Analysis. The loosing of St. Peters bands; : setting forth the true sense and solution of the covenant in point of conscience so far as it relates to the government of the church by episcopacy. / By John Gauden ...

TO His honoured Friend Sir Lawrence Brumfeild Kt. And Colonel in London.

SIR,

WEll knowing (as St. Bernard speaks) how tender and delicate a thing Conscience is; how it is not to be baffled or deluded with any Sophi∣stry; nor ravished or captivated by any violence and tyranny; not cajo∣led or trepanned by any Policy and hypocrisie; but (apart from all fraud or force) it is then most at its ease, freedom and tranquillity, when it hath most light and serenity to see its duty, also most liberty to act according to those rules of right Reason and Religion, which are not partial, flexi∣ble and mutable, but universal, fixed and eter∣nal.

§. I have here endeavored to give you and others (upon your motion) that sober sence of the Cove∣nant, whereof I believe it is only capable before

God, before all good Christians, and in a mans own wel-informed conscience.

§. Which must, and at last will judge of things in point of scruple or obligation, not by the occasion be∣ginning them, or the power imposing them, or the passion clamoring, or the multitude applauding, or the success abetting, or the pertinacy maintaining them; Nor yet by the superstition of some men de∣voutly doting for a while upon that as a goddess or an Image faln from heaven, when it may be (indeed) but the late invention of some cunning work-men, whose golden rings and ear-rings being melted in the furnace of Civil wars, may sometimes bring forth such a thing as the Authors and Abettors will needs vote to be their God.

§. But the true light and medium of Conscience as to its judgement, practice, peace and perseverance, must be by those clear, pregnant and constant beams of right Reason, add true Religion, which shine in the brightness and stability of Divine and Humane laws, which are the solid pillars of Truth, the firm supports of duty, the sure bounds of obedience, and the safe repose of conscience.

§. All other superstructures of fancy, policy and Interest, as hay, straw and stubble will perish; but those others will out last the last conflagrations which shall make a fiery trial of all mens thoughts, designs and actions both publick and private, whether they be made up of popular and peevish dross, or of such piety, more precious than gold, which is both pure and permanent.

§. In this great concern therefore of conscience, I

must study to be void of all fear and flattery of men, separate from all crowds of passions and prejudices, free from popular petitions, and the two Houses re∣solutions; from Scottish importunities and English compliances; not obnoxious to the Court or the Coun∣try, to the Assembly or the High-Commission, to Episcopal infirmities, or Presbyterian insolencies; but as in the presence of God, and before his Tribunal, so serious, intent, upright and unbyassed shall I de∣clare my judgement to you, to your City, to my Country, and to our most welcome King; to my re∣verend Fathers, and brethren of the Clergie, and to my dear Mother the Church of England, for whose sake nothing must seem hard, or too much to be done or suffered by me, or any of her Sons, since we have the great paterns, both of our late Sove∣raign, who suffered as a Martyr in her defence, and of our blessed Saviour, who was crucified for her redemption.

§. As for my Brethren of the Church of Scotland, I confess I understand not their motions or mutati∣ons, because I think they once enjoyed the best con∣stitutions of Episcopacy in the world; I have a Chri∣stian pity and charity for them; I leave them to that liberty which is the fruit not of the swords and pas∣sions of man, but of the Word and Spirit of God; which clearly unites Loyalty and Religion, Duty and Devotion, Reformation and Moderation, Order and counsel, eminency and harmony in one paternal, frater∣nal and filial unity of Bishops, Presbyters and People.

§. As to the scruple or case of conscience then,

with which you tell me, many sober and honest men, are by their once taking the Covenant so scared from all complyings with any Church Govern∣ment under any name of Bishops, or notion of E∣piscopacy, never so reformed and regulated, that they fear by looking back to the primitive, Catholick and universal Government of this and all other anti∣ent Churches, to be turned into pillars of Apostacy as Lots wife, was into a pillar of salt. And to prevent which sad Metamorphosis in City and Country, my Answer or Resolution in point of Con∣science as to the Covenant, so far as it relates to E∣piscopacy is this.

