having once over-run us they expect that we should follow them and be ruled by them and if we do not are ready to censure us as guilty of sinful Compliance and Conformity It greatly concerneth us therefore to keep some from such mistakes to rectifie others to vindicate our selves and clear our Consciences that we tell Men what our Non-conformity is not if we may not tell them what it is I. Our Non-conformity is not in holding that the Scriptures are a particular Rule or Determination of all the Circumstances of Church-Government and Worship as Time Place Utensils Words Methods Metres Tunes Division of the Text into Chapters and Verses Translations helps by Notes Written or Printed Gestures Habits c. But Nature and Scripture give us sufficient General Rules or Laws for all such as that they be done in Unity Charity to edification decently and orderly c. which must be observed II. We hold that when 〈◊〉 un 〈◊〉 etermined Circumstances are lawfully determined 〈◊〉 Authority yea were it but by the Consent and 〈◊〉 of the Churches of Christ or the present Conduct of their Pastors the Assembly should yield Conformable Obedience and avoid unnecessary Singularities III. We hold that if those to whom such Determinations belong should mistake and not do it in the best and profitablest manner yet ordinarily it is the Peoples duty to obey and hold Communion with that Church so be it that nothing sinful 〈◊〉 e commanded them to do and the errour of the Determination be not such as overthroweth the Worship or End it self Of which we have elsewhere fullier opened our sense In our judgment of things Indifferent IV. We are against no Bishops or Church-Government of Gods appointment We all are for an Episcopus Gregis and where there are many Chappels and Curates in a Parish we are far from perswading them to deny such submission to the chief Pastor as the Law requireth and as God himself alloweth Were Ignatius his Episcopacy among us who tells us this as the Note of the Churches Unity that to every Church there is one Altar and one Bishop with his fellow Presbyters and Deacons we should be far from perswading any to separate from it Yea were it Cyprian's Measure of Episcopacy Yea there are some among us who have long professed themselves uncertain whether such a large Episcopacy as is but the same with the ordinary part of the Church-power of the Apostles and Evangelists be not jure divino such as should be still continued because 1. When Christ hath once setled a Form or Order of Government a change must not be charged on him rashly and without proof especially as made so suddenly If the Affirmer prove the settlement the Denyer must prove the Change and Revocation 2. Because Christ promised to be with them to the end of the World Mat. 28. 20. when he appointed them this universal or indefinite Work 3. Because many others as well as Apostles had larger Circuits than particular Churches for their Work as Silas Silvanus Apollo Titus and many more And at their Reformation the Scots Visitors seemed such That Men of extraordinary worth and gravity may Plant many Churches and take the care of many directing exhorting and admonishing the Pastors or particular Bishops not depriving those Pastors and Churches of the Power and Priviledges granted them in Scripture some of us do not deny Government by the Word is an ordinary continuing Ordinance of God But the Apostles extraordinary Work and Office to be Eye-witnesses and Embassadâ—â—rs immediately sent and endued with the extraordinary Measures of the Spirit these we believe they have no Successors in because they were but for a time And those of us that cannot grant so much as is aforesaid and all of us as to an Episcopacy which we think contrary to God's Word can yet submit to much which we dare not approve of and as we take our selves bound to obey all by what Names or Titles soever distinguished or dignified who circa sacra as Officers of the King do exercise any part of that Power of the Sword by his Commission which we acknowledge in the Oath of Supremacy so if any usurp more Power of the Keys than Christ alloweth them we are not thereby disobliged from living peaceably in our places nor allowed to raise Sedition or use any unlawful means to re 〈◊〉 orm it though we cannot make a Vow and Covenant never to do any lawful thing to alter and amend it Much less is it true which M 〈◊〉 n of hard Faces have sometimes said that we are against Bishops because we cannot be Bishops our selves And they that tell Men that every Presbyter would be a Parish Pope do sure think they speak to Men so silly as to be mockt by an undiscerned Contradiction A Pope is the Universal Monarch of the Christian World or all Is a Parish all the World A Diocesan is the Sole Bishop with us of a Multitude of Churches Is a Parish a Multitude of such Churches If a Man be against one Schoolmaster only over a thousand Schools shall he be reproached because he is willing to teach one Is a King in each Kingdom as unreasonable a thing as a Papal Monarch or a King of Kings and of all the Earth If it be to the gain of Souls that we are deprived of this Parochial Episcopacy we can easily bear it professing that we hold it far