scattered each from other upon the Mountains but a storm brings them together So doth Eusebius relate that the Church enjoyed much peace and freedom immediately before the Persecution raised against it by Dioclesian and making no better use of it than to fall asunder into Divisions and Factious Contentions instantly God took a course by way of punishment to cover the Daughter of Zion with a Cloud in his Anger and to cast down from Heaven to Earth the beauty of Israel and not to remember his footstool in the day of his Anger setting up the Right-hand of his Churches enemies and making their adversaries to rejoyce Lam. 2.1 Psal 39.42 Mr. Ward of Ipswich 's Sermons p. 253. Charity Charity is the builder of Churches Strife about trifles hath wasted many famous ones and placed the Temple of Mahomet where the Golden Candlestick was wont to stand We pity the former Ages contending about leavened and unleavened Bread keeping of Easter Fasting on Sundays the future Ages will do the like by us Pygots Abners Plea for Accommodation in 43. p. 33. Take heed your private dissentions do not expose you as a prey to the common adversary I remember the dying Fathers admonition to his Sons Having call'd them all together he caused a Faggot to be brought into the Room and commanded the stoutest of them to break it they tryed one after another but none of them could do it then he bade them undo the band and take them stick by stick and so they snapped them asunder like a twined thread Thus shall it be with you my Sons saith the Old Man when I am dead if you continue united and knit together in the bond of Peace and Love no Enemies shall be able to hurt you but if you once break the bond and fall into differences among your selves you 'l presently be broken to pieces and come to nothing Item p. 42. The wild Boar of the Forest I mean the Turk had never made such inrodes into Christendom had it not been for the dissention of Christian Brethren 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vpon the Rebellion in Ireland Ejac. 3. Because we have not more loved thy Truth and practiced in Charity thou hast suffered a Spirit of error and bitterness of mutual and mortal hatred to arise among us Bishop Reynolds Broth. Agreement p. 18. Cites holy Cyprian who in his time looked upon it as one great cause of that fore Persecution which God sent upon the Church Had Unanimity and Peace said he been amongst the Brethren we had long ago obtained our Petitions from Divine Mercy neither had we been thus long tossed with those Tempests which endanger our Faith and Salvation Imo vero nec venissent Fratribus haec mala si in unum fraternitas fuisset animata Bishop Hacket on Acts 15.39 p. 8 9. The passage is well known about Constantine the Great how he remov'd from his Palace in the East because every corner of the Imperial City was filled with adverse disputations about Religion much more you may presume that God will depart from that Church where the flames of notorious discords are Causes of decay of Christian Piety p. 304. As to the extirpation of the Eastern Churches he that shall examine the Records of those Times will have cause to say their janglings and divisions were not only in a Moral and Divine but even in a proper natural sence the Instruments of it the Turk only coming in at those breaches which themselves have made Glanvells Cath. Charity p. 17. The greatest evils that have or can happen to the Church have been the effects of the decay of Charity and of those intestine divisions that have grown up in it From these she hath always suffered more than from external Persecutions The flames within have consumed her when those from without have only sing'd her garments Bishop of Salisbury 's Exhort to Peace and Vnion on Matth. 12.25 p. 3. There is nothing that defeats the end of Religion more and doth more naturally lead to all manner of sin and impieties which must end in Temporal as well as Eternal ruine then our Divisions Pag. 9. In Divisions either party will be so intent on their little designs that the whole may perish and they will bite and devour one another till they are either consumed one of another or made an easie Conquest to those that both see and improve all their advantages Item Exhort p. 10 11. The Africans continued quarrelling about Cecilian and his ordainers till the Vandals came and destroyed both the one and the other Item p. 11. And can we think without astonishment that the difference of the Procession of the Holy Ghost could ever have rent the Greek and Latin Churches so violently one from another that the Latins rather than assist the other look'd on till they were destroyed by the Ottoman Family which has ever since been so terrible a Neighbour to the rest of Europe Mr. Hesketh on Lam 3.20 21. p. 25. It were seasonable to have made some reflections upon the unchristian heats and unreasonable differences that are among us things that render us not only sinners but great fools and plain contrivers for our own Ruine For these are evils that will destroy us alone and by their own weight sink us into destruction Divided Societies last not long the experience of all Ages confirms it for a Truth and I do not see what reason we have to expect an exemption from the common fate Dr. Mores Mystery of Iniquity p. 554. What harm is it to presage so well of the Reformation as that after the decursion of the years of their