obliged to pay all publick Duties to the Parish where they inhabit under penalty 7. This Indulgence to Continue for three years That the Liturgy may be altered by omitting c. BY using the reading Psalms in the New Translation By appointing some other Lessons out of the Canonical Scripture instead of those taken out of the Apocrypha By not 〈◊〉 God-fathers and God-mothers when either of the parents are ready to answer for the Châ—ld By omitting that clause in the Prayer at Baptism By spiritual Regeneration By changing that Question wilt thou be baptised into Wilt thou haue this Child baptised By omitting those words in the Thanksgiving after publick and private baptism To regenerate this Infant by thy holy Spirit and to receive him for thy Child by adoption And the first Rubrick after baptism It is certain by God's word c. By changing those words in the Exhortation after baptism Regenerate and Graffed into the body into Received into the Church of Christ. By not requiring reiteration of any part of the service about baptism in publick when it is evident that the Child hath been lawfully baptized in private By omitting that Clause in the Collect after Imposition of hands in confirmation After the Example of thy holy Apostles and to certify them by this sign of thy favour and gracious goodness towards them And by changing that other passage in the prayer before Confirmation who hast vouchsafed to regenerate c. into who hast vouchsafed to receive these thy servants into thy Church by baptism By omitting that clause in the Office of Matrimony with my body I thee worship And that in the Collect who hast conseâ—rated c. By allowing Ministers some liberty in the visitation of the â—ick to use such other prayers as they shall judge expedient By changing that clause in the prayer at burial For asmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take to himself c. into For as much as it hath pleased Almighty God to take out of this World the Soul c. And that clause In a sure and certain hope c. into in a full assurance of the resurrection by our Lord Iesus Christ who is able to change our vile c. By omitting that Clause We give thee hearty thanks for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful World And that other As our hopes is that our brother doth By changing that Clause in the Common service our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body c. into our sinful Souls and Bodies may be cleansed by his precious body and blood By not enjoyning the reading of the Commination That the Liturgy may be abbreviated as to the length of it Especially as to morning-service By omitting all the Responsal prayers from O Lord open thou our c. to the Litany and the Litany and all the prayers from Son of God we beseech thee c. to we humbly beseech thee O Father c. By not enjoyning the use of the Lords Prayer above once viz. Immediately after the absolution except after the Minister's Prayer before Sermon By using the Gloria Patri only once viz. after the Reading Psalms By omitting the venite exultemus unless it be thought fit to put any or all of the first seven among the sentences at the beginning By omitting the Communion service such times as are not Communion Days excepting the 10 Commandments which may be read after the Creed And injoyning the prayer Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep these Laws only once at the End By omitting the Collects Epistles and Gospels except only on particular holidays By inserting the prayers for the Parliament into the Litany immediately after the prayer for the Royal Family in this or the like form That it may please thèe to direct and prosper all the Consultations of the High Court of Parliament to the Advantage of thy Glory the good of the Church the safety honour and welfare of our Sovereign and his Kingdoms By omitting the two hymns in the Consecration of Bishops and the Ordinatiâ—n of Priests That after the first Question in the Catechism What is your Name This may follow When was this Name given you And after that What was promised for you in Baptism Answer Three things were promised for me c. In the Question before the Commandments it may be altered You said it was promised for you c. To the 14 Qu. How many Sacraments hath Christ ordained The Answer may be Two only Baptism and the Lord's Supper § 67. Upon Consultation we altered their paper in some things and added some more for we were held to those proposals only leaving the point for Toleration to be debated with our Brethren of the Congregational way And I privately acquainted Dr. Owen with the substance of the business and consulted him that they might not say we neglected them And we offered them the following form which was not what we desired but more than Dr. Wilkins after Bp. of Chester would grant us still professing himself willing of more but that more would not pass with the Parliament and so would frustrate all our Attempts § 68. The paper offered by us 1. Those who have been ordained only by meer Presbyters or the Presidents of their Synods shall be instituted and authorized to exercise their Ministry and admitted to Bènefices therein in such manner and by such persons as by his Majesty shall be thereto appointed by this form and words alone Take c. Provided that those who desire it have leave to give in their professions that they renounce not their Ordination nor take it for a nuâ—â—â—ty and that they take this as the Magistrates License and Confirmation and that they be not constrained to use any words themselves which are not consistent with this profession 2. All persons to be admitted by Ordination Institution License or otherwise into any Ecclesiastical function and dignity or to any preferment in either Vnivesity or to the Employment of a Schoolmaster shall first take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and instead of all other Oaths Subscriptions and Declarations except the Ancient Vniversity Oath shall be required only to subscribe to this form of Words J. A. B. Do hereby profess and Declare my unfeigned assent to the truth of all the holy Canonical â—criptures and to the Articles of the Creed and to the Doctrine of the Church of England contained in the 36 Articles or to the Doctrinal part of the 39 Articles of the Church of England or excepting only the 3 Articles of Ceremonies and Prelacy And I do hold that the Doctrine Worship and Government there established doth contain all things absolutely necessary to salvation And I will not knowingly by my self or any other endeavour to bring in any Doctrine contrary to this aforesaid so established And it is my true Resolution to hold Communion with
Churches Good must be first regarded As to the other Question Why we dealt not thus by all the Parish and took them not all for Members without question We knew some Papists and Infidels that were no Members We knew that the People would have thought themselves wronged more to be thus brought under Discipline without and against their own Consent than to 〈◊〉 them to withdraw And we thought it not a Business â—it for the unwilling â—â—â—â—ually at such a time as that But especially I knew that it was like to be their utter undoing by hardening them into utter Enmity against the means that should recover them And I never yet saw any signs of hope in any Excommunicate Person unless as they are yet men and capable of what God will do upon them except one that humbled himself and begged Absolution Now either Discipline is to be exercised according to Christ's Rule or not If not then the Church is no purer a Society as to its Orders than those of Infidels and Pagans but Christ must be disobeyed and his House of Prayer made a Den of Thieves If yea then either impartially upon all obstinate impenitent Sinners according to Christ's Rule or but on some If but on some only it will be a Judgment of Partiality and Unrighteousness whereas where there is the same Cause there must usually be the same Penalty If on all then the multitude of the Scandalous in almost all places is so great and the Effects of Excommunication so dreadful that it would tend to damning of multitudes of Souls which being contrary to the design of the Gospel is not to be taken for the Will of Christ we have our Power to Edification and not to Destruction A few in case of necessity may be punished though to their hurt for the good of all but multitudes must not be so used Indeed a Popish Interdict or mock Excommunication by the Sentence of a Prelate or Lay-Chancellour may pass against multitudes and have no considerable Effect but as it is enforced by the Sword But the Word of God is quick and powerful and when it is thus personally applyed in the Sentencing of a guilty obstinate Sinner doth one way or other work more effectually Therefore in this difficulty there can be but two Remedies devised One is with the Anabaptists to leave Infants unbaptized that so they may not be taken into the Church till they are fit for the Orders of the Church But this is injurious to Infants and against the will of God and hath more inconveniences than benefits Though for my part as much as I have wrote against them I wish that it were in the Church now as it was in the days of Tertullian Nazianzen and Austin where no man was compelled to bring his Infants to Baptism but all left to their own time For then some as Augustine c. were baptized at full Age and some in Infancy The second therefore is the only just and safe Remedy which is That by the due performance of Confirmation there may be a Soleman Transition out of the state of Infant Church-Membership into the state of Adult Church-Membership and due qualifications therein required and that the unfit may till then be left inter Auditores without the Priviledges proper to Adult Members of which I have fully written in my Book of Confirmation 26. Another Advantage which I found to my Success was by ordering my Doctrine to them in a suitableness to the main end and yet so as might suit their Dispositions and Diseases The thing which I daily opened to them and with greatest importunity laboured to imprint upon their minds was the great Fundamental Principles of Christianity contained in their Baptismal Covenant even a right knowledge and belief of and subjection and love to God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and Love to all Men and Concord with the Church and one another I did so daily inculcate the Knowledge of God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier and Love and Obedience to God and Unity with the Church Catholick and Love to Men and Hope of Life Eternal that these were the matter of their daily Cogitations and Discourses and indeed their Religion And yet I did usually put in something in my Sermon which was above their own discovery and which they had not known before and this I did that they might be kept humble and still perceive their ignorance and be willing to keep in a learning state For when Preachers tell their People of no more than they know and do not shew that they excel them in Knowledge and easily over-top them in Abilities the People will be tempted to turn Preachers themselves and think that they have learnt all that the Ministers can teach them and are as wise as they and they will be apt to contemn their Teachers and wrangle with all their Doctrines and set their Wits against them and hear them as Censurers and not as Disciples to their own undoing and to the disturbance of the Church and they will easily draw Disciples after them The bare Authority of the Clergy will not serve the turn without over-topping Ministerial Abilities And I did this also to increase their Knowledge and also to make Religion pleasant to them by a daily addition to their former Light and to draw them on with desire and Delight But these things which they did not know before were not unprofitable Controversies which tended not to Edification nor Novelties in Doctrine contrary to the Universal Church but either such Points as tended to illustrate the great Doctrines before-mentioned or usually about the right methodizing of them The opening of the true and profitable method of the Creed or Doctrine of Faith the Lord's Prayer or Matter of our Desires and the Ten Commandments or Law of Practice which afford matter to add to the knowledge of most Professors of Religion a long time And when that is done they must be led on still further by degrees as they are capable but so as not to leave the weak behind and so as shall still be truly subservient to the great Points of Faith Hope and Love Holiness and Unity which must be still inculcated as the beginning and the end of all 27. Another help to my Success was that my People were not Rich There were among them very few Beggers because their common Trade of Stuff-weaving would find work for all Men Women and Children that were able And there were none of the Trades-men very rich seeing their Trade was poor that would but find them Food and Raiment The Magistrates of the Town were few of them worth 40 l. per An. and most not half so much Three or four of the Richest thriving Masters of the Trade got but about 500 or 600 l. in twenty years and it may be lose 100 l. of it at once by an ill Debtor The generality of the Master Workmen lived but a little better than their
