and Christian way then all these put together To bear with one another to leave judging censuring despising persecuting to leave men to those Sentiments which they have contracted from insuperable weakness or less happy Education whilst they are good men good subjects good Christians sound in the Faith and Worship God no worse then the Scripture commands them And he that cannot Indulge his brother sound in the Fundamentals and walking together with his brethren so far as he has attained let him prate of peace till his Tongue akes 't is evident he would not purchase Peace with Shoobuckles The Apostle has recommended this expedient to us by his own example 1 Cor. 9. 20 21. which the Enquirer could see to quote and not to understand Unto the Iews I became as a Iew that I might gain the Iews To them that were without the Law as without Law being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ that I might gain them that are without the Law To the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some It seems the Blessed A postle had not yet learnt to snickle the private Conscience with his publick Authority That which he quotes from Greg. Naz is indeed more considerable to his design Who affirms how St. Basil dissembled the Coesseutiality of the Holy Chost and delivered himself in Ambiguous Terms on that point least he should offend and loose the weak The Reader will conclude by these instances that though the Enquirers designly open to condemn the Dissenters yet his Mediums do strongly plead their Cause We are illustrated with an Apostle with a famous Bishop both eminent for their Condescentions to the weak such as laid not the stress of the Churches Peace upon their own Wills or A postolical power or Ecclesiastical Authority nor defined too severely Controverted points and yet when he comes to the Application the duty of yelding is pressed upon the Dissenters Whose coming up in a hundred points were perfectly insignificant unless they could nick the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Canon-Conformity I would ask the Enquirer whether the Dissenters ever pleaded to be gracified in so weighty a point as the Coessentiality of the Holy Spirit Or whether Ambiguity or a handsome equivocation there must be one of those things we must give for Peace If neither of these he might have spared Bafil if not for our sake yet for his own And out of all these excellent Materials we expected he should have composed a Speech to the Reverend Bishops My Lords I have humbly set before your discerning judgments the great example of the Great St. Basil and the greater instance of the famous Dr of the Gentiles persons whose Authority in the Church and wisdom to manage that Authority was without disparagement equal to the same Qualifications in your Lordships And yet their hearts so humble when their places were so high their Condescentions greater then their Exaltations carries somewhat in it of that Divinity which bespeaks your Imitation They would become all things to all men though sin to none They were ambitious to wiâ—… the weak by Meekness and not to wound the weak by Majesty The way of Peace lyes plain before you stâ—…p to them in things Indifferent who cannot rise to you in what they call sinful your yeelding to the weak will be your strength And whilst you gain tender Consciences to the Church you will gain Immortal honour to your selves Let it be the glory of your lives that you have made up our Breaches and not the Epitaph of your Tombs That the way of Peace you have not known He comes now to the Grand example indeed that of our Blessed Saviour which if it be but faithfully alledged and Congruously applyed must silence all dispute and conquer the must restif reluctancy Let us then hear how Christs example leads us to Conform 1. Christ complied with the Rites and Customs he found What right or wrong 'T is true he complied with those he found because he found such Rites and Customs as were warranted by the Law He was Circumcised True It became him to fulfil all Righteousness He did eat the Passeover Very true He was made under the Law He wore their Garments spoke their Language No doubt of it He was a Jew by Birth and approved himself a Minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God 2. He condescended to the very humours of that stubborn people True Not by Imitating them not assuming the person of a Iewish Zealot but mildly reproving their irregularities He came not in the blustering Whirlwind nor in the terrible Earthquake but in the still small voice of Evangelical Meekness He came not to break the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax but rebuked his mistaken Disciples that they understood not the spirit of the Gospel nor what a temper it called for that they must needs fetch fire from Heaven to Consume the truly Schismatical Samaritans when they should rather have Castigated their own heats and calmed their own passions which were kindled from a worse fire I expect still how he will accommodate this Condescention of our Blessed Saviour to his purpose for either the Dissenters must be those stubborn people and then if the Clergy will imitate their Lord and Master they must condescend to their very Humours or else Dissenters must in imitation of Christ condescend to the Clergy and then it supposes them to be the stubborn and inflexible party Besides Condescention in Inferiours to Superiours will be very improper Language 3. He used their phrase in his Discourse And the Non-conformists speak as proper English as their Wit serves them that they cannot Adorn their conceptions or cloath their thoughts in thunder 〈◊〉 ping Phraseology may perhaps be their Misery but certainly not their Sin 4. He observed their Feasts We Question it not He came to do his Fathers will and amongst other particulars that also of observing what ever Ordinance was of Divine Institution But the Render must know here 's a secret Argument couch't in these words against Non-conformity which I will ingenuously own and 't is this The Jews had instituted a Feast in Memory of the Dedication of the Temple Now this Festival had not the character of Divine Institution and yet this Feast our Saviour solemnized and who then can be so refractory as not to observe the Holy-Dayes and consequently all other Humane Constitutions which bear no direct Repugnancy to the Law of God I shall neither assert at present that this Festival had Divine Warrant nâ—…r deny that it was properly of a Religious Nature but this I return That it appears not that our Saviour performed any Act or spoke any Word that may be interpreted or Construed an approbation of that practise All that appears is from 10 Iâ—… 22 23. And it was at Jerusalem the Feast of the Dedication and
the Tenth into a Couple But where to wedge in this Censoriousness was a great difficulty and had continued so had not some repealed the Fourth Commandment as purely Ceremonial and therefore if any where there it must go Some perhaps may Censure this Censurer as guilty of more Censoriousness than half the World besides but such dâ—…not consider that we must â—…llow for shrinking in the Silk grograin Phrase of Rethoricâ—…ns what 〈◊〉 flat humble low jâ—…une expression had it been to have said Truly Men are too Câ—…nsorious But now the Stile mantles and the Language brisles and burnishes it comes off with a Noble Grace it fills the Mouth and sounds augustly to say They make it an Essential part of their Religion 6. Nothing was then thought too good or costly for the Service of God or Religion Men could not content themselves to serve God with that which cost thâ—…m nothing It was one a Julian or such another that envied the costly Vessels wherewith Christ was served Ay! Time was indeed and pity it is so good a Time had not its Wings clip'd from flying away Time was that Mens Money burnt their Pocket-bottoms out when the fire of Purgatory made it too hot for the most frozen Usurer to hold but now Alas That Time is past And for the Brazen Head it fell down and dash'd out its Brains If these things be truly represented and that the Glory of the Primitive Times did consist in Pompous Devotions Polished Altars Guilded Organs Sumptuous Candlesticks Embrâ—…dered Copes Silken Cowles much good may it do them we neither envy nor shall imitate their Inimitable Excellencies If Iulian envied the Plate wherein Christ was served let him grow lean with envy but surely the Chronicles are hugely wide if these matters be not miâ—…d The cost and charges at which the Primitive Christians were in the Service of their God and Saviour was quite another thing they bestowed their hearts upon him bore reproach for him laid down their lives and whatever was dear to them in defence of his Truth Silver and Gold they had none and Christ as little need of it However that Age could not well upbraid the present with irreligion if the true measure of Gods Worship be to be taken from its exterior Garb and Splendor As we cannot mock them with their Wooden Presbyters so I am certain they could not us with Wooden Chalices at least in this one partiâ—…ar I expect he should retrâ—…ct and freely own that for Costly Worship which is the main we have theere out-vy'd the Primitive Times I shall not much conâ—…rn my self to reflect upon that useful policy of those who have imposed upon the Credulus World a Belief that whatever is devoted to the Priests is therein Consecrated to God but yet I may silently admire the easiness of those Ages that suffer'd themselves so tamely to be abus'd And above all I cannot but wonder at the Chaldaeans a People renowned for Wisdom that they could once be perswaded by the Priests of Bell that his Hungry Deity had devoured all that good Beef and Mutton which their blind Devotion offer'd at his Altar The Truth is their own Belly was their God and poor Bell bore all the blame of their gluteony Thus what they got over their Idols back they spend it under his or upon their own infatiable Paunches It 's no new thing for Sacred Names to give Patronage to Avarice Thus the Kite soars aloft as if she designed Heaven when her steady Eye is fix'd upon the Prey below and Glorious Pretences to endow the Holy Mother Church had almost reduced the Lay-world to Beggery 7. In those early days the Christian Assemblies drained the Theatres Ay! but where 's the Antithesis But now so it should have run the Theatres have drained the Christian Assemblies But that had been a Repartâ—…e too close and home for one that would be kind to himself Had the Primitive Preachers exposed their own Religion they had never drained the Theatres and if our Modern Pulpits will drive that Trade the Theatres will drain the Water if not draw the Grist from their Mill for they know how to expose Religion more ingeniously and more effectually But what other issue must we expect when some Clergy-men shall frequent others plead for and justifie the Play-houses when the Bears with their Decent and Harmonious Bagpipes the Fencers with their ratling Drum shall find fair Quarter shall have free ingress egrâ—…ss and râ—…gress when yet some Christian Assemblies are disturbed and broken in pieces We poor folk are apt to think that we may venture a step or two nearer the brink of the Pit than our Teachers and take a little more Latitude than our Guides for they are well paid for their Gravity whilst we must be forced to be sober and austere at our own proper cost and charges It has been an old observation If Ministers be merry the people wil be mad If they drink their people will be drunk if they argue for the lawfulness of Theatres and other such Nurseries of good Learning the people without scruple will frequent them And then have a care in good earnest left the Stage plunder the Pulpit and the Theatre drain the Chistian Assemblies more effectually than the Conventicles 8. The Holy Men of those times that approach'd our Saviour had as it were some Rayes of his Divinity upon them and their Faces shone c. And would he indeed have these times talk of Rayes and Beams and Shinings of Face On purpose perhaps because they want new Matter for Ecclesiastical Burlesque and Canonical Drollery One such Expression as this dropt from the Tongue or Pen of a Dissenter had been enough to equip out a whole Fleet of Friendly Debates for a Summers Expedition But yet he has qualified it pretty well they were but some Rayes and as it were some Rayes And that may mollify as dangerous a word as this and save the Primitive Times a Satyr 9. A Christian Church was then a Colledge of Holy and Good Men Incomparable Proof that all Churches were either then Cathedrals or at least Collegiate And truly they might have continued so still had not Remissness of Discipline in just Causes and Severity of Discipline in slighty Causes endangered to make them a Don of Thieves If the Church doors were strictly guarded and the Church windows narrowly watch'd that none might come in by the one nor climb in by the other that are unqualiâ—…ed If Simoniacal Buyers and Sellers were soundly whip'd out which have bribed their Admission by the Golden Key and none denied Entrance that claime Admission upon Christs Terms such as can produce Testimonial Letters from a sound Faith and Holy Conversation the Church might still be a Colledge of Good and Holy Men But if some must be forced in in spight of their Teeth though as unfit as Ignorance and prophaness can make them If like the Americans they must be compelled to go to Heaven
out of Heaven and a Key to let them in again 4. They that have been ejected by that 〈◊〉 find no evil consequences in their ejected state In the Primitive times it was therefore terrible because Christ abbetted his own Ordinance administred for his own Spiritual Ends in his own Regular way but now Men dare not trust Christ with his own Work but have supplied his vengeance with a Significavit a Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo delivering Men over to the Sheriff whom thereby they call the Devil by craft but otherwise the Excommunicated Person cats his Bread and drinks his Wine with a Chearful Heart because the Lord has accepted him 3. That so few frequent the Church is because they have either been scoffed or railed or beaten out of doors or barred out by Conditions not comporting with Scripture Rule and Warrant Men know that Christ must be their Judge to him they must give an account of their Souls and Worship in the Great Day and therefore they are willing to Worship God according to his Will revealed in his Sacred Word unless any can give them Counter-security to save harmless and indemnifie them before his dreadful Tribunal And if they must suffer for such resolved adherence to a Scriprure Religion they have only this humbly to reply Daveniam Imperator Tu Carcerem Ille Gehennam Christ threatens a Hell the Law only menaces a Goal 4. That the Liturgy was then counted a principal part of Gods Worship we cannot help We judge that none but God can make the least much less a principal part of Gods Worship God only knows which way he will be Worship'd with Acceptation And it is our grear Happiness that he has acquainted us with that Will of his in his Word to which we apply our selves for our Directory and are not sollicitous about Apocryphal Rubrics As to matters concerning Religion Nature Teacheth no further than the Obligation to the Duâ—…y but leaves the particular determination of the manner of Obedience to Divine Positive Laws So we are instructed from the Author of Origin Sacrae p. 171. 5. That it is now become the great point of Sanctity to scruple every thing was not spoken with that regard to Honesty and Truth as might have been expected from a Compassionate Enquirer They scruple being Holier than Christ has commanded them wiser in matters of Religious Worship than the Scriptures are able to make them They scruple giving up their Consciences to those whom they see no great reason to trust till better evidence be given how they regard their own They scruple all Retreats in Reformation and all Retrograde Motions towards Evangelical Perfection and Purity and they with our Enquirer would scruple a little more this overlashing That it 's an Essential part of some Mens Religion to be Censorious And a great point of Sanctity to scruple every thing Let him then continue to Lament the change and we will pray that God will make a more through change reducing Doctrine Worship Discipline to the Word of God the only Rule of Reformation PART I. CHAP. I. A Sober Enquiry into the Apocryphal Causes of Non-conformity pretended by the serious Enquirer St. Augustin and the Synod of Dort Vindicated the Articles of the Church of England Cleared The Learning Preaching and Conversations of the N. C. modestly justified against the scandalous Reflections of the pretended Compassionate Enquirer but without Recrimination AFter a very short Epistle or to speak Canonically that which stands instead of the Epistle to very little and a tedious Introduction to much less purpose the Enquirer falls full drive upon the Causes of the separation from the English Reformed Church In imitation of the French Embassadors Musicians who would needs give the Grand Seignior a fit of Mirth but were so cruelly tedious in tuning their Fiddles that the Sultans Patience was quite worn out and he could not be perswaded to hear the first Lesson Now the Causes are either Apocryphal and pretended or Canonical and Real and it 's a wonder to me when his Invention was once broached that he did not feign this for another Cause of separation that such Heterogeneous Causes should be bound up together in the same Volume and Covers For these Apocriphal Causes let it not beget another scruple in your Captious Heads whether they are pretended by Dissenters or only pretended by this Enquirer to be amongst their pretences for it will come all to one there being some collateral matters which it shall go hard but he will entice or force into the Discourse or else the Reader might have sung whâ—…p Barnaby and Retreated to his Recreations the longest Holy day in the Year 1. The very first of these pretended Causes is some Blame they lay upon the Doctrine of the Church and the main if not the only thing excepted against in this kind is That the Thirty Nine Articles are not so punctual in defining the Five Points debated in the Synod of Dort as they could wish Just as your common Hackney Versifiers or Water Poets make one Verse for the Reason and the other for the Rhime sake so was this Objection mounted against the Doctrine of the Church for the sake of his precious Answers wherein he will find or make as handsom an occasion as impertinency will admit to vilifie St. Austin and the Synod of Dort It will be extreamly difficult to give our Enquirer a satisfactory Answer in this Point Shall we say This is not the main thing in the Articles excepted against by Dissenters He will readily Reply However then you tâ—…itly grant that this is one of your little Cavils Shall we say This is not the Only thing they scruple he will return nimbly Then it seems you consess this to be one though not the only thing you Boggle at Really if I know how to content him I would do it and the best expedient that offers it self at present is this Answer 1. That the Church has other Doctrines not contained in the 39 Articles imposed on the Faith of Subscribers and perhaps the scruple may lie against them 2. That the 39 Articles contain other Doctrines besides those relating to the five Points debated 〈◊〉 the Synod of Dort as that of Art 20. The Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies And that of Art 34. Every Particular or National Church hath Authority to Ordain Change and Abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained only by Mans Authority And what now if the quarrel should lie against one of those And I am the rather induced to suspect they may hesitate in these particulars because I have heard some of them privately Speak and seen others publickly Print that though they can practise such things which being in their own Natures indifferent remain under all their concurrent Circumstances lawful yet they cannot find where the Church has any Commission to impose them They can assert and use their Christian Liberty and yet cannot subscribe to
