Crime of it is most justly charged by our Brethren upon those who were the sole cause of it and not upon those who with much sadnesse and grief of heart left their stations Ch. Go. with peoples consent p. 138 They themselves speaking of the Prelates are the Schismaticks and the makers of the divisions which are now in England All wise men know that not the difference but the cause maketh a Schismatick and more fully afterwards pag. 175. The Superiour over-ruling Minister over many distinct Congregations which the Word knoweth not In truth such a one is the proper cause of dissention and Schisme for hee not willing to submit to Gods Word by his power draweth many with him whereupon followeth dissention and schisme And then he with his Company being the stronger in the world may cry out loudest against those fewer that dissent that they are Schismaticks and Peace-breakers but look to the Word of God and themselves will bee found to be the makers of the Schisme by their traditions De. Pol. l. 1. c. 37. Learned Parker bestowes a whole Chapter in proving that Episcopis non puritanis dissiaium anglicanum imputandum esse And in his Treatise of the Crosse I would saith he our opposites the Bishops were as well able to clear themselves of Schism as we are able who run within that Censure of Augustine Quicunq invident bonis ut quaerant occasiones excludendi eos aut degradandi c. Whosoever saith hee envies those that are good and seeks occasion to exclude and eject them that rather than they will leave their own faults they will devise how to raise up troubles in the Church and drive men into Conventicles these are Schismaticks though they still remain in the Church About seven or eight and twenty years since Master George Walker preached a Visitation Sermon I have cause to remember it being then suspended and put out of my Ministry by the Visitor it was upon 1 Cor. 11.16 If any man seem to be contentious c. hee declared and with much strength and evidence asserted the Imposers who being not necessitated lay such snares and not those that conscientiously shun them are the CONTENTIOUS persons For which Sermon he was articled against and molested long in the High Commission Court §. 6. These penalties and severe impositions are many times laid by the Magistrate when his Conscience is not by any Scripture-light necessitated so to doe The matters which the Scriptures have not determined precisely one way or other nor required any such determination from the Magistrate If such things bee strictly imposed and bound upon us Hee doth not leave that liberty to others though it be every mans right as well as his which hee found left to him by the Lord. And where it is thus what was arbitrary in the Imposer becomes necessary to the persons imposed upon they are necessitated either to submit or leave their places And this puts a great difference as more or lesse blameable in the parties contending when the one can plead little but his will or resolution and the other an apparent necessity Wee doe not said our suffering Brethren separate our selves from the Church Positions Archip. pa. 10. 11. or forsake the Ministry of the Gospel but are thrust from it if men driven by Excommunication out of the Church bee not Schismaticks much lesse Ministers driven by suspension and deprivation If the Prelates cannot prove from the Word the things in question may be prescribed by Authority and yeelded to by the Ministers without sin then are the Prelats Schismatical according to the judgement of the Apostle who beseecheth the Brethren to mark them diligently who cause division and differences besides the Doctrin which they have learned and avoyd them Rom. 16.17 §. 7. Breaches and Divisions secondly are continued and fixed by such impositions upon this account ¶ II. Humble reasonings about matters in difference amongst Brethren if it be with equal liberty to each is the ordinary way to reduce into peaceable union persons of different judgements But opinions or practices having obtained an establishment by Law are thereby exempted from any such Disputings or so much as being questioned in respect either to their lawfulnesse or expedience Ecclesiast Pol. p. 26. Things were disputed saith Hooker before they came to bee determined men afterwards are not to DISPVTE any longer but obey Prudentia say others non obedientis sed imperantis est it is our part to obey and not to bee so wise as to dispute what is established by power and many are the like expressions in Episcopal writings In so much as though our silenced Brethren and those of that party did all along make it their humble sute that they might have liberty and freedom in a modest and Christian way to conferre and dispute with the Prelatical party about the main and principal Controversies and differences that were betwixt them This could not bee obtained by all the friends and interest those poor men could make But upon the like reasons as are before mentioned it was constantly denied them These forms say the Prelates and Ceremonies being established by a Law ought not to bee called in question and disputed of as