hath shut that Ecclesiastical Polity and Mr. Bayes's too out of doors But for the Friendly Dâ—…bate I must confess that is unaâ—…swerable 'T is one Mr. Hales of Eaton a most learned Divire and one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Eâ—…and and most remarkable for his Suffâ—…r â—…gs in the late timeâ—… and his Christian Patience under them And I reâ—…kon it not one of the least 〈◊〉 of that Age that so eminent a Person should have been by the Iniquity of the â—…es reduced to thoâ—…e necessities under which he lived as I account it no small honour to have grown up into some part of his Acquaintance and convers'd a while with the living remains of one of the clearest heads and best prepared breasts in Christendom That which I speak of is his litâ—…le Treatise of Schism which though I had read many years ago was quite out of n y mind till Loccasionally light upon 't at a 〈◊〉 stall I hope it will not be tedious though I write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 few and yet whatsoever I â—…mit I shall have left behind more material Passages Schissm is one of those Theological Scarcrows with which they who use to uphold a party in Religion use to fright away such as making inquiry into it are ready to relinquish and opâ—…ose it if it appear either erroneous or suspicious Schism is if we would define it an unnecessary separation of Christians from that part of the Visible Church of which they were once members Some reverencing Antiquâ—…y more than needs have suffered themselves to be scared with imputation of Schism more than needs Nothing absolves men from the guilt of Sâ—…sm 〈◊〉 true and unpretended Conscience But the Judgments of the Aâ—…cients many times to speak most gentâ—…y are justly to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the cause of 〈◊〉 is â—…essary â—…ere not he 〈◊〉 separates but he thâ—…t is the cause of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Schismatick Where the occasion of Separation is unnecessary neither side can be excused from guilt of Schism But who shall be the Judg That is a point of great difficulty because it carries fire in the Taâ—…l of it for it brings with it a piece of Doctrine which is seldom pleasing to Superiours You shall find that all Schisms have crept into the Church by one of these three waies eiâ—…her upon matter of Fact or upon matter of Opinion or point of Ambition For the first I call that matter of Fact when something 〈◊〉 required to be done by us which either we know or strongly â—…ct to be unlawful Where he instances in the old great Controversie about EASTER For it being upon error taken for necessary that an Easter must be kept and upon worse than error for it was no less than a point of Judaism forc'd upon the Church thought further necesseary that the ground of the time for the Feast must be the Rule left by 〈◊〉 to the Jews there 〈◊〉 a stout Question Whether 't was to be celebrated with the Jews on the fourteenth Moon or the Sunday following This caused as great a Combustion as ever was the West separating and refusing Communion with the East for many years together Here I cannot see bus all the world were Schismaticks excepting only that we charitably suppose to excuse them from it that all parties did what they did out of Conscience A thing which befell them by the ignorance for I will not say the malice of their guides and thâ—…t through the just judgment of God because through floth and blind obedience men exaâ—…ed not the things they were taught but like beasts of burthen patiently couched down and indifferently underwent all whatsoever their Superiours laid upon them If the discretion of the chiefest guides of the Church did in a point so trivial so inconsiderable so mainly fail them Can we without the imputation of great grossness and folly think so poor-spirited persons competent Judges of the Questions now on foot betwixt the Churches Where or among whom or how many the Church shall be it is a thing indifferent What if those to whom the Execution of the publick Service iâ—… committed do something either unseemingly or suspicious or peradventure unlawful what if the Garments they wear be censured nay indeed be suspicious What if the gesture or adoration to be used to the Altars as now we have learned to speak What if the Homilist have preached or delivered any Doctrine of the truth of which we are not well perswaded a thing which very often falls out yet for all this we may not separate except we be constrained personally to bear a part in it our selves Nothing can be a just cause of refusing Communion in Schism that concerns Fact but only to require the execution of some unlawful or sâ—…spected Act. For not only in Reason but in Religion too that Maxim admits of no release Cautissimi cujusque praeceptum qued duobitas ne feceris That whatsoever you doubt of that you in no case do He instances then in the Second Council of Nice where saith he the Syâ—…od it self was the Schismatical party in the point of using the Images which seith he all acknowledge unnecessary most do suspect and many hold utterly unlawful Can then the injoining of such a thing be ought else but an abuse Can the refusal of Communion here be thought any other thing than Duty Here or upon the like occasion to separate may perad venture bring personal troubâ—…e or danger against which it concerns any honest man to have Pectâ—… 〈◊〉 Then of