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
any but to whom they can in point of Conscience In the last place To the intent that a free search after Truth may be encouraged and many other Scruples avoided upon that account I would have them Authorize this one thing which I have offered as more peculiar in this Paper which is That though an Authentick Interpretation which is the Sense and Meaning only of the Law-giver be that Interpretation which is to be regarded as the Substance of all Laws seeing no Law as no Scripture is of Private Interpretation yet in all matters of Words merely and Phrases an Interpretation that is Vsual and in all Articles or Theses for Concord which I distinguish from Laws about Religion and the Homilies of the Church a Doctrinal Interpretation be sufficient for an Assent or Subscription to them These are the Things and there is no less than these and I think no more than these which are necessary to reconcile the Moderate Conformist and Non-conformist which is one Part of my Designe and Accommodation If they will pull out Nine Thorns out of our Feet and leave a Tenth we cannot go along with them Be it resolved therefore by the Grace of God and both Houses that if any Person be willing to conform to the present Establishment of the Church of England and her Service appointed upon these any of these and every one of these Explanations Alleviations Declarations Lenitives or Cautions he shall be admitted to any Ecclesiastical Preferment and enjoy the use of his Ministry without Molestation All Statutes Canons or Laws to the contrary notwithstanding To pass now to the other part of this Bill or Designe which is Indulgence In the way Because the very Superintendency of Bishops and that Subjection to them which is required by the Constitution of the Realm is or may be an Hindrance to many sober Ministers and other Protestants of coming into the Church who are ready to consent to the Doctrine but not to the Discipline or Government of it I would have them declare That so long as any Person or Party do acknowledge the King's Supremacy as Head of the Church in this Nation and obey their Ordinary in licitis honestis upon the account of his Authority committed to the Bishops and their Officers as Substitutes of his for the Exercise of that External Objective Regiment Circa Sacra which is granted by all our Divines to the Higher Powers in every Nation it is much as is or can be required in Law to the owning Episcopal Jurisdiction and shall serve them to all Intents and Purposes no less than a professed Belief and Acknowledgment of the immediate Divine Right of it That is Although there be some that cannot acknowledge our Diocesan Prelates to be Christ's Officers distinct from the Elders in Scripture yet so long as they can live peaceable Lives in Obedience to them as Ecclesiastical Magistrates under his Majesty for the keeping the several Congregations in their Precincts to that Gospel-Order which themselves allow and for Supervising their Constitutions in things indifferent that nothing be done but in Subordination to the Peace of the Kingdome which is a Notion wherein the Judicious of every Party may acquiesce it is enough for their Reception into National Church-Union And this is so far from Derogating from the Bishops Office and Dignity that it were a way to be chose in Policy to advance it while it makes his Authority significant to the Presbyterian and Independent as well as to the Minister that hath a Living and rears him an Inspection over the Gathered as over the Parochial Congregation And forasmuch then as there are moreover some Ministers of a good Life that cannot according to their Judgments allow of our Parochial Churches nor the Book of Liturgy but do choose to Worship God and Jesus Christ in the way of their gathered or separate Congregations and crave the Protection and Clemency of the King upon their Allegiance as other Subjects enjoy the Conscience being obnoxious to God only and not capable to be constrained by the Rigour of Laws or by the extreamest Execution of them If the Parliament-Men would know further what we would have I would have these Men all forborn and let alone thinking this Advantage the Church-Men have over such to be enough that they have the State-Countenance and these are uncapable in their way of all Publick Emolument till they come into them And to the intent the Forborn may be wrought upon by the proper Motives of their own Good and at their own Time I would have as the other designed Part I say of such a Bill such a Universal Act of Grace be granted that all and every Christian-Subject throughout his Majesty's Realms that profess themselves of the Reformed Religion be pardoned all Faults and Penalties whatsoever incurred upon the account of any forepassed Non-conformity and that they shall not during so many Years to come as shall be Voted be vexed or persecuted any more for their Consciences in the matter of Religion Provided they commit not any heinous Crime worthy of Punishment but carry themselves Innocently and Peaceably both with Submission to all due Order in their own Churches and without Disturbance to the Civil or Ecclésiastical Government now setled in the Nation There are these two Ingredients that are necessary to the Happiness