it exposeth the Magistrate to the reproach or Contempt of the Subjects and so shaketh the very frame of the Kingdom or Government The Magistrate's honour for the good of the Kingdom is more necessary than his Dishonour and shame can be to the Order of that particular Church 2. And a suspending of the Pastor's Act of delivering him the Sacrament with an humble admonition may better attain the Lawful end 3. Christ himself hath oft taught us this Exposition of his Law When he did eat with Publicans and sinners he preferred their repentance before the positive Order of not being familiar with such as being never intended in such a Case When the Disciples pluck't the Ears of Corn and himself cured the sick on the Sabbath day he proveth that the positive Law of Rest was intended to give place to the Moral Law of Necessity and Charity and proveth it by the instance of David and the Officiating Priests and twice sendeth the contrary minded Pharisees to learn what that meaneth I will have mercy a Natural Duty and not at that time sacrifice a positive institution And they that will pretend a positive Law of Order for a Congregation to the dishonouring of Kings and Iudges and Magistrates and making them contemptible and so unable to govern do Pharisaically set up Positives against natural moral Duties By which means Popes and Patriarchs and other Prelates have wronged Princes and troubled the world too much already Do you no better justifie the Common slander how much the Non-conformists are against the honour of Magistrates in comparison of the Church of England I know some Non-conformists think as you but others do not See the old Non-conformists judgment against excommunicating Kings in a Latin Treat De vera Genuina Christ. Relig. Authore Ministro Anglo An. 1618. pag. 280. 4. Moreover the execution of the sentence of Excommunication on Princes and Rulers will less consist with the honour that is due to them than the sentence it self For to avoid them that they may be ashamed to turn away from not to be familiar with them to keep them out of the Church at all God's special Church-worship are things that we cannot do without neglect of much of our duty to them We must attend them and obey them with honour I know a General Council hath forbidden Bishops to carry themselves with Lowliness at the tables and in the presence of Princes and great men And I know that some think that Excommunicate Princes have forfeited their honour and it is lawful to dishonour them yea and all wicked Princes who deserve Excommunication and I know Mr. Hooker in his Eccles. Polit. saith that it is supposed that a Prince that is the Head of a Christian Church be himself a Christian But all these are Errours tending to the subversion of Order and Government And the Higher Powers whom God's Spirit commandeth us to honour and be subject to were Nero and the Roman Senate and other Enemies of Christianity even Idolatrous Heathens And if these must be honoured much more a Christian King or Judge who were he a private man might deserve an Excommunication At least I hope that the Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo shall not be issued out against the King or his Judges though the Canon 65. command that every six months in Cathedrals and Parish-Churches the Excommunications be declared of those that obstinately refuse to frequent the Divine Service established by publick Authority and those especially of the better sort and Condition who for notorious contumacy or other notable Crimes stand Excommunicate c. Though the Better sort are singled out especially for the sentence and shame yet if it should be Judges and Sheriff who shall Judge and apprehend them Prop. id Not silence suspend c. Arbitrary but by a known Law Strict No Bishops do or can do so Neither is there any Law or Canon to that purpose that I know of Answ. I am loth to Name Iustances lest it provoke Mr. Potter is dead Dr. Willes of Kingsion now Chaplain to the King they say I am sure hath complained much of his suspension at Shadwell I remember Bishop Reighnolds was so sensible of the necessity of this Provision that at the Savoy Treaty he was most earnest to have it inserted and insisted on It may be it is Minister's ignorance in the Law that maketh them when suspended not know where to seek for a remedy unless in vain or to their undoing Postscript If Sacraments were left free c. It would take in the Independents c. Strict If Independents may be taken in by us now why did not you take them in when you were in power but preach and write so much as you did against Toleration of them But you that would have us dispense to all things now would your selves dispense with nothing then Answ. It 's pity that matters of publick fact should be so much unknown and that when such inference follow 1. I was never in power Nay my Lot never fell out to be of any side that was Vppermost in Church matters nor in State-Usurped power but I always was of the under side 2. It was the Toleration of all Sects unlimitedly that I wrote and preacht against and not that I remember of meer Independents 3. Those that did oppose the Toleration of Independents of my acquaintance did not deny them the liberty of Independency but opposed separation or their Gathering other Churches out of Parish-Churches that had faithful Ministers If they would have taken Parish-Churches on Independent Principles without separation neither I nor my aquaintance did oppose them no nor their Endeavours to reform such Churches 4. The Case greatly differed For an Independent to refuse Parish-Churches when no Ceremony no Liturgie no Oath or Subscription is required of him which he scrupleth is not like his refusing Oaths Subscriptions Liturgie Ceremonies c. 5. But in a Word Grant us but as much and take us but in as we granted to and took in the Independents and we are content Make this agreement and all is ended we desire no more of you We never denyed the Independents the liberty of preaching Lectures as often as they would Nor yet the liberty of taking Parish-Churches They commonly had Presentations and the publick Maintenance And no Subscription Declaration Liturgie or Ceremony was imposed on them Again I say I ask you no more Liberty than was given the Independents by their brethren called Presbyterians Let your Grant now agree but with your intimations 6. And how then say you we would dispence with nothing For my part and those of my mind we never imposed nor endeavoured to impose any thing on any man as necessary to Ordination Ministry or Communion but The owning of the Scripture Generally and the Creeds Lord's Prayer and Decalogue and Sacraments particularly with that measure of understanding them and ability to teach them which is necessary to a Minister and fidelity therein
10. The Manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal 1 Cor. 12. 7. All Members of the Body must have the same care one of another verse 25. And if one Member suffer the rest must suffer with it verse 26. and Ergo do their best to relieve them Every good Man is a publick Good bonum quo communius eo melius God's Gifts are so many Talents that must be accounted for Matth. 25. and he that hath best improved them for his Lord will havè the most comfortable Reckoning These Generals tying Men to do all the Good they can doth tye them that have Abilitiès and Opportunities for the Ministry to use them where there is need and that in Order as being ordained thereto where it may be had and out of Order where it may not and there is necessity even as Paul bids Timothy Preach out of Season you will acknowledge that they that have Abilitiés where the Church is in necessity may and must seek a right way to use them and so seeks an Ordination into the Ministry 1 Tim. ◠1 2. He that desireth the Office of a Bishop desireth a good Work But God as he gives no Gifts in vain so he sets Man upon no vain Endeavours Those therefore that are bound to seek to be Ministers are not bound to vain Endeavours and therefore there is a possibility of Succeeding But there is very oft no possibility of Authoritative Ecclesiastical Ordination Ergo There must be a possibility of succeeding some other way for nemo tenetur ad impossibile God's Gifts of Light are not to be put under a Bushel While I live where my Pains may be spared and others enough may competently supply my Room I will do nothing disorderly nor without Authority from Man so far as belongs to them to convey it and if they that have Power silence me I will be silent But if I live where there is a visible Necessity of my Labours I will by God's Help rather preach without Authority yea though I were silenced than forbear as knowing that Men have their Power to Edification and not to Destruction and I will rather venture to answer before God to the Charge of doing Good and saving Souls to Christ without Imposition of Hands or Human Appointment than the Charge of hiding my Talent as a slothful evil Servant and of letting Men go to Hell and reject Christ for want of a Commission from Man to hinder them for I know that He that converteth a Sinner from the Error of his way hath saved his Soul from death and covered a multitude of Sins Iam. 5. 20. 6. Christ himself hath taught us in Scripture so to interrupt his Laws as that Ceremonials and meer Positives do give way to natural Morals and Substantials and that when two Duties come together and cannot both be performed the greater must be chosen and therefore it is so in our present Case 1. Even under the Law this is oft manifested to instance but in one Circumcision it self which was so far necessary as to be called God's Covenant and he that neglected it was to be cut off from the People yet in the Wilderness for forty Years together is dispensed with and gives place to greater natural Duties 2. Much more under the Gospel when God placeth less in Externals as choosing such Worshippers as will worship him in Spirit and in Truth Christ often healeth on the Sabbath Day and tells them it is lawful to do Good viz. necessary Good on that Day He tells them that David when he was Hungry and they that were with him did eat the Shew-bread which was not lawful viz. without such Necessity for him to eat but only for the Priests And that the Priests in the Temple do break the Sabbath and are blameless and therefore justifies his Disciples for rubbing the Eares of Corn. If the Prophet Isaiab under the Law could tell them that This was the Fast which the Lord hath chosen to loose the Bands of Wickedness to undoe the heavy Burdens and to let the Oppressed go Free and to break every Yoke Is. 58. 6 7. And the Holy Ghost saith I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices or thy Burnt Offerings to have been continually before me Psal. 50. 8. How much more under the Gospel would God have Externals and Modals stoop to the Substance He that tells us there is Joy among the Angels in Heaven over one Sinner that repenteth would not have that Office that calleth them to Repentance laid by nor Men forbear the Works of it for want of a Man rightly ordained himself to say Goe There is some great Moment in that Lesson which Christ calls the Pharises so emphatically to learn Mat. 9. 13. But go ye now and learn what that meaneth I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice Nor is Christ very forward to satisfie their Demand By what Authority dost thou these things Mat. 21. 24 27. Nay he flatly refused 7. An Ordained Minister may have sufficient cause to give over his Calling without the Will of the Ordainer or any in his place therefore he may have sufficient Cause to assume it without the Will of an Ordainer The Antecedent is doubtless Nay it may be his Duty to give over as if the People do generally reject him or if he be called to an Employment where he may be certainly more serviceable or is fitter for or when there are many abler to supply his Place if he remove c. For the Consequence perhaps you will say It follows not because all must concur to a Man's Call to the Work But one thing wanting may call him from it But I answer The Strength of the Consequence is here in that as clear a Call at least is necessary to take a Man off a Course of Duty in so needful an Employment as to put him on And therefore let us suppose a Parity in other Respects and look only at that one Reason The Good of the Church It is certain that if I knew I were a great Wrong to the Church by my Continuance as by keeping out one far better or the like I were bound to give over though without the Ordainers Consent or against it if it cannot be had Therefore it follows that if my exercising that Office be undoubtedly Consideratis considerandis to the great Good of the Church I may do it without an Ordainer if Ordination cannot be had It is the Onus and Labor that is the first and chief thing considerable in the Ministry and the Honos and Power is but in order to that 8. If Secular Power may be derived from God at least so far as to oblige the Subjects to Obedience and to give them the Benefits of that Power and this without any regular authoritative Conveyance from Man then so may Ecclesiastical Power also But the Antecedent is true Ergo The Antecedent is proved 1. In that Scripture commands us to obey such
