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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76542	The mystery of phanaticism. Or, The artifices of dissenters to support their schism· Together with the evil and danger of them. Set forth in several letters to a friend. Wherein is made appear, that nothing but the subtilty and cunning of their teachers, doth now hinder the people from conformity. By a divine of the Church of England.	A. B.; Taylor, William, fl. 1698.	1698 (1698)	Wing B23A; ESTC R208943	49,991	144

this is to preserve and propagate the Schism is very easy to imagine Again By this device the Dissenters can shift off all the blame of the Divisions from themselves and lay them at others doors which is indeed a great piece of Art and stands them in good stead for if they are charged with the danger and evil consequents of our unchristian Divisions and Separations they presently throw off all the guilt of them from themselves and lay it upon the Impositions they good men are in no fault but they who have made the yoke of Conformity intolerable by laying too much upon the backs of their weak Brethren and making the Burthen too heavy for their tender Consciences to bear by this Artifice they seek cunningly to discharge themselves of all the troubles and commotions in these Kingdoms which they put not upon their own stubbornness and disobedience to good Laws which is the true cause of them but upon their Governors for Imposing upon them and making the yoke of Government too heavy and hard to be born But what are those Laws which they fix this odious brand upon and call by the nick-name of Impositions Why they are the good Orders and Constitutions of the Church appointed only for the external Reverence and Decency of Divine Worship 't is the Liturgy and Discipline of the Church that must go under this infamous Character to keep their Followers from all due Submission and Obedience to them And as the first Enemies of Christianity arrayed the ancient Christians in Bear-Skins and Goat-Skins that they might be the more worried and baited by the Multitude so have the Architects of Schism put this vile Title on wholesome Orders to make them the more hated and abhorred by the People Hence we read That when King Charles the First out of a Pious Zeal for the Unity and Uniformity of all the Churches in his Dominions Ordered a Liturgy to be Composed and Used in the Church of Scotland which was no more than hath been practised in all Christian Churches and well enough became a Christian Prince to do What loud out-cries against Impositions were raised by some Turbulent and Factious Spirits in that Kingdom Who thereupon brake out in an unnatural War and Rebellion against their Lawfull Sovereign yea and had the Impudence too to charge all that Blood upon that Pious Prince which was wickedly shed by those Impious Traytors By which we plainly see the mischief of this Device And though abundantly enough hath been written by our own and Foreign Divines to take off this false Imputation yet the cry must still go on to continue and propagate the Schism But what is it that makes the Burthen of Impositions as they call them so heavy Why First 'T is the giving of Assent and Consent to all that is contain'd in and prescrib'd by the Book of Common-Prayer This they are continually buzzing in the Ears of the People though they are no way concern'd in it and so fright them from the Communion of the Church by their feigned and imaginary Scare-Crows for this is no where required of them and consequently there can be no reason of frighting them with this Bugbear but only to keep them from the publick Worship The Minister indeed who is to offer up the publick Prayers of the Church is required to give his Assent to them And can any thing be more reasonable than that he that is called to this Office should be satisfied in the Soundness of the publick Devotion Is it fit that any should Officiate this way who doubts of the Truth or Usefulness of the publick Service Must not this occasion great Coldness and Hypocrisie in the Worship of God If they think the serving of God by the Common-Prayer be a Service pleasing unto him Why can they not Assent and Consent to it If they do not How can they be fit to Officiate or indeed at any time to join in the Use of it So that this if well considered will be found rather a needless Cavil than a just Exception against the prescribed Worship But 2dly The Imposing This and no Other adds to the weight of the Impositions and makes the Burthen too heavy How so Is not a standing Liturgy containing all the Offices of Religion sufficient to all the ends of Piety and Devotion Are not Peace Unity and Order best preserved by one Uniform Established way of Worship Are Men imposed upon unless they are left free to what way of Worship they please which necessarily breeds Confusion and every Evil work Of this our own sad Experience may abundantly fatisfy us and withall plainly shew the fallacy of this Artifice Now the mischief of this Device is too visible both in Church and State for the crying out upon Impositions and branding good Laws with that odious Name hath kept many from all Obedience to them In short this hath bred a contempt of Authority and involv'd whole Kingdoms in Blood and Confusion But there is another branch of this Artifice and that is The stiling the just Penalties of wholsom Laws by the hareful Name of Persecution This is a plain consequent of the former for when Men think themselves imposed upon by publick Orders and Constitutions they will soon think themselves Persecuted when they are Punished for the breach of them hence we find the Dissenters often setting up the cry of Persecution by which they would have their Governors to be thought Tyrants and themselves the Saints that suffer under them yea they compare their Condition to that of the Primitive Christians and would make the World believe that when they are punished for the breach of Unity Peace and Order they are as much persecuted as those first Christians in all their Sufferings for the Truth of Christianity But this Artifice being already fully detected I shall add no more here but refer you to it I am SIR Yours A. B. LETTER VIII SIR YOU see the Mischief of calling things by wrong Names as stiling publick Laws by the Name of Impositions and the Penalties annex'd to the Breach of them by the Name of Persecution which hath made many too careless of the one and fearless of the other I come now to A Seventh Artifice of Dissenters and that is to keep the People in Ignorance of the Nature and Danger of Schism or else to feed them with wrong Notions and Conceits of it Indeed the Romish Priests are not more studious to conceal the Corruptions of their Church than these Men are to disguise the Errors of the Conventicle This is evident in the Matter of Schism for though it be one of the greatest Sins that can be committed being a tearing in pieces the Body of Christ and as far exceeds any other Vice as rending one Limb from another is worse than a Corrupt Humour yet the People must not know so much the guilt of it must be hid from their Eyes yea it must be look'd on rather as a Duty than a

