that nature have been matter of dispute in all Ages and in all Religions but about the Orders and Ceremonies this is the only thing to be resolved Whether the Church hath power to injoin an indifferent Ceremony But there is no such difference in the case The Question of things Indifferent hath been mistaken for the Grand Case of the Nonconformists for those points which are the main reason and matter of their inconformity are by them accounted not indifferent but unlawful and therefore not to be admitted in their practice till their Consciences be better satisfied And it is not irrational to think that serious doubtings may arise in sober minds about some parts of the injoyned Uniformity and particularly about those Ceremonies which seem to draw near to the significancy and moral efficacy of Sacraments and thereupon may appear to some not as meer circumstances but as parts of Divine Worship and their Consciences may be struck with Terror by the sense of God's Jealousie about any instituted Worship which Himself hath not prescribed Moreover these Orders and Ceremonies have been matters of dispute in all times since the beginning of Protestant Reformation But under the degenerate state of the Christian Churches by the great Apostacy of the later times there could be no occasion of disputing these things when Will-worship was generally exalted and the grossest Idolatries had prevailed I question the truth of that Assertion That the Dissenters cannot name one Church besides ours in which there was a Schism made for a Ceremony For a great Rent was made in the Christian Church throughout the World about a Ceremony or as small a matter to wit the time of celebrating the Feast of Easter But whensoever a Schism is made let them that cause it look to it and lay it to heart Wo to the world because of offences and wo to that man by whom the offence cometh But we still insist upon this Argument That these Rites being at the best but indifferent in the opinion of the Imposers the observation of them cannot in reason be esteemed of such importance to the substance of Religion as the different Opinions about the Articles aforesaid are And who knows not with what animosity and vehemence the Parties that are called Arminian and Antiarminian have fought against one another and what dreadful and destructive Consequences they pretend to draw from each others Opinions Now put case the more prevalent Party in the Church of England should go about to determine those Controversies on the one side or the other and truly they were sometimes determined by a Synod in His Majesty's Dominions namely by that of Dublin in the year 1615 also by the greatest Prelates and most eminent Doctors in England in the Lambeth-Articles and what hath been may again come to pass would not that side against whom the Decision passeth be ready to cry out of Oppression Yea how great a Rent would be made by it through the whole Fabrick of this Church Furthermore in Ceremonies publikely used and matters of open practice the Church of England hath thought good to indulge Dissents as in that of bowing toward the Altar or the East unless it be required by the local Statutes of particular Societies And in this the Sons of the Church do bear with one another according to the direction of the Canons made in the year 1640. Unto which may be added That the Mode of Worship in Cathedrals is much different from that in Parochial Churches Likewise some Ministers before their Sermon use a Prayer of their own conceiving others onely as the phrase is bid Prayer If these and other Varieties be no reproach to our Church will it reproach her to suffer one to Officiate with a Surpliss and another without it SECT XVI Men differently perswaded in the present Controversies may live together in Peace IT is no vain speculation to think we may have peace if men perswaded in their Consciences that the controverted Ceremonies are superstitious or at the best but Trifles and that the Liturgy and Ecclesiastical Polity need some Reformation should be joined with men far otherwise perswaded And the preserving of Peace in that case doth not suppose or require that all these differently perswaded men will be wise on both sides to content themselves with their own opinions But it supposeth the State and the chief Guides of the Church to be wise as it is always requisite they should be and that many of Reputation and Eminency on both sides will be prudent and temperate and examples of Moderation to others and not to suppose this is to disparage and debase our present Age but above all it supposeth the Publike Constitution so well stated and setled as to be able to curb the Imprudent and Unsober and to encourage the Modest and Well-advised Surely all Dissenters upon Conscience will not be prevailed with by the same Conscience to endeavour the propagation of their own way in these differences to the depression of others If some offer to disturb the Peace can no Rule of Government restrain them It is a deplorable case indeed if there be no remedy but for those that are favoured by the Higher Powers utterly to exclude and reject those that want the like favour and countenance At this day the Church of England by Her present Latitude or at least Connivence keeps peace among Her Sons of such different Perswasions as formerly stirred up great Dissentions in this Church Who is ignorant of the Contentions raised about the Arminian Controversies in the several Reigns of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the