doubt not both of the purity and peace of their Consciences because 1. He allows no other Election then Gods determining absolutely of temporal Blessings p. 74. But the Church of England Art 17 having described a particular Election to Everlasting Life from Gods Everlasting purpose tells us That the godly consideration of Predestination and our Election in Christ is full of sweet pleasant and unspeakable comfort to Godly persons and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ. He then that disowns this Doctrine must needs want one main ground of a pure and comfortable Conscience 2. They who own Justification by works want another bottom of a comfortable Conscience So the Church of England Art 11. Wherefore that we are Iustified by Faith only is a most wholsome Doctrine and full of comfort All peace then is founded in Grace In Gods Grace as the Fountain whence it springs and in the Operations of Grace upon the Soul as the Evidences of that Grace in God and though men may bless themselves in Evil and flatter themselves when they find prosperous Iniquity yet if any one be a lyar a persecuter a hater of Godliness and Godly Men a slanderer c. God speaks no peace to him and therefore it s more adviseable to boast less of a comfortable Conscience and mind the things that belong to a comfortable Importance 3. The last pretended cause of the Dissenters withdrawing from the Church of England is A Charge against the sufficiency but especially the sanctity of the Clergy The Dissenters do gladly acknowledge that the Learning and Piety of very many of the Ministers of the Church of England is such as deserves an honourable place in their hearts that they have not such a valuation for some of our Enquirers co-partners they beg his excuse till they may see more cogent Reasons to alter their Judgements when they are in the Humour to take a few sorry Sophismes candied over with Rhetorick to be Learning or uncharitable censoriousness crusted over with smooth Hypocrisie to be Piety they see nothing to the contrary but they may enlarge their Charities That there are many of the present Establishment eminent for sound Learning and exemplary Holiness who exercise Christian tenderness towards those who dissenting in Conscience do suffer for Conscience is the rejoycing of their Souls under their great pressures And they know that the more Learned and Godly any person is the more humble he must needs be A little knowledge ferments aâ—… impotent heart and makes it intolerably arrogâ—…nt but he that knows much amongst other things must needs know that he that stands in need of mercy from God and therefore will more readily shew pitty to Man He that knows what a tender Conscience is at home will pitty and indulge it wherever he meets with it abroad He that knows much cannot presume all the world enjoys his measures of Light The Enquirer might therefore well have spared this odious and invidious discourse had he not found it necessary first to make a Man of Clouts and then execute it And yet his Victory cannot be great in trampling on those that lye on the ground and can be laid no lower but in their Graves for to Hell he cannot send them Two needless things he will say to this Objection for he is full Et si non aliqua noâ—…uisset 〈◊〉 esset 1. Supposing this Objection had been true yet it could not be made by any Protestant without contradicting his principles No why not Oh for the Papists are taught that the efficacy of all Divine offices depends upon the intention and condition of him that administers but Protestants are taught it seems otherwise that the efficacy of all Divine Ordinances dependâ—… upon the Divine Institution and the concurrence of Gods Grace wiâ—…h my use of them The Reader must give me leave to repeat my former caution which is always understood though not exprest that I deny not the sanctity of the English Clergy my only task is to examine the strength of his Arguments which are sometimes so weak as would tempt the less considerate to conclude that cannot be true which so bold 〈◊〉 undertaker cannot make out His answer to the Objection is â—…nly more weak then the Objection it self For. § 1 When he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Church of Rome sure the Protestant Dissenters must expect no Quarter The Papists do indeed hold That the efficacy of Sacraments depends upon the Intention of the Priest but that it depends on the Condition of the Priest as to Holiness they assert not I shall produce one evidence of many Tolet de instructione sacerdotis lib. 1. cap. 92. propounds this Question Quando licet à ministris malis accipere Sacramenta When or in what case is it lawful to receive the Sacraments from wicked Ministers And the very moving of the Question implies that at least at sometimes and in some cases its lawful but this will more fully appear from his Answers which he gives 1. Negatively A non-toleratis ab EcclesiaÌ„ non licet ullum Sacramentum accipere etiam necessitatis tempore It s not lawful to receive any Sacrament from those who are not tolerated by the Church no not in case of necessity Here is Doctrine to his own hearts content and wherein the Jesuite may assure himself of our Enquirers suffrage A Non-conformist amongst them may not Baptize or Administer the Supper though the Salvation or Damnation of never so many depended on it And yet when the Casuist thinks better on 't he will except Baptism and perhaps the other Sacraments in the Article and point of deathâ—… A ffirmatively A mâ—…lis ministris dum non sequatur aliquod grave scandatum possumus sacra recipere Nam Ecclesia ipsos tolerat ipsi taâ—…a administrâ—…ntes sibi solis nocent We may receive Sacraments from wicked Ministers such as he there describes provided no grievous scandal follow upon it for the Church tolerates such as these and when they administer the Ordinances they hurt none but themselves Nay he quotes Pope Nick. to back him Isti sunt sicut fax aâ—…censa quae alios illuminat se consumiâ—… unde aliis commodum exhibent sibi dispendium praebent mortis These evil Ministers are like a burning Torch which enlightens others though it wast it self and destroy themselves by that very means whereby they advantage others but at last he comes to this Ab his quibus ex officio incumbit sive sint parati sive non licet petere accipere Sacramenta five ex necessitate five non quia ille ex officio tenetur quandocunque petiero ministrare nec ego jus meum à mitto ex illius malitiâ We may demand and receive Sacraments from those whose duty it is to Administer whether they be prepared or not whether it be in a case of necessity or not Because suâ—…h a one is bound by virtue of his Office to minister when I demand
be destroyed till they be dress'd up in a Malefactors Cloaths And it seems as much for their Enemies Advantage to make them seem wicked as 't is for theirs to be really Holy It had been a more Important Enquiry than any he has yet made whence such an exulcerated Spirit should proceed The Gospel is a Message of Peace from the God of Peace by the Prince of Peace to the Sons of Peace which Gospel breaths nothing but healing Counsels drops down the Balmy Dews of Gentleness Meckness Patience Long-suffering Charity and if I might borrow an â—…ld Maxime at second hand from him Aut hoc non est Evangelium aut nos non sumus Evangelici Either Charity is not Gospel or our Enquirer is an Infidel It 's a grave Axiome in the Law That his Cause ought more to be favoured who only seeks to avoid wrong than his that seeks to get Gain The Dissenters humbly plead the Benefit of it They grudge them not their Preferments and Accumulated Dignities they neither envy nor seek their Great things They only deprecate Ruine till they shall deserve it It 's only from a Prison not for a Palace that they Petition When others have got the Two Swords the Secular and the Spiritual they only crave the protection of the Defensive Shield And think they may with some Reason demand of them who Deifie the freedom of Humane Will that they may be indulged in the freedom of their Consciences regulated by the Word of God CHAP. II. Of the more Remote Causes of the infelicities of this Church The Persecution under Q. Mary The bad provisions for Ministers in Corporations Frequent Wars The mischiefs of Trade and Travel The Designs of Atheists and Papists enquired into with what influence they may have had upon the present separation from the Church of England WHen Adrian VI. was pressed by the clamorous Importunity of the German Princes to Reform the Clergy he answered very gravely That a Reformation was necessary yet the danger of Reforming all at once was so dreadful that he resolved to proceed step by step Some Wise Men smiled at the cautious Advisement of his Holiness and said They hoped he would not break his shins for hast but deliberately make a hundred years at least between every step The same prudence which this politick Pope used in his advance towards a Reformation our wary Enquirer uses in his approaches towards the Causes of Separation Hitherto we have been entertained with certain Romantick Imaginary Causes and now he will give us a gentile Treat with the Real ones But of thâ—…se some are more remote others near hand these come by the running Post those by Tom Long the Carriet Thus your Poching Fellows when they have found the Hare sitting go round about and about the Bush till they have screwed themselves into a convenient Distance and then give poor Pusâ—… Club Law and knock her dead upon the Form 1. Now the first of these Remote Causes is That it was the misfortune and is the great disadvantage of this Church that it was not well confirmed and swadled in its Infancy it conflicted with Serpents in its Cradle and underwent a severe persecution What he understands by that old Blind Heathenish Beldame Fortune I cannot tell The Scriptures have taught us to believe That the Hairs of our Head are all numbred and therefore much more the Heads of the Martyrs That a Sparrow falls not to the ground without the Providence of our Heavenly Father Much less the Blood of the Saints which is more precious in his sight than many Sparrows But this is only a Shibboleth which serves for a Certificate that he is no friend to the immutable Counsels of God However this early persecution must needs have a considerable influence upon the Churches present weakness for thus Mephibosheths Nurse making more hast than good speed in her fright and flight threw down her Nursery and he became lame to his dying day It was therefore politickly done of Licurgus thinks the Enquirer when he had framed the Body of the Spartan Laws to pretend an occasion to Travel and having first taken an Oath of the People that they should make no alteration in that Government either in Church or State till his return he resolvedly never returns again If the old Masters of Ceremonies could have perswaded the people to some such subscription that they would never alter their Inventions till their return and then had sentenced themselves to a voluntary perpetual Exile it had been a successful piece of self denial to cheat a Nation into Uniformity no less honourable to themselves than grateful to thousands But thus the Case stood with the Church in its Infancy King Edward VI. dying Immaturely too soon says the Enquirer too late says Dr. Heylin Q. Mary succeeded him in the Throne and so the Church was put upon difficulties and trials before its Limbs and Ioints were settled and confirmed Persecution has hitherto been esteemed one of the Churches best friends whereof it has been often afraid but never hurt Such was the constant experience of the Primitive Christians Exquifiâ—…ior quaque crudelitas illecebra magis est secta plures efficimur quoties metimur sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesia The cruelties of Enemies does but more encrease the Number the oftner the Church is mowed down the thicker it comes up and there 's no Seed thrives so well as that which is steeped in the Blood of Martyrs That which Christians lose by the wind of persecution is only their Chaff that which the fire of Tribulation preys upon is only their Dross The Marian Fiers did the Church this one good turn that it melted down much of that imposing Spirit and Lordly Temper which reigned in some Church-men over their dissenting Brethren which Bishop Ridley confessed at the Stake That Tree which is of Gods Planting takes deeper Root by shaking and if it loses any Ceremonious Leaves let them go the Tree will bear better and sweeter Fruit with out them Could Persecutors have seen how much good the Wise God would extract out of their evil they would never have aggravated their own damnation to be the instruments of the Christians Salvation But malice is so quicksighted to do mischief that it 's Blind in the reasons of doing it and makes such hast to her end that she stumbles in the means Thus Nero's fingers itcht to be burning of Rome but that he knew it would arise a more glorious Phoenix out of its own Ashes which could the Devil himself consider he would never be content Tribulos metere dum nobis spinas serit to sow us Thorns and reap himself a crop of Thistles All this while we are waiting to see how he will make it out that This early Persecution did any real hurt to our Infant Church And after some Preambles and Introductions he will doubtless come home to the point And first By reason of this Persecution you must
am I from envying them their Honours Revenues and desired Affluences that I could be content they had the Nine parts and the poor Tenth only left to the Land-lord as a small quit-rent in memory that the whole was once his own But what security can we have that that also will not be demanded in time to make up a Compotency for Trade is too great Corporations too rich every one has too much only the Clergy have just nothing till they have got their Competency which is nothing less than the whole This was the glorious design managed by the Council of Trent when the Church was so unmeasurably rich that it maintained abundance of Cardinals every one carrying the Port and State of a King so many Arch-bishops Bishops Priests besides the infinite numbers and swarms of Religious Persons all endowed with ample Revenues and yet they made a Begging Decree much would have more Cujus avaritiâ—… totus non sufficit Orbiâ—… That all the Faithful should be exhorted to give largely to the Bishops and Priests to maintain their Dignities But the Parliament of Paris a wise and foreseeing Assembly abhorring this Mendicant Trade and knowing well that your counterfeit Beggers hide Luxury under the Covert of Rags and remembring possibly that of Solomon Prov. 13. 