uppermost they are as severe as any The former is natural for all men that when they are mastered or like to be conquered they cry out for Quarter and plead moderation as we find the Church of England shewed as much of it as any when there was occasion and ground for it What condescensions and fair promises did they allow K. Charles II. to make yea and to take the Coronation Oath of Scotland to maintain Presbyterian Government there and also to give Solemn Protestations at Breda to Dissenters of England confirmed by a Declaration for Liberty to all tender Consciences but soon after the Restoration all was violated and soon forgot The next time they were under any fears was at the Discovery of the Grand Popish Plot and fresh pretences for moderation were then Published but continued not long ending in a Sham plot and a new Persecution And the next trouble the Church of England was in was when the Seven Bishops were in the Tower only for refusing to engage upon their Honours to answer at the K Bench to what should be objected against them and then in their Petition to the late K they professed a great deal of tenderness to Dissenters and about the time of the Prince of O. his landing all their Discourse was of Vnion and Comprehension and afterwards confirmed it by an Address and their Majesties promised to endeavour an Agreement between the Church of England and Protestant Dissenters and in adhering to his Royal Promise and design first secured to Dissenters an established Liberty and soon after issued forth a Commission founded on the Preface to the Common Prayer which the Convocation after they were secured and safe from their late fears and troubles took no further notice of but in opposition to all their lately professed tenderness refused to part with one indifferent Ceremony in obedience to their Majesties Authority or for Vnion with Dissenters That the God of all Grace would bless the World with a better Spirit is the Prayer of Sirs Your devoted Servant in all Civility FRANCIS MACKEMIE Barbades December 28. 1697. POSTSCRIPT AMong the misrepresentadons of the principles and practices of the Presbyterians in this Island I cannot for bear taking special notice of one because it strikes so very deep into the Vitals of Religion 'T is that the Doctrine of Election and Reprobation as taught by the rigid Presbyterians of the Kiâ—k of Scotland is contrary to the Word of God and a great discouragement to Piety Tho' I owe not my birth but a part of my Education only to that Kingdom yet having read many of their Books heard several of their Ministers for several years on all Doctrines of the Christian Religion and having alwayes with me their Confession of Faith their Catechisms with many found and excellent Treatises I do profess my self fully of their Sentiments in this and all other Doctrines of Faith and in Gods strength shall never swerve nor prevaricate And in their behalf do profess and declare they hold no Predestination but what is maintained in all the Calvinist Reformed Churches abroad and by all the Presbyterians in England and Ireland and further the same which is held and maintained by the Estabeished Church of England If I prove this I hope you will own they have been palpably misrepresented And that I may effectually and undenyably do it I shall first lay down the Doctrine of the Church of Scotland both from their Catechisms and Confession of Faith In their Shorter Catechism learned taught by many in the Church of England they teach That the Decrees of God are the eternal Counsel of his will whereby for his own Glory he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass In their larger Catechism they are some-what fuller and teach that the Decrees of God are the wise free and holy acts of the Counsel of his Will whereby from all Eternity he hath for his own Glory unchangeably foreordained whatsoever comes to pass in time especially concerning Angels and Men And in the following Q they further teach That God by an eternal and immutable Decree out of his meer Love for the Praise of his Glorious Grace to be manifested in due time hath Elected some Angels to Glory and in Christ hath chosen some men unto Eternal Life and the means thereof and according to his Sovereign power and the unsearcheable Counsel of his Will whereby he extendeth or with holdeth favour as he pleaseth hath passed by and fore-ordained the rest to dishonour and wrath to be for their Sin inflicted to the praise of his Justice And what is for our purpose in their Confession of Faith is this 3d. Parag. By the Decrees of God for the manifestation of his Glory some Men and Angels are Predestinated unto everlasting Life and others sore-ordained to everlasting Death 4. Those Angels and Men thus predestinated fore ordained to everlasting Life are particularly and unchangeably designed and their number so certain and definite that it cannot be either encreased or diminished 5. Those of mankind that are predestinated unto Life God before the Foundation of the World was laid according to his eternal and immutable purpose and the secret Counsel and good pleasure of his Will hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting Glory out of his meer free grace and love without any fore-sight of Faith or good Works or perseverance in either of them or any other thing in the Creature as Causes or Conditions moving him thereunto and all to the praise of his glorious Grace 6 As God hath appointed the Elect unto Glory so hath he by the Eternal and most free purpose of his Will fore-ordained all the means thereunto wherefore they who are Elected being fallen in Adam are redeemed by Christ are effectually called unto Faith in Christ by his Spirit working in due season are Justifyed Adopted and Sanctifyed and kept by his power through Faith unto Salvation neither are any other redeemed by Christ Effectually Justifyed Adopted Sanctifyed Saved but the Elect only 7. The rest of mankind God was pleased according to the unsearchable Counsel of his own Will whereby he extendeth or with holdeth mercy as he pleaseth for the glory of his Sovereign power over his Creatures to pass by and ordain them to Dishonour and Wrath for their Sin to the praise of his glorious Justice 8. The Doctrine of this high Mystery of Predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care that men attending the will of God revealed in his Word and yielding obedience thereunto may from the certainty of their Effectual Vocation be assured of their Eternal Election So shall this Doctrine afford matter of Praise Reverence and Admiration and of humility diligence and abundance of consolation to all that sincerely obey the Gospel Let any man make it appear that this is not the unanimous Doctrine of the Church of Scotland and that they teach any other Doctrine disagreeing hereunto Et erit mihi magnus Apollo I must
