Bishop Usher had before occasionally spoken of him in my hearing as a Socinian which caused me to hear him with suspicion but I heard none suspect him of Popery though I found that it was that which was the end of his Design This Jugler hath this Twenty years and more gone up and down thus secretly and also thrust himself into places of Publick Debate as when the Bishops and Divines disputed before the King at the Isle of Wight c. And when we were lately offering our Proposals for Concord to the King he thrust in among us till I was sain plainly to detect him before some of the Lords which enraged him and he denied the words which in secret he had spoken to me And many Men of Parts and Learning are perverted by him § 61. In this time of my abode at the Lord Broghill's fell out all the Acquaintance I had with the most Reverend Learned Humble and Pious Primate of Ireland Archbishop Usher then living at the Earl of Peterborough's House in Martin's-Lane Sometimes he came to me and oft I went to him And Dr. Kendal who had wrote pettishly against me about Universal Redemption and the Specification of Saving Grace desired me when I had answered one of his Invectives and had written part of the Answer to the other to meet him at Bishop Usher's Lodgings and refer the matter to him for our Reconciliation and future Silence which I willingly did and when the Bishop had declared his Judgment for that Doctrine of Universal Redemption which I afferted and gloried that he was the Man that brought Bishop Davenant and Dr. Preston to it he perswaded us who were both willing to Silence for the time to come § 62. In this time I opened to Bishop Usher the motions of Concord which I had made with the Episcopal Divines and desired his Judgment of my Terms which were these 1. That every Pastor be the Governour as well as the Teacher of his Flock 2. In those Parishes that have more Presbyters than one that one be the stated President 3. That in every Market Town or some such meet Divisions there be frequent Assemblies of Parochial Pastors associated for Concord and mutual Assistance in their Work and that in these Meetings one be a stated not a temporary President 4. That in every Country or Diocess there be every year or half year or quarter an Assembly of all the Ministers of the County or Diocess and that they also have their fixed President and that in Ordination nothing be done without the President nor in matters of common or publick concernment 5. That the coercive Power or Sword be medled with by none but Magistrates To this Sense were my Proposals which he told me might suffice for Peace and Unity among moderate Men But when he had offered the like to the King intemperate Men were displeased with him and they were then rejected but afterward would have been accepted And such Success I was like to have I had heard of his Predictions that Popery would be restored again in England for a short time and then fall for ever And asking him of it he pretended to me no prophetical Revelation for it to himself but only his Judgment of the Sense of the Apocalyps § 63. I asked him also his Judgment about the validity of Presbyters Ordination which he asserted and told me that the King asked him at the Isle of Wight whereever he found in Antiquity that Presbyters alone ordained any and that he answered I can shew your Majesty more even where Presbyters alone successively ordained Bishops and instanced in Hierom's Words Epist. ad Evagrium of the Presbyters of Alexandria chusing and making their own Bishops from the Days of Mark till Heraclus and Dionysius I asked him also whether the Paper be his that is called A Reduction of Episcopacy to the Form of Synodical Government which he owned and Dr. Bernard after witnessed to be his § 64. And of his own Accord he told me considently That Synods are not properly for Government but for Agreement among the Pastors and a Synod of Bishops are not the Governors of any one Bishop there present Though no doubt but every Pastor out of the Synod being a Ruler of his Flock a Synod of such Pastors may there exercise Acts of Government over their Flocks though they be but Acts of Agreement or Contract for Concord one towards another Quere If the whole Synod have no governing Power over its Members hath the President of that Synod any qua talis § 65. When Oliver Cromwel was dead and his Son almost as soon pull'd down as set up or upon their Tumults voluntarily resigned their Places the Anabaptists grew insolent in England and Ireland and joining with their Brethren in the Army were every where put in Power and those of them that before lived in some seeming Friendliness near me at Bewdley began now to shew that they remembred all their former Provocations by my publick Disputation with Mr. Tombes and writing against them and hindring their increase in those parts And though they were not much above twenty Men and Women near us they talk'd as it they had been Lords of the World And when Sir Henry Vine was in Power and forming his Draught of a not Free but Fanatick Common-wealth and Sir George Booth's Rising was near and the look't for Opposition they laid wait upon the Road for my Letters and intercepting one written to Major Beake of Coventrâ they sent it up to Sir Henry Vane to London who found it so warily written thought himself was mentioned in it that he could have nothing against it yet sent he for Major Beake to London and put him to answer it at the Committee where by examination they sought to have made something of it but after many Threatnings they dismissed him This was the Anabaptists Fidelity § 66. The People then were so apprehensive of approaching Misery and Consusion while the Fanaticks were Lords and Vane ruled in the State and Lambert in the Army and Fifth Monarchy Men as they called the Millenaries and Seekers and Anabaptists were their chief Strength that the King 's old Party called then the Cavaliers and the Parliaments Party called the Presbyterians did secretly combine in many parts of the Land to rise all at once and suppress these insolent Usurpers and bring in the King Sir Ralph Clare of Kiderminister acquainted me with the intended Rising the Issue of which was that the Cavaliers failing except a few at Salisbury who were suddenly disperst or taken Sir George Booth and Sir Tho. Middleton two old Commanders for the Parliament drew together an Army of about 5000 Men and took Chester and there being no other to divert him Lambert came against them and some Independants and Anabaptists of the Country joining with him his old Souldiers quickly routed them all and Sir George Booth was afterwards taken and imprisoned I told Sir R. Clare that if the
his Conscience to baptize any Child who is not thus offered to God by one of the Parents or by such a pro parent as taketh the Child for his own and undertaketh the Christian Education Be it also Enacted that no person shall be constrained against his Conscience to the use of the Cross in Baptism or of the Surplice nor any Minister to deny the Lord's Supper to any for not receiving it kneeling nor read any of the Apocrypha for Lessons nor to punish any Excommunication or Absolution against his Conscience but the Bishop or Chancellour who decreeth it shall cause such to publish it as are not dissatisfyed so to do or shall only affix it on the Church-Door Nor shall any Minister be constrained at Burial to speak only words importing the salvation of any person who within a year received not the Sacrament of Communion or was suspended from it according to the Rubrick or Canon and satisfyed not the Minister of his serious Repentance III. And whereas many persons having been ordained as Presbyters by Parochial Pastors in the times of Usurpation and Distraction hath occasioned many Difficulties for the present remedy hereof be it Enacted That all such persons as before this time have been ordained as Presbyters by Parochial Pastors only and are qualifyed for that Office as the Law requireth shall receive power to exercise it from a Bishop by a written Instrument which every Bishop in his Diocess is hereby impowered and required to Grant in these words and no other To A. B. of C. in the Country of D. Take thou Authority to exercise the Office of a Presbyter in any place and Congregation in the King's Dominions whereto thou shall be lawfully called And this practice sufficing for present Concord no one shall be put to declare his Judgment whether This or That which he before received shall be taken for his Ordination nor shall be urged to speak any words of such signification but each party shall be left to Judge as they see cause IV. And whereas the piety of Families and Godly Converse of Neighbours is a great means of preserving Religion and Sobriety in the World and lest the Act for suppressing seditious Conventicles should be mis-interpreted as injurious thereto be it declared that it is none of the meaning of the said Act to forbid any such Family Piety or Converse tho more then four Neighbours should be peaceably present at the Reading of the Scriptures or a Licensed Book the singing of a Psalm repeating of the publick Sermons or any such Exercise which neither the Laws nor Canons do forbid they being performed by such as joyn with the allowed Church-Assemblies and refuse not the Inspection of the Ministers of the Parish Especially where persons that cannot read are unable to do such things at home as by Can. 13. is enjoyned V. And whereas the form of the Oath and Declaration imposed on persons of Office and Trust in Corporations is unsatisfactory to many that are Loyal and peaceable that our Concord may extend to Corporations as well as Churches Be it Enacted That the taking of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Declaration against Religion and Disloyalty here before prescribed shall to all Ends and purposes suffice instead of the said Oath and Declaration VI. And whereas there are many peaceable Subjects who hold all the Essentials of the Christian Faith but conform not to so much as is required to the Established Ministry and Church-Communion Be it Enacted that All and only they who shall publickly take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy before some Court of âustice or at the Open Sessions of the County where they live and that then and there Subscribe as followeth I. A. B. do unfeâgnedly stand to my Baptismal Covenant and do believe all the Articles of the Creeds called the Apostles the Nicene and Constantinopolitane and the truth of the holy Canonical Scriptures and do renounce all that ãâã contrary hereto shall be so far tolerated in the Excercise of their Religion as His Majesty with the advice of his Parliament or Council shall from time to time find consistent with the peace and safety of his Kingdoms VII And lest this Act for Concord should occasion Discord by emboldening unpeaceable and unruly or heretical men be it enacted that if any either in the allowed or the Tolerated Assemblies that shall pray or Preach Rebellion Sedition or against the Government or Liturgy of the Church or shall break the Peace by tumults or otherwise or stir up unchristian hatred and strife or shall preach against or otherwise oppose the Christan verities or any Article of the sacred Doctrine which they subscribe or any of the 39. Articles of Religion they shall be punished as by the Laws against such Offences is already provided I will here also Annex the Copies of some Petitions which I was put to draw up which never were presented I. The first was intended while the Parliament was sitting to have been offered but wise Parliament-Men thought it was better forbear it II. The second was thought fit for some Citizens to have offered but by the same Councel it was forborn III. The third was thus occasioned Sir Iohn Babor told Dr. Manton that the Scots being then suspected of some insurrection it was expected that we renewed the profession of our Loyalty to free us from all suspicion of Conspiracy with them We said that it seemed hard to us that we should fall under suspicion and no cause alledged We knew of no occasion that we had given But we were ready to profess our continued Loyalty but desired that we might with it open our just resentment of our Case They put me to draw it up but when it was read it was laid by none daring to plead our Cause so freely and signify any sense of our hard usage I. May it Please Your Majesty with the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament WHen the Common profession of resolved moderation had abated Men's fears of a Silencing Prelacy and the published Declarations of Nobilitie and Gentry against all dividing violence and revenge had helpt to unite the endeavours of Your Subjects which prospered for Your Majestie 's desired Restoration when God's wonderful providence had dissolved the Military Powers of Usurpers which hindered it and when Your welcome appearance Your Act of Oblivion Your Gracious Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs for which the House of Commons solemnly gave you thanks did seem to have done much to the Cure of our Divisions we had some hopes that our common revived Love and Concord would have tended to Your Majesty's and our common joy in the harmony strength and prosperity of Your Kingdoms and that we might among your inferiour Subjects have enjoyed our part in the common tranquility But the year 1662. dissolved those hopes fixing our old Difficulties and adding more which since then also have been much increased Beeing consecrated and vowed to the sacred Ministry we
4. Most Presbyters that I know do perform all Ecclesiastical Matters upon supposition of a Divine Direction and not upon the Command of Humane Powers Ad 9m. The Ordination of meer Presbyters is not null and the Presbyters so ordained now in England are true Presbyters as I am ready to maintain But wait for the Accuser's proof of the nullity Ad 10m. 1. This calls me to decide the Controversie about the late Wars which I find not either necessary or convenient for me to undertake 2. The like I must say of deciding the Legality of Inductions and Admissions 3. If a worthy Man be cast out had you rather that God's Worship were neglected and the People perished for lack of Teaching then any other Man should be set over them though one that had no hand in casting him out Must the People needs have him or none as long as he lives Was it so when Bishops were cast out heretofore by Emperours or Councils I think may take the Guidance of a destitute People so I hinder not a worthy Man from recovering his Right 4. I never desired that any should be Excluded but the Unworthy the Insufficient or Scandalous or grosly Negligent And I know but too few of the Ejected that are not such And this Question doth modestly pass over their Case or else I should have said somewhat more to the Matter Ad 11m. 1. It is a necessary Christian Duty to see that we do not the least Evil for our own safety And all God's Ordinances must be maintained as far as we can But as I before disclaimed the Arrogance of determining the Controversie about our Diocesan Episcopacy so I think not every Legal Right of the Church which it hath by Man's Law nor every thing in our Liturgy to be worthy so stiff a maintenance as to the loss of Life nor the loss of Peace Nor did the late King think so who would have let go so much But I think that they that did this carnally for Self-interest and Ends did grievously sin whether the thing it self were good or bad especially if they went against their Consciences 2. I think there is no unlawful Prayers or Service now offered to God in the Church ordinarily where I have had opportunity to know it And I think we pray for the same things in the main as we were wont to do and offer God the same Service And that Mr. Ball and others against the Separatists have sufficiently proved that it is no part of the Worship but an Accident of it-self indifferent that I use These Words or Those a Book or no Book a Form premeditated or not And no Separatist hath yet well answered them Ad 12m. Such as you described you can hardly know and therefore not knowingly scruple their Communion for a Man's ends and knowledge are out of your sight You can hardly tell who did this against Knowledge and Conscience carnally for Self interest But if you mean it of your ordinary Ministers and Congregations I am past doubt that you are Schismatical if not worse you avoid the Assemblies and Ordinances mentioned upon such Accusations and Suppositions And I shall much easier prove this than you will make good your Separation Ad 13m. Permitting you to suppose Orthodox and Episcoparian to be the same at present you may easily know that the Episcopal are not all of a Mind but differ I think much more among themselves than the moderate Episcopal and Presbyterians differ some maintaining that the Ordination of meer Presbyters is not null with divers the like things which the novel sort doth disclaim The old Episcopal Protestant may not only take a Cure of Souls now without any Contradiction to his Principles but may comfortably Associate with the peaceable Ministry of the Land and may not conscionably avoid it The Novel sort before mentioned ought to rectifie their mistakes and so to take up their duty but as they are I see not how they can do it in consistency with their Principles unless under the Jurisdiction of a Bishop Ad 14m. For the Point of the legality of the Liturgy you call me to determine Cases in Law which I find my self unfit for And for the Directory its Nature is according to its Name not to impose Words or Matter nor bind by human Authority but to direct Men how to understand God's Word concerning the Ordering of his Worship Now either it directeth us right or wrong If wrong we must not follow such Directions If right it 's no unlawful disturbance of the Churches Peace to obey God's Word upon their Direction Circumstances wherein some place most of their Government they very little meddle with And indeed I know but few that do much in the order of Worship eo Nomine because it is so in the Directory but because they think it most agreeable to God's Word or most tending to Concord as things now stand Would you have us avoid any Scripture or orderly Course meerly because it is expressed in the Directory And think you those are Ways of Peace Ad 15m. I think on the Credit of others that the Jewish Church had a Liturgy I am sure they had Forms of Praises and Prayer in some Cases I know Christ taught his Disciples the Lord's Prayer I will not determine whether as a Directory for Matter and Order or whether as a Form of Words to be used or when or how oft used I conjecture you regard the Judgment of Grotius who saith in Matt. 6. 9. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In hunc Sensum Non enim praecipit Christus verba recitari quod nec legimus Apostolos fecisse quanquam id quoque fieri cum fructu potest sed materiam precum hinc promere i.e. Pray thus that is to this Sense For Christ doth not command the saying of the Words nor do we read that the Apostles did it though that also may profitably be done but hence to fetch the Matter of Prayer You know the Directory adviseth the use of the Words And how it was that Iohn taught his Disciples to pray I cannot tell nor will herein pretend my self wiser than I am The Example of the Primitive Church is never the more imitable for the Cessation of Persecution and its Example before is most to be regarded that being purest that is next the Fountain We are sure that the Church long used extemporate Prayers and its probable betimes some Forms withal I think they are strangely Dark and addicted to Extreams that think either that no Forms are lawful or that only prescribed or premiditated Forms are lawful And if you will condemn all publick extemporate Prayers you will err as grosly as they that will have no other Ad 16m. I know no necessity of any Godfather or Godmother beside the Parents unless you will call those so that in case of their necessary Absence are their Delegates Nor do I know that ordinarily among us any Dictates or Prayers are used that
the Minister of that Place Who 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 Consideration of the Rubrick before the Catechism and that all possible Diligence be used for the Instruction and Reformation of scandalous Offenders whom the Ministers shall not suffer to partake of the Lord's Table until they have openly declared themselves to have truly repented and amended their former naughty Lives as is partly expressed in the Rubrick and more fully in the Canons Provided there be place for due Appeals to superior Powers 6. No Bishops c. 7. We are very glad to find that all with whom we have conferred do in their Judgments approve a Liturgy or a set Form of publick Worship to be lawful which in our Judgments for the Preservation of Unity and Uniformity we conceive to be very necessary And although 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 that we have seen and we believe that we have seen all that are extant and used in this part of the World and we 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 against several things therein We will appoint an equal Number of learned Divines of both Persuasions to review the same and to make such Alterations as shall be thought most necessary and some additional Forms in Scripture Phrase as near as may be suited unto the Nature of the several Ordinances and that it be left to the Minister's choice to use one or the other at his Discretion In the mean time and till this be done although 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 Yet in compassion to divers of our good Subjects who scruple the use of it as now it is our Will and Pleasure is that none be punished or troubled for not using it until it be reviewed and effectually reformed as aforesaid In the Preface concerning Ceremonies we desire that at least these Words be left out Not that themselves do in their Iudgments believe the Practice of these particular Ceremonies which they except against to be in it self unlawful As concerning Ceremonies our Will and Pleasure is 1. That none shall be required to kneel in the act of receiving the Lord's Supper but left at Liberty therein 2. That the religious Observation of Holyâdays of human Institution be left indifferent and that none be troubled for not observing of them 3. That no Man shall be compell'd to use the Cross in Baptism or suffer for not using it 4. That no Man shall be compelled to bow at the Name of Jesus 5. For the use of the Surplice we are contented that all Men be left to their Liberty to do as they shall think fit without suffering in the least Degree for wearing or not wearing it And because some Men otherwise pious and learned say they cannot conform unto the Subscription required by the Canons nor take the Oath of Canonical Obedience we are content and it is our Will and Pleasure so they take the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy that they shall receive Ordination Institution and Induction and shall be permitted to exercise their Function and to enjoy the Profits of their Livings without the said Subscription or Oath of Canonical Obedience And moreover that no Persons in the Universities shall for the want of such Subscription be hindred in taking their Degrees Lastly That such as have been ordained by Presbyters be not required to renounce their Ordination or to be re-ordained or denied Institution and Induction for want of Ordination by Bishops And moreover that none be judged to forfeit their Presentation or Benefice or be deprived of it for not reading of those of the 39 Articles that contain the controverted Points of Church-Government and Ceremonies § 108. After all this a Day was appointed for his Majesty to peruse the Declaration as it was drawn up by the Lord Chancellor and to allow what he liked and alter the rest upon the hearing of what both sides should say Accordingly he came to the Lord Chancellor's House and with him the Duke of Albermarle and Duke of Ormond as I remember the Earl of Manchester the Earl of Anglesey the Lord Hollis c. and Dr. Sheldon then Bishop of London Dr. Morley then Bishop of Worcester Dr. Hinchman then Bishop of Salisbury Dr. Cosins Bishop of Durham Dr. Gauden after bishop of Exeter and Worcester Dr. Barwick after Dean of Paule Dr. Hacket Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield with divers others among whom Dr. Gunning was most notable On the other part stood Dr. Reignolds Mr. Calamy Mr. Ash Dr. Wallis Dr. Manton Dr. Spurstow my self and who else I remember not The Business of the Day was not to dispute but as the Lord Chancellor read over Declaration each Party was to speak to what they disliked and the King to determine how it should be as liked himself While the Lord Chancellor read over the Preface there was no Interruption only he thought it best himself to blot out those Words about the Declaration in Scotland for the Covenant That we did from the Moment it passed our Hand ask God Forgiveness for our Part in it The great matter which we stopt at was the Word Consent where the Bishop is to confirm by the Consent of the Pastor of that Church and the King would by no means pass the Word Consent either there or in the Point of Ordination or Censures because it gave the Ministers a negative Voice We urged him hard with a Passage in his Father's Book of Meditations where he expresly granteth this Consent of the Presbyters but it would not prevail The most that I insisted on was from the end of our Endeavours that we came not hither for a Personal Agreement only with our Brethren of the other way but to procure such gracious Concessions from his Majesty as would unite all the soberest People of the Land And we knew that on lower Terms it would not be done Though Consent be but a little Word it was necessary to a very desirable end if it were purposed that the Parties and Divisions should rather continue unhealed then we had no more to say there being no Remedy But we were sure that Union would not be attained if no Consent were allowed Ministers in any part of the Government of their Flocks and so they should be only Teachers without any Participation and
them when I have heard them plead for moderate Episcopacy and Liturgy my self and they would have drawn us to yield further than we did § 113. And if ever any hereafter shall say That at King Charles the Second's Restoration the Presbyterian Cause was pleaded and that they yielded to all that was in the King's Declaration I leave it here on Record to the Notice of Posterity that to the best of my knowledge the Presbyterian Cause was never spoken for nor were they ever heard to petition for it all for the rest of the Ministers who came not to us sate still and said nothing and for my self I ever professed my Judgment to be so far for Episcopacy Liturgy c. as I have expressed in my fifth Disputation for Church-Government and I drew on this Treaty not as a Presbyterian but as a Reconciler and for Mr. Calamy he pleaded for no more than I did whatever his Judgment was only at the Meeting before the King he pleaded well that the words Bishops and Presbyters are in Scripture of the same signification and that they differ but gradu not ordine which abundance of Episcopal Men also hold as did Bishop Usher and even many Schoolmen and other Papists And as for Dr. Reignolds he was always of Mr. Stillingfleet's mind as I have heard him profess That no Form of Church-Government is determined of in the Word of God but it is variable as occasion requireth And as for Mr. Ash though he was a Presbyterian yet that good Man being all for Holiness and Heaven and Peace and being no Disputer he went along with us and spake for no more than we did Never did we write or speak a word that I knew of who was always with them for Ruling Elders nor for the Government of Synods or Presbyteries without Bishops or stated Presidents nor against Liturgy in general nor against Holydays in general nor against Kneeling at the Sacrament but only against the rejecting those from the Churches-Communion who dare not kneel as supposing it Idolatrous nor for any one thing which is proper to Presbytery Insomuch that when they still supposed us to plead for Presbytery in one Paper I drew up an Enumeration of abundance of Particulars which we never pleaded for which the Presbyterians usually hold and shewed that we never medled with their proper Cause partly because we were not all of a mind our selves in every small matter and partly because we knew such a Plea would not now be heard and partly because we took those Terms to be insufficient for the Churches Union nor would our selves lay its Concord on so narrow a Foundation But Mr. Calamy would not let it pass because it might offend the Presbyterian Brethren who expected more from us § 114. But to return to the History When I went out from the Meeting on Octob. 22. I went dejected as being fully satisfied that the Form of Government in that Declaration would not be Satisfactory nor attain that Concord which was our end because the Pastors had no Government of the Flocks and I was resolved to meddle no more in the Business but patiently suffer with other Dissenters But two or three days after I met the King's Declaration cried about the Streets and I presently stept into a House to read it and seeing the word Consent put in about Confirmation and Sacrament though not as to Jurisdiction and seeing the Pastoral perswasive power of Governing left to all the Ministers with the Rural Dean and some more Amendments I wondered at it how it came to pass but was exceeding glad of it as perceiving that now the Terms were though not such as we desired yet such as any sober honest Ministers might submit to And I was presently resolved to do my best to perswade all according to my Interest and Opportunity to Conform according to the Terms of this Declaration and chearfully to promote the Concord of the Church and Brotherly Love which this Concord doth bespeak § 115. Having frequent Business with the Lord Chancellour about other Matters of which somewhat anon I was going to him when I met the King's Declaration in the Street and I was so much pleased with it that having told him why I was so earnest to have had it suited to the desired end I gave him hearty thanks for the Additions and told him that if 1. The Liturgy may be but altered as the Declaration promiseth 2. And this may be setled and continued to us by a Law and not reversed I should take it to be my Duty to do my best to procure the full Consent of others and promote our happy Concord on these Terms and should rejoyce to see the Day that Factions and Parties may all be swallowed up in Unity and Contentions turned to Brotherly Love At that time he began to offer me a Bishoprick of which more anon § 116. I shall here a little look to a passage of another Nature Before this I was called to preach at Court before the King by the Lord Chamberlain who had sworn me his Chaplain and invited me under that Name And afer Sermon it pleased his Majesty to send the Lord Chamberlain to require me to print it And the Earl of Lauderdale told me that when he spake to the King of the great number of Citizens that wrote it in Characters and said that some of them would publish it the King answered I will prevent that for I will have it published Yet when this Sermon came abroad Dr. Thomas Pierce went up and down raging against me for calling my self on the Title page His Majesty's Chaplain which if I had not it would have been taken as a Contempt and for saying it was printed by his Majesty's Special Command and he renewed all the Railings which in print he had lately vented against me I admired that a Man whom the Diocesan Party so much gloried in should be guilty of so great folly and imprudency and could no better cloak his Malice When he could not but know that the King himself would have sought Satisfaction if I had so foolishly belied him on my Title Page Therefore I desired some that told me to give it me under their Hands that I might convince him of it And so I received these following Testimonies from two of his Familiars but honest understanding Men vix Mr. Griggi of Blackfryars and Mr. Brent of Creed-lane To my honoured Friend Mr. William Allen at his House in Broad-street SIR YOU being so well acquainted with Mr. Baxter I desire you will please to ask him whether he be the King's Chaplain in Ordinary or not And whether he had as he hath printed his Majesty's special Command for the printing of his Sermon For lately Dr. Pierce told me that he was the King's Chaplain no more than I was and that he had no order from the King for the printing of his Sermon which did so amaze me that I took the boldness to make you
to put up to God in all which they are meer Executioners of other Mens Judgments as a Cryer or such other Messenger § 316. 2. The second Charge against this Diocesan Prelacy is That it introduceth a New Humane Species or Presbyters or Spiritual Officers instead of Christ's which it destroyeth that is a sort of meer Subject Presbyters that have no power of Government but meerly to Teach and Worship That this is a distinct Species is proved in that 1. It wanteth an essential part which the other Species hath 2. From the Bishop's own profession who in the beginning of the Book of Ordination Subscribed to do declare it plainly determined in Scripture viz. That Bishops Priests and Deacons are three distinct Orderâ which word Orders is the common term to signifie a Species of Church Officers distinct from a meer degree in the same Order or Species That this Office is New is proved 1. In that Scripture or Antiquity never knew it 2. Dr. Hammond Annot. in Act. 11. and in his Latin Book against Blondell Dissertat professeth that it cannot be proved that the word Bishop Presbyter or Pastor signifieth in all the Scripture any other than a proper Bishop or that there was any such as we now all Presbyters in Scripture times And in his Answer to the London Ministers he saith That for ought he knoweth all his Brethren of the Church of England are of his mind So that Presbyters that had no Governing Power were not in Scripture times And though he says that the other sort came in before Ignatiu's time yet 1. He saith not that this sort had no Government of the Flock but that they were under the Bishop in Government so that yet they are not the sort that we are speaking of 2. And he doth not prove any more § 317. 3. A third Charge which they bring against our Prelacy is That it destroyeth the Species or Form of particular Churches instituted by Christ The Churches which Christ instituted are Holy Societies associated for Personal holy Communion under their particular Pastors But all such Societies are destroyed by the Diocesan Frame Ergo it is destructive of the Form of particular Churches instituted by Christ. The distinguish between Personal Local Communion of Saints by Pastors and their Flocks and Communion of hearts only and Communion by Delegation or Deputies 1. We have Heart-Communion with all the Catholick Church through the World 2. Particular Churches have Communion for Concord and mutual Strength in Synods by their Pastors or Deputies 3. But a holy Communion of Souls or individual Persons as Members of the same particular Church for publick Worship and a holy Life is specifically distinct from both the former as is apparent 1. By the distinct end 2. The distinct manner of Communion yea and the matter of it And that this Form of Churches or Species is overthrown by this Prelacy they prove The Churches of Christ's institution were constituted of Governing Pastors and a Flock governed by them in Personal holy Communion every Church having its proper Pastor or Pastors But such Churches as are thus constituted are destroyed by our Frame of Prelacy Ergo The Major is confessed de facto by Dr. Hammond ubi supra as to Scripture times and sufficiently cleared in my Treatise of Episcopacy Ignatius his Testimony alone might suffice who saith That to every Church there was one Altar and one Bishop with the Presbyters and Deacons his Fellow Servants A Church of one Altar and of a thousand Altars A Church that is for Personal Communion and a Church that hath no Personal Communion with her Pastor or Bishop or with one of a hundred of her Fellow-Members a Church which is a Church indeed and that which is no Church but only a part of a Church are more than specifically distinct for indeed the Name is but equivoeally applied to them as distinct Natures or Societies Every Church univocally so called in sensu politico as a governed Society hath its pars gubernaâs and pars gubernata to constitute it But so have not our Parish Churches as such indeed as Oratories and Schools as instructed and worshipping Societies they have their Parochial Heads but as governed Societies they have no Heads proper to themselves nor any at all as Churches but as parts of a Church For the Diocesan is Head of the Diocesan Church as such and not of a Parochial Church as such but only as a part of the Diocesan Church And as it is no Kingdom which hath no King so it is no Political Church which hath no Governour or Pastor So that Diocesans destroy particular Churches as much as in them lyeth Unless any will say that as one King as he is persona naturalis may be three or twenty Kings as persona civilis as related to several Kingdoms and so one Bishop as persona naturalis may yet be a thousand Ecclesiastical Persons as Pastor of so many Churches But this being ridiculous and yet said by none that I have heard of I shall not stand to confute it But were it so yet a Pastor that never seeth or speaketh to his People nor hath any personal Communion in Worship with them and this according to the Constitution it self is not of the same sort with a Scripture Pastor 1 Thess. 5. 12 13. Hebr. 13. 17 c. which labour among them and preach to them the Word of God and watch for their Souls c. And consequently the Churches constituted by them are not of the same Species It is one Office personally to Teach Oversee Rule and Worship with them and another to do none of these to one of a thousand but to send the Churchwardens a Book of Articles § 318. 4. A fourth Charge is That it setteth up a New Church-Form which is unlawful instead of that of Christ's institution that is a Diocesan Church consisting of many hundred Parishes which none of them are Churches according to the Diocesan Frame but parts of one Church It hath been shewed that this Diocesan Church is of another Species than the Parochial one being for personal Communion which the other is uncapable of the far greatest part of the Members never seeing their Pastor nor knowing one another any more than if they lived in several parts of the World And that this Church Form is new is proved already that is that there was no Diocesan Church having many stated Congregations and Altars much less many hundreds and all under one only Bishop or Governour either in Scripture time or two hundred years after excepting only that in Alexandria and Rome some shew of more Assemblies than one under one Bishop appeared a little sooner Here note That it is not an Archbishop's Church that we are speaking of who is but the General Pastor or Bishop having other Bishops and Churches under him but it is a Church infimae Speciei commonly called a particular Church which hath no other Churches or Bishops under it
And that none such was in Scripture times Dr. Hammond hath manifested there being then no Presbyters distinct from Bishops as he faith on Act. 11. And that there was none such of long time after is abundantly proved in my Treatise of Episcopacy § 319. 5. The fifth Charge against the Diocesan Form is That it extirpateth the ancient Episcopacy which they prove by what is said already The ancient Bishops were the Heads of the Presbyters and People of one single Church only To every Church saith Ignatius there is one Altar and one Bishop with the Presbyters and the Deacons my Fellow Servants There was then no Bishop infimae Speciei as distinct from an Archbishop that had more than one Altar and Church But now all these Bishops of particular Churches are put down and no Church of one Altar hath a Bishop of its own but only a Church consisting of many hundred Worshipping Churches In the ancient times every City that had a Congregation of Christians had a Bishop But now every Bishop hath many Cities under him which have all but one Bishop For all our Corporations called Oppida Towns or Burroughs were then such as the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signified though we have appropriated the English word City to some few that have that Title as honorary in favour from the Prince § 320. 6. The sixth Charge is That instead of the ancient Bishops a later sort of Bishops is introduced of a distinct Species from all the ancient Bishops for then there were none but meer Bishops of particular Churches and the Archbishops Metropolitans and Patriarchs that had the general oversight of these But ours are of neither of these sorts They are not Bishops of particular worshipping Churches that have one Altar but have hundreds of such Nor are they Archbishops for they have no Bishops under them But they are just such as the Archbishops or Metropolitans in those days would have been if they had put down all the Bishops that were under them and taken all the Charge of Government on themselves leaving only Teaching Priests with the People Even as the Papists feign Gregory to have meant when he so vehemently denied the Title of Universal Bishop as putting down the Inferiour Bishops Now any Man that thinketh the Species of Episcopacy described by Ignatius and used in the Primitive times to be of Divine or Apostolical Institution must needs think that a Species which having deposed them all doth stand up in their stead is utterly unlawful And therefore this Argument against Diocesans is not managed by the Presbyterians as such but by those that are for the Primitive Episcopacy § 321. 7. The seventh Charge against the Diocesan Form and that which sticketh more than all the rest is That it maketh the Church Goverment or Discipline which Christ hath commanded and all the ancient Churches practised to be a thing impossible to be done and so excludeth it and therefore is unlawful For to dispute Who shall be the Governours of the Church when the meaning is Whether there shall be any Government at all of that sort which Christ commandeth is the present practise For the clearing of this these Questions are to be debated Quest 1. Whether Christ hath instituted any Church-Discipline 2. What that Discipline is which he hath instituted 3. How many Parishes there be in a Diocess and Persons in a Parish who are to be the Objects of this Discipline 4. Who they be that in England are to exercise this Discipline § 322. 1. And for the first Question It is agreed on by all Protestants that I know of except some of those that are called Erastians I say some of them for I think there are very few even of the Erastians that deny it Dr. Hammond hath written a Treatise for it Entitled Of the Power of the Keys yea the Papists differ not from the Protestants in this point It will therefore be labour in vain to prove it § 323. 2. And as to the second Question What this Discipline is It is considerable 1. As to the Matter 2. As to the Persons 3. As to the Place 4. As to the Manner and 5. As to the End 1. As to the Matter We are agreed that it consisteth in receiving Persons into the Church in preserving and healing those that are in the Church and in casting out those from the Communion of the Church which are unfit for it and in Absolving and Restoring the Excommunicate when they are penitent And therefore it is called The Power and Exercise of the Keys By these Keys the Door is first opened to Believers and their Seed and the Bishops judge who are fit to be let in by Baptism When any are lapsed into scandalous sin they are to be proceeded with as Christ hath directed Matth. 18. 15 16 17. We must first tell men privately of their private Faults and if they hear us not we must take with us two or three if they hear not them we must tell the Church and finally if they hear not the Church they must be to us as Heathens and Publicans And whatsoever is thus bound on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever is loosed on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven vers 18. The Church is the Body of Christ his Spouse his Family his Garden It is a Communion of Saints which is to be held in it It is commanded to put away wicked Persons from among them and not to keep company if any that is called a Brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such a one no not to eat 1. Cor. 5. 11 13. And we are to withdraw our selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly and to note them and to have no company with them that they may be ashamed 2. Thess. 3. 6 14. If any come to us and bring not sound Doctrine we must not receive him into our houses nor bid him good speed lest we be partakers of his evil deeds 2 John 10. 11. A Man that is an Heretick must after the first and second Admonition be avoided as Self-condemned Tit. 3. 10 11. And the penitent must be restored and re-admitted All this is agreed on § 324. 2. And as to the Persons who are Parties in this Transaction we are agreed 1. That it is such Persons as desire Communion with us that are to be admitted being fit and such as having Communion with us become unmeet for it that are to be cast out c. so that it is to be exercised on Persons so far as they are to have Communion with us and not on those that are uncapable of that Communion 2. That sententially it must be done by the Pastor or Governour of that particular Church which the Person is to be admitted into or cast out of And by the judgment of the Pastors of other neighbour Churches when they also as Neighbours are to refuse Communion with
Churches for we must love each other and promote the Work of Christ in each others hands as the old Godly Conformists and Nonconformists did and we now do with the Godly Part of the Conformists Our Work is not to keep up a Combination against our Superiours nor to strengthen a Faction but to Combine for Godliness and to strengthen our selves in the proper work of the Gospel which we must do though some Conform and some do not 11. And our Superiours will be the less Jealous of us as to Sedition when they see us so divided in Point of Conformity than if they see us strengthened by the Unity of a distinct Party 12. And especially the Unity of such as Conform with the present Conformists will strengthen the Publick Ministery against Papists Infidels and all Vngodliness And our continued Division will be the strength of all these 13. And it is a weighty Consideration that the keeping up of the different Parties tempteth all the People of the Land to continual Censuring Uncharitableness and contending and unavoidably destroyeth Love and Concord and so keepeth Men in constant Sin On all these Reasons they were most for as much Union with the Parish-Ministers and joyning with them as the Parliament would allow them § 216. But now they found that there was little hopes of obtaining any such thing For they that were most for Toleration were most against our Comprehension by Abatement of any of the Impositions and they were many 1. All the Papists and their secret Friends were most opposite to Abatements For it was their Design from the beginning to get our Pressures to be as sharp as possible that so we might have as much need as they of a Toleration and might be forced to Petition for the opening of the Door by which they might come in or speed at least no worse than the Nonconformists 2. Those that were for the Increase of the Regal Power and Interest did very well know that the more grievously good People and so great a number were used by Parliaments and Laws the more certainly Nature and Interest would lead them to fly from them to the King for ease and refuge And also that when Men's Religion and Liberties are in the Power and at the Mercy of the King their Estates must be so too For who will not rather part with his Money than his Liberty and Religion Yea and Men's Hearts will be more with him that saveth them than with those that destinate them to Jayls and Beggery 3. And the Independents Separatists and all the Sectaries were commonly against a Comprehension for the Reasons before given Only the visible Necessities of the Nation do so strongly work towards it that doubtless in time they will prevail with the Wills of those that are for the Protestant Religion and for Property but whether Consent and Repentings will come too late God only knoweth and time must tell us § 217. In the end of May 1672. was another Sea-Fight with the Dutch with like Success as the former The Earl of Sandwich and others of ours lost and they parted without any notable Victory or Advantage of either Party but that they had kill'd one another § 218. In May and Iune the French suddenly took abundance of the Dutch-Gaâââsons § 219. In Iuly and Aâgust the Dutch-Rabble tumultuously rose up against their Governours for the Prince of Orange and murdered De Wit and his Brother § 220. In Answer to a Book of Dr. Fulwood's I now Published a small Book without my Name against the Desertion of our Ministry though prohibited proving it Sacriledge to Alienate Consecrated Persons from the Sacred Office to which they are Devoted § 221. There came out a Posthumous Book of A. Bishop Bromhall's against my Book called The Grotian Religion In which 1. He passeth over the express words of Grotius which I had cited which undoubtedly prove what I said yea though I had since largely Englished them and recited them in the Second Part of my Key for Catholicks with a full Confirmation of my Proofs 2. And he feigneth me to make him a Grotian and Confederate in his Design when-as I not only had no such Word but had expresly excepted him by Name as imputing no such thing to him And before the Book was a long Preface of Mr. Parker's most vehement against Dr. Oxen and some-what against my self To which Mr. ândrew Marvel a Parliament Man Burgess for Hull did Publish an Answer so exceeding Jocular as thereby procured abundance of Readers and Pardon to the Author Because I perceived that the Design of A. Bishop Brombal's Book was for the Uniting of Christendom under the old Patriarchs of the Roman Imperial Church and so under the Pope as the Western Patriarch and Principium Vnitatis I had thought the design and this Publication look'd dangerously and therefore began to write an Answer to it But Mr. Simmons my Bookseller came to me and told me That Roger Lestrange the Over-seer of the Printers sent for him and told him That he heard I was Answering Bishop Bromball and Swore to him most vehemently that if I did it he would ruin him and me and perhaps my Life should be brought in question And I perceived the Bookseller durst not Print it and so I was fain to cast it by which I the easilier did because the main Scope of all the Book was fully answered long before in the fore-said Second Part of my Key for Catholicks § 222. Many Changes in Ireland much talk'd of I pass over § 223. Dr. Fulwood wrote a jocular deriding Answer to my Treatise against Saâilegious Desertion of the Ministry and after that Printed an Assize Sermon against Separating from the Parish-Ministers Divers called on me to Reply to the first and I told them I had better Work to do than Answer every Script against me But while I demurred Dr. Fulwood wrote me an extraordinary kind Letter offering to do his best to the Parliament for our Union and Restoration which ended my Thoughts of that but I know not of any thing to purpose done § 224. Mr. Giles Firmin a Silenced Minister writing some-what against my Method and Motions for Heavenly Meditation in my Saint's Rest as too strict and I having Answered him he wrote a weak Reply which I thought not worthy of a Rejoinder § 225. On Octob. 11. I fell into a dangerous Fit of Sickness which God in his wonted Mercy did in time so far remove as to return me to some Capacity of Service § 226. I had till now forborn for several Reasons to seek a License for Preaching from the King upon the Toleration But when all others had taken theirs and were settled in London and other places as they could get opportunity I delayed no longer but sent to seek one on condition I might have it without the Title of Independent Presbyterian or any other Party but only as a Nonconformist And before I sent Sir Thomas Player Chamberlain
perversi ordinatores nullis denuo ordinationibus intersunt and least you may reply that he speaks not this of all our present Bishops he immediately subjoins these Words Where then shall we have a Bishop to ordain of the old accused Tribe Is not this Christian Filial Duty of Presbyters toward the Bishops their Fathers Reply to Sect. 10. 1. For that Desire you again mention of Bishops in the Reformed Churches it is an unproved vain Assertion against full Evidence It is only of a few particular Persons in those Churches that you can prove it If so many Writings against Bishops and Constitutions and actual Practice will not prove them willing to be without them or at least not necessitated there is no Proof of any Man's Will or Necessity 2. What I said I must needs maintain till you say somewhat to change my Judgment I am past doubt it 's ill trusting the Betrayers and Destroyers of the Church with the Government of it And this I did prove and can with great Ease and Evidence prove it more fully 3. I pray you do not persuade Men that by the old accused Tribe I meant all the late English Bishops they were not all accused of destroying or betraying the Church that I ever heard of Where be the Articles that were put in against Usher Hall Davenant Potter Westfield Prideaux c. All those that I call the accused Tribe you may find Articles against in Parliament for their Devastations or Abuses Should the Arrians or other Heretick Bishops say to those that forsook them as you do of me is not this Christian Filial Duty of Presbyters towards the Bishops their Fathers There is no Duty to any Episcopal Father that will hold against God and his Church Take heed of making their Sins your own Except Sect. 11. And elsewhere by Irony he adds O what a rash thing it was to imprison though when he was imprisoned I believe it was by the Name of Dr. Wren or Bishop Wren for excommunicating depriving c. p. 51. and p. 68. To begin at home it is most certain according to many ancient Canons which are their Laws our English Bishops were incapable of ordaining for they lost their Authority by involving themselves in secular and publick Administrations Canon 80. Apostolig N B. That Canon is 30. beyond the Canons Apostolical for even the Papists themselves admit but of fifty genuine and he would eject all our Bishops by the 80th Canon Apostolical Lost their Authority also for neglect of instructing their Floââ most or many of them and many more for non Residence c. Reply to Sect. 11. And why not Wren without any further Title as well as Calvin Luther Beza Zanchy Grotius c. 2. Let the indifferent Reader peruse all my words and blame me if he can What seems it so small a matter in your eyes to expel so many thousand Christian Families and silence and suspend and deprive so many able Ministers in so small a room and so short a time as that it is disobedience to our Fathers not to consent to their punishment It seems then these silly Lambs must be devoured not only without resistance but without complaint or accusing the Wolves because they say they were our Fathers God never set such Saturnine Fathers over his Church so as to authorize them in this or to prohibite a just remedy He never gave them power for Destruction but for Edification 3. What I said of our Bishops incapacity upon that reason was expresly ad hominem against mine own Judgement viz. upon supposition that those Canons are of such force as those imagine against whom I dispute 4. The Canon 80 Apost was also brought ad hominem for though it be confessed not of equal Antiquity with the rest yet for that Antiquity they have it is known how much use those men make of their supposed Authority But are there not enough others that may evince the point in hand besides that you may easily know it and in many Canons that null their Office who come in by the Magistracy Exception to Sect. 12. And whereas we are ready to make good against all the Papists in the world that our English Protestant Bishops had due Ordination in Queen Eliz. and King Edwards time by such who had been Ordained in King Henry the Eighths time Mr. Baxter tells us the Popish Bishops who Ordained in the days of Hen. 8. and many Ages before had no power of Ordination and this he speaks as his own judgment not only from the consequences of his Adversaries for he adds this I prove in that they received their Ordination from no other Bishops of the Province nor Metropolitan but only from the Pope singly yet this is all the Argument he hath to overthrow consequentially upon our objections the Ordination of those Protestant Bishops which himself acknowledges Learned Pious Reverend Men and all that Ordained or were Ordained in Hen. 8. 7. and many Ages before as he saith And indeed if his Discourse were of any force not only in our English Church but also in all the Churches of the West France Spain Polonia Swedland Denmark and throughout the Empire of Germany for these and those many Ages before which he speaks of and all this that our new Presbyterians of Enngland Volunteers in Ordaining and being Ordained without Bishops without pretence of necessity yea or difficulty or colour of difficulty except what themselves had created wherein they have as little Communion with the Protestants beyond seas as they have with the Episcopal Protestants of the true Reformed Church of England may be acknowledged good and lawful Presbyters and Pastors with power conjunctim divisim any one of them alone as Mr. Baxter thinks to Excommunicate and Absolve in foro Ecclesiastico Reply to Sect. 12. The word Due may signifie either such as is not null or else such as is fully regular or else such as they had Authority to perform who did ordain though they might have some Faults or Irregularities If you take it in the first Sense many will yield it who yet deny it in the last as supposing in some Cases Ordination Passive may be valid and so due in the Receiver when yet Ordination Active is without all just Authority in the Ordainer Though this may seem strange I am ready to give some Reasons for it It must be in the last Sense conjunct with the first that you must take the Word Due if you will speak to the point in Hand 2. I do expresly say there that it is according to the Doctrine of the Objectors consequentially that I affirm this not affirming or denying it to be mine own Judgment and to that end bring the Proof which is mentioned And yet you are pleased to affirm that I speak it as my own Judgment and not only from the Consequences of Adversaries Supposing your Grounds which I confidently deny that an uninterrupted Succession of due Authoritative Ordination
is necessary absolutely to the Being of the Ministerial Calling I doubt not but all the unhappy Consequences will be unavoidable which you mention concerning the Churches of all the West But whether it be you or I that is to be blamed for those Consequences it is not your Word only that must determine and I am willing to try by weight of Reasons Except to Sect. 13. And now for the Proof of all this the whole weight is laid by this Book 1. Upon an Argument a comparatis If they the Protestants beyond Seas are lawful Pastors and Presbyters whose Necessity and Plea of Necessity publickly to have been made by those these our new Presbyterians cannot deny then our new ordained ones by Presbyters are Presbyters also though they want all such Pretence all colour of Necessity for themselves were the first Authors of it to those that ejected them which yet did not bring a Necessity neither which we all know If Necessity be pleaded to be above Ecclesiastical Laws as sometimes it hath dispensed even with divine positive Laws themselves then they pro imperio will be above them by their own Magisterial ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and by Consequence if they will take this to themselves that whatsoever is lawful to others upon necessity is and shall be lawful to themselves without Necessity they may in the next place Pope-like take to themselves to dispense with divine positive Laws also because necessity has sometimes dispensed with them Reply to Sect. 13. 1. You may as well say we dare not say the Sun Shineth as that we dare not deny the Protestant Churches to have been without Bishops to this day through necessity against their Wills when in almost all of them the full Power Civil and Ecclesiastical is supposed to be among themselves though I deny not but some particular Persons among them would fain have Bishops yet I think very few in comparison of those that were willing to be rid of them when they were received here 2. You boldly affirm without Proof that the Ministers of this County who were not ordained by Bishops were Ejectors of them or Authors of the Necessity 3. I shewed you before we have more Necessity than you mention and besides a Necessity whereof we are not guilty there may be a culpable Necessity which yet may free our calling from a nullity though not our selves from Sin What if God should permit all the Churches of Ethiopia or the Greeks to deny the Ius Divinum of Episcopacy which is possible as well as to permit the Reformed Churches to do iâ aud so to set up Ordination by meer Presbyters while I speak to you on your own Grounds I suppose this to be their Error and so their Sin yet would you presently unchurch them all and rather have God's Worship forborn as to the Publick There be many among us who are against Diocesan Bishops who give us good testimony of a sincere Heart impartial studying of the Point with as much self-denial and earnest Prayer for God's Direction as any Episcopal Man that ever I knew and yet remain against Episcopacy This kind of Necessity may sure free their Calling from the Charge of Nullity which needs not this Plea though it could not free them from the Charge of Error Except to Sect. 14. Instead of answering one Word to Ignatius God's Holy Saint and Martyr his renowned Epistles which he knew lately vindicated or to all the ancient Fathers avowing in terminis the jus divinum of Bishops above Presbyters and the Bishops sole Power of ordaining or producing any to the contrary he fills up his Books with Citations of modern Mens Writings which they all wrote charitably for the Patronage of those poor afflicted Protestants who had no Bishops because they could have none So that as well his Authorities as his Reasons are all drawn a loco comparatorum arguing weakly from the Priviledge of necessity to their licentiousness with or without Necessity which is one continued Sophism Reply to Sect. 14. 1. Though Ignatius were both a Saint and Holy yet I know not what call I had in those Papers to meddle with him Unless I must needs dispute the point of Episcopacy which I did disclaim 2. As I would not undervalue the late Vindicacation of Ignatius so I would not have you so far overvalue it as to think it should so easily and potently prevail 1. With all those that see not any Cogency in the Arguments or sufficiency in the Answers to the contrary Objections 2. Or with hose that will take Scripture only for the Test of this Cause 3. Or with those that are confident that you can never prove that Ignatius speaks of Diocesan Bishops but only of the Bishops of particular Churches 3. Your talk of all the Ancient Fathers avowing in terminis the Bishops sole Power of ordaining doth but discredit the rest of your Words You suppose us utter Strangers both to those Fathers and the English Bishops who maintain that Presbyters must be their Coadjutors in Ordination 4. What if I should grant that all the Fathers would have Bishops to have the sole Power of Ordaining ordinarily and for Order Sake And that it is a Sin of Disorder where unnecessarily it is done otherwise that 's nothing to the Question that I had in hand which is whether such Ordination by Presbyters be not only irregular but null and whether an uninterrupted Succession be necessary to our Office 5. I plainly perceive here again that you are loath to speak out your Mind but you seem to dissent from these charitable Maintainers of the Protestants Why else do you set Ignatius and the ancient Fathers as the Party that I should have respected instead of these if you did not think that the Fathers and these Men were contrary 6. My Business was to prove that according to the Principles of the Protestant Bishops in England our Ordination was not null eo Nomine because without a Bishop now I am blamed for proving this by Modern Writers and not Fathers If you will disclaim the Modern Protestant Bishops do not pretend to be of their Party but speak plainly If I fill up my Book with such Citations then I hope I was not deficient in bringing the Testimonies of the Protestant Episcopal Divines and yet many more I could cite to that end 7. To that of the Protestants Necessity enough is said till your Words are canonical or your Proof stronger I do not think but there are some Protestant Bishops so called at least in France and Holland now that went out of Britain and Ireland why cannot they ordain them Bishops in their extream Necessity Why did the angry Bishops so revile poor Calvin Beza the Churches of Geneva Scotland and many others for casting out Bishops and setting up Presbytery if all were done on a justifiable Necessity But enough of this Except to Sect. 15. But that these Authors cited by him may be authentical all the
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
conciliatory endeavours and yet gives an Account how he resolv'd to set upon reconciling work in order whereto the Worcestershire Agreement was form'd which was not altogether without its success from p. 139. to p. 150. Nineteen Quaeries about Ecclesiastical Cases drawn up by an Episcopal man in the late Times and convey'd to him by Sir Ralph Clare with his Answer to them from p. 151. to p. 157. A Letter of his in answer to Sir Ralph Clare his Parishioner who would not Communicate with him unless he might receive kneeling and on a distinct day and not with those who received sitting p. 157 c. A Letter from the associated Ministers in Cumberland and Westmoreland to the associated Ministers in Worcestershire p. 162. an Answer to it p. 164. Many other Counties begin to associate for Church Discipline the Articles agreed to by the Ministers in Wiltshire p. 167. A Letter from the associated Churches in Ireland to Mr. Baxter and the associated Ministers in Worcestershire p. 169. the Answer to it p. 170. A second Letter from the Irish Ministers p. 171. A Letter of Mr. Baxter's to Bishop Brownrigg about an Agreement between the Presbyterian and Episcopal Party p. 172. The Bishops Reply to it containing his Iudgment about Church Government p. 174 175 c. Mr. Baxter's Notes on the Bishop's Answer p. 178. After this he upon occasion of the passing of Letters between him and Mr. Lamb and Mr. Allen two Anabaptist Freachers to disswade them from separation propounds and answers this Question Whether it be our duty to seek peace with the Anabaptists and proposes a method of managing a Pacificatory attempt with them p. 181. c. A personal Treaty of his with Mr. Nye about an Agreement with the Independants and a long Letter to him about that affair p. 188 c. Proposals made by him in Cromwell's time for a general holy Communion Peace and Concord between the Churches in these Nations without any wrong to the Consciences or Liberties of Presbyterians Congregational Episcopal or any other Christians p. 191 c. The occasion of choosing a Committee of Divines to make a Collection of Fundamentais of which Mr. Baxter was one p. 197. His own Iudgment of Fundamentals ib. and p. 198. The proceedings of the Divines in this matter p. 199. Papers deliver'd in by Mr. Baxter to them on points wherein he differ'd from them p. 200 c. An Account of his preaching before Cromwell and personal Conference with him afterwards in private and a second Conference with him in his Privy Council p. 205. of what past between him and Dr. Nich. Gibbon ibid. Of his Acquaintance and Conversation with Archbishop Usher while he continued at my Lord Broghil's where a particular account is given of the Learned Primates Iudgment about Universal Redemption about Mr. Baxter's terms of Concord and about the validity of Presbyters Ordination p. 206. Of the Carriage of the Anabaptists after the Death of Cromwell p. 206. and the general Confusion of the Nation p. 207. New Proposals he made to Dr. Hammond about an Agreement with the Episcopal Party by Sir Ralph Clare's means p. 208. Dr. Hammond's Answer and Mr. Baxter's Reply p. 210. Of General Monk's march to London and the common sentiments and expectations of people at that time p. 214. of his preaching before the Parliament the day before they voted the King back p. 217. of his Conference with Dr. Gauden and Dr. Morley p. 218. What past between one William Johnson a Papist and Mr. Baxter in particular with reference to the Lady Anne Lindsey daughter of the Countess of Balcarres whom he had seduc'd and afterwards stole away and convey'd into France p. 218 c. Two Letters of Mr. Baxter's to this young Lady one before she was stole away and the other while she was in a Nunnery in France p. 221 c. Of peoples various expectations upon the King's return p. 229. Of some of the Presbyterian Ministers being made the King's Chaplains and Mr. Baxter among the rest ibid. several of them together wait on his Majesty The sum of Mr. Baxter's Speech to the King p. 230. the King receives them graciously and orders them to bring in Proposals in order to an Agreement about Church Government p. 231. where upon they daily met at Sion Colledge for Consultation p. 232. Their first Address and Proposals to his Majesty about Concord p. 232 c. the brief sum of their judgment and desires about Church Government p. 237. Bishop Usher's Model of Government to which they all agreed to adhere p. 238. Five Requests made to the King by word of mouth suiting the Circumstances of Affairs at that time p. 241. The Answer of the Bishops to the first Proposals of the London Ministers p. 242. the Ministers defence of their fore-mention'd Proposals p. 248. His Majesty's Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs as it was first drawn up and shown to the Ministers by the Lord Chancellour p. 259. The Ministers Petition to the King upon their sight of the first draught of this Declaration p. 265. the Alterations of the Declaration which they offer'd p. 275. a Conference between several Divines of each side about the fore-mention'd Declaration before the King at the Lord Chancellours and the effects of it p. 276. of the coming out of the Declaration with amendments p. 279. Of Mr. Baxter's preaching before the King and printing his Sermon and the false accusation of him by Dr. Pierce on that occasion p. 279. a Character of Dr. Pierce and Account of his enmity against Mr. Baxter p. 280. of the offer of a Bishoprick made to Mr. Baxter with some others who joyntly demurr'd about the acceptance p. 281. Mr. Baxter refuses to accept the terms proposed in the fore-mention'd Declaration and sends a Letter to the Lord Chancellour containing his Reasons p. 282. Dr. Regnolds accepts a Bishoprick other Preferments offer'd to other Presbyterians who refus'd them p. 283. An Address of Thanks to the King from the London Ministers for his Declaration p. 284. a Censure of this Declaration p. 286. How well this Declaration was put in Execution p. 287. Mr. Crofâon's writing for the Covenant and imprisonment in the Tower p. 288. A false report spread about of Mr. Baxter by Mr. Horton Chaplain to the Earl of Manchester p. 289. an account of Mr. Baxter's transactions with the Lord Chancellour about the Affairs of New-England p. 290. a Letter to Mr. Baxter from the Court and Government of New-England p. 291. another from Mr. Norton p. 292. another from Mr. Elliot p. 293. Mr. Baxter's answer to Mr. Elliot p. 295. Mr. Baxter's endeavours to be restor'd to the People of Kidderminster from whom he was separated upon the return of the sequestred Ministers to their Livings p. 298. A Letter of my Lord Chancellours to Sir Ralph Clare about Mr. Baxter's return to Kidderminster p. 299. Of the Rising of the Fifth Monarchy men under Venner about this time p. 301.