7. There is that maketh himself poor and yet there is no end of his Substance gave this censure of it That this had been good indeed if they did serve the people as they â—…ght and were really in need for so St. Paul exhorts That he that is instructed should give some part of his goods to him that instructs him but when he that bears the Name of a Pastor does intend any thing rather then to instruct the people the Exhortation is not proper and the rather because Ecclesiastical goods formerly were for maintaining the Poor and Redeeming Slaves for which Causes not only the Immovables but even the Ornaments of Churches and Holy Vessels were Sold. In the Mosaical Law God gave the Tenth to the Levites who were but the 13th part of the people but the Clergie now who are not a Fiftieth part have gotten already the Fourth part and doth still proceed to gain using many Artifices therein Moses having invited the People to offer for the service of the Tabernacle when as much was offer'd as did suffice forbad them in thâ—… Name of God to offer any more but here will be no end found till they have all if Men will continue still in the Lethargie If some Priests and Clergie-Men be poor it 's because others are excessively rich and an equal distribution would make them all rich abundantly Hist. Trent Counc p. 821. Again â—…b p. 540. For a Synod to put their hands into Mens Purses to â—…intain Curates seemed strange both for the matter and the manner for the matter because the Clergie was superfluously rich and rather indebted to the Laity For the manner because neither Christ nor his Apostles did ever compel Men to make Contributions but only gave power to receive them that were voluntary And he that reads St. Paul to the Corinthians and Galathians shall see the Masters treatment of the Oxe that treadeth â—…ut the Corn and the duty of the Catechised towards him that Catechiseth yet so that those Labourers have no Action by rigour of Law nor any Chancery to relieve them It was a notable Constitution of the wise and potent Prince Catolus M. constitut fol. 73. Ut decimae Populi dividantur in quatuor partes id est una pars Episcopo Alia Clericis tertia pauperibus quarta Ecclesiae in fabricis applicetur ut in Decretis Gelasâ—…i P. continetur That the Peoples Tythes should be divided into four parts one whereof should maintain the Bishops a second the Clergy-men a third should maintain the Poor and a fourth should go to the repair of Churches Now if the Church-Wardens and Overseers of the Poor should have all their Levies raised out of their Tythes which was the first and best use of them what a peal of sacriledge should we have ringing about our Ears continually Let me soberly propound a few Quaeries 1. Qu. Whether they who are for a moderation in Reformation a mediocrity in coming up to the Primitive purity ought not to be as real for a moderation and mediocrity in maintenance It seems to be very disproportionable to cry out for a Mean in Trading a moderation in Preaching moderation in Reforming and yet to be immoderate for Revenues A little I see will serve of any thing but riches Let men have but enough of wages and they can be content with little enough of work 2. Whether it be rational to proceed in this matter ascendendâ—… to bring up the lean Vicarages to the Corpulency of fat Parsonages or descendendo to reduce the gouty Benefices to the modicum of the mâ—…agre Vicarages and not rather to make an Equality that they may both meet in the half way 3. When a Market Town or Corporation is low and not able to maintain its poor the Law enables the Justices of the Peace to bring the Neighbouring Village under Contribution and they who understand what Charity is in a mean estate are glad since there is so sad occasion to demonstrate their Charity to lay hold on it Let it therefore be enquired why the poor Corporation Vicars ought not to be augmented out of the richer Parsonages of the Neighbourhood But many will cut a large Thong out of anothers Hide who will be sure to spare his own Skin and they whose Tails sweep the ground will not lend an Inch â—…o him â—…hat is docked close by his Buttocks 4. Whether the poor Vicar ought not rather to be relieved out of the rich Clergy-mans Excrements then out of the life-blood of the Laity If the Revenues of Pluralists and Prebends with other such useless Creatures were annext to the ill provided places all would be well but the Daughters of the Horse-leach cry still give give and yet they are ready to burst with blood 5. Whether it be not more agreeable to the Primâ—…ive times and the naâ—…ure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christian Religion that the 〈◊〉 â—…uld havâ—… some dependance on the People as to Temporal 〈◊〉 depend so moch on their Clergy in Spirituals we consider the Inconveniencies of a depending Clergy but not the greater ones of having them absolute and independent who having got a settled Maintenance defie their Benefactors contemn those that drudge to maintain their splendid Equipage and torment their Consciences who keep the Woolf from their Doors The middle way is therefore best That so much be settled as is absolutely necessary and leave them to stand upon their good behaviour for superfluities since he that is rich and able to contribute liberally this year may become poor and need Contribution the next and it s not equal to be compelled to Charity when he cannot discharge his Debts 6. Whether it be not a most scandalous reflection upon the
Banishment or extend the Statute of Praemunire to every one that shall keck at a Ceremony I hope God will pour out the Spiriâ—… of Wisdom and Understanding of Counsel and the fear of the Lord upon our Legislators we may make Rods to whip our selves upon â—…r Childrens backs and the Teeth of Posterity may be set on edge with those sowr Grapes which though the Fathers did not eat yet they planted the Vines that bore them But what would he have Why he would have a more simple way of Agriculture attended to as it was amongst the Spartans and this Nation formerly Really if it had not been for these Spartans I cannot tell what we should have done But it 's always thus when Divines will be Statesmen and dictating to their Superiours Scholars sit up late at their Studies till the Cocks and their Brains begin to crow and what uncouth whimseys breed in their Heads There was once amongst us an odd Generation oâ—… Folk we call'd 'em Adamites and they would level all things reduce all things to the mode of Paradise such another Capriâ—…io is our Enquirer who though he will not reduce Religious Affairs as high as the Apostle yet Trade must be carried higher and new modeled Secundum usum Spartae I am a thinking what we should do with our Wool which was once the staple commodity of the Natiâ—…n till the Ceremonies carried it when we have spun it woveâ—… it and worn as much as we need what must we do with the rest I should never have guessed but that there ' s an Old Stuff set off with a New Name they call it Episcopacy revived and that must employ the remainder I have heard of a supercilious Spanish Dom who being ask'd by his Friend How the English men lived Answered Oh they live by selling Ale to one another The Answer was unpardonably scandalous yet agreeable to the Morose Humour of that people But to this very pass must we come when the design against Trade takes to Barter Food for Raiment and both for Ceremonies 2. His next expedient is That every one have so much Charity towards the Governours of his own Countrey and thâ—… Church as to think them both as wise and honest as in other places And let me add A great deal honester and wiser too We hope our Governours are so wise and tender of their Subjects as to allow them their Consciences the only thing God has reserved to himself and that they are ambitious to preserve intire for him which will sweeten all that cost and pains they are at in the Service of him whom Divine Grace has set over them But the highest opinion we can possibly entertain of the Wisdom and Sincere Piety of our Governours may well consist with a Humble Petition to be excused in that one thing the Immediate Worship of God As it does not imply that I am wiser or better then every man whose Religion I cannot own in every particular so neither doe it suppose that I entertain low thoughts of the Legislators Wisdom because I cannot subscribe to his Tendries whilst I patiently submit to his penalties for it must needs be supposed that I judge him vested wiâ—… Authority from God to govern me and wise in annexing a Sanction to his Law so equal that I may submit to it whose preceptive part I cannot discern so to be I have heard some plead in justification of the Severities inflicted on the Jesuites in Q. Elizabeth and K. Iames his Reign that they suffered not for Religion but disturbing the Government we humbly beg the same savour Let not our Worship be accounted a Breach of the Peace ipse factâ—… but if the matter be disloyal or the Consequences turbulent and tumultuous we have no farther to plead in our own behalf 3. A third expedient is That we impute not all the distractions of mâ—…ns minds and the quarrels against the Church to the badness of its Constitution since this point of Trade hath such an influence as we see both in the nature of the thing and in the effects of it I have no power to compound for the Trading part and presume he has as little to treat on the behalf of the other part The blame of our Distractions Divisions and Quarrels will lie wheâ—… they â—…ught let him or I lay them where we please If Trade brings in multitudes of Opinions yet that those Opinions make quarrels is because perhaps one needless Opinion is made Cock of the Dung-hill and Crows over all the rest its equals and may be its betters I think impartially there 's blame on all hands and if we could wave that sorry way of excusing our selves by accusing others we were certainly in a fair way of Healing yet one â—…uint he has left unproved to the Charity of his well-disposed Reader viz Thâ—… Trade in its own Nature has such an influence upon our Distractions 4. His last remote Cause is from the Papists and Atheists who both though upon several grounds combine their malice against the Church 1. And first for the Papists concerning whom he will treat of two things first why they are such Enemies to our Church and then wherein the Fnmity discovers it self § 1. What is the reason that these Papists should be such implacable Enâ—…mies to this Church did we ever go about to Blow up the Pope and his Consistory with Cun-powder or ever Massacre a Hundred Thousand of his Catholicks in Ireland Oh no! It was a higher or a deeper cause no matter which whilst our Enquirers penetrating Head can reach it 1. Thâ—… decent order of our Church shames their Pageantry Rome has a Brazen-face of her own and I assure this Gentleman for all his Câ—…nfidence it ' s not a little matter will serch the blood into her â—…heeks She has cause enough to blush but she wants a bore-head though the blood of Thousands of Protestants lies upon her Conscience yet it appears not in her Looks But before our Enquirer upbraid them with their Pageantry it will be necessary that he gives us the Nice critical difference between Ceremonies Decency and Pageantry for if the definitions of both be not fixed to a hairs breadth either the Papists will prove their Theatrical pomp to be Decency or our Ceremonies to be Pageantry If all mystical Rites be Decent they will shew us Twenty for One and will hardly be made to blâ—…sh for their penury or to envy our greater pâ—…y But if they should be found a piece of Pageantry they have infinitely out-done us but withall it s no great commendation to have but little Pageantry in Gods Service 2. The Dignity of the Church shames theirs Dignity is a Term of Art and capable of several meanings If by Dignity we should as we ought to understand A real essential worthiness arising from something excellent in the account of God then this Church has so out-stript her that she ought not to be named in the same day and
and exasperate Mens Minds one against another He has spoken more truth than perhaps he is aware of in these few words I have ever suspected and now have warrant to utter my suspicions that it is a spice of Atheism that exasperates Men against those who quietly and peaceably Worship God Blessed for ever 3. They scurrilously traduce all that 's serious and what they cannot do by Manly discourse they endeavour by Buffâ—…onry Thus these blind Bettles that rose out of filth and exâ—…rement Buz about the World And now I am sure where to find the whole Club of Atheists Amongst those Churchmen who blaspheme the Office of the Divine Spirit as a Noise and Buz Amongst those who openly scoffe at the Beauty Loveliness and Preciousnâ—…ss of a Redeemer Amongst them who have no better way to confute the satisfactoriness of Christs death then to make God like an Angry Man when his passion 's over and has glutted himself with revenge amongst them who can no otherwise describe the Zeal of Christ for his Fathers House then by the furies of a Iewish Zealot He has now dispatch'd the remote Causes of separation and if the Reader complains that amongst all these Causes he hears not a syllable of that grand Cause of all Divisions the needless imposing of things doubtful or sinful as the Terms of Union and Communion with the Church Let him have a little Patience he may find it in its proper place viz. amongst the nearer immediate direct and proper Causes of separation whither we now follow our Enquirer CHAP. III. Where the more immediate Causes of Distractions viz. Rashness of Popular Iudgement Iudaisme Prejudice want of true Zeal are considered and the Enquirer manifested to have been something ridiculous HItherto our Author has acted with good Applause the part of a Compassionate Enquirer he will now alter his Properties and play the other part of the Passionate Enquirer He has worn the Person of a Friend long enough and will now put on the severer Habit â—…f a Iudge and then he is resolved some body or other shall smart sort it though that belongs properly to the Lictor's or Beadle's Office There is only one small matter which he would bespeak and if he could procure it too of his Reader he need not doubt the happy issue and success of this Discourse and that is a certain Commodity which Men call Candour a very scarce and dear Commodity it is grown since the Writers of this Age Appealed from the Tribunal of their Iudicious and Learned to the Chancery of their Courteous and Candid Readers If any should be so Critical as to enquire what this Candour â—…s he may understand that it is a Native Whiteness of Judgement that has not yet received the Prejudicate Tincture of any Colour but retains its Indifferency and Neutrality to every Customer Such a Mind the Reader is desired to bring to the Perusing of this Chapter that he be neither Black nor Blew his affections devirginated neither with Ass. nor Diss. but a meer Rasa Tabula But how much of this Candour might pleasure him is a great Question for if a small Quantity would serve his occasions no more then may incline one to think he never expected a Bishoprick or more then a first-rate Benefice for writing this elaborate work I have just such a parcel of Candour lying by me that will exactly fit his turn But this will not do He has bespoke so much of his Reader That he will believe it is not any delight he takes to rake in the Wounds of his Brethren and fellow Christians that prompts him to this undertaking A Candour to believe all this It must be a stretching white-leather Candour indeed that will reach to the Belief of such Incredibles That he that makes Wounds does not deligâ—…t to rake in them that he that forges Crimes takes no pleasure in divulging them that he who reproaches his Brethren most passionately tenders their repute That he who would ruine Mens Bodies has such a Compassion for their Souls I confess I cannot furnish him wiâ—…h such a Lot of Candour but if I meet with Apella the Jew or any other Candid Wise-acres that have enough to spare he may possibly hear further Proceed we therefore to the next and immediate Causes of the Distractions of the Church of England 1. The first assigned Cause is popular rashness and injudiciousness Whom he should intend by the people that are so rash and injudicious I am at a great loss in my Conjectures One division of a Kingdom is into the Soveraign and his Leige People Now it must not be the People in this notion that are so hair-brain'd for that would include the Clergy Again the Subjects of a Kingdom may be divided into the Nobility and the Common People but neither under this notion must rashness and injudiciousness be charged upon the People for besides that this would still reflect upon the Inferiour Clergy it would also cast reproach upon the Peoples Representatives There is therefore another distinction of us all we are all either of the Clergy or the Laity that is in plain English the Populace or Vâ—…lgâ—… and there is good ground for this classical distinction not only because we hear of Sermons ad Clâ—…rum that is to those who are Gods Lot Portion and Inheritance and others ad Populum the common Herd and Drove of Animals but because we read of old such a division made by the Learned and Iudicious Pharisees Joh. 7. 49. Have any of the Rulers or Pharisees believed on him but This People that knâ—…ws not the Law is accursed And yet it will be thought scandalously harsh to fix the guilt of popular rashness and injudiciousness upon the people in this Acceptatiâ—… for under this denomination will come not only the Nobility and â—…try of a Nation but the Prince himself unless he should take on him the Office of the Priesthood We must therefore find out Another sort of People that must bear the burden of this reproach That which comes next to my thoughts and offers fairest to assail the difficulty is the distinction between the Conformists and the Non-conformists and thus we shall need to seek no further for this grand Cause of Non-conformity The Non-conformists are a Rabble-rout of rash and inâ—…udicious People And there needed not half so many words to assert it though twice as many will not prove it This Cause Of Popular rashness is like the Chamaeleon which they say accommodates iâ—…elf to the nearest Subject and will resemble all Colours save one only it 's not suscâ—…ptible of that which our Enquirâ—…r wants most Candour For the Dissenters complain of the inâ—…udiciousness of the People the rashness of their Censures how little they understand their principles how wrongfully they interpret their practices and 〈◊〉 at last it wheels about tâ—… 〈◊〉 a reason of Conformity There is no Theme upon which School boâ—…s are more frank in thâ—…ir 〈◊〉 invâ—…ctives
