enter into a mutual and solemn League and Covenant wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himself with our hands lifted up to the most high God do swear I. THat we shall sincerely really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavour in our several places and callings the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common Enemies The Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches And shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church Government Directory for Worship and Catechizing That we and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us II. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues and that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms III. We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our several Vocations endeavour with our Estates and Lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the King's Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms that the world may bear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majestie 's just power and greatness IV. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindring the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his people or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any faction or parties amongst the people contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publick Trial and receive condign punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the Supream Judicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient V. And whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denied in former times to our Progenitours is by the good Providence of God granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and settled by both Parliaments we shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavour that they may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and union to all Posterity And that Justice may be done upon the wilfull opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Articles VI. We shall also according to our places and callings in this common cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Union and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this cause which so much concerneth the glory of God the good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King but shall all the days of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all lets and impediments whatsoever and what we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall do as in the sight of God And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against God and his Son Iesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We profess and declare before God and the world our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sins and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts nor to walk worthy of him in our lives which are the causes of our sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst us And our true and unfeigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all duties we owe to God and man to amend our lives and each one to go before another in the example of a real Reformation that the Lord may turn away his wrath and heavy indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in truth and peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God the searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at that great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his holy Spirit for this end and to bless our desires and proceedings with such success as may be deliverance and safety to his people and encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of the yoke of Antichristian tyranny to joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant to the glory of God the enlargement of the Kingdom of Iesus Christ and the peace and tranquillity of Christian Kingdoms and Commonwealths The Negatie Oath I A. B. do swear from my heart That I will not directly nor indirectly adhere unto or willingly assist the King in this War or in this Cause against the Parliament nor any Forces raised without the consent of the two Houses of Parliament in this Cause or War And I do likewise swear That my coming and submitting my self under the Power and Protection of the Parliament is without any manner of Design whatsoever to the prejudice of the proceedings of this present Parliament and without the direction privity or advice of the King or any of his Council or Officers other than what I have now made known So help me God and the Contents of this Book Reasons why the Vniversity of Oxford cannot submit to the Covenant the Negative Oath the Ordinance concerning Discipline and Directory mentioned in the late Ordinance of Parliament for the Visitation of that place WHereas by an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for the Visitation and Reformation of the University
was That he declin'd reading many but what he did read were well chosen and read so often that he became very familiar with them and said they were chiefly three Aristotle's Rhetorick Aquinas's Secunda Secundae and Tully but chiefly his Offices which he had not read over less than 20 times and could at this Age say without Book And told him also the learned Civilian Doctor Zouch who died lately had writ Elementa jurisprudentiae which was a Book that he could also say without Book and that no wise man could read it too often or love or commend too much and told him these had been his toyl But for himself he always had a natural love to Genealogies and Heraldry and that when his thoughts were harassed with any perplext Studies he left off and turned to them as a recreation and that his very recreation had made him so perfect in them that he could in a very short time give an account of the Descent Arms Antiquity of any Family of the Nobility or Gentry of this Nation Before I give an account of Dr. Sanderson's last sickness I desire to tell the Reader that he was of a healthful constitution chearful and mild of an even temper very moderate in his diet and had had little sickness till some few years before his death but was then every Winter punish'd with a Diarrhea which left him not till warm weather return'd and remov'd it And this distemper did as he grew elder seize him oftner and continue longer with him But though it weakned him yet it made him rather indispos'd than sick and did no way disable him from studying indeed too much In this decay of his strength but not of his memory or reason for this distemper works not upon the understanding he made his last Will of which I shall give some account for confirmation of what hath been said and what I think convenient to be known before I declare his death and burial He did in his last Will give an account of his Faith and Perswasion in point of Religion and Church Government in these very words I Robert Sanderson Dr. of Divinity an unworthy Minister of Iesus Christ and by the providence of God Bishop of Lincoln being by the long continuance of an habitual distemper brought to a great bodily weakness and faintness of spirits but by the great mercy of God without any bodily pain otherwise or decay of understanding do make this my Will and Testament written all with my own hand revoking all former Wills by me heretofore made if any such shall be found First I commend my Soul into the hands of Almighty God as of a faithful Creator which I humbly beseech him mercifully to accept looking upon it not as it is in it self infinitely polluted with sin but as it is redeemed and purged with the precious blood of his only beloved Son and my most sweet Saviour Iesus Christ in confidence of whose merits and mediation alone it is that I cast my self upon the mercy of God for the pardon of my sins and the hopes of eternal life And here I do profess that as I have lived so I desire and by the grace of God resolve to dye in the Communion of the Catholick Church of Christ and a true Son of the Church of England which as it stands by Law established to be both in Doctrine and Worship agreeable to the Word of God and in the most and most material Points of both conformable to the faith and practice of the godly Churches of Christ in the primitive and purer times