as an Innovator and those that followed him And some think that every side had too much hand in it and were to be blamed The truth is 1. That more by far of the Nonconformists than of the late sort of the Prelatists were for the Parliament in those times 2. That some that were Sectaries and some that were hot for the Parliament did conform 3. That some few that had been in the King's Army or Cause and that were sufferers for him and were against the Covenant and the Parliaments War were Nonconformists 4. That many more of the old Episcopal Comformists than of the later sort of them were for the Parliament 5. That the Archbishop of York Williams who had some time been Lord Keeper was one of the Parliaments Commanders in North-Wales as it is reported without denial 6. That most Ministers are dead that were in that War 7. That the Westminster Assembly as is said came thither almost all Conformists 8. That so small is the number of the present silenced Ministers who had any hand in those Wars that if no other were ejected and silenced but they the case would be judged comparatively very easie and it would be thankfully accepted as hath oft been told For most were then youths at School and in the Universities and many lived in the King's quarters and garrisons and many other never medled with Wars at all it being now about thirty four or five years since the War began 9. That all the Wars that have been since their opposition to the Parliament and violence done to the person of the King were far from being owned by the common sort of the now Nonconformists as was said 10. The Doctrine of Bilson Hooker and such like containing such Principles as Parliament men then usually professed is before mentioned though not fully recited and is commonly known and that the main body of the Parliament Assembly Army Commanders Lord Lieutenants Mâ—jor Generals of Bragades and Sea-Captains were professed Conformists of the Church of England 11. Lastly We had hoped that His Mâ—jesties prudence had by the Act of Oblivion long since ended this part of the Contention but we find still some conformable Ministers whom in other respects we much esteem and love who as if Truth Charity Justice and Humanity had been forgotten by them affirm in print that All the Nonconformists were guilty of the King's Death passing over what is aforesaid of the Conformists and others of them crying out to Magistrates to execute the Laws on us by the urged Motive of their late sequestrations and sufferings as if they knew not or would not have others to know how few Nonconformists in Parliament or Militia there were at the beginning of the War in comparison of the Conformists and how much the second third and following Causes Parties and Tragedies in that War were disliked by the now Episcopal and Presbyterian Nonconformists 36. The people who now adhere to the Nonconformists who were at age before the Wars whom we that write this were acquainted with had very hard thoughts of the Bishops persons and some of Episcopacy it self because of the foresaid silencing of Ministers and ruining of honest men about Sunday-sports Reading that Book and other such things besides Nonconformity But when the Ministers that guided them began to seem more reconciled to the Episcopal Party and upon the reports and promises which they had heard had put them in hope that the next Bishops would prove more moderate peaceable and pious than the former and would by experience avoid divisions and persecution the said people began to be enclined to more reverent and favourable thoughts of Episcopacy and the Bishops and were upon experience of the late confusions in a far fairer way to union submission to them than before But when they saw their Teachers taken from them and some such set over them against their wills who were better known to them than to the obtruders and when they heard of about 2000 silenced at once this so much alienated them from the Bishops that it was never since in our power to bring them to so much esteem of them and reverence to them as might have been but multitudes by this were driven further from Conformity than the silenced Ministers 37. The 2000 silenced were not a quarter of the Ministers of England who were in possession before the return of the Bishops so that it is evident that above three fourth parts of the Ministers that kept in under the Parliament and Protector notwithstanding Covenant Directory and all did prove Conformists 38. The New-altered Liturgy was not printed and published till August 24. or near it when the Ministers were to be silenced that subscribed not and consented not so that we must needs suppose that they were but few Ministers in England in comparison of the rest who ever saw and read much less long considered that Book before they declared their Assent and Consent to all things in it Sure we are that we that lived in London who had it at the first publishing found the time past or so short to examine all things in it with due deliberation that had it been blameless we must have been silenced unless we had consented upon an implicit faith 39. Since we were silenced His Majesties Declaration for more Liberty in Religion came out 1673. but soon died And since then we have been called to many attempts for Unity in which we have twice come to an agreement with those honest peaceable pious and learned Divines of the Church of England who were appointed to treat of it with us But that signified nothing as to our healing while Reasons unknown to us or ineffable prevailed 40. Yet still we have been called on to Tell what we sâ—â—ck at and what we desired and what would satisfie us who desire nothing but leave to excercise the Ministry to which we were ordained and the Cant still goeth on among the ignorant at least as if we had never told them to this day or as if since the new conformity we had ever been called or had leave to tell them or as if the same men would endure us to tell them our case of dissent and the reasons of it to this day But the Judg is at the door SECT VIII The Matters of Fact as to what is required of us by Laws and Canon to which we must conform And first of Lay-men I. OF Laymen that will have any Government or Trust in any City or Corporation is necessarily required the taking of the following Oath and Declaration by a Law I Swear that it is not Lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King And that I Abhor that Trayterous position that Arms may be taken by His Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissioned by him And the Declaration is That there is NO OBLIGATION upon me or ANY OTHER person from the Oath Commonly called the solemn League and
