sake when we are as much or within a small matter as much Papists as you I am afraid I shall never be able to persuade neither the Pope nor his Jesuits that we of the Church of England are such Friends of Popery as you my Non-Conforming Brethren would have us to be I shall be rather able to make them take us for Turks and Jews than Roman Catholicks Wherefore then will you needs accuse us so falsely against all equity and probability What do you find of Popery in us and our Church Is it the Government by Bishops and their Suffragans It is possible that this Order established in our Church may give occasion to the weaker sort to look upon us near a kin in this respect because they are mistaken in the Notion of Popery and in the chief and essential properties of that Religion God forbid that all Monarchical Government in Gods Church on Earth should be Popish and Antichristian Then we must include the Primitive Churches setled by the Apostles in Asia and the East under the Government of Bishops to be Popish also Then the Grecian Church under the Patriarch of Constantinople The Egyptian under the Arch-Bishop of Alexandria and the Antiochian and Jerusalem Churches and generally all the Churches of Christ in Constantine's days and since were Popish Nay all the Fathers St. Cyprian St. Austin St. Ambrose St. Chrysostom were Papists as well as we and our Bishops by that reason Hier. ad Macceb Aug. in Psalm 45. For all their Churches were governed by Bishops and a Monarchical Authority The Calvinists also whom you say are your nearest Brethren are also Papists if this reason were good for they wish that they might have Bishops to govern them in their reformed Churches and that it could consist with their safety in the midst of their Enemies to have the same form of Government as we have here in this Land Examin but their Letters mentioned by Dr. Durel and a Letter of Peter Martyr to Beza Peter Martyr pag. 801. at the end of his Common-places at his return from the Assembly of Poissy concerning the Bishop of Troye in France who embraced the Protestant Religion and was universally received and acknowledged by all the Calvinists in his Diocess Ministers and others as their Lord and Bishop And you will have no cause to think them to be Enemies of Episcopacy as the Papists and you would persuade us for divers ends But there is a vast difference in the point of Church-Government between the Papists and us They render Homage to the Pope as the Supream Lord of the Church on Earth we acknowledge none but Christ and under him our Lawful Sovereign They differ from us much in their Episcopal Laws which savour of Tyranny and are not so conducing to the Reformation of mens manners and the good of Christianity as ours The Name Prerogatives and Honours of the Popish Bishops are for the most part yet continued to our Protestant Prelates by the liberality of our Religious Kings And is this the cause that you accuse them of Popery Do their Honors and Riches grieve you Are you displeased to see the Rulers of our Church appear with decency splendor and the respect of their Country I am perswaded that if the Kings Majesty would take from them their Lordships their Estates and Dignities and send our Bishops amongst you to beg their bread as the Mendicant Fryers of Rome though then they would be much more like the Papists than they are at present you would scarce take the pains to accuse them for being Popishly affected But I have this Charitable opinion of you my Non-Conforming Brethren that you would never have thought to accuse our Bishops and their Church Government of Popery had not the Jesuitical Party that insinuate amongst you minded you of it for their own ends and out of a displeasure to see the excellent Order Decency and Splendor of our Church free from the abominations of Idolatry and their Monkish absurdities But that you may not be so soon mistaken my Brethren in a matter of so great a moment as Popery and Superstition is I beseech you to understand what Popery is and what not that you may not be so easily cosened and imposed upon by your Enemies and ours in this Nation Popery comprehends all those Heresies and grievous Errors which the Pope and the Court of Rome have delivered as Articles of Faith by which the Popes Authority or rather Tyranny is established in the World contrary to Gods Word and Glory and the Salvation of mens Souls According to this definition if our first Reformers had retained the abuses of Popery the Transubstantiaton Purgatory Images the Merits of Saints Indulgences Pardons and such like follies not warranted but contrary to Christ's Doctrines and Christianity you might then accuse us with reason of being guilty of Popery But shall we for our Conformity to Christs Commands and the Primitive Church in Discipline and Government be accused by you of Popery and Antichristianism What is there in our Government or Church that tends to promote the Popes Interest or to draw men away from Christ and our dependency upon him and his merits If something of the Civil Power be intrusted in the hands of our Bishops I hope none of you will presume to appoint our Wise Princes and Parliaments whom they are to settle in Authority under them That proceeds from our Princes Will who is Gods Vicegerent amongst us For our Articles our Catechism our Rubrick and way of Worship is as free from Popery as our Government and Ecclesiastical Laws For how can that be Popish which opposeth