and Reasons of Dissent and enquire of their Lives and on the same Terms I admit Dissenters also to the Lord's Supper viz. if there be no Charge against their Lives and they come to me before hand and satisfie me of their fitness Still letting them know it is a dangerous case to live from under Order and Discipline and that I do this to them but for a time till they can be satisfied as I would do for a Stranger Your Brother Ri. Baxter To our Reverend and Beloved Brethren the Associated Ministers in the County of Cumberland § 35. Upon the Publication of our Agreement the Ministers in most Counties began to take the Business into consideration and though some few of the ancient Presbyterians were against it and thought it would bring the Presbyterian Government into Contempt or hinder the Execution of it when it had been agreed on by so grave a Synod at Wâ—stminster and established by the Parliament and therefore they rather desired a strict Execution of the Ordinance of Parliament and an Agreement on those Terms yet the most of the godly faithful Ministers as far as I could learn were for it For as we hindered no Man from following his own Judgment in his own Congregation so we Evinced beyond denial that it would be but a partial dividing Agreement to agree on the Terms of Presbyterians Episcopal or any one Party because it would unavoidably shut out the other Parties which was the principal thing which we endeavoured to avoid it being not with Presbyterians only but with all Orthodox faithful Pastors and People that we are bound to hold Communion and to live in Christian Concord so far as we have attained Phil. 3. 15 16. § 36. Hereupon many Counties began to Associate as Wiltshire Dorsetshire Somersetshire Hampshire Essex and others And some of them printed the Articles of their Agreement In a word a great desire of Concord began to possess all good People in the Land and our Breaches seem'd ready to heal And though some thought that so many Associations and Forms of Agreement did but tend to more Division by shewing our diversity of Apprehensions the contrary proved true by Experience For we all agreed on the same Course even to unite in the practice of so much of Discipline as the Episcopal Presbyterians and Independants are agreed in and as crosseth none of their Principles And they that thought the Expression of the Churches desires in various words of Prayer in Publick was better than a stinted Form for all Churches necessarily to use should not think that the Expression of our Consent to the same things is a dividing way because it is done in various Expressions for this Liberty greatly helped Unity for many a one would have scrupled some particular words in such an imposed Form of Concord who yet would accord in the Substance of the Work The Essex Agreement was printed to the same purpose with ours The Wiltshire Ministers were so strictly held to it by the Independant Party that they could get them but to these following preparatory Articles WE whose Names are Subscribed Ministers of the Gospel in the County of Wilts being humbly sensible of our many Failings in the Work of the Ministry by the Lord Christ committed to us and of the great need wherein we stand of the mutual help of our Brethren for Advice Encouragement and Strengthning herein And sadly bawailing the Corruptions of the People in our several Congregations the want of Christian Reformation Love and Unity and the Power of Godliness the breaking in of destroying Errours and the prevailing of Ignorance and Profaneness among them have consented and resolved through God's Grace and in Expectation of his Blessing on our weak Endeavours as fellow Servants to the same Lord Jesus Christ the Great Shepherd of Souls to acquaint our selves one with another and to joyn together and assist each other to the uttermost in the promoting of Gospel Truth Peace Love and the Power of Godliness in our selves and all those that have the Name of Christ upon them in the places wherein we live For the Effecting whereof we desire and purpose if God permit to meet together at Sarum on the 26th of Octob. 1653. for the end hereafter specified First In some publick Place on the same day where any others whose hearts are inclined thereunto may joyn with us by Fasting and Prayer to seek unto God for pardon of our former Failings and for Direction and Strength of his Spirit for the future Work of the Ministry which lyeth upon us in the instructing and ordering of our several Congregations according to the Word of God Secondly After the said Publick Duty discharged to come together more privately in some convenient place And there First Jointly and Solemnly as in the presence of God to testifie our sincere purpose of heart for the time to come in dependence upon the Lord's Strength to take heed unto our selves and to our Doctrine and to continue therein that in doing this we may both save our selves and them that hear us Secondly To testifie to each other our Conscionable readiness as Servants and fellow Labourers to afford and receive Assistance to and from each other in the Work of the Lord committed to us as any occasion shall be offered to us in this kind and accordingly to advise together thereupon Thirdly To Promise and Engage to one another according to our Duty in all Humility Tenderness and Brotherly Love Yet faithfully to admonish one another of any Miscarriage or Neglect which we shall know or be daily informed of which in any of us bringeth Reproach upon the Name of God and his Ways upon the Gospel and the Administration of the same And we shall all of us likewise seriously promise humbly and thankfully to accept of such Admonition from any Brother as a Fruit of Christian Love and Fidelity and without Anger Clamour or Recrimination either to clear our selves to the Brother which Admonisheth us being free from the Crime objected or else endeavour Reformation in what we have offended Fourthly At the same Publick Meeting to appoint some other fit time to meet together in the same manner further to carry on the Work of mutual Brotherly Advice concerning such Courses as conduce to God's Glory the Good of the People and the Discharge of our Duty in the place wherein God hath set us And in this our Meeting we fully resolve through the help of our God First Not to meddle in word or deed with any Matter of Civil Government further than to stir up one another if any just occasion be offered conscionably to maintain and exercise all Christian Obedience to Magistrates as an Ordinance of God Secondly Not to soment any Breaches amongst Brethren but to study to the uttermost of our power that all who accord in the Fundamentals of Gospel Truth and Holiness may be brought to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace And for
us because we understand it not If indeed they consented a Word speaking or the writing of their Names is no great Cost or Labour to discover it If they think it too much we might better think our yearly Labour too much for them Relation is the ground of the Duties which they bind to I cannot enter these Relations but by consent nor know them without the Expression of that Consent No Man can be a Member of my Charge in despight of me nor can I make any Man such against his Will I can never marry a Woman that will say you shall do the Office of a Husband to me but I will not tell you whether I take you for my Husband nor promise to be your Wife c. I will not have a Scholar in my School or a Pupil that will say Hither will I come and you shall teach me but I will not tell you whether I will be your Scholar or take you for my Teacher Nor will I have a Patient that will make me give him what Physick he desires and will not say he will take me for his Physician 3. Besides the Office of a Pastor is not only to preach and administer the Sacrament but also to admonish rebuke and exercise some Discipline for the Good of the Church And he that will not profess his consent to these doth not by his partial submitting to the rest shew his consent that I be his Pastor I will be a Pastor to none that will not be under Discipline That were to be a half Pastor and indulge Men in an unruliness and contempt of the Ordinance of Christ If I take more on me than is just or necessary I will gladly hear of it and recant 4. Either they do indeed take us for their Pastors or not If not we do them no Wrong to take them for none of our Charge And then why do they say that their coming to Church proveth it But if they do take us for their Pastors then they owe us more Obedience than the speaking of a Word comes to and when we require them to profess themselves Members of the Church and of our Charge they are bound to obey us unless they can prove it a Sin But if they say we will not obey them in the speaking of such a Word though indeed they did call us their Pastors this were but to contradict themselves and to deny the thing when they give us the Name I desire no such Charge much less such as will give us neither Name nor Thing and yet expect their Wills of us Sir Pardon the Plainness and accept the true Account of my Thoughts from Your Servant Richard Baxter Feb. 2. 1655. § 34 About the same time that we were thus associating in Worcestershire it pleased God stir up the Ministers of Cumberland and Westmorland to the same Course who though they knew not what we had done yet fell upon the same way and agreed on Articles to the same purpose and of the same Sense and Importance as ours were of which Mr. Richard Gilpin one of them a worthy faithful Minister sent me word when he saw our Articles in Print and they also printed theirs to save the writing of many Copies and to excite others to the same way and they found the same readiness to Union among the Brethren as we had done Their Agreement you may find printed our Letters were as followeth Dear Brethren WE salute you in the Lord It was no small reviving to us to behold your Order and mutual Condescentions expressed in your Book of Concord to promote the Reformation of your People in ways of Peace We unfeignedly rejoice on your behalf and thought our selves bound to signifie how grateful and helpful your Endeavours are to us The Scorners of this Age have a long time bent their Tongue as a Bow and dipt their Arrows in Gall and sent forth bitter Accusations and Slanders against all the Ministers of the Gospel calling them Disturbers implacable c. as if the very Esse of a Minister were to contradict and to be averse from Peace Surely your earnest prosecution of Concord will be a standing Confutation of that Charge at least so far as to cut off the Note of Universality from it But that which most affects us is that you are not willing to look upon the gasping Condition of the Church here as idle Spectators or as â—eer Witnesses of her Funeral without trying any Remedy at all and that you do not apprehend your selves to have done all your Duty when you have bewailed her Trouble and complained of her Adversaries Cruelty Sion indeed hath been thrown down to the Ground and hath been covered with a Cloud in the Day of the Lord's Anger and her Adversaries are round about In this Distress she hath spread forth her Hands and hath looked upon her Lovers for Help and that so long that she is ready to say that her Strength and her Hope is perished from the Lord. Now her Sons while they have been consulting how to relieve her have fallen out about the Cure and because they have not been admitted to administer the Physick according to their Minds have neglected to administer any at all because they could not be suffered to do what they would they have forgotten that it was their Duty to do what they might Some have thrown all aside but preaching as it were in a pettish Discontent some have satisfied themselves with administring Cordials without purging the noxious Humours because they thought this necessary and safe though in an unpresbyte and Church Others it may be have seen a necessity of making farther Progress and have been groaping after it but have been discouraged at the sight of the thwarting and inconsistent Principles the Animosities and want of Condescention of different Parties Others it may be have in their Thoughts overcome this Difficulty and yet have stuck at one that is less they have been afraid to be the first Propounders of their conceived Remedy fearing the Entertainment and Success that their charitable Endeavours might find being more willing to follow than to lead in such a doubtful and unbeaten Path. This Design which you have resolved on will we hope convince Men that though we cannot as yet expect that the Lord's House should be so finished that all shall cry Grace Grace unto it Yet that the Building need not wholly to crase you are the first that have in this publick way broken the Ice and who knows how powerful your Example may be to call Men off from their Contentions and Strivings one against another by a brotherly Combination to carry on the work of Christ as far as they can with one Shoulder Whatsoever Advantage others may reap by your Endeavours we are sure the Advantage that we have by them is double 1. We before we had heard of your Book had undertaken a Work of the like nature Several of us meeting together to consults about
Church where he is President and where he Ordaineth if there be any left I suppose as to a Parochial or Congregational President in one Eldership you will grant this and why not to the President of the Association for Peace when he that is Ordained a Pastor of your particular Church is thereupon made an Officer in the Universal therefore others should have some care of it or else I 'le let Objections pass in silence only desire you if these two last dislike you not therefore presently to reject the rest but lay these by On these Terms in the two last Propositions Bishop Usher when I propounded them to him told me That the Episcopal Party might well agree with us and the moderate would but the rest would not To my Reverend Brother Mr. Philip Nye § 47. After this I was yet desirous to make a fuller Attempt for the reconciling of those Controversies so far as that we might hold Communion together And I drew up a larger Writing instancing in about Ten Points of Difference between the Presbyterians and Independants proving that the Differences were not such as should hinder Concord and Communion The Writing being too large to be here inserted you shall have with the rest at the end of the History Since Prelacy was restored there hath been no Opportunity to Debate these Matters for the Reasons aforesaid and many others Only I put these Papers into Mr. G. Grissith's hand who speaketh much for Reconciliation And when I call'd for them about a year after he had shewed them to none nor made any use of them which might tend to the desired Concord and so I took them away as expecting no more success § 48. About the same time the great Controversie that troubled all the Church being about the Qualification of Church Members I apprehended that the want of a due and solemn manner of Transition from the Number of Infant-Members into the Number of the Adult was the cause both of Anabaptistry and Independency and that the right performance of this as Calvin and our Rubrick in the Common Prayer would have Confirmation performed would be the most excellent Expedient both for Reformation and Reconciliation finding that the Independants themselves approved of it I meditated how to get this way of rectified Confirmation restored and introduced when in the mean time came forth a Treatise for this way of Confirmation by Mr. Ionathan Hanmer very judiciously and piously written And because it was sent me with a Request to write my Judgment of it I put an Epistle before it further to prove the desirableness of the thing The Book was very well accepted when it came abroad but some wrote to me desiring me not only to shew the usefulness of it but also to produce some fuller Scripture Proofs that it is a Duty whereupon I wrote a little Treatise that is called Confirmation the way to Reformation and Reconciliation And in my own Congregation I began so much of the Practice of it as is acknowledged to belong to Presbyters to do § 49. And about the same time while Cromwell professed to do all that he could for the equal promoting of Godliness and Peace and the Magistrates Assistance greatly facilitating the Work of the Ministers and many Ministers neglected their Duty because the Magistrate compelled not the People to submit to them and some never administred the Lord's Supper because they thought nothing but Constraint by the Magistrate would enable them to do it aright And on the other Extream Cromwell himself and such others commonly gave out that they could not understand what the Magistrate had to do in Matters of Religion and they thought that all Men should be left to their own Consciences and that the Magistrate could not interpose but he should be ensnared in the Guilt of Persecution I say while these Extreams prevailed upon the Discourses of some Independants I offered them a few Proposals suited to those Times containing those few Duties by which a willing Magistrate might easily settle the Church in a safe and holy Peace without incurring the guilt of Persecution or Profaneness or Licentiousness but having no Correspondency with Cromwell or any of his Council they were never shewed or made use of any further than for the perusal of him to whom I gave them who being one of their Faction I thought it possible he might have further improved them The Paper was this which followeth By the Establishment of what is contained in these Twelve Propositions or Articles following the Churches in these Nations may have a Holy Communion Peace and Concord without any Wrong to the Consciences or Liberties of Presbyterians Congregational Episcopal or any other Christians 1. FOrasmuch as God hath appointed Magistracy and Ministry as Functions of a different kind but both necessary to the welfare of Mankind and both for the Church and the Salvation of Men and the maintaining of due Obedience to God Therefore let not either of them invade the Function of the other Let Ministers have no Power of Violence by inflicting Corporal Penalties or Mulcts nor be the Judges though in Cases of Heresie or Impiety who is to be 〈◊〉 punished and who not but let them not be denied to be the Ministers of Christ and Guides of the Church And therefore let the Word of God be their only Rule what they must Preach and whom they must Baptize and receive into the Church and to whom they must Administer the Lord's Supper and whom they must Reprove Admonith Reject or Absolve and so for the rest of their Ministerial Work And let not Princes or Parliaments make them Rules and tell them whom to admit or reject otherwise than from the Word of God for according to this Rule we are bound to proceed whatever we suffer for it But yet as the Magistrate is by us to be instructed and guided according to the Word of God so we are by him to be commanded and punished if we offend And therefore we acknowledge it his Duty to command us to Teach and Govern the Churches according to the Word of God and to punish us if we disobey and we must submit to such commands and punishments And therefore if the Parliament see cause to make any Laws according to which their Judges and Officers shall proceed in punishing Ministers for Male-administration we shall not disobey them if agreeable to God's Word if not we shall obey God and patiently suffer from them 2. Seeing there is very much difference between an Infant state of Church-Membership and an Adult one being but imperfect Members in comparison of the other and one being admitted on the Condition they be but the Seed of the Faithful and the others Title having another Condition even a Faith or Profession of their own and one having right only to Infant Priviledges and not to the Lord's Supper and other parts of Communion proper to the Adult because they are not capable of it And seeing
yield to us for Concord that seeing both together we might see what probability of success we had And the King promised that it should be so § 95. Hereupon we departed and appointed to meet from day to day at Sion Colledge and to consult there openly with any of our Brethren that would please to join with us that none might say they were excluded Some City Ministers came among us and some came not and Divers country Ministers who were in the City came also to us as Dr. Worth since a Bishop in Ireland Mr. Fulwood since Archdeacon of Totnes c. But Mr. Matth. Newcomen was most constant in assisting us § 96. In these Debates we found the great inconvenience of too many Actors though there cannot be too many Consenters to what is well done For that which seemed the most convenient Expression to one seemed inconvenient to another and that we that all agreed in Matter had much ado to agree in Words But after about two or three Weeks time we drew up the following Paper of Proposals which with Archbishop Usher's Form of Government called his Reduction c. we should offer to the King Mr. Calamy drew up most with Dr. Reynolds Dr. Reynolds and Dr. Worth drew up that which is against the Ceremonies I only prevailed with them to premise the four first Particulars for the countenancing Godliness the Ministry Personal Profession and the Lord's Day They were backward because they were not the Points in Controversy but yielded at last on the Reasons offered them About Discipline we designedly adhered to Bishop Usher's Model without a Word of alteration that so they might have less to say against our Offers as being our own and that the World might see that it was Episcopacy it self which they refused and that they contended against the Archbishop as well as against us and that we pleaded not at all with them for Presbytery unless a Moderate Episcopacy be Presbytery Yet was there a Faction that called this Offer of Bishop Usher's Episcopacy by the Name of the Presbyterians impudent Expectations I also prevailed with our Brethren to offer an Abstract of our larger Papers lest the reading of the larger should seem tedious to the King which Abstract verbatim as followeth at their Desire I drew up and have here after adjoined The first Address and Proposals of the Ministers May it please Your most excellent Majesty WE your Majesty's most Loyal Subjects cannot but acknowledge it as a very great Mercy of God that immediately after your so wonderful and peaceable Restoration unto your Throne and Government for which we â—less his Name he hath stirred up your Royal Heart as to a zealous Testimony against all Prophaneness in the People so to endeavour an happy composing of the Differences and healing of the sad Breaches which are in the Church And we shall according to our bounden Duty become humble Suitors at the Throne of Grace that the God of Peace who hath put such a thing as this into your Majesty's Heart will by his heavenly Wisdom and holy Spirit to assist you therein and bring your Resolutions unto so perfect an Effect and Issue that all the good People of these Kingdoms may have abundant Cause to rise up and bless you and to bless God who hath delighted in you to make you his Instrument in so happy a Work That as your glorious Progenitor Henry VII was happy in uniting the Houses of York and Lancaster and your Grandfather King Iames of blessed Memory in uniting the Kingdoms of England and Scotland so this Honour may be reserved for your Majesty as a Radiant Jewel in your Crown that by your Princely Wisdom and Christian Moderation the Hearts of all your People may be united and the unhappy Differences and Misunderstandings amongst Brethren in matters Ecclesiastial so composed that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the midst of your Dominions In an humble Conformity to this your Majesty's Christian Design we taking it for granted that there is a firm Agreement between our Brethren and us in the Doctrinal Truths of the reformed Religion and in the substantial parts of Divine Worship and that the Differences are only in some various Conceptions about the ancient Form of Church-Government and some particulars about Liturgy and Ceremonies do in all humble Obedience to your Majesty represent That in as much as the ultimate end of Church-Government and Ministry is that Holiness of Life and Salvation of Souls may be Effectually promoted we humbly desire in the first place that we may be secured of those things in Practice of which we seem to be agreed in Principles 1. That those of our Flocks who are serious and diligent about the matters of their Salvation may not by Words of Scorn or any abusive Usages be suffered to be reproachfully handled but have Liberty and Encouragement in those Christian Duties of exhorting and provoking one another unto Love and good Works of building up one another in their most holy Faith and by all religious and peaceable means of furthering one another in the ways of eternal Life they being not therein opposite to Church-Assemblies nor refusing the guidance and due Inspection of their Pastors and being responsible for what they do or say 2. That each Congregation may have a learned orthodox and godly Pastor residing amongst them to the end that the People might be publickly instructed and edified by preaching every Lord's Day by Catechising and frequent Administration of the Lord's Supper and of Baptism and other Ministerial Acts as the Occacasions and the Necessity of the People may require both in Health and Sickness and that effectual Provision of Law be made that such as are Insufficient Negligent or Scandalous may not be admitted to or permitted in so Sacred a Function and Imployment 3. That none may be admitted to the Lord's Supper till they competently understand the Principles of Christian Religion and do personally and publickly own their baptismal Covenant by a credible Profession of Faith and Obedience not contradicting the same by a contrary Profession or by a Scandalous Life And that unto such only Confirmation if continued in the Church may be administred And that the Approbation of the Pastors to whom the catechising and instructing of those under their Charge do appertain may be produced before any Person receive Confirmation which Course we humbly conceive will much conduce to the quieting of those sad Disputes and Divisions which have greatly troubled the Church of God amongst us touching Church-Members and Communicants 4. That an effectual Course be taken for the Sanctification of the Lord's Day appropriating the same to holy Exercises both in publick and private without unnecessary Divertisements it being certain and by long Experience found that the Observation thereof is a special means of preserving and promoting the Power of God liness and obviating Prophaneness Then for the Matters in Difference viz. Church-Government
