must not allow it Christian burial These are hard Instances in my mind and I could easily make up the number twenty which I believe the indifferent Reader would count reasonable exception I must distinguish therefore as I here carefully do the Ordinary appointed Prayers and Service of the Liturgy from other Matters on the By which I declare no Assent or Consent unto And when I come in or seek to come in to the Church upon the terms of Moderation I do declare my self Ipso facto a Nonconformist still to the Severity of these Impositions bearing indeed thereby only a more distinct fixed and assured testimony against them Nevertheless being sensible of the Scandal which is given to the Nation who see generally no other difference between us but our refusing to read the Common Prayer and do think us very exceeding refractory persons who will not comply in the things we can do I do resolve for one by the grace of God without turning to the left hand in doing any thing which is against my conscience for preferment or to the right in contenting my self with Suffering only and doing nothing to set my self as it were in the Market place and if any Bishop shall give me a call that is fitting into the Vineyard when I seek to them upon the termes of this Paper I shall not refuse them though it be almost the Eleventh hour with me I shall not stick out with them I believe upon the account of reading Common Prayer I will trust in Gods power it he hath work for me to do that he will give me assistance to do it and if they will not let me come in upon these termes to Labour I will trust in his Goodness that he will forgive me when I am found Idle The Nation shall see at whose door the fault Lyes by my experiment For I do professe my self one who can neither stretch my Soul beyond its staple nor yet will give off upon despondence or on the presumption onely that it will not serve me unless I do every thing to a tittle which is the prepossessed judgment of most of my brethren when they have made no tryal and which I would humbly reprove therefore by my Example For the Second Re-ordination I will here make my Remonstrance and Confession I will set things at rights between God and my Soul and between my Soul and the World I am one that was ordained by Presbyters in the late times and re-ordained since by the Bishop I was perswaded into it before I had studied the point and brought my self in distress I was fain to take such a course for relief of my Soul as nothing could have drove me to but that distress it self which I would not lye under again for the World Not that I was any way touched in my Intellectuals by it as some that never knew me have bin apt to talk ever since which I must assure them is a tale and there was no such thing I thank God in the least I have reason yet to say this because I know the temper of my mind being Melancholy and Thoughtful and so apt to be intent on any one thing that hath got into it whether of Notion or Business I do not often and I cannot somtimes recall my self from those thoughts to an attendance on the present company I am in or discourse that is going so freely as others which makes my unheedfulness lyable to the censure of those that are not used to me Besides that being One resolved generally to follow my own conscience in what I write or do whether it please or displease others the Offended who are commonly on both sides may be apt to put some such slur upon me at least while in any thing I go but in a way uncommon As Paul therefore said when Festus had got such a conceit of him so must I. I am not Mad my worthy Brethren who are strangers to me when I differ from you and from those also whom I do know in what I write or act But what I do I trust are deeds of Soberness and I speak forth the words of Truth I acknowledge the Church in her giving Orders does intend the collation of an Office to the Presbyter distinct from the Bishop that is an office without the power of Ordination and consequently if a Presbyter ordains any the Church-men must hold such an ordination to be void because the persons that confer the orders have no power to do it But I must confess my thoughts about Orders are somthing different from others I do not think that the Spiritual power or ministerial authority is conveyed to us by the hands of any but does come Immediately upon us the conditions on our part being put from the institution of Christ I apprehend consequently that whatsoever be the intention of the Church in her giving Orders such a power must be derived from Christ to the person ordained as is intended in his Institution and so long as we find not any distinction which is touched before of Order or Office though we allow one as to Degree and Eminency in the Scripture between Bishop and Presbyter the authority of one in regard to God must be the same with the other and the laying on the hands of the one be of the same validity in Ordination as the imposition of the hands of the other We do read that God hath set in his Church Apostles Evangelists Pastors and Teachers but we find not Bishop and Presbyter enumerated as two of them I enter not into dispute here but I am one that dare not give way to the making void of my Ministry and all my ministerial acts for a dozen years or more before I was Ordained by the Bishop for that were a heynous crime for me I think to do yet will I be content as to the Exercise of my Office now to own my authority from him I was a Minister before in foro Dei Conscientiae I was made a Minister then I will account in foro Ecclesia Anglicanae I acknowledge I did ill in my circumstances to take second orders and yet was I too extream I doubt in my renunciation or in the way of my renunciation again of them If any man thinks that Orders give the spiritual power and makes us Ministers in foro Dei it is apparent that a Man who is a Minister already cannot be so made a Minister again Consequently if I have formerly writ any thing that seems to countenance Re-ordination to the Office which is good earnest my Hypotheses never favoured I do rennounce it all and those second Orders on that account I humbly crave the Churches absolution and benediction But if Orders be onely a Recommendation of us to the grace of God for the work unto which a man is called there is nothing in Re-ordination to scare any and as my second Orders may serve me for the Exercise of my Ministry when my first
