Opposition Oratorically but truly and upon Proof the one studies knows and performs his Duty to God and his King and to all Men according to his Knowledg the other knows neither and makes no Conscience in appearance of either he is for the King and you but as he is for the Devil for what he can get by his Service he is ungodly and profane a daily Transgressor of the King's Laws as well as God's and more than one have been cut off by the Sword of Justice having first been rejected by all honest Men the one lives a poor contented Life praying for his King and for all orders of Men and praising God fares hard and goes meanly whilst the other runs in debt cheats his Creditors swears and damns and robs on the High-way or breaks open Houses In a word the one walks in the way of Godliness and Honesty and labours to draw others with him the other neither goes in himself nor suffers others to enter that would And behold and be astonished ye Heavens at this the one is in danger of losing all he hath and suffering because he hath no more to lose for labouring to save Souls and the other hopes to be rewarded with a third part of many of his Neighbours Goods A surer way it is to turn Informer than play the Thief or cheat his Creditors but all hath not done their Work the end of many hath been according to their Work All this is spoken of some of them You are Gentlemen of Estates and cannot think that the ruine of thousands of Traders Farmers Tenants yea the impoverishing of many of good Condition can be a Service to the Common-wealth If you do not suffer an immediate Loss yet hundreds will and what is a Loss to so great a part will be an impairing of the whole That great States-man Sir Walter Rawleigh in the Parliament 35th of Elizab. spake these Words Historic Collect. c. of the 4 last Parliaments of Q. Eliz. p. 76. by Mr. Townshend I am afraid there is near 20000 of them the Brownists in England and when they are gone who shall maintain their Wives and Children Had there been but 20000 Dissenters in England they had been rooted out before now if some had prevailed But who shall maintain a far greater number of Wives and Children when their Husbands and Parents are undone by the Penal Laws And who will get by it not the King his third part if come into his Exchequer will not countervail the loss of his Subjects What have the Poor got this many Years or what have they got that could neither keep nor get nor pay their Debts before they took to Informing As many of you as are Gentlemen of Hospitality relieve many poor at your Doors or other-where can you think it a Charity to relieve Beggars and issue Warrants to make many Beggars that either cannot dig or beg or that keep many to their Labours that else would beg that bear their Burdens in the Common-wealth and are no burden to it Your Place and Office requireth Wisdom And I may be bold to say That the Renowned Sir Matthew Hale was as wise as strict as just as able a Lawyer as the ablest of you all that keep the Chair it is no disparagement of the learnedest and gravest of you all to take him for an Example See his Life by Dr. Gilbert Burnet whose Moderation towards Dissenters is a part of his noble Character you have known what hath been the concurring sense of all our Parliaments since 1672. If none of these shall be your Precedents I beseech you be pleased to consider it is your Wisdom to understand the Duty of your Places and the Matters that are brought before you especially in Cases that concern the Liberties Livelihoods and Estates of many thousands in the Land I humbly conceive you cannot with a clear Conscience proceed against the Dissenters except you understand 1. The matters for which they suffer and that you may see in several Writings 2. Attend to the scope and reasons of the Acts upon which you proceed 3. Distinguish between Preacher and Preacher between the sound and the unsound and other Circumstances and choose rather to give up your Commissions than to act against God and your Conscience by punishing Well-doing as if it were Evil doing That Preaching and Praying which tends to Men's Salvation and to no evil end either to the King or his Government cannot be punished safely without being accessary to the evil Intentions of those designing Men who were the Politick Promoters of those Laws nor without great obstruction of true Godliness and of a most desirable Vnion among Protestants 4. You ought not to act like meer Machines or irrational Instruments If so the Weak and the Rash that can but write their Names to a Warrant or a Mittimus might be as fit as you for your Offices but as Men of Vnderstanding Wisdom Conscience and Religion and if the Laws are hard and too severe for meer Nonconformity be Intercessors with the King and Parliament for his Subjects and your fellow Christians As Just Men Try the fitness of the Witnesses whether they are Boni Legales Punish not Religious Assemblies of peaceable Men under the odious names of Routs and Riots and let not the sound profiatble and peaceable Preachers be ruined with a measure of Punishment only due to the turbulent and rebellious And if by many Years Experience you find no Sedition or Disturbance to the Kingdom only to the minds of some that are too controversially disposed to Passion and Contention or if you find it only to be a Schism a Church-matter leave it to the Church-Men to judg it according to their Law If you maintain the Civil Peace you are happy Instruments in the Government and what more is required of you Noble and honoured Gentlemen I do not presume to dedicate this as to Patrons but humbly offer and submit the Reason and Argument to your Consideration and suggest two things 1. If we believe a Catholick Church of the same Faith in different Forms and Modes why shall not our Fellow-Subjects and Natives professing that Faith in a different Form share in your Charity as parts of the Catholick Church To love them as Christians of the Catholick Church and of the same Faith with our National Church in all things and yet punish them that preach Catholick Doctrine and observe all the Ordinances of the Catholick Church is an odd kind of Love and Charity 2. If there be any among us that are holy sanctified Preachers and Hearers they shall be saved in the last day You know the Process of that great day of Judgment for what Causes the unrighteous shall be condemned I was naked and ye cloathed me not in Prison and ye visited me not Mat. 35.43 O how will it agree with this to say I was in Power and I execated the Laws to distress of Goods and Imprisoment to
them but what many of their Teachers allow to be lawful This way did tend towards Union of the People Others have urged an Execution of the Laws upon the Brethren withal perswading them to believe that they suffer as Evil-doers Dr. Ashton's Toleration disapproved and this is to bring home stray'd Sheep through Briars and Thorns Our great States-men have taken different Measures also Some have moved for a severe Execution and to force them to an intire Obedience saying it was more reasonable they should submit to the Church than the Church to them Others being sensible of the Mischiefs Decemb. 21 1680. have stated the Case more exactly and argued for an Union and this prevailed in the Debate No Man of Sence or Piety can be insensible of the Sickness of the Family but whether it be better to kill some out-right or to starve them or to suffer them to live may be easily determined In a case of Discord and Contention between Brothers whether it be best to accommodate or to determine some shall have what they would and others shall have nothing left comes near the Case in hand The Dangers of a Forbearance are the same that were foretold would be the Consequences of an Indulgence which was opposed by the Parliament in the Year 1662. That House of Commons did argue against an Indulgence and for keeping up the Act of Uniformity by way of Prophecy and fore-sight of Consequences and their humble Advices presented to the King contain the strongest Reasons against an Indulgence that have been found out and contain the great Inconveniences and Evils of a Forbearance February 15 1662. I will give you the Substance of them 1. An Indulgence will establish Schism by a Law make the Government of the Church precarious and the Censures of it of no moment 2. It will not become the Gravity or Wisdom of a Parliament to pass a Law of Uniformity at one Session and pass another to weaken it the next 3. It will expose your Majesty to the restless importunity of every Sect and every single Dissenter 4. It will cause the Increase of Sectaries whose Numbers will weaken the Protestant Religion their Numbers being troublesome to the Government will as their Numbers increase be more troublesome and from an Indulgence arrive at a Toleration at length contend for an Establishment and end in Popery 5. It will take away all means of convicting Recusants 6. It is more like to occasion greater Disturbances than Peace in the Kingdom But as Events prove Prophecies to be true or false so Events have proved these Arguments to be weak or strong That very Parliament the true Protestant Part of it that did faithfully serve their King and