alter it and the King's Approbation of these Canons made them sufficiently obligatory unto us Those that were against it said I. That Episcopacy was either contra jus Divinum or at best not Iure Divino and therefore mutable when the King and Parliament pleased 2. Or at least that it was undeniable That Archbishops and Deans and Chapters and Arch-deacons c. were not all Iure Divino nay that the English frame of Diocesans having many hundred Parish Churches under one Bishop in fini gradus was not only against the Word of God but destructive of all the Episcopacy which was known in the Church at least for 200 years 3. They said that it was intolerable to swear to a blind Et caetera for litterally it included all the Officers of the Ecclesiastical Courts that are now in Exercise of the Government Lay-Chancellors that use the Keys for Excommunication and Absolution Surrogates Commissaries Officials and the rest And was it ever known that all the Clergy was sworn to such an Anomalous Rabble 4. They said that for ought they knew this Goverment in whole or in some part might be altered by the King and Parliament by a Law And to tie up our selves by an Oath that we would never obey such a Law nor consent to that which the King might command us this they thought was a Bond of Disobedience next to a Rebellion 5. They said that it was against the Subjects Liberty which alloweth them soberly to Petition the King and Parliament for a Redress of any Grievance And if now a Lay-Chancellor's use of the Keys e. g. were no burden to the People we know not how God may make such Alterations by his Providence as may make that a Grievance which now is none 6. And they said it was against the Priviledges of Parliament that such an Oath should be devised and imposed upon the Subjects without a Law or the Parliaments consent These and other Reasons were pleaded against it And afterward when the Parliament took it into consideration it was Condemned on these and other Accounts The Ministers of the Country met together at Bridgnorth to Debate this Business that they might have no Division and some few were for the Oath but more against it This put me upon deeper Thoughts of the Point of Episcopacy and of the English frame of Church-Government than ever I had before and now I had the opportunity of seeing some Books which I never had before My very dear Friend Mr. William Rowley a Gentleman of Shrewsbury sent me Gersomus Bucerus his Dissertatio de Gubernatione Ecclesiae and Didoclaves Altare Damascenum and shortly after I had Parker de Polit. Ecclesâ and Baynes's Diocesanes Trial and I received Bishop Downham and compared his Reasons with Bucers Didoclaves c. And though I found not sufficient Evidence to prove all kind of Episcopacy unlawful yet I was much satisfied that the English Diocesan frame was guilty of the Corruption of Churches and Ministry and of the ruine of the true Church Discipline and substituting an heterogeneal thing in its stead And thus the Et caetera Oath which was imposed on us for the unalterable subjecting of us to Diocesans was a chief means to alienate me and many others from it For now our drowsie mindlesness of that subject was shaken off by their violence and we that thought it best to follow our business and live in quietness and let the Bishops alone were rowzed by the terrours of an Oath to look about us and understand what we did § 23. This Oath also stirred up the differing Parties who before were all one Party even quiet Conformists to speak more bitterly against one another than heretofore And the dissenting Party began to think better of the Cause of Nonconformity and to honour the Nonconformists more than they had done And it fell out that at the same time when we were thus rowzed up in England or a little before the Scots were also awakened in Scotland For when all was quiet there under a more moderate Episcopacy than we had then in England though that Nation had been used to Presbytery a new Common-Prayer Book that is the English one with some few Alterations was framed and imposed on the People of Scotland who having not been used to that way of Worship one Woman in Edenburgh cried out in the Church Popery Popery and threw her Stool at the Priest and others imitated her presently and drove him out of the Church and this little Spark set all Scotland quickly in a Flame Insomuch that other Places taking as much distaste at the Common Prayer and at the Bishops also for its sake and for fear of the Silencing of their Ministers and some Ministers increasing their distaste the Lords presently were divided also insomuch that the King was fain to instruct the Earl of Trequaire as his Commissioner to suppress the Maiecontents But in a short time the number of them so encreased that the King's Commissioners could do no good on them but they got the power of all the Land because the far greatest part of the Nobility with the Ministry were conjoyned Hereupon they all entered into a National Covenant to the same purpose as formerly that Nation had done but they did it without the King's Authority The Oath or Covenant was against Popery and Prelacy and Superstition and to uphold the Gospel and Reformation The Aberdeen Doctors dissented from the Covenant and many Writings past on both sides between the Covenanters and them till at last the ensuing Wars did turn the Debates to another strain § 24. It fell out unhappily that at the same time while the Scots were thus discontented the King had imposed a Tax here called Ship-money as for the strengthning of the Navy which being done without Consent of Parliament made a wonderful murmuring all over the Land especially among the Country Nobility and Gentry for they took it as the overthrow of the Fundamental Laws or Constitution of the Kingdom and of Parliaments and of all Propriety They said that the Subjects Propriety in his Estate and the Being of Parliaments and that no Laws be made nor Moneys taken from the Subjects but by the Parliaments Consent are part of the Constitution of the Republick or Government And they said that the King having long disused Parliaments upon Displeasure against them because they curbed Monopolies and corrected Abuses of Officers c. had no way to lay them by for ever but to invade the Subjects Propriety and to assume the power of laying Taxes and raising Moneys without them and that if thus Parliaments and Propriety were destroyed the Government was dissolved or altered and no Man had any Security of Estate or Liberty or Life but the Pleasure of the King whose Will would be the only Law They said also that those that counselled him to this were Enemies to the Commonwealth and unfitter to counsel him than Parliaments who are his highest Court and Council The
himself These numerous Petitioners also were very offensive to the King insomuch that once some of his Cavaliers came out upon them armed as they passed by Whitehall and catcht some of them and cut off their Ears and Sir Richard Wiseman leading them there was some Fray about Westminster-Abbey between the Cavaliers and them and Sir Richard Wiseman was slain by a stone from off the Abbey Walls And when at last the King forsook the City these Tumults were the principal Cause alledged by him as if he himself had not been safe Thus rash Attempts of Head-strong People do work against the good Ends which they themselves intend and the Zeal which hath censorious Strife and Envy doth tend to Confusion and every evil Work And Overdoing is the ordinary way of Undoing § 41. 2. And some Members of the House did cherish these Disorders and because that the Subjects have liberty to Petition therefore they made use of this their Liberty in a disorderly way When they had disgraced Ship-money and the Et caetera Oath and Bowing towards Altars and such things as were against Law they stopt not there but set themselves to cast out the Bishops and the Liturgy which were settled by Law And though Parliaments may draw up Bills for repealing Laws yet hath the King his Negative Voice and without his Consent they cannot do it which though they acknowledged yet did they too easily admit of Petitions against the Episcopacy and Liturgy and connived at all the Clamours and Papers which were against them Had they only endeavoured the Ejection of Lay Chancellors and the reducing of the Diocesses to a narrower Compass or the setting up of a Subordinate Discipline and only the Correcting and Reforming of the Liturgy perhaps it might have been borne more patiently but some particular Members concurred with the Desires of the imprudent Reformers who were for no less than the utter Extirpation of Bishops and Liturgy To which purpose the Lord Brook wrote his Book against Episcopacy And in the House of Commons Sir Henry Vane endeavoured to draw all up to the bighest Resolutions and by his Parts and Converse drew many so far to his mind And also the sense of the younger less experienced sort of the Ministers and private Christians in the Country was much against amending the Bishops and Liturgy and thought this was but to guild over our Danger and lose our Opportunity but they were for an utter Extirpation Though none of all this was the Sense of the Parliament yet those Members which were of this Opinion did much to encourage the Petitioners who in a disorderly manner laboured to effect it The Bishops themselves who were accounted most moderate Usher Williams Morton and many other Episcopal Divines with them had before this in a Committee at Westminster agreed on certain Points of Reformation which I will give you afterward though out of the proper place when we come to our Proposals at the King 's Return 1660. But when the same Men saw that greater Things were aimed at and Episcopacy it self in danger or their Grandeur and Riches at the least most of them turned against the Parliament and were almost as much displeased as others § 42. 3. And the great distrust which the Parliament had of the King was another thing which hastened the War For they were confident that he was unmoveable as to his Judgment and Affections and that whatever he granted them was but in design to get his advantage utterly to destroy them and that he did but watch for such an Opportunity They supposed that he utterly abhorred the Parliament and their Actions against his Ship-money his Judges Bishops c. and therefore whatever he promised them they believed him not nor durst take his word which they were hardened in by those former Actions of his which they called The Breach of his former Promises § 43. And the Things on the other side which occasioned their Diffidence and caused the War were these following especially above all the rest 1. The Armies of the Scots and English did long continue in the North undisbanded in their Quarters till the Parliament should provide their Pay Some say other Business caused the delay and some say that the Parliament was not willing that they should be so soon disbanded but the Army of the English wanting pay was easily discontented And the Parliament say that the Court drew them into a Plot against the House to march suddenly up towards London and to Master the Parliament Divers of the Chief Officers were Examined Sir Iacob Astley O Neale Sir Fulh Huncks my Mother-in-Law's Brother and many others and they almost all confessed some such thing that some near the King but not he himself had treated with them about bringing up the Army but none of them talkt of destroying or forcing the Parliament These Examinations and Depositions were published by the Parliament which did very much to perswade abundance of People that the King did but watch while he quieted them with Promises to Master them by Force and use them at his Pleasure And this Action was one of the greatest Causes of the dangerous diffidence of the King § 44. 2. Another was this When the Parliament had set a Guard upon their own House which they took to be their Priviledge the King discharged them and set another Guard upon them of his choosing which made them seem as much afraid as if he had made them Prisoners and would at some time or other command that Guard to Execute his Wrath upon them whereupon they dismissed them and called for a Guard of the City Regiments This also did increase the Diffidence § 45. 3. Another great Cause of the Diffidence and War was this The King was advised no longer to stand by and see the Parliament affront him and do what they listed but to take a sufficient Company with him and to go suddenly in Person to the House and there to demand some of the Leading Members to be delivered up to Justice and tried as Traitors Whereupon he goeth to the House of Commons with a Company of Cavaliers with Swords and Pistols to have charged five of the Members of that House and one of the Lords House with High Treason viz Mr. Pim Mr. Hampden Mr. Hollis Mr. Strowd and Sir Arthur Haseirigge and the Lord Kimbolivn after Earl of Manchester and Lord Chamberlain of the Lord's But the King was not so secret or speedy in this Action but the Members had notice of it before his coming and absented themselves being together at an inner House in Red-Lyon Court in Watling street near Breadstreet in London And so the King and his Company laid hands on none but went their ways Had the five Members been there the rest supposed they would have taken them away by violence When the King was gone this Allarm did cast the House into such Apprehensions as if one after another their Liberties or Lives must be assaulted
Controversies against the Anabaptists first and then against the Separatists and in private some of my Worcestershire Neighbours and many of the Foot Soldiers were able to baffle both Separatists Anabaptists and Antinomians and so kept all the Garrison sound Whereupon the Anabaptists sent to Bedford for one Mr. Benjamin Cox an old Anabaptist Minister and no contemptible Schollar the Son of a Bishop and he and I had first a Dispute by Word of Mouth and after by Writing and his Surceasing gave me ease In conclusion a few poor Townsmen only were carried away about a Dozen Men and Women but the Souldiers and the rest of the City kept sound from all Infection of Sectaries and Dividers § 67. While I lived here in Peace and Liberty as Men in a dry House do hear the Storms abroad so did we daily hear the News of one Fights or other or one Garrison or other won or lost the two Newbery Fights Glocester Siege the marvellous Sieges of Plimouth Lime and Taunton Sir William Waller's Successes and Losses the Loss at Newark the Slaughter at Bolton the greatest Fight of all at York with abundance more So that hearing such sad News on one side or other was our daily Work insomuch that as duly as I awakened in the Morning I expected to hear one come and tell me Such a Garrison is won or lost or such a Defeat received or given And do you hear the News was commonly the first Word I heard So miserable were those bloody Days in which he was the most honourable that could kill most of his Enemies But among all these I was especially pleased with the Surprize of Shrewsbury both because it was done without loss of Blood and because my Father and many of my dear Friends were thereby redeemed for when I returned from Wem to Coventry it happily fell out that Sir Fulk Hunkes was made Governor of Shrewsbury by the King and he protected my Father while he was there But at last the Gentây of the Countrey and he agreed not he being too much a Soldier and too civil for many of them and they procured him to be removed and Sir Rich. Oatley first and after Sir Mich. Earnley made Governors Sir Fulk Hunkes was confident when he went that their Drunkenness and Carelesness would shortly lose the Town and so it did indeed fall out His old Mother the Lady Hunkes he left with my Father where she died between 80 and 100 Years old But when he was gone my Father was made one of the Collectors of their Taxes for the King which he justly performed But he would not forcibly distrain of them that refused to pay as not knowing but they might hereafter recover it all of him for which he was laid in Prison by them that swore he should lie and rot there But he had been there but a few Weeks before the Keeper in the night came to him and beg'd his Favour to save him and his House for the Parliaments Souldiers had surprised the Town My Father would not believe it till he heard and saw that which compell'd his Belief and with what Joy I need not tell § 68. There were abundance of strange Providences in these times that fell out for some particular Persons The marvellous Preservation of Souldiers by Bibles in their Pockets which have received the Bullets and such like I will not mention When Prince Rupert put the Inhabitants of Bolton in Lancashire to the Sword Men Women and Children an Infant escaped alive and was found lying by her Father and Mother who were slain in the Streets an Old Woman took up the Child and carried it home and put it to her Breast for warmth having not had a Child her self of about 30 Years the Child drew Milk and so much that the Woman nursed it up with her Breast Milk a good while The Committee desired some Women to try her and they found it true and that she had a considerable proportion of Milk for the Child If any one doubt of this they may yet be resolved by Mrs. Hunt Wife to Mr. Rowland Hunt of Harrow on the Hill who living then in Manchester was one of them that by the Committee was desired to trie the Woman and who hath oft told it me and is a credible godly discreet Gentlewoman and Wife to a Man of most exemplary Holiness and of the primitive Sincerity without Self-seeking Hypocrisie and Guile The Maid her self thus nursed up lived after wards in London This putteth me in mind of that worthy Servant of Christ Dr. Teat who being put to fly suddenly with his Wife and Children from the Fury of the Irish Rebels in the Night without Provision wandred in the Snow out of all ways upon the Mountains till Mrs. Teat having no suck for the Child in her Arms and he being ready to die with Hunger she went to the Brow of a Rock to lay him down and leave him that she might not see him die and there in the Snow out of all ways where no Footsteps appeared she found a Suck-bottle full of new sweet Milk which preserved the Child's Life In Cornwall Sir Rich. Greenvile having taken many Souldiers of the Earl of Essex's Army sentenced about a dozen to be hanged when they had hanged two or three the Rope broke which should have hanged the next And they sent for new Ropes so oft to hang him and all of them still broke that they durst go no farther but saved all the rest Besides universal undeniable Report I had this oft told me by Mr. Woodhouse an honest godly sober Man a Sisters Son of Justice Kettleby of Shropshire who himself stood by expecting Death and was one of the Number of them whose Lives were saved by it If I would here give an account of all the Military Actions of those times which I had the certain knowledge of the manner of taking and losing Towns and Castles the Progress of the main Armies and of the Parties in the several Counties in Cheshire Lancashire Yorkshire Derbyshire Staffordshire Shropshire Lincolnshire Gloucestershire and other Counties where particular Wars were carried on and between Pembrokeshire and the rest of Wales and also the manner of the several great Fights especially that at Marston-moor near York it would fill of it self a greater Volume than I intend and is a matter besides my present purpose and fit to be done in another manner And therefore I shall pass that by and proceed in the Narrative of the passages of my own Life inâerposing only Generals and the passages which occasioned them § 69. When by the great Mercy of God I had lived two years in quietness at Coventry the Earl of Essex being weakened by a great loss in Cornwall fell under the great displeasure of some of the Parliament not as to his Person but as to the Conduct of Affairs who prevailed to have him laid by The Causes were all these in Conjunction 1. Though none could deny
or to turn to something else which though there be some reason for it I feel cometh from a want of Zeal for the Truth and from an impatient Temper of Mind I am ready to think that People should quickly understand all in a few words and if they cannot lazily to despair of them and leave them to themselves And I the more know that it is sinful in me because it is partly so in other things even about the Faults of my Servants or other Inferiours if three or four times warning do no good on them I am much tempted to despair of them and turn them away and leave them to themselves I mention all these Distempers that my Faults may be a warning to others to take heed as they call on my self for Repentance and Watchfulness O Lord for the Merits and Sacrifice and Intercession of Christ be merciful to me a Sinner and forgive my known and unknown Sins THE LIFE OF THE REVEREND Mr. Richard Baxter LIB I. PART II. § 1. IN the Time of the late unhappy Wars in these Kingdoms the Controversies about Church Government were in most Mens mouths and made the greatest Noise being hotly agitated by States-men and Divines by Words and Writings which made it necessary to me to set my self to the most serious study of those Points The result of which was this confident and setled Judgment that of the four contending Parties the Erastian Episcopal Presbyterian and Independant each one had some Truths in peculiar which the other overlookt or took little notice of and each one had their proper Mistakes which gave advantage to their Adversaries though all of them had so much truth in common among them as would have made these Kingdoms happy if it had been unanimously and soberly reduced to practice by prudent and charitable Men. § 2. 1. The Erastians I thought were thus far in the right in asserting more fully than others the Magistrates Power in Matters of Religion that all Coercive Power by Mulcts or Force is only in their hands which is the full sence of our Oath of Supremacy and that no such Power belongeth to the Pastors or People of the Church and that thus as Dr. Ludov. Molinaeââ pleadeth there should not be any Imperium in Imperio or any Coercive Power challenged by Pope Prelate Presbytery or any but by the Magistrate alone that the Pastoral Power is only Perswasive or exercised on Volunteers yet not private such as belongeth to every Man to perswade that hath a perswading Facultyâ but Publick and Authoritative by Divine appointment And not only to perswade by Sermons or general Speeches but by particular oversight of their particular Flocks much like the Authority of Plato or Zenâ in his School or a Master in any Academy of Volunteers or of a Physician in his Hospital supposing these were Officers of God's Institution who could as the ground of their perswasitantâ produce his Commission or Command for what they said and did But though the Diocesans and the Presbyterians of Scotland who had Laws to enable them opposed this Doctrine or the Party at least yet I perceived that indeed it was but on the ground of their Civil Advantages as the Magistrate had impowered by them by his Laws which the Erastians did not contradict except some few of the higher ãâã sort who pleaded as the Papists for somewhat more which yet they could not themselves tell what to make of But the generality of each Party indeed owned this Doctrine and I could speak with no sober Judicious Prelatist Presbyterian or Independant but confessed that no Secular or Forcing Power belonged to any Pastors of the Church as such and unless the Magistrates authorized them as his Officers they could not touch mens Bodies or Estates but the Conscience alone which can be of none but of Assenters § 3. 2. The Episcopal Party seemed to have reason on their side in ãâã that in the Primitive Church there were some Apostles Evangelists and others who were general unfixed Officers of the Church not tyed to any particular Chaâge and had some Superiority some of them ââover-fixed Bishops or Pastors And though the extraordinary Parts of the Apostles Office ceased with them I saw no proof of the Cessation of any ordinary part of their Office such as Church Government is confessed to be All the doubt that I saw in this was Whether the Apostles themselves were constituted Governours of other Pastors or only over-ruled them by the Eminency of their Gifts and Priviledge of Infallibility For it seemed to me unmeet to affirm without proof that Christ setled a Form of Government in his Church to endure only for one Age and changed it for a New one when that Age was ended And as to fixed Bishops of particular Churches that were Superiours in degree to Presbyters though I saw nothing at all in Scripture for them which was any whit cogent yet I saw that the Reception of them in all the Churches was so timely even in the days of one of the Apostles in some Churches and so general that I thought it a most improbable thing that if it had been contrary to the Apostles mind we should never read that they themselves or any one of their Disciples that conversed with them no nor any Christian or Heretick in the World should once speak or write a word against it till long after it was generally setled in the Curches This therefore I resolved never to oppose § 4. 3. And as for the Presbyterians I found that the Office of Preaching Presbyters was allowed by all that deserve the Name of Christians and that this Office did participate subserviently to Christ of the Prophetical or Teaching the Priestly or worshipping and the Governing Power and that both Scripture Antiquity and the perswasive Nature of Church Government clearly shew that all Presbyters were Church Governours as well as Church Teachers and that to deny this was to destroy the Office and to endeavour to destroy the Churches And I saw in Scripture Antiquity and Reason that the Association of Pastors and Churches for Agreement and their Synods in Cases of Necessity are a plain duty and that their ordinary stated Synods are usually very convenient And I saw that in England the Persons which were called Presbyterians were emiment for Learning Sobriety and Piety and the Pastors so called were they that went through the Work of the Ministry in diligent serious preaching to the People and edifying Mens Souls and keeping up Religion in the Land § 5. 4. And for the Independants I saw that most of them were Zealous and very many Learned discreet and godly Men and fit to be very serviceable in the Church And I found in the search of Scripture and Antiquity that in the beginning a Governed Church and a stated worshipping Church were all one and not two several things And that though there might be other byâMeetings in places like our Chappels or private Houses
without grand Sacriledge and Prophaneness although by Corruption of Persons and Times they have been either superstitiously abused or too prophanely employed but rather to reduce them to their primitive Use and Donation 18. Whether the ancient Fasting Days of the Week and Festivals of the Church setled both by Provincial Synods in the Year 1562. and 1640. and confirmed by the then Regal Power and also by several Statutes and Laws ought not by all persons in Conscience to be still observed until they be abrogated by the like Powers again or how far the Liberty of Conscience therein may be used in observing or not observing them the like for the usage of the Cross in Baptism and the humble posture of Kneeling at the receiving of the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper 19. Which way of security and peace of Conscience may a quiet Christian order and dispose himself his Wife Children and Family in his Duty and Service towards God and enjoy the right use and benefit of the Sacraments and other holy Duties as long as that part of the Catholick Church wherein he lives is under persecution and the visible Ruling Church therein is faln Schismatical if not in many particulare Heretical April 20th 1655. May 14th 1655. An Answer to the foregoing Questions sent to Sir R. Clare Ad Quest. 1m. EIther that Conscience owneth the right Religion and Discipline only or the right with some tolerable accidental Errours or a wrong Religion and Discipline in the Substance The first the Magistrate must not only tolerate but promote The second he must tolerate rather than do worse by suppressing it The third he must suppress by all lawful means and tolerate when he cannot help it without a greater Evil. I suppose no Judicious Man will expect an exact Solution of so Comprehensive a Question in few words And I find not that a large Discussion is now expected from me There are four or five Sheets of my Manuscripts in some hands abroad on this Point which may do more towards a satisfactory Solution than these few words Ad 2m. Either the tender Conscience is in the right or in the wrong If in the wrong the Magistrates Liberty will not make a Sin to be no Sin but the Party is bound by God to rectifie his Judgment and thereby his Practice If in the right it is a strange Question Whether a Man may obey God that hath the Magistrates leave till he be enforced by Mens violence Doth any doubt of it Ad 3m. Matter of Government depending only on Fact is a Contradiction Seeing Government consisteth in a Right and the Exercise of it I am not able therefore to understand this Question Yet if this may afford any help toward the Solution I affirm That the general and perpetual practice of the Church from Age to Age of a thing not forbidden by the Word of God will warrant our imitation I say of a thing not forbidden because it hath been the general and perpetual practice of the Church to Sin by vain Thoughts Words imperfect Duties c. wherein our imitation is not warrantable The general and perpetual practice includeth the Apostles and that Age. But what is meant by Evidencing the Right of a thing that dependeth only of Fact or by Evidencing the Truth and Certainty of a Fact by general and perpetual practice which is to prove idem per idem I will not presume that I understand Ad 4m. I know not what Bishops you mean A Congregational Bishop overseeing the People is undoubtedly lawful so is a Congregational Bishop being President of a Presbytery which is over that Congregation Where many Congregational Officers are associated I do not think that a President for a time or during his fitness standing and fixed is unlawful The like I may say of a President of many of those Associations again associated as in a Province or Diocess And I believe it were a very easie work for wise godly moderate men to agree about his Power And I would not seem so censorious as to proclaim that England wanteth such further than the actual want of such Agreement or just endeavours thereto doth proclaim it I am satisfied also that the Apostles themselves have de jure Successors in all that part of their work which is to be perpetuated or continued till now though not in their extraordinary Endowments and Priviledges But if the sence of your Question be Whether one Man may be the standing chief Governour of many particular Churches with their Officers having either sole power of Ordination and Jurisdiction as some would have or a Negative Voice in both as others it would seem great arrogancy in me to be the confident Determiner of such a Question which so wise learned godly sober Men have said so much of on both sides already Ad 5m. 1. He that knows how short Church History is in these Matters for the first Age after the Apostles at least and hath read impartially what Gersom Bucerus Parker Blondellus Salmasius Altare Damascen have said on one side and Saravia Downham Dr. Hammond c. on the other would sure never expect that I should presume to pass any confident Sentence in the Point And it 's like he would be somewhat moderate himself 2. I say as before I know not what you mean by Bishops I am confident that the Church was not of many Hundred years after Christ governed as ours was lately in England by a Diocesan Bishop and a Chancellor excluding almost all the Presbyters 3. Why do you say Since the Apostles days when you before spoke of the General and perpetual practice of the Church Ad 6m. The word National Church admits of divers sences As it was usually understood in England I think there was none for divers hundred years after Christ either governed by Bishops or without them They that will look after the most encouraging Presidents must look higher than National Churches Ad 7m. The Question seems not to mean any particular truly-schismatical Party of Ministers but the generality that live not under the Bishops and so I answer negatively waiting for the Accusers proof Ad 8m. 1. I know not what the Oath of Canonical Obedience is therefore cannot give a full Answer I know multitudes of Ministers ordained by Bishops that never took any such Oath 2. The Powers that violently took down the Bishops were the Secular Powers None else could use violence And it were a strange Oath for a Man to swear that he would never obey the Secular Powers if they took down the Bishops when the Holy Ghost would have us obey Heathen Persecutors 3. If it were so great a Sin to obey those Powers I conceive it must be so to the Laity as well as the Ministry And I knew but few of the Episcopal Gentry or others called to it that did refuse to take the Engagement to be true and faithful to that Power when the Presbyters here accused durst not take it
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
yield to us for Concord that seeing both together we might see what probability of success we had And the King promised that it should be so § 95. Hereupon we departed and appointed to meet from day to day at Sion Colledge and to consult there openly with any of our Brethren that would please to join with us that none might say they were excluded Some City Ministers came among us and some came not and Divers country Ministers who were in the City came also to us as Dr. Worth since a Bishop in Ireland Mr. Fulwood since Archdeacon of Totnes c. But Mr. Matth. Newcomen was most constant in assisting us § 96. In these Debates we found the great inconvenience of too many Actors though there cannot be too many Consenters to what is well done For that which seemed the most convenient Expression to one seemed inconvenient to another and that we that all agreed in Matter had much ado to agree in Words But after about two or three Weeks time we drew up the following Paper of Proposals which with Archbishop Usher's Form of Government called his Reduction c. we should offer to the King Mr. Calamy drew up most with Dr. Reynolds Dr. Reynolds and Dr. Worth drew up that which is against the Ceremonies I only prevailed with them to premise the four first Particulars for the countenancing Godliness the Ministry Personal Profession and the Lord's Day They were backward because they were not the Points in Controversy but yielded at last on the Reasons offered them About Discipline we designedly adhered to Bishop Usher's Model without a Word of alteration that so they might have less to say against our Offers as being our own and that the World might see that it was Episcopacy it self which they refused and that they contended against the Archbishop as well as against us and that we pleaded not at all with them for Presbytery unless a Moderate Episcopacy be Presbytery Yet was there a Faction that called this Offer of Bishop Usher's Episcopacy by the Name of the Presbyterians impudent Expectations I also prevailed with our Brethren to offer an Abstract of our larger Papers lest the reading of the larger should seem tedious to the King which Abstract verbatim as followeth at their Desire I drew up and have here after adjoined The first Address and Proposals of the Ministers May it please Your most excellent Majesty WE your Majesty's most Loyal Subjects cannot but acknowledge it as a very great Mercy of God that immediately after your so wonderful and peaceable Restoration unto your Throne and Government for which we âless his Name he hath stirred up your Royal Heart as to a zealous Testimony against all Prophaneness in the People so to endeavour an happy composing of the Differences and healing of the sad Breaches which are in the Church And we shall according to our bounden Duty become humble Suitors at the Throne of Grace that the God of Peace who hath put such a thing as this into your Majesty's Heart will by his heavenly Wisdom and holy Spirit to assist you therein and bring your Resolutions unto so perfect an Effect and Issue that all the good People of these Kingdoms may have abundant Cause to rise up and bless you and to bless God who hath delighted in you to make you his Instrument in so happy a Work That as your glorious Progenitor Henry VII was happy in uniting the Houses of York and Lancaster and your Grandfather King Iames of blessed Memory in uniting the Kingdoms of England and Scotland so this Honour may be reserved for your Majesty as a Radiant Jewel in your Crown that by your Princely Wisdom and Christian Moderation the Hearts of all your People may be united and the unhappy Differences and Misunderstandings amongst Brethren in matters Ecclesiastial so composed that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the midst of your Dominions In an humble Conformity to this your Majesty's Christian Design we taking it for granted that there is a firm Agreement between our Brethren and us in the Doctrinal Truths of the reformed Religion and in the substantial parts of Divine Worship and that the Differences are only in some various Conceptions about the ancient Form of Church-Government and some particulars about Liturgy and Ceremonies do in all humble Obedience to your Majesty represent That in as much as the ultimate end of Church-Government and Ministry is that Holiness of Life and Salvation of Souls may be Effectually promoted we humbly desire in the first place that we may be secured of those things in Practice of which we seem to be agreed in Principles 1. That those of our Flocks who are serious and diligent about the matters of their Salvation may not by Words of Scorn or any abusive Usages be suffered to be reproachfully handled but have Liberty and Encouragement in those Christian Duties of exhorting and provoking one another unto Love and good Works of building up one another in their most holy Faith and by all religious and peaceable means of furthering one another in the ways of eternal Life they being not therein opposite to Church-Assemblies nor refusing the guidance and due Inspection of their Pastors and being responsible for what they do or say 2. That each Congregation may have a learned orthodox and godly Pastor residing amongst them to the end that the People might be publickly instructed and edified by preaching every Lord's Day by Catechising and frequent Administration of the Lord's Supper and of Baptism and other Ministerial Acts as the Occacasions and the Necessity of the People may require both in Health and Sickness and that effectual Provision of Law be made that such as are Insufficient Negligent or Scandalous may not be admitted to or permitted in so Sacred a Function and Imployment 3. That none may be admitted to the Lord's Supper till they competently understand the Principles of Christian Religion and do personally and publickly own their baptismal Covenant by a credible Profession of Faith and Obedience not contradicting the same by a contrary Profession or by a Scandalous Life And that unto such only Confirmation if continued in the Church may be administred And that the Approbation of the Pastors to whom the catechising and instructing of those under their Charge do appertain may be produced before any Person receive Confirmation which Course we humbly conceive will much conduce to the quieting of those sad Disputes and Divisions which have greatly troubled the Church of God amongst us touching Church-Members and Communicants 4. That an effectual Course be taken for the Sanctification of the Lord's Day appropriating the same to holy Exercises both in publick and private without unnecessary Divertisements it being certain and by long Experience found that the Observation thereof is a special means of preserving and promoting the Power of God liness and obviating Prophaneness Then for the Matters in Difference viz. Church-Government
in the Administration of the Discipline of Christ. For further Proof whereof we have that known Testimony of Tertullian in his general Apology for Christians In the Church are used Exhortations Chastisements and divine Censures for Judgment is given with great Advice as among those who are certain they are in the sight of God and it is the chiefest foreshewing of the Judgment that is to come if any Man hath so offended that he be banished from the Communion of Prayer and of the Assembly and of all holy Fellowship The Presidents that bear rule therein are certain approved Elders who have obtained this Honour aud not by Reward but by good Report Who were no other as he himself elsewhere intimateth but those from whose hands they used to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist For with the Bishop who was the Chief President and therefore styled by the same Tertullian in another place Summus Sacerdos for distinction sake the rest of the Dispensors of the Word and Sacraments were joined in the common Government of the Church And therefore in matters of Ecclesiastical Judicature Cornelius Bishop of Rome used the received Form of gathering together the Presbytery Of what Persons that did consist Cyprian sufficiently declareth when he wished him to read his Letters to the flourishing Clergy that there did reside or rule with him The presence of the Clergy being thought to be so requisite in matters of Episcopal Audience that in the fourth Council of Carthage it was concluded that the Bishop might hear no Man's Cause without the Presence of the Clergy which we find also to be inserted into the Canons of Egbert who was Archbishop of York in the Saxons Times and afterwards into the Body of the Canon-Law it self True it is that in our Church this kind of Presbyterian Government hath been long disused yet seeing it still professeth that every Pastor hath a right to rule the Church from whence the Name of Rector also was given at first unto him and to administer the Discipline of Christ as well as to dispence the Doctrine and Sacraments And the restraint of the Exercise of that Right proceedeth only from the Custom now received in this Realm No Man can doubt but by another Law of the Land this Hindrance may be well removed And how easily this ancient Form of Government by the united Suffrages of the Clergy might be revived again and with what little shew of Alteration the Synodical Conventions of the Pastors of every Parish might be accorded with the Presidency of the Bishops of each Diocess and Province the indifferent Reader may quickly perceive by the perusal of the ensuing Proposition I. In every Parish the Rector or the incumbent Pastor together with the Church-wardens and Sidemen may every Week take notice of such as live scandalously in that Congregation who are to receive such several Admonitions and Reproofs as the quality of their Offence shall deserve and if by this means they cannot be reclaimed they may be presented unto the next Monthly Synod and in the mean time be debarred by the Pastor from access unto the Lord's Table II. Whereas by a Statute in the Twenty sixth of King Henry VIII revived in the first Year of Queen Elizabeth Suffragans are appointed to be erected in twenty six several Places of this Kingdom the Number of them might very well be conformed unto the Number of the several rural Deaneries into which every Diocess is subdivided which being done the Suffragan supplying the place of those who in the ancient Church were called Chorepiscopi might every Month assemble a Synod of all the Rectors or incumbent Pastors within the Precinct and according to the major part of their Voices conclude all Matters that should be brought into Debate before them To this Synod the Rector and Churchwardens might present such impenitent Persons as by Admonition and Suspension from the Sacrament would not be reformed who if they should still remain contumacious and incorrigible the Sentence of Excommunication might be decreed against them by the Synod and accordingly be executed in the Parish where they lived Hitherto also all things that concerned the Parochial Ministers might be referred whether they did touch their Doctrine or their Conversation As also the censure of all new Opinions Heresies and Schisms which did arise within that Circuit with Liberty of appeal if need so require unto the Diocesane Synod III. The Diocesane Synod might be held once or twice in the Year as it should be thought most convenient therein all the Suffragans and the rest of the Rectors or Incumbent Pastors or a certain select Number out of every Deanery within that Diocess might meet with whose Consent or the major part of them all things might be concluded by the Bishop or Superintendant call him whither you will or in his Absence by one of the Suffragans whom he should depute in his stead to be Moderator of that Assembly Here all matters of greater Moment might be taken into Consideration and the Orders of the Monthly Synods revised and if need be reformed And if here also any matter of Difficulty could not receive a full Determination it might be referred to the next Provincial or National Synod IV. The Provincial Synod might consist of all the Bishops and Suffragans and such of the Clergy as should be elected out of every Diocess within the Province The Primate of either Province might be the Moderator of this Meeting or in his room some one of the Bishops appointed by him and all Matters be ordered therein by common Consent as in the former Assemblies This Synod might be held every third Year and if the Parliament do then sit according to the Act for a Triennial Parliament both the Primates and Provincial Synods of the Land might join together and make up a National Council wherein all Appeals from inferior Synods might be received all their Acts examined and all Ecclesiastical Constitutions which concern the State of the Church of the whole Nation established May it please your Grace I would desire you to consider whether Presentments are fit to be made by the Churchwardens alone and not rather by the Rector and Churchwardens Then whither in the Diocesan Synod the Members of it be not too many being all to judge and in their own cause as it may fall out Therefore after this Clause and the rest of the Rectors or incumbent Pastors whether it be not fit to interline or four or six out of every Deanery Ri. Holdsworth We are of Judgment that the Form of Government here proposed is not in any point repugnant to the Scripture and that the Suffragans mentioned in the second Proposition may lawfully use the Power both of Jurisdiction and Ordination according to the Word of God and the Practice of the ancient Church § 97. When we went with these foresaid Papers to the King and expected
whom we have to do that our Business is to request you of the Clergy not to provoke the Law-givers to make any Law against this That it may not become a Crime to Men to pray together and provoke one another to Love and to good Works when it is no Crime to talk and play and drink and feast together And that it may be no Crime to repeat a Sermon together unless you resolve that they shall hear none which is worth their repeating and remembring And whereas you speak of opening a Gap to Sectaries for private Conventicles and the evil Consequents to the State we only desire you to avoid also the cherishing of Ignorance and Prophaneness and suppress all Sectaries and spare not in a way that will not suppress the means of Knowledge and Godliness As you will not forbid all praying or preaching lest we should have Sectarian Prayers or Sermons so let not all the People of the Land be prohibited such Assistance to each others Souls as Nature and Scripture oblige them to and all for fear of the Meetings of Sectaries We thought the Cautions in our Petition were sufficient when we confined it Subjectively to those of our Flocks and Objectively to their Duties of exhorting and provoking one another to Love and to good Works and of building up one another in their most holy Faith And only by religious peaceable means of furthering each other in the ways of eternal Life And for the Order They being not opposite to Church-Assemblies but subordinate nor refusing the Guidance and Inspection of their Pastors who may be sometime with them and prescribe them their Work and Way and direct their Actions and being responsible for what they do or say their Doors being open there will not want Witnesses against them if they do amiss And is not all this enough to secure you against the Fear of Sectaries unless all such Helps and mutual Comforts be forbidden to all that are no Sectaries This is but as the Papists do in another Case when they deny People Liberty to read the Scriptures lest they make Men Hereticks or Sectaries And for the Danger of the State cannot Men plot against it in Ale-houses or Taverns or Fields or under Pretence of Horse-Races Hunting Bowles or other Occasions but only under pretence of Worshipping God If they may why are not all Men forbidden to feast or bowl or hunt c. lest Sectaries make advantage of such Meetings as well as to fast and pray God and wise Men know that there is something more in all such Jealousies of Religious Duties § 4. Do you really desire that every Congregation may have an able godly Minister Then cast not out those many Hundreds or Thousands that are approved such for want of Re-ordination or for doubting whether Diocesans with their Chancellors c. may be subscribed to and set not up ignorant ungodly ones in their Places Otherwise the poor undone Churches of Christ will no more believe you in such Professions than we believed that those Men intended the King's just Power and Greatness who took away his Life But you know not what we mean by Residence nor how far we will extend that Word The Word is so plain that it 's easily understood by those that are willing But he that would not know cannot understand as King Charles told Mr. Henderson I doubt the People will quickly find that you did not understand us And yet I more fear lest many a Parish will be glad of Non-residence even if Priest and Curate and all were far enough from them through whose Fault I say not § 5. Two Remedies you give us instead of what we desired for the Reformation of Church-Communion 1. You say Confirmation if rightly and solemnly performed will alone be sufficient as to the point of Instruction Answ. But what we desired was necessary to the right and solemn Performance of it Doth not any Man that knoweth what hath been done in England and what People dwell there know that there are not more ignorant People in this Land than such as have had and such as desire Episcopal Confirmation Is it Sufficient in point of Instruction for a Bishop to come among a company of little Children and other People whom he he never saw before and of whom he never heard a Word and of whom he never asketh a Question which may inform him of their Knowledge or Life and presently to lay his Hands on them in order and hastily say over a few Lines of Prayer and so dismiss them I was confirmed by honest Bishop Morton with a multitude more who all went to it as a May-game and kneeled down and he dispatched us with that short Prayer so fast that I scarce understood one word he said much less did he receive any Certificate concerning us or ask us any thing which might tell him whether we were Christians and I never saw nor heard of much more done by any English Bishop in his course of Confirmation If you say that more is required in the Rubrick I say then it is no Crime for us to desire it 2. And for your Provision in the other Rubrick again scandalous Communicants it enableth not the Minister to put away any one of them all save only the malicious that will not just then be reconciled Be not angry with us if in sorrow of Heart we pray to God that his Churches may have experienced Pastors who have spent much time in serious dealing with every one of their Parishes personally and know what they are and what they need instead of Men that have conversed only with Books and the Houses of great Men or when they do sometimes stoop to speak to the ignorant do but talk to them of the Market or the Weather or ask them what is their Name § 6. To your Answer we reply Those Laws may be well made stricter They hindred not the Imposition of a Book to be read by all Ministers in the Churches for the Peoples Liberty for Dancing and other such Sports on the Lord's Day and this in the King's Name to the ejecting or suspending of those Ministers that durst not read it And those Laws which we have may be more carefully executed If you are ignorant how commonly the Lord's Day is prophaned in England by Sporting Drinking Revelling and Idleness you are sad Pastors that no better know the Flock If you know it and desire not the Reformation of it you are yet worse Religion never prospered any where so much as where the Lord's Days have been most carefully spent in holy Exercises Concerning Church-Government § 7. Had you well read but Gersom Bucer Didoclavius Parker Baynes Salmasius Blondell c. yea of the few Lines in Bishop Usher's Reduction which we have offered you or what I have written of it in Disp. 1. of Church-Government you would have seen just Reason given for our Dissent from the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy as stated in England and have known
that it is unlike the primitive Episcopacy But if that which must convince you must be brought nearer your Eyes by God's help we ãâã to do that fully whenever we are called to it 8. The Words which you here except against with Admiration of the Corruptions Partialities Tyranny which Church-Government by a single Person is lyable to was taken by us out of the Book commonly ascribed to King Charles himself called Icon. Basil. but we purposely supprest his Name to try whether you would not be as bitter against his Words as against ours and did not esteem Fidem per personas non personas per fidem And further we reply it is one thing for a Bishop to rule alone when there are no Presbyters or to rule the Presbyters themselves alone and another thing when he hath Presbyters yet to rule all the Flock alone for by this means he quoad Exercitium at least degradeth all the rest or changeth their Office which is to guide as well as to teach As if the General of an Army or the Collonel of a Regiment should rule all the Souldiers alone doth he not then depose all his Captains Lieutenants Cornets Corporals Serjeants c. But especially it is one thing for Ignatius his Bishop of one Church that had but one Altar to rule it alone though yet he commandeth the People to obey their Presbyters and another thing for an English Diocesan to rule a Thousand such Churches alone And when all is done do they rule alone indeed Or doth not a Lay-Chancellor exercise the Keys so far as is necessary to suppress private Meetings for Fasting and Prayer c. and to force all to the Sacrament and enforce the Ceremonies and some such things and for the great Discipline it is almost altogether left undone We are sorry that you should be able to be ignorant of this or if you know it that such Camels stick not with you but go down so easily Instances of things amiss § 9. 1. That which you cannot grant that the Diocesses are to great you would quickly grant if you had ever conscionably tryed the task which Dr. Hammond describeth as the Bishops Work yea but for one Parish or had ever believed Ignatius and other ancient Descriptions of a Bishop's Church But is it faithful dealing with your Brethren or your Consciences pardon our Freedom in so weighty a Case to dispute as though you made a Bishop but an Archbishop to see by a general Inspection of the Parish-Pastors that they do their Office and as if they only ruled the Rulers of the particular Flocks which you know we never strove against when as no knowing English Man can be ignorant that our Bishops have the sole Government of Pastors and People having taken all Jurisdiction or proper Government or next all from the particular Pastors of the Parishes to themselves alone Is not the Question rather as whether the King can rule all the Kingdom by the Chancellor or a few such Officers without all the Justices and Mayors or whether one Schoolmaster shall only rule a thousand Schools and all the other Schoolmasters only teach them You know that the depriving of all the Parish Pastors of the Keys of Government is the matter of our greatest Controversies Not as it is any hurt to them but to the Church and a certain Exclusion of all true Discipline And whether the Office of the Bishops of particular Churches infimi Ordinis velâ gradus be not for Personal Inspection and Ministration as well as the Office of a Shoolmaster or Physician you will better know when you come to try it faithfully or answer fearfully for Unfaithfulness We know that the knowing Lord Bacon in his Considerations saith so as well as we And for what you say of Suffragââs you know there are none such § 10. 2. We are glad that in so great a matter as Lay-Chancellors Exercise of the Keys in Excommunications and Absolutions you are forced plainly and without any Excuse to confess the Errors of the way of Government And let this stand on Record before the World to Justify us when we shall be silenced and reproached as Schismaticks for desiring the Reformation of such Abuses and for not swearing Canonical Obedience to such a Government § 11. 3. And you have almost as little to say in this Case Mark Reader that we must all be silenced and cast out of our Offices if we subscribe not to the Book of Ordination ex Animo as having nothing contrary to the Word of God And the very Preface of that beginneth with the Affirmation of this Distinction of Orders Offices Functions from the Apostles Days and one of the Prayers ascribeth it to the Spirit of God and yet now it is here said that whether a Bishop be a distinct Order from a Presbyter or not is none of the Question That must be none of the Question when the King calleth them to treat for a Reconciliation or Unity which will be out of Question against us when we are called to subscribe or are to be forbidden to preach the Gospel And let what is here confessed for Presbyters Assistance in Ordination stand on Record against them when it is neglected or made an insignificant Ceremony § 12. 4. In the last also you give up your Cause and yet it 's well if you will amend it Whether the Canons be Laws let the Lawyers judge And whether all the Bishops Books of Articles as against making Scripture our Table-talk and many such others be either Laws or according to Law let the World judge The Remedies offered for reforming these Evils § 13. 1. Whereas to avoid all Exception or frustrating Contentions or Delays we offered only Bishop Usher's Platform subscribed also by Dr. Holdsworth that the World might see that it is Episcopacy it self that we plead for you tell us that it was formed many Years before his Death and is not consistent with two other of his Discourses In which either you would intimate that he contradicteth himself and could not speak consistently or that he afterward retracted this Reduction For the first We must believe that many Men can reconcile their own Writings when some Readers cannot as better understanding themselves than others do And that this reverend Bishop was no such raw Novice as not to know when he contradicted himself in so publick and practical a Case as a Frame of Church-Government Nor was he such an Hypocrite as to play fast and loose in the things of God But upon Debate we undertake to vindicate his Writings from this Aspersion of Inconsistency only you must not take him to mean that all was well done which as an Historian he saith was done And as to any Retraction one of us my self is ready to witness that he owned it not long before his Death as a Collection of fit Terms to reconcile the Moderate in these Points and told him that he offered it the late King And
