must not allow it Christian burial These are hard Instances in my mind and I could easily make up the number twenty which I believe the indifferent Reader would count reasonable exception I must distinguish therefore as I here carefully do the Ordinary appointed Prayers and Service of the Liturgy from other Matters on the By which I declare no Assent or Consent unto And when I come in or seek to come in to the Church upon the terms of Moderation I do declare my self Ipso facto a Nonconformist still to the Severity of these Impositions bearing indeed thereby only a more distinct fixed and assured testimony against them Nevertheless being sensible of the Scandal which is given to the Nation who see generally no other difference between us but our refusing to read the Common Prayer and do think us very exceeding refractory persons who will not comply in the things we can do I do resolve for one by the grace of God without turning to the left hand in doing any thing which is against my conscience for preferment or to the right in contenting my self with Suffering only and doing nothing to set my self as it were in the Market place and if any Bishop shall give me a call that is fitting into the Vineyard when I seek to them upon the termes of this Paper I shall not refuse them though it be almost the Eleventh hour with me I shall not stick out with them I believe upon the account of reading Common Prayer I will trust in Gods power it he hath work for me to do that he will give me assistance to do it and if they will not let me come in upon these termes to Labour I will trust in his Goodness that he will forgive me when I am found Idle The Nation shall see at whose door the fault Lyes by my experiment For I do professe my self one who can neither stretch my Soul beyond its staple nor yet will give off upon despondence or on the presumption onely that it will not serve me unless I do every thing to a tittle which is the prepossessed judgment of most of my brethren when they have made no tryal and which I would humbly reprove therefore by my Example For the Second Re-ordination I will here make my Remonstrance and Confession I will set things at rights between God and my Soul and between my Soul and the World I am one that was ordained by Presbyters in the late times and re-ordained since by the Bishop I was perswaded into it before I had studied the point and brought my self in distress I was fain to take such a course for relief of my Soul as nothing could have drove me to but that distress it self which I would not lye under again for the World Not that I was any way touched in my Intellectuals by it as some that never knew me have bin apt to talk ever since which I must assure them is a tale and there was no such thing I thank God in the least I have reason yet to say this because I know the temper of my mind being Melancholy and Thoughtful and so apt to be intent on any one thing that hath got into it whether of Notion or Business I do not often and I cannot somtimes recall my self from those thoughts to an attendance on the present company I am in or discourse that is going so freely as others which makes my unheedfulness lyable to the censure of those that are not used to me Besides that being One resolved generally to follow my own conscience in what I write or do whether it please or displease others the Offended who are commonly on both sides may be apt to put some such slur upon me at least while in any thing I go but in a way uncommon As Paul therefore said when Festus had got such a conceit of him so must I. I am not Mad my worthy Brethren who are strangers to me when I differ from you and from those also whom I do know in what I write or act But what I do I trust are deeds of Soberness and I speak forth the words of Truth I acknowledge the Church in her giving Orders does intend the collation of an Office to the Presbyter distinct from the Bishop that is an office without the power of Ordination and consequently if a Presbyter ordains any the Church-men must hold such an ordination to be void because the persons that confer the orders have no power to do it But I must confess my thoughts about Orders are somthing different from others I do not think that the Spiritual power or ministerial authority is conveyed to us by the hands of any but does come Immediately upon us the conditions on our part being put from the institution of Christ I apprehend consequently that whatsoever be the intention of the Church in her giving Orders such a power must be derived from Christ to the person ordained as is intended in his Institution and so long as we find not any distinction which is touched before of Order or Office though we allow one as to Degree and Eminency in the Scripture between Bishop and Presbyter the authority of one in regard to God must be the same with the other and the laying on the hands of the one be of the same validity in Ordination as the imposition of the hands of the other We do read that God hath set in his Church Apostles Evangelists Pastors and Teachers but we find not Bishop and Presbyter enumerated as two of them I enter not into dispute here but I am one that dare not give way to the making void of my Ministry and all my ministerial acts for a dozen years or more before I was Ordained by the Bishop for that were a heynous crime for me I think to do yet will I be content as to the Exercise of my Office now to own my authority from him I was a Minister before in foro Dei Conscientiae I was made a Minister then I will account in foro Ecclesia Anglicanae I acknowledge I did ill in my circumstances to take second orders and yet was I too extream I doubt in my renunciation or in the way of my renunciation again of them If any man thinks that Orders give the spiritual power and makes us Ministers in foro Dei it is apparent that a Man who is a Minister already cannot be so made a Minister again Consequently if I have formerly writ any thing that seems to countenance Re-ordination to the Office which is good earnest my Hypotheses never favoured I do rennounce it all and those second Orders on that account I humbly crave the Churches absolution and benediction But if Orders be onely a Recommendation of us to the grace of God for the work unto which a man is called there is nothing in Re-ordination to scare any and as my second Orders may serve me for the Exercise of my Ministry when my first
