To the Right Reverend, and Reverend the Bishops, and Clergy of the Province of Canterbury, to be Assembled in Convocation at Westminster, A.D. 1690. The humble Petition of many Divines, and others of the Classical Congregational, and other Perswasions, in the Name of themselves, and Brethren both of Old England and New, who have born Witness to the Truth in the day of Tryal.

Humbly Sheweth, THat your Petitioners, being men of tender Consciences, could not
submit to the severe, and unlawful impositions in matters Ecclesiastical,
forced upon them by A.B. Laud and his Party; who, under
pretence of establishing Uniformity in the Worship, and Service of
God, introduced several Rites and Ceremonies, which seemed to us repugnant
to our Christian Liberty, and border’d as we judged, upon Popish Superstition,
and therefore thought it our duty to shew our Zeal for the true
Protestant Religion, which we saw very much endanger’d, not only in private
Conferences and Meetings, but in Sermons and Lectures here in London, and
in the Market Towns in the Country: for which some of us were put in
the Pillory, and branded for Seditious Preachers and Libellers, others forced
away to New England, and Holland the great and sure Refuge and Sanctuary
of the distressed people of God and our fears being afterwards justly increased
by the favour shewn to the Papists at Court, as we were made to
believe; and to three or four Popish Priests, who after sentence of Condemnation,
were rescued from the Justice of the Nation, by the powerful Interposition
of the Queen; who had also procur’d leave for two or three Nuncio’s
as they were called to come from Rome, and reside here, their business
being, as it was cunningly given out, only to make a Complement to
her from the great Antichrist, the Man of Sin, her unholy Father, the Pope, and
to settle some perplext affairs depending between those of her Idolatrous
Communion: So that we could not but be very sadly sensible of the horrid
Consequences, that would have been unavoidable, if a sudden check and stop
had not been put to such Communications, Designs and Consults. And
whereas much about the same time, our Civil Rights and Liberties were invaded
by the Illegal Tax of Ship-money, notwithstanding all the Judges of
Westminster have given it under their hands, after mature deliberation and
debate, that the King might lawfully levy it in case of Necessity, of which

A

he was to be the Judge; and that one Noy, a Mercenary Lawyer, had made
a Collection of Precedents, from several Authentick Records, to justifie the
practice of it we thought our selves indispensably obliged in Conscience, to
advise all true Englishmen to stand upon their Guard, and not suffer either
their Liberties or their Properties to be Ravaged out of their hands. And
soon after, when the blessed Parliament was called in November 40. at which
time they were necessitated to take up Arms in the defence of the Kingdom;
we Preached up, as it became us, the Lawfulness of the War then Commenc’d,
and Managed against the King, who, as we plainly saw, had abused
the Trust reposed in him by the People, and had violated the Contract
made with them at his Coronation, for which he stood accountable. And
God having appear’d gloriously in behalf of us, and our righteous Cause in
several Battels, especially at Marston moor, and Naseby, whereby the strength
of his party so miraculous were the Dispensations of Providence in our favour
was totally defeated and broken. Upon which, within a very few
years after, follow’d his Tryal and Execution, and the utter Dissolution of
the Monarchy, the Government for some time before having been resolved
into the hands of the people, the Fountain and Original of it. And whereas,
after the Death of that Glorious Instrument, his Highness O.P. by reason of
our Disagreements, and want of Zeal and Conduct in defending and maintaining
the Good old Cause, for which we at first so righteously engaged, as
was our Common Interest to have done; a Restoration happened in the
year 60. which overthrew all our designs, and destroy’d the Reformation,
which we had made in Church and State, to our great regret, shame and
confusion; our Doctrines and Positions being severely condemn’d, as pernicious
and destructive of Monarchical Government, and as impious, unchristian,