the Next such a one as whether or no it provided a Heaven in the other world would make a Purgatory of this Calvin was taught when to be Zealous and when Remiss to be Zealous in Gods cause and Remiss in his own which seems somewhat a better frame then theirs who are â—…re and â—…ow for their own inventions but as Cool as Patience it self in the concerning Truths of the Gospel To prove the moderation of our Church and that she cuts by a Thred or by Threds between both these extreams he produces an Argument both from Papists and Protestants Those of the Church of Rome cannot but confess all is good in our Liturgy Protestants on the other hand generally acknowledge the main to be good And so between them both give a glorious testimony to this Church as guilty of neither extreaâ—… There is nothing more Childish then to use an Argument which with the same ease may be retorted as used for those of the Roman Church condemn the Liturgy as defective in necessaries and fundamentals and Protestants complain of many Redundancies and Superfluities and so between them both they charge her as guilty of both the Extreams But I am afraid he has promised himself more respect from Rome then they will allow her If they will confess that all is good in the Liturgy now I am sure they would not have confest so much when it pray'd to be delivered from the Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable Enormities But if it hath been so well amended to gratifie the Papists give it one amendment more to gratifie the Protestants that they also may say There 's nothing but what is good in the Liturgy I have read that when the Embassadour of the Duke of Brandenburgh presented his Mandate in the Council of Trent he shewed his Masters good Affection to and Reverence of the Fathers of that Synod They answered very discreetly That the Council had heard his discourse with great content especially that part of it wherein the Elector doth submit himself to the Council and promiseth to observe the Decrees of it hoping that â—…is deeds will be answerable to his word But here as the Historian observes the Council pretended a promise of Ten Thousand when the bargain was but for Ten. The Embassador proffer'd Reâ—…erence and they accept of Obedience And thus the Fathers of the Council of Carthage giving an account to Innocent I. that they had condemned Câ—…lestius and Pelagius desired him to conform himself to their Declaration He commends them in his Answer that remembring the old Tradition and Ecclesiastical Discipline they had referred all to his Iudgement whence All ought to learn whom to Absolve and whom to Condemn An usual and pious allurement of the Church of Rome which yielding to the Infirmity of her Children maketh shew to believe that they have performed their Duty By the same Artifice would our Enquirer wheadle the Non-conformists into a good mood to acknowledge the Liturgie to be good in the main and that there are only some redundancies which they would have taken away 3. And now at last he will come home and close to the purpose That which I chiefly intend says he is that a great part of men have not their minds Elevated above the Horizon of their Bodies nor take an estimate of any thing but by its Impression upon their senses from whence say I it must needs follow That most men Judge of the Excellency of a Religion as it approves it self to their Carnal Interests and Ambitious Expectancies and if that will make to the purpose to prove that popular injudiciousness is a Cause of sâ—…paration from the Church let him make his best of it some think it proves the contrary Two things he will spend his Rhetorick upon as he goes along The Excellency of the Liturgy and the Excellency of his own Preaching which last we have had enough of to saâ—…iety if not to nauseousness very lately The Excellency of the Liturgy lies in being composed plainly gravely and modestly no Turgid or swelling words no novelty of Phrase or Method no Luxurianâ—…y of Wit or Fancy And might not this have passed for proof of the Excellency of the Homilies If the plain Composition the Gravity the Modesty of the Homilies innocent of all turgid or swelling expressions free from novelty of phrase or curiosity of mâ—…thod could not procure a reprieve but they are condemned to silence and instead of them we are all for Artificial Composures suggar'd phrase that will melt in the mouth And methâ—… such as brings Forreigners to England to be instructed in it Quaintness of Expression and Luxurianey of Wit and Fancy why then was not the Liturgy a little lickt over and trimm'd up more sprucely But if those Characters of Plainness Gravity Modesty humble Expressions Ordinary Language be the Glory of the Prayers why not of the Preaching also the old Homilies were too course Spun for modern Ears to hear the phrase too heavy and common the method cryptic and obscure but Preaching is now more finical and accommodated to the Itching Ears of well-bred Christians we are got into the mode of Lovedays Letters and Cassandra and Cleopatra as if God did not understand strong lines as well as the Ladies and as if we were not as much obliged to tell the People their duty as God our wants in small English Popular Rashness and Injudiciousness are great evils as it appeats but how to apply a proper and suitable Remedy to the evil is all the skill And first the Church of Rome says he have a Cure for this they appropriate all Iudgement to the Clergie and deal with the rest of Mankind as Sots and Idiots But the Church of England makâ—…s not her self the Mistress of Mens Faith or imposes upon their understandings she â—…eaches that our Saviour hath delivered the Mind of God touching the points of Necessary Belief plainly and in other lesser matters she allows a Iudgement of Discretion And will not this Iudgment of Discretion or Indiscretion become a cause of all those Divisions Separations and Schismes of which so loud a peal has been rung in our Ears And is not this a New Name for Popular Rashness and Injudiciousness Oh says he since the peace of the Church often depends upon such Points as Salvation does not and â—…nce in mâ—…ny of these every Man is not a Competent Iudge but must either be â—…n danger of being deceived himself or deceiving others or of necessiâ—…y 〈◊〉 trust some body wiser than himself she recommends as the safer way for such private persons to complâ—… wâ—… publick determinations and in so advising she jointly consults the Peace of the Chuâ—…ch and the Quiet of Mens Consciences These maâ—…ters seem very Artificially put togâ—…ther and the taking them asunder will discover their weakness 1. Let me have a solid Reason given why the Peace of the Church should be laid upon those things which Salvation depends not
then any Church Governours can now justly Claim His Apostolical Commission to Plant and Water Churches which would have commanded Reverence to his Person and conciliated Authority to his Determinations and yet he either had no such power or durst not use it but took the Healing way tolerating things tolerable and pressing them mutually to Love and Peace under their various apprehensions about Mint Anise and Cummiâ—… But yet he thinks That the Reason why Primitive Christians whilst under persecution had one Heart and Mind was because they submitted their private Fancies to publick Safety Which is only the assigning of an Imaginary cause for a Real one Primitive Christians whilst surrounded with Adversaries were of one Heart and Mind in the main and the true Reason was because their dangers and pressing fears had not yet let in that Prelatical Imposing Spirit into the Guides of the Church which Ease and Liberty afterwards produced And though we dare not charge our Divisions upon Peace Plenty and Liberty which are great Mercies to a sinful people yet we would lay the Saddle upon the right Horse the blame at the right door 'T is not the injudiciousness of the People who are willing to be quiet and accept of rest upon tolerable terms but the obstinacy of Clergy-men who make their own Wills the reason of their Injunctions not considering that all mens Intellectuals are not of one size and height and yet as if Consciences were to be fooled with Mens Souls sported with they necessitate the People either to act against their Light or to fall under the severe lash of a Poenal Statute § 2. That these Evils broke out no sooner says he is due to the contentment generally took in their first Emerging out of the Darkness and Superstitions of Popery Very true they were so full of Admiration at what God had done for them that they considered not what further to ask God to do for them so transported that they were out of Egypt that they never considered how short the Wilderness was of the promised Land And hence he might have answered himself p. 13. If there be such a dangerous Affinity between the Church of England and Rome how came it to pass that Cranmer and Ridley c. laid down their Lives in testimony to this against that Rome was not built nor will it be destroyed in one day Our first Martyrs laid down their Lives in Testimony that Rome was guilty of dangerous Doctrines but not that we had nothing remaining that needed a Reformation 2. A second cause is That a great part of this Nation having been leavened with Iewish Superstitious or Traditions hath thereby been indisposed to an uniform reception of and Perseverance in the Reformation of Religion held forth by this Church When I first read the charge of Judaism brought in against the Dissenters I remembred what I had met with in the virulent Titles of some Lutheran Book Calvinus Iudaizans Calvinianorum Nesterianismus Calvine-papismus Noâ—…us Calvinistarum Deus to which we may add Calvine-Turcismus and some others I began to cast about in my thoughts for the reason of such an Imputation Have they set up an Image of the Aaronical Priesthood Have they their High-Prieâ—… their inferiour Priesâ—… and Levites attired in the Linen Ephod with all the Accoutrements of the Aaronical Wardrobe And that they may more exactly symbolize therewith have they provided for their Priests an Altar settled upon them a Levitical maintenance and to carry on the parallel have they erected Temples distinguisht by sacred Apartments Have they their Holy and most Holy place Chancelled in for the greater Reverence of the sacred Mysteries to secure them from the Approaches of the prophane and injudicious Rabble and have they all these enclosed within Holy Ground And the rather beacuse Dionysius assures us That the Christians in his time had solemn Temples like the Iews and the Chancel severed with special sanctifications from the rest of the Church whereas says he the Christians of the first Age made their Assemblies both in such private places and in such simplicity as the Apostles did I considered again whether the Non-conformists had not introduced a pompous padagâ—…gie of Ccremonies and imposed them upon the People whether they might not parhaps have instituted some Feasts and Holy-days upon an old Judaical account as of the Circumcision Purification or whether they had not appointed some Office or solemn special Service for Lustration of Women after Childbirth in correspondence with the Iewish Purifications of Women after their uncleanness whether they observed any sacred time Analogical to the Passover or had any Foot-steps of the ancient distinction of Meats into clean and unclean Or any thing that might give cause of suspicion that they had by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 revived Moses his extraordinary Quadragesimal Abstinence or whether they introduced Temple instrumental Musick whether loud sounding Cymbals or Organs having such good proof in Durantus his Rationale from that Text Let every thing that hath Breath praise the Lord And when I could find no track of reason for the charge upon these accounts I went to enquire of the Enquirer And it does appear by his talk that a more secret and mysterious Judaisme then all this has of old been rooted in this Nation that no Ecclesiastical Pick-axes have been able to extirpate it for says he the greatest difficulty that Austin the Monk found here was to bring the Inhabitants from the observation of Easter and some other Rites according to the manner of the Iewish and Eastern Churches to that of the Roman and Western and the doing it cost the lives of twelve hundred Monks who stubbornly opposed his Inovations This Austin was certainly a Formal Fop as ever this poor Nation was harassed with Two third parts of his whole Ministerial or Apostolical work was Ceremony for upon these conditions he propounded Peace to the Britains If you will in these three things obey me In celebrating Eastar in due time In Baptizing according to the manner of the Roman Church and in Preaching the Word to the Nation all other Ceremonies Fashions and Customs though they be contrary to ours yet we will willingly bear with them Was not this a person of great moderation But why not condescend in those two as well as all the rest Oh it s the Religious policy of Rome to reserve as much of Ceremony as like a Quit-rent will serve to Recognize the Papal Soveraignty and that point of Soveraignty alone will in due time fetch in the other To own that Churches power to impose ics Jurisdiction to award terms of Communion though but in one single instance is the delivery of a Twig and a Turf which give her Livery and Seisâ—…n of the Conscience in the name of the whole Man But if Austins Reformation was so Ceremonious in it self and so bloody in its effects which are if not inseparably yet commonly linked together If he could have
this precise qualm over our Enquirers heart that he is so skittish at the word Sabbath because forsooth it 's not given the Day in the New Testament They have some singular priviledge and prerogative surely that may institute what Officers what Offices they please though neither Name nor Thing be found there nor print nor mark of the least Foot-step when the poor Non-conformists may not use indifferently an innocent word which signifies no more in it self then he will acknowledge to be found there But how is this a point of Judaism or how one of the nearer causes of separation If it be we may confidently say we have imbibed both from the Liturgy of the Church which teaches the Minister to rehearse the Fourth Commandment Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it Holy and then enjoins us all to pray Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law but if this Word this Dactrine be of such pernicious a contagion as to insect us with Judaism and Non-conformity we have need of another miserere â—…i Deus for keeping it That this name Sabbath applyed to the Christian Holy-day of Rest is found in Ancient Writers I shall not urge Ignat. Epist. ad Magnes Let every one of us keep the Sabbath spiritually not in bodily case only but in the study of the Law Not the Author of the Sermons de Tempore none of Austins for any mans word will go further then his for so we rightly sanctifie the Lords Sabbath as the Lord hath said In it thou shalt do no manner of work but this I shall say that he that denies it to be a Day of Holy Rest it 's no great matter what he calls it And he that owns it such must be most rediculously obstinate that denies it may properly be so called 2 We come to the dispute De Re. And first he charges the N. C. That the Lords-day amongst them must have all the Nicety of Observation that the Iewish Sabbath had and which is yet worse such Observation thereof is made one of the principal parts of Religion What the Non-conformists hold and practise in this point is so well known from their Writings and Conversations that no man can possibly slander them but he must do it against his Conscience which had the Enquirer attended to it would have tought him other Language what was the practice of the best Christians who lived up in any good measure to the Holiness of their Profession that is the practice of the Non-conformists and wherein they come short have cause to be humbled in the sight of God If any Indâ—…viduals have added any Jewish Austeriâ—…ies or invented any Superstitious severities to make the day a Legal Yoke we wish they may be no more favouraâ—…ly dealt with then those other Additions that have been made to Religion For the publick Service of the day I shall give the Reader a piece of Clemens Rom. lib. 2. cap. 59. On the Lords-day frequent more carefully the Temple of the Lord that ye may praise God who made all things by Iesus Christ whom he sent unto us and suffered him to dye for us and raised him from the dead for what can excuse him with God who meets not to hear the saving Word of God concerning the Resurrection On which day we pray thrice standing remembring him who after three days rose again For the private observation of the day the same Author lib. 5. cap. 9. thus We admonish you Brethren and Fellow-Servants that you fly vain words and filthiness pleasant jests 〈◊〉 for on the Lords days which are our days of Rejoicings we do not permit you to do or speak any thing not savoury for the Scripture sâ—…h serve the Lord with fear St. Hierom commends the Aegyptian Monks that they designed the Lords days wholly to Prayer and reading the Holy Scriptures The Author of the Sermons De tempore This day is called the Lords-day that in it abstaining from all earthly works and worldly pleasures we should only give our selves to the service of the Lord Let us therefore Brethren observe the Lords day and sanctifie it as it was commanded them of old concerning the Sabbath If our Enquirer had the trimming up of this Author he had dressed him up for a Marane a baptized Jew Chrysost. on Gen. 2. God from the beginning did insinuate unto us this instruction to set apart and separate one whole day in the Circle of every Week for spiritual exercises And in Homil. 5. on Math. Let us prescribe this as an unmoveable Law to our selves to our Wives and Children to set aside one day of the Week and that wholly to hearing and laying up of things heard Isidore Hispalensis The Apostles therefore ordained the Lords-day to be kept with Religious Solemnities because in it our Redeemer rose from the Dead which was therefore called the Lords-day that resting on the same from all Earthly â—…ts and temptations of the World we might intend Gods holy Worship giving this day due Honour for the hope of the Resurrection we have therein But because our Enquirer admires the Piety of former Ages in this our Britain I shall come a little home and see what were the publick Constitutions of our own Nation Leg. Inae cap. 〈◊〉 An. 692. Si servus operetur die Dominied per praecepâ—… domine sui sit liber Dominus emendet 308. ad Witam siâ—…servus sine testimonio Domini sui operetur Corium perdat i. e. vapulet si liber operetur ipso die sine iussu Domini sui perdat libertatem If a Servant work on the Lords-day at his Masters Command let him be free and his Master be fined thirty shillings If a Servant without his Masters Order do any work let him be whipped If a freed Man work on that day without the Command of his Master let him lose his Freedom Concil Bergham cap. 10. An. 697. Si in vesperâ praecedente Diem solis postquam sol occubuit autin vesperâ praecedente Diem Lunae post occasum solis servus ex mandato Domini sui opus aliquod servile egerit Dominus factum octaginta solidis Luito If a Servant on the Evening before Sunday after Sun-set or on the Evening before Monday after Sunset shall do any servile work by Order of his Master let his Master pay for his fault 4 pounds c. 11. If a Servant on those days shall travel let him pay to his Master siâ—… shillings or be whipped c. 12. If a Free-man be guilty of the same offence let him be liable to the Pillory Excerpt Egb. Archiepiscopi Eborac An. Chr. 750 c. 36. God the Creatour of all things made Man on the sixth d'ay and upon the Sabbath he rested from all his Labours and sanctified the Sabbath for the future signification of the sufferings of Christ and his rest in the Grave He did not rest because he was weary who made all things without Labour whose Omnipotency cannot be wearied and
