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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26356	The care of the peace of the church, the duty of every Christian in a discourse upon Psalm 122, 6, wherein the main pleas, for separation are examined and the true causes thereof shewed ... / by Tho. Adderley ... ; to which is annexed a letter, briefly shewing the great danger and sinfulness of popery, written to a young gentleman (a Roman Catholick) in Warwick-shire.	Adderley, Thomas, b. 1648 or 9.	1679 (1679)	Wing A509; ESTC R20224	39,054	53

Religion be true and good which will not suffer you to be true and loyal to your King and to yield obedience in all lawful things to the higher Powers under whom God hath subjected us Can that Religion be true which will not suffer you to swear Allegiance to your Prince or if you do will afterwards dispense with you for the breach of such an Oath when the word of God itself which is more to be hearken'd to surely than the Pope hath commanded us to keep the Kings Commandment and that in regard of the Oath of God Can that Religion be warrantable which would deprive Princes of their Power in the external Government of the Church when the word of God hath all along allowed and approv'd it as is plain throughout the whole Bible The Popes supremacy which I find you highly favor is an unjust usurpation and there is not the least intimation in the Scriptures for it unless you will admit of a Pasce oves feed my sheep or duo lumina fecit Deus God made two great lights the Sun to rule the day the Moon and the Starrs to govern the night as sufficient proofs of it And surely these texts will as little prove the Popes supremacy as that text Abraham begat Isaac would prove the unlawfulness of Non-residency But did I say that the Popes supremacy is an usurpation Why surely so it is and especially here in England where I could never yet understand any good title he had to it Whenever he had it it was got either by fraud or force and therefore he might very well expect to lose it when the right heir should claim his own The Pope that strong man armed kept it by meer force and strength for a while but at length came Henry the Eighth who being a Prince of courage and stronger than the Pope threw him out and the Kings of England his Successors have all reason to see to the keeping possession of that that is one of the most precious Jewels of the Crown To be brief Sir I would earnestly importune you to consult the Oaths of Allegiance and supremacy which will it 's presum'd e're long be tender'd to you And I verily believe that you can find nothing at all in either of them but what may very safely be taken by all good Christians And when you have taken them let me as earnestly importune you to keep them for however some may please themselves with the Popes dispensation and think that that will justifie and excuse them in the breach of those or either of those Oaths yet God himself hath told us that he will not hold them guiltless i.e. he will severely punish and revenge himself upon those who take his name in vain I have but one thing more to say which just now comes into my mind and that will relate to an expression which in my own hearing came lately from you You was saying not long since that if you should change your Religion yet you would hardly do it at this time because as you then said the world would think that you did it more out of fear then conscience The very expression my thought did portend some good and put me in some little hopes of a change But I beseech you Sir if you have any convictions wrought in you of the goodness of the purity and peaceableness of the Protestant Religion and of the quite contrary qualities of the Romish take heed of smothering stifeling such convictions though but for an hour for that may tend to the utter ruin of you both here and hereafter Let no man refuse to hear when God Almighty calls Never be afraid or asham'd to own and embrace that Religion which if you live but up to the Principles of it will render you a true Servant to God a loyal subject to your King and a faithful friend to your friend though his perswasion in Religion be never so differing And let me tell you this Sir that I could never yet perswade my self that a Roman Catholick quatenus Roman Catholick could ever be reckon'd as a good Christian a Loyal Subject or a true Friend And now Sir that you may be no longer a stranger to the Pious Devotions of that Church in whose Communion I as well as many others should be very glad and joyful to see you I have sent you herewith the Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies according to the use of the Church of England desiring you seriously to peruse it and to accept of it as a gift and present from your Friend In which Book you will find the most Pious Pethy and well-composed Prayers which are made unto God who is the only hearer of Prayers and not to the Saints who are altogether ignorant of us which are made in the Name of Jesus Christ there being no other Name given unto Men whereby they can be Saved which in short are such Prayers that any one that knows but the English Tongue may readily understand and thereby know what it is he begs of God and that he doth not ask for a Stone when he intends Bread or for a Serpent when he intends a Fish which the ignorant People of the Church of Rome who say their Prayers in an unknown Tongue cannot be assured of Thus Sir I have answered your desire in giving you some short Memento's of the unsoundness of the Romish Religion And if you require farther proof of it I will then refer you to the Writings of some of our Famous and Learned Divines of the Church of England and to which there was never any Reply yet made that could deserve the name of an Answer And really Sir it is no little evidence of the weakness of their cause when they have no other Arguments to defend it with than Daggers and Pistols You see Sir that I have answered your request in bestowing a Sheet of Paper upon you with what intent and design you put me upon it you know best But if it was no worse then with what I Writ it I may then be confident of a favorable reception and candid interpretation of these few Lines from him who is Sir Your unfeigned Friend and Servant c. Decemb. 2. 1678.

