in point of Government but the meer Congregational are Men of Learning Reason and sound Principles as to Faith Worship and Manners And so there must be a Distinction between some and others that are commonly so called All these agree in that they cannot conform to Subscriptions Oaths and Declarations and some in other Matters come nearer or stand further off than others therefore the Difference cannot be more particularly stated without an exact knowledg of their Tenets 3. Those who are commonly called and reputed Presbyterians declared themselves for his Majesties Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs October 25th 1660. Petit. for Peace §. 10. To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty The due Account and humble Petition of the Ministres of the Gospel commissionated for the review and alteration of the Liturgy Lond. An. 1661. Mr. Baxter's Prefà ce Treat of Episcopacy as they have done against the Terms required by the Act of Uniformity And now if any Man would know the true State of the Difference between the Conformists and one part of the Nonconformists may find it to lie in that Gracious Declaration and that Act of Uniformity The reputed Presbyterian cannot conform to the Act but would have been glad if that Declaration had been made an Act. And they who would have gladly submitted to that rare Invention of Composure and Settlement are no longer to be accounted Presbyterians in a strict and proper sense much less Enemies to the King and Subverters of the Government that would have conformed to what the King proposed upon great Reasons and wise Counsels as appears by the Reasons Frame and Language of that Declaration And they who condemn them that conform not to the Act but would have conformed to his Majesties Declaration if it had been turned into a Law have declared at the same time their dislike of the King's Declaration And if their Zeal be so hot against this kind of Dissenters their Reverence of the King's Act which gave them their Measures and Directions both as to what they should ask and desire to be ruled and governed by should restrain them from being too rigid in their Censures Had they drawn up such a Declaration as that is and presented it to the King and Parliament as the only Rule they would submit unto and the King have rejected and refused it then they had been more deservedly reproved for their Nonconformity But when it was graciously declared by the Ring and gratefully acknowledged by that Parliament and the Divines that now dissent did thankfully acknowledg and receive it See the foresaid Petition At their Meeting in Sion Colledg they cannot be condemned but with some Reflection upon that Declaration and by consequence the King himself and his wise Counsellors and that first Parliament who thanked the King for it And let it be further noted that there was once a Parliament most freely chosen of Loyal Members that thanked the King for Terms of Accommodation and Union and it is much for the Honour of the Dissenters who humbly desired an Union upon those Terms that they had once the King himself and as many of his Wise Council as advised and a Loyal Parliament freely chosen of the same Judgment with them If they are a Faction they are such as never was before them a Faction that would have been ruled by the King and that good Parliament which did restore Him I do notify the first rank of Dissenters from this because they have fubmitted to this and never offered any other Terms or Proposals by general Consent but those declared by the King himself * Or such Alterations as were made in the Liturgy by his Majest Commission And those that are said to be for a new Model are for the King 's own Model 4. The other sort of Dissenters fall under the name of Congregational and Independents As many of these as are under my present Consideration are first Orthodox and sound in Faith agreeing with the Scriptures received Doctrine of this Church in Articles and Homilies and of other Reformed Churches in opposition to Heresies and Popery 2. They dissent not from the Civil Government of the Kingdom Take their own professed Doctrine It is the Duty of People to pray for Magistrates to honour their Persons to pay them Tribute and other Duties to obey their lawful Commands and to be subject to their Authority for Conscience sake Infidelity or Difference in Religion doth not make void the Magistrates just and legal Authority nor free the People from their Obedience to him from which Ecclesiastical Persons are not exempted much less hath the Pope any Power or Jurisdiction over them in their Dominions or over any of their People and least of all to deprive them of their Dominions or Lives if he shall judg them to be Hereticks or upon any other pretence whatsoever * A Declaration of the Faith and Order of the Congregation Churches in England in their Meeting at the Savoy Octob. 12 1658. c. 24. Of the Civil Magistrate §. 4. Vid. Dr. Owen's Truth and Innocency vindicated Survey of Dr. Parker's Eccles Polity p. 164 c. Ibid. of the Institut of Churches §. 9 3. They are for a Church-Government by Pastors Teachers Elders and Deacons but within particular Congregations having all Power within themselves independent as to Jurisdiction or Subordination to any other Church or Synod and they are for the Administration of all the Ordinances of Christ The most that ever these desired at any time even when the Presbyterial Government was most likely to prevail was a Permission or Toleration to exercise their Discipline subjecting themselves as any other Subjects to the Magistrate not defiring the Preferments of the Church which they would have always go to them that conformed to the Constitution of the Church according to Law and with this they would now be thankfully contented The third thing to be spoken to is the Nature of the Offence for which they are liable to the Penalties of the Laws The remote Offence or Transgression is their Nonconformity to the Act of Uniformity for which they have suffered a Deprivation of their Ecclesiastical Preferments The next and immediate Transgression is against other Statutes which are these 1. The Statute of the 35 of Queen Elizabeth declared to be in force 16 of Ch. II. c. 4. 