Country with the Additions made to them by a latter Election to fill up vacant Places saw where we were and were sensible of the Necessity of uniting Protestants by Act of Parliament and many of the Episcopal Divines and some Bishops were for it A clear Discovery that the Mischiefs of our Divisions are of that sort that it were better an Abatement were made of some things made necessary to Uniformity without which the Dissenters will not unite than suffer them to hang over our Heads and come upon us We plainly see that many of the Reasons of the Commons 1662 are of no Force I will observe what is of present use to our times which is the first And For the other It became their Wisdom and their Religion to pass a Bill taking from the Act of Uniformity His Majesty hath not been molested with the Importunities of the Dissenters who have not so much as opened their Grievances or Petitioned the King or Parliament in these many Years There is no new Sect appearing nor increase of any by the Nonconformists to weaken the Protestant Religion who have used Endeavours to increase and maintain it it is in no danger from them they are not troublesome to the Government are not for a Toleration of intolerable Sects and Secteries contend not for an Establishment which they would rejoyce in but as becomes learned Men and rational and with as great a Temper at least as theirs that write against them The Peace of the Kingdom is not disturbed by them and if Popery come in it is against their Wills Prayers and Pains to expose and and baffle it It is their Trouble and a considerable part of their Affliction that they are thought troublesome to the Government which may by an ordinary Exercise of Patience and Love overcome the Trouble in their own Breast which is the seat of the Trouble And for the only remaining Evil which is the Evil of Schism it is clear that their Meetings are not established by Law and a Connivance gives no Establishment to it but if they be driven from publick into private Families and keep within their Number the Schism remains as great and greater than otherwise as I said before out of the reach and under protection from the Law What the Evils of a Forbearance are we see but what the Evils of an Execution of the Laws may prove we cannot see but morally and rationally speaking they will be greater than now we suffer I must premise this That if you proceed with rigor you do unspeakable Hurt if not you cannot do the Good you pretend There must be a Concurrence of all Magistrates in all places to take the same Course and as you must concur so you must be sure that the King will shut up his Royal Bowels and Clemency or some particular Men will but become hateful to their Countries and His Majesties Mercy will condemn their Severity This was so well understood by an Honourable Member of Parliament that he moved for ways to compel the Dissenters to an intire Obedience and submit to the Church by severe Penalties This will be the ready way to undo all if any thing do it which as to His Majesties Person and Government I do confidently hope and rationally believe is but a great word of Fancy an Oratorical Scarecrow Mischief of Separation p. 13. p. 22 23 52. The mischiefs of our Separation are laid open to this purpose 1. Great Hazards of unsetling all 2. Alienation of Hearts 3. Advantage of our common Enemies the Papists I borrow the Heads of Mischiefs and argue If the Mischiefs of Separation while there is a cessation of Prosecutions be so great much more when Prosecution cannot heal the Separation but encrease the Causes 1. It will beyond all recovery undo all Men that have been so many Years the more bold to assemble because of the Lenity of His Majesty and the Propensity of our many Parliaments from 1673 to accommodate the Difference and the inferiour Magistrates have found no evil Designs among them to give disturbance to the Government and many of the Judges in their Charges have turned the point of the Sword upon our secret Enemies that would openly do more against us all
His Majesties Declaration from Breda April 14. 1660. We do declare a Liberty to tender Consciences and that no Man shall be disquieted or called in question for Differences of Opinion in Matters of Religion which do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom And that We shall be ready to Consent to such an Act of Parliament as upon mature Deliberation shall be offered to Vs for the full granting that Indulgence House of Commons Jan. 10. 1680. Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws is at this time grievous to the Subject a weakning the Protestant Interest an encouragement to Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom THE Conformist's second Plea FOR THE Nonconformists WHEREIN The Case of the Non-Conformists is further stated and the Suspension of the Penal Laws against them humbly moved with all due submission to the Magistrate By a Charitable and Compassionate Conformist Author of the former PLEA Sed neque Imperiale est Libertatem dicendi denegare neque Sacerdotale quod sentiat non dicere S. Ambros ad Theodos Ep. 29. There hath been left for any thing I find to the contrary in all well-govern'd Polities a kind of latitude more or less and power in the Magistrates even in those Courts that were Strictissimi Juris upon fit occasion to qualify and mitigate something the Rigor of the Laws by the Rules of Equity Bp Sanderson's Sermons 1 Vol. p. 112. Ad Magistratum LONDON Printed by J. D. for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1682. To all that are entrusted with the Administration of Justice and Conservation of the Peace by what Title soever they are honoured The Charitable and Compassionate Conformist doth most humbly present these Papers Noble and Worshipful NO Cause can come before you wherein you are so nearly concerned as you are sincere Protestants than in this of the Dissenting Protestants because your Religion is touched and concerned in it you cannot hurt that in any sound part of the Professors of it tho in a few things differing from you but very sensibly one of you must be affected with it and what you do to them you do to your selves and your own Religion except you account Life and Soul and Body to be nothing without Formalties As you are Gentlemen of noble Birth and Education and as Persons of Estates and of Hospitality of Wisdom Justice and Experience you are most obliged with all Skill Judgment Tenderness Mercy and Impartiality to give your selves true Information in the state and deserts of this great Matter and so to proceed with them as shewing a Copy of those Characters of Vertue impressed upon your Spirits in your Proceedings with them As Gentlemen by Birth and Blood your Extraction derives to you the most amiable Qualities and purest Endowments of human Nature this Extract of noble Nature sublimated by ingenuous much more by pious and christian Education must needs dispose you to a nobler kind of Behaviour and a greater Benignity than inferiour Persons of a courser and more mixed Metal A truely vertuous Gentleman comes nearest to the true gracious Christian but when the true Gentleman is become a true Christian then even Enemies and Offenders may expect much more than Humanity from him You are not troubled with Parricides Murderers and Robbers not with obstinate Hereticks nor with perjured Persons but such as fear an Oath nor traiterous equivocating Jesuits when the Nonconformists are brought before you but with Men of an ingenuous Education and what they want of a noble Birth they have made up in the better sort of natural Endowments improved by liberal Education advanced by Grace and preferred to be the Ministers of God and therefore in a sort your Equals as in other respects your Inferiors and therefore worthy to be treated with a due respect They may expect from you the highest Civility patient hearing the calmest Arguing Courtesie and Condescension and an extream unwillingness to act nigh to a Rigor You should sooner from a Generosity proper to your Degree give them what they want than take from them the little which they have and be as much troubled to send them to a Prison as to be sent into one your selves He that can easily be severe or cruel hath put off Humanity and doth act with great Negligence and Forgetfulness and is so far unfit to act If a Man be a Prisoner of War at the Mercy of a Gentleman the Gentleman considering what he is himself acts like himself and useth him as a distressed Friend that was but a while before an open Enemy The Nonconformists for whom I plead are your own if you please 〈◊〉 think them so and you may with as much ease and more honour with less troubâ—â— and more safety and comfort make them your own than disown and use them as tho they were your Enemies As Ministers they have chosen a Calling which the Prince of Darkness hates and persecutes they need your Countenance and Succor against the Powers of Darkness their business in the World is rightly to inform to better and save the World they deserve your Assistance and Prayers for success Had they chosen a secular way of Life they might with the same Education and Parts have filled and adorned other Seats as well as the