Episcopacy When it shall please God therefore to send us a Parliament that are able to distinguish wisely betwixt Tolerable and Intolerable Opinions and Persons and so by Law to permit to the One the Liberty of their Assemblies and to restrain the Other and shall then prepare a Bill for Declaring the Constitution of the Church as National making the King to be Head of all the Congregations which shall be Tolerated as well as of those which are Parochial and the Diocesan Bishops to be His Officers or Delegates for keeping good Order amongst them all leaving to the Pastor of every Parish or Congregation that Power which Christ hath committed to him for Feeding and Ruling the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made Him Overseer without confounding this Internal Power of His with the External of the Other derived from the King but preserving the Rights of both so that the One be not swallowed up of the Other Nor forgetting the Concession of a sort of Episcopacy to perform the ordinary Work of the Apostles and Evangelists in that Multiplication of Supervisors over the Parochial-Clergy which I propose also in these Papers then shall the Grounds be laid for a firm and lasting Concord in the Nation about the Matter of Religion There were two Bills in the House of Commons that sate last at Westminster the One for the Vniting those that could come in to the present Church Establishment the Other for Ease to such as cannot These Bills had they passed and become Laws might be a good Interim for making up our Breaches till some more effectual means were also applied but when they would serve for excellent Scaffolds to stand upon while the Work is in hand the Fabrick it self should be formed out of such Materials as these which I now offer and which I find put to the End of that Book I have before mentioned in the last Half Sheet thereof and called Materials for Vnion Should it but please the King then and a Parliament to consider the Contents only of what Mr. H. hath there proposed and pass the Sense of it into a Law it would unite and heal us it would make us a Glorious Church indeed firm and Compacted among our selves and therefore impregnable to the Assaults of all our Enemies Tho there were Differences in Judgment among us and some Difference in Practices yet there would be little or no Difference in Affections All would mind and promote the common Peace and unite in resisting the Common Enemy This would put a Period to the Attempts of Rome for to what purpose should the Factors and Emissaries of the Roman Conclave attempt to subvert an Established Church and Religion where there is no probability of prevailing And what likelihood is there to prevail where all Parties are satisfied The One in the Favour and Encouragement of the Government and Laws the other in their Indulgence and Protection by them SECT XIII ALthough it be plain enough from what I have discoursed that I plead the Cause of none but Tolerable Dissenters and am Advocate for no Persons or Churches that maintain pernicious Errours and are impenitent and incorrigible in them Yet to prevent all Misunderstandings I do again here subjoyn That I plead not the Cause of such as subvert the Christian Faith in the great Essentials of it which the Jews Mahometans Socinians and all other Infidels do I would not have Men permitted to Preach down Jesus Christ and the Gospel and to Preach up meer Theisme or the Religion of the Antique or Modern Heathens nor of such as Preach Immorality and Licentious Prophaness I would not have Men permitted to encourage or justify Violence or Rapine Sensuality or Lust Rebellion or Treason or any thing that is plainly Wicked and condemned by the Light of Nature as well as the Doctrine of Christianity And of this kind are many Popish Doctrines as is evident to all Men that have conversed in the Writings of their Casuists and such as have the Conduct of Conscience among them Particular Instances whereof may be seen in the Mystery of Jesuitism and the Jesuits Morals by any Man that hath a desire to be satisfied concerning them Nor of such whose Doctrines are inconsistent with Civil Government and Publick Peace and such is the Doctrine of the Romanists A Papist if he be true to the Opinions and Decrees of their own Popes and Councils must be a Rebel and a Traytor whensoever his Holiness pleases to command it This hath been sufficiently proved by many Authors and is obvious enough to such as read their Books And if there be any other Sect or Sort of People that maintain such Doctrines as do disturb the Peace of Mankind necessarily and truly and not occasionally and by accident for so the Gospel doth it I have nothing to say on their behalf But if the Toleration that I have proposed and pleaded for should be thought a Means of increasing the Separation from the Publick Congregations I reply Let care be taken as I said that the Clergy who officiate in them be Men of Worth Ability and good Conversation that is such as preach and live Piously and love the Honour of God and the Souls of Men And let some Discipline be restored to particular Churches under the Inspection of the Bishops and difference be made between the Precious and the Vile by the Exercise of it that none be reputed and accounted Christians and admitted to all the Priviledges of Christians that know nothing but the Name of Christianity and live in open Defiance to all the Laws thereof And if these two things were done there would be no great danger of encreasing the Separation by Tolerating some Dissenting Churches but on the contrary I do think that Separate Churches would be drained and emptyed and in a few Years almost quite dissolved thereby For in my Observation 't is the Ignorance and Prophaness of Clergy-Men and the Corruption and Impurity of Churches that began and doth continue the Divisions and Separations that have been and still are among us Let the Cause be removed and taken away and the Effect will cease Nay suppose some single Persons few in number should leave the publick and Allowed Congregations on occasion of this Toleration and joyn themselves to separate Assemblies What great hurt is there in it and why should any Publick Preacher be offended at it What hurt or wrong is it to my Physician if I leave him and go to another if he cannot cure me or I do not like his Methods and Prescriptions Hath he any Reason to be offended if another do that which he cannot do I know the Minister of my own Parish does oftentimes meet some or other of his Parishoners going to their Conventicles when he hath been going to Church and the like in his and their Return and yet I never heard that he grew into any Passion or Displeasure with them about it much less that he prosecuted them
THE SAMARITAN Shewing that Many and Unnecessary IMPOSITIONS ARE NOT The Oyl that must Heal the Church Together with The WAY or MEANS to do it By a Country Gentleman who goes to Common-Prayer and not to Meetings Ou ce sont des diversités qui lassent les Fondemens de la Religion en leur entier ne nous obligent a manquer ni au service de Dieu ni a la dilection des hommes c'est la ou doit avoir lieu ce que prescrit l'Apostre Et si vous sentes quelque chose autrement Dieu vous le revelera aussi Daillé on Phil. c. 3. v. 15. LONDON Printed for Tho. Simmons at the Prince's Arms in Ludgate street 1682. THE SAMARITAN SECT I. FOrasmuch as the Press spawns Books and Pamphlets in as great abundance as the River Nile doth Froggs many whereof seem to be compounded of Venom and written with no other design than to foment Divisions and exasperate the several Factions that are among us I think I may do some office of Love and Kindness to my Countrey and the Church of God therein if I write a few Sheets on the behalf of Amity and Peace and with purpose to allay the Heats and calm the Rage and Passions of men I expect the same Fate with others that have endeavoured to persuade the Contentious to Reconciliation The Boutefeus and Bedlams will Rage and Foam they will spit their venom and disgorge their gall and by ugly Insinuations represent me as a secret Enemy to Church and State and whatever else the Father of Lyes may suggest unto them But I will take liberty to advertise them that if they please they may spare their Passion and restrain their Wrath they may keep it in reserve for some other occasion for I am utterly above the reach of it and shall be no more concerned