Spirit among others is a great rejoicing to me And I hope I may tell you that it is in vain as I am sure I may tell you it is no small Sin any more to resist and strive against him If the Hand of our dear and tender Lord be setting you in joint again shrink not on account of present pain much less should you fear the Reproach of being in Communion with the Body but impartially hearken unto him and yield but lay by all Tumults of Spirits and Passions and get out of the Noise of vulgar Clamours for the Voice of Peace is a still Voice and in Calmness must be attended unto And when you are restored if you find not the Sweetness and Advantages of Peace if you are indeed restored in Mind as well as Practice the Lord hath not spoken in this by me I can hardly think that he that hath raised these Thoughts within you and begun these Convictions will let them die In order to the Ends desired and hoped for I shall offer you so much of my present Thoughts as your described Case requires And 1. though I desire not to dispute the Case of Infant Baptism with you now yet I may say we believe you live in a constant Sin against the Lord in neglecting denying and opposing it and that if you will by one erroneous Supposition draw on a Chain of hurtful Consequences you are the Cause of your own Disorders At a fitter Season I should desire you but to answer me this one Argument All that should be sacramentally or solemnly inticed into the Holy Covenant with God as his People should be Baptized or at least be taken as true Members of the Church and their Entrance just but the Infants of believing Parents should be sacramentally and solemnly entred into Covenant with God or his People Ergo c. The Minor we give you the abundant Proof of Law and Promise for before Christ. It was Abraham's Duty and Priviledge according to the Tenour of the Promise which was made with him before the Law to enter his Children sacramentally and solemnly into the holy Covenant It was all the Churches Duty after both Jews and Proselytes both the uncircumcised Females and the circumcised Males and all the uncircumcised Church in the Wilderness Deut. 29 c. Tell me now how I should answer it before the Lord if I tell Parents that they are absolved from this Duty of solemn entring their Children into the Covenant and are divested of the blessed Priviledge especially when you here tell me well that you know of none but his Body that Christ is the Saviour of and that the Church is this Body Ergo you know of no Salvation for Infants if they be not of the Church Ergo Exclussion would be a heavy Case shall I say that Christ hath recalled this Law and Grant but how should I prove it I shew you the Law and Grant do you shew me the Repeal and we have done Christ never speaks a word to repeal it nor any of his Apostles Entring our Children into the holy Covenant is not a Ceremony If God say to a Father why didst thou not dedicate this Child to me and solemnly enter him into Covenant with me what can he say The Precept Promise and long Practice were plain was the Repeal also plain Yes if it be a Repeal for Christ to take such Children into his Arms and bless them and tell us of such is his Kingdom and to be offended with those that would have kept them from him and to command that all Disciples be Baptized He knew well enough when he instituted Baptism and exercised it first upon the adult that the Iews did so too with their Proselites And Ergo when he did in that no more than they did that yet admitted the Infants of Church-Members his baptizing the Adult could no more signify his Denial of Infants to be baptized than the Iews baptizing the Adult could signify it who at that time baptized Infants also nor could the Disciples interpret Christ's Doctrine and Will to be contrary to the Iews when his Practice was no more than theirs And when he never uttered a Syllable to intimate a Repeal of that great Mercy and Duty of entring Infants solemnly into the Covenant which by God's Appointment had continued so long And the Covenant was I will be thy God and thou shalt be my People But all this falls in besides my first intent and therefore I rather expect your Pardon than your regard of it at the present though time may shew you Light in that which now seems Darkness 2. But if our Infant Baptism were irregular how will you prove it a Nullity never by any sound Argument every Irregularity is not a Nullity Whether you take the Word as signifying Faedus Sacramentale a Sacramental Covenant as Scripture commonly doth more notably intending the Covenant than the outward Act or Sacramentum Faederale a Federal Sacrament or Action most notably signifying the Sign or Act it 's all one to our purpose for Infants are capable of both the Covenant and the outward Sign and of all that is essential to Baptism That they are capable of being entred into Covenant 1. Nature tells us we commonly enter them under Princes as their Subjects and into private Contracts with Landlords for Possessions 2. The ancient Law Promise and Practice of the Church before Christ tells us for then it was actually done by God's Command And that they are capable of the outward Sign is undeniable Prove it a Nullity if you can though it were a Sin 3. But if both were granted the Sin and Nullity I come now to give you my Reasons why it warrants you not to deny Communion with the Churches that were thus Baptized in Infancy And 1. I beseech you note that Baptism is as necessary if not much more to the Admission of Men into the universal visible Church as such or into a particular Church Ergo If Men may be admitted into the universal visible Church without adult Baptism then he may be admitted into a particular Church without it But yet here grant that he may be a Member of the universal Church without it Ergo Baptism is indeed appointed to be our regular entrance by way of Sacramental Covenant and Investiture into the Church Universal and not into a particular Church necessarily though it may be into both yet it is but indirectly into the particular Church The Eunuch and all that were baptized first in any place by the Apostles were baptized only into the Church universal and afterward setled in Order under Pastors in particular Churches Baptism as such as it was called our Christening doth only list Men under Christ as Christians and if it do any more as to the thing in Question it is accidentally and not always nor necessarily We are not directly sure baptized to our Pastors and so not to that Particular Church nothing then is more plain
Lives in the attempt The three Commanders for the Parliament in Pembrookshire raised an Army against them viz. Major General Langhorn Collonel Powel and Collonel Poyer The Scots raised a great Army under the Command of the Duke of Hamilton The Kentish Men rose under the Command of the Lord Goring and others and the Essex Men under Sir Charles Lucas But God's time was not come and the Spirit of Pride and Schism must be known to the World by its Effects Duke Hamilton's Army was easily routed in Lancashire and he taken and the scattered Parts pursued till they came to nothing Langhorn with the Pembrookshire Men was totally routed by Collonel Horton and all the chief Commanders being taken Prisoners it fell to Collonel Poyer's Lot to be shot to Death The Kentish Men were driven out of Kent into Essex being foiled at Maidstone And in Colchester they endured a long and grievous Siege and yielding at last Sir Charles Lucas and another or two were shot to Death and thus all the Succors of the King were defeated § 91. Never to this time when Cromwell had taught his Agitators to govern and could not easily unteach it them again there arose a Party who adhered to the Principles of their agreement of the People which suited not with his Designs And to make them odious he denominated them Levellers as if they intended to level Men of all Qualities and Estates while he discountenanced them he discontented them and being discontented they endeavoured to discontent the Army and at last appointed a Randezvouz at Burford to make Head against him But Cromwell whose Diligence and Dispatch was a great Cause of his Successes had presently his Brother Desborough and some other Regiments ready to surprise them there in their Quarters before they could get their Numbers together So that about 1500 being scattered and taken and some slain the Levellers War was crusht in the Egg and Thompson one of Captain Pitchford's Corporals aforementioned who became their chief Leader was pursued near Wielingborough in Northamptonshire and there slain while he defended himself § 92. As I have past over many Battles Sieges and great Actions of the Wars as not belonging to my purpose so I have passed over Cromwell's March into Scotland to help the Covenanters when Montross was too strong for them and I shall pass over his Transportation into Ireland and his speedy Conquest of the remaining Forces and Fortresses of that Kingdom his taking the Isles of Man of Iersey Garnsey and Scilly and such other of his Successes and speak only in brief of what he did to the change of the Government and to the exalting of himself and of his Confidents And I will pass over the Londoners Petitions for the King and their Carriage towards the House which looked like a force and exasperated them so that the Speakers of both Houses the Earl of Manchester and Mr. Lenthall did with the greater part of the present Members go forth to Cromwell and make some kind of Confederacy with the Army and took them for their Protectors against the Citizens Also their votings and unvoting in these Cases c. § 93. The King being at the Isle of Wight the Parliament sent him some Propositions to be consented to in order to his Restoration The King granted many of them and some he granted not The Scottish Commissioners thought the Conditions more dishonourable to the King than was consistant with their Covenant and Duty and protested against them for which the Parliament blamed them as hinderers of the desired Peace The chiefest thing which the King stuck at was the utter