2. The same Act against Conventicles and unlawful Assemblies under Pretence of Exercise of Religion 3. Act 17 Ch. II. c. 2. Nonconformists that take not the Oath or Test therein set down shall not inhabit in any Corporation or live within five Miles of any Town that send Burgesses to Parliament or five Miles of the Place where they were Ministers 4. The Statutes of the 22th of Ch. II. c. 1. Seditious Conventicles prevented and suppressed By the first of these Statutes viz. 35th of Q. Eliz. the Offences are two the first is not coming to some Church or Chappel or other place of Divine Service
Governour entrusted with the execution of Laws upon the Christians in Pontus and Bithynia gave such a Testimony of them Vid. Vossii Comment in Epist Plin. de Christior Persecutionâ—â— p. 5 6 7. which was in effect to be more an Advocate for them than a Judge upon them what may be allowed to a Protestant Minister pleading for Protestant Ministers and People of whose Religion and Manners much more may be said than Pliny could say of those Saints of God had he set himself to plead their Cause with his charming Rhetorick 2. I will imitate a Vertue in an Enemy what is good in an ill Man Let others frame their Tongues to defaming Names and Anathema's after the rigorous and bitter Papists I rather chuse to undergo the Censures of the Angry without cause than be overcome or condemned by the ingenuity of Papists towards our Predecessors in the same Faith What ample Testimonies have many of the Papists given of the Waldenses altho condemned of Heresy by their Canons may be seen in Du Plessis Historia Papatus out of Rainerius and in Arch-Bishop Vsher's de Sucessione Statu Edit Lond. 1613. c. 6. §. 11. §. 15 20. c. fuse per totum Caput out of the same Rainerius and other Inquisitors and their spiteful Enemies the Dominicans being overcome with the Light of Truth and Beauty of their Life and Manners have not concealed what we ought to esteem a Glory Aenaeas Sylvius writes as much to their disgrace as any scornful Enemy could do who in his Journey to Prague taking in at Tabor looking upon it as more safe to lodg with them than in the open Villages amongst the Papists was with his Company gladly received by them and received the right of Hospitality He hated them to that degree that he chose to neglect Divine Offices on the Lord's-Day lest he should communicate with Hereticks and in his return being overcome with the importunity of his Company to return thither to bait he would neither eat nor drink while he was in the City yet he gives us the Heads of their Religion in opposition to the Roman Apostacy which is such as every true Protestant must subscribe to for the most part And the ill Reports he gives of their degenerate Manners he took upon trust from his Host who secretly kept the Images of Christ and the Virgin Mary Vid. Inter Waldensia c. opera Balthar Lydii Aenaeùs Sylvii Historiam Boheinicam P. 371 373. Roterdam 1612. and would have fallen from them but for the love of his Riches And shall we take these Reports for true of them which he an incensed Adversary afterwards a Pope received from a secret Papist and an Hypocrite There are too many in England from their Ignorance Prejudice or Malignity will speak as ill of our worthy Nonconformists but let us who know them and should esteem them as the Servants of God and our Fellow-Servants write and speak with Tenderness Truth and Modesty 3. To come nearer home and the Point in hand Many learned and peaceable Conforming Divines when they wrote of them or wrote against them have given them an honourable Report especially when the Papists have upbraided the Church of England with Puritans as now they do with our Divisions Mr. Francis Mason the learned Defender of the Ministry of the Church of England speaks so modestly and kindly of the Nonconformists * Churches Power to make Canons that he insinuates a good opinion or a kindness into the heart of his Reader in that Book wherein he labours to satisfy or confute them With a like temper did Dr. Sparkes handle the Persuasive to Conformity What ample and fair Characters doth the ingenuous and honest Dr. Fuller give of Mr. Cartwright Travers Vdal Hildersham Dod c. in his Church-History of Britain And long before him we may reade what some of our learned and eminent Conformist Divines have imitated the Honour which some great Doctors of Cambridg and among them Dr. Fulk gave to Mr. Cartwright perswading him to confute the Rhemists Testament printed before that worthy Work of his I will content my self with one Example more of this temper a Learned Man beyond all exception the great Doctor Crakenthorp whom I rather cite first because he professed himself and was acknowledged by the Bishops to be a Moderate Protestant but no Puritan 2. Because he reckons many of the N. C. Puritans who suffered either Deprivation or Suspension or more for their Nonconformity and blames them for that fault Vtinam errorem suum cernere voluissent deponere For otherwise certainly said he to Marc. Anton. de Dominis A. B. of Spalato there is hardly none of them to which any of you is to be compared for Goodness or Holiness of Life Defensio Eccles Anglicanae contra Archiepisc Spalatensem cap. 33. p. 206. and even for Learning you your self who are a Master in your Israel are not to be compared with some of them The greater was the unhappiness of that Breach which was made by Injunctions and Scruples I never thought them good Painters who draw the Pictures of