satisfaction in his Mind that he had not Conformed 5. From Walshall was cast out Mr. Burdall a very Learned able and Godly Divine of more than ordinary parts and worth now dead also 6. At Wedgbury was silenced Mr. Fincher whom I have seen but was not much acquainted with but he was reputed a very Godly Man and a good Preacher But I pass by all those I knew not my self 7. From Rowley had lately removed Mr. Ioseph Rock and was silenced a very calm humble sober peaceable godly and blameless Minister and of very good Abilities like our Worcestershire Ministers before described as to his temper and judgment of Church-Government 8. At Kings-Norton was silenced Mr. Tho. Hall an ancient Divine known by his many Writings of a quick Spirit a Godly upright man and the only Presbyterian whom I knew in that County 9. At Tippon Mr. Hinks was silenced a Godly Preacher a moderate Independent 10. At Hales-Owen was silenced Mr. Paston a sober moderate peaceable Minister of a godly upright Life 11. Near Newcastle was silenced Mr. Sound an ancient Divine of great Learning moderation judgment and calmness of Spirit and of a Godly upright Life born by Worvile near Bridgworth known to me about thirty years ago who though with others he was of old a Conformist is far enough from the new
Churches for we must love each other and promote the Work of Christ in each others hands as the old Godly Conformists and Nonconformists did and we now do with the Godly Part of the Conformists Our Work is not to keep up a Combination against our Superiours nor to strengthen a Faction but to Combine for Godliness and to strengthen our selves in the proper work of the Gospel which we must do though some Conform and some do not 11. And our Superiours will be the less Jealous of us as to Sedition when they see us so divided in Point of Conformity than if they see us strengthened by the Unity of a distinct Party 12. And especially the Unity of such as Conform with the present Conformists will strengthen the Publick Ministery against Papists Infidels and all Vngodliness And our continued Division will be the strength of all these 13. And it is a weighty Consideration that the keeping up of the different Parties tempteth all the People of the Land to continual Censuring Uncharitableness and contending and unavoidably destroyeth Love and Concord and so keepeth Men in constant Sin On all these Reasons they were most for as much Union with the Parish-Ministers and joyning with them as the Parliament would allow them § 216. But now they found that there was little hopes of obtaining any such thing For they that were most for Toleration were most against our Comprehension by Abatement of any of the Impositions and they were many 1. All the Papists and their secret Friends were most opposite to Abatements For it was their Design from the beginning to get our Pressures to be as sharp as possible that so we might have as much need as they of a Toleration and might be forced to Petition for the opening of the Door by which they might come in or speed at least no worse than the Nonconformists 2. Those that were for the Increase of the Regal Power and Interest did very well know that the more grievously good People and so great a number were used by Parliaments and Laws the more certainly Nature and Interest would lead them to fly from them to the King for ease and refuge And also that when Men's Religion and Liberties are in the Power and at the Mercy of the King their Estates must be so too For who will not rather part with his Money than his Liberty and Religion Yea and Men's Hearts will be more with him that saveth them than with those that destinate them to Jayls and Beggery 3. And the Independents Separatists and all the Sectaries were commonly against a Comprehension for the Reasons before given Only the visible Necessities of the Nation do so strongly work towards it that doubtless in time they will prevail with the Wills of those that are for the Protestant Religion and for Property but whether Consent and Repentings will come too late God only knoweth and time must tell us § 217. In the end of May 1672. was another Sea-Fight with the Dutch with like Success as the former The Earl of Sandwich and others of ours lost and they parted without any notable Victory or Advantage of either Party but that they had kill'd one another § 218. In May and Iune the French suddenly took abundance of the Dutch-Gaâ—â—â—sons § 219. In Iuly and Aâ—gust the Dutch-Rabble tumultuously rose up against their Governours for the Prince of Orange and murdered De Wit and his Brother § 220. In Answer to a Book of Dr. Fulwood's I now Published a small Book without my Name against the Desertion of our Ministry though prohibited proving it Sacriledge to Alienate Consecrated Persons from the Sacred Office to which they are Devoted § 221. There came out a Posthumous Book of A. Bishop Bromhall's against my Book called The Grotian Religion In which 1. He passeth over the express words of Grotius which I had cited which undoubtedly prove what I said yea though I had since largely Englished them and recited them in the Second Part of my Key for Catholicks with a full Confirmation of my Proofs 2. And he feigneth me to make him a Grotian and Confederate in his Design when-as I not only had no such Word but had expresly excepted him by Name as imputing no such thing to him And before the Book was a long Preface of Mr. Parker's most vehement against Dr. Oxen and some-what against my self To which Mr. â—ndrew Marvel a Parliament Man Burgess for Hull did Publish an Answer so exceeding Jocular as thereby procured abundance of Readers and Pardon to the Author Because I perceived that the Design of A. Bishop Brombal's Book was for the Uniting of Christendom under the old Patriarchs of the Roman Imperial Church and so under the Pope as the Western Patriarch and Principium Vnitatis I had thought the design and this Publication look'd dangerously and therefore began to write an Answer to it But Mr. Simmons my Bookseller came to me and told me That Roger Lestrange the Over-seer of the Printers sent for him and told him That he heard I was Answering Bishop Bromball and Swore to him most vehemently that if I did it he would ruin him and me and perhaps my Life should be brought in question And I perceived the Bookseller durst not Print it and so I was fain to cast it by which I the easilier did because the main Scope of all the Book was fully answered long before in the fore-said Second Part of my Key for Catholicks § 222. Many Changes in Ireland much talk'd of I pass over § 223. Dr. Fulwood wrote a jocular deriding Answer to my Treatise against Saâ—ilegious Desertion of the Ministry and after that Printed an Assize Sermon against Separating from the Parish-Ministers Divers called on me to Reply to the first and I told them I had better Work to do than Answer every Script against me But while I demurred Dr. Fulwood wrote me an extraordinary kind Letter offering to do his best to the Parliament for our Union and Restoration which ended my Thoughts of that but I know not of any thing to purpose done § 224. Mr. Giles Firmin a Silenced Minister writing some-what against my Method and Motions for Heavenly Meditation in my Saint's Rest as too strict and I having Answered him he wrote a weak Reply which I thought not worthy of a Rejoinder § 225. On Octob. 11. I fell into a dangerous Fit of Sickness which God in his wonted Mercy did in time so far remove as to return me to some Capacity of Service § 226. I had till now forborn for several Reasons to seek a License for Preaching from the King upon the Toleration But when all others had taken theirs and were settled in London and other places as they could get opportunity I delayed no longer but sent to seek one on condition I might have it without the Title of Independent Presbyterian or any other Party but only as a Nonconformist And before I sent Sir Thomas Player Chamberlain
Sentence of a Lay-Chancellour or any other But let them that desire it cause such to do it whose Conscience is not against it 9. When there are Presentments or Appeals to the Chancellour's Court or Bishop's let not sickly weak Ministers or those whose Parishes cannot be so long neglected be put to travel long Journeys or neglect their Studies and Ministerial Work by oft or long Attendances in bringing Witnesses against those to whom they only refused on the foresaid Reasons to deliver the Sacrament 10. Seeing Ministers who live among them are supposed to be best acquainted with the Penitence or impenitence of their People let it be left to their Prudence whom they wil absolve in Sickness and privately give the Sacrament to and let the Sick chuse such Confessors as they think best for themselves And let those few words at Burial which import the Justification and Salvation of the Deceased be left to the Minister's Discretion who hath known the Person 's Life and Death 11. Let no Minister be forced to deny Christian Communion to those Persons otherwise found and Godly who think it unlawful to kneel in taking the Sacramental Bread and Wine though it may be upon causeless Scruples 12. Let Ministers have leave to open the meaning of the Catechism and not only to hear the Words themselves And it is much to be wished that the Catechism were amended And let him have leave at Baptism and the Eucharist to interpose some few quickning words of Exhortanion lest form alone do cast them into a customary dullness 13. Let the use of the Surplice be left indifferent in the Parish-Churches or at least if the Curate frequently use it let it suffice 14. If any live under a Minister â—hat is very ignorant or scandalous or very unsuitable to the People or to his Work let them not be punished for going often to hear and Communicate where they can better profit in any Neighbour Church of the same Diocess So be it they pay the Incumbent his Dues V. Let not those who are ordained by Presbyters be put to renounce their Ordination or be re-ordained but only upon proof of their fitness for the Ministry receive by word or a written Instrument a Legal Authority to exercise their Ministry in any Congregation in his Majesty's Dominions where they shall be Lawfully called VI. We desire that no Excommunicate Person as such may be imprisoned and ruined in his Estate but only such whose Crimes in themselves considered deserve it VII As we desire all this Liberty to our selves 〈◊〉 it is our judgment 〈◊〉 Desire that Christian Lenity be used to all truly Conscientious Dissenters and also the Tolerable may be Tolerated under Laws of Peace and Safety But who shall be judged Tolerable and what shall be the Laws or Terms of their Toleration we presume not uncalled to make our selves Counsellours or Judges But for avoiding the inconveniences which the foresaid Concessions to our selves may seem to threaten to the Church we hope it will suffice if there be a Law made for the Regulation of the Bishops the Ministers and the Flocks That People or Ministers uncivilly revile not one another That no Licens'd Ministers shall Preach against any of the Doctrine of the Church nor against Episcopacy Liturgy or the Established Ceremonies That all Magistrates be excepted from all open personal Rebukes or disgraceful Censures or Excommunications because Caeteris Parâ—ous positive Instituted Orders give place to Natural morals such as the Fifth Commandment containeth That all negligent or scandalous Ministers be Punished according to the Measure of their Fault And the omission of Preaching Liturgy or Sacraments shall be Punish'd not presently with forbidding them to do any thing because they do not enough but with the Sequestration of their Church-maintenance viz. That they lose a month's Profit of their Benefice for a month's Omission and so on proportionably And that those whose Insufficiency Heresy or Crimes are such as that their Ministry doth more hurt than good be totally cast out And that the Bishops may not Silence Suspend Deprive or Excommunicate any Minister Arbitrarily but by a known Law and in case of Injustice we may have sufficient remedy by Appeals And that no former Law or Canon which is contrary to any of this be therein in force 1. If Sacraments were but left free to be administred and received by none but Volunteers 2. And Liberty granted the Ministers to Preach in those Churches where the Common-Prayer is read by others I think it would take in all or almost all the Independents also 3. Supposing the Door left open according to the first Article These three would unite us almost all But I have mentioned the rest because the first of these will not be granted The Strictures returned upon these Proposals with the Answers My Lord I Return you this Paper with an Answer to the Strictures not with any hopes of Agreement with the Author For whoever he is I have no hope of Peace or Healing by him or by his consent according to the Principles and Rigour here expressed 1. Prop. Supposing the Church-Government may not be altered Strict a All the particulars following do directly or indirectly either overthrow or undermine the Church Governmene Answ. If by the Church Government be meant as the Propounder did mean the Constitution containing the Diocesan frame with Deans Arch-Deacons Lay-Chancellours as Governing by Excommunication and Absolution there is nothing in these Proposals incompetent with that Frame nor motioning any alteration of it Tho there is that in it which our Judgments take to be very great sin For we can quietly live under a Government sinful while we are not put to sin by our consenting to the sin of others But if by the Government be meant the whole Exercise of their Government according to the Act of Uniformity and the Canons we confess that every abatement desired by us is against it And if we could do all requir'd by the Governours we were full Conformists and needed none of this But this Pâ—efatory Prognostick tells us what to expect For whoever intendeth our Solemnity and suffering will foretel it by his Accusations And if a Cross be our intended Lot no wonder if Overthrowers and Vnderminers of the Government be the Title to be written on it 1. Prop. And the Subscribing the Doctrine and Sacraments c. Strict b So they may not be required to Subscribe either to the Government or Liturgyor Rites and Ceremonies of our Church Answ. 1. If there were nothing at all in the Diocesan frame in England Lay-Chancellours Spiritual Government nor any other part of the Government and Word in the Liturgy or any Ceremony which we do not nor dare not approve and Justify by a Subscription what need we any of this ado any more than any Bishops or Conformists seeing we were Conformable already 2. We are willing to Swear Subscribe and Covenant Allegiance to the King who is a
the Immortality of the Soul and many against the Being of God There are many Papists Hereticks Schismaticks common Adulterers openly owning it Fornicators Drunkards Blasphemers many have been Condemned for Treason Murder Theft c. The Conformists themselves Preach and write that such cannot be saved without true converting Repentance We are commanded at the Burial of all Men to say these Words For asmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great Mercy to take unto himself the Soul of our dear Brother here departed and we give thee hearty Thanks for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our Brother out of c. and that we may rest in him as our Hope is this our brother doth These words import the Person 's Justification and Salvation We are to except no Person from this form of Burial except 1. Those that die unbaptized though the Children of true Believers 2. The Excommunicate though for not paying fees or not conforming against Conscience 3. And those that have laid violent Hands on themselves though true Believers in a Fever Frenzy or Distraction Some die in the act of Drunkenness some murder each other in Duels and that in Drunkenness as lately was done near my Door some scorn the Minister and the Gospel to the death Now we must openly pronounce all these Saved for fear of having Power to Saint and Damn whom we will But we appeal to humanity it self Quest. 1. Whether I damn any Traytor or Murderer or impenitent Infidel meerly by saying nothing of his Case or not pronouncing him to be saved And whether I Saint those that I bury in their own prescribed words any otherwise than they Saint all Men Quest. 2. Whether we expose not our Ministry to the scorn of every Infidel and Heretick and Adulterer when they can say to us What False Deceivers are you to Preach and Write Damnation against us and proclaim us all saved when we die Quest. 3. Whether any thing can more probably debauch the World and keep Men from Repentance and so sill Hell and damn the people than to perswade all Men that every ignorant person that never knew what Christianity was every impenitent Infidel Adulterer or wicked person is saved when they die Doth not this give the Lie to all our Preaching the contrary to them in the Pulpit Do we not Teach them not to believe us Or else it disableth us from telling them that there is any Hell for them hereafter If you say we presume that they Repent I Answer If it be presumed that all Men repent at last and are saved even they that make no profession of any Repentance but justifie their Infidelity or Heresie or Schism or die in the Act or in utter Ignorance as a Heathen then why may we not presume the like of all the World and so lay by the Gospel and all our talk of future punishment Quest. 4. And is he worthy to be trusted with the Care of Souls as a Minister of Christ that may not be trusted I say not to speak but to suspend one word at any time which is thus Written for him to say Judge by this with the Offices of Baptism Confirmation Communion and Absolution what is a Priest's Office under such Bishops and whether he have the Pastoral Power either independently or dependently at all 4. Prop. n. 11. Let no Minister be forced to deny the Communion to godly persons that think it unlawful to kneel Strict Why may not our Church forbid the giving of it to those that will not kneel as well as the Presbyterians here and in Holland forbid the giving of it to those that will not sit Answ. 1. I never knew one Presbyterian here that did so And their Directory did not so And if any one should do so I am sure it is a rare Person And the Author of these words is no liker to know them than I. This therefore was not well said 2. Whether they in Holland do so I know not But if they do Do you think it well I think otherwise and all Nonconformists that I converse with We take not a gesture to be crime enough to cut off Men from Communion with the Church And if you think otherwise or durst Excommunicate a Man for being Lame or having the Gout in his knees Why must we all needs practise as you judge and execute so cruel a Sentence any more than kill men when-ever you bid us The Canon hath no Exception Can. 27. No Minister when he celebrateth the Communion shall wittingly administer the same to any but to such as kneel under pain of Suspenâ—â—on 4. Prop. n. 12. Let Ministers have leave to open the meaning of the Catechism It is much to be wish'd that it were amended Strict 1. I know no Law which forbids them to do so Answ. 1. That it is good news some think so And others think that the Rubrick and Canon Commanding them to Teach persons the Catechism meaneth that we must only teach them the words And I remember the Articles in Parliament against Bishop Pierce contained that among other things that he forbad Ministers Expounding the Catechisme in the Afternoon saying it was as bad as Preaching And the Sence as to us will be what please the Bishop Strict 2. I know no need it hath of mending nor who are wise enough to amend it Answ. I am sorry for it but cannot help it 4. Prop. id Some few quickening words of Exhortation Strict 3. The words prescribed both in Baptism and the Eucharist are quickening enough and more edifying perhaps and safe than an Extemporary fancy can add unto them Answ. 1. You know not what is most quickening and edifying to all other men so well as some know what is so to themselves 2. All that know Humane Nature know that Customaâ—â—ness dulleth and the use of words many hundred times over usually affect less than when there is some variation though it were to be wisht it were not so 3. Why must an Extemporary fancy needs be the Author May not a man premeditate a few sentences as well as a sermon Or if it were ex tempore is he fit to be a Preacher that cannot speak a few sentences on so great a subject with safe and edifying words 4. Is it unsafer to give a Preacher leave to utter a few Sentences of the Sacrament at the Delivery than to Preach a whole Sermon of it And is he not equally responsible for both But we insist not on this as if we could not Administer without it Prop. 4. n. 13. The Surplice indifferent in the Parish Churches Strict I had rather that or any other of the Ceremonies should be taken away quite than left indifferent for that would be to establish Schism by a Law and to bring it into the Church in stead of excluding it out of the Church which of two Evils is much the lesser Ans. I think not for we see things left indifferent make no
one Mind in every word circumstance ceremony and mode of Worship and Discipline upon Christian conscientious terms Either they must absolutely believe as the Rulers bid them or not If yea then most Turks Heathens Papists are in the right that be of the Religion of their Rulers If not some bounds and Rules must shew them the difference how far Obedience is to be given And the Subjects must be the Discerners whether the Case falls under those Qualificationt or not As e. g. whether it be Sin against God And when all the Men and Women in a Kingdom have a Multitude of Words circumstances and ceremonies and modes to try by such Rules they will never be of one Mind about them who would be of one Mind in a few plain things And then you come and make their Disobedience to be one of the greatest Crimes deserving Excommunication Imprisonment and ruin so that you make such a National Church to be a trap for Men's undoing and Damnation 5. As for what you say of the Foreign Churches their Country-men say that it is not all one to impose the necessary Discharge of Men's plain undeniable Duty and to impose the Humane Work which you can describe But I am a stranger to them and am bound to receive nothing against another till I hear both Parties speak nor am I concerned in the Case as not being bound to justifie them any more than you If it be as you say no wonder if they have the distractions and calamities and Divisions which render them the objects of compassion The Serpent that beguiled Eve hath long ago tempted almost all the Churches from the Ancient Christian Simplicity in Doctrine Discipline and Worship which is the only way of common Concord 6. But yet besides the Catholick Church we hold particular Churches being Christian Assemblies to be of Christ's Institution And it is impossible there to worship God without the determination of many Circumstances and Modes Some Translation some Metre of Psalms some Tune some Time and Place some Pastor some Utensils must be chosen And he that will herein depart from the Common chosen Circumstance departeth therein himself from their Communion But yet such may serve God acceptably in another Assembly and may live in Christian Love and Peace though they Sing not in the same Tune or Gesture or use nor every Ceremony alike And this is nothing to the making of new Symbols Oaths Subscriptions or other things not necessary in genere and that by the Officers of National Humane Church and this not only to be done and quietly born but approved Your Way is the most proper Engine to tear in pieces all the Churches in the World or reduce them to a Spanish Humane Obedience For if a particular Parish-Church did not so much as tye Men to a Ceremony but mere Determinations which must some way be made If the Priest stood at the Church door and said You shall not enter unless you will Subscribe or Say or Swear that we are infallible in all that we do or that there is no Sin no Fault nothing contrary to God's Will and Word nothing but what you Assent and Consent to in all our Translations of Scripture in all our Versions Tunes Words Gestures Circumstances I would never enter into that Church though I will gladly and peaceably joyn with them if they will let me alone without such Obligations to justifie all they do One would think this should have been past Controversie before this day among the Prudent Pastors of the Churches Strict Still supposing that neither they nor we require any thing that may not be submitted to without sin Answ. Upon that Supposition we have no Controversie with you Then what need any of this adoe But who shall be the Judge If you must and that absolutely then it is all one to us whether it be sin or no sin for to us it will be none if we do as you bid us But then why do Protestants condemn Papists who do as they are bidden And why do our Articles condemn them that say All Men may be saved in the Religion they are bred in when they all do as they are bidden even they that defie Christ. But if you hold not to this what shall we do Are we our selves the discerning Judges Then we protest before God and Men that we take the things that we deny Conformity to to be sins and very heinous sins and very far from things indifferent If you say that we must obey you till we are past doubt and certain that 't is sin I Answer 1. It 's too few things that Man's Understanding reacheth to a certainty in What if I verily think that I see reason to take that which a Bishop or Church Commanded to be Blasphemy Perjury Treason Murder Heresie c. but I am not certain and past doubt Must I then do it Then a Man that can be but sufficiently ignorant or doubtful may stick at no Commanded Wickedness Some other Rule therefore than this must be found out If you say That we have no reason to take any thing commanded for sin and you think you confute all our Objections I Answer 1. So all Imposers think or most And so we are as confident that our Reason is good and that we see the gross Errors of your Answers And all this is but to say that no Man is to be Tolerated in your Church that is not in every thing in the Right and that in your Judgments Suppose you were Infallible so are not all the Subjects And if their Reason be bad and yours good all that is no more than to say That They Err or are Mistaken And if no Man shall be Tolerated with you that Erreth and that in as great a Matter as a Circumstance or Ceremony no two Men in the World must hold Communion on such Terms I am confident I study as hard as you I am confident I am as impartial and willing to know the Truth I have far less than you to tempt me to the contrary And yet I verily think Conformity to me would be a heinous Sin Nay I am past doubt of it if that will serve Give us but leave to publish our Reasons freely and you shall see whether we have any Reason But if yet I be mistaken Shall your National-Church have never a Member Tolerated that is as ignorant and bad as I Hold to that and try the Issue whether your Church will be as numerous as you are Strict And Churches abroad both have been and will be our Compurgators and I wish the Presbyterians of England and Scotland would be content to stand to the Judgment of all the Tresbyterian Churches abroad whether they may not without sin conform to all that by our Church is required of them Nay whether they can refuse to Conform without sin Ans. Content I and all of my mind profess that we will accept your offer But we wish as sincerely that you
are various degrees of Guilt If you made a Canon that all the present Conformists should take the Pope with Bishop Bramhall to be Patriarch of the West and Principium Vnitatis to the Universal Church or should own the Church of Rome the Council of Trent and the rest as far as Grotius did or should subscribe that the Septuagint is to be preferred before the Hebrew Text Or if it were but these and not those of all the various Readings are the right or that there is not a word faulty in our Old Translation or New or in any Book that ever the Convocation approved of as well as the Liturgy c. If all this should prove lawful as it never will and they should turn Nonconformists to your Canon and hereupon they should all be silenced and Popery thereupon come in Who were guilty of all this They with that degree of guilt which all Men have in that they are imperfect Or you with that more heinous Guilt which is incomparably greater If you said All Ministers shall be Silenced and People Excommunicated that have any Error and Sin Their Error and Sin is some Culpable Cause of the Consequent ruin of the Church but nothing in comparison of Yours who are the Grand Cause Strict And for this if they refuse to stand to the Judgment of Foreign Churches I refer them to Mr. Baxter one of the most Eminent Divines of their own party who in the 2d Chapter of the last of his 5 Disputations having enumerated the Controverted Ceremonies viz. the Surplice Kneeling at the Lord's Supper the Rails and the Cross in Baptism though he finds fault with the imposing of them which the Governours are to answer for yet that they may be obeyed without sin which are all that Subjects are concerned in he concludes of all but the Cross in Baptism only which he would not have excepted neither if it were used as we say it is as a Teaching or a Professing Sign only and not as a Sacramental as he mistaketh it to be for we do not use it as a means to confer Grace which is the formalis ratio of a Sacramental-Sign but to signifie and put us in mind of Grace only The like he concludes concerning the use of the Liturgy And as for the Government the Proposer doth not propose the Alteration of it and consequently implyeth it may be submitted to as it is without sin Ans. 1. You speak all this against your self to tell the World how narrow your Church and how strait your Charity is whilst he that you say is so much of your Mind is judged unworthy to be permitted to Preach the Gospel of Christ and worthier to lye in a Common Gaol among Thieves and Rogues yea that it is better for any Congregation to have no Minister than such All this Complyance with you is as good as none to procure him but leave to Preach Repentance For he offered you to Preach only on the Creed and Catechism and could not prevail though responsible for any thing said amiss And he challengeth you to name any one of all the Complying Principles of that Book which he hath ever receded from or contradicted 2. They refuse not to stand to the Judgment of other Protestant Churches that shall hear themselves speak for themselves 3. Did Mr. Baxter in that Book or any where else say That it is Lawful to Subscribe according to the Canon as ex Animo that there is nothing in your Liturgy or Book of Ordination contrary to the Word of God Or that the English Diocesan Frame may be Sworn to for Obedience Or that King or Parliament have not power to make or Endeavour any alteration of your Church-Government if they had sworn it no nor a Lay-Chancellor's Spiritual Power 〈◊〉 any subiect to Petition or any way endeavour the same if he had sworn it 〈◊〉 Did he ever say that it was lawful to Excommunicate as many of Christ's faithâ—â—â— Members either by Pronunciation or Rejecting them from Communion aâ— the Bishops or Chancellor will command him Or to deny Baptism to the Children of all that Scruple Crossing them or that insist on their duty of Covenanting in their Children's Name themselves Did he ever say that your New Subscription Declaration Oath or Re-ordination are Lawful I think not 4. He that can submit to your Government that is peaceably obey you without sin cannot threfore Subscribe that you stand by a Divine Right or that all is faultless and nothing alterable in your Government He would have lived peaceably in Israel when the Priesthood was Corrupted and the High-Places not taken down or in the Greek Church where are many faults or among the â—â—menians or Abassâ—nes but he would have lain in Gaol rather than make a Covenant Contrary to part of his Baptismal Vow never to obey God in endeavouring any reformation of these in his place and Calling telling all others that none of them are bound to do it no not if they had Vowed it Or rather than he would have Subscribed his Approbation and Consent to all and Covenanted to live and die impenitently herein He taketh not these for things indifferent But we find that you will not let men live under you quietly on Terms of patient submission unless they be fully of your mind You say the Proposer proposeth not the alteration of the Government Therefore it may be submitted to without sin He proposeth it not because he knoweth you would not consent Bishop Vsher's Primitive Episcopacy was the Government desired in vain for our Healing 1660. But again I say All thâ—â— may be submitted to may not by Subscriptions Covenants or Oaths be justified and approved 5. Lastly As to the Cross he then thought and thinks still that it is forbidden by the Second Commandment and that as an Image and Symbol of Christianity and a New Humane Sacrament of which before If possibly Light may have any Acceptance I will adjoyn these Questions for the Opponent whosoever Qu. 1. Do you not believe in your Conscience that Agreement would be more easie and common on our Terms of Meer Christianity and Things Necessary than on Yours by adding many things doubted of and needless Will not more agree in the Creed than in Aquinas's Sums if it were all true Q. 2. Doth not the knowledge of Humane Darkness and Variety of Educations Tempers Interests Converse c. and the Paucity of very knowing Men convince you that Concord must be in few and great and evident things Q. 3. Doth not the Experience of all Ages prove it past doubt Q. 4. Doth not the Conscience of your own Frailty and imperfect Knowledge moderate you Dare you say That you are not ignorant of plainer and greater things than we suffer about Q. 5. Do you not hold That God must be first obeyed and none against him And should not a desire to obey God first be cherished And do you cherish it by saying to us Though you
