designs to make Beasts of one another much less deliberately do they drink to intoxicate their own Heads and forfeit their Reason yet if they beyond their intention do either the one or the other can we excuse them from Drunkenness or according to their Quality from having given scandal because we cannot conceive them to have been designedly drunk Genes XI 21 c. Noah's case was a singular one far I mean from admitting any of the ordinary circumstances of Excessive drinking yet who will acquit it either from Sin or Scandal Upon the whole then Sin is Sin notwithstanding our Ignorance or Honest intentions But for fuller and more satisfactory proof hereof I will set down what Particulars are necessary to make an Action truly and Christianly Good or warrantable and if when I have so done it shall appear that Honesty of Intention is but One of the Points requisite to the constituting any Action such I will then demand It maâ— be acknowledged that mens Honest intentions do nâ—â— justifie their engaging or proceeding in a bad Câ—use For otherwise where many conditions are required one should be all that is more than One. And the due stating this Question besides the Evidence which it will give to the Proposition in hand will further satisfie an important doubt which may arise upon the whole proof thus If my upright and Honest heart be not enough to justifie me in my engagâ—ments or in the course that I take What then further am I to look after that I may throughly approve my self to God and Man This case many a Conscientious person would be apt to put when the Truth contended for were demonstrated beyond all doubt and therefore I shall trust none will judge me extravagant if I make the Resolution hereof a second Proof of the Observation I made Now in Answer hereto I say First That any Action may be truly good or warrantable there is requisite an Intrinsecal Rectitude or Lawfulness in the Nature of the thing I take Rectitude here in a very large sense so as to exclude only all Obliquity or swerving from the Precept Now such Rectitude I affirm necessary and indeed the Matter needs not for it scarce admits any proof it approving it self to our very Reason Who can conceive that what the Eternal Laws of God have made unlawful any created or derivative Power can hallow or authorize Nothing hinders but in a Moral sense we may apply hereto that of the Royal Preacher Consider the work of God Who can make that straight which he hath made crooked Eccles VII 13. And such Rectitude there is 1. In all points which are matter of Command and made our Duties by the Law of God or Nature 2. In all points of Christian Liberty or such matters which being no wise forbidden unto us are left to our discretion or prudential choice And divers such Cases there are in humane life whatever some men pretend to the contrary in which what part soever we take we sin not To persons under certain circumstances says the Apostle even touching so weighty a concern as Marriage Let them do what they will marry or marry not in either they sin not 1 Cor. VII 36. Again in case of distinction of Meats under such and such circumstances Meat commendeth us not to God For neither if we eat are we the better or if we eat not are we the worse 1 Cor. VIII 8. Of one of these two sorts must the thing to be done be in case the Action be good or warrantable Secondly Though Honest intention do not justifie an evil Act or Cause yet can no Act or cause in which any man is engaged be truly just without such intention And great care ought to be used herein for that men are apt to flatter themselves and think better both of themselves and their Intentions than truly they deserve It is requisite therefore that we consider Honest intention may sometimes be such only Confusedly and in the General in which case it is much akin to the nature of Negative Righteousness when meerly we propound no Evil to our selves Such seems the Honest intention of these Two hundred men in the Text now this kind is too inform and immature to wear the Character of Virtuous Praise-worthy or truly good much less will it make our Actions such Intention truly good must be more distinct particular and positive And to that purpose it is necessary 1. That we be fully satisfied of the Right and Lawfulness both of our Cause and particular Actions which we go about 2. That we engage in them with a design to please God or to attain some considerable good in the getting or enjoying of which good we have no suspicion at all we shall displease him If it be otherwise with us Whatsoever is not of faith that is from a Conscience fully satisfied toucâ—ing the goodness or lawfulness of the means used or ends designed whatsoever I say is not thus of Faith is Sin It will therefore become every man in matters of moment not to trust too much an Extemporary good intention as I may so call it but to examine all and to be careful that as there is no evil in his Intentions so there be due and particular good Thirdly I must add To constitute any Action just or warrantable is requisite the Integrity at least harmlessness of the Circumstances as of Person Place Time Manner and the like For not only may that be lawful to one man but also in great strictness his Duty which in another would be gross Sin To take an instance familiar at such seasons as this namely the Executing nay even the impleading and arraigning Malefactors To give evidence against them to accuse and charge them is the Duty of Witnesses and of particular Officers but in other Persons that is in the generality of the People present who know nothing or little of their cases or are not by their place called to intermeddle it would be sin and an Exceedâ—ng their Calling at best all would judge it abominable impertinence Again To execute them when condemned at least to see they be executed is the duty of Sheriffs and such Legal Officers but if a Private person or other by Law not authorized should presently upon their having received Sentence kill them in the place he could next come at them I know not how he could acquit himself of Blood-guiltiness And then even those very Officers to whom it belongs are bound not only by Law but Conscience to observe as near as may be done Manner Place Time and like Circumstances Otherwise the very Execution of what they think Justice may prove unjust But more particularly to our present Business As to the Manner of Doing such things which in themselves are Good or Lawful there are two considerable Points which the frequency perhaps of Good mens miscarriages makes necessary to be pressed 1. That all Duties be performed without Ostentation and vain glory Though the
