when the Parliament so far believed it as to make Penal Laws a good sign they were in earnest upon that occasion Some think the best evidence we have for the Popish Plot is the credit given to it by Parliament now suppose a Papist of equal credit with our Author should say the Popish Plot was a Sham-plot for it is as easily said would he or others therefore believe him or not rather think he casts an unhandsom reflection on that Venerable and Sage Assembly Our Author reflects undecently upon King Charles the Second because upon the account of his Subjects he made War upon the Protestant States of Holland he might have remembred that that was no more than the long Presbyterian Parliament had done in the times of the late Rebellion and that the attempt to take their Smyrna Fleet was no more robbing than that to take the Spanish Plate-fleet and far more justifiable than the designed surprize of Hispaniola How little the Protestant States of Holland care for the Protestant Religion or for the Crown of England tho their best and truest Friend in Queen Elizabeth's time their carriage towards her Successors at several times since at Amboyna Moscovia Siam the Island of Fornosa Bantam c. are sufficient evidences and shew us what we may expect from them whensoever we have no other security than the Protestant Religion he that is not satisfied herewith let him try them farther Ictus piscator sapit 2. 〈…〉 They hinder love between Ministers and the People Ceremonies or the use of them cannot hinder love between Ministers and People but when certain Men calling themselves Ministers of the Gospel tho their Mission be at best precarious and they both teach and practise things contrary to it who by false criminations and injurious Railings founded in ignorance and carried on with design possess blind Zealots with a false opinion of their being Antichristian and enflame fierce and turbulent Spirits with their exclamations against them as Popish are suffered at their pleasure to sacrifice to their own Nets they may by such Artifices hinder love between Teachers and their People yet all this Out-cry against Ceremonies is used for a pretence to promote Interests if no Ceremonies were used and consequently this pretence were wanting they would soon find others as we may see in Scotland where there are none enjoined We live in a knowing Age People see the vanity of those things on which some among us place all their Zeal He must certainly be both an ignorant Fellow and conscious of it who is afraid of his Hearers's becoming too knowing for him It is a great part of a Teacher's business to instruct them and the greater fruits he can reap of his own labours or their industry or both the better I heartily wish all the Men in England were much more knowing judicious and wise than they are and that amongst other Reasons for this also that so they might see the vanity of placing and spending all their Zeal in their opposition to such innocent and indifferent things as Vestments which they never wear and Gestures which they seldom use for the Dissenters violent opposition and separation supposing it conscientious and not pretended upon the account of Gestures Habits and those three innocent ancient and Catholick Ceremonies retained in our Church but not imposed upon the Laity are as great and cogent Arguments of their ignorance and superstition as the Papist's gentle embracing and receiving such a multitude many whereof are Novel and some unjustifiable upon the Authority of their Church only here is the difference made by an advantage on their side they do it out of a principle of Peace Unity Submission and Obedience which is the Parent of Virtue but these act out of a proud schismatical contentious and disobedient Disposition which is the mother of Vice They value us only for Piety Sobriety and Diligence I wish they would value the learned Men of our Church for their Piety Sobriety and Diligence which if they would those qualifications being very reconcileable with all and more Ceremonies than are used in our Church such Persons using them should more rationally beget a good opinion of the Ceremonies than the Ceremonies in themselves innocent an ill opinion of them that use them 3. They hinder the Communion of Churches Pag 〈◊〉 We have stood at so great a distance from other Reformed Churches If there be too great a distance between us and other Reformed Churches the fault is not therefore on our side but on their's who made a farther Secession and Separation from the Catholick Church of Christ than was either necessary or lawful and cannot be excused any better than by the iniquity of the times Apol. 