in their Revilings than the Moon in the barking of little waspish Dogs Nevertheless if their Impotence be such that they cannot forbear and if the reek of their own vomit be fragrant and aromatick to them I shall not envy them that pleasure Let them enjoy all the satisfaction they can find in it I shall receive no more injury by what they say than by what they dream and peradventure there may be as much worth weight and sense in the one as in the other I honour my Soveraign I love the Government in Church and State I hate both the Civil and Ecclesiastical Piques and Animosities that are maintained and kept up among us against all the Sense and Reason of the World and I wish with all my soul that the several Parties in this Nation would lay aside their Prejudices and Passions and impartially study the things that belong to our Common Peace I am sure 't is high time to do it and I fear if it be delayed a while longer 't will be too late to attempt it There 's a Gentleman at Paris and another at Rome that looks thorow their fingers and laugh at our Divisions and hope to make good advantage by them in due time and I make no doubt but that by their Emissaries they do and will endeavour to continue the Breaches and hinder all Coalition among us The Necessity of Union therefore being obvious and granted by all men of sense and consideration I have resolved to cast in my Symbol or Mite for the promotion of it What I shall say I know will not please all men Nay I am sure some will be angry and inraged thereby But jacta est alea I have computed my Cost and told them at what Rate I shall value their displeasure I shall speak what I think and do with some assurance and confidence believe I shall speak for Peace and in so doing I shall speak for God and his Christ and for the Church which is his Body and purchased with his Blood And I am not without hope but that God may bless what shall be said and make it serviceable to the promoting of that end I am one of the meanest of the Worshippers of Christ our Lord but 't is his pleasure sometimes by weak things to confound the mighty and by things that are base and despised yea by things that are not to bring to nought things that are SECT II. THE Union and Peace that I intend to discourse is a Union of Judgment and Practice in matters of Religion and the Worship of God together with that mutual Love and those good Offices that are the proper fruits effects and consequent thereof And by Religion and the Worship of God I mean the Christian Religion and those waies of worshiping and serving the Majesty of Heaven that are prescribed unto us by the Christian Laws the Records whereof are in the holy Scriptures That this Union and Peace is an excellent thing is the confession of all Christians Those that do practically hate and abhor it pretend a mighty esteem and veneration for it those that destroy it speak much in its favour and the most mortal Enemies thereof will not fail to make its Panegyrick and exalt its praise The Romanists who are certainly the greatest Incendiaries and Firebrands that are upon Earth and have for many years yea ages past and do at this time imbroil and fill all Europe with Confusion and Disorders with secret Conspiracies and Confederations with open Wars Violence Oppression and Rapine are as they would be thought the most passionate Lovers and greatest Admirers of it But whilst men see their fangs and feel their paws they will believe them Bears and Lions though they should avow themselves the most harmless Doves or Lambs But why is it that Peace and Union hath the universal suffrage of men even of those that have a practical abhorrence and detestation for it 'T is its own proper Excellency and Advantages that commands their Approbations Union and Peace as all other virtues have their charms and attractives and so great is the force of them that men cannot behold and consider them without being inamour'd of them and captivated by them But though the excellency loveliness and beauty of Union and Peace do subdue the understandings and judgments of men their Interests their Passions and their Lusts will not be conquered by any of them Though Union be never so lovely in the opinion of their Consciences they will sacrifice it a thousand times in favour to their Pride their Ambition their Covetousness their love of Empire Domination and other Lusts Though the Commendations that are given to Union and Peace be no proof of the virtue or excellency of those that speak in the praise thereof yet 't is an undeniable Evidence of its own proper worth and advantages That which hath the suffrage and approbation of all mens Consciences that which hath the esteem and is the Darling even of its very Enemies must needs be very excellent worthy and valuable The Excellencies and Advantages of Union are most evident in the Causes
of it and in the Effects that it produces in the World Union is the effect of good Knowledge sound Understanding for that Union that is seen among the Ignorant is no other than what is found in a heap of Logs or Stones which doth not indeed deserve that name Those that fill the World with Controversies Quarrels and Contentions are for the most part men of small understanding and of raw and undigested notions 'T is half-witted people that set the Churches of Christendom together by the Ears and kindle those flames in the House of God that are like utterly to waste and consume it Men of great understanding are modest and peaceable they will not contend for trifles nor express great Zeal for any thing but the great Essentials of Faith and Godliness They will not suspend the Peace of the Church upon uncertain or unnecessary things In things of that nature they can permit men to their Liberty and where Liberty is permitted there is seldom any Controversie but where there is unnecessary restraint there is everlasting quarrels and will be to all Generations Let me add further Union is an effect of great holiness and sanctity of mind and nature Let mens Knowledge be never so great if they be not born of God and partakers of a Spirit of Holiness and Sanctification they will quarrel and contend everlastingly not in compliance with their Consciences but in favour to their Lusts If enquiry be made 't will be found true that the holiest persons and such as have most of the Image of God impressed upon their Sou's are alwaies the most peaceable quiet and give least disturbance to the World and what I have said of Persons is true of Churches those Churches whose Members are most holy most renewed sanctified and transformed are the most freest from Divisions Quarrels and Separations Again Union is an Effect of great Self-denyal Mortification contempt of the World and all the Pomp and Glory of it This I do confess is comprehended in what I said in the preceding Paragraph but that what I intend may be the more obvious and apparent I have chosen to discourse it separately and by it self Men of unmortified Lusts and Passions men that cannot deny themselves in any thing men that are fond of the World and the Advantages of it will never rest nor permit others to do so They will move all stones and make all tryals that they can imagine will serve or advance their Pride their Ambition their Riches their Honours or whatever are their darling and be oved Lusts Many of the Antient Schisms and Heresies that so plagued the Church of God were occasioned by the Pride and Covetousness of Churchmen The Church continued for many years a Virgin Thebuthis was the first that corrupted it with false Doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he was not made a Bishop as Hegesippus reports Euseb lib. quar cap. 22. Novatianus a Presbyter of the Church of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being puffed up with Pride became the Author of a Sect which called themselves Catharists but by others were called Novatians Paulus Samosatenus broke the Peace of the Church and espoused the Doctrine of Ebion and Artemon and affirmed our Lord Jesus a man of common human Race 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eus lib. 7. cap. 27. And what he was for his Morals those that please may read Eus lib. 7. cap. 30. He was covetous unjust proud effeminate he permitted his Presbyters to partake in the same sins that conscience of their own guilt might hinder and restrain them from opening and exposing his vile abominations Arius was a proud man and affected Domination and because Alexander was preferred before him and made Bishop of Alexandria he mutinyed the Presbyters and raised those Divisions in that Church that from thence were spread into almost all the Christian World Vid. Theod. lib. 1. cap. 3. 