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
none The Churches in London are burnt down the Parishes are many so large that one of ten or twenty cannot hear in publick If it be in the Bishops power to judg that nine parts of London shall have no preaching why may he not so judg of the other tenth part And if he may judg that there shall be no preaching then why not that there shall be no praying and worshipping God And if so in London why not in other places and so whether there shall be any Gospel Religion or Salvation In cases of Faith a Council hath power only to judg truly that there is a Christ a Resurrection a life to come and not to judg that there is no Christ no Resurrection c. And holy practice is as necessary to our salvation as right believing And therefore the Bishops may judg that we shall preach and pray and worship God but not that we shall not Obj But they are to judg who shall preach The Gospel is not cast out if two thousand of you be silenced If there were not Preachers there may be Readers and the Liturgy Ans. Let them set up such competent Teachers in a sufficient number of Churches as will tell a sober conscience that all our labours are become unnecessary and then we shall think further of the case But is it so in London now Or can any be ignorant that it is not so And God useth to work according to the aptitude of means and too many Churches in the Countreys have such Teachers as say over a few cold words as boys do their Lessons and when experience telleth us how few are the better for them we are afraid of being so hypocritally modest as to let souls perish for fear of seeming to undervalue your raw Lads or scandalous ignorant Priests and to overvalue our selves 2. Are the bishops absolute Judges or not If absolute we must obey them if they command murder or idolatry If not what are the limits of their power Sure it is Gods universal Law They have no power against his commanding or forbidding word none against him or against the common good and mens salvation If Popish and other Casuists use so to limit Kings as to say that they are Ministers of God for good and that they have no power against the common good and that all Laws against it are null may we not much more say so of all our Diocesans You grant that they cannot command us to sin or forbid us duty But then either we have a judgment of discerning to know what is duty and sin or not If not then still if they forbid us duty and say it is no duty or command sin and say it is no sin we must obey But if yea then if we prove in an error it will be our sin And if the Bishops prove in the error it will be theirs And to obey conscience before a bishop is in our sense nothing but to obey God before a bishop in doing what we judg to be his will V. The next reason is none to us For if Presbyterians or any other silence Christs Ministers causlesly and forbid that preaching of the Gospel which is necessary to mens salvation we abhor it in one as well as in another VI. And as to the last 1. We believe not that if Christ should ask us Why we preach not it would excuse us to say The bishop forbad us no more than if he ask us Why did you not feed clothe visit me in my servants The Reasons forementioned tell you why we think we cannot be excused 2. But if we could Nature and Grace incline us to do all the good we can do in the world And if thousands were like to be drowned if we did not help the Ship-master when he forbids us Nature teacheth us to prefer their lives before his will And when our first question is Whether according to Gods ordinary operation by means so many thousands shall be saved from ignorance sin and hell or be damned For you to determine that they shall be damned if the Bishop will and then come in with a second question Who shall answer for it is so horrid to us as frightneth us from obeying the Silencers as if we saw Satan himself perswading us to obey them Will you give us leave openly to tell the people where our controversie lyeth That it is the Bishops will that they shall rather be all damned in their ignorance and sin than taught converted and saved by Nonconformists But they say that it 's they and not we shall answer for it As if they said Their blood be on us But we are loth to yeild that you must be untaught and damned though we were never so sure to be excused Whose interest or work it is Christs or Satans to forbid faithful Ministers to preach the Gospel and do their office the light of Grace when you have all done will tell the gracious as the light of Nature telleth men whose interest and work it is to deny to as many their necessary food Should you deny the necessity of either word or food still Grace or Nature would from age to age resist you Of the two methinks those that perswade us to stretch to conform against our consciences that we may preach do look more favourably towards the common good than those that perswade us not at all to conform but meerly to give over preaching the Gospel The very motion hath an ugly aspect it affrights us as perceiving the voice of an affrighting Solicitor in it It amazeth us to think that some Scholars of great parts and humility and obliging carriage dare make such a motion to so many vowed and consecrated to the Ministry while in so many Parishes so many thousand souls are wallowing in ignorance impiety and sensuality and have not a Church to hear in nor a Minister to instruct them but must stay at home or worse for want of room were they never so willing Shall the Churchwarden