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
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
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-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
Sorrow but such as tendeth to raise us to a high Estimation of Christ and to the magnifying of Grace and a sweeter taste of the Love of God and to the firmer Resolution against Sin And that Tears and Grief be not commended inordinately for themselves nor as meer Signs of a Converted Person And that we call Men more to look after Duty than after Signs as such â—â—t Self-love on Work and spare not so you will call them much more to the Love of God and let them know that that Love is their best sign but yet to be exercised on a higher Reason than as a sign of our own Hopes for that Motive alone will not produce true Love to God And as the Antinomians too much exclude Humiliation and signs of Grace so too many of late have made their Religion to consist too much in the seeking of these out of their proper time and place without referring them to that Obedience Love and Joy in which true Religion doth principally consist Reader I do but transcribe these three Counsels for thee from a Multitude of Melancholy Persons sad Experiences § 185. This Year Salisbury-Diocess was more fiercely driven on to Conformity by Dr. Seth Ward their Bishop than any place else or than all the Bishops in England besides did in theirs Many Hundreds were Prosecuted by him with great Industry And among others that learned humble holy Gentleman Mr. Thomas Grove an Ancient Parliament-Man of as great Sincerity and Integrity as almost any Man I ever knew He stood it out a while in a Law-Suit but was overthrown and fain to forsake his Countrey as many Hundreds more are quickly like to do § 186. And his Name remembreth me that Ingenuity obligeth me to Record my Benefactor A Brother's Son of his Mr. Rob. Grove is one of the Bishop of London's Chaplains who is the only Man that Licenseth my Writings for the Press supposing them not to be against Law which else I could not expect And besides him alone I could get no Licenser to do it And because being Silenced Writing is the far greatest part of my remaining Service to God for his Church and without the Press my Writings would be in vain I acknowledge that I owe much to this Man and one Mr. Cook the Arch-bishop's Chaplain heretofore that I live not more in vain § 187. And while I am acknowledging my Benefactors I add that this Year died Serjeant Iohn Fountain the only Person from whom I received an Annual Sum of Money which though through God's Mercy I needed not yet I could not in Civility refuse He gave me 10 l. per Ann. from the time of my Silencing 'till his Death I was a Stranger to him before the King's Return save that when he was Judge before he was one of the Keepers of the Great Seal he did our Countrey great Service against Vice He was a Man of a quick and sound Understanding an upright impartial Mind and Life of too much testiness in his weakness but of a most believing serious Fervency towards God and open zealous owning of true Piety and Holiness without owning the little Partialities of Sects as most Men that ever I came near in Sickness When he lay sick which was almost a Year he sent to the Judges and Lawyers that sent to visit him such Answers as these I thank your Lord or Master for his kindness Present my Service to him and tell him It is a great Work to Die well his time is near all worldly Glory must come down intreat him to keep his Integrity over-come Temptations and please God and prepare to Die He deeply bewailed the great Sins of the Times and the Prognosticks of dreadful things which he thought we were in danger of And though in the Wars he suffered Imprisonment for the King's Cause towards the end he came from them and he greatly feared an inundation of Poverty Enemies Popery and Infidelity § 188. The great Talk this Year was of the King 's Adjourning the Parliament again for about a Year longer and whether we should break the Triple League and desert the Hollanders c. § 189. Before they were Adjourned I secretly directed some Letters to the best of the Conforming Ministers telling them how much it would conduce to their own and the Churches Interest if they that might be heard would become Petitioners for such Abatements in Conformity as might let in the Non-conformists and unite us seeing two things would do it 1. The removal of Oaths and Subscriptions save our Subscription to Christianity the Scriptures and the 39 Articles and the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy 2. To give leave to them that cannot use all the Liturgy and Ceremonies to be but Preachers in those Churches where they are used by others submitting to Penalties if ever they be proved to Preach against the Doctrine Government or Worship of the Church or to do any thing against Peace or the Honour of the King and Governours But I could get none to offer such a Petition And when I did but mention our own petitioning the Parliament those that were among them and familiar with them still laught at me for imagining that they were reasonable Creatures or that Reason signified any thing with them in such Matters And thus we were Silenced every way § 190. During the Mayoralty of Sir Samuel Sterling many Jury's Men in London were Fined and Imprisoned by the Judge for not finding certain Quakers guilty of violating the Act against Conventicles They Appealed and sought remedy The Judges remained about a Year in suspense and then by the Lord Chief Justice Vaughan delivered their Resolution against the Judge for the Subject's Freedom from such force of Fines that when he had in a Speech of two or three Hours long spoke vehemently to that purpose never thing since the King's Return was received with greater Joy and Applause by the People and the Judges still taken for the Pillars of Law and Liberty § 191. The Parliament having made the Laws against Nonconformists Preaching and private Religious Meetings c. so grinding and terrible as aforesaid the King who consented to those Laws became the sole Patron of the Nonconformist's Liberties not by any Abatements by Law but by his own Connivance as to the Execution the Magistrates for the most part doing what they perceived to be his Will So that Sir Rich. Ford all the time of his Mayoralty in London though supposed one of their greatest and most knowing Adversaries never disturbed them The Ministers in several Parties were oft encouraged to make their Addresses to the King only to acknowledge his Clemency by which they held their Liberties and to profess their Loyalty Sir Iohn Babor introduced Dr. Manton and some with him Mr. Ennis a Scotch Non-conformist by Sir Rob. Murray introduced Mr. Whittakers Dr. Annesley Mr. Watson and Mr. Vincent's The King as they say themselves told them That though such Acts were made He was against
consult about such a work and if so that more than I may be consulted and nothing laid on me alone I am confident were but Dr. Stillingfleet Dr. Tillotson or any such moderate Men appointed to consult with two or three of us on the safe and needful terms of Concord we should agree in a Week's time supposing them vacant for the Business I Rest Your humble Servant Richard Baxter Decem. 15. 1673. The means of uniting the Protestant Ministers in England and healing our lamentable Divisions supposing Church-Government may not be altered 1. About Engagements Let no other Covenant Promise Oath Declaration or subscription be necessary to Ministers for Ordination Institution Induction Ministration or Possession of their maintenance nor to Scholars at the Universities except the ancient University Oath or to School-masters besides the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the subscribing the Doctrine and Sacraments of the Church of England as expressed in the thirty nine Articles accordingly to the 13th of Queen Elizabeth and the common Subscription approving the Doctrine of the Homilies and this following Declaration against Rebellion and Sedition I. A. B. do hold that it is not Lawful for His Majesty's Subjects upon any Pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King his Person or Authority or against any Authorized by his Legal Commission And that there lyeth no Obligation on me or any other of his Subjects from the Oath commonly called the solemn League and Covenant to endeaveavour any Change of the present Government of these his Majesty's Kingdoms nor to endeavour any Reformation of Church or State by Rebellion Sedition or any other unlawful means II. Because the Churches are all supposed to have Incumbents and the present Non-conformists being devoted to the sacred Ministry do holn it high Sacriledge to alienate themselves therefrom to pass by their outward wants till by Presentations to vacant Churches they are better provided let them have liberty to be School-masters or assistants to Incumbents or to Preach Lectures in their Churches so it be by their Consent whether they be Lectures already endowed with some Maintenance or such as the People are willing to maintain And let not the Incumbents be discouraged by the Bishops from receiving them And let such places as being convenient are already possessed by them for God's Publick Worship be continued to that use as Chappels till they can be thus received into Benefices or Lectures III. Because the Piety of Families must keep up very much of the Interest of Religion in the World and Multitudes especially in the Country that cannot read can do little or nothing of it in their own Families and may be greatly helped by joyning with their more understanding pious Neighbours let it not be forbidden to any who attend the publick Assemblies at any other hours to join with their Neighbours being of the same Parish who read the Holy Scriptures and Licensed pious Books and repeat the publick Sermons and Pray and Praise God by singing Psalms and refuse not the Inspection of their lawful Pastors herein Nor let it not be unlawful for any stablished Minister to receive his People in such Work or for the Catechising and personal instructing of such as shall desire it IV. Concerning the Liturgy and publick Communion 1. Let no Man be punished for omitting the use of the Liturgy if in the Congregation where he is incumbent the greatest part of it appointed for that time be sometimes as once a quarter or half a Year as the Canon requireth used by himself and every Lord's Day ordinarily unless when sickness or other Necessity hindreth either by himself or by his Curate or Assistant And let none be forced to read the Apocrypha publickly for Lessons 2. Let no meer Lecturer be forced to read the the Liturgy himself or to procure another to read it seeing it is the Incumbent's Charge and it is supposed it will be done Or if this may not be granted let the Lecturer be only obliged once half a Year which is the time limited in the Canon to read the Greatest part of it appointed for that time 3. Let not Christian Parents be forbidden to dedicate their Children publickly to God by entering them into the Christian Covenant professing and undertaking on their Behalf that which belongeth to Parents in that Case And let not the Parents be forced to get such Godfathers and Godmothers as are Atheists Infidels Hereticks or grosly ignorant what Baptism and Christianity is or as for their wicked Lives are themselves justly kept from the Communion nor such as they know have no intention to do what they are to undertake And if any Christian Parent can get no better to undertake that Office many now scrupling it and none can be forced to it let not his Child be denied Baptism if he be ready to do the Office of a Parent himself 4. Seeing some Ministers think that the use of the transient Image of the Cross as a Sacramental or dedicating Sign In the Baptismal Covenant and a