Seasonable CONSIDERATIONS SINCE the world is not grown too wise for Instruction nor Christians so deified as to be freed from Infirmity Since some things may be overlookt because they are in Books so little consulted and others forgot by reason of the length of time which happens betwixt being admitted to Benefices and that wherein the observance of Canons and Constitutions postpones them to the preserving of or else which is rarer prefers them before our worldly Interest And since an Ecclesiastical Commission is on foot for the bringing the Model of the Church of England to Copy of that of Amsterdam it may not be altogether amiss either for instruction reminding or shaming those who have the same honor the Libellatici of old had the Power now in their hands of giving away their Church by presenting their Prince with the Fences and Defence of it to copy to them some of those Canons which their Forefathers under the unaspersed James I. took to be the surest Rules for the preservation of the Church of England and let them see how they will agree with those things they are to compass now for its Destruction Caâ— Whosoever hereafter shall affirm That the Church of England as by Law established is not Orthodox and Apostolical delivering and following the Doctrine of the Apostles let him be excommunicated ipso facto not to be restored but by the Arch-Bishop and that after he hath repented and publickly revoked that impious Error Caâ— Whosoever hereafter shall affirm the Form of Liturgy as by Law established in the Church of England and comprehended in the Book of publick Prayers and of the Administration of the Sacraments to be a corrupt superstitious or unlawful Worship of God or to contain any thing in it contrary to the Canon of Scripture let him be excommunicated ipso facto and not restored but by his Diocesan Bishop or the Arch-Bishop and that after he hath repented and publickly revoked that impious Error m. V. Whosoever hereafter shall affirm any of the 39 Articles consented to by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of both Provinces c. to take away all variety of Opinions and to confirm and establish Consent in Matters of Faith to be in any part superstitious or erroneous or any thing of that nature so that he cannot with a safe Conscience subscribe to the truth of them let him be excommunicated ipso facto c. as in the First Whosoever hereafter shall affirm That the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England establish'd by Law are impious antichristian or superstitious or any thing of that nature so that pious and religious Men tho commanded by lawful Authority cannot approve or observe them or as occasion offers subscribe to them let him be excommunicated ipso facto and not absolved till he hath repented and publickly revoked those impious Errors Whosoever hereafter shall affirm The Government and Discipline of the Church of England under the King's Majesty by Arch-Bishops c. to be Antichristian and contrary to the Word of God let him be excommunicated ipso facto and not absolved till he hath repented and publickly revoked this impious Error Whosoever hereafter shall affirm or teach The Form and Rite of Ordaining and Inaugurating Bishops Priests and Deacons to contain any thing in it contrary to the Word of God and that all those Bishops c. ordained after that manner not to be rightly ordained neither by themselves nor by others are to be taken for Bishops c. before that they have received other Ordination to those holy Offices let him be excommunicated ipso facto c. as in Can. 6. Whosoever hereafter shall segregate themselves from the Communion of Saints such as is in the. Church of England approved from the Rules of the Apostles and consociating by a new Covenant of Fraternity count those Christians who conform to the Doctrine Discipline Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England profane and unworthy to be communicated within the Christian Profession let them be excommunicated ipso facto and not restored but by the Arch-Bishop and that after they have repented and publickly revoked those impious Errors Can. Whosoever hereafter shall affirm That those Ministers who refuse to subscribe to the Form and Manner of Divine Worship appointed in the Church of England and prescribed in the Book of publick Form of Prayer and their Followers may assume to them selves the Name and Title of another Church which it not establish'd by Law and that shall dare to affirm in publick that their pretended Church has long groaned under the Burden of certain Grievances imposed on them and their aforesaid Members by the Church of England and by its Decrees and Sanctions established by Law let them be excommunicated ipso facto and not absolved before that they have repented and publickly revoked those impious Errors Caâ— XXX Let no one be admitted into Holy Orders or any Ecclesiastical Benefice by Institution or Collation or to exercise the Office of Preacher Prelector or Catechist in either of the Vniversities or in any Cathedral or Collegiate-Church or City or Market-Town or in a Parochial-Church or Chappel or any other place of this Kingdom unless he hath before subscribed to these following Articles That the Book of the publick Liturgy and of Ordaining and Consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons contains in it nothing contrary to the Word of God but that it is