Faith and Sacraments And we greatly esteem the soundness of the Doctrine contained in the Homilies We unfeignedly assent to the sense of his Majesties Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs in that Passage wherein he justly rebukes those that had the hardyness to publish that the Doctrine of the Church against which no man with whom he had conferred had excepted ought to be Reformed as well as the Discipline Be it here observed that some Conformists tell us that they heartily subscribe to the Nine and Thirty Articles taking the liberty of interpretation that is allowed by the Church her self though it be most reasonable to presume that she requires subscription to them as to an Instrument of Peace only And for this the Testimony of an eminent Bishop is cited saying The Church of England doth not define any of these Questions as necessary to be believed necessitate medii or praecepti which is much less but only to bind her Sons for Peace sake not to oppose them But for our parts we believe the very truth of the Doctrine contained in them according to the genuine sense of the words 4. We are not ashamed constantly to affirm that the word of God is the perfect Rule of Divine Faith and VVorship and we apprehend that it is not Lawfull for the Church or any power upon Earth to make new worship of the same common nature and reason with those universal and perpetual Ordinances which the word hath already made Nevertheless particular modes and accidents and mere circumstances of worship which are common to it with all Humane actions are left to the determination of Humane Prudence according to the general Rules of Scripture And we take such determination in those matters to be no addition to God's word and no argument of the defectiveness of his Laws but merely an application of the general Law in particular cases as the Law it self doth warrant A firm agreement of the Non-Conformists with the Church of England in the substantial parts of God's worship hath been long since manifested in their Papers presented to his Majesty We still acknowledge the lawfulness of a set form of Liturgy for matter agreable to God's word and suited to the nature of the several Ordinances and to the necessities of the Church yet the Minister should not be so confined to it as not to make use of his own gifts of Prayer and Exhortation VVe still profess that we are obliged to do all things decently and in order but we are not satisfied in the lawfulness of such Ceremonies as in their designed end seem to draw to near to the significancy and moral efficacy of Sacraments and which have been rejected by many of the Reformed Churches abroad And we believe that God's worship is best managed for the Exterior form thereof when it hath least of Humane mixtures in things unnecessary adjoyned and appropriated thereunto 5. We intirely own that Ministry that God hath set in the Church whether extraordinary and temporary as that of the Apostles or ordinary and perpetual as that of Bishops or Pastors and Teachers VVe believe that it is Christs high prerogative transcending all Humane authority to institute Spiritual Offices how be it there may be Offices circa sacra of man's appointment That Spiritual Officers receive their authority from Christ as the immediate Donor thereof by his Charter though their designation to their Office it not ordinarily immediate without man's interposing and consequently they are Christ's immediate Stewards commissioned by him and accountable to him each one for himself in particular That the power of the Keys for binding and losing for retaining and remitting of sins is essential to a Presbyter or Bishop That Ministerial power is delivered by Ordination as by way of solemn investiture and that each particular Church ought to have their proper Bishop or Pastor one or more residing among them for all Ministerial duties who hath no coercive power upon the bodies or estates of men and may rule them by no other instrument than the Sword of the Spirit which is the word of God working upon their Consciences and their outward standing in the Church 6. The Church being the Lord's heritage and portion ought not to lye common but must be fenced with Christ's Spiritual Discipline that it be not laid wast and lost in a VVorld of Ungodliness breaking in upon it This charge is committed to the Pastors who are accountable for the same to the chief Shepherd By the order of the Church of England all Presbyters were charged till very lately in the form of ordaining Ministers to administer the Doctrine Sacraments and Discipline as the Lord hath ordained and as this Realm hath received the same And that they might the better understand what the Lord hath commanded the Exhortation of St. Paul to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus was appointed to be read to them at the time of their Ordination Take heed to your selves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you over-seers to rule the Congregation of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Admission into the Church by Baptism is one act of Pastoral Government and includes the judging of the title of the party to be so admitted That which we require in the adult for their visible Church-Membership is their intelligent owning of the Baptismal Covenant by a serious profession there being no notoriety or proof of an invalidating contradiction Other parts of Discipline are the publick admonition of scandalous offenders and injoyning of penitence the Excommunication of the obstinate and the absolution of the penitent This Spiritual Government is not to be managed with external force and terror like the secular power but by Reproof Exhortation and Doctrine that the offender may be convinced and judged in his own Conscience And we take it for a great reproach to Christ's Discipline to tell the VVorld that it is a powerless thing of it self and insufficient to obtain its end unless the temporal Sword inforce it Yet we would not have the Church destitute of the Magistrate's due assistance and encouragement 7. As touching the form of Church Government the Scripture-bishop or Evangelical Pastor we do and ever did acknowledge Likewise we neither do nor ever did renounce the Episcopacy or Presidency which was of an ancient Ecclesiastical Custom as in the time of Ignatius yea or of Cyprian Bishop Ushers model of Government by Bishops and Arch-bishops with their Presbyters was by some of us presented to his Majesty as a ground-work of accommodation King Charles the First in his discourse touching the differences between himself and the two Houses in point of Church Government declares his judgment in these words That he is not against the managing of the Episcopal Presidency in one man by the joynt counsell and consent of many Presbyters but that he had offered to restore it as a fit means to avoid those errors and corruptions and partialities
