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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	church_n	holy_a	word_n	6,788	5	4.3458	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67467	The life of Dr. Sanderson, late Bishop of Lincoln written by Izaak Walton ; to which is added, some short tracts or cases of conscience written by the said Bishop.	Walton, Izaak, 1593-1683.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Judgment concerning submission to usurpers.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Pax ecclesiae.; Hooker, Richard, 1553 or 4-1600. Sermon of Richard Hooker, author of those learned books of Ecclesiastical politie.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Judgment in one view for the settlement of the church.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Judicium Universitatis Oxoniensis. English.	1678 (1678)	Wing W667; ESTC R8226	137,878	542

new ones whiles they that are in the wrong out of obstinacy will not and they that stand for the truth out of Conscience dare not may not yield and so still the war goeth on And as to the publick peace of the Church so is there also thirdly by this means great prejudice done to the peace and tranquillity of private mens Consciences when by the peremptory Doctrines of some strict and rigid masters the Souls of many a well-meaning man are miserably disquieted with a thousand unnecessary scruples and driven sometimes into very woful perplexities Surely it can be no light matter thus to lay heavy burdens upon other mens shoulders and to cast a snare upon their Consciences by making the narrow way to Heaven narrower than ever God meant it Fourthly Hereby Christian Governours come to be robbed of a great part of that honour that is due unto them from their people both in their affections and subjection For when they shall see cause to exercise over us that power that God hath left them in indifferent things by commanding such or such thing to be done as namely wearing of a Surplice kneeling at the Communion and the like if now we in our own thoughts have already prejudged any of the things so commanded to be unlawful it cannot be Quest. If these things be so how comes it to pass that so many godly men should incline so much to this way Answ. But you will say if these things were so how should it then come to pass that so many men pretending to godliness and thousands of them doubtless such as they pretend for it were an uncharitable thing to charge them all with hypocrisie should so often and so grievously offend this way To omit those two more universal causes Almighty God's permission first whose good pleasure it is for sundry wise and gracious ends to exercise his Church during her warfare here with heresies and scandals And then the wiliness of Satan who cunningly observeth whether way our hearts incline most to loosness or to strictness and then frameth his temptations thereafter So he can but put us out of the way it is no great matter to him on whether hand it be he hath his end howsoever Nor to insist upon sundry more particular causes as namely a natural proneness in all men to superstition in many an affectation of singularity to go beyond the ordinary sort of people in something or other the difficulty of shunning one without running into the contrary extreme the great force of education and custome besides manifold abuses offences and provocations arising from the carriage of others and the rest I shall note but these two only as the two great fountains of Errour to which also most of the other may be reduced Ignorance and Partiality from neither of which God 's dearest Servants and Children are in this life wholly exempted Ignorance first is a fruitful Mother of Errours Ye err not knowing the Scriptures Matth. 22. Yet not so much gross ignorance neither I mean not that For your meer Ignaro's what they err they err for company they judge not at all neither according to the appearance nor yet righteous judgment They only run on with the herd and follow as they are led be it right or wrong and never trouble themselves farther But by Ignorance I mean weakness of judgment which consisteth in a disproportion between the affections and the understanding when a man is very earnest but withal very shallow readeth much and heareth much and thinketh that he knoweth much but hath not the judgment to sever truth from falshood nor to discern between a sound argument and a captious fallacy And so for want of ability to examine the soundness and strength of those principles from whence he fetcheth his conclusions he is easily carried away as our Apostle elsewhere speaketh with vain words and empty arguments As St. Augustine said of Donatus Rationes arripuit he catcheth hold of some reasons as wranglers will catch at a small thing rather than yield from their opinions quas considerantes verisimiles esse potius quam veras invenimus which saith he we found to have more shew of probability at the first appearance than substance of truth after they were well considered of And I dare say whosoever shall peruse with a judicious and unpartial eye most of those Pamphlets that in this daring Age have been thrust into the world against the Ceremonies of the Church against Episcopal Government to pass by things of lesser regard and usefulness and more open to exception and abuse yet so far as I can understand unjustly condemned as things utterly unlawful such as are lusorious lots dancing Stage-plays and some other things of like nature when he shall have drained out the bitter invectives unmannerly jeers petulant girding at those that are in authority impertinent digressions but above all those most bold and perverse wrestings of holy Scripture wherewith such Books are infinitely stuffed he shall find that little poor remainder that is left behind to contain nothing but vain words and empty arguments For when these great Undertakers have snatch'd up the Bucklers as if they would make it good against all comers that such and such things are utterly