and damnable: And our Books and Sermons such especially as were
Preached before the Long Parliament Censured, and the solemn League and Covenant
burnt by the hands of the Common Hangman. Now to our great joy
and amazement, we seeing what a Glorious Revolution has been brought
about by his Highness P.O. his rescuing us out of the Jaws of Popery and Slavery,
which could not possibly have been effected, if he had not been invited
in by men, who were convinced of the truth, honesty, and lawfulness of
our Principles, and by their going into him. And observing that your Lordships,
and the major part of the Clergy, notwithstanding your former Opinions,
Declarations, and Judgment, and your dislike of us and our Actions,
and your Persecuting of us; and notwithstanding the repeated assurances,
which you gave K. Charles and K. James, of your steady, unshaken, unalterable,
unsophisticated Loyalty, have fallen upon, and made use of the same methods
we did formerly, and have renounced your Faith and Allegiance to
K. James, which you had so solemnly swore to him, his Heirs and lawful
Successors, and have so readily and cheerfully taken the New Oaths, by
which you approve and justifie all that was formerly done by us, and
which has been done of late to bring about this blessed and glorious change:
Our humble Petition, which we think and believe in our hearts and consciences,
to be founded on the highest equity and reason imaginable, is, that
you make satisfaction to us for the Injuries and Reproaches, which we have
endured, and that you help us again to our ears, and the blood that we
have lost in the defence of the same Righteous Cause; and that you vindicate
us, as well as your selves, from those horrid and scandalous Censures
cast upon us most unchristianly; and that you set us right in the opinion of
all Mankind, that we acted like honest, wise, zealous, true, and good Protestants, and
publick spirited Patriots, in the defence, maintenance, and preservation of our Religion,
Laws, Liberties, and Properties, and the fundamental Rights of the Subject.
And we also further request and pray, that according to your present
Judgment, which your practice and behaviour in the present conjunctures
of affairs so clearly demonstrate; and the better to prevent the People
from being missed by those wild and foolish opinions and fancies, which
had of late so like to have ruin’d us; and from all thoughts of returning to
their Allegiance to K. James, which some few Malecontents, who dare
maintain, that you have Apostatized from the Faith and Doctrine of the Church of
England, and that you are all more or less guilty of the damnable sin of Perjury,
stiffly and obstinately pretend to be unconditional, indefeisible, and no way
forfeitable upon the pretence of Male-administration, Desertion, Abdication, want
of Protection, and the like and the better also to inform our neighbour Nations,
and especially our dear Brethren and fellow Protestants, the Dutch,
who were at so vast a charge for our Deliverance tho both your Enemies
and ours give out, that this Deliverance was the Master-piece of their
High and Mighty Lordships Policy; they hereby throwing us upon a War
with France, and in the mean while getting the Trade of the whole World,
to the utter ruin of our Merchants and Seamen, and to the impovershing
of the Nation; and ridding themselves of their Stat-holder upon what
just, sober, honest, and Religious Principles you have govern’d, and conducted
your selves in this whole affair; that you will be pleased to enact, establish,
ratifie, and confirm by your Synodal Authority the following Propositions,
as good and wholsome Doctrine, and no way disagreeable to the word of
God, and as fit to be received and embraced by all such, as wish well to
the true Protestant Religion, and the good of their Native Country.
1. That the Doctrine of Non-resistance, by which injured Subjects are
forbid to take up Arms against their Liege Lord and rightful Soveraign, is a
false and pernicious Doctrine; and that a forcible defence of the Subject against
the Princes actual oppression of them or upon a supposal, and just and probable
fear that he will oppress them is not only allowable but necessary;
and that otherwise they will be wanting to their own preservation, which
the Laws of God and Nature require.
