the Altar of Damascus affirms that there were either silenced or deprived upon the account of not conforming three hundred preaching Ministers Dr. Heylyn indeed informs me that it doth not appear upon the Rolls that theâ—e were above nine and forty deprived upon all occasions till the death of Archbishop Bancroft and so the whole Number of the silenced and deprived might not be so great as they pretended You must conclude one of these two things either that they loved then when occasion served to make a Mountain of a Mole-hill or now they are desirous to do the just contrary and depress their Number to little or nothing And in like manner now he tells us the people dissatisfied with the Liturgy or Ceremonies are ten if not an hundred to one to what they were formerly and yet then they talkt of many thousands z Humble Supplication p. 36. of the most loyal and best affected Subjects that joyned with them in their Affection to the desired Reformation That is they talk boldly and at random out of their own imaginations as if they wrote to simple Ideots that believe every word without chewing Otherwise this Apologist would not have told us that Mr. Hildersham was silenced but in some Dioceses c. p. 7. whereas Mr. Clark tells us expresly that he was not onely silenced but deprived for refusing of Subscription 1605. and was not allowed to preach till 1608. and within less then a year silenced again and continued so a long time Nay was judicially admonished in the High Commission 22 April 1613 and enjoyned that saving the Catechising of his own family he should not at any time hereafter preach catechise or use any part of the Office or Function of a Minister either privately or publikely until he was restored c. And that it was not till 1625 that he was licensed to preach in some Dioceses How it was with others I have not had occasion to observe and now have not leisure to examine but have cause from this to suspect that he doth not report these matters clearly and with sincerity And indeed overweening of mens selves is apt to blinde them and make them imagine any thing will pass for truth and for sound reason which comes out of their mouthes One would wonder what he thinks our brains are made of who puts us off with such slender stuff as this for an excuse of their holding Meetings separate from us It is no schism nor a breach of the unity of the Church because they take occasion to meet for a time onely till a door be opened for them in the Church by the removal of some supposed or real corruption in the publike Worship As if there were no breach in a garment when it is rent because it may be sowed together again But yet this the Apologist thinks makes the Separation of the Non conformists from the Church of England not total and perpetual p. 11. which he repeats again p. 128. and calls it a temporary and partial withdrawing A very sorry employment this is for a Divine as I take him to be to spend his time in sowing a few fig-leaves together to cover the shame of a sinful disobedience to their Governours and the great breach they have made in the unity of the Church For it may be demonstrated from his own words that this is a meer shift and frivolous excuse He confesses a Separation onely he addes that it is but temporary The cause of this temporary Separation is a supposed or real corruption in the publike Worship I ask now Is this corruption such whether real or supposed that it is a just cause for a Separation If it be not they ought not to withdraw themselves for a time If it be they may withdraw themselves from us alway And so they will according to these Principles for if this corruption be not removed they must alway continue separated or else it is no sufficient reason for separating now Do what they can they are not like the old Nonconformists for they did not withdraw themselves into separate bodies no not for a time If they had upon his Principles they must have died Separatists there being no removal of what they wished taken out of the way as these men are like to do unless they repent and alter their practices in stead of desiring an alteration in the Publick Worship Besides he is very ignorant of the state of our affairs who doth not know it hath been the manner of this Sect to proceed from evil to worse since the very beginning of it which makes me think it past doubt that they will settle in a down-right Separation At the first they onely disliked some Ceremonies See the Visitation speech at Lisnegarvy p. 5. and could pretty well digest conformity in the rest In a little time they manifested a dislike of Episcopal Government being better affected to the device of Mr. Calvin and together with that they distasted also our Common prayer From a dislike Some proceeded to think them unlawful and then fell into a contempt of Bishops and the Prayers bitterly rayling against them From hence they advanced to open disobedience to all the Orders of the Church and at last renounced it and rent themselves from it esteeming themselves the onely Brethren and Congregation of the Faithful Some there were indeed that did not go thus far and being silenced or deprived for not conforming to the Ceremonies would not separate from the Church nor refused to joyn with our Assemblies This Apologist would have us think that he and his Brethren are the followers of those and yet confesses they are gone a large step beyond them having separated for a time And the same reason which hath carried them thus far will advance them further and make that time so long that it will prove alway They will teach next that Gods people must be Separatists a Protestation protested 1641. In order to which we must be that part of the kingdom which is the world and not the Church of Christ b Groans for Liberty 1646 And still they will have a further journey to go and never rest till they be uppermost and have set Jesus Christ that is themselves upon his throne What ground any man can have to hope any better I cannot imagine they being so bent to defend their present unwarrantable practices that they will flie to any refuge though never so dangerous nay take sanctuary in shadows and think they are safe rather then yield the cause An instance of which you have in this Writer who immediately after that which was now noted alledges the words of a Romish Doctor mentioned by Bishop Bramhal to excuse them from Schism p. 12. But let any man consult the place and he will finde presently they are nothing to the business For the Bishop is there speaking c Vindic. of the Church of Engl. p. 7. onely concerning clashings between Bishops and