Pulpit had they all turned Physicians Lawyers States-men as some have done or to other Trades and Arts they might have had a greater Plenty without disturbance Dangers Losses or Indignities But shall all these Miseries and Afflictions come upon them First Because they cannot change and desert their Calling Next because they cannot be idle or unprofitable in it Consider and compare them dishonoured and afflicted with your honoured selves Are you Christians so are they are you Scholars so are they are you Gentlemen they come not far behind you are you Protestant Magistrates they are Protestant Ministers The difference between you is you are in Power and they are out of Favour I will not so far dishonour you as to compare you with those infamous broken ravenous vile sort of Men that witness against them If I may not be pardoned those Epithets I will prove that and much more of many of them But noble Sirs how much beneath you is it as Men of Honour to give Countenance to many of such as are not fit to come within your Doors except to receive Justice from you against any that have the unstained repute of honest Men only because they are Preachers of our same common Faith But noble Gentlemen let me compare the Informers and them against whom they witness and for whom I plead the one is a Teacher of the way of Life the other is ignorant or walks in the way of Darkness the one makes Conscience of an Oath and of his Word but the other knows not what an Oath is and fears not to be forsworn I say nothing in this
in point of Government but the meer Congregational are Men of Learning Reason and sound Principles as to Faith Worship and Manners And so there must be a Distinction between some and others that are commonly so called All these agree in that they cannot conform to Subscriptions Oaths and Declarations and some in other Matters come nearer or stand further off than others therefore the Difference cannot be more particularly stated without an exact knowledg of their Tenets 3. Those who are commonly called and reputed Presbyterians declared themselves for his Majesties Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs October 25th 1660. Petit. for Peace §. 10. To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty The due Account and humble Petition of the Ministres of the Gospel commissionated for the review and alteration of the Liturgy Lond. An. 1661. Mr. Baxter's Prefà ce Treat of Episcopacy as they have done against the Terms required by the Act of Uniformity And now if any Man would know the true State of the Difference between the Conformists and one part of the Nonconformists may find it to lie in that Gracious Declaration and that Act of Uniformity The reputed Presbyterian cannot conform to the Act but would have been glad if that Declaration had been made an Act. And they who would have gladly submitted to that rare Invention of Composure and Settlement are no longer to be accounted Presbyterians in a strict and proper sense much less Enemies to the King and Subverters of the Government that would have conformed to what the King proposed upon great Reasons and wise Counsels as appears by the Reasons Frame and Language of that Declaration And they who condemn them that conform not to the Act but would have conformed to his Majesties Declaration if it had been turned into a Law have declared at the same time their dislike of the King's Declaration And if their Zeal be so hot against this kind of Dissenters their Reverence of the King's Act which gave them their Measures and Directions both as to what they should ask and desire to be ruled and governed by should restrain them from being too rigid in their Censures Had they drawn up such a Declaration as that is and presented it to the King and Parliament as the only Rule they would submit unto and the King have rejected and refused it then they had been more deservedly reproved for their Nonconformity But when it was graciously declared by the Ring and gratefully acknowledged by that Parliament and the Divines that now dissent did thankfully acknowledg and receive it See the foresaid Petition At their Meeting in Sion Colledg they cannot be condemned but with some Reflection upon that Declaration and by consequence the King himself and his wise Counsellors and that first Parliament who thanked the King for it And let it be further noted that there was once a Parliament most freely chosen of Loyal Members that thanked the King for Terms of Accommodation and Union and it is much for the Honour of the Dissenters who humbly desired an Union upon those Terms that they had once the King himself and as many of his Wise Council as advised and a Loyal Parliament freely chosen of the same Judgment with them If they are a Faction they are such as never was before them a Faction that would have been ruled by the King and that good Parliament which did restore Him I do notify the first rank of Dissenters from this because they have fubmitted to this and never offered any other Terms or Proposals by general Consent but those declared by the King himself * Or such Alterations as were made in the Liturgy by his Majest Commission And those that are said to be for a new Model are for the King 's own Model 4. The other sort of Dissenters fall under the name of Congregational and Independents As many of these as are under my present Consideration are first Orthodox and sound in Faith agreeing with the Scriptures received Doctrine of this Church in Articles and Homilies and of other Reformed Churches in opposition to Heresies and Popery 2. They dissent not from the Civil Government of the Kingdom Take their own professed Doctrine It is the Duty of People to pray for Magistrates to honour their Persons to pay them Tribute and other Duties to obey their lawful Commands and to be subject to their Authority for Conscience sake Infidelity or Difference in Religion doth not make void the Magistrates just and legal Authority nor free the People from their Obedience to him from which Ecclesiastical Persons are not exempted much less hath the Pope any Power or Jurisdiction over them in their Dominions or over any of their People and least of all to deprive them of their Dominions or Lives if he shall judg them to be Hereticks or upon any other pretence whatsoever * A Declaration of the Faith and Order of the Congregation Churches in England in their Meeting at the Savoy Octob. 12 1658. c. 24. Of the Civil Magistrate §. 4. Vid. Dr. Owen's Truth and Innocency vindicated Survey of Dr. Parker's Eccles Polity p. 164 c. Ibid. of the Institut of Churches §. 9 3. They are for a Church-Government by Pastors Teachers Elders and Deacons but within particular Congregations having all Power within themselves independent as to Jurisdiction or Subordination to any other Church or Synod and they are for the Administration of all the Ordinances of Christ The most that ever these desired at any time even when the Presbyterial Government was most likely to prevail was a Permission or Toleration to exercise their Discipline subjecting themselves as any other Subjects to the Magistrate not defiring the Preferments of the Church which they would have always go to them that conformed to the Constitution of the Church according to Law and with this they would now be thankfully contented The third thing to be spoken to is the Nature of the Offence for which they are liable to the Penalties of the Laws The remote Offence or Transgression is their Nonconformity to the Act of Uniformity for which they have suffered a Deprivation of their Ecclesiastical Preferments The next and immediate Transgression is against other Statutes which are these 1. The Statute of the 35 of Queen Elizabeth declared to be in force 16 of Ch. II. c. 4. 2. The same Act against Conventicles and unlawful Assemblies under Pretence of Exercise of Religion 3. Act 17 Ch. II. c. 2. Nonconformists that take not the Oath or Test therein set down shall not inhabit in any Corporation or live within five Miles of any Town that send Burgesses to Parliament or five Miles of the Place where they were Ministers 4. The Statutes of the 22th of Ch. II. c. 1. Seditious Conventicles prevented and suppressed By the first of these Statutes viz. 35th of Q. Eliz. the Offences are two the first is not coming to some Church or Chappel or other place of Divine Service