First But in the present Times the mutual forbearance on both sides but chiefly the Church's Prudence hath lay'd asleep those Controversies whereas if one side presuming upon its Power and Prevalency should go about as formerly to decry and depress the other and to advance and magnifie themselves and ingross the Preferments doubtless the like flames would break out again For there is a great dislike and abhorrency setled at the Heart-root of both these Parties against each others Opinions and a sutable occasion would soon draw it out to an open Contestation Now if the Church's Peace and Unity be already maintained in such seemingly dangerous diversity of Opinion among her Members and Officers and those not of the meanest rank why should her Prudence and Polity he suspected as insufficient to maintain Unity and Peace in the indulging of the differently perswaded in the now disputed Rites and Opinions SECT XVII Of DISSENTERS of Narrower Principles and of TOLERATION THE Latitude discoursed in the former Treatise is unjustly impeached as providing onely for the Presbyterians and relinquishing all other Dissenters for it comprehends within the Establishment those of all sorts that are of Principles congruous to stated Order in the Church so that no sort is excluded whose Principles make them capable And was this Capacity any where restrained to the Presbyterians Some Nonconformists are for
acquiescence in the Commands of Superiors and the proper matter of their Injunctions IN the former Treatise this Argument was used The Church doth not claim an Infallibility therefore the cannot settle the Conscience by her sole Warrant but still leaves room for doubting The Answerer makes this to be either a piece of ignorance or of portentous malice and an Assertion that would disturb all Government both in Families and in the State that would confound all Society and extirpate Faith and Justice from among the sons of men But this his strange Inference rather is portentous That the Church cannot settle the Conscience by her sole Warrant is it not a Principle maintained by all Protestants in opposition to the Popish implicit Faith and blind Obedience But is this person consistent with himself For after he hath a while expatiated in his imaginary hideous Consequences he comes himself to deny that the Church bindeth the Conscience by her own Authority And yet it is a lesser thing to bind the Conscience than to settle it and leave no room for doubting For Conscience may be obliged when it is not setled And if the Church cannot oblige doubtless she cannot settle the Conscience by her sole Authority How then could a man of reason draw such hideous Inferences from that Position If I may give way to conjectures I suspect that he might take check at the word Infallibility by which I intend no more then Infallible Direction and I fear not to own this Assertion That whosoever have not Infallible Direction or the certain assistance of an Infallible Guide so as to be exempted from all error in what they propound for Belief or Practice cannot settle the Conscience by their sole warrant I still aver That in prescribed Forms and Rites of Religion the Conscience that doth its office will interpose and concern it self And it is matter of astonishment that a Learned Protestant should say this Position must needs be false For Conscience guided by the fear of God will use all just means to discern his Will and cannot resign it self to the dictates of men in the points of Divine Worship If the Judgment of Discerning which makes men differ from Brutes be to be exercised in any case it is chiefly requisite in these matters wherein the Glory of God and the Saving of the Soul is so much concerned It is granted That to maintain Peace and Unity in the Church and to be obedient to the Higher Powers in those things which are proper matter for their Commands are most strictly injoined Duties But the Injunctions here considered though to the Imposers they are but things Indifferent that is neither Commanded nor Forbidden of God in the Consciences of Dissenters are Unlawful To instance in some controverted Ceremonies They think that God hath determined against them though not in particular yet in the general Prohibition of all uncommanded Worship And they reply Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto men more then unto God judg ye To restrain that of the Apostle He that doubts is damned if he eat only to things wherein the Church hath not interposed her Authority is a false gloss and a begging of the Question What human Authority can warrant any one to put in practice an unlawful or suspected Action or to make profession of a known or suspected Falshood As concerning the Rights of Superiors it is the Church's Duty and Honour to teach and command her Children to do whatsoever Christ hath commanded And it is the chiefest Glory and most proper Work of the Magistrate who is Gods Minister and Vicegerent to be custos vindex utriusque Tabulae To incourage and inforce Obedience to the Divine Laws whether written in the Bible or imprinted in our Nature and in subserviency thereunto to have power to determine such things as are requisite in the general but in the particulars are left undetermined of God and are to be ordered by Human Prudence according to the Light of Nature and the general Rules of Gods Word But things indifferent in their nature and either offensive in their use or needless and superfluous are not worthy to be made the proper matter of his