ungodly men are so ready to punish them for their defence and propagation of it And upon this very account they clap one the other upon the back and resolve unanimously to go on with what they have begun notwithstanding all the opposition they shall meet withal for who would not suffer the loss of Estate Liberty or Life itself in a cause against which such ungodly men are severe and bitter and who would not expect Heaven for a reward hereafter who meet with such harsh and cruel dealings from men who do too much by their oaths and curses betray themselves to be the Agents and Instruments of Hell And though this is but a popular plea and will not hold water when it comes to be thoroughly searched and tryed though laws are never the worse for the wickedness of those to whom the execution of them is committed and though Justice is the same thing when done by a wicked as a Godly Magistrate yet for our Sions sake I could wish with all mine Heart that our Magistrates when such Malefactors are brought before them would execute publick Justice like men who do not appear to sacrifice to their own revenge but who design a publick good to wit the reducing people to those Principles of subjection and obedience without which we must needs be exposed to continual dangers and hazards It is not to be imagined how these refractory persons are silenced when they appear before Magistrates of Prudence and Discretion such as treat them with all tenderness and pity representing to them the evil of their doing and gravely admonishing them against such doings for the time to come executing the Laws upon them with all the symptomes of grief and trouble with all the demonstrations of a Spirit that carries in it true compassion for those who ignorantly err and a readiness heartily to pray for those who are obstinate and wilful this is to follow the Apostles advice to restore our sain Brethren with the spirit of meekness and this is the only way to beget in them a belief that as truly pious tender and gracious spirits may lodge in the Breasts of men every ways obedient to those Laws they by their wily Preachers are made to believe are destructive of the Rights of the Lord Jesus as in any men of any other yea of their own particular perswasion Nay for ought I know this prudent and compassionate carriage may be the occasion of their recovery from their present separation For certainly nothing more pacifies Wrath and Anger from which we all know Nonconformity receives no inconsiderable strength and addition than a word in season a soit word a wise carriage even to Delinquents themselves especially when all this is done by men of Authority and Reputation in their Neighbourhood And therefore I do here put up my hearty Prayers to Almighty God for all our Chiefs and Worthies in whose hands the defence and safety of our excellent and yet despised Church is lodged that as Judgment may run down like water and Righteousness like a mighty stream so That Righteousness may meet with Peace and love and they may kiss each other and as I do not wish the suspension of any Laws wherein the welfare of Societies is wrapt so I do wish that whensoever they are put in execution it may be in such a way as may convince gainsayers and stop the mouths of all those who lye at catch to take advantage from the haltings either of Magistrates or Ministers Lastly This Church loses very much of its deserved reputation by those mean and seamy provisions and supplies that are made for many of her Children whose educations and improvements entitle them to greater encouragements than most of the Vicaridges in England are endowed withal and till this be remedied as I hinted somewhat before we must never have things so prosperous and successful on the Churches side as she does indeed deserve For 't is impossible considering how things go and are apprehended by the major part of the World for Clergy-Men to conciliate a just respect to themselves and thereby to recommend the Government to the love and liking of the Vulgar without such Incomes as are agreeable to their Function and will enable them to be of the giving as well as receiving hand And truly when I have sate down sometimes and considered with my self the several reasons and occasions of the late cruel and blondy War I could not but resolve both it and the dreadful consequences of it amongst some other things into this of which I am now complaining and I have often thought that it had not been possible for the people of England to have been drawn into such a combination and confederacy against so excellent a Prince had they not been strangely perverted and abused by some discontented and self-seeking knaves And who they were 't is no hard matter to conjecture for if you had gone before the War into Cities and incorporated Towns where usually the spiritual Livings are made up of few and petty Tythes there you should have found a Male-contented Gentleman had fixt his habitation making some tolerable snow of Hospitality especially to the Mayor or Aldermen and their Brethren and by his advice and means a factious Preacher brought in depending upon voluntary subscriptions for his livelihood who by tones and gestures by shrugs and winks by all popular artifices was continually suggesting suspicions of the Government to the people the Dames especially who they say in those places and in those times governed the Right Worshipful themselves and the great Themes of their Discourses were the Wickedness of the times the encroachments of the Bishops upon the Rights of the Lord Jesus the stinting of the spirit by Forms of Prayer the severe dealing with the people of God that was themselves but withal which was a great cordial to their oppressed spirits the great Reasons of the Saints joyful expectation of better times fetched out of Daniel or Revelations places admirably fitted to the Dames apprehensions and understandings with