Spirit among others is a great rejoicing to me And I hope I may tell you that it is in vain as I am sure I may tell you it is no small Sin any more to resist and strive against him If the Hand of our dear and tender Lord be setting you in joint again shrink not on account of present pain much less should you fear the Reproach of being in Communion with the Body but impartially hearken unto him and yield but lay by all Tumults of Spirits and Passions and get out of the Noise of vulgar Clamours for the Voice of Peace is a still Voice and in Calmness must be attended unto And when you are restored if you find not the Sweetness and Advantages of Peace if you are indeed restored in Mind as well as Practice the Lord hath not spoken in this by me I can hardly think that he that hath raised these Thoughts within you and begun these Convictions will let them die In order to the Ends desired and hoped for I shall offer you so much of my present Thoughts as your described Case requires And 1. though I desire not to dispute the Case of Infant Baptism with you now yet I may say we believe you live in a constant Sin against the Lord in neglecting denying and opposing it and that if you will by one erroneous Supposition draw on a Chain of hurtful Consequences you are the Cause of your own Disorders At a fitter Season I should desire you but to answer me this one Argument All that should be sacramentally or solemnly inticed into the Holy Covenant with God as his People should be Baptized or at least be taken as true Members of the Church and their Entrance just but the Infants of believing Parents should be sacramentally and solemnly entred into Covenant with God or his People Ergo c. The Minor we give you the abundant Proof of Law and Promise for before Christ. It was Abraham's Duty and Priviledge according to the Tenour of the Promise which was made with him before the Law to enter his Children sacramentally and solemnly into the holy Covenant It was all the Churches Duty after both Jews and Proselytes both the uncircumcised Females and the circumcised Males and all the uncircumcised Church in the Wilderness Deut. 29 c. Tell me now how I should answer it before the Lord if I tell Parents that they are absolved from this Duty of solemn entring their Children into the Covenant and are divested of the blessed Priviledge especially when you here tell me well that you know of none but his Body that Christ is the Saviour of and that the Church is this Body Ergo you know of no Salvation for Infants if they be not of the Church Ergo Exclussion would be a heavy Case shall I say that Christ hath recalled this Law and Grant but how should I prove it I shew you the Law and Grant do you shew me the Repeal and we have done Christ never speaks a word to repeal it nor any of his Apostles Entring our Children into the holy Covenant is not a Ceremony If God say to a Father why didst thou not dedicate this Child to me and solemnly enter him into Covenant with me what can he say The Precept Promise and long Practice were plain was the Repeal also plain Yes if it be a Repeal for Christ to take such Children into his Arms and bless them and tell us of such is his Kingdom and to be offended with those that would have kept them from him and to command that all Disciples be Baptized He knew well enough when he instituted Baptism and exercised it first upon the adult that the Iews did so too with their Proselites And Ergo when he did in that no more than they did that yet admitted the Infants of Church-Members his baptizing the Adult could no more signify his Denial of Infants to be baptized than the Iews baptizing the Adult could signify it who at that time baptized Infants also nor could the Disciples interpret Christ's Doctrine and Will to be contrary to the Iews when his Practice was no more than theirs And when he never uttered a Syllable to intimate a Repeal of that great Mercy and Duty of entring Infants solemnly into the Covenant which by God's Appointment had continued so long And the Covenant was I will be thy God and thou shalt be my People But all this falls in besides my first intent and therefore I rather expect your Pardon than your regard of it at the present though time may shew you Light in that which now seems Darkness 2. But if our Infant Baptism were irregular how will you prove it a Nullity never by any sound Argument every Irregularity is not a Nullity Whether you take the Word as signifying Faedus Sacramentale a Sacramental Covenant as Scripture commonly doth more notably intending the Covenant than the outward Act or Sacramentum Faederale a Federal Sacrament or Action most notably signifying the Sign or Act it 's all one to our purpose for Infants are capable of both the Covenant and the outward Sign and of all that is essential to Baptism That they are capable of being entred into Covenant 1. Nature tells us we commonly enter them under Princes as their Subjects and into private Contracts with Landlords for Possessions 2. The ancient Law Promise and Practice of the Church before Christ tells us for then it was actually done by God's Command And that they are capable of the outward Sign is undeniable Prove it a Nullity if you can though it were a Sin 3. But if both were granted the Sin and Nullity I come now to give you my Reasons why it warrants you not to deny Communion with the Churches that were thus Baptized in Infancy And 1. I beseech you note that Baptism is as necessary if not much more to the Admission of Men into the universal visible Church as such or into a particular Church Ergo If Men may be admitted into the universal visible Church without adult Baptism then he may be admitted into a particular Church without it But yet here grant that he may be a Member of the universal Church without it Ergo Baptism is indeed appointed to be our regular entrance by way of Sacramental Covenant and Investiture into the Church Universal and not into a particular Church necessarily though it may be into both yet it is but indirectly into the particular Church The Eunuch and all that were baptized first in any place by the Apostles were baptized only into the Church universal and afterward setled in Order under Pastors in particular Churches Baptism as such as it was called our Christening doth only list Men under Christ as Christians and if it do any more as to the thing in Question it is accidentally and not always nor necessarily We are not directly sure baptized to our Pastors and so not to that Particular Church nothing then is more plain
made haste and were upon them before they were well resolved what to do and the hearts of the Citizens failed them and were divided and they submitted to the Army and let them enter the City in triumph Whereupon Massey and Hollis and others of the accused Members fled into France of whom Sir Philip Stapleton died of the Plague near Calice and now the Army promised themselves an obedient Parliament but yet they were not to their mind § 89. Here I must look back to the Course and Affairs of the King who at the Siege of Oxford having no Army left and knowing that the Scots had more Loyalty and Stability in their Principles than the Sectaries resolved to cast himself upon them and so escaped to their Army in the North. The Scots were very much troubled at this Honour that was cast upon them for they knew not what to do with the King To send him back to the English Parliament seemed unfaithfulness when he had cast himself upon them To keep him they knew would divide the Kingdoms and draw a War upon themselves from England whom now they knew themselves unable to resist They kept him awhile among them with honourable Entertainment till the Parliament sent for him and they saw that the Sectaries and the Army were glad of it as an occasion to make them odious and to invade their Land And so the terrour of the Conquering Army made them deliver him to the Parliaments Commissioners upon two Conditions 1. That they should promise to preserve his Person in Safety and Honour according to the Duty which they owed him by their Allegiance 2. That they should presently pay the Scots Army one half the Pay which was due to them for their Service which had been long unpaid to make them odious to the Country where they quartered Hereupon the King being delivered to the Parliament they appointed Colonel Richard Greaves Major General Richard Brown with others to be his Attendants and desired him to abide awhile at Homeby-House in Northamptonshire While he was here the Army was hatching their Conspiracy And on the sudden one Cornet Ioyce with a party of Soldiers fetcht away the King notwithstanding the Parliaments Order for his Security And this was done as if it had been against Cromwell's Will and without any Order or Consent of theirs But so far was he from losing his Head for such a Treason that it proved the means of his Preâ—erment And so far was Cromwell and his Soldiers from returning the King in Safety that they detained him among them and kept him with them till they came to Hampton Court and there they lodged him under the Guard of Col. Whalley the Army quarterring all about him While he was here the mutable Hypocrites first pretended an extraordinary Care of the King's Honour Liberty Safety and Conscience They blamed the Austerity of the Parliament who had denied him the Attendance of his own Chaplains and of his Friends in whom he took most pleasure They gave Liberty for his Friends and Chaplains to come to him They pretended that they would save him from the Incivilities of the Parliament and Presbyterians Whether this were while they tried what Terms they could make with him for themselves or while they acted any other part it is certain that the King 's old Adherents began to extol the Army and to speak against the Presbyterians more distastfully than before When the Parliament offered the King Propositions for Concord which Vane's Faction made as high and unreasonable as they could that they might come to nothing the Army forsooth offer him Proposals of their own which the King liked better But which of them to treat with he did not know At last on the sudden the Judgment of the Army changed and they began to cry for Iustice against the King and with vile Hypocrisie to publish their Repentance and cry God Mercy for their Kindness to the King and confess that they were under a Temptation But in all this Cromwell and Ireton and the rest of the Council of War appeared not The Instruments of all this Work must be the Common Soldiers Two of the most violent Sectaries in each Regiment are chosen by the Common Soldiers by the Name of Agitators to represent the rest in these great Affairs All these together made a Council of which Col. Iames Berry was the President that they might be used ruled and dissolved at pleasure No man that knew them will doubt whether this was done by Cromwell's and Ireton's Direction This Council of Agitators take not only the Parliaments Work upon themselves but much more They draw up a Paper called The Agreement of the People as the Model or Form of a New Commonwealth They have their own Printer and publish abundance of wild Pamphlets as changeable as the Moon the thing contrived was an Heretical Democracy When Cromwell had awhile permitted them thus to play themselves partly to please them and confirm them to him and chiefly to use them in his demolishing Work at last he seemeth to be so much for Order and Government as to blame them for their Disorder Presumption and Headiness as if they had done it without his Consent This emboldeneth the Parliament not to Censure them as Rebels but to rebuke them and prohibit them and claim their own Superiority And while the Parliament and the Agitators are contending a Letter is secretly sent to Col. Whalley to intimate that the Agitators had a design suddenly to surprize and murder the King Some think that this was sent from a real Friend but most think it was contrived by Cromwell to affright the King out of the Land or into some desperate Course which might give them Advantage against him Collonel Whalley sheweth the Letter to the King which put him into much fear of such ill governed Hands so that he secretly got Horses and slipt away towards the Sea with two of his Confidents only who coming to the Sea near Southampton found that they were disappointed of the Vessel expected to transport them and so were fain to pass over into the Isle of Wight and there to commit his Majesty to the Trust of Collonel Robert Hammond who was Governor of a Castle there A Day or two all were amazed to think what was become of the King and then a Letter from the King to the House acquainted them that he was fain to fly thither from the Cruelty of the Agitators who as he was informed thought to murder him and urging them to treat about the ending all these Troubles But here Cromwell had the King in a Pinfold and was more secure of him than before § 90. The Parliament and the Scots and all that were loyal and soberminded abhorred these traiterous Proceedings of Cromwell and the sectarian Army but saw it a Matter of great difficulty to resist them but the Conscience of their Oath of Allegiance and Covenant told them that they were bound to hazard their
Prayer by all the Ministers at Worcester where they desired me to preach But Weakness and other things hindered me from that Day but to compensate that I enlarged and published the Sermon which I had prepared for them and entitled the Treatise Gildas Salvianus because I imitated Gildas and Salvianus in my Liberty of Speech to the Pastors of the Churches or The reformed Pastor I have very great Cause to be thankful to God for the Success of that Book as hoping many thousand Souls are the better for it in that it prevailed with many Ministers to set upon that Work which I there exhort them to Even from beyond the Seas I have had Letters of Request to direct them how they might bring on that Work according as that Book had convinced them that it was their Duty If God would but reform the Ministry and set them on their Duties zealously and faithfully the People would certainly be reformed All Churches either rise or fall as the Ministry doth rise or fall not in Riches and worldly Grandure but in Knowledge Zeal and Ability for their Work But since Bishops were restored this Book is useless and that Work not medled with § 178. 23. When the part of the Parliament called the Rump or Common-wealth was sitting the Anabaptists Seekers c. flew so high against Tythes and Ministry that it was much feared lest they would have prevailed at last Wherefore I drew up a Petition for the Ministry which is printed under the Name of the Worcestershire Petition which being presented by Coll. Iohn Bridges and Mr. Thomas Foley was accepted with Thanks and seemed to have a considerable tendency to some good Resolutions § 179. But the Sectaries greatly regard against that Petition and one wrote a vehement Invective against it which I answered in a Paper called The Defence of the Worcestershire Petition which by an Over-sight is mained by the want of the Answer to one of the Accusers Queries I knew not what kind of Person he was that I wrote against but it proved to be a Quaker they being just now rising and this being the first of their Books as far as I can remember that I had ever-seen § 180. 24. Presently upon this the Quakers began to make a great Stirr among us and acted the Parts of Men in Raptures and spake in the manner of Men inspired and every where railed against Tythes and Ministers They sent many Papers of Queries to divers Ministers about us And to one of the chief of them I wrote an Answer and gave them as many more Questions to answer entiâ—uling it The Quakers Catechism These Pamphlets being but one or two Days Work were no great Interruption to my better Labours and as they were of small Worth so also of small Cost The same Ministers of our Country that are now silenced are they that the Quakers most vehemently opposed medling little with the rest The marvellous concurrence of Instruments telleth us that one principal Agent doth act them all I have oft asked the Quakers lately why they chose the same Ministers to revile whom all the Drunkards and Swearers rail against And why they cryed out in our Assemblies Come down thou Deceiver thou Hireling thou Dog and now never meddle with the Pastors or Congregations And they answer 1. That these Men sin in the open Light and need none to discover them 2. That the Spirit hath his times both of Severity and of Lenity But the Truth is they knew then they might be bold without any Fear of Suffering by it And now it is time for them to save their Skins they suffer enough for their own Assemblies 181. 25. The great Advancement of the Popish Interest by their secret agency among the Sectaries Seekers Quakers Behmenists c. did make me think it necessary to do something directly against Popery and so I published three Disputations against them one to prove our Religion safe and another to prove their Religion unsafe and a third to shew that they overthrew the Faith by the ill Resolution of their Faith This Book I entituled The safe Religion § 182. 26. About the same time I fell into troublesom Acquaintance with one Clement Writer of Worcester an ancient Man that had long seemed a forward Professor of Religiousness and of a good Conversation but was now perverted to I know not what A Seeker he profest to be but I easily perceived that he was either a jugling Papist or an Infidel but I more suspected the latter He had written a scornful Book against the Ministry called Ius Divinum Presbyterii and after two more against the Scripture and against me one called Fides Divina the other 's Title I remember not His Assertion to me was that no Man is bound to believe in Christ that doth not see confirming Miracles himself with his own Eyes By the Provocations of this Apostate I wrote a Book called The unreasanableness of Infidelity consisting of four Parts The first of the extrinsick Witness of the Spirit by Miracles c. to which I annexed a Disputation against Clement Writer to prove that the Miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles oblige us to believe that did not see them The Second part was of the intrinsick Witness of the Spirit to Christ and Scripture The Third was of the Sin or Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost And the Fourth was to repress the Arrogancy of reasoning against Divine Revelations All this was intended but as a Supplement to the Second Part of The Saints Rest where I had pleaded for the Truth of Scripture But this Subject I have since more fully handled in my Reasons of the Christian Religion At the time Mr. Gilbert a learned Minister in Shropshire wrote a Small concise Tractate in Latin as against a Book of Dr. Owen's though his intimate Friend to prove that Christ's Death was not necessary absolutely but of Divine Free Choice and in answer to that Book I wrote a brief Premonition to my Treatise against Infidelity to decide that Controversy § 183. 27. Mr. Tho. Foley being High Sheriff desired me to preach before the Judges which I did on Gal. 6. 16. and enlarged it to a Treatise entituled The Crucifying of the World by the Cross of Christ for Mortification and put an Epistle somewhat large before it to provoke rich Men to good Works § 184. 28. Some Men about this time persuaded me that if I would write a few single Sheets on several Subjects though the Style were not very moving yet it would do more good than larger Volumes because most people will buy and read them who will neither buy nor read the larger Whereupon I wrote first One Sheet against the Quakers containing those Reasons which should satisfie all Sober Men against their way § 185. 29. The Second Sheet I called A Winding Sheet for Popery containing a Summary of Moderate and Effectual Reasons against Popery which single sheet no Papist hitherto hath answered §
