build upon another and a new Foundation though by them called old But Protestants agree in the same Foundations of Religion obey the same Civil Government in the same Person and same Fundamental and Civil Laws and yet some are separated for Sacrifice the Lot is cast upon them and great Rewards allowed to any that will do the Work Our Parliaments from 1673 to the last would have prevented this Ruine but for their sakes and their own Parliament is here taken Synecdochically they are now like to suffer Our last Parliaments were chosen with less Expence Debauchery Tumult or Faction than any we have known in our days Some had not been long in the House but they were driven out of their former Prejudices and Prepossessions by the clear and convincing Reasons and Debates of the House They were generally Men of the noblest Estates in their several Counties but acting as if they had nothing private or domestick and applying themselves to the Preservation of the King 's Sacred Person and of the Reformed Protestant Religion to which they are obliged by Obligations of an even lasting Effect Since their Dissolutions they cannot but be sensible how their Proceedings are confured and exposed and many either of them or of such as approved of them are put out of Commission and many that are most disaffected to them are either continued or fill up the Vacancies and these proceed upon contrary Reasons and Motives and run into contrary Methods What they would have composed and healed these do taking the opportunity of a long Vacancy of Parliament discompose with a greater Severity than at any time before And the Sufferings of the Nonconformists do clear the Members of Parliament from being Nonconformists or Fanaticks for if they were they should meet with the like Treatment and Usage and so the Sufferings of the Nonconformists serve as a Vindication of the Parliament from the censure of being such themselves All those noble and worthy Patriots are now the unsatisfied Spectators of an excessive Trouble and Charge if not irrecoverable Ruine of thousands of peaceable Subjects by which the King will never be enriched nor the Church united The inferior Rank are affected according to their differing measures of Reason and Sense of Religion and the publick Good The more Understanding and discerning enquire into the Cause of this Mischief which is the dissent of the Nonconformist's Judgment from some unnecessary and variable Impositions c. when ever the Government plenseth may be taken away without derogation of Power or loss of any Fundamental in Religion either of Belief or Practice or danger to the Government or Peace They cannot but say these matters of Dissention need not be They believe their own Senses they have neither seen nor heard of any Sedition or Tumult or Plot contrived among the Protestant Dissenters They know them to be Men of Abilities Piety Righteousness and Peace and have waded through the deep Waters of many Afflictions without sinking or drowning or overthrowing the Ship in which too many drive a Merchandize bring in Wealth and others fish for Men to save them from the bottomless Pit If they are unacquainted with the Nonconformist Preachers they are acquainted with their Hearers and know their Principles and Conversation and if they are not better they are no worse than other Men and cannot but be grieved that they lie at the Mercy of many that have no Vertue to commend them They that love Godliness and Righteousness in any in whom they believe or hope it is that are glad for the increase of Knowledg or Godliness by what Instrument soever and endeavour to be merciful as their heavenly Father is merciful are not and cannot be pleased with those Proceedings of ruining Men for Conscience These are not so subtile as to lay any great Weight upon the Distinctions which some Men invent to excuse the Severity The more unknowing and unconcern'd are in a maze wondring what kind of People these Nonconformists are what kind of thing this Nonconformity is but they know or hear that the Men are given to pray hear Sermons sing Psalms and other pious Exercises and live if not better yet no worse than many that go to Church And of these many have so much Sense that they think and say surely it is hard to drive honest Men's Cattel seize their Goods break open Houses for doing well And as many as love Ease and the World take their Ease and follow that Religion which is encouraged with Preferment and a Freedom from Charge and Molestation Some Zealots against Nonconformists are incensed against them as against Pharisees that pray to devour all as against seditious Persons and secret Traitors that want nothing but Opportunity as against the Authors of all our Unsettlements and Miseries These are for the King and who is against him These are for the Law as now established and no alteration which is to tie up the Power of the King as much as the Parliament for it is as much his Prerogative to abrogate old Laws when necessary as to make new These are for the Church of England and against all that are against it and what 's that for the Bishops and the Nonconformists never did as much as petition to take them down or diminish their Revenues they are for preaching in Churches and so are Nonconformists if they might for Allegiance to the King so are the Nonconformists for the King's Supremacy so are the Nonconformists for Ceremonies and Orders of the Church here they begin to disagree And for these things can you persecute your Brethren These Zealots are as erroneous for these things as any others are against them The most of our Conforming-Protestant Laicks are bound to bear Offices higher or lower in Cities Towns Hundreds Parishes The superiour Magistrates may forbear to break open Meetings for Religious Exercises or set others on much more to animate the Rabble to pluck down their Meeting-Houses there is no Law for it that we the unskilful in the Laws know or hear of The inferior are under Command but these are meant of only lawful Commands and legal Warrants And here is now a very displeasing Tragedy to be seen Here are Informers very Strangers in the Countries which they plague and molest that swear against some Persons by hear-say whom they do not know and these are the great Ministers of Justice they do little less nay sometimes no less than expect the Justices should take their Information without Examination of them at their time at the very nick when they please and not when the Justice pleaseth These are the Masters of the Justices themselves who must serve them or forfeit 50 l. to them and 50 l. more to him that can get it Some Justices are forward and officious in carrying on this Work of Reformation and Union they issue forth Warrants upon them that meet upon the Parish Officers that are slack some give out Warrants to break open
these Passages to inform those who seem not to know or remember these things Yet I cannot go on without leaving some Animadversions and Remarks upon them 1. We might have seen the disagreeing Parties running into an Union under the King as their supream lawful Head and Governour The reputed Presbyterian comprehending a great powerful considerate substantial part of the Kingdom most close and deliberate in Counsel active in Endeavours fervent in Prayer with their Ministers for the Restauration of the King and the ancient Government watching all Opportunities and using all means to engage General Monk and his well disciplined and most Presbyterian part of the Army to declare for the restoring the secluded Members in order to a free Parliament and that in order to bring back the King The most eminent of the Royal Party declaring a Reconcilableness and Oblivion of all Sufferings acknowledging the Hand of God in them all And the King to compleat and perfect all by laying a Top-stone as well as the Foundation of the Temple of Peace gathers all Parties into himself some by Comprehension in a wider Constitution others by a safe indulgent Toleration which if granted had been desired by the least and most inconsiderable part of the Nation for the Dissenters had been fewer than now they are because abundance had been taken into the proposed Settlement The Sects have much encreased since that time of Papists if not other Denominations The King and his wise Council had a perfect full view of all Interests and did weigh out proper Preparatives for an healing Effect 2. It is a Shame and Grief to think that a divided Nation can be sooner composed and settled than a broken divided Church who have besides the Motives and Principles of Nature the most gracious Reconciler for their Law-giver the most perfect Laws of Love the most indulgent Government under the strict and indispensible Duty of Self-denial opposite to Self-seeking and should have the least Consideration and Regard of a wordly Interest because They that are of Christ they are not of this World and having nothing to do but to promote enlarge and build up Christ's Kingdom upon Earth and for all their Self-denial Services and Sufferings have the Promises of Eternal Life an everlasting Kingdom and Thrones in it It is a most afflicting Meditation that Church-Divisions are most difficultly healed What an humbling Thought is this that a temporal Interest divides wordly Men in whom Self prevails and yet worldly Men can unite under general Common Laws because it is their Interest to unite and yet they who of all Men are under the greatest Obligations to unite that declare they are not of this World that teach the way of Peace to others cannot find it themselves But it is not Religion and Light that divide but it is Darkness and the Spirit of this World If to us to live were Christ then Christian Faith and Love would make us more heavenly and by Consequence more united Popery could never have that Compass to work our Ruine in had we agreed as we should have done Pardon this Excursion I 'll return The Church is rent from the Top to the Bottom the King surveys it and hath a Proposal in his Mind which will not only repair the Breaches but propagate Religion as he often said he seems to be fond of it he speaks so often of it It was meditated and formed in his Royal Mind while he was in Breda that it may not be thought an hasty and immature Production he gives it full time and cherisheth it And what is it but his Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs It was beheld as the most Royal Issue of an happy Mind as the First-born of Church-Peace after the most affectionate Conjunction of a most well-come King to a Kingdom that longed for him Observe 1. He offers himself as an Umpire and Reconciler 2. He declares to his great Satisfaction and Comfort that while he was in Holland he found the principal Assertors of the Presbyterian Opinion full of Affection to him Zeal for the Peace of the Church and State neither Enemies to Episcopacy nor Liturgy but modestly desiring Alterations without shaking Foundations and to the same purpose over again pag. 8. 3. He thinks himself to be competent to make his Proposal and determine many things in difference as above-said and pag. 4. of the Declaration 4. He expressed some great Considence in the Bishops We have not the least doubt but that the present Bishops will think the present Concessions made by us to allay the present Distempers very just and reasonable and will very chearfully conform themselves thereto pag. 10. 5. He conjured all his loving Subjects to acquiesce in and submit to that his Declaration concerning those Differences pag. 18 19. 3dly You have read the King's Character of the Reforming Divines so I 'll call them rather than Presbyterian and they made it good they strictly followed the Orders in the King's Commission made their Exceptions which they were impowered to do explained and shewed the Reasonableness of them when answered they replied when called to dispute they disputed and when they saw all was but dashing against a Wall they petition for Peace both the King and Bishops Now to all them that speak slightly or scornfully These Men these kind of Men as if they were some Monsters rolling in a troubled Sea and not suffering the Ark of Christ's Church to rest here is some account if not Satisfaction given But after our great hopes of Church-Peace and Union what followed but a dismal Breach a Wound that lies a bleeding and they upon whom the Pinacles of the Temple fell and bruised and crushed are now instead of a cleanly Hospital to live in threatned with Bridewel and Prisons and with that dreadful Sentence of Abjuration And Christian Reader if you do as I do here Grief doth make you stop That any Magistrate that hath taken the Sacrament to prove himself a Protestant dare menace or admonish any Christian Minister to do what he cannot do or forswear his native Country And wo be to England when a Minister of Christ successful in his Work not imaginary but real shall be carried to the Sea-side and swear he will never return to his Native Country and that such Ministers shall not have as much as a mean House or Barn to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in But who made the Breach who hindred the hopeful Closure self-willed obstinate Nonconformists The Nonconformity to the Law of Love Peace Meekness Forbearance hath done the Mischief The King's Declaration would have done what the Act of Uniformity could not do but we may look and find the first Cause to lie between them both To lay this open compare but some words in the King's Commission with some of the Answers of the Anti-reforming Commissioners and then judg impartially The King according to his Declaration gave his Commission to an equal number of Divines of both
