many of them God knows are like to continue so for their Rabbi's and Teachers will never instruct them in it for that would utterly spoil their trade and they will not learn it of others And therefore could we but once press them to a reception of that superexcellent and truely-gospel grace charity how much would it tend to the abating at least if not to the utter eradicating all hard conceits either of our Church or of the Governors of it out of their minds St. Paul the Apostle in the 13. Chap. of his 1. Epistle to the Cor. gives us a very larg description and a very high Encomium of charity and amongst divers others tells us that these are its properties to suffer long and to be kind not to behave it's self unseemly not to be overhasty to think any evil to bear all things to believe all things to hope all things and to endure all things And were it not I say for want of this they would not thus despise Government and speak evil of those things which they so little understand The forenamed Apostle hath taken all the care imaginable to prevent any such thing He hath strictly commanded us Heb. 13.17 To obey them that have the rule over us and to submit our selves And as if he had foreseen that men would be ready to withhold their obedience to the commands of their Governors under a pretence that the things they command are not plain and clear to them and therefore for ought they know may be unlawful As if he had foreseen I say this pretence he hath annexed a very strong reason to enforce their obedience to all things of this nature which is this for they watch for your Souls says he as they that must give account Which is as much as if he had said more at large thus If your Superiors do command and enjoyn any thing that is lawful nay suppose that it be in some measure doubtful whether it be lawful or no yet in all things of this nature you must be obedient It is not a bare conceit and fancy that the thing commanded may be unlawful that will excuse your disobedience for there is nothing less then a plain command of God to the contrary that can supersede the commands of your Governors And because many of you may be apt to be overmistrustful of the wisdom of the sincerity and integrity of your Governors and so may be as apt to suspend your obedience to them till you your selves shall see a very good reason for the thing commanded do but consider that your Governors are placed over you by God himself that they watch for your Souls their main business is to see that you lead your lives in all godliness and honesty Nay consider further that they must all give an account unto God at the great and general audit when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed how they have acquitted themselves in such offices and employments And therefore you may not without the plainest reason suspect their good intentions whatsoever they define and lay down they define not only for you but for themselves too they do not only teach others but themselves also And therefore if you had but common Christian charity for your Governors you would never thus deny obedience to their commands nor withdraw your selves from the communion of our Church in which there is nothing at all enjoyned or commanded but what is altogether agreeable with or at least no ways contrary to the word of God Again Thirdly ult Another cause or reason of those persons dislike of our Church and consequently of their separation from it is if I may so express it for want of a due use of their Christian liberty This perhaps may seem a little strange to some persons at first because this is one of their great pleas for their not yielding obedience to their Governors in things indifferent viz that their commanding and enjoyning such things doth too much intrench upon their Christian liberty and would again entangle them in the yoke of Bondage But yet I question not but to make it good And if they would but impartially consult the true meaning of that Text which they so commonly have recourse to Gall. 5.1 They would find that the liberty which the Apostle there speaks of is not that liberty which they challenge to themselves That freedom which our Saviour Christ purchas'd for us is a freedom from sin freedom from the curse of the law freedom from the ceremonial Law of Moses as Circumcision and Sacrifices and the like and not in the least any freedom from paying our obedience to the commands of our Governors in all lawful and indifferent things And it is a wonder to me that any man should be so much besides himself as to think that the least drop of Christs Blood was so vainly spent as to purchase freedom for us in things absolutely indifferent i. e. in such things as were in their own nature indifferent concerning which there was no command For these were free before and therefore free to be performed before and after they are commanded only the command is necessarily to be obeyed Their great scrupulosity and timerousness as to the use of such indifferent and harmless ceremonies and which God hath no where forbidden will rank them amongst those nice Jewish Christians of which the Apostle St. Paul speaks Colos 2.21 Who cry'd out touch not tast not handle not and that too upon the same account after the Doctrines and Commandments of men For God I say hath no where prohibited the use of them and they have no other reason for their not using them but because those teachers which they have heaped up unto themselves do tell them that they must not use them And therefore we may apply that saying of our Saviour to the Jews John 5.43 unto these people and say though your Governors come to you in the name of God who hath