hard case as such cases will happen under all Governments God who is our supreme Governour will take care to rectifie it when the Governours of Church or State cannot do it without loosening the Sinews of Government As for instance The Governours of the Church must take care to prescribe Rules for the decent performance of religious Worship and in such an Age of mistakes and scruples as this it is possible some very honest but weak Christians may take offence at the best and most prudent Constitutions and separate from the Church and involve themselves in the guilt of Schism what must the Church do in this case Must she alter her Laws as often as any Christians pretend to scruple them or must she make no Laws about such matters but suffer every Christian to worship God as he pleases This is to renounce their Government because some Christians will not obey or to make Government contemptible and ridiculous when it must yield to mens private fancies and scruples And yet it is very hard that the Government of the Church which is instituted for the care of mens Souls should prove a snare and temptation to them and occasion their eternal ruine and misery But I hope that there is no necessity for either of these Governours must do their duty must take care to make such Laws as are for the advantage of Religion and the edification of the Church and are least liable to any just offence and if after all their care some very honest men may take offence and fall into Schism we must leave them to the mercy of God who will make allowances for all favourable cases The Church can give no relief in such cases without destroying her Authority and Government and giving advantage to Knaves and designing Hypocrites to disturb the best constitutions of things but God can distinguish between honest men and Hypocrites and if men be sincerely honest and do fall into Schism through an innocent mistake God will be merciful to them which secures the final happiness of good men and yet maintains the sacredness and reverence of Authority For when men know that nothing can justifie a Schism and nothing can plead their pardon with God but great honesty and some invincible mistake it will make all honest men careful how they separate from the Church and diligent in the use of all means for their satisfaction without which no man can pass with Almighty God for an honest Separatist and I doubt not but were men convinced of this it would sooner cure our Schisms than the removal of all scrupled Ceremonies But in is so far from being the duty of Church-Governours to take any notice of mens scruples when there is no just occasion for them that they ought not to allow any man to scruple their authority in such matters which weakens Government and opens a gap for eternal Schisms to enter It is very true as our Reconciler has proved at large in a whole Chapter to that purpose that the Church in several Ages has made great alterations in the Externals and Rituals of Religion but how this serves his Cause I cannot tell No body questions but the Church has done this and that she had authority to do it and that she has so still when she sees just occasion to do it but the Question is Whether she must do this as often as every little Reconciler or every scrupulous Christian demands such an alteration The Question is Whether unreasonable scruples and prejudices be a necessary reason for the Church to make such alterations And if he can give any one example in all Antiquity that the Church altered her Constitutions for no other reason but to comply with the scruples of private Christians he will say something to the purpose No in those days private Christians did not use to scruple any Ceremonies which the Governours of the Church thought fit to appoint but Bishops made or repealed Laws about such matters as they thought most expedient for the good government of the Church The Question is Whether they repealed all Laws for the Order and Decency of Worship or renounced their Authority to make such Laws in compliance with those who denied any such Authority to the Church Again the Question is Whether in the same Church they allowed all private Christians to worship God after what manner they pleased according to their own private perswasions and apprehensions of these things that those who are for a May-pole may have a May-pole as our Reconciler very reverently expresses it If he can say any thing to these points I confess it will be to his purpose and therefore I would desire him to consider of it now he knows what he is to prove But though his History of those alterations which the Church in several Ages has made in the Rituals and Ceremonies of Religion would not serve his main designe yet it highly gratified his pride and insolence to trample upon a great man whom he thought he had taken at some advantage The Reverend Dean of St. Pauls assigns some reasons why the Church of England still retains the use of some Ceremonies His first reason is out of a due reverence to Antiquity They would hereby convince the Papists they did put a difference between the gross and intolerable Superstitions of Popery and the innocent Rites and Practices which were observed in the Church before This says our Reconciler is very like Hypocrisie to pretend to retain three Ceremonies of humane institution out of respect to their supposed antiquity whilst we reject as many which were unquestionably of a divine original and therefore sure of an antiquity which more deserveth to be reverenced Truly if our Church has parted with any thing of a divine original I think she has reformed too