as it is now by Law Established which are really equivalent with the Declaration of Assent and Consent to the Vse of the Book and it is to no more than to the Vse of it the Declaration is required to be made by the Act it follows that to take away One of these injunctions and not the Other could be of no Signification Upon notice hereof therefore given to some Members of the House it was moved at the Committee to take away the whole Subscription as well as the Declaration and it being carried in the Affirmative the Bill as it is here presented hath that Amendment There are some few Additions more inserted as necessary thereunto for the obtaining its end the reasons whereof appear in their own light yet is it Judged fit that publick notice be given of two or three of them The One of them is the Parenthesis about the Beginning where the Thirty-Nine Articles are imposed on every Minister to Subscribe which notwithstanding the Exception of Three of the Articles do yet require more Caution Whosoever have read a Book called A part of a Register wherein there is a Relation of several things in reference to the Nonconformists in Q. Elizabeths days they will find that there was nothing so greivous to them and exasperated them then against the Bishops so much as the Subscriptions of those times and the Subscription to the Articles was one among the rest which makes me wonder what our good men did now mean to impose the Subscription of these Articles so rigidly upon all for the enjoyment of the benefit of either of their Bills of Vnion or Indulgence They know not really what it is they were a doing for if the Persecuting Spirit should be raised hereafter about this Subscription and the thing be so pressed that all who Subscribe not shall be Prosecuted by the Law there were like to arise greater troubles to tender Consciences and scruples more unanswerable then could be about the Cap and Tippet the Surplice and Cross in those dayes The doubtfulness of many about the Ceremonies is not to be compared to a Conviction of Conscience that a man must not Subscribe to any point which he believes untrue By this means therefore should these Articles of the Church intended for Peace become the instruments of Torment and be had in the greatest Detestation which consequently will defame and then ruine the Protestant Religion There will be Persecution in the Church that 's certain for the Devil will have it so There will be Tender Consciences that 's certain for God will have it so When there are no other things then to trouble Mens Consciences but this Subscription Exceptions and Scruples will be raised against these Articles and it a Parliament do not prevent them in their Bill by a present mitigation they Act not like wise Men and do not see Ten Years before them The only remedy against this evil is to provide a liberty in both the Bills that every Consciencious Man that really scruples any of the Articles may explain his sense which if it shall not pass unless it be allowed to be Orthodox by the Bishop or by two other Bishops in case the Diocesan be partial there can be no harm in it at least none in comparison of this mischief which is to be prevented hereby Another of them is about the Middle concerning Orders In the late Times when the Bishops were down many were ordained by Presbyters and the House was willing to allow those Orders as good in a Case of Necessity upon which account only the rigid Episcopalian will allow of the Ministry of the Reformed Churches beyond the Sea but there being others that have been Ordained since the return of the Bishops the House made no provision for such in the Bill being not willing we may suppose to countenance a neglect of the Bishops out of that case And what then shall such do There is an Ordination to the Office or Ministry it self and he that is Once Ordained to that whether by Presbyters or Bishops cannot receive the Spiritual Power or Character or be made Ministers Again But there is a laying on of hands to the Work of that Office in regard to a new Charge as Paul and Barnabas who were Ministers before and yet are separated to that peculiar Work unto which they were called by the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the Hands of those who are named Act. 13. Such an Ordination now as this may be repeated and is the only Medium for resolution of this dimculty The Third of these Insertions is the last whole Clause concerning the Common-Prayer the due consideration whereof is the very main hinge upon which the whole matter of this Comprehension does turn If Union it self be necessary it must be necessary to know what is the Bottom upon which we can be United In all Reconcilements between different Parties the first thing that is to be found out is a Medium for their Agreement When we have found this it must be considered how far each Party can come up to that Medium and then we can make the Accommodation The Medium of Reconciliation in this Business at this time between the Conformist and Nonconformist is the Common-Prayer Some Persons as is said before do hold that a stinted Form of Prayer and our Parish-Churches are unwarrantable by God's Word who though they may be Indulged are thereby uncapable of Comprehension Others are ready to maintain the Lawfulness of both these and the Enquiry about such is How far they can do that which is enjoyned That