the Dissenting Brethren with Dirt and Soot but I knowing them to be unlike those Pictures have with a just offence beheld their Injuries and would have been pleased to have seen them described by some impartial and skilful Master as fit to adorn the Palaces of Princes who have been removed up and down and thrown out of the way like the lumber out of a new-surnish'd Church The Works and Histories of the Lives of many of the old sound and loyal Puritans written for the most part by Conforming Divines commend them and will commend them to all Godly Generations and the Memories of the Orthodox NON CONFORMISTS of the present Age will be transmitted after them to the better opinion of future Times by a truer Tradition than any History that is as yet come to the view of the World by the reviling and aspersing Writers of this Age. And two ways After-Times will be truly informed concerning them first by that Angry Reproachful Art of Jest and Earnest I do not mean those venemous halfpenny Volumus that will not hold the binding and will be condemned to the fire by their very Authors if ever they grow wise enough to repent but in a greater bulk and of greater gain to their Authors and Sellers than profit to their Readers Secondly by the great numbers of Books written by the Nonconformists to the real Advancement of Piety By the first serious and inquisitive Posterity will conclude that Tenderness Piety and Truth lodged not in their Bosoms while their Hands mov'd their Pens which aspersed their made-Adversaries in such a way as could neither gain nor convince them By the latter they will conclude when they observe the scope of their Tracts soundness of their Matter affectionate moving way of Writing in Practicals and their Asserting the Protestant Doctrine of former
to hear Divine Service established by her Laws c. The second is to speak or write or to perswade any to deny or impugn Her Majesties Power in Causes Ecclesiastical or perswade any against hearing Divine Service or to be present at Conventicles or unlawful Assemblies The Penalty is first Imprisonment until he acknowledg his Offence and declare his Submission in some Church or Chappel which if he refuse to do within three Months he shall abjure the Realm if he do not or if he shall return without her Majesties leave he shall be proceeded against as a Felon I shall speak of the second under the fourth because it was to expire after the next Session of Parliament which was after three Years And pass to the third Statute The Offence by that Statute is If any Person that had enjoyed any Parsonage Vicarage Lecture-stipend and had not conformed to the Act of Uniformity and shall not take and subscribe this Oath I A. B. do swear that it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King and that abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are commissioned by Him in pursuance of such Commissions and that I will not endeavour any Alteration of Government either in Church or State If he shall preach in any Conventicle or come within five Miles of any City Corporation or place of his Ministry except on his Journey or summoned by a Subpaena he shall forfeit 40 l. The Original Crime is Nonconforming the next is not taking the Oxf. Oath preaching in Conventicles and coming within five Miles of any such place The fourth Statute Car. 22. is c. And the Crimes are 1. If any Man shall be present at any Assembly c. under colour of any Exercise of Religion in any other manner than according to the Liturgy and Practice of the Church of England at which there shall be five Persons or more assembled together besides those of the same Houshold 2. If any Man shall take upon him to preach or teach in any such Meeting he shall forfeit 20 l. for the first Offence after Conviction and 40 l. after the second Conviction of a second Offence 3. If any Person shall willingly suffer such Meeting to be in his House Out-house Barn Yard or Backside and be convicted shall forfeit 20 l. c. And every Hearer 5 s. The Faults that are most obvious and most commonlly prosecuted are first Preaching Hearing or entertaining of any Meeting under pretence of Religious Exercise after another manner than the Liturgy or Practice of the Church of England to five or more besides the Houshold where such Meeting is kept Fourthly I am to explain what I mean by Forbearance 1. I do not mean what never came into the Question an Universal Toleration or License of all Irreligion Atheism Heresy or publishing pernicious Errors contrary to Godliness and Peace 2. I do not mean by Forbearance a Toleration or Forbearance of Prosecution against any that shall be found guilty of those Offences and Crimes Nor did the N. C. desire but the Toleration of those that are toterable and the peaceable Liberties of all that agree on Catholick Terms of Primitive Simplicity in Doctrine Worship and Discipline Petition for Peace Anno. 1661. contained and declared in the Reasons of these Statutes for the prevention whereof these Statutes were primarily intended as the Intention of the Law 1. I do not mean a Forbearance of any Person whatsoever that shall by Printing Writing or express Words purposely practise or go about to prove or perswade any of His Majesties Subjects or any other within His Realm to deny or withstand or impugn His Majesties Power in Ecclesiastical Causes See the Statute 35th Q. Elizabeth or shall perswade any from coming to Church to Divine Service or Communion to that end There is no Nonconformist that hath written or printed or that ever I heard of spoken to impugn His Majesties Power circa sacra but own it as hereafter it will appear 2. I do not mean a Forbearance of any Person or Persons whether more or fewer than five that shall have or do contrive any Insurrections as Seditious Sectaries Vid. Statute of 16 Ch. II. c. 4. or Disloyal Persons or any dangerous Practices