Leg for a Pulpit c. But I will not irritate but wish we were all Followers of Christ qui fecit quod docuit as Cyprian speaks There are many others that send about their Characters to provoke the Magistrate to a Jealousy of their own Friends and it is time to offer a Vindication if it will be admitted And that I may contain my self within some Bounds of Method I will I. Vindicate the moderate Clergy and Laity from the fanciful Aspersions cast upon them by some II. I will endeavour a true Character of a moderate Conformist III. Vindicate him from the Censures of those that are offended with him Sect. I. I. Having done with Mr. Gould with little more than a Repetition I will consider a Charge against us as formed into a Party under a venerable Nick-name of Grindalizers This Name is imprinted on us by the Author of the Remarks upon the Growth of Nonconformity I know not the Author and can have no pique at him for any private Offence I cannot conceal my Wishes of him whoever he be I had rather he should prove to be a Lay-Person than a Preacher and a Papist than a Protestant He may be taken for an Author of Reading and Credit by such as cannot trace and detect him He handleth those Weapons against our Dissenters which the Papists thrust at the Protestants in the former Generation and which the Leaders in our Militant Church have twisted and wreathed like Bulrushes For instance his Imputations upon Calvin and Beza are the very same which Bishop Bilson doth vindicate in his Answer to the Jesuit True Difference between Christian Subjection and Antichristian Rebellion part 3. p. 509. and other of our Protestant Fathers He produceth those very Stories against the Nonconformists which Parsons the Jesuit Sylvester Petra sancta Barclay Paraenesis ad Scotos lib. 1. c. 3. Philanax Anglicus and that cheating Author called The Image of both Churches dedicated to Charles the First when Prince of Wales printed at Tournay 1623 written as 't is said by Pateson While he exposeth the Nonconformist to open Shame he brings upon the Stage what and the very same Things that the Papists fathered upon the Protestants and Reformed Churches and they are cleared of those Forgeries by our eminent Writers And so the Case of the Nonconformists so far is vindicated by Bishop Bilson Morton's Justification of the Protestants from the Charge of Rebellion in his Full Satisfaction concerning a double Romish Iniquity by Dr. Andr. Rivet Jesuit a vapulans and Du-Moulin Who suffers most by these Slanders a Party of Dissenting Protestants or the Protestant Reformed Churches Now whether this Work be more proper for a Papist or a Protestant not to say a Minister of the Church of England as some say the Author is let the Reader judg by his own Words from pag. 14 to 17. A second thing that promotes the Interest and Increase of Separation is Grindallizing By Grindallizers I mean the Conforming Nonconformists or rather such as are Conformists in their Profession Half-Conformists in their Practice Nonconformists in their Judgment like the old Gnostick Separatists which the Apostle calls double-minded Men or like the Sinner in Eccl. 2.13 that looks two manner of ways or like the Haven in Creet Acts 27.12 that bows and bends to the South and to the North to the Church of England and to the Kirk of Scotland as Interest and Opportunity shall incline These are they which down with all Oaths and Subscriptions required tho what they swallow whole in their Subscriptions they mince and mangle in their Practice they conform to all seemingly but hypocritically mangle the Common-Prayer handle the Surplice gently plow so cunningly with their Ox and Ass together carry it so cunningly that they can scarce be known but per modum opinionis by their open Compliances with the Enemies of the Church by their Gallionism in defending the Orders and Ceremonies of the Church and other Matters of Conformity which require their proportion of Zeal and Resolution by their hearing with patience and unconcernedness the Interest Honour and Peace of the Church run down by swaggering Sectaries by their talking Conformity and Nonconformity with such compassionate and serious Innuendo's as may sufficiently signify their favourable opinion of if not good-will to their Cause by their defending the popular Election of Bishops by ambiguously representing the Separation as if it were no Schism by their writing fraudulent Pleas for the Nonconformists by endeavouring to acquit the Presbyterians and Independents of the King's Murther and in statu quo by their Votes in chusing Parliaments and Convocations by their being a secretis with profest Nonconformists by their self-designing Compliances with them under pretence of Moderation similibus Whereby they contribute as much to the encouragement of Dissenters as the professed Encouragers themselves like King Charles's Presbyterian Murtherers who had the Villany to manage the Contrivance but the Cunning to disappear in the Execution These Half-Conformists are the