is How far they can Read the Common-Prayer and how far they cannot Conform to it This is the Critical Point in regard to this Bill between the Conformist and Nonconformist The One can Read all the Other so much only as will serve for Union The Nonconformist now who hold a Form of Prayer and the Parish-Churches lawful are for the most part of them able through Providential Merey to Conform to the Ordinary Lord's Day Service their Exceptions which make the Liturgy to them unlawful lying in other Parts or Moments of the Book And consequently if the Bill may be hemmed up with the Clause here offered it will do Without that Clause it is apparently imperfect With it it will be what we may call Perfect that is Perfect in its kind so far as to answer its end and bring in All of the Willing and Many of the Vnwilling that go under the Name of the Presbyterian Perswasion This being premised the Bills the Titles only as they were in the House being voluntarily omitted are as followeth THE Bill for Comprehension WHereas the Peace of the State is highly concern'd in the Peace of the Church Therefore at all Times but especially in this Conjuncture it is most Necessary to be preserved In Order therefore to remove Differences and Dissatisfactions which may arise among Protestants Be it enacted by the Kings most Excellent
Head of the Church it will be enquired whether they claim their Title Jure Divino or Humano If Jure Divino they must prove it which will not easily be done If Jure Humano I hope they will grant the King Superior to them and that they are but His Officers and Delegates which is the same thing that I desire and which is agreeable to the Opinion of our First Reformers as is apparent in Dr. Burnet's History of the Reformation For Cranmer took a Commission from K. Edward by which he held his Bishoprick and exercised his Jurisdiction Vid. Par. 2. pag. 6. And so Bonner had done before him from King Henry the Eighth Vid. Par. 1. l. 3. p. 267. And this is the same thing that hath been lately proposed by that Thoughtful Man Mr. Humfrey in the End of a Discourse written by Himself and Others and dedicated to the Right Honourable the Earl of Hallifax that great and sagacious Statesman I know some Men are Deaf Adders who will not be brought to regard it let a Man have Charmed never so wisely but These I take it are such only who are Enemies to Peace and will part with nothing for the sake of it And why now these Tolerated Churches should not be accounted true Churches and Parts of the National-Church whereof the King is the Head I do not imagine In my Apprehension they look very like the Churches we read of in the New Testament which no Man doubts were of Divine Appointment For although I do not know but that some particular Persons from among the Clergy fittest for it As St. Paul chiefly imployed himself in Preaching the Gospel and meddled but little with Baptism may be lawfully and prudently chosen and employed chiefly in the Government of several Congregations even as many as they can personally know and be acquainted withal and if they be called Bishops and have a peculiar Consecration and nothing be done in Ordination Censures and Absolutions but with their Knowledge Direction and Approbation I would have no Controversie with them about it Yet I do professedly avow that I can find no such thing in the Scripture nor in the Practice of the Church for 200 Years I know 't is said That the Apostles were Diocesans and that they governed all or most of the Christian Churches whil'st they lived but I see no Proof of it and there 's one Argument against it which I cannot tell how to answer and 't is this If the Christian Churches in the Apostles days had no Governours but themselves 't is certain that for the most part they had none at all for they never fixed in any place but having preached the Gospel planted Churches and settled Officers amongst them they left them and went to other Places and Countreys 'T is true they did sometimes return and visit the Churches that they planted but who Governed them in the intermediate Periods of Time Or were there no Ordinations Censures or Absolutions performed in them or none but by their Direction and Command That some Acts of Discipline were performed by their Direction and Command I do acknowledge but that all were so and that none ought to be performed without it I see no reason to believe Touching the Practice of the Church after the Apostles till the end of the Second Century I must say That I can find no Evidence of Diocesan Episcopacy or of any Churches bigger than some single Congregations among us at this day I think the Churches of Corinth Ephesus Antioch c. single Congregations and that they all Communicated at one Altar and that there are many Congregations in England as numerous and some much more numerous than they Yea I will add after all that hath been said of late to the contrary that I am not convinced that the Church of Carthage in Cyprian's days which was Two hundred and fifty Years after Christ was any bigger than some of our Parochial-Congregations In an Epistle to the Clergy of Carthage he tells them That from the beginning of his Episcopacy he determined to do nothing by his own private Judgment nor without their Counsel and the Consent of his People A primordio Episcopatus mei statuerim nihil sine Consilio Vestro sine consensu