THE Moderate Independent PROPOSING A Word in Season TO THE GATHERED CHURCHES The EPISCOPAL AND PRESBYTERIAN Parties Tending to Their Humiliation for what is past To be Reconciled to each other for the time to come AND Joyntly to Acquiesse in the Determinations of this Present PARLIAMENT as to the Government of CHURCH STATE By SALEM PHILALATHES A Church-Member Let your Moderation be known unto all men Phil. 4. 5. LONDON Printed in the Year 1660. was retiring from his Court was presented by him with a little Book in the Beginning Middle and End thereof was only written Moderation Moderation Moderation By which he insinuated that Moderation was the only way to make both Prince and People happy in each other And if so to restore both Prince and People to it that have lost it by running into Extreams Though therefore our Breaches seem to be like the Breaches of the Sea which can hardly be resisted or made up again and the fierce Contentions devouring Divisions and Differences that have been between all Parties seem to be like the Contentions amongst Brethren which Solomon tels us are like the Bars of a Castle which naturally are baracadoed to reconciliation and accomodation with each other again A Brother offended being harder to be won than a strong City Prov. 18. 19. Yet if that our own iniquities and the Jesuits subtilties hinder not there is a way to unite us all together and to pluck up the Causes of all our Dissentions by the Roots and that is by Moderation Moderation Moderation Now it is Moderation a Christian Condescention to and Reconciliation with each other that I profess that I propound as the end of my impartial and plain dealing with you all And that I may remove that which is the great Impediment and Hinderance thereof amongst all parties viz. the high opinion and conceit they have of themselves all their waies being as Solomon saith right in their own eyes that all others have wronged them and they have been injurious to none Though I may seem peradventure to some of you to speak as one more likely to widen than to heal the Breaches now amongst us by some smart passages and expressions Yet I intreat you all to consider that what I have written that may give any of you occasion so to think is only out of my unfeigned desire to remove that great Impediment aforesaid to Moderation out of the way from all Parties And that we may not be slightly healed it is that I so often seem to search you to the quick Let not therefore I beseech you any thing that hath dropt from my Pen be taken by the wrong Handle and be so far perverted as to heighten your passions and prejudices against one another but as all Parties have joyned together by their sins to provoke the Divine Majesty thus wofully to wound us and almost tear us all to pieces so let us call upon one another in the words of the Prophet Come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath smitten us and he will heal us he hath torn us and he will bind us up To this purpose let me in the first place make my address to you of the Episcopal Party whether of the Clergy or Laytie as you distinguish Far be it from me to suggest any thing that might irritate and provoke you except to Love and good works Yet give me leave to tell you that the great encouragement that generally hath been given to Prophaneness and the Scorn Opposition and Persecution of Godly men in all ages from the time of Reformation till God brought this Judgment upon us I fear hath much provoked the Holy One of Israel That it hath been a sinne of a long standing amongst you whereof you are highly guilty * And Dr. Jackson of C. C. he also confirms what I affirm in many places of his works especially in Fol. 3660. In a Sermon of his Preached to the University of Oxford speaking to such persons whom he stileth the Reverend Fathers of the Church and his Respective Brethren saith he speaking of the stupidity of this Nation under Gods Hand who had lately visited it with the Plague c. and the City of Oxford in particular saith he should a Stage-Player or other Instruments of Vanity turn or have entred these suburbs within two moneths after our 4th or 5th visitation past more of better rank amongst us would have been more afraid of being censured as Puritans for speaking 〈…〉 though in this place then would have blushed to have been spectators of their most unseasonable sporting I shall present you with a complaint of that Pious and Learned Bishop Downam in his Sermon preached at Spittle above forty years ago called Abrahams Trial p. 72. Even in these times saith he the Godly live amongst such a generation of men that if a man do but labour to keep a good Conscience in any measure though he meddle not with matters of State or Discipline or Ceremonies As for example If a Minister diligently preach or in preaching seek to profit rather then please remembring that saying of the Apostle If I seek to please men I am not the Servant of Christ Gal. 1. 