far but will our Reconciler say that every thing that was an Apostolical Practice is of divine original Bishop Taylor to whom he so often appeals would have taught him otherwise as I have already observed who says that the Apostles in ordering religious Assemblies and in prescribing such Rules of Worship as they did not immediately receive from Christ acted but as ordinary Ministers of the Church and what they prescribed obliged no longer than the reason and expediency of the things and the Governours of the Church in after-Ages had as full and ample Authority as the Apostles themselves in such matters But does the Dean say that these Ceremonies were retained onely for their antiquity then indeed the Reconciler's Objection had been strong that other Ceremonies which are as ancient as they should have been retained also But is it not a just reverence to Antiquity that when our Church had for other reasons determined what number of Ceremonies to retain and for what ends and purposes she chuses to use such Ceremonies as were anciently used in the Christian Church rather than to invent any new ones for it had been an affront to the ancient
â—udge when it is fit to stop and every wise man will think it fit to stop when she has cast every thing out of her Worship which is a just cause of scandal and offence and if she goes further to satisfie unreasonable and clamorous demands she can never have a reason to stop till she has satisfied all Clamours 2. Yes says our Reconciler she may remove things indifferent and unnecessary which is all at present desired No say I she cannot part with all things which are in their own nature indifferent for some such things are necessary to the Order and Decency of Worship which must not be parted with and the Church never owned the contrary She says indeed that her particular Ceremonies are indifferent and alterable that we may exchange one decent Ceremony for another when there is reason for it but the Church ought to alter no Ceremony without reason nor part with all indifferent Ceremonies for the external Decency of Worship for any reason And now we are beholden to him that 3. He grants with some reconciling salvo's that we must not part with our Church-government under the pretence of parting with indifferent things But if we must not part with that we may as well keep all the rest for our Divisions will be the same No party ever separated from the Church for the sake of Ceremonies who did not quarrel with the Order and Authority of Bishops The rest of his Arguments in that Chapter do not concern this business but whatever he would prove by them there are two general Answers will serve for them all 1. That indifferent things which serve the ends of Order Decency are not such unnecessary trifles as to be parted with for no reason which I think I have sufficiently proved above And 2. Tâ—at parting with them will not heal our Divisions and therefore at least upon that account there is no reason to part with them What I have now discours'd about Divisions and Discords is a sufficient Answer to his next long Harangue about the evil of Schism in which I heartily concur with him as believing that Schism it self will shut men out of the Kingdom of Heaven which is as bad a thing as can be said of it and therefore out of love to my Brother's Soul I would not upon any account be guilty of his Schism But how does this prove that Church-Governours must part with the Rites and Ceremonies of Religion Oh! because Dissenters take offence at these things and run into Schism and consequently must be damned for it and therefore Charity obliges to part with such indifferent things to prevent the eternal damnation of so many Souls But now 1. Suppose the imposition of these Ceremonies be neither the cause of the Schism nor the removal of them the cure of it what then Why must the Church part with these Ceremonies which are of good use in Religion to no purpose And yet this is the truth of the case as appears from what I have already discours'd The several Sects of Religion were Schismaticks to each other when there were no Ceremonies to trouble them and would be so again if the Church of England were once more laid in the dust No man separates from the Church of England who has not espoused some Principles of Faith or Government besides the Controversie about Ceremonies contrary to the Faith and Government of the Church and will the removal of Ceremonies make them Orthodox in all other points or are they of such squeamish Consciences that they can submit to an Antichristian Hierarchy and an Antichristian Liturgy but not to Ceremonies 2. The Argument of Schism is the very worst Argument our Reconciler could have used as being directly contrary to the end and designe of it All the Authority the Church has depends on the danger of Schism and the necessity of Christian Communion The onely punishment she can inflict on refractory and disobedient Members is to cast them out of the Church and that is a very terrible punishment too if there be no ordinary means of salvation out of the Communion of the Church and therefore the danger of Schism is a very good Argument to perswade Dissenters to consider well what they do and not to engage themselves in a wilful and unnecessary Schism But it is a pretty odde way to perswade the Governours of the Church out of the exercise of their just Authority for fear some men should turn Schismaticks and be damned for it The reason why the Gospel has threatned such severe punishments against Schism is to make the Authority of the Church sacred and venerable that no man should dare