Childhood God will ripen them into a more Manly sence of the great and indispensable Duties of the Gospel that he will not tolerate nor connive any longer at their Childish squabling about Nut-shells Counters and Cherry-stones and menace them even with destruction if they leave not off their animosities and asperities of mind about toys and trifles and hold fast to the Royal Law of Love If ye bite and worry one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another Gal. 5.15 Mr. Hancocks Sermon on Luke 19.42 If the judgments of God which we have already groaned under cannot sure the dangers that threaten us and our Religion might help to abate our heats and suppress our differences Did not Christianity decay in the Church of Corinth as their Schisms and Factions increased Pag. 31. Were not the former Conquests of these Nations the effects of our own Divisions God grant that saying may never be applyed to us which was used of our Fore-Fathers that whilst they severally quarrel'd among themselves they were all overcome by the common Enemy Item They are convinced that a number of petty Sects and divided Interests cannot long maintain their ground against the Roman Forces Mr. Cooks Sermon on Rom. 12.18 p. 4. Were it not for that security the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it that is the
promoting Atheisme Arch-Bishop Grindal in his Fair Warning Part 2. Edit 1663 expressed his great fear of two things Atheism and Popery and both arising out of our needless differences By these the Enemies of our Religion gain this that nothing can be established by Law in the Protestant Religion whose every part is not opposed by some or other of her own Professors so that things continuing loose and confused the Papists have their Opportunity to urge their way which is attended with Order and Government And our Religion continuing thus distracted and divided some vile Wretches lay hold on the Arguments on one side to confute the other and so hope at last to destroy all Judge Hales 's Discourse of Religion p. 49. When Men see so much Heat and Passion so much Fervour and Contention such Reproaches and Revilings such Exasperations of Authority on either Party such mutual Prosecutions one of another that more could not possibly be done between Dissenters in those points which both agree to be Fundamental Atheistical Spirits are apt to conclude that probably those points that both sides supposed to be of greater moment are Ejusdem Farinae as those in Contest which all Men take to be small and inconsiderable Mr. Hooker 's Ecclesiastical Politie p. 18. Speaking of Atheistical persons by our Contentions their Irreligious Humour is much strengthened Also by the hot persuit of lower Controversies among Men professing Religion and agreeing in the principal Foundation thereof they conceive hope that about the higher Principles themselves time will cause Alteration to grow Abner 's Plea for Accommodation p. 41. It will cast a scandal on Religion it will open the Mouths of the Adversaries of the Truth The Name of God is blasphem'd among the Gentiles through you saith the Apostle Rom. 2.24 The worst sort among them scoff at it it is meat and drink to them And the better sort are stagger'd by it discouraged from coming within the pale of the Church when they observe Christians as Contentious as Pagans Believers as quarrelsome as Infidels Vnity of Catholick Christians The many Divisions and Animosities which have distracted and separated the parts of Christendom these have opened the Mouths and whet the Tongues of its professed Enemies to Reviling and Railings and Prophane Scoffs against our Blessed Lord and Saviour and his Holy Religion and stifled the first thoughts of admitting the most Convincing Truths to a debate among Jews Turks or Pagans and stopt their Ears against the wisest Charmes To no one cause can we more reasonably impute the small progress which Christianity hath made in the World for a Thousand years past The same contents have a pernicious influence at home upon the Faith and Manners of those within the Pale of the Church Men are hereby too soon tempted into some degree of Sceptiscism about very material points of Christian Doctrine in which they observe so many to differ among themselves Bishop Hacket on Acts 15.39 Where many Sects spring up it calls the Truth more into question and the fewer Proselytes will be gained Secondly By bringing Men to a Lukewarmness and Indifferency in the great things of Religion Bishop Whitgift 's Letter to the Council in Fullers Hist L. 9. That in King Edwards Time and in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths before the heat of these Contentions the Gospel mightily prevailed But since this Schism and Division the contrary Effects have happened Design of Christian p. 236. It is too visibly apparent to be denied that those who have such a scalding hot Zeal or contend so earnestly either for or against things of no certainty and no necessity are many of them as their Predecessors the Pharisees were in the very other Extream as to not a few of the weightiest matters of Religion Conformists Plea for the Nonconformists Part 4. pag. 17 It renders the Labours of the Worthiest suspected and despised by the contrary-minded The most useful profitable searching Books which the World hath most need of are not as much as look'd into by many but rejected because the Books of F s as they are called Yea more if a Conformist have the Name of F some of our Church-P will not come nigh the door-posts of Wisdom Mr. Kidder 's Sermons 1 Pet 3.11 We quarrel for Trifles and neglect our unquestionable Duty to God and Man Doctor Burnet Bishop of Salisbury Matth. 