it was my judgment that it was not my duty without a special call to perswade any man to Nonconformity when it was but in the issue to perswade him to be silenced and to deprive the Church of his publick labours Therefore did I never to my remembrance endeavour to make any one man a Nonconformist that did not come or send to me for resolution in the case And some such also I put off as far as conscionably I could Though I may never perswade a man to that which I judg to be sin yet I am not always bound to disswade him from it If I saw a man about to tell a lye or take a false oath to save the life of the King from an enemy or traytor I do not think that it is my duty to hinder him Affirmatives bind not ad semper I thank God not that so many laudable Ministers conform but that they preach the Gospel and keep up so much of the interest of the Church and Religion in the Land I have met with some women and hot-brain'd lads of another mind that said Let them put upon us the veriest ignorant sots and drunkards we shall be the more easily justified for not going to their Churches But I ever reproved this as the language of the Serpent who insinuating into the injudicious would increase the sin and misery of the world For my own part I heard all Ministers where I lived who were but tollerable in the Sacred Office I came to the beginning of the Churches Prayers when I could and staid to the end I took not my self for a constrained unwilling hearer of them but the more any external imperfection made my devotion difficult the more I thought it my duty to labour to stir up my affections lest I should as the hypocrite draw near to God with my lips without my heart I remember what was said of Old Mr. Fenne the famous Coventry Nonconformist that he would say Amen loudly to every one of the Common-Prayers except that for the Bishops by which he thought he sufficiently expressed his dissent I know how unable the old Separatists were to answer the many Arguments of the famous Arthur Hildersham John Paget William Bradshaw Brightman John Ball and other old Nonconformists for the lawfulness of Communicating with our parish-Parish-Churches in the Sacraments and the Liturgy I was exceedingly moved against Separation truly so called by considering 1. How contrary it is to the principle of Christian love 2. And how directly and certainly pernicious to the interest and cause of Christ and of his Church and of the souls of men and how powerful a means it is to kill that little love that is left in the world 3. And how plainly it proceedeth from the same spirit that persecution doth For though their expressions be various their minds and principles are much the same which is to vilifie our Brethren and represent them as odious and intollerable and overlook that of Christ which is amiable in them In which when they have agreed as Children of the same Father they differ in their way of serving him One saith He is such and such therefore away with him silence him imprison him banish him The other saith He is such and such a one therefore away with him have no communion with him He that eateth not Rom. 14. will say Away with him because he eateth And he that eateth will say Away with him because he eateth not Both agree in murdering love and accounting their brother unlovely and intollerable 4. And I was greatly moved in thinking of the state of most of the Churches in the world if I travelled in Abassia Armenia Russia or among the Greek Churches I durst not deny to hold communion with them When I go to God in prayer I dare not go in a separate capacity but as a member of the Universal Church nor would I part with my share in the Common-prayers of all the Churches for all the world but am joined with them in spirit while I am corporally absent owning all their holy prayers though none of their faults or failings in them having many in all my own prayers to God which I must be further from justifying than other mens And having perused all the foreign and ancient Liturgies extant in the Bibliotheva Patrum I doubt not but our own is incomparably better than any that is there But I will not conceal it from you that I am not such a Separatist neither as to communicate with Parish-Churches only If only the Law have turned any Pastors out of the Parishes and the people and they still hold their relation and communion not to say now whether they do well or ill I will no more separate from them than from you I communicate with you in Liturgy and Sacrament but neither as with a Sect or Faction nor as the whole Church but only as a part of the Church Universal and so are they I will hear you and I will hear them when I have a just occasion I will communicate with you and I will communicate with them as I perceive a call If each side run away from the other I will run from neither though I will sin with neither and must go from them that drive me away But I tell all that ask my mind that I am not so indifferent as to the Ministers whom I must join with as I am to the forms and modes of Worship Not that I call their actions Nullities or say that the Sacraments are invalid which they administer For their usurpation cannot rob the innocent of their right But yet I will not be guilty of countenancing and encouraging any soul-murderer in so great a sin Three sorts of Teachers I renounce Communion with as Ministers 1. Those that through intollerable ignorance and insufficiency do want those abilities which are necessary to the essence of the Ministry 2. Those Hereticks who preach against any essential article of Religion 3. Those wicked ones who openly bend their application not against different Sects and adversaries for that is common to all the factious and peevish but against the serious practise of Godliness Temperance Love or Justice and that labour to make these odious to their hearers though their Doctrine be sound from which they raise these malignant applications These are the men that I will not communicate with I confess when I read in Sulpitius Severus the History of St. Martins resolved Separation from Ithacius Idacius and the Synods of Bishops of those times and the confirmation of him by Visions and the antiquity and credibility of that History if of almost any ancient Church History in the main and the stupendious miracles which he is said to work it a little stagger'd me till I considered 1. That Scripture only is our rule And 2. That it was not from the Episcopal Order that he separated for he was one himself nor from any particular Bishops that were innocent nor yet from the
Catalogue of Questions for our Disputations at those Meetings and never then talkt to us of what he here writeth in a Book called Dubitantius Firmianus 2. Mr. Thomas Foley a Nonconformist Gentleman eminent for Charity having built near Stourbridge a Hospital and endowed it with about 500 l. per annum being my friend Dr. Good wrote to me to move him to give maintenance for two Scholarships in Baliol-Colledge and I wrote this Letter in answer to that but the sending was delayed till he was dead Accus 29. Another to save the Nation from the labours of a Concordant Ministry and from the blessings of Unity Peace and Innocence hath written a book lately called The Modern Pleas for Comprehension Toleration c. considered who at his enterance saith I would fain have any of our dissenting brethren to answer directly Whether there be any one thing sinful in her Communion the Churches as by Law established or only some things as they conceive inexpedient And p. 11. he saith Suppose that the terms of the Communion of the Church are not only inexpedient but really sinful if so then I shall readily grant that the Church ought not to be communicated with while the terms of her Communion are such But I shall presume to say with some confidence that it is not easie to find a considerable man among them who will not be ashamed to own it publickly or who doth himself really believe it And p. 12. I have been credibly informed not to say that I am able to make it good that Mr. Calamy did before his Majesty and divers Lords of the Council profess that there was not any thing in the constitution of the Church to which he could not conform were it not for the scandalizing of others so that in his esteem the Constitutions of the Church were in themselves innocent and the whole objection against them lay in the mistakes of other men Yet saith he p. 11. That the separation from the Church is so avowed and pressed upon the people as if that it were highly necessary and that communion with the Church was highly criminal at least in the opinion of the teachers Ans. And now Reader what a shake doth this instance give to the credit of History at least such as is written by interessed factious men yea what a reproach to humane nature For what untruth can be imagined so gross and what thing so nakedly evil as may not be expected to be found in Man yea in professed Christians yea in Divines of such a character Either this man and such others believe what they say themselves or not If not what Preachers what Christians what Men are these If they do what matter of fact can ever be so notorious as that we can hope that such men can know it What History of such Writers can deserve any credit What regard can the people be encouraged to give to the Words and Writings of such Doctors that no better know such publick notorious matters of fact and so confidently and boldly deceive the world in cases where so many thousands yea the Churches Peace and Concord is so much concerned Reader judge by these notorious evidences of fact of these mens credibility and usage 1. The judgment of the ancient Nonconformists is declared to the world by abundance of Writings in which they thought that they proved much in the English Constitutions to be sinful and such as men must suffer deprivation and death rather than consent to And are all these Writings no evidence of their judgments nor their sufferings neither 2. Since his Majesties Restoration the present Nonconformists still distinguished 1. Between Diocesan or National Churches and Parish-Churches 2. Between the Communion and Conformity of private men and of Ministers And 3. Between Approbation of the Church-Constitutions Practising all imposed and peaceable behaviour and submission And though some exasperated persons have by the late sufferings of conscionable men been tempted to separate from the Prelates and their party as far as St. Martin did from the Bishops about him and their Synods yet the main body of the Nonconforming Ministers as far as ever we could learn did judge as followeth 1. That those Parish-Churches which had true Ministers not utterly uncapable persons were true Churches of Christ. 2 That the ordinary Liturgy appointed for the publick worship was such as a good Christian may lawfully joyn in not speaking of Baptizings Burials c. in which some things they thought more dubious 3. That though combined Churches whether you call them Diocesan or National are not any otherwise a Divine Institution than as Concord is commanded us in general and may not be set up to the detriment of the particular Churches which are of Divine Institution yet a good Christian may and must live peaceably and submissively where some such combined Churches are guilty of Usurpation and sinful abuse 4. That Conformity to all the Subscriptions Declarations Oaths Covenants and Practices now imposed on Ministers would be to us a very great and heinous sin modesty forbidding us to meddle uncalled with the Consciences of the Conformists 3. Their judgment of the sinfulness of Ministerial Conformity they declared to his Majesty and the Bishops in many Writings when they had encouragement to attempt once the healing of the divisions And when because they agreed to leave out all harsh provoking words in their accusations of the Church-Orders and Ceremonies the Lord Chancellor had put into the first draught of a Declaration That we do not in our judgments believe the practice of those particular Ceremonies which we except against to be in it self unlawful In our next Address we desired that those words might be expunged and so they were Yet this extended not to Subscriptions Oaths c. And afterward many particulars were mentioned which we thought sinful and the supposition vindicated in a Reply to which the Bishops never answered And in a long Petition for Peace p. 6. we make this Protestation following Who can pretend to be better acquainted with their hearts than they are themselves For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him And they are ready to appeal to the dreadful God the searcher of hearts and the hater of hypocrisie that if it were not for fear of sinning against him and wounding their consciences and hazarding and hindering their salvations they would readily obey you in all these things That it is their fear of sin and damnation that is their impediment they are ready to give you all the assurance that man can give by the solemnest professions or by Oath if justly called to it And one would think that a little charity might suffice to enable you to believe them when their non-compliance brings them under suffering and their compliance is the visible way to favour safety and prosperity in the world And if men that thus appeal to God concerning the intention of