TRUTHS In a true LIGHT OR A Pastoral LETTER to the Reformed Protestants IN BARBADOS Vindicating the Non-Conformists from the Misrepresentations commonly made of them in that Island and in other places AND Demonstrating That they are indeed the truest and soundest part of the Church of ENGLAND From Francis Mackemie Minister of the Gospel 2 Pet. 3.17 Beloved Seeing ye know these things before beware Lest ye fall from your own stedfastness EDINBVRGH Printed by the Successors of Andrew Anderson 1699. Truths in a true Light An Epistle To the Reformed PROTESTANTS of Barbados Gentlemen IT has been too notorious what Diabolical Designs and base Plots the Emissaries of Rome have contrived promoted and attempted to over throw that Glorious work and cause of Reformation or to lead or cajole us back into our antichristian Slavery Idolatry and Supersttion and for Effectuating thereof they have not been wanting neither have stuck at any thing to widen our breaches augment our Differences hinder our mutual Condescentions and our endeavoured Accommodations raising implacable heats and keeping us asunder by Distinguishing Characters and Discriminating Names setting up contrary Interests and often raising violent Storms of bitter Persecutions instigating the Ascendent Party still to trample upon the Non-Con's and by all means to render them black and odious and all this and much more to ruin Protestants and weaken the Protestant Interest And it deserves to be bewailed that in all their Jesuitical Intrigues and evil designs they soon found too many Protestant Tools unadvisedly to concur with such sworn Enemies of the Reformation too much whereof appeared in the late Reigns I wish there may not be found among us still too many Incendiaries to raise Dissentions and stir up unchristian Heats among Reformed Protestants that we may become a prey still to the Common Enemy But blessed be God for our seasonable and happy Revolution that has in a great measure broke the deep projects of that Jesuitical Party and by an Established Liberty to all Dissenting Protestants has bound the Hands of former Persecutors I wish the Persecuting Spirit and Inclination were gone too and that many unawares were not promoting and encouraging again the old Malice and grand Designs of the common Enemy by their Tongues in railing reproaching and decrying a great part of the purest Reformation under the Discriminating names of Presbyterian Puritan Fanatick Calvinist and what not And how many are simply led away by a hot violent party and suffer themselves to be imposed upon who know not the matters of our lesser Differences and say little against Intolerable Popery and the most dangerous Haereticks but all their Industrious Venom is spewed out and levelled against their Protestant Brethren of the same Reformation and of the same Kingdom and yet seem to be in Charity with the same particular Profession in other parts of the World All who study Histories of the Protestant Reformation may be assured that the Reformed Church of England consisted all along of two sorts of men first many Sober Moderate Sound and Tender men who never were for Persecution of Protestants and would willingly have parted with many unscriptural Ceremonies for the Churches Peace and gaining Dissenters and the Seed or Root of these have been from the Original of the Reformation and abounded in the Reigns of Q. Eliz. and K J I. of England and were Anti-arminian and faithful to the first Doctrine and Protestant Articles of the Church of England and continued the prevailing party until the Reign of Ch. the I. There was also another hot and Violent party who were ready to brand the Sober and Serious of their own Church as Puritans Precisians and Fanaticks betrayed their own Articles embraced Arminianism and grew more zealouâ— for Rites and Ceremonies than for the Essentials and Substantials of Religion crying up Vniformity and Conformity more than true Christianity acting Supra-Canon and instead of coming farther from Rome by a further Reformation which our first Reformers designed and the moderate party desired they both in Doctrine Practice and Ceremonies made several advances towards Rome as Dr. Du Moulin sometimes History-Professor of Oxford relates in his Short History thereof which advances gave Popes and Papists no small hopes of Englands return to Rome as a Jesuit affirms shewing the changes in the Church of England and its affinity to Rome for he saith The Doctrine is altered in many things The Pope is no longer Anti christ Images are tollerated Praedestination on fore seen works Vniversal Grace Inherent Righteousness are all granted Free-Will is Preached up they have given to the 39. Articles a Catholick sence they acknowledge the Authority of the Church in deciding Controversies about matters of Faith and interpretation of Scripture they make frequent use of the more venerable Names of Priests and Altars and to be a Calvinist in England is to be a Traitor and a Heretick or worse to which may be added bowing to the East and Altar and setting up unlighted Candles in Churches which Dr Warmestry one of their own spoke against and said That they were a fit Emblem of our Ignorant and unprofitable Clergy which filled up the Candlesticks of the Churches but gave no Light And this party was Rampant in Lauds time who had a party of Monstrous tools as Montague Heilin Pocâ—…nton Dow Couzins Shelford Beel Stafford Watts and Fedder of no small figures with many more who under their own hands Publish'd Arminian and down-right Popish Doctrines and Tyrannical and enslaving Maxims of State and were so countenanced and protected by the King and some of the Court that they carried all before them and it was no small Crime for any to speak against their Romish Innovations and Intollerable Vsurpations both in Church and State as in the Cruel unchristian and Illegal punishments inflicted on some of their own Communion until their Designs were seasonably opposed checked by such of their Church who were sincere and uncorrupted when backt by Lords and Commons Assâ—mbled in Parliament in the year 1640 complaining in bold speeches of those that went after the Romish Way and though Laud had justly meted to him what he measured out to others which gave a considerable blow to his party and by that Revolution of Affairs greatly frustrated the hopes of Rome who were filled with great Expectations of Changes by their Agents and Deputies in England and though many suffer of almost Twenty years abducation from the Pulpits during the Civil Wars yet it is to be feared the Seed and Spawn of this faction has been growing since in the Church and so prevailing a party as were able to obstruct that Union accommodation and Comprehension designed between the Church of England and Dissenters first by a Commission from our most Gracious KING and late Gracious QUEEN and next by a Convocation who had but very small regard to their Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiasticks and who so vigorously opposed what they had so lately addressed their Majesties
