against her but she utterly detests and abhors all such Doctrines and both teacheth and practiseth the contrary The Weapons of her Warfare are not Carnal but Spiritual Prayers and Tears Patience and Forbearance Exhortations and Admonitions which are not for Destruction but for Edification There is one sort of Persecution and but one that I know of that the Complainers have cause to accuse her of and that is not of the Sword but the Pen her cogent Reasons and sharp Arguments which have been prest and enforced against her Adversaries by the Sons of the Church in Vindication of their dearest Mother and happy is she for she hath her Quiver so full of them that she is not ashamed to meet her Enemy in the Gates these have done very considerable Execution being so rightly aimed so sharp headed and driven home that they could neither fly from nor resist the force of them but have been beaten from one Refuge to another stript of all the Armour wherein they trusted left naked and so defenceless that all the broken Forces which her Adversaries either Papists or Dissenters can Rally have little left but to complain of a Persecution But as they have not felt so neither have they cause to fear a Persecution from the Church of England if they farther consider how compassionately and charitably they have been always disposed for the Relief and Comfort of such afflicted Protestants abroad which differ from her as much or more than the Protestant Dissenters of our own Nation Witness the great sums of Money that have been Collected in our Assemblies for the distressed Inhabitants of the Palatinate and Hungary of Peidmont and Lucerne and the liberal Contributions for Redemption of Captives without respect of Persons their great Hospitality to such as fled to her Bosom being driven from their own Habitations Naked and Destitute meerly for Conscience sake being otherwise very Loyal and Peaceable Subjects And if the Church Established have not been forgetful to entertain Strangers and relieve the Oppressed abroad who can suppose them forward to persecute their Dissenting Brethren at home who are of the same Houshold of Faith to whom they are especially commanded to do good Gal. 6.10 Again the Penal Laws which are now in force were for the most part enacted by the States of the Nation long before the present Clergy had their Being viz. in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and therefore cannot be justly imputed to the present Generation nor hath any rigorous Execution of them been enforced by the importunity of the Established Clergy That Wind that brought the Storm over the Heads of the Complainers did not blow from Canterbury or York but from Rome or Scotland The loud Clamours of our Dissenters against the Toleration of Papists and the secret Whispers of the Papists against Indulgence to the other Sectaries and the intolerable Misdemeanours of both did awaken those dormant Laws and necessitate the Execution of them to prevent such another Deluge as had overflown the Nation with Confusion for almost twenty years together And it hath been truly observed that such as have been most earnest to revive the Execution of those Laws were no great Friends to the Established Church sometime a prevailing party of Presbyterians exasperating them against the Papists and sometime a powerful party of Papists sharpening them against the Presbyterians and Sectaries to incense both Parties against the Established Church as it hath too truly fallen out the Odium of what hath been procured by the opposite Factions being now by them joyntly thrown upon the Church many of whose Ministers have been reviled for their Moderation by the name of Trimmers Hagar and her Son Ishmael were severely dealt with by Sarah and did suffer much more than what some Men do now call Persecution and yet the Apostle accounts that Ishmael was the Persecutor for his mocking of Isaac who was the Son of a Prince and Heir of the Family And the Apostle tells us That there are cruel Mockngs as well as cruel Stripes and Imprisonments And moreover that there was an Allegory in these Transactions by Sarah and her Son Jerusalem or the Church of Christ is represented and then by Ishmael all those cruel Mockers and Despisers of that Church and its Fathers and Family who scoft at them as Antichristian dumb Dogs or Priests of Baal and would once and again cast them out of the Family of God on Earth and in Heaven too are certainly meant and to be noted for the Persecutors though they first cry out of Persecution as it is usual for those that are most guilty to complain first But if any of the Clergy which had for their Loyalty to the Royal Martyr suffered the loss of all manner of Subsistance for themselves and their Families for almost twenty Years together were willing that some such Laws might be enacted as might prevent the like Mischiefs for the future I only ask If any of the Complainers had been under the like Circumstances would they not have endeavoured the same And if so what cause have they to condemn others for what they would allow in themselves Quod ab aliis vobis provocantibus factum est nobis non debet imputari And I can with some Confidence assert That many Members of the Church of England suffered more for obeying the King and his Laws than the Complainers have for their Disobedience And the Church of England hath suffered more for their Kindness to the Papists than ever the Papists suffered by any unkindess from that Church And many of the Clergy were like to suffer much for their Moderation to the Dissenters But what cause is there of such frightful Complaints of being persecuted for Conscience sake when they themselves may so easily and innocently take off those Penalties by a Conformity to the present Establishment which is submitted to by the French Protestants who are Men of as great Learning and as tender Consciences as any of the Complainers an Establishment which is approved by all sorrs of Protestants abroad even those of Geneva and Holland where the President of the Synod of Dort in Discourse with some of our Divines concerning the Constitution of our Church did wish that they might enjoy the like with a Non licet nobis esse tam felicibus and which is acknowledged and dreaded as the greatest Bull-work against Popery And therefore the prime leaders of the Separation though they did not conform as Ministers yet they by their Examples fully complied with our Liturgy in Prayers and Sacraments as Lay-men attending early on the publick Worship and Communicating frequently in our Sacraments as the most sober of the Ancient Non-conformists did and many of the present do and it is affirmed by some that they who now separate from the present Church may for the same reason separate from almost all other Churches in Christendom and one of their own Preachers delivers it as his own and the Judgment of some others