to divide the Communion of the Church or to separate from their Bishops and Pastors without great and necessary reason and our Reconciler would fright the Church out of the exercise of her just Authority for fear men should prove Schismaticks and be damned for it Christ has made Schism a damning sin to give Authority to the Church and our Reconciler would perswade the Church not to exercise her Authority for fear men should be damned for their Schism Now whether our Saviour who thought it better that Schismaticks should be damned than that there should be no Authority in the Church or our Reconciler who thinks it better that there should be no Authority in the Church than that Schismaticks should be damned are persons of the greatest Charity I leave others to judge Indeed the odium of this whole business which is so tragically exaggerated by the Reconciler must at last fall upon our Saviour himself either for instituting such an Authority in his Church or for confirming this Authority by such a severe Sanction as eternal damnation If Christ will at the last day condemn those who separate from the Church for some external Rites and Ceremonies as our Reconciler's Argument supposes he will then it is a signe that Christ approves of what the Church does in taking care of the Decency of Worship and that he thinks it very just that such Schismaticks should be damned and then let our Reconciler if he think fit charge the Saviour of the World with want of Charity to the Souls of men The Church damns no man but does what she believes to be her duty and leaves Schismaticks to the judgment of Christ if he damns them at the last day let our Reconciler plead their Cause then before the proper Tribunal and if Christ can justifie himself in pronouncing the Sentence I suppose he will justifie his Church too in the exercise of her Authority This is certain that if the imposition of these Ceremonies be a just cause of Separation our Dissenters are not Schismaticks and therefore in no danger of damnation upon that score and if it be not a just cause of Separation then the Church does not exceed her Authority in it and therefore is not to be blamed notwithstanding that danger of Schism which men wilfully run themselves into
not unite us in one body and to countenance such Scruples as these by the least Indulgence would lay an eternal foundation of Schisms and therefore the Argument does not hold from the case of the Jews to the case of the Dissenters because forbearance in one case would cure the Schism in t'other it will increase it 5. This indulgence to the Jews in the oâ—servation of the Law of Moses was very consistent with the Apostolical authority in governing the Church and prescribing the Rules and Orders of Christian Worship but an Indulgence of Dissenters in the use of indifferent things in Religious Worship is not so Our Reconciler proves from St. Paul's condescension to the Jews that the Governours of the Church must not impose the use of any indifferent things in the Worship of God or that in charity to Dissenters they must alter such Rules and Canons when as often as there are any who scruple the lawfulness of them that is they must part with their Authority or for ever suspend the exercise of it which is much at one to govern Religious Assemblies and to prescribe the decent Rites of Worship when there are any persons so ignorant or so humoursome as to dispute their Authority or the lawfulness of what they command The absurdity of this Principle I have already shewn at large but yet if the Apostle had set an Example of such condescension as this I would readily submit as not daring to dispute against an Apostolical practice But if this forbearance which the Apostle perswades the believing Jews and Gentiles to exercise towards each other do not entrench upon the Apostolical Authority in governing Religious Assemblies then it is no President to the Governours of the Church to give up their Authority to Dissenters Now this is the plain case here The Dispute between Jews and Gentiles as you have already seen did not concern Christian Worship nor the government of Christian Assemblies but the exercise of mens private liberty and therefore St. Paul might grant and might exhort to this forbearance without injuring the Apostolical Authority which onely concerns the government of Christian Assemblies and prescribing the Orders and Rules of publick Worship And indeed it is very evident that St. Paul would never have indulged the scruples of Christians to the diminution of the Apostolical Power and Authority which he asserted as high as any of the Apostles He gave several directions for the government of Religious Assemblies for the regular exercise of their Spiritual Gifts in the Church of Corinth for speaking with Tongues and prophesying for their demeanour and deportment of themselves that men should pray and prophesie uncovered and women covered that women should not speak in the Church for their celebrating the Lords Supper and Love-feasts for their holy kiss besides his general directions that all things should be done decently and in order and after these particular directions reserves the final ordering of things to himself The rest will I set in order when I come This same Power he committed to Titus in Crete For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting Now if our Reconciler could shew that in such matters as these which concerned the exercise of Church-Authority the Apostles allowed private Christians to dispute their commands and gave indulgence to every one to do as they pleased who did not like to do what