Sections and this is the result of all If every Pastor might be a Bishop in his Parish Independent and free from any Superiour to controul him if he may have an arbitrary power if they may be arbitrary in exercise of the power of the Keys without appeal such as he says p. 265. the Jews had where there was a Village of Ten Persons there was a Presbyter that had power of Judging Offenders Then we should be so far says he from using the controversie about the Divine Right of Episcopacy as a distinct Order from Presbyters to any Schisme or injury to the Church as hitherto they have done that we should thankfully contribute our best endeavours to the Concord Peace Safety and Prosperity thereof i. e. they would give the Bishops leave to exercise their Authority in Vtopia having provided that they shall have nothing to do in England But the Magistrates must yield to them also Might we be freed from Swearing Subscribing Declaring and Covenanting unnecessary things which we take not to be true and from some few unnecessary practices which we cannot justify And if they might have power of Ordaining such as they please and of Confirming the Adult not according to the Order of the Church of England for that comes too near to Popery but according to Mr. Baxters or Mr. Hanmers Model that is May the power of altering the Laws in Church and State then and not till then when these necessary terms are granted they will serve the Church so modelled in poverty and raggs But of so great a mercy says he experience hath made our hopes from Men to be very small and the Reason of the thing makes our hopes as small of the happiness of the Church of England till God Unite us on these necessary terms To what great streights do some Men reduce themselves that they cannot live unless they Rob and ruine their neighbours subvert whole Churches and Kingdoms and grasp all Power and Authority over the Bodies and Consciences of their Brethren into their own hands Did ever any Bishop aspire to such Tyranny as this the Pope only excepted is not the King and whole Nation greatly Culpable not to trust themselves with the Ingenuity of this people of whose Loyalty and Charity they have had such experience and is it not pitty that they should be constrained to attempt these things against Law when they so humbly desire to have them established by Law and when the reason of the thing i. e. their resolution to have it so it being their great concern as he calls it makes the hopes of the happiness of the Church of England to be very small which Men so resolved as they are may foretel as Mr. Baxter doth without a Spirit of Prophecy Sect. 2. p. 207. Mr. Baxter proceeds to the second part of Conformity which he calls Re-ordination and says it was either intended as a second Ordination or not If yea it is a thing condemned by the ancient Churches by the Canons called the Apostles c. If not then they take such Mens former Ordination to be Null and consequently all such Churches to be no Churches their Baptizings and Consecration of the Lords Supper c. to be Null Answ Although the Ordination by Presbyters alone especially when it hath been done in opposition to * P. 237. of the five Disputations We Ordain not presente but Spreto Episcopo and Contempt of Bishops hath been ever condemned in the Church and the validity thereof is still questioned yet granting it to be valid a Submission to Episcopal Ordination is no renouncing of that which was performed by Presbyters no more than the submission of the Disciples of John who had been Baptized by him with the Baptism of Repentance to the Baptism of Christ Nor doth the Law any where require them to declare that their former Ordination was Null because then it would have pronounced their Baptizings and other Ministerial Offices to be Null if therefore we did juge as charitably of our Legislators as we ought and Interpret the Laws by the practice we cannot find any such thing as Re-ordination intended For first the word is no where mentioned but the Ordination required is to qualify them for the exercise of their Ministry in the Church of England and to capacitate them for it Thus in the Preface to the Book of Ordination it is said None shall be taken as Ministers of the Church of England but who are so Ordained It denyeth not but they may be Ministers elsewhere and the Act for Vniformity renders them uncapable of any Parsonage Vicaridge c. in the Church of England But the same Act allows of the Ministers Presbyterially Ordained in other Reformed Churches to exercise their Ministry here by His Majesties Authority Yea the same Parliament permits them to meet and exercise many Ministerial duties so that the number above that of their own Families do not exceed Five and Mr. Baxter knows that the most eminent Divines of our Church ever held the Ordination by Presbyters in forraign Churches to be lawful 2. It is Mr. Baxters Opinion that the outward part of Ordination may be repeated Directory l. 3. Q. 21. And that the Ordainer doth but Ministerially invest the person with Power whom the Spirit of God hath qualified for it by the Inward Call now the Inward Call being the Essential part as he accounts and the Ministerial Investiture of the person with power being the outward part P. 311. of the Plea I see no reason why one Ordained by Presbyters may not submit to Episcopal Ordination by his own Argument Yea Mr. Baxter there