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A51005
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A divine and moral essay on the Christian pilgrim's conduct with some glances on that of the secular / by John Macqueen ...
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Mackqueen, John, d. 1734.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing M225; ESTC R22482
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53,913
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158
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If they had renounced the Articles of the Church of England submited their Consciences to the Pope and the sacred Scriptures to the Canons of the Council of Trent they might have avoided the cruelty of their Persecutors But they loved neither their Lives Rev. 12 11. nor Honours to the Death but chose to forgoe these rather than the Faith and God would have it so that he might not want the Glory of such Christian Magnaminity nor the Truth of the Protestant Religion the honour of the Triumph of such resolute Warriors That the Church might not miss the Boast of such renowned Generals nor the Age then the Influential Encouragment of such affecting Examples or the succeeding the reviving Energy of such excellent Precedents to invigorate their Faith quicken the Courage and fortifie the Hope of other Strangers and Pilgrims Truly if we weigh without prejudice and partiality this same Instance we must needs Conclude they were no Friends to Popery who upon account of their Religion felt so much of its Severity nor can the publick Service of this Church be constructed a favourer of Romish Devotion when it must be thrust out to make way for its Superstitious Worship But Secondly there is another thing I would have you consider And it is this that next in the late unhappy Times of prosperous Rebellion when the Liturgy of this Church was laid aside and the Episcopal Government demolish'd then Anarchy invaded the State and Confusion the Church Tyranny and Usurpation possessed the Throne Heresie and Blasphemy the Pulpit Popery made more considerable Advances in that Interval than in many Years before when the decent Worship and orderly Discipline of this Church kept footing It is well enough known there were many Roman Catholicks in the Parliament Army as the Royal Martyr in his printed Papers declared And Mr. Monteith who from being a Protestant Minister turn'd to be a Romish Priest whose History of the Troubles of Britain he publish'd in French and I saw at Nantes confesses there were many Priests slain at Edgehill which considering he was a New Proselyte he durst never have averr'd to occasion so much Reproach and Scandal to a Profession he had but recently Embraced if Truth had not forced him thereto And let it be remembred that the Enemies of the Liturgy and Government then and those of them now Surviving whose Faces are not steel'd with Impudence or whose Hearts are not hardned with Impenitence seek to remove from themselves the Odium of the Kings execrable Marther by charging the multitude of Jesuites and Popishly affected in the Army therewith If those of this Perswasion shuffled themselves into the Army by parroting the Cant of the Age against the Liturgy and Government If they had the Power and Cunning to wheedle others into their Net and make them Tools and Instruments in carrying on the War or execution of the King Did not the Dissenters then bring their pretences and Designs against Popery to a fair Issue when instead of Extirpating or Staving it off it increased with our Divisions swarm'd in our Armies and spread through all the Corners of the Land Now if we find to our woful Cost and sad Expences that upon the Ruin of the Church formerly there followed an Inundation of Errour and Heresie to corrupt the Doctrine of Immorality and Prophaness to destroy the Power and Practice of Religion That the Monarchy as well as the Hierarchy was overturn'd that Faction in the State as well as Schism in the Church Oppression in the City and Country came in on the Dissolution of the Government and removal of the Liturgy Can we look for other Effects from the same fatal Occasions or I may say dismal Causes if renewed or set on Foot again Indeed to expect better Fruit from the same Tree rooted in the same luxuriant Soil under the same malignant Influences and care of the same cunning Dressers I should rather have said cruel Hacksters is to look for Grapâ—s from Thorns Mat. 7.16 or Figgs from Thistles But there are many in the Kingdom whose gray Hairs and snowy Heads are Crowns of glory to them for espousing the Interest of the King and Church and bear these marks of Honour and proofs of Valour in their Scars and Wounds which may supersede any more Enlargment