was commanded it would be somewhat to the purpose and might justly be thought a standing Rule for Church-Governours but the Apostles understood their Authority and the Primitive Christians their Duty better than so none disputed their commands in Rules of Prudence and Decency nor would they suffer their commands to be disputed without censure St. Paul commends the Corinthians upon this account I praise you brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you He commends them for their obedience to Titus and gives the Thessalonians this general Rule To know them which labour among you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them highly for their works sake And what that means we learn from the Epistle to the Hebrews Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls And he commands the Thessalonians If any man obey not our word by this Epistle note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed Which shews a true Apostolical Spirit and Power which we have no reason to doubt but he exercised in other cases as well as that which is there mentioned Now if this forbearance towards the believing Jews which St. Paul pleads for did not entrench upon Ecclesiastical Authority if it appears from other places that he did assert his Authority and require obedience and submission to it one would wonder how the Reconciler should hence prove that the Governours of the Church should give up their Authority to the Dissenters or which is all one not impose any thing which through ignorance or scrupulosity or from some worse cause they refuse to obey which St. Paul never did where he had authority to impose for as for his becoming all things to all men of which more in the next Chapter it referred onely to the exercise of a private liberty not of an Ecclesiastical Authority 6. I shall adde but one thing more that this forbearance which St. Paul pleads for was onely temporary It was a prudent Expedient for that time which was such a critical period as never happened before nor could ever haâ—pen again nor could continue long and therefore there was no such inconvenience in it but what might be dispensed with out of love and charity to weak Brethren The Jews who at that time believed in Christ could not presently be convinced that the Law of Moses was abrogated or out of date but St. Paul saw a time a coming which would effectually convince them of this when God should suffer the Romans to destroy their City and Temple and put a final end to the Jewish Worship which he seems to refer to when he tells them Let us therefore as many as be perfect thoroughly informed in the Christian Doctrine be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Now when we see a fair prospect of the end of such Disputes and have an Expedient in the mean time to preserve the Peace and Unity of the Church certainly Christian charity obligeth all men to mutual forbearance But now the case of the Dissenters is quite different from this They raise Scruples and Disputes after above fifteen hundred years prescription against them and separate from the Church of England upon such Principles as condemn the best and the purest Churches of former Ages and if their Scruples be indulged it is impossible there should ever be any Peace
and Unity in the Christian Church for they may entertain and multiply such Disputes for ever with the same reason that they do now And therefore there is always reason to suppress those Scruples which câ—nnot be cured or outworn by time when Indulgence will not cure the Disease nor time remove it it must be stifled and suppressed by Ecclesiastical Authority Whether our Reconciler will think this a sufficient Answer to his fourth Chapter I cannot tell I am sure I do CHAP. VI. Containing an Answer to the fifth Chapter of the Protestant Reconciler or his Arguments taken from St. Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians HAving in the former Chapter so particularly answered our Reconciler's Arguments taken as he pretends from that condescension and forbearance which St. Paul exhorts the believing Jews and Gentiles to exercise towards each other in that great Dispute about the observation of the Law of Moses there seems little occasion to answer the rest of his Arguments from Scripture which every ordinary Reader may do from the Principles already laid down But that our Reconciler may not complain that he is not answered I am willing to undergo the trouble of a needless Answer if my Readers will be pleased to pardon it His first Argument is from St. Paul's discourse 1 Cor. 6. Where he condemneth the Corinthians because they went to law before the heathens which was a blemish to the Christian Faith and ministred scandal to the heathens and made them apt to think that Christians were covetous contentious and prone to injure one another c. Since therefore our Contentions about these lesser matters do minister far greater Scandal to the Atheist the Sceptick c. our Governours should rather suffer themselves to be restrained a little and even injured in the exercise of their just Power about things unnecessary than by their stiffness to assert and to exert it to continue to give occasion to so great a Scandal to the Christian Faith This is an admirable Argument if it be well considered The Christians must not go to law before Heathen Judges therefore the Governours of the Church must not prescribe the decent Rites and Ceremonies of Worship Yes you will say the Argument is good because the reason is the same to avoid Scandal Let us then suppose this was the reason if we will make these two cases parallel