Churches Good must be first regarded As to the other Question Why we dealt not thus by all the Parish and took them not all for Members without question We knew some Papists and Infidels that were no Members We knew that the People would have thought themselves wronged more to be thus brought under Discipline without and against their own Consent than to ãâã them to withdraw And we thought it not a Business âit for the unwilling ââââually at such a time as that But especially I knew that it was like to be their utter undoing by hardening them into utter Enmity against the means that should recover them And I never yet saw any signs of hope in any Excommunicate Person unless as they are yet men and capable of what God will do upon them except one that humbled himself and begged Absolution Now either Discipline is to be exercised according to Christ's Rule or not If not then the Church is no purer a Society as to its Orders than those of Infidels and Pagans but Christ must be disobeyed and his House of Prayer made a Den of Thieves If yea then either impartially upon all obstinate impenitent Sinners according to Christ's Rule or but on some If but on some only it will be a Judgment of Partiality and Unrighteousness whereas where there is the same Cause there must usually be the same Penalty If on all then the multitude of the Scandalous in almost all places is so great and the Effects of Excommunication so dreadful that it would tend to damning of multitudes of Souls which being contrary to the design of the Gospel is not to be taken for the Will of Christ we have our Power to Edification and not to Destruction A few in case of necessity may be punished though to their hurt for the good of all but multitudes must not be so used Indeed a Popish Interdict or mock Excommunication by the Sentence of a Prelate or Lay-Chancellour may pass against multitudes and have no considerable Effect but as it is enforced by the Sword But the Word of God is quick and powerful and when it is thus personally applyed in the Sentencing of a guilty obstinate Sinner doth one way or other work more effectually Therefore in this difficulty there can be but two Remedies devised One is with the Anabaptists to leave Infants unbaptized that so they may not be taken into the Church till they are fit for the Orders of the Church But this is injurious to Infants and against the will of God and hath more inconveniences than benefits Though for my part as much as I have wrote against them I wish that it were in the Church now as it was in the days of Tertullian Nazianzen and Austin where no man was compelled to bring his Infants to Baptism but all left to their own time For then some as Augustine c. were baptized at full Age and some in Infancy The second therefore is the only just and safe Remedy which is That by the due performance of Confirmation there may be a Soleman Transition out of the state of Infant Church-Membership into the state of Adult Church-Membership and due qualifications therein required and that the unfit may till then be left inter Auditores without the Priviledges proper to Adult Members of which I have fully written in my Book of Confirmation 26. Another Advantage which I found to my Success was by ordering my Doctrine to them in a suitableness to the main end and yet so as might suit their Dispositions and Diseases The thing which I daily opened to them and with greatest importunity laboured to imprint upon their minds was the great Fundamental Principles of Christianity contained in their Baptismal Covenant even a right knowledge and belief of and subjection and love to God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and Love to all Men and Concord with the Church and one another I did so daily inculcate the Knowledge of God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier and Love and Obedience to God and Unity with the Church Catholick and Love to Men and Hope of Life Eternal that these were the matter of their daily Cogitations and Discourses and indeed their Religion And yet I did usually put in something in my Sermon which was above their own discovery and which they had not known before and this I did that they might be kept humble and still perceive their ignorance and be willing to keep in a learning state For when Preachers tell their People of no more than they know and do not shew that they excel them in Knowledge and easily over-top them in Abilities the People will be tempted to turn Preachers themselves and think that they have learnt all that the Ministers can teach them and are as wise as they and they will be apt to contemn their Teachers and wrangle with all their Doctrines and set their Wits against them and hear them as Censurers and not as Disciples to their own undoing and to the disturbance of the Church and they will easily draw Disciples after them The bare Authority of the Clergy will not serve the turn without over-topping Ministerial Abilities And I did this also to increase their Knowledge and also to make Religion pleasant to them by a daily addition to their former Light and to draw them on with desire and Delight But these things which they did not know before were not unprofitable Controversies which tended not to Edification nor Novelties in Doctrine contrary to the Universal Church but either such Points as tended to illustrate the great Doctrines before-mentioned or usually about the right methodizing of them The opening of the true and profitable method of the Creed or Doctrine of Faith the Lord's Prayer or Matter of our Desires and the Ten Commandments or Law of Practice which afford matter to add to the knowledge of most Professors of Religion a long time And when that is done they must be led on still further by degrees as they are capable but so as not to leave the weak behind and so as shall still be truly subservient to the great Points of Faith Hope and Love Holiness and Unity which must be still inculcated as the beginning and the end of all 27. Another help to my Success was that my People were not Rich There were among them very few Beggers because their common Trade of Stuff-weaving would find work for all Men Women and Children that were able And there were none of the Trades-men very rich seeing their Trade was poor that would but find them Food and Raiment The Magistrates of the Town were few of them worth 40 l. per An. and most not half so much Three or four of the Richest thriving Masters of the Trade got but about 500 or 600 l. in twenty years and it may be lose 100 l. of it at once by an ill Debtor The generality of the Master Workmen lived but a little better than their
the great pollution of our Churches and much of our Distraction in Matters of Church-Order is from the careless unobserved irregular Transition out of the state of Infant Membership into the state of Adult Membership every ignorant Man almost taking himself for an Adult Member because by Baptism he was made an Infant Member and hath customarily been present at Publick Worship Let the distinction therefore between Infant Members and Adult be more observed in every Parish and let the Transition out of the one state into the other be more solemn and regular under the Judgment of the Guides of the Church That no Person may be admitted to be an Adult Member but by the Minister in the face of the Congregation ordinarily after a Solemn Profession of the Faith Repentance and Resolution for a Holy Life of the Person admitted to which there must be the preparation of Catechising and of a Conversation that contradicteth not the Profession so made 1. This was the Course of the Ancient Churches who catechized Children and admitted them among the Confirmed Members by Imposition of Hands 2. The Divines of the Reformed Churches commonly own it and with for it in their Writings 3. The Episcopal Divines in the Rubrick of the Common Prayer Ordained that none should be admitted to the Sacrament till after Catechising and a Certificate under the Minister's or Curate's hand he were confirmed by the Bishop though it was done to little purpose by them 4. The Presbyterians Examination of Men before the Sacrament intimateth the like 5. The Congregational Men's trial of particular Church-Members importeth their approbation of this 6. The Anabaptists by going farther do seem to be permitted of God of purpose to awaken us to this Duty and I think they will continue to be our Scourge till this be done and this will half satisfie some among them that are moderate and silence many Objections of the rest 3. Let the Ministers approved by the State be constrained to Catechize and personally instruct and publickly preach to all the Persons in their Parishes according to their strength and opportunity in order to prepare such as are willing to learn for an Adult state of Christianity as the ancient Churches did their Catechumens And let the young and ignorant and ungodly of this Rank be compelled by some moderate Penalty to hear and confer with the Teachers and be instructed and catechized by them And let not any Ministers be suffered to administer the Lord's Supper to any that have not been admitted as aforesaid upon a Profession of Faith and Holiness into the number of Adult Members 4. Seeing a particular Church must consist of Christians cohabiting and consenting let Parishes be the ordinary Bounds of Churches so that all the Adult Members of the Universal Church and no other at Age within that Parish who do consent be Members of that particular Church into which they are first admitted or whether into both at once we need not determine And if any be taken out of other adjoyning Parishes let it be by exception from the common Rule And seeing there are many Cases in which Members may be taken out of other Parishes the Differences thereabout may be denied as is after declared Prop. 8. § II. 5. The Pastors of particular Churches have power to Teach and Rule those Churches according to the Word of God and the People are bound to esteem them love them honour them and obey them I Tim. 5. 17. I Thess. 5. 12. Heb. 13. 7 17. Therefore let them use the Power of Administring all Congregational Worship and the Keys for Binding and Loosing within their own Congregationsâ And let it be granted to them that desire it at least for Peace and Concord sake that they be not forced to Subjection to any pretending to a Superiour Governing Power besides the Magistrate 6. As particular Christians must hold Communion in particular Churches for the Worship of God and their mutual Edification so particular Churches must all hold such a Correspondency and Communion with one another so far as their Capacity extends as most tendeth to the Edification Strengthening Peace and Concord of them all and to the Publick Prosperity and the Success of the Gospel among them and in the World The whole Church being one Body must maintain the Union and Communion of the Parts and do God's Work in the greatest Concord that they can and with the best Advantages 7. This cannot de done well without Meetings to these Ends nor those Meetings be improved to the best advantage unless the Times and Places be fixed and commonly known And as the use of them is ordinary so the Assemblies should be ordinary and not only seldom in some extraordinary Cases Nor is any sort of Men so fit to manage them as Ministers who have most Ability and Leisure being wholly set apart to the Work of the Gospel It is therefore meet that there be known Times and Places of Meeting where Ministers and as many more as the Churches shall think fit may assemble Every Minister or Church according to their conveniency choosing of what Association they will be which ordinarily they should frequent and which should consist of such and only such as for Piety Ability and faithful Diligence are fit for the Ministry and such Communion 8. If it be the Judgment of some that these Assemblies have a Superior governing Power over the particular Pastors and of others that they are only for Communion and mutual Assistance they shall either keep their several Opinions to themselves or at least having professed and recorded them shall continue their Presence and Assistance to those lower ends that all are agreed upon Not to make new Laws for the Churches or any of the Members of the Assemblies to bind by a ruling Power but to consult and advise and agree nor yet to agree upon things unnecessary nor lay the Churches Unity upon such much less to exercise any magisterial coersive Power But 1. To open any occurrent difficult Cases in Doctrine or Practice that befal any particular Church or Pastor wherein they need their Brethrens Advice 2. To agree upon the best and profitablest manner of managing the Work of God in regard of undetermined Circumstances in cases where Uniformity will further the Work As for Example what Translation of Scripture to use what Version of the Psalms to sing c. 3. To communicate those Affairs of the Churches that are of common concernment to give notice of such as one Church hath excommunicated that other Churches may avoid them or else they may have Familiarity with all other Christians about them and be entred among them as Members and so Excommunication will lose its force and miss of its Ends. 4. To maintain personal Unity among Ministers by Familiarity and Correspondency and to heal Divisions and Dissentions and Estrangedness and cherish Brotherly-love 5. In case any be injuriously cast out of any Neighbour-church as for professing sound Doctrine against
Symptom of a large and noble Soul History should inform admonish instruct and reclaim reform encourage Men that read it And therefore they that write it should ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i. e. discern things Excellent and those things in their difference each from other and in their importance to the Reader and so take care that nothing doubtful false impertinent mean injurious cloudy or needlesly provoking or reflecting be exposed to Publick View by them nor any thing excessive or defective as relating to the just and worthy Ends of History The Author of the subsequent History now with God had an Eagle's Eye an honest Heart a thoughtful Soul a searching and considerate Spirit and a concerned frame of Mind to let the present and succeeding Generations duly know the real and true state and issues of the Occurrences and Transactions of his Age and Day and how much Judgement Truth and Candour appear in his following Accounts of Things the Candid and Impartial Reader will easily and quickly be resolved about Scandals arising from Ignorance and misreports of what related to our Church and State greatly affected his very tender Spirit and the removal and prevention of them and of what Guilt Calamities and Judgments might or did attend those Scandals was what induced Mr. Baxter to leave Posterity this History of his Life and Times § III. Memorable Persons Consultations Actions and Events with their respective Epochs Successions and Periods are the Subject Matter of History Propriety clearness and vigour of Expression is what duly and gratefully represents the Matter to the Reader Accurate Method gives advantage to the Memory as well as satisfaction to the Judgment The faithfulness fulness and freedom of relation conciliates a good Reputation to the Writer by its convincing Influences upon the Reader 's mind and thus it powerfully claims and extorts his Submission to the evident credibility of what he peruses and the weight and usefulness of the Things related makes the Reader serious and concerned to observe what he reads for finding the Matter great the Expression proper and lively the Current of the History orderly and exact and the Purposes and Ends various and important which the History subserves he accordingly values and uses it as a Treasure And from thence he extracts such Maxims and Principles as may greatly bestead him in every Exigence and in every Station and Article of Trust and Concern and Negotiation History tells us who have been upon the Stage how they came into Business and Trust what was the Compass and Import of their Province what they themselves therein signified to others and what others to them and what all availed to Posterity and how they went off and so what Figure they most deserv'd to make in the Records of Time § IV. He that well considers the Nature of Man his Relation to God God's governing of Man and the Conduct of Providence pursuant to God's concerns with Men and their concerns with him as also the Discipline and Interests of the Holy War with Satan will read History with a finer Eye and to better purpose than others can To covet endeavour and obtain ability and furniture from History Philology Divinity c. to minister to discursive Entertainment or Self-conceitedness Ambition Preferment or Reputation with Men is a design when ultimate so mean in God's Eye so odious and noysom to others when by them discerned and so uncomfortable and fatal to our selves when at last accounâed for as that no wise Man would terminate and center himself or his Studies there I have seen all sorts of Learning differently placed used and issued I can stay patiently to see the last Results of all I have seen Learning excellently implanted in a gracious heart So it was in Mr. Baxter and in several Prelates and Conformists and Non-conformists and others it is so at this day I have seen it without Grace or not so evidently under the influences and conduct of Grace as I have greatly desired it might have been and here what Partiality Malignity Faction Domination Superciliousness and Invectives hath his History and other Learning ministred unto Indeed sanctified Learning hath a lovely show And the Learning of graceless Persons hath in many Instances and Evidences greatly befriended God's Interest in the Christian World And the Knowledge which could not keep some from doing Mischief in the World and from their being fitted for Hell and from drawing others after them thither hath yet helped others to heavenliness and Heaven But he that well considers what Man is to God and God to Man what an Enemy degenerate Man is to God and himself what a state and frame and posture of War sin hath put Men into both against God themselves and each other what an Enemy Satan is to all and what advantages Sin gives him against us and how Christ is engaged against Satan for us as the Captain of our Salvation and how he manages this War by his Spirit Oracles Ordinances Officers and under-Agents in Church and State and by the Conduct of Providence over crowned Heads Thrones Senates Armies Navies greater and less Communities and single Persons in all things done by them for them or upon them or against them how he uses and influences the Faculties Actions Projects Confederacies and Interests of Men by poizing them changing them and turning them to his own purposes and praise He I say that well attends to these things in his Historical Readings and Studies will to his profit and delight discern God's Providence in and over the Affairs of Men to be expressive of God's Name ministring to his avouched purposes and a great Testimony to his Word and Son and to his Covenant and Servants § V. And such a Person was the Reverend Author and in part the Subject Matter of the subsequent Treatise He was an early Votary to his God so early as that he knew not when God engaged him first unto himself And hence he in great measures escaped those Evil Habits and Calamities which old Age ordinarily pays so dear for though he laments the carelesness and intemperance of his first childish and youthful days And if the Reader think it strange and mean that these and some other passages inferioris subsellij should be inserted amongst so many things far more considerable written by himself and published by me I crave leave to reply 1. That Conscience is a tender thing and when awaken'd it accounts no sin small nor any Calamity below most serious Thoughts and sensible and smart Resentments that evidently springs from the least Miscarriage which might and ought to have been prevented 2. That the apprehension of approaching Death made him severer in his Scrutinies and Reflections 3. That he thence thought himself concerned and bound in duty to warn others against all which he thought or found so very prejudicial to his own Soul and Body 4. That as mean passages as these are to be found in Ancient and Modern Lives and
Histories which pass not under rigid Censures 5. That the Author wrote this his History sparsim raptim and it was rather a Rhapsody than one continued Work So that I hope that the obvious inequalities of Style and Matter or the Defects in accuracy of Method much more the Errours of the Press will be no scandal to the ingenuous and candid Readers 6. And as to my suffering such things to be exposed to publick view can any Man take it ill that I give him what Mr. Baxter left with me to this end and had I thought to have expunged some things and to have altered others I could not have said as he himself did in his Preface to the Lord Chief Justice Hale's Judgment of the Nature of true Religion ' I take it as an intolerable Piaculum to put any altering hand of mine to the Writings of such a Man But to pass by this His seriousness in and about the greatest things and his solicitous care to save his own and others Souls and his great zeal for Holiness Truth Concord and Peace amongst all Christians abroad and in these Kingdoms made him when capable thereof to mind how Matters stood betwixt God and us and to enter into the Springs of Publick Affairs and Actions in Church and State and to take notice of the Originals Instruments Principles Progress Tracts Traverses and Results of Things How Men were placed spirited influenced and engaged and how herein they ministred to the woes or welfare of the Publick of themselves and of Posterity And very loth he was that all should be imposed upon and injured by partial or false History and so become Deceivers or Deceived and Scandalizers or Scandalized He well considered what a faithful History of his Times might import to all And hence having had such perfect understanding of all the Things here treated on from the first he thought it not amiss to write the chiefest of them in order that others might know the certainty of things to the better institution of after Conduct and Deportment and if it may yet be to call the Guilty of all Parties yet alive to due Repentance and Returns to God § VI. The following History takes a considerable compass from A. D. 1615. to 1684. and it will entertain the Reader with no small variety of useful and delightful Matterââ You have here the History of God's early kind and powerful Dealings with himself so as to enprinciple and train him up as a Christian and how God touch'd and fix'd his Soul for himself in Christian Bonds God cast that Mantle on him which made his heart to turn and stand towards him and be most ambitious of and solicitous about his pardon from fellowship with devotedness to and living with God in the heavenly glory Then God acquainted him with his natural degenerate and lost self till Christ by Grace befriended and relieved him When making towards and brought to Christ he is presently and sensibly engaged in secret and open War with Satan and his own self And here his Conflicts and Temptations are gradually and wisely ordered him and let loose upon him but every way suited to his strength and benefit His Exercises were and must be such as shall put him to deep Thoughts close Studies strict Guards and Watchings servent Prayer and a quick sense of the Necessity of daily help from Heaven And Satan is permitted to attack him in all the Articles of his Christian Faith and in the Foundation of his Heavenly Hopes He was so severely urged by Satan to Atheism Scepticism Infidelity and followed with such perplexing Difficulties and amazing Intricacies about both Natural and Revealed Religion as that he had concerned and earnest breathings after value of and resolution for full Satisfaction about both the Foundations and Superstructure of Religion Slight Studies pâecarious though confident Assertions the Publick Vogue and Suffrages of Men Worldly Interests Popular Applauses and Fleshly Ease could set no stints and limits to his inquisitive Mind and painful Searches His Soul ever lay open to Evidence His Eye was first upon the Matter to find out that he then considered Words as the fit Portraictures of Things and Representations of Humane Apprehensions to mutual Information about Things and Words And when he observed Words to be so equivocal and of such lax uncertain sence he was ever careful to give Expressions their strict and just Interpretations and to be clear about the fixed sense of doubtful Terms And from the accuracy of his Judgment and sineness of his Thought and from the impetuousness of his Desires and endeavours to know Things clearly orderly and distinctly arose that multitude and variety of Distinctions many whereof were thought unusual though I never thought yet any of them useless and impertinent as improved by him which usually accompanied his Discourse and Writings But to conclude this Head clear knowledge of the Name and Kingdom of God in Christ well grounded Faith lively Hopes rational Satisfaction about the Safety of his State and Soul the Soundness and due Furniture of his Inner Man in order to his fulfilling after God and Christ and an Exemplary Holy Life an happy Death a joyful Resurrection these were the Pleasure Ambition and Employment of his Life as also to be found in Christ and every way faithful and fruitful to him And by what Instruments Steps and Methods God brought him hitherto this following Account of his from his own Pen will tell you As also to what he ever had recourse for his own Personal Satisfaction and Redress and how God exercised and used his Parts and Thoughts herein You have here the History of his Ministerial Self God set upon his Soul as one resolv'd to qualifie and anoint it in no ordinary manner for that Sacred Function whereunto after many Temptations and Attempts to fix him in some other Station and Employment both from others and himself by the Call and Conduct of his heavenly Master he applied and kept himself at last God throughly made him first to know the Soul which he had breathed into him as to its Faculties Capacities Worth and Usefulness God made him feel and mind that Body wherein this Soul of his was lodged and wherein and how far his better Part might be helped or hinder'd thereby and the two Worlds whereto both Soul and Body were related and wherewith they were variously concerned And in this World God fix'd him in such a Prospect of another as made him intimately and sharply feel both what and where amidst what Circumstances and to what purposes he here a bode in painful exercised and declining Flesh. And all this gave him great Advantages and Inducements to deal more closely skilfully diligently and constantly and importunately with Souls about their great Concerns And what a Transcript God made him of what the Apostle speaks as to himself and Timothy in Col. 1. 25 29. the following History of his Kidderminster and other Labours and Successes in the
Gospel will convince you to great Satisfaction as also of what Oppositions and Deâiverances and Preservations he met with there And you have here some Taââs and Informations of his Thoughts and Studies and of his Books and Letters to divers Persons of different Stations and Quality and also of what Pens and Spirits wrote against him He was of such Repute and Figure in his day as that many coveted to see his Face to hear his Voice and to receive his Resolution of weighty Cases of Conscience proposed to him And in all this you will find that verified of him which the Lord Bacon hath deliver'd from his Pen viz. Much Reading makes Men full Much Writing makes them judicious and acute and much Conversation makes them ready I have been amazed to see how hastily he turned over Volumes how intimately he understood them how strangely he retained his Reading and how pertinently he could use it to every proposed Case Men stayed not long for what they wrote to him about and what he wrote was to great satisfaction and to the purpose He wrote his Books with quick dispatch and never but when he thought them needful and his duty then to write them And when as the Reader well considers his Apology for his Books hereafter mentioned let him but seriously weigh what is alledged and accordingly form his Censures His mentioned and recited Casuistical Letters and Books savour at least of Thought and Pains and perhaps the Reader 's patient and attentive minding of both his mention'd Books and Letters will not be loss of time and pains And though through too much haste and heedlesness some few Escapes perhaps Inaccuracies in the beginning may distaste his curious eye yet a very few Pages following will yield him better Entertainment § VII But the great things which are as the Spirit of this History are the Accounts he gives of the Original Springs and Sources of all these Revolutions Distractions and Disasters which happen'd from the Civil Wars betwixt King Charles the First to the Restoration of Charles the Second and whaâ was Consequent after thereupon to Church and State And here we shall find various and great Occurrences springing from different Principles Tempers and Interests directed to different Ends and resolved into different Events and Issues The Historian endeavours to be faithful candid and severe Nothing of real serviceable Truth would he conceal Nothing but what was influential on and might or did affect the Publick Interest would he expose to Publick View Nothing that might be capable of candid Interpretation or Allay would he severely censure Nothing notoriously criminal and fatal to the Common Good would he pass by without his just Resentments of it and severe Reflections on it As to his immediate Personal acquaintance with or knowledge of the things reported by him I know no further of that than as he himself relates As to what he received from others by Report how far his Information was true or false I know not Indeed I wrote with tender and affectionate respect and reverence to the Doctors Name and Memory to Madam Owen to desire her to send me what she could well attested in favour of the Doctor that I might insert it in the Margent where he is mentioned as having an hand in that Affair at Wallingford House or that I might expunge that passage But this offer being rejected with more contemptuousness and smartness than my Civility deserved I had no more to do than to let that pass upon Record and to rely upon Mr. Baxter's report and the concurrent Testimonies of such as knew the Intreagues of those Times Yet that I might deal uprightly and upon the square I have mention'd this though obiter to testifie my Respects to him with whom I never was but once but I was treated by him then with very great Civility indeed § VIII I cannot deny but it would have been of great advantage to the acceptableness and usefulness of this Book had it's Reverend Author himself revised compleated and corrected it and published it himself I am sure it had ministred more abundantly to my satisfaction for I neither craved nor expected such a Trust and Legacy as his Manuscripts Nor knew I any thing of this his kind purpose and will till two or three days before he dyed My Heart akes exceedingly at every remembrance of my incumbent Trust and at the thoughts of my Account for all at last I am deeply sensible of my inability for such Work even to discouragement and no small Consternation of Spirit I want not apprehensions of the Pardon which I shall need from God and Candour from Men both which I humbly beg for as upon the knee I know the heart and kindness and clemency of my God through Jesus Christ But I know not yet what Men will think speak write concerning me God speak to Men for me or give me Grace and Wisdom to bear and to improve their Censures and Reflections if such things must be my Discipline and Lot Quo quisque est major magis est placabilis ira Et faciles motus mens Generosa capit Corpora Magnanimo satis est prostrasse Leont Pugna suum sinem cum jacet hostis habet At lupus turpes instant Morientibus ursi Et quaecunque minor nobilitate fera est Ovid. Trist. Eleg. iv However let the Reader bear with me if I attempt to obviate what I apprehend most likely for Men to reply and urge upon me by offering these things to serious and impartial Thoughts relating to 1. The Author 2. The Treatise 3. The Publication And 4. My self First the Author 1. He was one who lov'd to see and set things in their clearest and most genuine Light he well considered what sort and size of Evidence and Proof all things were capable of Matters of Sense are evident by their due Appulses on the Senses Matters of Doctrinal Truth by Demonstration Matters of History by credible report and he could consider well how Certainty and Probability differed Nor was he willing to he imposed upon or deceived through Prejudice Laziness Interest or a factious Spirit To say he never was mistaken for undoubtedly he had his Errours and Mistakes some of them retracted and publickly acknowledg'd by him when discern'd is to attribute more to him than any meer Man can say and more than any impartial and severe Student will arrogate to himself I shall never call the Retractation of a discovered Errour or Mistake a Fault but rather a commendable Excellence and I judge it better to argue closely than bitterly to recriminate or traduce Truth needs neither Scoff nor Satyr to defend it 2. This made him so solicitous to leave behind him such an Impartial Account of the History of his Times and of his own Endeavours in his place and day to promote Holiness Truth and Peace 3. He hence observ'd how these great Concerns were either promoted or obstructed and by whom What was
amiss or right either in himself or others c. 4. He was concerned to prevent Misapprehensions Prejudice Censures and Scandals for time to come to call the Guilty to Repentance to clear the Innocent and warn the present and succeeding Generations against their being split upon the like Rocks to lay all Miscarriages at their right Doors and to undeceive Forreign Churches and Kingdoms and to deliver them from being imposed on by false Representations of our Affairs at home 5. He had an acrimonious pungent Sââle indeed contracted by his plain dealing with obstinate Sinners which he told me was much severer than his Spirit was He lov'd to give Sins and Sinners what Names might make themselves and all Men most sensible of their aggravated Crimes And yet he was averse from blackning them more than there was reason for in his judgment and from concluding Men graceless or hopeless from any particular Misdemeanours or Defects 6. He was publick spirited and valued not nor would he be swayed by Parties Names or Interestâ His Soul was drawn out to a greater length and wrought into a siner temper than to over-look any thing truly Excellent and Worthy in any one though of a different Character and Perswasion from himself as to things of a lower Nature and consistent with the Spirit and great Designs of Christianity I have heard him great and copious in his Commendations of several Prelates and Conformists And let the Reader pardon me if I tell him the Right Reverend the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Tenison the Reverend present Bishops of Worcester and Ely were expresly mention'd by him to me as Persons greatly admired and highly valued by him and of their readiness to serve the Publick Interest both Civil and Religious he told me he doubted not And for several of their excellent and useful Labours I think my self amongst many others obliged to bless God and thank them though I be unknown to them and indeed deservedly below their Notice His great Concern and vehement Desire was for a Comprehension fit to include all peaceable useful sober Persons And he thought it not impossible nor incongruous to fix upon Foundations large and strong enough so as to take in all that might fitly contribute to Publick Welfare into one good Constitution and Establishment And to my knowledge many are animated with the same Desires May not the Church of England be more evidently beautiful large and safe hereby And though Authority has not yet wrought us up to this I humbly judge that amicable Conversation amongst those that attend our respective Ministry and among us Ministers our selves would shew to all that we are propense to Peace and Love and to mutual Usefulness and Endearments It seems to me most strange and hateful that different Sentiments about disputable Matters should alienate Affections banish Civilities of Conversation and scarce be enquired into and debated about without scurrilous Reflections and enflamed Passions Rage and force may produce Hypocrites or Adversaries but scarce ever hearty serious Converts But for Men to be hired cheated frighted into a Change of Sentiment is very odd indeed Truth and Faithfulness are very valuable things and to me as worthy of a Commendation in a Conformist as in a Non-conformist vice versa Nor shall I count things better or worse for the sake of Persons in whom I meet with them Truth and Goodness make Men worthy but what can they derive from Men God hath shewed them to us in their proper Evidence fit for Discovery by impartial Search and at our peril is it to reject them Neither can any Man's Confidence or Passion change their Nature or justifie our Refusal or Mistakes thereof No wonder then if this Reverend Author be so impartially free in both his Narratives and Characters whilst the Publick Interest was so much in his Eye and lay so pressingly on his heart 7. Whilst so devoted to the publick good of Church and State he observed Persons enquired into Things studied Expedients consulted God and Man to know what was the likeliest way to heal the Wounds and settle the Peace and Welfare of Church and State and how to do this regularly and successfully was the solicitous Inquest and Endeavour of his Soul and if he did mistake his way it was not wilfully but through infirmity 8. But his defeated Expectations and Endeavours amidst those many Revolutions in his time from which resulted hindrances neither few nor mean made him more strictly to take the Minutes of Proceedings and Events as they occurred and so to make some fit Remarks thereon And having thus furnished himself with apt Materials and Memoirs he at last digested all into this following History which you have faithfully from his own Original abating some corrigenda Some little words supply'd here and there which currente calamo were left out Some small Chasms to be fill'd up whereto the current Sence directed us And in some Letters here inserted not being by himself transcribed the words being something less legible than others they must be almost guessed at Though these were few and no way affecting the Sence considerably And some Repetitions through the Author 's own forgetfulness left out But the History is entirely his transcribed and published as such from his own Copy which I keep by me for my own Vindication carefully and as a Memorial of himself with me Secondly As to the History I. Of what Concern and Consequence the Matter of it is the patient and diligent and judicious Reader may soon discern Weighty things when fully credibly and impartially related do readily commend themselves to the Reader 's Acceptation and they do as readily meet therewith where Ingenuity and Candour do prevail What these things are which the Historian mainly insists upon may be discover'd quickly by reading over the Contents thereof whereto I would refer the Reader First Lest the first sheet or two through their Graphical inaccuracy should be offensive to him and so discourage his progressive Reading The History takes it's rise indeed à leviusculis from meaner things which seeing the Author seem'd desirous and resolv'd to insert upon Reasons best known to himself indeed I durst not blot out Readers and Friends to the deceased may be of various Appetites and Humours and different Things may have their different Relishes from variously disposed Palates Why may not Histories take their start from smaller Matters and so proceed to greater as well as the material Origination of the Universe from its Chaos and of Humane Bodies from their first Dust or Seed I do indeed profess my grief and shame that they escaped me so inadvertently but I was then bereav'd of that Composure in my Thoughts through the tremendous Hand of God upon me otherwise which I will not now relate for otherwise my Caution had been greater and so those Sheets and other Passages more correct I had neither time nor strength to attend the Press so as to inspect the Impression sheet
by sheet and thereupon I trusted to the promised Care of the Booksellers but I found upon review the Errata to be more numerous and gross by far than ever I expected But if the Candid Reader will correct the Errata as they are render'd corrigible to his view I shall think my self greatly obliged to him But if the Reader 's first Historical Salute displease him as being much beneath his expected Entertainment one hours reading I hope he will find to be the utmost Exercise of his Patience from the meanness of the Matter at his Entrance into the Book II. As to the Author 's ordering and digesting of his own Memoirs a Rhapsody it now appears and as to method and equality of Stile somewhat below what curious Readers might expect yea and from what it had been had it but passed the Author's stricter Thoughts and View Yet we shall find the History greatly useful though not exactly uniform nor is it so confused as to be incapable of easie References and Reductions to such proper Order as may best please the Reader if the Design be clear and worthy viz. to set in open Light the degenerate Age he lived in the magnalia of Grace and Providence as to himself his Self-censurings on all occasions Caution and Conduct unto others and tracing all Events to their genuine Sources and Originals the judicious Reader will improve such things There were several Papers loosely laid which could not easily be found when needed And the defectiveness of my very much declining Memory made me forget and the more because of haste and business where I had laid them after I had found them And some few Papers mention'd and important here are not yet found though search'd after which yet hereafter may be brought to light amongst some others intended for the Publick View if God permit The Reverend Author wrote them at several times as his other Work and Studies and frequent Infirmities would admit of And he was more intent upon the Matter than the Method and finding his Evening Shadows growing long as the Presage of his own approaching and expected Change he was willing through the importunity of his Friends to hasten the compleating of his Works before he died And he had rather that the Work was done somewhat imperfectly than not at all It is true indeed that he hath left us nothing of the last Seven years of his Life save his Apology for his accused Paraphrase and Notes on the New Testament for which he was so fiercely prosecuted imprisoned traduced and fined And though some pressed me to draw up the Supplemental History of his Life yet the wisest that I could consult advised me to the contrary and I did take their counsel to be right and good for I well knew my self very unable to do that uniformly with the rest and I was not inclined to obtrude upon the World what was not Mr. Baxters Precarious Reputation I affect not That Fame cannot be rightfully my own which is not deserved by me And if this Preface and my subjoyned Sermon be but candidly received or moderately censured and any way tributary to the Reader 's benefit I shall rejoyce therein and not expect his undeserved Commendation III. I am well aware and think it worth my while to take notice of several Things which may awaken Prejudice Censure or Displeasure and occasion if not cause Objections and Offence as to the Treatise and my self which I would obviate and prevent at least allay if possible I neither love to kindle Flames nor to enrage them nor to contribute the least breath or fewel to them I am for Faithfulness and Truth in the softest stile and way consistent with the Ends and Interest thereof Flattering Titles and needless Pungencies I distast What was the Author's is not mine To publish is not always to assent And if Modesty and Self-diffidence do make me refrain from Censures and Corrections and Expunctions can that be esteemed culpable Especially when it is vel sole Meridiano clarius to both my self and every Man how much my Knowledge Parts Judgment Holiness and Advantages to know what he Reports and Censures come short of what his were Most of the Persons if not well nigh all censured by him were altogether unknown to me Nor do I find them all or many mentioned by him as utterly ungodly or undone But as far as Miscarriages or Neglects upon the Publick Stage did minister to Suspicion and to the prejudice thereof affect the Publick Interest so far they are remarked by him with resentment If justly the Equity will justifie the Censure and evidently shew how much the Interest of Church and State lay nearer to and more upon his Heart than private Friendship or Concerns But if unjustly it is the undoubted right and duty of those that can to clear the Censured from all their undue Imputations and Aspersions and could I do it for them my Obligations to and value for this quondam excellent Historian and Divine should not prevent my utmost cordial Engagements in that matter namely to wipe of all Aspersions from the Innocent or to abate and lessen them as far as they are capable duly of Allays But let me meet the Reader with these cautionary offers I. Perhaps it may be thought unmeet by some that a Divine should turn Historian Answ. 1. Why not as well as Grotius Du Plessis Lassitius c. yea and King Iames the First meddle with writing about Sacred Things 2. Mr. Baxter was neither ignorant of nor unconcerned in nor unfit for such a Work as this who knew him better than he knew himself or did more intirely search into Affairs or lay under greater Advantages for pious and just Informations 3. He had no Advantages nor heart for Gain or Honour by this his Undertaking It is known he hath refused Preferment even by King Charles the Second but sought for none 4. Writing of Histories rather refer to Abilities than to Office Men may not govern Kingdoms Cities nor Societies till called thereto by solemn Designation be they never so throughly qualified nor can they administer in Publick Worship till called thereto by Solemn Ordination or as Probationers in order to that Office But Men may write for God and Common Good if they be able so to do For their Abilities Opportunities and Capacity for Publick Service are a Call sufficiently and safely to be depended on 5. The Author's Modesty Humility and well known Self-denial and evident Remoteness from all Pragmaticalness and Affectation may well prevent Suspicion of his Exorbitancy in this his Enterprize And 6. his great Ability and Concern to serve the Publick Interest when as all possible help was needful requisite and grateful may well implead such bold Retorts upon his Undertaking Who stays for a particular Commission to extinguish Flames or to give needful Informations of instant Dangers or of necessary Conduct when great Calamities or Miscarriages cannot otherwise be prevented 2. It is
not impossible that some will judge him too impudent and unworthy in branding Persons with such ungrateful Characters as do so evidently expose the Memory of the Dead and Living or their Posterity and intimate to disgrace But 1. Matters of Fact notoriously known are speaking things themselves and their Approbation or Dislike from others should be as Publick as the Things themselves Matters of Publick Evidence and Influence are as the Test of Publick Sentiments and of the prevailing temper of those Communities wherein such things were done And can Civilities of Conversation or Interest or Personal Respects and Tenderness be an Equivalent with God to what is expected by him from Bodies Politick or from his faithful Servants in them 2. The Author blames himself as freely and as publickly confesseth and blames his own Miscarriages as he doth any other 3. He spares no Man nor Party which he saw culpable and verily thought reproveable on just grounds Nor is he sparing of fit Commendations nor of moderating his Reprehensions where he saw the Case would bear it 4. He was far from Partiality and addictedness to any Party Good and Evil Truth and Falshood Faithfulness and Persidiousness Wisdom and Folly Considerateness and Temerity c. they were respectively commended or dispraised wherever they were found 5. Though Oliver Cromwell once Protector Dr. Owen and others seem to be sharply censur'd by him in the thoughts of those that valued them yet let the assigned Reasons be considered by the Reader and let him fairly try his own strength in either disproving the Matters of Fact and so impeach the Truth of the History or in justifying what was done and so implead the Criminal Charge or in allaying the Censure by weighing well how much of their reported or arraigned Miscarriages may and ought to be ascribed to meer Infirmity or Mistake or by preponderating their censured Crimes with other worthy Deeds and Characters justly challenging Commendations For as to Oliver Cromwell what Apprehensions and Inducements governed him and what hold they took upon his Conscience and how far he acted in faithfulness thereto as in designed reference to God's Glory to the Advancement of Religion to the Reformation of a debauched Age and to the Preservation of these Kingdoms from Popery Slavery and Arbitrariness the general Fear and Plea of these Kingdoms at that time whether without or with good ground let others judge is not for me here to determine I have heard much of his Personal and Family Strictness and Devotion Of his Appeals to God for the Sincerity of his Designs and Heart from some who have heard him make them as they have credibly told me Of his Encouragement of âââious Godliness and of the great Discouragement which Irreligion and Prophâneness and Debauchery ever met with from him These Things were good and great But from what Principles they came and by what right from God and Man they were his Rectoral Province and to what ultimate End he really did direct them these Things require deeper Thoughts than mine in order to a sober Judgment on them It is more than I can do to vindicate his Right to Govern and to behead our King and to keep out another but I am alway glad of any thing which may allay the Guilt of Men though I had rather find no Guilt nor any appearance or suspicion of it that shall need Charity or Industry to extenuate or allay it God grant these Kingdoms greater Care and Wisdom for time to come and cause us to sit peaceably orderly obediently submissively and thankfully under the gracious Government of King William our present rightful and lawful Soveraign in so great Mercy to these Kingdoms whom may the most high God long preserve conduct and greatly prosper 6. As to the Relatives and under Agents of Oliver Cromwell I offer these things 1. The Author would not charge them with what they never did 2. Their Disadvantages through the Exigencies Influences and Temptations of their Day ought to be well considered lest otherwise Men be intemperate and excessive in their censorious Reflections on them Things now appear perhaps in a far clearer Light than heretofore 3. Instant Necessities may admit of greater Pleas and Men at a greater distance may not so sitly judge of present Duty or Expediency And 4. there is undoubtedly such a thing as interpretative Faithfulness and Sincerity which so far cheers Mens hearts and spirits resolution and appeals to God although the Principles which bear Men up herein may be and frequently are erroneous and but meer Mistakes 5. We know not all that men can say when calmly heard and fairly dealt with for their own censured Actions by way of Apology or Defence 6. We must consider our own selves as in this World and Body and as liable to equivalent if not the same Dangers and Temptations The sence and provident reach of that Divine Advice Gal. 6. 1. is vastly great and greatly useful and would prevent rigid Constructions if well attended to 7. Oliver Cromwell's Progeny those that are yet alive are chargeable no further with his Crimes than they are approved by them and this I never heard them charged with since 60. I know them not but I have been told that they are serious peaceable useful commendable Persons and make a lovely Figure in their respective though more private Stations 8. As to Dr. Owen 1. It is too well known to need my proof how great his Worth and Learning was How soft and peaceable his Spirit for many of his last years if credible Fame bely him not And perrar'o in melius mendax fama He was indeed both a burning and a shining Light 2. As to the Wallingford-House Affair and the Doctor 's Hand therein our Reverend Author considered him and others as to what he thought culpable and of pernicious Consequence and scandalous Report and Influence as to both the present and succeeding Ages He had no Personal Prejudice against him or others But as both Church and State were so disorderly endangered and affected by what was there consulted and done so Mr. Baxter did so much resent the thing as to think it fit to be recorded and accented with fit aggravations as a Remonstrance to the Crime and as a Warning to the Christian World And he is not the only Person who hath believed noticed and blamed that Matter But that the Doctor is in his great Master's joys is what our Author hath reported his very firm perswasion of in print 9. As to our Brethren the Independants 't is true that no mean Ferment appears to have been upon the Author's Spirit But 1. is he sharper upon them then on the Presbyterians Anabaptists Prelates where he thought or found them culpable 2. What Party did our Author wholly side with 3 What bosom Friend did he ever spare wherein he sound him reprehensible 4. He was so intent upon Orthodox Doctrines Catholick Union Christian Concord and Behaviour and Peaceable Usefulness and