10. Or if a private Christian make Conscience of swearing sanctifying the Sabbath frequenting Sermons or abstaining from the Corruptions of the times he shall straightway be condemned for a Puritan and consequently find less favour than either a Carnal Gospeller or a close Papist It seemeth in those daies persons of meek and quiet Spirits though conformable to the Government of Church and State met with the persecution of the Tongue under the odious and reproachful name of Puritan and found less favour than Prophane ones or Papists How you proceeded to higher degrees not only of the Tongue but Hand to the Silencing Suspending and imprisoning of many Pious and Conformable Ministers that would not publish that woful Book for the Prophanation of the Lords Daies forcing many Godly Ministers and Christians to leave their Native Country and flee into New-England Holland and other Places The first Remonstrance of the Parliament begun in Nov. 1640. doth at large demonstrate together with those many Speeches spoken by Sir Edward Deering my Lord Digby and others that were no Puritans nor yet for the total abolition of Episcopacy * Speeches and Passages of Parliament p. 98. Printed for William Cooke at Furnifuls Inne Gate in Holbourne 1641. Saith Sir Edward Deering The Pride the Avarice the Ambition the Oppression of our ruling Clergy is Epidemical it hath infected them all There is not any or scarce any of them which is not practical in their own great cause in hand which they impiously do miscall the Piety of the times but in truth so wrong a Piety that I am told to say In Facinus jurasseputes So he And saith my Lord Digby P. 65. of the same Collections There is no man within these walls more sensible of the heavy
Common-wealth which Mr. Sedgwick calleth a Hoddy Doddy and all Breach such a one as derogates from the Majesty of God and the wisdom of man Though it had a precious Foundation and the Mortar thereof was tempered even with the Blood of all degrees of men in the Kingdom and of all Parties but our own and hath consumed more Millions then any if not all the Kings of England ever did I say let us be weaned from this Novelty and now let our Spirits be reconciled to Kingly Government again Even that Ancient Government by Kings which oweth its Original to the Ancient of Daies who hath said By me Kings reign and to Jesus Christ who is the Lord of Lords the King of Kings the true Fountain of Honour That Government by which God hath promised in Gospel times that his Church shall be provided for and protected that Kings shall be their Fathers and Queens their Nursing Mothers That Government in the want of which we have found by experience all those wickednesses perpetrated as were done in those daies when there was no King in Israel Judg. 17. 6. 19. 1. That Ancient way of Government by which God ruled his people of old even by Moses who was King in Jesurun and by which this Nation hath been Governed for many hundred years and never by a Common-wealth before I say let us by these Arguments shake hands and be friends again with Kingly Government with which we have been at odds these many years And to bring us together again I shall to these Arguments give you one Quotation more from our Friend Mr. Sedgwick saith he P. 11. Kingliness agreeth with all Christians they who are of a Royal Nature and made Kings with Christ cannot but be Friends to it It is a Bastard Religion that is inconsistent with the Majesty and Greatness of the most absolute Monarch And such Spirits are strangers from the Kingdom of Heaven and know not the Glory in which God liveth and are of narrow and evil minds that are corrupt themselves and not able to bear Greatness and so think God cannot or will not qualifie men for such high Places with answerable and proportionable Goodness and Power In my mind there is very much of Truth in this Quotation and I wish he be of the same mind still that then uttered it Without all doubt they which know any thing of the waies of Gods administrations either in the Kingdom of Grace or of Glory should not be of Anti-monarchical Spirits Their Spirits as he saith are narrow their Minds are evil Especially those amongst us who have loaded with such reproaches him whom I am apt to believe the Divine Providence hath so wonderfully preserved to rule these three Kingdoms And now the very naming of Providence doth furnish me with a most cogent Argument in my judgment to prevail with us all to incline to what I move you For how hath the Divine Providence overturned overturned overturned all the waies of Government we have attempted to set up contrary to the Right both of Prince and People as Mr. Sedgwick teacheth us Doubtless we have cause to fear we have highly offended in walking so by Providence making that to legitimate those Actions of ours for which the Word gave no warrant but condemned rather This was the Argument by which we answered all our Opposers Oh the Providence of God hath declared from Heaven the justness of our Cause and Waies Our Protector though in his long Speech at the Dissolution of the Parliament so called Jan. 22. 