the judgment of the Magistrate and forbear But if our Ministry be notoriously and undoubtedly necessary to the just ends which is the edification of mens souls we will obey God in Preaching as far as we are able and humbly and patiently bear what is laid upon us by our Rulers 13. But in this case we will not intrude into the publick Temple much less lay any claim to the Tythes or publick maintenance for these are all at the Kings disposal 14. Nor do we take our selves bound by Christ to one place or one time or manner of teaching or to speak always to a great Assembly But all these are circumstances which we must fit to the end and success of our work And must take that course and with that variation which tendeth to the Churches good Christ that bid his Apostles when they were persecuted in one City fly to another alloweth us to be where we may serve him best If forbearing all Preaching for some days or weeks would tend to the Churches good as by procuring us liberty afterward c. it is lawful to forbear If Preaching often to a few be more for the Churches good than to preach but once or twice to many we may then lawfully chuse the smaller number So that in such circumstances that may be one mans duty which is anothers sin 15. We take it to be our duty in all such Preaching to take heed of any thing that tendeth to the division of the peoples minds or to the hinderance of the lawful publick Ministry or to their just discouragement But contrarily to concur and live with such Ministers If possible and as much as in us lieth Rom. 12. 18. in peace and mutual love and to do all that we can to promote their reputation with the people and to work all unjust prejudice and partiality out of their minds And not only to draw them to a due attendance in the publick Assemblies but also as far as reason will allow us to prefer still the publick Ministers labours honour and interest in the people before our own and to reprove all censorious whispers and obloquy which we shall hear against them behind their backs 16. And as for maintenance we expect not any unless any Minister be so poor as for food and raiment and the necessities of life to live upon the alms of others which is the case of very many In which case we hold it our duty not at all to be chargeable to censorious murmuring dissenters but only to the willing and that if God shall humble us to the begging of our bread we should not be so proud as to disdain it or to murmur at his Providence nor yet so selfish as to forsake and change our calling because we have no better maintenance But rather be thankful that we are kept from the temptations of grandure and fulness by which we see so many ruined and so great a part of the Clergy throughout the Christian world to be blinded and drowned in those ways of idleness sensuality cruelty and contention which prove the division the defilement and the dishonour of the Church For as we believe a life to come and that the preferring of the pleasures of this world before it is the thing that keepeth men from Heaven and is the common cause of mens damnation so we believe that no condition doth so much tempt men into this damning love of the world as that wherein the world is made most pleasing and most lovely to them And he that aboundeth in it with wealth and honour is liker of the two to overlove it than he that meeteth with labour poverty and reproach Yet will we not as begging Friers renounce Propriety nor cast away any talent which our Master giveth us to improve nor yet be so impudent as to be unnecessarily burdensome or lose our liberty by making our selves beholding and dependent but we take it to be our part to labour faithfully in our work and leave it to God what provisions he will allow us And those of us that want not but have to spare to contribute to the relief of them that want And we may be the more patient while we remember in how much purity the Primitive Churches were kept in their poverty and low estate as also the Churches of the poor Waldenses and those in Piedmont to this day and the Hodie venenum c. the corruptions divisions and calamities that have followed the worldly exaltation of the Clergy both in East and West Therefore we humbly submit to his gracious Providence that thus saveth us from the love of the world so inconsistent with the love of God 1 Joh. 2. 15 17. We take it also to be our duty the greater our restraints and sufferings are the more to take heed lest any dishonour or murmuring at our Rulers should thence arise and be cherished in our hearers minds which though it be not absolutely in our power to cure we must do our best It is a humane thing to pity the sufferers And if our Doctrine and our lives do make the people think well of us they are so much the readier to think ill of those by whom we suffer Which those well perceive who have the sight that their interest made it necessary to make us odious by voluminous reproaches But that is not the way with any but strangers For when those that know us know that we are slandered it doth but increase their dislike of the reproachers And they can read our lives as easily as the revilers books The only way to change their opinion of us were for us to change our Doctrine and our lives and to preach ill and live ill But that is a way that we must not take to gratifie any that would build their ends and honour on our contempt But yet the honour of our Rulers must be more precious to us than our own For it is more necessary to the common good And therefore we take it for our duty not to blazon and aggravate our sufferings too much in the hearing of the people much less to accuse our Rulers of them but to take to our selves the blame of all as far as is true and to confess which is the truth that it is for our own and the peoples sins we should have laboured harder while it was day as foreseeing the night when none can work Joh. 9. And the people should not have forfeited their food by fulness and neglect And alas how many sins of theirs and ours have had a hand in this calamity We take it to be our duty if we hear any speak a dishonouring word against the Powers which God hath set over us to reprove them and better instruct them in their duty and to warn them that they make not any of their love or pity to us an occasion of their sin And to remember them how much the common good and all our peace is beholden to Magistracy notwithstanding the
s no wonder if one sin be a temptation to another or by actions sinful only in this And that scandal is 1. When the action otherwise lawful is purposely intended as a snare or temptation 2. When it is not so intended but hath a strong natural tendency in it self to tempt and being unnecessary is the effect of great inadvertency carelesness rashness and want of love to others souls But scandal taken and not given that is not culpably given is when it is either from a necessary duty of ours or from a thing so harmless as that there is no probability that it should be a temptation to any but those that go out of their way to seek for matter of temptation to themselves by an extraordinary perverseness We think it no false distinguishing to say that it is one thing to lay a trap or dig a pit purposely for men to fall in and another thing rashly and carelesly to dig a pit and cover it to catch wild beasts in in the common high-way or very near it and another thing to dig a pit quite out of all ordinary passage of men where yet a drunkard or one that will seek a pit to leap into may possibly find it Scandalum datum is that which charity and prudence bind men carefully to prevent and Scandalum acceptum is that which ariseth not from any omission of the duty of him from whom it is taken But more of this anon We have told you our Religion but we are not now disputing against yours If the naming of such opinions be confutation enough the owners have confuted them themselves If it be not let them pass Our work at present is only Apology though we are tainted too with the disputing disease And so much for our Reasons for Preaching Christs Gospel against mens will The sum of all is this It is an indispensible duty lying on us as men and Ministers by the obligation of Gods Law of Charity and as Ministers also by the obligation of our own Vows or self-dedication at our Ordination to do our best in the exercise of all our talents Humane Christian and Ministerial to seek to save the peoples souls and so to preach or teach and exhort them in the manner which most conduceth thereto when and where our teaching is truly and evidently necessary But now in the Kings Dominions our teaching is to these ends truly and evidently necessary therefore it is our duty so to teach III. BEcause many of your contrary Reasonings are already answered before I will here annex the rest that they may not have the disadvantage of too great a distance 1. Obj. Your own preciseness and censoriousness maketh the common people seem mostly ignorant and prophane to you and then you pretend a necessity of your Preaching when you do but feign it by setting your selves more above your neighbours than there is cause Ans. 1. I confess that many of the Separatists are truly guilty of what you here object For when they have Unchurched whole Parishes of men whom they know not nor ever heard speak for themselves we that have come after them have found abundance of the people much better than they imagined But one error or extream will not justifie another Remember that we are not now talking of mens qualifications for visible Communion in the Church but of their necessity of being taught And we censure none beyond such cogent evidence as is not in our power now to be ignorant of I beseech you deal openly with us and answer us these few Questions and all the matter will be ended 1. If men do not know who Christ is or what he came into the world for nor what he hath done for us nor what the Holy Ghost is nor what he is to do for us nor what a Saviour or a Sanctifier is nor what is the plain sense of most Articles of the Creed or Petitions in the Lords-prayer have such men need of Teaching to save their souls or not 2. If men follow the world eagerly all the week and talk of it on the Lords day and love not to hear any talk of another world or how they must be pardoned and saved but swear and curse and rail and many of them are drunkards gluttons or fornicators and if they never teach their children or families or pray with them any more than Infidels and shew no Religion but going to Church or perhaps sometimes say the Lords-prayer and the Creed without understanding and if we advise them to prepare for death and the life to come and tell them the need of a Saviour a Sanctifier and of faith repentance and a holy life they tell us that they will trust God with their souls and not trouble their heads with things so high they shall speed as well as their neighbours Have these mens souls any need of teaching 3. If any of the people so much love their drunkenness and fornication and other gross sins that they hate the Minister that seriously though gently reproveth them and like Cain would see their brothers blood if he offer God a more acceptable sacrifice than themselves or slander and hate the most conformable Minister that is but strict and seriously Religious and is talking against them on all occasins have these mens souls any need of exhortation or not 4. If many of the people be weak in judgment that mean well and have only a glimmering confused knowledge of most of the greatest matters of Religion and though we hope well of their sincerity they have abundance of mistakes and sad miscarriages in their lives and are inclined to most of the real errors which the Debate maker reciteth and in danger of being carried into any opinions which are offered by men who by nearness or plausibility of perswasion come to them with any great advantage yea and are like to be troublers of the Church have these men need to be taught or not Let us but be once agreed that the true belief consent and performance of our Baptismal Covenant is necessary ordinarily to mens salvation and that without faith it is impossible to please God and that except a man be regenerate of the Spirit as well as of water and except he be converted and become as a little child he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and that he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his and that they that are in the flesh cannot please God because the carnal mind is enmity against him and that without holiness none shall see the Lord and that if the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost and how can they hear without a Preacher c. Agree but to this or any of this and sure our case is fair for a good issue Mark 16. 16. Heb. 11. 6. Joh. 3. 3 5 6. Mat. 18. 3. Rom. 8. 6 7 8 9 13. Heb. 12. 14. 1 Cor. 4. 3. Rom. 10 c. 5. And for the matter