and the Rule of his Faith and Life And repenting unfeignedly of his Sins he did resolve through the Grace of God sincerely to obey him both in Holiness to God and Righteousness to Men and in special Love to the Saints and in Communion with them against all the Temptations of the Devil the World and his own Flesh and this to the Death If therefore these things were Believed and Consented to by him and if these things do essentiate our Saving Christianity and so be sufficient to make us all one in Christ why should some different Modes and Forms of Speech wherewith these great Substantials may and do consist obtain of Men to think him Heterodox because he uses not their Terms And why should such Distances and Discords be kept up amongst us whilst we all of us own all the forementioned Articles and are always ready on all sides to renounce whatever Opinions shall appear to overthrow or shake such Articles of Faith and Covenanting Terms with God and Christ And I cannot but believe that all Christians seriously bound for Heaven and that are fixed upon these Truths are nearer each to other in their Judgments than different Modes of Speech seem to represent them Of such great Consequence is true Charity and Candour amongst Christians 3. The Reverend Prelates and the Ministers and Members of the Church of England may possibly distaste his plainness with them and think him too severe upon them But 1. they are no Strangers to his professed and exemplified Moderation Who valued their Worth and Learning more than he did Who more endeavoured to keep up Church Communion with them by Pen Discourse and Practise though not exclusively Who more sharply handled and more throughly wrote against and reprehended total Separation from them than himself And what Dissenter from them ever made fairer and more noble Overtures or more judicious Proposals for a large and lasting Comprehension with them than they knew he did And who more fairly warned them of the dismal Consequences and calamitous Effects of so narrowing the Church of England by the strict Acts procured and executed against so many peaceable Ministers who thereby were silenced imprisoned discouraged and undone And how many Souls and Families were ruin'd and scandaliz'd by their imposed Terms another and that a solemn and great Day will shew e're long 2. Our Author never yet endeavoured to unChurch them nor to eclipse their Worthies nor did he ever charge their great Severities on them all He ever would acknowledge and he might truly do it that they had great and excellent Men and many such amongst them both of their Laiây and Clergy 3. He thought what I am satisfied is true that many of them little knew who and what was behind the Curtain nor what designed nor great Services were doing to France and Rome hereby 4. And his great Sufferings from them may well even as other things abate their Censuring if not prevent too keen Relentments of these Historical Accounts of them 5. And to leave these things out was more than Mr. Baxter would allow me or admit of Pardon one who acts by Order not of Choice 4. That such copious and prolix Discourses should be here inserted about Things fitter for oblivion than to be remembred may seem liable to Exceptions and Distast from some viz. such Discourses as respect the Solemn League and Covenant the Oxford Act c. Things now abandon'd and repealed by Act of Parliament for Liberty of Conscience But 1. those pressing Acts are yet upon Record and so exposed to the view of Men from Age to Age. 2. They represent Dissenters as an intolerable Seed of Men. 3. All Readers will not readily discern what here is said by way of Apology for those of whom such Acts took hold 4. Hereby Dissenters will appear to all succeeding Generations as a People worthy of nothing but National Severities and Restraints Whence 5. their Enemies will be confirmed in their groundless Thoughts and Censures of them 6. This will not lead to that Love and Concord amongst all Protestants which God's Laws and the Publick Interest and Welfare of Church and State require 7. Those things abode so long in force and to such fatal dreadful purpose as that the Effects thereof are felt by many Families and Persons to this day 8. And all this was but to discharge some of no small Figure in their Day from all Obligations to perform what had been solemnly vowed to God Surely such as never took that Covenant could only disclaim all Obligations on themselves to keep it by virtue of any such Vow upon themselves but to discharge those that had taken it from what therein they had vowed to God to do till God himself discharge them or that it be evident from the intrinsick unalterable Evââ of the Matter vowed that no such Vow shall stand is more than I dare undertake to prove at present or to vindicate in the great Day However a Man 's own Latitude of Perswasion cannot as such absolve another nor eo nomine be another's Rule or Law But 9. if these long Discourses be needful pertinent clear and strong as to the state of that Aââair their length may be born with 10. The Author thought it needful to have this set in the clear open Light to disabule all that had been imposed on by false or partial and defective History in this Matter and to remove or prevent or allay Scandal and Censure for time to come 11. And if such things be also published to make our selves and others still more sensible of what we owe to God and to our most gracious King and his late Soveraign Consort and our then most gracious Queen Mary not to be parallel'd in any History that I know of by any of her Sex for All truly Royal Excellencies and to his Parliaments who have so much obliged us with freeing us from those so uncomfortable Bonds what Fault can be imputed to the Publisher herein Shall Gratitude be thought a Crime though more copious in the Materials of it than may every way consist with the stricter Bounds of Accuracy 12. I am apt to think and not without cogent ground that very many Readers now and hereafter would with the Author have thought me unfaithful to themselves and him had I not transmitted to Posterity what he left and as he left it for their use And I hope therefore that the Reader will not interpret this Publication as the Product of a Recriminating Spirit God himself knows it to be no such Birth Thirdly The Publication 1. The Author wrote it for this End 2. He left it with me to be published after his Death 3. He left it to the Iudgment of another and my self only by a Writing ordered to be given me after his Death as my Directory about the Publication of his other Manuscripts which are many and of moment And if thâ rest entrusted with me about their being printed one or
poor Plowmen understood but little of these Matters but a little would stir up their Discontent when Money was demanded But it was the more intelligent part of the Nation that were the great Complainers Insomuch that some of them denied to pay the Ship-money and put the Sheriffs to distrain the Sheriffs though afraid of a future Parliament yet did it in obedience to the King Mr. Hampden and the Lord Say brought it to a Suit where Mr. Oliver St. Iohn and other âLawyers boldly pleaded the Peoples Cause The King had before called all the Judges to give their Opinions Whether in a Case of need he might impose such a Tax or not And all of them gave their Opinion for the Affirmative except Judge Hatton and Judge Crook The Judgment passed for the King against Mr. Hampden But this made the Matter much more talk of throughout the Land and considered of by those that thought not much of the Importance of it before § 25. Some suspected that many of the Nobility of England did secretly Consederate with the Scots so far as to encourage them to come into England thinking that there was no other way to cause the Calling of a Parliament which was the thing that now they bent their minds to as the Remedy of these things The Earl of Essex the Earl of Warwick the Earl of Bedford the Earl of Clare the Earl of Bullingbrook the Earl of Mulgrave the Earl of Holland the Lord Say the Lord Brook and I know not how many more were said to be of this Conâederacy But Heylin himself hath more truly given you the History of this That the Scots after they came in did perswade these Men of their own danger in England if Arbitrary Government went on and so they petitioned the King for a Parliament which was all their Consederacy and this was after their second Coming into England The Scots came with an Army and the King's Army met them near Newcastle but the Scots came on till an Agreement was made and a Parliament called and the Scots went home again But shortly after this Parliament so displeased the King that he Dissolved it and the War against the Scots was again undertaken to which besides others the Papists by the Queens means did voluntarily contribute whereupon the Scots complain of evil Counsels and Papists as the cause of their renewed dangers and again raise an Army and come into England And the English at York petition the King for a Parliament and once more it is resolved on and an Agreement made but neither the Scottish or English Army disbanded And thus began the Long Parliament as it was after called § 26. The Et caetera Oath was the first thing that threatned me at Bridgenorth and the second was the passage of the Earl of Bridgwater Lord President of the Marches of Wales through the Town in his Journey from Ludlow to the King in the North For his coming being on Saturday Evening the most malicious persons of the Town went to him and told him that Mr. Madestard and I did not sign with the Cross nor wear the Surplice nor pray against the Scots who were then upon their Entrance into England and for which we had no Command from the King but a printed Form of Prayer from the Bishops The Lord President told them That he would himself come to Church on the morrow and see whether we would do these things or not Mr. Madestard went away and left Mr. Swain the Reader and my self in the danger But after he had spoken for his Dinner and was ready to go to Church the Lord President suddenly changed his purpose and went away on the Lord's Day as far as Lichfield requiring the Accusers and the Bailiffs to send after him to inform him what we did On the Lord's Day at Evening they sent after him to Lichfield to tell him that we did not conform but though they boasted of no less than the hanging of us they received no other Answer from him but that he had not the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and therefore could not meddle with us but if he had he should take such order in the business as were fit And the Bailiffs and Accusers had no more wit than to read his Letter to me that I might know how they were baffled Thus I continued in my Liberty of preaching the Gospel at Bridgenorth about a year and three quarters where I took my Liberty though with very little Maintenance to be a very great mercy to me in those troublesome times § 27. The Parliament being sate did presently fall on that which they accounted Reformation of Church and State and which greatly displeased the King as well as the Bishops They made many long and vehement Speeches against the Ship-money and against the Judges that gave their Judgment for it and against the Et caetera Oath and the Bishops and Convocation that were the formers of it but especially against the Lord Thomas Wentworth Lord Deputy of Ireland and Dr. Laud Archbishop of Canterbury as the evil Counsellers who were said to be the Cause of all These Speeches were many of them printed and greedily bought up throughout the Land especially the Lord Falklands the Lord Digbies Mr. Grimstones Mr. Pims Mr. Nath. Fiennes c. which greatly increased the Peoples Apprehension of their Danger and inclined them to think hardly of the King's Proceedings but especially of the Bishops Particular Articles of Accusation were brought in against the Lord Deputy the Archbishop the Judges Bishop Wren Bishop Pierce and divers others The Concord of this Parliament consisted not in the Unanimity of the Persons for they were of several Tempers as to Matters of Religion but in the Complication of the Interest of those Causes which they severally did most concern themselves in For as the King had at once imposed the Ship-money on the Common-wealth and permitted the Bishops to impose upon the Church their displeasing Articles and bowing towards the Altar and the Book for Dancing on the Lord's Day and the Liturgy on Scotland c. and to Suspend or Silence abundance of Ministers that were conformable for want of this Super-canonical Conformity so accordingly the Parliament consisted of two sorts of Men who by the Conjunction of these Causes were united in their Votes and Endeavours for a Reformation One Party made no great matter of these Alterations in the Church but they said That if Parliaments were once down and our Propriety gone and Arbitrary Government set up and Law subjected to the Prince's Will we were then all Slaves and this they made a thing intolerable for the remedying of which they said every true English Man could think no price to dear These the People called Good Commonwealth's Men. The other sort were the more Religious Men who were also sensible of all these things but were much more sensible of the Interest of Religion and these most inveyed against the Innovations in the
for them it might have emboldned their Enemies against them and that if the permitting of Petitioners to crowd to them too boldly and speak too unmannerly can be called the raising of a War when they fought with none but were assaulted themselves then the calling up of the Army from the North was much more so and so they were not the Beginners Or had they been the Beginners it had been lawful being but to bring Delinquents to Justice as the Sheriff himself may in Obedience to a Court of Justice But the Irish Flames which threatned them were kindled before all these 3. To the third they said that the Parliament are Subjects limitedly and not simply as the King is not an absolute but a limited King viz. limited by the Laws and Constitutions of the Government they are Subjects to him according to Law but not subject to Arbitrary Government against Law Their Propriety is excepted in their Subjection and they have certain Liberties which are not subject to the Will of the King And also they said That as the Sheriff is a Subject and a Court of Justice Subjects and yet may resist the King's Letters even under the Broad-Seal and his Messengers or armed Men that act illegally because the Law which hath his Authority and the Parliament's enable them so to do so also may the Parliament which is his highest Court of Justice And they said that as they have a part in the Legislative Power they have part in the Summa Potesââas and so far are not Subjects And they said that the bare Title of Supreme is no Argument against the Constitution of a Kingdom though it be expressed in an Oath For the King is stiled the Supreme Governor of France and yet the Oath of Supremacy doth not bind us to believe that no French Man may lawfully âear Arms against him 4. They say to the fourth That they wholly grant it that though Religion may be the end of a lawful War yet not of a Rebellion nor may any Reformations be performed by any Actions which belong not to the Places and Callings of the Performers But where the means are Lawful Religion and Reformation are lawful Ends. 5. To the fifth they said That they agree with all good Christians and Protestants that true Authority may not be resisted by any Subject But all Protestants or most agree with them that a limited Governor which hath not Authority to do what he lists may perform an Act of Will which is no Act of Authority and that the Parliament was the highest Judicature and that it was Rebellion in them that resisted the Parliament in their legal prosecution of Delinquents and Defence of the Land and themselves and that Paul Rom. 13. determineth not at all whether the Emperors or the Senate was the higher Power and that the Resisters of the Parliament are the condemned Breakers of that Order and Command 6. To the sixth they said that they Charge nothing on the King but what their Eyes behold viz. That he hath forsaken his Parliament and raiseth Arms against them and protecteth Delinquents And this they mention but as Matter of Fact for the culpability they charge upon his evil Counsellors and Instruments For the King being no Subject is liable to no Accusations in any of his ãâ¦ã Irish the Papist and those guilty Persons who would ruine all to ãâ¦ã Justice whom they accuse and not the King And whateveâ ãâ¦ã King 's Declarations say Ship-money hath been imposed the Judges have been ãâã the German Horse were to have been brought in the Northern Army ãâã have been brought up against the Parliament the House was invaded and ãâã Members demanded a Guard was set upon them and their Destruction ãâã Enemies was powerfully endeavoured 7. ãâã the seventh they said That for the supreme legislative Authority to defend ãâã and the Land and for the King's Courts of Justice to prosecute Delinââ ãâã though against the King's Will is no dishonour to the Protestant Religion ãâã any thing like the Papists Doctrine and Practices of Rebellion nor any Justification of them If it were then the very Constitution of our ancient Government or Kingdom would it self be a dishonour to our Religion 8. To the last they say That Patience is our Duty so far as we are called to Sufferings and God is âo be trusted in the way which he hath appointed us But if the Irish Rebels had foretold the Parliament and Justices of their Insurrection and then exhorted them to Patience and Non-resistance and trusting God or if a Thief that would rob us to exhort us to be patient and not resist he doth but exhort us to be guilty of his Sin ãâã Protestants Patience was that which pleased the Irish or if a King must be brought in as a Party the French Mens Patience in the Parisian Massacre pleased Charles IX and the Executioners And if in all Countries the Protestants would let the Papists cut their Throats and die in the Honour of Patience it would satisfie those bloody Adversaries who had rather we died in such Honour than lived without it But if such Patience would be a poor Excuse for a Father that sought not to preserve his Children much less for the Paliament that stand still while Papists and Delinquents subvert both Church and State These were their Answers to their Accusers in those Points § 54. The Sum of those Reasons which satisfied many that adhered to the Parliament were these which I will but briefly name 1. As to the Danger of the State the Matters of Fact did make it seem undeniable to them Ship-money they judged not of according to the Sum but they thoughtâ Propriety was thereby destroyed and Parliaments cast aside and made unnecessary And they saw that this Parliament was called upon the Scots and then called Discontented Lords importunity after many Parliaments had been dissolved in displeasure and after they had been long forborn And the calling up of the Northern Army and the demanding of the Members made Multitudes think that the ruine of the Parliament was the great Design and their ungrateful beginning and proceedings made this seem credible so that I met with few of that sort that doubted of it But above all the Two hundred thousand kill'd in Ireland affrighted the Parliament and all the Land And whereas it is said that the King hated that as well as they They answered that though he did his hating it would neither make all those alive again nor preserve England from their threatned Assault as long as Men of the like malignity were protected and could not be kept out of Arms nor brought to Justice 2. The End of the War did much prevail with them For they thought that to master and destroy the Parliament was to leave the People hopeless as to any Security of their Propriety or Liberties or any Remedy against meer Will For there is no other Power that may relieve them And if Parliaments
Reputation of his Word and Cause Major General Skippon fighting valiantly was here dangerously wounded but afterwards recovered The King's Army was utterly lost by the taking of Leicester for by this means it was gone so far from his own Garrisons that his Flying Horse could have no place of Retreat but were utterly scattered and brought to nothing The King himself fled to Lichfield and it is reported that he would have gone to Shrewsbury his Council having never suffered him to know that it was taken till now and so he went to Rayland Caââââ ãâã which was a strong Hold and the House of the Marquess of ãâã a Papist where his Dispute with the Marquess was said to be which Dr. Baâly published and then turned Papist and which Mr. Christopher Cartright continued deâending the King Fairfax's Army pursued to Leicester where the wounded Men and some others stayed with the Garrison in a day or two's time the Town was re-taken And now I am come up to the Passage which I intended of my own going into the Army § 73. Naââby being not far from Coventry where I was and the noise of the Victory being loud in our Ears and I having two or three that of old had been my intimate Friends in Cromwell's Army whom I had not seen of above two Years I was desirous to go see whether they were dead or alive and so to Naseby Field I went two days after the sight and thence by the Armies Quarters before Leicester to seek my Acquaintance When I found them I stayed with them a Night and I understood the state of the Army much better than ever I had done before We that lived quietly in Coventry did keep to our old Principles and thought all others had done so too except a very few inconsiderable Persons We were unfeignedly for King and Parliament We believed that the War was only to sive the Parliament and Kingdom from Papists and Delinquents and to remove the Dividers that the King might again return to his Parliament and that no Changes might be made in Religion but by the Laws which had his free consent We took the true happiness of King and People Church and State to be our end and so we understood the Covenant engaging both against Papists and Schismaticks And when the Court News-book told the World of the Swarms of Anabaptists in our Armies we thought it had been a meer lye because it was not so with us nor in any of the Garrison or County-Forces about us But when I came to the Army among Cromwell's Soldiers I found a new face of things which I never dreamt of I heard the plotting Heads very hot upon that which intimated their Intention to subvert both Church and State Independency and Anabaptistry were most prevalent Antinomianism and Arminianism were equally distributed and Thomas Moor's Followers a Weaver of Wisbitch and Lyn of excellent Parts had made some shifts to joyn these two Extreams together Abundance of the common Troopers and many of the Officers I found to be honest sober Orthodox Men and others tractable ready to hear the Truth and of upright Intentions But a few proud self-conceited hot-headed Sectaries had got into the highest places and were Cromwell's chief Favourites and by their very heat and activity bore down the rest or carried them along with them and were the Soul of the Army though much fewer in number than the rest being indeed not one to twenty throughout the Army their strength being in the Generals and Whalleys and Rich's Regiments of Horse and in the new placed Officers in many of the rest I perceived that they took the King for a Tyrant and an Enemy and really intended absolutely to master him or to ruine him and that they thought if they might fight against him they might kill or conquer him and if they might conquer they were never more to trust him further than he was in their power and that they thought it folly to irritate him either by Wars or Contradictions in Parliament if so be they must needs take him for their King and trust him with their Lives when they had thus displeased him They said What were the Lords of England but William the Conquerour's Colonels or the Barons but his Majors or the Knights but his Captains They plainly shewed me that they thought God's Providence would cast the Trust of Religion and the Kingdom upon them as Conquerours They made nothing of all the most wise and godly in the Armies and Garrisons that were not of their way Per fas aut nefas by Law or without it they were resolved to take down not only Bishops and Liturgy and Ceremonies but all that did withstand their way They were far from thinking of a moderate Episcopacy or of any healing way between the Episcopal and the Presbyterians They most honoured the Separatists Anabaptists and Antinomians but Cromwell and his Council took on them to joyn themselves to no Party but to be for the Liberty of all Two sorts I perceived they did so commonly and bitterly Speak against that it was done in meer design to make them odious to the Soldiers and to all the Land and that was 1. The Sots and with them all Presbyterians but especially the Ministers whom they call Priests and Priestbyters and Drivines and the Dissemby-men and such like 2. The Committees of the several Countries and all the Soldiers that were under them that were not of their Mind and Way Some orthodox Captains of the Army did partly acquaint me with all this and I heard much of it from the Mouths of the leading Sectaries themselves This struck me to the very Heart and made me Fear that England was lost by those that it had taken for its Chiefest Friends § 74. Upon this I began to blame both other Ministers and my self I saw that it was the Ministers that had lost all by forsaking the Army and betaking themselves to an easier and quieter way of Life When the Earl of Essex went out first each Regiment had an able Preacher but at Edg-hill Fight almost all of them went home and as the Sectaries increased they were the more averse to go into the Army It s true that I believe now they had little Invitation and its true that they must look for little Welcome and great Contempt and Opposition besides all other Difficulties and Dangers But it is as true that their Worth and Labour in a patient self-denying way had been like to have preserved most of the Army and to have defeated the Contrivances of the Sectaries and to have saved the King the Parliament and the Land And if it had brought Reproach upon them from the Malitious who called them Military Levites the Good which they had done would have wiped off that blot much better than the contrary course would do And I reprehended my self also who had before rejected an Invitation from Cromwell When he lay at Cambridge long before with that
famous Troop which he began his Army with his Officers purposed to make their Troop a gathered Church and they all subscribed an Invitation to me to be their Pastor and sent it me to Coventry I sent them a Denial reproving their Attempt and told them wherein my Judgment was against the Lawfulness and Convenience of their way and so I heard no more from them And afterward meeting Cromwell at Leicester he expostulated with me for denying them These very men that then invited me to be their Pastor were the Men that afterwards headed much of the Army and some of them were the forwardest in all our Changes which made me wish that I had gone among them however it had been interpreted for then all the Fire was in one Spark § 75. When I had informed my self to my sorrow of the state of the Army Capt. Evanson one of my Orthodox Informers desired me yet to come to their Regiment telling me that it was the most religious most valiant most succesful of all the Army but in as much danger as any one whatsoever I was loth to leave my Studies and Friends and Quietness at Coventry to go into an Army so contrary to my Judgment but I thought the Publick Good commanded me and so I gave him some Encouragement whereupon he told his Colonel Whalley who also was Orthodox in Religion but engaged by Kindred and Interest to Cromwell He invited me to be Chaplain to his Regiment and I told him I would take but a days time to deliberate and would send him an Answer or else come to him As soon as I came home to Coventry I call'd together an Assembly of Ministers Dr. Bryan Dr. Grew and many others there being many as I before noted fled thither from the Parts thereabouts I told them the sad News of the Corruption of the Army and that I thought all we had valued was like to be endangered by them seeing this Army having first conquered at York where Cromwell was under Manchester and now at Naseby and having left the King no visible Army but Gorings the Fate of the whole Kingdom was like to follow the Disposition and Interest of the Conquerours We have sworn to be true to the King and his Heirs in the Oath of Allegiance All our Soldiers here do think that the Parliament is faithful to the King and have no other purposes themselves If King and Parliament Church and State be ruined by those Men and we look on and do nothing to hinder it how are we true to our Allegiance and to the Covenant which bindeth us to defend the King and to be against Schism as well as against Popery and Prophaneness For my part said I I know that my Body is so weak that it is like to hazard my Life to be among them and I expect their Fury should do little less than rid me out of the way and I know one Man cannot do much upon them But yet if your Judgment take it to be my Duty I will venture my Life among them and perhaps some other Ministers may be drawn in and then some more of the Evil may be prevented The Ministers finding my own Judgment for it and being moved with the Cause did unanimously give their Judgment for my going Hereupon I went strait to the Committee and told them that I had an Invitation to the Army and desired their Consent to go They consulted a while and then left it wholly to the Governour saying That if he consented they should not hinder me It fell out that Col. Barker the Governour was just then to be turned out as a Member of Parliament by the Self-denying Vote And one of his Captains was to be Colonel and Governour in his place Col. Willoughby Hereupon Col. Barker was consent in his discontent that I should go out with him that he might be mist the more and so gave me his consent Hereupon I sent word to Col. Whalley that to morrow God willing I would come to him As soon as this was done the elected governour was much displeased and the Soldiers were so much offended with the Committee for consenting to my going that the Committee all met again in the Night and sent for me and told me I must not go I told them that by their Consent I had promised and therefore must go They told me that the Soldiers were ready to mutiny against them and they could not satisfie them and therefore I must stay I told them that I had not promised if they had not consented though being no Soldier or Chaplain to the Garrison but only preaching to them I took my self to be a Free-man and I could not break my word when I had promised by their Consent They seemed to deny their Consent and said they did but refer me to the Governour In a word they were so angry with me that I was fain to tell them all the truth of my Motives and Design what a case I perceived the Army to be in and that I was resolved to do my best against it I knew not till afterward that Col. William Purefoy a Parliament Man one of the chief of them was a Confident of Cromwells and as soon as I had spoken what I did of the Army Magisterially he answereth me Let me hear no more of that If Nol. Cromwell should hear any Soldiers speak but such a word he would cleave his crown You do them wrong it is not so I told him what he would not hear he should not hear from me but I would perform my word though he seemed to deny his And so I parted with those that had been my very great Friends in some displeasure But the Soldiers threatned to stop the Gates and keep me in but being honest understanding Men I quickly satisfied the Leaders of them by a private intimation of my Reasons and Resolutions and some of them accompanied me on my way § 76. As soon as I came to the Army Oliver Cromwell coldly bid me welcome and never spake one word to me more while I was there nor once all that time vouchfaced me an Opportunity to come to the Head Quarters where the Councils and Meetings of the Officers were so that most of my design was thereby frustrated And his Secretary gave out that there was a Reformer come to the Army to undeceive them and to save Church and State with some such other Jeers by which I perceived that all that I had said but the Night before to the Committee was come to Cromwell before me I believe by Col. Purefoy's means But Col. Whalley welcomed me and was the worse thought on for it by the rest of the Cabal § 77. Here I set my self from day to day to find out the Corruptions of the Soldiers and to discourse and dispute them out of their mistakes both Religious and Political My Life among them was a daily contending against Seducers and gently arguing with the more Tractable and
from their Houses and more such Penalties which I remember not so short Lived a Commonwealth deserved no long Remembrance Mr. Vines and Dr. Rainbow and many more were hereupon put out of their Headships in the Universities and Mr. Sidrach Sympson and Mr. Io. Sadler and such others put in yea such a Man as Mr. Dell the Chaplain of the Army who I think neither understood himself nor was understood by others any farther than to be one who took Reason Sound Doctrine Order and Concord to be the intollerable Maladies of Church and State because they were the greatest Strangers to his Mind But poor Dr. Edward Reignolds had the hardest Measure for when he refused to take the Engagement his Place was forfeited and afterwards they drew him to take it in hopes to keep his Place which was no less than the Deanarie of Christ's-Church and then turned him out of all and offered his Place to Mr. Ios. Caryll but he refusing it it was conferred on Dr. Owen to whom it was continued from year to year And because the Presbyterians still urged the Covenant against killing the King and pulling down the Parliament and setting up a Commonwealth and taking the Engagement some of the Independent Brethren maintained that its Obligation ceased because it was a League and the Occasion of it ceased And some of the Rump said it was like an Almanack out of date and some of the Souldiers said they never took it and others of them railed at it as a Scottish Snare So that when their Interest would not suffer them to keep so solemn a Vow their Wills would not suffer their Judgments to confess it to be Obligatory at least as to the part which they must violate § 100. For my own part though I kept the Town and Parish of Kiderminster from taking the Covenant and seeing how it might become a Snare to their Consciences yea and most of Worcestershire besides by keeping the Ministers from offering it in any of the Congregations to the People except in Worcester City where I had no great Interest and know not what they did yet I could not judge it seemly for him that believed there is a God to play fast and loose with a dreadful Oath as if the Bonds of National and Personal Vows were as easily shak'd off as Sampson's Cords Therefore I spake and preach'd against the Engagement and dissuaded Men from taking it The first hour that I heard of it being in Company with some Gentlemen of Worcestershire I presently wrote down above twenty Queries against it intending as many more almost against the Obligation as those were about the Sense and Circumstances And one that was present got the Copy of them and shortly after I met with them verbatim in a Book of Mr. Henry Hall's as his own one that was long imprisoned for writing against Cromwell Some Episcopal Divines that were not so scrupulous it seems as we did write for it private Manuscripts which I have seen and plead the irresistability of the Imposers and they found starting holes in the Terms viz. That by the Common-wealth they will mean the present Commonwealth in genere and by Established they will mean only de facto and not de jure and by without a King c. they mean not quatenus but Etsi and that only de facto pro tempore q. d. I will be true to the Government of England though at the present the King and House of Lords are put out of the Exercise of their power These were the Expositions of many Episcopal Men and others that took it But I endeavoured to evince that this is meer jugling and jesting with Matters too great to be jested with And that as they might easily know that the Imposers had another sense so as easily might they know that the words in their own obvious usual sense among men must be taken as the Promise or Engagement of a Subject as such to a Form of Government now pretended to be established And that the Subjects Allegiance or Fidelity to his Rulers can be acknowledged and given in no plainer words And that by such Interpretations and Stretchings of Conscience any Treasonable Oath or Promise may be taken and no Bonds of Society can signifie much with such Interpreters § 101. England and Ireland being thus Conquered by Cromwell by deluding well-meaning Men into his Service and covering his Ambition with the Lord Fairfax's Generalship the Parliament being imprisoned and cast out the King cut off and the Rump established as a new Commonwealth those great and solid Men Pim Hampden c. being long before dead and rid out of his way who else had been like to have prevailed against the Plots of Vane in the Parliament you would think there were nothing now standing in his way to hinder him from laying hands upon the Crown But four Impediments yet stood before him 1. The numerous Cavaliers or Royalists ready for new Enterprizes against him 2. The Scots who resolved to stick to the Covenant and the King 3. The Army which must be untaught all the Principles which he is now permitting them to learn For those Principles which must bring him to the Crown are the worst in the World for him when once he is there 4. The Ministers of England and Scotland and all the sober People who regarded them The first of these he most easily though not without strugling overcame making his advantage by all their Enterprizes The second put him harder to it but he overcame them at last The third proved yet a greater difficulty but he seemed absolutely to overcome it yet leaving still some Life in the root The fourth strove against him more calmly and prudently with invincible Weapons and though they were quiet were never overcome but at last revived the spark of Life which was left in the third and thereby gave a Resurrection to the first and second and so recovered all at last not to the state of their own Interest or to that Condition of Church Affairs which they desired but to that Civil State of Royal Government to which they were engaged and from which the Nation seemed to have fallen These are the true Contents of the following parts that were acted in these Lands The Rump I might mention as another of his Impediments but as they now were doing his work so I conjoyn the Relicts of them which then disturbed him with the Army who were the strength by which they did it § 102. The King being dead his Son was by right immediately King and from that time he dateth his Reign The Scots send Messengers to him to come over to them and take the Crown But they treat with him first for his taking of the Covenant and renouncing the Wars and the Blood that was shed in them by his Fathers Party By which I perceive that the Scots understood the Clause in the Covenant of Defending the King's Person and Authority in the Defence
that was the fourth Sect the Quakers who were but the Ranters turned from horrid Prophaneness and Blasphemy to a Life of extream Austerity on the other side Their Doctrines were mostly the same with the Ranters They make the Light which every Man hath within him to be his sufficient Rule and consequently the Scripture and Ministry are set light by They speak much for the dwelling and working of the Spirit in us but little of Justification and the Pardon of Sin and our Reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ They pretend their dependance on the Spirit 's Conduct against Set-times of Prayer and against Sacraments and against their due esteem of Scripture and Ministry They will not have the Scripture called the Word of God Their principal Zeal lyeth in railing at the Ministers as Hirelings Deceivers False Prophets c. and in refusing to Swear before a Magistrate or to put off their Hat to any or to say You instead of Thou or Thee which are their words to all At first they did use to fall into Tremblings and sometime Vomitings in their Meetings and pretended to be violently acted by the Spirit but now that is ceased they only meet and he that pretendeth to be moved by the Spirit speaketh and sometime they say nothing but sit an hour or more in silence and then depart One while divers of them went Naked through divers chief Towns and Cities of the Land as a Prophetical act Some of them have famished and drowned themselves in Melancholy and others undertaken by the Power of the Spirit to raise them as Susan Pierson did at Claines near Worcester where they took a Man out of his Grave that had so made away himself and commanded him to arise and live but to their shame Their chief Leader Iames Nayler acted the part of Christ at Bristol according to much of the History of the Gospel and was long laid in Bridewell for it and his Tongue bored as a Blasphemer by the Parliament Many Franciscan Fryers and other Papists have been proved to be Disguised Speakers in their Assemblies and to be among them and it 's like are the very Soul of all these horrible Delusions But of late one William Penn is become their Leader and would reform the Sect and Set up a kind of Ministry among them § 124. The fifth Sect are the Bethmenists whose Opinions go much toward the way of the former for the Sufficiency of the Light of Nature the Salvation of Hearthens as well as Christians and a dependence on Revelations c. But they are fewer in Number and seem to have attained to greater Meekness and conquest of Passions than any of the rest Their Doctrine is to be seen in Iacob Behmen's Books by him that hath nothing else to do than to bestow a great deal of time to understand him that was not willing to be easily understood and to know that his bombasted words do signifie nothing more than before was easily known by common familiar terms The chiefest of these in England are Dr. Pordage and his Family who live together in Community and pretend to hold visible and sensible Communion with Angels whom they sometime see and sometime smell c. Mr. Fowler of Redding accused him before the Committee for divers things as for preaching against Imputed Righteousness and perswading married Persons from the Carnal Knowledge of each other c. but especially for Familiarity with Devils or Conjuration The Doctor wrote a Book to vindicate himself in which he professeth to have sensible Communion with Angels and to know by sights and smells c. good Spirits from bad But he saith that indeed one Month his House was molested with Evil Spirits which was occasioned by one Everard whom he taketh to be a Conjurer who stayed so long with him as desiring to be of their Communion In this time he saith that a fiery Dragon so big as to fill a very great Room conflicted visibly with him many hours that one appeared to him in his Chamber in the likeness of Everard with Boots Spurs c. that an impression was made on the Brick-wall of his Chimney of a Coach drawn with Tygers and Lions which could not be got out till it was hewed out with Pick-Axes and another on his Glass-window which yet remaineth c. Whether these things be true or false I know not but the chief Person of the Doctor 's Family-Communion being a Gentleman and Student of All Souls in Oxford was thus made known to me His Mother being a sober pious Woman being dissatisfied with his way could prevail with him to suffer her to open it to none but me of whole Conversion to them their Charity was much desirous Upon discourse with the young man I found a very good Disposition aspiring after the highest Spiritual state and thinking that visible Communion with Angels was it he much expected it and protest in some measure to have attained it for some lights and odd sights he had seen but upon strict Examination he knew not whether it were with the Eye of the Body or of the Mind nor I knew not whether it were any thing real or but fantastical He would not dispute because he thought he knew things by a higher light than Reason even by Intuition by the extraordinary Irradiation of the Mind He was much against Propriety and against Relations of Magistrates Subjects Husbands Wives Masters Servants c. But I perceived he was a young raw Scholar of some Fryar whom he understood not and when he should but have commended the Perfection of a Monastical Life which is the thing that they so highly magnifie he carried it too far and made it seem more necessary than he should They then professed to wait for such a Coming down of the holy Ghost upon them as should send them out as his Missionaries to unite and reconcile and heal the Churches and do wonders in the World But its fifteen years ago and yet they are latent and their work undone § 125. Among these fall in many other Sect-makers as Dr. Gell of London known partly by a printed Volume in Folio and one Mr. Parker who got in to the Earl of Pembroke and was one that wrote a Book against the Assemblies Confession In which as the rest he taketh up most of the Popish Doctrines and riseth up against them with Papal Pride and Contempt but owneth not the Pope himself but headeth his Body of Doctrine with the Spirit as the Papists do with the Pope And if they could bring men to receive the rest it will be easie to spurn down the Idol of their Fantasie or pretended Spirit and to set on the proper Head again To these also must be added Dr. Gibbon who goeth about with his Scheme to Proselyte men whom I have more cause to know than some of the rest All these with subtile Diligence promote most of the Papal Cause and get in with the Religious sort
the Importance and Consequence of the War and making not Money but that which they took for the Publick Felicity to be their End they were the more engaged to be valiant for he that maketh Money his End doth esteem his Life above his Pay and therefore is like enough to save it by flight when danger comes if possibly he can But he that maketh the Felicity of Church and State his End esteemeth it above his Life and therefore will the sooner lay down his Life for it And men of Parts and Understanding know how to manage their business and know that flying is the surest way to death and that standing to it is the likeliest way to escape there being many usually that fall in flight for one that falls in valiant fight These things it 's probable Cromwell understood and that none would be such engaged valiant men as the Religious But yet I conjecture that at his first choosing such men into his Troop it was the very Esteem and Love of Religious men that principally moved him and the avoiding of those Disorders Mutinies Plunderings and Grievances of the Country which deboist men in Armies are commonly guilty of By this means he indeed sped better than he expected Aires Desborough Berry Evanson and the rest of that Troop did prove so valiant that as far as I could learn they never once ran away before an Enemy Hereupon he got a Commission to take some care of the Associated Counties where he brought this Troop into a double Regiment of fourteen full Troops and all these as full of religious men as he could get These having more then ordinary Wit and Resolution had more than ordinary Success first in Lincolnshire and afterward in the Earl of Manchester's Army at York Fight With their Successes the Hearts both of Captain and Soldiers secretly rise both in Pride and Expectation And the familiarity of many honest erroneous Men Anabaptists Antinomians c. withal began quickly to corrupt their Judgments Hereupon Cromwell's general Religious Zeal giveth way to the power of that Ambition which still increaseth as his Successes do increase Both Piety and Ambition concurred in his countenancing of all that he thought Godly of what Sect soever Piety pleadeth for them as Godly and Charity as Men and Ambition secretly telleth him what use he might make of them He meaneth well in all this at the beginning and thinketh he doth all for the Safety of the Godly and the Publick Good but not without an Eye to himself When Successes had broken down all considerable Opposition he was then in the face of his strongest Temptations which conquered him when he had conquered others He thought that he had hitherto done well both as to the End and Means and God by the wonderful Blessing of his Providence had owned his endeavours and it was none but God that had made him great He thought that if the War was lawful the Victory was lawful and if it were lawful to fight against the King and conquer him it was lawful to use him as a conquered Enemy and a foolish thing to trust him when they had so provoked him whereas indeed the Parliament professed neither to fight against him nor to conquer him He thought that the Heart of the King was deep and that he resolved upon Revenge and that if he were King he would easily at one time or other accomplish it and that it was a dishonest thing of the Parliament to set men to fight for them against the King and then to lay their Necks upon the block and be at his Mercy and that if that must be their Case it was better to flatter or please him than to fight against him He saw that the Scots and the Presbyterians in the Parliament did by the Covenant and the Oath of Allegiance find themselves bound to the Person and Family of the King and that there was no hope of changing their minds in this Hereupon he joyned with that Party in the Parliament who were for the Cutting off the King and trusting him no more And consequently he joyned with them in raising the Independants to make a Fraction in the Synod at Westminster and in the City and in strengthening the Sectaries in Army City and Country and in rendering the Scots and Ministers as odious as he could to disable them from hindering the Change of Government In the doing of all this which Distrust and Ambition had perswaded him was well done he thought it lawful to use his Wits to choose each Instrument and suit each means unto its end and accordingly he daily imployed himself and modelled the Army and disbanded all other Garrisons and Forces and Committees which were like to have hindered his design And as he went on though he yet resolved not what form the New Common-wealth should be molded into yet he thought it but reasonable that he should be the Chief Person who had been chief in their Deliverance For the Lord Fairfax he knew had but the Name At last as he thought it lawful to cut off the King because he thought he was lawfully conquered so he thought it lawful to fight against the Scots that would set him up and to pull down the Presbyterian Majority in the Parliament which would else by restoring him undo all which had cost them so much Blood and Treasure And accordingly he conquereth Scotland and pulleth down the Parliament being the easilier perswaded that all this was lawful because he had a secret Byas and Eye towards his own Exaltation For he and his Officers thought that when the King was gone a Government there must be and that no Man was so fit for it as he himself as best deserving it and as having by his Wit and great Interest in the Army the best sufficiency to manage it Yea they thought that God had called them by Successes to Govern and take Care of the Commonwealth and of the Interest of all his People in the Land and that if they stood by and suffered the Parliament to do that which they thought was dangerous it would be required at their hands whom they thought God had made the Guardians of the Land Having thus forced his Conscience to justifie all his Cause the Cutting off the the King the setting up himself and his Adherents the pulling down the Parliament and the Scots he thinketh that the End being good and necessary the necessary means cannot be bad And accordingly he giveth his Interest and Cause leave to tell him how far Sects shall be tollerated and commended and how far not and how far the Ministry shall be owned and supported and how far not yea and how far Professions Promises and Vows shall be kept or broken and therefore the Covenant he could not away with nor the Ministers further than they yielded to his Ends or did not openly resist them He seemed exceeding open hearted by a familiar Rustick affected Carriage especially to his Soldiers in
System of Divinity which having never yet had time to write I have omitted the reprinting of them to this day But some have surreptitiously printed them against my will In my Confession I opened the whole Doctrine of Antinomianism which I opposed and I brought the Testimonies of abundance of our Divines who give as much to other Acts besides Faith in Justification as I. And I opened the weakness of Dr. Owen's Reasonings for Justification before Faith in his former Answer to me To which he wrote an Answer annexing it to his Confutation of Biddle and the Cracovian Catechism to intimate that I belonged to that Party that I thought it unfit to make any Reply to it not only because I had no vacancy from better work but because the quality of it was such as would unavoidably draw me if I confuted it to speak so much and so offensively to the Person as well as the Doctrine that it would have been a Temptation to the further weakening of his Charity and increasing his desire of Revenge And I thought it my duty when the Readers good required me not to write to forbear replying and to let him have the last word because I had begun with him And I perceived that the common distast of Men against him and his Book made my Reply the more unnecessary But for all the Writings and Warth of Men which were provoked against me I must here record my Thanks to God for the Success of my Controversal Writings against the Antinomians when I was in the Army it was the predominant Infection The Books of Dr. Crisp Paul Hobson Saltmarsh Cradock and abundance such like were the Writings most applauded and he was thought no Spiritual Christian but a Legalist that savoured not of Antinomianism which was sugared with the Title of Free-grace and others were thought to preach the Law and not to preach Christ. And I confess the darkness of many Preachers in the Mysteries of the Gospel and our common neglect of studying and preaching Grace and Gratitude and Love did give occasion to the prevalency of this Sect which God no doubt permitted for our good to review our apprehension of those Evangelical Graces and Duties which we barely acknowledged but in our practice almost over-lookt But this Sect that then so much prevailed was so suddenly almost extinct that now they little appear and make no noise among us at all nor have done these many years In which effect those ungrateful Controversal Writings of my own have had so much hand as obligeth me to very much Thankfulness to God § 164. About that time having been at London and preached some Sermons there one scrap of a Sermon preached in Westminster-Abbey to many Members of Parliament was taken by some one and printed which is nothing but the naming of a few Directions which I then gave the Parliament Men for Church Reformation and Peace according to the state of those Times which it was preached in In Oliver Cromwell's time § 165. 10. And when I was returned home I was sollicited by Letters to print many of the Sermons which I had preached in London and in some of them I gratified their desires One Sermon which I published was against Mens making light of Christ upon Matth. 22. 5. This Sermon was preached at Lawrence Iury where Mr. Vines was Pastor where though I sent the day before to secure room for the Lord Broghill and the Earl of Suffolk with whom I was to go in the Coach yet when I came the Crowd had so little respect of Persons that they were fain to go home again because they could not come within hearing and the old Earl of Warwick who stood in the Abbey brought me home again And Mr. Vines himself was fain to get up into the Pulpit and sit behind me and I to stand between his Legs which I mention that the Reader may understand that Verse in my Poem concerning him which is printed where I say That At once one Pulpit held us both § 166. 11. Another of those Sermons which I published was A Sermon of Iudgment which I enlarged into a small Treatise This was preached at Pauls at the desire of Sir Christopher Pack then Lord Mayor to the greatest Auditory that I ever saw § 167. 12. Another Sermon which I preached at Martin's Church I printed with enlargement called Catholick Unity shewing the great necessity of Unity in real Holiness It is fitted to the prophane and ignorant People who are still crying out against Errours and Divisions about lesser matters while they themselves do practically and damnably err in the Foundation and divide themselves from God from Christ from the Spirit and from all the living Members of Christ And it sheweth how greatly Ungodliness tendeth to Divisions and Godliness to the truest Unity and Peace § 168. 13. About that time I had preached a Sermon at Worcester which though rude and not polished I thought meet to print under the Title of The true Catholick and The Catholick Church described It is for Catholicism against all Sects to shew the Sin and Folly and Mischief of all Sects that would appropriate the Church to themselves and trouble the World with the Question Which of all these Parties is the Church as if they knew not that the Catholick Church is that whole which containeth all the Parts though some more pure and some less especially it is suited against the Romish Claim which damneth all Christians besides themselves and it detecteth and confuteth dividing Principles For I apprehended it a Matter of great Necessity to imprint true Catholicism on the Minds of Christians it being a most lamentable thing to observe how few Christians in the World there be that fall not into one Sect or other and wrong not the common Interest of Christianity for the promoting of the Interest of their Sect And how lamentably Love is thereby destroyed so that most men think not that they are bound to love those as the Members of Christ which are against their Party and the Leaders of most Sects do not stick to persecute those that differ from them and think the Blood of those who hinder their Opinions and Parties to be an acceptable Sacrifice to God And if they can but get to be of a Sect which they think the holiest as the Anabaptists and Separatists or which is the largest as the Greeks and Papists they think then that they are sufficiently warranted to deny others to be God's Church or at least to deny them Christian Love and Communion To this small Book I annexed a Poscript against a ridiculous Pamphlet of one Malpas an old scandalous neighbour Minister who was permitted to stay in by the Parliament so far were they from being over-strict in their Reformation of the Clergy and now is a considerable Man among them § 169. 14. When we set on foot our Association in Worcestershire I was desired to print our Agreement with an Explication of
