Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	point_n	scripture_n	tradition_n	4,854	5	9.5473	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67467	The life of Dr. Sanderson, late Bishop of Lincoln written by Izaak Walton ; to which is added, some short tracts or cases of conscience written by the said Bishop.	Walton, Izaak, 1593-1683.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Judgment concerning submission to usurpers.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Pax ecclesiae.; Hooker, Richard, 1553 or 4-1600. Sermon of Richard Hooker, author of those learned books of Ecclesiastical politie.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Judgment in one view for the settlement of the church.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Judicium Universitatis Oxoniensis. English.	1678 (1678)	Wing W667; ESTC R8226	137,878	542

ignorance herein by conceiting as if there were some difference to be made between Civil and Ecclesiastical Things and Laws and Persons in this behalf The truth is our liberty is equal in both the power of Superiours for restraint equal in both and the necessity of obedience in Inferiours equal to both No man hath yet been able to shew nor I think ever shall be a real and substantial difference indeed between them to make an inequality But that still as Civil Magistrates have sometimes for just politick respects prohibited some Trades and Manufactures and Commodities and enjoyned other some and done well in both so Church Governours may upon good considerations say it be but for order and uniformities sake prescribe the times places vestments gestures and other ceremonial circumstances to be used in Ecclesiastical Offices and Assemblies As the Apostles in the first Council holden at Ierusalem in Acts 15. laid upon the Churches of the Gentiles for a time a restraint from the eating of blood and things sacrificed to Idols and strangled Thus we see our Christian liberty unto the Creatures may without prejudice admit of some restraints in the outward exercise of it and namely from the three respects of Christian Sobriety of Christian Charity and of Christian Duty and Obedience But now in the comparing of these together when there seemeth to be a repugnancy between one and another of them there may be some difficulty and the greatest difficulty and which hath bred most trouble is in comparing the cases of scandal and disobedience together when there seemeth to be a repugnancy between Charity and Duty As for example Suppose in a thing which simply and in it self we may lawfully according to the Liberty we have in Christ either use or forbear Charity seemeth to lay restraint upon us one way our weak brother expecting we should forbear and Duty a quite contrary way Authority requiring the use in such a case what are we to do It is against charity to offend a brother and it is against Duty to disobey a superiour And yet something must be done either we must use or not use forbear or not forbear For the untying of this knot which if we will but lay things rightly together hath not in it so much hardness as it seemeth to have let this be our seventh Position In the use of the Creatures and all indifferent things we ought to bear a greater regard to our publick Governours than to our private Brethren and be more careful to obey them than to satisfie these if the same course will not in some mediocrity satisfie both Alas that our Brethren who are contrary minded would but with the spirit of sobriety admit common Reason to be umpire in this case Alas that they would but consider what a world of contradictions would follow upon the contrary opinion and what a world of confusions upon the contrary practice Say what can be said in the behalf of a brother all the same and more may be said for a Governour For a Governour is a Brother too and something more and Duty is Charity too and something more If then I may not offend my Brother then certainly not my Governour because he is my brother too being a man And a christian as well as the other is And the same charity that bindeth me to satisfie another Brother equally bindeth me to satisfie this So that if we go no farther but even to the common bond of charity and relation of brotherhood that maketh them equal at the least and therefore no reason why I should satisfie one that is but a private brother rather than the publick magistrate who that publick respect set aside is my brother also When the Scales hang thus even shall not the accession of magistracy to common brotherhood in him and of Duty to common charity in me be enough to cast it clear for the magistrate Shall a servant in a Family rather than offend his fellow-servant disobey his Master And is not a double scandal against charity and duty both for duty implieth charity greater than a single scandal against charity alone If private men will be offended at our obedience to publick Governours we can but be sorry for it We may not redeem their offence by our disobedience He that taketh offence where none is given sustaineth a double person and must answer for it both as the giver and the taker If offence be taken at us there is no wo to us for it if it do not