time which is almost all that the Presbyterians desire yet Dr. H. Hammond and the few that at first followed him by their Parts and Interest in the Nobility and Gentry did carry it at last against the other Party Now in my Christian Concord I had confessed that it was only the moderate ancient Episcopal Party which I hoped for Agreement with it being impossible for the Presbyterian and Independant Party to associate with them that take them and their Churches and all the reformed Ministers and Churches that have not Episcopal Ordination for null And knowing that this Opinion greatly tended to the Division of the Christian Churches and gratifying the Papists and offending the Protestants I spake freely against it which alienated that party from me Having setled our Associations Dr. Warmerstry after Dean of Worcester and Dr. Thomas Good after Prebend of Hereford were willing to have a Conference with us in order to bring in the Episcopal Party in Shropshire where they then lived to our Association Accordingly we met with them at Cleobury in Shropshire and our Articles were read over by Dr. Warmerstry and examined one by one and in the conclusion they professed their very good likeing of our Design and that they purposed to join with us but they thought it not meet at that present being but two to subscribe their full Assent lest it should seem over hasty to their Brethren and should hinder the Association which they Desired to promote But yet at present they subscribed as followeth Sept. 20. 1653. § 30. WE whose Names are under written having had Conference with divers of our Brethren of the Ministry of Worcestershire concerning their Agreement and Association for the promoting of Peace and Unity and Reformation of their respective Congregations according to the Word of God do by these Presents approve of their Christian Intendments in the general as being such that in Reference to the present Condition of the Church we conceive to conduce very much to the Glory of God the Promotion of Holyness the restraint of Sin the removing of Scandal and the setling of God's People in Christian Unity and Concord Witness our Hands the Day and Year above written THO. WARMESTRY THO. GOOD This is that Dr. Warmestry who when I was silenced by Bishop Morley and he made Dean of Worcester came purposely to my Flock to preach those vehement tedious Invectives of which more hereafter 31. In our Association we agreed upon a Monthly Meeting at certain Market-Towns for Conference about such Cases of Discipline as required Consultation and Consent Accordingly at Evesham and Kiderminster they were constantly kept up In the Town where I lived we had once a Month a Meeting of Three Justices of the Peace who lived with us and three or four Ministers for so many we were in the Parish my self and Assistants and three or four Deacons and twenty of the ancient and godly Men of the Congregation who pretended to no Office as Lay-Elders but only met as the Trustees of the whole Church to be present and secure their Liberties and do that which any of the Church might do and they were chosen once a year hereunto as Grotius de Imperio sum 〈◊〉 adviseth because all the People could not have leisure to meet so oft to debate things which required their Consent At this meeting we admonished those that remained impenitent in any scandalous Sin after more private Admonition before two or three and we did with all possible tenderness persuade them to repentance and labour to convince them of their Sin and danger and pray with them if they consented And if they could not be prevailed with to repent we required them to meet before all the Ministers at the other monthly Meeting which was always the next Day after this parochial Meeting There we renewed our Admonitions and Exhortations and some Ministers of other Parishes laboured to set it home that the Offender might not think it was only the Opinion of the Pastor of the Place and that he did it out of ill Will or Partiality If he yielded penitently to confess his Sin and promise Amendment more or less publickly according to the Nature of the Scandal we then joined in Prayer for his true Repentance and Forgiveness and exhorted him farther to his Duty for the future But if he still continued obstinately impenitent by the Consent of all he was by the Pastor of the Place to be publickly admonished and prayed for by that Church usually three several days together and if still he remained Impenitent the Church was required to avoid him as a Person unfit for their Communion as is more fully opened in the Articles of our Agreement § 32. This monthly Meeting of the Ministers proved of exceeding great Benefit and comfort to us where when we had dined together we spent an Hour or two in Disputation on some Question which was chosen the Week before and when the Respondent and Opponent had done their Part they were pleased to make it my Work to determine And after that if we had any Church-business as aforesaid we consulted of it And many Ministers met with us that were not of our Association for the Benefit of these Disputations I must confess this was the comfortablest time of all my Life through the great delight I had in the Company of that Society of honest sincere laborious humble Ministers of Christ Every Week on the Lecture Day I had the pleasant Company of many of them at my House and every Month at our appointed Meeing I had the Company of more I so well knew their Self-denial Impartiality Peaceableness and exemplary Lives together with their Skill and faithful Diligence for the Good of Souls however almost all of them have been since silenced and cast out that its pleasant to me to remeber the Converse I had with them so aimable are sincere and upright Men whose singleness of Heart doth imitate the State of the primitive Believers when proud self-seeking reserved Hypocrites do turn their best Endowments into a Reproach § 33. When Dr. Warmestry and Dr. Good had subscribed as above a while after Dr. Warmestry consulted with his London Brethren and he received a Paper of Animadversions not against the Articles of our Agreement but against my Explication of them and my Passages which oppose those Episcopal Divines who deny the Ministry and Churches which have not Prelatical Ordination These Animadversions he sent to me with a Letter which signified his desire of Peace in general but that he must not strike a League with Faction c. There was no Name to this Paper but long time after I learnt that it was Mr. Peter Gunning's afterwards Bishop of Ely I presently wrote an Answer to it and offered the Doctor to send it him if he would tell me the Author Because it is too long to be inserted here I have put the Paper and Answer together in the End where you
Schism and Herefie come to be opened it will not be found to lye where you imagin nor so easily proved as rashly affirmed or intimated 2. Do not be too sensible of Persecution when Liberty of Conscience is so proclaimed though the Restriction be somewhat on your side O the difference of your Persecution and theirs that suffered by you 3. The only conscionable and safe way for the Church and your own Souls is to love long for pray and consult for Peace Close in the unanimous practice of so much as all are agreed in In amicable Meetings endeavour the healing of all breaches Disown the ungodly of all Parties Lay by the new violent Opinions inconsistant with Unity I expect not that this advice should please the prejudiced But that it 's the only safe and comfortable way is the Confident Opinion of Your Brother Richard Baxter All the Disturbance I had in my own Parish was by Sir Ralph Clare's refusing to Communicate with us unless I would give it him kneeling on a distinct Day and not with those that received it fitting To which Demand I gave him this following Answer SIR UPon Consultation with others and my own Conscience I return this Answer to your last motion beseeching you to believe that it had been more pleasing if it would have stood with the pleasing of God and any own Conscience 1. In general it is my resolution to be so far from being the Author of any Divisions in any part of the Church of Christ as that I shall do all that lawfully I can to avoid them 2. I am so far from the Judgment and Practices of the late Prelates of England in point of compelling all to obey or imitate them in gestures and other indifferent things on pain of being deprived of God's greatest Ordinances which are not indifferents beside the ruine of their Estates c. that I would become all things lawful to all Men for their good and as I know that the Kingdom of God standeth not in such things so neither would I shut any out of his visible Kingdom for such things as judging that our Office is to see God's Law obeyed as far as we can procure it and not to be Law-gives to the Church our selves and in Circumstantials to make no more Determinations than are necessary left they prove but Engines to ensnare Mens Consciences and to divide the Church And as I would impose no such things on other Churches if I had power so neither will I do it on this Church of which I have some oversight 3. More particularly I am certain that sitting in the receiving of the Lord's Supper is lawful or else Christ and his Apostles and all his Churches for many hundred years after him did sin which cannot be And I take it to be intolerable arrogancy and unmannerliness to speak easily to call that unreverence and sawciness as many do which Christ and the Apostles and all the Church so long used with one consent He better knew what pleaseth himself than we do The vain pretended difference between the Apostles Gesture and ours is nothing to the matter He that sitteth on the Ground sitteth as well as he that sitteth on a Stool And if any difference were it was their Gesture that seems the more homely and no such difference can be pretended in the Christian Churches many hundred years after And I think it is a naked pretence having no shew of reason to cover it of them that against all this will plead a necessity of kneeling because of our unworthiness For 1. The Churches of so long time were unworthy as well as we 2. We may kneel as low as the Dust and on our bare knees if we please immediately before in praying for a blessing and for the pardon of our sins and as soon as we have done 3. Man must not by his own Conceits make those things necessary to the Church which Christ and his Church for so long thought unnecessary 4. On this pretence we might refuse the Sacrament it self for they are more unworthy to eat the Flesh of Christ and to drink his blood than to sit at his Table 5. The Gospel is Glad Tidings the Effects of it are Faith and Peace and Joy the Benefits are to make us one with Christ and to be his Spouse and Members the work of it is the joyful Commemoration of these Benefits and living in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And the Sacramental Signs are such as suit the Benefits and Duties If therefore Christ have called us by his Example and the Example of all his Church to sit with him at his Table to represent Our Union Communion and joyful redeemed State and our everlasting sitting with him at his Table in his Kingdom it as little beseems us to reject this Mercy and Duty because of our Unworthiness as to be our own Lawgivers And on the like Reasons men might say I will not be united to thee nor be a Member of thy Body or married to thee nor sit with thee on thy Throne Rev. 3. 21. according to thy Promise because it would be too great sawciness in me Gospel Mercies and Gospel Duties and Signs must be all suited and so Christ hath done them and we may not undo them 4. I must profess that upon such Considerations I am not certain that sitting is not of commanded Necessity as I am sure it is lawful nor am I certain that kneeling in the Act of Receiving when done of choice is not a flat sin For I know it is not only against Scripture Example where though Circumstances apparently occasional bind not as an upper Room c. yet that 's nothing to others but also it is against the Canons of Councils yea a General Council at Trull in Constantinople and against so concurrent a Judgment and Practice of the Church for many hundred years that it seems to fight with Vincentius Lerinens Catholick Rule quod semper ubique ab omnibus receptum c. Let them therefore justifie kneeling as lawful that can for I cannot and therefore dare not do that which shall be an owning of it when we may freely do otherwise 5. Yet for all this I so much incline to Thoughts of Peace and Closure with others that I will not say that sitting is of necessity nor that kneeling is unlawful unless where other Circumstances make it so nor condemn any that differ from me herein Yea if I could not otherwise Communicate with the Church in the Sacrament I would take it kneeling myself as being certain that the Sacrament is a Duty and not certain that kneeling is a sin and in that Case I believe it is not 6. As for them that think kneeling a Duty because of the Canons of the late Bishops enjoyning it I have more to say against their Judgment than this Paper will contain Only in a word 1. If it be the Secular Powers establishing those Canons that binds
Servants that you would joyn with us at the Throne of Grace in prosecution of this Design and follow it bard with God and Men and let us be minded of you in those your Addresses to God not only as Christians as you do others but in special at Peace-makers that we may prosper in this Work and the Lord would call in the Spirit of Division and command down those Winds and Waves that have threatned the ruine of his distressed Church and we hope the Lord will help us to be mindful also of you Truly it is sweeter treating with God than with Men. Yet both must be done And as we desire to resist all Temptations to Despondency so we hope that the Lord will enable you to break over discouraging Oppositions with such fixed victorious Resolution as becomes Men that are engaged in so sweet a Work and honoured to be Leaders under so faithful omnipotent and victorious a General You love not the Work of Piety in general ever the worse for opposition now would you surcease as discouraged though you had me with more Let it be also in particular for Unity and Reformation We shall next give you our Answer to your three Questions 1. As we did purposely leave the first Question unresolved so we are loth to put the Question to any one Association much less to all lest we either agree not or agree in Points that may hinder the Work when we foresee the certain disagreement of others 2. To your second we say It s true that we take our Parishes for true Political Churches and we take it as probable and so to be judged by us and others that all those that constantly submit to the Ordinances and Ministerial Offices are true visible Members and take themselves for such except they do otherwise discover their dissent But because where Professions are but implicit or 〈◊〉 express we have but a probability and not a full certainty that all such Persons do take themselves indeed for Members and because when we call them to acquaint us expresly whether they take themselves for Members or not they deny it or refuse to profess it and so disclaim it we now first discern that they are no Members either not intending to be such all this while or voluntarily departing now We have more assurance of the Truth of our particular visible Churches than we have of each Man's membership particularly For some do plainly profess themselves Members and most others do that which amounts to a more obscure Profession and which makes them guilty of Hypocrisie if they intend not what they seem to profess But yet when they contradict the seeming darker Profession by an open disclaiming it then they undeceive us and cease that dissembling And Multitudes do openly profess in many places long ago that it is their liberty to hear all Men but they take us for no Churches or at least they take not themselves as Members Besides when they disclaim our Power over them they will not come near us to be questioned or give any account of their ways but tell us We have no more to do with them than others have whose Charge they are not under Moreover when they have cast out themselves they are not capable of the same Casting out by us as those that are in for it cannot be wholly ab eodem termino Yet we do not as you say resolve to exercise our Discipline on those only that testifie Consent but only agree on no more leaving the rest to be done as above and beyond this Agreement But that 's your third Question to which we say That we do not Prop. 18. limit our Publick Censures to those only that express Consent as excluding all others or resolving not to do it on any others but only resolving here to do it Indeed our Iudgment is that so far as a scandalous Christian bath Communion with us so far be may be cast out not breaking Natural and Civil Bonds If some have the Communion of particular Church-Members with us and others have but the Communion of Christians in Neighbourhood and ordinary Converse wherein we have occasion to manifest familiarity we may and ought to Cast the former on just cause out of Church-Communion and the later out of familiar Society or Communion in any Ordinance that intimates Familiarity but out of that Church we cannot cast him when he is not in it Yet for many Reasons we judged it â—â—meet to put this last into our Agreement 2. You do mistake our Reg. 10. of Prop. 19. in supposing that the Profession of Consent there mentioned doth carry in the front of it a plain refusal of our Discipline For if he profess Consent we must take him as a Member and use him accordingly and by that Profession be manifesteth Consent to our Guidance and Discipline in general and the thing that he refuseth is only Actual Obedience to a particular Act of Discipline and that after the discovery of Consent which any corrupt Member may do As for the two Points before mentioned by you wherein you went not so far as we this much we briefly say 1. Our 19th Prop. Reg. 9. speaks of no Ignorance but what was before expressed viz. of Fundamentals and that only where we have just ground of Suspicion of it 2. We dare not disswade your mutual Assistance in Pastoral Offices to particular Congregations where there is no offence taken at it But if the Congregational Brethren should take it as a making your many Churches to be but one particular Church or a giving the Paster of one Church a true Pastoral Power and consequently Charge and Duty over other Churches which you know Mr. Burroughs in his Iraenic makes their great Offence then for Unity and Peace sake we could wish you did forbear it Brethren Our hearty prayer is that the Lord would guide quicken encourage and succeed you in this blessed Work But the more excellent it is the more Opposition expect from Men and Devils and your own Corruption But the dearer it costeth you and the more unreservedly you devote your selves and resign all you have to God for the faithful performance of it the more Comfort may you expect from God and the sweeter will be your reviews of it at a dying hour Brethren imitate your Lord Do the Work of him that sent you while it is day for the night cometh when none can work Farewel Your Brethren and fellow Servants Rich. Baxter Iarvis Bryan in the Name and at the Appointment of the rest Kiderminster Octob. 1653. Brethren BEcause you Directed your Letter to me by Name I am bold to tell you my private Resolution of your first Question I will do by the Children of Refusers as by Strangers except I know that they refuse through meer licentiousness I dare not refuse to Baptize the Child of a Stranger as such but I will first speak with one of the Parents and be more fully satisfied of their Knowledge
Officers in the Court Freemen in Cities and Corporate Towns Masters and Fellows of Colledges in the Universities c. are required at their Admission into their several respective places to give Oaths for well and truly performing their several respective Duties their liableness to punishment in case of Non-performance accordingly notwithstanding Neither doth it seem reasonable that such Persons as have themselves with great severity prescribed and exacted antecedent Conditions of their Communion not warranted by Law should be exempted from the tye of such Oaths and Subscriptions as the Laws require § 17. 4. We agree that the Bishops and all Ecclesiastical Governours ought to exercise their Government not Arbitrarily but according to Law 5. And for Security against such Arbitrary Government and Innovations the Laws are and from time to time will be sufficient provision Concerning Liturgy § 18. A Liturgy or Form of Publick Worship being not only by them acknowledged lawful but by us also for the preservation of Unity and Uniformity deemed necessary we esteem the Liturgy of the Church of England contained in the Book of Common Prayer and by Law established to be such a one as is by them desired according to the Qualifications here mentioned 〈◊〉 1. For Matter agreeable to the Word of God which we 〈◊〉 all other lawful Ministers within the Church of England have or by the Laws ought to have attested by our Personal Subscription 2. Fitly suited to the Nature of the several Ordinances and the Necessities of the Church 3. Nor too tedious in the whole It 's well known that some Mens Prayers before and after Sermon have been usually not much shorter and sometimes much longer than the whole Church Service 4. Nor the Prayers too short The Wisdom of the Church both in ancient and latter times hath thought it a fitter means for relieving the Infirmities of the meaner sort of People which are the major part of most Congregations to contrive several Petitions into sundry shorter Collects or Prayers than to comprehend them altogether in a continued stile or without interruption 5. Nor the Repetitions unmeet There are Examples of the like Repetition frequent in the Psalms and other parts of Scripture Not to mention the unhandsome Tautologies that oftentimes happen and can scarce be avoided in the Extemporary and undigested Prayers that are made especially by Persons of meaner Gifts 6. Nor the Responsals Which if impartially considered are pious Ejaculations fit to stir up Devotion and good Symbols of Conformity betwixt the Minister and the People and have been of very ancient practise and continuance in the Church 7. Nor too dissonant from the Liturgies of other Reformed Churches The nearer both their Forms and ours come to the Liturgy of the Ancient Greek and Latin Churches the less are they liable to the Objections of the Common Enemy To which Liturgies if the Form used in our Church be more agreeable than those of other Reformed Churches and that it were at all needful to make a Change in either it seemeth to be much more reasonable that their Form should be endeavoured to be brought to a nearer Conformity with ours than ours with theirs Especially the Form of our Liturgy having been so signally approved by sundry of the most Learned Divines of the Reformed Churches abroad as by very many Testimonies in their Writings may appear And some of the Compilers thereof have Sealed the Protestant Religion with their Blood and have been by the most Eminent Persons of those Churches esteemed as Martyrs for the same § 19. As for that which followeth Neither can we think that too rigorously imposed which is imposed by Law and that with no more rigour than is necessary to make the Imposition effectual otherwise it could be of no use but to beget and nourish factions Nor are Ministers denied the use and exercise of their Gifts in praying before and after Sermon Although such praying be but the continuance of a Custom of no great Antiquity and grown into Common use by Sufferance only without any other Foundation in the Laws or Canons and ought therefore to be used by all sober and godly Men with the greatest inoffensiveness and moderation possible § 20. If any thing in the Established Liturgy shall be made appear to be justly offensive to sober Persons we are not at all unwilling that the same should be changed The discontinuance thereof we are sure was not our Fault But we find by experience that the use of it is very much desired where it is not and the People generally are very well satisfied with it where it is used which we believe to be a great Conservatory of the chief Heads of Christian Religion and of Piety Charity and Loyalty in the Hearts of the People We believe that the difuse thereof for sundry late years hath been one of the great Causes of the sad Divisions in the Church and that the restoring the same will be by by God's blessing a special means of making up the Breach There being as we have great cause to believe many Thousands more in the Nation that desire it than dislike it Nevertheless we are not against revising of the Liturgy by such discreet Persons as his Majesty shall think fit to imploy therein Of Ceremonies § 21. We conceived there needs no more to be said for justifying the Imposition of the Ceremonies by Law established then what is contained in the beginning of this Section which giveth a full and satisfactory Answer to all that is alledged or objected in the following Discourse which is for the most part rather Rhetorical than Argumentative Inasmuch as lawful Authority hath already determined the Ceremonies in question to be decent and orderly and to serve to Edification and consequently to be agreeable to the General Rules of the Word We acknowledge the Worship of God to be in it self perfect in regard of Essentials which hindereth not but that it may be capable of being improved to us by addition of Circumstantials in order to Decency and Edification As the Lord hath declared himself Jealous in Matters concerning the Substance of his Worship so hath he left the Church at liberty for Circumstantials to determine concerning Particulars according to Prudence as occasion shall require so as the foresaid General Rules be still observed And therefore the imposing and using indifferent Ceremonies is not varying from the Will of God nor is there made thereby any addition to or detraction from the holy Duties of God's Worship Nor doth the same any way hinder the Communication of God's Grace or Comfort in the performance of such Duties § 22. The Ceremonies were never esteemed Sacraments or imposed as such nor was ever any Moral efficacy ascribed to them nor doth the significancy without which they could not serve to Edification import or infer any such thing § 23. Ceremonies have been retained by most of the Protestant Churches abroad which have rejected Popery and have been approved by the