the Shell to a few more than else they would do Whereas upon my deepest search I am satisfied that a Credible Profession of true Christianity is it that denominateth the Adult visible Christians And that this must contain Assent and Consent even all that is in the Baptismal Covenant and no more and therefore Baptism is called our Christning But withal that the Independants bring in Tyranny and Confusion whilst they will take no Profession as Credible which hath not more to make it credible than God and Charity require And that indeed every man's word is to be taken as the Credible Profession of his own mind unless he forfeit the Credit of his word by gross ignorance of the Matter professed or by a Contrary Profession or by an inconsistent Life And therefore a Profession is credible as such of it self till he that questioneth it doth disprove it Else the Rules of Humane Converse will be overthrown for who knoweth the Heart of another so well as he himself And God who will save or damn men not for other mens Actions but their own will have mens own choosing or refusing to be their inlet or exclusion both as to Saving Mercy and to a Church state And if they be Hypocrites in a false Profession the sin and loss will be their own But I confess mens Credibility herein hath very various degrees But though my fears are never so great that a man dissembleth and is not sincere yet if I be not able to bring in that Evidence to invalidate his Profession which in foro Ecclesiae shall prove it to be incredible I ought to receive him as a credible Professor though but by a Humane and perhaps most debile Belief § 172. 17. After that I published four Disputations of Justification clearing up further those Points in which some Reverend Brethren blamed my Judgment and answering Reverend Mr. Burgess who would needs write somewhat against me in his Treatise of Imputed Righteousness and also answering a Treatise of Mr. Warner's of the Office and Object of Iustifying Faith The Fallacies that abuse many about those Points are there fully opened If the Reader would have the Sum of my Judgment about Justification in brief he may find it very plainly in a Sermon on that Subject among the Morning Exercises at St. Giles's in the Fields preached by my worthy Friend Mr. Gibbons of Block-Fryars in whose Church I ended my Publick Ministry a Learned Judicious Man now with God And it is as fully opened in a Latin Disputation of Monsieur le Blanc's of Sedan and Placaeus in Thes. Salmur Vol. 1. de Iustif. hath much to the same purpose § 173. 18. Near the same time I published a Treatise of Conversion being some plain Sermons on that Subject which Mr. Baldwin an honest young Minister that had lived in my House and learnt my proper Characters or short-hand in which I wrote my Sermon Notes had transcribed out of my Notes And though I had no leisure for this or other Writings to take much care of the stile nor to add any Ornaments or Citations of Authors I thought it might better pass as it was than not at all and that if the Author mist of the Applause of the Learned yet the Book might be profitable to the Ignorant as it proved through the great Mercy of God § 174. 19. Also I published a shorter Treatise on the same Subject entituled A Call to the Unconverted c. The Occasion of this was my Converse with Bishop Usher while I was at London who much appoving my Method or Directions for Peace of Conscience was importunate with me to write Directions suited to the various States of Christians and also against particular Sins I reverenced the Man but disregarded these Persuasions supposing I could do nothing but what is done as well or better already But when he was dead his Words went deeper to my Mind and I purposed to obey his Counsel yet so as that to the first sort of Men the Ungodly I thought vehement Persuasions meeter than Directions only And so for such I published this little Book which God hath blessed with unexpected Success beyond all the rest that I have written except The Saints Rest In a little more than a Year there were about twenty thousand of them printed by my own Consent and about ten thousand since besides many thousands by stollen Impressions which poor Men stole for Lucre sake Through God's Mercy I have had Informations almost whole Housholds converted by this small Book which I set so light by And as if all this in England Scotland and Ireland were not Mercy enough to me God since I was silenced hath sent it over on his Message to many beyond the Seas for when Mr. Elliot had printed all the Bible in the Indians Language he next translated this my Call to the Unconverted as he wrote to us here And though it was here thought prudent to begin with the Practice of Piety because of the envy and distaste of the times against me he had finished it before that Advice came to him And yet God would make some farther use of it for Mr. Stoop the Pastor of the French Church in London being driven hence by the displeasure of Superiors was pleased to translate it into elegant French and print it in a very curious Letter and I hope it will not be unprofitable there nor in Germany where it is printed in Dutch § 175. 20. After this I thought according to Bishop Usher's Method the next sort that I should write for is those that are under the work of Conversion because by Half-Conversion Multitudes prove deceived Hypocrites Therefore I published a small Book entituled Directions and persuasions to a sound Conversion which though I thought more apt to move than the former yet through the Fault of the covetous Booksellers and because it was held at too high a Price which hindred many other of my Writings there were not past two or three Impressions of them sold. § 176. 21. About that time being apprehensive how great a part of our Work lay in catechising the Aged who were Ignorant as well as Children and especially in serious Conference with them about the Matters of their Salvation I thought it best to draw in all the Ministers of the Country with me that the Benefit might extend the farther and that each one might have the less Opposition Which having procured at their desire I wrote a Catechism and the Articles of our Agreement and before them an earnest Exhortation to our Ignorant People to submit to this way for we were afraid lest they would not have submitted to it And this was then published The Catechism was also a brief Confession of Faith being the Enlargement of a Confession which I had before printed in an open Sheet when we set up Church Discipline § 177. 22. When we set upon this great Work it was thought best to begin with a Day of Fasting and
186. 30. The third Sheet was called One Sheet for the Ministry against the Malignants of all sorts containing those Reasons for the present Ministry which shew the greatness of the Sin of those that set against them It was intended then against the Quakers and other Sectarian Enemies to the Ministry but is as useful for these Times and against those that on other pretences hate and silence and suppress them and might tell their Consciences what they do § 187. 31. The fourth Sheet I called A Second Sheet for the Ministry being a Defence of their Office as continued against the Seekers who pretend that the Ministry is ceased and lost And it may serve against the Papists that question our Call for want of a Succession and all their Spawn of Sectaries that are still setting themselves against the Ministry and against the Sacred Scriptures § 188. 32. Mr. William Montford being chosen Bayliff of Kiderminster desired me to write him down a few brief Instructions for the due Execution of his Office of Magistracy that he might so pass it as to have Comfort and not Trouble in the Review which having done considering how many Mayors and Bayliffs and Countrey Justices needed it as well as he I printed it in an open Sheet to stick upon a Wall Entituled Directions for Iustices of Peace especially in Corporations for the Discharge of their Duties to God suited to those Times § 189. 33. Mr. Iohn Dury having spent thirty Years in Endeavours to reconcile the Lutherans and Calvanists was now going over Sea again upon that Work and desired the Judgment of our Association how it should be successfully expedited which at their desire I drew up more largely in Latin and more briefly in English The English Letter he printed as my Letter to Mr. Dury for Pacification § 190. 34. About that time Mr. Ionathan Hanmer of Devonshire wrote a Treatise for Confirmation as the most expedient means to reform our Churches and reconcile all that disagree about the Qualification of Church Members I liked the Design so well having before written for it in my Treatise of Baptism that being requested I put a large Epistle before it and after that when some Brethren desired me to produce more Scripture Proof for it than he had done I wrote a small Treatise called Confirmation and Restauration the necessary means to Reformation and Reconciliation But the times changed before it could be much practised § 191. 35. Sergeant Shephard an honest Lawyer wrote a little Book of Sincerâty and Hypocrisy and in the end of it Mr. Tho. Barlow afterward Bishop of Lincoln wrote without his Name an Appendix in Confutation of a supposed Opinion of mine that Saving Grace differeth not Specie but Gradu from Common Grace To which I replied in a short Discourse called Of Saving Faith c. I had most highly valued the Author whom I wrote against long before for his Six Exercitations in the end of Schibler's Metaphysicks But in his Attempt against me he came quite below himself as I made manifest and he resolved to make no Answer to it In this Tractate the Printer plaid his part so shamefully that the Book is scarcely to be understood § 192. 36. Being greatly apprehensive of the Commonness and Danger of the Sin of Selfishness as the Summ and Root of all positive Evil I preached many Sermons against it and at the Request of some Friends I published them entituled A. Treatise of Self-denial which found better acceptance than most of my other but yet prevented not the ruine of Church and State and Millions of Souls by that Sin § 193. 37. After that I published Five Disputations about Church-Government in order to the Reconciliation of the differing Parties In the first I proved that the English Diocesance Prelacy is intollerable which none hath answered In the Second I have proved the Validity of the Ordination then exercised without Diocesanes in England which no Man hath answered though many have urged Men to be re-ordained In the third I proved that there are dives sorts of Episcopacy lawful and desirable In the fourth and fifth I shew the lawfulness of some Ceremonies and of a Liturgy and what is unlawful here This Book being published when Bishops Liturgy and Ceremonies were most decryed and opposed was of good use to declare my Judgment when the King came in for if I had said as much then I had been judged but a Temporizer But as it was effectual to settle many in a Moderation so it made abundance of Conformists afterwards or was pretended at least to give them Satisfaction Though it never medled with the greatest Parts of Conformity Renouncing Vows Assent and Consent to all things in three Books c. and though it unanswerably confuted our Prelacy and Re-ordination and consequently the Renunciation of the Vow against Prelacy and opposed the Cross in Baptism But Sicvitant Stulti Vitia as my Aphorisms made some Arminians If you discover an Error to an injudicious Man he reeleth into the contrary Error and it is hard to stop him in the middle Verity § 194. 38. At the same time I published another Book against Popery fit for the defensive part and instructing Protestants how to answer any Papist It is entituled A Key for Catholicks to open the jugling of the Iesuits and satisfie all that are but truly willing to understand whether the Cause of the Roman or Reformed Churches be of God In this Treatise proving that the Blood of the King is not by Papists to be charged upon Protestants I plainly hazarded my Life against the Powers that then were and grievously incensed Sir H. vane as is before declared And yet Mr. I. N. was so tender of the Papists Interest that having before been offended with me for a Petition against Popery and a Justice of all times spake against it on the Bench and his Displeasure encreased by this Book he took occasion since the King came in to write against me for those very Passages which condemned the King-killers Because comparing the Case with the Doctrine and Practice of the Papists I shewed that the Sectarians and Cromwelians had of the two a more plausible Pretence which I there recited he confuteth those Pretence of theirs as if they had been my own thereby to make the World believe that I wrote for the King's Death in the very Pages where to the hazard of my Life I wrote against it when he himself took the Engagement against the King and the House of Lords and was a Justice under Oliver and more than so signed Orders for the sequestring of others of the King's Party But the great Indignation against this Book and the former is that they were by Epistles directed to Ri. Cromwell as Lord Protector which I did only to provoke him that had Power to use it well when the Parliament had sworn Fidelity to him and that without any Word of Approbation to his Title Yet those that were
their own Infirmity nor yet the nature of Pastoral Government which ought to be Paternal and by Love nor do they know the way to win a Soul nor to maintain the Churches Peace 23. My Soul is much more afflicted with the thoughts of the miserable World and more drawn out in desire of their Conversion than heretofore I was wont to look but little further than England in my Prayers as not considering the state of the rest of the World Or if I prayed for the Conversion of the Jews that was almost all But now as I better understand the Case of the World and the method of the Lord's Prayer so there is nothing in the World that lyeth so heavy upon my heart as the thought of the miserable Nations of the Earth It is the most astonishing part of all God's Providence to me that he so far forsaketh almost all the World and confineth his special Favour to so few That so small a part of the World hath the Profession of Christianity in comparison of Heathens Mahometans and other Infidels And that among professed Christians there are so few that are saved from gross Delusions and have but any competent Knowledge and that among those there are so few that are seriously Religious and truly set their hearts on Heaven I cannot be affected so much with the Calamities of my own Relations or the Land of my Nativity as with the Case of the Heathen Mahometan and ignorant Nations of the Earth No part of my Prayers are so deeply serious as that for the Conversion of the Infidel and Ungodly World that God's Name may be sanctified and his Kingdom come and his Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Nor was I ever before so sensible what a Plague the Division of Languages was which hindereth our speaking to them for their Conversion nor what a great Sin Tyranny is which keepeth out the Gospel from most of the Nations of the World Could we but go among Tartarians Turks and Heathens and speak their Language I should be but little troubled for the silencing of Eighteen hundred Ministers at once in England nor for all the rest that were cast out here and in Scotland and Ireland There being no Employment in the World so desirable in my Eyes as to labour for the winning of such miserable Souls which maketh me greatly honour Mr. Iohn Eliot the Apostle of the Indians in New-England and whoever else have laboured in such work 24. Yet am I not so much inclined to pass a peremptory Sentence of Damnation upon all that never heard of Christ having some more reason than I knew of before to think that God's dealing with such is much unknown to us And that the Ungodly here among us Christians are in a far worse Case than they 25. My Censures of the Papists do much differ from what they were at first I then thought that their Errours in the Doctrines of Faith were their most dangerous Mistakes as in the Points of Merit Justification by Works Assurance of Salvation the Nature of Faith c. But now I am assured that their mis-expressions and mis-understanding us with our mistakings of them and inconvenient expressing our own Opinions hath made the difference in these Points to appear much greater than they are and that in some of them it is next to none at all But the great and unreconcilable Differences lye in their Church Tyranny and Usurpations and in their great Corruptions and Abasement of God's Worship together with their befriending of Ignorance and Vice At first I thought that Mr. Perkins well proved that a Papist cannot go beyond a Reprobate but now I doubt not but that God hath many sanctified Ones among them who have received the true Doctrine of Christianity so practically that their contradictory Errours prevail not against them to hinder their Love of God and their Salvation but that their Errours are like a conquerable Dose of Poyson which Nature doth overcome And I can never believe that a Man may not be saved by that Religion which doth but bring him to the true Love of God and to heavenly Mind and Life nor that God will ever cast a Soul into Hell that truly loveth him Also at first it would disgrace any Doctrine with me if I did but hear it called Popery and Antichristian but I have long learned to be more impartial and to dislike Men for bad Doctrine rather than the Doctrines for the Men and to know that Satan can use even the Names of Popery and Antichrist against a Truth 26. I am deeplier afflicted for the disagreements of Christians than I was when I was a younger Christian. Except the Case of the Infidel World nothing is so sad and grievous to my thoughts as the Case of the divided Churches And therefore I am more deeply sensible of the sinfulness of those Prelates and Pastors of the Churches who are the principal Cause of these Divisions O how many millions of Souls are kept by them in ignorance and ungodliness and deluded by Faction as if it were true Religion How is the Conversion of Infidels hindered by them and Christ and Religion heinously dishonoured The Contentions between the Greek Church and the Roman the Papists and the Protestants the Lutherans and the Calvinists have wofully hindered the Kingdom of Christ. 27. I have spent much of my Studies about Terms of Christian Concord and have over and over considered of the several ways which several sorts of Reconcilers have devised I have thought of the Papists way who think there will be no Union but by coming over wholly to their Church and I have found that it is neither Possible nor desirable I have thought and thought again of the way of the moderating Papists Cassander Grotius Balwin c. and of those that would have all reduced to the state of the Times of Gregory the First before the Division of the Greek and Latin Churches that the Pope might have his Primacy and govern all the Church by the Canons of the Councils with a Salvo to the Right of Kings and Patriarchs and Prelates and that the Doctrines and Worship which then were received might prevail And for my own part if I lived in such a state of the Church I would live peaceably as glad of Unity though lamenting the Corruption and Tyranny But I am fully assured that none of these are the true desirable Terms of Unity nor such as are ever like to procure an Universal Concord And I am as sure that the true Means and Terms of Concord are obvious and easie to an impartial willing mind And that these three Things alone would easily heal and unite all the Churches 1. That all Christian Princes and Governours take all the Coercive Power about Religion into their own hands though if Prelates and their Courts must be used as their Officers in exercising that Coercive Power so be it And that they make a difference between the approved
for such as Age or Persecution hindered to come to the more solemn Meetings yet Churches then were no bigger in number of Persons than our Parishes now to grant the most And that they were Societies of Christians united for Personal Communion and not only for Communion by Meetings of Officers and Delegates in Synods as many Churches in Association be And I saw if once we go beyond the bounds of Personal Communion as the end of particular Churches in the Definition we may make a Church of a Nation or of ten Nations or what we please which shall have none of the Nature and Ends of the Primitive particular Churches Also I saw a commendable care of serious Holiness and Discipline in most of the Independant Churches And I found that some Episcopal Men as Bishop Usher himself did voluntarily profess his Judgment to me did hold that every Bishop was independant as to Synods and that Synods were not proper Governours of the particular Bishops but only for their Concord § 6. 5. And for the Anabaptists themselves though I have written and said so much against them as I found that most of them were Persons of Zeal in Religion so many of them were sober godly People and differed from others but in the Point of Infant Baptism or at most in the Points of Predestination and Free-will and Perseverance as the Iesuits differ from the Dominicans the Lutherans from the Calvinists and the Arminians from the Contra-Remonstrants And I found in all Antiquity that though Infant Baptism was held lawful by the Churchâ yet some with Tertullian and Nazienzen thought it most convenient to make no haste and the rest left the time of Baptism to every ones liberty and forced none to be baptized Insomuch as not only Constantint Theudâsius and such other as were converted at Years of Discretion but Augustine and many such as were the Children of Christian Parents one or both did defer their Baptism much longer than I think they should have done So that in the Primitive Churchi some were Baptized in Infancy and some at ripe Age and some a little before their Death and none were forced but all left free and the only Penalty among men of their delay was that so long they were without the Priviledges of the Church and were numbred but with the Catechumens or Expectants § 7. 6. As to Doctrinal Differences also between Arminians and Anti-Arminians I soon perceived that it was hard to find a Man that discerned the true State of the several Controversies and that when unrevealed points uncertain to all were laid aside and the Controversies about Words were justly separated from the Controversies about things the Differences about things which remained were fewer and smaller than most of the Contenders perceived or would believe § 8. 7. Yea I found that our Doctrinal Controversies with the Papists themselves were very much darkned and seldom well stated and that in the Points of Merit Justification Assurance of Salvation Perseverance Grace Free-will and such others it was common to misunderstand one another and rare to meet with any that by just Distinction and Explication did well state the Controversies and bring them out of the Dark § 9. What I begin to write about any of these Doctrinal Differences in my Aphorisms Confession Apologie c. I will now pass by and the manifold Censures and Encounters which I had thereupon and the many Manuscripts of worthy Brethren animadverting upon my Aphorisms which I was privately put to answer Because it is not such Differences that now I am to speak of § 10. I perceived then that every Party beforementioned having some Truth or Good in which it was more eminent than the rest it was no impossible thing to separate all that from the Error and the Evil and that among all the Truths which they held either in Common or in Controversy there was no Contradiction And therefore that he that would procure the Welfare of the Church must do his best to promote all the Truth and Good which was held by every part and to leave out all their Errors and their Evil and not take up all that any Party had espoused as their own § 11. The things which I disliked as erroneous or evil in each Party were these 1. In the Erastians I disliked 1. That they made too light of the Power of the Ministry and Church and of Excommunication and did not distinguish sufficiently of a persuasive Power which is but private and is founded only in the Reason of the Speaker and a persuasive Power which is publick in an Officer of Christ which Camero well calleth Doctoral and is founded conjunctly in his Authority by God's Commission and his Arguments 2. That they made the Articles of the Holy Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints too insignificant by making Church Communion more common to the impenitent than Christ would have it and so dishonoured Christ by dishonouring his Church and making it too like to the Heathen World and breaking down the Hedge of Spiritual Discipline and laying it almost in common with the Wilderness 3. That they misunderstood and injured their Brethren supposing and affirming them to claim as from God a coercive Power over the Bodies or Purses of Men and so setting up Imperium in Imperio whereas all temperate Christians at least except Papists confess that the Church hath no Power of Force but only to manage God's Word unto Mens Conscienceââ § 12. In the Diocesane Party I utterly distiked 1. Their Extirpation of the true Discipline of Christ as we conceive by consequence though not intentionally not only as they omitted it and corrupted it but as their Principles and Church State had made it unpracticable and impossible while one Bishop with his Consitory had the sole Government of a thousand or many hundred Churches even over many thousands whose Faces they were never like to see not setting up any Parâchia Government under them But just as if the Archbishopsâ or rather the Patriarchs in Cânstantiââ's days should have deposed all the Bishops in the Empire and have taken all their Charges upon themselves 2. That hereby they altered the Species of Churches and either would deâ all particular Churches and have none but associated Diocesane Churches who hold the Communion by Delegates and not personally or else they would turn all the particular Parochial Churches into Christian Oratories and Schools while they gave their Pastors but a Teaching and Worshiping Power but not a Governing 3. That hereby they altered the ancient Species of Presbyters to whose Office the Spiritual Government of their proper Folks as truly belonged as the Power of preaching and worshipping God did 4. That they extinguished the ancient Species of Bishops which was in the times of Ignatius when every Church had one Altar and one Bishop and there were none but Itinerants or Archbishops that had many Churches 5. That they set up Courts that were more Secular
may read them After this I received from Sir Ralph Clare these ensuing Papers as from some Courtiers which are of the same Strain with Dr. Gunning's which with my brief Answer I adjoin SIR THE Influence and Power you have in the present Pastor of your Church who is much famed abroad and had in a reverend Esteem as well for Piety of Life as for his Learning Moderation and desiring the Peace of the Church gives Encouragement to your old Acquaintance and Associate in that One-glorious Court of England to desire the Favour that this inclosed Paper may be presented to his Christian View and Consideration presuming so great is his Charity that he will not leave any wounded Soul unhealed wherein he is able to bestow his Balm In this he extends not his Charity alone as to a single Person but in me there are many more of your Friends included who would have appeared in Person or met in Conference were is not our Mansions are at too great a distance and the Malignity and Iealousy of Times challenges Retirements rather than Assemblies It is not civil in us to chalk the Method of Answering the Queries yet for Easement Sake and Brevity it will be satisfactory his free Concession of any Proposals in the Affirmative to be true without any Enlargement of Reasons and for those Queries which may and must admit Divisions Distinctions and Discourse on the Case let the reverend Gentleman use his own Form Iudgment and Discretion as believing he will proceed with such Candor and Impartiality as becometh a Man of his Calling and Eminency waving all By-Interests and Relations to any Party or Faction either regnant or eclipst which Act will deservedly heighten the high Esteem he is valued at and your self by this Honour done engage me and many more of your old Friends in me to subscribe our selves Your Servants Theophilus Church A feigned Name April 20. 1655. Certain Queries and Scruples of Conscience offered to some Learned Divines for Resolution and Satisfaction 1. WHETHER may a Christian Magistrate tolerate Liberty of Conscience in Religion and Church Discipline without Scandal 2. Whether may and ought a tender Conscience exercise and use his Liberty and Freedom without Violence inforced by Superiors 3. Whether in Matters of Government Ecclesiastical depending only of Fact the general and perpetual Practice of the Church from Age to Age be not a sufficient Evidence and Warrant of the Right Truth and certainty of the thing 4. Whether the Vocation of Bishops be an Order Lawful in it self 5. Whether the Regiment Ecclesiastical by Bishops hath not continued throughout the Christian Church ever since the Apostles untill Calvin's days No Church Orthodox dissenting 6. Whether was there ever since the Apostle's days so much as one national Church governed by a Presbytery without a Bishop untill Calvin's Days If so where was the Original in what Place by what Persons of what continuance and how was it lost or changed into Episcopacy and upon what Grounds or Motives 7. Whether the present Ministry in the Church of England as it now separated from their lawful Superiors or Bishops be not Schismatical 8. Whether all these Ministers that have taken the Oath of Canonical Obedience to their Bishops and have backsliden and submitted to those Powers that violently deprived the said Bishops of their legal Powers and Iurisdictions by yielding a voluntary Obedience to their Ordinances are not under a high Censure of Perjury and Schism 9. Whether those Ministers now pretended to be made and ordained in the Church of England only by their Fellow Ministers without a Bishop be true Ministers or no or else meer Lay Persons and bold Usurpers of the Sacred Function and Order like Corah and his Complices 10. Whether all those Ministers which are now in actual possession of the late Incumbents Parsonages and Cures of Souls and deprived for their only adhering and assisting their late lawful Prince and their Governour and also their Bishops to whom they owed all Canonical Obedience without and beside any Legal Induction or Admission may not be reputed as Intruders and false Shepherds 11. Whether it had not been an excellent part of Christian Perfection rather to endure passively lost of Liberty Estate and even of Life it self for the maintenance and defence of the Iust and Legal Rights invested in the Church and the Bishops it 's Superintendent Pastors and the Liturgy and Service of the Church than carnally for Self-interest and Ends to comply and submit even against their knowing Consciences to a violent and meer prevailing power and force in the abolishing of Episcopal Power and the daily Prayers and Service used in the Church 12. Whether all such Persons be not guilty of Schism and of Scandal given which Communicate and be present in such Ministers Congregations and Assemblies whether in Church or in private Meetings to hear their Prayers or Sermons or receive their Sacraments according to the now present mode and form more especially in the participation with them in the Sacrament of the Eucharist Or how far may a good Christian Communicate with such without just Scandal given or taken 13. Whether it be lawful and just for any Orthodox Minister or Episcoparian to accept of any Benefice with Cure of Souls as the state of the English Church now standeth visible and ruling without guilt of Schism by compliance to their Form 14. Whether as the Condition of the present Church of England is The Ministers thereof may not legally and so justifiably exercise and use against the late Liturgy of the Church there being no Statute Law prohibiting the same And whether those that continue the Observation of the late Directory be not perturbers of the Peace of the Church especially since the limitation of trial by a pretended Legality and Command for its observance is expired and not reconfirmed 15. Whether the old Iewish Church had not set Forms of Prayer whether St. John the Raptist our Saviour's Praecursor and our blessed Saviour himself taught not their Disciples set Forms of Prayers and whether the Christian Church especially since the time of Peace from the violence of Heathenish Persecution had not nor generally used set Forms of Prayer And whether the Ministers now ex tempore Prayers in the Church be not as well a set Form of Prayers to the Auditors whose Spirits are therein bounded as any set Form of Prayer used in the Church 16. Whether may a Christian without Scandal given appear to be a Godfather or Godmother to a Child in these New Assemblies where the Minister useth his own Dictates and Prayers and not of the ancient Liturgy except the Words of Baptism I Baptize thee A. B. in the Name of the Father c. 17. Whether any Supream Earthly Power or Powers Spiritual or Temporal joint or separate can alienate and convert to secular uses or imployments any Houses Lands Goods or Things once devoted offered and dedicated to God and his Church
Schism and Herefie come to be opened it will not be found to lye where you imagin nor so easily proved as rashly affirmed or intimated 2. Do not be too sensible of Persecution when Liberty of Conscience is so proclaimed though the Restriction be somewhat on your side O the difference of your Persecution and theirs that suffered by you 3. The only conscionable and safe way for the Church and your own Souls is to love long for pray and consult for Peace Close in the unanimous practice of so much as all are agreed in In amicable Meetings endeavour the healing of all breaches Disown the ungodly of all Parties Lay by the new violent Opinions inconsistant with Unity I expect not that this advice should please the prejudiced But that it 's the only safe and comfortable way is the Confident Opinion of Your Brother Richard Baxter All the Disturbance I had in my own Parish was by Sir Ralph Clare's refusing to Communicate with us unless I would give it him kneeling on a distinct Day and not with those that received it fitting To which Demand I gave him this following Answer SIR UPon Consultation with others and my own Conscience I return this Answer to your last motion beseeching you to believe that it had been more pleasing if it would have stood with the pleasing of God and any own Conscience 1. In general it is my resolution to be so far from being the Author of any Divisions in any part of the Church of Christ as that I shall do all that lawfully I can to avoid them 2. I am so far from the Judgment and Practices of the late Prelates of England in point of compelling all to obey or imitate them in gestures and other indifferent things on pain of being deprived of God's greatest Ordinances which are not indifferents beside the ruine of their Estates c. that I would become all things lawful to all Men for their good and as I know that the Kingdom of God standeth not in such things so neither would I shut any out of his visible Kingdom for such things as judging that our Office is to see God's Law obeyed as far as we can procure it and not to be Law-gives to the Church our selves and in Circumstantials to make no more Determinations than are necessary left they prove but Engines to ensnare Mens Consciences and to divide the Church And as I would impose no such things on other Churches if I had power so neither will I do it on this Church of which I have some oversight 3. More particularly I am certain that sitting in the receiving of the Lord's Supper is lawful or else Christ and his Apostles and all his Churches for many hundred years after him did sin which cannot be And I take it to be intolerable arrogancy and unmannerliness to speak easily to call that unreverence and sawciness as many do which Christ and the Apostles and all the Church so long used with one consent He better knew what pleaseth himself than we do The vain pretended difference between the Apostles Gesture and ours is nothing to the matter He that sitteth on the Ground sitteth as well as he that sitteth on a Stool And if any difference were it was their Gesture that seems the more homely and no such difference can be pretended in the Christian Churches many hundred years after And I think it is a naked pretence having no shew of reason to cover it of them that against all this will plead a necessity of kneeling because of our unworthiness For 1. The Churches of so long time were unworthy as well as we 2. We may kneel as low as the Dust and on our bare knees if we please immediately before in praying for a blessing and for the pardon of our sins and as soon as we have done 3. Man must not by his own Conceits make those things necessary to the Church which Christ and his Church for so long thought unnecessary 4. On this pretence we might refuse the Sacrament it self for they are more unworthy to eat the Flesh of Christ and to drink his blood than to sit at his Table 5. The Gospel is Glad Tidings the Effects of it are Faith and Peace and Joy the Benefits are to make us one with Christ and to be his Spouse and Members the work of it is the joyful Commemoration of these Benefits and living in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And the Sacramental Signs are such as suit the Benefits and Duties If therefore Christ have called us by his Example and the Example of all his Church to sit with him at his Table to represent Our Union Communion and joyful redeemed State and our everlasting sitting with him at his Table in his Kingdom it as little beseems us to reject this Mercy and Duty because of our Unworthiness as to be our own Lawgivers And on the like Reasons men might say I will not be united to thee nor be a Member of thy Body or married to thee nor sit with thee on thy Throne Rev. 3. 21. according to thy Promise because it would be too great sawciness in me Gospel Mercies and Gospel Duties and Signs must be all suited and so Christ hath done them and we may not undo them 4. I must profess that upon such Considerations I am not certain that sitting is not of commanded Necessity as I am sure it is lawful nor am I certain that kneeling in the Act of Receiving when done of choice is not a flat sin For I know it is not only against Scripture Example where though Circumstances apparently occasional bind not as an upper Room c. yet that 's nothing to others but also it is against the Canons of Councils yea a General Council at Trull in Constantinople and against so concurrent a Judgment and Practice of the Church for many hundred years that it seems to fight with Vincentius Lerinens Catholick Rule quod semper ubique ab omnibus receptum c. Let them therefore justifie kneeling as lawful that can for I cannot and therefore dare not do that which shall be an owning of it when we may freely do otherwise 5. Yet for all this I so much incline to Thoughts of Peace and Closure with others that I will not say that sitting is of necessity nor that kneeling is unlawful unless where other Circumstances make it so nor condemn any that differ from me herein Yea if I could not otherwise Communicate with the Church in the Sacrament I would take it kneeling myself as being certain that the Sacrament is a Duty and not certain that kneeling is a sin and in that Case I believe it is not 6. As for them that think kneeling a Duty because of the Canons of the late Bishops enjoyning it I have more to say against their Judgment than this Paper will contain Only in a word 1. If it be the Secular Powers establishing those Canons that binds
set all in joint again by Violence and secure the Peace of Church and State And neither Pope Prelate nor Council should take this Work upon them which is his And therefore Magistrates should be Wise and Holy and fit for so great a Charge as they undertake It must be still noted that all this was when Diocesanes were put down and few saw any probability of restoring them and many religions Persons dreaded such a Restoration § 50. When Cromwell's Faction were making him Protector they drew up a Thing which they called The Government of England c. Therein they determined that all should have Liberty or free Exercise of their Religion who professed Faith in God by Iesus Christ After this he called a Parliament which Examined this Instrument of Government and when they came to those words the Orthodox Party affirmed That if they spake de re and not de nomine Faith in God by Iesus Christ could contain no less than the Fundamentals of Religion whereupon it was purposed that all should have a due measure of Liberty who professed the Fundamentals Hereupon the Committee appointed to that Business were required to nominate certain Divines to draw up in terminis the Fundamentals of Religion to be as a Test in this Toleration The Committee being about Fourteen named every one his Man The Lord Broghill after Earl of Orery and Lord President of Munster and one of his Majesty's Privy Council named the Primate of Ireland Archbishop Usher When he because of his Age and Unwillingness to wrangle with such Men as were to join with him had refused the Service the Lord Broghill nominated me in his Stead Whereupon I was sent for up to London But before I came the rest had begun their Work and drawn up some few of the Propositions which they called Fundamentals The Men that I found there were Mr. Marshal Mr. Reyner Dr. Cheynell Dr. Goodwin Dr. Owen Mr. Nye Mr. Sydraââ Sympson Mr. Vines Mr. Manton and Mr. Iacomb § 51. I knew how ticklish a Business the Enumeration of Fundamentals was and of what very ill Consequence it would be if it were ill done and how unsatisfactorily that Question What are your Fundamentals is usually answered to the Papists My own Judgment was this that we must distinguish between the Sense or matter and the Words and that it 's only the Sense that is primarily and properly our Fundamentals and the Words no further than as they are needful to express that Sence to others or represent it to our own Conception that the Word Fundamentals being Metaphorical and Ambiguous the Word Essentials is much fitter it being nothing but what is Essential or Constitutive of true Religion which is understood by us usually when we speak of Fundamentals that quoad rem there is no more Essential or Fundamental in Religion but what is contained in our Baptismal Covenant I believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and give up my self in Covenant to him renouncing the Flesh the World and the Devil He that doth this truly shall be saved or else sincere Covenanting could not entitle us to the Blessings of the Covenant And therefore it is that the Ancient Church held that all that are Baptized duly are in a Justified State of Life because all that sincerely give up themselves in Covenant to God as our God and Father our Redeemer and Saviour our Sanctifier and Comforter have right to the Blessings of the Covenant And quoad verba I suppose that no particular Words in the World are Essentials of our Religion Otherwise no Man could be saved without the Language which those Words belong to He that understandeth not Credo in Deum may be saved if he believe in God Also I suppose that no particular Formula of Words in any or all Languages is Essential to our Religion for he that expresseth his Faith in another form of words of the same importance professeth a Saving Faith And as to the Use of a Form of Words to express our Belief of the Essential it is various and therefore the Form accordingly is variable If it be to teach another what is the Essence of Religion a dull hearer must have many Words when a quick intelligent Person by few Words can understand the same thing I believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost expresseth all the Essentials intelligibly to him that hath learned truly to understand the meaning of these Words But to an ignorant Man a large plain Catechism is short enough to express the same things But as to the Use of Publick Professions of Faith to satisfie the Church for the Admittance of Members or to satisfie other Churches to hold Communion with any particular Church a Form of Words which is neither obscure by too much Conciseness not Tedious or Tautological by a needless Multiplication of Words I take to be the fittest To which ends and because the Ancient Churches had once a happy Union on those Terms I think that this is all that should be required of any Church or Member ordinarily to be professed In General I do believe all that is contained in the Sacred Canonical Scriptures and particularly I believe all explicitly contained in the Ancient Creed and I desire all that is contained in the Lord's Prayer and I resolve upon Obedience to the Ten Commandments and whatever selfe I can learn of the Will of God And for all other Points it is enough to preserve both Truth and Peace that Men promise not to preach against them or contradict them though they Subscribe them not § 52. Therefore I would have had the Brethren to have offered the Parliament the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue alone as our Essentials or Fundamentals which at least contain all that is necessary to Salvation and hath been by all the Ancient Churches taken for the Sum of their Religion And whereas they still said A Socinian or a Papist will Subscribe all this I answered them So much the better and so much the fitter it is to be the Matter of our Concord But if you are afraid of Communion with Papists and Socinians it must not be avoided by making a new Rule or Test of Faith which they will not Subscribe to or by forcing others to Subscribe to more than they can do but by calling them to account whenever in Preaching or Writing they contradict or abuse the Truth to which they have Subscribed This is the Work of Government And we must not think to make Laws serve instead of Iudgement and Execution nor must we make new Laws as oft as Hereticks will mis-interpret and subscribe the old for when you have put in all the Words you can devise some Hereticks will put their own Sence on them and Subscribe them And we must not blame God for not making a Law that no Man can misinterpret or break and think to make such a one ourselves because God could not or would not These Presumptions and
of the nearer Ends The Holy Ghost as Illuminating and so Revealing by the Instrumentality of the Word is in Efficiency and Dignity above the Word 3. The Apostles themselves were in order of Efficiency above the Writing or Letter of the Word though in order of Dignity the Scripture is above them 4. The Ministry and Teaching of Parents is as to the Original both subordinate to Scripture as commanded by it and co-ordiante as instituted and enjoyned before it by verbal Precept and doth still acknowledge this double obligation But it is subordinate to Scripture in Dignity and as to the nearer End 5. The same is true of Baptism and other Ordinances mentioned already 6. The delivery of the Scriptures down to our hands 1. As to acquaint us with the Canonical Books 2. And that these are all 3. And that they are uncorrupted in Matters of moment is in efficiency a co-ordinate Means of Revelation for it is not out of Scripture only that it receiveth its force but as to the End and the Dignity it is subordinate to the Scripture These things seeming thus to my apprehension I cannot yet acknowledge it a Truth that no Means of Revealing Christ is co-ordinate with the Scriptures I need to say no more to the Necessity and Fundamentality than I said in my last Paper I earnestly crave that the offering of these Reasons as my Diffent may not be offensive to you seeing I apprehend the Case to impose on me a Necessity there being no Means in the World that I remember more like to be an Engine to tear in pieces the Church than an unfound composure of Fundamentals I mean an Imposing of those Things as Fundamental which are not found whereby the most deserving may be ejected from the Ministry and censured to Damnation We are framing a Means of Union and not of Division And though it grieves me to be offensive to my Brethren yet had I rather suffer any thing in the World than be guilty of putting among our Fundamentals one word that is not true The Christian Faith hath been ever the same since the Apostles days and I find not that ever the Churches Fundamentals contained such an Article as this The Scripture nor the Assembly's Confession have none such that I know of The word Co-ordinate is so ambiguous that it is unfit to lay so great a stress upon it and the use of it here yet more perswades me that it had been better for us to adhere to Scripture Terms R. B. § 56. At last Twenty of their Propositions were printed for the Parliament But the Parliament was dissolved and all came to nothing and that Labour was lost § 57. At this time the Lord Broghill and the Earl of Warwick brought me to Preach before Cromwell the Protector which was the only time that ever I preached to him save once long before when he was an inferiour Man among other Auditors I knew not which way to provoke him better to his Duty than by Preaching on 1 Cor. 1. 10. against the Divisions and Distractions of the Church and shewing how mischievous a thing it was for Politicians to maintain such Divisions for their own Ends that they might fish in troubled waters and keep the Church by its Divisions in a state of Weakness lest it should be able to offend them and to shew the Necessity and Means of Union But the plainness and nearness I heard was displeasing to him and his Courtiers but they put it up § 58. A while after Cromwell sent to speak with me and when I came in the presence only of three of his chief Men he began a long and tedious Speech to me of God's Providence in the Change of the Government and how God had owned it and what great things had been done at home and abroad in the Peace with Spain and Holland c. When he had wearied us all with speaking thus slowly about an hour I told him It was too great Condescension to acquaint me so fully with all these Matters which were above me but I told him that we took our Ancient Monarchy to be a Blessing and not an Evil to the Land and humbly craved his Patience that I might ask him How England had ever forfeited that Blessing and unto whom the Forfeiture was made I was fain to speak of the Species of Government only for they had lately made it Treason by a Law to speak for the Person of the King Upon that Question he was awakened into some Passion and told me it was no Forfeiture but God had Changed it as pleased him and then he let fly at the Parliament which thwarted him and especially by name at four or five of those Members which were my chief Acquaintance and I presumed to defend them against his Passion and thus four or five hours were spent § 59. A few days after he sent for me again to hear my Judgment about Liberberty of Conscience which he pretended to be most zealous for before almost all his Privy Council where after another slow tedious Speech of his I told him a little of my Judgment And when two of his Company had spun out a great deal more of the time in such like tedious but meer ignorant Speeches some four or five hours being spent I told him that if he would be at the labour to read it I could tell him more of my mind in Writing in two Sheets than in that way of Speaking in many days and that I had a Paper on that Subject by me written for a Friend which if he would peruse and allow for the change of the Person he would know my Sense He received the Paper after but I scarce believe that he ever read it for I saw that what he learned must be from himself being more disposed to speak many hours than to hear one and little heeding what another said when he had spoken himself § 60. While I lodged at the Lord Broghill's a certain Person was importunate to speak with me Dr. Niââ Gibbon who shutting the Doors on us that there might be no Witnesses drew forth a Scheme of Theology and told me how long a Journey he had once taken towards me and engaged me patiently to hear him open to me his Scheme which he said was the very thing that I had been long groping after and contained the only Terms and Method to resolve all Doubts whatever in Divinity and unite all Christians through the World And there was none of them printed but what he kept himself and he communicated them only to such as were prepared which he thought I was because I was 1. Searching 2. Impartial and 3. A Lover of Method I thank him and heard him above an hour in silence and after two or three days talk with him I found all his Frame the Contrivance of a very strong Head-piece was secretly and cunningly fitted to usher in a Socinian Popery or a mixture of Popery and half Socinianism
Peace on these Terms how easily and safely might you grant them without any wrong to your Consciences or the Church Yea to its exceeding benefit How lowd do our Miseries cry for such a Cure How long hath it been neglected If there be any more than what is here granted by us that you think necessary for us to yield to on our parts we shall gladly revive your Demands and yield for Peace as far as is possible without forsaking our Consciences And what shall be agreed on we shall promise faithfully to endeavour in our places that the Magistrate may consent to it The inclosing Paper signified a readiness to yield to an Agreement on the primitive Simplicity of Doctrine Discipline and Worship as Dr. Heylin also doth We are agreed and yet never the nearer an Agreement O that you would stand to this in the Particulars We crave no more Q. 1. Did the ââimitive Church require Subscription to all in our 39 Articles or to any more than the words of Scripture and the Ancient Creeds in order to Mens Church-Communion and Liberty Were such Volumes as our Homiliâs then to be subscribed to Q. 2. Were any required as necessary to their Ministry in the Primitive Times to Subscribe to the Divine Right of Diocesan Prelacy and promise or swear Obedience to such Or to Subscribe to all that is contained in our Book of Ordination Q. 3. Were all most or any Bishops of the first Age of the lowest rank now distinguished from Archbishopâ the fixed Pastors of many particular Churches or of more Souls than one of our ordinary or greater Parishes Much less of so many as are in a Diocess Let us but have no more Souls or Congregations under the lowest rank of Bishops now than were in the first Age or second either ordinarily and we shall soon agree I think in all the Substance of Government Q. 4. Was our Common Prayer used and necessary to a Pastor's Liberty in the first or second Age Or all that is in it Or will you leave out all that you cannot prove to have been then used and that as necessary as now it is supposed Q. 5. Were the Cross Surplice and Restriction to kneeling in receiving the Eâcharist enjoyned by Peter or Paul or any in the first Age or second either or many after If you say that some Form of Prayer was used though not ours I answer 1. Prove it used and imposed as necessary to the Exercise of the Ministry and that any was enjoyned to Subscribe to it and use it on pain of Deprivation or Excommunication 2. If the first supposed Book of Prayers was necessary in Specie for continuance we must have it and cast away this thatâs pleaded for If it were not then why may you not as well dispense with this and change it seeing you cannot plead it more immutable than the supposed Apostolical or Primitive Prayer Book 3. When Forms of Liturgy came up had they not divers in the same Empire and also changed them in particular Churches as the Controversie between Basil and the Church of Neocaesarea shews c. And why then may not as much be granted now in England at least to procure Unity and Peace in other things after so long uncharitable Alienations and doleful Effects of them in the Church and State N. B. That the foresaid Exceptions against imposing the Subscription of the 39 Articles are urged ad hominem because though the Doctrinal Part of those Articles be such as the generality of the Presbyterians would Subscribe to yet I see not how the Reverend Brethren on the other side can possibly Subscribe them as reconcileable to the Principles published by many of them § 67. Shortly after this when Sir George Booth's Rising failed Major General Monk in Scotland with his Army grew so sensible of the Infolencies of Vane and Lambert and the Fanaticks in England and Ireland who set up and pull'd down Governments as boldly as if they were making a Lord of a Maygame and were grasping all the Power into their own Hands so that he presently secured the Anabaptists of his Army and agreed with the rest to resist these Usurpers who would have England the Scorn of all the World At first when he drew near to England he declared for a Free Commonwealth When he came in Lambert marched against him but his Soldiers forsaking him and Sir Arthur Haselrigge getting Portsmouth and Col. Morley strengthning him and Major General Berry's Regiment which went to block it up revolting to them the Clouds rose every where at once and Lambert could make no resistance but instead of fighting they were fain to treat And while Monk held them Treating his Reputation increased and theirs abated and their Hearts failed them and their Soldiers fell off and General Monk consulted with his Friends what to do Many Countreys sent Letters of Thanks and Encouragement to him Mr. Tho. Bampfield was sent by the Gentlemen of the West and other Countreys did the like so that Monk came on but still declared for a Commonwealth against Monarchy Till at last when he saw all ripened thereto he declared for the King The chief Men as far as I can learn that turned his Resolution to bring in the King were Mr. Clarges and Sir William Morrice his Kinsman and the Petitions and Affections of the City of London principally moved by Mr. Calamy and Mr. Ash two ancient leading able Ministers with Dr. Bates Dr. Manten Dr. Iacomb and other Ministers of London who concurred And these were encouraged by the Earl of Manchester the Lord Hollis the late Earl of Anglesey and many of the then Council of State And the Members of the Old Parliament that had been formerly ejected being recalled did Dissolve themselves and appoint the Calling of a Parliament which might Re-call the King When General Monk first came into England most Men rejected in hope to be delivered from the Usurpation of the Fanaticks Anabaptists Seekers c. And I was myâself so much affected with the strange Providence of God that I procured the Ministers to agree upon a Publick Thanksgiving to God And I think all the Victories which that Army obtained were not more wonderful than their Fall was when Pride and Errour had prepared them for it It seemed wonderful to me that an Army that had got so many great and marvellous Victories and thought themselves unconquerable and talkt of nothing but Dominion at home and marching up to the Walls of Rome should all be broken and brought into Subjection and finally Disbanded without one blow stricken or one drop of Blood shed and that by so small a power as Monk's Army in the âââginning was So Eminent was the Hand of God in all this Change § 68. Yet were there many prudent pious Men that feared greatly the return of the Prelates an exasperated Party that had been before subdued and as they saw that the Fanaticks would bring all to Confusion under
