before it lay under any ill character But that this Church doth not so syncretize with that of Rome as to make its Communion unsafe or sinful I suppose the following Considerations will give sufficient security to an unprejudiced mind In the mean time let me intreat him that hath entertained any suspicions of that kind against her to give an ingenuous Answer of these two or three Queries 1. If there be such a dangerous affinity betwixt the Church of England and the Romish how came it to pass that the blessed instruments of our Reformation such as A. Bishop Cranmer Ridley Latimer and others laid down their lives in testimony to this against that For if those of the Church of Rome could have been so barbarous as cruelly to murder those excellent persons for some slight Innovations or for differing from them in Circumstantials yet certainly such wise and good men would not have been so prodigal of their own blood nor weary of their lives as to cast them away upon Trifles It is probable at least therefore that those of the Church of Rome thought the English Reformation to be essentially different from them and it is more than probable that those holy men aforesaid thought so and did not offer to God the sacrifice of fools 2. Or how comes it to pass that all those of the Roman Communion withdraw themselves from ours and are commanded so to do by the Head of their Church under peril of damnation And on the other side the true Protestants of the Church of England think it their duty to absent themselves from the Roman Worship lest they should defile their Consciences with their Superstitions I say how comes this distance and apprehension of sin and danger reciprocally if the differences between them be inconsiderable 3. Whence comes it to pass that the Bigots of the Romish Church have more spite against our Church than against any Sect or Party whatsoever but that they take us not only for Enemies but the most mortal and formidable of all those they have to do with Or Lastly if both the Church and Church-men of England are not far enough removed from any participation with that of Rome how comes it to pass that they of all men most zealously and constantly upon all occasions stand in the gap and oppose the return of Popery into England when other men either slight the danger or are so fond of their own private sentiments as apparently to run the hazard of this for the sake of them Any reasonable man would think those men have not really such an abhorrence of Popery as they pretend and that there might easily be found terms of accommodation between them when he shall observe them more fond of every petty Opinion than concern'd for the publick Security against that common Enemy And that they will rather venture the danger of that breaking in upon them than forgo the least fancy or opinion nay will be instrumental in procuring a Toleration and suspension of the publick Laws for that which they are so jealous others should have any kindness for And for proof of this I call to witness the transactions of the last year when those very men that would be thought the Atlas's and only supporters of Protestant Religion and would give out as if their Zeal was the only Bulwark against Popery had by their separation from and enmity to this Church weakned the common interest and by their restless importunities and unlimited desires of liberty in a manner extorted a suspension of the Laws touching Religion Had not His Majesty and His Parliament timely foreseen the consequence and the whole Nation been awakned into an apprehension of the danger by the serious and constant admonitions of the Episcopal Clergy Popery might have come in like a Landflood upon us notwithstanding those quicksighted Watchmen that can spy Popery so far off I say had not the Church-men especially bestirred themselves and shewed both a better courage and zeal against Popery and also a better skill in that warfare than their Accusers the so much dreaded Enemy had ere this time been in fair hopes of attaining his desires This was a passage of so much glory to the true Church-men and so great and illustrious an instance of their integrity that I am in hope whilest it shall remain in memory Malice it self will be ashamed to lay any imputation of inclining to Popery either upon the Church or Church-men of England I shall not need to add to all this That there are as understanding men in Religion persons of as holy Lives and of as comfortable Consciences of this Churches Education as are any where to be found in the world besides Which three things together fully acquit any Church of participation with Popery For that degeneracy of Christianity is for nothing more truly hateful nor by nothing more discoverable than by its blind devotion principles of immorality and the bad security it gives to the Consciences of men which who so acquits any Church of as every considerate man must needs do this Church he shall after that very unreasonably leave any ill character upon her at least of that nature we now are speaking of 3. But there is a terrible Charge yet to come and that is against the Sufficiency but especially the Sanctity of the Clergy and Ministry of the Church of England as if they like the Sons of Eli 1 Sam. 2. 15. made men to abhor the offerings of the Lord. And this is made the pretence of resorting to Conventicles and forsaking the Church Now if this was as true as it is horribly false it might be an Objection perhaps fit for a Papist to make who is taught that the efficacy of all Divine Offices depends upon the intention and condition of him that administers But no Protestant without contradicting his own principles can make use of it to justifie his recession from the Church For if the efficacy of all Divine Ordinances depend upon the Divine Institution and the concurrence of Gods Grace with my use of them what can it prejudice me that he that administers is an evil or unlearned man so long as I prepare my self to receive benefit immediately from God in the use of the means appointed by him This therefore may serve for a malicious stone to cast at us from whom they are departed but no argument in the cause nor excuse for themselves Yet I confess nevertheless this way of arguing for we must be forced to call hard word by that name is of great prevalence with injudicious persons and able to prejudice them against the best Constitutions in the world For they not understanding the reason of things give reception and entertainment to any proposition in proportion to the opinion or reverence they have for the person that recommends it It is a known story how well the Spartans were aware of this and therefore if in their Council a man of a bad life had propounded
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