1. The Cove∣nants de∣fectiveness as to authority and law.

First, I might shrewdly batter the Covenant, by urging the defectiveness of, and so the invalidity of any lawful, constant or compleat authority in it, ca∣pable to bind the Subjects or People of England, either in the Court of conscience, or any other (Ecclesiastical or civil) Judicature; in which nothing can have any permanent bond or tye of Law (except Gods Word) without the Kings consent, no more than the vow of a servant, or son, a daughter or wife (in Moses Law) could bind them without, yea, against the declared consent of their Master, fa∣ther or Husband, under whose protection they were.

2 The violence of the times.

Secondly, I might eccho and retort upon the Co∣venant, the violence and noise of those times in which it was first hatched in England, and brought forth by the Midwifery of tumults and Armies, of en∣gaged, yea enraged parties and factions, whose wrath and policies were not probbale to work the righte∣ousness

of God; nor did they seem good Angels, which troubled our waters to an healing, but evil ones sent in Gods just anger amongst us to turn our waters into blood.

3. The novelty of it as to our laws.

Thirdly, I might further urge the novelty and par∣tiality of the Covenant, as the English Laws and ge∣nius; that it was from a foraign influence and de∣sign first invented, then obtruded on this Church and State, contrary to our antient Laws and con∣stitutions both ecclesiastical and civil, to which King and People were bound, till by mutual consent they were altered; which was never yet done in the point of Episcopacy.

4. The sad and tragique con∣sequences of it

Fourthly, It might seem odious to reflect upon this Covenant, as to the sad effects, and unblest consequents, which like black shadows have attend∣ed its appearing and prevailing in England, and in Scotland too. What havocks followed in Church and State? what improsperities, disorders, con∣tempts, confusions, wars, spoils, and bloodshed upon all estates and degrees; besides the contempt of Re∣ligion, the neglect of Sacraments, the expulsion of the Liturgie, and the aviling, no less than dividing of Ministers, who (instead of Okes and cedars of God, formerly frequent in this Church, I mean Divines of great gravity and excellent learning, wor∣thy of double honor) everywhere shrunk and dwindled to Plebeian shrubs, and popular parasities, the pitty of the more pious, and scorn of the more petulant sort of men.

5. The baflings and annullings of it by coun∣ter engage∣ments.

Fifthly, Nor will I insist upon the bafflings of the Covenant, before it was adult or many years old;

how it was soon made Nehustan, and reduced to nothing, by counter and cross engagements, after it had served as one of the great rocks for the Kings shipwrack, no less than the Churches and States; nor did the Covenant ever thrive after it was water∣ed with the Kings blood, wherein many men had an hand who had been zealous Covenanters, If it was so easily vacated in point of its express loyalty for the Kings Preservation, I do not see how it should be so binding in the case of abjuring or ex∣tirpating of all Episcopacy, though reformed and regulated as it ought to be.

6. ••ts variating from, if not crossing for∣mer lawful Oathes of King and peo∣ple.

Sixthly, Wherein it is very considerable how the Covenant (if so interpreted) must needs grate sore upon, and pierce to the very quick those former lawful oathes, which had prepossessed the souls and consciences of most of us in England; not only of Subjects, as those of Allegiance and Supremacy, besides that of Ministerial, canonical obedience to our lawful superiors in Church and State; but even the conscience of the late King, as he was bound by his Oath at his Coronation to preserve the rights and franchises of the Church; which the King ra∣ther than break, as some men urged him, chose to die and lose all in this world; as he declared to many at the Isle of Wight; and to Mr. Marshal with others, at Newcastle; from which Oaths, as we know no absolution, so, nor can there be any super∣fetation of such a contradictory Vow and covenant without apparent perjury, which we presume the Covenant never intended, nor included; or if it did, it is therein of no bond or validity, as to any good

mans conscience against previous lawful oaths, which must be kept.