2. That the Primitive Christians, who lived before the time of Constantine,
who had the Law of Nature to plead in their behalf, which gave them a
greater Title to their Lives, than any Municipal Law, or positive Constitution,
and yet tamely gave up themselves into the hands of the bloody Roman Emperors
notwithstanding their numbers were so great, that they could not
doubt of success and Victory without so much as fighting one stroke, and
suffering their Throats to be cut with their Swords in their hands, upon a
surmise and pretence that the Law of Christ forbad them to resist and that
those Christians much more, who lived in the times of Constantius, Julian,
and Valens, when they had the Laws of Empire on their side, and were turned
out of their Commissions and Commands in the Army, and Offices at Court, and
the Orthodox Churchmen out of their Bishopricks, and other promotions and
benefices, because they would not be of the Emperours Religion, and turn
[illegible] or Heathen; and were forced besides to endure a thousand
[illegible] and indignities, more grievous and irksome to a generous mind
than death it self; and who instead of betaking themselves, like men of
Honour, to their Arms, had only recourse to those mean, useless, and insignificant
things, Prayers and Tears; are to be pitied, or rather despised, as
nice, weak, over-scrupulous, low-spirited fellows, who mistook the meaning
of Peter and Paul in their Epistles, which they foolishly and ignorantly
alledged for the Cut throat Doctrine of Passive Obedience, and are no longer
to be honour’d with the glorious Titles of Martyrs and Confessours, but deserve
to be esteem’d Felo's de se, and betrayers of your Religion.
3. That Necessity is above all forms and rules of Justice and Law, and
that when a Nation is in danger by a Prince influenc’d by evil Counsellors,
Subjects may Lawfully enter into Leagues, Covenants, and Associations, notwithstanding
all Sacramental tyes, obligations, and Oaths to the contrary; and that
all methods whatsoever, tho never so unrighteous and wicked, not only
may, but ought to be made use of for the support and preservation; and
that in such cases the goodness of the Intention and end sanctifies the means.
4. That Political Oaths lose their Power, Force, and obligation, and
may very lawfully and fairly be parted with, if they interfer with the
Publick Good, of which the Representatives of the People are the true Judges.
And that tho the Oath of Allegiance was made for the safety and security
of the Kings Person, and to ascertain the Succession in the right line, yet in
all such Oaths a Condition is necessarily understood, that they remain no
longer obligatory than Publick Interest and Utility will allow.
5. That all such Political Oaths, notwithstanding the exact care, which
some wary Princes and their Counsellours have taken in the adjusting, and
forming, and wording of them, to bind the Conscience and to secure the
Soveraign, to whom they are given, in the Throne, are superseeded and
vacated by an antecedent and higher obligation; viz the common good
of humane Society, which discharges men from what they have sworn to
private persons, as all Princes are in comparison of the community. For want of
the knowledge of this Fundamental Principle of Civil Policy, the Christians
of old time so fouly miscarried; the discovery of which is owing to the
improvements of this Age in all Natural, Political, and Divine knowledge
above their scanty measures and attainments.
6. That besides this superiour and antecedent obligation, which wholly enervates
the force of all subsequent Oaths; in the Original Constitution of Government,
and indeed in all Transactions of Civil Society, as Mr. Hobbs has very
well proved, there is a mutual part and agreement, and that upon the failure of
one of the parties, the other is discharged and left to his first liberty, as if
he had never obliged himself at all; and that it is weakness of Judgment
and Conscience to think or act otherwise; and that this holds, especially
in contracts between Princes and their Subjects, who cannot be supposed in
the Original Contract they made with the Persons, whom they constituted
Rulers over them; that they ever intended, notwithstanding any subsequent
Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy imposed upon them, to put themselves into
an incapacity of defending their Natural and Civil Rights, when invaded:
or that they thereby obliged themselves to sit still, and let their Princes do
what they would to them.
7. That Princes for their ill Government may be Dethroned, and Abdicated,
and Deposed, and brought to condign punishment, if it be judged by the
Representatives of the people, from whom they derive all their Power and Authority,
to be expedient for the safety and benefit of the Commonwealth;
and particularly, that Charles the First, having deserted the Parliament at
Westminster, tho he pretended he was driven away by the Rabble from his
Palace by retiring first to Windsor for the safety of his Person, and afterwards
to York; and having, by erecting his Standard at Nottingham, made
War upon his people, forfeited his Crown, and that the Parliament justly
pursued him and his followers, and prosecuted them to Death: And that the
glorious Successes, which attended the Army raised by the Parliament, and
the absolute and entire Conquest which they gain’d over the King, was a full
proof, that God was on our side, and that they fought the Lords Batels against
the ungodly Cavaliers, and that they were doing the work of God in the
whole course and traverse of that just and necessary War.