uncapable of a Conjunction who do not and cannot desire it or seek it For the One that which we propose is a farther Latitude in the present Constituted Order that such may be received and this we call Comprehension or Accommodation Let us suppose that nothing else were required of a Man to be a Minister of a Parish than there is to the Parishioner to be a Member of a Parish Church as part of the National If a person Baptised will come to Church and hear Common-Prayer and receive the Sacrament and does nothing worthy of Excommunication he is he may he must be received for a Parochial Member In like manner If a Minister first ordained and so Episcopally or Classically approved for his Abilities for that function will but read the book of Liturgy and Administer the Sacraments according to it and does nothing which deserves suspension we appeal to all this indifferently sober why should not this suffice a Man for the enjoying his Living and exercising the Office unto which he is called For the other there is indeed nothing can be done to bring those in and joyn them with us in Parochial Union yet is there this to be proposed that you bear with them and not let any be persecuted meerly for their Consciences and that we call Indulgence or Toleration If the Presbyterian now may be comprehended he will be satisfied to act at his Ministry without endeavouring any Alteration otherwise of Episcopacy If the Congregationalist be indulged he will be satisfyed tho he be not Comprehended for that he cannot submit unto and so shall there be no Disobligation put on any but all be pleased and enjoy the ease of this Bill Let but the Grounds of Comprehension be laid wide enough to take in all who can own and come into the publick Liturgy which we suppose as yet to be the greater weight ofâ— the Nation and when the Countenance of Authority and all State-Emoluments are cast into one Scale and others let alone to come of it without persecution to inflame them or preferment to encourage them especially if one Expedient be used which shall not pass unmentioned in the close that such as came in may find it really better to them to be a priest to a Tribe than a Levite to a Family we need not doubt but time the Mistress of the Wise and Unwise will discover the peaceable Issue of such Counsels And here let me pause a little for methinks I see what Icesicles hang on the Eeves of the Parliament-House at this Motion what prejudices I mean and Impressions have been laid on the Members by former Acts. There was a speech delivered by the then Chancellour in Christ-Church Hall in Oxford to the Parliament there and the Schollars assembled Wherein the Glory of contriving the Oxford-Oath and Consequently of the like former Impositions was most magnificently as well as spitefully enough arrogated to its proper Author It wasâ— it seems the designed Policy of that Great Man to root those Principles out of Men's minds upon which the late Wars as he supposed were builded and he would do it by this Invention to wit the Imposing upon them new Declarations Oaths and Subscriptions of a strain framed contrary to those Principles I do remember now the sentence of Esdras to the Apologue of the Angel where the Woods and the Seas would encounter one another Verily says he it was a foolish purpose for the trees could not come down from the hills nor the Waves get up from the shoars I must say the same of this Policy It was really a great vanity to think that folk should be made to swear away their thoughts and beliefs Whatsoever it is we think or believe we do think it we must think it we do believe it we must believe it notwithstanding any of these outward Impositions The honest Man indeed will refuse an Injunction against his Conscience the knave will swallow it but both retain their Principles which the last will be the likeliest to put any villanous Practice on On the Contrary there is nothing could be advised more certain to keep the Covenant and such Principles alive in Mens heart 's and memories than this perpetual injoyning the Renunciation of it Nor may you wonder if that Lesson sink deep into Men's flesh which you will teach them with Briars and Thorns as Gideon taught the Men of â—uccoth Besides it is the most impolitick thing that ever could have been for such Contents as are of that dangerous Consequence to Majesty and the Government to have them once disputed or brought into question to be put into these Declarations Oaths and Subscriptions which necessitates the Examination of them to so many It was the wisdom of the Ancient Church instead of Contention about the Jewish Ceremonies to take care they might have an honourable burial And I dare say if that great Lord Chancellor had but put off his Cap to the Covenant and bidden it a fair Adieu only he should have done more towards its Extirpation than by all this iterated trouble to Men's Consciences And if it shall therefore please the succeeding Ministers of our State instead of going to root out the Principles of Innovation which are got into people by this means which is no means to do it but the means to rivet them more in us to endeavour rather to root out the Causes from us which make men willing to entertain such Principles and desire Change I suppose their Policy will prove the sounder The way to establish the Throne of the King is this to make it appear that all those Grievances and all those Good things which the People in the late times expected to be removed or to be obtained by a Common Wealth or a Change of the Government may be more effectually accomplished by a King in the Acts of his Parliament I am sensible how my Threm riseth upon me and that I begin to shoot wide I take my Aim therefore again and two things in earnest I would expect from this Bill as the summ of what is necessary to the end of it our Ease if it be made to serve the turn The one is that Bishop Laud be confined to his Caththedrals and the other that Chancellour Hide be totally expelled our Acts of Parliament By the first I mean that the Ceremonies in the ordinary Parish Churches be left to the Liberty of the Minister to use or use them not according to his Conscience and Prudence toward his own Congregation And by the latter that all these new devised Oaths Subscriptions and Declarations together with the Canonical Oath and the Subscription in the Canons be suspended for the time to come If that be too much I shall content my self with a modester motion that whatsoever these Declarations â—e that are required to be made subscribed or sworn they may be imposed only as to the Matter and End leaving the Takers but free to the use of their own
Expressions And this Expedient I gather from my Lord Cook who hath providently as it were against such a season laid in this observation The â—orm of the Subscription set down in the Canons ratified by King James was not expressed in the Act of the 13th of Elizabeth Instit. p. 4. c. 74. And Consequently if the Clergy injoyed this freedom untill then in reference to the particulars therein contained what hinders why they might not have the same restored in reference also to others It is true that it may seem hard to many in the Parliament to undo any thing themselves have done But tho this be no Rule for Christians who are sometimes to repent as well as believe if they be loth to repent any thing what if they shall only Interpret or Explain Let us suppose then some Clause in this Bill or some new Act for Explanations If anâ— Nonconformist cannot come up to the full meaning and intent of these Injunctions rightly Explained let him remain in statu quo under the state only of Indulgence without benefit of Comprehension for so long as those who are not Comprehended may yet injoy that ease as to be indulged in some equal measure answerable to his Majestie 's Declaration whether Comprehension be large or narrow such Terms as we obtain are pure Advantage and such as we obtain not are no loss But if any does and can honestly agree to the whole sense the Parliament intends in such Impositions why should there be any Obstruction for such a Man tho he delivers himself in his own words to be received into the Established order with others Unless men will look on these Injunctions only to be contrived for â—â—gines of Battery to destroy the Nonconfromist And not as Instruments of Vnity to edify the Church of God I will not leave our Congregational Brethren neither so long as I have something more that may be said for them not ordinarily considered by any It is this that tho indeed they are not and cannot seek to be of our Churches as they are Parochial under the Diocess or Superintendency of the Bishops yet do they not refuse but seek to be comprehended within the Church as National under his Majesty I will explain my self The Church may be considered as Vniversal and so Christ alone is the head of it and we receive our Laws from him Or as Particular and so the Pastors are Heads Guides or Bishops over their respective flocks who are commanded therefore to obey them in the Lord Or as National which is an accidental and external respect to the Church of God wherein the King is to be acknowledged the supreme Head of it and as I judge no otherwise For thus also runs the statute That our Sovereign Lord shall be taken and reputed the only supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England called Ecclesia Anglicana Now if it should please the King and Parliament to allow and approve these Separate Meetings and Stated Places for Worship by a Law as His Majesty did by his Declaration I must profess that as such Assemblies by this means must be constituted immediately integral parts of the Church as National no less than our Parish Cougregations So would the Congregate Churches at least those that understand themselves own the King for Head over them in the same sense as we own him Head over ours that is as much as to say for the supreme coercive Governour of all in this accidental regard both to keep every several Congregation to that Gospel-order themselves profess and to supervise their Constitutions in things indifferent that nothing be done but in subordination to the peace of the Kingdom Well Let us suppose then a liberty for these separate Assemblies under the visitation of his Majesty and his Justices and not the Bishops I would fain know that were the Evil you can find in them If it lie in any thing it must be in that you call Schism Separation then let us know in it self simply considered is nothing neither good nor Evil. There may be reason to divide or separate some Christians from others out of prudence as the Cathechumens of old from the fully instructed for their greater Edification and as a Chappel or two is added to a Parish-Church when the people else were too big a Congregation It is not all Division then or Separation that is Schism but sinful Division Now the supreme Authority as National Head having appointed the Parochial Meetings and required all the Subjects of the Land to frequent them and them alone for the Acknowledging Glorifying or National serving and worshiping the only true God and his Son whom we have generally received And this Worship or Service in the nature of it being intrinsecally good and the external Order such as that of time and place and the like Circumstances being properly under his Jurisdiction it hath seemed to me hitherto that unless there was something in that order or way prescribed which is sinful and that required too as a Condition of that Communion there is no Man could refuse his attendance on these Parochial Assemblies without the sin of Disobedience and consequently his separation thereby becoming sinful proves Schism But if the Scene be altered and these separate Assemblies made Legal the Schism in reference to the National Church upon the same account does vanish Schism is a separation from that Church whereof we ought or are bound to be Members if the supreme Authority then loose our obligation to the Parish-Meeting so that we are bound no longer the iniquity I say upon this account is not to be found and the Schism gone Lo here a way opened for the Parliament if they please to rid the Trouble and Scruple of Schism at once out of the Land If they please not yet is there something to be thought on for the Separatist in a way of forbearance that the innocent Christian at least as it was in the time of Trajan may not be sought out unto Punishment Especially when such a toleration only is desired as is consistent with the Articles of Faith a Good Life and the Government of the Nation And now I turn me to the Houses My Lords and Gentlemen I will suppose you honest persons that would do as you would be done unto that would not wrong any or if you did would make them recompence There hath been very hard Acts passed which when the Bills were brought in might haply look smooth and fair to you but you saw not the Covert Art secret Machination and purposely contrived snares against one whole Party If such a form of words would not another should do their business By this means you in the first place your selves some of you were overstript Multitudes dispossest of their Livings The Vineyard Let out to others The Lord Jesus the Master of it deprived of many of his faithful Labourers And the poor sheep what had they done bereft of their accumstomed spiritual
the King's Quarters and never were drawn the other way as Dr. Conant lately one of them and others in Oxford and so in other parts XI Some of the Non-conformists were in the King's Army Poor Martin of Weeden lost an Arm in his Army and yet the other Arm lay long with him in Warwick Jail for Preaching XII Almost all the Non-conformists of my acquaintance in England save Independents and Sectaries refused the Engagement and took Cromwell and the Common-wealth-Parliament for Usurpers and never approved what they did nor ever kept their daies of Fasting or Thanksgiving To tell you of the London Ministers prinâ—ed Declarations against the intended Death of the King you will say is unsatisfactory because too late XIII Most of the Non-conformable Ministers of my acquaintance were either boys at School or in the University in the Wars or never medled with it so that I must profess that setting them altogether I do not think that one in ten throughout the Kingdom can be proved to have done any of these things that you name against the King XIV We have oft with great men put it to this trial Let them give leave but to so many to Preach the Gospel as cannot be proved ever to have had any hand in the Wars against the King and we will thankfully acquiesce and bear the Silence of the rest make but this Match for us and we will joyfully give you thanks XV. Who knoweth not that the greatest Prelatists were the Masters of the Principles that the War was raised on Bilson Iewel c. and Hooker quite beyond them all XVI But because all proof must be of individuals I intreat you as to our own Countrey where you were acquainted tell me if you can I say it seriously if you can what ever was done or said against the King by Mr. Ambrose Sparre Mr. Kimberley Mr. Lovell Mr. Cowper Mr. Reignalds Mr. Hickman Mr. Trusham Mr. Baldwin senior Mr. Baldwin junior Mr. Sergeant Mr. Waldern dead Mr. Ios. Baker dead Mr. Wilsby Mr. Brain Mr. Stephen Baxter Mr. Badland Mr. Bulcher Mr. Eccleshall Mr. Read Mr. Rock Mr. Fincher of Wedbury Mr. Wills of Bremisham Mr. Paston c. I pass by many more And in Shropshire by old Mr. Sam. Hildersham old Mr. Sam. Fisher Mr. Talents Mr. Brain of Shreusbury Mr. Barnet Mr. Keeling Mr. Berry Mr. Malden of Newport Mr. Tho. Wright dead Mr. Taylor c. These were your Neighbours and mine I never heard to my remembrance of any one of them that had any thing to do with Wars against the King It is true except Mr. Fisher and some few they were not ejected but enjoyed their places And did not you as well as they If I can name you so many of your Neighbours that were innocent will you tell the King and Parliament and the Papists and Posterity that all the Non-conformists without any exception had their hands stained with the Royal blood What! Mr. Cooke of Chester and Mr. Birch c. that were imprisoned and persecuted for the King What! Mr. Geery that died at the news of the King's Dearh What! Sir Francis Nethersole and Mr. Bell his Pastor who wrote so much against the Parliament and was their prisoner at 〈◊〉 Castle almost all the Wars What may we expect from others when Dr. Good shall do thus I put not in any Excuse for my self among all these It may be you know not that an Assembly of Divines twice met at Coventree of whom two Doctors and some others are yet living first sent me into the Army to hazard my life after Nasby Fight against the Course which we then first perceived to be designed against the King and Kingdom nor what I went through there two years in opposing it and drawing the Soldiers off Nor how oft I Preached against Cromwel the Rump the Engagement but specially their Wars and Fasts and Thanksgivings Nor what I said to Cromwel for the King never but twice speaking with him of which a Great Privy Counselloâ—r told me but lately that being an Ear-witness of it he had told his Majesty But yet while I thought they went on Bilsone's Principles I was then on their side and the Observator Parker almost tempted me to Hooker's Principles but I quickly saw those Reasons against them which I have since published His Principles were known by the first Book before the last came out And I have a friend that had his last in M.S. But I am willing unfeignedly to to be one of those that shall contiue Silenced if you can but procure leave to Preach Christ's Gospel only for those that are no more guilty of the King's blood than your self and that no longer than there is real need of their Ministerial Labour Reverend Sir If you will but so long put your self as in our Case I shall hope that with patience you will read these Lines and pardon the necessary freedom of Your truly Loving friend and obliged Servant Rich. Baxter London Feb. 10. 1673. § 270. Taking it to be my duty to preach while Toleration doth continue I removed the last Spring to London where my Diseases increasing this Winter a flatulent constant Headach added to the rest and continuing strong for about half a year constrained me to cease my Fryday's Lecture and an Afternoon Sermon on the Lord's daies in my house to my grief and to Preach only one Sermon a week at St. Iames's Market-house where some had hired an inconvenient Place But I had great encouragement to labour there 1. Because of the notorious Necessity of the people for it was noted for the habitation of the most ignorant Atheistical and Popish about London and the greatness of the Parish of St. Martins made it impossible for the tenth perhaps the twentieth person in the Parish to hear in the Parish-Church And the next Parishes St. Giles and Clement Daines were almost in the like case Besides that the Parson of our own Parish St. Giles where I lived Preached not having been about three years suspended by the Bishop ab Officio but not a beneficio upon a particular Quarrel And to leave ten or twenty for one untaught in the Parish while most of the City Churches also are burnt down and unbuilt one would think should not be justified by Christians 2. Because beyond my expectation the people generally proved exceeding willing and attentive and tractable and gave me great hopes of much success § 271. Yet at this time did some of the most Learned Conformists assault me with sharp accusations of Schism meerly because I ceased not to Preach the Gospel of Christ to people in such necessity They confess that I ought not to take their Oaths and make their imposed Covenants Declarations and Subscriptions against my Conscience but my Preaching is my sin which I must forbear though they accuse me not of one word that I say They confess the foresaid Matters of fact that not one of a multitude can possibly hear in
at the Temple the violentest of them and Mr. Rose and Mr. Philips the same two Men that had sent me to the Goal four years before They offered Mr. Bedford the Oath but it proved that he had taken it before and so far defeated them But he was fined accordingly to the Act in 20 l. and the place 40 l. which the Lord Wharton the Countesses of Bedford Manchester and Clâ—re and other hearers paid But two of the Justices swore that he said that the King did not in good earnest desire the execution of this Law which he professed he never said And for this the King sent him to Prison § 284. An Accident at this time fell out which occasioned a little seeming stop of my trouble which I will relate as the Duke of Lauderdail told it me himself who was present The Lord Falcon-brigde being with the Bishop of Salisbury Ward after reported that the Bishop told him that it was nothing of the Bishops but of the Lord Treasurer that the Act was thus Executed The Lord Treasurer charged it as an injury on the Bishop The Lord High Chamberlain E. of Lindsey told it Bishop Morley who told it Bishop Ward who went to the Lord Treasurer and Complained of it as a false injurious report of the Lord Falconbridge The Lord Treasurer took him to the King who sent for the Lord Falconbridge who before the King the D. of Lauderdail the Lord Treasurer the Lord High Chamberlain c. was accused by Bishop Ward for a false report of his words The Lord Falconbridge could not make it good but tho he spake not those very words he took the Scope of his Speech to be of that Importance The King said the Duke to me said I must tell you this my self I called the Bishops to give me their advice what was to be done for the present securing of the Church and the Protestant Religion and they told me that there was something to be done but they thought it not safe for them to give advice in it I told them that I took this for a Libel and askt them who or what they were afraid of And I appointed these Lords to see them give their Answer Among other passages the Lord Falconbridge said that the Bishop called the Execution of the Law a trick The Bishop Answered I said not that the Execution of the Law was a trick but that to begin with Mr. Baxter was a trick of some to make it thought that we are unreconcilable to the most moderate and peaceable Men. And thus they were drawn in to give their seeming Judgment against my suffering tho there was great reason to think that Papists and Prelates were the Contrivers of it § 285. For the better understanding of many of these matters it must be known that at 2 or 3 of the last Sessions of Parliament Bishop Morley had on all occasions in the Company of Lords Gentlemen and Divines cryed out of the danger of Popery and talkt much for abatements and taking in the Nonconformists or else we are like all to fall into the Papists hands so that there were no Lords or others for agreement but he made himself the head of their Design and so got an Interest still in the work as the forwardest desirer of it Dr. Fulwood Mr. Collyer and Divers others came to me to advise about a way of Concord as encouraged by this Bishop's words I sent him word by them all that I had heard these many years of these agreeing peâ—â—emaking purposes and desires of his Lordship but having known so much of his Endeavours to the contrary I intreated him by some Deeds to convince me of his sincerity for till then I was not able to believe it And the Event shewed that my incredulity was not without cause § 286. At this Sessions of Parliament approaching he set upon the same Course again and Bishop Ward as his second and chief Coagent joyned with him and they were famed to be the two Bishops that were for Comprehension and Concord none so forward as they At last Dr. Bates brings me a message from Dr. Tillot son Dean of Canterbury that he and Dr. Stillingfleet desired a Meeting with Dr. Manton Dr. Bates Mr. Pool and me to treat of an Act of Comprehension and Union and that they were encouraged to it by some Lords both Spiritual and Temporal We met to consider whether such an Attempt was safe and prudent or what was not offered by some Bishops as a sâ—are to us I told them my opinion that Experience would not suffer any Charity to believe any better of some Bishops but that they knew Dr. Stillingfleet and Dr. Tillotson to be the likeliest Men to have a hand in an Agreement if such a thing should be attempted and therefore that they would make themselves the Masters of it to defeat it and no better issue was to be expected as from them But yet that these two Doctors were Men of so much Learning Honesty and Interest that I took it as our Duty to accept the offer and to try with them how far we could agree and so try them first whether they would promise us secresy unless it came to maturity to be further notified by Consent And that we might hope for this Success as quickly to agree with these two Men and in time it might be some advantage to our desired Unity that our Terms were such as these two worthy Men consented to § 287. Accordingly Dr. Manton and I were desired by the rest to try them We went to Dr. Tillotson who promised Morley and Bishop Ward that had set them on work and the Earl of Carlile and Halifax chiefly who encouraged them Here-upon we agreed to meet the next week with him and Dr. Stillingfleet to try how far we could agree on the Terms I had before drawn up the form of an Healing Act and read it to no one but Mr. Hampden who told me it would never pass Before the next Meeting Dr. Manton was fain to abscond at the Lord Wharton's being designed as is aforesaid to the Common Goal such was the Treaty which we were invited to But I went alone and met the two Doctors I found them sincere in the business and conceited that Bishop Morley and Ward were so also Upon their promise of secrecy I freely told them my thoughts of the Bishop of Winchester and what an attempt I had lately made with him besides all heretofore at the request of the Earl of Orery and that after his Calls for Concord he granted me no one abatement or alteration or indulgence desired I shewed them the form of the Act which I had prepared They desired me to leave it with them to consider on Shortly after Dr. Tillotson brought me a Draught with several omissions and alterations I drew up my own again with some little alterations required by his Draught This he and I debated till we came to an agreement of the whole
dare not desert it lest we shortly appear before our Judge in the guilt of sacriledge perfidiousness against Christ and the people's Souls But we are forbiden to exercise it unless we will do that which we profess as Men that are passing to our final Doom we would readily do were it not for fear of God's displeasure and our Damnation Deprivation of all Ministerial maintenance with heavy Mulcts on such as have not money to pay and long Imprisonments in the Common Goals with Malefactors and banishment to those that shall survive them and that into remote parts of the World were the penalties appointed for us by your Laws Voluminous reproaches are published against us in which our Superiours and the World are told that we hold that things indifferent are made unlawful by the Commands of lawful Governours and that we are guilty of Doctrines inconsistent with the Peace and Safety of Societies and that we are moved by Pride and Covetousness as if we were proud of Men's Scorn and covetous of sordid Want and Beggery and ambitious of a Gaol and that we are Unpeaceable Disloyal Odious and Intolerable Persons Lest we should seem over-querulous and our Petitions themselves should prove offensive we have been silent under Twelve years sufferings by which divers Learned and holy Divines have been hastened home to Glory hoping that Experience would have effectually spoken for us when we may not Speak for our selves And did we believe that our own pressures were the greatest consequent Evil and that the People's knowledge and piety and the allowed Ministers Number sufficiency and Diligence were such as made our Labours needless and that the History of our Silence and Sufferings would be the future Honour of this Age and the future Comfort of your Souls and theirs that instigate you against us before our Common Judge we would joyfully be silent and accept of a Dismission But being certain of the contrary we do this once adventure humbly to tender to Your Majesty and Your Parliament these following Requests 1. Because God saith That he that hateth his Brother is a Murderer and hath not Eternal Life We humbly crave leave once to Print and Publish the true State and Reasons of our Nonconformity to the World to save Mens Souls from the guilt of unjust Hatred and Calumny And if we err we may be helped to Repentance by a Confutation and the Notoriety of our shame 2. That in the mean time this Honourable House will appoint a Committee to consider of the best means for the Healing our Calamitous Divisions before whom we may have leave at last to speak for our selves 3. That these annexed Professions of our Religion and Loyalty may be received as from Men that better know their own Minds than their Accusers do and who if they durst deliberately Lie should be no Nonconformists 4. That if yet we must suffer as Malefactors we may be punished but as Drunkards and Fornicators are with some Penalty which will consist with our Preaching Christ's Gospel and that shall not reach to the hurt or danger of many Thousand Innocent People's Souls till the Re-building of the Burnt-Churches the lessening of great Parishes where one of very many cannot hear and worship God and till the quality and number of the Conformable Ministers and the knowledge piety and sobriety of the people have truly made our Labours needless and then we shall gladly obey your Silencing Commands And whereas there are commonly reckoned to be in the Parishes without the Walls above Two hundred thousand persons more than can come within the Parish Churches they may not be compelled in a Christian Land to live as Atheists and worse than Infidels and Heathens who in their manner publickly worship God The Profession of our Religion I A. B. Do willingly profess my continued resolved consent to the Covenant of Christianity which I made in my Baptism with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost forsaking the Devil the World and the sinful Lusts of the Flesh And I profess my Belief of the Ancient Christian Creeds called The Apostles The Nicene and The Constantinopolitane and the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity fullier opened in that ascribed to Athanasius And my Consent to The Lord's Prayer as the Summary of Holy Desires and to The Decalogue with Christ's Institutions as the Summary Rule of Christian Practice And to all the Holy Canonical Scriptures as the Word of God And to the Doctrine of the Church of England professed in the 39 Articles of Religion as in sence agreeable to the Word of God And I renounce all Heresies or Errours contrary to any of these And I do hold that the Book of Common Prayer and of Bishops Priests and Deacons containeth in it nothing so disagreeable to the Word of God as maketh it unlawful to live in the Peaceable Communion of the Church that useth it The Profession of our Loyalty and Obedience I do willingly and without Equivocation and Deceit take the Oaths of Allegiance and the King's Supremacy and hold my self obliged to perform them I detest all Doctrines and Practices of Rebellion and Sedition I hold it unlawful for any of His Majesty's Subjects upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King His Person Authority Dignity or Rights or against any Authorized by his Laws or Commissions And that there is no Obligation on me or any other of his Subjects from the Oath Commonly called The Solemn League and Covenant to endeavour any change of the present Government of these His Majesty's Kingdoms nor to endeavour any Reformation of the Church by Rebellion Sedition or any other unlawful means The Overplus as a remedy against Suspicion We believe and willingly embrace all that is written in the Holy Scriptures for the power of Kings and the Obedience of their Subjects and the sinfulness of Rebellion and Resistance And concerning the same we consent to as much as is found in any General Council or in the Confession of any Christian Church on Earth not respecting Obedience to the Pope which ever yet came to our knowledg or as is owned by the Consent of the Greater part of Divines Politicians Lawyers or Historians in the Christain World as far as our Reading hath acquainted us therewith II. To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of some Citizens of London on the behalf of this City and the Adjoyning Parishes Sheweth THat the Calamitous Fire 1666 with our Houses and Goods Burnt down near 90 Churches few of which are yet Re-edifyed And divers Parishes whose Churches yet stand are so great that it is but a small part of the Inhabitants that can there hear whereby great Numbers are left in ignorance and as a prey to Papists and other Seducers and which is worse to Atheism Infidelity and Irreligiousness And if many of their ancient ejected silenced Pastors who for refusing certain Subscriptions Declarations Promises Oaths and Practices are called Nonconformists had not through