if they were doubtful It is presumption and arrogancy to reason against what our Superiours have done Answ the Minist of London pa. 17. For a Subject to examine the Law of his Magistrate saith another is to presume and usurp authority above his superiours The Governours themselves have ever been sufficiently against it Proclam 5º Mar. 1º Jacabi King James tells us it is necessary for them to use constancy in upholding the publick determinations of State otherwise it will become ridiculous and that the stedfast maintaining of things by publick advice established is the weal of all Common wealths Hee speaks there of Church Lawes The Canons of 1603. which were confirmed by his authority threaten thus Can. 6. Whosoever shall hereafter AFFIRM the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England by LAVV ESTABLISHED are such as being commanded by lawful authority men may not with a good conscience approve use or if occasion require subscribe unto them let him be excommunicated ipso facto Can. 7. The like for those that owne not Church-Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops c. So that when these lesser or doubtful matters come to bee established by a Law the scruples about them cannot in an ordinary way be brought to any period the one party being forbidden to declare their Consciences under as great a penalty as for the greatest Crime a man can fall into for so is Excommunication ipso facto And if hee escape this Thunderbolt from above there is a gulf provided beneath to swallow up all his livelihood Act for Uniformity the Act for Uniformity which is thus Whosoever refuseth to use the said Common Prayers c. or shall preach declare or speak any thing in the derogation of the
receive as it was termed once a year at the least Now without such an expresse and precise form of words in this administration as are pleadable in a Court of Justice recusancy could not legally bee thence adjudged For if such forms had not been thus strictly held to by little alterations backward possibly no more than what was done in that Book sent to Scotland towards the Masse-book out of which they were taken the Service and Sacraments might have been so superstitiously administred as a Papist would not scruple to be present at them §. 5. There is no such State necessity for this forme Neither is there such disability in Ministers now to Catechise as there was then to pray and preach from their own gifts these being performances requiring greater ability and learning For certainly thus to ask questions by the Book and receive answers by the Book requires no great gifts or study Parents Masters of Families and those of lowest parts or learning may sufficiently perform it Mr. Baxter his advice yea Master Baxter and so doe others grant persons not set apart to any Office in the Ministry may thus Catechise and instruct Worstersh Asso not only their own Families but the whole Parish Such are the abilities of Ministers generally we blesse the Lord for it as they stand in as little need of books to Catechise and instruct youth by as books to say prayers by or to preach by And it being so it is a very sad consideration that having through mercy persons qualified and approved for Ministerial gifts and graces Such must now in an age of light and experience be silenced and put from the imployment to which Christ hath called them for not submitting to a Form or Circumstance which is neither peculiar or of absolute necessity to ministerial work or service §. 6. The younger sort of a Parish may bee instructed according to Scripture direction in the Fundamentals of Religion for so are the elder and many of them as ignorant though not in such a method of Catechising as is injoyned This strict method may bee practised as it hath been for many years and yet no one particular Catechisme enjoyned The crime lieth in the omission only of a form or rather circumstance of such a form to instruct in such a method is but a form but an arbitrary form some other method may bee as good this or that particular Catechisme is but a circumstance of such a form the punishment is as great as for omission or negligence in the great and essential duties of the Ministry This is not equal the Canonists say Penor Cic. de off Poena non debet excedere delictum And a Heathen Cavendum est ne poena major sit quam culpa Mag. Cha. cap. 14. The old Law of Magna Charta was this Ex quantitate poena cognoscitur quantitas delicti quia paena debet esse commensurabilis delicto and our suffering Brethren pleaded it against the unreasonablenesse of the penalties imposed upon them for omissions in Forms and Ceremonies pretending they did it with contempt to Authority which is the greatest aggravation of an omission No Free-holder for contempt of the Kings Commandement may bee punished with the losse of his Free-hold when the great Charter of England telleth us that a Free-man shall not bee amerced for a small fault but after the quantity of the fault and for a great fault after the manner thereof saving unto him his Conteniment and Free-hold If then unto every Free-man punishable by the law