best is they dissented from the Law without Impeachment of their Loyalty to the King for they would gladly have submitted to his Terms and could not obey the Law without any great Dishonour to the Legislative Power for they only dissent from a few Men who then could sway enow to do their Work They must not only do but they must subscribe Is that true of the same wise Lord Bacon Their urging Subscriptions to their own Articles is but lacessere irritare morbos Ecclesiae which otherwise would spend and crush themselves And it is true there are some which as I am perswaded will not easily offend by Inconformity who notwithstanding make some Conscience to subscribe For they know this note of Inconstancy Page 35. and Defection from what they have long held shall disable that Good which otherwise they would do When they have done this they must assent and consent c. Non consensum quaerit sed dissidium auget qui quod factis praestatur verbis exigit He seeketh not Union but Division which exacteth inwardly that which Men are content to yield in outward Action the same great Man still If some of the things themselves be small yet it is not a small thing that is required of us about them namely a Declaration and Subscription our unfeigned Assent c yea our quiet Submission to the use of them as tolerable sufficeth not as we apprehend Principles and Practices of the N.C. p. 13. c. saith the wise and holy Mr. Corbet I know all is sheltred under and fathered upon the Law but who invented who formed these things Had they the Catholick Spirit Wisdom Charity Authority of the whole Church in them to which all must yield Assent and to whom all must consent under peril they could not but know there were and would be Dissents and Disatisfactions they could not but know these Injunctions could not be so pleasing to the generality of the Kingdom and Church who had received the King's Declaration with such Applause and Gratulation And here may the fifteenth Query of the learned and judicious Sir Thomas Overbury come in Men are not Masters of their own Perswasions and can not change their Thoughts as they please He that believes any thing concerning Religion cannot turn as the Prince commands him or accommodate himself to the Law or his present Interests except he turn Atheist c. Reverend Dr. Purnet's Preface before the History of the Rights of Prince pag. 49. Whether to require Conformity in Practice where there is difference in Judgment be not to command a Man to act against Light and Conscience and consequently to sin and Query XXI c. 3. Whether it doth not imply that if a Man assent to all Articles of Faith to the Doctrine of the Apostles concerning the Authority of the Magistrate concerning Decency and Order and things indifferent and be otherwise fitted for preaching the Gospel and Administration of all Ordinances yet except he do assent and consent to all things required by some modern Bishops and Clergy-men it shall avail him nothing he shall be uncapable to officiate and whether these modern Church-men do not set up themselves above and exercise an Authority to dictate most absolute and higher than the Apostles did who were next to Christ himself 4. Suppose a Man be a lawfully ordained Minister i. e. by Bishops as many of the Nonconformists are or able and fit in respect of soundness of Faith Utterance Aptness to teach and be scrupulous of the Truth of some Proposition which is no Article of Faith or of some Ceremony and Modes of Practice is it not hard that for some Weakness of Understanding he cannot assent to what is formed by others not infallible that he should be uncapable of the Exercise of the Ministry and the Church deprived of his other Abilities for that Mistake Weakness or call it Error Our Saviour bore with his Disciples when he reproved them Are ye yet without Vndrstanding and did not turn them out 5. Whether Assent and Consent to some human Laws Rites and Ceremonies upon which neither Faith nor Unity depends be not hereby made more necessary for Exercise and Practice than the assenting to Articles of Faith or than preaching the Gospel or by consequence the Salvation of Immortal Souls It is true there is a vast difference in the nature of the things but as to Capacity and Incapacity to minister in the holy Office it is all one for a Man to refuse Assent and Consent to every thing as it is to an Article of the Creed 6. Or that Conformity to Order and the use of the Liturgy a monthly Sermon or a Homily is more for the Edification of the Church than diligent and constant preaching without a particular Assent to all every thing Which I will freely speak it can be affirmed by none but a Man that sets light by his own Salvation and never personally conversed with his own Flock or knows the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace or Eternal Life or the Practice of the Primitive Church Hitherto I have laboured to open the nature of the Cause of these Proceedings against our Protestant Brethren and it is their Nonconformity passive and active the first of which is a refusal of the modern Terms of Church-Freedom the second is a worshipping of God in Christ according to the Rule of the Holy Scripture as nearly as they can discern it and after the common either allowed or not disallowed manner of the Reformed Protestant Churches and particular this of England And in what they do they follow the same Rule and act from the same Principles which our first Reformers professed and their learned Defenders have maintained And three Questions shall take up the whole of what 's to follow 1. Whether they the Protestant Nonconformists justly deserve to be silenced suppressed and punished as they have been and are 2. Whether they are not at least to be permitted and indulged 3. Whether we ought not to unite and become one by removal or abating the things that divide and break us so that we may hold mutual and actual Communion in the same Exercises of Religion without fear of offending our Superiours thereby or any other So much hath not been spoken of the first Question in the Second Plea but that much more may be produced to encline if not draw the sensible Reader to the right side of the Question 1. It is clear that they are not deposed and prosecuted for such Crimes as were meritorious of Deposition in the Ancient Church by their Canons those Crimes were Fornication Perjury Theft Let a Bishop Presbyter or Deacon convicted of Fornication Perjury or Theft be deposed but with caution that he be not separated Canons called the Apostles Canons i. e. from the Communion of the Faithful as Balsamon expounds non segregetur adding a Reason for this Moderation that no Man be punished twice for the
4º An. 1559. And yet the Law for all these places is the same The Law is uniform but the Practice multiform But if the use of the book both Rules and Things ordered by it be enjoined then it seems strange that the Words should be after the manner of the Church of England for suppose any should compose a Form of Worship begin with some apt Sentences of Scripture then go to an Exhortation to Confession but use another Confession and throughout observe the Rubrick but not the same number of Psalms nor the same Canticles and Lessons or one of the three or ancient Creeds and other Prayers whether this would not be tho not the same things yet after the manner of the Church of England as being after the same Order But take the words as before That no Exercise of Religion to above four and the Family shall be lawful except they use the Common-Prayer Then may some be apt to think that 1. Here is a Conformity allowed by this Act to overthrow and weaken that required by the Act of Uniformity I query If a Minister shall in any publick place so he be neither Parson Vicar or Stipendary read the Common-Prayer altho he do not subscribe nor declare Assent and Consent whether he may not lawfully preach to as large an Assembly as will hear him And so may not a Man that is a Nonconformist in respect of Subscription and Declaration lawfully preach as publickly as he can and so be a legal Nonconforming Conformist as honest Mr. C. called himself and whether this Act doth not strike at the Act of Uniformity 2. Doth it not cast an ill look upon all other Modes of Divine Worship as if no other Form were consistent with the Peace of the Kingdom but what is according to the Liturgy 3. That all that dissent from all things in the Liturgy are Persons to be suspected of the King except such as say or hear the Liturgy and for that Cause are not and by Consequence whether the Execution of it doth not clearly tend to divide between the King and his Subjects and between Subject and Subject yea to make them that are religious appear more formidable than the irreligious 4. And whether it is not to set up a manner of Worship composed by Men above the matter of Worship appointed by God for let the Worship as to the Matter and End and Principle be divine it is not tolerable except it be after that one Manner and Practice I 'll add no more Doubts and Prejudices but come to plain Argument They who ought to be encouraged and protected by the King of England as Supream Governour ought not to be punished ☜ But our Protestant Nonconformists ought to be encouraged and protected Therefore c. They who set up no false and Idolatrous Worship contrary to the Word of God that worship God according to his Word ought to be encouraged and protected by the King of England as Supream Governour and his Laws But such is their Worship in every part Therefore c. I 'll touch the Minor first and then go to the Proposition That Worship which agrees in the right Object of Scripture-matter according to Scripture and to divine Ends is true Worship but such is their Worship Therefore c. To multiply no more Syllogisms I prove the Proposition by the constant Uniform allowed Doctrine of the Church of England And to strike home at one blow thus I argue They who ought to be encouraged and protected and not punished according to the allowed Doctrine of the Church of England explaining the King's Supremacy ought not to be punished by any new or subsequent Law that doth not condemn that allowed Doctrine of the Church as this Act doth not But according to the allowed Doctrine of the Church of England explaining the King's Supremacy they and such as they are to be encouraged and protected Therefore c. This is the Proposition I am to prove the Major being clear Those Reverend Fathers of the Reformed Religion which disputed against the Pope's and proved the King's Supremacy did thus state and explain it Set forth by Hen. 8th Vid. Dr. Bur. 1 Vol. History of the Reform p. 142. in the necessary Erudition of a Christian Man To them specially and principally it pertaineth to defend the Faith of Christ and his Religion to conserve and maintain the true Doctrine of Christ and all such as be true Preachers and Setters-forth thereof and to abolish Abuses Heresies and Idolatries and to punish with Corporal Pains such as of Malice be the occasion of the same and sinally to over-see and cause that the said Bishops and Priests do execute their Pastoral Office truly and faithfully and specially in these Points which by Christ and his Apostles were given and committed to them and in case they shall be negligent in any part thereof or would not diligently execute the same to cause them to redouble and supply their Lack and if they obstinately withstand their Prince's kind Monition and will not amend their Faults then and in such Case to put others in their room and places And God hath also commanded the said Bishops to obey with all Humbleness and Reverence both Kings and Princes and Governours and all their Laws not being contrary to the Laws of God whatsoever they be and that not only propter Iram but also propter Conscientiam With this Doctrine all our best Writers of unquestionable Authority agree See Jewel's Apology Part 1. p. 15. Edit 1570. Apol. c. 11. Divis 3. cut down Groves break down Images coerce and chastise Negligence and Falshood of the Bishop pag. 715. Joshua also Ap. c. 11. Divis 6 8 9 10 11. c. 15. Divis 1 3. c. 17. Divis 1 2. The Reproof of Mr. Dorman with a Defence of the chief Government of Christian Princes by Dr. Alexander Nowel London 1566. p. 24. b. p. 131 143 161. b. Dr. Jo. Rainold's Conference with Hart c. 10. We never affirmed that Princes might cammand what God forbiddeth or prohibit what God commandeth Bishops have their Authority to preach and administer the Sacraments from Christ himself only the Prince giveth them publick Liberty without let or disturbance to do what Christ commandeth Princes suffer and incite them with Peace and Praise to do their Duties Princes may by their Laws prescribe the Christian Faith to be preached the right Service of God in Spirit and in Truth to be used the Sacraments to be administred according to the Lord's Institution Bilson of Subjection pag. 216 217 c. We say that Princes as publick Magistrates may give Freedom Protection and Assistance to the preaching of the Word ministring the Sacraments and right using of the Keys pag. 227 236 240 249. See Bishop Bridges of the Supremacy against Stapleton and Saunders p. 672 673. I 'll quote no more of him There is neither Idolatry in Worship nor Heresy in the Faith of the Nonconformists for which they