Hostility is Disunion and Dissolution Therefore no Head or Soveraign hath power to destroy or sight against his Kingdom nor any Common-wealth or Kingdom against their King or Soveraign Rulers unless in any case the Law of Nature and Nations which is above all Humane Positive Laws should make the dissolution of the Republick to become a Duty As if some Republick should cast off the Essential Principles of Society By Law neither King nor Kingdom may destroy or hurt each other For the Governing Laws suppose their Union as the Constitution and the Common good with the due Welfare of the Soveraign is the end of Government which none have power against But it must be noted that the words are against the King and not against the King's Will for if his Will be against his Welfare his Kingdom or his Laws though that Will be signified by his Commissioners the Declaration disclaimeth not the resisting of such a Will by Arms. 3. And if there be any that assert that the King's Authority giveth them right to take up Arms against his Person or Lawful Commissions it must needs be a False and Traiterous Assertion For if his Person may be Hostilely fought against the Common-wealth may be dissolved which the Law cannot suppose for all Laws die with the Common-wealth And it is a contradiction to be authorized by him to resist by Arms his Commissions which are according to Law For the Authority pretended to be his must be his Laws or Commissions and to be Authorized by his Laws or Commissions to resist his Laws must signifie that his Laws are contradictory when by one we must resist another But so far as they are contradictory both cannot be Laws or Lawful Commissions For one of them must needs nullifie the other either by Fundamental Priority or by Posteriority signifying a Repeal of the other And it must be noted that yet the Trayterous Position medleth not with the Question of taking Arms against the King's Person or Commissioners by the Law of God of Nature or of Nations but only of doing it by his own Authority 4. And that it is not lawful to take Arms against any Commissioned by him according to Law in time of Rebellion and War in pursuance of such Commission is a Truth so evident that no sober Persons can deny it The Long Parliament that had the War did vehemently assert it and therefore gave out their Commissions to the Earl of Essex and his Soldiers to fight against Delinquent Subjects for the King and Parliament 5. And the Oath containeth no more than our not endeavouring to Alter the Protestant Religion established or the King's Government or Monarchy It cannot with any true reason be supposed to tie us at all to the Bishops-much less to the English Disease or Corruption of Episcopacy or to Lay-Chancel lours c. but only to the King as Supreme in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil so far as they fall under Coercive Government This is thus proved past denyal 1. The word Protestant Religion as estalished in the Church of England cannot include the Prelacy For 1. The Protestant Religion is essentially nothing but the Christian Religion as such with the disclaiming of Popery aud so our Divines have still professed But our Prelacy is no part of the Christian Religion 2. The Protestant Religion is common to us with many Countreys which have no Prelacy And it is the same Religion with us and them 3. The words of the Oath distinguish the Religion of the Church of England from the Church of England it self and from Government 4. If Episcopacy in general were proved part of the Protestant Religion the English Accidents and Corruptions are not so They that say that Episcopacy is Iure Divino and unalterable do yet say that National and Provincial Churches are Iure Humano and that so is a Diocesane as it is distinct from Parochial containing many Parishes in it And if the King should set up a Bishop in every Market-Town yea every Parish and put down Diocesanes it is no more than what he may do And if by the Protestant Religion established should be meant every alterable mode or circumstance then King-James changed it when he made a new Translation of the Bible and both he and our late Convocation and King and Parliament by their Advice did change it when they added new Forms of Prayer And then this Oath bindeth all from endeavouring to make any alteration in the Liturgie or mend the Translation or the Metre of the Psalms c. or to take the keys of Excommunication and Absolution out of the hands of the Lay-Chancellour's c. which none can reasonably suppose 2. And that our Prelacy is not at all included in the word Government of the Kingdom in Church and State but only the King 's Supreme Government in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil is most evident 1. Because it is expressly said The Government of the Kingdom which is all one with the Government of the King For a Bishop or a Justice or a Mayor is no Governour of the Kingdom but only in the Kingdom of a Particular Church City Corporation or Division The summa potestas only is the Government of the Kingdom as a Kingdom And because forma denominat we cannot take the Kingdom to signifie only a Church or City 2. Because else it would change the very constitution of the Kingdom by making all the inferiour Officers unalterable and so to be essential constitutive parts Whereas only the pars Imperans and pars Subdita are constitutive parts of every Kingdom or Republick and the Constitutive pars Imperans is only the summa potestas except where the mixture and fundamental Contract is such as that Inferiour Officers are woven so into the Constitution as that they may not be changed without it's Dissolution which is hardly to be supposed even at Venice Tbe Oaths between the summa potestas and the Subject are the bonds of the Commonwealth their Union being the form that must not be dissolved But to make Oaths of Allegiance or Unchangeableness â—each to the Inferiour Magistrates or Officers is to change the Government or Constitution 3. And so it destroyeth the Regal power in one of it's chief properties or prerogatives which is to alter inferiour Officers who all receive their power from the Supreme and are alterable by him even by the Majestas which hath the Legislative powers And this would take away all the King's power to alter so much as a Mayor Justice or Constable For mark that Government of the Kingdom in Church and State are set equally together without any note of difference as to alteration If therefore it extend to any but the Supreme even to inferiour Officers it were to extend to them as Governing the State even to the lowest as well as the Church But this is a supposition to be Contemned 4. And if the Distinction should be meant de personis Imperantibus and should
intend only Bishops and King by Church and State 1. It would suppose that King and Parliament do take Bishops and King for two coordinate Heads in governing the Kingdom 2. And that they set the Bishops before the King which is not to be supposed 5. And to put all out of question the Oath is but Conform to former Statutes Oaths Articles of Religion and Canons 1. The Statutes which declare the King to be only Supreme Governour of the Church I need not cite 2. The Oath of Supremacy is well known of all 3. The very first Canon is that the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and all Bishops c. shall faithfully keep and observe all the Laws for the King's Supremacy over the Church of England in causes Ecclesiastical And the 2d Canon is to condemn the dangers of it And the 36. Canon obligeth all Ministers to subscribe that the King's Majesty under God is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm as well in all spiritual and Ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal And as the Parliament are called the Representative of the People or Kingdom as distinct from the Head so the 139. Canon excommunicateth all them that affirm that the Sacred Synod of this Nation in the Name of Christ and by the King's Authority Aslembled is not the true Church of England by Representation So that they claim to be but the Representative of the Church as it is the Body distinct from the Head Christ aud the King as their chief Governour 4. And all that are Ordained are likewise to take the Oath of Supremacy I do utterly testify and declare in my Conscience that the King's Highness is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or Causes as Temporal 5. And It is also inserted in the Articles of Religion Art 35. And it is added expositorily Where we attribute to the Queen's Majesty the Chief Government by which title we understand the minds of some slanderous folks to be offended we give not to our Princes the Ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments but that only prerogative which we see to have been given always to all Godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their Charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastcal or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the Stubborn and evil Doers Here it is to be noted that though no doubt but the Keys of Excommunication and absolution belong to the Pastors and to the Civil Magistrate yet the Law and this Article by the word Government mean only Coercive Government by the Sword and do include the power of the Keys under the title of Ministring the Word and Sacraments Church Guidance being indeed nothing else but the Explication and Application of God's word to Cases and Consciences and administring the Sacraments accordingly So that as in the very Article of Religion Supreme Government appropriated to the King only is contradistinguish'd from Ministring the Word and Sacraments which is not called Government there so are we to understand this Law and Oath And many Learned Men think that Guidance is a fitter name than Government for the Pastor's Office And therefore Grotius de Imper. Sum. Pot. would rather have the Name Canons or Rulers used than Laws as to their Determinations Though no doubt but the name Government may be well applyed to the Pastor's Part so we distinguish as Bilston and other judicious men use to do calling one Government by God's Word upon the Conscience and the other Government by the sword as seconding Precepts with enforcing penalties and Mulcts § 301. While this Test was carrying on in the house of Lords and 500 pounds Voted to be the penalty of the Refusers before it could come to the Commons a difference fell between the Lords and Commons about their priviledges by occasion of two Suits that were brought before the Lords in which two Members of the Commons were parties which occasioned the Commons to send to the Tower Sir Iohn Fagg one of their Members for appearing at the Lords Bar without their consent and four Counsellours Sir Iohn Churchill Sergeant Pemberton Sergeant Pecke and another for pleading there And the Lords Voted it Illegal and that they should be released Sir Iohn Robinson Lieutenant of the Tower obeyed the Commons for which the Lords Voted him a Delinquent And so far went they in daily Voting at each other that the King was fain to Prorogue the Parliament Iune 9. till October 13. there appearing no hope of Reconciling them Which rejoiced many that they rose without doing any further harm § 302. Iune 9. Keting the Informer being commonly detested for prosecuting me was cast in Gaol for Debt and wrote to me to endeavour his Deliverance which I did and in his Letters saith Sir I assure you I do verily believe that God hath bestowed all this affliction on me because I was so vile a wretch as to trouble you And I assure you I never did a thing in my Life that hath so much troubled my self as that did I pray God forgive me And truly I do not think of any that went that way to work that ever God would favour him with his mercy And truly without a great deal of mercy from God I do not think that ever I shall thrive or prosper And I hope you will be pleased to pray to God for me c. § 303. A while before another of the chief Informers of the City and my Accuser Marishall died in the Counter where his Creditors laid him to keep him from doing more harm Yet did not the Bishops change or cease Two more Informers were set on work who first assaulted Mr. Case's Meeting and next got in as hearers into Mr. Read's Meeting where I was Preaching And when they would have gone out to fetch Justices for they were known the doors were lockt to keep them in till I had done and one of them supposed to be sent from Fullum stayed weeping Yet went they straight to the Justices and the week following heard me again as Informers at my Lectures but I have not yet heard of their Accusation § 304. But this week Iune 9. Sir Thamas Davis notwithstanding all his foresaid Warnings and Confessions sent his Warrants to a Justice of the Division where I dwell to distrein on me upon two Judgments for 50 pounds for Preaching my Lecture in New-street Some Conformists are paid to the value of 20 pounds a Sermon for their Preaching and I must pay 20 pounds and 40 pounds a Sermon for Preaching for nothing O what Pastors hath the Church of England who think it worth all their unwearied Labours and all the odium which they contract from the People to keep such as I am from Preaching the Gospel of Christ and to undo us for it as far as they are able though these many years they do not for they cannot
Stomach and extream Acrimony of Blood by some Fault of the Liver About the Year 1658. finding the Inflation much in the Membranes of the Reins I suspected the Stone and thought that one of my extream Leanness might possibly feel it I felt both my Kidnies plainly indurate like Stone But never having had a Nephritick Fit nor Stone came from me in my Life and knowing that if that which I felt was Stone the Greatness prohibited all Medicine that tended to a Cure I thought therefore that it was best for me to be ignorant what it was And so far was I from melancholy that I soon forgot that I had felt it even for about Fifteen Years But my Inflations beginning usually in my Reins and all my Back daily torn and greatly pained by it 1673. it turned to terrible Suffocations of my Brain and Lungs So that if I slept I was suddenly and painfully awakened The Abatement of Urine and constant Pain which Nature almost yielded to as Victorious renewed my Suspicion of the Stone And my Old Exploration And feeling my Lean Back both the Kidneys were greatlier indurate than before and the Membrane so sore to touch as if nothing but Stone were within them The Physicians said That the Stone cannot be felt with the Hand I desired Four of the Chief of them to feel them They all concluded that it is the Kidneys which they felt and that they are hard like Stone or Bone but what it is they could not tell but they thought if both the Kidneys had Stones so big as seemed to such feeling it was impossible but I should be much worse by Vomiting and Torment and not able to Preach and go about I told them besides what Skenkius and many Observators say That I could tell them of many of late times whose Reins and Gall were full of Stone great ones in the Reins and many small ones in the Gall who had some of them never suspected the Stone and some but little But while One or Two of the Physicians as they use did say It could not be lest they should as they thought discourage me I became the Common Talk of the City especially the Women as if I had been a melancholy Humourist that conceited my Reins were petrified when it was no such matter but meer Conceit And so while I lay Night and Day in Pain my supposed Melancholy which I thank God all my Life hath been extraordinary free from became for a Year the Pity or Derision of the Town But the Discovery of my Case was a great mercy to my Body and my Soul For 1. Thereupon seeing that all Physicians had been deceived and perceiving that all my Flatulency and Pains came from the Reins by Stagnation Regurgitation and Acrimony I cast off all other Medicine and Diet and Twice a Week kept clean my Intestines by an Electuary of Cassia Terebinth Cypr. and Rhab. c. or Pills of Rhab. and Terebinth Scio. Using also Syrup of Mallows in all my Drink and God hath given me much more Abatements and Intermissions of Pain this Year and half than in my former overwhelming Pains I could expect 2. And whether it be a Schyrrus or Stones which I doubt not of I leave to them to tell others who shall dissect my Corps But sure I am that I have wonderful Cause of Thankfulness to God for the Ease which I have had these Forty Years Being fully satisfied that by ill Diet Old Cheese Raw Drinks and Salt Meats whatever it is I contracted it before Twenty Years of Age and since Twenty One or Twenty Two have had just the same Symptoms as now at Sixty saving the different strength of Nature to resist And that I should in Forty Years have few hours without pain to call me to redeem my Time and yet not one Nephritick Torment nor Acrimony of Urine save One Day of Bloody Urine nor intolerable kind of Pain What greater Bodily Mercy could I have had How merciful how suitable hath this Providence been My Pains now in Reins Bowels and Stomach c. are almost constant but with merciful Alleviations upon the foresaid means § 312. As I have written this to mind Physicians to search deeper when they use to take up with the General Hiding Names of Hypochondriacks and Scorbuticks and to caution Students so I now proceed to that which occasioned it I had tried Cow's Milk Goats Milk Breast Milk and lastly Asses Milk and none of them agreed with me But having Thirty Years ago read in many great Practitioners That for Bloody Vrine and meer Debility of the Reins Sheeps Milk doth Wonders see Gordonius Forestus Schoubo c. I had long a desire to try it and never had Opportunity But as I was saying this to my Friend a Child answered That their next Neighbour a Quaker did still milk their Sheep a Quarter of a Year after the usual time or near Whereupon I procured it for six Weeks to the greatest increase of my Ease Strength and Flesh of any thing that ever I had tried 2. And at the same time being driven from Home and having an Old License of the Bishop's yet in Force by the Countenance of that and the great industry of Mr. Berisford I had Leave and Invitation for Ten Lord's Days to Preach in the parish-Parish-Churches round about The first Parish that I Preach'd in after Thirteen Years Ejection and Prohibition was Rickmersworth and after that at Sarrat at Kings Langley at Chessam at Chalford and at Amersham and that often Twice a Day Those heard that had not come to Church of Seven Years and Two or Three Thousand heard where scarce an Hundred were wont to come and with so much Attention and Willingness as gave me very great Hopes that I never spake to them in vain And thus Soul and Body had these special Mercies § 313. But the Censures of Men pursued me as before The Envious Sort of the Prelatists accused me as if I had intruded into the Parish-Churches too boldly and without Authority The Quarrelsome Sectaries or Separatists did in London speak against me for drawing People to the Parish-Churches and the Liturgy and many gave out That I did Conform And all my Days nothing hath been charged on me so much as my Crimes as my costliest and greatest Duties But the pleasing of God and saving Souls will pay for all § 314. The Countries about Rickmersworth abounding with Quakers because Mr. W. Pen their Captain dwelleth there I was desirous that the Poor People should Once hear what was to be said for their Recovery Which coming to Mr. Pen's Ears he was forward to a Meeting where we continued speaking to Two Rooms full of People Fasting from Ten a Clock till-Five One Lord and Two Knights and Four Conformable Ministers besides others being present some all the Time and some part The Success gave me Cause to believe that it was not labour lost An Account of the Conference may be published ere
Assemblies and Preaching when we are Silenced Against whose Mistaken Endeavours I Wrote a Book called The Nonconformist's Plea for Peace § 12. One Mr. Hollingworth also Printed a Sermon against the Nonconformists and there tells a Story of a Sectary that Treating for Concord with one afterward a Bishop motion'd That all that would not yield to their Terms should be Banished to shew that the Nonconformists are for Severity as well as the Bishops The Reader would think that it was Me or Dr. Manton or Dr. Bates that he meant that had so lately had a Treaty with Dr. Wilkins and Dr. Burton I Wrote to him to desire him to tell the World who it was that by naming none he might not unworthily bring many into Suspicion He Wrote me an Answer full of great Estimation and Kindness professing That it was not me that he meant nor Dr. Manton nor Dr. Bates nor Dr. Iacomb but some Sectary that he would by no means Name but seemed to cast Intimations towards Dr. Owen one unlikely to use such words and I verily believe it was all a meer Fiction § 13. About that time I had finished a book called Chatholick Theologie in which I undertake to prove that besides things unrevealed known to none and ambiguous words there is no considerable difference between the Arminians and Calvinists except some very tolerable difference in the point of perseverance This book hath hitherto had the strangest fate of any that I have written except our Reformed Liturgy not to be yet spoken against or openly contradicted when I expected that both sides would have fallen upon it And I doubt not but some will do so when I am dead unless Calamities find men other work § 14. Having almost then finished a Latin Treatise called Methodus Theologiae containing near Seventy Tables or Schemes with their Elucidations and some Disputations on Schism containing the Nature Order and Ends of all Beings with three more I gave my Lord Chief Justice Hale a Specimen of it with my foresaid Catholick Theologie but told him it was only to shew my respects but desired him in his weakness to read things more directly tending to prepare for death But yet I could not prevail with him to lay those by so much as I desired but he oft gave me special Thanks above all the rest for that book and that scheme And while he continued weak Mr. Stevens his familiar Friend published two Volumes of his own Meditations which though but plain things yet were so greedily bought up and read for his sake even by such as would not have read such things of others that they did abundance of good And shortly after he published himself in Folio a Treatise of the Origination of Man to prove the Creation of this World very Learned but large He left many Manuscripts One I have long ago read a great Volumn in Folio to prove the Deity the Immortality of the Soul Christianity the Truth of Scripture in General and several books in particular solidly done but too copious which was his fault Two or three smal Tractates written for me I have published expressing the simple and excellent Nature of true Religion and the Corruption and great evils that follow Men's Additaments called wrongfully by the Name of Religion and contended for above it and against it and shewing how most Parties are guilty of this sin I hear he finished a Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul a little before he dyed But unhappily there is contest about his Manuscripts whether to Print them or not because he put a clause into his Will that nothing of his should be Printed but what he gave out himself to be Printed before he dyed He went into the Common Church-yard and there chose his grave and died a few daies after on Christmassday Though I never received any money from him save a Quarter 's Rent he paid when I removed out of my house at Acton that he might buy it and succeed me yet as a token of his love he left me forty shillings in his Will with which to keep his memory I bought the greatest Cambridge Bible and put his picture before it which is a Monument to my house But waiting for my own Death I gave it Sir William Ellis who laid out about Ten pounds to put it into a more curious Cover and keeps it for a Monument in his honour § 15. I found by the people of London that many in the sense of the late Confusions in this Land had got an apprehension that all Schism and Disorder came from Ministers and People's resisting the Bishops and that Prelacy is the means to cure Schism and being ignorant what Church Tyranny hath done in the World they fly to it for refuge against that mischief which it doth principally introduce Wherefore I wrote the History of Prelacy or a Contraction of all the History of the Church especially Binnius and Baronius and others of Councils to shew by the testimony of their greatest flatterers what the Councils and Contentions of Prelates have done But the History even as delivered by Binnius himself was so ugly and frightful to me in the perusing that I was afraid lest it should prove when opened by me a temptation to some to contemn Christianity it self for the sake and Crimes of such a Clergy But as an Antidote I prefixed the due Commendation of the better humble sort of Pastors But I must profess that the History of Prelacy and Councils doth assure me that all the Schisms and Confusions that have been caused by Anabaptists Separatists or any of the Popular unâ—uly Sectaries have been but as flea-bitings to the Church in comparison of the wounds that Prelatical Usurpation Contention and Heresies have caused And I am so far from wondering that all Baronius's industry was thought necessary to put the best visor on all such Actions that I wonder that the Papists have not rather employed all their wit care and power to get all the Histories of Councils burnt and forgotten in the World that they might have only their own Oral flexible tradition to deliver to Mankind what their interest pro re nata shall require Alas how small was the hurt that the very Familists the Munster Fanaticks the very Quakers or Ranters have done in comparison of what some one Pope or one Age or Council of Carnal Tyrannical Prelats hath done The Kingdom of Satan is kept up in the World next to that Sensuality that is born in all by his usurping and perverting the two great Offices of God's own institution Magistracy and Ministry and wring the Sword and Word against the Institutor and proper end But God is just § 16. There years before this I wrote a Treatise to end our common Controversies in Doctrinals about Predestination Redemption justification assurance perseverance and such like being a Summary of Catholick reconciling Theology § 17. In November 1677. Dyed Dr. Thomas Manton to the great loss of London
excepting Lay-Chancellor's use of the Keys ipso facto Excommunicateth all Nobility Gentry Clergy and Commons that say That it is repugnant to the Word of God And it 's time to take heed what we Swear when the Act of Uniformity the Oxford-Act the Corporation Act the Vestry Act the Militia Act and the Oath of Supremacy do bind all the Nation by Solemn Oath not to endeavour any alteration of Government in Church or State And yet most Reverend Fathers who most sharply call us to Conformity do Write for a Foreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction under the Name of an Universal Colledge of Bishops or Council having such power as other Courts even Commanding Pretorian Legislative and Judicial to all the Church on Earth and that obedience to this Foreign Jurisdiction is the necessary way to escape Schism and Damnation And if it be no alteration of Government to bring King and Kingom to be subject to a Foreign Jurisdiction this Oath and the Oath of Supremacy and the 39 Articles and Canons and several Statutes which renounced it are all unintelligible to us We renounce all subjection to any Foreign Church or Power but not Communion We have Communion with the Church of Rome and all others in Christianity but not in their sin and we are not yet so dull as to know no difference between Foreigners Government of us and their Communion nor to think that Separation from a Usurped Government is Separation from Christian Communion Nor can we possibly believe the Capacity of Pope or Council or Colledge of Bishops as a Monarchy or Aristocracy to Govern all the World in one Soveraignty Ecclesiastical till we see one Civil Monarchy or Aristocracy rule all the Earth And we dread the Doctrine and Example of such Men as would introduce any Foreign Jurisdiction while they are for Swearing all the Land against any alteration of Church-Government And we must deliberate before we thus Conform while so Great Men do render the Oath so doubtful to us I appeal to the fore-cited Profession of my Loyalty published many years ago as being far more full and satisfactory to any that questioneth it than the taking of this doubtful controverted Oath would be A true Copy of the Iudgment of Mr. Saunders now Lord Chief Iustice of the King's-Bench given me March the 22d 1674 5. 1. IF he hath the Bishop's License and be not a Curate Lecturer or other Promoted Ecclesiastical Person mentioned in the Act I conceive he may Preach Occasional Sermons without Conforming and not incure any Penalty within this Act. The due Order of Law requires that the Delinquent if he be forth-coming ought to be summon'd to appear to Answer for himself if he pleases before he be Convicted But in case of his withdrawing himself or not appearing he may be regularly Convicted Convictions may be accumulated before the Appeal be determined but not unduely nor is it to be supposed that any undue Convictions will be made As I Conceive Edm. Saunders M. day 22. 167â— Mr. Polixfen's Iudgment for my Preaching Occasionally A. B. before the Thirteenth of this King being Episcopally Ordained and at the time of the Act of Uniformity made Car. 2. not being Incumbent in any Living or having any Ecclesiastical Preferment before the Act of Uniformity viz. 25 Feb. 13 Car. 2. obtains a License of the then Bishop of London under his Seal to Preach in any part of his Diocess aud at the same time subscribes the 39 Articles of the Church of England Quest. Whether Licenses Preceding the Act be within the meaning of the Act I conceive they are For if Licensed at the time of the Act made what need any new License That were but actum agere and the Clause in the Act unless he be Iacensed c. in the manner of penning shews that Licenses that then were were sufficient and within the Provision And the followiug Clause as to the Lecturers is Express now is or shall be Licensed The former part of the Act as well as that extends to Licenses that then were For the same License that enables a man to Preach a Lecture must enable a man to Preach Q. Whether he be restrained by the Act of Vniformity to Preach a Funeral Sermon or other occasional Sermon I Conceiâ—e that he is not restrained by this Act to Preach any Occasional Sermon so as it be within the Diocess wherein he is Licensed Hen. Pollexfen Decemb. 19. 1682. § 77. While I continue night and day under constant pain and often strong and under the sentence of approaching death by an uncurable disease which age and great debility yields to I found great need of the constant exercise of patience by obedient submission to God and writing a small Tractate of it for my own use I saw reason to yield to them that desired it might be publick there being especially so common need of obedient patience § 78. Having long ago written a Treatise against Coalition with Papists by introducing a Foreign Jurisdiction of Pope or Councils I was urged by the Writings of Mr. Dogwel and Dr. Saywell to publish it but the Printers dare not Print it Entitled England not to be perjured by receiving a Foreign Jurisdiction It is in two Parts The first Historical shewing who have endeavoured to introduce a Foreign Jurisdiction citing Papists Grotius Arch-Bishop Bromball Arch-Bishop Laud Thorndike Dr. Saywell Dodwell four Letters to Bishop Guning and others The 2d part strictly Stating the Controversy and Confuting a Foreign Jurisdiction against which Change of Government all the Land is Sworn I may not Print it § 79. When I saw the storm of Persecution arising by the Agitators Hilton Shad Buck and such other and saw what the Justices were at least in present danger of and especially how Le Strange and other weekly Pamphleteers bent all their wit and power to make others odious and prepared for destruction and to draw as many as possibly they could to hate and ruine faithful men and how Conscience and serious piety grew with many into such hatred and reproach that no men were so much abhorred that many gloried to be called Tories tho they knew it was the name of the Irish common murdering Thieves I wrote a small Book called Cain and Abel in two parts The first against malignant Enmity to serious Godliness with abundant Reasons to convince Malignants The second against Persecution by way of Quaere's I wrote a third part as Impartial to tell Dissenters why while I was able I went oft to the Parish Church and there Communicated and why they should not suffer as Separatists or Recusants lest they suffer as evil doers But wise men would not let me publish it And the two first the Booksellers and Printers durst not print but twice refused them § 80. But the third part the Reasons of my Communion with Parish Churches that have honest able Ministers I sent to one friend who telling others of it a Bookseller after two