affirmes That the mutual consent of the people and themselves may suffice to the orderly admittance into the Office especially if the Magistrate consent and the Ordainers should refuse For which see more in his Dispute of Ordination from whence I propose this case suppose a person fitly qualified for Parts and Piety Chosen and Ordained a Minister by an Independent or Anabaptistical people should afterward submit himself to Presbyterial Ordination I doubt not but the Presbyters would think it lawful to Ordain him and I believe they would not admit him into their Churches without such Ordination which may justifie our Superiours in requiring that they who will be admitted Ministers of the Church of England should be Episcopally Ordained For here is nothing repeated but the outward part or Ceremony of Investiture which by Mr. Baxters Confession may be repeated and is no more than the Marriage of such by a Minister who had been Married before by a Justice of Peace Or as he makes another Comparison it is no more than if a person very expert in Physick should practice without a License Upon which he tells you a story of his great success in Physick which he practiced many years gratis and saved the Lives of multitudes p. 78. of the Third part of the way of Concord and yet he there grants that it
the performance of some more necessary duties I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice and St. Paul did Circumcise Timothy to avoid greater inconveniencies when doubtless he had rather not have done it And as we may do some things so we may omit some other which are injoyned by Law according to the exigency of circumstances so it be done without bewraying contempt of Authority or giving just occasion of scandal to others Bishop Sanderson p. 19. of Submission to Superiours The last thing that I shall premise is that the Non-Conformists are not yet agreed what that is in our Conformity which they think to be sinful For what some think unlawful others condemn only as inconvenient One sticks at the Sign of the Cross another at Kneeling at the Sacrament a third at the Surplice a fourth can submit to all these but sticks at Reâ—ordination which different judgment of dissenters gives just cause to believe that there is no real sinfulness in either because what some think to be sinful others grant to be lawful These things being premised I come to the business of Ministerial Conformity Mr. Baxter tells us § 7. that the root of the difference is this That the Non-Conformists thought that they should stick to the meer Scripture rules and simplicity and go far from all additions which were found invented or abused by the Papists in Doctrine Worship and Government against which Opinion Mr. Baxter disputes part 3. ch 2. of his Directory And the Conformists thought that they should shew more reverence to the Customes of the Antient Church and retain that which was not forbidden in Scripture which was introduced before the ripeness of the Papacy or before the year 660. and common to them with the Greek which doubtless was the sounder Opinion So that the Foundation of Non-conformity was lay'd on a false principle and they that built thereon frequently raised Sedition and would have as certainly destroyed the Nation as they did one another had they not been prevented For Mr. Baxter observes that some of them were so hot at home that they were put to death not for their Non-conformity but for Murder Treason or Blasphemy as the Histories of those times shew Others as Ainsworth Robinson Johnson c. fled beyond Sea and there gathered Churches and broke by Division among themselves And whereas Mr. Baxter says that the difference among the Exiles at Frankford was that Dr. Cox and Mr. Horne and their party strove for the English Liturgy and the other party for the freer way of praying from the present sense and habit of the speaker It will appear to him that reads the Troubles of Frankford that the Question was not between the English Liturgy and such free Prayers which were not then publickly used For Calvin himself used a Liturgy at Geneva and a short Form before his Sermons and sometimes that which we call Bidding of Prayers as may be seen after his Sermons on Job Printed in English And Mr. Calvin thus relates the matter p. 33. of his Opuscula When the Exiles could not agree about the English Liturgy they did by my Advice and Approbation draw up another Printed in the English Tongue 1556. wherein was a Confession taken out of Daniel the 9th a Prayer for the whole Church the Lords Prayer the Creed c. the rest of this Section carrieth its Confutation with it The 8. § concerns the conformity of Lay-men which falls under that of Ministerial Conformity § 9. Where first of Assent Consent and Subscription nothing is contrary to Gods word c. This as Mr. Baxter observes is required by the 36. Canon not by the Act or the Book it self Now if we consider by what Men this hath been subscribed to ever since those Canons were Confirmed and what Latitude the Church seems to allow us in making this Subscription viz. If we shall allow it such just and favourable construction as in common equity ought to be allowed to all humane Writings especially such as are set forth by authority and even to the best Translation of the Holy Scripture it self which as you have seen Mr. Baxter himself doth grant they that Scruple at this may also refuse to subscribe