Symbol of the Christian Profession is a breach of the second Commandment â—et not such be forced to use it nor to refuse to baptize the Children of such Persons without it who are of the same Mind 5. Let no Minister be forced against his Judgment to baptize any Child both whose Parents avoid or are justly denied the Communion of the Church unless sâ—me Person who communicateth with the Church do take the Child as his own und undertake to Educate it according to the Christian Covenant 6. Let none be forced to receive the Sacrament who through Infidelity Heresie or Prophaneness is unwilling till the hinderance be removed Nor any who by Consciousness or fear of their unfitness are like to be driven by so receiving it into distraction or desperation 7. Let no Minister be forced to deliver the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood to any who is unbaptized or who being baptized in Infancy did never yet personally to the Church or Minister own his Baptismal Covenant by an understanding Profession of the Christian Faith and promise of Obedience to God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost and who also will not yet make such a profession and promise to the Church or Minister or else bring a valid Certificate that he hath formerly done it to the Bishop or some approved Pastor under whom he lived Nor to any who upon accusation fame or just suspicion of Atheism Infidelity Heresie intolerable Ignorance or gross and heinous Sin doth refuse to come speak with the Minister for his satisfaction and his Justification or better Information or who by Proof or Confession is found guilty of any of the aforsaid scandalous Evils until he have professed serious Repentance to the said Minister if the crime be notorious and if he refuse till he have moreover amended his former wicked Life 8. Let no Minister be forced to publish an Excommunication or Absolution of any against his Conscience upon the decree or
his Conscience to baptize any Child who is not thus offered to God by one of the Parents or by such a pro parent as taketh the Child for his own and undertaketh the Christian Education Be it also Enacted that no person shall be constrained against his Conscience to the use of the Cross in Baptism or of the Surplice nor any Minister to deny the Lord's Supper to any for not receiving it kneeling nor read any of the Apocrypha for Lessons nor to punish any Excommunication or Absolution against his Conscience but the Bishop or Chancellour who decreeth it shall cause such to publish it as are not dissatisfyed so to do or shall only affix it on the Church-Door Nor shall any Minister be constrained at Burial to speak only words importing the salvation of any person who within a year received not the Sacrament of Communion or was suspended from it according to the Rubrick or Canon and satisfyed not the Minister of his serious Repentance III. And whereas many persons having been ordained as Presbyters by Parochial Pastors in the times of Usurpation and Distraction hath occasioned many Difficulties for the present remedy hereof be it Enacted That all such persons as before this time have been ordained as Presbyters by Parochial Pastors only and are qualifyed for that Office as the Law requireth shall receive power to exercise it from a Bishop by a written Instrument which every Bishop in his Diocess is hereby impowered and required to Grant in these words and no other To A. B. of C. in the Country of D. Take thou Authority to exercise the Office of a Presbyter in any place and Congregation in the King's Dominions whereto thou shall be lawfully called And this practice sufficing for present Concord no one shall be put to declare his Judgment whether This or That which he before received shall be taken for his Ordination nor shall be urged to speak any words of such signification but each party shall be left to Judge as they see cause IV. And whereas the piety of Families and Godly Converse of Neighbours is a great means of preserving Religion and Sobriety in the World and lest the Act for suppressing seditious Conventicles should be mis-interpreted as injurious thereto be it declared that it is none of the meaning of the said Act to forbid any such Family Piety or Converse tho more then four Neighbours should be peaceably present at the Reading of the Scriptures or a Licensed Book the singing of a Psalm repeating of the publick Sermons or any such Exercise which neither the Laws nor Canons do forbid they being performed by such as joyn with the allowed Church-Assemblies and refuse not the Inspection of the Ministers of the Parish Especially where persons that cannot read are unable to do such things at home as by Can. 13. is enjoyned V. And whereas the form of the Oath and Declaration imposed on persons of Office and Trust in Corporations is unsatisfactory to many that are Loyal and peaceable that our Concord may extend to Corporations as well as Churches Be it Enacted That the taking of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Declaration against Religion and Disloyalty here before prescribed shall to all Ends and purposes suffice instead of the said Oath and Declaration VI. And whereas there are many peaceable Subjects who hold all the Essentials of the Christian Faith but conform not to so much as is required to the Established Ministry and Church-Communion Be it Enacted that All and only they who shall publickly take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy before some Court of â—ustice or at the Open Sessions of the County where they live and that then and there Subscribe as followeth I. A. B. do unfeâ—gnedly stand to my Baptismal Covenant and do believe all the Articles of the Creeds called the Apostles the Nicene and Constantinopolitane and the truth of the holy Canonical Scriptures and do renounce all that 〈◊〉 contrary hereto shall be so far tolerated in the Excercise of their Religion as His Majesty with the advice of his Parliament or Council shall from time to time find consistent with the peace and safety of his Kingdoms VII And lest this Act for Concord should occasion Discord by emboldening unpeaceable and unruly or heretical men be it enacted that if any either in the allowed or the Tolerated Assemblies that shall pray or Preach Rebellion Sedition or against the Government or Liturgy of the Church or shall break the Peace by tumults or otherwise or stir up unchristian hatred and strife or shall preach against or otherwise oppose the Christan verities or any Article of the sacred Doctrine which they subscribe or any of the 39. Articles of Religion they shall be punished as by the Laws against such Offences is already provided I will here also Annex the Copies of some Petitions which I was put to draw up which never were presented I. The first was intended while the Parliament was sitting to have been offered but wise Parliament-Men thought it was better forbear it II. The second was thought fit for some Citizens to have offered but by the same Councel it was forborn III. The third was thus occasioned Sir Iohn Babor told Dr. Manton that the Scots being then suspected of some insurrection it was expected that we renewed the profession of our Loyalty to free us from all suspicion of Conspiracy with them We said that it seemed hard to us that we should fall under suspicion and no cause alledged We knew of no occasion that we had given But we were ready to profess our continued Loyalty but desired that we might with it open our just resentment of our Case They put me to draw it up but when it was read it was laid by none daring to plead our Cause so freely and signify any sense of our hard usage I. May it Please Your Majesty with the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament WHen the Common profession of resolved moderation had abated Men's fears of a Silencing Prelacy and the published Declarations of Nobilitie and Gentry against all dividing violence and revenge had helpt to unite the endeavours of Your Subjects which prospered for Your Majestie 's desired Restoration when God's wonderful providence had dissolved the Military Powers of Usurpers which hindered it and when Your welcome appearance Your Act of Oblivion Your Gracious Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs for which the House of Commons solemnly gave you thanks did seem to have done much to the Cure of our Divisions we had some hopes that our common revived Love and Concord would have tended to Your Majesty's and our common joy in the harmony strength and prosperity of Your Kingdoms and that we might among your inferiour Subjects have enjoyed our part in the common tranquility But the year 1662. dissolved those hopes fixing our old Difficulties and adding more which since then also have been much increased Beeing consecrated and vowed to the sacred Ministry we
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
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
Church the bowing to Altars the Book for Sports on Sundays the Casting out of Ministers the troubling of the People by the High-Commission Court the Pilloring and Cutting off Mens Ears Mr. Burtons Mr. Prins and Dr. Bastwicks for speaking against the Bishops the putting down Lectures and Afternoon Sermons and Expositions on the Lord's Days with such other things which they thought of greater weight than Ship-money But because these later agreed with the former in the Vindication of the Peoples Propriety and Liberties the former did the easilier concur with them against the Proceedings of the Bishops and High Commission Court And as soon as their Inclination was known to the People all Countreys sent in their Complaints and Petitions It was presently known how many Ministers Bishop Wren and others of them had suspended and silenced how many thousand Families had been driven to flie into Holland and how many thousand into New-England Scarce a Minister had been Silenced that was alive but it was put into a Petition Mr. Peter Smart of Durham and Dr. Layton a Scotch Physician who wrote a Book called Sion's Plea against the Prelates were released out of their long Imprisonment Mr. Burton Mr. Prin and Dr. Bastwick who as is said had been pillored and their Ears cut off and they sent into a supposed perpetual Imprisonment into the distant Castles of Gernsey Iersey and Carnarvon were all set free and Damages voted them for their wrong And when they came back to London they were met out of the City by abundance of the Citizens with such Acclamations as could not but seem a great Affront to the King and be much displeasing to him The Lord Keeper Finch and Secretary Windebank fled beyond Sea and saved themselves The guilty Judges were deeply accused and some of them imprisoned for the Cause of Ship-money But the great Displeasure was against the Lord Deputy Wentworth and Archbishop Laud Both these were sent to the Tower and a Charge drawn up against them and managed presently against the Lord Deputy by the ablest Lawyers and Gentlemen of the House This held them work a considerable time The King was exceeding unwilling to consent unto his death and therefore used all his skill to have drawn off the Parliament from so hot a Prosecution of him And now began the first Breach among themselves For the Lord Falkland the Lord Digby and divers other able Men were for the sparing of his Life and gratifying the King and not putting him on a thing so much displeasing to him The rest said If after the Attempt of Subverting the Fundamental Laws and Liberties no one Man shall suffer Death it will encourage others hereafter to the like The Londoners petitioned for Iustice And too great numbers of Apprentices and others being imboldened by the Proceedings of the Parliament and not fore-knowing what a Fire the Sparks of their temerity would kindle did too triumphingly and disorderly urge the Parliament crying Iustice Iustice. And it is not unlikely that some of the Parliament-men did encourage them to this as thinking that some backward Members would be quickned by Popular Applause And withal to work on the Members also by disgrace some insolent Painter did seditiously draw the Pictures of the chief of them that were for saving the Lord Deputy and called them the Straffordians he being Earl of Strafford and hang'd them with their Heels upward on the Exchange Though it cannot be expected that in so great a City there should be no Persons so indiscreet as to commit such disorderly Actions as these yet no sober Men should countenance them or take part with them whatever ends might be pretended or intended The King called these Tumults