Title to it by Eating Flesh on Fasting-days 'T is the same thing as to the Place Command them to Church They will tell you There is no Inherent Holiness in the Walls The Hearts of the Saints are the Temples of the Lord Is not God to be found in a Parlour as well as in a Steeple-house Finally What have they to say for all This But that This is One Man's Judgment That Another's This or That may be indifferent to you but not to me To conclude What One Man urges All may and in All Cases as well as in Any Which has brought us once again to an indeterminable Liberty The last Resort of all the Champions of your Cause if they be followed home Now if you can assign any other Arbitrator of this Matter then the Civil Power do it If you cannot let us proceed N. C. Go forward then SECT IV. Thâ—… BOUNDS of Toleration And the Error of making Fundamentals and Non-Fundamentals to be the Measure of it C. IN the Question of Toleration says a Learned Prelate the Foundation of Faith Good Life and Government is to be secured Wherein is comprised a Provision and Care that we may live as Christians toward God As Members of a Community toward one another and as Loyal Subjects toward our Sovereign If you 'l take This for the Standard of your Toleration we have no more to do but to apply Matters in Controversie to the Rules of Christianity Good Manners and Government and to entertein or reject all Pretensions thereafter as we find them Agreeable or Repugnant to Religion Morality and Society N. C. Uery well stated truly I think C. All the Danger is the falling to pieces again when we come to bring This and That to the Test. For if we differ at last upon the Application of Particular Points and Actions to the General Heads of Faith and Government already laid down and agreed upon We shall yet lose our selves in Uncertainty and Confusion N. C. There will be no fear of That if we tye up our selves to Fundamentals C. What do you mean by Fundamentals N. C. There are Fundamentals of Faith that bind Us as we are Christians And there are Fundamentals of Practice that oblige us as we are Members of a Community From These Fundamentals there lies no Appeal to Conscience In other Matters which we look upon as Non-Fundamental we think it reasonable to Desire a Toleration C. This Distinction has a fair Appearance but there is no trusting to it First it proposes a thing neither Practicable nor Reasonable which is The Uniting of all People under one Common Bond of Fundamentals What possibility is there of attaining such an Agreement among so many Insuperable Diversities of Judgment as reign in Mankind Insomuch that what is a Fundamental Truth to One is a Fundamental Error to Another and Every Man is ready to abide the Faggot for his own Opinion It is also very unreasonable to exact it God Almighty does not require the same Fundamentals from all Men alike But Much from Him to whom Much is given and Little from Him to whom Little And from All according to their differing Degrees and Measures of Grace and Knowledg You will likewise find your self under great Uncertainty about the Stating of your Fundamentals For divers Circumstances of Little or No value in Themselves become Fundamental in respect of their Consequences As for Instance That Christ died for Sinners I presume shall be one Article of your Faith But whether upon Mount Calvary or some other part of the Neighbourhood seems of no great Moment as to the Main of Our Salvation And yet he that denies that Our Saviour suffer'd upon Mount Calvary puts as great an Affront upon the Veracity of the Holy Ghost in the Gospel as He which denies that he suffer'd upon the Cross. N. C. I give it for Granted that from some more is required from others less In proportion to their Differing Gifts and Graces But then there are some Principles so Essential to Christianity and so clear in Themselves as to admit of no Dispute C. Saving That Grand Foundation of Our Faith that Iesus Christ is come in the Flesh and that Whosoever confesses that Iesus Christ is the Son of God God dwelleth in Him and He in God Saving I say That Radical Principle which if we disbelieve we are no longer Christians There is scarce One Point that has not been subjected to a Controversie If you reduce your Fundamentals to This Scantling Your Creed will lie in a very Narrow Compass But your Toleration will be Large Enough if you are at Liberty for the rest Touching the Clearness of them I do not comprehend it For Supernatural Truths hold no Proportion at all with the Ordinary Motions of Humane Reason If They be so clear Tell us What they are Where we shall look for them and How we shall know them when we have found them N C. Where should we look for the Foundation of our Faith but in the New-Testament of Jesus Christ C. But still we do not all read the Bible with the same Spectacles To draw to an Issue Generals conclude nothing so long as we are left at Freedom to wrangle about Particulars and you will find much surer footing upon the Foundations of Establish'd Law then upon the