on his oath present twenty or forty or fifty thousand in a Parish for not coming into a Church where two thousand can scarce hear the Preacher Or shall all those thousands be idle play or drink without trouble and a few hundreds of them be hunted and ruined that rather join in Gods Worship with a silenced Minister O how easie would it be to our flesh and how dreadful to our consciences to forbear and leave men to themselves Have men nothing to accuse us of as our intollerable crimes but the greatest and costliest duties that ever we performed in the world The Lord keep us all from seducing Faction and forgive us the sin which we see and which we see not and cause us to pray harder for his glorious appearing and most righteous final Judgment Come Lord Jesus come quickly Amen INTEREST real or mistaken RULETH THE WORLD Gods Interest is the highest with all the sanctified I. GOD's Interest is the pleasing of his will
AN APOLOGY FOR THE Nonconformists Ministry CONTAINING I. The REASONS of their PREACHING II. An Answer to the Accusations urged as Reasons for the Silencing of about 2000 by Bishop Morley Bishop Gunings Chaplain Dr. Saywell Mr. Durel the nameless Ecclesiastical Politician and Debate-maker the Counterminer H. Fowlis Dr. Good and many others III. Reasons proving it the duty and interest of the Bishops and Conformists to endeavour earnestly their Restoration With a POSTSCRIPT upon Oral Debates with Mr. H. Dodwell against his Reasons for their Silence And a Scheme of INTERESTS Written in 1668 and 1669 for the most of it and now Published as an Addition to the Defence against Dr. Stillingfleet and as an Account to the Silencers of the Reasons of our Practice By RICHARD BAXTER 2 Tim. 4. 1 2. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom Preach the Word Be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine London Printed for T. Parkhurst and D. Newman at the Bible and three Crowns in Cheapside and at the Kings Arms in the Poultry 1681. To the Right Reverend Dr. Compton Lord Bishop of London Dr. Barlow Lord Bishop of Lincoln Dr. Crofts Lord Bishop of Hereford Dr. Rainbow Lord Bishop of Carlisle Dr. Thomas Lord Bishop of St. Davids Dr. Lloyd Lord Bishop of Peterborough and as many more as are of their Moderation and love of our Common Peace and Concord Right Reverend Fathers and Honourable Lords YOU are not the men that resisted and frustrated our earnest endeavours and hopes of Concord at his Majesties return 1660 and 1661 nor made the Act of Uniformity or the rest by which we suffer nor have you been the makers of any Engines to wrack and tear in pieces the Church and Kingdom at such a time when they groan'd and beg'd and hoped for healing I therefore direct this Apology to you and all others of your moderation in some hope though evil men and deceivers grow worse and worse You are reputed among us Nonconformists not only true to the Protestant Cause but lovers of good men and no lovers of cruel silencings violence or blood Though I know but few of you I have reason to believe this fame and some of you have publickly declared your moderation to the world If then the ancient Christians might present their Apologies in hope to Heathen Emperors may I not do so much more to Christian Bishops to moderate Bishops and lovers of peace If yow are wiser and better than we you are as much more merciful and peaceable than we and as much more against all hindering the Gospel and weakening or dividing the Churches of Christ by unjust silencing restraining or persecuting any faithful Ministers or Christians and you are more sensible than we with what deep sense men will shortly hear In as much as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren you did it to me You have then more of the wisdom from above which is first pure then peaceable gentle c. Jam. 3. 17. and you have a deeper Impress of that holy LOVE by which all Christs disciples must be known Interest is supposed to Rule the World And the grand design of Satan is to set up some fleshly sinful interest in Rulers and Teachers and People which is contrary to the Laws and interest of Christ and then he hath made a Virtual War Carnal Interest will not yield and Christ will not yield nor change his Laws Carnal interest will expound them for it self and so secretly and powerfully byas the judgment that even Learned men when they warp and err shall not perceive it but verily think that it 's all for God We are commonly supposed to be against your interest and that this will make us continue unreconciled to the gratifying of them that have no low game to play by the contrived means of our divisions If your chosen Interest be the furthering of holiness and everlasting happiness by sound and serious preaching of Christs Gospel worshipping God that is a Spirit in spirit and truth and yet with all reverent decency and order and living according to the Laws of our Universal Head in soberness righteousness godliness and in love and peace with one another God forbid that we should be against your interest And this is your interest indeed He that is most for it we account the best and wisest man And if your Dignity Wealth and Honour be your Interest subordinate to the greater as it is highest in the ungodly I beseech you think not we are more even against that than we are indeed I had rather be ruled than rule but God must be first obeyed God knows I envy not your dignity or wealth I have proved in the end of this book that our Restoration is greatly for your interest