earnestly invited by our Lord and his Messengers How many earnest Sermons how many excellent Books press this Duty upon us and give us direction in it And yet we are little moved We come for fear of the Temporal Penalties when we have entred into Offices and Trusts but the Authority of our Supreme Legislator and the eternal Penalties he threatens prevail little This is scandalous Neglect And we declare to all the World that Religion hath no power upon us when it cannot obtain thus much from us Of this carelesness we ought to repent deeply to reform speedily Solemn appearance at the Lord's Table would give us the face of a Church and make our Religion look like something the contrary exposeth it to Contempt Our Zeal also should ingage us to study the Constitutions of our Church more to search into the grounds of our Government and Discipline that we may be acquainted with their Antiquity Reasonableness and Piety and thereby inabled to stop the mouths of Gain-sayers and to contend intelligently for our Profession and Practice The Lord's Day should be more diligently and religiously observed by us This is the publick solemn time for the exercise of Devotion so it is acknowledg'd whether it be of Divine or only of Ecclesiastical Institution and therefore should be reverenc'd by those of each Opinion and kept as a Day separate from other days and other uses Places we think and say ought to be so Churches and Altars and with reason we believe this There is at least the same reason for Times some others we allow and this also in Doctrine let not the zeal of our Adversaries in this instance abate and quench ours The reverence and all the great interests of Religion are in great part maintain'd and kept alive by the due observance of this Day Let us express our Zeal and Devotion here also To devote one day of seven to God and his peculiar Service should not methinks be grievous to us In this there is no Fanaticism nothing but what is very agreeable to the Doctrine of the Church of England which we should strengthen and do honour to by such practice This Zeal is honest laudable necessary and 't is popular And in Christian Prudence we should do and study all lawful things that tend to the inlargement of the Church and the edification of its Members There is yet another Instance in which Zeal should be more exprest which I have reserv'd for the last because I shall take the liberty to inlarge on it It is concerning Preaching and hearing Sermons I pretend not to teach but shall with submission to better Judgments deliver my opinion which is That in Preaching Ministers should chiefly mostly treat on plain practical awakening Subjects speaking of them gravely and affectionately without Vanity or Affectation with design still to do good and to make themselves and their Hearers better Such I think should be the matter and such the measure of Preaching And 't would do no hurt if our Preachers generally took more Zeal into their Pulpits than is usual with us Zeal without Folly Methinks our Divines should not suffer others to out-do them here much-less should they quit this to them The too usual want of this Zeal here is a principal cause of our Mischiefs Some are almost ashamed or affraid to be zealous in their Pulpits The preaching of too many is Declamatory they deliver not Theological Sermons not such as are apt to instruct or edifie but seem to design the gratifying vain Phancies and the pleasing of wanton Hearers They aim at Wit and fine Sayings to gain applause among the injudicious by silly Affectations and when they are commended they have their end and the work is done They move no devout Affections seem not to design it Their Sermons are lifeless dull Harangues full of studied Vanity without Piety or as much as good Sense Hence many Religious are scandaliz'd and they nauseate such Preaching and are tempted by it to run away into Corners and Sects and here is one great ground of Separation and loss of our People Now one and a chief occasion that this Humour hath so much obtain'd is that many of the Laity and such as pretend much to the Church of England are for the formal unedifying wittilizing Way they have not the patience to hear a Grave Serious Affectionate Sermon that plays no Tricks But will be ready some of them to Stigmatize and rail against such a Preacher as a Presbyterian though he be zealously opposite to their Principles and Ways and most hearty and affectionate to the Church of England These would have none it seems but affected insipid sensless Fops of it They are willing to give away all or most of the men of Reason and Religious Zeal to the Sects take them who will they will not own them These men have done the Church of England the great Mischief and have raised most of the Clamour and Opposition against it No Church in the World hath better Preachers than this and there are not upon Earth worse than those I have last describ'd or rather they are none