Matter of fact be most Obligatory or of the Divinest and most Excellent nature in the World yet if the Affectation of Applause or of the popular Eye and Vogue interpose in its performance it unhallows the Action and deprives us of the Reward This our Lord teacheth as to Alms and Liberality Matth. VI. 2. As to Prayer and Devotion ver 5. As to Fasting and Humiliation ver 16. And by parity of reason 't is true of any other otherwise good works 2. That Liberties or things free be ever used without scandal By Scandal I mean with the Scripture generally the Drawing or Encouraging others to do what they are not in Conscience convinced they may do Which notion we shall do well to take notice of as well for the satisfying and confirming our Consciences against unreasonable scruples and fears as for the guiding our Practice For this being admitted to be the nature of Scandal it is not then every one which is capable of administring matter of Scandal by the use of his Liberty but only such Personages by whose examples others are apt to frame their lives Nor again is it every one that is apt to be scandalized or receive scandal but only the Weak People who understand not duly the rule of life or are not able to distinguish betwixt Duty Liberty and Sin But if it so come to pass that any of us being persons of reputed prudence and piety and so of authority and considerable remark in the world use such freedom in words or deeds before unskilful Judges of things that they clearly are drawn in or likely to be drawn in to do what they doubt lawful or believe unlawful be the matter of fact on our sides never so just or innocent and our hearts never so sincere therein yet we by becoming thus a stumbling-block to others are not only sinners against them but also against their Lord and ours Christ himself For 1 Cor. VIII 12. When ye sin against the Brethren and wound their weak Conscience ye sin against Christ Upon the whole then that any Action be good and warrantable we see it is necessary That the Matter be Right or Lawful That our Intention be truly Honest and both these points to us distinctly known to be so That lastly in our management such Integrity or Harmlesness of Circumstances do concur as that by or in none of them we violate any Law of God And particularly Duties must be performed without Ostentation Liberties used without Scandal And now to sum up our Evidence If good Intention change not the Nature of things but Impiety be impiety still injustice Injustice still and so as to all Acts of Uncharitableness Intemperance Impurity and whatsoever is of like nature none of them all are sanctified by a good intent however real not pretended If to constitute any Cause or Action there be diverse other Material points requisite besides the sincerity of our Intentions any one of which points failing the Cause or Action good according to the nature of the failure partakes of true and proper guilt and all these things are abundantly proved then is it evident that no mans good intention will warrant or justifie either his engaging or proceeding in a bad cause Nay if we will be just to our own Sense and Reason it is further ex abundanti and beyond what we in the beginning propounded conclusible from what has been evinced That good Intentions will not warrant mens ingaging and proceeding even in a good Cause it self under any undue Circumstances It remains now that I bring all home to bear upon the design I laid down in the beginning and that I press upon all sorts practice suitable to the Truths I have asserted I shall only have time for a double Exhortation 1. And the first of them shall be That we all of us again and again consider every Cause which tempts our espousal before we engage our selves or if already without due consideration engaged before we further proceed therein It is not enough that our Intentions in the General be good We have heard they may be generally good when they want maturity of praevious thought and consideration to make them distinctly such Besides there are other points of great moment to be looked after I will not be troublesome in recapitulations I will only put the Case in short to all our Consciences We are haply most of us zealous in our ways and for our own Party But have we to full resolution and satisfaction of Conscience weighed the present state and interest of the Common Christianity Have we stated the Causes upon which we mutually Separate Are they such which we judge in good earnest will bear us out And then do we withdraw from one another no farther nor affect or maintain any greater distance than these Causes will warrant Finally in the whole have we no by and sinister ends no design but sincerely of Conscience and such which we dare carry to and own before God's Tribunal Happy were it for the Christian World would our Divisions endure this Test or had Christian men generally considered or would yet consider these things as they ought But alas even in Religion it self the far greatest part walk at a meer peradventure At least they are carried along with that Current into which their Interest Condition or Genius happens to cast them And being once engaged Vestigia nulla retrorsum almost as few return from their respective Zealotry as from the Grave They rather rush on like the Horse into the Battle and the Similitude holds also farther than it were to be wisht they are rid too often even to their own destruction My Brethren if we have any of us been unhappy in rash and inconsiderate Divisions or in addicting our selves to any so divided Parties yet let us not perpetuate and as far as in us lies eternise our own and the Churches miseries If either our Reason or our Christianity or our own or the Common safety be significant to us Let us gird up the loins of our mind and be sober Let us recollect and summon together our considerative powers and endeavour to judge like Men and Christians Where we are and how we stand And if upon the whole all be clear and Conscience fully satisfied yet let us remember we owe somewhat to the World and the least that can be will be by all honest means to endeavour its quiet And verily he is unworthy of his own quiet at least will not long enjoy it who is not content a little to deny himself of his own fancies for others and the Publick satisfaction To bring this Exhortation a little nearer to our present Circumstances and Condition Let us remember we here are not Law-givers nor are therefore to consider what is our own will and pleasure what we would have Enacted nay not perhaps what is in our judgment fit to be injoyned but what actually is already injoyned and what it is lawful for us
