National Church I shall only observe That the Reasons for the present Dissenters Separation from the Establisht Church are said to be exactly the same they were then and the present Dissenters are the Successors of those first as the present Conformists are the Successors of the first Reformers under King Edward the 6th and Queen Elizabeth I must acknowledge that it fares with the Church of England and with the Dissenters both as it has always far'd with Christ's Church in the whole World That while Supprest and Persecuted their Professors were few and their Profession more severe but when a Religion comes to be the Mode of the Country so many painted Hypocrites get into the Church who are not by their Voices to be distinguish'd that Guile is not to be seen till it arrive to Apostacy The whole Ecclesiastical History from the first Century of the Christian Church is full of Instances to confirm this That the Prosperity of the Church of Christ has been more fatal to it than all the Persecution of its Enemies I am now brought down to the present Time when the Dissenting Protestant is sheltered by the laws and protected from the Violence which he suffered in the Late Reigns under the Arbitrary Commands of such State-Ministers who strove to dash the whole Protestant Interest to pieces by its own weight and nothing is more apparent to those who are any thing acquainted with the late Management of Affairs in this Land than that the Court used both Parties alternately as Policy and occasion directed to Suppress and Destroy one another that the whole House which being so divided cou'd not stand might at last fall of it self But our Eyes are at last open'd and the Name of Protestant is now the common Title of an Englishman and the Church of England extends her Protection to the Tender Consciences of her Weaker Brethren knowing that all may be Christians tho' not alike inform'd and the Dissenter extends his Charity to the Church of England believing that in his due time God shall reveal even this unto them If this is not I wish this were the Temper of both Parties and I am sure it is already the Temper of some of each Side and those few are of the Wisest most Pious and most Judicious But while Frailty and Infirmity is an Essential to Humanity and Pride and Hypocrisy are the two regnant Vices of the Church this Good Spirit cannot be Universal and we do not expect it But there is a sort of Truth which all men owe to the Principles they profess and generally speaking all men pay it a Turk is a Turk zealously and entirely an Idolater is an Idolater and will serve the Devil to a tittle None but Protestants halt between God and Baal Christians of an Amphibious Nature that have such Preposterous Consciences that can believe one Way of Worship to be right and yet serve God another way themselves This is a strange thing in Israel The whole History of Religions in the World do not shew such a Case 'T is like a Ship with her Sails hal'd some back and some full 'T is like a Workman that builds with one Hand and pulls down with t'other 'T is like a Fisherman that catches Fish with one hand and throws them into the Sea with another 'T is like every thing that signifies nothing To say a man can be of two Religions is a Contradiction unless there be two Gods to worship or he has two Souls to save Religion is the Sacred Profession of the Name of God serving him believing in him expecting from him and like the God it refers to 't is in one and the same Object one and the same thing perfectly indivisible and inseparable there is in it no Neuter Gender no Ambigous Article God or Baal Mediums are impossible As to the different Modes and Ways which are the Circumstantials of this sacred thing I Call Religion I won't say but that as Ships take different Courses at Sea yet to the best of their Skill keeping to the direct Rules of Navigating by the Compass they may arrive at the same Port so Christians taking different Methods in the serving this God yet going to the best of their Judgments by the direct Rules of the Scripture may arrive at the same Heaven but this is nothing at all to the Case for no Ship would arrive at any Port that sailed two ways together if that were possible nor no Man can serve One God and at the same time hold two Opinions There is but one Best and he that gives God two Bests gives him the Best and the Worst and one spoils t'other till both are good for nothing I have said already that both the Church of England and the Dissenter suffer in their Reputation for the mixt Multitude of their Members which is occasion'd by their present Prosperity If a Third Party were to Tyrannize over them both we should see then who were Professors and who were Confessors but now it cannot be Wherefore I think 't were well to put both Sides in mind of one thing which they are bound mutually to observe and that is That the Personal Miscarriages of any particular Person or Member is not really any Reflection upon the Religion they prosess nor ought not to be so accounted unless it be where such Miscarriages are the direct Dictates of the Doctrines they Teach and thus I would be understood in the present Case Wherefore I shall give my Essay as to what I understand a Real Dissenting Protestant is or ought to be He who Dissents from an Establish'd Church on any account but from a real Principle of Conscience is a Politick not a Religious Dissenter To explain my self He who Dissents from any other Reasons but such as these That he sirmly believes the said