an hundred such like popular insinuations as these and by this means the people were taught to suspect their Governours as Enemies to the cause of God and from thence brought to an hatred of them and so by degrees fitted for any undertaking these cunning Leaders should in the name of God and the Lord Jesus animate them unto And by these ways were the people of England seduced into the most unnatural rebellion which ended in the most horrid Murther that History can parallel Whereas had these Great Towns been furnished with such Encouragements as might have invited men of integrity and learning to have sate down amongst them the People had been better taught and consequently disposed to nothing but what was expressive of Loyalty and Obedience of their hearty affection and esteem for him to whose care and Government the providence of God had committed them For let but the common people hear nothing but what is
in such numbers from our Churches nor be so easily beguiled into a belief of things so every ways wanting a Foundation in Holy Writ nor would they make such vile and unworthy reflections upon a Church whose Foundation is laid and superstructure built by the Laws of Reason and rightly understood Religion in a word which imposes nothing upon our practice that is forbidden in Holy Scripture And I hope there is so much weight in this one Reason I have given for my zeal against the present Separation as may apologize for me and satisfy any modest man that it is not from any Principle of despight to God his Religion or his people that I have ventured upon such a work as this But I have yet more to say Further then I took notice that Non-conformity had a very evil aspect upon Governours and Government I found no men so ready to embrace any stories whereby their superiours were scornfully reflected upon or vilely represented as these man were nor any men more hasty in spreading these tales further abroad and wondring with my self that men pretending to so extreme a strictness and pleading that strictness as a sign of their being the best of Saints should fail in so known and obvious a duty as obedience to Authority is I looked back into Ages past and God knows found the same temper and spirit among those who were the authors and beginners of this desolating Separation I found one Goodman an Exile in Queen Maryes days and one of the Antesignani of the Nonconformists vindicating Wyat's rebellion asserting in Print that his cause was God's and that none but Traytors could accuse him of Treason and after this I find Queen Elizabeth maligned by White Rowland and Hawkins three of the Brotherhood and by no means must she be thought any other ways than an evil Princess spoiling God's people and extolling vanity and this averred before Grindall then Bishop of London And if I should quote what hath dropt from these mens pens since to the slandering of God's Anointed this Preface would swell into too great a bulk Now I must confess this thing very much troubled me and stirred my passions to see that in which our happiness is so apparently wrapt up and by vertue of which we safely possess the fruits of our own labours made the scorn of boys and raw servants and the wise and prudently enacted Laws brought to the Barr many times by a company of silly women who are led captive and laden with many lusts and according to their deep and profound judgment voted obligatory or else nulled and voided And in good earnest this appears to me the ready way to the Nations ruine as it naturally prepares men to serve their turn upon the established Government when ever opportunity is put into their hands And no man need blush in asserting this when he considers who they were that in the beginning of the late unnatural War readily took the Alarm and clothed themselves with courage and armour too in order to sight the Lord's battel against the Mighty but such persons as had been brought up under and disciplin'd by such Teachers as were known notoriously inclinable to the Principles of Separation And he that considens with what pleasure some men do reflect upon the Priviledges and enjoyments the late War gave them before his Majesties return and how ready they are to suggest to young and unimpressed minds that those were days wherein men might be as good as they would and wherein scandalous Ministers were turned out with many other things of the like nature he must needs infer from thence that many of these people are so far from repenting of what was then done that they could willingly wade through the same paths of bloud to be reinstated in their former priviledges again Now truly I must needs say that I cannot think the Kingdom safe so long as such things are propagated and propagated they will be so long as men believe their Prince an enemy to the pure Doctrines and Ordinances of Jesus Christ and themselves persecuted for complyance with Christ's Laws in opposition to the superstitious Impositions of their Governours For considering the weakness of men and the slender improvement the education of most give them how can we imagine Magistrates should have their due honour and esteem from such persons who are made to believe that they symbolize with Antichrist and are Friends to the cause and Interest of the Beast No alack such crafty insinuations as these waste all the Principles of Loyalty in easy and credulous mens breasts they imbitter and poyson their Spirits so that they spit nothing but fire in the face of all well regulated Constitutions and there is nothing but the fear of imprisonment or confiscation of Goods or the loss of life that keeps these men thus set on fire from offering violence to the Thrones of Princes It was this that made Henry the Third and the Fourth of France fall under the bloudy hands of two Assassinates and though our modern Enthusiasts and the Papists widely differ in many things yet in a mistaken furious