Men to run among them and no Persons so indulged be capable of any Publick Office. It not being reasonable that such should be trusted with Government who look upon the Worship Established by Law as Unlawful 6. That no other Penalty be laid on such indulged Persons but that of Twelve Pence a Sunday for their absence from their Parochial Churches which ought to be duly Collected for the Use of the Poor and cannot be complained of as any heavy Burthen considering the Liberty they do enjoy by it 7. That the Bishops as Visitors appointed by Law have an exact Account given to them of the Rule of their Worship and Discipline and of all the Persons belonging to the indulged Congregations with their Qualities and Places of Abode and that none be admitted a Member of any such Congregation without acquainting their Visitor with it that so means may be used to prevent their leaving our Communion by giving satisfaction to their scruples This Power of the Bishops cannot be scrupled by them since herein they are considered as Commissioners appointed by Law. 8. That no indulged Persons presume under severe Penalties to breed up Scholars or to teach Gentlemens Sons University-Learning because this may be justly looked on as a design to propagate Schism to Posterity and to lay a Foundation for the disturbance of future Generations II. As to the Case of the Ejected Ministers I have these things to offer 1. That bare Subscription of the Thirty Six Articles concerning Doctrinal Points be not allowed as sufficient to qualifie any Man for a Living or any Church-preferment for these Reasons First Any Lay-man upon these Terms may not only be capable of a Living but may take upon him to Administer the Sacraments which was never allowed in any well-constituted Church in the Christian World. And such an allowance among us instead of setling and uniting us will immediately bring things into great Confusion and give mighty Advantage to the Papists againstour Church And we have reason to fear a Design of this Nature under a pretence of Union of Protestants tends to the Subversion of this Church and throwing all things into Confusion which at last will end in Popery Secondly This will bring a Faction into the Church which will more endanger it than External Opposition For such Men will come in Triumphantly having beaten down Three of the Thirty Nine Articles and being in Legal Possession of their Places will be ready to defie and contemn those who submitted to the rest and to glory in their Conquests and draw followers after them as the Victorious Confessors against Prelacy and Ceremonies And can they imagine those of the Church of England will see the Reputation of the Church or their own to suffer so much and not appear in their own Vindication Things are not come to that pass nor will they suddenly be that the Friends of the Church of England will be either afraid or ashamed to own her Cause We do heartily and sincerely desire Union with our Brethren if it may be had on just and reasonable Terms but they must not think that we will give up the Cause of the Church for it so as to condemn its Constitution or make the Ceremonies unlawful which have been hitherto observed and practised in it If any Expedient can be found out for the ease of other Mens Consciences without reflecting on our own if they can be taken in without reproach or dishonour to the Reformation of the Church I hope no true Son of the Church of England will oppose it But if the Design be to bring them in as a Faction to bridle and controul the Episcopal Power by setting up Forty Bishops in a Diocess against One if it be for them to trample upon the Church of England and not submit to its Order and Government upon fair and moderate Terms let them not call this a Design of Union but the giving Law to a Party to oppose the Church of England And what the success of this will be let wise Men judge Thirdly If a Subscription to Thirty Six Articles were sufficient by the Statute 13 Eliz. c. 12. I do not understand how by vertue of that Statute a Man is bound publickly to read the Thirty Nine Articles in the Church and the Testimonial of his Subscription on pain of being deprived ipso facto Co. Inst 4. Part 323 324. if he do not For the L. Ch. J. Coke saith That Subscription to the 39 Articles are required by force of the Act of Parliament 13 Eliz. c. 12. And he adds That the Delinquent is disabled and deprived ipso facto and that a conditional Subscription to them was not sufficient was resolv'd by all the Judges in England But how a Man should be deprived ipso facto for not Subscribing and Reading the 39 Articles as appears by the Cases mentioned in Coke and yet be required only to subscribe to 36 by the same Statute is a thing too hard for me to conceive 2. But notwithstanding this if any temper can be found out as to the manner of Subscription that may give ease to the Scruples of our Brethren and secure the Peace of the Church the desired Union may be attained without that apparent Danger of increasing the Factions among us And this I suppose may be done by an absolute Subscription to all those Articles which concern the Doctrine of the true Christian Faith and the Use of the Sacraments and a solemn Promise under their hand or Subscription of peaceable Submission as to the rest so as not to oppose or contradict them either in Preaching or Writing upon the same Penalty as if they had not subscribed to the 36. Which may be a more probable means to keep the Church in quiet than forcing a more rigorous Subscription upon them or leaving them at their full liberty 3. As to the other Subscription required 1 Jac. to the 3 Articles The first is provided for by the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy The third is the same with the Subscription to the 39 Articles And as to the Second about the Book of Common Prayer c. It ought to be considered 1. Whether for the satisfaction of the Scrupulous some more doubtful and obscure passages may not yet be explained or amended Whether the New Translation of the Psalms were not fitter to be used at least in Parochial Churches Whether Portions of Canonical Scripture were not better put instead of Apocrypha Lessons Whether the Rubrick about Salvation of Infants might not be restored to its former place in the Office of Confirmation and so the present Exceptions against it be removed Whether those Expressions which suppose the strict Exercise of Discipline in Burying the Dead were not better left at liberty in our present Case Such a Review made by Wise and Peaceable Men not given to Wrath and Disputing may be so far from being a dishonour to this Church that it may add to the Glory of