8. That possession, which way soever acquir’d, whether by Invasion and
Conquest, or by Election either of the Souldiers or the States of a Kingdom
conven’d necessity justly dispensing with all the irregularities of such a Convention
gives a just and full right to the Crown, without any regard to the
Laws of Inheritance and Succession, which cannot be supposed to be unchangeable;
and that private persons ought not to enquire nicely into Titles, but to
rest satisfied in point of Conscience in the determination of their Representatives;
and that such possession, whether quiet or disturbed, notwithstanding
the Dispossessed Rightful Kings claim is a sufficient ground of Allegiance.
And for the more effectual preventing our relapsing into these horrible
dangers, which we have so happily escaped, our humble Petition and Advice
is, That you declare, enact, and decree the above-mentioned Propositions,
and no other, to be the clear and express Doctrine of the present
Church of England, at least so far as you represent it not doubting, but that
the Bishops and Clergy of the other Province will readily and heartily concur
with you herein and that for the future, all who are to be admitted
into any College or Hall in either of the Universities, and every time they
take degrees in any Faculty whatever; and that all persons before they are
Ordain’d, and afterward at their Institution into any Ecclesiastical Benefice,
or promotion to any Dignity in the Church, or to any Fellowship, Lectureship,
Professorship, or Headship in the said Universities, shall be required
to subscribe to the Truth of them, and by lifting up their right hand, shall
solemnly promise to maintain them to the utmost of their power, skill, wits
and learning.
And that the contrary Doctrine may be wholly rooted out of the minds
of the people, who have been so fatally blinded in these matters till the
Reverend Dr. Bur – among others, who have labour’d in this good work,
has open’d their Eyes by those many excellent, pious, and learned Discourses,
which he has published both in Holland, and here among us as we in
our Judgment believe them to be, tho some of the Gainsayers cry out upon
them as detestable, impious, and sophistical; and for the satisfaction not only
of us, but your own selves and Consciences, that they may never fly in
your faces again, we make it our earnest request and Prayer,
1. That till a new Catechism for Children, wherein we hope will be a
fuller and better Exposition of the Fifth Commandment, than hitherto has
been given of it, to prevent scruples and dissatisfactions, that may possibly
arise in some weak minds, notwithstanding their seeming present assurance
and confidence, be set forth; and till a new system of Divinity, in relation to
the present Constitution and Government, be drawn up by the Convocation,
Parents and Guardians, and Schoolmasters be obliged to put into the
hands of their Youth the Political Catechism, and to explain the necessary
Articles and Principles of Mr. Baxter’s Holy Commonwealth; and that Tutors
be appointed to read to their Pupils Machiavel’s Prince, Mr. Milton’s
Defensio populi Anglicani, Junius Brutus’s Vindiciæ contra Tyrannos, as also
Mr. Hobbs two excellent books, De Cive and his Leviathan, if they find the
young men to have capacity enough to understand them, and the Jesuite
Bouchers discourse de justa Henrici tertii abdicatione, and to take care that they
make the young men read ever once a Week, at least, the excellent Speech
of the Heroick President Serjeant Bradshaw, which he made when he pronounc’d
the sentence of Death upon Charles the First, wherein he proves
the gallantry, and lawfulness of what they were then acting, by the examples
and practice of former times, both in England, and other Countries;
and that they teach them that it is an indubitable Axiom in one new reformed
Logick, a facto ad jus valet argumentum.
2. That this may be judged the Act of Universities, and be made a Statute
never to be repealed, by the Interposition of your Authority, which must
needs have a mighty influence upon them, so many Doctors, especially of
the University of Oxford, and Resident there, being of your body, and you
having honour’d the Reverend and Learned Dr. of the Chair with the Prolocutorship
tho we could have wish’d, that the election had lighted upon the
Reverend Dean we humbly pray, that a Catechistical Lecture be founded in
each University, to instruct the Youth in the publick Divinity School, in the
above-mention’d weighty points of Religion and Government, and that it
may be held only for a year, and may pass thro’ every College by stated
course; and that by your recommendation, that precious Young man
Mr. Parkinson of Lincoln College, Oxford, and Mr. Har – of Kings College,
Cambridge, may be constituted the first Lecturers, except you shall judge
other persons more fit to discharge this weighty Employment.