a one doth not lie or dissemble 2. Whether a baptized person as such have no right to our special love which we owe to those that we hope are true Believers and sanctified but only to our common love and kindness which belongeth to those also that are the heirs of Hell Some friends that are gone from extream to extream and in remembrance of their ancient Schisms can look but one way with impartial sense and that have made their repentance the passage to a greater errour and sin should better bethink them them what they do They did well to stand still in the way of Schism when they saw here a leg and there a hand and there an arm in their way and who but a mad-man indeed would not But if they have impartially read Church-history and the works of such Fathers as give us historical notices and ever since Constantine made a Bishoprick a bait to a proud and worldly mind even such as Nazianzen Basil Chrysostom Isidore Pelusiota Hilary Pictav and the over-orthodox disputations of Cyril and the Epistles of Theodoret rejoycing at his death and abundance of such like had they seen in the way of Church-pride and tyranny not here a leg and there an arm but here a hundred carkasses and there a thousand here two thousand godly faithful Preachers silenced and many thousand dry Vines planted in their rooms and there whole Kingdoms interdicted and their Churches shut up here Churches and Kingdoms turned into confusions about a word or about the interest of Prolates striving which should be the Chief and have their will and rule the rest and there hundred thousands murdered in the name of Christ for obeying him and bloody wars managed by the Clergy against Christian Emperours and Kings stabbed one after another and most of the Christian world Roman Greek Moscovites Armenians Abassines degenerated into doleful ignorance and dead formality under the Government of great High-Priests and millions of the vulgar bred up in ignorance and senslesness of spiritual and eternal things this should stop them at least from serving the master of such designs as much as a leg or an arm in the way 3. At least we would intreat them to hate that mistake which will pretend to do all this for charity unity and the Churches good and to believe that it is no sign of charity 1. To believe that charity should not be exercised in judging that men professing saving faith do speak the truth and have the faith that they profess 2. Nor to teach all Christs Church that a baptized Church member as such is to be lookt on but as a man in a state of damnation and no man is bound to love him as a true Christian with a special love 3. And that to prove that a man is not to be taken for a true Christian but to be admitted into Church Communion as one that shall have a greater damnation than heathens without a further renovation is a great act of Charity Contrary to the uncharitable narrowness of others These are too great recesses from Anabaptistry but not from real Schism § 3. As for those that will not take the intelligent serious profession of true Faith and Covenant-Consent for a credible sign of the sincerity of the Professor till they can sufficiently disprove it but will be the arbitrary Judges of mens hearts either as pretended heart-searchers or by self-devised or uncertain signs not taking up with this Profession we are no Patrons of such mens presumption and uncharitableness § 4. There are various degrees of Credibility in mens professions some give us so much as is next to certainty some but small hopes But yet till we can disprove them we are to take their professions as credible in some degree And if they prove false it is they that will have the loss § 5. II. The second case about Church Covenants deserveth no longer a discussion He that will put any article unnecessary into any such Covenant sinfully corrupteth the order of the Church As if he would bind the people to be Church Governours or never to depart from that particular Church but by the consent of the Pastor or the flock or any such like And he mistaketh that will make a more explicite contract to be more necessary than it is But it seemeth strange to us that any understanding Christian should deny that consent is absolutely necessary to the being of an adult member both of the universal and each particular Church respectively What bindeth a man to consent is another question but if he be any member of the Church till he profess consent we know not what a Christian or Church member is An explicite covenant is necessary to our relation to the Universal Church for it must be solemnized sacramentally That we express it by writings or words is not of necessity to our membership of a particular Church But consent is necessary And mutual consent expressed satisfactorily is a contract or Covenant If the Pastor say all th◠at consent hold up your hand or stand up or stay here while the rest depart c. these are significations of consent And if it be notified that all that appear at the solemn Assemblies and attend the Pastors Ministry shall be taken for Consenters their presence and attendance is a profession of Consent indeed and so a covenanting But though the most explicit be not necessary ad esse no man can give a reason why it should not be best ad bene esse seeing the most intelligent and plain dealing in the great things of God are most suitable to the work and fittest to attain the end why should we not deal openly and above board § 6. It is certain that to be a Christian maketh no man a member of any mans particular flock or charge And it is certain that none can be such without consent And it is certain that the Pastor is not to take every Atheist Jew Infidel Papist Heretick c. in his Parish for a member of the Universal or of that particular Church Therefore he must know whom to take for such And it is certain that the consent must be mutual so far is the Pastor from being a slave and bound to every mans desires that he is entrusted with the Church Keys himself § 7. A worthy person on this subject maketh these six things sufficient to such Church relation 1. That they be baptized Christians 2. Neighbours bound to mutual love 3. And apt to Neighbourly duty 4. That providence make us such Neighbours 5. Scripture Churches took their name from cohabitation 6. The command of authority that so it shall be Fresh suit pag. 260. Ans By making these six the sufficient proof of Parish Churches our friend unhappily would consequently unchurch them all For if this were all certainly they were none at all For all these which he maketh more than they are are but the dispositio materiae antecedent to any reception of the form 1.