7, It threatens dangerous Schism.

Seventhly, Besides, if the Covenant were desig∣ned, as wilfully exclusive and totally abjuring of all Episcopal order and Government in this Church of England, it must needs run us upon a great rock not only of Novelty but of Schism, and dash us both in opinion and practice against the judgement and custom of the Catholick Church, in all places and ages (till of later years) from the Apostles days, with whom we ought to keep communion in all things of so antient tradition, and universal obser∣vation; nor may we so comply with a few reform∣ed Churches of later daies (whose want but not contempt of Bishops also the necessity of times, and distress of affairs put upon them, either by the policies of Princes, or the impatience and prejudice of people, or the covetousness and sacriledge of both may excuse, while they approve and venerate E∣piscopacy in others) yet with these we must not so comply, as to put a reproach, scandal, scruple or affront upon all other Christian Churches at this day in all the world; among whom, not one ever was of old, or is to this day in any Kingdom to be found without their Bishops, as derived by the succession of all times from the Apostles; nor is the abolish∣ing of Episcopacy a small wall of partition newly set up to keep all Papists from due Reforma∣tion.

8. The ••est sense and use of the Cove∣nant.

Eighthly, I might further add, how much more equal and ingenuous, loyal, and religious were it for all sober-meaning Covenanters to reduce and confine

their consciences, as well as their Covenant, from such an extravagant, disloyal, unlawfull, enormi∣ous, and Schismatical sense, to which some do wrest and torture it (in which it could neither be lawfully taken, nor can be kept with honesty, as a∣gainst all Episcopacy) and rather to retire to that sober sense wherein alone it might lawfully be taken, if it had been imposed by due authority, or were spontaneously assumed, which sense can reach no fur∣ther than those abusive excesses or defects of Church Government under Bishops, so far as they were real∣ly such, either by the inconvenience of the constituti∣ons and customs in England, or at least as they appear∣ed such to these Covenanters, as to the execution of that authority, through the faults or infirmities of some Bishops and their instruments, who possibly were not so worthy and good, or not so wise and discreet, as became Christian Bishops, or Ecclesiasti∣cal Governors of Christs Church. But it is a most ir∣religious, as well as unreasonable (Ametry) trans∣port, for men to covenant against all the right use of things that are good, because of the abuse incident to them, by men or times that may be evil.

9. Its preten∣ded authority-from examples in the O. Test.

Ninethly, It were easie to level to the ground all those fair but fallacious pretences drawn to for∣tifie the Covenant, from Scripture examples, where∣in the Jews sometimes solemnly renewed their Co∣venant with God; But it was that express Covenant which God himself had first made with them in Ho∣reb and Mount Sina, punctually prescribed by God to Moses, and by Moses (as their supream Governor or King) imposed upon them; this they some∣time

renewed after they had broken it by their apo∣stacy to false and strange gods: But blessed be God, this was not the case of the Church or people of England, nor was there any need of such covenan∣ting, any more then there was any Moses, or Heze∣kiah, or Josiah, or any chief Governor command∣ing it: Nor (alas) was this Covenant any divine dictate or Soveraign prescription, but the petty com∣position of a few politick men, Subjects not Princes, and very mean Subjects too some of them, either as Lawyers or Ministers, a great part of whom I and others well knew to be no very great Clerks or Statesmen; and fitter for a country Cure, than to con∣trive and compose Solemn Leagues and Covenants, to be imposed upon Churches and Kingdoms, (yea, and upon their Kings too) in whose Dominions were ma∣ny thousands equals and Superiors to those Masters, whose heads rather than their hearts, and their State correspondencies more than their consciences brought forth this Covenant.