abolishing of Episcopacy and alienating theirs and the Dean and Chapters Lands Hereupon with the Commissioners certain Divines were sent down to satisfie the King viz. Mr. Steph. Marshall Mr. Rich. Vines Dr. Lazarus Seaman c. who were met by many of the King 's Divines Archbishop Usher Dr. Hammond Dr. Sheldon c. The Debates here being in Writing were published and each Party thought they had the better and the Parliaments Divines came off with great Honour But for my part I confess these two things against them though Persons whom I highly honoured 1. That they seem not to me to have answered satisfactorily to the main Argument fetcht from the Apostles own Government with which Saravia had inclined me to some Episcopacy before though Miracles and Infallibility were Apostolical temporary Priviledges yet Church Government is an ordinary thing to be continued And therefore as the Apostles had Successors as they were Preachers I see not but that they must have Successors as Church Governors And it seemeth unlikely to me that Christ should settle a Form of Government in his Church which was to continue but for one Age and then to be transformed into another Species Could I be sure what was the Government in the Days of the Apostles themselves I should be satisfied what should be the Government now 2. They seem not to me to have taken the Course which should have setled these distracted Churches Instead of disputing against all Episcopacy they should have changed Diocesan Prelacy into such an Episcopacy as the Conscience of the King might have admitted and as was agreeable to that which the Church had in the two or three first Ages I confess Mr. Vines wrote to me as their excuse in this and other Matters of the Assembly that the Parliament tied them up from treating or disputing of any thing at all but what they appointed or proposed to them But I think plain dealing with such Leaders had been best and to have told them this is our Iudgment and in the matters of God and his Church we will serve you according to our Judgment or not at all But indeed if they were not of one Mind among themselves this could not be expected Archbishop Usher there took the rightest course who offered the King his Reduction of Episcopacy to the form of Presbytery And he told me himself that before the King had refused it but at the Isle of Wight he accepted it and as he would not when others would so others would not when he would And when our present King Charles II. came in we tendered it for Union to him and then he would not And thus the true moderate healing terms are always rejected by them that stand on the higher Ground though accepted by them that are lower and cannot have what they will From whence it is easy to perceive whether Prosperity or Adversity the Highest or the Lowest be ordinarily the greater Hinderer of the Churches Unity and Peace I know that if the Divines and Parliament had agreed for a moderate Episcopacy with the King some Presbyterians of Scotland would have been against it and many Independants of England and the Army would have made i◠the matter of odious Accusations and Clamours But all this had been of no great regard to remove foreseeing judicious Men from those healing Counsels which must
Officers in the Court Freemen in Cities and Corporate Towns Masters and Fellows of Colledges in the Universities c. are required at their Admission into their several respective places to give Oaths for well and truly performing their several respective Duties their liableness to punishment in case of Non-performance accordingly notwithstanding Neither doth it seem reasonable that such Persons as have themselves with great severity prescribed and exacted antecedent Conditions of their Communion not warranted by Law should be exempted from the tye of such Oaths and Subscriptions as the Laws require § 17. 4. We agree that the Bishops and all Ecclesiastical Governours ought to exercise their Government not Arbitrarily but according to Law 5. And for Security against such Arbitrary Government and Innovations the Laws are and from time to time will be sufficient provision Concerning Liturgy § 18. A Liturgy or Form of Publick Worship being not only by them acknowledged lawful but by us also for the preservation of Unity and Uniformity deemed necessary we esteem the Liturgy of the Church of England contained in the Book of Common Prayer and by Law established to be such a one as is by them desired according to the Qualifications here mentioned 〈◊〉 1. For Matter agreeable to the Word of God which we 〈◊〉 all other lawful Ministers within the Church of England have or by the Laws ought to have attested by our Personal Subscription 2. Fitly suited to the Nature of the several Ordinances and the Necessities of the Church 3. Nor too tedious in the whole It 's well known that some Mens Prayers before and after Sermon have been usually not much shorter and sometimes much longer than the whole Church Service 4. Nor the Prayers too short The Wisdom of the Church both in ancient and latter times hath thought it a fitter means for relieving the Infirmities of the meaner sort of People which are the major part of most Congregations to contrive several Petitions into sundry shorter Collects or Prayers than to comprehend them altogether in a continued stile or without interruption 5. Nor the Repetitions unmeet There are Examples of the like Repetition frequent in the Psalms and other parts of Scripture Not to mention the unhandsome Tautologies that oftentimes happen and can scarce be avoided in the Extemporary and undigested Prayers that are made especially by Persons of meaner Gifts 6. Nor the Responsals Which if impartially considered are pious Ejaculations fit to stir up Devotion and good Symbols of Conformity betwixt the Minister and the People and have been of very ancient practise and continuance in the Church 7. Nor too dissonant from the Liturgies of other Reformed Churches The nearer both their Forms and ours come to the Liturgy of the Ancient Greek and Latin Churches the less are they liable to the Objections of the Common Enemy To which Liturgies if the Form used in our Church be more agreeable than those of other Reformed Churches and that it were at all needful to make a Change in either it seemeth to be much more reasonable that their Form should be endeavoured to be brought to a nearer Conformity with ours than ours with theirs Especially the Form of our Liturgy having been so signally approved by sundry of the most Learned Divines of the Reformed Churches abroad as by very many Testimonies in their Writings may appear And some of the Compilers thereof have Sealed the Protestant Religion with their Blood and have been by the most Eminent Persons of those Churches esteemed as Martyrs for the same § 19. As for that which followeth Neither can we think that too rigorously imposed which is imposed by Law and that with no more rigour than is necessary to make the Imposition effectual otherwise it could be of no use but to beget and nourish factions Nor are Ministers denied the use and exercise of their Gifts in praying before and after Sermon Although such praying be but the continuance of a Custom of no great Antiquity and grown into Common use by Sufferance only without any other Foundation in the Laws or Canons and ought therefore to be used by all sober and godly Men with the greatest inoffensiveness and moderation possible § 20. If any thing in the Established Liturgy shall be made appear to be justly offensive to sober Persons we are not at all unwilling that the same should be changed The discontinuance thereof we are sure was not our Fault But we find by experience that the use of it is very much desired where it is not and the People generally are very well satisfied with it where it is used which we believe to be a great Conservatory of the chief Heads of Christian Religion and of Piety Charity and Loyalty in the Hearts of the People We believe that the difuse thereof for sundry late years hath been one of the great Causes of the sad Divisions in the Church and that the restoring the same will be by by God's blessing a special means of making up the Breach There being as we have great cause to believe many Thousands more in the Nation that desire it than dislike it Nevertheless we are not against revising of the Liturgy by such discreet Persons as his Majesty shall think fit to imploy therein Of Ceremonies § 21. We conceived there needs no more to be said for justifying the Imposition of the Ceremonies by Law established then what is contained in the beginning of this Section which giveth a full and satisfactory Answer to all that is alledged or objected in the following Discourse which is for the most part rather Rhetorical than Argumentative Inasmuch as lawful Authority hath already determined the Ceremonies in question to be decent and orderly and to serve to Edification and consequently to be agreeable to the General Rules of the Word We acknowledge the Worship of God to be in it self perfect in regard of Essentials which hindereth not but that it may be capable of being improved to us by addition of Circumstantials in order to Decency and Edification As the Lord hath declared himself Jealous in Matters concerning the Substance of his Worship so hath he left the Church at liberty for Circumstantials to determine concerning Particulars according to Prudence as occasion shall require so as the foresaid General Rules be still observed And therefore the imposing and using indifferent Ceremonies is not varying from the Will of God nor is there made thereby any addition to or detraction from the holy Duties of God's Worship Nor doth the same any way hinder the Communication of God's Grace or Comfort in the performance of such Duties § 22. The Ceremonies were never esteemed Sacraments or imposed as such nor was ever any Moral efficacy ascribed to them nor doth the significancy without which they could not serve to Edification import or infer any such thing § 23. Ceremonies have been retained by most of the Protestant Churches abroad which have rejected Popery and have been approved by the
