A Modest and Peaceable LETTER CONCERNING Comprehension, etc.  
LONDON, Printed in the Year 1668.   

A LETTER Concerning COMPREHENSION.  
Good Cousin,  
I Am right sorry, that the Parliaments casting out the Bill of Comprehension should so much concern you as to put you into such a passion as you expressed against them, and me, at our last night's meeting. Sure the Company you now converse with, and the strange Principles with which they have now possessed you, have altered your nature, and turned your former reason into prejudice, and unbelief; if not, you would have believed what I did so seriously affirm to be a known truth: namely, That this Age is not more severe against the disturbers of the settled Peace and Government of the Church and State, than they were in the very happy days of our Good Queen Elizabeth. Some of the Reasons why I said so, I do with very much affection tender to your Consideration, and to your Censure to; and that the last may be the more charitable, and you not apt to make the errors or failings of your Governors seem more or greater than indeed they are; let me entreat that you remember what I have very often said to you; namely, That malicious men (of whom really I do not take you to be one) are the best Accusers, and the worst Judges. And indeed I fear it would prove to be a bitter truth, if some had that power which too many labour for in these days, in which Schism and Sedition are taken to be no sins; by men who pretend a tenderness of Conscience in much smaller matters.  
And that I may keep some order, and you be the better satisfied in what I intent in this Letter; I earnestly entreat that you will at your next leisure read in Mr. Cambdens' true History of the Life and Reign of our Good Queen Elizabeth; in which you may find what care was then taken to prevent Schism and the sad confusion that attends it; and, how the Contrivers of Libels, and dispersers of them have been severely punished, many of them even to death; as namely, Henry Barrow, and many of his Sectaries for disturbing the public peace of the Nation, by scattering abroad their monstrous Opinions; as also, for affirming the Church of England to be no true Church; and the like. As you may find written by the said Mr. Cambden in the thirty-sixth year of that Good Queen's Reign.  
But I commend more especially to your Consideration, the story and sad death of Hacket, and his Adherents; as namely, of Wiginton, Arthington, and Copinger, all of one Sect and Brotherhood: But I say I do most seriously commend to your Consideration the beginning and death of the said Hacket; who was first but a Schismatic, and stopped not there, but became by degrees so fully possessed by the evil spirit, the spirit of pride and opposition, that he publicly reviled the Queen, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chancellor; and at last became so infamous an Heretic, that he was condemned to death for his errors; at which time he reviled and cursed his Judges; and died blaspheming and reproaching his Creator: This you may read in the Thirty-fourth year of Queen Elizabeth, as it is written by honest learned Mr. Cambden, who concludes this story of Hacket with this observation, Thus doth the enemy of Mankind bewitch those men whom he seethe are not content to be wise unto sobriety. These stories I say, and too many like them, you may find in Mr. Cambd. Hist. of Q. Eliz. and you may find the like in Bishop Spots woods History of the Church of Scotland; and also the like in Mr. Fuller's History of the Church of Great Briton; and you may there find also, what labour hath been used by the discontented Non-conformists to unsettle the Government of the Church, and consequently of the State; and may there also find, how severely many of them have been punished: So that you need not wonder at what I said last night; not think these the only times of persecuting men of tender Consciences. And for the better Confirmation of what I now write to you, I will refer you toone Testimonymore in the time of our peaceful K. James, and you may view it, in the second Volume of the Reports of Judge Crook, a man very Learned in the Law. But I shall first tell you the occasion of that Report, which was this, The Non-conformists (which are in that Report called by the name of Puritans) had given out that the King had an intent to set up or give a Toleration to Popery; and they had also composed a large Petition complaining of the severity of some usage, and of some Laws that concerned themselves, and desired that the severity of those Laws might be mitigated; and other like desires were in the said petition; to which they had procured not less than seven hundred hands, and the close of it was, That if these desires were not granted, many thousands of his subjects would be discontented: Which indeed was not a threatening, but was understood to be somewhat like it. This report of his Majesty's intent to set up or tolerare Popery, begot many fears and discontents in the Nation, and to prevent greater disturbances the King did appoint many of his Privy Council, and all the Judges of the Land, to meet together in the Star-Chamber; in which Assembly the Lord Chancellor declared to them the occasion of this their public Convention; and asked the Judges this following question. (As you may read it in the very same words in the said Learned Judges Reports in the second year of the Reign of King James.)  