veriest Church-Moles that by their blind Principles and undermining Practices contribute little less to the Increase and Interest of Nonconformity to the danger and dishonour of the Church than the open Enemy whether Popish or Peevish And of this we have frequent Instances particularly in Arch-bishop Grindal whose Indulgence to that Party gave them the first revival in England by his conniving at the Half-Conformists of York-shire by his complying first with Beza in procuring a French Church setled in London on the Geneva-Principle and afterwards with those who upon their return from Geneva Franckford and other Places where they lived during the Marian Persecution were preferred in the Church where they lived for some time Half-Conformists as Cartwright Minister in Warwick Whittingham Dean of Durham Sampson Dean of Christ-Church afterwards turned out for Nonconformity with great Numbers preferred to Cures in City and Country where they were not wanting to prepare the People for such Innovations as were in after-Times to be brought into the Church and by the profest Nonconformists As soon as Safety and Impunity permitted they broke out into open Schism and still when the Law 's just Severity frighted them they crept within the Pale of the Church seeming to conform that they might have the Law 's Protection to shelter their Contempt of Authority and under the Wing of Episcopaey to breed up their Presbytery When Arch-bishop Whitgift's Zeal and Industry had reduced them to that that in all probability their Ruptures were crumbling to nothing their then Refuge was as Beza advised in his Letter to Cartwright to unite themselves again to the main Body of the Church there to be nurtured into contempt of the Churches Government under the Indulgence of its Governors And of this kind of Half-Conformists are those who at this very day by outward Conformity have Opportunity and by masked Nonconformity want not Will through sneaking Compliance to betray the Church into her Enemies hands and
because great and dangerous The Schism is pernicious to the Church and the Republican Principle to the Government The Shower of the barbed Arrows with the Thunderbolts are poured upon them there is no relaxation of the Bow unless they submit or leave a Church to which they cannot conform to them that can to enjoy her own Peace and Order 3. There is another pernicious Party of ambiguous Men that are listed under our Banner and receive the Churches Pay but serve our dangerous Enemy the Fanatick and Dissenter These are they that will betray the Church that are making Terms for themselves and will by their Compliance with the Dissenter bring in the Papist which might despair of entring in if these two did not open him the Door These are pointed out that the Rulers may know them and cashier them or not trust them and by some stronger Test deliver us from them You may know them by their halting Moderation and many other Marks affix'd upon them to be seen by and by It is too visible that some Men can never be quiet as long as there is a moderate Man left in the Church These very Men admire and commend the Moderation of the Church and yet declaim against Moderation in them that conform to it whether they be Clergy or Laity And really if Moderation were dress'd up and disguised upon the Stage and hiss'd at it were more excusable for Men of little Vertue to represent it as a Vice than to see it painted according to the Fancy of prejudiced Preachers and hung out of the Pulpit as an odious or a loathsom Monster or by Head and Ears forced into a Discourse and brought forth before the Magistrate as a Cheat or Underminer of the Government to be watched and severely inspected as an Enemy in the Loyal Churchman's Habit. I have long observed a Displeasure against Men of this Character of Moderation and past it by being as unwilling to engage against them as I would be to draw a Company of Boys about me by throwing back their Crabs at them which they wantonly throw about and hit me with by chance But now hearing the Warning-piece shot off to awaken the Magistrate to stand up in defence of the Church and warned of this intestine Church-Traitor and feeling the Heat and Sharpness of this flashy Zeal why should we lie under the Reproach and Jealousy of these Watchmen and not be as zealous for Moderation as any of them can be against us And why should we not appear for it in its just defence seeing it so publickly traduced presented and indicted It were much to be wished that such a Man as the Reverend Dr. Tillotson would undertake the Vindication who hath adventured to commend the excellent Bishop Wilkins for his Moderation and to say Notwithstanding that this Vertue so much esteemed and magnified by wise Men in all Ages hath of late been declaimed against with so much zeal and fierceness and yet with that good grace and confidence as if it were not only no Vertue but even the Sum and Abridgment of all Vices I say notwithstanding all this I am still of the old Opinion