unlawful and therefore ought in all reason and conscience to bring such proofs as will come up to that conclusion Quid dignum tanto very seldome shall you hear from them any other Arguments than such as will conclude but an inexpediency at the most As that they are apt to give scandal that they carry with them an appearance of evil that they are often occasions of sin that they are not commanded in the Word and such like Which Objections even where they are just are not of force no not taken altogether much less any of them singly to prove a thing to be utterly unlawful And yet are they glad many times rather than sit out to play very small Game and to make use of Arguments yet weaker than these and such as will not reach so far as to prove a bare inexpediency As that they were invented by Heathens that they have been abused in Popery and other such like which to my understanding is a very strong presumption that they have taken a very weak cause in hand and such as is wholly destitute of sound proof Quest. Whether what the King and Parliament have determined may be altered to satisfie private men Answ. While things are in agitation private men may if any thing seem to them inexpedient modestly tender their thoughts together with the reason thereof to the consideration of those that are in authority to whose care and wisdom it belongeth in prescribing any thing concerning indifferent things to proceed with all just advisedness and moderation that so the Subject may be encouraged to perform that obedience with chearfulness which of necessity he must perform howsoever It concerneth Superiours therefore to look well to the expediency and

his Separation 4. By an implied Confession That the Laws formerly made against Papists in this Kingdom and all punishments by virtue thereof inflicted upon them were unjust in punishing them for refusing to joyn with us in that form of Worship which our selves as well as they do not approve of 2. Without manifest wrong unto our selves our Consciences Reputation and Estates in bearing false witness against our selves and sundry other ways by swearing to endeavour to reform that as corrupt and vicious 1. Which we have formerly by our Personal Subscriptions approved as agreeable to God's Word and have not been since either condemned by our own hearts for so doing or convinced in our Judgements by any of our Brethren that therein we did amiss 2. Which in our Consciences we are perswaded not to be in any of the four specified Particulars as it standeth by Law established much less in the whole four against the Word of God 3. Which we verily believe and as we think upon good grounds to be in sundry respects much better and more agreeable to the Word of God and the practice of the Catholick Church than that which we should by the former words of this Article swear to preserve 4. Whereunto the Laws yet in force require of all such Clerks as shall be admitted to any Benefice the signification of their hearty assent to be attested openly in the time of Divine Service before the whole Congregation there present within a limited time and that un-under pain upon default made of the loss of every such Benefice 3. Without manifest danger of Perjury This branch of the Article to our best understandings seeming directly contrary 1. To our former solemn Protestation which we have bound our selves neither for hope fear or other respect ever to relinquish Wherein the Doctrine which we have vowed to maintain by the name of the true Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England we take to be the same which now we are required to endeavour to reform and alter 2. To the Oath of Supremacy by us also taken according to the Laws of the Realm and the Statutes of our University in that behalf Wherein having first testified and declared in our Consciences That the King's Highness is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm we do after swear to our power to assist and defend all Iurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the King's Highness his Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm One of the which Priviledges and Preheminences by an express Statute so annexed and that even interminis in the self-same words in a manner with those used in the Oath is the whole power of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction for the correction and reformation of all manner of errors and abuses in matters Ecclesiastical as by the words of the said Statute more at large appeareth The Oath affording the Proposition and the Statute the Assumption we find no way how to avoid the Conclusion § IV. Of the second Article of the Covenant FIrst It cannot but affect us with some grief and amazement to see that ancient form of Church Government which we heartily and as we hope worthily honour as under which our Religion was at first so orderly without violence or tumult and so happily reformed and hath since so long flourished with Truth and Peace to the honour and happiness of our own and the envy and admiration of other Nations not only 1. Endeavoured to be extirpated without any reason offered to our Understandings for which it should be thought necessary or but so much as expedient so to do But also 2. Ranked with Popery Superstion Heresie Schism and Prophaneness which we unfeignedly profess our selves to detest as much as any others whatsoever 3. And that with some intimation also as if that Government were some way or other so contrary to sound Doctrine or the power of godliness that whosoever should not endeavour the extirpation thereof must of necessity partake in other mens sins which we cannot yet be perswaded to believe 4. And we desire it may be considered in case a Covenant of like form should be tender'd to the Citizens of London wherein they should be required to swear they would sincerely really and constantly without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Treason the City Government by a Lord Mayor Aldermen Sheriffs Common Council and other Officers depending