Two Papers OF PROPOSALS Concerning the DISCIPLINE and CEREMONIES OF THE CHURCH of ENGLAND Humbly Presented to His MAJESTY By the Reverend MINISTERS of the PRESBYTERIAN PERSWASION LONDON Printed in the Year 1661. The First PAPER May it please Your most excellent Majesty WE Your Majesties loyal Subjects cannot but acknowledge it as a very great Mercy of God that immediately after your wonderful and peaceable Restauration unto Your Throne and Government for which we blesse his Name he hath stirred up your Royal Heart as to a zealous Declaration against all Prophaneness in the People So to endeavour an happy composing of the Differences and healing of the sad Breaches which are in the Church And we shall according to our bounden duty become humble Suiters at the Throne of Grace that the God of Peace who hath put such a thing as this into your Majesties Heart will by his heavenly wisdom and Holy Spirit so assist You therein and bring your Resolutions to so perfect an effect and issue that all the people of these Kingdoms may have abundant cause to rise up and bless You and bless God who hath delighted in You to make You his Instrument in so happy a Work That as Your glorious Progenitor Henry the Seventh was happy in uniting the two Houses of York and Lancaster and your Grandfather King James of blessed memory in uniting the Kingdoms of England and Scotland So this Honour may be reserved to your Majesty as a radiant Jewel in your Crown That by your Princely Wisdom and Christian Moderation the hearts of the People may be united and the unhappy differences and mis-understandings amongst Brethren in matters Ecclesiastical so composed that the Lord may be One and his Name One in the midst of your Dominions In an humble Conformity to this your Majesties Christian Design we taking it for granted that there is a firm Agreement between our Brethren and us in Doctrinal Truths of the Reformed Religion and in the substantial parts of Divine Worship and that the differences are only in some various Conceptions about the Ancient Form of Church Government and some particulars about Liturgie and Ceremonies do in all humble obedience to your Majesty represent First In as much as the ultimate end of Church-Government and Ministry is That Holiness of Life and the Salvation of Souls may be effectually promoted We humbly desire in the first place that we may be secured of those things in practice of which we seem to be agreed in principles As 1. That those of our Flocks who are diligent and serious about the matters of their Salvation may not by words of scorn or any abusive usages be suffered to be reproachfully handled but may have Liberty and Encouragement in their Duties of exhorting and provoking one another to Love and to Good Works and of building up one another in their most holy Faith and by all religious and peaceable means of furthering one another in the waies of Eternal Life who being not therein opposite to Church-Assemblies nor refusing the guidance and inspection of their Pastors and being responsible for what they do or say 2. That each Congregation may have a Learned Orthodox and Godly Pastor residing among them to the end the People may be publickly instructed by preaching every Lords day by catechising and frequent administration of the Lords Supper and of Baptism and other Ministerial Acts as the occasions and necessities of the People may require in health and sikness And that effectual provision of Law may be made that such as are insufficient negligent or scandalous may not be allowed or permitted in so sacred a Function and Imployment 3. That none may be admited to the Lords Supper till they can competently understand the Principles of Christian religion and do personally own their Baptismal Covenant by credible profession of Faith and Holiness not contradicting the same by a contrary profession or by a scandalous life and that unto such only Confirmation if continued in the Church may be administred And that the Approbation of the Pastors to whom the catechising and instructing those under their Charge doth appertain may be produced before any person receive confirmation Which course we humbly conceive will much conduce to the quieting those sad Disputes which have greatly troubled the Church of God amongst us touching Church-Members and Communicants 4. That an effectual course may be taken for the Sanctification of the Lords day appropriating the same to holy Exercises both in publick and private without any unnecessary divertisments it being certain and by long experience found that the due observation thereof is a special means of preserving and promoting the power of Godliness and obviating of Prophaness Then for matters in difference viz. Church-Government Liturgy and Ceremonies We humbly Represent to Your MAJESTY That although upon just Reasons we do dissent from the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy or Prelacy disclaimed in Covenant as it was stated and exercised in these Kingdomes yet we do not nor ever did renounce the true ancient primitive Episcopacy or Presidency as it was ballanced or managed by a due commixtion of Presbyters therewith as a fit means to avoid Corruptions Partialities Tyrannies and