Schism from Opiniâ—…n Prayer Confession Thanksgiving Reading of Scripture Administration of Sacraments in the plainest and the simplest manner were matter enough to furnish out a sufficient Liturgy though nothing either of private Opinion or of Church Pomp of Garments of prescribed Gestures of Imagery of Musick of matter concerning the Dead of many Superflu ities which creep into the Church under the name of Order and Decency did interpose it self To charge Churches and Liturgies with things unnecessary was the first beginning of Superstition If the Fathers and special Guides of the Church would be a little sparing in incumbring Churches with Sâ—…perfluities or not over-rigid either in reviving obsolete customs or imposing new there would be far less cause of Schism or Superstiâ—…ion and all the inconvenience likely to ensue would be but this They should in so doing yield a little to the imbecility of their inferiours a thing which Saint Paul would never have refused to do It is alike unlawful to make profession of known or suspected falâ—…hood as to put in practise unlawful or sâ—…spected Actions The third thing I named for matter of Schism was Ambition I mean Episcopal Ambition One head of which is one Bishops claiming Supremacy over another which as it hath been from time to time a great Trespass against the Churches Peace so it is now the final ruine of it For they do but abuse themselves and others who would perswade us that Bishops by Christs Institution have any
in the consolidation of Kingdoms where the Greatest swallows down the Less so also in Church-Coalition that though the Pope had condescended which the Bishop owns to be his Right to be only a Patriarch 〈◊〉 he would have 〈◊〉 up the Patriarchate os Lambeth to his Mornings-draught like an Egg in Muscadine And then there is another Danger always when things come once to a Treaty that beside the debates of Reason there is a better way of tampering to bring Men over that have a Power to 〈◊〉 And so who knows in such a Treaty with Rome if the Alps as it is probable would not have come over to England as the Bishop design'd it England might not have been obliged lying so commodious for Navigation to undertake a Voyage to Civita Vechia But what though we should have made all the Advances imaginable it would have been to no purpose and nothing less than an entire and total resignation of the Protestant Cause would have contented her For the Church of Rome is so well satisfied of her own sufsiciency and hath so much more wit than we had in Bishop 〈◊〉 days or seem to have yet learn'd that it would have succeeded just as at the Council of Trent For there though many Divines of the greatest Sincerity and Learning endeavoured a Reformation yet no more could be obtained of her than the Nonconformists got of those of the Church of of England at the Conference of Worcester-House But on the contrary all her Excesses and Errors were further rivited and confirmed and that great Machine of her Ecclesiastical Policy there perfected So that this Enterprise of Bishop Bramhall's being so ill laid and so unseasonable deserves rather an Excuse than a Commendation And all that can be gathered besides out of our Author concerning him is of little better value for he saith indeed that he was a zealous and resolute Assertor of the Publick Rites and Solemnities of the Church But those things being only matters of external neatness could never merit the Trophies that our Author erects him For neither can a Justice of Peace for his severity about Dirt-baskets deserve a Statue And as for his expunging some dear and darling Articles from the Ptotestant Cause it is as far as I can perceive only his substituting some Arminian Tenets which I name so not for reproach but for difference instead of the Calvinian Doctrines But this too could not challenge all these Triumphal Ornaments in which he installs him For 〈◊〉 suppose these were but meer mistakes on either side for want of being as the Bishop saith pag. 134. scholastically stated and that he with a distinction of School-Theologie could have smoothed over and plained away these knots though they have been much harder For the rest which he leaves to seek for and I meet casually with in the Bishop's own Book I find him to have been doubtless a very good-natur'd Gentleman Pag. 160. He hath much respect for poor Readers and pag 161. He judges that iâ—… they come short of Preachers in point of Effuâ—…acy yet they have the advantage of Preachers as to point of Security And pag. 163. He commends the care taken by the Canons that the meanest Câ—…re of Souls should have formal Sermons at least four times every year pag. 155. He maintains the publick Sports on the Lords-day by the Proclamation to that purpose and the Example of the Reformed Churches beyond-Sea aud for the publick Dances of our Youth upon Country-Greens on Sundays after the duties of the day he sees nothing in then but innocent and agreeable to that under-foot of people And pag. 117. which I quoted before he takes the promiscuous Licence to unqualified persons to read the Scriptures far more prejudicial nay more pernitious than the over-rigorous restraint of the Romanists And indeed all along he complies much for peace-sake and judiciously shews us wherein our seperation from the Church of Rome is not warrantable But although I cannot warrant any man who hence took occasion to traduce