that Moderation is a Vertue and one of the peculiar Ornaments and Advantages of the excellent Constitution of our Church and must at last be the Temper of her Members especially the Clergy if ever we seriously intend the firm Establishment of our Church and do not industriously design by cherishing Heats and Divisions among our selves to let in Popery at these Breaches So far that great Man who observes how Moderation is used in these Days But it is not necessary so great a Champion should maintain this Cause for Moderation is qualified with Wisdom Fortitude and Patience to defend it self even silent and a Man of a lower Size is tall enough to look the Opposers in the Face and to put them to prove their Accusations is to put them to silence Yet that we may not pay them in their own kind and shoot in their Bow they do not shoot at Moderation but pelt the moderate Men they do not expose the Vertue but the Men that are denominated from it If you would see the Effigies which they hang take a Copy of it out of some Pieces of Tapestry and Oratorical Painting and the Picture is a Chimaera a Draught of meer Invention and Fancy Is there such a Man in the Church If there be tire him with Apparitors and make some real Being of him something existent either a Conformist or a Nonconformist We have a sort of Men who are neither for Liturgy nor Directory Canon nor Covenant sweet harmonious Jingle part Church-man and part Schismatical having one Leg for a Tub and another for the Pulpit one Hand subscribing to separate Worship and the other to the Church of England such who conform to the Benefice not to the Canon and Pope-like cancell all their solemn Obligations to the Laws and give themselves a Pardon for their barbarous Irregularity against the Ecclesiastical Constitutions Ex animo in their Subscriptions signifies Lukewarmness and Neutrality an unfeigned Assent and Consent is a deep Hypocrisy decently is a Compliance with a Faction and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Moderation and too frequently according to Subscription He is your only Man of moderate Principles whose Conscience is a Composition of five precious Ingredients the Pride of Diotrephes the Interest of Demas the Treachery of Judas the Hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the Disobedience of Devils I dare not reprint the rest These are your blessed Episcopal Covenanters Canonical Comprehenders Clergy-Merchants and Regular Renegadoes Now for sound-sake why not Read me a Riddle or Rattle rattle rattle Again their Religion consists in the Overthrow of Church-Discipline and Government and their Moderation is a wilful Omission of the Rites and Offices of the Church of England The same again repeated pag. 18. Thus some Men pourtrayed by Rhetorical Oppositions the Creatures of an unhallowed Imagination and I think not to be found by Mr. Will. Gould preached at a Visitation in Exon dedicated to Bishop Sp. and for the goodness of it twice printed or for the badness of the Sale the second Edition of the Title-Page put out before it but whether printed the second time or no concerns the Bookseller more than any other Man I will only answer what I have transcribed by denying the Accusation and look upon it as a publick Pulpit-Slander It is pity tho it contains some Threads of Gold and Shreds of richer Stuff that a great deal of it was ever thought of or if invented ever put to Paper or studied that it was ever preached or preached that it was ever printed or printed that it was ever sold or read except to bewail that any Preacher should speak so unlike an Oracle of God If moderate Men could not contain they might anger Mr. Gould and others by shewing their Hands and their Legs some not having as much as one
for Peace upon Catholick Terms of our Lord 's making and not private Articles of dogmatizing proud or melancholy Men. Diotrephes knows we concur not with him We are careful to maintain the just Bounds of Authority and if ever we sit upon we will with patience bear all just Claims to Liberty We would not lay the Vineyard waste nor open nor enclose it with a Thorn Hedg to make a Separation or exclude any that have good Right to inter-commune with us We are for following Peace with all Men and for parting with all that may well be spared for precious Peace which is of greater worth and vertue We are so earnest to maintain the Civil Peace that we are grieved at the unkind remembrance of our unnatural Wars except for Caution or Humiliation and had rather sit cold in our Studies than inflame our Auditors into blind Passion and Fury or hope to warm our selves in Preferments by temporizing Declamations If at any time we hear Sectaries swagger as you call it we rebuke them We ought with weight of Reason and Divinity to humble such with Meekness to instruct and satisfy the Doubting to be fearful to offend the Weak and judg them and heartily to wish them Soundness of Judgment to direct honest and tender Affections We would gladly gain and save them