Duties will permit I have done my part in urging you and them with my offer till you call me unto more In the mean time Madam may I intreat you to read impartâally and deliberately 1. My little Book called The Trââ Catholick and Catholick Church c. which I shall send or bring you 2. My Preface before the Disputation with Mr. Iohnson and the Letters in the end and the Second Part and then the first 3. My two first Books against Popery The Safe Religion and The Key For your former reading of them before any doubting had made you observe the stress of Arguments is nothing if you will but now read them again impartially after your contrary Conceptions continue a Papist if you can And truly if you will not do thus much for your own Soul because Men engage you to the contrary that dare not appear to make good their own Cause I must be a Witness against you before the Lord that you wilfully resused Instruction and sold your Soul at too cheap a rate I tried when I was last with you to revive your Reason by proposing to you the Infallibility of the Common Senses of all the World and I could not prevail though you had nothing to answer that was not against Common Sense And it is impossible any thing controverted can be brought nearer you or made plainer than to be brought to your Eyes and Taste and Feeling and not yours only but all Mens else Sense goes before Faith Faith is no Faith but upon Supposition of Sense and Understanding if therefore Common Sense be fallible Faith must needs be so But methinks yet I should have hope of reviving your Charity You cannot be a Papist indeed but you must believe that out of their Church that is out of the Pope's Dominions there is no Salvation and consequently no Justification and Charity or saving Grace And is it possible you can so easily believe your religious Father to be in Hell your prudent pious Mother to be void of the Love of God and in a state of Damnation and not only me that am a Stranger to you but all the Millions of better People in the World to be in the same State of Gracelesness and Damnation and all because we believe not that the Pope is Christ's Vicar General or Deputy on Earth and dare not subject our selves to his usurped Dominions When we are ready to protest before the Lord as we shall answer it at his Bar that we would be his Subjects but for Fear of the high Displeasure of the true Head and King of the Church and for fear of sinning and Damning our own Souls And that we are heartily willing to read and study and pray and hear all that can be said for them and some of us read as much of their Writings as of our own and more and would not stick at Cost or Pains or Loss or Shame were it to travail over Land and Sea to find out that they are in the Right if that would do it and they be so indeed But the more we study the more we pray to God for his Assistance the more diligently we search we are the more resolved and convinced that their way as it differeth from ours is false and that they are the most Superstitious Tyrannical Leprous part of the Catholick Church condemning the main Body because they will not be under their abominable Dominion and will not sin as much as they We hold all that was held necessary by the Apostles and the ancient Church and we dare not make a new Faith to our selves as the Papal Sectaries have done Must we renounce both our Sense and Reason and put out the Eye of Natural Understanding and also renounce the Catholick Church and Christian Charity and step into the Throne and pronounce Damnation not only upon all the Saints of God that we have been acquainted with our selves but also on the Body of Christ which he died for even on the far greatest part of the Universal Church and all this because they will not depart from the Word of God to corrupt his Doctrine Discipline and Worship and herein obey an usurping Vice Christ must we do all this or else be judged to Damnation by the Sectaries of Rome For my part I shall be so far from fearing their Sentance that I appeal to Christ whose Body they condemn and I had rather be tortured in their Inquisition and cut as small as Herbs to the Pot and be accounted the odiousest Wretch on Earth than be guilty of being a Papist at all but especially on such hellish Terms as these If the greater part of the Church must be damned as no part of the Church it will be impossible to prove your Sect or Fragment to be the Church any more than any other Christ is the Saviour of his Body Eph. 5. 23 and to him as to its Head it 's subject ver 24. and this Body is that which is sanctified by him ver 26. And by one Spirit all his Members are baptized into one Body 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. Did you never note where the Unity of the Body is fulliest described that Apostles themselves are made but Members and Christ only the Head 1 Cor. 27 28 29. Eph. 4. 4 5 7 11. There is but one Lord c. but diversity of gifts of whom the Apostles are the chief And when Thousands were added to the Church even such as should be saved Acts 2. 47. what made them Christians but the Baptismal Covenant and what were they Baptized into but into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Peter or Paul baptized none into their own Names nor dare the Pope himself lest his Innovation be too visible Christ hath said He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved Mark 16. 16. Did they ever then subject any Baptism to the Bishop of Rome Was the Eunuch Acts 8. subjected to the Pope that only saith I believe that Iesus Christ is the Son of God and was Baptized If men could not be saved without believing in the Pope and being subject to the Church of Rome how comes it to pass that none of the Apostles preached this necessary Article of Faith Why did they never say You must believe in or be subject to the Pope of Rome or you cannot be saved Would they be so unfaithful as to hide a necessary Article Why did Peter himself Acts 2. by Baptism take Three thousand into the Church without preaching any of this Doctrine to them The Gospel professeth that he that hath the Son hath Life 1 Joh. 5. 11 12. and whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3. 16. and that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus that walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And now up steps a Man of Rome and presumeth to Reverse the Gospel and say It 's no such matter for all this they shall not be
suggest nor did we ever hear any just Reasons given for their diâient from the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy or Prelacy as it was stated and established in this Kingdom Which we believe to be for the main the true ancient primitive Episcopacy and that to be more than a meer presidency of Order Neither do we find that the same was in any Time ballanced or managed by any Authoritative Commixtion of Presbyters therewith Though it hath been then and in all Times since usually exercised with the Assistance and Counsel of Presbyters in subordination to the Bishops § 8. And we cannot but wonder that the Administration of Government by one single Person should by them be affirmed to be so liable to Corruptions Partialities Tyrannies and other Evils that for the avoiding thereof it should be needful to have others joyned with him in the power of Government Which if applyed to the Civil State is a most dangerous Insinuation And we verily believe what Experience and the Constitutions of Kingdoms Armies and even private Families sufficiently confirmeth in all which the Government is administred by the Authority of one single Person although the Advice of others may be requisite also but without any share in the Government that the Government of many is not only most subject to all the aforesaid Evils and Inconveniencies but more likely also to breed and soment perpetual Factions both in Church and State than the Government by one is or can be And since no Government can certainly prevent all Evils that which is liable to the least and sewest is certainly to be preferred As to the four particular Instances of things amiss c. § 9. 1. We cannot grant that the Extent of any Diocess is so great but that the Bishop may well perform that wherein the proper Office and Duty of a Bishop doth consist which is not the personal Inspection of every Man's Soul under his Government which is the Work of every Parochial Minister in his Cure but the Pastoral Charge of overseeing directing and taking care that the Ministers and other Ecclesiastical Officers within his Diocess do their several respective Duties in their several Stations as they ought to do And if some Diocesses shall be thought of too large Extent the Bishops may have Suffragan Bishops to assist them as the Laws allow It being a great mistake that the Personal Inspection of the Bishop is in all places of his Diocess at all times necessary For by the same reason neither Princes nor Governours of Provinces nor Generals of Armies nor Mayors of great Cities nor Ministers of great Parishes could ever be able to discharge their Duties in their several Places and Charges § 10. 2. We confess the Bishops did as by the Law they were enabled depute part of the Administration of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions to Chancellors Commissaries and Officials as Men better skill'd in the Civil and Canon Laws But as for Matters of more Spiritual Concernment viz. the Sentences of Excommunication and Absolution with other Censures of the Church we conceive they belong properly to the Bishop to decree and pronounce either by himself where for the present he resideth or by some grave Ecclesiastical Person by him Surrogated for that purpose in such Places where he cannot be Personally present Wherein if many things have been done amiss for the time past or shall be seasonably conceived inconvenient for the future we shall be as willing to have the same Reformed and Remedied as any other Persons whatsoever § 11. 3. Whether a Bishop be a distinct Order from Presbyter or not or whether they have power of sole Ordination or no is not now the Question But we affirm that the Bishops of this Realm have constantly for ought we know or have heard to the contrary Ordained with the Assistance of Presbyters and the Imposition of their Hands together with the Bishops And we conceive it very fit that in the exercise of that part of their Jurisdiction which appertaineth to the Censures of the Church they should likewise have the Advice and Assistance of some Presbyters And for this purpose the Colledges of Deans and Chapters are thought to have been instituted that the Bishops in their several Diocess might have their Advice and Assistance in the Administration of their weighty Pastoral Charge § 12. 4. This last dependeth upon Matter of Fact Wherein if any Bishops have or shall do otherwise than according to Law they were and are to be answerable for the same And it is our desire as well as theirs that nothing may be done or imposed by the Bishop but according to the known Laws For Reforming of which Evils c. § 13. 1. The Primates Reduction though not published in his Life time was formed many years before his Death and shewed to some Persons ready to attest the same in the Year 1640. but it is not consistent with two other Discourses of the same Learned Primate viz. the one of the Original of Episcopacy and the other of the Original of Metropolitans both printed in the Year 1641. and written with great diligence and much variety of ancient Learning In neither of which is to be found any mention of the Reduction aforesaid Neither is there in either of them propounded any such Model of Church Government as in the said Reduction is contained Which doubtless would have been done had that Platform been according to his setled Judgment in those Matters In which Reduction there are sundry things as namely the Conforming of Suffragans to the number of Rural Deaneries which are apparently private Conceptions of his own accommodated at that time for the taking off some present from Animosities but wholly destitute of any Colour of Testimony or President from Antiquity nor is any such by him offered towards the proof thereof And it would be considered whether the Final Resolution of all Ecclesiastical Power and Jurisdiction into a National Synod where it seemeth to be placed in that Reduction without naming the King or without any dependance upon him or relation to him be not destructive of the King's Supremacy in causes Ecclesiastical It is observable nevertheless that even in the Reduction Archi-Episcopacy is acknowledged As for the super-added Particulars § 14. 1. The Appointment and Election of Suffragans is by the Law already vested in the King whose Power therein is by the Course here proposed taken away § 15. 2. What they mean by Associations in this place they explain not but we conceive it dangerous that any Association whatsoever is understood thereby should be made or entered into without the King's Authority § 16. 3. We do not take the Oaths Promises and Subscriptions by Law required of Ministers at their Ordination Institution c. to be unnecessary although they be responsible to the Laws if they do amiss it being thought requisite as well by such Cautions to prevent Offences as to punish Offenders afterwards Upon all which Consideration it is that
and Government in Ecclesiastical Affairs is evident to the World and this little part of the World our own Dominions hath had so late Experience of it that we may very well acquiesce in the Conclusion without enlarging our self in discourse upon it it being a Subject we have had frequent occasion to contemplate upon and to lament abroad as well as at home In our Letter to the Speaker of the H. of Commons from Breda we declared how much we desired the Advancement and Propagation of the Protestant Religion That neither the Unkindness of those of the same Faith towards us nor the Civilities and Obligations from those of a contrary Profession of both which we have had abundant Evidence could in the least degree startle us or make us swerve from it and that nothing can be proposed to manifest our Zeal and Affection for it to which we will not readily consent And we said then That we did hope in due time our self to propose somewhat for the propagation of it that will satisfie the World that we have always made it both our Care and our Study and have enough observed what is most like to bring disadvantage to it And the truth is we do think our self the more competent to propose and with God's assistance to determine many Things now in difference from the time we have spent and the Experience we have had in most of the Reformed Churches abroad in France in the Low Conntreys and in Germany where we have had frequent Conferences with the most Learned Men who have unanimously lamented the great Reproach the Protestant Religion undergoes from the Distempers and too notorious Schisms in Matters of Religion in England And as the most Learned amongst them have always with great Submission and Reverence acknowledged and magnified the Established Government of the Church of England and the great countenance and shelter the Protestant Religion received from it before these unhappy times so many of them have with great ingenuity and sorrow confessed That they were too easily mislead by misinformation and prejudice into some disesteem of it as if it had too much complyed with the Church of Rome whereas they now acknowledge it to be the best fence God hath yet raised against Popery in the World And we are perswaded they do with great Zeal wish it restored to its old Dignity and Veneration When we were in Holland we were attended by many Grave and Learned Ministers from hence who were looked upon as the most able and principal Assertors of the Presbyterian Opinions with whom we had as much Conference as the multitude of Affairs which were then upon us would permit us to have 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 as they have been given out to be of Episcopacy or Liturgy but modestly to desire such Alterations in either as without shaking Foundations might best allay the present Distempers which the Indisposition of the Times and the Tenderness of some Mens Consciences had contracted For the better doing whereof we intended upon our first Arrival in this Kingdom to call a Synod of Divines as the most proper Expedient to provide a proper Remedy for all those Differences and Dissatisfactions which had or should arise in Matters of Religion and in the mean time we published in our Declaration from Breda A Liberty to tender Consciences and that no man should be disquieted or called in question for differences of Opinion in Matters of Religion which do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and that we shall be ready to consent to such an Act of Parliament as shall upon mature deliberation be offered to us for the full granting that Indulgence Whilst we continued in this Temper of Mind and Resolution and have so far complyed with the Perswasion of particular Persons and the Distemper of the Time as to be contented with the Exercise of our Religion in our own Chappel according to the constant Practice and Laws established without enjoyning that Practice and the Observation of those Laws in the Churches of the Kingdom in which we have undergone the Censure of many as if we were without that Zeal for the Church which we ought to have and which by God's Grace we shall always retain we have found our self not so candidly dealt with as we have deserved and that there are unquiet and restless Spirits who without abating any of their own Distempers in recompence of the Moderation they find in us continue their bitterness against the Church and endeavour to raise Jealousies of us and to lessen our Reputation by their Reproaches as if we were not true to the Professions we have made And in order thereunto they have very unseasonably caused to be printed published and dispersed throughout the Kingdom a Declaration heretofore printed in our Name during the time of our being in Scotland of which we shall say no more than that the Circumstances by which we were enforced to Sign that Declaration are enough known to the World That we did from the moment it passed our Hand askt God forgiveness for our part in it which we hope he will never lay to our Charge and that the worthiest and greatest part of that Nation did even then detest and abhor the ill usage of us in that particular when the same Tyranny was exercised there by the power of a few ill Men which at that time had spread it self over this Kingdom and therefore we had no reason to expect that we should at this season when we are doing all we can to wipe out the Memory of all that hath been done amiss by other Men and we thank God have wiped it out of our own remembrance have been our self assaulted with those Reproaches which we will likewise forget Since the printing of this Declaration several Seditious Pamphlets and Queries have been published and scattered abroad to infuse Dislike and Jealousies into the Hearts of the People and of the Army and some who ought rather to have repented their former Mischief they have wrought than to have endeavoured to improve it have had the hardiness to publish That the Doctrine of the Church against which no Man with whom we have conferred hath Excepted ought to be reformed as well as the Discipline This over-passionate and turbulent way of Proceeding and the Impatience we find in many for some speedy Determination in these Matters whereby the Minds of Men may be composed and the Peace of the Church established hath prevailed with us to invert the Method we had proposed to our self and even in order to the better Calling and Composing of a Synod which the present Jealousies will hardly agree upon by the assistance of God's blessed Spirit which we daily invoke and supplicate to give some determination our self to the Matters in difference until such a Synod may be called as may without
passion or prejudice give us such a further assistance towards a perfect Union of Affections as well as Submission to Authority as is necessary And we are the rather induced to take this upon us by finding upon the full Conference we have had with the Learned Men of several Perswasions that the Mischiefs under which both the Church and State do at present suffer do not result from any formed Doctrine or Conclusion which either Party maintains or avows but from the Passion and Appetite and Interest of particular Persons who contract greater Prejudice to each other from those Affections than would naturally arise from their Opinions and those Distempers must be in some degree allayed before the Meeting in a Synod can be attended with better Success than their Meeting in other places and their Discourses in Pulpits have hitherto been and till all thoughts of Victory are laid aside the humble and necessary Thoughts for the vindication of Truth cannot be enough entertained We must for the Honour of all those of either Perswasion with whom we have conferred declare That the Professions and Desires of all for the Advancement of Piety and true Godliness are the same their Professions of Zeal for the Peace of the Church the same of Affection and Duty to us the same They all approve Episcopacy They all approve a Set-From of Liturgy And they disapprove and dislike the Sin of Sacriledge and the Alienation of the Revenue of the Church And if upon these excellent Foundations in Submission to which there is such a Harmony of Affections any Super-structures should be raised to the shaking those Foundations and to the contracting and lessening the blessed Gift of Charity which is a Vital part of Christian Religion we shall think our self very unfortunate and even suspect that we are defective in that Administration of Government with which God hath intrusted us We need not profess the high Affection and Esteem we have for the Church of England as it is established by Law the Reverence to which hath supported us with Gods Blessing against many Temptations Nor do we think that Reverence in the least degree diminished by our Condescensions not peremptorily to insist upon some Particulars of Ceremony which however introduced by the Piety and Devotion and Order of former Times may not be so agreeable to the present but may even lessen that Piety and Devotion for the improvement whereof they might happily be first introduced and consequently may well be dispensed with And we hope this Charitable compliance of ours will dispose the Minds of all Men to a chearful Submission to that Authority the preservation whereof is so necessary for the Unity and Peace of the Church and that they will acknowledge the Support of the Episcopal Authority to be the best Support of Religion by being the best means to contain the Minds of Men within the Rules of Government And they who would restrain the Exercise of that holy Function within the Rules which were observed in the Primitive Times must remember and consider that the Ecclesiastical Power being in those blessed Times always subordinate and subject to the Civil it was likewise proportioned to such an Extent of Jurisdiction as was agreeable to that And as the Sanctity and Simplicity and Resignation of that Age did then refer many things to the Bishops which the Policy of succeeding Ages would not admit at least did otherwise provide for so it can be no Reproach to Primitive Episcopacy if where there have been great Alterations in the Civil Government from what was then there have been likewise some Difference and Alteration in the Ecclesiastical the Essence and Foundation being still preserved And upon this Ground without out taking upon us to Censure the Government of the Church in other Countries where the Government of the State is different from what it is here or enlarging our self upon the Reasons why whilst there was an Imagination of Erecting a Democratical Government here in the State they should not be willing to continue an Aristocratical Government in the Church it shall suffice to say That since by the wonderful Blessing of God the Hearts of this whole Nation are returned to an Obedience to Monarchique Government in the State it must be very reasonable to Support that Government in the Church which is established by Law and which with the Monarchy hath flourished through so many Ages and which is in truth as ancient in this Island as the Christian Monarchy thereof and which hath always in some respects or degrees been enlarged or restrained as hath been thought most conducing to the Peace and Happiness of the Kingdom and therefore we have not the least doubt but the present Bishops will think the present Concessions now made by us to allay the present Distempers very just and reasonable and will very chearfully Conform themselves thereunto 1. We do in the first place declare That as the present Bishops are known to be Men of Great and Exemplary Piety in their Lives which they have manifested in their notorious and unexampled Sufferings during these late Distempers and of great and known Sufficiency of Learning so we shall take special Care by the Assistance of God to prefer no Men to that Office and Charge but Men of Learning Vertue and Piety who may be themselves the best Examples to those who are to be Governed by them and we shall expect and provide the best we can that the Bishops be frequent Preachers and that they do very often preach themselves in some Church of their Diocess except they be hindered by Sickness or other bodily Infirmities or some other justifiable occasion which shall not be thought justifiable if it be frequent 2. If any Diocess shall be thought of too large an Extent we will appoint Suffragan Bishops for their Assistance 3. No Bishop shall Ordain or Exercise any part of Jurisdiction which appertains to the Censures of the Church without the Advice of the Presbyters and no Chancellour shall exercise any Act of Spiritual Jurisdiction 4. As the Dean and Chapters are the most proper Council and Assistants of the Bishop both in Ordination and for the other Offices mentioned before so we shall take care that those Preferments be given to the most Learned and Pious Presbyters of the Diocess that thereby they may be always at hand and ready to advise and assist the Bishop And moreover That some other of the most Learned Pious and Discreet Presbyters of the same Diocess as namely the Rural Deans or others or so many of either as shall be thought fit and are nearest be called by the Bishop to be present and assistant together with those of the Chapter at all Ordinations and at all other Solemn and Important Actions in the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction especially wherein any of the Ministers are concerned And our Will is that the great Work of Ordination be constantly and solemnly performed by the Bishop in the
Presence and with the Advice and Assistance of his aforesaid Presbytery at the four set Times and Seasons appointed by the Church for that purpose 5. We will take care that Confirmation be rightly and solemnly performed by the Information and with the Advice of the Minister of the Place and as great diligence used for the Instruction and Reformation of notorious and scandalous Offenders as is possible towards which the Rubrick before the Communion hath prescribed very wholesom Rules 6. No Bishop shall Exercise any Arbitrary Power or do or impose any thing upon the Clergy or the People but what is according to the known Laws of the Land 7. We are very glad to find that all with whom we have conferred do in their Judgments approve a Liturgy or Set-Form of Publick Worship to be lawful which in our Judgment for the preservation of Unity and Uniformity we conceive to be very necessary And though we do esteem the Liturgy of the Church of England contained in the Book of Common Prayer and by Law established to be the best we have seen and we believe that we have seen all that are extant and used in this part of the World and well know what Reverence most of the Reformed Churches or at least the most Learned Men in those Churches have for it Yet since we find some Exceptions made to many absolete words and other Expressions used therein which upon the Reformation and Improvement of the English Language may-well be altered we will appoint some Learned Divines of different Perswasions to review the same and to make such Alterations as shall be thought most necessary and some such Additional Prayers as shall be thought fit for emergent Occasions and the improvement of Devotion the using of which may be left to the Discretion of the Ministers In the mean time and till this be done we do heartily wish and desire that the Ministers in their several Churches because they dislike some Clauses and Expressions would not totally lay aside the use of the Book of Common Prayer but read those Parts against which there can be no Exception which would be the best Instance of declining those Marks of Distinction which we so much labour and desire to remove 8. Lastly Concerning Ceremoniesâ which have administred so much Matter of Difference and Contention and which have been introduced by the Wisdom and Authority of the Church for Edification and the Improvement of Piety we shall say no more but that we have the more Esteem of all and Reverence for many of them by having been present in many of those Churches where they are most abolished or discountenanced and where we have observed so great and scandalous Indecency and to our Understanding so much absence of Devotion that we heartily wish that those pious Men who think the Church of England overburthened with Ceremonies had some little Experience and made some Observation in those Churches abroad which are most without them And we cannot but observe That those Pious and Learned Men with whom we have conferred upon this Argument and who are most solicitous for Indulgence of this kind are earnest for the same out of Compassion to the Weakness and Tenderness of the Conscience of their Brethren not that themselves who are very zealous for Order and Decency do in their Judgments believe the Practice of those particular Ceremonies which they except against to be in it self unlawful and it cannot be doubted but that as the Universal Church cannot introduce one Ceremony in the Worship of God that is contrary to God's Word expressed in the Scripture so every National Church with the approbation and consent of the Soveraign Power may and hath always introduced such particular Ceremonies as in that Conjuncture of Time are thought most proper for Edification and the necessary improvement of Piety and Devotion in the People though the necessary Practice thereof cannot be deduced from Scripture and that which before was and in it self is indifferent ceases to be indifferent after it is once established by Law And therefore our present Consideration and Work is to gratifie the private Consciences of those that are grieved with the use of some Ceremonies by indulging to and dispensing with their omitting those Ceremonies not utterly to abolish any which are established by Law if any are practised contrary to Law the same shall cease which would be unjust and of ill Example and to impose upon the Conscience of some and we believe much Superiour in Number and Quality for the Satisfaction of the Conscience of others which is otherwise provided for as it would not be reasonable that Men should expect that we should our self decline or enjoyn others to do so to receive the Blessed Sacrament upon our Knees which in our Conscience is the most humble most devout and most agreeable Posture for the holy Duty because some other Men upon Reasons best if not only known to themselves choose rather to do it Sitting or Standing We shall leave all Decisions and Determinations of that kind if they shall be thought necessary for a perfect and entire Unity and Uniformity throughout the Nation to the Advice of a National Synod which shall be duly called after a little time and a mutual Conversation between Persons of different Perswasions hath mollified those Distempers abated those Sharpnesses and extinguished those Jealousies which make Men unfit for those Consultations and upon such Advice we shall use our best endeavour that such Laws might be established as may best provide for the Peace of the Church and State 1. In the mean time out of Compassion and Compliance towards those who would forbear the Cross in Baptism we are content that no Man shall be compelled to use the same or suffer for not doing it But if any Parent desire to have his Child Christned according to the Form used and the Minister will not use the Sign it shall be lawful for the Parent to procure another âMinister to do it And if the proper Minister shall refuse to omit that Ceremony of the Cross it shall be lawful for the Parent who would not have his Child so Baptized to procure another Minister to do it who will do it according to his Desire 2. No Man shall be compelled to bow at the Name of Jesus or suffer in any degree for not doing it without reproaching those who out of their Devotion continue that Ancient Ceremony of the Church 3. For the use of the Surplice which hath for so many Ages been thought a most decent Ornament for the Clergy in the Administration of Divine Service and is in truth of a different fashion in the Church of England from what is used in the Church of Rome we are contented that Men be left to their Liberty to do as they shall think sit without suffering in the least degree for the wearing or not wearing it provided that this Liberty do not extend to our own Chappel Cathedral or Collegiate
Resolution to become the effectual Moderator in our Differences and your self to bring us together by procuring such mutual Condescântions as are necessary thereto and also by your gracious Acceptance of our Proposals which your Majesty heard and received not only without blame but with Acknowledgment of their Moderation and as such as would infer a Reconciliation between the differing Parties that we must needs say the least Abatement of our Hopes is much the more unwelcome and grievous to us And it is no small Grief that surprizeth our Hearts from the Complaints of the Students ejected in the Universities and of faithful Ministers removed from their beloved Flocks and denied Institution for want of Subscription Re-ordination or an Oath of Obedience to the Bishop but especially from many Congregations in the Land that cry out they are undone by the loss of those Means of their Spiritual Welfare which were dearer to them than all Worldly Riches and by the grievous Burden of Ignorant or Scandalous or dead unprofitable Ministers set over them to whom they dare not commit the Guidance and care of their Immortal Souls and whose Ministry they dare not own or countenace lest they be guilty of their Sin And it addeth to our Grief and Fear in finding so much of the proposed necessary Means of our Agreement especially in the point of Government here passed by in your Majesty's Declaration as if it were denied us But yet remembring the gracious and encouraging Promises of your Majesty and observing your Majesty's Clemency in what is here granted us and your great Condescention in vouchfasing not only so graciously to âhear us in these our humble Addresses and Requests but also to grant us the Sight of your Declaration before it is resolved on with Liberty of returning our Additional Desires and hope that they shall not be rejected we re-assume our Confidence and comfortably expect that what is not granted in this Declaration that is reasonable and necessary to our Agreement shall yet be granted upon fuller Consideration of the Equity of our Requests As our Designs and Desires are not for any worldly Advantages or Dignities to our selves so have we not presumed to intermeddle with any Civil Interest of your Majesty or any of your Officers nor in the matters of meer Convenience to cast our Reason into the Ballance against your Majesty's Prudence but meerly to speak for the Laws and Worship and Servants of the Lord and for the Peace of our Consciences and the Safety of our own and Brethrens Souls It lifts us up with Joy to think what happy Consequents will ensue if your Majesty shall entertain these healing Motions How happily our Differences will be reconciled and the exasperated Minds of Men composed How Temptations to Contention and Uncharitableness will be removed How comfortably your Majesty will reign in the dearest Affections of your Subjects and how firmly they will adhere to your Interest as their own How chearfully and zealously the united parts and Interests of the Nation will conspire to serve you What a Strength and Honour a righteous Magistracy a learned holy loyal Ministry and a faithful praying People will be to your Throne And how it will be your Glory to be the King of the most religious Nation in the World that hath no considerable Parties but what are Centered under Christ in you What a Comfort it will be for the Bishops and Pastors of the Church to be honoured and loved by all the most religious of their Flocks to see the Success of their Labours and the Beauty of the Church promoted by our common Concord and Brethren to assemble and dwell together in Unity serving one God according to one Rule with one Heart and Mouth And on the contrary it astonisheth us to foresee the doleful Consequents that would follow if which God forbid your Majesty should refuse the most necessary moderate Ways of Concord and be engaged by a party to exalt them by the Suppression of the rest How woful a Day would it prove to your Majesty and your Dominions in which you should thus espouse a Cause and Interest injurious to the Interest of Christ and the Cause of Unity and Love and contrary to your Majesty's gracious Inclinations be engaged unawars in a seeming necessity to deal hardly with the Ministers and Servants of the Lord How considerable a part of the Three Nations for Number Wisdom Piety and Interest you would be drawn to govern with a grievous Hand and to lay them under the greatest Sorrow who restored and received your Majesty with Joy How the Dissent of Ministers from the Government and Ceremonies of the Church were it expressed but by their Groans and Tears and moderate Complaints to God or Not-praying for that Church Government which they dare not pray for would be reckoned as Discontent and Sedition and it would be judged a Crime to feel when they are hurt What Occasion this would give to irreligious Temporizers to arrogate the Name of your Majesty's best Subjects and to let out their Malice against the Upright and make Religion a Reproach And then what a Hindrance that would be to the Conversion and saving of the Peoples Souls and what a fruitful Nursery of all Vice How grievously Charity would be overthrown while the People are engaged in the hardest Thoughts and Speeches of each other What a Temptation it would be to the afflicted part to abate their Honour and due Respect to those they suffer by when they are deprived of that which is dearest to them in the World and when the Groans and Cryes of afflicted Innocents arrive at Heaven and have awakened the Justice of the King of Kings the greatest cannot stand before him And what a Snare and Grief will it be to the Bishops and Pastors of the Church to be esteemed Wolves and to be engaged to suppress them as their Adversaries that else might be the Honour of their Ministry and the Comfort of their Lives And when Divisions and separated Assemblies are thus multiplied the People being driven from the publick Congregations either it will bring them under Trouble or let in Papists and others that are intollerable into an equal Tolleration and such Discontents and Distractions in the Church will not be without their Influence on the State And by all this how much will Satan and the Enemies of our Religion be gratified and God dishonoured and displeased And seeing all this may safely and easily be now prevented we humbly beseech the Lord in Mercy to vouchsafe to your Majesty a Heart to discern of time and Judgment And as these are our General Ends and Motives so we are induced to insist upon the Form of 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
Worship And further considering the great Age of some Ministers and Infirmities of others and the variety of several Services oft-times concurring upon the same day whereby it may be inexpedient to require every Minister at all times to read the whole It may be left to the discretion of the Minister to omit part of it as occasion shall require which liberty we find to be allowed even in the first Common Prayer Book of Edward 6. 8. That in regard of the many Defects which have been observed in that Version of the Scriptures which is used throughout the Liturgy manifold Instances whereof may be produced as in the Epistle for the first Sunday after Epiphany taken out of Romans 12. 1. Be ye changed in your shape And the Epistle for the Sunday next before Easter taken out of Philippians 2. 5. Found in his apparel as a man as also the Epistle for the fourth Sunday in Lent taken out of the fourth of the Galatians Mount Sinai is Agar in Arabia and bordereth upon the City which is now called Ierusalem The Epistle for St. Matthew's Day taken out of the second Epistle of Corinth and the 4th We go not out of Kind The Gospel for the second Sunday after Epiphany taken out of the second of Iohn When Men be drunk The Gospel for the third Sunday in Lent taken out of the 11th of Luke One House doth fall upon another The Gospel for the Annunciation taken out of the first of Luke This is the sixth Month which was called barren and many other places we therefore desire instead thereof the New Translation allowed by Authority may alone be used 9. That inasmuch as the holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto Salvation to furnish us throughly unto all good Works and contain in them all things necessary either in Doctrine to be believed or in Duty to be practised whereas divers Chapters of the Apocryphal Books appointed to be read are Charged to be in both respects of dubious and uncertain credit It is therefore desired that nothing be read in the Church for Lessons but the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament 10. That the Minister be not required to rehearse any part of the Liturgy at the Communion-Table save only those parts which properly belong to the Lord's Supper and that at such times only when the said holy Supper is administred 11. That as the Word Minister and not Priest or Curate is used in the Absolution and in divers other places it may throughout the whole Book be so used instead of those two Words and that instead of the Word Sunday the Word Lord's-day may be every where used 12. Because singing of Psalms is a considerable part of publick Worship we desire that the Version set forth and allowed to be sung in Churches may be amended or that we may have leave to make use of a purer Version 13. That all obsolete Words in the Common-Prayer and such whose use is changed from their first significancy as Aread used in the Gospel for the Monday and Wednesday before Easter Then opened he their Wits used in the Gospel for Easter Tuesday c. may be altered unto other Words generally received and better understood 14. That no Portions of the Old Testament or of the Acts of the Apostles be called Epistles and read as such 15. That whereas throughout the several Offices the Phrase is such as presumes all Persons within the Communion of the Church to be regenerated converted and in an actual state of Grace which had Ecclesiastical Discipline been truly and vigorously executed in the Exclusion of Scandalous and obstinate Sinners might be better supposed But there having been and still being a confessed want of that as in the Liturgy is acknowledged it cannot be rationally admitted in the utmost Latitude of Charity We desire that this may be reformed 16. That whereas orderly Connection of Prayers and of particular Petitions and Expressions together with a competent length of the Forms used are tending much to Edification and to gain the reverence of People to them There appears to us too great a neglect of both of this Order and of other just Laws of Method Particularly 1. The Collects are generally short many of them consisting but of one or at most two Sentences of Petition and these generally ushered in with a repeated mention of the Name and Attributes of God and presently concluding with the Name and Merits of Christ whence are caused many unnecessary Intercisions and Abruptions which when many Petitions are to be offered at the same time are neither agreeable to Scriptural Examples nor suited to the Gravity and Seriousness of that Holy Duty 2. The Prefaces of many Collects have not any clear and special Respect to the following Petitions and particular Petitions are put together which have not any due Order nor evident Connection one with another nor suitableness with the Occasions upon which they are used but seem to have fallen in rather casually than from an orderly Contrivance It is desired that instead of those various Collects there may be one methodical and intire form of Prayer composed out of many of them 17. That whereas the publick Liturgy of a Church should in reason comprehend the Summ of all such Sins as are ordinarily to be confessed in Prayer by the Church and of such Petitions and Thanksgivings as are ordinarily by the Church to be put up to God and the publick Catechisms or Systems of Doctrine should summarily comprehend all such Doctrines as are necessary to be believed and these explicitly set down The present Liturgy as to all these seems very defective Particularly 1. There is no preparatory Prayer in our Address to God for Assistance or Acceptance yet many Collects in the midst of the Worship have little or nothing else 2. The Confession is very defective not clearly expressing original Sin nor sufficiently enumerating actual Sins with their Aggravations but consisting only of Generals Whereas confession being the Exercise of Repentance ought to be more particular 3. There is also a great Defect as to such Forms of publick Praise and Thanksgiving as are suitable to Gospel-worship 4. The whole Body of the Common-Prayer also consisteth very much of meer Generals as To have our Prayers heard to be kept from all Evil and from all Enemies and all Adversity that we might do God's Will without any mention of the Particulars in which these Generals exist 5. The Catechism is defective as to many necessary Doctrines of our Religion some even of the Essentials of Christianity not mentioned except in the Creed and there not so explicite as ought to be in a Catechism 18. Because this Liturgy containeth the Imposition of divers Ceremonies which from the first Reformation have by sundry learned and pious Men been judged unwarrantable as 1. That Publick Worship may not be celebrated by any Minister that dare not wear a Surpless 2. That none may baptise nor be
are increased We do humbly conceive it therefore a Work worthy of those Wonders of Salvation which God hath wrought for his Majesty now on the Throne and for the whole Kingdom and exceedingly becoming the Ministers of the Gospel of Peace with all holy Moderation and Tenderness to endeavour the removal of every thing out of the Worship of God which may justly offend or grieve the Spirits of sober and godly People The Things themselves that are desired to be removed not being of the Foundation of Religion nor the Essentials of Publick Worship nor the Removal of them any way tending to the prejudice of the Church or State Therefore their Continuance and rigorous Imposition can no ways be able to countervail the laying aside of so many pious and able Ministers and the unconceivable grief that will arise to multitudes of his Majesty's most Loyal and Peaceable Subjects who upon all occasions are ready to serve him with their Prayers Estates and Lives For the preventing of which Evils we humbly desire that these Particulars following may be taken into serious and tender Consideration Concerning Morning and Evening Prayer Rubrick Exception THat Morning and Evening Prayer shall be used in the accustomed place of the Church Chancel or Chappel except it be otherwise determined by the Ordinary of the place and the Chancel shall remain as in times past WE desire that the words of the first Rubrick may be expressed as in the Book established by Authority of Parliament 5 6 Edw. 6. Thus the Morning and Evening Prayer shall be used in such place of the Church Chappel or Chancel and the Minister shall so turn him at the People may best hear and if there be any Controversie therein the matter shall be referred to the Ordinary Rubrick Exception And here is to be noted that the Minister at the time of the Communion and at other times in his Ministration shall use such Ornaments in the Church as were in use by Authority of Parliament in the Second year of the Reign of Edward the Sixth according to the Act of Parliament Forasmuch as this Rubrick seemeth to bring back the Cope Albe c. and other Vestments forbidden by the Common Prayer Book 5 and 6 Edw. 6. and and so our Reasons alledged against Ceremonies under our Eighteenth general Exception we desire it may be wholly left out Rubrick Exception The Lords Prayer after the Absolution ends thus Deliver us from Evil. We desire that these words For thiââ is the Kingdom the power and the glory for ever and ever Amen May be always added unto the Lord's Prayer and that this Prayer may not be enjoyned to be so often used in Morning and Evening Service Rubrick Exception And at the end of every Psalm throughout the year and likewise in the end of Benedictus Benedicite Magnificat Nunc Dimitis shall be repeated Glory to the Father c. By this Rubrick and other places in the Common Prayer Books the Glâriâ Patri is appointed to be said six times ordinarily in every Morning and Evening Service frequently eight times in a Morning sometimes ten which we think carries with it at least an appearance of that vain repetition which Christ forbids for the avoiding of which appearance of evil we desire it may be used but once in the Morning and once in the Evening Rubrick Exception In such places where they do sing there shall the Lessons be sung in a plain Tune and likewise the Epistle and Gospel The Lessons and the Epistles and Gospels being for the most part neither Psalms nor Hymns we know no warrant why they should be sung in any place and conceive that the distinct Reading of them with an audible voice tends more to the Edification of the Church Rubrick Exception Or this Canticle Benedicite omnia opera We desire that some Psalm or Scripture Hymn may be appointed instead of that Apocryphal In the Letany Rubrick Exception FRom all Fornication and all other deadly sin IN regard that the wages of sin is death we desire that this Clause may be thus altered From Fornication and all other heinous or grievous sins Rubrick Exception From Battel and Murther and sudden Death Because this Expression of sudden death hath been so often excepted against we desire if it be thought fit it may be thus read From battel and murther and from dying suddenly and unprepared Rubrick Exception That it may please thee to preserve all that travel by land or by water all women labouring with child all sick persons and young children and to shew thy pity upon all prisoners and captives We desire the term All may be advised upon as seeming liable to just Exceptions and that it may be considered whether it may not better be put indefinitely those that travel c. rather than universally The Collect on Christmas Day Rubrick Exception ALmighty God which hast given us thy only begotten Son to take ââr Nature upon him and this day to be born of a pure Uirgin c. WE desire that in both Collects the word This day may be left out it being according to vulgar acceptation a Contradiction Rubrick  Then shall follow the Collect of the Nativity which shall be said continually unto New-years-day  The Collect for Whitsunday Rubrick  GOd which upon this day c.  Rubrick  The same Collect to be read on Monday and Tuesday in Whitson-week  Rubrick Exception The two Collects for St. John's day and Innocents the Collects for the first day in Lent for the fourth Sunday after Easter for Trinity Sunday for the sixth and twelfth Sunday after Trinity for St. Luke's day and Michaelmas day We desire that these Collects may be further considered and debated as having in them divers things that we judge fit to be altered The Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper Rubrick Exception SO many as intend to be partakers of the Holy Communion shall signifie their Names to the Curate over-night or else in the Morning before the beginning of Morning Prayer or immediately after THe time here assigned for notice to be given to the Minister is not sufficient Rubrick Exception And if any of these be a notorious evil liver the Curate having knowledge thereof shall call him and advertize him in any wise not to presume to the Lord's Table We desire the Ministers power both to admit and keep from the Lord's Table may be according to his Majesty's Declaration 25 Octob. 1660. in these words The Minister shall admit none to the Lord's Supper till they have made a credible Profession of their Faith and promised Obedience to the Will of God according as is expressed in the Considerations of the Rubrick before the Catechism and that all possible diligence be used for the Instruction and Reformation of Scandalous Offenders whom the Minister shall not suffer to partake of the Lord's Table until they have openly declared themselves to have truly repented and amended their