I do firmly believe led so to do not so much from the force of custom and education to which the greatest part of mankind owe their particular different perswasions in point of Religion as upon the clear evidence of truth and reason after a serious and unpartial examination of the grounds as well of Popery as Puritanism according to that measure of understanding and those opportunities which God hath afforded me and herein I am abundantly satisfied that the Schism which the Papists on the one hand and the Superstition which the Puritan on the other hand lay to our charge are very justly chargeable upon themselves respectively Wherefore I humbly beseech Almighty God the Father of Mercies to preserve the Church by his power and providence in peace truth and godliness evermore to the worlds end which doubtless he will do if the wickedness and security of a sinful people and particularly those sins that are so rise and seem daily to increase among us of Unthankfulness Riot and Sacriledge do not tempt his patience to the contrary And I also farther humbly beseech him that it would please him to give unto our gracious Sovereign the Reverend Bishops and the Parliament timely to consider the great danger that visibly threatens this Church in point of Religion by the late great increase of Popery and in point of Revenue by sacrilegious enclosures and to provide such wholesome and effectual remedies as may prevent the same before it be too late And for a further manifestation of his humble thoughts and desires they may appear to the Reader by another part of his Will which follows As for my corruptible Body I bequeath it to the Earth whence it was taken to be decently buried in the Parish Church of Bugden towards the upper end of the Chancel upon the second or at the farthest the third day after my decease and that with as little noise pomp and charge as may be without the invitation of any person how near soever related unto me other than the Inhabitants of Bugden without the unnecessary expence of Escocheons Gloves Ribons c. and without any Blacks to be hung any where in or about the House or Church other than a Pulpit Cloth a Hearse Cloth and a Mourning Gown for the Preacher whereof the former after my Body shall be interred to be given to the Preacher of the Funeral Sermon and the latter to the Curat of the Parish for the time being And my will further is That the Funeral Sermon be preached by my own Houshold Chaplain containing some wholesome discourse concerning Mortality the Resurrection of the Dead and the last Iudgment and that he shall have for his pains 5 l. upon condition that he speak nothing at all concerning my person either good or ill other than I my self shall direct only signifying to the Auditory that it was my express will to have it so And it is my will that no costly Monument be erected for my memory but only a fair flot Marble stone to be laid over me with this Inscription in legible Roman Characters Depositum Roberti Sanderson nuper Linâ—â—lniencis Episcopi qui obiit Anno Domini MDCLXII aetatis suae septuagesimo sexto Hic requiescit in spe beatae resurrectionis This manner of burial although I cannot but foresee it will prove unsatisfactory to sundry my nearest Friends and Relations and be
be medling again The respect I bore to his person and great learning and the long acquaintance I had had with him in Oxford drew me to the reading of that whole Book But from the reading of it for I read it through to a syllable I went away with many and great dissatisfactions Sundry things in that Book I took notice of which brought me into a greater dislike of his Opinion than I had before But especially these three First that he bottometh very much of his Discourse upon a very erroneous Principle which yet he seemeth to be so deeply in love with that he hath repeated it I verily believe some hundreds of times in that work to wit this That whatsoever is first in the intention is last in execution and è converso Which is an Error of that magnitude that I cannot but wonder how a person of such acuteness and subtilty of wit could possibly be deceived with it All Logicians know there is no such universal Maxim as he buildeth upon The true Maxim is but this Finis qui primus est in Intentione est ultimus in Executione In the order of final Causes and the Means used for that end the Rule holdeth perpetually But in other things it holdeth not at all or but by chance or not as a Rule and necessarily Secondly that foreseeing such Consequences would naturally and necessarily follow from his Opinion as would offend the ear of a sober Christian at the very first sound he would yet rather choose not only to admit the said harsh Consequences but professedly indeavour also to maintain them and plead hard for them in large Digressions than to recede in the least from that opinion which he had undertaken to defend Thirdly that seeing out of the sharpness of his wit a necessity of forsaking the ordinary Sublapsarian way and the Supralapsarian too as it had diversly been declared by all that had gone before him for the shunning of those Rocks which either of those ways must unavoidably cast him upon he was forced to seek out an untroden Path and to frame out of his own brain a new way like a Spider's web wrought out of her own bowels hoping by that device to salve all Absurdities could be objected to wit by making the glory of God as it is indeed the chiefest so the only end of all other his Decrees and then making all those other Decrees to be but one entire coordinate Medium conducing to that one end and so the whole subordinate to it but not any one part thereof subordinate to any other of the same Dr. Twiss should have done well to have been more sparing in imputing the studium Partium to others wherewith his own eyes though of eminent perspicacity were so strangely blindfolded that he could not discern how this his new Device and his old dearly beloved Principle like the Cadmean Sparti do mutually destroy the one the other This Relation of my pass'd thoughts having spun out to a far greater length than I intended I shall give a shorter accompt of what they now are concerning these points For which account I referr you to the following parts of Dr. Hammonds Book aforesaid where you may find them already printed And for another account at large of Bishop Sanderson's last Judgment concerning God's Concurrence or Non-concurrence with the Actions of men and the positive entity of sins of commission I referr you to his Letters already printed by his consent in my large Appendix to my Impartial inquiry into the Nature of Sin §. 68 p. 193. as far as p. 200. Sir I have rather made it my choice to transcribe all above out of the Letters of Dr. Sanderson which lie before me than venture the loss of my Originals by Post or Carrier which though not often yet sometimes fail Make use of as much or as little as you please of what I send you from himself because from his own Letters to me in the penning of his life as your own Prudence shall direct you using my name for your warranty in the account given of him as much or as little as you please too You have a performance of my promise and an obedience to your desires from North-Tidworth March 5. 