A SERIOUS EXHORTATION With some Important Advices Relating to the late Cases about CONFORMITY Recommended to the Present Dissenters From the CHURCH of ENGLAND LONDON Printed by T. Moore J. Ashburne for Fincham Gardiner at the White-Horse in Ludgate-street 1683. A Serious EXHORTATION With some Important Advices c. Recommended to the Dissenters from the Church of England THE offering friendly Advice and Counsel especially in great and important Cases is tho often a Thankless yet a very Charitable Office a thing agreeable to the best Inclinations of Humane Nature and highly conducive to the Necessities of Men and consequently needs no Apology to introduce it We live 't is true in an ill-Natured and Censorious Age wherein 't is rare to find any one who will not take with the Left-hand what 's offered to them with the Right But I am not discouraged from this Attempt by the Pievishness and Frowardness of many that differ from us Remembering that all Honest Undertakings and such I am sure this is are under the more peculiar Conduct and Blessing of the Divine Providence which can and will succeed and prosper them to an happy Issue if Mens own Obstinacy and Perverseness do not put a Bar in the way to hinder it I do therefore beseech our Dissenting-Brethren with all the earnestness that becomes a matter of so much Importance and with all the Kindness and Tenderness that becomes a Christian that they would suffer the Word of Exhortation and duly Weigh and Consider the Requests and Advices that are here plainly laid before them which I hope will be found such as carry their own Light and Evidence along with them I. And First We beg of them to believe That they may be mistaken about those matters which are alledged as the Causes of their Separation This one would think were as needless as 't is a modest and reasonable Request For did ever any Man the Bishop of Rome excepted lay claim to Infallibility Do not the Woful Infirmities of Humane Nature The Weakness and Short-sightedness of our Understandings The Daily Experience of our selves and the lamentable Failures we observe in others sufficiently convince us how prone we are to Error and Mistake But tho this be granted and owned on all hands yet in practice we frequently find Men Acting by other Measures For how many are there that in the most Controverted Cases bear up themselves with as much Confidence and Assurance Censure others with as Magisterial a Boldness Condemn the things Enjoined by our Church with as positive and peremptory a Determination as if they were infallibly sure that they are in the Right and all others in the Wrong that differ from them The early prepossession of a contrary Opinion the powerful prejudices of Education an implicite and unexamined Belief of what their Guides and Leaders teach them have a strange force upon the Minds of Men so that in effect they no more doubt of the Truth and Goodness of the Cause they are engaged in then they question the Articles of their Creed Wherefore I do once and again intreat them that laying aside all Pride Partiality and Self-conceit they would not think more highly of themselves and of their own way then they ought to think especially remembering that the matters contended about are confessedly Disputable and that they cannot be Ignorant that the Case seems otherwise to others who may at least be allowed to be as wise Men and as competent Judges as themselves Truth makes the easiest entrance into modest and humble Minds the Meek will he guide in Judgment the Meek will he teach his Way The Spirit of God never rests upon a Proud Man II. Secondly We beg of them that they would seriously and impartially Weigh and Consider as well what is said on the one side as on the other This is a peice of Justice that every one ows to Truth and which indeed every Man ows to himself that is not willing to be deceived To take up with Prejudices which Education or long Custom have instilled into him or wherein any other Arts or Methods have engaged him without strictly enquiring whether those Prejudices stand upon a firm Foundation is to see only on one side to bind up ones self in the Judgment or Opinion of any Man that is not Divinely-inspired and Infallible or pertinaciously to adhere to any Party of Men how plausible and specious soever their pretences may be without examining their Grounds and endeavoring to know what is said against them is to choose a Persuasion at a peradventure and 't is great odds whether such a one be in the right In all Enquiries after Truth we ought to keep an Ear open for one side of the Controversie as well as the other and not to think we have done enough till without Favour or Prejudice and to the best of our Understandings we have heard tryed and judged the Reasons brought as well for as against it And till this be done I see not with what pretence of Reason Men can talk so much of their Scruples or plead for Favour on the account of their Dissatisfactions Consciences truly tender are willing and desirous to embrace all opportunities of Resolution