called and then preached against it To return then to our Argument If reading the Declaration in our Churches be in the nature of the action in the intention of the command in the opinion of the People an interpretative consent to it I think myself bound in conscience not to read it because I am bound in conscience not to approve it It it against the Constitution of the Church of England which is established by Law and to which I have subscribed and therefore am bound in conscience to teach nothing contrary to it while this Obligation lasts It is to teach an unlimited and universal Toleration which the Parliament in 72 declared illegal and which has been condemned by the Christian Church in all Ages It is to teach my People that they need never come to Church more but have my free leave as they have the King 's to go to a Conventicle or to Mass It is to teach the Dispensing Power which alters what has been formerly thought the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom which we dare not do till we have the Authority of Parliament for it It is to recommend to our People the choice of such Persons to sit in Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal Laws which most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation have declared their Judgments against It is to condemn all those great and worthy Patriots of their Country who forfeited the dearest thing in the World to them next a good Conscience viz. The favour of their Prince and a great many honourable and profitable Employments with it rather than consent to that Proposal of taking away the Test and Penal Laws which they apprehend destructive to the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and he who can in conscience do all this I think need scruple nothing For let us consider further what the effects and consequences of our reading the Declaration are like to be and I think they are matter of Conscience too when they are evident and apparent This will certainly render our Persons and Ministry infinitely contemptible which is against that Apostolick Canon Let no man despise thee Tit. 2.15 That is so to behave himself in his Ministerial Office as not to fall under contempt and therefore this obliges the Conscience not to make our selves ridiculous nor to render our Ministry our Counsels Exhortations Preaching Writing of no effect which is a thousand times worse than being silenced Our Sufferings will Preach more effectually to the People when we cannot Speak to them but he who for Fear or Cowardize or the Love of this World betrays his Church and Religion by undue compliances and will certainly be thought to do so may continue to Preach but to no purpose and when we have rendred our selves ridiculous and contemptible we shall then quickly fall and fall unpitied There is nothing will so effectually tend to the final ruin of the Church of England because our Reading the Declaration will discourage or provoke or misguide all the Friends the Church of England has can we blame any man for not preserving the Laws and the Religion of our Church and Nation when we our selves will venture nothing for it can we blame any man for consenting to Repeal the Test and Penal Laws when we recommend it to them by reading the Declaration have we not reason to expect that the Nobility and Gentry who have already suffered in this Cause when they hear themselves condemned for it in all the Churches of England will think it time to mend such a fault and reconcile themselves to their Prince and if our Church fall this way is there any reason to expect that it should ever rise again These Consequences are almost as evident as Demonstrations and let it be what it will in itself which I foresee will destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and Interest I think I ought to make as much conscience of doing it as of doing the most immoral action in nature To say that these mischievous consequences are not absolutely necessary and therefore do not affect the Conscience because we are not certain they will follow is a very mean Objection Moral Actions indeed have not such necessary consequences as natural causes have necessary effects because no moral causes act necessarily reading the Declaration will not as necessarily destroy the Church of England as Fire burns Wood but if the consequence be plain and evident the most likely thing that can happen if it be unreasonable to expect any other if it be what is plainly intended and designed either I must never have any regard to Moral Consequences of my Actions or if ever they are to be considered they are in this Case Why are the Nobility and Gentry so extreamly averse to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws Why do they forfeit the King's Favour and their Honourable Stations rather then comply with it If you say that this tends to destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion I ask whether this be the necessary consequence of it whether the King cannot keep his Promise to the Church of England if the Test and Penal Laws be Repealed We cannot say but this may be and yet the Nation does not think fit to try it and we commend those Great Men who deny it and if the same Questions were put to us we think we ought in Conscience to deny them our selves and are there not as high probabilities that our Reading the Declaration will promote the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws as that such a Repeal will ruine our Constitution and bring in Popery upon