his Congregation a Church worshipped many years without singing Psalms and Sacraments forsooth because he took them not then for a Church I must suspend my Answer to them and all such tho' I know the Papists will take it for a Confutation of all my writings against them to say his own brethren Prosestants and Dissenters have proved him a Lyer This I must bear from Separating Non-conformists while the Justices that bind and trouble me openly declare me innocent And I am told that the Papists will not endure me to write against the Separatists no more than against themselves because they need their help to pull down the Godly Parish Ministers § 87. Many French Ministers sentenced to Death and Banishment fly hither for refuge And the Church men relieve them not because they are not for English Diocesans and Conformity And others have many of their own distressed Ministers and acquaintance to relieve that few are able But the Chief that now I can do is to help such and the Silences Ministers here and the poor as the Almoner of a few Liberal friends who trust me with their Charity § 88. As to the present State of England the Plots the Execution of Men High and Low the Publick Counsels and Designs the Quality and Practice of Judges and Bishops the Sessions and Justices the quality of the Clergy and the Universities and Patrons the Church-Government by the Keys by Lay-Civilians the usage of Ministers and private Meetings for Preaching or Prayer the Expectations of what is next to be done c. The Reader must expect none of this sort of History from me No doubt but there will be many Volumes of it by others transmitted to posterity who may do it more fully than I can now do § 89. Ianuary Seventeenth I was forced again to be carried to the Sessions and after divers daies good words which put me in expectation of freedom when I was gone one Justice Sir Decerham said that it 's like that these persons solicited so for my liberty that they might come to hear me in Conventicles and on that they bound me again in Four hundred pound bond for above a Quarter of a year and so it 's like it will be till I die or worse Tho' no one ever accused me for any Conventicle or Preaching since they took all my Books and Goods above two years ago and I for the most part keep my bed § 90. Mr. Ienkins dyed in Newgate this week Ianuary Nineteenth 1684 5. as Mr. Bampfield Mr. Raphson and others died lately before him The Prison where are so many suffocateth the Spirits of aged Ministers But blessed be God that gave them so long time to Preach before at cheaper rates § 61. One Richard Baxter a Sabbatarian Anabaptist was sent to Gaol for refusing the Oath of Allegiance and it went for currant that it was I. § 92. Mr. Rosewell did so fully plead his own Case and prove his innocency and prove the Confederacy incompetency and falshood of the Witnesses that tho' alas the Jury found him guilty of Treason even the Chief Justice and Judges were convinced of his innocency and at last procured his Pardon and deliverance Innocency with humility and great ability were his advantages improved and withall that he had few Enemies APPENDIX A Reply to some Exceptions against our Worcestershire Agreement and my Christian Concord Written by a nameless Author and sent by Dr. Warmstrye Honoured and Worthy Sir Salutem Officia in Christo Iesu Autore Salutis Except Sect. 1. FOR Christian Concord Mr. Baxter cannot write more willingly nor you be more strongly inclined to meet any such motion then you well know the Hearts of very many of your Brethren to be already agreed in that And I believe I have given you evidence in all my former Discourses with you uncontradicted by any action of mine that I the meanest of the servants of your Order do make it the butt and aime of all my weak Studies and Labours in order to the glory and service of God and Christ our Lord who hath so hightly injoyned it 2. But this bars us not but obliges us well to consider whether this Worcester Agreement be a true Union in Ecclesiastical Peace or the carrying on a Schismatical Combination reaching to enclose in the Episcopal Divines also â—3 That they may now at length by this approve of the Presbyters Declaration to the World of the no necessity of continuing their Canonical Obedience to their Bishops in Christ which was the first wheel that set a work this sad Revolution the ejecting out of the Church I mean out of their principal proper place in the Church the Bishops and Pastors the Successors of the Apostles in the Church whether this be so or no I say I must request you to judge by considering Reply to Sect 1. I shall not unwillingly believe and acknowledge that your love to Concord is greater than mine when I see you more zealously seeking it and hear of your Motions and moderate Rational Attempts to that end And I shall begin to hope well of you when you are but willing to accept such motions from any others or at least not to hinder the Concord of your Brethren 2. Schismarical Combinations are against the United Churches or the United Members of one particular Church We unite or combine against no such-Churches or Members nor against any thing but prophaneness and wickedness and against the disunion discord and alienation of Brethren and the utter neglect of the Ordinances of Christ. Our utmost care and endeavour is to heal a Schism and if they that do their best to heal it lamenting it daily as the great sin and calamity of the Churches and making it the chiefest part of their Studies with unsatiable longings to see it accomplished looking for no wordly advantage by the work having no Lordly Honours nor Dignities of their own to engage for which might byass them nay most prodigally casting away their Reputation with all the contenders of every Party accounting nothing in this world dear to them for the healing of our Divisions and waiting on God in earnest Prayer daily for success concerning all which the Righteous God is better acquainted with my heart and ways than this Contender I say if yet we are not only Schismaticks but Schismatical in these very attempts I know not yet how we shall escape that sin I hope God will not impute that to me which this Writer doth and that as he will not impute my Prayers and Endeavours against Drunkenness Covetousness and Contentions of Neighbours to be indeed Drunkenness Covetousness or Contention so neither will be impute my earnest Prayers and endeavours against Schism and Discord to be Schismatical But Schism is not the same thing in one Mans mouth as in anothers It is the unhappiness of each Party or Schismatical Faction to make to themselves a new Center of union which God never made and then all must
be Schismaticks with them that unite not in their Center or at least be not tyed to union by their ligaments So he is a Schismatick to a Papist that Centers not in the Pope as the Principium unitatis and visible Head of the Church and in the Roman Church as the Heart of the Church Catholick denominating the whole He is a SchismatiÌ„ck with some others that owns not every Order or Ceremony which they maintain For my part I should think that he that 〈◊〉 in â—hrâ—â—t and â—â—â—deth the sound and wholsome Doctrine contained in the Creeds of the Church and maintaineth love and unity with all Christians to the utmost extent of his natural capacity even with all that he is capable of holding Communion with is no Schismatick nor his attempts for that end Schismatical Combinations If there were a Bishop in this Diocess and he should go one way suppose he command that all Church Assemblies be at such a time and all worship in such a form and all the Presbyters and People go another way whether they do well or ill so the thing itself be tollerable and will not meet at the time nor worship God in the form which he prescribeth I should think I were guilty of Schism if I separated from all these Churches and guilty of ungodliness if I wholly forsook and forbore all publick worship of God because I could have none according to the Bishops commanding Much more if there were no Bishop in the Diocess at all This seems to be our case in respect of both Worship and Discipline at least for the most part Is that man guilty of no Schisme nor Impiety who will rather have no Discipline exercised at all on the profane and scandalous but all Vice go without controul and the rage of Mens sins provoke Heaven yet more against us who will rather have no Ministerial Worship of God in Prayer or Praise no Sacraments no Solemn Assemblies to this end no Ministerial Teaching of the people but have all Mens Souls given over to perdition the bread of life taken from their mouths and God deprived of all his Worship then any of this should be done without Bishops That had rather the Church doors were shut up and we lived like Heathens than we should Worship God without a Bishops Commands and that when we have none to command us 3. We distinguish of the necessity of Bishops either it is a necessity ad bene esse for the right ordering of the Church when it may be had or it is a necessity ad esse to the very being of a Church or of Gods Worship without which we may not offer God any publick Service or have any Communion with any Congregation that so doth The former we leave as not fit for our determination and therefore we do not contradict you in it nor seek to draw you to own any Declaration against it The latter we do deny there is no such necessity of Bishops as that God can have no Church without them and that we must rather separate from all our Assemblies and never offer God any publick Worship then do it without them remembring still that we speak of those Bishops whom we are charged with rejecting and not the Pastors of particular Congregations And in this distinction of necessity and in this conclusion I have the consent of the generality of the Protestant Bishops so far as I know to a Man as far as their Writings declare to us their Minds and therefore Episcopal Divines may consent Except to Sect. 2. 1. Whether in this Worcestershire Association whoever will enter into it doth not therein oblige himself to acknowledge those for Presbyters and Pastors of Churches who profess themselves to have been made such in a Church where there are and were Bishops that never denyed them Orders without the Hands Consent or Knowladge of the Bishop yea in a time when Bishops were without any accusation before any Ecclesiastical Superiour Synod or other unheard ejected laid by by their own sheep and Presbyters that owed them obedience Reply to Sect. 2. To your first Question I answer 1. You must distinguish of punishing and ejecting Bishops that deserve it and casting out their Order 2. Between casting out the appurtenances and corruptions which made up the English sort of Prelacie as differing from the Primitive and casting out the Order and Office of Bishops simply in itself 3. Between those Men that do cast them out and those that do not 4. Between a Church that hath Bishops and one that hath none 5. Between them that can have Ordination by them and those that cannot 6. Between those Ministers of this Association that were Ordained by Bishops and those that were not 7. Between the Irregularity and sinfulness or Ordination and the nullity thereof and so between a Minister regularly Ordained and a Minister Irregularly Ordained who is a Minister still Hereupon I answer further in these conclusions 1. That too many of the Bishops lately ejected did deserve it is beyond dispute 2. Whether the Parliament in the state that they were in had not power to punish them by Imprisonment or Ejection as Solemon did Abiathar without an Ecclesiastical Superior or whether the Clergy be exempted from such punishment by the Secular power till they are delivered up to them by the Ecclesiastical Head hath been voluminously disputed in the world already Sutcliffe Bilson Iewel and a multitude more have proved that Kings have power in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and that the Pope hath no power of Jurisdiction in England let the Oath of Supremacy judge and if the Metropolitan of Canterbury or the highest Ecclesiastical Power miscarry who shall restrain or eject them but the Civil Power unless we go to the Pope for more acceptable witnesses I commend to you Spalatensis Grotius and Saravia yea Fr. de Victoria and several Parisians The two former one de Republ. Eccles. the other de Imperio summarum potestatum will never be well answered If it be said the King did it not I answer I think the Authority by whom that much was done that we now speak of will be acknowledged sufficient by most that were against the fact and that fought against the Parliament that understood the Laws It was long before the King withdrew 3. Many of those that approved of the Ejection of those unworthy men yet approved not of the dissolution of the Office and such may be many and for ought you know most or all of the Ministers here Associated Though I suppose rather it is otherwise yet while Men do for peace silence their opinions who knows what they are And sure I am many among us had no hand in the downfall of the Bishops and whether any at all be lyable in this to your Charge besides my self whereof more anon I know not most of our Association were in the Universities in the Wars and the rest were some I
Protestant Divines of England are branded as Popish that since the Reformation have defended against the Pope that Bishops are jure Divino for so I say it was direct Popery that first denied Bishops to be jure Divino witness the Pope's and Papelins canvassing in the Council of Trent to oppress by Force and Tyranny the far major and more learned part of the Council that contended for so many Months with Suffrages Arguments and Protestations Protestant like to have it defined that Bishops were jure Divino and only the Pope and his Titulars and Courtiers suffered it not to be propounded least it should be as certainly it would have been defined for then Popes and Presbyterians could not have lorded it so Thus the chiefest and most pious and learned Bishops of our English Church must be branded for Popish Bishop Andrews Mountague White c. Reply to Sect. 15. 1. If you deny the Authors cited by me to be authentick pretend not to adhere to the Episcopal Protestants for sure these are such 2. You do not well to say that all the Protestant Bishops are branded as Popish that since the Reformation have defended against the Pope that Bishops are jure Divino either shew the Words where I so brand them or else do not tell us that your Words are true though in a matter of Fact before your Eyes we may well question your Argument when we find you so untrue in reporting a plain Writing Indeed our late Bishops and those most that were most suspected to be Popish did stand most upon the jus Divinum which many of the first did either disclaim or not maintain But it never came into my Thoughts to brand all for Papists that did own it Do I not cite Downame and others as Protestant Bishops who yet maintain it yea Bishop Andrews whom you name this is not fair 3. As for the Trent Quarrel about Bishops I say but this if the Spanish Bishops and the rest that stood for the jus Divinum of Episcopacy there were no Papists then those that I spoke of in England were none much less And I must cry you mercy for so esteeming them Except to Sect. 16. The 3d Argument is from the uncertainty of Succession which might have done the Hereticks good Service in the old times when St. Irenaeus and Tertullian muster up against them Successions of Catholick Bishops that ever taught as the Church then taught against the Hereticks Reply to Sect. 16. 1. It seems you are confident of an uninterrupted Succession of authoritative Ordination though you seem to think none authoritative but Episcopal But so were not the Protestant Bishops who took the Reformed Churches to have true Ministers and to be true Churches when yet Episcopal Ordination is interrupted with them Such are all those with whose Words you say I fill my Book to whom I may add Men which is strange that were thought nearer your own way As Bishop Bromhall in his late Answer to Militerius who yet would have the Pope to be the Principium Unitatis to the Church and the Answer to Fontanus's Letter said to be Dr. Stewards besides Dr. Fern yea if you were one of those that would yield that Presbyters may ordain yet I am still unpersuaded that you are able to prove an uninterrupted Succession of Authoritative Ordination and if you are able I should heartily thank you if you would perform it and seeing it is so Necessary it is not well that no Episcopal Divine will perform it If you are not able methinks you should not judge it so necessary at least except you know them that are able If you cast it on us to disprove that Succession I refer you to our Answer to Bellarmine and others in those Papers as to that point 2. As for Tertullian and Irenaeus and others of the primitive Ages pleading such Succession I answer 1. It is one thing to maintain an uninterrupted Succession then when and where it was certain and another to maintain it now when it is not 2. It is one thing then to maintain that such a Succession was de facto and another to affirm that it must be or would be to the end of the World which those Fathers did not It was the Scope of Irenaeus and Tertullian not to make an uninterrupted Succession of standing absolute necessity ad esse Officii nor to prophecy that so it should still be and the Church should never want it but from the present certainty of such a Succession de facto to prove that the Orthodox Churches had better Evidence of the Soundness of their Faith than the Hereticks had If this be not their meaning I cannot understand them it was easy then to prove the Succession and therefore it might be made a Medium against Hereticks to prove that the Churches had better Evidence than they But now the Case is altered both through time and Sin It might have been proved by Tradition without Scripture what was sound Doctrine and what not before the Scripture was written An Heretick might have been confuted in the Days of the Apostles without their Writings and perhaps in a great measure some time after but it follows not that they may be so to the End of the World Those that heard it from the Mouth of the Apostles could tell the Church what Doctrine they taught but how uncertain a way Tradition would have been to acquaint the World with God's Mind by that time it had passed through the puddle of depraved Ages even to 1653. God well knew and therefore provided us a more certain way So is it also in this Case of Succession as the Fathers pleaded it against the Hereticks to prove the Soundness of the Tradition of those Churches Except to Sect. 17. Against all which a Quirk it seems lay that if secretly any of them had had but a secret Canonical Irregularity all the following Successions were null But the evident Truth is much otherwise that the Church never anulled the Acts or Ordinations made by Bishops which the Catholick Church then had accepted and reputed Catholick Bishops though afterwards they came to know of any Secret Irregularities or canonical Disablings had they then been urged or prosecuted by any against those Bishops and then they should have been accepted for Bishops by the Church no longer Reply to Sect. 17. 1. I have proved and more can do open and not only secret Irregularities in the Church of Rome's Ordinations known a Priâ—re and not only after the Ordinations The Multitude of Protestant Writers even English Bishops have made that evident enough against the Pope which you call a Querk general Councils have condemned Popes as Hereticks and Infidels and yet they have ordained more 2. If it were otherwise yet all your Answer would only prove that we must sometimes take them for Bishops who were none when the Nullity is secret but not that they are Bishops indeed or have Authority It is one thing to
to leave God unworshipped Publickly and our People untaught and set Satan raign and Souls perish by Thousands for fear of saving them without Episcopal Ordination If you still say that we should be of your Mind and be ordained by Bishops we again say our judgments are not at our Command we cannot believe what we list I know multitudes of Anti-Episcopal Men that study as faithfully and seek God's Direction as heartily as any of you all and yet cannot see the Justness of your Cause though whether it be just or not I purposely forbear to pass my Censure if still you say it is our Wilfulness or Peevishness I leave you as Usurpers of God's Prerogative and pretending to that Knowledge of our Hearts which is a step above the Papal Arrogation of Infallability Nay seeing I have gone so far I will add this do you not imitate the Papists in the main Point of Recusansy by which we were wont to know them in England Nay we had many Church Papists that went not so far must not you as they have People disclaim our Ministry and Assemblies and not join in them for fear of owning unordained Men. Be not too angry with us I pray you if we call not such Protestants or at least if we take it for impossible to have Concord with them 2. I must also tell you that are offended at my Saying that those particular Bishops named deserved to be cast out that if you be one that dare own them in their Ways or would have the Church have such as they yea that do not detest and lament their Miscarriages seem to your self as Pious as you will you are no Man for our Company and Concord Do you complain of me for want of Christian Charity and yet would you have the Church have such Bishops as would cast out such Men as Aims Parker Baines Bradshaw Dod Hildersham with Multitudes of as painful able Godly Men as the World knew and leave so many drunken reading Sots some thereabouts Faggot Makers or Rope Makers many that did and that lately whether we will or not till the late Act get their Living by unlawful Marriages and such Courses as is a Shame to Mention yea would you have Bishops that would do as your Bishop Wren Pierce and the others did whose Accusations are upon Record For my part I think such Mens destroying the Church was the cause of all our wars and Misery and he that dare own them in it after all this is no Man for our Association I love no Man the worse for being for Bishops but for being for such Bishops and such Practices I do They are yet alive enquire what Men Mr. Dance and Mr. Turner are who were the Teachers of this Parish and what the People were then and what they are now Grant but Piety Love and Concord to be better than Ignorance and Debauchery and then judge of them Except to Sect. 22. Page 64. Speaking of Episcopal Divines he saith and if Liberty of Sects and Separations be publickly granted and confirmed to all you shall soon find that the Party that I am now dealing with will soon by their Numbers obscure all other Parties that now trouble our Peace ibid. pag. 64. n. 13. Reply to Sect. 22. It was my necessary care to distinguish between Protestant Bishops and Popish of Cassender's strain and it is your Care with all subtilty to obscure the Distinction that you may involve the honest Party in your Guilt and Snares That which I there spoke only of Popish Bishops and their Party you would intimate that I spake of the Episcopal Protestants then which nothing less is true as my Words fully shew I tell you plainly such Bishops as Usher Hall Morton Iewel c. are twenty fold nearer me in Judgment than they are to you if you be one of the Cassandrian Papists that there I speak against why then should they not sooner join with us than with you If ever God set up Episcopal Government where I live yea though I wer unsatisfied of its right I will obey them in all things not against the Word of God were it but for Peace and Unity Except to Sect. 23. They would have all the People take us for no Ministers c. and so all God's Worship be neglected in publick where no Bishops and their Missionaries are and so when all others are diseased or turned out the Papists may freely enter there being none but these few faithful Friends of their own to keep them out which how well they will do you may by these conjecture and n. 15. of the same Page But it is a higher Charge than Popery that these Episcopal Doctors that I now speak of are liable to c. Reply to Sect. 23. Is not this true How much of it do you plainly maintain in this Writing I had rather you had freed your selves of the Charge then called it Uncharitable Excep to Sect. 24. Pag. 66. N. 5. Speaking to those same Men he saith You must be certain that those same Men had Intentionem Ordinationis if you be right Papists indeed did ever any one ever hear and read any one single English Episcopal Doctor require Intention as necessary to Ordination If not call you that Speech of Mr. Baxter's Christian Charity Reply to Sect. 24. Remember this that no Protestants say Presbyters have no more Power than the Ordainer intended them You may see by that that I speak to Papists why then would you intimate that it was to Protestant Bishops Except to Sect. 25. Pag. 67. Do not these Mens Grounds leave it certain that Christ hath no true Church or Ministry or Ordinances or Baptized Christians in England nay in all the Western Church and perhaps not in the whole World and then see whether these Popish Divines must not prove Seekers Reply to Sect. 25. O that you would vindicate them from that Charge though heavy by proving the uninterrupted canonical Succession from the Apostles Except to Sect. 26. Pag. 47. Speaking of some under the Name of Episcopal Divines saith that they withdraw the People from obeying their Pastors by pretending a Necessity of Episcopacy c. and partly instil into them such Principles as may prepare them for flat Popery and yet in the next Page 48. saith that those same Men do themselves viz. Mr. Chisenhall against Vane Mr. Waterhouse for Learning Zealous Men for Episcopacy publish to the World what a pack of notorious ignorant silly Souls or wicked unclean Persons those are that are turned Papists How now can Mr. Baxter call those Men that so publish c. faithful Friends to Rome pag. 64. See how Uncharitableness betrays and accuses it self in its busy Accusations of others and must justify them per Force of Truth when it would condemn Reply to Sect 26. Why what is the Scope of this your Writing but to prove that we are not Pasters and would you not then draw the People from acknowledging us such
This is like the Man that swears he never swore in his Life you blame me with charging you with what you contend for 2. But you do with as little Candor as verity say that in the next Page it is those same Men that I speak of when I purposely and plainly call these Gentlemen of the Episcopal Protestant Party as distinct from the Cassandrian Papists and as helping us in the Discovery of the Danger But I perceive it is your Desire to make Men believe that I took them for all one But a good Cause needs to such a way of Defenceâ— Did you think that the learned Doctor to whom you wrote would believe you who had my Book at hand and could see that your Words were false And is it not strange that upon such a dishonest Foundation you can build such a triumphant Exclamation as follows See how Uncharitableness betrays and accuses it self c. Exception to Sect. 27. Pag. 50. n. 4. If these that I dispute with will shew themselves openly to be Papists and plead that Women or Lay-Men may baptize in case of Necessity c. See see his Magisterial canting crying out Popery upon whatever likes him not Doth he know whom he here condemns for Papists Yes he doth for he tells us pag. 81. that the 38th Canon Elibertint Concilii and he tells us right decrees that in case of necessity a Lay Man may baptize well an ancient Catholick Council held under the primitive pure Times whilst Persecution yet exercised the Church more ancient than the Council of Nice and whereof Magnus Osius Confessor was a part is peacht of Popery too together with us Enough of this I might add much more All this within the compass of twenty Leaves from pag. 45. to 85. Reply to Sect 27. All this but a meer Mistake whether willing or unwilling I never took this Point alone enough to denominate a Man a Papist but because it is a Point wherein the Papists generally hold one way and the Protestants another I take it to be a 〈◊〉 Discovery which side the forementioned Persons are of I durst not say that the Error of Purgatory or praying for the Dead or praying to Saints no â— nor Transubstantiation alone is sufficient to denominate a Man a Papist But yet I think if a Man would degrade our Ministers and unchurch our Churches and all the Reformed Churches that have not Bishops and maintain the Romish Ordination and Church and yet saythe is not a Papist your Addition of one of these would further the Discovery I am not ignorant that Tertullian and others speak of Lay Mens Baptizing in case of necessity but not for Women though Pamelius would pervert Tertullian's Words for that End Except to Sect. 28. To give you a Taste when he quotes Fathers as he quoted above the 80th Canon Apostotical to eject our Bishops So also when he would prove that the ancient Church held it lawful for Ministers to impose Hands for the confirming of Parties haptised pag. 58. for Proof of what he saith he pretends to but Two Authors viz. Ambrose in Ephes. 4. and Augustin quoest ex vet novo Testam mixt both certainly spurious Pieces and the latter the Work of an Heretick Reply to Sect. 28. You go the farther the worse I quoted Bishop Downame as one of the Episcopal Protestants to shew that it is their Judgment that Ministers ordained without Bishops may be true Ministers Now because the Bishop brings these two Testimonies on the by about Confirmation and Reconciliation of Penitents you do in my Judgment not well 1. Feign me to be the Speaker of those Words and the Alledger of those Authors when it was a Bishop and his Words go cited because a Bishop 2. You make me to do it in order to prove the Power of Ministers to impose Hands on the Confirmed and Reconciled when even Bishop Downame brought in that and these Testimonies thereto but as subservient to the others But perhaps I left you some occasion of this mistake to charge me with the Words of the Bishop No none at all I enclosed his Words with this Mark and after I wrote so far Bishop Downame that there might be no place for such an Oversight But where you talk of but two Authors for this I thought you had known how easy it is to bring more For if it be the Ceremony of Imposing Hands that you would deny to the Presbyters it was so far from being denied theâ—â— anciently that even the English Bishops allowed it them in Ordination which is the greater If you mena the Power of Confirming and Reconciling it 's known the Bishops might delegate Presbyters to it and the Corepiscopi used it yea Presbyters I think in some Cases And for Reconciliation Bishop Usher tells you in the Words I cited that even Deacons used it or had it Yet is not the Testimony of those Authors contemptible that ascribed to Ambrose is taken by Erasmus to be Remigius or Anselme by Maldonate to be Remigius by Brugensis and Bellarmine to be Hillarius Diaconus And well might Downame alledge them against the Papists when Bellarmine the Rhemists Alan and others so esteem them and quote them as Ambrose when it serves their turns And for the Book of Quest. in vet nov Test. 1. The Papists citing it Bellarmine Harding Turrian Eckius Cope Rhemists c. Downame might well cite it ad Hominem yea ad Rem it being matter of Fact that he speaks to and the Author so ancient that Hierome seems to take notice of him Except to Sect. 29. In all this you see I have not disputed the Case with him but only discovered to you his manner for that he himself professes he is resolved in this Book to forbear the Dispute p. 79. princip pag. 77. he would give us to understand that he hath much more behind that he can say by way of Argument for this is only crying out Popery Popish c. for Presbyters Power of Governing Excommunicating ordaining without a Bishop Let him be intreated to do it and lay aside his poor kind of calumniating his Adversary and deal Christianly by Arguments only and he shall soon be answered I believe For the present he may know his Papers prevail not but only provoke those he writes against Reply to Sect. 29. It 's strange that to call a Papist a Papist should be accounted Calumniation I profess to speak of none but Cassandrian Papists I name none They that are not such have no reason to say that I calumniate them when I professedly accept and and honour and seek Reconciliation with them They that are such methinks should not be ashamed of it It 's an ill Religion which a Man must be asham'd of and an ill Profession that is ashamed of a true Religion 2. That my Papers prevail not but provoke is no wonder 1. The Papists I expected to provoke by discovering their Designs and attempted not