would have is that the Parliament would be pleased that a Bill be prepared for Peace and Union which might bear some such Title An Explanatory Act for agreement amongst Protestants and for Ease in the business in Religion In which Bill I would have such an Explanation of these Impositions and such Alleviations in regard to the tenderly considerate and peaceably Scrupulous or soberly not factiously Consciencious who will never be wonne as may do our business In the Act of Uniformity By the Declaration of Assent and Consent to all things and every thing contained in and prescribed by the two book of Common Prayer and of Ordering Priests and Deacons there is no considerate man of the Parliament ever I hope understood that these books are in every minute particular infallible or free from that defect which is incident to all humane Composures but they understand I suppose that they are in the maine contents to be sincerely approved and used I would have it therefore be here sufficient if this Declaration be made to the use of the book in the Ordinary dayly Lords-day service which we can consent to or that we may make it with a license of Exception against any matter or matters out of that Service which the Bishop shall think meet to be dispensed with upon Convincing reason Provided only that the Ordinary constant publick Service of the Liturgy obtains Consent and Practise And for the Ceremonies which are and have been always and on all hands held only for indifferent things I wish they might be left to the Consciences and prudence of Ministers and People every where excepting the Cathedralls to use them or forbear them as they judge it most meet for one anothers edification for so some Bishops I believe if it be left to them will sometimes be apt to determine themselves Provided that if any person will have his child baptized with the signe of the Cross or stands upon any thing else hitherto required by the Service-book if the Minister himself Scruple the performance he shall always have some Assistant or Curate to do it In the same Act By the Subscription before treated As I believe there was no new Ill or strange thing intended by any of them but the rightfull maintenance onely of the Kings authority against Rebellion So do I apprehend that the Interpretation and the Limitations which I do here humbly present with an unfeigned impartiality upon the several Clauses of it may pass their publick approbation or allowance which therefore I would have to be done as a matter of kind satisfaction to most Mens consciences and of grievance to no Body Onely for that part of it which is enjoyned but to the year 1682 it might do better perhaps to be made to cease presently and be no longer imposed And forasmuch as there is an Oath also in the Act of Oxford required of all Non conformist preachers that reside Ãn any Corporate town or come within five Miles of it whereof I have Printed a former Paper and given the Interpretation throughout as I believed it to be the very sense and meaning onely of the Act without limitation or exception which cannot therefore be refused insomuch as I dare and do appeal to a Vote of the two Houses whether I have delivered their minds or no I would here have it onely put to the Question and if it be as I doubt not indeed their sense that they would declare it This will make that Oath streight be generally taken Or else I will propose this rather which is better that it may suffice any man to enjoy the right of this free-born liberty to go where he will in his own Country I mean to escape the penalty of this Act and serve him also instead of the forementioned Subscription to take that Oath in this form of words following I A. B. do swear that I hold it unlawful upon any pretence to take Armes against the King his Government or Laws And that I disclaim that dangerous Position of taking Armes by his Authority against his Person or any Legally commissionated by him in the Legal pursuit of such Commissions And that I will not endeavour any alteration of Government in the Church or State in any way or manner not warranted by the Constitution of this Kingdom that is in a seditious manner or any otherwise then by Act of Parliament It being required moreover in the Act of uniformity which is another of the things also before Mentioned that every Minister who enjoyes any Living shall be ordained by a Bishop and there are several persons of late who in case of necessity for want of Bishops took Presbyterian Orders I would have the Parliament declare it their intent for redeeming their credit with the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas not to make it absolutely necessary for such persons to be reordained to the Office but that it may be enough for them if they receive this second Imposition of hands to the Exercise of their Office in the New charge unto which they are or shall be appointed and that the Bishop may and shall frame his words accordingly This is the only way that I could find out for peace to my own mind as I have told before in this business And whereas there is a Subscription also in the Canons and the Canonical Oath of Obedience imposed on most Ministers by the Bishops mentioned before likewise which have given some of the greatest occasion to Non-conformists heretofore and which yet have never passed into a Law by any Act of Parliament I would here have it enquired by what Authorty one of these is imposed for I know none And for that which is found in the Canons being what is more than needs because included in other injunctions I would have it Exauthorized and that nothing more of this nature might be imposed on us than is made necessary by the Act of the thirteenth of Elizabeth Provided nevertheless if the Bishop be unsatisfyed about any particular Person he shall be ready to offer a due acknowledgment of his reverence to Bishops in a laudible Testimony thereof under his hand and of his fair regard to the main substance of the three Articles contained in that Canonicall Subscription in such expressions as shall best satisfy his own Conscience and be approved as sufficient under the hands of two Episcopal Doctors or allowed by the Bishop And in regard there hath bin great offence taken by consciencious Ministers which is a thing hath not yet bin mentioned at the Bishop or his Courts commanding them to read then sentence of Excommunication against some or other of their Parish for such faults as they think not at all worthy of so great censure or else be exempted from the execution of that charge and that the Bishop or his Court provide some other person that is satisfied about it to do it And I would have none forced to give the Body and Blood of Christ to