easier to be Governed than to Govern V. We judge not all Officers circa sacra unlawful which are made by Man As some Circumstances are not particularly determined in Scripture but left to Men so are many of the Officers that must execute them If the King appoint Church-Magistrates to keep Peace and Order to call Synods and take such cognisance of Causes as belongs to him or do any part of his work as is afore said we will obey them And so of Church-Wardens Door-keepers Sextons and such others as some Churches of old made use of so be it they usurp not any part of the Office which Christ hath appropriated to the Pastors of the Churches VI. We are not for Lay-mens claim or exercise of the Power of the Keys whether they be Lay-Chancellors or Magistrates or Lay-Officers or People But we hold that the Keys of Christs Church that is the Power of receiving in by Baptism and of Guiding the People by holy Doctrine and in holy Worship and of Excommunicating and Absolving are by Christ committed to the Pastors of the Churches Though there is also an admonishing Power in Magistrates and divers sorts of Penalties for sins against God which they may inflict And the voluntary execution of the Pastors judgment by holding or not holding Communion with others is the Peoples part in which as reasonable they have a discerning judgment VII As to the case of Elders we all hold that none should be proper Church Governours by the said Keys which are meerly Lay-men and not Church Officers And many
of us hold that neither Christ nor his Apostles over appointed any Elders to Rule the Church by the power of the Keys distinct from the Magistrates Government by the Sword but only ordained Ministers of Christ who have also authority to preach and administer both the Sacraments However we know that when many of these belonged to one Congregation one that was the Chief Speaker usually the Bishop was w 〈◊〉 nt to preach and the rest to be his Assistants especially in private Care of Souls and those of us that think otherwise that Christ or his Apostles made such a Church Office as Ruling Elders not-ordained or that have no power of preaching or administring Sacraments do not hold such essential to the Church nor refuse to live in love and peace and Communion with the Churches that have no such Elders And we all think that so small a difference should make no greater a breach among us VIII We are against the Excommunicating of Kings and of other Magistrates on whose Honour the well-governing and peace of the Kingdom doth depend and are sorry to find some of our sharp Accusers of another mind Our Reasons are because the dishonouring of them is forbidden in the Fifth Commandment And Positive Institutions caeteris paribus must give place to Moral Natural Laws Rituals and matters of Order are no Duties when they make against those Grand Duties which are their Ends or those that are of fundamental or greater use And this Christ hath often taught us by sending the contrary minded to learn what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice and bidding the unreconciled leave their Gift at the Altar c. The End is to be preferred before the Means which indeed are no Means when against the End And Church-Order is not to be pretended for disordering and confounding Kingdoms or against the publick good and safety We judge that Bishop Bilson Bishop Andrews and such others have truly heretofore determined that some wicked impenitent Princes may be denyed the Sacrament but not defamed or dishonoured by a Sentence of Excommunication Much less by any Foreign Usurper or any Minister at home that the Prince himself doth not by consent make the Guid of his Soul for no other but he that is called to give him the Sacrament if qualified is the denyer of it if he be unqualified unless as he is to do what he doth by the advice and consent of Fellow Pastors But the very use of Excommunication is to punish and reform men by dishonouring and shaming them therefore it is not to be used where we owe such honour by the Fifth Commandment to our Prince Obj. 1. We are bid also to honour Father and Mother 2. Yea to honour all men Answ 1. We dare not justifie any Pastors publick disgraceful excommunicating his own Father or Mother unless where a publick obligation for publick good requireth it 2. But to both instances we say that a greater end and more publick good is to be preferred to a le 〈◊〉 s And when a private mans honour is forfeited we cannot give him that which he hath cast away and God will penally take away till he repent But when the publick order and welfare which is above all personal good obligeth us to honour Magistrates a subordinat 〈◊〉 Law will not suspend it Publick Excommunication is an Act of Government to be exercised on the Governed for the Ends of Government But for a Prelate or Priest or any other to do this on his Governours though of another rank crosseth the Ends of Government Nor are Subjects so to be tempted to contemn their Rulers lest they come to think as Bellarmine and such Papists that Infidels are not to Govern Christians nor to be tolerated in their Government or as their very Religion teacheth them Concil Later c. 3. sub Innoc. 