necessary Engines for the dividing and persecuting of the Church But judge thou O Lord according to thy righteousness in the day which is comming But the Examples of Corporation and Colledges are brought in who prevent Offences by Subscriptions and Oaths And even so hath Christ whose Spirit would impose nothing on the Churches but things necessary appointed a Vow and Solemn Covenant to be the way of Entrance into his Church And the Apish Spirit which followeth him to counter-work him by the Addition of Humane Churches Sacraments and Ordinances doth also imitate him in making their Oaths and Promises necessary to engage Men to their Service and Institutions as Christ hath made Baptism necessary to engage us to his Service and Institutions And your Arguments for Diocesans are so weak that we wonder not that you think both Oaths Subscriptions Prisons Confiscations and Banishments necessary to enforce them What you add of such Persons as have themselves exacted Conditions of their Communion not warranted by Law we understand not Either the Law warranteth Men to own Christ for their Saviour and to own their own Membership in the particular Church which they demand constant Communion with or it doth not If it do not we have reason to desire more than is warranted by that Law If it do you should have done well to instance what Persons and what Exactions you mean If you speak this of all the Churches of theâ Land that dislikeâ your Prelacy it is too gross an untruth to have been uttered in the Light If you speak only of some Persons or Parties that is no reason why others should be deprived of their Liberty and Ministry Nor indeed is it good Arguing that such Oaths and Subscriptions as the Church of old did never know may be imposed by the Laws of Men because some Brethren have lately required such Conditions of their Communion as are imposed by the Laws of God But let us prevail with you to drive this no further than the Persons whoever they be did drive it whom you blame Their utmost Penalty on the Refusers of their Conditions was Non-Communion with them A thing which many of you voluntarily chose Let this be all our Penalty for refusing your Oaths and Subscriptions if we can get no better from you But shall we be Silenced Imprisoned Confiscated Banished for refusing your Oaths and Subscriptions because somebody imposed Things which the Law allowed not in order to their own Communion These are no fit Proportions of Justice § 17. Out of your own Mouths then is your Government condemned What Act of Parliament ratified your Canons What Law imposed Altars Rails and the forcing of Ministers to read the Book for Dancing on the Lord's Days Or what Law did ratifie many Articles of your Visitation Books And did the Laws sufficiently provide for all those poor Ministers that were Silenced or Suspended for not reading the Dancing Book or any such things What the better were all those for the Laws that were Silenced or driven into Forreign Lands But perhaps the Laws will provide for us indeed as you desire Concerning the Liturgy § 18. 1. The Doctrine is sound But the Apocryphal Matter of your Lessons in Tobith Iudith Bell and the Dragon c. is scare agreeable to the Word of God 2. Whether it be fitly suited let our Exceptions and other Papers be heard before your Judgment go for infallible 3. What Mens Prayers you take your Measure or Encouragement from we know not But we are sure that if all the Common Prayers be twice a day read the time for Psalms and Sermons will be short And yet were they free from disorder and desectiveness in Matter we could the better bear with the length though other Prayers and Sermons were partly excluded by them 4. Though we live in the same Countreys we scarce differ any where more than in our very Experiences Our Experience unresistably convinceth us that a continued Prayer doth more to help most of the People and carry on their Desires than turning almost every Petition into a distinct Prayer and making Prefaces and Conclusions to be near half the Prayers And if the way of Prayer recorded in Scripture even in the Jews Church where Infirmity might be pleaded more than now were such as yours we shall say no more in that against it But if it were not be not wise then overmuch 5. We are content that the Liturgy have such Repetitions as the Scriptures have so it may have no other And we are content that all Extemporate Prayer be restrained which is guilty of as much Tautology and vain Repetition as the Liturgy is If this much will satisfie you we are agreed 6. Nor are we against any such Responsals as are fit to the Ends you mention If ours are all such upon impartial Examination let them stand 7. But the Question is 1. Whether the Greek and Latin Churches in the three first Ages or those of later Ages be more imitable 2. And whether the other Reformed Churches have not more imitated the ancientest of those Churches though we have more imitated the latter and more corrupt 3. And whether our first work be to stop the Papists Mouths by pleasing them or coming too near them when we know they that are likest them in all their Corruptions please them best Yet are we not for any unnecessary difference from them or affection of causless singularity As to the Reformed Churches Testimony of our Liturgy shall their very Charity become our Snare If they had liked our Form of Prayers best they would some of them have imitated us And our Martyrs no doubt they honoured as we do not as suffering for the Modes and Ceremonies of that Book as opposite to the Reformed Churches Mode for so they suffered not but as suffering for the Sound Doctrine and True Worship of the Protestants as opposite to Popery and the Mass. § 19. Your Reasons to prove your Impositions not too rigorous are 1. Because they are by Law If we tell you that so is the Spanish Inquisition you 'l say we compare our Law-givers to the Spaniards If we say that your New-mentioned Martyrs were burnt by Law in England you 'l say that we compare them to Papists But all these are Laws And so are those in Reformed Countreys which are against Bishops and Ceremonies Do you therefore think them not too rigorous 2. Your other Reason is that the Rigour is no more then is necessary to make the Imposition effectual You never spake words more agreeable to your hearts as far as by your Practices we can judge of them Either you mean effectual to change Mens Iudgments or effectual to make them go against their Iudgments or effectual to rid them out of the Land or World The first you know they are unfit for If you think otherwise would you that your Judgments should have such kind of helps to have set them right The second way they will be
the ruling of the People whose Rectors they are called And when I perceived some Offence at what I said I told them that we had not the Judgments of Men at our command We could not in reason suppose that our Concessions or any thing we could do would change the Judgments of any great Numbers and therefore we must consider what will unite us in case their Judgments be not changed or else we labour to no purpose § 109. But Bishop Morley told them how great our Power was and what we might do if we were willing and he told the King that no Man had written better of these Matters than I had done and there my five Disputations of Church Government c. lay ready to be produced and all was to intimate as if I now contradicted what I had there written I told him that I had best reason to know what I had written and that I am still of the same mind and stand to it all and do not speak any thing against it A great many words there were about Prelacy and Re-ordination Dr. Gunning and Bishop Morley speaking almost all on one side and Dr. Hinchman and Dr. Cosens sometimes and Mr. Calamy and my self most on the other side But I think neither Party doth value the rambling Discourses of that Day so much as to think them worthy the recording Mr. Calamy answered Dr. Gunning from Scripture very well against the Divine Right of Prelacy as a distinct Order And when Dr. Gunning told them that Dr. Hammond had said enough against the Presbyterains Cause and Ordination and was yet unanswered I thought it meet to tell him that I had answered the Substance of his Arguments and said enough moreover against the Diocesan Frame of Government and to prove the validity of the English Presbyters Ordination which indeed was unanswered though I was very desirous to have seen an Answer to it which I said because they had got the Book by them and because I thought the unreasonableness of their dealing might be evinced who force so many hundreds to be Re-ordained and will not any of them answer one Book which is written to prove the validity of that Ordination which they would have nullified though I provoked them purposely in such a Presence § 110. The most of the time being spent thus in speaking to Particulars of the Declaration as it was read when we came to the end the Lord Chancellour drew out another Paper and told us that the King had been petitioned also by the Independants and Anabaptists and though he knew not what to think of it himself and did not very well like it yet something he had drawn up which he would read to us and desire us also to give our Advice about it Thereupon he read as an Addition to the Declaration That others also be permitted to meet for Religious Worship so be it they do it not to the disturbance of the Peace and that no Iustice of Peace or Officer disturb them When he had read it he again desired them all to think on it and give their Advice But all were silent The Presbyterians all perceived as soon as they heard it that it would secure the Liberty of the Papists and one of them whispered me in the Ear and intreated me to say nothing for it was an odious Business but let the Bishops speak to it But the Bishops would not speak a word nor any one of the Presbyterians neither and so we were like to have ended in that Silence I knew if we consented to it it would be charged on us that we spake for a Toleration of Papists and Sectaries But yet it might have lengthened out our own And if we spake against it all Sects and Parties would be set against us as the Causers of their Sufferings and as a partial People that would have Liberty our selves but would have no others have it with us At last seeing the Silence continue I thought our very Silence would be charged on us a Consent if it went on and therefore I only said this That this Reverend Brother Dr. Gunning even now speaking against Sects had named the Papists and the Sââinians For our parts we desired not favour to our selves alone and rigorous Severity we desired against none As we humbly thanked his Majesty for his Indulgence to our selves so we distinguish the tolerable Parties from the intolerable For the former we humbly crave just lenity and favour but for the latter such as the two sorts named before by that Reverend Brother for our parts we cannot make their Toleration our request To which his Majesty said That there were Laws enough against the Papists and I replyed That we understood the Question to be whether those Laws should be executed on them or not And so his Majesty brake up the Meeting of that Day § 111. Before the Meeting was dissolved his Majesty had all along told what he would have stand in the Declaration and he named four Divines to determine of any Words in the Alteration if there were any difference that is Bishop Morley Bishop Hinchman Dr. Reignolds and Mr. Calamy and if they disagreed that the Earl of Anglesey and the Lord Hollis should decide it As they went out of the Room I told the Earl of Anglesey That we had no other business there that day but the Curches peace and welfare and I would not have been the Man that should have done so much against it as he had done that day for more than he was like to get by it for being called a Presbyterian he had spoken more for Prelacy than we expected And I think by the Consequent that this saying did some good for when I after found the Declaration amended and asked him how it came to pass he intimated to me that it was his doing § 112. And here you may note by the way the fashion of these Times and the state of the Presbyterians Any Man that was for a Spiritual serious way of Worship though he were for moderate Episcopacy and Liturgy and that lived according to his Profession was called commonly a Presbyterian as formerly he was called a Puritan unless he joyned himself to Independents Anabaptists or some other Sect which might afford him a more odious Name And of the Lords he that was for Episcopacy and the Liturgy was called a Presbyterian if he endeavoured to procure any Abatement of their Impositions for the Reconciling of the Parties or the ease of the Ministers and People that disliked them And of the Ministers he was called a Presbyterian that was for Episcopacy and Liturgy if he conformed not so far as to Subscribe or Swear to the English Diocesan Frame and all their Impositions I knew not of any one Lord at Court that was a Presbyterian yet were the Earl of Manchester a good Man and the Earl of Anglesey and the Lord Hollis called Presbyterians and as such appointed to direct and help
within four or five days I happened to find Sir Ralph Clare with the Bishop again and shewed him the hands of Sixteen hundred Communicants with an offer of more if they might have time all very earnest for my Return Sir Ralph was silenced as to that point but he and the Bishop appeared so much the more against my Return § 155. The Letter which the Lord Chancellour upon his own offer wrote for me to Sir Ralph Clare he gave at my request unsealed and so I took a Copy of it before I sent it away as thinking the chief use would be to keep it and compare it with their Dealings and it was as followeth To my noble Friend Sir Ralph Clare These SIR I Am a little out of Countenance that after the discovery of such a desire in his Majesty that Mr. Baxter should be setled at Kidderminster as he was heretofore and my promise to you by the King's Direction that Mr. Dance should very punctually receive a Recompence by way of a Rent upon his or your Bills charged here upon my Steward Mr. Baxter hath yet no fruit of this his Majesty's good intention towards him so that he hath too much reason to believe that he is not so frankly dealt with in this particular as he deserves to be I do again tell you that it will be very acceptable to the King if you can perswade Mr. Dance to surrender that Charge to Mr. Baxter and in the mean time and till he is preferred to as profitable an Imployment whatever Agreement you shall make with him for an Annual Rent it shall be paid Quarterly upon a Bill from you charged upon my Steward Mr. Clutterbucke and for the exact performance of this you may securely pawn your full Credit I do most earnestly intreat you that you will with all speed inform me what we may depend upon in this particular that we may not keep Mr. Baxter in suspense who hath deserved very well from his Majesty and of whom his Majesty hath a very good Opinion and I hope you will not be the less desirous to Comply with him for the particular Recommendation of SIR Your very affectionate Servant Edw. Hyde § 156. Can any thing be more serious and cordial and obliging than all this For a Lord Chancellour that hath the Business of the Kingdom upon his hand and Lords attending him to take up his time so much and often about so low a Person and so small a thing And should not a Man be content without a Vicaridge or a Curatship when it is not in the power of the King and the Lord Chancellour to procure it for him when they so vehemently desire it But O thought I how much better a Life do poor Men live who speak as they think and do as they profess and are never put upon such Shifts as these for their present Conveniences Wonderful thought I that Men who do so much over-value worldly Honour and Esteem can possibly so much forget futurity and think only of the present day as if they regarded not how their Actions be judged of by Posterity For all this extraordinary favour since the Day that the King came in I never received as his Chaplain or as a Preacher or upon any account the value of one farthing of any Publick Maintenance so that I and many a hundred more had not had a piece of bread but for the voluntary Contribution whilst we preached of another sort of People Yea while I had all this excess of favour I would have taken it indeed for an excess as being far beyond my expectations if they would but have given me liberty to preach the Gospel without any Maintenance and leave me to beg my Bread § 157. And this bringeth to my remembrance the Motion which I oft made to my Brethren when they were oft admitted to the King and thought themselves in so great favour and had Bishopricks and Deaneries offered them and the Ministers of the Land had such high Expectations I motioned to them that now while the World would blush at the denial we might Petition for a bare Liberty to preach for nothing in the Publick Churches at those hours of the Lord's Day and those days of the week when the Ministers that are put into our Places are vacant and are not there But the Brethren thought this was to come down our selves before they took us down But the time quickly came when we would have been glad of this much § 158. A little after this Sir Ralph Clare and others caused the Houses of the People of the Town of Kidderminster to be searcht for Arms and if any had a Sword it was taken from them And meeting him after with the Bishop I desired him to tell us why his Neighbours were so used as if he would have made the World believe that they were Seditious or Rebels or dangerous Persons that should be used as Enemies to the King He answered me That it was because they would not bring out their Arms when they were commanded but said they had none whenas they had Arms upon every occasion to appear with on the behalf of Cromwell This great disingenuity of so ancient a Gentleman towards his Neighbours whom he pretended kindness to made me brake forth into some more than ordinary freedom of reproof and I answered him That we have thought our Condition hard in that by Strangers that know us not we should be ordinarily traduced and misrepresented but this was most sad and marvellous that a Gentleman so Civil should before the Bishop speak such words against a Corporation which he knew I was able to confute and are so contrary to truth I asked him whether he did not know that I publickly and privately spake against the Usurpers and declared them to be Rebels and whether he took not the People to be of my mind and whether I and they had not hazarded our Liberty by refusing the Engagement against the King and House of Lords when he and others of his Mind had taken it He confessed that I had been against Cromwell but they had always on every occasion appeared in Arms for him I told him that he struck me with admiration that it should be possible for him to live in the Town and yet believe what he said to be true or yet to speak it in our hearing if he knew it to be untrue And I professed that having lived there Sixteen years since the Wars I never knew that they once appeared in Arms for Cromwell or any Usurpers and challenged him upon his word to name one time I could not get him to name any time till I had urged him to the utmost and then he instanced in the time when the Scots Army fled from Worcester I challenged him to name one Man of them that was at Worcester Fight or bare Arms there or at any time for the Usurpers And when he could name none I told him that all that
was done to my knowledge in Sixteen years of that kind was but this that when the Scots fled from Worcester as all the Country sought in covetousness to catch some of them for their Horses so two idle Rogues of Kedderminster that never communicated with me any more than he did had drawn two or three of their Neighbours with them in the Night as the Scots fled to catch their Horses And I never heard of three that they catcht And I appealed to the Bishop and his Conscience whether he that being urged could name no more but this did ingenuously Accuse the Corporation Magistrates and People to have appeared on all occasion in Arms for Cromwell And when they had no more to say I told them by this we saw what measures to expect from Strangers of his mind when he that is our Neighbour and noted for eminent Civility never sticketh to speak such things even of a People among whom he hath still lived § 159. About the same time about Twenty or Two and twenty furious Fanaticks called Fifth-Monarchy-men one Venner a Wine-Cooper and his Church that he preached unto being transported with Enthusiastick Pride did rise up in Arms and fought in the Streets like Mad-men against all that stood in their way till they were some kill'd and the rest taken judged and executed I wrote a Letter at this time to my Mother-in-law containing nothing but our usual matter even Encouragements to her in her Age and Weakness fetcht from the nearness of her Rest together with the Report of this News and some sharp and vehement words against the Rebels By the means of Sir Iohn Packington or his Soldiers the Post was searched and my Letter intercepted opened and revised and by Sir Iohn sent up to London to the Bishop and the Lord Chancellour so that it was a wonder that having read it they were not ashamed to send it up But joyful would they have been could they but have found a word in it which could possibly have been distorted to an evil sence that Malice might have had its Prey I went to the Lord Chancellour and complained of this usage and that I had not the common liberty of a Subject to converse by Letters with my own Family He disowned it and blamed Mens rashness but excused it from the Distempers of the Times and he and the Bishops confessed they had seen the Letter and there was nothing in it but what was good and pious And two days after came the Lord Windsor Lord Lieutenant of the Country and Governour of Iamaica with Sir Charles Littleton the King's Cup bearer to bring me my Letter again to my Lodgings and the Lord Windsor told me The Lord Chancellour appointed him to do it After some expression of my sense of the Abuse I thanked him for his great Civility and Favour But I saw how far that sort of Men were to be trusted § 160. And here I will interpose a short Account of my Publick Ministry in London Being removed from my ancient Flock in Worcestershire and yet being uncertain whether I might return to them or not I refused to take any other Charge but preached up and down London for nothing according as I was invited When I had done thus above a year I thought a fixed place was better and so I joyned with Dr. Bates at St. Dunstan's in the West in Fleâtstreet and preached once a week for which the People allowed me some Maintenance Before this time I scarce ever preached a Sermon in the City but I had News from Westminster that I had preached seditiously or against the Government when I had neither a thought nor a word of any such tendency Sometimes I preached purposely against Faction Schism Sedition and Rebellion and those Sermons also were reported to be Factious and Seditious Some Sermons ãâã Covent Garden were so much accused that I was fain to print them the Book is called The Formal Hypocrite detected c But when the Sermons were printed I had not a word more against them The Accusations were all general of Sedition and Faction and against the Church but not one Syllable charged in particular § 161. The Congregations being crowded was that which provoked Envy to accuse me And one day the Crowd did drive me from my place It fell out that at Dunstan's Church in the midst of Sermon a little Lime and Dust and perhaps a piece of a Brick or two fell down in the Steeple or Belfray near the Boys which put the whole Congregation into sudden Melancholy so that they thought that âhe Steeple and Church were falling which put them all into so confused a haste to get away that indeed the Noise of the Feet in the Galleries sounded like the falling of the Stories so that the People crowded out of Doors the Women left some of them a Skarf and some a Shoe behind them and some in the Galleries cast themselves down upon those below because they could not get down the Stairs I sate still down in the Pulpit seeing and pitying their vain Distemper and assoon as I could be heard I intreated their Silence and went on The People were no sooner quieted and got in again and the Auditory composed but some that stood upon a Wainscot-Bench near the Communion Table brake the Bench with their weight so that the Noise renewed the Fear again and they were worse disordered than before so that one old Woman was heard at the Church Door asking forgiveness of God for not taking the first warning and promising if God would deliver her this once she would take heed of coming thither again When they were again quieted I went on But the Church having before an ill name as very old and rotten and dangerous this put the Parish upon a Resolution to pull down all the Roof and build it better which they have done with so great Reparation of the Walls and Steeple that it is now like a new Church and much more commodious for the Hearers § 162. While I was here also the daily Clamours of Accusers even wearied me No one ever questioned me nor instanced in any culpable words but in general all was against the Church and Government Upon which and the request of the Countess of Balcaries one of my Hearers a Person of exemplary worth I was fain to publish many of my Sermons verbatim on 2 Cor. 13. 5. in a Book called The Mischiefs of Self-ignorance and Benefits of Self-acquaintance And when the Book was printed without alteration then I heard no more of any Fault § 163. Upon this Reparation of Dunstan's Church I preached out my Quarter at Brides Church in the other end of Fleetstreet where the Common Prayer being used by the Curate before Sermon I occasioned abundance to be at Common Prayer which before avoided it And yet my Accusations still continued § 164. On the Week days Mr. Ashurst with about Twenty more Citizens desired me to preach a Lecture in
latter end where I had purposely been brief because I had been too large in the beginning and because Particulars may be answered satisfactority in a few Words when the General Differences are fully cleared § 188. By this time our Commission was almost expired and therefore our Brethren were earnestly desirous of personal Debates with them upon the Papers put in to try how much Alteration they would yield to Therefore we sent to the Bishops to desire it of them and at last they yielded to it when we had but Ten Days more to treat § 189. When we met them I delivered them the Answer of their former Papers the largeness of which I saw displeased them and they received it And we earnestly prest them to spend the little time remaining in such pacifying Conference as tended to the ends which are mentioned in the King's Declaration and Commission and told them that such Disputes which they had called us to by their manner of Writing were not the thing which we desired or thought most conducing to those ends § 190. I have reason to think that the Generality of the Bishops and Doctors present never knew what we offered them in the reformed Liturgy nor in this Reply nor in any of our Papers save those few which we read openly to them For they were put up and carried away and I conjecture scarce any but the Writers of their Confutations would be at the Labour of reading them over And I remember in the midst of our last Disputation when I drew out the short Preface to this last Reply which Mr. Calamy wrote to enumerate in the beginning before their Eyes many of the grossest Corruptions which they stifly defended and refused to reform the Company was more ashamed and silent than at any thing else that I had said by which I perceived that they had never read or heard that very Preface which was as an Epistle to themselves Yea the chief of them confessed when they bid me read it that they knew no such thing So that it seems before they knew what was in them they resolved to reject our Papers right or Wrong and to deliver them up to their Contradictors § 191. When we came to our Debates I first craved of them their Animadversions on our Additions and Alterations of the Liturgy which we had put in long before and that they would tell us what they allowed or disallowed in them that we might have the use of them according to the Words in the King's Declaration and Commission But they would not by any Importunity be intreated at all to debate that nor to give any of their Opinions about those Papers There were no Papers that ever we offered them that had the Fate of those Though it was there that some of them thought to have found recriminating matter of Exception yet could we never prevail with them to say any thing about them in Word or Writing but once Bishop Morley told us of their length to which I answered that we had told them in our Preface that we were ready to abbreviate any thing which on debate should appear too long but that the Purity of the Prayers made the ordinary Lord's day Prayers far should than theirs And since we had given our Exceptions against theirs if they would neither by Word nor Writing except against ours nor yet give their Consent to them they would not honour their Cause or Conference But all could not extort either Debates on that Subject or any Reprehensions of what we had offered them Nor have they since to this Day in any of their Writings which ever I could see or hear of said a Word in way of Exception against those Papers Yea when Roger L'Estrange himself wrote according to his manner a malicious Invective against our several Papers when they were afterwards printed he could find little to say against our Liturgy but that we left it to the Liberty of the Minister in several Cases to pray in these Words or to this Sense And is that all the fault besides the Length forementioned Did they not know that it belongeth to the Prelates and not to such as we to deprive Men of their Liberty in praying If they had desired it how easy had it been for them to have dasht out that one Clause or to this Sense and then it had been beyond their Exception What measure of Liberty Ministers shall have it is not we but they that must determine § 192. When they had cast out that part of our desired Conference our next business was to desire them by friendly Conference to go over the Particulars which we excepted against and to tell us how much they could abate and what Alterations they could yield to This Bishop Reignolds oft prest them to and so did all the rest of us that spake But they resolutely insisted on it that they had nothing to do till we had proved that there was any necessary of Alteration which we had not yet done and that they were there ready to answer to our Proofs We urged them again and again with the very Words of the King's Declaration and Commission 1. That the ends expressed are for the removal of all Exceptions and Occasions of Exceptions and Differences from among our good Subjects and for giving Satisfaction to tender Consciences and the restoring and continuance of Peace and Unity in the Churches 2. And the means is to make such reasonable and necessary Alterations Corrections and Amendments therein as shall be agreed upon to be needful and expedient for the giving Satisfaction to tender Consciences and restoring and continuing Peace c. We plainly shewed hence that the King supposeth that some Alterations must be made But the Bishops insisted on two Words necessary Alterations and such as should be agreed on We answered them That the Word necessary hath reference to the Ends expressed viz. the satisfying tender Consciences and is joined with Expedient And its strange if when the King hath so long and publickly determined of the End and called us to consult of the means we should presume now at last to contradict him and to determine that the End it self is unnecessary and consequently no means necessary thereto What then have we all this while been doing 2. And when they are called to agree on such necessary means if they will take the Adventage of that Word to agree on nothing that so all Endeavours may be frustrated for want of their Agreement God and the World would judge between us who it is that frustrateth the King's Commission and the Hopes of a divided bleeding Church Thus we continued a long time contending about this Point Whether some Alterations be supposed by the King's Declaration and Commission to be made by us or whether we were anew to dispute that Point But the Bishops would have that to be our Task or none to prove by Disputation that any Alteration was necessary to be made while
they confuted our Proofs We told them that the End being to satisfy tender Consciences and procure Unity those tender Consciences did themselves profess that without some Alteration and that considerable too they could not be satisfied and Experience told them that Peace and Unity could not without it be attained But still they said that none was necessary and they would yield to all that we proved necessary And here we were lest in a very great Strait If we should enter upon Dispute with them we gave up the End and Hope of our endeavours If we refused it we knew that they would boast that when it came to the setting to we would not so much as attempt to prove any thing unlawful in the Liturgy nor durst dispute it with them Mr. Calamy with some others of our Brethren would have had us refuse the Motion of disputing as not tending to fulfil the King's Commands We told the Bishops over and over that they could not choose but know that before we could end one Argument in a Dispute our time would be expired and that it could not possibly tend to any Accommodation And that to keep off from personal Conference till within a few Days of the Expiration of the Commission and then to resolve to do nothing but wrangle out the time in a Dispute as if we were between jeast and earnest in the Schools was too visibly in the sight of all the World to defeat the King's Commission and the Expectations of many Thousands who longed for our Unity and Peace But we spoke to the Deaf they had other Ends and were other Men and had the Art to suit the means unto their Ends. For my part when we faw that they would do nothing else I persuaded our Brethren to yield to a Disputation with them and let them understand that we were far from fearing it seeing they would give us no hopes of Concord but withal first to profess to them that the Guilt of disappointing his Majesty and the Kingdom lay not upon us who desired to obey the King's Commission but on them And so we yielded to spend the little time remaining in disputing with them rather than go home and do nothing and leave them to tell the Court that we durst not dispute with them when they so provoked us nor were able to prove our Accusations of the Liturgy § 193. When this was resolved on we spent many Hours with them about the Order of our Disputation I offered them to spend one half of the time in the Opponents part if they would promise to do the like the other half of the time when we had done that our Disputation might be on equal Terms They refused this and answered That it belonged to us only to argue who were the Accusers and not at all to them who were on the Defence I told them it was we that are the Defendants against their Impositions They command us to do such and such things or else we shall be excommunicate silenced imprisoned and undone We desend our selves against this cruelty by calling upon them to shew their Authority from God for such Impositions Therefore we still call upon them to prove that God hath authorised them to any such thing And if they refuse this they do give up their Cause We offered first to prove the unlawfulness of their Impositious if they would afterward prove the lawfulness of them or their Power so to impose them On these Terms we stood with them about two Days and they would not yield to prove any thing at all At last I oft declared to them that we would do our part and prove their Impositions unlawful whether they would do their part or on but with an open Declaration that we took them for Deserters of their Cause At last Dr. Pierson alone undertook that he would dispute for their Part when we had performed ours and we accepted of his Undertaking § 194. Upon this seeing it was to be all done in Writing the rest of the Commissioners on both sides did choose three of a Party to manage the Dispute that the other might withdraw themselves because they had no more to do The Bishops chose Dr. Pierson Dr. Gunning and Dr. Sparrow The other side chose Dr. Bates Dr. Iacomb and my self for I never medled with the choice of any only I would âain have had Mr. William Moses Mr. Gibbons and Mr. Matthew Pool into the Commission that I might have had their help in Disputing because they were very quick ingenuous Men and I could not prevail The rest of our Brethren presently withdrew and not a Man of them came near us any more as supposing it contrary to the Agreement But the Bishops came some of them from day to day indeed on the second day they asked whether any more them the Disputants might be present And I answered them That we cared not how many of them were present And after that others that were not in the Commission asked whether they might be present and I told them the same So that there came Dr. Pory Dr. Crowther and almost the Room full of them with two or three Scholars and Lay-men that as Auditors came in with us Mr. Miles Mr. Tillotson c. § 195. When I began our first Argument to prove their Impositions sinful Bishop Cosins was offended at the Word sinful and told me that I condemned all the Churches of Christ who all of them imposed some Gesture or other as much as that came to and what intollerable Boldness was it in us to charge all the Churches of Christ with Sin I answered him 1. That many of the reformed Churches did not impose any such thing on their Terms that is to reject all from the Ministry and Communion that conformed not 2. It was no Arrogance nor Uncharitableness to charge all the Church and World with Sin But he that saith he hath no Sin is a Lyar In many things we offend all It is the Priviledge of the Triumphant Church to be without Sin This they stormed at and yet could not tell how to deny it Bishop Lany said That justified Persons have no Sin and are no Sinners because Iustification taketh it away But when I answered him by opening the Nature of Justification and shewing that it took not away the Sin it self but the Guilt which is the Obligation to Punishment he was confounded and unsaid all again and knew not what he said I told him that he might see how near we came to him I confessed that if the Controversy were but de Nomine and he took Justification as some do for Sanctification or a Change of our Qualities and Actions then I granted him that it took away Sin it self but not perfectly and therefore Sin still remained Here he and some more said that no Man before me ever took Justification in any such Sence and they laughed at me I answered that I was glad to hear him say so
for my fear that he symbolized with the Papists was abated now I perceived that he knew not what they held And Dr. Gunning answered against him and said that the Papists do so use the Word I went on and told him That I also granted that a Man for a certainspace might he without any Act of Sin end as I was proceeding here Bishop Morley interrupted me according to his manner with vehemency crying out what can any Man be for any time without Sin And he founded out his Aggravations of this Doctrine and then cryed to Dr. Bates what say you Dr. Bates is this your Opinion Saith Dr. Bates I believe that we are all Sinners but I pray my Lord give him leave to speak I began to go on to the rest of my Sentence where I lest to shew the Sense and Truth of my Words and the Bishop whether in Passion or Design I know not interrupted me again and mouthed out the odiousness of my Doctrine again and again I attempted to speak and still he interrupted me in the same manner Upon that I sat down and told him that this was neither agreeable to our Commission nor the common Laws of Disputation nor the Civil Usage of Men in common Converse and that if he prohibited me to speak I desired him to do it plainly and I would ââsist and not by that way of interruption He told me I had speaking enough if that were good for I spake more than any one in the Company And thus he kept me so long from uttering the rest of my Sentence that I sat down and gave over and told him I took it for his Prohibition At last I let him talk and spake to those nearer me which would hear me and told them that this was it that I was going to say That I granted Bishop Lany that it was possible to be free from acting Sin for a certain time that so he might have no matter of Objection against me and that the Instances of my Concession were these 1. In the time of absolute Infancy 2. In the time of total Fatuity or Madness as natural Ideots that never had the use of Reason 3. In the time of a Lethargy Carus or Apoplexy or Epilepsie 4. In the time of lawful sleep when a Man doth not so much as dream amiss And whether any other Instances might be given I determined not But as I talked thus Bishop Morley went on talking louder than I and would neither hear me nor willingly have had me to have been heard Behind me at the lower end of the Table stood Dr. Crowther and he would consute me and I defended Dr. Lany in that Ieroboam made Israel to Sin What gather you thence quoth I that they had no Sin but that or never sumed before He answered yes and with a little Nonsence would defend it that Israel sinned not till then When I had proved the contrary to him in the general Acceptation of the Word Sin I told him that if he took the Word Figuratively the Genus for a Species I granted him that they sinned not that Species of Sin which Ieroboam taught them which is in the Text emphatically called Sin If he meant that they sinned no Sin of Idolatry or no National Sin till then It was not true and if it were it was nothing to our Question which was about Sin in the General or indefinitely He told me they Sinned no National Sin till then I asked him whether the Idolatry the Unbelief the Murmuring c. by which all the Nation save Caleb and Ioshua fell in the Wilderness and the Idolatry for which in the time of the Judges the Nation was conquered and captivated were none of them National Sins I give the Reader the Instance if this Odious kind of Talk to shew him what kind of Men we talkt with and what a kind of Task we had § 196. And a little further touch of it I shall give you When I beg'd their Compassion on the Souls of their Brethren and that they would not unnecessarily cast so many out of the Ministry and their Communion Bishop Cosins told me that we threatned them with Numbers and for his part he thought the King should do well to make us name them all A charitable and wise Motion To name all the Thousands of England that dissented from them and that had sworn the Covenant and whom they would after Persecute § 197. When I read in the Preface to our Exceptions against the Liturgy That after twenty years Calamity they would not yield to that which several Bishops voluntarily offered twenty Years before meaning the Corrections of the Liturgy offered by Archbishop Usher Archbishop Williams Bishop Morton Dr. Prideaux and many others Bishop Cosins answered me That we threatned them with a new War and it was time for the King to look to us I had no shelter from the Fury of the Bishop but to name Dr. Hammond and tell him that I remembred Dr. Hammond insisted on the same Argument that twenty Years Calamity should have taught Men more Charity and brought them to repentance and Brotherly Love and that it is an Aggravation of their Sin to be unmerciful after so long and heavy Warnings from God's Hand He told me if that were our meaning it was all well And these were the most logical Discourses of that Bishop § 198. Among all the Bishops there was none who had so promising a Face as Dr. Sterne the Bishop of Carlisle He look'd so honestly and gravely and soberly that I scarce thought such a Face could have deceived me and when I was intreating them not to cast out so many of their Brethren through the Nation as scrupeled a Ceremony which they confess'd indifferent he turn'd to the rest of the Reverend Bishops and noted me for saying in the Nation He will not say in the Kingdom saith he lest he own a King This was all that ever I heard that worthy Prelate say But with grief I told him that half the Charity which became so grave a Bishop might have sufficed to have helpt him to a better Exposition of the Word Nation from the Mouths of such who have to lately taken the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and sworn Fidelity to the King as his Chaplains and had such Testimonies from him as we have had and that our case was sad if we could plead by the King's Commission for Accommodation upon no no better Terms than to be noted as Traytors every time we used such a Word as the Nation which all monarchical Writers use § 199. Bishop Morley earnestly pleaded my own Book with me my fifth Disput. as he had done before the King And I still told him I went not from any thing in it He vehemently aggravated the mischiefs of Conceived Prayer in the Church and when I told him that all the Action of Men would be imperfect while Men were imperfect and that the other side also had its
Suspending Silencing Imprisoning c. we understand not English 2. In like manner Grotius in loc cap. 14. 1. Contra vocati à Gentibus conscii datae per Christum libertatis Iudaeos Iudaice viventes à sua Communione volebant excludere 11 18 21. unde secuturum erat Schisma Huic malo ut occurrat Paulus mediam institit viam Iudaeos qui in Christum crediderant monet ita suam sequantur opinionem ut à damnandis crimine impietatis qui aliter sentiebant abstineant Ex gentibus vere vocatos we illorum quamvis Iudaice viventium communionem defugiant ut imperitos spernant ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Societate Ecclesiae sicut qui hospitio aliquem excipiunt dicuntur cum ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Acts 18. 26. 28. 2. Ecclesia enim Domini comparatur supra 11. 25. sumitur baec admonitio ex iis quae de Christo quae dicta Matth. 12. 20. 2 Tolerandi sunt ij qui ab omnibus animatis abstinendum putant quod quidam faciebant Religione quâdam Cap. 15. 6 7. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã id est ut cum Deum laudatis eique preces funditis faciatis id nen tantum eodem verborum sono sed animo pleno mutuae delectionis sine contemptu sine odio Habes hanc vocem ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Act. 11. 46. ubi forma est Ecclesiae perfectissimae Adde adejus vocis explicationem id quod est Act. 4. 32. all which includeth Communion in the Eucharist V. 7. Nolite ob res tales alii alios à fraternitate abseindere § 225. This Paper was given in the very last day of our Commission and Dispute And Dr. Gunning read another which he had prepared for an Insultation at out Dismission which Paper had some Mistakes in it and the Citation of many Witnesses who as he would have perswaded us took the word Receiving Rom. 14. 15. as not meaning or including Receiving to the Holy Communion in the Sacrament § 226. In the beginning he affirmed that we had refused to Dispute till they had promised to take their turn and prove the lawfulness of their Impositions To this I answered That it was contrary to our open and frequent Profession that we would do our part whether they would do theirs or not only I said that if they refused it we should take it for a deserting of their Cause This he a while denied I appealed to the Auditors of his Party and they gave no Answer Dr. Bates witnessed it Dr. Iacomb offered his Oath of it He told them that they were Parties By this time I saw mine Error in giving way for their Doctors to crowd in to applaud them and witness for them when we had none or next to none of ours there supposing by the Agreement three only must have stayed § 227. When Dr. Gunning had read his insulting Answer the day before and made a great matter of my telling the Respondent of begging the Question they put Dr. Sanderson Bishop of Lincoln into the Chair that his Learning and Gravity might put a Reputation upon his Sentence he being a very worthy Man but for that great Pievishness which Injuries Partiality Temperature and Age had caused in him The Bishop in a few angry Words pronounced that Dr. Gunning had the better and that the Respondent could not beg the Question and that I was a Man of Contention if I offered to Reply I told him that though we reverenced much his Lordship's Age and Learning yet he was but a Party and no Judge which yet if he were it was so strange to us that a Man should be prohibited to reply and a Censure antidated passed on that Reply before it was heard and on the Replyers for it that we craved his Lordship's Pardon if we disobeyed him and gave in our Reply which might have more in it than he could forefee And the next Day when I gave in the Reply before inserted there was no such Insulting as before § 228. When Dr. Gunning had read his Citations of Testimonies of the Sense of Rom. 14 and 15. Bishop Cosins called to all the Bishops and Doctors in the Room for their Votes All you that think that Dr. Gunning hath proved that Rom. 14. speaketh not of receiving to the Sacrament say I. And so they all cryed I. I told him that we knew their Opinion before and if this were the use that he made of our Concession that they should be all present while ours were all absent save two or three Scholars and two or three Gentlemen that stood behind to hear it shewed that their Cause was very needy of Defence when their own Voices must go instead of Argument But if they would go on upon such lamentable Reasoning as they had used to cast out the faithful Pastors and the People and divide the Church and afflict their Brethren the Day was comig when their own Votes should not absolve them § 229. Hereupon we fell again upon the point of Charity and Compassion to the Church and their frustrating the King's Commission and the Kingdoms Hopes And when they professed their Desires of the Churches Peace I told them they would not abate the smallest Thing nor correct their grossest Errors for it And hereupon I read over to them the Preface drawn up by Mr. Calamy before our Reply to their Answer to our Exceptions against the Liturgy which reciting their Corruptions and shewed their Unpeaceableness offended but filenced them § 230. By this time the Evening of our Last Day was far gone and I desired to know of them whether we should continue our Dispute any further as Private Men Voluntarily among our selves for I had many more Arguments which I desired before to have read all at once but could not be permitted Or whether they would receive my Arguments and the Reply which I last read Dr. Pierson resolved that he would meddle no more after that Night Bishop Morley said he thought it unfit when the King's Commission was expired that we should meddle in it any farther But Dr. Gunning and I had so much mind to it for I knew that almost all my Arguments were yet behind and it was a Cause that might easily be made very plain that I told him I would venture on the Danger for the Love of Charity and Peace and he agreed that I should send him in all my Arguments with the last Reply which he had not answered the next Day § 231. Lastly I desired Bishop Morley to resolve us what Account we were jointly to give his Majesty of our Proceedings that we might not wrong each other And by his and their Consent it was agreed on that we give nothing in our Account to the King as charged on one another but what is delivered in by the party in Writing And that all our account was to be this That we were all agreed on the Ends for the Churches Welfare Unity and Peace and
as unnecessary small and doubtful as kneeling in the Reception of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper are to be made necessary to the Communion of the Church Ergo To enjoyn all c. is to maintain and exercise a Principle of Church-Division The Major which only needs proof is thus proved To maintain and exercise such a Principle as 1. Never yet was exercised but it did divide the Church 2. and by which its Divisions have been caused or cherished ever since the Roman Usurpation begun 3. and which cannot possibly consist with Unity whilst Christians are of such different 1. Educations 2. and degrees of Natural Understanding 3. and degrees of Grace is to maintain and exercise a Principle of Church Division But to maintain and exercise this Principle That Things as unnecessary small and doubtful as kneeling in the Reception of the Sacrament are to be made necessary to the Communion of the Church is to maintain and exercise such a Principle as 1. never yet was exercised but it did divide c. Ergo And thus our Dispute at the Savoy ended and with it our Endeavours for Reconciliation upon the Warrant of the King's Commission § 236. Were it not a thing in which an Historian so much concerned in the business is apt to be suspected of partiality I would here annex a Character of each one that managed this business as they shewed themselves But because it hath that inconvenience I will omit it only telling you what part each one of them acted in all this Work The Bishop of London since Archbishop of Canterbury only appeared the first day of each Conference which besides that before the King was but twice in all as I remember and medled not at all in any Disputations But all Men supposed that he and Bishop Morley and next Bishop Hinchman were the doers and disposers of all such Affairs The Archbishop of York spake no more than I have told you and came but once or twice in all Bishop Morley was oft there but not constantly and with free and fluent words with much earnestness was the chief Speaker of all the Bishops and the greatest Interrupter of us vehemently going on with what he thought serviceable to his end and bearing down Answers by the said fervour and interruptions Bishop Cosins was there constantly and had a great deal of talk with so little Logick Natural or Artificial that I perceived no one much moved by any thing he said But two Vertues he shewed though none took him for a Magician One was that he was excellently well versed in Canons Councils and Fathers which he remembred when by citing of any Passages wotried him The other was that as he was of a Rustick Wit and Carriage so he would endure more freedom of our Discourse with him and was more affable and familiar than the rest Bishop Hinchman since Bishop of London was of the most grave comely reverend Aspect of any of them and of a good insight in the Fathers and Councils Cosins and he and Dr. Gunning being all that shewed any of that skill among us considerable in which they are all three of very laudable understandings and better than any other of either of the Parties that I met with And Bishop Hinchman spake calmly and slowly and not very oft But was as high in his Principles and Resolutions as any of them Bishop Sanderson of Lincoln was some time there but never spake that I know of but what I have told you before But his great Learning and Worth are known by his Labours and his aged Peevishness not unknown Bishop Gauden was our most constant helper He and Bishop Cosins seldom were absent And how bitter soever his Pen be he was the only Moderator of all the Bishops except our Bishop Reignolds He shewed no Logick nor medled in any Dispute or Point of Learning but a calm fluent Rhetorical Tongue And if all had been of his mind we had been reconciled But when by many days Conference in the beginning we had got some moderating Concessions from him and from Bishop cosins by his means the rest came in the end and brake them all Bishop Lucie of St. David's spake once or twice a few words calmly and so did Bishop Nicholson of Glocester and Bishop Griffiths of Asaph though no Commissioners and did no more Bishop King of Chicbester I never saw there Bishop Warner of Rocbester was there once or twice but medled not that I heard Bishop Lany of Peterborough was twice or thrice there and talked as is before recited for I remember no more Bishop Walton of Chester was there once or twice and spake but what is before recited that I know of Bishop Sterne of Carlisle since Archbishop of York was of a most sober honest mortified Aspect but spake nothing that I know of but that weak uncharitable word before mentioned so that I was never more deceived by a Man's Face Bishop Reignolds spake much the first day for bringing them to Abatements and Moderation And afterwards he fate with them and spake now and then a word for Moderation He was a solid honest Man but through mildness and excess of timerous reverence to great Men altogether unfit to contend with them Mr. Thorndike spake once a few impertinent passionate words confusing the Opinion which we had received of him from his first Writings and confirming that which his second and last Writings had given us of him Dr. Earle Dr. Heylin and Dr. Barwick never came Dr. Hacket since Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield said nothing to make us know any thing of him Dr. Sparrow said but little but that little was with a Spirit enough for the imposing dividing Cause Dr. Pierson and Dr. Gunning did all their Work beside Bishop Morley's Discourses but with great difference in the manner Dr. Pierson was their true Logician and Disputant without whom as far as I could discern we should have had nothing from them but Dr. Gunning's passionate Invectives mixt with some Argumentations He disputed acurately soberly and calmly being but once in any passion breeding in us a great respect for him and a perswasion that if he had been independent he would have been for Peace and that if all were in his power it would have gone well He was the strength and honour of that Cause which we doubted whether he heartily maintained Dr. Gunning was their forwardest and greatest Speaker understanding well what belonged to a Disputant a Man of greater Study and Industry than any of them well read in Fathers and Councils and of a ready Tongue and I hear and believe of a very temperate Life as to all Carnal Excesses whatsoever but so vehement for his high imposing Principles and so over-zealous for Arminianism and Formality and Church Pomp and so very eager and servent in his Discourse that I conceive his Prejudice and Passion much perverted his Judgment and I am sure they made him lamentably over-run himself in
his Discources Of Dr. Pierce I will say no more because he hath said so much of me On our part Dr. Bates spake very solidly judiciously and pertinently when he spake And for my self the reason why I spake so much was because it was the desire of my Brethren and I was loth to expose them to the hatred of the Bishops but was willinger to take it all upon my self they themselves having so much wit as to be therein more sparing and cautelous than I and I thought that the Day and Cause commanded me those two things which then were objected against me as my Crimes viz. speaking too boldly and too long And I thought it a Cause that I could comfortably suffer for and should as willingly be a Martyr for Charity as for Faith § 237. When this Work was over the rest of our Brethren met again and resolved to draw up an Account of our Endeavours and present it to his Majesty with our Petition for his promised help yet for those Alterations and Abatements which we could not procure of the Bishops And that first we should acquaint the Lord Chancellour withal and consult with him about it Which we did and as soon as we came to him according to my expectation I found him most offended at me and that I had taken off the distaste and blame from all the rest At our first entrance he merily told us That if I were but as fat as Dr. Manton we should all do well I told him if his Lordship could teach me the Art of growing fat he should find me not unwilling to learn by any good means He grew more serious and said That I was severe and strict like a Melancholy Man and made those things Sin which others did not And I perceived he had been possessed with displeasure towards me upon that account that I charged the Church and Liturgy with Sin and had not supposed that the worlt was but inexpendiency I told him that I had spoken nothing but what I thought and had given my Reasons for After other such Discourse we craved his Favour to procure the King's Declaration yet to be past into an Act and his Advice what we had further to do He consented that we should draw up an Address to his Majesty rendering him an account of all but desired that we would first shew it him which we promised § 238. When we shewed our Paper to the Lord Chancellour which the Brethren had desired me to draw up and had consented to without any alteration he was not pleased with some Passages in it which he thought too pungent or pressing but would not bid us put them out So we went with it to the Lord Chamberlain who had heard from the Lord Chancellor about it and I read it to him also and he was earnest with us to bloe out some Passages as too vehement and such as would not well be born I was very loth to leave them out but Sir Gilbirt Gerrard an ancient godly Man being with him and of the same mind I yielded having no remedy and being unmeer to oppose their Wisdoms any further And so what they Scored under we left out and presented the rest to his Majesty afterwards But when we came to present it the Earl of Manchester secretly told the rest that if Dr. Reignolds Dr. Bates and Dr. Manton would deliver it it would be the more acceptable intimating that I was grown unacceptable at Court But they would not go without me and he profest he desired not my Exclusion But when they told me of it I took my leave of him and was going away But he and they came after me to the Stairs and importuned me to return and I went with them to take my Farewel of this Service But I resolved that I would not be the Deliverer of any of our Papers though I had got them transcribed and brought them thither So we desired Dr. Manton to deliver our Petition and with it the fair Copies of all our Papers to the Bishops which was required of us for the King And when Bishop Reignolds had spoken a few words Dr. Manton delivered them to the King who received them and the Petition but did not bid us read it at all At last in his Speeches something fell in which Dr. Monton told him that the Petition gave him a full account of if his Majesty pleased to give him leave to read it whereupon he had leave to read it out The occassion was a short Speech which I made to inform his Majesty how far we were agreed with the Bishops and wherein the difference did not lye as in the Points of Loyalty Obedience Church Order c. This Dr. Monton also spake And the King but the Question But who shall be Iudge And I answered him That Judgment is either publick or private Private Judgement called Discretionis which is but the use of my Reason to conduct my Actions belongeth to every private rational Man Publick Iudgment is Ecclesiastical or Civil and belongeth accordingly to the Ecclesiastical Governours or Pastors and the Civil and not to any private Man And this was the end of these Affairs § 239. I will give you the Copy of the Petition just as I drew it up because 1. Here you may see what those words were which could not be tolerated 2. Because it is but supposing the under-scored Lines to be blotted out and you have it as it was presented without any Alteration For those under scored Lines were all the words that were left out To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The due Account and humble Petition of us Ministers of the Gospel lately Commissioned for the Review and Alteration of the Liturgy May it please your Majesty WHen this distempered Nation wearied with its own Contentions and Divisions did groan for Unity and Peace the wonderful Providence of the most Righteous God appearing for the removal of Impediments their Eyes were upon your Majesty as the Person born to be under God the Center of their Concord and taught by Affliction to break the Bonds of the Afflicted and by Experience of the lad Effects of Mens Uncharitableness and Passions to restrain all from Violence and Extremities and keeping Moderation and Mediocrity the Oyl of Charity and Peace And when these your Subjects Desires were accomplished in your Majesty's peaceable possession of your Throne it was the Joy and Encouragement of the Sober and Religions that you began the Exercise of your Government with a Proclaimation full of Christian Zeal against Debauchery and Prophaneness declaring also your dislike of those who under pretence of affection to your Majesty and your Service assume to themselves the liberty of Reviling Threatning and Reproaching others to prevent that Reconciliation and Union of Hearts and Affections which can only with God's Blessing make us rejoyce in each other Our Comforts also were carried on by your Majesty's early and ready Entertainment of