Action I was commonly censured by them as one that had granted them too much and wronged my Brethren by entring into this Treaty oât of too earnest a desire of Concord with them Thus were Men on both extreams offended with me and I found what Enmity Charity and Peace are like to meet with in the ãâã But when these Papers were printed the Independents confess that we had dealt faithfully and satisfactorily And indifferent men said that Reason had once whelmed the Cause of the Dioâesans and that we had offered them so much a test them utterly without Excuse And the moderate Episcopal Men said the same But the engaged Prelatist were vehemently displeased that these Papers should ãâã câme abroad Though many of them here published were never before printed because none had Copies of them but my self § 264. Bishop Morley told me when he Silenced me that our Papers would be answered ãâã long But no Man to this day that ever we could hear of hath answered them which were unanswered Either our Reasons for Peace or our Litugy or our large Reply or our Answers to Dr. Pierson's Argument c. only Roger L'Estrange the writer of the News Book hath raised out a great many words against some of them And a nameless Author thought to be Dr. Wommock hath answered one part of one Subject in our Reply which is about excluding all Prayers from the Pulpit besides Common Prayer and in very plausible Language he saith as much as can be said for so bad a Cause viz. for the prohibiting all Extemporary Prayer in the Church And when he cometh to the chief strength of our Reasons he passeth it by and faith that in answering so much as he did the Answer to the rest may be gathered And to all the rest of the Subjects he faith nothing much less to all our other Papers § 265. Also another nameless Author commonly said to be Sir Henry Yelverton wrote a Book for Bishop Morley against me But neither he nor Boreman nor Wommââk ever saw me for ought I know and I am sure he is as strange to the Cause as to me For he taketh it out of Bishop Morley's Book and supposing what he hath written to be true he findeth some words of Censorious Application to make a Book of § 266. And about the same time Sir Robert Holt a Knight of Warwickshire near Brââââchâm spake in the Parliament House against Mr. Calamy and me by name as preaching or praying seditiously but not one syllable named that we said And another time he named me for my Holy Commonwealth § 267. And about that time Bishop Morley having preferred a young Man named Mr. S Orator of the University of Oxford a fluent witty Satyrist and one that was sometime motioned to me to be my Curate at Kidderminster this Man being Houshold Chaplain to the Lord Chancellour was appointed to preach before the King where the Crowd had high Expectations of some vehement Satyr But when he had preached a quarter of an hour he was utterly at a loss and so unable to recollect himself that he could go no further but cryed The Lord be merciful to our Infirmities and so came down But about a Month after they were resolved yet that Mr. S should preach the same Sermon before the King and not lose his expected Applause And preach it he did little more than half an hour with no admiration at all of the Hearers And for his Encouragement the Sermon was printed And when it was printed many desired to see what words they were that he was stopped at the first time And they found in the printed Copy all that he had said first and one of the next Passages which he was to have delivered was against me for my Holy Common-wealth § 268. And so vehement was the Endeavour in Court City and Country to make me contemptible and odious as if the Authours had thought that the Safety either of Church or State did lye upon it and all would have been safe if I were but vilified and hated Insomuch that Durell the French Minister that turned to them and wrote for them had a senseless snatch at me in his Book and Mr. Stoope the Pastor of the French Church was banished or forbidden this Land as Fame said for carrying over our Debates into France So that any Stranger that had but heard and seen all this would have asked What Monster of Villany is this Man and what is the Wickedness that he is guilty of Yet was I never questioned to this day before a Magistrate Nor do my Adversaries charge me with any personal wrong to them nor did they ever Accuse me of any Heresie nor much contemn my Judgment nor ever accuse my Life but for preaching where another had been Sequestred that was an insufficient Reader and for preaching to the Soldiers of the Parliament though none of them knew my Business there nor the Service that I did them These are all the Crimes besides my Writings that I ever knew they charged my Life with But Envy and Carnal Interest was so destitute of a Mask that they every where openly confessed the Cause for which they endeavoured my Defamation and Destruction especially the Bishops that set all on work 1. As one Cause was their own over-valuing of my Parts which they made account I would employ against them 2. Another was that they thought the Reputation of my blameless Life would add to my ability to deserve them 3. Another was that they thought my Interest in the People to be far greater than indeed it was 4. But the principal of all was my Conference before the King and at the Savoy in both which it fell out that Bishop Morley and I were the bassest Talkers except Dr. Gunning and that it was my lot to contradict him who was not so able either to bear or seem to bear it as I thought at least his Honour would have instructed him to be 5. And my refusing a Bishoprick increased the indignation And Colonel Birth that first came to offer it me told me that they would ruine us if we refused it Yet did I purposely forbear ever mentioning it on all occasions 6. And it was not the least Cause that my being for Primitive Episcopacy and not for Presbytery and being not so far from them in some other Points of Doctrine and Worship as many Nonconformists are they thought I was the abler to undermine them 7. And another Cause was that they judged of the rest of my Talk and Life by my Conference at the Savoy not knowing that I took that to be my present Duty which Fidelity to the King and Church commanded me faithfully to do whoever was displeased by it and that when that time was over I took it to be my Duty to live as peaceably as any Subject in the Land and not to use mâ Tongue or Pen against the Government which the King was pleased to appoint
Lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all Opposition and promote the same according to our power against all Lets and Impediments whatsoever And that we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall do as in the sight of God And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many Sins and Provocations against God and his Son Iesus Christ as is too manifest by our present Distresses and Dangers the Fruits thereof We profess and declare before God and the World our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own Sins and for the Sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts nor to walk worthy of him in our lives which are the Causes of other Sins and Transgressions so much abounding amongst us And our true and unfeigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all Duties we owe to God and Man to amend our Lives and each one to go before another in the Example of a real Reformation That the Lord may turn away his Wrath and heavy Indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in Truth and Peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God the Searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at that great Day when the Secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed Most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his Holy Spirit for this end and to bless our Desires and Proceedings with such Success as may be Deliverance and Safety to his People and encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of the Yoke of Antichristian Tyranny to ioyn in the same or like Association and Covenant to the Glory of God the Inlargement of the Kingdom of Iesus Christ and the Peace and Tranquility of Christian Kingdoms and Common-wealths The Oath and Declaration imposed upon the Lay-Conformists in the Corporation Act the Vestry Act c. are as followeth The Oath to be taken I. A. B. do declare and believe That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King and that I do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissioned by him So help me God The Declaration to be Subscribed I. A. B. do declare That I hold there lyes no Obligation upon me or any ot her Person from the Oath commonly called The Solemn League and Covenant and that the same was in it self an unlawful Oath and imposed upon the Subjects of this Realm against the known Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom All Vestry Men to make and Subscribe the Declaration following I. A. B. do declare That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King and that I do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissioned by him And that I will Conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England as it is now by Law established And I do declare That I do hold there lyes no Obligation upon me or any other Person from the Oath commonly called The Solemn League and Covenant to indeavour any Change or Alteration of Government either in Church or State and that the same was in it self an unlawful Oath and imposed upon the Subjects of this Realm against the known Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom The Declaration thus Prefaced in the Act of Uniformity Every Minister after such reading thereof shall openly and publickly before the Congregation there assembled declare his unfeigned Assent and Consent to the use of all things in the said Book contained and prescribed in these words and no other I. A. B. do here declare my unfeigned Assent and Consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book Instituted The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church according to the use of the Church of England together with the Psalter or Psalms of David pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches and the Forms or Manner of Making Ordaining and Consecrating of Bishops Priests and Deacons The Declaration to be Subscribed I. A. B. dâ declare That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King and that I abhor that Trayterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissionated by him and that I will Conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England as it is now by Law established And I do declare that I do hold there lyes no Obligation upon me or any other Person from the Oath commonly called The Solemn League and Covenant to endeavour any Change or Alteration of Government either in Church or State and that the same was in it self aâ unlawful Oath and imposed upon the Subjects of this Realm against the known Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom The Oath of Canonical Obedience EGo A. B. Iuro quod praestabo Veram Canonicam Obedientiam Episcopo Londinensâ ejusque Successoribus in omnibus licitis honestis § 302. II. The Nonconformists who take not this Declaration Oath Subscription c. are of divers sorts some being further distant from Conformity than others some thinking that some of the forementioned things are lawful and some that none of them are lawful and all have not the same Reasons for their dissent But all are agreed that it is not lawful to do all that is required and therefore they are all cast out of the Exercise of the Sacred Ministry and forbidden to preach the Word of God § 303. The Reasons commonly given by them are either 1. Against the Imposing of the things forementioned or 2. Against the Using of them being imposed Those of the former sort were given into the King and Bishops before the Passing of the Act of Uniformity and are laid down in the beginning of this Book and the Opportunity being now past the Nonconformists now meddle not with that part of the Cause it having seemed good to their Superiours to go against their Reasons But this is worthy the noting by the way that all that I can speak with of the Conforming Party do now justifie only the Using and Obeying and not the Imposing of these things with the Penalty by which they are Imposed From whence it is evident that most of their own Party do now justifie our Cause which we maintained at the Savoy which was against this Imposition whilst it might have been prevented and for which such an intemperate Fury hath
not the Primitive Episcopacy or any other sort but the present Diocesan Prelacy which was in being in England Ergo no other could be extirpated 2. Because when the Covenant was debated first in the Synod at Westminster abundance of Divines who Subscribed the Covenant did openly profess that they were not against Episcopacy and would not consent to it in any such sence 3. Because the said Divines upon that profession caused the Description of the word Prelacy to be exprest in a Parentheses which is only the Description of our Diocesan Frame which is to be seen in the words of the Covenant 4. Because when the House of Lords who imposed it did conjunctly and solemnly take the Covenant Mr. Tho. Coleman who preached and gave it them did openly declare at the giving and taking of it that it was not all Episcopacy that they renounced or vowed by this Covenant to extirpate but only the Diocesan Prelacy there described All this with the words themselves I think is sufficient Evidence of the matter of that Clause § 365. 2. And for the Persons here are especially three sorts in question 1. The King 2. The Parliament 3. The People The first question is Whether the People in the number allowed by the Act may not by humble petition endeavour a reforming Alteration of the Prelacy 2. Whether Parliament Men may not lawfully speak and vote for it 3. Whether King and Parliament may not alter it by altering the Laws If all these Actions be the endeavouring of a Duty or of a lawful Thing in their several Places and Callings and that be the very thing which the Vow obligeth them to then the question is Whether hereto it do not bind them § 366. 1. To say that the People may not so much as petition for a Thing so much concerning their Felicity is to take away not only that Liberty which the King hath in many of his Declarations against the Parliament professed to maintain but also such Liberty as Lawyers say is woven into the Constitution of the Kingdom by the Fundamental Laws and cannot be taken from them but by changing the Constitution yea and reducing them to a state below that of a Subject § 367. 2. To say that a Parliament Man may not speak or vote for such an alteration seemeth to be against the old unquestioned Priviledge of Parliaments which was never denied by the King who opposed them in other things And this Opinion also by such an Alteration of Parliaments would alter the Constituted Government of the Land § 368. 3. To say that the King and Parliament may not alter Prelacy by altering the Law doth seem to be the highest Injury to Soveraignty by denying the Legislative Power § 369. If it be a thing which the People may not petition for nor Parliament vote for nor speak for nor King and Parliament alter then either because the Law of God disableth them or the Common Good forbiddeth them or the Laws of the Land restraineth them from But it is none of these Ergo 1. It is before shewed That no Law of God hath established the English Form of Prelacy nay that the Law of God is repugnant to it 2. And that the Common Good forbiddeth not the Alteration but requireth it 3. And that no Law restraineth in any of the three formentioned Cases is plain in that there is no Law against the Peoples Petitioning as aforesaid nor can be without alteration of the Government And the King with his Parliament are above Laws and have power to make them and to abrogate them So that it seemeth a thing that may be done and a Vow turneth a may be into a must be where it is of force And thus far they think that there is no great difficulty in the Controversie § 370. Before I tell you their Answers to the contrary Reasons I may tell you that not only Dr. Sanderson granteth but all Conformists that ever I talkt with hereabout do agree with us in these following Points 1. That we must here distinguish between the Actum Imperantis the Actum Iurantis and the Materiam Iuramenti the Act of the Parliament imposing it the Act of the Persons taking it and the Matter of the Oath or Vow 2. And also between the Sinfulness of an Oath the Act of the Swearer and the Nullity of it 3. And that if the Imposers Act be sinful and the Taking Act be sinful yet the Oath is obligatory if the Matter vowed be not unlawful and the Actus Iurandi were not a Nullity as well as a Sin 4. That if there be six Articles in a Vow and four of them be unlawful this doth not disoblige the Swearer from the lawful part Otherwise an unlawful Clause put in may free a Man from a Vow for the most necessary Duties 5. That if a Nation take a Vow it is a personal Vow to every individual Person in that Nation who took it 6. That if there be in it a mixture of a Vow to God and a League Covenant or Promise to Men the Obligation of the Vow to God may remain when as a League or Covenant with Man ceaseth unless when the Vow is not co-ordinate but sabordinate to the League or Covenant as being only a Vow or Oath that it shall be faithfully performed 7. That if a Vow be imposed in lawful proper Terms it is not any unexpressed Opinion of the Imposers that maketh the Matter unlawful to the Taker 8. That if the Imposers be many Persons naturally making one collective Body âo âence of theirs is to be taken as explicatory but what is in the words or otherwise publickly declared to the Takers Because they are supposed to be of different ãâã among themselves when they agree not in any Exposition 9. That though a Subject ought to take an Oath in the sence of his Rulers who impose it as far as he can understand is yet a Man that taketh an Oath from a Robâeâ to sive his Life is not alway bound to take it in the Imposers sence if he take it not against the proper sence of the words 10. That though a Subject should do his best to understand the Imposers sence for the right taking of it yet as to the keeping of it he is bound much to the sence in which he himself took it though possibly he misunderstood the Imposers § 371. Now to their Answer to the Reasons of the Conformists Object 1. The End was evil to change the Government of Church and State withâââ Law which was setled by Law The Bishops were a part of the House of Lords and therefore could not be cast out but by their own consent and the whole Parliament's with the King Answ. 1. It is not the ill ends of the Persons imposing that can disoblige the Taker unless it had been the fiâis proximus ipsius Iuramenti essential to the Vow it self and inseparable from it The Ends of Parliaments may be manifold and unknown
in Darbyshire upon no known Cause in Winter the Earth opening and swallowing a Woman near Ashburn in the same County upon her own Imprecation the Appearance of an Army to many near Montgomery and abundance more yet were Falshoods thrust in through their heady Temerity and Credulity whereby it came to pass that these Wonders were so far from moving Men to Repentance or the fear of God's Judgments that they greatly hardened them and made them say These Fanaticks are the odious lying Deceivers of the World that to cheat the poor People into a seditious Humour care not to bely even God himself And what the Fanaticks had been guilty of was imputed to the ejected Ministers and their Followers by them who thought it their interest to do so So that the poor obdurate Enemies of Godliness did not only lose the benefits of God's strange and dreadful Warnings but were much hardened by them to the increase of their Enmity § 425. In the beginning of Iune 1663. the old peaceable Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Iuxton died and Dr. Gilbert Sheldon Bishop of London succeeded in his room § 426. About these Times the talk of Liberty to the silenced Ministers for what ends I know not was revived again and we were blamed by many that we had never once petitioned the Parliament for which we had sufficient Reasons and it was talkt about that they were resolved to grant us either an Indulgence by way of Dispensation or a Comprehension by some additional Act taking in all that could Conform in some particular Points Hereupon there was great talk upon the Question Whether the way of Indulgence or the way of Comprehension were more desirable And it was debated as seriously as if indeed such a thing as one of them had been expected And Parliament Men themselves perswaded them that it would be done The Sectarians as they then called all that were for Liberty of Sects and for separated Churches were for the way of Indulgence that the Act might not enlarge the Terms of the Publick Ministry but give Liberty for gathering private Churches to all Else they thought that the most considerable of the Ministry were embodied with the Conformists their own Exclusion and Suppression would be unavoidable The most of the Independents yet were resolved against Petitioning for the Papists Liberty as well as the Presbyterians But some of the Politick Leaders of them said You are blind if you see not that this very Act of Uniformity was made so rigorous and the weight of Conformity so much increased that so the Number of the ejected Ministers might be so great as to force them to be glad of a general Toleration which might take in the Papists And if you think to stand it out they will yet bring you to it in despight of you They will increase your Burdens and lay you all in Prisons till you are glad to petition for such a Toleration and stand it out as long as you can you shall be forced to procure the Papists Liberty and the odium of it shall not lye on the Bishops but on you that are so much against it The Bishops shall speak against it and they will force you to beg for it who are against it And if you will not do it now you do but stay till the Market rise and your Sufferings be made greater and you shall be glad to do it at dearer rates On the other side the Presbyterians said It is against our Covenant to promote Popery and Sehism and whatever we suffer we will never do it nor will we contract that odium with the People nor contribute so much to betray them by deceiving them And if we should do it we are assured we shall be never the better for it for the Toleration shall be clogged with the Renunciation of all Obligations from the Covenant or some one other particular Condition which shall seem no matter of Religion which they know we will not conform to and the Papists will and so when we have petitioned for a Common Liberty we shall have the odium and they only the Liberty And thus they sate still and medled not with that Business § 427. For my own part I medled but little with any such Business since the failing of ãâã at which incurred so much displeasure and the rather because though the Brethren Commissioned with me stuck to me as to the Cause yet they were not forward enough to bear their part of the ungrateful part in the management nor of the consequent displeasure But yet when an Honourable Person was earnest with me to give him my Judgment Whether the way of Indulgence or Comprehension was more desirable that he might discern which way to go in Parliament himself I gave him my Thoughts in the following Paper though I thought it was to little purpose SIR YOur first Question is Whether the way of Comprehension or Indulgence be more desirable Answ. If the Comprehension were truly Charitable and Catholick upon the Terms of the Primitive Simplicity in Doctrine Discipline and Worship extending to all that the Apostolick Churches in their times received it would end all our Differences and Miseries except what in this imperfect state of the Church Militant must be still expected and it would prevent the sin and everlasting woe of multitudes of Souls But because there is no hope of this by reason of the ignorance impiety uncharitableness malice and factiousness of the Times rebus sic stantibus it is most evident that no Friend of the Church should be for Comprehension without Indulgence nor for Indulgence without the Enlargement of the Act of Uniformity to a greater Comprehension but for the Conjunction of both which will attain the ends of both and avoid the chief Inconveniencies of either alone 1. The way of Comprehension alone is not sufficient on Terms not Catholick which must be expected 1. Because such Comprehension will still leave out many worthy Persons whose Gifts God would have exercised for his Churches Service And he that rightly valueth the preaching of the Gospel and the saving of Souls would rather choose to have a Milstone hang'd about his Neck and be cast into the Sea than unnecessarily to silence any faithful Ministers of Christ. 2. Because even the Culpable should be punished but according to the measure of their offence Those therefore whose Labours are like to do more good in the Church than their Faults to do harm should be Corrected for those Faults with such personal gentle Chastisement as may not take them off their Labours for the Church It is a lighter Punishment to honest Ministers to make Brick as the Israelites in Egypt so they may withal but preach the Gospel than to be forbidden to preach for the Saving of the People See 1 Thess. 2. 14 15 16. 3. Especially considering that the loss by silencing them redoundeth to the Souls of others especially the ignorant and prophane and why should other Men be
denied the Means of their Salvation and so perish because a Minister differeth from the State in some lesser things 4. Considering also that there are not competent Men enough to do the Work of the Gospel without them Nay there will be much want when all are employed 5. It is desirable that his Majesty have Power to indulge the Peaceable and abate Penalties as in his Wisdom he shall see most conducible to the Peace of Church and State and not to be too much tied up by an indispensable Establishment These Reasons and many more are considerable for the way of Indulgence 2. The way of Indulgence alone is not sufficient but first the Law should be made more Comprehensive 1. Because indeed the present Impositions and Restrictions of the Law considering also the direful Penalty are such especially the Declaration and Subscription required as the Age that is further from the heels of Truth will so describe and denominate as will make our Posterity wish too late that the good of Souls the welfare of the Church and the Honour of our Nation had been better provided for 2. Because it is exceeding desirable that as much strength and unity as may be may be found in the established Body of the Clergy which will be the glory of the Church the advantage of the Gospel the prevention of many sins of Uncharitablness and the great safety and ease of his Majesty and the Realm When as meer Indulgence if frustrated by Restrictions will be unsatisfactory and not attain its ends but if any thing large and full will drain almost all the established Churches of a more considerable part of the People than I will now mention and will keep much disunion among the Ministers 3. If there be no way but that of Indulgence it will load his Majesty with too much of theââffence and murmur of the People If he indulge but few those that expected it ãâã lay all the blame on him If he indulge all or most that are meet for it he will much offend the Parliament and Prelates who will think the Law is vain But a power of indulging a small Number when the most are embodied by a Comprehension will be serviceable to God and the King and the Common Peace and justly offensive unto none 4. The Indulgence will be hardly attained by so many as need it and are meet for it most being distant many friendless and moneyless and too many misrepresented by their Adversaries as unworthy 5. If the Indulgence be for private Meetings only it will occasion such Jealousies that they preach Sedition c. as will not permit them long to enjoy it in peace These and many more Reasons are against the way of Indulgence alone It is therefore most evident that the way desirable is first a Comprehension of as many fit Persons as may be taken in by Law and then a power in his Majesty to indulge the Remnant so far as conduceth to the Peace and Benefit of Church and State Your second Question is What abatement is desirable for Comprehension I answer Suppose there is no hope of the Terms of Primitive Simplicity and Catholicism but that we speak only of what might now be hoped for 1. It is most needful that the old and new Subscriptions and Professions of Assent and Consent to all things in the Book of Ordination Liturgy and the two Articles concerning them be abated 2. That the Declaration be abated especially as to the disobliging all other Persons in the Three Kingdoms from the endeavouring in their places any lawful Alterations of the Government of the Church And that the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy be the Test of Mens subjection 3. That the Minister be not bound to use the Cross and Surplice and read the Liturgy himself if another by whomsoever be procured to do it So be it he preach not against them 4. That according to Pope Leo III. determination in such a Case the Bishops do by a general Confirmation in which each Man approveable to have his part upon due trial confirm the Ordination formerly made by lawful Pastors without Diocesans without reordaining them 5. That what the Courts will do about Kneeling at the Receiving of the Lord's Supper may be done by others and not the Minister forced to refuse Men meerly on that account 6. It is very desirable that Oaths of Obedience to the Diocesan be forborn as long as Men may be punished for Disobedience 7. It is exceeding desirable that Reformation of Church Government by Suffragans and the Rural Deanries c. be made according to his Majesty's Will expressed in his Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs To your third question Of the Extent and Terms of the Indulgence it being to be left to his Majesty's Wisdom I shall not presume to give you my Answer § 428. Instead of Indulgence and Comprehension on the last day of Iune 1663. the Act against Private Meetings for Religious Exercises past the House of Commons and shortly after was made a Law The Sum of it was That every Person above sixteen years old who is present at any Meeting under colour or pretence of any Exercise of Religion in other manner than is allowed by the Liturgy or Practice of the Church of England where there are five Persons more than that Household shall for the first Offence by a Iustice of Peace be Recorded and sent to Iail three Months till he pay five pound and for the second Offence six Months till he pay ten pound and the third time being convicted by a Iuly shall be banished to same of the American Plantations excepting New-England or Virginia The Calamity of the Act besides the main Matter was 1. That it was made so ambiguous that no man that ever I met with could tell what was a violation of it and what not not knowing what was allowed by the Liturgy or Practise of the Church of England in Families because the Liturgy medleth not with Families and among the diversity of Family Practice no man knoweth what to call the Practice of the Church 2. Because so much Power was given to the Justices of Peace to record a man an Offender without a Jury and if he did it causelesly we are without any remedy seeing he was made a Judge According to the plain words of the Act if a man did but preach and pray or read some licensed Book and sing Psalms he might have more than four present because these are allowed by the practice of the Church in the Church and the Act seemeth to grant an Indulgence for ãâã and number so be it the quality of the Exercise be allowed by the Church which must be meant publickly because it medleth with no private Exercise But when it cometh to the trial these Pleas with the Justice are vain and life men do but ãâã it is taken for granted that it is ãâã Exercise not allowed by the Church of England and to Jail they go §
Prelatical Dignity is not some way retrenched and whether they bear still that irreconcileable hatred against good and godly Presbyterians that they may not be suffered to exercise their Charge and Duty Or if they are wholly deprived of the power and authority to serve their Parishes as to our great Scandal we are informed I had many things more to write to you but dare not trouble you most worthy Sir any further fearing to keep you from your weighty Business Only I crave very humbly your Answer and as much Information of the true present Estate as opportunity will give you leave Whether we have so much cause to fear the Introduction of Popery in England as some by the News amongst us are wholly perswaded In the mean while we will continue to pray the Lord our God and most merciful Father with all our Hearts and Souls to preserve your Person for the General Good and Edification of his whole Catholick Church that your great Light may shine more and more and so I remain Reverend and most worthy Sir Your humble and most Affectionate Servant Iohn Sollicâffer unworthy Servant of Christ. Saingall in Helvetia Reformatâ 16 April 1663. The vigilant Eye of Malice that some had upon me made me understand that though no Law of the Land is against Literate Persons Correspondencies beyond Seas nor have any Divines been hindered from it yet it was like to have proved my ruine if I had but been known to answer one of these Letters though the Matter had been never so much beyond Exceptions So that I neither answered this nor any other save only by word of mouth to the Messenger and that but in small part for much of this in the latter part was Matter not to be touched Our Silencing and Ejection he would quickly know by other means and how much the Judgments of the English Bishops did differ from theirs about the Labours and Persons of such as we § 443. About this time I thought meet to debate the Case with some Learned and Moderate Ejected Ministers of London about Communicating sometimes in the Parish Churches in the Sacraments For they that came to Common Prayer and Sermon came not yet to Sacraments They desired me to bring in my Judgment and Reasons in writing which being debated they were all of my mind in the main That it is lawful and a duty where greater Accidents preponderate not But they all concurred unanimously in this That if we did Communicate at all in the Parish Churches the Sufferings of the Independents and those Presbyterians that could not Communicate there would certainly be very much increased which now were somewhat moderated by concurrence with them I thought the Case very hard on both sides That we that were so much censured by them for going somewhat further than they must yet omit that which else must be our Duty meerly to abate their Sufferings that censure us But I resolved with them to forbear a while rather than any Christian should suffer by occasion of an action of mine seeing God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice and no Duty is a Duty at all times § 444. In Iuly 1665. the Lord Ashley sent a Letter to Sir Iohn Trevor That a worthy Friend of his in whose Case the King did greatly concern himself had all his Fortunes cast upon my Resolution of the enclosed Case which was Whether a Protestant Lady of strict Education might marry a Papist in hope of his Conversion he promising not to disturb her in her Religion It came at Six a Clock Afternoon and knowing it was a Case that must be cautelously resolved at the Court I took time till the next Morning that I might give my Answer in Writing The next day the Lord Ashley wrote again with many words to incline me to the Affirmative for the Lady told them she would not consent unless I satisfied her that it was lawful Who the Lord and Lady were I know not at all but have an uncertain Conjecture So I sent the following Resolution The Case was thus expressed Whether one that was bred a strict Protestant and in the most severe ways of that Profession lived many years without giving offence to any well known in her own Country to be such may without offence to God or Man marry a profest Roman Catholick in hopes of taking him off the Errour of his ways he engaging never to disturb her My Lord's Letter was as follows SIR THere is a very good Friend of mine and one his Majesty is very much concerned for that this enclosed Case has the power of his Fortunes None but that worthy Divine Mr. Baxter can satisfie the Lady this has been the way by which the Romanists have gained very much upon us they are more powerful in perswasion than our Sex besides the putting this Case shews some inclination to the Person though not to the Religion Sir If Mr. Baxter be with you pray let me have his Opinion to this Case in writing under it Wherein you may oblige more than you think for Your very affectionate Friend to serve you ASHLEY For his much honoured Friend Sir Iohn Trevor at Acton To this Case I drew up the following Answer and sent it to Sir John Trevor to be by him conveyed to my Lord Ashley SIR THough I cannot be insensible how inconvenient to my self the Answer of this Case may possibly prove by displeasing those who are concerned in it and medling about a Case of Persons utterly unknown to me yet because I take it to be a thing which Fidelity to the Truth and Charity to a Christian Soul requireth I shall speak my Judgment whatever be the Consequents But I must crave the pardon of that Noble Lord who desired my Answer might be Subscribed to the Case because Necessity requireth more words than that Paper will well contain The Question about the Marriage is not An factum valeat but An fieri debeat There is no affirming or denying without these necessary Distinctions 1. Between a Case of Necessity and of no Necessity 2. Between a Case where the Motives are from the Publick Commodity of Church or State and where they are only Personal or Private 3. Between one who is otherwise sober ingenuous and pious and a faithful Lover of the Lady and one that either besides his Opinion is of an ungodly Life or seeketh her only to serve himself upon her Estate 4. Between a Lady well grounded and fixed in Truth and Godliness and one that is weak and but of ordinary setledness Hereupon I answer Prop. 1. In general It cannot be said to be simply and in all Cases unlawful to marry an Infidel or Heathen much less a Papist 2. In particular It is lawful in these following Cases 1. In Case of true Necessity when all just means have been used and yet the Party hath a necessity of Marriage and can have no better If you ask Who is better I answer A suitableness
in things of greatest moment to the Party 's good determineth that An impious hypocritical Protestant is worse than a sober godly Papist for such I doubt not but some be But he that is sound both in Judgment and in Life is better than either 2. In case it be very likely to prove some great Commodity to Church or State For so I doubt not but a Protestant Lady might marry a Papist Prince or other Person on whom the Publick Good doth eminently depend so be it 1. That she be stable and of good Understanding her self 2. And like to keep such Interest in him as may conduce to his own and the Publick Good 3. And in case she may not be as well disposed of to the Good of the Publick other ways When all these concur the probability of Publick Utility is so great that the Person I think may trust God to make up Personal Incommodities and preserve the Soul who aimeth at his Glory and keepeth in his way But small inconsiderable Probabilities are not enough to move one to hazard their Soul in so perillous a way 3. Besides these two Cases of real Necessity and Publick Utility I remember no Case at the present in which it is lawful for such a Protestant Lady to marry a Papist At least in the ordinary Case of Persons in this Land I take it to be undoubtedly sinful what hopes soever may be imagined of his Conversion My Reasons are these 1. A Husband is especially to be a Meet-helper in Matters of the greatest moment And this help is to be daily given in counselling in the things that concern Salvation instructing in the Scriptures exciting Grace subduing Sin and helping the Wife in the constant course of a Holy Life and in her preparation for Death and the Life to come And a humble Soul that is conscious of its own weakness will find the need of all this Help which how it can be expected from one who only promiseth not to disturb her in her Religion I cannot understand I should as soon advise her to take a Physician in her Sickness who only promimiseth not to meddle with her Health as a Husband who only promiseth not to meddle with her in Matters of Religion 2. A Husband who is no helper in Religion must needs be a hinderer For the very Diversions of the Mind from holy Things by constant talk of other Matters will be a very great Impediment And as not to go forward is to go backward so not to help is to hinder in one of so near relation How hard it is to keep up the Love of God and a Delight in Holiness and heavenly Desires and a fruitful Life even under the greatest Helps in the World much more among Hinderances and especially such as are in our Bosom and continually with us I need not tell a humble and self-knowing Christian. And of what Importance these things are I shall not declare till I am speaking to an Infidel or Impious Person 3. And as for the Conversion of another Marriage is none of the means that God hath commanded for that end that ever I could find Preaching or Conference with judicious Persons are the means of such Conversion And if it be a hopeful thing it may be tried and accomplished first There are enow of us who are ready to meet any Man of the Papal way and to evince the Errours of their Sect by the allowance of Authority If Reason or Scripture or the Church or Sense it self may be believed we shall quickly lay that before them that hath evidence enough to convince them But if none of this can do it before hand how can a Wife hope to do it she ought not to think a Husband so fond and weak as in the Matters of his Salvation to be led by his Affections to a Woman against his Reason his Party and his Education Or if she can do more than a Learned Man can do let her do it first and marry him after I had rather give my Money or my House and Land in Charity than to give my self in Charity meerly in hope to do good to another It is a Love of Friendship and Complacence and not a love of meer Benevolence which belongeth to this Relation Moreover Errour and Sin are deep rooted things and it is God only that can change such hearts and Women are weak and Men are the Rulers and therefore to marry if it were a vicious ungodly Protestant meerly in hope to change him is a Course which I think not meet here to name or aggravate as it deserveth 4. Yea she may justly fear rather to be changed by him For he hath the advantage in Authority Parts and Interest And we are naturally more prone to Evil than to Good It 's easier to infect twenty Men than to cure one And if he speak not to her against her Religion enow more will 5. Or if she be so happy as to escape Perversion there is little hope of her escaping a sad calamitous Life Partly by guilt and partly by her grief for a Husband's Soul and partly by Family-disorders and sins and also by daily temptations disappointments and want of those helps and comforts in the way to Heaven which her Weakness needeth and her Relation should afford So that if her Soul scape she must look that her great Affliction should be the means And yet we cannot so confidently expect from God that he sanctifie to us a self-chosen Affliction as another 6. Supposing him to be one that loveth her Person truly and not only her Estate for else she must expect to stand by as a contemned thing yet his Religion will not allow him otherwise to love her than as a Child of the Devil in a state of Damnation may be loved For their Religion teacheth them That none can be saved but the Subjects of the Pope If it be objected It seemeth it is no sin in that you can allow it in a Case of Necessity or for the notable benefit of the Church or State I answer It is no sin in those Cases but out of them it is It is no sin but my duty to lay down my Life for my King or Country but it followeth not that I may therefore do it without sufficient Cause So it is in this Case Having plainly given you my judgment in the proposed Case I leave it to that Noble Lord who sent for it to use it or conceal it or burn it as he please For it being not the Lady that sent to desire my Resolution but he my Answer is not hers but his that sent for it But I humbly crave that if she be at all acquainted with my Answer or any one else it may not be by report but by shewing it her entire as I have written it And as I doubt not but his Honour will find it self engaged to preserve me from the displeasure of such
that Traytorous Positon of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissionated by Him in pursuance of such Commission And that I will not at any time endeavour any alteration of Government either in Church or State The Reasons of Men's refusal to take this Oath were such as these following 1. Because they that were no Lawyers must Swear not only that they think it is unlawful but that it is so indeed 2. Because they think that this setteth a Commission above an Act of Parliament And that if one by a Law be made General or Admiral during Life another by a Commission may cast him out And though the Law say He shall be guilty of Treason if he give up his Trust to any upon pretence of a Commission Yet by this Oath he is a Traytor if he resist any one that hath a Commission 3. Because they fear they are to Swear to a contradiction viz. to set the King 's bare Commission above a Law which is the Act of King and Parliament and yet not to endeavour the Alteration of Government which they fear least they endeavour by taking this Oath 4. Because they think that by this means the Subject shall never come to any certain Knowledge of the Rule of his Duty and consequently of his Duty it self For it is not possible for us to know 1. What is to be called a Commission and what not and whether an illegal Commission be no Commission as the Lawyers some of them tell us and what Commission is illegal and what not and whether it must have the broad Seal on only the little Seal or none 2. Nor can we know when a Commission is counterfeit The King's Commanders in the Wars never shewed their Commissions to them that they fought against at least ordinarily There was a Collonel of the King 's since his coming in that brought a Commission Sealed with the broad Seal to seize on all the Goods of a Gentleman in Bishopsgate-street in ãâã by which he carried them away But the Commission being proved counterfeit he was hanged for it But a Man that thus Seizeth on any Gentleman's Money on Goods may be gone before they can try his Commission if they may not resist him But the Parliament and Courts of Justice are the Legal publick Notifiers of the King's mind and by them the Subjects can have a regular certain notice of it So that if the Parliament were concluded to have no part in the Legislative Power but the King 's meer will to be our Law yet if the Parliament and Courts of Justice be erected as the publick Declarers of his will to the People they seem more regardable and credible than the words of a private unknown Man that saith he hath a Commission 5. And they think that this is to betray is to the King and give the Chancellour or Lord-Keeper power at his pleasure to depose him from his Crown and dispossess him of his Kingdoms For if the King by Law or Commission shall settle any Trusty Subject in the Government of Navy or Militia or Forts and command them to resist all that would disposseââ them yet if the Lord Chancellor have a design to depose the King and shall Sealââ Commission to any of his own Creatures or Confidents to take possession of the said Forts Garisons Militia and Navy none upon pain of Death must resist them but âe taken for Traytors if they will not be Traytors yea though it were but whilst they send to the King to know his Will And when Traytors have once got possession of all the Strengths the detecting of their stand will be too late and to Sue them at Law will be in vain And he that remembreth That our Lord Chancellor is now banished who lately was the chief Minister of State will think that this is no needless fear 6. And they think that it is quite against the Law of God in Nature which obligeth âs to quench a Fire or save the Life of one that is assaulted much more of our selves against one that would kill him and that else we shall be guilty of Murder And according to the preper Sense of this Oath If two Foot-boys get from the Lord Chancellor a Commission to kill all the Lords and Commons in Parliament or to set the City and all the Country on Fire no Man may be Force of Arms resist them Lords and Commons may not save their Lives by force not the City their Houses And by this way no Man shall dwell or travel in safety while any Enemy or Thief may take away his Life or Purse or Goods by a pretended Commission and if we defend our selves but while we send to try them we are Traytors and few have the means of such a Tryall 7. They think by this means no Sheriff may by the Posse Comitatus execute the Decrees of any Court of Justice if ãâã can but get a Commission for the contrary 8. They think that Taxes and Subsidies may be raised thus without Parliaments and that all Men's Estates and Lives are at the meer will of the King or the Lord Chancellor For if any be Commissioned to take them away we have no remedy For to say that we have our Actions against them in the Courts of Justice is but to say that when all is taken away we may cast away more if we had it For what good will the Sentence of any Court do us if it pass on our side as long as a Commission against the Execution of that Sentence must not be resisted unless a piece of Paper be as good as an Estate 9. And they think that by this Oath we Swear to disobey the King if at any time he command us to endeavour any alteration of the Church-Government as once by this Commission to some of us he did about the Liturgy 10. And they think that it is a serving the Ambition of the Prelates and an altering of the Government to Swear never to endeavour any alteration of Church-Government yea and to put the Church-Government before the State-Government and so to make the Prelacy as unalterable as Monarchy and to twist it by an Oath into the unalterable Constitution of the Government of the Land and so to disable the King and Parliament from ever endeavouring any alteration of it For if the Subjects may not at any time nor by any means endeavour the King will have none to execute his Will if he endeavour it And if Divines who should be the most tender avoiders of Perjury and all Sin shall lead the way in taking such an Oath who can expect that any others after them should scruple it And it was endeavoured to have been put upon the Parliament 11. And they think that there is a great deal in the English Diocesian Frame of Church-Government which is very sinful and which God will have all Men in their places and callings to endeavour to reform
Court of Justice declare That the King by his Laws commandeth us to assist the Sheriffs and Justices notwithstanding any Commission to the contrary under the great or little Seal and one shew us a Commission to the contrary which must we take for the King's Authority 8. Whether this extendeth to the Case of King Iohn who delivered the Kingdom to the Pope Or to those Instances of Bilson Barcley Grotius c. of changing the Government putting by the true Heir to whom we are Sworn in the Oath of Allegiance c. if Subjects pretend Commission for such Acts 9. Whether Parliament Judges in Court or private Men may by the King's Authority in his Laws defend their Lives against any that by a pretended Commission invadeth them or their Purses Houses or Companions 10. Whether we must take every Affirmer to have a Commission if he shew it not Or every shewn Commission to be current and not surreptitious though contrary to Law 11. Whether he violateth not this Oath who should endeavour to alter so much of the Legislative Power as is in the Parliament or the Executive in the Established Courts of Justice Or is it meant only of Monarchy as such 12. Doth he not break this Oath who should endeavour to change the Person Governing as well as he that would change the Form of Government 13. If so doth it not also tye us to the Persons of Church-Governours seeing they are equally here twisted and Church-Government preposed 14. Is it the King 's Coercive Government of the Church by the Sword which is here meant according to the Oath of Supremacy Or Spiritual Government by the Keys Or both 15. Is it not the English Form of Church-Government by Diocesans that is here meant and not some other sort of Episcopacy which is not here And doth he not break this Oath who instead of a Bishop over 500 or 1000 Churches without any inferiour Bishop should endeavour to set up a Bishop in every great Church or Market-Town or as many as the Work requireth 16. Seeing Excommunication and Absolution are the notable parts of Spiritual Government and it is not only the Actions but the Actors or Governours that we Swear not to alter and Lay-Chancellors are the common Actors or Governours whether an endeavour to alter Lay-Chancellors Government as some did that procured his Majesty's Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs be not contrary to this Oath and excluded by any alteration 17. Whether petitioning or other peaceable means before allowed by Law be not any endeavour and a violation of this Oath 18. Whether not at any time c. tye us not to disobey the King if he should command us by Consultation or Conference to endeavour it Or if the Law be changed doth not this Oath still bind us Lastly Whether this following Sense in which we could take it be the true sense of the Oath I A B do Swear That a it is not Lawful upon any pretence whatsoever b to take up Arms against the King c And that I do abhor that Traytorous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissionated by him d in pursuance of such Commission And that I will not at any time endeavour any alteration of Government either in Church or State e a In my Opinion b For the Subjects of his Majesty's Dominions c Either his Authority or his Person the Law forbidding both d Whether it be his Parliament Courts of Justice Legal Officers or any other Persons authorized by his publick Laws or his Commission supposing that no contrariety of Laws and Commissions by over-sight or otherwise do Arm the Subjects against each other e I will not endeavour any alteration of State-Government at all either as to the Person of the King or the Species of Government either as to the Legislative or Executive Power as in the King himself or his Parliament or Established Courts of Justice And therefore I declare That I take all the rest of this Oath only in a Sense consistent with this Clause implying no alteration in the Government And I will endeavour no alteration of the Coercive Government of the Church as it is in the King according to the Oath of Supremacy Nor any alienation of the Spiritual Power of the Keys from the Lawful Bishops and Pastors of the Church Nor will I endeavour to restore the Ancient Discipline by removing the Spiritual Government by the Keys out of the Hands of Lay-Chancellors into the Hands of so many able Pastors as the number of Churches and necessity of the work requireth nor any other Reformation of the Church by any Rebellious Schismatical or other unlawful means whatsoever nor do I believe that any Vow or Covenant obligeth me thereto declaring notwithstanding that it 's none of my meaning to bind my self from any Lawful Means of such Reformation nor to disobey the King if at any time He command me to endeavour the Alteration of any thing justly alterable The General Answer was as followeth UPon Serious Consideration of the Act of Parliament Entitled An Act for Restraining of Nonconformists from Inhabiting in Corporations And of the Oath therein mentioned I am of Opinion That there is nothing contained in that Oath according to the true Sense thereof But that it is not Lawful to take up Arms against the King or any Authorised by his Commission or for a private Person to endeavour the Alteration of the Monarchical Government in the State or the Government by Bishops in the Church And that any Person notwithstanding the taking of such Oath if he apprehend that the Lay-Judges in Bishop's Courts as to Sentence of Excommunication for Matters meerly Ecclesiastical or for any other Cause ought to be Reformed or that Bishopricks are of too large extent may safely Petition or use any lawful Endeavour for Reformation of the same For that such Petition or other Lawful Endeavour doth not tend to the Alteration of the Government but to the amendment of what shall be found amiss in the Government and Reformed by Lawful Authority and thereby the Government better Established And I conceive every Exposition of the said Oath upon Supposition or Presumption of an Obligation thereby to any thing which is contrary to the Law of God or the Kingdom is an illegal and a forced Exposition contrary to the intent and meaning of the said Oath and Act of Parliament for it is a Rule nullum iniquum est in Lege praesumendium And an Exposition tending to enjoyn any thing contrary to the Law of God would make the Act of Parliament void which ought not to be admitted when it bears a fair and plain Sense which is no more Than that Subjects ought not to take up Arms against their Lawful King or such as lawfully Commissionated by him and for private Persons to be unquiet in the place wherein they live to the disturbance of the Government in Church or State Iohn Fountain Feb. 6.
