The Uniting of the Churches upon the Primitive Terms and the tollerating not of all but of tollerable Differences is the way to Peace which almost all Men approve of except those who are uppermost and think they have the Reins in their own hands And because the side which is uppermost are they that have their Wills therefore the Churches had never a settled Peace this Thousand years at least the true way of Settlement and Peace being usually displeasing to them that must give Peace to others But this way hath the mark of being the best in that it is the only way which every Sect acknowledge for the second and next the best and is it which all except the predominant Party liketh But Wisdom is justified of her Children § 149. To consummate the Confusion by confirming and increasing the Division the Independants at last when they had refused with sufficient pervicacy to associate with the Presbyterians and the Reconcilers too did resolve to shew their proper strength and to call a General Assembly of all their Churches The Savoy was their Meeting-place There they drew up a Confession of their Faith and the Orders of their Church Government In the former they thought it not enough expresly to contradict St. Iames and to say unlimitedly That we are justified by the Righteousness of Christ only and not by any Works but they contradicted St. Paul also who faith That Faith is imputed for Righteousness And not only so but they expresly asserted that we have no other righteousness but that of Christ. A Doctrine abhorred by all the Reformed and Christian Churches and which would be an utter shame to the Protestant Name if what such Men held and did were indeed imputable to the sober Protestants I asked some honest Men that joyned with them Whether they subscribed this Confession and they said No. I asked them why they did not contradict it and they said that the meaning of it was no more than that we have no other Righteousness but Christ's to be justified by So that the Independant's Confessions are like such Oaths and Declarations as speak one thing and mean another Also in their Propositions of Church Order they widened the breach and made things much worse and more unreconcileable than ever they were before So much could two Men do with many honest tractable young Men and had more Zeal for separating Strictness than Iudgment to understand the Word of God or the Interest of the Churches of the Land and of themselves § 150. But it hath pleased God by others that were sometime of their way to do more to heal this Breach than they did to make it wider I mean the Synod of New-England who have published such healing Propositions about stated Synods and Infants Church Membership as hath much prepared for a Union between them and all other moderate Men And some One hath strenuously defended those Propositions against the opposition of Mr. Davenport a dissenting Brother I take this to be more for healing than the Savoy Propositions can be effectual to divide because the New-England men have not blemished their Reputation nor lost the Authority and Honour of their Judgments by any such Actions as the leading Savoyers have done § 151. When the Army had brought themselves and the Nation into utter Confusion and had set up and pull'd down Richard Cromwell and then had set up the Rump again and pull'd them down again and set up a Council of State of themselves and their Faction and made Lambert their Head next under Fleetwood whom they could use almost as they would at last the Nation would endure them no longer nor sit still while the world stood laughing them to scorn as acting over the Minster Tragedy Sir George Booth and Sir Thomas Middleton raised Forces in Cheshire and North-Wales but the Cavaliers that should have joyned with them failed them almost all over the Land a few rose in some places but were quickly ruined and came to nothing Lambert quickly routed those in Cheshire Sir Arthur Haselrigge with Col. Morley get into Portsmouth which is possessed as for the Rump Monk declareth against them in Scotland purgeth his Army of the Anabaptists and marcheth into England The Rump Party with Haselrigge divided the Army at home and so disabled them to oppose Monk who marcheth on and all are afraid of him and while he declareth himself against Monarchy for a Commonwealth he tieth the hands of his Enemies by a lie and uniteth with the City of London and bringeth on again the old ejected Members of the Parliament and so bringeth in the King Sir William Morrice his Kinsman and Mr. Clarges were his great Advisers The Earl of Manchester Mr. Calamy and other Presbyterians encouraged and perswaded him to bring in the King At first he joyned with the Rump against the Citizens and pull'd down the City Gates to master them but at last Sir Thomas Allen then Lord Mayor by the perswasion of Dr. Iacomb and some other Presbyterian Ministers and Citizens as he hath oft told me himself invited Monk into the City and drew him to agree and joyn with them against the Rump as they then called the Relicts of the Parliament And this in truth was the Act that turned the Scales and brought in the King whether the same men expected to be used as they have since been themselves I know not If they did their Self-denial was very great who were content to be silenced and laid in Gaols so they might but bring in the King After this the old Excluded Members of the Parliament meet with Monk He calleth them to sit and that the King might come in both by him and by them He agreeth with them to sit but a few days and then dissolve themselves and call another Parliament They consented and prepared for the King's Restoration and appointed a Council of State and Dissolved themselves Another Parliament is chosen which calleth in the King the Council of State having made further preparations for it For when the Question was Whether they should call in the King upon Treaty and Covenant which some thought best for him and the Nation the Council resolved absolutely to trust him Mr. A. especially perswading them so to do And when the King came in Col. Birch and Mr. Prin were appointed to Disband the Army the several Regiments receiving their Pay in several places and none of them daring to disobey No not Monk's own Regiments who brought in the King Thus did God do a more wonderful Work in the Dissolving of this Army than any of their greatest Victories was which set them up That an Army that had conquered three such Kingdoms and brought so many Armies to destruction cut off the King pull'd down the Parliament and set up and pull'd down others at their pleasure that had conquered so many Cities and Castles that were so united by Principles and Interest and Guilt and so deeply engaged as much
Conversation amongst all Protestants and upon avoiding Divisions amongst Christ's Followers as that whatever obstructed these Concerns he was impatient of and warm against Truth Peace and Love was he a Votary to and Martyr for and hereunto did he devote most of his Life and Labours Dicam quod res est It is scandalous that there should be Divisions Distances Animosities and Contentions amongst Christians Protestants Dissenters against each other and in the Bowels of each Party But much hereof arises from unhappy Tempers Self-ignorance Confidence and Inobservance want of frequent patient and calm Conference and impartial Debates about things controverted addictedness to Self-Interest and Reputation with our respective Parties impatience of severe Thoughts and Studies and of impartial Consideration before we fix and pass our Judgment taking things too much upon Trust Prejudice against those whose Sentiments are different from our own laying too great a weight upon eccentrical and meaner things prying too boldly into and talking too confidentlyâ— about things unrevealed or but darkly hinted to us in the Sacred Text and representing the Doctrine of our Christianity in our own Artificial Terms and Schemes and so confining the Interest Grace and Heart of God and Christ to our respective Parties as if we had forgot or had never read Rom. 14. 17 19. Acts 10 34 35. Gal. 6. 14 16. and Eph. 4. 1 〈◊〉 That Person whose Thoughts Heart and Life shall meet me in the Spirit and Reach of 2 Pet. I. I II. shall have my hearty Love and Service although he determine never to hear me Preach or to Communicate with me all his days through the Impression of his Education or Acquaintance though at the same time I should be loth that such a narrow Thought should be the Principle Poise and Conduct of my Church Fellowship Spirit or Behaviour God hath I doubt not his eminent and valuable Servants inâ—all Parties and Perswasions amongst Christians An heavenly mind and Life is all in all with me I doubt not but that God hath many precious faithful Ones amongst the Men called Independants Presbyterians â—â—â—nabapâ—ists Prelatical And I humbly judge it reasonable that 1. The Miscarriages of former Parties be not imputed to succeeding Parties who own not nor abet their Principles as productive of such practical Enormities 2. That the Miscarriages of some particular Persons be not charged on the rest until they profess or manifest their Approbation of them 3. That what is repented of and pardoned be not so received as to foment Divisions and Recriminations 4. That my trust from Mr. Baxter and faithfulness to him and to Posterity be not constrâ—ed as the Result of any Spleen in me against any Person or Party mentioned in this following History 5. And that we all value that in one another which God thinks lovely where he forms and finds it And 6. O Utinam that we form no other Test and Canon of Christian Orthodoxy and Saving Soundness and Christian Fellowship than what the Sacred Scriptures give us as Explicatory of the Christian Baptismal Creed and Covenant as influencing us into an holy Life and heavenly Hopes and Joys I thought once to have given the World a faithful Abstract of Mr Baxter's Doctrines or Judgment containing the Sence of what he held about Justification Faith Works c. and yet laying aside his Terms of Art that hereby the Reader might discern the Consonancy of it to the Sacred Text and to the Doctrinal Confessions of the Reformed Churches his Consistence with himself and his nearer approach in Judgment to those from whom he seems to differ much than the prejudiced Adversaries are aware of But this must be a Work of Time if not an Enterprize too great for me as I justly fear it is But I will do by him as I would do by others and have them do by me viz. give him his owned Explication of the Baptismal Creed and Covenant as a fit Test to try his Judgment by and if his Doctrines in his other Treatises consist herewith others perhaps will see more Cause to think him Orthodox in the most weighty Articles and less to be suspected notwithstanding his different Modes of Speech The Things professedly believed by him as may be seen in his Christian Concord were THat there is one only God The Father Infinite in Being Wisdom Goodness and Power the Maker Preserver and Disposer of all things and the most just and merciful Lord of All. That Mankind being fallen by Sin from God and Happiness under the Wrath of God the Curse of his Law and the Power of the Devil God so loved the World that he gave his only Son to be their Redeemer who being God and one with the Father did take to him our Nature and became Man being conceived of the Holy Ghost in the Virgin Mary and born of her and named JESUS CHRIST and having liv'd on Earth without Sin and wrought many Miracles for a witness of his Truth he gave up himself a Sacrifice for our Sins and a Ransom for 〈◊〉 in suffering Death on the Cross and being buried he is Lord of all in Glory with the Father And having ordained that all that truly repent and believe in him and love him above all things and sincerely obey him and that to the Death shall be saved and they that will not shall be damned and commended his Ministers to preach the Gospel to the World He will come again and raise the Bodies of all Men from Death and will set all the World before him to be judged according to what they have done in the Body and he will adjudge the Righteous to Life Everlasting and the rest to Everlasting Punishment which shall be Executed accordingly That God the Holy Ghost the Spirit of the Father and the Son was â—â—nt from the Father by the Son to inspire and guide the Prophets and Apostles that they might fully reveal the Doctrine of Christ And by multitudes of Evident Miracles and wonderful Gifts to be the great Witness of Christ and of the Truth of his Holy Word And also to dwell and work in all that are drawn to believe that being first joyned to Christ their Head and into one Church which is his Body and so pardoned and made the Sons of God they may be a peculiar People sanctified to Christ and may mortifie the Fesh and overcome the World and the Devil and being zealous of good Works may serve God in Holiness and Righteousness and may live in the special Love and Communion of the Saints and in hope of Christ's Coming and of Everlasting Life In the belief hereof the Things consented to were as followeth THat he heartily took this one GOD for his only GGD and his chief Good and this IESUS CHRIST for his only Lord Redeemer and Saviour and this HOLY GHOST for his Sanctifier and the Doctrine by him revealed and sealed by his Miracles and now contained in the Holy Scriptures he took for the Law of God
Sins by the Merits of Christ and vouchsafed by his Spirit to Renew and Seal me as his own and to moderate and bless to me my long Sufferings in the Flesh and at last to sweeten them by his own Interest and comforting Approbation who taketh the Cause of Love and Concord as his own Now let the Reader judge whether any thing in all this can in the least infer his Doubting or Denial of a Future State or any Repentance of the Pains he took to establish others in the Belief and Hopes of what the Gospel tells us of as future It is strange to see how Men can trifle in their Soul-affairs and how easily they can receive whatever may mortifie the Life and Joy of Christian Godliness But we read of some that have been led Captive by the Devil at his will But this we may believe and all shall find that the Hell which they gave no credit to the report of they shall surely feel and that they shall never reach that Heaven which they would never believe Existent and worth their serious looking after Were it but a meer probability or possibility who will have the better of it When we reach Heaven we shall be in a Capacity of Insulting over Inâ—idels But if there be no Future State they can never live to upbraid us And it is but folly madness and a voluntary cheating of themselves for Men to think that Honour Parts or Learning or Interest or Possessions can ever skreen them from the Wrath of a neglected and provoked God And one would think that such a Spirit that can so boldly traduce and asperse Men is much below what has acted a Pagan Roman for even one of them could say Compositum jus fasque animi Sanctosque recessus Mentis incoctum genoroso pectus â—onesto Da cedò Pers. How little of this Spirit was in the Author and Promoter of this Aspersion I leave to his own and others Thoughts to pause on who he is I know not But for the sake of his Honour Soul and Faculty I must and will request of God that he may have those softer Remorses in his own Spirit in due season which may prevent a smarter Censure from the universal awful Judge and that he would soberly pause upon what that great Judge has uttered and left upon record in Matth. 12. 