he so rested from his Labours that he made no other Creatures then he made before He made no other Creatures afterwards but whatsoever he made he makes them every year to the end of all time He createth men in their Souls and Bodies living Creatures and Beasts without Souls The Soul of Man is given by God and he renews his Creatures as Christ saith in the Gospel My Father worketh hitherto and I work Christ suffered for us in the sixth Age of the World and on the sixth day and reformed lost Man by his Sufferings and the Miracles which he wrought He rested in the Sepulchre on the Sabbath-day and Sanctified the Lords-day by his Resurrection for the Lords-day is the first day of the New World and the day of the Resurrection of Christ and therefore it is Holy and we ought to be his spiritually keeping a Sabbath-day Sabbatum Sabbatizantes Leg. Presbyt Northumbr Mereaturam in Die solis exercere Curias allicubi celebrare prohibemus opus etiam quodlibet omnimodam vectionem sive in plaustris sive in equis sive in aliis oneribus ferendis Qui contra hoc deliquerit solvat We forbid any to Trade or keep open Courts on the Sunday and also all other work whatsoever and all manner of Carriages whether with Carts or Horses or in bearing any other Burdens he that transgresses this Decree shall pay nisi sit viator necessitate compulsus vel ob cibi inopiam aut ex causâ—… evitandi mimicos Except he be a Traveller compelled by necessity either by the want of Food or to avoid the Enemies Reader whether this be Judaism or no I shall leave to thy more sedate judgement but it is a mighty strong temptation rather to be one of those old Iews then one of the new Christians Leg. Eccles Canut An. Christi 1032. Die quidem Dominico mercata concelebrari Populive conventus Agi nisi stagitante necessitate planissimè vetamus Ipso Die sacrosancto praetereà à venationibus opere terreno prorsus omni Quisque abstineto We do absolutely forbid all Markets and Assemblies of the People to be kept on the Lords-day except in case of urgent necessity and moreover Let every one refrain from Hunting and from all other earthly business upon that sacred day A little now for diversion let us step over the Seas and look into the temper of the times under the Reign of Charles the Great Statuimus secundum quod Dominus in lege praecepit ut Opera Servilia diebus Dominicis non Agantur sicut bonae memoriae Genitor meus Pipinus in suis Synodallbus edictis mandavit i. e. Quod nec viri Ruralia opera exerceant nec in vineâ colendà nec in campo Arando vel foenum secando vel sepem ponendo vel in sylvis stirpare vel arbore caedere vel in Petris laborare nec comus construere nec hortum laborent nec ad placita conveniant nec venationem exerceant We ordain as also the Lord hath commanded in the Law that no servile works be done on the Lords-day As also our Father of happy memory in his Synodal Edicts hath commanded that is to say That Men neither exercise the labours of their Farms neither in dressing Vineyards nor in Plowing nor in Mowing Grass or in laying a Hedge or to grub up or cut down Trees or to labour in Quarries or to build a House or to order a Garden or to hold pleas or to practice Hunting Item foeminae opera Textilia non exerceant nec Capillent vestitús non consuant vel Acupictile faciant nec lanam Carpere nec linum battere nec publicè vestimenta lavare nec verveces tondere habeant licitum ut omnimodis Honor Requres diei Dominicae servetur Let not Women practice Weaving let them not take pains about their Hair nor mend their Cloaths nor work Needle-work or Point nor Card Wool nor Heckle Flax nor wash Cloaths openly nor Shear Sheep That the Honour and Rest of the Lords-day may by all means be secured Const. Carol. M. fol. 32 It will be time now to draw to a conclusion when I have noted § 1. It looks like a piece of great disingenuity to Bait Dissenters like Jews for the indifferent use of the word Sabbath because not found in the New Testament and at the same time to worry them with Barking words and Biting penalties for not practising upon that very day Humane Ceremonies which name and thing are perfectly strangers to the New Testament § 2. It seems so far from a next cause of Non-conformity Religiously to observe The Lords-day that it were rather an Allurement to Conformity when we observe the Church so strictly commands her Children in the Rubrick After every Commandment Kneeling to ask God mercy for their transgression of the same And if the Dissenters were of this Enquirers principles they must be obliged to be Non-conformists till the Liturgy in that particular should be Reformed § 3. It s highly disingenuous to upbraid them with the less strictness of some of the Reformed Churches abroad in this one point when they are not allow'd to vouch their principles and practices in twenty others § 4. It deserves a most serious Enquiry whether any Church did long maintain any splendour of Practical Religion that grew remiss and loose in the Consciencious Observation of the Lords-day § 5. Whether the strict and Religious attendance to the Worship of God on that Day be a cause of Non-conformity or no is uncertain but this is certain that the loose and formal observation of it has been a direct and immediate cause of that Atheism and Prophaneness and perhaps of those Iudgements which have broken in upon us § 6. It ought to be matter of serious Humiliation and Repentance both to the Conformists and Non-conformists that between them both they have suffered Piety to decline in their hands by a visible degeneracy from the strictness of former time in Sanctifying Gods name on his Holy-day § 7. It ought to be considered That they who of late times have written against the Divine Right of that day have yet spoken so honourably of and pleaded for the Holy use of the day as will justifie greater Reverence to the day then I fear the Non-conformists are guilty of The Learned Brerewood Tract 1. p. 47. I confess It is meet that Christians should on the Lords-day abandon all wordly affairs and dedicate it wholly to the Hunour of God The B. of Ely p. 255. Devout Christians who are so piously affected as that on the Lords-days and other Holy-days they do resolve to retire and sequester themselves from secular business and ordinary pleasures and delights to the end they may more freely attend the Service of Christ and Apply their Minds to Spiritual and Heavenly Meditations are to be commended and encouraged for the doing thereof is a work of Grace and Godliness and acceptable to God § 8. It would be
enquired whether it have not a greater Tincture of Judaism to enjoin other days for Holy-days which have no fâ—…ting in Gods word then to spend the Lords-day in pursuit of those things which concern our Everlasting peace which is clearly warranted thereby B. Andrews urges this against Trask The Apostles kept their Meetings on that day on that day they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. held their sacred Synaxes their solemn Assemblies to preach to pray to celebrate the Lords Supper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lords Supper on the Lords-day for these two words only the Day and the Supper have the Epithete of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scripture to shew that its alike in both 5. A Fifth Instance of their Judaical Principle is their Doctrine of Absolute Predestination This Doctrine has perplext the Enquirer beyond measure he would mention it every where willingly but knows not where to mention it pertinently It was lately one of the Pretended or Apochryphal and now it s become a Real and Canonical nay a near and immediate Cause or at least the just sixth part of a Cause of separation I shall for once suppose that all the Non-conformists are Sublapsarians Now let him show me that Article or Doctrine to which this Church requires subscription relating to the Decrees of God to which a Sublapsarian cannot freely subscribe The 17 Art of the Church speaks without question her fense in this matter Predestination to life is the Everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the World was laid he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ ouâ—… of Mankind and to bring them by Christ to Everlasting Salvation It were more for this Gentlemans comfort and credit to write a serious and Compassionate Enquiry into the Pretended and Real the Remote and near Causes of his own conformity to that Doctrine which he so pleasantly derides And with what Engines Machines Screws and Pulleys he could hale his Conscience to a Subscription The old Device was good Lingud juratus sum mente juravi nihil It 's a happy freedom of Spirit a blessed enlargement of mind to subscribe any thing and believe nothing Two things there are which ought to have been cleared first that the Doctrine of predestination is a Iewish Principle secondly that it 's a Cause or a piece of a Cause of Non-conformity For the former he makes it out thus He that seeks the source of so odd an Opinion can in my â—…ind pitch no where more probably then upon the absolute Decree of God to favour the Posterity of Abraham for his sake Alas Poor Man And had the Church of England thinks he no more wit then to talk of an Everlasting Purpose before the foundation of the World of a constant Decree to deliver from Curse and Damnation some that he had chosen out of Mankind and bring them to Everlasâ—…ing Salvation from such a Ridiculous Ground But the difficulty was how to make this a piece of Judaism and when Men set themselves insuperable Tasks they must rub through them as they are able The Second will yet be more difficult For many Conformists have been and are Sublapsarians and some Non-conformists Subter-Sublapsarians And the Enquirer told us p. 7. That the Articles of the Doctrine of our Church do with such admirable prudence and wariness handle these Points the Five Points as if particular respect was had to these Men and care taken that they might Abundare sensu suo So necessary it was our Author should confute his own Contradictious Cavils Well! Whether this Church the Iewish Church the Non-conformists or any or all or none of them be of this opinion yet it is a most monstrous one For says he The N. T. has often assured â—…s that at the great day God will judge the World in Righteousness and that without respect of Persons he will render to every one according to his Works Wonderful And are the Sublapsarians all this while to seek how God may be righteous in the Great Day if he Derceed to give Grace to some Men which he never owed them and left others to perish under the Fruits of their own Apostacy and unbelief 6. The last Instance is their superstitious observation and interpretation of Prodigies The Works of God are all Admirable those of Creation Glorious those of Providence Mysterious we have reason to Revere his Greatness in all that he doth them his Wisdom in all in that he can his Goodness in that he will make them Bow to subserve his own Counsels and Purposes in working together for good in them that love him To fetch our Creed from that Book of Providence we allow not it 's well if we can make Gods use of them to awaken a sleepy World to Repentance The greatest Prodigy that has startled me of late has been a Story that many tell us That in several places in the Nation the Graves have been seen to Open and many old Hereticks to have risen and walk'd and talk'd and preach'd and printed Books whom we verily believed to have been as dead and rotten as their Heresies Thus I remember Lirinensis calls Coelestius Prodigiosum Pelagij Discipulum That Prodigious Scholar of Pelagius Something was useful to have been said about Prodigies and it must come in here or no where and therefore let it pass for a Iewish Opinion and a sixth part of one whole Cause of Non-conformity 3 He reckons Preâ—…udice amongst the causes of our distractions and let it passe for a third There is a sound sense in which our Enquirers Notions may be very true could we be but so happy as to hit out Tertullian complained sadly of those insuperable prejudices against the Christian Religion under which they all groâ—…ed Non sâ—…lus aliquod in Causa est sed Nomen It was the Name of a Christian that was their greatest Crime Bonus Vir Cajus Sâ—…jus tantum quod Christianus A poor Woman amongst the Ignorant Devoto's of Rome was instructed by her Ghostâ—…y Father that the Hugonots were all Monsters It hapned that one of her Neighbours spying a Protestant passing by told her That Man is a Hugonot It 's imposible replyed she He looks as like a Man as ever I saw one in my life Thus are Dissenters by prejudice and partiality sentenced and executed in the peremptory Judgements of Many before their Cause is heard or thy admitted to a fair Defence and Tryal I shall therefore spare my common place Book and reserve my stores for more important occasions and at present borrow our Enquirers more refined Collections for they will serve any Mans turn to evince that prejudice is a Cause not why there are so many Non-conformists but that there are no more This Prejudice alone was able to Seal up the Eyes of the Gentile World against the Sun of Righteousness when he shone upon them in his brightest
Glory and to confirm them in thâ—…r blind Idolatries when the God that made Heaven and Earth gave the fullest discoveries that it was fit for Mankind to expect Upon the Account of this the Jews rejected that Messias they had so long expected and gloried in before he came though he exactly answered all the Characters of Time Place Lineage Doctrine and Miracles that their own Writings had described him by No wonder then if the Non-consormists suffer under Prejudice amongst those that have not only seen their Doctrine stigmatized with the odious Marks of Judaism their Churches with the Brand of Schism their Persons with Treason and Rebellion but also had been formed into a Combination against them and so had both their Consciences and worldly Interest engaged against them and it For few have the generosity and strength of mind to bear up against the Torrent of Times or confidence enough to oppose the Impetuousness of common Vogue or prevailing Opinion There are not many that have the sagacity to discern the true Images of things through those thick Mists that cunning Politicians cast about them It 's very ordinary to take the Condemnation of any Person or Party for a sufficient Proof of the Accusation and to think the Indictment Proved It was enough both with the Jews and Gentiles against our Saviour that he was condemned as a Malefactor The Ignominy of his Cross was a greater Argument against him with the Generality then the excellency of his Doctrine or Evidence of his Miracles was for him The Arguments against Non-conformity were not weighed but numbred An Impeachment of Accumulative Disorder Schism Faction Judaism Popular Rashness and Disobedience to Magistrates was formed against them and still there was more in the Conclusion then â—…uld be made â—…ut by the Premises and in the Sum Total then in the Particulars of which it consisted for though no Point of all these could be proved against their Doctrine Worship or Discipline yet they must be so upon the whole This being Agreed the Cry is then Crucifige Destroy it Root and Branch To all which add that it was the corrupt interest of some to deceive others into an ill Opinion of the Reformation partly as being enraged that any sparks of Primitive Purity should be left unquenched which might burn up their vast hopes they had conceived of dividing the spoil amongst themselves Partly being conscious to themselves that by Reason of their no more then Declamatory Vulgar and Puerile Abilities improved from Apothegms and Proverbial Sentences they could not be fit to fill any considerable place in a Church Reformed according to the Scriptures nor yet to content themselves with a private station in a persecuted Society they therefore chose to fall in where they might be entertained as useful Tools and rewarded for their singular Talents of Reviling And when once it is come to that pass That by this Craft we get our Livings one two or three like the Silver-smiths of Ephesus no wonder if the Apostolical Doctrine and Government be cried down and the Great Diana of Pauls-conformity cried â—…p sooner then built The sum is this some men are blindly led by their Education and care taken that they never come to a view of the Dissenters principles others by Interest forced to espouse that Religion that has the fairest Dowry A third sort by their Reputation that they may not seem to have been in an Errour And when all these Causes shall as they too frequently do happily concur such an associated and complicated Temptation will form a prejudice strong enough to oppose the clearest Demonstrations and to stir up so much rancour and malignity as shall incessantly persecute mis-represented Truth I will add one word from the Learned Author of Orig. Sacr. and conclude It cannot be conceived That many out of Affectation of Novelty should declare themselves Christians in the Primitive times when so great hazards were run upon in the professing ofit Few soft spirited men and lovers of their own â—…ase but would have found out some fine distinctions and nice evasions to have reconciled themselves to the publick Laws and such things which the Primitive Christians so unanimously refused when tending to Idolatry and Prophaneness An ordinary Judgement will soon determine whether party may more plausibly complain of being pressed down with unreasonable prejudices They that will appear in the Quality of Dissenters must stem the violent Current of prevailing Example inveterate Custom whilst others have nothing to do but skull away with the Tide when it comes in with the Celeusma of Queenhithe westward hoe Lambeth hoe Dissenters must storm the Turn-pâ—…kes of Reproach Poverty and those more formidable ones of the displeasure of Friends and wrath of Superiours smoaking out in Imprisonment or other penalties besides the Ecclesiastical Charitiâ—…s of Excommunication The rest have nothing more to do but patiently and meekly submit to Preferments and Dignities And if they can but compass such a measure of self-denial as to renounce ruine and misery and rise to such a height of contentment as to be willing to enter upon Ease and Aâ—…luence the worst is over and their greatest prejudices conquered 4. The last cause of the Distractions and ill Estate of this Church is the want of true Christian Zeal and of a deep and serious sense of Piety And the Enquirer wishes that it be not the greatest as well as the last And so do I too for the want of Zeal for Gods Commands makes us so scalding hot for Humane Constitutions The want of such a Zeal for the Authority of Christ as a King makes us so bold to Invade his Office The want of Zeal for the Perfection of Scriptures makes us so Zealous for unscriptural Traditions The want of Zeal for the substance makes us so Zealous for Ceremonial shadows When all those Spirits that Holy ardour of Soul that flame of Affection which ought to be expended in the love of God and his Law is evaporated in Airy speculations contentions for and impositions of new Inventions This Cause is plainly in the number of those which like the Weathercock conform to every gust of Wind It is Communis juris and therefore the first occupancy creates a Title What was it made the Primitive Church so unanimâ—…s that it was not crumbled into parties nor mouldred away in Divisions nor quarrelled about Opinions nor separated one part from another upon occasion of little scruples but because the turbulent â—…pirit of Imposition was not yet raised nor ambitious domineering over the Faith and Consciences of the Brethren had not yet got any considerable Head It 's true there was a spice of this encroaching Humour found amongst the Iudaizing Christians who would needs obtrude their Ceremonies upon the Gentile Converts as necessary to Communion with the Church but the divinely inspired Apostles were ready at hand to check the growing Evil and vindicate the Churches from the serviâ—…ude â—…f beggarly Rudiments It