and become one and carry it to the worst of them as St. Augustin whom you quote did to the Augustines 5. You say We are known by our talking c. If we talk thus then we are known more perfectly than per modum Opinionis Sir we endeavour to speak of Conformity and Nonconformity c. according to the true state of the Questions and if Compassion and Seriousness be our Faults we guess what you account Vertues by such Innuendo's as these For popular Elections of Bishops we know a difference between the Election of the People and the Consent of the People and refer our selves to St. Cyprian St. Augustin and to Tertullian c. But as long as we submit to an Episcopacy as chosen among us it is sufficient tho we may have different Opinions And this particular is cast in tell true if it be not to flatter your Patron for an additional Corps if you are a Church-man And as for the Notion of Schism we consent to the Notion of the Church Can. 9. and Protestant solid Writers 6. A sixth way whereby the Grindalizers contribute to Nonconformity is by their writing fraudulent Pleas for them Their writing how many of them wrote the Pleas Were they written by a Club or an Association I know some who had no hand in them But why fraudulent Either because of a mind to deceive which you cannot know nor bring to your Visitation or because of the fallacious Management of them If they plead Things upleadable then shew them no Kindness if things pleadable they shew their Moderation and a desire of Union and Reconciliation of the Difference And let it be consider'd the time when some of the Pleas were printed even then Union and Moderation were coming into Fashion I mean when the House of Commons ordered a Bill to be brought in for Union of Protestants and for taking away some Penal Laws 7. By endeavouring to acquit the Presbyterians and Independents of the King's Murder To this we say in short We know no Man who ever endeavoured to acquit any kind of Men from that ever to be lamented Murder that ever imagined thought spoke or acted the least in it or towards it And for you to make a Party and call them Grindalizers and charge the whole Party with this and other things according to your fancy is to abuse your faculty of writing and turn it into an angry impertinent scribble If you will know us and believe us you may know us by our hearty wishing that the Act of Indempnity would also prove an Act of Oblivion and that none that ever were called Christians had at any time sinn'd against the 13 th to the Romans Were it possible for us we had rather acquit the Romanists of the Doctrine and Practices of Rebellion than charge them with it and do heartily wish there may never be again such occasion or reason for an Act of Grace to any Protestants either at home or abroad as there was for ours If you will not believe us we cannot help your unbelief but do again say We do condemn the Criminals as all such were who promoted that horrid Fact though in the remotest Circumstances but let not all be blamed for some at that rate the sacred Office of Apostleship shall be arraigned as guilty because Judas was a Traitor and Demus an Apostate 8. So I divide your Semi-colons In statu quo c. We say we are for Persons of unstained Loyalty of greatest Estates and consequently of standing Interest in the Publick Good and above the Temptations of Pensions or Honours of Wisdom suitable to their Places of Experience Courage and Conscience that value Religion above their Lives and Fortunes If we had our choice of Convocation-Men we would chuse Men sincere in Faith conspicuous for Holiness of Conversation sound Learning who place their Hopes Interest and Treasure in Heaven who preach Christ the Doctrine according to Godliness who take heed to themselves and to the Doctrine to save themselves and them that hear them who preach not themselves but Christ seek not their own but the Things of Christ. And if I may in so serious a Point mix your Fancy that bend and bow not like the Haven of Creet to either South or North East or West for Dignities or Preferments he would have Men that maintain Foundations other than which no Man can lay that lay the Churche's Peace and Union upon these Foundations of one Faith one Baptism c. and not upon Wires and Pins and Laces and such Formalities 9. The ninth Mark of a Grindalizer according to my Division is their being a secretis c. There is a great cause to think this Author doth reflect upon the Debates of some of our great Divines who have christianly joined honest Hearts to wise Heads to close up our Breaches But what doth the Author do by this Innuendo but discover his own schismatical Nature against all Consultation with Nonconformists for Peace and Communion But how are they a secretis How doth he know it Was his Soul ever with them By what per modum doth he know the secret Counsels per modum Visionis simplices Intelligentiae Suspicionis Revelationis or per modum Observatoris Or how come you to know these close Cabals Speak your own Knowledg or upon certain Information Have any of them blabb'd any thing to you or told you all under an Obligation of Secrecy which you keep by printing it Up what Chimney did you creep behind what Curtain under what Bed thorow what Hole did you hear the Consultation Have you intercepted Letters broken open Seals and discovered us Sir we