refused them we should have thought it a sign of their humility What a case are we in with such men as these when we must needs be proud whether we accept or refufe 5 Would not the favour and honour of those that would have advanced us to Dignities have weighed down the displeasure of those that we should have offended Do you not think that they are more and more honourable persons whom our conformity would have pleased 6. What scorn or derision does Bishop Reignolds now undergo or many of your Doctors who some were and some reputed formerly of our mind 7. What scorn would it have been to Baxter who had written two years before the change for moderate Episcopacy and Liturgies and whose Books was pleaded and produced at the great meeting at Worcester-house before the King and Lords and Bishops and Nonconformists with these words of the now Bishop of Winchester No man hath written better of these things than Mr. Baxter Who answered That he stood to all that he had there written And why doth he now suffer so much obloquy and displeasure from the separating part of the Nonconformists if it be reputation that he stuck upon Why do your party tell him that he is more calumniated by the Nonconformists than by any others Why hath he lost the esteem of so many as he had once almost done of his own quondam flock for perswading them from going too far in heart and practice from the Bishops when it was their silencing Himself and such others that was the thing which turned his old hearers hearts against them 8. But judge all men of common Reason sobriety and honesty of these mens Accusations now by the matter of fact it self which I opened before as to a former Objection Again Let common reason and equity here be judge of the ingenuity and credit of both these Defences When of three men that were offered Bishopricks but one delayed his resolution and two that were offered Deaneries and when the notorious reason was to see whether the refused Conformity would stand or fall when no one of them ever talkt of accepting if that Conformity should stand and when these were but three men among Eighteen hundred Nonconformists that after were cast out and that Conformity was Actually dispensed with at the time when one refused one accepted and three delayed Whether this be a good proof that it was not Conscience but Interest that these men stuck upon and that consequently this is the chief reason that 1800 men subscribed not And will not posterity rather think that the change may prove sad to the Church of England when instead of so many men that are silenced for avoiding that which they fear to be Perjury Lying and Covenanting against the Commands of Christ such men are set up that dare talk at this rate and that in Print and with the mention of God and the day of judgment And whereas the Debate-maker saith That he heard some of them acknowledge that they scruple not what others do through Gods mercy they are all save Mr. Calamy yet living and solemnly profess that they never so thought or said to him or any other but have oft openly profess'd the contrary But if he means any others what proof is that of these accused persons thoughts His second proof runs thus If this excellent Author shall be condemned as Apocryphal and it is a very easie confutation to cry Fie upon him when they are not able to answer his Arguments Alas for the Church of England if her Doctors take such inhumane Calumnies for unanswerable Arguments I shall then give them an Authority formerly little less than Canonical How the case stands with him at present I am wholly ignorant However he is one that fullwell understands the Intrigues of his party Baxters Def. of the Princip of Love p. 92. And here he reciteth the Authors words against that pride and self-interest which we are accused of And here again we appeal to common ingenuity 1. Whether this man who professeth himself wholly ignorant of the Authors case and to him is utterly unknown be liker to know the secrets of his and other mens hearts it 's like as much unknown to him than he himself who he saith knoweth the intrigues of his party 2. Whether it be a good proof that Nonconformists are chiefly moved by Pride because they openly write against it and condemn those that are so moved with words which the Accuser himself highly approveth Obj. But it seemeth by your words that some such there are among you and it is not Baxter himself that he accuseth Ans. 1. Yes for his application followeth Ex ore tuo which properly should mean that he condemns himself 2. But suppose it otherwise Know Reader that the person against whom that Book was written was Mr. Edward Bagshaw an Anabaptist Fifth Monarchy man and a Separatist and a man of an extraordinary vehement spirit who had been exasperated by many years hard and grievous imprisonment and that it was such as he that were described and that the Nonconformists of England were so far from being of his mind and spirit that when Baxter had written three Books against him and such as he even as Separatists without medling with him as an Anabaptist or a Millenary no one Minister of England wrote in his Defence nor that ever his Confuter heard of pleaded for him And did we ever dream that no Sectary is moved by Pride to Nonconformity Do we justifie the secret thoughts of all Nonconformists whom we know not Or is it a proof that Pride chiefly moveth the Nonconformists because they call out to Sectaries to take heed lest it be so with them 3. But because this Doctor hath told the world that Baxter fullwell understands the intrigues of his party as he calls them Let the world judge whether his testimony then of that party be not more credible than his that so little knoweth them And he solemnly professeth to the world that though he hath reason to call the best of men to be very jealous of their hearts lest pride and self-interest should pervert them yet he verily believeth that there is not this day on earth that he heareth of a more conscionable godly faithful party of Ministers of the Gospel than those that are now ejected silenced Nonconformists in England though they are not all equal in judgment or Ministerial ability or self-denyal As far as his credit will go let posterity believe this And his testimony shall be believed when the Defamers and Calumniators shall not 2. He thus proceedeth A second reason why they conform not is their Interest If this be thought a Paradox it being a strange method to consult their interest by losing their Livings the dissatisfied person is desired to consider that the Ringleaders of the faction having possessed themselves of other mens preferments and foreseeing that they should be restored to the right owners thence made a virtue of
loved and honoured him more though with some weak partial persons it was otherwise If then we have any Interest opposite to yours it is not Riches it is not Power we wisht no more than to be Pastors to the Volunteers of a Parish-Church And what more do the Independents wish than that persons have the same liberty to chuse to whom the Pastoral care of their Souls shall be entrusted as they have to chuse Physicians or Schoolmasters and Tutors for their Children and Wives or Servants Husbands or Masters in the family living under Laws of sobriety and peace And if you think that our cross interest is the praise of a few that follow us in a reproached suffering state you think we have a very low mind and game Why then do we so much desire to be out of this state and to take up with reformed Parish-interest And why doth not a far stronger worldly interest more prevail with us But such accusations are answered in this book As for that party of men among us Archbishops Bishops and Doctors that have made it their office and interest to set up as for Christ 1. A Catholick Church formed by a vicarious Universal Government viz. A General Council or a feigned Universal Colledge of Bishops 2. And the Patriarchal power which was in the Roman Empire 3. And the Pope as the President or Principium unitatis Catholicae 4. And the same Pope as our Western-Patriarch and the six or eight first General Councels as the Laws or Rule of Government and so would bring us under a foreign Jurisdiction and turn the orders of a Catholiok Empire into those of the Catholick Church through the World 6. And that pretend that the Papists Churches have an uninterrupted valid succession and therefore are true Churches and that the Protestant Churches that have no uninterrupted Canonical Episcopal succession are no true Churches nor have valid Sacraments or any ordinary title to salvation I say as for this party of men whose Writings and Names I need not tell you of we profess that we have no hope that ever they will be reconciled to us because it will not stand with their desired reconciliation described by themselves with a more powerful and numerous party which they prefer before us And though as much as in us lyeth we must live peaceably with all men we can never receive their unpeaceable principles and terms And it much more alienateth us against the Church of Rome to find that the nearer any are to them the more they are for uncharitableness and cruelty and trust not to the Church-Keys but to the Sword as if blood banishment or destroying conscionable Christians that are not of their minds were the strength of their Religion and Church and still cry Strike home and execute the Laws Abate nothing Tolerate none of them Let them make their task and have no straw Away with them as pestilent fellows and movers of seditions just contrary to the Christian Nature and Interest and Law And if he that dwells in Love dwells in God and God in him who dwells in them that dwell in wrath and imitate Cain and bear thorns and thistles and devour the flocks which they should gather and feed and shew that they love their brethren by destroying them Right Reverend Fathers and Lords we have far better thoughts and hopes of you and though I have beg'd in vain these Twenty years for Peace and Concord of others of your Order I address my self to you beseeching you patiently to read this Apology and pardon the earnestness of it for it is for a weighty cause It was most written 1668 or 1669 before most of you were Bishops Dr. Stillingfleet hath newly told us that If we will but allow that by virtue of the Rule Phil. 3. Men are bound to do all things lawful for preserving the peace of the Church we have no further difference about this matter pag. 176. We have still allowed it we have solemnly protested it Were it lawful to us to conform and cease our Ministry which we were vowed to we would do it I beg of you as on my knees for your own sakes for Englands for the Churches for Christs that you will agree with us on these terms I ask nothing of you for my self I need nothing that you can give me My time of service is near an end But England will be England and Souls and the Churches peace will be precious and the Cause will be the same when all the present Nonconformists are dead And Bishops must dye as well as we Our Lord delayeth not his coming to encourage any to smite their fellow-servants If it be not a Lawful thing for the peace of the Church to forbear the dividing Impositions and Prosecutions I need not name them then let us all suffer still But if it be do not only privately wish but zealously as Lovers of the Church endeavour and that with speed and all your might for Peace to abate what may lawfully be abated It is not in our power to procure Union For sin and self-condemning will not do it How much is in yours the Lord cause you to know and practice I rest Your Servant R. B. AN APOLOGY FOR THE SILENCED MINISTERS Especially for their not ceasing to Preach Christs Gospel Being the Third Part of their Plea for Peace Humbly directed to those of the Lord Bishops and to the rest of the Conformable Clergy of their mind who have procured our Silence and Sufferings or the continuance thereof Most Reverend and Right Reverend Lords and Fathers and Reverend Brethren HAVING once tryed in vain though by the favour of His Majesties Gracious Encouragement and Commission what speaking might do and since that tryed as much in vain what silence in this kind will do I have resolved once more before the expiring of my gasping hopes to resist despair and to try whether so many years experience hath opened your ears and hearts to the Reasons and humble Requests of those who not so much for their Sufferings as for the Souls of men do daily eat the bread of sorrow At least before I resign this Skeleton to the dust to leave one more testimony of my zeal for Unity and Peace and make one more attempt for the Gospel and the Church of Christ that I may not appear before my Judg in the guilt of negligence cowardize or unprofitableness Not to be your Accuser nor a Justifier of any of the weaknesses or miscarriages of the present Nonconformists nor yet of those of former times but humbly to re-mind you of the things that concern the interest of Christ the people and your selves When it pleased the most Gracious Soveraign of the World to restore his Majesty by the concurrence of the desires of his Subjects and the wonderful dissolution of that Army and Government which resisted his returns as we knew that our divisions had been our sin and ruine and our enemies strength and that
of idleness and not considering the poor Your selves believe that schism sedition and disloyalty are too common swearers and cursers and railers and drunkards accuse themselves in the open streets and to all that talk with them in daily converse To say nothing of Athiests Infidels Hereticks Schismaticks which sure need help what a multitude are they that never set their hearts on Heaven nor seek first Gods Kingdom and its Righteousness nor labour for the meat which never perisheth Col. 3. 11. Mat. 6 20 21 33. Joh. 6. 27. But their god is their belly they glory in their shame and mind earthly things Phil. 3. 18. How many mind not the things of the Spirit but of the flesh and live and walk according to the flesh and do but complement with God and make Religion a Ceremony or a matter on the by and take Heaven but for a lesser evil than Hell and for a reserve when they can keep this world no longer Either you know that the evidences are notorious that there are thousands among us in this sad condition or you do not If you do you grant what we now assert If you do not you are such strangers in England that you are neither fit to condemn us nor to be judges at all of the peoples case And Oh how hard a matter is it to cure one of all these miserable souls As for the Ignorant many of them are unwilling to learn if you take them not at the best advantages and those few that are willing must have long and laborious teaching before they will come to any competent knowledg If you have but tried the ignorant servants of your own Families how hard and long a task it is to bring them to know the needful things you may easily judg how hard it is for a Minister to teach them that hath them not in his house and scarce knoweth how to meet them any where but in the Church where they have learnt to hear as if they heard not And when they have a little dark confused knowledg alas what is this to the light that Christ hath sent into the world in which the children of light should walk and which is needful to the work of light which they must do What is this to that abounding in wisdom and knowledg to which the Scripture doth exhort men and by which they must resist temptations discharge their duties and honour Christ and Piety in the world Is it not Christs charge Mat. 28. 