there lyes no Obligation upon me or any other Person from the Oath commonly called the Solemn League or Covenant to endeavour any Change or Alteration of Government either in Church or State by any Means or any other way than with the Consent of the King in an Act of Parliament The Fifth Clause does require a Distinction between the Act of Covenanting and the Matter Covenanted I dare not Subscribe That this Oath in the Matter Covenanted was in it self Unlawful because I must then I think be Uncharitable to the Reformed Churches abroad whose Government is not as ours by Bishops But I do suppose that the Oath in the Act of Covenanting or the Oath if taken for the Act Complexly considered was in it self Unlawful So that he that took it did as I count do ill in it or did that which in my Judgement was unwarrantable A Combined endeavour to pull down the present Government of the Church and set-up another without the Consent of the King and against it upon supposition only which no doubt will be generally granted that the King did not lose his Authority in the Sight of God on his with-drawing from his Parliament which must also be so understood or else how could they at the same time in one Branch of the said Covenant own the King and his Authority and swear to maintain them must be I judg a Breach of the Subject's Duty required in the Thirteenth to the Romans But the Covenant was such an Act. Or thus To own the King and his Authority in the same Oath and yet to Swear to change the Government without his Will and against it is I think in it self Unlawful Such an Oath was the Covenant Thus far I Subscribe to this Clause That the same was in it self an Unlawful Oath and I draw no farther The last Clause is so far as I know undoubtedly true and therefore I must and do Subscribe And imposed upon the Subjects of this Realm against the known Laws and liberties of this Kingdome This is what I can and am ready to Subscribe only I must first make it Public I cannot satisfy my Conscience else to propose it in Private to the Bishop though it should obtain unless I Publish it Both because of my Brethren that I may avoid Scandal I mean not the Scandal of Displeasure which I care little for but the Scandal tending to Sin or to wound any of their Consciences by my Example And also because of the Bishop lest I should draw him into some Condescension out of his present Goodness and Benignity which he might Repent after unless he be first come to a Resolution of Mind and so acts out of Conscience and that alone will bear him out against any Inconvenience that can ensue And more-over because of my own Soul and Temper that cannot endure to do any thing of this Nature but what is open and fit for a plain Honest sort of Man to do And here there is but one thing in the general wherein I seek favour of the Bishop which I must explain on the same Account I am sensible that a Liberty of Subscribing this Declaration or submitting to any Imposition in our own Sense or Interpretation is a Favour signifies nothing For no Man that acts in Judgment and Conscience can make any Interpretation of a Law or Imposition but what he believes to be the Meaning of the Law-giver If I am not satisfyed then in that Meaning I have no other Interpretation to make and if I am satisfyed in that Meaning I need no Favour or Liberty to be given me for there is none can take this away from me which necessarily goes to a Judgment of Private Discretion I shall not care what any Bishop or Judg upon the Bench may say to thwart me in the Case of the Oxford-Oath since I Published my late Paper unless I feel some Wavering in my Mind or doubt in the Interpretation there delivered notwithstanding some of my Brethren were so much concern'd here-to-fore with the Words of one about it I should be afraid of what he said if it were in a Suit of Law but the matter is otherwise in a Case of Conscience where I am to be justified by God alone and not by a Jury But to have a Liberty of Subscribing or Submitting to an Imposition with some Restriction Limitation or Exception this is indeed a Favour which I seek in this Declaration An Interpretation gives me Liberty I count only as to the Words while I am yet tyed up to the Meaning of the Law-giver A Limitation gives me Liberty as to the Meaning of the Imposer as well as to the Literal Construction and that is a great matter I cannot Subscribe this Declaration without such a Liberty and with such a Liberty I can Conform also to other Impositions I know that the Bishop can give me no such Liberty as to limit restrain or make any Exception to the Meaning of the Law any more than I can dispense with my self I have said But if he shall be got to pass me for his part I do not question but I shall pass after with others I have said also And as for the matter of Conscience in it I have laid down my Rule between us and the Superiour Law of Almighty God shall be the justification of us both in the pursuance of it I have affirmed likewise I will here add one Argument If there be any evil in this the Subscribing with Limitation it must be either in regard to the Fifth Commandment or the Nineth Either because it is against our duty of Obedience to the Higher Powers or against our duty of Sincerity and Truth Here is no Sin against Truth and Sincerity for therefore do I make these Restrictions or Exceptions that I may not forsake Truth but keep my Sincerity in what I do I declare to all the world I will not go a step further than my Conscience goes along with me and unless I have this liberty or take it I will not go on And here is no Sin of disobedience to my Superiours because the Law of God forbids me to do more It is a case decided by the Apostle and yeilded that when the Law of God hath laid an Obligation on the Conscience already the Law of man to the contrary can have no place If my Non-conformist brother sins not that subscribes Nothing of this Declaration because of his Conscience then do not I sin that make my Limitation If it were a sin to make any of these Restrictions or Exceptions how shall they be justified by the greater Law that is the Law of God who refuse to Subscribe any thing because they cannot Subscribe to all upon that account If I sin in doing what I can how shall Obedience to the Higher-Powers be a Duty And if I sin in doing only what I can how shall my Brethren be acquitted that make no tryal at all and do nothing And yet do I make no