〈◊〉 Confeâ—â—â—ne 〈◊〉 Exanâ—â— Cens 〈…〉 and the necessity of their Affairs and Circumstances which divers of the Reformers in other Countries have both acknowledged and lamented It hath been the concern of some that wanting the concurrence of Authority they could not bring their Reformation to the same perfection as ours and indeed the greatest defects of ours must be imputed to the want of Authority and the licentiousness and refractoriness of the People In the mean time I know none of the Reformed Churches except perhaps the Lutherans upon the account of their retaining Images and holding Consubstantiation would or do refuse Communion with us but if any do it is more their fault than ours It is far more fit and reasonable that they should by endeavouring to arrive at greater Perfection make their advances towards us who retain the Primitive and Catholick Government than that we receding from it should decline to their popular and imperfect Model whose Antiquity is only sufficient to make it the parent of Confusion and subdivisions and hath in its effects and consequences been more fatal to Europe than the Spanish Inquisition See Hâ—â—â—ry of 〈◊〉 Presbâ—â— Our Author 's politick contrivance which follows in his Pamphlet when Men are or will be all of one mind which the abolishing all the Church Customs and Ceremonies he can name or think on will never make them may take place but in the mean time is as much impracticable as an Union of Diffenters amongst themselves Our Author seeming to be out of breath and to have lost himself in a tedious railing Ramble pretends to turn from the warm Men forgetting himself to be of the number hath changed his Object but not his Subject so that in the following Harangue directed to the Pious and learned Pastours of the Church I need not here as new observe the virulency malice and bitter and calumnious railing at it for the whole contexture of his Pamphlet is in such language as sufficiently argues him a very unfit Man to be a Moderator much less a Peace maker As to the Prophetick part both of it and the Pamphlet As I think he hath given no great indications of his being endued with the spirit of Prophecy So
he is welcome he will do good service he needs not fear the Law is on his Side Criminals ought to be brought to Justice and he may expect a Reward however he hath malice enough towards Clergy-men and perhaps for their sakes to the Priest ridden Gentlemen to discover them if he knew them and therefore unless he doth so what he says ought in all reason to be esteemed as a notorious Calumny and Libel and our Author to be dealt with accordingly Who brought Ireland and Scotland into their late and present condition is very well known 〈◊〉 6. All the pious sober and moderate Clergy-men are for a Union I believe they are so but all the Question is how we shall attain it an abundance of Men have undertaken to dictate to the Convocation many whereof have like the Cobler in the Proverb who went beyond his Last judged of things beyond the Verge of their knowledge and prescrib'd Methods both unreasonable and impracticable Our Author cannot be thought to have contributed to the cure but must be accounted amongst those unskilful Operators who instead of lessening and removing have only increas'd our Maladies and made them more incurable for in lieu of Wine and Oyl he hath brought Gall and Vinegar to pour into the Churches Wounds The account he gives of the rest of the Clergy is such as can be called no less than an heap of malicious false suggestions and slanderous railing accusations and deserves and admits of no particular answer If I should say of his magnify'd Clients the Dissenting Teachers some are whimsical Enthusiasts and not worthy our regard some are ignorant Dunces and incompetent Judges some are Proud and Hypocritical Pharisees and separate as their Predecessors amongst the Jews to be thought more holy than others that their Glory and Triumph consists in leading filly Women captive that instead of the Solid and Practical Doctrins taught in the Church of England they entertain their seduc'd and beguil'd Disciples with useless canting and unintelligible Phrases that their separation from our Communion was not so much out of Conscience as out of Pride Peevishness and Love of opposition to their Superiors in Church and State that they study more to avoid the scandal than the vice and differ from the most profane but as he who wears a Vizor from him who goes bare-fac'd that they all drive on a Carnal and Worldly Interest and do but maintain a Faction to be maintained by it I should do violence to my inclinations and intentions and write with almost as little civility and shew of good breeding but with far more truth and modesty than he hath done concerning the Clergy of the Established Church Our Author for fear his successive cajoling and railing should not prevail with the Church of England to part with those ancient Rites and laudable Customs wherein she holds Communion with the Primitive and Catholick Churches whereby she justifies her separation from the Roman and performs the solemn Worship of God with decency and uniformity in her own Publick Assemblies which her Pious and Prudent Reformers and Fathers recommending unto Authority are secured unto us by Laws and Constitutions and he in contempt calls Ceremonies proceeds now at length to threatnings to frighten her Members into a compliance and to this purpose he tells our Clergy-men that in the next Rebellion the People viz. the Dissenters will be severely reveng'd on them Pag. 