1665. The Particular Answer was as followeth NOT at present to dispute the things presupposed although I may not grant all in the Fourth and some other of the Positions to be warranted by the Law of Nature or Scripture I add as necessary to the Resolving of the Questions upon the Act of Parliament That in the Exposition of Acts of Parliament if there may be a fair and reasonable Construction made of the Words not contrary to the Law of God or Reason that Construction ought to be made thereof and that any Exposition which tends to make it sensless or contrary to the Law of God and Reason or to suppose any wicked thing enjoyned thereby is a forced Construction and contrary to Law being destructive to the very Act of Parliament I hereupon lay aside any Answer to the Fourth and Eighth Questions which may peradventure be thought meer Cavils against the Act though I knowing the Temper of the Propounder have a more charitable Opinion of him But I do apprehend that tho' there may want a Word to make a Logical Position concerning the Trayterous Position mentioned in the Oath yet there is a plain Sense in the Oath viz. That it is unlawful to take up Arms against the King and that if any would make a distinction and affirm That though the unlawfulness were admitted to take up Arms against him yet by his Authority they might take up Arms against his Person or against those that are Commissioned by him in pursuance of such Commission such an Affirmation and Position as this is Traytorous and to be abhorred and there is such a plain Sense in it as every one that hath common Reason understands it so and therefore Quod necessario subintelligitur non deest And I do not believe that any who propound the Questions to be resolved do themselves imagine that the Parliament had any thought of what is mentioned in the Eighth Question for nullum iniquum in Lege praesumendum Upon consideration of the Act I apprehend the Makers thereof had an apprehension that there were three sorts of People which might have a dangerous influence upon the King's Subjects if not rightly principled viz. Ministers or Preachers School-Masters and such as did Table and Board Children and therefore did provide to restrain them from doing hurt to the Kingdom in keeping the Ministers out of the populous Places of the Kingdom or where they were best known and most likely to prevail and that no Children might be poisoned with Principles destructive to Government The Principles which they feared were these 1. That in some Cases it might be lawful to take up Arms against the Supreme Magistrate at least by a distinction unwarrantable in taking up Arms against his Authority against his Person or such as he did Commissionate 2. That private Persons might endeavour to alter the Government in the Church or State where they lived For the discovery of such as were of these dangerous Principles I conceive the Oath is framed which is Established by this Act and any who holdeth these Principles may not safely take it but if he hold not these Principles he may And as to the Questions 1. That the Words upon any pretence whatsoever in the Oath refer only to the King himself 2. That Lawful comprehends any Law obligatory 3. That it is only according to the Opinion and Judgment of him that takes it 5. He that hath the Lawful Commission is the only Person that hath Authority by the King's Commission 6. I conceive the Sheriff 7. That Commission which is according to Law 9. I conceive they may 10. I conceive a Commission must be shewn if required and that a surreptitious and void Commission contrary to Law is no Commission at all 11. I understand not the Latitude of this Question but I conceive the Sense of the Oath is not to endeavour the Alteration of Monarchical Government in the State 12. Though I conceive it utterly unlawful to endeavour to change the Person of the Governour yet that being sufficiently provided against by the former Laws I do not conceive that it was intended by the Makers of the Law in this part of the Oath to intend more than the Alteration of the Government 13. Answered before And yet if the Person of the Supreme were included in the State-Government I do not conceive that it would extend to the Governours under him in the Church for they may be justly removed in Case of Crime c. 14. I conceive both 15. I conceive its the English Form of Church-Government and yet that is no breach of the Oath to endeavour in a lawful way to make more Bishops and lesser Bishopricks 16. I do not think the Oath bindeth not to endeavour to alter the Actors or Governours in the Church so it be done by lawful means and that it is lawful notwithstanding the Oath to endeavour to alter Lay-Chancellors in a lawful way 17. I conceive it is not 18. I conceive it doth not There are so many things put in the last Question of the Sense of the Oath as will require more discussion than the present Opportunity admits Iohn Fountain Feb. 13. 1665. Sir Iohn Maymard also told me That an illegal Commission is no Commission though privately being the King's Serjeant §19 But that all these Answers should rather resolve me not to take this Oath than any way satisfie me to take it may thus appear 1. He confesseth that the Principle feared was That in some Cases it is lawful to take up Arms against the Supreme Magistrate or by his Authority against those Commissioned by him And yet implicitly granteth it in the Cases intimated in the Eighth Question 2. He confesseth that another feared Principle was That private Persons may endeavour to alter the Government of the Church And he confesseth That by lawful means we may endeavour it in a great part of it And as to the Particulars 1. He thinketh that the Words on any pretence whatsoever refer to the King only whereas in my Conscience I think that the Authors of the Oath meant it also as to any Commissioned by him otherwise there is nothing in all this Oath against taking Arms against any Commissioned by the King so they do not pretend his own Authority for it And upon my knowledge a great part of those that Fought for the Parliament went on other grounds some thinking Parliaments and People above the King as being singulis Major universis Minor as Hooker speaks Eccles. Pol. Lib. 8. some thinking that the Law of Nature did warrant them and some that the Scripture did require them to do what they did And can I believe that it was none of the Imposers Intention by the Oath to provide against any of these Opinions If really it were not then a Man that taketh this Oath may notwithstanding it believe That though it be not lawful to take Arms against the King nor against his Armies by pretence of his
Authority yet upon four other grounds it is lawful to take up Arms against his Army 1. Because as Willius and other Politicians say the Majestas realis is in the People 2. Because some Lawyers say That the People of England have as Hooker and Bâlson calls them fore-prized Liberties which they may defend and the Parliament hath part of the Legislative Power by the Constitution of the Kingdom 3. Because the Law of Nature and Charity requireth the Defence of our Selves Posterity and Country 4. And because Scripture requireth the same They that will say That the Oath hath left all these Pleas or Evasions for Fighting against the King's Armies do make it utterly useless to the ends for which it was intended and make the Authors to have been strangely blinded 2. Note That he takes the Word Lawful to extend to all Laws of Nature Scripture or whatever And 3. That he takes these Words It is not Lawful to mean no more than I judge or think it is not Lawful As if all our Parliament Men with the Learned Bishops had not had Wit enough to have said so if they had meant so but said one thing and meant another 4. I confess I stick not much on the Fourth Quaere but its plain that the Subject named is capable of various Predicates yea of contrary and of taking Arms may be applied to an opertet a litet a factum est yea or a non licet though the licet I doubt not is their Sense 5. Note That the Answer to the Fifth is a meer putting off the Answer For the Question is Whether the Act of Parliament or the private Commission be more Authoritative And he answereth That which is Lawful which implieth that he was not willing to speak out 6. Note that he plainly concludeth that a Sheriff hath the King's Authority to resist by the Posse Comitatus the King 's Commissioned Officers that would hinder him from Executing the Decrees of a Court of Justice And doth not this either cross the intent of the Imposers or give up the whole Cause Doth it not grant that either it is lawful by the King's Authority given to the Sheriff by the Law c. for him by Arms to resist the King's Commissioners Or else that they be resisted as not Commissioned because their Commission is unlawful And what did the Parliament's Army desire more If a Sheriff by the Sentence of an inferiour Court may raise Arms against the King's Army as not Commissioned you will teach the Parliament to say That their Judgment is greater than an inferiour Court's 7. And it is possible That Commissions may be contrary of the same date who then can know which is the Traytor 8. The Seventh is a putting off the Answer like the Fifth 9. Note especially that of the Eighth Quaere which implyeth divers Instances of Cases in which Grotius Barclay Bilson c. say That it is Lawful to take Arms against the King he seemeth wholly to grant it and maketh it but like a Cavil to suppose that those Cases ever came into the Parliament's Thoughts And I am much in that of the good Man's Mind But if they will Swear me to an Universal while they forget particular Exceptions that will not make the Oath Lawful to me For 1. It is not certain to me That they would have excepted those things if they had remembred them 2. Much less can I tell which and how many things they would have excepted 3. And how could the wit of Man devise Words more exclusive of all Exceptions than to say It is not Lawful on any pretence whatsoever Are those in the Eighth Quaere no pretences whatsoever I dare not thus stretch my Conscience about an Oath when I know that the Authors were Learned Crasty willing to extend it far enough and Men that understood English and spake in a matter of their own Concernment and Employment Therefore by any pretence whatsoever I cannot think that they meant to exclude so many Pretences as the Eighth Case speaks of 10. Note also That he alloweth Parliaments Judges or private Men even by the King's Authority in his Laws to defend their Lives their Houses Estates Purses and Companions against such as are Commissioned to Surprize them Which is because he taketh such to be really no Commissions And so the Parliament and their Army would say in a Word That the King's Commissions to his Armies were no Commissions But this which the Lawyers wholly rest on I think in my Conscience was so contrary to the Imposers Sense that if it had been then mentioned they would have expresly put in some Words against it And if an illegal Commission be no Commission then there are not two sorts of Commissions one legal and the other illegal unless speaking Equivocally And this comes up to what Richard Hooker and the long Parliament said viz. That the King can do no wrong because if it be wrong it is not to be taken for the King's Act. 11. Note also That a Commission must be shewn if required and an illegal one is null And which of the Parliament's Souldiers ever saw the Commissions of those whom they Fought against Not one of many Thousands And was this think you the meaning of the Imposers of the Oath that it should be left to Men's Liberty to take an illegal Commission for none If this were declared who of all the Parliament's Army would not take this part of the Oath 12. To the Eleventh he answereth That the Oath is against altering Monarchy which none doubts of But whether the Power of Parliaments or Courts of Justice be included the good Man thought it not best to understand 13. He thinks that by Government is meant only the Species Monarchy and not the Person of the King as being sufficiently secured elsewhere whereas there is no such limitation in the Words but that he is to be esteemed a Changer of the Government who would depose the King and set up an Usurper 14. But if it do secure the King's Person as I think it doth and should do he thinks it extendeth not to the Persons of the Church-Governours because by Law they may be altered But 1. Here is no difference made in the Oath unless it be that the Government of the Church is put before that of the State 2. Therefore the Question is Whether this Oath be not contrary to those former Laws and do not settle the Bishops and Chancellors as fast as the King As to the plain Sense of the Words I find no difference And as to the meaning of the Law-makers it is hard otherwise to know it seeing they are of so many minds and various degrees of Capacity among themselves 15. And it is here confessed That the Clergy-Government is included yea and that the Oath meaneth the English Species and yet he thinketh that it prohibiteth not lawful Endeavours to make more Bishops and to take down Lay-Chancellors whereas 1. Chancellors are
any thing amiss in the Government of Church or State Established by Law If Endeavour be taken in its Latitude it is a perfect contradiction to this Law 3. The Testimonies of several Members of both Houses who assured us that in the Debate this was the declared Sense of the Parliament Sir Heneage Finch told me the intention of it was only to have security from us without any respect to our Iudgments concerning the Government that we would not disturb the Peace and that it was imposed at this Season in regard of our Wars with France and Holland He added it was a tessera of our Loyalty and those who refused it would be looked on as Persons reserving themselves for an Opportunity My Lord Chamberlain said the Bishops of Canterbury and Winchester declared it only excluded Seditious Endeavours and upon his urging that it might be expressed the Arch Bishop replyed It should be added but the King being to come at Two of the Clock it could not with that Explication be sent down to the House of Commons and returned up again within that time The Bishop of Exeter told Dr. Tillotson That the first Draught of this Oath was in Terms a Renunciation of the Covenant but it was answered they have suffered for that already and that the Ministers would not recede it was therefore reasonable to require security in such Words as might not touch the Covenant 4. The concurrent Opinion of the Iudges who are the Authorized Interpreters of Law who declared that only tumultuous and seditious Endeavours are meant Iudge Bridgman Twisden Brown Archer Windham Atkins who were at London had agreed in this Sense Some of the Ministers were not satisfied because the Opinion of a Iudge in his Chamber was no Iudicial Act but if it were declared upon the Bench it would much resolve their Doubts I addressed my Self to my Lord Bridgman and urged him that since it was a Matter of Conscience and the Oaths were to be taken in the greatest simplicity he would sincerely give me his Opinion about it He professed to me that the Sense of the Oath was only to exclude seditious and tumultuous Endeavours and said he would go to the Sessions and declare it in the Court He wrote down the Words he intended to speak and upon my declaring that if he did not express that only seditious Endeavours were meant I could not take the Oath be put in the Paper before me that word and told me that Iudge Keeling was of his Mind and would be there and be kind to us The Ministers esteemed this the most publick Satisfaction for Conscience and Fame and several of them agreed to go to the Sessions and take the Oath that hereby if possible they might vindicate Religion from the Impâtation of Faction and Rebellion and make it evident that Consciences only hindereth their Conformity Some of the most unsatisfied were resolved to take it We came in the afternoon on Friday to the Court where seven Ministers had taken it in the Morning At our appearance the Lord Bridgman addrest himself to us in these Words Gentlemen I perceive you are come to take the Oath I am glad of it The intent of it is to distinguish between the King 's good Subjects and those who are mentioned in the Act and to prevent Seditious and Tumultuous Endeavours to alter the Government Mr. Clark said in this Sense we take it The Lord Keeling spake with some quickness Will you take the Oath as the Parliament hath appointed it I replyed My Lord We are come hither to attest our Loyalty and to declare we will not seditiously endeavour to alter the Government He was silent and we took the Oath being 13 in number After this the Lord Keeling told us He was glad that so many had taken the Oath and with great vehemency said We had renounced the Covenant in two Principal Points that damnable Oath which sticks between the Teeth of so many And he hoped That as here was one King and one Faith so here would be one Government And if we did not Conform it would be judged we did this to save a stake These Words being uttered after by his Silence he had approved what my Lord B. had spoke of the Sense of the Act and our express Declaration that in that Sense we took it you may imagine how surprizing they were to us It was not possible for us to recollect our selves from the Confusion which this caused so as to make any reply We retired with sadness and what the consequences will be you may easily fore-see Some will reflect upon us with severity judging of the nature of the Action by this check of Providence Others who were resolved to take the Oath recoil from it their Iealousies being increased I shall trouble you no longer but assure you That notwithstanding this accident doth not invalidate the Reasons for the lawfulness of it in our apprehensions yet the fore-sight of this would have caused us to suspend our proceedings The good Lord sanctifie this Providence to us and teach us to commit our dearest Concernments unto him in the performance of our Duty to whose Protection I commend you and remain Yours intirely William Bates London Feb. 22. After my Lord Keeling's Speech Sir Iohn Babor enquired of Lord Bridgman whilst he was on the Bench Whether the Ministers had renounced the Covenant He answer'd the Covenant was not concerned in it Mr. Calamy Watson Gouge and many others had taken the Oath this Week but for this unhappy Accident My Lord Bridgman came to the Sessions and declared the Sense of the Oath with my Lord Chancellor's allowance But all the Reasons contain'd in this Letter seem'd not to me to enervate the force of the fore-going Objections or solve the Difficulties § 24. A little before this L. B. and Sir S. committed such horrid wickedness in their Drinking acting the part of Preachers in their Shirts in a Balcony with Words and Actions not to be named that one or both of them was openly censured for it in Westminster-Hall by one of the Courts of Justice You will say Sure it was a shameful Crime indeed And shortly after a Lightning did seize on the Church where the Monuments of the were and tore it melted the Leads and brake the Monuments into so small pieces that the people that came to see the place put the Scraps with the Letters on into their Pockets to shew as a Wonder and more wonderful than the consumption of the rest by fire § 25. In this time the Haunting of Mr. Mompesson's House in Wiltshire with strange Noises and Motions for very many Months together was the Common Talk Of which Mr. Ios. Glanvil having wrote the Story I say no more § 26. The Number of Ministers all this while either imprisoned sined or otherwise afflicted for preaching Christ's Gospel when they were forbidden was so great that I forbear to mention them particularly § 27. The War began with
What shall one or two or three in a parish do who usually are as many in most or many Parishes as are fit for Communion c. Men first estrange themselves from the poor People whom they should teach with tenderness and diligence and then they think their ignorance of the People ground enough to Judge them ignorant and talk of one or two in a Parish But Christ will find many more I am past doubt even Members of his Mystical Church than these Men can do of the visible which is much larger And you cannot say if there be any difference of Successes that it is only from the difference of Persons and not of the several ways For here where I live were two of the worthiest Persons of your way Mr. Nye and Mr. Elford whose ability and Piety were beyond all question and so was their great advantage then But your way is your disadvantage and Christ's Friends should suspect that way of honouring Godliness which tendeth to diminish it or suppress it I tell you some few of the things offensive to your Brethren that you may see wherein our Agreement must give Satisfaction The rest I now omit I had thought to have said more of the Reasons why you should heartily promote it But I will now say but these two things 1. That he that can consider what the effects of our Divisions have been upon Church and State and the Lives of some and the Souls of Thousands both of the openly ungodly and Professors and that knows how great a Reproach they are now to our Profession and hardening of the Wicked and hinderance to that good even of the best and yet doth not thirst to see them healed hath small sense of the interest of Christ and Souls 2. That he that considereth what it was to continue such Divisions unheal'd for 20 Years under such Warnings and Calls to Unity and to do what we have done against our selves and others after such smart and in such a manner to the last is most dreadfully impenitent if Repentance do not now make him zealous for a Cure And in particular if you and Mr. Nye and I be not extraordinary zealous for this work there are scarce three Men to be found in the World that will be more hainously guilty and without excuse I need not tell you why And truly if we have zeal and yet not skill for such a Cure when all say that the People are willinger than the Pastors it will be a shame for us to cry out on them that Silence us as if such Shepherds were necessary to the Flock that have skill to Wound and none to Cure Therefore as I am heartily glad of your forwardness and willingness to this Work pardon me for telling you I will Iudge of it by the Effects I address my self to you alone because I know that Vnderstanding and Experience are great Assistants to lead on Charity in this Work and there is no dealing with them that understand not the Case And I will hope that the Effect will shew that no Humours of others Men of narrow Minds and Interests and injudicious Passions shall preval with you against so great a work of Repentance and Love to God and Godliness and the Souls of Men. Again Pardon this Freedom used by Your much Hounouring And Vnworthy Brother Rich. Baxter § 144. After this I waited on him at London again and he came once to me to my Lodgings when I was in Town near him And he told me that he received my chiding Letter and perceived that I suspected his Reality in the Business but he was so hearty in it that I should see that he really meant as he spake concluding in these Words You shall see it and my Practice shall reproach your Diffidence I told him That if I fore-saw his Temptations and were willing to help him by Premonition to overcome them I meant not that as an Accusation but I thank'd him for his Promise to reproach my Diffidence by his Practice and such an Event would be his Honour and let it reproach me and spare not so be it the Work were done But again I desired that no one living might know of it till he and I had finished our attempt And thus I waited for his Animadversions § 145. About a Month after I went to him again and he had done nothing but was still hearty for the Work And to be short I thus waited on him time after time till my Papers had been near a Year and quarter in his Hand and then I desired him to return them to me which he did with these Words I am still a well-wisher to those Mathematicks without any other Words about them or ever giving me any more Exception against them And this was the issue of my third Attempt for Union with the Independents § 146. Having long upon the Suspension of my Aphorisms been purposing to draw up a Method of Theology I now began it I never yet saw a Scheme or Method of Physicks or Theology which gave any Satisfaction to my Reason Tho' many have attempted to exercise more accurateness in Distribution than all others that went before them especially Dud'ey Fenner Tzegedine Sobnius Gomarus Amesius Treleatius Wollebius c. and our present busie-boaster Dr. Nich. Gibbon in his Scheme yet I could never yet see any whose Confusion or great Defects I could not easily discover but not so easily amend I had been Twenty Six Years convinced that Dichotomizing will not do it but that the Divine Trinity in Unity hath exprest it self in the whole Frame of Nature and Morality And I had so long been thinking of a true Method and making-some small Attempts but I found my self insufficient for it and so continued only thinking of it and studying it all these Years Campanella I saw had made the fairest Attempt that ever I saw made in the Principles of Nature and Commenius after him but yet as I believe he quite mist it in his first operative Principles of Heat and Cold mistaking the nature of Cold and Darkness so he run his three Principles which he calleth Primalities into many subsequent Notions which were not provable or coherent Having long read his Physicks Metaphysicks de Sensu rerum and Atheismus Triumphatus I found him mention his Theology which put me in hope that he had there also made some Attempt but I could never hear of any one that had seen any such Book of his At last Mr. Geo. Lawson's Theopolitica came out which reduced Theology to a Method more Political and righter in the main than any that I had seen before him But he had not hit on the true Method of the Vestigia Trinitatis and some long Debates by Writing between him and me which had gone before about 7 Years had engaged him to make good his first Papers in those mistakes about the Office of Faith in Justification as Justifying only as Christ's Propitiation as the Object of
consult about such a work and if so that more than I may be consulted and nothing laid on me alone I am confident were but Dr. Stillingfleet Dr. Tillotson or any such moderate Men appointed to consult with two or three of us on the safe and needful terms of Concord we should agree in a Week's time supposing them vacant for the Business I Rest Your humble Servant Richard Baxter Decem. 15. 1673. The means of uniting the Protestant Ministers in England and healing our lamentable Divisions supposing Church-Government may not be altered 1. About Engagements Let no other Covenant Promise Oath Declaration or subscription be necessary to Ministers for Ordination Institution Induction Ministration or Possession of their maintenance nor to Scholars at the Universities except the ancient University Oath or to School-masters besides the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the subscribing the Doctrine and Sacraments of the Church of England as expressed in the thirty nine Articles accordingly to the 13th of Queen Elizabeth and the common Subscription approving the Doctrine of the Homilies and this following Declaration against Rebellion and Sedition I. A. B. do hold that it is not Lawful for His Majesty's Subjects upon any Pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King his Person or Authority or against any Authorized by his Legal Commission And that there lyeth no Obligation on me or any other of his Subjects from the Oath commonly called the solemn League and Covenant to endeaveavour any Change of the present Government of these his Majesty's Kingdoms nor to endeavour any Reformation of Church or State by Rebellion Sedition or any other unlawful means II. Because the Churches are all supposed to have Incumbents and the present Non-conformists being devoted to the sacred Ministry do holn it high Sacriledge to alienate themselves therefrom to pass by their outward wants till by Presentations to vacant Churches they are better provided let them have liberty to be School-masters or assistants to Incumbents or to Preach Lectures in their Churches so it be by their Consent whether they be Lectures already endowed with some Maintenance or such as the People are willing to maintain And let not the Incumbents be discouraged by the Bishops from receiving them And let such places as being convenient are already possessed by them for God's Publick Worship be continued to that use as Chappels till they can be thus received into Benefices or Lectures III. Because the Piety of Families must keep up very much of the Interest of Religion in the World and Multitudes especially in the Country that cannot read can do little or nothing of it in their own Families and may be greatly helped by joyning with their more understanding pious Neighbours let it not be forbidden to any who attend the publick Assemblies at any other hours to join with their Neighbours being of the same Parish who read the Holy Scriptures and Licensed pious Books and repeat the publick Sermons and Pray and Praise God by singing Psalms and refuse not the Inspection of their lawful Pastors herein Nor let it not be unlawful for any stablished Minister to receive his People in such Work or for the Catechising and personal instructing of such as shall desire it IV. Concerning the Liturgy and publick Communion 1. Let no Man be punished for omitting the use of the Liturgy if in the Congregation where he is incumbent the greatest part of it appointed for that time be sometimes as once a quarter or half a Year as the Canon requireth used by himself and every Lord's Day ordinarily unless when sickness or other Necessity hindreth either by himself or by his Curate or Assistant And let none be forced to read the Apocrypha publickly for Lessons 2. Let no meer Lecturer be forced to read the the Liturgy himself or to procure another to read it seeing it is the Incumbent's Charge and it is supposed it will be done Or if this may not be granted let the Lecturer be only obliged once half a Year which is the time limited in the Canon to read the Greatest part of it appointed for that time 3. Let not Christian Parents be forbidden to dedicate their Children publickly to God by entering them into the Christian Covenant professing and undertaking on their Behalf that which belongeth to Parents in that Case And let not the Parents be forced to get such Godfathers and Godmothers as are Atheists Infidels Hereticks or grosly ignorant what Baptism and Christianity is or as for their wicked Lives are themselves justly kept from the Communion nor such as they know have no intention to do what they are to undertake And if any Christian Parent can get no better to undertake that Office many now scrupling it and none can be forced to it let not his Child be denied Baptism if he be ready to do the Office of a Parent himself 4. Seeing some Ministers think that the use of the transient Image of the Cross as a Sacramental or dedicating Sign In the Baptismal Covenant and a Symbol of the Christian Profession is a breach of the second Commandment âet not such be forced to use it nor to refuse to baptize the Children of such Persons without it who are of the same Mind 5. Let no Minister be forced against his Judgment to baptize any Child both whose Parents avoid or are justly denied the Communion of the Church unless sâme Person who communicateth with the Church do take the Child as his own und undertake to Educate it according to the Christian Covenant 6. Let none be forced to receive the Sacrament who through Infidelity Heresie or Prophaneness is unwilling till the hinderance be removed Nor any who by Consciousness or fear of their unfitness are like to be driven by so receiving it into distraction or desperation 7. Let no Minister be forced to deliver the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood to any who is unbaptized or who being baptized in Infancy did never yet personally to the Church or Minister own his Baptismal Covenant by an understanding Profession of the Christian Faith and promise of Obedience to God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost and who also will not yet make such a profession and promise to the Church or Minister or else bring a valid Certificate that he hath formerly done it to the Bishop or some approved Pastor under whom he lived Nor to any who upon accusation fame or just suspicion of Atheism Infidelity Heresie intolerable Ignorance or gross and heinous Sin doth refuse to come speak with the Minister for his satisfaction and his Justification or better Information or who by Proof or Confession is found guilty of any of the aforsaid scandalous Evils until he have professed serious Repentance to the said Minister if the crime be notorious and if he refuse till he have moreover amended his former wicked Life 8. Let no Minister be forced to publish an Excommunication or Absolution of any against his Conscience upon the decree or
Constitutive Essential Part of the Kingdom But we are not willing accordingly to Swear Subscribe or Covenant to every petty Officer in the Kingdom nor to approve of every Law Custom or Exercise of Government in it tho we would live peaceably under what we approve not And if a Law were made that he shall be Banished as an Overthrower or Vnderminer of the Government who would not so Covenant or Subscribe Houses and Lands would be cheaper than they are and the King have fewer Subjects than he hath For I am not acquainted with one Conscionable Man that I think would Subscribe it And why should all the King's Subjects be bound more strictly to the Human Part of Church Government than of State or Civil Government and to approve of Lay-Chancellours than of Civil Officers Or of the matter of Canons than of Civil and Common and Statute Laws 3. If it be a Crime to know it is a Crime to Iudge or to use our Reason and Observation If it be not it is no Crime for us to know that Clergy-Pride imposing a multitude of things small and doubtful on the Churches as the Conditions of Ministry and Communion and forcing Magistrates Ministers and People to consent to many unnecessary things in their Humane part of Government Liturgies and Ceremonies hath been so great an Engin of Schism and Blood and Confusions in the Roman Church as assureth us that it is no desirable thing that by us any thing like it should be consented to 4. And it is no Crime in us to be sure that if Subscribing to all the present Church-Government Liturgy and Ceremonies be the thing that shall be necessary to our Ministry and Union and Communion our present Dissentions and Divisions will not be healed unless by Killing or Banishing the Dissenters and as Tertullian speaketh Making solitude and calling it Peace 1. Prop. His Majesty's Subjects Legal Commission any other of his Subjects Stic c Deleatur Answ. 1. We did not think that it had been your meaning that we must make our selves Judges of the Case not only of all his Majestie 's Subjects but of all others in the World If the Judges will give it us under their Hands that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever for the Subjects of any Prince on Earth to take Arms against any King of England or any Commissioned by him or that it is not possible for any War against us in any Age on any pretense whatever to be Lawful or else that they are sure that all the Kingdoms on Earth are so Constituted as that no where any Subjects may on any pretence take Arms against their Kings we shall accordingly submit to their Judgment But seeing Papists and Protestants Lawyers and Divines even Monarchical and Conformable say the contrary it were not modesty in us that are ignorant of Matters of Law to say that they are all mistaken till we are instructed to know it to be so For our parts we must profess our selves not acquainted with the Constitution of every Kingdom in the World 2. If Legal must be obliterated we shall our selves quietly submit to the Exercise accordingly and suffer from any one that saith he is Commissioned to hurt us if it be required of us But we are not skill'd in Law and thefore cannot say that all others are bound to do the like To deal plainly seeing Legal must be obliterated we understand not what the word Commission meaneth Whether it must have the King 's Broad-seal or the Lesser-seal or his Name only Whether the Commission and Seal must be shewed to those that are not to resist or proved to be Currant and how But that which causeth us to forbear subscribing is 1. We have taken the Oath of Allegiance and think that the King's Subjects are bound to defend his Life Crown and Dignity And we fear left by this the Lord Chancellour if not others may have power at his Pleasure to Depose the King that is to Seal Commissions to Confederates to take Possession of all his Navy Forts Garrisons Arms if not his House and Person and no man must resist them 2. We are not certain that a Commission can Repeal all that Law of Nature who obligeth a Man to preserve the Life of his Parents or Children or Neighbour We have not indeed any reason to fear that our King should grant such a Commission But who can deny but that it 's possible for some King or other to do it And seeing we know not when a Commission is counterfeit if two or three men come to my House and say they have a Commission to Kill my Father Mother Wife and Children and my self and shew it or if they Assault me and my Company on the High-way and shew a Commission to take our Purses and Kill us we are not sure that God will excuse us from the Duty of defending the Lives of our Parents Children and Friends Or if half a dozen should come to the Parliament and shew a Commission presently to kill them all or Burn the City and Kill all the Citizens or Kingdom we are not wise enough to know that neither Parliament City nor Kingdom may resist them And we find Parliaments so conceited that they have Propriety in Life and Goods and that none may at pleasure take them away and lay Taxes without their consent and that we fear if we should plainly say that whatever Taxes are laid or Estates or Goods or Persons seiz'd on or Decrees of Judges rejected by such Execution it were unlawful for the Sheriff or any others to resist they would trouble us for so saying And if an Admiral General or Lieutenant should be made by Act of Parliament Durante Vita and Authorized to resist any that would dispossess him we are not so Wise as to know whether he may not resist one to whom the Chancellour Sealeth a Commission to dispossess him And though we are confident that the Person of the King is inviolable yet if King Iohn did deliver up his Kingdom to the Pope we are not sure that the Kingdom might not have resisted any of the Pope's or any Foreign Prince's Agents if they had been Commissioned by the King to seize upon the Kingdom Or that no Subjects of any Foreign Prince may be resisted if they should come against us by such a Commission Had we the Judgment of the Judges in this Case we should submit as far as any reason could require us But tho we justify not Barclay Grotius Bishop Bilson and others of the contrary mind we must confess our selves not wise enough to Condemn them 1. Prop. Nor by any other unlawful means to endeavour Reformation Stric d Deleatur Vnlawful Ans. 1. Here we may see how many minds the Conformists are of or how unjustly all that I have debated the Case of Subscription with do affirm That by not endeavouring any Alteration is meant only not endeavouring by unlawful meanst which is here contradicted by a
the Covenant as the Principal Instrument giveth that is Right and Relation to the Father Saviour and Sanctifier and Right to pardon and Adoption and the Heavenly Inheritance which set together are Relative Regeneration as Judicious Bishop Davenant de Bapt. Infant well openeth it And that it is the badgâ of his Christianity and an apt objective means of moral Operations on him as he cometh to the use of Reason When you have told us what more it doth and proved it and proved that without that it is no Sacrament you have done something Your non ponenti Obicem is no Scripture Notion ambiguous if not unsound If you mean it as the Words sound of some positive âct which is ponere obicem it is certainly false as to the Adult to whom the Sacraments are true Sacraments For God hath made their positive Consideration perception Faith and Repentance a necessary Condition of their Reception of the benefit So that if an adult person as to Baptism or the Lord's Supper should carelessly be asleep or not think what he is about or meerly not-know not-believe not-repent you can shew no promise of your miraculous grace to him And the Sacrament to an Infant is the same thing though the Act of believing be not required of himself but of another for him But if by ponere obicem you mean a privaâion that is non-prestare conditionem not to believe repent c. then it 's true but an ambiguous deceitful phrase To believe is more than not to resist And so to be the Seed of the Faithful is And I suppose by your new Rubrick you will say that every Infant in the world of Cannibals Heathens or Infidels that is baptized jure vel injuria though taken by Soldiers violently by thousands against the Parent 's Wills are certainly Sanctified and do not ponere obicem themselves and that the Sacrament to them is not null It would be needful to our satisfaction that you tell us what internal Actual or habitual Grace it is that all these have and prove it and prove that else it were no Sacrament But enough of this Q. Now let us see what you ascribe to the Cross. The Matter of it is an Image though Transient of which God's Jealousy exprest in the Second Commandment hath made us Jealous in his Worship As to the Form and Use. 1. It is the Covenant of Christianity it self that it is about And it is no less than our Solemn Engaging Professing and Obliging Sign that we are Resolved Christians and will keep that Covenant even the same Covenant that is solemnized also by Baptism All the Duties of the Covenant on our parts we thus solemnly bind our selves to perform valiantly to the Death in Terms like the Sacramentum Militare The Canon 30. let us know that it is used to dedicate Children by that Badg to his service whose benefits bestowed on them in Baptism the Name of the Cross doth represent And It 's an Honourable badg whereby the Infant is Dedicated to the Service of him that Died on the Cross. So that on the Receiver's part it wants nothing of a Sacrament 2. That it is also used as God's Means of Delivering us the Relative Grace of the Covenant I conceive for these Reasons 1. The Adult is not to Sign himself but the Minister who is Christ's Agent not so much as asking wilt thou be signed doth sign him with the Sign of the Cross in token that he shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ Crucified and manfully to Fight under his Banner against Sin the World and the Devil and to continue Christ's faithful Servant and Soldier to their Live's end Amen 2. The Cross and the Benefits with Christ Crucified are hereby Represented 3. The Churches Publick Profession that this is their Dedication of the Child importeth plainly God's Acceptance of him that is Dedicated For who dare offer that to God which he supposeth not that God Accepteth as offered And God's acceptance of the dedicated person into the State relation and benefits of Christanity is the very grace on God's part which is essential to a Divine Sacrament strictly taken And is this no grant of federal Grace 3. And that to the Adult the Cross is a Moral means of internal and Qualitative Grace I think you will not deny A Moral means operateth objectively by Teaching the Intellect by representing the moving-object and by Excitation of the Will And how eminently is all this here intended In General the Liturg. of Ceremony saith They are such as are apt to stir up the dull mind of Man to the remembranoe of his Duty to God by some notable and special signification by which he may be edified And is this no Gracious Work And it is Christ Crucified and his benefits that by the Cross are represented to this use And is not that to operate morally on mind and will accordingly And the Words tell us particularly that it is to stir us up and oblige us to the Actual Manful fighting under Christ's Banner against sin c. and not be ashamed to confess him And is not this a moral gracious Operation When as the Gospel worketh by the Ear so the Cross by the Eye and Thought It is not Grace that the Gospel is to work And is it not a means of working it as well as the Sacraments Yea and in the same sort of Causality Doubtless then here is the Grace of the Covenant to be wrought as well as the Duty of it promised 4. And lastly that it is the Symbol and Badge of our Christianity the Canon twice professeth So that I think here is an intire third Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace inventitious and humane and not of God's making And if you could prove as you never can that some Miraculous sort of Operation not common to the Gospel or the Covenant it self is essential to a Sacrament for new Acts or Qualities on Infants or others I would ask when you thus cross the Child Do you look that God should do any more for his Soul thereon than if you did it not or no If you do as they did that used the Cross of old and the Papists now then you expect God's inward Grace upon the use of the Cross. If you look not that the Child's soul be ever the better for it it 's pity Baptism should be denyed them that dare not use it or so many Ministers be silenced about it But had it but some great and notable sacramental uses as the fore-named though not all I durst not presume on such an inventitious sacramental sign I have oft said I doubt whether the King would not think his Prerogative invaded if any should presume to institute a new Badg besides his Garter and Star of the Order or the Knights of the Garter much more a Symbol or Badg for all his Subjects and deny them the Knighthood or Ius Subditi who refuse it But too long of
the King to remove him from all publick Enployment and Trust His chief accusing Witness was Mr. Burnet late Publick-Professor of Theologie at Glascow who said That he askt him whether the Scots Army would come into England and said What if the Dissenting Scots should Rise an Irish Army should cut their Throats c. But because Mr. Burnet had lately magnified the said Duke in an Epistle before a published book many thought his witness now to be more unfavoury and revengefull Every one judging as they were affected But the King sent them Answer That the words were spoken before his late Act of pardon which if he should Violate it might cause jelousies in his Subjects that he might do so also by the Act of Indemnity § 294. Their next Assault was against the Lord Treasurer who found more Friends in the House of Commons who at last acquitted him § 295. But the great work was in the House of Lords where an Act was brought in to impose such an Oath on Lords Commons and Magistrates as is Imposed by the Oxford-Act of Confinement on Ministers and like the Corporation-Oath of which more anon It was now supposed that the bringing the Parliament under this Oath and Test was the great work which the House was to perform The Summ was That none Commissioned by the King may be by Arms resisted and that they would never endeavour any alteration of the Government of Church or State Many Lords spake vehemently against it as destructive to the Privileges of their House which was to Vote freely and not to be preobliged by an Oath to the Prelates The Lord Treasurer the Lord Keeper with Bishop Morley and Bishop Ward were the great Speakers for it And the Earl of Shaftsbury Lord Hollis the Lord Hallifax the D. of Buckingham the Earl of Salisbury the chief Speakers against it They that were for it being the Major part many of the rest Entered their Protestation against it The Protesters the first time for they protested thrice more afterward were the Duke of Buckingham the Marquess of Winchester the Earls of Salisbury Bristol Barkshire § 296. The Protesting Lords having many days striven against the Test and being overvoted attempted to joyn to it an Oath for Honesty and Conscience in these words I do swear that I will never by threats injunctions promises or invitations by or from any person whatsoever nor from the hopes or prospects of any gift place office or trust whatever give my vote other than according to my opinion and conscience as I shall be truly and really perswaded upon the debate of any business in Parliament But the Bishops on their side did cry it down and cast it out § 297. The Debating of this Text did more weaken the Interest and Reputation of the Bishops with the Nobles than any thing that ever befel them since the King came in so much doth unquiet overdoing tend to undoing The Lords that would not have heard a Nonconformist say half so much when it came to be their own case did long and vehemently plead against that Oath and Declaration as imposed on them which they with the Commons had before imposed on others And they exercised so much liberty for many days together in opposing the Bishops and free and bold speeches against their Test as greatly turned to the Bishops Disparagement especially the Earl of Shaftsbury the Duke of Buckingham the Earl of Bristol the Marquess of Winchester the Earl of Salisbury the Lord Hollis the Lord Hallifax and the Lord of Alesbury Which set the Tongues of Men at so much liberty that the common talk was against the Bishops And they said that upon Trial there were so few found among all the Bishops that were able to speak to purpose Bishop Morley of Winchester and Bishop Ward of Salisbury being their chief Speakers that they grew very low also as to the Reputation of their parts § 298. At last though the Test was carried by the Majority yet those that were against it with others prevailed to make so great an alteration of it as made it quite another thing and turned it to the greatest disadvantage of the Bishops and the greatest accommodation of the Cause of the Nonconformists of any thing that this Parliament hath done For they reduced it to these words of a Declaration and an Oath I A. B. do declare That it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King And that I do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by His Authority against His Person or against those that are Commissioned by him according to Law in time of Rebellion and War in acting in pursuance of such Commission I A. B. do Swear that I will not endeavour an Alteration of the Protestant Religion now established by Law in the Church of England nor will I endeavour any Alteration in the Government of this Kingdom in Church or State as it is by Law Established § 299. This Declaration and Oath thus altered was such as the Nonconformists would have taken if it had been offered them in stead of the Oxford-Oath the Subscription for Uniformity the Corporation and Vestry Declaration But the Kingdom must be Twelve years rackt to Distraction and 1800 Ministers forbidden to Preach Christ's Gospel upon pain of utter ruin and Cities and Corporations all New-Modelled and Changed by other kind of Oaths and Covenants and when the Lords find the like obtruded on themselves they reject it as intolerable And when it past they got in this Proviso That it should be no hinderance to their Free-Speaking and Voting in the Parliament Many worthy Ministers have lost their Lives by Imprisonments and many Hundred their Maintenance and Liberty and that opportunity to serve God in their Callings which was much of the comfort of their Lives and mostly for refusing what the Lords themselves at last refuse with such another Declaration But though Experience teach some that will no otherwise learn it is sad with the World when their Rulers must learn to Govern them at so dear a rate and Countreys Cities Churches and the Souls of Men must pay so dear for their Governours Experience § 300. The following Explication will tell you That there is nothing in this Oath and Declaration to be refused 1. I do declare That it is not lawful can mean no more but that I think so and not that I pretend to Infallible certainly therein 2. To take Arms against the King That is either against his Formal Authority as King or against His Person Life or Liberty or against any of His Rights and Dignity And doubtless the Person of the King is inviââable and so are His Authority and Rights not only by the Laws but by the very Constitution of the Kingdom For every Common-wealth being essentially constituted of the Pars Imperans and pars subdita materially the Union of these is the Form of it and the Dissolution is the Death of it And