36 37. for it is what that Judge will abide and try us by I can easily foresee that Readers of different sorts are likely to receive this Work with different Sentiments 1. The Interested Reader in things related here will judge of and relish what he reads as he finds himself concerned therein He may possibly look upon himself as either commended or exposed blamed or justified whether justly or unjustly he may best know But I would hope that his Concernedness for the Interest of Equity and Truth and for the Publick Good will rather make him candid than severe 2. The Impartial Reader is for knowing Truth in its due and useful Evidence and for considering himself as liable to Imperfections if engaged in such work as this and thus he will allow for others Weaknesses as he would have his own allowed for 3. Should any Reader be censorious and stretch Expressions and Reports beyond their determin'd Line and Reach sober and clear Conviction in this Case may be their Cure 4. As to the Judicious Reader he loves I know to see things in their Nature Order Evidence and Usefulness and if he find Materials he can dispose them easily and phrase them to his own Satisfaction and at the same time pity the injudiciousness of a Publisher and the imperfections of the Author 5. As to the weak Reader for judiciousness is not every sober Person 's Lot it will be harder to convince him beyond his ability of discerning things in their distinctness truth and strength 6. As to the byassed Reader it is hoped that his second serious Thoughts may cure him of his Partiality 7. As to the selfish Reader it is bold for any Man to think himself Superiour to the rest of Men and that all must be a Sacrifice to his own Concerns and Humour A narrow Soul is a great Inâ—elicity both to its self to others and the Publick Interest 8. The Publick Spirited Reader is more concern'd for Truth than for any Thing that Rivals it his Thoughts and Motto is Magna est veritas praevalebit and he will think himself most gratified when Publick Expectations and Concerns are answered and secured best 9. Those that are perfectly ignorant of what the History is most concerned in will be glad of better Informations and the Things recorded will be as being Novel most grateful to him 10. As to those that were acquainted mostly with the Things here mentioned they will have their Memories refreshed and meet with some Additions to their useful Knowledge 11. And as to my self if there be any thing untrue injurious or unfit as to either Publick or Personal Concerns the Publisher hopes that the Reader will not look upon him as obliged to justifie or espouse whatever the Author may have misrepresented through his own Personal Infirmities or Mistakes for all Men are imperfect and my Work was to publish the Author's Sentiments and Reports rather than my own Nor will I vouch for every Thing in this History nor in any meer Humane Treatise beyond its Evidence or Credibility But let the Reader assure himself that I am his in the best of Bonds and Services whilst I am M. S. London May 13. 1696. A BREVIATE OF THE CONTENTS OF THE Ensuing Narrative Which was written by Parts at different Times PART I. Written for the most part in 1664. AFter a brief Narrative of his Birth and Parentage and large one of his School-masters Mr. Baxter proceeds to an Account of the means of his coming to a serious sense of Religion and of his perplexing Doubts and their Solutions to page 9. of his bodily weakness and indispositions to p. 11. of several remarkable Deliverances â—e met with viz. from the Temptations of a Court Life from being run over by a Waggon in a fall from a Horse and from Gaming p. 11 12. His applying himself to the Ministry Ordination by the Bishop of Worcester and Settlement in Dudley School as Master p. 12 13. His studying the Matter of Conformity and Iudgment about it at that time p. 13 14. His removal from Dudley to Bridgnorth and success there p. 14 15. of the coming out of the Etcaetera Oath and his further studying the point of Episcopacy upon that occasion p. 15 16. Upon occasion of this Etcaetera Oath he passes to the Dissatisfactions in Scotland on the account of the imposition of the English Ceremonies thence to Ship-money in England thence to the Scots first coming â—ither and so to the opening of the Long Parliament p. 16 17. After an Account of their Proceedings till such time as a Committee was chosen to hear Petitions
our Governour and our Benefactor in that he is related to us as our Creator and that therefore we are related to him as his own his Subjects and his Beneficiaries which as they all proceed by undeniable resultancy from our Creation and Nature so thence do our Duties arise which belong to us in those Relations by as undeniable resultancy and that no shew of Reason can be brought by any Infidel in the World to excuse the Rational Creature from Loving his Maker with all his heart and soul and might and devoting himself and all his Faculties to him from whom he did receive them and making him his ultimate End who is his first Efficient Cause So that Godliness is a Duty so undeniably required in the Law of Nature and so discernable by Reason it self that nothing but unreasonableness can contradict it 3. And then it seemed utterly improbable to me that this God should see us to be Losers by our Love and Duty to him and that our Duty should be made to be our Snare or make us the more miserable by how much the more faithfully we perform it And I saw that the very Possibility or Probability of a Life to come would make it the Duty of a Reasonable Creature to seek it though with the loss of all below 4. And I saw by undeniable Experience a strange Universal Enmity between the Heavenly and the Earthly Mind the Godly and the Wicked as fulfilling the Prediction Gen. 3. 15. The War between the Woman's and the Serpent's Seed being the daily Business of all the World And I saw that the wicked and haters of Godliness are so commonly the greatest and most powerful and numerous as well as cruel that ordinarily there is no living according to the Precepts of Nature and undeniable Reason without being made the Derision and Contempt of Men if we can scape so easily 5. And then I saw that there is no other Religion in the World which can stand in competition with Christianity Heathenism and Mahometanism are kept up by Tyranny and Beastly Ignorance and blush to stand at the Bar of Reason And Judaism is but Christianity in the Egg or Bed And meer Deism which is the most plausible Competitor is so turned out of almost all the whole World as if Nature made its own Confession that without a Mediator it cannot come to God 6. And I perceived that all other Religions leave the People in their worldly sensual and ungodly state even their Zeal and Devotion in them being commonly the Servants of their Fleshly Interest And the Nations where Christianity is not being drowned in Ignorance and Earthly mindedness so as to be the shame of Nature 7. And I saw that Christ did bring up all his serious and sincere Disciples to real Holiness and to Heavenly mindedness and made them new Creatures and set their Hearts and Designs and Hopes upon another Life and brought their Sense into subjection to their Reason and taught them to resign themselves to God and to love him above all the World And it is not like that God will make use of a Deceiver for this real visible Recovery and Reformation of the Nature of Man or that any thing but his own Zeal can imprint his Image 8. And here I saw an admirable suitableness in the Office and Design of Christ to the Ends of God and the Felicity of Man and how excellently these Supernatural Revelations do fall in and take their place in subserviency to Natural Verities and how wonderfully Faith is fitted to bring Men to the Love of God when it is nothing else but the beholding of his amiable attractive Love and Goodness in the Face of Christ and the Promises of Heaven as in a Glass till we see his Glory 9. And I had felt much of the Power of his Word and Spirit on my self doing that which Reason now telleth me must be done And shall I question my Physician when he hath done so much of the Cure and recovered my depraved Soul so much to God 10. And as I saw these Assistances to my Faith so I perceived that whatever the Tempter had to say against it was grounded upon the Advantages which he took from my Ignorance and my Distance from the Times and Places of the Matters of the Sacred History and such like things which every Novice meeteth with in almost all other Sciences at the first and which wise well-studied Men can see through § 35. All these Assistances were at hand before I came to the immediate Evidences of Credibility in the Sacred Oracles themselves And when I set my self to search for those I found more in the Doctrine the Predictions the Miracles antecedent concomitant subsequent than ever I before took notice of which I shall not here so far digress as to set down having partly done it in several Treatises as The Saints Rest Part 2. The Unreasonableness of Infidelity A Saint or a Bruit in my Christian Directory and since more fully in a Treatise called The Reasons of the Christian Religion my Life of Faith c. § 36. From this Assault I was forced to take notice that it is our Belief of the Truth of the Word of God and the Life to come which is the Spring that sets all Grace on work and with which it rises or falls flourishes or decays is actuated or stands still And that there is more of this secret Unbelief at the Root than most of us are aware of and that our love of the World our boldness with Sin our neglect of Duty are caused hence◠I observed easily in my self that if at any time Satan did more than at other times weaken my Belief of Scripture and the Life to come my Zeal in every Religious Duty abated with it and I grew more indifferent in Religion than before I was more inclined to Conformity in those Points which I had taken to be sinful and was ready to think why should I be singular and offend the Bishops and other Superiours and make my self contemptible in the World and expose my self to Censures Scorns and Sufferings and all for such little things as these when the Foundations themselves have so great difficulties as I am unable to overcome But when Faith revived then none of the Parts or Concernments of Religion seemed small and then Man seemed nothing and the World a shadow and God was all In the begining I doubted not of the truth of the Holy Scriptures or of the Life to come because I saw not the Difficulties which might cause doubting After that I saw them and I doubted because I saw not that which should satisfie the mind against them Since that having seen both Difficulties and Evidences though I am not so unmolested as at the first yet is my Faith I hope much stronger and far better able to repel the Temptations of Satan and the Sophisms of Infidels than before But yet is my daily Prayer That God would
Churches Good must be first regarded As to the other Question Why we dealt not thus by all the Parish and took them not all for Members without question We knew some Papists and Infidels that were no Members We knew that the People would have thought themselves wronged more to be thus brought under Discipline without and against their own Consent than to 〈◊〉 them to withdraw And we thought it not a Business â—it for the unwilling â—â—â—â—ually at such a time as that But especially I knew that it was like to be their utter undoing by hardening them into utter Enmity against the means that should recover them And I never yet saw any signs of hope in any Excommunicate Person unless as they are yet men and capable of what God will do upon them except one that humbled himself and begged Absolution Now either Discipline is to be exercised according to Christ's Rule or not If not then the Church is no purer a Society as to its Orders than those of Infidels and Pagans but Christ must be disobeyed and his House of Prayer made a Den of Thieves If yea then either impartially upon all obstinate impenitent Sinners according to Christ's Rule or but on some If but on some only it will be a Judgment of Partiality and Unrighteousness whereas where there is the same Cause there must usually be the same Penalty If on all then the multitude of the Scandalous in almost all places is so great and the Effects of Excommunication so dreadful that it would tend to damning of multitudes of Souls which being contrary to the design of the Gospel is not to be taken for the Will of Christ we have our Power to Edification and not to Destruction A few in case of necessity may be punished though to their hurt for the good of all but multitudes must not be so used Indeed a Popish Interdict or mock Excommunication by the Sentence of a Prelate or Lay-Chancellour may pass against multitudes and have no considerable Effect but as it is enforced by the Sword But the Word of God is quick and powerful and when it is thus personally applyed in the Sentencing of a guilty obstinate Sinner doth one way or other work more effectually Therefore in this difficulty there can be but two Remedies devised One is with the Anabaptists to leave Infants unbaptized that so they may not be taken into the Church till they are fit for the Orders of the Church But this is injurious to Infants and against the will of God and hath more inconveniences than benefits Though for my part as much as I have wrote against them I wish that it were in the Church now as it was in the days of Tertullian Nazianzen and Austin where no man was compelled to bring his Infants to Baptism but all left to their own time For then some as Augustine c. were baptized at full Age and some in Infancy The second therefore is the only just and safe Remedy which is That by the due performance of Confirmation there may be a Soleman Transition out of the state of Infant Church-Membership into the state of Adult Church-Membership and due qualifications therein required and that the unfit may till then be left inter Auditores without the Priviledges proper to Adult Members of which I have fully written in my Book of Confirmation 26. Another Advantage which I found to my Success was by ordering my Doctrine to them in a suitableness to the main end and yet so as might suit their Dispositions and Diseases The thing which I daily opened to them and with greatest importunity laboured to imprint upon their minds was the great Fundamental Principles of Christianity contained in their Baptismal Covenant even a right knowledge and belief of and subjection and love to God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and Love to all Men and Concord with the Church and one another I did so daily inculcate the Knowledge of God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier and Love and Obedience to God and Unity with the Church Catholick and Love to Men and Hope of Life Eternal that these were the matter of their daily Cogitations and Discourses and indeed their Religion And yet I did usually put in something in my Sermon which was above their own discovery and which they had not known before and this I did that they might be kept humble and still perceive their ignorance and be willing to keep in a learning state For when Preachers tell their People of no more than they know and do not shew that they excel them in Knowledge and easily over-top them in Abilities the People will be tempted to turn Preachers themselves and think that they have learnt all that the Ministers can teach them and are as wise as they and they will be apt to contemn their Teachers and wrangle with all their Doctrines and set their Wits against them and hear them as Censurers and not as Disciples to their own undoing and to the disturbance of the Church and they will easily draw Disciples after them The bare Authority of the Clergy will not serve the turn without over-topping Ministerial Abilities And I did this also to increase their Knowledge and also to make Religion pleasant to them by a daily addition to their former Light and to draw them on with desire and Delight But these things which they did not know before were not unprofitable Controversies which tended not to Edification nor Novelties in Doctrine contrary to the Universal Church but either such Points as tended to illustrate the great Doctrines before-mentioned or usually about the right methodizing of them The opening of the true and profitable method of the Creed or Doctrine of Faith the Lord's Prayer or Matter of our Desires and the Ten Commandments or Law of Practice which afford matter to add to the knowledge of most Professors of Religion a long time And when that is done they must be led on still further by degrees as they are capable but so as not to leave the weak behind and so as shall still be truly subservient to the great Points of Faith Hope and Love Holiness and Unity which must be still inculcated as the beginning and the end of all 27. Another help to my Success was that my People were not Rich There were among them very few Beggers because their common Trade of Stuff-weaving would find work for all Men Women and Children that were able And there were none of the Trades-men very rich seeing their Trade was poor that would but find them Food and Raiment The Magistrates of the Town were few of them worth 40 l. per An. and most not half so much Three or four of the Richest thriving Masters of the Trade got but about 500 or 600 l. in twenty years and it may be lose 100 l. of it at once by an ill Debtor The generality of the Master Workmen lived but a little better than their