though his fault bee great his Conteniment or Free-hold ought to be reserved it seemeth much more reasonably to follow that no Church-man being a free-man may so be punished c. Certain considerations printed anno 1605. p. 43. where the justification of a more severe proceedings against Church-men than other Free-holders because these hold virtute officii only is also debated and concluded that if the crime of which hee is guilty bee not inconsistent with his office hee ought to enjoy the same priviledge granted to other Free-holders by Magna Charta So that if the not observing a Ceremony or form or the not owning Episcopacy If the not instructing in such an order or by such a particular book enjoyned or not coming up to such forms of Discipline as are established Be not a defect which is in it self destructive to the Office of a Minister according to our Brethrens opinion such ought not to bee put out of their Livings under any such pretence §. 7. Silencing and putting Ministers from their places for such matters was argued formerly by those holy men to be an unjust and unequal kind of punishment from another consideration also namely that such punishing of Ministers is a greater punishment upon the people Such stopping of the mouthes of painful and profitable preachers is no lesse punishment to the Church it self than to the Preachers Prov. 29.18 yea farre much the greater for where there is no vision the people perish Trial of Sub. p. 18. So in the Petition of the House of Commons to King James Anno 1610. Ministers being removed from their Ecclesiastical Livings for not conforming in some points it is a great grief to your Majesties Subjects seeing the whole people that want instruction are by this means punished and through ignorance lye open to the seducements of Popish and ill-affected persons Congregations saith one in this miserable condition Advertisements to the Parliament in Anno 23. p. 11. and every member of them may say to you most Honourable high Court of Parliament as Job said to his friends Job 19.21 Have pitty upon us oh yee our Honourable and Christian Friends for the hand of God hath touched us in suffering our Ministers to bee taken from us our souls are starved by keeping back our Spiritual food Job 30.18 Wee goe mourning without the Sun for these things we weep our eyes run down with water because the Comforters that should refresh our souls are farre from us Lam. 1.16 Punishments of this nature light most heavie upon the most innocent The people who are most concerned and for whose supposed good this punishment is inflicted upon their Minister but proves indeed a greater evil to them than the evil it self for which hee is punished For he may bee a person well accomplished able and willing to instruct the whole Parish Old and Young To feed with milk and strong meat and yet upon the reasons before mentioned scruple the submission to such a particular method or help where it is needlesse Arguments ch 2. 5. or some other in his Conscience more useful and suitable to his charge Let the person bee of ever so much worth and beloved of his people he and his Ministry is wholly taken away from them Old and Young for a defect if it were so in a part or circumstance in his duty and in respect only to a part the younger
upon themselves and after the Parliament had injoyned us forthwith to practise according to their Ordinances they added considerations and cautions before they would receive them And by consequence if no Provincial a Classical Assembly may doe the like and if no Classis each Congregation being furnished with a Presbytery ought to make if not afore Judgement by their Delegates in some greater Assembly yet an after Judgement and to accept or refuse what a Parliament shall doe in this kind by their Presbytery according to Presbyterial principles which liberty cannot be enjoyed where Civil powers impose with such penalties as in the case CHAP. X. The Fifth Argument It is difficult in Ecclesiastical matters to obtain reformation of what is amiss These things are pressed with greatest severity upon the most conscientious WHen any change happens in Ecclesiastical affairs it is long before wee can come to a settlement as we have formerly shewed This settlement being made and munited with penal Lawes by the Civil Magistrate it is difficult if not impossible in an ordinary way to get any thing reformed though it bee ever so inconvenient and burdensome to mens Consciences Repeals and changes are made frequently of Lawes about Civil affairs and our evils cured as they come to bee discerned but Church grievances like diseases in the spirits are in a manner incurable 1 There are but a few in comparison and those more strict and conscientious who are ordinarily the worst beloved and least regarded that feel the pain of such distempers 2 By such impositions we rid our selves of those Ministers whom wee esteem most troublesome and have great advantage to fashion the rest I mean the less conscientious to a state guise The sad experience we have had formerly and what great and constant endeavours after reformation have