us Is it not as probable that such a compliance in us will disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry who have hitherto been firm to us as that when the Power of the Nation is put into Popish Hands by the Repeal of such Tests and Laws the Priests and Jesuits may find some Salvo for the King's Conscience and perswade him to forget his Promise to the Church of England and if the probable ill consequences of Repealing the Test and Penal Laws be a good reason not to comply with it I cannot see but that the probable ill consequences of Reading the Declaration is as good a reason not to read it The most material Objection is that the Dissenters whom we ought not to provoke will expound our not Reading it to be the effect of a persecuting Spirit Now I wonder men should lay any weight on this who will not allow the most probable consequences of our Actions to have any influence upon Conscience for if we must compare consequences to disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry by Reading it is likely to be much more fatal than to anger the Dissenters and it is more likely and there is much more reason for it that one should be offended than the other For the Dissenters who are wise and considering are sensible of the snare themselves
THE Case of PERSECUTION Charg'd on the Church of England Consider'd and Discharg'd In order to Her JUSTIFICATION AND A Desired Vnion of Protestant Dissenters The Parliament made good Laws The Papists out of a Pretended Reverence to Tender Consciences hindred the Execution of them and some Leading Dissenters to say no more had private Incouragement to set up a mighty Cry of Persecution to cast all the Odium on a Persecuting Church and Diocesan Canoneers Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet p. 68. But Wisdom is justified of her Children Matth. xi xix Licensed and Entred according to Order LONDON Printed by Freeman Collins and are to be Sold by Richard Baldwin in the Old-Bailey MDCLXXXIX TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD JONATHAN Lord Bishop OF EXON May it please your Lordship THIS slender Present comes as a grateful Expression of that great Satisfaction and Joy with which your Clergy were filled when your Lordship was installed our Diocesan Your Lordship's Client according to his mean Abilities hath lately endeavoured after our Saviour's Method to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and now he assays to give unto God and his Church the things that are God's The Offering I confess is little and lean but coming as a Dove with an Olive Branch to that Ark which hath been long tossed with succeeding Waves bringing Tidings of the Abatement of that Deluge which had overflown the Church and Nation and that the frightful Noise of Persecution doth now cease in our Land I hope it may be taken into that Ark by your Lordships Hand The Widows Mite which she cast into the Treasury was graciously accepted by our blessed Saviour and indeed it is only your Lordships Approbation can give a Value to this Mite as the Royal Stamp doth to those Metals which have no Intrinsick value in themselves My endeavour is by a few Arguments to silence those Murmurings Fears and Jealousies that the Church of England will be as they slanderously report it hath been a Persecuting Church and this would be as needless if we had to do with reasonable Men and real Protestants as to prove that the Martyr'd Bishops in Queen Mary's days who also were our first Reformers were Persecutors and destroyers of that Religion which they planted by their Doctrine and watered with their Bloud in every corner of their Kingdom and which hitherto as a fruitful Vine hath brought forth such Fruit as hath honoured GOD and Man. But what need is there to draw a Line Judges 9.11 when we have the Works of Apelles before us The more then Heroick Deeds of your self and those ever memorable Bishops your Colleagues of whom our English World was not worthy have struck dead all such Objectors who as one Man stood up as Phinees did and by Petitioning or as the other Translation hath it by executing of Judgment Psal 106. v. 30. And by laying not only your Dignities and Honours but your Lives and Fortunes in the Gap gave a check and diversion to those Plagues of Popery and Slavery which with so much otherwise Irresistible Violence were breaking in upon us And how can those Bishops be any longer accounted Persecutors or unworthy of the Miter who were such prepared Candidates for a Crown of Martyrdom for themselves and so resolved Assertros of the liberty of the Gospel and the Kingdom of God and our Saviour for their Protestant Brethren But as Suetonius c. 74. says of Julius Caesar That he thought it not enough that his Wife was without a Fault but that she ought to be clear from all Suspicion of a Fault Oportet uxorem Caesaris non solum crimine verum omni Criminis suspicione carere His present Majesty after mature Consideration hath now consummated the Vnion of our Established Church with his Royal Person which he long since espoused by its Proxy and lively Effigies His Royal Consort and which hath hitherto to his good liking behaved her self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an unspotted Virgin for thus hath our Royal Sovereign solemnly declared in the most August Assembly of the Nation That he is resolved to support that Church whose Loyalty he doubted not would enable him to Answer their just Expectation and that it should be always his particular Care and as soon as conveniently it might be he would call a Convocation So that now there is as little cause of Suspicion left that the Established Church should be a Persecuting as that it can be a Popish Church or that we shall have meerly a Parliamentary Religion as the Papists say as that we shall have a Popish Religion as some Dissenters fear It is too apparent that the Church was singled out as a Sacrifice and devoted by the Papists to Destruction and for Protection as a Dove Persecuted by the Romish Eagle she hath taken Sanctuary in the Bosom of our present Soveraign and who can think that under the Influence and Conduct of so propitious and benign a Protestant Prince that Dove should be transubstantiated into a Serpent Nor can her greatest Enemy suppose her to be so void of all Reason and Religion as to forget those Vows which she made in that