The Mystery of Phanaticism OR THE ARTIFICES OF DISSENTERS To Support their SCHISM Together with the Evil and Danger of them Set forth in several Letters to a FRIEND Wherein is made appear That nothing but the Subtilty and Cunning of their Teachers doth now hinder the People from Conformity By a Divine of the Church of England 2 Cor. 2.11 We are not ignorant of their Devices The SECOND EDITION Corrected LONDON Printed for T. Leigh at the Peacock in Fleetstreet and R. Knaplock at the Angel and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1698. THE PREFACE THE DISSENTING Cause being in a great measure deserted in Point of Argument is now merely upheld by Artifice and what it wants of Reason and Truth is supplied by Subtilty and Cunning And because the Discovery hereof may help to undeceive and open the Eyes of some well-meaning but unwary People it may not be altogether an unprofitable Task to lay open these Devices that they may the better see how they are gull'd and be the more aware of the Imposture Truth we know is willing to be seen with open Face and hath that Native Beauty and Lustre that needs no Paint or Varnish to recommend it But Error hath so foul and ugly a Complexion that makes it need and covet a Vizor to hide its Deformity and can only be set forth by False and Artificial Colours We read of some mens Works that they cannot bear the Light and therefore come not to it lest their deeds should be reproved Joh. 3.20 Such as these do but act a Part in Religion and only play the Zealous and Devout and are indeed to be shunn'd and detested of all Men as the worst of Impostors for they at once mock God and deceive the People and prostitute the Best Things to the worst and vilest Purposes And that too many such there are our unhappy Age can sadly testifie For may we not daily see the Sons of Craft acting under various Disguises and wheedling the People with their Pious Frauds Do they not work upon the Weakness of some the Wilfulness of others and the Discontents of all to serve their own Ends upon them And like Spiritual Mountebanks cry up their Infallible Medicines for the Cure of Souls merely to draw in and deceive the unthinking Multitude They are sufficiently acquainted both with the Ignorance and the Headiness of the Vulgar and apply themselves to them accordingly following that known Rule Si populus vult decipi decipiatur With this untemper'd Mortar do the Architects of Schism build their Babel laying Hay and Stubble upon the Foundation of Christianity which they at the same time undermine by their Hollowness and Hypocrisie Our Blessed Saviour forewarned his Followers of such false Teachers that should come to them in sheeps cloathing Mat. 7.15 that is with soft and smooth Pretences but inwardly were ravening wolves dividing the Flock that they may the more easily devour them and making a Prey of them whom they pretend to feed These he afterward describ'd by their divided Dialect Matt. 24.23 26 one saying Lo here is Christ and another there And when things come to this pass that one saith Behold he is in the field another he is in the secret chambers a third in the Conventicle 't is time to hearken to our Saviour's Advice Believe them not and go not after them The Apostle likewise foretold of such Seducers that would arise in the latter days Acts. 20.29 30 speaking perverse things to draw disciples after them Describing them sometimes by their despising dominions Jude v. 8. 2 Tim. 3.6 and speaking evil of dignities At other times more plainly pointing at them by their creeping into houses and leading captive silly women laden with divers lusts thus beguiling the Weaker Sex who being lead more by their Passions than Reason are more easily seduc'd by them And therefore we are exhorted Rom. 16.17 To mark them that cause divisions and avoid them for they serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and with good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple And as Christ and his Apostles have thus forewarned us of false Teachers who by their subtle Insinuations would if it were possible deceive the very elect so have they foretold the Giddiness and Instability of some among the People who would hearken too much to their false Insinuations and be easily deluded by them These are described by their Vnwillingness to hear and endure sound doctrine 1 Tim. 4.3 and heaping to themselves teachers having itching ears by which means they would turn from the truth and be turned unto Fables Both these Predictions are unhappily fulfilled in our Days which affords too many sad Instances both of the cunning Craftiness of some who lie in wait to deceive and the too great Easiness and Willingness of others to be deceived by them So that we are certainly fallen into those perilous Times in which the Apostle foretold that men should be lovers of themselves 2 Tim. 3.1 2 c. traytors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof of whom he wills all wise men to beware and to turn from them Indeed there hath been no Age since the Apostles wholly free from Schismaticks and Impostors but perhaps none ever afforded such Swarms of them as our unhappy days in which like the Flies of Egypt they are still buzzing in the ears of the people and like the Frogs croaking in all corners of the Land It will not therefore be amiss to expose to Publick View the Frauds and Fallacies of false Teachers to lay open the Evil and Danger of them that if we cannot wholly cure the Schism we may preserve as many as possible from the Contagion of it Farewell The CONTENTS Letter I. THeir great Zeal in making Proselytes Page 1 Letter II. Their pretence to greater Light and Knowledge than other men p. 11 Letter III. Their pretence to greater Strictness and Sanctity than other men p. 22 Letter IV. Their pretence to Purer Ordinances and a more Spiritual way of Worship p. 32 Letter V. Of their crying up Peace and Vnity tho' all their Actions tend to destroy and undermine them p. 42 Letter VI. Their Censuring the Lives and Actions of those within the Church the better to commend theirs who Dissent from it p. 51 Letter VII Of their calling the wise Injunctions of our Superiors by the odious Name of Impositions p. 62 Letter VIII Of their keeping the People in Ignorance of the Nature and Danger of Schism p. 70 Letter IX Of their Misinterpreting and Wresting the Scriptures to serve their own purpose p. 81 Letter X. Their confining the Offices of Kindness and Charity to those of their own Sect p. 89 Letter XI Their working upon the Weakness the Wilfulness and Discontents of the People to serve their own Ends upon them p. 97 Letter XII