last Sermon there upon Christ's words on the Cross Father forgive them for they know not what they do I was accused of it as a heinous Crime as having preached against the burning of the Covenant which I never medled with nor was it done till after the Sermon nor did I know when it was done no mind it nor did I apply the Text to any Matters of those present Times but only in general to perswade the Hearers to the forgiving of Injuries and maintaining Charity in the midst of the greatest Temptations to the contrary and to remember that it was the Tempter's Design by every wrong which they received to get advantage for the weakening of their Love to those that did it which therefore they should with double care maintain This was the true scope of that Sermon which deserved Death or Banishment as all my Pacificatory Endeavours had done § 257. When I came back to London my Book called The Mischiefs of Self-ignorance and Benefits of Self-acquaintance was coming out of the Press And my affection to my People of Kidderminster caused me by a short Epistle to direct it to them and because I could never after tell them publickly being Silenced I told them here the occasion of my removal from them and my silencing for brevity summing up the principal things in my Charge And because I said This was the Cause the Bishop took advantage as if I had said This was the whole Cause when the Conference between him and me was half an hour long and not fit to be wholly inserted in a short Epistle where I intended nothing but the sum But the Bishop took occasion hereupon to gather up all that ever he could say to make me odious and especially out of my Holy Commonwealth and our Conference at the Savoy where he gathered up a scrap of an Assertion which he did not duly understand and made it little less than Heresie and this he published in a Book called A Letter which I truly profess is the fullest of palpable Untruths in Matter of Fact that ever I saw Paper to my remembrance in all my Life The words which he would render me so abhorred for are our denial of Dr. Pierson's and Dr. Gunning's c. Propositions about the innocency of Laws which command Things evil by Accident only where the Bishop never discerned unless he dissemble it the Reasons of our Denial nor the Proposition denied The very words of the Dispute being printed before and I having fully opened the Bishops Mistakes in an Answer to him I shall not here stope the Reader with it again § 258. But this vehement Invective of the Bishop's presently taught all that desired his Favour and the improvement of his very great Interest for their Ends to talk in all Companies at the same rates as he had done and to speak of me as he had spoken and those that thought more was necessary to their hopes presented the Service of their Pens Dr. Boreman of Trinity Colledge wrote a Book without his Name and had no other design in it than to make me odious nor any better occasion for his writing than this There had many years before past divers Papers between Dr. Thomas Hill then Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge and me about the Point of Physical efficient Predetermination as necessary to every Action natural and free I had written largely and earnestly against Predetermination and he a little for it In the end of it the Calamities of the Sectarian times and some Sicknesses among my Friends had occasioned me to vent my moan to him as my Friend and therein to speak of the doubtfulness of the Cause of the former War and what reason there was to be diligent in search and prayer about it When Dr. Hill was dead Dr. Boreman came to see these Papers Both the Subjects he must needs know were such as tended rather to my Esteem than to my Disparagement with the Men of these Times Certainly the Arminians will be angry with no Man for being against Predetermination and I think they will pardon him for questioning the Parliaments Wars Yet did this disingenious Dr. make a Book on this occasion to seek Preferment by reproaching me for he knew not what But to make up the matter he writeth that it is reported That I killed a Man in ãâ¦ã with my own hands in the Wars Whereas God knoweth that I never hurt ãâã in my Life no never gave a Man a stroke save one Man when I was a Boy whose Legg I broke with wrestling in jest which almost broke my heart with âreif though he was quickly cured But the Dr. knowing that this might be soon disproved cautiously gave me some Lenitives to perswade me to bear it patiently telling me that if it be not true I am not the first that have been thus abused but for ought I know he is the first that thus abused me I began to write an Answer to this Book but when I saw that Men did but laugh at it and those that knew the Man despised it and disswaded me from answering such a one I laid it by § 259. When the Bishop's Invective was read many Men were of many minds about the answering of it Those at a distance all cried out upon me to answer it Those at hand did all disswade me and told me that it would be Imprisonment at least to me if I did it with the greatest truth and mildness possible Both Gentlemen and all the City Ministers told me that it would not do half so much good as my Suffering would do hurt and that none believed it but the engaged Party and that to others an Answer was not necessary and to them it was unprofitable for they would never read it And I thought that the Judgment of Men that were upon the place and knew how things went was most to be regarded But yet I wrote a full Answer to his Book except about the words in my Holy Commonwealth which were not to be spoke to and kept it by me that I might use it as there was occasion At that time Mr. Ioseph Glanvile sent me the offer of his Service to write in my Defence He that wrote the Vanity of Dogmatizing and a Treatise for the Praexistence of Souls being a Platonist of free Judgment and of admired Parts and now one of the Royal Society of Philosophers and one that had a too excessive estimation of me as far above my desert as the malicious Party erred on the other side But I disswaded him from bringing himself into Suffering and making himself unserviceable for so low an end Only I gave him and no Man else my own Answer to peruse which he returned with his Approbation of it § 260. But Mr. Edward Bagshaw Son to Mr. Bagshaw the Lawyer that wrote Mr. Bolton's Life without my knowledge wrote a Book in Answer to the Bishops I could have wisht he had let it alone For the Man hath
no great disputing Faculty but only a florid Epistolary Stile and was wholly a Stranger to me and to the Matters of Fact and therefore could say nothing to them But only being of a Bold and Roman Spirit he thought that no Suffering should deter a Man from the smallest Duty or cause him to silence any useful Truth And I had formerly seen a Latin Discourse of his against Monarchy which no whit pleased me being a weak Argumentation for a bad Cause So that I desired no such Champion shortly after he went over with the E. of Anglesey whose Houshold Chaplain he was into Ireland and having preached there some times and returning back was apprehended and sent Prisoner to the Tower where he continued long till his Means was all spent and how he hath since procured Bread I know not When he had been Prisoner about a year it seems he was acquainted with Mr. Davis who was also a Prisoner in the Tower This Mr. Davis having been very serviceable in the Restoration of the King and having laid out much of his Estate for his Service thoââ the might be the bolder with his Tongue and Pen and being of a Spirit which some called undaunted but others furious or indiscreet at best did give an unmannerly liberty to his Tongue to accuse the Court of such Crimes with such Aggravations as being a Subject I think it not meet to name At last he talkt so freely in the Tower also that he was shipt away Prisoner to Tangier in Africa Mr. Bagshaw being surprized by L'Estrange and his Chamber searched there was found with him a Paper called Mr. Davis's Case Whereupon he was brought out to speak with the King who examined him of whom he had that Paper and he denied to confess and spake so boldly to the King as much offended him whereupon he was sent back to the Tower and laid in a deep dark dreadful Dungeon When he had lain there three or four Days and Nights without Candle Fire Bed or Straw he fell into a terrible fit of the Haemorrboids which the Physicians thought did save his Life for the pain was so vehement that it kept him in a sweat which cast out the Infection of the Damp. At last by the solicitation of his Brother who was a Conformist and dearly loved him he was taken up and after that was sent away to Southsea-Castle an unwholesome place in the Sea by Portsmouth where if he be alive he remaineth close Prisoner to this day with Vavasor Powel a Preacher of North-Wales and others speeding worse than Mr. Crofton who was at last released § 261. While I was in Shropshire and Worcestershire it fell out that some one printed one of our Papers given into the Bishops And though I was above an hundred miles off yet was it all imputed to me and Roger L'Estrange put it in the News Book that it was supposed to be my doing Indeed when Dr. Gunning had asked me Whether we would keep ours from the Press if they would do the same by theirs I would not promise him but told him though I supposed that none of us intended to be so presumptuous as to publish them without Authority yet I could promise nothing for all them that were absent nor could any one promise it when so many Scriveners were intrusted to Transcribe them that the King and Bishops might have Copies and whether any of those Scriveners might keep a Copy for themselves I knew not And after this most of the other Papers were printed by I know not whom to this day But I conjectured that a poor Man that I paid for writing me a Copy Dr. Reignolds's Curate was likeliest to do it to get some what to supply his very great wants but I am utterly uncertain But I had intelligence that the second Papers were in the Press and that Malice might impure it to me no more I went to Secretary Morrice and acquainted him with it that he might send a Messenger to surprize them But he told me that if I could assure him that the Bishops had not given consent I should have a warrant to search for them I told him that I knew not what the Bishops had done but he might easily conjecture Nor would I search for them but having told him left him to do what he thought meet § 262. And here I must give notice That whereas there are then printed 1. Our first Proposals for Concord in Discipline 2. Our Papers upon the sight of the first Draught of the King's Declaration 3. Our Petition and Reasons to the Bishops for Peace 4. Our Reformed Liturgy 5. Our Exceptions against the Faults of the Common Prayer Book 6. Our Reply to the Bishops Answer to these Exceptions with the Answer it self verbatim inserted 7. Our last Account and Petition to the King 8. A Copy of all their Disputation for the Liturgy with our Answers all these being surreptitiously printed save the first piece by some poor Men for gain without our Knowledge and Correction are so falsly printed that our wrong by it is very great Whole Lines are left out the most significant words are preverted by Alterations and this so frequently that some parts of the Papers especially our large Reply and our last Account to the King are made Nonsence and not intelligible But the last Paper Dr. Pierson's and Dr. Gunning's Disputation I confess was not printed without my knowledge For Bishop Morley's misreports with so great confidence uttered had made it of some necessity But I added not one Syllable by way of Commentary the words themselves being sufficient for his Confutation If I remember I will give you in the end of this Book the Errata of them all that they that have the printed Copies may know how to correct them § 263. The coming forth of these Papers had various effects It increased the burning indignation which before was kindled against me on one side and it somewhat mitigated the Censures that were taken up against me on the other side For you must know that the Chief of the Congregational or Independent Party took it ill that we took not them with us in our Treaty and so did a few of the Presbyterian Divines all whom we so far passed by as not to invite them to our Councils though they were as free as we to have done the like because we knew that it would be but a hinderance to us partly because their Persons were unacceptable and partly because it might have delayed the Work And most of the Independents and some few Presbyterians raised it as a common Censure against us that if we had not been so forward to meet the Bishops with the offers of so much at first and to enter a Treaty with them without just cause we had all had better Terms and standing off would have done more good so that though my Person and Intentions had a more favourable Censure from them than some others yet for the
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
however I disallowed it Thus have I found the old saying true That Reconcilers use to be hated on both side and to put their hand in the Clift which closeth upon them and finished them § 269. The next time I went to the Lord Chancellour about the New-England Corporation after the Bishop of Worcester's Anger and Invective Book he entertained me with his usual Condescension and Courtesie but with some chiding Language that I would meddle with Dr. Morley to provoke him which when I had briefly spoke to he followed on his Reprehension thus Was it a handsome thing of Mr. Baxter to speak so to so mild a Man as Dr. Earles Clerk of the King's Closet as when he offered you a Tippet when you preached before the King to turn away in scorn and say I le none of your Toyes Would not a fairer Answer have been better I replyed to him That I still perceived more and more the truth of what I told the Bishops what Consequents would follow the Continuance of unhealed Factions and what usage we must expect however we lived and how little Innocency would do to our vindication I told him that I never spake any such word as he mentioned nor ever had such a thought in my heart nor no more scrupled to wear a Tippet than to sit on a Cushion But I thanked his Lordship that by the benefit of his free Reprehension I came to understand how much I had been wronged by this Report to his Majesty above a year before I heard of it and might never have heard of it but by him and told him that it was just thus in other Matters And I truly told him that I was unfeignedly thankful to his Lordship that would reprove me for that to my face which others only whispered behind my back where I had opportunity to defend my self § 270. Hereupon I wrote this following Letter to Dr. Earles a mild and quiet Man who was since Bishop of Worcester and afterwards Bishop of Salisbury Reverend Sir BY the great Favour of my Lord Chancellour's Reprehension I came to understand how long a time I have suffered in my Reputation with my Superiours by your misunderstanding me and misinforming others as if when I was to preach before the King I had scornfully refused the Tippet as a Toy when as the Searcher and Iudge of Hearts doth know that I had no such thought or word I was so ignorant in those matters as to think that a Tippet had been the proper Insign of a Dr. of Divinity and I verily thought that you offered it me as such And I had so much pride as to be somewhat ashamed when you offered it that I must tell you my want of such Degrees and therefore gave you no Answer to your first offer but to your second was forced to say It belongeth not to me Sir And I said not to you any more nor had any other thought in my heart than with some shame to tell you that I had no Degrees imagining I should have offended others and made my self the laughter or scorn of many if I should have used that which did not belong to me For I must profess that I no more scruple to wear a Tippet than a Gown or any comely Garment Sir Though thus be one of the smallest of all the Mistakes which of late have turned to my wrong and I must confess that my ignorance gave you the occasion and I am far from imputing it to any ill will in you having frequently heard that in Charity and gentleness and peaceableness of Mind you are very eminent yet because I must not contemn my Estimation with my Superiours I humbly crave that favour and justice of you which I am confident you will readily grant me as to acquaint those with the truth of this business whom upon mistake you have misinformed whereby in relieving the Innocency of your Brother you will do a work of Charity and Iustice and therefore not displeasing unto God and will much oblige SIR Your humble Servant Richard Baxter June 20. 1662. I have the more need of your Iustice in this Case because my distance denieth me access to those that have received these misreports and because any publick Vindication of my self whatever is said of me is taken as an unsufferable Crime and therefore I am utterly uncapable of vindicating my Innocency or remedying their Mistastes To the Reverend and much Honoured Dr. Earles Dean of Westminster c. These To this the Dr. returned this Civil peaceable Answer Hampton-Court Iune 23. SIR I Received your Letter which I would have answered sooner if the Messenger that brought it had returned I must confess I was a little surprized with the beginning of it as I was with your Name but when I read further I ceased to be so Sir I should be heartily sorry and ashamed to be guilty of any thing like Malignity or Uncharitableness especially to one of your Condition with whom though I concur not perhaps in point of Iudgment in some particulars yet I cannot but esteem for your personal worth and abilities And indeed your Expressions in your Letter are so civil and ingenuous that I am obliged thereby the more to give you all the satisfaction I can As I remember then when you came to me to the Closet and I told you I would furnish you with a Tippet you answered me something to that purpose as you write but whether the same Numerical words or but once I cannot positively say from my own Memory and therefore I believe yours Only this I am sure of that I said to you at my second speaking That some others of your Perswasion had not scrupled at it which might suppose if you had not affirmed the contrary that you had made me a former refusal Of which giving me then no other reason than that it belonged not to you I concluded you were more scrupulous than others were and perhaps the manner of your refusing it as it appeared to me might make me think you were not very well pleased with the motion And this it is likely I might say either to my Lord Chancellour or others though seriously I do not remember that I spake to my Lord Chancellour at all concerning it But Sir since you give me now that modest reason for it which by the way is no just reason in it self for a Tippet may be worn without a Degree though a Hood cannot and it is no shame at all to want these Formalities for him that wanteth not the Substance but Sir I say since you give that reason for your refusal I believe you and shall correct that Mistake in my self and endeavour to rectifie it in others if any upon this occasion have misunderstood you In the mean time I shall desire your charitable Opinion of my self which I shall be willing to deserve upon any Opportunity that is offered me to do you Service being SIR Your very humble
that Party in the News-book and in their Discourses That Calamy that would not âe a Bishop was in Iail And when his Sermon was printed an Invective against him came out in Language like an Inquisitor that shewed a vehement thirst for Blood But precious in the sight of the Lord is the Blood of his holy Ones § 282. Abundance more were laid in Jails in many Counties for preaching and the vexation of the Peoples Souls was increased At St. Albans Mr. Partridge the ejected Minister being desired to preach a Funeral Sermon a Captain or Lieutenant came in with his Pistol charged and shot one of the hearers dead and the Preacher was sent to Prison § 283. There were many Citizens of London who had then a great Compassion on the Ministers whose Families were utterly destitute of Maintenance and fain they would have relieved them and had such a Method that the Citizens of each County should help the Ministers of that County But they durst not do it lest it were judged a Conspiracy Wherefore I went for them to the Lord Chancellour and told him plainly of it that Compassion moved them but the Suspicions of these Distempered Times deterred them and I desired to have his Lordship's Judgment Whether they might venture to be so charitable without misinterpretation or danger And he answered Aye God forbid but Men should give their own according as their Charity leads them And so having his preconsent I gave it them for Encouragement But they would not believe that it was Cordial and would be any Security to them and so they never durst venture upon such a Method which might have made their Charity effectual but a few that were most willing did much more than all the rest and solicited some of their own Acquaintance for their Counties Relief § 284. And here I think it meet before I proceed to open the true state of the Conformists and Nonconformists in England at this time I. The Conformists were of three sorts 1. Some of the old Ministers called Presbyterians formerly that Conformed at Bartholomew Tide or after who had been in possession before the King came in These were also of several sorts some of them were very able worthy Men who Conformed and Subscribed upon this Inducement that the Bishop bid them Do it in their own sence And so they Subscribed to the Parliament's words and put their own sence upon them only by word of mouth or in some by-paper Some of them read Mr. Fullwood's and Stileman's Books and could not answer them and therefore Conformed For no Man ventured to put forth a full and satisfactory Answer to them for fear of ruine Though somewhat was written before by Mr. Crofton and after by Mr. Cawdry and others Some were young raw Men that were never versed in such kind of Controversies Some were perswaded of the sinfulness of the Parliaments War and thence gathered that the Covenant being in order to it was a Rebellioâs Covenant and therefore not obligatory And other things they thought were small Some had Wives and Children and Powerty which were great Temptations to them And most that I knew when once they inclined to Conformity did avoid the Company of their Brethren and never askt them what their Reasons were against Conformity 2. A second sort of Conformists were those called Latitudinarians who were mostly Cambridge-men Platonists or Cartesians and many of them Arminians with some Additions having more charitable Thoughts than others of the Salvation of Heathens and Infidels and some of them holding the Opinions of Origen about the Praexistence of Souls c. These were ingenious Men and Scholars and of Universal Principles and free abhorring at first the Imposition of these little things but thinking them not great enough to stick at when Imposed Of these some with Dr. Moore their Leader lived privately in Colledges and sought not any Preferment in the World and others set themselves to rise These two forementioned Parties were laudable Preachers and were the honour of the Conformists though not heartily theirs and their profitable Preaching is used by God's Providence to keep up the Publick Interest of Religion and refresh the discerning sort of Auditors 3. The third sort of Conformists was of those that were heartily such throughout And these were also of three sorts 1. Those that were zealous for the Diocesan Party and the Cause and desirous to extirpate or destroy the Nonconformists And these were supposed to be the high and swaying Party 2. Those that were zealous for the Party and the Cause materially but yet were more moderate in their private wishes to the Nonconformists and did profess themselves that they could not Subscribe and Declare if they did not put a more favourable sence on the words than that which the Nonconformists supposed to be the plain sence 3. Those that were raw or ignorant Readers or unlearned Men or sensual scandalous Ones who would be hot for any thing by which they might rise or be maintained This Composition made up the Body of the Conformists in this Land and all this Difference there was among them II. § 285. The Nonconformists also were of divers sorts 1. There were some few of my Acquaintance who were for the old Conformity for Bishops Common Prayer Book Ceremonies and the old Subscription and against the imposing and taking of the Covenant which they never took and against the Parliaments Wars But they could not Subscribe that they Assent and Consent to all things now imposed nor could they Absolve all others in the three Kingdoms from being obliged by the Vow and Covenant to endeavour Church Reformation though they would not have had them take the Vow 2. A greater Number of the Nonconformists or Reconcilers of no Sect or Party but abhorring the very Name of Parties who like Ignatius's Episcopacy but not the English Diocesan Frame and like what is good in Episcopal Presbyterians or Independents but reject somewhat as evil in them all being of the Judgment which I have described my self to be in the beginning of this Book that can endure a Liturgy and like not the Imposition of the Covenant but cannot Assent and Consent to all things required in the Act nor Absolve three Kingdoms from all Obligation by their Vows to endeavour in their Places the alteration of the English Diocesan Form of Government Though they doubt not but Sedition and Rebellion should be abhorred of all whether for Reformation or any other Pretence 3. A third sort of Nonconformists are the Presbyterians whose Judgment is fore-described and manifested in their Writings to all the World Of these two last sorts if I be not taken for a partial Witness are the soberest and most judicious unanimous peaceable faithful able constant Ministers in this Land or that I have heard or read of in the Christian World Which I am able to say I speak without respect of Persons in Obedience to my Conscience upon my long Experience 4. The
the Lay-Judge And if he have power as a Presbyter why do the Bishop appropriate it to themselves If one that is no Bishop may exercise it when a Bishop bids him then is it not a thing appropriate to the Bishop's Office Besides these there are Arch-Deacons who by themselves or their Officials hold some kind of Inferiour Court which dealeth in lesser Matters Some Diocesses have one Arch-Deacon some two some few three or four The Bishops should go visit once a year and the Arch-Deacon oftner When they visit they go to some chief Town in the County and call all the Ministers to meet them where they hear a Sermon and Dine together usually They yearly compile a Book of Articles which Churchwardens are sworn to enquire after and to present the Names of the Offenders accordingly to the Bishop's Court. In brief this is the Frame of our Diocesan Government To which I only add That Fees and Money for Commutation of Penance are much of their Officers Maintenance and that such as they Excommunicate in most Cases are by a Writ De Excommunicato Capiendo to be laid in the Jail till upon their Repentance they have made their Peace and are absolved § 313. Having told you what our Government is let me tell you what the Execution of it is The Books of Articles are fitted somewhat to the Canon by those Bishops that are most moderate and cauâelous and therefore by the English Canons they may be known some of them usually are against Drunkards and Fornicators but the main bent of them is against those that wear not the Surplice that Baptize without the Cross that omit the Common Prayer that refuse to Baptize any Infant or that deliver the Lord's Supper to any that kneel not in receiving it or that so receive it without kneeling that stand noâ up at the Gospel that bow not at the Name Iesus though they may sit when the same words are read in the Chapter and are not required to how at the Name Christ God c. Also about the Repair of the Church the Surplice the Books that none piss up to the Church-wall c. with many such things It is a rare thing for the Churchwardens to present any except Nonconformists that use not Ceremonies c. Swearers Drunkards and Whoremongers are seldom presented lest Neighbours be displeased but Puritans have some one or other that is more eager in looking after them When any Scandalous Person is presented he hath no other Spiritual Conviction or Exhoration to Repentance tending to Convert his Soul than at any Civil Court But telling them that he is Sorry and paying his Fees or Commutation Money he comes home But when Conscientious Nonconformists are before them whose Consciences will not let them say that they are Sorry vizâ for praying or exhorting others in their Houses for giving the Sacrament to them that stand or sit c. they are usually Excommunicated I have been in most parts of England and in Fifty years time I never saw one do Penance or confess his Sin in publick for any Scandalous Crime nor ever heard but of two in the Country where I lived that stood in a White sheet for Adultery except in the space when Bishops were down and then I have heard many that have penitently confessed their Sin and begged the Prayers of the Congregation and been prayed for In a word their Courts are meerly as Civil Courts for Terrour but not at all to convince Men of Sin and bring them to Repentance and Salvation further than such Terrour is âit to do it And note here That the Discipline of the Church is not to be judged of by the King's Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs which was never executed before it was void in these respects Nor yet by some of our Reformers or Chroniclers who tell you how it was exercised quickly after the Reformation in King Edward's or Queen Elizabeth's days As Hollingshead e. g. who telleth you of many Suffragans and of the Piety and Diligence of their Courts and of Exercises called Prophesying held up at the Arch-Deacons Visitations against the Subverters of which he thundereth But as it is in England at this day and hath been this Sixty or Seventy years by-past § 314. Now concerning this Diocesan Frame of Government the Non-Subscribers called Puritans by many do judge that it is sinful and contrary to the Word of God both in the Constitution and in the Administration of it And they lay upon it these heavy Charges the least of which if proved is of intolerable weight § 315. 1. They say That quantum in se it destroyeth the Pastoral Office which is of Divine Institution and was known in the Primitive Church for it doth deprive the Presbyters of the third essential part of their Office for it is clear in Scripture that Christ appointed no Presbyters that were not subservient to him in all the three parts of his Office as Prophet Priest and King to stand between the People and him in Teaching Worshipping and Governing And though the Actual Exercise of any one part may be Suspended without the Destruction of the Office yet to the Office it self which is nothing but Power and Obiligation to exercise one part is as essential as the other so then they say that That which destroyeth an essential part of the Pastors or Presbyters Office destroyeth the Office as instituted by Christ But the Diocesan state of Government destroyeth c. Ergo The Major will not be denied The Minor hath two parts 1. That governing Power and Obligation over the Flock is essential to the Office of a Pastor or Presbyter as instituted by Christ. Which they prove thus 1. The very Name of Presbyter and Pastor denoteth the Governing Power and was then used in that sence as Dr. Hâmmond hath well proved 2. There is no such thing found in all the New Testament as a Presbyter that had not the Power of Governing his Flock as well as Teaching it He that can find it let him Dr. Hammond hath gone over all the Texts in proving it 3. The Church long after knew no such Presbyters as had not the Spiritual Government of the Flock 4. The Papists confess that they have the Power of the Keys in foro interiori to this day which is the Spiritual Government 2. The second part of the Minor That the Diocesan Form denieth this Governing Power to the Presbyters appeareth 1. By their own Confessions â 2. By the Actual Constitution disabling them and placing the Power elsewhere 3. By the instance of the âorementioned Particulars and many more They have not the power of judging who shall be taken into their Churhes as Members by Baptism or Confirmed or who shall Communicate or who is to be publickly Admonished Censured Excommunicated Absolved buried as a Brother dying in Christ c. no nor what Chapter to read in the Church nor what Garment to wear nor what words of Prayer
him 3. That executively it is to be done by every one in their places the Pastors giving or denying the Sacraments c. and the People holding or refusing Communion or Company with Men according as they are judged by the Church I think there is no Controversie among us about these § 325. 3. And therefore the Work will resolve us of the place viz. That the Execution must be in that place where he had or desired Communion or was capable of it And therefore that the Iudgment should be by those that being upon the place have fullest opportunity to know the Persons and the Case Even by those Pastors who labour amongst the People that are over them in the Lord 1 Thess. 5. 12 13. who have the rule over them and preach to them the Word of God Hebr. 13. 7 17 24. and not by those that are strangers to them § 326. 4. And as to the Manner all Divines are agreed That it is not to be like the proceedings of a Civil Court where there is no more to be done but examine the Cause and pass the Sentence and execute it by Corporal Penalties and Mulcts But 1. That it is to be managed by grave Divines the Physicians of Souls for the saving of the Sinner if it may be with great seriousness and light and weight of Scripture Argument convincing the Erroneous terrifying the Secure with the terrours of the Lord reproving and admonishing and perswading the penitent Offender and all this with Love and Compassion and due Patience and restoring the Penitent with Tenderness and Consolation and necessary Caution From all which it is evident That one single Person thus dealt with in case of Heresie may hold the Pastor or Bishop many days time and one gross Sinner may hold him many hours time before this Work can be done as the Nature and Ends of it do require 2. And it is to be done by the meer Keys of the Kingdom of Christ by managing God's Word by particular Application to the Case and Conscience of the Sinner and not by outward Force of Penalties § 327. 5. And all this is apparent in the Ends of it which is 1. That ChurchâCommunion may be a Communion of Saints 2. That the Sinner may be saved and converted to that end 3. Or however that others may be warned by his sad Example 4. And that the unbelieving and ungodly World may see the Excellency of Christian Religion and not be hardened in their Infidelity and Impietyâ 5. And so that Christ and the Father by him may be honoured in his holiness among the Sons of Men These are the Ends of Church-Discipline § 328. 3. And as you see what the Discipline is that is to be Exercised so the Number of Persons on whom it is to be exercised may be gathered from what is said in the beginning where is shewed 1. How many hundred Parishes are in a Diocess 2. How many hundred or thousand Souls in a Parish unless the very smallest 3. And how many Hereticks Atheists Papists Infidels or Swearers Cursers Railers Drunkards Fornicators and other scandalous Sinners there are proportionably in most Parishes I leave to the judgment of every faithful Pastor that ever tried it by a particular knowledge of his Flock § 329. 4. And lastly who they be that are to Exercise all this Discipline I have shewed before even one Court or Consistory in a whole Diocess with the inconsiderable subserviency of the Arch-Deacon's Court For the Rural Deans do nothing in it and are themselves scarce known and the Pastor and Churchwardens do nothing but present Men to the Courts and execute part of their Sentences § 330. All this being laid together the impossibility of Christ's Discipline in our Churches is undeniable 1. Because by this Computation there must stand at once before the Court many thousand Persons to be at once examined convinced reproved exhorted or a great Multitude at least whenas they can speak but to one at once 2. Because the second Admonition which should be before two or three is there before an open Judicature which is not suited to the appointed End so that really our Controversie with the Diocesans is the same in effect as if it were controverted whether a thousand or six hundred Schools shall have as many governing School-masters or whether one only shall govern all these Schools and the rest of the School-masters have only power to âeach and not to govern were it only whether one should have a general Inspection over the rest that they may be punished for Malc-administration we should not be so far disagreed for though we might question whether Christ ever made or allowed any such Officer besides the Magistrate yet if the Work were but done by any we should judge it more tolerable Or the Controversie is as if it were questioned whether all the Diocess should have any more than one Physician that should have any power to prescribe any Government to the Patients and all the rest should only read general Lectures of Physick to them and be his Apothecaries to carry them his Prescripts and Medicines which were to question whether most shall have any Physician or none and whether the People shall have their Lives sacrificed to the mad Ambition of some one Man that would be their only Physician Shifting may deceive the unexperienced but let any Minister in England be but so faithful as to know all his Flock and regard their Souls and he can never deny that this is the true Case For my own part the Lord knoweth that I did with too much remisness exercise some Discipline a few years when I had liberty in one Country Parish upon one of the most Reformed People in the Land and that with the help of many Fellow-Ministers and of many of the People in their places and the countenance and presence of three Justices of the Peace and yet I found the burden too great for me and that one half of that Parish would have been enough It is in this as in Military Discipline or Navigation The Judgment of that Man that never tried it is of very little value in the Case Do but try the Government of one Parish in the Scripture way and we shall not differ § 331. And the Nonconformists further prove that our Prelacy maketh this Discipline morally impossible thus Were it not morally impossible some one godly Bishop in England would have executed it as Christ appointeth But no one godly Bishop in England doth or ever did so execute it Ergo The Major will not be denied of a Moral Impossibility or at least of a difficulty next it That which no one Man no not the wisest or the best ever did may well be called morally impossible or neer it And that England hath had some such Bishops we are not so uncharitable as to question when we remember Hooper Farrar Latimer Cranmer Ridley Iewel Grindall Hall and many more And I never met with
those Vices which are the shame of Infidels and Heathens and those of our Communion are in their Lives no better than the Unbelieving World All Men will think that that is the best Society which hath the best People and will judge rather by Mens Lives than their Opinions § 345. 7. And hereby it greatly dishonoureth Christianity it self and when the Church is as full of Vices as the Mahomiran Societies are or the Heathen it is a publick perswading the World that our Religion is as false or bad as theirs § 346. 8. And hereby God himself and our blessed Redeemer are greatly dishonoured in the World As his Saints are his honour so when the Communion of Atheists and Prophane Persons and Oppressors and Deceivers and Fornicators and Drunkards is called by us The Communion of Saints it tendeth to make the Church a Scorn and to the great dishonour of the Head of such a Body and the Author of the Christian Faith § 347. 9. And it lamentably conduceth to the hardening of the Heathens and Infidels of the World and hindering their Conversion to the Christian Faith It would make a Believer's heart to bleed if any thing in all the World will do it to think that five parts in six of the World are still Heathens Mahometans and Infidels and that the wicked Lives of Christians with Popperies Ignorance and Divisions is the great Impediment to their Conversion To read and hear Travellers and Merchants tell that the Banians and other Heathens in Indostan Cambaia and many other Lands and the Mahometans adjoyning to the Greeks and the Abassines c. do commonly fly from Christianity as the Separatists among us do from Prelacy and say God will not save us if we be Christians for Christians are Drunkards and proud and Deceivers c. And that the Mahometans and many Heathens have more both of Devotion and Honesty than the common fort of Christians have that live among them O wretched Christians that are not content to damn themselves but thus lay stumbling blocks before the World It were better for these men that they had never been born But if all these notorious ones were disowned by the Churches it would quit our Profession much from the dishonour and shew poor Infidels that our Religion is good though their Lives be bad § 348. 10. Lastly it galleth the Consciences of the Ministers in their administrations of the Sacraments to the openly ungodly and grosly ignorant It hindereth the Comfort of the Church in its Communion It filleth the Heads of poor Christians with Scruples and their Hearts with Fears and is the great cause of unavoidable Separations among us and consequently of all the Censures on one side and wrathful Penalties on the other and uncharitableness on both sides which follow thereupon If the Pastors will not differ between the precious and the vile by necessary regular Discipline tender Christians will be tempted to difference by irregular Separations and to think as Cyprian saith That it belongeth to the People to forsake a sinful Pastor They will separate further than they ought and will take our Churches as Sinks of Pollution and fly from the noisomness of them and come out from among us for fear of partaking in our Plagues as men run out of a ruinous House lest it fall upon their Heads And then they will fall into Sects among themselves and fall under the hot displeasure of the Bishops and then they will be reproached and vexed as Schismaticks while they reproach our Churches as Hypocritical and Prophane that call such Societies the Communion of Saints This hath been and this is and this will be the Cause of Separations Sects Persecutions Malice and Ruins in the Christian World And it will never be cured till some tolerable Discipline cure the Churches § 349. 10. The tenth and last Charge against our Frame of Prelacy is That by is use of Civil or Coercive Power it at once breaketh the Command of Christ and greatly injureth the Civil Government Both which are thus proved by the Nonconformists § 350. 1. It violateth all these Laws of Christ Luke 22. 24 25. And there was a strife among them which of them should be accounted the greatest And he said unto them the Kings of the Gentles exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise Authority upon them are called Benefactors but ye shall not be so but he that is greatest among you let him be as the younger and he that is chief as he that doth serve That is it is a Ministerial Dignity and not a Magistratical which you are called to that which is allowed to Kings here is denied to Ministers even Apostles But it is not Tyranny or Abuse of Power but Secular Magistratical Power it self which is all owed to Kings Ergo it is this which is forbidden Ministers This is the very sence of the Text which is given by Protestant Episcopal Divines themselves when they reject the Presbyterians sence who say that it forbiddeth Ecclesiastical Superiority and Power of one Minister over another as well as Coercive Therefore the old Rhymer said against the Prelates Christus dixit quodam loco Vos non sic nec dixit joco Dixit suis Ergo isti Cujus sunt non certo Christi So 1. Pet. 5. 1 2 3. Feed the Flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly Not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind Neither as being Lords over God's heritage but being ensamples to the Flock But our Bishops take the oversight of those that are not among them and whom they feed not and they rule them by constraint and not as voluntary Subjects not by Ensample for one of an hundred never seeth or knoweth them but as Lords by Secular Force Dr. Hammond taketh the word Constraint here Actively not Passively not as forbidding them to Bishops against their own Wills but to Rule the People by constraint against the Peoples wills It would be tedious to recite all those Texts which command the People to imitate the Apostles as they imitated Christ who never used Magistratical force nor did any of his Apostles and say that the Weapons of our warfare are not carnals and that he that warreth entangleth not himself with the Affairs of this Life and that the Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle c. § 351. 2. And that this Coercive Church Government is an heinous Injury to Christian Magistrates even where it seemeth to be subordinate to them appeareth thus 1. Though they do mostly confess that they can exercise no Power of Coercion of themselves but by the Magistrates consent yet do they take it to be the Magistrates duty to consent to it as if he were not else a tender Nursing Father to the Church and so they lay his Conscience in Prison till he trust them with his Sword or serve them by it 2. They call their Magistratical Government by the
obliged by the Covenant to endeavour any Alteration of Church-Government Let them write or say openly Men are obliged by the Covenant to endeavour it by lawful means but not by unlawful and let them give leave to another to accuse them in a Court of Justice for these words and let it be there tried and judged and then the sence of the Law will be declared If they be in the right the Accuser shall lose his Costs and no danger can befal them If they be not in the right they will be punished by Confiscation And is not the hazard of such a Law Suit cheap enough for a Man to save himself and others from so great a Guilt as the Justification of three Kingdoms in the Sin of Perjury if it so prove And yet I could never hear of the Man that would hazard his Estate thus on the confidence of his Exposition of the Law but multitudes venture their Souls upon it 4. The Parliament who is the Expounder of their own Laws have given us their sence of the Subject of our Controversie in a former Law which puts all out of doubt For in the Corporation Act all Men are put out of Power and Trust who will not declare that absolutely without any limitation There is no Obligation upon me or any other person from the Oath called c. so that all Obligation to any thing at all by that Vow is in this most important Act denied and the profession of this denial thus imposed By which it is past doubt that the Law-makers sence is against all Obligation absolutely 5. And that it is so is well know to those that know what was said in the Parliament when among the Commons this Reason carried it viz. That if any Obligation at all be acknowledged even to things lawful every seditious person will be left to think that he is bound to all which he conceiveth lawful which with some will be to resist the King or commit Treason Therefore all Obligation absolutely must be denied I confess such Villains there may be and they should be carefully restrained but as I doubt this Act of Parliament will no whit change their belief of their Obligations for they will think Parliaments cannot dispense with Oaths or with the Laws of God so it is a sad remedy for such villanous Errours to disoblige Men from the lawful part of Vows for fear lest they take the unlawful to be lawful As it is to teach Men to take nothing which God commandeth to be their Duty for fear least they should take ther Sin to be their Duty § 387. Object But what if the Bishop give me liberty to put in the word unlawfully or to Subscribe only in that sence may I not then lawfully do it Answ. This was the only Expedient to draw in Nonconformists heretofore and so it hath proved of late again But I distinguish 1. There is much difference between Subscribing the very words of the Act with the verbal or by-addition of your own Explication and the putting in of your Explicatory words into the Sentence which you Subscribe 2. Between Subscribing this as the imposed Declaration in the Act and Subscribing it only as another thing 3. Between the secret and the open Explication of your Mind For my part if the word unlawfully had been joyned to endeavour by the Law-makers I would not have scrupled to Subscribe that part of the Declaration But 1. the Bishop is not the Law-maker and therefore hath no more power than a private Man to expound the Law Nor is he so much as a Iudge in this business who may expound it in order to the decision of a particular Cause but only a Witness that you Subscribe 2. If you only Subscribe the very words of the Declaration and speak your Explication or write it in a by-paper you do then provide an insufficient Plaister for the Sore you do that which is evil in it self and would cure it by an uneffectual accidental Medicine You harden both the Imposers and Subscribers by your Scandal while you are said to Subscribe the very thing imposed whose sence is so plain that your Exposition is but an apparent ludicrous distortion As if I were commanded to Subscribe this Sentence God hath no knowledge nor no love The Imposer understandeth it vulgarly and blasphemously The words in the most strict and proper sence are true which cannot be said in our Case because knowledge and love are spoken primarily of the Creatures Acts and are not in God formaliter but eminenter that is somewhat more excellent which hath no other name because we have no formal Conceptions of them but must speak of God after the manner of Men while Man is the Glass and Image by which we know him yet would I not Subscribe this imposed Proposition while the Imposer meaneth it blasphemously because it is a heinous Scandal to be said to Subscribe and own such Villany and so to encourage others to it no though I might express my sence 3. Especially I may express it but privately where the Remedy against the Scandal will be ineffectual But if you may Subscribe the whole Sentence with your own words therein and that not as it is the imposed Declaration which is otherwise expounded by the Law-makers themselves but as another and may make this as publick and notorious as your Subscription it self is then I have less to say against it There are no words utterable which a Man may not put a good sence on if he please And yet I durst not so far play with Death and comply with the Spirit of Impiety as to Subscribe that There is no God or God is unjust or unwise or unholy c. though I had liberty to say I mean it in this or that sence which is true and warrantable § 388. 4. Another Motive of the Latitudinarians to Subscribe is That by to endeavour any Change or Alteration of Government in the Church is meant only any change of the Species of our Church-Government and not any Reformation of integral or accidental Defects or Depravations Answ. 1. And yet these very Men do profess to believe with Mr. Stillingfleet That no Form of Church-Government is of Divine Appointment or Imposition And if so why is it not lawful for the King and Parliament to change that which God hath not made necessary Or for Subjects to endeavour it by Petition 2. It is agreed on by Casuists and their Bishop of Lincoln Dr. Sanderson with the rest That Oaths are to be taken sensu strictiore and so are Laws and those especially which determine of the Obligation of Oaths But it is an unwarrantable audacious liberty for any Subject unnecessarily thus to turn an Universal Enunciation into a Definite and Particular and when the Law saith any alteration of Government to say that some alteration is not included Their reason is because it is said of and not in Government Answ. There is no Language much
all their Exceptions against the New Common Prayer Book in the Points wherein it is much worse than the old § 405. And for the Latitudinarians and Unwilling Conformists their Plea is That the use of the Forms and Ceremonies is lawful and that is all that they are required to subscribe to because the Act saith they shall declare their Assent and Consent to the use of all things c. They do not subscribe their Consent to the thing in it self but to so much as is to be used by them and so far only as that they will use it But this is so gross that the Non-conformists cannot stretch so far For 1. What Man can doubt whether all things in the Book were intended for some use or other though not each part to the same use Did the Convocation and Parliament contrive and impose things which they themselves did judge to be of no use Is not the Kalendar and Direction for reading Scripture of use to tell you what Days to keep and what Chapters to read Is not the Rubrick of use to direct you in the several Offices Is not the Doctrinal Determination about the Saving of Baptized Infants and other such like of use to tell us its Doctrine is taken to be true Doubtless every part hath its intended usefulness 2. The words are as express to exclude such stretching as could well be devised For 1. It is Assent as well as Consent which is declared 2. It is to all and every thing which includeth every word 3. It is to every thing contained in it as well as to every thing prescribed by it And the Doctrinals as of three Orders Iure Divino c. are contained in it 3. To put all out of doubt since this Act the Parliament made another Act to which while Proviso's were offered the whole House of Lords sent it back to the Commons with this Proviso That those that declared Assent and Consent to all and every thing c. should be obliged to understand it only as to the use of what was required of them and not as to the things in themselves considered The Commons refused this Proviso and the Houses had a meeting about it in which the Commons delivered their Reasons against that Exposition of the Declaration And in the end the Lords did acquiesce in their Reasons and consented to cast out the Proviso so that now the Parliament hath expounded their own words and there is no more pretence left for the Latitudinarian Equivocation § 406. But if it were otherwise is the use of all things contained there lawful 1. To what they say about the Apocrypha it is answered That it is not lawful to read publickly in the Church on any days so many above One hundred in two Months of the Apocryphal Chapters in the same manner time and title of Lessons with the holy Scripture with no fuller distinction When 1. Experience telleth us That many of the People who understand not the Greek word Apocrypha are thereby drawn to take them for Canonical Scripture being also bound up with it in the Books 2. And when Tobit Susanna Bell and the Dragon Iudith are ordinarily by Protestants taken for Fables or Untruths and therefore not so much as pious Instructions § 407. 2. And for the disorder and defects of the Common Prayer before proved they seem but ill matter for such an unfeigned Assent and Consent § 408. 3. And for the new Clause of the Salvation of Baptized Infants as certain by the Word of God the Scruple were the less if it were confined to the Infants of true Believers But our Church admitteth of all Infants even of Infidels and Heathens without distinction if they have but Godfathers and Godmothers and the Canon enforceth Ministers to Baptize them all without exception And when in our Publick Debate with the Bishops I instanced in one of my Parishioners that was a professed Infidel and yet said he would come and make the common Profession for his Child for Custom sake even Dr. Sanderson the Bishop of Lincoln answered me That if there were Godfathers it had a sufficient Title which Bishop Morley and others of them confirmed Now these Godfathers being not Adopters nor Owners we cannot see it certain in God's Word That all those are saved whom they present to Baptism no nor whom ungodly and hypocritical Christians present for how can the Convenant save the Child as the Child of a Believer which saveth not the Parent as a Believer himself So that while unmeet Subjects are Baptized we cannot Subscribe to this Assertion § 409. And it is strange that when Infant-Baptism it self and commonly said by these Men to be a Tradition and not commanded or found in Scripture that yet they find it certain by the Word of God that Baptized Infants are saved § 410. But some say That it is certain that all Infants so dying are saved and therefore all Baptized Infants But 1. They never shewed us any Word of God from whence that certainty may appear to us nor have they answered what is said against it 2. And what jesting with holy Things is this to speak that of the Baptized only which they mean of all As if they would perswade People that it is some effect of Baptism and priviledge of the Children of the Church which they think belongeth to all the Children of Heathens § 411. Some say that the word All Children is not in and of some its true Answ. The Indefinite here according to common Speech is equivalent to an Universal Children baptized dying before actual sin is equal to all children baptized your Consciences must tell you that if you limit it to some only you cross the sence of the Compilers of the Liturgy I am sure Dr. Gunning who brought it in hath publickly exprest his sence for the Salvation of all such Infants § 412. 4. As to the Practice of Baptizing all Children that can have Godfathers and of Confirming Administring the Lord's Supper Absolving Burying c. with unjust Application to Persons unfit for the Sacraments or Titles given them we know not how to Assent and Consent to the Imposition or Form of as long as we know that the same Church which commandeth us to use those words doth command us to apply them to unworthy Persons And how it may harden the Wicked to Perdition is easily conjectured § 413. 5. And for the Ceremonies they are so largely written about on both sides that I need not stay here to recite the Arguments For my own part as I would receive the Lord's Supper kneeling rather then not at all so I have no Censure for those that wear the Surplice though I never wore it But that Man may adjoyn such a Human Sacrament as the Cross in Baptism to God's Sacrament I am not satisfied in And cannot Assent or Consent to it that such a solemn dedicating Sign should be stated in God's Publick Worship by Man 1.
