to obey As to those of us who have obeyed the Laws we desire only thus much charity from Dissenters which we will surely repay good measure pressed down shaken together and running over we desire I say only thus much charity that we may not all of us be thought to have acted blindfold or upon corrupt inducements There is a multitude of us can in the fear of God profess we have again and again considered the Ecclesiastical Laws and according to our duty as we believe we have been and are obedient not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake Conscience we can say not meerly our own but others of whom we are and must be tender And we doubt not but in this our obedience we please God and are not unserviceable unto Men. We hope further we are able to approve our selves to the Great Judge of all in the several fore-mentioned Particulars at least according to that equitable allowance which our gracious God through Jesus Christ gives to humane infirmities and which the best of us all must crave even in our best Actions Now as to those who withdraw from us We call not into question the sincerity of their intentions we neither are nor desire to be Judges thereof We profess we generally judge the best and where we cannot so judge we suspend our judgment But we desire them to resume and reiterate the consideration of the Rectitude of their Cause For we must acknowledge and avow we neither could see nor have been shewen any warrant which makes it lawful to any much less their duty as many pretend to separate from that Church which neither urges nor receives any Article of Faith but what must be confessed pure which worships God by no Office more or less than what is of his own institution and the forms thereof not dissonant to his word whose Government if the sense of Christendom in all Ages till within this hundred and few more years and of the Generality of it still interpreting Holy Scriptures may be heard is truly Apostolical and in fine whose Discipline though forced in some things to truckle under the iniquity of times suffers few or none to be so bad as they would and encourages all to be as good as they can If it be lawful to separate from such a Church where shall we find that from which we may not separate And where then will be an end of Divisions In the Church of Corinth where were sundry greater Disorders and Corruptions tolerated than can be pretended amongst us that we know of the Apostle does not tolerate but severely reprove their Divisions and both censure the Authors of them as Persons to be avoided and the Abettors as Carnal Then lastly as to the Management of this departure we passionately beseech and in the Lord conjure all who are guilty of withdrawing that they will consider whether the Circumstances either of making or maintaining it be warrantable or indeed well excusable Particularly and briefly Suppose things stood so that Separation were their Duty yet is Theirs without Ostentation as all Duties ought to be Do not they publickly value themselves thereupon and despise others Are not they in their own Language The Saints and the rest of the Nation Those who are without the People of the World not to take up more odious Names Again admit Separation from us were lawful yet is theirs without scandal Without scandal to the weak of their own Church without scandal to the weak of Ours Without scandal to Papists or scandal even to Jews Without scandal to men of all Religions or scandal to men of None The good God be merciful unto us and deliver Christian men from Partiality and Self-flattery But I must Contract 2. My Second Exhortation shall be That being satisfied in Conscience touching the Right or Lawfulness of our own engaging in all points of our Cause or as some had rather speak touching the Excellency and Superlativeness of the way we are in we would not spoil a good Cause by our ill Management That the Religious amongst us are Divided at present there is none who sees not Nor that all the Petty Divisions are reducible to these three Grand ones Papists Regular Protestants and Non-Conforming Protestants The Cause or way of the First I do declare I judge no Power on Earth no nor with all reverence be it spoken of Heaven it self can make just For God cannot Ly that is contradict himself The Doctrine they teach profess and if we will credit them believe is against express Scripture the Analogy of Faith and the Consent of the Ancient and true present Catholick Church And indeed in divers Points also against Sense and Reason the common Principles of Mankind And too much of their Morals is no better The Cause or Way of the Second is just if any under Heaven I need not speak my mind again I do not say there is nothing amongst us defective nor that there is nothing which may be amended nor again that there is no mismenagement or no evil People amongst us I do not believe there is or will be ever such a Church on Earth That accusation to the end of the world will justly ly against the Purest Church I have a few things against thee Revel II. 4. 14 20. But I must avow I know not that Church which would take the Mote out of our Eye that has not a Beam in her own The Cause of the Third must be acknowledg'd by all indifferent and considerative men at least doubtful For he is void of reason who shall deny that disputes with the lightest Probabilities are manag'd against it and such which with the most rational persons turn the Scales Possibly to some of them who have espoused it it may not seem doubtful But whatever my Charity may induce me to think it in any of them were I my self a mainteiner of it I could not judge it in my self any thing less than Formal as well as Material Schism But for the present we 'll not dispute the Point Admit it to be lawful I only move that it be not mismanaged that Good men would not prosecute a lawful Cause in an unlawful manner or by undue means and so intangle themselves and Cause in Injustice and Iniquity Having then concluded the Cause of the Regular Protestants good and excellent and for the present admitted though not granted that of the Nonconformists to be lawful there is chiefly a double mismenagement which I must tax at present and that on both sides for I would not be partial and which the Exhortation in hand proceeds against 1. The former of which is Overcharging one another This besides that it renders us guilty of sin and makes still our matters worse does further expose us Both to our Common Enemies and create to them sweet Sport and to our selves Scorn and Contempt The Nonconformists charge us most unjustly with Popery Give me leave to beseech these our Accusers