it must be thus To go to law with our Christian Brethren is scandalous and therefore must be avoided to prescribe the decent Rites and Ceremonies of Religion is scandalous and therefore Church-Governours must not exercise this Authority Will our Reconciler now stand to this Proposition No that he durst not affirm that the exercise of a just Authority in these matters is scandalous but the contentions about such Rites and Ceremonies are scandalous and therefore Governours must not insist on their Authority to prescribe them But now this way of stating it does not make the case parallel and therefore he cannot argue by any parity of Reason from one to the other St. Paul exhorts the Christians not to go to law before Heathen Judges because it was scandalous to the Christian Profession to do so and therefore if our Reconciler will make a parallel case he must instance onely in something which is scandalous and then by a parity of reason he may prove that to be forbidden also But neither the Authority to prescribe the decent Rites of Worship nor the prudent exercise of it is scandalous and therefore he cannot prove this to be forbid by any parity of Reason But contentions indeed in the Christian Church whatever be the cause of them are very scandalous and therefore all scandalous contentions are forbid as all scandalous going to law is For we must observe that though the Apostle in the seventh verse tells them There is utterly a fault among you because ye go to law one with another yet he does not absolutely forbid going to law as that signifies using some fair and lawful means of righting our selves when we suffer wrong even from our Christian Brethren but onely as it signifies going to law before the Vnbelievers or Heathen Magistrates for he requires and exhorts them to have their Causes heard and tryed before the Saints that is either the Governours of the Church or any other Christians whom by joynt consent they shall make Judges and Arbitrators among them But to go to law in those days did properly signifie to implead one another before the Heathen Tribunals because there were no other Magistrates at that time who had any legal authority and this going to law was scandalous Thus by a parity of Reason it is onely that contention which is scandalous that can be forbid and therefore for the Governours of the Church to assert their own Authority in ordering the Externals of Religion and for private Christians to defend the Authority of the Church though with some vehemence and earnestness is not scandalous for it is what they ought to do but to contend against the Authority of the Church is a very scandalous contention because it is against the Duty which private Christians owe to their Superiours and therefore whatever Scandal is given by such contentions is wholly owing to the scandalous Contenders that is to the Dissenters who scandalously oppose the Authority and Constitutions of the Church And therefore our Reconciler ought to have reproved the Dissenters and exhorted them to leave off their scandalous contentions not to lay a necessity on the Governors of the Church not to exercise their Authority which these men so scandalously oppose as we find the Apostle in this very place turns the edge of his reproof against those who did the wrong and gave occasion to these scandalous contentions Ye do wrong and defraud and that your brethren Contentions either about the Doctrine Discipline or Worship of the Christian Church are very scandalous but is this a good reason not to contend for the Faith not to oppose Heresies and Schisms because these Disputes represent Christianity as a very uncertain thing and give scandal and offence to Atheists and Infidels then the Orthodox Christians did very ill to meet in such frequent Councils to condemn Arianism and other pestilent Heresies Where there is a Scandal onely on one side and Contention is the onely Scandal this is a good reason against such contentious Disputes but when it is more scandalous to suffer Heresies in the Church to see Ecclesiastical Authority despised to permit any indecencies and disorders different customs and practices in Christian Worship than it is to contend for the Truth and for the Order and Uniformity of publick Worship we must not be afraid to contend for these things the onely scandalous contention being to contend against them His second Argument which he draws out to a great length is taken from 1 Cor. 7. where he tells us that the Apostle grants it is good for a man not to touch a wife
not certainly how God will deal with them in the other World God has nowhere told us any thing of it and therefore this is not so certain as to make it a President and Example for Governours 2. But suppose this were so as all of us have reason to hope it is yet this is no Example to Governours in Church or State For there is a vast difference between Gods judgements in the other World and acts of Government and Discipline in this The one respects mens personal deserts and determines their final doom the other onely respects the preservation of good order and government in Church or State And therefore the final judgment considers all circumstances which may deserve reward or punishment pity and compassion not onely what was done but who did it with what intention and designe whether knowingly or ignorantly or the like the other considers onely what is done what prejudice it is to the publick and how such an example deserves to be punished and therefore it is very fitting for earthly Governours to punish those sins which God will pardon because they cannot maintain