Whether it were an ofsence punishable, and what punishment they deserved, who framed petitions and collected a multitude of hands thereto, to prefer to the King in a public cause as the Puritans had done, with an intimation to the King, that if he denied their suit, many thousands of his Subjects would be discontented: Whereto all the Judges answered that it was an ofsence sinable at discretion, and very near Treason and Felony in the punishment; for, they tended to the raising sedition, rebellion and discontent among the People: To which resolution all the Lords agreed. And then many of the Lords declared, That some of the Puritans had raised a false rumour of the King, That he intended to grant a Toleration to Papists: Which ofsence the Judges conceived to be heinously finable by the rules of the Common Law, either in the Kings-Bench, or by the King and his Council; or now, since the Statute of the Third of Henry the Seventh in the Star-Chamber. And the Lords severally declared, How the King was discontented with the said false rumour, and had made but the day before a Protestation to them, that he never intended it; and, that he would spend the last drop of blood in his body, before he would do it; and prayed that before He or any of his Issue should maintain any other Religion than what he truly professed and maintained, That God would take them out of the World. 
This you may find in the Reports of that Learned Judge as it was left amongst many other of his Reports, all exactly written with his own hand; and as they are now published by Sir Harebottle Grimstone who now is the worthy Master of the Rolls. And you may note that the said Reports were published in the year 1658, at which time Oliver the Tyrant was in his full power; and you may there find that all his Judges allowed these Reports to be made public, and subscribed their Names to them; and with Oliver's consent doubtless: for, he had found that those very Non-conformists, whose Sedition helped him into his power, became after a short time as restless and discontent, as they were with their lawful King; and indeed as willing to pull him down, as they had been diligent to set him up.  
Dear Cousin! these Places to which I have referred you for a Testimony of what I said are not to be doubted; and, though you would not then give any credit to what I assured you I knew to be a truth; yet I hope you now will.  
And now seriously Sir! let me appeal to your own Conscience, and ask how easily would you have given credit to any stranger, that had brought you news of any error committed by any Bishop or their chaplains; or by any of the Conformable Clergy, though there were not any reasonable Probability for it. Dear Cousin consider what I say, and consider there is a great stock of innocent blood to be answered for; not only the blood of our late Virtuous King, and the blood of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Lord Strafford, but the blood of many good and innocent Families, that now eat the bread of sorrow, by being impoverished and undone; and which is worse, there is a corruption of the manners of the greatest part of the Nation to be answered for; and all this occasioned by our late Civil War; and that War, occasioned by the discontented restless Non-conformists; and them only, for till then we knew not the name of Independent, or of Seiker, or Quaker. Cousin, these are the sad effects of these busy bodies; many of whom, God hath still so blinded that they cannot yet see the errors they have run themselves and the Nation into; nay, that would imbroile it again into greater ruin rather than not be complied with in their peevish desires and designs. Dear Cousin, I will not say all; but indeed, too many of the men with whom you comply and do so much magnify, are too like Simeon and Levi that were Brethren in this iniquity. And as you love the peace of the Church, in which you were Baptised; and the peace of the Land in which you were born, and live, and enjoy what you have; nay, as you love the peace of your own Soul draw back and let it not enter any more into their Counsels or Confederacy; but at last take notice that though neither you nor any of your Associates scruple at the sin of Sedition, but rush into it without Consideration or fear, even as a Horse rushes into the battle; yet, I pray take notice that St. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians, reckons it with the deeds of the flesh, even with murder and Witchcraft, which you so much abhor; and many think Sedition a more heinous sin than they, by reason of the more evil and more destructive effects of it: for, murder may become so by taking away the life of but one single person: and witchcraft hath its limits and bounds set to it, perhaps not to take away the life of any man, but only to do mischief to a single person, or a Family; and must end there: But who knows the limits of Sedition? or, when the fire is kindled which is intended by seditious men, who can, who is able to quench it? And for some proof of the miserable effects of it, though I might give you too many sad instances of them in former times; yet I will only refer you to the late Long Parliament now fresh in memory, and the woeful effects of that Civil War, begot and maintained by seditious discontented men.  