Office of the Visitation of the Sick that much in that Particular is referred to the discretion of the Minister Then shall the Minister exhort the sick person after this form or other like says the Rubrick He is not then tied up but may vary and I scarce ever knew but in ordinary practice we do so Again Then shall the Minister examine whether he repent him truly of his sins and be in Charity with all the World exhorting him c. viz. to forgiveness satisfaction to men for wrongs done disposal of his goods Charity to the Poor all which says the Rubrick may be done before the Minister begin his Prayer as he shall sée cause And for all this there is no form at all prescribed consequently then it being left to the Ministers prudence he he may put what Interrogatories and make as narrow a search as he shall think fir and he is required plainly to judge because to exhort and admonish as there appears cause Now it is to be considered these Exhortations and Admonitions may and most frequently do take up divers Visits However all this being supposed to be done Then and not till then Here shall the sick person be moved to make a special Confession of his sins if he féel his Conscience burdened with any weighty matter After which Confession the Priest shall absolve him if he humbly and heartily desire it after this sort Rubr. Where to be short I only desire two things may be noted 1. That after all this the Minister is not commanded to absolve him They must be absolved in Mr. Baxter is then false but if he see fit to absolve him he is to absove him after this sort It is very well known divers of us have refused and daily do to absolve such persons touching whose Penitence we are not satiâ—fied 2. Those words if he humbly and heartily desire it do import the discovery of such a sense of sin to to the Confessour at least suppose him in Conscâ—ence judge as may well be conceived to bear him out in giving Absolution certainly they do exclude Cursing and Swearing and railing at an holy Life at that time Which things being so apparently thus it would almost tempt a man in charity to think Mr. Baxter writes against the Laturgy without having duly read or considered it otherwise he would not so falsly accuse it or traduce our Church for it His last imputation is but little better than this which we have now dispatched Namely that the Discipline of the Church is managed by one Lay Chancellâ—r and his Court with some small Assistance The Archdeacons of which in most Dioceses there are divers in that of Exon from whence I came four throughout England generally have their Courts and neither are they Lay-men nor for the most part do they Act mainly by Lay-Officials and their Courts in many places are weekly Besides these in Every Deauery i. e. ten Parishes or thereabouts there are Archypresbyters or Deans Rural whose Duty and Oath binds them to enquire into the Conversation as well of the Clergy as of the People within their Precincts So that if Ministers and Church-wardens will but do their Duty the Provision of Discipline is sufficient in Mr. Baxter's language for the keeping clean the Church I will be still so charitable to him as to believe he is not verst in our Exercise of Discipline but I could also have wish't that he had no more censured it Only I will conclude this Particular by appealing to his own Sense and the sense of Mankind if such undue and prevaricant Charges as these be the way to peace 9. And now I am speaking of Prevarication his reckoning Hooper Latimer and Cranmer pag. 228. amongst the Nonconformists to conciliate thence credit to their Cause and detract from us is a kind of Art which Ingenuity and much more Christian Veracity would blush to own I will allude in this regard to the words of the great Apostle I wish not only Mr. Baxter but all the Dissenters were altogether such as they excepting their Bonds and Sufferings 10ly and Lastly For I will not run the number up to Mr. Baxter's beloved number of 20 or upwards though I might There appears to me in him a great Inconstancy to himself and that not only in smaller points and lapses of memory or attention as may seem that pag. 10. I never came near them that is the People of Kidderminster nor except very rarely sent them one line yet within five lines after I sent them says he all the Books which I wrote but even in his Resolutions and Matters of great moment is there with him Yea and Nay Sometimes he seems against all Subscribing as pag. 60 113 c. At another time he is for Subscribing to the Doctrine of the Church in the 39 Articles and Books of Homilies pag. 12 167 c. and other terms of Peaceableness Again pag. 128. The 39 Articles are a wholsome Doctrine yet pag. 122. They are not intelligible they have contrary meanings to fit the use of every Subscriber they are hot to one and cold to the other By the way sometimes it is no fault in the Books to be subscribed that they are so worded as to allow men to abound in their own sense And we are sure our Articles are in this no more guilty than most Confessions which have been penn'd