for I should gladly embrace an opportunity to inform such of you as have never been in Europe what Presbyterians and Dissenters are who suffer your selves to be strangely imposed on know little more of them but misrepresentations calumnies thrown upon them by malitious Ignorant and ill-minded men as if they were Monsters and most insufferable in Church and State though they are a considerable part of the Protestant Reformation agreeing in all points of Faith and Divine Ordinances or parts of Worship with the Establisht Church of England and the likest to them of any Protestants differing only in Ceremonies Government and Discipline of which I shall hint a little in this Epistle Therefore in Scotland they were the first Reformers of that Kingdom from Popery though originally by mean and inconsiderable men and in opposition to a strong Court party and not only without but against the Authority of the State which demonstrated the more of the hand of Divine Providence therein And notwithstanding all their strugglings with Popery and Praelacy which in the late Reigns have been obtruded upon them contrary to Oaths Laws and repeated Establishments of that Kingdom yet they went a greater length in Reformation than their Neighbours in England who upon prudential Considerations retained some Ceremonies least it should be dangerous to Reform all at once as Scotland did And in that Kingdom Presbyterians are now the Established Church and those of the Church of England there are the Dissenters and have far less Reason for it than we in England As to those of England they were from the beginning a part of the English Reformation for the best Histories inform us those who chiefly had the first managment of the Reformation were divided into two Classes much what equal in number and quality of Interest Some of them as Bishop Hooper Coverdale John Fox John Rogers and Peter Martyr appeared vigorously for an absolute and thorough Reformation according to the Model Calvin had given of it and so it would have been a Presbyterian Reformation but others as Cranmer Ridley Cox and others were peremptorily of the Judgment that a Reformation in all points at first would be of dangerous consequence and that at once to reform all would be to reform none at all and though the Judgment of the latter prevailed yet all approved of the former as best tho' some approved not the juncture as seasonable until the People who were almost all Papists were better instructed and disposed to receive the impressions of this intire and perfect Reformation therefore they were left not without hopes of a further Reformation from their Posterity and Successors which we were assured of by a sentence in the Preface to old Common Prayer Books but left out of the new And so it was for that time agreed on that for the better gaining of Papists some Ceremonies and a great part of the Roman Service were to be kept Thus both parties concurred and united in hopes of a further Reformation until the bloody Marian Persecution under which some of both Classes fell and dyed Martyrs others became Refugees abroad and upon their return instead of a further Reformation Vniformity Acts were promoted and passed in the first of Eliz. Yet during the Lives of some good Bishops and for several years no Subscription nor use of all the Common Prayer nor an exact observance of the Ceremonies was urged until Whitgift ascended the Chair whose zeal for Ceremonies was boldly impugned by Learned Cartwright And now Subscription and Conformity was required under penalty of Suspension and Deprivation and John Fex the Martyrologer required to Subscribe who refused pulling out of his Pocket his Greek Testament and told the Arch-Bishop He would subscribe nothing but That Yet his gravity and good Service to the Church protected him that he dyed quietly in a low Station in the Church But when he perceived the retaining the Ceremonies did not attain the first Design of the Reformers in gaining Papists and saw the mischief the imposing of them on Protestants was like to do he afterwards said of them God take them from us or us from them Harder things were soon contrived and imposed to the casting out of many able and godly Ministers followed by multitudes of People and these being cast out and kept out to this day are Non conformists and Dissenters and the most considerable part Presbyterians and those of Ireland are partly from England partly from Scotland who since the Conquest joyned with others in Settling that Kingdom And as to the Protestant and forreign Churches they are either Calvinists or Lutherans But all the Calvinist Churches as lately of France Geneva Holland Piedmont and many other places of high and low Germany are Presbyterians The Lutherans differ from us both in many things and indeed are much degenerated from Luthers primitive though imperfect Reformation So that by all computation Presbyterians and Calvinists with such as are in full Communion with them are the greater part and from the Judgment of our first Reformers are the better part of the Reformation the Church of England not excepted whose Reformation is not yet intire and perfect as you may learn from the Preface to the Common Prayer and from the K. and Qs. Commission for a further Reformation But that you may more fully and distinctly know them and not suffer your selves for the future to be imposed upon I shall as one of the meanest of them shew what at this day they believe do or wherein they agree and are the same with the Established Church of England and next what they dissent from and neither will nor dare do without Sin and all this only for your Information without the least design or intention of raising any new debate on beginning any Controversy on those differences sufficiently Controverted by many hands on both sides And first I shall inform you what they believe and do in Vnity with the Church of England whereby every serious and intelligent Reader may readily perceive two things 1. That we are Protestant Brethren and in Vnity with them in the main great and Substantial points of the Christian and Protestant Religion and therefore deserve not to be treated as many Ignorantly do and particularly in this Island 2. That of all Protestants that differ from them we differ in the least and smallest matters Therefore 1. They receive and believe the Bible the Holy Scriptures to be the Word of God from the immediate inspiration of Heaven and in its original and its Orthodox Translations they universally embrace it as the compleat and full Rule of their Faith and Manners and the only Directory in all matters of Religion 2. They believe and receive as agreeable to their Confession of Faith the 39 Articles in all the Doctrinal Articles except such as relate to Ceremonies and Government which the Establishment of that Kingdom obliges them not to Subscribe receiving the 3d Article in a Ptotestant sense and