zeal and resolute enterprizes for the mistaken cause of God and his Church they have been both very much to blame and incurred such a censure as thanks be to God the regular Sons of the Church of England can wash their hands from Now this being very plain and notorious I thought I could not do a better work one whereby I might better serve my Prince and Countrey than by endeavouring to reconcile men to a Church wherein they learn the duties of humility and meekness of modesty and candour of spirit of submission and obedience of jealousie and suspicion of their own private opinions when they stand in competition with the publick Judgment and Wisdom of the Nation For these are vertues hugely serviceable to the interest of Government and preserve such a peace amongst men as gives great encouragement to industry and labour These are Vertues that render Religion amiable and lovely and no doubt the more Professors are possessed of them the more do they engage standers by not only to an admiration of but an hearty complyance with that Religion that cancels no worthy Law that is made in pursuit of the ends of Government but on the other side lays obligations upon every man to keep his place denouncing severely against those who either curse their Princes in their hearts or speak evil of Dignities with their tongues And let me speak freely That I am very much mistaken if a return to so good a spirit as this is going to Egypt again is siding with the Beast against God and his Christ is renouncing the Kingship of Christ which words by whom made use of and to what purposes we can easily tell If this be a forsaking of Christ and giving up his cause and going into Babylon I pray God I may continue in this Babylon all the days of my life and then
wild fancies the World these latter days hath been too sadly acquainted withal And whether Religion get any ground by such things let any man judge or how those men deserve to be cryed up as the only spiritual Preachers who vent Doctrines so destructive to Religion I cannot tell And now Reader after I have begged thy pardon for this tedious preface though I must confess I did not design it much shorter when I first entred upon it I must tell thee that I am not alone in my high esteem for the Church of England No there are thousands in the Kingdom and those men too whose excellent and Regular lives and whose universal learning may justly be speak them a place amongst the most improved men who are ready to defend this Church with both their Tongues and Pens and of such I will only name two the one is that incomparable person Dr. Stillingfleet who in his Sermon upon Matth. 21.43 Pag. 158. calls this Church one of the best Churches in the Christian World and in the same place complains that it should puzzle the wisest of men to find out expedients to keep it from ruine The other is that excellent and no less laborious than learned Dr. Tillotson in a Sermon before the King where he tells us that he had been according to his opportunities not a negligent observer of the Genius and Humour of the several Sects and Professions in Religion and upon the whole matter that he does in his Conscience believe the Church of England to be the best constituted Church this day in the Christian World and that as to the main the Doctrine and Government and Worship of it are excellently framed to make men soberly religious securing men on the one hand from the wild freaks of Enthusiasm and on the other hand from the gross follies of superstition But if thou wilt neither believe them nor me for our bare saying so read the following discourse without prejudice and if through the strength of thy former received apprehensions thou wilt not wholly be drawn over to us yet I hope thou wilt be so far convinced as to believe that neither the Church nor her Officers and publick Dispensers are so had and obnoxious as some men through weakness and others through malice have represented them Farewell POSTSCRIPT Reader THe two first sheets of this small book were most of them preached before the Judges of Assize at Chelmsford in Essex and therefore if thou findest any thing in them as an Appeal to them I pray impute it to that Further Reader I must desire thee if thou meetest with the word why used improperly as sometimes I find upon a perusal of the sheets it is impute it to custome and a mode of speaking upon which score it dropt so unwarily from my Pen. Whatsoever other faults there are give me but the common allowance the ordinary miscarriages of a Press require and I will ask no more THE CONTENTS THE Design of the Treatise laid down 1. To prove that we of this Church have all necessary advantages for gaining eternal life 2. To enquire how it comes to pass such a Church is so generally disesteemed Pag. 5. The first of these proved at large by considering what is necessary to eternal life Two things laid down 1. A sound Belief of all things necessary and the Church found guilty of no defect in that particular p. 6 7. 2. An Holy practise is found necessary and the Church of England found abounding with every thing necessary to promote that p. 10 usque 28. 2. An enquiry how it comes to pass such a Church is despised p. 28. Two sorts of men found faulty p. 29. 1. Professed Enemies Those considered 1. As persons disaffected upon a worldly account p. 29. 2. Persons disaffected upon a pretence of Conscience and Religion p. 31 32 33 34. 2. A consideration of false Friends as Enemies to the Church and those ranked into two sorts 1. As Persons considered in their Political capacity and two ways the Church proved to suffer by them 1. By their vicious lives and conversations especially if they be men of Power and Authority p. 35. 2. By their neglecting the execution of those Laws that are made for the Churches Honour and Safety p. 38. 