3. that when Princes are excommunicated they may be deposed by the Pope or as their learnedest Doctors say that they are no Kings and to kill them is not to kill the King See the Testimonies of this cited at large and expresly by H. Fowlis in his Book of Popish Treasons If ever any Protestants Episcopal Presbyterian or Independents were or be of another mind for the Excommunicating of Kings or Chief Rulers that 's nothing to us who shall neither live nor dye by the Faith or Opinion of others But we should so much the rather here disown it IX It is none of our judgment that when men are excommunicated by Pope Prelates Presbyters or People who are the four Pretenders to that Power the Magistrate must be their Lictor or Executioner or must further punish men by the Sword meerly eo nomine because they are excommunicate or because they reconcile not themselves to the Church by penitence and obedience or because the Pope or Prelate or Priests deliver up the excommunicate to him to be punished or threaten him if he will not do it The Civil Ruler may punish the same men for the same Crimes but upon their own exploration and judgment of the Cause and not as meer Hangmen that must needs execute the judgment of other Judges Their own Conscience must be satisfied and they must know what they do and why else to how many base and bloody offices the factious worldly Clergy may oblige them the Papal Kingdom hath long given men too sad a proof And we must profess that we are fully perswaded that we have good Reason to conclude that so near a Prosecution by the Civil Power as is the imprisoning and undoing of Persons Excommunicate meerly because they stand Excommunicate and are not absolved as Penitents hath not a few nor small incommodities Ecclesiastical 1. So great a Dominion in the Clergy hath done much to corrupt the Sacred Office and make men naturally proud unmeet for the humble Services of the Gospel 2. And it breedeth in the People a distast and hatred of the Clergy as if they were the grievous Wolves that devour the Flock in Sheeps Cloathing and bear not Grapes and Figs but wear Thorns and Thistles to p 〈◊〉 ick and hurt them and causeth their Exhortations to be the more unsuccessful 3. It seemeth to dishonour the Discipline instituted by Christ as if the Keys of his Church â—â—re of no more signification than the Crown of Thorn◠〈◊〉 Reed with which he was derided and could do nothing without the Princes Sword 4. It contradicteth the experience of above 300 years when Church Discipline was exercised more effectually than it is now and that not only without the Sword of the Magistrate but also against his will and opposition Yea it was many a hundred years more after Emperours were Christian before the Keys were ever thus seconded by the Sword and had not the Donatists by inhumane assaulting the Orthodox provoked the Churches and Magistrates it had been like to have been long before the Sword had been drawn against Hereticks at all 5. And that which much
entertained in holy Communion and in Sin called to Repentance and for Impenitency shut out by Excommunication and upon Repentance restored by Absolution For the right performance of all these the King may give general regulating Laws subservient to Christ's Laws to secure and promote their execution and he may forbid and punish gross abuses of the Ministry as well as of Physicians and other Callings But if he will usurp the Ministry in the Parts aforesaid or take those Parts out of the Ministers hand and as Uzziah burn Incense If he will chuse for the Minister what Text still to Preach on and what Words in Preaching and Prayer still to say and bid him instruct reprove comfort direct baptise absolve no man but such as are named to him by the King nor in any words but such as he prescribeth this being 1. A destroying of an Office of Christ's Institution 2. And an usurping of it without Christ's consent such Laws oblige not but are null as to Conscience for want of true Authority in the Makers As the Sentence of a Judge in foro alieno or in a Circuit City or Corporation where the Power is appropriated to others 2. And if a Prince or Inferiour Ruler who hath power to determine Circumstantials about the Callings of his Subjects shall so determine them as shall overthrow the very End and Work it self in a Calling which God by Nature or Scripture hath made necessary this Determination bindeth not it being an Act without Authority For it is as true of Magistracy as of Paul ' s Apostleship We have this power for edification and not for destruction 2 Cor. 10. 8. 13. 10. Eph. 4. 12. 2. Cor. 12. 19. 1 Cor. 14. 5. 12. 