1677 8 Your affectionate humble Servant Tho. Pierce THE BISHOP OF LINCOLN'S LETTER My worthy Friend Mr. Walton I Am heartily glad that you have undertaken to write the Life of that excellent person and both for learning and piety eminent Prelate Dr. Sanderson late Bishop of Lincoln because I know your ability to know and integrity to write truth and sure I am that the life and actions of that pious and learned Prelate will afford you matter enough for his commendation and the imitation of Posterity In order to the carrying on your intended good work you desire my assistance that I would communicate to you such particular passages of his life as were certainly known to me I confess I had the happiness to be particularly known to him for about the space of 20 years and in Oxon to injoy his conversation and his learned and pious Instructions while he was Regius Professor of Divinity there Afterwards when in the time of our late unhappy confusions he left Oxon and was retir'd into the Countrey I had the benefit of his Letters wherein with great candor and kindness he answered those doubts I propos'd and gave me that satisfaction which I neither had nor expected from some others of greater confidence but less judgment and humility Having in a Letter named two or three Books writ ex professo against the being of any original sin and that Adam by his fall transmitted some calamity only but no Crime to his Posterity The good old man was exceedingly troubled and bewailed the misery of those licentious times and seem'd to wonder save that the times were such that any should write or be permitted to publish any Error so contradictory to truth and the Doctrine of the Church of England established as he truly said by clear evidence of Scripture and the just and supreme power of this Nation both Sacred and Civil I name not the Books nor their Authors which are not unknown to learned men and I wish they had never been known because both the Doctrine and the unadvis'd Abettors of it are and shall be to me Apocryphal Another little story I must not pass in silence being an Argument of Dr. Sanderson's Piety great Ability and Judgment as a Casuist Discoursing with an honourable Person whose Piety I value more than his Nobility and Learning though both be great about a Case of Conscience concerning Oaths and Vows their Nature and Obligation in which for some particular Reasons he then desired more fully to be inform'd I commended to him Dr. Sanderson's Book De Iuramento which having read with great satisfaction he as'kd me if I thought the Doctor could be induced to write Cases of Conscience if he might have an honorary Pension
and Callings yet by reason of the great difficulties of the things themselves have much differed and still will do in their Judgments and Opinions one from another in the ordering of God's Decrees concerning man's Salvation each man abounding in his own sense and following that way which seemeth to him clogged with the least and fewest difficulties according as he apprehendeth them although perhaps in rei veritate or at the least in the apprehension of another man those very difficulties may be more and greater Hence the many differences among the Protestants between Lutherans and Calvinists among the Romanists between the Iesuites and Dominicans and each of these again subdivided concerning Predestination and Reprobation the power of man's Free-will the necessity efficacy and extent of Divine Grace the concurrence of Grace with Free-will the universality and application of Christ's Death and some other Points of like nature The Premisses considered that amid and notwithstanding all this variety of Opinions there may yet be preserved in the Church the unity both of Faith and Charity these few things seem to me to be of profitable and important consideration 1. That particular Churchs would be as tender as may be in giving their definitions and derminations in such Points as these not astricting those that live therein determinately either to the affirmative or negative especially where there may be admitted a latitude of dissenting without any prejudice done either to the Substance of the Catholick Faith or to the Tranquillity of the Church or to the Salvation of the Dissenter In which respect the moderation of the Church of England is much to be commended and to be preferred not only before the Roman Church which with unsufferable tyranny bindeth all her Children upon pain of Damnation to all her Determinarions even in those Points which are no way necessary to Salvation but also before sundry other Reformed Churches who have proceeded further this way than our Church hath done 2. When by reason of the important contentions and wranglings of Learned men in particular Churches about Points yet undetermined therein differences shall be so far prosecuted as to come to open sideings and part-takings and factions as it happened in the Netherland Churches between the Remonstrantes Contra-Remonstrantes so as for the composing of the differences and the maintenance of the publick Peace and Tranquillity of the Church it shall be needful for those Churches Synodically to determine something in those Points that yet they would then also proceed no farther in their determinations than the present necessity should enforce them not requiring men specially in points of lesser consequence to give and by Oath subscription or other like means to witness their express positive assent to such determinations but permitting them to enjoy their own private Opinions in their own private Bosoms so long as they keep them to themselves and do not by venting them unseasonably disquiet the peace of the Church therewithal 3. That Catechisms for so much as they are intended for the instruction of Children and ignorant persons in the first Principles of Christian Religion should not be farced with School-points and private Tenets but contain only clear and undoubted Truths and such as are necessary unto Christian Edification either in Faith or Life The rest either altogether omitted or but occasionally and sparingly touched at and not positively and doctrinally and conclusively delivered before the Church have agreed upon them 4. That private men would endeavour for so much ingenuity as 1. To other mens speeches and writings especially where they intend to discourse but exotericè and popularly not accurately and dogmaticè to afford a favourable construction without taking advantage at some excesses in modo loquendi or exceptions at some improprieties and acyrologies so long as they are Orthodox in the main Substance of their Discourse 2. Not to obtrude any Tenet as the received Doctrine of any particular Church which either is not expresly contained in the publick Confession of that Church or doth not apparently result thence by direct and immediate consequence though the wit of man make it seem at length and by continuance of discourse to be probably deduced therefrom 3. In their own Writings to observe formam sanorum verborum and to abstain not only from suspected Opinions but as much as may be also from phrases and speeches obnoxious to ill construction For first it is not enough much less a thing to be gloried in for a man to be able by subtilty of wit to find loop-holes how to evade and by colourable pretences to make that which through heat of passion or violence of opposition hath fallen from him unadvisedly to seem howsoever defensible but he should have a care to suffer nothing to pass from him whereat an ingenuous and dispassionate Adversary though dissenting from him in Opinion should yet have cause to take distaste or exception And besides it were a thing of very dangerous consequence in the Church if every man should be suffered freely to publish whatsoever might by some strain of Wit be made capable of a good construction if of it self it sounded ill and suspiciously For so Notions of Popish or Puritanical or other Heretical Schismatical Opinions might unawares be conveyed into the minds and impressions thereof insensibly wrought in the hearts of men to the great damage of the Church and prejudice to the Truth 4. To acknowledge freely and readily to revoke whatsoever either errour in re or misprision in testimonio or exorbitancy in modo loquendi hath passed from their Pen when it shall be fairly shewed them and their Judgments convinced thereof rather than to seek to relieve themselves by excuses colours or evasions 5. That private men in particular Churches who dissent in points yet undetermined by the Church should not uncharitably entercharge each other with Heresie or Schism or any such like imputation for so dissenting so long as they both consent to the whole Doctrine and Discipline in the said Church maintained and established As ex gr in the Points now so much debated among the Divines of the Church of England between the Calvinists and Arminians for I must take liberty for distinctions sake to express them by those names they usually bestow the one upon the other Why should either those men on the one side be branded with Popery who misliking Calvin's Opinion rather chuse to follow the Arminian or those on the other side with Puritanism who finding less satisfaction in the way of Arminius rather adhere to Calvin so long as both the one and the other do entirely and freely and ex animo subscribe to the Articles of the Common Prayer Book and that of Consecration and do not rent the Unity or disturb the Peace of the Church by those differences II. Periculum Schismatis Forasmuch as here in England the differences which before were but private concerning the Points of Arminianism have been of late so far brought upon