And for the sorrow you express for those men of tender Consciences, that are scandalised at wearing a Surplice, kneeling at receiving the Sacrament, the Cross in Baptism and the like; and would have them therefore taken away, that so many, so learned, and so godly Men might by taking them away, be brought to a Conformity and made capable of preaching the Gospel, which otherwise they cannot do, being scandalised at these Ceremonies. I now ask you what if more men? and more learned men? and more godly men? and as tender conscioned men shall be scandalised by their being taken away? What care will you or those of your party take for their tender Consciences? Nay, I ask again, what if we shall forget or neglect the tender Consciences of our own party, and comply with yours? What security can you or they give us, that this shall satisfy them so as to ask no more when this is granted? Or that a year hence their Disciples, or their Successors shall rest satisfied with what is now granted? Really, I cannot think any security can be given, but that this being granted, yet any man of a melancholy, or a malicious, or a peevish, or a fantastical, or a wanton Conscience; or a Conscience that inclines to get reputation and Court applause, may call his own a tender Conscience, and become seditious and restless, if his tender Conscience be not complied with.  
I shall next satisfy your desire, or rather your challenge, why I go so constantly to the Church Service; and my answer shall be in all love and in sincerity. I go to adore and worship my God who hath made me of nothing, and preserved me from being worse than nothing. And this I do inwardly in my Soul; and testify it outwardly by my behaviour; as namely, by forbearing to cover my head in that place dedicated to God, and only to his Service; and also by standing up at the profession of the Creed, which contains the several Articles that I and all true Christians profess and believe; and also by standing up at giving Glory to the Father, the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; and confessing them to be Three Persons, and but one God. And (secondly) I go to Church to praise my God for his many deliverances of me from the many dangers of my Body, and more especially of my Soul in sending me Redemption by the death of his Son my Saviour; and for the constant assistance of his Holy Spirit; a part of which Praise I perform frequently in the Psalms, which are daily read in the Public Congregation. And (thirdly) I go to Church publicly to confess and bewail my sins; and to beg pardon for them, for his merits who died to reconcile me and all Mankind unto God, who is both his and my Father; and for the Words in which I beg this mercy, they be the Litany and Collects of the Church, composed by those learned and devout men whom you and I have trusted to tell us which is, and which is not the written Word of God; and trusted to translate those Scriptures into English. And in these Collects you may note, that I pray for pardon of sin, and for grace to believe and serve God absolutely: but for health and peace, and plenty, for all these I pray conditionally, even so far as they may tend to his Glory, and the good of my Soul, and not further: and this confessing my sins, and begging mercy and pardon for them; I do by adoring my God, and the humble posture of kneeling on my knees before Him: and in this manner, and by reverend sitting to hear some chosen parts of God's Word read, in the public Assembly; I spend one hour of the Lords day every forenoon; and half so much time every evening. And since this uniform and devout custom of joining together in Public Confession and Praise, and Prayer, and adoration of God, and in one manner, hath been neglected; the power of Christianity and humble Piety is so much decayed, that it ought not to be thought on, but with sorrow and lamentation.  
