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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45143	A modest and peaceable inquiry into the design and nature of some of those historical mistakes that are found in Dr. Stillingfleet's preface to his Unreasonableness of separation wherein the innocency of Protestant dissenters is cleared up and vindicated from the indecent censures of the doctor / by N. B.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.; Lobb, Stephen, d. 1699.	1681 (1681)	Wing H3694; ESTC R8947	41,612	54

Council did distinguish between the Papists and Dissenters and thereby plainly discover that the Dissenters there were far from carrying on the Popish design as appears by their Letter sent to their Justices on the complaint of the Dissenters made to the Right Honourable Lords of Her Majesties Privy Council A Copy of which Letter sent from the Right Honourable the Lords of Her Majesties Council I will as I find it in a part of the Register insert AFter Our very hearty Commendations whereas we are informed that heretofore at your Assizes in your Circuit divers good Preachers and others Godly disposed have been indicted by colour of Law for things not so much against the matter and very meaning of the Law as in some shew swearving from the Letter thereof Namely for not using the Surpless resorting to Sermons in other Parishes for want at home leaving out some collects on the dayes of Preaching for using private Prayer in their houses and such like All which we suppose cometh to pass by the practice of some Informers not so well disposed in Religion as also of men returned upon great Inquest Many times such as be still in Ignorance cannot broke the Gospel and being in love with the Licence of former times cannot so well indure the present plain Teachers who by laying open their faults would draw them to a more precise and Gospel-like Life These are therefore to require you and heartily to pray you that in every sitting of your Circuit you sift and examine the affection of such Informers touching Religion and thereafter give ear to them As also to have a special regard That the Inquest at large may be Religions wise and Honest And if notwithstanding your diligence in this behalf such Jurours nevertheless creep in as by like information molest good men that yet your speech and whole proceedins against them at the Bar or elsewhere called before you may be according to their quality not watching them at bar or in the inditement with Rogues Fellons or Papists but rather giving apparent note in the Face of the Countrey what difference you hold betwixt Papists dissenting from us in the substance of Faith to God and Loyalty to our Prince and these other men which making some Conscience of these Ceremonies do yet diligently and soundly Preach true Religion and obedience to her Majesly maintaining the Common peace in themselves and in their Auditory so shall the Countrey thereby learn at the Assizes better to reverence the Gospel and love the Ministers and Professors thereof Thus promising our selves thus much at your hands we bid you heartily Farewell From c. Thus you have the sence of Q. Eli. Council and may have the like sence from our Parliament now These things being so let the Impartial Reader judge who it is that hath blasted the Reputation of the first Reformation Whether 1. Those that remained faithful to these Principles of the Martyrs and other Protestant sufferers in Q. Maries dayes or those that receeded from them 2. Those that hazarded the loss of their Liberties and Benefices for the sake of Protestant Principles or those that persecuted the Protestants when the debauched Papists were favoured by them 3. Those that would carry on the Reformation as far as Luther and Calvin and the generality of the first Reformers or those that gratified the Papists by putting a stop to so Gospel-like a procedure reviling Junius and Tremelius as German-Drunkards c. as some of the Episcopal Clergy did in Queen Elizabeths dayes 4. They who acknowledge the Church of Rome to be a true Church having a Ministry rightly i. e. Episcopally ordained when all the Reformed beyond the Seas are reproached for want of it or Those who concur with the Reformed 3. Argument The Dissenters oppose Episcopacy and Innocent Ceremonies notwithstanding their Antiquity 'T is asserted by the Dr. Pref p. 4 5. That when the People find the undoubted practices of the Ancient Church condemned as Popish and Antichristian by their Teachers they must conclude Popery to be of much greater Antiquity then really it is and when they can trace it so very near the Apostles times they will soon believe it setled by the Apostles themselves For it will be very hard