lawful to use the same and that he in publick Prayers and Administring the Sacraments will always observe that Form which is prescribed in the said Book and no other That he altogether approves of that Book of the Articles of Religion which was consented to by the Arch-Bishops c. Anno 1561. and that all and every of those Articles contain'd in the same Book which are 39. besides the Ratification he acknowledges to he consentaneous to the Word of God. â—an xviii If any Minister after his subscribing to the aforesaid Articles shall omit to use that Form of Liturgy or the Rites and Ceremonies whatsoever appointed in the Book of Publick Prayers let him he suspended and unless he within a Month amend and submit himself let him be excommunicated but if after another Month he continue contumacious let him be removed from the sacred Ministry I doubt not but the bare reading these over every one's mind especially those for whom this is now designed has conceiv'd more Questions and rais'd more Dissatisfactions against the design of this Ecclesiastical Commission than the Actors under it will be able to satisfie And the Letter to a Friend containing some Queries about this Commission has proposed so many things to them to be answered as they will shorten my design and confine me to a few things barely referring to these Canons Not therefore to meddle at least as to them with the Authority of their Commission nor to examin by what Canon since Interest is the great Rule they dare to
deliberate consult and propose Amendments and Alterations to our establish'd Church of England I shall only desire to know whether there are not those Dissenters now in this Kingdom against whom this Third Canon is directed for no one can believe that they all acknowledg the Church of England to be Orthodox and Apostolical for if they did there would be no ground for them to desire any Alterations nor you to grant them But we very well know that we have many Sects concluded under this Canon whom therefore by force of it we know to be excommunicated and is it your design that all these shall be brought into the Church If not all whom will you exclude By what Rules will you proceed impartially to joyn some of the Dissenters to it and to cut others off For all Sects many being Contraries cannot be comprehended under the same things Must therefore an Anarchy be set up and every one believe as he pleases Must the Presbyterian controverted Doctrines be struck out of the Articles and Doctrines of the Church and not the Anabaptist who perhaps has better grounds for his Principles Or how will you do with all Sects that deny our Doctrines to be Apostolical and Orthodox What sort of a Church must that be which must include all Opposites What Order what Doctrines must constitute that one which must consist of so many Congregations differing in both Do you not also know of many Sects that are directly struck by the Fourth Canon Are there not some against any Form of Prayers And others that count ours superstitious c What Methods therefore can be taken with both these 'T is not a bare giving up our present but all set Forms that will reconcile some and then that displeases others and so vice versâ And what necessity of condescension can there be in this Point where the giving these away is only to please the peevish Humors of those who can joyn in 'em and the giving away all to gratifie those whom they scarce will allow at other times to look like a Christian Church But all this will not do to win all neither unless they will decry the Use of the Lords Prayer with multitudes of them who think it now a Sin to use it It looks strange to some Men that those who have maintained the present Liturgy as the most perfect most advantageous and best that is or ever was in the whole Christian World should now be for the correcting it to suit it to their Humors whose very Reasons they before thought and made appear to be frivolous nay which they themselves as Occasion served or Argument prest have own'd to be so Do you know none who think not one of our Articles to be either superstitious or erroneous or something of that nature If this be the humor and opinion of some Sects which are now to be reconcil'd to the Church what Methods will you follow Must those Articles Can. 5. the design of whose framing 'em was to take away all variety of Opinions and to confirm and establish Consent in Matters of Faith Must those very Articles I say be now given away that we may all agree in 'em the better Can variety of Opinions be removed by the abolishing these Tenets which were for that end therefore enjoyned they may indeed thereby be taken away but then 't is probable that we may agree in the wrong Or will our consent in matters of Faith be the better confirmed and established when it shall be lawful to believe as you will For this it must come to or else the next Sessions at Westminster must declare that which their Fathers Forty years ago after long debate did that they believed in God c. which some will be apt to disbelive of both and then perhaps they may frame such a Religion as will not comprehend the greatest number of Dissenters still and then what good your Designs will do I know not Whatsoever course you follow I cannot see but that you 'll contradict the Judgments and Procedings of a wise King and his great Synod who thought the framing nay and the subscribing too to the