great favour but I see not how I can be Subscribe to the words of the Imposition and he will not give me leave for all this to Subscribe in any other form If he shall understand my Subscribing so far as I can to the sense in the words enjoyned with liberty of Restriction of them to this meaning which vertually includes an Exception against what I cannot assent unto here I do humbly believe both that I may Conscionably Subscribe and he be satisfied in the matter If we be tyed to the Meaning of the Law-giver every jot the way is too Streight To frame to our selves any Meaning without Regard to the Law giver's is a Way too Wide But to Subscribe to the Meaning of the Imposer so far as I can and to forbear in what I cannot is the Way which I think safe and which I seek in this Paper Only I must add one thing after this that where there is no Form of Words imposed the Liberty of a Limitation and of an Exception comes to one and as I now distinguish these two Words I may again confound them according to my occasion Having thus distinguished then between an Interpretation and a Limation or Exception I must yet proceed so far as I do go to apply the same to my present Subscription that I may avoid all mistake and ambiguity and Consequently the laying a stumbling block before any In the first Clause I do not Subscribe to the proposition which it contains Vniversally but Indefinitely To wit with the Restriction of it to such a prudential state of the question as may be gathered out of such Authors I have named It becomes a Loyall Subject to Subscribe that Tenet and it becomes an Honest-man to Subscribe it no further or no otherwise than such learned and excellent persons upon study were able to maintain it There are several cases which are put by themselves by way of Limitation of it yet so long as we may believe that none of them came into the Minds of the Majority of Parliament in passing the Law and there were Actually none of them as could be put in regard to our present King we are to look upon it as the Intent of the Act that we should consequently object no such Cases to our selves in Subscribing to this Clause so that though I here use my Liberty of Restriction in regard to Others which I must tell I might be content my self as I suppose in the Oxford-Oath with an Interpretation only Nay I do not need any of this Caution at all in regard to Soveraign Majesty it self but in regard to those that are at his Commandment For let me understand by Taking Arms the Raising an Army or a War which I take to be the true Sense in Construction of Law and by the King his own Sacred Person only There is no Case I know but I may Subscribe That to take Arms against the King is Vniversally Unlawful In the Second Clause I am more fully perswaded that I do offer the true Sense of the Acts Of Vniformity and that at Oxford in reference to the Position which is Renounced and I am sorry at my Heart to see it possible for so many of Judgment and Temper as there are to be capable of any such Pre-occupation of Mind as to harbour once the Thought of another Interpretation which cannot be made but by supposing it the very Intent of the Parliament in those Acts to advance an Arbitrary Authority in the King above the true Regal Power he hath by Law And yet hath the late Discourses of People about the Test and later Matters with Stories thereunto appertaining brought such a Jaundise on our Imaginations that makes every thing look Yellow and Jealously to us as we even quite forget that the Meaning of these Acts is and must be the Sense Mind or Purpose of the Parliament or Major Part of both House at the time when they passed them and that is when there was not the least Breath of any such thing as an Arbitrary Government talked of or suspected by any It is plain enough there was in the Prevailing Part I say not in the Major Number which is against Reason and Charity to think an inveterate Resolution to suppress one sort of Men they hated which are now the Non-conformists and that indeed was all the Plot in that time which was going For let us suppose such a Question had bin proposed at the passing these Acts Whether the King should have a Power for the time to come to raise Money and make Laws without a Parliament Can any Man's Heart serve him to believe that such a Motion would have bin entertained or such a Vote by any Means under Heaven have bin obtained or could be yet from the Majority of both Houses To put the Question Whether by those Commissionated by the King in this Clause of the Subscription and that of the Oxford-Oath is meant any but the Legally Commissionated or such as can justify their Commissions and Actings by Law is all one in good earnest with the Knowing as to put this said Question And how then does any Man that understands and considers that he understands himself make a doubt of my Interpretation It hath bin talked that when it was endeavoured by some in the Upper Hose to put the Word Legally into the Test at the time when that was in Agitation it was refused But what of that supposing it were true Must this be the Reason on Necessity because they intended to make the Government Arbitrary I am given to understand for certain that when this Clause came into motion they did unanimously Vote that by the Commissionated the Legally Commissionated and nothing else was to be understood without any Contradiction So that the Reason why they put not in that Word Legally could not be because they had another Meaning but because this Meanning was so manifest so undoubted and yielded by all that there was no need to do it As also lest by the Insertion of more than needs they might give occasion to People for the time to come of questioning still the Legality of the King's Commissions So easily are we misled by Reports which are always Partial often mistaken Nay what if it were in the Thoughts of some Court Flatterers who are not alwayes the King's Friends to advance the Prerogative above its due Height Did we not see that as soon as this Suspition did but enter in the Thoughts of a few what a stir it this Test was but in the Upper House only there is no force at all in the Argument what a few Men at such a distance were contriving if they were so long as it is not to be imagined that the Major Part of both Houses at the time when the Acts were made had the least Intention or Thought of any such matter I will add that I am assured for my own part by certain Testimony that the King himself hath