3. That you would abolish the book of Homilies, as containing very insipid
Doctrine, which the delicate palates of this Age cannot relish; and if this
be too much to be done of a sudden, that in the next edition you leave out
the Homilies against wilful Rebellion, at least purge out, and expunge all the
unsound and dangerous passages in them; and especially that, wherein the
then Church of England does arraign the noble Barons, who so bravely defended
their Liberties against the encroachments of K John of horrible Perjury
for inviting into England, Lewis the Dauphin of France, and swearing Fidelity
to him, and breaking their Oath of Fidelity to their Natural Lord, the King of England,
which they there say was done at that time, because they did not
know their duty to their Prince set forth in Gods Word; which peremptory definition
seems to us, notwithstanding all the artificial Distinctions of the Reverend
and Learned Dr. St–r, to conclude equally against you and us,
who make use of other principles, as well as against the Papists, who discharge
themselves upon the Authority of the Pope; and therefore we redouble
our request, that this passage, which reflects so much, be wholly
omitted.
4. That you blot out of the Calender the Martyrdom of K. Charles, that it
may no longer be a reproach to us, and that the memory of it may be for
ever abolish’d; that Anniversary Fast be laid aside; and that all the Sermons
which have been Preached upon that day, and especially Dr. Burnets, and
Mr. Pellings, be bought up at the publick charge, and piled on a heap and
burnt before you the next 30th of January, in the Area, before the Jerusalem
Chamber, and that no one dare to retain any copies, much less reprint them,
upon pain of being severely proceeded against as enemies to the present
Establishment.
5. That you also condemn to the flames Salmasius’s Defensio Regia, Dr. du
Moulin’s Clamor Sanguinis Regis contra Parricidas Anglicanos, all the Works of
Judge Jenkins, Archbishop Usher’s power of the Prince and obedience of the Subject
stated, several pieces of Bishop Bramhall and Dr. Fern, Mr. Diggs of the
Unlawfulness of taking up Arms against the King, Bishop Maxwells Sacrosancta
regum majestas, the Pestilent book of Dr. Falkner called Christian Loyalty,
Dr. Sherlocks discourse about Non-resistance, and Dr. Hicks’s Jovian, with several others upon
the same argument, which we leave to your great wisdom and zeal. But however we cannot
but mention, as most worthy your Censure, the three Decrees of the University of Oxford,
the one made against the Learned and Orthodox Paræus 1622. the other against the Solemn
League and Covenant, and the third in the year 1683. wherein they condemn’d a great number
of the best Advocates for our Cause, and after they had pass’d it in the Convocation House, Nemine
Contradicente, went into the Schools Quadrangle, and burnt those excellent Books which
had done us so much service, by the hand of a contemptible Fellow, one Figger, Beadle of
the Beggars; but above all, we expect that you would set a particular brand, and mark of disgrace
upon the History of Passive Obedience, and the Bishop of Chichester’s Declaration upon his receiving
the Sacrament, not long before he died, and Vote them both to be Libels, they being very
dangerous Papers, and what will do you and us a great deal of mischief, unless they be condemn’d
by this Sacred Synod.
6. That you take effectual care to make the Reverend Dr. T--- tho otherwise we have a
great value and honour for him, as being entirely in our Interests, publickly recant that ill-penn’d
and ill-contrived Letter, which he wrote to the great, but unfortunate Lord R--- a little
before his Execution; that Letter having done us and our Cause, as much prejudice as his
[illegible] and that Dr. S--- ask forgiveness upon his
knees in K. Henry the 7ths Chappel, for his indiscreet, and unseasonable Zeal, in daring to call
in his Sermon, Preached the 30th day of January last, before the lower of House Convention, the
Doctrine of Deposing and Murdering Kings a Popish Antichristian Doctrine, and that Dr. S----- be
obliged under the forfeiture of his Preferment, to answer his own Sermons, and in case of refusal,
to be made incapable of any Preferment for the future; and if, notwithstanding all this,
the said Doctor should continue resty and obstinate, that you would appoint a Committee to
draw up materials for an answer; of which Committee, we desire that the Pious and Judicious
Mr. Ash----t may be Chairman and Director.