of Homilies as we do And the Contradictions to their own Confessions which too many are guilty of we thought not just to charge upon the Party because it is but Personal guilt As to the differences which in Charity and for Peace we had rather extenuate than aggravate it is of Objective Conceptions that we speak there being a difference in the things as well as in our apprehensions And we conceive that The Ancient Form of Church-Government and the Soundness of the Liturgy and freedom from corrupting unlawful Ceremonies are Matters that are worthy a conscionable regard and no such little inconsiderable things as to be received without sufficient trial or used against the Disswasions of our Consciences No Sin should seem so small as to be wilfully committed especially to Divines He that will sin for little or nothing is not to be trusted when he hath great Temptations Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 5. 19. And whether the Imposor or the Forbearers do hazard and disturb the Church the nature of the thing declareth To you it is indifferent before your Imposition and therefore you may without any regret of your own Consciences forbear the Imposition or perswade the Law-makers to forbear it But to many of those that dissent from you they are sinful and therefore cannot be yielded to by them without the wilful violation of their Duty to the absolute Soveraign of the World If in the Church of Rome the Conscience of a Subject forbid the use of Crucifixes and Images and Chrism and Holy Water c. is it therefore they or is it the Pastors that needlesly impose these Things that are the Disturbers of the Church The Princes might have forborn to make a Law restraining Daniel three days from Prayer but Daniel could not forbear praying three days though the Law commanded it And which of them then was the Disturbers of the Peace If you say that we are wilful and our Consciences are peevish and misinformed Charity and Modesty requireth you not to overvalue your own or groundlesly vilifie the Judgments and Consciences of your Brethren We study as hard as you and are ready to joyn with you in the solemnest Protestations as before the Lord that we are earnestly desirous to know the Truth and we suppose we stand on the calmer side the Hedge in point of Temptation for if we err it is to our cost and loss and have little but Reproach and Suffering to entice us willingly to mistake And we are always ready to try by Argument which Side it is that is mistaken § 2. May not we crave that necessary things may be secured to us without being interpreted to seem to insinuate Accusations against you As it is not the Authors of this Answer personally considered that we could be imagined to accuse because we knew them not so there are others besides the party with whom we are seeking a Reconciliation that may be averse to the practice of those things about which Divines are doctrinally agreed in especially that part of the Vulgar who are practically of no Religion And it is very displeasing to us to be called out to an Accusation of others as being a Course that will tend more to exasperate than reconcile Fain we would have had leave to Petition for our Liberty and for the security of Religion without accusing any of being injurious to it But it is the unhappy Advantage of those that are uppermost that they can cut out at pleasure such work for those that they would use as Adversaries that shall either make them seem their Adversaries or appear to be really the Adversaries or Betrayers of the Truth and cast them upon Inconveniences and Odium which way soever they go But to be plain with you if you would but agree with us in the practising and promoting the Practice of those things about which you profess to be agreed in Principles our Differences in all other things would quickly be at an End The great Controversies between the Hypocrite and the true Christian whether we should be serious in the Practice of the Religion which we commonly profess hath troubled England more than any other None being more hated and derided as Puritans than those that will make Religion their Business and make it predominant in their Hearts and Lives while others that hate them take it up in custom for Fashion or in jest and use it only in Subserviency to the Will of Man and their Worldly Ends and honour it with Complements and paint the Skin while they stab the Heart Reconcile this Difference and most others will be reconciled § 3. Whether this signifie any Repentance for the voluminous Reproaches which many of you have written against those you call Puritans your Amendment will interpret That you will give us Liberty in our Family-Duties alone is a Courtesy that you cannot well deny a Papist or a Mahometan because you have there no Witnesses of what they do and yet we shall take our selves beholden for it so low are our Expectations But is there no Duty that private Christians owe to one another for the furthering their Salvation but only for their several Families why may not those that on the Lord's Day repeat a Sermon in their Families admit a Neighbour-Family to be present which is not able so to help themselves A great part of the Families among the Poor are composed of such as can neither write nor read and therefore know not how to spend the Lord's Day when they are out of the Congregation And a Sermon forgotten will hardly be so well practised as if it were remembred and the Ignorant will hardly remember it if they never hear it but once At least methinks it should be an Encouragement to you when you have studied what to say to the People rather than matter of Offence to see them so far value it as to desire to fasten it in their Memories And if several Families join also in the singing of Psalms of Praise to God and calling on him for a Blessing on the Minister and themselves is this a Crime when perhaps most of those Families either cannot pray at all or not with such cheerful Advantage by themselves If you are against such mutual Helps as these you are against the Benefit of the Peoples Souls The Lord pity the Flocks that have such Pastors If you are not against them why are you against our Desires of encouragement in them Have the Laws of the Land secured any of these to us against your Canons If they have why have so many Families formerly been undone for such Exercises as these and for fasting and praying together for the Pardon of their Sins To deal freely with you we are constrained so well to know with
the King and Land And he told me That Beddingfield could have no right to that which he had sold and that the right was in the King who would readily grant it to the good use intended and that we should have his best assistance to recover it And indeed I found him real to us in this Business from first to last yet did Beddingfield by the friendship of the Attorney General and some others so delay the Business as bringing it to a Suit in Chancery he kept Mr. Ashurst in a Twelve-months trouble before he could recover the Land but when it came to Judgment the Lord Chancellour spake very much against him and granted a Decree for the New Corporation For I had procured of him before the King 's Grant of a New Corporation and Mr. Ashurst and my self had the naming of the Members And we desired Mr. Robert Boyle a worthy Person of Learning and a Publick Spirit and Brother to the Earl of Cork to be President now called Governour and I got Mr. Ashurst to be Treasurer again and some of the old Members and many other godly able Citizens made up the rest Only we left the Nomination of some Lords to his Majesty as not presuming to nominate such And the Lord Chancellour Lord Chamberlain and six or seven more were added But it was Mr. Boyle and Mr. Ashurst with the Citizens that did the Work But especially the care and trouble of all was on Mr. Ashurst And thus that Business was happily restored § 149. And as a fruit of this his Majesty's Favour Mr. Elliot sent the King first the New Testament and then the whole Bible translated and printed in the Indian's Language Such a Work and Fruit of a Plantation as was never before presented to a King And he sent word that next he would print my Call to the Unconveried and then The Practice of Piety But Mr. Boyle sent him word it would be better taken here if the Practic of Piety were printed before any thing of mine At the present the Revenues of the Land goeth most to the maintaining of the Press Upon the occasion of this Work I had these Letters of Thanks from the Court and Governour in New-England and from Mr. Norton and Mr. Elliot Reverend and much honoured Sir THat we who are personally unknown to you do in this manner apply our selves is rendred not only excusable but unless we will be ingrateful necessary by Obligations from your self with whom the interest of poor Strangers in a remote Wilderness hath been so regarded as to shew them kindness and that we believe upon the best account i.e. for the Lord's sake We have understood from those that were employed by us with what loving and cordial readiness you did upon request put forth your self to further our Concernments in our late Applications to his Majesty for which act of favour and love we cannot but return our unfeigned thankful Acknowledgments and the rather because we know no Argument that could move your Thoughts in it but that of the poor Prophets Widow viz. That your Charity did look upon your Servants as Fearers of the Lord Love unto whom we perswade our selves was the Root that bare this Fruit of Love and Kindness to us and that at such a time as this We trust the faithful God will not forget your Work and Labour of Love which you have shewed towards his Name in ministring to the help of some part of his unworthy People who are Exiles in this Wilderness we hope for his Names sake Sir You shall further oblige this poor People and do that will not be unpleasing to him who is our Lord and yours by the continuance of your Love and Improvement of your Interests and Opportunities in our behalf What advantage God hath put into your hands and reserved your weak Body unto by access unto Persons of Honour and Trust or otherways we hope it will be no grief of heart unto you another day if you shall improve part thereof this way â— All that we desire is Liberty to serve God according to the Scriptures Liberty unto Errour and Sin or to set up another Rule besides the Scriptures we neither wish to be allowed to our selves nor would we willingly allow it unto others If in any thing we should mistake the meaning of the Scriptures as we hope it is not in any Fundamental Matter that we do so having therein the Concurrence of all the godly Orthodox of the Reformed Protestant Religion so on the other hand in Matters of an inferiour and more difficult Nature wherein godly Christians may differ and should bear difference without disturbance we are willing and desirous to live and learn by any orderly means that God hath appointed for our Learning and Instruction and glad shall we be of the opportunity to learn in peace The Liberty aforesaid we have by the favour of God now for many years enjoyed and the same advantaged and encouraged by the Constitution of our Civil Government according to Concessions and Priviledges granted and established to us by the gracious Letters Patents of King Charles the First the continuance of which Priviledges concerning which his Majesty's late gracious Letter to us hath given us very great encouragement is our earnest and just desire for nothing that is unjust or not honest both in the sight of the Lord and also of Men do we seek or would allow our selves in We hope we shall continue as faithful Subjects to his Majesty according to our Duty and be every way as beneficial to the Interest of our Nation under an Elective Government as under an Imposed But sundry particular Persons for private respects are as we hear earnestly soliciting to bring Changes upon us and do put in many high Complaints against us in special that the Generation of the Quakers are our bitter and restless Enemies complaining of Persecution but are themselves most troublesome and implacable Per secâ—â—â—â—â— of us who desire but to keep our own Vineyard in peace Our hope is in God who hath hitherto helped us and who is able to keep open for us a great and effectual Door of Liberty to serve him and opportunity to advance his Name in this Wilderness although there be many Adversaries among which he can raise up for us some Friends as he hath done your self And as a Friend loveth at all times and a Brother is born for Adversity so may you in this time of our threatned Adversity still perform the part of a Friend as opportunity serves we shall be further much ingaged to ThanKfulness unto God and you who are SIR Your Friends and Brethren in the Faith of Christ Jo. Endecott Governour With the Consent and by Order of the General Court Boston in New-England this 7th of August 1661. To the Reverend and much Honoured Mr. Richard Baxter one of his Majesty's Chaplains in Ordinary Reverend and dear Sir THough you are unknown to me by Face yet not
only your Labours but also your special Assistance in a time of need unto the promoting the welfare of this poor Country certified unto us by Captain Leveret upon which account our General Court thought good to return unto you their Thanks in a Letter which I hope before this is received have made your Name both known and precious to us in these Parts The Occasion of these is in the behalf of one Mr. William Leet Governour of New Heven Jurisdiction whose Case is this He being conscious of indiscretion and some neglect not to say how it came about in relation to the expediting the Execution of the Warrant according to his Duty sent from his Majesty for the apprehending of the two Colonels is not without fear of some displeasure that may follow thereupon and indeed hath almost ever since been a Man depressed in his Spirit for the neglect wherewith he chargeth himself therein His endeavours also since have been accordingly and that in full degree as besides his own Testimony his Neighbours attest they see not what he could have done more Sir If any report prejudicial to this Gentleman in this respect come unto your Ear by your prudent Enquiry upon this Intimation or otherwise so far as the signification of the Premises unto his Majesty or other eminent Person may plead for him or avert trouble towards him I assure my self you may report it as a real Truth and that according to your Wisdom you would be helpful to him so far therein is both his and my desire The Gentleman hath pursued both others and my self with Letters to this effect and yet not satisfied therewith came to Boston to disburden his heart to me formerly unacquainted with him only some few times in Company where he was upon issue of which Conference no better Expedient under God presented it self to us than this So far as you shall see cause as the matter requireth to let the Premises be understood is finally left with your self under God Sir The Author of these Lines it shall be your favour and a pledge of Love undeserved to conceal farther than the necessity of the End desired shall call for And if hereby you shall take occasion being in place of discovery to intelligence the Writer touching your observances with relation to the concernments of this People your Advertisements may not only be of much use unto this whole Country but further your account and minister unto many much cause of Thansgiving on your behalf And I shall be bold upon such encouragement if God permits to give you a more distinct account how it fareth with us I mean of the steps of Divine Providence as to the Publick both in our Civils and Ecclesiasticks which at some spare time may hapâ—y be looked at as a matter of contentful Meditation to your self I crave now pardon for being thus bold with you and will not presume any further to detain you The Lord Jesus be with your Spirit and let him also be remembred by you in your Prayers who is in chief SIR Yours in any Service of the Gospel John Norton Boston Sept. 23. 1661. For the Reverend and his much Honoured Friend Mr. Baxter Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty Reverend and much esteemed in the Lord HOwever black the Cloud is and big the Storm yet by all this the Work and Design of Jesus Christ goeth on and prospereth and in these Clouds Christ is coming to set up his Kingdom Yea is he not come in Power and great Glory When had the Truth a greater or so great and glorious a Cloud of Witnesses Is not this Christ in Power and great Glory and if Christ hath so much Glory in the slaughter of his Witnesses what will his Glory be in their Resurrection Your Constancy who are in the heat of the Storm and Numbers ministers matter of humbling and quickning to us who are at a distance and ready to totter and comply at the noise of a probable approach of our Temptation We are not without our Snares but hitherunto the Lords own Arm hath brought Salvation Our Tents are at Ebenezer However the trials and troubles be we must take care of the present Work and not cease and tarry for a calm time to work in And this Principle doth give me occasion to take the boldness to trouble you with these Lines at present My Work about the Indian Bible being by the good hand of the Lord though not without difficulties finished I am meditating what to do next for these Sons of this our Morning they having no Books for their private use of ministerial composing For their help though the Word of God be the best of Books yet Humane Infirmity is you know not a little helped by reading the holy Labours of the Ministers of Jesus Christ. I have therefore purposed in my heart seeing the Lord is yet pleased to prolong my life to translate for them a little Book of yours intituled A Call to the Unconverted The keenness of the Edge and liveliness of the Spirit of that Book through the blessing of God may be of great use unto them But seeing you are yet in the Land of the Living and the good Lord prolong your days I would not presume to do such a thing without making mention thereof unto your self that so I might have the help and blessing of your Counsel and Prayers I believe it will not be unacceptable to you that the Call of Christ by your holy Labours shall be made to speak in their Ears in their own Language that you may preach unto our poor Indians I have begun the Work already and find a great difference in the Work from my former Translations I am forced sometime to alter the Phrase for the facilitating and fitting it to our Language in which I am not so strict as I was in the Scripture Some things which are fitted for English People are not fit for them and in such cases I make bold to fit it for them But I do little that way knowing how much beneath Wisdom it is to shew a Man's self witty in mending another Man's Work When this Work is done if the Lord shall please to prolong my Life I am meditating of Translating some other Book which may prescribe to them the way and manner of a Christian Life and Conversation in their daily Course and how to worship God on the Sabbath fasting feasting Days and in all Acts of Worship publick private and secret and for this purpose I have Thoughts of translating for them the Practice of Piety or some other such Book In which Case I request your Advice to me for if the Lord give opportunity I may hear from you if you see cause so far to take Notice hereof before I shall be ready to begin a new work especially because the Psalms of David in Metre in their Language are going now to the Press which will be some Diversion of me from a present