of Seditious Sectaries or other Disloyal Persons who under Pretence of tender Consciences have or may at their Meetings contrive Insurrections or that make but a pretence of Religious Exercises to carry on any such Intentions The above explained Nonconformists will heartily subscribe to this Against these Contrivers the Law is bent and not against such as are in earnest for Religious Exercises but upon no seditious Design tho it is otherwise interpreted contrary to the declared end of the Law 3. The Persons to be forborn are such Preachers and Teachers as never kept Conventicles or Meetings making those Religious Exercises a pretence only when the Design was Rebellion Sedition or Insurrection as never taught any such pernicious Doctrine to such a wicked end but that have taught and hold the contrary performing Religious Exercises for Religious ends and both they that hear them and they that entertain them should be forborn 4. By Forbearance I mean a total Forbearnce of all the Penalties which they have incurred upon their Persons and their Estates The merciful Indulgence of the Government and many over ruling Providences concurring have given them Advantages and Boldness to meet more openly and in greater Numbers than they did before than they could or would have done If now there shall be a severe Prosecution against them the Prisons will fill in many places their Fines amount above their Estates there will be neither Dish nor Spoon Stooll nor Bed left for their Wives and Children no nor a Friend of their way left in the Land in a Condition to relieve them It is the ready way to fill many places in the Land with Tears and Cries Beggary and Misery such as no good Protestant can behold without a Sympathy This is no better than to forbear a Creditor till the Interest grows to a great Sum and then seize upon all he hath enter upon his Land and drive his Cattel c. this is Mercy till Offences grow big for a huge Severity Mercy patent for latent Justice to give them time to gather Flesh and then to devour them If the Rooks the Informers those Birds of Prey hope to flesh themselves by picking the bones of the Nonconformists it should go against the stomack of every true Gentleman not to say Merciful Christian If they must be supprest give them notice of it do not kill them in cold Blood after Quarter given them To make the Case familiar There are a Company of honest quiet People live about me they were once in good Fashion and Reputation but are now fallen in the World's danger and are forced to be beholden to their
found that Reason Conviction and Calmness have been the winning ways upon scrupulous Persons or else it cannot in Charity be thought that they would come behind others in accomplishing the work of Peace and Uniformity They cannot but know what Destruction without Reformation will follow Excommunications if they proceed to Writs and follow the Course of Law to the uttermost Many of our Ecclesiastical Courts have taken that way and can any of them shew us any one Man converted to Uniformity by it Many have removed from one Country and Diocess to another and wrought themselves out of Trouble or abide in them to this day But can they shew any one Man they have brought over to a sincere and hearty Conformity Their Molestations go nearer the Heart to separate them than to unite them If the Church should for Nonconformity proceed to Sentence and thence to Writs and thence to Execution what way can they take more effectual to disobligle the Nation The Gentleman and Landlord suffers in the ruine and loss of his Tenant the thousands of poor Families that live by Manufactures suffer in the Losses or Removes of their Masters and as many as actually suffer of what Condition soever and their Families and Posterity that suffer in them are made the poorer but never the better Christians they are all disobliged and broken from us Besides they know the charge of their Dissent which is often-times no more than pay your Fees and go home The Officers of Courts get but what doth the Church get thereby It is visible that those parts of the Land have the most for number and the most resolute Nonconformists that have been most severely used The more many Men suffer the more Arguments they gather for the Goodness of the Cause for which they suffer The far greater part of our Church-Governours have abstained from rigorous Courses Now the Civil Magistrates are rowzing up and awake as out of sleep But what 's the Cause of this Excitation The Conservators of the Peace are harnessing themselves for the Defence of Church and State But what fear of the King's Life Is it not the Acclamation of all Protestants is there in this one Dissenter among them Long may the King live Who doth hold up a Finger to shake the Throne or Government or who is there that hath heard of as much as a whisper of any Conspiracy If there be God who seeth in secret reveal it quickly by the Guilty themselves and there is no likelihood of a Concealment if there be such a thing for none but beggarly mad Men can be in it the service then must be done to the Church The Magistrates rise up in Defence of it But doth not the Magistrates Vigilancy reproach the Severity and Sleepiness of the Watchmen how can any that at other times and occasions do not talk with any great Concern Affection or Reverence of the Bishops now be so zealous If the Bishops should proceed with one mind roundly to Excommunications and break up Families by it who would sooner complain than Gentlemen that suffer by it who more earnest or be more complemental in Intercessions But now why should they be so forward to undo great Numbers to the apparent detriment of the Common-wealth when the Bishops are so backward to give them their Friends or their Dependents Trouble What Alterations will the Execution make in Rents and Trade and who will sooner feel the