come by us Wo to the man by whom the offence cometh And it doth not come by us if we do but what is our duty to do The Rule is certain and equitable The respect of private scandal ceaseth where lawful authority determineth our liberty and that restraint which proceedeth from special duty is of superiour reason to that which proceedeth but from common charity Quest. Whether the King and Parliament ought to impose any more upon us in matters of Religion than is imposed in the Scripture or whether every one ought not to be left to serve God according to his best apprehensions out of the Scripture Answ. The Opinion is that to do any thing at all without direction from the Scripture is unlawful and sinful Which if they would understand only of the substantials of Gods worship and of the exercises of Spiritual and supernatural graces the assertion were true and sound but as they extend it to all the actions of common life whatsoever whether natural or civil even so far as to the taking up of a straw so it is altogether false and indefensible I marvel what warrant they that so teach have from the Scripture for that very Doctrine or where they are commanded so to believe or teach One of their chiefest refuges is the Text we now have in hand but I shall anon drive them from this shelter The other places usually alledged speak only either of divine and supernatural truths to be believed or else of works of grace or worship to be performed as of necessity unto salvation which is not to the point in issue For it is freely conscised that in things of such nature the holy Scripture is and so we are to account it a most absolute sufficient direction Upon which ground we heartily reject all humane traditions devised and intended as supplements to the doctrine of faith contained in the Bible and annexed as Codicils to the holy Testament of Christ for to supply the defects thereof The question is wholly about things in their nature indifferent such as are the use of our food raiment and the like about which the common actions of life are chiefly conversant Whether in the choice and use of such things we may not be sometimes sufficiently guided by the light of reason and the common rules of discretion but that we must be able and are so bound to do or else we sin for every thing we do in such matters to deduce

was That he declin'd reading many but what he did read were well chosen and read so often that he became very familiar with them and said they were chiefly three Aristotle's Rhetorick Aquinas's Secunda Secundae and Tully but chiefly his Offices which he had not read over less than 20 times and could at this Age say without Book And told him also the learned Civilian Doctor Zouch who died lately had writ Elementa jurisprudentiae which was a Book that he could also say without Book and that no wise man could read it too often or love or commend too much and told him these had been his toyl But for himself he always had a natural love to Genealogies and Heraldry and that when his thoughts were harassed with any perplext Studies he left off and turned to them as a recreation and that his very recreation had made him so perfect in them that he could in a very short time give an account of the Descent Arms Antiquity of any Family of the Nobility or Gentry of this Nation Before I give an account of Dr. Sanderson's last sickness I desire to tell the Reader that he was of a healthful constitution chearful and mild of an even temper very moderate in his diet and had had little sickness till some few years before his death but was then every Winter punish'd with a Diarrhea which left him not till warm weather return'd and remov'd it And this distemper did as he grew elder seize him oftner and continue longer with him But though it weakned him yet it made him rather indispos'd than sick and did no way disable him from studying indeed too much In this decay of his strength but not of his memory or reason for this distemper works not upon the understanding he made his last Will of which I shall give some account for confirmation of what hath been said and what I think convenient to be known before I declare his death and burial He did in his last Will give an account of his Faith and Perswasion in point of Religion and Church Government in these very words I Robert Sanderson Dr. of Divinity an unworthy Minister of Iesus Christ and by the providence of God Bishop of Lincoln being by the long continuance of an habitual distemper brought to a great bodily weakness and faintness of spirits but by the great mercy of God without any bodily pain otherwise or decay of understanding do make this my Will and Testament written all with my own hand revoking all former Wills by me heretofore made if any such shall be found First I commend my Soul into the hands of Almighty God as of a faithful Creator which I humbly beseech him mercifully to accept looking upon it not as it is in it self infinitely polluted with sin but as it is redeemed and purged with the precious blood of his only beloved Son and my most sweet Saviour Iesus Christ in confidence of whose merits and mediation alone it is that I cast my self upon the mercy of God for the pardon of my