to perswade any considering men that the Christian Church should degenerate so soon so unammously so universally as it must do if Episcopal Government and the use of some significant Ceremonies were any parts of that Apostacy Will it not seem strange to them that when some humane policies have preserved their first Constitution so long without any considerable Alteration that the Goverment instituted by Christ and settled by his Apostles should so soon after be changed into another kind and that so easily so insensibly that all the Christian Churches believed they had still the very same Government which the Apostles left e'm Which is a matter so incredible that those who can believe such a part of Popery should prevail so soon in the Christian Church may be brought upon the like Grounds to believe that many others did So mighty a prejudice doth the Principles of our Churches Enemies bring upon the cause of the Reformation I Answer There are these things to be distinctly considered 1. Whether the not embracing the Episcopacy doth any way advantage the Papist 2. Whether there is any such strength to be found in the Drs reasoning First From the Antiquity of Episcopacy And Secondly From the Argument produc'd to prove its Antiquity to wit the Improbability of introducing Episcopacy and Vninstituted Government into the Church without some noise and clamour I say Whether there is any such strength in these reasonings that none can oppose them without giving too great an advantage unto the Papist To the first Namely Whether the non-embracing Episcopacy doth any way advantage the Papist 1. From what hath been already said 'T is sufficiently proved that the non-embracing Episcopacy doth rather prejudice then profit the Papal interest for which Reason 2. When attempts have been made by Francise a Sancta Clara for the accommodating the differences between the Church of Rome and the Church of England he ever with indignation excepts against the Puritane as a people no way reconcileable to their Church yea when he proves it easie to heal the breach between them and the Episcopal Moreover 3. Whoever consults * Becan opus Tit. 10. Calvinistae in Scotia Anglia vocantur Puritani quia puram Calvini Doctrinam per omnia sequuntur Becanus the Jesuite will find how he seems to honour the Church of England by giving credit to the reports they make against the Puritans who are so called by the Jesuit because they embrace the pure Doctrine of Calvine to the end they may thereby from the mouths of some Protestants viz. of the Church of England condemn all the Reformed Churches abroad the Jesuits malice being the more inflam'd to see so many Dissenters in England that justifie the

a Bears the Papists skin are envied and malign'd 3. The Dissenters wrote favourably of the Tolerating Papists Answ 1. Before the Discovery of the Plot the Papists were judg'd Loyal Subjects though Saperstitious c. even by our Governours and Clergy Doth not Dr. Stilling fleet remember that a R●verend Divine a Son of the Church no way inferiour to himself did write ex industria in favour of the Loyal Papist Is the Church of England therefore for Popery How then can Dissenters he so seeing the reason for the one and the other is the same with this difference namely The Dissenter gave but an hint which did rather discover a confidence in and humble de●ercing to the Wisdom of our Magistracy who did not judge meet at that time to be brisk in a prosecuting the Paenal Laws against them for their Recusancy but the Plea of the Episcopal in favour of the Roman Catholick was more than an hint it was a considerable Treatise But 2. Since the Discovery of the Plot the Papists are better known they are now known to be Implacable Enemies to a Protestant Prince and Kingdom to be Turbulent and Vnpeaceable Whence the Tolerating them and the Kingdoms peace are become inconsistent and as the one is advanc'd the other necessarily must be overthrown For which Reason our Superiours Ecclesiastical and Civil do see cause to pass another Judgment on the Papists than formerly they did whereby the Dissenter may with the greater freedom appear against them giving our Soveraign and the Parliament the fullest assurances of Loyalty to His Majesty and Faithfulness to the Protestant Religion being ready to hazard their lives and their all in the defence of them and it How then can they be suppos'd Favourers of Popery or rather how can Dr. Stil Discourse after this manner For if such as are under the lash of Paenal Laws for Conscience sake must be thought to be Popishly affected for not animating the Magistrate to a Prosecution of Paenal Laws against other supposed Conscientious and Peaceable Dissenters as the Papists were