all times and upon all occasions of Difference and Contest to give clear and palpable Tokens of their Moderation to all Sorts and Conditions of Men. Still it appears that the Objects of Moderation are all sorts of Men and that the Subject Matter upon which it is exercised are Matters of Difference and Contest So he repeats his Notion again pag. 35. and again pag. 37. Now before I go further I desire the Reader to believe me that I approve of very much good Matter well-spoken and well-applied But I fear Prejudice and Partiality weighs too heavy upon his Bowle I do confess iâ— is a very good Notion and Doctrine that we should manage all our Differences with Temper But why should he single out this as the main if not whole of the Text which is but a good Behaviour in a particular Case and but one Instance of a general Duty seems not so clear Besides 't is like it is too narrow a Notion except a Christian have or may have some Matters of Controversy or Difference with all Men and that all Christians may have differing and contrary Opinions and Principles and each one is bound to maintain his own Side with Temper As he doth often repeat his own Sence of Moderation so he doth deliver a common but untrue Notion of Moderation in a Lay and Church-Capacity from p. 36 to p. 41. and then gives his Reasons against such a kind of Moderation as he is pleased to describe to pag. 48. It would be too tedious to examine all the Members and Parts of a moderate Man in a Lay-Capacity but what is most material First doth it become a moderate Man to be so positive as to say after an imaginary oratorical Description of a Lay moderate Man such as I and others never knew This saith the Preacher is no Fiction of mine no Creature of my Fancy but Matter of Fact visible to every Eye p. 37. That it is not difficult to prove such Men act against their Conscience for really a moderate Man in the common Notion if examined is but a softer Phrase for a Knave pag. 48. Upon this Character of a moderate Lay-man drawn pag. 36. I make some Observations and in the general observe That he takes some Parts and Vertues of a very honest Man to make a Knave of As 1. He is one who will frequent the Publick Churches 2. One who will seem devout at Divine Service and who doth to us and our Eye more than seem 3. One who talks much for Union and wishes for it but sees no Evil in Schism Whereas what can move him to wish for Union but the Good of Union and the Evil of Schism And I would fain know what Benefit any Knave can make of Union If he only talkt for Union and did not wish for it and if this might be known it were like a moderate Man in the softer Phrase but if he talks much of Union and wishes for it he talks and wishes like an honest Man 4. Suppose him to be one who thinks he doth God good Service and takes a good Course to promote Peace by frequenting unlawful Meetings and yet is clearly for the Religion established by Law Yet under favour 1. Suppose he may be mistaken in thinking so for all that he may be a very honest Man for honest Men are subject to Mistakes 2. If he mistake in the way to promote Peace for all that he may be very honest 3. If he thinks those Meetings which you call unlawful that is to say Meetings of Orthodox Preachers and Christians consistent with the Religion established by Law he may be a wise discerning honest Man and doth distinguish between the Religion and the mutable Appendages to which he never subscribed or declared being but a Lay-man But then Secondly Some Things are affixed to him which if true depends upon proof against some particular Men if any such there be which doth not affect more than those Individuals We know none that first work hard against the Church of England on the six Days and appear for her on the Sunday 2. Nor any that sees not harm in Schism but you may call that a Schism which is not 3. Nor any who are one with all Parties in designing against the Government 4. Nor that cry God forbid there should be any Alteration in it for there may be Alteration in it as in the natural Body from Youth to riper Age without its destruction or dissolution 5. Nor that look upon Bishops as necessary Evils for they who account them evil do not account them necessary 6. He may be a Son of the Church of England and yet chuse rather if he could that is if he lawfully could to be without the Ceremonies for the Church doth declare That those Ceremonies which remain upon just causes may be altered and changed in the Preface of Ceremonies why some be abolished Thirdly He delivers some Things positively which are dubious and therefore which may be untrue pag. 37. These are moderate Men in one sence i.e. they have