26. It is the pernicious errour of some Papists to Dream that their Pope and Church hath a Power of obligatory judging in matters of Faith and Practice in partem utramlibet and in this wicked supposition they Cant over and over to the ignorant Who shall be Judge To which we say That Publick Judgment belongeth to Publick Persons that is To the Magistrate who shall have Civil Communion even on Religious accounts and to the Pastors who shall have Church-Communion and private Judgment discerning each Mans Duty belongs to every rational man But all men are Subjects of God and their judging Power is limited by his Laws If the Question be Whether there be a God a Christ a Scripture a Heaven an Immortality of Souls c. Kings and Pastors and Councils may and must judge that there is but none of them may judge that there is not if they do it 's worse than null And in Practicals if the Question be Whether we may or must pray for the hallowing of God's Name the coming of his Kingdom the doing of his Will on Earth as it is done in Heaven or whether we must love and worship God and hear him and meditate on his Word and whether true Ministers of Christ may or must Preach in season and out of season and seek to instruct and save Mens Souls whether we must honour our Parents relieve the Poor and save Mens lives in danger from Murderers c. They have Authority to judge affirmatively but none at all to judge negatively which if they do it 's worse than null So Kings and Pastors have power to judge that we may not take God's Name in vain nor be perjured nor prophane his separated day nor forsake the assembling of our selves for his Publick Worship nor Murder nor commit Adultery nor steal nor lye or bear false witness nor persecute nor hurt any man injuriously but they have no power to judge that we may do any one of these and if they so judge or command it is a nulli 〈◊〉 y to the Subject and worse to themselves God hath made no men absolute Judges but given them a Regulating and Limiting Law to Judge by Even so those Rulers who have Power to Judge and Command some Circumstances of Divine Worship they have it but as a means of promoting that Worship and its Ends by the means of Edifying-Order and they have no Power to destroy the Worship or its Ends. For Instance whoever hath Power to determine of the Place of Publick Worship hath that Power for the Worship and Worshippers sake and is to be obeyed when he doth it accordingly But if he Command a thousand Persons to meet no where but in a Room that will not hold two hundred or three hundred or fifty thousand Persons to meet no where but in one Temple where above three thousand cannot hear this is on pretense of ordering and placing God's Worship to forbid it to all the rest for which God never gave him Power So also it is if he command them to meet no where but forty or thirty or twenty miles off from their Habitation or where they cannot go without destroying the Work and End So whoever hath Power to chuse the Day or the Hours of God's Publick Worship hath this Power for the Work sake and the Peoples edification and is to be obeyed when his Commands are answerable But if he should Command Men to worship God only once a Year or once a Month or to do it only at Mid-night and so destroy the Work by ill-timing it this is a nullity as being an Act without Authority and worse as against the Laws of God So whoever it be that hath Power to appoint Pastors and Teachers to the Churches or Publick Assemblies if they should as Constantius and Valens send Arrians to be Bishops or any other intollerable Persons who through utter insufficiency Heresie or Malignity are uncapable and will do more hurt than good or if they would limit the Churches or Countries to an utterly incompetent Number and say No other shall Preach but such uncapable Persons or no more than one to fifty thousand Souls or where ten or twenty are necessary this is to forbid Preaching or corrupt it and destroy Mens Souls on pretense of Order And it is a nullity and worse So if the same Rulers should say that You shall Preach only in Country Villages but not within many miles of Cities or Corporations which truly and notoriously want your Preaching this were but to forbid such Cities and Corporations to hear the necessary Preaching of the Gospel and the Ministers to Preach it and is a nullity and worse as being both without any Authority from God and against his Laws 3. But if true Rightful Governours who have Power to determine Circumstantials Civil or Religious shall mis-determine them yet so as not to destroy the Work or End nor put Subjects on the breaking of any Law of God here their fault will not disoblige us from the Duty of obeying Though it be a sinful mistake of theirs we may be yet obliged to do what they Command us For Instance The Ruler chuseth a Place less convenient that hath no Seats or an ill access yet capable of the
though we conform not so far as to declare our Assent and Consent to the use of the Calendar Prescript or Directory which requireth them to be read in the Mornings from Septemb. 27. and 28. till Novemb. 