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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A24968	Sober and serious considerations occasioned by the death of His Most Sacred Majesty, King Charles II (of ever blessed memory), and the serious time of Lent following it together with a brief historical account of the first rise, progress, and increase of phanaticism in England and the fatal consequents thereof : now made publick in tendency to the peace of the kingdom / by a gentleman in communion with the Church of England, as now by law establish'd.	Gentleman in communion with the Church of England.; P. A.	1685 (1685)	Wing A26; ESTC R11430	26,528	49

be doubted they will not especially when the Sin hath become in great part General and National For particular Persons are to expect their Judgment and Punishment in the other Life but Nations Kingdoms and Societies of Men cannot then be punished as such as our Divines hold And in consideration of the great mischief and danger in Schisms and Rents among Christians I mean such as profess to own that Name in the Christian World May we not therefore well Pray earnestly to Almighty God as our Mother the Church of England directs us for the Good Estate of the Catholick Church That it may be so guided and governed by God's Good Spirit that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of Truth and hold the Faith in Vnity of Spirit in the Bond of Peace and Righteousness of Life It cannot possible therefore favour of a Christian Spirit or Temper to be of peevish froward contentious Spirits but to study Peace at Home in the Church we live in And in the next place it is doubtless our great Duty as Christians not to be wid'ning the Christian Church's Wounds abroad but rather earnestly to endeavour if possible to heal them to promote the Peace and Unity of Christendom That all sober Christians throughout the World might be united together Although in regard of the Lusts and Passions of Men and that there are so few sincere and true Christians in Christendom it seems to be a Work next to impossible to be effected although indeed all good Christians could willingly joyn with that Worthy Man who said Who would not be ready with the loss of his Life to Redeem and free Christianity from that horrid Scandal of Discord and Dissention Mar. Bucer As for the Differences among Christians in the Christian World I heartily wish they were less than they truly are at this Day But this is most certain That by their Passions and Animosities on all Hands they are made greater than they truly are when we all agree in the main and principal Foundation of our Faith contained in the Three Creeds that of the Apostles the Athanasian and the Nicene Creed This one would think should make us more kind and treatable one to another especially not to damn one another to the Pit of Hell and Destruction as too many do But in this respect the Church of England by their Moderation shew themselves to be the better Christians who to their Honor abound in Charity to their bitter Enemies the Romanists and allow unto them a possibility though not without Difficulty of Salvation in their Communion who yet have nothing in return for their Charity but Hereticks and Damnation But certainly they very weakly and absurdly argue from it That therefore it is safest for us to go over to them Just as if I being in a tyte well-built and sound Ship should leave it and go over into an unsound and leaky Vessel upon this presumption That possibly I may with hazard and danger come safe to Land in the same But certainly we may better argue with them and say Amend the apparent Leaks and Faults in your Vessel and if there be any Faults in ours we are willing to amend them also that we may both with safety and in Christian Love and Unity accompany one another in our Course for the Celestial Port which we both porfess to intend and aim at And to this purpose let me present you with what the Worthy Dr. Brown in his Religio Medici speaks to this purpose I have not saith he so shaken hands with those desperate Resolutions meaning the Romanists who had rather venture at large their decayed bottom than bring her in to be new Trim'd in the Dock who had rather promiscuously retain all than abridge any and obstinately be what they are than what they have been as to stand in Diameter and Swords point with them And then speaking of the Reformation he saith As there were many Reformers so likewise many Reformations some angrily and with Extremity others calmly and with Mediocrity not rending but easily dividing the Community and leaving an honest possibility of a Reconciliation which though peaceable Spirits do desire and may conceive that Revolution of Time and the Mercies of God may effect yet that Judgment that shall consider the present Antipathies between the two Extreams their Contrarieties in Condition Affection and Opinion may with the same hopes expect an Union in the Poles of Heaven It is saith he as uncharitable a point in us to fall upon those popular Scurrilities and Opprobrious Scoffs of the Bishop of Rome whom as to a Temporal Prince we owe the duty of good Language I confess there is cause of Passion between us by his Sentence I stand Excommunicated