2. This Church proved to lose its esteem by false Friends considered as persons dedicated to an Holy Office p. 42. Thirteen Reasons more given of the present contempt of the Church of England 1. The misconstruing of Judgments and making every calamity the effect of Gods Anger for the Churches encroachments upon the Rights of Christ p. 46. Three useful and seasonable enquiries proposed to those who are so bold and forward in particularizing the Reasons of Gods Judgments p. 51 53 55. 2. Another Reason of the Churches suffering assigned from the jealousie of many of the Gentry especially those who have swallowed down the Principles of Mr. Hobbs lest the Clergy should encroach too much upon their power in those Countreys where they live p. 56. 3. The Churches loss considered by erecting Schools of Academick studies and thereby poysoning the youth of the Nation p. 62. 4. The Churches loss considered by idle tales against the Reverend Bishops and their regular Clergy p. 65. 5. Another account of the neglect of this Church from Simoniacal contracts p. 70. Two injuries proved and asserted from hence p. 71 72. With an expostulation with the Lay-Patrons in order to a more conscientious disposal of their livings p. 73. 6. The Churches damage by the careless and remiss attendance of many of her professed admirers upon her publick Devotions and Instructions p. 74 75. 7. The Churches Honour proved lost by a careless consideration of those confusions that followed her dissolution by the pretended Power of the Long Parliament p. 76. 8. This Church found a great loser by misinterpreting and misapplying of several Texts of Scripture Some of those Texts named and the unworthiness and falseness of those interpretations reflected upon p. 78 79 80 81. 9. The credulity and easiness of the Common people to take in whatsoever is suggested by men pretending to more than ordinary Sanctity and Holiness proved another cause of the Churches present ruine p. 82 83 84. 10. The Church proved a loser by the Common peoples stiff adherence to whatever they have heedlesly sucked in p. 85. 11. The ill success of the Church laid at the door of those Atheistical Principles that have spread so far and near in the Kingdom p. 87. An enquiry made after the Reason of the present growth of Atheism p. 88. Four Reasons of it assigned 1. The changeableness of many mens Principles pretending to more than ordinary Godliness p. 88 89 90 91 92. 2. The wicked and vile actions of many boasting of extraordinary piety p. 93 94. 3. Unworthy Scandals and Reflections fastened upon Church-men p. 96. 4. The Non-execution of such Laws which are made on purpose to command the People to wait upon
others to believe whatsoever they confidently bolt out without a suitable evidence and proof and who are pertinaciously resolved to drive on their Secular Interest by raising their own heights upon the spoils and ruines of other mens Godliness and Reputation And when things are looked in to the bottom we shall find that this is the Foundation of very much of our Nonconformity which is now so bold and daring for God forbid I should lay this Imputation at every mans door and if we once could arrive to that happiness as to make the Common People wise and the Leaders of them in these forbidden Tracks silent we should quickly find Obedience to our Laws a more general thing than God knows to the grief of all wise observers now it is And though I know this Opinion of mine is contradicted by many persons who upon other accounts do not want my just esteem yet so long as the Common People are heedless as to the several Notions they suck in and imposed upon in no things sooner than those which ought to be esteemed of greatest weight and moment I mean the Matters of Religion which have an immediate relation to the Interest and Happiness of their Souls so long as their Ignorance and more slender thoughts of things expose them to Pride and Self-conceitedness to such opinions of their own narrow and straitned Conceptions as for want of more mature considerations of things bear down all Arguments derived from the preservation of Humane Societies from the Dignity and Sacredness of Princes founded in being God's Vicegerents here on Earth so long as they cannot by reason of the dulness and uninstructedness of their Minds see into the ruines and desolations that do infallibly attend all Disobedience to Authority but are apt to sancy a better state of things were they all managed by the present little Models they have either framed themselves or else by the silly suggestions some illiterate and yet pretended Rabbi have lodged in their idle and unfurnished heads why so long I must crave any mans excuse if I do not assent to those mens Judgments who with no small degrees of confidence and with great pretensions to a more intimate acquaintance with State-Maxims assert an Universal Toleration the only way to recover the Church and to wrack Fanaticism and Sedition And had the late Author of the Discourse of Humane Reason lest his Books a while and walked about the Neighbouring Markets and made just Observations of the improvements of those men who make up those crouds and numbers there I am apt to believe he would have considered better before he had published a Book so destructive of all the Fundamental Notions of Government and Publick Communities a Book wherein things of the greatest Importance are lest to those who by all the pains we can take with them can be hardly brought to a right understanding of common sense and the most obvious and natural Duties of Religion And thus having proved and I hope to satisfaction that the Church of England is wanting in nothing that refers to our Belief or Practice and so consequently to the gaining of Eternal Life I will proceed to the next enquiry to wit 2. How it comes to pass that a Church thus furnished with all Advantages to Eternal Life should meet with such Contempt and Disregard And here upon enquiry we shall find this principally proceeds