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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64558	Remarks on the preface to The Protestant reconciler in a letter to a friend.	S. T. (Samuel Thomas), 1627-1693.	1683 (1683)	Wing T974; ESTC R25646	26,707	64

of Christianity And by being Schismaticks they disown themselves to be Persons of the same Communion with us nay are guilty of a capital Error and a customary Crime which excludes men while impenitently persever'd in from the Kingdom of Heaven and therefore they ought not while in those circumstances to be accounted persons of the same Communion with us or real members of Christs Body I have now consider'd several things which I thought fit to be taken notice of in this Preface and in the many Testimonies quoted by the Prefacer as so many justifications of the design of his Book But how ill they are suited to that purpose at least for the generality of them is I think apparent enough from the Reflexions I have here made upon them But I wish heartily I had been in or near some Library where I might have had the opportunity of examining the quotations and consulting the Authors quoted for then possibly I might have discovered much more impertinency in the quotations and insincerity in the quoter 'T is plain the Author has ingag'd himself in a very bold Attempt He has undertaken to prove That things indifferent which may be changed and altered without sin ought not especially under our present Circumstances to be impos'd by Superiours as the Conditions of Communion or of ministration in Sacred Things And consequently he has undertaken to prove That all Churches or States who have so imposed Indifferents have by that Imposition been guilty of violating the Law of God To Excuse which Attempt from the prejudice of Singularity he pretends pag. 3. to strengthen it in his Preface against that and other prejudices by the concurrent suffrages of many worthy persons both of our own and other Churches who have declar'd themselves as he would perswade us to be of the same Judgment and have pursu'd the same Design Now besides all that has been already objected to those Suffrages if I had the opportunity of doing it I would challenge the Author to evince that any tolerable number of the Suffrages which he has produc'd are pertinent and punctual to his design as worded by himself That design consists of Two Parts one more general That things indifferent which may be alter'd without Sin ought not to be impos'd as the Condition of Communion or ministration in Sacred Things The other more particular That especially they ought not to be impos'd under our present Circumstances as the Conditions of Communion with us of the Church of England The Suffrages produc'd to rescue this design from the imputation of Singularity amount in the Contents of the Preface to about 35. Now let him manifest if he can 1. That so much as one of those Suffrages speaks particularly of our present Circumstances here in England I mean those Circumstances that were present to the publishing of his Book 2. Let him manifest if he can That among his 35 Suffrages there are so many as five that affirm it unlawful to make Indifferents which are Alterable without Sin the Conditions of Church-Communion and Ministration Nay I doubt he cannot manifest that so much as one of them comes fully up to this design of his Book But if the major part or two parts in three of the Testimonies be impertinent what shall we think of that man who has the confidence and conscience to write at such a rate and pretend so much when the proof falls so intolerably short of the pretense Besides if my memory fail me not I have seen a Book heretofore which Answer'd Cressy against Dr. Pierce's Sermon meerly by quoting passages out of Authors extant before that Book of Cressy's which contained sufficient Answers to the most material parts of it And I believe that this Author could have done the like in reference to this Preface I mean that he could have heaped up as many and as pertinent Testimonie out of the Writings of single Persons and Acknowledgments of Church-Societies in favour of this Position That it is lawful to make things Indifferent which may be altered without Sin the conditions of Church-Communion and Ministration as he has pretended here in favour of the Contradictory and if he could I leave it to you to judge with what sincerity he could profess Pref. pag. 1. that he was most unwilling to do the least dis-service to the Church of which he is a member when he has in this Preface done it the grand dis-service of heaping up such a multitude of pretended Testimonies against the lawfulness of her Practice and omitting the much greater number of pertinent Suffrages which I have some reason to believe himself could have as easily produced in defence of that Practice But this Profession of his is very obnoxious upon another Account for if he were at all sincere in making it what ail'd him 1. to Print his Book at such a time And 2. in English At such a time when he Acknowledges pag. 9. that the Bishops themselves have neither any Power to make such Concessions as his Book would have to be made no nor any Power to make any Proposals for the healing of our breaches till by his Majesty's Authority they meet in Convocation for that end And I do not think that this Gentleman had any prospect of a Parliaments being called soon after the publication of his Book or that it is an Article of his Faith that his Majesty may summon a Convocation to meet to that end out of Parliament and then what could the publishing of such a Book at such a time be but the promoting on his part that which has been of late the grand Fanatical Design of such weak Brethren as Baxter Alsop Troughton c. viz. the rendring our Governors both in Church and State odious by representing their Constitutions as unlawful and attempting to prove them contradictory both to the Commands and Example of Christ and his Apostles But what ail'd him 2. to compose and print his Book in English was it because he expected either a Parliament or Convocation whose major part should be made up of Clergy-men or Gentlemen so ill bred as not to understand Latin or did not the Author understand it himself so well as to write a Book in it or did he publish it in English for the sake of the weak Brethren and the devout Sisters that they might be furnished with Arguments against Ceremony-Imposing-Laws from one end of the Gospels and Epistles to the other For he has shewed himself so dexterous in discerning and multiplying prejudices and exceptions against such Constitutions that 't is to be hoped a little more improvement of his Topical Parts may gain him Parker's faculty of Espying in those Impositions in general as he did in the Use of the Cross in particular a contradiction to all the Ten Commandments Now for a man to put forth such a Book against those Impositions for the sake of illiterate English men who 1. have no power at present to retrench or null the