a moderate Esteem of and a moderate Love for that Church in whose Communion they live and resolve to die so long as she is up but if she were down they could contentedly enough survive her Ruine and perhaps they might live the longer Now either this Picture of a moderate Lay Church-man is a Creature of his own Fancy or a real Being if a real Being and a true Man he is one of his own Acquaintance or not if not of his Acquaintance he paints him by the Ear by Report and not by the Eye of his own Knowledg Let him either reform him if he can or keep no Acquaintance with him If he be a real Man he speaks the Language of Abhorrers and Addressers who often promise to live and die for the Church as established by Law and they are concerned in the Character drawn one would think with too heavy a hand and Pencil made of too course Bristles for a moderate Man to use Fourthly A Moderate Man such as in some things he sets out in the Colours of a Knave wipes off the Dash and thinks he may with an honest Heart and Face in sincerity towards God Loyalty to the Government and Constancy to his Religion frequent the publick Churches and Conventicles too For first He is of the Judgment that God may be truly and acceptably worship'd under different Modes and Forms therefore he will frequent the publick Churches for which you cannot blame him and it may be go to Assemblies called Conventicles especially when he had the King's Indulgence 2. He believes there is a Communion of Saints not only in Faith and Affection but also in Worship and therefore if he cannot hold Communion with Orthodox Preachers in publick Churches he will make bold to enjoy it where he can which he thinks he may do without Sin because it is his Duty and knows no Reason or Law of God why he may not
as lawfully hold Communion with Orthodox profitable Preachers from whom he hath perhaps tasted the good Word of God and by whom his Heart hath been opened and Christians in undoubted pious Evangelical Exercises as in Trade or Civil Converse in eating and drinking Object But you say they are unlawful Meetings Then the honest moderate Christian thinks with himself 1. I never heard either Treason or Sedition as much as couched in any of their Sermons or Exercises 2. It is not sinful to hold actual Communion with sound and pious Christians antecedent to the temporal Law therefore it is not sinful in it self 3. He cannot think so hardly of his Christian Governours as that they would make a Law to forbid any pious Exercise but only such as are evil in themselves or have tendency to Destruction or harm to the Government 4. He remembers the moderate Judgment of every part of the Legislative Power concerning Dissenters for several Years last past 5. He considers the Law is a Penal Law and is ready to bear that Penalty with Peace and Quietness And if you think them unlawful Assemblies of that sort as are not safe to be tolerated then he that now frequents the publick Churches will then frequent them when those Meetings are disperst or suppressed But then what becomes of your own Doctrine of misplacing Zeal about Circumstances Rites and Appendages of Religion which a moderate Man should not do Pag. 24. If you leave the Moderation of Penalties to Governous it had been beseeming a moderate Divine preaching of Moderation to have forborn to give Magistrates to whom you preach'd Alarms to beware of Men that design against the Government commonly called Moderate Men the softer Phrase for Knaves but in proper Language Knaves and Vipers If you know any such designing Men inform against them they are Strangers to us that are moderate indeed I have staid Iong enough to view this Picture of a Lay-moderate Church-man I will walk into the next Room and view the moderate Church-Clergy Man who as he is drawn by this Hand stands out with his Legs as the more crooked Knave of the two Pag. 40 42. Upon him I observe 1. That this free and open Preacher saith He cannot accuse any Minister upon his own Knowledg so depainted and therefore this is not a Creature of his own Fancy neither but of some other Men's Fancy sure come to his Knowledg it seems by Report or Tradition But if he had not believed it why would he preach and print it To this we have two things to say 1. We deny the Accusation as it stands we disown the Picture it is not ours we know no such Church-men or to speak plainly such a pretended Conformist as is here represented 2. If there be any such it is not just to fasten that upon more than are faulty 3. Yet supposing or granting most of the things to be true and they as material as any we offer to the Judgment of our Censors some Considerations if not to vindicate the accused yet certainly to alleviate the Charge and take the Charge by parts First The Moderate Church-man is one that upon occasion will marry without a Ring We answer 1. This Ceremony doth more concern the Persons to be married than the Minister that marrieth them for the Rubrick saith Then shall they again loose their Hands and