12.25 p. 5. The ill Effects of this Zeal or Contentiousness upon our selves will be That as this Temper grows upon us all our inward seriousness will in a great measure abate and turn meerly to a Form And with that many other Sins will creep in upon us we will bear with many ill things in others because they are of our Party whom otherwise we would detest for their ill Lives and by Conversing much with them we will contract at least a Familiarity with their Vices and perhaps imagine That by our rage and heat we offer up some acceptable Sacrifice to God to compensate for our other Disorders Causes of Decay of Piety p. 251. When bitter Zeal was once fermented the Orthodoxy or Heresie of Lives became soon Tearms out-dated and Men were measured only by Opinions Item p. 301. They are not much discomposed to see Men of no Religion 't is only the having one different from their own that makes their Indignation Mr. Cook 's Sermons on Rom. 12.18 p. 24 What a siding is there with this and the other Zealous and Conscientious Sect even by those that have neither Zeal nor Conscience but are Deriders of both and of strict Holiness in all sorts of Professors Appendix to the third part of the Friendly Debate p. 143 Doctor Jackson tells us the first ground of his dislike to the chief Solicitors of Reformation in our Church was the deformity of their Zeal not moving them to redress known Enormities of the Common-wealth much more material and much more nearly concerning the Advancement of the Gospel than those doubtful Controversies of Formality about which they strove Bishop Wilkins on Rom. 14.17 18 Let a Man but indifferently look round about him amongst all the kinds of Parties in our times even those who in his own judgment he esteems the best and then say Whether both our Common Peace and the Power of Religion hath not suffered exceedingly upon the account of our Zeal in lesser matters Another Mischief it destroys Charity Doctor Steward 's Englands Case p. 26 In such Divisions as these Men are extreamly apt to forget all Bonds of Peace and for possession sometimes of a little supposed Truth quit indeed their whole state of Charity Mr. Kidder 's Sermons 1 Pet. 3.11 We do indeed fiercely contend with each other but it is because we want Charity We neglect that plain Duty whilest we are fond of some Opinion of our own which is often false and at best but doubtful Pref. to Usher 's Body of Divinity Men falling into Sects and Schisms break the Bond of Love and
would satisfie most The Fathers of our Church when they Reformed this Nation from Popery were desirous to fetch off as many as they could retaining for this cause all the Ceremonies and Forms of Prayer they could with a good rectified Conscience Some other things I could mention in the Book of Common-Prayer though not ill in themselves yet fit to be altered and would obviously appear to every wise man once resolved to compose such a Form as to take in most of this Nation which I humbly conceive Governours should in Conscience endeavour becoming all things to all men to gain some though not all yet happily gain all in process of time Principles and Practises of Moderate Divines c. They would be very glad if some things that most offend were taken out of the way particularly that there might be no expressions in our Forms of Prayer that contain disputable and uncertain Doctrines p. 335. Vid. Mr. Wakes Sermon on Rom. 15.5 6 7. p. 23. And that no such weight be laid on lesser things as that they should be inlisted on to the endangering those of an higher nature and hazarding the Churches Prosperity and Peace Serious and Compassionate Enquiry into the causes c. That it will be no Hypocritical tergiversation no wrong either to our Religion or our Consciences if when the case so requires it we change any phrase of Speech how fit soever in our apprehension for one less fit but more acceptable and currant or any Rite or Ceremony that we have great kindness for for one that is more grateful unto others and that according to the saying of the Lord Bacon we learn of the elder times what is lawful and of the present what is fittest Mr. De L' Angles Letter to his Lordship the present B. of London I am sure that if there were nothing wanting to cure your Divisions but the abstaining from some Expressions the quitting some Ceremonies and the changing of the colour of some Habits you would resolve to do that and something more difficult than that with great pleasure Conformists Plea for the Nonconformists Part 3. Pref. It is clear there must be a Liturgy and very many even to Dr. Sherlock mention some Alterations in the several parts of it as desirable and advisable Without any positive arrogance in a matter of this nature I do offer my observation Some that expect much profit by Preaching do think first and second Service too long and tiresome Others that care less for Preaching are very busie in the Interlocutory parts of the Service grow careless and too often prate and stare about and whisper in the Lessons and sleep under our Sermons both are too long for them also All that I will suggest in the last case is