to prevail with them 2. The Protestants whom I spoke to may be prevailed with for ought you know All be not of one Spirit If they be not I have Confort in following Peace as far as I could which they will never find in flying from it While every Man must be a Pope and reduce all the World to his infallible Judgment as the only means to Peace and will agree with none but Men of his own Principles no wonder if Pacificatory Attempts are frustrate Duroeus Acontius Davenant Hall Melancthon c. found that better Labours than mine have been frustrate for Unity I bless God my Success is far more than ever I did expect but it is with the Sons of Peace Excep to Sect. 30. These things shall be defended against him through God's Grace 1. That if there be no Bishop in any Diocess yet in a National Church where many Bishops had united themselves to govern parts of one National Church they ought to have recourse to some neighbour Bishop 2. That if Presbyters in defect of Bishops might Ordain Excommunicate yet not one single Presbyter 3. That such as were never Ordained by Bishops where they might are none of of these Presbyters none at all Reply to Sect. 30. I am of as quarrelsom a Nature as others but yet I will not be provoked to turn a conciliatory Design into a Contention and if I would your Questions are ill fitted to our use 1. The First will necessarily carry us to dispute the Ius Divinum of Bishops which I purposely avoid and it should be after the last 2. The Secoônd if I yield it you is nothing against our Agreement 3. The Third I cannot dispute well till I know what you will yield in the excepted Case I would desire you as a more orderly and effectual way to our Ends to do these three Things 1. Tell me plainly whether you take the Reformed Churches of Holland France Scotland Helvetia Geneva c. for true organized Churches and their Pastors for true Pastors and Presbyters and Ordination by Presbyters to be valid in their Case 2. seeing you plainly seem to take an uninterrupted Succession of authoritative Ordination to be of flat Necessity to the being of the Ministry will you give us a clear Proof of such a Succession de Facto either to your self or any Man now living I earnestly intreat you deny me not this nor say it is needless I have told you the need of it in those Papers Again I pray you put it not off 3. Seeing you prosess to be for Concord and yet reject our Terms as a Schismatical Combination will you propound your own Terms the lowest condescending Terms which you can possibly yield to which may tend to our Closure If you only contend against our Way and will not find a better nor use any Endeavours of your own in its stead what Man of Reason will believe your Profession of the strong Inclination of the Heart to Concord and Peace I again intreat you instead of contending to perform these Three things which will exceedingly further the much desired Work And for my part though you and Millions of Men oppose it I am resolved by the Grace of God to desire pray and labour for Peace and the Unity of the Church upon Honest and Possible not Romish or Sinful Terms while I am Rich. Baxter Dec. 23. 1653. No. II. Mr. Johnson's First Letter to Mr. Baxter about the Point of Ordination SIR BEING very much unsatisfied in the reading of your late Discourse concerning the Interruption of the Succession of the Ministry I thought good to take Advantage from your own Offer friendly and freely to debate the Question with you And I shall lay out my Thoughts to you in this Method 1. I will give you the Reasons which makes me if it be Papistical to abet the Papists in pleading for an uninterrupted Succession 2. I will reply to your Arguments whereby you dispute the Succession of the Ministry of England to be interrupted 3. I will offer you some Reasons why an infallible Proof of the Point is not necessary in the Case 4. I will produce such Arguments as shall put it beyond doubting and so shall leave indubitable though not infallible Proof of the Question in your Hands 1. First I shall give you the Reasons why I plead so seriously for the uninterrupted Succession and I shall do this in the first place because all the rest will be Supervacaneous if it be a Matter of no great Consequence whether there be a Succession or not If therefore you can satisfy my Arguments whereby I plead for the Necessity and give me Reason enough to understand that an Uninterruption of the Succession is not much material I will save my self the Trouble of Confuting what you have said against it and you some Trouble of making a needless Repl. Now the first Reason which induceth me to believe that it is a matter of much more Cosequence than you talk of is the Seriousness of our Divines in their Endeavours to prove that the Bishops in Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth's Days were Ordained by Bishops against the Calumnies of Sanders Kellison Chalmney and other Jesuits who in their Writings would have bore the World in Hand that the Succession of the Ministry of England had been interrupted at the Reformation because there were none but Popish Bishops to Ordain them and they would not and so none did But as you know had devised a Story of the Nag's-Head Ordination Now you also know there hath been much Endeavour made by searching the Archiva at Lambeth to clear up the Ordination of our first Reformers that thereby they might invalidate the Papists Calumny of our Succession◠being interrupted But if Succession in Office for Succession in Doctrine I neither speak of neither did they plead for be a matter of so small a Consequence our learned Country-Men might have saved themselves much Labour and Trouble and in a few Words have told the Jesuits that an Uninterruption of Succession was a thing not worth pleading for But on the other side we see them acknowledge Succession in Office to be necessary and contend that there hath been no such Interruption in our Ministry II. The Second Argument which persuades me to believe that the pleading for a Succession is of great Moment is this viz. That without this I do not understand how we that are now Ministers can be said to have our Authority from Christ For we must have it from him either mediately or immediately But we cannot have it mediately from him if the Succession be interrupted for if we have it mediately from him we must have it by the Mediation of some Person who at length had it immediately from him But if the Succession be interrupted we cannot have it from any Person that had it immediately from him or his Apostles This is a kind of Contradiction in adjecto and therefore we cannot have it
that Power which they convey to others first in themselves to convey at least in ordinando pares but are only media applicandi legem ad personam Ad 3 um To your Third Argument I answer Invaders of the Ministerial Office may unjustly take Encouragement hence but no just Encouragement is given them The best things are Occasions of encouraging Men in Sin e. g. God's Mercifulness Christ's Satisfaction the Preaching of Free-Grace c. To your Question if this be sufficient why do we not give them the Right Hand of Fellowship I answer They despise or neglect God's Order and therefore deserve not the Hand of Fellowship If God bid them go and work in his Vineyard but for Order's sake go in at this Door he that will not go in at this Door is a disobedient Servant and not to be owned till he reform But if God himself do nail up this Door there needs no express Dispensation for our not going in at it for nemo tenetur ad impossibile nisi ipse sit Causa culpabilis impossibilitatis Nor is it necessary that it be expressed that we go in at another Door for the Command of going to labour in the Vineyard is not abrogated by the locking up of that Door seeing as it was opened non ut fiat opus directly sed ut sic fiat so it is nailed up non ne fiat sed ne sic fiat and therefore the Command requires us to go in at another If by Law every Physician that Practiceth in London must be approved by the Colledge he deserves to be punisht and not taken for a Physician that will profess and practice it without the Approbation of the Colledge and every wise Patient will fear least he be Conscious of such Unworthiness as that he dares not venture a Tryal or at the best he is a disobedient Subject But if the Colledge of Physicians be dead or dissolved any worthy Man may profess and practice without their Approbation and as the law of Nature binds him to do Good so the Obligation that limited him is ipso facto dissolved cessante materia where you say that this extream necessity is their Case I answer Nothing more untrue They slight and despise Ordination they may be ordained if they would submit themselves to tryal if they be found fit But they will not Their false Imaginations create no necessity but a necessity of laying them by and receiving the Truth which is imposed on them by God or if they will call it a Necessity that is imposed on them by their Error it is but a Necessity of not being ordained while they judge it sinful which yet is none because they are still bound to lay by that Conceit but not a Necessity of being Ministers in the mean time without it Besides that as it is a Necessity of Suspension 〈◊〉 Forbearance and not of Acting so it is themselves that are the culpable Cause 〈◊〉 it and exculpa propria nemini debetur commodum If Vaux think he must blow up the Parliament and Ravailliack that he must stab a King doth this necessitate them Such a Necessity as every wicked Man brings on himself of sinning by a Custom in Sin which aggravates and not excuseth his Fault which is evident when the Case is made plain by God and only their Negligence or sinful Prejudice hindereth them from Recovery out of their Error For the Grant that you desire I say I am loath to yield that Christ hath no known Ministry on Earth that I may keep out Invaders To your Case about Apostacy I answer There are many other Cases that may necessitate an Entrance into the Ministry without Ordination besides universal Apostacy 1. So great an Apostacy as was in the Arrian Prevalency 2. Such unlawful Ingredients as are in the Romish Ordination 3. The Death or the violent Proscription of the Ordainers in one Kingdom For if all that are found to work in the Vineyard to exercise the Ministry must but go to another Land for it Poverty Weakness Magistrates Prohibition may so restrain them that not one of a Hundred could enter when God doth by the Churches Necessity call to it Much less could all the World travail for Ordaination to some Corner of the Earth As for the Churches Officers which you mention that went along in Reformation it 's true of Presbyters they were the Leaders but so few Bishops out of England that the Reformed Churches were forced to go on without their Ordination But to this Day there is a necessity of Preaching without Ordination by legitimate Church Guides in many Parts of the World and I doubt not but it is the great Sin of many that it is neglected I suppose did you consider well but the Sence of the Law Natural and Supernaturally revealed you would not be so inclinable to turn Seeker nor to expect new Miracles Apostles or Revelations upon the Supposition you make and for all your Words if it came to the Practice I do not believe that you have so hard a Heart so unmerciful a Nature as to leave this one Nation much less all the World to that apparent danger of Everlasting Damnation and God's publick Worship to be utterly cast out if I can but prove that the Succession of Legitimate Church Ordination is interrupted Ad 4 um To your Fourth Argument I answer I am as far from believing Imposition of Hands essential to Ordination as any of the rest The Bishop that was last save one in this Diocess was so lame of the Gout that he could not move his Hand to ones Head and though his Chaplain did his best to help him yet I could not well tell whether I might call it Imposition of Hands when I saw it Yet I never heard any on that Ground suspect a nullity in his Ordination Nor do I think that a Bishop loseth all his Power of Ordination if he loss his Hands or the Motion of them 1. Imposition of Hands was an old Custom in a Superiors Act of Benediction or setting a part to Office and conveying Power and not newly instituted by Christ but continued as a well known Sign and therefore not of such Necessity as you imagin 2. The End will shew much the degree of Necessity If it be evident that the End was but the Solemnizing of the Work by a convenient Ceremony then it is not essential to Ordination or Authorizing But c. Ergo 3. God did not lay such a stress on Ceremonies no not under the Ceremonial Law no not on the great initiating Sign and Seal of Circumcision without which Men were entered and continued in his Church for Forty Years in the Wilderness Your Argument is Christ hath revealed to his Church that it is his Mind or Will that his Church's Officers be set apart by Imposition of Hands Ergo It followeth that Imposition of Hands is necessary and essential to their Seperation Answ. Negatur sequela It follows a praecepto only
Pinch upon his Cause would fain persuade us that this could yet be no Ordination till afterwards when he came in and submitted to the Solemnities Baron in An. 233. p. 407 408. we will not contend about the Word Ordination but it was an authoritative Consecration to God as a Bishop and a Constituting him over that Church by Prayer and solemn Words of Consecration And it seems Apollos and many others preached in the Apostles Days without Ordination But our Divines having dealt so much with the Papists on this Subject I suppose you may see more in their Writings than you can expect from Your Brother and Fellow Servant Rich. Baxter Sept. 9. 1653 Mr. Iohnson's Second Letter to Mr. Baxter SIR I Have here enclosed sent you back the Papers which I borrowed of you and I have been so scrupelous in sending them back exactly the same as they were first sent to you that I have not so much as mended some Errata which I observed in the Copying them over to have slipt my Pen when I wrote them first I have since I received my own Papers perused the Answer which you make to them but what I am like to return I cannot guess For I cannot yet tell whether you have satisfied my Arguments or not This I know and shall not be ashamed to confess that if you have I have not yet Wit enough to understand you But before I will say you have not I will a little more consider your Answer and try my own Reason a little farther Only this I will venture to say in the mean time that if I can any whit judge of my own Heart I never enquired more unbiassedly after any Truth than I do after this present Question and therefore I do not doubt but if Light be before me I shall at length see it though for the present it be hid from me For as I said if I know my own Heart I can sincerely say that in this Question I could be well content to find the Truth though it ran cross against every Line in my own Papers But I must needs confess if I have Truth on my side in this Question and after the most diligent Examination which I can make it shall still appear that to plead for an uninterrupted Succession be of absolute necessity for the justifying of our Ministry I shall never dispute the other Matters with the like indifferency For in this combat I could be content to take a foyl and it is in a manner all one to me whither of us get the better But in the other matters which I am after to proceed upon I have many temptations before me to be afraid of owning Truth if I should meet with her out of my own Quarters And therefore beside the Pains which it will cost me to discharge the Task the very Fear which I shall be in least I should miscarry in the Managing makes me more than willing to take a Supersedeas here But if this cannot be done you shall have the rest which I promised performed in the same order as your self have stipulated viz. before I make any Reply to yours I shall endeavour to discharge the three other Particulars which remain behind and all in due time from SIR Your Fellow-labourer and Enquirer after Truth M. Iohnson Wamborn Octob. 6. 1653. For my Reverend c. very worthy Friend Mr. Baxter Minister of the Word at Kidderminister These Mr. Johnson's Third Letter to Mr. Baxter SIR IN my late Letter which I sent you I told you That I could not resolve my self whether you had answered my Arguments or not but intended to try my own Reason a little farther before I would say positively that you had not And now upon further Consideration I return you this to your whole Discourse 1. Whereas you say to my first Argument that it was necessary for our English Bishops to prove an interrupted Succession against the Papists because they might thereby argue ad hominem more strongly against them I answer That such learned Men as I have had the luck to meet withal do not intend their Arguments or their Pains to any such end and I prove that sufficiently thus Because they that do use such kind of Replies do usually frame their Answers thus 1. That there is no necessity of such a Succession But Secondly If there was a necessity yet the nullity of our Calling would not follow because we can prove such a Succession But say I the learned Authors which I have hitherto met withal have no such Concessions And because you seem often to hint some such thing I desire you would point me out to some English Bishop who having written about this Subject do concede that a Succession in Office or a Succession of legitimate Ordination is not necessary And I do the more confidently require this from you because I have it from one who is much better acquainted with Authors than my self that the Socinian Faction were the first that ever owned that Assertion And if he be able to make good what he saith you gain as little Credit by abetting such a Faction as they are in your Assertions as we get by abetting the Papists while we plead for the quite contrary But Secondly Whereas you deny the Consequence and tell me that all which they thought necessiary is not necessary they being not infallible I answer that you lay more stress upon my first Argument than I intended For I never intended to argue thus That therefore it was infallably necessary because they thought it necessary but that it was a good inducing Motive to persuade that it was a matter of more consequence than your Papers made of it since learned Men took so much Pains about it And though this indeed will not extend to a Demonstration yet it may serve as far as I intended it viz. as far as an Argument will reach drawn only from that inartificial Topick a Testimonio which you know in all contests is familiarly used and not to be rejected if the Testees be Men of Worth and Learning And if so then this Argument will stand good so far as it will serve or was intended notwithstanding any thing that hath been said to the Contrary To the Second Argument Whereas you doubt not to say That if you answer me well in this you carry the whole Cause afore you I shall so far gratify you as to acknowledge that you have sufficiently answered it though I must also profess that I cannot find wherein you have given a formal answer to it For the Apex or the Quick of the Argument as you are pleased to phrase it was laid down in this Proposition That there is no where in Scripture such a Form of Words as these That they that are thus and thus qualified may Preach the Word Now to this you answer That there is quod sensum And I reply That this will serve my turn if you do but make it
either take it upon himself or the People may be the Judges to call him out to it or the Magistrate either Then they have the same Authority which we must have if the Succession be interrupted and the Door of the Vineyard nailed up by Providence and so their Authority seems built upon your own Principles Now to all this if you say that it is their Error to be Anabaptists and it is their Error to Judge the visible Ministry of England to be no Church-Offices and that it is their Duty to quit themselves of these Errors that they may be in a Capacity to receive Ordinations and the Presbytery in a Capacity to Ordain them as you do in effect say To this I answer that I think as well as you that these are their Errors and that these Errors ought to be laid aside But yet this being said doth not absolve them from the case of extream Necessity which I speak of An erroneous Conscience binding as strongly as a sound and an Error appearing Truth lays as great a Necessity upon the Party to frame his Practise to it as Truth And so the Necessity becomes still as importunate Methinks this Answer which you give may be made â—y Papists to us Protestants and by the Episcopal Party to you Presbyteries when we tell the Papists that we dare not take Orders from them or the Presbyterian tells the Episcopacy that they dare not take Orders from them How easily may the Papists say to us it is our Error how seriously may the Episcopal say to the Presbyterian it is your Error You create Impossibilities and Necessities upon your selves by your erronious Consciences But if we Protestants cannot reject that Necessity which lies upon us of refusing Orders from the Papists or if the Presbyterian cannot reject the Impossibility that lies before them of taking Orders from the Prelates whilst their Conciences tells them they may not Why may not the Sectary upon as good Ground and as justifiable Principles refuse Orders from the Presbyterian and plead as strongly a moral Impossibility and a nailing up the Vineyards Door by Providence whilst their Consciences tells them they may not and so baulking those that we call Church Officers enter as regularly into the Ministry or at least as inconfutably as any other Men if the Succession be interrupted And therefore I cannot think that you have answered this Argument except the two first Lines contains it where you say That the best things may be made use of as Occasions to encourage Men in Sin c. because I think that there is much Truth in that and that the Inconvenience which this Argument hath hanged upon that Assertion is but incommodum per accidens which may be fastened upon most of the Truths of God I supersede likewise in that Answer to my third Argument As for my Fourth Argument I confess it was frivolously urged to the present Question and I have wondered at my self how I came to hoole it in under the present Debate and therefore I will return you nothing to what you have said against it But giving you many Thanks for that Help which you have held out to my Understanding towards that weighty Question of justifying the Calling of the Ministry I beseech the Almighty long continue your Life to the Advantage of his Church And this done without further Ceremony I bid you farewell and rest Your Fellow Labourer in the Gospel of Christâ— M. Johnson Wamborne Nov. 9. 1653. For my Reverend c. very worthy Friend Mr. Baxter Minister of the Word at Kidderminister These Mr. Baxter's Second Letter to Mr. Johnson Reverend Brother I Know not whether I am more glad of your Satisfaction or sorrowful that you will needs supercede the Task which you undertook I confess it is a Labour which I apprehend would be useful to me many ways but a strong Conceit of the Impossibility of performing it did slack my Desires But now you tantalize me expressing here a higher Confidence of the Feaseableness of your Work than before in your defying all the World on the contrary So that I must again renew my suit to you that you would perform that Work and prove de facto an uninterrupted Succession I profess it is for my own Edification that I desire it and if you suspect whether it be to cavil or enter a Quarrel with you mistake me Such a Discovery would dispatch several Difficulties with me in several Controversies As for your Animadversions last sent I shall reply to the substance of them in brief 1. The First I conceive little worth the insisting on because first you confess it is but a Motive to induce you to think there is weight in the Point 2. Because if there were any thing in it the contrary Judgments of all the Learned Divines of France Belgia upper Germany Helvetia Denmark Sweeden Scotland Transilvania Hungary with a great part of the English who are against the necessity of an uninterrupted Succession is as strong a motive to an unprejudiced Man as is the Judgment of the Bishops of England alone But 2. It is a known Case past all doubt that the English Bishops opposed the Papists in this Point till of later Years and to name you more what need I when you know I named you so many in my Book To all which add That even the late exasperated Episcopal Divines whereof some have been suspected of halting do yet confess the Truth of the Reformed Churches and Ministry that have no Bishops as doth Dr. Fern Dr. Stewart's Answer to Fountain's Letter Bishop Bromhall against Militerius who yet would have the Pope to be principium Unitatis to all the Church I do not think you can find one of twenty that wrote against the Papists before the late King's Reign or the Treaty of the Spanish Match but were all against the Papists in this Point of the necessity of uninterrupted Succession if they medled with the Point Ad 2 um The Reason why you saw not a Formal Answer in my Words I conceive was your Oversight you took no notice of the Force of my Answer You required this Proposition to be proved from Scripture They that are thus and thus qualified may preach the Word I told you it is contained in this which is in Scripture Men thus and thus qualified shall be appointed to preach the Word Here you overlook the Strength of my Answer which is in the Word shall and you not only obscure the Emphasis but change the Word and put may for shall Here is contained a Precept comprehensive both of the Preacher's Work and the Ordainers conjunctly Now all my Business was to shew you that as in this there are more Precepts than one so that secundum materiam subjectam they have not the same Degree of Obligation and that though God do lay down together his Law both de re de modo of the Work and the Order of entring on it yet that the
you so far as Christ appeareth in them let them have your special Love The Despondencies you mention are unreasonable Will you conclude you cannot suffer before you are called to Suffering Deny the Baits of fleshly Pleasure vain Glory and worldly Gain and live sincerely to God in your Prosperity and I dare say you may boldly expect his confirming sustaining Grace if he call you to Adversity I had almost said that with most Men it requireth greater Grace to overcome the Temptations of Prosperity and to contemn a flattering World for Christ than to die for him At least the one will prove you possessed with his Spirit and an Heir of Promise as well as the other And therefore the Spirit and Promise that enable you now to live to God would enable you to die for him if he required it Look you to your present Work and trust God for Strength for what he calls you to If my Advice be worth your regard it 's this 1. That you do as you have done offer Communion to other Churches but forbear yet a while to join your self as a Member to any 2. That if you like the Proposals I shall send and Mr. Goodwin like them you both with him do signifie so much and I will take some course that they may be the Introduction to a more general Agreement 3. And that at the time when we publish such Agreement you and your Fellow-labourer join in publishing your Reasons for Catholick Communion For I thank him he hath communicated his and yours set together will give much Evidence in the Cause But I must a little while crave your Patience before I send my Papers by reason of a Crowd of pressing Businesses But the Sweetness of the work will draw me from all wilful Delays Your Brother also I perceive is not yet ready for my Proposals I rest Your unworthy Fellow Servant Rich. Baxter To Mr. Lambe Jan. 22. 1658. Numb IV. Letters and Papers between Mr. Baxter and Mr. Allen. Dear Brother I Bless the Lord for the great Consolation I had in the perusal of your Papers All the Motions and Operations of Holy Love are lovely That is the way of God hat is the way of Love and that to be much suspected that quencheth it What is so much predicated through all the Gospel Above all other ways what a mellow sweetness doth the way of Love communicate to all the Duties and Conversings of those that are abounding in this Grace And it is the Manhood and Maturity of Christianity The Infancy of the Law had less of it than the full Age of the Gospel And young Christians usually are like young Fruit austere and unpleasant whom Age and Holy Experience must mellow by the growth of Love produced by the Sun-shine of Heavenly Love I had thought to have presently returned you my Answer to your Reasons about Infant Baptism but when I had read your other Papers I could not find in my Heart least Disputing should in any Measure abate in the Love that God was kindling Yet shortly if I can find the least leisure I shall give you a few Words to them if God will when that which hath a shew of contending will be more seasonable Your Arguments for Communion are very weighty My next Work to these Ends shall be to persuade some godly Ministers that differ from you to a more charitable Iudgment and walking towards them of your Opinion and if I live so long to persuade our Parliament Men against excessive Rigour and Bitterness against them Do you do the like with those of your way If Love reign in us it must command our Tongues to plead its Cause and to endeavour the promoting of it in the World And when Love shall Reign among the Nations the Lord shall Reign in a way of Love And this is the way to those glorious Times that some expect by other Ways And as the abounding of Iniquity and the cooling of Love are coupled by Christ as Cause and Effect so will the abounding of Love and the decay of Iniquity be conjoined The God of Love carry on this blessed Work in our frozen Souls and in all the Churches by keeping us under the Light of his Countenance and the the Sunshine of his most glorious Love I remain Your Brother Rich. Baxter To Mr. William Allen. Jan. 7. 1658. The Case of Separation Quest. 1. WHether Particular Churches be of Divine Institution Answ. Yea that is Christians associated for Personal Communion in Doctrine Worship and Discipline under the same Pastors one or more are a Church of Divine Institution Proved Act. 14. 23. Titus 1. 5. 1 Tim. Phil. 1. 1 2. 1 Thes. 5. 16 17. Heb. 15. 17. 24. and many other Texts Quest. 2. Whether the Parish Assemblies are such Answ. Parish-Assemblies are not of one sort some are not such that is Parish Assemblies which deny the Essentials of Christianity and are Hereticks or deny Church Essentials or that have no Pastors or such as want some Essentials of the Office as visible to Man's Judgment But Parish Assemblies are true particular Churches who profess the Essentials of Christianity and of Churches and have Pastors who visibly want not any thing essential to their Office though otherwise faulty 2. Churches are called true 1. In point of Essence as aforesaid 2. In point of Soundness and Integrity as a sick Man or a maimed Man or a Thief is a true Man in Essence but not in Soundness in Integrity and Honesty The Parish Churches as constituted by our Laws Articles Ordination and Canons are true Churches as to Essence but not without some Wants and Diseases that need a cure 3. Churches may be called True 1. In their Constitutions Or 2. In their Administration Ours in England as afore described are true in their Constitution But in the Administration some are excellent some are laudable some are tolerable and perhaps some have Ministers intolerable as the Parsons differ 4. The Society called the Church of England hath Pastors of several Minds most I hope hold all that is Essential to Christianity Ministry and Communion But some late Innovators and Corruptors seem to deny somewhat Essential to particular Churches and Ministry but these impeach no Mens Ministry but their own against these I wrote in my Treaties of Episcopacy 5. Distinguish between the Office as instituted by Christ and owned by the Church of England and the Exercise of the Office as restrained and hindred by Canons and by Laws the Parish Ministers and Churches are true Ministers and Churches as described by Ordination and the Church Doctrine but many Canons and some Laws dolefully fetter them and hinder the Exercise of their Office on pretence of governing them but neither do nor can destroy the Essence of the Office it self The Ministers have all essential Qualifications and the Consent of the People though not the first Choice and the People are professed Christians 6. A Parish and a Parish-Church are not
the same all are not of the Church that are in the Parish there are three sorts of the Parish 1. Communicants and those are the Church 2. Meer Hearers and Catechical Persons and these are Candidates 3. Aliens Atheists Infidels and Papists Hereticks Men of no Church or other Churches Parish-Churches as combined parts of a Christian Kingdom or National Church thus distinguished from Aliens Auditors and not only tolerated but orderly combined maintained encouraged are the most regular Churches agreeable to Scripture Reason and Antiquity Quest. 3. Suppose the Parish-Churches should be no true Churches is it destructive to particular Churches to join with the Parish-Assemblies Answ. No who can dream that Families and Neighbours and occasional Meetings may not Worship God or that such Worship destroys Churches Did Corâ—lius's Meeting Acts 18. or those Acts 12. 12. or these that Acts 20. prayed at an Oratory nor the Water destroy the Church 2. Occasion Communicants are not bound to try the Call of the Ministers where they come and have no Vote but to take them according to visible Profession and Possession and if the Ministers should prove uncalled the Loss would be to themselves and not to the Faithful that are blameless and have right to the Childrens Bread though a Iudas or a Pharisee distribute it But the Separatists Object that pretended Churches which are not true are worse than occasional Assemblies that pretend it not Answ. 1. whether they are worse or better is nothing to this Question of destroying Churches 2. The liker they are to true Churches the liker they are to be better than those that are unlike them 3. The Officiating of a true Minister may make that a true temporary Church which is not a constant setled Church 4. It is far liker that many separating Congregations will prove no true lawful Churches for want of true Ministers and other Causes and yet it will not follow that all that join with them destroy true Churches for some under Government may do it blamelesly and they that do it sinfully may yet own true Churches every Sin destroys not other Churches 5. It is a Duty for Members of a Church to get what good they can by all Christians whether they be regular Churches or not Quest. 4. Suppose the Parish-Assemblies to be particular Churches are the Corruptions in them so great as that we must separate from them or would it not be Schism so to do Answ. There are many sorts of Separation It is Schism to call them no true Churches of Christ or such as it is not lawful to hold Communion with and to separate on that account and this I have oft proved in Print so fully that I must not now repeat it But there are many Occasions which may warrant and necessitate a meer local Separation as I have fully proved in many Treatises as if any Sin be imposed and Communion denied to those that will not Sin those Men do not separate but are driven out by Separatists or Tyrants and must not give over all Church Worship of God because Tyrants forbid it them Many other Instances of lawful local Separation I have published which I cannot find any have confuted no nor denyed Quest. 5. Whether there are not in congregational Churches such things which are not plainly instituted in Scripture Answ. Congregational is a sorry Word as here used in distinction from Parish-Churches Parish-Churches are Congregational they consist of Pastors and Christian Communicants joined for Personal Communion and Independents and Separatists much differ many Independants are against Separation the old Nonconformists both Presbyterians and Independants were judged the Parish-Churches that had tolerable Ministers to be true Churches and Independents greatly differ among themselves some are sound in the Faith and some are unfound some are for Infant Church-Membership and Covenant Grace and some against it some are for self-made Covenants and Terms of Church-entrance and Communion and for the Peoples Power of the Keys and against Ordination and many other Errors which others do renounce And remember it is one thing to be Independants by Agreement as Neighbour Churches and another thing to be dependant as Subjects on governing Churches And it is one thing to be Independant on equal Neighbour Churches and another thing to be independant on a superior Ministry The Churches of Rome Corinth Galatia Ephesus and the rest were independant on each other as to Government but they were dependant on the Apostles and Evangelists Paul Barnabas Luke Mark Silas Timothy Titus and Apollos c. as to Oversight and dependant on other Churches as Fellow-members of the same Universal Body as the Members of our Bodies are 3. I know no Churches to happy as to have nothing that is not particularly yea or generally instituted in Scripture yea and that obtruded on the People O! when will God make them wiser some Independant Ministers and Churches have Catholick Charitable Uniting Principles But the separating part who are they that have so many and great Defects and Faults as I have in my former Writing enumerated and need not here again recite but advise you impartially to review them Quest. 6. Whether every Person who doth join with such a Church doth not become as guilty of the Sin of such a Church as those do that join with the Church of England Answ. This Question intimateth that you know not what the Church of England is It is nothing but a Christian Kingdom consisting of a Christian supreme Power and combined Christians and Churches governed by that Power it is not Liturgies nor Ceremonies that essentiate the Church of England Orthodox Godly Presbyterians and Independants who deny not a Christian Kingdom of Christian Churches though differing in many thing are all parts of the true Church of England But I suppose you mean the Conformists which are but a part 2. One is guilty of the Faults of the Conformists by their bare Presence and Communion who do not consent to those Faults and if bare Presence signified Consent we must avoid Communion with all Churches on Earth for who are Sinless And all must avoid us and how shall we avoid our selves who sin in all we do 3. But when People causelesly separate and unchurch other Churches far â—ounder than their own and falsely accuse them yea and almost all Christ's Churches these Fifteen Hsndred Years as those now called Separatists usually do I think your ordinary joining with such when you may have sounder Communion is a sinful Encouragement of them in their Schism justly leaveth you under the Imputation of Schism and requireth great Humiliation and Reformation being greater than some great private Sins as publick Cases are more important than private but I am loath to say all that I judge true against the present separating Way lest I be mistaken as if I would render them odious or be against the necessary Toleration of the Week I have truly told the World near Forty Years ago that I am past