thereon Murther Adultery Theft Cosenage and whatsoever shall be c. lest they should partake in other mens sins whether such a tendry could be looked upon by any Citizen that had the least spirit of freedome in him as an act of Justice Meekness and Reason Secondly for Episcopal Government we are not satisfied how we can with a good Conscience swear to endeavour the extirpation thereof 1. In respect of the thing it self Concerning which Government we think we have reason to believe 1. That it is if not Iure Divino in the strictest sense that is to say expresly commanded by God in his Word yet of Apostolical Institution that is to say was established in the Churches by the Apostles according to the mind and after the Example of their Master Iesus Christ and that by virtue of their ordinary Power and Authority derived from him as deputed by him Governours of his Church 2. Or at least that Episcopal Aristocracy hath a fairer pretension and may lay a juster title and claim to a Divine Institution than any of the other Forms of Church Government can do all which yet do pretend thereunto viz. that of the Papal Monarchy that of the Presbyterian Democracy and that of the Independents by particular Congregations or gathered Churches 2. But we are assured by the undoubted Testimony of ancient Records and later Histories that this Form of Government hath been continued with such an universal uninterrupted unquestioned succession in all the Churches of God and in all Kingdoms that have been called Christian throughout the whole world for fifteen hundred years together that there never was in all that time any considerable opposition made there against That of Aerius was the greatest wherein yet there was little of consideration beside these two things That it grew at the first but out of discontent and gained him at the last but the reputation of an Heretick From which antiquity and continuance we have just cause to fear that to endeavour the extirpation thereof 1. Would give such advantage to the Papists who usually object against us and our Religion the contempt of Antiquity and the love of Novelty that we should not be able to wipe off the aspersion 2. Would so diminish the just Authority due to the consentient judgment and practice of the Universal Church the best Interpreter of Scripture in things not clearly exprest for Lex currit cum praxi that without it we should be at a loss in sundry points both of

But of these Dr. Sanderson then drew up for his own satisfaction such a Scheme he call'd it Pax Ecclesia as then gave himself and hath since given others such satisfaction that it still remains to be of great estimation among the most learned He was also chosen Clerk of all the Convocations during that good Kings reign Which I here tell my Reader because I shall hereafter have occasion to mention that Convocation in 1640. the unhappy long Parliament and some debates of the Predestination Points as they have been since charitably handled betwixt him the learned Dr. Hammond and Dr. Pierce the now reverend Dean of Salisbury In the year 1636. his Majesty then in his Progress took a fair occasion to visit Oxford and to take an entertainment for two days for himself and honourable Attendants which the Reader ought to believe was sutable to their dignities But this is mentioned because at the King 's coming thither Dr. Sanderson did attend him and was then the 31 of August created Doctor of Divinity which honour had an addition to it by having many of the Nobility of this Nation then made Doctors and Masters of Art with him Some of whose names shall be recorded and live with his and none shall out-live it First Dr. Curle and Dr. Wren who were then Bishops of Winton and of Norwich and had formerly taken their degrees in Cambridge were with him created Doctors of Divinity in his University So was Merick the Son of the learned Izaak Causabon and Prince Rupert who still lives the then Duke of Lenox Earl of Hereford Earl of Essex of Barkshire and very many others of noble birth too many to be named were then created Masters of Arts. Some years before the unhappy long Parliament this Nation being then happy and in peace though inwardly sick of being well namely in the year 1639. a discontented party of the Scots Church were zealously restless for another Reformation of their Kirk Government and to that end created a new Covenant for the general taking of which they pretended to petition the King for his assent and that he would injoyn the taking of it by all of that Nation but this Petition was not to be presenred to him by a Committee of eight or ten men of their Fraternity but by so many thousands and they so arm'd as seem'd to force an assent to what they seem'd to request so that though forbidden by the King yet they entred England and in their heat of Zeal took and plunder'd New-Castle where the King was forc'd to meet them with an Army but upon a Treaty and some concessions he sent them back though not so rich as they intended yet for that time without blood-shed But oh this Peace and this Covenant were but the forerunners of War and the many miseries that followed For in the year following there were so many chosen into the long Parliament that were of a conjunct Council with these very zealous and as factious Reformes as begot such a confusion by the several desires and designs in many of the Members of that Parliament and at last in the very common people of this Nation that they were so lost by contrary designs fears and confusions as to believe the Scots and their Covenant would restore them to their former tranquillity And to that end the Presbyterian party of this Nation did again in the year 1643. invite the Scotch Covenanters back into England and hither they came marching with it gloriously upon their Pikes and in their Hats with this Motto For the Crown and Covenant of both Kingdoms This I saw and suffer'd by it But when I look back upon the ruine of Families the bloodshed the decay of common honesty and how the former piety and plain dealing