would have is that the Parliament would be pleased that a Bill be prepared for Peace and Union which might bear some such Title An Explanatory Act for agreement amongst Protestants and for Ease in the business in Religion In which Bill I would have such an Explanation of these Impositions and such Alleviations in regard to the tenderly considerate and peaceably Scrupulous or soberly not factiously Consciencious who will never be wonne as may do our business In the Act of Uniformity By the Declaration of Assent and Consent to all things and every thing contained in and prescribed by the two book of Common Prayer and of Ordering Priests and Deacons there is no considerate man of the Parliament ever I hope understood that these books are in every minute particular infallible or free from that defect which is incident to all humane Composures but they understand I suppose that they are in the maine contents to be sincerely approved and used I would have it therefore be here sufficient if this Declaration be made to the use of the book in the Ordinary dayly Lords-day service which we can consent to or that we may make it with a license of Exception against any matter or matters out of that Service which the Bishop shall think meet to be dispensed with upon Convincing reason Provided only that the Ordinary constant publick Service of the Liturgy obtains Consent and Practise And for the Ceremonies which are and have been always and on all hands held only for indifferent things I wish they might be left to the Consciences and prudence of Ministers and People every where excepting the Cathedralls to use them or forbear them as they judge it most meet for one anothers edification for so some Bishops I believe if it be left to them will sometimes be apt to determine themselves Provided that if any person will have his child baptized with the signe of the Cross or stands upon any thing else hitherto required by the Service-book if the Minister himself Scruple the performance he shall always have some Assistant or Curate to do it In the same Act By the Subscription before treated As I believe there was no new Ill or strange thing intended by any of them but the rightfull maintenance onely of the Kings authority against Rebellion So do I apprehend that the Interpretation and the Limitations which I do here humbly present with an unfeigned impartiality upon the several Clauses of it may pass their publick approbation or allowance which therefore I would have to be done as a matter of kind satisfaction to most Mens consciences and of grievance to no Body Onely for that part of it which is enjoyned but to the year 1682 it might do better perhaps to be made to cease presently and be no longer imposed And forasmuch as there is an Oath also in the Act of Oxford required of all Non conformist preachers that reside Ãn any Corporate town or come within five Miles of it whereof I have Printed a former Paper and given the Interpretation throughout as I believed it to be the very sense and meaning onely of the Act without limitation or exception which cannot therefore be refused insomuch as I dare and do appeal to a Vote of the two Houses whether I have delivered their minds or no I would here have it onely put to the Question and if it be as I doubt not indeed their sense that they would declare it This will make that Oath streight be generally taken Or else I will propose this rather which is better that it may suffice any man to enjoy the right of this free-born liberty to go where he will in his own Country I mean to escape the penalty of this Act and serve him also instead of the forementioned Subscription to take that Oath in this form of words following I A. B. do swear that I hold it unlawful upon any pretence to take Armes against the King his Government or Laws And that I disclaim that dangerous Position of taking Armes by his Authority against his Person or any Legally commissionated by him in the Legal pursuit of such Commissions And that I will not endeavour any alteration of Government in the Church or State in any way or manner not warranted by the Constitution of this Kingdom that is in a seditious manner or any otherwise then by Act of Parliament It being required moreover in the Act of uniformity which is another of the things also before Mentioned that every Minister who enjoyes any Living shall be ordained by a Bishop and there are several persons of late who in case of necessity for want of Bishops took Presbyterian Orders I would have the Parliament declare it their intent for redeeming their credit with the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas not to make it absolutely necessary for such persons to be reordained to the Office but that it may be enough for them if they receive this second Imposition of hands to the Exercise of their Office in the New charge unto which they are or shall be appointed and that the Bishop may and shall frame his words accordingly This is the only way that I could find out for peace to my own mind as I have told before in this business And whereas there is a Subscription also in the Canons and the Canonical Oath of Obedience imposed on most Ministers by the Bishops mentioned before likewise which have given some of the greatest occasion to Non-conformists heretofore and which yet have never passed into a Law by any Act of Parliament I would here have it enquired by what Authorty one of these is imposed for I know none And for that which is found in the Canons being what is more than needs because included in other injunctions I would have it Exauthorized and that nothing more of this nature might be imposed on us than is made necessary by the Act of the thirteenth of Elizabeth Provided nevertheless if the Bishop be unsatisfyed about any particular Person he shall be ready to offer a due acknowledgment of his reverence to Bishops in a laudible Testimony thereof under his hand and of his fair regard to the main substance of the three Articles contained in that Canonicall Subscription in such expressions as shall best satisfy his own Conscience and be approved as sufficient under the hands of two Episcopal Doctors or allowed by the Bishop And in regard there hath bin great offence taken by consciencious Ministers which is a thing hath not yet bin mentioned at the Bishop or his Courts commanding them to read then sentence of Excommunication against some or other of their Parish for such faults as they think not at all worthy of so great censure or else be exempted from the execution of that charge and that the Bishop or his Court provide some other person that is satisfied about it to do it And I would have none forced to give the Body and Blood of Christ to