of the Kingdom Vnion and Liberty Union is for strengthning the Church for God Liberty is for strengthning the Land for the King There is Trade to be encouraged and Wars to be Managed and Liberty of Conscience serves these ends against our Civil Enemies in helping us to more hands as Vnion serves us against Popery and the Enemies of our Religion And what indeed should we do with our Brethren that differ from us in opinion Shall we smite them No but set Bread and Water before them Persecution will make them more zealous and combine them but liberty must brake them or win them They must have time And if the naming what time may not be waved and I may speak who spake the rest I would set it during this Kings Reign that so every Man may pray for his Life and he may have the Title more augustly of Carolus Clemens when he dyes And for the making our Union of better signification to the Concern'd and more effectual prevention of that Scandall which is raised on the Clergy through the Covetousness of some A fault that we Ministers are taxed with generally even when we seek but things just and these therefore must take the more heed who heap up to themselves all the Preferments they can get which are neither agreeable to their Labour or their want nor to the duty of that tremendous calling unto which they are called but by this means many other Ministers are deprived even of necessary maintenance for their families and an occasion is administred to themselves of pride an undecent immeasurable Exaltation above their rank and birth to the
great favour but I see not how I can be Subscribe to the words of the Imposition and he will not give me leave for all this to Subscribe in any other form If he shall understand my Subscribing so far as I can to the sense in the words enjoyned with liberty of Restriction of them to this meaning which vertually includes an Exception against what I cannot assent unto here I do humbly believe both that I may Conscionably Subscribe and he be satisfied in the matter If we be tyed to the Meaning of the Law-giver every jot the way is too Streight To frame to our selves any Meaning without Regard to the Law giver's is a Way too Wide But to Subscribe to the Meaning of the Imposer so far as I can and to forbear in what I cannot is the Way which I think safe and which I seek in this Paper Only I must add one thing after this that where there is no Form of Words imposed the Liberty of a Limitation and of an Exception comes to one and as I now distinguish these two Words I may again confound them according to my occasion Having thus distinguished then between an Interpretation and a Limation or Exception I must yet proceed so far as I do go to apply the same to my present Subscription that I may avoid all mistake and ambiguity and Consequently the laying a stumbling block before any In the first Clause I do not Subscribe to the proposition which it contains Vniversally but Indefinitely To wit with the Restriction of it to such a prudential state of the question as may be gathered out of such Authors I have named It becomes a Loyall Subject to Subscribe that Tenet and it becomes an Honest-man to Subscribe it no further or no otherwise than such learned and excellent persons upon study were able to maintain it There are several cases which are put by themselves by way of Limitation of it yet so long as we may believe that none of them came into the Minds of the Majority of Parliament in passing the Law and there were Actually none of them as could be put in regard to our present King we are to look upon it as the Intent of the Act that we should consequently object no such Cases to our selves in Subscribing to this Clause so that though I here use my Liberty of Restriction in regard to Others which I must tell I might be content my self as I suppose in the Oxford-Oath with an Interpretation only Nay I do not need any of this Caution at all in regard to Soveraign Majesty it self but in regard to those that are at his Commandment For let me understand by Taking Arms the Raising an Army or a War which I take to be the true Sense in Construction of Law and by the King his own Sacred Person only There is no Case I know but I may Subscribe That to take Arms against the King is Vniversally Unlawful In the Second Clause I am more fully perswaded that I do offer the true Sense of the Acts Of Vniformity and that at Oxford in reference to the Position which is Renounced and I am sorry at my Heart to see it possible for so many of Judgment and Temper as there are to be capable of any such Pre-occupation of Mind as to harbour once the Thought of another Interpretation which cannot be made but by supposing it the very Intent of the Parliament in those Acts to advance an Arbitrary Authority in the King above the true Regal Power he hath by Law And yet hath the late Discourses of People about the Test and later Matters with Stories thereunto appertaining brought such a Jaundise on our Imaginations that makes every thing look Yellow and Jealously to us as we even quite forget that the Meaning of these Acts is and must be the Sense Mind or Purpose of the Parliament or Major Part of both House at the time when they passed them and that is when there was not the least Breath of any such thing as an Arbitrary