Plebis meae privata sententia gerere Ep. 6. ex Edit Goulartii What doth St. Cyprian mean by His People in these words Doth he mean the whole or Major Part of a Diocess in the Modern sense of the Word Did he assemble his Diocess and take their Consent in all things that did concern them Credat Judaeus Appella Many Passages of like nature might be produced from this great Saint and Martyr and are by Learned Men which I will not repeat And for ought that I can perceive Diocesan Episcopacy was unknown in this Nation for several hundreds of Years after Christ Jesus The Culdees were the great Preachers of the Gospel and Promoters of Christianity in Scotland Those Culdees were no Bishops nor had any Ordination but such as was performed by the Monk or Abbot of the Monastery in the Island Hii This Monk who was himself no Bishop and his Pressters gave them their Orders and from thence came Aidan and Finan into England and are called Bishops but had no other Ordination than that abovementioned Wini was the first Canonical Bishop in Britain as Bede reports Non erat tunc ullus excepto Wini in tot a Britannia Canonice Ordinatus Episcopus Lib. 3. cap. 28. Which was near Six hundred Years after Christ The Prefecture and Jurisdiction of Bishops in England seems to me of Humane Institution and derived partly from the Favour of Princes and partly from the Usurpation of the Pope and thus gotten and obtained they enjoyed and exercised it for many Hundreds of Years even till the days of Henry the Eighth who reassuming the Authority that had been granted by former Princes and usurped by the Pope obliged them to acknowledg their Jurisdiction by derivation from Himself and subjected them to a Premunire in case of refusal And of this Opinion those Bishops seem to be that took Commissions from K. Henry the Eighth and K. Edward the Sixth for their holding their Bishopricks and Exercise of their Jurisdiction as I have signified already Let our present Diocesans therefore as such acknowledg themselves the King's Officers and by Deputation from Him let them exercise such Authority circa sacra as appertains to Kings Let them enjoy their Honour and Revenues as a Reward of their Service Let the Powers granted by Christ to such Bishops as I have above conceded lawful and their Presbyters be left inviolable And let our Diocesans supervise them in the Exercise of them and see that they neither neglect nor abuse them And all our Controversies about Church-Government will come to an end Such Churches as should be thought worthy of Toleration as well as those that have the Approbation of Authority would submit to such an
discern sometimes the clearest Evidence and Light Are they not strongly influenced by Education Company Interest and many other things Do not mens Lusts and Passions very much influence and sway their Intellects And are not their apprehensions of things very much formed by them This I do acknowledge is a fault but 't is a common fault and surely some consideration ought to be had of it in the making and imposing Laws and Creeds upon the Consciences of men 2. The very great Trouble Tiranny and Vexation of a scrupulous Conscience They that have had to do with those kind of persons know something of it but none understand it fully but those that have had experience thereof The burthen the trouble the anguish and the torment of it is not to be expressed the severity of its Lashes the rigour of its Rule and Dominion is almost insupportable Persons of this temper there have always been and will be and though some incompassionate men whose Bowels seem to be made of Brass laugh at them and ridicule their tenderness and scruples yet I do belive that Church-Governours who should be Fathers to their People ought to have some respect unto them in their Constitutions and Impositions 3. The impossibility of most mens giving assent with judgment to things controverted difficult and obscure Let men say what they list 't is not conviction that makes most men assent either way in the difficult controversies of Religion Do most men yea most Clergy men give their assent in the controversies between Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants out of conviction of Judgment No Those things are of such profound and deep Speculation that very few men have either leisure Books or Brains to fathom them and make a judgment of them The Controversie about the difference between Bishops and Prebyters whether it be a difference in Order or in Degree requires so much reading and skill in ancient Authors Fathers and Councils with the debates of Neotericks that many men are not able with any settled judgment to determine on the one side or the other T' is true that some of the Church have lately with great confidence without dispute concluded a difference of Order between them and we must now believe it with as much assurance as the Apostles Creed yet I see no just reason to doubt but that the Controversie will remain longer than our Establishment peradventure there may have been and still are as great men and as well skilled in ancient Learning as the late and present Bishops that are of the contrary persuasion I might instance in many of their Controversies at this time but this shall suffice for I am persuaded that all men that have impartially studied and thought of these matters and made observation on the understandings of