true Pastors over that people without their consent and to nullifie the relation of their former-lawful Pastors 9. That it is not impossible or rare for the Usurper to have the foresaid advantages and the true Pastors to be put to meet in privater places and so thought Dr. VVild Dr. Guning Dr. Hide c. in the time of our Civil Usurpations And even under lawful Governours it was so judged by the Churches in the case of Athanasius Basil and multitudes of Bishops then cast out 10. That abundance of the Ministers now cast out were once the lawful Pastors of the flocks 11. That when the true Pastor is thrust out of the Temples and Usurpers have that place he is rather the Separatist that followeth the Usurper in that more publick place than he that adhereth in private to the lawful Pastor as Dr. VVild and the rest aforementioned then thought 12. That therefore in those places where the Relation of prohibited Ministers to the people is truly dissolved they are the faulty dividers that adhere to them But where it is not dissolved but the publick Teachers were never their true Pastors there those may be the Schismaticks that forsake their lawful Pastors though under that restraint 13. That where the Pastors that have the Temples and those that are shut out are both true Pastors caeteris paribus it is as good a proof that they are Separatists and Schismaticks who join not with them in other places as that they are so for not coming to the Temples that is neither of the inferences is good 14. Every man is not a Separatist that is not present with others in publick worship I separate not from all foreign Churches nor from all the Parish Churches in London save one though I be present but with one But he that censureth a true Church to be no Church and so separateth from it as none and he that accounteth any Church injuriously to be so corrupted as that it is unlawful to hold communion with it both these are guilty of culpable Schismatical separation but in very different degrees 15. A mans absence from you will not alone prove him a Separatist unless he be absent upon separating Principles 16. He that keepeth not local communion with a particular Church and yet honoureth them as a Church that may be communicated with and holdeth communion of Faith and Love and Obedience with them cannot be a Separatist from them simply but only extrinsically secundum quid and that is to be tried and judged of as aforesaid 17. If therefore they will admit you to communicate with them in their way and will not communicate with you in your way it sheweth that it is something in your way and not directly in your selves from which they separate 18. And no man ought to commit one sin for the communion of any Church 19. I may have more mental communion with a Church which I dare not outwardly join with because they impose some one unlawful word or action than with a more corrupted Church with which I hold more external communion because they put me not to approve their errors 20. When there are several Churches near caeteris paribus a free man should join himself with the Purest and to the most edifying Ministry ordinarily 21. Yet in times of suspicion and division it is fit to shew our judgment by our practise and to join sometimes with some less pure Churches that put no sin upon us to shew that we withdraw not from them on separating principles 22. When a Minister is not lawfully separated from his flock but another is obtruded without a just call upon his people yet if he see that the voluntary relinquishing of his relation is most for the peoples good that they may accept another that hath more secular advantages to profit them and guide them in peace he is finis gratiâ in prudence bound to do it 23. All people in England therefore are not in the same condition but to some it may be a fault which to others is a duty Were I in a place where the Minister is faithful and worthy to be owned I would draw all the people to attend his Ministry and would help him at other seasons as I were able in unity and love But if I lived where the publick Minister were intollerable I would do otherwise 24. The case of London much differeth from most other places in the Land as very many of them think that their relation to their ancient flocks is not yet dissolved so necessity putteth them out of the track of formal Parish-order 1. In the great Plague almost all the Parish-ministers deserted them and those that then stuck to the people found such success by the help of that awakening judgment that they durst not since forsake them nor will easily be forsaken by them 2. There being so many score Churches burnt down and the Inhabitants not gone and the conformable Ministers not officiating but in the standing Temples there is no reason that the people should therefore turn Atheists and give over worshipping God 3. Many Parishes being so great that the twentieth person cannot come to the Temples and many of the Preachers voices so low that half cannot hear them who might get in there is no reason that all the rest must therefore be cast off and left as the Indians without the means that God hath appointed for mens Salvation 4. And why then should not their Assemblies take the fittest time of the day as well as yours All men know that especially in the short Winter-days there is little convenient time left for the work of a Lords-day besides the time of your morning and evenings Liturgy and other Offices 5. And when you have as many as can hear you O why should you be angry that the rest or rather some few of them are hearing others that Preach as profitably as you Nay I beseech you before God judg try and judg what is the cause that when many parts perhaps of your absent Parishioners are at no Church but some in Ale houses Taverns or Gaming-houses and some idle at home that yet the few that are worshipping God with an able faithful Minister are more exclaimed on and written against and angerly accused than all the rest Obj. But many of the Parish-churches are half empty Ans. 1. It is not so with the rest and therefore you may see that the difference between your own Preachers is the cause Unedifying Teachers will not have so many voluntary intelligent hearers as others 2. As I said half the Church-full cannot hear many of your Preachers 3. When the Parishioners know beforehand that the Temple will not hold a quarter of the people they are never certain of room as not knowing when others will exclude them and therefore they seek another place where they may be certain For he that brings his family to Church every day upon such uncertainty is every day uncertain whether he
it was my judgment that it was not my duty without a special call to perswade any man to Nonconformity when it was but in the issue to perswade him to be silenced and to deprive the Church of his publick labours Therefore did I never to my remembrance endeavour to make any one man a Nonconformist that did not come or send to me for resolution in the case And some such also I put off as far as conscionably I could Though I may never perswade a man to that which I judg to be sin yet I am not always bound to disswade him from it If I saw a man about to tell a lye or take a false oath to save the life of the King from an enemy or traytor I do not think that it is my duty to hinder him Affirmatives bind not ad semper I thank God not that so many laudable Ministers conform but that they preach the Gospel and keep up so much of the interest of the Church and Religion in the Land I have met with some women and hot-brain'd lads of another mind that said Let them put upon us the veriest ignorant sots and drunkards we shall be the more easily justified for not going to their Churches But I ever reproved this as the language of the Serpent who insinuating into the injudicious would increase the sin and misery of the world For my own part I heard all Ministers where I lived who were but tollerable in the Sacred Office I came to the beginning of the Churches Prayers when I could and staid to the end I took not my self for a constrained unwilling hearer of them but the more any external imperfection made my devotion difficult the more I thought it my duty to labour to stir up my affections lest I should as the hypocrite draw near to God with my lips without my heart I remember what was said of Old Mr. Fenne the famous Coventry Nonconformist that he would say Amen loudly to every one of the Common-Prayers except that for the Bishops by which he thought he sufficiently expressed his dissent I know how unable the old Separatists were to answer the many Arguments of the famous Arthur Hildersham John Paget William Bradshaw Brightman John Ball and other old Nonconformists for the lawfulness of Communicating with our Parish-Churches in the Sacraments and the Liturgy I was exceedingly moved against Separation truly so called by considering 1. How contrary it is to the principle of Christian love 2. And how directly and certainly pernicious to the interest and cause of Christ and of his Church and of the souls of men and how powerful a means it is to kill that little love that is left in the world 3. And how plainly it proceedeth from the same spirit that persecution doth For though their expressions be various their minds and principles are much the same which is to vilifie our Brethren and represent them as odious and intollerable and overlook that of Christ which is amiable in them In which when they have agreed as Children of the same Father they differ in their way of serving him One saith He is such and such therefore away with him silence him imprison him banish him The other saith He is such and such a one therefore away with him have no communion with him He that eateth not Rom. 14. will say Away with him because he eateth And he that eateth will say Away with him because he eateth not Both agree in murdering love and accounting their brother unlovely and intollerable 4. And I was greatly moved in thinking of the state of most of the Churches in the world if I travelled in Abassia Armenia Russia or among the Greek Churches I durst not deny to hold communion with them When I go to God in prayer I dare not go in a separate capacity but as a member of the Universal Church nor would I part with my share in the Common-prayers of all the Churches for all the world but am joined with them in spirit while I am corporally absent owning all their holy prayers though none of their faults or failings in them having many in all my own prayers to God which I must be further from justifying than other mens And having perused all the foreign and ancient Liturgies extant in the Bibliotheva Patrum I doubt not but our own is incomparably better than any that is there But I will not conceal it from you that I am not such a Separatist neither as to communicate with Parish-Churches only If only the Law have turned any Pastors out of the Parishes and the people and they still hold their relation and communion not to say now whether they do well or ill I will no more separate from them than from you I communicate with you in Liturgy and Sacrament but neither as with a Sect or Faction nor as the whole Church but only as a part of the Church Universal and so are they I will hear you and I will hear them when I have a just occasion I will communicate with you and I will communicate with them as I perceive a call If each side run away from the other I will run from neither though I will sin with neither and must go from them that drive me away But I tell all that ask my mind that I am not so indifferent as to the Ministers whom I must join with as I am to the forms and modes of Worship Not that I call their actions Nullities or say that the Sacraments are invalid which they administer For their usurpation cannot rob the innocent of their right But yet I will not be guilty of countenancing and encouraging any soul-murderer in so great a sin Three sorts of Teachers I renounce Communion with as Ministers 1. Those that through intollerable ignorance and insufficiency do want those abilities which are necessary to the essence of the Ministry 2. Those Hereticks who preach against any essential article of Religion 3. Those wicked ones who openly bend their application not against different Sects and adversaries for that is common to all the factious and peevish but against the serious practise of Godliness Temperance Love or Justice and that labour to make these odious to their hearers though their Doctrine be sound from which they raise these malignant applications These are the men that I will not communicate with I confess when I read in Sulpitius Severus the History of St. Martins resolved Separation from Ithacius Idacius and the Synods of Bishops of those times and the confirmation of him by Visions and the antiquity and credibility of that History if of almost any ancient Church History in the main and the stupendious miracles which he is said to work it a little stagger'd me till I considered 1. That Scripture only is our rule And 2. That it was not from the Episcopal Order that he separated for he was one himself nor from any particular Bishops that were innocent nor yet from the