these ways 1. From professed Enemies 2. From false Friends both which very much hinder the Churches progress in the Hearts and Affections of its Members and spoil its deserved Reputation 1. We will consider the Churches professed Enemies and of them we shall find two sorts of persons pecking at her 1. Some upon a Worldly and Secular account 'T is too well known that in the late Combustions many men warmed their fingers at those fires they themselves had kindled and though splendid Pretences for Religion and Pure Worship were at the top yet a sordid aim at the Churches Patrimony and Revenue was at the bottom of their Designs and no sooner had success crowned their unworthy undertakings but they presently fell to sharing other mens Legal Portions and Spiritual Allotments And though they pretended a Spirit of Self-denial on purpose to put the fairer gloss upon their ungodly Quarrels and to allure the Common and easily mistaking People into their service yet we find no sooner did they apprehend themselves out of danger by the Fall and Ruine of the Royal Party but presently they forget the so much cried up Ordinance of Self-denyal and fall a voting considerable shares of this Worlds Blessings to one another and Church-Lands went at as easie a rate then as they did at the great Alienation of them and scarce a Man that had been active either in City or in Countrey for their Cause but he must have a feeling of those Spoils and Booties All which we know by an happy Restoration in course returned to their true Proprietaries again And can we think that those who felt the sweets of these enjoyments have lost their former Tasts and Relish No No to fancy this is to be guilty of too careless an Observation for if they had what makes them privately among themselves to this day buy and sell those very Estates which I think is no hard matter to make out A thing which if but looked in to the bottom would easily convince our Governours what confidence ought to be reposed in such mens Pretences to Loyalty and Obedience and withal the safe Condition their Estates and Liberties are in while these men have a full liberty to make their Parties and strengthen their Interest in the affections of people of all sorts and ranks whatsoever Well and how must these mens lingrings and desires after these Estates be fulfilled By what Methods can they hope to get into the Saddle and ride upon the High places of the Earth again Why the only way is through the ruine and downfall of the Church and how must this be accomplished why Slur it all the ways you can call it a Limb of Antichrist an encourager of the Beast that ascends out of the bottomless Pit a supporter of Ecclesiastical Tyranny and insinuate into the common peoples minds that she stands betwixt them and their Gospel priviledges and that there is as direct an opposition betwixt her and the Church God hath instituted as there was betwixt Dagon and the Ark with many other vile reflections of this Nature and then you have half done your work For these men know let their pretences be what they will that when the Church totters the State hath a fellow feeling with it that they live and die together and therefore they itch after its Ruine which they think they cannot better promote than by slandering of her and when that is done they fancy as well they may a quick possession of those far Lands they so cheaply bought and so deservedly have lost 2. This excellent Frame and
that the Scarcity of Corn which is their every day necessary Food proceeds from Gods displeasure against Bishops and other Clergy-men for keeping Christ out of his Government and Kingdome and that those several Fires which tear down their Houses and give so great affrightments are purely kindled upon the score that Gods people by whom they mean themselves are punished for not yielding to Romish and Superstitions Impositions Certainly such suggestions as these to people who are hugely governed by Sense and take their measures of things by Success and Prosperity must needs stir up all the Passions that are within them and confirm in them the greatest prejudice and displeasure against a Government from which so much evil hath been derived both to mens Persons and Estates And further their impatient longing after a full enjoyment of all those things that contribute to their worldly Happiness must needs put them upon all violent means to throw down that Interest which destroyes so much at present and set up the other whereby they are invited to believe all happiness and outward welfare would attend them especially if you do but add to those things a Description of a glorious State of spiritual things wherein they shall have a share of Government and not be at this rate always under Guardianship and Subjection ridden by Priests and other Antichristian Officers Oh! such an Expectation makes their Bloud boyl within them and to promote these excellent things they care not what wrong they do either to Church-mens Reputation or Revenues nor what Method they make use of to weaken the Forces of such a Babylonish Crew who would stand betwixt them and the splendid Manifestation of Christ's Power and Kingdom And if any man object and say I am uncharitable in fixing such an Imputation upon the Adversaries of the Church I answer again 't is no breach of charity to charge men with Truth and to let the World know by what base and sinister means they lessen the deserved Honour of our Church nay 't is a piece of Charity and Justice to our selves And that I have not charged them falsely I refer any man to those Interpretations they made of the last great Plague and never-to-be-forgotten Fire in which though many of these men wanted not their share as to loss and damage yet Good men such was their Innocency they had no hand in the provocation though one would have thought had the Fire been purely to vindicate their cause the Angel of the Lord