would have is that the Parliament would be pleased that a Bill be prepared for Peace and Union which might bear some such Title An Explanatory Act for agreement amongst Protestants and for Ease in the business in Religion In which Bill I would have such an Explanation of these Impositions and such Alleviations in regard to the tenderly considerate and peaceably Scrupulous or soberly not factiously Consciencious who will never be wonne as may do our business In the Act of Uniformity By the Declaration of Assent and Consent to all things and every thing contained in and prescribed by the two book of Common Prayer and of Ordering Priests and Deacons there is no considerate man of the Parliament ever I hope understood that these books are in every minute particular infallible or free from that defect which is incident to all humane Composures but they understand I suppose that they are in the maine contents to be sincerely approved and used I would have it therefore be here sufficient if this Declaration be made to the use of the book in the Ordinary dayly Lords-day service which we can consent to or that we may make it with a license of Exception against any matter or matters out of that Service which the Bishop shall think meet to be dispensed with upon Convincing reason Provided only that the Ordinary constant publick Service of the Liturgy obtains Consent and Practise And for the Ceremonies which are and have been always and on all hands held only for indifferent things I wish they might be left to the Consciences and prudence of Ministers and People every where excepting the Cathedralls to use them or forbear them as they judge it most meet for one anothers edification for so some Bishops I believe if it be left to them will sometimes be apt to determine themselves Provided that if any person will have his child baptized with the signe of the Cross or stands upon any thing else hitherto required by the Service-book if the Minister himself Scruple the performance he shall always have some Assistant or Curate to do it In the same Act By the Subscription before treated As I believe there was no new Ill or strange thing intended by any of them but the rightfull maintenance onely of the Kings authority against Rebellion So do I apprehend that the Interpretation and the Limitations which I do here humbly present with an unfeigned impartiality upon the several Clauses of it may pass their publick approbation or allowance which therefore I would have to be done as a matter of kind satisfaction to most Mens consciences and of grievance to no Body Onely for that part of it which is enjoyned but to the year 1682 it might do better perhaps to be made to cease presently and be no longer imposed And forasmuch as there is an Oath also in the Act of Oxford required of all Non conformist preachers that reside Ãn any Corporate town or come within five Miles of it whereof I have Printed a former Paper and given the Interpretation throughout as I believed it to be the very sense and meaning onely of the Act without limitation or exception which cannot therefore be refused insomuch as I dare and do appeal to a Vote of the two Houses whether I have delivered their minds or no I would here have it onely put to the Question and if it be as I doubt not indeed their sense that they would declare it This will make that Oath streight be generally taken Or else I will propose this rather which is better that it may suffice any man to enjoy the right of this free-born liberty to go where he will in his own Country I mean to escape the penalty of this Act and serve him also instead of the forementioned Subscription to take that Oath in this form of words following I A. B. do swear that I hold it unlawful upon any pretence to take Armes against the King his Government or Laws And that I disclaim that dangerous Position of taking Armes by his Authority against his Person or any Legally commissionated by him in the Legal pursuit of such Commissions And that I will not endeavour any alteration of Government in the Church or State in any way or manner not warranted by the Constitution of this Kingdom that is in a seditious manner or any otherwise then by Act of Parliament It being required moreover in the Act of uniformity which is another of the things also before Mentioned that every Minister who enjoyes any Living shall be ordained by a Bishop and there are several persons of late who in case of necessity for want of Bishops took Presbyterian Orders I would have the Parliament declare it their intent for redeeming their credit with the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas not to make it absolutely necessary for such persons to be reordained to the Office but that it may be enough for them if they receive this second Imposition of hands to the Exercise of their Office in the New charge unto which they are or shall be appointed and that the Bishop may and shall frame his words accordingly This is the only way that I could find out for peace to my own mind as I have told before in this business And whereas there is a Subscription also in the Canons and the Canonical Oath of Obedience imposed on most Ministers by the Bishops mentioned before likewise which have given some of the greatest occasion to Non-conformists heretofore and which yet have never passed into a Law by any Act of Parliament I would here have it enquired by what Authorty one of these is imposed for I know none And for that which is found in the Canons being what is more than needs because included in other injunctions I would have it Exauthorized and that nothing more of this nature might be imposed on us than is made necessary by the Act of the thirteenth of Elizabeth Provided nevertheless if the Bishop be unsatisfyed about any particular Person he shall be ready to offer a due acknowledgment of his reverence to Bishops in a laudible Testimony thereof under his hand and of his fair regard to the main substance of the three Articles contained in that Canonicall Subscription in such expressions as shall best satisfy his own Conscience and be approved as sufficient under the hands of two Episcopal Doctors or allowed by the Bishop And in regard there hath bin great offence taken by consciencious Ministers which is a thing hath not yet bin mentioned at the Bishop or his Courts commanding them to read then sentence of Excommunication against some or other of their Parish for such faults as they think not at all worthy of so great censure or else be exempted from the execution of that charge and that the Bishop or his Court provide some other person that is satisfied about it to do it And I would have none forced to give the Body and Blood of Christ to