all his experiments and great shew of skill in healing he is wheeled about to that last and worst of Papal Remedies which some call Axes Halters Gibbets Racks Pillories Imprisonment others the Holy Inquisition which is just the plea of the Papists for all their Barbarities That if the People will not be perswaded they see no Reason why the Church should not deliver thâ—…â—…er to the secular powers to be burne for Hereticks CHAP. II. The Enquirers notion of Schism examined and as Applyed to the sober Non-conformists proved uncharitable unjust and false SChism is an Ecclesiastical Culverine which being overcharged and ill managed Recoyles and hurts the Canoneer He that undertakes to play this great Gun had need be very Curious and careful to spunge his Canon Well lest it fire at home Nothing has more naturally tempted the Imprudent to account nothing to be Schism then that some hasty angry men have made every thing so That causeless separation from a particular Church of Christ whereof we were once duly Members is a sin of a deep dye is owned by all that own the Gospel and have any tender regard tâ—… the prosperity of the Church or propagation of the Truth but yet we ought not to be so easily credulous as to believe every departure to be that heinous thing which passionate men in hot blood out of prejudice to the persons of others or a necessity to secure and establish their own Acquists over mâ—…ns Consciences are resolved to call so It was not therefore lightly but with great judgement that the learned Hales calls it one of those Theologiâ—…al 〈◊〉 with which they who use to uphold a party in Religion use to fright 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 making any enquiry into it are ready to Relinquish and oppoâ—… it if it appear either erroneous or suspicious St. Cyprian it seems affirms it to be of so horâ—…ble a Gâ—… thâ—… Martyrdom was not a sufficient Expiation of it And upon the like occasion he might have said as much of any other siâ—… for I have not learnt that Martyrdom was design'd to expiate our siâ—… but to bear witness to Gods Truths And the same Cyprian at another time will inform us that Plebs obsequens praeceptis Dominicis Deum metuens à peccatore praeposito separare se debet A people fearing God and Conscienciously obsequious to his Commands not only may but ought to separate it self from a scandalous and wicked Pastor And therefore we may secure our selves that such separation in his judgement is not That Schism which Martyrdom will not expiate The true reason why separation in the Scripture and purer Primitive times was esteemed a Crime so unpardonable was because the Church made no other Terms of enjoying her Communion then Christ had made That Superiours durst-not venture the Churches Peace upon such a sandy foundation as her own Inventions turned into Impositions for if the Terms of Communion be of Mans making the separation that enâ—…ues will be but a Schism of mans making too and whether a Church has first a power to make a sin and then to make it damnable I have some reason to question Let nothing be declared Schism but what the Scriptures haâ—… made so and we shall be content it be made as great a sin as he can reasonably desire Had not our Enquirer been carried down in the torrent of his own overflowing Eloquence till he had quite lost himself he might have answered himself from his own words p 109. For this cause says he it pleased God that his Church in those early days should rather be harassed with persecutions which made it unite it self the closer and paring off all superfluities keep to the necessary and essential Doctrines delivered to it then to be softned and made wanton by ease and so to corrupt the simplicity of the Gospel Let a Church then return to the simplicity of the Gospel Let her repent of that softness and wantonness of Spirit which by Ease she has contracted Let her pare off all superfluities and keep close to the necessary and essential Doctrines delivered to it and she shall find us as ready to write Philippics against Schism as him self though we want his Ciceronian quill and wordie excellencies Now though we are all convinced that Schism veri nominis is a most detestable Impiety yet to beget in us a greater aversation from it it may be profitable to listen to his reasonings which are so potent as will doubtless drain both the Conventicles and the Theatres § 1. None says he can doubt of this who considers what care our Saviour took to prevent it what pains he took with his Apostles that they might be throughly instructed and not differ in the delivery of his mind to the World We do with all humble thankfulness own the faithfulness of our Saviour in instructing and the Carefulness of the Apostles in following their instructions They delivered to the Churches as the whole Counsel of God Acts 20. 27. so only the Counsel of God 1 Cor. 11. 23. I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you And let but the Pastors of the Church imitate these patterns keep exactly to their instructions from the Lord Christ which we doubt not are proportionable to reach the ends of Unity and Peace else they had not been sufficiently instructed and either we shall have no separations or the case will be so plain the separation so evidently Schism â—…hat the Schismaticks shall not be able to obtend the least umbrage to cover their gross prevarication But when Embassadors throughly instructed in all the means to prevent that evil shall go beyond their Instructions and impose new unheard of Terms of Communion which never came into his heart to approve nor ever came out of his mouth to impose give me leave to say thus far they are not Embassadors and by consequence a Noncompliance with them therein cannot be interpreted any affront but faithfulness to him who entrusted them with those dispatches And if Christs instructions given to his Apostles to prevent this growing evil were insufficient I am affraid they will be but sorrily helpt out who have recourse to men for fuller instructâ—… § 2. To prove the greatness of this sin he observes and we thank him for the observation that the Apostles were industrious to resist all beginnings of Schism in every Church to heal all breaches to take away all occasions of Division to unite all hearts and reconcile all minds and to requite his kindness I will repay his observation with this other that they either are not the Apostles Successors in their healing Spirit or else have seen some weighty reason to depart from their judgement about the hainousness of that sin who instead of taking away the occasions of Divisions which they have given or removing the stumbling Blocks out of the way of Union which they have laid do give greater to and lay more obstacles before the Christian world § 3.
His third proof is taken from the loveliness of Unity It 's not says he the sublimity of Christian Doctrine nor the gloriousness of the Hopes it propounds that will so recommend it to the opinion and â—…steen of beholders as when it shall be said Ecce ut Christiani Amant when they shall observe the Love Concord and Unanimity amongst the Professors of it The Enquirer has here stumbled at unawares upon the formal reason of Schism or sinful separation which lies not in the variety of Opinions or differing practices modes or forms of Worship but in a want of true love and charity That which renders Christianity truly beautiful and amiable in the Eyes of Beholders is that it teaches the Professors thereof to love one another with a pure heart frvently though under different perswasions as to Modes of Divine Worship and Discipline That their hearts are larger to receive one anothers persons then their heads are to conceive one anothers notions But yet as he is a fond Lover that chuses his Wife by the Eye for the symmetry of her external frame or cloathing of wrought Gold rather then those virtues which adorn the Soul so he that chuses his Religion by Sense and not by Faith will make a most lamentable bargain He that falls in love with Christs Church upon External Allurements and Extrinsick Motives will either repent or quit his choice when she is persecuted her outward frame discomposed her order violated the Shepherd smitten and the Sheep scatter'd whereas he that espouses Religion for those invisible glories which she propounds and keeps in his steady eye the recompence of reward will adhere to his choice when she is most black and the Sun of Persecution has too familiarly looked upon her But I shall not need to trouble my self or the Reader with any more of these fine Arguments Schism is an evil whether he be angry at it or no. And separation may be good whether he be pleased or no All the Question will be that seeing there is an apparent separation found amongst us from the Political Church of England and supposing that there is sin one where or other where the guilt of it ought to lye The Enquirer has spoken a great deal of Truth in in a few words That some have found pleasure to get that Child which they would by no means have laid at their own doors A successful piece of Villany it is which sometimes passes for a virtue for the Fathers who have begot these Brats to expose them to be kept and maintained at the cost of the poor innocent Parish And if we might guess at the true Father by the Childs Physiognomy All the divisions which have so heavily charged the Churches having sprung from Ceremonies from needless Impositions from unnecessary Terms of Communion They who take such pleasure to beget thâ—… one may be presumed to have been the Grand-fathert of the other If yet there be any controversie depending whose the Child is The Enquirer recommends to us the Wisdom of Solomon for discovering the True Mother and because we know Partus sequitur ventum if we can once find out the Damm we shall make her confess the Sire It was the early proof says he Solomon gave of his Wisdom in discovering the true Mother of the living Child to which both the Litigants laid equal claim I confess his illustration proceeds hitherto but very oddly for there the quarrel was who should have the Child and be reputed the true Mother but with us all the controversie is who shall be discharg'd of it but all similitudes do not run of four Leggs and it 's very well if this will hop on one observe how he lays both ends of his discourse together As that wise Prince discovered the true Mother by the tenderness of her Bowels towards the Infant so we may perhaps discover the true Children of the Church by their respect and tenderness to her Ay just so no doubt Even as the Wheelbarrow rumbles over the Pebbles so a Thumb-rope of Sand will make an excellent 〈◊〉 for Fishers folly The comparison would run a little more naturally and regularly thus As the true Mother was discerned by the tenderness of her Bowels towards the Infant who would rather part with her right then that her bleeding Eye should ever see her Child divided so we may perhaps discover the true Mother of the Church by her condescending and relenting pity who would rather wave her claims and resign her right in some lesser instances then ever endure to see the body of Christ divided by a Schismatical Dichotomy And as the Harlot notwithstanding all her pretences bewrayed her self to the discerning eye of that Judicious Prince who could be content the Child should rather dye then she lose her moyety so will she evidence her self to be a Stepmother Church which peremptorily insists upon a pretended right to Impâ—…se at the Peril of the Churches Peace rather then by waving those pretences save the endangered Church from imminent destruction but some mens Allegories are never so excellent as when they are impertinent or non sense and I presume he found this Allusion in the Wisdom of Solomon in the Apocryphal Writings We are come at length to the Question what is the true notion of Schism A point that deserves to be handled with the greatest exactness for upon the True stating hereof the issue of the whole controversie depends His notion or definition of Schism is this Schism is a voluntary departure or separation of ones self without just cause given from that Christian Church whereof he was once a Member Or Schism is a breach of that Communion wherein a man might have continued without sin I shall not need to find faults or pick holes in this definition they will offer themselves as he opens the Terms only I observe 1 That it offends against one of the sacred Laws of Definition which ought to be most religiously and inviolably preserved Definitiones debent cum Definito reciprocari The Definition ought to be convertible with the thing defined And that this is not so is evident because there may be a Schism where there is no separation from External Communion There is a Schism in a Church as wel as from a Church The Churches Garment may be rent and yet not rent in two Thus the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. 18. When ye come together in the Church I hear there are Divisions amongst you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ch 12. v. 25. That there may be no Schism in the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Definition which is as narrow as his Charity and leaves out those who ought â—…o be taken in must necessarily be stark naught 2 This definition is very short in expressing that which is indeed the Poison and Venom the formal Reason of all Schismatical departure viz. the want of Charity and true Evangelical Love for he that departs from a Society yet loves the real Christians
sin But the most considerable thing here will be how I became a Member of that Church from which the departure is supposed to be made for 1. To be forced into a Church will never make me such a Member but that I may re-assume my liberty and right when the force is removed Violence and Constraint unite me no otherwise to a Church then a great Beetle unites a Wedge to a Tree which though it may by main strength be driven into the Tree yet not being engrasâ—…ed into it no Union is created with it nor does it derive any nourishing juices from it 2. Baptism alone will not do it because as I conceive that Ordinance solemnly unites me only to the Catholick visible Church and not to a particular Congregation otherwise whenever the providence of God shall transplant me into another particular Church I must be re-baptized and so as often as I remove because as to that Church I am unbaptized 3. Nor will my being born and bred within national limits and precincts denominate me a Member of such National Church or Constitution because it passes for a Current Maxime That the Church is in the Common-wealth and therefore Church and Kingdom Church-member and Subject are not Terms of equal extent and demensions And besides there are many Congregations of Christians in this Nation not syncretizing with the National Policy who yet are not stigmatized with the Brand of Schismatical but without the least reproach of Schism Worship God and exercise Discipline according to their own private and peculiar Laws 4. Therefore to make me a Member of a particular Church there must be the concurrence of my own free choice which whether it ought to be signified by express and overâ—… Acts or that an implicite and tacâ—…te consent may not suffice is heâ—… no season to discourse § 5. But the only difficulty I am sure the grâ—…est is that which he subjoins in thâ—…se words An unnâ—…ssary separation or without just cause or to separate from that Society wherein I may continue without sin Two extreams there are it seems 1. Of The Zealoâ—…s of the Church of Rome who scarcely allow any thing as a sufficient cause of separation But I look on this as a very unjust surmise of the Romanists for their most rigid Zealots will in Theâ—… allow sinful conditions imposed for a just â—…round of sinless departure only they deny to individuals a judgement of discretion to determine each for himself of the sinfulness of the Condition And thus what they seem to give with the right hand they take away with the left And herein our Enquirer is as strait laced as they for though in the general he will prodigally allow us that sinful Impositions are a just plea for separation yet he has forestalled that concession all along with a fine contrivance That our private Wisdom must lower the Top-sale to the publick Thus p. 64. Since the peace of the Church often depends upon such points as Salvation does not and since in many of those every man is not a Competent judge but must either be in danger of being deceived himself and of troubling others one of necessity must trust some body else wiser then himself so that the matter according to this Gentlemans Hypothesis is just as long as 't is broad but that the Church of Rome speaks that with open Mouth which he delivers between the Teeth 2. The other supposed extream is that of some Protestants who make the Causes of separation as many and as light as the Iews did of Divorce almost for any matter whatsoever But as our Saviour when the case was put found out a middle way betwixt Divorce for no cause at all and for every cause so ought it to be done in this business of Schism Reader we are now in a hopeful way for the compromising all the Controversies that have vext our Northern Climate and to seal general Releases of all Actions and causes of Actions against each other from the beginning of the Reformation to the day of the Date of these presents for as we may charitably presume of all our Episcopal Brethren that they will stand to the final award of so great an undertaker as our Enquirer so I am confident I may engage for all the dissenting Brethren that they will abide by the Umpirage of Iesus Christ and that whatever expedient he used in deriding the grand Question about Divorce shall conclude them in all their Debates about Schism Now the final Decision of that affair we find Mat. 19. 