Impositions nor 2. are ever like to have who 3. are like to make a most mischievous use of it to the dishonour and prejudice of the Church and yet to pretend himself most unwilling to do the least dis-service to the Church is so palpably Protestatio contra factum that hardly any thing can be more so But why talks he only of doing dis-service to the Church as if that only were concern'd when the contents and design of his Book cast as great a slur upon and tend as much to the reproach and disparagement of the State as of the Church for he knows well enough that the Laws enjoyning Uniformity and imposing our Ceremonies are made by the King and that with the Consent not only of the Lords Spiritual but Temporal also and the Commons so that this Author in thus attempting to prove those Laws repugnant to the Law of God and inconsistent with so many of the grand momentous obligations of Christianity is so far from shewing himself unwilling to do dis-service to the Church that he has spent a great deal of time and pains and employed as one may guess the utmost of his Art and Industry to do as great a dis-service to that and the State both as for ought I know he could possibly do it with his Pen for what greater dis-service can there be done in that way to any Government than to Assert and Maintain a Position from which it follows by undeniable consequence That the Governours of this or that Nation have for multitudes of Years successively agreed in Enacting Laws contradictory to the Practice and Commands the Exhortations Arguings and Examples of both Christ and his Apostles For this is the immediate consequent of this Position and his manner of proving it That Superiours ought not to impose things Indifferent and Alterable without Sin as the Conditions of Church-Communion and Ministration Besides what greater Affront could be offer'd to the King himself then to publish such a Book at that very time when His Majesty gave such demonstration of his Resolutions to uphold and defend the Act for Uniformity and of his Zeal for the Church by requiring a strict and vigorous Execution of the Laws against Dissenters This man's undertaking therefore thus manag'd in contradiction to the Laws of the Land at a time when the King himself and inferiour Magistrates were more industriously zealous in executing those Laws than they have been for many years is in my Opinion such a daring and impudent pragmaticalness as ought to be encountered and chastised with a Punishment as notorious as the Crime Especially since as was before intimated I doubt not but this very Writer could have fill'd as many sheets as this Preface contains with Testimonies justifying the Constitutions of our Church and State in matters indifferent and I am confident had I had but my own Library about me three parts whereof are still at Oxford I could have done so my self But in some of the few Books I have here I meet with such passages as abundantly confirm me in that Confidence and withall make me very much suspect this Prefacer's sincerity and ingenuity in quoting For whereas he has in this Preface quoted Beza as an Enemy to all Symbolical Rites pag. 25 and affirming that they should be entirely excluded from the Christian Church and Zanchy as an Enemy to our Ceremonies and besides pretended pag. 35. That 't were endless to set down all that Bucer Calvin Chamier Daneus Farel Povanus Vrsin and Zipper with many others have said against the Vse and Imposition of them and pag. 36. that Cassander testifies without telling us where he so testifies that most have conceiv'd them fit to be condemned and abolished as foppish ludicrous ridiculous yea as noxious and pernicious Durell has given us such a different Account of things as is very opposite to this Prefacer's pretensions For in his forementioned Book Cap. 17. He Affirms that the Christian Church from the Apostles time to this day was never without nor in the judgment of the most Learned and Famous Protestants either can or ought to be without some significant Ceremonies pag. 182. to which purpose he quoted the sentiments of Luther Melancthon and Calvin pag. 186. and then said I could here produce very many more of the most Learned and Renowned Persons in the Reformed Churches of the same Opinion with Luther Melancthon and Calvin in this point Nor says he do I remember to have read any Reform'd Writer of any Note especially of those who were at the beginning of the Reformation whose Judgment and Authority is principally to be attended to in this dispute who Condemns significant Ceremonies meerly as such if so be no supernatural vertue be attributed to them for the producing Spiritual Effects nor Religion placed in them nor Merit or Justification expected from the use of them Out of which number he do's not except Beza himself but proceeds to Vindicate him as to that very Passage which this Prefacer has quoted out of his Epistle to Bishop Grindal as if it were for his turn and manifests that it ought not to be understood of such Symbolical Rites as are design'd to signifie only mens duty but such only as are meant to signifie and exhibit Spiritual Priviledges and the Divine Grace And in his Sixteenth Chapter he largely Answers that Epistle of Zanchy quoted at large by this Prefacer pag. 28. c. against imposing Linnen Garments and most of his Answers are taken out of Calvin Bucer P. Martyr and Zanchy himself And as to our Churches retaining the Use of the Cross in Baptism its Thirtieth Canon Acquaints us that That resolution and practice hath been allowed and approved by the Harmony of Confessions of later years Now this Assertion of the Composers of that Canon and those other of Durell as to the number of Persons approving the Imposition of Ceremonies makes me very much suspect this Author's ingenuity and honesty in quoting And I doubt he has contented himself with quoting many Testimonies besides those out of Gesselius pag 38. c. only by Retale and at second hand from others without examining the quotations himself and consulting the passages as they lye in the Original Authors which is an intolerable Neglect in any man that undertakes to Write and Publish a Discourse and Preface of this Nature and Consequence And one quotation which makes me suspect this is that Pag. 45. and 46. out of Baxter's Disput of Human Ceremonies Chap. 24. it should be 14. Sect. 3. R. 2. where he says 'T is shrewdly Argued by Mr. Baxter against our Ceremonies This seems to be coming after Christ to amend his Laws correct his Works and make better Laws and Ordinances for his Church than he himself hath done for if Christ would have such Rites imposed on the Churches he could better have done it himself than have left it to man for these Rites are equally necessary or unnecessary throughout all Ages and