First That the second Service or Communion-Service may be then only read when there is a Communion or when there is no Sermon upon Holy-days Secondly That only one of the three Creeds be used at one time in the same Service Thirdly That the so often Repetitions of the Lords Prayer in the same Service may be limited All cannot most do not keep Curats The work of Reading the ordinary first and second Service besides incidental Offices as Baptism Churchings c. make it very expensive to most mens Strength and Spirits and wearisome to the People and the constant necessary work of Preaching and Catechising is hardly endured by the young and healthful but impossible to be performed by the infirm and aged And therefore in King Edward VI. days some Ministers were dispensed with in not Reading the whole as Grand Debate mentions p. 5. It is true indeed if a mans Conscience will bear it a Minister may be both short and seldom in the Pulpit but then it is with two great hazards First Of losing his Auditory or of his Auditories great loss to their Souls This humble Proposal for omitting the second Service hath a fair Countenance from the Rubricks Rubrick the last immediately before the Lords Prayer hath a supposition that the Communion is Celebrated every Lords day c. I mean to conclude with an excellent Citation from Bishop Taylor Duct Dubit p. 375. In Rituals and Ceremonies and little circumstances of Ecclesiastical Offices and Forms of Worship in the punctualities of Rubricks in the order of Collects in the number of Prayers and fulness of the Office upon a reasonable cause or inducement to the omission or alteration these things are so little and fit to be entrusted to the conduct of those sober obedient and grave persons who are thought fit to be entrusted with the Cure of Souls And things of such little concernment are so apt to yield to any wise mans reasons and sudden occasions and accidents and little and great Causes that these were the fittest instances of this Rule i. e. of Latitude if Superiours would not make too much of little things All just Governments give the largest interpretation to Churches Orders in these things to persons of a peaceable Mind and obedient Spirit that such circumstances may not pass into a solemn Religion and the Zeal of good Men their Caution and Curiosity may not be spent in that which doth not profit In many cases a Latitude according to Equity may be presumed but if it be expresly denied it may not be used Which is the case of our Conformists as to those things wherein a Latitude might be taken according to the Law of Equity when they carry some considerable inconvenience along with them and reason for the contrary yet we being strictly bound up by the Church it must bring a guilt upon the persons disturb their peace of Conscience and prove vexatious and troublesome to them that way if they often offend in these matters And this I presume to be the case of those who in their common practice do not come up to the strictness of their bounden and promised Conformity though in some cases when extra casum scandali contemptus they may do otherwise than the express Letter of the Law requires and be guiltless as our Casuists affirm I beg the favour with all Humility and with Submission to the Will and Wisdom of our Governours to offer to their Consideration whether it were not desirable to have a Prayer for particular Graces in the Evening Service the Petitioning part being less perfect then and at such times when the Letany is not used We have such a Prayer in the Whole Duty of Man called a Prayer for Grace comprehensive of particular Graces And then no doubt the use of it would be more acceptable in Families than it is now when it runs out so much in Intercessions and so little in Petition Again I offer to their Consideration whether the Hymns and Offices of Praise after the Lessons especially in the Evening Service are not become less edifying in their present use where those Spiritual Songs are barely Read as in Parish Churches and not Sung there being one way
Church the unhappy contentions about it the worst of Devils would soon hasten its destruction Mr. Jekylls Sermon on Jer. 5.29 p. 21. But there is one thing which if not speedily prevented will before we are aware let in that which we so much fear and cry out against viz. Popery and which perhaps too too many of us more or less may be accessary to I mean those unnatural heats and divisions amongst our selves amidst which though we are not altogether swerved from the Form yet we are strangely degenerated from the true Spirit and Power of Godliness and Christianity How sad the effect and consequence of these heart-burnings and animosities unchristian strifes and debates will be I am afraid to think of Item p. 25. We are distracting our own Devotions yea and provoking I had almost said devouring one another whilst our Adversaries in the day they look for which God grant may never come will make no difference but swallow us up together Principles and Practices p. 10. of Ep. It is high time to be reconciled to Moderation and Sobriety to lay aside our uncharitable and therefore unchristian heats against each other and to throw water upon those flames that threaten our destruction and but for Gods infinite Mercy would have effected it before now instead of adding more fewel unto it Mr. Kidder on 1 Pet. 3.11 p. 29. The several Sects and