Whimseys of Popular Speculation To my thinking the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England as it is settled by Acts of Parliament with other Legal Constitutions for the Peace and Order of the Government are every whit as competent a Provision for the Good of the Publique as your new Fundamentals N. C. The Point is not as you seem to understand it a Competition between Our Fundamentals of Notion and Yours of Law But an Inquiry concerning the Limits of a Iustistable Toleration C. Very Good And you refer us to your Distinction of Fundamentals and Non-Fundamentals as to a Rule how far we are at Liberty and wherein we are Bounded But This will not do the work and I have spent the more words about it because I find This Distinction the Ordinary Retreat of Your Party The Truth of it is there 's not One of a Hundred of you but takes This Question by the wrong Handle You make it a Question of Conscience and Religion What may be Tolerated and what not Whereas the thing falls properly under a Consideration of State In Matters not to be Tolerated as in Articles of Religion The Magistrate is positively bound up In other Cases He may chuse whether he will Tolerate or Restrain That is to say with a perpetual Regard to the Qâ—…iet and Security of the Publique Where Particulars may be relieved without Inconvenience to Communities it is well But otherwise Private Consciences weigh little in the Scale against Political Societies And Toleration is only so far allowable as it complies with the Necessities and Ends of Government N. C. That is to say according to your first
Candour which I expected from You. But the Main Stress of your Argument lies against the Whole Party of the Non-Conformists And in effect against any Toleration at all with little or no Regard to those Accommodable Points that might have brought the Matter in Difference to some sort of Composure C. It is very True That I am utterly against Tolerating the Whole Party as a Thing of Certain Inconvenience to Religion and Government and to the Ruine no less of your selves then of the Publique Will Presbytery ever satisfie the Independents Conscience Or will Liberty any better suit with the Presbyterians And yet you could both of you joyn with the Directory against the Common Prayer with the Authority of the Pretended Assembly against That of the Church wherein you have given Proof to the World that you were not United upon any Consideration of Conscience but with a Design upon a Common Booty Ye overturn'd the Government Divided the Spoil Enrich't your selves Embroiled every thing and Settled Nothing And yet in those Days there was no Act of Uniformity to hinder you This is enough to make Evident that the Non-Conformists are Intolerable in Conjunction But if you think fit to make a Tryal how far any sort of them may agree with our Standard of Toleration Apart Plead you the Cause of the Presbyterians and let your Brother Independent here that has been a Witness to our whole Debate take up the Cudgels for his own Party Not forgetting that In the Question of TOLERATION the Foundation of FAITH GOOD LIFE and GOVERNMENT is to be Secur'd N. C. According to what Latitude are we to understand that which you call the Foundation of FAITH C. According to the Latitude of the APOSTLES CREED wherein are conteined All the Articles of Simple Faith which are Necessary to be Explicitly Believed And whatsoever was found by Them to be Necessary and Sufficient to Salvation continues so still and ought to be so Received and Acknowledged by Us without insisting upon Deductions and Consequences as Points of Prime and Fundamental Necessity though Occasionally and Obliquely they become Necessary too This is the Word of Faith which we Preach that if thou shalt Confess with thy Mouth the Lord Iesus and shalt believe in thy Heart that God hath raised him from the Dead thou shalt be saved Here 's the Foundation of FAITH And in That of GOOD LIFE respect is to be had to Morality that nothing be Tolerated to the Encouragement of Loosness Sensuality and Dissolution of Manners As there is an Absolute Necessity of Providing against Doctrines and Opinions of this Quality so I think there will be no great Difficulty either of Discovering or of Suppressing them For they are of a Condition so Notorious that they ly open to all People and then so Odious they are by reason of the Gross Impiety and Scandal that they have no Friends upon the Face of the Earth for their own sakes I mean but the profest Enemies Christianity and Nature It is another Case when they are made use of in Subserviency to a Faction So that you may save your selves the Trouble of Catechising your Brethren upon These two Points and rather spend your Time upon the remaining Caution for Securing the Government which will be much more to Our Purpose For the Matter we are now upon is a Question rather of Policy then of Religion Toleration Discuss'd BETWIXT A PRESBYTERIAN AND AN INDEPENDENT SECT XXV An Enquiry upon a Short and Impartial Survey of the Rise Progress