the Parliament called them the Cities Petitioning Those that connived at them were glad to see the People of their mind in the main and thought it would do much to facilitate their Work and hold the looser Members to their Cause For though the House was unanimous enough in condemning Ship-money and the Et caetera Oath and the Bishops Innovations c. yet it was long doubtful which side would have the major Vote in the matter of the Earl of Strafford's Death and such other Acts as were most highly displeasing to the King But disorderly means do generally bring forth more Disorders and seldom attain any good end for which they are used § 28. The Parliament also had procured the King to consent to several Acts which were of great importance and emboldened the People by confirming their Authority As an Act against the High Commission Court and Church-mens Secular or Civil Power and an Act that this Parliament should not be dissolved till its own Consent alledging that the dissolving of Parliaments emboldened Delinquents and that Debts and Disorders were so great that they could not be overcome by them in a little time Also an Act for Triennial Parliaments And the People being confident that all these were signed by the King full sore against his will and that he abhorred what was done did think that the Parliament which had constrained him to this much could carry it still in what they pleased and so grew much more regardful of the Parliament and sided with them not only for their Cause and their own Interest but also as supposing them the stronger side which the Vulgar are still apt to follow § 29. But to return to my own matters This Parliament among other parts of their Reformation resolved to reform the corrupted Clergy and appointed a Committee to receive Petitions and Complaints against them which was no sooner understood but multitudes in all Countreys came up with Petitions against their Ministers The King and Parliament were not yet divided but concurred and so no partaking in their Differences was any part of the Accusation of these Ministers till long after when the Wars had given the occasion and then that also came into their Articles but before it was only matter of Insufficiency false Doctrine illegal Innovations or Scandal that was brought in against them Mr. Iohn White being the Chair-man of the Committee for Scandalous Ministers as it was called published in print one Century first of Scandalous Ministers with their Names Places and the Articles proved against them where so much ignorance insufficiency drunkenness filthiness c. was charged on them that many moderate men could have wished that their Nakedness had been rather hid and not exposed to the Worlds derision and that they had remembred that the Papists did stand by and would make sport of it Another Century also was after published Among all these Complainers the Town of Kederminster in Worcestershire drew up a Petition against their Ministers The Vicar of the place they Articled against as one that was utterly insufficient for the Ministry presented by a Papist unlearned preached but once a quarter which was so weakly as exposed him to laughter and perswaded them that he understood not the very Substantial Articles of
the Saints Rest where I have not said half that should have been said and the Reason was because that I had not read any of the fuller sort of Books that are written on those Subjects nor conversed with those that knew more than my self and so all those things were either new or great to me which were common and small perhaps to others and because they all came in by the way of my own Study of the naked matter and not from Books they were apt to affect my mind the more and to seem greater than they were And this Token of my Weakness accompanied those my younger Studies that I was very apt to start up Controversies in the way of my Practical Writings and also more desirous to acquaint the World with all that I took to be the Truth and to assault those Books by Name which I thought did tend to deceive them and did contain unsound and dangerous Doctrine And the Reason of all this was that I was then in the vigour of my youthfull Apprehensions and the new Appearance of any sacred Truth it was more apt to affect me and be highlyer valued than afterward when commonness had dulled my Delight and I did not sufficiently discern then how much in most of our Controversies is verbal and upon mutual Mistakes And withal I know not how impatient Divines were of being contradicted nor how it would stir up all their Powers to defend what they have once said and to rise up against the Truth which is thus thrust upon them as the mortal Enemy of their Honour And I knew not how hardly Mens Minds are charged from their former Apprehensions be the Evidence never so plain And I have perceived that nothing so much hindreth the Reception of the Truth as urging it on Men with too harsh Importunity and falling too heavily on their Errors For hereby you engage their Honour in the business and they defend their Errors as themselves and stir up all their Wit and Ability to oppose you In controversies it is fierce Opposition which is the Bellows to kindle a resisting Zeal when if they be neglected and their Opinions lie a while despised they usually cool and come again to themselves though I know that this holdeth not when the Greediness and Increase of his Followers doth animate a Sectary even though he have no Opposition Men are so loth to be drenched with the Truth that I am no more for going that way to work and to confess the Truth I am lately much prone to the contrary Extream to be too indifferent what Men hold and to keep my Judgment to my self and never to mention any thing wherein I differ from another or any thing which I think I know more than he or at least if he receive it not presently to silence it and leave him to his own Opinion And I find this Effect is mixed according to its Causes which are some good and some bad The bad Causes are 1. An Impatience of Mens weakness and mistaking frowardness and Self-conceitedness 2. An Abatement of my sensible Esteem of Truth through the long abode of them on my Mind Though my Judgment value them yet it is hard to be equally affected with old and common things as with new and rare ones The better Causes are 1. That I am much more sensible than ever of the necessity of living upon the Principles of Religion which we are all agreed in and uniting these and how much Mischief Men that over-value their own Opinions have done by their Controversies in the Church how some have destroyed Charity and some caused Schisms by them and most have hindered Godlyness in themselves and others and used them to divert Men from the serious prosecuting of a holy Life and as Sir Francis Bacon saith in his Essay of Peace that it 's one great Benefit of Church-Peace and Concord that writing Controversies is turned into Books of practical Devotion for increase of Piety and Virtue 2. And I find that it 's much more for most Mens Good and Edification to converse with them only in that way of Godliness which all are agreed in and not by touching upon Differences to stir up their Corruptions and to tell them of little more of your knowledge than what you find them willing to receive from you as meer Learners and therefore to stay till they crave Information of you as Musculus did with the Anabaptists when he visited them in Prison and conversed kindly and lovingly with them and shewed them all the Love he could and never talkt to them of their Opinions till at last they who were wont to call him a Deceiver and false Prophet did intreat him to instruct them and received his Instructions We mistake Mens Diseases when we think there needeth nothing to cure their Errors but only to bring them the Evidence of Truth Alas there are many Distempers of Mind to be removed before Men are apt to receive that Evidence And therefore that Church is happy where Order is kept up and the Abilities of the Ministers command a reverend Submission from the Hearers and where all are in Christ's School in the distinct Ranks of Teachers and Learners For in a learning way Men are ready to receive the Truth but in a Disputing way they come armed against it with Prejudice and Animosity 3. And I must say farther that what I last mentioned on the by is one of the notablest Changes of my Mind In my youth I was quickly past my Fundamentals and was running up into a multitude of Controversies and greatly delighted with metaphisical and scholastick Writings though I must needs say my Preaching was still on the necessary Points But the elder I grew the smaller stress I layd upon these Controversies and Curiosities though still my intellect abhoâ—reth Confusion as finding far greater Uncertainties in them than I at first discerned and finding less Usefulness comparatively even where there is the greatest Certainty And now it is the fundamental Doctrines of the Catechism which I highliest value and daily think of and find most useful to my self and others The Creed the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments do find me now the most acceptable and plentiful matter for all my Meditations They are to me as my daily Bread and Drink And as I can speak and write of them over and over again so I had rather read or hear of them than of any of the School Niceties which once so much pleased me And thus I observed it was with old Bishop Usher and with many other Men And I conjecture that this Effect also is mixt of good and bad according to its Causes The bad Cause may perhaps be some natural Infirmity and Decay And as Trees in the Spring shoot up into Branches Leaves and Blossoms But in the Autumn the Life draws down into the Root so possibly my Nature conscious of its Infirmity and Decay may find it self insufficient for numerous Particles and
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-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
manifested that the Western Creed now called the Apostles wanting two or three Clauses that now are in it was not only before the Nicene Creed but of such farther Antiquity that no beginning of it below the Apostles Days can be found So it is past doubt that in other Words the Churches had still a Symbol or Sum of their Belief which was the Test of the Orthodox and that which the Catechumeni were to be instructed in Origen Tertullian Irenaeus to speak of none of these below them do mention and recite them The Doctrine of this Creed they affirm themselves to have received from the Apostles by verbal Tradition as well as by Writing This then hath been a collateral way of delivering down the saving Truths of the Gospel though a far more imperfect way than by the Scriptures 4. Another means hath been by Parents teaching these Principles to their Children which as they were commanded to do and did before the writing of the Gospel so did they successively continue it as a collateral way 5. Another collateral means was in the constant use of the Lord's Supper in Commemoration of Christ's Death till he come to receive us to Glory where the very Sum and all the Fundamentals of our Religion are contained which hath been continued by uninterrupted Succession even from the time that preceded the writing of the Scriptures it is therefore conceived possible for some Souls to be converted in darker parts of the World by these or some of these means without the written Word 3. The ancient Doctors of the Church affirmed that they had their Doctrine from the Apostles by verbal as well as by written Tradition Yea and that if there were no Scripture yet Tradition might resolve the Doubts against the Hereticks and that in those Days which were nearer the Spring-Head Tradition was a better way than Scripture to confute Hereticks as Tertullian de Praescript at large and Irenaeus's Words are well known Whether in this they mistake or not I don't determine yet certainly this may tell us that we cannot conclude that there was then no co-ordinate way of delivering down the Sum of Christian Verity 4. He that will prove your negative Assertion must either know all the World and that de facto there is among them no such Tradition or else must have some Revelation from God that there is not any such nor shall be But we have neither of these Ergo we cannot certainly conclude it 5. We see by Experience that more in substance of other common Precepts and History can be delivered down to Posterity by other means without formal Records Ergo so may these For though they cannot have the golden Cabinet of Scripture but from