10. No evan∣gelical ex∣ample of any such Covenant in any Chri∣stian Church of old.

Lastly, I might truly alledge against the novelty of the Covenant in the Church of England, that there is no precept or patern for any such in all the New Te∣stament, nor in all succeeding ages of the Christian Church; we never read nor heard of any covenant∣ing Christians (until the Ligue sainte in France) ex∣cept those who in one baptism were sprinkled with the blood of Christ, and so entred into that cove∣nant which God makes with us and we with him, in that holy laver of regeneration; this is the new and Evangelical covenant of all true Christians; this we break by wilful and presumptuous sins; this we renew

by true repentance, and by worthy participation of the body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper.

§. How vastly different from this sacred covenant, this late piece of policy more than piety is; and how little the true covenant of a Christian binds him by his Baptism or Repentance, or the Eucharist against all Episcopal Government, I leave to all sober-minded Christians to judge; since both the power of ordain∣ing Ministers, and by them to consecrate and ce∣lebrate both Sacraments, was ever derived from and by Bishops of the Church, as the cheif conserva∣tors, cisterns, and conduits of all Ecclesiastical Au∣thority and Ministerial power from the very Apo∣stles, the first Bishops of the Church, Acts 1. who had the same immediately from Christ, who was, and ever is the great Bishop and Pastor of our souls, to feed and rule his Church, not only by his Word and Spirit, but by such Shepherds and Rulers as he hath in all ages set over his flock; of which Bishops were ever esteemed the Angels, Presidents, or cheif Fa∣thers; whom utterly to destroy, and violently to ex∣tirpate out of this or any Christian Church, is not only to offer signal and intolerable injuries to the persons of such excellent Bishops as England lately had, and still may have, but further mightily to abate the honor of this whole Church, and its Mi∣nistry, by taking away all the rewards and encou∣ragements of Learning and Religion; yea and to scandalize all Churches by abolishing such a vene∣rable order and universal custom in the Church, as hath no origine but that of the Apostles, and looks

very like an immediate institution of Christ, either preceptive and explicite, or tacite and exemplary.

§. So that if this were the sense and intent of the Covenant-makers, and takers, to extirpate and abo∣lish, not the abuses, but the very uses of all Episco∣pal Order and Government, the great Boanergesses who thunder out so much terror against Covenant-breaking, may do much more justice and execution if they turn the mouths of their canons against such Covenant-taking, which is better broken than kept in any unlawful sense, and best of all, when not at all taken, with any such intention, which is as pre∣sumptuous, as it was preposterous.

§. These things being thus premised, are suffici∣ent (as I conceive) to abate the edge and rigor of the Covenant, as to its antipathy against all Episcopacy, and to ravel that cable or bond of religious obligati∣on, which some men do seem to twist and urge upon poor peoples consciences in that point; when in good earnest, there is neither Law of God or man requi∣ring, imposing or comprobating any such Covenant, by any National or Ecclesiastical authority; so that it appears (at best) to be but a matter of will worship, of humane and private invention, void of publique and plenary injunction, esteemed by many but as a stratagem of State, a flag of faction, an en∣gine framed on purpose to batter down Episcopacy, and the whole Church of England, in order to ob∣tain the spoils of them; not to punish and amend the evil that might be in Episcopal Govern∣ment, or in some Bishops and other Ministers, but to seize all their estates, and all the patrimony of

the Church, to the great enriching of some sacrile∣gious Protestants, to the gratifying of some Pres∣byters envy and revenge, but most of all to the great joy and triumph of the Romish party and Je∣suitick designs, which were thought by many wise men to have been, if not the Sires, yet the Sibs to that Covenant; that they might help to spread it as a snare in Mizpeh, thereby to catch and destroy the famousest Bishops, the most renowned Clergie, the best reformed and most flourishing Church in all the world.