〈◊〉 make sure work with them I suppose he means by cutting their Throats for that is as secure a way as any I know and totally extirpate them Whether our Author speaks these things experimentally from what some suffered in the late Rebellion or prophetically by vertue of his talent that way let the learned judge however we may see what manner of Spirit he and his Clients are of and how fit he is to be a Peace-maker and what manner of stuff he hath proposed to the Convocation he might well have called his Pamphlet the second part of the Healing Attempt As for those dreadful Comminations who can deny their being probable What passed between the Years 1635. and 1660. is sufficient to teach us that the usage of Presbyterians and Papists to those in their Power is much alike and that when they shall have the same or the like opportunities an indissolvible House of Commons to protect them and the Rabble to fight for them and their Brethren of Scotland to assist them they may expect the same or a worse Persecution for what fair Quarter can they look for when Kings are beheaded c. But in the mean time what would he have them to do to pull down their Churches themselves for fear the Dissenters should do it This is but for a Man to hang himself for fear of dying In the next National Deluge of Rebellion and Bloodshed which our Author Prophesies to be at hand and our Friends the Dissenters true Lovers of Peace desirers of Union and upholders of Monarchy in pursuance of their Solemn League and Covenant and for the establishment of their Godly Discipline shall bring upon us and therein overwhelm our Church and State they do not expect to escape nor are covetous to survive them and yet at present are not willing either to be the Authors of or to anticipate their own misery 2. Our danger of losing all our lately recovered Rights 〈…〉 if by our Divisions we should again let in the Common Enemy That our Church's parting with all her Liturgy Rites Ceremonies and what else our Author hath confidence enough to ask would not re-unite the Dissenters to the Establish'd Church I shall elsewhere endeavour to make apparent I shall therefore here only observe that in this time of danger all the Dissenters even the most Potent Interests as well as the lesser Sects would do well and wisely since better Motives will not prevail with them to re-unite themselves with the Church of England but to exhort the Church of England to go over to any of them is not so proper or decent The Agreement of the Church of England with Scripture and the Primitive and Catholick Church both in Doctrin and Government the moderation of her Reformation Her Apologies Defences and Vindications of her self and practices from the Calumnies of the Church of Rome and Separatists her Orthodoxness of Principles Regularity of Constitutions and Legal Establishments to which I might add the Personal obligations a great part of the Nation is under not to endeavour any alterations in the Government of either Church or State as by Law established all prohibit it and make it unequal and unreasonable And farther that if the Church of England will not for these and other reasons part with any Rite Ceremony laudable Custom or Constitutions till the Dissenters shall prove them unlawful or shew her better motives so to do yet there is therefore nothing the more danger of losing all our lately recovered Rights by letting in again the Common
of our Modern Presbyterians seeing themselves supplanted by the Independents have degenerated as the Episcopacy by Law Established and therefore would be little satisfactory to the Dissenters or available to the effecting a re-union I might add that their insisting only upon Power of Orders and Jurisdiction the two chief Prerogatives and distinguishing Characters of Bishops no otherways necessary to the discharge of the Ministerial Function in a Parochial Congregation than as by our Church prescribed and by our Laws allowed and commanded is an evidence that it is not conscience which troubles them but the old contention which shall be greatest that their desire of the multiplication of Bishops or rather the Consecration of Chorepiscopi to the number of the quondam Rural Deans must be supposed to proceed from hopes of their advancement at least to some of those many small Sees or from some worse design As for the words of the Disciplinarian we may see by them how far the Presbyterian Principles when asserted in their proper Latitude will extend and that the Prosecution of them would abolish not only Canonical Ordination that Spiritual and Paternal Oversight of both Pastors and Flock which would tend to the Peace Unity and Good of the whole but also the Episcopal Order it self which immediately succeeded to the Administration of the Apostles and hath continued in the Government of the Primitive and Universal Church of Christ in all Ages from their Deaths till the last Century As it would be a very bold attempt to presume to abolish remove or weaken the Primitive and Catholick Government of the Church by Episcopacy which was evidently at least Jure Apostolico Established in the first Ages of it to introduce the novel humane invention of Presbytery So it would