20. that when men are made disciples they must be taught all things else that he hath commanded And is it not smattering ignorant half-wited Christians which your selves much complain of and which make most of the trouble in the world And did you ever consider what a work it is to bring many thousands or hundreds of those in a Parish unto solid understanding And when men have knowledg how hard is it still to make a due impression on their hearts and bring them really which every tongue must confess is necessary to love God above all and our neighbours as our selves O! words soon spoken O difficult work above the skill and strength of the wisest Minister to accomplish How hard to cure a drunkard a fornicator a swearer a railer of his most beastly or unprofitable sin much more to cure the Infidel the ambitious the proud the worldling But O how hard to get up mens hearts to a Heavenly frame and to bring them daily to live after the Spirit and to live by faith and not by sight and to set their affections on the things above and in hope and love to long and wait for the coming of the Lord Sirs Either you take these things for necessary or you do not if you do not you deny Christianity and our Controversie lyeth lower first Whether there be a life to come and the Gospel be true and how quiet and happy would England be if we were but all heartily agreed in that much But if you do then there remaineth no more controversie whether our Ministerial helps be needful 3. And what is one Minister in a Parish for the doing of all this work yea or his poor Curate if he have one as few have for his help By that time he hath read all the Common-Service twice a day and Preached twice or once if you had rather and hath baptized all the Children and visited all the Sick and buried all the Dead and married all that are to be Married and performed the common Civilities necessary to friends and neighbours and taken care for food and raiment and all the necessaries of his house or life and instructed and governed aright his family and if he have Children taken sufficient care of their education what time what strength what spirits are left for most of all the work forementioned It irketh me to think that I should have need to repeat these things and to tell seeing men with so many words that there is a Sun in the firmament or feeling men that it is cold when frost and snow do cover the earth 4. And we must say that which we are most unwilling to say even when you constrain us Alas how many Parishes are there in his Majesties three Kingdoms where the youth the ignorance the rawness the dulness the carelesness the idleness the want of Ministerial utterance in the Teachers doth perswade all the hearers that they have need of more and better help The hearers I say that should best know their own necessities do commonly believe it if you deny it The Sons of the Church do groan out often in my hearing Alas what dry and pitiful work is this we are afraid all the people will be driven into Conventicles Ichabod or the five Groans of the Church hath long since told you somewhat of this But the most of England especially Wales and Ireland need no Syllogisms to prove it For my own part I hear and encourage any that is tollerable and I speak the best and conceal the rest when I speak to the auditors But truth is truth and our modesty will not satisfie the hungry nor save the miserable souls of men Is it enough to the instructing of the grosly ignorant and the changing of an earthly mind to a heavenly and to pull down the strong holds of sin for a young raw man to read or say a few good words perhaps least pertinent to the peoples needs in a tone like a School-boy saying his lesson Or to talk against Presbyterians to the poor people that never knew what Presbytery was and know not what Faith Repentance Justification or Sanctification are To deny these things is but to deceive them that are already deceived but England will no more believe the denial than him that would deny that the Snow is white And to talk as one in Latin lately what learned Pastors the Church of England hath is an impertinency to fill up paper If there be some such which none deny
the necessity and that God and nature had given no power to themselves to know what is necessary good and helpful or unnecessary bad or hurtful to themselves Obj. The sheep chuse not their own shepherds nor children their own School-masters Ans. 1. This is as some call it Phrase-divinity Similitudes prove nothing beyond the point of likeness Sheep have not reason and children have it not in maturity and full use 2. Are we grown better and wiser now than the Churches all were for 600 years or for the first 300 either Why do men pretend so much to antiquity and cry out against novelty who when interest bids them do more than others despise the judgment and example of the Primitive ancient Church as a ragged fordid infant-thing 3. Mans nature hath laid the foundation of this order It is not possible for the people to be edified by Ministers or worship God in their communion acceptably against their own wills And therefore as their consent is of absolute necessity to their benefit and salvation so it is the more necessary to the just calling of him that must profit them For they are the likelier to consent to his Doctrine and rule when they have first consented to his relation and so e contra they are the likelier to reject the guidance of him that was forced on them against their wills Obj. But what divisions and heresies shall we have if all the people shall chuse their Pastors and then they may bring in Hereticks whether the Magistrates will or not Ans. 1. Their choice is a matter of mutable convenience but their consent is a matter of necessity 2. I say not that they alone must chuse them or consent Two or three Negative wills sine quibus non in a case of great concernment is safer than one alone Writings or treasures belonging to three parties kept in a chest of which every party hath a lock and key are safer than under a single lock The Ordainers have a negative voice and so have the people as to the relation of the Pastors to themselves And so hath the Magistrate under Gods Laws whether that man shall live or preach in his dominions 3. And God in wisdom is pleased to lay all mens salvation or damnation more upon themselves and their own choice than on the Kings because it is themselves that must have the everlasting joy or sorrow And therefore so he hath done by all the actions and means that stand nearest to their own Salvation 4. And when we say the Ordainers and people conjunctly should chuse their Pastors we still say that when they are chosen they are under the Government of the King 5. Apply all your Objections to the case of a Physician to his Patients it is meet that all Physicians be under the Government of the King and that he by Laws restrain them from the abuse of their callings And it is meet that the Colledg that can best judg be the discerners who shall be a Licensed Physician But when all 's done it is not meet that any one be forced on the sick without their own consent And why 1. Because their consent is necessary to the use of the remedies 2. Because it is themselves that are most concerned in the event 3. Because every man knoweth much of his own condition which the King doth not know Yet here you may as handsomely exclaim What shall every woman every boy every sottish rustick and tradesman have liberty to put his life into the hands of women or foolish Empericks what murdering of men by medicine shall we then have and what diminution of the Kings subjects Ans. But 1. this is your error which confoundeth all that you think the matters of imperfect man in an imperfect world can be done without any imperfection or inconvenience and then that you look only with one eye on your own side and cannot or will not see the far greater inconveniencies on the other side but will cure an inconvenience with a mischief and subvert the end and substance to preserve your particular way of Order What would follow on the other side if all men must have Physicians forced on them Those empty fellows that could make most friends should be the seekers and finders of the place especially if Physicians were made Lords and had the honour and maintenance that Bishops have And next the people must be taught by these formalists that it is not for them to judg themselves what is good or bad for them nor when to take Physick nor how much And next they must be told that it being an office of Government as well as of skill they must put their lives into his hand who ever he be that is the Physician of the place and not go to others as abler men O what work would these Orderers make If you here except against the aptness of the similitude I will only ask you now 1. Whether the King is not as truly the Governour of his subjects as to their lives as he is as to their Salvation Do not his subjects bodies and lives belong to his care 2. Is not every man as much concerned for his own soul more than the King is or any other as he is for his health or life Will not the Salvation or damnation be his own 3. Is not every mans free will as much and more to be exercised for his salvation as for his health You may drench him by force as a horse for his health and therefore there is more pretence for cogent Laws But so you cannot for his soul. These things are plain to them that are willing to see but not to them whose interest will not give them leave but like the Ephesian Craftsmen must cry up Diana and cry down Paul to save their Trades And yet I still maintain that the King is to afford his Subjects all help in his power for their souls as well as for their bodies IV. OUR Fourth main Reason why we dare not cease our Ministry is Because we shall sin against Nature it self even the great and radical Law of Love and shall be guilty of murdering mens souls And because Magistrates cannot dispense with the great and necessary Laws of Nature we put them all into one for brevity 1. If we were Lay men yet charity would naturally oblige us to do our best to save mens souls in a way that doth not greater hurt Deny this and you deny the master-points of natural obligation and are unfit to dispute about things indifferent And the judgment of the ancient Church as the case of Origen and other Teachers and Catechists at Alexandria as well as that of Frumentius and Edesius do witness is flat against you and so is the common judgment of Divines both Protestants and Papists who use to cite these instances to prove that in some case Lay-men may be publick Teachers But if they might not in Churches lest they seem usurpers yet in other
Episcopacy and Conformity much more for being in arms against the Parliament or Preaching against them And I published it as our earnest request that all men that were utterly ignorant Heretical and scandalous or of vicious debauched lives might be cast out without respect to other opinions or Civil causes and that all the rest might unite their labours and be encouraged This is yet in Print And I met with few of my acquaintance in the Ministry that were not of the same mind And I had some more trial as to practise when Cromwell forbad as even now I said the sequestred Ministers to live within two miles of their old Benefice and commanded tâ—em to quit the houses our Vicar was never disturbed nor I never came within the house I never forbad him to preach And at a Chappel we had another conformable Minister that read Common-prayer and said somewhat like a Sermon often one Mr. Turner infamous for ignorance drunkenness railing and living by unlawful marryings and making his Ministry a scorn This Curate I connived at many a year till his death I provided a Preacher at first once a day and afterwards twice to be resident on the place I allowed Mr. Turner his Stipend but intreated him not to meddle with the Ministry For besides his vicious life I examined him and could not perceive that he understood scarce any Article of the Faith nor had the fortieth part of the knowledg or ability of many of the Wevers or some of the Plowmen of the Parish Musculus his Common-places Englished was all the Books that I could perceive he had and that he Preached out of But he would continue to read Common-prayer and did though he might have had his Stipend as much without it Judg by this whether we were over-forward to silence the Sons of the Church or cast them out 3. But what reason or conscience is it that if you can say Cromwell or the Parliament or Rump cast out such Ministers that therefore we that had no hand in it must be silenced Or if you can name forty Ministers in England as I cannot that consented unto this that therefore eighteen hundred that never consented should be forbidden to Preach Yea those that declared themselves to be against it 4. And you know that even the Usurpers allowed the Wives of the sequestred Ministers the fifth part For my part I never asked you so much 5. And either the unjust silencing of Ministers by the Usurpers was well done or ill done If ill done it should be your warning to take heed of sinning as they did for sure their practices seem not so right and lovely to you as to be worthy of imitation They Beheaded Mr. Love and Imprisoned many London Ministers and others for the Kings sake and you think not sure that you must therefore do so too 8 Obj. But we are not to distinguish of Nonconformists when Conformity is necessary to the order of the Church If a few honest men suffer among a company of Schismaticks Presbyterians Independents Rebells they must take it patiently and not blame their Rulers but themselves that chuse so bad companions The greater part of you deserve it Ans. We are not blaming our Governours but our selves not for our Nonconformity but for serving God no more diligently when we had time But 1. can you not distinguish and yet be just what not the innocent from the guilty nor friends from foes This is not the first confusion and evil that want of distinguishing hath caused in the world 2. If your I say your Conformity be more necessary than all our Preaching and Ministry and will help more souls to Heaven go on with it and let it prosper But be sure that you are not mistaken 3. Are Presbyterians so intollerable a sort of people Or will the bare opinion that singular Churches have all Church-power of Christs institution among themselves while they submit to the Civil Government prove men otherwise sober to be unsufferable You know Dr. Hammord and other Episcopal Divines do assert an Independency of Diocesan Churches which he saith de facto in Scripture-times had no Presbyters but one Bishop and his few Deacons And you know Dr. Stillingfleet of whose judgment Bishop Reinolds and many Conformists have profest themselves to be maintaineth that no one form of Church-Government is of Divine Right and Institution And if so then the Independents and Presbyterians refuse none that is of Divine Institution 4. But are you sure that you mistake not to the injury of the sufferers I can tell the world and you that I knew but one Presbyterian Minister in all VVorcestershire and that one was not of our Association nor any one Independent associated with us though there were three worthy Ministers in the County so esteemed there was not one of the Associated Ministry that was so much as reputed Presbyterian or Independent but Episcopal some were that now conform much less Anabaptists or of any other Sect but held the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and loved a Christian as a Christian and were for the uniting of all the Churches that are sound in the faith and in the things necessary to Church-Communion even upon the ancient Primitive terms And when I think of the Association of VVestmorland VViltshire Dorcetshire and other Countrys I have reason by their Articles to think they were of the same mind And must such abundance be silenced for the opinions of a few whom they never signified any consent to 9 Obj. If you are suffered to Preach you will but confirm the people in their Nonconformity and dislike of the Government For though you say nothing of it they will become a faction for the sake of your opinions and what confusion will it cause to have one party of the Church for one Preacher and another for another yea as you would have it for one to cross the baptized child and another not or for one to wear a Surplice and another a Gown Ans. 1. There is nothing in this imperfect life that shall attain perfection nor can any publick good be done without any inconveniencies But O cure not an inconvenience with a mischief Kill not a fly that sitteth on your brothers forehead with a Beetle or a Butchers axe It 's strange that wise men can be so partial or narrow-sighted as to look so intensly after their own desires or interests as to spy out possibilities of inconvenience and never see the loss of souls and great calamities that attend the other way 2. And indeed are you conscious of no frailties in your selves which are as great an inconvenience to the souls of men and the successes of the Gospel and honour of the Church as different practisings of the Cross or Surplice Are you humble men and teachers of humility Do you know your selves and teach the people to know themselves Are you penitent men and Preachers of Repentance and yet have never found