Friends they live in my Mannor and have trespassed upon me against the orders of it I thought it hard to trouble them or severely to gather my Amerciaments for they were honest Men and of my Religion too for the main they were good Protestants in their way I never heard of any Riots among them or ill Designs that could be prov'd against any of them when others were at their Pastimes they were at their Prayers and were laborious while others that had more of the World took more Pleasure and they know that if I had been severe with them for every Trespass they had not had a Cow or Cows keeping not a Sheep or a Pig and now they have well about them and I am resolved I will make them pay all the Amerciaments of my Court for every Trespass they shall have neither Cow nor Sheep nor House to sleep in in my Mannor I 'll make them pay or ly in Prison or fly the Land for they are a dangerous ungrateful People for when I stand for a Parliament-Man or desire their Votes for my Friend there is not a Man will appear for me but they are all for them that are against a Popish Successor and for uniting of Protestants and such things as these They are cross to me what I abhor they approve when I address they refuse to subscribe Well but Sir I beseech you be merciful to them and if you will have all your Town to be in all things of your Mind give them notice first or else it will be said you forbore them their lesser Fines till they grew to a great Sum. I beseech you do not so by them but be as merciful to them as you are to other kind of Sinners Fifthly The Limitation of the Question is untill such time as our Gracious King and Parliament in time to come shall take the State of the divided Protestants into their Mature Consideration We may rationally hope we shall have a Parliament from our King who hath often declared his Resolution to have frequent Parliaments we hope it will be a free Parliament I do not mean free from force or violence upon Men's Persons but violence upon their Reasons by Drunkenness with its shameful Antecedents and Effects And if ever we have such Elections we shall pitch upon such Men as long as there are any to be found that are Men of Loyalty to the King and Government of Estates and Quality that are freest from Temptation to get by dishonourable Arts and that have too much to give away from themselves and the Freeholders that choose them A Protestant People will elect Protestant Representatives and such as have a respect to Protestant Dissenters in things that may be spared without hurt to Religion or infringement of Government much less a change and that as they are Natives Relatives peaceable and pious good Men. It cannot be thought that they that would exclude Popery will leave a Breach among our selves for it to enter in at our last Parliaments have declared their Inclinations by their Votes and from what they have done we may guess at what they will do if God give them time And there must be a depth in Policy deeper than Men of a short Line can fathom or a great mistake that those Gentlemen and Magistrates that are bent to suppress our Conventicles should act with such a Spirit now when they have declared who and what they are for Is this the way to gain the Body of the Nation to choose them or those they affect into a next Parliament when it is visible what Interest they serve by disobliging the Protestant Nonconformists and giving notice to the Church and Conforming Protestants that they cannot be safe from them that suppress if not cut off as many as they can of the same Faith and Worship for substance for those Differences that need not be if Condescention and Love might but come in Fashion The Controversy between the Church and them is not yet determined The Rev. Dr. Stilling Preface to Vnreasonableness of Separation Mr. Baxter Humphrey Lobb c. but there is this good of late got by the Heat of Writing that both sides have declared their Minds more freely than heretofore and there are Proposals made by both sides which if they cannot be universally admitted yet from the rude Draughts of a Building wise Men may agree upon the Frame by adding taking away and composing As the Parliament made the Laws out of Love to the Church and they will not do Magistrates out of Love to the Church should abstain from Prosecutions for a time and be patient for a while except they saw what no Man can see that lives nearer to them than their Informers any more cause of Suppression by any contrived dangers either to Church or State than when they are fast asleep in their Beds If you have just cause to fear their Principles disarm them of their Knites but those that know them better than their Enemies or your Informers do think no more Danger like to arise from their Principles than there was against the King and most favourable Parliament from their Preparations for Rebellion Are all the Nonconforming Preachers of a sudden turned Jesuits is their Faith turned into Faction have they submitted their Scriptures and their Senses to an Infallible Guide acknowledged in him the power of both Swords and listed themselves under his consecrated Banners Are all their Children Males Are all their Infants in a few Months grown up to be above sixteen Years of Age fit for Arms Are their Wives and Daughters become Amazons How many thousands can they make Where are their Rendezvouz their Musters their Lists their Magazines Where are their Generals Who are their Correspondents and Confederates abroad The distressed persecuted Protestants of France Are they fortifying their Barns and Meeting-Places or ready to march and take the Field Why are we not all in Arms for fear of them if the Danger be so great from their Assemblies Abstain from these Men for a little time and let not their Flight be in Winter or on the Sabbath-Days If you will not forbear till such a time one thing I hope and look for that when you drive their Cattel or offer their Goods to sale you will find no Buyers or if you send them to the Goals their Keepers and Fellow Prisoners may become true Converts and that you that send them thither may fetch them out But I must not forget my Arguments to prove the Affirmative of the Question That it is better the Execution of the Laws should be forborn against Protestant Dissenters than urged or countenanced I have laid the Question in a Comparative and affirm it is better c. The Comparative doth suppose a Positive if I can prove that it is not good to execute the Penal Laws upon Dissenting Protestants then it will follow a fortiore majore that it is better they should be spared than punished
Sence of an Honourable Member of the Parliament at Westminster in the Debate of the Bill for uniting Protestants But suppose we should follow this Advice and make new Laws and require a severe Execution of the old how can you imagine that as long as the Popish Interest is so prevalent the Execution of such Laws shall be continued longer than may be subservient to the Interest of that Party Have we not had a sad Experience of this Hath the Oxford Act or that of 35th of Queen Elizabeth or any other against Dissenters been executed in favour of the Church note this all that think it a Service to the Church Are not the Dissenters as many if not more now than ever And is there any thing more visible than these Laws have been made use of to serve the Popish Interest or as Engines rather for the Affairs of the State than the Church If the Oxford Act and other Acts against Dissenters were projected in favour of the Protestant Religion it was strange they were so much promoted as many Members now here who did serve in those Parliaments do remember by Sir Tho. Clifford Sir Solomon Sweale and Sir Rogen Strickland who have since appeared to be Papists Sir I am afraid the name of the Church hath been strangely made use of to bring in Popery c. upon which resolved that the said Bill be committed upon the Debate of the House for uniting Protestants The last Act to be executed is that of 22 Ch. II. c. 1. Seditious Conventieles prevented and suppressed The Persons against whom it is levelled are described to be Seditious Sectaries Disloyal Persons who Hypocrites under pretence of tender Consciences have or may contrive Insurrections Concerning this Act let us observe the Time when it was enacted it was Anno 1670. Since which time we may not pass over without loss to the Argument how the Thoughts of our Governours and Law-makers have turned to another point and that very Parliament which was observed for a very great part of it to be young Gentlemen growing older grew more cool and moderate towards differing Protestants more suspicious of Popery and the more resolute they grew in maintaining Property and the Protestant Religion and to break the Arms and the Legs of growing Popery the more temperate they grew towards the Nonconformists not to take any Strength from His Majestirs Declaration of March 15 1671 2 because it seemed to tend to the Propagation of Popery and was recalled upon the Parliaments Representation altho some wise Protestant States-Men thought that Declaration would be a kindness to Dissenters and no greater Injury to the Church and Protestant Religion from Popery than they received by Popery growing apace under the Benignity of a Connivance and Favour of great Men. Not to take hold of this to shew that the King thought fit to mitigate the rigor of that Law the very next Year after it was enacted That which gives Strength to my Argument is this that at the next meeting of the Parliament which began February 24 1672 an Act passed against the Papists and a Bill was presented by the House of Commons to the Lords in favour of Dissenting and for uniting Protestants which as some that have as much reason to know as any who write would have passed if they had had time to sit and from that time that long Parliament who had made the Act against Conventicles how resolute soever they were against an Indulgence February 15 1662 they saw the incompatibility between Execution of their own Law and