for Concord as the Augustan it self witness therein the Article and Clause touching the Presence of Christ's Body in the Sacrament In sum when a Proposition evidently admits of two or three senses and each of them is known famous and held by divers Doctors of the same Church and that Church framing a Rule or Mean of Concord for her Sons shall in that Rule set a Proposition which takes in the several Opinions of these Doctors in such sort as to tye them up as far as is necessary and to leave them otherwise at their liberty is this Proposition justly to be called unintelligible or have Mr. Baxter and the Dissenters any cause if they will be constant to themselves to say 't is Unreasonable For my own part I wish sincerely for their sakes some more of the Articles and perhaps Rubricks too were penned with ampler Latitude But to the Point again That is a very unkind inconstancy unkind not only to us but to the Design of Peace that so often in pag. 16 17 18 c. he says They take it to be their Duty in the Exercise of their Ministry to take heed of any thing that tendeth to the Division of the peoples minds or the hinderance of the lawful publick Ministry or to their just Discouragement Again to take heed lest any dishonour or murmuring against their Rulers arise or be cherished by reason of their sufferings or to subvert or perplex the hearers by aggravating the faults of others or other mens worshipping of God or breeding in them distast of the Publick Worship for all which Expressions
And these are generally no better worse they cannot well be than Civil Wars and all the sad Consquences thereof which are nothing but the most horrid Complications of all Impieties imaginable or in the Language of St. James Chap. III. 16. Confusion and Every evil work That Civil Wars are the Common Effects of Divisions and Factions in the Church especially where such Divisions are continued and have had age or time enough to ferment as I may so speak the yet too fresh bleeding wounds of these three Nations speak more plainly than perhaps we would all be willing to hear The point is tender and therefore I forbear further to touch it That Profaneness Irreligion and Vices of all sorts are the general effects of Wars both while they rage and too long after some composure of things the Experience oâ— all Ages and People witnesseth as well as our own There are those perhaps that will tell us It cannot be otherwise 'T is impossible it should not be so Necessity compels not only Private Persons but Publick Bodies to foul Practices When there was a General after Gods own heart Every one that was in debt and had no mind to be just Every one that was discontent the fruit commonly of mens own Vices and Debaucheries at least of their Imprudence Pride or Refractoriness and Every one that was in distress gathered themselves unto him and he became Captain over them 1 Sam. XXII 2. And 't is sure enough by the sequel of the History there were worse than such in the greatest Commands of his Army The Sons of Zerviah were too hard for the good King they were Evil-doers privy murtherers implacable they shed the bloud of war in peace yet durst not he then animadvert upon them 2 Sam. III. 39. and 1 Kings II. 5. c. Now to set up a Refuge for such men as these in any Nation as Wars do what sad influence must it have upon the Manners of the Nation To speak something closer to our own Country and the late unhappy ever to be lamented Troubles and that in the Language of those who will not be thought Railers or False Accusers of the Brethren The Assembly in their Petition to the Parliament Jul. 19. 1644. have amongst others this Prayer That some severe course might be taken against Fornication Adultery and Incest which as they complain to use their own terms do that is then did greatly abound especially of late by reason of Impunity It seems then those Odious things the Bishops Courts while standing do some good Fornication Adultery and Incest do not ordinarily pass with Impunity under them which they soon obtain'd when this Check was taken off And not only in this single kind but in most other Exorbitancies was the Case no better Particularly at present Atheism and Prophaneness are justly complained of to be reigning Sins as well as Carnality Now I say it and will at any time prove it Hell it self can scarce devise indite or vent grosser Prophaneness Leudness and Blasphemy than may be shewn justified defended and cryed up under the Notion of Perfection in diverse printed Pamphlets betwixt the years 49 and 56. Nay in the very year 1660 the greatest part of the London Ministers published A Seasonable Exhortation as they call it complaining of the great Wickedness broken loose amongst us wherein they set forth as one dreadful Instance That some as they are credibly Pag. 10. informed are grown to that heighth of wickededness as to worship the Devil himself In a word I could say much more which would prove that then Impiety broke in like a Torrent upon us when the Wars broke out But I conceive all sober men of what perswasion soever had rather confess this sad Truth and lament it too than hear it more largely proved Wherefore I say it follows hence as from one general head of proof that they are Enemies to Holiness who perpetuate at present our Church-divisions or which is much the same who do not their utmost towards a Publick Union 2. Let us in the next place consider the Effect of Schisms and Factions upon the Church and the Constitution of things therein and that Consideration will conclude the same It cannot be conceived at least expected I should reckon up or indeed that one man's head should comprehend all the general Instances or Kinds of Mischieâ—s under this Head It shall therefore suffice that I present such which I judge most obnoxious amongst our selves First then I say Although Divisions and