on this subject These are living Witnesses and blessed be God there are many such Surviving in the Nations of the Havock Religion and Property Laws and Liberty sustain'd when Episcopacy was abrogated and the Liturgy abandon'd These still retain the Sense of Honour and Conscience of Duty which acted them formerly to adhere with undaunted Hearts and valiant Hands to the Crown and Mitre against the Torrent of triumphant Treachery the same princples afford them now joyful reflections on their past Calamities and are ready upon occasions to Animate a-fresh their chill Blood to swell their old shrivel'd Veins with new Life and Vigour to give a timous check to the rash Attempts of those petulant young Sparks who may be deluded with the novelty of an unexperienced project into a Disvalue if not a Dislike of the present Settlement But if these Instances be stale and old and so less impressive on the volatile Spirits of the present Age permit me in the Third place to come a little nearer and tell you what is within your own Kenning Pray you who so resolutely stood in the Gap so early scented or earnestly opposed the Designs and Contrivances of a Popish Party who lately flattered themselves with great expectations but the Venerable Prelates of this Church If in former Ages some of the preceeding Bishops were Martyrs for the Protestant Religion were not these in our Time to our own view Confessours for the same If the former were dragged to Stakes these were haled to Prison who maintain'd the Protestant Doctrine with such Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in publick Harrangues who asserted it in Print with such degrees of Zeal and Learning who press'd it more convincingly in private accidental Conferences or appointed Meetings and upon extraordinary Occasions where were there Combatants to be singled out to defend the Truth and overthrow the arguments of its Enemies with such ponderous Reasons and nervous Eloquence like the Orthodox Regular Clergy of this Church Let me then intreat all who vouchsafe to read this Essay that they suffer not themselves to be imposed upon by the cunning artifice of these Hucksters of Souls and Factors for Schism who asperse the best Reformed Church in the World with favouring Rome which her Doctrine Condemns her Worship abhors and her practice Remonstrates against Why should People any more shut their Eyes against the Light or stop their Ears against the Truth These I have written are plain matters of Fact without any slight or guise and if you consider them without Pride Passion or Partiality I dare say you 'l easily be convinced the antient Ecclesiastick Government of this National Church has been and
Dogs sting like Serpents and breath out nothing but the Gall and Venom of Asps That he should speak in a still Voice and we thunder Hail-stones and coals of Fire That he should pray for his Enemies and we curse our best Friends and Anathematize all that oppose our Opinion or seek to rectifie our Mistakes Alas this is not agreeable to the Condition of Strangers and Pilgrims if we make meekness and peaceableness the Charateristick of those who Travel to another Country and look for another City we must seek for them elsewhere than where we live Where Malice and Bitterness Strife and Envy tage so Violently that by this we may best be distinguished from the rest of the World It was not so of Old when behold how they love one another was the honour and badge of their Profession and the wonder of their Adversaries and it wou'd be so still if they did keep themselves in Concord and Uunity together and go on in their Journey in Troops not like scattered Straglers but as a compact Army or Society of fellow Travellers And this leads me in the Seventh place to speak of as necessary a Character of Christian Pilgrims as any I have yet nam'd and that is their Unity Strangers and Pilgrims who are acted by principles of Prudence Discretion or good Nature are not more careful of peaceable calm Behaviour towards others in the Foreign parts where they Travel than they are of avoiding all quarrels and dissention among themselves They consider nothing exposes them more to the Ludibry of Strangers retards them more in their Progress or encourages Enemies to Attacque them than when they fall out among themselves by the Way or separate from one another into By-Roads and differrent Parties And it is the same among Christians unity is their Credit against the obloquie their Cordial against the annoyances their Bulwark against the Assaults of their Adversaries It is no greater Security to a Kingdom or Family to an Army or any Society than it is to Christian Pilgrims and Spiritual Travellers It is a happy Association when in a regular way many Pilgrims Confederate together to stand