the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and saw a necessity of uniting Protestants at the same time when they saw our increasing Dangers from the Increase of Popery And our several Parliaments since have reasoned upon the same Principles and Foundations once again so far as to commuit a Bill to unite all Protestants And now I have prepar'd my self for this Argument It is not well done and cannot be good for the Church or Kingdom and if not good to them it should not be thought good by Protestants which that very Parliament that made the Act and many other Parliaments thought not good for the Church and Kingdom For some particular Magistrates upon the Information of some self-seeking Informers to execute the Laws against the sense of the Legislators who should and certainly did best know what was for our good is to oppose a private Opinion to a publick Deliberation and a private Spirit against a publick That I may draw these Reasonings to a Conclusion it is not a due Execution of the Laws except it be upon the Persons and to the ends intended in the Laws But if you would execute the Laws upon the proper Objects you must execute them upon Seditious Sectaries disloyal Persons very Hypocrites that do under pretence of Religious Exercises instil Principles of Schism and Rebellion into the Minds of the King's Subjects The Law goes upon such a Supposition and to prevent such Mischiefs but if there be no such Meetings to such a Tendency there are no Persons that deserve such Executions If there be let them be tried if there be not of all times is there no time but this for Protestant Magistrates to go upon the Information of Informers to give Countenance to a Scandal that Protestant Dissenters are as pernicious to the Government as confederated Papists And that Protestants should act contrary to their Principles contrary to their Interests to bring certain Ruine upon Themselves Families and Friends without any the least hope of Relief or mending their Condition A Game indeed to set Informers to find a Hare when they should run down the Fox If this be not to sin against Love to Protestants because of some Omissons or against Knowledg it is sin against Sence and many Years Experience If you do really believe and can prove by full and honest Evidence that such Men have preached such Doctrines take them as Traytors and never proceed against them as Dissenters for preaching in a manner different from the Liturgy These Arguments proceed from consideration of the Laws and are but my first Head of Arguments The second sort of Arguments is drawn from the Fact for which the Dissenters are to suffer The Crime primâ facie is preaching in a manner different from the Church of England and not according to the Liturgy to numbers above Four besides the Houshold This is the Fact The Proof of it is either by Confession of the Parties which we will not suppose or the Notoriousness of the Fact which needs further proof it all depends upon the Oaths of two Witnesses What do they depose They who perhaps know not what an Oath is nor what a Sin Perjury is depose that A. B. preached at such a time or times in such a place or places to such numbers against the Statute But what if the Preacher preach'd true Doctrine exhorted to Peace and Holiness Obedience Justice Mercy and not one
word tending to Schism or Rebellion What if the Person be a loyal Subject These things are out of the Question out of the Deposition But if these Witnesses cannot depose that such a Preacher is a Disloyal Person his Preaching to be to instil Schism or Rebellion or to move to Insurrection then if the Execution be according to the Deposition it is Execution upon Persons not intended by the Law and for preaching not forbidden by the Law for the Law forbids not Preaching but to such an end There is one Catching Circumstance it was above the Legal Number But yet one would think that that should not be a Crime except Rebellion and Insurrection be the intention of the Person and the effect of the Thing For many for five hundred to hear a good Sermon in a peaceable manner is in it self no Crime the Number and the Preaching must be to an ill Design in the intention of the Law For it were impious to forbid Preaching in it self The Evil of it must be in the evil of the Matter and evil of the Design and by Consequence only such Preaching and such Numbers are liable to the Penalty that is of a destructive or offensive Design unless you punish for Preaching which is good separate from the Design as evil This premised my Argument is this It is not good but evil to punish well doing as if it were evil doing and to punish Preachers and Hearers that never preached nor heard Rebellion or Sedition as if they were the highest Criminals in a Kingdom But to issue out Warrants and execute them upon Persons when nothing is proved against them but what is good and not prohibited by the Law as evil in it self but as evil to an evil end viz. Preaching is not good therefore it is not good to punish them c. To punish a Fact that in the intention of the Persons or nature of the Thing hath no tendency to Mischief to be prevented by the Law is not good but evil because the Execution is not directed to the end of the Law and by Consequence it is no legal Execution But to execute the Law for preaching and hearing upon Preachers and Hearers whose preaching and hearing hath no evil tendency to Sedition Rebellion Insurrection or Schism is such an Execution Therefore it is not good but evil The Minor is proved from the Peaceableness of the Nonconformists Piety of their Principles from the many Years Experience and Effects and seditious or rebellious or schismatical matter are not the things sworn against them or can be sworn but preaching to such Numbers and hearing in such Numbers and in a manner different from the Church of England which may be and yet not ill and may not be so for all the Informers know Obj. But the Law forbids such Men to preach as conform not swear not and in such a manner and to such numbers of Persons If the Law be good it is good to execute them Answ The Law forbids such Men as are seducing Sectaries disloyal Persons to such an end as was often named And such Persons and such Religious Acts abused to a wicked end and purpose and none else If the Persons are not such nor the Religious Exercises so abused to such wicked purposes then you must hold that either the Laws can or do forbid those Men that are good to do that which is good and so forbid absolutely that which is good which is to scandalize the Law and them that made it or you must yield the Execution to be ill and illegal except those Persons and Actions be taken relatively to those unlawful Designs which if proved they are Criminals of another nature and if it cannot be proved they ought not so to suffer as if they were what they are not My third Argument is taken from the Consideration of the Persons and of the Facts 1. They are Protestants if you believe me not try them 2. They meet for Religious Exercises and holy Ordinances not for Sedition or Rebellion or to move any Insurrections if the contrary can be proved I 'll grieve and pray but never plead for them But both the one and the other is evident that which is sworn against them is neither Sedition c. but Preaching as was said before Hence I form my Argument It is not good but evil to use Dissenting Protestants worse than ever Papists have been used But to execute those Laws upon Dissenting Protestants neither for Rebellion nor moving Insurrections is to use them worse than ever Papists have been used Therefore it is not good to execute the Laws upon them It is to be more rigorous towards our Brethren and such as agree in one and the same King same Laws same Worship as to the substance of Christ's Ordinances and are willing to unite than you are towards Men that own another Supremacy King and Bishops are idolatrous in their Worship and are for rooting us out and not taking us in without hazard of the Truth of Christ and Hypocrisy and Eternal Life To punish Dissenters for preaching and other Exercises of Religion because to such Numbers and not in such an uniform manner is to punish them for Religion If Religion be the Cloak and Rebellion or Sedition be the Mischiefs to be concealed and conveyed under it then Religion is but a pretence and that cannot excuse them from suffering which doth highly aggravate the Sin But if neither be inferred from their Principles nor infused into their Exercises then there is no danger to the King in his Life Prerogative nor Authority If neither hath been found in any of them it is not justly imputable to them and then if their Preaching and Prayer be the Fact for which they suffer they suffer for that which no Papist ever suffered for alone For the clearing of this and proving of it I will distinguish Punishments into Capital and Pecuniary or Real No Papist whether Priest or Lay-man ever suffered Death in England for Religion but for Treason and their fore-acted Conspiracies and Treasons constrained Queen Elizabeth and King James to make Laws for their own preservation This is proved by King James Vid. Torturam Torti per. Ep. Cicestriensem Bp Andrews p. 145 146 147. and all our Protestant Writers against the Papists I need not quote particulars This is particularly proved in a peculiar Treatise penned by the direction of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh as the learned Publisher of the Collection of several Treatises The Execution of Justice in England not for Religion but for Treason tells us in his Epistle concerning the Reasons and Occasions of the * Reprinted at London 1675. Penal Laws And what is there proved is acknowledged by the Secular Priests 1601 in their Important Considerations But if our Nonconformists should be prosecuted upon the 35th of Eliz. if they will not conform upon their three months Imprisonment they must abjure the Realm and if they go not away or