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
the Governours for the greatest part 2. And as a Congregational Church doth specifically differ from a Diocess of 1000 or 600 Churches the former de fine being for Personal Communion in God's Worship and not the latter so therefore the Bishop of a Congregation must needs differ specifically from the Bishop of such a Diocess Therefore so to change were to change the Species of the Government as I am confident the Bishops themselves would say if the Question were put to them 16. By Endeavouring here he understandeth only unlawful endeavouring and not Petitioning or other lawful means whereas the Word in the Oath is absolute and unlimited And I cannot be so bold as to Swear not to endeavour and secretly mean except it be by petitioning or other lawful means for no sober Man will think that we may do it by unlawful means if he know them to be so And the old Et caetera Oath in 1640. the Antecessor of this had not consenting which could not be so limited And further it seems plain that this cannot be their Sense because it is equally applyed to both Governments in the Oath save that the Church-Government is put first And who dare say that this is the meaning as to the Government of the State I will not endeavour the deposing of the King or the change of Monarchy unless it be by lawful means Whereas the Oath seemeth to me that it is never to be done at all and no means is lawful for such an Aid And therefore we must so understand it as to the Diocesanes too if we will not Swear absolutely or universally and mean limitedly and particularly yea and limit and not limit the same Word as respecting the several Governments without any colour from the Terms 17. Lastly When the Oath Sweareth us not at any time to endeavour which is as plainly an Exclusive of Exceptions as to Time as can briefly be uttered he thinketh that by any time is meant any time except when the King shall command me the contrary or the Law shall change c. Now when so much violence must be used with the Words of such an Oath and when the Imposers will not after many Years knowledge of our Doubts and Difficulties make them any plainer and so when they are at the best to us so unintelligible and no Lawyer nor Parliament that we can speak with can resolve us but all the Answer we can get from the Parliament Men is You must understand it in the proper usual Sense of the Words And from the Lawyers An unlawful Commission is none and lawful Endeavours are not forbidden who can take such an Oath in Judgment and Uprightness of Heart that is satisfied in the Points forementioned § 20. The Act which Imposeth this Oath openly accuseth the Nonconformable Ministers or some of them of Seditious Doctrine and such hainous Crimes wherefore when it first came out I thought that at such an Accusation no Innocent Persons should be silentâ especially when Papists Strangers and Posterity may think That a Recorded Statute is a sufficient History to prove us guilty and the Concernments of the Gospel and our Callings and Men's Souls are herein touched Therefore I drew up a Profession of our Judgment about the Case of Loyalty and Obedience to Kings and Governours and the Reasons why we refused the Oath But reading it to Dr. Seamaâ and some others wiser than my self they advised me to cast it by and to hear all in silent Patience because it was not possible to do it so fully and sincerely but that the malice of our Adversaries would make an ill use of it and turn it all against our selves And the wise Statesmen laughed at me for thinking that Reason would be regarded by such Men as we had to do with and would not exasperate them the more § 21. After this the Ministers finding the pressure of this Act so great and the loss like to be so great to Cities and Corporations some of them studied how to take the Oath lawfully And Dr. Will Bites being much in seeming Favour with the Lord-Keeper Bridgeman consulted with him who promised to be at the next Session and there on the Bench to declare openly That by Endeavour to change the Church-Government was meant only lawful Endeavour which satisfying him he thereby satisfied others who to avoid the Imputation of Seditious Doctrine were willing to go as far as they durst And so Twenty Ministers came in at the Sessions and took the Oath viz. Dr. Fates Mr. Sam. Clarke Mr. Sheffield Mr. Hall or Mr. Church Mr. Matth. Pool Mr. Lood Mr. Stancliffe Mr. Roles Mr. Lewis Mr. Smith Mr. Arthur Mr. Bastwick Mr. Brooks Mr. Overton Mr. Batcheler Mr. Cary Mr. Butler Mr. Wildâore Mr. Hooker And not long after Dr. Iacomb took it and Mr. Maââ and Mr. Newton of Taunton in Somersetshire being then in London Mr. Iohn Howe in Devonshire and in Somersetshire Mr. William Thomas Mr. Cooper of Southwark then there And in Northamptonshire Dr. Conant late Regius Professor of Divinity and Vice-Chancellor in Oxford and about Twelve more with him I heard of no more Nonconformists that took it § 22. Dr. Bates wrote me presently the following Letter which because it sheweth the Truth of their Case and Inducements I think meet here to add the rather because when they took the Oath the Lord-Keeper left out the Word only And Judge Keeling openly told them That he was glad that so many of them renounced the Covenant with more such like which made Mr. Clarke openly tell him That they took this Oath only in such a Sense as they conceived to be not inconsistent with the Covenant And because the People in London reviled the Ministers as Turn-Coats when they had done which Insultings and Revilings much grieved some of them Dr. Bates's Letter of their Case about the Oath Dear Sir I Iudge it due to our Friendship and necessary for my Fame to give you an account of what past amongst us in Reference to the Oath In several Meetings of the Ministers the special Enquiry was about the meaning of the Word Endeavour Whether to be understood in the universal Extent so as to exclude all Regular or only tumultuous and seditious Actings The Reasons which persuaded us to understand it in a qualified Sense were 1. The Preface to the Act which declares the occasion and the end of the Oath was to prevent the distilling the Poison of Schism and Rebellion now it is a known Rule ratio juris est jus from whence it appears That only Schismatical and Rebellious Endeavours are excluded to avoid which there was an antecedent Obligation 2. It is necessary to interpret this Oath in congruity with former Laws in particular with that which concerns tumultuous Petitions wherein this Parliament declares it to be the priviledge of the Subject to complain remonstrate Petition to King or Parliament or to advise with any Member of Parliament for the altering of
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
only to the Holy Canonical Scriptures in general and to the Creeds and 36 Articles in particular And no Oath Promise or Consent he required save only the renewing of the Covenant which in Baptism we made to God and a promise of Fidelity in our Ministry and the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to the King And for all lesser matters let it suffice that the Laws may restrain us from preaching against any Established Doctrine or against Episcopacy Liturgy or Ceremonies and from all Male-Administrations or Church-Tyranny or Injustice about the Sacraments and that we be punishable according to the quality of the Offence II. The Fire having now caused a Necessity of many more publick Assemblies for God's Worship besides those in the yet standing Parish-Churches we humbly conceive that it would much conduce to the re-edifying of the Churches and City and the contenting of many and the drawing off the people from more private Meetings if a competent Number of the Ruin'd Cnurches be allowed to such sober Protestants as will repair them with the same liberty and Security for possession as the French and Dutch in London have their Churches the people chusing their Pastors and maintaining them Or if his Majesty's Bounty allow them any Stipend that none have that Stipend whom his Majesty approveth not And that the Pastors be not suffered to introdâce there any Heresie or Idolatry but shall preach the Doctrine of the sacred Scriptures not opposing the Doctrines or Orders of the Church and shall worship God according to the Liturgy or the Assembly's Directory or the Reformed Liturgy offered by the Commissioners 1660. as they desire III. That all such be capable of Benefices who subscribe and swear as is aforesaid and being of Competent Abilities shall be lawfully Ordained or if already ordained are confirmed by the late Act or shall be confirmed by any Commissioned by his Majesty they being obliged some time to read the Liturgy and sometimes to administer the Sacrament according to it abating the Ceremonies And to be often present when it is read which shall be ordinarily or constantly done and the Sacrament administred as oft as is required by Law by himself or some other allowed Minister And that those who will only subscribe and swear as is abovesaid being ordained also as aforesaid but cannot so far conform to the Liturgy may be allowed to preach and Catechize publickly as Lecturers or Assistants to some others and to have such further Liberty about the Sacraments as by just Regulations shall be made safe to Religion and the publick peace There is another way which would satisfie almost all by allowing each party such a Minister whose Ordination and Ministration they do make no scruple at which would prevent all private Churches and perhaps all Face of Schism among us which is if in every Parish where any party dissenteth from the Established way the Dissenters be left at liberty either to communicate with any Neighbour-Parish or to chuse an Assistant for the Incumbent which Assistant shall be maintained by themselves unless the Incumbent will voluntarily contribute And shall officiaâe one half of the Day as the Incumbent doth the other having leave to do it according to the foresaid Directory or the Additional Liturgy offered 1660. or at least to have the use of the Church at such Hours as the Incumbent doth not there officiate The people receiving the Communion from each according to their several Iudgments And though so great a Rupture as ours is cannot be cured without some inconveniences which may be here objected yet such Laws may be made for the Regulation of this Liberty as may restrain all Faction Contention and Mutual Contempt or Injuries and even the Naming themselves Members of distinct Churches as might be shewed § 66. The Copy of the Lord Keeper's or Dr. Wilkins's Proposals In order to Comprehension it is Humbly Offered 1. That such persons as in the late times of disorder have been ordained by Presbyters shall be admitted to the Exercise of the Ministerial Function by the Imposition of the Hands of the Bishop with this or the like Form of Words Take thou Authority to Preach the Word of God and to Minister the Sacraments in any Congregation of the Church oâ England where thou shalt be lawfully appointed thereunto An Expedient much of this Nature was practised and allowed of in the Case of the Catharists and Melesians Vid. 8th Canon Concil Nic. âynodical Epistle of the same to the Churches of Egypt Gelasius Cyzicenus Hist. Con. Nic. 2d part 2. That all persons to be admitted to any Ecclesiastical Function or Dignity or the Employment of a School-master after the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy shall instead of all former Subscriptions be required to subscribe this or the like Form of Words I A. B. do hereby profess and declare That I do approve the Doctrines Worship and Government Established in the Church of England as containing all things necessary to Salvation and that I will not endeavour by my self or any other directly or indirectly to bring in any Doctrine contrary to that which is so Established And I do hereby promise That I will continue in the Communion of the Church of England and will not do any thing to disturb the Peace thereof 3. That the Gesture of Kneeling at the Sacrament and the use of the Cross in Baptism and bowing at the Name of Iesus may be left indifferent or may be taken away as shall be thought most expedient 4. That in Case it be thought fit to review and alter the Liturgy and Canons for the satisfaction of Dissenters that then every person to be admitted to preach shall upon his Institution or Admission to preach upon some Lord's Day within a time to be limited publickly and solemnly read the said Liturgy and openly declare his Assent to the Lawfulness of the use of it and shall promise That it shall be constantly used at the time and place accustomed In order to Indulgence of such Protestants as cannot be comprehended under the publick Establishment it is Humbly offered 1. That such Protestants may have liberty for the Exercise of thâr Religion in publick and at ãâã Charges to build or procure places for their publick Worship either within or near Tââs as shall be thought most Expedient 2. That the Names of all such persons who are to have this Liberty be Registred together with the Congregations to which they belong and the Names of their Teachers 3. That every one admitted to this liberty be disabled to bear any publick Office but shall fine for Officers of Burden 4. And that upon shewing a Certificate of their being listed among those who are indulged they shall be freed from such legal penalties as are to be inflicted on those who do not frequent their Parish-Churches 5. And such persons so indulged shall not for their meeting in Conventicles be punished by Confiscation of Estates 6. Provided that they be
the Ministry in general but a designation to a particular Charge and a legal License c. 4. By such as by his Majesty c. because it is not for us to offer our selves to a Diocesans Imposition of Hands in that manner but if you put it in other Words we cannot help it 5. There are three things which the Nonconformists here scruple 1. Renouncing their Ordination 2. Reordination which is like Rebaptization 3. Owning the Diocesan Species of Prelacy for the Presbyterians are against all Prelacy and the Episcopal Nonconformists are against the English Frame as contrary to that in the time of Cyprian c. Therefore because these Words so much seem to express a Re-ordination by Diocesans 1. by the sign of Imposition of Hands 2. By the Authorising Words 3. and put in of purpose to satisfie them that think the Presbyterians no Ministers 4. In a time when this hath been so publickly declared they cannot submit to all this without either a Declaration to the contrary in the Law or a Liberty by the Law given them to profess their own Sense in the three particulars questioned that they renounce not their Ordination nor take this as Re-ordination nor own the Diocesan Prelary as distinct from the old Episcopacy though they will submit to it 6. As by Instituted we intend admittance to a Pastoral Charge or Authority to administer Sacraments we desire that may he plainly inserted seeing he that only preacheth as Probationers may do hath no need of this nor do any scruple to hear him Or if they do while he hath no charge they may turn their back on him while a Man is a Lecturer only to meer Volunteers there is no use for this II. 1. We mention the Vniversity because many were turned out of their Fellowships there for non-subscribing c. 2. We would have the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy made necessary 3. The professed belief of the Scriptures and Creed we take to be needful to Admittance That which was the only ancient Catholick Profession should not be left out of ours 4. The professed Assent to the Doctrine of the Church of England and not only to approve it in tantum seâmeth needful to satisfie the Suspicious and to shut out Papists and Hereticks from the comprehension 5. Yet the word approve as related to the Worship and Government though restrictively will on many Accounts be scrupled and that is needless 6. So absolutely as joyned to necessary is needful to avoid Ambiguity and just Scruple 7. The word promise requireth fuller certainty than resolve doth and it bindeth us not to alter our Iudgments which is not in our power in such a case 8. The Word continue is a needless and entangling Word and will deprive us of the use of the Indulgence if we should ever change our minds But if as some say it be only the Communion of Faith and Love such as we owe to Neighbour-Churches and not Subjection nor local presence in Worship let that be but expressed and every sober Person will promise it 9. To promise to preserve the Peace and Happiness of the Church is a fuller Word then to do nothing to disturb the peace and yet more clear and plainly relateth to the whole Church III. We put bowing at the Name of Iesus rather than c. to avoid the imputation of Impiety lest we be thought to be against bowing at that Name simply when it is but as comparatively and exclusively to others IV. 1. In case if it be thought fit c. We must suppose it thought fit 2. This whole Vndertaking is proper only to them that take a Cure and not for an occasional or set Lecturer 3. It will answer our Sense if you put it thus Shall read the Liturgy when satisfactorily altered and some considerable part 'till then if it be delayed 4. The profession of the Lawfulness is but a needless temptation as to him that is bound actually to use it 5. And the promise that it shall be constantly used may be hindered by sickness or so many Casualties that its much safer to bind them only by a Law 6. And then the Event only must be expressed that it be used by whose procurement soever so it be done I may think it unlawful to procure another to do that which I cannot do my self and yet some other may procure it In the Second Article I forgot to tell you That we annex the grant of the desired liberty after the Subscription lest else our hopes be frustrate when we have done all The Reasons of the added Articles are apparent in themselves The Sum of all our Reasons is It is confessed that our Phrase will serve the Ends of our Superiours and we are certain that they will satisfie a far greater number than the other will do and to their greater ease and quiet of Conscience that they may not feel themselves still pinched and uneasie and kept under desires of further changes And we are sure that we are much better able our selves to plead down Men's Objections if it be thus worded than as the other way And we would fain have this no patch or palliate Cure but such as may cause the now drooping Dissenters to rejoyce under the Government and to perceive it to be their Interest to defend it against all Attempters of a Change § 71. But because the grand stop in our Treaty was about Re-ordination and Dr. Wilkins still insisted on this That those Consciences must be accommodated who took them for no Ministers who were ordained without Bishops and some Words were ãâã into their Proposals which seemed to signifie a Reordination though he denied such a signification we were put to give in this following Paper The Reasons why we cannot consent to Reordination I. WE dare not causelesly consent to the use of such Words as imply an untruth viz. That such as were Ordained by Lawful Pastors and the Presidents of their Synods are not lawful Ministers of Christ in an Ecclesiastical Sense II. We dare not consent to the taking of God's Name in vain by using holy Expressions and a Divine Ordinance either as a Scenical Form or to confirm an Error III. We dare not causelesly go against the Iudgment of the Vniversal Church of all Ages who have condemned Reordination as they did Rebaptization The Canons called the Apostles deposing both the Ordainers and the Ordained IV. We dare not so far wrong the Protestant-Churches as to do that which importeth That their Ministry is null and consequently all their Churches null politically taken V. We dare not so far wrong all the People of England and all other Protestant-Churches who have lived under the Ministry of meer Presbyters or such Bishops as were Ordained only by Presbyters as to tempt them to think that all the Sacraments were nullities which they received and so that they are all unchristened or unbaptized even Denmark and those parts of Germany which have some kind of
his doing and to prove it told me all the Story before mentioned that such a Letter he received from Wolverhampton and being treasonable he was fain to acquaint the King with it And when he saw my Meeting mentioned in the Letter he examined him about them and he could not deny but they were very numerous and the King against his Will sent him to the Bishop of London to see it supprest I told him that I came not now to expostulate or express any Offence but to endeavour that we might part in Love And that I had taken that way for his assistance and his People's good which was agreeable to my Judgment and now he was trying that which was according to his Judgment and which would prove the better the end will shew He expostulated with me for not receiving the Sacrament with him and offered me any Service of his which I desired and I told him I desired nothing of him but to do his People good and to guide them faithfully as might tend to their Salvation and his own and so we parted § 118. As I went to Prison I called of Serjeant Fountain my special Friend to take his Advice for I would not be so injurious to Judge Hale And he perused my âittimus and in short advised me to seek for a Habeas Corpus yet not in the usual Court the King's-Bench for reasons known to all that know the Judges nor yet in the Exchequer lest his Kindness to me should be an Injury to Judge Hale and so to the Kingdom and the Power of that Court therein is questioned but at the Common-Pleas which he said might grant it though it be not usual § 119. But my greatest doubt was whether the King would not take it ill that I rather sought to the Law than unto him or if I sought any release rather than continued in Prison My Imprisonment was at present no great Suffering to me for I had an honest Jaylor who shewed me all the Kindness he could I had a large room and the liberty of walking in a fair Garden and my Wife was never so chearful a Companion to me as in Prison and was very much against my seeking to be released and she had brought so many Necessaries that we kept House as contentedly and comfortably as at home though in a narrower room aad I had the sight of more of my Friends in a day than I had at home in half a Year And I knew that if I got out against their Will my sufferings would be never the nearer to an end But yet on the other side 1. It was in the extreamest heat of Summer when London was wont to have Epidemical diseases And the hope of my dying in Prison I have reason to think was one great inducement to some of the Instruments to move to what they did 2. And my Chamber being over the Gate which was knockt and opened with noise of Prisoners just under me almost every Night I had little hope of sleeping but by day which would have been likely to have quickly broken my strength which was so little as that I did but live 3. And the number of Visiters by day did put me out of hope of Studying or doing any thing but entertain them 4. And I had neither leave at any time to go out of Doors much less to Church on the Lord's Days nor on that Day to have any come to me nor to Preach to any but my Family Upon all these Considerations the advice of some was that I should Petition the King but to that I was averse 1. Because I was indifferent almost whether I came out or not and I was loth either to seem more afflicted or impatient than I was or to beg for nothing 2. I had avoided the Court and the Converse of all great Men so many years on purpose that I was loth to creep to them now for nothing 3. And I expected but to be put upon some promise which I could not make or to be rejected 4. I had so many great Men at Court who had profest extraordinary Kindness to me tho' I was never beholden to one Man of them all for more than Words that I knew if it were to be done they would do it without my seeking And my Counsellor Serjeant Fountain advised me not to seek to them nor yet refuse their Favour if they offered it but to be wholly passive as to the Court but to seek my Freedom by Law because of my great weakness and the probability of future Peril to my Life And this Counsel I followed § 120. The Earl of Orery I heard did earnesty and speedily speak to the King how much my Imprisonment was to his dis-service The Earl of Manchester could do little but by the Lord Arlington who with the Duke of Buckingham seemed much concerned in it But the Earl of Lauder dale who would have been forwardest had he known the King's mind to be otherwise said nothing And so all my great Friends did me not the least Service but made a talk of it with no Fruit at all And the moderate honest Part of the Episcopal Clergy were much offended and said I was chosen out designedly to make them all odious to the People But Sir Iohn Babor often visiting me assured me That he had spoken to the King about it and when all had done their best he was not willing to be seen to relaxe the Law and discourage Justices in executing it c. but he would not be offended if I sought my Remedy at Law which most thought would come to nothing § 121. Whilst I was thus unresolved which way to take Sir Iohn Babor desiring a Narrative of my Case I gave him one which he shewed the Lord Arlington which I will here insert and I will joyn with it two other Scripts one which I gave as Reasons to prove That the Act against Conventicles forbad not my Preaching Another which I gave all my Counsellors when they were to plead my Cause about the Error of the Mittimus § 122 The Narrative of my Case The Oath cannot be imposed on me by the Act. First Because I never kept any Conventicle or Unlawful Assembly proved 1. By Conventicles and Unlawful Assemblies for Religious Exercises the Laws do mean only the Meetings of Recusants Separatists or such as Communicate not with the Church of England or such Assemblies as are held in opposition to the Church-Assemblies and not such as are held only by the Conformable Members of the Church in meer Subordination to the Church-Assemblies to promote them But all Meetings which I have held are only of this latter sort The former Proposition is thus proved 1. The Canons give the Sense of the Word Conventicles for it is a Church-Term about Church-Matters But the Canons mention but two sorts of Conventicles one of Presbyters when they meet to make Orders or Canons for Church-Discipline the other of People who meet
are who can take such a State as this to be their Interest Sure I am That Peace-makers shall be Blessed as the Children of God that safe and honest Terms might easily be found out if Men were impartial and willing and that he that shall be our Healer will be our Deliverer and if your Lordship could be Instrumental therein it would be a greater honour to you in the Estimation of the true Friends of the King and Kingdom and Church and a greater Comfort to your Conscience than all worldly Greatness can afford For the Means I am not so vain as to presume to offer you any other Particulars than to tell you that I am persuaded That if there were first a Command from His Majesty to the Bishops of Chester and Norwich on one side and two Peaceable Men on the other freely to Debate and offer such Expedients as they think most proper to heal all our Divisions they would ãâã agree And when they had made that Preparation if some more such Moderate Divines were joyned to them as Dr. Stillingfleet Dr. Tillotson Dr. Outram Dr. Pierson Dr. Whitchcot Dr. More Dr. Worthington Dr. Wallis Dr. Barlow Dr. Tully Mr. Gifford c. on one side and Dr. Conant Dr. Dillingham Dr. Langley and many more that I could Name on the other side they would quickly fill up and Confirm the Concord And such a Preparation being made and shewed His Majesty certainly he would soon see that the Inconveniences of it will be so great as the Mischiefs of our Divisions are and are like to be for the further they go as a Torrent the more they will swell and Violence will not end them when it seemeth to allay them And oh what a Pleasure would it then be to His Majesty to Govern a Concordant People and to feel the Affections and Strength of a Vnited Kingdom and to have Men's Religious Zeal engage them in a Fervency for his Love and Service And what a Joy would it be to the Pastors to be Beloved of their Flocks And what a Joy to all the Honest Subjects to live in such a Kingdom and such a Church And that this Work may not seem over-difficult to you when your Lordship shall Command it I shall briefly tell you what the generality of the Sober Nonconformists hold and what it is that they desire and what it is that they refuse as sinful that when they are understood it may appear how far they are from being intolerable either in the Kingdom or the Church My Lord Pardon this boldness of Your Humble Servant Rich. Baxter Iune 24. 1670. To the Right Honourable the E. of Lauderdale His Majesty's Commissioner for Scotland §172 When the E. of Lauderdale was gone into Scotland Sir Rob. Murrey a worthy Person and one of Gresham-Colledge-Society and the Earl's great Confident sent me the Frame of a Body of Church-Discipline for Scotland and desired my Animadversions on it I had not Power to Transcribe them or make them known but you may Conjecture what they were by my Animadversions Only I may say That the Frame was very handsomely contrived and much Moderation was in it but the main Power of Synods was contrived to be in the King To the Honourable Sir Rob. Murrey this present IN General 1. The External Government of the Church is so called 1. From the Object because it is about the Body and so it belongeth both to the King and to the Pastor who speak to Men as sensible and corporeal 2. Or from the Act of Governning and so it belongeth also to both For to Preach and Admonish and give the Sacrament of Baptism by the Key of Admission and to Excommunicate c. are outward Acts. 3. From the Matter of Punishment when it is the Body immediately or the Goods that are meddled with by Penalty And so the Government belongeth to the King and Magistrates alone But this is much plainlier and fitlier distinguished as Bishop Bilson frequently and Protestants ordinarily do by the Terms of Governing by the Sword and by the Word Or by Co-active and Spiritual and Pastoral Government which is by Authoritative Persuasion or by God's Word applied to the Conscience II. Though there be an External Government in the two first Senses given by Christ as immediately to the Pastors as to the Prince they having the Keys of the Church as immediately committed to them as the Sword is to the Prince yet in the Exercise of their Office in Preaching Sacraments and Discipline they are under the Civil Government of the King who as he may see that Physicians and all others in his Kingdom do their Duties without gross abuse so may he do by Pastors tho' he cannot either assume to himself their Office or prohibit it yet he may govern them that use it and see that they do it according to Christ's Law So that under that Pretence he take not their proper Work into his own hand nor hinder them from the true Exercise III. Though there are many things in the Frame of Canons which I am uncapable of judging of as concerning another Kingdom whose Case and Customs I am not perfectly acquainted with yet I may say these three things of it in general 1. That I am very glad to see no ensnaring Oaths Declarations Professions or Subscriptions in it no not so much as a Subscription to these Canons themselves For peaceable Men can live quietly and obediently under a Government which hath many things in it which they dare not justifie or approve of It is our Work to obey it is the Magistrate's Work and not ours to justifie all his own Commands and Orders before God as having no Errors Therefore it is pity to see Subjects so put upon that which is not their Work upon the terrible Terms as some-where they are 2. I conceive that this Frame will make a Nation happy or miserable as the Men are who shall be chosen for the Work The King having the choice of all the Bishops and Moderators and the Commissioners having the Absolute Power of nullifying all if Wise and Godly Bishops and Moderators be chosen and moderate Commissioners Piety will be much promoted by these Rules of Government But if contrary it will have contrary Effects 3. Therefore supposing a choice of meet Persons though the mixtures of the Magistrates and the Churches power here be such as I cannot justifie who had rather they were distinctly managed yet I should be thankful to God if we might see but as good a Frame of Canons well used in England and should live peaceably submissively and gratefully under such a Government To the Particulars 1. The Name of Bishop appropriated to the Diocesane will stumble some who have learned that every Church hath one Bishop saith Ignatius Et ubi Episcopus ibi Ecclesia saith Cyprian Therefore they will think that you Un-Church all the Churches of the Land save the Diocesane And I could wish that the Name were fitted to
account of Religion earnestly declaming against Popery and becoming the Head of the Party that were zealous for the Protestant Cause and awakened the Nation greatly by his Activity And being quickly put out of his place of Chancellourship he by his bold and skillful way of speaking so moved the House of Lords that they began to speak higher against the danger of Popery than the Commons and to pass several Votes accordingly And the Earl of Shaftsbury spake so plainly of the Duke of York as much offended and it was supposed would not long be born The Earl of Clare the Lord Hollis the Lord Hallifax and others also spake very freely And among the Bishops only that I heard of Sir Herbert Crofts who had sometimes been a Papist the Bishop of Hereford And now among Lords and Commons and Citizens and Clergy the talk went uncontrolled that the Duke of York was certainly a Papist and that the Army lately raised and encamped at Black-heath was designed to do their Work who at once would take down Parliaments and set up Popery And Sir Bucknall told them in the House of such Words that he had overheard of the late Lord Treasurer Clifford to the Lord Arundell as seemed to increase their Satisfaction of the Truth of all but common observation was the fullest satisfaction In a word the offence and boldness of both Houses grew so high as easily shewed men how the former War began aâd silenced many that said it was raised by Nonconformists and Presbyterians § 255. The third of February was a publick Fast against Popery the first as I remember that besides the Anniversary Fasts had ever been since this Parliament sate which hath now sate longer than that called the long Parliament did before the major part were cast out by Cromwell But the Preachers Dr. Cradock and Dr. Whitchcot medled but little with that Business and did not please them as Dr. Stillingfleet had done who greatly animated them and all the Nation against Popery by his open and diligent endeavours for the Protestant Cause § 256. During this Session the Earl of Orery desired me to draw him up in brief the Terms and Means which I thought would satisfie the Non-conformists so far as to unite us all against Popery professing that he met with many Great Men that were much for it and particulary the New Lord Treasurer Sir Thomas Osborn and Dr. Morley Bishop of Winchester who vehemently profess'd his desires of it And Dr. Fullwood and divers others had been with me to the like purpose testifying the said Bishop's resolution herein I wisht them all to tell him from me that he had done so much to the contrary and never any thing this way since his Professions of that sort that till his real Endeavours convinced Men it would not be believed that he was serious But when I had given the Earl of Orery my Papers he returned them me with Bishop Morley's Strictures or Animadversions as by his Words and the Hand I had reason to be confident by which he fully made me see that all his Professions for Abanement and Concord were deceitful Suares and that he intended no such thing at all And because I have inserted before so much of such transactions I will here annex my Proposals with his Strictures and my Reply To the Right Honourable the Earl of Orery My Lord I Have here drawn up those Terms on which I think Ministers may be restored to the Churches Service and much union and quietness be procured But I must tell you 1. That upon second Thoughts I forbore to distribute them as I intimated to you into several Ranks but only offer what may tend to a Concord of the most though not of every man 2. That I have done this only on the suppositions that we were fain to go upon in our Consultation with Dr. ãâã viz. That no change in the Frame of Church-Government will be consented to Otherwise I should have done as we did in 1660 offered you Arch-bishop Vsher's Reduction of the Government to the primitive state of Episcopacy and have only desired that the Lay-Chancellours have not the Power of the Keys and that if not in every Parish at least in every Rural Deanry or Market-Town with the adjacent Villages the Ministers might have the Pastoral power of the Keys so far as is necessary to guide their own Administrations and not one Bishop or Lay-Chancellour's Court to have more to do than Multitudes can well do and thereby cause almost all true Discipline to be omitted 3. I have forborn to enumerate the Particulars which we cannot subscribe or swear to or practise because they are many and I fear the naming of them will be displeasing to others as seeming to accuse them while we do but say what a Sin such Conformity would be in our selves But if it should be useful and desired I am ready to do it But I now only say that the matters are far from being things doubtful or indifferent or little Sins in our Apprehensions of which we are ready to render a Reason But I think that this bare Proposal of the Remedies is the best and shortest and least offensive way In which I crave your Observation of these two Particulars 1. That it is the matter granted if it be even in our own Words that will best do the Cure For while other men word it that know not our Scruples or Reasons they miss our Sence usually and make it ineffectual 2. That the Reason why I crave that Ministers may have impunity who use the greatest part of the Liturgy for the Day is 1. To shorten the Accommodation that we may not be put to delay our Concord till the Liturgy be altered to the Satisfaction of Dissenters which we have cause to think will not be done at all Now this will silently and quietly heal us and if a Man omit some one Collect or Sentence without debate or noise it will not be noted nor be a matter of offence 2. And he is unworthy to be a Minister that is not to be trusted so much as with the using or not using of a few Sentences or words in all his Ministration 3. And almost every Minister that I hear all the Year of the most Conformable do every day omit some part or other and yet are not Silenc'd nor taken notice of as offenders at all And may not as much for our Concord be granted to Dissenters in the present case He that thinks that these Concessions will be more injurious to the Church and the Souls of Men than our Uncharitableness and Divisions have been these Eleven Years and are yet like to be is not qualified to be at all an Healer In Conclusion I must again intreat you that this Offer may be taken but as the Answer of your desire for your private use and that no Copy be given of it nor the Author made known unless we have encouragement from our Governours to
this 4. Prop. About compelling the Unfit to receive the Lord's Supper Strict The Church doth not compel any to receive the Sacrament that is unfit but punnisheth them that are unfit and neglect the making of themselves fit for it by breaking off their Sins by Repentance Answ. Alas poor Souls that must have such a Cure It seems by this that this Church supposeth 1. That all Men can Cure all their Unfitness 2. And that a Prison is the way to make them willing We Nonconformists contrarily think That 1. A Willing person may be Uncured of some unfitnesses 2. And that a Prison is no fit cure for such nor for some others We think that a Melancholly or Timerous Person is unfit who would be like to be distracted by the fear of unworthy Receiving We are sure that all that we can say will not Cure such Fears in very many If Conformists can do it and will not they are to blame We know that the Person himself though willing cannot do it We will not believe that Christ would have them laid in Goal to cure them But if the Bishops will take that course it must be suffered We judge all our present Infidels Sadducees and Socinians unfit if not the Papists And they offer their Protestations that they cannot change their Judgments We think a Goal unapt to change them but rather with meekness to instruct Opposers if God perhaps will give them Repentance to the acknowlegment of the Truth 2 Tim. 2. 25. Yea though after the Chancellour's admonition or better means they be erroneous still Verily if your way were throughly practised and such Church-Laws executed and all dwelt in Goals that are unfit for the Sacrament after your teaching and admonition and Excommunication the Landlords would find a great diminution of their Tenants and the Goalers would have more Tenants than many Lords and it were necessary to have a Goal in every Parish This is your way of comforting the timerous but who should there maintain them all I know not But if Goalers be the most effectual Converters of Souls I think more Clergy-Men than Non-conformists need their help that obtain it not And they may possibly put in for the Tythes and Church-Revenues Strict Is any Minister required to give the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood to any unbaptized Person Is not this a groundless and slanderous insinuation Nay is any Minister forced or required to give the Sacrament to any notoriously wicked or prophane Person See the Rubrick before the Communion That which follows seems to aim at an introducing of Auricular Confession or the setting up an Independent Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction in every Minister over his own Parish Ans. 1. Your Charge is causeless I find in the Canons and Rubrick that every Parishioner must receive And those unbapaized as many born of Anabaptists are I find not described or named as excepted in the Canon or Rubrick nor that any at age are forced to be Baptized and yet are forced by Penalty to Communicate So that I confess I am so ignorant as not to know whether I should be punished by the Bishop if I refused an un-baptized Parishioner But yet I verily think that the meaning of the Makers of the Liturgy and Canon was otherwise and I intended no more but to enumerate them whom we would have Power not to give the Sacrament to q. d. Not only the unbaptized plainly to be named but also the rest following 2. If by notoriously wicked you mean those that the Bishop or Chancellour hath Excommunicated we may keep them awayâ Or if the Congregation will say that they are offended by their Crimes then they may be admonished to forbear but if they will not forbear upon the Admonition or at least will every time say that they are fully purposed to amend as most wicked Men will do I find not by the Rubrick that we can refuse them except it be one that is obstinate in Malice when at that time desired to be reconciled but the Canon seemeth to give more Power 3. Our Case is this We know that many are professed Infidels and many understand not what Baptism or Christianity or the Lord's Supper are in the very Essentials in many Places I doubt the greater part of the Parish A great number live in heinous Sins Drunkenness Fornication Swearing slandering c. The ignorant and Infidels the Minister would instruct but they will not come to him nor speak to him but refuse to give him any account or answer Almost all are Baptized in Infancy and at Age come to Church and never owned that the Minister knoweth of their Baptismal Covenant any otherwise We know not that we have Power to exclude the grosly ignorant If we had it must be if any will witness that his Neighbours are so Ignorant as to be uncapable which what private Man can and will do or else if they will come and say before others I am so Ignorant which few if any ever will till God do humble them And who will come and offend the scandalous by witnessing against them unconstrained though they will openly report it to one another How few of the Infidels Socinians gross Ignorants or scandalous here in London are by the Witnesses accused to the Ministers as such If we have the most credible Report that half our Country Parishioners or a quarter more or less are grosly Ignorant of the Essentials of Christianity and we find it true by so many of the suspected as will talk with us we must receive all the rest with all the Infidels and wicked Livers that none will become Accusers of though we know much our selves to confirm report And if they tell us we will have nothing to do with you out of the Pulpit we will give you no account of our knowledge or Faith nay we take you not for any of our Pastors yet must we do the office of a Pastor to them and give them the Sacrament and we are setting up Auricular Confession if we do but as their Teachers require on just Suspicion any account of their Knowledge or Faith or upon our Knowledge offer first personally to instruct them And if we desire else but to suspend our own Act tho they have their Appeal we arrogate Independent Power No wonder if under such Overseers our Parishes be but what they are 4. Prop. n. 8. To publish Excommunications against his Conscience Strict Against his viz. the Minister's Conscience Is not this to make every Minister an Independent Ecclesiastical Judge And that not only exclusively to Lay-Chancellours but to Bishops themselves also as appears by the words or any other Answ. 1. No let the Indifferent judge An Ecclesiastick Judge is Iudex publicus but here is nothing but Iudicium discretionis privatum suspending my own Act and medling with no Man's else Doth he judge Ecclesiastically who speaketh not a word nor medleth with the Cause any more than any one in the Congregation 2. How
the Immortality of the Soul and many against the Being of God There are many Papists Hereticks Schismaticks common Adulterers openly owning it Fornicators Drunkards Blasphemers many have been Condemned for Treason Murder Theft c. The Conformists themselves Preach and write that such cannot be saved without true converting Repentance We are commanded at the Burial of all Men to say these Words For asmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great Mercy to take unto himself the Soul of our dear Brother here departed and we give thee hearty Thanks for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our Brother out of c. and that we may rest in him as our Hope is this our brother doth These words import the Person 's Justification and Salvation We are to except no Person from this form of Burial except 1. Those that die unbaptized though the Children of true Believers 2. The Excommunicate though for not paying fees or not conforming against Conscience 3. And those that have laid violent Hands on themselves though true Believers in a Fever Frenzy or Distraction Some die in the act of Drunkenness some murder each other in Duels and that in Drunkenness as lately was done near my Door some scorn the Minister and the Gospel to the death Now we must openly pronounce all these Saved for fear of having Power to Saint and Damn whom we will But we appeal to humanity it self Quest. 1. Whether I damn any Traytor or Murderer or impenitent Infidel meerly by saying nothing of his Case or not pronouncing him to be saved And whether I Saint those that I bury in their own prescribed words any otherwise than they Saint all Men Quest. 2. Whether we expose not our Ministry to the scorn of every Infidel and Heretick and Adulterer when they can say to us What False Deceivers are you to Preach and Write Damnation against us and proclaim us all saved when we die Quest. 3. Whether any thing can more probably debauch the World and keep Men from Repentance and so sill Hell and damn the people than to perswade all Men that every ignorant person that never knew what Christianity was every impenitent Infidel Adulterer or wicked person is saved when they die Doth not this give the Lie to all our Preaching the contrary to them in the Pulpit Do we not Teach them not to believe us Or else it disableth us from telling them that there is any Hell for them hereafter If you say we presume that they Repent I Answer If it be presumed that all Men repent at last and are saved even they that make no profession of any Repentance but justifie their Infidelity or Heresie or Schism or die in the Act or in utter Ignorance as a Heathen then why may we not presume the like of all the World and so lay by the Gospel and all our talk of future punishment Quest. 4. And is he worthy to be trusted with the Care of Souls as a Minister of Christ that may not be trusted I say not to speak but to suspend one word at any time which is thus Written for him to say Judge by this with the Offices of Baptism Confirmation Communion and Absolution what is a Priest's Office under such Bishops and whether he have the Pastoral Power either independently or dependently at all 4. Prop. n. 11. Let no Minister be forced to deny the Communion to godly persons that think it unlawful to kneel Strict Why may not our Church forbid the giving of it to those that will not kneel as well as the Presbyterians here and in Holland forbid the giving of it to those that will not sit Answ. 1. I never knew one Presbyterian here that did so And their Directory did not so And if any one should do so I am sure it is a rare Person And the Author of these words is no liker to know them than I. This therefore was not well said 2. Whether they in Holland do so I know not But if they do Do you think it well I think otherwise and all Nonconformists that I converse with We take not a gesture to be crime enough to cut off Men from Communion with the Church And if you think otherwise or durst Excommunicate a Man for being Lame or having the Gout in his knees Why must we all needs practise as you judge and execute so cruel a Sentence any more than kill men when-ever you bid us The Canon hath no Exception Can. 27. No Minister when he celebrateth the Communion shall wittingly administer the same to any but to such as kneel under pain of Suspenââon 4. Prop. n. 12. Let Ministers have leave to open the meaning of the Catechism It is much to be wish'd that it were amended Strict 1. I know no Law which forbids them to do so Answ. 1. That it is good news some think so And others think that the Rubrick and Canon Commanding them to Teach persons the Catechism meaneth that we must only teach them the words And I remember the Articles in Parliament against Bishop Pierce contained that among other things that he forbad Ministers Expounding the Catechisme in the Afternoon saying it was as bad as Preaching And the Sence as to us will be what please the Bishop Strict 2. I know no need it hath of mending nor who are wise enough to amend it Answ. I am sorry for it but cannot help it 4. Prop. id Some few quickening words of Exhortation Strict 3. The words prescribed both in Baptism and the Eucharist are quickening enough and more edifying perhaps and safe than an Extemporary fancy can add unto them Answ. 1. You know not what is most quickening and edifying to all other men so well as some know what is so to themselves 2. All that know Humane Nature know that Customaââness dulleth and the use of words many hundred times over usually affect less than when there is some variation though it were to be wisht it were not so 3. Why must an Extemporary fancy needs be the Author May not a man premeditate a few sentences as well as a sermon Or if it were ex tempore is he fit to be a Preacher that cannot speak a few sentences on so great a subject with safe and edifying words 4. Is it unsafer to give a Preacher leave to utter a few Sentences of the Sacrament at the Delivery than to Preach a whole Sermon of it And is he not equally responsible for both But we insist not on this as if we could not Administer without it Prop. 4. n. 13. The Surplice indifferent in the Parish Churches Strict I had rather that or any other of the Ceremonies should be taken away quite than left indifferent for that would be to establish Schism by a Law and to bring it into the Church in stead of excluding it out of the Church which of two Evils is much the lesser Ans. I think not for we see things left indifferent make no
Worship Ans. 1. And who shall make that Rule The Bishops And who shall be Bishops You And so the Sum is The only certain and safe way of Healing is for no Man to differ from our Judgment or Will in our Agendis or Credendis Circumstance or Substance manner or matter of Worship nor say a Word to God in publick but what we write down for him or allow him What Sectary would not be such a Healer 2. But I am sorry that any Christian much more Pastors can believe that ever all the Church will be such Idolizers of Man as to stretch their Consciences to own all that for matter and manner substance or Circumstance he shall prescribe or else will all be so ripe in Knowledge as all to know which are the right Modes and Circumstances and so come to be of one mind The Church of Rome had not needed Inquisitions Flames and Racks nor lost so many Kingdoms if this could have been done But if ever the Church be heated by Men of your Opinion by this which you account the only way neither God nor Reason have herein spoken by me Wonderful that near one Thousand three Hundred Years Experience of the Churches doth not convince you and teach you better Strict For though an Agreement in the Essentials only be enough to make any Man a Member of the Catholick or universal Church yet is it not enough to make a Man a Member of this or that particular National Church For all the Reformed Churches agree as appears by the Corpus Confessionum in the Essentials of Faith and Worship and therefore in that respect they are all Members of the Church-Catholick but they do not agree either in the same form of Government or in the same outward form of Worship or in the same Ecclesiastical Discipline or in the same Rites and Ceremonies And it is the Agreement in such things as these as well as in Essentials which constitutes and giveth Denomination to the several National Churches which all of them taken together do make up the Church Catholick Thus to make up one Member of the French Dutch or any other Reformed Churches it is not enough to be a Catholick no nor a Protestant-Catholick neither but he must subscribe and conform not only in point of Judgment to their Confession of Faith but in point of Practice also to all their Rules Orders and Usages in Preaching Praying Administration of the Sacraments and all External Rites and Ceremonies prescribed by publick Authority to be used in the publick Worship of God for the more solemn more unanimous more decent and more edifying performance of the same which if any Man upon any pretence whatsoever refuse to do he cannot be of such or such a National Church where a Conformity to all such things is indispensably required of all that will be of or continue in the aforesaid respective Churches And is it not as Lawful and reasonable for our Church to prescribe Conditions of her Communion to those that will be of it and continue in it as it is for any other of the Reformed Churches to prescribe to those that are of theirs Ans. 1. It 's well that Christ is more merciful than Men His easie Yoke and light Burden Mat. 11. 29. and the necessary things Act. 15. is enough to make Men Members of him and his Body the Church Catholick that they may be saved But he that will be of a National Church must bear and do no Man knows what 2. But how will this stand with Christ's Catholick Laws A true Catholick Christian shall be saved But he that is no more with you is guilty of one of the greatest Crimes viz. Contempt of your Authority and can he then be Saved Christ's Catholick Members must love honour and cherish each other But with you he that obeyeth you not in every Word Mode and circumstance or ceremony is to be silenced and persecuted Christ's Laws are that he that is weak even in the Faith be received but not to doubtful disputations and that for smaller difference we neither despise nor judge each other but receive one another as Christ received us and that so far as we have attained we walk by the same Rule and mind the same things and if in any thing we be otherwise minded God will reveal even this unto us And that we must love one another with a pure Heart fervently and by this be known to all Men to be Christ's Disciples But your National Process carrieth it beyond this Line you will first break this Catholick Law as if your National Church were not part of the Universal and make Laws for judging the foresaid Dissenters and then plead yours against Christ's Laws and say he meant not those that are under a Law while he forbad such Laws And so you may Excommunicate reproach avoid imprison undo and silence those that Christ commanded you tenderly to Love and say they are Schismaticks for they obey us not in every Circumstance O! how much easier is Christ's Yoke than yours 3. But what is this National Church which is so contrary to Christ's Catholick Church If it be all the Churches and Christians that are under one Christian Prince we own it as such But this needs no such conditions as you name And it is not true that the Catholick Church consisteth only of such for the Subjects of the Turks and Heathens are part of the Catholick Church If it be all the Churches of a Kingdom as voluntarily associated for Communion or Concord I repeat the same as aforesaid But if you mean all the Churches of a Kingdom as under one Constitutive Ecclesiastical Head and Pastor few Protestants will say that it is of God's Institution Bilson and others usually say Patriarchs Metropolitans c. are humane Creatures And verily I had rather be no Member of a Church of Man's making till I better know the Maker's Authority than renounce all that mutual Love and Brotherly concord and forbearance and kindness and all Christ's Promises of Salvation to such which he hath settled upon his Catholick Members And if what you say be true who would not rather far be a meer Catholck Christian out of all National Churches than be in them But I yet hold that though your particular Canon bind not the Church universal yet Christ's universal Laws bind all particular Churches and Christians 4. And that which maketh me dissent is that I am not able to discern how all Men can obey such Laws as you mention and live in any concord with you without renouncing all Conscience Christianity and Religion Not that I judge all to do so that agree with you For those that agree in Iudgment may agree in Practice But you must make me mad or unacquainted with Mankind before you make me believe that a whole Kingdom will ever be so perfect in Judgment or so much of the same temper Education condition converse c. as to be all of