baptised without the transient Image of the Cross which hath at least the Semblance of a Sacrament of human Institution being used as an ingaging Sign in our first and solemn Covenanting with Christ and the Duties whereunto we are really obliged by Baptism being more expresly fixed to that airy Sign than to this holy Sacrament 3. That none may receive the Lord's Supper that dare not kneel in the act of receiving but the Minister must exclude all such from the Communion although such kneeling not only differs from the practice of Christ and of his Apostles but at least on the Lord's Day is contrary to the practice of the Catholick Church for many hundred Years after and forbidden by the most venerable Councils that ever were in the Christian World All which Impositions are made yet more grievous by that Subscription to their Lawfulness which the Canon exacts and by the heavy Punishment upon the Non-observance of them which the Act of Uniformity inflicts And it being doubtful whether God hath given power unto Men to institute in his Worship such Mystical Teaching Signs which not being necessary in genere fall not under the Rule of doing all things decently orderly and to edification and which once granted will upon the same reason open a door to the Arbitrary Imposition of numerous Ceremonies of which St. Augustine complained in his days and the things in Controversie being in the Judgment of the Imposers confessedly indifferent who do not so much as pretend any real Goodness in them of themselves otherwise than what is derived from their being imposed and consequently the Imposition ceasing that will cease also and the Worship of God not become indecent without them Whereas in the other hand on the Judgment of the Opposers they are by some held sinful and unlawful in themselves by others very inconvenient and unsuitable to the Simplicity of Gospel Worship and by all of them very grievous and burthensome and therefore not at all fit to be put in ballance with the Peace of the Church which is more likely to be promoted by their removal than continuance Considering also how tender our Lord and Saviour himself is of weak Brethren declaring it much better for a Man to have Milstone hang'd about his neck and be cast into the depth of the Sea than to offend one of his little Ones And how the Apostle Paul who had as great a Legislative Power in the Church as any under Christ held himself obliged by that Common Rule of Charity not to lay a stumbling block or an occasion of offence before a weak Brother chusing rather not to eat flesh whiles the world stands though in it self a thing lawful than offend his Brother for whom Christ died We cannot but desire that these Ceremonies may not be imposed on them who judge such Impositions a Violation of the Royalty of Christ and an Impeachment of his Laws as insufficient and are under the holy awe of that which is written Deut. 12. 32. what thing soever I command you observe to do it Thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it but that there may be either a total Abolition of them or at least such a liberty that those who are unsatisfied concerning their lawfulness or expediency may not be compelled to the Practice of them or Subscription to them But may be permitted to enjoy their Ministerial Function and Communion with the Church without them The rather because these Ceremonies have for above an hundred years been the Fountain of manifold Evils in this Church and Nation occasioning sad Divisions between Ministers and Ministers as also between Ministers and People exposing many Orthodox Pious and Peaceable Ministers to the displeasure of their Rulers casting them on the edge of the Penal Statutes to the loss not only of their Livings and Liberties but also of their Opportunities for the Service of Christ and his Church and forcing People either to Worship God in such a manner as their own Consciences condemn or doubt of or else to forsake our Assemblies as thousands haâ—e done And no better Fruits than these can be looked for from the retaining and imposing of these Ceremonies unless we could presume that all his Majesty's Subjects should have the same Subtilty of Judgment to discern even to a Ceremony how far the Power of Man extends in the Things of God which is not to be expected or should yield Obedience to all the Impositions of Men concerning them without inquiring into the Will of God which is not to be desired We do therefore most earnestlyâ— entreat the Right Reverend Fathers and Brethren to whom these Papers are delivered as they tender the Glory of God the Honour of Religion the Peace of the Church the Service of his Majesty in the Accomplishment of that happy Union which his Majesty hath so abundantly 〈◊〉 his Desires of to joyn with us in importuning his most Excellent Majesty that his most gracious Indulgence as to these Ceremonies granted in his Royal Declaration may be confirmed and continued to us and our Posterities and extended to such as do not yet enjoy the Benefit thereof 19. As to that Passage in his Majesty's Commission where we are authorized and required to compare the present Liturgy with the most ancient Liturgies which have been used in the Church in the most purest and primitiveâ— Timesâ— We have in Obedience to his Majesty's Commission made Enquiry but cannot find any Records of known Credit concerning any entire Forms of Liturgy within the first Three hundred years which are confessed to be as the most primitive so the purest Ages of the Church Nor any Impositions of Liturgies upon any National Church for some hundreds of years after We find indeed some Liturgical Forms fathered upon St. Basil St. Chrysostome and St. Ambrose but we have not seen any Copies of them but such as give us sufficient Evidence to conclude them either wholly spurious or so interpolated that we cannot make a judgment which in them hath any primitive Authority Having thus in general expressed our Desires we come now to particulars which we find numerous and of a various nature some we grant are of inferiour Consideration verbal rather than material which were they not in the Publick Liturgy of so famous a Church we should not have mentioned others dubious and disputable as not having a clear Foundation in Scripture for their warrant but some there be that seem to be corrupt and to carry in them a repugnancy to the Rule of the Gospel and therefore have administred just Matter of Exception and Offence to many truly religious and peaceable not of a private station only but learned and judicious Divines as well of other Reformed Churches as of the Church of England ever since the Reformation We know much hath been spoken and written by way of Apology in Answer to many things that have been objected but yet the Doubts and Scruples of Tender Consciences still continue or rather
interpreted in a wrong part and yet because brotherly Charity willeth that so much as conveniently may be Offences should be taken away therefore are we willing to do the same Whereas it is ordained in the Book of Commonâ—Prayer in the Administration of the Lord's Supper that the Communicant kneeling should receive the holy Communion which thing being well meant for a signification of the humble and grateful Acknowledging of the Benefits of Christ given unto the worthy Receivers and to avoid the prophanation and disorder which about the holy Communion might else ensue lest yet the same Kneeling might be thought or taken otherwise We do declare that it is not meant thereby that any Adoration is done or ought to be done either unto the Sacramental Bread or Wine there bodily received or unto any real or essential Presence there being of Christ's natural Flesh and Blood For as concerning the Sacramental Bread and Wine they remain still in their very natural Substances and therefore may not be adored for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians and as concerning the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ they are in Heaven and not here for it is against the Truth of Christ's natural Body to be in more places than in one at one time Of Publick Baptism THERE being divers Learned Pious and Peaceable Ministers who not only judge it unlawful to Baptize Children whose Parents both of them are Atheists Infidels Hereticks or Unbaptised but also such whose Parents are Excommunicate Persons Fornicators or otherwise notorious and scandalous Sinners We desire they may not be enforced to Baptize the Children of such until they have made due Profession of their Repentance Before Baptism Rubrick Exception Parents shall give notice over night or in the morning We desire that more timely notice may be given Rubrick Exception And the Godfathers and the Godmothers and the people with the Children c. Here is no mention of the Parents in whose right the Child is baptised and who are fittest both to dedicate it unto God and to covenant for it We do not know that any Persons except the Parents or some others appointed by them have any Power to consent for the Children or to enter them into Covenant We desire it may be left free to Parents whether they will have Sureties to undertake for their Children in Baptism or no. Rubrick Exception Ready at the Font. We desire it may be so placed as all the Congregation may best see and hear the whole Administration In the first Prayer  By the Baptism of thy Welbeloved Son c. didst sanctifie the Flood Jordan and all other waters to the Mystical washing away of Sin c. It being doubtful whether either the Flood Iordan or any other Waters were sanctified to a Sacamental Use by Christ's being baptized and not necessary to be asserted we desire this may be otherwise expressed The third Exhortation  Do promise by you that be their Sureties We know not by what right the Sureties do promise and answer in the Name of the Infant it seemeth to us also to countenance the Anabaptistical Opinion of the necessity of an actual Profession of Faith and Repentance in Order to Baptism That such a Profession may be required of Parents in their own Name and now solemnly renewed when they present their Children to Baptism we willingly grant but the asking of one for another is a Practice whose warrant we doubt of and therefore we desire that the two first Interrogatories may be put to the Parents to be answered in their own Names and the last propounded to the Parents or Pro-parents thus Will you have this Child Baptized into this Faith The Questions  Doest thou forsake c.  Doest thou believe c.  Wilt thou be Baptized c.  The second Prayer before Baptism  May receive remission of Sins by spiritual Regeneration This expression seeming inconvenient We desire it may be changed into this May be regenerated and receive the Remission of Sins In the Prayer after Baptism  That it hath pleased thee to regenerate this Infant by thy holy Spirit We cannot in Faith say that every Child that is baptized is regenerated by God's Holy Spirit at least it is a disputable point and therefore we desire it may be otherwise expressed After Baptism  Then shall the Priest make a Cross c. Concerning the Cross in Baptism we refer to our 18th General Of Private Baptism WE desire that Baptism may not be administred in a private place at any time unless by a lawful Minister and in the presence of a competent Number That where it is evident that any Child hath been so baptised no part of the Administration may be reiterated in publick under any Limitations And therefore we see no need of any Liturgy in that Case Of the Catechism Catechism Exception 1 Quest. WHat is your Name c. 2 Quest. Who gave you that Name WE desire these three first Questions may be altered considering that the far greater number of Persons Baptized within these Twenty years last past had no Godfathers or Godmothers at their Baptism The like to be done in the seventh Question Ans. My Godfathers and my Godmothers in my Baptism  3 Quest. What did your Godfathers and Godmothers do for you in Baptism  2 Ans. In my Baptism wherein I was made a Child of God a Member of Christ and an Inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven We conceivâ— it might be more safely expressed thus Wherein I was visibly admitted into the number of the Members of Christ the Children of God and the Heirs rather than Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven Of the Rehearsal of the Ten Commandments We desire that the Commandments be inserted according to the New Translation of the Bible 10 Ans. My Duty towards God is to believe in him c. In this Answer there seems to be particular respect to the several Commandments of the first-Table as in the following Answer to those of the second And therefore we desire it may be advised upon whether to the last word of this Answer may not be added particularly on the Lord's day otherwise there being nothing in all this Answer that refers to the fourth Commandment 14 Quest. How many Sacraments hath Christ ordained c That these words may be omitted and Answer thus given Two only Baptism and the Lord's Supper Ans. Two only as generally necessary to Salvation  19 Quest. What is required of Persons to be Baptized We desire that the entring Infants into God's Covenant may be more warily expressed and that the words may not seem to found their Baptism upon a really actual Faith and Repentance of their own and we desire that a promise may not be taken for a performance of such Faith and Repentance and especially that it be not asserted that they perform these by the promise of their Sureties it being to the Seed of
Lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all Opposition and promote the same according to our power against all Lets and Impediments whatsoever And that we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall do as in the sight of God And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many Sins and Provocations against God and his Son Iesus Christ as is too manifest by our present Distresses and Dangers the Fruits thereof We profess and declare before God and the World our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own Sins and for the Sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts nor to walk worthy of him in our lives which are the Causes of other Sins and Transgressions so much abounding amongst us And our true and unfeigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all Duties we owe to God and Man to amend our Lives and each one to go before another in the Example of a real Reformation That the Lord may turn away his Wrath and heavy Indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in Truth and Peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God the Searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at that great Day when the Secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed Most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his Holy Spirit for this end and to bless our Desires and Proceedings with such Success as may be Deliverance and Safety to his People and encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of the Yoke of Antichristian Tyranny to ioyn in the same or like Association and Covenant to the Glory of God the Inlargement of the Kingdom of Iesus Christ and the Peace and Tranquility of Christian Kingdoms and Common-wealths The Oath and Declaration imposed upon the Lay-Conformists in the Corporation Act the Vestry Act c. are as followeth The Oath to be taken I. A. B. do declare and believe That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King and that I do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissioned by him So help me God The Declaration to be Subscribed I. A. B. do declare That I hold there lyes no Obligation upon me or any ot her Person from the Oath commonly called The Solemn League and Covenant and that the same was in it self an unlawful Oath and imposed upon the Subjects of this Realm against the known Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom All Vestry Men to make and Subscribe the Declaration following I. A. B. do declare That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King and that I do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissioned by him And that I will Conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England as it is now by Law established And I do declare That I do hold there lyes no Obligation upon me or any other Person from the Oath commonly called The Solemn League and Covenant to indeavour any Change or Alteration of Government either in Church or State and that the same was in it self an unlawful Oath and imposed upon the Subjects of this Realm against the known Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom The Declaration thus Prefaced in the Act of Uniformity Every Minister after such reading thereof shall openly and publickly before the Congregation there assembled declare his unfeigned Assent and Consent to the use of all things in the said Book contained and prescribed in these words and no other I. A. B. do here declare my unfeigned Assent and Consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book Instituted The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church according to the use of the Church of England together with the Psalter or Psalms of David pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches and the Forms or Manner of Making Ordaining and Consecrating of Bishops Priests and Deacons The Declaration to be Subscribed I. A. B. d◠declare That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King and that I abhor that Trayterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissionated by him and that I will Conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England as it is now by Law established And I do declare that I do hold there lyes no Obligation upon me or any other Person from the Oath commonly called The Solemn League and Covenant to endeavour any Change or Alteration of Government either in Church or State and that the same was in it self a◠unlawful Oath and imposed upon the Subjects of this Realm against the known Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom The Oath of Canonical Obedience EGo A. B. Iuro quod praestabo Veram Canonicam Obedientiam Episcopo Londinens◠ejusque Successoribus in omnibus licitis honestis § 302. II. The Nonconformists who take not this Declaration Oath Subscription c. are of divers sorts some being further distant from Conformity than others some thinking that some of the forementioned things are lawful and some that none of them are lawful and all have not the same Reasons for their dissent But all are agreed that it is not lawful to do all that is required and therefore they are all cast out of the Exercise of the Sacred Ministry and forbidden to preach the Word of God § 303. The Reasons commonly given by them are either 1. Against the Imposing of the things forementioned or 2. Against the Using of them being imposed Those of the former sort were given into the King and Bishops before the Passing of the Act of Uniformity and are laid down in the beginning of this Book and the Opportunity being now past the Nonconformists now meddle not with that part of the Cause it having seemed good to their Superiours to go against their Reasons But this is worthy the noting by the way that all that I can speak with of the Conforming Party do now justifie only the Using and Obeying and not the Imposing of these things with the Penalty by which they are Imposed From whence it is evident that most of their own Party do now justifie our Cause which we maintained at the Savoy which was against this Imposition whilst it might have been prevented and for which such an intemperate Fury hath
Prelatical Dignity is not some way retrenched and whether they bear still that irreconcileable hatred against good and godly Presbyterians that they may not be suffered to exercise their Charge and Duty Or if they are wholly deprived of the power and authority to serve their Parishes as to our great Scandal we are informed I had many things more to write to you but dare not trouble you most worthy Sir any further fearing to keep you from your weighty Business Only I crave very humbly your Answer and as much Information of the true present Estate as opportunity will give you leave Whether we have so much cause to fear the Introduction of Popery in England as some by the News amongst us are wholly perswaded In the mean while we will continue to pray the Lord our God and most merciful Father with all our Hearts and Souls to preserve your Person for the General Good and Edification of his whole Catholick Church that your great Light may shine more and more and so I remain Reverend and most worthy Sir Your humble and most Affectionate Servant Iohn Sollicâ—ffer unworthy Servant of Christ. Saingall in Helvetia Reformatâ 16 April 1663. The vigilant Eye of Malice that some had upon me made me understand that though no Law of the Land is against Literate Persons Correspondencies beyond Seas nor have any Divines been hindered from it yet it was like to have proved my ruine if I had but been known to answer one of these Letters though the Matter had been never so much beyond Exceptions So that I neither answered this nor any other save only by word of mouth to the Messenger and that but in small part for much of this in the latter part was Matter not to be touched Our Silencing and Ejection he would quickly know by other means and how much the Judgments of the English Bishops did differ from theirs about the Labours and Persons of such as we § 443. About this time I thought meet to debate the Case with some Learned and Moderate Ejected Ministers of London about Communicating sometimes in the Parish Churches in the Sacraments For they that came to Common Prayer and Sermon came not yet to Sacraments They desired me to bring in my Judgment and Reasons in writing which being debated they were all of my mind in the main That it is lawful and a duty where greater Accidents preponderate not But they all concurred unanimously in this That if we did Communicate at all in the Parish Churches the Sufferings of the Independents and those Presbyterians that could not Communicate there would certainly be very much increased which now were somewhat moderated by concurrence with them I thought the Case very hard on both sides That we that were so much censured by them for going somewhat further than they must yet omit that which else must be our Duty meerly to abate their Sufferings that censure us But I resolved with them to forbear a while rather than any Christian should suffer by occasion of an action of mine seeing God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice and no Duty is a Duty at all times § 444. In Iuly 1665. the Lord Ashley sent a Letter to Sir Iohn Trevor That a worthy Friend of his in whose Case the King did greatly concern himself had all his Fortunes cast upon my Resolution of the enclosed Case which was Whether a Protestant Lady of strict Education might marry a Papist in hope of his Conversion he promising not to disturb her in her Religion It came at Six a Clock Afternoon and knowing it was a Case that must be cautelously resolved at the Court I took time till the next Morning that I might give my Answer in Writing The next day the Lord Ashley wrote again with many words to incline me to the Affirmative for the Lady told them she would not consent unless I satisfied her that it was lawful Who the Lord and Lady were I know not at all but have an uncertain Conjecture So I sent the following Resolution The Case was thus expressed Whether one that was bred a strict Protestant and in the most severe ways of that Profession lived many years without giving offence to any well known in her own Country to be such may without offence to God or Man marry a profest Roman Catholick in hopes of taking him off the Errour of his ways he engaging never to disturb her My Lord's Letter was as follows SIR THere is a very good Friend of mine and one his Majesty is very much concerned for that this enclosed Case has the power of his Fortunes None but that worthy Divine Mr. Baxter can satisfie the Lady this has been the way by which the Romanists have gained very much upon us they are more powerful in perswasion than our Sex besides the putting this Case shews some inclination to the Person though not to the Religion Sir If Mr. Baxter be with you pray let me have his Opinion to this Case in writing under it Wherein you may oblige more than you think for Your very affectionate Friend to serve you ASHLEY For his much honoured Friend Sir Iohn Trevor at Acton To this Case I drew up the following Answer and sent it to Sir John Trevor to be by him conveyed to my Lord Ashley SIR THough I cannot be insensible how inconvenient to my self the Answer of this Case may possibly prove by displeasing those who are concerned in it and medling about a Case of Persons utterly unknown to me yet because I take it to be a thing which Fidelity to the Truth and Charity to a Christian Soul requireth I shall speak my Judgment whatever be the Consequents But I must crave the pardon of that Noble Lord who desired my Answer might be Subscribed to the Case because Necessity requireth more words than that Paper will well contain The Question about the Marriage is not An factum valeat but An fieri debeat There is no affirming or denying without these necessary Distinctions 1. Between a Case of Necessity and of no Necessity 2. Between a Case where the Motives are from the Publick Commodity of Church or State and where they are only Personal or Private 3. Between one who is otherwise sober ingenuous and pious and a faithful Lover of the Lady and one that either besides his Opinion is of an ungodly Life or seeketh her only to serve himself upon her Estate 4. Between a Lady well grounded and fixed in Truth and Godliness and one that is weak and but of ordinary setledness Hereupon I answer Prop. 1. In general It cannot be said to be simply and in all Cases unlawful to marry an Infidel or Heathen much less a Papist 2. In particular It is lawful in these following Cases 1. In Case of true Necessity when all just means have been used and yet the Party hath a necessity of Marriage and can have no better If you ask Who is better I answer A suitableness