sufferings of particular men 18. And we take it also for our duty to pray for the King and all in Authority not with dishonouring intimations but in such a manner as beseemeth us to speak even to God in the hearing of men of his own Officers and not that their favour may make us rich and great but only that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty 1 Tim. 2. 12. And this not seldom nor formally but daily and earnestly And we take it for our duty to preach against schism sedition and rebellion and all principles which tend to breed or feed them and to use our opportunities and interest in the people to promote their loyalty and the publick peace 19. Also we judg it our duty to preach those plain and necessary things which the salvation of men doth most depend on and the people generally have most need to hear that is the opening to them their Baptismal Covenant and the Articles of the Creed the Lords-Prayer the Decalogue and the Gospel-precepts or more briefly the Doctrine of faith in Christ and repentance towards God and of the love of God and man to live soberly righteously and godly in this world as looking and hoping for a better Tit. 2. 12. And not to fill the peoples heads with needless controversies or vain jangling or contending about words which edifie not but subvert the hearers much less to perplex them with talking of the unrevealed Counsels of God nor yet to corrupt their minds by talking against our Superiors or against dissenters behind their backs or by aggravating the faults of other mens manner of worshipping God or breeding in them distaste of the publick Worship or talking against Bishops or Ceremonies or Liturgy nor by representing any sort of Christians who differ from us in points not fundamental as odious to the hearers whether Lutherans Caelvinists Arminians Episcopal Presbyterian Independent yea or Anabaptists no nor to injure the Papists themselves by making our differences seem greater than indeed they are Our office is to preach up love and not to preach it down and mortifie it which all those do whatever they pretend that attempt to represent their brethren as odious and to hide or deny or extenuate that in them which is good and amiable 20. Lastly we must profess therefore that though we take not our selves bound to prefer our Preaching before other mens nor to tye our selves just to numbers and circumstances of time and place nor to draw a party from the lawful publick Ministers to our selves nor to preach at all where there is not a real and notorious need yet do we take our selves bound on pain of Gods displeasure and of damnation to exercise our Ministerial office as we are able in a pious peaceable and loyal manner as poor assistants to those faithful Ministers that have publick allowance and encouragement notwithstanding any present prohibitions or unwillingness of those that are against it And if this profession shall teach any to conclude that therefore bonds imprisonment or banishment must restrain us the will of the Lord be done we are ready not only to be bound but to die for preaching the Gospel of him that died for us and seeking to save men from a sorer death And we ought not to account our lives as dear to us so that we may finish our course with joy and the Ministry committed to us by the Lord Act. 20. 24. But we ought to suffer without resisting or reviling which we may the easier do while we suffer not as evil doers but for preaching the Gospel of Salvation and teaching men to seek the happiness to come and to forsake their lusts and to love and obey their God and Saviour As we are the more unwilling that the Church should be burdened with unnecessary Ceremonies because if they be used with understanding the people must be taught their sense and use which we scarce have leisure for or pleasure in while they are ignorant of so many greater things and are so very dull of hearing so it is not a little of our peace that if we suffer we be not found Preaching about Ceremonies or shadows but Preaching that Gospel which at our Ordination we solemnly promised to preach And now having told you truly our Principles I shall next tell you the reasons why we cannot forbear our Ministerial work till bonds or disability constrain us to forbear it II. AND here we shall not form Syllogisms in such an Apology as if we were speaking to captious men but nakedly open our reasons as to those that are as much concern'd in the matter as we and should be as willing to know the truth 1. We take it to be Sacriledg and that of the highest nature except Apostacy it self to alienate our selves from the work to which we are consecrated and devoted By how much the nearer any consecrated person or thing is to God and by how much the more useful to his ends his glory in the good of souls by so much the greater sacriledg it is to alienate that which is so consecrated With you we know that we need not dispute either the name of a Sacrament of Orders for we stick not upon names nor the obligation You know the usual Exposition of the Answer in the Church-Catechism to the Question How many Sacraments c A. Two only as generally necessary to Salvation We differ not from you in our sense of this Your Canons enquire after all such as alienate themselves from the Ministry to which they were ordained and turn to any other calling We dislike not that Canon But we wish our observance of it might be thought but a pardonable fault It hath possessed me oft with admiration to see the blinding power of Partiality in some men that can see the evil of Sacriledg in them that alienate Church lands and Goods and Houses and Utensils and can see no evil in the alienation of consecrated persons What are the Cups and Fonts and Tables for do they praise the glorious mystery of Redemption Are they not his Utensils who is set apart to attend the Altar and to commemorate the sacrifice of the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world What are the Houses for but for the convenient habitation of the Pastors What are the Lands and Tythes for but for their maintenance while they do the work of God What are the Temples for but to be the convenient places of their and the peoples worshipping of God Is it a crime to steal the feathers and none to steal the goose Is it a crime to rent your clothes and is it none to rend your flesh Or to steal a tile or pick a lock and not to burn the house Is he saulty that robs your child of his hat or book or victuals and is he innocent that killeth him or that robs you of your child We must be speak all Cainuites here who like
and if most of the Parishes in and near London have men so tolerable that we much rejoice in it doth it follow that it is an error or schism to be acquainted with the rest of the Kingdoms or to believe our ears and the sad experience of too great a number in the land It is a fine world when it is become a controversie Whether that which so many thousands in three Kingdoms hear and see be true We write none of this to reproach the Ministry we would hide their nakedness if we could We like not the Glocester-Coblers writings nor the Centuries We only shew you that the reasons are invalid which are fetcht from the sufficiency of the present Ministry to prove it our duty not to preach 5. And if it were but the peoples prejudice against them it proveth their necessity I will purposely say nothing whether the common charge of scandal be true or false because I will not meddle with that cause But be it as it will if the people once think hardly of them or of their Preaching it is not like to do them much good I know the common answer is Who is that long of but of themselves and you To which I say 1. Suppose it be long of themselves must their souls be therefore cruelly forsaken I have wondered to hear and read such reasoning so often from some Pastors of the Church that should be the Fathers of the flock It is long of themselves say they And what then It is long of our selves that we are all sinners and must we therefore have no Saviour no Sanctifier no Ministry no remedy All the sins that you Preach against are long of the sinners themselves Will you therefore think you are discharged from Preaching But you 'l say That it is their wilfulness Ans. If there were no will there were no sin There is too much wilfulness in all the sin that you commit your selves must you therefore be forsaken But O how much better would it beseem an humble tender conscienced Ministry to suspect themselves and say Is there no cause of this distaste in us If it were partial hereticks only that disliked us for opinion sake it were no wonder but when the common people of our Parishes think our Preaching cold and dry and our Sermons like a boys Oration and our lives too little heavenly and holy what cause have we to fear lest it be too true or so much at least as will make us guilty of their distaste Surely it more nearly concerneth you all to see that you be clear your selves and to judg your selves before God judg you than to fall so heavily on the people When you have been as angry as you will men will be men and ears will be ears and as words will not satisfie a hungry stomack so chiding the poor people and telling them that the fault is theirs will not illuminate quicken humble and comfort them nor either do that for them which they want or make them that are indeed alive to believe that it is done when it is not Suppose your own children surfeit by their own fault and lose their appetite will you deny them one sort of food which they can eat because it is long of themselves that they have lost their appetite to another Will you say Eat this or famish it is long of your selves Shall the Physician deny his Patient that Physick which his stomack can take because it was long of himself that he can take no other Is this a method fit for Parents Nurses or Physicians to think that it is not their duty to help those that are made diseased or necessitous by themselves I beseech you think what else your Ministry is for and why have you your honour and your maintenance but to serve under Christ for the saving of those that would destroy themselves What enemy have you so much need your selves to resist and to be saved from as from your selves Oh that you better knew it And from whom else would you save the people Men and Devils cannot hurt them if they be but saved from themselves When I hear a cold and sleepy Preacher or hear Gods work done so ignorantly and slovenly as I would not have my boy to say his lesson I yet confess It is long of my self if this Sermon raise not my heart to Heaven For his very Text or one of the Scripture-sentences which he cited should have been enough to do it because it mentioneth God and Eternity the least thought of which should raise my soul. But alas my heart is cold and dull and drowsie This is my disease or else what need I come to Church for cure I knew I was faulty but I hear you in hope that my faults should be cured And if you do that which is unsuitable to your hearers faults and maladies you are faulty Physicians for no better curing faulty Patients To tell a man in a fever or a dropsie if bread and drink will not cure you it is long of your own disease is the answer of such Physicians as are like them in whose hands many thousand souls in the world lye gasping at this day If you shall say That God doth not tye his grace to the ability of the Pastor I answer such words are fitter to make ones head and heart to ake than to put the answerer to any difficulty Use such arguments about plowing and sowing about eating and drinking and when you are to chuse a Tutor or Schoolmaster for your Children or when you are sick and seek to a Physician say God doth not tye his help and blessing to a wise Tutor any more than to an ignorant one nor to an able Physician any more than to a foolish Emperick Or if you will fly to the distinction of spiritual gifts and common remember that God is no more tyed to means for the one than for the other and quoad media habitus infusi se habent ad modum acquisitorum At least set not your greatest Scholars nor sharpest wits to convince a Sectary or a Papist for Illumination is a spiritual Grace and God can work on a Papist or Schismatick as well by an ignorant Reader But sure the opinions of these times are not so much for miraculous operations of Omnipotency nor so much for the vanity of moral suasion and instruction that we should need to say much in this case if you could but turn it to a Doctrinal-controversie where their Interest is not against it God can work convictions and conversion by the unlikeliest means But he usually worketh according to the aptitude of the means he useth And sure I am that it is our duty both teachers and hearers to chuse the best and to study and preach even as we would do if all lay on our skill and diligence but to know that when Paul hath planted and Apollo watered it is God still that must give the increase But he will not give so