Government talked of or suspected by any It is plain enough there was in the Prevailing Part I say not in the Major Number which is against Reason and Charity to think an inveterate Resolution to suppress one sort of Men they hated which are now the Non-conformists and that indeed was all the Plot in that time which was going For let us suppose such a Question had bin proposed at the passing these Acts Whether the King should have a Power for the time to come to raise Money and make Laws without a Parliament Can any Man's Heart serve him to believe that such a Motion would have bin entertained or such a Vote by any Means under Heaven have bin obtained or could be yet from the Majority of both Houses To put the Question Whether by those Commissionated by the King in this Clause of the Subscription and that of the Oxford-Oath is meant any but the Legally Commissionated or such as can justify their Commissions and Actings by Law is all one in good earnest with the Knowing as to put this said Question And how then does any Man that understands and considers that he understands himself make a doubt of my Interpretation It hath bin talked that when it was endeavoured by some in the Upper Hose to put the Word Legally into the Test at the time when that was in Agitation it was refused But what of that supposing it were true Must this be the Reason on Necessity because they intended to make the Government Arbitrary I am given to understand for certain that when this Clause came into motion they did unanimously Vote that by the Commissionated the Legally Commissionated and nothing else was to be understood without any Contradiction So that the Reason why they put not in that Word Legally could not be because they had another Meaning but because this Meanning was so manifest so undoubted and yielded by all that there was no need to do it As also lest by the Insertion of more than needs they might give occasion to People for the time to come of questioning still the Legality of the King's Commissions So easily are we misled by Reports which are always Partial often mistaken Nay what if it were in the Thoughts of some Court Flatterers who are not alwayes the King's Friends to advance the Prerogative above its due Height Did we not see that as soon as this Suspition did but enter in the Thoughts of a few what a stir it this Test was but in the Upper House only there is no force at all in the Argument what a few Men at such a distance were contriving if they were so long as it is not to be imagined that the Major Part of both Houses at the time when the Acts were made had the least Intention or Thought of any such matter I will add that I am assured for my own part by certain Testimony that the King himself hath
change of Government The power of the Keyes is committed by Christ to the Minister or his own Officers The Bishop commits them to the Chancellour who is a Lay man and yet executes that Charge Who does doubt but if the Government were changed in this point it were lawfull Nay I do not say that a change of the Hierarchy it self of the Arch-bishop and Diocesan Bishop invested with the sole power of Ordination and Juridiction into the Primitive Episcopacy acting along in these things with the Presbyters is in it self unlawfull but that it lyes in the power of a Parliament if they please to do it When I do then thus put in my exception as to the Matter Covenanted even the Alteration of Government precisely considered and rest my self only in shewing how this Oath in the Act of Covenanting was indeed in the Complex consideration in regard to that matter obivously unlawfull as I judge and give my Reason if this shall content the Bishop and serve my turn I may have cause to acknowledge his candour but none of my brethren have any to be offended at me for what I do In the last Clause I find no need of any Exception or Interpretation That which remaines therefore now in regard to this Subscription is only to put my had to my Paper which if I obtain hereby the use of my Ministry and none can convince me of sin in it I am content to do If I obtain it not if shall suffice me to have made the tryal and the matter shall be all one in point of Conformity between God and my soul as if I were clear altogether and had put no name at all to it J H. Thus much then for the Subscription I have offered my Rule and I have proceeded to Practise which I have done in the General and in this Particular I have no more to say of that Of the former the General there are several branches mentioned before and there are some of them wherein I perceive it neeedfull to make yet some further declaration more especially Concerning the Common Prayer Concerning my Second Orders and Concerning the Church Articles And when I have also done this my work is not quite done I have something to leave then if it might be obtained on other hands For the first the Common Prayer There are many particular things little and great in some part or other of the book which I must professe really I cannot give my unfained assent and consent unto and think that any man who is severe at any time upon his Conscience can hardly choose but be startled at I remember some years since a Conformist Minister using the Common Prayer in his house gave me this reason It was required