and that none have done more against you than those of your own tribe that have had the greatest hand in our silencing and suffering Give me but a sober understanding man to deal with and I undertake to shew him that by a meer Reforming of the Parish-Churches so far as your selves confess to be desirable and just with such a limited Toleration of peaceable sound Christians as Christian Reason must acknowledge necessary We may be brought yet to an happy Concord and a better Reformation than England yet ever saw without doing the least wrong or hurt to the Diocesans It is usually said that England had more respect to the principles of Augustine in Doctrine and of Melancthon and Bucer in the points of Reformation than of Calvin Luther or any other And as to Cranmer Ridley Cox and the other Reforming Bishops I verily believe it I know no Divines whose judgment I more consent to than Bucers and Melancthons O that all our Clergy would read and weigh what Bucer saith copiously and vehemently for Parish-Discipline and pure Communion de Regno Dei de Animarum Cura in censura Liturg. specially de Confirmatione and what he saith of Pastoral Government Ordination and Order and of imposing such Ceremonies as ours It was written in England and for England And that they would read what Melancthon saith in his Epistles of the Pestilent design of the Papists that would lay the validity of our Ministry and Sacraments on an uninterrupted succession of Canonical Episcopal Ordination that they may make the judgment of their Councils more effectual than of Christ and his Spirit in the Scriptures and what he saith against these cheats And verily we have little worldly interest to draw us to be enemies to yours And I still profess that in all my experience those called Nonconformists did heartily love honour praise and hear a Bishop or Conformist that preached and lived seriously spiritually and in Christian Love such as through Gods mercy we have had many yea if he preached and lived better than Nonconformists they
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
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
and converted by it But our disease is deadness darkness and disaffection to holiness to God and Heaven and liveliness deceit and love to the world and fleshly things and without a miracle these will not be cured nor our souls be saved without lively clear and affectionate preaching agreeable to the sacred Truth delivered nor without the help of prudent conduct and the constant watchfulness of tender love and the example of a holy heavenly life O therefore pity our miserable souls that must be saved now by the Gospel of salvation or be damned to everlasting fire You tell us so your selves and if you would have us believe you shew us that you believe your selves You speak for good works and what better works than the saving of mens souls And how shall we hear without a Preacher O give us such for number and quality as will imitate Paul Act. 20. that covet no mans silver and gold but will teach us publickly and from house to house day and night with tears that will be instant in season and out of season reprove rebuke and exhort with all long suffering and doctrine in meekness instructing even opposers of the faith much more the tender children of him who is the father of mercies Alas we have enemies enow the Devil and the World and the Flesh are enemies of our faith and holiness and salvation and we are the greatest enemies to our selves be not you also our enemies and destroyers who call your selves our Pastors and our Fathers Think what it is for such a multitude of souls to be shut out of heaven for ignorance unbelief impenitency and ungodliness and to lye in hell for ever and how little comfort it will be to us in our torments to be told that the Order and Decency of Church-affairs did require it or that it was necessary to preserve the interest of the Diocesans O make not such merchandize of our souls Christ purchased them with his blood Do not you sell them for thirty pieces of silver He scourged the buyers and sellers out of his Temple do not you drive out the faithful Preachers He overthrew the tables of the money-changers do not you overthrow the doctrine discipline or Table of the Lord. He came from Heaven into flesh to seek and save those that were lost do not you contrive and labour to famish and destroy them He gave them his flesh and blood for food do not you devour their flesh and blood He preached in Ships and Mountains and Wildernesses and Houses to many and to few to rich and poor to ignorant women and the meanest and the worst among the people do not you think then that to read to us those words which we can every day read at home or to make a formal speech to us once a week is enough to cure such souls as ours There is joy among the Angels of God in heaven over one sinner that repenteth O do not you rejoyce to hinder the preaching of Repentance unto thousands Christ set up a Ministry to preach the Gospel to every creature under heaven and to teach them whatever he hath commanded even to the end of the world Do not you contradict him and say Preach not Kick not against the pricks Wo to him that striveth with his Maker Who hath hardened himself against him and hath prospered The saving of Souls is too good a work for any that is good to strive against And Christs Ministers are workers together with him and not against him If you take away from our mouths the bread of life it will be cold comfort and a poor relief to