truth of them was the surest Methods to take away all variety of Opinions and liked not to break the best setled and composed Church to make a Gap for any of the Sects with which that time no less labored than ours to come in at Are the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England looked upon so pleasingly by the Sectaries as not to draw those Titles of Impious Superstitious c. as in Can. 6. from them now Or rather are not those one great Eye-sore to the weak Brethren Must those therefore be given up to the insatiable importunity of such as by their weaknesses scandalize the Brethren If not what reconciliation can there be And if they must what becomes of all those famous Reasons of Decency Reverence Comliness Union Helps to Devotion c. which must then all give place to pleasure the petulant Humor of a restless unsatisfied race of Men If they must all be left indifferent to every Person to use as he shall think most fit that is most likely to create the greater Mischiefs than the determining of 'em one way or other as you may see in the Sheet cited in the Margin which I advise to the Reader for a careful perusal in most of these Matters and if they be quite taken away you 'll find the Fences of the Church so miserably broke as able to let in all even her very worst Enemies to the officiating in her and then what sort of strength they 'll be to that Church whose Doctrines may be disbelieved or decried by them you may either imagin or see in the aforesaid Letter In the Two next Canons I expect the least alterations or oppositions from you for there will scarce be sound among you unless it be them whose Worth debars from a Bishoprick Demerit now being the sure Promoter that will so far oppose your own Interests as either to deny the Validity of your Orders tho one of you is shrewdly suspected of inability to prove his being Christned and then consequently or condemn the Disciplines and Government of the Church by Bishops Deans c. Were Self denial in practice now I might be tempted to suspect your warping from these Rules But since desire of Power Authority and Interest have got the ascendant over Christian Virtues I imagin these may pass uncorrected by you But then how will they satisfie many of the Dissenters who cannot comply with them these things not being Scoticiz'd Will they be rul'd by that manner of Government which they suppose Antichristian and Impious Or if not must they have another then for themselves And must the same Church then be rul'd by many different contrary Governments Must the Presbyter have a distinct supreme Government and the Bishop another Must the Independent have a third and yet all pleased whilst the
contrary displeasing Governments are not quite abolished Or will both or either of these please to have theirs taken away and submit to that of the Church of England If not how will all these Contraries be reconciled to patch up one Communion How shall the Ninth Canon be made conformable to the winning of Dissenters The Independents I believe will scarce be prevailed with to part with their own consociating Covenant nor be content with our Churches Communion but upon their own Terms And the same mixt Communion which was the occasion of their reparation will scandalize and hinder those Dissenters from uniting with us still must you therefore bring in their way of Discipline into the Church which the Church of England always has opposed whereby a Power must be given to some perhaps of the worst sort of Men to drive Myriads away from the participation of the Holy Supper Uni Ox. â—ct 9. 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 11 â—â—c A kind of Austerity which we with the University of Oxford may profess know not to be commanded by God but which seems to be repugnant both to the Rules of Prudence and Christian Love in general and to S. Paul's Counsel and Example in particular For he in a Church fill'd with Errors and Corruptions both in Faith and Manners after he had given command about one singular excommunicated Person who without shame had lived incestuously to the great disgrace and scandal of the Christian Religion thought it then sufficient to propose to the Church in a general Form of Instruction the great danger of unworthy Eating and that the Scrutiny of particular Consciences should be left to every Man 's own examination no power being given to any either Ecclesiastick-Pastor or Lay-Presbyter of examining and excluding from that Holy Communion whom they thought fit This was the Judgment of that famous University when Men were to be comprehended under the same Church And I believe the Scotch Discipline in this Point will be such as neither we they nor our Fathers are or were ever able to bear What will you do then ill this Point will you bring them into the Church and keep them from the Communion That I am sure you all know to be the greatest and most solemn part of Christian Profession And which has therefore by some been understood in that Article Of the Communion of Saints Must they barely then be hearers of the Word and not permitted the benefit of that without which Salvation cannot ordinarily be expected What Method therefore can be taken to unite us in that part of Communion but by receiving their austere Dictates of Discipline Which will hinder more and better Men from uniting with you in it They cannot be supposed now when all Concessions are made