8. where our Saviour considers not what could plead inveterate Custom or a gray headed practise to abet its pretensions he slights all the Arguments from laudable Examples and the Traditions of their Forefathers and runs up the practise to its Primitive Institution and tells them From the Beginning it was not so And indeed if a Transcript be blotted or blurr'd we presently have recourse to the Original and from thence redintegrate whatever the hungry worm or greedy Moth has deâ—…aced when the Streams are muddied and polluted we relieve our selves from the Spring where the Virgin and unpolluted waters flow clearest and sweetest without adulterate mixtures It was the cry in the Council of Nice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we cry the same one and all Let the terms of Comunion in the first plantation of the Gospel Church be produced and he that will not subscribe and submit to those Archetypes let him be branded for an obstinate Schismatick Now therefore if ever our Enquirer promises himself and us that he will Hit the mâ—…rk I say then and then only is there just cause of separation when perseverance in the Communion of such a Church cannot be without sin that is when she shall impose such Laws and Terms of Society as cannot be submitted to without apparent breach of the Divine Law Thus he says And if I should tell the Reader I say the contrary we should make a squabble on 't to render our selves ridiculous let it therefore neither be what I say nor what he says but what wiser men then us both say who may be presumed more impartial in their Judgements wherein they vindicate the Dissenters because they were or are eminent Members of this Church And first I will present him with the judgement of Mr. Hales a Person of whom the Church of England has great cause to boast Now amongst many other things to our purpose in his Treatise of Schism he acquaints us 1. That when either false or uncertain conclusions are obtruded for Truth or Acts either unlawful or ministring just scruple are required of us to be performed in these cases consent were Conspiracy and open Contestation is not Faction or Schism but due Christian Animosity 2. That nothing absolves men from the guilt of Schism but true and unpretended Conscience Therefore such a Conscience will absolve from the guilt of it 3. That where the Cause of Schism is necessary there not
say that they ought not to separate but when non-separation is sinful but then they say that non-separation may be sinful upon other accounts then the apparent breach of the divineLaw made the terms of entring into or continuing in communion for say they it is our sin if a Church retains some corroptions in it which prejudice edification and she shall resolve never to make any alteration in her worship or discipline nor make any further progress towards a through Reformation not to provide for my self elsewhere and having opportunity I sin if I take not accept not the advantage which providence offers me and wherein the word warrants me And yet he wonders that any doubt should be admitted in this Case Let me advise him to beware of Excessive wonderment they say it will make a man as lean as a rake but what 's the Cause of his admiration Why some think to wash their hands of the Imputation of Schism upon other terms as namely if a Church shall not require such terms of Communion as are Expresly sinful yet if she shall require indifferent unnecessary or at most suspected things that in this case there is enough to Excuse the person that shall separate from a participation of this sin There are some no doubt of that judgment and when I have praelibated a few things he shall have his full blow at them § 1. That when they joyn issue upon this point 't is not because they are satisfyed that the things required unto Communion as the antecedent conditions of it or to be practised in communion as the mattor of it are indifferent in their use and application for they are ready to maintain it upon equal laws before equal Judges that they are sinful in their use antecedent to their imposition but the true reasons why they use this place are 1. Ex abundanti thinking that their very outworks are impregnable against his batteries 2. Out of respect to this Church which they highly honour and reverence her too much then to charge her flatly with sinful impositions and therefore do offer this state of the question and are hardly capable of so much incivility to so considerable a body and so great a part of the visible Catholick Church unless the importunity of some modest men did extort that answer from them 3. They doubt whether some Churchmen will be Masters of so much patience as to bear freedome though temperateness of speech which is absolutely necessary to the manadging the Controversy when thus stated and have reason to fear that some who provoke them to assert the sinfulness of the terms will make such an Assertion an unpardonable sin not to be expiated without if with Martyrdom § 2. When he states the question about things suspected to be sinful I hope he will give them the common civility to draw up their own plea in their own terms and to â—…xpâ—…ane what they mean by suspected things in the question because they are not compelled to maintain Every proposition which he in his well known charity shall obtrude upon them A practâ—…se thâ—…n may be taken upon suspicion of sinfulness two wayes first upon light slighty trivial grounds of suspicion which have no wâ—…ight with a serious and rational Considerer Or 2dly upon violent presumptions such as may sâ—…agger a person of good judgment and diligence and 't is these that they are willing to argue it with him whether if a Church shall impose such things as the terms of Communion with her as have or do or may puzzle judicious persons about their Lawfulness and cannot clear it up to their Consciences that they are Lawful yet they may not forbear Communion in this Case § 3. They desire the same justice in Explaning themselves about the term indifferent A thing may be indifferent in its own nature which is not so in its use as applyed to and practised in the Immediate worship and service of God If the things under debate be found upon diligent search to remain indifferent after they are vested with all their circumstances in Gods Worship they have no quarrel against them that I know of but if they be only indifferent in their own general nature they desire to be Excused if they dare not admit the consequence that therefore they must needs be so when used in Gods worship and then made the terms of Communion § 4. Unnecessary things may be either such as are absolutely unnecessary or such as are hypothetically so some things that are not absolutely and in themselves necessary yet may become necessary proâ—…ic nunc even antecedent to the interposition of the Churches Authority And Dissenters say that what ever the Church shall impose ought to be necessary either in it self or by concurrent Circumstances which when they shall conspire together may be by a Lawful Authority Enjoyned pro tempore that is so long as such necessity shall continue which when once removed the things ought to return into their former Classis of Indifferents § 5. When they deny the Churches power of imposing things Expresly sinful they deny also a power of imposing things sinful by just consequence They judge many things sinful which are not forbidden 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scriptures and many things duties which are not Litterally and Syllabically commanded in the Scriptures They say not that the sign of the Crosse was ever by name prohibited but they say there are undoubted maximes laid down in the word from which it will undeniably follow that in its present station in the Church it is sinful And now he may when he pleases speak his three things which if they be pertinent and proved as strongly as they are spoken confidently I am content 1. His first say consists of a Conceâ—…ion and an Assertion § 1. His Concession I willingly acknowledge that such a Church as shall studiously or carelesly clog her communion with unnecessary burdensom and suspected conditions is very highly to blame that is the sins but that it became not him to tell her so and then I will venture to say a few words also 1. If it be the Churches sin to command unnecessary burdensom suspect Conditions It cannot be my duty to obey A Church may possibly sin in the manner of her Command and yet I not sin in doing the matter of the Command but when the sins in the Enjoyning I cannot conceive how it should be my sin not to give obedience for I look upon my duty as the result of the Churches Authority and wherein she has no Authority it will be impossible to find a foundation upon which to build my duty All Offices of Justice arise from that relation wherein he that claims and he that yeelds subjection stand to each other And where there 's no relation there can be no relative duty now in this case before us where the Church has no power to command nay where she sins if she commands so far she is none
perpetuate our Divisions nor intail quarrels upon innocent posterity who are not yet imbroyled in our Contentions upon the account of those things which the Church may well spare without any eclipse of her Glory part with without Impeachment of her Wisdom leave free without prejudice to the Worship or just offence to any to the unspeakable joy of all Cooler spirits besides the infinite satisfaction that would arise to our Brethren of the Reformed Religion beyond the Seas There are three things which the Enquirer has propounded to himself to Treat of in this Chapter 1 That the Causes of Dissentions amongst us are not like those upon which we seperated from the Roman Communion We acknowledge it with all cheerfulness Yet a man may die of many other Diseases besides the Plague We Rejoyce that the Church of England has such clear grounds to justify her departure And we wish we had fewer grounds to justify ours But here for the credit of his Discourse wherein we are all equally concerned with himself I could have wish't he had not prefaced it with so foul and gross a slander It is said by some that there is as much cause for Secession from this Church now as there was from the Roman in the time of our Ancestors I only demand so much Justice from the Reader as to suspend his belief till this judicious Imputation be made good and in the mean time return thus much in Answer § 1. There may be a just Cause where there is not an equal Cause of separation There may be a great latitude in the terms of Communion and yet all injustifiable and there may be great variety in the Reasons of separation and yet all may be warrantable Had the Popes Terms been much lower they had been much too high for our Ancestors to come up to And though the Terms of this Church are lower then those of Rome yet they are something too high for Dissenters who humbly plead that they have just cause for a peaceable Departure since they cannot peaceably Abide in the Society § 2. Upon our Enquirers Principles it had been as lawful for our Ancestors to have continued in Communion with the Roman as for Dissenters to conform to the present demands of this Church For let me have a clear Answer why their Private Wisdoms ought not to be sacrificed to the Publick Wisdom in Queen Maries Reign as our private wisdom resign to the publick under our present Circumstances For in this Case we consider not the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the Terms as they are in their Naked selves but where the final Decision shall rest whether they be lawful or unlawful Now the Enquirer tells us page 168. It s enough to warrant our obedience that the thing is the Command of the Superiour and not beyond the Sphere of his Authority But who can measure the Sphere of the Magistrates Authority unless we could take the just Diameter of it Again page 178. The Result of all will be that instead of prescribing to the Magistrate what he shall determine or disputing what he hath concluded on we shall compose our minds and order our circumstances for the more easy and cheerful compliance therewith What Rivers of precious Blood had this Doctrine saved had it been broached in Q. Maries dayes That men must not dispute what the Magistrate has concluded on And though he thinks to heal all this by saying page 166. That God has made the Magistrate a General Commission and made no exception of this kind meaning as far as Circumstantials and those things that God himself has not defined yet this will not salve the difficulty because 1. Who shall judge what is a Circumstantial and what a Substantial what an Integral part only and what an Essential part of Religion Where shall we lodge the determination ultimately what God has defined and not defined If the Magistrate Then our Ancestors are gone by the Common Law If the private person we are all in statu quo 2. God has no where disterminated Circumstantials from Substantials in the Magistrates Commission for though our Enquirer has excepted the one yet it is by his private Authority which binds not the Magistrate His Commission is Patent and therefore it may be read 13 Rom. 1. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers c. This Commission does no more except an Obedience then a Circumstance he that will put in the one may at pleasure insert the other and he that will except the one may and will except the other So that I conclude or at least see no reason why I may not that according to this Enquirers sentiments had providence allotted us our habitations under a Prince of the Roman Communion we might have practised all his Injunctions without warrant to plead our Consciences in Bar which Principle will bear a mans charges through all the Turks Dominions and make any man a free Citizen of Malmsbury when once Conscience is sacrificed to the Deity of Leviathan Every true Protestant will gladly read his Justification of this Churches departure from Rome And therefore though it be not much to the matter in hand I shall not grudge to go a little out of my way with him for his good company and profitable discourse 1. We could not says he continue in the Roman Church upon any better Conditions then Nahash propounded to the men of Jabesh Gilead to put out our Right eyes that we might be fit for their blind Devotion Whether the eye be put out that it cannot or hood-winckt that it may not see is no such considerable difference but we have the less need of a Private if there be a Publick eye that can see for us all and better discern the fit Terms of Communion And whether it be the right eye or the left or both that our Enquirer would pluck out of our heads I cannot tell for when we have considered with the best eyes we have whether it be our duty to withdraw from the present establishment in some things and the result of our most impartial inquiries concludes in the affirmative yet we are Schismaticks and all that is naught if then we may not see with our own eyes as good pluck them out They that fancy man to be but an Autamoton a well contrived piece of Mechanism have certainly fitted him to this Hypothesis For suppose him to be like a Clock which once put in motion will jog on the round and drudge through the Horary circle and perform you a twelve hours work in twelve hours time without attendance or other charge than a little Oyle and you may then set him to what hour you please And he shall as freely strike twelve at Sun-set as Mid-day 2. We must not here have renounced our Reason What if we had Our own private Reason is not worth so much as to contend with the publick And thanks be to God that our Governours are Counselled by their own Reasons