7. That you would speedily cause to be publish’d in elegant Latin, a book De jure regni
apud Anglos, Dialogue wise, after the way of the incomparable Buchanan; and an Apology for
the Church of England, for the information of the Reformed Churches beyond Sea, and all
others, who may be so curious as to [e*ire] into the reasons of your behaviour and conduct
in your late stupendious, and never to be forgotten Revolution.
8. That you would please for the common concern of Christianity, and to shew to the
whole world, that you are Latitudinarians as well in your judgment as your practice, to widen
the terms of your Communion, add for the sake of honest Tom Firmin, and his brethren the Socinians,
Arrians, Anabaptists, Quakers, Muggletonians, and Sweet Singers of Israel all of which we
look upon as Protestants, forasmuch as this is the known denomination of the common Doctrine of
the Western part of Christendom, in opposition to the errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome, and we
believe all these do hate, detest, and abominate those errors and corruptions, as much as you
and we do leave out of the Liturgy the Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds, which hinder a great
many godly people from joyning with you; and who knows, but that by this Comprehensive
Charity, you may induce the Turks, as soon as the News of it shall be communicated to the
Grand Seignior and the Mufti at Constantinople, to turn Christians; and that such a Form of
sound words may be drawn up, in which all sorts of Perswasions here in England, Holland,
and Poland may agree, except Jews, Papists, and the New Schismaticks, upon whom the Government,
we doubt not, as the Reverend Author of the Letter, relating to the present Convocation,
does very wisely suggest, will lye very heavy, so that they will be crushed and fall to nothing.
Lastly, that out of a wise and careful regard to the blessed effects of Union and Peace, and
out of a just respect to the Churches of Holland, Switzerland and Geneva, you will shew your
selves men of that temper and moderation, which some of you promised you would be when ever
it lay in your power, which blessed time we hope now is come for Toleration, and an utter
extinction of the Penal Statutes, which at another time we would have been extream glad of,
we hope was not the only favour, tho a great one, you design’d us and that in the further
prosecution of that good temper, we expect that you should comply with the wise and peaceable
proposals made in all our Names, by our dear brother in his healing attempt; and that you
stand not so stiff upon the establish’d Constitution, but admit our Ordinations to be as good and
valid as your own; without which Concession, we think it our duty, as it becomes honest and
conscientious men, who are afraid to dissemble, to acquaint you in plain downright English,
that let your alterations in the Liturgy and Canons be never so many, and your Condescentions never so
great, in order to gain us as the Reverend President advised you, whose wonderful Charity
towards us, and kindness for us and our Principles, we can never sufficiently extol we neither
will, nor can ever unite with you, or be of your Church. And to encline you, or rather force
you by a very powerful and convincing argument, to comply with us herein, we desire you to
set before your Eyes the Church of Scotland, where Episcopacy being wholly abolished, and their
Revenues seized to the Uses of the State, Presbytery is become the Church-Government of that Kingdom;
and that as our dear Brethren, the Scotch Covenanters, freed us once by their kind assistance,
from the Yoke and Tyranny of your Predecessors, so we doubt not, but that upon occasion,
except you shall relent toward us, they will rescue us once more out of your hands.
These proposals we humbly lay before your Reverences, hoping that you will take them into
your serious consideration, and receive them with all Christian temper and moderation, and
gratifie us in these our just Requests, which will be your Interest as well as ours, in order to
a perfect Settlement; ours will be the comfort, and yours the glory, and we, and all our Ages
to come, will call you blessed Reconcilers and Peacemakers, and Repairers of the breaches
of our English Sion. And your Petitioners shall ever pray, &c.
FINIS.