this so qualâ—ifyed most if not all their Ministers have Subscribed as a condition of their Established Liberties and Tolleration 3. They believe own maintain and perform all Ordinances and parts of Gods Instituted Service and Worship in Publick Private and Secret that are mentained professed by any Reformed Protestants as Preaching Praying Reading Hearing Meditation Singing of Psalms Baptism and the Lords Supper c. 4. They firmly believe and strenuously hold a fixed and standing Ministry to be always in the Church to the End of the World and Churches to be furnished with all Officers warranted in the Scriptures duly qualifyed and orderly set apart according to the Word of God and after a long and most strict Examination and tryal some are allowed first to Preach only as Probationers or Expectants for a proof of their Preaching gifts and Praying abilities and of a Holy Conversation and when called to the Pastoral Charge submitting to a second Examination they are orderly set apart or Ordained to the whole Work of the Ministry according to the Apostles phrase by the Imposition of the hands of the Presbytery 5. They abhor renounce and abjure Popery Idolatry Superstition and Haeresy with every Error they are convinced and perswaded is contrary to the Word of God universally believing the Popes of Rome to be the Grand Antichrist 6. They hold and maintain an Authoritative Government Order Discipline and Censure committed by Jesus Christ the Head of the Vniversal Church unto Church Officers appointed by him consisting in Admonition Suspension Excommunication and this Government specifically distinct from all Civil Government 7. They Baptise both Adult Persons Children of believing Parents professing the Truth of the Gospel 8. They believe and always maintain the morallity of the Fourth Commandment and perpetuity of a Sabbath with the strict observation of the Lords Day wholly to be employed and spent in the Publick Private and Secret Service and Worship of God allowing works of absolute necessity and necessary Mercy 9. They conscientiously and faithfully keep and observe all Solemn Days and occasional Times set apart upon extraordinary and emergent Providences of God for Humiliation Fasting Prayer 10. Though they abhor as much as any all vain Swearing and Cursing yet they maintain and allow the Lawfulness of Witnessing to Truth or Conviction of Falshood by a Solemn Oath when called thereunto by a Lawful Magistrate in matters of moment tho' they rather like to do it after the Scripture Pattern with a Solemn lifting up of the Hand to Heaven 11. They hold and maintain Magistracy and Civil Government to be an Ordinance of God and many of them highly Zealous for Monarchy as in Scotland England France Ireland though others in Geneva Holland and Germany are for Aristocracy as the Government of those places 12. They are highly for School-Education and Learning and Academical accomplishments for fitting and preparing men in an ordinary way for Ministerial Offices in the Church not excluding but including particular Gifts and Qualifications and a Call from God to that great Work Reader They are the same in these and most things material with the Established Church of England therefore beware of Reproaching Presbyterians as the worst as bad if not worse than Papists least ye wound reflect upon your selves unto whom they are likest of any other Dissenters that are Protestants Now though we agree in all these things and more yet we differ or dissent in three or four Things to all which I shall speak branching out the particulars as far as an Epistolary Dedication will allow of 1. In Common Prayer and Ceremonies 2 In your Canons 3. In your Government or Praelacy 4. In your Discipline and Censures I I shall begin with Common Prayer and Ceremonies and concerning them we differ in these particulars waving many of our Reasons to avoid Offence 1. We dare not receive nor comply with stinted Composed and Imposed Forms or Lyturgies of Worship because not Commanded nor Warranted by the Word of God nor known in the purest and Original Centuries of the Gospel Churches but composed without Divine Commission and required meerly by Men in the Degenerate and latter Ages of the Gospel 2. Though we deny not altogether but allow many Forms of Prayer on many Cases as studyed Forms for ones-self and Composed easy and plain Forms for the Ignorant and Vnskillful as young ones early Converts as Crutches for the Weak and Lame yet we cannot nor dare not Ordain and call any man to be a Minister of the Gospel and to take Charge of Souls that hath not given sufficient proof and demonstration of their Praying and Preaching Gifts and Abilities at all Times and suitably or pertinently for all occasions and conditions without prescribed Forms read in a Book and we never denyed the Lawfulness of joyning with the sound Words of others in Prayer 3. Such Ministers as have received of God and have given sufficient Proof to many of their Praying Gifts and Abilities dare not ordinarily and in their ordinary Administrations tye themselves to and only use these prescribed and Book Forms least they should be guilty of not using and improving but hiding or burying their Gifts and Talents and so incur the Character of Vnlawful Servants 4. We dare not read as a part of Publick Worship the Aphocrypha Books which are enjoyned and read seeing they are acknowledged by all not to be Canonical Scripture and owned by many and in many things false and fabulous especially while we have the Scripture by us that Perfect Rule of Faith and manners 5. We cannot nor dare not allow in Publick Worship which should be for the Edification of all that inarticulate and unintelligible way and noise of the People all or most confusedly speak together one mans voice drowning the accent of another which seems to be so far from Order that it appears confusion as Service in an unknown Tongue Hickeringill tells us he suffers no such babling in his Church at All Saints in Colchester as is made by alternate Responses 6. We cannot allow Women to speak in the Church as many of yours in your whole Service talk more in a Day than some Quaker-Women condemned by most for that practice 7. We dare not add to the Sacrament of Baptism an airy Sign of the Cross that perishes with the using more than Spittle Oyl and Salt nor allow the Spiritual Signification imposed by men and explained in the 30th Canon Seeing Baptism signifies all that and more and you own in the Form for private Baptism that it is valid and sufficient without it And further it is abused at this Day to Idolatry in Romish Churches Cranmers great Argument for abolishing Images out of the Churches though some are got in again and most of them into their Book of Devotion 8. We cannot comply with that Popish posture not our Saviours posture of Kneeling at the Lords Supper which cannot be more Reverent nor so suitable to
a Table Feast as his was and notwithstanding the Rubrick was originally a consequence of Transubstantiation and came in with it 1200. years after our Saviour and was a stumbling block to many Reformed Protestants highly resented by Beza and many more and proved so grateful to Papists that Bonner having learned that Cranmer and Ridley had kept this and other Ceremonies said that he doubted not since their Broth went down with them so well that er'e long they should eat of their Beef too 9. We cannot we dare not in Baptism exclude the Parents from engaging and promising in behalf of their own Children and take in other Sureties whom all know and none expect they will endeavour to perform what they promise and undertake which indeed is impossible for any to perform especially when more Ignorant and more Irreligius Sureties are called in than the excluded Parents as Papists Ignorant and prophane Persons Strangers and sometimes Young Children which we apprehend to be a willful promoting of known perfidiousness and a down-right mocking of God 10 Because we find the Common Prayer Book in its several parts translated out of several Popish Books the Frayers are taken out of the Breviary the Administration of Sacraments Burial Matrimonies and Visiting of the Sick are taken out of the Romish Rituall the Consecration of the Lords Supper Collects Epistles and Gospels are taken out of the Mass Book though some things are left out as Prayers to the Virgin Mary Saints and Angels This is