true Pastors over that people without their consent and to nullifie the relation of their former-lawful Pastors 9. That it is not impossible or rare for the Usurper to have the foresaid advantages and the true Pastors to be put to meet in privater places and so thought Dr. VVild Dr. Guning Dr. Hide c. in the time of our Civil Usurpations And even under lawful Governours it was so judged by the Churches in the case of Athanasius Basil and multitudes of Bishops then cast out 10. That abundance of the Ministers now cast out were once the lawful Pastors of the flocks 11. That when the true Pastor is thrust out of the Temples and Usurpers have that place he is rather the Separatist that followeth the Usurper in that more publick place than he that adhereth in private to the lawful Pastor as Dr. VVild and the rest aforementioned then thought 12. That therefore in those places where the Relation of prohibited Ministers to the people is truly dissolved they are the faulty dividers that adhere to them But where it is not dissolved but the publick Teachers were never their true Pastors there those may be the Schismaticks that forsake their lawful Pastors though under that restraint 13. That where the Pastors that have the Temples and those that are shut out are both true Pastors caeteris paribus it is as good a proof that they are Separatists and Schismaticks who join not with them in other places as that they are so for not coming to the Temples that is neither of the inferences is good 14. Every man is not a Separatist that is not present with others in publick worship I separate not from all foreign Churches nor from all the Parish Churches in London save one though I be present but with one But he that censureth a true Church to be no Church and so separateth from it as none and he that accounteth any Church injuriously to be so corrupted as that it is unlawful to hold communion with it both these are guilty of culpable Schismatical separation but in very different degrees 15. A mans absence from you will not alone prove him a Separatist unless he be absent upon separating Principles 16. He that keepeth not local communion with a particular Church and yet honoureth them as a Church that may be communicated with and holdeth communion of Faith and Love and Obedience with them cannot be a Separatist from them simply but only extrinsically secundum quid and that is to be tried and judged of as aforesaid 17. If therefore they will admit you to communicate with them in their way and will not communicate with you in your way it sheweth that it is something in your way and not directly in your selves from which they separate 18. And no man ought to commit one sin for the communion of any Church 19. I may have more mental communion with a Church which I dare not outwardly join with because they impose some one unlawful word or action than with a more corrupted Church with which I hold more external communion because they put me not to approve their errors 20. When there are several Churches near caeteris paribus a free man should join himself with the Purest and to the most edifying Ministry ordinarily 21. Yet in times of suspicion and division it is fit to shew our judgment by our practise and to join sometimes with some less pure Churches that put no sin upon us to shew that we withdraw not from them on separating principles 22. When a Minister is not lawfully separated from his flock but another is obtruded without a just call upon his people yet if he see that the voluntary relinquishing of his relation is most for the peoples good that they may accept another that hath more secular advantages to profit them and guide them in peace he is finis gratiâ in prudence bound to do it 23. All people in England therefore are not in the same condition but to some it may be a fault which to others is a duty Were I in a place where the Minister is faithful and worthy to be owned I would draw all the people to attend his Ministry and would help him at other seasons as I were able in unity and love But if I lived where the publick Minister were intollerable I would do otherwise 24. The case of London much differeth from most other places in the Land as very many of them think that their relation to their ancient flocks is not yet dissolved so necessity putteth them out of the track of formal Parish-order 1. In the great Plague almost all the Parish-ministers deserted them and those that then stuck to the people found such success by the help of that awakening judgment that they durst not since forsake them nor will easily be forsaken by them 2. There being so many score Churches burnt down and the Inhabitants not gone and the conformable Ministers not officiating but in the standing Temples there is no reason that the people should therefore turn Atheists and give over worshipping God 3. Many Parishes being so great that the twentieth person cannot come to the Temples and many of the Preachers voices so low that half cannot hear them who might get in there is no reason that all the rest must therefore be cast off and left as the Indians without the means that God hath appointed for mens Salvation 4. And why then should not their Assemblies take the fittest time of the day as well as yours All men know that especially in the short Winter-days there is little convenient time left for the work of a Lords-day besides the time of your morning and evenings Liturgy and other Offices 5. And when you have as many as can hear you O why should you be angry that the rest or rather some few of them are hearing others that Preach as profitably as you Nay I beseech you before God judg try and judg what is the cause that when many parts perhaps of your absent Parishioners are at no Church but some in Ale houses Taverns or Gaming-houses and some idle at home that yet the few that are worshipping God with an able faithful Minister are more exclaimed on and written against and angerly accused than all the rest Obj. But many of the Parish-churches are half empty Ans. 1. It is not so with the rest and therefore you may see that the difference between your own Preachers is the cause Unedifying Teachers will not have so many voluntary intelligent hearers as others 2. As I said half the Church-full cannot hear many of your Preachers 3. When the Parishioners know beforehand that the Temple will not hold a quarter of the people they are never certain of room as not knowing when others will exclude them and therefore they seek another place where they may be certain For he that brings his family to Church every day upon such uncertainty is every day uncertain whether he
testifie some of us that we were from first to last in his company at such meetings where those matters were transfacted and at all the meetings before his Majesty that we heard he was present at and we over and over have heard him profess that he took several things in Conformity to be intollerable sins but never heard a word from him to the contrary And he may be judged of by the Preface to our Reply which he wrote and by his not only refusing a Bishoprick but by his Sufferings and constant profession to his death This Writer to save the Church from Concord by restoring the silenced Ministers feigneth Comprehension to be a late device a thing unknown or that amounts to no more than a pretty artifice of saving the reputation of about a dozen persons who are sick of their separation and stand in need of a plausible pretence under which to return unto it Their credit will not suffer them to renounce their old principles and they are weary of sticking longer to them Now if the pride of these men should be thus far gratified c. Ans. 1. See how boldly this man pretendeth to search the hearts of others 2. How he feigneth that to be New which they so laboured for 1660 and ever since Read but their Petition for Peace and Judg. 3. Doth he not take it to be more for our Reputation to conform and to be dignified and preferred than to live under the scorn and sufferings that we do Do not Bishop Reignolds and many others that conform live in more reputation in the world than we that are thus reviled by so many Doctors of the Church and sometimes lie in the common Jayls and are fain to stoop to be beholden for our bread or necessary maintenance 4. Who are those dozen men and why doth he not name them and prove his charge Are they not men of strange facinating power that could make 1800 such Ministers distant in all Counties to deny Conformity And are they not strange persons that will all over the Land give over preaching or live in poverty and suffering some have dyed through the effects of want and all to gratifie a dozen men no one knoweth who And it 's like some that he meaneth in his dozen have done more to displease many of the rest than others 5. What Nonconformist hath not groaned for our divisions and been indeed aweary of them from the first day and longed for our common Concord but that is not to be weary of their principles O that he would procure us but liberty to preach the Gospel for all the rest that earnestly desire agreement and shut out the dozen that he meaneth whoever they be But pardon me for saying that these men do satisfie us that Sadduces are blind who believe that there is no Devil when so much of him appeareth actively in the World But our difference is not in Government and Ceremony only but in Doctrines of Grand importance in Morality For he saith pag. 66. For unless it the Covenant be lawful in every particular respect no body can be obliged by it O dreadful Doctrine to come from a Doctor of a Christian Church That a Covenant and Vow to God can oblige no body unless it be lawful in every respect If so Protestants that hold that imperfect man hath no sinless work and so no Vow or Covenant is in all respects lawful must hold that they are bound by no vow or covenant If this be so every erroneous man or every knave that hath the ignorance or craft to drop in any one unlawful thing into his Covenants and Vows is obliged by none of them at all How easily then may a Papist or an Atheist shake off all Oaths of Allegiance or Supremacy by adding one unlawful Particle It 's true that if some one clause in a Vow were so essential to all the rest as to be their sense if that were unlawful to be kept all were so And as to the denomination of the frame as consisting of several parts it may be called a bad or unlawful Oath if part were so because bonum est ex causis integris and the sense is but that it is unlawful quoad hoc or secundum quid But as to obligation though the Actus imponentis and the Actus jurantis be unlawful yet if the materia juramenti have ten parts and one only be sin that doth not nullifie the obligation to the rest No nor though nine parts of it were sin their neighbourhood nullifieth not the obligation to the tenth But what wonder if Conformity by Oaths Subscriptions Declarations and Covenants seem lawful to Doctors of such principles as these What if a Popish Prince or People put an unlawful clause into their Covenants Are they therefore wholly disobliged as to each other The same I say of Covenants of Peace between several Princes And of Covenants between husband and wife and so of other Contracts but especially of Vows to God But what if Perjury prove a greater sin than not conforming to it yea a sin meet for none but utterly debauched Consciences and such as threatneth dreadful ruine And what if such principles and practices would make us guilty of the Perjury and impenitence of many hundred thousand persons Should we be drawn into such a guilt by such words as these and that in a time when God by his Judgments is searching after and finding out the Nations sins God forbid Another since called A Reproof to the Rehearsal Transposed p. 457 458. saith Do you at all know what were the abatements they demanded to bring them off with Conscience To let you see your confidence I tell you they demanded none at all but the question being solemnly put to them and that as I am told in his Majesties presence Whether they knew of any thing in the Liturgy with which they could not comply without sin they all declared their own satisfaction but only desired some abatements for the ease of weak brethren or rather as you tell us bluntly to bring themselves off with some little reputation Ans. O patient God! Alas for strangers and the Generations to come that must read such history Alas for the Souls and Churches that have such Guides Alas that he whose Character is to be the old Lyer and Murderer can do so much in the Churches at once to destroy Love and Souls to make odious Gods Ministers and to render it so difficult to believe Church-History If this man had thus published that we were not English men or that we did at that same time the horrid'st Villanies that he could devise what other answer could we make than that which these words must have It is a forgery against such notorious evidence that I will not undertake for the man that dare print this but that he may say any thing that can be devised how false soever I have told you 1. That we gave them in writing an account of