entrusted them with the care of these things and therefore they may very lawfully enjoyn them yet these you will not hear but if another come in his own name and tells you without any reason at all that you may not use them him you will receive and hear Thus they can suffer fools gladly if another man bring them into bondage they can suffer it patiently enough but if their Governors command no more then what they may safely comply with then they kick and fling and will by no means endure it then they cry out of a restraint of their Christian liberty whilst alas they are the greatest slaves to the Doctrines and commandments of other men And thus I say it is for want of a due use of their Christian liberty that makes them out of conceit with our Church and consequently to separate and divide from it And now I have done with my Text and shew'd you which was the main point of it that it is a duty highly concerning and
our Saviours feet with a pound of Spikenard which says the Text was very costly Judas cryes out of a wast tells them that the Ointment might have been sold for an hundred pence and given to the poor Here indeed was a fair pretence viz charity to the Poor But St. John the Evangelist tells us that this was but a meer out-side a meer pretence and that covetousness was the true cause of his muttering against it for this he said says St. John not that he cared for the poor but because he was a Thief and had the bag and bare what was put therein John 12.6 And so too we have a great deal of reason to think that the real causes of the separation from our Church and of the clamor that is made against it are quite otherwise then what is commonly pretended It will be worth a while therefore to search a little into the true causes of our divisions because we shall thereby discover the true images of things through those dark mists which cunning but ungodly men have endeavored to cast before the eyes of the vulgar we shall hereby discern how sadly the ignorant but well-meaning vulgar are deluded with meer pretences and that while their teachers cry conscience conscience it is meerly their own lusts that promote and carry on divisions in the Church But because those that separate and divide from our Church are commonly distinguished into a two-fold rank and order the teaching and leading men and the silly and deluded vulgar we shall therefore reckon up the causes under a two-fold head and shew that some of them are to be appropriated to the one and some to the other And least those leading men who think themselves some body in their own conceit should take it in great dudgen if they should be put off to the last and that we may not offend them in this we shall therefore speak to them in the first place 1. First then the first cause or reason of these persons separating from the Church and consequently disturbing the peace and unity of it may be an ambitious and aspiring spirit There is no question to be made but that there have been and are still many such men in the world who viewing themselves in a false glass do Pigmalion like fall in love with their own parts and from an overweening conceit of them they will not only adore them themselves but expect that all the world should adore them too and those that do not see as much in them as they do in themselves they conclude that all such are blinded by emulation and envy From this over-weaning conceit of themselves comes a fancy that none are so worthily deserving of the more honorable places in the Church as they And when they come to make suit and claim for such places if they happen to be put by and others perhaps more deserving to be preferred before them This very thing shall presently put them into a rage they will forthwith bethink themselves of a revenge they will hereupon study how to make themselves considerable at the cost of those who they judged did consider them too little And hereupon they will contrive some fair pretence to draw a party after them and make a faction Thus we are told how that Arrius missing of a prelation to the order and dignity of a Bishop Alexander being preferr'd before him he broatch'd and troubled the Church with an heretical opinion whereby he denyed the Divinity of our Saviour Christ And some conceive that the occasion of Tertullian's defection from the true Faith and of his fall to Montanism was because that after the death of Agrippinus he sufferr'd a repulse and was put by the Bishoprick of Carthage I could produce divers instances of the like kind were it at all needful But it is much to be thought that our present age will afford too many that it would turn us out too many persons who have chose to set up a party against the Church and to be leaders of a faction meerly because they might not be Governors of it and could not satisfie or content themselves with what their Governors thought them deserving But what a sad thing is it and how unchristian too for men who pretend to be holyer and more conscientious then others to abuse and delude the world so grosly as to pretend that their separating from the Church is upon the account of conscience when it is meerly from an over-weaning conceit of their abilities that they are wiser and better then others and will therefore disturb the peace of the Church if they are not preferred before others Is this humor in the least answerable to our Saviours Command of Learning of him who was lowly in heart Matth. 