ever it be the question only VVhether this man or that man be fittest to have his countenance and maintenance and to be by him allowed to preach when only one of the two is needful we shall never speak against him for chusing according to his judgment as long as meer hereticks impious or intollerably unable ones are not chosen But if many hundred worthy Ministers shall be forbidden to Preach at a time and in a Land where many hundred thousand souls do wofully cry out for help as lying in damnable ignorance and sensuality and ungodliness in this case we say that no Rulers may forbid such Preaching 3. The Objectors seem to intimate dangerous Doctrine that if a King should not be a Christian or of the right Religion he lost his power over the Church which is false however maintained by the Papists The Heathen and Infidel Rulers had the Government of all their Subjects Christians and Apostles as well as others They wanted aptitude to do it well and therefore some of them persecuted But they wanted not Authority a King loseth not his Authority when ever he loseth his aptitude to use it rightly Christian Kings only can rule the Church well but others also are its authorized Rulers and there is no external coactive power at all but in the Kings or Magistrates be they Christian or Infidel 4. Christ himself did not set up a Kingdom of this world or worldly nor exempt himself from the Government of the Rulers Nor did his Apostles exempt themselves or the Church Paul Rom. 13 c. and Peter call on all Christians to honour the King and to be subject to the higher powers for conscience sake Mark then in this how little our case doth differ from the Apostles when they were forbidden to preach not by Usurpers only but by lawful Rulers to whom they professed conscientious subjection and yet must obey God rather than those very Rulers 5. Christian Rulers are the Churches nursing Fathers and have more obligation than others to build it up but no more power to pull it down They have all their power as Paul had his For edification and not for destruction It was never referred to them to judg as I have before said whether there shall be a Church or a Christ or a Ministry or whether souls shall be saved or damned or the Gospel Preached where it is necessary to Salvation or not But only by whom and in what order which best furthereth mens Salvation it shall be Preached If a Magistrate as a Magistrate may not forbid necessary Preaching much less may a Christian Magistrate as Christian who is more obliged to promote it This therefore altereth not the case 6. The Sanhedrin and Herod and other Jewish Rulers had such real Authority as Christ did not disown of the same nature with Jehoshaphats and Hezekiahs If therefore these were not to be obeyed when they forbad necessary Preaching then lawful Rulers in that case are not to be obeyed 7. The Arrian Emperours had lawful Power of coactive Government over the Church and yet the Orthodox Bishops never thought it their duty to cease Preaching in Conscience of obeying their commands Though they were forced oft to quit their present Stations Let not any Cainite here say that I compare our Rulers to Arrians For I only argue that if an Arrian Emperour had true Authority and yet when he thus abused it was not to be obeyed by forbearing to Preach the same must be said of others that have authority in case of the like Prohibitions 8. Christ setled Pastors over his Churches 300 years before there were any Christian Princes or States By which he shewed that though Princes are the true Rulers of Pastors yet Pastors are more necessary to the Being of the Church and to Salvation of the people than Princes are and that Pastors hold not their office from Princes nor at their will unless you think they had no true power till Constantines reign 9. Magistrates may not hinder a sufficient number from entering into the Ministry else the meaning of Christ must be Pray the Lord of the harvest to perswade Kings and Rulers to give leave to men to become labourers Therefore they may not hinder a sufficient number from labouring when they are entered 10. Magistrates cannot dispense with absolute lawful Vows to God at least about necessary duty This all Protestant Divines maintain in their Writings against the Papists who plead for the Popes power to dispense with Vows But our enterance into the Ministry had the nature of an absolute lawful Vow and was done by the Magistrates encouragement For in it we did solemnly devote our selves to the Sacred office and work 11. Magistrates are Christs Officers and Servants and have no power but from him and for him as the Justice and Constable are under the King Therefore they have no power against him Therefore they have no power to forbid the necessary Preaching of the Gospel and where it is not necessary we confess their power 12. If the Magistrate might degrade Ministers or absolutely forbid their work then it would follow that one Prince hath the Government of all other Princes Dominions or else that all Princes on earth must agree to the degrading of a Minister For it is fully proved by Divines of all parties except some of the Independents that Ministers at their Ordination are as Christians at their Baptism entered into a Relation to the Universal Church and not only to one particular Church And therefore he that is removed from one Church or Kingdom is not removed from the Ministerial office which continueth as towards an indefinite object Yea we are first in order of nature related to the unconverted world as we have capacity Go teach all Nations baptizing them will be Christs Law to the end of the world And if they cannot degrade they cannot take away the power of exercising the office statedly but only suspend it for a time or limit the exercise or regulate it by their governing power on just occasions and governing an office is not nullifying or destroying it Obj But if the Magistrate may suspend them and deny them liberty in his dominions then it is he and not every Minister that is to judg who deserveth such restraint 1. If you speak of publick judgment which is the publick decision of a controverted cause no doubt it is only the Magistrate that is Judg in foro civili No Pastor may enter into the Judgment seat and judg his own cause But if you speak of a private judgment of discerning every mans reason is the discerner of his own duty for he cannot do it without discerning it 2. The Magistrate is to judg publickly but not as he list as left to his own will but as an officer of Christ under the regulation of his Laws as our Judges are regulated by the Kings Laws The King may judg between an Infidel and a Christian whether Christ be the
Son of God but not indifferently as he please but only in the affirmative He may judg if it become a publick Controversie whether God shall be worshipped whether he may be blasphemed whether there be a life to come whether the Scripture be Gods word and so whether there shall be a Ministry whether Ministers shall preach in his Dominions or so many as is necessary to mens Salvation But he is bound before hand to judg only one way and hath no power to judg on the other side at all Else he might judg that men shall not be saved and that Christ shall have no Ministers or Church and consequently be no Christ. 3. Yet if Rulers do judg amiss in any such cases they are not by force of arms to be resisted though they are not to be obeyed Obj. By this pretence of a private judgment of discerning you will set up two Soveraigns or make every mans conscience his King and so the King having lost his power over conscience a zealous conscience will be the unruliest beast in the world Answ. 1. In good sadness would you have men have a judgment of private discerning or not If you would all this concerneth you as well as us If not then no man must discern that it is his duty to obey the King rather than an Usurper or rather than to rebel against him Such excellent assistance would brutish principles give to Government then men must not discern whether to preach or be silent or what to preach on Nor whether to be drunk or sober chaste or unchaste To think and speak well or ill whether God should be honoured or blasphemed or what Religion we should be of Christians or Infidels Then only the King must be a man and his subjects bruits that must use no reason and so the King be made a herdsman to govern beasts instead of men And then what Councellors Judges and Justices shall he have and O then what excellent Preaching shall the people hear Absolute obedience is due only unto God 2. And as to what you say of Conscience to bind conscience that is science is an improper expression but as to that which is commonly meant by it it is one thing to bind a mans soul to make conscience of his duty and another thing to bind his soul to go against the conscience of his duty Binding conscience is an ambiguous word We flatly affirm as well as you That the Kings Laws do bind the mind or soul or Conscience if you will so call it to a conscionable performance of all his lawful commands for nothing but cords and irons bind the body without the soul and he that obligeth not the soul obligeth not the man and he that obligeth not ruleth not As God bindeth by a primary obligation as God so Kings bind the mind by a secondary obligation by the power which they derive from God as men I say not only that God bindeth us in conscience to obey the King but that the Kings derived power enableth him to oblige the soul in subordination to God which is no more than to say that he may make Laws and rule by them But whether this shall be called a binding of conscience is only lis de nomine Conscience is sometime taken as largely as conscire and so we are conscious of our duty to the King But in Theology it is usually taken more strictly for a mans judgment of himself as he stands related to the judgment of God And so when the very definition appropriateth Conscience to our relation to God it cannot so be subject to man 3. Conscience is no King no Competitor with the King no Ruler of any man at all in a true proper sense It is but only a discerner of our duty and not a maker of it a knower and applier of the Law and not a Law-giver And is it not fine reasoning to say If a man must be the discerner of his duty to God and the King he can be no good subject 4. And Conscience discerning duty to God is it that is here to be orderly distinguished from Conscience discerning duty to man God and man are our Governours if we are not agreed which of them is the greater stay a while and we shall be agreed Conscience is but a discerner of our respective duty to each of them or taken strictly and Theologically of our duty to God only so that this is the question Whether when a man is conscious of his duty to God he may omit it because that man forbiddeth it Or when a man is conscious what God forbiddeth he may do it if man command it so that for man to bind Conscience if you will speak ineptly to duty is one thing and for man to bind us to go against conscience is another thing For that 's all one as to bind us to do that which as far as we can discern is against Gods Law and so the issue of all is whether conscience of Gods command or conscience of mans command is to be preferred And this being the plain English of the case is it not a blessed time and land think you when confident raw confused wits shall by such questions as VVhether the King or Conscience be supream deceive and mislead poor people in a maze and confound them as to all Religion when an ordinary wit that had been but preserved by Humility and Catholicism or freedom from faction might easily have distinguished and set them in the open light 13. It went for current in the Catholick Church not only for the first 300 years but long after there were Christian Emperors that the people were to chuse their Pastors Cyprians Epistle that earnestly pleadeth for the peoples power and duty in this kind and chargeth the guilt upon them if they forsake not seducing and schismatical Pastors is well known The common practise of the Churches also is known as well And long after there were Christian Emperours though some Dignitaries as Patriarchs and a few great Bishops were obtruded on the people by the Emperours choice when they could not agree among themselves yet the people constantly kept their former custom and priviledg and chose all the ordinary Bishops and Pastors in conjunction with the Presbyters The Bishops sometimes chose alone who should be a Minister in general as the Colledg of Physicians licenseth general Physicians But who should be their own Pastors was always or usually at the peoples choice with the Ordainers as every man chuseth his own Physician See Blondels copious Testimony de jure plebis in regimine Ecclesiastico adjoined to Grotius his Excellent Treatise de Imperio sumar potestat circa sacra Now this being so the old Christians never believed that the Emperour could justly so frustrate their choices as to make it unlawful by his prohibition for their Pastors to preach to them when their Preaching was necessary to the Churches good nor that the Emperours were the only Judges of