effectual with none but wicked Men and Hypocrites who dare Sin against their Consciences for fear of Men And is it worth so much ado to bring the Children of the Devil into your Church The third way of Efficacy is but to kill or banish all the Children of God that are not of your Opinion for it is they that dare not Sin against Conscience whatever they suffer And this is but such an Efficacy as the Spanish Inquisition and Queen Mary's Bonfires had to send those to God whom the World is not worthy of You know every Man that is true to his God and his Conscience will never do that which he taketh to be Sin till his Judgment is changed and therefore with such it can be no lower than Blood or Banishment or Imprisonment at least that is the Efficacy which you desire And if no such rigour be too much its pity the French that murthered 30000 or 40000 at their Bartholoâ—â—ew days or as Dr. Peter Moulin saith 100000 within a few Weeks and the Irish that murthered 200000 had not had a better Cause For they took the most effectual way of rigour But when God maketh Inquisition for the Blood of his Servants he will convince Men that such rigour was too much and that their Wrath did not fulfil his Righteousness You shew your Kindness to Men's praying in the Pulple without your Book Make good what you say that such Praying is of no great Antiquity and we will never contradict you more Or if we prove it not the Ancientest way of Praying in the Christian Church we will give you free leave to hang or banish us for not Subscribing to the Common Prayer Book which the Apostles used and which was imposed on the Church for some hundred years But it seems you think that we are beholden to meer Sufferance without Law or Canon for conceived Prayers How long then it will be suffered we know not if we must live by your Patience § 20. It seemeth that our Converse and yours much differ The most that we know or meet with had rather be without the Liturgy and you say That the People generally are well satisfied with it By this time they are of another Mind If it were so we take it for no great honour to it considering what the greater Number are in most places and of what Lives those Persons are of our Parishes and Acquaintance generally or for the most part who are for it Or what those are that are against it and whom for itsâ— sake you desire your effectual rigour may be exercised against The Lord prepare them to undergo it innocently § 21. Doth there need no more to be said for the Ceremonies How little will satisfie some Men's Consciences Lawful Authority hath in other Countreys cast out the same Bishops and Ceremonies which are here received Doth it follow that they are good in one Country and disorderly and undecent in another Or that our Authority only is infallible in judging of them Is not God's Worship perfect without our Ceremonies in its Integrals as well as its Essentials As for Circumstantials when you saw us allow of them you need not plead for them as against us But the Question is whether our Additions be not more then Circumstances § 22. We suppose that you give all to the Cross in Baptism which is necessary to a Humane Sacrament And this we are ready to try be just Dispute When you say that never was Moral Efficacy ascribed to them you seem to give up all your Cause for by denying this ascribed Efficacy you seem to grant them unlawful if it be so And if it be not so let us bear the blame of wronging them The informing and exciting the dull mind of Man in its duty to God is a Moral Effect from Moral Efficacy But the informing and exciting the dull Mind of Man in its Duty to God is an Effect ascribed to our Ceremonies Ergo a Moral Effect from Moral Efficacy is ascribed to our Ceremonies The major cannot be denied by any Man that knoweth what a Moral Effect and Efficacy is that which worketh not per modum Naturae in genere Causae efficientis naturalis only but per modum objecti vel in genere causae finalis upon the Mind of Man doth work morally but so do our Ceremonies Ergo sure the Arminians that deny all proper Physical Operations of God's Spirit as well as his Word and reduce all to Moral Efficacy will not say that Ceremonies have such a Physical Efficacy more than Moral And if not so the good Effects here mentioned can be from no lower Efficacy than Moral And the minor which must be denied is in the words of the Preface to the Common Prayer Book and therefore undeniable The Word of God it self worketh but moraliter proponendo objectum and so do our Ceremonies § 23. There is a great difference between Sacramental Ceremonies and meer Circumstances which the Reformed Churches keep These we confound not and could have wished you would not Our Cross in Baptism is A dedicating sign saith the Canon or transient Image made in token that this Child shall not be ashamed of Christ crucified but manly fight under his Banner against the Flesh the World and the Devil and continue Christ's faithful Servant and Soldier to his Lives end So that 1. It is a Dedicating Sign performed by the Minister and not by the Person himself as a bare Professing Sign is 2. It engageth the Party in a Relation to Christ as his Soldier and Servant 3. And in the Duties of this Relation against all our Enemies as the Sacramentum Militare doth a Soldier to his General and that in plainer and fuller words than are annexed to Baptism 4. And it is no other than the Covenant of Grace or of Christianity it self which this Sacrament of the Cross doth enter us into as Baptism also doth It is not made a part of Baptism nor called a Sacrament but as far as we can judge made essentially a Humane Sacrament adjoyned to Baptism The Reformed Churches which use the Cross we mean the Lutherans yet use it not in this manner § 24. This is but your unproved Assertion That the Fault was not in the Ceremonies but in the Contenders we are ready to prove the contrary but if it had been true how far are you from Paul's mind expressed Rom. 14. 15. and 1 Cor. 8. You will let your weak Brother perish and spare not so you can but charge the Fault on himself and lay Stumbling-blocks before him and then save him by your effectual rigour by Imprisonment or Punishment § 25. Those seem a few to you that seem many to us Had it been but one hundred such as Cartwright Amesius Bradshaw Parker Hildersham Dod Nicolls Langley Paget Hering Baynes Bates Davenport Hooker Wilson Cotton Norton Shephard Cobbet Word c. they had been enough to have grieved the Souls of many Thousand godly
when it is a thing not requiâ—ed of the Infant but only that he be the Child of a Believer and by the Parent dedicated to God in Baptism and there engaged in his Covenant to Believe and Obey when he is capable Of the Cross in Baptism we have said more in due place but here only add that it is a very great disorder besides the other faults to express the Terms of the Covenant as signified by the Cross more fully than as signified by baptizing viz. We sign him with the sign of the Cross in tâ—ken that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ crucified and manfully to fight under his Banner against Sin the World and the Devil and to continue Christ's faithful Soldier and Servant unto his lives end Amen The Conclusion that the Child is Regenerate and the Thanksgiving for Regenerating it by the Spirit are doubly faulty First in concluding that all Children baptized are Regenerate when we admit those before mentioned whose Interest in the Covenant which Baptism sealeth cannot be proved that is such whose Parents can lay no just claim to the Grace of the Covenant At least here is a private Opinion thrust into our Liturgy Secondly in concluding all Infants regenerate by the Holy Ghost when so many Learned Divines think that it is but a Relative Regeneration that is ascertained them and the Controversie is yet undecided The Exhortation to the Godfathers and Godmothers imposeth on them the Duty of the Parents to see to the holy Education which ordinarily they cannot do nor are to be required to do nor is it ordinarily done and yet we go on in the abuse The concluding Rubrick hasteneth Children too soon to Confirmation contrary to some Clauses in the Rubrick for Confirmation Divers Defects besides these expressed will appear by comparing this part of the Common Prayer with the Forms which we offer In the Private Baptism it is disorderly to make the Godfathers and Godmothers renew solemnly the Covenant-Ingagement of the Child when before we are to certifie them that all is well done and according to due order and the solemnizing of the Covenant is the principal use of Baptism so that its doubtful whether the repeating of so great a part of Baptism be not a great part of Anbaptism And it is not orderly that twice we must say to the Godfathers and Godmothers Dost thou in the Name of this Child as if we spoke but to one of them and the third time we say Do you in his Name Also the Prayer of giving the Spirit to the Infant that he being born again seems to import the Effects of Baptism on Christ's part as understood by the Common Prayer Book to be not given by the Private Baptism In the Rubrick for Confirmation the Order that Children shall be Confirmed when they can say the Creed Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments and answer the Questions of the Catechism seems contrary to the first and third Reasons which require that Solemn Renewal or owning of their Covenant which ordinarily they are not ripe for of many years after they can say the Catechism And though we suppose the meaning was only to exclude the Necessity of any other Sacrament to baptized Infants yet these Words are dangerous as to mislead the Vulgar He shall know for a Truth that it is certain by God's Word that Children being baptized have all things necessary for their Salvation and be undoubtedly saved The meaning is ex parte Ecclesiae but it hath mislead many to think it is absolute and comprehendeth all things necessary in every respect In a Catechism where so many necessary Points are passed over it 's disorderly to put two such frivolous Questions in the beginning as What is your Name and Who gave you this Name In the Catechism there is omitted some of the Essential Attributes of God without which he cannot be rightly known There is also omitted the Doctrine of the Law made to Adam and of Man's Fall and the Doctrine of our Misery is insufficiently touched The Person Office and Properties of the Redeemer are so insufficiently opened as that we should think the Essentials of Christianity are omitted were it not that they are generally at least expressed in the Creed it self which is more full than the Explication of it There is no mention of the Holy Scriptures in it and the Doctrine of the Covenant of Grace is very defectively expressed and so is the Doctrine of Sanctification and other parts of the Work of the Holy Ghost and the whole Doctrine of God's Judgment and Execution and that of Man's Duty and even the Nature and Use of the Sacraments in which it is fullest as will appear by a true comparing it with what we offer The Prayers and Administration of Confirmation suppose all the Children brought to be Confirmed to have the Spirit of Christ and the forgiveness of all their Sins whereas a great number of Children at that Age that we say not the far greater part do live a carnal careless Life and shew no Love to God above all no prevalent Self-denial Mortification nor Faith in Christ and Heavenly-mindedness nor serious Repentance for the Life of Sin which they continue in after Baptism Therefore to these Children Confirmation is not to be Administred till besides the saying of the Catechism they make a credible Profession of Faith Repentance and Obedience And to them that do not thus Confirmation is a gross and perillous Abuse In the concluding Rubrick there is no care taken for the multitude that being past Childhood understand not what it is to be a Christian who also have need of Catechizing In Matrimony these Words For be ye well assured that so many as be coupled together otherwise than God's Word doth allow are not joined together by God neither is their Matrimony Lawful do dangerously speak that of Irregularities in General which is true only of some greater Faults that are contrary to the Essentials of Matrimony For in many Cases quod fieri non debet factum valet The Ring should not be forced on those that scruple it The obsolete Phrases With my Body I thee Worship c. should be changed The Prayers at the Table are disorderly Repetitions not delivering that in many Words which may be exprest in few It is unfit to keep all Persons unmarried that are unmeet for the Communion being Infidels and unbaptized and prophane Persons may marry and it is unmeet to force such to receive the Communion the same Day that they Marry If it were requisite to put the private Work of visiting the Sick into the publick Liturgy of the Church yet the Variety of the Cases of the Sick is such that these Forms are not suitable to all In the Communion of the Sick the ancient Custom of the Church was where time and place allowed it to send the Deacon to the Sick at the time of the Celebration with a Portion of the