11.29 Or doth it any ways answer his Apostles charge that in lowliness of mind we esteem others better then our selves Phillip 2.3 Certainly had they not quite laid aside and forgotten some of the weightier precepts of the Gospel they would quickly lay aside that vain fondness they have for themselves they would cast an eye upon their deformities as well as upon their excellencies and then they would begin a little to contract their plumes and think others as good if not better then themselves and no longer disturb the peace of the Church upon this account because they have not those honorable places in it which they vainly and groundlesly think they do deserve Secondly a second cause or reason of these persons separating from the Church and consequently disturbing the peace and unity of it is interest or the desire of gaining riches and money what sin is there indeed that the charming force of these will not perswade some men to Judas betrayed his Master for Thirty Pieces of Silver and the Husbandmen in the parable instigate and prompt each other to murder and to kill the heir to get the inheritance to themselves The love of money says the Apostle is the root of all evil 1. Tim. 6.10 And therefore why may it not be supposed to be the root of this evil we are now speaking of viz of the disturbance of the peace of the Church Nay he that reads but the next words following in the Text forenamed will find that the Apostle hath asserted as much himself The love of money says he is the root of all evil which while some have coveted after they have erred from the Faith And the same Apostle St. Paul hath left an instance of it upon record 2. Tim. 4.10 Demas hath forsaken me having loved this present world There is no question but that some of those Doctrines which make the partition wall betwixt us and the Church of Rome somewhat higher and which they are so zealous to maintain are oweing meerly to interest and to the profit they get by them As I could instance in their Doctrines about purgatory about pardons and indulgences their Praying for the Dead and such like which would certainly fall to
a little false glory be of weight enough to be put in the scale against the peace of the Church If they have not an infallibility amongst them equal with that of Rome they will think that they might be mistaken and deceived Let them view that place of St. Paul and apply it to themselves 1. Cor. 13.11 When I was a Child I spake as a Child I understood as a Child I thought as a Child but when I became a man I put away Childish things If these and such like considerations will not work upon them to renounce and forsake their former errors for fear of losing their reputation of being called wavering men and time-servers and the like certainly they are of a quite different strain from the Apostles who rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Gods sake Acts 5.41 and are to be ranked amongst those timerous rulers of the Jews John 12 Who believed on our Saviour Christ but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him being lovers of the praise of men more then of the praise of God And thus have I now shew'd you what are the true causes and reasons of the separation from our Church and consequently of the disturbance of it's peace and unity as to the teaching and leading part of our dissenters I proceed now to speak of the second sort of our dissenters those that forsake the publick assemblies and so disturb the unity and peace of the Church viz the well meaning but ignorant and deluded vulgar As first of all the first cause or reason of these persons dislike of our Church and consequently of their separation from it is prejudice whereby I mean that which proceeds from education It is certainly true that nothing makes a deeper impression upon us nothing is more hardly routed out then those documents and instructions which we receive in our infancy and Child-hood Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem testa diu The vessel retains a gust or tincture of that liquor that was first put into it The first principles we imbibe are not commonly written in sand to be defaced by every blast of wind but they are commonly as durable as if they were engraved with an iron pen in brass or marble It is a common expression amongst us that possession is an eleven points of the Law But sure enough that person that hath the education and training up of Children in any Religion hath odds enough against any other that shall come after him for while the wax was warm and soft he clapt his seal upon it and that impression we know cannot easily be altered Prejudice is so sore an evil that it will render the most convincing testimonies ineffectual And of this the Jews in rejecting the Messias is an everlasting instance There was not so much as one single circumstance either of time or place of lineage or descent of Doctrine or miracles which their own writings had foretold him by but he answer'd it exactly But they having imbibed an opinion that the Messias was to be a great temporal Prince that should fight their Battels and free them from all slavery because they could not discover this in him they therefore became blind as to all other Characters If then it fared so ill with our Saviour himself upon the account of prejudice what wonder is it if the Church of England be despised and rejected too upon the same score How commonly hath this Church which is absolutely the best reformed Church throughout the whole world been branded with the odious names of superstition and Popery from which as I have shewed she is the most innocent and free How commonly have persons in our late sad times been trained up in an utter abhorrence of her How frequently have we found some persons so prejudiced and incensed against her that if we go about to undeceive them and to give them better information they will look upon us as