us in our misery in hell to tell us that they were pestilent fellows and ringleaders of a sect that would have saved us that is that they were not conformable to your Subscription Oath and Ceremonies Suppose them to be in the wrong and you in the right Why must our Souls be left to damnation because our Teachers think that a sin which you think you your selves have made a duty Shall not the soul that sinneth dye If they have eaten sowr grapes why must our teeth be set on edge If he be mistaken that thinks that it is aggravated Lying and Perjury which he refuseth which you say is but a thing indifferent yet Christ is not to be blamed for that And why shall the fire of his kindling be quenched his gifts be suspended his Gospel hindered his redeemed one 's forsaken because some of his Ministers were as you thought too fearful of offending him O hear these expostulations of miserable Souls before you are speechless under the Expostulations of the tender Saviour of Souls 5. You have other punishments enough besides forbidding them to preach Christs Gospel whereby to be revenged on Non-conformity Is their fearing an Oath a greater sin than prophane swearing If not let us pay at the same rates for not swearing and for not disobliging all others from a Vow as swearers do by the Law for every Oath And we will not desire you to execute the Laws as seldom on us as they are executed on them which is not I think for one Oath of Twenty thousand Or are we worse than drunkards or fornicators If not punish us no worse than they are punished Are we worse than petty thieves If not let us be put in the stocks and whipt as Paul and Silas were so we may but preach Christs Gospel Or if we are as bad as felons allow us our Clergy and burn us in the hand use us as Prin Bastwick and Burton were used on the Pillory so you will not hinder us from preaching to sinners the word of salvation Or put us in the House of Correction and use us as the Israelites were used in Egypt rather than forbid us to labour to save the peoples Souls Can your profound understandings find no way to punish a man that feareth Lying Perjury and false Worship suppose mistakingly which will consist with such intermission and liberty as is necessary to the doing of our Masters work The servants of the King and Parliament are priviledged from arrests and molestation which would hinder them from their necessary duty We crave no impunity for our sins above the basest subjects in the Land We will be thankful to be under no severer usage than Colliers and Bargemen and Seamen and begging Rogues and Vagabonds have yea constrain us to beg our bread in rags from door to door rather than restrain us from doing the work to which in our Ordination we are devoted and by the belief of a life to come obliged Have all other faults more suitable punishments save only those of the Ministers of Christ You can punish your child without forbidding him to love you or obey you you can punish a School-boy otherwise than by forbidding him to learn and a Master otherwise than by forbidding him to teach and your Servant otherwise than by forbidding him to work and Eighteen hundred scrupulous
it is our comfort that we have a King and Parliament whose aversness to Popery and their Law against all such surmises doth put them out of the peoples suspicions And I think you should do no less but more than any others to avert all unjust suspicions from your selves 20. Is it possible that any partiality interest or passion can make you think either that the people of England need not as much Teaching and Exhortation and Ministerial help to bring them to Repentance and Salvation as all the qualified Ministers in the Land together are able to afford them or that God may not bless the labours of such men as Burges Allen Norman and hundreds more that now are silenced to the conversion of many hundred or thousand sinners unto Repentance and a holy life And if you cannot or dare not deny this have you considered whether your reasons for silencing them be so weighty as will countervail the salvation of so many Souls and will comfort and excuse you at the bar of God And whether then you can justifie your selves by saying Lord though so many Souls persisted in sin and are damned that might have been saved by the Ministry of these learned grave and godly Preachers yet the good which we obtained by their silencing and all their other sufferings was greater than so many mens salvation would have amounted to And if deliberately you will venture on such a cause your selves what would you wish the silenced Ministers to do You say it is our duty to forbear preaching when we are forbidden But what if it prove otherwise and that we must be judged as sacrilegious for alienating consecrated persons from Gods work and as guilty of the blood of all those souls that have perished by our silence and neglect What say you Will you undertake to justifie us and answer for us and bear all the divine displeasure your selves which shall fall upon us for our obeying your silencing commands Are you willing to run all that danger for us But why do I ask you such a question when your undertaking would but shew your greater obdurateness and neither save us nor your selves If you say that the crime is ours for not conforming that is to be examined by it self If ever Episcopacy had two learned and judicious defenders it was Bishop Bilson and Bishop Andrews let not interest now make you differ from your chiefest champions I will add the words of one of