pursued me to this very day 2. But it is the Reasons against our full Obedience to the Imposition of this Conformity which I am now to rehearse but I must desire the Reader to remember that my bare Recital is no sign of my Approbation of all that I recite though I be one of those that dare not Conform § 304. And first there are divers general Reasons which keep some of them more than others from Conformity and drive them further even from joyning with them in Liturgy or Sacrament 1. Some of them look upon the Principles and Lives of many of those who fall in with the establisht Church as furnishing them with a sufficient Plea against Conformity For say they it 's easie to observe how the Prophane and Vitious and Debaucht and Scandalous which makes up but too great a part of the Nation fall in with that Party in the Church that are for Prelacy and Liturgy c. and for oppressing those who differ in their Sentiments from them about these Matters Now how say they can we safely joyn in with that Body of Men that harbours so many open Enemies to all Religion as the prophane part of the Nation comprehends But some who are more considerate reply That this is no other than what is the usual Attendant of a National Establishment it being a common thing for all those in a State who are really of no Religion in appearance to fall in with that Mode of Religion that is favour'd by the Law and most encouraged by the Prince § 305. 2. The same Persons say That by Conforming they shall own and strengthen Usurpers who have made a New Office which Christ never made and to the great wrong of Christ and the peril of the Church have made themselves Lords of God's Heritage And as he that obeyeth the Pope's Law is guilty of his Usurpation so is he that obeyeth the Prelates Laws though the Matter commanded were lawful in it self But the moderater Nonconformists are not for this Reason because say they it is but Counsel as it cometh from the Convocation and it is the King and Parliament that make a Law of it whom we must obey in lawful things And they say further That we must not forbear a Duty for fear of Encouraging Men's Usurpations § 306. They say also 3. That these Impositions are done by the Prelates in meer design to root out godly Ministers and Christians And that when they feared that the old Conformity would not serve turn they have added such new Materials of set purpose which keep out a Thousand at least that would have yielded to the Old Conformity And what they aim at further when they have thus driven out all the able faithful Ministers God knoweth But if we set in with them and use the very means which they have â—â—bricated for this very end to destroy the Interest of Godliness though the Act commanded were indifferent we are made guilty of their Sin But the moderate Nonconformists say That such Reasons as these are good Seconds where the Matter is first proved evil but 1. That Mens Designs are lateâ—t in their hearts and the strongest Conjectures will not serve instead of Proof 2. If that it were known to any one of us not by the Evidence of the thing but by some other Discovery that a lawful thing is Commanded with a pernicious design that will not excuse us from our Obedience unless it be probable that the Church is like to be saved from ruine by our forbearance to obey And we may do the thing commanded without any participation of the Guilt of Mens private malicious Intentions § 307. 4. Also they say That we have Covenanted to endeavour a Reformation and had begun it and therefore shall be Covenant-breakers and Backsliders if we yield to any thing which was to be reformed But here the more moderate have many Distinctions between things unlawful and things only inconvenient and between those that have opportunity to do better and those that have not and between seldom Communion and most ordinary And they say that things unlawful must not be done whether we have covenanted against them or not But for things only inexpedient or evil by a superable Accident they become our Duties and no Covenant disobligeth us from our Duty and that the Covenant never was intended to oblige us to prefer no Worship before that which is defective but only to prefer that which is better before it And that it may be a duty to Communicate sometime with a very faulty Church in order to our Catholick Communion with the whole so be it our ordinary particular Communion be in the purest Church and Order caeteris paribus that we can have § 308. 5. And another Reason given is That the Aggravation of the Sin of these Imposers is very great that they have been Persecutors heretofore and seen and felt God's Judgments for it and have been convinced and intreated to return to Charity and yet they have with renewed Malice set themselves to the debauching of the Consciences of the Kingdom and to the extirpation of Natural Honesty and have branded all their Party with the Mark of Perjury Perfidiousness and Persecution while they brand the Consciencious with the Name of Puritans And therefore they are a Generation ready for perdition and certainly near some heavy Curse And for us to joyn with them that are in the way to Wrath is the way to be partakers of their Plagues But the moderate say to this 1. That the Extenuation as well as the Aggravation of their Sin must be considered And that it must be remembred that among the Nonconformists there is a Party of Sectaries that Rebelled against all the Governours that were over them and cut off the King's Head when they had conquered those that are now against them in the Field and sequestred their Estates And that such great Provocation may not only sublimate Malice where it findeth it but greatly exasperate even temperate Men. 2. That it 's true that we must partake with no Men in their Sin as ever we would escape their Plagues but when that which is the Imposers Sin is become the Subjects Duty God will not plague us with them for doing our Duties 3. That it is dangerous to presume to foreteâ— on whom God will bring his Judgments in this Life and to preâ—ume that we are safe and they are near perdition while all things come alike to all and the differencing Day of Judgment is not yet come Therefore it is dangerous on such Prophesies or Presumptions or Fears to go out of the way of any Duty or to avoid any lawful Communion with the Church § 309. 6. Again it is said That these Impositions being the Engines of Division in the Church as Mr. Hales himself affirmeth we shall be partakers of the Schisms if we use them But the moderate say That indeed if we partake in the Imposition we partake in the
is dangerous for Men to go against the concurrent Judgments of Casuists yea of their own Casuists in the Case of Vows And they know not how to save Subscription from the enmity of the determinations of Dr. Sanderson and all other ordinary Casuists And these are the general Reasons of their fear § 361. But I shall hear tell you what they grant about the obligation of the Covenant 1. They assert that it can bind no Man to any thing that is sinful 2. No nor to any thing that may hereafter be sinful nor from any thing that may be a Duty when it cometh to be such though it were neither Sin nor Duty at the making of the Vow 3. That it bindeth no Man therefore against Obedience to the King though the thing be in it self indifferent and was not commanded by the King when they vowed For if a Man might prevent the Commands of Prince or Parents by his own Vows he might free himself from his Obedience The Command of God to obey Kings and Rulers is antecedent to our Vows and above our Vows and cannot be evacuated or avoided by them Therefore if there be any indifferent thing in the Covenant I will obey the King if he command or forbid it contrary to the Covenant 4. That we take our selves bound by the Covenant to nothing but what is our Duty if there were not such Covenant Not that a Vow doth not bind a Man to things before indifferent We confess it doth But because this Vow included and intended nothing meerly indifferent For it is the Judgment of Protestants and so both of the Framers and the Takers of it that the use of a Vow is not to make new Dutus to our selves which God never made but to bind us to that which God had made our Duty before Else it is a taking of the Name of God in vain All the doubt therefore is but whether it be a secondary Obligation to that which God had before obliged us to So that there is no one Action materially whose doing or not doing we take to depend upon the Covenant's obligation primarily or alone nor do we imagine any thing to be our Duty which would not be so if the Covenant had never had a being 5. That if the Covenanters did then suppose that they were bound to defend and obey the Parliament in that War and to bring a contrary Party to punishment yet now there can be no place for any such Imagination because the Parliament is not in being the War and Difference of Parties is ended Cessante materia câ—ssat obligatio cessantibus personis rerum statu It is now past doubt that we are bound to obey the King and that there is none to stand in competition for our Obedience so that as a League with those persons it ceaseth with the persons 6. That if we had been allowed but to Subscribe That there is no Obligation to endeavour unlawfully or by any unlawful means We had not scrupled so disclaiming any Obligation as on our selves or any other Subjects Thus far there is no Controversie among us about the Covenant § 362. I come now to the Non-Subscribers particular Scruples which are such as these 1. They say That all Men confessing that an Oath or Vow is obligatory they must see good proof that this particular Vow is not so before they can exempt it from the common force of Vows But such proof they have never seen from Mr. Fullwood Mr. Sâ—â—â—man Dr. Gauden or any that hath attempted it and on whom it is incumbent but rather admire that Men of so great Judgment and Tenderness of Conscience should ever be satisfied with such halting Arguments which they had long ago more fully confuted if the Law had not forbidden them They herein argue as the Bishops in another Case Uncertainties must give place to Certainties caeteris paribus But they are certain in general that Vows are obligatory if materially lawful and they are uncertain that this Vow it materially unlawful and so not obligatory Ergo they dare not say that no Man is obliged by it § 363. 2. They say That all the World confesseth that a Vow obligeth 〈◊〉 necessariâ to that which is antecedently a Duty but they propound it to consideration whether all these things following which are in the Covenant are certainly no Duties antecedently 1. To endeavour in our several Places and Callings the preservation of the Reformed Religion 2. The Reformation of Worship Discipline and Church-Government according to the Word of God in England 3. To bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion 4. To endeavour the extirpation of not Episcopacy but Prelacy that is Church-Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours Commissaries c. that is the fore described Frame Whether that Frame be so blameless as to be allowable I leave to their Judgments who have weighed what is before said 5. The Extirpation of Popery 6. To endeavour the Extirpation of Superstition 7. And of Heresie 8. And of Prophaneness 9. And of whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound Doctrine and the Power of Godliness 10. To endeavour with our Estates and Lives to defend the King's Majesty's Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms and not to diminish his Majesty's just Power and Greatness 11. To be humbled for our own sins and the sins of the Kingdoms 12. To amend our Lives and each one to go before another in the Example of a real Reformation If all these be not Duties let the question be Whether any one of them be a Duty And then Whether that which is antecedently a Duty by Divine Obligation be not further so by Self-obligation when it is vowed with an Oath Or whether a Vow bind not to a Duty But this is but by the by about the sence of the Imposers of Subscription exprest in the Corporation Act. But it is only the 〈◊〉 of Church Government which the present Controversie is about And if all that was said against our Prelacy on the first Controversie prove it a Duty to endeavour an alteration of the Church-Government then the Controversie is at an end § 364. 3. They say That all Men confess that an Oath and Vow is obligatory in a lawful matter though it were not antecedently necessary But whether in their Places and Callings to endeavour an alteration of the Church-Government be not lawful is the question Here 1. let it be observed what the matter of the Vow is 2. Who be the Persons whose Obligations are in question 1. The matter of the Vow was not to extirpate Episcopacy in general nor the Primitive Episcopacy in particular but only the fore described English Diocesan Prelacy in Specie which I prove beyond all denial 1. Because that which was not in being in England could not be extirpated out of England But it was