to 'em to be more easie and inclinable than when Severities were exercised and Ruin threatned them for Non-complyance nay they are never desired to yield any thing towards the meeting all must be done on the better side But when all these Concessions are made towards an Union do you now think that those will be won whole Separation is upon account of great Admiration to their Preachers without having those same Preachers lawfully admitted to exercise their Office here too What becomes then of your 10th and 36th Canon Must the required Subscriptions to the truth of the Articles lawfulness of the Liturgy and perpetual use of that and no other Form be now taken away to gratifie them Are not these looked upon as great Fences whereby to secure the Church from having bad Pastors of another Perswasion in it Must Episcopal Ordination be look'd on now no more necessary than theirs who never had Authority to confer it Or do you think those unconsecrated Preachers will use that Liturgy or teach that Doctrine to the truth and lawfulness of which they dare not subscribe But I refer you to satisfie more Questions on this head to the afore-cited Sheet Since then the Liturgy Homilies and Canons compiled by our judicious Forefathers some of whom were Confessors and Martyrs for that holy Religion were both composed for the greater edification of the Church removing all Differences confirming and establishing all matters of Faith must not we then of necessity suppose that the altering abolishing or annulling of 'em will have the contrary effects Shall one Age order all these things the strict observance of which was to promote the establishment of the Church and the following tho grown much wiser in the certain Truth of it take 'em away for the very same reason Our Church was usually thought affected with the very worst Maladies and Distempers and under the greatest Dangers when some of her Ministers not sticking close to their Subscriptions too near approached and conformed to the Humor of these infirm Dissenters but now it must be looked on as the greatest strengthning of it to have some of those ill affected infirm Persons make up a Member of her The Ecclesiastical Physicians used to raise her drooping Spirits by clearing her of all the ill Blood in her Veins But now these are to effect the same Cure by infusing more ill Blood and worse into her The best framed Constitution in the whole World is now to be taken away to make it much more great and sure without or else with a much weaker one â—n Ox â—ct 〈◊〉 â—â—c 〈◊〉 1 c If any thing should be altered in any Congregation why not in those who cannot defend themselves by Antiquity or Gospel Why in that where nothing unlawful unnecessary superstitious or hurtful is contained and whose Fault only is that they are commanded If the lawful Superior's Command make a thing that is lawful to be used to become unlawful what fruits can you expect in this your designed Labor Will not the same Authority of Convocation King Lords and Commons be the same thing to them now as it has been some Years last part Or will there be nothing done and ordered to be done in the Church now by the same Authority If not 't is likely to be a very glorious Constitution But if there must I know not how they will comply especially since to morrows Thoughts may alter the nature of this days Action and since they are so unfix'd and unsetled in their judgments And what good your Design will do with some sort of the Dissenters you may already see in a Letter concerning Toleration The Persons whom you are to bring in unto the Churches Communion are such as I believe are designedly comprehended under these beforementioned Third to the Tenth Canons If so then having been guilty of those Faults against the which those Rules are made they stand excommunicated by virtue of that Convocation Can such therefore be made Members of our Church who are excluded out of it by the whole Church Have the Canons left any way for their Restoration to the Church but by their repenting and publickly revoking those their impious Errors and are
they willing and ready to do it But then you will reply That a Convocation shall take off that Excommunication which a Convocation laid on so that they may then be lawfully admitted Members of the Church because that the same Power which made a Law can annul it again which remember anon But by what Authority do you pretend to restore them to the Church whom upon many cases can only be absolved and restored by the Arch-Bishop Can you his Inferiors without his leave do that which is only left for him to do And some of the Bishops and inferior Clergy do their Superior's Office him gainsaying But if you betake your selves to your own Authority again which will oblige him and comprehend him with the rest Consider with your selves whether the Metropolitan of all England have nothing to do in the Alterations of the Church And one thing I would not have you to forget that by this your acting you will make many Orthodox Sons or the Church who cannot allow of your Authority plead from your mixt Communion the unlawfulness too of joyning with you For they knowing by what Authority these Sects were excommunicated and that with such Persons till restored they are not to communicate with in any holy Offices and approving not of this Authority by which the Excommunication is pretended to be taken off will be mighty prone