men must acknowledge that very few men of free judgments can be brought to a full agreement in controverted and obscure points of Religion And as fo the most consequently that subscribe to what is imposed because they must they do generally subscribe to things which Combien entiendan come puerca de freno they are as well skill'd in as a Sow in a Bridle as says the Spaniard 4. The incongruousness of Laws Penalties and Executions to make men wise or give them largeness of understanding to bring them to this Concord Will Laws and Penalties give Eyes to the Blind or Ears to the Deaf Or will they enable a weak and impaired Eye to see Hairs or the Webs of Spiders Will they enable the quickest sight to see the Woods and Forrests the Rocks and Mountains the Towns and Villages the Castles and Forts that are in the Moon Laws and Penalties may sometimes put men on study and consideration though I think 't is not very often they rather warm and enrage mens Spirits and put them upon the defence of their own Opinions than on the consideration of the truth of those that are imposed on their assent and Faith but they can never make men understand beyond their Capacities All the Teaching and Instruction in the World will not make some men wise and learned and what Instruction can't do I am sure Laws will not do 5. That Laws and Executions may make some men Lie and Dissemble and Consent against their Consciences to Impositions but of all men such are the sharpest and most inraged Enemies And none upon Earth will be more ready to revenge themselves upon the Imposers than they will be whenever an opportunity be offered to them Thus in the Daies of Queen Mary many dissembled and assented to the Roman Impositions to preserve their Estates and Lives but they retained their Old Opinions and conceived a mortal hatred against those that put them on those straits and difficulties as Dr. Burnet observes Hist Refor part 2. page 364 And there is no doubt but they were the keenest and most eager Enemies to the Romanists in the Daies of Queen Elizabeth when they had the opportunity of revenging themselves upon them 6. That it is not impossible but the same measure that some mete to others may be measured to them again and that those that Impose upon the Faith and Consciences of others may be Imposed upon themselves with the same yea far greater Tyranny and Rigour The Papists are endeavouring to subvert our Government and Religion they have had Designs upon the Person and Life of our Soveraign and some men think they still have and I know no reason to imagine that they have forsaken them unless they be convinced in their Judgments that there is no possibility of prospering or being successful therein which why they should be I confess I do not understand 'T is true a man would think they should find mighty difficulties in accomplishing their Plot but it must be considered that we have been and still are a sinful Nation We have exceedingly provoked the Majesty of Heaven and whether or no for the sake of our Iniquities God may not give us up into the hands of our Popish Enemies I cannot tell I am sure we have deserved it and if he hath determined to punish us for our sins by delivering us up to the Roman Scourge and Tyranny 't is to no purpose to talk of difficulties they shall be the Rod in his hand and he will chastise us in despite to all the opposition that we can make against it 7. That God who is the great Sovereign and Governour of the whole Universe does suffer or permit many things in this Inferiour World which he doth not approve proposing himself a Pattern to Rulers God suffers much among Heathens and Infidels much among professed Christians yea and many things he passes by in those that are truly his Children He knoweth their frame he considereth that they are but dust God is not severe nor doth punish every fault and miscarriage among mortals and surely those that are his Vicegerents here on Earth and represent him would do well to imitate the Example of the
Episcopacy When it shall please God therefore to send us a Parliament that are able to distinguish wisely betwixt Tolerable and Intolerable Opinions and Persons and so by Law to permit to the One the Liberty of their Assemblies and to restrain the Other and shall then prepare a Bill for Declaring the Constitution of the Church as National making the King to be Head of all the Congregations which shall be Tolerated as well as of those which are Parochial and the Diocesan Bishops to be His Officers or Delegates for keeping good Order amongst them all leaving to the Pastor of every Parish or Congregation that Power which Christ hath committed to him for Feeding and Ruling the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made Him Overseer without confounding this Internal Power of His with the External of the Other derived from the King but preserving the Rights of both so that the One be not swallowed up of the Other Nor forgetting the Concession of a sort of Episcopacy to perform the ordinary Work of the Apostles and Evangelists in that Multiplication of Supervisors over the Parochial-Clergy which I propose also in these Papers then shall the Grounds be laid for a firm and lasting Concord in the Nation about the Matter of Religion There were two Bills in the House of Commons that sate last at Westminster the One for the Vniting those that could