Livings like the Silver-smiths at Ephesus no wonder if Apostolical Doctrine and Government be cryed down and the Great Diana be cryed up The summ is this Some men were blindly led by their Education others by their Interest a third sort by their Reputation to make good what they had ingaged themselves and others in and these three things are able to form a great Party against the Church 4. The Fourth and Last Cause and I wish it be not the greatest of the Distractions and ill Estate of this Church is the want of true Christian Zeal and of a deep and serious sense of Piety in defect of which hath succeeded that wantonness curiosity novelty scrupulosity and contention we complain of What was it made the Primitive Church so unanimous that it was not crumbled into Parties nor mouldered away in Divisions nor quarrelled about Opinions nor separated one part from another upon occasion of little scruples How came it to pass as I observed in the Introduction to this Discourse that all good men were of one way and all evil men of another that those that travailed to the same City the heavenly Jerusalem kept the same Rode and parted not company It could not be that they should be without different apprehensions for mens Parts were no more alike nor their Educations more equal in those times than now There were then several Rites and Ceremonies that might have afforded matter of scruple if the Christians had been so disposed as well as now and I think both more in number and as lyable to exception as any thing now in use There was then bowing towards the East observation of Lent and other dayes distinction of Garments and innumerable other Observations in the early dayes of Tertullian and yet neither any Scripture brought to prove them nor any such proof thought necessary and yet they were observed without suspicion on one side or objection on the other Harum aliarum ejusmodi disciplinarum si legem expostules Scripturarum nullam invenies sed traditio praetenditur auctrix consuetudo conservatrix fides observatrix saith he in his Book De Corona militis St. Austin saith in his time the number and burden of Ceremonies was grown as great as under the Law of Moses and therefore wishes for a Reformation thereof in his Epistles to Januarius yet never thought these things a sufficient ground of Separation from the Church There was then some diversity of Expression in which the Governours and Pastors of several Churches delivered themselves yet did they not dispute themselves hereupon into Parties nor accuse one another of false Doctrine or either Side make the division of the Church the Evidence of its Orthodoxy or the Trophy of its Victory The true reason then of the different Event of the same Causes then and now seems to be this That in those dayes men were sincerely good and devout and set their hearts upon the main the huge Consequence and concern of which easily prevailed with those holy men to overlook their private satisfactions They were intent upon that wherein the Power of Godliness consisted and upon which the Salvation of Souls depended and so all that was secure they were not so superstitiously concerned for Rituals nor so unreasonably fond of Opinions as to play away the Peace of the Church and the Honour of Religion against trifles and meer tricks of wit and fancy They considered that they all had one God one Faith one Baptism one Lord Jesus Christ in which they all agreed and these great matters were able to unite them in lesser They Good men found enough to do to mortifie their Passions to their burdens of Affliction and Persecution to withstand the Temptations of the Devil and the contagion of evil Examples from the world and had not leisure for those little Disputes that now imploy the minds of men and vex the Church They spent their Heat and Zeal another way and so their Spirits were not easily inflammable with every petty Controversie But when men grow cold and indifferent about great things then they become servent about the lesser When they give over to mind a holy Life and heavenly Conversation then they grow great Disputers and mightily scrupulous about a Ceremony When they cease to study their own hearts then they become censorious of other men then they have both the leisure and the confidence to raise Sarmises and Jealousies and to find fault with their Superiours In short then and not till then do the little Appendages of Religion grow great and mighty matters in mens esteem when the Essentials the great and weighty matters are become little and inconsiderable And that this is the Case with us in this Nation is too evident to require further proof and too lamentable a subject for any good Christian to take pleasure in dilating upon I conclude therefore in this Point lyes a great part of the Unhappiness of this Church and Kingdom PART II. Wherein several serious Considerations are propounded tending to perswade all English Protestants to comply with and conform to the Religion and Government of this Church as it is established by Law CHAP. 1. A Reflection upon divers Wayes or Methods for the Prevention and Cure of Church-Divisions HAving in the former Part of this Discourse diligently enquired into and faithfully recited the principal Causes of the discontents with and secession from this Church It would now ill beseem Christian Charity to rest here for God knows neither the Evils nor the Causes afford any pleasant speculation It was a bad state of things at Rome which the Historian reports in these words Nec morbos nec remedia pati possumus That they were come to so ill a pass that they could neither indure their Distempers nor admit of the Remedies But I perswade my self though the condition of our affairs be bad enough yet that it is not so