all the Errors and Mistakes of the Papists which Teacheth to implore Gods assistance and direction against the Heresies and Designs of the Pope which was used in the Christian Church before ever the Pope claimed an universal superintendency How can that be Popish which agrees with Gods Word and the Doctrines and Practices of all the Reformed Churches Enemies of Popery and which their most Judicious Divines embrace as most consonant with Faith and Piety Search into every thing Authorized in the Church of England and let the most refined Soul and quickest Eye tell us under what Ceremony or in what Article of our Faith or in what corner of our Rubrick or in what part of our Devotions they perceive any Colour of Popish Superstition I dare affirm and willl engage to prove that most of our Non-Conformists are far more Superstitious and Popish in their Belief and Practice than any in the Church of England In those particulars in which your Conformity is required What is there of Popery of Superstition or contrary to Reason or good manners For if there be nothing to be excepted against Why will you not joyn with us your Brethren You cannot be angry with Set Forms in general because Christ our Saviour recommended one to us as an Excellent Pattern to draw ours by You may be
had not imposed a silence and obliged them to be quiet In Bohemia and Poland what stirs and disturbances have the Socinians raised In Germany and the Bishoprick of Munster what wickednesses have not the Anabaptists committed I should be endless if I reckon'd up all the Mischiefs Blood Tumults War and Calamities which small and inconsiderable disputes about Religion have brought upon men in the Primitive Church and in these latter days Look only into our own Nation and consider the late Tragedies acted by our own Countreymen upon the Person of their King and Nobles Look into the cause of their unreasonable fury and you shall find nothing but their mistakes about Religion to have thus transported and carried them to that excess of cruelty and rage In Queen Elizabeths days the Separatists began to quarrel with our Discipline and Government and laid a foundation for the Brownists the Familists and their Successors to build their confused Babel Their bold Pamphlets in the Queens Reign and in King James's time threatned the Nation with the following disturbances in the State The restless Puritans were always bawling in the Peoples ears against our Church and its Rulers and what troubles did they not breed but all former disputes were but sports and plays to the late disputes about Religion in our Royal Martyrs days for it is observable that when men have wearied themselves in disputing about trifles they try the cause and decide the difference a nearer way with the dint of their sharp swords This was the end of our unhappy divisions we remember yet the late Civil War the Calamity under which the Land groaned the Disorders and Miseries that we and our Families suffered This my Brethren proceeded from the same cause which yet you are unadvisedly fond of and embrace with an invincible tenacity They were at first discontented at our Church and Religious Worship they exclaimed continually against our formalities and practices and differed from us in the same punctilio's as some of you do See the Kings Portraiture They were at first as modest in all their behaviour towards us desiring nothing but liberty and freedom for themselves and their way of worship but when they had gathered into a head their pretensions were so high that they would oblige all men to conform and subscribe to all their irregularities and extravagancies I cannot call to mind the sad condition of our Church of England in those unhappy days without Tears when our Governours were deposed our Clergy banished with their Prince our Nobility and Gentry sequestred our Laws obliged to submit to the power of the Sword our Kingdom and Government in the hands of lawless Tyrants Sects and Divisions in Religion multiplying every day and rising out of the filthy spawn of the Jesuits the wicked principles which they spread amongst us to disturb us and puzle the weaker sort in the Notions of Religion All these Evils with innumerable others which we can better remember than speak of sprung from your Forefathers Non-Conformity And will not their Chidren be better advised will they wittingly draw again the same danger upon their heads will they not be persuaded to prevent such mischiefs for the time to come The burnt Child dreads the fire We have been already burnt and almost consumed in the hot fire of a Civil-War Shall we cast our selves again into it or entertain the same causes that brought forth that sad calamity Our Enemies took occasion to blow up the coals into a grievous flame who knows but they are busily employed about the same wicked purposes and will cast us headlong into the same misery why shall we be so foolish so mad and such Enemies of the publick and of our selves and posterity as to assist the Jesuits and Romanists in their grand design to ruin us and our Nation This proceeding of yours may seem very strange my Brethren and may cause a greater wonder when we have seriously considered and proved it to you CHAP. III. That there is no reasonable cause of dividing from our Church and that the most scrupulous Conscience may and ought to conform according to the Laws of God as well as man HAD you as good and allowable causes to alledge for your