and Issue of the War raised by the Two Houses in 1641. Whether were more Criminal The PRESBYTERIANS or the INDEPENDENTS Presb. IN all our Arguments and Pleas for Toleration we are still hit in the Teeth as in Bar to our Demands with Dangerous Practises and Opinions The Murther of the Late King The Over-turning of the Government and that we have a mind to serve the Son as we did the Father Now forasmuch as the Fact is undeniable and truly the Exception but Reasonable as to those that did it We are first to clear our selves of that Execrable Fact wherein I am content to become an Undertaker for the Presbyterians And to speak afterward to the Iustification of our Principles and Opinions Indep Give me leave then to Plead the Cause of the Independents and to observe to you in the first place that the Scotch Non-Conformists under King Iames were Totally Presbyterian and so were the English Puritans under Queen Elizabeth Presb. Were the Anabaptists Familists and Brownists that started up in Those Days Presbyterians Indep Some Dutch Anabaptists came over indeed in 1560 but one Proclamation scatter'd them Immediately And then for the Familists and Brownists you speak of Alas They gave the Executioner more Trouble then the Government and were Supprest as soon as Detected But the Formal and United Confederacy was still Presbyterian and you must overthrow all the Memorials and Records of Those Times to gainsay it Briesly If you look forward you will find the Presbyterians again under King Iames at Hampton Court The Presbyterians again in the several Parliaments under King Charles the First and so the same Hand still to the beginning of the Scottish Broils in 1637. which was but the Midwifry of the Plot they had been so long a Hammering Presb. You make nothing it seems of the Turbulent Independents that went away to New England Holland and other Parts beyond the Seas with all the Clamour and â—…ancour Imaginable against the Government Indep Not to Justifie them in their Clamour I must yet recommend their Departure as a fair Testimony that they withdrew upon Conscience For by this Secession they put themselves out of Condition to carry on a Faction Whereas The Presbyterians that had a further Design in Prospect stood their Ground watch'd their Advantages and gain'd their End Presb. All this is but Talk without Proof Indep It will be granted I suppose that the Scottish Tumults in 1637. and the Râ—…bel ion upon the neck of them in 1638 were advanc'd upon a Presbyterian accompt and consequently that Those were of the same Leven that Voted them Good Subjects and Money for their peins and Adopted them their DEAR BRETHREN for so doing Were not the Principals of the Faction in the Long Parliament every Man of them Presbyterian Were not the Army and Assâ—…mbly Presbyterian And all their Votes Actions and Conclusions Influenc'd accordingly Who were they that Invited the Scots into England the Second time Nov 7. 164â—… That Imposed the Covenant Prosecuted the War under the Countenance of it and made it the Test of Discrimination betwixt the Malignant and Well affected Parties That Settled the Directory Nay the Presbytery it self Were not These Presbyterians Who were they but Presbyterians that stripp't the King of his Regalities and Revenues Commission'd an Army against him Fought him Pursu'd him and in fine brought him to utter Ruine Presb. You will find the Late King of another
Wicked Governour But that the Universality of the People may Lawfully do it I think no Body questions Fixum Ratúmque habeatur Populi semper esse debere Supremam Majestatem P. 9. VII The People may enter into a Covenant for Reformation without the Consent of the Chief Magistrate There is much Sin in making a Covenant on Sinful Grounds and there is more Sin in Keeping it But when the Preservation of true Religion and the Vindication of Just Liberties meet in the Ground Ye may Swear and not Repent Yea if Ye Swear Ye must not Repent P. 18. Not only is That Covenant which God hath made with Us founded in the Blood of Christ but That also which We make with God P. 33. The Breach of the National Covenant is a Greater Sin then a Sin against a Commandment or against an Ordinance 158. A Sin of so high a Nature that God cannot in Honour but be avenged upon 't 159. VIII RELIGION may be Propagated by the SWORD The Question in England is Whether Christ or Anti-Christ shall be Lord or King Go on therefore Couragiously Never can ye lay out your Blood in such a Quarrel Christ shed all his Blood to save You from Hell Venture All Yours to set Him upon his Throne P. 23. Cursed be he that withholdeth his Sword from Blood that spares when God saith Strike that suffers those to escape whom God has appointed to Destruction P. 24. In the 10 of Numbers you shall read that there were Two Silver Trumpets and as there were Priests appointed for the Convocation of their Assemblies so there were Priests to sound the Silver Trumpets to Proclaim the War And likewise in the 20 of Deuteronomy you shall find there that when the