their utter enemies and they are ready to cry out to us as the possessed did to our Saviour in the Gospel what have we to do with you Are you come to torment us altogether forgetting that caution of St. John 1. John 4.1 Of trying the spirits whether they be of God or no and that for a very good reason which he hath there laid down because there are many false Prophets that are gone out into the world Most sad it is to think that poor Souls should be so obstinate and so resolutely unwilling to hear good instructions and that they should be thus afraid of those that mean nothing but their good They have been taught from their cradle to think ill of this Church and in that they think themselves wise enough and who is he that can be admitted to instruct them But alas this is that which will highly aggravate their fault and make it indelible For upon this account it was that our Saviour told the Pharisees John 9.41 If ye were blind ye should have no sin but now ye say we see therefore your sin remaineth This then Isay is the first cause or reason of these persons dislike of our Church and consequently of their separation from it viz prejudice Secondly A second cause or reason of these persons dislike of our Church and consequently of their separation from it is the want of Christian charity I mean charity for their Governors which if it could once be received and entertained amongst those many Gospel-graces which they think themselves to be the only possessors of we might then have some hopes of seeing them come into our Churches and there to profess and hold the same faith with us in the unity of the spirit and in the bond of peace Sure I am that if we should go into any of the separated congregations and confused assemblies a great part of that multitude could give us no good account of that concourse if we should question them about it And if some of them should tell us that they are there met together to worship God yet I am confident that like that uproar that was stirred up by the Silver-smiths at Ephesus Acts 19 the more part of them could not tell wherefore they should come to worship God here rather then in the publick and solemn assemblies Perhaps some of them might tell us that there they have pure ordinances and a true Gospel-worship and that in our Churches there is nothing but superstition and Popery a mixt worship and a serving of God after the Commandments of men But then if we ask them further what they mean by superstition and will-worship and by serving God after the Commandments of men and the like they are as little able to give us any good account as the Child that is yet to learn his A. B. C. Like Parrots they have only learnt the expression and the found but as for the true sense and meaning of the words that they are altogether strangers to And to
soundness and goodness of it as it is an unjustifiable zeal because not according to knowledge so it is never to be expected that it should be rewarded with Houses and Lands in this world or with Glory in the world to come Be perswaded therefore to enquire into the grounds of your Religion before you expose your self to such inconveniences and losses for it's sake Consult some able conscientious Divines of the Church of England about it and I am sure you are not altogether a stranger to some who are able and will be willing to give you all reasonable satisfaction It is a piece of natural justice to hear both Parties speak before we condemn either â—â—th our Law judge any one before it hear him and know what 〈◊〉 doth said Nicodemus a Ruler of the Jews But truely I thâ—â—â—hat the neglect of consulting the Writings of the Divines of the Church of England and the over-easie belief of whatever your Priests do buzz into your ears may justly expose most of your Religion to the censure of having too much partiality and too little justice But Pray Sir do but consider the wonderful charms of Empire and riches and to what horrid impieties they have sometimes hurried the greatest part of men And why may not most of those Doctrines which the Church of Rome is so zealous to maintain be no other for any thing you know yet then what do altogether flow from the mighty thirst after riches and Empire which many of the Popes of Rome have been eminently remarkable for I think I could name some that have had their sole rise and spring from thence but that I study all possible brevity But however let me mind you of consulting their Doctrines about Purgatory about Pardons and Indulgences and those of deposing as they call them Heretical Kings and Princes And I am perswaded you will find that the only root from whence they did at first spring was no other whatever is pretended then that forenamed The fire of Purgatory keeps the old Gentleman warm his Pardons and Indulgences fill his holinesse's Coffers The saying Masses for the dead brings in so many good rents that the Priests stand in no great need of help from the living This is the craft by which they get their wealth and therefore these Doctrines are the great Diana's amongst them The Church of Rome hath at all times ever since the Reformation been charged by the Divines of the Church of England with that damnable sin of Idolatry And if you could be perswaded impartially to peruse the late writings of the Learned and well-read Doctor Stillingfleet you would begin to suspect that they of that Church are not altogether free from it Their praying to Saints their Doctrines of merits their depriving the Laity of the Cup in the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper and many other such like things as I could name are clearly and directly contrary to the Holy