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A62891 Short strictures or animadversions on so much of Mr. Croftons Fastning St Peters bonds, as concern the reasons of the University of Oxford concerning the covenant by Tho. Tomkins ... Tomkins, Thomas, 1637?-1675. 1661 (1661) Wing T1839; ESTC R10998 57,066 192

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which provokes their anger and Mr. Cr. like an angry Disputant confutes himself Is that our fault that we shew a peculiar respect to that part of it which peculiarly concerns our Saviour his Words and Works Our particular obligation assures us it were ill if it were otherwise Outward Reverence provided we do not let it serve in stead of but use it to signifie and promote inward cannot in that case be a crime But if to dignifie some parts of Scripture above others be a crime themselves are guilty as doing so to the Psalms of David only they are not Davids but Sternholds by singing them before every Sermon a thing in Scripture no where commanded But so have I seen a distempered person in spite to another beat himself The next thing considerable is p. 55 56. Christmas Easter c. and the Holy-days are superstitious plainly repugnant to Gal. 4.10 Col. 2.16 If the Feasts there mentioned were evidently not Christian Festivals I suppose I may safely conclude Christian Festivals not to be plainly forbid in that place where they are not so much as spoke of The Text in the Galatians mentions expresly Moneths and Years proportions of Time no way to be accommodated to Christian Festivals or then or now That in the Colossians is so plain that it must be a worse Principle than Inconsideration which occasioned the mistake not only because it expresses New Moons a thing not established by Christian Authority but in the words following the 17. verse gives a clear account of the unlawfulness of those Feasts of the Observance of which he there complains which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is Christ Those Feasts therefore were not reproved as having been commanded by any Christian Church which it is clear they were not but because they had in them not only a general malignity as being kept in Obedience to the Iewish Law and so must suppose that to be still in force but had besides a peculiar malignity in their nature being and for that very reason reproved a shadow of Christ to come and so consequently denyed His coming Now then all which can be gathered from this place is Christians must not keep Feasts which prefigured Christ to come Ergo they may not keep Feasts in remembrance that He is come There is a pretty piece of Divinity p. 56. to enforce the former Conclusion which no doubt would be admirable if it were but sense To observe the Nativity Circumcision Passion Resurrection Ascension severally is irrational and irreligious irrational because they are not in themselves Mercies to the Church but as they center in Mans Redemption irreligious because without Divine warrant That none of all these signal condescensions of Divine goodness should be esteemed in themselves Mercies or worth giving thanks for when Edge-Hill and Nasby Battails though but in order to the undoing of the King were so accounted argues a more passionate esteem and concernment for the Covenant of Scotland than that of Grace That it is irreligious because without Divine warrant is said but not proved For a thing becomes unlawful only by being against some Law that is by being forbidden not barely by being not commanded Our Saviour Christ we are sure observed Feasts which had not such Institution notwithstanding that prohibition which was as strict to the Iews whose Authority instituted those Feasts and in obedience to which He kept them as it can possibly be to us Ye shall not add c. Christ did indeed abolish the Ceremonial Law of the Iews and that was all He did abolish so as to make unlawful From hence men gather That it is ● sin for us to imitate them in any thing we find done by them according to the Principles and Dictates of Nature Gratitude c. as Feasts of Commemorations clearly are Though this is a Proposition sufficiently distant upon this pitiful ground without any more ado do men put off all which can be fetcht out of the Old Testament whereas though Christ abolisht the Ceremonial Law he left all other Laws and Rules as he found them But as Christ observed Feasts not instituted by divine Authority so possibly doth Mr. Cr the command in Scripture for Sunday being not so very clear that Mr. Cr. cannot but doubt to be Irreligion and Will-worship in his notions of those terms No man can ground it on the fourth Commandement that doth not take the seventh and first to be the same day i. e. Seven and one to be the same number If he will interpret the Seventh-day to signifie one in seven I desire to know whether the Iews might have observed which of the seven days they pleased and whether then the Reason of the fourth Commandement was not strangely impertinent to the Matter of it That being expressed to be For in the Seventh day God rested c. seeing that was the very seventh and no other and a command in the New-Testament for it I suppose is not to be found The next three leaves 57 58 59. are spent in proving what none ever denyed That There are several things in the Form of our Service and Discipline not commanded in the Word of God A thing comes to be unlawful sure by being forbid not by being uncommanded Seeing this is the only fault I ask Is the Directory the Form there prescribed in the Word of God I desire a direct Answer to that Can that pretend to anything but to be the result of Prudence and Authority Both Directory and Common-Prayer agree in that which the Directory was made to differ from the Liturgy in both were made by Men. The only imaginable difference is the one was made by those who had Authority the other by those who had none That the Scripture is a compleat Rule of Faith And what cannot be proved thereby as it is interpreted by that Original and unquestionable Tradition by which we receive the Scripture it self is not to be believed as a revealed Article of Faith We not only assert but in the defence of this Practice of ours whereby we are said to over-throw the Scriptures being a compleat Rule we contend for it as an advantagious Truth in this Cause Because this Doctrine Nothing is to be in Discipline or Order but what we find in Scripture is a Doctrine in Scripture no where to be found So that the very Accusation is the same Crime it would be thought to reprove And what is clear concerning this Principle is as clear concerning their Practice Till the Form and Order in the Directory prescribed be shewed to be so in the Bible too The demand of the Written Word for every particular of Order and Discipline is hugely plausible and senseless I will not throw away Reason upon unreasonable men to show the vanity of that admired tenent That whatever though but of Order Decency Discipline is not in the Written Word which is a compleat Rule for all is Will-Worship c. I shall