return without the King's Leave it is Felony and that is Capital And if it be for Nonconformity it goes under the name of Conscience and for Religion without any guilt or proof of Sedition or Treason and so they will suffer for Religion and for no other but the Protestant Religion what Papists never did but for Treason And the Queen past over many justifiable occasions of an earlier severity The Supremacy of the Pope was a tender point of lealousy and a trial of the Queen's Patience but she was not kindled by it but suffered many that were in that point for the Pope and against Her to enjoy their Estates and Honourable Liberty with Men of as great Quality as themselves or in their own Houses Dr. Heath Arch-Bishop of York and Chancellor to Queen Mary enjoyed his Estate and Liberty in his own House till his Death Dr. Poole Bishop of Canterbury Dr. Tonstal of Duresm Dr. White of Winchester Dr. Oglethorp of Carlisle Dr. Thirlby of Ely Dr. Watson of Lincoln were not pressed with any Capital Pain tho they maintained the Pope's Authority against the Laws of the Realm and some Abbots Important Considerations p. 54. c. as you may see it in the aforesaid Collection 1st Treat p. 10 11. and acknowleded by the Secular Priests while her Majesty and the State dealt with the Catholicks as you have heard which was full eleven years no one Catholick being called in question of his Life for his Conscience all that time Consider how some of our Profession proceeded with them Her Highness had scarcely felt the Crown warm upon her Head but it was challenged from her by some of her Neighbours as Mr. Saunders noteth c. p. 55. Let us pass from Capital to Pecuniary Mulcts and compare them Of all the Laws against Popish Recusants none seems more to punish them for Religion than their not coming to Church and their saying or being present at Mass and the Fines imposed for those Acts of theirs The Forfeiture upon him that saith Mass is 200 Marks Anno. 23d Eliz. c. 1. and a Years Imprisonment upon him that willingly heareth Mass 100 Marks and Imprisonment for a Year for not reparing to Common-Prayer 20 l. every Month and forbearing to come within twelve Months shall be bound in a Bond of 200 l. to the good Behaviour But besides the Idolatry of the Mass these Laws do not proceed against the Mass as an idolatrous Worship * Nemini potest esse obscurum Leges quae feruntur mulctas quae dicuntur hic apud nos in Recusantes ferri dici non Religionis causâ merae sed mixtae mixtae cum malâ Mente Fide in Principem nec nisi in Recusantes Bullatos Tor. Tor. p. 132 133. and as it is Religion but as there is Treason against the Government in that Worship For the Mass is celebrated by a Priest and a Priest receives his Ordination from the Church of Rome and is a Subject to the Pope's Supremacy acknowledges his Jurisdiction and denies the King 's in Ecclesiastical Affairs There never was any Treason without a Priest in it nor Mass with out a Priest says Bp Calton The very Form of Submission enjoyned to all them that conform to our Laws and come to Common-Prayer doth evidence this Truth And to acknowledg and testify in my Conscience that the Bishop or See of Rome hath not * 35th Eliz. c. 2. nor ought to have any Power or Authority over Her Majesty or within any of Her Majesties Realms and Dominions c. But our Nonconformists will willingly renonunce the Papal Jurisdiction and own the King's Supremacy and refuse not the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy which the Puritans of former times refused not but took Vid. Bp Andr. Tortur Tort. p. 110. 379. Profitentur subscribunt jurant indies Mr. Baxter professeth in the name of the Nonconformists The Article of Religion for the Power of Kings and Obedience of Subjects we need not transcribe but do consent to it so we do to the Canons which require the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and answerable Obedience to all the Homilies against Rebellion and for Obedience and all that ever we found to be for this the publick Doctrine of the Church Mr. Baxt. 2d Plea for the N. C. p. 86. s 10. Their Worship is pure but in the sence of Laws defective as not being with or according to the Liturgy And what manner of Protestants they are let their publick Confessions their private Writings and their Morning-Exercises against Popery testify Which of all the 1800 or 2000 Ministers cast out Barthol 1662 was ever found or suspected to be in any Conspiracy against the King or Government how ill soever they have bin used There are a reviling sort of Rake-hell Scriblers that they may find but a Brand or a Coal to smutch any of them with that transgress the Act of Oblivion which the Royal Party did need as well as the other side for all they did without lawful Commissions But since the days of the Flood of Confusions and Miseries which of them all is guilty I write this for the honour of our Common Profession and for the Glory of God therein And yet bring them to account upon the Five Mile Act and how many Forty Pounds and upon the Act against Conventicles then Twenty pounds for every Sermon by the Preacher and Twenty pounds the Master of the House for every Sermon the first time and Forty pounds the second and afterwards for every such Offence Forty pounds c. How highly will two Sermons a day amount and five shillings a time to every Hearer c. And it is enacted that the Law be consirued most largely and beneficially for the suppression of them Our Justices have need of Mercy and for encouragement to the unskilful Justice no advantage shall be taken for any default in any Form or Proceedings The Law by this security and indempuity hath been very merciful to many Justices not trained up in the Formalities of the Law by way of recompence let them be the more merciful to the many honest Offenders that worship God in Christ with their best Judgment or upon involuntary Mistakes My last positive Argument shall be this and I appeal to any Man of discerning whether upon the first hearing of it he be not taken with it if not overcome It is not good no Man can say it is good to exeute the Laws with a like heavy hand upon all and every Offender without making a difference betwen one Man and another between one Offence and another There may be a considerable difference between one Preacher and another one Hearer and another one place and one time and another But the Penalty sweeps all before it Obj. The Law makes them all alike therefore the Executioner must act by the Law the Ballance is out of and not in his hand Answ True but how still upon supposition of
or Banishment tho it may come to it as it is a proceeding upon the Act of the 17th and 22d of our King but such hath been the Zeal of some Justices in some parts of this Kingdom as to threaten Dissenters with Abjuration Banishment and Death But ordinarily the threatned Punishments are of loss of Goods of Liberty to do good to Souls of Imprisonment for particular Acts and Exercises of the Christian Religion only because performed in an undue manner as to human particular Laws by Preachers that have not conformed upon the imposed Terms of exercising their Ministry and upon such as hear them beyond such a Number and these Punishments are threatned by Christian Protestant Magistrates against professedly Protestant Preachers and Hearers They who suffer say They suffer for Conscience and Religion and therefore they are persecuted they who punish them say It is not for Religion but for doing ill Let us impartially examine the Case as urged by the Nonconformists and as defended by some Conformists The Nonconformists argue thus Preaching and Praying are necessary Duties But the Nonconformists are punished for Preaching and Praying Therefore for necessary Duties and by Consequence they are persecuted A Reverend and by his many serious Professions Toleration disapproved Ox. 1670 2d Edi. which I admit a good Man undertakes to take off this Argument Indeed the Argument is laid down defectively because the words of the Laws are upon pretence of Religious Exercises there are other Exercises of Religion besides Preaching and Praying The same Reverend Author doth distinguish to the major Proposition and flatly denies the minor Preaching and Praying saith he are necessary Duties quoad Substantiam but quoad Circumstantias they are not necessary and he reckons some Circumstances in which 't is true they are not necessary as to two or three thousands c. 2. He utterly denies the minor as false They