not be a little imprudent and unsafe in regard of State Government since it would undermine the Monarchy by the very same means and methods as Popery viz. by depriving the King of his Supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons by elevating the Presbytery above him by exalting every little Mas John to be a Popeling and investing him with the same absolute Authority in his Parish as the Pope of Rome challenges over the World by an exemption of the Presbyterian Teachers from the Civil Jurisdiction making their assembling of Synods to depend upon their own and not the Prince's pleasure and by the Preaching their Doctrins of the lawfulness and their obligations to propagate and defend their Religion and Kirk-Government by Arms will certainly by a gradual diminution of the King's Prerogative and Authority lessen his Power to that degree that whensoever they please to exert their democratical Principles and animate the Populace easily influenced under pretence of Conscience with the hopes of plunder into such an Insurrection as may reduce this Kingdom if not the three to the same or a worse condition than they were in in 1641. c. And thereby the Government of both Church and State be swallowed up in Anarchy and Confusion out of which if they become not a prey to some Puissant Foreign Enemy the vast expences of Blood and Treasure the Nation will be put to the many divisions and separate interests will be in it the contentions of the Schismaticks which shall be uppermost c. will hinder a re-establishment of Monarchy or a settlement of any form of Government more perfect than that which is most agreeable to the Presbyterian and Independent Discipline of a Democracy which amongst so fickle and unconstant People must needs be short-liv'd and during its continuance by reason of its own proper inconveniencies and inherent defects is but a degree above confusion III. The Schism which the Dissenters have made from the Church of England whatsoever may be pretended was not really made upon the account of any thing contained in our Liturgy any Ceremonies in use in our Publick Worship or any subscriptions enjoyn'd by our Laws as in themselves contrary to their Judgments in case of Conscience as appears because 1st None of the Dissenters have hitherto with any cogent Arguments proved any of them unlawful and therefore can have no reasonable cause or lawful Warrant to either make or continue a Schism if it be said They doubt of the lawfulness of some of them I answer That is not enough to excuse the Schism which unless it be to avoid the doing of that which is evidently sinful is always unlawful and criminal The Obligations to Order Peace Unity Charity and Communion with the Church of Christ to obedience to our Ecclesiastical Superiours their Constitutions and Canons and to our Civil Governors and their legal establishments in indifferent things and the circumstantials of Religion are derived from Divine Authority of an Eternal Nature and so far binding as not to admit of a Relaxation unless plain and notorious sin be positively commanded for otherwise to separate would be both to omit a certain duty for fear of being guilty of a possible mistake and to commit an evident and aggravated sin of many pernicious consequences to avoid the transgression of a single Precept either not existent or at least not evident Doubts under pretence of Conscience are usually made to shroud a perverse disobedient humour or some sinister design not willing to appear above-board Thus a Man being called to give an evidence which he knows will endanger his Friends Interest Liberty or Life not willing either to damnifie him or perjure himself as a mean expedient to prevent both he pretends that he did not hear the words or that he doth not remember them So here the Dissenter not being able to prove any thing contained in our Liturgy or the innocent and decent gestures of standing and kneeling observed in the use of it for nothing else is enjoyned the Congregation in our Publick Worship unlawful nor willing to own the true causes of his Schism pretends he doubts but the unhappiness of it is that in the former case the answer doth not avoid the perjury nor in the latter the doubts take away the Hypocrisie and guilt of Schism and are no more than mere evasions for there is nothing but hath or may be doubted or at least be pretended so to be and if every such pretence should be allowed nothing can be commanded nor no order decency or uniformity observed 2. The greatest part by far of the Dissenters are such as never examined or seriously considered our Liturgy Articles Rites Ceremonies Constitutions or Customs or any other of their Teachers pretences for their separation a considerable number of them are such as never saw nor heard them and are not qualified either to read or understand them and scarce any of them can say in their own defence that they have sought any satisfaction at home by reading impartially such Treatises as the Divines of our Church have written to explain defend and vindicate them or abroad from the several Pastors under whose care and charge Providence and the