K. CHARLES I. ΕΙΚ. ΒΑΣΙΛ 27. To the Prince of Wales BEware of exasperating any Factions by the Crossness and Asperity of some Mens Passions Humours and private Opinions imployed by you grounded only upon Differences in lesser Matters which are but the Skirts and Suburbs of Religion Wherein a charitable Connivance and Christian Toleration often dissipates their Strength whom rougher Opposition fortifies THE Conformist's Third Plea FOR THE Nonconformists Argued from the King's Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs Grounded upon the approved Doctrine AND Confirmed by the Authorities of many Eminent Fathers and Writers of the Church of England By the Author of the two former PLEAS Lord Bishop of Cork's Protestant Peace-maker Pag. 128. To these who ask What need of more Vnion I return What need of more Holiness What need of Godliness Charity Justice Are these Christian Duties and is not Vnion and Peace as much so I am and must be in the mind that the Strength of the Protestant Cause both here at home and throughout Christendom lies in the Vnion of Protestants and the Glory Purity and Fower of Christianity in this World stands or falls with Protestantism LONDON Printed by J. D. for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXII A PREFACE to the Christian and Peaceable Reader that seeks the things that be of Christ A Zeal for Peace and Vnion hath overcome all Discouragements arising from many Causes and inspired me to a Boldness prevailing against much Fear even to publish the secret Workings of my Heart As long as the Church dare shew her Face my Notions are not afraid of the Light they can receive no Luster from my Name let them go forth in that Light and Power which the Father of Lights and the God of Peace hath given and shall give unto them and if they may but give any Light to discover the way of Peace let me not only ly in Obscurity which I love because fittest for me but be disgraced by them who speak all manner of Evil of me If I have not forsaken and betrayed the Truth I have not forsaken nor betrayed the Church and when you come to see the Weapons which I handle and the Leaders and Authorities which I follow in the following Treatise as well as the Cause for which I plead I hope you will be convinced that as far as I have pleaded for the Nonconformist Brethren I have not run from my Colours There is common Truth a large and spacious ground to take them in and to build up one and the same Fabrick upon it comfortable to all true Christians receptive of all the Family of God and impregnable against all their and our Enemies It is some Relief and Comfort to see many lift up their Feet i. e. come and view the Desolations of the Church of Christ among us to be affected with them and some in whom is an excellent Spirit are contriving to bring the separate Apartments under one Roof and within one Line and Wall And these do stand upon the Rock of Evangelical Principles when not supported by the Arm of Flesh But no sooner do Arbitrators move for a Reconciliation but others do all they can to thrust them from them without respect to their Persons or due Reverence to Truth and Reason He that interposeth in this Difference doth at the Peril of Opposition The R. Rev. Author of the first Naked Truth hath found this true though his Quality and Person were more than guest at yet the Episcopal Staff could not bear off the Lashes of several Junior Writers from the Back of Naked Truth But Truth be it never so naked can bear Blows and Lashes as it hath always born the Violence of Storms and Times Truth cannot long be confined within Doors but will appear in open view whatever its Entertainment be whether Scorns Contradictions Laughter and Mockery Abuses and Scourgings or Approbation and Honour The Appearance of such a Book as that Naked Truth at such a time was like a Comet it drew the Eyes of all that could to look upon it it was a Divine Manifestation of a Primitive Christian-Spirit of Love And certainly as that pious Endeavour hath encreased his Comforts so he hath not lost all his Labour for since that we have had more Overtures of Peace than we heard of in the many Years of Discord and Troubles from the Learned in the Church of England The Nonconformists have born all the Blame and Scorn and Sufferings of our Divisions and have offered as much towards Peace and Accommodation as was possible for them to offer But partly their Writings and the doleful State of Religion have drawn out some Wishes and Concessions from some Men of Eminency in the Church towards Peace and Accommodation And tho these as yet seem too little yet there is much to be gathered from them first as to their Propensity to Peace 2. The Influence which their Concessions may have upon austerer Tempers 3. Because they being satisfied in the Point of Conformity as to their own Practice do yet for a greater Good and Peace incline to a Comprimise The Learned Dean of St. Paul's hath with submission to Authority made some Proposals and I hope would yield to more if the Composure were put into his hand Even Dr. Sherlock who is currantly thought to have writen the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet Pag. 103. doth wish with all his Heart that some Expressions were altered to prevent any Scandal to the scrupulous or to the profane this he writes only for the Office of Burial of the Dead which he calls an excellent Office supposing the due Exercise of Church-Discipline to cast all notorious Sinners and Schismaticks out of the Communion of the Church which the Church supposeth to be done I am of his Mind Pag. 102. concerning the Excellency of that Office It is most comfortable to the Minister and most Comfort to all true Christians when we can use it upon good Evidences concerning the Dead But as the visiting of the Sick hath been too often to me the most uncomfortable Office of my Ministry so it hath been a great Addition of Sorrow to commit those Bodies to the Earth concerning whom I had no hope of their resting in Christ O what dejecting Stories could I write of too many but I forbear If he be so sensible of the ill use which may be made of that excellent Office and do so heartily wish that some Expressions were altered to prevent Scandal to the scrupulous and prophane methinks for the same Reasons he might wish more Alterations might be made in other things and Offices Most frank and generous are those Expressions of the Right Reverend and Pious Bishop of Cork Protestan-Peacemaker p. 29. We are ready to sacrifice all we can otherwise i.e. without Schism to the publick Peace and Safety what most of the Dissenters would be at no Liturgy no Episcopacy no Vniformity may not be cannot be without
Schism p. 32. The only Steps by which we can mutually move to Peace I with all submission conceive to be these 1. That we all would seriously study Self-denial and that with a peculiar Eye and regard to Accommodation one perhaps of Popularity another of a particular Humor another of somewhat else All of whatsoever good Conscience tells us is less valuable than common Vnion p. 33. But notwithstanding what I have said of the Excellency both of the Common-Prayers and of Cathedral Performances I do conceive the Alteration of an Expression or here and there of a whole Prayer or two by Law or dispensing with some Ceremonies in loco I do not conceive such Relaxation as this would break the Harmony and Beauty of our Worship or disturb the Vnion and Peace of our Church There are some Collects and perhaps some Rubricks too which with all duty and submission I humbly conceive might be altered for the better pag. 118 119. This honourable Embassador of Peace speaks home and from his heart and shall for ever sit high in the esteem of all the Sons of Peace Here are Proposals conditional indeed with the consent of Authority as they should be that will certainly be imbraced by Dissenters But now if the Church should condescend if I may call that a Condescension which is done for Christ as far as it can without Schism and the Dissenters as far as they can with a good Conscience What shall be done if they cannot come up to a full and perfect closure Shall the Dissenter have no benefit by his Consent to the great things and the greatest number of things in which they agree already shall he be not only excluded but punished altho he continue peaceable in his Dissent In such a case here is an apparent Necessity of mutual Forbearance in Love and of the Bond of Peace to keep in the Vnity of the Spirit And here I cannot without a great respect to another Conformist of Worth and Quality as I am informed repeat the Words which are like a healing Plaister to a heart bruised between our grating Differences The way to make National Religion most National is by comprehending all the Differences that can be reconciled with true Religion while they that dissent in some things receive one another with a good peaceable holy and publick Temper of Mind as the great Argument and Inducement of which we should all pray for the Acceptance of the holy Service of all that call on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Apostle distinguishes Christians but immediately unites them again both theirs and ours they and we whatever smaller Distinctions make the They and the We are both one in our Lord Jesus Christ We ought to pray for the common Benefit of all so united though not bound up in the same common Form with us for a gracious Audience and Reception of their and our Worship of God that so the Spirit of Love and Vnion in the main may convey all our Services into one before God where indeed if they are as he requires they meet stript of all their outward Circumstances Form and Ceremony Faith and Obedience being alone able to mount thither with them And Services so raised can by no means be spared for small Differences in a National Religious Interest for the Angels of all such behold the Face of our Father in Heaven Thus that excellent Person The whole Duty of Nations p. 61. who writes himself a Minister of the Catholick Church as it is National in England The same Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation breaths forth in peaceable Discourses of true Protestant Christian Gentlemen of excellent Learning and hearty Concernment for their and our Religion taking several ways The Learned Sir Thomas Overbury hath proposed many Questions of great Weight and discoursed upon them piously and smartly Sir John Mallet hath drawn up the Contents that might be Heads of useful and necessary Discourses for Gentleness towards Protestant Dissenters tho he himself and Family come duely to Church-Service and Sacraments Letter to the Author of the Guide to the English Juries printed after it and use some of the Common-Prayers in his Family The Author of the Appendix to Mr. Hunt's Argument hath discovered a good Will to Peace and Accommodation But most fully and of set-purpose a very learned and true Christian Gentleman that holds constant Communion with the Church of England hath turned aside answering the Title of his Book like a good Samaritan to help up a bleeding Church and powr a Composition of choice Preparations to heal her Wounds But alas have not and do not our Sins separate between us and our God Oh! how are they increased that make that Separation O! how hot are they against a Separation that is both curable and tolerable in comparison of theirs If their Assemblies if their Exercises were called seditious and Twenty Pounds upon the Houses of their Assemblies and but 5 s. upon every one that communicates in their Sins it would be more pleasing to God and more for the Establishment and Prosperity of the Kingdom than their Prosecutions of Dissenters in point of Ceremony many of these consult keep their Meetings sedulously concur unanimously and lay Spies in wait to apprehend the Preachers of the Word of Salvation These breath out Threatnings and what they will do But if this chanee to fall into any of their Hands I will present one warning more and a notable Example to them William Lantgrave of Hasse Casp Peucer Historia Carcerum Part 2. pag. 773. made Intercession with Augustus the Elector of Saxony for Dr. Peucer Prisoner a long time for his dissent in the Vbiquitarian Controversy The Elector promised his release if Anne his Duchess would be willing and desired him to try her first she replied according to her Obstinacy If she lived he should not be released Which Answer of hers the Lantgrave and other wise Men did thus interpret That the Dutchess should shortly dy that Peucer by her Death might be released and so it proved according to their Interpretation she died saith Dr. Peucer in that very moment in which I dreamed in my Sleep of a great and noble Funeral and a Bell ringing and as the Bell-rope brake that Verse of the Psalm came into my Mind Our Soul is escaped as a Bird out of the Snare of the Fowler the Snare is broken and we are escaped And among what Prodigies she died is known to all I am confident if the Persecutors of our peaceable and religious Nonconformists were studious to prepare for Death they would forbear this Work and as it is dreadful for any of them to dy in their Sins unrepented of and to dy in this Sin so let them take heed that some of the greatest of them do not fall by an apparent Hand of God I do profess if I had any Friend engaged in this horrid Work I would perswade him if possible to forbear