come in to the present Church Establishment the Other for Ease to such as cannot These Bills had they passed and become Laws might be a good Interim for making up our Breaches till some more effectual means were also applied but when they would serve for excellent Scaffolds to stand upon while the Work is in hand the Fabrick it self should be formed out of such Materials as these which I now offer and which I find put to the End of that Book I have before mentioned in the last Half Sheet thereof and called Materials for Vnion Should it but please the King then and a Parliament to consider the Contents only of what Mr. H. hath there proposed and pass the Sense of it into a Law it would unite and heal us it would make us a Glorious Church indeed firm and Compacted among our selves and therefore impregnable to the Assaults of all our Enemies Tho there were Differences in Judgment among us and some Difference in Practices yet there would be little or no Difference in Affections All would mind and promote the common Peace and unite in resisting the Common Enemy This would put a Period to the Attempts of Rome for to what purpose should the Factors and Emissaries of the Roman Conclave attempt to subvert an Established Church and Religion where there is no probability of prevailing And what likelihood is there to prevail where all Parties are satisfied The One in the Favour and Encouragement of the Government and Laws the other in their Indulgence and Protection by them SECT XIII ALthough it be plain enough from what I have discoursed that I plead the Cause of none but Tolerable Dissenters and am Advocate for no Persons or Churches that maintain pernicious Errours and are impenitent and incorrigible in them Yet to prevent all Misunderstandings I do again here subjoyn That I plead not the Cause of such as subvert the Christian Faith in the great Essentials of it which the Jews Mahometans Socinians and all other Infidels do I would not have Men permitted to Preach down Jesus Christ and the Gospel and to Preach up meer Theisme or the Religion of the Antique or Modern Heathens nor of such as Preach Immorality and Licentious Prophaness I would not have Men permitted to encourage or justify Violence or Rapine Sensuality or Lust Rebellion or Treason or any thing that is plainly Wicked and condemned by the Light of Nature as well as the Doctrine of Christianity And of this kind are many Popish Doctrines as is evident to all Men that have conversed in the Writings of their Casuists and such as have the Conduct of Conscience among them Particular Instances whereof may be seen in the Mystery of Jesuitism and the Jesuits Morals by any Man that hath a desire to be satisfied concerning them Nor of such whose Doctrines are inconsistent with Civil Government and Publick Peace and such is the Doctrine of the Romanists A Papist if he be true to the Opinions and Decrees of their own Popes and Councils must be a Rebel and a Traytor whensoever his Holiness pleases to command it This hath been sufficiently proved by many Authors and is obvious enough to such as read their Books And if there be any other Sect or Sort of People that maintain such Doctrines as do disturb the Peace of Mankind necessarily and truly and not occasionally and by accident for so the Gospel doth it I have nothing to say on their behalf But if the Toleration that I have proposed and pleaded for should be thought a Means of increasing the Separation from the Publick Congregations I reply Let care be taken as I said that the Clergy who officiate in them be Men of Worth Ability and good Conversation that is such as preach and live Piously and love the Honour of God and the Souls of Men And let some Discipline be restored to particular Churches under the Inspection of the Bishops and difference be made between the Precious and the Vile by the Exercise of it that none be reputed and accounted Christians and admitted to all the Priviledges of Christians that know nothing but the Name of Christianity and live in open Defiance to all the Laws thereof And if these two things were done there would be no great danger of encreasing the Separation by Tolerating some Dissenting Churches but on the contrary I do think that Separate Churches would be drained and emptyed and in a few Years almost quite dissolved thereby For in my Observation 't is the Ignorance and Prophaness of Clergy-Men and the Corruption and Impurity of Churches that began and doth continue the Divisions and Separations that have been and still are among us Let the Cause be removed and taken away and the Effect will cease Nay suppose some single Persons few in number should leave the publick and Allowed Congregations on occasion of this Toleration and joyn themselves to separate Assemblies What great hurt is there in it and why should any Publick Preacher be offended at it What hurt or wrong is it to my Physician if I leave him and go to another if he cannot cure me or I do not like his Methods and Prescriptions Hath he any Reason to be offended if another do that which he cannot do I know the Minister of my own Parish does oftentimes meet some or other of his Parishoners going to their Conventicles when he hath been going to Church and the like in his and their Return and yet I never heard that he grew into any Passion or Displeasure with them about it much less that he prosecuted them