him of Popery the contrary of which is evident yet neither is it to be wondred if he did hereby lye under sometimpuration which he might otherwise have avoided Neither can I be so hard-hearted as our Author in the Nonconformists case of Discipline to think it were better that he or a hundred more Divines of his temper should suffer though innocent in their Reputation than that we should come under a possibility of losing our Relgion For as they the Bishop and I hope most of his Party did not intend it so neither could they have effected it But he could not expect to enjoy his Imagination without the annoyances incident to such as dwell in the middle story the Pots from above and the smoak from below And those Churches which are seated nearer upon the Frontire of Popery did naturally and well if they took Alarm at the March For in fact that incomparable Person Grotius did yet make a Bridge for the Enemy to come over or at least laid some of our most considerable Passes open to them and unregarded a crime something like what his Son De Groot here 's Gazotte again for you and his Son-in-law Mombas have been charged with And as to the Bishop himself his Friend an Accusatory Spirit would desire no better play than he gives in his own Vindication But that 's neither my business nor huMour and whatsoever may have glanced upon him was directed only to our Author for publishing that Book which the Bishop himself had thought fit to conceal and for his impertinent efflorescence of Rhetorick upon so mean Topicks in so choice and copious a Subject as Bishop Bramhal Yet though the Bishop prudently undertook a Design which he hoped not to accomplish in his own dayes our Author however was something wiser and hath made sure to obtain his end For the Bishop's Honour was the furthest thing from his thoughts and he hath managed that part so that I have accounted it a work of some Piety to vindicate his Memory from so scurvy a commendation But the Author's end was only railing He could never have induc'd himself to praise one man but in order to â—…ail on another He never oyls his Hone but that he may whet his Razor and that not to shave but to cut mens throats And whoever will take the pains to compare will find that as it is his only end so his best nay his only talent is railing So that he hath while he pretends so much for the good Bishop used him but for a Stalking-horse till he might come within shot of the Forreign Divines and the Nonconformists The other was only a copy of his countenance But look to your selves my Masters forin so venomous a malice courtesie is always fatal Under colour of some mens having taxed the Bishop he flyes out into a furious Debauch and breaks the Windows if he could would raze the foundations of all the Protestant Churches beyond Sea
Whitgift who told him plainly he could not be ignorant that to the making of a Sacrament besides the external Element there is required a Commandment of God in his Word that it should be done and a promise annexed to it whereof the Sacrament is a Seal And in pursuance hereof p 447. our Author saith Here then I fix my foot and dare him to his teeth to prove that any thing can be capable of the nature or office of Sacraments that is not established by Divine Institution and upon Promise of Divine Acceptance Upon the confidence of this Argument 't is that he Hectors and Achillezes all the Non-conformists out of the pit in this Preface This is the Sword that was consecrated first upon the Altar and thence presented to the Champions of the Church in all Ages This is that with which Archbishop Whitgift gave Cartwright his death's wound and laid the Puritan Reformation a gasping This is the weapon wherewith Master Hooker gained those lasting and eternal Trophies over that baffled Cause This is that with which Bishop Bramhal wrought those wonderful things that exceeded all belief This hath been transmitted successively to the Writer of the Friendly Debate and to this our Author It is in conclusion the Curtaâ—â— of our Church 'T is Sir Salomon's sword Cock of as many men as it hath been drawn against Wo woâ—… the man that comes in the way of so dead-doing a tooll and when weilded with the arm of such a Scanderbag as our Author The Non-conformists had need desire a Truce to bury their dead Nay there are none left alive to desire it but they are slain every mother's Son of them Yet perhaps they are but stounded and may revive again For I do not see all this while that any of them have written as a great Prelate of ours a Book of Seven Sacraments or attempted to prove that those Symbolical Ceremonies are indeed Sacraments Nothing less 'T is that which they most labour against and they complain that these things should be imposed on them with so high Penalty as want nothing of a Sacramental nature but Divine Institution And because an Humane Institution is herein made an equal force to a Divine Institution therefore it is that they are agrieved All that they mean or could mean as far as I or any man can perceive is only that these Ceremonies are a kind of Anti-Sacraments and so obtruded upon the Church that without condescending to these additional Inventions no man is to be admitted to partake of the true Sacraments which were of Christ's appointing For without the Sign of the Cross our Church will not receive any one to Baptism as also without kneeling no man is suffered to come