the Spirit nor without the Spirit can Men believe Yet the Truths may be remembred and delivered as aforesaid 6. God can deliver the Marrow of the Gospel by other means than the Writing and he hath not told us that he will not Ergo for ought we know he doth 7. We ought not absolutely to exclude extraordinary means when God hath not tyed himself from them It is a dangerous Sin of them that leave the ordinary means and look out for extraordinary as Spirit of Prophesy Angels c. But to conclude that God will never reveal Christ by an Angel to one that hath not the Scripture is more than we may do I know not therefore why it is that you would not be prevailed with so much as to add the Word ordinarily when yet it 's by some affirmed to be your Sense and by all that it is your Duty to deliver your Sense as plain as you may So much of my Reasons against the certainty of the Truth of your Assertion 3. I next add that it seems not a Point so weighty as to cast out all that are different from us in this Opinion My Reasons are 1. From the Nature of the Thing 1. It hath so much to be said against the very Truth of it and so is doubtful 2. There can no ill Consequences be manifested to rise from the contrary Opinion Much less so ill as to deserve such a Censure It is no wrong to Scripture that there is a more imperfect collateral way of delivering some part of the same Truths no more than it is a wrong to Scripture that the Law of Nature delivers some other Part of them 2. From the Persons that were of the Opinion contrary to your Assertion who were the ancient Doctors of the Churches and many of the most learned judicious and godly of the Reformed Divines as I undertake to manifest when I have Opportunity and it is necessary For my own part if it were only my self that should be cast out by this Engine I should say the less but as I know not how many Hundred may be of the same Mind and as I think it to be the most common Judgment of Divines so I know such here among us of that Mind with whom I am not worthy to be named who would not subscribe to this your Assertion whereby it seems to me to be more tollerable to diffent from you 4. Seeing you have voted to lay down only Fundamentals to Salvation first and upon that Vote have put this as one you do not only damn all that believe any other way than by the written Word but you damn all those that will not damn them by owning this condemning Article Now that it is not Fundamental appears 1. In that the Fathers and choicest reformed Divines were else no Christians 2. No Creed of the ancient Churches did contain it 3. It is not of necessity to our believing on Christ the Foundation A Man may be brought himself by the Scripture to believe that yet thinks another may believe by verbal Tradition 4. No Scripture doth expresly no not implicitly deliver it much less as a Fundamental 5. My next Reason was that your Assertion and Reason are injurious to the Christian Cause For 1. When Gospel Truth is delivered down by two Hands you wrong it when you cut off one when neither is needless 2. We are able by other ways of Proof to confute those Infidels that deny the Authority of Scripture especially when they tell us that we cannot prove that our Doctrine was delivered from Christ and his Apostles and not since devised or corrupted by later Hands Now you would force our Arguments out of our Hands to the Advantage of the Enemy Upon the Experience of some late Debates with subtil Apostates now Infidels I am bold with Submission to say that I would not for all the World so wound the Christian Cause as it is wounded by those who bereave the Scripture of the Advantage of other Tradition And think that a Bible found by the way by one that never heard of it hath the same Advantages to procure Belief as Scripture and Scripture-Doctrine and matters of Fact delivered to us by the Hand of certain Tradition And 3. By the
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
Scripture revealeth for us to believe which are many I only instance in the Point of Sovereignty is contrary to the Determination of our General Councils That which is contrary to what a General Council pronounceth to be believed is in the Papists sence a Heresie But that the Pope is above a General Council and that a General Council is above the Pope are both determined to be believed by General Councils The first by the Councils at the Laterane and Florence and the second by the Councils at Constance and Basil They are both Heresies therefore because they are both against General Councils and they are both Points of Popery because both determined in General Councils as I have proved in my Key c. If you will peruse a Catalogue in the End of my Book called The Safe Religion or the Thirty two Novelties mentioned in my Key pag. 142 143 144. you will see whether Popery be Error If any other Doctrine contrary 〈◊〉 Christ's do infer an Anathema then everlasting Woe to Papists And here you may see the Safety of the true Catholicks that have rejected Popery Our Religion is all contained in the Holy Scripture we profess to have no other Rule and you charge us not that I know of with believing too much by holding any positive Error but with believing too little because we believe not your supernumerary Articles And therefore you cannot say that we teach any other Doctrine than Christ's though you fancy that we teach not all because we teach not your Traditions But on the contrary we prove that you teach another Doctrine and many such which Christ never delivered to the Church But yet to abate your severe Selâ—condemnation let me excuse you thus far as to say that you do it upon mistake For Gal. 1. saith not Let him be accursed that preacheth another Doctrine but another Gospel While it is the same Gospel in the Essentials that is preached and believed this Anathema belongs not even to you that err till you come to contradict the Essence and make it another Gospel as well as another Doctrine If you have made it your whole business till seventeen Years of Age to pray to God to direct you to follow his Doctrine it 's like that I and many another have made it at least as much of our Business till forty six Years of Age as ever you did and with better Advantage and yet are as confident of the Falseness of your Doctrine as we are that the Earth doth bear us here therefore you are not beforehand with us But what have you found that cheated or frighned you into Popery 1. The variety of Iudgments But you never found the far greater variety among Papists You never read the voluminous Dispute between the Dominicanes and Jesuits to overpass the rest or perhaps you will as others do expect that the very same Opinion be a Heresy in a Calvanist and none in a Dominicane or Iansenist or a Heresy in a Lutheran and none in a Iesuit You will run out of England because of Mens diversity of Complexions and finding a greater Diversity in France expect it should be esteemed none If I prove not before any impartial Judge that the Papists have far more and greater Differences amongst themsâ—â—ves than the reformed Churches called Protestants yea I doubt not I may add than Greeks Calvinists Lutherans and many more such set together then let your Imagination go for Truth Bellarmine himself hath enumerated enough 2. You say the Scripture admits of no private Interpretation But 1. You abuse the Text and your self with a false Interpretation of it in these Words An Interpretation is called private either as to the Subject Person or as to the Interpreter You take the Text to speak of the latter when the Context plainly sheweth you that it speaks of the former The Apostle directing them to understand the Prophesies of the Old Testament gives them this Caution That none of these Scriptures that are spoken of Christ the publick Person must be interpreted as spoken of David or other private Persons only of whom they were mentioned but as Types of Christ It is subjectively a private Interpretation to restrain that Scripture e. g. the Second Psalm to David or other ordinary Men which the Holy Ghost intended of the Messiah But here 's no talk against Private Interpreters but only against a Private Interpretation 2. But suppose it were as you imagin and the publick Judgment of any Case suppose a Publick Interpreter yet every Man must see with his own Eyes and their private Judgment of Discretion must be according to their private that is personal Interpretation Or else your Churches Interpretation must have another publick Interpretation and that another and so endlesly If we can understand your Councils which your Doctors disagree about without another publick Interpretation we may as easily understand the Scripture or at least much of it And therefore that can be none of the Sence which you imagine no Scripture c. 3. Yea suppose all Interpretation must be publick and you may not presume to misunderstand the Commands of Repentance Faith or Love without a publick Commentary do you think this doth not make against you Is not the Interpretation of the Papal Sect a more private Interpretation than that of the whole Church The Greek Arminians Abassines Protestants and so all the far greatest part of the Church interpret those Texts which you wrest for the Papal Soveraignty in a quite other Sense And is not the Interpretation of your Fourth or Third part of the Church that 's partial in the Cause more private than that of all the rest would you have Men care no more for their Souls than to cast them away upon the Delusion of such Reasonings as these 3. You next speak of Interpretations by Apostolical Tradition But are sober People capable of such a Bafflle as to lay their Salvation on a Dream that never had a Being Was there ever such a thing as an Interpretation of the Bible by Apostolical Tradition without which no Scripture must be interpreted Where is that Commentary that the World never knew and yet all must know it that will be saved Written it is not by Fathers Popes or Councils and if unwritten in whose Memory is it and how learnt they it Not in the Peoples nor the generality of Pastors for they that were most learned presume to write their private Interpretations and Commentaries never giving us the publick Commentary and take Liberty to differ about many hundred Texts among themselves and are not these then gross Delusions 4. You say the Church is a City set upon a Hill Christ speaks there of Preachers but let it be of the whole Church In good sadness can you believe that the Universality of Christians which is the true Catholick Church is not more conspicuous than the Papal Faction or any one particular Part Should your Sect be judged more visible than the
when it is a thing not requiâ—ed of the Infant but only that he be the Child of a Believer and by the Parent dedicated to God in Baptism and there engaged in his Covenant to Believe and Obey when he is capable Of the Cross in Baptism we have said more in due place but here only add that it is a very great disorder besides the other faults to express the Terms of the Covenant as signified by the Cross more fully than as signified by baptizing viz. We sign him with the sign of the Cross in tâ—ken that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ crucified and manfully to fight under his Banner against Sin the World and the Devil and to continue Christ's faithful Soldier and Servant unto his lives end Amen The Conclusion that the Child is Regenerate and the Thanksgiving for Regenerating it by the Spirit are doubly faulty First in concluding that all Children baptized are Regenerate when we admit those before mentioned whose Interest in the Covenant which Baptism sealeth cannot be proved that is such whose Parents can lay no just claim to the Grace of the Covenant At least here is a private Opinion thrust into our Liturgy Secondly in concluding all Infants regenerate by the Holy Ghost when so many Learned Divines think that it is but a Relative Regeneration that is ascertained them and the Controversie is yet undecided The Exhortation to the Godfathers and Godmothers imposeth on them the Duty of the Parents to see to the holy Education which ordinarily they cannot do nor are to be required to do nor is it ordinarily done and yet we go on in the abuse The concluding Rubrick hasteneth Children too soon to Confirmation contrary to some Clauses in the Rubrick for Confirmation Divers Defects besides these expressed will appear by comparing this part of the Common Prayer with the Forms which we offer In the Private Baptism it is disorderly to make the Godfathers and Godmothers renew solemnly the