System of Divinity which having never yet had time to write I have omitted the reprinting of them to this day But some have surreptitiously printed them against my will In my Confession I opened the whole Doctrine of Antinomianism which I opposed and I brought the Testimonies of abundance of our Divines who give as much to other Acts besides Faith in Justification as I. And I opened the weakness of Dr. Owen's Reasonings for Justification before Faith in his former Answer to me To which he wrote an Answer annexing it to his Confutation of Biddle and the Cracovian Catechism to intimate that I belonged to that Party that I thought it unfit to make any Reply to it not only because I had no vacancy from better work but because the quality of it was such as would unavoidably draw me if I confuted it to speak so much and so offensively to the Person as well as the Doctrine that it would have been a Temptation to the further weakening of his Charity and increasing his desire of Revenge And I thought it my duty when the Readers good required me not to write to forbear replying and to let him have the last word because I had begun with him And I perceived that the common distast of Men against him and his Book made my Reply the more unnecessary But for all the Writings and Warth of Men which were provoked against me I must here record my Thanks to God for the Success of my Controversal Writings against the Antinomians when I was in the Army it was the predominant Infection The Books of Dr. Crisp Paul Hobson Saltmarsh Cradock and abundance such like were the Writings most applauded and he was thought no Spiritual Christian but a Legalist that savoured not of Antinomianism which was sugared with the Title of Free-grace and others were thought to preach the Law and not to preach Christ. And I confess the darkness of many Preachers in the Mysteries of the Gospel and our common neglect of studying and preaching Grace and Gratitude and Love did give occasion to the prevalency of this Sect which God no doubt permitted for our good to review our apprehension of those Evangelical Graces and Duties which we barely acknowledged but in our practice almost over-lookt But this Sect that then so much prevailed was so suddenly almost extinct that now they little appear and make no noise among us at all nor have done these many years In which effect those ungrateful Controversal Writings of my own have had so much hand as obligeth me to very much Thankfulness to God § 164. About that time having been at London and preached some Sermons there one scrap of a Sermon preached in Westminster-Abbey to many Members of Parliament was taken by some one and printed which is nothing but the naming of a few Directions which I then gave the Parliament Men for Church Reformation and Peace according to the state of those Times which it was preached in In Oliver Cromwell's time § 165. 10. And when I was returned home I was sollicited by Letters to print many of the Sermons which I had preached in London and in some of them I gratified their desires One Sermon which I published was against Mens making light of Christ upon Matth. 22. 5. This Sermon was preached at Lawrence Iury where Mr. Vines was Pastor where though I sent the day before to secure room for the Lord Broghill and the Earl of Suffolk with whom I was to go in the Coach yet when I came the Crowd had so little respect of Persons that they were fain to go home again because they could not come within hearing and the old Earl of Warwick who stood in the Abbey brought me home again And Mr. Vines himself was fain to get up into the Pulpit and sit behind me and I to stand between his Legs which I mention that the Reader may understand that Verse in my Poem concerning him which is printed where I say That At once one Pulpit held us both § 166. 11. Another of those Sermons which I published was A Sermon of Iudgment which I enlarged into a small Treatise This was preached at Pauls at the desire of Sir Christopher Pack then Lord Mayor to the greatest Auditory that I ever saw § 167. 12. Another Sermon which I preached at Martin's Church I printed with enlargement called Catholick Unity shewing the great necessity of Unity in real Holiness It is fitted to the prophane and ignorant People who are still crying out against Errours and Divisions about lesser matters while they themselves do practically and damnably err in the Foundation and divide themselves from God from Christ from the Spirit and from all the living Members of Christ And it sheweth how greatly Ungodliness tendeth to Divisions and Godliness to the truest Unity and Peace § 168. 13. About that time I had preached a Sermon at Worcester which though rude and not polished I thought meet to print under the Title of The true Catholick and The Catholick Church described It is for Catholicism against all Sects to shew the Sin and Folly and Mischief of all Sects that would appropriate the Church to themselves and trouble the World with the Question Which of all these Parties is the Church as if they knew not that the Catholick Church is that whole which containeth all the Parts though some more pure and some less especially it is suited against the Romish Claim which damneth all Christians besides themselves and it detecteth and confuteth dividing Principles For I apprehended it a Matter of great Necessity to imprint true Catholicism on the Minds of Christians it being a most lamentable thing to observe how few Christians in the World there be that fall not into one Sect or other and wrong not the common Interest of Christianity for the promoting of the Interest of their Sect And how lamentably Love is thereby destroyed so that most men think not that they are bound to love those as the Members of Christ which are against their Party and the Leaders of most Sects do not stick to persecute those that differ from them and think the Blood of those who hinder their Opinions and Parties to be an acceptable Sacrifice to God And if they can but get to be of a Sect which they think the holiest as the Anabaptists and Separatists or which is the largest as the Greeks and Papists they think then that they are sufficiently warranted to deny others to be God's Church or at least to deny them Christian Love and Communion To this small Book I annexed a Poscript against a ridiculous Pamphlet of one Malpas an old scandalous neighbour Minister who was permitted to stay in by the Parliament so far were they from being over-strict in their Reformation of the Clergy and now is a considerable Man among them § 169. 14. When we set on foot our Association in Worcestershire I was desired to print our Agreement with an Explication of
the Shell to a few more than else they would do Whereas upon my deepest search I am satisfied that a Credible Profession of true Christianity is it that denominateth the Adult visible Christians And that this must contain Assent and Consent even all that is in the Baptismal Covenant and no more and therefore Baptism is called our Christning But withal that the Independants bring in Tyranny and Confusion whilst they will take no Profession as Credible which hath not more to make it credible than God and Charity require And that indeed every man's word is to be taken as the Credible Profession of his own mind unless he forfeit the Credit of his word by gross ignorance of the Matter professed or by a Contrary Profession or by an inconsistent Life And therefore a Profession is credible as such of it self till he that questioneth it doth disprove it Else the Rules of Humane Converse will be overthrown for who knoweth the Heart of another so well as he himself And God who will save or damn men not for other mens Actions but their own will have mens own choosing or refusing to be their inlet or exclusion both as to Saving Mercy and to a Church state And if they be Hypocrites in a false Profession the sin and loss will be their own But I confess mens Credibility herein hath very various degrees But though my fears are never so great that a man dissembleth and is not sincere yet if I be not able to bring in that Evidence to invalidate his Profession which in foro Ecclesiae shall prove it to be incredible I ought to receive him as a credible Professor though but by a Humane and perhaps most debile Belief § 172. 17. After that I published four Disputations of Justification clearing up further those Points in which some Reverend Brethren blamed my Judgment and answering Reverend Mr. Burgess who would needs write somewhat against me in his Treatise of Imputed Righteousness and also answering a Treatise of Mr. Warner's of the Office and Object of Iustifying Faith The Fallacies that abuse many about those Points are there fully opened If the Reader would have the Sum of my Judgment about Justification in brief he may find it very plainly in a Sermon on that Subject among the Morning Exercises at St. Giles's in the Fields preached by my worthy Friend Mr. Gibbons of Block-Fryars in whose Church I ended my Publick Ministry a Learned Judicious Man now with God And it is as fully opened in a Latin Disputation of Monsieur le Blanc's of Sedan and Placaeus in Thes. Salmur Vol. 1. de Iustif. hath much to the same purpose § 173. 18. Near the same time I published a Treatise of Conversion being some plain Sermons on that Subject which Mr. Baldwin an honest young Minister that had lived in my House and learnt my proper Characters or short-hand in which I wrote my Sermon Notes had transcribed out of my Notes And though I had no leisure for this or other Writings to take much care of the stile nor to add any Ornaments or Citations of Authors I thought it might better pass as it was than not at all and that if the Author mist of the Applause of the Learned yet the Book might be profitable to the Ignorant as it proved through the great Mercy of God § 174. 19. Also I published a shorter Treatise on the same Subject entituled A Call to the Unconverted c. The Occasion of this was my Converse with Bishop Usher while I was at London who much appoving my Method or Directions for Peace of Conscience was importunate with me to write Directions suited to the various States of Christians and also against particular Sins I reverenced the Man but disregarded these Persuasions supposing I could do nothing but what is done as well or better already But when he was dead his Words went deeper to my Mind and I purposed to obey his Counsel yet so as that to the first sort of Men the Ungodly I thought vehement Persuasions meeter than Directions only And so for such I published this little Book which God hath blessed with unexpected Success beyond all the rest that I have written except The Saints Rest In a little more than a Year there were about twenty thousand of them printed by my own Consent and about ten thousand since besides many thousands by stollen Impressions which poor Men stole for Lucre sake Through God's Mercy I have had Informations almost whole Housholds converted by this small Book which I set so light by And as if all this in England Scotland and Ireland were not Mercy enough to me God since I was silenced hath sent it over on his Message to many beyond the Seas for when Mr. Elliot had printed all the Bible in the Indians Language he next translated this my Call to the Unconverted as he wrote to us here And though it was here thought prudent to begin with the Practice of Piety because of the envy and distaste of the times against me he had finished it before that Advice came to him And yet God would make some farther use of it for Mr. Stoop the Pastor of the French Church in London being driven hence by the displeasure of Superiors was pleased to translate it into elegant French and print it in a very curious Letter and I hope it will not be unprofitable there nor in Germany where it is printed in Dutch § 175. 20. After this I thought according to Bishop Usher's Method the next sort that I should write for is those that are under the work of Conversion because by Half-Conversion Multitudes prove deceived Hypocrites Therefore I published a small Book entituled Directions and persuasions to a sound Conversion which though I thought more apt to move than the former yet through the Fault of the covetous Booksellers and because it was held at too high a Price which hindred many other of my Writings there were not past two or three Impressions of them sold. § 176. 21. About that time being apprehensive how great a part of our Work lay in catechising the Aged who were Ignorant as well as Children and especially in serious Conference with them about the Matters of their Salvation I thought it best to draw in all the Ministers of the Country with me that the Benefit might extend the farther and that each one might have the less Opposition Which having procured at their desire I wrote a Catechism and the Articles of our Agreement and before them an earnest Exhortation to our Ignorant People to submit to this way for we were afraid lest they would not have submitted to it And this was then published The Catechism was also a brief Confession of Faith being the Enlargement of a Confession which I had before printed in an open Sheet when we set up Church Discipline § 177. 22. When we set upon this great Work it was thought best to begin with a Day of Fasting and
I do believe all the Sacred Canonical Scripture which all Christian Churches do receive and particularly I believe in God the Father Almighty c. The second Part instead of Books of unnecessary Canons containeth seven or eight Points of Practice for Church-Order which so it be practised it is no great matter whether it be subscribed or not And here it must be understood that these are written for Times of Liberty in which Agreement rather than Force doth procure Unity and Communion The third Part containeth the larger-Description of the Office of the Ministry and consequently of all the Ordinances of Worship which need not be subscribed but none should preach against it nor omit the practice except Peace require that the Point of Infant Baptism be left free This small Book is called by the Name of Universal Concord which when I wrote I thought to have published a Second Part viz. a large Volume containing the particular Terms of Concord between all Parties capable of Concord But the Change of the Times hath necessarily changed that purpose § 198. 42. The next published was a Sermon before the Parliament the day before they voted in the King being a Day of Humiliation appointed to that end It is called A Sermon of Repentance of which more afterward § 199. 43. The next published was a Sermon preached before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen at Pauls being on their Day of Rejoycing for General Monk's Success to bring in the King It is called A Sermon of Right Rejoycing § 200. 44. The next was a Sermon of the Life of Faith preached before the King being all that every I was called to preach before him when I had been sworn his Chaplain in Ordinary of which more afterward § 201. 45. The next was called A Believer's last Work being prepared for the Funeral of Mrs. Mary Hanmer Mother to my Wife then intended but after married Its use is to prepare for a Comfortable Death § 202. 46. Before this which I forgot in its proper place I published a Treatise of Death called The last Enemy to be overcome shewing the true Nature of the Enmity of Death and its uses Being a Funeral Sermon for Mrs. Elizabeth Baker Wife to Mr. Ioseph Baker Minister at Worcester with some Notes of her Life § 203. 47. Another was called The vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite A Discovery of the Nature and Mischief of a Formal vain Religion preached at Westminister-Abby with a Sermon annexed of the Prosperity of Fools This being preached at Covent-Garden was unjustly accused and published by way of Vindication with the former § 204. 48. The next was a Treatise on Luke 10. 42. One thing is needful called A Saint or a Bruit shewing the Necessity Utility Safety Honour and Pleasure of a Holy Life and evincing the Truth of our Religion against Atheists and Infidels and Prophane ones § 205. 49. The next was a Treatise of Self-knowledge preached at Dunstan's West called The Mischiefs of Self-ignorance and Benefits of Self-acquaintance which was published partly to vindicate it from many false Accusations and partly at the desire of the Countess of Balcarres to whom it was directed It was fitted to the Disease of this â—urious Age in which each man is ready to devour others because they do not know themselves § 206. 