Effects than he who takes his Ease and lives high and cannot bear the fall of his Revenues If the Magistrate appear in his Power when the Church calls for his help it will be duty and self-denial too to take part of the Odium of what is counted a Persecution but to hazard the breaking of many thousands who can in some parts of the Kingdom make a Rise or fall of Commodities and the loss and trouble of abundance more by Participation to their own Dishonour is a greater Kindness to the R. R. Bishops than was expected or can be rewarded with their Blessing Secondly It is more God-like Christian and Humane to use Clemency and follow the Examples of the Indulgent especially when the hurtful Effects of Severity are great and apparent and the Benefit doubtful God is wise just and holy but continues to uphold the World by Mercy Christianity is full of Mercy and the Author of it is a Reconciler and Mediator Human Nature so given to offend would be destroyed but for Love Forbearance and Mercy Mercifulness is like the soft Cement that binds all the Stones in the Fabrick of Human Society which else would never hold together but fall without it With ut it Men are like rugged Stones and Severity doth not square but chop and should never be exercised but when Society cannot be preserved without it If this Age will follow Examples of the most exact and strict Governours it will find more room for Mercy than hath been shewn to them that have been excluded for want of it But if it will set it self for an Example it is a question whether wise Posterity will follow it The High Commission Court was a kind of Inquisition so the wise Lord Treasurer Burleigh wrote to Arch-Bp Whitgift But according tomy simple Judgment said he Fuller's Ch. History B. ix An. 1583. this kind of proceeding is too much savouring the Romish Inquisition And of all Men the Puritans felt the weight of it The Puritans were opposite to the Bishops and their Government and Courts and they made themselves and the Queen their Government and Hers all one what was said or done against them was done against Her Majesty As in Mr. Udal's Examination and Trial is to be seen Pr. Lond. 1643. Can. 4 6 9 11. And the Opposition between the Puritan Discipline and the Episcopal was greater than hath been urged ever since the King's Return If Church-History were silent we may learn frrom the Canons of 1603 what Language was common in those times But now the Controversy is not between the Presbyter and the Bishop but between Bishops acting in a narrow Room and a larger Diocess yet they are not discontent if the King shall honour some as he doth with Lordship nor continue their Revenues The Independents supposed to be Brownists but are not give not the Language of Antichristian to Bishops or our Congregations but look upon us as parts of the Catholick Church The Bishops are Antichurchians as against their Congregational Power but not Antichristian Dr. Owen of Church-Peace c. Dr. Goodwin on the Ephes §. 35. which was the Language of the Brownists but those that were more opposite or hung off were more kindly used Mr. Fox a N. C. held his Prebend of Salisbury Dr. Humphreyes was Dean of Winchester President of Magdalen Colledg and Regius-Professor in Oxford Mr. Tho. Cartwright the Head of the N. C. was at last much favoured by his mighty Antagonist A. B. Whitgift made Master of the Hospital in Warwick
and hidden Traitors More particularly many of them have deserved well from the Church and State which in humane Probability had never been restored but for their Loyalty Religion and Conscience This made the most Renowned Sir Matthew Hale say whose sence may be as soon taken as most Men's alive for his Wisdom Loyalty Integrity and Impartiality in all Acts of Judgment Many of the Nonconformists had merited highly in the business of the King's Restauration and at least deserved Dr. Burnet ' s Life of Sir M. Hale p. 65 66. large Octavo that the Terms of Conformity should not be made stricter than they were before the War Yea to advance as high as I can in an unquestionable Authority His Majesty in his Gracious Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs said pag. 5. That while he was in Holland he was attended by many Grave and Learned Ministers from hence who were looked upon as the most able and principal Assertors of the Presbyterian Opinions and to Our great Satisfaction and Comfort found them Persons full of Affection to Us of Zeal for the Peace of the Church and State and neither Enemies to Episcopacy or Liturgy but modestly to desire such Alterations in either as without shaking Foundations might best allay present Distempers And in his Gracious Speech to the Lords July 27. 1660 to hasten the passing the Act of Oblivion My Lords if you do not joyn with Me in extinguishing this Fear which keeps the hearts of Men apprehensive of Safety and Security You keep Me from performing My Promise which if I had not made I am perswaded neither You nor I had been now here I pray let Us not deceive those who Brought or Permitted Us to come together The greatest Charge against them is That they are Separatists and Schismaticks Besides that this remains in debate between the Accusers and Accused Suppose them to be so Yet 1. The very Independents I mean the chief of them besides what they have declared in the above quoted Declaration of their Faith at the Savoy to be neither Brownists nor Donatists Besides many Passages in Dr. Owen's Books Mr. Nye hath declared himself Case of great and present use Lond. 1677. 