them at large Bilson of Subjection p. 399. saith The election of bishops in these days belonged to the people and not to the Prince and though Valens by plain force placed Lucius there yet might the people lawfully reject him as no bishop and cleave to Peter the right Pastor And indeed the people so rejected Lucius that the boys in the street would not touch the ball any more which Lucius's horse feet had trod upon and to the last suffered all the Magistrates displeasure in refusing the Pastor imposed on them who yet perswaded them that he was Orthodox And the error of a Magistrate taketh not away his power as I before said but only his aptitude to use it aright And the Nonconformable people think that they lawfully adhere to their old known faithful Pastors and reject unknown obtruded persons Pag. 236 he saith Princes have no right to call or confirm Preachers but to receive such as be sent of God and give them liberty for their preaching and security for their persons And if Princes refuse so to do Gods labourers must go on forward with that which is commanded them from heaven not by disturbing Princes from their thrones nor invading their Realms as your holy father doth and defendeth he may do but by mildly submitting themselves to the powers on earth and meekly suffering for the defence of the truth what they shall inflict How you gather out of this or any words of ours that Christ and his Apostles might not preach the Gospel without Cesar's delegations and license from others the Kings of the Countreys whither they went I see not except you take the word Supreme for superior to Christ all which standeth neither with our assertion nor intention but is a very pestilent and impudent sophistication of yours Marg. Bishops may preach without Cesars leave if they submit themselves to Cesar's sword as the Apostles did To this I pray add his two pages p. 233 234. to prove that Patriarchs were not erected by Christ but by the consent of Bishops and that Archiepiscopal and Metropolitan Dignities were the gifts of Princes and then consider how far that Office of Presbyters which is of Christs own instituting is to be forsaken in obedience to the command of a Metropolitan or any power of mans ordaining Pag. 226. The charge which the Patriarchs and Bishops of England have over their flocks proceedeth neither from Prince nor Pope nor dependeth on the will or word of any earthly creature therefore you do us the more wrong to say what you list of us By supreme Governours we do not mean Moderators Prescribers Directors Inventors or Authors of these things as you misconster us but Rulers and Magistrates bearing the sword to permit and defend that which Christ himself first appointed and ordained and with lawful force to disturb the despisers of his will and testament Now what inconvenience is this if we say that Princes as publick Magistrates may give freedom protection and assistance to the preaching of the Word Ministring of the Sacraments and right using of the Keys Doth that prove that all Ecclesiastical power and cure of Souls do proceed and depend of the Princes right See also Page 362. And p. 259. As Bishops ought to discern what is truth before they teach so must the people discern who teacheth right before they believe Pag. 261 262. Princes as well as others must yield obedience to Bishops speaking the word of God But if they pass their Commission and speak besides the word of God what they list both Prince and people may despise them See him further proving that all have a judicium discretionis Pag. 259 260 261 262. Bishop Andrews his determination against giving unfit Kings the Sacrament and in what sense the Pastors rule their Princes and consequently may not obey them in the neglect of their own office I have shewed in the decision of the Erastian Controversie and need not repeat it yea he alloweth the very Deacon to deny an unworthy King admittance to the Sacrament And Chrysostome would lose his life rather than give it to the greatest that is unworthy How far then Christs Ministers must give over Preaching Sacraments and all if men command them so to do you may hence gather by these mens judgments And in the conclusion let me again remember you that the trick of twisting your interest pretendedly with Princes and making them believe that those that you would have to be afflicted or expelled are more against Monarchy and Loyalty than
are so large and the Churches so small and the Preachers voice so low that one of ten or twenty of the Parishioners cannot hear if they were never so willing 7. That many Ministers are insufficient and the Parson of the Parish where I live hath been suspended ab officio these two or three years or at least hath not officiated 8. That therefore the silence of all the Nonconformists is like to prove the damnation of many thousand souls 9. That if the King only forbid us preaching and not the Bishop we are not bound to such silence as he requireth 10. That our Bishops are not chosen by the Presbyters of the Diocess or the people but by the King whatever formality seem to contradict this 11. That the extent of their Diocesses is not jure divino 12. That none of them is jure divino the Bishop of me or any other such 13. That National Churches are but of humane institution 14. That what man instituteth man may abrogate or undo 15. That if King or Bishop forbid me to relieve the poor in true necessity or to feed any family or teach them I must not obey 16. That the prime part of Religion is in positives