Hostility is Disunion and Dissolution Therefore no Head or Soveraign hath power to destroy or sight against his Kingdom nor any Common-wealth or Kingdom against their King or Soveraign Rulers unless in any case the Law of Nature and Nations which is above all Humane Positive Laws should make the dissolution of the Republick to become a Duty As if some Republick should cast off the Essential Principles of Society By Law neither King nor Kingdom may destroy or hurt each other For the Governing Laws suppose their Union as the Constitution and the Common good with the due Welfare of the Soveraign is the end of Government which none have power against But it must be noted that the words are against the King and not against the King's Will for if his Will be against his Welfare his Kingdom or his Laws though that Will be signified by his Commissioners the Declaration disclaimeth not the resisting of such a Will by Arms. 3. And if there be any that assert that the King's Authority giveth them right to take up Arms against his Person or Lawful Commissions it must needs be a False and Traiterous Assertion For if his Person may be Hostilely fought against the Common-wealth may be dissolved which the Law cannot suppose for all Laws die with the Common-wealth And it is a contradiction to be authorized by him to resist by Arms his Commissions which are according to Law For the Authority pretended to be his must be his Laws or Commissions and to be Authorized by his Laws or Commissions to resist his Laws must signifie that his Laws are contradictory when by one we must resist another But so far as they are contradictory both cannot be Laws or Lawful Commissions For one of them must needs nullifie the other either by Fundamental Priority or by Posteriority signifying a Repeal of the other And it must be noted that yet the Trayterous Position medleth not with the Question of taking Arms against the King's Person or Commissioners by the Law of God of Nature or of Nations but only of doing it by his own Authority 4. And that it is not lawful to take Arms against any Commissioned by him according to Law in time of Rebellion and War in pursuance of such Commission is a Truth so evident that no sober Persons can deny it The Long Parliament that had the War did vehemently assert it and therefore gave out their Commissions to the Earl of Essex and his Soldiers to fight against Delinquent Subjects for the King and Parliament 5. And the Oath containeth no more than our not endeavouring to Alter the Protestant Religion established or the King's Government or Monarchy It cannot with any true reason be supposed to tie us at all to the Bishops-much less to the English Disease or Corruption of Episcopacy or to Lay-Chancel lours c. but only to the King as Supreme in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil so far as they fall under Coercive Government This is thus proved past denyal 1. The word Protestant Religion as estalished in the Church of England cannot include the Prelacy For 1. The Protestant Religion is essentially nothing but the Christian Religion as such with the disclaiming of Popery aud so our Divines have still professed But our Prelacy is no part of the Christian Religion 2. The Protestant Religion is common to us with many Countreys which have no Prelacy And it is the same Religion with us and them 3. The words of the Oath distinguish the Religion of the Church of England from the Church of England it self and from Government 4. If Episcopacy in general were proved part of the Protestant Religion the English Accidents and Corruptions are not so They that say that Episcopacy is Iure Divino and unalterable do yet say that National and Provincial Churches are Iure Humano and that so is a Diocesane as it is distinct from Parochial containing many Parishes in it And if the King should set up a Bishop in every Market-Town yea every Parish and put down Diocesanes it is no more than what he may do And if by the Protestant Religion established should be meant every alterable mode or circumstance then King-James changed it when he made a new Translation of the Bible and both he and our late Convocation and King and Parliament by their Advice did change it when they added new Forms of Prayer And then this Oath bindeth all from endeavouring to make any alteration in the Liturgie or mend the Translation or the Metre of the Psalms c. or to take the keys of Excommunication and Absolution out of the hands of the Lay-Chancellour's c. which none can reasonably suppose 2. And that our Prelacy is not at all included in the word Government of the Kingdom in Church and State but only the King 's Supreme Government in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil is most evident 1. Because it is expressly said The Government of the Kingdom which is all one with the Government of the King For a Bishop or a Justice or a Mayor is no Governour of the Kingdom but only in the Kingdom of a Particular Church City Corporation or Division The summa potestas only is the Government of the Kingdom as a Kingdom And because forma denominat we cannot take the Kingdom to signifie only a Church or City 2. Because else it would change the very constitution of the Kingdom by making all the inferiour Officers unalterable and so to be essential constitutive parts Whereas only the pars Imperans and pars Subdita are constitutive parts of every Kingdom or Republick and the Constitutive pars Imperans is only the summa potestas except where the mixture and fundamental Contract is such as that Inferiour Officers are woven so into the Constitution as that they may not be changed without it's Dissolution which is hardly to be supposed even at Venice Tbe Oaths between the summa potestas and the Subject are the bonds of the Commonwealth their Union being the form that must not be dissolved But to make Oaths of Allegiance or Unchangeableness âeach to the Inferiour Magistrates or Officers is to change the Government or Constitution 3. And so it destroyeth the Regal power in one of it's chief properties or prerogatives which is to alter inferiour Officers who all receive their power from the Supreme and are alterable by him even by the Majestas which hath the Legislative powers And this would take away all the King's power to alter so much as a Mayor Justice or Constable For mark that Government of the Kingdom in Church and State are set equally together without any note of difference as to alteration If therefore it extend to any but the Supreme even to inferiour Officers it were to extend to them as Governing the State even to the lowest as well as the Church But this is a supposition to be Contemned 4. And if the Distinction should be meant de personis Imperantibus and should
intend only Bishops and King by Church and State 1. It would suppose that King and Parliament do take Bishops and King for two coordinate Heads in governing the Kingdom 2. And that they set the Bishops before the King which is not to be supposed 5. And to put all out of question the Oath is but Conform to former Statutes Oaths Articles of Religion and Canons 1. The Statutes which declare the King to be only Supreme Governour of the Church I need not cite 2. The Oath of Supremacy is well known of all 3. The very first Canon is that the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and all Bishops c. shall faithfully keep and observe all the Laws for the King's Supremacy over the Church of England in causes Ecclesiastical And the 2d Canon is to condemn the dangers of it And the 36. Canon obligeth all Ministers to subscribe that the King's Majesty under God is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm as well in all spiritual and Ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal And as the Parliament are called the Representative of the People or Kingdom as distinct from the Head so the 139. Canon excommunicateth all them that affirm that the Sacred Synod of this Nation in the Name of Christ and by the King's Authority Aslembled is not the true Church of England by Representation So that they claim to be but the Representative of the Church as it is the Body distinct from the Head Christ aud the King as their chief Governour 4. And all that are Ordained are likewise to take the Oath of Supremacy I do utterly testify and declare in my Conscience that the King's Highness is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or Causes as Temporal 5. And It is also inserted in the Articles of Religion Art 35. And it is added expositorily Where we attribute to the Queen's Majesty the Chief Government by which title we understand the minds of some slanderous folks to be offended we give not to our Princes the Ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments but that only prerogative which we see to have been given always to all Godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their Charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastcal or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the Stubborn and evil Doers Here it is to be noted that though no doubt but the Keys of Excommunication and absolution belong to the Pastors and to the Civil Magistrate yet the Law and this Article by the word Government mean only Coercive Government by the Sword and do include the power of the Keys under the title of Ministring the Word and Sacraments Church Guidance being indeed nothing else but the Explication and Application of God's word to Cases and Consciences and administring the Sacraments accordingly So that as in the very Article of Religion Supreme Government appropriated to the King only is contradistinguish'd from Ministring the Word and Sacraments which is not called Government there so are we to understand this Law and Oath And many Learned Men think that Guidance is a fitter name than Government for the Pastor's Office And therefore Grotius de Imper. Sum. Pot. would rather have the Name Canons or Rulers used than Laws as to their Determinations Though no doubt but the name Government may be well applyed to the Pastor's Part so we distinguish as Bilston and other judicious men use to do calling one Government by God's Word upon the Conscience and the other Government by the sword as seconding Precepts with enforcing penalties and Mulcts § 301. While this Test was carrying on in the house of Lords and 500 pounds Voted to be the penalty of the Refusers before it could come to the Commons a difference fell between the Lords and Commons about their priviledges by occasion of two Suits that were brought before the Lords in which two Members of the Commons were parties which occasioned the Commons to send to the Tower Sir Iohn Fagg one of their Members for appearing at the Lords Bar without their consent and four Counsellours Sir Iohn Churchill Sergeant Pemberton Sergeant Pecke and another for pleading there And the Lords Voted it Illegal and that they should be released Sir Iohn Robinson Lieutenant of the Tower obeyed the Commons for which the Lords Voted him a Delinquent And so far went they in daily Voting at each other that the King was fain to Prorogue the Parliament Iune 9. till October 13. there appearing no hope of Reconciling them Which rejoiced many that they rose without doing any further harm § 302. Iune 9. Keting the Informer being commonly detested for prosecuting me was cast in Gaol for Debt and wrote to me to endeavour his Deliverance which I did and in his Letters saith Sir I assure you I do verily believe that God hath bestowed all this affliction on me because I was so vile a wretch as to trouble you And I assure you I never did a thing in my Life that hath so much troubled my self as that did I pray God forgive me And truly I do not think of any that went that way to work that ever God would favour him with his mercy And truly without a great deal of mercy from God I do not think that ever I shall thrive or prosper And I hope you will be pleased to pray to God for me c. § 303. A while before another of the chief Informers of the City and my Accuser Marishall died in the Counter where his Creditors laid him to keep him from doing more harm Yet did not the Bishops change or cease Two more Informers were set on work who first assaulted Mr. Case's Meeting and next got in as hearers into Mr. Read's Meeting where I was Preaching And when they would have gone out to fetch Justices for they were known the doors were lockt to keep them in till I had done and one of them supposed to be sent from Fullum stayed weeping Yet went they straight to the Justices and the week following heard me again as Informers at my Lectures but I have not yet heard of their Accusation § 304. But this week Iune 9. Sir Thamas Davis notwithstanding all his foresaid Warnings and Confessions sent his Warrants to a Justice of the Division where I dwell to distrein on me upon two Judgments for 50 pounds for Preaching my Lecture in New-street Some Conformists are paid to the value of 20 pounds a Sermon for their Preaching and I must pay 20 pounds and 40 pounds a Sermon for Preaching for nothing O what Pastors hath the Church of England who think it worth all their unwearied Labours and all the odium which they contract from the People to keep such as I am from Preaching the Gospel of Christ and to undo us for it as far as they are able though these many years they do not for they cannot
excepting Lay-Chancellor's use of the Keys ipso facto Excommunicateth all Nobility Gentry Clergy and Commons that say That it is repugnant to the Word of God And it 's time to take heed what we Swear when the Act of Uniformity the Oxford-Act the Corporation Act the Vestry Act the Militia Act and the Oath of Supremacy do bind all the Nation by Solemn Oath not to endeavour any alteration of Government in Church or State And yet most Reverend Fathers who most sharply call us to Conformity do Write for a Foreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction under the Name of an Universal Colledge of Bishops or Council having such power as other Courts even Commanding Pretorian Legislative and Judicial to all the Church on Earth and that obedience to this Foreign Jurisdiction is the necessary way to escape Schism and Damnation And if it be no alteration of Government to bring King and Kingom to be subject to a Foreign Jurisdiction this Oath and the Oath of Supremacy and the 39 Articles and Canons and several Statutes which renounced it are all unintelligible to us We renounce all subjection to any Foreign Church or Power but not Communion We have Communion with the Church of Rome and all others in Christianity but not in their sin and we are not yet so dull as to know no difference between Foreigners Government of us and their Communion nor to think that Separation from a Usurped Government is Separation from Christian Communion Nor can we possibly believe the Capacity of Pope or Council or Colledge of Bishops as a Monarchy or Aristocracy to Govern all the World in one Soveraignty Ecclesiastical till we see one Civil Monarchy or Aristocracy rule all the Earth And we dread the Doctrine and Example of such Men as would introduce any Foreign Jurisdiction while they are for Swearing all the Land against any alteration of Church-Government And we must deliberate before we thus Conform while so Great Men do render the Oath so doubtful to us I appeal to the fore-cited Profession of my Loyalty published many years ago as being far more full and satisfactory to any that questioneth it than the taking of this doubtful controverted Oath would be A true Copy of the Iudgment of Mr. Saunders now Lord Chief Iustice of the King's-Bench given me March the 22d 1674 5. 1. IF he hath the Bishop's License and be not a Curate Lecturer or other Promoted Ecclesiastical Person mentioned in the Act I conceive he may Preach Occasional Sermons without Conforming and not incure any Penalty within this Act. The due Order of Law requires that the Delinquent if he be forth-coming ought to be summon'd to appear to Answer for himself if he pleases before he be Convicted But in case of his withdrawing himself or not appearing he may be regularly Convicted Convictions may be accumulated before the Appeal be determined but not unduely nor is it to be supposed that any undue Convictions will be made As I Conceive Edm. Saunders M. day 22. 167â Mr. Polixfen's Iudgment for my Preaching Occasionally A. B. before the Thirteenth of this King being Episcopally Ordained and at the time of the Act of Uniformity made Car. 2. not being Incumbent in any Living or having any Ecclesiastical Preferment before the Act of Uniformity viz. 25 Feb. 13 Car. 2. obtains a License of the then Bishop of London under his Seal to Preach in any part of his Diocess aud at the same time subscribes the 39 Articles of the Church of England Quest. Whether Licenses Preceding the Act be within the meaning of the Act I conceive they are For if Licensed at the time of the Act made what need any new License That were but actum agere and the Clause in the Act unless he be Iacensed c. in the manner of penning shews that Licenses that then were were sufficient and within the Provision And the followiug Clause as to the Lecturers is Express now is or shall be Licensed The former part of the Act as well as that extends to Licenses that then were For the same License that enables a man to Preach a Lecture must enable a man to Preach Q. Whether he be restrained by the Act of Vniformity to Preach a Funeral Sermon or other occasional Sermon I Conceiâe that he is not restrained by this Act to Preach any Occasional Sermon so as it be within the Diocess wherein he is Licensed Hen. Pollexfen Decemb. 19. 1682. § 77. While I continue night and day under constant pain and often strong and under the sentence of approaching death by an uncurable disease which age and great debility yields to I found great need of the constant exercise of patience by obedient submission to God and writing a small Tractate of it for my own use I saw reason to yield to them that desired it might be publick there being especially so common need of obedient patience § 78. Having long ago written a Treatise against Coalition with Papists by introducing a Foreign Jurisdiction of Pope or Councils I was urged by the Writings of Mr. Dogwel and Dr. Saywell to publish it but the Printers dare not Print it Entitled England not to be perjured by receiving a Foreign Jurisdiction It is in two Parts The first Historical shewing who have endeavoured to introduce a Foreign Jurisdiction citing Papists Grotius Arch-Bishop Bromball Arch-Bishop Laud Thorndike Dr. Saywell Dodwell four Letters to Bishop Guning and others The 2d part strictly Stating the Controversy and Confuting a Foreign Jurisdiction against which Change of Government all the Land is Sworn I may not Print it § 79. When I saw the storm of Persecution arising by the Agitators Hilton Shad Buck and such other and saw what the Justices were at least in present danger of and especially how Le Strange and other weekly Pamphleteers bent all their wit and power to make others odious and prepared for destruction and to draw as many as possibly they could to hate and ruine faithful men and how Conscience and serious piety grew with many into such hatred and reproach that no men were so much abhorred that many gloried to be called Tories tho they knew it was the name of the Irish common murdering Thieves I wrote a small Book called Cain and Abel in two parts The first against malignant Enmity to serious Godliness with abundant Reasons to convince Malignants The second against Persecution by way of Quaere's I wrote a third part as Impartial to tell Dissenters why while I was able I went oft to the Parish Church and there Communicated and why they should not suffer as Separatists or Recusants lest they suffer as evil doers But wise men would not let me publish it And the two first the Booksellers and Printers durst not print but twice refused them § 80. But the third part the Reasons of my Communion with Parish Churches that have honest able Ministers I sent to one friend who telling others of it a Bookseller after two
Ordainer to do it where it will be needful to consider what is of Necessity to the Constitution of such Authority and what destroys it Before all which it would be necessary to know what the Ordainer's Work is and to what and how far his Power extends But this I am not now to meddle in That a Divine Ordination is of Necessity to the Ligitimation of our Calling in foro Dei I grant as also in foro Conscientiae Ministrantis That authoritative Ordination of Men is necessary Ordinis Gratiâ when it may be obtained and where God's Providence doth not make it naturally or morally impossible I also grant That Imposition of Hands with solemn Prayer is the most convenient manner and necessary for the Ordainer to use Necessitate Praecepti Medii ad bene esse Ordinationis I also grant That the Power of Ordaining is ordinarily only in the Hands of Christ's Ecclesiastical Ministers I acknowledge whether Bishops or Presbyters we now question not and that it is not divolved to any others but in Case of Necessity The Things then that I deny are that Imposition of Hands or present Prayer or the Presence of the Ordainer are of Necessity to our Office That the true just Authority of an Ecclesiastical Ordainer is of Necessity to the being of our Office And consequently that an uninterrupted Succession of Just Authoritative Ecclesiastical Ordination from the Apostles is of absolute necessity to the being of our Calling Nay that any Authoritative Human Ordination at all besides the Peoples meer Consent is of such absolute indispensable Necessity ad esse Officii all this I deny And my Opinion is that in Case of a failing of all Ecclesiastical Authoritative Ordination the Magistrates Ordination may suffice ad esse Officii And in case both fail the Peoples meer Acceptance Consent or Election may suffice supposing the Person meetly qualified And whether you will call this act of the People a Constitution or Ordination or not I am indifferent Certainly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã oft signifies the Constituting which is not an Act of Government or superior Authority But no Term hath so much need of Explication as the Word Office or Ministry which is the Terminus of Ordination An Office is a stated Power or Authority or Faculty with Duty of doing certain Works to certain Ends. The Ministerial Office of a Presbyter is to be differenced ab objecto a fine The Authority and the Duty in a lawful Officer go together Such a one only is in sensu primario proprio an Officer But he that is a Usurper or hath no lawful Call may yet both 1. Have all the Duty of that Office lying upon him and by his own Intrusion oblige himself to the Performance and yet want the true Authority for performing it seeing he came in without God's Call and there is no Power but of God 2. And he may have the Name of an Officer though given him but analogically or in sensu secundario ecclesiastico 3. And the Church may owe him that Respect and Observance due to a lawful Officer the Reason is because it is one thing to know who is a truly lawful Officer as in Matter of Membership I am bound to use many as true Christians even all that have the Profession of such who yet are not such So am I bound to take all those for lawful Officers that have the external Tokens of such seeing we cannot know any further though they be not such indeed 4. And all that Man 's Ministerial Actions are valid to the Church that doth her Duty in observing him and yet they are all null or unlawful and flat Sins to the Performer The Reason of the later is both because no Mna can lawfully do that which he hath no Authority given him for and because nemini ex proprio crimine debetur beneficium and Ergo his Usurpation cannot secure him The Reason of the former is because Duty and Benefit go together and therefore the Church that performeth but her Duty in taking those to be truly called Pastors that seem so to be having those Tokens which she is bound to judge by as probable must needs have the Benefit of his Ministry in their way of Duty for God requireth no Duty in vain As also because nemini debetur pâna ex aliena culpa qua talis est Now whether we shall dispute de necessitate ordinationis ad officium verum legitimum proprie primario sic dictum in foro Dei Or only as ad Officium analogicum secundario minus proprie in foro tantum ecclesiae sic dictum is to be considered How far your Sense will concur I know not but in respect of both these do I hold my former Negations Yet further before I either answer your Arguments or determine of the Sense of our Question it is very necessary that the end of our Enquiry be understood which in order must go before the means I take it for granted that you do not dispute this question as necessary to be determined in order to our Association before you can join with the present Ministry Or yet as necessary to the Determination of that further Question whether those are true Ministers that are not Ordained by Bishops and those true Organized Churches that have only such Ministers for if I thought this were your end ãâã would dispute many other Questions first before we came to this and try first whether you could prove that the Presbyterian Churches cannot produce a Succession of true Ordination on the same Grounds as the Episcopal for the main But I suppose your Ends are some other and in special those mentioned in your Paper I conjecture that I shall nearest approach your Sense if I state the Question thus Whether an Ordination by Ecclesiastical Men having just Authority thereto be in all Times and Cases since the Apostles of absolute Necessity to the very being of the Ministerial Office both coram Deo coram Ecclesiâ and consequently an uninterrupted Succession of such Ordination be of the same Necessity For if I should put the Question about Imposition of Hands or de modo aliquo ordinandi I know not but I might miss of your Sense on one Side and on the other if I should extend it to all Ordination whether by Magistrates or others Ad 1 um Your First Argument I suppose should be formed thus That which the English Bishops thought necessary to prove against the Papists that is necessary to be proved against them But the English Bishops thought it necessary against the Papists to prove the Non-interruption of their Succession in just Ordination Ergo Resp. 1. Concedo totum It was necessary to prove it against the Papists arguing ad Hominem because it is the way of fuller Conviction and Satisfaction when a Man can confute an Adversary on his own Grounds It will much shorten the Dispute when we shew them that though we should
impartially search after the Truth by Study but with Patience not setting God a time for his Resolution As for my Twenty Arguments which you say he is referred to I partly considered what they made for before I set them down They prove a Necessity of Profession of Consent in all adult Covenanters But yet Parents may profess their Consent to their Childrens Covenanting or Engagement The Parents are the Believers and the Consenters and Ergo must be the Professors They have Power of devoting and giving up and engaging their Children to God I would Mr. L. could tell me When the Priviledge and Duty of Parents entering their Children into the Holy Covenant with God and solemnizing this did cease Let him answer me but that one Question well and prove it and I will be of his mind but this is besides my Intent It will not prove that Infants are not saved because it is said so oft That he that believeth shall not perish and he that believeth not is condemned already and shall be damned c. No more will it prove that Infants that profess not and believe not may not be entered by professing Parents into Covenant with God as undoubtedly till Christ's Time they were because Profession is necessary to the adult As the Parents Will disposeth of them for their good so the Parents Profession is enough But I come to my Conclusion I am no Prophet but I hope God hath given Mr. L. his Light and his Tryals yet for higher ends and suffered him to delay his Relinquishment of the Schism that he may be more serviceable to the Church in helping to heal the common Breach To which End I make this Motion to him and tell him from me I think it is of God and will produce his Comfort 1. If he desire it I will presently send him a Model of Agreement between the Churches of the Poedobaptists and Anabaptists as commonly called in order to their charitable brotherly Communion and the preservation of the common Truth that it suffer not by our Divisions This he and I will subscribe to and then I doubt not to get Mr. Tombes to subscribe it and next I will get all our Association to subscribe it and next let Mr. T. and he get what other of the Re-baptised to subscribe it that will If none but he and I do it we will publish it and shame the World into a Peace or do our Parts And methinks I foresee great Benefits that will ensue more than this Paper will hold to enumerate 2. When this Agreement is Published Mr. L. shall also Publish his Arguments and I my Reasons for our Agreement 3. When this is done let Mr. L. become the Pastor of a Church that 's mixt of the Baptized and Re-baptized if it may be if not at least a Publick Preacher in a convenient Station For I see that Light in his Argumentation that he may not hide and that God will never Suffer him to cast off and go against but at his Peril which I cannot fear Dear Mrs. L. receiving your Letter near Bed-time on Saturday Night I thought it no Sin to make it part of this Lord's Day 's Work to return you this Answer which I desire you to accept from and pray for Your Brother in the Covenant and Spirit of Christ Rich. Baxter Aug. 22. 1658. If Mr. L. look into my Book for Infant Baptism let him know that I much repent of the harsh Language in it but not of the main matter London the 16th of Sept. 1658. Honoured Sir I Perceive my Wife hath unknown to me sent you my Papers touching Free Communion with all Saints which God knoweth my Heart and Soul is in and since the Matter is so well received by you as appeareth by your kind answer and my own particular Case so affectionately tendred by you I am encouraged to further Converse and indeed do welcome your Overtures of a loving Correspondency with many Thanks both to God and your self 'T is a rare thing to find Men of Parts Learning and great Abilities cloathed with Bowels of Mercies or Humbleness of Mind Psal. 113. 5 6. The Prophet speaketh in the Praise of the Almighty That though he was high yet humbled himself to consider the things on Earth yea even the poor on the Dunghil sitting in Dust God's Heighth hindereth not him but Mens doth them ordinarily though not in it self Not as a Cause but as an Occasion through the Corruption that is in the Heart of the best It may be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ whom I have sought with Fasting Prayers and Tears hath appointed you to interpret his wonderful dealing with me and to shew me my Uprightness I mean what he will account so He that could do so would be an Interpreter one of a Thousand to me that walk in Darkness and see little Light O that I knew the Mind and Will of God in my difficult Case happy should I be I have this Comfort in my Affliction that my Will is perfectly subdued to God's I would go his way if I could tell where it lay But alas I cannot find it I make my moan to the Almighty but he seemeth to carry it severely towards me instead of making streight Paths for my Feet Upon my earnest Solicitations he leaveth me in the Hand of Tormenting Fears That you may the better know what to say to me I shall as briefly as I can tell you my case My Understanding being enlightned that all Saints as Saints ought to hold Church Communion against what I have foolishly printed for which I loath my self and abhor the Sight of it I set my self to consider other Events that lead me to that narrowness of Spirit at last come to doubt whether God be pleased with Re-baptizing to the Rejection of Infants out of the Visible Church But am out of doubt in this that to rebaptize any now do denominate their visible Saintship or give right to Church Fellowship and so to part them from all the Believers in Christ not so Baptized as the World as not of the visible Church of God is a most pernicious Error and a great Evil further I found fault with Popular Government in the Church as it confounds the Definition of Governour and Governed Also that in the setled State of the Church no Man ought to take a Personal Charge but Persons both able and wholly devoted to the Work That to be a Merchant and a Minister doth not agree except in Cases of invincible Necessity That in the Levitical Order appointed by God there is a moral equity respecting the Ministers of the Gospel both Separation to the Work and and Maintenance in it and however People may Imagine the contrary Principles and Practices prove dishonourable to God and destructive to Religion In the multitude of these Thoughts I began to conclude that it was not possible for me to hold my Relation to the People I now serve and
the publick Lectures 4. In the Strength of God taken Courage to preach to the Congregation the Doctrine of the Church Universal and its Unity from 1 Cor. 12. 26. and from thence to shew them the Schismatical state wherein we are which Sermons hath brought the Anabaptists about my Ears from other Parts Four or five of them opposed me the last first day after my Sermon and because of what I had preached the Day before half my own Congregation never came to hear me Their Hearts are quite gone from me Not any of the Church cometh to see me or ask me any Question Now 3. and Lastly As to the present frame of my Spirit and State it is thus As to the uniting Work I have in Hand I thank God I am bold and am waiting on God upon whose Influences I live to guide me in Thought Word and Deed about it but I have lately been sorely troubled with one Temptation What should I preach or write any thing for concerning Religion I cannot endure Toâments for Christ if I should be triedâ 't is not for such faint hearted Creatures as I to meddle in such Work Now the Conscience of this that indeed I am a poor Creature weak both in Faith and Spirit hath made way for this Temptation to seize upon me to the saddening of my Soul and to the enâeebling of me to so great a Degree that for this two or three Days I have not been able to do any thing As for my present State in respect of the Church I am still with them and purpose God willing to Morrow to apply what I have preached about Schism The next Wednesday is appointed to debate things our Friends call in the Heads of other Churches to their Assistance and I hear those from abroad intend to stir up our Friends to cast me out of the Church what the Issue will be God knoweth and what to do with my self afterwards I know not I know I shall be sorely beset by the Enemy but my hope is in God that he will not suffer me to be tempted above that I am able and that my merciful Redemer and High Priest will be touched with the Feeling of my Infirmities himself being tempted he knoweth how to succour those that are tempted Heb. 4. 16. saith Grace hath a Throne and 5. 20 21. saith Grace reigneth Oh blessed be God! 1 Ephes. saith he hath given him to be Head over all things to the Church not to govern it only but to influence it with all necessary Supplies to fill all in all He supposed while we are here we shall be in an indigent Condition divers ways but at that Throne where Grace Reigneth there is Grace enough to supply all our Wants Therefore 1 Ioh. Of his fulness we have all received Grace for ârace and because such poor Creatures as I sensible of much Unworthiness are very apt to doubt our Entertainment and fear where no fear is blessed Jesus calleth us to come boldly Sir when I shall have done my Work where I am which I believe will be shortly I could be content to return to Mr. Goodwin's if God would like it and that my Re-union with that Church would not hinder my main Work They have of their own accord made a Vote to receive me when my Spirit should be free to return and indeed always have manifested much Love to me but the Truth is I am so clog'd with Scruples about popular Government and such like things that though to Will be present with me to perform I find not Mr. Goodwin never renounced his Ordination to take it from the People and is for Free Communion and saith will join in such a Uniting Draught as I hope you will now draw up and prosecute presently and which I will labour in God willing to promote when it cometh here That which mainly sticketh with me in respect of returning to Mr. Goodwin's is that when I shall publish what is in my Heart about the Causes of the Churches Malady in England I shall reflect upon the Independant Principles exceedingly Now my fear is that my Relation to them will be a Curb to me I know not what to do but my Eye is up towards God I am sure I have reaped Benefit by your Counsel and hope I have had an Interest in your Prayers which I still beg being confident God will hear you Sir the Lord preserve your Life and bless your Labours I hope it will not be long e're I shall hear from you who am Your affectionate Friend and Brother in Christ Iesus Tho. Lambe From my House in Great St. Bartholomews My Wife presents her Love with many Thanks to you To his very worthy Friend Mr. R. Baxter Preacher of God's Word at Kidderminster in Worcestershire Dear Brother IF I understand any thing of the Ways of the Love of God and can perceive by the Effects below what Souls the Light of his Countenance doth shine upon you owe much to his Love and are used by him as he useth the dearest of his own what a Mercy is his Illumination and how much greater his quickening Life that possesseth you with Love to God and Man O did we but know when we feel one Spark of Love to God and his Servants in our Souls from what an infinite Love it comes and to what it tends and what it signifieth surely there would be more studying comparatively for Charity that edifieth than for the Knowledge that puffeth up If your Work for God did cost you nothing it would not be so comfortable to you symptomatically or effectively Though I confess it is harder to bear the Censures of Godly Men than of the World yet the âiger the Tryal the fuller will be the Evidence of Sincerity in Submission and the greater that Grace and Peace that is used to be given in for Encouragement or Reward And yet I must tell you that your Tryal here is not of the greatest when your Recovery is like to procure you the Esteem of Ten if not an Hundred of God's Servants for one that you are like to lose and I am glad that you give your Censurers so good a Description for if they are such as you describe them I am persuaded many of them will come after you in time And is it not a great Encouragement to you that your Brother and Fellow-labourer comes over with you and so your Hands are strengthned and half your Opposition taken off and turned into Comfort For though I never told him of your Letters to me nor you of his yet I take it for granted that you know each others Minds and ways and yet you know that he is satisfied and resolved for Catholick Communion I pray you go together and do what you do as one Man while you have one Mind and Heart I perceive the Signs of Iudgment and Charity also in him I beseech you also both to hold on your Charity even to them that are offended with
doubt that neither the Episcopal Presbyterian nor Independant way alone will well settle the Church But that each of the three Parties and those called Erastians have somewhat of the Truth in peculiar and somewhat of Faultiness and if ever the Church be well setled it must be by taking the best and leaving out the worst of every party and till that can be done we must bear with what we cannot amend Octobo 9. 1688. Mr. J BEcause your Friend refuseth Conference though I promised secrefie and a loving Debate I will for your sake answer your Questions my self which I take to be these Two I Whether you ought not presently to fix your self in a particular Church and not continue any longer occasional Communion with many II. What Church you should be a fixed Communicant in I. As to the First I know not well what is meant by fixed Membership by the Author of the Writing which you shewed me you must be a fixed Member of Christ and the Church Universal or else you are no fixed Christian But as to particular Pastors and Congregations Order and Concord and Edification are the general Rules which tell you where to fix and how far 1. You ought not to commit any real Sin for Communion with any Church 2. Though you may and must join with faulty Assemblies and Worship yet you must not justifie their Faults nor profess your Consent to them nor promise that you will never endeavour any Amendment of them 3. There must be no Self-obliging unnecessarily Liberty is not so contemptible a thing that we should cast it away for nought much less must you bind your self contrary to God's Providence or without excepting Alterations by it 4. Your Church-Membership as to particular Congregations must have no greater fixedness than your Habitation and other Obligations You may remove your Congregational Relation when you remove your Dwelling and none can hinder you from removing both when your Interest requireth it Suspect them that would make you their Propriety II. As to the Second where you should fix 1. You are in your Father's House under his Government and must obey him in all lawful things and must not go against his Consent 2. You are a Member of a Christian Family and no Scripture tells us of the Members of one Christian Family being of divers Churches nor alloweth it 3. Scripture knoweth no particular Churches but what were bounded by Neighbourhood and Cohabitation except Hereticks There were never Churches gathered out of Churches then nor two approved Churches of the same Language in the same Bounds 1. I do hereby undertake to prove against any Disputer that there is no Form so agreeable to God's Word as this following 1. A Christian Kingdom consisting of a Christian King or supreme Power and particular confederate Churches being the Burgesses and peaceable Unbelievers that tolerated Aliens or Catechumens 2. A reformed Episcopacy Successors to the Evangelists that without the Sword or Force had the Care of many Churches 3. Reformed parish-Parish-Churches consisting of Godly Pastors and professed Christian Cohabitants the incapable being Catechumens which made the old Nonconformists declare that they were so far from being against parish-Parish-Churches that their Lives would be a burden to them if they were not restored to them The first Church State that Christ himself made was the Platform of a Christian Kingdom Church offering to make Iudaea such setting Twelve Apostles over the Twelve Tribes and Seventy two Disciples the Number of their great Council and so would have gathered all Ierusalem's Children to himself as a Hen gathereth her Chickens Mat. 23. which they refusing he declared that the Kingdom of God should be taken from them and given to a Nation that would bring forth the fruit thereof and so they were cut off for their Unbelief and we graffed in to the same Olive or political State the Mosaical Law only changed for Christ's Law And as all the Prophets foretold this that Christ's Church should be a Davidical Kingdom so after Two Hundred Ninety Four Years Tryal it was set up and the Pagan Empire Babylon did fall and Christ reigned by Christian Emperors and his enemies were made his Footstool and the Kingdoms of the World became the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ consisting of Churches confederate for Unity and the Nations brought in their Glory to it and the Fulness of the Gentiles came in and all the Israel of God were saved Iudaea becoming the most Christian Nation in the World And Heaven and Earth rejoiced at the Fall of Babylon and this new Ierusalem's iniâial Sâaâe And sure it is such a Kingdom-Church which those expect that talk of the future Thousand Years Reign of Christ. As Teachers are under him as Prophet and Priests as he is Priest so are Christian Kings as he is King and bad Kings are no more Reason against his Institution than bad Teachers and Priests 2. There are Three Sorts of Pastors or Bishops in Christ's Church I. Such as were to gather many Churches out of Infideâs and to set Elders or fixed Bishops over them and then oversee both the Elders and People Such Christ made the Apostles whose Office was partly extraordinary and temporary and is so far only ceased and partly ordinary and continued and so Christ promised to be with them to the end of the World And such were Evangelists sent forth with and by the Apostles to gather and oversee many Churches and Pastors Such were Titus Timothy Luke Mark Barnabas Silas and many more God never recalled this Order of Ministers if any say he did it lyeth in them to prove it This was the first sort of Pastors II. The Second Sort were the fixed Elders which these ordained in every Church who were all Bishops over the Flocks and so called but under the general Ministers who yet had none of them any forcing Power by the Sword these two God instituted III. The Third Sort between these Two was a President Pastor in every particular Church like the President of a Colledge who had some moderating guiding Power among the rest of the Elders This was set up to avoid Division among the Elders every Church having usually many and received even in some of the Apostles Days and never rejected for a Thousand Years 3. Particular Churches in Scripture Times were distinguished by the places of their Neighbourhood as I said before and there were never two Churches in the same Bounds except Hereticks and Men of divers Languages From this it is plain that the most Divine From of Government is 1. A Christian Kingdom 2. With Reformed General Ministers 3. And Reformed Parish-Churches having fixed Pastors and where it may be our Chief c. Moreover as to your fixing the Churches in Question with you I suppose are not the Papists the Quakers the Familists c. But the Episcopal the Presbyterian the Independent and the Separatist if not the Anabaptists also I. The Episcopal are of Two Sorts