envy of others Of carelesness through the impossibility of a due attendance on a double or trebble charge Of more worldly mindedness a looser life and so of ill example of ten times unto their flocks whereby the Souls of many Parishes which ought to be more precious to the Minister than his Maintenance are sinfully neglected to the offence of Almighty God and the hazzard of their own and their peoples Salvation I would have no Clergy-man henceforward be suffered to enjoy any more than one Living or Cure of Souls and one Dignity at one time and that every man without exception that hath more than one of either should immediately give up the rest to be distributed among those who shall be Comprehended or brought into the Established Order Which that they may also be obtained and possessed with a clear Conscience and that grievous Corruption of Simony may be extirpate out of the Land I wish that Every Patron that shall hence forward present his Clerk to any Living may have the Oath called the Simoniacall Oath imposed on himself no lesse than on the Incumbent which I perceive since I writ this is petitioned for by the Schollars of Oxford and if he refuses to take it that then the Bishop should have immediate power taking only the same Oath of presentation in his Room By such Materialls as these put into the hands of a Skillfull workman by the Order of our Master builders and by such a course or courses as this or these thoroughly persued the name of the great God would be exceedingly honoured in the integrity and ingenuity of those Gentlemen who have Benefices in their donation in the self deny all of those Ministers who have Pluralities in in their possession in the restauration of several ejected painfull Laborers into the Vineyard in the generall advancement of Piety and that interest which is Heavenly above worldly advantage in the unity peace and mutual agreement of Brethren in the same function differing mainly in things indifferent in the universall good will among the People and in the established Happiness and Prosperity of the Church of England to future Generations In that time shall the Present be brought unto the Lord of Hosts of a people scattered and peeled meeted out and troden under foot to the place of the Name of the Lord of Hosts Mount Zion Deo Gloria Authori Condonatio An Advertisement Reader I thought here to Reprint my Paper about the Oxford-Oath which seems to be made necessary by my Reference to it p. 31. but because the Matter thereof is incident with that of the Subscription I suppose it may be spared I must signifie also that whereas I have dropt the two Letters of my Name in reference to my Subscription in p. 19. I cannot and I do not let it go as one that is a present Actual Subscriber but as one under Deliberation to proceed or not as I can and no otherwise than I can according to my Conscience with the flow hast of others Advice and my own setled Judgment Adieu FINIS A Postscript THis Paper being a Countermine against Popery I do think fit to hasten it out that the Members of Parliament may have competent time to consider of it this Session I did not think the later Part would have been so seasonable as I humbly believe it may be now to the most of those who desire a long Life for the King and the Growth of the Protestant Religion It was almost Despair set me on the Work and now there is a little Hope got into my Heart that something may come of this Endeavour and God's Blessing be upon it The Reason why I annex this Half Sheet to the rest is because I find it necessary in regard to that one Clause in the Subscription And that the same was in it self an unlawful Oath I desire the Reader here to remember that I subscribe not this Clause by vertue of an Interpretation for I think the meaning of the Law giver to be more then I can subscribe unto but by virtue of my Liberty of Exception and Restriction I do therefore distinguish between the Matter Covenanted which is the Extirpation of Prelacy or Change of Government and the Act of Covenanting which was their swearing to endeavour it I would have the Reader then note also that I subscribe not that the Oath in the Matter Covenanted was in it self unlawful for this Matter Covenanted I have said may be considered Precisely in it self or Complexly with its Circumstances and more particularly under the Circumstance of the King's Remonstrances against the Covenant I do believe that an Endeavour of any Alteration of Government under this Circumstance of the King's Prohibitions that is for any to go about it without his Consent and against it as I speak was Vnlawfull though I suppose it not so under the contrary Circumstances if the King had allowed it and consequently that it is not so in its self if we respect onely this Matter Covenanted But for as much as an Act becomes Evil upon every Defect when all Circumstances must concur to make an Action Good and he that swore this Covenant could not swear to the Matter Precisely but Complexly considered that is to the Matter under this Circumstance with others I do apprehend that the matter being thereby render'd evil the Oath as taken for the Act of Covenanting in regard to this Circumstance was in it self unlawful It may be pleaded that the Covenant maintaines the King and his Authority to the full and limits this Endeavour to mens Places and Callings and that there was therefore nothing in this unlawfull I reply If any man should argue rather that the supream Power of this Nation does lie in the King and the Parliament as one Corporation and when they were divided and the Parliament could not be dissolved the Constitution was at an end or Interstition That consequently every one any one might covenant at that time to set up a new Government without the consent of Either King or Parliament by the way of an Agreement of the People This were to say something But to own the King and his Authority and swear to maintain it in the same Oath wherein they swear to change the Government when he declares against that Change that is without him and against his Authority this is vertually a contradiction in Adjecto and makes the Oath in the very act it self of swearing if that be or may go for the Oath in it self unlawful Again To swear that in our place and calling we will endeavour to change the Government when the King refuses his consent What is it but to swear to do that in the doing whereof we must Act out of our Place and Calling seeing there is and can be no Endeavour of that kind in our Place and Calling but what is done with Subordination to his Consent in an Act of Parliament You will say perhaps It is true that they