Scriptures And this too you would be fully convinc'd of if you could once be perswaded to read them And to what purpose were they written and delivered to the World but that they might be read Do not therefore any longer suffer your Priests to take away that Key of knowledge from you who will not enter in themselves nor by their good will suffer others that are willing to enter You had need to have an extraordinary good opinion of those who keep you thus in the dark For my part should they deal thus with me I should very much doubt their honest intentions and at least conclude that they look'd upon me either as a Mad-man or a Fool. And some expressions that have fall'n from their Pens of late makes me apt to believe that they have scarce any better thoughts of most Lay men of your Religion And surely were it not that they do think so they would never have gone about to impose upon them such ridiculous fopperies and Pageant-like ceremonies so far from being grave and significant and such as may become Religion that I have oftentimes thought that as it was in Heathen Rome heretofore so it is in Rome Christian viz that your Priests have much ado to contain from smiling when they meet one another in the streets to think how easily they Gull and delude you Were it not that I am unwilling to transgress too much the bounds of an Epistle I could say a great deal more but nothing more then what 's true against the Romish Religion But in regard that it was your own doings to put me upon this work I hope you will the more readily pardon me if I do transgress Nevertheless there is but one thing more that I shall at present speak of And that is to ask you how you can possibly fauster or entertain any good thoughts of such a Religion as encourages and prompts men to Assassinations and murders and such like Hellish Artifices to propagate and uphold it That some of your Religion have been lately as well as formerly guilty of these things is so plainly apparent that nothing but an unmeasurable store of considence can deny it And for these things the Jesuits are noted throughout a great part of the Christian World for England hath not been the only Scene where they have acted these kind of Villanies The bloody Massacre in Ireland which is still fresh in the memories of many living that too in France and another at Piedmont and elsewhere hath sufficiently made them known in those parts And for these things they better deserve the name of Turks than Christians And that all of that way are not as deeply concern'd as the other is owing more to a generous temper and a naturally mild and tender disposition or such like then to their Religion whose Principles I am sure if fully understood and followed would put them upon as great and if possible greater impieties But alas the misery of it is they do not yet know the misery of the iniquity of the Church of Rome for if they did as your Priests are well aware of they would certainly be affrighted at it's dismal sight and utterly renounce all Communion with it Such Principles as lead to cruelty and blood are undoubtedly the Positions of the Church of Rome but they are not to be discover'd but at some certain times when their cause is like to be promoted by them nor but to some persons whom they find to be the most savage and inhumane They pick a jury for the Tryal or rather for the acting of their cause out of the Butchers-roe But once again is that Religion think you true and Christian that encourages rebellion and treason and murder Alas God would have no men to speak or act wickedly for him Their Religion is vain and their damnation will be just who do such apparent evils under a pretence they may do good thereby Surely these very things will make every sober well-meaning Christian to abhorr and detest them Can that
The CARE of the PEACE OF THE CHURCH The DUTY of Every Christian In a Discourse upon Psalm 122.6 Wherein the Main Pleas for Separation are Examined and the true Causes thereof Shewed Being very seasonable for these Times and seriously recommended to all especially to the Non-Conforming Preachers By Tho. Adderley A. B. sometimes of St. Johns Coll. Oxon. To which is annexed a Letter Briefly shewing the great danger and sinfulness of Popery Written to a Young Gentleman a Roman Catholick in Warwick-shire LONDON Printed by J. R. for John Williams at the sign of the Crown in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1679. To the Right worshipful Sir Edward Boughton Baronet one of his Majesties Justices of the Peace and a Deputy-Lievtenant for the County of Warwick and now a member of the honorable house of Commons Honored Sir THis small thing that is now venturing abroad into the world doth in a more especial manner belong unto you It was born under your roof and that little strength it hath since gathered was in the same place But alas it is still weak and I fear may not meet with that kindness and tenderness of compassion which an innocent Infant might in reason expect The parent of it doth therefore humbly crave your patronage and protection and he doth the less scruple a grant of it the request being made to a person that hath been ever hospitable and charitable And for this Sir you are so eminent in your own Country that when through the importunity of the whole Gentry of the County of VVarwick you did at length appear in the field as a competitor for a Knight of the Shire I my self heard divers say that it was pitty that a Gentleman of so much Charity to the Poor should be taken out of the Country Nay some did say that they would give their votes against you meerly upon this score to keep a Gentleman of such liberality