of this now sinful Nation is turned into cruelty and cunning I praise God that he prevented me from being of that party which help'd to bring in this Covenant and those sad Confusions that have follow'd it And I have been the bolder to say this of my self because in a sad discourse with Dr. Sanderson I heard him make the like grateful acknowledgement This digression is intended for the better information of the Reader in what will follow concerning Dr. Sanderson And first That the Covenanters of this Nation and their party in Parliament made many Exceptions against the Common Prayer and Ceremonies of the Church and seem'd restless for a Reformation And though their desires seem'd not reasonable to the King and the learned Dr. Laud then Archbishop of Canterbury yet to quiet their Consciences and prevent future confusion they did in the year 1641. desire Dr. Sanderson to call two more of the Convocation to advise with him and that he would then draw up some such safe alterations as he thought fit in the Service Book and abate some of the Ceremonies that were least material for satisfying their consciences and to this end they did meet together privately twice a week at the Dean of Westminster's House for the space of 3 months or more But not long after that time when Dr. Sanderson had made the Reformation ready for a view the Church and State were both fall'n into such a confusion that Dr. Sanderson's Model for Reformation became then useless Nevertheless his Reputation was such that he was in the year 1642. propos'd by both Houses of Parliament to the King then in Oxford to be one of their Trustees for the settling of Church affairs and was allowed of by the King to be so but that Treaty came to nothing In the year 1643. the 2 Houses of Parliament took upon them to make an Ordinance and call an Assembly of Divines to debate and settle some Church controversies of which many were very unfit to judges in which Dr. Sanderson was also named but did not appear I suppose for the same reason that many other worthy and learned men did forbear the Summons wanting the King's Authority And here I must look back and tell the Reader that in the year 1642. he was Iuly 21. named by a more undoubted Authority to a more noble imployment which was to be Professor Regius of Divinity in Oxford but though knowledge be said to puff up yet his modesty and too mean an opinion of his great Abilities and some other real or pretended reasons exprest in his Speech when he first appeared in the Chair and since printed kept him from entring into it till Octobor 1646. He did for about a years time continue to read his matchless Lectures which were first de Iuramento a Point very difficult and at that time very dangerous to be handled as it ought to be But this learned man as he was eminently furnished with Abilities to satisfie the consciences of men upon that important Subject so he wanted not courage to assert the true obligation of Oaths in a degenerate Age when men had made perjury a main part of their Religion How much the learned world

who is bound in all his Laws to intend the safety of the Publick and of every member thereof in his due proportion hath no intention by the strict observation of any particular Law to oblige any person who is a Member of the Publick to his destruction or ruin when the common good is not answerably promoted thereby Upon which ground it is generally resolv'd by Casuists That no Constitution meerly humane can lay such Obligation upon the Conscience of the Subject but that we may according to the exigency of circumstances do otherwise than the Constitution requireth provided it be done extra casum scandali contemptûs i.e. without either bewraying in himself any contempt of the Authority of the Law-giver by his carriage or giving any just occasion of scandal to others by his example in so doing I have been somewhat the longer in explaining this point not only for the better clearing of the present doubt but also in respect of the usefulness of this consideration for the preventing and removing of many scruples that may happen to conscientious men in such times as these wherein so many things are and are like to be commanded and forbidden contrary to the establish'd Laws and those as they are perswaded yet standing in force The best rule that I know to guide men in their deliberations and actions in such emergent cases according to what hath been already delivered is advisedly and impartially to weigh the benefit inconveniencies as well on the one side as on the other as they stand in relation unto the Publick Good and if after such examination and comparison made it shall then evidently or but in the judgment of probability appear that the Observation of the Law according to the proper intention of the Law-giver therein though with hazard of Estate Liberty or even life it self hath a greater tendency to the Publick Good and the preservation of church or Commonwealth in safety peace and order than the preventing of the foresaid hazards or other evil consequents by doing otherwise than the Law requireth can have or which cometh to one if the violating of the Law shall then to be more prejudicial to the publick Good than the preservation of the Subject's Estate Liberty or Life can be beneficial hereunto In such case the Subject is bound to hazard all he hath and undergo whatsoever inconveniencies and calamities can ensue thereupon rather than violate the Law with contempt of that Authority to which he oweth subjection But if it shall after such comparison made evidently or but more probably than the contrary appear That that preservation of such a persons Life Liberty Estate would more benefit the Church or Commonwealth than the punctual observation of the Law at that time and with those circumstances would do it were an unseasonable unreasonable and pernicious scrupulosity for such a person to think himself in such a case obliged for the observing of the Law perhaps but once or twice with little or no benefit to the Publick to ruin