Heretick is the best Language he affords me yet can no Ear witness I ever returned to him the name of Antichrist Man of Sin or Whore of Babylon It is the Method of Charity to suffer without Re-action Those usual Satyrs and Invectives of the Pulpit may perchance produce a good Effect on the Vulgar whose Ears are opener to Rhetorick than Logick yet do they in no wise confirm the Faith of wiser Believers who know that a good Cause needs not be patron'd by Passion but can sustain it self upon a temperate Dispute The true Sons of the Church of England consider this and that Passion and unnatual Heats and Transports never do advantage a Good Cause and that Uncharitableness and much more Cruelty is unworthy and unbecoming Christians and therefore avoid them But Alas their Adversaries the Romanists as if they were faultless and had not given just Occasion of Offence Retort in requital nothing but Damnation and most bitter Reproaches yea brutish Revenge and Cruelty which disingenious Dealing how much it hath been to their Reproach and Dishonor to the disadvantage of their Cause in the Christian World I shall leave them seriously to consider For honest and ingenious Souls are not to be imposed upon by Club-Law to receive for Articles of Faith such Doctrines and Opinions which have no Foundation from the Scriptures and the Antient and Primitive Church Alas The great Disorder and Confusion that is upon the face of the Christian World at this day is not to be so much wondered at if we consider the Corruption the Wickedness which abounds in the Hearts of most Men in the World which corrupts all things Why therefore should it not in process of time as it did among the very Jews themselves corrupt and deprave the Holy and Pure Religion of Jesus Christ especially in time of Prosperity that like Sun-shine Weather corrupts most things subject to Corruption even the very Humors of our Bodies and breed Abuses in the Christian Church Plenty and Prosperity strangely prevailing upon Men's Minds yea sometimes the best of Men to corrupt them with Pride Idleness Covetousness And by this means the Holy Christian Religion came to be debased to be corrupted both in

Foundation all Natural Moral Justice and Honesty and in place thereof to set up a New Body of Carneades his Philosophy instead of the old Heathen dry Principles of Integrity and Uprightness that one Law of Interest and Passion and Self-Preservation So that as Machiavel thought Religion would emasculate and enfeeble Common-wealths We have more reason to complain saith he That it hath debauched and corrupted Lives That Christian Men are the impurest Part of the World That Sathan's after-game hath proved more lucky and prosperous to him than his first Designment did That his Night-walks hath brought him more Proselytes than his unlimited Range of going up and down to and fro over the Face of the Earth That as Sin by the Law so Sathan by the Faith of Christ hath taken occasion and so deceived and ruined us more desperately more universally than by all the National Idolatrous Customs of Heathenism he hath been able to do And let us seriously consider That all this complicated Mass of Wickedness not to be parallel'd under the Sun was committed and done in the Face of the World by those who stiled themselves and would needs be accounted the only Protestants of the Kingdom Things being brought to this Conclusion and upshot What an easie Perswasion might prevail with sober and considering Honest-hearted Men in Exile forthwith to abandon and renounce this Protestant Religion as a Religion to be abhorred by all Men as being as opposite to the true Christian Religion and what likewise in truth was professed by the Church of England as Darkness was to Light And a great part if not all this Mischief arose and was carried on as I humbly conceive with submission to better Judgments from a furious and mad Antipathy and Averseness against Popery and Papists which made them to imagine they never could run far enough from Rome until they came to Munster Where I will leave them with their Fellow Protestants if all such who are opposite to Rome must be Protestants as of late many in England would have made them and that by a Law also But Alas these abominable and horrid Impieties what honest and pious Heart can seriously consider of and not dissolve into Tears and humbly and affectionately beg of God not to lay these Sins to England's Charge but to wipe out the Guilt thereof from the Nation More especially considering what a loud Cry innocent Blood yea the Blood of The Lord 's Anointed hath to Heaven for Vengeance especially upon Fanaticks and such as retain the fore-said wicked Tenents and Principles which were productive of all the said Villainies Let them further seriously consider Mr. Baxter's own Words in his last Answer to Bagshaw pag. 30. cited by a Worthy Author Nothing saith Mr. Baxter that I know of in the World doth so strongly tempt some sober Consciencious Men to think Popery necessary for the Concord of Churches and a violent Church-Government necessary to our Peace as the woful Experience of the Errors and Schism the mad and manifold Sects that arise among those that are most against them To which purpose the Worthy