do but compare the Covenant with these Qualifications you will I suppose be of my mind that it calleth rather for your Humiliation than your Ratification of the same Perusing some of your Proofs to these Particulars I find Gen. 24. 2 3 5 6 8. Before that Abrahams Servant would swear unto his Master though the Oath was plain and short he puts in a Peradventure v. 5. What if the woman will not come with me into the Land Shall I then be discharged of my oath v. 8. Surely if ye had feared an Oath ye might have propounded many doubts and scruples before you had taken the Covenant your selves or so harshly imposed it upon others under such severe penalties Quest 1. What if the Church of Scotland whose Doctrine Discipline and Government I understand not will alter their way of Government c. whether I will or no Am I then discharged of my Oath 2. What if the Government of the Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops c. being setled by the Law of England cannot be removed without a Law made by the Three Estates in Parliament consisting of King Lords and Commons Is it not unlawful for me to swear the extirpation thereof And does a new Oath imposed without the Authority aforesaid bind me to observe it 3. What if the Parliament whose Rights and Priviledges I swear absolutely to preserve shall introduce Popery Heresie and Prophaneness which is not to preserve and defend the true Religion am I not then discharged of my Oath seeing my Covenant ties me to defend his Majesties Person and Authority only with this * Which limitation of our loyalty to Kings no further then they preserve the true Religion neither the Word of God the Oath of Allegiance or the Protestation which ye all took before this Covenant doth not in the least mention or allow for therein ye protested according to the duty of your allegiance to maintain and defend his Majesties royal Person and Estate limitation in the preservation and defence of the true Religion Many other things might have been suggested to this purpose You should do well to consider whether you did not force many not only to swear but to lie also in affirming that they entred into this Solemn League and Covenant after other means of Supplication Remonstnance Protestations and sufferings when they never had the least hand in any of them but meerly to prevent or mittigate their Sufferings under your hands And also whether the greatest number of those that took the Covenant willingly could be perswaded of that which they did avouch as truth that they entred into this Covenant according to the commendable practise of these Kingdoms in former times Or whether it were not rather a manifest untruth For except what was done in former times by the Kirk of Scotland the Chronicles of England or any other History give no testimony to what you affirm It appeareth therefore from these Considerations and by the swallowing down of this Covenant so rashly your selves and imposing it so harshly upon others that to one scruple of Conscience there was a pound of worldly wisdom and carnal policy and that the design of this Oath was to oblige men more to a Party than to Duty I have spoken the more freely and largely of this business concerning the Covenant and its non-obliging power because that I have observed many Ministers much bewail the backwardness of people to Covenant-Reformation and the great guilt of Covenant-breaking they lie under Yet never heard any to bewail the taking of it Though by what hath been suggested there is as much cause for the one as the other And therefore be perswaded I beseech you in stead of a maintaining what you have done truly to repent for what is past especially for your great severity in imposing it upon many others who did as truly scruple that as some of you did the Engagement and I suppose many of you would have done the often attempted Oath of Abjuration Sirs ye are now brought to the Touch-stone whether ye be indeed such as ye have publickly professed your selves to be in your Apologetical Declaration your serious Representation and Vindication of your selves from the irregular actings of the Independent Party That you were Friends to a Regulated Monarchy to a Free Parliament that you never intended the subversion and change of the Fundamental Lawes and Government of this Nation that it may appear that these were not the male-contented evaporations of a disappointed Faction as some are still apt to judge by the violence of many of your spirits now you are again on the rising side Let the sense of those miseries and calamities which ye brought upon the State by your violent attempts and endeavours totally to subvert and change the Government of the Church before the Treaty at the Isle of Wight the experience you have had of the great unpleasingness to all Parties but your selves of the way that you propound And as ever ye desire to prevent the letting in of a sweeping destruction at the gates of our Divisions which are never like to be composed while you violently pursue that wherein the Divine Providence hath so signally crossed you now prevail upon you to lay aside your eager contention for an absolute Presbytery And humbly as becometh Christians professing Godliness to be subject to Authority acquiesce in the determinations of this great Council the Parliament which God hath so wonderfully brought together in reference to the Government both of Church and State And to this purpose as I have in particular addressed my self to the Episcopal Clergy so I also shall conclude with a word or two unto you of the Presbyterian Ministry It is most evident that your work as Ministers of the Gospel is to be instrumental in turning not only of the hearts of men unto God but also to turn and reconcile the hearts of men unto one another It was prophesied of John the Baptist who was a burning and a shining light that he should turn the hearts of Parents to their Children and of Children to their Parents Mal. 4. Luke 1. 