at all what they do is not Preaching it is throughout doing another thing Declaiming silly childish speech-making what you will there is scarce any other abuse of Speech bad enough to resemble it to I cannot speak of it with too much Contempt Such Preachers are Prophaners of sacred things contemptible even in the things they aim at their Oratory their Wit is so neither true both boyish ridiculous despicable to men of Sense And yet as I intimated some that pretend Zeal for the Church of England that is the Name the Shadow applaud those Triflers Players and thereby tempt young men to take up after their Way and the affecting such stuff hath spread far to the Scandal of the Church and the discountenancing the serious earnest effectionate Method which is so much out of fashion among this sort that they cannot endure that the Preacher should as much as seem to be in earnest They will not allow him to speak warmly to move in the Pulpit or to preach off his Notes All must be dead cold Form to please them If this humour be not supprest and Preachers generally as all the Wise already do don 't take another course the Church will never recover its just Interest and Esteem Preaching must be more Serious Affectionate Zealous this is in the power of every Preacher to be Profound and Learned is not so In the many poor insufficient Livings we may not expect men of great and deep Knowledg and where such are this Qualification doth not recommend them to the generality of the People their Zeal doth much more In this the meanest Preachers may abound and by this they will affect their Hearers though Wit and shews of Learning are wanting These as things are the least able endeavour to ostentate and such most but the highest they can attain to in it is but
of the Church of England They formed our Reformation and divers of them sealed it with their bloud They still are the great Champions of the Protestant Cause They have writ all that is considerable against Popery They by their Writings and Sermons have and do still with great zeal judgment and success oppose those corruptions The unreasonableness of ourvilifying and depressing them while we pretend zeal against Popery Their ill usage briefly described By it Popery is advanced The most common Objections against the Clergy of our Church considered The senslesness of that charge that our Clergy are inclinable to Popery How contrary that is not only to their Principles and Professions but to their Interest This Charge favours and recommends Popery Considerations why we should stand by countenance respect and encourage our Clergy now especially Some humble motions on their behalf for the advantage of the Church and the prevention of Popery CHAP. III. The Third occasion viz. our Divisions Those described They promote Popery by way of Scandal and by giving them direct opportunity to play their game No way to assurance against Popery but Union which is the way to that 1. Toleration is not Liberty of Conscience stated and considered It s destructiveness to all Government That no Party is really for it but use it only for clamour and pretence when they are not uppermost It is Rule all would have 2. Accommodation with Dissenters considered modestly proposed and in the supposable advantages and dangers of it and humbly left to the wisdom of our Governours 3. What ever is thought fit Accommodation or not the Constitution should be made firm and Laws put in execution in order to our Union and security against Popery Objections answered CHAP. IV. The Fourth occasion our carelesness and and indifferency in Religion The necessity of sober Zeal Religion is recommended and secured by it ours much prejudiced by the want of it All Sects advance and grow by zeal though ignorant and mistaken Instances of their zeal we ought to be as zealous in a good cause as they are in a bad in what particulars we should be more zealous viz. in attending Publick Prayers and Sacraments in studying the Constitution of our Church and in observance of the Lords day zeal in Preaching largely discoursed and the folly and mischiefs of the trifling wittisizing way largely represented Preaching vindicated against the opinion of its being a very indifferent and meerly humane thing CHAP. V. The Fifth occasion viz. extravagant Zeal The present fury and pretended zeal of Atheists justly reprehended and scorn'd The mischiefs their Fury against Popery doth the Protestant Religion to prevent which we ought to disown their pretended help and kindness An humble motion for the effectual suppressing of Atheism in order to our security against Popery The extravagant zeal of others mischievous Mens unreasonable multiplying the numbers of Papists an advantage to Popery Their real numbers in this Nation inconsiderable their hopes from Foreign Assistances vain The senselesness of their Plots The unpracticableness of introducing Popery here by force Our multiplying the number and strength