any Articles Confession of Faith yea even the Apostles Creed This therefore is already answered and so is the next Objection that the Subscriber will use that Form in publick Prayer c. and none other For other occasional Forms for Prayer and Thanksgiving commended to us by authority may be used without violating this Subscription it being Casus omissus the constant practice of the Church shewing that this exception was intended though not expressed and that conceived Prayers before Sermons are not hereby forbidden the general practice doth evince All Law-givers do leave to the Judges and Magistrates a Power to interpret the doubtful Letter of the Law and to mitigate the rigour of its Execution in order to the publick good and dispenseth with the Subjects so be it they observe the chief end of the Law in the omission of some circumstances on reasonable occasions and unavoidable accidents without which Justice would be turned into Wormwood He therefore that presumeth of the Magistrates consent to dispense with the Observation of the lesser parts of the Law on just occasions and in needful cases presumeth no more than he hath reason to do And this Bishop Sanderson groundeth on that Maxim Salus Populi Suprema Lex All that is required by the Act is unfeignedly to Assent and Consent that there is such a measure of Truth and Goodness in the Book of Common-Prayer as qualifies it for the publick Worship of God which even they that pretend disorders and defects in it may do in Obedience to Authority for the sake of Peace Order and Charity as well as for the continuing of themselves in the Ministry And doubtless they may approve of the present Liturgy with all its defects which was compiled by the Holy and Learned Martyrs and hath been reviewed and approved by many stout Confessors as well as of their so he calls his new Liturgy more correct Nepenthes which being done in haste hath many Imperfections or the Directory that had nor Creed nor Decalogue both which leave Men to their own extemporary Conceptions And in a short time justled out the Lords Prayer too The title of the Act which is the Key that opens the sense and intention of the Law-givers is an Act for Vniformity of publick Prayers and Administration of Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies so that if Uniformity be unfeignedly observed the Act is satisfied though the Conformist may wish that some things in the said Book had been amended But some Men are so unhappy as to contrive Nets and Snares to involve themselves and others and raise nice distinctions where the Law distinguisheth not As do they who say Assent implies the Truth and Consent the goodness of the things 2. And whereas the Act says to all things they
find answered by the University of Oxford and seconded by the University of Cambridge The King told his Parliament March 19. 1603. The third which I call a Sect rather than Religion is the Puritan and Novelist who do not differ so far from us in points of Religion as in their confused forms of Polity and Parity being ever discontented with the present Government and impatient to suffer any superiority which makes their Sect unable to be suffered in any well governed Common-wealth And it is one reason why Grotius was so condemned for a Papist among this people because in his Book de Anti-Christo he hath left this Character of them Circumferamus oculos per omnem historiam quod unquam seculum vidit tot subditorum in principes bella sub religionis titulo horum concitatores ubique reperiuntur Ministri Evangelici ut quidam se vocant quod genus hominum in quae pericula etiam nunc opti mos Civitatis Amstelodamensis magistratus conjicerit videat si cui libet de Presbyterorum in Reges audacia librum Jacobi Britanniarum Regis cui nomen Donum Regium videbit eum ut erat magni judicii ea praedixisse quae nunc cum dolore horrore conspicimus I will give it you presently in that Kings English But the King giving them a fair hearing in the conference at Hampton Court partly by his Arguments and partly by his Authority suppressed them for that time Yet this restless people so incensed him by their murmurings and reproaches that he frequently in his Writings and Speeches in Parliament professed both his jealousie of them and caution against them in his Preface to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These rash heady Preachers says he think it their honour to contend with Kings and perturb whole Kingdoms and p. 41. 42. Take heed my Son to such Puritans very Pests in the Church and Common-weal whom no Desert can oblige neither Oaths nor Promises bind breathing nothing but Sedition and Calumnies aspiring without measure railing without reason and making their own Imaginations without any warrant of the word the square of their Consciences I protest before the great God and since I am here as upon my Testament it is no place for me to lye in that ye shall never find with any Highland or border Thieves greater ingratitude and more lies and vile perjuries than with these Fanatick-spirits and suffer not the principles of them to brook your Land if ye like to sit at rest except ye would keep them for trying your patience as Socrates did an evil Wife The good King Charles found this Prophecy to be true for notwithstanding all the care that himself and Arch-bishop Laud who apprehended the approaching danger to suppress them in so much as that