were cut out by the King's command and they spake freely by miracle after they were cut out as is testified by Aeneas Gaze◠and by Victor Uticensis who saw and spake with and heard the persons when this miracle was wrought upon them and by Procopius XXIV It will be objected that Constantius Valeus Gensericus Hunnericus c were Arrians and the later conquering Usurpers Answ 1. Even Heathen Emperours and Kings are our Governours though they want due aptitude to their duty as also do many wicked Christian Princes And we owe them obedience when their Laws or Mandates are not against the Laws of God We must not say as Bellarmine that Christians should not tolerate such Princes and that the ancient Christians suffered for want of Power to resist 2. Let the Emperours called Arrians be made no worse than they were Some were for Concord and Toleration of both Parties and so are more suspected than proved to be Arrians And Arrians themselves though unexcusably erroneous were not like the Socinians that utterly deny Christ's Deity They subscribed to all the Nicene Creed save the the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They would say that Christ was Light of Light very God of very God begotten not made c. They thought that as the Sun-beams or Light are its immediate emanation but not its substance as commonly Philosophers say they are not how true we say not so Christ was an immediate emanation from the Father before and above Angels by whom all things else were made And how dangerously Justin and most of the ancientest Doctors before the Nicene Council speak hereabout and how certainly Eusebius and other great Bishops were Arrians and how lamentably the Council at Ariminum endeavoured an uniting Reconciliation by laying by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And even old Osius by their cruelty yielded to them as Liberius subscribed to them we need not send any men to Philostorgius nor Sondius for proof it being so largely proved by D◠Petavius de Trinitate who fully citeth their dangerous words And if the heterodoxies of the Prince shall be made the reason of the Subjects disobeying him in a matter lawful in it self as some that we speak to now suppose we shall hardly know where to stop nor what bounds to set the Subjects when they are made Judges of the Princes Errours and what examination of cognisance of it they must have 3. Constantine that banished Athanasius who kept in while he could against the Emperours will is not proved an Arrian Nor Valentinian who commanded Ambrose not to cease Prenching himself nor to forsake his Church nor to subscribe to Arrianism but only to tolerate the Arrians to meet in one spare Church which was in Millan as an act of moderation But Ambrose resolutely disobeyed the Emperour we justifie not the manner because he thought that God's Law made it his office as Bishop so to do 4. And as to Gensericus and Hunnericus's Usurpation it was then ordinary with the Bishops even of Rome to submit to men that had no better title and alas how few of many of the old Roman Emperours had any better at least at first XXV We doubt not at all but that Kings are the Governours of Bishops and Churches by coercive power as truly as of Physicians or other Professions And though they have no Authority to abrogate or suspend the Laws of Christ yet they have a Power of Legislation under Christ as Corporations for By-laws have under them which power is only about those things which God hath left to their determination and not either above Christ against Christ or in coordination with Christ but only in such subordination to him and to his Laws XXVI How far Rulers have power or not to command things indifferent and how far things scandalous and evil by accident some of us have opened already distinctly and need not here repeat XXVII And we have there shewed that as they may regulate Physicians by General and Cautionary Laws but not overthrow their Calling on that pretence by prescribing to the Physician all the Medicines which he shall use to this or that Patient at this or that time c. so they may make such General and Cautionary Laws circa sacra 1. As shall drive Bishops and Pastors on to do their certain duties 2. And as shall duely restrain them from sin and doing hurt 3. And they may punish them by the sword or force for such crimes as deserve that punishment And a King of England may depose or put to death a traiterous Bishop Priest or Deacon as lawfully as Solomon deposed Abiathar XXVIII And as we have there said we suppose that there are some circumstances of the Ministers work which it belongeth to his own office to determine of and are a true part of his Ministerial works But there are others which it is meet should be universally determined of for the Concord of all the Churches in a Kingdom These the Pastors and Churches by consent may agree in without a Law it Kings leave it to them And Kings by the advise of such as best understand Church Cases may well by their own Laws make such determinations As for instance in what Scripture Translations what Versions and Metres of Psalms the Churches shall agree Much more may they determine of the Publick Maintenance of Ministers and the Temples and such other extrinsick accidents XXIX Princes and Rulers may forbid Atheists Infidels Hereticks and Malignant opposers of necessary truth and godlyness and all that preach rebellion and sedition that propagate such wicked Doctrine and may punish them if they do it And may hinder the incorrigible and all that provedly or notoriously are such whose Preaching will do more hurt to men than good from exercising the Ministry or Preaching in their jurisdiction or Dominions For such have not any power from Christ so to Preach but serve the Enemy of Christ and man XXX Princes and Rulers may for order sake distribute their Christian Kingdoms into Parishes which shall be the ordinary bounds of particular Churches And such distribution is very congruous to the Ends of the Ministry and Churches and conduceth to orderly settlement and peace And experience hath shewed us that such Parish Churches where the Pastors are faithfull and fit may live as Christians should do to their mutuall comfort in Piety Love and Peace And such Parish-order we desire XXXI But no Rulers may hence conclude 1. that Parishes are distributed by God immediately or that he hath commanded such a distribution as a thing of absolute necessity to a Church But the Generall Rules of order and Edification do ordinarily in Christian Kingdomes require it 2 Nor may any make a Parish as such to be a Church and all to be Church members that are in the Parish as such for Atheists Infidels Hereticks Impenitent Rebels may live in the Parish and many that consent not to be members of that or any Church And not