fit Protestant or Papist and indeed any School-Boy that has a Theme or Declamation to compose That the Causes of separation from the Church of Rome were pregnant every way clear and evident we do therefore agree And that the Reasons of separation from the Church of England are not so great but then neither is the separation so great for as we agree in the fundamental Articles of Religion so we may quickly agree in all the rest when some of a more fiery temper will let their Mother Alone to exercise to all her Children such an Indulgence as is agreeable to their various Measures of light in lesser concerns But says our Author It 's quite otherwise in the Church of England For. 1. No man here parts with his faith upon Conformity But I am afraid they must part with it or they will hardly be accepted Their faith is that the Lord Christ is the only Lawgiver of his Church that the Scriptures are the adequate and Commensurate Rule of all Religious Worship and if they do not part with thus much of their faith they must live in a Contradiction to it but perhaps he may understand their faith better then they themselves 2. No man is bound to give away his Reason for Quietness sake Then I know who was mistaken p. 64. who tells us That since the peace of the Church often depends upon such points as Salvation does not and since in many of those every man is not a Competent judge but must either be in danger of being deceived himself and of troubling others or of necessity must trust some body else wiser then himself she recommends in such a case as the safer way for such private persons to comply with publick determinations And we may assure our selves of our Enquirers good nature in this particular who condemnes Virgilius for asserting the Antipodes though it were demonstrably true and the contrary impossible And then I am afraid we must sacrifice our Reason to Peace and rather subscribe like Brutes then run the risque of being perscuted like Men. 3. A man may be as holy and good as he will The goodness and holiness of a Christian lyes very much in using Holy Means for Holy Ends Gods Holy Ordinances in order to Holiness in the Habit and Complexion of the Soul He that may not use the means of Holiness when he will may not be as Holy as he will but as Holy as he can without them He that will use all the means of God in order to that great end it may possibly cost him more then he would willingly lose for any cause but that of righteousness Methought it was an odd sight t'other day to see a Grave Divine in his Canonical Habit marching With a Brace of Informers piping hot on either Hand the one like the Gizzard the other the Liver stuck under the wings of his Sacerdotal Habiliments from one of his Rectories to the other to give Disturbance to a Company of poor Innocent people that would have been a little more holy if they might when this is reformed I 'le believe that the more of Holiness appears the better Churchmen we are reputed 4. This Church keeps none of her Children in an uncomfortable estate of darkness for we must know that there 's a twofold estate of darkness a comfortable and an uncomfortable estate Now the Comfortable estate of darkness lyes in trusting others submitting our private to the publick wisdom this is that blessed state whereinto he would wish his best friends But the unconfortable state is that Remedy which is Practised in Spain and Italy for the Cure of Church Divisions An excellent Remedy it is but it comes too late to do any good here The difference between them was observed before either to be born blind or made blind to have no Conscience or prohibited to exercise it to have no eyes or not to use them and in my private opinion there 's no great comfort in either of them 5. She debars none of her Members of the comfort and priviledges of Christs Institutions Some that have struggled with a doubting Conscience have attested the contrary but however she may possibly debar some of those priviledges and comforts that would have been her Members because they dare not give the price she rates those priviledges and comforts at 6. She recommends the same Faith the same Siriptures that the Protestants are agreed in Yes but then she recommends those Ceremonies to boot in which Protestants neither are nor ever will be agreed in We do therefore seriously triumph that the Church of England with the Protestants are also fully and perfectly agreed that they have not only the same God and Christ but the same Object of Worship too though I know not wherein God and the object of worship differ the same way of Devotion in a known Tongue the same Sacraments the same Rule of Life which are all the great things wherein the Consciences of men are concerned To which I shall need to say no more but that we in the General profess our owning of all these and yet our differences be very considerable but let our Consciences be concerned about no other no other Sacraments no other Rule of Life no other Devotion and what is necessary to reduce all these into practice and I can assure him Dissenters will flock a pace into the bosome of the Church He promises us now that he will faithfully and briefly recite the matters in difference And I confess for brevity he has performed his promise well enough but for his fidelity the Dissentets sadly complain of him I shall therefore crave the liberty to use a little more prolixity and I shall endeavour to compensate it with much more fidelity to reciting the material points wherein we differ As § 1. Whether a Minister ordained according to the appointment of the Gospel to the exercise of the whole Ministerial work may without sin consent that a main part of his Office be statedly and totally taken out of his hands and his work Cantoned at the will of another § 2. Whether any Church has power from Christ to appoint in and over it self or Members any Officers specially distinct from those Christ hath ordained § 3. Whether any Church hath authority from Christ to institute any other Ordinances of fixed and constant use in the Church then Christ hath instituted § 4. Whether it be an apparent invasion of and open reproach to the Regal Office of Christ for any Society of his to institute either new Officers or new Offices for the Govorning and Administring that Society which the head hath not allowed § 5. Whether it be not the duty of every particular Church to conform all the worship and administration of Religion to the Laws of their Institution and that whatever is not so Conformed be not a Corruption which ought to be Reformed by those Laws § 6. Whether if a Church shall peremtorily refuse to remove such
or the Worship of God We are Commanded by Christ to Baptise now though it was not possible that it should be determined how often in what places at what houres with what Number of persons the Ordinance should be administred in Every Age and Country from its first institution to the End of the World yet its ' determin'd that they to whom of right it belongs to baptise at one hour or other in one place or other and so time and place are Determined by way of disjunction but there are some things which 't is not necessary to do the one or the other to the Compleat fulfilling and decent performance of the precept and therefore are not commanded by way of disjunction It would therefore be no such difficult labour to find out a better way for all the difficulty would lye in reforming Abuses removing Corruptions and reducing Christs Ordinances to their primitive institutions Hoc enim adversus omnes haereses valet Id esse verum quodcunque Prius id esse adulterum quodcunque posterius This is saith Tertullian the great Mawle of all heresies and I will add against all Corruptions that whatsoever was first is True whatsoever was introduced afterwards is a Corruption But though perhaps the Dissenters may possibly find out what is Better yet they will never Agree amongst themselves which is an old Politick put-off for Reformation The Levity of which Objection is easily discovered for § 1. We are all Agreed that the Scriptures are the only Rule of worship and they that are thus far Agreed are in a fair way towards perfect unity so far as 't is attainable in this state of Imperfection for though they may miss in the Application through the weakness of their judgment yet being secure that their Rule is good and sincerely endeavouring to come up to it and reform by it they cannot be fatally wide nor mortally differ All that are Agreed in their rule have this singular Advantage that they can debate their differences amicably upon common principles whereas they who differ in the Rule must needs differ in all the Rest they that divide in the Center must needs divide infinitely in their motions towards the Circumference and they that differ in the foundation must necessarily disagree in the superstructures § 2. All that Agree in the Rule have prepared minds immediately to Cassier whatever they shall once discover to be repugnant to that Rule and will easily part with any mistake as it shall be made out to them whereas they who set up false Rules of worship and yet suppose them to be true are as tenacious of whatever they find suitable to those erroneous Measures they have taken as if they were the most sacred Concerns of Religion § 3. They that own the same perfect and infallible Rule are thereby kept within such bounds of sound judgment warrantable obedience and Christian Moderation that they can maintain Communion with each other and both of them with the same one God one Lord one Spirit in the Ordinances of the Gospel though still differing in lesser matters whereas they who set up new Rules of worship exclude all others from their Communion but such as submit to their Novel Canons and Constitutions imposed as the Terms of that Communion § 4. They who embrace the word of God for their Rule do keep alive the fire of Evangelical Love towards each other notwithstanding the little diversities that are found amongst them when they who advance their own Pleasures for the Rule and Reason of obedience are engaged in a Zealous persecution of all those who comply not with their Concepts as is Evident in the Church of Rome at this day It will be delightful no doubt to the Reader to be Refresht with the Enquirers Rhetorick who has been tyred with my duller discourse and therefore I shall gratify him with his Reasonings It 's Reasonable says he we should be able to Agree upon and produce a better Model least in stead of having a New Church we have 〈◊〉 Church at All yes highly reasonable it is For Let him that reads now endeavour to understand the strength of his four Arguments 1. Such a Society as a Church can never be conserved without some Rites or other 2. Neither any Society can continue nor any publick Worship be performed if all Ceremonies and Circumstances such as of time place persons and the like be left indefinite and undetermined 3. If there must be some determination of Circumstantials it must be made either by God or man 4. If there must be some Determination of Circumstances or no Society and God hath made no such Determination what remains but that Men must And then who fitter then our Governours And what these four Learned arguments contribute to the proving his assertion That Dissenters will never be able to find or agree upon a better Constitution I hope the Learned do perceive for my own part such is my dulness I cannot discern it but let us Examine the Assertions as they lye in order 1 It can never be thought by wise men that such a Society as a Church can be Consâ—…rved without some Rites or other Rites Ceremonies Circumstances are the Terms under which all the collusion Lurks when he would flatter us into the humour to yeeld him a point or two then he speaks of nothing but Circumstances when he would Amuse us with an obscure Term then we hear of Nothing but Rites and when he would kill us with a Mortal Conclusion then out comes Ceremonies but I answer § 1. If a Church cannot be conserved without some Rites then let the Imposed Terms of Communion be only of such Rites without which the Church cannot be conserved and we will contend no longer If any Rite be so necessary to the being of a Church that its Constitution must moulder away into dust without it we are content that Rule be made a Term of Communion § 2. From hence then it will evidently appear that mystical Ceremonies such as the cross in Baptism the Surplice ought not to be imposed as the Terms of Communion because that without such Rites of humane appointment the Society of the Church may be conserved I would fain know how the Church was Conserved in the Early purer times of Christ and his Apostles They had not recourse to the Ladies Closet open'd They understood nothing of the Modern curious Arts of Conserving candying and preserving Religion in Ceremonious Syrrups and yet Religion kept sweet and Good They were some of his Holinesses Ladies of Honour that first taught the World out of a miraculous good will and tender pitty to the Church to conserve the two Sacraments of Christs institution in five more of their own invention because our Saviour had not prescribed enow to Conserve the Church from Dissolution § 3. This seems to be a little too high preferment for humane Ceremonies to make them Conserving Causes of the Church At Rome they have
proved Defiling Causes in other places Causes of Offence scandal and Division they have burdened some and debauched others and Raised persecution against the rest but they were never yet Conservators of the Churches purity or peace surely the parts of a Church are very sorrily put together that has no other Cement to unite them and the frame and contexture there of exceeding brittle that must dissolve upon the Removeal of a Ceremony § 4. If by Rites he understands nothing more then meer Natural Circumstances we grant that no Church can be Conserved no publick worship Celebrated without the Observation and Determination of some such Rites that is in plain English no Church can worship God except they agree to worship him somewhere which is a Discovery well worthy of all this Periphrasis and tedious Circumlocution for who ever once thought in a Dream that A Body could exist and yet possess no place or an Action be spun out by Men for an hour or so and yet not be measur'd with time It must be some strange vertigo therefore that whitles the brains of these Non-conformists that they will endure the utmost extremities rather then renounce and abjure such Cross non-sense That God must be Worship't and yet may be worship't no where That a Sermon may be Extended to an hours length and yet preach't in an Indivisible Instant some or other must needs be out 〈◊〉 their wits God says he cannot be Worship't by men without all Circumstance By men No nor by Angels They have their Ubi and definitive place nor can they traverse the Poles in a moment though they are so swift winged as to dispatch it in imperceptible Time So that this Argument will enforce the Cherubims to Conform to the Ceremonies as well as the poor Dissenters And well did he say It can never be thought by wise men For he must be a Natural fool or Idiot that thinks otherwise And to make sure work he will confound us quite with two most unmerciful Reasons 1. Reason Fâ—…rasmuch says he as no petty Corporation or Company can Nay I will strengthen his Reason for once Not only no petty but none of one great Trading Corporation those Nurseries of Schism and nesis of non-Conformity can be conserved with uâ—… some Rites or others They have their pageants and goodly things they are and Contribute wonderfully to their Consâ—…rvation but yet to deal freely and plainly with our Enquirer Though I allow his Conclusion I cannot swallow his Medium Arguments taken from my Lord Majors show will never enforce Religious mystical Ceremonies Bodies politick may be beholden to some little Artifices to conciliate admiration if not Adoration from the thickskin'd rulgar who see no further then the scarlet and furr But Religion needs nonâ—… of these tricks and devises of wit to set her off She is never more Glorious then when she shines with her own Naked and Native Lustre she Adornes her Attire but borrows no Ornament from her cloathing She is none of these Empty Quelque choses who wanting intrinsick worth to recommend him to society thinks to strike the Spectators with Reverence to his Pantaleons and waving Plume such was the answer of Luther to Vergerius That it was the great fault and folly of Rome to establish the Church with aGovernment taken from Humane Reason as if it were some temporal state 2 Reason Because men have bodies and are bound to glorify God with their bodies as well as souls I am sometimes ready to say in passion of an Age cheated with such silly Arguments Qui decipi vult decipiatur He that has a mind to be gulled much good may it do him That we have bodies will only iâ—…fer that all Natural Circumstances which necessarily adhare to a body must be determined but not at all that we worship God by Mystical Ceremonies for that I may worship God acceptably without them I can demonstrate Because Christ did so but that we may worship him acceptably with or by the Ceremonies he has not yet offer'd us demonstration I never yet understood that the Dissenters did worship God in statu separato which if they could 't would notably disappooint the Informers who could never swear their presence at a Conventicle because they never saw the Complexions of their souls 〈◊〉 It 's as plain says he that neither any society can Continue nor any publick worship be performed if all Ceremonies and Circumstances such as of time place persons and the like be left indefinite and undetermined All the stile in this proposition lies in this that he has wisely foisted in Ceremonies amongst Circumstances And to prevent all fraud and Legerdemain Let him use a little of that Candor he borrow'd of his Reader not longe since and tell us uprightly whether He takes Ceremoniès and Circumstances for Terms of the same impor t And if so then whether he will degrade the word Ceremony from its usual Repute to signify no more then a Natural Circumstance or Advance the Term Circumstance to signify Mystical Ceremonies for if by Circumstance he understands Ceremony in the common and received Acceptation of the word the Proposition is false That no society can be Conserved without some Circumstances that no publick worship can be performed without some Circumstances that is without unscriptural symbolical Ceremonies And all this discourse will not reach the hundreth part of a proof of it for its the easiest thing in the World to worship God without the sign of the Cross or any such like circumstances and there are thousands that have made the experiment but if by Ceremonies he intend no more then bare natural Circumstances The whole proposition is granted him but then the misery is it will do him no service contribute nothing to his design The Reader may beat a loss perhaps as well as my self about the determinate sense of his words and it 's convenient we should be so at present matters are not yet Ripe for discovery I know his cause requires his Conclusion needs Ceremonies but his premises are modest his instances only pretend to Circumstances such says he as of Time place person and the like Which must be a little Examined 1 Time That Time is a natural Circumstance inseparably adharing to or if you will say accompanying every Action sacred or civil wants not the Authority of the seven wise men of Greece to Confirm it that is sometime in General yet time in special that is Religious time is no such Circumstance No Action can be done without time to do it in yet Actions may be done without such time as shall render them either morally better or worse that is such as add any moral goodness or evil to the actions If then he take Time in the former sense 't is then very true that no publick worship can be performed without the determination of time It must be determined by some or other when the publick worship shall begin as whether at eight nine