50. The next was a Treatise called The Divine Life which containeth three Parts The first is of the Right Knowledge of God for the imprinting of his Image on the Soul by the knowledge of his Attributes c. The second is Of walking with God The third is Of improving Solitude to converse with God when we are forsaken by all Friends or separated from them The Occasion of the publishing of this Treatise was this The Countess of Balcarres being going into Scotland after her adobe in England being deeply sensible of the loss of the Company of those Friends which she left behind her desired me to preach the last Sermon which she was to hear from me on those words of Christ Iohn 16. 32. Behold the hour cometh yea is now come that ye shall be Scattered every man to his own and shall leave me alone and yet I am not alone because the Father is with me At her request I preached on this Text and being afterward desired by her to give it her in Writing and the Publication being her design I prefixed the two other Treatises to make it more considerable and published them together The Treatise is upon the most Excellent Subject but not elaborate at all being but Popular Sermons preached in the midst of diverting Businesses Accusations and malicious Clamours When I offered it to the Press I was fain to leave out the quantity of one Sermon in the end of the second Treatise That God took Henoch wherein I shewed what a mercy it is to one that hath walked with God to be taken to him from this World because it is a dark a wicked a malicious and implacable a treacherous deceitful World c. All which the Bishop's Chaplain must have expunged because men would think it was all spoken of them And so the World hath got a Protection against the force of our Baptismal Vow § 207. Because I have said so much in the Epistles of these two Books of the Countess of Balcarres the Reader may expect some further satisfaction of her Quality and the Cause She is Daughter to the late Earl of Seaforth in Scotland towards the High-lands and was married to the Earl of Balcarres a Covenanter but an Enemy to Cromwell's perfidiousness and true to the Person and Authority of the King with the Earl of Glencarne he kept up the last War for the King against Cromwell and his Lady through dearness of Affection marched with him and lay out of doors with him on the Mountains At last Cromwell drove them out of Scotland and they went together beyond Sea to the King where they long followed the Court and he was taken for the Head of the Presbyterians with the King and by evil Instruments fell out with the Lord Chancellor who prevailing against him upon some advantage he was for a time forbidden the Court the Grief whereof added to the Distempers he had contracted by his Warfare on the cold and hungry Mountains cast him into a Consumption of which he died He was a Lord of excellent Learning Judgment and Honesty none being praised equally with him for Learning and Understanding in all Scotland When the Earl of Lauderdaile his near Kinsman and great Friend was Prisoner in Portsmouth and Windsor-Castle he fell into acquaintance with my Books and so valued them that he read them all and took Notes of them and earnestly commended them to the Earl of Balcarres with the King The Earl of Balcarres met at the first sight with some Passages where he thought I spake too favourably of the Papists and differed from many other Protestants and so cast them by and sent the
their own Infirmity nor yet the nature of Pastoral Government which ought to be Paternal and by Love nor do they know the way to win a Soul nor to maintain the Churches Peace 23. My Soul is much more afflicted with the thoughts of the miserable World and more drawn out in desire of their Conversion than heretofore I was wont to look but little further than England in my Prayers as not considering the state of the rest of the World Or if I prayed for the Conversion of the Jews that was almost all But now as I better understand the Case of the World and the method of the Lord's Prayer so there is nothing in the World that lyeth so heavy upon my heart as the thought of the miserable Nations of the Earth It is the most astonishing part of all God's Providence to me that he so far forsaketh almost all the World and confineth his special Favour to so few That so small a part of the World hath the Profession of Christianity in comparison of Heathens Mahometans and other Infidels And that among professed Christians there are so few that are saved from gross Delusions and have but any competent Knowledge and that among those there are so few that are seriously Religious and truly set their hearts on Heaven I cannot be affected so much with the Calamities of my own Relations or the Land of my Nativity as with the Case of the Heathen Mahometan and ignorant Nations of the Earth No part of my Prayers are so deeply serious as that for the Conversion of the Infidel and Ungodly World that God's Name may be sanctified and his Kingdom come and his Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Nor was I ever before so sensible what a Plague the Division of Languages was which hindereth our speaking to them for their Conversion nor what a great Sin Tyranny is which keepeth out the Gospel from most of the Nations of the World Could we but go among Tartarians Turks and Heathens and speak their Language I should be but little troubled for the silencing of Eighteen hundred Ministers at once in England nor for all the rest that were cast out here and in Scotland and Ireland There being no Employment in the World so desirable in my Eyes as to labour for the winning of such miserable Souls which maketh me greatly honour Mr. Iohn Eliot the Apostle of the Indians in New-England and whoever else have laboured in such work 24. Yet am I not so much inclined to pass a peremptory Sentence of Damnation upon all that never heard of Christ having some more reason than I knew of before to think that God's dealing with such is much unknown to us And that the Ungodly here among us Christians are in a far worse Case than they 25. My Censures of the Papists do much differ from what they were at first I then thought that their Errours in the Doctrines of Faith were their most dangerous Mistakes as in the Points of Merit Justification by Works Assurance of Salvation the Nature of Faith c. But now I am assured that their mis-expressions and mis-understanding us with our mistakings of them and inconvenient expressing our own Opinions hath made the difference in these Points to appear much greater than they are and that in some of them it is next to none at all But the great and unreconcilable Differences lye in their Church Tyranny and Usurpations and in their great Corruptions and Abasement of God's Worship together with their befriending of Ignorance and Vice At first I thought that Mr. Perkins well proved that a Papist cannot go beyond a Reprobate but now I doubt not but that God hath many sanctified Ones among them who have received the true Doctrine of Christianity so practically that their contradictory Errours prevail not against them to hinder their Love of God and their Salvation but that their Errours are like a conquerable Dose of Poyson which Nature doth overcome And I can never believe that a Man may not be saved by that Religion which doth but bring him to the true Love of God and to heavenly Mind and Life nor that God will ever cast a Soul into Hell that truly loveth him Also at first it would disgrace any Doctrine with me if I did but hear it called Popery and Antichristian but I have long learned to be more impartial and to dislike Men for bad Doctrine rather than the Doctrines for the Men and to know that Satan can use even the Names of Popery and Antichrist against a Truth 26. I am deeplier afflicted for the disagreements of Christians than I was when I was a younger Christian. Except the Case of the Infidel World nothing is so sad and grievous to my thoughts as the Case of the divided Churches And therefore I am more deeply sensible of the sinfulness of those Prelates and Pastors of the Churches who are the principal Cause of these Divisions O how many millions of Souls are kept by them in ignorance and ungodliness and deluded by Faction as if it were true Religion How is the Conversion of Infidels hindered by them and Christ and Religion heinously dishonoured The Contentions between the Greek Church and the Roman the Papists and the Protestants the Lutherans and the Calvinists have wofully hindered the Kingdom of Christ. 27. I have spent much of my Studies about Terms of Christian Concord and have over and over considered of the several ways which several sorts of Reconcilers have devised I have thought of the Papists way who think there will be no Union but by coming over wholly to their Church and I have found that it is neither Possible nor desirable I have thought and thought again of the way of the moderating Papists Cassander Grotius Balwin c. and of those that would have all reduced to the state of the Times of Gregory the First before the Division of the Greek and Latin Churches that the Pope might have his Primacy and govern all the Church by the Canons of the Councils with a Salvo to the Right of Kings and Patriarchs and Prelates and that the Doctrines and Worship which then were received might prevail And for my own part if I lived in such a state of the Church I would live peaceably as glad of Unity though lamenting the Corruption and Tyranny But I am fully assured that none of these are the true desirable Terms of Unity nor such as are ever like to procure an Universal Concord And I am as sure that the true Means and Terms of Concord are obvious and easie to an impartial willing mind And that these three Things alone would easily heal and unite all the Churches 1. That all Christian Princes and Governours take all the Coercive Power about Religion into their own hands though if Prelates and their Courts must be used as their Officers in exercising that Coercive Power so be it And that they make a difference between the approved
Schism and Herefie come to be opened it will not be found to lye where you imagin nor so easily proved as rashly affirmed or intimated 2. Do not be too sensible of Persecution when Liberty of Conscience is so proclaimed though the Restriction be somewhat on your side O the difference of your Persecution and theirs that suffered by you 3. The only conscionable and safe way for the Church and your own Souls is to love long for pray and consult for Peace Close in the unanimous practice of so much as all are agreed in In amicable Meetings endeavour the healing of all breaches Disown the ungodly of all Parties Lay by the new violent Opinions inconsistant with Unity I expect not that this advice should please the prejudiced But that it 's the only safe and comfortable way is the Confident Opinion of Your Brother Richard Baxter All the Disturbance I had in my own Parish was by Sir Ralph Clare's refusing to Communicate with us unless I would give it him kneeling on a distinct Day and not with those that received it fitting To which Demand I gave him this following Answer SIR UPon Consultation with others and my own Conscience I return this Answer to your last motion beseeching you to believe that it had been more pleasing if it would have stood with the pleasing of God and any own Conscience 1. In general it is my resolution to be so far from being the Author of any Divisions in any part of the Church of Christ as that I shall do all that lawfully I can to avoid them 2. I am so far from the Judgment and Practices of the late Prelates of England in point of compelling all to obey or imitate them in gestures and other indifferent things on pain of being deprived of God's greatest Ordinances which are not indifferents beside the ruine of their Estates c. that I would become all things lawful to all Men for their good and as I know that the Kingdom of God standeth not in such things so neither would I shut any out of his visible Kingdom for such things as judging that our Office is to see God's Law obeyed as far as we can procure it and not to be Law-gives to the Church our selves and in Circumstantials to make no more Determinations than are necessary left they prove but Engines to ensnare Mens Consciences and to divide the Church And as I would impose no such things on other Churches if I had power so neither will I do it on this Church of which I have some oversight 3. More particularly I am certain that sitting in the receiving of the Lord's Supper is lawful or else Christ and his Apostles and all his Churches for many hundred years after him did sin which cannot be And I take it to be intolerable arrogancy and unmannerliness to speak easily to call that unreverence and sawciness as many do which Christ and the Apostles and all the Church so long used with one consent He better knew what pleaseth himself than we do The vain pretended difference between the Apostles Gesture and ours is nothing to the matter He that sitteth on the Ground sitteth as well as he that sitteth on a Stool And if any difference were it was their Gesture that seems the more homely and no such difference can be pretended in the Christian Churches many hundred years after And I think it is a naked pretence having no shew of reason to cover it of them that against all this will plead a necessity of kneeling because of our unworthiness For 1. The Churches of so long time were unworthy as well as we 2. We may kneel as low as the Dust and on our bare knees if we please immediately before in praying for a blessing and for the pardon of our sins and as soon as we have done 3. Man must not by his own Conceits make those things necessary to the Church which Christ and his Church for so long thought unnecessary 4. On this pretence we might refuse the Sacrament it self for they are more unworthy to eat the Flesh of Christ and to drink his blood than to sit at his Table 5. The Gospel is Glad Tidings the Effects of it are Faith and Peace and Joy the Benefits are to make us one with Christ and to be his Spouse and Members the work of it is the joyful Commemoration of these Benefits and living in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And the Sacramental Signs are such as suit the Benefits and Duties If therefore Christ have called us by his Example and the Example of all his Church to sit with him at his Table to represent Our Union Communion and joyful redeemed State and our everlasting sitting with him at his Table in his Kingdom it as little beseems us to reject this Mercy and Duty because of our Unworthiness as to be our own Lawgivers And on the like Reasons men might say I will not be united to thee nor be a Member of thy Body or married to thee nor sit with thee on thy Throne Rev. 3. 21. according to thy Promise because it would be too great sawciness in me Gospel Mercies and Gospel Duties and Signs must be all suited and so Christ hath done them and we may not undo them 4. I must profess that upon such Considerations I am not certain that sitting is not of commanded Necessity as I am sure it is lawful nor am I certain that kneeling in the Act of Receiving when done of choice is not a flat sin For I know it is not only against Scripture Example where though Circumstances apparently occasional bind not as an upper Room c. yet that 's nothing to others but also it is against the Canons of Councils yea a General Council at Trull in Constantinople and against so concurrent a Judgment and Practice of the Church for many hundred years that it seems to fight with Vincentius Lerinens Catholick Rule quod semper ubique ab omnibus receptum c. Let them therefore justifie kneeling as lawful that can for I cannot and therefore dare not do that which shall be an owning of it when we may freely do otherwise 5. Yet for all this I so much incline to Thoughts of Peace and Closure with others that I will not say that sitting is of necessity nor that kneeling is unlawful unless where other Circumstances make it so nor condemn any that differ from me herein Yea if I could not otherwise Communicate with the Church in the Sacrament I would take it kneeling myself as being certain that the Sacrament is a Duty and not certain that kneeling is a sin and in that Case I believe it is not 6. As for them that think kneeling a Duty because of the Canons of the late Bishops enjoyning it I have more to say against their Judgment than this Paper will contain Only in a word 1. If it be the Secular Powers establishing those Canons that binds