Mr. Baxter says in that 7. § That the old Non-conformists being most dead and the latter gone most to America we cannot learn that in 1640. there were many more Nonconformists Ministers in England than there be Counties if so many the Wolves be like had got on the Sheeps Cloathing and not being able to ruine the Church by open force seek to undermine it by secret Arts being got within the Pale In 37. says Mr. Baxter Arch-bishop Laud using more severity than formerly and the Visitations inquiring more after private Fasts and Meetings and going out of their Parishes to hear And in many Places Lectures and Afternoon Sermons being put down which was done only where Faction and Sedition were Sown and there Catechizing a much more useful exercise was injoyned in its room by these things and some other which he there mentioneth the minds of Men were made more jealous than before and fears and jealousies were made the grounds of the War the King and Arch-bishop being reported to be Popishly affected though they both as well in their Life time as at their Deaths gave irrefragable Arguments for the contrary sealing the truth of their Professions with their Blood And after the Imprisonment of some the stigmatizing of others and the removal of many beyond the Seas all which both many and some amounted not to above Three or Four whom though the Parliament received in Triumph and plentifully rewarded yet they found them to be turbulent Persons viz. Prin Burton and Bastwick for I hear not of any removed beyond the Seas by authority these were the causes of Alienating the peoples Minds from the Bishops and made them afraid of Popery more than before and so it is still any restraint from Faction is Condemned for Popery Mr. Baxter tells us there of another Intregue Then was the New Liturgy imposed on the Scots with other changes there attempted which were the resuming of some Lands belonging to the Church and Crown which had been Sacrilegiously withheld during a great part of King James and King Charles's Reign with the fear of losing the Tithes that some great Men there detained from the Clergy whereupon the Scots Armed and Invaded England and some English Lords saith Mr. Baxter took advantage to prevail with the King to call a Parliament once again And here doubtless was the beginning of the War the Scots and such English as were in confederacy and had agreed upon a Covenant for Reformation being the first Aggressors But let Mr. Baxter proceed The Irish observing it is like how the Scots thrived in their Rebellion on Oct. 23. 1641. rose and murdered 200000. Persons and Mr. Baxter is not ashamed to say the News was here reported that they said they had the Kings Commission just as much as the Parliament had to fight by his Authority against his Person whereupon the Parliaments Declarations raised in multitudes of the people a fear that they had partakers in England and when they had done their work there they would come hither And mark the consequence there was no way of safety but to adhere to the Parliament for their own defence i. e. to strengthen the War against the King And in 42. says he the lamentable Civil War broke out but between whom did the Bishops fight against the King or against one another or against the Parliament no such matter How began the War then Mr. Baxter says the Houses of Lords and Commons consisted of such as had been Conformists except an inconsiderable number Some number then were apparently Non-conformists and it seems they had infected many others for Mr. Baxter says they were such as had been Conformists they were not so when the War began and N.B. their fear of being over-powr'd by the Loyal party of whom they thought themselves in sudden danger caused them to countenance such Petitionings and Clamours of the Londoners Apprentices and others as we think disorders and Provocations of the King This doubtless was a beginning of the War of which see the Kings complaint in his Ch. of Tumults Mr. Baxter says farther the first open beginning was about the Militia which by an Act of Parliament is thus determined That the
sole Command and disposition thereof is and by the Laws of England ever was the undoubted right of His Majesty and that both or either of the Houses of Parliament cannot nor ought to pretend to the same c. How then did the controversie between the Bishops and Conformists begin the War when the dispute of the Militia did it In truth there were as Wilson in his History of King James confesseth Regians and Republicans and the dispute in several Parliaments was between the Prerogative and Priviledges and as Mr. Baxter says where other Parliaments ended that of 40. began And is it not strange that there should be so few Non-conformists in 41. and 42. and yet in 43. when the Covenant was brought in all the Parliament and Assembly and Officers in any Court in the Army and in the Navy should generally take the Covenant for that was made the Test of all such as should be intrusted and we hear of very few that refused and I think there is no great difference between a Covenanter and a Presbyterian who still cry up the Scottish Discipline as the very Scepter and Kingdom of Jesus Christ to which all Kings and Scepters must bow or break The Third Accusation is the death of the King of which Mr. Baxter says that he proved in times of Usurpation that the Presbyterians detested it and that it was done by