35th Serm. on the Ephesians p. 477 fol. as to our National and Parochial Ministry and hearing us preach and Dr. Good lays down the Opinions of Brown and Donatist and saith And against these I for my part and many of my Brethren profess that they are in an Error c. The Turbulency of Brown's own Spirit ran him into many Oppositions and Troubles but he the greatest Schismatick of those days enjoyed his good Parsonage while he lived The first Emperor that made Laws against the Donatists was Theodosius but they were not punished for their Schism the greatest in the World as such but the occasion of the Penal Laws against them Augustin Bonifacio Ep l. 2. Epist 50. was their barbarous abuse and beating of Bishop Maximinian almost to Death tearing of his Altar c. and other insufferable Violences and Furies The Riots and Murders committed by them and the Circumcellions the same Faction was the cause of Severity against them But how far are our Nonconformists from breaking Peace offering Violence or any rude Incivilities by Word or Deed is apparent to all that are not given to wrong them or to take pardonable things too ill from them Lastly The Causes of their Sufferings have been spoken of before to be neither Heresy Sedition nor Rebellion The very Light of Nature seems to abhor punishing the Religious and Just therefore the Heathen Persecutors have falsly imputed horrid Crimes to holy Christians from which they are clearly vindicated in the Apologies of the Fathers The Arrians were Calumniators of the Orthodox and so are the Papists and unpeaceable Lutherans But we that live together should know one another better and be both just and modest The Papists damn us as Hereticks therefore curse and persecute the immoderate Lutherans charge the Calvinists with the denial of Gods Omnipotency Communication of Properties and many other Heresies and Blasphemies But what Heresy can we charge upon the Nonconformists Had Antiquity left us such Confessions and Explications of Faith such Treatises in Divinity Expositions of Scripture Defences of Religion we should have honoured them as much as now many dispise them they are full and firm in their learned and rational Opposition to Popery in all the parts of it And let us observe how we reckon some in former Ages as ours who came short of them and yet we must eject them and multiply Sufferings upon them as none of ours we reckon John Wicliff Jerom of Prague Husse and those plain and heroick Confessors the Waldenses and Albigenses Bohemians c. ours they are in our Martyrologies and among our Witnesses for the Truth in the dark times when nothing was almost visible but Popery Shall we account them Martyrs when the Papists had more colour for their Persecutions and bloody Usages of them considering the Principles of the Papists and the Opposition of those Martyrs than we have for loading our Brethren with Punishment upon Punishment considering the Principles of our Religion and the Quality of the Nonconformists both as to Religion yea and as to the Separation it self For surely the Separation of those Worthies from Rome as Babylon and the seat of Antichrist and a mortally infected Church was a greater provocation of the Roman Powers against them than a peaceable dissent from a Church acknowledged truly Christian only for some scrupled unnecessary things indifferent we say therefore may be spared sinful say they therefore cannot be assented to and some private Doctrines besides c. That which comes nearest our unhappy Case is the Interim that Book that was urged by Charles the V upon the reformed Churches in Germany requiring the Observation of Popish Ceremonies as indifferent things for a time until a General Council should be called What Divisions did it cause among the Princes and their Divines among the Divines differing one from another What woful Dispersions and Miseries attended the refusal of it are at large related by Sleidan in his Commentaries Sleidan p. 20 21. This Book contained Popish Doctrines which the Protestants rejected but the things that divided them were the Adiaphora or media Ceremonies and indifferent things which many refused and suffered to very great Extremities But he who terrified them and persecuted them was a great Emperor and a Papist and the Arguments used against it were because it was not consonant to Scriptures and went against their Conscience and Light received After this the Adversary the Devil stirred up another Controversy attended with a dreadful Division and Persecution to the desolation of Churches and Schools John Brentius invented the notion of Ubiquity of Christ's Body and propagated it by the Apostle of Ubiquity Jacobus Andreas but they gave it a pompous Title of the Majestick Communication of the Divinity and Divine Properties
spoken of by Sir Walter Rawleigh and deserve to be transcribed In his Conceit the Brownists were worthy to be rooted out of a Common-wealth I have shewed in the foregoing Plea our N. C. are not Brownists Collections p. 76. but what Dangers may grow to our selves if this Law passeth it were fit to be considered for it is to be feared that Men not guilty will be included in it And that Law is hard that taketh Life or sendeth into Banishment But now our N. C. are not as much as tried by a Jury but upon the Evidence of a scandalous Informer and Villains hired by him to swear what is for his coveted Gain where Mens Intentions shall be judged by a Jury and they shall be Judges what another Man meant But that Law that is against a Fact that is just and punish the Fact as severely as you will c. as was quoted before from that great and famous Man to turn this Law upon Orthodox sound Men and spare the Papists is too plain a perversion of the Law from the sence of the greatest States-men in that prosperous Reign of Q. Elizabeth no Justice can pretend Obligation from his Oath or Conscience so to do 5. They are no more obliged by their Office to execute these Laws against Dissenters than they are to execute other Penal Laws Is there not a Law that no Papist shall go above five Miles from his own House Elizab. 