Faith and Sacraments And we greatly esteem the soundness of the Doctrine contained in the Homilies We unfeignedly assent to the sense of his Majesties Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs in that Passage wherein he justly rebukes those that had the hardyness to publish that the Doctrine of the Church against which no man with whom he had conferred had excepted ought to be Reformed as well as the Discipline Be it here observed that some Conformists tell us that they heartily subscribe to the Nine and Thirty Articles taking the liberty of interpretation that is allowed by the Church her self though it be most reasonable to presume that she requires subscription to them as to an Instrument of Peace only And for this the Testimony of an eminent Bishop is cited saying The Church of England doth not define any of these Questions as necessary to be believed necessitate medii or praecepti which is much less but only to bind her Sons for Peace sake not to oppose them But for our parts we believe the very truth of the Doctrine contained in them according to the genuine sense of the words 4. We are not ashamed constantly to affirm that the word of God is the perfect Rule of Divine Faith and VVorship and we apprehend that it is not Lawfull for the Church or any power upon Earth to make new worship of the same common nature and reason with those universal and perpetual Ordinances which the word hath already made Nevertheless particular modes and accidents and mere circumstances of worship which are common to it with all Humane actions are left to the determination of Humane Prudence according to the general Rules of Scripture And we take such determination in those matters to be no addition to God's word and no argument of the defectiveness of his Laws but merely an application of the general Law in particular cases as the Law it self doth warrant A firm agreement of the Non-Conformists with the Church of England in the substantial parts of God's worship hath been long since manifested in their Papers presented to his Majesty We still acknowledge the lawfulness of a set form of Liturgy for matter agreable to God's word and suited to the nature of the several Ordinances and to the necessities of the Church yet the Minister should not be so confined to it as not to make use of his own gifts of Prayer and Exhortation VVe still profess that we are obliged to do all things decently and in order but we are not satisfied in the lawfulness of such Ceremonies as in their designed end seem to draw to near to the significancy and moral efficacy of Sacraments and which have been rejected by many of the Reformed Churches abroad And we believe that God's worship is best managed for the Exterior form thereof when it hath least of Humane mixtures in things unnecessary adjoyned and appropriated thereunto 5. We intirely own that Ministry that God hath set in the Church whether extraordinary and temporary as that of the Apostles or ordinary and perpetual as that of Bishops or Pastors and Teachers VVe believe that it is Christs high prerogative transcending all Humane authority to institute Spiritual Offices how be it there may be Offices circa sacra of man's appointment That Spiritual Officers receive their authority from Christ as the immediate Donor thereof by his Charter though their designation to their Office it not ordinarily immediate without man's interposing and consequently they are Christ's immediate Stewards commissioned by him and accountable to him each one for himself in particular That the power of the Keys for binding and losing for retaining and remitting of sins is essential to a Presbyter or Bishop That Ministerial power is delivered by Ordination as by way of solemn investiture and that each particular Church ought to have their proper Bishop or Pastor one or more residing among them for all Ministerial duties who hath no coercive power upon the bodies or estates of men and may rule them by no other instrument than the Sword of the Spirit which is the word of God working upon their Consciences and their outward standing in the Church 6. The Church being the Lord's heritage and portion ought not to lye common but must be fenced with Christ's Spiritual Discipline that it be not laid wast and lost in a VVorld of Ungodliness breaking in upon it This charge is committed to the Pastors who are accountable for the same to the chief Shepherd By the order of the Church of England all Presbyters were charged till very lately in the form of ordaining Ministers to administer the Doctrine Sacraments and Discipline as the Lord hath ordained and as this Realm hath received the same And that they might the better understand what the Lord hath commanded the Exhortation of St. Paul to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus was appointed to be read to them at the time of their Ordination Take heed to your selves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you over-seers to rule the Congregation of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Admission into the Church by Baptism is one act of Pastoral Government and includes the judging of the title of the party to be so admitted That which we require in the adult for their visible Church-Membership is their intelligent owning of the Baptismal Covenant by a serious profession there being no notoriety or proof of an invalidating contradiction Other parts of Discipline are the publick admonition of scandalous offenders and injoyning of penitence the Excommunication of the obstinate and the absolution of the penitent This Spiritual Government is not to be managed with external force and terror like the secular power but by Reproof Exhortation and Doctrine that the offender may be convinced and judged in his own Conscience And we take it for a great reproach to Christ's Discipline to tell the VVorld that it is a powerless thing of it self and insufficient to obtain its end unless the temporal Sword inforce it Yet we would not have the Church destitute of the Magistrate's due assistance and encouragement 7. As touching the form of Church Government the Scripture-bishop or Evangelical Pastor we do and ever did acknowledge Likewise we neither do nor ever did renounce the Episcopacy or Presidency which was of an ancient Ecclesiastical Custom as in the time of Ignatius yea or of Cyprian Bishop Ushers model of Government by Bishops and Arch-bishops with their Presbyters was by some of us presented to his Majesty as a ground-work of accommodation King Charles the First in his discourse touching the differences between himself and the two Houses in point of Church Government declares his judgment in these words That he is not against the managing of the Episcopal Presidency in one man by the joynt counsell and consent of many Presbyters but that he had offered to restore it as a fit means to avoid those errors and corruptions and partialities