The Protestant Peace-Maker OR A SEASONABLE PERSUASIVE To all Serious CHRISTIANS Who call themselves PROTESTANTS That laying aside Calumnies and all exasperating Disputes they would pursue Charity Peace and Union As the only Means now left us of Safety and Reformation of the Publick Manners With a POSTSCRIPT or NOTES on Mr. Baxter's and some Others late Writings for Peace BY EDWARD Lord Bishop of Cork and Ross in Ireland London Printed for Robert Clavell at the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-yard 1682. An Advertisement THE Papers following came lately to my Hands and finding them contain many things very extraordinary and highly seasonable at this Juncture and writ with exceeding good and peaceable Design and with great Temper and no less sense of Piety I thought fit to make 'em Publick R. W. Febr. 14. 1681. ERRATA Pag. 24. line 22. for lightest read highest p. 98. l. r. r. all he l. 13. r. methodos p. 99. l. ult r. his Prayer p. 100. l. 22. dele it p. 107. l. 22. r. my consent l. 31. r have refused to do p. 110. l. 25. r. my Ministry l. 28. r. as these p. 111. l. 5 9. r. Celeusma l. 27. r. wildly out The Text. II SAM XV. 11. And with Absalom went Two hundred men out of Jerusalem that were called and they went in their simplicity and they knew not any thing IN the present state of things he that would design the greatest publick Service will perhaps upon due consideration scarce find any thing more worthy his fixing on than to endeavour to sweeten the Minds of men of one Faction towards those of another to take off and abate those bitter apprehensions and conceits those Heats and Furies with which they mutually stand enraged My purpose is at present to do what in an hours time I can thereto And that I may succeed therein the better I will desire that while I open my Text you will be pleased to suspend your Censures of any other design which you may imagine I have not to think I had in the choice thereof any Eye at the present Plot or any Great ones supposed to be concerned therein for by the sequel of my Discourse it will appear I had not I only intend to make such Observations upon the Text as shall most naturally conduce to the End I propounded The Words are a small passage in the History of Absalom's Conspiracy In Chap. 14 33. we find Absalom restored to the Kings favour and the first use he makes of it is with more security and facility to lay a wicked design against his Crown and Life First he endeavours to make himself considerable he Attracts the Peoples Eyes by a Princely Grandure and Retinue He prepared himself Chariots and Horses and Fifty men to run before him ver 1. and then their Hearts by crafty Insinuations He calumniates but with a seeming tenderness and modesty his Fathers Government condoles the Peoples Grievances shews a Zeal for their redress and all this with the most obliging Condescensions and the fairest Speeches imaginable He rises up early and stands by the way of the Gate where People past to the Court for Justice and if any came nigh him to do him obeysanee he put forth his hand and took him and kissed him And when any man that had a Controversie came to the King for Judgment see saith he thy matters are good and right but there is no man deputed of the King to hear thee Oh! that I were Judge in the Land I would do you Justice From v. 2 to 6. In a word no Art by which he might fix Negligence or Male-administration on his Father or recommend himself as a sweet diligent and hopeful Prince is omitted And by this means had he stole the Hearts of the men of Israel After Forty years the Business is ripe and an Hyprocritical pretence of Religion gives it Birth Absalom said unto the King I pray thee let me go and pay my Vow which I have vowed unto the Lord in Hebron for thy Servant vowed a Vow while I abode at Geshur in Syria saying If the Lord shall bring me again indeed to Jerusalem then will I serve the Lord ver 7 8. And having obtained and taken his leave at Court away he goes for Hebron But now not a word more of Religion for what have men of aspiring and Treasonable designs to do with it any further than the Pretence of it serves their Interest no Vow shall you hear of perform'd except perhaps by a Mental reservation his Vow were to do all that might be to take off the King The Crown was the God he served and to make his access thereto the King was to be the Sacrifice He therefore strengthens his Party all he can sends Spies throughout all the Tribes of Israel that they might be ready upon the first Voice of his being Proclaimed and at the same time sets forward himself And with Absalom went Two hundred Men out of Jerusalem that were called and they went in c. Now upon this last Verse it is that I am to make my Observations having nothing to do with nor any applications to make of any thing else in the story And they shall be only two of those upon the Character of these Two hundred of Absalom's Followers and upon their Cause the one of which namely their Character seems really good and the other was stark naught I observe then First Men of a right honest Intention may be easily drawn into the Society of the vilest Cause They went in their simplicity The Original is a little more emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They went in their Integrity Integrity is more than Simplicity They went only to bring the Heir apparent and the Kings Darling out of the Town or to accompany him to his Devotions and knew no more of the Design though in the mean while their Company gives encouragement and furtherance to one of the vilest Causes in the World the most ungrateful and unnatural Treason the Sun ever saw I add Secondly Such mens honest Intentions will not justifie their Engagements and Practices in the Society of a Wicked party These two Propositions I shall apply meerely towards the pacifying or allaying Religious Dissentions at least towards the uniting honest mens hearts and affections nor shall I meddle one word with the cross interests or fewds of State from which Good Lord deliver us First then Men of honest Intentions may be drawn into fellowship of very wicked Factions and sometimes more easily perhaps than others To assert this I shall only desire you to reflect on the Ordinary Methods of inveigling or drawing in men of Religion into Parties and together upon the Natural Infelicities of such mens Tempers The great Art of Religious bewitching men into Parties lies in the dextrous applicat on of fine Promises and Pretences By good words and fair Rom. xvi 18. Speeches these Artisans deceive the hearts of the simple or