1654. he doth very much in many places press all to observe the voice of Providence which had done such great things wondering that they could not proceed further to the Settlement of the Government of the Nation according to his desire for which he broke them up yet he was somwhat loath to own the Providence of God therein For saith he I cannot apprehend what it is I would be loath to call it a Fate that were too Paganish a Word but there is somthing in it that we have not our expectation P. 26. And sure there was the Divine Providence counter-working But how evidently it hath appeared since is our Duty as Christians to own and acknowledge especially since this remarkeable passage in his Speech aforesaid P. 27. As for this Cause it is either of God or man If it be of God it will bear up if it be of man it will tumble as every thing that hath been of man hath done since the World began And as this is so the all wise God deal with it Now let us who have made the Providence of God our Rule contrary to this express Command amongst others that we should do no evil that good might come of it Let us I say as becometh Christians acknowledge the all-wise Providential Dispensations in so stupendiously tumbling down the chief Actors and Agitators in those unwarrantable waies we have too too much owned and justified Truly me thinks the strange Tumblings that we have seen since the Protector was laid in his Grave and how by an evil Spirit the all-wise God hath sent among the men of Sechem he hath so strangely Judg. 9. 23. tumbled down the Family of Abimelech I say that the neer Relations of the Old Protector should be so instrumental in pulling down the New One and in that to lay the Foundations of that Disgrace that is come upon themselves And how strangely the Providence of God hath brought about the Calling of this Parliament defeated Col. Lambert since his escape scattering the Disturbers of the Nations Peace and disappointed their hopes of hindring the peaceable Meeting of this great Convention I say these strange and most admirable Providences which would fill a Volume with the Observations of all the Circumstances of them should now convince us that it is hardkicking against the pricks and should very much bring us into a low Opinion and esteem of our selves and encline us to a peaceable and Christian Accommodation with all Parties and to shew forth more Moderation of mind than we have yet made known to the World It is only for these ends that I have spoken so home and dealt so impartially with you being acquainted with the temper of many of your spirits which require it But if any Prophanatick shall make this cursed use of what I have written as thereby to heighten that hatred of holiness that is so natural to all unregenerate men or to harden himself in his way of wickedness stumble and be scandalized at the fallings of some I have here presented I say no more to him but at his eternal peril be it For though it be true which our Saviour hath said Wo be to them by whom offences come so it is as true also Wo be to the world Matth. 18. 7. because of offences As for many of the late Kings Party that have been the greatest sufferers for him I fear not that any such ill
conscientious and pious men to be offended at the persecutions of the Prelates and their superstitious injunctions and innovations and consequently what need there was of a Reformation in Church Government Sir Edward Deering my Lord Digby and others of their own party have declared by the former quotations But how this blessed work hath miserably miscarried in all our hands hinc illae lachrimae I know the Presbyterian party are apt to say if we Independents had not interposed this work of Reformation had gon on with speed their Government had been setled in the Nation not considering that the progresse that they had made therein by the sword would like the Commonwealth we have been raising all this while require the continuance of the same to support and bear it up at vast charges The Government aforesaid being not only dissatisfactory and displeasing to our late King but to the greatest part of the Nobility Gentry and Commons of the Land besides our selves especially as universal conformity thereunto by the Covenant was intended Now to avoid these extreams into which we saw both others run before us even of a violent absolute and universal compulsion of conformity that nothing in Matters of Religion might be urged that might go against our Consciences and that according to our Principle that particular Congregations are Independent and subject to no Censure from any other Church but that of non-communion We have given a boundless lawless toleration to all corrupt and erroneous Opinions from the Anti-Trinitarian to the Quaker wherein though we have run into much Confusion and Disorder yet have we therein come nearer to the Judgment of Mr. Hales before quoted than either the Presbyterian or Episcopal Party themselves who in his Discourse about dealing with erring Christians doth neither approve of the High Commission Court or of a Covenant to swear down the Extirpation of Errour Heresie and Schisme * Or any other way of severity For saith he P. 55. Severity against and separation from Heretical companies took its Beginning from the Hereticks themselves and if we search the Stories we shall find that the Church did not at the first arising thrust them from her themselves went out And as for severity that which the Donatists sometimes spake in their own defence Illam esse veram Eccclesiam quae persecutionem patitur non quaefacit She was the true Church not which raised but which suffered persecution was de facto true for a great space For when Heresies and Schismes first arose in the Church all kinds of violence were used by the erring Factions but the Church seemed not for a long time to have known any use of a sword but only of a Buckler and when she began to use the Sword some of her best