in things of greatest moment to the Party 's good determineth that An impious hypocritical Protestant is worse than a sober godly Papist for such I doubt not but some be But he that is sound both in Judgment and in Life is better than either 2. In case it be very likely to prove some great Commodity to Church or State For so I doubt not but a Protestant Lady might marry a Papist Prince or other Person on whom the Publick Good doth eminently depend so be it 1. That she be stable and of good Understanding her self 2. And like to keep such Interest in him as may conduce to his own and the Publick Good 3. And in case she may not be as well disposed of to the Good of the Publick other ways When all these concur the probability of Publick Utility is so great that the Person I think may trust God to make up Personal Incommodities and preserve the Soul who aimeth at his Glory and keepeth in his way But small inconsiderable Probabilities are not enough to move one to hazard their Soul in so perillous a way 3. Besides these two Cases of real Necessity and Publick Utility I remember no Case at the present in which it is lawful for such a Protestant Lady to marry a Papist At least in the ordinary Case of Persons in this Land I take it to be undoubtedly sinful what hopes soever may be imagined of his Conversion My Reasons are these 1. A Husband is especially to be a Meet-helper in Matters of the greatest moment And this help is to be daily given in counselling in the things that concern Salvation instructing in the Scriptures exciting Grace subduing Sin and helping the Wife in the constant course of a Holy Life and in her preparation for Death and the Life to come And a humble Soul that is conscious of its own weakness will find the need of all this Help which how it can be expected from one who only promiseth not to disturb her in her Religion I cannot understand I should as soon advise her to take a Physician in her Sickness who only promimiseth not to meddle with her Health as a Husband who only promiseth not to meddle with her in Matters of Religion 2. A Husband who is no helper in Religion must needs be a hinderer For the very Diversions of the Mind from holy Things by constant talk of other Matters will be a very great Impediment And as not to go forward is to go backward so not to help is to hinder in one of so near relation How hard it is to keep up the Love of God and a Delight in Holiness and heavenly Desires and a fruitful Life even under the greatest Helps in the World much more among Hinderances and especially such as are in our Bosom and continually with us I need not tell a humble and self-knowing Christian. And of what Importance these things are I shall not declare till I am speaking to an Infidel or Impious Person 3. And as for the Conversion of another Marriage is none of the means that God hath commanded for that end that ever I could find Preaching or Conference with judicious Persons are the means of such Conversion And if it be a hopeful thing it may be tried and accomplished first There are enow of us who are ready to meet any Man of the Papal way and to evince the Errours of their Sect by the allowance of Authority If Reason or Scripture or the Church or Sense it self may be believed we shall quickly lay that before them that hath evidence enough to convince them But if none of this can do it before hand how can a Wife hope to do it she ought not to think a Husband so fond and weak as in the Matters of his Salvation to be led by his Affections to a Woman against his Reason his Party and his Education Or if she can do more than a Learned Man can do let her do it first and marry him after I had rather give my Money or my House and Land in Charity than to give my self in Charity meerly in hope to do good to another It is a Love of Friendship and Complacence and not a love of meer Benevolence which belongeth to this Relation Moreover Errour and Sin are deep rooted things and it is God only that can change such hearts and Women are weak and Men are the Rulers and therefore to marry if it were a vicious ungodly Protestant meerly in hope to change him is a Course which I think not meet here to name or aggravate as it deserveth 4. Yea she may justly fear rather to be changed by him For he hath the advantage in Authority Parts and Interest And we are naturally more prone to Evil than to Good It 's easier to infect twenty Men than to cure one And if he speak not to her against her Religion enow more will 5. Or if she be so happy as to escape Perversion there is little hope of her escaping a sad calamitous Life Partly by guilt and partly by her grief for a Husband's Soul and partly by Family-disorders and sins and also by daily temptations disappointments and want of those helps and comforts in the way to Heaven which her Weakness needeth and her Relation should afford So that if her Soul scape she must look that her great Affliction should be the means And yet we cannot so confidently expect from God that he sanctifie to us a self-chosen Affliction as another 6. Supposing him to be one that loveth her Person truly and not only her Estate for else she must expect to stand by as a contemned thing yet his Religion will not allow him otherwise to love her than as a Child of the Devil in a state of Damnation may be loved For their Religion teacheth them That none can be saved but the Subjects of the Pope If it be objected It seemeth it is no sin in that you can allow it in a Case of Necessity or for the notable benefit of the Church or State I answer It is no sin in those Cases but out of them it is It is no sin but my duty to lay down my Life for my King or Country but it followeth not that I may therefore do it without sufficient Cause So it is in this Case Having plainly given you my judgment in the proposed Case I leave it to that Noble Lord who sent for it to use it or conceal it or burn it as he please For it being not the Lady that sent to desire my Resolution but he my Answer is not hers but his that sent for it But I humbly crave that if she be at all acquainted with my Answer or any one else it may not be by report but by shewing it her entire as I have written it And as I doubt not but his Honour will find it self engaged to preserve me from the displeasure of such
any thing amiss in the Government of Church or State Established by Law If Endeavour be taken in its Latitude it is a perfect contradiction to this Law 3. The Testimonies of several Members of both Houses who assured us that in the Debate this was the declared Sense of the Parliament Sir Heneage Finch told me the intention of it was only to have security from us without any respect to our Iudgments concerning the Government that we would not disturb the Peace and that it was imposed at this Season in regard of our Wars with France and Holland He added it was a tessera of our Loyalty and those who refused it would be looked on as Persons reserving themselves for an Opportunity My Lord Chamberlain said the Bishops of Canterbury and Winchester declared it only excluded Seditious Endeavours and upon his urging that it might be expressed the Arch Bishop replyed It should be added but the King being to come at Two of the Clock it could not with that Explication be sent down to the House of Commons and returned up again within that time The Bishop of Exeter told Dr. Tillotson That the first Draught of this Oath was in Terms a Renunciation of the Covenant but it was answered they have suffered for that already and that the Ministers would not recede it was therefore reasonable to require security in such Words as might not touch the Covenant 4. The concurrent Opinion of the Iudges who are the Authorized Interpreters of Law who declared that only tumultuous and seditious Endeavours are meant Iudge Bridgman Twisden Brown Archer Windham Atkins who were at London had agreed in this Sense Some of the Ministers were not satisfied because the Opinion of a Iudge in his Chamber was no Iudicial Act but if it were declared upon the Bench it would much resolve their Doubts I addressed my Self to my Lord Bridgman and urged him that since it was a Matter of Conscience and the Oaths were to be taken in the greatest simplicity he would sincerely give me his Opinion about it He professed to me that the Sense of the Oath was only to exclude seditious and tumultuous Endeavours and said he would go to the Sessions and declare it in the Court He wrote down the Words he intended to speak and upon my declaring that if he did not express that only seditious Endeavours were meant I could not take the Oath be put in the Paper before me that word and told me that Iudge Keeling was of his Mind and would be there and be kind to us The Ministers esteemed this the most publick Satisfaction for Conscience and Fame and several of them agreed to go to the Sessions and take the Oath that hereby if possible they might vindicate Religion from the Impâ—tation of Faction and Rebellion and make it evident that Consciences only hindereth their Conformity Some of the most unsatisfied were resolved to take it We came in the afternoon on Friday to the Court where seven Ministers had taken it in the Morning At our appearance the Lord Bridgman addrest himself to us in these Words Gentlemen I perceive you are come to take the Oath I am glad of it The intent of it is to distinguish between the King 's good Subjects and those who are mentioned in the Act and to prevent Seditious and Tumultuous Endeavours to alter the Government Mr. Clark said in this Sense we take it The Lord Keeling spake with some quickness Will you take the Oath as the Parliament hath appointed it I replyed My Lord We are come hither to attest our Loyalty and to declare we will not seditiously endeavour to alter the Government He was silent and we took the Oath being 13 in number After this the Lord Keeling told us He was glad that so many had taken the Oath and with great vehemency said We had renounced the Covenant in two Principal Points that damnable Oath which sticks between the Teeth of so many And he hoped That as here was one King and one Faith so here would be one Government And if we did not Conform it would be judged we did this to save a stake These Words being uttered after by his Silence he had approved what my Lord B. had spoke of the Sense of the Act and our express Declaration that in that Sense we took it you may imagine how surprizing they were to us It was not possible for us to recollect our selves from the Confusion which this caused so as to make any reply We retired with sadness and what the consequences will be you may easily fore-see Some will reflect upon us with severity judging of the nature of the Action by this check of Providence Others who were resolved to take the Oath recoil from it their Iealousies being increased I shall trouble you no longer but assure you That notwithstanding this accident doth not invalidate the Reasons for the lawfulness of it in our apprehensions yet the fore-sight of this would have caused us to suspend our proceedings The good Lord sanctifie this Providence to us and teach us to commit our dearest Concernments unto him in the performance of our Duty to whose Protection I commend you and remain Yours intirely William Bates London Feb. 22. After my Lord Keeling's Speech Sir Iohn Babor enquired of Lord Bridgman whilst he was on the Bench Whether the Ministers had renounced the Covenant He answer'd the Covenant was not concerned in it Mr. Calamy Watson Gouge and many others had taken the Oath this Week but for this unhappy Accident My Lord Bridgman came to the Sessions and declared the Sense of the Oath with my Lord Chancellor's allowance But all the Reasons contain'd in this Letter seem'd not to me to enervate the force of the fore-going Objections or solve the Difficulties § 24. A little before this L. B. and Sir S. committed such horrid wickedness in their Drinking acting the part of Preachers in their Shirts in a Balcony with Words and Actions not to be named that one or both of them was openly censured for it in Westminster-Hall by one of the Courts of Justice You will say Sure it was a shameful Crime indeed And shortly after a Lightning did seize on the Church where the Monuments of the were and tore it melted the Leads and brake the Monuments into so small pieces that the people that came to see the place put the Scraps with the Letters on into their Pockets to shew as a Wonder and more wonderful than the consumption of the rest by fire § 25. In this time the Haunting of Mr. Mompesson's House in Wiltshire with strange Noises and Motions for very many Months together was the Common Talk Of which Mr. Ios. Glanvil having wrote the Story I say no more § 26. The Number of Ministers all this while either imprisoned sined or otherwise afflicted for preaching Christ's Gospel when they were forbidden was so great that I forbear to mention them particularly § 27. The War began with
the Churches of England and faithfully to preserve the peace and happiness thereof And all those who are qualified with abilities according to the Law and take the Oaths and Declarations abovesaid shall be allowed to preach Lectures and Occasional Sermons and to Catechize and to be presented and admitted to any Benefice or to any Ecclesiastical or Academical promotions or to the teaching of Schools 3. Every person admitted to any Benefice with cure of Souls shall be obliged himself on some Lord's day within a time prefixed to read the Liturgy appointed for that day when it is satisfactorily altered and the greatest part of it in the mean time and to be often present at the reading of it and sometimes to administer the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the said Liturgies And it shall by himself or some other allowed Minister be constantly used in his Church and the Sacraments frequently administred as is required by the Law 4. The 4th was against the Ceremonies without alteration in their own words save about bowing at the Name â—esus as after 5. No Bishop Chancellor or other Ecclesiastical Officers shall have power to silence any allowed Minister or suspend him 〈◊〉 officio vel beneficio arbitrarily or for any cause without a known Law And in case of any such arbitary or injurious silencing and suspension there shall be allowed an appeal to some of his Majestie 's Courts of Iustice so as it may be prosecuted in a competent time and at a tolerable expence being both Bishops and Presbyters and all Ecclesiastical persons are under the Government of the King and punishable by him for gross and injurious male-administrations 6. Though we judge it the Duty of Ministers to Catechize instruct exhort direct and comfort the people personally as well as publickly upon just occasion yet lest a pretended necessity of Examinations before the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper or an unwarrantable strictness should introduce Church-Tyranny and wrong the faithful by keeping them from the Communion let all those be admitted to the Communion who since their Infant baptism have at years of discretion manifested to the Bishop or the Ministers of the Parish Church where they live a tolerable understanding of the Essential points of Faith and Godliness that is of the Baptismal Covenant and of the nature and use of the Lord's Supper and have personally owned before them or the Church the Covenant which by others they made in Baptism professing their Resolution to keep the same in a Faithful Godly Righteous Charitable and Temporal Life and are not since this profession revolted to Atheism Insidelity or Heresy that is the denying of some Essential Article of faith and live not impenitently in any gross and scandalous sin And therefore in the Register of each Parish let all their Names be written who have either before their Confirmation or at any other time thus understandingly owned their Baptismal Covenant and a Certificate thereof from the Minister of the place shall serve without any further examination for their admission to Communion in that or any other Parish Church where they shall after live till by the aforesaid revolts they have merited their suspension 7. Because in many families there are none who can read or pray â—or call to remembrance what they have heard to edify themselves and spend the Lords day in holy Exercises and many of these live so far from the Church that they go more seldom than the rest and therefore have great need of the assistance of their Neighbours it is not to be taken for a Conventicle or unlawful meeting when Neighbours shall peaceably joyn together in reading the Scripture or any good books or repeating publick Sermons and praying and â—ging â—salms to God whilst they do it under the inspection of the Minister and not in opposition to the publick Assemblies Nor yet that meeting where the Minister shall privately Catechize his Neighbours or pray with them when they are in sickness danger or distress tho persons of several Families shall be present 8. Whereas the Canon and Rubrick forbid the adâ—ission of notorious scandalous sinners to the Lords table be it enacted that those who are proved to deride or scorn at Christianity or the holy Scriptures or the Life of Reward and Punishment or the serious practice of a Godly Life and strict obedience to Gods Commands shall be numbered with the Scandalous sinners mentioned in the Canon and Rubrick and not admitted before repentance to the holy Communion § 69. The following paper will give you the reasons of all our alterations of their form of Words But I must add this that we thought not the form of Subscription sufficient to keep out a Papist from the established Ministery much less from a Toleration which we medled not with And here and in other alterations I bore the blame and they told me that no Man would put in such doubts but I. And I will here tell Posterity this Truth as a Mystery yet only to the blind which must not now be spoken that I believe that I have been guilty of hindering our own Liberties in all Treaties that ever I was employ'd in For I remember not one in which there was not some crevice or contrivance or terms offered for such a Toleration as would have let in the moderate Papists with us And if we would but have opened the Door to let the Papists in that their Toleration might have been charged upon us as being for our sakes and by our request or procuâ—ement we might in all likelihood have had our part But though for my own part I am not for Cruelty against Papists any more than others even when they are most cruel to us but could allow them a certain degree of liberty on Terms that shall secure the common Peace and the People's Souls yet I shall never be one of them that by any renewed pressures or severities shall be forced to petition for the Papists liberty if they must have it let them Petition for it themselves No craft of Iesuits or Prelates shall thunder me cudgel me or cheat me into the Opinion that it is now necessary for our own Ministry Liberty or Lives that we I say we Nonconformists be the famed Introducers of the Papists Toleration that so neither Papists nor Prelatists may bear the odium of it but may lay it all on us God do what he will with us his way is best but I think that this is not his way § 70. Upon these Alterations I was put to give in my Reasons of them which were as followeth The Reasons of our Alterations of your Proposals 1. I Put in Presidents c. to avoid Dispute whether such were meer Presbyters or as some think Bishops 2. I leave out time of disorder because it will else exclude all that were Ordained by Presbyters since the King came in 3. I put in Instituted and Authorized to intimate that it is not an Ordination to
c. After Baptism put Seing this Child is Sacramentally Regenerated And in the Prayer following put it That it hath pleased Thee Sacramentally to Regenerate and Adopt this Infant and to incorporate him into thy Holy Church Instead of the new Rubrick it is certain by God's Word c. put True Christian Parents have no cause to doubt of the Salvation of their Children dedicated to God in Baptism and dying before they commit any actual sin In the Exhortation put it thus Doubt not therefore but earnestly believe That if this Infant be sincerely dedicated to God by those who have that power and trust God will likewise favourably receive him c. Let not Baptism be privately administred but by a lawful Minister and before sufficient Witnesses and when it is evident that any was so Baptized let no part of the Administration be reiterated Add to the Rubrick of Confirmation or the Preface And the tolerable Understanding of the same Points which are necessary to Confirmation with this owning of their baptismal Covenant shall be also required of those that are not confirmed before their admission to the holy Communion Let it be lawful for the Minister to put other Questions besides those in the Catechism to help the Learners to understand and also to tell them the meaning of the Words as he goeth along Alterations in the Catechism or another allowed Q. WHat is your Name A. N. Q. When was this Name given you A. In my Baptism Q. What was done for you in your Baptism A. I was devoted to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and entred into his Holy Covenant and engaged to take him for my only God my reconciled Father my Saviour and my Sanctifier And to believe the Articles of the Christian Faith and keep God's Commandments sincerely all the Days of my Life Renouncing the Devil and all his works the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World and all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh. Q. What Mercy did you receive from God in this Covenant of Baptism A. God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as my reconciled Father my Saviour and my Sanctifier did forgive my Original Sin and receive me as a Member of Christ and of his Church and as his Adopted Child and Heir of Heaven Q. Do you think that you are now bound to keep this Covenant and to believe and live according to it A. Yes Verily c. Q. Rehcarse c. A. I Believe c. Q. What c. A. First c. Q. What be the Commandments of God which you have Covenanted to observe A. The Ten Commandments written by God in Stone besides Christ's Precepts in the Gospel Q. Which be the Ten Commandments After the Answer to What is thy Duty towards God add And to keep holy the Day which he separateth for his Worship In the next let to bear no malice c. be put before to be true and just In the Answ. to the Quest. after the Lord's Prayer after all People put that we may Honour and Love him as our God That his Kingdom of Grace may be set up in our Souls and throughout the World and his Kingdom of Glory may come and that God's Law and not Men's sinful Lusts and Wills may be obeyed and Earth may be liker unto Heaven And I Pray c. Q. How many Sacraments of the Covenant of Grace hath Christ Ordained in his Church A. Two only Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. Q. What meanest thou c. A. I mean that Solemn Covenanting with God wherein there is an outward visible sign of our giving up our selves to Him and of his giving his Grace in Christ to us being ordained by Christ himself as a means whereby we receive that Grace and a pledge to assure us of it To Q. What is the inward Spiritual Grace A. The pardon of our Sins by the Blood of Christ whose Members we are made and a death unto sin c. Q. Why are Infants Baptized A. Because they are the Children of the Faithful to whom God's Promises are made and are by them devoted unto God to be entered into Covenant with Him by his own appointment which when they come to Age themselves are bound to perform After the next Answer add And for our Communion with Him and with his Church To Q. What are the Benefits c. A. The renewed Pardon of our Sins and our Communion with Christ and his Church by Faith and Love and the strengthening c. In the Visitation of the Sick let the Minister have leave to vary his Prayer as Occasions shall require And let the Absolution be conditional If thou truly believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and truly repentest of thy sins I pronounce thee absolved through the Sacrifice and Merits of Iesus Christ. If any who is to kept from the Communion for Atheism Infidelity Heresie or Impenitency in gross sin shall in sickness desire Absolution or the Communion And if any Minister intrusted with the power of the Keys do perceive no probable sign of true Repentance and therefore dare not in conscience absolve him or give him the Sacrament left he profane God's Ordinance and harden the wicked in presumption and impenitency let not that Minister be forced to that Office against his conscience but let the sick chuse some other as he please And at the Burial of any who were lawfully kept from the Communion for the same causes and not absolved let the Minister be at liberty to change the words thus For asmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God to take out of this world the soul of this deceased person we commit his body c. believing a Resurrection of the just and unjust some to joy and some to punishment And to leave out in the Prayer We give thee hearty thanks for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world And instead of it put And the souls of tne wicked to wo and miseryâ— We beseech thee to convert us all from sin by true and speedy repentance And teach us to spend this little time in an holy and heavenly conversation that we may be always prepared for Death and Iudgment And And in the next Collect to leave out as our hope is this our brother doth But in the Rubrick before Burial instead of any that die unbaptized put anythat die unbaptized at years of discretion That the Infants of Christian Parents who die unbaptized be not numbered with the Excommunicate and Self-murderers and denied Christian Burial Let the Psalms in the Parish-Churches be read in the last Translation Let the Liturgy either be abbreviated by leaving out the short Versicles and Responses Or else let the Minister have leave to omit them and in times of cold or haste to omit some of the Collects as he seeth cause In Churches where many cannot read let the Minister read all the Psalms himself because the confused