Schisms should not through the restraining hand of God prove so direful to the Kingdom yet are they inâ—allibly a Plague unto the Church and by being destructive unto its Discipline make havock of Holiness and publick Good manners Discipline is the great expedient Christ has left his Church both for the keeping out and Purging out all the Old Leaven of Naughtiness and Wickedness 1 Cor. V. 7 8. c. Whatsoever therefore bereaves the Church of this le ts in a floud of ungodliness upon her And is it not evident to any that has but half an eye that Divisions at present both take off the Efficacy and hinder the Exercise of Discipline amongst us I know there are some who cry out We have no such thing as Discipline in our Church we have only a Shadow and Skeleton of it There is at present it must be confest something of truth in the Accusation We have indeed too little of the Primitive and Apostolical Discipline But we appeal to God and Men where the fault lies 1. We complain our present Divisions take off the Edge of our Spiritual Weapons There are some and those Leading men too in their party that deny any such thing as a National Church and much more any Catholick Church in the sense that Article of our Creed has ever been believed by all Christians from the beginning What should men acted by such Principles care for our Excommunicating them upon any Scandals they should be found guilty of They own no such Church as we are and as all Christian Ages have ever believed Again there are others who have renounced their Baptism for another thing they call so Others that laugh at all Baptism as well as Sacraments in general Suppose any of these sorts become obnoxious to Church-censures for their Immoralities as too often they do we censure them and tell our Christian people they ought to look upon them as Heathens and Publicans What now signifies this They have before cast off the Badge of their Christianity and scorn it and us for esteeming it They are already as Common and as far without the Pale as we can set them I have no pleasure to urge these things further 2. We say moreover besides this that the Divisions take off for the main the Efficacy of such Discipline as we have they have also hindred all along as well the setting up as the Exercise of that Primitive Discipline which our Church long ago
desired and intended Thus we read in the Preface oâ— the Office called a Commination Brethren in the Primitive Church there was a Godly Discipline that at the beginning of Lent such persons as were notorious Sinners were put to open Pennance and punisht in this World that their Souls might be saved in the Day of the Lord and that others admonished by their example might be afraid to offend In stead whereof until the said Discipline may be restored again which thing is much to be wished it is thought fit c. And our Complaint is just not only in the point there instanced but in divers others And this is evident for not to speak of the enforced prudential connivances or omissions of Discipline in some particular instances and at some times in the Regular Church even the very separated Congregations themselves those of them at least that have any thing of Form or Government amongst them and are not purely Anarchical too often feel the pinches of that Necessity and Evil we complain of There are so many pretended Churches for the Ejected to flee to that proceed against them and you loose them for ever You loose them I say not so much from your own Party as from the profession and practice of all that looks like Sobriety They run into irregular Passions and out of meer opposition to those who have censured them addict themselves to such Societies which are famous for the most contrary extremes to their former Profession Thus many times God knows what was designed by Christ in the Institution and by the Church in the Exercise for a remedy proves to such distempered Souls a deadly Poison or in the words of the Apostle a Stone of stumbling and Rock of offence In stead of bringing the Delinquents to repentance for one sin you drive them into a course and state of many more This the first Effect then of Divisions upon the Church that they ruin Discipline and have introduced all the want and impotency of it under which the Church of God at present labours shews sufficiently that they who are Friends to Faction are none to Holiness Secondly Another mischievous effect of Divisions upon the Church is the drawing off and diverting the Labours of the Ministry from pressing anâ— propagating Holiness to the maintaining Opinions Controversies useless or troublesome Speculations and in a word the cross Interests of Parties A sad thing it is that in a manner the very Fountains of Salvation at least the Streams which flow thence and which the thirsty Multitude flock to for refreshment should be invenom'd or else turn'd aside out of their due Course but it is a Truth of which every day gives us fresh and lamentable experience I do not deny but there are faults in this regard on both sides and as long as some men hold on their Humours and other men are men 't is scarce possible it should be otherwise Holiness indeed is on all hands confest the great business of Mankind in this World and so the great Errand and Universal Text of all Preachers But how many of those who pretend the most for Holiness in their popular Sermons at least in those Discourses which they now-a-days publish and we can judge only of the rest we see not by those we have to view how many I say of these generally spend their pains in inveighing against some irregularities or hardships they apprehend in the Laws in magnifying perhaps beyond truth their Parties sufferings in heightning or gratifying their Followers dislikes of the Establisht Worship and so exasperating them against the greater part of the Nation as well People