if he had any regard to his Soul to his Life to his Family and Posterity if any true Loyalty to his Soveraign if kindness to the Church and Country for this is a fighting against God a walking contrary to him and what can they expect but that God should walk contrary to them Well we read Blessed are they that are persecuted for Righteousness sake for any part of Righteousness and Religion but there 's none for them that persecute Blessed are they who lay to heart the doleful State of the Protestant Religion that consult her Peace and that appear for her Peace in this day of her Fear and Trouble When other are pronouncing Wo to themselves and Wo to others these will find Peace in their own Souls who have studied the Peace of the Church by healing her Breaches If any should say to the first movers of this Work now in hand as Olivarius the Chancellor of France when in great Terrors said to the Cardinal of Lorrain Ah ah Cardinalis Pavel Mellif Hist Part 3. p. 343. Edit 4. Anno 1631. tu nos omnes in aeternum exitium trahis it will be no allay of Horrors nor relief to Conscience if any Divine or Confessor shall say as the Cardinal did to him You are tempted of the unclean Spirit persist in the Faith To this fearful Story I will add the words of that Historian Haec est merces Judicum quibus Aulicae Gratiae fumus sua Conscientia potior est He might have added omnium and of all that prefer Court-Favour which is but Smoak to the Light and Peace of their own Consciences The Sufferers are much to be pitied the divided Body of Christ is more to be pitied but they who stretch out their Hands to vex the religious and truly pious Sufferers are both to be feared and pittied because it is a more fearful thing for them to fall into the Hands of the living God than for them who religiously fear God to fall into their Hands To put an end to the Sufferings of true Protestants in a Protestant Kingdom and to prevent an apprehended and feared Desolation good Mens Thoughts are at work and several Proposals for Accommodation are made publick And I wonder at the Providence of God that when too many are extream busy with Hands and Tongues to tear us into more and new Distractions others and they Members of the Church-Communion appear as strongly prepared to receive the Ejected What this Providence may speak I will not be so bold as to interpret but it raiseth up some hopes when we are dejected under the dejecting Apprehensions of considering Men. It is manifest that most that are engaged in suppressing the Nonconformists read little consider as little it is but vain to write for their sakes and those that read a little of much that is said are strongly pre-engaged or are afraid or covetous to save themselves or carried by some other Affection and Temptation and thatwhich is most fearful of all are under a strong Delusion If we were not under some degrees of a Delusion it were impossible that Men should be so impolitick and irreligious I am grieved and ashamed to read how Gundamor did delude a great wise and Protestant Kingdom in his Account of his Embassy to the Council in Spain in two great Instances of his Craft pernitious to our Church and State 1. A Parliament said Gundamor Out of a M. S. that lay in the Study of a Loyal Divine related to the Eail of Stratford printed by Mr. Rich. Dugdalt 1679 and by T. S. Mr. Scot in his Vex Populi printed An. 1624. nay therein lies one of the principal Services I have done in working such a dislike between the King and the lower House by the Endeavour of that honourable and admirable Engine a sure Servant to us as the King will never endure a Parliament again 2. For Religion as Bancroft who maintained a dangerous Schism between our Seculars and the Jesuites this taught me as it did Barnevel in the low Countries to work secretly and insensibly between the Conformist and the Nonconformist He bragg'd he had the Head of Sir W. Raleigh at command got Dr. Everard of St. Martin's silenced and Dr. Whiting and Mr. Clayton for preaching against them and that Mr. Ward of Ipswich did not escape for his Picture of 88. He advised the Jesuits who consulted in Fetter-Lane and had a Printing-Press at a Goldsmith's House to sow Dissention between the Prince and People How warmly do some accomplish the Advice of Contzen the Jesuit to bring in Popery Rule 3. The Doctors and leading Pastors must be put out if it may be all at once if not by degrees R. 8. Let the People be told the Ministers are heady obstinate Men that they are faulty and have deserved to be put out R. 6. To bring in Popery is to make use of the Protestant Contentions R. 7. To forbid the Protestants privately or publickly to assemble together 8. To proceed to the Severity of Laws and Punishments But now many are so imposed upon as tho they did not believe what they cannot but believe and as if they believed what they have no reason to suspect O that many both of our Preachers and Prosecutors would diligently read and consider that excellent Sermon of our renowned Father Bishop Jewel on Mat. 9. Pray the Lord of the Harvest that he would send Labourers into his Harvest Take a few Gleaning of it O lift up your Eyes and consider how the Hearts of your Brethren ly waste without Instruction without Knowledg without the Food of Life without the Comfort of God's Word such a Misery as was never seen among Heathens The Turks have Preachers sufficient for their People the Jews have their Teachers c. The Christians when they lived under Tyrants never lacked Ministers to instruct them It is therefore most lamentable that Christians living under a Christian Prince in the Peace and Liberty of the Gospel should lack learned Ministers to teach them This is the greatest Plague that God sends upon a People contrary-wise the greatest Blessing any People can receive at God's Hands is to have Prophets and Preachers But when God taketh away his Ministers which should preach Peace and open to the People the Will of God and make known his Judgments it is a Token that God is highly displeased with his People c. I may be blamed for this Quotation as if it were scandalous to the Government a popular delusion of People to Discontent Yes I know what may be said but let the doleful dark famishing Condition of multitudes of Places in this Kingdom be view'd and it is true that People perish for want of Knowledg I have known where one pitiful Curat Journy-man indeed that could make but a poor shift to saw the Liturgy and Psalms between him and the Clerk hath been all that three great Congregations had had unless a Stranger had preached to two
dissenting Brethren who now ly out of Doors and strong to endure all the Batteries of our Adversaries upon the Doctrines of our famous Bishops and Doctors as upon a Foundation I am certain I have misquoted none of them nor forced them from their Native Sence and Coherence If I have failed in my arguings and kept not to the Line of Reason that must be discovered by sharper Lights than mine is and by thus doing a Conformist may plead for the Non-Conformists and not forsake the Church I have also thought that if the same Methods and Mediums were used for healing our Divisions which were proposed to reconcile or at least to cool the far greater Controversies between the Lutherans and Calvinists by our famous and reverend Bishops Morton Hall Davenant c. we had seen the Kingdom of Christ gone up apace as the Temple did without the Noice of Axes and Hammers I am persuaded the Divisions of the Church ly near the Hearts of some of you and it cannot but be grievous to see into what Hands our Brethren are fallen as given to the Spoil and I know the Christian Saying as I received it from credible Testimony that my Lord of L. and C. answered a busy Extinguisher of Light who told him Dr. G. was preaching He is about his Master's Work let him alone again Preaching and praying are good Works Where there is an Antipathy against Popery there is Moderation to Protestant Dissenters I humbly beseech you Christian Gentlemen Justices of the Peace bear with me a Word or two Do you think if peaceable Non-Conformity be not fit to be indulged nor spared will Non-Conformity and Heresy meeting in the same Person be indured if it be possible to root it up All the Disputations against Non-Conformity now may be strong Arguments against the Toleration of Heresy as our Religion is called by the Papists and they who stretch their Power against Protestants for Non-Conformity do justify the Roman Cruelties and prove their Proceedings to be more rational and you that strive with the Flat or Back of the Sword may be smitten with the Edge if you can endure and you must take it patiently or be self-condemned I beseech you Gentlemen consider who they are that run and ride up and down upon this Work that would take Ministers and Hearers but such whose Sacraments are Healths filled with Wine void of the Spirit whose Devotions are Wounds and Dam-mees Will these ever reform a Church that make the World the worse Must not that Execution of Law be thought unhappy which is effectually the putting one of Contzen the Jesuite's Rules into Execution as above said for changing of Religion and bringing in Popery viz. to Proceed to the Severity of Laws and Punishments against Protestants POST-SCRIPT I Am forced to break off abruptly in the Close of these Sheets about Vnion and must leave what is behind to another Part. In the mean Time that the Vnion I press for may be more easily effected I humbly beseech my Brethren in the Ministry and all others to revive the almost lost Virtue of Moderation Consider what the excellent Dean of Canterbury says in his Preface to Bishop Wilkin's 15 Sermons lately published where in Vindication of that rarely accomplished Bishop whose great Name and excellent Spirit it seems could not escape a smutting from some of our Fire-brands He thus defends both the Vertue of Moderation and that great Example of it to wit And I purposely says the Dean mention his Moderation and likewise adventure to commend him for it notwithstanding that this Vertue so much esteemed and magnified by wise Men in all Ages hath of late been declamed against with so much Zeal and Fierceness and yet with that good Grace and Confidence as if it were not only no Vertue but even the Sum and Abridgment of all Vices I say notwithstanding all this I am still of the old Opinion that Moderation is a Vertue and one of the peculiar Ornaments and Advantages of the excellent Constitution of our Church and must at last be the Temper of her Members especially the Clergy if ever we seriously intend the firm Establishment of this Church and do not industriously design by cherishing Heats and Divisions among our selves to let in Popery at these Breaches But more especially consider our blessed Saviour teacheth us Moderation by his Laws concerning these Matters in Difference by his Apostles by his easy Yoke his Blessings and his Judgments and by a visible Providence over our chief City London which should be an Example to Norwich Bristol Coventry and a Warning to them There was nothing to be done in the Year of the dreadful Plague The Magistrate found other Work the next Year after the dreadful Fire two Years after the Government fell into the Hands of Sr. W. Turner whose unsuspected Affection to the Church made his Wisdom and Moderation the more remarkable and the Blessing of Peace and Contentment of Mind attended And how much happier was his Year and of the Successors of Sir S. Sterling than that troublesome Year to the Nonconformists and certainly as little comfortable as it was honourable to himself Sir Richard Ford was feared but his eminent Prudence procured him Honour and Estimation And what Conspiracies or Seditions were moved as much as to make him thoughtful about them What Cause of Suspicion or Fear did the Dissenters give his honourable Successors till the breaking out of the dreadful Plot and did not the Lord Mayors since that rest confident in the Loyalty and Fidelity of the Dissenters and did not two of them concur in the Vote against the Prosecution of them And since the Presbyterian Sham-plots have made even Hardiness and Impudence to blush at their Confidence what Suspicions have they moved to give any Colour for them How dear was Sir Patience Ward to all good Men as appeared in their publick and private Prayers for him in his dangerous Sickness and did not he leave his Government in a peaceable safe State After several Years Indulgence of the Non-Conformists did they grow trouble some by their Numbers or factious by their Ease And I do heartily wish the R. H. Sir John More now L. Mayor may leave it as he found it and carry a Peace in his Bosom answerable to the Piety and Moderation of his Speech at his Election for which I know many Prayers were made for him by some that never saw him that his Piety may not be outdar'd by some of an imperious Humour to impose upon others an impious notion I do humbly recommend to you Mr. Bold's Sermon against Persecution to which I set my Seal That Men cannot be Conscientious but they must be Factious and take Pleasure or Pride or something else in representing peaceable Religion as a Torch of Rebellion What tender Heart will be able to bear the Stings of Conscience for touching such as fear God with but the Point of the Sword for professing that same