Commands It is a grave and weighty saying of a Learned man of whatsoever Perswasion he were If the special Guides and Pastors of the Church would be a little sparing of incumbring Churches with superfluities or not over-rigid either in reviving obsolete Customs or imposing new there would be far less cause of Schism and Superstition and all the inconvenience that were likely to ensue would be but this That in so doing they should yeeld a little to the imbecillity of their Inferiors a thing which St. Paul would never have refused to do SECT XIII Of the alledged Reasons of the Ecclesiastical Injunctions in the beginning of the Reformation THE Answerer relates at large the proceeding of this Church in the beginning of the Reformation The sum of the Relation is That there being Two sorts of men one that thought it a great matter of Conscience to depart from the least Ceremony they were so addicted to their old Customs the other so new-fangled that they would innovate all things and nothing would satisfie them but that which was new It was necessary for the Church to interpose for Peace sake and casting off neither Party to please each to their edification and also to injoyn some things to the common observance of all and therefore she took away the excessive multitude of Ceremonies as those that were dark and abused to Superstition and Covetousness but retained those few that were for Decency Discipline and apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to God We have good warrant to call in question the truth of his Narration in things of the greatest weight First It is not true that the Party that were for Ceremonies comprehended all those who staid at home and did not flye in the time of Queen Mary's Persecution For such as dissented from the Ceremonies in the time of that Persecution had their Assemblies for the Worship of God in this Land and indured among others in the Fiery Trial. And we can find but little zeal in the Martyrs of those days for this kind of Conformity Likewise it is not true that the Party that were against Ceremonies were but small as being but some few of those that fled beyond Sea There is clear evidence to the contrary An Historian zealous for Conformity even unto bitterness reports in his Ecclesia Restaurata That in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign many that were disaffected to Episcopacy and Ceremonies were raised to great Preferments Besides those that were in Ecclesiastical Dignities he observes That the Queens Professor at Oxford and the Margaret Professor in Cambridg were among the Nonconformists For the multitude of Dissenters in those dayes there is a notable testimony of a Friend of Prelacy in his Letter
rightly comprehended this matter in His Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs where He saith We are the rather induced to take this upon Vs that is to give some determination to the matters in difference by finding upon a full Conference that we have had with the Learned men of several Perswasions That the Mischiefs under which both Church and State do at present suffer do not result from any formed Doctrine or Conclusion which either Party maintains or avows but from the Passion Appetite and Interest of particular persons which contract greater prejudice to each other by those Affections than would naturally arise from their Opinions It is apparent that the avowed Doctrines on either side could not set the Parties at this distance if their Spirits and Interests were reconciled SECT III. What may be esteemed a good Constitution of the State Ecclesiastical AS concerning the publike Order it imports exceedingly to discern and make a difference between things desirable but morally impossible or extreamly improbable and things necessary and attainable Perfect unanimity about matters of Religion and a harmony of Opinion in all Theological Truths is very desirable but it was never yet found in any Age of the World among those that owned the same Religion and consequently it cannot be necessary in all those that ought to be comprehended in the same Church or Religious Communion For which cause a precise Uniformity in matters of meer Opinion will hardly ever pass with general satisfaction Neither is it of that importance that some make it to be for Peace and Edification There is another thing not onely desirable but the indispensable duty of all particular persons which is Brotherly Love among all that receive the common Faith once given to the Saints This is of far greater consequence than the former and more largely attainable because it is a Catholick Disposition and the right Spirit of true Christianity and indeed the failing hereof is lamentable and reproachful Howbeit this excellent Christian Vertue is commonly much interrupted and impaired in many by prejudicate Opinions and depraved Affections and it must not be expected but that Animosities and Jealousies may remain between men of different Perswasions by reason of the corruption of man's nature and the infirmities of the best of men Aud therefore the foundation of a solid National Settlement must not and need not be laid in mens good dispositions and inclinations For although the distemper of many minds continue yet publike Order and steddy Government is in no wise impossible Things are necessary either as the End or the Means The things here considered that are necessary as the End are The Advancement of the Protestant Religion and the Kingdom of England the Tranquility of Church and State