does express it That is I will interpret him they can lay no obligation on the Conscience which is the essential property of a right Law as to the observance it is true if the Bishop Dispences and the Non-conformist come short in any thing the Penalty may be Sued if any be so affected It is a Law in foro humano and we must never resist This we muâ—â— venture and can but be in statu quo but it is no Law in foâ—â— Dei or Conscientiae for the Authority of these greater Laws of Nature and Religion does supersede the Execution so that there is no guilt contracted in the Omission And having said this I do not care to profess my self one that am prepared to come into the Church upon these Terms that is I will come in upon Quarter for I can come in no otherwise If the Bishop will give me Quarter for my Conscience and spare me in the things which it were a Killing me to do while I am in Doubt I will yield in the rest We will we must yield I judge upon these Terms To do what we can if they will but do upon this score I say of those Superiour Laws what they ought There are no Texts which require Unity among Christians To be of one mind To speak the same things To have one Heart No Texts that require Love and Fellowship with one another as Brethren the Following of Peace a Tenderness to one anothers Consciences and taking heed of Offending any of Chist's Little Ones and the like matters No Texts that forbid Schism and Divisions in the Church with the Evil Concomitants and Effects thereof in the Nation but they are all Warrants to the Bishop for his Forbearance and Moderation in the Execution of these Laws when his Non-Conformist-Brother cannot obey them without sinning against his Soul God says Thou shalt not do any thing which will destroy thy Brother and wound his Conscience The Law says Thou shalt put him to do thus and not dispense with him Christ says You must do thus You must do these things The Law says You must do that which is otherwise Whom shall the good Bishop now choose to obey the Law of his God or the Statutes of the Realm Not that I will find fault with my Superiours or with their Laws onely as the Apostle sayes of the Law of God it self We know the Law is good if a Man use it Lawfully So must I say upon supposition that these Acts for Conforming be in themselves for the peace of the Church so long as they be Executed upon fit Reasons and such Persons for whom all Laws are indeed to be made The Law is not made for the Righteous or the willing sayes the same Divine Author but the Vnrighteous and Disobedient Yet when they are Administred to all alike without putting any difference between the Willing and the Vnwilling the Ready and the Refractory that which was intended for Good is made Death unto us to speak still in Holy Language by becoming instead of a means for promoting of Peace an occasion for establishing our Divisions I see indeed that most Men with whom the Laws are entrusted do act ordinarily as if all they were concern'd in the hurt that comes by any Law were no more but to impute it to the Law-makers and to account themselves clear before God and Men so long as they are but exact in putting the same in rigorous Execution whereas there is no power given or can be received by any but to the great ends of Gods Glory and the common good of Men for all Power is of God and consequently no such trust is committed to them but in Subordination to the higher Laws of Nature and Gods Word so that if these Laws and Mans Laws do come in any instances of Life to clash as commonly in matters of conscience they do there is prudence to be used in such a discernment between Persons and Persons those that are truly and those that are pretendedly conscencious and between things and things what will profit the Church and what will tend onely to publick offence that both the ends of Government may be kept up and the greater Laws take place According to the authority the Lord hath given us saies the Apostle for Edification and not for Destruction Neither do I once imagin that the Bishop can dispense with me in any Imposition committed to his trust so as that his dispensation should be my warrant for my doing otherwise then the Law requires I should do either in regard to Man if he will prosecute the Law upon me as I have intimated before or in regard to God if it were any Sin or Evil in me to break it But he can bear with me as to his part which is enough for I may then venture others I have also said and it is the superiour authority of God which is the warrant both to him and me upon which we must be justified in my conformity only so far and his requiring no more The Law it is true requires more and it requires him to require more but the greater Law I say of the Ten Commandements of God which is sum'd up in this one Word Love the transcript of the Law Eternal upon Mans heart must over-rule and relaxes the obligation as to both of us in the sight of God And thus when we do what we can for union on both sides and no more than we can on either side When we bear with one another in the things wherein we differ and bear one anothers burdens as we are bound in the common accidents of our Lives we shall Compound I hope for our failings or Non-performance to an Act of Parliament by our fulfilling the Law of Christ Be of the same mind saies the Apostle one towards another Mind not high things but condescend to Men of low estate In fine Our eyes have almost failed us in looking out after every Session of Parliament to do somthing for Union and they do it not It is another course then must be sought The Bishop alone and we must resolve to do the business our selves That which we cannot get done by a relaxation of the Laws may be obtained by little and little by a Relaxation of our stifness on both sides If the concerns of the Church lies near any one of their hearts than his own bare Honour and Worldly interest does he will venture as we do and what we cannot procure by an Act we must force by Example and the Authority of Heaven and the Protestant cause shall be our Broad Seal for what we do Having thus proposed the Rule I must proceed to Practise We have several Impositions therfore to come under consideration and they are the Old or the New For the Old there is in the first place the Common Prayer it self which I must confess for my own part I do commonly hear and in the Ordinary daily service I do not