are punished for not observing those Circumstances saith he about Preaching and Praying which Authority requireth or for not performing those Duties in such a manner or more plainly for not submitting to those Constitutions established for the better ordering of those Duties which Constitutions he proves to be good from an Enumeration of all the Causes They are good respectu Efficientis sufficient Authority 2. Materiae the matter not unlawful or contrary to a former Obligation 3. Formae a sufficient Promulgation 4. Finis the publict Peace and Safety To consider all these things distinctly Let me say 1. By necessary Duties we agree are meant Duties necessary by the Divine Precept or as Means to the Ends of Christian Religion 2. Ministers and People are first obliged to Christ as their Governour absolute according to his Laws and to temporal Governours subordinately in and for the Lord. Therefore the first and principal Regard of Obedience is to Jesus Christ with that strictness he hath bound us to 3. No Action of Religion can be done without Circumstances 4. Circumstances are subservient to Duties and we are sure that God doth not tie up to such Circumstances as do always tie up from the Duties tho in some Circumstances the Duty may be omitted but they are such as render the Duty for that time unnecessary and if Men would learn from God they would never enjoyn such Circumstances as shall hinder any to perform them from whom God requires them 5. Those Circumstances as you call them are such as no private Man can take away because required by Laws Being such it shall never be lawful for any Nonconformist to preach to more than Four beside the Houshold yet they are bound absolutely to Christ to preach without any Restriction if the Bishops please for else they would be only conditionally bound to Christ and absolutely bound to the Bishops If the Bishops allow them then Christ allows them if the Bishops forbids them then Christ forbids them for all Power derived from Christ is for Christ If the Nonconformists neglect necessary Duties out of respect to human Circumstances who do obey He that requires the Duty quoad Substantiam or them that shut them up or rather out per Circumstantias which is best to neglect the Duties required by Christ when they cannot without Sin observe the Circumstances or neglect those Circumstances and do the Duties in such other Circumstances as they can have This were to make the Observation of Human Circumstances more necessary than Divine Ordinances 6. It is in some Circumstances as necessary for a Nonconformist to preach without our Circumstances as it is for us to preach with them 7. The Case hath been and may as it was to Peter Martyr before he lest Italy to preach and administer Sacraments in a Conventicle of many hundreds or some thousands and necessary to venture Life and all for it Apology for N. C. preaching to the Bishops p. 15 16. §. 12. What R. Mr. B. writes is to the point of Circumstances If the Magistrate forbids us to preach the Gospel either our Preaching is necessary or unnecessary and this either notorious or doubtful If our Preaching be notoriously unnecessary we will obey him and forbear If it be a doubtful Case we will use all means God hath appointed us to know the Truth and if yet it be doubtful and our Minds in suspence we will stand to the Judgment of the Magistrate and forbear But if our Ministry be notoriously and undoubtedly necessary to the just Ends which is the Edisication of Mens Souls we will obey God in Preaching as we are able and humbly and patiently bear what is laid upon us by our Rulers nor do we take our selves bound by Christ to one Place or one Time or manner of Teaching or to speak always to a great Assembly but all these are Circumstances which we must fit to the end and success of our Work To conclude this Head Altho the Nonconformists cannot preach in those Circumstances as you call them enjoyned by Law for fear of sinning as they do confidently and seriously declare and for no other Reason they must preach and pray and perform other Religious Exercises upon such Circumstances as they can have and that if it cannot otherwise be upon hazard for it is a greater Sin and deserves a sorer Punishment to neglect a necessary Duty enjoyend by Christ than to neglect the Observation of such Circumstances as are enjoyned by a lawful Authority except Jesus Christ hath given such Power to Magistrates and Church-Governours as to command Circumstances which all his Servants without dispute or hesitancy must obey and that Christ doth rather approve of the neglect of necessary Duties than for respect to them transgress human Circumstances by which necessary Duties may be suspended or rendred unnecessary If both cannot be done the one without the other which must give place the Circumstances to the necessary Duties or the Duties to the Circumstances Especially when we consider that Christian Preachers and People are first and absolutely obliged to
being fond of the Notion and impatient of Contradiction Andreas assisted by some that were near Augustus Elector of Saxony irritate Anne his Dutchess perswade the Elector that his Physician Gasper Peucer and others were entred into a Conspiracy against him upon which they are cast into Prison and endure extraordinary hardship as Gasper Peucer shews at large Hist Carcerum in the History of his ten Years Imprisonment Here two things were principally objected false Doctrine Calvinism concerning the Sacrament and Conspiracies and Seditions to maintain it But what colour was there for the last what Reason for it These were the common Causes of Persecution Pride impatience of Opposition false Witness Jealousy and Wrath. But yet our Theological Controversies at home are not of that nature and the matters in Debate are Questiones Medicabiles as some of the Ancients speak and yet behold Divsion and Strife And considering how irreconcilable the rigid Lutherans are to the moderate Disciples of Melancthon which are noted with the odious Name of Calvinistical And how intirely our Nonconformists agree with the Articles of the Church their Sufferings are more to be wondred at from Orthodox Protestants than the other from violent Lutherans There was a third Party that made the difference and the Advantage of the Miseries of them that suffered and so there is a third Party among us not unknown to us But why 1. Divisions should be made that need not 2. Why continued and 3. Why the weaker Part should be severely used is a greater wonder It is a clear Indication that they who are for a Prosecution are not for a Reconcliation Striking is not the way to heal our Bruises It was a great fault in the Corinthians to go Law Brother with Brother nay you do wrong and defraud and that your Brethren 1 Cor. 6. Are there not those Saints in England that shall judg the World and Judg Angels And are there not such to be found as will judg in this most unhappy Controversy and bring it to an Accommodation if not to an End that there may be nothing like a Persecution in the Church of England Obj. But say some of us Why will the Nonconformists divide from us why will they not unite and submit Answ You may as well demand why will they not part with their Reason and their Conscience for these are the things they follow as they confidently affirm and for which they have forsaken great things and seem ready to forsake all that is dear to Men. Obj. Shall the Church yield to Schismaticks and break her Orders for the sake of Schismaticks Answ My Business is not to dictate to the Church altho it is plain the Church may be a glorious and perfect Church and condescend to much that is not so much as an integral part nor so necessary to it as a shadow to the Body 2. But suppose them to be Schismaticks the Question is What 's to be done with them Are they to be dealt with by rational Means or Violent I am not satisfied that this which we call Schism is so gross and dangerous as that at Corinth It was a great one that came to this Is Christ divided or was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the Name of Paul But what course did the Apostle take to heal it See 1 Cor. 1 2 3. ch He had a Power which was answerable to the temporal Sword I find he used none but Instruction Perswation and Reprehension Are ye not carnal If any shall maintain Schisms and Contentions by Violence as the Donatists did then subdue them by Power Obj. But doth not the Apostle say I would they were cut off that trouble you Gal. 5.12 Answ 1. It is clear that they who troubled the Galatians were the Ceremonialists that preached Circumcision contrary to the Liberty to which the Christians were called 2. This cutting off was not by the Magistrate's Sword nor was it intended it should ever mean him in the after-times when Magistrates should be Christians it was the Apostle's zealous Wish alluding to their Circumcision and amounts to that Ch. 1.8 Let him be accursed c. They falsly reported that Paul preached Circumcision which he was so far from doing that be looks upon them as Disturbers of the Peace of the Galatians and Settlement in the Faith and wisheth them worse than Circumcision even Amputation Musculus speaks the clearest