such Churches as Corinth Gallatia Ephesus Smyrna Sardis Laodicea c. defiled with odious Crimes and Errors though God command them to reform IV. Because hereby they tempt Men to infidelity when they hear that Christ hath no greater a Body and Church than they with which Men may lawfully communicate and rob him of almost his Kingdom V. By false accusing the Prayers of almost all Christ's Church and renouncing Communion with them they forfeit their Interest in the Benefit of their Prayers and of the Communion of Saints VI. Who but Satan would have all the People of England and all Nations to live without any publick Church-worship till they can have better than such as is in our Parish-Churches as if none were better VII With whom would these Men have held Communion if they had lived in any Age till two hundred Years ago when as far as ever I could find there was not one Congregation of Christians or Hereticks in all the World that was against Forms of Worship or Bishops or all Ceremonies let them name one if they can what then will they say to the Question Where was your new Church before the two last Ages Had Christ no Church for One Thousand Two Hundred Years in all the World that a Christian ought to join with in local Communion Did Christ disown them all and yet was he their Head and they his Body Or are these Men as much stricter than Christ as the Pharisees were about his Converse and the Sabbath VIII They condemn themselves by their own Practice while some of them cry down Communion with imposed Forms of Liturgy they sing Psalms imposed by the Pastor or Clerk which are the chief part of imposed Liturgies They sing them in new Versions Metre and Tunes different from the Apostles Churches and yet better for us They use imposed Translations of the Scripture The Pastor imposeth his Words of Prayer as a Forme which the People â—â—st all join with This is but a different Mode of Liturgies IX Charity or Christian Love and Unity are the great vital Graces of the Christian Church And oh how wofully do these Men violate and destroy it when as is said they renounce Communion for a Thousand or Twelve Hundred Years at least with all known Churches on Earth as unlawful in point of local Presence 2. They bind all Christians that will hear them to do the like to this Day to almost all the Churches on Earth 3. Their Principles and Reasons make it sinful to have Communicated with the Reformers the Waldenses Wickliffe Luther Melancthon Zwinglius Calvin Bucer and the rest 4. And they condemn Communion with the Martyrs both under Heathens and of later Times who made or valued and used Liturgies 5. They condemn local Communion with all the late and former holy excellent Bishops and Conformists such as Archbishops Parker Grindall Abbot Usher c. Bishops Hall Morton Pilkinton Downame Davenant and many such All that glorious Tribe of Conformists Preston Sibbs Bolton Whately Crook Io. Downame Stoughton c. Oh how great a Number and how excellent almost matchless Men Almost all the late Westminster Assembly 6. And all the excellent old Nonconformists that were against Separation Dearing Greenham Perkins Bayn Reignolds Dod Hieldersham Bradshaw Ball and Multitudes of such of greatest Piety and Parts 7. All or near all the Reformed Churches 8. All the meer Independants that were against their Separation such as Dr. Tho. Goodwin aforesaid and many of his Mind 9. Yea they condemn the Old Brownists who Printed their Profession of Communion with many Parish-Churches and with Liturgies 10. And they utterly condemn all local Communion with the meer Nonconformists of this Age who offered Terms of Concord in Liturgy and Episcopacy 1661. None of all these are good enough for these Men especially their Women and Lads to have any present Communion with Do they know how little radical Difference there is between saying as Persecutors All these are Hereticks and as Separatists All these are unworthy of Christian Communion Yea the Pope rejecteth Communion but with two or three parts of the Christian World and these Men renounce local Communion with almost all Is this the way of Love and Unity in the Body of Christ X. Is Provoking Excommunicating them the way to reconcile the Publick Ministers and Churches Or is this a time to join with the Enemies of the Protestant Religion to draw all the People to forsake them That so the Reformation here may have only private Toleration as we have till some Disorder is said to forfeit it the King promiseth to defend them and shall separating Protestants pull them down XI The Weakness of these Mens Judgments and Dealings bring all the Nonconformists into Contempt and Scorn with Multitudes of undistinguishing Men as if we were all of the same Temper and hardeneth Thousands in hatred to them all and maketh them long to be persecuting us again and keepeth them from repenting of the Evil they have done Offence must come but woe to them by whom it cometh XII God hath most expresly decided this Controversy in Scripture and these Men seeming Adherents to Scripture cannot see it Rom. 14. and 15. and 16. 17. Ioh. 17. 22 24. Phil. 2. Eph. 4. In a Word in all those Texts that plead for Church Unity and Love and all those that speak of the sinfulness of Schism and that a kingdom divided cannot stand and all those that condemn Dividers and all that command mutual forbearance c. Do you think that receive one another as Christ received us even them that are weak in Faith it self doth mean no more than do not silence them or imprison or murder them No doubt but it meaneth receive them to Church-Communion XIII What a great Sin is unjust silencing worthy Preachers And do not these Men endeavour to silence more thousands than the Act of Uniformity or Bishops did when they tell all that it 's a Sin to hear them XIV If it be unlawful to join with others that are no worse than they it must be unlawful to join with them If I be guily of all that is said or done amiss in the parish-Parish-Churches I shall be more guilty if I join with the Separatists I am not desirous to accuse any but to cover their Faults as far as I can But I cannot resolve your Question without telling you that I take their Church-State to be so far different from the Rule and in many Respects worse than the Parish-Churches as that to join with them as fixed covenanted Members will be a state of Sin 1. Scripture-fixed Ministers or Elders were all ordained by superior general Pastors either alone or with Presbyteries So are not theirs if by any at all 2. Scripture-flocks were ruled by their Pastors Heb. 13. 7 17 24. 1 Thes. 5. 13 14. 1 Pet. 5. 1 Tim. 3 c. But many of their Flocks are the Rulers of themselves and Pastors 3. Scripture particular Churches
and perswading all the Families House by House they saw the Body of Town and Parish in love with serious Religion they told me they had been undone if I had followed their Counsel William Allen who with Mr. Lamb were Pastors of an Anabaptist Arminian Church first separated from the Parish-Churches and next from the Independents was turned from Independency much by seeing being our Kidderminster Factor that Parish-Churches may be made as holy as separated ones and the People not left by lazy Separatists to the Devil So that this Experience made him and his Companion more against Independency than I am 11. They abuse the People in indulging them in works that they were never called to nor are capable of nor can give any comfortable account of to God that is To be the Judges of Persons admitted to Communion and of Mens Repentance and Fitness for the Sacrament c. whenas God hath put this Power called The Church Keys into the Pastors and Rulers hands the not over-forced Men but Voluntiers Baptism is the true Churches Entrance and the Baptizer is the Judge of the Capacity of the Baptized no more but Consent to particular Church Relation and Duty is necessary to Membership of Neighbour Christians in particular Churches And nothing but proved nullifying the Baptismal Covenant by Heresie or Sin impenitently maintained or contained in doth forfeit their visible right to Communion And if the People must judge of all these they must have their Callings to examine every Person and they must grow wiser and abler then many of their Leaders are 12. Their Churches have among them no probable way of Concord but they are as a heap of Sand that upon every Commotion fall in pieces The Experience of it in Holland broke them to nothing And it so affected the Sober in New-England that in 1660. or 1661. Mr. Ash and I were fain to disswade Mr. Norton and Mr. Broadstreet whom they sent hither as Commissioners from inclining to our English Episcopacy foretelling them what was doing and we have seen so deeply were they afraid of being received by that Peoples uncurable Separation from their ablest Pastors whenever any earnest erroneous Teachers would seduce them Their Building wanteth Cement 13. God hath so wonderfully by his Providences disowned the way of Schism and Separation on how good pretences soever that I should be too like Pharaoh in hardness if I should despise his warnings For Instance 1. In the Apostles days all are condemned that separated from the setled Churches even when those Churches had many heinous Scandals and St. Paul saith That all they in Asia were turned from him The Authority and Miracles of the Apostles did not serve to keep Men from Separation and raising Schisms 2. Even when the Church lay under Heathen Persecutors for 294 years yet Swarms of Condemned Sects arose to so great a number as that the naming and confuting them filleth great Volumes to the great Reproach of the Christian Churches and Scandal of the Heathens 3. As soon as Constantine delivered the Churches from the Flames of cruel Persecution and set up Christians in Power and Wealth separating Sects grew greater than before each Party crying up their several Bishops and Teachers and grew worse by Divisions till thereby they tempted the Papal Clergy to unite Men carnally by force 4. At Luther's Reformation Swarms of Separatists arose in Germany Holland Poland c. to the great dishonour of the Protestant Cause 5. Here in England it hath been ill in Queen Elizabeth's time by the Familists and Separatists and far worse since It was such as Quarterman and Lilburn and other Separatists that drew Tumults and Crowds down to Westminster to draw the Parliament to go beyond their own Judgment and thereby divided the Parliament-men and drove away the King which was the beginning of our odious War It was the Separating Party that all over the Land set up Anti-Churches in the Towns that had able godly Ministers when they had nothing imposed on them to excuse it neither Bishops Liturgies nor Ceremonies So that Churches became like Cockpits or Fencing-Schools to draw asunder the Body of Christ. It was the Separating Party that got under Cromwell into the Army and became the common Scorners of a godly able Ministry by the Names of the Priest-byters the Driviners the Westminster-sinners the Dissembly-men as Malignant Drunkards did and worse It was these that thought Success had made them Rulers of the Land that caused the disbanding of all the Soldiers that disliked their Spirit and Way and then pull'd down first eleven and then the major part of the Parliament imprisoning and turning out Men of eminent Piety and Worth and making a Parliament of the minor part and their killing the King and afterward with scorn turning out that minor part that had done their work and to whom they had oft profest themselves Servants It was these Men that set up a Usurper that made a thing called a Parliament all of his and his Armies nomination If this should ever be imitated whom may we thank It was these Men that set up the Military Government of Major-Generals It was they that set up and pull'd down so many feigned Supream Powers in a few years as made themselves the Scorn of the World and by a dreadful warning of Divine Justice all their victorious Army and Power dropt in pieces like Sand as they would have used the Church and was dissolved without one Battle or drop of Blood save the after-Blood of their Leaders that were hang'd drawn and quarter'd by Parliament Sentence It is these Men and these doings that have hardened thousands against Reformation and turned all that was done for it O what did it cost and what raised hopes had many of the Success into Reproach quieted the Consciences of those that have thought they served God by silencing hating and persecuting those that they thought had been of this guilty Sect. In a word the spirit and way of causeless Separation whether by violent Prelatists Pursuits and Excommunications or by self-conceited Sectaries was never owned or blest by God If any say truly or falsly You have had a hand in some such thing your self I answer If I had I will hate it and write against it so much the more To thrust ones self into a way so disowned by God by such a course of fearful warnings is to run with Pharaoh into the Red-Sea especially when Impenitence so fixeth the guilt on them that cannot endure to hear of it as may make us fear that the worst 〈◊〉 behind and Sin and Judgments yet continue The Sum of what is said to you on the other side is that the Church of England and the Parish Churches have no true Ministry and therefore are no true Churches That they confess there is no Church without a Bishop and no Bishop below the Diocesan and so no Church below the Diocesan Church That those are no Scripture Bishops and Churches
in Scripture than that Baptism was appointed for our Entrance upon our State of Disciples in general And Ergo if a Man may be a visible Disciple without it where it seemeth most necessary then much more may he be admitted into a particular Church afterward without it when at least it is no more necessary and indeed much less and not at all save only as universal Church-Member this is pre-requisite to particular The Ministers of Christ Baptized 2000 without asking the Consent of any particular Church 2. They that are under both a Precept making the use of instituted Ordinances their Duty and a Promise of Acceptance in the Performance must perform these Duties with belief of their Acceptance But such are these that you account unbaptized Ergo That they are under a Command is plain All the Precepts for Christian Communion and not forsaking the assembling of our selves and obeying those that rule over us c. are made to the whole visible Church that hath Opportunity for such Communion you will not think that our Sin as you take it can except us from an Obligation to Duty But all the Question is whether such Duty will be accepted if performed by the unbaptized as you now suppose them and this you grant professing your self that you are out of doubt that we are very well accepted of God and you think that it is accounted for Baptism to us And if you yield both that we are bound to the Duty and shall have Acceptance in particular Church Communion what is it then besides the regularity that you deny Do you not grant the Cause in Hand And we have many Promises of Acceptance of Believers in their sincere Endeavours and all things are pure to the Pure And if involuntary unavoidable Mistakes shall hinder our Acceptance when we are sincere then we can never be sure that we are accepted 3. It is but visibility that is requisite in a Church or Member to make them capable of our Communion If it be a Communion of Christians as Christians or Saints as Saints that particular Churches are to hold withal that consent and are Members of their Churches then Christianity or visible Sanctity in such Consenters is all that is of Necessity to such Communion But the Antecedent is plain As it is as Christians that we must inwardly love one another so it is as Christians that we must manifest that Love in holy Communion Communion is the Demonstration of Love and all Men must know us to be Christ's Disciples by our loving one another and therefore if any Man be but a visible Christian it 's plain that he 's capable of your Communion if he cohabits and consent else it were not formalitur a Communion of Saints or Christians but of something else Now you confess that Men are visible Christians that are to you unbaptized 4. There is no such thing as a universal visible Church that is not to use Eucharistical Communion nor any parts of it that have opportunity Your similitude of Corporations in a Republick holds in some things but hath this dissimilitude that all Christ's Republick should consist of such Corporations except a Person that is a Merchant Traveller Embassador or by some extraordinary Necessity is denied Opportunity which Rarities are not here of Consideration And whereas in Republicks it may be as commodious for rural Villages to be not incorporate as for Cities to be incorporate and their Priviledges in their Nation may be as great and they are not obliged to incorporate none of this is so in our Case But every visible Christian not hindered by Necessity is bound to incorporate and charged not to forsake the Assemblies but all to join and speak the same things and Glorify God with one Mouth c. And he that is not a visible Christian hath no visible Right to our Christian Communion And he that is a visible Christian and depriveth himself of this Communion sinneth and wrongeth his own Soul and as it were out-laws himself and is not as you suppose in your Comparison of the not-incorporate But though in some Cases such may be saved as deny instituted Communion and Worship or neglect it yet they do so far put themselves into the State of those without 5. Your Opinion sets up a new kind of Church or Christian Assemblies and Communion of such as may only hear and Pray and not have Eucharistical Communion and be under Church-Guidance Shew us any such in Scripture if you can 6. Heathens or Infidels are called to a natural Worship of God Ergo visible Christians are called to more 7. Faith it self hath its Office formally by Institution though its aptitude thereto be in the Nature of the thing And if the Gospel it self be supernatural and our Christianity and Faith an instituted thing as well as Sacrament and Governors and so the universal visible Church an Institution as well as a particular then certainly want of Baptism will no more keep a visible Christian out of the particular instituted Church than out of the universal because as to the Point of Institution there is no such Reason as can make a Difference 8. The great and excellent part of Church Communion is that which you call natural Worship as performed by Believers in the loving God in Christ and admiring and magnifying his Love in the Riches of the Grace of Redemption and seeking with all Saints to comprehend it hearing his Counsels and Commands praying for his Grace and Glory and praising and magnifying him in Faith and Hope and Love with our Eye upon the second Coming of our Lord. And that which you call Instituted Order and Worship is but the means to this and without this but a Shell It is subservient to it And therefore 1. They that are capable of the greater are capable of the less Heathens are bound to meer natural Worship and their Hearing and Praying is another thing and Obligation and Capacity differ 2. They that must do the work must do it in God's way and by his means The great internal Worship is as the Soul and the external as the Body which are to be distinguished but not separated Must one sort of Christians have the Soul of holy Communion without the Body and carry the Knife naked while you deny them the Sheath 9. If a Member of the Universal visible Church as such is pro tempore to be admitted to Communion in all Ordinances with any particular Church where they come then these that you acknowledge such visible Members must by you be so admitted and so are capable of Communion in instituted Ordinances but the Antecedent is true beyond Dispute None of the Apostles were Members of particular Churches but were as Itinerants to do their work in many Countries so was it with abundance of Itinerant Preachers of those times called their Companions and Fellow Labourers and Helpers as Barnabas Luke Mark Silus Timothy Titus Epaphroditus Apollos c. When Paul came
a Nonconformist and is your Address to your self or do you take the Word Church there also equivocally and improperly If so you should have said so The Prelatists grant with Cyprian that ubi Episcopus ibi Ecclesia and with Ignatius that to every church there is one Bishop with his Presbyters c. No King no Kingdom no Master no School nor Family no Bishop no Church Therefore the Prelatists hold that we have no true proper Church below a Diocesan and that Parishes are not Churches but Chappels or parts of a Church and this is not the least part of our Nonconformity how hold that Parishes are or should be true Churches and not only parts of a Church in fini ordinis without any proper Bishop Tell me better I pray which side you here intend to take Quest. 4. Seeing p. 111. c. you very well plead for the Power of Kings in Determination of Parish-Bounds and Church Orders as under the Jewish Polity and the new way of the Conformists is so far contrary as that they hold that if a Bishop command one Time one Place one Translation Metre Ceremony Utensil c. and the King another that the Bishop is to be obeyed before the King because it belongs not to him but to the Church Is it the New Conformity in this that you are for or for the old and the Nonconformists who in this Agree Quest. 5. Some Words p. 124 125. move me to ask you whether such Anabaptists as you formerly taught and joined with or the ignorant irreligious vulgar as you then accounted them were the better People If the Religion of them that mind little of God or Life Eternal further than to join with the Church be the true State of Regeneration and Holiness were it not more worth your Labour to write a Book against that which now we take for Holiness seeking first God's Kingdom and Righteousness But if other Wise and Pious Sectaries be better than impious Churchmen were those times so much better than these as you describe them in which there was not one counted Religious e. g. from 1625. till 1637. for Three that I say not for Ten or Twenty that are now in most places that I have known Quest. 6. And I add hath not Scotland kept out Sects without our Conformity more effectually than Conformity here kept them out Quest. 7. P. 129. Had you nothing but Suspicion and Opinion to oppugn and must that be granted you and yet have lived so long where you live Quest. 8. Because you talk so much of Shism sinful in it self without ever telling us exactly how to know it I pray tell me if Mr. Sangar Dr. Manton and such others should say to these Parishioners we are in the Relations which we were truly and justly stated in and because the Magistrate hath given others the Parish-Churches and the Tythes you separate from us and come not to our Assemblies therefore you set up a sinful Schism as some did in the Churches of the Roman Empire who adhered to Pastors put in by the Emperors while the People adhered to their former Pastors How shall I answer them better than they do you Quest. 9. Your Question p. 157. moveth me to put you to think it over again whether you think indeed as your Words import if all the People of England these fourteen Years past had heard no Sermon but in the Parish-Churches and so had heard none of the 2000 Nonconformists or neer that were silenced even in all those Parishes where the reading of the Liturgy is the far best and likeliest means of the Peoples Good and in all those Parishes where not one of very many hath any Church to hear in I say do you think that there would have been more Persons truly converted and saved by this means If you think that all these 1800 or 2000 Mens Preaching hath done and doth more harm than good had it not been a directer way to have written to them to convince them of it that they might cease of which more anon Pag. 161. You say If instead of this each Christian of you had kept to Parochial Communion and each outed Minister had kept their Residence among them and Communion with them as private Members in the Parish way and had also in a private Capacity joined with those Ministers which have succeeded them in doing all the Good they could in the Parish as by a private Application and Improvement of the publick Labours of their Minister together with Catechizing and other personal Instruction and Exhortation privately administred to the several Families in the Parish c. Quest. 10. Will you do us the Favour as to answer first those Books that be written to prove our Obligation to Preach such as Ios. Allen's Call to Archippus and my Sacrilegious Dissertion c. was not that to have gone before such Advises as this If you say Dr. Fullwood hath done it I beg of you to tell me what Arguments of his you think have done it while he yields the contrary Quest. 11. Would you have all those Ministers take this course that must lye in the Common Goal if they come within five Miles of the Place can they do it in Newgate If you say that the Act of Consinement had not been made but for Conventicles we have Proof of that nor is the Occasion now any Remedy for the future Quest. 12. Do you not know that Conformists will not endure us in this private Diligence which you speak of I will give you in the end an Instance from the Parish where I live Quest. 13. Do you well know what sort of Ministers are in too many Parishes of England I will not imtate the Gloscester Cobler in gathering up their Faults but only ask you if for Instance Mr. Corbet that was turned out of Bromshut had stayed there where Mr. Hook the Patron hath often told me that their Preacher was formerly an Ale-seller and was so common a Drunkard that he would be drunk in the Pulpit could you have advised him to do nothing but apply this Man's Sermons as you say When I was young the first place I lived in had four Readers successively some Drunkards all my Masters the next place had in my time an old Reader that never preached as had most of the Churches round about us his Curates were successively three Readers of which one never Preached one Preached and was a Stage-Player another my Master also a common Drunkard never preached but once and then he was stark drunk when the Old Man's Eyesight failed that was the chief Incumbent he said Common-Prayer by rote and one Year a Day Labourer and another Year a Taylor read the Scriptures and we had no more What Mr. Dance and Mr. Turner were at Kidderminster and Mitton Chappel I suppose you know Quest. 14. Would you have those Ministers take the Course which you describe in the Parishes where the generality of the People must be
the Wants of distant Persons and Charity would have gathered but this It is their Supporters Judgment and their own that not the Loyterer but the Labourer is worthy of his Meat at least and that to cease Preaching till Mens necessity cease is a heinous Sin and a Man may forbear rewarding and encouraging heinous Sins without the Guilt that you seem to suspect Quest. 24. Why do you think that the Ministers do not do their best in private as well as in publick to those that will receive them◠Read Ios. Allen's Life enquire better in London whether Mr. Sangar Mr. Caughton Mr. Reed Mr. Doelittle Mr. Turner Dr. Anesly Mr. Vincent and such others do not labour as well in Private as in Publick for my part I am not now able must I therefore do nothing is it a Sin to speak to Two Thousand at once and a Duty to speak to them one by one doing that a whole Year which I can do in an Hour You say p. 205. you speak not to all alike but to all in their several measure you speak And you 'll say all Parishes be not so great nor all Ministers so bad as some in publick nor so unable c. I answer 1. Nor do we behave our selves in all places alike Not only I but other more eminent Ministers of London many go to the Parish-Churches especially in the Country and countenance honest publick Ministers to the utmost and communicate ordinarily with them And many Ministers in the Country do as you advise in living in great Love and Communion with the Parish-Ministers save that they cease not Preaching as you would have them and they gather not distinct Congregations but must the same course be taken in London where the Fire hath burnt the Churches and half and more of the People have no Churches to go to through the greatness of the Parishes Should such a famous City be Paganised by the Persuasions of Godly Men as for the promoting of Unity and Godliness If you say that most Ministers settle where the Churches are not full and not in the great Parishes I answer 1. That is because they are driven out of the great Parishes by force 2. And People cannot come out of the great Parishes to them where they are or else to the publick Churches the better when their Absence maketh room Pag. 182. You say If those formerly or more lately who desired some Alteration in the external Form of Administration used in our Church had not run so high as to assert things unlawful which by all their Mediums they could never prove to be so c. Quest. 25. Why then did not their Charity or yours shew the weakness of what we took for Proofs nor ever answer our three last large Writings given in to them Quest. 26. You truly contradict many Writings of the unanswerable Conformists who say that at Worcester House or in that Treaty we professed all that we opposed to be lawful and only inconvenient which of you shall the ignorant believe Quest. 27. Know you not how much is added since Will you join with them that build up a double Wall of Separation and will by no intreaty take down one Stone of it and then cry Schism and Separation Quest. 28. Did you ever see or hear our Reasons to prove that 〈◊〉 which we took for such If not how can you judge so peremptorily of them 〈◊〉 of of the eight Points that at the Savoy we undertook to prove great Sins and of 〈…〉 that I take for heinous Sins should I commit them which are now in my Thoughts I will only beg the Charity of your Arguments to prove 〈…〉 of these very few following least by the number I discourage you Quest. 1. How prove you it lawful to Assent and Consent to a doubled 〈◊〉 that Infants baptized and dying before actual Sin are saved not excepting any Infanfant of Pagan Turk or Atheist or Insidel Were you certain of this by Gods Word heretofore Are you certain now O then help us to certainty by your Proofs May not a Man be baptized that is not certain that the Gospel is true if he believe it so far as to venture Life and Soul and all upon it Quest. 2. How prove you that I may assent and consent that no Parent shall be Godfather for his Child nor enter him at all into God's Covenant by speaking one Word of Promise or undertaking nor saith the Canon may he be urged to be present but that the only covenanting Undertakers or Promisers shall be our God-fathers and Godmothers who perfideously promise what not one of thousands that adopt not the Child ever make any Man believe that they have any intention to perform and tempt Anabaptists to take us all to be unbaptized as not being covenanted for by any that had Authority to do it by God's Law Quest. 3. How prove you it lawful to Assent and Consent to deny Christendom to all Infants whose Parents will not have them dedicated to God by the Transient Image of the Cross or will not have such God-fathers the sole undertaking Covenanters but will openly enter their own Children into that Covenant them◠selves especially when the Liturgy saith 1. That these Infants are certainly and undoubtedly saved if baptized 2. And denyeth them Christian Burial if they dye unbaptized Prove that a Minister may Assent and Consent to deny them Christendom and certain Salvation because of this Judgment of Godly Parents Quest. 4. Prove it lawful to deny Christian Communion to all Christians that dare not receive Kneeling or that are Excommunicate for not paying the Fees of the Court or all that a lay-Chancellor using the Power of the Keys doth Excommunicate and to assent and consent so to do to the first at least Quest. 5. How prove you it lawful to assent and consent to deny Christian Communion to all that are not Confirmed by the Bishop or willing to be so though he were never so willing to own his Baptismal Covenant and do all that a Christian Man should do When the Reformed Churches have written so much against the necessity of such Confirmation Quest. 6. How to prove you it lawful to assent and consent that all the Atheists Infidels Hereticks and Wicked Men yea every individual Person in England except the Unbaptised Excommunicate and Self-murderers shall at their Burial be Ministerially pronounced Saved viz. That God of his Mercy hath taken unto himself the Soul of this our dear Brother out of the Miseries c. as you read And when we are stifled in a Goale our selves as Schismaticks unless a Man usually excommunicate us they will pronounce us saved Quest. 7. How prove you it lawful deliberately to publish your Assent and Consent to that little gross Falshood the Rule to find out Easter-day I will trouble you with none of the many greater things If you say that you mean not to justify all these and such like 1. Will not common Reason