sins and the hopes of eternal life And here I do profess that as I have lived so I desire and by the grace of God resolve to dye in the Communion of the Catholick Church of Christ and a true Son of the Church of England which as it stands by Law established to be both in Doctrine and Worship agreeable to the Word of God and in the most and most material Points of both conformable to the faith and practice of the godly Churches of Christ in the primitive and purer times I do firmly believe led so to do not so much from the force of custom and education to which the greatest part of mankind owe their particular different perswasions in point of Religion as upon the clear evidence of truth and reason after a serious and unpartial examination of the grounds as well of Popery as Puritanism according to that measure of understanding and those opportunities which God hath afforded me and herein I am abundantly satisfied that the Schism which the Papists on the one hand and the Superstition which the Puritan on the other hand lay to our charge are very justly chargeable upon themselves respectively Wherefore I humbly beseech Almighty God the Father of Mercies to preserve the Church by his power and providence in peace truth and godliness evermore to the worlds end which doubtless he will do if the wickedness and security of a sinful people and particularly those sins that are so rise and seem daily to increase among us of Unthankfulness Riot and Sacriledge do not tempt his patience to the contrary And I also farther humbly beseech him that it would please him to give unto our gracious Sovereign the Reverend Bishops and the Parliament timely to consider the great danger that visibly threatens this Church in point of Religion by the late great increase of Popery and in point of Revenue by sacrilegious enclosures and to provide such wholesome and effectual remedies as may prevent the same before it be too late And for a further manifestation of his humble thoughts and desires they may appear to the Reader by another part of his Will which follows As for my corruptible Body I bequeath it to the Earth whence it was taken to be decently buried in the Parish Church of Bugden towards the upper end of the Chancel upon the second or at the farthest the third day after my decease and that with as little noise pomp and charge as may be without the invitation of any person how near soever related unto me other than the Inhabitants of Bugden without the unnecessary expence of Escocheons Gloves Ribons c. and without any Blacks to be hung any where in or about the House or Church other than a Pulpit Cloth a Hearse Cloth and a Mourning Gown for the Preacher whereof the former after my Body shall be interred to be given to the Preacher of the Funeral Sermon and the latter to the Curat of the Parish for the time being And my will further is That the Funeral Sermon be preached by my own Houshold Chaplain containing some wholesome discourse concerning Mortality the Resurrection of the Dead and the last Iudgment and that he shall have for his pains 5 l. upon condition that he speak nothing at all concerning my person either good or ill other than I my self shall direct only signifying to the Auditory that it was my express will to have it so And it is my will that no costly Monument be erected for my memory but only a fair flot Marble stone to be laid over me with this Inscription in legible Roman Characters Depositum Roberti Sanderson nuper Lin●●lniencis Episcopi qui obiit Anno Domini MDCLXII aetatis suae septuagesimo sexto Hic requiescit in spe beatae resurrectionis This manner of burial although I cannot but foresee it will prove unsatisfactory to sundry my nearest Friends and Relations and be

and Callings yet by reason of the great difficulties of the things themselves have much differed and still will do in their Judgments and Opinions one from another in the ordering of God's Decrees concerning man's Salvation each man abounding in his own sense and following that way which seemeth to him clogged with the least and fewest difficulties according as he apprehendeth them although perhaps in rei veritate or at the least in the apprehension of another man those very difficulties may be more and greater Hence the many differences among the Protestants between Lutherans and Calvinists among the Romanists between the Iesuites and Dominicans and each of these again subdivided concerning Predestination and Reprobation the power of man's Free-will the necessity efficacy and extent of Divine Grace the concurrence of Grace with Free-will the universality and application of Christ's Death and some other Points of like nature The Premisses considered that amid and notwithstanding all this variety of Opinions there may yet be preserved in the Church the unity both of Faith and Charity these few things seem to me to be of profitable and important consideration 1. That particular Churchs would be as tender as may be in giving their definitions and derminations in such Points as these not astricting those that live therein determinately either to the affirmative or negative especially where there may be admitted a latitude of dissenting without any