to the Communion So that methinks our Author and his partners have wounded themselves only with this Argument and have had as little occasion here to sing their Te Deum's as the Râ—…man Emperour had to triumph over the Ocean because he had gathered Periwinkles and Scallop shells on the Beach For the Author may transform their reasonings as oft as he pleases even as oft as he doth his own or the Sctiptures but this is indeed their Fort out of which 〈◊〉 do not see they are likely to be beat with all our Authors Canon that no such new Conditions ought to be imposed upon Christians by a less than Divine Authority and unto which if they do not submit though against their Consciences they shall therefore be depâ—…ived of Communion with the Church And I wonder that our Author could not observe any thing in the Discourse of I vargel cal 〈◊〉 that was to the purpose beside a perpetual repetition of the outworn story of unscriptural Ceremonies and a peculiar uncouthness and obscurity of stile when as this Plea is there for so many pages distinctly and vigorously iâ—…sisted on For it is a childish thing how high soever our Author magnifies himself in this way of reasoning either to demand from the Non-conformists a patern of their Worship from the Scripture who affect therein a Simplicity free from all exterioâ—… circumstances but such as are natural or customary or else to require of them some particular command against the Cross or kneeling and such like Ceremonies which in the time of the Apostles and many Ages after were never thought of But therefore general and applicable Rules of Scripture they urge as directions to the Conscience unto which our Author gives no satisfactory Solution but by superseding and extinguishing the Conscience or exposing it to the severest penalties But here I say then is their main exception that things indifferent and that have no proper signature or significancy to that purpose should by command be made necessary conditions of Church-Communion I have many times wished for peaceableness-sake that they had a greater latitude but if unless they should stretch their Consciences till they tear again they cannot conform what remedy For I must confess that Christians have a better Right and Title to the Church and to the Ordinances of God there than the Author hath to his Surplice And that Right is so undoubted and ancient that it is not to be innovated â—…pon by humane restrictions and capitulations Bishop Bramhall p. 141. saith I do profess to all the World that the transforming of indifferent Opinions into â—…ssary Articles of Faith hath been that Insana Laurus or cursed Bay-tree the cause of all our brawling and contention That which he saw in matter of Doctrine he would not discern in Discipline whereas this among us the transformâ—…ng of things at best indifferent into necessary points of practice hath been of as ill consequence And to reform a little my seriousness 〈◊〉 shall not let this pass without taking notice that you Mr. Bayes being the most extravagant person in this matter that ever I heard of as I have shown you are mad and so the Insana Laurus so I wish you may not prove that cursed Bay-tree too as the Bishop translates it If you had thought of this perhaps we might have miâ—…ed both the Bishops Book and your Preface for you see that sometimes no Man hath a worse friend than he brings from home It is â—…ue and very piously done that our Church does declare that the kneeling at the Lords Supper is not injoyned for adoration of those Elements and concerning the other Ceremoniâ—…s as before But the Romanists from whom we have them and who said of old we would come to feed on their Meat as well as eat of their Porridge do offer us here many a fair declaration and distinction in very weighty matters to which nevertheless the Conscience of our Church hath not complyed But in this particular matter of kneeling which came in first with the Doctrine of Transubstantiation the Romish Church do reproach us sence in the Bread and Wine do yet pay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or other the same adoration Suppose the Antiâ—…t â—…agans had declared to the Primitive Christians
that â—…he offering of some grains of Incense was only to perâ—…ume the room or that the delivering up of their Bibles was but for preserving the Book more carefully Do you think the Christians would have palliated so 〈◊〉 and colluded with their Consciences Men are 100 prone â—…o err on that hand In the last King's â—…ime some eminent Persons of our Clergy made an open defection to the Church of Rome One and he yet certainly a Protestant and that hath deserved well of that cause writ the Book of Seven Sacraments One in the Church at present though certainly no less a Protestant could not abstain from arguing the Holiness of Lent Doctor Thorndike lately dead left for his Epitaph Hic jacet câ—…pus Herberti Thoradike Praebendarij hujus Eccleâ—… qui vivus veram Reformatae Ecâ—…lesia rationem modum precibus studiisque prosequebatur and nevertheless he adds Tu Lector requiâ—…m ei beatam in Christo resurrectionem precare Which thing I do thus sparingly set down only to shew the danger of inventive piety and if Men come once to add new devices to the Scripture how easily they slide on into Superâ—…tition Therefore although the Church do consider her self so much as not to alter her Mode 〈◊〉 the fancy of others