intend to shew in my following Discourse as God shall help me IV. By whom and from whom and through whose means they are now again exposed to Sufferings I cannot shew the Spring of the Motion but any Man may see the Hands that strike and tell us what time of day it is I do very much doubt whether the most engaged Instruments do know whose Work they carry on this is my Charity but if they do I dare say what they cannot hear without either great displeasure horror or repentance But they are 1. Such as cannot take it ill to be called Addressers and Abhorrers but they as far as I can look about me and see particularly that have thanked the King for declaring his Resolutions of ruling by Law which if any of the Nonconformists had expressed a doubt or fear of had been a far greater Offence than their Nonconformity They have declared for the Protestant Religion as established by Law and yet punish them that profess the same and no other 2. And by Consequence they are such as have declared a dislike of the Proceedings of our late Parliaments and in that particular of endeavouring the uniting of Protestant Dissenters in which alone I am concerned to take notice of them and act directly contrary to the Vote of the House of Commons which resolved That it is the Opinion of this House Lunae 10 die Jan. 1680. that the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the penal Laws is at this time grievous to the Subject a weakning to the Protestant Interest an Encouragement of Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom And by the Rule of Opposition they must in their Opinions turn this Vote backward as if they thought that the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the present Laws is not grievous to the Subject is not a weakening of the Protestant Interest is not an encouragement of Popery nor dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom Certainly they must be supposed to hold this as contrary to the general and unanimous Judgment of the far greater Number for as Nemine Contradicente doth not contain every particular Man's Vote so it doth no less than imply a Consent or that to declare a Dissent is to no purpose there is no Division of the House upon it only if they do not hold this contrary to the House they must act both irrationally and desperately in this sense Altho the House of Commons declared their Opinion to be so yet I a Justice or I an inferiour Officer will prosecute the Protestant Dissenters or execute the Penal Laws upon them tho it be a weakening of the Protestant Interest altho it be an Encouragement to Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom Or if this Consequence from these Proceedings be too harsh and censorious I will mollify it as much as it is capable of a mollified Construction Let this be the Opinion of the Prosecutors now The Execution of the Penal Laws is not grievous to the Subject that is it is grievous but to some and not to all it is not grievous to the Subject because it is not grievous to them and then we shall have a Discrimination of Subjects to this sense They only who execute the Laws or approve of it are the only Subjects of the King or that the Dissenters can suffer Punishments and the Punishments not be grievous to them Or that the Dissenters are not Subjects but Rebels a sort of quiet Rebels certainly may we never see any other than such unarmed quiet Rebels Again they must think that the Execution of the Laws upon them is no weakning of the Protestant Interest that is to say they are no Protestants And now the meaning is plain that there are no Protestants amongst us but those that are of the Church-Government established by Law and are of it or submit to it or that read or joyn in the Liturgy or do all that the Law requires that is the Act of Uniformity and then a Question will arise Where was the Protestant Religion before 1662 or before the last long-Long-Parliament Or where is it like to be when these Protestants no-Protestant-Dissenters are cut off where it was before Luther If only the Conformists are the Protestants then what sort of them If only one sort of them then the Catholick Church of England may be not much bigger than some great Conventicle or great Parish They who make this Separation of Protestants are Separatists and Disciples the National Tutors and Instructors in such wholsome and profitable Doctrine both in Divinity and Politicks If Confirmity tota in toto c. makes the Protestant and be convertible with him it makes as good a Definition of a Protestant as of a Man by Accidents A Man is a rational Creature that wears curled Locks long Hair Hose and Shoos c. or of a Philosopher he is a Scholar that wears a Beard c. But to go on they may be thought to be of Opinion that to punish Dissenters is no Encouragement to Popery for when they have rooted them up then they will root up Popery as if they could not come at those great Oaks before they have cut up the Brush-wood Or lastly they do not think it dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom to suppress Dissenters 1. Because they know that the Dissenters when undone will not molest or disturb the Peace of the Kingdom Or else 2. Because they intend to make them so poor that they shall not be able to disturb the Peace Or 3. Because it is the only way of Peace But here again a Questionist sets upon me as I go peaceably on in my Discourse If the Dissenters are not dangerous to the Peace of Kingdom why are they disturb'd and their Meetings broken up as seditious Meetings 2. If they are dangerous and their Meetings feditious then whether are they more dangerous when they are pleased quiet and in Peace or when they are provoked When they enjoy Trades Liberty and Estates or when they are imprisoned and undone To conclude this Head If our zealous Prosecutors think as the House of Commons did in their foresaid Vote then why will they act contrary to that general Opinion or if they are of a contrary Opinion as I have said then follows 3. A third Branch of the Description of the Prosecutors They are such as do not yea cannot understand the State of the Kingdom and Religion so well as the House of Commons did 1. No one Man of them can understand the true State of the Kingdom as a Grand Assembly of our Representatives did 2. Nor all of them for when the Representatives of the Kingdom met they had such Informations given in and brought before them and saw what was invisible to others there was a Collection of Observations and the Eyes of most of the Kingdom moved in that great Body and their Debates and Reasonings were mature and full And tho a Vote have not the
unordained rebellious and unreasonable Men disloyal disobedient against the King and all Government Decency and Order as if they were for all Sects and sorts of Religion allowing all Men to do what seemeth good to them But in this short Description of them you may find an Answer to vulgar and popular Objections against them and more fully spoken of in the two former Pleas. In the Second Plea p. 10 11 12. I have said that the Difference between the Nonconformist commonly but unduly and unsitly called Presbyterian and the Conformist is to be seen and gathered from the King 's own Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs which they would have submitted to if it had been turned into an Act of Parliament and the Act of Uniformity I shall now further enlarge upon that Notion and shew you what the King declared and what they would have accepted because many that think and speak hardly of them do not know how things stood at that time and what that Declaration is In the Year 1660 after that General Monk made Duke of Albemarle afterwards by the King declared himself for a Free-Parliament and by the Counsel and Assistance of the City of London restored the Members of the old Parliament that were shut out by some of the Army before ever they could bring about their Designs against the King's Life and there was a wise and good Council of State chosen many of the Royal Nobility and Gentry and some Divines put out a Declaration in which are these words And we do further declare that we intend by our quiet and peaceable Behaviour to testify our Submission to the present Power as it now resides in the Council of State in Expectation of the future Parliament upon whose Wisdom and Determinations we trust God will give such a Blessing as may produce a perfect Settlement both in Church and State This was subscribed by the Marquess of Dorchester and twenty Earls and Lords several Noble-Men about thirty two Baronets and Knights and between eighty and an hundred Gentlemen among whom is Mr. Roger L'Estrange then a Christian professing Reconciliation promising with the rest To speak one Language to be of one Name not Whig and Tory that all mention of Factions and Parties and all Rancor may be thrown in and buried like Rubbish under the Foundation These are the words of it but as Dr. Collings of Cambridg said once Then was then and now is now one Irish Bishop subscribed it and four Doctors of Divinity and the first of them was Dr. Morley the yet-living Lord Bishop of Winchester How gladly did all honest Men receive this Declaration as tending to a firm Reconciliation and afterwards to a lasting Union and universal Peace not so much as a name of Faction or Difference to be kept in memory neither did any suspect the meaning of burying all Factions and Animosities like Rubbish under the Foundation to be as now some Mens Actions and Writings explain it that Factions and Animosities do lie under the Foundation which is at this day shaken being so underlaid Faction and Animosity will not lie buried but rise and walk In April 1660 That hoped-for Parliament met and to the Speakers of both Houses His Majesties Letter from Breda April 14. 1660 pag. 6. His Majesty sent his Letter and Declaration from his Court at Breda in his Letter I read these Words relating to Religion And nothing can be proposed to shew our Zeal and Affection for it to which we will not readily consent and we hope in due time our Self to propose somewhat to you for the Propagation of it In his Declaration sent therewith are these words We do declare a Liberty to tender Consciences and that no Man shall be disquieted or called in question for differences of Opinion in matter of Religion which do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom In October 25 1660 His Majesty was pleased to send out his Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs in which he was pleased to remember and repeat the fore-cited words of his Letter whereby it is clear that that which he had long in his Mind to propose for the Propagation of Religion was the Contents of this Declaration Adding in the next Sentence Pag. 4. And the truth is We do think our Self the more competent to propose and with God's Assistance to determine many things now in difference from the time we have spent and the Experience we have had in most of the Reformed Churches abroad And besides what is quoted out of it in the Second Plea pag. 65. he hath these words We must for the honour of all those of either Perswasion with whom we have conferred declare that the Professions and Desires of all for the advancement of Piety and true Godliness are the same their Professions of Zeal for the Peace of the Church the same of Affection and Duty to us the same They all approve of Episcopacy they all approve of a set Form of Liturgy and they all disprove and dislike the Sin of Sacriledg and the Alienation of the Revenue of the Church and if upon these excellent Foundations in submission to which there is such an Harmony of Affections any Superstructures should be raised to the shaking those Foundations and to the contracting and lessening the blessed Gift of Charity which is the vital part of Christian Religion we shall think our selves very unfortunate Pag. 8. We have not the least doubt but that the Present Bishops will think the present Concessions now made by us to allay the present Distempers very just and reasonable and will very cheerfully conform themselves thereto Thus the King declares his Confidence of the Bishops Compliance with his Proposal and Declaration which is thus contracted 1. Our purpose is to promote the Power of Godliness to encourage the Exercise of Religion both publick and private that the Lord's day be applied to holy Exercises that insufficient negligent and scandalous Ministers be not permitted in the Church to prefer none to be Bishops but Men of Learning Vertue and Piety that they be frequent Preachers c. 2. Because the Diocesses are too large we will appoint Suffragan Bishops for the due performance of the Work 3. No Bishops shall ordain or exercise any Jurisdiction without Advice of the Presbyters no Chancellour or Commissary shall decree any Excommunication or Absolution nor shall the Deacons exercise any Jurisdiction without the Advice and Assistance of six Ministers 4. That Cathedral Preferments shall be given to the most learned and pious Presbyters of the Diocess and that an equal number to those of the Chapter of the ablest Presbyters of the Diocess annually chosen by the major Vote of the Presbyters shall be always advising and assisting with those of the Chapter in all Ordinations and every the part of Jurisdiction and Censures 5. That Confirmation be solemnly performed by the Information and Consent of the Minister of the place who shall admit none to the Lord's Supper