and the Security of all sound Protestants and good Subjects That which is necessary as the Means is the Publike Rule and Standard by which these blessed Ends may be obtained that notwithstanding the remainder of mens Perversness the common high Concerns of Reformed Religion and of this Kingdom be not disturbed impaired or cast back by the Altercations that may chance to arise between men of different private Opinions and different partial Interests The high Importance and Necessity of a stated Rule of such Force and Efficacy evinceth the possibility thereof For so Noble and Necessary Ends cannot be destitute of all possible Means leading thereunto Evil Dispositions and Manners are the rise of Good Laws And Law-makers that are subject to like passions with other men have the Wisdom to limit themselves and others for the Universal Good wherein the good of every Individual is secured The Publike Rule being to be framed to the proportion of the People that are to be setled under it the chief regard must be had to their fixed and unmovable Perswasions and Inclinations lest They should break the Rule or the Rule break them In a Nation whose Active Part is zealous of Religion and able to discern and addicted to discourse the Grounds thereof the Order of Things ought in the first place to be directed to the satisfying of the Just and Reasonable Demands of Conscience which being troubled is a restless thing and then to the outward Incouragements of Piety and Learning and withall to the bridling of Ambition Avarice Faction and all depraved Appetite It must be expected That divers Obliquities and Deficiencies may remain and Troubles will arise but if that which is Wholesom and Good be so predominant as to Master the Evils though not to extinguish them it is to be esteemed a Good Constitution SECT IV. The Comprehensiveness of the Establishment and the Allowance of a just Latitude of Dissents is the best Remedy against Dissentions THere was lately published a Discourse for a due Latitude in Religion by Comprehension Toleration and Connivence directed to this End That the occasions of those Discords which divide the Members and distract the whole Body of the Protestant Profession might cease and that the common Concernments wherein the disagreeing Parties have a large joint Stock in things of greatest moment might be pursued This is encountred with an adverse Discourse which is here to be examined and the state and reason of the aforesaid Latitude is to be further cleared Toleration being commonly understood of the permission of different ways of Religion without the Line of the Approved Way A Discourse of Toleration doth not hit the Discourse of the Religion of England in the main thereof whose chief Design is the Extension of the Established Order and the Moderation therein required and then Toleration is treated of analogically with respect not only to common Charity but to the Safety of the setled Polity It is no less besides the mark to argue from the Mischiefs of a boundless and licentious Toleration against that which is Limited and well Managed and hath for the Subject thereof nothing that is intolerable But if under this Name be comprehended also the Permission of diversity of Opinion in the same Established Order let it be considered Whether any ample Polity can consist without such Permission For it is a thing utterly unknown and seems morally impossible for any numerous Society of Inquiring men to be of the same judgment in all points of Religion And though the Sons of the Church as they are called agree in those points wherein they all differ from the Nonconformists yet they differ among themselves in far weightier Matters and such as have caused great Schisms and have been the subjects of the Debates and Determinations of some Synods in the Reformed Churches Now if Charity among themselves and their appropriate Interest dispose them to this mutual forbearance a more extensive Charity and the common Interest of Reformed Christianity should incline them to a forbearance in those other matters There is yet a greater Error committed about the Subject of Toleration which the Answerer by mistake will have to be Dissentions in Religion but is nothing so in the design
a one should tell them That it will seem unequal to deny a Toleration to them and grant it unto others that are here pleaded for which is in effect to say They have as good reason to expect an Indulgence from this State as others that maintain the Doctrine of the Church of England yea such as communicate in her publike Worship Is there no better way of exalting Prelacy and disgracing its supposed Adversaries then by this Reproach and Damage done to the whole Protestant Profession Yea he so far extenuates the guilt of Papists and brings it down so low as to make it common to all other Sects In which one would think he should have been more wary who in one place stretcheth the notion of Sect so far as to make its reason to lye in being different from the Established Form of Church Government Now for matter of practice he imputes the same guilt to all other Sects And if the Papists saith he have any Doctrines which countenance those Practises that is to be accounted as the issue of their insolency in their own greatness And he implies That it is onely the want of strength that other Sects are not so bad as they for such kind of Doctrine as well as Practice Such passages falling from a Protestants Pen may do the Papists better service than their late Apology But why doth