there lyes no Obligation upon me or any other Person from the Oath commonly called the Solemn League or Covenant to endeavour any Change or Alteration of Government either in Church or State by any Means or any other way than with the Consent of the King in an Act of Parliament The Fifth Clause does require a Distinction between the Act of Covenanting and the Matter Covenanted I dare not Subscribe That this Oath in the Matter Covenanted was in it self Unlawful because I must then I think be Uncharitable to the Reformed Churches abroad whose Government is not as ours by Bishops But I do suppose that the Oath in the Act of Covenanting or the Oath if taken for the Act Complexly considered was in it self Unlawful So that he that took it did as I count do ill in it or did that which in my Judgement was unwarrantable A Combined endeavour to pull down the present Government of the Church and set-up another without the Consent of the King and against it upon supposition only which no doubt will be generally granted that the King did not lose his Authority in the Sight of God on his with-drawing from his Parliament which must also be so understood or else how could they at the same time in one Branch of the said Covenant own the King and his Authority and swear to maintain them must be I judg a Breach of the Subject's Duty required in the Thirteenth to the Romans But the Covenant was such an Act. Or thus To own the King and his Authority in the same Oath and yet to Swear to change the Government without his Will and against it is I think in it self Unlawful Such an Oath was the Covenant Thus far I Subscribe to this Clause That the same was in it self an Unlawful Oath and I draw no farther The last Clause is so far as I know undoubtedly true and therefore I must and do Subscribe And imposed upon the Subjects of this Realm against the known Laws and liberties of this Kingdome This is what I can and am ready to Subscribe only I must first make it Public I cannot satisfy my Conscience else to propose it in Private to the Bishop though it should obtain unless I Publish it Both because of my Brethren that I may avoid Scandal I mean not the Scandal of Displeasure which I care little for but the Scandal tending to Sin or to wound any of their Consciences by my Example And also because of the Bishop lest I should draw him into some Condescension out of his present Goodness and Benignity which he might Repent after unless he be first come to a Resolution of Mind and so acts out of Conscience and that alone will bear him out against any Inconvenience that can ensue And more-over because of my own Soul and Temper that cannot endure to do any thing of this Nature but what is open and fit for a plain Honest sort of Man to do And here there is but one thing in the general wherein I seek favour of the Bishop which I must explain on the same Account I am sensible that a Liberty of Subscribing this Declaration or submitting to any Imposition in our own Sense or Interpretation is a Favour signifies nothing For no Man that acts in Judgment and Conscience can make any Interpretation of a Law or Imposition but what he believes to be the Meaning of the Law-giver If I am not satisfyed then in that Meaning I have no other Interpretation to make and if I am satisfyed in that Meaning I need no Favour or Liberty to be given me for there is none can take this away from me which necessarily goes to a Judgment of Private Discretion I shall not care what any Bishop or Judg upon the Bench may say to thwart me in the Case of the Oxford-Oath since I Published my late Paper unless I feel some Wavering in my Mind or doubt in the Interpretation there delivered notwithstanding some of my Brethren were so much concern'd here-to-fore with the Words of one about it I should be afraid of what he said if it were in a Suit of Law but the matter is otherwise in a Case of Conscience where I am to be justified by God alone and not by a Jury But to have a Liberty of Subscribing or Submitting to an Imposition with some Restriction Limitation or Exception this is indeed a Favour which I seek in this Declaration An Interpretation gives me Liberty I count only as to the Words while I am yet tyed up to the Meaning of the Law-giver A Limitation gives me Liberty as to the Meaning of the Imposer as well as to the Literal Construction and that is a great matter I cannot Subscribe this Declaration without such a Liberty and with such a Liberty I can Conform also to other Impositions I know that the Bishop can give me no such Liberty as to limit restrain or make any Exception to the Meaning of the Law any more than I can dispense with my self I have said But if he shall be got to pass me for his part I do not question but I shall pass after with others I have said also And as for the matter of Conscience in it I have laid down my Rule between us and the Superiour Law of Almighty God shall be the justification of us both in the pursuance of it I have affirmed likewise I will here add one Argument If there be any evil in this the Subscribing with Limitation it must be either in regard to the Fifth Commandment or the Nineth Either because it is against our duty of Obedience to the Higher Powers or against our duty of Sincerity and Truth Here is no Sin against Truth and Sincerity for therefore do I make these Restrictions or Exceptions that I may not forsake Truth but keep my Sincerity in what I do I declare to all the world I will not go a step further than my Conscience goes along with me and unless I have this liberty or take it I will not go on And here is no Sin of disobedience to my Superiours because the Law of God forbids me to do more It is a case decided by the Apostle and yeilded that when the Law of God hath laid an Obligation on the Conscience already the Law of man to the contrary can have no place If my Non-conformist brother sins not that subscribes Nothing of this Declaration because of his Conscience then do not I sin that make my Limitation If it were a sin to make any of these Restrictions or Exceptions how shall they be justified by the greater Law that is the Law of God who refuse to Subscribe any thing because they cannot Subscribe to all upon that account If I sin in doing what I can how shall Obedience to the Higher-Powers be a Duty And if I sin in doing only what I can how shall my Brethren be acquitted that make no tryal at all and do nothing And yet do I make no