think so by your Words do they not imply it 2. If you think our Nonconformity our Duty what meaneth your Address to us as such and your Counsels aforementioned and how cometh our Silence and forsaking the Preaching of the Gospel to be our Duty during the need of so many Thousand Souls As for unwarrantable Separation and Accusation of the Parish-Churches and Liturgy we are many of us as truly though not as far from them as you If what I have written displease you it will but tell you that I prefer Truth and Conscence and the Churches Good before my very dear and much valued Friends Opinion or Will and the Welfare and Peace of his own Soul before the pleasing of him I am past doubt that you do in Sincerity seek the same thing that I and others do that is the healing of a divided People and the Cure of those Distempers which have drawn many to sinful Separations Three sorts of Schism we disclaim as well as you 1. Making Factions and Parties in a Church to the Hindrance of Love Peace and Concord 2. Separating from a Church on the Account that its Communion is unlawful when it is not so 3. Much more separating from a Church as no Church and a Ministry as none when it is not so In none of these respects do we separate or divide from the Church or Churches that we should hold Communion with 1. We separate from the Catholick Church 2. Nor from the Church of England as accidentally headed by the King 3. Nor as a number of Churches associated for Concord 4. Nor as a meer Community part of the Church Universal 5. We separate not from the Parish-Churches that have true Pastors either as no Churches or as holding Communion with them in ordinary publick Worship to be simply or commonly sinful 6. Nor would we make any Division in the Churches by unjust contention but that there are Separatists that do so and deserve all your reproof and need all your Admonitions we doubt not But by overdoing the ordinary way of undoing I doubt you have lost your labour and much worse Not but that all of us have great cause to thank you if truly you do detect any guilt of ours as well as others but if you have done much to increase the Schism and made your self guilty of it you have crost your own end notwithstanding your good meaning 1. We are not for building up any Walls of Separation some Masters of Schism are 2. We think that no Humane Churches have power to abrogate the Priviledges or Duties of the Churches of Christ's own institution Some Schismaticks think otherwise 3. We hold that Christians should live in holy Love and Peace when tolerable Differences of Opinion placeth them in divers Congregations but some Schismaticks think otherwise and make such a peevish unreasonable noise against all that do not meet with them and subject themselves to them as that their Clamour is the scandal to the Infidels Atheists and Papists making them believe that we are mad or all in pieces when we differ but in little things and so they reproach the Frailty of Humane Nature and the common Imperfection of Believers with calumniating Censures and Accusations as if they were a greater evil than they are 4. We hold that Love and Tenderness and Self-denial should pardon honest Christians for choosing such Pastours as are really most serviceable to their Salvation and their own Experience find to be so rather than unsuitable Men to say no worse that are thrust on them against their wills and that other Ministers should be glad if they will live peaceably under others and profit by them though they choose not them but some turbulent Self-seekers are of another mind and way 5. We think as is said that the Parishes are or should be true Churches and we hold Communion with them as such but some Conformists un-Church them and make them but parts of a Church and hold no Communion with them otherwise 6. We go upon certain and plain grounds in determining what Schism is as the three sorts e. g. aforesaid but so do not many Schismaticks that yet cry down Schism 1. Some of them make it Schism not to obey the Pope as Universal Monarch 2. Some make it Schism not to be subject to a true Universal Council as the Collective Head of the Church when there neither was is or ever will be such a thing in the World much less the rightful Head of the Church 3. Some with Bishop Bromhall and his Advocates and others would have the Pope to be Principium Unitatis and Patriarch of the West and so it shall be Schism not thus to submit to him 4. Some as Mr. Thorndike would have these Councils and Canons to rule us for Concord which were till the time of Charles the Great 5. Some are for Concord on the reception of the four first Councils some of six some of eight Grotius of all well expounded 6. Some hold that its Schism to disobey the King's Church-Orders and to refuse any Bishop or Minister that the King or a Patron choose for us 7. Some hold that it's Schism to obey the King in the circa sacra as aforesaid in choice of Pastours Time Place Translation Meetre c. if the Bishops or Bishop be against it and command the contrary and that these must rather be obeyed 8. Shme hold that it's Schism to separate from a Parish Church as no Church others think it none 9. If the Archbishop command one thing and the Bishop another and the Parish Pastor another and a Parent another as when to Communicate and in what Gesture Habit c. they are not agreed what Disobedience here is the Schism 10. Some take it for Schism if a prohibited Minister speak to God in Prayee or to the People in teaching them in any words but what Bishop or Bishops write them down or if he obey not a Bishop never truly chosen by the Clergy or the People even in every commanded Form and Ceremony 11. Some think it Schism if we hold Communion with those whom a Laâ—-Chancellour Excommunicateth or if we deny our Communion to those that he absolveth yea if we publish not his Sentence as in the Bishop's name that perhaps never knew of it 12. Some say it is Schism if we preach in another Man's Parish be there never so great need without his consent 13. Some say it is Schism if we preach without the Bishops licence though we have the King 's or at least be Ordained even by the Bishops 14. Some say that if we be licenced it 's Schism to preach to above four in an unlicensed place 15. Some say if Person and Place be licenced it is Schism to preach without the Common Prayer 16. Some say that if the Bishop command us rebus sic slantibus to preach or meet only at midnight or twenty miles off or but once a month or if they forbid all God's
be sinful and hazarding our Souls c. We should never have stuck at Conformity to them And it is no small Number of Sins so heiâ—ous which we suppose since imposed that we dare not so much as name them least we displease you and make you say that we render the Conformists such heinous Sinners But I will alledge your Authority when any of us are next blamed for discovering the â—einous Sinfulness of Conformity as we yet believe it would be to us If you say that the Licensers would licence our Writings if we did it with Sobriety 1. You know that the Canon and Law is against it 2. I shall then in Justice challenge you to make it good and here promise you an account of my Nonconformtiy whenever you will procure it licensed 6. And which way got you so strong a Faith as to be past doubt that did we discover any sinfulness it would by Authority have been taken away Make this true yet after neer Two Thousand Ministers have been neer Sixteen Years ejected and silenced and many killed by Imprisonment and the People of the Land divided and distracted by the training Engines and you shall have the Honour of being the greatest healer of our Breaches that ever rose in the Days of my Remembrance But if it be not true III. The Third Passage is p. 69 70. throughout These are great things to be spoken so boldly 1. Do you suppose your Reader one that never read Church-History What Work the Bishops made for Arrianism for Nestorianism for the Eutychians and Aâ—â—phalites against Nazianzen Chrysostom c. for the Monothelites about the tria Capitula for Images against Emperors and Kings setting up the Pope and decreed the Deposition of all Princes that obey him not and making Loyalty to be Heresis Henriciana How the River Oronte at Antioch hath been coloured with the Blood and the Graves of the Monks and People that fought it out in the Streets for the several Bishops what work they made at the first Council at Constance the first and the second of Ephesus the Council at Calcedon and many another How many Ages they were and yet are the Army of the Pope to subdue Princes and Nations Truth and Justice and set up the Evil that now reigneth in the Christian World How even against the Popes Will they made the best King and Emperor Ludovicus Pius as a Pennance resign his Crown and Scepter on the Altar to a Rebel Son and sent him to Prison He that ever read but Baronius Binnius or other Episcopal History will pity you can you name one Presbyter for very many Bishops that have been the Heads or Fomenters of Heresie Schism or Rebellion and yet Presbyters were more in Number than Bishops Innumerable Bishops saith Binnius were in the Monothelite Council under â—hilipicuâ— Of all things that ever befel the Christian Church I scarce know any thing comparable in Shame and Mischievous Effects to the horrid perfideousness Contention Schism and Pride of Bishops Cursing one Year by Hundreds all that were of one Opinion and another Year all that were of the contrary as the times and Interest and Emperor changed And if Arius or Novatus Aerius and Donatus which are all you name were the Beginners of any Schism how many hundred Bishops were the Promoters of them all save that of Aerius against themselves And is it any honour to Episcopacy that Arius and Aerius an Arian were not Bishops when they were said to be Seekers of Bishopricks and to divide because they could not obtain them Sure they were Prelatical Presbyters what honour were it to Episcopacy that you are no Bishop if all these and such things were vended by you in hope of a Bishoprick or some Preferment I will never whilst I breathe trust a Presbyter that sets himself to get Preferment no more than I will trust a But did you know or did you not that as for Novatus and Novatian one of them was an ill-chosen Bishop of Rome and the other a Promoter of his Prelacy and that as for Donatus there were two of them one of them a Bishop and that the Donatists Schism was meerly and basely Prelatical even whether their Bishop or Cecilianus should carry it and that their Re-baptizing and Re-ordaining and Schism was because they took none to have power that had it not from their Bishop as being their right like our Re-ordainers And are these Instances to prove what you assert Were it not for entring upon an unpleasing and unprofitable Task I would ask you 1. Who that Iuncto of Presbyters was that dethroned the King was it they that petitioned and protested against it 2. Whether it was not an Episcopal Parliament forty to one if not an hundred that began the War against the King 3. Whether the General and Commanders of the Army twenty to one were not Conformists 4. Whether the Major Generals in the Countries were not almost all Episcopal Conformists The Earl of Stamford was over your Country 5. Whether the Admiral and Sea-Captains were not almost all Episcopal Conformists As Heylin distinguisheth them of Archbishop Abbots mind disliking Arminianism Monopolies c. 6. Whether the Archbishop of York were not the Parliaments Major General 7. Whether the Episcopal Gentry did not more of them take the Engagement and many Episcopal Ministers than the Presbyterians 8. Whether if this Parliament which made the Acts of Uniformity and Conventicles should quarrel with the King it would prove them to be Presbyterians and Nonconformists 9. Whether the Presbyterian Ministers of London and Lancashire did not write more against the Regicides and Usurpers and declare against them than all the Conformists or as much And the Long Parliament was forced and most of them cast out before the King could be destroyed And when they were restored it made way for his Restoration And Sir Thomas Allen Lord Mayor and the City of Londons inviting General Monk from the Rump into the City and joyning with him was the very Day that turned the Scales for the King But all these are Matters fitter for your better Consideration than our Debate I rest Your Servant Rich. Baxter Iuly 26. 1678. To Mr. Long of Exeter Numb VI. A Resolution of this Case What 's to be done when the Law of the Land commands Persons to go to their Parish-Church and Parents require to go to private Meetings Quest. THE Law of the Land commandeth me to go to the Publick Churches the Canon commandeth me to go to my own Parish-Church and not to another Parish Both forbid me to go to Conventicles and silenced Preachers My Father and Mother forbid me to go to the Publick Churches and command me to go constantly to a silenced Minister in Meetings forbidden by the Law But specially not to go to my Parish Priest saying he is an insufficient and drunken Railer but to a Neighbour Parish if I will not obey their first Command Am I now bound to obey my Parents
the Ruler of all Persons all Families all Pastors and Churches all Physicians School-masters c. that is to see all these do their own duty but not to take their Work from them upon himself not to take all Men from Self-government of their Tongues Passions Actions not to take on him the part of Parents Pastors c. And no Prince's Laws will acquit a Man before God from his Duty in any of these Relations while he is in them VI. God hath much conjoyned Interest and Duty No Man is so much concerned whether I be saved or damned as I am my self And therefore my own Choice and Self-government is first and chiefly to be used for the saving of my own Soul without which no Man else can save me Therefore I am more concerned than any Magistrate is to the Counsel and Conduct of what Pastor I commit my Soul and I have the nearest and first power in the Choice There is great Controversie in the World Whether Subjects have a Propriety in their Estates which is not at the will of Princes And it is commonly affirmed That Propriety is anticedent to Regiment which is but to order it for common good and not to destroy it But I had rather quit my Claim to Propriety in all my Worldly Estate than of my Salvation or the necessary means thereto If the Law commanded me but to use a Physician that I thought unskilful in my Disease and his Medicines pernicious I would choose a better if I could though the King and Laws forbad me and I would refuse the obtruded Physician and his Medicine so I would do if they commanded me to marry an utterly unsuitable Wife And I should judge that as these matters are more my Interest than theirs so they belong to my Self-governing power and not to their Civil Government And next my self while I am young my Parents being naturally indued with stronger love to me than Magistrates are the Choice in such Cases more belongeth to their power than to the Magistrates VII Accordingly it was for Seven hundred if not a Thousand years the currant Judgment of the Christian Churches that a Bishop must be set over a particular Church by the Election or Consent of all the Clergy and all the People and that he was no justly called Bishop that came not in by the common consent of the Flock This is not only proved in the ancientest Writers even Clemens ad Corinth and others commonly but by many Canons and even the Popes Decretals for many hundred years and the contrary is an undoubted Innovation VIII It is certain that neither Civil nor Ecclesiastical Rulers have their Power for destruction but for edification 2 Cor. 10. 8. and 13. 10. Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4. Even Parents that give life and being to their Children are justly destroyed if they destroy them It is no singularity of Mr. Humphrey that hath lately written That Laws against the Common Good bind not in Conscience to Obedience It is the Judgment of the greatest Casuists Greg. Sayrus Fragosus c. in whom you may see many others The terminus entereth the definition of relations It is not Authority Ius regendi which is not for the Ends of Government the Common Good The Magistrate may order the preaching of the Gospel and other means of Salvation but not forbid them and destroy them If he do this it is not by Authority received from God as Bishop Bilson afore-cited often sheweth and Bishop Andrews in Torturâ Torti I have more power from God to use needful means of my own Salvation than any Man hath to forbid me the using of them IX It is not another Man's saying That much preaching or praying is not needful to me that will make or prove it so or ex use me from it And there is so vast a difference between a found skilful and experienced sively Teacher and one that is ignorant heretical a meer artist dead or dull that readeth a Cento as a Boy saith his Lesson that no Man can make it my Duty to commit the Pastoral Care of my Soul to the latter when the former may be had without a greater hurt than the benefit will compensate Nor will other Mens Crosses Opinions or Appetite herein suffice to satisfie me against my Sense Reason and my own and other Mens Experience X. Yet a tolerable lâ—ss must be born rather than publick Order violated And seeing our Laws and Church-Canons allow any Man when he will to change his Bishop or Pastor or Congregation if he will but change his Dwelling the losses of this must rather be born than any greater real detriment to our Souls or to the Publick Good But Wives Children and some others cannot remove their Habitations XI An Infant or Child in minority in his Parents House as he is not to be supposed to understand the Laws so caeteris paribus he seemeth to me to be more obliged to hear the Teacher that his Parents choose for him than one that is chosen by the Magistrates As in his Diet and the choice of a Physician when he is sick so here The Magistrate is an Officer of Power Wisdom and Love but principally of Power The Pastor is an Officer of Power Wisdom and Love but eminenty of Wisdom The Parent is an Officer of Power Wisdom and Love but eminently of Love And the works of Love to his Children eminently belong to his Care and Government XII Yet when Children have the true use of Reason to discern what God and Man command them they must obey neither Parents not Princes against God XIII In the circa sacra or Circumstantials of Religion so much as should be commonly agreed on by all or most Churches for the Common Good the Prince by the Counsel of the Pastors is the Judge of and is to be obeyed before the Bishops unless he leave it only to the Pastors own Consent and then their Consent in Synods must be much regarded of which Grotius de Imperio Sum. Potest hath written excellently notwithstanding Bishop Brumhalls discommendation But in the Circumstances that are not to be universally agreed on but belong to the Pastoral Office to vary pro re natâ the present officiating Pastor is the Judge and to be followed XIV Rules are to be obeyed in all lawful things belonging to their Office to command but all lawful things belong not to their Office Whether I shall eat once or twice a day or once in two days what Meat I shall eat and how much what Hoâ—se I shall ride on what Wife I shall marry what Physician or Teacher I shall trust and what Medicine I shall take c. belongeth more to my self as is said XV. Intolerable Ministers justly forbidden to preach are bound to obey and the People forbidden to hear them should forbear But it no more follows that the Case is the same to all others than that a true Man may be hang'd because a Thief may If we
Cause against those ravening Wolves and strengthen all thy Servants whom they keep in Prison and Bondage Let not thy Long suffering be an occasion to increase their Tyranny or to discourage thy Children c. The Homilies have many Passages liable to hard Interpretations The use of none of these is Sedition XXIV From 1650. to 1660. I had Controversies by Manuscript with some great Doctors that took up with Dr. Hammond's and Petavius's new singular way of Pleading for Episcopacy which utterly betrayed it They held that in Scripture time all called Presbyters were Diocesan Bishops and that there was no such thing as our Subject Presbyters and yet that every Congregation had a Diocesan Bishop and that it was no Church that had not such a Bishop and that there are no more Churches than there are such Bishops And so when Diocesses were enlarged as ours the Parishes were no Churches for no Bishop had more than one And that Subject Presbyters are since made and are but Curates that have no more power than the Bishop pleaseth to give them Dr. Hammond in his Vindication saith That as far as he knoweth all that owned the same Cause with him against the Presbyterians were come to be of his mind herein And we know not of four Bishops then in England And the Et caetera Oath and Canons of 1640. and the Writers that nullified the Reformed Churches Ordination and Ministry and pleaded for a Forreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and for our Re-ordination all looking the same way I thought they knew the Judgment of the few remaining Bishops better than I did and sometime called it The Iudgment of the present Church here that is of these Church-men and the English Diocesans but proved that the Laws and Doctrine still owned as the Churches was contrary to them and took the Parishes for true Churches and the Incumbents true Pastors and the Diocesans to be over many Churches and not one alone whereas the Men that I gainsayed overthrew the whole Sacred Ministry among us and all our Churches as of Divine Institution for our Presbyters they say were not in Scripture times Our Parishes are no Churches for want of Bishops our Diocesans are no Successors of such Apostolick Men as were over many Churches ours having but one And they are not like those that they call the Scripture Diocesans for they say these Doctors had but single Assemblies These Men I confuted in my Treatise of Episcopacy and other Books But the Scribe or Printer omitting my Direction to put still The fore-described Prelacy and Church instead of The English Prelacy and Church I was put to number it with the Errata and give the Reader notice of it in the Preface and Title Page and have since vindicated the Church of England hereform XXV I hear the angry Protestant Recusants say It is just with God that he that hath done more than all others to draw Men to the Parish-Churches and hath these Thirty years been Reconciling us to the Papists in Doctrinals and is now called Bellarminus junior for his Arguments for Liturgies and Forms and in his Paraphrase hath so largely and earnestly pleaded for Charity to Papists as not Babylonish or Antichristian should be the first that should suffer by them and that for this very Book that so extraordinarily doth serve their Interest To which I say take heed of mis-expounding Providence that Errour hath cost England dear If I be put to doath by them I shall not repent of any of those Conciliatory Doctrines and Endeavours I have reviewed my Writings and am greatly satisfied that I suffer not for running into either Extream nor for any false Doctrine Rebellion Treason or gross Sin but that I have spent my Labour and Life against both Persecuting and causeless Separating And that I shall leave my Testimony against both to Posterity and for what could I more comfortably suffer It is by decrying their Persecution and Cruelty that I have angred the hurtful Papists and by confuting their gross undoubted Crimes more effectually than you do by the Name of Antichrist Babylon and the Whore And if their Cruelty on me should prove my Charge against them true I shall not be guilty of it Nor will their Sin abrogate God's great Law of Love even to Enemies and if it be possible as much as in you lyeth live peaceably with all men follow peace with all men blessed are the peace-makers c. The disorderly tumultuous Cries and Petitions of such ignorant Zealots for Extreams under the Name of Reformation and crying down all moderate Motions about Episcopacy and Liturgies and rushing fiercely into a War and young Lads and Apprentices and their like pricking forward Parliament Men had so great a part in our Sin and Misery from 1641. till 1660. as I must give warning to Posterity to avoid the like and love Moderation I repent that I no more discouraged ignorant Rashness in 1662. and 1663. but I repent not of any of my Motions for Peace XXVI I am sure that my Writings besides Humane Imperfection have no guilt of what they are accused unless other Men put their sense on my words and call it mine and say I meant the Rulers when I spake of Popish Interdicts Silencings and Persecutions And by that measure no Minister must speak against any Sin till he be sure that the Rulers are neither guilty nor defamed of it lest he be thought to mean them and so our Office is at an end If the Text and the general Corruption of the World lead me to speak against Fornication Perjury Calumny Lying Murder Cruelty or any Vice must I tell Men whom I mean by Name I mean all in the World that are guilty And why must my meaning be any more confined when I with the Text speak against Persecution and unjust Silencing the faithful Ministers of Christ while I say that Rulers may justly Silence all that forfeit their Commission and do more hurt than good XXVII Can any Man that hath read Church-History Fathers and Councils be ignorant how dolefully Satan hath corrupted and torn the Church by the Ambition and Tyranny of many Popes Patriarchs and Metropolitans while the humble fort of Bishops and Pastors have kept up the Life and Power of Christianity Or can any Man that maketh not Christ and his Church a meer Servant to Worldly Interest think that this should not by all true Christians be lamented Let such read Nazianzen's sad Description of the Bishops of his time in striving for the highest Seats and his wish that they were equal And the same wish of Isidore Pelusiota and the sharp Reproof hereof by Chrysostom Great Grotius expoundeth Matth. 24. 29. of the Powers of Heaven shaken thus It is the Christian Laity who after the Apostles times began to be marvellously shaken by the Tyranny of the Prelates who loved Pre-eminence and to Lord it oyer the Clergy by rash Excommunications and a daily increase of Schisms He that will
see the Examples of Tyranny and rash Excommunication let him read Iohn's Epistle to Diotrephes and the pious Admonitions of Irenaeus to Victor The Examples of Schisms we have in others not a few To which Optatus Melev prudently ascribeth three Causes Wrath Ambition and Covetousness But how many score Canons Interdicts and Bloody Wars do prove all this XXVIII And had not these Vices conquered Common Reason with Christianity in such men it were a Wonder that so unprofitable and causeless a thing as forcing all Christians to Unite on the profest Approbation and Practice of all the needless Things which such impose and denying them Communion and Peace on the Terms that Christ prescribed for all his Servants to own and love each other on should be thought a sufficient Justification of all that Dividing Cruelty of which it hath been guilty And that Church-Grandees should make such Schisms as are yet in East and West and then hate and persecute the Sufferers as Schismaticks Saith Grotius on Luke 6. 22. Scitum est Veterum Iudaeorum cujus Maimonidememinit siquis Innocentem à Communione arcuerit ipsum excidere jure Communionis And Dr. Stillingfleet on Archbishop Laud and before him Chillingworth conclude That if a Church deny Communion to her Members on those Terms that give them Right to Communion with the Church Universal that Church is guilty of the Schism Were it not more Christian-like easie and sweet to joyn all in the practice of the Laws of Christ by which we shall be judged with the needful use of edifying Order and Circumstances that all Sizes and Ages of Christians might live in Unity and Love than to cast out all that cannot Unite on Terms so far beyond meer Christianity as most Churches on Earth require When the Volume of Councils and Canons were unknown and plain Familiar Discipline was used in the open Church-Meetings Christians were less divided saith Grotius in Luc. 6. 22. Apud Christianos Veteres praesidente quidem Episcopo Senioribus sed Conscia Consentiente Fratrum multitudine morum judicia exercebantur If Christians be partial hear an impartial Heathen Ammianus Marcellinus who scandalized with the murder of Men kill'd in the Church for the Election of Pope Damasus concludeth how well it would have gone with Christianity if those great Roman Prelates had lived like the poor humble inferiour Bishops See his words But if Paul's full Decision on Romans 14. will not bring us to necessary forbearance no Plainness not Authority will serve Numb IX An Act for Concord by Reforming Parish Churches and Regulating Toleration of DISSENTERS I. THE Qualification requisite to Baptism in the Adult for themselves and in one Parent at least or Pro-Parents for Infants is Their understanding Consent to the Baptismal Covenant in which they are solemnly devoted to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as their God and Father Saviour and Sanctifier Renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil so far as they are adverse And the requisite Qualification of the Adult for proper Church Priviledges and Communion in the Lord's Supper is That they forsake not the said Covenant or Christianity but publickly own it not rendering their Profession invalid by any Doctrine or Practice inconsistent therewith And that they understandingly desire the said Communion II. The Christian Churches have universally taken the Creed the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments as delivered by Christ for the Summary of the Christian Belief Desire and Practice expounding the Matter of the Baptismal Covenant Therefore all Pastors shall Exhort all Housholders to learn themselves and teach their Families the words and meaning of the Baptismal Covenant and of the Creed Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments And shall also thus Catechize such themselves as need their help as far as they or their Assisstants can do it III. No Minister shall Baptize any Person Adult or Infant till the Adult for themselves and the Parent or Pro-Parent who undertaketh the Education of the Child as his own have there professed their Belief of the Christian Faith and their fore-described Consent to the Christian Covenant in which they are to be solemnly devoted to God And such they shall not refuse Nor shall the Pastors admit any to the proper Priviledges of Church Communion and partaking of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ but those who have made Profession that they resovedly stand to their Baptismal Covenant in the foresaid Belief of the Christian Faith and Desire and Obedience to Christ. Which Profession shall be made in the Church or to the Pastor before sufficient Witness or to the Diocesan or some other Pastor who shall give Testimonial of it And if any shall go from the Parish-Church Pastor to be Confirmed by the Bishop or received by any other Minister without the Certificate or Consent of his own Parish Pastor the said Pastor shall not be obliged to admit him to Communion till to him also before Witness he have made the said Profession IV. Because in great Parishes and Cities where Persons live unknown and as Lodgers are transient and too great a Number desire not Communion and many Communicate only with other Churches and it is needful for Order that all Pastors know their Communicating Flock from the rest the Pastor may for his memory keep a Register of the stated Communicants of his Parish and put out the Names of those that deny or remove or are lawfully Excommunicate or that wilfully forbear Communion above fix Months not rendering to the Pastor a Satisfactory Excuse But occasionally he ought not to refuse any Stranger who hath Testimony of his Communion with any other approved Christian Church V. If by the Pastor's knowledge or by just accusation or same any Communicant be strongly suspected of Atheism Infidelity or denying any Essential part of Christian Faith Hope or Practice or to live in any heinous Sin the Pastor shall send for him and enquire of the Truth and if he be proved Guilty gently instruct him and admonish him and skilfully labour to bring him to Repentance And if he prevail not shall again send for him and do the same before some Witnesses And if he yet prevail not or if he wilfully refuse to come or to answer him shall open his Case before the Church Vestry or Neighbour Pastors and if he be present there admonish him and pray for his Repentance And if yet he prevail not to bring him to the profession of serious Repentance he shall declare that he judgeth him a Person unmeet for Church Communion till he Repent and shall till then forbear to give him the Sacrament But when he professeth serious Repentance shall receive him But if after such oft Professions he continue in such heinous Sin he shall not again receive him till actual Amendment for a sufficient time to make valid his Profession VI. Ordination to the Priesthood shall be a valid License to Preach And every just Incumbent being the Pastor Overseer or