and but the second in negatives and therefore sins of omission are the first sins 17. That no sin must be matter of obedience to Bishops or any man 18. That the Apostles had their power to edification and not to destruction 19. That in case of controversies of Faith the Church may not judg in partem utram libet but only for the truth 20. That all Bishops power is limited and not absolute 21. That when they command without power only passive obedience is due 22. That Bishops are not made Judges whether there shall be preaching and worshipping God or not but only to order it aright and judg by whom it shall be done 23. That Bishops cannot dispense with the Law of God nor humane power prevail against Divine 24. That order is for the end and for the thing ordered and not against it 25. That natural morals are to be preferred caeteris paribus before positives much more before humane orders and God will have mercy and not sacrifice 26. That the silencing of the faithful Preachers of the Gospel greatly pleaseth the Devil and that he is so far of the Silencers mind 27. He accuseth not the silenced Ministers with any false doctrine 28. He chargeth them not with Immoralities or a bad life saving his supposed sin of Schism for preaching Christs Gospel when forbidden 29. He confesseth that Paul must preach though forbidden and that he chargeth Timothy before God and Angels to preach in season and out of season 30. He confesseth that the Pastors for 300. years preached when lawful Magistrates were against it and for bad them 31. I acquaint him that I my self have the Bishops ordination the Bishop of the Diocess License not repealed and the Kings License and yet unless I will say that I trust to the Bishops License as that without which all were Schism it is Schism still so that it seemeth to be made necessary not only to have it but to believe in it or trust it On the other side we grant as followeth 1. That we must not over-value our own grace or gifts nor undervalue other men nor pretend that our labours are more necessary than they are 2. We must not disobey our lawful Rulers by omission or commission in any thing which it belongeth to their office or power to command or forbid us 3. That if they command or forbid without power that which belongeth not to their office as that which belongeth to a mans private Trade or self-government or family-government c. if it be not in it self evil we should materially obey them finis gratia to preserve order and reverence to their office and that we embolden not men to disobey in other things though formally that particular injunction be powerless of itself 4. That if they command us that which God forbiddeth or forbid that which God commandeth we must patiently suffer what unjust punishment they inflict on us for not obeying them and not resist them in their executions by force Though we cannot say that this hath no exceptions as if a Bishop would ravish a woman she may resist him to save her chastity yet at least no resistance is lawful which deposeth the Governour or disableth him to govern 5. We think it not lawful to invade or take the publick Temples or Tythes or other maintenance of the publick Ministers against the Kings will or without authority 6. We believe that lawful Rulers have power to forbid such ministers to preach in this or that place or any where in their dominions whose preaching is such as tendeth to do more harm than good 7. Had we any reasonable conviction that our Ministry is unnecessary we would obey our Rulers though they silenced us causlesly and would seek some other place or way of serving God 8. In those times places and circumstances which perswade us that more hurt than good will come by it if we preach we will then and there forbear it though it be not as an act of formal obedience nor a desertion of our Office or of the exercise of it at other times 9. We judg it our duty to further the good success of the Conformable Ministers to the utmost of our power 10. And we take Schism to be a great sin and that which we are bound to do the best we can not only to avoid our selves but to cure or hinder in others But we cannot in our present case give over the preaching of Christs Gospel for the Reasons before given 1. We judg it a violation of the grand Law of Charity to agree with the Bishops that the people shall be damned by thousands and content our selves that not we but they shall answer for it 2. We judge it perfidiousness to violate our Ministerial Covenant with God in which we gave up our selves to his service 3. We judge it also heinous sacriledge it being a holy work to which we are devoted 4. It is an Idolatrous setting up mans will and power above and against Gods 5. It is a preferring of pretended Order before the thing ordered and that which is less than sacrifice even sin before Mercy yea the greatest mercy 6. It is a pleasing of the Devil who is the great enemy of Preaching the Gospel and of sinners repentance and salvation and whose instruments the hinderers of the Gospel are we leave to consideration 7. It is a contradicting of the prayer taught us by Christ Pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers For we are sure he hath not sent forth supernumeraries 8. It is a wilful running on Christs damning sentence after his premonition Matth. 25. by omitting greater matters than feeding cloathing visiting c. 9. It will be a burying our talent with the unprofitable servant and denying God
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