the Man shall give unto the Woman a Ring laying the same upon the Book c. And the Priest taking the Ring shall deliver it unto the Man It concerns the Man to bring and provide the Ring and the Woman to receive it because of what is conveyed to her by it 2. What Rubrick or Canon doth enjoyn the Minister to provide one Or what is his punishment if he do not marry with it We know the Wisdom of the Church looks to greater matters in Can. 62. censuring the Minister if he marry without asking Banes Certificate or Consent of Parents or out of the Canonical Hours from which no Men are more free than they who are called Moderate Church-Men 3. Is there no occasion upon which this may either be justified or excused As if 1. The Minister and the Persons be not worth a Ring 2. If the Man cannot buy and the Woman resolve if they may not be married with a Ring of her Husbund's Gift they will be married without 3. Or in case the Ring be forgotten and the place where they are to be married cannot afford one and the time be so near out that they cannot fetch one Shall an Ordinance be denied for want of a Ceremony Or what if the Man must take his Bride in the Humour Or there will be loss to both if they put it off to another day Or lastly suppose the Parties scruple the Ceremony shall we refuse to execute a Law of Nature for want of an Arbitrary Local Ceremony Secondly A moderate Church-man is one who will christen without the Cross So he will and so he may baptize all that are baptized out of the Church The Rubrick lays no Injuction upon any to bring the Child to Church it only saith It is expedient that it be brought and who in this tender Age will bring a Child to Church seeing another Rubrick saith Saving at the dipping of the Child the Child whose Baptism is doubted of must be dipt and it belongs not to him to see that the Child so baptized shall be brought to the Congregation afterwards and by what Rule do they walk that see good cause to baptize in private because of Weather and distance of Place and yet will not omit the Cross in private Now whether a Minister may not upon some occasions and for some great Reasons omit the Cross is submitted to Moderate Thoughts and to a right Judgment And 1. If the Parent who is a Man of Reading and Sense may have read some Arguments against it which neither he nor the Curat can answer Nay suppose he have but a strong Prejudice or Fear upon him what if the Curat say in good civil Language Except you bring your Child to Church or have it crost at home I will not baptize it Why then saith the Parent you shall not baptize my Child What if the child dy unbaptized You say it was the Parents fault for scrupling He saith no for it was against his Conscience and Judgment But which is rather to be omitted by the Minister Baptism which is an Ordinance of Christ or the Cross which is an Ordinance of Man Especially in a Church which as it requires the use of the sign of the Cross so it punisheth with Suspension a Minister that shall refuse to baptize Can. 68. What if a Parent shall take or demand his Child as soon as it is baptized from the Minister By what Law or Reason can he refuse to give him the Child Or if a God-Mother or Midwife be so zealous call it furious against the Cross as to take the Child out of the
to a particular Uniformity But you 'll say Here 's no Omission of any Thing required True but let us modestly see if there be not some Omissions also allowed which will make a Difformity from the Use of our rigid Interpreters and whether the Composers of our Book have not been accessary to propagate or countenance a Sect of moderate Men in the Church Suppose a Man affirm that a strict close constant Use of the Letany be enjoined every Sunday Wednesday and Friday how will he prove it We think not clearly and convincingly by the Rubrick which is the Rule of our Uniformity which is this Here followeth the Letany or general Supplication to be sung or said after Morning-Prayer upon Sundays Wednesdays and Fridays and at other Times when it shall be commanded by the Ordinary Here the strict constant Use of the Letany is not enjoined upon every Sunday Wednesday and Friday but upon Sundays Wednesdays and Fridays If so much had been said for the Use of the Letany on those Days as there is for the Order of Morning-Prayer without it there might have been more light to direct us to the constant Use of it for after it it is said Here endeth tho Order of Morning-Prayer throughout the Year when yet three of these Prayers are to be omitted by another Rubrick when the Letany is said and yet Sundays Wednesdays and Fridays fall within the Year By the Rubrick for the reading one or more of the Collects after the Offertory it is left to the Discretion of the Minister to use one or more of those Collects He that useth one conforms as truly as he that useth more and yet there is no particular Uniformity except every Minister use the same and as many one as another A strict and close Conformity to a general Rule is one