Ministry as Magistracy The late Writings of these men would tempt one to a severer Character of their preaching which I forbear and only add that then there are few on our side that can perswade themselves they ought not to open their Mouths in their own Defence Hence too often when we ought to be approving our selves to every mans Conscience in the sight of God by bringing them to the sense of those sins in which they live and wallow securely and convincing them of the indispensable Necessity of a new life shewing and teaching them the way and means thereto and so to Pardon and Heaven we spend good hours or too great a part of them in inveighing against Persons or Parties not one of which hears us in reflecting on old Crimes and Villanies in which perhaps few men now living are concern'd or else in the bandying some Controversie at present in repute touching which possibly there are more Arguments or Difficulties on both sides than our selves or all the men in the World can answer By this means Christ is not preached but Contention Heu quantum potuit terrae pelagique parari c. How many Souls might have been won over to Peace and Holiness and so to God by those thousands of Sermons which having been spent only in peevish heats and fanning the flames of Discord have only raised the Fire now almost beyond hopes of being quenched in this Generation Now the Ministry of the Word being the great provision made by God to open mens eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God if this be otherwise imployed if this the sovereign means of Sanctification be perverted or diverted what Dammage must Holiness needs sustain But I must not lay all the fault in this respect upon the Ministry alone the People have their share in the guilt That which the Apostle meant by sound Doctrine wholsome Words and the like Expressions namely the teaching That this wâ—â—â—â—t Paul's Notion in the 〈…〉 by what he calls sound Doâ—â—â—ine or sound Speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See 1 Tim. I. 10. Chap. â—â— 1 2 3. Tit. II. 2 8. c. 2 Tim IV. 2 3. and pressing plain and necessary Christian Duties or Sacred Morals many of our people now nauseate and desert and vilify those who most insist on having itching ears and too often freakish heads and proud hearts Those who live in abominable Uncharitableness Hypocrisy contempt of their Christian Brethren and of their Christian Governours too nay in gross Uncleanness Lewdness and Riot shall puff at an honest Practical Discourse and go away disdainfully with an I knew as much as this before By this means many worthy Ministers being discouraged from what they would treat of think it but a prudential Expedient for the keeping their Congregations together to comply with their Palates and entertain them with such Subjects which the Preachers own inclination or natural choice would not have fixed on But how much Holiness suffers by all this how few are caught by this guile and on the contrary how many are only hardned in their former Vices and nestled up in their lofty conceits of their own Judgments the sober World too plainly see and perhaps fruitlesly lament The good God who only can remedy
Materials in my poor judgment are very defective and without very considerable advances never like to take I no whit at all doubt but Mr. Baxter was the main Authour of the Petition for Peace and the Reformation of the Liturgy said to have been tender'd about the same time and publisht A. D. 1661. The style and whole tenor of them abundantly bespeaks so much to me Now if out of these and his later Pieces we view what he offers or proposes towards Union it will appear to be such as might tempt men to think he treats like those who never intend to come nearer to an agreement 1. A Liturgy indeed he would possess us he is for but when he comes to particularize Not one Office no not one Prayer of the Old Liturgy except the Lords Prayer nor so much as the Ancient Face Order and Structure thereof must be left And it is observeable what the Petition for Peace styles Alterations and Additions to the Liturgy when it comes to be presented is intitled A Reformation of the Liturgy and indeed bears proportion perfectly to the Reformation they made of the Church which destroy'd its identity and visibility and is clearly and intirely a new Frame and even that so proposed or designed that it would have been little more than a Direction this being generally the style of the Rubricks if without offence I may so call them Prayer to be performed in these or the like words pag. 25. Then shall the Minister use this or the like Prayer pag. 51. In the very Office of Consecration of the Elements in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Let the Minister bless them in these or the like words pag. 52. Let the Minister pray thus or to this sense pag. 56. and conclude with this or the like blessing pag. 58. In the Burial of the Dead pag. 72. His power shall be suited to the occasion No Form of Prayer being there so much as directed So too upon Days of Publick Humiliation Thanksgiving Anniversary Festivals No form at all pag. 73. Besides so great variety of practice in the Order of Consecrating and Distributing the Elements is permitted in this Draught to the Discretion of the Minister as must necessarily have bred great dâ—sorder and discontent In a word so universal innovation and such unlimited liberty they could never expect would be admitted This had been to confess the old Liturgy obnoxious beyond all reason and conscience and our selves guilty of all the Mâ—schiefs which arose by the opposing it and by the methods used for the abolishing it I no whit doubt but divers parts of it as elsewhere I conceive my self to have manifestly proved were in use even in the Apostles days I mean taken up from their mouths as having been frequently and in