been many years prosecuted with little or no fruit may be a proof sufficient hereof In the Reformation began with Edward the Sixth such reliques of Popery were left in the Church as did much offend divers godly learned even in those dayes These Superstitions coming to a settlement and by penal Lawes fixed in the Worship and Service of God they held their station neer a hundred years notwithstanding the testimonies at several times given all along against them In the beginning of Queen Maries dayes those learned men that left their own Country and went into Germany where this reformation and the superstitions setled in it being stuck to by some amongst them there was then a very great testimony and in the eye of the Churches of Christ given against those evils by others of them better affected to a thorow reformation of which more afterwards These endeavours and witnessings did not in the least loosen the hold those corruptions had gotten by their first establishment but were continued still as will appear in what followeth §. 2. Those Brethren and such others as desired further reformation conceived great hope to themselves upon Queen Elizabeths coming to the Crown who was a Sufferer with them SHEE by Imprisonment as they by Banishment Application was made betimes and with much zeal and so it was continued all her days There were Petitions preferred to her Majesty to the Parliament to the Council to the Bishops to the Convocation Pleas Admonitions Advertisements Considerations and the like to the Common people Multitudes of Books daily and profers of Disputation against those forms and impositions as also Assertions Demonstrations wherin a more savoury Discipline in the Church and order in the Worship of God is held forth and in so much evidence of Scripture light as they were not able to put it under a bushel much out of our Brethrens Writings might bee brought forth to this purpose and of the great actings and sufferings by the godly party all her reign and yet all this obtained not the least alteration or to have the lightest penalty taken off from such as could not conform though some of them sealed their testimony with their bloud Greater hopes by farre were conceived upon King James his coming to the Crown whose breeding seemed to set him fair for the desired reformation as also the Oathes Covenants and other engagements that were upon him his seeming dislike also of our Bishops and Ceremonies expressed frequently As a preparation hereunto there were representations and applications made to him while in Scotland and speedily at his first comming into England There were by a discreet and moderate Pen some considerations put into his hand about this work of reformation And to make way hereunto in the first place the Author endeavours to represent the slownesse and neglect of States in altering what hath gotten any settlement in Ecclesiastical affaires though matters bee ever so much amisse his words are these I ask why the Civil State should be purged and restored by good and wholsome Lawes made in every third or fourth year in Parliament providing remedies as fast as time breedeth mischiefs and contrariwise the Ecclesiastical state should still continue upon the dreggs of time and receive no alterations now for this five and forty years and more It is above five and forty years since Wee have heard saith he of no offer of Bills in Parliament Is nothing amisse The pretensions for not making alterations in Churches setled are mentioned by the same Honourable Pen in page 29. Tares say they Discourse concerning Church affairs by the L. Bacon must not bee plucked up lest you supplant the good Corn but let them grow together they stiffly hold that nothing may bee innovated because it would make a breach upon the rest which hee reasoneth against thus Qui mala non permutat in bonis non perseverat Without change of ill a man cannot continue in good to take away abuses supplanteth not good orders but establishes them Morosa moris retentio res turbulata aeque ac novitas est Contentious retaining of Custom is a turbulent thing as well as innovation pag. 32. There were solicitations by the godly Ministers and people of both Kingdoms the suffering of good Ministers all Queen Elizabeths days were represented to him which before hee came to this Crown hee seemed much to resent These hopes were strengthned by his Majesties condescension to a Conference which could never bee obtained before in which hee was present in his own person And what was the issue of all those hopes and endeavours It is strange to consider 1 Not one grievance some small things only explained rather than changed or imposition removed or penalty lessened but advantage taken to lay the yoke heavier upon those that desired reformation in representing them to the Nation as persons Schismatical and troublesome in the Church 2 A Proclamation was sent abroad immediately March the 5. in 1 Jacobi to let all men know that whatsoever was presumed upon of his Majesties intentions to further reformation was without cause given by him All former Lawes and penalties are anew enforced