himself whereby to render himself unuseful and unserviceable to the Publick for ever hereafter To bring this Discourse home and to apply it to the business now under dispute Suppose we ten twenty or One hundred godly Ministers well affected to the establish'd Liturgy and actually possess'd of Benefices with the Charge of Souls thereto belonging should thinking themselves in Conscience obliged to the use of the whole Form of the Book as is by the Act appointed without any addition omission or alteration whatsoever notwithstanding the present conjuncture of Affairs resolve to use the same accordingly it would be well considered what the effects and consequents thereof would be Besides other evils these three are visible which must all unavoidably follow one upon another if any body shall be found as doubtless within short time there will be found one or other to inform and prosecute against them 1. The utter undoing of so many worthy persons fit to do God and his Church good service together with all those persons that depend upon them for their livelyhood by putting the fruits of their Benefices wherewith they should buy themselves bread under Sequestration 2. The depriving of those persons of the opportunity of discharging the duties that belong unto them in their Ministerial Calling in not permitting them after such Sequestration to teach or instruct the people belonging to their Charge or to exercise any thing of their Function publickly in the Church 3. The delivering over the Sheep of Christ that lately were under the hands of the faithful Shepherds into the Custody of ravenous Wolves when such Guides shall be set over the several Congregations as will be sure to mis-teach them one way or other viz. either by instilling into them Puritanical and Superstitious Principles that they may the more securely exercise their Presbyterian Tyranny over their Judgments Consciences Persons and Estates or else by setting up new Lights before them to lead them into a maze of Anabaptistical confusion and frenzy These consequents are so heavy to the Sufferers so certain to ensue upon the use of Common Prayer and so much without the power of the Law-givers in this state of Affairs either to prevent or remedy that it is beyond the wit of man what benefit to the Publick can accrue by the strict observation of the Act that may in any proportion countervail these mischiefs In which case that man must needs suppose a strange austerity in the Law-giver that dares not presume of his consent to disoblige him for the time from observing the same It would be also well considered Whether he that by his own over-nice scrupulosity runs all these hazards be not in some measure guilty of his own undoing of deserting his station and of betraying his flock and do not thereby lose much of that comfort which a Christian Confessor may take in his sufferings when they are laid upon him by the Hand of God and not pull'd upon himself by his own hands And more I shall not need to say as to that first Objection The next thing objected is The danger of the Scandal that others might be ready to take at the Example who seeing the Law so little regarded by such men men that have Cure of Souls and perhaps also of some eminency and esteem in the Church and whose Example will be much look'd upon will be easily encourag'd by this Example to set light by all Authority and to take the liberty to obey and disobey the Laws of their Soveraign at their pleasure But this Objection after we are once satisfied concerning the former need not much trouble us For 1. It seemeth an unreasonable thing in cases of great Exigence such as we now suppose that the fear of scandalizing our weak Brethren which is but Debitum charitatis only should lay upon us a peremptory necessity of observing the Law punctually whatsoever inconveniencies and mischiefs may ensue thereupon when the duty

or no. When for decency order or uniformities sake any Constitutions are made concerning Ceremonies there is the same necessity of obeying such Constitutions as there is of obeying other laws made for the good of the Commonwealth concerning any other indifferent things That such necessity either in the one or the other ariseth not properly from the authority of the immediate lawgiver but from the Ordinance of God who hath commanded us to obey the Ordinance of men for his sake That such necessity of obedience notwithstanding the things remain in the same indifferency as before every way in respect of their nature and quoad rem it being not in the power of accidental relations to change the natures of things and even in respect of their use and quoad nos thus far that there is a liberty left for men upon extraordinary and other just occasions sometimes to do otherwise than the Constitution requireth extra casum scandali contemptûs A liberty which we dare not either take our selves or allow to others in things properly and absolutely necessary Upon which very account I mean the consideration of the indifferency of the things in themselves and upon which account alone it is that many of the Episcopal that is to say the true English Protestant Divines who sadly resent the voting down of the Liturgy Festivals and Ceremonies of the Church by so many former Laws established heartily desired heretofore the continuance and as heartily still wish the restitution and are by God's help ready with their Tongues Pens and Sufferings to maintain and justifie the lawful use of the same do yet so far yield to the sway of the times and are perswaded they may with a good Conscience so do as to forbear the use thereof in the publick worship till it shall seem good to those that are in place of Authority either to restore them to their former state as it is well hoped when they shall have duly considered the evil consequents of that Vote they will or at leastwise and in the mean time to leave them arbitrary for men according to their several different judgments to use or not to use which seemeth but reasonable the like favour and liberty