set all in joint again by Violence and secure the Peace of Church and State And neither Pope Prelate nor Council should take this Work upon them which is his And therefore Magistrates should be Wise and Holy and fit for so great a Charge as they undertake It must be still noted that all this was when Diocesanes were put down and few saw any probability of restoring them and many religions Persons dreaded such a Restoration § 50. When Cromwell's Faction were making him Protector they drew up a Thing which they called The Government of England c. Therein they determined that all should have Liberty or free Exercise of their Religion who professed Faith in God by Iesus Christ After this he called a Parliament which Examined this Instrument of Government and when they came to those words the Orthodox Party affirmed That if they spake de re and not de nomine Faith in God by Iesus Christ could contain no less than the Fundamentals of Religion whereupon it was purposed that all should have a due measure of Liberty who professed the Fundamentals Hereupon the Committee appointed to that Business were required to nominate certain Divines to draw up in terminis the Fundamentals of Religion to be as a Test in this Toleration The Committee being about Fourteen named every one his Man The Lord Broghill after Earl of Orery and Lord President of Munster and one of his Majesty's Privy Council named the Primate of Ireland Archbishop Usher When he because of his Age and Unwillingness to wrangle with such Men as were to join with him had refused the Service the Lord Broghill nominated me in his Stead Whereupon I was sent for up to London But before I came the rest had begun their Work and drawn up some few of the Propositions which they called Fundamentals The Men that I found there were Mr. Marshal Mr. Reyner Dr. Cheynell Dr. Goodwin Dr. Owen Mr. Nye Mr. Sydraâ—â— Sympson Mr. Vines Mr. Manton and Mr. Iacomb § 51. I knew how ticklish a Business the Enumeration of Fundamentals was and of what very ill Consequence it would be if it were ill done and how unsatisfactorily that Question What are your Fundamentals is usually answered to the Papists My own Judgment was this that we must distinguish between the Sense or matter and the Words and that it 's only the Sense that is primarily and properly our Fundamentals and the Words no further than as they are needful to express that Sence to others or represent it to our own Conception that the Word Fundamentals being Metaphorical and Ambiguous the Word Essentials is much fitter it being nothing but what is Essential or Constitutive of true Religion which is understood by us usually when we speak of Fundamentals that quoad rem there is no more Essential or Fundamental in Religion but what is contained in our Baptismal Covenant I believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and give up my self in Covenant to him renouncing the Flesh the World and the Devil He that doth this truly shall be saved or else sincere Covenanting could not entitle us to the Blessings of the Covenant And therefore it is that the Ancient Church held that all that are Baptized duly are in a Justified State of Life because all that sincerely give up themselves in Covenant to God as our God and Father our Redeemer and Saviour our Sanctifier and Comforter have right to the Blessings of the Covenant And quoad verba I suppose that no particular Words in the World are Essentials of our Religion Otherwise no Man could be saved without the Language which those Words belong to He that understandeth not Credo in Deum may be saved if he believe in God Also I suppose that no particular Formula of Words in any or all Languages is Essential to our Religion for he that expresseth his Faith in another form of words of the same importance professeth a Saving Faith And as to the Use of a Form of Words to express our Belief of the Essential it is various and therefore the Form accordingly is variable If it be to teach another what is the Essence of Religion a dull hearer must have many Words when a quick intelligent Person by few Words can understand the same thing I believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost expresseth all the Essentials intelligibly to him that hath learned truly to understand the meaning of these Words But to an ignorant Man a large plain Catechism is short enough to express the same things But as to the Use of Publick Professions of Faith to satisfie the Church for the Admittance of Members or to satisfie other Churches to hold Communion with any particular Church a Form of Words which is neither obscure by too much Conciseness not Tedious or Tautological by a needless Multiplication of Words I take to be the fittest To which ends and because the Ancient Churches had once a happy Union on those Terms I think that this is all that should be required of any Church or Member ordinarily to be professed In General I do believe all that is contained in the Sacred Canonical Scriptures and particularly I believe all explicitly contained in the Ancient Creed and I desire all that is contained in the Lord's Prayer and I resolve upon Obedience to the Ten Commandments and whatever selfe I can learn of the Will of God And for all other Points it is enough to preserve both Truth and Peace that Men promise not to preach against them or contradict them though they Subscribe them not § 52. Therefore I would have had the Brethren to have offered the Parliament the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue alone as our Essentials or Fundamentals which at least contain all that is necessary to Salvation and hath been by all the Ancient Churches taken for the Sum of their Religion And whereas they still said A Socinian or a Papist will Subscribe all this I answered them So much the better and so much the fitter it is to be the Matter of our Concord But if you are afraid of Communion with Papists and Socinians it must not be avoided by making a new Rule or Test of Faith which they will not Subscribe to or by forcing others to Subscribe to more than they can do but by calling them to account whenever in Preaching or Writing they contradict or abuse the Truth to which they have Subscribed This is the Work of Government And we must not think to make Laws serve instead of Iudgement and Execution nor must we make new Laws as oft as Hereticks will mis-interpret and subscribe the old for when you have put in all the Words you can devise some Hereticks will put their own Sence on them and Subscribe them And we must not blame God for not making a Law that no Man can misinterpret or break and think to make such a one ourselves because God could not or would not These Presumptions and
Divisions or satisfying the Desires and Consciences of multitudes of Persons truly fearing God And if we may not have Discipline to promote a just Reformation of Manners we shall still have irregular Attempts of Reformation But it is not the Name that we insist on Call them Rural Deans or Arch-Deacons or what you please so be it they may be authorized to do the things â—ere desired even to exercise that Discipline which one Bishop in a County cannot exercise 6. A General Care is one thing and the Special Charge of the particular Pastor is another The former extendeth no further than to oversee the particular Pastors and to receive Appeals in extraordinary Cases from any of the People and to teach them in course while as Visitors they pass from one Parish to another and in the same manner to administer Sacraments and personally exercise Parish Discipline But the Special Charge containeth an Obligation to watch over each particular Person in an ordinary teaching them publickly and privately as they have occasion and opportunity and plucking up all Weeds of Heresie and Profaneness that shall spring up among them resolving Doubts convincing Gainsayers and ordinarily guiding them in Publick Worship calling the Offenders to Penitence and absolving the Penitent and binding over the Impenitent to the Judgment Seat of Christ and requiring the People to avoid them If you impose on every Diocesan Bishop besides the fore-described General Care this Special Charge over every Soul as every Pastor of a particular Church hath you will take an effectual Course to keep the most pious modest and thoughtful Persons out of that rank And your Phrase of Intrusting so much as is found necessary in the hands of the Rector of each Parish seemeth to intimate that you take those Rectors not only for Men of a distinct Order or Office from the Bishops but also of an Office that it is not of Divine Institution and described by God but of Humane Institution and left to the Bishop's Discretion what it shall be and how much power such shall have and that they are to be intrusted with it from the Bishops as the Italians in Concil Trident. would have had the Bishops to have theirs from the Pope If this be your meaning it will not reconcile If it be not then the Rectors of each Parish may knowâ— their Office from the Holy Scripture and receive it as from Christ who hath instituted it and entrusted them with it 7. We desire the Scripture Confession but to the Extent and Securing of our Peace and Concord If Papists would agree upon such a Confession yea on a Subscription to the whole Scripture we should rejoice But they cannot do it without ceasing to be Papists And many may rise up among our selves that may scruple some words in the 39 Articles that are not fit ergo to be persecuted and cast out of the Church as Mr. Chillingworth's Instance proves 1. As he that should scruple some one word of no great weight in Athanasius's Creed contrary to Art 8. 2. Or the absolute Exclusion of Works in the Article of Justification Art 11. 3. Or the displeasingness and sinfulness of Works before Faith and their not making Men meet to receive Grace Art 13. 4. And that voluntary Works besides or above God's Commandments cannot be taught without Aâ—â—ogancy and Impiety vide Annot. Dr. H. H. in 1 Cor. 9. 16 17. Art 14. 5. If any think that the Virgin Mary or Infants offended not in many things Art 15. We question whether it be according to the Ancient Simplicity or Charity to cast out all these from our Churches 6. And what if Dr. Taylor and many others cannot Subscribe to Art 9. and 2. 7. And if a Man believe not that by good Works a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a Tree discerned by the Fruit should he be presently cast out Art 12. 8. The 21 Art concludeth that General Councils may not be gathered together without the Commandment and Will of Princes and some think it may as well besaid that we may not meet for Publick Worship without their Command and Will and that this proveth that there never was a General Council nor ever will be because the Princes Infidels and Christians in whose Dominions the Bishops live never did or will generally Consent to have their Subjects go to a General Council 9. The 31st Art concludeth that there is none other Satisfaction for Sin but Christ's alone which many beside Grotius do contradict 10. Many dare not Subscribe to the 34th Art without restrictionâ— 11. Many good Men dare not so fully approve of all the Homilies as Art 35. dothâ— 12. Many have refused Subscription because of Art 36 it being hard so far to justifie every word in such Humane Writings as the Book of Consecration is Now it seems against our Unity to make such a Test of it as all Persons tolerable cannot agree in And it seems contrary to the Ancient Simplicity which required no other Test than the Scriptures and the Creeds And it hardeneth the Papists to call on us to prove a Succession of Protestants from the first Ages that is of Men that have held all the 39 Articles But yet we highly value the 39 Articles as found and moderate and if we can procure no nearer a recourse to Scripture and Ancient Simplicity we shall cheerfully submit to the 39 Articles if the Doctrine of Bishops and Ceremonies might be left out as Matters of Practice and not of Faith as long as we are responsible for any Disobedience And it 's hard if such things must be Subscribed as of Necessity to our Church Communion or Ministry And that these have been excepted against by the Old Nonconformists I suppose you know And if you could be content with a Scripture Confession if Rome would yield to it why should you deny to your Brethren at home that which you would grant the Romanists and therefore confess you may lawfully grant Let us lay down such a Rule of Concord as is fit for all to yield to and then leave all to accept it as they please and so they cannot blame our Religion nor maintain their Alienation But if we will not be content with a Rule that 's fitted for Universal Concord we keep Men from it And seeing you now say It 's reasonable that we be clog'd with no more why might not the same have been said of some of the fore-mentioned Passages if they had been left out 8. But the Doubt is Whether you will allow the Title of the Ministers now in possession except as before excepted or whether you will rather judge all their Titles void that were not Ordained by Diocesan Bishops Lastly We desire to know whether all the rest not touched on and excepted against in these Notes have your Consent as that Bishops be chosen by the whole Clergy and Ordain not and Censure not without their Synods c. O how easie were a
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
the first is true Resp 1. Neg. Major Because 1. The Subject is changed You were to have spoken of the first Act commanded and you speak of the first Act commanding in the first Member You should have said Else the first Act may be commanded sub Poenâ injustâ and yet be in it self lawful which is true 2. Because in the second Member where you should have spoken only of the commanded Circumstances of the Act you now speak of all its Circumstances whether commanded or not 3. We undertook not to give you all our Reasons The Minor may be false upon many other Reasons And were your Major reduced in the Points excepted against we should deny the Minor as to both Members And we should add our Reasons 1. That Command which commandeth an Act in it self lawful and only such may yet be sinful privatively by omission of some thing necessary some Mode or Circumstance 2. It may sinfully restrain though it sinfully command not 3. It may be sinful in Modis commanding that universally or indefenitely or particularly or singularly that should be otherwise though in the Circumstances properly so called of the Act nothing were Commanded that is sinful 4. It may through culpable Ignorance be applied to undue Subjects who are not Circumstances as if a People that have the Plague be commanded to keep Assemblies for Worship the Lawgiver being culpably ignorant that they had the Plague Many more Reason may be given Oppon We make good our Major by shewing that the Subject is not changed thus If whensoever the first Act is commanded sub Poenâ injustâ and no other Act is commanded whereby any unjust Penalty is enjoined which were your Words the first Act commanding must command an unjust Punishment which were ours then we have not changed the Subject But the Antecedent is true therefore the Consequent § 234. Thus Reader thou hast every Word that was brought by them in this Disputation to prove the justness of all those Impositions on pain of Excommunication which infers Imprisonment c. which have divided this miserable bleeding Church and will admit of no Remedy nor patiently endure him that shall propose it or beg for Peace and Charity at their Hands § 235. The other Arguments which I offered and they were not accepted or read were these following In which you must note that all these Arguments were but proposed thus briefly and not followed up because it was expected that they should have called us to that And that this Writing was but begun and many more Scripture Texts and Arguments omitted for want of time and by the Interruption of our Disputation And concerning the foregoing Reply to Dr. Gunning about the Sense of Rom. 14. Note that as I was purposing to have added a multitude of Testimonies more to those of Dr. Hammond and Grotius the ending of our Disputation did prevent me and ever since then I cast by all such Thoughts as these foreseeing that now when they would not endure the means of Peace my Duty would henceforth lye on the other side to plead other Men into true and moderate Thoughts of things indifferent and Obedience so far as the Unity and Peace of the Church required it and the matters imposed were not sinful to the Doers though they might be sinful to the Imposers I knew that henceforth I should be as much exercised in moderating those for whom I had now pleaded and must bear some censure also from many of them Quest. Whether it be just or lawful to enjoin all Ministers to deny Communion to all that dare not kneel in the Reception of the Sacrament on the Lord's Days Neg. Because you will needs cast all the Opponent's Work on us by arguing that we have brought no sufficient Reasons for the contrary appealing to all Men acquainted with the just Method of Disputation whether you that have the affirmative do not hereby fly all just and equal Dispute and shew a Diffidence of your Cause we that have the negative shall more justly by the same method cast back your proper Work upon you If it be just or lawful to enjoin all Ministers to deny Communion to all that dare not kneel in the Reception of the Sacrament on the Lord's Days then some cogent Argument may be drawn from the Nature of the thing or supernatural Revelation to justify it But no Argument can be drawn for ought that ever was yet by the Right Reverend Fathers or Reverend Brethren produced or manifested to us or we can tell where to find or how to invent from the Nature of the thing or from supernatural Revelation to justify it Ergo it is not just c. If any such Argument can be produced let it be produced or you forsake your Cause Note that this was written before they yielded to be Opponents I. Our first Argument drawn from general Councils and the Practice of the Universal Church we handled already and are ready to bring in fuller Proof II. And our second Argument from Rom. 14 and 15. where the Case is purposely and largely decided that things of such Moment must not be made the matter of Censures Rejections or Contempt III. To impose on the Church things antecedently unnecessary upon so great a Penalty as Exclusion froth Communion is a sinful thing But to enjoin all Ministers to deny Communion to all that dare not kneel in the Reception of the Sacrament for Fear of Idolatry or Scandal is to impose on the Church things antecedently unnecessary upon so great a Penalty as Exclusion froth the Communion Ergo to enjoyn all Ministers to deny Communion to all that dare not kneel in the Reception of the Sacrament is a sinful thing The Major is proved thus That which is contrary to the express Determination of the Holy Ghost Acts 15. is a sinful thing But to Impose on the Church Things antecedently unnecessary upon so great a Penalty as Exclusion from Communion is contrary to the express Determination of the Holy Ghost Acts 15. 