of any Man I know to the Words 1. Saith he These false Apostles did so insinuate and cleave to the Church perinde atque pestis Corpori there was no avoiding of them 2. They were the Apostles of Satan Wolves in the Flock and a Pestilence in the Body of the Church and were not of the number of the Faithful 3. From what doth he wish them cut off even from the Body of the Churches of Christ 4. He wishes they were cut off Let us be admonished by this Example that many things fall out or happen in the Church which are rather to be cut off by the Wishes of the Minister than by Fact he may wish what he cannot actually do This Text is not applicable to our Brethren and yet inconsiderate Zeal doth wound them with it Indeed the same good Expositor doth wish the Magistrate would take away in his time those false Teachers and Pastors which indangered the Salvation of Believers Obj. But who have preached and written more against Toleration than they who now plead for it Why should they have what they would not grant when they would have got the Power to themselves in their way Answ This Argument carries more Prejudice than Strength in it and doth rather throw them off like self-contradicting troublesom Men than really convince them And I might answer for them in this one Sentence That they who were against the Toleration of the pernicious and intolerable were never for the Suppression of such as themselves who were both found and tolerable 2. Neither is there any thing extracted out of the Sermons preached before the long Parliament or other Treatises that doth prejudge their Claim to what they ask 1. They do assert the Magistrates Power in matters of Religion in particular See Mr. Calam. Ser. Decemb. 25th 1644. Ser. Nov. 5. 1641. to keep Men from infecting their Subjects with foul destroying Errors Blasphemous Heretical Idolalatrical Opinions The complaint of Dr. Burgess is against Putredinous Vermine of bold Schismaticks frantick Sectaries to mount our Pulpits to offer strange Fire to expel the ablest Ministers in the Kingdom out of the Hearts of their People as Formalists Time-servers no Ministers of Christ Limbs of Antichrist having no calling but from the Devil that forsake our Assemblies as Babylonish and Antichristian Take heed of those Spirits of Error of Indulgence to all sorts of Sects be Schisms that plead it is the Peoples Liberty to be of what Religion they will and their Opinions never so erroneous and pernitious Mr. John Ward of Ipswich
Id. Serm. Apr. 1645. did exhort the Parliament to take care of the just Liberties of God's People not such Licentiousness a sis abus'd for a Cloak of Naughtiness c. to set up Unity in Faith that God's Name be not blasphemed his Day be sanctified his Gospel preached his Worship kept from Idolatry and Superstitions Innovations his Ministry purged planted Serm. Mar. 26 1645. encouraged Sacraments purely celebrated It is more than necessary and would take up too much time and place to examine all That which they were against was a general Toleration of all Religions of Idolatry Heresy Blasphemy and for all Men to do what they pleased They were against Mens publishing by preaching or printing dangerous Opinions such as Poligamy Arbitrary Divorce Mortality of the Soul no Ministery no Churches Mr. Case ' s Sermon May 26th 1647. Serm. Feb. 8th 1646. no Ordinances no Scriptures denying the Divinity of Christ and the Holy Ghost and other Opinions destructive of the Souls of Men. Mr. Newcomen is most full in stating the case of Liberty Which saith he is not to be granted in such things as are injurious to God and destructive of the Souls of Men nor wherein the difference of Judgment will necessarily and unavoidably ex natura rei produce a Rent or Schism If a Liberty of Judgment be lest it is first in such things as are not positively laid down in Scripture therefore not in Fundamentals of Faith and Worship 2. In things of private Practise Care is to be had of keeping those Opinions to our selves not perplexing the Consciences of others with them Private Persons of a differing Judgment if they live quietly frequent the publick Assemblies of Worship and are not discerned to disturb the Peace either of Church or State by any secret underminings are to be tolerated in hope of their Conversion and for publick Peace sake Much hath been yielded yea almost any thing but that one thing that would lay a Foundation of perpetual Division and Disunion in Families Church and Kingdom Thus he And what is there in all this that hath Conviction or any Reason to silence them that they cannot open their Mouths for a Connivance to themselves Yea I humbly conceive there is nothing but what commends the Ministers of the like Perswasion to publick Favour as being Orthodox and sound Men fit for a greater Favour than a bare Permission or Toleration Obj. The Presbyterians were against the Toleration of Independency Letter of Presbyterian Ministers of Lond. to the Assemblies of Divines against Toleration Dec. 18th 1645. therefore it is unreasonable for them to ask and as unfit for the Church to grant the same to them the Consequences of which Concession if made to them will be as prejudicial to the Church and State as Independency would have been to them Answ 1. There hath been no such thing desired since the King's Return that I know of as a Toleration of the Presbyterian Government 2. One great Reason against the Toleration was because the Independents bad not declared what they held nor circumscribed the Persons and the things which they desired 3. How far the Assembly and the Presbyterians condescended and indeed how amicably both Parties debated the Controversy is to be seen in the Papers of Accommodation there was a Committee apppointed for Accommodation November 6th 1645. After the Paper of the Dissenting Brethren in Answer to the Committee of Divines December 23d 1645 It is resolved upon the Question That they which agree in the Substance of the Worship of God in the Directory according to the Presace and agree in the Confession of Faith and with the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches contained in their Confessions and Writings as we do who differ from our Brethren in matters of Discipline Reasons of the Dissenting Brethren c. London 1648. shall have the benefit of this Indulgence P. 42. This I historically relate to shew tho the Presbyterians of Dond. were against a Toleration of they knew not what yet the Assembly took pains by way of Accommodation till they were diverted from all Proceedings And now if they had Power to assign it the Congregational should have a Brotherly Indulgence that are sound in Faith c. Obj. But the Dissenters are under the ill Eye of the Law and no more innocent than the Papists in the Eye of the Law and there is fear of them so the Fol. Pamphlet of Rebellion printed by B. Took Answ I say the Protestant-Dissenters are not under the evil Eye of the Law altho under the ill Opinion of some that wish them executed If they sowed Seditious Principles moved Insurrections or poysoned the King's Subjects they were most deservedly under the angry Brows of just Laws 2. What if they were what then Those over-voting Numbers in that House of Commons are under the ill Opinion of the Land have been noted by that very Parliament and since 3. That very Parliament in 1672 and all our Parliaments since have entertained better Thoughts of them 4. The King hath deserved some more Respect and Reverénce from them that seem to exceed in Loyalty than to have his Desires in his Speech at the passing the Act of Oblivion disregarded as it is and he expressed himself more graciously of them in many Passages of his Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs offered Dignities Bishopricks and gave Degrees to some of those very Men that this Gentleman thinks to prejudice by his Paper 5. Till the Act de Heretico Comburendo was taken away this very Writer if he be a resolute Protestant was under the evil eye of the Law and may be under the evil eye of the 35th of Elizabeth if he continue so and the whole Protestant Part of the Kingdom and who were under the Aspect of the Law of the six Articles But I say the Protestant Dissenters are not under the evil eye of the Laws but the Seditious and his many Lines are so many Slanders in many places and impose upon the Reader things which are contrary to our senses I can as soon believe Popery as that Protestant Dissenters are Enemies to the Government But what can be answered to such a Gentleman that says An Angel from Heaven might manage his Argument with greater Skill but not produce more Demonstrative Truth That is to say An Angel from Heaven might write more like an Orator than he but not be a better Logician than he But he seems to be one of that strange sort of People among our selves that as Dr. Burnet says in his late excellent Sermon before the Lord Mayor of London are not ashamed to own a greater Aversion to any sort of Dissenters than to the Church of Rome Thus I have made my way to the Conclusion and as I did begin so I will end with humble Application to the Magistrates But to all this the Magistrates will say they have an Answer ready viz. They do the Duty of their