less the English that alloweth you such a sence of these two Prepositions as if of must needs mean the Species and in may mean only the Integrity or Accidents We dare not be so bold as to feign such a Difference and Latitude of sence to be in the Preposition of unless we could prove it 3. Will it not be taken for Treason if you make the same Exposition of the other Clause of the Declaration and say that the King and Parliament meant no more than to say that no Man is bound by the Covenant to endeavour an Essential or Specifick Change of State-Government or no greater Change than what may leave it still in the Species of a Monarchy Or do you believe that they meant no more and that they determined not against supposed Obligations to lower Changes of the Royal Government 4. There is not the accuratest Grammarian and Logician of them all that can tell just what may be said to Specifie a Government and what but to integrate it and just how far a Change may go before it may be called a Change of the Species 5. But suppose all this were nothing It is clearly proved that it is not the Genus of Episcopacy but the Species of English Prelacy described which the Covenant meaneth And I have proved already that a specifick alteration of this Prelacy is lawful and whether also not-necessary let the impartial Reader judge I have asked the most Learned of the Diocesan Party that I could meet with this Question Whether it be not lawful for the King and Parliament to take down Chancellors and all Lay-Judges in Spiritual Courts and Deans Arch-deacons Commissaries and the Courts themselves and to take down a Bishop of a Thousand or many Hundred Churches and to set up a Bishop in every Market Town with the adjacent Villages yea or in every great Parish to govern with his Presbyters as it was in Ignatius his days and in Cyprian's And never Man of them denied it lawful for them to make such a Change if they saw it meet I have asked them further Whether they would not call this a Change of Government de specie or according to the sence of the Act And they all confest it For if they did not the Act and Declaration would herein do them no good but leave private Men to endeavour such an Alteration which they know is all the Alteration that ever we desired of them and for which they have called us Presbyterians I have asked them further Whether a Vow turn not a licet into an oportet And they never deny it Where then can you imagine any remaining difference Why this was all that they said That it was not this Species of Prelacy but Episcopacy in genere which the Covenant meant and consequently the Act meaneth Which I have proved to be most evidently untrue there being no other Episcopacy but our Prelacy then existent nor Episcopay ever named in the Convenant in genere but this Prelacy being exactly described and this purposely for the deciding of this very Doubt by the means of Mr. Gataker Dr. Burges and many more in the Assemblies who renounced the extirpation of all Episcopacy and the Lords having taken the Covenant in that openly declared sence But suppose all this had not been so Doth not a renunciation of the Genus contain the Species And if any Man voweth against the Genus mistaking it to be all sinful will not his Vow bind him against that Species which indeed is sinful though not against the others As suppose that a Man should think that All swearing and Accusing others were a sinâ— and so to save himself from the said sins should Vow to God against them all If afterward this Man discover that some swearing before a Magistrate is a duty and some accusing of another is he not for all that still bound against prophane and rash swearing and malicious or unjust accusing which indeed are sins for therein he was not mistaken So if Men had as they did not upon mistake make a Vow against all Episcopacy or Prelacy as a sin and afterward discover that one sort is a Duty and the other a Sin do they not remain obliged against that wherein they were not mistaken 6. Lastly Let it be noted That though it be said in Declaration of Government yet it is added in the Church and not of the Church which is as much against them as the other is for them seeming to intimate that it is not the Form only Constitutive of the Church which they here intend § 389. 5. Some leading Independents say That it was essential to this Vow to be also a League and as a League it is ceâ—sed by the cessation of Persons and Occasions This shift they were put upon first themselves being the first that nullifâ—ed these Bonds that they might do what they did against the Covenant and make it as an Almanack out of date Answ. 1. Though as a Political Instrument it be called by one Name A Solemn League and Covenant and so all the parts of it do make one Instrument yet 1. The formality of it as a League and as a Vow are different 2. And as a Vow to God and a Moral Act of Man there are in it as many distinct Vows as there are Maâ—ters vowed The League is not the end of the Vow but Reformation was the professed end of both to which they were taken as co-ordinate means And therefore it as a League it were ceased it followeth not that as a Vow it is so For Men are the parties in the League but God is one of the Parties in the Vow and every individual Person is the other Party And if one Vow or Article should cease it followeth not that all the rest do so 2. It is not proved that it ceaseth as a League Though it oblige us not to war or to any thing against the King or State and though many of the Persons be dead that took it For 1. War was not mentioned in the Covenant much less as the Duty of all the Covenanters sure it was never intended that all the Women must fight 2. If it had that was but one of the means there mentioned and every Man bound himself to endeavour in his Place and Calling and that was not to fight for all 3. Therefore though the particular Occasions cease the general Cause continueth the need of Reformation and though no Man be bound to any unlawful means it followeth not that there is no bound to lawful means And though some Persons be dead not only the Nations but many individual Covenanters are living 4. And in express Terms they bound themselves all the days of their lives zealously and constantly to continue therein and therefore intended no such cessation § 390. 6. Lastly The Latitudinarians say that the general Rule is That all Sayings are to be interpreted in the best sence that the words will bear Ergo Answ.
the Covenant as the Principal Instrument giveth that is Right and Relation to the Father Saviour and Sanctifier and Right to pardon and Adoption and the Heavenly Inheritance which set together are Relative Regeneration as Judicious Bishop Davenant de Bapt. Infant well openeth it And that it is the badgâ— of his Christianity and an apt objective means of moral Operations on him as he cometh to the use of Reason When you have told us what more it doth and proved it and proved that without that it is no Sacrament you have done something Your non ponenti Obicem is no Scripture Notion ambiguous if not unsound If you mean it as the Words sound of some positive â—ct which is ponere obicem it is certainly false as to the Adult to whom the Sacraments are true Sacraments For God hath made their positive Consideration perception Faith and Repentance a necessary Condition of their Reception of the benefit So that if an adult person as to Baptism or the Lord's Supper should carelessly be asleep or not think what he is about or meerly not-know not-believe not-repent you can shew no promise of your miraculous grace to him And the Sacrament to an Infant is the same thing though the Act of believing be not required of himself but of another for him But if by ponere obicem you mean a privaâ—ion that is non-prestare conditionem not to believe repent c. then it 's true but an ambiguous deceitful phrase To believe is more than not to resist And so to be the Seed of the Faithful is And I suppose by your new Rubrick you will say that every Infant in the world of Cannibals Heathens or Infidels that is baptized jure vel injuria though taken by Soldiers violently by thousands against the Parent 's Wills are certainly Sanctified and do not ponere obicem themselves and that the Sacrament to them is not null It would be needful to our satisfaction that you tell us what internal Actual or habitual Grace it is that all these have and prove it and prove that else it were no Sacrament But enough of this Q. Now let us see what you ascribe to the Cross. The Matter of it is an Image though Transient of which God's Jealousy exprest in the Second Commandment hath made us Jealous in his Worship As to the Form and Use. 1. It is the Covenant of Christianity it self that it is about And it is no less than our Solemn Engaging Professing and Obliging Sign that we are Resolved Christians and will keep that Covenant even the same Covenant that is solemnized also by Baptism All the Duties of the Covenant on our parts we thus solemnly bind our selves to perform valiantly to the Death in Terms like the Sacramentum Militare The Canon 30. let us know that it is used to dedicate Children by that Badg to his service whose benefits bestowed on them in Baptism the Name of the Cross doth represent And It 's an Honourable badg whereby the Infant is Dedicated to the Service of him that Died on the Cross. So that on the Receiver's part it wants nothing of a Sacrament 2. That it is also used as God's Means of Delivering us the Relative Grace of the Covenant I conceive for these Reasons 1. The Adult is not to Sign himself but the Minister who is Christ's Agent not so much as asking wilt thou be signed doth sign him with the Sign of the Cross in token that he shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ Crucified and manfully to Fight under his Banner against Sin the World and the Devil and to continue Christ's faithful Servant and Soldier to their Live's end Amen 2. The Cross and the Benefits with Christ Crucified are hereby Represented 3. The Churches Publick Profession that this is their Dedication of the Child importeth plainly God's Acceptance of him that is Dedicated For who dare offer that to God which he supposeth not that God Accepteth as