Dr. Parker speaking of the Phanaticks endangering Religion several ways saith thus I know no other grounds of Fear or Danger from them unless this may prove one at last That by their wanton and unreasonable Peevishness to the Ingenious and Moderate Discipline of the Church of England they give their Governours too much Reason to suspect That they are never to be kept in order by a milder and more gentle Government than that of the Church of Rome and force them at last to scourge them into better manners with the Bryars and Thorns of their Discipline Let us further consider seriously the abounding of Debauchery and Wickedness among us at this Day which can portend nothing but Mischief to us the horrid Oaths Blasphemies and Curses that continually fly about our Ears almost in all Companies and in every Place more or less yea as we pass along the Streets enough to amaze us What abounding in Swinish Drunkenness and Excess How have our Times curiously studied to find out variety of Liquors to make an Acceptable Sacrifice thereof to Bacchus What Fulness of Bread and Idleness what Intemperance Gaming Uncleanness and Lasciviousness and the Consequents of these Quarrelling and Duelling having as it were lost the Sense of Good and Evil our very Natural Modesty and Shame we are become impudent and exquisite in Sin And which is most sad to consider these are those Rotten Bones as one hath well observed which would lie hid under the Painted Sepulchre of Honor These some would make the Accomplishments of a Gentleman The Learned Doctor Hammond observes That many irrational Sins through some Local custom have gotten the Reputation not only of sinless and lawful but of laudable also as Duelling and in favour of Sins of Uncleanness whereby it is become a more creditable thing among us To have been guilty of defiling and invading another Man's Bed than to be the Innocent Person which hath been thus robb'd by the Adulterer Now Let us consider seriously of these things as a Divine of our own hath well observed How that Atheism and Enthusiasm are apart and by themselves the most desperate and dangerous Causes of Misery and Calamity and Ruin to Mankind And that when ever they should combine Interests and joyn Forces what Government can withstand their Fury in that there is no Wickedness that is necessary to the carrying on the Cause that they will not undertake Do we not therefore stand in great need of Sober and Serious Consideration and of humbling our Souls before God in Dust and Ashes for all these before-mentioned Abominations and making our Peace with an offended Majesty and by frequent and fervent Devotions imploring his Mercies and in the Language of our Church upon Ash-Wednesday say Almighty and EverlastingGod who hatest nothing that Thou hast made and dost forgive the Sins of all them that are Penitent Create and make in us new and contrite Hearts that we worthily lamenting our Sins and acknowledging our Wretchedness may obtain of Thee the God of all Mercy perfect Remission and Forgiveness through Jesus Christ our Lord And further to enlarge our Devotions to God That He would please to bless and prosper our Gracious Sovereign Lord the King's Majesty and his Gracious Consort and all the Royal Family That He would furnish his Majesty's Royal Heart with Wisdom to go in and out before this great People committed to his Charge by the Supreme Lord of all the Kings of the Earth That God would support and strengthen him under that great Weight of Government that now lies upon his Shoulders in the Governing of a Licencious People very much tainted with with Schismatical Seditious and Wicked Principles which can be no pleasing Task for any Prince to undergo ThatGod would be pleased to direct and guide his Counsels and cloath his Enemies with Shame and Confusion and That upon his Head

corrigi parati cum invenerint nequaquam sunt inter Hereticos deputandi They that do not pertinaciously and stubbornly defend their erroneous and corrupt Opinions but with great Care and Ingenuity seek the Truth are ready to submit unto it when they find it these are not to be reputed in the number of Hereticks so true is that saying that no truly good Man can be an Heretick although he may be in an Error And to back what I have said and to convince you of the Danger of Heresie and Schism let me present before you in brief what the Worthy and Learned Dr. Hammond speaks in his Treatise of Schism There is saith he no one Vice which hath fallen under so much of the Displeasure and Correption and and severest Discipline of the Holy Fathers of the Ancient Church as this of Schism and the Ingredients and Preparatives to it have done They judged That it was contrary to the Faith even when it had not in respect of Doctrinal Points any Heresie joyned with it That it was contrary to Charity yea contrary to all the Advantages that belong to a Member of the Church Quisquis ab Ecclesia segregatus Adulteriae jungitur a promissis Ecclesiae separatur St. Cyprian Whosoever is separated from the Church is joyned to an Harlot he is separated from the Promises God hath given to his Church from the Benefits of Prayer and the Sacraments That it was as bad as Heresie according to St. Chrysostom That there was never any Heresie in the Church which was not founded in it That constantly it is forced in its own Defence to conclude in some Heresie or other All which being put together will be sufficient as the said Author speaks to keep Men from being in love with the Guilt or Company of Schismaticks But saith he It is further branded with these Super-additions of Terror That there is scarce any Crime so great as Schism Non esse quicquam gravius Sacrilegio Schismatis St. Austin Ingens flagitium Schismatis Traditioni junxerunt Optat. No Crime so great not Idolatry not Sacrilege That it hath been under the peculiar Mark of God's Indignation as in Case of the Ten Tribes and of the Samaritans who are ranked with the Gentiles Matth. 