Children of Israel would go out to War the Sons of Levi one of the Priests was to make a Speech to Encourage them And certainly if this were the Way of God in the Old Testament certainly much more in such a Cause as This in which Cause Religion is so entwin'd and indeed so enterlac'd that Religion and This Cause are like Hippocrates his Twins they must live and dye together You have vowed in This Covenant to Assist the Forces raised by the Parliament according to your Power and Vocation and not to Assist the Forces raised by the King neither Directly nor Indirectly P. 45. Now let me exhort you not only to chuse to serve God and to serve his Church and his Cause in this most Iust Defensive War c. 46. In vain shall you in your Fasts with Josua ly on your Faces unless you lay your Achans on their Backs In vain are the High Praises of God in your Mouthes without a Two-edged Sword in your Hands P. 31. The Execution of Iudgment is the Lords Work and they shall be Cursed that do it Negligently and Cursed shall they be that keep back their Sword from Blood in this Cause You know the Story of Gods Message unto Ahab for letting Benhadad go upon Composition P. 26. Whensoever you shall behold the hand of God in the Fall of Babylon say â—…rue Here is a Babylonish Priest crying out Alas Alas My Living I have Wife and Children to Maintein I but all this is to perform the Iudgment of the Lord. P. 30. Though as Little Ones they call for Pitty yet as Babylonish they call for Iustice even to Blood IX There lies an Appeal from the Letter of the Law to the EQUITY of it And from the Law Written to the Law of NATURE The Commander going against the EQUITY of the Law gives Liberty to the Commanded to refuse Obedience to the Letter of it There is a Court of Necessity no less then a Court of Justice and the Fundamental Laws must then speak and it is with a People in this Extremity as if they had no Ruler P. 113. The People have given the Politique Power to the King and the NATURAL Power they Reserve to Themselves 151. All Humane Laws and Constitutions are made with Knees to bend to the Law of NATURE and NECESSITY P. 85. Here is more then enough said already and to go on as far as the Matter would carry us there would be no End on 't You are now at â—…berty either to deny These to be the Positions of the Non-Conâ—… or to justifie the Positions themselves or to lay down your Plea for Toleration upon the Innocency of their Principles N. C. I am no Friend to These Positions Neither can I yet quit my Claiâ—… unless you make it out that These are the Principles of the Party which I take to be only the Errours of Individuals C. Shew me the Party and let me alone to prove These to be Their Principles But if you will not acknowledge a Party they are as you say but the Errours of Individuals though all the Non-Conformists in the Three Kingdoms should own them under their Hands You call your selves Non-Confermists and so were they that both began and carried on the Late War Great Apprehensions they had of the Designs of the Popish Party So have you Mightily offended they were at the Immoderate Power of the Bishops You again Petitioners for the taking away such Oppressions in Religion Church Government and Discipline as had been brought in and Fomented by them Your very Picture still And for Uniting all such together as joyn in the same Fundamental Truths against the Papists â—…hy removing some Oppressions and Unnecessary Ceremonies by which Divers weak Consciences have been scrupled and seem to be divided from the rest The very Platform of your Comprehension Thus far You march Hand in Hand I need not tell you what followed upon 't but Your Parts are so much alike that it looks as if We were now again upon the first Seene of the same Tragedy For a Conclusion Conformity or In-Conformity seem'd at first to be the Sum of the Question and the Discipline of the Church was made the Ground of the Quarrel The Ruâ—…ing Party in the Pretended Parliament were Non-Conformists The Army Non-Conformists The Preâ—…ended Assembly of Divines were Non Conformists The City-Ministers and Lecturers Non-Conformists And by the Solâ—…mn League and Covenant every Man that took it was to be a Non-Conformist upon pain of Damnation Now take Your Choice since Non-Conformists you are Whether you 'l Range your selves under the Parliament Your Army Your Assembly Your City-Ministers Or Your Solemn League and Covenant And let me bear the Blame if I make it not as clear as the Day That the Principles charg'd upon You are the Principles of Your Party As to your PRACTISES They haue been suitable to your POSITIONS and All those Violences have been Exercised upon the Government that were first Dictated in the Pulpit The Lawfulness of Popular Insurrections Of Deposing and Putting Kings to Death under the Cloak of Reformation has been vented as the Doctrine of Iesus Christ even