of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men that walk in their Integrity as in the Text. The Promises in matter of Religion to which again I admonish my Discourse confines it self are usually 1. Of greater Purity 2. Of more Christian Liberty And though it be very true that the sober plain strict Christianity which we know consists in an holy heart and liâ—e possesses men really of the most of these so great promised goods yet is there not the wildest vilest Religion in the World the Professors whereof are not still cracking of these Golden Mountains wheresoever they have any hopes of Proselytes They will promise you liberty though at the same time themselves are the Servants of corruption 2 Pet. 2. 19. Their Mouth shall speak great swelling words of perfection perhaps and they shall separate themselves though all the while they are sensual not having the Spirit Jude v. 16 19. In all probability the language I use was meant of the old Gnosticks and impurer slaves of Villany cannot well be conceived than they were notwithstanding these so contrary Promises The Pretences commonly are of the greatest Zeal and Love for their Souls whom they would gain to themselves Thus the false Apostles in Galat. iv 17. They zealously affect you yea they would exclude us that you might affect them so with some good Copies I read those words Now Liberty is a tempting bait to all men and what more proper to draw in men of honest hearts than Sanctity and Purity Especially when all is set off with the greatest Love to mens better parts when 't is pleaded by those that would win them that it is the Persons thus to be brought in that will be the great gainers that themselves have no interest of their own at least none secular or of this World Such plausible Topicks as these can scarce fail of being effectual if we consider what was the second member desired to be reflected on some Infelicities naturally attending the temper of good and honest-hearted men As 1. Easiness Sweetness and Ductility They are not nor haply ever have been conscious to themselves of such Falseness as rules and actuates others therefore do they scarce imagine it incident unto Christian men they being the properties of Charity of which Grace such mens hearts are full to bear all things believe all things hope all things 1 Cor. 13. 7. and especially where yet nothing appears evident to the contrary to believe and hope the best these kind of men too readily swallow the bait For it is plain this their Christian temper renders them at once less Suspicious and more Credulous Nor is it to be denied 2. That in many men of very honest hearts there is more short-sightedness and want of judgment than is commonly found in persons of much worse Morals The uprightest men are not ever the profoundest It is not given to all to smell Consequences at a great distance Even in the beginning of Christianity when the Evidences of it were more fresh and the Power more miraculous Not many of the wise men after the flesh were called 1 Cor. 1. 27. And be sure Artis est celare artem in this case also the Persons who practise remove at first as far as may be out of reach not only the downright mischievous and wicked part of their design but whatever might give jealousie or suspicion thereof These poor men in the Text heard of a Vow but not a word of a Conspiracy To be brief 3. Inconsideration Half-consideration or perhaps Prejudicate consideration may betray men of very sincere Minds into very unwarrantable Causes and Practices The first and second of these namely Inconsideracy or Half-considering must needs be admitted in these men here following Absalom and the last of these viz. Prejudice and the force of it no mans Honesty forthwith exempts him from though by degrees it may work it out Education Custom Affection to their own Country-men and Laws fear of displeasing c. so clouded the Judgments at least swayed the Practice even of St. Peter and Barnabas that they went aside to some acts of Judaism Gal. 2. 11 12 13 14. They walked not uprightly but were to be blamed and even others were carried away with their dissimulation Upon the whole now supposing those who study to make or maintain Parties have the Art which few of them want to apply such Promises and Pretences as above-mentioned to honest men of sweet and Charitable tempers indeed but not of the deepest Judgments and besides a little inconsiderate naturally perhaps and by an unlucky Age or juncture of Circumstances prejudiced too it will move no reasonable persons wonder though it may do his pity that such men should be thus led aside I have now proved my first Observation sufficiently Application for my design and give me leave briefly to apply it thereto I therefore humbly and passionately Expostulate with persons of all sorts who will be just to their own Reason whether this Consideration That men of upright and sincere intention may be many times drawn in into a bad Cause or Party deserve so much their Indignation as Affections contrary namely Commiseration and Compassion Even the Laws L. Perspiciendum D. de Poenis themselves I mean the Civil Laws distinguish betwixt mens Crimes and their Misfortunes The Philosopher is yet more accurate and puts a difference betwixt Misfortunes Faults and Injuries Misfortunes saith he are such which are neither done with ill intent nor could be foreseen Faults which might have been foreseen but were done with no ill intent Injuries or downright vicious acts are such Rhetoric l. 1. c. 13. which are designed and done with evil intent When therefore we see men engaged in a Profession and way which to us seems gross let it suffice us at first to judge of the Cause they are in and that according to evidence and because all is not yet clear as to their Persons to suspend as to them any severe and merciless Sentence let us be content to think the men no more guilty than their circumstances which too may be to us much unknown do make them We understand not first what intentions they carry perhaps as honest as they are capable of Nor secondly what Temptations were upon them how far they have been practiced on Nor yet again what Natural or Morally unavoidable Infelicities they are or have been under For these and many other Reasons we are not we cannot be their Judges Especially we want Authority we have not yet our Commission the season is not yet come Judge nothing before the time 1 Cor. iv 5. Admit the Saints are to judge the World 't is only as Assessors of Christ Let us stay then till the Lord come and wait our time Things are not yet ripe nor come to light We may adjudge that to be mens Crime which is not so much as their fault if all could be duly opened Much more Iniquitous will it be