Covenant-Ingagement of the Child when before we are to certifie them that all is well done and according to due order and the solemnizing of the Covenant is the principal use of Baptism so that its doubtful whether the repeating of so great a part of Baptism be not a great part of Anbaptism And it is not orderly that twice we must say to the Godfathers and Godmothers Dost thou in the Name of this Child as if we spoke but to one of them and the third time we say Do you in his Name Also the Prayer of giving the Spirit to the Infant that he being born again seems to import the Effects of Baptism on Christ's part as understood by the Common Prayer Book to be not given by the Private Baptism In the Rubrick for Confirmation the Order that Children shall be Confirmed when they can say the Creed Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments and answer the Questions of the Catechism seems contrary to the first and third Reasons which require that Solemn Renewal or owning of their Covenant which ordinarily they are not ripe for of many years after they can say the Catechism And though we suppose the meaning was only to exclude the Necessity of any other Sacrament to baptized Infants yet these Words are dangerous as to mislead the Vulgar He shall know for a Truth that it is certain by God's Word that Children being baptized have all things necessary for their Salvation and be undoubtedly saved The meaning is ex parte Ecclesiae but it hath mislead many to think it is absolute and comprehendeth all things necessary in every respect In a Catechism where so many necessary Points are passed over it 's disorderly to put two such frivolous Questions in the beginning as What is your Name and Who gave you this Name In the Catechism there is omitted some of the Essential Attributes of God without which he cannot be rightly known There is also omitted the Doctrine of the Law made to Adam and of Man's Fall and the Doctrine of our Misery is insufficiently touched The Person Office and Properties of the Redeemer are so insufficiently opened as that we should think the Essentials of Christianity are omitted were it not that they are generally at least expressed in the Creed it self which is more full than the Explication of it There is no mention of the Holy Scriptures in it and the Doctrine of the Covenant of Grace is very defectively expressed and so is the Doctrine of Sanctification and other parts of the Work of the Holy Ghost and the whole Doctrine of God's Judgment and Execution and that of Man's Duty and even the Nature and Use of the Sacraments in which it is fullest as will appear by a true comparing it with what we offer The Prayers and Administration of Confirmation suppose all the Children brought to be Confirmed to have the Spirit of Christ and the forgiveness of all their Sins whereas a great number of Children at that Age that we say not the far greater part do live a carnal careless Life and shew no Love to God above all no prevalent Self-denial Mortification nor Faith in Christ and Heavenly-mindedness nor serious Repentance for the Life of Sin which they continue in after Baptism Therefore to these Children Confirmation is not to be Administred till besides the saying of the Catechism they make a credible Profession of Faith Repentance and Obedience And to them that do not thus Confirmation is a gross and perillous Abuse In the concluding Rubrick there is no care taken for the multitude that being past Childhood understand not what it is to be a Christian who also have need of Catechizing In Matrimony these Words For be ye well assured that so many as be coupled together otherwise than God's Word doth allow are not joined together by God neither is their Matrimony Lawful do dangerously speak that of Irregularities in General which is true only of some greater Faults that are contrary to the Essentials of Matrimony For in many Cases quod fieri non debet factum valet The Ring should not be forced on those that scruple it The obsolete Phrases With my Body I thee Worship c. should be changed The Prayers at the Table are disorderly Repetitions not delivering that in many Words which may be exprest in few It is unfit to keep all Persons unmarried that are unmeet for the Communion being Infidels and unbaptized and prophane Persons may marry and it is unmeet to force such to receive the Communion the same Day that they Marry If it were requisite to put the private Work of visiting the Sick into the publick Liturgy of the Church yet the Variety of the Cases of the Sick is such that these Forms are not suitable to all In the Communion of the Sick the ancient Custom of the Church was where time and place allowed it to send the Deacon to the Sick at the time of the Celebration with a Portion of the
Worship And further considering the great Age of some Ministers and Infirmities of others and the variety of several Services oft-times concurring upon the same day whereby it may be inexpedient to require every Minister at all times to read the whole It may be left to the discretion of the Minister to omit part of it as occasion shall require which liberty we find to be allowed even in the first Common Prayer Book of Edward 6. 8. That in regard of the many Defects which have been observed in that Version of the Scriptures which is used throughout the Liturgy manifold Instances whereof may be produced as in the Epistle for the first Sunday after Epiphany taken out of Romans 12. 1. Be ye changed in your shape And the Epistle for the Sunday next before Easter taken out of Philippians 2. 5. Found in his apparel as a man as also the Epistle for the fourth Sunday in Lent taken out of the fourth of the Galatians Mount Sinai is Agar in Arabia and bordereth upon the City which is now called Ierusalem The Epistle for St. Matthew's Day taken out of the second Epistle of Corinth and the 4th We go not out of Kind The Gospel for the second Sunday after Epiphany taken out of the second of Iohn When Men be drunk The Gospel for the third Sunday in Lent taken out of the 11th of Luke One House doth fall upon another The Gospel for the Annunciation taken out of the first of Luke This is the sixth Month which was called barren and many other places we therefore desire instead thereof the New Translation allowed by Authority may alone be used 9. That inasmuch as the holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto Salvation to furnish us throughly unto all good Works and contain in them all things necessary either in Doctrine to be believed or in Duty to be practised whereas divers Chapters of the Apocryphal Books appointed to be read are Charged to be in both respects of dubious and uncertain credit It is therefore desired that nothing be read in the Church for Lessons but the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament 10. That the Minister be not required to rehearse any part of the Liturgy at the Communion-Table save only those parts which properly belong to the Lord's Supper and that at such times only when the said holy Supper is administred 11. That as the Word Minister and not Priest or Curate is used in the Absolution and in divers other places it may throughout the whole Book be so used instead of those two Words and that instead of the Word Sunday the Word Lord's-day may be every where used 12. Because singing of Psalms is a considerable part of publick Worship we desire that the Version set forth and allowed to be sung in Churches may be amended or that we may have leave to make use of a purer Version 13. That all obsolete Words in the Common-Prayer and such whose use is changed from their first significancy as Aread used in the Gospel for the Monday and Wednesday before Easter Then opened he their Wits used in the Gospel for Easter Tuesday c. may be altered unto other Words generally received and better understood 14. That no Portions of the Old Testament or of the Acts of the Apostles be called Epistles and read as such 15. That whereas throughout the several Offices the Phrase is such as presumes all Persons within the Communion of the Church to be regenerated converted and in an actual state of Grace which had Ecclesiastical Discipline been truly and vigorously executed in the Exclusion of Scandalous and obstinate Sinners might be better supposed But there having been and still being a confessed want of that as in the Liturgy is acknowledged it cannot be rationally admitted in the utmost Latitude of Charity We desire that this may be reformed 16. That whereas orderly Connection of Prayers and of particular Petitions and Expressions together with a competent length of the Forms used are tending much to Edification and to gain the reverence of People to them There appears to us too great a neglect of both of this Order and of other just Laws of Method Particularly 1. The Collects are generally short many of them consisting but of one or at most two Sentences of Petition and these generally ushered in with a repeated mention of the Name and Attributes of God and presently concluding with the Name and Merits of Christ whence are caused many unnecessary Intercisions and Abruptions which when many Petitions are to be offered at the same time are neither agreeable to Scriptural Examples nor suited to the Gravity and Seriousness of that Holy Duty 2. The Prefaces of many Collects have not any clear and special Respect to the following Petitions and particular Petitions are put together which have not any due Order nor evident Connection one with another nor suitableness with the Occasions upon which they are used but seem to have fallen in rather casually than from an orderly Contrivance It is desired that instead of those various Collects there may be one methodical and intire form of Prayer composed out of many of them 17. That whereas the publick Liturgy of a Church should in reason comprehend the Summ of all such Sins as are ordinarily to be confessed in Prayer by the Church and of such Petitions and Thanksgivings as are ordinarily by the Church to be put up to God and the publick Catechisms or Systems of Doctrine should summarily comprehend all such Doctrines as are necessary to be believed and these explicitly set down The present Liturgy as to all these seems very defective Particularly 1. There is no preparatory Prayer in our Address to God for Assistance or Acceptance yet many Collects in the midst of the Worship have little or nothing else 2. The Confession is very defective not clearly expressing original Sin nor sufficiently enumerating actual Sins with their Aggravations but consisting only of Generals Whereas confession being the Exercise of Repentance ought to be more particular 3. There is also a great Defect as to such Forms of publick Praise and Thanksgiving as are suitable to Gospel-worship 4. The whole Body of the Common-Prayer also consisteth very much of meer Generals as To have our Prayers heard to be kept from all Evil and from all Enemies and all Adversity that we might do God's Will without any mention of the Particulars in which these Generals exist 5. The Catechism is defective as to many necessary Doctrines of our Religion some even of the Essentials of Christianity not mentioned except in the Creed and there not so explicite as ought to be in a Catechism 18. Because this Liturgy containeth the Imposition of divers Ceremonies which from the first Reformation have by sundry learned and pious Men been judged unwarrantable as 1. That Publick Worship may not be celebrated by any Minister that dare not wear a Surpless 2. That none may baptise nor be