is Their Enemy too because it keeps them in Awe that they dare not Steal It is the same Case with Traytors Felons Vagabonds and all Criminals And so it is with Factions and Associated Parties We might set up This Government or This Church and We T'other say they if it were not for Those Accursed Laws that make it Death to Endeavour such an Alteration This is a True and Naked Accompt of the Peoples Thoughts and Reasonings in the Point of Liberty and Obedience and a sufficient Proof of their INCLINATION not against This or That but against any Establishment It being the main End of Government to secure the Community against the Encroachments and Attempts of Particulars Though to the very great Damage and Ruine many times of Private Persons and Parties If you be satisfied now that the People do not Naturally love Government you need not doubt but they will judge it their INTEREST to Remove it Every Male-Content enterteining himself with hopes of mending his Condition upon the Change But Alas This is not an Undertaking for Single Persons Small Parties or Petty Factions by Themselves apart but some Common Medium must be found out for the Uniting of them All which indeed is amply provided for in the Project of Liberty of Conscience and does not only facilitate the Work by drawing the Disaffected into a Body but it does also Countenance and Encourage it by Authorising the Separation N. C. But to Me it seems on the Contrary that an Indulgence would set the Peoples Minds at Liberty from Fears and Contrivances for the avoidance of Impendent Dangers and encourage them to engage the Utmost of their Endeavours and Abilities in the Businesses of Peace and Security C. As to the Security and Peace of the Publique if enough be not already said you may repair to the History of our late Broils for the rest Where you will also find the Condition of Particulars to have been every jote as Distracted and Unquiet in proportion as That of the Government You are to expect Schisms in Corporations Companies Families as well as in Religious Congregations Divisions as well betwixt Parents and Children Masters and Servants as betwixt Rulers and Subjects Feuds betwixt Man and Wife betwixt Brethren Kinred Friends and all these Differences variously Influenced according to the Benignity or Malignity of their Divided Opinions Nor will it be any wonder upon admittance of This Liberty to have as many Religions in a House as Persons where the Husband draws one way the Wife another and the Rest of the Family have Their ways by Themselves too And This goes on to the utter Extermination of Order Duty and Quiet till they have throughly wearied themselves with Tossing and Tumbling from one Sect or Profession to another And then when they are at their Wits End they commonly take up in the Church of Rome with an Implicite Faith in the Conclusion Now if what I have said may be of force sufficient to prove that Liberty of Conscience is destructive both of Religion and Government and of the Peace of the Kingdom as well Private as Publique I cannot see how it should advance us as is earnestly suggested in the Business of Trade and Plenty N. C. We shall never have a Flourishing Trade without it Because the Pressure in these things falls generally more upon the Trading sort of Men then any in the Nation We may see it in the Great City and in all Corporations It makes many give over Trading and Retire It makes others remove into Holland and other Forreign Parts as it did heretofore from Norwich to the Irrecoverable Prejudice of our Cloathing Trade upon the like Occasion And it certainly prevents all Protestant Strangers to come to Live and Trade among us C. The Pressure you say falls most upon TRADERS I answer that you begin with a Non Constat for the Thing it self does not appear And then you make Traders more Scrupulous then the rest of the Nation who are not Generally understood to be more Conscientious as having divers Temptations in the way of their Employments to strein a Point of Conscience now and then and they are but Men as well as their Neighbours If your Observation be Right We may thank the Nonconforming Ministers who have had the handling of them Your urging that want of Liberty makes many give over Trading and Retire does not agree with their Observation that place their Wonder on the other side that so many Hold considering the Circumstances of a long and Expensive War with the French and Dutch The most Expensive that ever this Kingdom undertook And Two of the most dreadful and destroying Iudgments that ever Almighty God laid upon this Nation i. e. Pestilence and Fire one upon the neck of another You object the Removal of others into Holland as formerly Indeed it is not for the Credit of your Cause to mind us of those that formerly left us Take the Peins to read Bayly's Disswasive Pa. 75. and there you shall see what Work they made in Holland Even such that Peters himself was scandalized at it quitted his Congregation and went to New-England Bridg Sympson and Ward renounc'd their English Ordination and took Ordination again from the People The People after this deposed Mr. Ward and the Schism betwixt Sympson's Church and Bridg