35th c. 2. or place of Abode after lawful Conviction Are all Papists convicted according to Law and do they keep their Bounds Is there not a Law of this Kings for Observation of the Sabbath and who is convicted or punished by it Is there not a Law prohibiting Gaming above one hundred Pound at one meeting and have all Gentlemen and Gamesters kept it The Act for 12 d. a Sunday for not coming to Church was intended against the Negligent and not the Recusant it being against Law to punish Men for the same fault twice as Mr. R. Owen said upon the debate upon that Bill Collect. ib. p. 173. But the N. C. are and have been punished many times and ways Who can tell how many thousands of negligent Persons live in London that go neither to Church nor Conventicle and who is so zealous against these as against Conventicles Surely then the Obligation of the Justice's Oath is not taken to be so strict in some as in all Cases as indeed they are or else a Justice is not bound to enquire after Transgressors but to keep his own Place and do Justice when complained unto 6. But suppose That the Informers of Conventicles are honest and true Men idoneous and fit or the Meeting be notorious then consider that the Law requiring the Justice to proceed against them is a Penal Law Any Justice of the Peace or Chief Magistrate that shall wilfully omit the performance of his Duty in the prosecution of this Act shall forfeit a hundred Pound one moiety of it to the Informer but to whom the other moity shall be forfeited is not expressed If the Informer will be so couragious as to sue the Justice so omitting his Duty he loses 50 l. Now the difficulty lieth in this The Law against Conventicles doth require the Justice of Peace or chief Magistrate to make Record of such an Assembly that makes it his Duty or in case of Omission he shall forfeit 100 l. if the Informer will be so bold as to sue for it here 's the Penalty the Law is a mixed and not purely Penal Law If any Magistrate be so strictly conscientious as to hold himself bound to execute his Office he may inquire into two things First The goodness and necessity of the Law which makes his Duty necessary Secondly His Omission is supposed and upon that Supposition his Penalty is assigned For the first There is no scruple to be made if any do under pretence of Religious Exercises contrive Insurrections but then it is the Magistrate's Duty to God the King and his Government to execute the Laws But 2. No such Crime being proved but pretended to suppress all Religious Exercises performed without the Liturgy and the Penalties being grievous to the Subject and the Law in effect declared to be grievous by several Parliaments altho the Law be actually in force yet it is under the Censure of Parliaments and hath lost its credit and reputation of Goodness and must be looked on as one of those Laws that are better null'd than continued and the Execution of it must be suspended as tending to unnecessary vexation of good Subjects and a scandal upon the Protestant Dissenting Brethren to render them as suspitious as our Enemies the Papists And if we may guess at the Law by the Penalty upon the Justice that omits his Duty or rather at the Intention of the powerful part that carried it they did not so much provide against Insurrections as against the total ruine of the Nonconformists for can the forfeiture of a an hundred pounds be a sufficient punishment upon him that omits to make a Record of so mischievous a Contrivance as an Insurrection no not the greatest Estate in England can recompence such an Omission nor is the Life of any Justice an equal Punishment To the second I propose this The Omission being supposed the Forfeiture is certain if the Informer will be so daring but 50. l. First Whether it be not better that a Justice of the Peace or Magistrate should venture the Loss of 50 l. which he doth but venture for what Informer will dare to sue Gentlemen of Honour Estates and Interest than many Families should be utterly undone Secondly If the Execution be better forborn as I hope I have cleared then it were better a Justice of Peace should lay down his Commission than act against the real Interest and Union of Protestants and make spoil of many Mens Estates Thirdly If Forfeitures upon Justices should be recovered and the payment too heavy for them to bear then they may do great Service to their King to the Church to their Country 1. To the King as Pliny did to Trajan concerning the Christians sed nihil aliud inveni quam Superstitionem pravam immodicam representing to the King they find no Seditions nor Insurrections nothing among the Nonconformists but their Nonconformity 2. To the Church by the same Representation as a means to heal us 3. To their Country by forbearing the ruine of thousands of Familes But if you shall for saving 50 or 100 l. or for ambition of a Place of Power or to rise into Business and Preferment or from Prejudice against Nonconformists or distaste and enmity at Religion proceed you sin exceedingly against God and Man I beseech you Honoured Sirs despise not the humble Address of a Minister of Christ in the Church of England on the behalf of Christ and his divided Church and multitude of precious Souls and out of Duty to your selves