28. For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things Ergo it is a sinful thing IV. To cross that great Rule of Charity I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice is a Sin But to enjoyn all Ministers to deny Communion to all that dare not kneel in the Reception of the Sacrament is to cross that great Rule of Charity c. Ergo it is a Sin The Major is certain Christ himself urging it twice upon the Ceremonious hypocritical Pharisess Matth. 9. 13. 12. 7. The Minor is thus proved To prefer Sacrifice before Mercy yea an unnecessary Ceremony before Sacrifice and Mercy is a crossing of that Rule But to enjoyn all Ministers to deny Communion to all that dare not kneel in the Reception of the Sacrament is to prefer Sacrifice before Mercy yea an unnecessary Ceremony before Sacrifice and Mercy Ergo it is a crossing of that
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
Works are concauses with faith in the act of Iustification Dr. Dove also hath given Scandal in that point 3. Some have preached the Works of Penance are satisfactory before God 4. Some have preached that private Consession by particular Enumeration of Sins is necessary to Salvation necessitate medii both those Errours have been questioned at the Consistory at Cambridge 5. Some have maintained that the Absolution which the Priest pronounceth is more than Declaratory 6. Some have published That there is a proper Sacrifice in the Lord's Supper to exhibit Christ's Death in the Postfact as there was a Sacrifice to prefigure in the Old Law in the Antefact and therefore that we have a true Altar and therefore not only metaphorically so called so Dr. Heylin and others in the last Summers Convocation where also some defended that the Oblation of the Elements might hold the Nature of the true Sacrifice others the Consumption of the Elements 7. Some have introduced Prayer for the Dead as Mr. Brown in his printed Sermon and some have coloured the use of it with Questions in Cambridge and disputed that Precespro Defunct is now supponunt Purgatoriuâ— 8. Divers have oppugned the certitude of Salvation 9. Some have maintained the lawfulness of Monastical Vows 10. Some have maintained that the Lord's Day is kept meerly by Ecclesiastical Constitution and that the Day is changeable 11. Some have taught as new and dangerous Doctrine that the Subjects are to pay any Sums of Money imposed upon them though without Law nay contrary to the Laws of the Realm as Dr. Sybthorp and Dr. Manwaring Bishop of St. Davids in their printed Sermons whom many have followed of late years 12. Some have put Scorns upon the two Books of Homilies calling them either Popular Discourses or a Doctrine useful for those Times wherein they were set forth 13. Some have defended the whole gross Substance of Arminianism that Electio eft ex fide praevisa That the Act of Conversion depends upon the Concurrence of Man's Freewill That the justified Man may fall finally and totally from Grace 14. Some have defended Universal Grace as imparted as much to Reprobates as to the Elect and have proceeded usque ad salutem Ethnicorum which the Church of England hath Anathematized 15. Some have absolutely denied Original Sin and so evacuated the Cross of Christ as in a Disputation at Oxon. 16. Some have given excessive Cause of Scandal to the Church as being suspected of Socinianism 17. Some have defended that Concupiscence is no sin either in the habit or first motion 18. Some have broacht out of Socinus a most uncomfortable and desperate Doctrine That late Repentance that is upon the last Bed of Sickness is unfruitful at least to reconcile the Penitent to God Add unto these some dangerous and most reproveable Books 1. The Reconciliation of Sancta Clara to knit the Romish and Protestant in one Memorand That he be caused to produce Bishop Watson's Book of the like Reconciliation which he speaks of 2. A Book called Brevis Disquisitio printed as it is thought in London and vulgarly to be had which impugneth the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the verity of Christ's Body which he took of the Blessed Virgin in Heaven and the verity of our Resurrection 3. A Book called Timotheus Philalethes de Pace Ecclesiae which holds that every Religion will save a Man if he holds the Covenant Innovations in Discipline 1. The turning of the holy Table Altar-wise and most commonly calling it an Altar 2. Bowing towards it or towards the East many times with three Congees but usually in every motion access or recess in the Church 3. Advancing Candlesticks in many Churches upon the Altar so called 4. In making Canopies over the Altar so called with Traverses and Curtains on each side and before it 5. In compelling all Communicants to come up before the Rails and there to Receive 6. In advancing Crucifixes and Images upon the Parafront or Altar-cloth so called 7. In reading some part of the Morning Prayer at the Holy Table when there is no Communion celebrated 8. By the Minister's turning his back to the West and his face to the East when he pronounceth the Creed or reads Prayers 9. By reading the Litany in the midst of the Body of the Church in many of the Parochial Churches 10. By pretending for their Innovations the Injunctions and Advertisements of Queen Elizabeth which are not in force but by way of Commentary and Imposition and by putting to the Liturgy printed secundo tertio Edwardi sexti which the Parliament hath Reformed and laid aside 11. By offering of Bread and Wine by the hand of the Churchwardens or others before the Consecration of the Elements 12. By having a Credentia or Side-Table besides the Lord's Table for divers uses in the Lord's Supper 13. By introducing an Offertory before the Communion distant from the giving of Alms to the Poor 14. By prohibiting the Ministers to expound the Catechism at large to their Parishioners 15. By suppressing of Lectures partly on Sundays in the Afternoon partly on Week-days performed as well by Combination as some one Man 16. By prohibiting a direct Prayer before Sermon and bidding or Prayer 17. By singing the Te Deum in Prose after a Cathedral Church way in divers Parochial Churches where the People have no skill in such Musick 18. By introducing Latin-Service in the Communion of late in Oxford and into some Colledges in Cambridge at Morning and Evening Prayer so that some young Students and the Servants of the Colledge do not understand their Prayers 19. By standing up at the Hymns in the Church and always at Gloria Patri 20. By carrying Children from the Baptism to the Altar so called there to offer them up to God 21. By taking down Galleries in Churches or restraining the Building of such Galleries where the Parishes are very populous Memorandum 1. That in all the Cathedral and Collegiate Churches two Sermons be preached every Sunday by the Dean and Prebendaries or by their procurement and likewise every Holy-day and one Lecture at the least to be preached on Working-days every Week all the Year long 2. That the Musick used in God's Holy Service in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches be framed with less Curiosity that it may be more edifying and more intelligible and that no Hymns or Anthems be used where Ditties are framed by private Men but such as are contained in the Sacred Canonical Scriptures or in our Liturgy of Prayers or have publick allowance 3. That the Reading-Desk be placed in the Church where Divine Service may beâ—t be heard of all the People Considerations upon the Book of Common Prayer 1. Whether the Names of some departed Saints and others should not be quire expunged in the Kalender 2. Whether the reading of Psalms Sentences of Scripture concurring in divers places in the Hymns Epistles and Gospel should not be set out in the New Translation 3. Whether
c. After Baptism put Seing this Child is Sacramentally Regenerated And in the Prayer following put it That it hath pleased Thee Sacramentally to Regenerate and Adopt this Infant and to incorporate him into thy Holy Church Instead of the new Rubrick it is certain by God's Word c. put True Christian Parents have no cause to doubt of the Salvation of their Children dedicated to God in Baptism and dying before they commit any actual sin In the Exhortation put it thus Doubt not therefore but earnestly believe That if this Infant be sincerely dedicated to God by those who have that power and trust God will likewise favourably receive him c. Let not Baptism be privately administred but by a lawful Minister and before sufficient Witnesses and when it is evident that any was so Baptized let no part of the Administration be reiterated Add to the Rubrick of Confirmation or the Preface And the tolerable Understanding of the same Points which are necessary to Confirmation with this owning of their baptismal Covenant shall be also required of those that are not confirmed before their admission to the holy Communion Let it be lawful for the Minister to put other Questions besides those in the Catechism to help the Learners to understand and also to tell them the meaning of the Words as he goeth along Alterations in the Catechism or another allowed Q. WHat is your Name A. N. Q. When was this Name given you A. In my Baptism Q. What was done for you in your Baptism A. I was devoted to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and entred into his Holy Covenant and engaged to take him for my only God my reconciled Father my Saviour and my Sanctifier And to believe the Articles of the Christian Faith and keep God's Commandments sincerely all the Days of my Life Renouncing the Devil and all his works the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World and all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh. Q. What Mercy did you receive from God in this Covenant of Baptism A. God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as my reconciled Father my Saviour and my Sanctifier did forgive my Original Sin and receive me as a Member of Christ and of his Church and as his Adopted Child and Heir of Heaven Q. Do you think that you are now bound to keep this Covenant and to believe and live according to it A. Yes Verily c. Q. Rehcarse c. A. I Believe c. Q. What c. A. First c. Q. What be the Commandments of God which you have Covenanted to observe A. The Ten Commandments written by God in Stone besides Christ's Precepts in the Gospel Q. Which be the Ten Commandments After the Answer to What is thy Duty towards God add And to keep holy the Day which he separateth for his Worship In the next let to bear no malice c. be put before to be true and just In the Answ. to the Quest. after the Lord's Prayer after all People put that we may Honour and Love him as our God That his Kingdom of Grace may be set up in our Souls and throughout the World and his Kingdom of Glory may come and that God's Law and not Men's sinful Lusts and Wills may be obeyed and Earth may be liker unto Heaven And I Pray c. Q. How many Sacraments of the Covenant of Grace hath Christ Ordained in his Church A. Two only Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. Q. What meanest thou c. A. I mean that Solemn Covenanting with God wherein there is an outward visible sign of our giving up our selves to Him and of his giving his Grace in Christ to us being ordained by Christ himself as a means whereby we receive that Grace and a pledge to assure us of it To Q. What is the inward Spiritual Grace A. The pardon of our Sins by the Blood of Christ whose Members we are made and a death unto sin c. Q. Why are Infants Baptized A. Because they are the Children of the Faithful to whom God's Promises are made and are by them devoted unto God to be entered into Covenant with Him by his own appointment which when they come to Age themselves are bound to perform After the next Answer add And for our Communion with Him and with his Church To Q. What are the Benefits c. A. The renewed Pardon of our Sins and our Communion with Christ and his Church by Faith and Love and the strengthening c. In the Visitation of the Sick let the Minister have leave to vary his Prayer as Occasions shall require And let the Absolution be conditional If thou truly believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and truly repentest of thy sins I pronounce thee absolved through the Sacrifice and Merits of Iesus Christ. If any who is to kept from the Communion for Atheism Infidelity Heresie or Impenitency in gross sin shall in sickness desire Absolution or the Communion And if any Minister intrusted with the power of the Keys do perceive no probable sign of true Repentance and therefore dare not in conscience absolve him or give him the Sacrament left he profane God's Ordinance and harden the wicked in presumption and impenitency let not that Minister be forced to that Office against his conscience but let the sick chuse some other as he please And at the Burial of any who were lawfully kept from the Communion for the same causes and not absolved let the Minister be at liberty to change the words thus For asmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God to take out of this world the soul of this deceased person we commit his body c. believing a Resurrection of the just and unjust some to joy and some to punishment And to leave out in the Prayer We give thee hearty thanks for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world And instead of it put And the souls of tne wicked to wo and miseryâ— We beseech thee to convert us all from sin by true and speedy repentance And teach us to spend this little time in an holy and heavenly conversation that we may be always prepared for Death and Iudgment And And in the next Collect to leave out as our hope is this our brother doth But in the Rubrick before Burial instead of any that die unbaptized put anythat die unbaptized at years of discretion That the Infants of Christian Parents who die unbaptized be not numbered with the Excommunicate and Self-murderers and denied Christian Burial Let the Psalms in the Parish-Churches be read in the last Translation Let the Liturgy either be abbreviated by leaving out the short Versicles and Responses Or else let the Minister have leave to omit them and in times of cold or haste to omit some of the Collects as he seeth cause In Churches where many cannot read let the Minister read all the Psalms himself because the confused