17. I desire you to consider whether in stead of doing this good work ye had not a great hand formerly in turning the hearts of Children from their Parents both Natural and Civil when from your Pulpits ye sounded those Allarmes to this Civil War and so mightily provoked young people who understood not the Quarrel to leave both their Masters and Parents without their consent and to adventure their lives in the high places of the field for the Cause of Christ I beseech you therefore now be as forward in turning the hearts of Children to their Parents again Take heed of raising and fomenting jealousies and fears whereby to alienate and turn away the hearts of people from Affection and Subjection to the Fathers of their Country And as John the Baptist did this by the preaching of Repentance by an impartial pressing of every
Common-wealth which Mr. Sedgwick calleth a Hoddy Doddy and all Breach such a one as derogates from the Majesty of God and the wisdom of man Though it had a precious Foundation and the Mortar thereof was tempered even with the Blood of all degrees of men in the Kingdom and of all Parties but our own and hath consumed more Millions then any if not all the Kings of England ever did I say let us be weaned from this Novelty and now let our Spirits be reconciled to Kingly Government again Even that Ancient Government by Kings which oweth its Original to the Ancient of Daies who hath said By me Kings reign and to Jesus Christ who is the Lord of Lords the King of Kings the true Fountain of Honour That Government by which God hath promised in Gospel times that his Church shall be provided for and protected that Kings shall be their Fathers and Queens their Nursing Mothers That Government in the want of which we have found by experience all those wickednesses perpetrated as were done in those daies when there was no King in Israel Judg. 17. 6. 19. 1. That Ancient way of Government by which God ruled his people of old even by Moses who was King in Jesurun and by which this Nation hath been Governed for many hundred years and never by a Common-wealth before I say let us by these Arguments shake hands and be friends again with Kingly Government with which we have been at odds these many years And to bring us together again I shall to these Arguments give you one Quotation more from our Friend Mr. Sedgwick saith he P. 11. Kingliness agreeth with all Christians they who are of a Royal Nature and made Kings with Christ cannot but be Friends to it It is a Bastard Religion that is inconsistent with the Majesty and Greatness of the most absolute Monarch And such Spirits are strangers from the Kingdom of Heaven and know not the Glory in which God liveth and are of narrow and evil minds that are corrupt themselves and not able to bear Greatness and so think God cannot or will not qualifie men for such high Places with answerable and proportionable Goodness and Power In my mind there is very much of Truth in this Quotation and I wish he be of the same mind still that then uttered it Without all doubt they which know any thing of the waies of Gods administrations either in the Kingdom of Grace or of Glory should not be of Anti-monarchical Spirits Their Spirits as he saith are narrow their Minds are evil Especially those amongst us who have loaded with such reproaches him whom I am apt to believe the Divine Providence hath so wonderfully preserved to rule these three Kingdoms And now the very naming of Providence doth furnish me with a most cogent Argument in my judgment to prevail with us all to incline to what I move you For how hath the Divine Providence overturned overturned overturned all the waies of Government we have attempted to set up contrary to the Right both of Prince and People as Mr. Sedgwick teacheth us Doubtless we have cause to fear we have highly offended in walking so by Providence making that to legitimate those Actions of ours for which the Word gave no warrant but condemned rather This was the Argument by which we answered all our Opposers Oh the Providence of God hath declared from Heaven the justness of our Cause and Waies Our Protector though in his long Speech at the Dissolution of the Parliament so called Jan. 22. 1654. he doth very much in many places press all to observe the voice of Providence which had done such great things wondering that they could not proceed further to the Settlement of the Government of the Nation according to his desire for which he broke them up yet he was somwhat loath to own the Providence of God therein For saith he I cannot apprehend what it is I would be loath to call it a Fate that were too Paganish a Word but there is somthing in it that we have not our expectation P. 26. And sure there was the Divine Providence counter-working But how evidently it hath appeared since is our Duty as Christians to own and acknowledge especially since this remarkeable passage in his Speech aforesaid P. 27. As for this Cause it is either of God or man If it be of God it will bear up if it be of man it will tumble as every thing that hath been of man hath done since the World began And as this is so the all wise God deal with it Now let us who have made the Providence of God our Rule contrary to this express Command amongst others that we should do no evil that good might come of it Let us I say as becometh Christians acknowledge the all-wise Providential Dispensations in so stupendiously tumbling down the chief Actors and Agitators in those unwarrantable waies we have too too much owned and justified Truly me thinks the strange Tumblings that we have seen since the Protector was laid in his Grave and how by an evil Spirit the all-wise God hath sent among the men of Sechem he hath so strangely Judg. 9. 