offered And God's acceptance of the dedicated person into the State relation and benefits of Christanity is the very grace on God's part which is essential to a Divine Sacrament strictly taken And is this no grant of federal Grace 3. And that to the Adult the Cross is a Moral means of internal and Qualitative Grace I think you will not deny A Moral means operateth objectively by Teaching the Intellect by representing the moving-object and by Excitation of the Will And how eminently is all this here intended In General the Liturg. of Ceremony saith They are such as are apt to stir up the dull mind of Man to the remembranoe of his Duty to God by some notable and special signification by which he may be edified And is this no Gracious Work And it is Christ Crucified and his benefits that by the Cross are represented to this use And is not that to operate morally on mind and will accordingly And the Words tell us particularly that it is to stir us up and oblige us to the Actual Manful fighting under Christ's Banner against sin c. and not be ashamed to confess him And is not this a moral gracious Operation When as the Gospel worketh by the Ear so the Cross by the Eye and Thought It is not Grace that the Gospel is to work And is it not a means of working it as well as the Sacraments Yea and in the same sort of Causality Doubtless then here is the Grace of the Covenant to be wrought as well as the Duty of it promised 4. And lastly that it is the Symbol and Badge of our Christianity the Canon twice professeth So that I think here is an intire third Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace inventitious and humane and not of God's making And if you could prove as you never can that some Miraculous sort of Operation not common to the Gospel or the Covenant it self is essential to a Sacrament for new Acts or Qualities on Infants or others I would ask when you thus cross the Child Do you look that God should do any more for his Soul thereon than if you did it not or no If you do as they did that used the Cross of old and the Papists now then you expect God's inward Grace upon the use of the Cross. If you look not that the Child's soul be ever the better for it it 's pity Baptism should be denyed them that dare not use it or so many Ministers be silenced about it But had it but some great and notable sacramental uses as the fore-named though not all I durst not presume on such an inventitious sacramental sign I have oft said I doubt whether the King would not think his Prerogative invaded if any should presume to institute a new Badg besides his Garter and Star of the Order or the Knights of the Garter much more a Symbol or Badg for all his Subjects and deny them the Knighthood or Ius Subditi who refuse it But too long of
be as dear to us as any other and that if I were a Member of Mr. Tombeis Church if he would permit me I would live obediently under his Ministry allowing me the Liberty of my Conscience I hope God is working for our Unity and Peace I have been long preaching of the Unity of the Catholick Church containing all true Christians as Members and the last Week save one Mr. Tombes came to the Re-baptized Church at Bewdley and preacht on the same Subbject and so excellently well as I hear for Unity among all true Christians to the same purpose with your Husband's Arguments that I much rejoiced to hear of it though I hear some of his People were offended And now that this should be seconded with your Husband 's peaceable Arguments puts me in some Hopes of a little more healing I have strong Hopes that if I were in London I should persuade such as your Husband and Mr. Iohn Goodwin and many an honest Presbyterian Minister as great a distance as seems to be between them all to come yet together and live in Holy Communion But be sure God will drive us together before he hath done with us Living Members will smart by distance and be impatient till the Wound be closed what a Damp is upon the Spirits of those Christians that can separate interpretatively from a thousand parts to one of the Church of Christ. The Papists would desire no better sport nor the Infidels neither than to reduce the Church of Christ to the Antipaede Baptists or the baptized at Age and so to deny him to have had any visible Church in the World that we can prove for so many Years Would they have held Communion with the Catholick Church for a thousand Years together or would they not if they had lived in those times If they would then why not with us also that are of the same Judgment Was it a Duty then and is it unlawful now or are they Respecters of Persons If they would not in all those Ages have held Communion with the visible Church what would they have done but separated from the Body and so from the Head and cast off Christ in all his Members and taken him to be a Head without a Body which is no head and so no Christ what would they have done but denied his Power and Love and Truth and consequently his Redemption and his Office Hath he come at the end of Four Thousand Years since the Creation to redeem the World that lay so long in Darkness and hath he made such wonderful Preparations for his Church by his Life and Miracles and Blood and Spirit c. and promised that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it and that his Kingdom shall be an Everlasting Kingdom and his Dominion endureth from Generation to Generation and yet after all this shall he have a Church even as the Seekers say but for an Age or two For doubtless tho' where Heathens were the Neighbours of the Church many were baptised at Age yet no Man can name or prove a Society or I think a Person against infant Baptism for One Thousand Two Hundred Years at least if not One Thousand Four Hundred And for many Ages no other ordinarily baptized but Infants If Christ had no Church then where was his Wisdom his Love and his Power What was become of the Glory of his Redemption and his Catholick Church that was to continue to the End That Man that can believe that Christ had no Church for so long time or any one Age since his Ascension must turn an Infidel and deny him to be Christ if he be a rational Man Did all the Gospel Precepts of Love and Holy Communion cease as soon as Infant Baptism prevailed doubtless though it be be his Ordinance Christ never laid so great a stress on the outward Washing as Dividers do Whenever Baptism is mentioned in Scripture it means The Engagement of the Person to Jesus Christ by solemn Covenant which Washing is appointed to Solemnize and 1 Cor. 12. 13. doth plainly mean That one Holy Spirit which is usually given to the Baptized either in or near their outward Baptism doth inwardly animate all the Body and unite them and assimilate them and prove them Members Constantine the Great was the Glory of the Church in his Generation maintaining Holiness and Peace when the Pastors were some Corrupters and some Dividers and would have broken all in Pieces but for him He ordinarily Preached or made Holy Prayers and Speeches in Meetings and yet was never baptized all this while till near Death and none ever scrupuled his Communion I would know of the Dividers why they should think Baptism more necessary to be believed than the other Sacrament the Supper of the Lord Yet it is certain that all the ancient Church did purposely conceal the Lord's Supper from the Knowledge of the Catechumens by which it appears they judged not the Belief of it essential to a Church Member Yet I know the great thing meant by the Word Baptism in Scripture is essential to the Church-Membership of the Adult that is the giving up our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in Covenant but the Sign is only necessary as a Duty but not as a means without which the thing cannot be had This is voluminously proved against the Papists with whom the contrary minded do comply Circumcision in the Wilderness was separated from Church-Membership and Communion And is the outward part of Baptism more necessary under the Gospel which setteth less by Externals and where God that is a Spirit will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth and where neither Circumcision nor Un-Uncircumcision availeth any thing but a new Creature and Faith that worketh by Love But our main Argument against them is That no true Definition can be given of Baptism that will not agree with Infant-Baptism if it were granted to be unlawful were it proved an unmeet Age it will never prove the Baptism null But I do but go besides your Expectation I suppose in all this which is occasioned by your Husbands Paper and the main Cause I shall therefore come at last to your Case But will Mr. Lambe regard the Judgment of one that differeth from him as I do You know according to my Judgment what I must advise him to but though still it is my Judgment that Infants of Believers should be solemnly given up to Christ by Baptism yet I shall deal as impartially as I can and put my self in Mr. L's Case and supposing I were of his Opinion against Infant-Baptism I shall answer your particular Questions To the two first I answer 1. We have a sure Word to fly to for Direction and many great and evident Principles as here the Nature of the Catholick Church c. to give us Light in the darker Points that depend upon them and in such a Case it is dangerous gathering our Informations about Truth or Duty or
Liturgy and Ceremonies we most humbly represent unto your Majesty 1. First For Church-Government that although upon just Reasons we do dissent from that Ecclesiastical Hierarchy or Prelacy disclaimed in the Covenant as it was stated and exercised in these Kingdoms yet we do not nor ever did renounce the true Ancient and Primitive Presidency as it was ballanced and managed by a due Commixtion of Presbyters therewith as a fit means to avoid Corruptions Partiality Tyranny and other Evils which may be incident to the Administration of one single Person Which kind of attempered Pesidency if it shall be your Majesty's grave Wisdom and gracious Moderation be in such a manner constituted as that the forementioned and other like Evils may be certainly prevented we shall humbly submit thereunto And in Order to an happy Accommodation in this weighty Business we desire humbly to offer unto your Majesty some of the Particulars which we conceive were amiss in the Episcopal Government as it was practised before the Year 1640. 1. The great Extent of the Bishops Diocess which was much too large for his own personal Inspection wherein he undertook a Pastoral Charge over the Souls of all those within his Bishoprick which must needs be granted to be too heavy a Burthen for any one Man's Shoulders The Pastoral Office being a Work of Personal Ministration and Trust and that of the highest Concernment to the Souls of the People for which they are to give an Account to Christ. 