said it more than once not only in his Publick Speeches which may be thought Popular but in his Private Retirement upon apt Occasions that he really desired and sought no more than his just Prerogative without Intrenchment on the Peoples Liberty As he needed not so he would not have said this to some upon the Occasion I know if he was not Cordial in it And if he should be of another Mind more lately which it were a Wickedness in us to think yet were that nothing as to the Acts of Parliament which have bin so long passed Nay that I may cut off this very Suggestion also Duke Laudardale in his Speech to the Convention of Estates at Edenburgh now must lately July 1678. hath these Words Majesty hath these Eighteen Years in all his Kingdoms solemnly professed his Abhorrence of Arbitrary Government his Ruling by the Law and his Inviolable Care to preserve the Liberty and Property of his Subjects I should not I must confess inculcate this thus much but in regard to the Oxford-Oath and that the Conscience of a Man is indeed as tender a Point as the Throne of a King For as for this Subscription alone if any can be of another mind yet he may put in his Particular Exception and say I Subscribe to it as unlawful to Resist any Commissionated by the King if their Commissions be according to Law if they be not I hold the contrary In the Third Clause I have one thing to remember which is to declare that I apprehend not that any Man by his Subscribing to conform to the Liturgy does engage or stand engaged because of that to forsake his Brethren presently who conform not and come no more amongst them or that he does debar himself thereby the Benefit to hear them or deprive others of his Labours to Preach with them at least if some of the Common-Prayer will but be suffered to be read by him I understand no such matter by it if any others do I enter my Exception For as I am one that have ordinarily gone to my Parish-Church not only joyning in the Publick Prayers but receiving the Sacrament there and never yet elsewhere though I am a Non-conformist So if I shall conform that is so far as I can which does but fix me so much more firm in that wherein I conform not I intend not but to be the same Man still as to the keeping in with my Brethren and to do as I did which is to be sometimes with them and for the most part with the Parochial Congregation I am convinced that it is a great Fault of the Non-conformist and Conformist both who fear God that they keep no more Fellowship with one another which were the nearest way to make up Difference and to understand better what is to be done by both for the Peace of the Church and for the Sake of our Religion And here I must advance a little in this Clause I think it enough for a License to Preach to Subscribe the same with the mentioned Limitations but if I should find in my heart to take upon me a Parochial Charge it were more fit and in order to that Work to Subscribe more strictly In short So far as I Assent and Consent so far I an say I will Conform For this is uniforme and that I may be express in that I do because it stands me upon I am come to an Agreement upon Treaty to change this Clause thus which differs little in the Import The Third Clause is a Promise as I take it to Read Common Prayer which I am not against and do therefore Subscribe That if I have a Publick Charge or Cure of Souls I Shall in the ordinary Lord's-Day Service by my self or by an Assistant according to the Usage of the Church conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England as it is now by Law Established Only if upon any occasion or Reason I shall sometimes shorten the Work I will not be held a Breaker of my Promise for that Nor shall the Omission of another be laid to my Charge In the Fourth Clause there is some Distinction and my Restrictions or Limitation on that Distinction I will add here some few Words for Explication of the Restrictions I do say there lyes no Obligation from the Covenant on any Person in a Private Capacity or Acting in a Private Capacity to endeavour any Alteration of Government By which Words I understand not only an Exception to such who are Public Persons that Act in Parliament which I express in the first Words in a Private Capacity but to all others likewise Acting in such a way as or in no other way than is warrantable by the Constitution of the Land which I express in the Word superadded or Acting in a private Capacity The Government of this Nation is a Mixt Government and there is something of it in the Hands of the Popularity The People may choose their Representatives for Parliament and tell them what they would have done and perswade them to endeavour it and Petition both Houses for it nay they Vote in them and in all this Act I count in a Publick Capacity though Private Persons so long as they do Act by Vertue of the Constitution I must account likewise if any seek the Reformation of the Church or any other Good for the Nation in Praying to God for it or Preaching suppose one Preaching to the Houses and Perswading to it and the like if you scrue up the Word Endeavour to that Height with the purpose only of having it done in an orderly way by a due Proceeding in Parliament that this is to be held Equivalent because whatsoever is done this way is warranted I say be the Constitution I dare not then deny but there does lye an Obligation on every Man in the Parliament as Publick Persons and on all Private Persons likewise so far as they can act in a Publick Capacity thereunto to Honour God in seeking the Reformation of the Church and the Publick Good But I Subscribe that there lyes no Obligation from the Covenant upon my self or any other Person to endeavour the same any otherwise but in a Political Capacity that is only as it can be obtained by a Rightful Act of Parliament If any think I have not expressed thus much aptly or fully enough in its place let him mend it to his own Mind who has occasion for it If suffices me as I have for the general once intimated if I have here and there together as Master of my own Sense and Explanations delivered my self from Scruple In the Fift Clause I do the like as in the fourth and then give my reason why I Subscribe upon the Restriction I dare not say that nothing in the Covenant is Lawfull or Obligatory They covenanted against Schisme Popery to Repent and amend their lives This must oblige those that took it Nay I dare no say that it is unlawfull top make any