to all men forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sins alway for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost Acts 4. 2 c. 3. Experience assureth us that from the beginning of the Church to this present day Christ never gave too many able faithful Ministers to his Church Supernumeraries of such were never its disease nor the amputation of them its cure There is still need of the Lords-prayer Thy Kingdom come And Pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers c. That man is but a Christian or a Pastor in jest and Image and not in earnest and reality who thinketh that the Pastors now allowed are so sufficient for the great employment of the Ministry that more are but supernumerary and the rest may be spared without any detriment to the souls of men Even in the Apostles age of Miraculous gifts Dr. Hammond thinketh the Pastors were so scarce that every Episcopal Church had no more than one Bishop with some Deacons without ever a Subject-Presbyter And that there was de facto none of the Order of subject-Presbyters in Scripture-times And so think all the Presbyterians too And it is a notorious truth that afterwards the Presbyters were so low in abilities that publick preaching in the Church was mostly used by the Bishops only And many Countries have lost the Gospel for want of Preachers And wherever ignorance and prophaneness have broken in upon the Church as the Greeks Abassines Armenians Moscovites Papists and too many Protestant Churches it hath commonly been by the decay of able godly faithful Pastors And if one City or Parish of ten thousand have had too many their near neighbours have so much wanted them that they could not be esteemed supernumerary And in England there are few Parishes which need not helps even where the ablest men are placed much more where Is it seasonable then or doth it answer the Will or Providence of to call in so many when the Church hath always had too few 4. The punishment which you inflict upon the Ministers doth fall a thousand times more heavily on the souls of the innocent people who without being accused or speaking for themselves in a Legal trial have so great a penalty inflicted on them as none but a believer that judgeth of things in reference to Eternity is able to estimate a right Alas to the Preacher the suffering is small in comparison of the peoples What if they live poorly what if they want house or clothes or bread How small a matter is that in comparison of the want of knowledg and faith of grace and salvation I confess their sufferings will cost them dear that are the true cause when Christ condemns those that do not relieve them But to themselves it is no such dreadful business Nay if they were but discharged in conscience from the Ministerial Office most of them might live in much more peace and plenty in the world There are many other Callings to betake themselves to in which they might live quietly and not be as the Hare before the Hunters pursued from place to place with cryes as if they that will imitate Paul in labours must bear also his reproach as pestilent fellows and movers of sedition among the people that do contrary to the decrees of Cesar and turn the world upside down Yea many are already turned Physicians and they have better words and kinder usage But every man that hath the eyes of a Christian in his head and seeth what the people of England VVales and Ireland are for members and for quality and seeth and heareth also what Ministers for number and quality do instruct them doth know as certainly that many hundred thousand souls do wofully need more Ministerial helps as he knoweth that five hundred Scholars do need more than one School-master or five hundred sick men need more than one Physician But O what a plague is it to the Church and World to have Ministers who when they read of the necessity of knowledg holiness and salvation do neither believe Christ nor themselves Argue not the people into such hard thoughts of you as if this were your case by perswading them that it is no matter whether their souls have any more Ministerial helps than now is given them Either you believe that where the Gospel is hid it is hid to them that are lost and that the cure of gross ignorance hard-heartedness unbelief and sensuality are of necessity to salvation or not If not deal openly and silence both your selves and us If yea then either you know how these maladies abound in the people and how much labour the cure doth usually cost or not If not then take not on you to be Pastors or English men or competent Judges of any of the peoples cases and concernments but confess that these are matters that you are strangers to But if you do know this then I need to say no more to you but to desire you to fuppose that soul-necessities are not the less because men complain not of them but greatest where there is the greatest insensibility and contentedness with them The Turks and Heathens cry not out for the help of Christian Pastors The worldling drunkard and fornicator is most miserable that would have no reproof or help Suppose therefore that their necessities are instead of cryes and that you hear them calling to you for help O pity the many hundred thousand souls that are drowned in ignorance unbelief insensibility worldliness and sensuality that are utter strangers to that life of faith and love and holiness without which none can please or see God and must quickly be converted and made new creatures or they are lost for ever Or suppose that their necessities being their complaints you heard them expostulating with you for their souls O take not from us that means which God by Nature and by his Institution hath made so needful to our salvation Alas our ignorance and deadness and worldly-mindedness and fleshly affections are too hardly cured by all the best means and diligence that can be used what shall we do then if you deprive us of that which we have enjoyed Alas say not that the reading of the Scriptures and a few lifeless notes of a Sermon will serve turn We confess that it should do so if our disease were so light as to need no more the thing it self is good and every word of God is precious but it is the nature of our disease to be read asleep and hardned in our sins by the customary hearing of a few good words in a sleepy saying tone It is the skilful choice of pertinent Truths convincingly and clearly uttered and closely applied with life and seriousness that our case requireth We confess that if a School-boy or a raw ignorant youth from the University did but read a chapter or say over a less pertinent cento of good words we should be moved
Physicians otherwise than by forbidding them to help the sick Deal not worse with Christ and Souls But if still you say that there is no other way to save mens souls from our false doctrine or false worship or any other danger which our Ministry will bring upon them We still answer you Make Canons and Laws against false Doctrine or against Seditious Rebellious Schismatical or other intollerable Preaching or against Idolatrous or superstitious Worship or against either Tyranny or omission of Church-discipline or against a worldly fleshly idle or otherwise vicious life and let us be lyable to the penalty of those Laws as others are But the next shall further answer this 6. It is a most certain thing that your method will not attain the Churches Edification Unity or Concord but is the directest way to subvert all these No nor your own establishment or honour in the world if that be it which you mean still by the Interest of the Church And why should any men use a means that will subvert and will never attain his ends Did you know this you would never chuse or use it But I perceive you do not and for ought I see you will not know it I shall give you those reasons that should make you know it if you have but the understanding of ordinary men supposing what is distinctly said in the Propositions Every wise man in the use of means will both foresee the probable effect and fore resolve how far to carry them on Either you think that your silencing and other hard usages of the Ministers shall convince and change them or disable and destroy them The former I have shewed you is a most vain surmise For 1. Kindness is more forcible to change the judgment than violence and hard usage This useth oftener to set men in opposition to what a hurtful adversary reasoneth for It is seldom that an enemies words convert Opposition rather kindleth an opposing zeal 2. You may partly conjecture by your selves If you thought it were Lying Perjury and false Worship which was imposed on you would you change your judgment by threatnings or by punishments There is nothing in force to illuminate the mind If you say It will tame their obstinacy and make them hearken more to reason I answer as before It most powerfully exciteth those prejudices and passions which hinder reason though it may promote hypocrisie in some 3. And experience telleth you and all the world that you are mistaken We read the same books out of a prison as in it if there we may have them And what abundance of Ministers within these ten years have come out of long imprisonment in the same mind as they went in yea much confirmed But who can you name that came out convinced that his way was wrong How long have they suffered not only poverty and reproach but that silencing which they account a greater evil And yet how few are changed by all this For the Novel-Politicians talk of a hundred men that continue to displease you is but a means to tell the world how exactly your Actions and Historical Narratives agree and what posterity must expect from the later as well as we from the former 4. But if 9 or 10 years experience be too little for you look back to the experience of all the world Your Bishop Taylor and many of your own can tell you how opposition inflameth the opposed party into a greater zeal 5. In a word I know not only my self but so many of the Nonconformable Ministers of England that I utterly despair that even silencing or imprisonment should change their judgments 2. The next question then is Whether it will make them hypocrites and force them to go against their judgments And this I am as confident it will never do with the most 1. Because I know so many of them to be truer to God and to their Consciences 2. Because experience also long evinced this 3. And so hath the experience of former ages in such as they some have still shrunk in a time of suffering But enow have suffered to fill up such Volumes as Mr. Fox's and the Century-Writers and many others 4. And here also I ask Would you do so your selves Would you do that which you think to be Lying Perjury renouncing Reformation c. against your consciences rather than suffer or would you not If yea you tell the world what your Religion is If not judge by your own course both now and formerly whether they or you be liker to chuse sin before suffering I know not you so well as them and therefore know not what you would do so well as I and you and all the world may know what they will do 5. And if they were such Villains as to sell their Souls for the safety of their flesh why should not the same principle now prevail with them to stretch their conscience by some distinction and take Livings and Honour among you with Conformity instead of a hunted and afflicted state of life If Satan shall say Skin for skin and all that he hath will a man give for his life Let me touch his body and I will make him curse thee to thy face whereas now he serveth not God for nought Yet God would support and vindicate the integrity of Job and though he may fall into some impatiency he would not yet forsake his Master nor leave his integrity to the death 3. The last question therefore is Whether their destruction will do your work or not seeing neither their change of judgment nor for saking their consciences is to be expected by your means I find that the Novel-Politician is confident of it that sharp execution is the way and would easily do it And so are most that write against us as well as Bishop Gunnings Chaplain But 1. He speaketh but like one of Rehoboams puny Councellors contrary to all the experience of the world I hope God will give his Majesty wisdom to avoid such counsels that would have him make his little finger heavier than Solomons loyns I confess if the work be to extirpate Christianity it self they that will and can follow it to the height of the example of Japon might imagine a possibility of the like success But it cannot be done so in England if there were any that would do it Because the body of the Nation is of the same Religion as the Japonions were against Or if the work were to suppress the Protestant Religion the Inquisition in Spain would be a probable means where there are but very few to be tormented and the thing may be done secretly in vaults out of the peoples sight and noise But for Protestants to destroy each other yea such and so many as must be so destroyed and this for the advancement of the Protestant interest is a course that will not do that work for which it is pretended For 1. Blood was never yet of light digestion Nebuchadnezzars
people are more averse to your Conformity than most of the Ministers are and they are hardlier kept to the rules of Patience and Charity to those that destroy them and they will chuse Teachers and Pastors out of the best qualified of the people that survive and will not lay down the worshipping of God according to their consciences though they were used for it as Daniel was for praying thrice a day openly in his house contrary to the Law And these new Pastors perhaps will have less moderation than the old And thus you will be troubled with a succession of dissenters 10. And suppose as it is not improbable that one half of the people and some of the Pastors should be constrained to Conformity your Icabod hath told you in his Groans what they will do Their judgments would not be changed but they would only stretch their Consciences to take your Oaths and Subscriptions with their own interpretation contrary to the plainest sense as abundance do who now Conform And these men will do more against you than the open Nonconformists being abler to supplant you as being nearer to you As the Conformable Westminster-Assembly did and the Conformable long Parliament and as Heylin thinks Abbot and the Puritan Bishops and Clergy did by Laud and his party 11. Those that survive as thousands will do when you have done your worst will take their first opportunity to shew their sense of your horrid inhumanity with far greater animosity than if you had never tasted blood and your cruelties will but be the fewel of their fiercer opposition 12. And there are some hypocrites no doubt among those that will suffer by you who are carried on by a self-conceited zeal And these may be tempted by your extremities to break out into Treasons Seditions and Rebellions The truly wise and godly will not But all that are against you are not such Nay you your selves I suppose think that few of them are such And if oppression may make a wise man mad no wonder if it make weak foolish people and hypocrites mad and then you know that one Felton may end the Great Duke of Buckingham Because we abhor the thoughts of such villanies we would not have you lay such temptations on men as you are not able to bear your selves If a little worldly wealth and greatness could tempt you to think that you do God service when you kill'd his Servants why should you think that among many thousands there will no hypocrites be found that will break Gods Laws to save themselves by sinful means You know how deeply the principle of self-preservation is planted in nature and what need there is of considerable grace to make men patiently resign their lives when they think they are taken away injuriously If Peter in fear might deny his Master and all the disciples forsook him and fled an hypocrite may be tempted to a sinful defence against his persecutors I do hereby warn all men that they take heed of such temptations and plead not Nature against the Laws of Grace and that they not