the publick Stage by occasion of the passages betwixt Mr. Mountague and his Opposers as that a dangerous Schism is like to ensue thereupon unless by the goodness of God and the Wisdome of the Church and State it be speedily prevented Those general Directions now already laid down for the preservation of the Churches Peace will not reach home for the securing of our peace and preventing farther evils as the case now standeth with us but it is needful the Church should interpose herein both by farther Explanation of her Doctrine in the points questioned and by the Exercise of her Discipline upon such persons as will not rest in her determinations And this necessity will the more appear if we consider upon what advantages the Arminian party hath and yet doth gain strength to it self viz. 1. The weakness of sundry of those Exceptions which were taken at Mr. Mountague's Answer to the Gagge by those that first openly ingaged themselves for that business which hath not only brought prejudice to their persons but also given disadvantages to the Cause even in those Exceptions which were just and material 2. The publishing of Mr. Mountague's Appeal with Allowance which both hath given confidence to sundry who before were Arminians but in secret now to walk unmasked and to profess their Opinions publickly in all Companies and that with some disdain of opposition and doth also incourage sundry others to shew an inclination to that side which they see to be countenanced in such publick sort 3. The plausibleness of Arminianism and the congruity it hath in sundry Points with the Principles of corrupt Nature and of carnal Reason For it is a wonderful tickling to flesh and blood to have the powers of Nature magnified and to hear it self flattered as if she carried the greatest stroke in the work of Salvation especially when these soothings are conveyed under the pretence of vindicating the dispensations of God's Providence from the Imputation of Injustice 4. The harshness of that Opinion which Calvin and Beza are said to have held and many Learned men in our Church are said to have followed concerning the Decrees of Reprobation and Election without respect had to Adam in the one or to Christ in the other whereas the inconveniencies which either do ensue or seem to ensue upon the Opinion may be fairly waved another way and yet without Arminianism 5. The manifold cunning of the Arminians to advance their own party as viz. 1. In pleading for a liberty for every man to abound in his own sense in things undetermined by the Church that so they may spread their own Tenets the more freely whereas yet it is too apparent by their writings and speeches that their intent and indeavour is to take the benefit of this liberty themselves but not to allow it to those that dissent from them 2. In bragging out some of their private Tenets as if they were the received established Doctrine of the Church of England by forcing the words of the Articles or Common Prayer Book to a sense which appeareth not to have been intended therein as Mr. Mountague hath done in the Point of falling from grace Whereas the contrary Tenet viz. of the final perseverance of the righteous in grace and faith may be by as strong evidence every way and by as natural deducement collected out of the said Books as shall be easily proved if it be required 3. In seeking to derive envy upon the opposite Opinions by delivering them in terms odious and of ill and suspicious sound as viz. irresistibility of grace irrespective decree c. whereas the soberer Divines of the opposite party ordinarily do not use those terms nor yet well approve of them unless understood cum grano salis But themselves rather are so exorbitant in their phrases and terms as it were well if a good quantity of Salt could so correct some of them as to render them if not wholesome at least savoury 4. Which is the most unjust and uncharitable course of all the rest and whereby yet I verily think they have prevailed more than by all the rest in seeking to draw the persons of those that dissent from them into dislike with the Sate as if they were Puritans or Disciplinarians or at least that way affected Whereas 1. The Questions in debate are such as no way touch upon Puritanism either off or on 2. Many of the Dissenters have as freely and clearly declared their Judgments by preaching and writing against all Puritanism and Puritanical Principles both before and since they were interessed in these Controversies as the stoutest Arminian in England hath done I am not able to pronounce absolutely neither of other men but so far as hath occurred to my observation I dare say it I find more written against the Puritans and their Opinions and with more real satisfaction and upon no less solid grounds by those that have and do dissent from the Arminian Tenets than by those that have or do maintain them Could that blessed Arch-bishop Whitgift or the modest and learned Hooker have ever thought so much as by dream that men concurring with them in Opinion should for some of these very Opinions be called Puritans III. Series Decretorum Dei Sithence most of the differences now in question do arise from the different conceits which men have concerning the Decrees of God about man's Salvation and the execution of those Decrees it could not but be a work of singular use for the composing of present and the preventing of farther differences if some learned and moderate men all prejudice and partiality laid aside would travel with faithfulness and sobriety in this Argument viz. to order those Decrees consonantly to the tenor of Scripture and the Doctrine of the ancient Church as to avoid those inconveniencies into which the extreme Opinions on both hands run For considering often with my self that the abettors of either extreme are confirmed in their Opinions not so much from the assurance of their own grounds as from the inconveniencies that attend the opposite extreme I have ever thought that a middle way between both might be fairer and safer to pitch upon than either extreme What therefore upon some agitation of these Points both in Argument with others upon occasion and in my private and serious thoughts I have conceived concerning the ordering of God's Decrees desiring ever to keep my self within the bands of Christian sobriety and modesty I have at the request of some Friends here distinctly laid down not intending hereby to prescribe unto other men nor yet to tie my self to mine own present Judgment if I shall see cause to alter it but only to present to the abler Judgments of some learned Friends that way which hath hitherto given me better satisfaction than any other and which I have not yet observed to be subject to so great difficulties and inconveniencies neither in the substance of the matter nor in the manner of explication as the