envy of others Of carelesness through the impossibility of a due attendance on a double or trebble charge Of more worldly mindedness a looser life and so of ill example of ten times unto their flocks whereby the Souls of many Parishes which ought to be more precious to the Minister than his Maintenance are sinfully neglected to the offence of Almighty God and the hazzard of their own and their peoples Salvation I would have no Clergy-man henceforward be suffered to enjoy any more than one Living or Cure of Souls and one Dignity at one time and that every man without exception that hath more than one of either should immediately give up the rest to be distributed among those who shall be Comprehended or brought into the Established Order Which that they may also be obtained and possessed with a clear Conscience and that grievous Corruption of Simony may be extirpate out of the Land I wish that Every Patron that shall hence forward present his Clerk to any Living may have the Oath called the Simoniacall Oath imposed on himself no lesse than on the Incumbent which I perceive since I writ this is petitioned for by the Schollars of Oxford and if he refuses to take it that then the Bishop should have immediate power taking only the same Oath of presentation in his Room By such Materialls as these put into the hands of a Skillfull workman by the Order of our Master builders and by such a course or courses as this or these thoroughly persued the name of the great God would be exceedingly honoured in the integrity and ingenuity of those Gentlemen who have Benefices in their donation in the self deny all of those Ministers who have Pluralities in in their possession in the restauration of several ejected painfull Laborers into the Vineyard in the generall advancement of Piety and that interest which is Heavenly above worldly advantage in the unity peace and mutual agreement of Brethren in the same function differing mainly in things indifferent in the universall good will among the People and in the established Happiness and Prosperity of the Church of England to future Generations In that time shall the Present be brought unto the Lord of Hosts of a people scattered and peeled meeted out and troden under foot to the place of the Name of the Lord of Hosts Mount Zion Deo Gloria Authori Condonatio An Advertisement Reader I thought here to Reprint my Paper about the Oxford-Oath which seems to be made necessary by my Reference to it p. 31. but because the Matter thereof is incident with that of the Subscription I suppose it may be spared I must signifie also that whereas I have dropt the two Letters of my Name in reference to my Subscription in p. 19. I cannot and I do not let it go as one that is a present Actual Subscriber but as one under Deliberation to proceed or not as I can and no otherwise than I can according to my Conscience with the flow hast of others Advice and my own setled Judgment Adieu FINIS A Postscript THis Paper being a Countermine against Popery I do think fit to hasten it out that the Members of Parliament may have competent time to consider of it this Session I did not think the later Part would have been so seasonable as I humbly believe it may be now to the most of those who desire a long Life for the King and the Growth of the Protestant Religion It was almost Despair set me on the Work and now there is a little Hope got into my Heart that something may come of this Endeavour and God's Blessing be upon it The Reason why I annex this Half Sheet to the rest is because I find it necessary in regard to that one Clause in the Subscription And that the same was in it self an unlawful Oath I desire the Reader here to remember that I subscribe not this Clause by vertue of an Interpretation for I think the meaning of the Law giver to be more then I can subscribe unto but by virtue of my Liberty of Exception and Restriction I do therefore distinguish between the Matter Covenanted which is the Extirpation of Prelacy or Change of Government and the Act of Covenanting which was their swearing to endeavour it I would have the Reader then note also that I subscribe not that the Oath in the Matter Covenanted was in it self unlawful for this Matter Covenanted I have said may be considered Precisely in it self or Complexly with its Circumstances and more particularly under the Circumstance of the King's Remonstrances against the Covenant I do believe that an Endeavour of any Alteration of Government under this Circumstance of the King's Prohibitions that is for any to go about it without his Consent and against it as I speak was Vnlawfull though I suppose it not so under the contrary Circumstances if the King had allowed it and consequently that it is not so in its self if we respect onely this Matter Covenanted But for as much as an Act becomes Evil upon every Defect when all Circumstances must concur to make an Action Good and he that swore this Covenant could not swear to the Matter Precisely but Complexly considered that is to the Matter under this Circumstance with others I do apprehend that the matter being thereby render'd evil the Oath as taken for the Act of Covenanting in regard to this Circumstance was in it self unlawful It may be pleaded that the Covenant maintaines the King and his Authority to the full and limits this Endeavour to mens Places and Callings and that there was therefore nothing in this unlawfull I reply If any man should argue rather that the supream Power of this Nation does lie in the King and the Parliament as one Corporation and when they were divided and the Parliament could not be dissolved the Constitution was at an end or Interstition That consequently every one any one might covenant at that time to set up a new Government without the consent of Either King or Parliament by the way of an Agreement of the People This were to say something But to own the King and his Authority and swear to maintain it in the same Oath wherein they swear to change the Government when he declares against that Change that is without him and against his Authority this is vertually a contradiction in Adjecto and makes the Oath in the very act it self of swearing if that be or may go for the Oath in it self unlawful Again To swear that in our place and calling we will endeavour to change the Government when the King refuses his consent What is it but to swear to do that in the doing whereof we must Act out of our Place and Calling seeing there is and can be no Endeavour of that kind in our Place and Calling but what is done with Subordination to his Consent in an Act of Parliament You will say perhaps It is true that they