other Evils which may be incident to the administration of one single Person which kinde of attempored Episcopacy or Presidency if it shall by your Majesties grave Wisdome and gracious Moderation be in such manner constituted as that the fore-mentioned and other like Evils may be certainly prevented we shall humbly submit thereunto And in order to an happy Accommodation in this weighty Business we desire humbly to offer to your Majesty some of the Particulars which we conceive were amiss in the Episcopal-Government as it was practised before the year 1640. As 1. The great extent of the Bishops Diocess which was much too large for his own personal Inspection wherein he took apersonal Charge over the Souls of all those within his Bishoprick which burden must needs be granted to be too heavy for any one man's shoulders the Pastoral Office being a work of Personal Ministration and Trust and that of the highest Concernment to the Souls of the People for which they are to give an account to Christ 2. That by reason of this disability to discharge their Duties and Trusts personally the Bishops did depute the Administration of much of their Trust even in matters of Spiritual cognizance to Commissaries Chancellors and Officials whereof some are Secular persons and could not administer that Power which originally pertaineth to the Officers of the Church 3. That those Bishops who affirm The Episcopal Office to be a distinct Order by Divine Right from that of the Presbyter did assume the sole Power of Ordination and Jurisdiction to themselves 4. That some of the Bishops exercised an Arbitrary power as by sending forth their Articles of Visitation inquiring unwarrantably into several things and Swearing the Church-wardens to Present accordingly So also by many Innovations and Ceremonies imposed upon
chiefest care and whereunto the controverted Points subserve Viz. 1. That private Exercises of Piety may be encouraged 2. That an able faithful Ministry may be kept up and the insufficient negligent and non-resident and scandalous cast out 3. That a credible profession of Faith and Obedience be pre-required of Communicants 4. That the Lords day may be appropriated to holy Exercises without unnecessary devertisements I. For Church-Government In this your Majesties Declaration Parish-Discipline is not sufficiently granted us Inferior Synod with their Presidents are passed by and the Bishop which your Majesty here declareth for is not Episcopus praeses but Episcopus princeps endued with sole Power both of Ordination and Jurisdiction For though it be sayd The Bishop shall do nothing without the Advise of the Presbyters yet their Consent is not made necessary but he may go contrary to the Counsel of them all And this Advice is not to be given by the Diocesan Synod or any other Representatives of the Clergy but by the Dean and Chapter and so many and such others as he please to call In all which there being nothing yeilded us which is sufficient to the desired Accommodation and Vnion we humbly prosecute our Petition to your Majesty That the Primitive presidency with their respective Synods described by the late Reverend Primate of Ireland may be the Form of Church-Government established among us at least in these three needful Points 1. That the Pastors of the respective Parishes may be allowed not only publickly to Preach but personally to Catechise or otherwise Instruct the several Families admitting none to the Lord's Table that have not personally owned their Baptismal Covenants by a credible profession of Faith and Obedience and to Admonish and Exhort the Scandalous in order to their Repentance to hear the Witnesses and the accused party and to appoint fit Times and Places for these Things And to deny such persons the Communion of the Church and the holy Eucharist that remain Impenitent or that wilfully refuse to come to their Pastors to be Instructed or to Answer such probable Accusations and to continue such Exclusion of them till they have made a credible profession of their Repentance â— and then to receive them again to the Communion of the Church Provided there be place for due Appeals to Superior Power Al this we beseech your Majesty to Express under your Fifth Concession because it is to us of very great Weight and the Rubrick is unsatisfactory to which we are referred 2. That all the Pastors of each Rural Deanry having a stated President chosen by themselves if your Majesty please to grant them that liberty may meet once a Month and may receive Presentments of all such persons as notwithstanding Suspention from Communion of the Church continue impenitent and unreformed and having further admonished them may proceed to the Sentence of solemn Excommunication if after due patience they cannot prevail And may receive the Appeals of those that conceive themselves injuriously suspended and may decide the Cause Or if this cannot be attained at least that the Pastors of each Rural Deanry with their President may have power to meet monthly and receive all such Presentments and Appeals and judge whether they are fit to be transmitted to the Diocesan or not And to call before them and admonish the Offenders so presented yet if the Presentments against