23. tumbled down the Family of Abimelech I say that the neer Relations of the Old Protector should be so instrumental in pulling down the New One and in that to lay the Foundations of that Disgrace that is come upon themselves And how strangely the Providence of God hath brought about the Calling of this Parliament defeated Col. Lambert since his escape scattering the Disturbers of the Nations Peace and disappointed their hopes of hindring the peaceable Meeting of this great Convention I say these strange and most admirable Providences which would fill a Volume with the Observations of all the Circumstances of them should now convince us that it is hardkicking against the pricks and should very much bring us into a low Opinion and esteem of our selves and encline us to a peaceable and Christian Accommodation with all Parties and to shew forth more Moderation of mind than we have yet made known to the World It is only for these ends that I have spoken so home and dealt so impartially with you being acquainted with the temper of many of your spirits which require it But if any Prophanatick shall make this cursed use of what I have written as thereby to heighten that hatred of holiness that is so natural to all unregenerate men or to harden himself in his way of wickedness stumble and be scandalized at the fallings of some I have here presented I say no more to him but at his eternal peril be it For though it be true which our Saviour hath said Wo be to them by whom offences come so it is as true also Wo be to the world Matth. 18. 7. because of offences As for many of the late Kings Party that have been the greatest sufferers for him I fear not that any such ill
conscientious and pious men to be offended at the persecutions of the Prelates and their superstitious injunctions and innovations and consequently what need there was of a Reformation in Church Government Sir Edward Deering my Lord Digby and others of their own party have declared by the former quotations But how this blessed work hath miserably miscarried in all our hands hinc illae lachrimae I know the Presbyterian party are apt to say if we Independents had not interposed this work of Reformation had gon on with speed their Government had been setled in the Nation not considering that the progresse that they had made therein by the sword would like the Commonwealth we have been raising all this while require the continuance of the same to support and bear it up at vast charges The Government aforesaid being not only dissatisfactory and displeasing to our late King but to the greatest part of the Nobility Gentry and Commons of the Land besides our selves especially as universal conformity thereunto by the Covenant was intended Now to avoid these extreams into which we saw both others run before us even of a violent absolute and universal compulsion of conformity that nothing in Matters of Religion might be urged that might go against our Consciences and that according to our Principle that particular Congregations are Independent and subject to no Censure from any other Church but that of non-communion We have given a boundless lawless toleration to all corrupt and erroneous Opinions from the Anti-Trinitarian to the Quaker wherein though we have run into much Confusion and Disorder yet have we therein come nearer to the Judgment of Mr. Hales before quoted than either the Presbyterian or Episcopal Party themselves who in his Discourse about dealing with erring Christians doth neither approve of the High Commission Court or of a Covenant to swear down the Extirpation of Errour Heresie and Schisme * Or any other way of severity For saith he P. 55. Severity against and separation from Heretical companies took its Beginning from the Hereticks themselves and if we search the Stories we shall find that the Church did not at the first arising thrust them from her themselves went out And as for severity that which the Donatists sometimes spake in their own defence Illam esse veram Eccclesiam quae persecutionem patitur non quaefacit She was the true Church not which raised but which suffered persecution was de facto true for a great space For when Heresies and Schismes first arose in the Church all kinds of violence were used by the erring Factions but the Church seemed not for a long time to have known any use of a sword but only of a Buckler and when she began to use the Sword some of her best and chiefest Captains much disliked it The first Law that ever was made in this kind was enacted by Theodosius against the Donatists but with this restraint that it should extend against none but such as were tumutuous and till that time they were not so much as toucht with any mulct though but pecuniary til that shameful outrage committed against Bishop Maximian whom they beat down with Bats and Clubs even as he stood at the Altar so that not so much the Errour of the Donatists as their Riots and Mutinies were by Imperial Lawes restrained Thus sar Learned Pious and Moderate Mr. Hales of whose Judgment had the Episcopal Party been in the time of their Government these troubles in the Church had never been raised nor had these miseries come upon the King and Kingdom And were but what he hath written seriously pondered by considering Christians