the judgment of discretion If the Magistrates command be just the Subjects pretending against its lawfulness cannot justifie his disobedience and if the command be sinfull his judging it to be lawfull cannot excuse his doing of it from being sin It is the Subject's duty in these cases first to lay by his error and then to act according to truth and right and for that end to use the best means for his own true information Whereas some teach that when we doubt of the lawfulness of the thing enjoyned and are certain that obedience to authority is a duty we must do the thing VVe conceive that we cannot be certain of our obligation to obey in a case wherein we are not sure of the lawfulness of the thing commanded because we are sure we must not obey the Magistrates command in things unlawfull and our ignorance or error cannot alter our obligation to Gods Law Here is therefore an uncertainty on either side and perhaps the danger may be greater on the side of obeying than refusing For possibly the injunction of a heinous sin may be the matter of the uncertainty and in this streight we apprehend it more unsafe and less excusable to choose the greater before the lesser sin though indeed it be lawfull to choose neither VVe hold not that an indifferent thing becomes unlawfull by being commanded but on the contrary that a thing indifferent before the Magistrate's command doth after the command become a duty it being such as he hath authority to command Indeed we cannot receive the Dictates of some men who have written too daringly about Conscience in reference to Humane Powers VVe boast not of such Principles as make men of ductile Consciences obsequious to all designs and interests but we embrace such as will keep the Church and VVorld in order 14. VVhen the higher powers command what God forbids though we are bound not to perform it yet we must be subject and not resist but patiently submit to suffering The cause of Religion doth not warrant Subjects to take arms against their Lawfull Prince nor may they by armed violence against authority attempt the publique reformation thereof We hold that it is unlawfull by the constitution and laws of this Kingdom for any Subjects to take arms against the King his Office Authority or Person or by force of arms to resist any Magistrate or Officer legally Commissionated or Authorized by him yea Subjects are bound not only not to resist but to assist and defend their Sovereign with their Estates and Lives and the Preachers of the Gospel ought to teach the people obedience and loyalty and to indeavour to root out all Principles of Sedition Rebellion and Disobedience VVe believe that we are under no Bond or Obligation to act any thing contrary to these our avowed Principles And we further make known our detestation of all the indignity and violence offered to the person of our late Sovereign and especially that most horrid execrable fact of taking away his life as also the usurpations and violent change of the Government that did accompany the same against which crimes while they were carryed on the brethren of our perswasion openly protested even to the faces of the actors Touching Government and Obedience we know no controversie between us and the Conforming Clergy that is purely Moral or Theological Indeed there hath been political and law controversies respecting the different constitutions of States and Kingdoms Now some men to serve their own designs have made these to be taken for differences in Religion when as they are agitated among States-men and Lawyers without respect to any difference in Religion and with much variety and uncertainty of opinion And as for us we publiquely profess to ascribe as much to Princes and Sovereign powers as is ascribed to them by the ancient Christian Church in any general Councell or by any Protestant Church in any Synod or publike Confession thereof And in the political Questions about royal prerogatives and the priviledges of Parliaments and the peoples immunities we interpose not at all for they are out of our Sphere but in reference thereunto we acquiesce in the determinations of the laws of this Kingdom 15. VVe doubt not but this free and open dealing will be our defence against those licentious Tongues and Pens that have proclaimed the Religion of the Non-Conformists to be a Foolish Religion when indeed it is no other than the Religion professed by the Church of England and that our Principles of Government have a palpable inconsistence with the wellfare of Governours when we offer an appeal concerning it to the whole Christian Church both of the present and former ages As for our state of Nonconformity it is our grievance and distress and it is not in the power of our own wills to help us VVe affect not singularity disunity or dissent from others and so far as we are constrained to it we take it for our infelicity We grudg not at the liberty of others but are so far glad on the behalf of able and faithfull men as they are in a capacity of more publike service for God and his Church and though we are dissatisfied in the way wherein they have gained it yet we retain Charity and Peace towards them and are willing to concurr with them in the common interest of true Religion 16. They are much mistaken in our case who think it is the mere inexpedience of the things injoyned that we stick at VVe question the truth of some assertions and the lawfullness of some ordinances of worship and fear the dangerous tendency of some forms and rules of Ministration of which and of other matters in difference we are ready to render a particular account when authority shall require it VVe acknowledge that some parts of the matter of our dissent are comparatively small things and in no wise to be valued more than Unity and Peace VVe lay the main stress on the main truths and duties of Christianity and for these lesser things we would bear with others in the belief and practice of them but others will not bear with us in forbearing to own or use them while we think them erroneous and forbidden or at least do rationally doubt of their truth and lawfullness Now this presseth upon us that we may not do lesser evils that greater good may come and therefore we cannot do these comparatively little things For it is not a little thing to sin deliberately in the least matter and the willfull breach of the least of God's Commandments is a contempt of his authority in the whole Law And whereas we are commonly said to strain at Gnats and swallow Camels if we be indeed convicted of such partiality let us bear this brand of Hypocrites In the mean while let our accusers know and dread the guilt of rash judgment Moreover if some of the things themselves be small yet it is not a small thing that is required of us about them