§. But I will look upon this Covenant in the sof∣test sense that can be made of it, as a voluntary Vow, or religious Bond which private men, and some part only of the Nation, spontaneously took upon themselves, in order to declare their sense of duty to God, the King, the Church, their Country, and the Reformed Religion, to make themselves more strictly sensible of the sacred and civil obligations respectively due to them, that so they might be more ready to discharge them in their places and callings by taking such a Covenant freely, not for fear of prison, plunder, sequestration, and the like wracks of mens souls; the terrors of which made many, if not most of the takers of the Covenant, to take it; and yet I believe not one fourth part of the people of England now living ever did take it in any sort; and very few but rigid Bigots and viru∣lent spirits in any sense, against primitive, reformed, and regular Episcopacy, so reduced to an efficacious conjuction with Presbytery, as the most Reverend Primate of Armagh proposed in his Reduction of

late, and so did the Lord Virulam long before in his considerations touching the Church of England, offered to King James in the beginning of his reign.

§. In this aspect of the Covenant, as a religious obligation, either newly made or renewed upon the foul of any that willingly and freely took it, and who thereby think themselves eternally obliged to fulfill the letter of it, or that sense they had of it as to the matter of Church-government by Episco∣pacy or Prelacy, which they fancied to have abju∣red and renounced, no less than Popery; my An∣swers and Solutions are these:

1. What only can bind in it,

First, They are not the bare words of the Covenant which as charms can bind any mans conscience, to or against any thing; but it is that force of Truth, Reason, Justice, Religion and Duty to God, or man, our selves or others which morally and really obligeth men, either by Gods general or particular precepts; which are as iron or admantine bands on every mans soul, to chuse good and do it, to hate evil and eschew it, long before any of these withes or cords of mans combining and tying are put upon them, by themselves or others.

2. Not the ta∣kers fancy or imposers.

Secondly, Nor can any such Covenant bind any man in any consciencious bond, meerly by the power of a mans own imagination, or by such a prejudice and presumption as he lists to form and take up a∣gainst any thing, short of, or beyond the merit of it, either as good or evil.

3. It cannot bind to the in∣••ury of others.

Thirdly, No such Covenant can bind us to the injury of anothers liberty, right, power, or lawful authority, private or publick; and so not against that which is in the King and the Bishops, or in the major part of the Church or of the Country, or of any Parliament, which may look upon Bishops and Episcopacy with a far more propitious eye than those that beheld it only through the Presbyterian spectacles.

4. It cannot bind either to evil, or from good.

Fourthly, Such a Covenant can bind no man in conscience against any thing that is in its nature good, or that is not morally evil; for this were for man to bind himself and others beyond Gods eternal bonds of righteousness: They are Covenants with Hell and Death which bind men either to what is evil and sinful in its nature, or from what is allowed of God as good and lawful, yea and may be neces∣sary in its time and place; now there is no doubt, but there is much good in Episcopal order and go∣vernment; much good was done by it to the Churches of Christ in the primitive and all times; much to this Church of England since the Reformation and before; the principles and proportions of order, sub∣ordination and government (which hold good in all other polities, and fraternities) cannot be evil in this of Episcopacy; It hath much of God in it, from Scriptural precepts and patterns in the Jewish Church, which the Christians followed in many things; It hath so much of Christs example, and the Apostolick constitution, of the primitive use, of Ecclesiastical custom, of holy mens general appro∣bation, and universal imitation, both here in Eng∣land

and elsewhere, that it were extreme folly, madness, prophaness and blasphemy to cry it down for evil, or to engage and covenant against it as such, when it hath in it so much good, and so attested by experience, to be beneficial for the well-being, yea almost for the compleat and regular being of any Church, and none more than this of England, where people are not to be governed by their e∣quals and inferiours, because they are in black cotes.

5. It cannot ob∣lige to extir∣pate the use of what is good, because of any abuse.

Fifthly, No man may vow or covenant, much less keep any such Covenant as he hath taken intenti∣onally against the evil or corruption and abuse of any thing, so as to involve the good and usefulness of it, and to condem that to destruction or extirpation with the other, as Abraham said to the Lord, God forbid that the Judge of all the earth should destroy the righteous with the wicked; or cast the wheat with the chaff into inquenchable fire: No, a good con∣science abhors confusion; it doth not take or do things by whole-sale but by retail, weighs all in the ballance of the Sanctuary, separates the precious from the vile; the superstructures of men, from the foun∣dations of Christ and his Apostles, which stood firm for so many ages; it becomes the children of wis∣dom to justifie her, by trying all things, and hold∣ing fast what is good.

