which may be managed with a strong bit and bridle as you please This is the sense of Mr. A's words in his Preface and what hurt is there in them Do not all Protestants speak the same language And is it not better that men eâ—r in some things than that they put out their eyes and see with those of other men blindly following their conduct and submitting and assenting to all their Impositions But the Dr. will say Is Separation by reason of the levity of mens minds only a small or petty inconvenience In answer whereunto I would distinguish of Separation There is a Separation that proceeds upon reasons apparently true and such is the Separation of Protestants from the Church of Rome and this is a great and necessary duty There is a Separation that proceeds upon probable reasons which sometimes are not cogent nor conclusive and yet they may be such as honest and upright minded men may not be able to free themselves from being entangled and fettered by them This is an inconvenience and whether it be great or small I know not how 't will be avoided in this state of weakness and imperfection but by remedies worse than the disease But that which to my apprehension seems the best way of avoiding it is Let nothing be made necessary to Communion in Churches but a few plain necessary things and this would certainly put an end to the most of those Divisions and Separations that have and do vex the Christian Churches and the Church of England especially and particularly But there is a Separation that proceeds upon reasons apparently false such is the Separation of the Socinians from the Reformed Churches and such is the Separation of many in the Church of England This is intollerable and by all prudent and Christian means and endeavours to be repressed By Separation here I mean not barely refusing Communion but setting up new Churches in opposition to those they have forsaken But it may be enquired further Whether Separation upon probable weak and unconcluding reasons be not sinful I answer Yes but what if it be there is some difference in sins as most men believe and I see no great reason to doubt of it and 't is my opinion that neither all Sinners nor all Schismaticks that are truly such must be sent to the Mines or to the Galleys In brief God will make a difference between Sinners at the day of Judgment and I do believe that the Governours of Churches both Civil and Ecclesiastical should make some difference between them here In the mean time I would not be thought either to excuse or encourage unjustifiable Separations I would that the sinfulness of such Separation should be laid open with all its just aggravations and that all just means be used by the Ministers of the Gospel to prevent and hinder it yea and something by the Magistrate too but if Separation cannot be prevented I mean such as proceeds upon probable but not concluding reasons by those endeavours it must be endured an inconvenience being more eligible than a mischief and many things are and must be suffered in all societies that are not nor ought not to be approved Such was divorce in the Jewish Commonwealth and some things else in that and other societies of men If it be said that the Church of England doth not impose any thing upon its members by meer authority as the Church of Rome doth nor doth it force them to resign their reason to naked will and pleasure nor command belief of those notorious falshoods which that imperious and Apostate Synagogue of Satan doth I answer 't is readily granted and we bless God for it that this Church doth impose nothing that is apparently and grosly false it commands no Idolatrous Worship no opinions contrary to the common sense of mankind no invocation of Saints Prayers for the dead no Pilgrimages to Shrines no ridiculous or sottish Superstitions but though it impose nothing grosly false foolish or Superstitious yet some men think and I know not how to confute them that it imposes some things dubious uncertain and unnecessary from which the Clergy cannot dissent but thereby they shut themselves out of their office and become uncapable of exercising their Ministry with the countenance and protection of the Laws And if the Laity doubt the truth of any of its Impositions and do publish their doubts and will be pertinacious in the defence of them they are liable to excommunication and all that is consequent unto it and in these things this Church is peremptory and admits of no indulgence Subscribe or Preach not the Gospel speak nothing to the disparagement of any thing in the Doctrine Discipline or Liturgy or you shall be excommunicated and given up to the Devil Thus it speaks and this is its Language I do easily grant that this Church pretends not to Infallibility as the Church of Rome doth but in whatsoever it determines it avows it self not mistaken or deceived And what is the difference in effect between a Church that assumes to it self the title and approbation of Infallible and a Church that says I am not mistaken in my Determinations and Impositions Suppose two persons one a Nestorian the other an Eutichian the one proposes in certain Articles his Doctrine so as confounds Christs Natures and withal tells you he is Infallible and you must subscribe to and acknowledg the truth of it or prepare your self for the Axe or the Gallows the other proposes his Doctrine so as he divides Christs Person but pretends not to be Infallible but says his Doctrine is true and he is not mistaken in it and 't is at your pleasure and in your choice either to subscribe it or prepare your self for the Mines of Peru and the Indies The Application is obvious and every one can make it without my manuduction or direction But let me not be said to defame this Church I have said already that it imposes nothing grosly and apparently false but only some things unnecessary and uncertain I will add here the penalties imposed upon those that refuse to own and acknowledg or do defame its determinations are not so severe nor sanguinary as in the Roman Church nor peradventure so certainly and severely executed but whether the peremptory imposing things doubtful controverted useless and unnecessary upon the legal and established penalties be not tyrannical and imperious would deserve a little consideration Why must all Ministers be obliged to subscribe to all things in the 39. Articles Liturgy and Book of Ordination as containing nothing contrary to the Word of God Why must they subscribe the 20th Article concerning the power of the Church to ordain Rites and Ceremonies Why must they assent to the 8th Article where 't is said that the Athanasian Creed ought throughly to be received and believed why must the salvation of Infants being baptized and dying before the commission of actual sin be acknowledged as certain by the Word