the same Justices saw that I was thus discharged they were not satisfied to have driven me from Acton but they make a new Mittimus by Counsel as for the same supposed Fault naming the Fourth of Iune as the Day on which I preached and yet not naming any Witness when the Act against Conventicles was expired long before And this Mittimus they put into an Officer's hands in London to bring me not to Clerkenwell but among the Thieves and Murderers to the common Jail at Newgate which was since the Fire which burnt down all the better Rooms the most noisom place that I have heard of except the Tower Dungeon of any Prison in the Land § 132. The next Habitation which God's Providence chose for me was at Totteridge near Barnet where for a Year I was fain with part of my Family separated from the rest to take a few mean Rooms which were so extreamly smoaky and the place withal so cold that I spent the Winter in great pain one quarter of a Year by a sore Sciatica and seldom free from such Anguish § 133. It would trouble the Reader for me to reckon up the many Diseases and Dangers for these ten Years past in or from which God hath delivered me though it be my Duty not to forget to be thankful Seven Months together I was lame with a strange Pain in one Foot Twice delivered from a Bloody Flux a spurious Cataract in my Eye with incessant Webs and Net-works before it hath continued these eight Years without disabling me one Hour from Reading or Writing I have had constant Pains and Languors with incredible Flatulency in Stomach Bowels Sides Back Legs Feet Heart Breast but worst of all either painful Distentions or usually vertiginous or stupifying Conquests of my Brain so that I have rarely one Hour's or quarter of an Hour's ease Yet through God's Mercy I was never one Hour Melancholy and not many Hours in a Week disabled utterly from my Work save that I lost time in the Morning for want of being able to rise early And lately an Ulcer in my Throat with a Tumour of near half a Year's continuance is healed without any means In all which I have found such merciful Disposals of God such suitable Chastisements for my Sin such plain Answers of Prayer as leave me unexcusable if they do me not good Besides many sudden and acuter Sicknesses which God hath delivered me from not here to be numbred his upholding Mercy under such continued weaknesses with tolerable and seldom disabling Pains hath been unvaluable § 134. I am next to give some short account of my Writings since 1665. 1. A small MS. lyeth by me which I wrote in Answer to a Paper which Mr. Caryl of Sussex sent me written by Cressy called now Serenus about Popery § 135. 2 Mr. Yates of Hambden Minister sending me the Copy of a Popish Letter as spread about Oxford under the Mask of one doubting of Christianity and calling the Scholars to a Trial of their Faith in Principles did by the Juggling Fraud and the slightness of it provoke me to write my book called The Reasons of the Christian Religion And the Philosophy of Gassendus and many more besides the Hobbians now prevailing and inclining men to Sadducism induced me to write the Appendix to it about the Immortality of the Soul § 136. 3. Oft Conference with the Lord Chief Baron Hale put those Cases into my mind which occasioned the writing of another short Piece of the Nature and Immortality of the Soul by way of Question and Answer not printed § 137. 4. The great Weaknesses and Passions and Injudiciousness of many Religious Persons and the ill effects and especially perceiving that the Temptations of the Times yea the very Reproofs of the Conformists did but increase them among the separating party caused me to offer a book to be Licensed called Directions to weak Christians how to grow in grace with a second part being Sixty Characters of a Sound Christian with as many of the Weak Christian and the Hyyocrite Which I the rather writ to imprint on men's minds a right apprehension of Christianity and to be as a Confession of our Judgment in this malignant Age when some Conformists would make the World believe that it is some menstruous thing composed of Folly and Sedition which the Nonconformists mean by a Christian and a Godly Man This Book came forth when I was in Prison being long before refused by Mr. Grigg § 138. 5. A Cristian Directory or Summ of Practical Divinity in Folio hath lain finished by me many years and since twice printed § 139. 6. My Bookseller desiring some Additions to my Sermon before the King I added a large Directory of the whole Life of Faith which is its Title which is published § 140. 7. Abundance of Women first and Men next growing at London into separating Principles Some thinking that it was sin to hear a Conformist and more That it is a sin to pray according to the Common Prayer with them and yet more That it is a sin to Communicate with them in the Sacrament And the Conformists abominating their House-Meetings as Schismatical and their Distance and Passions daily increasing even among many to earnest desires of each other's Ruine I thought it my Duty to add another part to my book of Directions to weak Christians being Directions what course they must take to avoid being Dividers or troublers of the Churches The rather because I knew what the Papists and Infidels would gain by our Divisions and of how great necessity it is against them both that the honest moderate part of the Conformists and the Nonconformists be reconciled or at least grow not into mortal Enmity against each other This Book was offered to Mr. Sam. Parker the Archbishop's Chaplain to be Licensed but he refused it and so I purposed to cast it by But near two years after Mr. Grove the Bishop of London's Chaplain without whom I could have had nothing of mine Licensed I think did License it and it was published of which more anon § 141. 8. About this time I heard Dr. Owen talked very yieldingly of a Concord betweent the Independents and Presbyterians which all seemed willing of I had before about 1658. written somewhat in order to Reconciliation and I did by the invitation of his Speeches offer it to Mr. Geo. Griffiths to be considered And near a twelve-month after he gave it me again without taking notice of any thing in it I now resolved to try once more with Dr. Owen And though all our business with each other had been contradiction I thought it my Duty without any thoughts of former things to go to him and be a Seeker of Peace which he seemed to take well and expressed great desires of Concord and also many moderate Concessions and how heartily he would concur in any thing that tended to a good agreement I told him That I must deal freely with him that
who will also sure enough exclude themselves and do from any such Agreement But have you done the same as to the Socinians who are numerous and ready to include themselves upon our Communion The Creed as expounded in the Four first Councils will do it 3. Whether some Expressions suited to prevent future Divisions and Separations after a Concord is obtained may not at present to avoid all exasperation be omitted as seeming reflective on former Actings when there was no such Agreement among us as is now aimed at 4. Whether insisting in particular on the power of the Magistrate especially as under civil Coercition and Punishment in cases of Error or Heresie be necessary in this first Attempt These Generals occurred to my Thoughts upon my first reading of your Proposals I will now read them again and set down as I pass on such apprehensions in particular as I have of the Severals of them To the first Answer under the first Question I assent so also to the first Proposal and the Explanation Likewise to the second and third I thought to have proceeded thus throughout but I fore-see my so doing would be tedious and useless I shall therefore mention only what at present may seem to require second Thoughts As 1. To Propos. 9. by those Instances what Words to use in Preaching in what Words to Pray in what decent Habit do you intend Homilies prescribed Forms of Prayer and Habits superadded to those of vulgar decent use Present Controversies will suggest an especial Sense under general Expressions 2. Vnder Pos. 13. Do you think a Man may not leave a Church and joyn himself to another unless it be for such a Cause or Reason as he supposeth sufficient to destroy the Being of the Church I meet with this now answered in your 18th Propos. and so shall forbear further particular Remarks and pass on In your Answer to the Second Qu. Your 10th Position hath in it some-what that will admit of further consideration as I think In your Answer to the 3d. Qu. have you sufficiently expressed the accountableness of Churches mutually in case of Offence from Male-Administration and Church Censures This also I now see in part answered Prop. 5th I shall forbear to add any thing as under your Answer to the last Question about the power of the Magistrate because I fear that in that matter of punishing I shall some-what dissent from you though as to meer Coercion I shall in some Cases agree Vpon the whole Matter I judge your Proposals worthy of great Consideration and the most probable medium for the attaining of the End aimed at that yet I have perused If God give not an Heart and Mind to desire Peace and Vnion every Expression will be disputed under pretence of Truth and Accuracy But if these things have a place in us answerable to that which they enjoy in the Gospel I see no reason why all the true Disciples of Christ might not upon these and the like Principles condescend in Love unto the Practical Concord and Agreement which not one of them dare deny to be their Duty to Aim at Sir I shall Pray that the Lord would guide and prosper you in all Studies and Endeavours for the Service of Christ in the World especially in this your Desire and Study for the Inâ—â—â—â—â—ing of the Peace and Love promised amongst them that Believe and do beg your Prayers Your truly affectionate Brother And unworthy Fellow-Servant Iohn Owen Ian. 25. 1668. § 143. For the Understanding of this you must know 1. That the way which we came to at last for the publication of the Terms if he and I had agreed secretly should be That as I had Printed such a thing called Vniversal Concord 1660. which was neglected so I would Print this as the Second Part of the Vniversal Concord that it might lye some time exposed to view in the Shops before we made any further use of it that so the State might not suspect us for our Union as if we intended them any ill by doing our Duty which course he approved 2. That I oft went to him and he had written this Letter ready to send me and so gave it me into my hand but we first debated many things in presence in all which there remained no apparent Disagreement at all so far as we went And in particular the great Point about separating in the Cases enumerated he objected no more but what I answered and he seemed to acquiesce 3. But I so much feared that it would come to nothing that I ventured to tell him what a difficulty I feared it would be to him to go openly and fully according to his own Judgment when the Reputation of former Actions and present Interest in many that would censure him if he went not after their narrowed Judgment did lye in his way and that I feared these Temptations more than his Ability and Judgment But he professed full Resolutions to follow the Business heartily and unbyassedly and that no Interest should move him And so I desired him to go over my Proposals again and fasten upon every Word that was either unsound or hurtful or unapt or unnecessary and every such Word should be altered which he undertook to do and so that was the way that we agreed on but when I came home I first returned him this following Answer to his Letter and Exceptions Feb. 16. 1668. SIR UPon the perusal of Yours when I came home I find your Exceptions to be mostly the same which you speak and therefore shall be the briefer in my Answer upon Supposition of what was said To your First Qu. I answer I am as much for Brevity as you can possibly wish so be it our Agreement be not thereby frustrated and made insufficient to its ends I would desire you to look over all the Particulars and name me not only every one that you think unsound but every one which you judge unprofitable or needless But if we leave out that which most or many will require and none have any thing against it will but stop our Work and make Men judge of it as you did of the want of a longer Profession than the Scriptures against Socinianism And it will contradict the Title The Iust Terms of Agreement For our Terms will be insufficient And as to your Words the first attempt my business is to discover the sufficient Terms at first that so it may facilitate Consent For if we purposely leave out any needful part as for a second attempt we bring contempt upon our first Essay and before the second third and perhaps twentieth Attempt have been used to bring us to Agreement by Alterations and cross Humours and Apprehensions things will go as they have done and all be pulled in pieces Therefore we must if possible find out the sufficient Terms before too many hands be ingaged in it Your own Exceptions here say That if too many Explications had not afterward occurred
the King's Quarters and never were drawn the other way as Dr. Conant lately one of them and others in Oxford and so in other parts XI Some of the Non-conformists were in the King's Army Poor Martin of Weeden lost an Arm in his Army and yet the other Arm lay long with him in Warwick Jail for Preaching XII Almost all the Non-conformists of my acquaintance in England save Independents and Sectaries refused the Engagement and took Cromwell and the Common-wealth-Parliament for Usurpers and never approved what they did nor ever kept their daies of Fasting or Thanksgiving To tell you of the London Ministers prinâ—ed Declarations against the intended Death of the King you will say is unsatisfactory because too late XIII Most of the Non-conformable Ministers of my acquaintance were either boys at School or in the University in the Wars or never medled with it so that I must profess that setting them altogether I do not think that one in ten throughout the Kingdom can be proved to have done any of these things that you name against the King XIV We have oft with great men put it to this trial Let them give leave but to so many to Preach the Gospel as cannot be proved ever to have had any hand in the Wars against the King and we will thankfully acquiesce and bear the Silence of the rest make but this Match for us and we will joyfully give you thanks XV. Who knoweth not that the greatest Prelatists were the Masters of the Principles that the War was raised on Bilson Iewel c. and Hooker quite beyond them all XVI But because all proof must be of individuals I intreat you as to our own Countrey where you were acquainted tell me if you can I say it seriously if you can what ever was done or said against the King by Mr. Ambrose Sparre Mr. Kimberley Mr. Lovell Mr. Cowper Mr. Reignalds Mr. Hickman Mr. Trusham Mr. Baldwin senior Mr. Baldwin junior Mr. Sergeant Mr. Waldern dead Mr. Ios. Baker dead Mr. Wilsby Mr. Brain Mr. Stephen Baxter Mr. Badland Mr. Bulcher Mr. Eccleshall Mr. Read Mr. Rock Mr. Fincher of Wedbury Mr. Wills of Bremisham Mr. Paston c. I pass by many more And in Shropshire by old Mr. Sam. Hildersham old Mr. Sam. Fisher Mr. Talents Mr. Brain of Shreusbury Mr. Barnet Mr. Keeling Mr. Berry Mr. Malden of Newport Mr. Tho. Wright dead Mr. Taylor c. These were your Neighbours and mine I never heard to my remembrance of any one of them that had any thing to do with Wars against the King It is true except Mr. Fisher and some few they were not ejected but enjoyed their places And did not you as well as they If I can name you so many of your Neighbours that were innocent will you tell the King and Parliament and the Papists and Posterity that all the Non-conformists without any exception had their hands stained with the Royal blood What! Mr. Cooke of Chester and Mr. Birch c. that were imprisoned and persecuted for the King What! Mr. Geery that died at the news of the King's Dearh What! Sir Francis Nethersole and Mr. Bell his Pastor who wrote so much against the Parliament and was their prisoner at 〈◊〉 Castle almost all the Wars What may we expect from others when Dr. Good shall do thus I put not in any Excuse for my self among all these It may be you know not that an Assembly of Divines twice met at Coventree of whom two Doctors and some others are yet living first sent me into the Army to hazard my life after Nasby Fight against the Course which we then first perceived to be designed against the King and Kingdom nor what I went through there two years in opposing it and drawing the Soldiers off Nor how oft I Preached against Cromwel the Rump the Engagement but specially their Wars and Fasts and Thanksgivings Nor what I said to Cromwel for the King never but twice speaking with him of which a Great Privy Counselloâ—r told me but lately that being an Ear-witness of it he had told his Majesty But yet while I thought they went on Bilsone's Principles I was then on their side and the Observator Parker almost tempted me to Hooker's Principles but I quickly saw those Reasons against them which I have since published His Principles were known by the first Book before the last came out And I have a friend that had his last in M.S. But I am willing unfeignedly to to be one of those that shall contiue Silenced if you can but procure leave to Preach Christ's Gospel only for those that are no more guilty of the King's blood than your self and that no longer than there is real need of their Ministerial Labour Reverend Sir If you will but so long put your self as in our Case I shall hope that with patience you will read these Lines and pardon the necessary freedom of Your truly Loving friend and obliged Servant Rich. Baxter London Feb. 10. 1673. § 270. Taking it to be my duty to preach while Toleration doth continue I removed the last Spring to London where my Diseases increasing this Winter a flatulent constant Headach added to the rest and continuing strong for about half a year constrained me to cease my Fryday's Lecture and an Afternoon Sermon on the Lord's daies in my house to my grief and to Preach only one Sermon a week at St. Iames's Market-house where some had hired an inconvenient Place But I had great encouragement to labour there 1. Because of the notorious Necessity of the people for it was noted for the habitation of the most ignorant Atheistical and Popish about London and the greatness of the Parish of St. Martins made it impossible for the tenth perhaps the twentieth person in the Parish to hear in the Parish-Church And the next Parishes St. Giles and Clement Daines were almost in the like case Besides that the Parson of our own Parish St. Giles where I lived Preached not having been about three years suspended by the Bishop ab Officio but not a beneficio upon a particular Quarrel And to leave ten or twenty for one untaught in the Parish while most of the City Churches also are burnt down and unbuilt one would think should not be justified by Christians 2. Because beyond my expectation the people generally proved exceeding willing and attentive and tractable and gave me great hopes of much success § 271. Yet at this time did some of the most Learned Conformists assault me with sharp accusations of Schism meerly because I ceased not to Preach the Gospel of Christ to people in such necessity They confess that I ought not to take their Oaths and make their imposed Covenants Declarations and Subscriptions against my Conscience but my Preaching is my sin which I must forbear though they accuse me not of one word that I say They confess the foresaid Matters of fact that not one of a multitude can possibly hear in