of Papifts encourageth Plots The pretence of their many secret Friends considered the mischievous use of that pretence to the confounding of us among our selves as it hath of late been used it effectually doth the Papists business a way of prevention offered Another branch of this injustice viz. uncharitable charging all that profess conversion from Popery as if they were still Papists Another instance viz. the appropriating the name of Protestant to the Sects and other enemies to the Government The mischiefs of it The Conclusion being the Authors Apology FINIS Advertisement concerning the ERRATA THe Reader is desired to take notice of the following Errors of the Press Some of them especially in the first second and fifth Pages are Alterations of the Copy others are mostly mispointings but such as perplex and alter the Sense The rest I leave to common Ingenuity and Charity Errata Page 1. Line 18. Read England the Protestant Reformation p. 2. l. 6. r. is that which we call the Church of England p. 5. l. 21. r. Patrons of the notion p. 7. l. 26. r. model p. 15. l. 21. r. wrest their Rights from them p. 33. l. 4. r. decent uncall'd to offer their opinion l. 5. r. I think p. 40. l. 9. r. wittisizing way p. 44. l. 17. r. Zeal and help p. 47. l. 3. r. Protestant Non-conformists l. 28. r. to which l. 32. r. populous p. 48. l. 6. r. one more or two at most
be more there should not be Instances found to give colour to such Reproaches and if there should not be some to deserve very bad Characters But let it be consider'd that the far greatest part of Livings are poor Vicarages of 20 30 or 40 Pounds a Year into such Patrons must put whom they can get and Bishops that admit know not mens ill Lives and the Laws are content with very slender qualifications for Learning nor are great Matters necessary for every Country Village and this poor condition of so great a number of the Clergy sets them into mean Conversation and by their low and bad Company they are tempted and often purposely so to disorders which then are triumphantly publish'd the men are despised and the whole Order for their sakes Some are surprized for some Traps are laid and they are industriously drawn into Scandal on purpose to defame them and the whole Clergy and it cannot be denied but that too many are Clouds without Water spots in our Feasts Diotrephes's Demas's Judas's not only in the smaller Cures but in the more considerable Preferments Many most of those the Laity present to and do not always prefer for worth but for divers other sometimes very undue considerations all which consider'd it cannot be but Scandals must arise among so great a Body of men in such Circumstances and then they having so many Enemies of so many sorts Atheists Papists Fanaticks Worldlings Debauchees who watch for their haltings and rejoyce when they fall who are ready to invent so many malicious evil things of them and to publish and spread what they hear or what they make their interest being to have them and the Church vilified and despised it could not be but that they must suffer under manifold Reproaches though they were all wise cautious innocent how much more when there are divers ill unwise unwary men among them and in all great Bodies in the World in all times even the best such mixtures have been And even the Good the most Excellent have their Faults and Imperfections which when ill-will is to represent and comment upon them are sometimes so heightned and improved as to blacken them all over and to make them appear very vile to the World But after all this it must be said that the Church of England blessed be God for it hath a great number of most Excellent Divines men of great Piety Parts and Learning substantial powerful Preachers Pious Sober Virtuous Livers such as for all kinds of Ability this Nation never had greater better more Let my former Instance of the Clergy of London be consider'd as an evidence of this Their worth is so great and shines so bright that the Adversaries of our Church cannot but acknowledg it Mr Baxter in one of his late Books the most sharp he hath written against us owns that he meets with judicious substantial Sermons almost in every Church in London where he happens to go And up and down in the Country every where one may find very excellent Persons that lie hid and make no publick noise in the World I have said this by way of brief but just Apology in the behalf of our abused Clergy and add that notwithstanding the ill Character they lie under among some and the failings and imperfections they are guilty of yet this Nation never had I believe a wiser learneder Clergy upon the whole since the Beginnings of it And the contempt and ill treatment they meet withal is one of the greatest Reasons why they are not better General disrespect makes men careless and incautious in their Lives Whereas honour and esteem ingageth them to be circumspect and wary to maintain that veneration and regard