prejudice done either to the Substance of the Catholick Faith or to the Tranquillity of the Church or to the Salvation of the Dissenter In which respect the moderation of the Church of England is much to be commended and to be preferred not only before the Roman Church which with unsufferable tyranny bindeth all her Children upon pain of Damnation to all her Determinarions even in those Points which are no way necessary to Salvation but also before sundry other Reformed Churches who have proceeded further this way than our Church hath done 2. When by reason of the important contentions and wranglings of Learned men in particular Churches about Points yet undetermined therein differences shall be so far prosecuted as to come to open sideings and part-takings and factions as it happened in the Netherland Churches between the Remonstrantes Contra-Remonstrantes so as for the composing of the differences and the maintenance of the publick Peace and Tranquillity of the Church it shall be needful for those Churches Synodically to determine something in those Points that yet they would then also proceed no farther in their determinations than the present necessity should enforce them not requiring men specially in points of lesser consequence to give and by Oath subscription or other like means to witness their express positive assent to such determinations but permitting them to enjoy their own private Opinions in their own private Bosoms so long as they keep them to themselves and do not by venting them unseasonably disquiet the peace of the Church therewithal 3. That Catechisms for so much as they are intended for the instruction of Children and ignorant persons in the first Principles of Christian Religion should not be farced with school-School-points and private Tenets but contain only clear and undoubted Truths and such as are necessary unto Christian Edification either in Faith or Life The rest either altogether omitted or but occasionally and sparingly touched at and not positively and doctrinally and conclusively delivered before the Church have agreed upon them 4. That private men would endeavour for so much ingenuity as 1. To other mens speeches and writings especially where they intend to discourse but exotericè and popularly not accurately and dogmaticè to afford a favourable construction without taking advantage at some excesses in modo loquendi or exceptions at some improprieties and acyrologies so long as they are Orthodox in the main Substance of their Discourse 2. Not to obtrude any Tenet as the received Doctrine of any particular Church which either is not expresly contained in the publick Confession of that Church or doth not apparently result thence by direct and immediate consequence though the wit of man make it seem at length and by continuance of discourse to be probably deduced therefrom 3. In their own Writings to observe formam sanorum verborum and to abstain not only from suspected Opinions but as much as may be also from phrases and speeches obnoxious to ill construction For first it is not enough much less a thing to be gloried in for a man to be able by subtilty of wit to find loop-holes how to evade and by colourable pretences to make that which through heat of passion or violence of opposition hath fallen from him unadvisedly to seem howsoever defensible but he should have a care to suffer nothing to pass from him whereat an ingenuous and dispassionate Adversary though dissenting from him in Opinion should yet have cause to take distaste or exception And besides it were a thing of very dangerous consequence in the Church if every man should be suffered freely to publish whatsoever might by some strain of Wit be made capable of a good construction if of it self it sounded ill and suspiciously For so Notions of Popish or Puritanical or other Heretical Schismatical Opinions might unawares be conveyed into the minds and impressions thereof insensibly wrought in the hearts of men to the great damage of the Church and prejudice to the Truth 4. To acknowledge freely and readily to revoke whatsoever either errour in re or misprision in testimonio or exorbitancy in modo loquendi hath passed from their Pen when it shall be fairly shewed them and their Judgments convinced thereof rather than to seek to relieve themselves by excuses colours or evasions 5. That private men in particular Churches who dissent in points yet undetermined by the Church should not uncharitably entercharge each other with Heresie or Schism or any such like imputation for so dissenting so long as they both consent to the whole Doctrine and Discipline in the said Church maintained and established As ex gr in the Points now so much debated among the Divines of the Church of England between the Calvinists and Arminians for I must take liberty for distinctions sake to express them by those names they usually bestow the one upon the other Why should either those men on the one side be branded with Popery who misliking Calvin's Opinion rather chuse to follow the Arminian or those on the other side with Puritanism who finding less satisfaction in the way of Arminius rather adhere to Calvin so long as both the one and the other do entirely and freely and ex animo subscribe to the Articles of the Common Prayer Book and that of Consecration and do not rent the Unity or disturb the Peace of the Church by those differences II. Periculum Schismatis Forasmuch as here in England the differences which before were but private concerning the Points of Arminianism have been of late so far brought upon