Thing and a strict and close Conformity to some Mens Practice is another The Compilers of our Book and Rubricks did it seems so word the Rubricks as to leave some Latitude of Interpretation and Practice either to the Discretion or various Occasions of Ministers and Circumstances of Time Condition of People or to the Prudence of the Ordinary to keep up his Power Yet notwithstanding this Apology the Letany is as frequently read by moderate Ministers as by them that do not affect that Title Secondly Let us see if such a constant and exact Conformity be required in the Use of Ceremonies Some Ceremonies are required of the Ministers and some of the People Those required of the Ministers are the wearing of the Surplice and the signing with the Cross I have spoken of the Ring in Marriage before and bowing at the Name of Jesus and towards the Altar are no-where required by Law 1. The omitting of a Ceremony is no such great Crime in the Judgment of the Reformers of this Church as this Reverend Preacher exclaims against in that Account of Ceremonies why some be abolished and some retained we read this moderate Passage And altho the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it self considered is but a small thing yet the wilful and contemptuous Transgression and breaking of common Order and Discipline is no small Offence before God We admit this and say that if sometimes we omit the Use of any of these Ceremonies suppose in compliance with tender Consciences or for some weighty reason we willingly do it but not wilfully and contemptuously and therefore occasional and sometimes necessary Omissions are but small Offences 2. Why may not a moderate Minister sometimes omit the wearing of the Surplice as well as the Brethren who seem to be the exact Patterns and Exemplars of Conformity omit the wearing of such Ornaments of the Church and Ministers thereof at all times of their Ministration such as Copes and Hoods as were in this Church of England by Authority of Parliament in the second Year of the Reign of King Edward the Sixth See the Rubrick or Section And here is to be noted c. after the Order for Morning and Evening-Prayer 3. Is not the Rubrick as positive for dipping the Child in Water warily and discreetly if the Godfathers and Godmothers shall certify that the Child may well endure it as for sprinkling and signing with the Cross And doth this ingenious and urgent Preacher demand such a Certificate from them that he may observe this Rubrick which saith And then naming it after them if they shall certify that the Child may well endure it he shall dip it c. How many Children hath he dipp'd in St. Ethelbert How often hath he demanded such a Certificate Suppose in the South Parts Infants were dipt and in the North sprinkled what would become of Uniformity in a more considerable Ceremony than any of the rest 4. Why may not the Cross be omitted sometimes to gratify a tender scrupulous weak Conscience without blame as well as the Omission of dipping Infants out of respect to bodily Weakness Is bodily Weakness in an Infant a better Reason than a Weakness or the Judgment of Conscience in a Parent Should the one be omitted and not the other Or shall we declare our selves more tender of hurting a weak Body than wounding a weak Soul 5. Uniformity takes in the Part and Duty of the People The Rubrick which is the Law doth often require that the People should kneel or supposeth that they kneel As for instance before the Confession Absolution Lord's Prayer We know it is impossible or inconvenient for most People in great and crouded Congregations and in narrow Pews and Allies to kneel in Prayer the greatest part if not all in the most conformable Churches stand Why may it not be as excusable sometimes in a Minister for great Causes to omit some one Ceremony as it is for the greatest Congregations always or most commonly to omit that Gesture of Reverence as positively required as any other And why may not a Minister as excusably deliver the Sacrament to a Receiver sitting or standing as pray the People sitting or standing when they are required to kneel at Prayer as strictly as at the Communion Some Persons are lame and cannot kneel shall a Minister refuse them And if some Impossibility Inconvenience or natural Infirmity shall make a Nonconformity blameless why may not a consciencious Infirmity or unconquerable Prejudice and Fear in the Consciencious render the Omission of a Ceremony unblameable or excusable And I desire it may be noted That I only shew there is room for Moderation and do not justify any Practice inconsistent with the Laws interpreted according to Equity By what is said I presume it either appears this Conclusion is too big for the Premises or it may appear doubtful whether an exact constant Duty such as he means c. be required by the Act. Let us now see is such an Inference can be drawn from his other Topick which is 3 dly Our Oath of Canonical Obedience The Oath of Canonical Obedience binds us to lawful and honest