nor Seditious but a People that quietly followed their hard Labour and learned the Holy Scriptures and lived a holy blameless Life in Humility and Peace with all Men and never had any Sect or separated Party among them but abhorred all Faction and Sidings in Religion and lived in Love and Christian Unity Yet when the Bishop was gone the Dean came and preached about three hours or near to cure them of the Admiration of my Person and a month after came again and preached over the same perswading the People that they were Presbyterians and Schismatical and were led to it by their over-valuing of me The People admired at the temerity of these Men and really thought that they were scarce well in their Wits that would go on to speak things so far from truth of Men whom they never knew and that to their own faces Many have gone about by backbiting to make People believe a false report of others but few will think to perswade any to believe it of themselves who know themselves much better than the Reprover doth Yet besides all this their Lecturers were to go on in the same strain and one Mr. Pitt who lived in Sir Iohn Packington's House with Dr. Hammond was often at this work being of the Judgment and Spirit of Dr. Gunning and Dr. Pierce calling them Presbyterians Rebellious Serpents and Generation of Vipers unlikely to scape the Damnation of Hell yet knowing not his Accusation to be true of one Man of them For there was but one if one Presbyterian in the Town but plain honest People that minded nothing but Piety Unity Charity and their Callings This dealing instead of winning them to the Preacher drove them from the Lecture and then as I said they accused the People as deserting it and put it down § 252. For this ordinary Preacher they set up one of the best parts they could get was far from what his Patrons spake him to be who was quickly a weary and went away And next they set up a poor dry Man that had been a School-master near us and after a little time he died And since they have taken another Course and set up a young Man the best they can get who taketh the contrary way to the first and over-applaudeth me in the Pulpit to them and speaketh well of them and useth them kindly And they are glad of one that hath some Charity And thus the Bishop hath used that Flock who say that till then they never knew so well what a Bishop was nor were before so guilty of that dislike of Episcopacy of which they were so frequently and vehemently accused I hear not of one person among them who is won to the Love of Prelacy or Formality since my removal § 253. Having parted with my dear Flock I need not say with mutual sense and tears I left Mr. Baldwin to live privately among them and oversee them in my stead and visit them from House to House advising them notwithstanding all the Injuries they had received and all the Failings of the Ministers that preached to them and the Defects of the present Way of Worship that yet they should keep to the Publick Assemblies and make use of such Helps as might be had in Publick together with their private Helps Only in three Cases to absent themselves 1. When the Minister was one that was utterly insufficient as not being able to teach them the Articles of the Faith and Essentials of true Religion such as alas they had known to their sorrow 2. When the Minister preached any Heresie or Doctrine which was directly contrary to any Article of the Faith or necessary part of Godliness 3. When in the Application he set himself gainst the Ends of his Office to make a holy Life seem odious and to keep Men from it and to promote the Interest of Satan Yet not to take every bitter Reflection upon themselves or others occasioned by difference of Opinion or Interest to be a sufficient Cause to say that the Minister preacheth against Godliness or to withdraw themselves § 254. When I was gone from them I wrote not a Letter to them past onec in a year left it should bring Suffering upon them the Cause also why I removed my Dwelling from them was because they apprehended themselves that my presence would have been their ruine as to Liberty and Estates For had they but received a Letter from me any displeasing thing that they had done would have been imputed to that As for instance not long after there came out the Act that all that had any Place of Trust in Cities Corporations or Countreys should be put out unless they declared that they held That there is no Obligation lying upon them or any other person from the Oath called The Solemn League and Covenant Hereupon all the Thirteen Capital Burgesses Bailiff Justice and all save one that had been an Officer in the King's Army were turned out though I suppose never any more than two or three of them took the Oath and Covenant themselves and almost all the 25 inferiour Burgesses were turned out with them Whereupon it was charged upon them that I had perswaded them to refuse this Declaration till it was manifest that I had never once spoke a word to them about it nor written one Line to them about that or anything else of a long time At such a distance were we forced to remain § 255. After a short time the Lord Windsor who was Lord Lieutenant of the County and Governour of Iamaica bought a House in the Town and lived among them as most thought to watch over them as a dangerous People which turned to their great Relief For before his coming they were many of them imprisoned and hardly used but when he lived among them and saw their honesty and innocency they have had Three years of as great quietness and liberty as any place I know in the Land When he first came thither I was there and went to wait upon him and told him truly that I was glad of his coming for my Neighbour's sakes for an innocent People are never so safe as under their Governour 's Eye seeing Slanders have their power most on strangers that are unacquainted with the persons or the things § 256. Just at the time that the Bishop was Silencing me it was famed at London that I was in the North in the Head of a Rebellion And at Kidderminster I was accused because there was a Meeting of many Ministers at my House which was no more than they knew had been their constant Custom many a year to visit me or dine with me And while we were at Dinner it fell out that by publick Order the Covenant was to be burnt in the Market-place and it was done under my Window and the Attendance was so small that we knew not of it till afterwards Yet because I had preached the Morning before which as I remember was my
est ut res ita tempora rerum c. The Lord Bacon nameth Four Causes of Atheism 1. Many Divisions in Religion 2. The Scandal of Priests 3. A Custom of Prophane Scoffing about Holy Matters 4. Corrupting prosperity Essay 16. p. 91. * Mr. Mitchel as it s said And since this Mr. Elliot of New-England hath sent me a printed Paper of his own contriving a Healing Form of Synods for constant Communion of particular Churches * This is since published She is since married to the Earl of Argyle * Of what is since published see after-ward * Since printed twice * Since printed Since printed as Directions for weak Christians * Now dead * Publisht since the Author's Death by Mr. Ios. Read * Since Printed * Since Printed * Archbishop Bilâ—on frequently and fully professeth See this matter fully cleared in Le Blancis Thesis * 〈…〉 In the Appendâ—x Pardon the tediousness of three or four Sections which repeat some of that which was mentioned before because it is here put in as part of my Pacificatory Endeavours only Though the Conjunction of the matter caused me to speak together of these things yet the matter of this Section and the following was for time about two or three Years after that which followeth In Ian. 1659. the Committee of Parliament the Rump as they were called Voted Liberty of Religion for all not excepting Papists Feb. 28. 1655 6. * This Writing being some how or other mistard cannot as yet be found March 10. 16â—9 A Petition was sent up from Worcestershire to have 〈◊〉 the Long Parliament â—ate till they had done that for King and Church and Country which they were restored for But it was not delivered because Mâ—â—k that recalled them was otherwise benâ— March 16. The Long Parliament â—â—â—tlolâ—ed it self March 25. Dr. Hammond died The last Day of April 1660. I preached to the Parliament May 1. 1660. the Parliament owned the King and voted his Recall This was in the end of Nov. 1660. Iune 25. 1660. I was Sworn the King's Chaplain in Ordinary This was put in because the serious practice of Religion had been made the common Scorn and a few Christians praying or repeating a Sermon together had been persecuted by some Prelates as a heinous Crime This was added because we knew what had been done and was like to be done again This was added because that the utter neglect of Discipline by the over-hot Prelates had caused all our Perplexities and Confusions and in this Point is the chiefest part of our Difference with them indeed and not about Ceremonies This was added because abundance of Ministers had been cast out in the Prelates Days for not reading publickly a Book which allowed Dancing and such Sports on the Lord's Day a a The Form of ordering of Priests b b Ibidem Acts 20 17 18. * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so taken Matth. 2. 6. Rev. 12. â— 19. 15 c c Rev. 2. 1. e e Ibidem etiam exhortationes castigationes censurae divinae nam indicatur magno cum pondere ut apud certos de Dei conspectu summumque futuri Iudicii praejudicium esse Si quis ita deliquerit ut a communione orationis conventus omnis Sancti commercii relegatur Praesident probati quique seniores hoc norem istum non precio sed testimonio adepti Tert. Apol. Cap. 39. f f Nec de aliorum manibus quam praesidentium sumimus idem de corona militis Cap. 3. g g Dandi quidem baptismi habet jus Summus Sacerdos qui est Episcopus desint Presbyteri Diaconi Idem de Baptismo Cap. 17. h h Omni actu ad me periâ—to 〈◊〉 coâ—trahi Presbyterium Cornel apud Cyprian Epis. 46. i i Florentissimâ— illi clero lecum praesidenti Cyprian Epist. 55. ad Cornel. k k Vt Episcopus nullus caâ—â—sam audiat absque presentiâ clericorum suorum alioquin irrita erit sententia Episcopi nisi clericorum presentiâ confirmetur Concil Carthag 4. Cap. 23. l l Encerption Egberti Cap. 43. m m 15. qu. 7. Cap. Nullus The Parochial Government answerable to the Church-Session in Scotland The Presbyterical or Monthly Synods answerable to the Scottish Presbytery or Ecclesiastical Meeting Diocesane Synods answerable to the provincial Synods in Scotland * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. Superintendentes unde nomen Episcopi tractum est Hieron Epist. 85. ad Evagrium See Queen Elizabeth's Injunctions and our 39 Articles This is spoken of the Old Common Prayer Book and not of the New where the Doctrine in point of Infants Salvation is changed All this enclosed part was left out of the Petition as presented to his Majesty This only being inserted in the room of it And on the contrary should we lose the Opportunity of our desired Reconciliation and Union it astonisheth us to foresee what doleful Effects our Divisions would produce which we will not so much as mention in particulars lest our Words should be misunderstood And seeing all this may safely and easily now be prevented we humbly beseech the Lord in Mercy to vouchsafe to your Majesty an Heart to discern a right of Time and Judgment * * This was thus expressed in the Petition that was presented not presuming to meddle with the Consciences of those many of the Nobility and Gentry c. ††What follows in this double inclosure was omitted in the Copy presented this only being inserted in the room of it We only crave your Majesty's Clemency to our selves and others who believe themselves to be under its Obligations And God forbid that we that are Ministers of the Word of Truth should do any thing to encourage your Majesty's Subjects to cast off the Conscience of an Oath * * This enclosed part was quite left out of the Copy that was presented * Dr. Wallis Declar. p. 11. p. 11. p. 11. p. 12. p. 12. p. 12. p. 12. p. 13. p. 14. This occasioned Mr. Durel after to say how hardly I was persuaded to let go the Place * But since it is licensed and printed called Directions for weak Christians c. Mr. Hales * Since Bishops of Chester Ely and Norwich upon enquiry of the Inhabitants since I understand that it is no such thing but that Aylesbury was well supplied either by a setled Incumbent or the Preacher of the Garison For somewhat the like Passage see Rushw. Hist. Callect 3 part Vol. 1. 134. Our Arguments Their Answer Note this great Bishop's Acquaintance with Antiquity * Here we had a great Debate they should have proved their penal Imposition lawful but I could get them to no more * This was a mistake in the Speaker or the Scribe * Frewen * Since of his death he made it his request that the ejected Ministers might be used again but his request was rejected by them that had overwitted him as being too late * Referring to something that past