separation from us as we and our Forefathers had to depart out of the Idolatrous Church of Rome your zeal would deserve a commendation and none could charge you with the Crime of Schism or Faction For in such a case you would have in Conformity to the Examples and Command of Christ and his holy Apostles forsaken those who had first forsaken him and divided your selves from those abominations whereof the belief and practice can never consist with the Salvation of your immortal Souls But though we and our Church are falsely aspersed with Popery and Popish Superstition the Accusation is false and so ill grounded that it would not deserve a refutation were it not that this strange conceit is greedily entertained by many of our Non-Conforming Brethren The accusation is commonly delivered in gross because there is none can justifie this charge by any particular instance It is the common Practice and Art of Impostors and of abusive Tongues when they cannot make good the objected crime to bring their accusation in this manner that their malice might be less discoverable and their charge more weighty But why should we be declared to be Popishly affected against our wills we disown this charge as a grievous calumny that hath no other foundation but the pride and unreconcileable hatred of our Enemies Did ever any Church write more smartly against the Pope and Papists than the Learned Divines of the Church of England read over the thirty nine Articles and Bishop Jewel and the Archbishop Laud against Fisher and in these our days read but the writings of these Learned Divines of the present Bishop of Lincoln of Dr. Stilling fleet and Dr. Pierce and you shall find that none professes to be greater enemies of Popery than we do But methinks that this late Popish Plot and all the Papists endeavours against the Church of England should justifie us in the eyes of all the World better than any Arguments can that we are not Papists nor Popishly affected can we think the Papists and Jesuits who are not so easily mistaken in their judgments of us would have laid a Train to blow us up had we been on their side can we think them so blind that they cannot see their friends from their foes would they offer to burn destroy and kill us and our Children were we so inclinable to Popery as our mistaken Brethren falsely conceive what mad men are you Priests and Jesuits Popes and Cardinals of Rome thus to conspire and spend so much Treasure to destroy your own Brethren Did you not understand all this while that we were all agreed and that we are so near related that we may shake hands Why will you needs murder us and our Families for our Religion
whose Souls and Understandings God hath given over to a strong spirit of delusion to believe Lies and to work Abominations have their excuses for their own follies and errors and to justifie their leaving of us But these I judge for the most part to be in so desperate a case that without a Miracle of Grace it is not possible to snatch them out of the claws of that commanding Spirit that governs them This advice is designed for the perusal of a more moderate sort and of more reasonable Souls more tractable and sociable who embrace the same Faith with us and expect the same Salvation by the same means the Merits of Christ and good Works These also have their pleas and excuses to hide that which is not justifiable by Gods Word and right Reason Their not Conforming with us in the service of God and Duties of Religion But whatever be their pretence these are the true causes of their obstinacy and our unhappiness The first and chiefest are Prejudice and Partiality proceeding from Education a long custom in and an acquaintance with that irregular way which they are so fond of These are wont strangely to prepossess mens minds and blind their judgments against the most apparent discoveries of Truth The late Usurpation and Anarchy in the Church let in another Government and other Orders unto which many that are accustomed cannot so readily prevail upon themselves to embrace what they fancy to be contrary chiefly in so delicate a business as Religion in which their sincerity makes them constant and faithful to the meanest circumstance But I would entreat you my Brethren to rectifie your mistakes by a diligent enquiry for we desire you not to forsake your Religion but to profess the same according to that most excellent manner that the Wisest and most Religious Governours of our Kingdom have thought fitting to prescribe to us Search into our Belief and Practices and see that we agree as well as you with the Holy Records of Gods Word we have the same Faith the same Sacraments the same God and Saviour the same initiation and we are designed for the same End and Glory what a pitty it is that we should be divided in the way Besides all the occasions of your prejudices proceed from mistakes and misapprehensions of us Therefore for the prevention of this evil take not things too much upon trust but give your selves the satisfaction to examin our way and the reasons we give for that which you object against us converse with us in our Devotions and think not that you shall be defiled to pray with us to the same God If your tender Consciences will suffer you to hearken to reason and to associate your selves with us in our Public Worship I am persuaded that all prejudice and partiality will soon vanish at the clear Sun-shine of the Gospel preached and sincerely taught amongst