and chiefest Captains much disliked it The first Law that ever was made in this kind was enacted by Theodosius against the Donatists but with this restraint that it should extend against none but such as were tumutuous and till that time they were not so much as toucht with any mulct though but pecuniary til that shameful outrage committed against Bishop Maximian whom they beat down with Bats and Clubs even as he stood at the Altar so that not so much the Errour of the Donatists as their Riots and Mutinies were by Imperial Lawes restrained Thus sar Learned Pious and Moderate Mr. Hales of whose Judgment had the Episcopal Party been in the time of their Government these troubles in the Church had never been raised nor had these miseries come upon the King and Kingdom And were but what he hath written seriously pondered by considering Christians of all Parties it would pluck up the cause of all our Divisions by the roots As I shall therefore commend to you all * Who shall be called to advise about matters of Religion his Works set forth by Mr. Pearson aforesaid so this one particular Passage more amongst the rest It is not saith he p. 54. It is not the variety of Opinions but our own perverse wills who think it meet that all should be conceited as our selves are which hath so inconvenienced the Church Were we not so ready to anathematize each other where we concur not in opinion we might in hearts be united though in our tongues we were divided and that with singular profit to all sides It is the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of peace and not Identity of Conceit which the Holy Ghost requireth at the hands of Christians This short Quotation giveth us a true account of the Cause and Cure of all our Church Dissentions and Divisions Now that these Rents and Schisms may not grow wider but be healed up and I hope therein offer the sense of very many Church-Members I say I shall humbly propound this expedient Let but the Episcopal and Presbyterian Parties abandon and renounce their Principle of universal Conformity and compulsion and we of the Gathered Churches ours of a universal toleration and liberty for Conscience They exercising no other compulsive power over tender Consciences than what they are furnished with from the Word of God and we expecting and requiring no other liberty from them than what the Word of God allowes us And no doubt but we shall find the Son of Righteousness arising upon us with healing under his wings and give us all that unity of Spirit which is the Bond of Peace though we have not Identity of Conceits and Apprehensions and will make us all to be of one Heart though we are not all of one mind By what way of Government this may be best effected I leave to the Advice of an Assembly of Religious and Learned Ministers of all Parties whom no doubt the Parliament will speedily summon and to the Result and determinations of the Parliament thereupon in reference to Church-matters I hope all sober and moderate Independents if not very weak in judgment or strongly possest with prejudice and many other corruptions therein will humbly submit to acquiesce therein And not only so but also to the judgment of that great Council in reference to what they have voted not only of the way of Government by Monarchy but also to the Government of his Majesty Whose Gratious Declaration of a free and general pardon to all his Subjects how faulty soever excepting only such as shall be here after excepted by Parliament which cannot now be many considering the chiefest are gone down into the dust And also of Liberty to tender Consciences and that no man shall be disquieted or called in question for differences of Opinion in matters of Religion that do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom I say these Offers of Grace and Mercy from his Majesty whom many of our Consciences tell us we have so much offended and exposed to such great afflictions and Sufferings should now melt our hearts through great contrition and penitential remorse for what is past and work us to Resolutions of all due Loyalty and Subjection to his Government for the time to come and that not for fear but for Conscience sake Methinks God having as we ought to judge in Charity by his Gracious expressions turned his Royal heart towards us how should it turn our hearts to be Loyal towards Him and make us now to make good what I now believe 〈…〉 by his Royal Father in the Advice he gave to him before 〈…〉 when Prince In his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Wales saith he None will be more Loyal and Faithful to you and me than those Subjects who sensible of their Errours and great Injuries shall feel in their own Soules most vehement Motives to Repentance and earnest desires to make some reparation for their former defects Nay this Confidence his Late Majesty had of his most offending Subjects that he further saith in the said Advice For those that repent of any defect in their Duty to me I believe ye shall find them truly zealous to repay with Interest that Loyalty and Love to You that was due to Me. Surely by what I have so largely insisted upon in all this Discourse we of the Gathered Churches cannot be so stupid but needs must be brought to a sense of this that we have been exceeding defective in our Duty to the Late King The Presbyterian Party in England and Scotland about the Late Kings Death and since have Some of them suffering death and banishment c. testified their Repentance for their Defects in their Duty to the Late King by their Loyalty to his Majesty Methinks we should no longer lie under the same reproof as they did 2 Sam. 19. 