his was so fierce that their Ministers were fain to quit their Stations and the Dutch Magistrate forc'd to interpose the Civil Authority to quiet them In New England their Humour and Behaviour not much Better according to the Report of the same Author Pag. 60 61. Of Forty Thousand Souls not a Third Part would be of any Church and such Heresies started as a Man would tremble to Recite If only such as These forsake us the Land has a good Riddance Further If it was to the Prejudice of our Cloathing Trade This Separation Who can help it It was Their Fault to betray the Interest of their Country by teaching the Mystery to Forreigners but no blame at all can be reflected upon the Government for Refusing Toleration to such Lawless and Unruly Libertines Now as to the hindring of Protestant Strangers from coming over to us and Trading with us It is a clear Mistake to imagine the Church of England to be such a Bugbear to those of the Reformation abroad as is pretended Which shall hereafter be made appear It is not the Act of Uniformity that hinders Strangers but the want of an Act of Endenisation which perchance the Wisdom of future Times will find convenient for the Supply and Repair of that Depopulation which is brought upon us by our Colonies But to come to an Issue How was it with Trade when Conscience took the full Swinge It brought on a War and so it must again or a Standing Army to prevent it How many Families were ruin'd on the one side with pure Benevolence to the Cause in Contributions and Enterteinments to the Devourers of Widows
Convention Look now a little into the Scotch Affairs and observe the Growth of the Non-Conformists Demands from one thing to another till in the End by virtue of what the King Granted them they possest themselves of all the Rest. In their Tumults says his Majesty they complein'd only of the Service Book In their Petition exhibited to the Counsel they complein'd of the Service-Book and Canons In their Covenant they complein of and Abjure the Five Articles of Perth although Establish't first by a General Assembly and Then by Parliament After This they complein of the High Commission And Then of Prelates Sitting in Civil Judicatories Hereupon His Majesty Commissions Marquis Hamilton with full Power and Authority to Conclude and Determine all such Things as should be found for the Good Quietness and Peace of that Kingdom Directing him also to take the mildest Course that might be for the Calming of those Commotions And what Effect had this Peaceable Inclination of His Majesty upon the Covenanters but to blow them up into more Seditious and bolder Practises against the King's Authority and the Publique Peace They pursue their Demands and Clamour for a Free General Assembly and a Parliament His Majesty gives them all their Askings Indicts a Free General Assembly and a Parliament Dischâ—…rges the Service-Book the Canons High-Commission The urâ—…ing of the Five Articles of Perth Commands the Subscribing of the Confession of Faith and the Band thereto annexed in the very Form which they pretended to Impose And offers them an Act of Indemnity for what was past In all which Condescentions the King's Patience and Mercy only served to heighten and confirm those Men in their Undertaking and to expose his Royal Dignity to Contempt In the conclusion the King had so far gratified their Importunities that they had nothing left to Quarrel upon but His Majesties refusal to Abolish Episcopacy and to admit the Authority of their Lay-Elders From hence they brake out into open Rebellion and when the King had them directly at his Mercy upon the Interview of the two Armies near Berwick such was his Tenderness that upon their Supplication for a Treaty he Trusted them again and Concluded a Pacification whereof the Covenanters observ'd not so much as One Article Upon his Return to London His Majesty as is elswhere observed passes the Triennial Bill Abolishes the Star-Chamber and High Commission Court Passes an Act for the Continuance of the Parliament Not to insist upon the several other Concessions concerning Ship-money Forests and Stannary Courts Tunnage and Poundage Knighthood c. Now in Requital of these Benefits the Faction Claps up and Prosecutes his Majesties Friends Prefers and Enlarges his Enemies Rewards the Scots Entertains their Commissioners Votes Them their Dear Brethren for Invading Us Calls in all Books and Proclamations against them They take away the Bishops Votes Impose a Protestation upon the People Take away the Earl of Strafford's Life Charge Twelve of the Bishops with Treason Declare the King's Proclamations to be False Scandalous and Illegal Keep his Majesty out of his own Towns and Seize his Arms and Ammunition They present Him with Nineteen Propositions for the Resignation of his Royal Authority They Vote a General and Raise an Army against him They Usurp the Power of the Militia and give the King Battel Levy Moneys and Declare the Queen Guilty of Treason After all These Usurpations upon the Civil Power They are put to 't