most Men as soon as they have laid it to Consideration It is this that though I account all Laws in general are to be taken in that Sense only which we believe to be the Meaning of the Law giver because the Law is his Will and it is not the Words but his Meaning is his Will Yet do I judge that in these Articles of the Church which are not Laws nor Articles of Faith but Articles for Concord that is in the Words of the Cannon Articles for the avoiding Diversities of Opinions and for establishing of Consent touching true Religion there is no Man to be staked down to the Authentick Interpretation which I account that as a Man believes to be the Meaning of the Majority of the Convocation that passed the Article but to be allowed or rather he is supposed to be allowed and to take the Freedome of a Doctrinal Interpretation which is any Judicious Explication of such a Thesis or Doctrine as some of the Eminent Doctors of the Church or other Pious and Learned Author or Authors have offered to the Nation or indeed any such as a Man himself shall tender which in the Literal Grammatical Construction of the Article to keep to the King's Declaration before the Articles appears Rational and is satisfactory to his own Conscience and much more if it be allowed by the Bishop My Reason is because it must be conceived that when any Council Synod or Convocation of Divines do meet about an Agreement upon any Articles or Theses concerning Religion they are generally of divers Minds in the debating the Points and every one is to be supposed free in the Delivery of his Judgment until they come to draw up the Article or Doctrine into such Words as they are all to consent to and then if it be Composed so as they can yield to one another in the Words which they agree upon it is to be understood that there is an Universal Allowance tacitly granted from all to one another of abounding in their own Sense and so they came to a Coalition There is the Meaning then of the Majority and a Vniversal Meaning The Vniversal Meaning is above the Meaning of the Major Part. The Meaning of the Majority I believe in some of these Articles to be such as I cannot Subscribe them in their Meaning But forasmuch as I apprehend it the Vniversal Meaning that every one of those that are to pass their Vote in Establishing the Article should have the Liberty of his own Sense so long as he can but agree with the rest in the Words or in the Literal Construction of the Article if I bring an Interpretation of some Doctor or one of my own which may be supposed to be the same with any one of them who so consented to it with difference of Explication from others then must I be supposed to have the Universal Allowance of the Convocation for that Interpretation which I call a Doctrinal Interpretation I will confirm this by the Notoriety of the Practise in the Council of Trent The Doctors differed in most Points but as soon as through the Expertness of one of the Presidents famous for that Knack they were but put into Words as might salve their contrary Opinions they passed their Votes as Unanimous in the Council although they writ after also one against another citing the Council for them on both sides To this purpose are the Words of the King in his Declaration for the Ratification of the Articles to be considered We take Comfort in this that even in those curious Points in which the present Differences lye Men of all sorts take the Articles of the Church of England to be for them The Arminians with Doctor Hammond and the Calvinists with Bishop Vsher do Subscribe them and find out their own different Sense in them I will leave it therefore on the File as the fit Matter of a new Cannon if ever we have another Convocation to be declared that the Articles and Homilies of the Church are imposed and to be Subscribed not in the Authentick nor in the Vsual but in a Doctrinal Interpretation There being a Latitude in all Controverted Points and consequently some Diversity of Opinion to be allowed to Brethren for the abounding in their own Sense in the same Religion or else there can be no sufficient Foundation of Unity amongst any considerable Number of Men of Free Judgments in the World In the mean time if the case be put what a man shall do that scruples or doubts of the truth of any of the Articles whether he may satisfie himself with such an Interpretation before it be Authorized by a Convocation or otherwise I must answer that I apprehend a great deal of reason for it but dare not pass such a determination If I scruple any thing my self I shall declare it and unless I am satisfied in that sense of the point as I believe was the meaning of the Imposers I must fly to my remedy not of an Interpretation but of the liberty for Exception or Limitation and that indeed does my work This Scrupulosity and rigour of my mind for avoiding every thing of a Solemne lie though never so small does make me wish for such a Canon or the allowance of a greater Authority by some Act of Parliament I will therefore now turn me to the Higher Powers for I must beg their Pardon for this Endeavour of mine to make my return to the Vineyard before they have opened the way for us who can alone Legally do it I would hereby kindly provoke them to think at last on some Explanatory Act for Uniting the Protestant and restoring the Ejected who have now been out of our Livings above Fifteen year and no evil we hope hath been found in us besides our preaching sometimes and praying and the keeping of our Consciences And because it is said commonly by the Members of either House that if they knew what we would have or thought we know our selves they would do it I cannot forbear to present them with the Materialls of such a Bill in telling them what we would have from what is said already if they will but bear with the repetition For when the obtainment of such a blessing for the Nation is even near past my hopes yet must it be still in my prayers I may not be wanting to it in my endeavours and it cannot be beyond my Wishes Whereas then there are many jealousies arose about Popery to frame a Preamble as well as a body for such a Bill out of what is before delivered which makes it even necessary to the peace of the Nation that the Protestant interest be united and strengthened by all good and lawfull means and to this end there being this one proper expedient to wit the removing the occasions of Division which several persons do find to themselves in those late injunctions which yet were intended to the same purpose of Concord in the Realm That which we