ways which either the rigid Calvinists or the Arminians have taken Quaere then whether or no the Eternal Decrees of God concerning man's Salvation may not be conveniently conceived in this order viz. That he decreed 1. To make himself glorious by communicating his goodness in producing powerfully and ex nihilo a world of Creatures and among the chiefest of them Man endued with a reasonable soul and organical body as a vessel and subject capable of grace and glory 2. To enter into a Covenant with this reasonable Creature commonly called the first Covenant of Works to bestow upon him life and glory if he should continue in his obedience but if otherwise then not only to be deprived of the blessedness covenanted but also and instead thereof to be punished with actual misery and eternal death 3. After this Covenant made to leave man in manu consilij sui by the free choice of his own will to lay hold either on life by obedience or by transgression on death 4. To permit man thus left to himself to fall into sin and so to cast himself out of that Covenant into a state of misery and corruption and damnation with a purpose in that permission to serve himself of mans fall as a fit occasion whereby to magnifie himself and his own glory yet farther in the manifestation of his infinite both justice and mercy 5. That the whole Species of so noble a Creature might not perish everlastingly and without all remedy to provide for mankind pro genere humano a most wise sufficient and convenient means of reparation and redemption and salvation by the satisfactory and meritorious death and obedience of the incarnate Son of God Jesus Christ God blessed for ever 6. In this Jesus as the Mediator to enter into a second Covenant with Mankind commonly called the New Covenant or the Covenant of Grace that whosoever should lay hold on him by a true and steadfast Faith should attain remission of sins and eternal life but he that should not believe should perish everlastingly in his sins 7. Lest this Covenant should yet be ineffectual and Christ die in vain because left to themselves especially in this wretched state of corruption none of the Sons of Adam could de facto have repented and believed in Christ for the glory of his grace to elect and cull a certain number of particular persons out of the corrupted lump of mankind to be advanced into this Covenant and thereby entitled unto Salvation and that without any cause or motive at all in themselves but meerly ex beneplacito voluntatis of his own free grace and good pleasure in Jesus Christ pretermitting and passing by the rest to perish justly in their sins 8. To confer in due season upon the persons so elected all fit and effectual means and graces needful for them unto Salvation proportionably to their personal capacities and conditions as namely 1. Upon Infants that die before the use of Reason the Sacrament of Christian Baptism administred and received in the Name and Faith of the Chuch with Sacramental grace to such persons as for the want of the use of Reason never come to be capable of the habitual or actual graces of Faith Repentance c. we are to judge to be sufficient for their Salvation 2. Upon men that come to the use of Reason sooner or later such a measure of Faith in the Son of God of repentance from dead works of new and holy obedience to God's Commandments together with final perseverance in all these as in his excellent wisdom he seeth meet wrought and preserved in them outwardly by the Word and Sacraments and inwardly by the operation of his holy Spirit shed in their hearts whereby sweetly and without constraint but yet effectually their understandings wills and affections are subdued to the acknowledgment and obedience of the Gospel and both these are done ordinarily and by ordinary means 3. Into some men it may be and extraordinarily especially in the want of ordinary means God may infuse Faith and other Graces accompanying Salvation as also modo nobis incognito make supply unto Infants unbaptized some other way by the immediate work of his Holy and Almighty Spirit without the use of the outward means of the Word and Sacraments Of which extraordinary work we cannot pronounce too sparingly the special use whereto it serveth us being the suspending of our Censures not rashly to pass the Sentence of Damnation upon those Infants or Men that want the ordinary outward means since we are not able to say How God in his infinite power can and how in his rich mercy he hath doth or will deal with them 9. Thus much concerning the salvation of those whom God hath of his free grace elected thereunto But with the Reprobates whom he hath in his justice appointed to destruction he dealeth in another fashion as concerning whom he hath decreed either 1. To afford them neither the extraordinary nor so much as but the outward and ordinary means of Faith Or else 2. In the presence of the outward means of the Word and Sacraments to withhold the inward concurrence of his enlightning and renewing Spirit to work with those means for want whereof they become ineffectual to them for their good working upon them either malignantly so as their hearts are the more hardened thereby in sin and unbelief or infirmly so as not to work in them a perfect Conversion but to produce instead of the gracious habits of Sanctification as Faith Repentance Charity Humility c. some weak and infirm shadows of those Graces which for their formal semblance sake do sometimes bear the name of those Graces they resemble but were never in the mean time the very true Graces themselves and in the end are discovered to have been false by the want of perseverance IV. Vtilitas hujus Seriei This way of ordering the Decrees of God besides that it seemeth to be according to the mind of the Scriptures and to hold correspondency more than any other as well with the writings of the ancient Doctors of the Church especially of St. Augustine and those that followed him as with the present Doctrine contained in the Articles and Liturgy of the Church of England It hath also three notable commodities viz. 1. Hereby are fairly avoided the most and greatest of those inconveniences into which both extremes run or at the least which either extreme presseth sore upon the opposite extreme The Arminian accusing the rigid Calvinist as a betrayer of the justice of God for placing the Decree of Reprobation before that of Adam's fall and being again accused by him as an Enemy to the grace of God for making the efficacy thereof to depend upon man's free will Whereas both the glory of the justice of God and the efficacy of the grace of God are preserved entire by following this middle way For 1. There can lie no imputation upon the justice of God though he have reprobated some
new ones whiles they that are in the wrong out of obstinacy will not and they that stand for the truth out of Conscience dare not may not yield and so still the war goeth on And as to the publick peace of the Church so is there also thirdly by this means great prejudice done to the peace and tranquillity of private mens Consciences when by the peremptory Doctrines of some strict and rigid masters the Souls of many a well-meaning man are miserably disquieted with a thousand unnecessary scruples and driven sometimes into very woful perplexities Surely it can be no light matter thus to lay heavy burdens upon other mens shoulders and to cast a snare upon their Consciences by making the narrow way to Heaven narrower than ever God meant it Fourthly Hereby Christian Governours come to be robbed of a great part of that honour that is due unto them from their people both in their affections and subjection For when they shall see cause to exercise over us that power that God hath left them in indifferent things by commanding such or such thing to be done as namely wearing of a Surplice kneeling at the Communion and the like if now we in our own thoughts have already prejudged any of the things so commanded to be unlawful it cannot be Quest. If these things be so how comes it to pass that so many godly men should incline so much to this way Answ. But you will say if these things were so how should it then come to pass that so many men pretending to godliness and thousands of them doubtless such as they pretend for it were an uncharitable thing to charge them all with hypocrisie should so often and so grievously offend this way To omit those two more universal causes Almighty God's permission first whose good pleasure it is for sundry wise and gracious ends to exercise his Church during her warfare here with heresies and scandals And then the wiliness of Satan who cunningly observeth whether way our hearts incline most to loosness or to strictness and then frameth his temptations thereafter So he can but put us out of the way it is no great matter to him on whether hand it be he hath his end howsoever Nor to insist upon sundry more particular causes as namely a natural proneness in all men to superstition in many an affectation of singularity to go beyond the ordinary sort of people in something or other the difficulty of shunning one without running into the contrary extreme the great force of education and custome besides manifold abuses offences and provocations arising from the carriage of others and the rest I shall note but these two only as the two great fountains of Errour to which also most of the other may be reduced Ignorance and Partiality from neither of which God 's dearest Servants and Children are in this life wholly exempted Ignorance first is a fruitful Mother of Errours Ye err not knowing the Scriptures Matth. 