6. It obligeth not to abolish all that is good or christian mixed with Popery.

Sixthly, As they that covenanted against Popery, cannot think they did abjure, or must abhor all those saving truths and duties of Christianity which are mix∣ed with Popery; no more can they justly think be∣cause they covenanted against Prelacy, that is, a∣gainst

its pride, presumption, idleness, covetousness and tyranny, that therefore they are for ever engaged against the order, presidency and paternal authority of Episcopacy; mens malice and hatred may not go beyond the grave; if the abuses and disorders in Prelatick Government be dead and buried, true Episcopacy may yet have a blessed resurrection from corruption to incorruption, from dishonor to honor, which I hope and pray God will by the wisdom of the King and his Parliament effect.

It cannot bind to any thing out of a mans lawful power.

Seventhly, No man may lawfully vow and covenant, or accordingly act in any thing, which is not in his power and dispose, in his sphear and calling, beyond which bounds this Covenant permits no man to go; yea, it doth limit by these all his engagement and activity. Now certainly, the government of the Church of England, especially as established by Law, neither was nor is in any private mens power, be they never so many, either to alter, or innovate, or a∣bolish and extirpate; This is only in the power of the King as Supream, by the Law of God and the Land, to protect and preserve: Nor can it be changed but by his royal assent to the counsel and desire of the Two Houses of Parliament: Nor may any man never so much for Presbytery, or Indepen∣dency, or Anarchy, as to his private opinion, either vow or covenant, or act overtly and violently, fur∣ther than by humble petition or counsel against e∣stablished and legal Episcopacy, no more than he may against Monarchy, because he prefers either Aristo∣cracy or Democracy.

It cannot bind against what may after ap∣pear good.

Eightly, As no man could lawfully covenant a∣gainst what he thinks to be good, or against what is less good then he desires and opines, but out of his calling and lawful power to effect; so, nor can any man in conscience be bound by any such Co∣venant (taken in a gross sense, or in general terms) against that which may upon second thoughts, or after-view, and better information appear to be good and useful to him; he is here bound not to keep his Covenant, in the latitude of his mistakes and pre∣sumptions, nor to act according to his prejudices and former supposals, but rather to retract his rashness and unadvisedness in taking it at first, and to act according to the present evidence of what is true, just, good, lawful and useful, even in Episcopacy, whereof he cannot but stand convinced, both by the princi∣ples of right reason, and the proportions of all Government, and by the experience of the de∣fects, deformities and inconsistencies of all other mo∣dels.

§. It is now high time, after so many afflictions to learn righteousness and wisdom; and to discern be∣tween the faults of men or times; and the true na∣ture of things; between good and bad Bishops; be∣tween pontifical Prelacy, and Paternal Episcopacy, which is that wherewith all sober men would be satisfied, and against which no Covenanter could in Reason or Religion, in piety or policy, in prudence or conscience be engaged.

The duty of a cautious and consci••ntious Covenanter.

Ninethly, The cautious and consciencious Co∣venanter therefore is now to take a calmer view and

exacter measure of the Covenant than (perhaps) he did at the first offer and taking of it, which was in haste, and heat, in fear and fury; what then he greedily swal∣lowed without chewing, he should now leisurely and soberly ruminate; for in lumps it will not easily di∣gest or pass; he may better learn what there is of God or good in it by the still voyce, wherein now the Lords mercy appears and speaks to this Church and Kingdom, than in those fires and earth∣quakes, which at first represented this Covenant to him with shining swords.

§. He must now distinguish what may be in it of God, what of good and well-meaning-men, and what of evil or sinister designs, at least as to the event; in what is good he may lawfully persevere; what may by some be urged to evil, he is to avoid; what he did weakly or inconsiderately in the taking or pursuing of it, he is to repent of and retract, by keeping in the bounds of duty, allegiance and sub∣jection to God and his Superiors in Church and State.