other Nor did I ever hear man or woman blame him for any word or deed nor ever heard him ask what money he should have but took it as it came And was indeed as a willing and loving servant unto all and was beloved by all though we had many more affectionate taking Preachers 7. I gave to every family in Town and Parish being beside a great Borough about twenty Villages a Catechism and some of my lesser Books and of every Book I wrote usually as many as my Purse could well afford And to every Family a Bible which either for want of money or of willingness to buy had none where any one in the house could read 8. After the Lecture at evening as many as had leisure and will assembled at my Lodgings where one of them repeated the Sermon and any one that would did by word or writing put in such doubts about the things delivered the solution of which would tend to their further satisfaction which I then answered And if they had any other cases of Conscience they offered them to me in writing that I might see whether they were fit for publick mention and then we sung a Psalm and I or one of them did pray 9. All the Ministers of the County whose names are Printed in our Book of Concord did agree seeing the Rulers that then were did leave all Discipline to the Churches will and constrained none and seeing we were divided about Church-Government to the great damage of the Church That we would all practise so much of the spiritual discipline as all three parties Episcopal Presbyterian and Independents were agreed in which we thought enough for our union and reformation and leave the rest without the compass of our agreement that so the Episcopal party might not say that we break the Laws or shut them out nor the rest say that our narrow principles excluded them from our Communion 10. Accordingly once a mouth I had a meeting to hear and admonish them that after more private reproof had refused repentance for heinous and notable offences where were present three Justices of the Peace as at their monthly meeting to do that which belonged to the Magistrate and see that we did not usurp their power and above twenty of the Seniors of the Town and Parish not as Lay-Elders or Officers to vote but as those of the people that had best leisure and advantage to see that we did the Church no wrong and two or three Pastors and three or four elected Deacons Where our chief trouble was with drunkards exhorting them to repentance and praying with them and to keep peace among the neighbours and maintain their unity 11. The next day of every month the Neighbour-ministers met at the Lecture and afterward at an Ordinary in an honest neighbours private house where if any of our Parishes obstinately refused repentance for drunkenness or such open heinous sin he was gently admonished and exhorted before all the Ministers But our usual work was a Disputation on some useful point in Divinity to exercise and edifie the younger sort where were usually present about twenty and among them some of the most learned sober Episcopal Divines that were in these parts who were constant or frequent helpers of us Mr. Thomas Good Mr. Mar. Johnson c. 12. Those open great offenders who before these Ministers also refused to profess Repentance I did three Lords-days as gently and affectionately as I could admonish publickly before all the Church and after that some days publickly prayed for their Repentance which if they refused not they there consest their sin and desired the Churches prayers for their pardon and reformation But if they still refused I declared them unfit for the Communion of the Church according to the Laws of Christ and required the Church to avoid their Communion and we used no other Excommunication But this discipline we used on none but those that consented to it before and not over any that would rather forsake our Communion than submit to it lest they should think I did them wrong 13. The people of the place also did for ought I know as much as I for the promoting of their neighbours good 1. By their unity and concord 2. By their humility and blameless lives 3. They met in the houses of many of those that were ablest to help them on Saturday nights to call to mind the last Lords-days Exhortations and on the Lords-days twice to repeat the Sermons preacht that day and sing a Psalm and pray together and no more The Reasons of these meetings I refer not to the enemies of all things that favour of diligence for a mans soul but to all that know what a soul is worth and what is due from the Creature to his Creator and what is necessary to the information of an ignorant man 1. Many families had no one that could read and such were also the most ignorant so that they could not do any thing in a holy use of the Lords-day but what they did at Church unless they took their neighbours help And time on any day is precious and not to be cast away in vain 2. These persons and many more could remember but little of a Sermon by once hearing yea twice was too little with the most And we preach not only to be heard and admired but to edifie souls and how great a discouragement is it to a faithful Minister to bestow his time and labour in preparing and speaking that which so nearly concerneth his auditors and to cast it as seed by the high-way side and to have it all die in the hearing and carried no further than the Church-doors If I taught a School of boys or sent my servant but on certain businesses for my self I should not be willing that all my words should go no further And old ignorant men do hardlier learn than boys and heavenly Doctrine is more hardly remembered than common business in the world 3. If the Lords-day had been but a time of leave to use such helps and not of duty we should take it for a great mercy to have leave to spend that time in seeking God and life everlasting which else would be lost or spent in trifles 4. Our people were generally poor labourers that could spare so little time for such things on the week-days but what they did in their Shops at their work that it must be now or not at all 5. Common charity and many Scripture-precepts oblige all good Christians to help to edifie and save their neighbours by all just and lawful means 6. We found by great experience that it greatly increased knowledg and obedience and piety in the people 7. And so far was it from causing sects or heresies or contempt of Ministers or private mens Preaching that it was the chief of all means that ever I found successful against these exorbitancies so that when those Pastors that cried down such meetings as Conventicles and
world to charge the soundest Christians with Hypocrisie because then they talk of the secrets of the heart which we cannot open for our own vindication 2. As for self estimation our judgment is that Pride is one of the worst of sins and Pride of Wisdom and Godliness is one of the worst sorts of Pride and there are too many guilty of it in the world and we would fain have leave to Preach against it In the mean time we spare not by Writing and Conference and such Preaching as we use to do against it what we can And we shall heartily thank you for any true help to detect and mortifie it more in our selves But remembring from my childhood that the sots and drunkards of the Town and Countrey where I lived were used to speak the very same words with this Objection against all serious godly Christians how conformable soever I presume to ask you these few Questions Q. 1. Are the Conformists more Godly or Holy than all the ignorant drunken unchast voluptuous carnal rabble or are they not Q. 2. If not why do they take it for a wrong to hear of much less If they are as I doubt not but very many are do they so esteem themselves or not If not why should they be angry with others for thinking of them as they think of themselves If yea Q. 3. May they not take it for a greater mercy than all the riches of the World If all are none of Christs that have not his spirit may not they give God thanks for it that have received it Rom. 8. 9. Q. 4. And do you never give God thanks for his grace of Sanctification your selves Q. 5. If you do how shall a man know that you are not as very Hypocrites in so doing as the Nonconformists When they and you thank God for the same mercy how shall we know but by the fruits which of you is sincere Q. 6. Do you know that there are any or many among us that live after the flesh an ungodly sensual worldly life If not you are strangers to the Land which you inhabit If yea Q 7. Do you think all these are in a good and safe condition If yea give over Preaching against them If not do not better men differ from them Q. 8. And must not our light so shine before men though not for their applause that they may see our good works and glorifie God Matth. 5. 16. 4. And seeing we are accounted the Pharisees Come on and let us recite the Pharisees Character and see who is likest him 1. The Pharisees were the chiefest members of the Sanhedrim and Rulers of the Church and so are not we Act. 5. 34. Mat. 12. 14. 23. 2. 27. 62. John 7. 32 48. 2. The Pharisees were against the Scripture-sufficiency for the customs and traditions of their ancestors Mat. 15. 2. 3. They imposed these Traditions as Laws on others and accused the Christians for not observing them Mat. 15. 2. 4. They preferred these Tradition before the practice of some Moral duties Mat. 15. 9. 5. 6. 5. They were so much for Ceremony that they were precise and strict in the observance of their Ceremonies Mat. 23. 5. 23. 25 c. and for them neglected mercy and saith Mat. 23. 23. 6. They were covetous and sought after Riches even by oppression Mat. 23. 14. 7. They were proud and Lordly and strove for preferment the highest places and the highest titles Mat. 23. 6 7 c. 8. They wore a different sort of garments which was openly to signifie their special holiness Mat. 23. 5. 9. They were very zealous to make men Proselytes and conformable to all their Ceremonies Mat. 23. 15. 10. They foolishly and preposterously preferred small matters before great v. 16 17 c. 11. They laboured to silence Christ and the Preachers of his Gospel and forbad them with threatnings to Preach any more Mat. 23. 13. Act. 4. 18 c. 12. They persecuted Christ and his Apostles and sought first to intrap them in their speech and then to bring them into sufferings Luke 6. 7 c. If you know any that ever silenced or persecuted any faithful Minister he is none of the men that I am speaking for 13. They pretended Law for all their cruelties John 15. 7. and accused them as breakers of the Law Luke 6. 2. 4. 3. 14. They urged Christ to decide State-Controversies about Caesars right which he warily avoided knowing they did but seek matter of accusation Mat. 22. 17. Mark 12. 14. 15. Yet did they accuse him as an enemy to Caesar and as guilty of disloyalty even to his crucifixion Luke 23. 2. John 19. 12. And were not contented to take away his life unless they put on him the infamy of Treason 16. They would not understand the meaning of the Law of Love or I will have mercy and not sacrifice Mat. 9. 13. 17. They were stricter for Tything and such Levitical Rights than for the spiritual worshipping of God Mat. 23. 23. 18. Their Righteousness was more in outside Religious pomp and bodily exercise than in the inward part and moral practise Mat. 23 24 c. 19. They pretended great veneration for the dead Saints and built them Monuments for an honourable memorial while they imitated those that murdered them and persecuted the living Saints that imitated them Mat. 23. 26 27 c. 20. They had their set-days of formal fasting twice a week turning even extraordinary duties and all into form and ceremony Luke 18. 2. And were inquisitive after them that conformed not herein Mat. 9. 14. Mark 2. 18. 21. They counted it the folly and ignorance of the Law in the common people whom they took for cursed to be such admirers of the preaching of Christ John 7. 49. 22. They used long prayers as a cloak for their oppression Query Whether they were a Liturgy or not If yea so let it pass in their Character If not then it is scarce like that there was any other Liturgy than the Scriptures in those times else it is most like that the Pharisees would have used it For 23. they went up into the Temple to pray and sometime in other publick places as Bishop Hall notably describeth the Hypocrite in his Characters that he kneeling down behind a Pillar in the great Church muttereth over certain words praying to that God whom he all the week at home forgetteth and disobeyeth and rising up commendeth the devotion of our ancestors He boweth at the name of Jesus and sweareth by the name of God c. This is the sense for being separated from books I pretend not to recite verbatim So did these Pharisees make ostentation of their prayers in the Temple but we read not of their family or secret prayers which Christ enjoineth to his Disciples that they may differ from the Pharisees Mat. 6. 24 They insulted over the followers of Christ as an accursed ignorant vulgar sort when they were