which was necessary to deal with such an Adversary he was quickly answered by fastening on the weakest parts with new reproach and triumph And the Author was doubly exposed to suffering For whereas he was so neer Conformity as that he had taken the Oxford Oath and read some Common prayer and therefore by connivance was permitted to preach in South-Work to an Hospital where he had 40 l. per Ann. and was now in expectation of Liberty at a better place in Bridewell he was now deprived of that And 〈◊〉 had little relief from the Nonconformists because he Conformed so far as he did And having a numerous family was in great want § 93. The next year came out a far more virulent book called Ecclesiastical Policy written by Sam. Parker a young Man of pregnant parts who had been brought up among the Sectaries and seeing some weaknesses among them and being of an eager Spirit was turned with the Times into the contrary extreme for which he giveth thanks to God And judging of 〈◊〉 called Puritans and Nonconformists by the people that he was bred amongst and being now made Arch-Bishop Sheldon's houshold Chaplain where such work was to be done he writeth the most scornfully and rashly and prophanely and cruelly against the Nonconformists of any man that ever yet assaulted them that I have heard of And in a fluent fervent ingenious style of Natural Rhetorick poureth out floods of Odious reproaches and with incautelous Extremities saith as much to make them hated and to stir up the Parliament to destroy them as he could well speak And all this was to play the old game at once to please the Devil the Prelates and the prophane and so to twist all three into one party than which if prelacy be of God a greater injury could not be done to it being the surest tryed way to engage all the Religious if not the Sober also of the Land against it § 93. Soon after Dr. Iohn Owen first tryed to have engaged me to answer it by telling me and others that I was the fittest Man in England for that work on what account I now enquire not But I had above all men been oft enough searched in the malignant fire and contended with them with so little thanks from the Independents tho they could say little against it that I resolved not to meddle with them any more without a clearer call than this And besides Patrick and that Party by excepting me from those whom they reproached in respect of Doctrine disposition and practice made me the unfittest person to rise up against them Which if I had done they that applauded me before would soon have made me seem as odious almost as the rest For they had some at hand that in evil speaking were such Masters of Language that they never wanted Matter nor Words but could say what they listed as voluminously as they desired § 94. Whereupon Dr. Owen answered it himself selecting the most odious Doctrinal Assertions with some others of Parker's book and laid them so naked in the Judgment of all Readers that ever I met with that they concluded Parker could never answer it Especially because the Answer was delayed about a year By which Dr. Owen's esteem was much advanced with the Nonconformists § 95. But Parker contriv'd to have his Answer ready against the Sessions of the Parliament in Octob. 1670. And shortly after it came out In which he doth with the most voluminous torrent of naturall and malicious Rhetorick speak over the same things which might have been Comprized in a few Sentences viz. The Nonconformists Calvinists Presbyterians Hugonots are the most villanous unsufferable sort of sanctified Fools Knaves and unquiet Rebels that ever were in the World With their naughty Godliness and holy Hypocrisie and Villanies making it necessary to fall upon their Teachers and not to spare them for the Conquering of the rest But yet he putteth more Exceptions here of the Soberer honest peaceable sort whom he loveth but pittyeth for the unhappiness of their Education and in particular speaketh kindly of me than he had done before For when he had before persuaded men to fall upon the Ministers and said What are an hundred men to be valued in Comparison of the safety of the whole When Dr. Owen and others commonly understood him as meaning that there was but a 100 Nonconformable Ministers when 1800 were silenced he found out this shift to abate both the Charge of malignant Cruelty and Untruth and saith that he meant that he hoped the seditious hot headed party that misled the people were but a few Whereby he vindicated fifteen hundred Nonconformable Ministers against those Charges which he and others frequently lay on the Nonconformists by that name But the second part of the Matter of his book was managed with more advantage because of all the Men in England Dr. Owen was the Chief that had Headed the Independents in the Army with the greatest height and Confidence and Applause and afterward had been the greater persuader of Fleetwood Desborough and the rest of the Officers of the Army who were his Gathered Church to Compel Rich. Cromwell to dissolve his Parliament which being done he fell with it and the King was brought in So that Parker had so many of his Parliament and Army Sermons to cite in which he urgeth them to Justice and prophesyeth of the ruine of the Western Kings and telleth them that their work was to take down Civil and Ecclesiastical Tyranny with such like that the Dr. being neither able to repent hitherto or to justify all this must be silent or only plead the Art of Oblivion And so I fear his unfitness for this Work was a general injury to the Nonconformists § 96. And here I think I ought to give Posterity notice that by the Prelatist's malice and unreasonable implacable Violence Independency and Separation got greater advantages against Presbytery and all setled accidental extrinsick order and means of Concord than ever it had in these Kingdoms since the World began For powerful and Godly Preachers though now most silenced had in twenty years liberty brought such numbers to serious Godliness that it was vain for the Devil or his Servants to hope that suffering could make the most forsake it And to the Prelatists they would never turn while they saw them for the sake of their own Wealth and Lordships and a few Forms and Ceremonies silence so many hundred worthy self-denying Ministers that had been Instruments of their Good and to become the Son of the prophane malignant Enmity to the far greatest part of the most serious Religious People in Three Kingdoms And Presbyterians were forced to forbear all Exercise of their way they durst not meet together Synodically unless in a Goal They could not ordinarily be the Pastors of Parish-Churches no not for the private part of the Work being driven five Miles from all their former Charges and Auditors and from every City
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 〈◊〉 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
one Mind in every word circumstance ceremony and mode of Worship and Discipline upon Christian conscientious terms Either they must absolutely believe as the Rulers bid them or not If yea then most Turks Heathens Papists are in the right that be of the Religion of their Rulers If not some bounds and Rules must shew them the difference how far Obedience is to be given And the Subjects must be the Discerners whether the Case falls under those Qualificationt or not As e. g. whether it be Sin against God And when all the Men and Women in a Kingdom have a Multitude of Words circumstances and ceremonies and modes to try by such Rules they will never be of one Mind about them who would be of one Mind in a few plain things And then you come and make their Disobedience to be one of the greatest Crimes deserving Excommunication Imprisonment and ruin so that you make such a National Church to be a trap for Men's undoing and Damnation 5. As for what you say of the Foreign Churches their Country-men say that it is not all one to impose the necessary Discharge of Men's plain undeniable Duty and to impose the Humane Work which you can describe But I am a stranger to them and am bound to receive nothing against another till I hear both Parties speak nor am I concerned in the Case as not being bound to justifie them any more than you If it be as you say no wonder if they have the distractions and calamities and Divisions which render them the objects of compassion The Serpent that beguiled Eve hath long ago tempted almost all the Churches from the Ancient Christian Simplicity in Doctrine Discipline and Worship which is the only way of common Concord 6. But yet besides the Catholick Church we hold particular Churches being Christian Assemblies to be of Christ's Institution And it is impossible there to worship God without the determination of many Circumstances and Modes Some Translation some Metre of Psalms some Tune some Time and Place some Pastor some Utensils must be chosen And he that will herein depart from the Common chosen Circumstance departeth therein himself from their Communion But yet such may serve God acceptably in another Assembly and may live in Christian Love and Peace though they Sing not in the same Tune or Gesture or use nor every Ceremony alike And this is nothing to the making of new Symbols Oaths Subscriptions or other things not necessary in genere and that by the Officers of National Humane Church and this not only to be done and quietly born but approved Your Way is the most proper Engine to tear in pieces all the Churches in the World or reduce them to a Spanish Humane Obedience For if a particular Parish-Church did not so much as tye Men to a Ceremony but mere Determinations which must some way be made If the Priest stood at the Church door and said You shall not enter unless you will Subscribe or Say or Swear that we are infallible in all that we do or that there is no Sin no Fault nothing contrary to God's Will and Word nothing but what you Assent and Consent to in all our Translations of Scripture in all our Versions Tunes Words Gestures Circumstances I would never enter into that Church though I will gladly and peaceably joyn with them if they will let me alone without such Obligations to justifie all they do One would think this should have been past Controversie before this day among the Prudent Pastors of the Churches Strict Still supposing that neither they nor we require any thing that may not be submitted to without sin Answ. Upon that Supposition we have no Controversie with you Then what need any of this adoe But who shall be the Judge If you must and that absolutely then it is all one to us whether it be sin or no sin for to us it will be none if we do as you bid us But then why do Protestants condemn Papists who do as they are bidden And why do our Articles condemn them that say All Men may be saved in the Religion they are bred in when they all do as they are bidden even they that defie Christ. But if you hold not to this what shall we do Are we our selves the discerning Judges Then we protest before God and Men that we take the things that we deny Conformity to to be sins and very heinous sins and very far from things indifferent If you say that we must obey you till we are past doubt and certain that 't is sin I Answer 1. It 's too few things that Man's Understanding reacheth to a certainty in What if I verily think that I see reason to take that which a Bishop or Church Commanded to be Blasphemy Perjury Treason Murder Heresie c. but I am not certain and past doubt Must I then do it Then a Man that can be but sufficiently ignorant or doubtful may stick at no Commanded Wickedness Some other Rule therefore than this must be found out If you say That we have no reason to take any thing commanded for sin and you think you confute all our Objections I Answer 1. So all Imposers think or most And so we are as confident that our Reason is good and that we see the gross Errors of your Answers And all this is but to say that no Man is to be Tolerated in your Church that is not in every thing in the Right and that in your Judgments Suppose you were Infallible so are not all the Subjects And if their Reason be bad and yours good all that is no more than to say That They Err or are Mistaken And if no Man shall be Tolerated with you that Erreth and that in as great a Matter as a Circumstance or Ceremony no two Men in the World must hold Communion on such Terms I am confident I study as hard as you I am confident I am as impartial and willing to know the Truth I have far less than you to tempt me to the contrary And yet I verily think Conformity to me would be a heinous Sin Nay I am past doubt of it if that will serve Give us but leave to publish our Reasons freely and you shall see whether we have any Reason But if yet I be mistaken Shall your National-Church have never a Member Tolerated that is as ignorant and bad as I Hold to that and try the Issue whether your Church will be as numerous as you are Strict And Churches abroad both have been and will be our Compurgators and I wish the Presbyterians of England and Scotland would be content to stand to the Judgment of all the Tresbyterian Churches abroad whether they may not without sin conform to all that by our Church is required of them Nay whether they can refuse to Conform without sin Ans. Content I and all of my mind profess that we will accept your offer But we wish as sincerely that you
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 〈◊〉 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
the Error For if I had understood that it contained two Propositions 1. That Men thus and thus qualified shall preach the Word or it is the Duty of Men thus and thus qualified to preach the Word And then 2. That Men thus and thus qualified ordinis gratia shall be set apart to it or shall be appointed to Preach I never had made this Animadversion but should have acknowledged a formal Answer But I understood it only thus that Men thus and thus qualified shall be appointed that is it is their Duty being so and so qualified to seek for Ordination or it is their Duty being so and so qualified to be appointed to the Work which I thought might be true and yet they no Ministers till they were de facto set apart But now very well understanding that it may well bear both Propositions and the first coming up close to the Question in hand I shall willingly retract all that I said upon that Point and acknowledge a formal Answer which I think may satisfie But whereas you say that by disclaiming my last Argument I denied Imposition of Hands to be so necessary and by urging something hereabouts did seem to forget what I said anon I answer I did never intend to deny Imposition of Hands to be of necessity to legitimate Ordination I said indeed an Argument drawn from thence against the Question in Hand was frivolous But I did not intend to disparage the thing it self any farther than Relatively to the Question then in debate And whereas you say that Fasting was not used I answer that there never was any Ordination but Fasting was previous to it by the Appointment of the Church in Ember-Weeks which were constantly kept by the Sons of the Church though neglected by others and this I think might serve though it was not the same Day and I believe you will say so too But in these things neither will I be boisterous till I am better informed what may be the substantial or essential Parts of Christ's Ordinances and what not which I confess I have not yet such an Idea of So as to say in every Ordinance what is essential and what not Ad. 3 um Whereas you wonder that upon such slight Grounds I should so tenaciously stand to part of my third Argument I answer that I did not intend to inforce that the Case of extream inculpable necessity was the Sectaries Case But such a Necessity as did inevitably intangle them in their Invasion of the Ministry which though it doth no ways make them lawful Ministers yet it makes them inconfutably lawful Ministers till the Opinions which first made them separate be proved to them to be erroneous my meaning is this I think if this Hypothesis be true that in case of extream Necessity Men may and some must enter irregularly into the Ministry it is not possible to convince an Anabaptist that his Invasion of the Ministerial Work is unlawful till we can first convince him that Anabptism is erroneous Now hereupon I thought their Hands was much strengthened over what it would have been had that Hypothesis been false For then we could incontroulably have cleared their Invasion of the Work though they had in the mean time remained unconvinced of their erroneous Opinion But now if we cannot