only live but dye in honouring their Rulers whatsoever they suffer by them and say not as the Poet that lived among Heathenish impatience Ad generum Cereris sine caede vulnere pauci Descendunt Reges siccâ morte Tyranni The true fear of God will teach men to live and dye in patience But while you your selves think that those that you afflict are wicked and know that cruelty is the most powerful temptation to sinful self-defence do you think that you will be innocent by such temptations What if it were felony to cry Were he innocent that would scourge men women and children till they bleed and then call out for Justice against the felons that cryed Some men will think that your cruelties are of purpose to constrain or tempt some hypocrites into seditious words or deeds that you may have matter to accuse the rest of Rehoboams young Counsellors in my opinion could not justifie themselves from the guilt of all the sufferings of that King by saying It was the rebellious ten Tribes that did forsake him It was an unhappy proof of their own Loyalty to be the Counsellors of so great a temptation We hate Rebellion and Treason so much more than such as these that we would not have you say The King shall have no Loyal Subjects that will not lay down their lives to shew their Loyalty He that striketh the flint is guilty of the fire He that will kill or banish or undo men for nothing to try if he can find any among them all that loveth his life better than his Loyalty or Subjection to Superiors that he may prick him forward to Sedition by torments will prove no Loyal Subject himself at last I remember a person of Quality more great than good was reported to assault a Farmers house to have defiled his daughters But the door being bolted and no threats would open them one of his company bid him throw drown the Hive of Bee's in the Garden in revenge The Bees when the Hive was broken down had almost stung the great man and his company to death If the question was Whether the owner or the Bees must be accused of the crime I can only say that the Counsellor was not innocent And if a Thief should break into a Bishops house and bind his Servants and set a Pistol to the breast of one and bid him disclose his Lords money and he should dye rather than be guilty of disclosing it and all the rest should dye save one and that one should confess to save his life I do not think it would be congruous for him that did affright him to it to say I am innocent though perhaps he took not the gold himself so he that should by cruelties tempt men to such a wicked act as Felton or Card. Betons executioners used would not be found the truest friend to Peace or Government 13. If you say We will not hang or burn but banish them I answer so were some fugitives exiled in Q. Maries days who yet soon returned to head the Diocesan Churches of England And those few of the Clergy that fled from Cromwell returned to see revenge upon Usurpers And what stricter Laws would you have both for banishment and death than is made here against the Romish Priests and yet they live in peace among us Banished men are alive and are exasperated and your guilt will make you think that you are not safe from them till they are dead Amesius at Franekera did more service to the Church of God and more disservice to the English Diocesans than Ames at Cambridg did Some have banished themselves for an opportunity by writing to do the more against their adversaries and said Difficile est satyram non scribere Nam quis iniquae Tam patiens urbis Tam ferreus ut teneat se Si natura negat facit indignatio versum Quando
culled out the few necessary Articles of the faith as the matter of a necessary particular profession I will tell you what good these things will do and do you tell me what harm they will do and let the good and hurt be well compared 1. It would either Unite all Christians or make their Union an easie thing as soon as the minds of men were prepared for it All Christians are agreed that the Holy Scriptures are infallible All Christians are not agreed that your three books are infallible Therefore all Christians may easilier unite in their subscription or belief of the Scriptures than of your three books Perhaps you will say that it will not unite us with the Papists nor with any that require more I answer We shall be so far united as that they will approve of all our Religion though we approve not of all theirs For they confess the truth of all our Canonical Scriptures and confess that all things universally necessary to salvation are contained in them and much more So Bellarmine Costerus and many others and especially the old Schoolmen freely assert And it is a great advance to Concord and to our satisfaction to have the common concession of all Christians that our Religion is all true and nothing of absolute necessity wanting But I have spoken more to this before to which I refer you 2. It would make it as easie for any Protestant to justifie all his Religion as it is to justifie the sacred Scriptures to those that confess them to be true and so to tell the Papist where our Religion hath been in all ages and what succession our Church hath had 3 It would take none of your forms or ceremonies or superadditions from any that will needs have them while you make them not the necessary terms of union and communion he that will may be without them 4. Christian love and saving unity and concord may be thus maintained by mutual forbearance while nothing is done contrary to the nature of love to mortifie it And if any would take occasion by differences to revile and villifie one another the Magistrate may have the approbation of all sober men in keeping the peace and punishing all the fruits of such uncharitableness that tend to the destruction of love or godliness 5. A thousand unhappy crimes will be prevented which will follow the death of Christian love and the exasperation of mens passions and tongues by their sufferings 6. The Pastors when they grow like to Christ in meekness gen tleness and love will be loved and honoured by the flocks and the name of a Bishop will not be odious any more and consequently the lives of faithful Pastors will be more comfortable 7. And then the doctrine and labours of Ministers will be more successul and consequently piety and justice will increase and multitudes more will be sanctified and saved 8. It will be a comfort to the King and Magistrates to be loved honoured and obeyed by an united willing people and to be excused from the unpleasing works of fining imprisoning banishing or hanging their subjects for differing from them about some cases of sin and duty when the fear of offending the God of heaven is that which bringeth them to their sufferings 9. It will be a great strength and beauty to the State and Church and fortifie us against a common Enemy and end our fears of Sedition on account of Religion at home 10. In a word it would make us liker to the primitive believers and lead the way to all Christian States and Churches for the right reconciling of all the Christian World And what now is the hurt that these Scripture primitive terms would bring Obj. It would make as many factions as there be different Opinions or Ceremonies Ans. 1. Do you judg of others by your selves Are all men so proud and void of humanity and love that they must needs be factious if they do but differ in an opinion or ceremony from others or that they cannot live in love and peace with any that differ from them in an opinion or ceremony or that they can endure to see none live at liberty out of Gaols that be not in all such things of their mind 2. If there be any such proud and uncharitable persons the Magistrate may curb the expressions of their folly that it wrong not others 3. If that were true there would be as many Factions as men if you will pardon your contradiction for all men differ in opinion from each other and in as great matters of Religion as a Ceremony 4 Doth the differences forementioned among yourselves as between Dr. Taylor Mr. Thorndike and some others from the Doctrine of the Church of England make any such Factions among you Did the difference mentioned by Heylin between Bishop Mountague and Wren about coming up to the Altar to communicate make any factions Doth the difference now between your Arminians and Calvinists which we ordinarily hear in your own Pulpits make such Factions Doth the different modes of Cathedral and Parish-worship make such Factions If not why should it make a Faction for one man to cross a child in Baptism and another not Do not the very Papists keep up their unity and strength by allowing far more and greater diversities in Doctrines and in Religious Orders Rules and Ceremonies according as every Order hath desired Obj. But if any be allowed to forbear those that use the ceremonies or subscriptions will be censured by the followers of the nonconformists Ans. And is it indeed to preserve your honour that we must undergo all these convulsions Speak it out then plainly that the world may understand you Must all that differ in a ceremony from you be silenced and hunted about the world lest the people should think worse of you than of them 2. But how notoriously do bad means overthrow the ends of them that use them It is Honours Motto Quod sequitur fugio quod fugit ipse sequor Do not the people know that we differ from you in these things as much when we are silenced as when we preach Will imprisonment or banishment make us agreed or make the people think we are agreed Or will they forget all the difference think you when we are out of sight If the bare different opinion and practice make them undervalue you will not they think worse of you when they think you do worse Will they not distast a Conformable man whom they judg an envious persecutor more than a Conformable man whom they judg a meek and loving man One would think that you should need no answer to such objections But I have answered enow before 2. Well! if the Scripture simplicity be too narrow for you my next question is What harm will it do you to unite on such terms as all the Churches did unite in in the days of Tertullian and Cyprian yea for 300. years after the birth of Christ Look whatever was then the
terms of the Churches union and communion and we shall not be unthankful to you if you will make that and only that to be so now I do not say that you should make all that necessary which was then used on terms of liberty and indifferency they had then their necessaries for uâ—ion and their unnecessaries which were used at liberty as every Church saw good Impose no more than they imposed no more of Liturgy no more of Ceremony no more Subscriptions Promises or Oaths and it will heal us all Impose Liturgy no further than they then did which at the most was but every Bishop on a particular Church that was united for personal not representative communion and was no bigger than one of our Parishes for number of souls If these terms will not serve you neither you shall not with us have the reputation of the best friends of Antiquity Unity Love or Peace Q. 3. What harm would it do if the Churches were healed by such means as all the most grave experienced Conciliators have pitched upon as the only way at least in all the Protestant Churches We are contented with Lerinensis terms Quâ—d ab omnibus ubique semper receptunest All the famous reconcilers of the last age and this Acontius Melancthon Pelargus Duraeus Calixtus Lud. Crocius Joh. Bergius Conradus Bergius Junius Paraeus Hottonus Amyâ—aldus Usher Morton Hall Davenant Chillingworth Hales Bucer Burroughs Stillingfleet and every man that ever wrote a rational Irenicon conspire in this one necessary means the forbearing all imposition of doubtful unnecessary things as necessary to actual unity and communion and the centering and cementing all on the terms of the few certain greâ—t and necessary things which we are commonly agreed in or as Rupertus Meldenius his oft-cited words are In necessariis unitas in non-necessariis libertas in utrisque charitas Do you think verily that all these were mistaken and that you are wiser than they who have studied the art of peace as much as you have done the arts of victory and getting down those whom you first make and then call your adversaries I know you will still say These are good terms for our union with neighbour churches but not for our church within it self To which I have answered you already and now add 1. Every company of Christians associated for personal communion in Gods publick Worship as distinct from distant communion in Spirit only and from communion by Delegates or Representatives is a true particular church taking Pastors and people to be the parts thus associated Every such Church had a Bishop in Scripture-times as Dr. Hammond in his Annot. will tell you over and over and in Ignatius his time too For he saith That to every Church there was one Altar and one Bishop with his fellow Presbyters and Deacons And this one Altar which shewed only one place of meeting for ordinary publick Communion and one Bishop were the notes of Unity to every one Church as Mr. Mede also fully openeth it And Dr. Hammond will further bear witness what every Bishop with his Church is in 1 Tim. 3. And such all the particular Churches of the whole world considered together under the Supreme Head Christ Jesus dispensing them all by himself and administring them severally not by one Oeconomus but by the several Bishops as inferior Heads of Unity to the several bodies so constituted by the several Apostles in their plantations each of them having an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a several distinct commission from Christ immediately and subordinate to none but the supreme Donor or Plenipotentiary And before so was every such regular Assembly of Christians under a Bishop an Oeconomus set over by Christ the house of God Mark all this then and let your Impositions be measured by this Rule so that either you will have the many Churches in one Kingdom to be united on terms of Regiment or only on terms of Concord On the terms of the extrinsick accidental Regiment we grant that all the Kings Subjects are united and that he hath power circa sacra But so you might have said of all the Roman Empire And so if the Christian part of the World had all one Monarchy your own Concession must be overthrown that neighbour Churches must unite on necessary terms leaving indifferent ones to liberty or else you will see that the case of the Catholick Church under such an Empire would be the same with a National Church under one King And our Churches are as much to be accounted Neighbour-Churches as those in such an Empire would be But if you speak of one Essential Constitutive Ecclesiastical Head and Governour we know none such any more than one Pope Therefore it must be an Union of Concord by which you call many Churches in a Nation one or an extrinsick accidental Union And consequently it is an improper speech because it is not locutio formalis sed accidentalis for the form denominateth We being therefore One Church but Accidentally by one King and by Concord as several agreeing Churches may be called it followeth that we must hold our Concord accordingly with those at home as well as with those abroad upon terms of equal charity and liberty except what the King will take away For as for Councils even General ones much more Provincial it is not Bishop Ushers opinion only but ordinary with Protestants that they are to the particular Bishops not directly Regimental but means of Agreement Mark your Bishop Bilsons words of Christ. Subject pag. 229. To Councils such as the Church of Christ was wont by her Religious Princes to call we owe communion and brotherly concord so long as they make no breach in faith nor in Christian charity Subjection and servitude we owe them none The blessed Angels profess themselves to be fellow-servants of the Saints on earth Rev. 22. What are you then that with your tribunals and jurisdictions would be Lords and Rulers over Christs inheritance 2. The same Reasons which require you to agree only on necessary terms with foreign Churches will oblige you to the like course at home The judgments of Natives are of the same temper and their differences will be as certain and constant and your charity to them should be no less than to strangers Only this we all confess 1. That all the Churches must agree in their subjection to the same King 2. And every particular Church must agree with their particular Pastors in the exercises of Communion 3. And that Concord in one Translation one Meeter and such like is desirable not so much because we are under one King as because we are neighbours and of one language and would be desirable if we were of several Kingdoms in the same propinquity But it is not to be procured at a price which is above its worth 3. When you profess Concord with the foreign Churches upon Catholick terms and deny the same to the Churches that are under one King you