to obey As to those of us who have obeyed the Laws we desire only thus much charity from Dissenters which we will surely repay good measure pressed down shaken together and running over we desire I say only thus much charity that we may not all of us be thought to have acted blindfold or upon corrupt inducements There is a multitude of us can in the fear of God profess we have again and again considered the Ecclesiastical Laws and according to our duty as we believe we have been and are obedient not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake Conscience we can say not meerly our own but others of whom we are and must be tender And we doubt not but in this our obedience we please God and are not unserviceable unto Men. We hope further we are able to approve our selves to the Great Judge of all in the several fore-mentioned Particulars at least according to that equitable allowance which our gracious God through Jesus Christ gives to humane infirmities and which the best of us all must crave even in our best Actions Now as to those who withdraw from us We call not into question the sincerity of their intentions we neither are nor desire to be Judges thereof We profess we generally judge the best and where we cannot so judge we suspend our judgment But we desire them to resume and reiterate the consideration of the Rectitude of their Cause For we must acknowledge and avow we neither could see nor have been shewen any warrant which makes it lawful to any much less their duty as many pretend to separate from that Church which neither urges nor receives any Article of Faith but what must be confessed pure which worships God by no Office more or less than what is of his own institution and the forms thereof not dissonant to his word whose Government if the sense of Christendom in all Ages till within this hundred and few more years and of the Generality of it still interpreting Holy Scriptures may be heard is truly Apostolical and in fine whose Discipline though forced in some things to truckle under the iniquity of times suffers few or none to be so bad as they would and encourages all to be as good as they can If it be lawful to separate from such a Church where shall we find that from which we may not separate And where then will be an end of Divisions In the Church of Corinth where were sundry greater Disorders and Corruptions tolerated than can be pretended amongst us that we know of the Apostle does not tolerate but severely reprove their Divisions and both censure the Authors of them as Persons to be avoided and the Abettors as Carnal Then lastly as to the Management of this departure we passionately beseech and in the Lord conjure all who are guilty of withdrawing that they will consider whether the Circumstances either of making or maintaining it be warrantable or indeed well excusable Particularly and briefly Suppose things stood so that Separation were their Duty yet is Theirs without Ostentation as all Duties ought to be Do not they publickly value themselves thereupon and despise others Are not they in their own Language The Saints and the rest of the Nation Those who are without the People of the World not to take up more odious Names Again admit Separation from us were lawful yet is theirs without scandal Without scandal to the weak of their own Church without scandal to the weak of Ours Without scandal to Papists or scandal even to Jews Without scandal to men of all Religions or scandal to men of None The good God be merciful unto us and deliver Christian men from Partiality and Self-flattery But I must Contract 2. My Second Exhortation shall be That being satisfied in Conscience touching the Right or Lawfulness of our own engaging in all points of our Cause or as some had rather speak touching the Excellency and Superlativeness of the way we are in we would not spoil a good Cause by our ill Management That the Religious amongst us are Divided at present there is none who sees not Nor that all the Petty Divisions are reducible to these three Grand ones Papists Regular Protestants and Non-Conforming Protestants The Cause or way of the First I do declare I judge no Power on Earth no nor with all reverence be it spoken of Heaven it self can make just For God cannot Ly that is contradict himself The Doctrine they teach profess and if we will credit them believe is against express Scripture the Analogy of Faith and the Consent of the Ancient and true present Catholick Church And indeed in divers Points also against Sense and Reason the common Principles of Mankind And too much of their Morals is no better The Cause or Way of the Second is just if any under Heaven I need not speak my mind again I do not say there is nothing amongst us defective nor that there is nothing which may be amended nor again that there is no mismenagement or no evil People amongst us I do not believe there is or will be ever such a Church on Earth That accusation to the end of the world will justly ly against the Purest Church I have a few things against thee Revel II. 4. 14 20. But I must avow I know not that Church which would take the Mote out of our Eye that has not a Beam in her own The Cause of the Third must be acknowledg'd by all indifferent and considerative men at least doubtful For he is void of reason who shall deny that disputes with the lightest Probabilities are manag'd against it and such which with the most rational persons turn the Scales Possibly to some of them who have espoused it it may not seem doubtful But whatever my Charity may induce me to think it in any of them were I my self a mainteiner of it I could not judge it in my self any thing less than Formal as well as Material Schism But for the present we 'll not dispute the Point Admit it to be lawful I only move that it be not mismanaged that Good men would not prosecute a lawful Cause in an unlawful manner or by undue means and so intangle themselves and Cause in Injustice and Iniquity Having then concluded the Cause of the Regular Protestants good and excellent and for the present admitted though not granted that of the Nonconformists to be lawful there is chiefly a double mismenagement which I must tax at present and that on both sides for I would not be partial and which the Exhortation in hand proceeds against 1. The former of which is Overcharging one another This besides that it renders us guilty of sin and makes still our matters worse does further expose us Both to our Common Enemies and create to them sweet Sport and to our selves Scorn and Contempt The Nonconformists charge us most unjustly with Popery Give me leave to beseech these our Accusers