4. But it would be endless to mention the Quarrels and Contentions which have been raised in the Church of God by men of unmortified Lusts and Passions and no Union or Peace will be had in the Christian world whilst those Vermine are lodged and nourished in the breasts of men They are humble mortified and self-denying men that live quietly and give no disturbance to the Church or World in which they live and whereof they are Members SECT III. SOmething having been said of the Causes of Union and Peace let me add some few words of the Effects thereof and but a few for I intend no large or elaborate Discourse Union would make the Church strong and impregnable were the Members thereof united in and among themselves Were they of one mind and one heart they would stand firm like a Rock against all the Assaults of their Enemies For besides their own proper strength which would be consequent to their Union God would stand by them and be their Protector and Defender 'T is Faction and Division that weakens the Church and causes God to withdraw his defence and guardianship from it and then it becomes a prey to the Enemies thereof Moreover were the Church of God at Union and Peace within it self it would be beautiful and lovely in the Eyes of the World Did the Members thereof agree together were they of one judgment in the Doctrines of Religion and of one practice in the duties and actions thereof how comely and decorous would the prospect be And how would it ravish those that behold and consider it even the very Enemies thereof would cry out and say How beautiful are thy Tents O Jacob and thy Tabernacles O Israel Were the Church of God at Peace and Unity with it self it would be a mighty means to Convert the World and bring it over to the Christian Religion Were there a great and mutual Friendship and Amity among the several Parts and Members of it it would be a mighty Evidence of the Truth of Christianity and almost all Mankind would fall under the sorce of it The Authority thereof would be irresistible 't is the Factions the Feuds the Divisions the Strifes Hatreds and Contentions that are in Christendom and among the Churches thereof that makes them a scorn and abhorrence to Turks and Infidels as well as to the Atheistical and prophane that are among them 'T is the everlasting Quarrels and mutual Censures and Condemnations of each other that makes Christianity a poor languid thing and takes off all the convincing power thereof in the apprehension of its Enemies Again were the Church of God united and at Peace in it self the mutual offices of Love and Kindness of Charity and Compassion which would be exercised by the Members thereof would very much sweeten and abate the Miseries and Calamities of the present Life and State The Rich would minister to the wants and necessities of the Poor and the Poor would chearfully serve and minister to the advantages of the Rich. According to their capacities they would mutually help and
unprofitable and numerous the Conditions of Church Communion This hath rent and torn the Church of God in pieces these thirteen hundred years and yet those that are the Guides and Governours of Churches either cannot or will not see it Let the Histories of the Church be consulted and this may be easily observed What is it that divides the Greek and Roman Churches from each other What is it that divides the Greek Churches among themselves What is it that divides the Roman Churches from those of the Protestant Profession What divides the Lutherans and Calvinists What is it that divides the Christian People of this Nation Is it not the Imposing of things doubtful dark uncertain and unnecessary and this with a pertinacious and inflexible rigour and severity one against another Do not all these Churches agree in the great Essentials of the Christian Religion Do they not all believe the common Articles of the Christian Faith Do they not all believe the Lord's Prayer to contain the sum and matter of all the Requests that we are to make to God Do they not believe the Ten Commandments to comprehend the main if not all those Duties that we owe to God and Men And are not these things in which all agree sufficient for the Union of Christians Might they not live together in Love notwithstanding their other Differences Or though they could not communicate together as indeed Protestants cannot communicate with the Romish Churches might they not maintain Love and Peace under distinct Communions Might they not repute each other Christians and Christian Churches though not equally sound and perfect These things methinks might be done were it not that a Spirit of Imposition and Arbitrary Domination over the Judgments and Consciences of Men hath possessed the Guides of Christendom All men must believe and think and speak according to their apprehensions or else they are no Christians Their Judgments yea sometimes their Prejudices and their Dreams must be made the Conditions of Communion and if any refuse to swear to their words and will see with their own Eyes and believe and practise according to the Light of their own understandings they are Hereticks and unworthy the Name and Communion of Christians And hence proceed the various Separations and Divisions and all the direful and tragical Effects of them which have made the Christian World a Bedlam and sometimes a Field of Blood to the reproach of Christians to the scandal of Infidels and to the perverting of many Professors of Christianity to Atheism or Apostacy to some other false Religion SECT VI. TO press this a little Whosoever considers the great variety and difference that is to be observed in Human Minds must find that Imposition of many doubtful and unnecessary things is no proper means of preserving Peace and Union in the Church of God especially among Protestants where a judgment of discretion or a liberty of believing according to the convictions of our own minds is confessed the undoubted right of every Reasonable Man Is it imaginable that Men whose understandings are almost of as various degrees and sizes as are the shapes and figures of their faces should agree in the same sentiments and perceptions concerning things dark doubtful and unnecessary Is it imaginable that all Christians should have the same thoughts and make the same judgment concerning the Determinations of the Council of Trent Is it conceiveable that all the Christians in England or all the Clergy in England should have the same conceptions and entertain the same Opinions concerning the Doctrine Discipline and Liturgy of this Church To me it seems altogether as improbable as that twenty thousand blind Men should from twenty thousand places move and march and at last meet together and put themselves in good order on New-market Heath or the Plains of Sarum And why should Impositions be made where there is no probability or indeed possibility of Assent unto them Or are such Impositions which make Division in our Church a likely means of making Peace in the Churches of Christendom He that can believe it may with as much reason believe that the casting on fewel and combustible matter is a means to extinguish a furious raging flame or the way to preserve a Ship from sinking is to commit it to the Wind and Waves without any Pilot or Person to sit at the Helm and manage the Course of it That the gradual Difference of Mens Understandings is very great and almost infinite cannot reasonably be denied Parents Teachers of Schools Tutors and all kind of Artificers find it so in the Experience of every day It hath been so in all Ages and will be so for all that I can see as long as the World endures Whether there be an inequality among Souls or whether this great variety proceeda from the differing mixtures of the Elements that compound our Bodies and out of which our Organs are made I will not determine though I incline to believe the former for 't is past my imagination to conceive how the various mixtures of sensless Elements or Atoms should produce all that variety that is observable in the Understandings of Men from the greatest Statesman Philosopher or Divine to the meanest Peasant or the