to us one just prejudice against the use of it 11. We cannot away with nor dare we assent to nor believe many things and sayings in the Common Prayer nor use that Corrupt Translation of the Psalms while God has provided us with a better we dare not pretend the imitation of our Saviours Miraculous Feast by that Popish and Mock-Feast of Lent consisting not in abstinence but in choosing of Meats In Te Deum we dare not say all the Earth worship thee while we are assured the greatest part are Infidels to this Day and neither Worship nor know the true God we dare not assent to the Damning Sentence of Athenasius's Creed which many of the Eldersons of your Church wished it never had been in Common-Prayer We dare not say Every person Baptised is immediately Regenerated for so all Baptised should be Saved We dare not alter add to and diminish from the Scriptures the Word of God as the Common Prayer and the corrupt Translation of the Psalms does particularly we cannot consent to the taking away of the Scripture Titles of the Psalms given from Immediate Inspiration and putting Popish and Lattine Titles in their Room In the Burial of the Dead we dare not call every one whether we know them or not our dear Sister or Brother and as a part of Publick Worship say We have a sure and certain Hope of their Resurrection unto eternal Life and to make no difference between the Wicked and Godly a Protestant and a Papist an Atheist once Baptised and a serious Christian allowing them the same Charity and Character seems an encouragement to ungodliness and a discouragement to Holiness 12. Though we are for Visiting Instructing convincing admonishing praying for and comforting the Sick according as we find their state and condition various and different Yet we apprehend the Burial Service to be Symbolizing with Rome and no part of God's Publick Worship or any Commanded part of a Ministers Work and though it is said It has no relation to the dead at all but only for the Edification of the Living why was it denyed to the Living at the Funeral of the Reverend Mr. Henry Vaughan why is it deny'd to the Living at the Funeral of Vnbaptised and Excommunicated persons Why is it read oft times when the People are gone except two that remain to cover the Corps Why do the deceased persons pay for it and lately there was a poor man to whom it was denyed because unbaptised Actions with vulgar People are more demonstrative than Words And what Edification does that afford to the Living that is read at the entry of the Church yard of which few or none hear one Word and why is not all either read in the Desk or at the Grave II. The Second thing wherein we dissent from you is your Canons which few of your selves obey and observe no not such as have Sworn Obedience to them They are most Arbitrary Decrees when not ratifyed by Authority not at all suitable to the state of the Church neither dare we take the Oath of Assent and Consent that they contain nothing contrary to the Word of God while both you and we are otherwise perswaded III. A Third thing wherein we dissent is concerning the Government of the Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops Chauncellors Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch Deacons c. as not haveing foundation in the Scriptures nor the Government of the Gospel-Churches nor agreeable to the Government of the first Centuries after our Saviour And though we are for Scripture Bishops both name and office and wish with Dr. Wild in his poetical flight Where there is one there were ten neither would refuse the Government of the first two or three hundred years after our Saviour and it is known most of the Presbyterians in England ostered to embrace Dr. Vsher his model of Church Government yet there are several things in which we dissent and which many of yours dislike in English or Diocesan Bishops or Praelacy as 1. Creating Erecting new Offices Officers besides what Christ gave to and Instituted in his Church the Names whereof are not so much as known or mentioned in the Scriptures 2. Promoting Praeeminence and destroying that Ministerial Parity our Saviour Commanded and Inoustriously maintained in his days for bidding all Mastery and Dominion over one another 3. Their asseming high and Lordly Titles and Temporal Dignities and Civil places being advanced above most Peers and States men This was offensive to good Old Latimer who in a Sermon advised King Ed. 6 to untord all the Lordly Bishops and remove them from all their Temporal Offices and Employments that they might follow their Spiritual Plough Tail 4. Their frequenting the Court attending the Council Table and sitting in Parliaments to the great neglect of their Charge and Work being above Preaching Praying and Administring of Sacraments and Church Government too therefore a Non Preaching Bishop called a Preaching Bishop a Preaching Coxcomb And what prejudice would it be to the State but what a great advantage to the Church if the Government saw it meet to revive again that old vote of a Church of England Parliament recorded in Bakers Chronicles That no Bishop should have any Vote in Parliament nor any Judicial power in the Star Chamber nor bear any sway in Temporal Affairs and that no Clergy man should be in the Commission of the Peace 5. Their Grasping at a larger Charge over many great Congregations of a Vast
Diocess whereby an Episcopal Charge and care can no more be performed or Discharged in the sight of God As over the Diocess of London and all English Plantations while so much Time is spent at Court and in secular affairs than the Italian Bishop can be Metropolitan of the Christian World 6 Though they have Forms prescribed for many things yet no Forms nor Directions for tryal and examination of Candidates or Expectants for Ordination to the Ministry For turning one of the 39 Articles into Latin and proving it from Scripture is already done to their hands so that any Grammarian or School Boy may do it IV Lastly We dissâ—nt from the Discipline and Censures of the Church of England and though they are without all Church Discipline and Censure in every Plantation of America yet as it is managed in England many of your own Sons dislike it as well as we especially in these particulars 1. It s absoluteness being exercised by a sole Authority in the breast of a particular Diocesan acting all in his own name without Commission or Warrant from any other and Sir Francis Bacon who was highly for the Church of England tells us the Bishop gives orders alone excommunicates alone and affirms it to be without Example in all good Government for Kings and Monarchs have their Councellours the Courts of Kings bench Common Pleas and Exchequer have many Judges and the Chancellor hath the assistance of 12 Masters of Chauncery And I am assured the Scripture warrant is directed to a number Dic Ecclesiae tell the Church 2. The Authority Power of Discipline is generally managed by Delegation or Deputation of Lay Persons as Chauncellours Officials Registers Sumners Canonists c. choosing such as helps in Government rather than the Clergy which the Lord Verulam affirms to be contrary to all rules of good Government for Offices of confidence and skill cannot be exercised by Deputies the confidence and trust being Personal and Inhaerent cannot be transposed