that they will consider what they say If we had no Conscience which they would be very uncharitable should they conclude of us if it were all one to us in point of Faith what Religion were establisht or went up yet except they will also think us mand and that we have renounced our worldly Interests together with our Consciences they cannot think we are any Friends to Popery or would make any Advances towards it Can they perswade themselves we are so sottish or our Memories so short as that we have forgotten the Marian days Do not we know that if ever Popery get up again we of the Ministry and especially those of us who are in the highest Order must first go to Stake As to the People they may scape These Sheep what have they done But their hands will surely be upon the Shepherds Or if we should by flight or any other base way save our lives which as the world goes we could scarce expect if we should as Job expresses it Job XIX 20. come off with the skin of our Teeth yet is that such a mercy or boon which any can judge men in our present conditions fond of Are our Families or Liberties our Honours our Preferments nothing to us Sometimes these men think and say we love the World well enough Is there any Vicar Parson or Bishop in the Kingdom that sees not or knows not of the Priest of his Parish or the Titular of his See in present being Do we not daily behold them walk the Streets or know their Confinements Are we ignorant of their Claims or that they look upon us only as Vsurpers and themselves the true Proprietours and that they now have a long time looked for the blessed hour You cry out of us I say sometimes that we are worldly carnal men that we only mind the Fleece not the Flock If we do even that we cannot be Popishly affected There is nothing so destructive of our worldly interest as Popery That has already left no Benesices or Livings vacant for us and if it prevails will soon not leave us Air to breath For shame then interpret some mens Actions otherwise than you do and if in all humane probability they act against their own Secular interest in the things which they cannot but see and do see as well as you impute not those actions to Popish affection but good Conscience They dare not do evil that good may come or be unjust for their own preservation Thus as to one Party Now I will not deny but some of our men are quit with these false Accusers and pay them home in their own Coyn. God forgive both Hence so many bitter Invectives instead of Sermons so much raking into old forgiven and it were to be wisht forgotten Crimes charging the Villanies of the Absaloms upon every Individual of those who went in the simplicity of their heart and knew not any thing Hence in common Discourse so many upbraidings of men with those which were the sins of their ignorance youth and education rather than of the men such care to stigmatize some persons with the miscarriages which they have long ago repented of and if occasion should serve would expiate with their lives such aggravating some Peoples innocent expressions and drawing those Conclusions from them which the poor men abhor but never intended with a world of like practices familiar amongst all Partisans Certainly my Brethren these things are very iniquitous If my brother has repented of a sin God has taken it away from him and the meaning he never had was never his I may not therefore impute either such sin or such meaning to him or upbraid him therewith We would think they gave us more than our due who should deal thus with us Let us therefore our selves unlearn such vile and pitiful Arts. I confess 't is much another case where men retain their sins still and will not without such remembrances be brought to acknowledgment or sense of them But even herein also care is to be had and much prudence used for we may bâ— injurious to our Cause by too much exposing our Adversary An uninteressed stander by will call such discourses Recriminations not Defences and will say the Case needs them because the Advocate uses them And as to the Persons or Parties concerned this kind of treatment can only tend to mutual exasperation upon which no good because no divine blessing can be expected If therefore we will be just to our selves or our own beloved Cause let us on both sides forbear immoderate Charges as being infallibly derogatory to whatsoever there is of true Justice either in our Cause or Defences thereof 2. Men may spoil a good Cause by too much Stiffness and Tenaciousness of their own Sense and by this means keeping open such Breaches which might happily be closed There is such a thing in Solomon's â—udgment as Being righteous overmuch and making our selves over-wise Eccles VII 16. by which he suggests there men may destroy themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 become desolate even to the admiration and amazement of the Beholders or else stand single and by themselves as the Marks of Common fury If contending Parties may be ever guilty of this Evil it is certainly in such cases wherein the Differences betwixt them being but small neither will recede the least from their own Sentiments or which is with such the same for their own apprehensions are too often herein made the measures from their own Right as if nothing could be more Righteous than each of their Causes nothing more infallible than each of their Judgments And if ever men may expect such punishment of issue it is when such Differences are perpetuated upon such mutual heights Wherefore A sectâ infallibili libera Ecclesiam tuam Domine I confess there are some who publish such Principles and Positions of late as infer Vnity in the Church not to be necessary These make the breach irreconcileable and therefore are not to be heard There 's an Argument now for Vnity amongst us in this Kingdom I speak to those who call themselves Protestants which must be heard and is uncontrolable We must unite or be destroy'd At all times Christian duty obliges us thereto now Necessity and Self-preservation Two or more parties may ballance One when any single Other cannot I speak plain enough Now if we must Unite the only question will be Upon what terms Must we of the establisht Church come over to you who Dissent or You come over unto us We declare we cannot without Schism but are ready to sacrifice all we can otherwise to the Publick Peace and Safety And this Pretence is real You who dissent are very far from being all of a piece Besides those Elder and less Anomalous Factions of Presbyterians and Independents there are Antinomians Millenaries Anabaptists Quakers and Sects which know not what they are nor we what to call All the world must allow there are Schisms