in the power of a Prince to cast out Christianity when he pleaseth and to deny God all Publick Worship and we must ask leave of Rulers that Christ may be Christ and souls may be saved as if the Keys of Heaven and Hell were theirs None that we write for Protestants or Papists will assert this But if All must not lay down their Ministry why must a thousand or two thousand do it rather than all the rest We suppose it will be said that if a thousand should refuse Conformity all might continue their forbidden Ministry but if two thousand only of ten thousand should deny Conformity these two thousand must lay down because the rest are a competent supply to the Churches Answ But these be but unproved words 1. How shall we be sure that other mens sinning will absolve the two thousand innocent from their duty If in the first Instant it be confessedly the equal duty of all how will the weakness and sin of one part change the obligation of all the rest 2. If the Churches be somehow supplied by mens sin will it follow that truth and righteousness in sounder blameless men will not mend their supply but must be cast out by others sin 3. And where can the wit of man ever set bounds to such power of sinners It will here be granted us that if the most in France conform to Popery it will not disoblige all others from the exercise of their Ministry And who then can say what those untruths and sins are which a weak and erring Ministry may be guilty of which shall serve to disoblige the rest No man here can set us any certain measure 4. Would it have an honest sound if it should be said to the people The greater part of the Ministers by sin yea gross deliberate sin unrepented of have procured the liberty of their Ministry and they are enow for you and therefore you must hear none of those that refused so to sin and are cast out e. g. suppose it were the subscribing of the Covenant against Pâ—elaey that were made the Condition of our Preaching here by Law Or subscribing to the Divine Right of unordained Elders and their power in Presbyterian-Classes If most of the Ministers take that Covenant doth that prove that all the rest if forbidden to Preach must be silent This were an easie way to introduce any Errour by forbidding any but the defenders of it to Preach If Julian might not thus have put down the Gospel nor Valens have put down the Homoousians as they called the Orthodox nor the Papists so put down the Protestants why may Calvinists or Lutherans so put down one another As if I were bound to be a Minister only till other men will sin Obj. But suppose that the sin be on the silenced Ministers part and the other be in the truth Ans 1. Then the silenced Ministers are not guiltless of the Schism 2. But if it be so if their errour be in a small and difficult matter not deserving silencing as theirs Rom. 15. about meats and daies c it may be far greater Schism in the silencers then in them Obj. But suppose it a doubtful case and one party take consenting to be a sin and the other part and the greater take it to be none If you may preach on because you think that you are in the right then no Heretick should be silenced Ans This was answered before 1. If men will still thus confound the scire and the esse or put the scire before the esse they may go on in errour and no reason can silence them The thing is realy first true or false before it is known or thought so to be If it be true then he that thinketh it false is the delinquent If it be a sin it is not mens taking it for no sin that will make it so nor disoblige the orthodox from their Ministry But if it be no sin that is Commanded the Nonconsenters are in the fault And if it be a Heresie which they stand for may be sâ—lenced And yet we will not deny but if the generality of the Ministry obtain their liberty by some small tollerable sin or errour and the sounder part be few and unnecessary in that Country â—rudence obligeth them to go to some other place that needeth them and never to excercise their Ministry where in true reason it is like to do more hurt than good LXIX 25. Where under any of the foresaid unjust prohibitions the silenced Ministers and people shall gather no distinct Churches but only Auditories or Chappels as parts of the Parish Churches and that only where there is through the bigness of the Parish or distance from the Parish Church or paucity or insufficiency or unfaithfulness of Parish Priests a true necessity not unchurching or separating from the Parish Church but owning it and holding Communion with it and promoting the reputation of the true Parish Minister and Communion and perswading others to the like we cannot see that this is any Schism but rather their practise who fire and divide mens minds by envious clamours against the innocent and proudly calling others Schismaticks LXX 26. We have greatly lamented the true Schismatical disposition of some religiously affected persons who make their singularities or little differences the occasions of unchristening unchurching or degrading those that are wiser than themselves and running away from one another on pretence of discipline and avoiding sin But yet we hold that gentle forbearing tolerable differences even in distinct Churches guilty of Schism so they be kept from unpeaceable reviling of others is a meeter way to avoid the mischiefs than with prison sword or fire to exasperate them It is noted that Nestorius the Heretick was the first sharp persecutor of the Novatians But most of the better Bishops tolerated them as did the Emperours And two prudent gentle Bishops of Constantinople Atticus and Proclus reduced the Joannites and lenified other divided Parties which the flercer men had made and kept up by their violence SECT VII Some Matters of Fact preparatory to the true Application of what is before laid down WE must crave that justice of the Reader as to note that hither to we have spoken but of the Doctrinal part about Schism not applying it to England or any others Nor shall we now any otherwise apply it than to lay down some little part of the Matters of Fact which the Nonconformists are considering to help others to apply it without mistake as they shall see cause We intend not in this the determination of the points in matter of right nor do we here tell men unless on the by in the stating of some few questions what it is that we account good or evil much less do we here give the proofs or reasons of our Cause That is the thing for which we greatly desire the allowance of our Superiours But must not unnecessarily presume to do it lest we displease them
many that dare not profess this undoubted certainty are not like to be more certain then they in this particular Article of faith 11. We take it for Arrogance and Fanaticism in the Pope and his Council to pretend Infallible certainty by a peculiar priviledge in those points in which they are unstudyed and unlearned as if they knew them by prophetical inspiration And when young unstudyed men have in this point attained to an undoubted certainty which their wiser seniors cannot attain it behoveth them to convince us of the truth of their Inspiration or special endowments either by a proportionable excellency above us in other things or by some Miracles or Testimonies from Heaven 12. There is no one Word of God cited in the Rubrick which tells us that It is certain by the Word of God 13. Among Christian Divines there are all these various opinions about the salvation of Infants 1. Some hold that the Covenant being to the faithful and their seed and their children being holy all the children of sincere Christians are certainly in a state of salvation being by the parents intentionally dedicated to God before or without Baptism And that Baptism is but their so lemn investiture in that state which was theirs by right before 2. Others think that this right to salvation belongeth to the Children of all professed Christians godly and ungodly 3 Others think that it belongeth to all Infants in the world 4. Others think that it belongeth only to sincere believers Children that are Baptized 5. Others that it belongeth to sound and unsound Christians baptized Infants 6. Others that it belongeth to all Baptized Infants whose soever 7. Others hold that it belongeth also to the Children of sincere Adopters or Proprieters 8. Others that it belongeth to such as even bad Christians adopt or own 9. Others that they that have sincere Godfathers though not Proprieters are saved 10. Others that even unfound or hypocritical Christian Godfathers may suffice to their salvation 11. Others that the Ministers or the Churches sincere or professed Faith is hereto sufficient 12. And others think that only the Elect are saved of whom some are baptized and some unbaptized but no man knoweth who they are Out of all these Opinions the Convocation hath chosen one as an Article of Faith of undoubted Certainty by the Word of God 13. The Nonconformists know of no Word of God which ascertaineth Salvation to any known determinate Infants but the great Covenant of Grace I will be thy God and the God of thy seed which seed God useth as if they were parts of the Parents Exod. 34. 