are ready to kiss the Hand that would bring them better information and are not wont to neglect much less thrust from them the means that might ease them of their Doubts and Scruples We justly blame it in them of the Church of Rome that in a manner they resign up their Underdstanings to their Guids and Confessors and are not suffered to be truly acquainted with the Protestant Principles and the Grounds and Reasons of the Reformation nor to Read any of the Books that are written for their Conviction without a special and peculiar Licence Whether our Brethren of the Separation be under any such Spiritual Discipline I know not sure I am it looks very odly that so many of them are no more concerned to understand the true State of the Church of England and the Nature and Reasons of her Constitutions that so few of them care to Confer with those that are able to Instruct them but Cry out They are satisfied already nay some of them to my knowledg when desired to propose their Scruples in order to the giving them satisfaction have plainly and absolutely refused to do it Little reason there is to believe that such Persons have ever Read and Examined what the Church of England has to say for her self Are there not many that not only Scruple but Rail at the Book of Common-Prayer that yet never heard it nor perhaps ever read it in all their Lives And if this be not to speak Evil of what they know not I cannot tell what is How many incomparable Books have been heretofore written in defence of our Church her Rights and Usages that yet generally lie by the Walls little known and less read by those that so much Cry out against her And at
this time how many excellent Discourses have been Published for the satisfaction of Dissenters written with the greatest Temper and Moderation with the utmost plainness and perspicuity with all imaginable evidence and strength of Reasoning so short as not to require any considerable portion either of Time or Cost so suited to present Circumstances as to obviate every material Objection that is made against Communion with us and yet there is just cause to fear that the far greatest part of our Dissenters are meer strangers to them and are not so just to themselves or us as to give them the reading And that those few that do look into them do it rather out of a design to pick quarrels against them and to expose them in scurrilous or cavilling Pamphlets then to receive satisfaction by them I do heartily and from my Soul wish an end of these Contentions and that there were no further occasion for them but if our Dissenting Brethren will still proceed in this way we desire and hope 't is but what is reasonable that the things in difference may be debated in the most quiet peaceable and amicable manner that they may be gravely and substatially Managed and only the Merits of the Cause attended to and that the Controversie may not be turned off to mean and trifling Persons whose highest attainment perhaps it is to write an idle and senceless Pamphlet and which can serve no other use but only that the People may be born in hand that such and such Books are Answered Which is so unmanly and disingenuous a way and so like the shifting Artifices of them of the Church of Rome that I am apt to persuade my self the wiser Heads of the Dissenting Party cannot but be ashamed of it If they be not 't is plain to all the World they are willing to serve an ill Design by the most unwarrantable Means But however that be we think we have great reason to expect from them that they should hear our Church before they condemn Her and consider what has been said for the removing of their Doubts before they tell us any more of Scruples Tender-Consciences and the hard Measure that they meet withal I confess could I meet with a Person that had brought himself to some kind of unbyasdness and indifferency of Temper and that design'd nothing more then to seek and find the right way of Serving God without respect to the Intrigues and Interests of this or that particular Party and in order thereunto had with a sincere and honest Mind read whatever might probably conduce to his satisfaction fairly proposed his Scruples and modestly consulted with those that were most proper to advise him and humbly begged the guidance and direction of the Divine Grace and Blessing and yet after all should still labour under his old Dissatisfactions I should heartily pity and pray for such a Man and think my self obliged to improve all my Interest for Favour and Forbearance towards him But such Persons as these I am afraid are but thin Sowed and without breach of Charity it may be supposed there is not One of a Thousand III. Thirdly We desire that before they go on to accuse our Church with driving them into Seperation they would directly charge her with imposing sinful terms of Communion And unless they do this and when they have done it make it good for barely to accuse I hope is not sufficient I see not which way they can possibly justifie their Separation from us 'T is upon this account that