should have marked their Houses as he did the Israelites in Egypt and commanded those furious Flames to have passed them over and spent their rage upon theirs alone who were professed Sons of the Church of England And let them say what they please by way of excuse for themselves yet this is their course still and though Judgments are sent as tokens of Divine displeasure against all those breaches of Gods righteous Laws all those open and bold-faced Impieties all those Enormities that are usual amongst any Party or Division of Men whatsoever though we all come short of the Glory of God and every man from the highest to the lowest by some miscarriage or other helps to kindle the fire in the Divine Breast yet this Church of England this cruel Stepmother who tears out of Gods Childrens hands the pure Bread that falls down from Heaven and would put them off with empty Husks these proud and domineering Clergy-men who live in ease and idleness why for the sake of these does God suffer the Air to be infected the Earth to be dry and barren and the Heavens to be as Brass over our heads Oh! were but Antichrist once destroyed and all the appendant Limbs thereof and Christs own Ordinances and pure Institutions set up in the World what a new face of things would be presently then would our Floors be full of wheat and our Fat 's should overflow with Wine and Oil then the Saints should meet with joy and sing their songs upon Sigiâ—nâ—th yea then would Gods people execute vengeance upon the Heathen and punishment upon the People and bind their Kings in chains and their Nobles in fetters of iron And oh how does this good news tickle the vulgar sort of people and how pleased are they in their fanciful Reflections upon what brave Times will be and what brave things they will do when they come to have a share in the Powers of the Earth and put hooks into the Nostrils of the great Leviathans the Temporal and the Spiritual Tyrants that have eaten up Gods people as they eat Bread And that these good things may be accomplished and they may leave the blessing of them to their Posterity why good men many of them care not by what Spoils and Rapines by what Untruths and Falsehoods they slurr the Credit and ruine the Reputation of such a Church as is the great bar to these happy Enjoyments And because this is so common a thing among all Sectaries whatever and they have so partial a kindness for themselves as to sweep their own doors and lay the loads upon other mens shoulders give me leave to make an useful Digression and show the Vanity and Irreligion of such doings by proposing to these men a few Questions 1. Whether they do not by particularizing the Reason of Gods Judgments pretend to a Knowledge which they cannot according to Gods ordinary Methods of proceeding with the World at this time attain unto For that Miracles since the Settlement of the Gospel-Dispensation in those places where its Profession is become National are ceased I think is passed all doubt and that God now deals with mens Reason and Understanding and offers them the Evidence of former Miracles in conjunction with other Arguments in order to their Conviction of the Truth of what he hath delivered is past all scruple and further that no Man that pretends to have a further Revelation than what is made in Scripture is to be believed unless either I have a Revelation signifying that his Revelation is true or else he bring his Letters credential along with him and by Workings above the power of Nature such as Christ and his Apostles and their Successors for some continuance of time had prove his Mission I think is beyond all controversie So that then these men who that they may the better heat the Common People against us pretend themselves Gods Familiars and privy Counsellors and by vertue of their Intimacy with him boldly lay Judgments at the doors of other men by what way shall we know they are right in their Interpretation and that God grew very angry with this Nation as soon as Episcopacy was restored and the Lands of the Church returned into the possession of the right owners again and that the Plague and the Fire were sent purely to vindicate their cause and to express Gods indignation against that cruel and hard usage they met withal Can they satisfie us in the truth of this
willingly contented with that employment still and their heavy thoughts ascend no higher And therefore to relax those Laws which enjoyn these leaden people under a penalty and such a one of which they are most sensible to wit that of the purse is at the same time to give them a commission to live in the neglect of all those publick Duties whereby the natural Notions of Religion are raised into some degree of life and kept so after they are raised and pray then what becomes of these people why they sink into all manner of Brutishness God is not in their thoughts at all and to talk to them of any thing that is Religious is to discourse perfectly out of their ken and knowledge they savour nothing but what belongs to the Cart and the Plow and God knows their Children are brought up in the same way and hear not a word of God nor of their Duties to him from one year to another and so are trained up as very Atheists as themselves and thereby prepared for little else but picking and stealing for every thing that is vile and wicked And this is a thing upon the score of which I cannot reflect upon the careless and indifferent execution of those Laws that are made purposely for the Churches peace and safety without some considerable proportions of grief and sorrow I find the inconvenience of it so sad in the Parish over which God hath set me that I wonder our Brethren of the separation should desire their liberty at so dear a rate and inveigh against those who desire the Laws might take place and serve the purposes for which they were intended For if things continue as they have done and Magistrates