the publick Stage by occasion of the passages betwixt Mr. Mountague and his Opposers as that a dangerous Schism is like to ensue thereupon unless by the goodness of God and the Wisdome of the Church and State it be speedily prevented Those general Directions now already laid down for the preservation of the Churches Peace will not reach home for the securing of our peace and preventing farther evils as the case now standeth with us but it is needful the Church should interpose herein both by farther Explanation of her Doctrine in the points questioned and by the Exercise of her Discipline upon such persons as will not rest in her determinations And this necessity will the more appear if we consider upon what advantages the Arminian party hath and yet doth gain strength to it self viz. 1. The weakness of sundry of those Exceptions which were taken at Mr. Mountague's Answer to the Gagge by those that first openly ingaged themselves for that business which hath not only brought prejudice to their persons but also given disadvantages to the Cause even in those Exceptions which were just and material 2. The publishing of Mr. Mountague's Appeal with Allowance which both hath given confidence to sundry who before were Arminians but in secret now to walk unmasked and to profess their Opinions publickly in all Companies and that with some disdain of opposition and doth also incourage sundry others to shew an inclination to that side which they see to be countenanced in such publick sort 3. The plausibleness of Arminianism and the congruity it hath in sundry Points with the Principles of corrupt Nature and of carnal Reason For it is a wonderful tickling to flesh and blood to have the powers of Nature magnified and to hear it self flattered as if she carried the greatest stroke in the work of Salvation especially when these soothings are conveyed under the pretence of vindicating the dispensations of God's Providence from the Imputation of Injustice 4. The harshness of that Opinion which Calvin and Beza are said to have held and many Learned men in our Church are said to have followed concerning the Decrees of Reprobation and Election without respect had to Adam in the one or to Christ in the other whereas the inconveniencies which either do ensue or seem to ensue upon the Opinion may be fairly waved another way and yet without Arminianism 5. The manifold cunning of the Arminians to advance their own party as viz. 1. In pleading for a liberty for every man to abound in his own sense in things undetermined by the Church that so they may spread their own Tenets the more freely whereas yet it is too apparent by their writings and speeches that their intent and indeavour is to take the benefit of this liberty themselves but not to allow it to those that dissent from them 2. In bragging out some of their private Tenets as if they were the received established Doctrine of the Church of England by forcing the words of the Articles or Common Prayer Book to a sense which appeareth not to have been intended therein as Mr. Mountague hath done in the Point of falling from grace Whereas the contrary Tenet viz. of the final perseverance of the righteous in grace and faith may be by as strong evidence every way and by as natural deducement collected out of the said Books as shall be easily proved if it be required 3. In seeking to derive envy upon the opposite Opinions by delivering them in terms odious and of ill and suspicious sound as viz. irresistibility of grace irrespective decree c. whereas the soberer Divines of the opposite party ordinarily do not use those terms nor yet well approve of them unless understood cum grano salis But themselves rather are so exorbitant in their phrases and terms as it were well if a good quantity of Salt could so correct some of them as to render them if not wholesome at least savoury 4. Which is the most unjust and uncharitable course of all the rest and whereby yet I verily think they have prevailed more than by all the rest in seeking to draw the persons of those that dissent from them into dislike with the Sate as if they were Puritans or Disciplinarians or at least that way affected Whereas 1. The Questions in debate are such as no way touch upon Puritanism either off or on 2. Many of the Dissenters have as freely and clearly declared their Judgments by preaching and writing against all Puritanism and Puritanical Principles both before and since they were interessed in these Controversies as the stoutest Arminian in England hath done I am not able to pronounce absolutely neither of other men but so far as hath occurred to my observation I dare say it I find more written against the Puritans and their Opinions and with more real satisfaction and upon no less solid grounds by those that have and do dissent from the Arminian Tenets than