worse than they are to commend our own It is none of our perswasion that men are bound under pain of damnation to labour to establish God's publique worship in the greatest perfection by hazarding the Church's peace and unsetling a good establishment though less perfect If by scruple of Conscience we cannot joyn in one Church Communion yet we ought to keep the unity of Faith and Love So far are we from assenting to that which some affirm that where men part Communion it is of necessity that they esteem one another impious although we grant there is a fault on one side or both 31. VVe solemnly protest that we have thus declared for moderation not only or chiefly because we have need of it but because the Church of God hath need of it and because we think it the only way of peace and the common interest of Religion in these Kingdoms and if we stood where others now stand we would give what we plead and pray for It may be remembred that those of our perswasion did seasonably declare their desires of unity even during his Majesty's exile and the Episcopal party then protested for moderation and the first appearance of the hopefullness of an accommodation between the parties was of no little avail to promote his Majesty's restauration whom God preserve to reign long over us If we or any of us have heretofore been more rigidly addicted to our own opinions then stands with our now professed charity we make a willing retractation thereof 32. VVe have here set forth our principles that all may take notice how we are mis-represented by those that make other representations of us And we are ready to clear our selves against those that accuse us of contradicting them in our practice 33. The exercise of our Ministry which we continue in our present state of inconformity is no way inconsistent with the professions here made VVe assent and submit to the King 's Ecclesiastical Authority as we have amply shewed before and we think we come not short of the conformable Clergy in owning the authority of the higher powers in sacred things Yet we believe that no humane power can nullifie our Ministerial Office or disoblige us from our charge of fullfilling it according to our ability and opportunity and as the necessity of Souls requireth of us If we lived where our Ministry were not necessary we were bound to forbear upon the Magistrates prohibition and to remove to a Country where it is necessary and a way open for us But whatsoever others apprehend to us it is most evident that multitudes of Souls in the places where we live cry aloud for our help also This apprehension of ours reflects no dishonour upon the conscientious conformable Ministers for whose ability and industry we bless God but we heartily wish that the number of them were so proportionable to the people of this Land that there were no need of us in this service As for those that make slight work of the cure of Souls we pass not to be despised or judged by them for this carefullness towards the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood A Minister that is intolerable by being utterly insufficient heretical or otherwise destructive to the ends of the Ministry we are not obliged to honour but to disown It is our part to make the most of a tolerable though weaker Ministry and to do what we may to countenance God's publick service in all places If we live where the publick authority hath set up worthy Ministers our duty is to promote their reputation with the people and to farther the success of their labours and to attend on their Ministry when we are not necessarily hindred And our labours in concurrence with them can be no grievance to any to whom it is not a grievance that their Lords service and the success of their own indeavours should be farthered by their fellow-servants VVhere the publick Churches cannot contain the multitude of inhabitants that should resort unto them which is unquestionably the case of London it is no affront or injury to the most worthy Ministers and no unwarrantable division at the same time to hold other Religious meetings as the number of the people shall make needfull Though our Ministry be alike necessary in general yet at vvhat time in vvhat place to vvhat numbers of people and in vvhat other circumstantial measures it is necessary to be exercised the case may be very different vvith several persons as they are placed in different circumstances In vvhich diversity it is the vvork of prudence to discern vvhat is duty by that general rule let all things be done to edification It is the end that of right alvvays limits the means and it is our part so to manage our calling that vve may best serve our Generation according to the vvill of God According to this Rule vve indeavour to steer our course 34. We do what in us lyes to avoid the provoking of our Governours and all appearance of contempt to their authority We invade no mans right we resist not the civil power nor break the peace nor cause tumults nor give occasion thereof We abhorre seditious conventicles insurrections were never contrived in our meetings nor in any whereof we are conscious Experience hath witnessed our peaceableness and Disloyalty or Sedition is not found amongst us by the most inquisitive of our Adversaries 35. VVe have not forsaken the Parochial Assemblies but have joyned in the service of God there performed and some of us do it in our ordinary course and others of us have not declined it of set purpose but as our absence is caused by that necessary work of the Ministry whereunto we are called Some of us have Communicated with the said assemblies in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Yet we would not have our charity and peaceableness mistaken for an indifferency unto Communion with all Parochial Churches and Ministers whatsoever or for a full satisfaction or acquiescence in the whole and all particulars of the Liturgy so as to be able to declare our unseigned assent and consent to all and every thing therein contained Our proceeding is as even and regular as the straits and difficulties into which we are cast will suffer it to be VVe would that they who charge us with irregularity and disorder in our actings would with charity and candor consider the circumstances of our condition and help us out of those distresses that force us at sometimes to be more severed from them than otherwise we would or might be VVe desire the Clergy of England to take notice that we have no mind to promote the Popish design of nullifying and treading down the Parish Churches and Ministers VVe are well aware how Papists make a harvest of the divisions of Protestants and hope to do their work by the dissentions between Conformists and Non-Conformists As the precious interest of Protestantism ingageth us we do what we