6 7. and second Commandment And saith to Believers Else were your children unclean but now c. 14. Many Divines say that Faith it self hath not evidence though we think that it hath evidence of the Truth of the Revelation though the thing revealed be not visible or evident in it self And more confess that undoubted certainty is not Essential to the saving belief of Christ and of a life to come And that true Faith may be saving though weak And that Christ silenced not his Disciples when he reproved the weakness of their Faith And that to doubt of this Article about Infants is not so dangerous as to doubt of Christ or Heaven IX All Ministers must deny Baptism to those Infants that have no such Godfathers and Godmothers as aforesaid though their Parents be true Christians and offer them to Baptism For this is the only order or form of Baptizing there described all other is forbidden and we subscribe to use no other form in administration of the Sacraments 2. Yet some Conformists say that the Book bindeth them to do thus but not to omit it and baptize no otherwise But others of them say 1. That the Rubrick determineth that for every child to be baptized there shall be three as Godfathers and Godmothers and that the whole Office respecteth them as Parties and speaketh to them and admitteth no Parent to speak and that if Assenting to Approving and Consenting to this form and Rubrick and subscribing a Covenant to use no other form signifie not that we will use no other no words can bind such equivocators 3. In the sense of the Liturgy to put Infants from Baptism is to deny them Christendom membership of Christ to be children of God and to be heirs of Heaven For the Catechism saith that we are made such in Baptism which with the Rubrick which denyeth them Christian burial and that last mentioned which affirmeth the undoubted salvation of the baptized import a denying salvation to all that have not such Godfathers without Parents sponsion or at least a denying them certainty of undoubted salvation when it was in the power of the Convocation or Priest to have given them such certainty 4. The Conformists do not affirm that we know of that any word of God doth institute or command the use of such Godfathers or the foredescribed exclusion of the Parents much less both And least of all that it maketh these necessary to Christendom and Salvation yea or Church-reception But it is used as a Tradition or Law of men 5. The Nonconformists therefore dare neither Assent to Approve Consent to Covenant or Practice the resusal of the Children of true Christians from Baptism the Church and Salvation on such a cause as this 6. The Anabaptists hence are hardened and say that if Infants may be denied Baptism till they have such Godfathers as God never instituted they have no right to it at all and they may deny it them till we prove God's institution of Godfathers especially where their title is laid upon such Godfathers 7 Some say that It is not the Minister that refuseth them but the Church which maketh the Law But others say that it is both the Lawmakers and the Minister unless we could prove that Baptizing and judging whom to Baptize is none of the Ministers office no nor the Bishops but that the Priest is to baptize all and only such as the Law or Convocation bids him baptize as a meer executioner and the Bishop also such as he is appointed by the same Law That else the same Rule would hold for his Preaching Praying c. X. The like proofs which we need not repeat will shew that no Minister must baptize any person Infant or Adult without the transient Image of a Cross and that to this we must assent and consent and subscribe to baptize in no other form 2. And the same reasons aforegiven shew how great a penalty this is as excluding them from Christendom and Salvation in the Churches judgment or from certainty at least 3. Some Conformists say here also that they assent only to baptize with the Cross but not to baptize no otherwise But others of them reprove this exposition from the Rubrick and the aforecited Canonical Subscription as that which would leave the Priest at liberty to do almost what he list when the Church thinks that
to them for their lives and Crowns And that in a Preacher of the Gospel they are intollerable tending to tempt the hearers to believe nothing that we say IV. It is agreed that by assertion to absolve thousands of persons known or unknown and justifie them if they should prove guilty of such a crime and so to draw on our selves the guilt of many thousand perjuries would be a sin of as heinous a nature as most we can imagine V. It is agreed by Protestants that all Oaths Covenants and Laws must be understood according to the plain and usual sense of the words unless our Rulers otherwise expound them and tell us that they mean somewhat else VI. It is agreed that though Judges must determine of the sence of Laws so far as to decide the cases that are brought to them yet none can make an universal obligatory exposition of a Law to bind the subjects conscience in understanding it but the Sovereign and Lawgivers themselves Else a Judge might become a Legislator and frustrate the Kings Laws by his expositions If Judgements be the expositors and preservers of Common unwritten Laws which are Customs it is because it is the Law-makers or Sovereigns will that it shall be so VII It is agreed by all Protestants that stretching the words of Laws Oaths and Promises to meanings quite differing from the Common use of the words without the direction of the Law-makers to to do and taking such Oaths or Covenants with eqnivocations and mental reservations on pretence of Charitable interpretation for our own ends and interests is more suitable to Atheists than sincere Christians and would overthrow humane trust and the end of Laws and Princes safety as well as other sorts of perjury For instance if one take the subscribed Declarations that Its unlawful on any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King and so on and will thus equivocate as they say some do viz. It is unlawful that is against the Law of the Land but not against Gods Law To take Arms against the King that is as King but saith Suaâ—ez and such others when he is excommunicate by the Pope he is no King On any pretence that is say they unjust pretence by his authority against his person and Souldiers that is say the equivocaters Its well said that we may not do it by his Authority but we may do it by the Law of nature and so by Gods Authority whose Law that is against any Commissioned by him that is say they lawfully commissioned and we are judges when his Commissions are unlawful So We will not endeavour any alteration of Government in Church or State that is say they 1. Not of Monarchy or the King but we may yet disturb any of his Officers 2. Not of the Essentials of Episcopacy but we may seek to take down their wealth and Lordships and reduce them from Diocesans to Parochial or Corporation Bishops 3. Not by unlawful means but we take not that to be unlawful which they do What good will Oaths or Covenants taken with such Latitude or Equivocation do Do they secure any of the ends of Governments Rulers should abhor such Equivocations and stretching Latitudes as these VIII It is agreed on both sides that if we might go on this supposition that our Rulers can require nothing that is unjust or impious or against the Law or Common good or their own interest and therefore that no exposition is to be put on