to the poor and hospitality to all others still amongst them Now Sir the God of mercy and compassion reward you for it by continuing his temporal blessings to you here and with a Crown of glory hereafter And this shall be the constant prayer of Your Worships móst humble and most obliged Servant Tho. Adderley To the Charitable Christian and peaceably disposed Reader A Preface which at first I looked upon as useless upon second thoughts seemed little less then necessary Not so much to importune favor as equity and justice from the Reader I am not ignorant that most things of the same nature with the ensuing tract though written with never so good intentions and meaning are apt enough to be misconstrued by some ill disposed persons and the Authors of them though earnestly industrious for peace and unity are sure to be branded for the only disturbers Those that go about to lay open the sin and folly of some men shall be sure to find censurers enough and if they cannot find any thing more to say yet this they will be sure to insinuate that we write not so much out of zeal to the truth or love to dissenters as out of design of advancing our selves and of Eclipsing the repute and fame of others This I know hath been the common reward of persons who for their excellent parts and pains have merited better things of them And therefore I cannot much expect any other return If they have called the Master of the Family Beelzebub how much more will they call the Servant so But I protest that my main design in publishing these papers was meerly to mind our dissenters of the folly and sinfulness of keeping up a Schism in the Church and widening it's breaches since it is apparent that it makes way for the entrance of the common Enemy And if any one doth yet question the truth of this let him but seriously peruse Doctor Oates his Narrative of the horrid Plot and Conspiracy of the Popish party and that will plainly evince it and shew that these persons are but the Instruments of the Papists to bring about their designs What dangers we have been in at least if we are not so still of the Romans coming and taking away our place and Nation surely they cannot but see But would to God that their eyes were once opened to discern that their persistance in their separation from us makes their passage to it the more easie Sure enough our differences and dissentions are more then a little pleasing to our adversaries of Rome who very much delight to look on and see our scuffles and clap their hands at the sport saying Aha so would we have it The very manner of relating the contention betwixt Abraham's and Lot's Servants is very observeable Gen. 13.7 And there was a strife between Abraham's Herdsmen and the Herdsmen of Lot's Cattel and the Canaanite and Perizzite then dwelled in the Land Which surely was inserted by the Spirit of God as no small aggravation of the unseasonableness of the strife But it is much to be thought that the Canaanite and the Perizzite or that which is as bad the Fryar and the Jesuit are not meerly lookers on but they have a very near interest in our strifes by strong and secret influences causing and fomenting differences and contentions and kindling sparks into a flame Surely the hand of Joab is in this matter This then being so apparent what Christian much more what Protestant Minister could forbear a little sharpness against our blind or that which is worse obstinate dissenters who are the undoubted promoters of their own and of the Church's ruin I am not to be told that the least tartness against our Non-Conforming Teachers is enough to give any man the name of a well-wisher to the Romanists if not of a down-right Papist amongst their favorers and followers And therefore here I w uld crave so much Charity from my Reader as not to fauster any such thoughts of me and if for no other reason yet for the sake of the Letter annexed to the ensuing discourse And let me tell him this that had it not been for the prevention of that calumny I had not published it and that because I could not think it any ways worthy of the Press Having thus craved so much Charity of the Reader I shall readily admit his perusal of the ensuing pages of this Book and by that let him judge whether or no I may deserve it Psalm 122. Verse 6. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem THat the Psalms of David were Pen'd at several times and designed for several occasions is most unquestionably true And let the condition of Christians either in their publick or private capacities be almost what it will they may easily find out some Psalm very proper and seasonable for their relief and comfort and suitable enough to that their present condition As men infested with several Diseases and Distempers of Body may find some Drugs and Medicines in the Apothecarys Shop to Purge out those different humors that