sunt secundum spiritum Hi sunt qui pro temporalibus tantum commodis ad ecclesiam convolant qui ad secularium formam in ecclesia vivunt ambiunt capiunt rapiunt praeesse gaudent non prodesse subditos opprimunt spoliant praelationis honore gloriantur pompis fastu luxu laetantur qui questum pietatem aestimant qui volentes sancte juste caste innocenter spiritualiter vivere cum cachinnis irrident hypocritas appellant crucifixosque comestores Talibus hodie ecclesia plena est ut vix singulis capitulis aut collegiis alios invenire contingat p. 122. Qui nihil non modo probare sed nec patienter audire possunt quod suae voluntati vel cupiditati contrarium sit Qui nihil de spiritualibus donis gustantes siquis aliquid de spiritu dixerit velut insulsum insipidum cum risu subsannatione excipiunt cum sibilis exufflant cum clamore contentione rejiciunt Bernard Serm. 33. in Cant. Vae generationi huic a fermento Pharisâ—orum quod est hypocrisis si tamen hypocrisis dici debet quae jam latere prae abundantia non valet prae impudentia non quaerit Serpit hodie putida labes per omne corpus ecclesiae quo latiùs eo desperatius eoque periculosius quo interius Nam si insurgeret apertus haereticus mitteretur foras aresceret c. Ecce in pace amaritudo mea amarissima Amara prius in nece martyrum amarior post in conflictu haereticorum amarissima nunc in moribus domesticorum Non fugare non fugere eos potest ita invaluerunt multiplicati sunt supra numerum Intestina insanabilis est plaga ecclesiae ideo in pace amaritudo ejus amarissima Pax est non est pax Pax a paganis pax ab haereticis sed non profecto a filiis Id. Ep. 249. Quis dabit mihi homines literatos sanctos in ecclesiis Dei praeesse Pastores sin non in omnibus certe in pluribus certe in aliquibus saltem But though we sigh and groan out these words of others we intend not by them the accusation of any Worthy men but to tell those that revile us for not being silent that we cannot possibly believe them who in this age perswade us that our labours are unnecessary The true Case of the Nonconformists Sufferings which they are said to undergo through Covetousness of gain We affect not to be querulous though nature inclineth them to it that are hurt nor yet to bring our Superiors under the dishonourable title of Persecutors else had we not so many years been silent as to our own defence But when even our Sufferings are made our crime and said to be chiefly from our Pride and Covetousness faithfulness to the Souls of men that are thus led towards the guilt of calumniating the afflicted and faithfulness to the interest and honour of our office requireth us modestly to tell the truth 1. When Gods marvellous Providence restored his Majesty we were some of us in Parishes whence the Parliament had before ejected others yet alive who presently took possession of their places in 1660 This is none of the matter of our complaint But on Aug. 24. 1662 we were by Law made uncapable of any station in the publick Ministry unless we subscribe declare and do the other Conditions required by that Law Not one of us that ever we heard was cast out as criminal for any error that we preached or any evil that we had done But for not Subscribing Declaring and Doing as aforesaid about 1800 or 2000 were at once disabled and cast out The penalty for every Sermon that they should Preach besides the loss of all the Ministerial Maintenance or Benefice was three Months imprisonment in the Common Jayl and 100 l. for Administring the Sacrament by any not ordained by a Bishop though otherwise ordained when Bishops were deposed and not to be had Those Ministers who could bring their Consciences to hold all the things imposed to be lawful did Conform The rest being solemnly dedicated and vowed to the sacred Ministry some by the Ordination of Bishops and some of City and Country-Pastors durst not lay aside their Office Partly because of their Vow conceiving it to be Sacriledge to alienate consecrated persons and greater than to alienate consecrated things and partly because of the notorious Necessity of the people Multitudes being ignorant and vicious and ungodly some Popish or erroneous otherwise and many Parishes not competently supplied and the number of fit men both Conformable and not-conformable too small in proportion to the peoples wants Yet they concluded that if once the Number and Quality of the Conformable Ministers were such as would make our labours unnecessary we might either be silent or go try to learn the language of some Foreign Land where we might be of use And we agreed that the Magistrate having the power of the Temples and publick maintenance we must lay no claim to either against his will And that though our office might not lawfully be deserted nor the peoples Souls yet the circumstances of Time place and numbers of hearers c. should be so chosen as most tended to the ends of our office the Churches good and mens edification and to the preservation of the publick peace and the due honour of our Governours And that love peace and submission to the higher Powers and obedience to their Authority in all things lawful was our indispensible duty with Patience under all that we should suffer for our Ministerial work 2. Some Ministers by their Patrimony or what God had otherwise blest them with were able to live when ejected without extremity of poverty but a great number had nothing or next to nothing at all having lived in places where they had but about 30 or 40 or 50 or 60 l. per annum and not foreseeing a time of want And a greater number that had some small matter of their own had Wives and many Children to whose maintenance their estates were very insufficient so that most of the Nonconformists as far as we can compute were cast upon the Charity of others for their own and families subsistence In this case some that pitied the distressed would have set on foot a course among the Londoners and Countrey Gentlemen that were willing for orderly help of those in their several Counties But so many rumors of plots and jealousies were then raised that men durst not undertake it lest they should be accounted Plotters against the Government and encouragers of those that the State discountenanced One of us therefore moved that our Rulers consent might plainly be requested and he was sent to the Lord Chancellor Hide to request it who said God forbid that men should be forbidden to exercise their own Charity to Ministers in want But yet though some talk and uneffectual attempt was made hereupon it was not prosecuted because mens aforesaid fears still
foreseeing the inconveniences of mens uncertain and venturous reports that nothing should be charged on either part as their assertions which was not by them given in in writing After this we received not one line of Answer from you either to our Reply or to our Additions wondering above all that when it had been said so usually by others that we could agree to find fault with the old but could never agree of any other in its stead we should never hear from men supposed not unwilling one charge against the Matter Phrase or Method to this day Our last three days being spent in hopeless disputation I have nothing to say to because of our forementioned agreement but this That when it had fallen to my lot to speak much and consequently to displease much I was since charged in Print with the unsoundness of some what there delivered about commanding things evil by accident which I never publickly answered to this day lest I should seem to blow the fire which all good men desire should be quenched But the very words of the Dispute it self were printed being not half a sheet of Paper than which I thought there needed no more to satisfie any living man of the truth that would but use sound eyes and reason And since that case is opened in a Discourse of Scandal in the second Plea for Peace I have recited this much principally to mind you of these few things 1. That we were not the last in seeking Reconciliation Unity and Peace 2. That we are the more excusable if we are not changed in our judgment because you never Answered our three last Writings given in We have since indeed seen two Volumes which are against two particular passages The one by a nameless Author who would have no Prayers in the Pulpit but the Liturgy or imposed forms but most of the Conformists practise the contrary to this day and therefore we need not write to confute him The other to prove that Lent should be kept not only on a Civil but Religious account and the antiquity thereof of which Dr. More in his Mystery of Iniquity Bishop Taylor and other Conformists have spoken so well that we need to say nothing especially in a case which we take to be of no great moment to us while each man hath the liberty of his secret thoughts and may observe it on what account he please But had it been of moment we had told the Author that he lost his labour in proving the antiquity of one or three or few days fast when the question was only of the antiquity of the forty days of which Daille hath given a full account 3. That our displeasing-importunity to have prevented the silencing of so many Ministers was not without cause and that we spake not falsly when we so ost foretold you on how many of the Clergy and Laity the storm would fall and that it would not asswage but much increase the divisions which all good men lamented 4. That we never yet had opportunity to give you or the world our Reasons against the New Conformity it being only the Old before the New was made which we were then allowed to debate So that as the Presbyterians on one side may say that their cause was never yet publickly pleaded by us so may those on the other side who could have yielded to the old Conformity but cannot to the new Since that time instead of Abatements and Approaches for Accommodation and concord Conformity is made very much more difficult to us than it was before which we speak not to accuse you much less the makers of the Law but to lament the unhappiness of this distracted and distressed Land and partly to excuse our selves Several men have several interests and apprehensions of things and the judgments which God will have executed upon a sinful people must come to pass though he will not be the author of any of the sin of them that execute them The Conformity of the Laity is made an hundred-fold more difficult by the Corporation Oath and Declaration and by the Vestry Act c. yet have we lately read the writings with pity and admiration who blush not to tell the world that the Laity or People are not put upon the renouncing of the Covenant But thus it will be where Love and Unity are oppugned and destroyed by those that praise them The Conformity of the Clergy is made much more difficult than before 1. By the new Subscription 2. By the new Declaration 3. By Reordination 4. By the new additions to the Liturgy especially the Doctrine of the Salvation of Baptized Infants without distinguishing of them that are Baptized jure vel injuria with right or without And the old Conformity is yet too hard for us in the Subscription and in the Oath of obedience to the Diocesans and in other points All which again we speak not to reflect on our Superiors whose Honour we desire to maintain but to make known our case and the reasons of our practice Now these seventeen years we have patiently waited on Gods Providence in silence as to the pleading of our cause so that I know not that ever there was so much as one Petition either for us or by us offered to the Parliament And when a multitude of Books have been written against us of such a nature and tendency as I will not denominate or describe it is the policy of some to do things so bad that no sufferer or dissenter can so much as name them without the imputation of railing or reviling by the use of such abominable words But the day is near that will set all strait it hath moved me many time to pity to read such Books as I have seen written for Conformity to think how easie it was to answer them and pro captu lectoris what lamentable reasonings go for current with some men We have been silent whilest Volume after Volume hath been published against us some disputing and some reproaching and if any impatient Nonconformists have been moved to dispute the Cause it hath been mostly such of the weaker sort who have done it without their brethrens knowledg and have done the Cause more wrong than right And who can expect that so many hundreds should be so many years silenced accused and writ against in such a manner and that none of them should be so weak and impatient as to speak for himself according to his ability and they that at such a time had not wisdom enough to hold their tongues could not be expected to have wisdom enough to speak For my own part I must profess that the principal reason that caused my silence as to such disputes was the fear of injuring the Church For as I have heard that old Mr. Dod was wont to thank God that no more conformed for the sake of truth and to thank God that so many conformed for the sake of the Gospel which they preached So