day of her Distress which our Divisions made so Dark and Tempestuous of her ready Inclination to a happy Vnion in which our Strength and Security against our common Adversaries doth consist And the God of Peace who only can do it make us all that dwell in one House to be of one Mind to know and do the things that belong to our Peace before they are hid from our Eyes I beg your Lordships Patience to hear a great Truth which will never shame its Owner We were at first hurried at so great a distance from one another crumbled into so many Sects and Factions and have been for almost Fifty Years together running into irremediable Separations by the Whips and Spurs of those furious Drivers and Riders our common Enemies the Papists whose secret but now sensible Lashes and they must needs go whom the Devil transformed into an Angel of Light doth drive have forced us to run into such Confusion and Corruption as none but he that raiseth the Dead could repair the decayed Careasses of our Church and State. And very Glorious would those Bodies have appeared at that Resurrection were it not for some wrangling Sadduces who would rather maintain an Annihilation than grant a Resurrection for whose Confutation it was necessary for such as were concerned on the behalf of the Church to assert her Doctrine and their own Innocency under the late Revolutions when therefore for the Re-establishment of the Church a Commission was granted to some of different Perswasions to consult thereupon the Spirit of the Covenant did so stir in some Dissenters as to move them to insist upon a necessity of Reformation of Episcopacy and Liturgy of Doctrine and Worship to which the Advocates for the Church could not yield to the Satisfaction of their Adversaries unless they had
manner of the Sufferings of those Primitive Christians with the Afflictions and Patience of our Modern Sects we shall find these to be more like pettish and froward Children who fancy Bugbears to themselves and by groundless fears and crying disquiet themselves and others then like those Heroick Christians that indured the most exquisite Torments with invincible patience praying for their Persecutors The Stoicks behaved themselves with a much more imitable fortitude Tormenta a me abesse velim sed si sustinenda suerint ut me fortiter animose honeste geram optabo And thus Seneca Placebit ei ignis per quem fides collucebit He would rather embrace the Fire than betray his Fidelity Whereas our Complainers do by intolerable provocations draw down punishments on themselves and instead of induring them with a Christian patience seek to avenge themselves on the Inflictors How unreasonable the Complaints of such men are will appear if we consider first what their Sufferings have been as to the matter and causes of them Nulli dictum est nega Deum incende Testamentum Idolis Sacrifica It was never said to any of them Deny your God or dye by the hands of an Executioner burn your Bibles or we will burn you Sacrifice to our Idols or we will Sacrifice you Sola fuerunt ad pacem hortamenta ut Deus Christus ejus in unitate coleretur as St. Augustine speaks of the Donatists They were only exhorted to Worship God and his Son Jesus Christ in a peaceable Communion with their Christian Brethren and to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace wherefore he advised them to consider Prius quid secerint deinde quod patiuntur First what they had done and then what they did suffer So shall I desire those that think themselves grieved to consider by what actions and provocations of theirs the Penal Laws that are now in force were procured for Ex malis moribus bonae leges it was the seditious practices of ungovernable Men that gave birth to those Statutes which as the Preamble to those that were made in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth declares were made to retain her Majesty's Subjects in due Obedience That there is a necessity of some Penal Laws for the restraint of Evil-doers is the mature judgment of all Mankind for without such every Government would soon run into confusion and therefore every of the complaining Parties have made such Laws and inforced them with more severe Sanctions than those against whom they complain That the making of such Laws belongs to the Supreme Magistrate according to the National Constitution is also unquestionable and it would be ridiculous and bring Authority to contempt to make them and not execute them upon such as render themselves obnoxious by their disorderly behaviour St. Augustine in his 48th Epistle says That it was once his judgment that there was no need of Coercive Laws in matters of Religion lest we should have dissembling Catholicks instead of open Hereticks And therefore he thought that none should be compelled to the Unity of Christ but on second thoughts he altered his opinion and wrote a Tract de Correctione Donatistarum which is extant among his Retractations l. 2. wherein he asserts the necessity of Penal Laws which he grounds on his own experience instancing in the City of Hippo whereof he was Bishop which notwithstanding all his Learning and Endeavours was over-run by the Donatists which set up separate Congregations but by the execution of some Penal Laws was so reduced to Unity as if there had never been any Schism among them for as he observes they being first awed by fear were afterward convinced by truth which they could not hear from their false Teachers And in his 48th Epistle he appeals to them Quis nostram non laudat leges ab Imperatoribus adversus Pagana Sacrificia illius quippe impietatis Capitale supplicium est i. e. Who of us doth not commend the Imperial Edicts against Heathenish Sacrifices although the punishment be capital And in his 50th Epistle he affirms the Laws of the Emperours against those Donatists were a greater act of Charity to their Souls and Bodies as well as Piety towards God than the Indulgence of Julian which was such an occasion of Impiety and Cruelty as had almost destroyed Christianity by permitting Divisions among them wherefore he desires them to consider Quid potias eligatis utrum correcti vivere in pace an in malitia perseverantes falsi martyris nomine vera supplicia sustinere contra Petil. l. 2. which were most eligible either by correction to live in peace or to persevere in malice and draw just punishments on themselves