to bring the Cause of Religion once again upon the Stage They enter into a Covenant and call in the Scots again They Abolish the Common-Prayer secure the Person of the King Share the Revenues of the Church and Crown They Sequester Banish and Imprison his Majesties Adherents and in the Conclusion Sell Depose and Murder their Soveraign This was the Fruit of that Pious and Unfortunate Prince his Clemency and Indulgence Now to bring the Instance home to the present Times What could be more Pious Gracious or Obliging then His Majesties Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs in Favour of the Non-Conformists All that was possible for the King to do in Consistence with Conscience Honour and the Peace of his Dominions His Majesty has therein given them a frank Assurance of with their Lives and Estates over and above in the Act of Oblivion And are they one jote the Quieter for all This No but the Worse for no sooner was the King's Tenderness in That Particular made Publique but the Generality even of those that had lately Entred into a Regular and Dutiful Compliance with the Orders of the Church started into a new Revolt which proves sufficiently the Benefit and Necessity of a strict Rule and the hazzard of a Toleration For rather then abide the Penalty of the Act they could Conform but upon the least Glimpse of a Dispensation they Relâ—…pse into a Schism Neither do I find that they were less Troublesom before the Act of Uniformity when they Preach'd at Randome then they have been since Nor to say the Truth that they have much more Cause of Compleint Now then they had Then For what are they the worse for a Penalty that is never Executed But if you will have a True Measure of their Moderation and Good Nature I pray'e take notice of their Proceedings upon His Majesties Commission for the Review of the Book of Common-Prayer We will appoint says His Majesty in his Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs an Equal Number of Learned Divines of Both Perswasions to Review the same and to make such ALTERATIONS as shall be thought most NECESSARY So that the Alterations were to be agreed upon by BOTH PARTIES and found likewise to be NECESSARY Now instead of Alterations joyntly agreed upon They Publish a Complete Liturgy of their own indeed a New Directory but under the Title of The REFORMATION of the Liturgie which in all their Books signifies ABOLITION Give me the favour next to observe upon some of their NECESSARY Alterations They have turn'd WEDDED Wife into MARRIED DOEST THOU Believe into DO YOU Believe All this I STEDFASTLY Believe into All this I UNFEIGNEDLY Believe These are some of the Important Scruples that are cast into the Balance against the Unity of the Church and the Peace of the Kingdom What is This but to make Sport with Authority and Conscience Laws must be Suspended Princes Vilified and Importun'd because forsooth the Godly Party may not be Govern'd by Laws of their own making Nay by Words of their own chusing too So that we are like to have a Schism for Syllables as well as for Ceremonies For what is the Difference betwixt WEDDED and MARRIED but that the One wears the Stamp of the Law-Makers and the Other of the Law-Menders Is it not now evident that they are the worse for good usage And that they have ever been so You see the Effects of keeping to a Rule in Queen Elizabeth and King Iames And we have since felt to our Cost
of a Religious Education C. If This be All never Trouble your selves for many an honest Man has out-liv'd more then this comes to In short There 's a huge Clamour but God knows with little Reason Some Particulars will possibly suffer for want of a Toleration and who are They but the Profest Opposers of the Law And on the Other side All the Friends of the Government will suffer by it If you would see the Event of Granting what you ask Turn but your Face toward 41 and then Blush and Repent Besides You 're not aware that in Contesting with the Law you Quarrel with your self THERE' 's YOUR OWN VOTE AGAINST YOU and all this Muttering is no other then your Factious Will wrangling with your Political Consent And yet I say Stick to your Conscience Let us now put the Case of a Real Distance betwixt This Act and your Conscience How will you divide your Duty N. C. I 'le follow your Advice and stick to my Conscience C. Now change Hands and make your self the Supreme Magistrate He has a Double Conscience One that concerns Himself the Other his People What his Majesties Personal Iudgment is has been Declared Abundantly What his Prudential Iudgment may dispose Him to lies in His Royal Brest But be That as Heaven shall Order it Here 's the Partition of your Rights The King's Prerogative has nothing to do with your Conscience and your Conscience has as little to do with His Majesties Prerogative The King is Accomptable to God for the Welfare of his People and You are only Accomptable to God for the Good of your little Particular If You cannot Obey the Law Do not But abide the Penalty If the Sovereign cannot Relax the