while the aspiring sort of Conformists that looked for Preferment and the Chaplains that lived in fullness and other Malignant Factious Clergymen did Write and Preach to stir up King Parliament and others to Violence and Cruelty against the Liberty and blood of the Nonconformists who lived quietly by them in Labour and Poverty and medled not with them besides their necessary Dissent Some railed at them as the most intolerable Villains in the World espeically S. Parker jocularly confuted and detected by Mr. Marvel a Parliament Man and one Hickeringhill and others came near him in their malignity And Papists taking the advantage set in and did the like One Wrote a Sober Enquiry of the Reasons why the Nonconformable Ministers were still so valued by the People which was their grievous vexation And pretended many Causes I know not whether more malignantly or foolishly which none could believe but Strangers and those that were blinded by the Faction Malignity or False Reports One Dr. Asheton Chaplain to the Duke of Ormond Wrote a Book 1. To perswade those to Subscribe who held it lawful and forbore it only for fear of offending others falsly insinuating that this was the Nonconformists Case when I never knew one Man such among them all to this day 2. To stir up Rulers to Violence to Ruine us perswading them that it is no Persecution And the Man was not afraid to profess to the World That as he was going to meet us at the Bar of God the Reason why so many Subscribed not was Reputation and Interest Pride and Covetousness And that he might not seem Stark Mad with Malice in charging Men with Covetousness that I lost all and lived so poorly upon the Charity of others mostly poor themselves he giveth you 2 proofs of their covetousness 1. That by Non-conformity they got Living for their conformable Sons 2. That they lost notheng by their Non-conformity as Bishop Gunning also vehemently told me words which tell the world that History is no more credible to Posterity than either the Concent of all Parties or the notoreity of fact or the honesty of the Writer can make it so by being known as it's evidence Words which tell you that it 's hard to devise words so false and impudent beseeming the Devil himself were the speaker which Carnal Clergy-men may not be drawn with great confidence to utter For 1. of the 1000 or 2000. Ministers that were Silenced I have not yet heard of thirty in all nor of twenty or twelve yet living that have Conformable Sons in the Ministry And of those I know not of one that Conformed by his father's consent And why should not the father's Conformity be the liker to help his son to a Living than his Non-conformity when the far greatest part of the Presenters of Patrons are Conformists And would not covetousness rather make both father and son Conform that both might have Livings than the son alone And do a thousand or 1600 Ministers that have no Conformable sons in the Ministry refuse Conformity that 20 or 40 of other Minister's sons may have Livings Did I not consider that among Strangers and Malignants any thing may be believed that is bad I should think the Devil a fool for playing his game so unskilfully 2. And that they lose nothing by losing all their Church maintenance now above eleven years together is a thing hardly to be believed by their poor families or neighbours who know that many go in rags and want bread and even in London more than one have lately died of Colds and Diseases contracted by poverty and want of the necessary Comforts of Life And it is a wonder of God's mercy and the honour of charitable People especially in London that it is not so with a very great number of them § 260. This Malignity inviteth me once more to recite my own case I have lost not only the Bishoprick which they offered me by Non-conformity but all Ministerial maintenance these eleven years now near 24. years in 1684. I have these eleven years Preached for nothing I know not to my remembrance that I have received a groat as for Preaching these eleven years but what I have returned unless I may call about the sum of ten pounds which some persons gave me on particular occasions and 35 lb. which three gave gave me in the Jail to defray my Prison-charges by that name or ten pounds per Ann. which Sergeant Fountain gave me till he dyed to whom I never Preached nor was it on that account only four pounds I received for Preaching the Merchant's Lecture and 6 lb. more was offered me as my due and some offered me somewhat after a year's Preaching at Mr. Turner's Church but I sent it every penny back to them and resolved while it is as it is to take no money for my Preaching 1. Because I preach but in other men's Churches to people that maintain other Ministers already 2. Because I want not but have to give when multitudes are in great necessity 3. Because I will be under no temptation by dependence or obligation which may hinder me from dealing plainly with Dissenters and Offenders 4. Because I perceive that when men's purses are sought to it tempteth many to question whether we sincerely seek the good of their Souls On all which Accounts not I think from proud disdain I have so long refused money for preaching And whereas they say how much I receive for my printed books I again at this year 1674. profess that having printed about 70. Books no one Lord Knight or any person to whom as it 's called any of them were Dedicated or inscribed ever offered me a groat save the City of Coventry and the Lady âous each a piece of Plate of about 4 lb. value And whereas the fifeenth Book printed is my due from the Bookseller which I use for almost all of them to give my friends which amounteth to many thousands I remember not that every one person noble or ignoble offered me one groat to this day for any book I gave them And I mention all this because I am not capable of confuting the malicious calumniators by distant instances so well as by my own case But yet that the Readers may partly conjecture at the case of many of my Brethren by my own who yet never received a groat from my Inheritance or Patrimony my poor kindred having much more than all Were not malice impudent these Apologies were needless for men that the world seeth are turned out of all Yea we our selves pay constantly to the maintenance of the Conformable Ministers though we have no part our selves And I can truly say that I have offered money to my old acquaintance who live silenced in a very poor and hard condition who have stiffly refused it because they thought it unlawful while they had Bread and Drink to take money while many of their Brethren were in greater need And at the same time
at the Temple the violentest of them and Mr. Rose and Mr. Philips the same two Men that had sent me to the Goal four years before They offered Mr. Bedford the Oath but it proved that he had taken it before and so far defeated them But he was fined accordingly to the Act in 20 l. and the place 40 l. which the Lord Wharton the Countesses of Bedford Manchester and Clâre and other hearers paid But two of the Justices swore that he said that the King did not in good earnest desire the execution of this Law which he professed he never said And for this the King sent him to Prison § 284. An Accident at this time fell out which occasioned a little seeming stop of my trouble which I will relate as the Duke of Lauderdail told it me himself who was present The Lord Falcon-brigde being with the Bishop of Salisbury Ward after reported that the Bishop told him that it was nothing of the Bishops but of the Lord Treasurer that the Act was thus Executed The Lord Treasurer charged it as an injury on the Bishop The Lord High Chamberlain E. of Lindsey told it Bishop Morley who told it Bishop Ward who went to the Lord Treasurer and Complained of it as a false injurious report of the Lord Falconbridge The Lord Treasurer took him to the King who sent for the Lord Falconbridge who before the King the D. of Lauderdail the Lord Treasurer the Lord High Chamberlain c. was accused by Bishop Ward for a false report of his words The Lord Falconbridge could not make it good but tho he spake not those very words he took the Scope of his Speech to be of that Importance The King said the Duke to me said I must tell you this my self I called the Bishops to give me their advice what was to be done for the present securing of the Church and the Protestant Religion and they told me that there was something to be done but they thought it not safe for them to give advice in it I told them that I took this for a Libel and askt them who or what they were afraid of And I appointed these Lords to see them give their Answer Among other passages the Lord Falconbridge said that the Bishop called the Execution of the Law a trick The Bishop Answered I said not that the Execution of the Law was a trick but that to begin with Mr. Baxter was a trick of some to make it thought that we are unreconcilable to the most moderate and peaceable Men. And thus they were drawn in to give their seeming Judgment against my suffering tho there was great reason to think that Papists and Prelates were the Contrivers of it § 285. For the better understanding of many of these matters it must be known that at 2 or 3 of the last Sessions of Parliament Bishop Morley had on all occasions in the Company of Lords Gentlemen and Divines cryed out of the danger of Popery and talkt much for abatements and taking in the Nonconformists or else we are like all to fall into the Papists hands so that there were no Lords or others for agreement but he made himself the head of their Design and so got an Interest still in the work as the forwardest desirer of it Dr. Fulwood Mr. Collyer and Divers others came to me to advise about a way of Concord as encouraged by this Bishop's words I sent him word by them all that I had heard these many years of these agreeing peââemaking purposes and desires of his Lordship but having known so much of his Endeavours to the contrary I intreated him by some Deeds to convince me of his sincerity for till then I was not able to believe it And the Event shewed that my incredulity was not without cause § 286. At this Sessions of Parliament approaching he set upon the same Course again and Bishop Ward as his second and chief Coagent joyned with him and they were famed to be the two Bishops that were for Comprehension and Concord none so forward as they At last Dr. Bates brings me a message from Dr. Tillot son Dean of Canterbury that he and Dr. Stillingfleet desired a Meeting with Dr. Manton Dr. Bates Mr. Pool and me to treat of an Act of Comprehension and Union and that they were encouraged to it by some Lords both Spiritual and Temporal We met to consider whether such an Attempt was safe and prudent or what was not offered by some Bishops as a sâare to us I told them my opinion that Experience would not suffer any Charity to believe any better of some Bishops but that they knew Dr. Stillingfleet and Dr. Tillotson to be the likeliest Men to have a hand in an Agreement if such a thing should be attempted and therefore that they would make themselves the Masters of it to defeat it and no better issue was to be expected as from them But yet that these two Doctors were Men of so much Learning Honesty and Interest that I took it as our Duty to accept the offer and to try with them how far we could agree and so try them first whether they would promise us secresy unless it came to maturity to be further notified by Consent And that we might hope for this Success as quickly to agree with these two Men and in time it might be some advantage to our desired Unity that our Terms were such as these two worthy Men consented to § 287. Accordingly Dr. Manton and I were desired by the rest to try them We went to Dr. Tillotson who promised Morley and Bishop Ward that had set them on work and the Earl of Carlile and Halifax chiefly who encouraged them Here-upon we agreed to meet the next week with him and Dr. Stillingfleet to try how far we could agree on the Terms I had before drawn up the form of an Healing Act and read it to no one but Mr. Hampden who told me it would never pass Before the next Meeting Dr. Manton was fain to abscond at the Lord Wharton's being designed as is aforesaid to the Common Goal such was the Treaty which we were invited to But I went alone and met the two Doctors I found them sincere in the business and conceited that Bishop Morley and Ward were so also Upon their promise of secrecy I freely told them my thoughts of the Bishop of Winchester and what an attempt I had lately made with him besides all heretofore at the request of the Earl of Orery and that after his Calls for Concord he granted me no one abatement or alteration or indulgence desired I shewed them the form of the Act which I had prepared They desired me to leave it with them to consider on Shortly after Dr. Tillotson brought me a Draught with several omissions and alterations I drew up my own again with some little alterations required by his Draught This he and I debated till we came to an agreement of the whole
dare not desert it lest we shortly appear before our Judge in the guilt of sacriledge perfidiousness against Christ and the people's Souls But we are forbiden to exercise it unless we will do that which we profess as Men that are passing to our final Doom we would readily do were it not for fear of God's displeasure and our Damnation Deprivation of all Ministerial maintenance with heavy Mulcts on such as have not money to pay and long Imprisonments in the Common Goals with Malefactors and banishment to those that shall survive them and that into remote parts of the World were the penalties appointed for us by your Laws Voluminous reproaches are published against us in which our Superiours and the World are told that we hold that things indifferent are made unlawful by the Commands of lawful Governours and that we are guilty of Doctrines inconsistent with the Peace and Safety of Societies and that we are moved by Pride and Covetousness as if we were proud of Men's Scorn and covetous of sordid Want and Beggery and ambitious of a Gaol and that we are Unpeaceable Disloyal Odious and Intolerable Persons Lest we should seem over-querulous and our Petitions themselves should prove offensive we have been silent under Twelve years sufferings by which divers Learned and holy Divines have been hastened home to Glory hoping that Experience would have effectually spoken for us when we may not Speak for our selves And did we believe that our own pressures were the greatest consequent Evil and that the People's knowledge and piety and the allowed Ministers Number sufficiency and Diligence were such as made our Labours needless and that the History of our Silence and Sufferings would be the future Honour of this Age and the future Comfort of your Souls and theirs that instigate you against us before our Common Judge we would joyfully be silent and accept of a Dismission But being certain of the contrary we do this once adventure humbly to tender to Your Majesty and Your Parliament these following Requests 1. Because God saith That he that hateth his Brother is a Murderer and hath not Eternal Life We humbly crave leave once to Print and Publish the true State and Reasons of our Nonconformity to the World to save Mens Souls from the guilt of unjust Hatred and Calumny And if we err we may be helped to Repentance by a Confutation and the Notoriety of our shame 2. That in the mean time this Honourable House will appoint a Committee to consider of the best means for the Healing our Calamitous Divisions before whom we may have leave at last to speak for our selves 3. That these annexed Professions of our Religion and Loyalty may be received as from Men that better know their own Minds than their Accusers do and who if they durst deliberately Lie should be no Nonconformists 4. That if yet we must suffer as Malefactors we may be punished but as Drunkards and Fornicators are with some Penalty which will consist with our Preaching Christ's Gospel and that shall not reach to the hurt or danger of many Thousand Innocent People's Souls till the Re-building of the Burnt-Churches the lessening of great Parishes where one of very many cannot hear and worship God and till the quality and number of the Conformable Ministers and the knowledge piety and sobriety of the people have truly made our Labours needless and then we shall gladly obey your Silencing Commands And whereas there are commonly reckoned to be in the Parishes without the Walls above Two hundred thousand persons more than can come within the Parish Churches they may not be compelled in a Christian Land to live as Atheists and worse than Infidels and Heathens who in their manner publickly worship God The Profession of our Religion I A. B. Do willingly profess my continued resolved consent to the Covenant of Christianity which I made in my Baptism with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost forsaking the Devil the World and the sinful Lusts of the Flesh And I profess my Belief of the Ancient Christian Creeds called The Apostles The Nicene and The Constantinopolitane and the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity fullier opened in that ascribed to Athanasius And my Consent to The Lord's Prayer as the Summary of Holy Desires and to The Decalogue with Christ's Institutions as the Summary Rule of Christian Practice And to all the Holy Canonical Scriptures as the Word of God And to the Doctrine of the Church of England professed in the 39 Articles of Religion as in sence agreeable to the Word of God And I renounce all Heresies or Errours contrary to any of these And I do hold that the Book of Common Prayer and of Bishops Priests and Deacons containeth in it nothing so disagreeable to the Word of God as maketh it unlawful to live in the Peaceable Communion of the Church that useth it The Profession of our Loyalty and Obedience I do willingly and without Equivocation and Deceit take the Oaths of Allegiance and the King's Supremacy and hold my self obliged to perform them I detest all Doctrines and Practices of Rebellion and Sedition I hold it unlawful for any of His Majesty's Subjects upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King His Person Authority Dignity or Rights or against any Authorized by his Laws or Commissions And that there is no Obligation on me or any other of his Subjects from the Oath Commonly called The Solemn League and Covenant to endeavour any change of the present Government of these His Majesty's Kingdoms nor to endeavour any Reformation of the Church by Rebellion Sedition or any other unlawful means The Overplus as a remedy against Suspicion We believe and willingly embrace all that is written in the Holy Scriptures for the power of Kings and the Obedience of their Subjects and the sinfulness of Rebellion and Resistance And concerning the same we consent to as much as is found in any General Council or in the Confession of any Christian Church on Earth not respecting Obedience to the Pope which ever yet came to our knowledg or as is owned by the Consent of the Greater part of Divines Politicians Lawyers or Historians in the Christain World as far as our Reading hath acquainted us therewith II. To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of some Citizens of London on the behalf of this City and the Adjoyning Parishes Sheweth THat the Calamitous Fire 1666 with our Houses and Goods Burnt down near 90 Churches few of which are yet Re-edifyed And divers Parishes whose Churches yet stand are so great that it is but a small part of the Inhabitants that can there hear whereby great Numbers are left in ignorance and as a prey to Papists and other Seducers and which is worse to Atheism Infidelity and Irreligiousness And if many of their ancient ejected silenced Pastors who for refusing certain Subscriptions Declarations Promises Oaths and Practices are called Nonconformists had not through
Kingdom is to Heaven § 291. When I understood that the design was to ruin me by heaping up Convictions before I was heard to speak for my self I went to Sir Thomas Davis and told him that I undertook to prove that I broke not the Law and desired him that he would pass no Judgment till I had spoke for my self before my Accusers But I found him so ignorant of the Law as to be fully perswaded that if the Informers did but swear in general that I kept an unlawful meeting in Pretence of a Religious Exercise in other manner than according to the Liturgy and practice of the Church of England he was bound to take this general Oath for Proof and to record a Judgment and so that the Accusers were indeed the Judges and not he I told him that any Lawyer would soon tell him the contrary and that he was Judge whether by particular Proof they made good their general Accusation as it is in case a Man be accused of Felony or Treason it is not enough that Men swear that he is a Felon or Traytor they must name what his Fact was and prove him guilty And I was at charge in Feeing Counsellors to convince him and others and yet I could not perswade him out of his mistake I told him that if this were so any two such Fellows might defame and bring to Fines and Punishment himself and all the Magistrates and Parliament-Men themselves and all that meet in the Parish-Churches and Men had no Remedy At last he told me that he would consult with other Aldermen at the Sessions and they would go one way When the Sessions came I went to Guild-Hall and again desired him that I might be heard before I was Judged But though the other Aldermen save two or three were against such doings I could not prevail with him but professing great Kindness he then laid all on Sir Iohn Howell the Recorder saying that it was his Judgment and he must follow his Advice I desired him and Sir Thomas Allen that they would desire of the Recorder that I might be heard before I was Judged and that if it must pass by his Judgment that he would hear me speak But I could not procure it the Recorder would not speak with me When I saw their Resolution I told Sir Thomas Davis if I might not be heard I would record to Posterity the injustice of his Judgment and Record But I perceived that he had already made the Record but not yet given it in to the Sessions At last upon Consultation with his Leaders he granted me a hearing and three of the Informers met me at his House that had sworn against me I told them my particular Case and asked them what made my Preaching a Breach of that Law and how they proved their Accusation They first said Because I Preached in an unconsecrated Place I told them 1. That the Act only laid it on the manner of the Exercise which the Place was nothing to And 2. That it was the Practice of the Church of England to Preach in unconsecrated Places as at Sturbridge-Fair at the Spittle at Whitchall-Court and many such like They next said Because I am a Nonconformist I easily convinced them that I am not a Nonconformist in Law-sence but in the same case with a Conformist that hath no Benefice whatever I am in conscience the Law obliging me to no more than I do And if I were that is nothing to the manner of the exercise Their last and great proof was that I used not the Common Prayer I undertook to prove to them that Law commandeth the use of the Common Prayer only in Church Meetings and not in every other subordinate or by-Meeting for Religious Exercises such as ours was And that it was not the sense of the Act that Conformable persons that Communicate in the Liturgy with the Parish Churches should be judged Conventiclers whenever above four of them joyned in a Religious Exercise without the Liturgy For else all Tutors in the University should be punishable and all School-masters that teach their Scholars and pray with them if above 16 years of age and they that instruct Prisoners at Newgate and they that exhort and pray and sing Psalms with them at the Gallows with many such Instances We ought not to judge so uncharitably of King and Parliament unconstrained as to think that they would allow Multitudes to meet at a Play-house a Musick-house a horse-race a Bear-baiting or Dancing or any game and allow many to meet at a Coffee-house Ale-house or Tavern or in any private house and do on pain of utter ruine only forbid Conformable persons to joyn more than four in singing a Psalm or reading a Chapter or a Licensed book or in praying together or Conference tending to Religious Edification In Summ they confest they could not Answer me nor prove their charge but they still believed that I was guilty The Justice was so far from thinking that they proved it that he motioned to them to Retract their Oaths or else still he thought that he must condemn me They denyed to do that and said That the Bishop assured them That it was a Conventicle and I was guilty I desired them if it must all lie upon the Bishop that I might Speak with them to the Bishop for my self They told me That it was the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and they were all just now going to him and promised to bring me word when I might Speak with him But I heard no more of them of that But the Justice retracted not his Judgment but delayed a Month or more to give out his Warrant to distrein though I daily look when they take my books for they will find but little else Though both Justice and Accusers have before witness confessed that they cannot prove me guilty but one professeth to go on the belief of the Recorder and the other of the Archbishop § 292. But God hath more mercy on these ignorant Informers than on the Pharisaical Instigators of them For those repent but no Prelate save one that I hear of doth repent One of them that ââore against me went the next Fast to Redrifâ to Mr. Rosewell's Church where a Fast was kept where hearing three Ministers pray and preach his heart was melted and with Tears he lamented his former course and particularly his Accusing me and seemeth resolved for a new reformed Course of Life and is retired from his former Company to that end And a third the chief of the Informers lately in the Streets with great kindness to me professed that he would meddle no more coming by when a half distracted Fellow had Struck me on the head with his Staff and furiously reviled at me for Preaching with the titles of Rogue Villain Hypocrite Traytor c. as the Prelatists and Papists often do § 293. The Parliament meeting Apr. 13. they fell first on the D. of Lauderdale renewing their desire to
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
supposing such Excellent persons to be Saved But Errours and Sins contradict themselves and Factious Damners that for Preferment Condemn good Men are ordinarily self-condemned § 3. This maketh me remember how this last year one Dr. Mason a great Preacher against Puritanes Preached against me publickly in London saying That when a Justice was sending me to prison and offered me to stay till Monday if I would promise not to Preach on Sunday I answered I shall not Equivocally meaning I shall not promise when he thought I meant I shall not Preach O these say the Malignants are your holy Men And was such a putid Falshood fit for a Pulpit from such Men that never spake one word to my face in their Lives The whole truth is this The foresaid Tho. Ross with Philips being appointed to send me to prison for Preaching at Braânford shut the Chamber doors and would neither shew or tell me who was my Accuser or Witness nor let any one living be present but themselves And it being Saturday I askt them to stay at home to set my House in order till Monday Ross asked me Whether I would promise not to Preach on Sunday I answered No I shall not The Man not understanding me said Weât you Promise not to Preach I replyed No Sir I tell you I will not promise any such thing If you hinder me I cannot help it but I will not otherwise forbear Never did I think of Equivocation This was my present Answer and I went strait to Prison upon it Yet did this Ross vent this false Story behind my back and among Courtiers and Prelatists it past for currant and was worthy Dr. Mason's Pulpit-impudency Such were the Men that we were persecuted by and had to do with Dr. Mason died quickly after § 4. Being denied forcibly the use of the Chappel which I had built I was forced to let it stand empty and pay Thirty pounds per Annum for the Ground-Rent my self and glad to Preach for nothing near it at a Chappel built by another formerly in Swallow-street because it was among the same poor people that had no Preaching the parish having 60000 Souls in it more than the Church can hold when I had Preached there a while the foresaid Justice Parry one of them that was accused for slitting Sir Iohn Coventree's Nose with one Sabâes signed a Warrant to apprehend me and on Nov. 9. 1676. six Constables foââ Beadles and many Messengers were set at the Chappel-doors to ãâã it I forbare that day and after told the Duke of Lauderdaile of it and asked him What it was that occasioned their wrath against me He desireâ me to go and speak with the Bishop of London Compton I did and he spake very fairly and with peaceable words But presently he having spoken also with some others it was contrived that a noise was raised as against the Bishop at the Court that he was Treating of a Peace with the Presbyterians But after a while I went to him again and told him it was supposed That Justice Parry was either set on work by him or at least a word from him would take him off I desired him therefore to speak to him or provide that the Constables might be removed from my Chappel-doors and their Warrant called in And I offered him to resign my Chappel in Oxenden-street to a Conformist so be it he would procure my continued Liberty in Swallow-street for the sake of the pâor multitude that had no Church to go to He did as good as promise me telling me That he did not doubt to do it and so I departed expecting Quietness the next Lord's day But instead of that the Constables Warrant was continued though some of them begg'd to be excused and against their wills they continued guarding the Door for above Four and twenty Lord's-days after And I came near the Bishop no more when I had so tried what their Kindnesses and Promises signifie § 5. It pleased God to take away by torment of the Stone that excellent faithful Minister Mr. Tho. Wadsworth in Southwark and just when I was thus kept out at Swallow-Street his Flock invited me to Southwark where though I refused to be their Pastor I Preached many Months in peace there being no Justice willing to disturb us This was in 1677. § 6. When Dr. Lamplugh now Bishop of Exeter was Pastor at St. ãâã old Mr. Sangar the Minister thence put out thought it his duty to abide in the Parish with those of his ancient flock that desired him and to visit such as desired him in sickness because many that were against our Preaching pretended that we might find work enough in private Visitings and helps An old Friend of Mr. Sangar's being sick near St. Iames's Market-house sent to him to visit her By that time he had a while Prayed by her Dr. Lampleugh came in and when he had done came fiercely to him saying Sir What business have you here Mr. Sangar answered To visit and Pray with my sick Friend that sent for me The Doctor fiercely laid hold of his breast and thrust him toward the Door saying Get you out of the Room Sir to the great trouble of the Woman that lay sick in Bed by them having buried her Husband but a little before Had this been done to any other than to so Ancient Grave Reverend Peaceable Moderate and Calm a Man as Mr. Sangar who had been lawfully called before this Doctor to be Pastor of the Parish and then Preached no where but to a few in his own small House it had been more excusable Mr. Sangar oft profest to me the truth of what I say which I mention to silence those our Accusers that would have us give over Preaching that we may do such private Work Wheras 1. I must be a year speaking that to people one by one which publickly I may tell them all in one day And he that heareth my Exhortation but once a year and heareth Seducers Swearers Cursers and Railers every day may wish at last he had better friends than these pretenders to Peace and Obedience that accuse us 2. And such Instances shew that we are envyed as much in our private duty as in our publick And did we speak only in private our Persecutors would then vent their Suspicions of our Doctrin without any Confutation and would say We are they that creep into Houses to lead the silly Women captive O what a World is this Where Atheists Infidels and the most Beastly Sinners are Members of the Church of England When did we hear of any of them Excomunicate and God's faithfullest Servants represented even by the envious Prelates and publick-Priests as the intolerable Criminal persons of the Land for Praying and Preaching when they forbid them and the necessity of Thousands binds them to it besides their Ordination Vow § 7. When Dr. William Lloyd became Pastor of St. Martin's in the Fields upon Lamplugh's Preferment I was encouraged by
the 1 st 1662 nor ever since had any nor the offer of any And therefore the Law imposeth not on me the Declaration or the Assent or Consent no more than on Lawyers or Judges 2. I have the Bishop of London's License to Preach in his Diocess which supposeth me no Nonconformist in Law-sence And I have the Judgment of Lawyers even of the present Lord Chief Justice and Mr. Pollexfen that by that License I may Preach occasional Sermons 3. I have Episcopal Ordination and judge it gross Sacriledge to forsake my Calling 4. I am justified against suspicion of Rebellious Doctrine many ways 1. By my publick Retractation of any old accused words or writings 2. I was chosen alone to Preach the Publick Thanksgiving at St. Paul's for General Monk's success 3. The Commons in Parliament chose me to Preach to them at their Publick Fast for the King's Restoration and call'd him home the next day 4. I was Sworn Chaplain in Ordinary to the King 5. I was offered a Bishoprick 6. The Lord Chancellor who offered it attested under his hand His Majesty's Sense of my Defert and His Acceptance 7. I am justifyed in the King's Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs among the rest there mention'd 8. When I Preached before the King he commanded the Printing of my Sermon 9. To which may be added the Act of Oblivion 10. And having published above an Hundred Books I was never yet convict of any ill Doctrine since any of the said Acts of King Parliament and others for my Discharge and Justification 5. I have oft Printed my judgment for Communion with the Parish Churches and exhorted others to it And having built a Chappel delivered it for Parish use 6. I was never lawfully Convict of Preaching in an unlawful Assembly for I was not once summon'd by the Justices that granted out the Five Warrants against me to answer for my self nor ever told who was my Accuser or who Witnessed against me And I have it under the hand of the present Lord Chief Justice that a Lawful Conviction supposeth Summons And the Lord Chief Justice Vaughan with Judge Tyrrel Archer and Wild did long ago discharge me upon their declaring that even the Warrant of my Commitment was illegal because no Accuser or Witness was named and so I was left remediless in case of false Accusation 7. As far as I understand it I never did Preach in any unlawful Assembly which was on pretence of any Exercise of Religion contrary to Law I Preached in Parish Churches where the Liturgy was Read as oft as I had leave and invitation And when I could not have that leave I never took any Pastoral Charge nor Preached for any Stipend but not daring perfidiously to desert the Calling which I was Ordained and Vowed to I Preacht occasional Sermons in other Men's Houses where was nothing done that I know of contrary to Law There was nothing done but Reading the Psalms and Chapters and the Creed Commandments and Lord's Prayer and Singing Psalms and Preaying and Praching and none of this is forbidden by Law The Omission of the rest of the Liturgy is no Act but a not-acting and therefore is no pretended Worship according to Law But were it otherwise the Law doth not impose the Liturgy on Families but only on Churches and a Family is not forbidden to have more than four Neighbours at saying Grace or Prayer nor is bound to give over Family-worship when-ever more than Four come in The Act alloweth Four to be present at Unlawful Worship but forbids not more to be present at Lawful Worship And House-worship without the Liturgy is lawful worship And yet if this were not so as the Curate's Omission of the Prayers makes not the Preacher and Assembly guilty suppose it were an Assize-Sermon that for hast omitted the Liturgy so the owner of the House by omitting the Liturgy maketh not him guilty that was not bound to use it nor the Meeting unlawful to any but himself Charity and Loyalty bind us to believe that our King and Parliament who allow more than many Four's to meet at a Play-house Tavern or Feast never meant to forbid more than Four to bââogether in a House to sing a Psalm or Pray or Read a Licensed Book or edifie each other by Godly Conference while no Crime is found by any Man in the Matter of their Doctrine or Prayer and no Law imposeth the Liturgy on any but Church-Meetings If after many years Reproach once Imprisonment and the late Distress and Sale of all my Books and Goods and those that were none of mine but another's and this by five or six Warrants for present Execution without any Summons or Notice of Accusers or Witnesses I could yet have leave to die in peace and had not been again persecuted with new Inditements I had not presumed thus to plead or open my own Cause I Pray God that my Prosecutors and Judges may be so prepared for their near Account that they may have no greater sin laid to their Charge than keeping my Ordination-Vow is and not Sacrilegiously forsaking my Calling who have had so good a Master so good a Word so good Success and so much Attestation from King Parliament City and Bishops as I have haâ If they ask why I Conform not I say I do as far as any Law bindeth me If they ask why I take not this Oath I say Because I neither understand it nor can prevail with Rulers to Explain it And if have a good sence I have not only subscribed to it but to much more in a Book called The second Plea for Peace page 60 61 62. Where also I have professed my Loyalty much further than this Oath extendeth But if it have a bad sence I will not take it And I find the Conformists utterly disagreed of the Sence and most that I hear of renouncing that sence which the words signifie in their common use And knowing that Perjury is a mortal Enemy to the Life and Safety of Kings and the Peace of Kingdoms and to Converse and to Man's Salvation I will not dally with such a dangerous Crime Nor will I deceive my Rulers by Stretches and Equivocations nor do I believe Lying lawful after all that Grotius de Iure Belli and Bishop Taylor Duct Dub. have said for it I think Oaths imposed are to be taken in the ordinary sense of the words if the Imposers put not another on them And I dare not Swear that a Commission under the Broad-Seal is no Commission till I that am no Lawyer know it to be Legal Nor yet that the Lord Keeper may Depose the King without resistance by Sealing Commissions to Traytors to seize on his Forts Navy Militia or Treasure Nor can I consent to make all the present Church-Government as unalterable as the Monarchy especially when the Seventh Canon extendeth it to an caetèra to Arch-bishops Bishops Deans Arch-deacons and the rest that bear Office in the same not
am sure if not all quiet in their Habitations even in the Kings Quarters not so much as taking the Covenant so that I know not how you can except against them as casting out the Bishops What tell you them of other Mens Actions could they help it what if it be in a time when Bishops were so Ejected when you cannot prove them guilty of it 4. The Covenant it self doth not reject all Bishops but only such as stood in England and so concatenated to Chancellors Deans c. and with such an Explication Mr. Coleman gave it to the House of Lords If therefore you could prove that the Associated Ministers have taken the Covenant which you have not done yet that proves not that they were the Ejectors of the Bishops 6. There is no Bishop that we know of over this Diocese 7. You cannot prove that those that were Ordained by meer Presbyters might have had Episcopal Ordination of which more anon 8. It is not the Regularity of the Ordination that we desire you to acknowledge but only its being so that it is not a nullity So that you may see how unfaithfully you stated the case which is rather this Whether when the Bishop of this Diocess is dead and the rest taken down by the Reigning Power and we know not where to have Episcopal Ordination or at least without the great suffering of the Bishops on whom the present Powers will inflict so great a penalty if they Ordain if in this case any be Ordained by meer Presbyters are we bound to judge them no Ministers yea and to refuse Associating with others for their sakes Whether our Church doors must be shut up and Gods publick Worship thrown away till the Rulers will permit and the Presbyters and People admit Bishops again and Ministers and Churches all be null yea I do no find you prove that our Agreement requires any such acknowledgment as your self intimateth of which next Except Sect. 3. Mr. Baxter himself I name for one a Principal of this Association and protesting it one end of this Association that they may be acknowledged for true Presbyters and Pastors of their Churches by all who enter into this Agreement vid. p. 14. and the two last lines and p. 15. for eight lines also p. 14. Reas. 11. and Reas. 12. p. 47. mid and p. 49. fin Reply to Sect. 3. For my self I think you have more against me than any other Man in your Association But yet 1. you have not proved that I had not Episcopal Ordination which indeed I had 2. Nor that I consented to the removal of their Calling If I did so yet till you can know it you have no just ground for your alienation 3. If I did consent yet that nulleth not my former Call 4. You know not if I did whether I repent or not 5. No man must be rejected for a fault supposed without a just Tryal in all Equity you should hear me speak for my self I have publickly offered satisfaction to any that are offended with me 6. What if I only were faulty would that warrant you to separate from all the rest for my sake 7. But what do you alledge against me That I would have an acknowledgment that we are true Presbyters and Pastors A heinous Crime that I will not yield to have Gods Church among us unchurched by the Papists and his Worship cast aside for want of true Ministers 8. But what are all these Words of mine to the Agreement Those are but mine own Thoughts which none are desired to consent to You should have produced somewhat from our Articles of Concord and not from my Words Except to Sect. 4. Do they take in your acknowledged Grounds of all parts Episcopal and all who would have us acknowledge them Presbyters ordained in this Church without Bishops not by necessity as in the Churches wherein no Protestant Bishop could be had unless their Christian Charity can take Countenance to say that none of our Bishops were Protestants and that then they must have had no Ordination at all or Ordination by Papists requiring of them the Acknowledging the Popes Ecclesiastial Supremacy which was the confessed Case of those Protestants beyond Seas from whence they would fain borrow a Cloak for their Fact but the Covering is too short though they argue while the World endures there is a vast difference betwixt necessity and voluntary Engaging by Covenant and relinquishing casting off and laying by true Catholick Protestant Bishops Reply to Sect. 4. Yes Sir I am confident I take in the Grounds of the Episcopal Protestants But I dare not say yours for I do not know you nor are you able to manifest the contrary 1. Necessity may justify some things that else were unjustifiable and the absence of such Necessity may prove them sinful But if Presbyters may justly ordain in case of necessity then you will hardly prove our Ordination null for want of that Necessity though you should prove it irregular It seems you think that Lay Men may baptize in case of necessity if so you may prove it sinful but hardly null where Necessity is not 2. It is an incredible Assertion against the Sun that all those Protestants beyond Sea had such a Necessity and could not have Protestant Bishops Put out Mens Eyes and then tell them this Were the Low Countries so far from England that they could not possibly have borrowed a Bishop to Ordain Was not Bishop Carleton at the Synod of Dort with them why did not that Synod desire this Curtesy It is said he protested for Bishops in the open Synod and that he took their Silence for Consent and also that some after told him that they would have them if they could as if Silence were any Sign of Consent against their own established Discipline Who knows not that their loathness to displease King Iames of whom they had then so much need might well cause them to keep Silence about that which was not the Business of the Assembly as long as they held their present Government and if some said they would have Bishops if they could it is plain it was but few for if most had been willing what hindered them If you say the Civil Powers I answer 1. The Ecclesiasticks so taught them and desired the Presbyterian Government of them 2. They might have run the hazard of a Persecution as well as we and the civil Rulers of this Nation are as much at least against it as theirs So some gather from Moulin's Word to Bishop Andrews and some few other Mens that the French Churches would fain have Bishops as also they are said to have offered Obedience to the Papist Bishops if they would turn Protestants when as it is known they are against Bishops and if any particular Persons are for it it is against the Establishment of their Churches Perhaps they might think their Form of Government not of such Moment as to reject Episcopacy if it might come
Protestant Divines of England are branded as Popish that since the Reformation have defended against the Pope that Bishops are jure Divino for so I say it was direct Popery that first denied Bishops to be jure Divino witness the Pope's and Papelins canvassing in the Council of Trent to oppress by Force and Tyranny the far major and more learned part of the Council that contended for so many Months with Suffrages Arguments and Protestations Protestant like to have it defined that Bishops were jure Divino and only the Pope and his Titulars and Courtiers suffered it not to be propounded least it should be as certainly it would have been defined for then Popes and Presbyterians could not have lorded it so Thus the chiefest and most pious and learned Bishops of our English Church must be branded for Popish Bishop Andrews Mountague White c. Reply to Sect. 15. 1. If you deny the Authors cited by me to be authentick pretend not to adhere to the Episcopal Protestants for sure these are such 2. You do not well to say that all the Protestant Bishops are branded as Popish that since the Reformation have defended against the Pope that Bishops are jure Divino either shew the Words where I so brand them or else do not tell us that your Words are true though in a matter of Fact before your Eyes we may well question your Argument when we find you so untrue in reporting a plain Writing Indeed our late Bishops and those most that were most suspected to be Popish did stand most upon the jus Divinum which many of the first did either disclaim or not maintain But it never came into my Thoughts to brand all for Papists that did own it Do I not cite Downame and others as Protestant Bishops who yet maintain it yea Bishop Andrews whom you name this is not fair 3. As for the Trent Quarrel about Bishops I say but this if the Spanish Bishops and the rest that stood for the jus Divinum of Episcopacy there were no Papists then those that I spoke of in England were none much less And I must cry you mercy for so esteeming them Except to Sect. 16. The 3d Argument is from the uncertainty of Succession which might have done the Hereticks good Service in the old times when St. Irenaeus and Tertullian muster up against them Successions of Catholick Bishops that ever taught as the Church then taught against the Hereticks Reply to Sect. 16. 1. It seems you are confident of an uninterrupted Succession of authoritative Ordination though you seem to think none authoritative but Episcopal But so were not the Protestant Bishops who took the Reformed Churches to have true Ministers and to be true Churches when yet Episcopal Ordination is interrupted with them Such are all those with whose Words you say I fill my Book to whom I may add Men which is strange that were thought nearer your own way As Bishop Bromhall in his late Answer to Militerius who yet would have the Pope to be the Principium Unitatis to the Church and the Answer to Fontanus's Letter said to be Dr. Stewards besides Dr. Fern yea if you were one of those that would yield that Presbyters may ordain yet I am still unpersuaded that you are able to prove an uninterrupted Succession of Authoritative Ordination and if you are able I should heartily thank you if you would perform it and seeing it is so Necessary it is not well that no Episcopal Divine will perform it If you are not able methinks you should not judge it so necessary at least except you know them that are able If you cast it on us to disprove that Succession I refer you to our Answer to Bellarmine and others in those Papers as to that point 2. As for Tertullian and Irenaeus and others of the primitive Ages pleading such Succession I answer 1. It is one thing to maintain an uninterrupted Succession then when and where it was certain and another to maintain it now when it is not 2. It is one thing then to maintain that such a Succession was de facto and another to affirm that it must be or would be to the end of the World which those Fathers did not It was the Scope of Irenaeus and Tertullian not to make an uninterrupted Succession of standing absolute necessity ad esse Officii nor to prophecy that so it should still be and the Church should never want it but from the present certainty of such a Succession de facto to prove that the Orthodox Churches had better Evidence of the Soundness of their Faith than the Hereticks had If this be not their meaning I cannot understand them it was easy then to prove the Succession and therefore it might be made a Medium against Hereticks to prove that the Churches had better Evidence than they But now the Case is altered both through time and Sin It might have been proved by Tradition without Scripture what was sound Doctrine and what not before the Scripture was written An Heretick might have been confuted in the Days of the Apostles without their Writings and perhaps in a great measure some time after but it follows not that they may be so to the End of the World Those that heard it from the Mouth of the Apostles could tell the Church what Doctrine they taught but how uncertain a way Tradition would have been to acquaint the World with God's Mind by that time it had passed through the puddle of depraved Ages even to 1653. God well knew and therefore provided us a more certain way So is it also in this Case of Succession as the Fathers pleaded it against the Hereticks to prove the Soundness of the Tradition of those Churches Except to Sect. 17. Against all which a Quirk it seems lay that if secretly any of them had had but a secret Canonical Irregularity all the following Successions were null But the evident Truth is much otherwise that the Church never anulled the Acts or Ordinations made by Bishops which the Catholick Church then had accepted and reputed Catholick Bishops though afterwards they came to know of any Secret Irregularities or canonical Disablings had they then been urged or prosecuted by any against those Bishops and then they should have been accepted for Bishops by the Church no longer Reply to Sect. 17. 1. I have proved and more can do open and not only secret Irregularities in the Church of Rome's Ordinations known a Priâre and not only after the Ordinations The Multitude of Protestant Writers even English Bishops have made that evident enough against the Pope which you call a Querk general Councils have condemned Popes as Hereticks and Infidels and yet they have ordained more 2. If it were otherwise yet all your Answer would only prove that we must sometimes take them for Bishops who were none when the Nullity is secret but not that they are Bishops indeed or have Authority It is one thing to
say that God will make their Acts as useful to the honest Receiver as if the Ordainer had done it by just Authority and another to say that such an Ordainer had Authority because his Incapacity was not known or judged that is because it was not then known that he had none 2. Moreover if the Catholick Churches Acceptation and Reputation which you mention would serve turn then 1. It were well worth the knowing what you mean by the Catholick Church do you mean the whole or only a Part If the whole then few Ministers or Bishops must be so accepted for who is known to all Christians in the World If a Part then what Part must it be what if one Part repute him a true Minister or Bishop and the other a false or none which is very common If you say it is the People over whom he is Pastor then nothing more common then for them to be divided in their Judgments If you say it is the greater part then we shall be at utter Uncertainties for our Succession as little knowing what the greater part of the People thought of our Predecessors if you mean the Superior Bishops then a Metropolitan it seems is the Catholick Church when a Bishop is to be judged of and it is like a Patriarch for a Metropolitan and the Pope for him But as 1. We know not how these judged of our Predecessors 2. So we little believe that these Mens Judgments can make a Man to be a Bishop that is none or make him have a Power which else he had not this is worse than the Doctrine which hangs the Efficacy of the Sacraments on the Priests Intention It 's like the Faith of some that think to make a Falsehood become true by believing it true 3. And you know it is the Pope whose Succession we are questioning and which is the Catholick Church that must accept and repute him a true Pope If the Council of Basil were the Catholick Church then you know how Eugenius was reputed and then where is our Succession I doubt not but true Christians that are not guilty of the Nullity of the Ordination nor knew it may have the Benefit and Blessing of such a Man's Administrations and they may be valid to the Receiver But that is on another ground which I have lately manifessed to another in debating this Cause and not that the Administrator had any true Ministerial Authority from God Again I refer you to my Answer to Bellarmine and others in those Papers Except to Sect. 18. V.G. Put case one not baptized thought to have been baptized had per ignorantiam facti been promoted to be Bishop Archibishop or Patriarch yet so long as the Church knew it not nor himself perhaps but did accept him bona Fide though ipso Facto had it been known such had been uncapable of Episcopal Order yet being so accepted by the Catholick Church Ordinations done by him were not null nor did he interrupt the Succession but latente omni defectu baptismi he was a true Bishop though after his Death by any Writing they had come to discover it for the Church as all Judicatures rightly proceeds secundum allegata probata the same I say of secret Symony V. S. But on the other side to speak now to the Presbyterian Case Reply to Sect. 18. Nay then put Case the Man were not Ordained and the Church took him to be Ordained you say the Church must proceed secundum allegata probata doth not this give up your Cause and yield all that I plead for which is that an authoritative Ordination and so an uninterrupted Succession is not simply and absolutely necessary to the being of the Ministry For you confess your Churches Reputation may serve without it By the way take head least you either make the People to be none of the Catholick Church or at least you give a Power to the People to make Ministers Bishops and Popes by their bare Thoughts without Ordination or so much as Election But then you will remember that if Reputation without just Ordination may serve turn I know not but those among us may be Ministers whom you disclaim For the Pastors and People of all the Protestant Churches in Europe except your selves here do take such for Ministers so far as it is possible by Writings Professions and Practices to know their Minds and I hope they are as good a part of the Catholick Church as the Pope and his Consistory are If Reputation then will make Pastors without Ordination we may have as good a Plea as those you plead for For the case of Symony you mention see what I cited out of Dr. Hammond and you know sure that many Canons make Ordinations null and the Office null ipso Facto whether ever the Party be questioned in Judgment or not such Canons and Laws are equal to Sentences A Case also may be known that is never questioned and Judged who could question the Sodomitical unclean murderous Popes though it was commonly known I take it for granted therefore that the Knowledge degraded them without a Judgment according to your own Words here unless one part of them contradict the other Except to Sect. 19. The same ancient Church which did make void and annul constantly all Ordinations made by meer Presbyters whether they Schismatically arrogated to themselves to be Bishops and were not nor so reputed by the Church or otherwise upon any Pretention whatsoever for at that time no necessity could be with any Colour nor was pretended Reply to Sect. 19. 1. But is it the Judgment of the Ancient Church that will serve to degrade or null a Minister of this Age If so then all your former Arguing is in the Dust For though your Popes had none to Judge them Wicked and Uncapable then yet the ancient Church before them did make void and null the Office and Ordinations of such as they If it must be a present Power that must do it we have not yet been called to any Judicature about it 2. Your Parenthesis seems to intimate that if the Presbyters be but Reputed Bishops by the Church then their Ordinations are not null All 's well on our side then except you only or the Romanists be the whole Western Church For not only Pastors and People here do take Presbyters to be Bishops having Power of Ordination but so do the rest of the Reformed Churches or at least most of them They think that the primitive Bishop was the Bishop of one particular Church and not of a Diocess or many Churches 3. You talk of necessity again but you would not say that necessity would have excused them then if there had been such though it seems you would be thought to judge of the Reformed Churches as the Protestant Bishops do or else hide your Judgment in part Except to Sect. 20. These Three Fallacies are the Summ of all his Arguments rather popular Calumnies for want of Argument