us You ought therefore to be jealous of that which seems to be your Conscience which is for the most part nothing but Humor strengthned by a long continuance And if your Conscience hath been wrought upon to act against truth good manners the glory of God and interest of Christian Religion you must labor by Prayer and the assistance of others of your more enlightned Brethren to find out the mistakes of your deceived Conscience For I cannot conceive but that many of the well meaning people amongst you are governed by their Consciences and frighted with secret remorses from the justest actions agreeable to Gods will and word For when an inveterate prejudice hath possessed the Souls of men it blinds their judgments it hardens their hearts it strengthens their resolutions and causeth Conscience it self to sooth them up in their Error So that they are not easily reconciled to the most apparent Truths An Example we have in the Pharisees of old whose obstinacy in opposing Christ and his Gospel is most remarkable as therefore this plea is not allowed by Gods word in such cases I would advise every good Christian to have some other reason ready for his Actions than bare and naked Conscience which is so apt to deceive our selves and others in this corrupt Age. II. Others of the simpler and more hypocritical sort are kept in their Non-Conformity by an inclination to singularity and a desire to gain the reputation of being more precise and more religious than their other Neighbours as if that were the only way to seem religious to men to cast off all respects to the Religion of the Countrey as if they had no other means to purchase this esteem but by their contempt of the ordinary Acts of Devotion and of the Society in Gods worship of the common people This folly is entertained by too many of those who have more regard to the outward garb than to the inward reality and are more afraid of defiling themselves with other mens sins than their own These pretend the wickedness of the times the viciousness of such as assist at Prayers and publick Acts of Piety and it may be the Ministers weakness in manners and abilities as just causes of their separation from us however they think thereby to answer their end to oblige others to look upon them as more Holy and Angelical than those whom they despise whiles their hearts are full of hatred malice envy pride vanity and many times you may perceive in them the Devil of Hypocrisie that hath a worldly interest to manage by this fond conceit of preciseness with which the poor Soul endeavors to deceive it self and others for that intent as the boasting Pharisee of the Gospel To cure this kind of Lunaticism in Religion I would advise the distempered to seek but into their own Souls and understand themselves better and it may be they would find there more cause to lament at their own corruption than to exclaim against the viciousness of others I would advise them to take heed of being more severe against their sinful Brethren than God and to consider that by partaking with the vilest of men in Holy Duties thou art not partakers of their negligence prophaness and other Crimes unless thou followest their vicious Examples That thy Piety and Humility will be so much the more acceptable to thy God and pleasing to men in a publick Congregation the more it excels the rest of the Assistants That other mens unworthiness should be so far from scaring thee from performing thine obligations to God and his Church that it should animate thee the more with an inclination to promote Gods glory and keep up his worship in the eyes of the world with that due respect and reverence which other men neglect in their constant attendance upon this Holy Ordinance And that it is a most ridiculous persuasion to fancy thy self able to obtain the esteem of Holyness by the omission of the duties of Religion and by a scornful neglect of the incouragements of Holyness and Piety III. Another cause of many of our
suspect I am certain that if you will govern your selves by them your Non-Conformity will be less dangerous to your Souls more excusable before God and less hurtful to the Nation I. Abstain from all disrespectful words slanderous reports base aspersions and railing accusations and unworthy imputations of our Government Worship and Orders of the Church Suffer not your suspicions of sin to break out into an open injustice and filthy language If your judgments be infected defile not your tongues with the same pollution Let a Christian moderation bridle in that liberty which men commonly give themselves of speaking any thing against that which they cannot phancy and let not your mistakes appear farther than your own Souls This restraint is most just reasonable and agreeing with the passages of Gods Blessed Word for it is but just that you should abstain from abusing that Church and Government which secures your Lives and Estates from which your Forefathers and many of you have received the advantage of being Christians It was a great ingratitude in one of the Sons of Noah to reveal and sport himself with the sight of his Fathers Nakedness It is as great an ingratitude in the English Subjects and deserves as severe a Curse to blaze abroad and delight to publish in every Company the suspected nakedness of their Mother the Church of Eagland from whose Breasts they have sucked many benefits It is very remarkable that when the Children of Israel were going into the Land of