deplorable as to discourage all Endeavours of a cure And in this hope I take the courage to propound the following considerations wherein if I be deceived and miss of my aim I shall notwithstanding have that of Quintilian to comfort my self withal Prohabilis est cupiditas honestorum vel tutioris est audaciae tentare ea quibus est paratior venia It hath not been the single Unhappiness of this Church alone to be molested with Disputes loaden with Objections and dishonoured by Separation Nor can it be hoped that where the business is Religion and the concern Eternal Life that men should incuriously swallow every thing without moving any question or stirring any dispute And therefore all Churches must of necessity more or less have conflicted with the same difficulties we complain of And consequently the disease being so common it cannot be but that many and divers Remedies have been tryed and made use of And out of that store we will in this Chapter make election of such as seem best to fit the condition of the Patient and
Mankind by making the sinister intentions of men co-operate towards them He made use of the unnatural cruelty of Joseph's brethren towards him to the preservation of the whole family of Jacob sending Joseph into Aegypt as an Harbinger and Nurse to provide for them in a famine And in respect hereof Joseph tells them it was not they but God sent him thither The Cruelty of Pharaoh who sought by severities to break and wear out the Israelites harden'd them and prepared them for all the difficulties they were afterwards to encounter The obstinacy and incredulity of the Jews proved to be the riches of the Gentiles The persecution of the Apostles at Jerusalem made way for the spreading of the Gospel into all other Countreys Instances of this kind are innumerable or if they were not yet were it very unsafe for those of the Church of Rome to make this objection lest they provoke us to say what cannot be either denyed or justified That the barbarous Tyrant and Usurper Phocas brought in the Universal Pastorship of the Bishop of Rome and that the most bloody and rapacious Princes have ordinarily been the great Patrons and Indowers of their Church thinking it seems to hallow their own Villanies and legitimate their unjust acquisitions by dividing the spoil with the Bishop and Church of Rome 3. The English Reformation was the most compleat and perfect in its kind as retaining the most antient Doctrine and soundest Confession of Faith founded upon the holy Scriptures and agreeable to the first General Councils the most Primitive Church-Government and a Liturgy the best accommodate to reconcile and unite mens Devotions Such a Liturgy as Mr. Fox the Author of the Martyrologie is not afraid to say was indited by the Holy Ghost but certainly had a great testimony in the unspeakable joy and contentment holy men took in it in King Edward the Sixths dayes their zeal for the maintenance of it longing for the restitution of it and sealing it with their blood in Queen Maries dayes and the universal triumphs and acclamations at the restoring of it in Queen Elizabeths Reign And admirable it is to consider how happy this Church and Nation then was in what Glory and Majesty the Prince reigned in what Peace and Concord the Subjects lived but especially it is remarkable how devout and pious an Age that was as is scarce perhaps to be parallel'd since the time that Christianity flourisht under Constantine the Great what reverence was then yielded to the Ministers of Religion What devotion to the publick worship How general an acquiescence of hearts and minds in it Which the greater it was the more just is our wonder and the more reasonable our inquiry what should be the Cause that in the same Church and amongst devout and honest-minded Englishmen such a zeal should terminate in so cold an indifferency as may now be observed or rather that such a blessed harmony should degenerate into so much discord as is now too discernable amongst us We read Ezra 3. that when the second Temple at Jerusalem was building the young men rejoyced at the reviving glory of their Nation and Religion but the old men that had beheld the far greater splendour and more stately Majesty of the former Temple built by Salomon they wept as contemplating how far this came short of that so that it was hard to say whether the shouts of the young men or the lamentations of the elder were the more loud And truly when we consider in how low a condition the Church of England was some few years since till it had a happy Resurrection with the return of our Gracious Soveraign will see cause to rejoyce and thank God that we are in no worse condition than we are But he that understands and considers what was the felicity of the first Age of our Reformation and compares it with the present condition of our affairs will have just cause to lament the difference For in those dayes so venerable was the Society of the Church that to be cast out of it by Excommunication was as dreadful as to be thunder-smitten that Sentence was like Proscription amongst the Romans which they counted a Civil death and dreaded as much as a Natural But now it is become a matter of Ambition with some and a piece of Glory And to be cast out of the Church is as good as Letters testimonial or recommendatory to other Assemblies There were few or none then that did not constantly frequent the Church now the Church is become the Conventicle in many places and the Conventicle the Church in respect of the fulness and frequency of the one and the unfrequentedness and destitution of the other Aristonicus came to a certain City in Greece where he observed many Temples but few Men that would hear him He therefore instead of the usual phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cryes out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hear O ye Stone-walls less hard than the hearts of men The Application is too easie in our case In that time we speak of the Liturgy and publick Prayers were counted a principal part of Gods worship now they are not only nothing without a Sermon but in danger to desecrate the Sermon too by their conjunction The Bible is scarce Canonical if it have the Prayers bound up in the same Cover and so extreamly offensive are they grown to some that they will rather totally neglect the publick Worship of God and never receive the Communion whilest they live than have to do with the Common Prayers Heretofore there were but few things scrupled in the establisht Religion and those were very few that made use of any such pretence or scruple but now it is become the great point of Sanctity to scruple every thing There was one indeed and he a great man that said there were tolerabiles ineptiae in our Liturgy and the most favourable return he met with was that he had his tolerabiles morositates Now the title of ineptiae is counted too mild an expression whatever suits not the present humour is either Jewish Popish or Superstitious This Change is sadly lamentable that good Laws should be thus trampled upon the best Church in the world thus despised and the best minded People thus abused Now my business is therefore in the first place to enquire from what Causes this hath come to pass PART I. An Enquiry into the Causes and Origin of the Separation from and Contempt of the English Reformed Church CHAP. I. Wherein are represented several things that are pretended but are not the true Causes of our distractions and dissatisfactions viz. 1. Corruption in Doctrine 2. The too near approach of this Church to the Roman 3. The Scandalousness of the Clergy All which are disproved WE have a Proverbial saying amongst us that Every one that is forty years old is either a Fool or a Physician But without a Proverb to justifie the undertaking there are but few that at
when the Dort Opinions were very predominant amongst many Divines of this Church they used it may be a little more scholastick subtilty to reconcile their own Opinions with these Articles but never condemned the latter for the sake of the former And at this day divers good men are in the service of this Church that are in their private Judgements of the Dort perswasion and yet never thought their subscription to these Articles did any violence to their Consciences or Judgements therefore this can be no cause of our Troubles nor ground of Separation from the Church A second pretence against this Church is that it is not sufficiently purged from the dross of Popish Superstitions that it comes too near the Church of Rome and so the Communion of it is dangerous Popery is an odious Name in this Nation and God be thanked that it is so for it deserves no less But as Constantine when he condemned the Arrians and decreed their Books should be burnt appointed that they should be called Porphyrians a Name sufficiently detested by the generality of Christians So those men that have a mind to reproach the Church know no more effectual way of affixing an Ignominy upon it than by laying the imputation of Popery to it And indeed if the Charge were as true as it is false or if it were as probable as it is malicious it would not only serve to exasperate the Vulgar against the Church but to justifie their Secession from it But it is hard to say whether the unreasonableness or the uncharitableness be greater in this suggestion For 1. It is certain there hath been little or no alteration made in either the Doctrine Discipline or Liturgy since the first Reformation and therefore if either of them incline too much that way they did so from the beginning Now that which I inquire into is what should be the causes of the late revolt and separation from this Church or what should make that discernable change in mens affections towards it from what was in the former Age And he that tells me it was Popishly constituted at first gives indeed a reason if it was true why this Reformation should not have been entertained at first but doth not assign a cause why those should depart from it now that had imbraced it with so much zeal formerly He therefore that would speak home to this case must shew that this Church hath lost its first love and hath warped towards the old corruptions from which it was once purged But this is so far from being possible to be shewn that it is certain on the contrary that all the change that hath been made of late years hath been meerly in complyance with and condescension to those that object this against it and a man would reasonably expect they would easily pardon such Innovations But in truth the main quarrel is that we are not alwayes reforming but keep to the old Matron-like Dress the Queen Elizabeth fashion If the Governours of the Church would comply with the curiosity of this wanton Age our Religion would quickly have the fortune of Apelles's picture according to the known story He to deride the conceited folly of the Age exposes to publick view a Master-piece of his work And as it usually happens that every body pretends to skill in reforming by the incouragement of the Proverb that saith facile est inventu addere scarcely any person that past by but spent their verdict upon the picture All commend it in the general yet to give some special instance of their skill every one finds some fault or other One would have had more Shadow another less one commends the Eye but blames a Lip c. The subtil Artist observes all and still as any passenger had shot his bolt alters the picture accordingly The result was that at last by so many