he said of all Ministers and turned me presently to this passage in the Preface before the Prayers And all Priests and Deacons are to say dayly the Morning and Evening prayer either privately or openly not being let by sickness or some other urgent cause From that time I perceived I was no man for the Declaration of Assent and Consent to all and every thing contained in and prescribed by this book and also that by the shift of those words to the use I could not help my self I dare not give my consent to the use of any thing which I never intend to do I do and I shall use at home my own Prayers In the other Preface before Ordination there is a difference of Order or Office asserted between Bishop and Presbyter which was put in also in this new book on purpose when such men as Field Mason Davenant Mead Vsher do hold a difference in Degree only I cannot assent to this because I was otherwise engaged in print before this book was enjoyned and I cannot retract my opinion without conviction In the same place there is this passage but with more words And to the intent that these Orders be reverendly esteemed no man shall be accounted or taken for a Lawfull Priest or be suffered to execute the function except he be called according to this for me or bath had formerly Episcopal Ordination Reader can thy heart consent to this Art thou so assured that the nation lies under no guilt in turning out so many Ministers who were Ordained only by Presbyters as thou darest partake in the deed by thy Consent My heart I am sure will not serve me to do it In the Athanasian Creed I cannot assent to the Proeme and Conclusion by no means and God forbid they should be true The whose Creed and Articles of it I believe but I believe not that every one that don 't is uncapable of Salvation I will mention one more peculiar thing and it is a great matter that sticks with me being against my written judgement I perceive the Liturgy though all its Offices does lay the Notion of the Church upon so narrow a foundation as the Congregationall men do and I think that without some other Hypothesis we cannot defend our selves against Separation It is not upon the Christian profession in general in opposition to other Religions but upon the profession of no less than a true saving faith the child is baptized when the Sureties in the name of it self and not of its Parents do answer actually Credo Abrenuncio Having thus professed faith or repentance it is said to be Regenerate in the Office performed Upon the same profession renewed when the child comes to more years it is Confirmed No man is then admonished or presumed to be allowed to come to the Sacrament but upon an assured faith And none are burried but according to a Church judgement of Charity as Professours they are and must be accounted to go to Heaven I cannot tell well how to relish this for here is no bottom methinks for a National Church I must have such a Notion of the Church Catholick National Parochicall as a Polliceor according to the Catechisme may serve for a persons entrance into it and all the Ordinances of Worship and Discipline be means after to excite him unto grace and his duty as well as to edify him when he is holy unto Salvation This is no place I know for such a discourse Only I am not willing to be Choaked in it by swallowing this Pear of Assent and Consent In the Orders of Deacon I never approve since my self was faulty that a man does Solemnly promise to performe that Office the duties hereof being read to him when he is made Priest also at the same time and immediately casts off that Charge In the Rubricks to the Communion Baptisme and Burial if I consent to every thing prescribed or to the use of every thing there prescribed I must not deliver the Bread and Wine to a man if he scruples to Kneel at the Sacrament I must turn away his child from baptisme if he Scruples God-fathers and if the Child dies before it is Christened though the parents be my dear friends I
most Men as soon as they have laid it to Consideration It is this that though I account all Laws in general are to be taken in that Sense only which we believe to be the Meaning of the Law giver because the Law is his Will and it is not the Words but his Meaning is his Will Yet do I judge that in these Articles of the Church which are not Laws nor Articles of Faith but Articles for Concord that is in the Words of the Cannon Articles for the avoiding Diversities of Opinions and for establishing of Consent touching true Religion there is no Man to be staked down to the Authentick Interpretation which I account that as a Man believes to be the Meaning of the Majority of the Convocation that passed the Article but to be allowed or rather he is supposed to be allowed and to take the Freedome of a Doctrinal Interpretation which is any Judicious Explication of such a Thesis or Doctrine as some of the Eminent Doctors of the Church or other Pious and Learned Author or Authors have offered to the Nation or indeed any such as a Man himself shall tender which in the Literal Grammatical Construction of the Article to keep to the King's Declaration before the Articles appears Rational and is satisfactory to his own Conscience and much more if it be allowed by the Bishop My Reason is because it must be conceived