convince them of their Error but their way still appear Truth to them then they need do no more to justifie their Practice to themselves but borrow our Principle and that sets them right and so their Invasion is inconfutable from what they borrow from our selves And so though they do not justifie themselves to us because we think their Necessity culpable and through their own default yet they so far justifie by this very Principle their Practice to themselves that it renders them unconfutably lawful till we can prove and make it out plain to them that their very Opinions are erroneous So that you mistook while you thought that I intended to prove their Practice lawful whereas all that I intended was to shew that upon such a Principle their Invasion became less confutable and their Hands something strengthned over they could have been upon the contrary Hypothesis by which you may perhaps see what Link of your Chain I intended to break But enough of this I shall now come to the Business I first spake of First therefore you lay down the Episcopal Principles pag. 65. viz. That no Church is a true Church without Ministers and no Man a Minister that is not Ordained by a Bishop and no Man a Bishop that is not ordained by a Bishop lawfully called and not deprived again of his Power And this Bishop must be Ordained by a former Bishop and he by a former and so the Succession must be followed up to the Apostles Having done thus you catechize these Seekers as you call these Doctors And then proceed to prove that these Reverend Learned Pious Bishops which you acknowledge to be now in this Nation are no lawful Bishops upon the Principles laid down because they were ordained by such as had no Authority to ordain This you prove because they were Ordained at length by the Popish Bishops in Hen. VIII Time who had no Authority to Ordain this you prove because they derived their Authority from the Pope who had no Authority to give them any That the Pope had no Authority you prove by an Interruption of Succession of lawful Bishops in that Chair That there hath been an Interruption in that Chair you prove by the Instances of Liberius Honorias Dame Ione and many others as you say out of Bishop Iewel The Strength of these Instances depend upon that Hypothesis that Heresy or notorious Impiety doth evacuate holy Orders Now if it can be infallably proved that Heresy or Impiety doth not evacuate Holy Orders or rather if you cannot infallably prove as it is my part at this time to deny I being upon the defensive that Impiety or Heresy doth evacuate Holy Orders then it will not follow that there was an Interruption though Liberius was an Heretick And if no Interruption then Pope Clement the Incumbent at Rome in Henry VIII Days was notwithstanding what is urged in full Power to Ordain And then if he had Authority then the Popish Bishops which derived from him had full Authority and if they had then our Bishops who at length derive from them have also full Athority and so the whole Structure will fall at once in that Hypothesis which is the Foundation of all shall chance to shake And therefore Sir in the first place I pray you take notice that I deny that Heresy or Impiety doth evacuate Holy Orders and expect the Proof of it â—â—But then suppose I should grant this which I never intend I may I conceive falsly debate that though there should be an Interruption in the Succession of the Chair at Rome yet the Pope that now is or the Pope that sat at Rome in Hen. VIII Days were
and Applications 5. Inasmuch as he stands an Elder over them and is weakened in his Confidence against Infant Baptism which they are so confident against and also cannot baptize Believers otherwise than to satisfie their Scruple of Conscience that shall desire it out of doubt of the Defect is in their Infant Baptism and with Cautioning of such to take heed of their taking it up so as to denominate their Christianity Saint-ship or Church-ship thereby if any Party of the Congregation can not bare him thus but should separate and so want means of Edification or as some say rather be Quakers than so indifferent or as one of them says he would join with the Church of Rome if he thought that true which Mr. Lambe says namely That he may have Communion with Persons not so baptized whether considering their Danger he ought not hide or cease to desist on his Sense or what he ought to do 6. Considering his present Temptatious and Assaults to his Faith and Sense of God's Love it be his present Work to study to be setled in a full Persuasion one way or other about Baptism But to mind his spiritual Defence against these Violent Assaults which makes him say O that he were in his late confidence again and so is resolved to study the Arguments that are against Infant Baptism And he is directed to your Twenty Arguments in the Book about right to Sacraments about the necessity of Faith to interest in Baptism Now sweet Mr. Baxter shall I have so much Grace in your Sight as to have your distinct Answer to these Particulars truly it will be Service to Jesus Christ whom we have desired to serve in all singleness of Heart from our Youth up and have no desire in this World like to this to know his Will and do it whose Love and the Light of whose Countenance is better than Life to our Souls having no Design but to serve our Lord upon the best Terms who hath dealt bountifully with us whose Mercy and Faithfulness we have often experienced I trust it is of God that put it into my Heart to write to you and I will wait that the Son of Righteousness may shine through you a Star in his Right Hand to our Guidance in this Night of our Temptation I acquaint none that I do it were it known it might occasion me some farther Tryals Therefore I intreat your Secrecy in it My Husband hath indeed sometimes said he would write to you but hath said again Mr. Baxter will not regard me and indeed he hath scarce freedom of Mind to any Business he should take a Journey to Worcester which if he do he says he will come to you I do not acquaint him with this but your Advice I know I shall be able to help him by Now our Lord Jesus Christ who still giveth Gifts to Men and doth continue Means in his Church sufficient to the help of all his poor Servants be your Helper to us ward with craving Pardon for my great Boldness I take leave and remain YOURS in our Lord Iesus Barbara Lambe London in Great St. Bartholomews this 12th of August 1658. I have inclosed sent a Copy of the mentioned Arguments which pray peruse and keep private Sir I desire what you write in answer to me may be inclosed in a Cover to Mr. James Marshal in Friday-Street at the Half Moon who is my Son in Law and so I shall have it with privacy I shall long to know that these come safe to your Hands For Mr. Rich. Baxter Minister of the Gospel in Kidderminster These present Dear Mrs. Lambe HOW true did I feel it in the reading of your Husband's Lines and yours which you say in the beginning that unacquaintedness with the Face is no hindrance to the Communion of the Saints So much of Christ and his Spirit appeared to me in both your Writings that my Soul in the reading of them was drawn out into a strong a Stream of Love and closing Unity of Spirit as almost ever I felt it my Life There is a Connaturality of Spirit in the Saints that will work by Sympathy and by closing uniting Inclinations through greater Differences and Impediments than the external Act of Baptism As a Load-stone will exercise its attractive Force through a Stone Wall I have an inward Sense in my Soul that told me so feelingly in the reading of your Lines that your Husband and you and I are one in our dear Lord that if all the self-conceited Dividers in the World should contradict it on the account of Baptism I could not believe them About a Year ago Sir Henry Herbert gave me one of your Husband's Books about Baptism which when I had read I told him that the Author and I were one in Love though not of one Opinion and that he wrote in the most savory honest moderate Style of any of that Mind that ever I read But truly the perusal of these Arguments persuade me yet to higher Thoughts of him much more may be said than he hath said in that great and weighty Case but yet I have met with none that hath said so much in so small a room It delighteth me to feel the workings of a Catholick Spirit in his Lines Nothing hath more undone us except flat Ungodlyness than the loss of Catholick Principles and Affections among Christians few are more void of them than the Papists that boast of them It must be this loving a Christian as a Christian that must hold when all is done He that loveth Christ in Christians will love all Christians where Christ appears Should not Dividers fear least Christ say to them that castoff most of his Holy Members for this Opinion sake Ye did it unto me Is Christ in these Saints or his he not What! a Saint and Christ not in him that cannot be And is he in them and shall he be used so unkindly so uncharitably as to be cast by Oh dear Mrs. Lambe the Lamb of God hath reconciled greater Differences and closed greater Differences than these and his tender Bowels yearn over those that we sullenly reject He that said to his sluggish Followers The Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak and that sent so kind a Message to Peter that lately denyed him as soon as he was risen and that still shewed such matchless Compassions to the weak will give little Thanks to dividing Spirits that cast out his poor Servants whom he himself doth not cast out I know not Mr. Lambe by Face but Mr. Allen I know could he find in his Heart to deny me Brotherly Communion if I desired it of him and protested that I would be of his Opinion and Practice if I durst and my contradicting Judgment did not hinder me I have told the Pastors of the Re-baptized Churches here that if any of their Judgment and Practice will satisfie themselves with being again Baptized and will live in peaceable Communion with us they shall
Apostles Writings in reference to the Doctrine of Justification which being attended to the scope and meaning of them will plainly appear there hath been a seventh most insisted on which is not I think there to be found And this hath come to pass for want of understanding the difference between the two Covenants and for want of a distinct consideration of the several false Opinions of the then present Jews about Justification which the Apostles in their Writings engage against The Oppositions I mean are these 1. As the promise of Justification and Eternal Life upon condition of Faith in the Promise relating to the Messias before he came is opposed to the Promise of Temporal Felicity upon condition of a due Observation of the Law of Moses Gal. 3. 11 12. 2. As the Promise of Justification and Life upon condition of Faith in the Promise to Abraham is opposed to the Errour of the Jews who held that Promise to be made to Abraham upon condition of Circumcision and to them as his Seed upon condition of a Litteral Observation of the Law of Moses Rom. 2 3 and 4th Chapters Gal. 2 3 and 4th Chapters 3. As the Promise of Justification and Life upon condition of Faith in Christ as crucified is opposed to the Errour of the Unbelieving Jews who held it promised to their Litteral Observation of the Law of Moses without Faith in the Death of Christ Heb. 8 9 and 10 Chapters 4. As the Promise of Justification and Life upon condition of Faith and Gospel Obedience only is opposed to the Opinion of some Judaizing Christians who held the same to be promised upon condition of Faith in Christ and a Litteral Observation of the Law of Moses jointly Gal. 5. Acts 15. 1 5. 5. As the Promise made to Abraham's Spiritual Seed is opposed to the Opinion of the unbelieving Jews who held it made to his Natural Seed as such Or which is much the same as the Promise made to Persons so and so qualified is opposed to the Jewish Opinion of an absolute and unconditionate Promise made to them in Person as they were the Offspring of Abraham Rom. 9. 6 7 8. Rom. 2. 28 29. 6. As Justification by Faith accompanied with Gospel Obedience is opposed to the Opinion of some Professors of Christianity Gnosticks or other Solifidians who held Justification by Faith alone without reference to or necessity of a holy Life Iames 2. 1 Epist. Iohn Iude 3 4 c. These are the things to which the Controversal Part of the Apostles Writings in reference to the Point of Justification do relate But beside these there is another insisted on as if it were still included and intended in the Apostles reasonings against Justification by Works of the Law and that is an Opposition between Faith and all Works in reference to Justification as well such as consist in Gospel Obedience as the effect of Faith strictly taken as those which are properly Works of the Mosaical Law Whereas such an Opposition seems to be not only without but against Scripture Evidence For Gospel Obedience as an inseparable effect of Saving Faith is as well as Faith and together with Faith opposed to the Works of Moses's Law in point of Justification For so I take it to be where it is said Circumcision which by a Synecdoche is put for the Works of the Law availeth nothing but faith which worketh by love which is as much as to say which worketh by keeping the Commandments of God and by fulfilling the Law for so Love is said to be Yea Evangelical Obedience as comprehending Faith no doubt is by the same figure of Speech as before opposed to the Works of Moses's Law where it is said that Circumcision is nothing and Uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping the Commandments of God The like Opposition again is made between the Works of the Law and the New Creature which consists in a new frame of Spirit and cannot be considered without new Obedience in will and resolution at least Gal. 6. 15. This Opposition which some make between Faith and Gospel Obedience in the Point of Justification seems like unto that if not the same in Iude which was made by the Gnosticks and which Iames opposeth in his Epistle rather than any which the Scripture any where maketh And truly this Opinion together with another as groundless as this hath I fear been a great Underminer of the Power of Religion in the Hearts and Lives of Men and a Betrayer of the Souls of many and that is that by Faith without Works the Righteousness or Obedience of Christ is not only virtually which we all hold but formally imputed to us for righteousness so that we are reckoned to have obeyed in his Obedience Which I think hath not been the Doctrine of a few called Antinomians only but of so many that not long since he could hardly be counted Orthodox that did not hold so too And it is to be feared that many that have been of these Opinions have thought themselves good Christians and in a justified state though otherwise of ill Tempers and of bad Lives Whereas did they understand that the design of the New Covenant is to restore the Humane Nature gradually to that rectitude and perfection from which it fell and that the terms of it are so laid that no Man can have any ground of confidence of enjoying the Saving Benefits of it further then he knows that he sincerely endeavours in the use of means to recover that rectitude and to be perfecting holiness in the fear of God they would be delivered from that delusive Confidence and consequently be put upon such sincere endeavours or be deprived of the comfort of that delusive Confidence by which while they are under it they support themselves All which considered if really true as I apprehend them to be what I have humbly moved to you cannot but be a most worthy Work and of great acceptation to very many as well as of general and of most important use unto all And in case you resolve on it I think to use as much brevity as will consist with plainness and as much plainness as the nature of the thing will bear will be generally most acceptable and most profitable and the more inviting to be read I have made bold herewith to send you some Papers which sometime since were written for private use and for trial of what might fairly be made out touching the Subject Matter of them To the end you may be them see some of the things more fully exprest which are but hinted in this Letter as also to desire your Judgment Whether the main scope of them be Matter of Truth or Matter of Errour And in particular I desire your Thoughts Whether that perfect Obedience which Mr. Truman insists on or that sincere Obedience mentioned in these Papers was the Condition of the first Covenant And whether the first Covenant as such did threaten Eternal Punishment to