The CARE of the PEACE OF THE CHURCH The DUTY of Every Christian In a Discourse upon Psalm 122.6 Wherein the Main Pleas for Separation are Examined and the true Causes thereof Shewed Being very seasonable for these Times and seriously recommended to all especially to the Non-Conforming Preachers By Tho. Adderley A. B. sometimes of St. Johns Coll. Oxon. To which is annexed a Letter Briefly shewing the great danger and sinfulness of Popery Written to a Young Gentleman a Roman Catholick in Warwick-shire LONDON Printed by J. R. for John Williams at the sign of the Crown in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1679. To the Right worshipful Sir Edward Boughton Baronet one of his Majesties Justices of the Peace and a Deputy-Lievtenant for the County of Warwick and now a member of the honorable house of Commons Honored Sir THis small thing that is now venturing abroad into the world doth in a more especial manner belong unto you It was born under your roof and that little strength it hath since gathered was in the same place But alas it is still weak and I fear may not meet with that kindness and tenderness of compassion which an innocent Infant might in reason expect The parent of it doth therefore humbly crave your patronage and protection and he doth the less scruple a grant of it the request being made to a person that hath been ever hospitable and charitable And for this Sir you are so eminent in your own Country that when through the importunity of the whole Gentry of the County of VVarwick you did at length appear in the field as a competitor for a Knight of the Shire I my self heard divers say that it was pitty that a Gentleman of so much Charity to the Poor should be taken out of the Country Nay some did say that they would give their votes against you meerly upon this score to keep a Gentleman of such liberality to the poor and hospitality to all others still amongst them Now Sir the God of mercy and compassion reward you for it by continuing his temporal blessings to you here and with a Crown of glory hereafter And this shall be the constant prayer of Your Worships móst humble and most obliged Servant Tho. Adderley To the Charitable Christian and peaceably disposed Reader A Preface which at first I looked upon as useless upon second thoughts seemed little less then necessary Not so much to importune favor as equity and justice from the Reader I am not ignorant that most things of the same nature with the ensuing tract though written with never so good intentions and meaning are apt enough to be misconstrued by some ill disposed persons and the Authors of them though earnestly industrious for peace and unity are sure to be branded for the only disturbers Those that go about to lay open the sin and folly of some men shall be sure to find censurers enough and if they cannot find any thing more to say yet this they will be sure to insinuate that we write not so much out of zeal to the truth or love to dissenters as out of design of advancing our selves and of Eclipsing the repute and fame of others This I know hath been the common reward of persons who for their excellent parts and pains have merited better things of them And therefore I cannot much expect any other return If they have called the Master of the Family Beelzebub how much more will they call the Servant so But I protest that my main design in publishing these papers was meerly to mind our dissenters of the folly and sinfulness of keeping up a Schism in the Church and widening it's breaches since it is apparent that it makes way for the entrance of the common Enemy And if any one doth yet question the truth of this let him but seriously peruse Doctor Oates his Narrative of the horrid Plot and Conspiracy of the Popish party and that will plainly evince it and shew that these persons are but the Instruments of the Papists to bring about their designs What dangers we have been in at least if we are not so still of the Romans coming and taking away our place and Nation surely they cannot but see But would to God that their eyes were once opened to discern that their persistance in their separation from us makes their passage to it the more easie Sure enough our differences and dissentions are more then a little pleasing to our adversaries of Rome who very much delight to look on and see our scuffles and clap their hands at the sport saying Aha so would we have it The very manner of relating the contention betwixt Abraham's and Lot's Servants is very observeable Gen. 13.7 And there was a strife between Abraham's Herdsmen and the Herdsmen of Lot's Cattel and the Canaanite and Perizzite then dwelled in the Land Which surely was inserted by the Spirit of God as no small aggravation of the unseasonableness of the strife But it is much to be thought that the Canaanite and the Perizzite or that which is as bad the Fryar and the Jesuit are not meerly lookers on but they have a very near interest in our strifes by strong and secret influences causing and fomenting differences and contentions and kindling sparks into a flame Surely the hand of Joab is in this matter This then being so apparent what Christian much more what Protestant Minister could forbear a little sharpness against our blind or that which is worse obstinate dissenters who are the undoubted promoters of their own and of the Church's ruin I am not to be told that the least tartness against our Non-Conforming Teachers is enough to give any man the name of a well-wisher to the Romanists if not of a down-right Papist amongst their favorers and followers And therefore here I w uld crave so much Charity from my Reader as not to fauster any such thoughts of me and if for no other reason yet for the sake of the Letter annexed to the ensuing discourse And let me tell him this that had it not been for the prevention of that calumny I had not published it and that because I could not think it any ways worthy of the Press Having thus craved so much Charity of the Reader I shall readily admit his perusal of the ensuing pages of this Book and by that let him judge whether or no I may deserve it Psalm 122. Verse 6. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem THat the Psalms of David were Pen'd at several times and designed for several occasions is most unquestionably true And let the condition of Christians either in their publick or private capacities be almost what it will they may easily find out some Psalm very proper and seasonable for their relief and comfort and suitable enough to that their present condition As men infested with several Diseases and Distempers of Body may find some Drugs and Medicines in the Apothecarys Shop to Purge out those different humors that