or the superstitious people that must long keep up your reverence and honour We see by daily experience that the Atheists and Infidels and professedly impious ones deride you behind your backs and come very seldom to the publick Assemblies Your Assemblies are more made up of such as dislike your proceedings than of these that are brought beyond all fear of sin or punishment 12. The Preachers whom you silence would do you less hurt in their permitted publick Ministry than they do now or will do when you have done your worst In publick 1. Your friends and multitudes of several sorts will be their hearers and witness against them for every word that they say amiss But in secret they may take more liberty to oppose your way if they affect so doing 2. Your kindness and their own and the Churches interest will more oblige them to forbear you when they have publick liberty than when you prosecute them as foes 3. And the very Assemblies of men separated by expulsion and violence doth seem to invite all the people to a sense of the cause thereof which a liberty of such meetings without danger and unkindness would not do 4. And if you keep them from Assemblies they will make the deeper impressions on the people in the families and secret converse which they use 5. Or if you banish imprison or hang them their sufferings will do far more against you than all their preaching I am assured that it is you that advance the reputation of many Nonconformists and arm them thereby against your selves The truth is though they are commonly the most hearty serious feeling Preachers yet some of them are weaker as to the congruity of expression than the Debate maker or the young Politician But when the people see them true to their consciences they value them much more than they would have done if you had let them alone Whether you like it or not so it is and so it will be Therefore it is you that fight against your selves 13. You take the way to make your Church an unknown thing None are to be reckoned for Christians and Church-members but voluntary professors of it Coacti non est consensus And as Protestants tell the Papists They may know who come within their Temples but they never know who are members of their Church because they know not who professeth voluntary consent and who doth it involuntary by meer constraint And so it may be said of others that go their way 14. By the course fore-described you will have a Church so corrupted as will be a continual temptation to the most religious sort to distaste it if not to separate from it When men that fear sin are the suffering side and fearlesness of sin and a conscience that can do any thing is full security from all those penalties it is easie to foresee what sort of people you will make your friends who will do you more harm than good and what sort will be more and more alienated from you And then the zealous sort of Ministers and people will from age to age be the sharp reprehenders of your vices And then that will encrease your enmity against them And what will this come to at last I will give you but two instances now to calm you Gildas our ancient Britain hath so characterized the British Clergy even in those elder and less tempted times that he doubteth not to call them Wolves and not Pastors and plainly to profess that he that took them for Ministers or Pastors was not eximius Christianus one of the more excellent sort of Christians What could a Separatist have said more of you And yet you can praise Gildas for it is not in your power to eclipse his glory and not endure the same words from any one that is near you The other is that oft mentioned instance of St. Martin who would not come to their Synods nor communicate at all with Ithacius Idacius and the rest of the Prelates of the Synods and Countrey about him though of the very same belief because by their cruel ungodly prosecution of the Priscillian Hereticks they had taught the world the way of violence in matters of Religion and had made the strictest Religious people every where brought under the malignant suspition of being Priscillianists so that having but once for the saving of a condemned mans life communicated with the Bishops being a Bishop himself at the perswasion of the Emperor Maximus he was as he professeth sharply rebuked for it by an Angel in a Vision and would communicate with them no more And what worse do the Separatists do by you as to communion And yet Sulpit. Severus tells you by what abundance of Miracles Martins credibility was confirmed Hear a little of the story from your own Hooker with his application judg you to whom I deny not but that our Antagonists in these controversies may per adventure have met with some not unlike to Ithacius who mightily bending himself by all means against the Heresie of Priscillian the hatred of which one evil was all the virtue he had became so wise in the end that every man careful of virtuous conversations studious of Scripture and given to any abstinence in diet was set down in his Character for suspected Priscillianists For whom it should be expedient to approve their soundness of faith by a more licentious and loose behaviour such Proctors and Patrons the truth may spare Can you endure these words of Hooker too short a scrap of that notable history and can you mark them and learn by them to know your party and to foresee the end and perceive what service such do the Church Nonconformists think that this is too like our present case 15. Sword-severities as coming from the instigations of the Clergy do abundance more harm than if they came from the Magistrate alone Experience telleth us that they have ever made the Clergy much more odious than the Magistrate Because the Sword is the Magistrates weapon And if he err in using it it doth the less abate mens respect to his person because it is but the misdoing of his proper work Or if he drive men into hard thoughts of his person it hath not much influence on the honour of Religion But Ministers have nothing to do with the Sword Their office is exercised by Gods Word alone and that is the only weapon with which they are to strike offenders And their office being only to govern by Light and Love the people cannot bear that from them which they do from Magistrates It seemeth a monstrous and horrible usurpation to them And if the Clergy will play the hypocrites as the Papists do and say We do not meddle with the Sword but only deliver them up to the Secular power to be punished when they tell the Secular power that it is their duty and drive them on to it with the threats of Excommunication or Damnation this will never reconcile the
people to their cruelties Of all beasts they love not sheep that have bloody teeth and fangs nor of all birds a Dove that liveth like the Hawks on flesh And when the Clergy are once made hateful to them I have told you that the scandal tendeth to make them think hardly of their doctrine and at least to run into some contrary extream if not to dislike Religion it self I have seldom observed any extream in Hereticks or Schismaticks which was not notably caused by the Clergies contrary extream Antinomianism rose among us from our obscure Preaching of Evangelical Grace and insisting too much on tears and terrors Arminianism rose from mens prophane abuse of the Doctrine of Election saying If I am elected I shall be saved whatever I do and when God will give me grace I shall have it and till then it is not in him that willeth or runneth The Quakers arose from the pride and vanity of Religious people from which they fled into the fordid extream And Separatists have almost always risen from the ignorance ungodliness the shameful disabilities idle negligence pride covetousness or cruelty of the Clergy This is true as the experience of all ages telleth us The insufficient and naughty Clergy make Separatists At this day the superstitious think they can scarce go too far from men that they account so ungodly malignant and cruel And the ungodly and infidel and cruel sort of men do think they can scarce go too far from the superstitious If you would read and learn of such reprovers as Gildas and Salvian and Nazianzen and Hilary and Alvarus Pelagius Planct Eccles. and Acontius and such like you need not have so many thousands flying from your Churches as from an house on fire or infected with the Plague nor reporting your Crimes as the Parliament-Centuries or the Gloucester-Cobler or your groaning Icabod have done 16. You should rather help to cure the prejudice that the world hath against the Clergy as envious selfish and cruel than encrease it The World already thinketh that the Clergy are so covetous proud and envious that they can endure no man that standeth in their light but like the great dog that hath got the carrion snarl at every little dog that looketh at them suspecting they come to take some from him It is their common opinion that the Clergy are the incendiaries and troublers of the world And that the worst Princes left to themselves are not half so cruel against the faithful Preachers and Practisers of Christianity as the proud and covetous Clergy are It is therefore your duty not to confirm the world in this opinion by seeming as envious and cruel as others have been but to cure it by love and tenderness and self-denial 17. Have you ever considered and regarded whether the Apostles ever took your course You say your selves that they had power to give men over to the Devil for Corporal punishment And yet when did they ever do so by any but desperate Infidels as Elymas or desperate Hereticks that denied fundamentals as Alexander Hymenaeus and Philetus Or whom did they so much as threaten Church-sharpness to else unless it were such a proud domineering Bishop as Diotrephes who would neither receive some brethren nor permit others to do it but cast them out of the Church prating with malicious words against the Apostle Paul blamed Mark but did not silence him He fell out with Barnabas to a parting but did not hinder him from preaching the Gospel He blameth Demas for forsaking him and loving the world and many more for forsaking him when he appeared before Nero and elsewhere They all mind their own things and not the things that are Jesus Christs And yet he silenced none of them that preached the same Gospel which he did He met with some Preachers so bad that they Preached Christ of envy and strife of contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to his bonds What then Notwithstanding every way whether in contention or in truth Christ was preached and he therein rejoyced and resolved to rejoyce and not to silence them Phil. 1. 15 16 17 18. Some indeed that preached the Law and as it were another Gospel he saith must have their mouths stopped but none that preached the same Gospel nor they by the Sword but by the convincing Word He that wrote as he did Rom. 14. 15. was far from silencing Preachers for not using Ceremonies or things called indifferent or for not taking an Oath of obedience to himself And will you prove wiser and better than the Apostles at the last 18. Methinks as I said before even selfishness should make you have some regard to your surviving names Think not that your party shall be the Masters of fame Think but on all history whether those that suffered in their times as the Martyrs and such Bishops as Athanasius Nazianzen Chrysostom c. have not left a sweeter name to the Church than those by whom they suffered Whether the name of the Nonconformists John Rogers and his followers and Bradford Sanders Glover Hooper Latimer Ridley Cranmer c. be not sweeter now than Gardiners and Bonners And think on the nature of your cause and ours When you have done your worst against Christs faithful Ministers and sought to justifie it by calling them Schismaticks posterity will enquire into the Merits of the Cause and the Evidence of their words and yours and their Writings at least will some of them survive when you have done your worst And do you think that they who read such Works as Amesius Hildershams Hierons Baynes Balls c. of old and as Gatakers Vines Anthony Burgesses Allens c. of late will believe that they were Schismaticks or unworthy to preach repentance and faith in Christ I have written so much against Schism my self as that I defie malignity it self to make posterity believe me a Schismatick When they peruse the Declarations Subscriptions Oaths and actions which we refuse and weigh our reasons they will judge otherwise than interest and partiality and malice will do at the present The next Sulpitius will describe us liker Martin than you and the Fanaticks like the Priscillianists and too many of your selves like Ithacius and Idacius and their Synods of Bishops which you may easily foresee when your Hooker himself in his Preface doth it by some Conformists already 19. You take so notorious a way to tempt the people to their present suspicions of your over-much kindness to Popery as that charity to them obligeth you to help to cure them of that uncharitable suspicion of you And I confess if I would have liberty for any one sect my self I would counsel and perswade men to take away the liberty of Religion from as great and worthy and considerable a part of the Ministers and People as I could that the cry for changes and liberty might be so great that others may be let in with them as if it were to gratifie them But