Office of the Visitation of the Sick that much in that Particular is referred to the discretion of the Minister Then shall the Minister exhort the sick person after this form or other like says the Rubrick He is not then tied up but may vary and I scarce ever knew but in ordinary practice we do so Again Then shall the Minister examine whether he repent him truly of his sins and be in Charity with all the World exhorting him c. viz. to forgiveness satisfaction to men for wrongs done disposal of his goods Charity to the Poor all which says the Rubrick may be done before the Minister begin his Prayer as he shall sée cause And for all this there is no form at all prescribed consequently then it being left to the Ministers prudence he he may put what Interrogatories and make as narrow a search as he shall think fir and he is required plainly to judge because to exhort and admonish as there appears cause Now it is to be considered these Exhortations and Admonitions may and most frequently do take up divers Visits However all this being supposed to be done Then and not till then Here shall the sick person be moved to make a special Confession of his sins if he féel his Conscience burdened with any weighty matter After which Confession the Priest shall absolve him if he humbly and heartily desire it after this sort Rubr. Where to be short I only desire two things may be noted 1. That after all this the Minister is not commanded to absolve him They must be absolved in Mr. Baxter is then false but if he see fit to absolve him he is to absove him after this sort It is very well known divers of us have refused and daily do to absolve such persons touching whose Penitence we are not satiâ—fied 2. Those words if he humbly and heartily desire it do import the discovery of such a sense of sin to to the Confessour at least suppose him in Conscâ—ence judge as may well be conceived to bear him out in giving Absolution certainly they do exclude Cursing and Swearing and railing at an holy Life at that time Which things being so apparently thus it would almost tempt a man in charity to think Mr. Baxter writes against the Laturgy without having duly read or considered it otherwise he would not so falsly accuse it or traduce our Church for it His last imputation is but little better than this which we have now dispatched Namely that the Discipline of the Church is managed by one Lay Chancellâ—r and his Court with some small Assistance The Archdeacons of which in most Dioceses there are divers in that of Exon from whence I came four throughout England generally have their Courts and neither are they Lay-men nor for the most part do they Act mainly by Lay-Officials and their Courts in many places are weekly Besides these in Every Deauery i. e. ten Parishes or thereabouts there are Archypresbyters or Deans Rural whose Duty and Oath binds them to enquire into the Conversation as well of the Clergy as of the People within their Precincts So that if Ministers and Church-wardens will but do their Duty the Provision of Discipline is sufficient in Mr. Baxter's language for the keeping clean the Church I will be still so charitable to him as to believe he is not verst in our Exercise of Discipline but I could also have wish't that he had no more censured it Only I will conclude this Particular by appealing to his own Sense and the sense of Mankind if such undue and prevaricant Charges as these be the way to peace 9. And now I am speaking of Prevarication his reckoning Hooper Latimer and Cranmer pag. 228. amongst the Nonconformists to conciliate thence credit to their Cause and detract from us is a kind of Art which Ingenuity and much more Christian Veracity would blush to own I will allude in this regard to the words of the great Apostle I wish not only Mr. Baxter but all the Dissenters were altogether such as they excepting their Bonds and Sufferings 10ly and Lastly For I will not run the number up to Mr. Baxter's beloved number of 20 or upwards though I might There appears to me in him a great Inconstancy to himself and that not only in smaller points and lapses of memory or attention as may seem that pag. 10. I never came near them that is the People of Kidderminster nor except very rarely sent them one line yet within five lines after I sent them says he all the Books which I wrote but even in his Resolutions and Matters of great moment is there with him Yea and Nay Sometimes he seems against all Subscribing as pag. 60 113 c. At another time he is for Subscribing to the Doctrine of the Church in the 39 Articles and Books of Homilies pag. 12 167 c. and other terms of Peaceableness Again pag. 128. The 39 Articles are a wholsome Doctrine yet pag. 122. They are not intelligible they have contrary meanings to fit the use of every Subscriber they are hot to one and cold to the other By the way sometimes it is no fault in the Books to be subscribed that they are so worded as to allow men to abound in their own sense And we are sure our Articles are in this no more guilty than most Confessions which have been penn'd for Concord as the Augustan it self witness therein the Article and Clause touching the Presence of Christ's Body in the Sacrament In sum when a Proposition evidently admits of two or three senses and each of them is known famous and held by divers Doctors of the same Church and that Church framing a Rule or Mean of Concord for her Sons shall in that Rule set a Proposition which takes in the several Opinions of these Doctors in such sort as to tye them up as far as is necessary and to leave them otherwise at their liberty is this Proposition justly to be called unintelligible or have Mr. Baxter and the Dissenters any cause if they will be constant to themselves to say 't is Unreasonable For my own part I wish sincerely for their sakes some more of the Articles and perhaps Rubricks too were penned with ampler Latitude But to the Point again That is a very unkind inconstancy unkind not only to us but to the Design of Peace that so often in pag. 16 17 18 c. he says They take it to be their Duty in the Exercise of their Ministry to take heed of any thing that tendeth to the Division of the peoples minds or the hinderance of the lawful publick Ministry or to their just Discouragement Again to take heed lest any dishonour or murmuring against their Rulers arise or be cherished by reason of their sufferings or to subvert or perplex the hearers by aggravating the faults of others or other mens worshipping of God or breeding in them distast of the Publick Worship for all which Expressions