till they make a credible Profession of their Faith Care be taken to instruct and reform the scandalous whom the Minister shall not receive to the Lord's Supper till they have openly declared their Repentance The rural Dean with three or four Ministers of the Deanary chosen by Ministers of the Deanary shall meet once a Month to receive Complaints and Presentments to compose Differences reform things amiss by Admonitions and to present such things to the Bishop as cannot be reformed by their pastoral Perswasions to see that all the younger sort be carefully instructed before they be confirmed 6. No Bishop shall exercise any Arbitrary Power 7. Since we find some Exceptions made against several things in the Liturgy we will appoint an equal number of Divines of both Perswasions to review the same and to make such Alterations as shall be thought most necessary and some additional Form and it shall be left to the Minister to chuse one or other In the mean time we desire that Ministers would read those parts against which there lies no Exceptions yet in compassion to them that scruple it our Will and Pleasure is that none be punished or troubled for not using it until it be effectually reformed as aforesaid 8. We gratify those who are grieved with the use of some Ceremonies by indulging to and dispensing with their omitting those Ceremonies and leave all Decisions about them to the Advice of a National Synod None shall be denied the Lord's Supper for not kneeling none compelled to use the Cross it shall be lawful to him that desires to use the Cross to have such Ministers as will use it and if the proper Minister refuse to omit it the Parent shall get another Minister that will to baptize his Child None compell'd to bow at the Name of Jesus The Surplice left to liberty except the Royal Chappel Cathedral Churches or Colledges in Universities Those that cannot subscribe the Canon and take the Oath of Canonical Obedience shall only take the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy that none forfeit his Benefice that subscribes all the Articles of Religion which only concern the Confession of the true Christian Faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments He repeated again his Declaration of Liberty of Conscience before cited And conclude and in this place to explain what we mentioned before That we hoped in due time to propose somewhat for the Propagation of the Protestant Religion that will satisfy the World that we have always made it both our Care and our Study and have observed enough what is most like to bring Disadvantage to it We do conjure all our loving Subjects to acquiess and submit to this our Declaration concerning those Differences which have so much disquieted the Nation at home and given so much Offence to the Protestant Churches abroad c. The Parliament which restored the King then sitting thanked him for this Declaration the Divines of London called the Presbyterian did also thank him for it and I never was acquainted with any conforming Divine that did not approve of it more than of the exact Conformity afterwards required and I cannot but think if a Scrutiny were to be made but more Ministers of Learning Plety and Experience that are not biassed with Preferments would judg it a far better Expedient for our Peace and the Propagation of the Protestant Religion as his Majesty speaks than our tried Strictress and Rigor yea I doubt not but many of our considerable dignified Clergy are or would be of the same mind After this the King gave a Commission according to his Declaration to an equal number of Divines to review and reform the Common-Prayer The Presbyterian Divines as they were called presented their Exceptions to the Bishops and Commissioners who returned them an Answer not favouring of fatherly Condescention nor giving hopes of a desirable Closure not as much as to leave the use of a Ceremony at liberty and free and by the stile it seems to be written by one or more of the Doctors and not by the Bishops themselves To this the other Commissioners replied which was not thought worth their notice so much as to give them another gentle Rebuke When the four Months allowed for the Debates and Confultation were expired the Commissioners who were slighted present a Petition and due Account of the matter to the King and say thus And tho the Account which we are forced to give to your Majesty of the Issue of our Consultation is that no Agreements are subscribed by us to be offerered to your Majesty according to your Expectation and tho it be none of our intent to cast the least unmeet Reflection upon the Right Reverend Bishops and learned Brethren who think not meet to yield to any considerable Alterations to the Ends expressed in your Majesties Commission yet we must say it is some quiet to our Minds that we have not been guily of your Majesties and Subjects Disappointments and that we account not your Majesties Gracious Commission and our Labour lost having Peace of Conscience in discharge of our Duty to God and you that we have been the Seekers and Followers of Peace and have earnestly pleaded and humbly petitioned for it And we humbly beseech your Majesty to believe that we own no Principles of Faction or Disobedience nor patronize the Errors and Obstinacy of any It is the desire of our Souls to contribute our Parts and Interest to the uttermost for the promoting of Holiness Charity Unity and Obedience to Rulers in all lawful things but if we should sin against God because we are commanded who shall answer for us or save us from his Justice And we know that conscientious Men will not consent to the practising of things in their Judgment unlawful when those may yield who count the matter indifferent We must not believe that when your Majesty took our Consent to a Liturgy to be a Foundation that would infer our Concord you meant not we should have no Concord but by consenting to this Liturgy without any considerable Alteration We most humbly beseech your Majesty that the benefit of the said Declaration may be continued to your People and in particular that none be punished or troubled for not using the Common-Prayer till it be effectually reformed and the Addition made as these express They presented to the Bishops and the other Commissioners the Reformation of the Liturgy and a most humble grave pathetical Petition called the Petition for Peace towards the end the address themselves to them in these Words Grant us but the Freedom which Christ and his Apostles lost unto the Churches use necessary things as necessary and unnecessary things as unnecessary and charitably bear with the Infirmities of the weak and tolerate the tolerable while they live peaceably and then you will know when you have done and for the Intolerable we beg not your Toleration c. I am sensible I have been long upon this historical Retrospect of
that opposed it upon very different Ends They designed to shelter the Papists from the Execution of the Law and saw clearly that nothing would bring in Popery so well as a Toleration but to tolerate Popery bare-faced would have startled the Nation too much so it was necessary to hinder all the Propositions for Vnion seeing the keeping up the Differences was the best colour they could find for getting the Toleration to pass only as stackening the Laws against Dissenters whose Numbers and Wealth made it adviseable to have some regard to them and under this pretence Popery might have crept in more covered and less regarded so these Councils being more acceptable to some concealed Papists then in Power as has since appeared too evidently the whole Project for Comprehension was let fall and those who had set it afoot came to be looked on with an evil Eye as secret Favourers of Dissenters Vnderminers of the Church and every thing else that Jealousy and Distaste could cast on them I do not question but this excellent Historian hath given us a faithful account of the Reasons against Comprehension as he received them from those eminent Persons engaged in it or some that knew them and I will make bold to cast some Reflections upon them 1. On the one part some zealous Church-men who thought it below the Dignity of the Church to alter Laws c. But when it is more agreeable to their Spirit and Ends it is no Indignity to change moderate Laws into more severe nor to practise arbitrarily beyond Laws 2. They who rationally and conscienciously dissent are esteemed Schismaticks but retaining all other their Opinions and Principles and abating the rigor of their Dissent by conforming would they be of the Church or still esteemed Scismaticks By this Notion the Conformist qua talis is no Schismatick and the Nonconformist quatenus such is a Schismatick Conformity takes away all name of Schism But then the Question might be Whether the Nonconformist be a Stateschismatick or a Church-schismatick and whether he was a Schismatick when he treated about and petitioned for Peace and Union and what hath made him to be one since 3. They are afraid of Faction but do those Fears arise from a Catholick or a Factious Spirit Are there not factious Spirits in the Church that harbour factious Affections and utter factious Words contrary to true Charity 4. And what if other Parties might demand Concessions Either those Concessions were rational becoming the Wisdom Peaceableness and Grace of the Church or not methinks it 's a Royal Dignity in the Church to make reasonable Concessions if they are unreasonable unchristian impious and the like the Church may deny them with Honour But these Sons and Fathers represent the Church like a stately Lady that keeps Chamber and must not be spoken to 5. But really are there such among us as taking Offence might go over to the Church of Rome constant and true to her self How much do they owe to the Nonconformists for their Company and Communion How inclinable are they to Rome that are ready to depart upon small Concessions The Constancy of the Church of Rome is as inseparable a Property of hers as her Infallibility Methinks this is much to the Dishonour of many of our Church and much to the Honour of the Nonconformists that whatever they suffer there is no danger that they will turn Papists But weak Reasons have great force in them when they that are narrow in their Charity and powerful in Place have the Management of them 6. The World is too apt to be jealous but have not the Nonconformists some Reason to be jealous of this sort of zealous Clergy-men that there is some Agreement or Bargain between them and the Friends and Kinsmen of the Church of Rome that both shall agree to keep the Nonconformists out And is not the Church of Rome better conditioned and better natured than these zealous Clergy-men for there is not a Nonconformist but may be entertained among them without fear of encreasing a Faction 7. It is not a very doubtful thing whether our zealous Clergy-men are the best or the worst sort of our Clergy that argue so stisly against a legal Comprehension of the Orthodox Nonconformists with Reasons of so little weight or that are so little sensible of the Usefulness and Serviceableness of the Abilities of the Nonconformists to the great and crying need of Souls 8. This is a Vindication of the Nonconformists from bringing in of Popery for the way of getting into the Papists hath been the shutting out of them they hope to get by a Toleration There would be no colourable Reasons for a Toleration if it were not a pretended Favour to the Nonconformists Take away Nonconformity as much as you can and you take away the fairest pretence for a Toleration They that appear against the uniting of Protestants upon Catholick Terms serve the Popish Turn and Interest and are effectually ill Friends to the Protestant Interest and by Consequence our excluding Impositions do more real Hurt than Good to the Protestant Church of England 9. The dissenting Protestants may know who are their Friends and who their Enemies and what Potent Enemies they have they have the Zealous Clergy against them and the Politick Potent Papist 10. We see the little Confidence or Assurance we have of the Constancy of many that are in the Communion of the Church of England for if the receiving of the Protestant Dissenters upon Catholick Terms be hazardous of losing or of the revolt of them to the Church of Rome as the more constant and true to her self then what will become of them if Popery should so far obtain as to be able to give them Countenance and Favour for if they are so inclinable to revolt for the Condescentions of the Church in some things extra-essential to the Church upon shew of Inconstancy what would they be when our Church is like to be lost or supprest 11. Whether there is not a latent untrusty Party of schismatical Formalists in the Church that are Schismaticks depositivè for it seems they cannot bear the Reconciliation and Restitution of the ejected and if they are upon that in danger of apostatizing to the Church of Rome are they not in danger of becoming the rankest Schismaticks in the World by returning Members of an apostate schismatical Church the Mother of Schisms 12. By this among other Reasons I am convinced that it is the Duty of all sound and sincere Protestants of the Church of England to pray for and by all peaceable ways to endeavour the re-admission of all sound Protestant Dissenters and a Catholick Union of us all And I am convinced the learned Bishop Cosins saw the State of Religion when he declared in his last Testament that it was the great Duty of us all to unite And how much we are bound to acknowledg and with all due Honour to remember the Loyal and Christian Endeavours of our