being deceived with a false opinion of Martyrdom and Persecution For as he truly says Non persequitur phreneticum Medicus sed sphreneticus medicum When men that are diseased grow frantick and so ungovernable that they seek to infect and abuse others they that bind them to a better behaviour do the office of a Physitian not a Persecutor and so the Donatists did rather persecute the Laws than the Laws them Leges puniendo non possunt quod ipsi saeviendo potuerunt Epist 170. Nor can any reason be given why such Laws and Penalties should not extend to such as live in the Communion of the Church or separating from it pretend Conscience for their Disobedience for then all sorts of Wickedness might go unpunished seeing that some men have pleaded Conscience as a pretext for the greatest Villanies Now seeing it pleased the Supreme Authority of the Nation having had long experience of the Loyalty and peaceableness of such as lived in Communion with the Established Church to make the Conformity of the Subjects to the publick Doctrine and Worship a Test of their Obedience and Loyalty to the King and having also observed by many Years experience that such as moved Sedition in the State had first raised Division in or made Separation from the Church it pleased them to enact several Laws and Sanctions for an Uniformity in the Worship of God as a means to preserve the publick peace of the State which Laws being the Senatus consulta the effects of the Supreme Authority in Parliaments wherein every Subject by himself or his Representative is supposed to have this Vote they cannot be accounted the Constitutions of the Church any more than the Plebiscita or the Agreement of the People confirmed by the King on the Advice and Counsel of his Parliament and those Laws which on such solemn deliberation and general consent were established cannot rationally be annulled as long as the causes which made the enacting of them necessary are continued And doubtless as the Papists will acknowledge the necessity of them to suppress Heresies and Schisms seeing there is no Nation where their Religion is established where there are not more severe Laws and Sanctions made to suppress such Mischiefs so all other Dissenters will approve of the execution of
down Fire and Brimstone on them before night Object These are terrible Judgments but where are those false Prophets to whom they belong Answ I know not any party though there be very many among us whose Leaders do not accuse the Guides of the other Parties as false Prophets as either not having a lawful Ordination but run before they are sent or being lawfully Ordained do preach such Doctrines as are not agreeable to the written word which is the only Canon or Rule of Faith and Manners As to the first viz. The lawfulness of Ordination it hath been sufficiently evidenced against the Papists that the Ministers of the Established Church of England are lawfully Ordained and by the Concessions of the most sober Diffenters it is granted who never required any other Ordination of such as went over to the opposite Parties nor doth the Church of England deny the validity of Ordinations in the Church of Rome though it doth deny the same to those separate Factions which heap up Teachers to themselves having itching Ears for the Primitive Church hath never approved of such Ordinations wherein a Bishop did not preside and joyn with his Presbyters But supposing the Ordination to be valid we are to consider the truth of those Doctrines by the correspondency they bare to the Canon of the Holy Scriptures for whoever shall preach any other Doctrine as an Article of Faith necessarily to be received and believed in order to Salvation though it be an Angel from Heaven 't is the Apostles Sentence that he be accursed Gal. 2.8 i. e. we may have no Communion with him by this rule therefore we are to try the Doctrines and Spirits of those false Prophets which are abroad in the World and by these Characters we may discern them if there be any that do deny that Jesus Christ is come into the World or that he is indeed the Son of God of one and the same substance with the Father if any reject the Doctrines taught by him and his Apostles resisting the Truth and Faith once deliver'd to the Saints being ashamed of Christ and his Words if any reject the Institutions of Christ's Ministers and Sacraments or add new Precepts and Commandments requiring the like observance of them as of his Word and Ordinance if any shall publickly preach such Opinions and Practises as are not according to Godliness but tend directly to Profaneness Uncleanness Disorder and Division if any forbid what God Commands or command what God forbids teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men such men will be found false Prophets and whether the Socinians that deny the equality of the Son of God with the Father in one Substance whether they that set up other Mediators between God and Man or command Divine Worship to be given to the Creatures and the work of Mens hands or that to colour this Impiety expunge the second Commandment that add to the number of Sacraments more than Christ Ordained and take from those which he instituted an Essential part such as the Cup in the Lord's Supper with a Non-obstante to Christ's Institution or such as wholly deny the use and efficacy of Baptism that prefer their own Prayers to that of our Saviour and their own Dreams and Delusions to the Revelation of Christ and his Apostles whether they that teach Disobedience to Magistrates and speaking evil of Dignities and stir up Seditions and Divisions from whence come Wars and Confusions and every evil thing whether these have not the Characters of false Prophets the Scriptures and Primitive Councils have determined And if the Established Church teach no other Doctrine than what is consonant to the Holy Scriptures and approved as well by Papists as by Presbyterians and Independents for as for the other Sectaries Anabaptists Quakers c. who reject the Authority of Scriptures we are not much concerned for their Objections if we worship the only true God and own Christ Jesus God and Man to be the only Mediator between God and Man observing all and only the Doctrines of Christ for rendring unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods The Character of a false Prophet cannot justly be imputed to