yet I cannot see why she ought to exclude those from Communion whose weaker consciences cannot for fear of scandal step further For the Non-conformists as to these Declarations of our Church against the Reverence to the Creatures of Bread and Wine and concerning the other Ceremonies as before will be ready to think they have as 〈◊〉 against the clause That whosoever should atfirm the Wednesday Fast to be imposed with an intention to bind the Conscience should be punished like the spreaders of falso news which is saith a learned Prelate plainly to them that understand it to evacuate the whole Law For all human Power being derived from God and bound upon our Conscinces by his Power not by Maâ—… he that faith it shall not bind the Conscience saith it shall be no Law it shall have no Authority from God and then it hath none at all and if it be not tyed upon the Conseience then to break it is no sin and then to keep it is no duty So that a Law without such an intention is a contradiction It is a Law only which binds if we please and we may obey when we have a mind to it and to so much we are tyed before the Constitution But then if by such a Declaration it was meant that to keep such Fasting-days was no part of a direct Commandment from God that is God had not required them by himself immediately and so it was abstracting from that Law no duty Evangelical it had been below the wisdom of the Contrivers of it no man petends it 〈◊〉 man saith it no man thinks it and they might as well have declared that that laiw was none of the ten Commandments p. 59 of his first Book So much pains does that learned Prelate of his take who ever he was to prove a whole Parliament of England Coxcombs Now I say that thâ—…se Ecclesiaâ—…ical Laws with such Declarations concerning the Ceremonies by them 〈◊〉 might mutaâ—…is mutandis be taxed upon the same Topâ—…k But I love not that task and â—…hall rather leave it to Mr. Bayes to paraphrase his learnd Prelate For he is very good at correcting the 〈◊〉 of Laws and Lawgivers and though this work indeed be not for 〈◊〉 turn at present yet it may be for the future And I have heard a good Engineer say That he never 〈◊〉 any place so but that he reserved a feeble point by which he knew how to take it if there were occasion I know a medicine for Mr. Bayes his Hiccough it is but naming J. O. but I cannot tell certainly though I have a shrew'd guess what is the cause of it For indeed all his Arguments here are so abrupt and short that I cannot liken them better considering too that â—…requent and perpetual repetition Such as this Why may not the Soveraign Power bestow this Priviledge upon Ceremony and Custom by virtue of its prerogative What greater Immorality is there in them when determined by the Command and Institution of the Prince than when by the consent and institution of the people This the Tap-lash of what he said p. 100. When the Civil Magistrate takes upon him to determine any particular Forms of outward Worship 't is of no worse Consequence than if he should go about to define the signification of all words used in the Worship of God And p. 108. of his first Book So that all the Magistrates power of instituting significant Cerem-onies c. can be no more â—…rpation upon the CONSCIENCES of Men than if the Soveraign Authority should take upon it self as some Princes have done to define the signification of words And afterwards The same gesture and actions are indifferently capable of signifying either honour or contumely and so words and therefore 't is necessary their signification should be determined c. 'T is all very well worth reading p. 441. of his Second Book 'T is no other usurpation upon their Subjects Consciences than if he should take upon him to refine their Language and determine the proper signification of all phrases imployed in Divine Worship as well as in Trades Arâ—…s and Sciences p. 461. of the same Once we will so far gratifie the tenderness of their Consciences and curiosity of their Fancies as to promise never to ascribe any other significancy to things than what himself is here content to bestow upon words And 462. of the same So that you see my Comparison between the signification of Words and Ceremonies stands firm as the Pillars of the Earth and the Foundations of our Faith Mr. Bayes might I see have spared Sir Salomon's Sword of the Divine Institution of the Sacraments Here is the terriblest weapon in all his Armory and therefore I perceive reserved by our Duellist for the last onset And I who am a great well-wisher to the Pillars of the Earth or the eight Elephants lest we should have an Earth-quake and much more a Servant to the Kiag's Prerogative lest we should all fall into consusion and perfectly devoted to the Foundations of our Faith lest we should run out into Popery or Paganism have no heart to â—…his incounter lest if I should prove that the Magistrates absolute unlimited and uncontrolable Power doth not extend to define the signification of all words I should thereby not only be the occasion of all those mischiefs mentioned but which is of far more dismal Importance the loss of two or three so significant Ceremonies But though I therefore will not dispute against that Flower of the Princes Crown yet I hope that without doing much harm I may observe that for the most part they left it to the people and seldome themselves exercised it And even Augustus Casar though