SHORT STRICTURES OR ANIMADVERSIONS On so much of Mr Croftons Fastning St Peters Bonds As concern the REASONS OF THE UNIVERSITY of OXFORD Concerning the Covenant By Tho. Tomkins Mr. of Arts and Fellow of All-Souls Coll. in Oxon. LONDON Printed by E. C. for A Seile over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet 1661. To the Reverend IOHN MEREDITH Doctor of Divinity and Warden of All-Souls Colledge in Oxford Honoured Sir BEfore I presume to beg your Patronage I must bespeak your Pardon You might indeed justly wonder how I should think my self able to judge what were material in this weighty Controversie did I not live in an age of so much Light that there are two things we are all able to do viz. to Reform a Church and Model a State There is a Fault I must confess in Our as in All Governments which as some men are resolved never to Pardon so I have no hope ever to see mended viz. That all are not uppermost There is an Objection will be made against this Innocent Treatise that it is wrote against Consciencious men I cannot deny but that the concerned Gentlemen are admirably furnished with Consciences for every occasion To prevent this Cavil my appeal is to You who know what conscience is having suffered so much to preserve a good one A tryal those Gentlemen were never very forward to undergo nor if my Augury fail me not ever mean to be That sacred thing or what was mistaken for it or at least called by that Name hath done strange things in this Nation which it highly concerns some to enquire whether it will justifie We read in Scripture of Obeying for conscience but not one word of Rebelling for it And yet men can do it and at the same time make the written Word the rule of their Action It first distinguished between the Kings Person and His Power and next between his head his shoulders And truly they who once divide the Kings Person and Power are concerned that they never unite again Because men do dayly disobey Laws upon the score of conscience and for that reason take themselves and are taken by others for Innocent I shall beg your leave to ask this Question Whether following Conscience is a sufficient Plea to quit us from sin even where it is so indeed To say nothing of those Universal Pretenders Artifice and Melancholy The Scripture maketh mention of seared Consciences reprobate minds which sure are no great perfections and of strong delusions which though they be new lights are but flashes of hell-fire And St. Paul reckons himself the greatest of sinners for what he did out of the dictates of conscience I my self thought verily that I ought to do many c. These are competent grounds of rendring that Tenent suspicious I ask therefore briefly Hath the conscience any rule besides it self or no If not How is the written Word of God the rule of Action If it have Whether it be possible for it to swerve from its Rule or no If not then every man is infallible there can be no such thing as strong delusions believing a lie c. If it be possible for conscience to swarve from its Rule whether its swarving be its Innocency For if it be not so it is no sufficient ground for men to conclude themselves innocent when they disobey Authority because it is their conscience so to do because the Word of God to which Conscience as well as other Faculties ought to be subject and sins when it is not prescribes obedience to Governours in the most universal terms imaginable I could not but say thus much because This is our conscience was the old non-conformists first plea and the latter in name only different Enthusiasts only plea and if it be a sufficient one it must hold in all cases as well as any because the reason is equal in all It may justifie those many who killed the King and those many more who killed our Saviour My want of years and judgement I shall not at all excuse but urge as my fitness for this employment It were a disparagement to the University of Oxford if such an Antagonist could not be answered by one of the meanest who can plead relation to so Renowned a Body The many weaknesses you will find in these papers are so many evidences that I came to Oxford in times of Reformation when Learning was counted little lesse then an enemy to Grace as indeed it was to what they called so Our Imperfections Honored Sir we blush not to discover to you whose goodness will not see them but only to remove them whose business is not so much to preside in a Colledge as to reform it to be our Warden as Example Like the Sun who when he rules the world enlightens it too when he shines he cherishes so that its most spendid Majesty is but Love in all its glory So your Commands are so many boons and injunctions endearments so that you do not rule but assist and oblige us and have now abundantly satisfyed the Obligation the Founder laid upon you of promoting the good of the Colledge to your uttermost by vouchsafing to take us into your particular care So that how mean soever this Present is from your self I am assured to learn how in time to come I may make a better And in the mean time glory that I can account my self Honored Sir Your most devoted and obliged Servant THO. TOMKINS All Souls Coll. Oxon Sept. 26. To the Reader READER I Very well foresee that many who are conscious to themselves that such things are possible will laugh and scorn at the Author of this Treatise as one who meant to write the sense of the Times rather then his own In the beginning therefore I bar all who have been themselves guilty of what they only suppose to be viz. Our late Complyers whose consciences have been in this sense tender that they might be bended any way And now I hope I have prevented my most numerous and severe Accusers But now I think on it I will release them too let them employ all their art and passion in telling the World how unworthy such Proceedings while they have been their own are For why should I hinder such men from laughing at themselves The worst all those can say of me is I am like them and that were bad enough if it were true This Account is civil enough for these men I should gladly afford them another if I had any reason to think so well of them that their Principles would not fail them if it should once happen that they would consist with their duty and that their beloved Rule Obey the present Power whatever it be Blasphemously called following Providence had not this one and that the only Exception Provided it be not the Lawful Power And sure there is too much Reason so to guess when those whose Consciences scrupled nothing under an Usurper scruple indifferent things under