confirming their Prayers and Thanks with saying Amen and other Divine Service than this they had none Pag. 636. We do not think that Basil or Chrysostom would take upon them to make a new Form of Church-Service if St. James the Apostle had done it before them From this Testimony it is clear that if Uniformity in one Form of Worship or Common-Prayer and Ceremonies be necessary for Church-Union then there was no Church-Union or Catholick-Communion in the Apostolical-Churches because there was no Form or Order of Divine Service set and prescribed But there was the most Christian and Catholick Communion in that Diversity therefore Catholick Union and Communion without one prescribed and set Form And hence the Dissenting Brethren have the Countenance of an ancient venerable Bishop of Winchester for them and to convince their Troublers for using a Worship different from the Liturgy of the Church of England Prophe-ying praying praising God are parts of God's Worship tho in differing Words and Method they are the same Divine Worship And who act nearest the Primitive Pattern of the Apostles and purest times they who worship God in Christ by the Spirit or they who will not suffer them Object But the Apostles and Teachers had the Guidance of the Spirit Answ They had but that Assistance which they had for performing the Worship of God was not extraordinary or peculiar to their Times because Gospel-Worship was to be performed in all After-ages of the Church Qâ—o in loco scil Jo. 20. ostendiâ— eum solum â—osse baptizare temissionem peccatorum dare qui habeat Spiâ—itum Sanctum Cyprian ad magnum and by Consequence the Assistance of the Spirit was to continue to all Ministers in succeeding Ages without whose Assistance we can do nothing And the Holy Spirit doth continue to give Gifts and Graces to his Ministers and People and if one Form were absolutely necessary for all Ages it is a wonder that the Apostles did not leave us one Form is but a mode and to be used or not used as is most for Edisication and they that use it not should not condemn them that use it and they who use it should not as I conceive judg them as Schismaticks that use it not but joyn one with another Object But it is a Disorder in the same Church and Government and not to be born it looks like a different Religion Answ The Romanists have often charged the Church of England with permitting different Religionsin the Nation But let the same learned Bishop answer for me In England the People Pag. 15. both strange and liege worship God the Father in Spirit and Truth according to the Gospel of his Son agreeing together in the Substance of one Faith and the right Order of Christ's Sacraments Only Strangers are suffered in their Churches to use their own Tongue and retain their own Ceremonies as be neither against Faith nor adverse to good Manners and therefore by St. Augustine's Judgment may go for indifferent and may be born in Christian Vnity without Offence or Confusion Oh! if this Doctrine were believed in our days the People of God might be said to rest at Noon And he was not singular In Doctrinâ Fidei Orthodoxae Professione discordia inter nos nulla saith the learned Crakenthorp of the Puritans Hac integrâ in Ritibus Defensione Eccles Angl. contra Spalat c. 43. p. 254. Disciplinsi discrimen ferendum utrique scimus Difference in Ceremonies and Discipline was tolerable in their Opinion but now intolerable The Champions of the Church of England in former days against the Papists were moderate when we know there was a different way of Discipline and Decency secretly practised If Doctrine be the direction of Practice to be moderate in Doctrine but severe in Practice and Execution is to put out the Candle and kindle a Fire to preach Charity but to shew no Mercy To draw towards a Conclusion Let us but truly judg of the elder Nonconformists with righteous Judgment 1. Before his Majestie 's wonderful Restauration in all Countries and Places where they lived and preached who did rebuke reprove exhort and fulfil all parts of Minsters more than they Who maintained Protestant Doctrines preached for Conviction Conversion Holiness and Righteouness more than they Who vindicated all Ordinances from some that pretended to live above them Others that denied the necessity and use of them and from the Profanation of sacred Things And who did more forwardly assist and concur to settle the Government upon ancient Foundations and in the Inheritor of the Royal Throne Who were more hated by impious Sects or that laboured more to convince and reduce them than they 2. At that time and since how highly were they placed in the King 's good Opinion as is fully expressed in his Royal Declaration 3. They did shew a Forwardness and Zeal to settle the Church denying their own private Opinions to lay down solid Foundations for a Comprehensive Church 4. When they quietly submitted to the Law of their Ejectment did they did any of them sow Sedition or ill Principles of Faction was their Exhortation of deceit or guile to incense their loving Auditors or oblige and conjure them to any thing inconsistent with the Gospel or unlike Men as going from the Pulpit to God's Tribunal to give him an Account of their Doctrine Faith manner of Life see any of their broken Notes and Farewell-Sermons printed much to their Disadvantage Testify against them who can 5. Except they had renounced their sacred Calling and silenced themselves who could have imployed their Labours with more inoffensiveness to Authority more Toil to themselves and more Profit to precious Souls and less Opposition to the publick than they did as will appear in Instances An honourable Member Sir H. C. Anno 1670 71 in full Parliament took notice of it that there were no Conventicles yes they took pains to preach when others were at rest in great Privacies and Solitudes And let 's be just who hath made any Observation of People and Assairs that will not say for one Schismatick we had had many had it not been for their great Industry and who for all that are Schismaticks but they See Mr. Allen Say to Archippus p. 23. scil your not p eaching will occasion Separation indeed c. It is not Thanks-worthy to keep poor weak Souls in the Faith and Truth except they turn Lay-men and all come up even to the Rails i. e. to the heighth 6. God and the King made their Assemblies so numerous and publick God by a tremendous course of Judgments yet remembring Mercy The King after 12 Years Experience of fruitless Severity sent out his Declaration of Indulgence Some of themselves have published the Providence of God but it is not worth the noting and they that are resolved on their way will not be hindred by making Observation even of the Works of God When God sent a dreadful Plague
same Fault as saith the Scripture Nah. 1.9 as the learned Mr. Beveredge in his Notes upon those Canons hath observed Is it likely these should be Canons of the Apostles contrary to 1 Cor. 5.11 Or if they be genuine and ancient how disagreeing is the modern Usage of the Nonconformists who are convicted of no such Crimes according to the ancient Canons but yet who are for their Nonconformity punished in several Courts and several times and ways Deposition is judged Punishment sufficient saith Zonaras so Aristenus for to subject to a double punishment omnino inhumanum est is altogether inhuman Other Canons command a Bishop Presbyter or Deacon to be deposed that beat offending Believers or Infidels that have done wrong Can. 27. If a Bishop Presbyter or Deacon obtain his Dignity with Money let him be deposed and he that ortained him Can. 29. If a Bishop have made use of Secular Princes to obtain a Church let him be deposed and excommunicated If a Presbyter contemning his own Bishop shall separate from him and set up an Altar without Cause or blameless either in respect of Religion or Justice let him be deposed Can. 31. But this is not the Case of our Nonconformists Duarenus reckons the deposing and ejecting Crimes to be 1. Simoniacal Ambition 2. Incontinency 3. Perjury 4. Manslaughter 5. Treason 6. Or besides these Crimes any legal Infamy But Panormitan admonisheth that they were not to observe the Severity of the ancient Canons because the Men of this Age are not like those ancient Men or Men of ancient Times Duaren de sacris Eccles-Ministris c. l. 8. c. 6. There are other Causes which touch not our Brethren but other Men much nearer 2. In what they do they proceed upon Principles common to all Christians and Protestant Churches in taking the Word of God for their Rule as a divine and perfect Rule The Christian Faith as they of the Church of Rome had explained it was a Submission to the Church The Reforming finding that this was the Spring of all their Errors and that which gave them Colour and Authority did on the other hand set up the Strength of their whole Cause on an explicit believing the Truth of Scriptures because of the Authority of God who had revealed them saith the Reverend Dr. Burnet History of the Refor Book 3. p. 286. It were easy to be copious on this Argument They who began the Reformation laboured in translating and publishing the Scriptures and would have all their Doctrines tried by them The Reverend Bilson bids the Papists Prove your Religion and Service which you stoutly and falsely term Catholick to be commanded by Christ or else Women and Children be they never so silly will collect by the manifest Words of our Saviour that their Promise in Baptism doth straitly bind them from believing your Errors and admitting your Masses until you shew good and effectual Warrant out of the Word of God that you do what Christ did and teach what he taught without adding or altering any jot For this is the Duty that Baptism requireth of us to believe no Teacher but one which is Christ to follow no Stranger to regard and obey no Lord or Law-maker in the Church but only the Son whom the Father appointed to be Master and Leader Subject part 1. foreing to Religion p. 18. and Ruler of the Gentiles This being a Principle common to all the Protestant Reformers they who hold it and no other repugnant to it or inconsistent with it Jewel's Apolog. c. 16. Divis 1 2. C. 17. Divis 1 2. every true Protestant must needs hold they ought not to be punished for walking after it And suppose any particular Man or Denomination of Men err in their Superstructures and Consequences yet whether that Error be not a tolerable Error and not a punishable Crime which is consistent with Piety and Charity may be left to the Judgment of every charitable Christian 3. According to this Rule and Principle they frame their Worship and model their Government and Discipline and they that keep to that though by different Schemes having their Flaws and Failings they cannot err a damnable Error and if not damnable it is want of Charity that will judg it intolerable And there are those General Rules and Directions which direct us as by a Patern they direct us to our End God's Glory and mutual Edification the outward manner Decency and Order and altho in particular Decencies and Rules of Order there may be a Diversity yet all agree about Order and the greatest Disagreement is in some Points of Decency which are but Accidents which are no Parts of Divine Worship as the Reverend Bishop Abbot writes The Means by Christ the Spring and Pranciple the holy Spirit the Matter Word and Sacraments Traditions p. 844 in Defence of Mr. Perkins and do properly and immediately respect Men. It is a hard Case to punish all Men that are not of the same Complexion or that cannot see alike clearly tho they walk with us in the same way of Faith and Holiness and Peace The Church of Christ never bred that Notion that Church-Unity and Communion doth consist in Accidents no more than Humane Nature in Complexion Shape Stature or of Children in Cloaths of the same Colour Fashion Length c. 4. And once again they are punished for Nonconformity and besides what hath been said elsewhere in particular besides the Consideration of the wicked Design Sedition Rebellion and Schism and the odious Pretence take the Law in the Strictest Sense of it and any Exercise of Religion in other manner than according to the Liturgy and Practice of the Church of England seems to be forbidden by it It seems to be unsafe for any to punish upon this Law and it is hard to be punished by it it signifies something but certainly what is very dubious For in the Liturgy i. e. Book of Common-Prayer there are two things only 1. Rules Directions and Orders called Rubricks 2. The Parts of the Worship and Ceremonies ordered prescribed and directed by them It seems the meaning of the Law is That no other Exercise of Religion shall be lawful without the Common-Prayer both Matter and Rites according to the Rubrick but then the Words of the Act agree not because the Practice of the Church in many Places is different from the manner of the Liturgy as others have proved by Instances The Practice of all Cathedrals may not be alike for ought I know The Practice of the Cathedral and Parish-Churches are not the same as all Men know nor of one Parish like another while so many go beyond the Rule the Practice of some Churches and Colledge-Chappels and some Chappels differ from others some reading all Psalms and Canticles and Chapters on Wednesdays and Fridays and others reading only some Prayers and the Litany * And this is according to the manner of the Church of England in Q Eliz. days Vid. Injunct