their Laws or Impositions which is of any such importance by this rule any oath or Covenant or promise in the world which Governours shall impose upon us may be taken For we must put a good sense upon them all And the sense is the Oath or Covenant IX It is commonly agreed that a man may not deliberately tell one lie to save his life or his Ministerial liberty And that if any one only of all the things imposed on us be a sin it is the duty of all the Ministers of England rather to suffer any thing or to dye than to Commit it And that if it be one mans duty to be silent in such a case it would be the duty of all the Ministers in the Land if the things be sin X. And all are agreed that to silence all the Ministers of the Nation is a thing that God hath not given any man authority to do because of the necessity of their Ministry and consequently not to silence any necessary Ministry at all XI It is agreed that Satan would fain corrupt States and Churches with the most heinous sins to expose them to Gods judgements and the enemies scorn And that common Perjury or Perfidiousness is one of those greatest sins And that as the Belief of the Truth is the beginning of Christianity so Satan is a Lyer and the father of Lies And he that thinketh that Satan is endeavouring to stigmatizâ— Persons Churches or Kingdomes with his brand of PER should the more carefully avoid the receiving of that mark XII It is agreed that God hath within these fourteen years excercised very grievous Chastisements on Cities and Corporations by such a Plague on London and many Corporations and such fires on London Southwark and many Corporations and such increase of Poverty though we have more liberty at Sea and Land for trade than almost any Nation neer us as that the like hath not been known in our forefathers daies And that if this should be the Voice of Christ as a reproof of our perfidiousness and perjuries saying except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish it would leave the impenitent without all just excuse XIII It is agreed by us all that God will not hold him guiltless who taketh his name in vain especially by perjury or false Vows or Covenants And that for Oaths broken the Land may mourn And that he is the grand enemy of Church or Kingdomes who would by such sin bring them under the judgments of God And as Achan bring in an accursed thing XIV None can deny that it is better to cherish honesty and conscience especially about Oaths and Covenants which secure Converse and the lives of Princes than to teach men to stretch Conscience in such matters and to make every seared Conscience capable of the holy Ministry preferment and honour and a fear of such sin to be the way to silence and ruine XV. we agree that when Jesuites and other Papists have contracted the shame of equivocation and perfidiousness Protestants should not partake with them and take the shame on their religion XVI It is agreed that when the Scots Covenant is so greatly decryed and the violation of the Oaths of Allegiance and other Oaths and Covenants was found necessary to the killing of the King and other late confusions and iniquities we should not after such warning either insnare men in unnecessary Oaths Covenants nor harden such men against Repentance by doing any such thing our selves much less by commanding it XVII
French Wars And yet we have instanced but in the best times of dominion in comparison of which Councils Prelates and later times have been a meer hurricane In a word they that think that the mischiefs of superiour seats are greater than the benefits do appeal to all Church history whether they have not been the true and principal causes of the distractions of the Christian world and of the long division of the East and West and of many civil and grievous wars § 40. And to the objections they say I. As to Appeals and Government of Inferiors 1. That the last appeals have ever been made to General Councils And how they went when ever the Prince did but countenance errour as in the daies of Constantius and Valens many great Councils that were for the Arrians and in Theodosius Juniors time for the Eutychians c. is too sad to think on And is it not far more dangerous for many hundred in a Council to bear down a whole Empire or Kingdom and raise persecution and there be no appeal from them than for a poor Priest to put a man from the Sacrament in his own Parish Church How many Councils have been against Images in Churches and how many for them condemning one anothers acts What good will appeals do to such 2. In doctrinal cases the consent of many tends to concord But in cases of personal practice are they fit judges to appeal to that dwell many hundred miles off and know none of the persons suppose a poor man in England is put from the Communion by a Parish-Priest yea perhaps an hundred or many hundred in some parishes because he findeth some to be utterly ignorant some to be drunkards fornicators heretical c. If these appeal but to a Diocesan which dwelleth 20. miles from some 40 or 60 or 100 miles from others the remedy is worse than the disease For if the Priest must travel so far and bring his witnesses and plead the cause with men that never saw the party before where neighbourhood giveth a surer knowledge than any such examination of strangers can do and a strange Chancelor or Diocesan knoweth not which witnesses are most credible and all this while his Pastoral Charge perhaps many thousand souls must be neglected while the Minister is prosecuting these appealing sinners will not the evil of this be greater than the benefit But how much more if every sinner must appeal to a Patriarch many hundred miles off A sober mind will be ashamed to think of the process of such a suit If you say that it is not in the case of such sinners as these whereof every Parish abounds that you would have appeals at least not to Patriarchs so far off I answer 1. Then answer your own objection What remedy shall they have if the Bishop wrong them 2. What is the case than that you suppose such supraordinations of power necessary for If you say If Ministers themselves should be excommunicate It is answered That none but Bishops or other superior powers pretend authoritatively as Rectors to excommunicate Pastors Therefore this is nothing to them that are against all such superiority of Pastors Where none such are none such can excommunicate or be injurious And if there must be a higher Bishop to deliver men from the injuries of a lower who should deliver us from him who may injure Kingdoms Obj. But it is supposed that Patriarchs are wiser and better men than Metropolitans and those than Bishops and those than Priests And that a meer Priest is not to be trusted with the power of the Keys Ans 1. The power of the Keys of his particular Church is essential to his Office 2. They that will make Priests of raw lads and naughty fellows and then plead that such must not be trusted with the Office which they themselves ordained them to do condemn themselves by such allegations 3. The old Church Government was for every particular Church no more numerous than our Parishes to have a Bishop and Presbyters And these were thought sufficient to judge who was fit for their own Communion 4. Hierom was but a Priest c. And Macedonius Nestorius Dioseorus Timothy Elurus Peter Moggus Gregory Alex. Lucius Al. Joh. Al. Theodosius Al. Eulalius Antioch Euphronius Ant. Placitus Ant. Stephanus Ant. Leontius Ant. Eudoxius Ant. Euzoius Ant. all Hereticks were all Patriarchs and to reckon the enormities of the Roman High Priests is a needless work Is it to be supposed then that these were better than Priests Doth Christ say that it is as hard for a rich man to enter into Heaven as for a Camel to go through a needles eye and shall we that are Christians say that