the Parish Churches through the greatness of some Parishes the lowness of the Minister's voices and the paucity of Churches since the burning of the City And they confess that the knowledge of the Gospel is ordinarily necessary to salvation and teaching and hearing necessary to knowledge and that to leave the people untaught especially where so many are speaking for Atheism Beastiality and Infidelity is to give them up to Damnation But yet they say that to do so is my duty because the Bishop is against my Preaching And I ought to rest satisfied that it is the Bishop and not not I that must answer for their Damnation Alas poor Souls Must they needs be damned by thousands without making any question of it as if all the question were who should answer for it I will not believe such cruel men I undertake to prove to them to them 1. That our English Species of Dioâ—â—san 〈◊〉 and Lay Choncellours power of the Keys is contrary to God's Word and destructive of true Discipline and of the Church form and Offices instituted by Christ. 2. That were the Offices Lawful the men have no true calling to it being not chosen or consented to by the Clergy or the People 3. That if their Calling were good they have no power to forbid the present Silenced Ministers to Preach the Gospel but thereby they serve Satan against Christ and Men's salvation Paul himself had his power to edification and not to destruction And Christ the Saviour of the World giveth his Ministers only a saving power and to none a power to samish and damn the people's Souls 4. That we are Dedicated as Ministers to the Sacred Office and it is Sacriledge in our selves or others to alienate us from it while we are not unfit or unable for it 5. That we are Charged as well as Timothy before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the Dead at his appearing that we Preach the Word and be in season and our ef season reprove rebuke exhort c. 6. That the Ancient Pastors for many Hundred years did Preach the Gospel against the Wills of their Lawful Princes both Heathens and Aâ—â—ians 7 That the Bishop hath no more power to forbid us to Preach than the King hath And these men confess that Ministers unjustly Silenced may Preach against the Will of Kings but not say they of Bishops 8. That were we Lay-men we might teach and exhort as Lay-men as Origen did though we might not do it as Pastors much more being Ordained the Ministers of Christ. And that now to us it is a work which both the Law of Nature and our Office or Vow do bind us to even a Moral Duty And that when Christ judgeth men for not Feeding Clothing Visiting his Members it will not excuse us to say that the Bishop forbad us That if King or Bishop forbid us to feed our Children or to save the lives of drowning or famishing men we must disobey them as being against a great command of God Love and the Works of Love being the great indispensable Duties And Souls being greater Objects of Charity than Bodies 9. That it was in a Case of Pharifaical Church Discipline when Christ avoided not converse with sinners when their good required it that Christ sent the Pharisees to learn what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice and at two several times repeateth the same words 10. That Order is for the thing Ordered and it's ends and a power of Ordering Preachers is not a power to depose necessary Preaching and famish Souls 11. And I shew them that I my self have the License of the Bishop of this Diocess as well as Episcopal Ordination and that my License is in force and not recalled 12. And that I have the King's License 13. And therefore after all this to obey these Silencers nay no Bishop doth forbid me otherwise than as his Vote is to the Acts of Parliament which is as Magistrates and to fulfill their will that will be content with nothing but our forsaking of poor Souls and ceasing to Preach Christ this were no better than to end my Life of Comfortable Labours in obeying the Devil the Enemy of Christ and Souls which God forbid § 272. Yet will not all this satisfie these men but they cry out as the Papists Schism Schism unless we will cease to Preach the Gospel And have little to say for all but that No society can be governed if the Rulers be not the Iudge Yet dare they not deny but a Iudgment of discerning duty from sin belongeth to all Subjects or else we are Brutes or must be Atheists Idolaters Blasphemers or what ever a Bishop shall command us But under the Censures of these unreasonable Men who take our greatest Duties for our heinous sin must we patiently serve our Lord But his approbation is our full reward § 273 On Iuly 5th 1674. at our Meeting over St. Iamses's Market-house God vouchsafed us a great Deliverance A main Beam before weakened by the weight of the People so cracked that three times they ran in terrour out of the room thinking it was falling But remembring the like at Dunstan's West I reproved their fear as causeless But the next day taking up the boards we found that two rends in the Beam were so great that it was a wonder of providence that the floor had not faln and the roof with it to the destruction of multitudes The Lord make us thankful § 274 A person unknown professing Infidelity but wâ—ether an Infidel or a jagling Papist I know not sent me a Manuscript called Examen 〈◊〉 charging Scripture with Immorality Falshoods and Contradictions from the beginning to the end and with seeming Seriousness and Respectfulness importâ—ned me to Answer him I was in so great pain and weakness and engaged in other work that I sent him word that I had not time or strength for so long a Work He selected about a Dozen Instances and desired my Answer to them I gave him an Answer to them and to some of his General accusations but told him That the rational Order to be followed by a Lover of Truth is first to consider of the proofs brought for Christianity before we come to the Objections aganst it And I proved to him that Christianity was proved true many years before any of the New Testament was Written and that so it may be still proved by one that doubted of some words of the Scripture and therefore the true order is to try the truth of the Christian Religion first and the perfect Verity of all the Scriptures afterwards And therefore Importuned him first to Answer my Book called The Reasons of the Christian Religion and then if I lived I would answer his Accusations But I could not at all prevail with him but he still insisted on my Answering of his Charge And half a year or more after he sent me a Reply to the Answer
lye thus 1. Thou shalt not run before thou art sent This is to the whole Man and no Error of Mans can repeal it Then 2. The Will must follow the right guiding Intellect This is natural and excuseth not the following of an erring Judgment Then 3. That the Will follow the practical Intellect whether right or wrong that is no Precept but the Nature of the Soul in its acting because that Will is potententia ceca non nata ad intelligendum sed ad volendum vel nolendum intellectum So that it is a most intollerable thing to grant that Man's Error can make Duty no Duty or Sin no Sin If Man must will bonum apprehensum he may necessitate himself to sin in his choice by misapprehending because then though Bonum be still Bonum yet it is apprehensum sub Ratione mali è contra and so one of the two Necessaries to right Willing is wanting but apprehending malum to be bonum doth not make it so and Ergo then the greater Necessary is wanting to the erring Conscience viz. God's Constitution So that whether you say as Durandus that Conscientia errans Ligat at non obligat or whether you say as others that ligare and obligare are all one yet still the case is plain that an erring Conscience may entangle us in Sin whether we obey or not obey it but it cannot free us from Sin or from Duty except where the case is such that God's Law hath made one and the same thing to be sin or no sin according to Mens Knowledge or Ignorance which never falls out but when the Ignorance is inculpable which is never in our Case Even while the Person erreth he lyeth under a double Obligation 1. To do the Duty or avoid the Sin 2. To judge rightly of Sin and Duty and apprehend them as they are and so to lay down his Error So that all your Words import but this An erring Man cannot choose but err or cannot overcome it But not he is ergo innocent For it is his own Fault that brought him to it and continueth him in it He that is accustomed to do evil is not innocent because he can no more learn to do well than a Blackamore can change his Skin c. 2. This Answer of yours seems again to me to be inconsistent with your professed Conviction For if you do indeed think 1. That in case of necessity the Succession is not necessary 2. And that nothing is more evident than that these Men have such Necessity then you must think that these Men are lawful Ministers which I know you do not Where the Flaw is and what Link of this Chain you will break I cannot tell 3. And when you say that the Papists may say as easily to us as we to the Sectaries that it is our Error c. and so the Episcopal Party that we will not take Orders from them I reply They may say it as easily but if as truly they conclude us under Guilt and carry the Cause Twenty Parties may say they are all in the right doth it follow that they are all so because they make the same Pretonce to it Many Parties may Plead one Medium one Scripture for contrary Opinions Are they Ergo alike sound and justifiable Thus the Scepticks and Libertines use to say You say you are in the right and Papists and Anabaptists say they are in the right Ergo What then Why they may be in the right or at least should have Liberty as well as you But it is not he that saith he is in the right but he that is so indeed that should be countenanced by the Magistrate So it is not he that hath the same Pretence but the justifiable Cause that must carry it Else what are Judges for if each Man have right that pretends to it If our erroneous Conciences make us grope in the Dark and suppose the Papists have nailed up the Door when they have not then the Sin lyeth on us But if indeed the Papists do by wicked Oaths and Engagements to Papal Tyranny and to false Doctrines supernumerary Articles of Faith and wicked Practices shut up the Door of Ordination that no Man can lawfully enter at it among them then is the Sin theirs and God will judge them for the Divisions Distractions Confusions Corruptions and Desolations which they have brought upon the Churches of Christ. Ad. 4 um I need say nothing Sir let me conclude as I begun with a request that you would prove the uninterrupted Succession for the Information of Your Brother Rich. Baxter Nov. 18. 1653. To my Reverend Brother Mr. Johnson Preacher of the Gospel at Womborne This. Mr. Johnson's Fourth Letter to Mr. Baxter SIR ALthough I had purposed wholly to have superceded from my former Undertakings as conceiving them a fruitless Speculation in regard the Ministry may be justified without them yet forasmuch as I did defie all Men alive to make full Proof that the Succession ever hath or ever shall be interrupted and upon the Occasion of this Defiance you do rather invite me than challenge me to renew my Purpose I cannot tell how I can avoid so much as my own Defiance hath engaged me to And therefore though very unwillingly I shall endeavour so far as my Defiance hath engaged me to satisfie your Desire And because I herein stand upon the Defensive and by consequence must find some Man that pretends to make full Proof of the Question before I can discharge that which now I undertake I cannot tell where to meet with such an one unless it be your self in your late Book And therefore I shall apply my self to examine your Argument whereby you endeavour to prove that the Succession hath been already interrupted But before I come to that I shall return you something to what you say in the last Papers And First whereas you tell me to my Demand that you have instanced in many English Writers who do all plead against the Papists the No-necessity of an uninterrupted Succession I answer that amongst those Authors which you quote I have none by me but Bishop Iewel and so far as I can discern from the locis allegatis aut alibi he speaks nothing at all to the Question what the other do I shall examine hereafter as I meet with them Ad 2 um Whereas you tell me that my not seeing a formal Answer to my Second Argument proceeded from an oversight of the Word shall and a Not-observation of the Emphasis in it To this I answer that it is indeed true that I did not take heed enough to the Word for if I had I should not so indifferently have sometimes used it and sometimes put an other Word in its room which may make it plain that the Word was changed through inanimadvertencey rather than by design But it was not the Not-observation of the Word but the Not-understanding of the what the Word contained in it that made
before I give any Answer I shall first willingly yield these two Propositions 1. That an infallibly lawful Ordination is necessary to make us infallibly lawful Ministers 2. That an infallible Proof that we have been lawfully ordained is necessary to make us infallibly know that we have been lawfully Ordained But I deny that an infallible Knowledge tâ—at we have been lawfully Ordained is necessary to make us lawful Ministers Or that an infallible Knowledge that we have been lawfully ordained is necessary to give us true Peace in the exercise of our Ministry The former Negative is so clear from the extrinsical Nature of Knowledge to the Essences of the things known and the Posteriority of the Nature of Scientiae a re Scibilis that it is altogether superfluous to say any thing in order to the Proof of it But the other being indeed the thing you doubt of I shall offer you what is upon my own Understanding and what it is that persuades me to take the negative part And my Reason is this I do therefore think that an infallible Knowledge that his Ordainers had full Authority is not necessary to give a Man true Peace in the Exercise of his Ministry Because true Peace according to Gospel Equity is not founded upon exactness but upon utmost diligence and sincere Endeavours And particularly in point of Knowledge or in the Question What is our Duty to know True Peace is not founded upon exact or infallible Knowledge but upon an utmost Diligence or sincere Endeavour to know And therefore if we can but truly say that we do use our utmost Diligence to know we have the Foundation of true Peace though we be in the mean time in much Ignorance about the thing we enquire after And to the Question in hand if we can truly say that we have used our utmost Endeavours to know whether our Ordainers had full Power to Ordain we may have true Peace in the Exercise of our Ministry though in the mean time we cannot infallibly prove and by consequence cannot infallibly know that they had any such Authority True Peace according to Gospel measure very well agreeing with inculpable Ignorance And the Truth is if it were not thus in óther things I do not see how any Man could with Peace of Conscience enjoy those things which we call their Inheritances For it can never be infallibly proved nor they by consequence infallibly know that they have just Right and Title to them If they be not lawfully begotten they have no just claim to their Inheritances Now if they do not or indeed cannot infallibly know that they have been lawfully begotten they cannot know infallibly that they have a just claim to their Inheritances But they can never come to an infallible Knowledge that they have been lawfully begotten and by consequence upon such Principles as these can never with Peace of Conscience enjoy that which all Men usually call their due Inheritances And I conceive upon the same Grounds The Levites and Iewish Priesthood could never with any Peace of Conscience have exercised their Sacred Offices in regard they could never come to an infallible certainty that they did descend from Aaron upon which account only they had their just claim to those holy Employments Yea and all the Princes in the World who derive by dissent their Titles to their Crowns would upon such a Principle as this fit either very loose or with little ease in their imperial Chairs being never able upon infallible Proof to make good that they were the true legitimate Heirs to their Predecessors Which Considerations a posterioris as the Argument alledged doth a priori over-rule my Iudgment to determine that an infallible Knowledge that our Ordainers had full Authority to Ordain is not necessary to give us true Peace in the Exercise of our Ministry which was the only thing intended at the present By Your Fellow-labourer and Enquirer after Truth M. Iohnson Wamborn Decemb. 26. 1653. Numb III. Letters between Mr. Baxter and Mr. Lambe Mr. Lambe's Letter to Mr. Baxter SIR PERHAPS my Boldness may seem much in this Address to one unknown by Face but want of that is no sufficient Plea to restrain me knowing it 's no Impediment to the Communion of Saints These Lines are writ out of much Affliction of Heart and in many Tears which have run over at the Throne of Grace many a time about the Case presented The Reason of my Address to you rather than any other is because of some Converse I have had with your Writings whereby I judge you to have the Tongue of the Learned to speak a Word in Season being experienc'd your self in Spiritual Affairs and Temptations the immediate Cause of this Address was my reading your last Direction in the Book of Getting and keeping Peace and Comfort The Case is mine only as it is the Case of one who is my self in the dear Relation of a Husband it is an unusual one and therefore will require I doubt you more Pains to reach it and so is the more boldness in me but from you will be the more Service to Christ Jesus if you engage in it I would be brief but must of necessity declare Circumstances This dear Husband of mine Mr. Lambe is one that hath been devoted to God's Fear from his Youth up and hath desired exceedingly and delighted greatly to serve Christ Jesus our Lord the Ministry he was nourished and bred up in was Mr. Iohn Goodwin's for Twelve or Thirteen Years where he joined a Member and afterward by common Consent and Prayer and Fasting was ordained an Elder over that Flock and did labour in the Word and Doctrine then with great delight striving to adorn the Gospel in all Acts of Love Righteousness and Mercy Going on thus with Joy about Five Years ago the great Controversion of Baptism had some access into his Judgment through the means of another Member of that Body Mr. Allen a very Holy and good Man who having had long doubts about Infant Baptism was carried to the other by means of Mr. Fisher since Quaker by these Arguments presented Mr. Lambe was taken in his Judgment and in Conscience of his Duty did practice accordingly not thinking then but still to hold communion with the Church notwithstanding but then suddenly was led farther namely to love the Communion of that Church and finding not where to find any Society in that Engagement where they could have such means of Edification as they had left they were induced to join in a Body with some others about Twenty that came off by their means from the same Fellowship and so for Five Years have gone on till there is an Addition of about an Hundred Pray Sir pardon my troubling of you with this Story but that which follows cannot so well be understood without it Which is That now about Nine Months last past by some Experiences and Sights of the Faults of some particularly that of Fishers and
peaceable Reformation among us than to break down This Partition-Wall for there is nothing provokes more than this doth to deny such Churches to be true Churches of Christ. For do but think with your selves and I will give you a familiar Example You come to a Man whom you think to be a godly Man you tell him He hath these and these Sins in him and they are great ones It is as much as he can hear though you tell him he is a Saint and acknowledge him so but if you come to him and say besides this You are a Limb of the Devil and you have no Grace in you this provoketh all in a Man when there is any Ground in himself to think so or in another to judge him so so it is here Come to Church and say You have these Defects among you and these things to be reformed But if you will come and say Your Churches and your Ministers are Antichristian and come from Babylon there is nothing provoketh more Therefore if there be a Truth in it as I believe there is Men should be Zealous to express it For this is the great Partition Wall that hindreth of twain making one Then again This is that which I consider and it is a great Consideration also I know that Jesus Christ hath given his People Light in Matters of this Nature by degrees Thousands of good Souls that have been bred up and born in our Assemblies and enjoy the Ordinances of God and have done it comfortably cannot suddenly take in other Principles You must wait on Christ to do it In this Case Men are not to be wrought off by Falshoods God hath no need of them no rather till Men do take in Light you should give them all that is comfortable in the Condition they are in we should acknowledge every good thing in every Man in every Church in every thing and that is a way to work upon Men and to prevail with them as it is Philem. v. 6. That the Communication of thy Faith may become effectual acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Iesus It is that which buildeth Men up by acknowledgment of every good thing that is in them Lastly The last Inconvenience is this It doth deprive Men of all those Gifts that are found amongst our Ministers and in this Kingdom that they cannot hold any Communion or fellowship with them So that I profess my self as Zealous in this Point as in any other I know And for my part this I say and I say it with much Integrity I never yet took up Religion by Parties in the Lump I have found by tryal of things that there is some truth on all Sides I have found Holiness where you would little think it and so likewise Truth And I have learned this Principle which I hope I shall never lay down till I am swallowed up of Imortality and that is that which I said before To acknowledge every good thing and hold Communion with it in Men in Churches or Whatsoever else I learn this from Paul I learn this from Jesus Christ himself He filleth All in All He is in the Hearts of his People and filleth them in his Ordinances to this Day And where Jesus Christ filleth why should we deny an Acknowledgment and a right Hand of Fellowship and Communion My Brethren this Rule that I have now mentioned which I profess I have lived by and shall do while I live I know I shall never please Men in it Why It is plain for this is the Nature and Condition of all Mankind if a Man dissents from others in one thing he loseth himself in all the rest And therefore it a Man do take what is good of all sides he is apt to lose them all But he pleaseth Christ by it and so I will for this particular Thus far Dr. T. Goodwin prefaced and commended by Thankful Owen and Iames Barron worthy and peaceable Men deceased The Transcriber craveth judicious Resolutions of these two Questions 1. Whether it be lawful to be a fixed Member of a grosly Schismatical Church that is guilty of such separating from slandering almost all others as is here reproved when Communion with better may be had Quest. 2. How far others are bound to reprove and Testify against such dividing Principles Ministers and Churches especially after and under doleful Experience of their sinful calamitous Effects Dear Brother I Have felt that in my own Soul and seen that upon my Brethren for these two or three Years last past which persuadeth me that God is about the healing of our Wounds having communicated more healing Principles and Affections and poured out more of the Spirit of Catholick Love and Peace than I have perceived heretofore Love is arisen and shineth upon the Children of the Day and your congealed Stiffness begins to vanish and a Christian Tenderness to succeed The Prince of Peace erects his Banner and the Sons of Peace flock in apace It is a shame to be the last but a misery to be none God will bring his divided distracted Servants nearer together and it is Pity he should be put to bear down any resisting Saints among the Instruments of Satan and that any of their Carcasses should be found on the Ground when he conquereth the Enemies of Peace The Lord is about revealing to his Servants the Error of their Consoriousness Harshness Uncharitableness and Divisions and how grievously they have wronged him and themselves by departing so far from Christian Love and Unity He will let them see how much of the Cause was secret and undiscerned Pride and Self-conceitedness and want of Holy Christian Love while little was pretended or discerned but Strictness and Obedience He will shew them more fully wherein the true Nature of Grace and Holy Obedience doth consist and teach them by the Impress of his Spirit what he so emphatically commanded them by his Word to go learn what that meaneth I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice It 's pity we should not understand the meaning of Words so plain but it 's Sin and Shame as well as Pity that we have studied them no better after such a Memorandum and Command as this But many of God's Servants have in the Points of Unity and Peace been like those miserable Souls that are described to have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not Hearts and understand not these blessed Precepts of Love and Unity though none more plain and frequent and urgent for the time was not come that they should be recovered and healed though this Defection be not in the Essence of Christianity but the Degrees nor for Perpetuity but a Time yet it 's sad that such a Spirit of deadness should so far prevail that Men inquisitive after Truth and zealous of Holiness should least understand the plainest nearest frequent Precepts and so little feel their Obligations to such weighty Duties that the Lord is pleased to stir upon their