Magistrates and Ministers be resolved only to the Diocesan Synod and their Appeals immediately put in we shall therein submit to your Majesties pleasure 3. That a Diocesan Synod consisting of the Delegates of the several Rural Synods be called as often as need requireth and that without the consent of the major part of them the Diocesan may not ordain or exercise any Spiritual Censures on any of the Ministers nor Excommunicate any of the people but by the consent of the Synod or of the Pastors of the particular Parishes where they had Communion And that not only Chancellors but also Archdeacons Commissaries and Officials as such may pass no Censures purely spiritual but for the exercise of civil Government coercively by Mulcts or corporal Penalties by power derived from your Majesty as Supream over Persons and Things Ecclesiastical we presume not at all to interpose but shall submit to any that act by your Majesties Commission Our Reasons for the first part of Discipline Viz. In particular Parishes are these It is necessary to the honour of the Christian profession to the integrity of Worship to the destruction of Impiety and Vice to the preservation of the Sound the raising them that are fallen the comforting of the penitent the strengthning of the weak the purity order strength and beauty of our Churches the Unity of Believers and the pleasing of Christ who hath required it by his Laws And withall it 's agreeable to the ancient Canons and practice of the Churches and is consented to by our Reverend Brethren and so is no matter of controversie now between us Yet is not the Rubrick Satisfactory to which we are referred 1. Because it leaves the people at liberty whether they will let us know of their intention to communicate till the night or morning before and alloweth us then only to admonish them when in great Parishes 't is impossible for want of time 2. Because it alloweth us to deny the Sacrament to those only that maliciously refuse reconciliation with their Neighbors and only to admonish other scandalous sinners to forbear though the Canon forbid us to deliver them the Sacrament The Reasons why we insist on the second Proposal are these It being agreed on between us that the younger less discreeter sort of Ministers are unfit to pass the sentence of Excommunication without advice and moderation by others And every Church is not like to be provided with grave discreet judicious Guides the necessity of these frequent lesser Synods for such moderation and advice and guidance will appear by these two general Evidences 1. It is the very nature and substance of the Office of a Presbyter to have the power of the Keys for binding or loosing retaining or remitting sin which therefore together or apart as there is occasion they are bound to exercise And this being the Institution of Jesus Christ cannot be altered by man In their Ordination according to the established Order in England it is sayd Whose sins thou dost remit they are remitted whose sins thou dost retain they are retained And they are commanded to minister the Doctrine Sacraments and Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded and as this Realm hath received the same as expresly as the Bishops are And as the late Primate of Ireland observeth in his Reduction that they may the better understand what the Lord hath commanded the Exhortation of S. Paul to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus is appointed to be read to them at the time of their Ordination Take heed to your selves and to all the Flock over
Time and Judgment And as these are our general ends and motives So we are induced to insist upon the Form of a Synodical Government conjunct with a fixed Presidency or Episcopacy for these Reasons 1. We have reason to believe that no other terms will be so generally agreed on and it is no way injurious to Episcopal Power but most firmly establisheth all in it that can pretend to Divine authority or true Antiquity It granteth them much more than Reverend Bishop Hall in his Peace-maker and many others of that judgment do require who would have accepted of the fixing of the President for Life as sufficient for the reconciliation of the Churches 2. It being agreeable to the Scripture and the primitive Government is likeliest to be the way of a more universal Concord if ever the Churches on Earth arrive to such a blessing However it will be most accptable to God and wel-informed Consciences 3. It will promote the practice of Discipline Godliness without disorder and promote Order without hindering Discipline Godliness 4. And it is not to be silenced though in some respects we are loth to mention it That it will save the Nation from the violation of the Solemn Vow and Covenant without wronging the Church at all or breaking any other Oath And whether the Covenant were lawfully imposed or not we are assured from the nature of a Vow to God and from the Case of Saul Zedekiah and others that it would be a terrible thing in us to violate it on that pretence Though we are far from thinking that it obligeth us to any evil or to go beyond our places callings to do good much less to resist Authority to which it doth oblige us yet doth it undoubtedly bind us