12. Wherefore are ye the last in bringing back the King Well nunquam sera est ad bonosmores via Let us therefore though we have set out after others yet let us overtake them in the speedy and vigorous expressions of our Repentance for the Defects of our Duty to the Late King by our Love and Loyalty to our present Soveraign Let our Contentions now be turned into this Christian emulation which Party of us shall be most pious towards God most Loyal toward the King and most loving to one another And then no doubt if our waies please the Lord he will make not only our enemies to be at peace with us but us to be at peace amity with all dissenting brethren they with us will give us favour in the eyes of the Authority of the Nation the King and Parliament AMEN FINIS In the Integrity of my heart have I done this Gen. 20. 5. Salem Philalathes and a Church-member
you were gone towards Rome in this respect your silencing many Godly Orthodox and Able Preachers for not conforming to your Superstitious Ceremonies doth witness against you And that you remain still of the same mind that there is no Religion nor Service without these Ceremonies your violent Desires and high Hopes to see them again imposed doth abundantly declare Let me therefore perswade you to more Moderation And though you have as our aforesaid Author saith fallen too much upon that Spartans Pag. 170. Conceit that in his Travels seeing the Beams and Posts of Houses squared and carved asked if the Trees grew so in those Countries so having been long acquainted with a Form of Worship squared and carved trickt and set out with shew and Ceremony have been apt to think that Trees grow so that there is no natural shape and Face of Gods Worship Yet he will tell you that abinitio non fuit sic and this he doth learnedly and largely prove p. 171. To which I refer you Let therefore the woful miseries and calamities which you have brought upon the Land by so altering the Face of the English Church since the Reformation thereof in Queen Elizabeths daies through your so Popish and Superstitious Innovations that you made it look so like the Painted Whore of Babylon that Sancta Clara hath published That the Face of our Church began to alter the Language of our Religion to change and setting Puritans aside our Articles and their Religion would soon be agreed Let also your violent urging conformity to these Ceremonies which you made the Devils Sieves to winnow Pious men of Tender Consciences out of their Ministerial Employments I say let these with your many other Provocations of the Divine Majesty meeken and moderate your Spirits restrain your eager pursuit of Episcopacy in statu corrupto with its superstitious vanities especially considering how much Blood and Treasure hath been expended in this Quarrel My Lord Digby was of another mind before a Drop of Blood was spilt Saith he P. 74. Let us not destroy but make Bishops such as they were in the Primitive times Do their large Territories their large Revenues offend let them be retrencht The good Bishop of Hippo had but a narrow Diocess Do their Courts and Subordinates offend let them be brought to govern as in the Primitive times by Assemblies of their Clergie Doth their intermedling in Secular Affairs offend Exclude them from the capacity it is no more than what reason and all antiquity hath interdicted them That you may be glad of this when you can get it and may meet with no further Obstructions I shall now direct my Discourse to you of the Presbyterian Party Who also have as great Cause to be humbled and repent as the Party before spoken to though not for the very same sins The great and cogent Argument by which God would restrain his people of old from oppression of others was this the sense of the oppressions which they had lain under in the Land of Egypt And one would think this should have restrained you that groaned so much under the oppression of your Consciences and Estates And yet no sooner were you come out of great Tribulation your selves but like that cruel Servant in the Gospel you fell to beating and wounding of your Fellowes in both All that woful cruelty and severity which you inflicted by Sequestration and Imprisonment upon those that could not joyn with you in taking up of Arms and in the Eradication in stead of the Reformation of the Government of the Church while you were in Power should very much melt and molifie your hearts and much incline them to accomodation and moderation Especially considering with what little respect unto the Consciences of others ye violently imposed upon them vowes and Oaths wherein you only were satisfied your selves For refusing whereof many Orthodox Ministers lost their Livings that could not otherwise have been ejected as scandalous and insufficient but only for this particular Malignancy Forgetting how much you cried out against the Bishops new Oath which they would have imposed Surely had you in this observed that Golden Rule of our Saviour to do to others as you would be done by you would not to