any of her Ministers the great Crime objected to the Church by the Romanists is our separation from their Communion to which it is Answered That we have no otherwise left them than they have deserted the Doctrines and Communion of the Scriptures and the Primitive Church for the first four hundred Years to which if they shall return we are ready to give them the right hand of Fellowship But then it will be objected by some modern Dissenters in the words of Optatus Paces credemus uno sigillo sigillati sumus nec aliter baptizati nec aliter ordinati quam vos testamentum Divinum legimus pariter c. We believe in the same God and Saviour we are Baptized and Ordained as you and read the same Divine Testament but they are answered in the words of the same Father Hoc solo nomine quod a Christi Ecclesia separati estis vitam non habelitis for this only Crime of forsaking the Communion of Christ's Church you may come short of Eternal Life To which agreeth that of St. Augustin Extra Ecclaesiam Omnia possint habere praeter salutem possunt habere honorem possint habere sacramentum possunt cantare Hallelujah possunt respondere Amen possunt Evangelium tenere predicare possunt in nomine patris filii spiritus sancti fidem habere predicare sed nusquam nisi in Ecclesiâ Catholica possunt salutem invenire And therefore we are told That Schism is as studiously to be avoided as Idolatry Non minor est gloria Martyrium sustinere ne seinditur Ecclesia quare ne Idolis sacrificetur By denying the one we consult for our private Salvation by the other for the publick safety of the Church And if indeed we are agreed in the Essentials of Religion what cause can be given why by our Dissention in some Circumstances we should expose our selves and the People to all those Mischiefs which will inevitably follow on our Divisions For on the same grounds that they who agree with us in Doctrinals do deny to hold Communion with us in Worship others that have not so great an agreement with them may forsake their Communion and so our Divisions may be perpetuated and multiplied Inter licet nostrum non licet vestrum nutant animae Christianorum nemo vobis credit nemo nobis omnes contentiosi homines sumus saith Optatus p. 84. The People will not believe we have the same Faith when they see we agree not in the same Worship But if we have indeed the same Faith why do we separate It is doubtless a Sin to separate from that Church in whose Communion we may remain without Sin and it is a real Imputation of somewhat that is sinful in our Communion when we separate
no means be drawn to give their consent the King was prevailed with to own a Suppositious Child as Heir to his Dominions that he might give a new life to the Popish and Fanatick Interests But this and his sense of the Protestant Cause which was then in a decaying condition stirred up the Spirit of our present King to vindicate the Cause of the English Church and his own and his Consort 's Title to the Crown and the Severity used to the Bishops and the Universities and the Affront done to the English Souldiers by bringing some thousands of Irish Cut-Throats and preferring them above the English did stem the Tide and immediately upon the Arrival of the Prince's Army there followed a great Revolt of the Nobility Souldiery and Gentry of the Land who marching towards London became formidable to the King who coming as far as Salisbury intending to fight the Prince found himself so deserted that he returned in great haste to London and considering into what streights his precipitant Counsels had brought him he sends for such Bishops as were in or near London to have their Advice in that critical Juncture which with all possible humility and integrity they did to this effect 1. That it was necessary for him to restore all things to the state wherein he found them when he came to the Crown by committing all Offices and Places of Government to such of the Nobility and Gentry as were qualified for them according to the Laws and by redressing and removing such Grievances as were generally complained of particularly that his Majesty would dissolve the Ecclesiastical Commission and promise to his People never to Erect any such Court for the future 2. That he would not only put an effectual stop to the issuing forth of any Dispensations but would call in and cancel all those which since his coming to the Crown had been obtained from him 3. That he would restore the Universities to their Legal State Statutes and Customs and particularly restore the Master of Magdalen Colledge in Cambridge and the ejected President and Fellows of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford to their Properties 4. And that he would not permit any Persons to enjoy any Preferments in either University but such as were qualified by the Statutes and Laws of the Land. 5. That he would suppress the Jesuits Schools opened in London or else-where and grant no more Licenses for such Schools as were against the Laws of the Land and his Majesties true interest 6. That he would send Inhibitions after the Four Romish Bishops who under the Title of Apostolick Vicars did presume to exercise within this Kingdom such Jurisdictions as are by the Laws of the Land invested in the Bishops of the Church of England 7. That he would not suffer any more Quo Warranto's to be sued out against any Corporations but restore to such as had been disturbed their ancient Charters Priviledges and Immunities and condemn all those illegal Regulations that had been made 8. That he would fill up all the vacant Bishopricks in England and Ireland with Persons duly qualified and especially consider the See of York whose want of an Archbishop is very prejudicial to the whole Province 9. That he would act no more nor insist on the Dispensing Power but leave it to be debated and setled by Act of Parliament 10. That on the Restoration of Corporations he would issue Writs for a Free Parliament for redressing of Grievances in Church and State upon just and solid Foundations and to establish due Liberty of Conscience Lastly and above all That his Majesty would permit some of his Bishops to lay such Motives and Arguments before him as might by the Blessing of God bring back his Majesty to the Communion of the Church of England into whose Catholick Faith he had been Baptized in which he had been Educated and to which