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
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 Prince or the State could enact nothing almost but the Kirk-men found themselves grieved and Religion concerned and Excommunication is denounced The Kirk on the other side make their Decrees and the Civil Power declares them null and grants Prohibitions c. He that will satisfie himself of the truth of these things and thereby convince himself of the mischief of the Principle we are speaking of let him read the Judicious History of the Church of Scotland written by the Most Reverend Arch-Bishop Spot swood And he shall find that this unhappy notion raised and maintained for many years a bellum limitaneum and that it is like the Marches or bateable ground betwixt two bordering Potentates a Scene of contention and a field of blood Whereas did we agree of certain Limits and make the Magistrates Power and Province extend to all that which God hath not taken in by express Law both Gods Glory and the Magistrates Authority would be kept entire and there would be neither cause nor room for Controversie 2. This opinion at once condemns all the States and Kingdoms in the whole world of Impiety and Irreligion forasmuch as there neither is nor ever hath been any such constitution as hath not had some Laws of Religion that could not be deduced particularly from the Scriptures And so he that is of this perswasion and will be true to it is bound in Conscience to be a Rebel where-ever he lives 3. It is an unreasonable Fear a meer Melancholy Jealousie and express Superstition instead of Religion to suspect that either the Magistrate can offend in making or the people in obeying such Laws as though they are not expresly warranted yet are no where forbidden by the Scripture For it is a supposition that a man may be a Sinner when yet he breaks no Law contrary to the express words of St. John 1 Ep. 3. 4. who defineth Sin to be a transgression of a Law And as is the usual Genius of all Superstition it mis-represents God as cruel and tyrannical that can condemn men ex post sacto for doing of that against which there was no Law in being But 4. Which is most observable this Doctrine instead of asserting Christian Liberty in truth subverts it and layes far more severe bonds upon the Consciences of men than the very Law of Moses did That was a yoke say the Apostles Acts 15. 10. which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear upon this account especially because it injoyned a great number of little Observances which by their multitude were hard to be remembred by their nicety difficult to be observed and by their meer positive nature and having no essential goodness in themselves had less power upon the Consciences of men to awaken their care and diligence about them It is manifest that Law contained no precept that was in it self impossible to be performed but because it is hard for the mind of man to attend to many things at once especially if also the things in which his care and obedience is required be such as are not enacted in his Conscience and when he can see no other reason of or advantage by his obedience but meerly his obedience therefore was that Law called impossible Now if a man were bound by the Gospel to avoid all those particulars that were commanded by Moses it is plain the servitude and the difficulty would be the same but if not only so but he be also bound to avoid all that which the Scripture is silent in his obligation is infinite and his servitude intolerable For Positives are determinate and definite and so fall more easily within our care and attention but Negatives are infinite and therefore such a yoke must be properly impossible These mistakes therefore being removed The true Notion of Christian Liberty will best be understood if we consider That in the times of the Old Testament the visible Church of God was inclosed within a narrow pale and none could be members of it without submission to Circumscision and the other Rites of Judaism Whence it came to pass that at the first publication of the Gospel it was a riddle and an astonishment to the very Apostles themselves that the Gentiles were to be taken into it And when the effecting this was taken in hand Acts 15. 1. the Jewish Christians stood upon their priviledge and would not admit the Gentile Converts into Society nor become of one body with them unless they would be circumcised and keep the Law Hereupon a Council is called and there the Apostles find out a temper and middle way for both parts to meet in for the present which was that the Gentile Converts should submit to the terms of Proselytism at large or the precepts given to the Sons of Noah as some understand the passage or as is indubitable that they should comply with the Jews in these three things of abstaining from fornication from things strangled and from blood And on the other side the Jewish Converts should abate of their rigor and not require of the Gentiles the strict terms of compleat Judaism At which decision the Gentile Christians were transported with Joy rejoyced at the consolation v. 31. For as I said till then none could be of the same body with the Jews in respect of visible Church Society without Circumcision and universal submission to the Law of Moses This therefore was an expedient for the present till the Jews should be by degrees better instructed in the liberty of that Christian Religion they had lately received But when the Gospel was fully published then the aforesaid Inclosure is laid open and all Nations invited into the Society of the Church upon equal terms neither party being bound to those nice Laws of Moses nor any other but those plain and reasonable ones contained in the Gospel and such other not contradictory to them as publick Wisdom Peace and Charity should dictate and recommend And to this purpose is the observation of Eusebius in his Praepaeratio Evangelica That Christianity is nothing else but the old Patriarchal Religion revived a restitution of that Primitive simplicity and liberty that was before the Law of Moses and that now there lyes no more bonds upon the Consciences of Christians than did upon the Antient Patriarchs saving those improvements our Saviour hath made upon the Law of Nature and those few positive Institutions of his expresly set down in the Gospel And that men obeying these are at liberty to conform to whatsoever common Reason and equity or publick Authority shall impose And this discourse of Eusebius is in effect the same with that of the Apostle Rom. 4. and Gal. 3. especially v. 19. where he puts this question Wherefore then served the Law he answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was added c. it was a kind of interim or like a parenthesis which when it shall be left out the former and latter parts joyn together again without any interruption
