The Grand Debate Between Bishops and Presbyterian Divines, Document 2 · Reply 3 – Section 3
Reply. Pardon us while we deſire you to examine whether you ſpeak as members that ſuffer with thoſe that ſuffer, or rather as inſenſible of the calamities of your Brethren, that is as uncharitable: You ſay you lived in peace, but ſo did not the many thouſands that were fain to ſeek them peaceable habitations in Holland, and in the Deſarts of America, nor the many thouſands that lived in danger of the High Commiſſion, or Biſhops Courts at home, and ſo in danger of every malicious neighbour that would accuſe them, hearing Sermons abroad, when they had none at home, or of meeting in a Neighbours houſe to pray, or of not kneeling in the receiving of the Sacrament, &c. We would not have remembred you of theſe things, but that you neceſſitate us by pleading your peace in thoſe dayes, as an argument for the impoſing of the Liturgy. 2. Might not Scotland as ſtrongly argue from this Medium againſt the Liturgy, and ſay, before the Liturgy was impoſed on us, we had peace, but ſince then we have had no peace. 3. When the ſtrict impoſing of the ſtrict uſe and practice of theſe forms, was the very thing that diſquieted this Nation, (taking in the concomitant Ceremonies and ſubſcription) when this was it that bred the Diviſions which you complain of, and cauſed the ſeparations from the Churches, and the troubles in the Churches; it is no better arguing to ſay, we muſt return to the ſtrict uſe of that form if we will have peace, than it was in the Iſraelites to ſay, we will worſhip the Queen of Heaven, becauſe then we had peace and plenty, when that was it that deprived them of peace and plenty, (we compare not the Cauſes, but the Arguments) nor is it any better an Argument, than if a man in a Dropſie, or Ague, that catcht it with voracity, or intemperance, ſhould ſay, while I did eat and drink liberally, I had no Dropſie or Ague, but ſince my appetite is gone, and I have lived temperately, I have had no health, Ergo I muſt return to my intemperance, as the only way to health. Alas, is this the uſe that is made of all our experiences of the cauſes and progreſſe of our Calamities? what have you, and we, and all ſmarted as we have done, and are you ſo ſpeedily ready to return to the way that will engage you in violence againſt them that ſhould be ſuffered to live in peace? If the furnace that ſhould have refined us, and purified us all to a greater height of love, have but inflamed us to greater wrath, wo to us and to the Land that beareth us! what dolefull things doth this prognoſticate you, that priſons or other penalties will not change mens Judgements? And if it drive ſome to comply againſt their Conſciences, and deſtroy their Souls, and drive the more conſcientious out of the Land, or deſtroy their bodies, and breed in the minds of men a rooted opinion, that Biſhops that are ſtill hurting and afficting them, (even for the things in which they exerciſe the beſt of their underſtanding, and cautelouſly to avoid ſin againſt God) are no Fathers, Friends, or edifyers, but deſtroyers. Alas! who will have the gain of this? O let us no more bite, and devour one another, leaſt we be devoured one of another. Gal. 5. 15. or Chriſt be provoked to decide the Controverſie more ſharply than we deſire or expect. 4. But really hath liberty to forbear the Liturgy produced ſuch diviſions as you mention? The Licence or connivance that was granted to Hereticks, Apoſtates, and foul-mouthed raylers againſt the Scripture, Miniſtry, and all Gods Ordinances, indeed bred confuſions in the Land; But it is to us matter of admiration to obſerve (clean contrary to your intimation) how little diſcord there was in Prayer, and other parts of Worſhip among all the Churches throughout the three Nations, that agreed in Doctrine, and that forbore the Liturgy. It is wonderfull to us in the review to conſider, with what love, and peace, and concord, they all ſpoke the ſame things, that were tyed to no form of words, even thoſe that differed in ſome points of Diſcipline, even to a with-drawing from locall communion with us, yet ſtrangely agreed with us in worſhip. And where have there been leſſe Hereſies, Schiſms, than in Scotland, where there was no ſuch Liturgy to unite them? If you tell us of thoſe that differ from us in Doctrine, and are not of us, it is as impertinent to the point of our own agreement in Worſhip, as to tell us of the Papiſts.
[And the beſt expedients to unite us all to that again, and ſo to peace, are, beſides our prayers to the God of Peace, to make us all of one mind in an houſe, to labour to get true humility, which would make us think our Guides wiſer, and fitter to order us than we our ſelves, and Chriſtian Charity, which would teach us to think no evil of our Superiors, but to judge them rather carefull Guides, and Fathers to us, which being obtained, nothing can be imagined juſtly to binder us from a ready complyance to this method of Service appointed by them, and ſo live in unity.