Established Church is not of the purest Institution but that he can really serve God more agreeable to his Will and that accordingly 't is his Duty to do it so and no otherwise Nay he that cannot Dye or at least desire to do so rather than Conform ought to Conform Schism from the Church of Christ is doubtless a great Sin and if I can avoid it I ought to avoid it but if not the Cause of that Sin carries the Guilt with it But if I shall thus Dissent and yet at the same time Conform by Conforming I deny my Dissent being lawful or by my Dissenting I damn my Conforming as sinful Nothing can be lawful and unlawful at the same time if it be not lawful for me to Dissent I ought to Conform but if it be unlawful for me to Conform I must Dissent several Opinions may at the same time consist in a Country in a City in a Family but not in one entire Person that is impossible To come to the point there are Dissenters who have separated from the Church of England and join'd in Communion with Dissenting Churches or Congregations They have appear'd Zealous
Lawfulness of the Dissenters Separation it is not the business of this Discourse to define it and I am as careful as I can in making Reflections upon either but I am bold to affirm That no Dissenting Church can with lawful Cause Separate from the Church of England Establish Private Churches or Communions and at the same times allow the Members to Conform to the Establish't Church too This is incongruous and one must destroy the other From whence I think it becomes the Dissenters if they would maintain the Doctrine they teach if they would have us believe they Dissent purely on the honest Principles of Conscience and Purity of Worship with such a one No not to Eat And it is not sufficient that the Offender be a Lord Mayor or any Greater Person unless he would be Lord Mayor without a Breach of the Sacred Relation he had entred into he should be dealt with in that Case as the meanest Member of such a Society On the other hand if a Man be call'd upon to be a Magistrate and has Courage enough to follow the Impartial Dictates of his Conscience a Query lies before him What shall he do The Case is plain Either refuse the Honour or run the Risque the first indeed is the plainest and easiest Way and the Ground of it is good for he whose Conscience Dictates to him that the Terms are Sinful may refuse the Call for Preferments and Honours are a Bait that some have refus'd on meer Points of Speculative Philosophy and 't is hard Christianity shou'd not carry a Man as far Well but perhaps a Man has a mind to be a Sheriff and Lord Mayor and is a Dissenter or perhaps he really thinks 't is his indispensible Duty to serve his Country if he is call'd to that or the like Office or perhaps he thinks 't is a Duty he owes his Family to advance his Children and the like and he is a Profest Dissenter What shall he do Let him boldly run the Risque or openly and honestly Conform to the Church and neither be asham'd of his Honour nor of his Profession such a Man all Men will value and God will own He need not fear carrying the Sword to a Conventicle or bringing the Conventicle to his own House But to make the matter a Game to dodge Religions and go in the Morning to Church and in the Afternoon to the Meeting to Communicate in private with the Church of England to save a Penalty and then go back to the Dissenters and Communicate again there This is such a Retrograde Devotion that I can see no Colour of pretence for in all the Sacred Book I have heard indeed that some who are Ministers of Dissenting Churches do or did at the same time Communicate with the Church of England I do not dispute how far a Minister may Conform as a Lay-man tho' he cannot as a Clergy-man but how any Dissenting Minister can Conform as a Lay-man and at the same time execute a Pastoral Charge over a Congregation whom he teaches to separate from the Church in a Lay-Communion I cannot imagine 'T is not as I have already noted Conformity or Non-conformity that I am discoursing but 't is Conformity and Nonconformity at the same time in one and the same Person that is the Point and doing this for a Secular End to save a Penalty and Privately and then as being asham'd of it to go back and sit down as not having done it at all and a Church Society admitting this without taking notice of it These are the Contradictions insist upon and rather wish than expect to see rectified FINIS
Conscientious and Constant have born the Reproaches and Inconveniencies of their Party nay suffer'd Persecution and Loss of Estates and Liberty or the Cause And who could have so little Charity as to doubt the Sincerity of their Profession And yet these Persecuted Suffering Dissenters to make themselves room in the Publick Advancements and Glittering Gawdy Honours of the Age shall Conform to that which they refus'd under all those Disadvantages to do before And which is worse than all this hear O Heavens as soon as the present Honour is attain'd the present Advantage made they return to the former Circumstance again and are freely receiv'd a double Crime as having done no Evil. I know not I profess what these Persons can say for themselves and therefore cannot pretend to Answer their Objections but I cannot omit one Answer which some People give for them viz. That this is no Conformity in Point of Religion but done as a Civil Action in Obedience to the Laws of the Land which have made it a necessary Characteristick Quality for admittance into Publick Employments which they think