the whole Protestant Reformation defends their departure from the Church of Rome They found the Doctrine of that Church infinitely corrupt in several of the main Principles of Religion New Articles of Faith introduced and bound upon the Consciences of Men under pain of Damnation its Worship overgrown with very gross Idolatry and Superstition Its Rites and Ceremonies not only over-numerous but many of them advanced into proper and direct acts of Worship and the use of them made necessary to Salvation and besides it's Members required to joyn and communicate in these corruptions and depravations nay and all proposals and attempts toward a Reformation obstinately rejected and thrown out in which case they did with great Reason and Justice depart from her which we may be confident they would not have done had no more been required of them than instead of Worshipping Images to use the Sign of the Cross in Baptisme or instead of the Adoration of the Host to kneel at the Receiving of the Sacrament A learned Protestant Divine of great Name and Note has expresly told us That had there been no other faults in the Church of Rome besides their useless Ceremonies in Baptisme and some other things that are beyong the measure and genius of the Christian Religion they had still continued in the Communion of that Church Indeed did the Church of England command any thing which Christ has prohibited or prohibite any thing which Christ has commanded then come ye out from among them and be ye seperate saith the Lord were good Warrant and Authority But where do we meet with these prohibitions not in the word of God not in the nature and reason of the things themselves nor indeed do we find our Dissenting Brethren of late very forward to fasten this charge and much less to prove it whatever unwary sayings may fall from any of them in the heat and warmth of Disputation or be suggested by indirect consequences and artificial insinuations And if our Church commands nothing that renders her Communion sinful then certainly Seperation from her must be unlawful because the Peace and Unity of the Church and obedience to the commands of lawful Authority are express and indispensable duties and a few private suspicions of the unlawfulness of the thing are not sufficient to sway against plain publick and necessary Duties nor can it be safe to reject Communicating with those with whom Christ himself does not refuse Communion This I am sure was once thought good Doctrine by the cheifest of our Dissenters who when time was reasoned thus against those that subdivided from them If we be a Church of Christ and Christ hold Communion with us why do you Seperate from us If we be the Body of Christ do not they that Seperate from the Body Seperate from the Head also we are loath to speak any thing that may offend you yet we entreat you to consider that if the Apostle call those Divisions of the Church of Corinth wherein Christians did not separate into divers formed Congregations in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Schisms 1 Cor. 1. 10. may not your Secession from us and professing you cannot join with us as Members and setting up Congregations of another Communion be more properly called Schism You gather Churches out of our Churches and set up Churches in an opposite way to our Churches and all this you do voluntarily and unwarrantably not having any
sufficient cause for it And in the same Book they tell us of a Two-fold Schism Negative and Positive Negative when Men do peaceably and quietly withdraw from Communion with a Church not making a Head against that Church from which they are departed the other is when Persons so withdrawing do consociate and withdraw themselves into a distinct and opposite Body setting up a Church against a Church which say they Camero calls a Schism by way of Eminency and further tells us There are Four Causes that make a Separation from a Church lawful 1. When they that Separate are grievously and intollerably Persecuted 2. When the Church they Separate from is Heretical 3. When it is Idolatrous 4. When it is the Seat of Antichrist And where none of these Four are found there the Separation is insufficient and Schism Now we are fully assured that none of these Four Causes can be justly charg'd upon our Congregations therefore you must not be displeased with us but with your selves if we blame you as guilty of positive Schism All which is as true now as it was then and as applicable to us and them as it was to them and their Dissenters Admit then there were some things in our Constitution that might be contrived to better purposes and that needed amendment and alteration yet I hope every Defect or supposed Corruption in a Church is not a sufficient ground for Separation or warrant enough to rend and tear the Church in peices Let Mr. Calvin judg between us in this matter who says That wherever the Word of God is duly Preached and Reverently attended to and the true use of the Sacraments kept up there is the plain appearance of a true Church whose Authority