most blockish Dolt Parents first find a vast difference in the capacities of their Children some of them are of quick and pregnant Wit and Ingeny they easily receive and apprehend whatever is proposed to them others are dull and heavy and receive with difficulty such things as are offered them for their Learning and Knowledge Some of them are capable of understanding some things whereas of other things they are as uncapable almost as the veriest Idiots The Experience of Schoolmasters next is much the same Some of those Children that are committed to their care do readily learn and receive whatever they reach and inform them Others with difficulty and much labour Some can never be brought to learn any thing that is regardable by all the care and endeavours in the World Tutors at the University find the like variety among their Pupils Some Youths hear their Lectures and understand and remember the Contents of them and if they be examined concerning them will give a good and fair account of them But others hear them but neither understand nor remember almost any thing of them and if the same things be repeated over again with all the clearness that can be expressed by words yet they still remain without Knowledge or Understanding therein You may as well think to draw a Cable through the Eye of a Needle as to impress Learning upon some mens Minds Artificers and Mechanicks speak the same Language and give us the same Informations Some Apprentices easily learn the Arts that they profess others do it with great difficnlty and are but bunglers at the last Non puede ser mas negro el cuerbo que las alas saith the Spanish Proverb The Crow cannot be blacker than her wings And
as the Degrees and varieties of Mens understandings are vastly great and many so are their prejudices and Anticipations Some persons suck in certain Opinions with their Milk they receive them from their Parents and such as give them their Education Thus some are prejudiced for the Doctrine of Calvin and others for the Doctrine of Aaminius thus some persons are prejudiced for Episcopal Government in the Church and others for a Presbyterian Parity Thus some contract a kindness for a pompous and ceremonious Religion and Way of Worshipping God others contract a fondness for a very plain and and simple Way and Method of Worship and Devotion Moreover some men read but one sort of Books and care not to read any thing that is written in opposition to their Anticipations or if they do read any thing of that nature 't is with so great a prejudice that their judgments are rather confirmed than altered thereby They are strongly persuaded of the truth of their own apprehensions what is intended to shake them doth but as the Wind by Trees fix and establish them That this is a fault I do easily grant but 't is easier to observe than cure it and that mens prejudices are strangely fixed and confirmed thereby cannot be denied Besides men are strangely prejudiced against some Opinions by the infamous reports that have been raised concerning those that have defended and maintained them Thus the Papists are prejudiced against the Doctrine of Protestants by impudent and frontless Lyes that have been raised against Luther and Calvin and other great instruments in the Reformation And thus many among us have an Implacable Pique and Displeasure against Dissenters and all their Opinions because some men do report them a company of seditious People that can never be quiet but are always libelling Authority and disturbing all Order and Governments wheresoever they live And others are as much prejudiced against Episcopacy and the peculiar Opinions of that sort of men because they are reported to be a generation of men that are proud and imperious lovers of Empire and Domination that engross the Revenues of the Church and employ them in Luxury and Sensuality but care not for the Souls of men If they will obey the Orders of the Church and submit to its Institutions they may defie all the Laws of God and without restraint or control make what haste they please to Hell they countenance the Ungodly and Prophane and persecute and oppress such as fear God tremble at his word they are impatient of such Meetings and Assemblies where a company of poor Christians meet together to hear Gods Word and call upon his Name but they can very patiently bear the Assemblies of riotous Sensualists and Blasphemers that convene to defie God promote their own Damnation and of as many others as they can Again some Persons receive prejudice against Opinions from the real faults of some single Persons or a few men that have embraced and entertained them Some Dissenters have used some uncomely indecorous and unadvised Expressions in their extemporate Prayers and therefore they reproach and reject all extemporate Effusions some of them have preached Doctrine not agreeable to some mens conceptions or have used homely Language and Similitudes and therefore all their Mouths must be stopped and the Church of God will do better without them than with them Some Conformists read the Liturgy without any seeming seriousness or Devotion they are in such haste to have done with it that they can scarce give themselves time enough to pronounce the words in their full extensions and therefore they infer that all forms of Prayer are inconsistent with and enemies to Devotion and good for nothing but to promote Laziness and introduce Formality and a kind of Lifeless Worship of God Another thing that sixes mens prejudices is their worldly Interest and Advantage this is that which is the strength of the Papacy and the support of the Antichristian Hierarchy and Kingdom The Romanists are by their Education seasoned and imbued with the Opinions of that Church and their Interest confirms them in the belief of them When they come to the use of their Reason and a Capacity of judging concerning them men do seldom embrace Opinions that are inconsistent with their worldly Advantages or forsake those though never so unreasonable that do favour and advance it By believing the Doctrine of that Church they possess Estates and Honours they live in Ease and Peasure and exercise Dominion over the Consciences of men and these things are pleasant to depraved Natures and corrupted Minds and by them men are charmed and bewitched into a Belief of the wildest and most unreasonable persuasions in the World 'T were impossible to hold the Members of the Church of Rome to a belief of its own Doctrine were there no worldly Interest to biass and sway their Judgments thereunto Bishopricks and Abbacies Caps and Miters and the many Preferments and Advantages wherewithal that Church abounds do more to preserve it than all the Power of Princes yea than all the writings of the greatest and most learned Champions of that cause And 't is not only in the Roman Church but in some other Churches of Christendom besides that Interest doth either form mens Opinions or fix their Anticipations and make them steddy and immutable therein The variety of mens Understandings and Prejudices being thus obviously great and many how is it possible that there should be Union and Concord among Christians if Church Communion be suspended upon the belief and acknowledgment of doubtful and unnecessary things May not their concord with as much reason be suspended upon a similitude of faces features and proportions SECT VII BUT I shall argue the improbability of it from Experience as well as from its proper Causes Do we not see great variety of judgments and apprehensions in all parts of Learning and Knowledge Do not Grammarians differ in the sense and meaning of words and in the explication of the Idiotismes and peculiarities of the learned Languages Do not our Mythologists differ in the account they give of the Fables of the Greek and Latine Poets Do not some Learned Men think that they are at least many of them corruptions of the true History of things which we have in the Holy Bible Hath not the Learned Bochartus among others given very probable reasons for it and hath not an English Doctor and Divine of our Church derided and laughed at him for it Have not and do not our Theological Criticks and Translators differ in their Opinions even concerning the Signification of words as about the Original of them Is there any agreement or concord among them or do we need to go far for proofs of it The first verse in the Bible will furnish us with enough ×‘×¨× ×©×™×ª In the beginning is translated by the Jerusalem Targum ×‘×—×•×›×ž× in Wisdom By the Arabick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first and by Aquila 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