Reformations it became so deformed and monstrous a piece that not only wiser men but these vulgar Reformers themselves wondered at it and could now discern nothing worthy so famed an Artist He on the other hand to right himself produces another Piece of the same Beauty and Art which he had hitherto kept up by him and had escaped their censure and upbraids them thus Hanc ego feci istam populus This latter is my work the other is a monster of your own making This is our case Christian Religion was by holy and wise men our Reformers devested of those gaudy and meretricious accoutrements the Romanists had drest her up in and habited according to primitive simplicity but this would not please every body every Sect and Party would have something or other added or altered according to their several phancies and Hypotheses which if it should be allowed the opinions of men are so contrary one to another as well as to truth the true lineaments of Christianity would quite be lost Upon this consideration hath not this Church been very fond of alterations But to all this it is likely it will be replyed That now we have more light and discover blemishes and deformities which though they were before yet we could not discern when our selves came out of the dark Den of Popery At first like the man under cure of his blindness Mark 8. 24. we saw men as trees walking we discovered only some more palpable errors but now we discern though lesser yet not tolerable deformities 2. To this therefore I answer in the second place That it is certain all is not to be esteemed Popery that is held or practised by the Church of Rome and it cannot be our duty as I have said before to depart further from her than she hath departed from the truth for then it would be our duty to forsake Christianity it self in detestation of Popery To reform is not surely to cast away every thing that was in use before unless Barbarism be the only through Reformation The Historian observes of those that spoil Provinces and ransack Kingdoms ubi solitudinem fecere pacem appellant when they had converted a flourishing Countrey into a desolate wilderness they called this a profound peace But sure to reform is not to destroy and lay waste but to amend Unless therefore it can be proved against the Church of England that she holds or practises any thing false or sinful it will little avail them that object against her and as little be any blemish to her constitution that in some things she concurs with the Roman Nor is it reasonable to say such a thing is received from the Church of Rome meerly because there it is to be found unless it be to be found no where else for though it be true that many things are the same in both Churches in as much as it is impossible they should be Churches of Christ at all else yet it is as true that those things wherein they agree are such and no other as were received generally by all Christian Churches and by the Roman
the multitudes of Opinions that deform and trouble this Church are generally hatcht and nursed up in the Corporations Market-Towns and other great places whereas the lesser Countrey Villages are for the most part quiet and peaceably comply with Establish't Orders And if I should say that not only the Dissatisfaction with the Rites and Government of the Church but also the Convulsions and Confusions of State took their Origin from the bad humours of those greater Societies or Congregations of people I suppose I should say no more than what the observation of every considerative man will allow and confirm Now he that searching for a reason of this difference shall impute it either to the Ease Fulness and Luxury of the former whereby they have leisure and curiosity to excogitate Novelties and spirit and confidence to maintain and abett them whilest the latter tired with hard labour neither trouble themselves nor others but apply themselves to till the ground and earn their bread with the sweat of their brows or to the multitude and great concourse of people in the former amongst whom Notions are more easily started better protected and parties sooner formed for the defence and dissemination of them He I say that discourses thus gives a true account for so much but searches not far enough to the bottom For had there been an able Learned Orthodox Clergy setled in such places they by their wisdome and vigilance would in a great measure have obvated all beginnings of these disorders partly by principling the minds of men with sound Doctrine partly convincing Gain-sayers and especially rendring the Government of the Church lovely and venerable by their wise deportment In order therefore hereunto there ought to have been the most liberal Maintenance and ingenuous Encouragement setled upon such important places That where the work was greatest and the importance most considerable the motives to undertake it might be so too To the intent that the most able and judicious Clergy-men might have been invited to and setled upon those places that most needed them But contrariwise it is most visible that in those places where most Skill is to be exercised and most Labour to be undertaken there is little Revenue to encourage the Workman In a little obscure Parish or Country Village often-times there is a well endowed Church but in these great ones generally where the Flock is great the Fleece is shorn to the Shepherds hands and so pittiful a pittance left to the Curate or Minister that he can scarce afford himself Books to study nor perhaps Bread to eat without too servile a dependance upon the Benevolence of his richer Neighbours By which means either his Spirit is broken with Adversity or the Dignity of his Office obscured in the meanness of his condition or his Influence and Authority