ordinary course used by them and that they have been continued in the Church ever since Now Prayers of such Antiquity such Primitive simplicity and fervour I may add of such Purity too were it not for no other reason but some mens perhaps unreasonable dislikes to be thrown out I could speak much here touching their intrinsick real excellency and perfection not only as to particulars but as to the main body And I find something as to this Point confest ingenuously by Mr. Baxter himself Third Part of Plea pag. 9. Having saith he perused all the Forreign and Ancient Liturgies extant in the Bibliotheca Patrum I doubt not but our own is incomparably better than any that is there Yet pag. 219. he complains of such failings in it that it is a Worship which we i. e. he and his Nonconforming Brethren cannot in Faith be assured God accepteth That there was never any thing purely of Humane Composure but had some failing or defects in it we readily acknowledge neither did our Church ever require whatsoever he in the Page last cited and other of his Party scrupulously pretend such a Subscription to any of her Books no not to the Correctest Translation of the Bible it self which was to be taken in any other sense This is a common Temper understood in all such Subscriptions But that our Liturgy has more failings or faults in it than either their Extemporary Conceptions or the stated Forms which they presented I must crave their pardon if I peremptorily deny I have not undiligently compared those Forms of theirs with our own and whether it be the daily use of our own for many years according to that wholsome Rubrick to all in Holy Orders which has naturalized them to my spirit or whether by so frequent reading hearing and minding them I see more intimately into their Sense and Emphases than I do into those which I have read but twice or thrice or for some such reason I know not but this I profess God bearing we witness that it is the sense of my soul I can find nothing in theirs which comes so naturally near unto my heart as our own Prayers do What have they so humble easie comprehensive and emphatical in every part as our General Confession Almighty and most merciful Father So Pathetical as well as comprehensive also as our Litany And to pass over other parts the Communion Service is in my poor sense of Devotions most incomparable What could the Wit of Men or Angels devise fitrer to introduce the Celebration of that Holy Ordinance than the distinct Rehearsal of the Commandments each Communicant in the hearing of every Commandment having occasion given him to examine or reflect upon his examinations of Conscience touching his sins against that Commandment and betwixt God and his own heart in his thoughts to confess them and in conclusion after every one with his own mouth to beg distinct pardon for the sins which occur to his mind against that Commandment and for Grace as distinctly against such and such sins for the future And all this usher'd in too with a Prayer which would raise any Soul that were not sensless as well to a strict enquiry into his Conscience Almighty God to whom all hearts be open c. 't is in vain therefore to flatter our selves with an half-scrutiny or Confession as to the impartial cleansing his Soul from all reserves of sin And waving other parts to proceed to the Prayer for the State of Christs Church Militant and the Commemoration of and praising God for the Triumphant or those who are departed this life in his faith and fear without which commemoration it appears not that the Ancient Church did ever Communicate To proceed I say to the General Confession in behalf of all the Communicants and that most comfortable Absolution annext and then to the Sursum Corda the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gloria in Excelsis which three last will certainly reach home for Antiquity to the Apostles days what more Seraphick than these And how mean is what they would have substituted in the room hereof at least comparatively Again besides the Materials of our Prayers the very Form and
disturb the Union and Peace of our Church I will therefore freely publish my thoughts to be That whether we consider the nature of the thing it self or with regard to the Apostles Rule Rom. 15. 1 2. Not to please our selves but every one of us to please his Neighbour for his good to Edification In either regard I say there are some Collects and perhaps Rubricks too which with all duty and submission I humbly conceive might be altered for the better And further That in some seasons and in some private places where Ceremonies want that Augustness which the advantage of Publick and great Congregations gives them and in which kind of Assemblies they are chiefly requisite if the Obligation to a Ceremony or two were taken off the Benefit which might hence redound to the Church would be very considerable both in respect of Proselytes and strength thereby as also perhaps in other Points And I seem to my self herein to follow the sense and guidance of our Church for even at present the Injunction of the Ceremonies does not appear to me to extend it self to all places and seasons As for instance A Minister baptizes a Child in case of real Necessity in private and he neither habits himself in his Surplice c. nor signs the Child with the sign of the Cross and the Baptism is by the Rubrick declared Lawful and Sufficient nor did the Minister offend in the Omission of those Ceremonies because no Law required them In this particular then the Sense and Spirit of our Church touching the Places and Occasions which require Ceremonies is sufficiently apparent There are also divers other Points which when once the Design of a fair and complaint Accommodation shall be on foot will be fit to be mentioned and indeed will both of course offer themselves and be I judge as easily