to an ignorant and unqualifyed Lay-Person more than such can be deputed to Preach the Word and Administer the Sacraments 3. The English Church-Discipline is turned into a meer Money matter and the use of Christs Keyes is made Mercenary punishing the Purses and not afflicting the Consciences of the Delinquents as a great man of the Church in a Sermon Preached at one of the Vniversities told them Claves Christi pulsant crumenas non verberant Conscientias And Hickringale assures us from his certain knowledge that Guinea's will procure Absolutions from Drs Commons without any Confession or shew of Repentance yea without a sight of the guilty party a more bare-faced practice than of the Romish Churches who always use Confession and Pennance for a Cloak I hope these things will engage you to be more favourable and charitable to Dissenters until you more rationally weigh and confider the grounds and reasons of their Dissent for they may sometimes and in some cases be the purer better part of a Nation as the Church of Israel in Egypt and in all their other Captivities were Dissenters The three worthies in Daniel were Dissenters in Babylon and Daniel under Darius was a Dissenter Our Saviour all his Disciples and Apostles with their Christian followers were Dissenters until Constantines Reign and all Christians in Mahometan Dominions and Pagan Countries all Protestants in Popish Countries and your selves in Scotland and all forreign parts are Dissenters and it were hard and uncharitable to condemn all these as Traytors and Schismaticks In favour of some Dissenters I shall only lay down one saying from your Hale of Schism All pious assemblies in times of persecution and corruption are the only lawful Congregations and the publick Assemblies though according to form of Law are indeed nothing but Riots and Conventicles if stained with Corruption and Superstition Therefore let us still value and esteem unity in Doctrine and Worship and the greater and more weighty matters preferring it before an exact and accurate Vniformity in every Punctilio of Circumstance and Ceremony which no Nation hath hitherto attained the Church of England not excepted for what uniformity is between your Cathedral and Parochial Worship between such Churches as have Organs and those that want them between such as Sing or Chant the Service and such as do not between such as read the whole Service and others that Mince it and read but a part between those that begin with a free Prayer and such as do not And in the same Congregations what Uniformity is between such as use Responses and such as do not between such as Bow to the East or the Altar and such as do not between such as bow the knee and those that only bow the head at the Name or Word Jesus What uniformity between such as Sing Psalms and most that do not And I find many of the Sons of the Church break uniformity and Canons as well as their Neighbours what uniformity-act or Common Prayer allows any to begin with a Prayer of their own as the greatest and best have done though others call it a Geneva trick What uniformity-act enjoins Organs and Singing Boyes and where is bowing to the East and Altar with all other Church Honours commanded What warrants the use of the publick Form for private Baptism why is the burial Service read over any Dissenters that are all excommunicated by your Canons Let me humbly and earnestly with all Submission address the conformable Clergy in this Island to instruct their People that they and we profess the same Christian and Protestant Religion only with some alterations in external Ceremonies and circumstances that we may unite in affection and strength against the common Enemy of our Reformation and concur in the great work of the Gospel for the manifestation of Gods Glory and the Conviction Conversion and Salvation of Souls in this Island instructing such as are Ignorant in the principal great things of Religion promoting vertue and true holiness and Preaching down and reproving all Atheism irreligion and profanity sealing and confirming all by an universal Copy pattern and example of a holy and Ministerial Life and Conversation I have often done it and I continue to Pray for the zealous concurrence of the Secular power and Civil Magistrate to whom the Sword of Justice is committed for the terrour of the Evil doers and praise of those that do well that for promoting a visible Reformation in this Island from the Evils that have long exposed us to the heavy Judgments of a Righteous God they would first reform their own Lives and impartially execute these Good Laws according to their Oaths against all Blaspheming Cursing Swearing Whoredom Sabbath breaking all Prophanity Impiety and Irreligion that our Land may be exalted by Righteousness and Sin may no longer be our Reproach Candid Reader They frequently charge Dissenters that when others are the Ascendent they cry out against Persecution and for Moderation but when they are
confess I have oft heard how some upon all occasions have bitterly run at the Doctrine of Predestination as if none maintained such a Doctrine but we And a Minister of your Island called it A damnable Doctrine and I now justly wonder to receive such a Character of Predestination from some that it is contrary to the word of God and a great discouragement to Piety Therefore I am now to produce the received and approved Doctrine of the Church of England concerning Predestination since the Reformation to this Day and shall begin with the 39 Articles agreed upon in a Convocation held at London 1552 in the Reign of Edw 6 and requently renewed ratifyed in the following Reigns and continued the established Doctrine of the Church to this day which Dissenters with some allowed exceptions subscribe as their own Doctrine as a legal qualification for our Liberty I wish you would read and consider again the 17th Article Viz. Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the World were laid he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from curse damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ Jesus out of mankind and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation as vessels made to honour wherefore they that be endued with so Excellent a benefit of God be called according to Gods purpose by his Spirit working in due season they through Grace obey the calling they be Justifyed freely they be made Sons of God by Adoption they be made like the Image of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ they walk religiously in good works and at length by Gods mercy they attain to everlasting felicity As the Godly consideration of Predestination and our Election in Christ is full of sweet pleasant and unspeakable comfort to Godly persons and such as feel in themselves the workings of the Spirit of Christ mortifying the works of the flesh and their earthly members and drawing up their mind to high heavenly things as well because it doth establish and confirm their Faith of eternal Salvation to be enjoyed through Christ as because it doth frequently kindle their Love towards God so for curious and carnal persons lacking the Spirit of Christ to have continually before their eyes the sentence of Gods Predestination is a most dangerous downfall whereby the Devil doth thrust them either to desperation or