lest you be found abusing your power against Religion in Zeal to those things which are but Modes and Forms which commend no Man to God Shall I say it had been good for many they had never bin Justices or Magistrates or that some had never been born than be the occasion of great Shame and Reproach great and many Losses and Sufferings to Ministers in their Names Estates Health c. of great Trouble and Affliction to many tender Wives by Frights and Separation from their Husbands yea of Sickness and Death to many of the holy Servants of Christ Many oppressed Families groan under their Losses and Sufferings and pray for them that have persecuted them from one Country to another from one Prison to another and if God hear their Prayers then many of their Afflicters must repent and should repair their Losses for Conscience sake Many very dark and rude Places and People have been inlightned many young and dissolute Persons have been converted by Prayers Preaching and Books of the Nonconformists If you suppress their Teachers if you give order to spoil them of their Goods you starve the Nurse and kill the Souls of many thousands that are nursed and brought up by their Ministry with the sincere Milk of the Word of God That I may not be a lamenting Spectator of a doleful Tragedy I have taken this freedom and used plainness of Speech and convincing Reasons to my power There is a great Chasm and Breach and see how God punisherh us for not healing the first Division General Monk used the word Fanatick in the Parliament when he declared himself more properly than it hath been since applied How did the word take and spread how was it applied and misapplied Others called those Men Fanaticks who were a great wise sober loyal considerable part of the Nation Here a Separation began A great number of holy and able Pastors are cast out to the great grief of more than themselves A Breach is made by a standing Law within the Church and Kingdom some have made a Division of Church-men and moderate of Presbyterian Bishops and rigid of Protestant Bishops c. And since of Petitioners and Abhorrers of Addresses and Non-Addresses and now under scandalous and vile names of Whigg and Tory. Our Church-Divisions eat into the very heart of the Kingdom We seem to be disjoyned in the National-Interest by a prevailing factious private Spirit Friendship and Acquaintance and Trust and Confidence are broken Oh how menacing is this Judgment Popery watcheth its Opportunity to get up triumphant and regnant Persidiousness hath engaged to open to it and Perjury and Persecution are the most conducing means to introduce it Cut off the Nonconformists first beggar and famish and lay them fast next compose a Test in the nature of the Sphinx Augustana or Cassadran Consultation for the Conformists to separate the Moderate from the Genuine and what next The fear of which and compassion to Posterity and zeal for true Religion would make a dumb Man speak and he that cannot write Noble Sirs If you will not hearken to Reason besriend Religion believe your Senses and deny a carnal Interest for an eternal imitate the Clemency of our Gracious King whom God long preserve who is over us as Seneca speaks of the King of Bees He hath no Sting Rex ipse sine aculeo est But if you are resolved or engaged in such a Work Be pleased to do these things 1. Laying aside Prejudice study the Case of the Nonconformists and their Reasons for it you shall find it best and clearest in the Account of the Proceedings in the Savoy London 1661. and Petition for Peace In Mr. Baxter's Pleas for the Nonconformists Apology to the Bishops Defences against Dr. Stillingfleet and Dr. Hinkley and others And the Questions in Controversy clearely stated by Mr. Giles Fermen I suppose you have read the other side 2. Consider what is and hath been preached and written for Accommodation and do not account them the worst but the best Divines that have been and are for Accommodation and see what was done by those Great Men Lord-Keeper Bridgman Chief-Justice Hale Bp Wilkins c. 3. Oppose not but consider the Reasons of the Long-Parliament 1. in making these Acts 2. Their and succeeding Parliaments Debates and Resolves for Union of Protestants 4. Is this a time to afflict Protestants at home when we entertain persecuted Protestants from abroad 5. Lay aside all private worldly Interest Peace was never preserv'd by Faction it is inconsistent with Justices of the Peace to suppress a Faction by being factious 6. Be clear from all sinister Pre-conceits Passion and Disaffection to Practical Holiness and Piety 7. Be assured you must give account to Jesus Christ of your Administration and this is your time to act and shew your Faith Hope and Love to Christ his Gospel his People your detestation of Impiety and Sin and to be true to your Selves and your eternal Concernments 8. Receive not ill Reports act not by them of them that differ from you 9. Pre-conceive the Effects of your Proceedings whether they will be for God's Glory the King's Service the Kingdom 's Good and for your own Peace and Comfort when you come to dye 10. Pray for a Blessing upon your Proceedings see what Approbation he hath given and whether it be likely to please or displease him If God hath blessed or prospered them that did execute the Laws then it is an Encouragement to you if not forbear Consider what is said by Gamaliel Act. 5.38 39. Refrain from these Men and let them alone for if this Counsel or this Work be of Men it will come to naught But if it be of God you cannot overthrow it lest haply ye be found even to fight against God And by our Gracious King in one of his Declarations viz. It being evident by the sad Experience of twelve years that there is little fruit of all those forcible Courses c. FINIS ERRATA PAge 2. line 34. reade open P. 4. l. 30. r. Me. P. 6. Marg. r. Persecutione ib. Marg. r. Aenaei P. 27. marg r. ferri p. 30. marg after thankful remembrance c. 13. add Historical Collections in the Address p. 36. l. 2. r. some few p. 41. l. 12. r. of the Law ib. l. 16. r. if you all proceed c. P. 44. l. 27. r. to procure P. 48. l. 1. f. Severity r. Security P. 49. l. 36. r. for not subscribing only P. 51. l. 13. r. such as have p. 57. five last lines must be thus read and why may not fallible Imposers be deceived say they If they suffer for not sinning against God and Conscience if they suffer for performing Religious Exercises they suffer for Religion according c. p. 60. l. 36. f. case r. cant The Reader is entreated to pardon or correct the rest the Author being remote from the Press has not seen all the sheets