the judgment of discretion If the Magistrates command be just the Subjects pretending against its lawfulness cannot justifie his disobedience and if the command be sinfull his judging it to be lawfull cannot excuse his doing of it from being sin It is the Subject's duty in these cases first to lay by his error and then to act according to truth and right and for that end to use the best means for his own true information Whereas some teach that when we doubt of the lawfulness of the thing enjoyned and are certain that obedience to authority is a duty we must do the thing VVe conceive that we cannot be certain of our obligation to obey in a case wherein we are not sure of the lawfulness of the thing commanded because we are sure we must not obey the Magistrates command in things unlawfull and our ignorance or error cannot alter our obligation to Gods Law Here is therefore an uncertainty on either side and perhaps the danger may be greater on the side of obeying than refusing For possibly the injunction of a heinous sin may be the matter of the uncertainty and in this streight we apprehend it more unsafe and less excusable to choose the greater before the lesser sin though indeed it be lawfull to choose neither VVe hold not that an indifferent thing becomes unlawfull by being commanded but on the contrary that a thing indifferent before the Magistrate's command doth after the command become a duty it being such as he hath authority to command Indeed we cannot receive the Dictates of some men who have written too daringly about Conscience in reference to Humane Powers VVe boast not of such Principles as make men of ductile Consciences obsequious to all designs and interests but we embrace such as will keep the Church and VVorld in order 14. VVhen the higher powers command what God forbids though we are bound not to perform it yet we must be subject and not resist but patiently submit to suffering The cause of Religion doth not warrant Subjects to take arms against their Lawfull Prince nor may they by armed violence against authority attempt the publique reformation thereof We hold that it is unlawfull by the constitution and laws of this Kingdom for any Subjects to take arms against the King his Office Authority or Person or by force of arms to resist any Magistrate or Officer legally Commissionated or Authorized by him yea Subjects are bound not only not to resist but to assist and defend their Sovereign with their Estates and Lives and the Preachers of the Gospel ought to teach the people obedience and loyalty and to indeavour to root out all Principles of Sedition Rebellion and Disobedience VVe believe that we are under no Bond or Obligation to act any thing contrary to these our avowed Principles And we further make known our detestation of all the indignity and violence offered to the person of our late Sovereign and especially that most horrid execrable fact of taking away his life as also the usurpations and violent change of the Government that did accompany the same against which crimes while they were carryed on the brethren of our perswasion openly protested even to the faces of the actors Touching Government and Obedience we know no controversie between us and the Conforming Clergy that is purely Moral or Theological Indeed there hath been political and law controversies respecting the different constitutions of States and Kingdoms Now some men to serve their own designs have made these to be taken for differences in Religion when as they are agitated among States-men and Lawyers without respect to any difference in Religion and with much variety and uncertainty of opinion And as for us we publiquely profess to ascribe as much to Princes and Sovereign powers as is ascribed to them by the ancient Christian Church in any general Councell or by any Protestant Church in any Synod or publike Confession thereof And in the political Questions about royal prerogatives and the priviledges of Parliaments and the peoples immunities we interpose not at all for they are out of our Sphere but in reference thereunto we acquiesce in the determinations of the laws of this Kingdom 15. VVe doubt not but this free and open dealing will be our defence against those licentious Tongues and Pens that have proclaimed the Religion of the Non-Conformists to be a Foolish Religion when indeed it is no other than the Religion professed by the Church of England and that our Principles of Government have a palpable inconsistence with the wellfare of Governours when we offer an appeal concerning it to the whole Christian Church both of the present and former ages As for our state of Nonconformity it is our grievance and distress and it is not in the power of our own wills to help us VVe affect not singularity disunity or dissent from others and so far as we are constrained to it we take it for our infelicity We grudg not at the liberty of others but are so far glad on the behalf of able and faithfull men as they are in a capacity of more publike service for God and his Church and though we are dissatisfied in the way wherein they have gained it yet we retain Charity and Peace towards them and are willing to concurr with them in the common interest of true Religion 16. They are much mistaken in our case who think it is the mere inexpedience of the things injoyned that we stick at VVe question the truth of some assertions and the lawfullness of some ordinances of worship and fear the dangerous tendency of some forms and rules of Ministration of which and of other matters in difference we are ready to render a particular account when authority shall require it VVe acknowledge that some parts of the matter of our dissent are comparatively small things and in no wise to be valued more than Unity and Peace VVe lay the main stress on the main truths and duties of Christianity and for these lesser things we would bear with others in the belief and practice of them but others will not bear with us in forbearing to own or use them while we think them erroneous and forbidden or at least do rationally doubt of their truth and lawfullness Now this presseth upon us that we may not do lesser evils that greater good may come and therefore we cannot do these comparatively little things For it is not a little thing to sin deliberately in the least matter and the willfull breach of the least of God's Commandments is a contempt of his authority in the whole Law And whereas we are commonly said to strain at Gnats and swallow Camels if we be indeed convicted of such partiality let us bear this brand of Hypocrites In the mean while let our accusers know and dread the guilt of rash judgment Moreover if some of the things themselves be small yet it is not a small thing that is required of us about them