10. The easie satisfaction of any conscien∣tious Cove∣nanter.

Tenthly, and lastly, the most strict and severe Cove∣nanter cannot but be satisfied and absolved in point of conscience, if first he hath and still doth in his place and calling seasonably advise, humbly petition, and lawfully endeavour to reform what is truly amiss in the Church Government by Bishops. Secondly, If he use the like means to restore and preserve, what he finds good and useful in Episcopacy. Thirdly, If he humbly submit to what the King in this point as Supream shall see fit to establish in his Church;

which is very probable to be such, as will much dif∣fer from the former way of Government, as to any thing evil or inconvenient in it: Certainly, a little change realy to the better, much more an honest and ingenuous Reformation of Episcopacy, beyond the former excessive or defective either constitution or execution of it, will abundantly absolve the honest, yea and the very litteral and complexive meaning of that Covenant; which may not be a bond of ini∣quity, or a snare and gin for schism and sedition to act by, to the dishonor of God, to the reproach of the Reformed Religion, to the scandal of foraign Churches, and to the ruine of these sometimes so famous and flourishing; which the King and every good Sub∣ject are bound in conscience to repair and restore, not only to, but (if it may be) beyond its pristine condition; wherein some things possibly were so a∣miss that it will be happy to have them either sup∣plied as to the defects, or repressed as to the ex∣cesses, without any extirpation of what is holy and catholick, primitive and paternal, orderly, politick and prudent in Episcopacy; which Government duly fitted and fixed, comprehends beyond any, all the just interests of People and Presbyters, no less than of the Bishops and of the King.

§. This Right, Justice and Duty then every con∣sciencious Covenanter ows,

1. To God, in approving, desiring, loving, and using what is good.

2. To the King, as the chief Governour of the Church and State, enjoyning things lawful

and honest, though not the very best.

3. To the Bishops and Fathers of the Church, who have been many of them most injuriously u∣sed many years, and ought in Justice to be recom∣penced.

4. To all learned and sober Ministers, who have a long time been exposed to all manner of discou∣raging and dividing factions among themselves, and insolencies from the people, for want of King and Bishop to govern, guide and protect them.

5. He ows this love, moderation and charity to this Church, hereby to advance and settle the uni∣ty, peace and prosperity of it, which cannot be but in the way of Episcopacy duly constituted, and carefully executed.

Lastly, he ows this care to his own soul, whose inward and eternal peace is not to be made up by passion, superstition or presumption, but by meekness of wis∣dom, justice, charity and discretion; as in all other things, so very much in this point of Episcopacy; so studiously then put into the Covenant toserve a prevalent interest, but no way in conscience to be now stretched against a right and regular Episco∣pacy, no more than Physick given to cure a disease, should like unmortified Quick-silver, be applied to kill the man.

§. This I know was the sense of the most lear∣ned men in the Assembly, and of those, who with my self had as much right to sit among them, as any others, but were not permitted, either by popular faction and tumult, or by other shufflings and reasons

of State which took care to exclude or deter all the excellent Bishops of the Church, and the most able of Episcopal Divines, for fear there should have been any just plea for moderate Episcopacy, against the then Magistery of Presbytery. This I have oft heard Mr. Marshal and others affirm (who had a great hand in penning and promoting the Co∣venant) and they owned it to some foraign Di∣vines, That the Covenant was levelled only at the (Despoticum, Tyrannicum, regimen) misgovern∣ment not the Government of Episcopacy. This is at present the sense and hopes of the most learned and godly Presbyterians, whom I have lately spoken with in London and elsewhere; That if the ancient lapsed and decayed frame of Episcopal government were a little altered, it would satisfie the end and letter of the Covenant, which was not to destroy, but to build, and repair, not to consume all, but to use those ma∣terials which were good in that antient, noble, and venerable fabrick of Episcopacy.