him as knowing no better my self and it suited well with my Parents minds who were willing to have me as near to them as possible having no Children but my self And so I left my School-master for a supposed Tutor But when I had tried him I found my self deceived his business was to please the Great Ones and seek Preferment in the World and to that end found it necessary sometimes to give the Puritans a flirt and call them unlearned and speak much for Learning being but a Superficial Scholar of himself He never read to me nor used any savoury Discourse of Godliness only he loved me and allowed me Books and Time enough So that as I had no considerable helps from him in my Studies so had I no considerable hinderance And though the House was great there being four Judges the King's Attorney the Secretary the Clerk of the Fines with all their Servanâ—s and all the Lord President 's Servants and many more and though the Town was full of Temptations through the multitude of Persons Counseâ—lors Attorneys Officers and Clerks and much given to tipling and excess it pleased God not only to keep me from them but also to give me one intimate Companion who was the greatest help to my Seriousness in Religion that ever I had before and was a daily Watchman over my Soul We walk'd together we read together we prayed together and when we could we lay together And having been brought out of great Distress to Prosperity and his Affections being fervent though his Knowledge not great he would be always stirring me up to Zeal and Diligence and even in the Night would rise up to Prayer and Thanksgiving to God and wonder that I could sleep so that the thoughts of God's Mercy did not make me also to do as he did He was unwearied in reading all serious Practical Books of Divinity especially Perkins Bolton Dr. Preston Elton Dr. Taylor Whately Harris c. He was the first that ever I heard pray Ex tempore out of the Pulpit and that taught me so to pray And his Charity and Liberality was equal to his Zeal so that God made him a great means of my good who had more knowledge than he but a colder heart Yet before we had been Two years acquainted he fell once and a second time by the power of Temptation into a degree of Drunkenness which so terrified him upon the review especially after the second time that he was near to Despair and went to good Ministers with sad Confessions And when I had left the House and his Company he fell into it again and again so oft that at last his Conscience could have no Relief or Ease but in changing his Judgment and disowning the Teachers and Doctrines which had restrained him And he did it on this manner One of his Superiours on whom he had dependance was a man of great Sobriety and Temperance and of much Devotion in his way but very zealous against the Nonconformists ordinarily talking most bitterly against them and reading almost only such Books as encouraged him in this way By converse with this Man my Friend was first drawn to abate his Charity to Nonconformists and then to think and speak reproachfully of them and next that to dislike all those that came near them and to say that such as Bolton were too severe and enough to make men mad And the last I heard of him was that he was grown a Fudler and Railer at strict men But whether God recovered him or what became of him I cannot tell § 5. From Ludlow Castle after a year and half I returned to my Father's House and by that time my old School-master Mr. Iohn Owen was sick of a Consumption which was his Death and the Lord Newport desired me to teach that School till he either recovered or died resolving to take his Brother after him if he died which I did about a quarter of a year or more After that old Mr. Francis Garbett the faithful learned Minister at Wroxeter for about a Month read Logick to me and provoked me to a closer Course of Study which yet was greatly interrupted by my bodily weakness and the troubled Condition of my Soul For being in expectation of Death by a violent Cough with Spitting of Blood c. of two years continuance supposed to be a deep degree of a Consumption I was yet more awakened to be serious and solicitous about my Soul 's everlasting State And I came so short of that sense and seriousness which a Matter of such infinite weight required that I was in many years doubt of my Sincerity and thought I had no Spiritual Life at all I wondred at the sensless hardness of my heart that could think and talk of Sin and Hell and Christ and Grace of God and Heaven with no more feeling I cried out from day to day to God for Grace against this sensless Deadness I called my self the most hard hearted Sinner that could feel nothing of all that I knew and talkt of I was not then sensible of the incomparable Excellency of Holy Love and Delight in God nor much imployed in Thanksgiving and Praise But all my Groans were for more Contrition and a broken Heart and I prayed most for Tears and Tenderness And thus I complained for many Years to God and Man and between the Expectations of Death and the Doubts of my own Sincerity in Grace I was kept in some more care of my Salvation than my Nature too stupid and too far from Melancholy was easily brought to At this time I remember the reading of Mr. Ezek. Culverwell's Treatise of Faith did me much good and many other excellent Books were made my Teachers and Comforters And the use that God made of Books above Ministers to the benefit of my Soul made me somewhat excessively in love with good Books so that I thought I had never â—now but scrap'd up as great a Treasure of them as I could Thus was I long kept with the Calls of approaching Death at one Ear and the Questionings of a doubtful Conscience at the other and since then I have found that this method of God's was very wise and no other was so like to have tended to my good These Benefits of it I sensibly perceived 1. It made me vile and loathsome to my self and made Pride one of the hatefullest Sins in the World to me I thought of my self as I now think of a detestable Sinner and my Enemy that is with a Love of Benevolence wishing them well but with little Love of Complacency at all And the long continuance of it tended the more effectually to a habit 2. It much restrained me from that sportful Levity and Vanity which my Nature and Youthfulness did much incline me to and caused me to meet Temptations to Sensuality with the greatest fear and made them less effectual against me 3. It made the Doctrine of Redemption the more savoury to me and my
thoughts of Christ to be more serious and regardful than before they were I remember in the beginning how savoury to my reading was Mr. Perkin's short Treatise of the Right Knowledge of Christ crucified and his Exposition of the Creed because they taught me how to live by Faith on Christ. 4. It made the World seem to me as a Carkass that had neither Life nor Loveliness And it destroyed those Ambitious desires after Literate Fame which was the Sin of my Childhood I had a desire before to have attained the highest Academical Degrees and Reputation of Learning and to have chosen out my Studies accordingly but Sickness and Solicitousness for my doubting Soul did shame away all these Thoughts as Fooleries and Childrens Plays 5. It set me upon that Method of My Studies which since then I have found the benefit of though at the time I was not satisfied with my self It caused me first to seek God's Kingdom and his Righteousness and most to mind the One thing needful and to determine first of my Ultimate End by which I was engaged to choose out and prosecute all other Studies but as meant to that end Therefore Divinity was not only carried on with the rest of my Studies with an equal hand but always had the first and chiefest place And it caused me to study Practical Divinity first in the most Practical Books in a Practical Order doing all purposely for the informing and reforming of my own Soul So that I had read a multitude of our English Practical Treatises before I had ever read any other Bodies of Divinity than Ursine and Amesius or two or three more By which means my Affection was carried on with my Judgment And by that means I prosecuted all my Studies with unweariedness and delight And by that means all that I read did stick the better in my memory and also less of my time was lost by lazy intermissions but my bodily Infirmities always caused me to loâ—e or spend much of it in Motion and Corporal Exercises which was sometimes by Walking and sometimes at the Plow and such Country Labours But one loss I had by this Method which hath proved irreparable That I mist that part of Learning which stood at the greatest distance in my thoughts from my Ultimate End though no doubt but remotely it may be a valuable means and I could never since find time to get it Besides the Latin Tongue and but a mediocrity in Greek with an inconsiderable trial at the Hebrew long after I had no great skill in Languages Though I saw than an accurateness and thorow inâ—ight in the Greek and Hebrew were very desirable but I was so eagerly carried after the Knowledge of Things that I too much neglected the study of Words And for the Mathematicks I was an utter stranger to them and never could find in my heart to divert any Studies that way But in order to the Knowledge of Divinity my inclination was most to Logick and Metaphysicks with that part Physicks which treateth of the Soul contenting my self at first with a slighter study of the rest And these had my Labour and Delight Which occasioned me perhaps too soon to plunge my self very early into the study of Controversies and to read all the School men I could get for next Practical Divinity no Books so suited with my Disposition as Aquinus Scotus Durandus Ockam and their Disciples because I thought they narrowly searched after Truth and brought Things out of the darkness of Confusion For I could never from my first Studies endure Confusion Till Equivocals were explained and Definition and Distinction led the way I had rather hold my Tongue than speak and was never more weary of Learned Mens Discourses than when I heard them long wrangling about unexpounded Words or Things and eagerly Disputing before they understood each others Minds and vehemently asserting Modes and Consequences and Adjuncts before they considered of the Quod sit the Quid sit or the Quotuplex I never thought I understood any thing till I could anatomize it and see the parts distinctly and the Conjunction of the parts as they make up the whole Distinction and Method seemed to me of that necessity that without them I could not be said to know and the Disputes which forsook them or abused them seem but as incoherant Dreams § 6. And as for those Doubts of my own Salvation which exercised me many years the chiefest Causes of them were these 1. Because I could not distinctly trace the Workings of the Spirit upon my heart in that method which Mr. Bolton Mr. Hooker Mr. Rogers and other Divines describe nor knew the Time of my Conversion being wrought on by the forementioned Degrees But since then I understood that the Soul is in too dark and passionate a plight at first to be able to keep an exact account of the order of its own Operations and that preparatory Grace being sometimes longer and sometimes shorter and the first degree of Special Grace being usually very small it is not possible that one of very many should be able to give any true account of the just Time when Special Grace began and advanced him above the state of Preparation 2. My second Doubt was as aforesaid because of the hardness of my heart or want of such lively Apprehensions of Things Spiritual which I had about Things Corporal And though I still groan under this as my sin and want yet I now perceive that a Soul in Flesh doth work so much after the manner of the Flesh that it much desireth sensible Apprehensions but Things Spiritual and Distant are not so apt to work upon them and to stir the Passions as Things present and sensible are especially being known so darkly as the state and operations of separated Souls are known to us who are in the Body And that the Rational Operations of the higher Faculties the Intellect and Will may without so much passion set God and Things Spiritual highest within us and give them the preheminence and subject all Carnal Interest to them and give them the Government of the Heart and Life and that this is the ordinary state of a Believer 3. My next Doubt was left Education and Fear had done all that ever was done upon my Soul and Regeneration and Love were yet to seek because I had found Convictions from my Childhood and found more Fear than Love in all my Duties and Restraints But I afterward perceived that Education is God's ordinary way for the Conveyance of his Grace and ought no more to be set in opposition to the Spirit than the preaching of the Word and that it was the great Mercy of God to begin with me so soon and to prevent such sins as else might have been my shame and sorrow while I lived and that Repentance is good but Prevention and Innocence is better which though we cannot attain in perfection yet the more the better And I understood that
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