Canaan to live amongst the Heathens God gave them this Commandment for the preservation of the publick Peace of his People which would have been broken if they had by their unhandsom Language stirred up the Heathens jealousie for the Honour of their Gods Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor curse the Rulers of they People Exod. xxii 28. They differed in essential matters of Religion yet God would not suffer his People to rail against those false Divinities lest that might disquiet and disturb the publick tranquillity And for that very cause when the Jews were in Captivity in Babylon Jeremiah sent them a Letter by Gods Command To seek the peace of the City whither they were carried away Captives and pray unto the Lord for it for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace Jerem. xxix 7. The Jews were Gods People the Babylonians were Idolaters yet God would not suffer them to defame or speak any thing which might hinder the peace of that Kingdom Likewise it was observed by the Town-Clerk of Ephesus in his harangue to the People in their uproar That the Christians were neither Robbers of Churches nor yet Blasphemers of the Goddess Diana Acts xix 37. And the Heathens could commend the Christians for their moderation and discretion in this respect Justin Martyr And is it just that you my Brethren should be continually reviling and blaspheming that Worship and Religion whereof the establishment renders ye quiet in the possession of your Estates That Religion and Worship against which you have nothing but Suspicions and not such Allegations as the Jews had against the Babylonish and as the Christians had against the Heathenish Religion Our Peace I confess is not disturbed in that manner as theirs had been had they treated the Heathens as many of you do us for you have to deal with those Christians that look upon you as Brethren and can suffer affronts and disgraces with patience but our moderation excuses not the violent and uncharitable expressions and blasphemies too much in use amongst the indiscreetest of our dissenting Brethren Whatever therefore be your thoughts and suspicions of us let your words be modest and let them favour of that Christian Charity which we should entertain for one another II. Seek not to propagate your displeasures against our Church and Worship nor to gain Proselytes to your Sects You have but suspicions of sin to lay to our Charge no real Accusations no open Idolatry nor plain Superstition to fasten upon our Church and Worship though this suspicion as you pretend is sufficient to excuse your Non-Conformity it may not have the same effect upon others that which is but a suspicion in you shall assuredly be an Article of Faith in a Disciple for Error like the Snow-balls increaseth the farther it goes Education and Custom will cause your Children to abominate what you look upon to be tolerable if you bring them up in an aversion for it It is observed concerning hereticks and mistakes in Religion that their Disciples were far more the Children of Hell than their Masters and more violent and more extravagant in their deviations from the Truth Matt. xxxiii 15. It is therefore very dangerous to draw into the same groundless suspicions unexperienced Souls who are apt to improve mistakes to the disturbance of the publick and their own damnation If therefore you will not be in love with your prejudices take heed how you bring up your Children in such persuasions as may hasten their ruin and the Nations calamities And if you cannot prevail upon your selves to forsake your opinions be not so fond of your distemper to communicate it to others but encourage them in the performance of their duties III. Give not credit too unadvisedly to the ill reports that concern the Church and its Government for there is nothing that increaseth so much the displeasure against it as that wicked policy of our Adversaries They misrepresent us to the people and deal with us as the Jesuits in Spain do with the Protestants condemned to the fire they cloath them with Paper Coats and Caps all covered over with shapes of Devils and strange chimera's to render them more frightful to the vulgar sort thus do our subtil enemies cover us over with the figures of Devils Idolatry Superstition and Crimes which when well examined will appear to be only the effects of their malice rather than expressions of our deservings IV. Search with diligence into the differences between us take the assistance of Gods Holy Word inquire into our Practices and Belief and by Prayer endeavour to understand the Truth that you may learn to practise it We dare appeal to the Judgments of the most moderate of you we are no such Idolaters as some would have There is nothing of Superstition enjoyned in our Church we will be tried by Gods Word and the sound interpretation of the Holy Fathers Read over Mr. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Policy commended by our Royal Martyr Read his Opinion of our Church Worship and Government in his incomparable Book His judgment is worthy to be looked upon I have ever esteemed saith he the Church of England the best Profession of Religion because it comes nearest to Gods Word for Doctrine and to the Primitive Examples for Government In a Letter to the Prince of Wales Read Bishop Bancroft Downham Hall Bilson and Dr. Taylor against Presbytery in Vindication of the Church of England Read our later Disputations about the matters in