in other kinds having been long allowed to almost all other sorts of men though of never so distant perswasions one from another Lastly That all Laws made concerning Ceremonies or other indifferent things whether Civil or Ecclesiastical are mutable and as they were at first made by humane authority so may they from time to time be by humane authority abrogated and repealed And then and thenceforth they lose their obligation whereby the necessity of yielding obedience thereunto wholly ceaseth and determineth and the things thereby commanded or prohibited return to their primitive and natural indifferency even in their use also and in respect of us But in the Case of our Church now it is far otherwise Cap Surplice Cross Ring and other Ceremonies which are the matter of our differences though they be things indifferent for their nature and in themselves yet are not so for their use and unto us If the Church had been silent if Authority had prescribed nothing herein these Ceremonies had then remained for their use as they are for their nature indifferent Lawful and such as might be used without sin and yet Arbitrary and such as might be also forborn without sin But men must grant though they be unwilling if yet they will be reasonable that every particular Church hath power for decency and orders sake to ordain and constitute Ceremonies which being once ordained and by publick Authority enjoyned cease to be indifferent for their use though they remain still so for their nature and of indifferent become so necessary that neither may a man without sin refuse them where Authority requireth nor use them where Authority restraineth the use Neither is this accession of necessity any impeachment to Christian Liberty or insnaring of mens Consciences as some have objected For then do we ensnare mens Consciences by humane constitutions where we thrust them upon men as if they were Divine and bind mens Consciences to them immediately as if they were immediate parts of God's worship or of absolute necessity unto Salvation This Tyranny and Vsurpation over mens Consciences the Pharisees of old did and the Church of Rome at this day doth exercise and we justly hate in her equalling if not preferring her Constitutions to the Laws of God But our Church God be thanked is far from any such impious presumption and hath sufficiently declared her self by sosolemn protestation enough to satisfie any ingenuous impartial judgment that by requiring obedience to these ceremonial constitutions she hath no other purpose than to reduce all her children to an orderly conformity in the outward worship of God so far is she from seeking to draw any opinion either of divine necessity upon the constitution or of effectual holiness upon the ceremony And as for the prejudice which seemeth to be hereby given to Christian liberty it is so slender a conceit that it seemeth to bewray in the objectors a desire not so much of satisfaction as cavil For first the liberty of a Christian to all indifferent things is in the mind and conscience and is then infringed when the conscience is bound and strained by imposing upon it an opinion of doctrinal necessity But it is no wrong to the Liberty of a Christian man's conscience to bind him to outward observation for orders sake and to impose upon him a necessity of Obedience Which one distinction of Doctrinal and Obediential necessity well weighed and rightly applied is of it self sufficient to clear all doubts in this point For to make all restraint of the outward man in matters indifferent an impeachment of Christian liberty what were it else but even to bring flat Anabaptism and Anarchy into the Church and to overthrow all bond to subjection and obedience to lawful authority I beseech you consider wherein can the immediate power and authority of Fathers Masters and other Rulers over their inferiours consist or the due obedience of inferiours be shewn towards them if not in these indifferent and arbitrary things For things absolutely necessary as commanded by God we are bound to do whether human Authority require them or no and things absolutely unlawful as prohibited by God we are bound not to do whether humane Authority forbid them or no. There are none other things left then wherein to express properly the Obedience due to superiour Authority than these indifferent things And if a Father or Master have power to prescribe to his child or servant in indifferent things and such restraint be no way prejudicial to Christian liberty in them why should any man either deny the like power to Church Governours to make Ecclesiastical constitutions concerning indifferent things or interpret that power to the prejudice of Christian liberty And again secondly Men must understand that it is an

errour to think Ceremonies and Constitutions to be things meerly indifferent I mean in the general For howsoever every particular Ceremony be indifferent and every particular constitution arbitrary and alterable yet that there should be some Ceremonies it is necessary necessitate absoluta inasmuch as no outward work can be performed without ceremonial circumstances some or other and that there should be some constitutions concerning them it is also necessary though not simply and absolutely as the former yet ex hypothesi and necessitate convenientiae Otherwise since some Ceremonies must needs be used every Parish may every man would have his own fashion by himself as his humour led him whereof what other could be the issue but infinite distraction and unorderly confusion in the Church And again thirdly to return their weapon upon themselves if every restraint in indifferent things be injurious to Christian liberty then themselves are injurious no less by their negative restraint from some Ceremonies Wear not Cross not Kneel not c. than they would have the world believe our Church is by her positive restraint unto these Ceremonies of wearing and crossing and kneeling c. Let indifferent men judge nay let themselves that are parties judge whether is more injurious