by those that have or do maintain them Could that blessed Arch-bishop Whitgift or the modest and learned Hooker have ever thought so much as by dream that men concurring with them in Opinion should for some of these very Opinions be called Puritans III. Series Decretorum Dei Sithence most of the differences now in question do arise from the different conceits which men have concerning the Decrees of God about man's Salvation and the execution of those Decrees it could not but be a work of singular use for the composing of present and the preventing of farther differences if some learned and moderate men all prejudice and partiality laid aside would travel with faithfulness and sobriety in this Argument viz. to order those Decrees consonantly to the tenor of Scripture and the Doctrine of the ancient Church as to avoid those inconveniencies into which the extreme Opinions on both hands run For considering often with my self that the abettors of either extreme are confirmed in their Opinions not so much from the assurance of their own grounds as from the inconveniencies that attend the opposite extreme I have ever thought that a middle way between both might be fairer and safer to pitch upon than either extreme What therefore upon some agitation of these Points both in Argument with others upon occasion and in my private and serious thoughts I have conceived concerning the ordering of God's Decrees desiring ever to keep my self within the bands of Christian sobriety and modesty I have at the request of some Friends here distinctly laid down not intending hereby to prescribe unto other men nor yet to tie my self to mine own present Judgment if I shall see cause to alter it but only to present to the abler Judgments of some learned Friends that way which hath hitherto given me better satisfaction than any other and which I have not yet observed to be subject to so great difficulties and inconveniencies neither in the substance of the matter nor in the manner of explication as the

his Separation 4. By an implied Confession That the Laws formerly made against Papists in this Kingdom and all punishments by virtue thereof inflicted upon them were unjust in punishing them for refusing to joyn with us in that form of Worship which our selves as well as they do not approve of 2. Without manifest wrong unto our selves our Consciences Reputation and Estates in bearing false witness against our selves and sundry other ways by swearing to endeavour to reform that as corrupt and vicious 1. Which we have formerly by our Personal Subscriptions approved as agreeable to God's Word and have not been since either condemned by our own hearts for so doing or convinced in our Judgements by any of our Brethren that therein we did amiss 2. Which in our Consciences we are perswaded not to be in any of the four specified Particulars as it standeth by Law established much less in the whole four against the Word of God 3. Which we verily believe and as we think upon good grounds to be in sundry respects much better and more agreeable to the Word of God and the practice of the Catholick Church than that which we should by the former words of this Article swear to preserve 4. Whereunto the Laws yet in force require of all such Clerks as shall be admitted to any Benefice the signification of their hearty assent to be attested openly in the time of Divine Service before the whole Congregation there present within a limited time and that un-under pain upon default made of the loss of every such Benefice 3. Without manifest danger of Perjury This branch of the Article to our best understandings seeming directly contrary 1. To our former solemn Protestation which we have bound our selves neither for hope fear or other respect ever to relinquish Wherein the Doctrine which we have vowed to maintain by the name of the true Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England we take to be the same which now we are required to endeavour to reform and alter 2. To the Oath of Supremacy by us also taken according to the Laws of the Realm and the Statutes of our University in that behalf Wherein having first testified and declared in our Consciences That the King's Highness is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm we do after swear to our power to assist and defend all Iurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the King's Highness his Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm One of the which Priviledges and Preheminences by an express Statute so annexed and that even interminis in the self-same words in a manner with those used in the Oath is the whole power of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction for the correction and reformation of all manner of errors and abuses in matters Ecclesiastical as by the words of the said Statute more at large appeareth The Oath affording the Proposition and the Statute the Assumption we find no way how to avoid the Conclusion § IV. Of the second Article of the Covenant FIrst It cannot but affect us with some grief and amazement to see that ancient form of Church Government which we heartily and as we hope worthily honour as under which our Religion was at