promoting serious Godliness and the Sword or Force used only by the Magistrate Dissent will turn to Love and Concord But if they may Suspend Silence or Excommunicate Arbitrarily or according to their present Canons which Excommunicate ipso facto all Men Magistrates Ministers and People who do but affirm that the Book of Common Prayer containeth any thing repugnant to the Scriptures or that there is any thing unlawful to be Subscribed in the Thirty nine Articles or Ceremonies or that there is any thing repugnant to the Word of God in the Church Government by Archbishops Bishops Deans Arch-Deacons and THE REST THAT BEAR OFFICE IN THE SAME without excepting so much as Lay-Chancellor's use of the Keys And if Men Excommunicate must as continuing such be undone and laid in Prison we must be content with our Peace with God and Conscience and good Men and that we did our best for more and mourn under the calamitous Effects of the Publick Enemies of Peace whom the God of Peace will shortly judge To the Right Worshipful Sir E. H. SIR THE Healing of Christians endangered as we are by our own Diseases is one of the greatest Works in this World and therefore not to be marred by haste or for want of due Consultation and Advice Three ways are now pleaded for among us Of which two are Extreams and much of our Disease I. One is by the forcing Prelates who would have all forced to full Conformity to their Canons and other Impositions and none endured be they never so wise or godly or peaceable who think any thing in them to be sinful This way was long tried heretofore and these last Twenty years it hath shewed us what it will effect The Shepherds have been smitten and the Flocks scattered about Two thousand godly Ministers Silenced adjudged to lye in Jail with Rogues and to utter Ruine by paying Twenty and Forty pound a Sermon c. The People hereby imbittered against the Prelates and alienated from their Party as malignant Persecutors and as Gnelphes and Gibelines all in discontent and dangerous contention and on both sides growing worse and worse And is this the only healing way II. The other Extream is those that are too far alienated into unlawful Separations whose talk is earnest against that which is called a Comprehension that is such a Reformation of the Parish Churches as may there unite the main Body of the faithful Ministers And they had rather the things which we cannot there consent to were continued unreformed that so the best People might be still alinated from them and driven all into their Tolerated Churches Concerning this way I offer to your Consideration 1. Is it the part of good Men thus to be guilty of that which themselves account intolerable Sin and that in many Hundred thousands desiring it might not be reformed and this on pretence of promoting Godliness when once their Leaders drew it up as a Fundamental That he that alloweth others in known sin cannot be saved 2. It is certain that there is no way so orderly and advantageous to the common Interest of Christianity as Reformed Parish Churches 3. The most of the People that most need the Ministry will come to the Parish Churches and will grow worse and worse if they have not faithful Teachers and we shall please a few good People till they are worn out and for want of a serious believing converting Ministry a Generation of ignorant Malignants will succeed them And we shall come short of the main end of the Ministry 4. So many good and scrupulous People will leave the Parish Churches as will set the Nation or rather London in an even balance and increase the envy of the other part and one side will talk more contemptuously of the Parish Churches and the Parish Pulpits will daily ring with Reproach against them so that the Common People who will be in the Parish Churches will increase their hatred against the Tolerated and they will live in a mutual and wordy War 5. The violent Prelatists will by this have their ends and will triumph over them in these Confusions and say Did not we tell you what would be the Effect of Alteration and Toleration 6. When it is intended that this be but the Introduction of a better Settlement the next Attempt will by this be disabled and they will say You see that they are never satisfied but are still changing and know not where to rest 7. The next Parliament having Experience of these Confusions will recall and and abrogate all their Tolerations These things are easily foreseen And you that were One of the Eleven excluded Members know what such Hands have formerly done III. The middle true way therefore is Parochial Reformation This is necessary in it self This is consistent with the Interest of those that justly desire Toleration In a well constituted Christian Nation tolerated Churches should be but as Houses of Charity Zenodochia Hospitals for the Aged Weak Lame Blind and Sick It is consistent with the just Episcopal Interest and indeed is its most necessary support for want of which a Succession of godly Adversaries will be against it to the end Let us have Christ's true Doctrine Worship and Church-Communion and let General Bishops over us keep their Baronies Lordships Wealth and Honour And we will be responsible to them or any Rulers for our Mal-Administration But let them have no Power as Bishops but of the Church-Keys Et valeat quantumvalere perest Let them teach and reprove us and if they do injuriously pronounce us Excommunicate we will bear it But keep the Sword only in the hand of Magistrates and be not the Lictors of Anathematizers and Horners by your Writs de Excommunicato capiendo The Truth is Civil and Church Government will be well done if we knew how to get still good Men to use it And the chief Point of Political Wisdom is to secure a Succession of such Men. Give us but such Diocesans as Grindal Iewel Usher c. and let them be but Pastors and not armed with the Sword and who will expect that they should hurt us If Kings that choose Bishops and Patrons that choose Incumbents should be always certainly wise and holy Men and lovers of all such they would choose us such But if they be not and Christ tells you how hardly the Rich are saved they will mostly choose such as are of their mind or as Favourites obtrude and bad Bishops and Priests are the mortal Disease of the Church And if I tell King and Patrons that the Clergy and Communicants should have a Consenting or Dissenting Vote and so the Door should have three Locks the Consent of the Ordainers Communicants and Magistrates I cannot hope that they should regard me But I will repeat what Mr. Thorndike saith a Man as far as most from the Nonconformists Treatise of Forbearance It is to no purpose to talk of Reformation in the Church unto Regular Government without
the Quality of the Pastors 4. That no Pastors be forced upon the Flocks against their Consent the Church Governors being the Approvers and Ordainers and fit means being used to procure their Consent though meer Teachers may be forced on the Ignorant Heretical and obstinate that are unmeet for Church-Communion 5. That the Teachers of the Parishes may be urged to catechise the People and personally in due time and Place to confer with them all and instruct them in the Matters of Salvation and all the People may be urged to submit thereunto 6. That before any Person 's baptized in infancy be admitted among the adult Members of the Church to their holy Communion and Priviledges they make an open Profession of Faith and Holiness such as shall be approved by the Pastor of that particular Church who is responsible if he deny Approbation unjustly The solemnity of Confirmation we leave to the Wisdom of Church-Governors 7. That we may have Liberty in the Temples to assemble for God's Worship and may have no new Worship and Ordinances or symbolical mystical Ceremonies enforced on us against our Consciences And that such as dare not use the Cross Surplice or kneeling in the Act of Receiving may not be Penalties be forced to them nor therefore denied the Exercise of the Ministry or the Communion of the Church and those that Scruple the English Common Prayer-Book may have leave to exercise their Ministry without it at least that they may be allowed the use of a Liturgy to be drawn up in Scripture Words and approved by a Synod and besides that freely to pray according to the variety of Occasions and Subjects which they preach of they being responsible to their Governors for all that they say and do amiss 8. That the Pastors of each Parish-Church may have Liberty to hear Accusations of Hereby or Scandal and to admonish the Offenders publickly that hear not private Admonition to call them openly to Repent and confess their Sin and promise Reformation to absolve the Penitent and reject the Impenitent requiring the People to avoid them But yet if you require that no Pastor should proceed to the publick admonishing and rejecting any but upon the Judgment of the next Synod and their President we submit unless which God forbid they should defend Heresy and Wickedness and prohibit Discipline 9. That the Neighbour-Pastors associating for Union and Communion may hold monthly Synods in every Market-Town having a President stated for Life unless he prove unfit And that the Pastors of the Particular Churches be here responsible for their Doctrine and Practice if any shall accuse them And that Cases about Publick Confirmation Admonitions or Censures excepted from the Power of the Pastors of the particular Churches of that Association may be here decided But yet that the President and Synod may not be forced to undertake the special Charge of all the Souls of each Congregation as it belongeth to the several Pastors 10. That every Quarter and oftner if the President see cause there may be a Synod of all the Pastors of each County or Diocesses if that may not be granted who also shall have a stated President the Name we leave to you who shall maintain a more general Communion and without destroying the Power of the particular Pastors or lesser Synods shall receive Appeals and take Cognizance of such Cases as are proper to them And that no President of greater or lesser Synods shall ordain suspend deprive or excommunicate any Pastor or Deacon without the Consent of the Synod and the Presence of some of them nor censure the Members of any particular Church without the Consent of the Synod or of the Pastor of that Church And that all Presidents be freely chosen by the Synods where they must preside 11. That National Councils may consist of the Presidents of both the Diocesane and inferior Synods or else of the Diocesane and two out of each County freely chosen by the Major Vote of all the Pastors 12. That no Subscription be required of the Pastors to any thing about Religion but to the Holy Scriptures and the ancient Creeds and to the necessary Articles of Faith and Practice exprest in Scripture Terms and to the Renunciation of all Heresies contrary thereto And that in the Matter of the Divine Right of Prelacy or Synodical Government or Ceremonies it may suffice that we are responsible for any Disobedience and be not forced to subscribe our Approbation they being not Articles of Faith but Points of Practice and if you see Cause to restrain Men from Preaching against any other controverted Opinions they may not be forced to approve them 13. That no Pastor be displaced unless for Insufficieney Negligence or Scandal committed within two Years before the Accusation or unless some able Godly faithful Pastor prove a better Title to the Place 14. Lastly That Persons Excommunicate may not be punished eo Nomine because Excommunicate by corporal Punishments unless it be by disfranchising that they be uncapable of Government or of choosing Governors seeing the same Men are also obnoxious to the Laws of the Land for such Crimes as the Laws condemn notwithstanding their Excommunication On these Terms we may hold a Christian Concord without any Danger of Persecution or Breach of Charity or Peace if the Magistrate should think meet to settle Episcopacy as we may on the forementioned Terms while the present Liberty continueth Iuly 1659. Dr. Hammond's Answer 1. WHAT concerns private Christians in their own Families will I suppose easily be granted care being taken that nothing contrary to known Laws be attempted under Pretence of convening for Christian Advantages 2. What concerns the Rectors of each Parish in the Discharge of the Duty by Law committed to them there can be no doubt of What is more required to be intrusted to them being now by Law in the Bishops cannot be removed without changing the Law which must be left to the Law-Makers upon due Consideration of Ancient Primitive Practice and what may probably most tend to Edification 3. What concerns the Observation of Ceremonies by Minister or People by Law established must be done by Tolleration or Exemption from Punishments allowed to tender Consciences with care had also to Uniformity 4. The Nomination of Persons to Offices in the Church must have respect to to the lawful right of Patrons unless by Law some Change be thought expedient to be introduced herein 5. If the Presidents of inferior Synods are to have Episcopal Power in Confirmation Censures Ordination then this being the multiplying of Bishops must be referred to the Supreme Power to judge whether all things considered it be best or whether some larger Diocesses being divided some lesser may not remain as they are But if inferior Presidents be not vested with Episcopal Power but be in the Nature of our rural Deans or of Archdeacons the use of them and their Synods may be good with Subordination to Bishops and regulated
Presence and with the Advice and Assistance of his aforesaid Presbytery at the four set Times and Seasons appointed by the Church for that purpose 5. We will take care that Confirmation be rightly and solemnly performed by the Information and with the Advice of the Minister of the Place and as great diligence used for the Instruction and Reformation of notorious and scandalous Offenders as is possible towards which the Rubrick before the Communion hath prescribed very wholesom Rules 6. No Bishop shall Exercise any Arbitrary Power or do or impose any thing upon the Clergy or the People but what is according to the known Laws of the Land 7. We are very glad to find that all with whom we have conferred do in their Judgments approve a Liturgy or Set-Form of Publick Worship to be lawful which in our Judgment for the preservation of Unity and Uniformity we conceive to be very necessary And though we do esteem the Liturgy of the Church of England contained in the Book of Common Prayer and by Law established to be the best we have seen and we believe that we have seen all that are extant and used in this part of the World and well know what Reverence most of the Reformed Churches or at least the most Learned Men in those Churches have for it Yet since we find some Exceptions made to many absolete words and other Expressions used therein which upon the Reformation and Improvement of the English Language may-well be altered we will appoint some Learned Divines of different Perswasions to review the same and to make such Alterations as shall be thought most necessary and some such Additional Prayers as shall be thought fit for emergent Occasions and the improvement of Devotion the using of which may be left to the Discretion of the Ministers In the mean time and till this be done we do heartily wish and desire that the Ministers in their several Churches because they dislike some Clauses and Expressions would not totally lay aside the use of the Book of Common Prayer but read those Parts against which there can be no Exception which would be the best Instance of declining those Marks of Distinction which we so much labour and desire to remove 8. Lastly Concerning Ceremoniesâ— which have administred so much Matter of Difference and Contention and which have been introduced by the Wisdom and Authority of the Church for Edification and the Improvement of Piety we shall say no more but that we have the more Esteem of all and Reverence for many of them by having been present in many of those Churches where they are most abolished or discountenanced and where we have observed so great and scandalous Indecency and to our Understanding so much absence of Devotion that we heartily wish that those pious Men who think the Church of England overburthened with Ceremonies had some little Experience and made some Observation in those Churches abroad which are most without them And we cannot but observe That those Pious and Learned Men with whom we have conferred upon this Argument and who are most solicitous for Indulgence of this kind are earnest for the same out of Compassion to the Weakness and Tenderness of the Conscience of their Brethren not that themselves who are very zealous for Order and Decency do in their Judgments believe the Practice of those particular Ceremonies which they except against to be in it self unlawful and it cannot be doubted but that as the Universal Church cannot introduce one Ceremony in the Worship of God that is contrary to God's Word expressed in the Scripture so every National Church with the approbation and consent of the Soveraign Power may and hath always introduced such particular Ceremonies as in that Conjuncture of Time are thought most proper for Edification and the necessary improvement of Piety and Devotion in the People though the necessary Practice thereof cannot be deduced from Scripture and that which before was and in it self is indifferent ceases to be indifferent after it is once established by Law And therefore our present Consideration and Work is to gratifie the private Consciences of those that are grieved with the use of some Ceremonies by indulging to and dispensing with their omitting those Ceremonies not utterly to abolish any which are established by Law if any are practised contrary to Law the same shall cease which would be unjust and of ill Example and to impose upon the Conscience of some and we believe much Superiour in Number and Quality for the Satisfaction of the Conscience of others which is otherwise provided for as it would not be reasonable that Men should expect that we should our self decline or enjoyn others to do so to receive the Blessed Sacrament upon our Knees which in our Conscience is the most humble most devout and most agreeable Posture for the holy Duty because some other Men upon Reasons best if not only known to themselves choose rather to do it Sitting or Standing We shall leave all Decisions and Determinations of that kind if they shall be thought necessary for a perfect and entire Unity and Uniformity throughout the Nation to the Advice of a National Synod which shall be duly called after a little time and a mutual Conversation between Persons of different Perswasions hath mollified those Distempers abated those Sharpnesses and extinguished those Jealousies which make Men unfit for those Consultations and upon such Advice we shall use our best endeavour that such Laws might be established as may best provide for the Peace of the Church and State 1. In the mean time out of Compassion and Compliance towards those who would forbear the Cross in Baptism we are content that no Man shall be compelled to use the same or suffer for not doing it But if any Parent desire to have his Child Christned according to the Form used and the Minister will not use the Sign it shall be lawful for the Parent to procure another â—Minister to do it And if the proper Minister shall refuse to omit that Ceremony of the Cross it shall be lawful for the Parent who would not have his Child so Baptized to procure another Minister to do it who will do it according to his Desire 2. No Man shall be compelled to bow at the Name of Jesus or suffer in any degree for not doing it without reproaching those who out of their Devotion continue that Ancient Ceremony of the Church 3. For the use of the Surplice which hath for so many Ages been thought a most decent Ornament for the Clergy in the Administration of Divine Service and is in truth of a different fashion in the Church of England from what is used in the Church of Rome we are contented that Men be left to their Liberty to do as they shall think sit without suffering in the least degree for the wearing or not wearing it provided that this Liberty do not extend to our own Chappel Cathedral or Collegiate
Authority yet upon four other grounds it is lawful to take up Arms against his Army 1. Because as Willius and other Politicians say the Majestas realis is in the People 2. Because some Lawyers say That the People of England have as Hooker and Bâ—lson calls them fore-prized Liberties which they may defend and the Parliament hath part of the Legislative Power by the Constitution of the Kingdom 3. Because the Law of Nature and Charity requireth the Defence of our Selves Posterity and Country 4. And because Scripture requireth the same They that will say That the Oath hath left all these Pleas or Evasions for Fighting against the King's Armies do make it utterly useless to the ends for which it was intended and make the Authors to have been strangely blinded 2. Note That he takes the Word Lawful to extend to all Laws of Nature Scripture or whatever And 3. That he takes these Words It is not Lawful to mean no more than I judge or think it is not Lawful As if all our Parliament Men with the Learned Bishops had not had Wit enough to have said so if they had meant so but said one thing and meant another 4. I confess I stick not much on the Fourth Quaere but its plain that the Subject named is capable of various Predicates yea of contrary and of taking Arms may be applied to an opertet a litet a factum est yea or a non licet though the licet I doubt not is their Sense 5. Note That the Answer to the Fifth is a meer putting off the Answer For the Question is Whether the Act of Parliament or the private Commission be more Authoritative And he answereth That which is Lawful which implieth that he was not willing to speak out 6. Note that he plainly concludeth that a Sheriff hath the King's Authority to resist by the Posse Comitatus the King 's Commissioned Officers that would hinder him from Executing the Decrees of a Court of Justice And doth not this either cross the intent of the Imposers or give up the whole Cause Doth it not grant that either it is lawful by the King's Authority given to the Sheriff by the Law c. for him by Arms to resist the King's Commissioners Or else that they be resisted as not Commissioned because their Commission is unlawful And what did the Parliament's Army desire more If a Sheriff by the Sentence of an inferiour Court may raise Arms against the King's Army as not Commissioned you will teach the Parliament to say That their Judgment is greater than an inferiour Court's 7. And it is possible That Commissions may be contrary of the same date who then can know which is the Traytor 8. The Seventh is a putting off the Answer like the Fifth 9. Note especially that of the Eighth Quaere which implyeth divers Instances of Cases in which Grotius Barclay Bilson c. say That it is Lawful to take Arms against the King he seemeth wholly to grant it and maketh it but like a Cavil to suppose that those Cases ever came into the Parliament's Thoughts And I am much in that of the good Man's Mind But if they will Swear me to an Universal while they forget particular Exceptions that will not make the Oath Lawful to me For 1. It is not certain to me That they would have excepted those things if they had remembred them 2. Much less can I tell which and how many things they would have excepted 3. And how could the wit of Man devise Words more exclusive of all Exceptions than to say It is not Lawful on any pretence whatsoever Are those in the Eighth Quaere no pretences whatsoever I dare not thus stretch my Conscience about an Oath when I know that the Authors were Learned Crasty willing to extend it far enough and Men that understood English and spake in a matter of their own Concernment and Employment Therefore by any pretence whatsoever I cannot think that they meant to exclude so many Pretences as the Eighth Case speaks of 10. Note also That he alloweth Parliaments Judges or private Men even by the King's Authority in his Laws to defend their Lives their Houses Estates Purses and Companions against such as are Commissioned to Surprize them Which is because he taketh such to be really no Commissions And so the Parliament and their Army would say in a Word That the King's Commissions to his Armies were no Commissions But this which the Lawyers wholly rest on I think in my Conscience was so contrary to the Imposers Sense that if it had been then mentioned they would have expresly put in some Words against it And if an illegal Commission be no Commission then there are not two sorts of Commissions one legal and the other illegal unless speaking Equivocally And this comes up to what Richard Hooker and the long Parliament said viz. That the King can do no wrong because if it be wrong it is not to be taken for the King's Act. 11. Note also That a Commission must be shewn if required and an illegal one is null And which of the Parliament's Souldiers ever saw the Commissions of those whom they Fought against Not one of many Thousands And was this think you the meaning of the Imposers of the Oath that it should be left to Men's Liberty to take an illegal Commission for none If this were declared who of all the Parliament's Army would not take this part of the Oath 12. To the Eleventh he answereth That the Oath is against altering Monarchy which none doubts of But whether the Power of Parliaments or Courts of Justice be included the good Man thought it not best to understand 13. He thinks that by Government is meant only the Species Monarchy and not the Person of the King as being sufficiently secured elsewhere whereas there is no such limitation in the Words but that he is to be esteemed a Changer of the Government who would depose the King and set up an Usurper 14. But if it do secure the King's Person as I think it doth and should do he thinks it extendeth not to the Persons of the Church-Governours because by Law they may be altered But 1. Here is no difference made in the Oath unless it be that the Government of the Church is put before that of the State 2. Therefore the Question is Whether this Oath be not contrary to those former Laws and do not settle the Bishops and Chancellors as fast as the King As to the plain Sense of the Words I find no difference And as to the meaning of the Law-makers it is hard otherwise to know it seeing they are of so many minds and various degrees of Capacity among themselves 15. And it is here confessed That the Clergy-Government is included yea and that the Oath meaneth the English Species and yet he thinketh that it prohibiteth not lawful Endeavours to make more Bishops and to take down Lay-Chancellors whereas 1. Chancellors are
the Governours for the greatest part 2. And as a Congregational Church doth specifically differ from a Diocess of 1000 or 600 Churches the former de fine being for Personal Communion in God's Worship and not the latter so therefore the Bishop of a Congregation must needs differ specifically from the Bishop of such a Diocess Therefore so to change were to change the Species of the Government as I am confident the Bishops themselves would say if the Question were put to them 16. By Endeavouring here he understandeth only unlawful endeavouring and not Petitioning or other lawful means whereas the Word in the Oath is absolute and unlimited And I cannot be so bold as to Swear not to endeavour and secretly mean except it be by petitioning or other lawful means for no sober Man will think that we may do it by unlawful means if he know them to be so And the old Et caetera Oath in 1640. the Antecessor of this had not consenting which could not be so limited And further it seems plain that this cannot be their Sense because it is equally applyed to both Governments in the Oath save that the Church-Government is put first And who dare say that this is the meaning as to the Government of the State I will not endeavour the deposing of the King or the change of Monarchy unless it be by lawful means Whereas the Oath seemeth to me that it is never to be done at all and no means is lawful for such an Aid And therefore we must so understand it as to the Diocesanes too if we will not Swear absolutely or universally and mean limitedly and particularly yea and limit and not limit the same Word as respecting the several Governments without any colour from the Terms 17. Lastly When the Oath Sweareth us not at any time to endeavour which is as plainly an Exclusive of Exceptions as to Time as can briefly be uttered he thinketh that by any time is meant any time except when the King shall command me the contrary or the Law shall change c. Now when so much violence must be used with the Words of such an Oath and when the Imposers will not after many Years knowledge of our Doubts and Difficulties make them any plainer and so when they are at the best to us so unintelligible and no Lawyer nor Parliament that we can speak with can resolve us but all the Answer we can get from the Parliament Men is You must understand it in the proper usual Sense of the Words And from the Lawyers An unlawful Commission is none and lawful Endeavours are not forbidden who can take such an Oath in Judgment and Uprightness of Heart that is satisfied in the Points forementioned § 20. The Act which Imposeth this Oath openly accuseth the Nonconformable Ministers or some of them of Seditious Doctrine and such hainous Crimes wherefore when it first came out I thought that at such an Accusation no Innocent Persons should be silentâ— especially when Papists Strangers and Posterity may think That a Recorded Statute is a sufficient History to prove us guilty and the Concernments of the Gospel and our Callings and Men's Souls are herein touched Therefore I drew up a Profession of our Judgment about the Case of Loyalty and Obedience to Kings and Governours and the Reasons why we refused the Oath But reading it to Dr. Seamaâ— and some others wiser than my self they advised me to cast it by and to hear all in silent Patience because it was not possible to do it so fully and sincerely but that the malice of our Adversaries would make an ill use of it and turn it all against our selves And the wise Statesmen laughed at me for thinking that Reason would be regarded by such Men as we had to do with and would not exasperate them the more § 21. After this the Ministers finding the pressure of this Act so great and the loss like to be so great to Cities and Corporations some of them studied how to take the Oath lawfully And Dr. Will Bites being much in seeming Favour with the Lord-Keeper Bridgeman consulted with him who promised to be at the next Session and there on the Bench to declare openly That by Endeavour to change the Church-Government was meant only lawful Endeavour which satisfying him he thereby satisfied others who to avoid the Imputation of Seditious Doctrine were willing to go as far as they durst And so Twenty Ministers came in at the Sessions and took the Oath viz. Dr. Fates Mr. Sam. Clarke Mr. Sheffield Mr. Hall or Mr. Church Mr. Matth. Pool Mr. Lood Mr. Stancliffe Mr. Roles Mr. Lewis Mr. Smith Mr. Arthur Mr. Bastwick Mr. Brooks Mr. Overton Mr. Batcheler Mr. Cary Mr. Butler Mr. Wildâ—ore Mr. Hooker And not long after Dr. Iacomb took it and Mr. Maâ—â— and Mr. Newton of Taunton in Somersetshire being then in London Mr. Iohn Howe in Devonshire and in Somersetshire Mr. William Thomas Mr. Cooper of Southwark then there And in Northamptonshire Dr. Conant late Regius Professor of Divinity and Vice-Chancellor in Oxford and about Twelve more with him I heard of no more Nonconformists that took it § 22. Dr. Bates wrote me presently the following Letter which because it sheweth the Truth of their Case and Inducements I think meet here to add the rather because when they took the Oath the Lord-Keeper left out the Word only And Judge Keeling openly told them That he was glad that so many of them renounced the Covenant with more such like which made Mr. Clarke openly tell him That they took this Oath only in such a Sense as they conceived to be not inconsistent with the Covenant And because the People in London reviled the Ministers as Turn-Coats when they had done which Insultings and Revilings much grieved some of them Dr. Bates's Letter of their Case about the Oath Dear Sir I Iudge it due to our Friendship and necessary for my Fame to give you an account of what past amongst us in Reference to the Oath In several Meetings of the Ministers the special Enquiry was about the meaning of the Word Endeavour Whether to be understood in the universal Extent so as to exclude all Regular or only tumultuous and seditious Actings The Reasons which persuaded us to understand it in a qualified Sense were 1. The Preface to the Act which declares the occasion and the end of the Oath was to prevent the distilling the Poison of Schism and Rebellion now it is a known Rule ratio juris est jus from whence it appears That only Schismatical and Rebellious Endeavours are excluded to avoid which there was an antecedent Obligation 2. It is necessary to interpret this Oath in congruity with former Laws in particular with that which concerns tumultuous Petitions wherein this Parliament declares it to be the priviledge of the Subject to complain remonstrate Petition to King or Parliament or to advise with any Member of Parliament for the altering of