24. even Bell and the Dragon Susanna Tobit when as the Vulgar understand not the word Apocrypha sufficiently to distinguish them from the sacred Scriptures when they are equally called the Lessons and read in the same order And we are confirmed in this part of our Non-conformity by the Articles of Religion which discard the Apocrypha and by the Learned Treatise of the late Bishop Cousins who hath fully proved that the ancient Churches received not those Books into the Canon and by many Doctors of the Church of England that charge them with Untruths Some of us have seen the Writing as on good reason is supposed of a present Learned worthy Bishop who sheweth that the words of the Angel in Tobit are a Lye who said that he was the Son of Ananie of the Tribe of Naphtali And that so is his saying that the smoke of a Fishes heart will drive away all Devils that they shall never return when Christ tells us of some that go not out but by Prayer and Fasting XXXVI We are far from designing any abasement of the Clergy nor do we deny or draw others to deny any due Reverence and Obedience to them And though we know that the bare Title and Office will never preserve sufficient respect for the honour of the Clergy and the success of their work without competent qualifications and labours of the persons yet would we rather hide than open or reproach the faults of such as are tolerable in that sacred Office and would do our best for their work sake to promote the esteem even of those that differ from us and of some that persecute us We know that the People are exhorted to know those that labour among them and are over them in the Lord and to esteem them highly in love for their work sake 1 Thess 5. 12 13. And to obey them that have the Rule or Guidance of them and to submit themselves Heb. 13. 17. 24. And that the Elders that Rule well are worthy of double honour especially they that labour in the Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. 5. 17. We that take it for our Duty to honour all men and submit our selves to one another would not deny any due honour to any of the Clergie that have any preeminence either in age grace gifts or by the Magistrates appointment as his Officers as aforesaid or any way given them by Christ We take it not for a Priviledge to be from under Government XXXVII Our Non-conformity consisteth not in denying a National Provincial or other Church Form of mans invention and institution On these Suppositions 1. So it be presupposed that there is somewhat of Divine Institution predetermined by Christ and his Spirit in the Apostles that is 1. That there be such Doctrine worship and Discipline as he hath commanded 2. That there be such Pastors to exercise them whose Office he hath described 3. That there be such stated Congregations or Societies in which they shall be used even Neighbour Christians associated for Personal Communion therein 4. That all these Churches enjoy the Priviledges granted them by Christ and live in love peace and concord and hold such just correspondence as is necessary thereto and to the Common End and Good All this is of Divine appointment 2. So that these Divine Institutions be not violated by Humane or by the power of man 3. So that Humane Churches be not made equal and co-ordinate to the Divine much less superior and superordinate as if they were to Christs instituted Churches what a Kingdom is to a City or a Regiment to a Troop and Christs Churches were but similar parts of the Humane Churches that must rule them But as the King is Episcopus exterior or the Governour of the Churches so far as the Sword is to be used so circa sacra we have before said that he may make his own Officers and consequently Provinces for them and Orders of their exercise And the Churches in his Dominions may be so called one National Church as he is the exterior Civil Governour of them all by the Sword which indeed is but to be a Religious or Christian Kingdom as also ab accidente as these many Churches are under one Christian yea were he an Infidel King and as hereby they have the advantage of fraternal association and correspondency for concord But proper Denominations are from the Essential Form XXXVIII It is no part of our Non-conformity to be against the due Use or Authority of Councils or Synods of the Clergy We hold that when one is cast out of one Church for a cause belonging to the Cognisance of many many may have occasion to take Cognisance of it And the edification of each other the satisfactory Debate of Difficulties the preservation of mutual Love Peace and Concord may make Synods to be useful But yet we hold that the major Vote of Bishops in a Council are not thereby the proper Governours of the minor dissenting part nor of the absent Bishops but that Councils are for Counsel and Concord and not for direct Regiment of each other though together and asunder the Pastors are all Governours of the Flock And some of us have long ago publickly proved that Councils were called General at first but with respect to the Dominions or Empire of one Prince and not as if they were Universal as to all the Christian World and that absolutely Universal Councils never were or ought or can or ever will be called and that to pretend that a Papal or Imperial General Council is the Universal Law-giver of the World and that they have a promise of Infallibility in what ever they determine and that we receive our Faith in Christ upon their Infallibility given by him and so we must know that Christ maketh them Infallible before we can believe that he is Christ These and such other nonsense cheats which some are now agitating are fit to delude none but the grosly ignorant that are prepared for deceit XXXIX Yet we deny not but that God having first bound us to Unity and Concord as far as we can â—ttain with loving forbearance in the rest when a lawful Synod or Council hath determined of a way of Concord on lawful Terms in matters under their Power there is an Obligation on all the particular Members to forbear breaking that Union and violating those lawful Terms of Concord For where there is not a Governing Law there may be an Obliging Contract or Consent And whereas even the Papists now usually teach that even a Councils Decrees bind not the Churches at least those that had no Delegates till by actual reception they consent be it known to the World that on these Terms the Non-conformists in London seem to have some excuse if it