entred this Covenant without the King 's Consent but the Meaning of the Covenant was That the Change should be made and endeavoured to be effected only by his Consent I return To enter into Covenant to Change the Government when the King by his Remonstrances and Declarations did declare that he would not consent to that Change and prohibited his Subjects to enter into such a League was I suppose in it self Vnlawful Or thus To Swear against the King 's Will or Prohibition to do a thing which to do without his Will is unlawful is in it self I take it an unlawful Oath Such was this Covenant But to proceed It is too well known that it was the Scots brought in this Covenant and that it is or was a Principle of theirs That the Reformation of Religion belongs to the Kirk so as they may or might set it up or endeavour the same without the Consent of the King if they obtain it not which is a Principle in my Apprehension directly repugnant to that Supreamacy which the English Subjects give to their King and it was apparent that the Covenant was carried on by the Parliament and Army according to that Principle so that if any piously judicious Man shall scruple his Soul with the Belief that this was the Meaning of the Oath That they should endeavour a Reformation to be effected only by the King 's Consent and not otherwise I have two things to offer him for his Conviction to wit The constant Practise of the Covenanters to the contrary and this one Argument wherein alone I shall rest To swear to endeavour a Change of the Government when the King refuses his Consent must either be with Intention to do it without his Consent or else be a vain Oath But to do this in a disorderly way without his Consent or to take the Oath in vain either of the two was in it self I suppose Vnlawful Ergo This Oath was in self an unlawful Oath I would not have any of my Brethren therefore here to be stumbled as they are apt to be so soon as they discry the Scope of this Subscription to tend to a Renunciation of the Covenant for if we may be permitted to Renounce this Covenant with this Liberty of Exception of what is Good and Obligatory in it and Restriction of the Renunciation to that only which is Unlawful as the Endeavour of any Alteration of Government in a disorderly way without the Consent of the King as they did in the late times was I see no reason why they should not be as forward to such a Renunciation as to any other the like Injunction For my own part to rid my self of this Scruple quite which in regard to the Words in it self have been apt to stick upon me still in this Clause I will conclude thus If the meaning of the covenant by endeavouring the extirpation of Prelacy was only to endeavour the reformation of the Church in subordination to the Consent of the King with his Parliament I put in my exception against the Clause but if the intent of it was to have us endeavour any such thing without his consent and against it as the practise of the Covenanters did shew and as it was generally I think understood I do Subscribe to this Clause And that the same was in it self an unlawful Oath as I do to the rest with my Liberty of Limitation It is but an honest thing I judge for me and others if they will follow to do what we can and so long as I do no more than I can I shall not I hope hurt my Conscience If the Bishop will be contented with this Rule and we be also contented with it what shall binder our Concord When the Ministers of the Roman Policy have so long been hatching up Sects amongst us and fomenting our Divisions and even now plodding at one Thrust or one Blow if Fame have any more in her Trumpet than Sound only the general Destruction of our Religion it is time or there is Reason for the Parliament to think on Vnion or for the Bishops and us to come to Composition Then Abner called to Joab and said shall the Sword devour for ever Knowest thou not that it will be Bitterness in the latter End How long shall it be then ere thou bid the People return from following of their Brethren The Author Some further Advertisement LEt the Reader note that where I speak still of all Endeavour to change the Government without the Consent of the Supream Authority to be unlawful I understand it of that Change altogether that is Publick and concerns the Church as National I meddle not with Reformation otherwise I also Advertise the Reader seeing I have a Side to spare That it hath bin in my thoughts I must needs tell him ever since the Ejecting Act to offer something the best I could for our Rulers Condescention to our Scruples and for our Submission to their Laws That is to be Equal on both sides As I have formerly therefore sent out several Papers on the First Errand Here is two sent now upon the Second My Paper about the Oxford-Oath and this Paper I have some Sheets more by me under Twenty that carry Things a little Higher if not quite Home and I could not let them therefore come out till this Paper should make their Way for them They have bin long ready and bin seen by many as Bishop Wilkins Judge Hales and the like Temperate Persons I shall Entitle those Sheets A Peaceable Resolution of Conscience concerning our present Impositions When that Book also is come abroad out of which I have bin borrowing something or other still for the Papers and Books that since passed from me I shall have accomplished my Purpose and intend to have done for ever about these Matters I must add that I have just now Received this ensuing Letter To my Honoured Friend Mr. _____ in Oxenden-Street SIR I Thank you heartily for your Kindness in sending my your Healing Paper so speedily This Day I received it and red it to my great Satisfaction I fully agree with the Rule which you have laid down in order to Peace and Concord and judg that in the whole Management of the Desgine you have done Honestly and Prudently I firmly believe that Vnion by a reasonable Accommodation is Religions Interest The Relaxation that would suffice you I think would suffice me In the Terms of Conformity as explained and limited by you with whose necessary Restrictions there is no material Difference between you and me as I discern _____ My carnest Prayer is that God would prosper this your Designe of Peace And I am much perswaded that Good will come of it Chichester Octob. 12. 1678. Your Obliged and Affectionate Friend Servant John Corbet