evacuated having neither wherewith to live charitably nor hospitably or all these together nay it is well if to help himself under these Pressures he is not tempted to a sordid Connivance at or Complyance with all those Follies and Irregularities he should correct and remedy And so like Esau sell his Birthright the Dignity of the Priesthood for a mess of Pottage Now how this comes to pass that the greatest Cures have generally the least Maintenance is easily found for it is well enough known that in those Times when the Popes had a Paramount Power in England a great part of the Tythes and Revenues of Churches were by their extravagant Authority ravisht from them and applyed to the Abbies and Monasteries and this like an Ostracisme fell commonly upon the greatest Parishes as having the best Revenues and consequently the more desirable Booty to those hungry Caterpillers and so the Issue was that the richest Churches were made the poorest in many such places little more than the Perquisites and Easter-Offerings being left to those that shall discharge the Cure And then though afterwards these superstitious Societies were dissolved yet the Tythes being not thought fit to be restored to their respective Churches the consequence is that those places which ought for the good both of Church and State to be well provided for are too often supplyed by the most inconsiderable Clergy-men or those men made so by the places they supply My meaning is that by reason of the incompetent Legal Maintenance provided for such Ministers the people have it in their power either to corrupt an easie and necessitous man or to starve out a worthy and inflexible one and so whatever the humour of the place shall be it is uncontroulable and incurable To remedy these inconveniencies it hath of late pleased His Majesty and the Parliament to make some provision so far as concerns the City of London and it is hoped the same wisdom will in time take like care of other great places in the same condition for till some such course be taken it will be in vain to expect that the Church of England or the best Laws of Religion that can be devised should either obtain just Veneration or due Effect 3. I account the late Wars another Cause of the bad estate of the Church and Religion amongst us Which may perhaps seem the more strange since when men put their Lives most in danger one would think they should then take the most care to put their Souls out of danger Besides it hath been the wisdom of most Nations to desire the countenance and incouragement of Religion in all their Martial undertakings The Romans made great scruple of enterprizing any thing of that nature till either their Priests from inspection of the Sacrifice or some other of their Pagan Oracles had given them the signal And the Turkish Mufti or High-Priest must give the Prime Visier his blessing before he enters upon the business Whether it be that men indeed believe God Almighty to be the Lord of Hosts and to give Victory to those that stand best approved with him or whether it be only that they apprehend that the opinion of being under Gods favour gives reputation to their Arms inspires their men with valour and resolution and disheartens their enemies or upon whatsoever consideration it is certain the matter of Fact is true and that Religion is of great efficacy in Warlike exploits It may I say therefore seem the more strange that War should be injurious to that which it seeks to for countenance and encouragement But most strange of all that Enemies abroad should make men quarrel with their Friends at home that Iron and Steel Wounds and Blows should make men tender-conscienced that those who can find in their hearts to shed the blood of Men of Christians and of their Brethren without remorse should be so queasie stomached as to scruple every punctilio and nicety in Ecclesiastick matters And yet he that narrowly considers the rise and progress of our Disorders will find that the distractions of the Church have kept pace with those of the State and as before the War our
are most practicable in the Case And in the first place they of the Church of Rome as many and great Schisms as they have laboured under formerly yet now glorying in their Unity and Peace and upbraiding all others with their respective Distractions may seem to have arrived at some remarkable skill and to be fit to be advised withal and they attribute an admirable efficacy to the following Method First By way of Prevention they prescribe that the people be kept in profound Ignorance and then they suppose they will never trouble the Church with Disputes nor themselves with Scruples Let them but be blind enough and they will swallow many a Flye that others strain and boggle at keep them up in the dark like Birds or Wild Beasts and you will render them tame and manageable They affirm Pictures to be Books good enough for the Laity and say Those are the best Sheep that know nothing but their own Fold The Priests lips they confess should preserve knowledge but so they preserve it from the people it is no great matter whether they have it themselves or no. This Opiate or stupefactive Ignorance these Empiricks mightily cry up and for proof of the virtue of it go but over into Spain or Italy and you shall observe what strange cures it hath done It hath made as sagacious people as any in the world naturally so far from Disputes in Religion that they scarce know what it means Administer but a large Dose of this and it shall have the same effect the Plague of Darkness had in Aegypt that suffered no man to stir out of his place But this Advice how successful soever it hath been in other places will not be admitted in England for two reasons 1. If it were commendable in it self yet