the service which he hath qualified us for and all our former time hath been spent in preparing for and so it is as a casting away our time and life 10. It will be a wilful compliance with Phariseism after the warning of their ill examples who preferred their orders traditions sabbaths and their own authority before the good of the peoples souls and bodies 11. It will be an encouraging compliance with Church-tyranny in exercitio if we will give over Preaching as oft as Bishops forbid us because we will not take their Oaths and be stigmatized with their PER I say supposing this had been the case 12. We think it will be a compliance with Church-tyranny quo ad titulum being ready to prove not only that the present Diocesans have no true power over us but what is given them by the King as Magistrates but also that their frame of Government is destructive of the Churches Ministry both Episcopacy and Presbytery and Discipline of Christs appointment 13. We are afraid of being guilty as things now go of mens Usurpation and injury against the King while we have the Kings License to preach and they tell us not only that the King hath not so much authority to License us as they but also that he hath less authority to silence us than they and that it is lawful to preach when Kings unjustly forbid us as the ancient Pastors did but not when these Bishops forbid us 14. In short When we think what a work it is to damn souls by starving them or to hinder their salvation our hearts dread to participate in such guilt considering 1. It is contrary to the very nature of God who is Love it self And we find that the silencers are ready to trust in Gods Love to themselves in the hour of their extremity And shall we think that he so little loveth the souls of men as to desire that they should be damned rather than saved against the will of a Diocesan 2. It is contrary to the very office and design of Christ who laid down his life a ransome for many and came to seek and to save that which was lost and would not cease when the Rulers forbad him to teach the people and demanded an account of his authority but would break even the rest of the Sabbath to save mens health telling them that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath and if Prelacy be of God it is for the peoples salvation and not their salvation to be sacrificed to a Prelates will 3. It is contrary to the sanctifying-work of the Holy Ghost who by the Gospel converteth man to God 4. It is contrary to Christs institution of the Ministerial office which was for mens salvation 5. It is contrary to our duty to the Catholick Church whose increase we must endeavour 6. It is contrary to our daily prayers To pray God to have mercy upon all men and to deny them his mercy and starve their souls is gross hypocrisie 7. It is contrary to our Baptismal-vow in which we engaged our selves to fight under Christs banner in the place where he should set us against the world the flesh and the devil 8. It is contrary to our due Love to our native Countrey for whose temporal welfare even a Heathen would have dyed 9. It is contrary to that peace of the Church which is pretended for it For it destroyeth the necessary foundations and ends of peace 10. And it is contrary to the very honour of the Prelates themselves which is set in competition with things of inestimable worth For it will make the people that believe the Gospel to take such men as prosessing themselves the Fathers of the Church do silence the faithful Preachers of it to be grand enemies of Christ and Souls and the Captains in the Army of the devil 11. All good men long for the propagating of the Gospel to the Heathen and Infidel World And shall we then be guilty of suppressing it at home 12. The Papists and all such will condemn us who will not give over Preaching even when King and Law and Bishops forbid them And shall we incur all this guilt by ceasing for nothing yea even now while we are licensed by the King We had rather be taken in the company of thieves in a pursuit than to be found among PER's and soul murderers at judgment Sion is the City of Salvation but in Babylon is found the blood of souls of whom for carnal ends they made merchandize The foregoing Reasons of our Accusation are sufficiently answered already I. Where it is said that our Calling is dependent on the Bishops I answer It is yet lis sub judice whether such a Prelacy be of God we mean the English Species that is for one man to destroy a thousand or many hundred Churches and make them but Parts of one Diocesan Church and without any Bishop under him to Rule and exercise the Power of the Keys over that one Church by a Lay-Chancellor in a secular manner and deny the Power of the Church-Keys to all the demi-Presbyters If these Diocesans were of God so is not every one that by worldly power gets possession of the place being neither chosen by the Clergy or the people any more than one that forcibly usurpeth the name and dignity What maketh that man a Bishop over me any more than another man Had they said the King I should have reverenced the answer at least Though the Arrians had the same in Constantius and Valens's days But when they trust not to this but to their divine right what is it that is their title They say Consecration I answer 1. Consecration is but a Ministerial investiture like Marriage of one that before had right by election This they deny and lay all on Consecration and not Election 2. But if so then if the unjustest claimer be Consecrated he is our Bishop And then the Consecrators have more power to determine who shall be Bishops than Kings and People 3. But who be these Consecrators Are they any Bishops whatever or some in special above the rest If any then any wicked Bishops may make more and undo the Church And then what if three Bishops Consecrate one and three another and three another over one Diocess Are they all the Bishops of that Diocess or which 4. But the Objectors confess that Consecration doth but make one a Bishop without a determinate Church but to make him the Bishop of this or that Church humane application is necessary But 1. Where find they in Scripture a Bishop made that was not made the Bishop of a particular Church I believe that a Minister of Christ in general and an Evangelist in specie may be made before he is fixed to any particular Church But not a Bishop if Scripture must be the rule 2. But if he be Consecrated a Bishop and not my Bishop or any other mans this layeth on me no
in his glory which is much in the LOVE and Concord of his servants II. The Interest of the Universal Church is the pleasing and glorifying God in its unity and strength in the same Faith Hope Love and Obedience to Christ the sole Universal King III. The Interest of particular Churches is their pleasing and glorifying God by their union with Christ and the Church Universal by Faith Love and Obedience and their holy Union between Pastors and people and of the people among themselves IV. The Interest of the Kingdom is its pleasing and glorifying God and the welfare of the whole by a holy unity with God the Universal King and of the Soveraign and Subjects and of the Subjects among themselves V. The Interest of the King is the pleasing and glorifying God in the foresaid welfare and just government of the Kingdom his own salvation and his Political strength and honour which consisteth much in the most inseparable twist of union and interests with his united subjects VI. The Interest of the Pastors of the Church is the pleasing and glorifying God in the ministerial uniting of souls to God in Christ and among themselves in the same holy Life and Light and Love and their own salvation and consolation herein VII The Interest of each particular Christian is his pleasing and glorifying God in his holy union with Christ and with the Church Universal and subordinately his holy unity and concord with the Ecclesiastical and Civil Society where he liveth VIII The true Interest of an honest Separatist and Papist in England supposing them uncurably such requireth them to live quietly and peaceably in subjection to the King and in love with others in the concordant practice of so much of Religion even the Laws of Nature or common Christianity which we are all agreed in and in such tolerated exercises of their several errors as is consistent with the common welfare and not to exasperate others by reproaches or striving to get into suspected power IX The mistaken Interest of the Pope and Papal Clergy is to have their own wills in ruling all the world and to that end to weaken and disable Kings and States by divisions contentions and diversions and to draw them by deceit to a voluntary subjection as necessary to their salvation and to the concord of their subjects and the Christian world and to silence and disgrace all such as are against them X. The mistaken Interest of English Papists Quakers and all true uncurable Separatists is to encrease and strengthen their several parties and if it may be to get into power and to that end to unite in the bond of a common Toleration and to make the tolerated party as strong as they can and to weaken the united Ministry and Churches and therefore to cry down a Comprehension or Union of the sober Conformists and Nonconformists and to desire that those Impositions which themselves account sinful may be continued that good may come by the evil viz. lest the union of the rest should weaken the tolerated party and render them inconsiderable and to bring the established Ministry and all that are for union with them into contempt by reproaches XI The true Interest of a meer Nonconformist requireth him to commit no known sin on pretence of obedience unity or peace nor forsake his Ministry whatever he suffer for it but to live in loyalty peace and patience and in love and communion with the Parochial Churches and all Christians so far as they are agreed XII The true Interest of a Conformist requireth him to use all lawful means to procure as comprehensive a Union and Concord of all sound and faithful Ministers and Christians as they are capable of and to bear with tolerable differences to live in peace among themselves and by Ministerial skill fidelity diligence and holy living and by condescending humility and love to all men to win Dissenters to edifie and unite the people and so to advance the true honour of the Ministry and to encrease and corroborate the Church Octob. 27. 1675. R. B. FINIS THE CONTENTS A Prefatory History of our Case Page 1 c. Our judgment how far we are bound to Preach p. 14. Our Reasons for Preaching I. We judge it sacriledge to for sake the work to which we were consecrated p. 20. II. We cannot be ignorant of mens obliging necessities p. 22. III. Many express texts of Scripture oblige us p. 32. Many Objections answered to p. 44. Whether Princes may silence us Largely answered Of mans binding Conscience Of the Peoples choice of Pastors IV. By deserting our Ministerial Work we shall sin against the Natural Law of Love and be guilty of soul-murder p. 45. Objections and Accusations answered 1. That our preciseness falsly pretendeth mens necessity p. 52. 2. That we think too highly of our own Preaching as necessary p. 55. 3. That our Preaching doth more harm than good p. 56. 4. That we have made the People disobedient hypocrites c. p. 64. 5. That when we had liberty we cast out Catechising the Creed the Lords-Prayer Decalogue and Church-Government c. p. 69. 6. That we lived in sequestrations on other mens bread Mr. Durel's accusations of my self herein answered p. 77. 7. That we silenced and ejected others when we had power p. 83. 8. The better must suffer with the worse if they will joyn with them p. 85. 9. That our Preaching will increase mens dislike of Government p. 86. 10. That our pretended Piety is Pharisaical hypocrisie pride zealous Villanies The Pharisees described p. 91. 11. Of gathering Assemblies and separating from the Church p. 97. 12. For coming into Cities and Corporations within five Miles p. 102. 13. The Church giveth you power and may take it from you as the old Conformists in Mr. Rathbands book c. confess p. 104. 14. You are against Bishops because you cannot be Bishops Why did you demur so long before you refused Preferments p. 106. 15. Must the Laws be changed as oft as tender heads will scruple p. 108. 16. Obedience beseemeth tender Consciences Disobedience is as the sin of Witchcraft p. 110. 17. The only reason why some forsook the Ministry is that they durst not abjure the Covenant Why do they not do the rest p. 111. 18. Why not all tolerated as well as you and so let in Popery p. 113. 19. Preaching was necessary before the World became Christian c. p. 114. 20. Why do you not go preach among the Indians p. 115. 21. The folly and villany of your Religion is so opened by the Debater and the Ecclesiastical Politician that you should be ashamed to ask leave to preach ibid. 22. You overthrow all Principles of Government p. 120. This is answered since in a full Volume called The 2d Plea for Peace 23. They object our Doctrine as Calvinism and Puritanism c. The intended Scheme of my Reconciling doctrine since published p. 121. 24. You would make our Reconciliation with the Church of Rome impossible which is more desirable than with you p. 128. 25. Abating would countenance your scruples by authority and make you thought to be true Reformers p. 134. 26. It is rebellion that is in your hearts as your not renouncing the Covenant and resistance sheweth The foresaid 2d Plea for Peace fully answereth this accusation p. 137. 27. We remember your practices heretofore c. p. 140. 28. Dr. Goods Charge of the Kings death answered in a Letter to him p. 142. 29. The inhumane Calumnies of a book called The Modern Pleas for Comprehension Toleration c. considered p. 147. 30. The errors and faults of Sectaries imputed to us p. 155. 31. Dr. Ashtons and the Debate-makers Accusation of us of covetousness and pride and delaying to refuse preferment p. 157. 32. The Calumnies of a book called A free and impartial enquiry into the Causes of the very great esteem and honour that the Nonconformists are in c. p. 165. A notable passage of Clemangis and another of Bernard p. 173. The true Case of the Nonconformists sufferings which they are said to under go by Covetousness for gain p. 175. 33. Mr. Hollingworths Story of a Nonconformists cruelty p. 182. 34. Henry Fowlis heaviest accusation examined p. 182. Twenty Reasons why the Bishops and conformable Clergy should desire and endeavour the Nonconformists Ministry Plainly and seriously urged to their consciences p. 186. A Postscript Answering Mr. H. Dodwell's Reasons against our Preaching and publick worship when forbidden by the Bishops What he cannot deny us what we grant him what we cannot grant with the reasons of our dissent p. 237. An Account of the Interests of all the several Parties among us Interest ruleth the World p. 250. Reader I have not time to gather the Errata of the Press All this was written 1669. * 1669. â—y Gods merâ—y since theâ—riting of this have publiâ—hed it called â—atholick Theâ—ogy * The Earl of Orery who was present all the while at both times that ever I spake to Cromwell which was plainly and faithfully to his displeasure †The Lord Chief Justice Hale told me he had Hookers last books before and I now have the last printed long before Bishop Gauden published them ☞ â—his was writâ—â—n when we â—ad the Kings â—icense