22. Yet not so much gross ignorance neither I mean not that For your meer Ignaro's what they err they err for company they judge not at all neither according to the appearance nor yet righteous judgment They only run on with the herd and follow as they are led be it right or wrong and never trouble themselves farther But by Ignorance I mean weakness of judgment which consisteth in a disproportion between the affections and the understanding when a man is very earnest but withal very shallow readeth much and heareth much and thinketh that he knoweth much but hath not the judgment to sever truth from falshood nor to discern between a sound argument and a captious fallacy And so for want of ability to examine the soundness and strength of those principles from whence he fetcheth his conclusions he is easily carried away as our Apostle elsewhere speaketh with vain words and empty arguments As St. Augustine said of Donatus Rationes arripuit he catcheth hold of some reasons as wranglers will catch at a small thing rather than yield from their opinions quas considerantes verisimiles esse potius quam veras invenimus which saith he we found to have more shew of probability at the first appearance than substance of truth after they were well considered of And I dare say whosoever shall peruse with a judicious and unpartial eye most of those Pamphlets that in this daring Age have been thrust into the world against the Ceremonies of the Church against Episcopal Government to pass by things of lesser regard and usefulness and more open to exception and abuse yet so far as I can understand unjustly condemned as things utterly unlawful such as are lusorious lots dancing Stage-plays and some other things of like nature when he shall have drained out the bitter invectives unmannerly jeers petulant girding at those that are in authority impertinent digressions but above all those most bold and perverse wrestings of holy Scripture wherewith such Books are infinitely stuffed he shall find that little poor remainder that is left behind to contain nothing but vain words and empty arguments For when these great Undertakers have snatch'd up the Bucklers as if they would make it good against all comers that such and such things are utterly unlawful and therefore ought in all reason and conscience to bring such proofs as will come up to that conclusion Quid dignum tanto very seldome shall you hear from them any other Arguments than such as will conclude but an inexpediency at the most As that they are apt to give scandal that they carry with them an appearance of evil that they are often occasions of sin that they are not commanded in the Word and such like Which Objections even where they are just are not of force no not taken altogether much less any of them singly to prove a thing to be utterly unlawful And yet are they glad many times rather than sit out to play very small Game and to make use of Arguments yet weaker than these and such as will not reach so far as to prove a bare inexpediency As that they were invented by Heathens that they have been abused in Popery and other such like which to my understanding is a very strong presumption that they have taken a very weak cause in hand and such as is wholly destitute of sound proof Quest. Whether what the King and Parliament have determined may be altered to satisfie private men Answ. While things are in agitation private men may if any thing seem to them inexpedient modestly tender their thoughts together with the reason thereof to the consideration of those that are in authority to whose care and wisdom it belongeth in prescribing any thing concerning indifferent things to proceed with all just advisedness and moderation that so the Subject may be encouraged to perform that obedience with chearfulness which of necessity he must perform howsoever It concerneth Superiours therefore to look well to the expediency and
sad distractions In the sixth Article we are altogether unsatisfied 1. The whole Article being grounded upon a supposition which hath not yet been evidenced to us viz. that this Cause meaning thereby or else we understand it not the joyning in this Covenant of mutual defence for the prosecution of the late War was the Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms and that it so much concerned the glory of God and the good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King 2. If all the Premisses were so clear that we durst yield our free assent thereunto yet were they not sufficient to warrant to our Consciences what in this Article is required to be sworn of us unless we were as clearly satisfied concerning the lawfulness of the means to be used for the supporting of such a Cause For since evil may not be done that good may come thereof we cannot yet be perswaded That the Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace may be supported or the Glory of God the Good of the Kingdoms and the Honour of the King sought to be advanced by such means as to our best understandings are both improper for those Ends and destitute of all warrant from the Laws either of God or of this Realm Lastly in the Conclusion our hearts tremble to think that we should be required to pray that other Christian Churches might be encouraged by our example to joyn in the like Association and Covenant to free themselves from the Antichristian yoke c. Wherein 1. To omit that we do not know any Antichristian yoke under which we were held in these Kingdoms and from which we owe to this either War or Covenant our freedom unless by the Antichristian yoke be meant Episcopal Government which we hope no man that pretendeth to Truth and Charity will affirm 2. We do not yet see in the fruits of this Association or Covenant among our selves any thing so lovely as to invite us to desire much less to pray that other Christian Churches should follow our example herein 3. To pray to the purpose in the conclusion of the Covenant expressed seemeth to us all one in effect as to beseech Almighty God the God of Love and Peace 1. To take all love and peace out of the hearts of Christians and to set the whole Christian world in a combustion 2. To render the Reformed Religion and all Protestants odious to all the world 3. To provoke the Princes of Europe to use more severity towards those of the Reformed Religion if not for their own security to root them quite out of their several Dominions 4. The tyranny and yoke of Antichrist if laid upon the nooks of Subjects by their lawful Sovereigns is to be thrown off by Christian boldness in confessing the Truth and patient suffering for it not by taking up Arms or violent resisting of the Higher Powers §. VI. Some considerations concerning the meaning of the Covenant OUR aforesaid Scruples are much strengthened by these ensuing Considerations First That whereas no Oath which is contradictory to it self can be taken without Perjury because the one part of every contradiction must needs be false this Covenant either indeed containeth or at leastwise which to the point of Conscience is not much less effectual seemeth to us to contain sundry Contradictions as namely amongst others these 1. To preserve as it is without change and yet to reform and alter and not to preserve one and the same Reformed Religion 2. Absolutely and without exception to preserve and yet upon supposition to extirpate the self-same thing viz the present Religion of the Church of Scotland 3. To reform Church Government established in England and Ireland according to the Word of God and yet to extirpate that Government which we are perswaded to be according thereunto for the introducing of another whereof we are not so perswaded 4. To endeavour really the extirpation of Heresies Schisms and Prophaneness and yet withal to extirpate that Government in