into wretchlessness of most unclean living no less perilous than desperation Furthermore we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in the holy Scriptures and and in our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expressly declared to us in the word of God And as to the sense of this Article take it from the Learned of the Church of England Dr. Whitaker in his Cygne a Cantio pag. 16 17. Dr. Bridges stiles this The chiefest Article of the Church in Doctrine Mr Thomas Rogers in his Analysis bound up formerly with the Articles Dr. Thysins in his Commentary on Lambeth Articles sully explain this Article raise these conclusions from it 1. That there is a Predestination of certain men to eternal Life a preterition predestination or Reprobation of certain men unto Death 2. That this Predestination is no manifest no open Decree into the grounds causes of which every mean capacity may dive but a hidden purpose counsel or decree of God which is kept secret from us 3. That this Predestination to life is from Eternity 4. That it is altogether immutable and unchangeable as God himself This is the established Doctrine which all the Clergy of the Church of England subscribe or assent unto at Ordination The next demonstration and discovery of the Doctrine of the Church in this point is from the Lambeth Articles agreed upon at Lambeth House by John Arch-bishop of Canterbury Richard Bishop of London Richard Bishop of Bangor D◠Tindall Dean of Elie Dr. Whitaker professor of Divinity at Cambridge with several learned Divines of the Church with the approbation of Matthew Arch-Bishop of York composed at first in Latin and sent to the University of Cambridge to prevent and crush some Arminian Controversies that were beginning to be raised there yet I shall give you in English Four of Nine that relate to Predestination never yet impeached or rejected by the Church as inconsistent with the 39 Articles but inserted in the Ireland Articles and allowed of in the conference at Hampton Court 1. God from eternity hath Predestinated certain men unto Life certain men he hath Predestinated or reprobated unto Death 2. The moving and efficient cause of Predestination unto Life is not the fore sight of Faith or Perseverance or good works or of any thing in the persons Predestinated but only in the good will and pleasure of God 3. There is a Predestinate number of Predestinate which can neither be augmented nor diminished 4. Those who are not Predestinated unto Salvation are necessarily damned for their Sins This is more plain and particular than any thing I have heard taught by Presbyterians and yet it is the Doctrine of the Church of England The next Testimony from that Church for Predestination is the Articles of Ireland agreed upon by the Arch-Bishops Bishops and the Clergy of that Kingdom in a Convocation held at Düblin 1615. seeing they were English Divines and a part of the English Church under one King they were received approved and licensed by the Government as agreeable to the 39. Articles and also those of Lambeth therefore I shall record out of them what concerns Predestination or the Decrees of God Art 11 God from all eternity did by his unchangeable Counsel ordain whatsoever in time should come to pass yet so as thereby no violence is offered to the wills of the reasonable Creatures and neither the Liberty nor Contingency of Second causes is taken away but established rather 12. By the same eternal Counsel God hath Predestinated some unto Life and Reprobated some unto Death of both which there is a certain number known only to God which can neither he encreased nor diminished 13. Predestination unto Life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the World were laid he hath constantly decreed in his Secret Counsel to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation as vessels made unto honour 14. The cause moving God to Predestinate is not the fore-seeing of Faith or Perseverance or Good Works or of any thing in the persons Predestinated but only the good pleasure of God himself for all things being ordained for the manifestation of his Glory and his Glory being to appear both in the works of his Mercy Justice it seemed good unto his heavenly wisdom to choose out a certain number toward whom he would extend his undeserved Mercy leaving the
rest to be Spectacles of his Justice 15 Such as are Predestinated unto Life be called according to Gods purpose his Spirit working in due season and through Grace they obey the calling they be Justifyed freely they be made Sons of God by Adoption they be made like the Image of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ they walk religiously in good Work and at length b◠Gods Mercy they attain to everlasting felicity but such as are not Predestinated to Salvation shall finally be condemned for their Sins 16. The Godly consideration of Predestination and our Election in Christ is full of sweet pleasant unspeakable comfort to Godly persons such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ mortifying the works of the flesh their earthly members and drawing up their minds to high and heavenly things as well because it doth greatly confirm establish their faith of eternal Salvation to be enjoyed thro' Christ as because it doth servently kindle their Love towards God and on the contrary side for curious carnal persons lacking the Spirit of Christ to have continually before their Eyes the Sentence of Gods Predestination is very dangerous This is the Doctrine of the Church of Ireland so exactly agreeable to the 39 Articles those of Lambeth that I need say no more of them Another discovery of the Doctrine of Predestination is from the Suffrages of the five Representatives of the Church of England at the Synod of Dort Dr. Carleton Bishop of Chichester Dr. Samuel Ward publick Divinity professor at Cambridge Dr. Davenant Bishop of Satisbury Dr. Balcanquel Dean of Richester and Dr. Thomas Goad who were called and assembled to nip Arminianism in the bud and they being Commissionated sent by the Supream Authority in the Nation their Suffrages as recorded in the publick Acts of that Synod and by Dr. Ward in his Suffragium Britannorum are to be found were then received approved at the Doctrine of the Church of England And should it not appear a wonder and be a surprise to the hearers tho' the Preachers cannot be Ignorant of it that the Common Prayer Book the ordinary universal Book of their Devotion should give its Suffrage and bear its testimony for Predestination or Election which upon a more strict observation all shall find In the Collect for All Saints Day it begins Almighty God who hast knit together thine Elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical Body of Christ Jesus our Lord. If God has an Elected people there must some be left out and passed by otherwise there can be no Election or Choice In the Catechism generally taught unto Children in Answer to Q. 6. It is replyed in the third place In God the Holy Ghost who Sanctifyed me and all the Elect people of God which plainly instructs us that God chooseth to Sanctification and holiness as well as to Salvation and that all Elect ones shall be Sanctifyed consequently Saved In the burial of the Dead in the first prayer after the Lords Prayer Beseeching thee that it may