he say If the Papists have any such Doctrines Doth he not know they have The Church of England was assured of it when concerning the Adherents of Rome she used this expression in a publike form of Prayer Whose Religion is Rebellion and whose Faith is Faction We wish their eyes were open who cannot see more permanent and effectual causes of the aforesaid Crimes peculiar to that Religion and rooted in the Principles thereof The evidence hereof given in the former Discourse is not needful to be rehersed in this place This Author as others that oppose the wayes of Amity and Peace loves to grate upon a string that sounds harsh To renew the remembrance of the late Warr. Those distracted Times are the great Storehouse and Armory out of which such men do fetch their Weapons of offence and the great Strong-hold unto which they always retreat when they are vanquished by the force of Reason and then they think they are safe though therein they contradict the true intent of the Act of Oblivion Some of those that now so importunately urge the Injury and Tyranny of those Times did then sufâ—iciently comply with Usurpers and left Episcopacy to sink or swim and did partake of the chiefest Favours and Preferments that were then conferred And on the other hand such as they upbraid and are now Sufferers did as little comply with those that subverted the Government and did as zealously appear for the rescue of our late Sovereign and for the restitution of His present Majesty as any sort of men in the Realm But to intermeddle in the Differences of those Times and to repeat Odious Matters and to use Recriminations that will disturb the minds of men and tend to a perpetual Mischief is aliene from and opposite unto my Pacifick Endeavours As for his charging the Nonconformists with certain Doctrines and Positions by him there mentioned which I know none that maintains and other Accusations and Reports relating to the time of the Warr the Truth or Falshood the Equity or Iniquity the Candor or Disingenuity of his Testimony in those things is left to the judgment of the Righteous God and of Impartial Men. SECT IX Whether their Inconformity be Conscientious or Wilful ANother part of the Proceeding is very Unrighteous and Presumptuous The Dissenting Ministers appeal to God That they dare not Conform for Conscience sake This Author hence inferrs The force of the Argument is There is a Necessity of Toleration because they Will not conform Is a Cannot for Conscience sake of no more force than a bare Will not But who best knows their hearts themselves or their Adversaries He would make the world believe that not Conscience but Obstinacy and Faction is the cause of their holding out and that the greatest part were trapann'd into Nonconformity That trifling story of their being trapann'd is not worthy of serious discourse It is so evident as not to be denied That about the time the Act of Uniformity was to be put in practice there were motions and overtures of Indulgence from the King and some of the great Officers of State who were known to have high affection and esteem for the Church of England yet did approve and promote those Overtures as the best Expedient for the setling of this Church and Kingdom But to let that pass Can men of Understanding and Candor think that so many serious persons who as well as others may be thought to love themselves their Families and Relations should continue such egregiously obstinate Fools as to refuse the Comforts of their Temporal Being for a Humor and remain in a state of Deprivation into which they had been meerly trapann'd As for the objected unprofitableness of their returning how doth it appear What hinders their Capacity of gaining Benefices yea and Dignities if they could Conform Why should they not find as good acceptation as others in their Preaching and Conversation It may be they would enter too fast for the good liking of some into those Preferments who therefore would set such Barrs against them as they should not be able to break thorough SECT X. Of their peaceable Inclinations and readiness to be satisfied IN the late Times of Usurpation there were apparent predispositions in this sort of men to Peace and Concord The longing desire and expectation that was in them as much as in any others of a National Settlement and general Composure did accelerate His Majesty's Peaceable Restauration Surely they were not so stupid as to imagine that great Turn of Affairs without the thoughts of their own yeilding and such as they hoped would be effectual with those of the other Perswasion Their early and ready Overtures of Reconciliation which are publikely made known will testifie their Moderation to the present and future Ages Their Offers of Acquiescing in Episcopacy Regulated and the Liturgy Reformed was on their part a good advance towards Union His Majesty hath given this Testimony of them in His Declaration When We were in Holland We were attended by many Grave and Learned Ministers from hence who were looked upon as the most able and principal Assertors of the Presbyterian Opinions with whom We had as much Conference as the multitude of Affairs which were then upon Vs would permit Vs to have and to Our great Satisfaction and Comfort found them persons full of Affection to Vs of Zeal for the Peace of the Church and State and neither Enemies as they had been given out to he to Episcopacy or Liturgy but modestly to desire such alterations as without shaking Foundations might best allay the present Distempers which