much blame and reprove you for it for the phrase there used is a Meiosis and hath more in the meaning then is expressed And what is that which he so highly reproved them for Why it is for this when ye come together in the Church I hear that there be divisions among you 1. Cor. 11.18 And if the Apostles were thus careful and circumspect to prevent it and so sharply reproved those that were guilty of it we can never imagine but that they looked upon those as very ill men who fomented a Schism and Division in the Church But this is not all neither Let us consider a little further what odious names and appellations they have bestowed upon schism and division They call it carnality they call it the work of the Flesh nay They call it the very work of the Devil Whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions are ye not carnal 1. Cor. 3.3 And again verse 4. While one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos are ye not carnal And if that rule be true noscitur ex socio we may nearly guess what a man is by the company he usually keeps then we may also guess of the evil of this sin of causing variance and seditions by those and those no Peccadillos with which the Apostle hath conjoyned them Now the works of the flesh says St Paul are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies and so on in the 5. Chap. of his Epistle to the Galathians 19.20 verses And then verse the 21. he tells us what will be the punishment of this sin of causing variance and seditions as well as of the rest no less then an utter deprivation of the Kingdom of Heaven of the which says he I tell you as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God One of the main things which we lay to the charge of the Church of Rome and of which I do verily believe they are guilty is Idolatry But I would to God that all that lay that sin to their charge would consider that this sin of making a schism and divisions in the Church is reckon'd up by the Apostle in the same Catalogue And therefore though they may not receive that punishment of not inheriting the Kingdom of God as Idolaters yet as Schismaticks and dividers of the Church they may And so to though they renounce all communion and fellowship with them here yet they cannot fail if they persist in it of being made their companions in that pit of darkness hereafter Though they seem to hate and abhorr one another so much as to grate their teeth one against another in despite and anger yet let them take heed that they meet not one another in those Everlasting Burnings where they shall weep and wail and gnash their teeth too the one for his Idolatry the other for fomenting schism and division in the Church Thus we see what an ill Character the Writings of holy men that were inspired from above have given us of schism And if we should trace the sense of the church a little further we should find that the primitive Fathers held this sin in no less abhorrence and detestation and that they thought it equal with the most notorious sins even such as were reckon'd up by the Apostle forenamed But I shall forbear and only remember you how evident and apparent it is that to make a Schism in the Church of God and to promote and encourage divisions in it is a sin of a very deep dye which appears both from our Saviour's care and the diligence and circumspection of the Apostles to prevent it from the odious names and appellations they have bestowed upon it and the punishment which they have threatned for it And therefore we may with the greatest seriousness say unto those who do promote and encourage division and do all they can to widen the differences in the Church to those we may say as St. Paul and Barnabas said to the men of Lystra in another case Acts 14.15 Sirs why do you these things why will ye thus make and still foment and carry on a schism and division in the Church But here they think to wipe of all that is thus said against them by telling us that their departure or separation from our Church is altogether involuntary and that they cannot hold communion with us without sin so that when we say to them why do ye these things They are presently ready to reply in those words of David to Eliab 1. Sam. 17.29 What have we done What evil is there in what we do Is there not a cause Have we not sufficient reason for it Here therefore we have an occasion given to examine their pleas and pretences for their separation and to see if they can in the least justifie or excuse themselves in it I shall not wast so much time or trouble your patience so far as to speak particularly to every little exception they make against our Church for they are generally so weak and senseless that they themselves are become almost ashamed to insist any longer upon them I shall therefore pass all such by I shall not stay so long as to tyth their mint and cummin for it will scarce be worth the while but come directly to the weightier matters which they themselves say they have to object against us And because they are so well known to take all occasions and opportunities to infuse such things into the heads of their Disciples and followers not only in their meetings and conventicles but to creep into private families and to infect them also it will be more necessary to speak somewhat to them by way of prevention to such as are not yet infected and by way of cure if possible to such as are The very strength of all their objections against our Church and their greatest pleas for their separating and dividing from it may briefly be drawn up under two heads which I shall first lay down and then return as brief an answer as the subject is capable of First they say that this Church doth too nearly comply with the Church of Rome and is not wholly cleansed from it's superstitions And Secondly that this Church commands and enjoins those ceremonies in it's worship and service which are no where commanded by God and therefore it is meerly will worship which is condemned by the Apostle and therefore cannot be comply'd with without sin First then they say that this Church doth too nearly comply with the Church of Rome and is not wholly cleansed from it's superstitions The charge indeed is great and were it as true as it is utterly false and malicious it would not only justifie their separation from it but also most justly exasperate the minds of all men against it But it is most certain