Sacrament using his own Words and so it be delivered in four Forms who will doubt but he holds Communion sufficient to the Ends of the holy Sacrament And the Uniformity lies in Blessing and giving Thanks in taking Bread breaking it giving and taking it as a Token of the Body of Christ to the appointed End and so also the Cup as a Token of his Blood drinking it to the appointed End Uniformity of Words is not necessary to Church-Communion neither in Articles of Faith nor in Preaching nor in Prayer nor in Sacraments and yet Church-Communion is as necessary a Duty as associating of Churches and Assemblies it being truly the End of such Association and Assembling And yet no Man of sense will deny the great Advantages of Consent Agreement Similitude and Uniformity in all our Administrations as near as we can frame our Minds thereunto which will never come nearer than according to general Rules without Debates and Disputes as many if not more and of as great an Influence upon Peace as can arise from the Application and Construction of General Rules II. Let us remove and take away the Causes of Disunion and Division as much as possibly we can And first Those that are within us which may be reduced to Flesh and Self For whereas there is among you Envying Strife and Divisions are ye not carnal and walk as Men For while one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollo are ye not carnal 1 Cor. 3.3 4. Self is the Schismatick within us till we are converted from it we are separate from Christ and by Consequence are disunited from his Body and do not consent to the Terms of his Covenant and Salvation Self-conceit Pride and Loftiness Self-will Self-seeking and Self-love are the Springs of our bitter Waters of Strife and Separation that run into divers Channels or rather break the Banks and over-flow the Church 2. The outward Causes are besides the Co-operation of the World and Devil the rigorous exacting and enforcing of particular Conditions of Church-Liberty and Communion with such Forfeitures and Penalties as hinder the Progress of the Word of Life and the Salvation of Souls All our Wars have been before the Gates of the City since many have been turned out we say they shall not come in except they will subscribe to Terms and they say they cannot except they are taken away Both Sides must sound a Parlee and our Governours have the greatest and most imitable prevailing Example of the King of his Church Homily of Fasting â—â—st part p. 172 173. Edit Lond. 1673. and his Apostles Hear our Homily God's Church ought not neither may it be so tied to that or any other Order now made or hereafter to be made and devised by the Authority of Man but that it may lawfully for just Causes alter change or mittigate those Ecclesiastical Decrees and Orders yea recede wholly from them and break them when they tend either to Superstition or to Impiety when they draw People from God rather than work any Edisication in them and not in these Cases alone as you shall hear afterwards This Authority Christ used for the Order and Decree made by the Elders for washing oft-times tending to Superstition our Saviour changed into the Sacrament of Regeneration This Authority To mittigate Laws and Decrees Ecclesiastical the Apostles practised Acts 15. signifying they would not lay any other Burden upon them but these Necessaries Thus ye have heard that Christian Subjects are bound to obey even in Conscience sincere Laws which are not repugnant to the Laws God Ye have heard that Christ's Church is not so bound to observe any Order Law or Decree made by Man To prescribe a Form in Religion but that the Church hath full Power and Authority from God to change and alter the same when need shall require c. Was there ever greater need than now Love of Union Peace and Growth of Godliness Sence of imminent Danger and that Danger no less than Destruction hath moved the Right Reverend Bishop of Cork to print those pressing Divine Sermons and take his Testimony as carrying greater Authority than of private Men's of the necessity of Union speaking of the Protestants in Ireland We must unite or be destroyed First Serm. p. 29. And how far is Ireland from England Can the Protestant Church in Ireland be destroyed and England be safe Yea how much further is the Destruction from England than from Ireland may not England be destroyed first It is most likely for if England be destroyed Ireland cannot escape if Ireland be destroyed England will be endangered but may better withstand it than Ireland can The same discerning and sensible Bishop cannot conceive any Possibility of an Union of all honest-minded Men of different Persuasions amongst us that call themselves Protestants but by the coming of such several Dissenters into the establish'd Church Hence the Inference is not far to be fetched Second Serm. p. 61. That this Union can never be but by taking away the Bars and the Chains that keep the Dissenters from entering in Upon what Terms saith that Right Reverend and Excellent Person must we of the Establish'd Church come over to you that dissent or you come over to us We declare we cannot without Schism and then adds a most generous Expression of a large and catholick Spirit But are ready to sacrifice all we can otherwise to the Publick Peace and Safety Pag. 29 O that all were thus frank in their biddings for Peace and Union But Right Reverend Father Dissenting-Protestants and Independents will never press you so far as to come to them that is to be Presbyterians and Independents If you will do what you may without Schism and they do what ever can be done with a good Conscience the deadly Wound is in a hopeful way of cure Find out first what Unity is necessary for this imperfect State 2. Observe what Rules Christ gave by his Spirit and the Holy Apostles practised for Unity against Schism for Truth and Faith against Heresy for Government against Confusion for Order against Disorder for Decency against Indecency for Worship against Idolatry and Irreligion for Discipline against decay of Piety and for the soundness of its Members in a word for Admission into Communion and Priviledges for Edification Peace and Comfort And what more can be necessary for Unity and Peace of Christians in one Nation than what was sufficient for Christians in all Nations And then there will be neither Schism on one hand nor Dissent on the other That one Rule of the Apostle as far as we have attained let us walk by the same Rule would unite and heal us and do us more Service than all the Volumns of Canons besides And who can walk by the same Rule further than he hath attained The Means to be used for Union are 1. A sincere Observation of and consciencious Consent unto the Terms of our Christianity and
late Parliaments to unite us I did at first design to compare the foresaid Declaration to which if turned into an Act the Nonconformists would have conformed and the Act of Uniformity to which they cannot conform for a further Illustration of the despised Case of the Nonconformists but I hope there is enough spoken to inform the less knowing and to confirm the more knowing in their charitable Opinion of them I have traced the divided Rivers to the Head of them and for that reason that Truth may appear From all this you may see a Concord between the King proposing and the House of Commons by their Thanks approving of it and the major part of the Nonconformists ready to submit to it On the other side you see the Bishops and Doctors dissenting from the King and Commons that restored them and the reforming Divines and not so concordant in their Sentiments and Opinions as to denominate them unanimous and could they have extended their Charity but wide enough they had provided well for a more durable Peace defended with Considerations against which but few would have drawn out the small Powers of their Mis-understandings to give trouble to it There was not an exact Uniformity in their Notions some thought a Reformation necessary to the Church's Settlement Mr. Thorndike wrote for it and when the Commissioners on both sides began to dispute it was seasonably closed up lest the Disogreements of the anti-reforming-side had more appeared some of whom undertook the Conduct of others under whom a Promoter of their Design the Lord Chancellor Hide appeared and acted who in the Year 1641 was Chair-man of the Committee against the Bishops others gave Reputation but little Addition of Help others were varlously instrumental some by their Learning others with their eagerness and others with their keen and inverate Antipathy against some if not all of the reforming side and differed in as many Points from the Doctrine of the Church as the Nonconformists differed from the Discipline and Ceremonies of the Church and were doctrinal Nonconformists And it is clear that they did not humbly and brotherly advise nor maturely debate the matters committed to them and not doubting of an hopeful manageable Number of the succeeding Parliament their Resolutions passed into an Act they took no more notice of the King's Declaration than to make an historical mention of it that such a thing had been but enact nothing commended by it in mittigation or favour to the Dissenting-side requiring more Conditions and adding heavy Penalties which that Parliament in the latter times of it would have abated but it was too late as was said else-where This is the Act to which the Nonconformists cannot conform and they have given such Reasons and so many for this passive Nonconformity that as many good Men as I know are sorry they have so much to say and their disgusted Adversaries are displeased and incensed with them and no Man is thought yet to give a full and sufficient Answer to them being rather slighted than answered or what the one takes in a strict and honest sense the other is fain to expound in a very general and well-meaning sense according to one more may conform than yet have conformed according to the other there are but few if any that have conformed in my acquaintance This being in part spoken to in the First Plea I cannot stay any longer upon this Head but pass to the other Consideration of Non-conformity 2. Nonconformity taken actively and positively and that is preaching and performing other Religious Exercises as it is commonly said contrary to Law by forbidden Men and in a disallowed way And for this several Nonconformist Ministers are at this time hunted molested and admonished according to the strictest Form of Law in order to Banishment with Abjuration or to be prosecuted as Felons in case of their Obstinacy and Refusal Some of them have apologized for their preaching in such a manner that if they are not answered in a rational peaceable convincing way they will not be used as rational Men and their Sufferings will be the more harsh but not more hard to be born by them because they have given Reasons for their Actions which will appear to them either unanswerable and that will make their Sufferings more comfortable or else their Oppressors are the more implacable and then they must the more meekly acquiesce in the divine Pleasure as called forth to suffer The Reverend Mr. Baxter hath written an Apology for the Nonconformist Ministry dedicated to six of the Right Reverend Bishops by Name and a Petition which deserves the serious perusal of their Lordships and all other Ministers Magistrates and Gentlemen that they may either satisfy them or be satisfied by them The Case is momentous because the Salvation of Souls the many personal and real Sufferings of Men in Bodies and Estates the healing of Divisions and settling of the Church are unconceiveably touched and concerned in it Mr. John Troughton hath written a Book with the same Title upon the same Argument And altho the Right Reverend Bishop of Cork hath done well in dealing faithfully with Mr. B. he did ill in not dealing fairly with that Book and worse in exposing him as uncapable unfit to propose Terms of Peace by which I think that Excellent Bishop hath not seen his Terms of Concord 2d part And this being stated let us modestly consider 1. Whether this their positive Nonconformity be not capable of an Apology 2. Whether it be not an hard case to silence suppress and punish them for endeavouring the Good of precious Souls For the first 1. No Christian should doubt that the Office of the Ministry is originally from Jesus Christ and not of Men. The extraordinary and ordinary Office of the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments are derived from the same Divine Supream Authority He that made the Apostles able Ministers of the New-Testament hath made and makes all other lawful 2 Cor. 3.5 6. sitted and faithful Ministers Ministers of the New-Testament it is their Gift and their Learning their Office and Work to declare and publish that New-Testament or Covenant of Grace the Commands Conditions Priviledges and Promises of it to call and invite Sinners to it to accept of the Grace therein revealed to submit to the Commands of it perform the Conditions and Duties required to make them thereby capable of the Priviledges and Promises annexed to it and to train up edify build comfort and perfect all that are in it This is an Office necessary useful and proper to his Kingdom 2. They who are called and sent by Christ Qui fecit not doneos Ministros N. T quomodo fecit per Spiritum suum tanquam per Principium effectivum per Gratium Spiriâ—ûs tanquam per principium formal Eplisc Davananius in c.p. 1. ad Coloss v. 29. and according to his Mind are qualified prepared and instructed for their Work and Office by the Holy