to shun those Congregations where such mixtures are allowed and separate from all the new model'd Churches And since I am fallen upon the Inconveniences which will fall upon those who dare be Orthodox let me desire you to take care of one thing That you be not the occasion of utter Destruction to many of your Brethren the Clergy For there may be found some who have sworn with such a Declaration as not to own any present lawful Authority who will be apt to entertain Doubts concerning the Lawfulness of your Authority And since the chief Primate and Metropolitan of all England and many more of the Bishops Souls enter not into your Consultations nor consent to your Injunctions they will be extremely puzzled to find out the Lawfulness and Authority of your Determinations And since that they know themselves obliged by their frequent Subscriptions contained in the 36th Canon to stand to these Canons and Homilies and to use this Liturgy and no other that we have already by a lawful Authority and knowing of the great Punishment due to Prevaricators after Subscription in the 38th Canon which tho it may not be inflicted yet will however presuppose a Fault which by a good Man will be as fearfully avoided and carefully shunned as if the Punishment was to follow they therefore will conscientiously stick to their former Subscriptions and suffer what their unkind Brethren not Enemies shall lay upon them And this liberty you must allow 'em from your own Principles or else lose your own Argument just above That no Power can alter or abrogate a Law but the same that made it A lawful King and all other the Essentials of a lawful Authority have obliged them to the defending of these Rules for ever unless alter'd again by the same lawful Authority that made them and if they cannot find such Authority in your Injunctions as to annul their former Obligations blame not their Reasons but your own Actions Whatsoever Reasons the Bishop of Rochester had to act in the late Ecclesiastical Commission yet when he saw it was levell'd at the Destruction of his Brethren he thought it his Duty then to desist from any further acting and rather suffer in the same Cause with them if so it had been the pleasure of his King All good Men applauded that Action of his Lordship and if I mistake not you would willingly have the repute of as good Men as He. Consider therefore before it be too late I am sure our Ancestors and perhaps some of you now living were of another mind once when the Church of England had great reason to have comply'd if necessity could have justified any unlawful Uniting For when the Sectaries would correct and abolish our Liturgy and Discipline and set up their own by Authority of Parliament and no other thing would as indeed it scarce ever will cause their agreement with us You well know how bravely the poor Church then withstood and opposed all such endeavours Many things then were sent forth to shew the Reasons of their Dissent and have ever since had the Esteem and Character of Truth and Greatness Some of which because not unfit for this present affair I 'll now in short recite to you and of the many then writ only chuse those of the University of Oxford and that for more Reasons than one Jud. Uâ—â— Ox. 〈◊〉 47. Seâ— We cannot for certain say they obey the Orders of the Sessions of both Houses without Sin they having not been approved by the King's consent 1st Especially those which not only command things contrary to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm established by the unanimous consent of King Peers and Commons in Parliament 2ly But also because they annul and abrogate those Laws and Statutes For when 't is only in their power to cassate in whose 't is to make we cannot think it lawful for an inferior Power to rescind and annul that which was lawfully done by a Superior Stat. Eliz 3ly Especially when the whole Power of Jurisdiction in Ecclesiastical things is in most express Words of the Law for ever joyned and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm And to whose Head that Diadem of right belongs no Subject ought to be ignorant Sect Nay say they We cannot comply to a Reforming the Religion of this Kingdom in its Doctrine Worship Discipline and Rule when Reformation necessarily and formally in its self includes a Change. 1st Without manifest Scandal to Papists and Separatists For 1st We shall desert the most just Cause which Bishops and Martyrs and other learned Divines have strenuously defended again ft the Enemies on both hands Haâ— sut Ap c. 2 2ly We shall give greater occasion to the Papists of defaming our Religion of objecting we know not where to have it and that 't is a Parliamentary Religion 3ly We shall acknowledg something in our Doctrine and Worship not consentaneous to the Word of God whence will be given a just excuse to the one of his Recusancy and to the other of separation from the Communion of our Church 2ly Nor can it be done without manifest Injury to our selves for thereby we give false Testimony against our selves if we reform that Religion as depraved or vicious 1st Which by our Subscriptions before we have atttested to be consentaneous to the Word of God of which thing we have never repented 2ly Which by a firm perswasion we believe not to be contrary to the Word of God in any of those Four or any other things 3ly Which we rationally conclude to be many ways better and more