it is to be supposed that the rich clergie are better men than the poor When Greg. Nazianz. Saith that such great places use to make Bishops worse than they were before All history tells us what striving there was for such places When Euschius refused Antioch two Priests were presently at Constantines elbow to beg that place and he was fain to mention them though they were not chosen What a stir did Maximus make at Constantinople Egypt and with the Emperour to have got Gregories place at Constantinople And so with others And is it not a fleshly proud and wordly mind which is the work of the Devil which is the importunate seeker And must we needs appeal to such 3. But to come neerer what need is there of any such appeal or such a Government if 1. A Bishop with-his Presbyters be over every particular Church associated for personal Communion in holy doctrine worship and Conversation 2. And if these Churches associate for meer concord and mutual help and not for Governing Bishops 3. And if the Magistrate govern them all as he doth Philosophers Physicians c. For 1. If a Bishop of a particular Church deny one the Sacrament or excommunicate him he doth it justly or unjustly If justly the person must submit If unjustly he may be received by a neighbour Bishop who is not bound to reject those whom upon trial he findeth to have been wrongfully excommunicated All neighbour Churches must refuse those that are by any one excommunicated justly but not all that are wrongfully cast out Some say that he that doth excommunicate doth cast a man out of the whole Church and therefore no one else may receive him But unexplained words must not serve to confound truth Souls and Congregations Every Minister is a Minister in the Universal Church as every Physician and Schoolmaster is in and to the Kingdom indefinitely not universally but his work and power are commensurate his power being only to and for his work Therefore the Bishop or Pastor of one particular Church or Parish is bound to confine his ordinary labour to them though occasionally he may help others And accordingly his power is to use the Keys ordinarily for his own Church only as to the direct effect though extraordinarily he
Perjury even already white to the Harvest God the most righteous judge should quickly put in the sickle utterly to cut down so perfidious and profane a nation We have long felt that our most merciful Father is angry and that the infinite patience of God is turned into fury being infinitely wronged and if I may so say overcome It is not easy to say for which sins this chiefly is when all sins are very great But verily he that will seriously think since God hath begun to scourge us by a neerer rod how we have not grieved for these grievous sins of swearing and perjury yea how greatly on one side is increased the unbridled and unpunished licence of swearing and blaspheming and on the other side the soul hypocrisie of forswearing on pretence of religion it can scarce be but that of Jeremy will come into his mind Because of Oaths the land mourneth These things being to neer Fathers and Brethren we that are here and all others that wish well to the publick peace of the Kingdom and Church and the private peace of their own hearts and consciences must be intreated that they first carefully beware of the name of God and the crime of violated fidelity and wholly avoid unnecessary Oaths and constantly refuse those that are unduely imposed or offered by others and fulfill those faithfully that are duly and rightly taken by our selves and then that as much as we are able we strenuously restrain the liberty of sinning in others and that we pray to our most Good and Great God continually that being taught by his scourge and admonished and humbled under his mighty hand we fly to his mercy acknowledge his justice implore his grace for the pardon of our sins the amendment of our lives and the safety of our souls by and for the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Spirit the Three one-Omnipotent God be Kingdom Power and Glory for ever Amen It 's like Dr. Sanderson had some special eye to the Scots Covenant but doubtless he made not any new or singular Doctrine for that end which will not hold true in all cases by him described Mr. Rich. Hollingworth in a late Plea for the Church of England vehemently urging the execution of the Laws against Nonconformists saith Page 71. 1. Thereby by Perjury the conscience of the Minister is debauched and he thereby made very unfit to give those instructions and wholsom counsel to the people that otherwise he might do For all wilful sins especially such a Notorious one as Perjury hardens a mans mind and divests him till repented of of all the necessary and useful influences and assistances of Gods good spirit and maketh him careless as of his own so of the souls of others And a man so easily ensnared by such a sin is easily induced by any temptation to a neglect of those duties which his Office calls for and a remiss performance of those Ordinances which were designed and commanded on purpose to reform and instruct the people And page 73. They must be accountable at the last day not only for their own sin but for that very sin of Perjury which the vicious Priest is guilty of For he that inviteth a man to a sin is reckoned as if he had committed the sin himself What then would become of me if I undertook to justifie the Perjury of multitudes yea if also I did by Press and Preaching earnestly press Magistrates to execute the Laws upon many hundreds of Christs Ministers because they dare not venture on that which they fear on such reasons as are here rendred to be a participation of many thousand Perjuries nor on the heinous sacriledge of deserting their sacred function and encouraging neer two thousand silenced Ministers to do the like by my example besides many other feared sins If I were the man that for this did plead and beg that they might be laid in Gaols with rogues and pay fourty pound a sermon and be banished five miles from all Corporations c. and all this as necessary to the Church and as for God fathering it all on him who is the God of Truth and Love and pretending that there is no need of their Ministry because that I and such as I do better perform all that office against ignorance ungodliness and popery without them c. How could I expect regard when I preached against the sins of others Or with what face could I do it When my sin shall be opened to me must I not with Origen after his fall instead of preaching shut the book and weep remembring Psal 50. 16 17. and the dreadful third Commandment and tremble when I thought of death and judgment For a Judas in Christs family sinneth at a dearer rate than strangers and will quickly find his gain too hot to hold and those that hired him to be woful Comforters who will turn him off with a see thou to that Obj. Fewer words might serve Ans Nondum satis dicitur dum non satis discitur Nec paucis dicendum est quod paucis non discendum est While I long wondered that I could not see what satisfied both all the Learned Convocation and the Parliament for the truth of the Rule in the Liturgy to find out Easter-day for ever which is contrary to our Almanacks and we must all be silenced and ruined for Preaching unless we profess that we Assent to it I met with no Conformist that gave me any other satisfaction than to refer me to Dr. Pells Book And meeting him happily I craved his information and the grave learned honest Doctor was so far from making me a Conformist that he professed the passage now is indefensible I was lately assaulted with this as the strongest Argument for Conformity Deliberate lying is no sin but a duty when it doth no harm but a necessary good As by a Physician to save his patient or to save a mans life much more to save souls by preaching Ans This case requireth a longer answer than I have here room for Briefly 1. God best knoweth who is wisest and meetest to Govern the world for the good of all and he forbids it 2. This principle believed would make all men untrusty to each other while every man would think he had reason to lie when his interest required it and untrustiness overthroweth all humane polities societies and converse and so would do a thousand fold more harm to Kings Subjects and all than the saving of a mans life would compensate 3. It s hypocrisie to sin my self that I may preach against sin in others 4. The Church of God is against this doctrine fathers And the best casuists have copiously confuted it though some Jesuites are more lax and use to serve their interest by it 5. At least me thinks that where Jesnites lying is cryed down men should not judge my fearing a lie a crime that rendreth me intolerable in the Ministry and my