obligation to obey him 3. But they are forced at last to resolve all their power and our duty into Humane will or institution It is Man that must make him my Bishop And this they call the application of the power But by what Act is this application Is it by Election or by another Consecration or how sure they will say by Election And doubtless some one must first Elect him to be a Bishop indeterminately It 's strange that men must be Consecrated that no men chuse Then they chuse themselves And then the Consecrators must Consecrate any one that will chuse himself to be a Bishop But if not so they make the Consecrators chusers and therefore should not say that Election doth nothing to make him a Bishop But who are the second determing Electors They know not who to lay it on nor who it is that maketh a man Bishop of these persons and this place One will say the Consecrators and then they know not who these must be and we may possibly have ten Bishops at once another will say the Clergy which really here chuse not another will say the King and they must all come to that or nothing though they are very loth for none of them will say The People 2. But what is the dependance of our calling on the Bishops supposing them of Gods appointment Is it a dependance 1. Of Essence 2. For Operation 3. Or for the Order and Circumstances of operation And do they mean that we depend 1. On the Bishops first Ordination 2. Or on his continued Will 1. If our Calling as to Authority and Obligation did depend in esse on the will of the ordainer as such that is that we receive it from him of which more elsewhere yet doth it not follow that the continuance of it dependeth on his Will and that he may undo what he hath done For he engageth men to God durante vita in a perpetual office which maketh the Papist call it an indelible Character In Ordination a Contract is made between Christ and the Minister and till they null it that contracted it he cannot do it that did but Ministerially contract them A Priest may Marry man and wise but cannot unmarry them A Bishop may Crown and Anoint the King but cannot depose him 2. And if the Bishop cannot null the esse of our Calling than the operation is not at his Will For 1. the Esse is nothing but the Potestas operandi cum obligatione 2. Else it were left to the Will of Bishops whether Christ should have any Ministers and Worship and whether the Gospel should be preached or Souls be saved 3. But if it be only the Time place and order of our Ministration that is left to Bishops they have no power to forbid the necessary preaching of the Gospel on pretence of ordering it To order operation is not to prohibit it He doth not order my studies writing travel building who biddeth me study write travel build no more 4. As the Bishops of Spain at Trent defended the Divine right of their office against the Pope so must we ours against the Prelates Christ hath instituted the office of Presbyters himself which is more generally agreed on among Christians than that he hath instituted our Prelacy But if Dr. Hammond's opinion hold true that there were no subject Presbyters in Scripture-times we shall think it hard to prove that there ought to be any now And then all Ministers must be of one order 5. Suppose Scotland possessed of the Christian Religion under such Presbyters as Coleman Aidan Finan c. and after a Courtier perswadeth the King to call one man their Bishop and make him be Consecrated Are all those Churches and holy Pastors on a sudden by that act become such dependants on that Bishop as that they must give over preaching when he bids them 6. By your Rules men may enlarge Diocesses at their pleasure and if the King will make all England one Diocess he may put down all the Bishopricks save one and give one man power to chuse whether Christ shall have any Gospel or souls in England and so Christ must shortly be no Christ or Saviour without the Bishops leave II. To the second Reason I deny that by preaching we use any Prelatical power the pretended Office of a Prelate is not to be the sole Preacher but the Governour of Preachers If we made our selves Governours of Preachers we should assume their power But to preach is our own work Obj. You call and govern assemblies Ans. We govern not Diocesses nor other Presbyters and to guide particular Assemblies in worship was ever acknowledged the Presbyters work Obj. Yes under the Bishops government but not without him Ans. To do the work of his own office without him that should govern him could be but a disobedience against that Governour but not a deposing him and usurpation of his Government If a Physician Taylor or Shoomaker exercise his Calling when the King forbiddeth him yea or a Schoolmaster or Minister who governs others this is not to depose the King and take his power but only to disobey his power Can you perswade all Popish Priests in England that they depose the King III. The third Reason is as gross a fallacy supposing that our silence is but passive obedience but passive obedience as it is commonly called is but patient suffering without resistance If the Bishops excommunicate us or imprison us or deprive us of all Ministerial maintenance or take all our Estates we never resist them but endure all But when the first part of Religion is positive and the second negative will any say that it is but passive obedience to omit all our duty if a Bishop forbid it us Then it were but passive obedience to give over loving God and man and maintaining our Families or praying to God or doing any good if the Bishop forbid it us 2. And for keeping peace which you demand how it should be done I answer you 1. Satan keepeth possession of his Kingdom in some peace Peaceable unholiness is the surest way to hell 2. We are commanded but if it be possible and as much as in us lieth to live peaceably with all men But peace is first in the power of Rulers and if they will have no peace it is not in our power to procure it against their wills but only to do our part towards it If a Bishop should forbid all men to feed their children and servants with any wholsome food and then say What peace or order can you have without such obedience This is but to put a scorn on the Churches when they have persecuted them and to take away their peace and then ask them why they will not have it IV. To the fourth Reason That the Bishop is judg who shall preach I answer 1. Were the Bishops Calling justified yet he hath not power to judg in partem utram libet whether there shall be preaching or
none The Churches in London are burnt down the Parishes are many so large that one of ten or twenty cannot hear in publick If it be in the Bishops power to judg that nine parts of London shall have no preaching why may he not so judg of the other tenth part And if he may judg that there shall be no preaching then why not that there shall be no praying and worshipping God And if so in London why not in other places and so whether there shall be any Gospel Religion or Salvation In cases of Faith a Council hath power only to judg truly that there is a Christ a Resurrection a life to come and not to judg that there is no Christ no Resurrection c. And holy practice is as necessary to our salvation as right believing And therefore the Bishops may judg that we shall preach and pray and worship God but not that we shall not Obj But they are to judg who shall preach The Gospel is not cast out if two thousand of you be silenced If there were not Preachers there may be Readers and the Liturgy Ans. Let them set up such competent Teachers in a sufficient number of Churches as will tell a sober conscience that all our labours are become unnecessary and then we shall think further of the case But is it so in London now Or can any be ignorant that it is not so And God useth to work according to the aptitude of means and too many Churches in the Countreys have such Teachers as say over a few cold words as boys do their Lessons and when experience telleth us how few are the better for them we are afraid of being so hypocritally modest as to let souls perish for fear of seeming to undervalue your raw Lads or scandalous ignorant Priests and to overvalue our selves 2. Are the bishops absolute Judges or not If absolute we must obey them if they command murder or idolatry If not what are the limits of their power Sure it is Gods universal Law They have no power against his commanding or forbidding word none against him or against the common good and mens salvation If Popish and other Casuists use so to limit Kings as to say that they are Ministers of God for good and that they have no power against the common good and that all Laws against it are null may we not much more say so of all our Diocesans You grant that they cannot command us to sin or forbid us duty But then either we have a judgment of discerning to know what is duty and sin or not If not then still if they forbid us duty and say it is no duty or command sin and say it is no sin we must obey But if yea then if we prove in an error it will be our sin And if the Bishops prove in the error it will be theirs And to obey conscience before a bishop is in our sense nothing but to obey God before a bishop in doing what we judg to be his will V. The next reason is none to us For if Presbyterians or any other silence Christs Ministers causlesly and forbid that preaching of the Gospel which is necessary to mens salvation we abhor it in one as well as in another VI. And as to the last 1. We believe not that if Christ should ask us Why we preach not it would excuse us to say The bishop forbad us no more than if he ask us Why did you not feed clothe visit me in my servants The Reasons forementioned tell you why we think we cannot be excused 2. But if we could Nature and Grace incline us to do all the good we can do in the world And if thousands were like to be drowned if we did not help the Ship-master when he forbids us Nature teacheth us to prefer their lives before his will And when our first question is Whether according to Gods ordinary operation by means so many thousands shall be saved from ignorance sin and hell or be damned For you to determine that they shall be damned if the Bishop will and then come in with a second question Who shall answer for it is so horrid to us as frightneth us from obeying the Silencers as if we saw Satan himself perswading us to obey them Will you give us leave openly to tell the people where our controversie lyeth That it is the Bishops will that they shall rather be all damned in their ignorance and sin than taught converted and saved by Nonconformists But they say that it 's they and not we shall answer for it As if they said Their blood be on us But we are loth to yeild that you must be untaught and damned though we were never so sure to be excused Whose interest or work it is Christs or Satans to forbid faithful Ministers to preach the Gospel and do their office the light of Grace when you have all done will tell the gracious as the light of Nature telleth men whose interest and work it is to deny to as many their necessary food Should you deny the necessity of either word or food still Grace or Nature would from age to age resist you Of the two methinks those that perswade us to stretch to conform against our consciences that we may preach do look more favourably towards the common good than those that perswade us not at all to conform but meerly to give over preaching the Gospel The very motion hath an ugly aspect it affrights us as perceiving the voice of an affrighting Solicitor in it It amazeth us to think that some Scholars of great parts and humility and obliging carriage dare make such a motion to so many vowed and consecrated to the Ministry while in so many Parishes so many thousand souls are wallowing in ignorance impiety and sensuality and have not a Church to hear in nor a Minister to instruct them but must stay at home or worse for want of room were they never so willing Shall the Churchwarden on his oath present twenty or forty or fifty thousand in a Parish for not coming into a Church where two thousand can scarce hear the Preacher Or shall all those thousands be idle play or drink without trouble and a few hundreds of them be hunted and ruined that rather join in Gods Worship with a silenced Minister O how easie would it be to our flesh and how dreadful to our consciences to forbear and leave men to themselves Have men nothing to accuse us of as our intollerable crimes but the greatest and costliest duties that ever we performed in the world The Lord keep us all from seducing Faction and forgive us the sin which we see and which we see not and cause us to pray harder for his glorious appearing and most righteous final Judgment Come Lord Jesus come quickly Amen INTEREST real or mistaken RULETH THE WORLD Gods Interest is the highest with all the sanctified I. GOD's Interest is the pleasing of his will