of all Parties it would pluck up the cause of all our Divisions by the roots As I shall therefore commend to you all * Who shall be called to advise about matters of Religion his Works set forth by Mr. Pearson aforesaid so this one particular Passage more amongst the rest It is not saith he p. 54. It is not the variety of Opinions but our own perverse wills who think it meet that all should be conceited as our selves are which hath so inconvenienced the Church Were we not so ready to anathematize each other where we concur not in opinion we might in hearts be united though in our tongues we were divided and that with singular profit to all sides It is the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of peace and not Identity of Conceit which the Holy Ghost requireth at the hands of Christians This short Quotation giveth us a true account of the Cause and Cure of all our Church Dissentions and Divisions Now that these Rents and Schisms may not grow wider but be healed up and I hope therein offer the sense of very many Church-Members I say I shall humbly propound this expedient Let but the Episcopal and Presbyterian Parties abandon and renounce their Principle of universal Conformity and compulsion and we of the Gathered Churches ours of a universal toleration and liberty for Conscience They exercising no other compulsive power over tender Consciences than what they are furnished with from the Word of God and we expecting and requiring no other liberty from them than what the Word of God allowes us And no doubt but we shall find the Son of Righteousness arising upon us with healing under his wings and give us all that unity of Spirit which is the Bond of Peace though we have not Identity of Conceits and Apprehensions and will make us all to be of one Heart though we are not all of one mind By what way of Government this may be best effected I leave to the Advice of an Assembly of Religious and Learned Ministers of all Parties whom no doubt the Parliament will speedily summon and to the Result and determinations of the Parliament thereupon in reference to Church-matters I hope all sober and moderate Independents if not very weak in judgment or strongly possest with prejudice and many other corruptions therein will humbly submit to acquiesce therein And not only so but also to the judgment of that great Council in reference to what they have voted not only of the way of Government by Monarchy but also to the Government of his Majesty Whose Gratious Declaration of a free and general pardon to all his Subjects how faulty soever excepting only such as shall be here after excepted by Parliament which cannot now be many considering the chiefest are gone down into the dust And also of Liberty to tender Consciences and that no man shall be disquieted or called in question for differences of Opinion in matters of Religion that do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom I say these Offers of Grace and Mercy from his Majesty whom many of our Consciences tell us we have so much offended and exposed to such great afflictions and Sufferings should now melt our hearts through great contrition and penitential remorse for what is past and work us to Resolutions of all due Loyalty and Subjection to his Government for the time to come and that not for fear but for Conscience sake Methinks God having as we ought to judge in Charity by his Gracious expressions turned his Royal heart towards us how should it turn our hearts to be Loyal towards Him and make us now to make good what I now believe 〈…〉 by his Royal Father in the Advice he gave to him before 〈…〉 when Prince In his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Wales saith he None will be more Loyal and Faithful to you and me than those Subjects who sensible of their Errours and great Injuries shall feel in their own Soules most vehement Motives to Repentance and earnest desires to make some reparation for their former defects Nay this Confidence his Late Majesty had of his most offending Subjects that he further saith in the said Advice For those that repent of any defect in their Duty to me I believe ye shall find them truly zealous to repay with Interest that Loyalty and Love to You that was due to Me. Surely by what I have so largely insisted upon in all this Discourse we of the Gathered Churches cannot be so stupid but needs must be brought to a sense of this that we have been exceeding defective in our Duty to the Late King The Presbyterian Party in England and Scotland about the Late Kings Death and since have Some of them suffering death and banishment c. testified their Repentance for their Defects in their Duty to the Late King by their Loyalty to his Majesty Methinks we should no longer lie under the same reproof as they did 2 Sam. 19. 12. Wherefore are ye the last in bringing back the King Well nunquam sera est ad bonosmores via Let us therefore though we have set out after others yet let us overtake them in the speedy and vigorous expressions of our Repentance for the Defects of our Duty to the Late King by our Love and Loyalty to our present Soveraign Let our Contentions now be turned into this Christian emulation which Party of us shall be most pious towards God most Loyal toward the King and most loving to one another And then no doubt if our waies please the Lord he will make not only our enemies to be at peace with us but us to be at peace amity with all dissenting brethren they with us will give us favour in the eyes of the Authority of the Nation the King and Parliament AMEN FINIS In the Integrity of my heart have I done this Gen. 20. 5. Salem Philalathes and a Church-member