it comes too late for the people of England know so much already that the only way to cure the inconveniences of that is to let them know more And as an Excellent Person hath well observed concerning Atheism That a little smattering in Philosophy disposes men to it by intangling them in Second Causes which they cannot explicate but a through insight into it leads them through that perplexed maze to the discovery of the First Cause of all things So 't is only superficial knowledge in Christianity that gives occasion to our troubles when men think they know but do not or because they know a little conceit they understand all that is knowable and hereupon refuse instruction and oppose their private opinions to the publick wisdom Whereas did these men see further into things they would then discover a reason of many things they are now dissatisfied with or at least distrust their own understandings and grow modest and peaceable 2. Besides if this Advice came timely yet we take the Remedy to be worse than the Disease for we esteem it better if one be necessary to erre like Men than to be driven like Beasts or acted like Puppets The Gospel Church is frequently called in Scripture the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of light but by this course of blind Devotion and stupid Ignorance it would become more like Hell which they say hath heat without light God in the Gospel requires a reasonable service and it can never be consistent that those that pretend Christ Jesus is risen upon them as a Sun of Righteousness should think to worship this Sun by turning their backs upon him or shutting their eyes against his light If it were or could be so then this Proposition would be true That the way to become good Christians is to cease to be Men. 2. Secondly They direct us to an Infallible Judge of all Controversies And this they so much magnifie and represent as absolutely necessary to Peace that they tell us we shall labour in vain in the use of all other Expedients and only roll up a weight with infinite pains that will with the greater violence return upon us again till we make use of this Remedy But it is so Mountebank-like to pretend to Infallible Cures that we desire to be resolved of these two or three things before we can comply with the advice 1. We would fain know how it came to pass that so important a point as this is of an Infallible Judge of Controversies which it is pretended would secure the Peace of all States preserve the Concord and the Dignity of all Churches stop the mouths of all Atheists prevent the Sin and the Damnation of many Souls is no more plainly asserted in Scripture nor proved by Reason nor better agreed of amongst themselves that thus recommend it A man would reasonably expect that a business of this nature which is therefore of more value than any one Article of Faith in as much as that it hereupon depends what shall be so should have been more clear and evident than those things that depend upon it but contrariwise we find that no man ever yet could perswade by Reason that one certain man in the World was more than a man and all the rest less And then for Scripture that plainly tells us that all men are lyars i. e. such as may deceive or be deceived and most undoubtedly would never have made such a distinction of Christians as strong men and babes in Christ nor made it our duty to consider one anothers weakness and practise mutual forbearance if it had intended any where to direct us to such an Umpire as should have ended all disputes and made all men equally certain But then for agreement amongst themselves where to lodge this Infallibility whether in the Pope alone or in the Pope and Consistory or in a General Council or in all these together or in something else is for ought I see a Question that needs an Infallible Judge to determine 2. How comes it to pass that all Controversies are not determined and Disputes ended long ago if this were true that is pretended Whether there be any Infallible Judge to resort to now is the point in question but it is certain there was such a thing in the Apostles times they had the assistance of the Holy Spirit in such a manner as to guide them into all truth and gave miraculous proofs that they had so and yet this would not cure all the Schisms nor resolve all Scruples nor silence all Disputes then And how Infallibility in a Pope or any other person if it were there to be found should have better success now than it had in those more sincere and simple times of Christianity I think is not very reasonably expected Besides We find manifestly that those that glory so much of this Remedy have not found such benefit by it as that they commend it to us for For it is well enough known that the Romanists have their Disputes as well as we The Franciscans against the Dominicans and the Jansenists against the Molinists and their several Perswasions managed with as much heat as any of our