gainfuller Trade of life than spending-labour with poverty reviling scorn and imprisonments XLII To conclude As far as we are able to understand the most learned sober judicious Conformists by their own words to us and their Writings they differ not at all from us about the matter it self which we deny Conformity to but confess it to be unlawful as to the hardest points of the imposed Subscriptions Oaths and Declarations and Covenants but they only take the words in such a sense in which we our selves could take them were we perswaded that it were indeed the true meaning of them And do they that are as much as we against that sense which we disown and agree with us in the matter deserve liberty honour and preferment for otherwise interpreting the words of the Law which the Law-givers themselves will not interpret And doth our supposition that the Law-makers mean properly as they speak deserve scorn silencing and Goals from them that will not expound them to us The righteous God will be Judge between us For instance 1. By Assent in the Declaration required we understand Believing it to be true But the Conformists that we speak of understand only a Belief that I may use it 2. By all and every thing contained in the Book we suppose is meant all and every thing indeed But they say only the Forms to be used are meant and many other things in the Book not meant We find after named Unfeigned Assent and Consent unto and Approbation of the said Book and to the use of all the Prayers Rites and Ceremonies Forms and Orders therein contained and prescribed we think here Approbation and Assent are more than Consent to use and we think that the use of all the Orders is more than the use of the Forms We think that no Word in the Book was intended to be useless and that the Doctrines Calendars even that untrue one to find out Easter-day Rubricks and Directories have each their proper use We suppose that the foregoing words of the Use are the End and the Form of the Declaration is the Means to secure that Use as the End and that the Means hath more in than the End 3. Some of them suppose that denying Christendom to Christians Children for want of Crossing or Godfathers and denying Communion to true Christians that receive not kneeling are none of the Orders to be used But we think otherwise 4. Some of them think that Admitting none to the holy Communion till they be Confirmed or desirous to be Confirmed though it be the very words is none of the Orders which they Consent to use and we never knew any use it by any tryal of mens desires But we think that nothing in the Book is intelligible if such plain passages are not 5. Some of them by the words at Burial that thank God for taking to himself the Soul of this our dear Brother out of the miseries c. understand not his Salvation but his going out of this World But we think otherwise 6. When only the unbaptized self murderers and excommunicate are there excepted some say all others are meant that ought to be excommunicate and so every Priest is made the Judge who should be Excommunicate But we think that Exceptio particularis firmat regulam in non exceptis 7. They think that the Words in the Canon that Nothing in the three Books is contrary to the Word of God are meant with exceptions as to Nothing or to Contrariety But we take Nothing for Nothing and Contrary for Contrary 8. Some of them say that the Church being the Maker of these Impositions we are to take them in the Churches sense which the Bishops may signifie But we think that we must take them in the sense of the King and Parliament as the Law-makers and that no Church or Bishops can alter our Religion or Articles or Subscriptions by an Expository Power 9. Some of them think that the words on any pretense whatsoever in the Subscription have exceptions But we know not how any words can be more exclusive of exceptions 10. Some of them think that by any Commissioned is meant only Lawfully Commissioned and so Subjects are left to judge of the Lawfulness We find there no such Limitation or Exposition 11. Some of them say that by the Government of the Church not to be altered is not meant the Lay-Chancellors use of the Keys But we think that their actual Government is the Government actually 12. Some of them say that by no change or alteration is meant only of the Essence of Episcopacy We take no alteration for no alteration 13. Some of them say that by not endeavouring is meant only not seditiously or by ill means We think That ubi DEX non distinguit non est distinguendum 14. Some of them think that no Law or words imposed must be