a great hand in this mischief also That not only the prodigious Faith but the monstrous Life of some great pretenders to Religion hath made men scorn and abhorr the very notion of it When not only mens ridiculous Follies but also their Vices their Pride and Passion and Rancour shall be father'd upon the Spirit of God as we know when and where such things have been done when men shall seek God for all the Villanies they are resolved to commit when they make long Prayers to devour Widows houses and proclaim a Fast that they may kill and take possession when Religion shall be prostituted to all bad designs and in nomine Domini incipit omne malum when I say the most specious Profession is a cloke for the vilest Knavery It cannot be much wondered if such men as I described before be inclined by these things to think there is no reality in any of the discourses of God and Religion For as if a man were to observe whether the Sun was risen upon the Hemisphere he would direct his eyes to the tops of Mountains expecting to see him displaying his beams first upon them that are nearest Heaven So a man would think if there were any such thing as Religion and a sense of Divinity amongst men it should be found amongst those that have alwayes God in their mouths and such a Garb of Religion upon them But if he find himself disappointed here and that these men that pretend so high have as great Sensualities Passions Covetousness Malice as other men he will despair of finding it any where and conclude with Brutus O virtus quaesivi te ut rem sed tantùm merum nomen es that there is no such thing at all 3. To the aforesaid Causes we may well add the perpetual Janglings and Disputes between Professors of Religion as not only making Religion unlovely but even calling it wholly into question When so many shall tell us there is such a place and state as Heaven and a World to come but every one tells us a several way thither witty men who know that all cannot be true but all may be false think it not comporting with their discretion to take the pains of the journey till the Guides shall be agreed of the way The disagreement of the two rank Elders in their testimony against Susannah's chastity whilest one said the fault was done under one kind of Tree and the other under another discovered her Innocency and their Hypocrisie It is true indeed there may and must be diversities of apprehensions in several points of Christianity whilest men are of different capacities and this need not nor if things be modestly carryed will give any just advantage to the Atheist But when every private opinion is made necessary to salvation and men pronounce damnation against one another upon every little diversity when they make as many Religions as there are Opinions and as many Wayes to Heaven as there are Notions amongst men it cannot be hoped but that the cold Sceptick should be incouraged in his Neutrality 4. But if to all these we consider with what rancour and malice the several Parties prosecute one another what odious and defamatory Libels and bitter Invectives they write one against another wherein all the secret follies of each party are blazed and published all the errors aggravated all the Opinions racked to confess blasphemy in their owners and defenders one party said to make God a Tyrant the other to deny his Wisdom or Soveraignty the one side accused of Idolatry the other of Rebellion he I say that considers how usual all this is and how ready all those that have no good mind to Religion are to catch up the darts that each of the parties cast at each other and make use of them against both and with what seeming Reason they conclude that the Confession of the Parties against each other and their mutual Impeachments of each other should argue the guilt of both and observes that all the defamatory Sermons and Libels that men write in heat and passion against each other wherein they charge folly blasphemy and nonsense upon each other reciprocally at last rebound or are retorted upon the wheel of Religion cannot be altogether to seek of the rise of the Atheism of this Age. But whether these be the principal causes of the great appearance which Atheism makes in this Age above the proportion of other times or whether there be other of a more latent and malignant influence I shall not further enquire at present since it is manifest that the matter of Fact is true and that being so the danger to Religion cannot be obscure We have reason therefore better to govern our passions and lay aside our animosities for the future and to unite our forces in an uniform order of Religion against this common enemy lest the gravity and piety of this Nation end in Buffoonry and our best heat and spirits being spent upon one another or against our Governours the mortal symptome of a cold clammy stupid Atheism succeed 2. Popery is another Hannibal ad portas an enemy that watches but till our Divisions shall open the Gates to him I hope I need not exaggerate the formidableness of Popery to those that remember either eighteen thousand souls dispatcht out of the World by the hands of the common Hangman in about three years time in the Low Countreyes under the Government of the Duke of Alva or the French Massacre or Queen Maries Reign in England or the Gunpowder Treason There was a clause in our Litany in Henry the Eighths and Edward the Sixths time From the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and his detestable enormities Good Lord deliver us and upon what reasons soever it was since left out it was not certainly because either their Errors are less enormous or their Spirits less cruel but God forbid that because they at present hide their Teeth we should think they cannot or will not bite for if we should be so good natur'd as to warm this Snake in our bosomes that now pretends to have neither power nor will to hurt us I doubt we should quickly find it to resume its malice and poison together with its warmth and strength If any one shall be so hardy as to apprehend there is no danger of its return in this Nation I pray God his foresight be as great as his courage but he that considers the following Circumstances will think it adviseable not to be over secure For 1. It is not with this party as with any other Sect whatsoever these have a Forreign Head and great interests abroad the Pope and all the Popish Princes to unite to direct to animate and imploy them which must needs render them very dangerous to any State that is inclined to middle counsels that is that doth not either effectually please them or effectually disable them And upon this account the Turkish Sultan who hath scarcely any