that when any Council Synod or Convocation of Divines do meet about an Agreement upon any Articles or Theses concerning Religion they are generally of divers Minds in the debating the Points and every one is to be supposed free in the Delivery of his Judgment until they come to draw up the Article or Doctrine into such Words as they are all to consent to and then if it be Composed so as they can yield to one another in the Words which they agree upon it is to be understood that there is an Universal Allowance tacitly granted from all to one another of abounding in their own Sense and so they came to a Coalition There is the Meaning then of the Majority and a Vniversal Meaning The Vniversal Meaning is above the Meaning of the Major Part. The Meaning of the Majority I believe in some of these Articles to be such as I cannot Subscribe them in their Meaning But forasmuch as I apprehend it the Vniversal Meaning that every one of those that are to pass their Vote in Establishing the Article should have the Liberty of his own Sense so long as he can but agree with the rest in the Words or in the Literal Construction of the Article if I bring an Interpretation of some Doctor or one of my own which may be supposed to be the same with any one of them who so consented to it with difference of Explication from others then must I be supposed to have the Universal Allowance of the Convocation for that Interpretation which I call a Doctrinal Interpretation I will confirm this by the Notoriety of the Practise in the Council of Trent The Doctors differed in most Points but as soon as through the Expertness of one of the Presidents famous for that Knack they were but put into Words as might salve their contrary Opinions they passed their Votes as Unanimous in the Council although they writ after also one against another citing the Council for them on both sides To this purpose are the Words of the King in his Declaration for the Ratification of the Articles to be considered We take Comfort in this that even in those curious Points in which the present Differences lye Men of all sorts take the Articles of the Church of England to be for them The Arminians with Doctor Hammond and the Calvinists with Bishop Vsher do Subscribe them and find out their own different Sense in them I will leave it therefore on the File as the fit Matter of a new Cannon if ever we have another Convocation to be declared that the Articles and Homilies of the Church are imposed and to be Subscribed not in the Authentick nor in the Vsual but in a Doctrinal Interpretation There being a Latitude in all Controverted Points and consequently some Diversity of Opinion to be allowed to Brethren for the abounding in their own Sense in the same Religion or else there can be no sufficient Foundation of Unity amongst any considerable Number of Men of Free Judgments in the World In the mean time if the case be put what a man shall do that scruples or doubts of the truth of any of the Articles whether he may satisfie himself with such an Interpretation before it be Authorized by a Convocation or otherwise I must answer that I apprehend a great deal of reason for it but dare not pass such a determination If I scruple any thing my self I shall declare it and unless I am satisfied in that sense of the point as I believe was the meaning of the Imposers I must fly to my remedy not of an Interpretation but of the liberty for Exception or Limitation and that indeed does my work This Scrupulosity and rigour of my mind for avoiding every thing of a Solemne lie though never so small does make me wish for such a Canon or the allowance of a greater Authority by some Act of Parliament I will therefore now turn me to the Higher Powers for I must beg their Pardon for this Endeavour of mine to make my return to the Vineyard before they have opened the way for us who can alone Legally do it I would hereby kindly provoke them to think at last on some Explanatory Act for Uniting the Protestant and restoring the Ejected who have now been out of our Livings above Fifteen year and no evil we hope hath been found in us besides our preaching sometimes and praying and the keeping of our Consciences And because it is said commonly by the Members of either House that if they knew what we would have or thought we know our selves they would do it I cannot forbear to present them with the Materialls of such a Bill in telling them what we would have from what is said already if they will but bear with the repetition For when the obtainment of such a blessing for the Nation is even near past my hopes yet must it be still in my prayers I may not be wanting to it in my endeavours and it cannot be beyond my Wishes Whereas then there are many jealousies arose about Popery to frame a Preamble as well as a body for such a Bill out of what is before delivered which makes it even necessary to the peace of the Nation that the Protestant interest be united and strengthened by all good and lawfull means and to this end there being this one proper expedient to wit the removing the occasions of Division which several persons do find to themselves in those late injunctions which yet were intended to the same purpose of Concord in the Realm That which we
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