enemies as they had been given out to be to Episcopacy or Liturgy but modestly to desire such alterations in either as without shaking Foundations might best allay the present distempers And he expressed himself in reference to those things wherein the learned men of either persuasion were agreed as followeth If upon these excellent foundations in submission to which there is such a harmony of affections any superstructure should be raised to the shaking of those Foundations and to the contracting or lessening of 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 And he saith farther That he doth not think his reverence to the Church of England as it is Established by Law in the least degree diminished by condescentions not peremptorily to insist on some particulars of ceremony which howsoever introduced by the piety and devotion and order of former times may not be so agreable to the present but may lessen that piety and devotion for the improvement whereof they might happily be introduced and consequently may well be dispensed with This gracious healing declaration was received with the thanks of the House of Commons and with the applause of the people and it was to our special joy Had the moderation therein specified stood in force we have no cause to doubt but that Tranquillity and Concord in the Church would have ensued But the frustration thereof lay not on our parts It is our comfort that we have earnestly sought Peace and Unity though we have not so far prevailed as to gain so much as the abatement of one Ceremony but our Bonds have been made stronger and the terms of our Ministerial liberty much harder to us than they were in the former times of Prelacy 22. Some indeed say that to indulge us any abatement of injunctions even in things indifferent and mutable would cherish us in our ungovernable perswasions and the Church would yield up her authority to those Principles that would be an everlasting hinderance of her settlement These men speak as if our exclusion not our conformity were desired But against their uncharitable and unsober assertion we offer our Principles already here testified to the tryal and judgment of all impartial and unprejudiced minds and challenge our adversaries to gain say them or to prove that we falsly pretend unto them 23. The extravagant Pens of some Writers have made ridiculous and odious descriptions of us to expose us to the common scorn and hatred They would make the World believe that instead of the Precepts of the Gospell intelligibly set forth we make a Religion of Metaphors and Allegories and new phrases of thin airy notions frivolous and senseless nicities and fanatick whimsies This they fix promiscuously upon the Non-Conformists from passages collected out of some Writers that go under that name But suppose those passages as erroneous and frivolous as they would make them would any party in the VVorld or they themselves be so dealt with Should a collection of errors absurdities incongruities injudicious expressions and such like weaknesses be pick'd here and there out of the writings of this and the other Conformists and then be Intituled the Religion of the Conforming Clergy Let the Divinity of the Non-Conformists that is extant defend it self we are not carefull about this matter Indeed we cannot boast that none among us are injudicious yea or that any one among us doth never write or speak an incongruous word If our adversaries so boast of themselves and theirs let them take the glory of it we are not called to this boasting or to compare our selves with others It is too well known how great a part of the Clergy throughout Christendom as indeed of all other sorts of men are defective and imprudent in their expressions But by insisting on this kind of exceptions our adversaries have done us this right as in effect to tell the VVorld that the Non-Conformists are not deprived and silenced for Treason Rebellion Drunkenness Swearing Incontinences Rayling Insufficiency Idleness seldom Preaching Pluralities Non-Residence and such like immoralities Let not the progress of our just and necessary defence be taken for self exalting For we do not exclude others but only include our selves in that sobriety from which some would exclude us and we do this to shew that others ought to receive us seeing we accord in the greater things notwithstanding our lesser differences 24. We earnestly disavow and teach the people to beware of the conduct of pretended inspirations and we own God's publick Laws written in Scripture and Nature for our perpetual Rule The World knows that the rational evidence of Christian Religion and of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures hath been as much owned among us and as largely asserted by some of ours as by any of them that so speak as if they were the only Propugnators and Preachers thereof We take the Spirit 's grand Testimony to the truth of the Gospel not to stand in some inward unaccountable suggestion and perswasion but in an objective evidence propounded to the reason of Mankind though we likewise hold the Spirits internal teaching and the gift of illumination to be necessary to saving Faith We do not hunt after mysteries in words and phrases yet we would not make void or lessen the great mystery of Godliness and make no more of it than a Scheme of Moral Philosophy We approve not affected Language yet we would not have the things of the Spirit of God spoken in Scripture Language called Canting We make it our business to understand the things we affirm and to speak sense to our Hearers in the plainest words and in preaching to avoid vain janglings and impertinent curiosities useless speculations novelties and vain ostentation of wit and fancy and to insist on things essential or of great importance to Christian Piety and whereinsoever we have done weakly we desire to do better and refuse not to learn even from our adversaries 25. In man's Conversion to God we urge not the necessity of any thing that is unnecessary We stand not on certain modes methods and circumstances in which it may be brought about wherein the wisdom of God proceeds variously towards several persons according to the different circumstances of their condition As for instance we assert not a general necessity of this or that measure of humiliation much less of a dismal despairing horror as some have said of us we press conviction and humiliation no farther than to make a sinner restless till he come to Christ and find rest to his Soul in him And we take not conversion to be as some have slandered us an imbracing of our opinions or an adhering to our party but an internal principle of Faith Hope and Love expressed in a sober righteous and godly life If this be it which some mean when they