good Government withour it If through ignorance and mistake though so innocent and involuntary that God may see reason to pardon it any men should disturb the Peace and Order of Church or State it would utterly overthrow all Government if these men must not be restrained nor punished Our Reconciler might have considered that God forgives us all our sins which we sincerely repent of though they were never so great and voluntary and methinks he might as well have undertaken the Cause of penitent Thieves and Rebels and Murderers as of impenitent Schismaticks He should do well when he sees the Tears and Sorrows and Agonies of such guilty Wretches and hears their solemn profession of repentance to mind the Judge and the Jury of the mercy and pitifulness of our good God who forgives the sins of all true Penitents and therefore they who are commanded to be followers of God like dear children to be merciful as our Father which is in Heaven is merciful to put on bowels of compassion as the Elect of God should not hang up those poor penitent Wretches but forgive that on Earth which God will forgive in Heaven Now I wonder how a Judge and Jury would gaze upon such a Reconciler as this whether they would think him fittest for Bedlam or Bridewel It is certain that this good and pitiful God whose Example our Reconciler proposes does himself make a difference between this World and the next in executing Judgments he sometimes punishes those sins in this World which he himself forgives in the next and therefore certainly Earthly Governours whether of Church or State may punish those sins in this World which God will pardon in the next Thus it was in the case of David whom the Prophet Nathan upon his repentance assured that God had pardoned him and yet at the same time denounced the Judgments of God against him the rebellion of his Son Absolom and the death of the child begotten in Adultery Thus we have reason to hope that so pious a man as Vzzah though he was struck dead upon the place yet was not eternally damned for touching the Ark. 3. And yet Gods final Judgment is no Rule and Pattern for humane Judicatures because Earthly Governours do not know the hearts and thoughts of men as Gods does He knows when mens ignorance is invincible and involuntary which no man can know and therefore God can make such allowances in his last and final Judgment which no man can or ought God judges the hearts of men but man can onely judge of their actions and therefore an Earthly Governour may and ought in justice to punish that which God may very equitably pardon 4. Especially considering that this last and final Judgment of God is designed to rectifie all the necessary defects as well as miscarriages of humane Judicatures A man who is guilty of some troublesome errour and mistake may and ought for the publick good to suffer for it in this World though it may be hard that he should suffer for it in the next And this very consideration as I have observed before answers all this difficulty Schismaticks how innocent soever their mistake is ought to be cast out of the Church on â—arth or all Ecclesiastical Authority is lost and the Church left without any Government to defend it self but if the case be favourable God will make allowances for it in the other World and he who is guilty of Schism without a schismatical mind we hope may find mercy And therefore this can be no reason for the Church not to pass her censures upon such men if they are visibly guilty of that which deserves a censure A temporal Judge does not intend to damn every man whom he hangs nor an Ecclesiastical Judge to damn those whom he censures they are onely concerned to see that the Judgment and Censure be deserved in this World but they leave the final Judgment to God himself This I think is enough to answer to this Argument though our Reconciler rhetoricates upon it He observes that the Scripture represents God as very pitiful and we believe God to be very pitiful as any earthly Parent can be but not indulgent to the humour or frowardness of children But it is this God of mercy who himself goes into the mountains to save and to bring home the strayed sheep And thus the Governours of the Church ought to do to bring home stray Sheep into their Fold not to indulge them in their wandrings But God provided an Asylum for him who ignorantly committed murder accidentally he means without intending any such thing which is not the errour of the mind but of the hand and therefore does not relate to this business But God remitted the sin of Abimeleck because he did it ignorantly but Abimeleck had been guilty of no sin for he had not touched Sarah Abraham's Wife But he had mercy of St. Paul for the same reason though he persecuted the Church of Christ but the mercy consisted in bringing him to repentance unless the Reconciler will say too that he had mercy on those who crucified Christ because they did it ignorantly and on all those Jews of whom St. Paul witnesses that they had a zeal for God but not according to knowledge And indeed it is worth coâ—sidering that this Argument of the Reconcilâ—r's pleads â—or a Toleration of all Religions especially if we can suppose that there are honest and ignorant men among them such persons will be received by God according to our Reconciler's Principles whatever Religion they be of Jews or Turks or Pagans though he does none the honour of a particular vindication but onely the Papists If Charity teaches us thus to hope saith the most learned Bishop Sanderson of our forefathers who lived and died in the idolatrous acts of Worship why then should we reject