No more will I take notice of some Insignificants one of whom in his Title Page has inserted Celeuseuca as a Book of a Pacificatory Design so is the Father of Lies a Peacemaker It would seem that Author was as well verst in the Contents of the Book he Commends as in the import of its Title Celeusuca But I am very weary of these People and will therefore that I may not be wanting to my Design pass over to such who seem to me to run on the contrary Extream Such are they that would have nothing at all yielded on our side And these as far as I have met with I may reduce to two sorts at least their vein of Writing let their Professions be what they shall suggests to me this distribution of them into Politicians and Divines The Politicians look upon the Dissenters as Easie to be brought in by other surer and as they conceive more Honourable means than any Concessions from us Their Leaders say they are but few about a Dozen persons who are sick of their Separation and stand in need of a plausible pretence under which to return to the Church About an hundred men say others though surely all vilely out in their Accounts Their Followers contemptible and most of them of that Body which we call the Mobile A little time they suppose will wear off these old stubborn headâ— and mean while a brisk and impartial Execution of Laws will fetch off most of the People and hinder a new Growth or Succession and thus the Faction in less than an Age become extinct But to gratifie the Pride of a few men would be endless for they would still be at new Demands and besides very dangerous in encouraging for the present and propagating for the future the numerous Dissensions and their Interests Thus some Others though much the fewer but perhaps the wiser yet I fear it will be no wisdom to leave it to the Event to determine which part is wisest Others I say bid us take no notice of them go on quietly in our way Opposition by a kind of Antiperastisis embodies strengthens and so multiplies them To such purposes as these are the Discourses of our men who pretend to an insight into Politicks The Divines seem to judge they are to be disputed and reasoned out of their Dissension and I must confess they have used such variety and strength of Arguments as if the thing were thus to be done in all probability would not have failed of effecting it But I know not whether I may say of the Arguments on both sides what Solomon does of all Events There is nothing new under the Sun The New Conformity as some are pleased to style it that is The New Subscription Declaration Reordination c. might perhaps at its first Commencement admit of some new Argument But as to Conformity as it stood by the old Act of Vniformity and Canons the Question has been so long agitated and sifted so near that at least it is very hard to press any thing which has not been said before in one form or other and by this time that is after near Twenty years debate I may pretty safely say as much of the other so far am I from being of Mr. Baxter's mind That as the Presbyterians may say their Cause was never yet publickly pleaded so may those on the other side who could have yielded to the Old Conformity but cannot to the New Third part p. 6. A strange kind of Pleaders these who think they are never heard except they have their will Alas how little of new was there in Smectymnuus it self And afterwards when the Reasons for Reformation came forth what had they of moment which had not been pleaded by their famous Cartwright my Names-sake Dr. Ames and others Vsque ad Cramben long before The Argumenta ad homines which of all sorts of Argumentation are still likelyest to be new we see signifie now not at all with them they will not be concluded by the judgment or practice of their Ancestors no nor of their present Brethren some of them not by their own at all times So that I must profess I utterly despair of ever seeing the Nonconformists disputed into the Church not through any Diffidence to our own Cause or through any Insufficiency or Suspicion of our own Arguments which I say again I can perceive no defect in either as to weight or number but there is such an incurable Tetter in the World as a Disputandi pruritus and a Non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris Nor have I any more hopes as to the success of the Politick Methods These People have been tried long enough and glory in that Motto which one made the Title of a Pamphlet against them Semper Iidem Hear what Mr. Baxter tells us amongst many other things to the same purpose in that so oft cited Piece pag. 195. Experience telleth you and all the World that you are mistaken viz. in thinking to reduce us by Violence We read the same Books in the Prison if there we may have them as out of it And what abundance of Ministers within these Ten years have come out of long imprisonment in the same mind as they went in yea much confirmed But whom can you name that came out convinced How long have they suffer'd not only poverty and reproach but that silencing which they account a greater evil And again pag. 196. In a word I know not only my self but so many of the Nonconformable Ministers of England so well that I utterly despair that ever silencing or imprisonment should change their judgments Much more he has to the same purpose and what some would call more Resolute Bravado's Then as to the Extinction of the Faction by the death of these Leaders see pag. 203. They will choose to themselves Teachers and Pastors out of the best qualified of the People that survive for as to our Orders they value them not they have a new Notion of Ordination fitted for their purpose Ordination is nothing but a solemn Declaration to the Church that such a Person is qualified for the Ministry and so called thereto by Jesus Christ nay 't is but a Confirmation and Complement of the Peoples choice says Ames De Conscient l. 4. c. 25. q. 6. A publick approving a man as fit to be a Minister A solemn allowance of his Call J. H. p. 8. Mr. Question of Reordinat Baxter himself too is of the same mind Disput pag. 147. so that the People or their Elders hereby may lawfully ordein They will choose says he such and will not lay down worshipping God according to their Consciences though they were used for it as Daniel was contrary to Law And these new Pastors perhaps will have less Moderation than the old And thus you will be troubled with a succession of Dissenters But I could have furnisht Mr. Baxter and the World with another Confutation of this vain hope of the Extinction