for the fake of some few pretending Religion and Conscience shall suffer so many hundreds in many Parishes to live in a neglect of all publick Worship whatsoever it is an easy matter to foresee what will become of Religion and civil Government together And thus I have given an account of that present and God knows too bold Atheism that is so common in the Nation and though I believe from my heart that these forementioned things have been the root from whence it hath sprung and to which it ows its principal original and rise yet I wish there be not something amongst us who profess our selves true friends to the Churches Discipline that gives further growth and nourishment to this poysonous plant I do therefore earnestly desire my Brethren to consider with themselves whether they do nothing that contributes to this unhappy alienation of mens Minds from the belief and sense of a Divine Majesty I am not willing to quarrel any man for what he does by the allowance of the Laws yet I must needs say thus much and I hope I shall offend no wise man in it that did our Church-men reside more in those places where the Churches provisions for them and their Families are plentiful and encouraging it would conduce very much to the honour of the Church of which they are Members and take away one main plea for some mens prophaneness and irreligion For as I have said before the Religion of the Common people depends very much upon the credit and esteem of their Spiritual Guides and Teachers and wherever that hath sink Religion hath accordingly been in the waine and therefore when Church-men instead of feeding their people with constant and wholsome Documents neglect them themselves or commit them to the charge of such whose neither piety nor learning commend them to their value why this is a sure way to insinuate little thoughts of their Ministers into them and they quickly cry them down as men who mind not them but theirs who provided they can but grow fat by Temporal accrewments care not how lean the Souls of their people are The truth is I have often heard such severe reflections made against such persons and those not by discontented schismaticks but by men heartily devoted to the Interest of the Church and many of those persons that have by their Princes favour the execution of Laws and publick Justice committed to them that I could not but wish all places especially those more populous or more rich than ordinary in such mens hands as would take care to prevent such scandals for the time to come For Fanaticism is so routed and baffled a cause that when we come to perswade any man to return to obedience to our Church he usually lets fall the old thredbare arguments upon which Disobedience and Separation at first were founded and recurs to the carelesness of many of our Preachers and by this would make the easie World believe that our Church that countenances such Droans is not of God And if I have offended any one by this plain dealing I do beg their pardon and I think 't is nothing but what is my due because I am certain 't is nothing but zeal for the Church my Mother that hath forced me to it Again if any thing to the prejudice of God and his Religion as it stands established by Law amongst us arises from the corruption of those Officers that belong to the Ecclesiastical Courts if Church Censures especially that of Excommunication be bought and sold and men sit there as in a Common Market not to punish evil Doers but to make merchandise and to enlarge their Fortunes though it be to the Churches ruine I hope our Reverend Prelates the Fathers of this poor despised Church will use all care and diligence to prevent the destruction both of Religion and the Church which is threatned by such vile and ungodly practises as these are 12. Further we are very much inconvenienced and our Church receives very considerable disadvantages from the imprudent way of executing Justice by many of our subordinate Magistrates upon the offenders of those Laws whereby the Churches Rights and Priviledges are secured The common people who usually take their measures of things falsely and judge them not by their essential properties or by their necessary habitude and relation to one another but by the practises of those who pretend a kindness to and veneration for them when they see Magistrates those to whom the sword of Justice is committed fall into bitter rage and expressing that rage by unsavoury words by countenances darting forth nothing but flames and fire-balls when they hear them ratling forth their horrid oaths and wishing such curses as carry with them the greatest ruine and desolation as well to soul as body further when they observe any of them to make unwary reflections upon Religion in general by reason of these mens miscarriages in the defence of any thing that looks like a particular limb or member of it why alas these bitter passions these ill timed and violent words presently beget in these people a great opinion of themselves and that because such persons are their Judges and they make no scruple to plead their Cause to be of God because such