the Church the want of the due exercise whereof we conceive to have been one chief cause of the growth of the said evils and do believe the restoring and continuance thereof would be the most proper and effectual remedy 5. To preserve with our estates and lives the liberties of the Kingdom that is as in the Protestation is explained of the Subject and yet contrary to these liberties to submit to the imposition of this Covenant and of the Negative Oath not yet established by Laws and to put our lives and estates under the arbitrary power of such as may take away both from us when they please not only without but even against Law if they shall judge it convenient so to do Secondly We find in the Covenant sundry expressions of dark or doubtful construction whereunto we cannot swear in judgment till their sense be cleared and agreed upon As Who are the Common Enemies and which be the best Reformed Churches mentioned in the first Article Who in the fourth Article are to be accounted Malignants How far that phrase of hindring Reformation may be extended What is meant by the supreme Iudicatory of both the Kingdoms and sundry other Thirdly By the use that hath been made of this Covenant sometimes to purposes of dangerous consequence we are brought into some fears and jealousies lest by taking the same we should cast our selves into more snares than we are yet aware of For in the first Article 1. Whereas we are to endeavour the Reformation of Religion in this Kingdom in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches 1. The Reformation in Worship whereby we could not suppose any more was intended according to their former Declaration than a review of the Service-book that the translations might be in some places amended some alterations made in the Offices and Rubricks or at most some of the Ceremonies laid aside for the reasons of expediency and condescension hath produced an utter abolition of the whole form established without substituting any other certain form in the room thereof 2. The Reformation in point of Discipline and Government intended so far as by the overtures hitherto made we are able to judge is such as we conceive not to be according to the Word of God nor for any thing we know according to the example of any Church that ever was in the World best or worst since the Creation 2. In the second Article our grief and fears had been less if we could have observed the extirpation of Popery Heresie Schism and Prophaneness to have been as really intended and set on with as much speed and animosity as the extirpation of Prelacy and that which some call Superstition But when we see under the notions of rooting out Prelacy and Superstition so much quickness used to fetch in the Revenues of the Church and the sacred Utensils no otherwise guilty of Superstition for ought we know
our warrant from some place or other of Scripture Before the Scriptures were writ ten it pleased God by visions and dreams and other like revelations immediately to make known his good pleasure to the Patriarchs and Prophets and by them unto the People which kind of revelations served them to all the same intents and purposes whereto the sacred Scriptures now do us viz. to instruct them what they should believe and do for his better service and the furtherance of their own salvations Now as it were unreasonable for any man to think that they either had or did expect an immediate revelation from God every time they eat or drank or bought or sold or did any other of the common actions of life for the warranting of each of those particular actions to their Consciences no less unreasonable it is to think that we should now expect the like warrant from the Scriptures for the doing of the like actions Without all doubt the law of nature and the light of reason was the rule whereby they were guided for the most part in such matters which the wisdome of God would never have left in them or us as a principal relick of his decayed image in us if he had not meant that we should make use of it for the direction of our lives and actions thereby Certainly God never infused any power into any creature whereof he intended not some use Else what shall we say of the Indies and other barbarous Nations to whom God never vouchsafed the lively Oracles of his written word Must we think that they were left a lawless people without any Rule at all whereby to order their actions How then come they to be guilty of transgression For where there is no law there can be no transgression Or how cometh it about that their consciences should at any time or in any case either accuse them or excuse them if they had no guide nor rule to walk by But if we must grant they had a Rule and there is no way you see but grant it we must then we must also of necessity grant that there is some other Rule for humane actions besides the written word for that we presupposed these Nations to have wanted Which Rule what other could it be than the Law of Nature and of right reason imprinted in their hearts Which is as truly the Law and Word of God as is that which is printed in our Bibles So long as our actions are warranted either by the one or the other we cannot be said to want the warrant of God's Word Nec differet Scriptura an ratione consistat saith Tertullian it mattereth not much from whether of both we have our direction so long as we have it from either You see then those men are in a great errour who make the holy Scriptures the sole rule of all humane actions whatsoever For the maintenance whereof there was never yet produced any piece of an argument either from reason or from authority of holy writ or from the testimony either of the ancient Fathers or of other classical Divines of later times which may not be clearly and abundantly answered to the satisfaction of any rational man not extremely fore-possessed with prejudice They who think to salve the matter by this mitigation that at leastwise our actions ought to be framed according to those general rules of the law of Nature which are here and there in the Scriptures dispersedly contained as viz. That we should do as we would be done to That all things be done decently and orderly and unto edification That nothing be done against conscience and the like speak somewhat indeed to the truth but little to the purpose For they consider not First that these general rules are but occasionally and incidentally mentioned in Scripture rather to manifest unto us a former than to lay upon us a new obligation Secondly that those rules had been of force for the ordering of mens actions though the Scripture had never expressed them and were of such force before those Scriptures were written wherein they are now expressed For they bind not originally qua scripta but qua justa becuase they are righteous not because they are written Thirdly that an action conformable to these general Rules might not be condemned as sinful although the doer thereof should look at those rules meerly as they are the dictates of the law of nature and should not be able to vouch his warrant for it from any place of Scripture neither should have at the time of the doing thereof any present thought or consideration of any such place The contrary whereunto I permit to any man's reasonable judgment if it be not desperately rash and uncharitable to affirm Lastly that if mens actions done agreeably to those Rules are said to be of faith precisely for this reason because those rules are contained in the word then it will follow that before those particular Scriptures were written wherein any of those Rules are first delivered every action done according to those rules had been done without faith there being as yet no Scripture for it and consequently had been a sin So that by this Doctrine it had been a sin before the witing of S. Matthew's Gospel for any man to have done to others as he would they should do to him and it had been a sin before the writing of the former Epistle to the Corinthians for any man to have done any thing decently and orderly supposing these two Rules to be in those two places first mentioned because this supposed there could then have been no warrant brought from the Scriptures for so doing Well then we see the former