granted such are the Liberty which the Preface to the Second Book of Homilies allows of exchanging Apocryphal Lessons for Canonical ones any Amendment of such defects as can be proved for all that is said cannot be proved in the Calendar The use of the most correct Translation of the Psalms A better Metrical Version also and perhaps some like matters which though we may account small some Dissenters do not Without doubt some such Mitigations proportionable might have been obtained when that Way tending to a fair and amicable composure spoken of by the Right Reverend Bishop Morley was not yet precluded But now as to the Dissenters who perhaps expected another Game than they have found it may be truly lamented to use Caesars words in a like case Accidisse his quod plerumque hominibus De Bell. Civil Com. 1. nimiâ pertinaciâ atque arrogantiâ accidere solet uti eò recurrant id cupidissimè petant quod paulò ante contempserint nor is it at present though possibly they think as they daily complain it is in the Bishops power to help them Id possumus quod jure possumus They who know any thing of our Constitution know the Bishops are as much tyed by the Laws to the Observation of the Laws as any Order of men whatsoever And though some may say the Penalties upon us in this regard are small or rarely inflicted yet what Penalties operate in others Conscience ought to do in us And I see not how in Conscience we can dispense when the Law allows no such thing for we know not the Mischiefs which may arise from such our Laxness and it would be a very unjustifiable presumption and besides inconsistence with that mans self who pretends to obedience and submission to the Wisdom of the Constitution for him upon his single judgment to over-rule the Dictates of that Wisdom that is the Laws of the Nation In plain English when every one bears his own burthen the hardship or rigour of the Laws if any there be is to be laid first at their doors who by their Combinations had made it necessary for the Government in its own defence to break the knot and then at theirs who through refractoriness when they were asked what would satisfie them replied and stood to it All or Nothing some men may understand this Language if they please Nor are the Law-makers to be charged with severity Such aggrieved persons as I speak to can only thank themselves they have one Member of their fore-mentioned choice though perhaps many of them whom they take for their Enemies are sorry for it besides themselves and yet I say again not able to help them For Laws neither can nor may be altered and Liturgies varied as oft as men could wish then perchance Government as well as Laws would be of very short life Being then such Alterations cannot be made in the Liturgy for the present as might effect the design of Vnion we must turn our selves in the next place to think what can be done And here first it offers it self that one main Branch of the Subscription and Declaration prescribed in the Statue for Uniformity which stuck much with divers relating to the Covenant by the very Letter oâ— the Statute ceases within half a year I trust this may give ease and pâ—rhaps open the door to some And whether the same inducements which swayed the Wisdom of the Nation to prefix such term for the expiration of that Clause might not be as forcible towards the taking off another clause or two which are scrupled by some Possibly it is as necessary other things should be forgotten as the Covenant whether also the Old Oath of Allegiance might not be so worded or explained as to serve in the room not only of this Declaration but of another new Oath too I shall not adventure to propose But this I will say that the Clause touching the Covenant ceasing of it self as beforesaid I do not see what is left in this Declaration or Subscription call it as you please which he who is resolved faithfully to keep the Oath of Allegiance according to its true intent need at all to scruple except only that Branch of Conforming to the Liturgy as it is now by Law establisht Yet this Observation though it remove a suggestion which might afterwards have been objected leaves us nevertheless where we were sticking as some may account it upon the Rock of Plenary Conformity to the Liturgy This would seem now the only stop For relief then herein we must consider whether there be no Mitigations or Lenitives to be found without Repeal or too dishonourable Change of Laws which we cannot expect And I know no fitter Clue in the Entrance of this Labyrinth than the examining what has been offer'd hereto by any of the Dissenters themselves for from them only under God we can tell what will please them Amongst all that have writ upon the Design of Accommodation there is only one come to my Hand that seems to me to offer any thing of Reason more there may be whose Books reach not me here I mean the
Author of The Peaceable Resolution of Conscience His Work speaks him a man of Real Learning and Temper and I wish his Brethren who value themselves above him would learn of him Now the sum as to the point in hand which he proposes is They cannot he says give their unfeigned assent and consent to every thing contained in the Liturgy and Appendages as the Statute requires but they can consent to the Vse of the Book in the Constant Lords-day Service And as to what Exceptions they have against some things in the By-offices the Occasional Service the Rubrick and otherwise they who scruple the performance themselves shall be ready to permit others to perform such Offices to those who desire them I do really believe him sincere in this and that he would not disswade or discourage People from the use and love of the Regular Offices but let them injoy their freedom being content with his own could he enjoy it though perhaps some will be apt to think it would soon be otherwise generally