Religion be true and good which will not suffer you to be true and loyal to your King and to yield obedience in all lawful things to the higher Powers under whom God hath subjected us Can that Religion be true which will not suffer you to swear Allegiance to your Prince or if you do will afterwards dispense with you for the breach of such an Oath when the word of God itself which is more to be hearken'd to surely than the Pope hath commanded us to keep the Kings Commandment and that in regard of the Oath of God Can that Religion be warrantable which would deprive Princes of their Power in the external Government of the Church when the word of God hath all along allowed and approv'd it as is plain throughout the whole Bible The Popes supremacy which I find you highly favor is an unjust usurpation and there is not the least intimation in the Scriptures for it unless you will admit of a Pasce oves feed my sheep or duo lumina fecit Deus God made two great lights the Sun to rule the day the Moon and the Starrs to govern the night as sufficient proofs of it And surely these texts will as little prove the Popes supremacy as that text Abraham begat Isaac would prove the unlawfulness of Non-residency But did I say that the Popes supremacy is an usurpation Why surely so it is and especially here in England where I could never yet understand any good title he had to it Whenever he had it it was got either by fraud or force and therefore he might very well expect to lose it when the right heir should claim his own The Pope that strong man armed kept it by meer force and strength for a while but at length came Henry the Eighth who being a Prince of courage and stronger than the Pope threw him out and the Kings of England his Successors have all reason to see to the keeping possession of that that is one of the most precious Jewels of the Crown To be brief Sir I would earnestly importune you to consult the Oaths of Allegiance and supremacy which will it 's presum'd e're long be tender'd to you And I verily believe that you can find nothing at all in either of them but what may very safely be taken by all good Christians And when you have taken them let me as earnestly importune you to keep them for however some may please themselves with the Popes dispensation and think that that will justifie and excuse them in the breach of those or either of those Oaths yet God himself hath told us that he will not hold them guiltless i.e. he will severely punish and revenge himself upon those who take his name in vain I have but one thing more to say which just now comes into my mind and that will relate to an expression which in my own hearing came lately from you You was saying not long since that if you should change your Religion yet you would hardly do it at this time because as you then said the world would think that you did it more out of fear then conscience The very expression my thought did portend some good and put me in some little hopes of a change But I beseech you Sir if you have any convictions wrought in you of the goodness of the purity and peaceableness of the Protestant Religion and of the quite contrary qualities of the Romish take heed of smothering stifeling such convictions though but for an hour for that may tend to the utter ruin of you both here and hereafter Let no man refuse to hear when God Almighty calls Never be afraid or asham'd to own and embrace that Religion which if you live but up to the Principles of it will render you a true Servant to God a loyal subject to your King and a faithful friend to your friend though his perswasion in Religion be never so differing And let me tell you this Sir that I could never yet perswade my self that a Roman Catholick quatenus Roman Catholick could ever be reckon'd as a good Christian a Loyal Subject or a true Friend And now Sir that you may be no longer a stranger to the Pious Devotions of that Church in whose Communion I as well as many others should be very glad and joyful to see you I have sent you herewith the Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies according to the use of the Church of England desiring you seriously to peruse it and to accept of it as a gift and present from your Friend In which Book you will find the most Pious Pethy and well-composed Prayers which are made unto God who is the only hearer of Prayers and not to the Saints who are altogether ignorant of us which are made in the Name of Jesus Christ there being no other Name given unto Men whereby they can be Saved which in short are such Prayers that any one that knows but the English Tongue may readily understand and thereby know what it is he begs of God and that he doth not ask for a Stone when he intends Bread or for a Serpent when he intends a Fish which the ignorant People of the Church of Rome who say their Prayers in an unknown Tongue cannot be assured of Thus Sir I have answered your desire in giving you some short Memento's of the unsoundness of the Romish Religion And if you require farther proof of it I will then refer you to the Writings of some of our Famous and Learned Divines of the Church of England and to which there was never any Reply yet made that could deserve the name of an Answer And really Sir it is no little evidence of the weakness of their cause when they have no other Arguments to defend it with than Daggers and Pistols You see Sir that I have answered your request in bestowing a Sheet of Paper upon you with what intent and design you put me upon it you know best But if it was no worse then with what I Writ it I may then be confident of a favorable reception and candid interpretation of these few Lines from him who is Sir Your unfeigned Friend and Servant c. Decemb. 2. 1678.