they grow vext and impatient and straightways their thoughts are fixt upon revenge and from a quarrel with those who sit at the Helm they fall out with the Government it self and all their parts are bent upon finding out plausible Arguments and pretences to sink its reputation amongst the people and no stone is left unturned to carry on this wicked purpose and resolution It is an easie matter to make this assertion out from the accounts of every age of Christianity Heresies Schisms seditions and publick disturbances have most of them crept in at this back door and whosoever will give himself the leave to take a just account of the Apostasie of many from our Church some few years after the Reformation and ever since he will not be long before he find this its original and spring which thing though not altogether yet very much had been prevented if all the Spiritual allotments for Ministers had been comfortable and such as would have afforded wise men for I undertake not to be an advocate for Fools and Prodigals a convenient and creditable maintenance AND now having said thus much in the vindication of this excellent Church and withal given the Reasons of those many disparagements she hath in these late years met withal I cannot draw off my pen from paper till by it I have made my humble address to the Nobility and Gentry and all others who are concerned by vertue either of their Principles or Estates in the preservation of the Kingdoms peace and Nations welfare and are very unwilling to be sad spectators of those ruines and desolations that not many years ago many of them to their own as well as the Nations sorrow were too sadly acquainted withal till I say I have made my humble address to them and implored them by all that is near and dear to them to use that power God and the King hath entrusted them withal in stifling those Opinions in suppressing those dangerous Principles and Maxims in preventing those practises which have had so bad an influence upon the Body Politick and in using all methods by which they may be kept from the Common People whom we find by sad experience easily leavened and as easily afterwards wrought upon to enter into any Evil action whereby the peace and happiness of the Kingdom may be endangered And though it may be this address may be looked upon as the product of a malicions and revengeful spirit yet God that knows the hearts of men knows it flows from no such bitter Fountain but so far as I am in a capacity to serve any of these persons against whom I now complain in their personal capacity no man can I am sure be more ready and more forward Let them but live agreeable to the Laws under which they live and that but as far as their own avowed Principles will give them leave which I think is a very reasonable request and they shall not want that just esteem from my self and so I am sure from all men of my Principles that they do deserve Which if they will not do but continue resolute in widening our differences making our breaches greater forming men into parties and numbers in opposition to the injunction of all those prudent Laws that are enacted by the great Authority of the Nation and thereby strengthning and encouraging that deplorable Schism that is amongst us why truly I think he wants the Spirit and Courage of a Man who holds his tongue and by his silence gives the least spirit to such undertakings For alas what can we imagine all this will centre and bottom in and who will be the chief gainers by these divisions That certainly is no hard matter to determine And truly in my apprehension 't is very sad that the revenge of our Nonconforming Brethren should be so great against the Church of England that rather than she shall continue in any glory and be vested with any Authority they will use their utmost endeavours to pull her down though it be to the destruction of the Protestant Cause both at home and abroad and to the Introduction of Popery it self A good sign indeed of a Gospel Spirit and of that tenderness of Conscience these men profess upon all occasions when pressed to any necessary complyance with the Laws of the Kingdom And therefore seeing it is so that these men will play any game rather than that in which the safety of the Church as well as State is concerned truly I think all the true Patriots of the Countrey ought to look upon them accordingly and give them such fare as by those Oaths they take when they are admitted to their office they are obliged to And seeing they are resolved we shall fall though they know it must needs be accompanied with so great a ruine to that Cause and Interest which was purchased with the bloud of the Martyrs which hath been a Sanctuary to distressed and banished Foreigners and which indeed as it is here maintained by so many prudent Laws is the only stay and support of all the Protestant Churches abroad seeing I say they are resolved to have their wills of this Church notwithstanding these sad and too much to be feared effects and consequences of it I do declare I think all true hearted Magistrates in whose hands the execution of the Laws does lie ought to let them know that they owe more Regard to the present Government of the Kingdom and that if they will continue fixt in their Resolves to bear down all that stands in their way to the undermining the Churches safety and reputation so on the other hand they the Magistrates are as well resolved to hinder by all legal and worthy means so great and so unseasonable a violence to those Laws wherein mens Estates and Liberties mens Religion and consequently their Souls are so much concerned And I am certain nothing is a greater argument among the present Magistrates either of Cowardize or else of Ignorance and Non-observation than to suffer such assaults upon Government without a suitable resentment of them and to connive at such practises as are apparently tending to shuffle in a Religion once again amongst us by which the Prince loses half his Government and the people all their Reason and Sense together And therefore Worthy Sirs I beg of you to consider what is incumbent upon you at present do not you let Justice sleep while covetousness and ambition while Faction and discontent is devouring and eating up all those sober principles whereby your Estates as well as any thing else is secured to you and your Posterity after you Let not a Church that teaches all her Members to live contentedly in all those subordinations the Providence of God hath placed them and up to all those Duties which belong to those several places I say let not this Church be scorned and trampled under feet by rude and revengeful persons And if you think them people of meek and peaceable