IT is now seventeen years since near two thousand Ministers of Christ were by Law forbidden the exercise of their Office, unless they did conform to Subscriptions, Covenants, Declarations and Practices, which we durst not do, because we feared God: Foreseeing what this would do to the destroying of Love and Concord, and of mens sou•s, weakening the Land, encouraging Popery, Heresy and Schism, we did our best betime by Reason, & submissive petitioning the Bishops, to have prevented it; but in vain: We never made one motion for Presbytery, or against Liturgies, nor to abate any of the Bishops Wealth, or Honour, nor any thing as to Church-Government, but Arch Bishop Ushers Model of the Primitive way: And we thankfully accepted of much less, expressed in His Majesties Gracious Declaration about ⟨image 3⟩Ecclesiastical Affairs▪ which, we hoped, would have ended all our discords. The Reasons of the Great Change, and New Impositions, it is God, and not we, that must have an account of from the Convocation, &c. and of the consequents. Since then, as we foresaw, contrary interests have increased contrariety: The Laws against our Preaching to more than four, the Penalties of forty pound a Sermon, and long imprisonment in common Gaols, and driving us five miles from Corporations, and places where we lately preached, and the reasons given are not unknown to you: Many Books are written, and Sermons preached, earnestly pressing Magistrates to execute these Laws against us: And though, when demanded, we gave in a Catalogue of divers things in the old Impositions, which we undertook to prove to be great sins; and in our Petition for Peace, protested that nothing but avoiding sin should hinder our Conformity, and we had never call or leave to give our reasons against the New Conformity; I my self have been reported to my Superiors, to be one that confesseth the Lawfulness of all, save the renouncing of a rebellious Covenant: And while the Law and Canons imprison, and excommunicate us ipso fact•, if we do but give the reasons of our Nonconformity; and I have offered to Reverend Bishops and others, to beg leave to ⟨image 3⟩do it on my knees, and nothing more grieved me, than that I might not so endeavour to save men from the damning sins of Hating, false accusing, and ruining their Brethren, and sacrilegious hindering the Preaching of Gods Word;
IT is now seventeen years since neer two thousand Ministers of Christ were by Law forbidden the exercise of their Office, unless they did conform to Subscriptions, Covenants, Declarations and Practices, which we durst not do, because we feared God: Foreseeing what this would do to the destroying of Love and Concord, and of mens sou•s, weakning the Land, encouraging Popery, Heresie and Schism, we did our best betime by Reason, & submissive petitioning the Bishops, to have prevented it; but in vain: We never made one motion for Presbytery, or against Liturgies, nor to abate any of the Bishops Wealth, or Honour, nor any thing as to Church-Government, but Arch Bishop Ushers Model of the Primitive way: And we thankfully accepted of much less, exprest in His Majesties Gracious Declaration about ⟨image 3⟩Ecclesiastical Affairs▪ which, we hoped, would have ended all our discords. The Reasons of the Great Change, and New Impositions, it is God, and not we, that must have an account of from the Convocation, &c. and of the consequents. Since then, as we foresaw, contrary interests have increased contrariety: The Laws against our Preaching to more than four, the Penalties of forty pound a Sermon, and long imprisonment in common Gaols, and driving us five miles from Corporations, and places where we lately preacht, and the reasons given are not unknown to you: Many Books are written, and Sermons preached, earnestly pressing Magistrates to execute these Laws against us: And though, when demanded, we gave in a Catalogue of divers things in the old Impositions, which we under•ook to prove to be great sins; and in our Petition for Peace, protested that nothing but avoiding sin should hinder our Conformity, and we had never call or leave to give our reasons against the New Conformity; I my self have been reported to my Superiours, to be one that confesseth the Lawfulness of all, save the renouncing of a rebellious Covenant: And while the Law and Canons imprison, and excommunicate us ipso fact•, if we do but give the reasons of our Nonconformity; and I have offered to Reverend Bishops and others, to beg leave to ⟨image 3⟩do it on my knees, and nothing more grieved me, than that I might not so endeavour to save men from the damning sins of Hating, false accusing, and ruining their Brethren, and sacrilegious hindering the Preaching of Gods Word;