promote the Interest of your own Party have hewed out a Reformation with so much violence and to impose a rigid Presbytery have spared none of a different judgment from you that stood in your way I hope in all this time that God hath laid you aside ye who are what you profess your selves to be whether Ministers or people such as fear to offend the Divine Majesty and avoid all appearances of evil have made some serious reflexions upon your selves and have humbled your Soules before the Lord for your many miscarriages while you were in power and for those extreams into which you have run with the rest I am sure it was your Duty in the day of Adversity to consider You should have considered what might provoke the Lord against you not only to disappoint your hopes of setling your so much admired Church-Government but also to bring the whole Ministry of these Nations as near to an utter extirpation as you had brought those that ordained you and set you apart to the work of the Ministry But the violence of many of your Spirits which appeareth in this day-break of your hopes of deliverance from men of Antimonarchical and Anti-ministerial spirits makes me think you have not truly and throughly been humbled for what is past No marvel therefore that so many of you are so pertinacious in your way I beseech you therefore let your Modesty and Moderation be known unto all men in giving over your violent pursuit of an absolute and independent Presbytery from the Angels of the Churches and be of a condescending towards others who may have as much Reason and Scripture on their side and may appear to be as pious and conscientious as your selves Do not think that there can be no purity of Ordinances but where there is a Parity in their Administrators Neither any Reformation of Church-Government without the extirpation of it root and branch The great Objection that lieth against this Motion is that you lie under an Obligation by Covenant to extirpate the Government of the Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops c. And therefore you cannot recede from it To which I Answer that an unlawful Oath bindeth not Now whether that long League or Covenant wherein were too many words to be without sin were lawful yea or no I desire you to compare it with those Rules and Qualifications of a lawful Oath or Vow laid down by the Assembly of Divines in their Humble Advice § 11. An Oath say they must be imposed by lawful Authority whoso takes it is to avouch nothing but what he is fully perswaded is the truth what is good and just and what he is able to perform and bindeth not to sin Now I say if you
do but compare the Covenant with these Qualifications you will I suppose be of my mind that it calleth rather for your Humiliation than your Ratification of the same Perusing some of your Proofs to these Particulars I find Gen. 24. 2 3 5 6 8. Before that Abrahams Servant would swear unto his Master though the Oath was plain and short he puts in a Peradventure v. 5. What if the woman will not come with me into the Land Shall I then be discharged of my oath v. 8. Surely if ye had feared an Oath ye might have propounded many doubts and scruples before you had taken the Covenant your selves or so harshly imposed it upon others under such severe penalties Quest 1. What if the Church of Scotland whose Doctrine Discipline and Government I understand not will alter their way of Government c. whether I will or no Am I then discharged of my Oath 2. What if the Government of the Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops c. being setled by the Law of England cannot be removed without a Law made by the Three Estates in Parliament consisting of King Lords and Commons Is it not unlawful for me to swear the extirpation thereof And does a new Oath imposed without the Authority aforesaid bind me to observe it 3. What if the Parliament whose Rights and Priviledges I swear absolutely to preserve shall introduce Popery Heresie and Prophaneness which is not to preserve and defend the true Religion am I not then discharged of my Oath seeing my Covenant ties me to defend his Majesties Person and Authority only with this * Which limitation of our loyalty to Kings no further then they preserve the true Religion neither the Word of God the Oath of Allegiance or the Protestation which ye all took before this Covenant doth not in the least mention or allow for therein ye protested according to the duty of your allegiance to maintain and defend his Majesties royal Person and Estate limitation in the preservation and defence of the true Religion Many other things might have been suggested to this purpose You should do well to consider whether you did not force many not only to swear but to lie also in affirming that they entred into this Solemn League and Covenant after other means of Supplication Remonstnance Protestations and sufferings when they never had the least hand in any of them but meerly to prevent or mittigate their Sufferings under your hands And also whether the greatest number of those that took the Covenant willingly could be perswaded of that which they did avouch as truth that they entred into this Covenant according to the commendable practise of these Kingdoms in former times Or whether it were not rather a manifest untruth For except what was done in former times