did this their Proposal take But notwithstanding this my Charity I must confess I do not judge what he propounds sufficient to qualifie men otherwise meet for a Parochial Charge My meaning is this is no ways a tolerable measure of Conformity For all they are thus supposed to consent to and consequently to promise being the use of the Constant Lords-days Service they are not tyed that I mention not yet occasional Week day Prayers Festival Services even upon the Great Festivals c. they are not tyed I say to nor have we any Security they will observe the very Forms of Administration of the Lords Supper or of Baptism and by this means we may have both Sacraments administred according to mens private pleasure which I think no one will judge sufferaable Either then they must offer more Conformity to the Liturgy than this mentioned amounts to or not expect as it is desired in the Bill for Accommodation to be admitted to any Ecclesiastical Preferment and injoy the use of their Ministry without Molestation This is a great defect which I could not but note in that Writers Proposals as much as I like him otherwise I know indeed he is for subscribing the 39 Articles c. but that is Conformity to Doctrine I speak now meerly of Conâ—â—rmity to the use of the Liturgy and I say his Proposals herein are very short of the great Design Union For if we be not united in Sacraments how equivocal is the Union we pretend to I confess he has laid his Design with much more Modesty as to the Repeal and Change of Laws than any I have seen for an Explanatory Act at least what may be called fitly enough an Explanatory Act of the Statute of Uniformity salves all Let it but be allowed by a favourable Interpretation from the Legislative Power that such a qualified or mitigated indeed in our esteem a very partial Conformity to the Liturgy shall be judged sufficient for some purposes and then naturally enough the Profession of Assent and Consent may be also interpreted with proportion thereunto But there is yet another Defect which I must challenge in the Petition or Demand made upon supposal of such Conformity allowed by Authority and performed by the Dâ—ssenters They desire hereupon that they may be admitted to any Ecclesiastical Preferment I say here is one Limitation wanting to make it consistent with what this Author himself propounded before and after that another or two perhaps to make it consistent with Reason and Equity He had above propounded That the Ceremonies should be left to the Conscience and Prudence of Ministers and People every where excepting Cathedrals In these then according to his own Proposals a Plenary Conformity is to be observed inviolable But in his Petition or Postulatory part he would have this new sort of Conformists to be admitted upon such their Conformity to any Ecclesiastical Preferment To be consistent with himself he ought here to add Except in Cathedrals otherwise by this Explanatory Act designed we should have Members at least might have them in Cathedrals which cannot fully conform and consequently an Half-Conformity or not that would ensue there also Yet admit even this Limitation were put in and then Any Ecclesiastical Preferment will signifie Any Rectory Vicarage or as we use to speak Any Cure of Souls I say still as before intimated it is very unreasonable and unfit there should be any Incumbents to whom the Charge of Souls is immediately according to Law committed by the Bishop who should not be bound to Administer the Sacraments to Bury the Dead to Catechise the Youth according to the Church-Catechism and prepare them thereby for Confirmation to observe and celebrate according to Order the Great Festivals as of our Lord's Nativity Circumcision Passion Resurrection Ascension c. all which Offices are evidently here excepted under the term of by-Offices And the unreasonableness hereof will further appear if we consider that there are divers Parishes wherein no small part are disaffected to Conformity These shall stickle hard for such Ministers which when they have got they shall only by their Practice and possibly Doctrine too be confirmed in their disaffection and these shall become Nurseries of Nonconformity and a provision thus made for the propagating Male-content against the Church Now however we would be willing to allow all favour to such who unhappily already do in Conscience dissent yet we can never agree to such Methods which will be sure to perpetuate Dissention So that except they throughly Conform I think they ought not to desire to be admitted to Parochial Cures but only to Preach publickly as Assistants to such Incumbents who would imploy or accept them or where otherwise there were want And even herein also methinks there is need of another Limitation viz. that whereas such Preachers are supposed by Law indulg'd or dispenst with as to their own Scruples they give good Caution never to Preach against such Usages of the Church which they Scruple or to which they Conform not All then I can reasonably say in this Case is That if it could be obtained that the Subscribing the Thirty nine Articles the promising to read Orderly Morning or Evening Prayer respectively before Sermon and receiving the Lord's Supper at least three times a year according to the Order of our Church might by Authority be interpreted a sufficient Conformity to the Liturgy of the Church to capacitate Persons otherwise fit and in Episcopal Orders to preach publickly in such and such places caution being first given to the Bishop for the peaceableness of their Doctrine I do not see but our Church doors will stand as open to the Nonconformists as in Equity or Reason they can desire at least as in safety the Church can allow I must beg their pardon for saying no more I cannot with justice to my own sense and I shall scarce obtein pardon from some for saying so much