first so orderly without violence or tumult and so happily reformed and hath since so long flourished with Truth and Peace to the honour and happiness of our own and the envy and admiration of other Nations not only 1. Endeavoured to be extirpated without any reason offered to our Understandings for which it should be thought necessary or but so much as expedient so to do But also 2. Ranked with Popery Superstion Heresie Schism and Prophaneness which we unfeignedly profess our selves to detest as much as any others whatsoever 3. And that with some intimation also as if that Government were some way or other so contrary to sound Doctrine or the power of godliness that whosoever should not endeavour the extirpation thereof must of necessity partake in other mens sins which we cannot yet be perswaded to believe 4. And we desire it may be considered in case a Covenant of like form should be tender'd to the Citizens of London wherein they should be required to swear they would sincerely really and constantly without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Treason the City Government by a Lord Mayor Aldermen Sheriffs Common Council and other Officers depending thereon Murther Adultery Theft Cosenage and whatsoever shall be c. lest they should partake in other mens sins whether such a tendry could be looked upon by any Citizen that had the least spirit of freedome in him as an act of Justice Meekness and Reason Secondly for Episcopal Government we are not satisfied how we can with a good Conscience swear to endeavour the extirpation thereof 1. In respect of the thing it self Concerning which Government we think we have reason to believe 1. That it is if not Iure Divino in the strictest sense that is to say expresly commanded by God in his Word yet of Apostolical Institution that is to say was established in the Churches by the Apostles according to the mind and after the Example of their Master Iesus Christ and that by virtue of their ordinary Power and Authority derived from him as deputed by him Governours of his Church 2. Or at least that Episcopal Aristocracy hath a fairer pretension and may lay a juster title and claim to a Divine Institution than any of the other Forms of Church Government can do all which yet do pretend thereunto viz. that of the Papal Monarchy that of the Presbyterian Democracy and that of the Independents by particular Congregations or gathered Churches 2. But we are assured by the undoubted Testimony of ancient Records and later Histories that this Form of Government hath been continued with such an universal uninterrupted unquestioned succession in all the Churches of God and in all Kingdoms that have been called Christian throughout the whole world for fifteen hundred years together that there never was in all that time any considerable opposition made there against That of Aerius was the greatest wherein yet there was little of consideration beside these two things That it grew at the first but out of discontent and gained him at the last but the reputation of an Heretick From which antiquity and continuance we have just cause to fear that to endeavour the extirpation thereof 1. Would give such advantage to the Papists who usually object against us and our Religion the contempt of Antiquity and the love of Novelty that we should not be able to wipe off the aspersion 2. Would so diminish the just Authority due to the consentient judgment and practice of the Universal Church the best Interpreter of Scripture in things not clearly exprest for Lex currit cum praxi that without it we should be at a loss in sundry points both of

Faith and Manners at this day firmly believed and securely practiced by us when by the Socinians Anabaptists and other Sectaries we should be called upon for our proofs As namely sundry Orthodoxal Explications concerning the Trinity and Co-equality of the Persons in the Godhead against the Arians and other Hereticks the number use and efficacy of Sacraments the Baptizing of Infants National Churches the observation of the Lord's Day and even the Canon of Scripture it self Thirdly In respect of our selves we are not satisfied how it can stand with the Principles of Iustice Ingenuity and Humanity to require the extirpation of Episcopal Government unless it had been first clearly demonstrated to be unlawful to be sincerely and really endeavoured by us 1. Who have all of us who have taken any Degree by subscribing the 39 Articles testified our approbation of that Government one of those Articles affirming the very Book containing the Form of their Consecration to contain in it nothing contrary to the Word of God 2. Who have most of us viz. as many as have entred into the Ministery received Orders from their hands whom we should very ill requite for laying their hands upon us if we should now lay to our hands to root them up and cannot tell for what 3. Who have sundry of us since the beginning of this Parliament subscribed our Names to Petitions exhibited or intended to be exhibited to that High Court for the continuance of that Government which as we then did sincerely and really so we should with like sincerity and reality still not having met with any thing