expounded contrary to Gods Law or any former Law or to the King 's or Peoples rights But 1. That is to suppose that men cannot contradict themselves or God or do unjustly 2. And then whatever Oaths men put on us we may take them were the words never so false or impious because the meaning must still be judged good 15. Some say that we must put the best sense on imposed Oaths and Covenants and Subscriptions that the words can be subdued to We think that they must be taken in the sense of the Law-makers which is to be judged of by the usual meaning of their words unless themselves do otherwise expound them And so in many other Instances the Conformists say that they would not Conform themselves if they understood the words as we do Seeing then that all these worthy Conformists before mentioned do confess that if the words of the Laws be properly to be understood and not with their limitations then the Conformists are in the wrong and the Non-conformists in the right we conclude with these few Questions Q. 1. Whether we owe not that honour to our Law-makers as to suppose that they are able and willing to speak intelligibly Q. 2. Whether they would have men left as to the Oath of Allegiance and all other Oaths and Laws to subdue the Law-makers words to any sense that the Subject thinks lawful and to make themselves Judges of the sense by departing from the common use of the words without proof that the Law-makers meant otherwise Q. 3. Whether there be need of much Learning Conscience or Honesty to stretch the words from their ordinary sense more than to do otherwise And whether so to do would deserve honour and preferment and to do otherwise be a Crime that deserveth silencing and ruine Q. 4. Whether their way of Exposition or ours tend more to promote Perjury and Equivocation and which more secureth Truth and Honesty Q. 5. If once the Conscience of Oaths and Covenants be relaxed by stretching words to the takers interest are not the Lives of Princes left in danger and the Bonds of common Converse loosened Q. 6. If this must be the cause of our sufferings and silence is it not justice so to tell the World and write it on our Cross that we are silenced and laid in Goals because we dare not take Oaths and Covenants imposed in Terms excluding limitations and exceptions in a limited excepting sense without the Explication of the Law-makers Q. 7. And if we must be so used whether any in the whole World be more unfit to silence imprison fine reproach and ruine us for mis-understanding the words which we are to Subscribe or Promise or Covenant in viz. for taking none to mean none nothing to mean nothing not any to mean not any contrary to mean contrary all to mean all than those that while they are set to ruine us will by no intreaties after our almost fourteen Years sufferings and expectations be prevailed with to procure us an Exposition of the sense of any of these so much controverted words We are more confident that the Law-makers can more certainly and infallibly expound their own words than the Pope or Council can expound Theological difficulties And if our Accusers will not once endeavour to procure them so to do nor be intreated to consent it when Conformists and Non-conformists are chiefly disagreed about the Interpretation of them and when our preaching or silence honour or reproach maintenance or poverty liberty or imprisonment yea and much duty or sin in the Body of the Nation lyeth upon the resolution of this Controversie what is the Law-makers meaning we will still refer all to him that judgeth righteously who will shortly finally end the Controversie praying to God though Men will not hear us to open our Lips that our Mouths may shâ—w forth his praise that he will make speed to save us and make hasâ—e to help us that he whose service is perfect freedom will defend us his humbled servants in all assaults of our Enemies that we surely trusting in his defence may not fear the power of any Adversaries and that these evils which the craft and subtilty of the Devil or Man worketh against us be brought to nought and by the providence of his goodness they may be dispersed that we his Servants being hurt by no persecution may evermore give him thanks in his holy Church that in all our troubles we may put our whole trust and confidence in his mercy and evermore serve him in holiness and pureness of living that he will forgive our Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers and turn their hearts especially that he will save our Posterity from their Curse who say The Blood be on us and on our Children For we are not against such a Liturgy as this POSTSCRIPT Reader IT was intended that a short Account of the Nonconformists Judgement about the Power of Kings and the Obedience of Subjects should have been added but by reason of some Mens aptness to be offended at all such Publications and because of the present dispersion of the Collectors it is pretermitted with this Profession That they shall at all times be ready to give such Account of their Judgements when Authority shall call them or allow it as shall satisfie all impartial Men that they are haters of Disloyalty Sedition Rebellion and Schisme FINIS