it was their earnest Prayer to Almighty God that his Majesty might be re-united Had these sober and pious Counsels been accepted then when the Bishop's Petition was rejected as a false malitious and seditious Libel the King might have been still setled on the Throne but he had past the Rubicon and was resolved to fight out his way for the establishing the Popish Religion against all opposition and being deserted by his English Forces hath resolutely cast himself on the French and Irish and what hath been done against the established Church there cannot amount to less than a Persecution And such a one must we have expected had not God's Almighty Arm bafled their Antichristian Designs Now if the Popish Party have been so hasty and violent in persecuting the Church as soon as they got Power into their hands notwithstanding all that kindness and moderation manifested to them to the great regret of the other Dissenters who thought themselves less gently dealt with I know not what more gentle usage the Church could expect from them who have so long and loudly cried out of Persecution and for Forty or Fifty Years together covenanted to root out Episcopacy and Liturgy and perpetuated that Obligation to the present Generation so that the bitter Spirit of the Smectymneunans seem to survive still in the present Dissenters who still maintain the Old Cause and if ever the Power should return to their hands as in the time of the Long Parliament would fly as high and fall on the same Game for a Lyon is no less a Lyon while he is restrained within a Den and loaden with Chains but grows usually more raging when let loose and Maledicus à malefico non distat nisi occasione Those ravenons Beasts that do rent a Man in Effigie do manifest what they would do in Corpore as the Donatists who first slew the Orthodox Gladio Oris did as they had opportunity destroy them Ore Gladii I think it will be a difficult Province for a very good Orator to perswade the Church of England that such Dissenters as have all along struck at the Root will be contented if a few Branches were cut off When the Winds and Storms rage the Husband-men will part with the Branches to preserve the Root I may part with a Coat or a Cloak to an importunate Brother but if he to enrich himself by making me poor continues craving till he strips me to the skin and leaves me naked I am not so much charitable to him as cruel to myself Had the Dissenters in 62 asked less they might have had more granted but when they crave all they deserve nothing if the same Leaven do begin to swell and ferment the Spirits of Men now as then we are commanded to be aware of them We had no sooner past a Fiery Tryal in the Twenty Years Persecution by the Dissenters but were under another Twenty Years Tryal under the Papists though it did not appear so visible and successful till of late And if the Papists should be asked who were the Persecutors in the first Twenty Years they must answer the Dissenters if we should ask the Dissenters whether the Papists or the Church of England were the persecuted Party in the last Twenty Years it must be answered the Papists were for though their frequent Attempts to destroy the Church proved abortive as there may be many traiterous Conspiracies against the Life of a Prince though he survive them all and bring the Conspirators to condign punishment as in the Powder-Plot Cain might have been called a Persecutor of Abel though he had not slain him and Ishmael's cruel mocking of his Brother is called a persecuting of him And if the same bitterness of Spirit do reign in the English as hath shewn itself in the Scottish Presbytery the Episcopal Party may well be jealous of them and few I suppose will be of the Opinion of W. J. That the Removal of our Ceremonies will be an equivalent compensation for the shedding of as much Blood and exhausting as much Treasure as was shed and exhausted in the late inhumane Civil War Where the Royal Martyr the Archbishop many Nobles innumerable Gentry and Commons were sacrificed for a Reformation of Ceremonies but I hope such fury will not possess the hearts of any Dissenters in this Age. To Conclude The Church is still through the wonderful Providence of God in the legal possession of her Rights she is neither Popishly affected nor of a persecuting Spirit or Power she hath learnt by her own Suffering for Conscience-sake how to pity such as are truly conscientious but if any man be contentious and will deny her that liberty which they challenge to themselves I shall only say with the Apostle 〈◊〉 hath been to those French Protestants 〈◊〉 have found 〈◊〉 a Sanctuary and do readily joyn in her Worship and Service and I suppose their Judgments are as solid and their 〈◊〉 as tender as any of our Dissenters who yet look on our Church as a â—eth-haven and a House of Bondage FINIS ADVERTISEMENTS 1. A Resolution of Certain Queries concerning Submission to the Present Government The Queries 1. Concerning the Orginal of Government 2. What is the Constitution of the Government of England 3. What Obligation lies on the King by the Coronation-Oath 4. What Obligation lies on the Subject by the Oaths of Supremacy c. 5. Whether if the King Violate his Oath and actually Destroys the Ends of it the Subjects are freed from their Obligation to him 6. Whether the King hath Renounced or Deserted the Government 7. Whether on such Desertion the People to preserve themselves from Confusion may admit another what Method is to be used in such Admission 8. Whether the Settlement now made is a Lawful Establishment and such as with a good Conscience may be Submitted to 2. A full Answer to all the Popular Objections that have yet appear'd for not taking the Oath of Allegiance to their present Majesties particularly offered to the Consideration of all such of the Divines of the Church of England and others as are yet unsatisfied Shewing both from Scripture and the Laws of the Land the Reasonableness thereof and the Ruining Consequences both to the Nation and Themselves if not complied with 3. The Historian Unmask'd Or Some Reflections on the late History of Passive Obedience Wherein the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance is truly Stated and Asserted By a Divine of the Church of England All Three Printed by Freeman Collins and are to be Sold by Richard Baldwin in the Old-Bailey 1689.