SOME ADDITIONAL REMARKS ON THE LATE BOOK Of the REVEREND DEAN of St. PAVLS By a Conformable Clergy-Man Let your moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand Phil. 4.4 But if you bite and devour each other take heed that ye be not consumed of one another Gal. 5.15 LONDON Printed for Nathaniel Ranew at the Kings Arms in St. Pauls-Church-Yard 1681. Some Additional Remarques on the late Book of the Reverend Dean of St. PAULS c. SIR I Have read the Reflections on the Preface to Dr. Stilling-fleet's late Book You have imposed another task on me and that is to make some Remarques also on the Book it self The Learned Doctor had said in his Sermon that he dared to say That if most of the Preachers at this day in the separate Congregations were soberly asked their judgments Whether it were lawful for the people to join with them in the publick Assemblies they would not deny it This Mr. Alsop says he believes they would flatly deny and speaks it with confidence To which the Dr. replies I think no man doubts of his confidence that ever looked into his book but in this matter he is so brisk that he saith he doth not question that he should carry it by the poll and is withall so indiscreet as on this occasion to triumph in the poll of Nonconformists at Guildhall as though all that gave their votes there had owned these principles of separation for which many of those Gentlemen will give him little thanks and is a very unreasonable boasting of their numbers Page 107. This I think is one of the wildest conclusions that ever was inferred from any assertion The Dr. had said that he dared to affirm that most Nonconformist Ministers would acknowledg if they were asked the lawfulness of peoples joining in publick Assemblies Mr. A. is of another opinion and believes they i.e. the Nonconforming Ministers would flatly deny it and says he Let these men be brought to the poll I question not they will carry it and I suppose that though the Dr. preached in the Chappel he never took the poll of the Nonconformists i.e. the Preachers in Guildhall The meaning of all which is plainly no more but this Mr. A. believes that more of the Nonconforming Ministers would deny than affirm the lawfulness of joining in Parochial Churches and that if they were numbred those that are for the negative would carry it And to rebate the Drs. confidence of the affirmative he adds that tho' he preached in the Chappel yet he never took the poll of the Nonconformists in the Hall and therefore may be out and mistaken concerning them How can the Dr. infer from hence that Mr. A. doth indiscreetly triumph in the number of Noncon's in general when he spake only of their Preachers How can he infer that Mr. A. would suggest that all that gave their votes there did own the principles of separation when he spake not one word concerning them Some men may want persons to libel and expose but at this rate 't will be hard to want pretences and occasions for it and the Dr. deserves as little thanks for traducing Mr. A. as he would have deserved if he had reported the Gentlemen that gave their Votes at Guildhall as friends to the principles of separation P. 114. The Dr. having discoursed the inconvenience of Separation upon a conceit of purer administrations and less defective ways of worship and represented the ignorance pride injudiciousness and conceitedness of the ordinary sort of zealous professors and the ungovernable and factious humor of that sort of people and the pernicious consequence of complying with them in the words of Mr. B. he enquires And must the reins be laid on their necks that they may run whither they please because for sooth they know what is good for their souls better than the King doth and they love their souls better than the King doth and the King cannot bind them to hurt famish or endanger their souls To the Drs. question I shall reply by asking another Must the people be tied neck and heels together because they are proud ignorant and injudicious or because they are inclinable to faction and ungovernable Is there no medium betwixt laying the reins upon the neck and tying that and their heels together Betwixt permitting them a boundless liberty and giving them none at all Surely methinks 't were not difficult to see an intermediate space between extremes so vastly distant from each other And let me add Do not the people know what Preaching and Preachers do them most good what convinces their judgments bows their wills enlivens their affections and creates upon their souls the clearest and most passionate resolutions for the service of God and their own salvation If they do not know these things they are not men but brutes Do not men know which meat and drink doth best strengthen and nourish and is least offensive to their stomacks and digestive faculties This I think will be granted and may they not know what sort of preaching doth best edifie and build them in spiritual strength and stature And is it any dishonour to the King that the people know these things better than he does Or doth that person lay blame upon the King that should affirm it And yet this is that which the Doctor seems to insinuate for he enquires Why must the King bear all the blame if mens souls be not provided for according to their wishes that is if they have not such preaching and preachers as they would have But though the King be not to be blamed that mens souls be no better provided for there be men in the world that are to be blamed for it and who they are let the Doctor conjecture There are Preachers in this Church that have the cure of Souls to whom an honest Country Farmer would scarce commit the care of his Cows 'T is an expression of Causinus And who gave these pâ—rsons admission into the sacred Office every one knows But the Dr. proceeds Doth the King do any thing in this matter but according to the established Law and Orders of this Church why did he not keep to the good old Phrase of King and Parliament This is raking into old fores and looks like a malicious insinuation and a design of representing Mr. B. as il-loyal which to speak softly becomes not the charity and candor of the Doctor But what if he had kept that good old Phrase as he pleases to call it he had done no more than the Doctor himself doth in sense in the lines preceeding for he says the King doth nothing but by established Laws and Laws are the Acts of King and Parliament But the Doctor goes on And why did he i. e. Mr. B. not put it as it ought to have been that they know what makes for their own edification better than the wisdom of the whole Nation assembled in Parliament i. e. according to the good