Counties the Noblemen Knights and Gentlemen that had still adhered to the King profest and published their peaceable desires of Concord and resolution against revenge And Letters were written from France to divers here to take off all the unjust suspicions that some had raised about the Kings Religion all which promoted the Concord that accomplished the Change 27. Those that saw the marvelous success of this reconciliation and concord and knew that the Clergies distance was most likely if any thing to hinder the happy perfection and settlement of a full desired peace did presently attempt an agreement among them And upon the motion of some of the since silenced Ministers the Earl of Manchester and the Earl of Orery mentioning it to the King they told us that it was well pleasing to His Majesty Whereupon His Majesty vouchsafing them audience and great encouragement several persons on each side were appointed to treat of the necessary terms of setled Concord and to yield to each other as far as they could and offer their mutual concessions What was done in this is not now to be mentioned save that part of it was published by some body which declareth it and the first part being about Church Government and worship issued in the publication of His Majesties Gracious Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs by which all our breaches seemed at the present to be almost healed and the House of Commons gave His MAJESTY Publick thanks 28 At this time the Lord Chancellor as a token of His Majesties Gracious favour and acceptance offered Bishopricks to three that then treated for Reconciliation and Deanries to two or three of them Of the three first one did the next day save one refuse it but in a letter to him professing his gratitude and that he was so rejoiced in His Majesties Gracious Declaration that if it might but be setled by Law he resolved to use his utmost endeavours to perswade all men to conformity on those terms and therefore would not disable himself thereto by taking a Bishoprick and making men think that it was not for just concord but his own interest that he wrote or pleaded Another of them soon accepted The third and the two or three that had Deanries offered them only suspended till they saw whether His Majesties Declaration would live or dye 29. what was done in the next attempt upon His Majesties Commission to agree on such alterations of the Liturgie as were necessary to tender Consciences c. we are to make no further mention of then is made by the writings given in which some body shortly after in part and with many false printings published An Addition to the Liturgie A Reply to some former Papers of the Bishops and an Earnest Petition to them for the Churches Peace which were given in and never answered by them that we know of some one printed And being in writing required by a Right reverend Bishop then in the Chair as from superiours to lay by meer Inconveniences and to give in those points which we took to be flat sin we gave in eight particulars the next day as part and by that time but one of our arguments about one of them was half handled and the rest of the arguments untouched and the rest of the Controverted instances not medled with our Commission was expired And the Bishops argumentation as Opponents afterward on another occasion printed 30. Shortly after the convocation of the Clergie setled the Liturgie as now it is setled The Kings Declaration dyed The Parliament made the Act of Vniformity by which many Ministers for not conforming to that Law were on August 24. 1662 ejected and silenced on severe penalties About Eighteen hundred of their names from several Counties were shewed Mr. Calamy and others and some say about 200 were omitted and that they were in all above 2000. 31. They that had treated for Reconciliation foresaw what sad divisions were like to follow if we were not healed and united and therefore in their Petition made a solemn Protestation that nothing but the fear of sin and Gods displeasure should hinder them from Conformity deprecating the woful effects of the division which could not possibly be otherwise avoided than by some necessary abatements of the Impositions and fore telling much that hath since come to pass which common understanding might easily see in the Causes 32. The persons that were silenced were not of one mind and measure about all the things imposed on them 1. Some of them were Episcopal and for as much as Richard Hooker writeth for and were against the Covenant and never took it and the Parliaments War and were for the Liturgie and Ceremonies and had Conformed had these been all that had been imposed who yet were cast out of Fellowships and Ministry Yea some had suffered for the King and been ruined in their patrimony some imprisoned for him and some had been in arms for him 2. Besides these and other Episcopal Nonconformists some and very many and we think the greatest part of any one were such disengaged pacificators as we before mentioned about associations 3. Some were for the Presbyterian Government and 4. Some for that called Independent which were comparatively but few Also some were as heretofore Dr. John Reynolds Dr. Humpbrey Mr. Perkins Mr. Paul Bayn c. for some part of Conformity Kneeling and Litâ—rgie and some for the Surplice against other parts Many would have come in to all the old Conformity had it not been for that one sentence in the Canon-subscription Nothing Contrary to the word of God which kept out Mr. Chilâ—ingworth himself as is reported till some dispensation let him in But the New Conformity was such as satisfied them all against it Many purposed to have yielded to Prelacy Liturgie and Ceremonies and gone to the utmost that Conscience would tolerate rather than lay by their Ministry But when they saw the new Act for Uniformity their deliberations were at an end 33. Their interest honour or somewhat else led many persons of those times when they had made the name of Presbyterians odious to call all the Nonconformists that were Episcopal or neutral by the name of Presbyterians even those that had declared themselves against the Presbyterian frame so they were not Independents And they continue that practice to serve their ends to this day 34. The elder sort of the Nonconformists were ordained by Diocesan Bishops The younger sort were ordained by Assemblies of the Parish Pastors of Cities and Countries no other ordination being then allowed by those in Power 35. As to the late Civil Wars which some most lowdly charge on the Nonconformists this is the truth that the several parties charge the beginning of that war on one another One party saith that the Presbyterians begun it in England Another party lay it on the old Church of England men that followed Archbishop Abbot and such like Both these accused Parties laid the beginning on Archbishop Laud