2. That by Reason of this Disability to discharge their Duty and Trust personally the Bishops did depute the Administration of much of their Trust even in matters of spiritual Cognizance to Commissaries Chancellors and Officials whereof some were Secular Persons and could not administer that Power which originally appertaineth to the Pastors of the Church 3. That those Bishops who affirm the Episcopal Office to be a distinct Order by Divine Right from that of the Presbyter did assume the sole Power of Ordination and Jurisdiction to themselves 4. That some of the Bishops exercised an Arbitrary Power as by sending forth their Books of Articles in their Visitations and therein unwarrantably enquiring into several things and swearing the Church-Wardens to present accordingly So also by many Innovations and Ceremonies imposed upon Ministers and People not required by Law and by suspending Ministers at their Pleasure For reforming of which Evils we humbly crave leave to offer unto your Majesty 1. The late most Reverend Primate of Ireland his Reduction of Episcopacy unto the Form of Synodical Government received in the ancient Church as a Ground-work towards an Accommodation and fraternal Agreement in this Point of Ecclesiastical Government Which we rather do not only in regard of his eminent Piety and singular Ability as in all other Parts of Learning so in that especially of the Antiquities of the Church but also because therein Expedienâ— are offered for healing these Grievances And in order to the same end we further humbly desire that the Suffragans or Corepiscopi mentioned in the Primate's Reduction may be chosen by the respective Synods and by that Election be sufficiently authorized to discharge their Trust. That the Associations may not be so large as to make the Discipline impossible or to take off the Ministers from the rest of their necessary Imployments That no Oaths or Promises of Obedience to the Bishops nor any unnecessary Subscriptions or Engagements be made necessary to Ordination Institution Induction Ministration Communion or Immunities of Ministers they being responsible for any Transgression of the Law And that no Bishops nor any Ecclesiastical Governors may at any time exercise their Government by their own private Will or Pleasure but only by such Rules Canons and Constitutions as shall be hereafter by Act of Parliament ratified and established and that sufficient Provision be made to secure both Ministers and People against the Evils of Arbitrary Government in the Church 2. Concerning the Liturgy 1. We are satisfied in our Judgments concerning the Lawfulness of a Liturgy or Form of publick Worship provided that it be for the matter agreeable unto the Word of God and fitly suited to the Nature of the several Ordinances and the necessity of the Church nether too tedious in the whole nor composed of too short Prayers unmeet Repetitions or Responsals nor too dissonant from the Liturgies of other Reformed Churches nor too rigorously imposed nor the Minister so confined thereunto but that he may also make use of those Gifts for Prayer and Exhortation which Christ hath given him for the Service and Edification of the Church 2. That inasmuch as the Book of Common Prayer hath in it many things that are justly offensive and need amendment hath been long discontinued and very many both Ministers and People Persons of Pious Loyal and Peaceable Minds are therein greatly dissatisfied whereupon if it be again imposed will inevitably follow sad Divisions and widening of the Breaches which your Majesty is now endeavouring to heal We do most humbly offer to your Majesty's Wisdom that for preventing so great Evil and for setling the Church in Unity and Peace some Learned Godly and Moderate Divines of both Perswasions indifferently chosen may be imployed to Compile such a Form as is before described as much as may be in Scripture words or at least to Revise and effectually Reform the old together with an Addition or Insertion of some other varying Forms in Scripture phrase to be used at the Minister's Choice of which Variety and Liberty there be Instances in the Book of Common Prayer 3. Concerning Ceremonies We humbly represent that we hold our selves obliged in every part of Divine Worship to do all things decently in order and to Edification and are willing therein to be determined by Authority in such things as being meerly Circumstantial are common to Humane Actions and Societies and are to be ordered by the Light of Nature and Christian Prudence according to the General Rules of the Word which are always to be observed And as to divers Ceremonies formerly retained in the Church of England We do in all Humility offer unto your Majesty these ensuing Considerations That the Worship of God is in it self perfect without having such Ceremonies affixed thereto That the Lord hath declared himself in the Matters that concern his Worship to be a Iealous God and this Worship of his is certainly then most pure and most agreeable to the Simplicity of the Gospel and to his holy and jealous Eyes when it hath least of Humane Admixtures in things of themselves confessedly unnecessary adjoyned and appropriated thereunto upon which account many faithful Servants of the Lord knowing his Word to be the perfect Rule of Faith and Worship by which they must judge of his Acceptance of their Services and must be themselves judged have been exceeding fearful of varying from his Will and of the danger of displeasing him by Additions or Detractions in such Duties wherein they must
daily expect the Communications of his Grace and Comfort especially seeing that these Ceremonies have been imposed and urged upon such Consideratioms as draw too near to the significancy and moral efficacy of Sacraments themselves That they have together with Popery been rejected by many of the Reformed Churches abroad amongst whom notwithstanding we doubt not but the Lord is worshipped decently orderly and in the beauty of Holiness That ever since the Reformation they have been Matter of Contention and endless Disputes in this Church and have been a Cause of depriving the Church of the Fruit and Benefit which might have been reaped from the Labours of many Learned and Godly Ministers some of whom judging them unlawful others unexpedient were in Conscience unwilling to be brought under the power of them That they have occasioned by the offence taken at them by many of the People heretofore great Separations from our Church and so have rather prejudiced than promoted the Unity thereof and at this time by reason of their long disuse may be more likely than ever heretofore to produce the same Inconveniencies That they are at best but indifferent and in their Nature mutable and that it 's especially in various Exigencies of the Church very needful and expedient that things in themselves mutable be sometimes actually changed lest they should by perpetual permanency and constant use be judged by the People as necessary as the Substancials of Worship themselves And though we do most heartily acknowledge your Majesty to be Custos utriusque Tabulae and to be Supream Governour over all Persons and in all Things and Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil in these your Majesty's Dominions yet we humbly crave leave to beseech your Majesty to consider whether as a Christian Magistrate you be not as well obliged by that Doctrine of the Apostle touching Things indifferent not occasioning an offence to weak Brethren as the Apostle himself then one of the highest Officers in the Church of Christ judged himself to be obliged and whether the great Work wherewith the Lord hath intrusted your Majesty be not rather to provide by your Sacred Authority that the things which are necessary by virtue of Divine Command in his Worship should be duly performed then that Things unnecessary should be made by Humane Command necessary and penal And how greatly pleasing it will be to the Lord that your Majesty's heart is so tenderly and religiously Compassionate to such of his poor Servants differing in so small matters as to preserve the Peace of their Consciences in God's Worship above all their Civil Concernments whatsoever May it therefore please your Majesty out of your Princely Care of healing our Breaches graciously to grant That Kneeling at the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and such Holydays as are but of Humane Institution may not be imposed upon such as do conscientiously scruple the Observation of them And that the use of the Surplice and Cross in Baptism and bowing at the Name of Iesus rather than the Name of Christ or Emanuel or other Names whereby that Divine Person or either of the other Divine Persons is nominated may be abolished these things being in the Judgment of the Imposers themselves but indifferent and mutable in the Judgment of others a Rock of Offence and in the Judgment of all not to be valued with the Peace of the Church We likewise humbly represent unto your most Excellent Majesty That divers Ceremonies which we conceive had no Foundation in the Law of the Land as erecting Altars bowing towards them and such like have been not only introduced but in some places imposed whereby an Arbitrary Power was usurped divers Ministers of the Gospel though Conformable to the Established Ceremonies troubled some Reverend and Learned Bishops offended the Protestants grieved and the Papists pleased as hoping that those Innovations might make way for greater Changes May it therefore please your Majesty by such ways as your Royal Wisdom shall judge meet effectually to prevent the imposing and using of such Innovations for the future that so according to the pious intention of your Royal Grandfather King Iames of blessed memory the Publick Worship may be free not only from blame but from suspicion In obedience to your Majesty's Royal Pleasure graciously signified to us we have tendered to your most Excellent Majesty what we humbly conceive may most conduce to the Glory of God to the Peace and Reformation of the Church and to the taking away not only of our Differences but the Roots and Causes of them We humbly beg your Majesty's favourable Acceptance of these our Loyal and Conscientious Endeavours to serve your Majesty and the Church of Christ and your gracious Pardon if in any Thing or Expression we answer not your Majesty's Expectation professing before your Majesty and before the Lord the Searcher of Hearts that we have done nothing out of strife vain Glory or Emulation but have sincerely offered what we apprehend most seasonable and conducing to that happy End of Unity and Peace which your Majesty doth so piously prosecute We humbly lay our selves and these our Addresses at your Majesty's feet professing our unfeigned resolution to live and die your Majesty's faithful loyal and obedient Subjects and humbly implore your Gracious Majesty according unto your Princely Wisdom and Fatherly Compassion so to lay your Hand upon the bleeding Rents and Divisions that are amongst us that there may be an healing of them so shall your Throne be greater than the Throne of your Fathers in your days the Righteous shall flourish Peace shall run down like a River and the Generations to come shall call you blessed This following Paper I drew up at this time and offered to the Brethren to have been presented to the King as the Summary of our Judgment that he might see in a few plain words what it was that we indeed desired But it was not consented to both because that all of us were not agreed among our selves in granting so much of Episcopacy and because we would not hinder our Success by adding any more to Bishop Usher's Model hoping that his Authority might have facilitated the Reception of it to which Reasons I consented The brief Sum of our Iudgment and Desires about Church-Government 1. POwer is 1. Imperial and Coercive by Mulcts and Penalties 2. or Doctoral and Suasory The first belongeth only to the Magistrate The second to the Pastors of the Church 2. Though in Cases of Necessity the same Man may be both a Magistrate and a Pastor yet out of such Case it is unlawful or very unmeet Each Calling will find a Man work enough alone And our work being perswasive is successful but as it procureth Complacency and Consent and therefore we should be put upon no such Actions as will render us more feared and hated than desired to our Flocks We therefore humbly beseech your Majesty to trust no Church-men with the Sword with any degree of Imperial