Church as well as you if humane he enquires how consent in these makes a National Church and how they come to be of the National Church which do not consent in them and objects the differences among the Conformable Clergy in the exposition of some of the Articles of this Church To which the Dr. answers three things I shall take notice only of the last of them viz. There is no difference among us concerning the lawfulness of the orders of our Church and duty of submission to them if there be any other differences they are not material and I believe are no other than in the manner of explaining some things which may happen in the best society in the world without breaking the peace of it as about the difference of orders the sense of some passages in the Athanasian Creed the true explication of one or two Articles which are the things he i. e. Mr. B. mentions A multitude of such differences will never overthrow such a consent among us as to make us not to be members of the same National Church To the first lines of this Paragraph which concern the agreement of the Members of this Church in the lawfulness of its orders and the duty of submission to them I shall reply nothing To the rest I say I am perfectly of the Dr's opinion and were it reduced to practice it would heal the most of the divisions and put a period to most of the separations that have rent and torn this Church in pieces for many years Why might not the Dissenters among us have been permitted to have continued in the Ministry and in the Church though they differed in some things in their judgments from the Conformable Clergy Would it have broken the peace thereof any more than the various apprehensions that are at present among themselves They are not all of a mind in the five points some of them understand and believe them after the sense of Calvin and others after the sense of Arminius and I might mention many others wherein they differ among themselves but the thing is sufficiently known and there is no need of it And are the differences among the Conformists themselves reconcilable with peace and those wherein the Nonconformists differ from them though they be no greater than the other irreconcilable with it What strange partiality is this Conformists may differ in multitudes of things without breaking the peace of the Church but if those that are Dissenters differ from them in a few impertinent and uncertain things the peace of the Church is subverted and all things put into confusion thereby The Conformists doubt at least some of them whether Bishops and Presbyters do differ in order or in degree some are past all doubt concerning it and do affirm they differ in order and not barely in degree This breaks no peace The Nonconformists cannot find that Word of God whereby 't is certain that children indefinitely which are baptized dying before they commit actual siâ— are undoubtedly saved and they are not very sure that all children that are baptized are regenerate by the â—â—irit or that they may safely say of all that they bury that God of his great mercy hath taken to himself the soul of the deceased person and give him hearty thanks that it hath pleased him to deliver him out of the afflictions of this sinful world and these are such dreadful and formidable things that the Church cannot be safe if the Members or at least any of the Preachers in it dispute the truth of them and therefore out they must go and if they attempt to exercise their Ministerial Office after they are ejected they are immediately the most damnable Schismaticks that ever the world did know and Prisons Fines Confiscations Banishments and all that is evil is beneath their sin and trangression Why a difference of opinion in these things might not be consistent with peace as well as in others that are of as great and somewhat greater import at least in my apprehension I am not able to divine if nothing but Reason and Religion were to determine concerning them but if spight malice and revenge and some other of those Antichristian passions be called to counsel and permitted to judg of them 't is not difficult to give a reason of the differing natures of these differences why some are judged consistent with peace and others utterly inconsistent with it But enough of this paragraph I shall conclude with one supplication to all the Conformable Clergy in England on the behalf of the Dissenters and 't is this That they may be permitted to differ from them in things of no greater moment than those in which they differ among themselves If it be said 't is not in their power to permit it I answer Time was when it was very much in their power to have done it and I think they might do well to use some endeavours to retrieve it or at least give some evidence that they wish well to it This I think is no unreasonable request how it may be resented I know not 't is the love of this Church and the peace thereof that hath caused me to propose it and that shall satisfie my mind But having said this on the behalf of the Dissenters I must add a word or two on my own behalf and that is That a fair and passable sense may be and is put upon these passages mentioned from the Rubrick and Liturgy by the Conformable Clergy and amongst them by my self but what is that to those whose judgments and consciences will not permit them to put that sense upon them All mens minds are not cast in the same mould all cannot admit that latitude of sense and exposition in those and many other things that some men do and can without offence and neglect to their consciences and must they therefore be shut out of the Vineyard of the Lord and denied the liberty of working there Certainly this is a severe method of proceeding and hardly reconcilable with the Laws of Christianity The Learned Dr. in several places of his Book represents Mr. A. as unlearned unread and very weak in his reafoning and argumentations Page 174. he accuses him of childish trifling about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Canon and in the same page and that next to it he mislikes his explication of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leaving out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he observes from Grotius is not found in one Manuscript the sense whereof he thus expresses What we have attained let us walk up to the same and that Greek phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he says implies no more than minding that very thing viz. v. 14. pressing towards the mark and then adds But if he had pleased to have read on to Phil. 4.2 he would have found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie unanimity and St. Paul 1 Cor. 12.25 opposes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 th t there be