enforce them puts a period to all search and enquiry it gives a check to all endeavours after an Encrease in Knowledge For if men use the means thereof they will differ in their Sentiments and Apprehensions and those differences will expose them to the publick Rods and Axes and therefore they must grow utterly negligent therein chusing rather to be ignorant with security than to obtain Knowledge to their ruine and destruction and whatever puts a period to all endeavours after Knowledge and Understanding doth certainly ruine and destroy the Power of Religion For Ignorance introduces Irreligion Formality and Superstition but is no Mother to or promoter of true internal hearty Religion and Devotion And this is one of the dismal Effects that Impositions and Laws for the inforcing of men have had in Popish Countries especially in Spain and Italy There 's nothing left in those Countries but the name of Christianity and some outside Formalities of Worship and Devotion they know nothing of the Power of it And I am not without fears that if the present Impositions in England be continued and the Laws prosecuted and Dissenters ruined and destroyed thereby that unless God raise up others the Life and Power of Religion will decay and Tepidity Formality Indifferency with an encrease of Sensuality and Prophaneness succeed thereunto And really such a State peradventure may be acceptable enough to some men for so they may live in Plenty and Peace and have what may caress their senses and please and gratifie their lusts they care not much what becomes of the Honour of God or the Souls of Men. Thus 't is in Popish Countries the Pope and his Cardinals the Bishops Abbots and most of the Clergy live in Honour and at ease they abound in all things that are grateful to the Flesh they withhold not their hearts from any Joy but whether the People serve God or the Devil whether they be saved or damned is very little their concernment Let them believe as the Church believes let them be obedient to the Orders thereof let them advance no Opinions contrary to its Institutions and for other things they are at liberty and may do as they list There is no sin like Inconformity and breaking the Orders and tyrannous Impositions of the Church They may break all God's Commandments with more security than any one of them Some there be do not fear to say That there are others in the world that are much of the humour of those Catholick Gentlemen and many there be that do not know very well how to confute them Let it not be said that I impute all seriousness in Religion to variety and differences of Judgment and Opinion I mean no such thing I impute it to an encrease of Knowledge and skill in the Scriptures and Doctrine of Christianity to which diversity of Opinions and some diversity in Practices too is for ought that I can see unavoidable nor is there any way of preventing one without the other This the Papists see well enough and therefore forbid the Reading of the Scripture to the Vulgar and some Protestants see it too See Bishop Bramhall's Vindication against Mr. Baxter who shall scape fairly he says if none cast it in his teeth that the promiscuous licence which they give to all sorts of people qualified or unqualified not only to Read but to Interpret the Scripture according to their private spirit or particular fancies without any regard either to the Analogy of Faith which they understand not or the Interpretation of Dectors of former Ages is more prejudicial I might better say pernitious beth to particular Christians and to whole Societies than the over rigorous restraint of the Romanist p. 116 117. There are more may see it in due time and 't is to be susspected that those that commend that Book and have espoused some other notions of that Author concerning Patriarchal Power and the Obligation to obey the Laws of Universal Councils till they be repealed which how they shall be I cannot tell may have some kindness for the same Opinion and some illuminations concerning it though it be too early in the morning as yet to propose them to publick Consideration However I have entertained the persuasion which I think I am not so like to forsake that Knowledge with serious Piety and Godliness though mixed with some real Errours Divisions and Mistakes for in variety of judgment concerning the same things all cannot be true is more eligible than Union and sameness of apprehension with Ignorance Prophaneness Formality and a form of Godliness without the Power of it A living man though something mishapen and deformed is better than a lifeless Statue though it be never so beautiful and comely and most Parents had rather have their Children alive though by their little pievish humours and quarrels they give them some trouble and vexation than to be deprived of them having nothing but their pictures and lifeless Marbles which never need their Umpirage to reconcile their animosities and waspish feuds SECT IX BUT what means all this Discourse Why this is the meaning of it Union and Peace among Christians is a very fine thing and greatly desireable but so various are the Understandings and so great and inveterate are the prejudices of men that Union of Judgment can never be expected with any probability unless in a few plain necessary things Peace Union and Love was preserved in the Christian Church in the Primo-Primitive times upon such terms upon the consent unto and agreement in a few plain necessary things Those were thought then sufficient and they are so still though the belief of it be perished from among men Those persons that suspend the Peace of the Church upon many dark useless and controverted Propositions and Doctrines and will prosecute all Dissenters by severe and sanguinary Laws I will say it over again do but take a fair way to destroy the Church of God and leave nothing but the empty Name of Religion in the World You will say What then would you have Would you have all men left at liberty to believe and do as they list in Religion Would you have no Laws or Rules be imposed upon the Judgments and Faith of men Shall they be permitted to believe and publish what Doctrines they please Before I make any Answer to this Objection I shall with all humility beseech both our Civil and Ecclesiastical Governours especially the latter whose Government certainly is paternal that before they make Laws and Rules for the Consciences of men they would a little consider 1. The Weakness Impotence and Depravtion of humane Minds Methinks those that govern the Churches of Christendom seem to have very little sense of the common Calamity of Mankind they seem to have forgotten the great and lamentable Imperfections of the whole posterity of Adam Are not the Understandings of most men pittifully blind and dark Are they not strangely impotent and weak yea unable to
most Supreme Lord of all or at least I think 't were not amiss to be as equally severe against Atheism Prophaneness gross Immorality and a contempt of all Religion as against some small Errours in Opinion and Differences in Practice from the Established Doctrines and Methods of Divine Worship prescribed Ecclesiastick Rulers whose Government I have said is paternal are more especially obliged to consider this forasmuch as they are or at least should be best acquainted with the understanding of the Patience Long-suffering and Forbearance of God But all should consider it forasmuch as all have experience of it and must have or they are undone Civil and Ecclesiastick Governours both have experience of much Indulgence and Connivance from God Almighty and they have still great need of more and 't were well that they which enjoy and need so much would impart and communicate some degree and measure of it towards others 8. That the requiring of greater Uniformity in Opinion and Practice in the things of Religion than the Church of God is capable of is no means of Union Peace or Concord but a most effectual and certain means of Division Separation Strife and Contention The Christian World hath found this true by sad and lamentable Experience and there is no man of sense or brains but may easily perceive it if he apply himself to the consideration of it