Opinion will by no means hold neither in the rigour of it nor yet in the mitigation We are therefore to beware of it and that so much the more heedfully because of the evil consequents and effects that issue from it to wit a world of superstitions uncharitable censures bitter contentions contempt of superiours perplexities of conscience First it filleth mens heads with many superstitious conceits making them to cast impurity upon sundry things which yet are lawful to as many as use them lawfully For the taking away of the indifferency of any thing that is indifferent is in truth superstition whether either of the two ways it be done either by requiring it as necessary or by forbidding it as unlawful He that condemneth a thing as utterly unlawful which yet indeed is indifferent and so lawful is guilty of superstition as well as he that enjoyneth a thing as absolutely necessary which yet indeed is but indifferent and so arbitrary They of the Church of Rome and some in our Church as they go upon quite contrary grounds yet both false so they run into quite contrary errours and both superstitious They decline too much on the left hand denying to holy Scripture that perfection which of right it ought to have of containing all appertaining to that
supernatural doctrine of faith and holiness which God hath revealed to his Church for the attainment of everlasting salvation whereupon they would impose upon Christian people that with an opinion of necessity many things which the Scriptures require not and that is a superstition These wry too much on the right hand ascribing to the holy Scripture such a kind of perfection as it cannot have of being the sole directour of all humane actions whatsoever whereupon they forbid unto Christian people and that under the name of sin sundry things which the holy Scripture condemneth not and that is a superstition too From which superstition proceedeth in the second place uncharitable censuring as evermore they that are the most superstitious are the most supercilious No such severe censurers of our blessed Saviour's person and actions as the superstitious Scribes and Phariseees were In this Chapter the special fault which the Apostle blameth in the weak ones who were somewhat superstitiously affected was their rash and uncharitable judging of their brethren And common and daily experience among our selves sheweth how freely some men spend their censures upon so many of their brethren as without scruple do any of those things which they upon false grounds have superstitiously condemned as utterly unlawful And then thirdly as unjust censures are commonly entertained with scorn and contumely they that so liberally condemn their brethren of prophaneness are by them again as freely slouted for their preciseness and so whiles both parties please themselves in their own ways they cease not mutually to provoke and scandalize and exasperate one the other pursuing their private spleens so far till they break out into open contentions and oppositions Thus it stood in the Roman Church when this Epistle was written They judged one another and despised one another to the great disturbance of the Churches peace which gave occasion to our Apostles whole discourse in this Chapter And how far the like censurings and despisings have embittered the spirits and whetted both the tongues and pens of learned men one against another in our own Church the stirs that have been long since raised and are still upheld by the factious opposers against our Ecclesiastical constitutions government and ceremonies will not suffer us to be ignorant Most of which stirs I verily perswade my self had been long ere this either wholly buried in silence or at leastwise prettily well quieted if the weakness and danger of the errour whereof we now speak had been more timely discovered and more fully and frequently made known to the world than it hath been Fourthly Let that Doctrine be once admitted and all humane authority will soon be despised The commands of Parents Masters and Princes which many times require both secrecy and expedition shall be taken into slow deliberation and the equity of them sifted by those that are bound to obey though they know no cause why so long as they know no cause to the contrary Delicata est obedientia quae transit in causam deliberativam It is a nice obedience in St. Bernard's judgment yea rather troublesome and odious that is over-curious in discussing the commands of superiours boggling at every thing that is enjoyned requiring a why for every wherefore and unwilling to stir until the lawfulness and expediency of the thing commanded shall be demonstrated by some manifest reason or undoubted authority from the Scriptures Lastly The admitting of this Doctrine would cast such a snare upon men of weak judgments but tender consciences as they should never be able to unwind themselves again Mens daily occasions for themselves or friends and the necessities of common life require the doing of a thousand things within the compass of a few days for which it would puzzle the best Textman that liveth readily to bethink himself of a sentence in the Bible clear enough to satisfie a scrupulous conscience of the lawfulness and expediency of what he is about to do for which by hearkening to the rules of reason and discretion he might receive easie and speedy resolution In which cases if he should be bound to suspend his resolution delay to do that which his own reason would tell him were presently needful to be done until he could haply call to mind some precept or example of Scipture for his warrant what stops would it make in the course of his whole life what languishings in the duties of his calling how would it fill him with doubts and irresolutions lead him into a maze of uncertainties entangle him in a world of woful perplexities and without the great mercy of God and better instruction plunge him irrecoverably into the gulph of despair Since the chief end of the publication of the Gospel is to comfort the hearts and to revive and refresh the spirits of God's people with the glad tidings of liberty from the spirit of bondage and fear and of gracious acceptance with their God to anoint them with the oyl of gladness giving them beauty for ashes and instead of sackcloth girding them with joy we may well suspect that Doctrine not to be Evangelical which thus setteth the Consciences of men upon the rack tortureth them with continual fears and perplexities and prepareth them thereby unto hellish despair Quest. What are the dreadful consequences of scrupling some indifferent things Answ. Although difference of judgment should not alienate our affections one from another yet daily experience sheweth it doth By reason of that self-love and envy and other corruptions that abound in us it is rarely seen that those men are of one heart that are of two minds St. Paul found it so with the Romans in his time whilst some condemned that as unlawful which others practised as lawful they judged one another and despised one another perpetually And I doubt not but any of us that is any-whit-like acquainted with the wretched deceitfulness of man's heart may easily conclude how hard a thing it is if at all possible not to think somewhat hardly of those men that take the liberty to do such things as we judge unlawful As for example If we shall judge all walking into the fields discoursing occasionally on the occurrences of the times dressing of meat for dinner or supper or even moderate recreations on the Lord's day to be grievous prophanations of the Sabbath how can we chuse but judge those men that use them to be grievous prophaners of God's Sabbath And if such our judgment concerning these things should after prove to be erroneous then can it not be avoided but that such our judgment also concerning the persons must needs be uncharitable Secondly This mis-judging of things filleth the world with endless niceties and disputes to the great disturbance of the Churches peace which to every good man ought to be precious The multiplying of Books and writings Pro and Con and pursuing of arguments with heat and opposition doth rather lengthen than decide Controversies and instead of destroying the old begetteth