since to shew us our errour be ready to do the same again if we had the same hopes we then had the reception of such Petitions 4. Who hold some of us our livelyhood either in whole or part by those Titles of Deans Deans and Chapters c. mentioned in the Articles being Members of some Collegiate or Cathedral Churches And our memories will not readily serve us with any Example in this kind since the world began wherein any state or profession of men though convicted as we are not of a Crime that might deserve Deprivation were required to bind themselves by Oath sincerely and really to endeavour the rooting out of that in it self not unlawful together wherewith they must also root out themselves their Estates and Livelyhoods 5. Especially it being usual in most of the said Churches that such persons as are admitted Members thereof have a personal Oath administred unto them to maintain the Honour Immunities Liberties and Profits of the same and whilst they live to seek the good and not to do any thing to the hurt hindrance or prejudice thereof or in other words to the like effect Fourthly In respect of the Church of England we are not satisfied how we can swear to endeavour the extirpation of the established Government no necessity or just cause for so doing either offering it self or being offered to our Understandings 1. Since all Change of Government unavoidably bringeth with it besides those that are present and evident sundry other inconveniences which no wit of man can possibly foresee to provide against till late experience discover them We cannot be sure that the evils which may ensue upon the Change of this Government which hath been of so long continuance in this Kingdom is so deeply rooted in the Laws thereof and hath so near a conjunction with and so strong an influence upon the Civil Sate and Government as that the Change thereof must infer the necessity of a great alteration to be made in the other also may not be greater than the supposed evils whatsoever they are which by this Change are sought to be remedied For there are not yet any come to our knowledge of that desperate nature as not to be capable of other remedy than the utter extirpation of the whole Government it self 2. Whereas the House of Commons have remonstrated That it was far from their purpose or desire to abolish the Church Government but rather that all the Members of the Church of England should be regulated by such Rules of Order and Discipline as are established by Parliament and that it was Malignancy to infuse into the people that they had any oother meaning We are loth by consenting to the second Article to become guilty of such Infusion as may bring us within the compass and danger of the fourth Article of this Covenant 3. Since it hath been declared by sundry Acts of Parliament That the holy Church of England was founded in the state of Prelacy within the Realm of England we dare not by endeavouring the extirpation of Prelacy strike at the very foundation and thereby as much as in us lieth co-operate towards the ruine of this famous Church which in all conscience and duty we are bound with our utmost lawful power to uphold Lastly In respect of our Obligations to his Majesty by our Duty and Oaths we are not satisfied how we can swear to endeavour the extirpation of the Church Government by Law established without forfeiture of those Obligations 1. Having in the Oath of Supremacy acknowledged the King to be the only Supreme Governour in all Ecclesiastical Causes and over all Ecclesiastical Persons having bound our selves both in that Oath and by our Protestation To maintain the King's Honour Estate Iurisdictions and all manner of Rights it is clear to our Understandings that we cannot without disloyalty and injury to him and double Perjury to our selves take upon us without his consent to make any alteration in the Ecclesiastical Laws or Government much less to endeavour the extirpation thereof unless the imposers of this Covenant had a power and meaning which they have openly disclaimed to absolve us of that Obedience which under God we owe unto his Majesty whom they know to be intrusted with the Ecclesiastical Law 2. We cannot sincerely and really endeavour the extirpation of this Government without a sincere desire and real endeavour that his Majesty would grant his Royal Assent to such extirpation Which we are so far from desiring and endeavouring that we hold it our bounden duty by our daily prayers to beg at the hands of Almighty God that he would not for our sins suffer the King to do an act so prejudicial to his Honour and Conscience as to consent to the rooting out of that estate which by so many branches of his Coronation Oath he hath in such a solemn manner sworn by the assistance of God to his power to maintain and preserve 3. By the Laws of this Land the Collation of Bishopricks and Deanaries the fruits and profits of their Lands and Revenues during their vacancies the first fruits and yearly tenths out of all Ecclesiastical Promotions and sundry other Priviledges Profits and Emoluments arising out of the State Ecclesiastical are established in the Crown and are a considerable part of the Revenues thereof which by the