that is paid them So that the men that most upbraid the Clergy with ill Lives are the principal causes that many of their lives are so obnoxious and they may consider some of them whether they do not themselves for sordid and unworthy Reasons bestow their Livings upon such as they complain of and so make the reason of their own Complaints I have been tedious upon this Head which yet would require larger Animadversions and I shall here crave leave yet farther to note That Among all the abuses fastned on our Clergy there is none more unreasonable and unjust than that of their inclination to or no great distance from the Roman Church This reproach our Enemies now every where publish or infinuate to carry on their design of destroying the Church of England which shews that some will say any thing against them any thing that may render them popularly odious though it be never so contrary to all truth and all appearance And I challenge the whole Protestant World to shew a publick Instance of more Zeal against Popery than our Church of England Divines have exprest against the Popish Religion ever since and before the discovery of the late Plot. Every Pulpit can witness their frequent earnest Sermons against those Superstitions and every Stationers Shop can shew their numerous excellent Books against them Or if these were not we may consider that Interest will not lye men especially such as they suppose our Clergy will not act contrary to that Can we think that all the Gentlemen of England that have Abby and other Church Lands will desire and endeavour to promote Popery Are they suppose we favourers and friends of that Religion that in likelihood would divest them of their Estates Can we think that the City of London are for blocking up and hindring the Current of the Thames Or that the Lord Mayor and Aldermen have a plot to translate the Trade to Lincoln or York Have the Merchants any desires or designs for the destroying of Shipping and Navigation Shop-keepers intrigues against Trade or the Lawyers designs against the Business of Westminster-Hall If no one is so foolish as to object such inclinations and endeavours against those why should they then alledg Popery any degree of it any the least inclination to it against the Clergie of the Church of England whom of all men it would most throughly most certainly undo And that there is no Church-man so ignorant but he must know For all the Married Clergy lose their Livelihoods without remedy if that be all All the Prebendaries in the new Churches which were Monasteries of Monks must turn out unavoidably All that have been active in Preaching or writing against Popery which takes in the chief part of the Clergy are in imminent danger of being ruined further than the loss of their Livelihoods amounts too If there should be any that think of saving themselves by Conformity they can look on that only as better than being utterly undone not as a thing otherwise desirable For the uncouth work with which they are unacquainted the servile subjection to their Superiours to which they have not been used and above all the hatred contempt fury of the People to which they will be exposed and by which they will
Pedantism and Childishness which are despised by the Judicious and not understood by the rest so that they lose their end and the end of Preaching more they do no good get no hold on the People whereas did even these but aim at instructing the Ignorant seriously and the exciting all to their Duty earnestly and devoutly it would atone for their imperfections with the Judicious and have good effect upon the rest I have spoken freely in this Matter under a great sense of this Evil and I hope I shall not be understood to reflect upon any worthy men of our Church I design'd only to express my just indignation against wanton Witlings Preachers and People whose number thanks be to God lessens daily and among all Intelligent Church-men this way is exploded and every where despised There is another Error in defect in reference to Preaching it is of those that reckon it an indifferent a meerly humane thing when as it is certainly of Divine appointment to continue to the end of the World Mat. 28.20 We ought in the sense of this to be more frequent and heedful in our attendance on Sermons than many are and not shut out Preaching or Hearing under pretence of Zeal for the Church-Prayers Those that pretend one Duty to the prejudice of another do really care for neither Our Zeal should be Vniform and respect every duty proportionably to the Dignity and necessity of it And if generally we had been so disposed thus Zealous as we ought many of the People that now run away from our Communion had still been ours They like Presbyterians and other Sects because the Preachers are earnest and make shew of much Zeal as the People also do not because they are for such or such a Church-Government for this or that Opinion The multitude understand not