to Christian Liberty publick Authority by mature advice commanding what might be forborn or private spirits through humorous dislikes forbidding what may be used the whole Church imposing the use or a few Brethren requiring the forbearance of such things as are otherwise and in themselves equally indifferent for use for forbearance But they say our Church makes greater matters of ceremonies than thus and preferreth them even before the most necessary duties of preaching and administring the Sacraments inasmuch as they are imposed upon Ministers under pain of Suspension and Deprivation from their Ministerial Functions and Charges First for actual Deprivation I take it unconforming Ministers have no great cause to complain Our Church it is well known hath not always used that rigour she might have done Where she hath been forced to proceed as far as Deprivation she hath ordinarily by her fair and slow and compassionate proceeding therein sufficiently manifessed her unwillingness thereto and declare her self a Mother everyway indulgent enough to such ill-nurtured Children as will not be ruled by her Secondly those that are suspended or deprived suffer it but justly for their obstinacy and contempt For howsoever they would bear the world in hand that they are the only persecuted ones and that they suffer for their consciences yet in truth they do but abuse the credulity of the simple therein and herein as in many other things jump with the Papists whom they would seem above all others most abhorrent from For as Seminary Priests and Iesuits give it out that they suffer for Religion when the very truth is they are justlty executed for their prodigious Treasons and felonious or treacherous practices against lawful Princes and Estates So the Brethren pretend they are persecuted for their consciences when they are indeed but justly censured for thier obstinate and pertinacious contempt of lawful authority For it is not the refusal of these Ceremonies they are deprived for otherwise than as the matter wherein they shew their contempt It is the contempt it self which formerly and properly subjecteth them to just Ecclesiastical censure of Suspension or Deprivation And contempt of authority though in the smallest matter deserveth no small punishment all authority having been ever solicitous as it hath good reason above all things to vindicate and preserve it self from contempt by inflicting sharp punishments upon contemptuous persons in the smallest matters above all other sorts of offenders in any degree whatsoever Thus have we shewed and cleared the first and main difference betwixt the case of my Text and the case of our Church in regard of the matter the things whereabout they differed being every way indifferent ours not so The determination of Superiours may and ought to restrain us in the outward exercise of our Christian liberty We must submit our selves to every Ordinance of man saith St. Peter 1 Pet. 2. 13. and it is necessary we should do so for so is the will of God ver 15. Neither is it against Christian liberty if we do so for we are still as free as before rather if we do not so we abuse our liberty for a cloak of maliciousness as it followeth there ver 16. And St. Paul telleth us we must needs be subject not only for fear because the Magistrate carrieth not the Sword in vain but also for conscience sake because the powers that are are ordained of God This duty so fully pressed and so uniformly by these two grand Apostles is most apparent in private societies In a family the Master or pater familias who is a kind of petty Monarch there hath authority to prescribe to his children and servants in the use of those indifferent things whereto yet they as Christians have as much liberty as he The servant though he be the Lord's free-man yet is limited in his diet lodging livery and many other things by his Master and he is to submit himself to his Master's appointment in these things though perhaps in his private affection he had rather his Master had appointed otherwise and perhaps withal in his private judgment doth verily think it fitter his Master should appoint otherwise If any man under colour of Christian liberty shall teach otherwise and exempt servants from the obedience of their Masters in such things St. Paul in a holy indignation inveigheth against such a man not without some bitterness in the last Chapter of his Epistle as one that is proud and knoweth nothing as he should do but doteth about questions and strife of words c. ver 3 5. Now look what power the Master hath over his Servants for the ordering of his family no doubt the same at the least if not much more hath the supreme Magistrate over his Subjects for the peace of the Commonwealth the Magistrate being pater patriae as the Master is pater familias Whosoever then shall interpret the determinations of Magistrates in the use of the Creatures to be contrary to the liberty of a Christian or under that colour shall exempt inferiours from their obedience to such determinations he must blame St. Paul nay he must blame the holy Ghost and not us if he hear from us that he is proud and knoweth nothing and doteth about unprofitable Questions Surely but that experience sheweth us it hath been so and the Scriptures have foretold us that it should be so that there should be differences and sidings and part-takings in the Church A man would wonder how it should ever sink into the hearts and heads of sober understanding men to deny either the power in Superiours to ordain or the necessity in Inferiours to obey Laws and Constitutions so restraining us in the use of the Ceratures Neither let any man cherish his