by the Kirk of Scotland the Chronicles of England or any other History give no testimony to what you affirm It appeareth therefore from these Considerations and by the swallowing down of this Covenant so rashly your selves and imposing it so harshly upon others that to one scruple of Conscience there was a pound of worldly wisdom and carnal policy and that the design of this Oath was to oblige men more to a Party than to Duty I have spoken the more freely and largely of this business concerning the Covenant and its non-obliging power because that I have observed many Ministers much bewail the backwardness of people to Covenant-Reformation and the great guilt of Covenant-breaking they lie under Yet never heard any to bewail the taking of it Though by what hath been suggested there is as much cause for the one as the other And therefore be perswaded I beseech you in stead of a maintaining what you have done truly to repent for what is past especially for your great severity in imposing it upon many others who did as truly scruple that as some of you did the Engagement and I suppose many of you would have done the often attempted Oath of Abjuration Sirs ye are now brought to the Touch-stone whether ye be indeed such as ye have publickly professed your selves to be in your Apologetical Declaration your serious Representation and Vindication of your selves from the irregular actings of the Independent Party That you were Friends to a Regulated Monarchy to a Free Parliament that you never intended the subversion and change of the Fundamental Lawes and Government of this Nation that it may appear that these were not the male-contented evaporations of a disappointed Faction as some are still apt to judge by the violence of many of your spirits now you are again on the rising side Let the sense of those miseries and calamities which ye brought upon the State by your violent attempts and endeavours totally to subvert and change the Government of the Church before the Treaty at the Isle of Wight the experience you have had of the great unpleasingness to all Parties but your selves of the way that you propound And as ever ye desire to prevent the letting in of a sweeping destruction at the gates of our Divisions which are never like to be composed while you violently pursue that wherein the Divine Providence hath so signally crossed you now prevail upon you to lay aside your eager contention for an absolute Presbytery And humbly as becometh Christians professing Godliness to be subject to Authority acquiesce in the determinations of this great Council the Parliament which God hath so wonderfully brought together in reference to the Government both of Church and State And to this purpose as I have in particular addressed my self to the Episcopal Clergy so I also shall conclude with a word or two unto you of the Presbyterian Ministry It is most evident that your work as Ministers of the Gospel is to be instrumental in turning not only of the hearts of men unto God but also to turn and reconcile the hearts of men unto one another It was prophesied of John the Baptist who was a burning and a shining light that he should turn the hearts of Parents to their Children and of Children to their Parents Mal. 4. Luke 1. 17. I desire you to consider whether in stead of doing this good work ye had not a great hand formerly in turning the hearts of Children from their Parents both Natural and Civil when from your Pulpits ye sounded those Allarmes to this Civil War and so mightily provoked young people who understood not the Quarrel to leave both their Masters and Parents without their consent and to adventure their lives in the high places of the field for the Cause of Christ I beseech you therefore now be as forward in turning the hearts of Children to their Parents again Take heed of raising and fomenting jealousies and fears whereby to alienate and turn away the hearts of people from Affection and Subjection to the Fathers of their Country And as John the Baptist did this by the preaching of Repentance by an impartial pressing of every
one to the conscionable performance of the duties of their particular places and callings so be ye perswaded to do the like in this juncture of time Press upon your Hearers and charge upon their Consciences who are forward enough to make profession of the Duties of the First Table to be conscionable in the observance of the Duties of the Second and especially of that Fifth Command to which the Promise of long life is made and the violation whereof we have cause to fear hath shortned the daies of many in this Nation and sent them to their Graves in Coffins of Blood Many there are I suppose which have offended in this kind through Ignorance for want of Information from their Teachers But that both good Ministers and People are apt to forget themselves as to this Particular though the Drums should never have beaten it out of their Heads is evident by the memento that Paul giveth to Titus Chap. 3. v. 5. Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers and that they be obedient to Magistrates Certainly this Duty was never more in season than now to urge upon your Hearers to be subject to Principalities and Powers and to be obedient to all the Lawful Commands of Magistrates without disputing their expediency to judge whereof they have no Call from God or man And as a further means to reconcile us unto one another insist much upon those Duties which follow in the next verse and pathetically exhort them thereunto and disswade from those contrary impediments to Peace and Love V. 2. That they speak evil of no man be no Brawlers but gentle shewing all meekness to all men Doubtless were but this Gospel Precept in this verse conscionably practised it would exceedingly tend to the healing of all our Breaches and the making up of our Rents and Divisions by which we are almost consumed We have in order hereunto bitten and devoured one another not so much with our Teeth as with our Tongues To cure us Put them in mind that they speak evil of no man There is none of us but take too much liberty even to this day to speak contumeliously of those which are not of their own Party whereas there is nothing more clear than this that we are under a Divine Charge and prohibition to speak evil of no man of what Party soever And that we be no Brawlers but gentle shewing all meekness to all men is also another Gospel Precept To be affable gentle and peaceable towards those of our own judgments and that are of our own Party is no singular Act of Humanity Our Saviour tels us if we be friendly only to our Brethren What singular thing do ye Do not even the Publicans the same But to shew all meekness to all men of what Party soever you see is the bounden duty of those to whom the Grace of God hath appeared Make use therefore of your Divine Oratory to urge these aforesaid Duties upon your Hearers by all those Arguments which are drawn up by the Holy Ghost to your Hands in the 3 4 5. verses of the same Chapter and I doubt not but by Gods Blessing who is the God of Peace he will once more bless his people with Peace according to his Promise The Lord who sitteth upon the Flood yea the Lord who sitteth King for ever the Lord will give strength unto his People the Lord will bless his People with Peace Psal 29. 10 11. And that this Peace may not be obstructed but as vigorously pursued and followed after as Holiness to both which we are equally engaged Jure Divino Let me now make my particular address to ye of the Independent To the Independent Party or Gathered Churches Party and of the Gathered Churches to whom though I have many things to say which lie upon my heart and I find my self bound in Spirit to make mention of yet in this time of trouble and day of Rebuke which the Righteous Lord hath most justly brought upon us for our sins I find the sense of our many Provocations very much afflicting my heart with grief and soul with sorrow under this aggravation That though I have all this while looked upon my self and all that were in our congregational way as the only Saints of the most High separated from the rest of the world by the strictness of our Profession of Purity of Ordinances and Church-Administrations and that I judged those who joyned not with us therein either as the Prophane Rabble of the world or at the best but as a company of Carnal Moral and Formal Persons yet that many of us by our Practises in reference to the publick Affairs of the Common-wealth and to our righteous Administrations in order thereunto have not only fallen very short of many of those whom we have thus censured but have acted in such waies that some Heathen Patriots that knew not God would blush and be ashamed of Ye may peradventure look upon this as a very uncharitable or at least a very unseasonable passage from a Friend in this day of our calamity But if you do consider what I have already spoken to ye amongst the rest wherein I sincerely discover the reason of my plain dealing and if God hath awakened any of you by his stupendious and amazing Providential Dispensations as I hope he hath done many who for these late years have been fast asleep and have had many Golden Dreams of being Godly in Christ Jesus without suffering and of ruling others while our Lusts ruled us you will be of another mind I do profess unfeignedly that were our miscarriages to be concealed I should as David in another case admonish all that have any respect to the Honour of the Gospel that they tell them not in Gath that they publish them not in the streets of Askelon lest the Daughters of the uncircumcised rejoyce But alas our sinful and irregular actings for these late years have been committed in the sight of the Sun They are like the sins of Judah written with a Pen of Iron with the point of a Diamond they are recorded in the several Declarations and Remonstrances of the Army In the first and second Part of the History of Independency and such other Books of that nature which now walk abroad without Controul And now while I am speaking of Books I cannot but tell you of that which should be a very cutting Consideration and should deeply humble us That although in that hour of Temptation that power of darkness we were under some of the Episcopal and Presbyterian Party by their publick addresses in Print did pathetically diswade from and bear witness against those unwarrantable waies into which some of us were running in a full Career in Anno 1648. Yet amongst our selves I do not find any dissent or disswasion from them published to the world by any of our Congregational Party but rather such Books as did justifie and approve the same Excepting