§. Which I beseech God may by his Maje∣sties piety and wisdom be speedily and resolutely setled in its best constitution; wherein to take good counsel is Kingly and Christian; but to tar∣ry till all Sects and sorts of people be agreed and satisfied, will be to expose his Royal Autho∣rity to undervaluings, and this Church to everlast∣ing confusions.

§. Nor doth there need much counsel to know, or courage for to do, what is here meet to be

done, in order to satisfie the most, and I may say the best of all sorts in this Kingdom, both as to minds, manners, and estates. For his Majesty hath not a new Church to build, but an antient and well-modelled one to restore: They are not foundations of faith or good manners, which are to be laid, but either some necessary reparations to be made in reference to such decays, as long time brings upon the best things under heaven; or such pinacles be taken down as being much wasted with age, rather threaten than adorn the Church of Christ; whose dilapidations, after all the covenanting complements and reformings have been ten times more in these last twenty years under the hands of bungling Reformers (who would needs do Church-work without the Master∣builders, Kings and Bishops) than they were for fourscore years since the Reformation in England, yea, or the first Four hundred years of the Church, in the midst of Persecution; when many godly Bishops were persecuted by Hea∣thens and Hereticks; but this Age is the first Parent of that Prodigie, wherein Orthodox and Reformed Christians, either Presbyters or People did persecute godly Bishops, (of the same Faith and Profession) yea, and Episcopacy it selfe, though never so regular and reformed; which could not justly be the meaning of the Cove∣nant; and if it were, it cannot thereby bind any man that took it, further than to repent of his rashness, and to act contrary to so in∣jurious, irreligious, irrational and impolitick a

sense. From which snare the Lord doth un∣doubtedly deliver every good mans conscience; for as God cannot tempt; so nor can any thing in his name tye or bind men to any thing that is a sin: They that under any such sinister no∣tions and unjust ends lifted up one of their hands to the most high God, to prophane his holy Name, had need bend both their knees and lift up both their hands to Heaven humbly to beg of God pardon for their folly, and grace to re∣turn to that duty which they owe to God, to the King, to the Bishops, to this Church, to their Coun∣try, and to their Consciences.

§. Thus (Sir,) have I in two days finished my answer and Solutions, as to the bondage and scruple of the Covenant in the case of Episcopacy, wherein I hove freely set down my most impar∣tial sense and thoughts of it, being willing to reconcile it to Reason and Religion, as far as may be; beyond which it can have no just in∣fluence, power, or efficacy upon any mans consci∣ence: Nor would I have it so accursed of God, (though as yet it hath been no Procurer of any great blessings to us in the Church) as to be made the Jesuitick wedge to keep us ever from closing with a right Episcopacy. Doubtless the sense of the Covenant hath lately quickned ma∣ny mens consciences in their. Allegiance to the King, so as to bring him (as David) home with infinite joy and triumph; Nor do I despair but it may be applied so (as in Truth and Justice

it ought) for the recovery and restauration of the Church of England to such an happy Order, Ʋnity, and Government, as is most desired by all good Bishops, by all grave Presbyters, and by all gracious People, who have zeal according to knowledge, and are not like a Taylors Goose very heavy and hot, but blind and dark; apter to scortch and oppress, then to enlighten and di∣rect themselves or others.

Farwell.

June 12. 1660.

FINIS.

Notes

• The tender∣ness of consci∣ence.
• The rules of Conscience.
• Freedom from passion and prejudice in cases of con∣science.
• The shiness of some mens consciences as to Episcopacy.
• Answers ob∣lique.
• Numb. 30.2.
• The just abate∣ments of Co∣venanters heats and ri∣gors.
• The best as∣pect of the Covenant con∣sidered in con∣science.
• Answers direct.
• Reformed E∣piscopacy con∣sistent with the Covenant.
• The duty and just dealing of an honest Co∣nanter.
• The sense which the prime authors of the Cove∣nant gave of it.
• The speedy settling this Church in a Episcopacy.
• The ruines of this Church the last 20 years for want of Episcopacy.
• Conclusion.