to leave God unworshipped Publickly and our People untaught and set Satan raign and Souls perish by Thousands for fear of saving them without Episcopal Ordination If you still say that we should be of your Mind and be ordained by Bishops we again say our judgments are not at our Command we cannot believe what we list I know multitudes of Anti-Episcopal Men that study as faithfully and seek God's Direction as heartily as any of you all and yet cannot see the Justness of your Cause though whether it be just or not I purposely forbear to pass my Censure if still you say it is our Wilfulness or Peevishness I leave you as Usurpers of God's Prerogative and pretending to that Knowledge of our Hearts which is a step above the Papal Arrogation of Infallability Nay seeing I have gone so far I will add this do you not imitate the Papists in the main Point of Recusansy by which we were wont to know them in England Nay we had many Church Papists that went not so far must not you as they have People disclaim our Ministry and Assemblies and not join in them for fear of owning unordained Men. Be not too angry with us I pray you if we call not such Protestants or at least if we take it for impossible to have Concord with them 2. I must also tell you that are offended at my Saying that those particular Bishops named deserved to be cast out that if you be one that dare own them in their Ways or would have the Church have such as they yea that do not detest and lament their Miscarriages seem to your self as Pious as you will you are no Man for our Company and Concord Do you complain of me for want of Christian Charity and yet would you have the Church have such Bishops as would cast out such Men as Aims Parker Baines Bradshaw Dod Hildersham with Multitudes of as painful able Godly Men as the World knew and leave so many drunken reading Sots some thereabouts Faggot Makers or Rope Makers many that did and that lately whether we will or not till the late Act get their Living by unlawful Marriages and such Courses as is a Shame to Mention yea would you have Bishops that would do as your Bishop Wren Pierce and the others did whose Accusations are upon Record For my part I think such Mens destroying the Church was the cause of all our wars and Misery and he that dare own them in it after all this is no Man for our Association I love no Man the worse for being for Bishops but for being for such Bishops and such Practices I do They are yet alive enquire what Men Mr. Dance and Mr. Turner are who were the Teachers of this Parish and what the People were then and what they are now Grant but Piety Love and Concord to be better than Ignorance and Debauchery and then judge of them Except to Sect. 22. Page 64. Speaking of Episcopal Divines he saith and if Liberty of Sects and Separations be publickly granted and confirmed to all you shall soon find that the Party that I am now dealing with will soon by their Numbers obscure all other Parties that now trouble our Peace ibid. pag. 64. n. 13. Reply to Sect. 22. It was my necessary care to distinguish between Protestant Bishops and Popish of Cassender's strain and it is your Care with all subtilty to obscure the Distinction that you may involve the honest Party in your Guilt and Snares That which I there spoke only of Popish Bishops and their Party you would intimate that I spake of the Episcopal Protestants then which nothing less is true as my Words fully shew I tell you plainly such Bishops as Usher Hall Morton Iewel c. are twenty fold nearer me in Judgment than they are to you if you be one of the Cassandrian Papists that there I speak against why then should they not sooner join with us than with you If ever God set up Episcopal Government where I live yea though I wer unsatisfied of its right I will obey them in all things not against the Word of God were it but for Peace and Unity Except to Sect. 23. They would have all the People take us for no Ministers c. and so all God's Worship be neglected in publick where no Bishops and their Missionaries are and so when all others are diseased or turned out the Papists may freely enter there being none but these few faithful Friends of their own to keep them out which how well they will do you may by these conjecture and n. 15. of the same Page But it is a higher Charge than Popery that these Episcopal Doctors that I now speak of are liable to c. Reply to Sect. 23. Is not this true How much of it do you plainly maintain in this Writing I had rather you had freed your selves of the Charge then called it Uncharitable Excep to Sect. 24. Pag. 66. N. 5. Speaking to those same Men he saith You must be certain that those same Men had Intentionem Ordinationis if you be right Papists indeed did ever any one ever hear and read any one single English Episcopal Doctor require Intention as necessary to Ordination If not call you that Speech of Mr. Baxter's Christian Charity Reply to Sect. 24. Remember this that no Protestants say Presbyters have no more Power than the Ordainer intended them You may see by that that I speak to Papists why then would you intimate that it was to Protestant Bishops Except to Sect. 25. Pag. 67. Do not these Mens Grounds leave it certain that Christ hath no true Church or Ministry or Ordinances or Baptized Christians in England nay in all the Western Church and perhaps not in the whole World and then see whether these Popish Divines must not prove Seekers Reply to Sect. 25. O that you would vindicate them from that Charge though heavy by proving the uninterrupted canonical Succession from the Apostles Except to Sect. 26. Pag. 47. Speaking of some under the Name of Episcopal Divines saith that they withdraw the People from obeying their Pastors by pretending a Necessity of Episcopacy c. and partly instil into them such Principles as may prepare them for flat Popery and yet in the next Page 48. saith that those same Men do themselves viz. Mr. Chisenhall against Vane Mr. Waterhouse for Learning Zealous Men for Episcopacy publish to the World what a pack of notorious ignorant silly Souls or wicked unclean Persons those are that are turned Papists How now can Mr. Baxter call those Men that so publish c. faithful Friends to Rome pag. 64. See how Uncharitableness betrays and accuses it self in its busy Accusations of others and must justify them per Force of Truth when it would condemn Reply to Sect 26. Why what is the Scope of this your Writing but to prove that we are not Pasters and would you not then draw the People from acknowledging us such
This is like the Man that swears he never swore in his Life you blame me with charging you with what you contend for 2. But you do with as little Candor as verity say that in the next Page it is those same Men that I speak of when I purposely and plainly call these Gentlemen of the Episcopal Protestant Party as distinct from the Cassandrian Papists and as helping us in the Discovery of the Danger But I perceive it is your Desire to make Men believe that I took them for all one But a good Cause needs to such a way of Defenceâ Did you think that the learned Doctor to whom you wrote would believe you who had my Book at hand and could see that your Words were false And is it not strange that upon such a dishonest Foundation you can build such a triumphant Exclamation as follows See how Uncharitableness betrays and accuses it self c. Exception to Sect. 27. Pag. 50. n. 4. If these that I dispute with will shew themselves openly to be Papists and plead that Women or Lay-Men may baptize in case of Necessity c. See see his Magisterial canting crying out Popery upon whatever likes him not Doth he know whom he here condemns for Papists Yes he doth for he tells us pag. 81. that the 38th Canon Elibertint Concilii and he tells us right decrees that in case of necessity a Lay Man may baptize well an ancient Catholick Council held under the primitive pure Times whilst Persecution yet exercised the Church more ancient than the Council of Nice and whereof Magnus Osius Confessor was a part is peacht of Popery too together with us Enough of this I might add much more All this within the compass of twenty Leaves from pag. 45. to 85. Reply to Sect 27. All this but a meer Mistake whether willing or unwilling I never took this Point alone enough to denominate a Man a Papist but because it is a Point wherein the Papists generally hold one way and the Protestants another I take it to be a ãâã Discovery which side the forementioned Persons are of I durst not say that the Error of Purgatory or praying for the Dead or praying to Saints no â nor Transubstantiation alone is sufficient to denominate a Man a Papist But yet I think if a Man would degrade our Ministers and unchurch our Churches and all the Reformed Churches that have not Bishops and maintain the Romish Ordination and Church and yet saythe is not a Papist your Addition of one of these would further the Discovery I am not ignorant that Tertullian and others speak of Lay Mens Baptizing in case of necessity but not for Women though Pamelius would pervert Tertullian's Words for that End Except to Sect. 28. To give you a Taste when he quotes Fathers as he quoted above the 80th Canon Apostotical to eject our Bishops So also when he would prove that the ancient Church held it lawful for Ministers to impose Hands for the confirming of Parties haptised pag. 58. for Proof of what he saith he pretends to but Two Authors viz. Ambrose in Ephes. 4. and Augustin quoest ex vet novo Testam mixt both certainly spurious Pieces and the latter the Work of an Heretick Reply to Sect. 28. You go the farther the worse I quoted Bishop Downame as one of the Episcopal Protestants to shew that it is their Judgment that Ministers ordained without Bishops may be true Ministers Now because the Bishop brings these two Testimonies on the by about Confirmation and Reconciliation of Penitents you do in my Judgment not well 1. Feign me to be the Speaker of those Words and the Alledger of those Authors when it was a Bishop and his Words go cited because a Bishop 2. You make me to do it in order to prove the Power of Ministers to impose Hands on the Confirmed and Reconciled when even Bishop Downame brought in that and these Testimonies thereto but as subservient to the others But perhaps I left you some occasion of this mistake to charge me with the Words of the Bishop No none at all I enclosed his Words with this Mark and after I wrote so far Bishop Downame that there might be no place for such an Oversight But where you talk of but two Authors for this I thought you had known how easy it is to bring more For if it be the Ceremony of Imposing Hands that you would deny to the Presbyters it was so far from being denied theââ anciently that even the English Bishops allowed it them in Ordination which is the greater If you mena the Power of Confirming and Reconciling it 's known the Bishops might delegate Presbyters to it and the Corepiscopi used it yea Presbyters I think in some Cases And for Reconciliation Bishop Usher tells you in the Words I cited that even Deacons used it or had it Yet is not the Testimony of those Authors contemptible that ascribed to Ambrose is taken by Erasmus to be Remigius or Anselme by Maldonate to be Remigius by Brugensis and Bellarmine to be Hillarius Diaconus And well might Downame alledge them against the Papists when Bellarmine the Rhemists Alan and others so esteem them and quote them as Ambrose when it serves their turns And for the Book of Quest. in vet nov Test. 1. The Papists citing it Bellarmine Harding Turrian Eckius Cope Rhemists c. Downame might well cite it ad Hominem yea ad Rem it being matter of Fact that he speaks to and the Author so ancient that Hierome seems to take notice of him Except to Sect. 29. In all this you see I have not disputed the Case with him but only discovered to you his manner for that he himself professes he is resolved in this Book to forbear the Dispute p. 79. princip pag. 77. he would give us to understand that he hath much more behind that he can say by way of Argument for this is only crying out Popery Popish c. for Presbyters Power of Governing Excommunicating ordaining without a Bishop Let him be intreated to do it and lay aside his poor kind of calumniating his Adversary and deal Christianly by Arguments only and he shall soon be answered I believe For the present he may know his Papers prevail not but only provoke those he writes against Reply to Sect. 29. It 's strange that to call a Papist a Papist should be accounted Calumniation I profess to speak of none but Cassandrian Papists I name none They that are not such have no reason to say that I calumniate them when I professedly accept and and honour and seek Reconciliation with them They that are such methinks should not be ashamed of it It 's an ill Religion which a Man must be asham'd of and an ill Profession that is ashamed of a true Religion 2. That my Papers prevail not but provoke is no wonder 1. The Papists I expected to provoke by discovering their Designs and attempted not
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
Rome where none shall be admitted that will not swear to do wickedly and to false Ways And in the great Arrian Defection when scarce Six or Seven Bishops were to be found that did not turn Arrians among whom the Bishop of Rome was one that revolted and they would ordain none but those that would be of their Way and so would engage Men against Christ. God did not give them Power to destroy the Church but to preserve Order and propagate it They can do nothing by any Power from God against the Truth but for the Truth When Ergo They will not ordain to the Preservation but to the apparent Destruction of the Church we are not obliged to receive their Ordination And that the failing of regular Ministerial Ordination doth not destroy the Ordination or Law of God de Specie conservandâ and that it was never the Will of God that there should be no Ministry at all longer than they might be so regularly Ordained appears thus 1. The Office of the Ministry is of standing Necessity to the very Being of a Political Church whereas the Ecclesiastical Authoritative Ordination is but necessary to the well being and ordering of it Ergo the failing of the later causeth not a failing of the former The Reason of the Consequence may appear in that God hath oft suffered his Church in all Ages to fall into Disorders and Distempers when yet he hath preserved the Being 2. God hath not inseparably tyed a necessary certain End to one only mutable uncertain means But the Office of the Ministry is the necessary certain End of Regular Ecclesiastical Ordination viz. by one in Just Power and this is a mutable uncertain means Ergo God hath not tyed the Office of the Ministry to this alone The Necessity of the Ministry and the certain Continuance of it to the Church I suppose will be granted even to every Church while it remains a Church Political The Uncertainty and Mutability of that means is before proved 3. God hath not put it into the Power of Bishops or other Ordainers to destroy his Church for ever but if the Ministry were inseparably annexed to their authoritative Ordination it would be so Ergo It is in the Power of their Wills whether they will ordain any other Bishops to succeed them which if they should not do the Succession is interrupted and the Office must for ever fail If you say it is not to be supposed that all will deny to Ordain others I answer 1. What Promise or Certainty of the contrary 2. It is not possible their own Judgments may be turned against Bishops and so renounce that Calling or may they not turn most of them Heretical and so will ordain none that will not be so too As it was actually when the whole World turned Arrian except six or seven Bishops there were none left and a tenth Part nay the Hundredth part of the Church could not have recourse to six or seven persecuted Bishops hidden in Wildernesses or Corners or Fugitives that Men knew not where to find And that it was then unlawful to have submitted to the Arrians Ordination on their Terms I suppose will not be denied And the few that do not turn Hereâicks may yet clogg their Ordinations with such unlawful Impositions and Engagements as that no Man fearing God may justly submit to them which is at best the Case of all the Romish Church as is said So that if all Men else obey God they must not be Ordained by these Men and consequently these Men have Power to destroy the Church which if it were affirmed but of the Churches in one Nation is not true No nor of one Congregation for the Sense of the Precept for Ordination is this That the Churches may be edified and well guided and my Worship rightly performed do you ordain Elders c. 4. God hath made it indispensably necessary to his People to the World's End to assemble in solemn Congregations and then to perform his publick Worship viz. In Prayer Praises Sacraments Preaching and Hearing c. But without the Ministry this cannot be performed Ergo he hath made it indispensably necessary that they have a Ministry and consequently the failing of Authoritative Ecclesiastical Ordination doth not destroy the Ministry Both by necessity of Precept and of Means is Publick Worship necessary to the World's End Ordinary teaching publickly and being the Mouth of the People in Praising God and Administring Sacraments and blessing the People c. are Ministerial Actions Now suppose you come into a Nation or Country where such Ordination fails as if you had lived in the Reign of the Arrians durst you absolve all the Churches from all God's Publick Worship Durst you have said to whole Countries Never Assemble to Worship God by Solemn Praises Never baptize any Never communicate in the Lord's Supper This were to contradict a Precept in Force that binds them to do what you forbid them and it were to destroy their Souls and bid them forsake God and quench his Graces For without God's Publick Ministerial Ordinances Grace and Christianity it self could not be long continued at least ordinarily and in many Witness the Unchristianing of the vast Kingdom of Nubia for want of Ministers If you would have such to appoint Private Men to do these Things pro tempore in this Case of Necessity that is to grant all for then the People do make those Private Men Ministers pro tempore whether they give them that name or not for the Office is but Power to do those Works which belong thereto and if they have Power to do the Work they have the Office The like may be said of those Reformed Christians that live under the Romish Power if they must have no Miniââârs they must have no Worship or Sacraments which Ministers are to perform If they must have Ministers either Romish or Reformed Not Romish for they cannot follow them or join with them but by known sinning in wicked Engagements and wicked Actions Not Reformed if there be a Necessity of Authoritative Ordination For the Romish Bishops if they have Authority will not Ordain without forcing Men to open Sin nor may any Pious Man submit to their Ordinations on their Terms and many People cannot have Reformed Bishops no nor Presbyters to ordain them 5. The Law of Nature and the express unchangable written Word agreeing thereto do require Men to do the Offices of Ministers who have a fitness for it and where there is an undeniable Necessity of their Help But the failing of Authoritative Ecclesiastical Ordination will not dispence with the Law of Nature and the express moral written Law agreeing therewith Ergo It will not dispense with such Men for the neglect of such Ministerial Works I think none will question the Minor For the Major understand that those whom I call fit are they that have the Qualifications which I mentioned before Here I take it as undenyable that Duty and
that it 's necessary Necessitate praecepti and if you will Necessitate medii if you speak not of absolute Necessity ad esse Ordinationis but a lower Necessity as of a mutable means and ad bene esse Do you think this is good arguing The Holy Ghost hath revealed it to be the Will of Christ that a Bishop must be blameless and having faithful Children and be not soon angry Tit. 1. 6 7. One that ruleth well his own House having his Children in subjection with all Gravity 1 Tim. 3. 4 5 6. Ergo It is essential to a Bishop to have faithful Children to be blameless not to be soon angry c. O what an Interruption then is made in the Succession or is this good arguing It is the Will of Christ that a Christian should not speak an Idle Word Ergo He that speaks an idle Word is not a Christian Next you suppose your self questioned How you know that it was Christ's Mind and Will that Imposition of Hands should be used in the Ordination of Ministers and you confess 1. That you have neither express nor implicite Command for it 2. But conclude that Christ's Mind may be otherwise known I confess I like this Passage worse than all the rest of your Writing 1. I can find both implicite and in a large sense explicite Commands for it in the Word of God 1 Tim. 5. 22. Heb. 6. 2. 1 Tim. 4. 14. at least an implicite that is unquestionably plain 2. If you had confessed as readily only this that there was no Word of God implicite or explicite to prove the Essentiality of Imposition of Hands to Ordination then I should have believed you But you will needs do more and do much to destroy the very Duty of Imposition while you are pleading it so essential so unhappy are extream Courses and so sure a way is overdoing to undoing Yet with me you give up the Cause of the supposed Essentiality in disclaiming Scripture Precept implicite 3. I perceive it is your Judgment that there are Duties essential to Ordination and consequently without which in your Judgment there is no Ministry and no Church which have no Command in Scripture no not so much as implicite And consequently that Scripture is not God's only Word for revealing supernaturally or his sufficient Law for obliging to Duties of universal standing necessity but he hath another Word called Tradition which revealeth one part of his Mind as the Scripture doth the other and another Law obliging as aforesaid This is the great Master Difference between the Reformed Churches and the Romanists of which so much is said by Whittaker Chamier Baronius and Multitudes more that it 's meerly vain for me to meddle with it For I take it for granted that you would not venture to disclaim the Reformed Churches in this Point till you had well read the chief of their Writers That were to venture your Peace and Safety to save you a Labour At least I hope you have read Chillingworth Yet I must tell you that some moderate Papists confess that the written Word containeth all things of absolute necessity to Salvation but I doubt you do not so for I think you will say that ordinarily there is no Salvation without the Church and Ministry and no Ministry without Ordination and no Ordination without Imposition of Hands and no Imposition of Hands by any Scripture Command so much as implicite Yea it seems you take not up this Course on any strongly-apparent Necessity when such Cases as this will put you on it and you are so willing to make the Scripture silent where it speaks plainly that you may prove a necessity of another Word I do confess the necessity of Tradition to deliver us safe the Scripture it self the Cabinet with the Treasure and the certainty of Tradition in seconding Scripture by handing down to us the Articles of our Câeed and Substance of Christianity in and against which the Church ãâ¦ã in sensu composito because so erring unchurcheth it But this will not ãâ¦ã necessity of another Law besides the written Law for it is opus subordinaââââ ãâ¦ã not the part of a Law nor belongs to it's sufficiency to publish pro ãâã ãâã ãâ¦ã conserve it self But it belongs to it's Sufficiency to contain all the standing matter of Duty in Specie where the Species is permanently due and in genere only with Directions for determining of the Species when the said Species is of uncertain unconstant mutable Dueness He that faith a Duty of so great and standing necessity is not so much as implicitely commanded in Scripture doth plainly say that besides the Scripture which is insufficient God hath either another more perfect Law for Supernaturals or else another part to add to the Scripture to make it perfect Your Addition mollifieth the Matter in Terms but I doubt scarce in Sense for when you say that the Texts where Imposition of Hands is spoken of commented upon by the universal Practice of the Church from the first Age till this wild exorbitant last Century seems a clear Evidence what the Will of Christ is c. I very much like the Words and Sense which they in propriety express viz. That in a Matter of Fact where Scripture is obscure the Practice of the first second or third Centuries may be an excellent Commentary that is a help to understand them much more the Practice of the universal Church in all Ages But I must tell you that it is not the Work of a Commentary on the Laws expresly to add such Precepts about matters of such very great Concernment as is the very being of the Republick which are neither expresly or implicitly in the Law it self I must judge therefore that you make the Churches Practice a real Law though you thought meet to give it but the Title of a Comment And I scarce approve of your comparative Terms of the Centuries as bad as this is What! hath this Century which hath been the only reforming Age been worse than that before it whose Corruptions it reformed and worse than that of which Bellarmine saith Hoc seculo nullum extitit indoctius vel infoelicius quo qui Mathematicae aut Philosophiae operam dabat Magus vulgo putabatur and that of which Espencaeus saith that Graecè nosce suspectum fuerit Hebraicum propè Haereticum What worse than the four or five foregoing Centuries wherein Murderers Traytors common Whoremongers Sodomites Hereticks were the pretended Heads of the Church and grosly ignorant superstitious and wicked ones were the conspicuous part of the Body Will you appeal from this Century to those Did you not even now confess that it is admirably worth our Consideration that when God stirred up the drowzy World to depart from Rome's Superstitions and Idolatries he bowed the Hearts of some of the Church-Officers to go along with them Rome then was idolatrous We departed from it God stirred Men up and bowed their Hearts thereto I confess you
ad esse Officii As strongly may we argue for any Mode or convenient Circumstance so required or used As Christ or his Apostles mention no way of Ordination or of conveying the Ministerial Power but with Prayer conjunct or but with Imposition of Hands on the bare Head or but in the Syriack Hebrew Greek or Latin Tongues or but on a Man that is vigilant sober and of good Behaviour c. Ergo There is no other way Ergo This is of absolute Necessity ad esse Officii But this is no good arguing Ergo No more is yours It is as bad as if one had thus argued with the Israelites in the Wilderness God hath mentioned no other way of Covenant Engagement or Church Entrance but by Circumcision Ergo there is no other Ergo this is necessary ad esse foederis in Ecclesiae They are no good Iuris Consulti Christiani i. e. Theology that know not that some Cases must be judged and some Laws interpreted ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which yet is but according to the true Sense of that Law as Christ taught the Pharises in the Case of David the Priests and his Disciples rubbing the Ears of Corn. I conclude all as I begun desiring that if this satisfy you not you would perform the other Parts of your Undertaking before or with your Reply to this and blame not me who am past all doubt of an Interruption of Succession in a great part of the Churches especially of the Romish and uncertain of a Non-interruption in any Church on Earth and despair of ever being certain to be as loath to yield that Christ hath no Church Ministry or Ministerial Ordinances or at least none in so large a part of the professed Church or that we are uncertain whether he hath any at all as you are loath to yield to the immediate Authorizing Efficacy of the Law or to the Sufficiency of the Magistrates or Peoples Mediation in case of necessity or to an Occasion of encouraging Usurpers of the Ministry Tertullian de Baptismo Cap. 17. Superest ad concludendam materiolam de observatione quoque dandi accipiendi Baptismum commonefacere Dandi quidem jus habet summus Sacerdos qui est Episcopus Dehiâc Presbyteri Diaconi non tamen sine Episcopi authoritate propter ecclesiae honorem quo salvo salva pax est Aliquin etiam laicis jus est Quod enim ex aequo accipitur ex aequo dari potest nisi Episcopi jam aut Presbyteri aut Diaconi vocanter dicentes Domini sermo non debet abscondi ab ullo Proinde baptismus aequè Dei census ab omnibus exerceri potest sed quanto majis Laicis disciplina verecundiâ modestiâ incumbit qum ea majoribus competat ne sibi adsumant dicatum Episcopi officium Episcopatus Aemulatio schismatum matur Omnia liscere dixit sanctissimus Apostolus sed non omnia expedâe Sufficiat scilicet in necessitatibus ut utaris sicubi aut loci aut temporis aut personae conditio compellit Tunc enim constantia succurrentis excipitur quam urget circumstantia periclitantis Quoniam reus erit perditi hominis si super sederit praestare quod libere potuit Petulantia autem mulierum quae usurpavit docere utique non etiam tingendi jus sibi pariet c. Had there been here no mention of the Episcopal Office or of teaching the Arguments would hold for it a fortiore Christ hath put Baptizing in the Apostolical commission appropriating that to them as much as the rest Yet whether all this of Tertullian be approvable I now dispute not But here you see the way of Antiquity vide Pamelii annotat in loc ubi similia citantur ãâã Ambrosi Clem. Constitut. Hieronymo Hylario Isidoro And it is not only the Papists that are still for Womens baptizing in case of necessity Pamelius would force ãâã to their Sense contrary to the whole Scope of his Words but many other and that very long ago and Lay-men were wont to preach in the Church then how much more as Aedesius and Frumentius among Infidels Concil Carthag 4. alias 5. Can. 98. Laicus praesentibus clericis nisi ipsis rogantibus Docere non audiat Origen did usually expound the Scriptures publickly before he was ordained and was encouraged in it by the Bishops themselves of which Baronius himself speaks in these Words ad annum Christi 230. pag. 377. Licet nondum Presbyterii gradu potius ab Episcopis qui ibi erant non ad disputandum solum sed ad Scriptur as etiam apperiendas magnopere in commani Ecclesiae confessu rogatus est Quod quidem poterit esse perspicuum ex iis quae Alexander Hierosolymorum Episcopus Theoctistus Episcopus Caesarre ad demetrium in Origenis defensione sic fere respondebant Quod autem in litiris adjunxeris nunquam antea auditum neque jam usurpatum ut Laici praesentibus Episcopis disputarent Scripturasque exponerent in eo mihi nescio quomodo videris perspicue falla dixisse Nam ubi idonei habiles reperiuntur qui Fratribus in verbo Dei adjumento sint a sanctis Episcopis rogantur ut Populum in verbo instituant sicut Larandis Evelpis a Neone Ieonii Paulinus a Celso apud Synados Theodorus ab Attico qui omnes beati pii Fratres erant At verisâmile est quamvis nobis obscurum miniââ cognitum sit illud item in aliis locis fieri bae illi And if Lay-Men might expound Scriptures and teach publickly and ordinarily in the Presence of the Bishop and baptize in case of necessity as Tertul. how much more may they in a case of necessity undertake the Ministerial Office without Legitimate Ecclesiastical Ordination and if all these Acts of Lay-Men be not null then the Ordination of a Man not lawfully ordained himself must be valid in case of a greater necessity This is the confident Opinion of the generality of Protestants The Lutherans Helvetians and many others say a regular Call is by Magistrates Ministers and People yet that it 's valid if one part fail Lege Forb's Defence of Call l. 28. pag. 60. voet desperat caus pag. 266 267. Iohan. Dartis dè Hierârch Eccles. p. 10. To conclude as it seems Matthias and the other Apostles were ordained without Imposition of Hands so Gregory Thaumaturgus was ordained by Phaedimus both against his Will and when he was distant three Days Journey as Gregory Nysen saith in his Orat. de Vita Thaumat when Gregory avoided the Hands of the Bishop he by Prayer and solemn Words sets him a part to the Priesthood loco Manus Impositionis Gregorio adhibet Sermonem Deo Conferens eum qui Corpore coram non adesset illam ei Civitatem destinans atque attribuens quam contigerat c. This Nyssen speaks of as true Ordination and the Form shews that it was a constituting him in that Office Bishop of Neocaesarea though Baronius finding this
Pinch upon his Cause would fain persuade us that this could yet be no Ordination till afterwards when he came in and submitted to the Solemnities Baron in An. 233. p. 407 408. we will not contend about the Word Ordination but it was an authoritative Consecration to God as a Bishop and a Constituting him over that Church by Prayer and solemn Words of Consecration And it seems Apollos and many others preached in the Apostles Days without Ordination But our Divines having dealt so much with the Papists on this Subject I suppose you may see more in their Writings than you can expect from Your Brother and Fellow Servant Rich. Baxter Sept. 9. 1653 Mr. Iohnson's Second Letter to Mr. Baxter SIR I Have here enclosed sent you back the Papers which I borrowed of you and I have been so scrupelous in sending them back exactly the same as they were first sent to you that I have not so much as mended some Errata which I observed in the Copying them over to have slipt my Pen when I wrote them first I have since I received my own Papers perused the Answer which you make to them but what I am like to return I cannot guess For I cannot yet tell whether you have satisfied my Arguments or not This I know and shall not be ashamed to confess that if you have I have not yet Wit enough to understand you But before I will say you have not I will a little more consider your Answer and try my own Reason a little farther Only this I will venture to say in the mean time that if I can any whit judge of my own Heart I never enquired more unbiassedly after any Truth than I do after this present Question and therefore I do not doubt but if Light be before me I shall at length see it though for the present it be hid from me For as I said if I know my own Heart I can sincerely say that in this Question I could be well content to find the Truth though it ran cross against every Line in my own Papers But I must needs confess if I have Truth on my side in this Question and after the most diligent Examination which I can make it shall still appear that to plead for an uninterrupted Succession be of absolute necessity for the justifying of our Ministry I shall never dispute the other Matters with the like indifferency For in this combat I could be content to take a foyl and it is in a manner all one to me whither of us get the better But in the other matters which I am after to proceed upon I have many temptations before me to be afraid of owning Truth if I should meet with her out of my own Quarters And therefore beside the Pains which it will cost me to discharge the Task the very Fear which I shall be in least I should miscarry in the Managing makes me more than willing to take a Supersedeas here But if this cannot be done you shall have the rest which I promised performed in the same order as your self have stipulated viz. before I make any Reply to yours I shall endeavour to discharge the three other Particulars which remain behind and all in due time from SIR Your Fellow-labourer and Enquirer after Truth M. Iohnson Wamborn Octob. 6. 1653. For my Reverend c. very worthy Friend Mr. Baxter Minister of the Word at Kidderminister These Mr. Johnson's Third Letter to Mr. Baxter SIR IN my late Letter which I sent you I told you That I could not resolve my self whether you had answered my Arguments or not but intended to try my own Reason a little farther before I would say positively that you had not And now upon further Consideration I return you this to your whole Discourse 1. Whereas you say to my first Argument that it was necessary for our English Bishops to prove an interrupted Succession against the Papists because they might thereby argue ad hominem more strongly against them I answer That such learned Men as I have had the luck to meet withal do not intend their Arguments or their Pains to any such end and I prove that sufficiently thus Because they that do use such kind of Replies do usually frame their Answers thus 1. That there is no necessity of such a Succession But Secondly If there was a necessity yet the nullity of our Calling would not follow because we can prove such a Succession But say I the learned Authors which I have hitherto met withal have no such Concessions And because you seem often to hint some such thing I desire you would point me out to some English Bishop who having written about this Subject do concede that a Succession in Office or a Succession of legitimate Ordination is not necessary And I do the more confidently require this from you because I have it from one who is much better acquainted with Authors than my self that the Socinian Faction were the first that ever owned that Assertion And if he be able to make good what he saith you gain as little Credit by abetting such a Faction as they are in your Assertions as we get by abetting the Papists while we plead for the quite contrary But Secondly Whereas you deny the Consequence and tell me that all which they thought necessiary is not necessary they being not infallible I answer that you lay more stress upon my first Argument than I intended For I never intended to argue thus That therefore it was infallably necessary because they thought it necessary but that it was a good inducing Motive to persuade that it was a matter of more consequence than your Papers made of it since learned Men took so much Pains about it And though this indeed will not extend to a Demonstration yet it may serve as far as I intended it viz. as far as an Argument will reach drawn only from that inartificial Topick a Testimonio which you know in all contests is familiarly used and not to be rejected if the Testees be Men of Worth and Learning And if so then this Argument will stand good so far as it will serve or was intended notwithstanding any thing that hath been said to the Contrary To the Second Argument Whereas you doubt not to say That if you answer me well in this you carry the whole Cause afore you I shall so far gratify you as to acknowledge that you have sufficiently answered it though I must also profess that I cannot find wherein you have given a formal answer to it For the Apex or the Quick of the Argument as you are pleased to phrase it was laid down in this Proposition That there is no where in Scripture such a Form of Words as these That they that are thus and thus qualified may Preach the Word Now to this you answer That there is quod sensum And I reply That this will serve my turn if you do but make it
out But I say that I cannot find it in your Papers You urge six Particulars presently from whence I suppose you intend to do it But at length your self fall beside the Question in the winding them up For whereas you say that the Form in the Law was not only thus That they that Preach the Word must be thus and thus qualified but That they that are thus and thus qualified may be appointed to Preach the Word I think you are beside the Question For I did not engage you to prove that there were in Scripture such a Form of Words as this But they that are thus and thus Qualified shall be appointed to Preach but That Men thus and thus qualified may Preach the Word or have in being so qualified Authority to preach the Word betwixt which two Propositions I conceive there is much Difference It is one thing to say That they that are thus and thus qualified may be appointed that is may have Authority given them to preach the Word And it is a far different thing to say That they that are thus and thus qualified may preach or have de facto Authority to Preach being so qualified And being used as Mediums in a Syllogism will produce very different Conclusions For Example Suppose we could find such a Form of Words in Scripture as these That they that are thus and thus qualified may preach the Word And make this the Major in the Syllogism Then any single Person or Individuum as could infallibly frame himself into the Assumption thus But I am thus and thus qualified might infallably also make out his Commission to preach into this Conclusion Ergo I have Authority to preach the Word And without any thing to do with further Ordination might presently go about the Work The Word giving him his Commission and I confess were there such a Form would be a sufficient Medium to convey Authority as a sufficient Discoverer of the Will of God concerning such an Individuum But then if there be only such a Form as this They that are thus and thus qualified shall be appointed to Preach the Word Then any single Person or Individuum having first fitted himself into the Minor thus But I am thus and thus qualified could make no other Conclusion but this Ergo I may be appointed to Preach the Word which Conclusion as I never did deny so it is little Advantage for you to have proved For the Question is not whether the Word doth direct who shall be appointed to Preach But whether the Word doth immediately by an immediate Application of something immediately by an immediate Application of something in its self to an Individuum conveigh Authority into that Individuum to Preach so as there shall be no need of further appointing or commissioning from Church-Officers which it would have done if there had been such a Sense in the Word ãâã required But no such matter though there should be such a Sense as you produce For I cannot yield that which you conceive we are both agreed in viz. That when the Word hath described the Qualifications of the Minister that then there is no more to do but to discern or judge who is the the Man that hath those Qualifications for though the Bishop should judge such or such an Individuum to be fitly qualified for the Ministry as discerning the Qualifications which the Word requires in him yet till he hath by Imposition of Hands Fasting and Prayer set him a part for the Work he is yet no Minister to my understanding whatever he may be to yours But Sir I confess though you have not formalitur answered this Argument yet you have given me so much Light from your most excellent Discourse which you make from your quinto to the End of this Second Arguments Reply that I can answer it my self And therefore I shall as I said at the beginning acknowledge that you have both satisfied it and my own scrupulous Mind about this Question And I do fully consent with you that though the Succession of Ordination might be interrupted yet we may draw our Authority from Christ by the Mediation of the written Word or indeed by the very Law of Nature which was a thing I confess I had not as your self seems to tax me duely considered But now having well weighted what Stress both Laws lay upon all Men to do what good they can when they have an Opportunity and there be a necessity of their Help I do not doubt but a Man may have a sufficient Discovery of the Will of Christ calling him out to Duty and by Consequence giving him sufficient Authority for that Work though he may want the regular entrance into it And therefore since I see a way to justify the Ministry and to derive our Authority from Christ though the Succession should be interrupted though also in the mean I think all Men alive may be defied to make full Proof either that the Succession ever was or ever shall be interrupted I shall neither trouble you nor my self any farther about a business to so little purpose But superceding from all the rest of my promised Task shall only add something concerning your Reply to my third Argument and that is this To my Question that I make in the Behalf of the Invaders of our Office why we Clamour so much against them why we give them not the Right Hand of Fellowship you answer We do not we may not give them the Right Hand of Fellowship because they come not into the Vineyard by the Door But I Reply from your own Principles that it is for them morally impossible to come in by the Door the Door to them being by Providence nailed up The Men which you call Church Officers being either such as will not give them a Commission or such as they dare not take a Commission from as conceiving them not lawful Ministers and because they cannot have their Orders from them salvâ conscientiâ it becomes impossible to them quia omne turpe inhonestum est impossibile And so though you say nothing is more untrue yet to me nothing seems more evident than that the case of extream Necessity is their case The Anabaptist for Example he cannot be ordained by a Bishop he dare not because he judges the very Order to be Antichristian The Presbytery if he have any better Opinion of them yet they think so ill of him that they will not give him Orders Either therefore though he be never so well qualified for the Work he must take his Call from the Company of Brethren or he must take it upon his own discerning the Qualifications in himself or he must not Preach at all though he sees the Church of Christ have never so much need of his Help Now if you say that in such a Case a Man may not bury his Talent when the Church hath need of his Help and he an Opportunity to give it but he may
later is but for the former and subservient to it and a more dispensable thing and that when the Ordainers fail of their Duty which is his own Precept included herein the Person to be ordained remaineth nevertheless obliged by the other part So that while Ordination may be had this ties such to submit to it and makes it necessary as God's Order and then the whole Precept comprehensive obligeth But when it cannot be had or the Ordainer will not obey his part of the Precept the other stands in force nevertheless to the other Party The Words Men thus qualified shall be ordained hath these two Precepts in it The First in Order and Weight is Men thus qualified shall preach the Word The Second subservient is They shall ordinis gratia be ordained hereto He that is wilfully the first Divider of these Conjunct Precepts sinneth Either the Man that will Preach without submitting to Ordination when it may be had or the Ordainers that will not Ordain the Orthodox or otherwise well qualified But seeing the Word shall in the foresaid Precept doth create a double Necessity but far unequal there shall be Preaching and Ergo there shall be Ordaining it followeth from the inequality that when one ceaseth the other doth not ergo cease and so when Ordination cannot be had the Proposition which you expected remaineth alone which before was conjunct with another Men thus qualified shall Preach This was the Summ of my Answer which I do repeat verbosé nimium because you overlooked it the last time But you add I cannot yield that which you conceive we are both agreed in viz. That when the Word hath described the Qualifications of the Minister that there is no more to do but to discern and judge who is the Man that hath these Qualifications For though the Bishop should judge such a Man fit for the Ministry as discerning the Qualifications which the Word requires in him yet till he hath by Imposition of Hands Fasting and Prayer set him apart for that Work he is yet no Minister to my Understanding whatever he may be to yours To this I reply 1. I take the Form of Ordination to lye in the Authoritative Appointment and God having described the Person by his Qualifications I take the formal nature of this Appointment to lye only in the determining Judgment who shall be the Man For whether there shall be a Man appointed or not God hath not left to Man's Judgment nor yet what manner of Man for Qualifications he shall be If Ergo the lawful Ordainers say We do by the Authority given us of God judge i. e. sentence or determine that consideratis considerandis this is the Man that is qualified and so called of God to be the Pastor of this Church and Ergo require you in the Name of Christ to accept him and submit to him this Man is ordained my Judgment yea though this Determination be but in Writing So if it be directed to the Minister himself which goes first we do by the Authority given us of God Judge thee called to the Office of the Ministry and Ergo require thee to undertake it By called I mean ex parte Dei by Qualification Consent Opportunity c. which go before Ordaining Now what do you yet want ad esse Ministri ââou mention but two things 1. Imposition of Hands 2. Fasting and Prayer For setting a part is done by the former Authoritative Determination But 1. Imposition you anon deny to be so necessary in disclaiming your last Argument which you seem here to forget 2. Fasting and Prayer is no doubt a mean Accident or Duty fitly conjoined but not of the Essence of Ordination I think few Men living will say that if the Lawful Ordainer do all the rest of the Work besides Prayer that it is no Ordination Prayer is one thing requisite ad bene esse and Ordination another And for Fasting I could not learn that those Bishops that I knew did always observe it but when the Ordination was before dinner time as it usually was and the Bishop went presently from Ordination to his Feast that was not the Fasting I think which you mean But how are you satisfied that we may derive our Authority immediately from the Law if there were no Succession and yet think him no Minister that hath the determinating Sentence of the Ordainer's Appointing him to the Work for want of Imposition of Hands Prayer and Fasting Ad 3 um I marvel that on so very slight Grounds you think that nothing is more evident than that the case of extream Necessity is their case who invade the Ministry among us now I told you that Nemini debitur Commodum ex propriâ culpa as the Civil Law saith I distinguished between moral Impossibility vicious and culpable and inculpable and between necessitating to Sin and necessitating to or constituting of Duty and I told you that the impossibility that lay on them of right entering was vicious or through their own Sin and God doth not cause Men to Sin I told you also that this erring Conscience might necessitate them to sin that is ensuare them that hey shall sin whether they do or not do but it can never warrant them in obeying it This was the Sense of my Speech though not the Words To explain which I desire you to observe that bonum est ex causis integris at least quoad Species if not quoad Gradus So that God requireth to a virtuous Action which shall be properly and plenarily Moral i. e. voluntary 1. That it be made due by his own Precept or Law 2. That it be apprehended such by the Intellect and so by the will elected and elicite as such So that where Conscience takes that to be Duty which is none it hath but Officium apparâus non verum it catcheth a Shadow apprehending a Duty which is no Duty so there may be interpretative a kind of formal Reason of Obedience in the Will the Guided Faculty in that it did will that which was presented to it as due but there wants the Matter and the Form of Obedience quoad hominem who is intelligent also yea here you must distinguish between Ignorance culpable and superable and inculpable For when the Ignorance is culpable it cannot be said that the guilty Will doth properly obedire because it was a cause of its own mis-leading by the intellect And in our Case that Ignorance is always culpable I do wonder Ergo that you should say and lay all on that Mistake that an erroneous Conscience binds as strongly as a found for the Obligation of Conscience is subordinate to God's Preceptive Obligation God makes Duty and Conscience doth but apprehend Duty So that an erring Conscience cannot make Duty entirely and materially We must not make a God of an erring Conscience much less can it make that no Sin which God hath made Sin yea make that Duty which God made Sin God's Precepts