such Churches as Corinth Gallatia Ephesus Smyrna Sardis Laodicea c. defiled with odious Crimes and Errors though God command them to reform IV. Because hereby they tempt Men to infidelity when they hear that Christ hath no greater a Body and Church than they with which Men may lawfully communicate and rob him of almost his Kingdom V. By false accusing the Prayers of almost all Christ's Church and renouncing Communion with them they forfeit their Interest in the Benefit of their Prayers and of the Communion of Saints VI. Who but Satan would have all the People of England and all Nations to live without any publick Church-worship till they can have better than such as is in our Parish-Churches as if none were better VII With whom would these Men have held Communion if they had lived in any Age till two hundred Years ago when as far as ever I could find there was not one Congregation of Christians or Hereticks in all the World that was against Forms of Worship or Bishops or all Ceremonies let them name one if they can what then will they say to the Question Where was your new Church before the two last Ages Had Christ no Church for One Thousand Two Hundred Years in all the World that a Christian ought to join with in local Communion Did Christ disown them all and yet was he their Head and they his Body Or are these Men as much stricter than Christ as the Pharisees were about his Converse and the Sabbath VIII They condemn themselves by their own Practice while some of them cry down Communion with imposed Forms of Liturgy they sing Psalms imposed by the Pastor or Clerk which are the chief part of imposed Liturgies They sing them in new Versions Metre and Tunes different from the Apostles Churches and yet better for us They use imposed Translations of the Scripture The Pastor imposeth his Words of Prayer as a Forme which the People ââst all join with This is but a different Mode of Liturgies IX Charity or Christian Love and Unity are the great vital Graces of the Christian Church And oh how wofully do these Men violate and destroy it when as is said they renounce Communion for a Thousand or Twelve Hundred Years at least with all known Churches on Earth as unlawful in point of local Presence 2. They bind all Christians that will hear them to do the like to this Day to almost all the Churches on Earth 3. Their Principles and Reasons make it sinful to have Communicated with the Reformers the Waldenses Wickliffe Luther Melancthon Zwinglius Calvin Bucer and the rest 4. And they condemn Communion with the Martyrs both under Heathens and of later Times who made or valued and used Liturgies 5. They condemn local Communion with all the late and former holy excellent Bishops and Conformists such as Archbishops Parker Grindall Abbot Usher c. Bishops Hall Morton Pilkinton Downame Davenant and many such All that glorious Tribe of Conformists Preston Sibbs Bolton Whately Crook Io. Downame Stoughton c. Oh how great a Number and how excellent almost matchless Men Almost all the late Westminster Assembly 6. And all the excellent old Nonconformists that were against Separation Dearing Greenham Perkins Bayn Reignolds Dod Hieldersham Bradshaw Ball and Multitudes of such of greatest Piety and Parts 7. All or near all the Reformed Churches 8. All the meer Independants that were against their Separation such as Dr. Tho. Goodwin aforesaid and many of his Mind 9. Yea they condemn the Old Brownists who Printed their Profession of Communion with many Parish-Churches and with Liturgies 10. And they utterly condemn all local Communion with the meer Nonconformists of this Age who offered Terms of Concord in Liturgy and Episcopacy 1661. None of all these are good enough for these Men especially their Women and Lads to have any present Communion with Do they know how little radical Difference there is between saying as Persecutors All these are Hereticks and as Separatists All these are unworthy of Christian Communion Yea the Pope rejecteth Communion but with two or three parts of the Christian World and these Men renounce local Communion with almost all Is this the way of Love and Unity in the Body of Christ X. Is Provoking Excommunicating them the way to reconcile the Publick Ministers and Churches Or is this a time to join with the Enemies of the Protestant Religion to draw all the People to forsake them That so the Reformation here may have only private Toleration as we have till some Disorder is said to forfeit it the King promiseth to defend them and shall separating Protestants pull them down XI The Weakness of these Mens Judgments and Dealings bring all the Nonconformists into Contempt and Scorn with Multitudes of undistinguishing Men as if we were all of the same Temper and hardeneth Thousands in hatred to them all and maketh them long to be persecuting us again and keepeth them from repenting of the Evil they have done Offence must come but woe to them by whom it cometh XII God hath most expresly decided this Controversy in Scripture and these Men seeming Adherents to Scripture cannot see it Rom. 14. and 15. and 16. 17. Ioh. 17. 22 24. Phil. 2. Eph. 4. In a Word in all those Texts that plead for Church Unity and Love and all those that speak of the sinfulness of Schism and that a kingdom divided cannot stand and all those that condemn Dividers and all that command mutual forbearance c. Do you think that receive one another as Christ received us even them that are weak in Faith it self doth mean no more than do not silence them or imprison or murder them No doubt but it meaneth receive them to Church-Communion XIII What a great Sin is unjust silencing worthy Preachers And do not these Men endeavour to silence more thousands than the Act of Uniformity or Bishops did when they tell all that it 's a Sin to hear them XIV If it be unlawful to join with others that are no worse than they it must be unlawful to join with them If I be guily of all that is said or done amiss in the parish-Parish-Churches I shall be more guilty if I join with the Separatists I am not desirous to accuse any but to cover their Faults as far as I can But I cannot resolve your Question without telling you that I take their church-Church-State to be so far different from the Rule and in many Respects worse than the parish-Parish-Churches as that to join with them as fixed covenanted Members will be a state of Sin 1. Scripture-fixed Ministers or Elders were all ordained by superior general Pastors either alone or with Presbyteries So are not theirs if by any at all 2. Scripture-flocks were ruled by their Pastors Heb. 13. 7 17 24. 1 Thes. 5. 13 14. 1 Pet. 5. 1 Tim. 3 c. But many of their Flocks are the Rulers of themselves and Pastors 3. Scripture particular Churches
in Scripture than that Baptism was appointed for our Entrance upon our State of Disciples in general And Ergo if a Man may be a visible Disciple without it where it seemeth most necessary then much more may he be admitted into a particular Church afterward without it when at least it is no more necessary and indeed much less and not at all save only as universal Church-Member this is pre-requisite to particular The Ministers of Christ Baptized 2000 without asking the Consent of any particular Church 2. They that are under both a Precept making the use of instituted Ordinances their Duty and a Promise of Acceptance in the Performance must perform these Duties with belief of their Acceptance But such are these that you account unbaptized Ergo That they are under a Command is plain All the Precepts for Christian Communion and not forsaking the assembling of our selves and obeying those that rule over us c. are made to the whole visible Church that hath Opportunity for such Communion you will not think that our Sin as you take it can except us from an Obligation to Duty But all the Question is whether such Duty will be accepted if performed by the unbaptized as you now suppose them and this you grant professing your self that you are out of doubt that we are very well accepted of God and you think that it is accounted for Baptism to us And if you yield both that we are bound to the Duty and shall have Acceptance in particular Church Communion what is it then besides the regularity that you deny Do you not grant the Cause in Hand And we have many Promises of Acceptance of Believers in their sincere Endeavours and all things are pure to the Pure And if involuntary unavoidable Mistakes shall hinder our Acceptance when we are sincere then we can never be sure that we are accepted 3. It is but visibility that is requisite in a Church or Member to make them capable of our Communion If it be a Communion of Christians as Christians or Saints as Saints that particular Churches are to hold withal that consent and are Members of their Churches then Christianity or visible Sanctity in such Consenters is all that is of Necessity to such Communion But the Antecedent is plain As it is as Christians that we must inwardly love one another so it is as Christians that we must manifest that Love in holy Communion Communion is the Demonstration of Love and all Men must know us to be Christ's Disciples by our loving one another and therefore if any Man be but a visible Christian it 's plain that he 's capable of your Communion if he cohabits and consent else it were not formalitur a Communion of Saints or Christians but of something else Now you confess that Men are visible Christians that are to you unbaptized 4. There is no such thing as a universal visible Church that is not to use Eucharistical Communion nor any parts of it that have opportunity Your similitude of Corporations in a Republick holds in some things but hath this dissimilitude that all Christ's Republick should consist of such Corporations except a Person that is a Merchant Traveller Embassador or by some extraordinary Necessity is denied Opportunity which Rarities are not here of Consideration And whereas in Republicks it may be as commodious for rural Villages to be not incorporate as for Cities to be incorporate and their Priviledges in their Nation may be as great and they are not obliged to incorporate none of this is so in our Case But every visible Christian not hindered by Necessity is bound to incorporate and charged not to forsake the Assemblies but all to join and speak the same things and Glorify God with one Mouth c. And he that is not a visible Christian hath no visible Right to our Christian Communion And he that is a visible Christian and depriveth himself of this Communion sinneth and wrongeth his own Soul and as it were out-laws himself and is not as you suppose in your Comparison of the not-incorporate But though in some Cases such may be saved as deny instituted Communion and Worship or neglect it yet they do so far put themselves into the State of those without 5. Your Opinion sets up a new kind of Church or Christian Assemblies and Communion of such as may only hear and Pray and not have Eucharistical Communion and be under Church-Guidance Shew us any such in Scripture if you can 6. Heathens or Infidels are called to a natural Worship of God Ergo visible Christians are called to more 7. Faith it self hath its Office formally by Institution though its aptitude thereto be in the Nature of the thing And if the Gospel it self be supernatural and our Christianity and Faith an instituted thing as well as Sacrament and Governors and so the universal visible Church an Institution as well as a particular then certainly want of Baptism will no more keep a visible Christian out of the particular instituted Church than out of the universal because as to the Point of Institution there is no such Reason as can make a Difference 8. The great and excellent part of Church Communion is that which you call natural Worship as performed by Believers in the loving God in Christ and admiring and magnifying his Love in the Riches of the Grace of Redemption and seeking with all Saints to comprehend it hearing his Counsels and Commands praying for his Grace and Glory and praising and magnifying him in Faith and Hope and Love with our Eye upon the second Coming of our Lord. And that which you call Instituted Order and Worship is but the means to this and without this but a Shell It is subservient to it And therefore 1. They that are capable of the greater are capable of the less Heathens are bound to meer natural Worship and their Hearing and Praying is another thing and Obligation and Capacity differ 2. They that must do the work must do it in God's way and by his means The great internal Worship is as the Soul and the external as the Body which are to be distinguished but not separated Must one sort of Christians have the Soul of holy Communion without the Body and carry the Knife naked while you deny them the Sheath 9. If a Member of the Universal visible Church as such is pro tempore to be admitted to Communion in all Ordinances with any particular Church where they come then these that you acknowledge such visible Members must by you be so admitted and so are capable of Communion in instituted Ordinances but the Antecedent is true beyond Dispute None of the Apostles were Members of particular Churches but were as Itinerants to do their work in many Countries so was it with abundance of Itinerant Preachers of those times called their Companions and Fellow Labourers and Helpers as Barnabas Luke Mark Silus Timothy Titus Epaphroditus Apollos c. When Paul came
a Nonconformist and is your Address to your self or do you take the Word Church there also equivocally and improperly If so you should have said so The Prelatists grant with Cyprian that ubi Episcopus ibi Ecclesia and with Ignatius that to every church there is one Bishop with his Presbyters c. No King no Kingdom no Master no School nor Family no Bishop no Church Therefore the Prelatists hold that we have no true proper Church below a Diocesan and that Parishes are not Churches but Chappels or parts of a Church and this is not the least part of our Nonconformity how hold that Parishes are or should be true Churches and not only parts of a Church in fini ordinis without any proper Bishop Tell me better I pray which side you here intend to take Quest. 4. Seeing p. 111. c. you very well plead for the Power of Kings in Determination of Parish-Bounds and Church Orders as under the Jewish Polity and the new way of the Conformists is so far contrary as that they hold that if a Bishop command one Time one Place one Translation Metre Ceremony Utensil c. and the King another that the Bishop is to be obeyed before the King because it belongs not to him but to the Church Is it the New Conformity in this that you are for or for the old and the Nonconformists who in this Agree Quest. 5. Some Words p. 124 125. move me to ask you whether such Anabaptists as you formerly taught and joined with or the ignorant irreligious vulgar as you then accounted them were the better People If the Religion of them that mind little of God or Life Eternal further than to join with the Church be the true State of Regeneration and Holiness were it not more worth your Labour to write a Book against that which now we take for Holiness seeking first God's Kingdom and Righteousness But if other Wise and Pious Sectaries be better than impious Churchmen were those times so much better than these as you describe them in which there was not one counted Religious e. g. from 1625. till 1637. for Three that I say not for Ten or Twenty that are now in most places that I have known Quest. 6. And I add hath not Scotland kept out Sects without our Conformity more effectually than Conformity here kept them out Quest. 7. P. 129. Had you nothing but Suspicion and Opinion to oppugn and must that be granted you and yet have lived so long where you live Quest. 8. Because you talk so much of Shism sinful in it self without ever telling us exactly how to know it I pray tell me if Mr. Sangar Dr. Manton and such others should say to these Parishioners we are in the Relations which we were truly and justly stated in and because the Magistrate hath given others the Parish-Churches and the Tythes you separate from us and come not to our Assemblies therefore you set up a sinful Schism as some did in the Churches of the Roman Empire who adhered to Pastors put in by the Emperors while the People adhered to their former Pastors How shall I answer them better than they do you Quest. 9. Your Question p. 157. moveth me to put you to think it over again whether you think indeed as your Words import if all the People of England these fourteen Years past had heard no Sermon but in the Parish-Churches and so had heard none of the 2000 Nonconformists or neer that were silenced even in all those Parishes where the reading of the Liturgy is the far best and likeliest means of the Peoples Good and in all those Parishes where not one of very many hath any Church to hear in I say do you think that there would have been more Persons truly converted and saved by this means If you think that all these 1800 or 2000 Mens Preaching hath done and doth more harm than good had it not been a directer way to have written to them to convince them of it that they might cease of which more anon Pag. 161. You say If instead of this each Christian of you had kept to Parochial Communion and each outed Minister had kept their Residence among them and Communion with them as private Members in the Parish way and had also in a private Capacity joined with those Ministers which have succeeded them in doing all the Good they could in the Parish as by a private Application and Improvement of the publick Labours of their Minister together with Catechizing and other personal Instruction and Exhortation privately administred to the several Families in the Parish c. Quest. 10. Will you do us the Favour as to answer first those Books that be written to prove our Obligation to Preach such as Ios. Allen's Call to Archippus and my Sacrilegious Dissertion c. was not that to have gone before such Advises as this If you say Dr. Fullwood hath done it I beg of you to tell me what Arguments of his you think have done it while he yields the contrary Quest. 11. Would you have all those Ministers take this course that must lye in the Common Goal if they come within five Miles of the Place can they do it in Newgate If you say that the Act of Consinement had not been made but for Conventicles we have Proof of that nor is the Occasion now any Remedy for the future Quest. 12. Do you not know that Conformists will not endure us in this private Diligence which you speak of I will give you in the end an Instance from the Parish where I live Quest. 13. Do you well know what sort of Ministers are in too many Parishes of England I will not imtate the Gloscester Cobler in gathering up their Faults but only ask you if for Instance Mr. Corbet that was turned out of Bromshut had stayed there where Mr. Hook the Patron hath often told me that their Preacher was formerly an Ale-seller and was so common a Drunkard that he would be drunk in the Pulpit could you have advised him to do nothing but apply this Man's Sermons as you say When I was young the first place I lived in had four Readers successively some Drunkards all my Masters the next place had in my time an old Reader that never preached as had most of the Churches round about us his Curates were successively three Readers of which one never Preached one Preached and was a Stage-Player another my Master also a common Drunkard never preached but once and then he was stark drunk when the Old Man's Eyesight failed that was the chief Incumbent he said Common-Prayer by rote and one Year a Day Labourer and another Year a Taylor read the Scriptures and we had no more What Mr. Dance and Mr. Turner were at Kidderminster and Mitton Chappel I suppose you know Quest. 14. Would you have those Ministers take the Course which you describe in the Parishes where the generality of the People must be
Rector of his Parish Church shall as such have power to Preach to them without any further License and to judge according to God's Word to whom and how to perform the proper Work of his Office on what Text and Subject to Preach in what Words and Order to Teach and Pray But if Canons also be made a Rule they shall not oblige him against the Word of God And if for Uniformity or some Mens disability he be tyed to use the Words of prescribed Forms called a Liturgy he shall not be so servilely tyed to them as to be punishable for every Omission of any Collect Sentence or Word while at least the greatest part of the Service appointed for the Day is there read and the Substance and Necessary Part of the Offices be there performed no though he omit the Cross in Baptism and the Surplice and deny not Communion to those that dare not receive it kneeling And if any worthy Minister scruple to use the Liturgy but will be present and not Preach against it he shall be capable notwithstanding of preaching as a Lecturer or Assistant if the Incumbent Pastor do Consent VII No Oath Subscription Covenant Profession or Promise shall be made Necessary to Ministers or Candidates for the Ministry besides the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy and Subscribing to the Sacred Canonical Scriptures and to the ancient Creeds or at the most to the Articles of the Church excepting to them that scruple the Twentieth Thirty fourth and Thirty sixth as they speak only of Ceremonies Traditions and Bishops and the necessary Renunciation of Heresie Popery Rebellion and Usurpation and the Promise of Ministerial Fidelity according to the Word of God Or at least none but what the Reformed Churches are commonly agreed in And let none be capable of Benefices and Church-Dignities or Government in the Universities or Free-Schools who hath not taken the said Oaths Subscriptions and Renunciations VIII Let none have any Benefice with Cure of Souls who is not Ordained to the Sacred Ministry by such Bishops or Pastors as the Law shall thereto appoint for the time to come But those that already are otherwise Ordained by other Pastors shall not be disabled or required to be Ordained again And let no Pastor by Patrons or others be imposed on any Parish Church without the consent of the greater number of the stated Communicants And at his Entrance let some Neighbour Ministers in that Congregation declare him their Pastor as so Consented to and Ordained and preach to them the Duty of the Pastor and Flock and pray for his Success IX If any Pastor be accused of Tyranny Injury or Mal-administration he shall be responsible to the next Synod of Neighbour Pastors or to the Diocesan and his Synod or to the Magistrate or whomsoever the Law shall appoint and if guilty and unreformed after a first and second Admonition shall be punished as his Offence deserveth but only in a Course of Justice according to the Laws and not Arbitrarily Nor so as to be forbidden his Ministerial Labours till he be proved to do more hurt than good And if the supposed Injury to any who is denied Communion be doubtful or but to one or few let not for their sake the Church be deprived of their Pastor but let the Person if proved injured have power to forbear all his Payments and Tythes to the Pastor and to Communicate elsewhere X. Because Patrons who choose Pastors for all the Churches are of so different Minds and Dispositions that there is no certainty that none shall be by them Presented and by Bishops Instituted and Inducted to whom godly Persons may justly scruple to commit the Pastoral Conduct of their Souls whose Safety is more to them then all the World And because there may be some things left in the Liliurgy Church Government and Orders which after their best search may be judged sinful by such godly and peaceable Christians as yet consent to the Word of God and all that the Apostles and their Churches practised And Humanity and Christianity abhor Persecution and Human Darkness and great Difference of Apprehensions is such as leaveth us in Despair of Variety and Concord in doubtful and unnecessary Things Let such Persons be allowed to assemble for Communion and the Worship of God under such Pastors and in such Order as they judge best Provided 1. That their Pastors and Teachers do take all the foresaid Oaths Professions and Subscriptions before some Court of Judicature or Justices at Sessions or the Diocesan as shall be by Law appointed who thereupon shall give them a Testimonial thereof or a written License of Toleration 2. That they be responsible for their Doctrine and Ministration and punishable according to the Laws if they preach or practice any thing inconsistent with their foresaid Profession of Faith and Obedience or of Christian Love and Peace 3. That their Communicants pay all Dues to the Parish Ministers and Churches where they live And if such People as live where the Incumbent is judged by them unfit for the Trust and Conduct of their Souls shall hold Communion with a Neighbour Parish Church they shall not be punishable for it They paying their Parish Dues at home Nor shall private Persons be forbidden peaceably to pray or edifie each other in their Houses XI Christian Priviledges and Church Communion being unvaluable Benefits and just Excommunication a dreadful Punishment no unwilling Person hath right to the said Benefits Therefore none shall be driven by Penalties to say that he is a Christian or to be Baptized or to have Communion in the Lord's Supper Nor shall any be Fined Imprisoned or Corporally and Positively punished by the Sword meerly as a Non-Communicant or Excommunicate and Reconciled but as the Magistrate shall judge the Crimes of themselves deserve But if Non-Communicants be denied all Publick Trust in Churches Universities or Civil Government it is more properly the Securing of he Kingdom Church and Souls then a punishing of them But all Parishioners at Age shall be obliged to forbear reproaching Religion and profaning the Lord's Day and shall hear publick Preaching in some allowed or tolerated Church and shall not refuse to be Catechized or to confer for their Instruction with the Parish Minister and shall pay him all his Tythes and Church Dues XII The Church Power above Parish Churches Diocefan Synodical Chancellors Officials Commissaries c. we presume not to meddle with But were it reduced to the Primitive State or to Archbishop Usher's Model of the Primitive Government yea or but to the King's Description in his Declaration 1660. about Ecclesiastical Affairs and if also the Bishops were chosen as of old for Six hundred years and more it would be a Reformation of great Benefit to the Kingdom and the Churches of Christ therein But if we have but Parish Reformation Religion will be preserved without any wrong or hurt to either the Diocesans or the Tolerated And if Diocesans be good Men
between Sp. Cosins and me about my leannessâ c. Mr. Calamy was most of this time sick or lame of a hurt which he had received These underlined Passages were left out in that presented to the King These underlined Passages were left out in that presented to the King * Since made Dr. and the Archbishop's Chaplain * A most scandalous Person About this time Mr. Feld a âodly Minister died in Prison and abundance were imprisoned upon malicious Accusations of some of their ignorant Hearers * * As it is in the University * * O that they were all such * * These words I heard not being in passage from him * Or 100000 as Pet. Mâulin Jun. saith within a few weeks He waâ imprisoned ãâ¦ã and ãâã Ian. 15. Dr. Hammond Annotat in 1 Cor. 20. 28. Lit. g. * And the same of is annexed to both the Government of Church or State Therefore if it be treasonable to expound it in your sence of the One it is sure unlawful so to expound it as to the Other â I pray ask the Law-givers whether they will excuse you from breaking this Oath or Promise if you endeavour to extirpate the English Prelacy but not to root out all Episcopacy O for a Mind prepared and willing to know the Truth And we fear left by this we put it in the power of the Lord Keeper or Chancellor to Depose the King at his pleasure by sealing Commissions to any to feize on all his Forts Garrisons Navies Treasures Guards c. * There is a Direction to be assented to to find out Easter-day which every Almanack will tell you is a flat falshood and it 's contrary to another there given This is more fully opened in other Papers Note That this Declaration justifieth even the Imposition of the whole that is by the Rubrick imposed because imposing is the use of those Rubricks And it is not the words of the Declaration which is de medio that hath the term use but the previous words which are but de fine The means are made larger for securing the end And the word Approbation of all Orders c. is after exprest If we were commanded to subscribe to the use of the Decretals in these words and no other I do Assent and Consent to all Things contained in them and prescribed by them should we say It is but so far as I must use them and not others * And none of the Bishops contradicted him but some seconded him * If I should at length recite the Story of this Business and what peremptory Promises they had and how all was turned to their Rebuke and Scorn it would more increase the Readers astonishment * 1. The Declaration for Liberty at Breda was for them 2. Next the Clause offered to be added to the Declaration of Ecclesiastical Affairs gave them the free Exercise of their Religion 3. The foresaid Motion next attempted it 4. This Declaration Dec. 26. 1662. expreâly promised it them 5. Our Treaty after set on foot by the Lord Keeper Bridgman would have offered it them And by breaking all these offers we are our selves in our present afflicted state * But since alas Francis having fall'n into the Opinion for the Saturday Sabbath c. their Afflicters think themselves justified for afflicting them ãâã Case 1 Cor. 7. ââ Esth. 2. 17. Gen. 2. 18 20. 1 Cor. 14. 35. Eph. 4. 29. 5. 11 15 19 2â 25 26 27. to the end Col. 3. 16. Hebr. 3. 13. 1 Cor. 1. 1â Rom. 15. 6. 2. Cor. 6. 14 15. Unequal yoking with others as well as Unbelievers by parity of reason is proportionably evil Righteousness with Unrighteousness Light with Darkness hath no Communion About 10000 a Week died accounting the Quakers Anabaptists and others who were not numbred in the Weekly Bills Mr. Spinage dyed then but I think not of the Plague It was the Plague that brought them out of their secret narrow Meetings into publick * Coll. Turner * Dr. Blandford * He after Conformed * I have since written my knowledge of him Not that my Judgment is changed as it was for Monarchy But I am sorry that I wrote for ãâã Men ãâã their wills and to their displeasure It s meet they should chuse their own Servants * We are not meet Judges of the reasons of the Superiours actions * This greatly displeased the Commons â He is now the worthy but envied Pastor of Giles's Cripplegase Church * ãâã See more of this in my Wife's Life * * Dr. Hammond in his Six Queries p. 367.
Church where he is President and where he Ordaineth if there be any left I suppose as to a Parochial or Congregational President in one Eldership you will grant this and why not to the President of the Association for Peace when he that is Ordained a Pastor of your particular Church is thereupon made an Officer in the Universal therefore others should have some care of it or else I 'le let Objections pass in silence only desire you if these two last dislike you not therefore presently to reject the rest but lay these by On these Terms in the two last Propositions Bishop Usher when I propounded them to him told me That the Episcopal Party might well agree with us and the moderate would but the rest would not To my Reverend Brother Mr. Philip Nye § 47. After this I was yet desirous to make a fuller Attempt for the reconciling of those Controversies so far as that we might hold Communion together And I drew up a larger Writing instancing in about Ten Points of Difference between the Presbyterians and Independants proving that the Differences were not such as should hinder Concord and Communion The Writing being too large to be here inserted you shall have with the rest at the end of the History Since Prelacy was restored there hath been no Opportunity to Debate these Matters for the Reasons aforesaid and many others Only I put these Papers into Mr. G. Grissith's hand who speaketh much for Reconciliation And when I call'd for them about a year after he had shewed them to none nor made any use of them which might tend to the desired Concord and so I took them away as expecting no more success § 48. About the same time the great Controversie that troubled all the Church being about the Qualification of Church Members I apprehended that the want of a due and solemn manner of Transition from the Number of Infant-Members into the Number of the Adult was the cause both of Anabaptistry and Independency and that the right performance of this as Calvin and our Rubrick in the Common Prayer would have Confirmation performed would be the most excellent Expedient both for Reformation and Reconciliation finding that the Independants themselves approved of it I meditated how to get this way of rectified Confirmation restored and introduced when in the mean time came forth a Treatise for this way of Confirmation by Mr. Ionathan Hanmer very judiciously and piously written And because it was sent me with a Request to write my Judgment of it I put an Epistle before it further to prove the desirableness of the thing The Book was very well accepted when it came abroad but some wrote to me desiring me not only to shew the usefulness of it but also to produce some fuller Scripture Proofs that it is a Duty whereupon I wrote a little Treatise that is called Confirmation the way to Reformation and Reconciliation And in my own Congregation I began so much of the Practice of it as is acknowledged to belong to Presbyters to do § 49. And about the same time while Cromwell professed to do all that he could for the equal promoting of Godliness and Peace and the Magistrates Assistance greatly facilitating the Work of the Ministers and many Ministers neglected their Duty because the Magistrate compelled not the People to submit to them and some never administred the Lord's Supper because they thought nothing but Constraint by the Magistrate would enable them to do it aright And on the other Extream Cromwell himself and such others commonly gave out that they could not understand what the Magistrate had to do in Matters of Religion and they thought that all Men should be left to their own Consciences and that the Magistrate could not interpose but he should be ensnared in the Guilt of Persecution I say while these Extreams prevailed upon the Discourses of some Independants I offered them a few Proposals suited to those Times containing those few Duties by which a willing Magistrate might easily settle the Church in a safe and holy Peace without incurring the guilt of Persecution or Profaneness or Licentiousness but having no Correspondency with Cromwell or any of his Council they were never shewed or made use of any further than for the perusal of him to whom I gave them who being one of their Faction I thought it possible he might have further improved them The Paper was this which followeth By the Establishment of what is contained in these Twelve Propositions or Articles following the Churches in these Nations may have a Holy Communion Peace and Concord without any Wrong to the Consciences or Liberties of Presbyterians Congregational Episcopal or any other Christians 1. FOrasmuch as God hath appointed Magistracy and Ministry as Functions of a different kind but both necessary to the welfare of Mankind and both for the Church and the Salvation of Men and the maintaining of due Obedience to God Therefore let not either of them invade the Function of the other Let Ministers have no Power of Violence by inflicting Corporal Penalties or Mulcts nor be the Judges though in Cases of Heresie or Impiety who is to be ãâã punished and who not but let them not be denied to be the Ministers of Christ and Guides of the Church And therefore let the Word of God be their only Rule what they must Preach and whom they must Baptize and receive into the Church and to whom they must Administer the Lord's Supper and whom they must Reprove Admonith Reject or Absolve and so for the rest of their Ministerial Work And let not Princes or Parliaments make them Rules and tell them whom to admit or reject otherwise than from the Word of God for according to this Rule we are bound to proceed whatever we suffer for it But yet as the Magistrate is by us to be instructed and guided according to the Word of God so we are by him to be commanded and punished if we offend And therefore we acknowledge it his Duty to command us to Teach and Govern the Churches according to the Word of God and to punish us if we disobey and we must submit to such commands and punishments And therefore if the Parliament see cause to make any Laws according to which their Judges and Officers shall proceed in punishing Ministers for Male-administration we shall not disobey them if agreeable to God's Word if not we shall obey God and patiently suffer from them 2. Seeing there is very much difference between an Infant state of Church-Membership and an Adult one being but imperfect Members in comparison of the other and one being admitted on the Condition they be but the Seed of the Faithful and the others Title having another Condition even a Faith or Profession of their own and one having right only to Infant Priviledges and not to the Lord's Supper and other parts of Communion proper to the Adult because they are not capable of it And seeing
some Errors of that Church or the like to consult of it that we may not also injuriously exclude him from our common Communion 6. In such cases of Error or Male-administratition to admonish Neighbour Ministers and Churches as also in case of any Abuse of their Pastors or choice of unsound heretical or ungodly Pastors or cherishing Seducers or ungodly Persons in their Churches or neglecting Discipline or faling to looseness or in case of Scandals among them or of Offences and Divisions among themselves or between them and some Neighbour-church or many the like cases the Advice and Admonitions of the Neighbour associated Pastors should be directed to them for their Recovery which cases single Ministers cannot so well be informed of nor perform their Duty with so much Advantage as the Association may 7. To concur in some Admonitions to the intractable and incorrigible of our several Parishes that they that will not hear their own Teachers through any Prejudice may be prevailed with by many and to strengthen our Hands and the Reputation of our Doctrine and common Duties with the People by our Unity and Concord 8. To help one another but especially the younger sort of Ministers to whom it may be as an Academy by Conference Disputations and other profitable Exercises and preaching they that ordinarily preach have need sometimes to hear and to have a Communication from their Brothrens Gifts as well as the People have from them 9. Those Ministers that scruple censuring any Offender without the consent of other Ministers may here take their consent and young Ministers that are unskilful in managing such Works may take Advice 10. We may here agree upon the fittest manner and season and persons and places in our helping the Congregations that are ignorant ill-provided or unprovided of Ministers or dangerously corrupted and may advise any Neighbour Churches that send to us to help them to a fit Minister or in the like cases 11. Because it is impossible to enumerate punctually the cases in which it is lawful to take Members to a particular Church out of another Church or Parish all Churches and Pastors shall give an account of any such Action to these Associations if any be offended with them Where it shall be enquired whether the Action be dishonourable to God and injurious to the publick Good of the Churches if it be not the Offence is removed If they find it be the Parties offending are to be admonished and if they give not Satisfaction it is to be enquired whether there be any thing in the Principles and manner of the Action that makes it an intollerable Offence to the Churches If there be then after sufficient Admonition and waiting the Guilty if impenitent are to be cast out of our common Communion or the Churches to resolve to have no Christian Communion with them But if there be no such heinous intollerable Ingredient we must be content only to admonish them and disown the Sin and continue Communion with them In like manner if any Scandal be raised of any Brother of the Association or if any have an Accusation against him we must hear them and he must be responsible and give account of his Ways though not as to his Governors yet as to his Brethren to remove Offence and to keep clear the way of holy Communion 12. It will be most regular and avoid the hurt of the Churches if Ordination of Ministers be either performed by these Assemblies on the Ministers to be ordained be here tried and approved and the Ordination to be performed in the Church to which he is ordained by such as they appoint or by the teaching Elders of that Church it self after their Approbation of the Person In these Twelve Particulars you may see what use there is of these Misterial Associations and Assemblies without medling with a superior governing Power and how great Reason there is that all sober godly peaceable Ministers should join in them even for communion of Pastors and Churches and the promoting of our common Work and Welfare 9. Let these Associations chuse their Presidents or Moderators and any fit Name by which they will call him and determine whether he shall be pro tempore or how long or fixed as long as he liveth and is the fittest according to the Judgment of the Ministers For this is not a case in which Men can be forced from their Liberty And if any will so far make use of his Advice as to be guided by him as none can deny him that Liberty of his own Mind so he must not seek to bind all others to the same Subjection but those that bring themselves to it by the same Estimation have their Liberty as he 10. Though it be not of necessity yet would it be of great conveniency and use if the Magistrate would be with us or appoint some Substitute to represent him in all our Assemblies that he may be a Witness of our Proceedings and see that we do no wrong to the Commonwealth and avoid all Suspicions that may be occasioned by Rumors But principally that he may see how far it is meet for him in any case to second us by his Power For as in many cases the Power of the Magistrate ought to be used to second the Ministry as to restrain Men from publishing demnable Heresies from disturbing the Churches Peace c. so we think it a vile abuse of Magistrates to require them to be the meer Executioners of our Sentences and to punish Men only because we have Excommunicated them before he know the justness of the cause As the Church or Ministers are Judges when the Question is whether such a Man is to be avoided rejected or excommunicated for Heresie or any Sin so the Magistrate only is Judge when the Question is whether he be to be corporally punished for Heresie or any Sin and therefore he must know the cause 11. As those Neighbour-Ministers that live at convenient Distance for such Communion should hold such Associations as aforesaid so the Communion of Christians and Pastors in special being to be extended as far as natural and moral capacity will permit it is meet that there be for more extensive Communion some more general Assemblies of the Ministers to be held by the Delegates of these Associations for matters that are of more general Concernment yea and that by Messengers and Letters we hold such correspondency with the Churches of Christ abroad as is necessary to promote the common Cause and the Love and Communion of the Saints 12. If these Associations should attempt any thing unjust and injurious to the Commonwealth or a corrupt Majority should grow in time to countenance either Heresy or Ungodliness or they should by Contentions among themselves disturb the Peace of the Churches and divide them and fall a railing at or excommunicating personately one another it is here the Magistrates Duty to interpose and reprehend and correct them and displace the unworthy and
Spirit among others is a great rejoicing to me And I hope I may tell you that it is in vain as I am sure I may tell you it is no small Sin any more to resist and strive against him If the Hand of our dear and tender Lord be setting you in joint again shrink not on account of present pain much less should you fear the Reproach of being in Communion with the Body but impartially hearken unto him and yield but lay by all Tumults of Spirits and Passions and get out of the Noise of vulgar Clamours for the Voice of Peace is a still Voice and in Calmness must be attended unto And when you are restored if you find not the Sweetness and Advantages of Peace if you are indeed restored in Mind as well as Practice the Lord hath not spoken in this by me I can hardly think that he that hath raised these Thoughts within you and begun these Convictions will let them die In order to the Ends desired and hoped for I shall offer you so much of my present Thoughts as your described Case requires And 1. though I desire not to dispute the Case of Infant Baptism with you now yet I may say we believe you live in a constant Sin against the Lord in neglecting denying and opposing it and that if you will by one erroneous Supposition draw on a Chain of hurtful Consequences you are the Cause of your own Disorders At a fitter Season I should desire you but to answer me this one Argument All that should be sacramentally or solemnly inticed into the Holy Covenant with God as his People should be Baptized or at least be taken as true Members of the Church and their Entrance just but the Infants of believing Parents should be sacramentally and solemnly entred into Covenant with God or his People Ergo c. The Minor we give you the abundant Proof of Law and Promise for before Christ. It was Abraham's Duty and Priviledge according to the Tenour of the Promise which was made with him before the Law to enter his Children sacramentally and solemnly into the holy Covenant It was all the Churches Duty after both Jews and Proselytes both the uncircumcised Females and the circumcised Males and all the uncircumcised Church in the Wilderness Deut. 29 c. Tell me now how I should answer it before the Lord if I tell Parents that they are absolved from this Duty of solemn entring their Children into the Covenant and are divested of the blessed Priviledge especially when you here tell me well that you know of none but his Body that Christ is the Saviour of and that the Church is this Body Ergo you know of no Salvation for Infants if they be not of the Church Ergo Exclussion would be a heavy Case shall I say that Christ hath recalled this Law and Grant but how should I prove it I shew you the Law and Grant do you shew me the Repeal and we have done Christ never speaks a word to repeal it nor any of his Apostles Entring our Children into the holy Covenant is not a Ceremony If God say to a Father why didst thou not dedicate this Child to me and solemnly enter him into Covenant with me what can he say The Precept Promise and long Practice were plain was the Repeal also plain Yes if it be a Repeal for Christ to take such Children into his Arms and bless them and tell us of such is his Kingdom and to be offended with those that would have kept them from him and to command that all Disciples be Baptized He knew well enough when he instituted Baptism and exercised it first upon the adult that the Iews did so too with their Proselites And Ergo when he did in that no more than they did that yet admitted the Infants of Church-Members his baptizing the Adult could no more signify his Denial of Infants to be baptized than the Iews baptizing the Adult could signify it who at that time baptized Infants also nor could the Disciples interpret Christ's Doctrine and Will to be contrary to the Iews when his Practice was no more than theirs And when he never uttered a Syllable to intimate a Repeal of that great Mercy and Duty of entring Infants solemnly into the Covenant which by God's Appointment had continued so long And the Covenant was I will be thy God and thou shalt be my People But all this falls in besides my first intent and therefore I rather expect your Pardon than your regard of it at the present though time may shew you Light in that which now seems Darkness 2. But if our Infant Baptism were irregular how will you prove it a Nullity never by any sound Argument every Irregularity is not a Nullity Whether you take the Word as signifying Faedus Sacramentale a Sacramental Covenant as Scripture commonly doth more notably intending the Covenant than the outward Act or Sacramentum Faederale a Federal Sacrament or Action most notably signifying the Sign or Act it 's all one to our purpose for Infants are capable of both the Covenant and the outward Sign and of all that is essential to Baptism That they are capable of being entred into Covenant 1. Nature tells us we commonly enter them under Princes as their Subjects and into private Contracts with Landlords for Possessions 2. The ancient Law Promise and Practice of the Church before Christ tells us for then it was actually done by God's Command And that they are capable of the outward Sign is undeniable Prove it a Nullity if you can though it were a Sin 3. But if both were granted the Sin and Nullity I come now to give you my Reasons why it warrants you not to deny Communion with the Churches that were thus Baptized in Infancy And 1. I beseech you note that Baptism is as necessary if not much more to the Admission of Men into the universal visible Church as such or into a particular Church Ergo If Men may be admitted into the universal visible Church without adult Baptism then he may be admitted into a particular Church without it But yet here grant that he may be a Member of the universal Church without it Ergo Baptism is indeed appointed to be our regular entrance by way of Sacramental Covenant and Investiture into the Church Universal and not into a particular Church necessarily though it may be into both yet it is but indirectly into the particular Church The Eunuch and all that were baptized first in any place by the Apostles were baptized only into the Church universal and afterward setled in Order under Pastors in particular Churches Baptism as such as it was called our Christening doth only list Men under Christ as Christians and if it do any more as to the thing in Question it is accidentally and not always nor necessarily We are not directly sure baptized to our Pastors and so not to that Particular Church nothing then is more plain