And lastly, (for I am tedious beyond my intention) whereas you and your party would have the Bishops and Cathedral-Church-Lands sold to supply the present necessities of the Nation; I say, first God prevent the Nation from such necessities as shall make them guilty of so many Curses as have been by the Doners of those Lands entailed with those Lands upon those men, that alienate them to any other use than of those that shall serve at God's Altar; to which end the Priest's Portion was kept with Care and Conscience till the days of King Henry the Eighth, who is noted to make the first breach of those Oaths that were always taken and kept by his Predecessors, and taken by himself too, to preserve the Church-Lands; and it is noted, that he was the first Violator of those many Laws made also to preserve them; out of which Lands he took at the dissolution of the Abbeys a part for himself; exchanged a part with others that thirsted to thrive by the dissolution; and gave the rest to be shared amongst the Complying Nobility, and other Families, that then were in greatest power and favour with him; concerning which I refer you to a little Treatise written by the Learned Sir Henry Spelman, (called Do non temerandis Ecclesiis,) and especially to the Preface before it; in which you may find many sad Observations of the said King; and find there also, that more of the Nobility, and those other Families, and their Children that shared in the Church-Lands, came to die by the Sword of Justice, and other eminent misfortunes in twenty years, than had suffered in four hundred years before the dissolution; for a proof of which, he refers you to the Parliament Roles of the twentyseventh of that King. And to me it seems fit that the Observations of the ruin, and misfortune of the other Families that were sharers of the Church-Lands, made by that pious and learned Knight since the said twenty years, are not also made public; but possibly they may pair too near the quick, and are therefore yet forborn.  
I will say nothing of Queen Elizabeth; but for King James I will say he did neither follow King Henry's, nor her Precedent; and his children's Children sit this day upon his Throne. And for his Son, Charles the First, who is justly called the Martyr for the Church: He had also well considered the Oaths taken by all his Ancestors, and by Himself too at his Coronation; and therefore in his Book of Penitential Meditations and Vows, made in his Solitude and Imprisonment at Holmby; you may in that Chapter of the Covenant there find that at that time when he apprehended Himself near to death, yet that this was then his Resolution.  
The principal end of some men in this Covenant is the abasing of Episcopacy into Presbytery, and of robbing the Church of its Lands and Revenues; But I thank God as no man lay more open to the sacrilegious temptation of usurping them, (which issuing chief from the Crown, are held of it, and can legally revert only to the Crown with my consent) so I have always had such a perfect abhorrence of it in my soul, that I never found the least inclination to such sacrilegious reformings; yet no man hath a greater desire to have Bishops and all Churchmen so reformed that they may best deserve and use, not only what the pious munificence of my Predecessors have given to God and the Church, but all other additions of Christian bounty.  
But no necessity shall ever (I hope) drive me or mine to invade or sell the Priests Lands; which Pharaoh ' s Divinity and Joseph ' s true piety abhorred to do. I had rather live as my Predecessor Henry the Third sometimes did, on the Church's Alms than violently to take the Bread out of the Bishops and Ministers mouths.  
There are ways enough to repair the breaches of the state without the ruins of the Church; as I would be a restorer of the one, so I would not be an Oppressor of the other under the pretence of public debts, the occasions of contracting them were bad enough, but such a discharging of them would be much worse. I pray God neither I nor mine may be accessary of either.  
Sir, I have been longer than I intended; for which I crave your pardon; and I beg of God, that you may at last see and well consider the many errors that your indiscreet zeal hath led you into; and the many miseries it hath helped to bring upon others, and that for the remainder of your days you may redeem the time past, and study to be quiet, and to do your own business; to this I shall encourage you, and to live as unoffensively to others, and as strictly to yourself as you do intent, and by God's grace added to your endeavours, he shall make you able; and daily to practise an humble peaceable piety, so humble and peaceable a piety as may stop the mouths of all gainsayers; for, such holy and quiet living will bring peace at the last. And in this the Almighty give me grace to be like you.  Study to be quiet, and to do your own business, 1 Thes. 4. 11. 
Your Affectionate Friend, B. P. February the 18. 1667.  
FINIS.