Were it a likely way to promote Peace in a Kingdom yea or in a single Town or Village to oblige all the Inhabitants thereof by Laws Penalties and Executions to learn and speak the Greek the Chaldee or the Arabick Language and no other Are they capable of it or have they Time Leisure Wit or Helps sufficient to obtain a skill and dexterity in it Have they Teachers to instruct them in the meaning reading and pronunciation of it Or supposing they had Teachers Have they all of them opportunity leisure or capacities for it Would this make Union Peace or Concord amongst them Or would it not certainly mutiny trouble and divide them No more is it any probable means of making Peace Union and Concord among Christians to oblige them to think speak and do the same things in the many doubtful and Controverted Cases and Points of Religion and Worship in agitation among us Are their minds all of the same shape and size Are they all of equal capacity and comprehension Yea are the minds of all Clergy-men of equal quickness and perspicuity Are they of the same vigour And have they the same advantages for the improvement and cultivation of them Or are Impositions likely to unite them Or are they not rather a sure Means and certain Engine of Division and Separation 'T is morally impossible that men should have the same thoughts and apprehensions in the Controversies of Christianity as I have said and proved in the preceding Discourse and if the Governours of Churches will require things impossible they may easily perceive that it is not the way to make Peace but War not Union but Division not Love and Friendship but Hatred Variance and Strifes For though some will assent to all that they require out of Interest and for their Advantage others by the hope of a fair and passable Interpretation others will run with the Herd and swallow all without any chewing or consideration yet there will be men of tender scrupulous and severe Consciences that will everlastingly dissent from them I do humbly conceive some regard ought to be had to such persons by Governours in their Impositions and that those that are most afraid of offending God should not for that very reason be exposed to the greatest Sufferings and Calamities 9. That it seems something hard that it should be in the power of Church-Governours who have all their Power for Edification not for Destruction to make men Schismaticks at their list and pleasure and yet so it is if they may Impose what Controverted Doubtful and Unnecessary Doctrines and Practices they please upon the Belief and Observation of men If this be granted those that are Good and Catholick Christians this day may be a company of Schismaticks to morrow 't is but the Imposing of some Doubtful Opinions on their Faith and some Suspicious Actions upon their Practice and the work is done And on this Supposition 't is come to pass that all the Christian World are by some part or other thereof accounted Schismaticks The Romanists account all Schismaticks that refuse and dissent from their Impositions The Protestants are of several Judgments and various Practices and are more than enough severe in their Censures of each other Some seem to account all those Churches Schismatical that have no Bishops or Episcopal Ordination others think them Schismatical that do assert the necessity of it and will Impose the Belief and Practice thereof The Case being thus an honest and sober man would be shrewdly tempted to think that God never gave any Power to Church-Governours to Impose Doubtful and Unnecessary things upon the Belief and Practice of Christians and thereby make Schisms Separations and Divisions at their pleasure but that all the Power they have is to Command and Impose things plain necessary and certain and that those are enough to maintain the Churches Peace 10. That it seems very hard also that men that believe all the Antient Creeds assent to all the Fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion and live a pious and holy Life denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts living righteously soberly and godly in this world should be denyed the Communion of the Church And yet thus it may and thus it doth happen by reason of the Imposition of some Doubtful and Unnecessary things Thus 't is in England let a man be sound in the Faith and live an Angelical Life in the exercise of all kinds of Christian Virtues yet if he scruples Kneeling at the holy Sacrament he may not partake in it if he doubts the lawfulness of Godfathers and Godmothers or the use of the Sign of the Cross in Baptism he may not have his Child Baptized or admitted into the Church of God though he be a person sound in Judgment and of unblameable and exemplary Conversation in all Godliness and Honesty No Clergy-man can officiate in the Church that suspects or doubts any thing in the Liturgy Book of Ordination and Articles to be contrary to the Word of God besides some other Subscriptions which a thinking man may be able to find such difficulties in that he cannot answer to his own satisfaction Be his Abilities never so great be his Desires to serve God in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus never so warm lively and passionate yea though he have been solemnly devoted thereunto he must not come near the Altar nor meddle with any Publick Ministrations for the promoting the Honour of God and the Salvation of Souls The greatest skill in Languages and Philosophy the largest knowledge in Fathers Councils Histories and the latter Books and Writings
of Divines joyned with uncorrupt Faith and an unblemished Life are not sufficient qualifications for the Priesthood The Impositions must be all swallowed or the Candidates for it may go feed Swine For the Flocks of God which he hath purchased with his own blood they shall not feed though there be no others to substitute in the Room of them and they wander go astray and perish eternally by the want of Teachers and Instructers SECT 10. HAving besought our Civil and most especially our Ecclesiastical Governours to consider these few things now discoursed I proceed to make some Answer to the Objection What would you have And in general I reply I am no Advocate for Universal Liberty that men should be left to believe speak and do as they list I would not that permission should be given to any to blaspheme God ridicule the Christian Religion decry and burlesque all Morality and laugh at the day of Judgment and a State of Rewards and Punishments I would not that men should be permitted to Preach Rebellion and Mutiny the People against their Prince nor that they should be allowed to sow Sedition or teach such Doctrine as will subvert Order and destroy all Peace among men for these things and others of like nature I am no Patron Let these be prevented by all just care and endeavours and let such as offend in any of them undergo the sharpest punishments But in particular for satisfaction to this grand Query or Objection as being the chief business of my undertaking I humbly propose these several things which follow 1. That nothing be Made or Imposed as Conditions of Communion but a few plain obvious and necessary things In these Concord among Christians may be expected and will be found but in many Doubtful and Unnecessary things it is impossible Grammarians Historians Natural Philosophers and Mathematicians agree in some things There are certain Axioms common Notions and Propositions in which they do mutually consent whatever their Differences be in thousands of other things In some few great plain and useful things Christians do and will agree though in many things of less certainty use and importance they may and will differ to the worlds end Existimat ejus Majestas nullam ad incundam concordiam breviorem fore viam quam si diligenter separentur necessaria a non necessariis ut de necessariis conveniat omnis opera insumatur in non necessariis Christianae libertati locus detur Epist Causaboni ad Card. Perronium p. 31. Let the things Imposed as Terms and Conditions of Communion be the Great Essential and Constituent Parts of Christianity Let them be such as are of the Essence of Religion such as without Assent and Consent unto no man is or can be a Christian That Religion I mean the Christian Religion hath its Essential and Constituent Parts cannot reasonably be denyed for if it have no Essential Parts 't is not Quid Compositum 't is no compound thing which