declared when time was f Letter to his Legate in the Council of Trent See p. 646. Engl. Edit 1629. that the opinion which makes them hold by that Title is false and erroneous But not to leave the least speck of his dirt sticking on us which he blushes not to throw in our faces once more p. 34. you may know that the very same Bishop newly mentioned wipes it all off himself by clearing and excusing the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas from sinning against the Divine Right though they had no Bishops whom he thought to be of Divine Right in the strictest sense I said no such thing as his words are g Bishop Andrews Letter to du Moulin Ib. but only this that your Churches wanted something that is of Divine Right Wanted not by your fault but by the iniquity of the times for that your France had not your Kings so propitious at the Reformation of your Church as our England had In like manner the late Primate of Ireland Bishop Bramhall excuses those in the Reformed Churches who as I told you either had a desire or but an esteem of Episcopacy though they could not enjoy it And as for a third sort who were so far from either of those that they condemned it as an Antichristian Innovation and a rag of Popery whereby they became guilty he thought of most gross Schism materially he saith thus much may be alledged to mitigate their fault That they do it ignorantly h Replication to the Bishop of Chalcedon p. 71 72. as they have been mis-taught and mis-informed and I hope that many of them are free from obstinacy and hold the truth implicitely in the preparation of their minds because ready to receive it when God shall reveal it to them Nay Dr. Heylin himself whom this man thinks so fierce makes an Apology for their Ministers not being Ordained by Bishops at the first Reformation there being he thinks a necessity for it as you may read in his History of Episcopacy p. 164. And lastly a famous person now alive this Apologist cites afterward against his own self Master Thorndike I mean who he acknowledges i page 10. hath a charity for the Churches beyond the Seas though wanting Bishops whom he doubts not to be of Divine Right But he might have had recourse to a better place of his works for this purpose than that which he hath produced For he handles this question at large in his Book of the Rights of the Church k p. 194 198. where he excuses their necessity and concludes at last out of the abundance of his Charity that some excuse is to be made for those who have created this necessity to themselves by their own false perswasion Let this man therefore do open penance for his sin in laying such foul things to the charge of the men of the high Prelacy as he in scorn calls them p. 35. And let him forbear if he can to say hereafter That there is just cause to fear that some among us have a greater Charity for the Church of Rome than the Presbyterians l page 34. And to intimate that the high Conformists are warping from the Doctrine of the Church of England and lean more to that of Trent m p 80 81. For these are only old Calumnies now revived I wish it be not to serve the Good Old Cause We were told before the War that the Bishops were leaned toward Popery nay were driving fast toward Popery And no sooner was it begun but our neighbours were born in hand that we had a company of half Papish Bishops n Dialogue between an Englishman a Neatherlander written in Low-Dutch and translated into English 1643. p. 7. nay that they were altogether Papists one and the same brood with the Jesuits o p. 8. 16. and intended to bring Popery into England all which they affirmed was as clear as the bright noon-day p page 10. For to this end saith this impudent Libel they had stript all the Assemblies of their faithfullest Preachers and used many other means to banish wholly all saving knowledge out of the Kingdom that so they might the better draw the people to Popery From which considerations the Author desires the Lords and Inhabitants of the Vnited Netherlands q In the Dedicatory Epistle not to assist the King for if he prevailed the Government would be altered Religion suppressed the Bishops restored and put in force their Popish Canons And all this I must tell you was writ by a Presbyterian a modest Gentleman no doubt otherwise called a shameless lyar as appears by this passage p. 37. where he saith Our whole Nation is by the coming in of the Scots before the War yet more confirmed that they were led by Gods Spirit What was the woful issue of those suggestions we all know though there was nothing of truth in them as appeared by the stout opposition against the common enemy which some of those very men made who besides their other sufferings had layen as deep under the suspicion of being Popishly affected as any other of their Brethren whosoever r See Bishop Sandersons preface to 1. Volume of Serm. Sect 17. And what they now intend that begin again to buzze the same tale in the peoples ears we are not so doltish as not to understand and when opportunity shall serve they will more openly declare Then you may hear the complaints renewed which he remembers out of Mr. Fuller his Church-History of Popery Arminianism Socinianism and what not You may hear an Accusation against a Minister as the same Historian tells us there was on his own knowledge Å¿ Book the 11. page 224. merely for using the Gloria Patri though in all things else he conformed to the Directory 6. In which case truly there might have been some colour to charge the Accusers as more zealous for their Directory than for our Saviours Deity But to impeach any of us as more concerned for the Divine Right of Bishops than for the Divine Nature of our Lord the great Bishop of our souls is a bold-fac'd calumny for which there is no pretence at all And yet he thinks he hath not said enough for he tells you further that these High Conformists or Hectors can with more patience hear a Dispute against the very being of a Deity than about the taking away of a Ceremony Which is the very highest strain of railing that the wit of a modest Presbyterian can invent But to what pitch the more impudent may reach who can tell They may say that these Conformists are perfect Atheists since they are already it seems such Fools as to bear more meekly with those who go about to Dethrone the object of all worship than with those who only pluck away a Ceremony of it Dull Asses how should their Ceremonies stand if the very sense of a Deity fall down If he can find me any such