then judg'd to be by many of the Church of England and this before the Discovery of their Horrid Plots I say if the whole Party of Dissenters must be thus expos'd so severely for such an hint as that was what shall we think of Dr. S. who speaks so favourably of the Papists suggesting even now that when Mens heats against the Papists which are said to be beyond the just bounds of Prudence Decency and Humanity are over it will be thought great hardship for the Papists onely to be deprived of the Liberty of their Consciences when the wildest of the Fanaticks are allowed it What may the Dr. insinuate so much in their Favour now and not expose himself to the Censure and must a Dissenter who spake not half as much in other times be so severely treated But whether the Dissenters are favourers of the Papal Faction will more fully appear by the Answer that shall be given unto his 6th Argument Argument 6. The Dissenters since the Discovery of the late Horrid Plot did close with the People in an over-fierce opposing the Papists For saith the Dr. now the Dissenters tack about and strike in with the Rage of the People and none so fierce against Popery as they whereby they mar a good business by over-doing it Praef. pag. 34. This is suggested more than once but because of the strangeness of the medium at this juncture and its unmeetness for its designed end I 'l not be over-curious in considering it It being well known that Popish Plots are laid so deep the Plotter so cruel yea and so resolv'd for Protestant Blood the Blood of our Prince our Nobles our Gentry our Ministry and People that unless we by a serious and humble Repentance return to God putting our Trust in the Lord and assume an undaunted Courage we are a lost People To be at such a time cold and indifferent is to relinquish and abandon our Religion For if there be any Fire of Zeal against Papists in the house it cannot but flame out at the Windows at this time for the stormy winds of Popish Cruelties and Treasons desolating Threatnings and implacable Fury are such as must cause the least spark of Zeal for God and the King c. to break out into a flame that cannot be hid Which may be even when our Zeal doth not transport us to any Irregular or Illegal proceedings which can only deserve the Epithets of Indecent and Inhumane with which Protestant Dissenters cannot justly be charg'd and therefore the Surprize is the greater to find such an Intimation in so Judicious and Wise a Person as Dr. S. In what respect doth or can the Dr. accuse them Are the Dissenters too Zealous in Declaiming against Popish Principles and Practises Do they represent Papal Treasons to be more hainous than they are i. e. more bloody or more Inhumane and Cruel What acts of Inhumanity have they exercised or in what respects have they been transported beyond the just bounds of Prudence Decency or Humanity Why is not the Dr. more particular in his Charge seeing Dolus latet in Generalibus 'T is their Joyning with the People the Dr. adds but in what In Petitioning his Majesty for the Sitting of the Parliament surely the Dr. wo'nt now judge that to be seditious Is it our Readiness when call'd thereunto to hazard our lives to save his Majestie 's or what seeing the Dr. doth not fasten any particular crime on the Dissenters and the Dissenters being Innocent have no guilty Conscience to accuse them nor are they able to divine It cannot be expected that we should be more full in the Consideration of it neither is there any need for enough hath been said to clear the Dissenters from the Vnbecoming Reproaches the Dr. would fasten on them Yea enough hath been hinted to evince the Dr's Mistakes to have been Great and Many III. I 'le now proceed to the third Particular and give a Summary Account of the Unhappy Tendencies of these Great and Many Mistakes as they are adjusted for an Advance of the Papal Interest § 1. 'T is Remarkable That Notwithstanding the Honourable Apprehensions the Dr. may have of the Reformation very little if any thing is hinted concerning the most Principal part thereof namely Protestant Doctrines The which I do the rather observe because it hath been of late years the sole care of our Ecclesiasticks to secure Protestant Religion without using any Mean for the preservation of Protestant Doctrines and accordingly new Declarations Subscriptions and Oaths have been offered for the more firm establishment of Church-Government even when our Doctrines have been sadly vitiated by some of the Sons of the Church without any other notice than the Complaints of a Few such as are Dr. Tully c. § 2. That Episcopacy and Ceremonies are considered by the Dr. as the Glory of the English Reformation the Bulwark of Protestant Religion even