these things follow them not for that Cause but for the opinion they have of their being Godly and Zealous And we may be we should be as zealous for Religion in the true Way as they seem to be in the wrong Our Church permits requires this from us We ought not to distinguish our selves from them by slighting and avoiding the lawful expressions of Christian Zeal the Interest of our Church doth not require that but the contrary If our Zeal were more proportion'd to the goodness of our Cause that goodness of our Cause would be more known and acknowledg'd and our Adversaries would more easily be reconcil'd unto it CHAP. V. V. ANother occasion of our Dangers is the contrary extream to our Coldness viz. Extravagant Zeal Here I shall first consider the present fury of Atheists and Infidels and then discourse of other sorts of intemperate Heat and Wildness that in the long run will greatly befriend Popery Where there were Atheists in former days they hid their Heads and were afraid ashamed to appear but in these they glory they triumph In no Age did they ever dare so openly in no Christian in no Heathen Country How common is it for lewd men yea for green untaught Youth to question dispute cavil at the most sacred Articles of Religion To do this in Taverns Coffee-Houses in all Companies in the presence of the Ministers of Religion before them to choose How will the young Witlings pride and plume themselves How will they brisle and perk up when they talk with those of the sacred function against Religion How do they despise their Reasons because forsooth the thing they defend is their Interest and vaunt their own arguments as Demonstrations when they are scarce Sense It would turn a man's Stomach to see the insolence and folly of these bold Youngsters which are a scandal to the Reformation and give occasion to our Roman Enemies to brand us all as Atheists or not far from being such whereby they are hardned in their Way and have great advantage to win more to them Particularly at this time these Infidels do Popery great service They are violent in their Out-crys against it violent to Fury none so fierce as they of which there can be no Reason but either the consideration of their Lands or this that Popery is a Religion at least it pretends unto it Now by this their clamour and fierceness by their appearing so forward so in the Front as it were against Popery they give occasion to the Papists to think and say that our Zeal is an Heathen Persecution of Christianity that they are so malign'd so opposed by us because they profess Religion and are not Infidels And it may suggest to others that are yet indifferent that certainly there is some great good in Popery that such run upon it with such violence and 't is natural to men to favour that which the Wicked and those whose ways they have cause to abhor dislike abominate and flie out against So that these harden Papists and recommend their Religion they render it less odious to some because 't is so to them What evil have I done said the surprized Philosopher that these the Multitude applaud me On the contrary what good hath Popery done that vile Atheists rage so against it 'T is a shame to be commended by some and a praise to be condemn'd and persecuted by others See saith the Papist who are furious against our Religion They are the same that blaspheme against God dispute his Being burlesque his Word deride his Son despise revile trample on his Ministers of all sorts these Protestants lead you these you triumphantly attend these you voice up to be Patriots these are they that shew most violent hate and rage against us Whoever gives occasion to such upbraidings as these doth without doubt credit and promote Popery and this the forwardness of many Atheists hath done and doth daily Now for Cure of these Mischiefs we should every where disown declare against the wildness of these Furies despise their pretended Zeal and help shame and reprove their Hypocrisie suffer them not to name Protestant Religion decline their company discountenance all they say and all they do Brand hoot at them let the World see let our Enemies see they are not of us that we have nothing to do with them Thus we should do in Charity to them publick shame and reproach may do them more good than any other Method this we owe to our selves and to the honour of Religion to vindicate it from the Scandal and Reproach these vile men bring upon it If ever there was a time for Zeal against Atheists Debauchees Buffoons it is now It is always seasonable now most so These are our principal Enemies who whenever time serves will be as fierce against us all sorts and professions of Religion as they are now against the Papists These are the common Foes enemies not only to Religion but to all Government and Societies to Mankind and should be used as such These permitted cherish'd will bring God's Judgments upon us and possibly Popery as one Let us then have no fellowship with