no man in his wits I think will affirm and if it be a compound thing it must have its Essential Parts distinguishable from those that are Integral and Accidental We are not to be tyed up to the one as to the other Certainement il seroit bien à desirer qu'il n'yeust pour tout aucune diversité ni bigarrure entre les fideles à cet regard Mais parce que dans l'infirmité où nous vivons en cette chair mortelle ce bon heur est plus a souhaiter qu' à esperer il fant restreindre la necessité de l'union de nos sentimens aux poincts qui sont Essentiels sans la creance des l'on ne peut parvenir au salut A leur égard tous les fideles doivent sentir une mesme chose Nulle ne peut y avoir de diversité sans rompre Mais quant aux auters qui ne sont pas de cette importance nous devons y souffrir la diversité quand il y en a l'example de l'Apostre qui oblige bien ci apres tous les fideles à cheminer d'une mesme ragle en ce a quoy ils estoyent parvenus mais supporte neantmoins ceux qui aux reste sentent quelque chose autrement que luy les fideles parfaits esperant que Dieu le leur revelera aussi Comme vous voyez que dans un estat pourveu que tous les citoyens tiennent les maximes fondamentales necessaires pour la sanction des devoirs essentiels à sa conservation l'on tolere entre eux de la diversité en plusieurs autres subjects de moindre importance Daille on Phil. 2.2 3. Let the Essential Parts of Christianity be so carefully collected that there be no defect nor no redundance Let there be no defect lest such persons as are no professed Christians be admitted to the Communion of the Church Let there be no redundance lest those that are true Christians and believe all the Essentials of the Christian Religion be excluded and denyed their proper Priviledge and Right Jacobus Acontius discoursing of a Common Creed to be used among all Christians and to be reputed the Test and Condition of Communion speaks as followeth Ac oportet quidem confessionem ejusmodi esse instar definitionis cujusdam quemadmodum enim requiritur ut definitio neque plura complectatur neque pauciora quam res ipsa quae definitur viz. ut nihil desit nihil redundet ita in fidei symbolo nihil deesse oportet eorum quae sunt ad salutem cognitu necessaria nil etiam contineri debet absque cujus cognitione contingere salus possit Si deesset etenim aliquid cognitu necessarium fieret ut qui Christianus haberi non debuit neque Ecclesiae Dei Membrum propterea quod profiteretur illud symbolum haberetur pro Christiano Sin contineretur Symbolo aliquid non necessarium cognitu usu venire posset ut qui confiterentur quae essent necessaria ut qui cum suâ qualicunque fide salvi esse possent propterea quod non reciperent id absque cujus cognitione contingere salus possit cum essent pro Christianis Ecclesiae membris agnoscendi rejicerentur at sineque desit neque redundet quicquam jam neque rejicerentur nisi qui sunt rejiciendi neque recipientur nisi qui sunt recipiendi atque ita aptissimum fuerit Symbolum quo Christiani à non Christianis discernuntur Acontii Strat. Satanae lib. 7. pag. 366. 4. Let some difference be made between a Confession of Faith and a Summary or Institution of Christian Religion In a Confession of Faith let nothing be inserted which is not necessary to Salvation In a Christian Institution all things may be discoursed which may be thought any way useful or advantageous Whatever is mentioned in a Creed Symbol on terms of Communion beyond what is absolutely necessary breaks the Church of God into Sects and Factions and
and most exact that can be formed but because it is short and expressed in the words of Scripture and an Evidence of his Judgment that the Communion of Christians and consequently the Peace of Churches yea of Christendom must be suspended only on a few plain necessary things And peradventure our Common Creed with the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments as I have already intimated might be Impositions sufficient for the Union of Christians and Churches 8. Let the Ministers of the Gospel be obliged to declare their Fai h in and Assent unto no more than some such brief Symbol or Confession or rather to those three Summaries of Christianity abovesaid Let them not be obliged to subscribe unto a multifarious number of Articles or to profess a Faith or Consent unto them Let them heartily believe those few great things and reduce their Faith to Practice and persuade others I mean their several Congregations to do so and this will be a more effectual way of producing and preserving Peace and Union than any other way or means whatsoever and with less mischief and inconveniencies 'T is true good large numerous and swinging Impositions ratified by severe Laws and prosecuted by something like an Inquisition would peradventure silence more Disputes and Controversies but then there are two small mischiefs consequent thereunto The one is it would destroy the best part of Mankind from off the face of the Earth The other is it will destroy all serious Religion and leave nothing but an empty name or shadow of it in the World And I am of the mind that some serious Religion though attended with Controversies and Contentions about some smaller things is more eligible than no Religion or an outside Formality and Vizour of it though accompanied with the greatest Agreement Union and Sameness of Judgment and Apprehension imaginable Men are not Masters of their own Persuasions and cannot 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 unless he arrive at that pitch of Atheism as to look on Religion only as a matter of Policy or as an Engine for Civil Government Burnet in his Preface to his late Book of the Right of Princes 9. Let Ministerial Qualifications be set as high as prudently they may Let them be required to have good Skill in the Learned Languages and Philosophy Let them be skilled in History especially that of the Church Let them know something in the Controversies of Religion and in the Writers of the Primitive Times And in these things let them undergo a strict Tryal and Examination and if they be not found competently instructed in them let them be rejected Let it not be thought a sufficient Qualification to have seen a University and spent some little time there Let enquiry be made what Advantage they have made what Learning they have obtained by the time they have spent there Persons may come as arrant Fools and Ignorants from thence as they went thither and sometimes much more If no place in the Ministry nor Preferment in the Church were to be obtained without Learning it would oblige young Scholars to follow their Studies and imploy their Time in the prosecution of necessary Qualifications for the Ministerial Office that they might be capable of it But where little else is required in order thereunto but Submission to the Ecclesiastical Yoke and a good wide Throat that can swallow a Pompion 't is no wonder if nothing else be Learnt or Laboured after by a great many 10. Let greater care likewise be taken of the Piety and Sobriety of their Conversations Ad Personarum quidem delectum quod attinet qui ad munus ejusmodi publicum eligi debent tales esse oportet ut duo ista in iis inveniantur Primò Doctrina sana orthodoxa Deinde vita mores convenientes non modo professioni Religionis Christianae verum etiam tam sancto singulari muneri Ad hoc etenim vocantur ut alios tum sermone tum vitae exemplo doceant Theses Salmur De Minist Evangel vocatione Let none be admitted to the Sacred Office that are of Impious Lives and Immoral Conversations such persons give occasion to men of Prophane and Atheistical Tempers and Inclinations to scoff scorn and deride all Religion and burlesque it out of the World and to others that are of pious and devout Inclinations to forsake Publick Assemblies and run after Private Meetings and Conventicles These things are obvious and no man that hath Eyes in his head can very well miss the Observation of them And thus 't will be till greater care be taken of the Lives and Practices of those that are admitted to minister in holy things of which at present I see no great I kelihood seeing those that make the fiercest Declamations against Separation Conventicles do sometimes complain also of the Atheism Prophaneness and Debauchery of the Times take no care of removing away the Causes and Occasions of them For I do not doubt but that very much of the Impiety Irreligion Separation and