it their Duty to accept in order to serve their Country which they doubly perform by executing those Offices to the Publick Interest and by Excluding those who would otherwise get into those Places and betray their Country and their Liberties I have never met with any considerable Excuse made for this fast and loose Game of Religion but this and this I desire to consider a little particularly 1. That this is no Conformity in Point of Religion but done as a Civil Action How this can be possible remains to be determined 'T is true the Morality of an Action consists in its End but I cannot conceive that an Action purely and originally Religious such as the Solemn Ordinances of God's Worship can be made Civil Actions by any End Design Will or Intention of Man whatsoever 'T is true an Oath which is a calling God to witness is an Action both Civil and Religious but still that was appointed and instituted to that end as is expresly noted Heb. Naaman's bowing in the House of Rimmon to which the Prophet answered Go in peace which is understood as a permission is a thing still different for Naaman only bowed for the Conveniency or State of the King at the same time publickly disowning the Worship as Interpreters are of Opinion besides bowing the Head though it may be a customary Act of Worship at that place yet is no Act confin'd to Worship only and instituted and directed so by the God who is Worshipped but is an Act us'd in Common Salutations Thus we kneel to God and to the King but Sacraments are things appropriated by the Divine Institution of God himself as things which have no other Signification or Import but what is Divine Had Naaman desir'd to be excused in offering Sacrifices to the Idol Rimmon the Prophet would hardly have bid him go in peace Some Actions are not Civil or Religious as they are Civilly or Religiously perform'd but as they are Civil or Religious in themselves for some Religious Actions are so entirely such that they cannot without a horrid Invasion of the Sovereignty of the Institutor be appropriated to any other use and such are in especial manner the Two Sacraments instituted by Christ such was before Christ the Sacrifices by Fire And the Judgments of God on Nadab and Abihu for attempting to offer Sacrifice with strange Fire stands as a terrible Instance of what we ought to think is the Will of God in this matter Further speaking directly of the Sacraments Are they not the same thing though differently Administred in the Establish'd Church or in a Dissenting Church and how can you take it as a Civil Act in one place and a Religious Act in another This is playing Bopeep with God Almighty and no Man can tell of them when they are about a Civil Action and when about a Religious But to answer this pretence at once Sacraments as Sacraments are Religious Acts and can be no other if you do not take it as a Sacrament the Case differs but how can you say you do not take it as a Sacrament an Oath is to be taken in the Sense of the Imposer and a Sacrament which is a Recognition of the most Sacred of Oaths must be also taken in the Sense of the Imposer if the Person Administring declar'd at the Administration He did not give it as a Sacrament but only gave you a bit of Bread and a draught of Wine as a Friend or the like this was something but can a Minister deliver the Bread to you and say The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ c. and you kneeling with Reverence take it as such and repeat the Responses at the Communion and say Amen to the Prayer and say 't is a Civil Action This is such Bantering with Religion as no Modest Christian can think of without Horror 2. Another Part of the Apology is That without it they cannot be admitted into Publick Places of Trust and if they are not admitted such will get in as will betray their Country and Liberties and they do it purely to secure their Country which they think their Duty These are Patriots that will damn their Souls to save their Country a sort of a Publick Spirit hardly to be found in the World and indeed a Non-entity in it self for 't is a Mistake the Gentlemen who make this Answer put the Case wrong For I would desire such to Answer a few Questions If the Service of their Country be so dear to them pray why should they not chuse to expose their Bodies and Estates for that Service rather than their Souls the Penalty of the Law in accepting the Publick Employments is wholly Pecuniary the difference lies here they chuse the Trespassing on their Consciences before the hazard of their Estates as the least Evil for 't is plain any Man who will suffer the Penalty or run the Risque of it which is all one may excuse the Conformity For the Law does not say you shall so and so Conform but if you do not Conform you shall incur such and such Penalties any Man that will incur the Penalty may commit the Trespass So that all this Compliance is not to be admitted to Places that they may be able to serve their Country but to save the Five hundred pounds and other Penalties of that Act. 2. Why if we believe the Power of God to be Omnipotent should we imagine that he is not able to protect our Country and Liberties without our perpetrating so wicked an Act to secure them as doing Evil that Good may come which is expresly forbidden But we are told again This is in it self no Sinful Act and therefore it is not doing Evil. This is tacitly answered before tho 't is not a Sinful Act in it self yet 't is either a Sinful Act in a Dissenter or else his Dissenting before was a