the service which he hath qualified us for and all our former time hath been spent in preparing for and so it is as a casting away our time and life 10. It will be a wilful compliance with Phariseism after the warning of their ill examples who preferred their orders traditions sabbaths and their own authority before the good of the peoples souls and bodies 11. It will be an encouraging compliance with Church-tyranny in exercitio if we will give over Preaching as oft as Bishops forbid us because we will not take their Oaths and be stigmatized with their PER I say supposing this had been the case 12. We think it will be a compliance with Church-tyranny quo ad titulum being ready to prove not only that the present Diocesans have no true power over us but what is given them by the King as Magistrates but also that their frame of Government is destructive of the Churches Ministry both Episcopacy and Presbytery and Discipline of Christs appointment 13. We are afraid of being guilty as things now go of mens Usurpation and injury against the King while we have the Kings License to preach and they tell us not only that the King hath not so much authority to License us as they but also that he hath less authority to silence us than they and that it is lawful to preach when Kings unjustly forbid us as the ancient Pastors did but not when these Bishops forbid us 14. In short When we think what a work it is to damn souls by starving them or to hinder their salvation our hearts dread to participate in such guilt considering 1. It is contrary to the very nature of God who is Love it self And we find that the silencers are ready to trust in Gods Love to themselves in the hour of their extremity And shall we think that he so little loveth the souls of men as to desire that they should be damned rather than saved against the will of a Diocesan 2. It is contrary to the very office and design of Christ who laid down his life a ransome for many and came to seek and to save that which was lost and would not cease when the Rulers forbad him to teach the people and demanded an account of his authority but would break even the rest of the Sabbath to save mens health telling them that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath and if Prelacy be of God it is for the peoples salvation and not their salvation to be sacrificed to a Prelates will 3. It is contrary to the sanctifying-work of the Holy Ghost who by the Gospel converteth man to God 4. It is contrary to Christs institution of the Ministerial office which was for mens salvation 5. It is contrary to our duty to the Catholick Church whose increase we must endeavour 6. It is contrary to our daily prayers To pray God to have mercy upon all men and to deny them his mercy and starve their souls is gross hypocrisie 7. It is contrary to our Baptismal-vow in which we engaged our selves to fight under Christs banner in the place where he should set us against the world the flesh and the devil 8. It is contrary to our due Love to our native Countrey for whose temporal welfare even a Heathen would have dyed 9. It is contrary to that peace of the Church which is pretended for it For it destroyeth the necessary foundations and ends of peace 10. And it is contrary to the very honour of the Prelates themselves which is set in competition with things of inestimable worth For it will make the people that believe the Gospel to take such men as prosessing themselves the Fathers of the Church do silence the faithful Preachers of it to be grand enemies of Christ and Souls and the Captains in the Army of the devil 11. All good men long for the propagating of the Gospel to the Heathen and Infidel World And shall we then be guilty of suppressing it at home 12. The Papists and all such will condemn us who will not give over Preaching even when King and Law and Bishops forbid them And shall we incur all this guilt by ceasing for nothing yea even now while we are licensed by the King We had rather be taken in the company of thieves in a pursuit than to be found among PER's and soul murderers at judgment Sion is the City of Salvation but in Babylon is found the blood of souls of whom for carnal ends they made merchandize The foregoing Reasons of our Accusation are sufficiently answered already I. Where it is said that our Calling is dependent on the Bishops I answer It is yet lis sub judice whether such a Prelacy be of God we mean the English Species that is for one man to destroy a thousand or many hundred Churches and make them but Parts of one Diocesan Church and without any Bishop under him to Rule and exercise the Power of the Keys over that one Church by a Lay-Chancellor in a secular manner and deny the Power of the Church-Keys to all the demi-Presbyters If these Diocesans were of God so is not every one that by worldly power gets possession of the place being neither chosen by the Clergy or the people any more than one that forcibly usurpeth the name and dignity What maketh that man a Bishop over me any more than another man Had they said the King I should have reverenced the answer at least Though the Arrians had the same in Constantius and Valens's days But when they trust not to this but to their divine right what is it that is their title They say Consecration I answer 1. Consecration is but a Ministerial investiture like Marriage of one that before had right by election This they deny and lay all on Consecration and not Election 2. But if so then if the unjustest claimer be Consecrated he is our Bishop And then the Consecrators have more power to determine who shall be Bishops than Kings and People 3. But who be these Consecrators Are they any Bishops whatever or some in special above the rest If any then any wicked Bishops may make more and undo the Church And then what if three Bishops Consecrate one and three another and three another over one Diocess Are they all the Bishops of that Diocess or which 4. But the Objectors confess that Consecration doth but make one a Bishop without a determinate Church but to make him the Bishop of this or that Church humane application is necessary But 1. Where find they in Scripture a Bishop made that was not made the Bishop of a particular Church I believe that a Minister of Christ in general and an Evangelist in specie may be made before he is fixed to any particular Church But not a Bishop if Scripture must be the rule 2. But if he be Consecrated a Bishop and not my Bishop or any other mans this layeth on me no
obligation to obey him 3. But they are forced at last to resolve all their power and our duty into Humane will or institution It is Man that must make him my Bishop And this they call the application of the power But by what Act is this application Is it by Election or by another Consecration or how sure they will say by Election And doubtless some one must first Elect him to be a Bishop indeterminately It 's strange that men must be Consecrated that no men chuse Then they chuse themselves And then the Consecrators must Consecrate any one that will chuse himself to be a Bishop But if not so they make the Consecrators chusers and therefore should not say that Election doth nothing to make him a Bishop But who are the second determing Electors They know not who to lay it on nor who it is that maketh a man Bishop of these persons and this place One will say the Consecrators and then they know not who these must be and we may possibly have ten Bishops at once another will say the Clergy which really here chuse not another will say the King and they must all come to that or nothing though they are very loth for none of them will say The People 2. But what is the dependance of our calling on the Bishops supposing them of Gods appointment Is it a dependance 1. Of Essence 2. For Operation 3. Or for the Order and Circumstances of operation And do they mean that we depend 1. On the Bishops first Ordination 2. Or on his continued Will 1. If our Calling as to Authority and Obligation did depend in esse on the will of the ordainer as such that is that we receive it from him of which more elsewhere yet doth it not follow that the continuance of it dependeth on his Will and that he may undo what he hath done For he engageth men to God durante vita in a perpetual office which maketh the Papist call it an indelible Character In Ordination a Contract is made between Christ and the Minister and till they null it that contracted it he cannot do it that did but Ministerially contract them A Priest may Marry man and wise but cannot unmarry them A Bishop may Crown and Anoint the King but cannot depose him 2. And if the Bishop cannot null the esse of our Calling than the operation is not at his Will For 1. the Esse is nothing but the Potestas operandi cum obligatione 2. Else it were left to the Will of Bishops whether Christ should have any Ministers and Worship and whether the Gospel should be preached or Souls be saved 3. But if it be only the Time place and order of our Ministration that is left to Bishops they have no power to forbid the necessary preaching of the Gospel on pretence of ordering it To order operation is not to prohibit it He doth not order my studies writing travel building who biddeth me study write travel build no more 4. As the Bishops of Spain at Trent defended the Divine right of their office against the Pope so must we ours against the Prelates Christ hath instituted the office of Presbyters himself which is more generally agreed on among Christians than that he hath instituted our Prelacy But if Dr. Hammond's opinion hold true that there were no subject Presbyters in Scripture-times we shall think it hard to prove that there ought to be any now And then all Ministers must be of one order 5. Suppose Scotland possessed of the Christian Religion under such Presbyters as Coleman Aidan Finan c. and after a Courtier perswadeth the King to call one man their Bishop and make him be Consecrated Are all those Churches and holy Pastors on a sudden by that act become such dependants on that Bishop as that they must give over preaching when he bids them 6. By your Rules men may enlarge Diocesses at their pleasure and if the King will make all England one Diocess he may put down all the Bishopricks save one and give one man power to chuse whether Christ shall have any Gospel or souls in England and so Christ must shortly be no Christ or Saviour without the Bishops leave II. To the second Reason I deny that by preaching we use any Prelatical power the pretended Office of a Prelate is not to be the sole Preacher but the Governour of Preachers If we made our selves Governours of Preachers we should assume their power But to preach is our own work Obj. You call and govern assemblies Ans. We govern not Diocesses nor other Presbyters and to guide particular Assemblies in worship was ever acknowledged the Presbyters work Obj. Yes under the Bishops government but not without him Ans. To do the work of his own office without him that should govern him could be but a disobedience against that Governour but not a deposing him and usurpation of his Government If a Physician Taylor or Shoomaker exercise his Calling when the King forbiddeth him yea or a Schoolmaster or Minister who governs others this is not to depose the King and take his power but only to disobey his power Can you perswade all Popish Priests in England that they depose the King III. The third Reason is as gross a fallacy supposing that our silence is but passive obedience but passive obedience as it is commonly called is but patient suffering without resistance If the Bishops excommunicate us or imprison us or deprive us of all Ministerial maintenance or take all our Estates we never resist them but endure all But when the first part of Religion is positive and the second negative will any say that it is but passive obedience to omit all our duty if a Bishop forbid it us Then it were but passive obedience to give over loving God and man and maintaining our Families or praying to God or doing any good if the Bishop forbid it us 2. And for keeping peace which you demand how it should be done I answer you 1. Satan keepeth possession of his Kingdom in some peace Peaceable unholiness is the surest way to hell 2. We are commanded but if it be possible and as much as in us lieth to live peaceably with all men But peace is first in the power of Rulers and if they will have no peace it is not in our power to procure it against their wills but only to do our part towards it If a Bishop should forbid all men to feed their children and servants with any wholsome food and then say What peace or order can you have without such obedience This is but to put a scorn on the Churches when they have persecuted them and to take away their peace and then ask them why they will not have it IV. To the fourth Reason That the Bishop is judg who shall preach I answer 1. Were the Bishops Calling justified yet he hath not power to judg in partem utram libet whether there shall be preaching or