Conformists and Nonconformists The Episcopal Conformists are of Two Sorts some lately sprung up that follow Archbishop Laud and Dr. Hammond hold that there are no Political Churches lower than Diocesan because there are no Bishops under them and so that the Parish-Churches are no Churches properly but part of Churches nor the Incumbants true Bishops but Curates under Bishops nor the Foreigners true Ministers or Churches that have no Diocesan Bishops This Party called themselves the Church of England 1658 1659. When we knew but of Four or Five Bishops left alive who Dr. Hammond said with that Party of the Clergy were of his Mind And these seemed uppermost in 1660 and 1661. and were the men whom I disputed with in my Treatise of Episcopacy The other Episcopal Conformists are they that follow the Reformers and hold the Doctrine of the Scripture as only sufficient to Salvation and as explicatory of it the Thirty Nine Articles the Homilies Liturgy Book of Ordination Apology c. These take the Parish-Pastors for true Rectors and the Parish-Churches for true Churches but subordinate to the Diocesans and to be ruled by them But the Laws have imposed on them some Declarations and Subscriptions which they think they may put a good Sense on though by stretching the Words from their usual Signification The Bishops and Deans are chosen by the King indeed and by the Prebends in shew The Incumbant are chosen by Patrons ordained by Diocesans with Presbyters and accepted by Consent of the Communicants of the Parish The Episcopal Government is managed partly by the Bishops and partly by Lay-Civilians and Surrogates The Episcopal Nonconformists are for true Parish-Churches and Ministers reformed without swearing promising declaring or subscribing to any but sure clear necessary things desiring that the Scripture may be their Canons disowning all persecuting Canons taking the capable in each Parish for the Communicant and Church and the rest for Hearers and Catechized Persons desiring that the Magistrate be Judge whom he will maintain approve and tolerate and the Ordainers Judges whom they will ordain and the People be free Consenters to whose Pastoral Care they will trust their Souls desiring that every Presbyter be an Overseer of the Flock and every Church that hath many Elders have one Incumbent President for Unity and Order and that Godly Diocesans may without the Sword or Force have the Oversight of many Ministers and Churches and all these be confederate and under the Government of a Christian King but under no Foreign Jurisdiction though in as much Concord as is possible with all the Christian World And they would have the Keys of Excommunication and Absolution taken out of the Hands of Lay-Men Chancellors or Lay Brethren and the Diocesans to judge in the Synods of the Presbyters in Cases above Parochial Power That this was the Judgment of the Nonconformists that treated for Peace in 1660. and 1661. is to be seen in their printed Proposals in which they desired Archbishop Usher's Model of the Primitive Episcopacy joined with the Synods of Presbyters II. The Presbyterians are for Parish-Churches as aforesaid guided by Elders some teaching and some only ruling and these under Synods of the like Class without Diocesan or Parochial Superiors and all under a National Assembly of the same as the Supreme Church Power III. The Independants are for every Congregation to have all Church Power in it self without any superior Church-Government over them whether Bishops or Synods yet owning Synods for voluntary Concord Of these some are against local Communion with the aforesaid Churches and for avoiding them by Separation some as if they were no Churches and had no true Ministers some for Forms of Prayer some for faulty Communicants some for Episcopal Ordination and some for subscibing and some for all these and many other pretended Reasons But some Independants are for occasional Communion with the other Churches and some also for stated Communion in the Parish-Churches for which you may read Mr. Tomes's the chief of the Anabaptists in a full Treatise and Dr. Thomas Goodwin on the first of the Ephesians earnest against Separation as the old Nonconformists were Now which of all these should you join with I affirm that all these except the Separatists are parts of the Church of England as it is truly essentiated by a Christian Magistracy and confederate Christian particular Churches All are not equally sound and pure but all are parts of the Church of England Liturgies and Ceremonies and Canons and Chancellors are not essential to it as a Church or Christian Kingdom But it is now a Medly less concordant than is desirable but you are not put upon any such Disputes whether you will call the present Church of England Roman as denominated from the King that is the Head or whether you will say that King and Parliament conjunct are that Head and so it is yet Protestant because the Laws are so or whether you will denominate it materially Protestant because the Clergy and Flocks are so your Doubt is only what Congregation to join with I answer That which all your Circumstances set together make it most convenient to the publick good and your own Though I hold not Ministerial Conformity lawful I take Lay-Communion in any of these except the Separatists to be lawful to some Persons whose case maketh it fittest But I judge it unlawful for you to confine your Communion to any one of them so as to refuse occasional Communion with all save them 1. The Parish-Churches have the Advantage of Authority Order and Confederacy and the Protestant Interest is chiefly cast upon them therefore I will not separate from Lay-Communion with them though they need much Reformation 2. You must not go against your Father's Will no nor divide the Family without necessity The same I say of your Husband when you are married 3. The Nonconforming Episcopal and Presbyterians have not such Churches as they desire but only temporarily keep Meetings like to Chappels as Assistants to others till Parishes are reformed 4. I think it a stated sinful Schism to fix as a Member of such a Church and Pastor as is of the Principles of the Writing which you shewed me I. Because they grievously slander the Parish-Churches and Ministers as none and their Worship and Government as far worse than it is II. Because they Renounce local Communion with almost all the Body or Church of Christ on Earth by renouncing it on a Reason common to almost all III. Because they separate from such Churches as Christ and his Apostles joined with and so seem to condemn Christ and his Apostles as Sinners Christ ordinarily joined with the Iews Church in Synagogues and Temple-Offices when the High-Priest bought the Place of Heathens and the Priests Pharisees and Rulers were wicked Persecutors and the Sadduces Hereticks or worse he sent Iudas as an Apostle when he knew him to be a Theif or a Devil The Apostles neither separated nor allowed Separation from
and Men cannot be Pastors against their wills and the will of their Diocesans That I contradict my Treatise of Episcopacy in denying this With more like this To which I say I. If the Parish Congregation were but part of a Church you might joyn with it as a part as well as with part of an Independent Church And they that can hear a Lay-man with the Separatists might hear the Ministers thereâ II. Whether I contradict my self or not is nothing to your Cause and Conscience I undertook not when I wrote that none should wilfully or ignorantly misunderstand me The formal Notion of a National Church is nothing but a Christian Kingdom The Matter is Christian Rulers and Subjects and as ordered Confederate particular Churches England hath been such for many Ages Here from the Reformation they owned the Sovereign Power as the Head of the Political National Church as Christ is of the Universal under him They owned Parish-Churches under Diocesans and true Ministers therein Their Books shew their Judgment their Articles Apology Homelies Liturgy Ordination Canons c. These Books are still owned by the Church But at last a new sort of Bishops rose up that would have made the Parish Churches to be no proper Churches but like Chappels under the Diocesan These called themselves the Church of England when there were but about four or five Bishops left alive who Dr. Hammond said were of his mind Some such domineered afterward and would have set up that way but never prevailed either to retract the Churches Books and Laws nor to get the major part of the Clergy to own them Now all the vain question here is Which of these two Parties shall be called The Church of England Neither of them alone They are two disagreeing parts of it I argued against the last professing not to do it against the first which your Counseller would take no notice of And what 's all this to you If you will not be of the National or Diocesan Church you may be of a Parish Church III. I proved that if all the Bishops and Parliament had said The Parish Ministers are no true Pastors this would not have made them none though they might be guilty of deposing them as far as they could no more than it would make the Nonconforming Ministers and Churches to be none Because we all take the Office as instituted by Christ and Men to be but investing Servants to him having no power to alter it And as in the Marriage the Husband shall have power over the Wife though he that marry them say Nay so shall an ordained Elder be a true Pastor though the Ordainer say Nay IV. I proved that the old Church Books and Doctrine are in force still by Law and the Kingdom and Church are sworn or bound not to endeavour any alteration in the Government of the Church Therefore not to put down the Parish Ministry and Churches Therefore this is the Sence of the Church of England though not of the new Faction that usurped that Name V. Though a Man cannot be a Pastor against his will yet he may be one without his knowledge if by Errour he think he is none For he may consent to all the Office while he thinks it is not all and denieth the Name If a Man think that a Deacon may do all essential to a Pastor and so that he is but a Deacon he is nevertheless a Pastor if he consented to the Work Many thousands are Christians that think they are not and do truly consent to Christianity while they think they do not And why may it not be so also to the Ministry VI. But our Case needeth none of these Reasons For where there is all that is essential to true Pastors and Churches there are true Pastors and Churches But by God's great mercy in many thousand Parishes in England there is all that is essential to true Pastors and Churches Therefore they are such When you will call me to dispute it with any Denier I will fully prove to you That there is great need of Reformation 1. That the Church of England as it is a Christian Kingdom containing Confederate Churches under a Christian King and Laws is that very Form that Christ offered to settle in Iudea and did settle by Constantine 2. That if the Diocesans be good Men and lawfully chosen as they are meer Successours of Timothy and Titus and others that had the oversight of many Churches and Pastors by the Word they are righter than the Opposers 3. That the Incumbents of the Parish-Churches have a valid Ordination by such Bishops and Presbyters righter than the Dividers 4. That many thousands of such Pastors are Men of competent Abilities and many of greater Ministerial Abilities than most of us Nonconformists yea that no known Nation under Heaven hath in so small a compass so many able Ministers as England And that to deny it and separate is great ingratitude towards God 5. That Parish Bounds are a laudable Distribution of Churches the capable Members being Communicants and the rest Catechumens 6. That the ordinary Communicants in multitudes of Parishes are Membrs that have all that is essential to Church-Membership 7. That the Pastors have power from God for all their Work and Mens denial even the Ordainers nullifieth not that Power when they are in general ordained Presbyters 8. That by the Law of the Land they have all Power essential to Pastors They may keep from Communion all that are not Confirmed and there have owned their Baptismal Covenant or are ready and desirous so to do and therefore may try their readiness This is required by the Liturgy And they may deny the Sacrament to all that live in scandalous Sin And they must prosecute such to the Bishops Courts The Law calleth them Rectors Rulers and they own themselves for such And even the Canons that are their worst restraints do own the same and so do the rest of the Church-Books and Laws that they all subscribe to and promise not to alter Ask them whether they take not themselves for true Pastors if you would know whether they consent to be such 9. Though some late Innovators that called themselves The Church of England would as far as they could have nullified in some part the Parish Ministry and Churches and the Canons themselves do sinfully limit the Exercise of their Power the Cause of our Calamities yet this nullifieth not the Office and Churches the Essential Power being setled both by God's Laws and the Churches and the restraint of Exercise nulleth not the Power 10. That to Exclude any from Communion that are Baptized and at Age have owned their Christianity and are not proved by sufficient witnesses to have nullified that Profession by Apostasie Heresie or a wicked or scandalous Life is Church Tyranny and Injustice of which all are guilty that do it or desire it 11. That if this Discipline be neglected by the Ministers sinful Sloth or by the
Publick Worship which yet Mahometans offer him some it is Schism not to obey But if the Bishop do but say the word we may meet daily without Schism and the Place Person Exercise that before was Schismatical if he do but licence them are presently lawful So that the Bishop's word against the King's yea against God's command to preach in season and out can make a thing Schism and his word can make it none again in a moment 17. Whether it be Schism to go to a better Minister in another Parish in the same Diocess though we separate from no Church in their sense the Diocesan being the lowest proper Church is not well agreed on Feigning Schisms is making Schism by turbulent noise and ãâã Accusations We that impose on no Man and that obey them in lawful things that we for Universal Love and Peace even with that meet in different Assemblies and in different Forms we that hold Communion with all true Churches as aforesaid and yet because we can be but in one place at once do choose the best obeying God's Command Let all things be done to edification and knowing best what edifieth our selves we suppose are farther from Schism than those that as from the Throne of Authority pronounce Schism and never help us to understand the sense and reason of their words but use it as for the advantage of their Cause And as one lately writeth Have led that Bear so long about the streets till the Boy lay by fear and do but laugh at it Nor are there many more effectual Causes of Schism and that harden true Schismaticks against all Conviction then when it is seen that Men of Contention Pride and Worldly Interest first make the Schism by sinful or impossible terms of Unity and next falsly call the most Innocent that obey not their Domination Schismaticks and the greatest Duties even Preaching where many and many thousands have no Preaching nor no Publick Worship of God by the Name of Schism as if we must let London turn Heathens for fear of being Schismaticks Dear Friend though these things have these Forty years had my deep and I hope impartial thoughts and I dare not for a thousand Worlds think to do otherwise than I do in the main yet I shall heartily thank you if by true light you help me to see any Errour which I yet perceive not And seeing Experience hath justly taught you to dread Anabaptistry and Separation think further 1. Whether they that forbid Parents to enter their Children into Covenant with God in Baptism and lay all that Office on those that have no power to covenant in their names nor shew any purpose to perform what they promise and deny Baptism as aforesaid to the Children of such as submit not to this and the Cross be not quantum in se Destroyers of Infant Baptism which is no Baptism if there be no Covenant 2. Again Whether they be not Separatists that both un-Church all the Parish-Churches quantum in se and also deny Communion with the Nonconformists Churches as null or unlawful even when they had his Majesties Licence Be impartial against Antipedobaptists and Separatists I constantly heard and communicated with the Parish-Church where I lived but the Conformists usually fly from the Nonconformists Assemblies as unlawful but if both sides were heard in their Charge against the other I know which would have the more to say Accept this freedom from the unfeigned Love of Your much obliged Friend Rich. Baxter May 13. 1626. The Instances promised you I. WHen I was cast out at Kidderminster and you know what a Minister was there I offered while the Indulgence of the King's Declaration continuâd to have been the Reading Vicar's Curate and to have preached for nothing and could not prevail I was by the Bishop forbidden to preach in his Diocess and when I offered him to preach only Catechistical Principles to some poor Congregation that else must have none he told me It was better they had none than me My presence at Kidderminster was thought so dangerous that Force was assigned to have apâââhend me and had I stayed it must have been in the Jail and many another for my sake When I was forced away at Venner's Rising I wrote but a Letter to my Mother in-âaw and it was way-laid intercepted opened and sent up to the Court though there was nothing concerning them in it but some sharp Invectives against the Rebellion which my Lord Chancellour acknowledging caused my Lord Windsor personally to bring me back my Letter so that I durst not write to them of many years My Neighbours I had perswaded to do as you advise to joyn in the Publick Church and help each other as private Men and for so doing repeating Sermons and praying and singing a Psalm many of them lay long among Rogues in the Common Jail and others of them impoverished by Fines II. When I came to live at Acton I drew all the People constantly to Church that were averse sometime I repeated the Parsons Sermon and sometimes taught such as came to my House between the Sermons When the Reverend Parson saw them come into Church he would fall upon them c. And not being able to bear my little Endeavours for their Instruction he caused me to be sent to the Common Jail not one Witness or Person being suffered to come into the Room while I was examined and committed III. I am now in a Parish where some Neighbours say that there are Fourscore thousand Souls suppose they be fewer Not above Two thousand of all these can hear in the Parish Church so that it 's like above Sixty thousand have no Church to go to no not so much as to hear the Scripture or the Common-Prayer Here I need not tell you what Prohibitions I have had and what my Endeavours to teach a few Publickly have lost me and others And lately because one that preached for me did without my knowledge at the importunity of a Parent Baptize a poor man's Child when they told him it was in danger of death the Curate of the Parish came to my House to expostulate the matter when yet many are baptized by Papist Priests for want of others to do it as they say I never my self Baptized a Child or administred the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper these fifteen years but ordinarily received it in the Parish Church at Totterridge and elsewhere one of the first times that I received it in private a Bullet was shot into the Room among us and came near to the Heads of divers of us I never gathered any Church from among them and yet have been usually the first sought after to be imprisoned or ruined in each assault and was put to sell my Goods and Books to save them from Distress Near me in the same Parish liveth Mr. Gabriel Sanger the late Incumbent Pastor of the Parish a Man of Age and Gravity great Moderation and Peaceableness and far from
Reasons of it 2. And what we desired as better Mr. Calamy and others said This was plainly to deny the Conference which we were commissioned for and they would there have broke off had it not been for me who requested them rather to yield and undertake it than give them occasion to charge us with Tergiversation and Refusal of any lawful thing though I easily saw that the Motioner thought thereby to break us as disagreeing when we came to perform the Undertaking While others drew up their Exceptions against the Liturgy they appointed me to draw up the Additional Forms But remembring the Bishops Words What we desired instead I drew up a Liturgy It must needs be very imperfect being done in necessary haste in Eight Days Dr. Reignolds only thought that we should be blamed for offering a whole Liturgy instead of Additional Forms I told him 1. It was but to be added to the old if reformed 2. And they might cut off all that they thought superfluous upon debates even all that the Bishops should except justly against for we did but offer it to them professing we were ready to alter any thing upon their Reasons Hereupon Dr. Reignolds yielded and it was oft read over among us only the Prayer for the King being thought too long Dr. Wallis was appointed to draw up a shorter which he did all the rest standing as I wrote it It was agreed to without one dissenting Vote nor had we one Objection sent us in by any other I was appointed at a meeting with the Bishops at the Savoy at once to deliver them them this Liturgy A Reply to their Answer to our Exceptions and A Petition for Peace and Concord all which they had appointed me to draw up and had examined and consented to We waited for an Answer to all and never had an Answer to any one of them but they kept them and said nothing of them I was especially desirous to have heard their Exceptions against our Liturgy when they thought we would have disagreed among our selves and urged some of them to it and could never get a Word of Answer or Exception which made me wonder as well knowing 1. How very willing some were to have found it faulty 2. And how hard it is in necessitated haste to write such a thing that shall not be liable to many Exceptions Yea when Roger L'Strange after wrote against us he saith little at all against the Liturgy save that we left Men at too much Liberty to which we then said That imposing and restraining was not our work but the Bishops who we supposed upon Debate would have too much done it Now if this full Concord and no Answer or Exceptions from them that extorted this Work from us be agreeable to the Report you make or if you have dealt here like a Minister of Truth I pray you help me to discern it The Book with the rest was printed long ago most of them by some poor Scriviners that being used in transcribing had got a Copy and did it for Gain II. Another Passage is P. 293. No sinful Act being required to make ministerial Conformity unlawful which if there had been they or some others would and ought to have discovered it and then I doubt not it would by Authority have been taken away but that being not done Here I desire you to satisfy me in a few things 1. When even our Publick Reply and foresaid Petition against the old Conformity were never answered to this Day is it ingenuous to take this for a Consutation barely thus to say it is not done should I say it was never yet discovered that Episcopacy is lawful would you not have called me as long as Saravia Bilson Hooker c. are unanswered 2. Do you not know what abundance of old have thought they discovered the sinfulness of Conformity Bradshaw Nicolas Ames Parker Iacob Cartwright c. and what Aloundel Salmasius Gersom Bucer Didoclave c. have written against Prelacy and some of late against our Conformity Cawdry Hickman and others yet unanswered And is this your dry Denyal a rational Confutation 3. Would not your Words make the ignorant believe that we have the Liberty of the Press and may do it if we will and do not the Act of Parliament and the severe Searches of the Press and the Printers Refusal shew how false such an Intimation is It may be some small Pamphlet may with much a do creep out but so cannot any thing that is full and satisfactory Our Cause is a meer Stranger to our Accusers it seems even to such as you because we cannot have leave to print it A few have heretofore when the watch was less strict got somewhat out to little purpose Mr. Hickman's was beyond Sea But nothing that may make us well understood And is it fit work for a Minister to blame Men thus Publickly for not doing Impossibilities 4. It must be supposed that you know these things 1. That the Law forbids us to deprave or speak against the Liturgy upon grievous Penalties 2. That the Canon excommunicateth us ipso facto that is sine Sententia Iudicis if we do but say that there is any thing that a Man may not with a good Conscience conform to 3. And that our present Governors are against it 4. And that for doing it we are sure by Conformists to be called disobedient to Authority and Seditious 5. And that we are so accused by you commonly for Preaching when forbidden which is as much our vowed Duty sure as Writing And do you now tell us that we ought to discover it if there be any sinful Act Commanded Will you warrant us against the Charge of Disobedience or do you drive us on that which if we do you know we are already judged to excommunicated Jailes and Ruine We have long beg'd of Parliament men that we might but once have leave to speak for our selves which we never yet had as to the new Conformity to this Day and yet we might petition for such leave and they tell us these Fifteen Years almost there is no hope it will but ruine you I have offered two of the most eminent Bishops to beg it of them or any on my Knees that we might but once publish the Case and Reasons of our dissent And is it not enough to be Fifteen or Sixteen Years ejected silenced scorned accused as unworthy to be endured and to be silently Patient and never answer for our selves nor have the common Justice of being heard but we must have the additional Abuse to be told that we ought to do it Yea many of the Conformists O with what a Face have published to the World that we take not the things which we refuse for Sins or daâe not say so of them when even the far easyer Conformity 1660. We did by Word and Writing declare to be sinful and in our Petââion for Peace Printed protested that did we not take it to
see the Examples of Tyranny and rash Excommunication let him read Iohn's Epistle to Diotrephes and the pious Admonitions of Irenaeus to Victor The Examples of Schisms we have in others not a few To which Optatus Melev prudently ascribeth three Causes Wrath Ambition and Covetousness But how many score Canons Interdicts and Bloody Wars do prove all this XXVIII And had not these Vices conquered Common Reason with Christianity in such men it were a Wonder that so unprofitable and causeless a thing as forcing all Christians to Unite on the profest Approbation and Practice of all the needless Things which such impose and denying them Communion and Peace on the Terms that Christ prescribed for all his Servants to own and love each other on should be thought a sufficient Justification of all that Dividing Cruelty of which it hath been guilty And that Church-Grandees should make such Schisms as are yet in East and West and then hate and persecute the Sufferers as Schismaticks Saith Grotius on Luke 6. 22. Scitum est Veterum Iudaeorum cujus Maimonidememinit siquis Innocentem à Communione arcuerit ipsum excidere jure Communionis And Dr. Stillingfleet on Archbishop Laud and before him Chillingworth conclude That if a Church deny Communion to her Members on those Terms that give them Right to Communion with the Church Universal that Church is guilty of the Schism Were it not more Christian-like easie and sweet to joyn all in the practice of the Laws of Christ by which we shall be judged with the needful use of edifying Order and Circumstances that all Sizes and Ages of Christians might live in Unity and Love than to cast out all that cannot Unite on Terms so far beyond meer Christianity as most Churches on Earth require When the Volume of Councils and Canons were unknown and plain Familiar Discipline was used in the open Church-Meetings Christians were less divided saith Grotius in Luc. 6. 22. Apud Christianos Veteres praesidente quidem Episcopo Senioribus sed Conscia Consentiente Fratrum multitudine morum judicia exercebantur If Christians be partial hear an impartial Heathen Ammianus Marcellinus who scandalized with the murder of Men kill'd in the Church for the Election of Pope Damasus concludeth how well it would have gone with Christianity if those great Roman Prelates had lived like the poor humble inferiour Bishops See his words But if Paul's full Decision on Romans 14. will not bring us to necessary forbearance no Plainness not Authority will serve Numb IX An Act for Concord by Reforming Parish Churches and Regulating Toleration of DISSENTERS I. THE Qualification requisite to Baptism in the Adult for themselves and in one Parent at least or Pro-Parents for Infants is Their understanding Consent to the Baptismal Covenant in which they are solemnly devoted to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as their God and Father Saviour and Sanctifier Renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil so far as they are adverse And the requisite Qualification of the Adult for proper Church Priviledges and Communion in the Lord's Supper is That they forsake not the said Covenant or Christianity but publickly own it not rendering their Profession invalid by any Doctrine or Practice inconsistent therewith And that they understandingly desire the said Communion II. The Christian Churches have universally taken the Creed the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments as delivered by Christ for the Summary of the Christian Belief Desire and Practice expounding the Matter of the Baptismal Covenant Therefore all Pastors shall Exhort all Housholders to learn themselves and teach their Families the words and meaning of the Baptismal Covenant and of the Creed Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments And shall also thus Catechize such themselves as need their help as far as they or their Assisstants can do it III. No Minister shall Baptize any Person Adult or Infant till the Adult for themselves and the Parent or Pro-Parent who undertaketh the Education of the Child as his own have there professed their Belief of the Christian Faith and their fore-described Consent to the Christian Covenant in which they are to be solemnly devoted to God And such they shall not refuse Nor shall the Pastors admit any to the proper Priviledges of Church Communion and partaking of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ but those who have made Profession that they resovedly stand to their Baptismal Covenant in the foresaid Belief of the Christian Faith and Desire and Obedience to Christ. Which Profession shall be made in the Church or to the Pastor before sufficient Witness or to the Diocesan or some other Pastor who shall give Testimonial of it And if any shall go from the Parish-Church Pastor to be Confirmed by the Bishop or received by any other Minister without the Certificate or Consent of his own Parish Pastor the said Pastor shall not be obliged to admit him to Communion till to him also before Witness he have made the said Profession IV. Because in great Parishes and Cities where Persons live unknown and as Lodgers are transient and too great a Number desire not Communion and many Communicate only with other Churches and it is needful for Order that all Pastors know their Communicating Flock from the rest the Pastor may for his memory keep a Register of the stated Communicants of his Parish and put out the Names of those that deny or remove or are lawfully Excommunicate or that wilfully forbear Communion above fix Months not rendering to the Pastor a Satisfactory Excuse But occasionally he ought not to refuse any Stranger who hath Testimony of his Communion with any other approved Christian Church V. If by the Pastor's knowledge or by just accusation or same any Communicant be strongly suspected of Atheism Infidelity or denying any Essential part of Christian Faith Hope or Practice or to live in any heinous Sin the Pastor shall send for him and enquire of the Truth and if he be proved Guilty gently instruct him and admonish him and skilfully labour to bring him to Repentance And if he prevail not shall again send for him and do the same before some Witnesses And if he yet prevail not or if he wilfully refuse to come or to answer him shall open his Case before the Church Vestry or Neighbour Pastors and if he be present there admonish him and pray for his Repentance And if yet he prevail not to bring him to the profession of serious Repentance he shall declare that he judgeth him a Person unmeet for Church Communion till he Repent and shall till then forbear to give him the Sacrament But when he professeth serious Repentance shall receive him But if after such oft Professions he continue in such heinous Sin he shall not again receive him till actual Amendment for a sufficient time to make valid his Profession VI. Ordination to the Priesthood shall be a valid License to Preach And every just Incumbent being the Pastor Overseer or
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
restoring the Liberty of choosing Bishops and the Priviledge of enjoying them in the Synods Clergy and People of each Diocess so evident is the right of Synods Clergy and People in the making of those of whom they consist and by whom they are to be Governed that I need make no other reason of the neglect of Episcopacy than the neglect of it As for them that must needs have all our Cure dispatcht in fewer words than this half Sheet of Paper containeth they are unfit Men to do so great a Work and will do it accordingly if at all Statute Books and Councils are much greater Sir though Experience depress my Hopes the Case exciteth my Desires which I here offer you not for my self who am not capable of any Kindness from King Parliament or Prelateâ that I know of unless it be to do me no harm and much I aâ sure they cannot do me but for Publick Good which is the great Desire of Your Servant Richard Baxter Nov. 9. 1680. The Reasons of these several Articles I. WE cannot treat of the Government and Concord of Christians till we agree what a Christians is and who they are who are the Subjects So for the IId. III. 1. If Ministers be commanded to Baptize those Children who are brought by no Parent or Pro-parent who taketh the Child as his own and undertaketh his Education it will cast out Multitudes of faithful Ministers who know no right that the Children of Atheists and Infidels as such have no Baptism 2. This Article for owning the Baptismal Covenant is but what the Liturgy pleads for But when it is said We shall admit none to the Sacrament but those that are Confirmed or desire it it supposeth that they must give us notice of it IV. This is only for a liberty to help memory in great Parishes where it is impossible to remember all the Communicants and avoid confusion by the unknown V. Without this much power in the Parish Minister the thing must be undone it being impossible for the Diocesan alone to do it and the ancient Discipline will be unavoidably cast out of the Church But if the Bishops will not yield to this much that will instead of an Appeal from the Incumbent take the whole Work of Publick Admonition and Censure on themselves We shall submit to the Obliteration of all those underlined Words and thankfully use the Power of Suspending our own Acts and that also under the Government and Correction after mentioned VI. 1. How is he by Office a Teacher who hath not Authority to Teach 2. We ask none of the Bishop's Office for him but his own We leave him under Government and responsible for his Mal-administration 3. No Man's Ministry is safe if he may be Suspended for not saying his Lesson as prescribed just to a Sentence 4. This will make no Alteration in the Publick Offices of the Churches VII Christ hath made the Symbols of Christianity and Communion And he that in these Things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of wise Men Rom. 14. 18. 2. Needless Oaths and Covenants and Professions are more useful to Satan as Engines to tear than to the Church as means to Concord 3. But if under the Pretenses of Renouncing Heresie Popery Rebellion and Usurpation Men will draw up ensâaring words against the Law of Nature or Scripture it is no such Snares that will heal the Churches To say I renounce all contrary to this Profession is enough To the Renunciation of Popery there needs no more than the Oath of Supremacy it self if to the renunciation of Forreign Iurisdiction were but added Civil or Ecclesiastical 4. If the Church Articles were more exact it were better VIII 1. Those that cannot submit to a Legal Ordination must be content with Toleration 2. The questioning of those already Ordained need not make a breach as long as no Patron is forced to present such nor the major part of Communicants forced to accept them nor the minor if they dissent forbidden their Communion elsewhere And this quarrelling at each others Ordination is endless As the Bishops say on one side None should be Ordained without a Bishop so they say on the other side 1. The chief Minister of every Church is a Bishop specially of a City Church 2. That Ordination is valid which is better than the Papists For 1. we Re-ordain them not 2. Our Bishops claim Succession from them But the Ordination used here after 1646. is better than the Papists For 1. Theirs is to an unlawful Office to be Mass-Priests 2. It is into a false Church that is as headed by a pretended Universal Head 3. And it is from the Pope who as such hath no power They profess themselves his Subjects 4. And the Roman Seat hath had oft and long Intercisions 5. They say that Ordination is valid which is better than the English Diocesans But c. 1. The English Diocesans is derived from Rome which wanted power and was as aforesaid false and interrupted 2. They have neither the Election or known Consent of the Clergy or People but are chosen by the King And the old Canons for many Hundred years null such Bishops 3. It is meet that the Temples Tythes and Pastoral Office go together to the same Men and therefore that the Patron Communicants and Ordainers do all agree But if they cannot agree the Patron or Magistrates Judge who shall have the Temples and Tythes Memorandum Here wants the Reasons of the rest of the Articles if not something more to the Eighth Article FINIS An. 1664 An. 1634 An. 1640 An. 1639 An. 1640 An. 1641 An. 1641 An. 16. 14 An. 16 45 An. 1648 An. 1649 Mr. Eaton wrote a Book to prove that the Oath of Allegiance nor the Covenant bind not An. 1651 * Capt. Adams â Mr. Gibbons Very like to Maximus in the days of Gratian and Theodosius An. 1653 A post humous Book of Mr. Sterry's is since Published They were so very few and of short continuance that I never saw one of them * As it is currently reported without any Contradiction thât ever I heard of Mean men in their rising must adhere to a Faction but great Men that have strength in themselves were better to maintain themselves indifferent and neutral yet even in beginners to adhere so moderately as that he be a Man of that one Faction which is most passable with the other commonly giveth best way The lower and weaker Faction is the firmer in Conjunction And it is often seen that a few that are stiff do tire out a great number that are more moderate when one of the Factions is extinguished the other remaining subdivideth It is commonly seen that Men once placed take in with the contrary Faction to that by which they enter Lord Verulam Essay 51. p. 287. * The advantage of Mens present cruel Malice was only from the Epistle of 2 Books wherein I never justified his Usurpation But Iudicis officium
it Of which in that Book he saith so much to the pity rather than satisfaction of the Judicious his Book being otherwise the soundest and most abounding with Light of any one that I have seen But the very necessity of explaining the Three Articles of Baptism and the Three Summaries of Religion the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue hath led all the common Catechisms that go that way of which Vrsine Corrected by Paraeus is the chief into a truer Method than any of our exactest Dichotomizers have hit on not excepting Treleatius Solinius or Amesius which are the best § 147. The Nature of things convinced me That as Physicks are presupposed in Ethicks and that Morality is but the ordering of the Rational Nature and its Actions so that part of Physicks and Metaphysicks which opened the Nature of Man and of God which are the Parties contracting and the great Subjects of Theology and Morality is more neerly pertinent to a Method of Theology and should have a larger place in it than is commonly thought and given to it Yet I knew how Uncouth it would seem to put so much of these Doctrines into a Body of Divinity But the three first Chapters of Genesis assured me That it was the Scripture-Method And when I had drawn up one Scheme of the Creation and sent it the Lord Chief Baron because of our often Communication on such Subjects and being now banished from his Neighbourhood and the County where he lived he received it with so great Approbation and importuned me so by Letters to go on with that work and not to fear being too much on Philosophy as added somewhat to my Inclinations and Resolutions And through the great Mercy of God in my Retirement at Totteridge in a troublesome poor smoaky suffocating Room in the midst of daily pains of the Sciatica and many worse I set upon and finished all the Schemes and half the Elucidations in the end of the Year 1669. and the beginning of 1670. which cost me harder Studies than any thing that ever I had before attempted § 148. In the same time and place I also wrote a large Apology for the Nonconformists Partly to prove it their Duty to Exercise their Ministry as they can when they are Silenced and partly to open the State of the Prelacy the Subscriptions Declarations c. which they refuse for the furious Revilings of Men did so increase and their Provocations and Accusations and Insultings were so many and great that it drove me to this work as it were against my will But when I had done it I saw that the Publication of it would by Imprisonment or Banishment put an end to my other Labours which made me lay it by for I thought that the finishing of my Methodus Theologiae was a far greater work But if that had been done I think I should have published it whatever it had cost me § 149. This Year 1670 my forementioned Cure of Church Divisions came out which had been before cast by which occasioned a storm of Obloquy among almost all the separating Party of Professors and filled the City and Country with matters of Discourse which fell out to be as followeth I had long made use of two Booksellers Mr. Tyton and Mr. Simmons the former lived in London and the later in Kiderminster But the latter removing to London they envyed each other in a meer desire of gain one thinking that the other got more than he was willing should go besides himself Mr. Tyton first refused an equal Co-partnership with the other Whereupon it fell to the others share to Print my Life of Faith and Cure of Church Divisions after my Directions to weak Christians together Which occasioned Mr. Tyton to tell several that came to his Shop that the Book as he heard was against private Meetings at least at the time of Publick and made those Schimaticks that used them Mr. Simmons met with a credible Citizen that gave it him under his Hand that Mr. Tyton said that he might have had the Printing of the Book but would not because it spake against those things which he had seen me Practise c. which were all gross Untruths for the Book was never offered him nor had he never seen a word of it or ever spoken with any one that had seen it and told him what was in it Mr. Tyton being a Member of an Independent Church this sort of People the eaâilier believed this and so it was carried among them from one to one first that I wrote against private Meetings and then that I accused them all of Schism and then that I wrote for Conformity and lastly that I conformed so that before a Line of my Book was known this was grown the common Fame of the City and thence of all the Land and sent as certain into Scotland and Ireland yea they named the Text that I preached my Recantation Sermon on before the King as stirring him up to Cruelty against the Nonconformists So common was the Sin of Back-biting and Slandering among the Separating Party so it were but done at the second hand and they that thought themselves too good to joyn with the Conformists or use their Liturgy or Communion yet never stuck at the common carrying of all these Falshoods because they could say a good Man told it me So that Thousands made no bones of this that would not have defiled themselves with a Ceremony or an imposed Form of Prayer by any means Yea the Streets rang with Reproaches against me for it without any more proof Some said that I took part with the Enemies of Godliness and countenanced their Church-Tyranny and some said that I sought to reconcile my self to them for fear of further Suffering And thus the Christians that were most tenderly afraid of the Liturgy and Ceremonies were so little tender of receiving and vending the most disingenuous Falshoods as if they had been no matter of Scruple So easie is a sinful Zeal and so hardly is true Christian Zeal maintained § 150. At the same time there fell out a Case which tended to promote the Calumny The old Reading Vicar of Kiderminster dyed about the Day of the Date of the Act against Conventicles Sir Ralph Clare his chief Friend and my Applauder but Remover being dead a little before the old Patron Collonel Iohn Bridges Sold the Patronage to Mr. Thomas Foley with a condition that he should present me next if I were capable which he promised as also that he would Present no other but by my consent Because I had done so much before to have continued in that place and had desired to Preach there but as a Curate under the Reading Vicar when I resused a Bishoprick and the Vicaridge was now come to be worth 200 l. per Ann. and this falling void at the same time when the Independents had filled the Land with the Report that I was Writing against them for Conformity hereupon the Bishops
themselves believed it that the love of Kiderminster would make me Conform and they concurred in vending the Report insomuch that one certainly told me that he came then from a worthy Minister to whom the Arch-bishop of York Sterne spake these Words Take it on my Word Mr. Baxter doth Conform and is gone to his Beloved Kiderminster And so both Parties concurred in the false Report though one only raised it § 151. Another Accident fell out also which promoted it For Mr. Crofton having a Tryal as I hear upon the Oxford Act of Confinement at the King's Bench Judge Keeling said You need not be so hasty for I hear that Mr. Crofton is about to Conform And Judge Morton said And I hear that Mr. Baxter hath a Book in the Press against their private Meetings Judge Rainsford said somewhat that he was glad to hear it and Judge Morton again That it was but time for the Quakers in Buckingham-shire he was confident were Acted by the Papists for they spake for Purgatory already This Talk being used in so high a Court of Justice by the Grave and Reverend Judges all Men thought then that they might lawfully believe it and report it So Contagious may the Breath of one Religious Man be as to infect his Party and of that Religious Party as to infect the Land and more than one Land with the belief and report of such ungrounded Lies § 152. At the same time in the end of my Life of Faith I Printed a Revocation of my Book called Political Aphorisms or A Holy Common-wealth which exasperated those who had been for the Parliament's War as much as the former but both together did greatly provoke them Of which I must give the Reader this Advertisement I wrote that Book 1659. by the provocation of Mr. Iames Harrington the Author of Oceana and next by the Endeavours of Sir Hen. Vane for a Common-wealth Not that I had any Enmity to a well ordered Democracy but 1. I knew that Cromwell and the Army were resolved against it and it would not be 2. And I perceived that Harrington's Common-wealth was fitted to Heathenism and Vane's to Fanaticism and neither of them would take Therefore I thought that the improvement of our Legal Form of Government was best for us And by Harrington's Scorn Printed in a half Sheet of Gibberish was then provoked to write that Book But the madness of the several Parties before it could be Printed pull'd down Rich. Cromwell and chang'd the Government so oft in a few Months as brought in the King contrary to the hopes of his closest Adherents and the expectations of almost any in the Land And ever since the King came in that Book of mine was preached against before the King spoken against in the Parliament and wrote against by such as desired my Ruine Morley Bishop of Worcester and many after him branded it with Treason and the King was still told that I would not retract it but was still of the same mind and ready to raise another War and a Person not to be indured New Books every Year came out against it and even Men that had been taken for Sober and Religious when they had a mind of Preferment and to be taken notice of at Court and by the Prelates did fall on Preaching or Writing against me and specially against that Book as the probablest means to accomplish their Ends. When I had endured this ten Years and found no stop but that still they proceeded to make me odious to the King and Kingdom and seeking utter ruine this way I thought it my Duty to remove this stumbling Block out of their way and without recanting any particular Doctrine in it to revoke the Book and to disown it and desire the Reader to take it as non Scriptum and to tell him that I repented of the writing of it And so I did Yet telling him That I retracted none of the Doctrine of the first Part which was to prove the Monarch of God but for the sake of the whole second Part I repented that I wrote it For I was resolved at least to have that much to say against all that after wrote and preach'd and talk'd against it That I have revoked that Book and therefore shall not defend it And the incessant bloody Malice of the Reproachers made me heartily wish on two or three accounts that I had never written it 1. Because it was done just at the fall of the Government and was buried in onr ruines and never that I know of did any great good 2. Because I find it best for Ministers to meddle as little as may be with Matters of Poliây how great soever their Provocations may be and therefore I wish that I had never written on any such Subject 3. And I repented that I meddled against Vane and Harrington which was the second Part in Defence of Monarchy seeing that the Consequents had been no better and that my Reward had been to be silenced imprisoned turned out of all and reproached implacably and incessantly as Criminal and never like to see an end of it He that had wrote for so little and so great displeasure might be tempted as well as I to wish that he had sat still and let GOD and Man alone with Matters of Civil Policy Though I was not convinced of many Errors in that Book so called by some Accusers to recant yet I repented the writing of it as an infelicity and as that which did no good but hurt § 153. But because an Appendix to that Book had given several Reasons of my adhering to the Parliament at first many thought I changed my Judgment about the first part of the Parliament's Cause And the rather because I disclaimed the Army's Rebellious Overthrows of Government as I had always done I knew I could not revoke the Book but the busie pevishness of censorious Professors would fall upon me as a Revolter And I knew that I could not for bear the said Revocation without those ill Effects which I supposed greater And which was worst of all I had no possible Liberty further to explain any Reasons § 154. When my Cure of Church Divisions came out the sober Party of Ministers were reconciled to it especially the Ancienter sort and those that had seen the Eviâs of Separation But some of the London Ministers who had kept up Publick Assemblies thought it should have been less sharp and some thought because they were under the Bishop's Severities that it was unseasonable For the Truth is most Men judged by Sense and take that to be good or bad which they feel do them good or hurt at the present And because the People's Alienation from the Prelates and Liturgy and Parish-Churches did seem to make against the Prelates and to make for the Nonconformist's Interest they thought it not Prudence to gratifie the Prelates so far as to gain-say it And so they considered not from whence dividing Principles come
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
enjoy what Success is such a Dispute like to have either with the People or with the Adversary will they not tell us our Church is invisible especially when these few Bishops are dead Except to Sect. 6. 2. Whether in this Worcestershire Association whosoever will enter into it doth not therein oblige himself to acknowledge that Presbyters while there remain alive fourteen or thirteen or twelve Catholick Protestant Bishops may proceed to publick Excommunications and Absolutions in foro Ecclesiastico without asking those Bishops Consent allowance or taking any notice of them See Resolution 12 13 14 15. and the Scope of the whole Book Reply to Sect. 6. To your second Question I answer The Term Excommunication we use not This Term is used to signify sometimes a delivering up to Satan and casting out of the Catholick Church sometimes only a Ministerial Declaration that such a Person should be avoided by the People acquainting them with their Duty and requiring them to perform it sometimes it signifies the Peoples actual Avoidance In the former Sense we have let it alone and that which you call your Excommunicatio Major we meddle not with much less do we usurp a compelling Power for the Execution The other we know to be consistent with the Principles of Episcopal Protestants if not also with Papists yea even when there is a Bishop resident in the Diocess it being but part of our teaching and guiding Office as Presbyters of that Congregation but I have said enough of this in my Explications already 2. But what if there be twelve latent Bishops in England when for my part I I hear not of above two or three have they Power not only to ordain but also to govern other Diocesses which have no Bishops Yea must they needs govern them 1. Woe then to the Churches of England that must live under such Guilt devoid of all Government 2. Woe to the Sinners themselves that must be left without Christ's Remedy 3. Woe to particular Christians that must live in the continual Breach of God's known Law that saith with such go not to eat c. for want of a Bishop to Execute it 4. Woe to the few Bishops that be for it all the Authority be in them then the Duty and Charge of executing it is only on them and then they are bound to Impossibilities one Bishop must Excommunicate all the Offenders in a great part of the Land when he is not sufficient to the hundredth part of the Work Then when all the Bishops in England are dead save one or two they are the sole Pastors of England and all Discipline must be cast away for want of their Sufficiency Then it seems the Death of one Bishop or two or three doth actually devolve their Charge to another and who knoweth which other This is new Canon Not only Protestant Bishops but some Papists confess that when a Bishop is dead the Government remains in the Presbyters till another be chosen sure they that govern the People at least with him whilst he is living as is confessed need not look on it as an alien supereminent transcendent Work when he is dead Bishop Bromhall against Mil. p. 127. gives People a Judgment of Discretion and Pastors a Judgment of Direction and to the chief Pastors a Judgment of Jurisdiction You may go well allow us by a Judgment of Direction to tell the People that they should avoid Communion with an open wicked Man even while a Bishop is over us Selden de Syne c. 8 9 10. and will tell you another Tale of the way of Antiquity in Excommunication and Absolution than you do hear But of this enough in the Books Except to Sect. 7. 3. Doth not he oblige himself also to acknowledge that not only Presbyters incommuni governing but one single one of them may proceed to Excommunicatiand Absolution in foro Ecclesiastico Reply to Sect. 7. Your third Question I answer by a Denial There is no such Obligation The Declaration of the Peoples Duty to avoid such an one is by one so is every Sermon so is your Episcopal Excommunication Doth not one and that a Presbyter declare or publish it But for advising and determining of it we have tyed our selves not to do it alone though for mine own private Opinion I doubt not easily to prove that one single Bishop or Pastor hath the Power of the Keys and may do all that we agree to do Except to Sect. 8. 4. That not only one single Presbyter but one whose Ordination was never by any Bishop to be Presbyter where also Bishops were that might have been sought unto hath that Power also of Excommunication c. Reply to Sect. 8. Your fourth is answered in the rest if his Ordination have only in the Judgment of Episcopal Protestants yea of some Papists an Irregularity but not a Nullity then he hath Power to do so much as we agree on Your Exception is as much against his other Ministrations Except to Sect. 9. I speak only of the Essence of their Association not insisting on what Mr. Baxter declares to the World that in some Cases the People not satisfied with the Bishops or Presbyters Ordination may accept or take a Man of themselves without any Ordination by Bishops or Presbyters to be their Pastor and Presbyter with Power of Excommunication and Absolution in himself alone without the People see p. 83. Reply to Sect. 9. That this may be done in some Cases I have lately disputed it with a learned Man of your Party and convinced him And methinks Nature should teach you if you were unordained but qualified by Gifts cast among the Indians that you should not let them perish for want of that publick constant teaching which is Ministerial or of Sacraments and Discipline only for want of Ordination that the Substance of Duty should not be thrown by for want of that Order which was instituted for its Preservation and not for its Destruction You dare scarce openly and plainly deny that Necessity warrants the Presbyters of the Reformed Churches to ordain And I doubt you allow it them then on no other grounds then what would warrant this that I am now pleading for Except to Sect. 10. And for any Votum or desire of Bishops Protest Bishops if they might have them or access unto them which was so oft the publick avowed Desire of the chiefest Reformers and Protestants beyond Sea much unlike the Spirit of our Presbyterians see what Mr. Baxter gives us to know p. 85. where comparing our present Bishops with a Leader in an Army he faith Nay it is hard trusting that Man again that hath betrayed us and the Church ibid. These have so apparently falsified their Trust that if we were fully resolved for Bishops yet we cannot submit to them for Ordination or Jurisdiction and then he proves it by Canon he thinks that the Presbyters now should not submit to the present Bishops by Canon Concilii Rbegien ut