And I perceive it is his manner to draw Universals from Particulars For presently after asking Whether the N. C. shortly look to shut Heaven and turn the waters into blood He tells you Mr. Parker of N. England whose words I cited saith no and so all the N. C. must be concluded to be of his minde In like manner the Church of Scotland he tells you had as few Heresies as any other p. 139. Therefore What Then the N. C. were not the cause of the strange and new Doctrines Opinions Phanatical words and Phrases in Preaching and Writing For this is part of his Answer to the Question Whether they be so or no. In time they may improve this way of arguing very much as some did in the late times when they told us b Reformed Presbytery 1645. p. 19. the Romans and Athenians whilst they were Free-states bred ten to one more vertuous and illustrious men then other Governments or even they themselves at other times You know the Consequence And you may know also what horrid Doctrines were broached in Scotland more then any where else destructive to all Government and that all the Sectaries in England were the Spawn of those who stood disaffected to our Church nay that Hacket himself and his mad Companions though disclaimed by them when they saw their end sprung out of their society frequented their Sermons and were their Associates before they entred into those Frantick courses as I can prove from good Authority As also that they are justly compared to the Pharisees though that Sect were great sticklers for Ceremonies and their Traditions as they for their own Inventions But for the present let him read Dr. Sandersons Sermon lately printed And not trouble us with his Arguments for less Uniformity then there is among us upon this ground that we have not a present Uniformity in all things which is a thing that is not to be here expected Yet this pitiful reasoning he repeats again and again like to that of Dr. Busby's reading Logick sometimes to his Scholars to prepare them for the University therefore the N. C. may read a whole Circle of Philosophy to keep Youths from going to the University and to make the Education there unnecessary p. 123. For there lyes the point and he needed not have referred us to what some able men told him about the Oath and the words of it at Oxford For it is in print among the University-Statutes c Statuta selecta Anno 1661. Tit. 9. Sect. 6. at the end of which Book there is an explication of the Oath which is taken to observe the Statutes And this in the first place it admonishes us of That the genuine sense of the words of the Statute are to be taken from the minde and intention not of him that swears but of him that gives the Oath d Ib. p. 163. Now it will be found I take it that they who give that Oath intend not to prohibit the setting up of another University wherein to take Degrees which is not in the power of him that swears but the keeping Schools for University-Learning with intention to perfect Scholars there and on purpose to keep them from the Universities But I forget my self and instead of writing a large Letter shall make a great Book if I proceed any further to detect all his weak Reasonings and slight Answers Nor is it to much purpose for I doubt they will not be the better by it I have been often rounded in the ears with the words of Artenorius to the Author of Argenis e Parce labori non ignorant se errare c. cited by Dr. Creighton in his Leâ—â—er before mentioned applyed by a Reverend person to the like case Spare your pains good Sir they know they are wrong as well as you can tell them but all the earth shall not make them confess an error or amend it But suppose it be otherwise as I hope it is with some and heartily wish it may be with all yet my labor may be spared if all that pretend to be wise and honest would but be humble and truly he that is not so is neither of those and make that their business which certainly is their duty They are the words of Bishop Sanderson f Preface to Clavi Trabales 1661. p. antepea who thus proceeds That is to say if they would study quietness more and Parties less bear a just reverence to Antiquity and to their betters allow as favourable a construction to things established as they are capable of suspect their own judgement wherein it differeth from the publick submit to reason and yeild when they are convinced obey cheerfully where they may and where they dare not suffer without noise a little saying and writing would serve the turn But when men are once grown to this to make it their glory to head or hold up a Party to study ways how to evade when they are called to obey to resolve to erre because they have erred and to hold their conclusions â—â— despite of all Premises to prefer their private opinions before wiser mens judgements and their reputation with the Vulgar before obedience to Superiours In a word to suffer themselves to be swayed with Passions Parties or Interests all the writing and saying in the World as to such men until it shall please God to put their hearts into another Frame is to no more purpose then if a man should go about to fill a Sieve with water or to wash a Blackamore white And so fare you well Jan. 13. 1669. A Postscript I Had no sooner run over this Apologetical Catechism and made a few Reflections on it but I received a Case of Conscience from you wherein I am also concern'd A very weighty one it is and as weightily and solidly resolved if the Casuist may be his own Judge who seems to have no low opinion of his own performance but rather thinks we may chance to be beholden to him for a new invention Here saith he p. 6. is that very MEAN indeed for ought I know which is wanting A great Discovery And for ought I know may any body reply that which is not wanting but is the very dangerous Extream into which the people are as apt to run as he is to follow those with whom I have already had to deal It would be no great matter indeed if he imitated them onely in their phrase and not in their weak reasonings and frivolous observations but he is too forward to that also and is a notable instance of the truth of my Lord Bacon's observation that there is little dry light a Letter to Mr. Mathews p. 69. in the world but it is all moist being infused and steeped in affections bloud and humours The Reason of men is made to stoop to their interest and they judge according to the current of their inclinations and desires I had some hopes that sober men would have