Division which do abound among us is in a great degree imputable to the Ignorance and Wickedness of Clergy-men Were Clergy-men persons of Wisdom Learning and Gravity and of unblemished Conversation that had nothing to do with any of the unfruitful Works of Darkness themselves they would shame and rebuke the Licentiousness of the Age and more easily draw people from the Private Assemblies to the more Publick Worship of God 11. If the Governours of the Church shall think fit to Commend a Christian Institution or Form of Doctrine to the Clergy for the Direction of their Sermons and Publick Discourses I know no hurt in it it may have its Advantages and Utilities but the Imposing such a thing is to me an Aversion I know not what to compare it to better than a Rack where mens Joynts Limbs are retched and extended to their very great torment and vexation To Impote a large Confession containing many and uncertain Propositions and such as have exercised the Wits of Learned men for many Ages and are like to do so to the Worlds end is to set mens Minds upon the Tenters and to exercise an insupportable Tyranny over their Judgments and Consciences to the breaking of the Peace of Christians and the Ruine of multitudes of good and pious and holy men and this to the great detriment of Religion and the Souls of men and the Joy of the Devil and his Angels And I do protest I cannot but wonder by what fate even some good and excellent men are engaged in favour of Impositions Is it not as evident as that the Sun shines at Noon that they have Rent and Torn and Divided the Churches of God in all Ages for these 1300 years and have engaged them in those Heats and Animosities against each other that by mutual Censures and
as it is now by Law Established which are really equivalent with the Declaration of Assent and Consent to the Vse of the Book and it is to no more than to the Vse of it the Declaration is required to be made by the Act it follows that to take away One of these injunctions and not the Other could be of no Signification Upon notice hereof therefore given to some Members of the House it was moved at the Committee to take away the whole Subscription as well as the Declaration and it being carried in the Affirmative the Bill as it is here presented hath that Amendment There are some few Additions more inserted as necessary thereunto for the obtaining its end the reasons whereof appear in their own light yet is it Judged fit that publick notice be given of two or three of them The One of them is the Parenthesis about the Beginning where the Thirty-Nine Articles are imposed on every Minister to Subscribe which notwithstanding the Exception of Three of the Articles do yet require more Caution Whosoever have read a Book called A part of a Register wherein there is a Relation of several things in reference to the Nonconformists in Q. Elizabeths days they will find that there was nothing so greivous to them and exasperated them then against the Bishops so much as the Subscriptions of those times and the Subscription to the Articles was one among the rest which makes me wonder what our good men did now mean to impose the Subscription of these Articles so rigidly upon all for the enjoyment of the benefit of either of their Bills of Vnion or Indulgence They know not really what it is they were a doing for if the Persecuting Spirit should be raised hereafter about this Subscription and the thing be so pressed that all who Subscribe not shall be Prosecuted by the Law there were like to arise greater troubles to tender Consciences and scruples more unanswerable then could be about the Cap and Tippet the Surplice and Cross in those dayes The doubtfulness of many about the Ceremonies is not to be compared to a Conviction of Conscience that a man must not Subscribe to any point which he believes untrue By this means therefore should these Articles of the Church intended for Peace become the instruments of Torment and be had in the greatest Detestation which consequently will defame and then ruine the Protestant Religion There will be Persecution in the Church that 's certain for the Devil will have it so There will be Tender Consciences that 's certain for God will have it so When there are no other things then to trouble Mens Consciences but this Subscription Exceptions and Scruples will be raised against these Articles and it a Parliament do not prevent them in their Bill by a present mitigation they Act not like wise Men and do not see Ten Years before them The only remedy against this evil is to provide a liberty in both the Bills that every Consciencious Man that really scruples any of the Articles may explain his sense which if it shall not pass unless it be allowed to be Orthodox by the Bishop or by two other Bishops in case the Diocesan be partial there can be no harm in it at least none in comparison of this mischief which is to be prevented hereby Another of them is about the Middle concerning Orders In the late Times when the Bishops were down many were ordained by Presbyters and the House was willing to allow those Orders as good in a Case of Necessity upon which account only the rigid Episcopalian will allow of the Ministry of the Reformed Churches beyond the Sea but there being others that have been Ordained since the return of the Bishops the House made no provision for such in the Bill being not willing we may suppose to countenance a neglect of the Bishops out of that case And what then shall such do There is an Ordination to the Office or Ministry it self and he that is Once Ordained to that whether by Presbyters or Bishops cannot receive the Spiritual Power or Character or be made Ministers Again But there is a laying on of hands to the Work of that Office in regard to a new Charge as Paul and Barnabas who were Ministers before and yet are separated to that peculiar Work unto which they were called by the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the Hands of those who are named Act. 13. Such an Ordination now as this may be repeated and is the only Medium for resolution of this dimculty The Third of these Insertions is the last whole Clause concerning the Common-Prayer the due consideration whereof is the very main hinge upon which the whole matter of this Comprehension does turn If Union it self be necessary it must be necessary to know what is the Bottom upon which we can be United In all Reconcilements between different Parties the first thing that is to be found out is a Medium for their Agreement When we have found this it must be considered how far each Party can come up to that Medium and then we can make the Accommodation The Medium of Reconciliation in this Business at this time between the Conformist and Nonconformist is the Common-Prayer Some Persons as is said before do hold that a stinted Form of Prayer and our Parish-Churches are unwarrantable by God's Word who though they may be Indulged are thereby uncapable of Comprehension Others are ready to maintain the Lawfulness of both these and the Enquiry about such is How far they can do that which is enjoyned That is How far they can Read the Common-Prayer and how far they cannot Conform to it This is the Critical Point in regard to this Bill between the Conformist and Nonconformist The One can Read all the Other so much only as will serve for Union The Nonconformist now who hold a Form of Prayer and the Parish-Churches lawful are for the most part of them able through Providential Merey to Conform to the Ordinary Lord's Day Service their Exceptions which make the Liturgy to them unlawful lying in other Parts or Moments of the Book And consequently if the Bill may be hemmed up with the Clause here offered it will do Without that Clause it is apparently imperfect With it it will be what we may call Perfect that is Perfect in its kind so far as to answer its end and bring in All of the Willing and Many of the Vnwilling that go under the Name of the Presbyterian Perswasion This being premised the Bills the Titles only as they were in the House being voluntarily omitted are as followeth THE Bill for Comprehension WHereas the Peace of the State is highly concern'd in the Peace of the Church Therefore at all Times but especially in this Conjuncture it is most Necessary to be preserved In Order therefore to remove Differences and Dissatisfactions which may arise among Protestants Be it enacted by the Kings most Excellent