it is I have read of a vulgar person who first having heard himself resembled to the Prince for stature and complexion and afterwards heightned up into the conceit by the flatteries of some and arts of others that had ends to serve by him came at last to conceit himself to be the Prince indeed and gave sufficient trouble to the King in possession Men have spoken so magnificently of Conscience that divers have grown into a belief that it was some Ghost or Spirit and little thought it was nothing but their own inconsiderable selves It is called a Tutelar Genius a Familiar a Domestick Deity a God within men and at least Gods Vicegerent inthroned in our bosoms Now under these disguises men have been ready to fall down and worship themselves and like the Pagans have given Divine honours to their own Passions but the least that could follow from such premises was that the Magistrate must strike sail to this admired Numen Hence probably Quakerism took its rise the men of which way are generally a stubborn and incurable generation Bring Scripture or Reason or any Authority against them they slight all and only appeal to the light within them that mighty Deity that internal Christ their Conscience Hence also it 's probable that mischievous principle arose That it is lawful to do Evil that Good may come of it in spite of the Apostle And it is believed that for a good cause and under a good intention that is the perswasion of our Conscience especially if Providence also smile upon our undertakings and incourage us with hopes of success that it is lawful for any man of what quality soever to set up for a Reformer and turn the world upside down Nay so far have some been bewildred by these cloudy and misty descriptions that whatsoever Humour hath been predominant in their Bodies whatever Passion of their Mind whatever Prejudice of Education or Interest or Profit all this hath past for Conscience and under that name been uncontrollable But now if such men would consider and loved plain English and to understand what they say Conscience is neither God nor Angel nor Spirit nor any thing that will bear all that weight is thus laid upon it But is plainly this and no more namely It is a mans own mind or understanding under the distinct consideration of reflecting upon himself his own actions and duty When we take notice of things that do not concern us morally then this notice is called understanding only or mind or opinion or science or some such name but when we consider whether a thing be good or evil morally lawful or unlawful that is whether it be agreeable to such a rule of action or suitable to the end of eternal happiness then we call this notice or reflection of our mind Conscience Now when we speak thus plainly a great part of the aforesaid Legendary conceits vanish for scarcely any man that sayes his Conscience is incontrollable will say his own opinion or Reason is the ultimate rule of his actions but will confess he may as a man err and be mistaken and therefore hath need of a Guid or some Law or light to direct him Therefore it is plain that men deceive themselves with Metaphors with words and phrases Some man perhaps will say That allowing Conscience to be nothing but the Mind of man as aforesaid yet even so it is subject to no humane Laws forasmuch as no man can force me to think otherwise than I do nor compell me to be of his opinion in the inward sence of my mind My Mind therefore or Conscience is only obnoxious to God But the answer to this is easie That though it be true that neither men can know my thoughts nor put any constraint upon the free actings of my Mind yet for all this since my Mind is not infallible I may and must needs have something to guide my mind in its judgement and determinations and that is it which we call Law and though this cannot force me to follow its direction yet it morally obliges me that is it will be my sin if I do not In short The most that Mind or Conscience can pretend to is to be a Judge yet is it but such a Judge as is subject to the Laws and they must guide it as that guides the man or otherwise its petty Soveraignty that it pretends to will not secure it from the wrath of the great Soveraign of the world by whom Kings reign But if it be further objected That we are notwithstanding bound to obey the dictates of our Mind or Conscience before any Law or command of any humane Authority whatsoever if they happen to interfere I answer It is true in things notoriously and plainly evil and the reason is not because my Mind or Conscience supersedes the Law of the Magistrate but because some higher Law of God or Reason by which my Conscience is guided hath in that case made a nullity in the Law of the Magistrate for if my Conscience have not the direction and warranty of such superiour Law the meer Opinion of my Mind or Conscience will afford me no security for where those are silent there the Law of the Magistrate is the immediate Rule of my Conscience and then to oppose or contradict that is to affront the publick Tribunal with a private Consistory and to set my own Opinion against Gods Institution If yet it be further urged That if after all my consideration of the reason of publick Laws I cannot satisfie my self of the lawfulness of the thing commanded I must then govern my self by my Conscience and not by the Law I reply That if the unlawfulness of the thing commanded is not as plain and visible as the Command of God for obeying Authority is my Opinion or Conscience will be no excuse to me because I forsake a certain Rule to follow an uncertain But if after all endeavours of satisfying my self to obey the humane Law yet the thing commanded by the Magistrate however innocent it may be in it self seems to me as plainly unlawful as obedience is plainly a duty I say this case is pittyable and will make some abatement of the sin of disobedience but doth not totally excuse it much less make a nullity of the Law It cannot make the Law null for that depends upon its own Reasonableness and the Authority enacting it and not upon the Conceptions of men Nor can it totally excuse from sin for sin is the transgression of a Law according to the definition of the Apostle All therefore that can be allowed in the case is That by reason of such a mans unhappy circumstances his disobedience will then be only a sin of infirmity which is pittyable amongst men upon consideration of common humanity and is pardonable with God as other errors are upon a general repentance 2. Now let us proceed to consider what a Tender Conscience is and how that will alter