please thee of thy gracious Goodness shortly to accomplish the number of thine Elect. Here is not only an Elect but a definite and certain Number determined with God which are not yet accomprished and the number of such as are left out and passed by is also certain and determined In 〈◊〉 Godly prayer at all times which is added to some old Bibles there is this passage In that it hath pleased thee freely and of thine own accord to Elect and choose us to Salvation before the beginning of the World This is plain language and in the Books of Devotion and even those who little thought Common Prayer favoured Predestination which they oft called a Damnable Doctrine and is so particular for a Doctrine some of your Neighbours have asserted contrary to the word of God and a great discouragement to Piety So that I wonder how the Oxford Oath of Assent Consent shall relish for the future wherein men Swear That nothing is contained in the Book of Cannons Ordination of Bishops and Common Prayer contrary to the word of God seeing Predestination is found in one of them We call in also to witness for us the Homilies of the Church which appear to be principally the established Doctrine thereof for the most part composed by the Arch-bishop Cranmer who sealed among many more this and other truths with his Blood It were too tedious to transcribe all here but I shall give a passage or two to engage Readers to be more attentive and observant for the suture Therefore in the 2d part about p. 160. God of his mercy special favour towards them whom he hath appointed to everlasting Salvation hath so offered his Grace especially and they have so received it fruitfully that altho' by reason of their sinful living out wardly they seemed before to have been the Children of wrath perdition yet now the Spirit of God mightily working in them unto the obedience of Gods will that they are the undoubted Children of God appointed unto everlasting Life for the Good fruit is not the cause the tree is good but the tree must first be good before it can bring forth good fruit This much more may be found in both parts for confirmation of this Doctrine of Predestination I refer you also to a Church of England Catechism enjoyned by K Edw. 6. to all Schoolmasters for instruction of Children throughout the Kingdom wherein it is asserted That the faithful were sorechosen Predestinated and appointed to everlasting life before the world was made that the cause of our Justification Salvation is the goodness love of God whereby he chose us before he made the world I cannot omit certain Questions Answers concerning Predestination published by Robert Parker continued to be bound in with your Bibles until the year 1615. I shall give you a hint thereof in two or three Questions relating to Predestination Q Are not all ordained to eternal Life A. Some are Vessels of Wrath ordained to Destruction as others are Vessels of Mercy prepared for Glory Q How standeth it with Gods Justice that some are appointed to Damnation A. Very well because all men have in themselves Sin which deserveth no less therefore the mercy of God is wonderful in that he Vouched to save some of that sinful race and to bring them to the knowledge of the Truth Q. But how shall I know I am ordained to eternal life A. By the motions of Spiritual Life which belongeth only to the Children of God I might enlarge with variety of Testimonies in favour of this Doctrine from the Learned and Godly in all the past Reigns from the Reformation down ward and shall conclude with that honourable and venerable Suffrage of Primate Vsher in his Sum and substance of Christian Religion which for the Satisfaction of all I shall deliver in his own words Q What are
the parts of Predestination A Election Reprobation Q. What is Election A. T is the everlasting Predestination or fore appointment of certain Angels and men unto everlasting life and blessedness for the praise of Gods glorious Grace and Goodness Q What is Reprobation A. It is the eternal fore-appointment of certain Angels men unto everlasting Dishonour and Destruction God of his own free will determining to pass them by refuse cast them off and for sin condemn and punish them with eternal Death And to these you may add most Church of England Books common among us as also that common Book almost in every Family The Practice of Piety So it is to be hoped you will not adventure to say the Church of Scotland holds any other Predestination than what is the Doctrine of the Church of England or that it is contrary to the word of God and a great discouragement to Piety I am very unwilling to engage in a further controversy about this Doctrine so fully handled and sufficiently vindicated already lest I should engage some of your Island in a most unnatural War against their own Mother Church and should it not be a Paradox to Barbados to hear of a Presbyterian taking up the Cudgels in defence of a fundamental established Doctrine against a Son a Member and a Minister of the English Church And seeing one hath been pleased to run upon Quaeries on this occasion I am obliged to entertain you with a few concerning the controverted Doctrine in behalf both of Dissenters and the Church of England The Quaeries are these 1. Whether God be not an absolute Sovereign power being having infinitely a greater more illimited and boundless Authority over the highest and best of his creatures without being controuled by or accountable to them I say more than the Potter has over the clay he frames at his pleasure for honourable dishonourable uses services 2. Whether God from an infinite and eternal knowledge knows infallibly the certain determined number of them that shall be Saved and shall be Damned which number shall never be encreased neither can be diminished 3. Whether it is God of his own will free grace and goodness that makes the difference between Believers and Vnbelievers 4. Whether the immutable and unchangeable Decrees of God in the execution of them rob the creature of its liberty in acting or doing 5. Whether a Sinner without the special and entire Grace of God can repent believe regenerate and save himself 6. Whether God can be accounted unjust for damning a part while he might justly have damned the whore World for their Sir 7 Whether God designed the Salvation of any without holiness faith and repentance or the damnation of any without fore-running Sin final unbelief and impenitence 8 Whether God absolutely and unchangeably determined with himself the period and end of our dayes in this life 9. Whether God the Father determined from all eternity to send his own Son our Saviour into the World all his particular Sufferings in the World 10 Whether we should decry or disown those great transcending Mysteries of God's Counsel because we cannot reach nor comprehend them with our shallow and narrow Capacities or carnal apprehensions If any intend to give any resolution to these ten Quaeries I hope I need not caution them against such things as inâ—ringe and may tend to impeach the absolute Sovereignty and Prerogative of Heaven or condemn their own Church And I assure my self they will not revive again those groundless silly and inconsequential Allegations vulgarly heaped up against this Doctrine which have been long since unswered confuted and overthrown FINIS