a Proud Conquering Army Answ Who rose that Army and carried on that War wherein the King perished it was not the last stroak given by the Independents that felled that Royal Oak there were many repeated blows at the very Root of Majestie given by others which cut all the Ligaments of his Power and Authority in sunder chopt off all the Branches his two great Ministers as Mr. Baxter calls them the whole Order of Bishops His power of the Militia Forts Garrisons and Navy and exposed the declining trunk to the fury of a Rascal party whom themselves had Armed to the Kings ruine I shall freely give you my thoughts of it in an answer to another writing of Mr. Baxters where he seeks more at large to excuse the Presbyterians from this horrid Crime Mr. Baxter says were it not for entring upon an unpleasing and unprofitable task I would ask you who that Juncto of Presbyterians was that dethron'd the King Answ The question I confess is very unpleasing for Infandum renovare jubes Baxtere dolorem Yet because it may be profitable to know the truth I say that the dethroning so good a King was a fact of an unparalled nature to which the Sins of the whole Nation contributed as well as yours and mine and whereof we ought still to repent and beg pardon notwithstanding the Act of Oblivion Yet there was a Select Juncto that had a more immediate influence into it and you ask me who they were though I believe you know them better than my self I will tell you my thoughts freely First they were the Men whom Mr. Baxter Canonizeth for Saints in his Everlasting Rest p. 83. in my Edition viz. Brook and Prin and Hambden and White c. For I suppose you could have named many more of your own Coat as precious Saints as they of whom you say with an Asseveration Surely they are now Members of a more knowing unerring well-ordered right-aiming self-denying unanimous honourable Triumphant Senate than this from whence they were taken or ever Parliament will be But what if they are gone to another place than what your Everlasting Rest intended have you not made a scurvy Reflection on your long beloved Parliament and some Men do fear they were never admitted into Gods everlasting rest because you that fancied them there were ashamed to continue them in yours being left out in your latter Editions Secondly I say it was that Juncto who procured great numbers of factious and tumultuous people in a rude and illegal way to affright the Loyal and most considerable part of the Parliament from their duties and trust reposed in them by God and Man such were the Kings Majesty and the Prince the Loyal Nobles the Bishops and chosen Gentry posting them up as Malignants and exposing them to the fury of the Rabble of which tumults one of your Saints Mr. Pym by name said God forbid that the House of Commons should dishearten their people to obtain their just desires in such a way Exact Collect p. 531. Mr. Baxter p. 474. of the Holy Common-wealth makes this Objection The tumults at Westminster drove him away to which he answereth Only by displeasing him not by indangering or meddling with him and another eminent Man of Mr. Baxters acquaintance in his Jehovah Jireth p. 65. says the Apprentices and Porters were stimulated and stirred up by Gods Providence Thousands of them to Petition the Parliament for speedy redress Whereas the Five Members and their favourers had inraged the multitude not so much to Petition the Parliament as to affront the King Thirdly It was that Juncto who against His Majesties Crown and Dignity against the known Laws and his express Proclamation to the contrary did contrive and impose under heavy penalties the Solemn League and Covenant upon the Nation whereby they did justify the Rebellion and avow the maintenance of it against the King and his Forces And having first vowed with their Lives and Estates to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament they add and to preserve the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom Which experience sheweth they no more intended though it be here put in as it was in Essex's Commission than it was in Fairfax's where as I am informed they left it out and if they meant as they speak they had no great care of his person having actually deprived him of his Authority And besides that limitation they preserve the Kings Person in defence of the true Religion Covenanted to introduce another Religion in Doctrin and Worship in opposition to that which was established by Law and resolutely defended by his Majesty and to root out Episcopacy which as he had sworn to support so had it been a great prop to the Throne and therefore his Majesty declared concerning the 19. Propositions that he could not consent unto them without violating his Conscience and a total extirpation of that Government whose Rights they had a mind to invade and which was necessary to the well being of His Majesty as by many Arguments in the Chapter concerning Church Government it appears This certainly was one of the keenest Instruments that hewed down the Throne For the Speech without Doors defending Mr. Challoners Speech within Doors tells the Parliament that they are bound by their Covenant for bringing evil Instruments to Condigne Punishment to destroy the King and his Posterity and that they cannot justifie the taking away of Strafford's and Canterbury's Lives for Delinquency while they suffered the chief Delinquent to go