no Man may safely despise or reject its Admonitions or resist its Counsels or set at nought its Discipline much less Separate from it and Violate its Unity for that our Lord has so great regard to the Communion of his Church that he accounts him an Apostate from his Religion who obstinately Separates from any Christian Society which keeps up the true Ministry of the Word and Sacraments that such a Separation is a denial of God and Christ and that it is a dangerous and pernicious Temptation so much as to think of Separating from such a Church the Communion whereof is never to be rejected so long as it continues in the true use of the VVord and Sacraments though otherwise it be over-run with many Blemishes and Corruptions VVhich is as plain and full a determination of the Case as if he had particularly designed it against the Doctrine and Practice of the Modern Dissenters from our Church IV. Fourthly We entreat them to Consider whether it be pure Conscience and meer Zeal for the Honour of Religion and not very often Discontent or Trade and Interest that has the main stroke in keeping them from Communion with our Church Far be it from me to judg the Secrets of Mens Hearts or to fasten such a Charge on the whole Body of Dissenters yea I accuse not any particular Person but only desire they would lay their Hand upon their Hearts and deal impartially with themselves and say whether they stand clear before God in this matter And there is the more reason to put Men upon this Enquiry not only because Secular Ends are very apt to mix with and shelter themselves under the shadow of Religion but because this has been an old Artifice made use of to promote Separation Thus the Donatists in the Primitive Times upheld their Separation from the Catholick Church and kept their Party fast together by Trading only within themselves by imploying none to Till their Grounds or be their Stewards but those that would be of their side nay and sometimes hiring Persons by large Sums of Mony to be Baptiz'd into their Party as Crispin did the People of Mappalia And how evident the same Policy is among our Modern Quakers is too notorious to need either Proof or Observation Time was when it was made an Argument to prove Independency to be a Faction and not matter of Conscience because Needy broken decayed Men who knew not how to live and hoped to get something turned Independents and became sticklers for it that some who had Businesses Causes and Matters depending struck in with them and pleaded for them that so they might find Friends be sooner dispatched and fare better in their Causes that Ambitious Proud Covetous Men who had a mind to Offices places of profit about the Army Excise c. turned about to the Independents and were great Zealots for them Thus it was then and whether the same Leaven do not still spread and ferment and perhaps as much as ever there is just cause to suspect VVhoever looks into the Trading part of this City and indeed of the whole Nation must needs be a very heedless and indiligent Observer if he do not take notice how Interests are formed and by what Methods Parties and Factions are kept up how many Thousands of the Poorer sort of Dissenters depend on this or that Man for their VVork and consequently for their Livelihood and Subsistence how many depend upon others for their Trade and Custom whom accordingly these Men can readily Command and do produce to give Votes and increase Parties on all Publick Occasions and what little Encouragement any Man finds from them that once deserts them and comes over to the Church of England There is another thing that contributes not a little to this Jealousie and Suspicion that many of the Chifest and most Stiff and Zealous of the Dissenting Party are they at least the immediate Descendants of those who in the late Evil-Times by Rapine and Violence shared among themselves the Revenues of the Church and the Patrimony of the Crown and are said still privately to keep on foot their Titles to them And if so what wonder if such Men look on themselves as obliged in point of Interest to widen Breaches foment Differences increase Factions and all this to Subvert and over-turn the Church of England being well assured they can never hope but over the Ruins of this Church to make way to their once sweet Possessions Let Men therefore impartially examine themselves and search whether a Worldly Spirit be not at the bottom of their Zeal and Stiffness These I confess are Designs too Base and Sordid to be owned above Board but be not Deceived God is not Mocked Man looks to the outward Appearance but God looks to the Heart V. Fifthly We desire them to-Consider Whether it be not a Just Prejudice to their Cause and that which ought to prevail with Men Modest and Peaceable that in those things wherein they differ from us they are Condemned by the Practice of the whole Catholick Church for Fifteen Hundred Years together This were I minded might afford a large Field for Discourse but I shall instance only and that very briefly in a few Particulars