to forbear our own consent to those luxuriances of Church-Government which we there renounced and for which no divine Institution can be pretended Not presuming to meddle with the Consciences of those many of the Nobility and Gentry and others that adhered to this late Majesty in the late unhappy Wars who at their Composition took this Vow and Covenant We only crave your Majesties clemency to our selves and others who believe themselves to be under its obligations And God forbid that we that are the Ministers of the Word of Truth should do any thing to encourage your Majesties Subjects to cast off the Conscience of an Oath Till the Covenant was decried as an Almanack out of date and its obligation taken to be null that odious Fact could never have been perpetrated against your Royal Father nor your Majesty have been so long expulsed from your Dominions And the obligation of the Covenant upon the consciences of the Nation was not the weakest Instrument of your Return We therefore humbly beseech your Majesty with greater importunity than we think we should do for our lives That you would have mercy on the Souls and Consciences of your People and will not suffer us to be tempted to the violation of such solemn Vows and this for nothing when an expedient is before you that will avoid it without any detriment to the Church nay to its honor advancement The Prelacy which we disclaim is that of Diocesans upon the claim of a superior Order to a Presbyter assuming the sole power of Ordination and of publick Admonition of particular Offender enjoyning Penitence Excommunicating and Absolving besides Confirmation over so many Churches as necessitated the corruption or extirpation of Discipline and the using of humane Officers as Chancellors Surrogates Officials Commissaries Arch-deacons while the undoubted Officers of Christ the Pastors of the Particular Churches were hindred from the exercise of their Office The Restauration of Discipline in the particular Churches and of the Pastors to the exercise of their Office therein and of Synods for necessary Consultation and Communion of Churches and of the primitive Presidency or Episcopacy for the avoiding of all shew of Innovation and Disorder is that which we humbly offer as the Remedy Beseeching your Majesty that if any thing asserted seem unproved an impartial Conference in your Majesties hearing may be allowed us in order to a just Determination Concerning the preamble of your Majesties Declaration we presume onely to tender these Requests 1. That we are perswaded it is not in your Majesties thoughts to intimate that we are guilty of the Offences which your Majesty here reciteth So we hope it will rather be a Motive to the hastning the Nations Cure that our unity may prevent Man's temptations of that nature for the time to come 2. Though we have professed our willingness to submit to the Primitive Episcopacy and Reformed Liturgie hoping it may prove an Expedient to an happy Union yet have we expressed our dislike of the Prelacy and present Liturgie while unreformed And though Sacriledge and unjust Alienation of Church-lands is a thing that we detest yet whether in some cases of true Superfluity of Revenues or true Necessity of the Church there may not be an Alienation which is no Sacriledge And whether the Kings and Parliaments have been guilty of this Crime that have made some Alienations are Points of high concernment of which we never had a Call to give our Judgment And therefore humbly beseech your Majesty that concerning these Matters we may not to our prejudice be otherwise understood than as we have before and here expressed 3. That as your Majesty hath here vouchsafed us your Gracious Acknowledgment of our Moderation it may never be sayd that a Minister and People of such moderate principles consenting to Primitive Episcopacy and Liturgy could not be received into the Settlement and countenanced Body of Your People nor possess their stations in the Church and Liberty in the Publick Worship of God 4. And whereas it is expressed by your Majesty That the Essence and Foundation of Episcopacy may be preserved though the Extent of the Jurisdiction may be altered This is to us a ground of hope that seeing the greatning or lessening of Episcopal power is in your Majesties Judgment but a matter of convenience the Lord will put it into your heart to make such Alteration in the alterable Points as the Satisfaction of the Consciences of sober men and the Healing and Union of the Churches do require And as to our Plea for Primitive Episcopacy the Offices and Ordinances of Christ must be still distinguished from the alterable accidents though we plead not for the Primitive Poverty Persecution or Restraints yet must we adhere to the Primitive Order and Worship and Administrations in the substance as believing that the circumstantiating of them is much committed unto man but to Institute the Offices and Ordinances is the high Prerogative of Christ the Universal King and Law-giver of the Church Concerning the Matter of your Majesties Concessions as related to our Proposals I. We humbly renew our Petition to your Majesty for the effectual securing of those premised necessaries which are the matter of our