by one another with mutual Counsel and Assistance in their Journey Heaven-ward A Mans Soul may well rejoyce in such Company Psal 122.1 and say I was glad when they said let us go to the house of the Lord together Good Company makes the Road less tedious and the Time glide gently away It reconciles us to the uneasiness of a tiresom Journey and ministers Relief and Comfort to us in our Weariness and Distress Owles and Savage Beasts go frequently single but the Tamer and Gentler Animals and those by which Christian Travellers are set forth flock together in Troops Davids City compact together our Saviours Kingdom unite and Silurus his sheaf of Arro St. Pauls compleat Building or Natural Body with the agreement of its different Parts and various Functions are no more Emblems than Instructions of the happiness and security which result from Unity among Christian Pilgrims And if divine Harmony were as strong among those of Christian Community as natural Affection is in the organical Body or politick Considerations are among secular and civil Societies Religion would then Thrive as in its wholsom Air The sacred Constitution of our Church would be more firm Its Members would transcribe the same dispositions in assisting the Weak quickening the Lazy supplying the indigent in their March by which they would become more Beneficial one to another more honourable to their Captain and terrible to the Common Enemy who durst not make these attempts on an entire Body wherewith he will be bold enough to ply mutinous Bands and scattered Fractions The strength of an Army consists in its Discipline Order and Unity where these are wanting neither its Number or Force can preserve it from Ruin and if the professors of Religion like loose vagrant Souldiers forsake their Posts or regular Assembling themselves together they may come to feed upon husks be exposed to wild Beasts 1 Pet. 5.8 or fall within the paw of that Lyon who goeth about seeking whom he may devour So that they but deceive themselves who think their following by-ways the best method to advance with more Safety or arrive with more speed at their desired Rest such are frequently suffer'd as a just punishment for their separation to be led unto Quagmires and Precipices by the ignis fatuus of their own bewildred Imaginations like Men out of their Way in a Wood once wrong still worse 1 Tim. 4.15 so dangerous it is to divide from the Church the ground and Pillar of Truth and do not we find that these who made the first Rupture in her Unity may read their Sin in their Judgment God Almighty in revenge of the Rent they made has beaten them with their own Rod by permitting them to split and fall asunder into so many Parties and Subdivisions the ordinary Fate of all Broachers of Schi-sm and Hatchers of Sedition But that which is most Astonishing is that after all the Prudence and Moderation of the first Reformers of this National Church after all the Courage and Constancy of her Martyrs and Confessors after all the Zeal and Learning of her Apologists and Defenders after all former Instances upon Record and fresher of later Date to our own Sense and Knowledge of her strenuously opposing Popery any should divide from her Communion upon score of her Symbolizing with Rome and asperse her Worship and Constitution as Popish and Superstitious under this Flag the first Deserters sheltred themselves and the little Viperous Parties since wherewith the Church has been and still is Harass'd or the Kingdom Infested have made and still make the same Hue and Cry although she be the strongest Bulwark of the Protestant Religion in the World the richest Store-house of its stoutest Champions the surest Sanctuary of its persecuted Adherents Whereby she is become the greatest Eye-sore to the Papacy and the most invidious Object of its Curses and Anathema's It is strange that when the Pope and Conclave so Incessantly vent their Spight and Venom against her as Heretical any in her own Bosom should charge her with Affection to so Implacable and Avow'd an Adversary From which Envious Imputation I will not attempt to vindicate her by mustering up Arguments from Scripture Reason and Antiquity in defence of her Liturgy and Government that has been done over and over again to the Confutation of gainsayers but I shall single out some matters of Fact no less for the honour of the Church than the Conviction of her Malicious Accusers And first I would have you Consider that some of the Compilers of the Common Prayer Book suffer'd Martyrdom were Burned to Ashes in Queen Mary's Reign the Liturgy discharged and the mass-Mass-Book introduced If these had dissown'd the Religious Service which some now spurn and embraced that Hotch-Potch of Supplications to Saints and Angels in the Romish Ritual