the use of indifferent things The Romans Corinthians and others to whom St. Paul wrote about these matters being not limited any way in the exercise of their liberty therein by any over-ruling Authority But where the Magistrates have interposed and thought good upon mature advice to impose Laws upon those that are under them whereby their liberty is not infringed as some unjustly complain in the inward judgment but only limited in the outward exercise of it there the Apostolical directions will not hold in the same absolute manner as they were delivered to those whom they then concerned but only in the equity of them so far forth as the cases are alike and with such meet qualifications and mitigations as the difference of the cases otherwise doth require So that a man ought not out of private fancy or meerly because he would not be observed for not doing as others do or for any the like weak respects to do that thing of the lawfulness whereof he is not competently perswaded where it is free for him to do otherwise which was the case of these weak ones among the Romans for whose sakes principally the Apostle gave these directions But the Authority of the Magistrates intervening so alters the case that such a forbearance as to them was necessary is to as many of us as are commanded to do this or that altogether unlawful in regard they were free and we are bound for the Reasons already shewn which I now rehearse not But you will yet say for in point of obedience men are very loath to yield so long as they can find any thing to plead those that lay these burdens upon us at leastwise should do well to satisfie our doubts and to inform our Consciences concerning the lawfulness of what they enjoyn that so we might render them obedience with better chearfulness How willing are we sinful men to leave the blame of our miscarriages any where rather than upon our selves But how is it not incongruous the while that those men should prescribe rules to their Governours who can scarcely brook their Governours should prescribe Laws to them It were good we should first learn how to obey ere we take upon us to teach our betters how to govern However what Governours are bound to do or what is fit for them to do in the point of information that is not now the question If they fail in any part of their bounden duty they shall be sure to reckon for it one day but their Iailing cannot in the mean time excuse thy disobedience Although I think it would prove a hard task for whosoever should undertake it to shew that Superiours are always bound to inform the Consciences of their Inferiours concerning the lawfulness of every thing they shall command If sometimes they do it where they see it expedient or needful sometimes again and that perhaps oftner it may be thought more expedient for them and more conducible for the publick peace and safety only to make known to the people what their pleasures are reserving to themselves the Reasons thereof I am sure in the point of Ecclesiastical Ceremonies and Constitutions in which case the aforesaid Allegations are usually most stood upon this hath been abundantly done in our Church not only in the learned writings of sundry private men but by the publick declaration also of Authority as is to be seen at large in the Preface commonly printed before the Book of Common Prayer concerning that Argument enough to satisfie those that are peaceable and not disposed to stretch their wits to cavil at things established And thus much of the second Question touching a doubting Conscience whereon I have insisted the longer because it is a point both so proper to the Text and whereat so many have stumbled There remaineth but one other Question and that of far smaller difficulty What is to be done when the Conscience is scrupulous I call that a scruple when a man is reasonably well perswaded of the lawfulness of a thing yet hath withal some jealousies and fears lest perhaps it should prove unlawful Such scruples are most incident to men of melancholy dispositions or of timorous Spirits especially if they be tender conscienced withal and they are much encreased by the false suggestions of Satan by reading the Books or hearing the Sermons or frequenting the company of men more strict precise and austere in sundry points than they need or ought to be and by sundry other means which I now mention not Of which scruples it behooveth every man first to be wary that he doth not at all admit them if he can choose Or if he cannot wholly avoid them that secondly he endeavour so far as may be to eject them speedily out of his thoughts as Satan's snares and things that may breed him worfer inconveniencies Or if he cannot be so rid of them that then thirdly he resolve to go on according to the more profitable perswasion of his mind and despise those scruples And this he may do with a good Conscience not only in things commanded him by lawful Authority but even in things indifferent and arbitrary and wherein he is left to his own liberty REASONS Of the present JUDGMENT OF THE University of OXFORD Concerning The Solemn League and Covenant The Negative Oath The Ordinances concerning Discipline and Worship Approved by general consent in a full Convocation Iune 1. 1647. And presented to Consideration LONDON Printed for Richard Marriott 1678. A Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and Defence of Religion the honour and happiness of the King and the Peace and Safety of the three Kingdoms England Scotland and Ireland WE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commmons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland by the Providence of God living under one King and being of one Reformed Religion having before our eyes the glory of God and the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ the honour and happiness of the King's Majesty and his Posterity and the true publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private Devotion is included and calling to mind the treacherous and bloody Plots Conspiracies Attempts and Practices of the Enemies of God against the true Religion and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick Testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstrance Protestations and Sufferings for the preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and the Example of God's People in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to