Law He 's as Free to Execute it Your Conscience requires Liberty and your Governour 's Conscience requires Order Now why you should expect that your Sovereign should bring down His Conscience to Yours when you find upon Experiment that you cannot perswade your Own to come up to His is to me a Mystery To Conclude Keep your self within your Sphere and where you cannot Consent as a Christian Submit as a Subject that We may at last hope for some Respite from the Calamities of Sedition and Schism N. C. And why not Scandal and Profaneness too For the Edge of your Severity might be directed to much better Purpose That way SECT XXIV The Church of England charges the Non-Conformists with SCHISM and the Non-Conformists charge those of the Church with SCANDAL The Matter is taken into Debate N. C. YOur Position is That no Toleration is to be admitted to the hazzard of Religion Good Life and Government Keep to That Standard and you will find that the Conformists have as little Pretense to a Toleration as their Neighbours and that the Notorious Scandal on the one side outweighs the Objected Schism on the other C. This will scarce hold if you come to be Try'd by your own Laws which make it a Matter of Scandal by Writing Preaching or otherwise to publish a Disaffection to the Present Government But Explain your self N. C. By Scandal I mean Habitual Prophaneness Sensuality Dissolution of Manners c. As by Schism I suppose you intend our Incompliances with your Church-Discipline Weigh These Two now One against the Other and do you your self hold the Balance Set up your Tavern-Clubs against our Conventicles Oppose your Combinations against God Himself to our Plots against the Government For you must not take it Ill if I tell ye that Atheism is become the Sport and Salt of your most Celebrated Enterteinments And when you have dash'd the Bible out of Countenance with the Story of the Three Grand Impostors or some such Lashing Piece of Drollery The Questioning of God's Over-ruling Wisdom by Solemn Arguments and the Placing of Fortune in the Throne of Providence is that which commonly Crowns your Conversations C. You should not charge Personal Crimes upon a Party unless you can prove them to be rationally Consequent to the Tenets and Actings of That Party Now if you can shew me any Affinity betwixt our Principles and These Impieties you say something But if you cannot The Dust of your Argument puts out your own Eyes I do not wonder I must confess to see a Nation Over-run with Atheism that has been so many Years under your Tuition or to find the Brat of a Conventicle laid at the Church-Door N. C. May not We charge Personal Extravagancies upon your Party as well as You do upon Ours C. Yes If you can prove the same Agreement against Us betwixt the Faults of the One and the Principles of the Other which we are able to justifie against You. The Episcopal Party you know stood for the King and it is undeniable that the King and Church had the same Cause and Fate It is as unquestionable on the other side that the Non-Conformists destroy'd both the One and the Other Not by Accident neither but by a Form'd and Excogitated Design wrap'd up and couch'd in the very Mystery and Foundation of the Schism Your Separation from a Communion with the Church resolving naturally into a Combination against the Entire Frame of the Government till in the End by the help of a Peinful and Well-effected Ministry the Generality of the People were Preach'd into This Division i. e. Those that could not reach the Cheat were taught to Scruple at Every Thing and Those that went along with it to make a Conscience of Nothing And this is it that has brought us to be so Pester'd with Enthusiasts and Atheists N. C. But let me tell ye again the Atheists are of the Other Party C. And let me enform you too that your Proceedings have made Atheists more ways then One First The meer Quality of your Cause has made Atheism the Interest of a great many of your Partakers who to put off the Thought of a Divine Vengeance attending them if there be a God Endeavour for their own Quiet to perswade themselves that there is no God at all Secondly The Work has been carried on under the Masque of Holiness and the most Desperate Atheist is nothing else but a Crusted Hypocrite I speak of your Religious Atheist who has This Odds of the Profane and Scoffing Wretch that he abuses God to his Face and in his own House The Great Atheists indeed are Hypocrites says Sir Francis Bacon which are ever bandling Holy Things but without Feeling so as they must needs be Cauteriz'd in the End It is Remarquable as I have elsewhere recommended to your Observation that in the Holy Scripture there are not so many Woes pronounc'd nor so many Cautions Inculcated against any sort of People as against Hypocrites You shall there find that God has given the Grace of Repentance to Persecutors Idolaters Murtherers Adulterers c. But I am mistaken if the whole Bible yields any one Instance of a CONVERTED Hypocrite Thirdly You have done more in your Practises