themselves for not obeying the same Let us when ever opportunity serves put the case thus unto them Suppose that you that are masters of families should command your children and houshold to appear before you at such a time and at such a place and there to joyn with you to worship God in such a posture and by the use of such a prayer which you have composed in consideration of their weakness and that they might all speak the same things This you have given sufficient notice of and none can pretend ignorance of it Suppose now that some of them should come and tell you that you exceed your bounds that you take too much upon you in restraining them thus of their liberty and in tying them up so strictly to the use of such things as God has no where commanded but hath left them altogether free Suppose one that is a little more sawcy and confident than the rest should venture to tell you that if you intend to have his company at your prayers they shall then be at such an hour and not at that time which you have appointed A second encourag'd by the example of the other tells you that your Prayers shall be in such a Room and not where you have ordered Another comes and asks you what you have to do to appoint the posture or the habit in which their Prayers shall be performed he is resolv'd to come in what dress he pleases and there either to sit or stand or loll at his pleasure not so much for his ease as meerly to cross you and to shew that he will not do as you order and prescribe What I pray would you now think of these people What would you their Masters and Governors do to such servants Would you think that you your selves had done any thing amiss herein or that you had done more then you could justifie and so beg their pardon or would you not rather look upon them as a company of unmannerly servants would you not handle them a little ruffly for such sauciness and put them out of your houses as persons unfit to live in any civilised families sure enough they would And then we may presently come upon them with a ye are the men you are these very sawcy refractory servants For a kingdom is but a larger family over which the Prince is the Governor and master And therefore when he hath by his Laws enjoyned such and such ceremonies as are no ways contrary to the commands of God you that disobey your Prince in these things do justifie your own children and servants in their disobedience to your selves But come and let us reason together a little further why may not Christian Kings use the same authority as the Kings of Israel and Judah did Produce your cause bring forth your strongest reasons Shew us when and where and how they lost such authority This seems to be no less a right then what is founded in nature and approved of by God himself Abraham shall become a great and mighty Nation says God and then it follows I know that he will command his children and his houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord Gen. 18.18.19 There is nothing more plain then that the Governors and Princes of Judah did exercise such power and that it did of right belong unto them And this is a thing that hath been often proved beyond all contradiction especially in a late piece called the modern pleas for comprehension toleration c. To which I shall refer my reader Thus you see that this objection against our Church of enjoyning some ceremonies which are no where particularly and precisely commanded by God is of no validity at all And that in regard the worship of God cannot be performed without some ceremonie and who so fit in order to the avoiding of confusion to determine in this case as our Governors to whom God hath enjoyned obedience and told us that we must submit to every ordinance of man for his sake In regard the Church doth no more then what every Master of a family doth expect from his children and servants And in regard too that it is no more then what hath been done by Kings and Princes in the Old Testament And I am sure that they can never prove that they have been divested of this power in the new And that we may not pass the least part of the objection unanswered I shall in a few words shew you that this is not that will-worship which is condemned by St. Paul and therefore they cannot have the least shadow of reason to separate from our Church upon this account and so disturb the peace of our Jerusalem If you look into the 2. Chap. of St. Pauls Epistle to the Colos you will find verse 18. That the Apostle forbids the worshipping of Angels as a bold invention of men for which there was no revelation From thence he proceeds to speak against such superstitious people as did forbid marriage and the eating of some sorts of meat as in themselves utterly unlawful And those that were of this humor he directly charges verse 23 with will-worship So that it is very plain that those persons whom he charges with will-worship are such as do enjoyn or command any thing to be done or not done as if it were the will and command of God he should be so served when it is but a meer constitution of the will of man and enjoyned for some prudent considerations Now all the world must needs acquit our Church from this when she hath plainly declared as it is in the preface to the Common prayer-Prayer-Book that none of these ceremonies are imposed under the notion of necessary or religious but are of an indifferent nature and only used as decent and comely in the judgment of the present Governors who may alter these things and constitute others in their stead when they see fit which they could not do did they look upon them as things in themselves necessary And thus have we fully answered the main objections which are commonly made against our Church and shewed that it hath no affiance at all with the Church of Rome in any thing that is sinful And that the enjoyning some ceremonies which God hath not particularly and precisely commanded is not that will-worship which is condemned by the Apostle and therefore we may reassume what we did at first lay down and say that to separate and divide from this Church upon such accounts is highly blameable in any nay Extreamly sinful But what if after all this we should undertake to shew that these are but meer pretences and that the great maintainers of a separation from our Church have not really any such thoughts of her but yet least the people should suspect their separation from her to be causeless they are willing that they should think so of her Alas how commonly hath the world been deluded by specious pretences When Mary anointed