Quarrels of the Jews among themselves and the fury of their Zealots were but a prologue to their miserable destruction Bishop Taylors Coll. of Discourses Ep. before Liberty of Proph. For my own particular I cannot but expect that God in his Justice should enlarge the bounds of the Turkish Empire or some other way punish Christians by reason of their pertinacious disputings about things unnecessary undeterminable and unprofitable Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety p. 427. It is the usual Oeconomy of Divine Justice to make our Crimes our Punishment and to give us up to those ills which were at first our own depraved choice And God knows we have too much reason to fear this may be our case that we who have so perversly violated all the bonds of Unity wantonly wrangled our selves out of all inclinations to Peace should never be able to resume them Item p. 428. This alass as it is the fearfullest so is it the probablest issue of our wild contentions such as nothing but the miraculous effluxes of Divine Clemency can avert To conclude as well we may with this as an undoubted Truth from Mr. Kidders Sermon on 1 Pet. 3.11 p. 22. These Contentions have done more mischief than all the Persecutions put together more have fallen and more dangerously this way than by the Swords of Tyrants and avowed Enemies of our Religion Arguments for taking the Ceremonies away or leaving the Vse of them indifferent especially the Sign of the Cross HEre is the most proper place to premise somewhat concerning the Lawfulness of Ceremonies least I should in any thing which follows be thought to condemn my own practice in point of Conformity to these Ceremonies As to Kneeling at the Sacrament I think the Rubrick should satisfie Persons it speaks very plainly It is hereby declared that no Adoration is intended or ought to be done either unto the Sacramental Bread and Wine there Bodily received or unto any Corporeal Presence of Christs Natural Flesh and Blood For the Sacramental Bread and Wine remain still in their very Natural Substances and therefore may not be Adored for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians and the Natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ are in Heaven c. Mr. Bayns Christian Letters p. 201. Kneeling is neither an occasion nor by participation Idolatry Kneeling never bred Bread-Worship and our Doctrine of the Sacrament known to all the World doth free us from suspition of Adoration in it Thus he though a Nonconformist Mr. Tombs Theodulia p. 168. That whatsoever Gesture our Saviour used it doth not oblige us because the Gesture seems not to have been of choice used by Christ 2. Because St. Paul omits the Gesture which he would not have done if it had been binding 3. He mentions the Night and calls it the Lords Supper and if the Time be not necessary much less the Gesture 4. If the Gesture doth oblige then Christians must use the self-same that Christ used i. e. Lying down or Leaning c. Mr. Baxter in his Christian Directory I think speaking of the Sacrament tells us he thinks Mr. Paybodies Book in defence of Kneeling to be unanswerable As to the Surplice Platina mentions it to be brought in very early into the Church in the days of the good Bishops of Rome Anno Domini 250 by Stephen a Martyr under Decius the Emperour And none can deny but that in the Apostles days after Baptism the Baptized in those hot Countries of the East being commonly at least dipped or plunged in the Water with their naked Bodies the persons Baptized put on new white Vestments to shew the Purity of a Christian Whence the Lords day after Easter which Easter was their chief time of Baptizing was called Dominica in Albis the Lords day in White Mr. Leighs Annotations on the New Testament tell you those expressions of putting on the Lord Jesus and putting off the Old Man have allusion to the Garments Peter Martyr speaks in his Answer to Bishop Hoopers Letter The Defenders of this Ceremony may pretend some honest and just signification and Zepperus himself though no Friend to the Sign of the Cross in the Baptismal Office as Mr. Sprint tells us in his Cassander Anglicanus speaking of the Papists saith thus We read nothing of the Superstitious Habits in the Monuments of Antiquity except only of the White Vesture Qua usi sunt sine superstitione in signum Commone factionem honestatis vitae So that if it were a significative Ceremony as it is not in the Church of Englands use of it yet in their judgments the use of it might be innocent Bishop Taylors Ductor Dubitantium p. 668. Great Reason have we to honour the Wisdom of the Church of England which hath in all her Offices retained but one Ritual or Ceremony that is not of Divine Ordinance or Apostolical Practice and that is the Cross at Baptism Which though it be a significant Ceremony and of no other use yet as it is a compliance with the Antient Church so is it very innocent in it self and being one alone is not troublesome or burthensome Archbishop Whitgift said the Surplice was not enjoyned as a significant Ceremony The Canon about the Surplice mentioneth nothing of using it for signification of purity or unspotted innocency We do not wear it as monitory or instructive to keep the inner man pure and clean but as a Garment of use in the Antient Church and transmitted down from them to us and retained at our Reformation And some urge it to be decent and no ways