10. 5. and so in the Story of Core That it is the Anti-Christianism mentioned by St. John Ab Ecclesia qui separatur Haereticus est Antichristus Prosper He that is a Separatist from the Church is an Heretick and Antichrist The worshipping and serving of the Devil Ignatius And in a word so great a Crime that it is not expiable by Martyrdom to him that continues in it and hath not repented and returned from it Much more of this Subject is every where to be met with in the Antient Monuments and nothing of Alleviation to be had for any who have not the Excuse of involuntary Seduction of Error or Simplicity to plead for them And the surest way to do that effectually to qualify them for that Plea is To forsake their Course to get out of that so dangerous a Snare Nay it is further observable how unsafe it hath been deemed by these for light and inconsiderable Causes to break this Unity it being very hard if not impossible to receive such an Injury or Provocation from the Governours of the Church as may make a Rupture or Separation excusable And for the truly Catholick and Universal Church of Christ it is not in St. Augustin's Opinion possible that there should be any just Cause for any to separate from it nor consequently Apology to be made for those that on any whether true or false pretended Cause whatsoever have really incurred this Guilt From which Premises thus acknowledged and undeniable the Conclusion follows irrefragably That it is not the Examination of the Occasion or Cause or Motive of any Man's Schism that is worth the producing or heeding in this Matter The one thing that is of force and moment and by Consequence pertinent to be enquired into is The Truth of the matter of Fact whether this Charge be sufficiently proved or confessed i. e. Whether he that is thus accused stands really guilty of Separation from the Church of Christ. And he further describes this Sin of Schism It is saith he a voluntary dividing or a separating or receding of any Member from the Unity of the Body i. e. The Church of Christ and so that the Schismatick is he that divides himself from the Church of God not that is cut off or separated he that goes out and with-draws or recedes of his own Accord not he that is cast out by the Governours of the Church But the Offender or guilty Person who is therefore said to accuse to cast to condemn himself throwing himself by his voluntary Recession from the Church into that very Condition into which the Adulterer and obstinate Offender is cast by the Censure of the Church And the said Worthy Author concludes nevertheless with this Caution But how desirable and valuable soever an entire inviolable Peace with all Christians with all Men together with the Approbation of our willing cheerful Obedience and Submission of our Judgments and Practices to our Superiors must for ever be deemed by all true Disciples of Christ Yet must not the Purchace of this Treasure be attempted by the Admission of any Sin any more than the Glory of God might be projected by the Apostle's Lye Thus much I thought fit to Transcribe out of this Worthy Author To which I may further add Mr. Causabon's Excellent Rule taken out of St. Cyprian Epist 69. as it is set forth by a late Author of our own That whensoever the Pious People adhere to their lawful and true Bishop they are God's Church insomuch that whosoever separates himself from the Congregation it cannot be doubted but that he is not in the Church These things deserving the most serious Consideration of all Men but more especially of our Dissenters who have very much Guilt of this sort lying upon them it is very much to be feared As for their Pretences of Conscience St. Bernard will Answer them Non est Conscientia sine Scientia nec verae si caeca It is not Conscience without Knowledge nor can it be true if blind and ignorant For if Pretences of Conscience that is to say Men's stubborn and perverse Minds at the best their Weakness and and affected Ignorance must justify and bear them out against God's Law against Lawful Authority then it will be no matter what becomes of the Laws of God when their Consciences must command and bear Rule against them and those who killed the Apostles because their Consciences told them That therein they did God good Service shall be acquitted at God's Tribunal at last It therefore much concerns all our Fanaticks to beware and be assured That without Repentance their Damnation slumbereth not if possibly they escape God's Judgments even in this Life which it is much to