was to promote and give the highest Instance and Example of them The last Legacy he bequeathed to his Disciples and Followers at his leaving the World was Peace which he will'd them above all things to keep firm and inviolable and his last Prayer was they all might be one Accordingly we find the first Christians upon Christ's departure from them were all of one heart and one mind And when upon the spreading of the Gospel every where this bond of Peace and Unity began to be broken by the insinuations of False Teachers we find the Apostles using all diligence to arm and caution all their Converts against them willing them to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace to stand firm to the Truth of the Gospel and to be perfectly join'd together in the same Mind and the same Judgment St. Paul strictly warned the Corinthians against falling into Parties and following of Factions to the prejudice of Peace and Unity he heap'd up many Arguments in his Epistle to the Ephesians to keep that bond inviolate and because many false Teachers had crept in among the Philippians he beseeched them by all the endearments of Christianity to be like-minded being of one accord and one mind Now the Dissenters knowing how much Peace and Unity are recommended and inculcated in Holy Scripture find it necessary to speak up for it hence you shall often hear them commending Peace and seemingly very desirous to have Love and Unity preserved and promoted among Christians they frequently lament the lack of Love in the World and bewail the want of those due Tempers and peaceable Dispositions that should unite us This gains them the reputation of Meek Quiet and Peaceable Men and That gains them Proselytes who are made to believe That to be followers of them is to be followers of Peace They Good Men say some of their deluded Disciples are all for Peace they are sorry to find so much Hatred among Men they Preach up nothing more than Peace and Love and are always Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem But what truth is there in all these fair speeches and pretences Why little or none For what peace said Jehu while the whoredoms of Jezebel and her witcherafts are so many Quid verba audiam facta dum Videam What heed is to be given to words when deeds confute them Their gathering Disciples and making Parties are plain breaches of that Peace which they seem to cry up and their Schism and Separation a manifest breach of Unity What Peace had Zimri who slew his Master Do not some speak much of Peace when they are making ready for Battel Do not many seem quiet and harmless Creatures whilst 't is not in their power to be otherwise who yet are all the while hoping and waiting for advantages and want nothing but opportunity to break out into open Hostilities These are not the Sons but Enemies of Peace who seek to supplant what they would be thought to maintain and 't is but a false trick to cry Peace Peace when their aims are Dominion or Destruction But what is the Peace they thus speak up for And what is the design or meaning of it Why 't is an indulgence in their Schism to be let alone to draw Disciples after them and increase their Party to be allowed to fill their Conventicles and deceive the People without Molestation this like good peaceable Men they will be content with at present till they can become strong enough to get more So that this is a false Peace and is indeed no better than a fatal security whereby they endeavour to lull their Followers asleep in their Schism and to blind the Eyes of the World that they may not discern the evil and danger of their ways But there is another branch of this Artifice that must not be omitted and that is their declaiming against differences and divisions when the whole course of their Actions tend all the while to promote them This piece of falshood you may easily discover by an ordinary observation they know well enough that Love and Unity are necessarily destroyed by divisions they are aware likewise what advantage they give to the common Enemy what trouble they are to all Good Men and what scandal they bring upon Religion it self and therefore they must not be thought to have any heart or hand in causing Divisions no they are too sensible of the evil to be found the Promoters of them they bewail the Distempers and Disorders of the Times 'T is a sad thing says one that Unity which is so good and pleasant a thing in the Eyes of God and Man should be so little regarded 'T is much to be lamented saith another that there should be such discord and Divisions found among Christians Whence then should these Divisions come And who are the Authors of them Not They to be sure for they good men are all for love and unity though their Actions proclaim the quite contrary and betray the falshood of their Pretences they are only for healing our Breaches though they are all the while making of Parties to widen and increase them they are for uniting of Protestants and at the same time draw as many into Schism and Separation as they can But what have they to evade this guilt that lies so plainly at their doors Why 't is the Liturgy and the Ceremonies must bear the blame though no Christian Church was ever without the one and no Divine Worship can be decently or orderly perform'd without the other 'T is a sad thing saith a gifted Brother that such Bones of Contention should be thrown in the way of Christians surely if they that compos'd the Common-Prayer had dreamt that it would create so many Divisions Tumults and Distractions they would never have found either heart or hand to lift up to the promoting of it Alas poor Man he might have said as well that the Penmen of the Holy Scriptures would never have wrote as they did if they had dreamt what bad use Hereticks and Schismaticks would make of it and what perverse Disputes and Divisions would be rais'd about it 'T was not the Composing no nor yet the enjoining the Common Prayer which is a pious and excellent model of Devotion but some mens raising a dust before the eyes of the People that they may not see the usefulness and excellency of it that have created all these distractions and disputes about it But when these Men are pressed with their causing divisions beyond a possibility of a fair Reply they tell us that there must be Heresies and Divisions that they who are approved may be made manifest 1 Cor. 10. But must not the Authors and Abettors of divisions be made manifest too Does not the same Apostle bid us to mark them that cause divisions and avoid them Signifying that Hereticks and Schismaticks should have a Brand or Mark set upon them that they may be known and shunn'd by
all Christians as the Bane and Pest of any Church and Kingdom And now I think this Artifice is pretty well detected and a vulgar Eye may plainly see the evil and danger of it for if heaping up different Teachers be not a breach of Unity and drawing Men from an Established Church be not causing Divisions I know not what is Does not the Apostle blame the divided dialect of the Corinthians when one said I am of Paul another I am of Apollo and another I am of Cephas c. though they proceeded not so far as to break Communion And if the bare crying up different Teachers in the same Church be there branded for Schism How much wider must the breach be when they withdraw from the Communion of it and set up separate Meetings and different ways of Worship in opposition to it This is plainly the case of our Dissenters and if St. Paul rebuk'd those lesser Schisms and Divisions of preferring some Teachers before others within in the Church as signs of Carnality and degrees of Apostacy how much greater must the fault be to make a Schism from the Church by dividing from the Worship and Communion of it Neither is the danger hereof less apparent than the Sin for this hath a pernicious influence not only on the persons thus seduced from it who are thereby rent and torn from the Body of Christ and harden'd in a dangerous and deadly Schism but on the whole Church whose Peace and Unity is thereby broken and being depriv'd of many of its Members is thereby weaken'd and laid open to the Assaults of its greatest Enemies These and many more are the sad effects of this Device and must be charg'd on those Craftsmen who talk much of Peace and Unity the better to supplant both and declaim against Divisions merely to promote and propagate them I am SIR Yours A. B. LETTER VI. SIR I Shew'd in my last the Craft of Dissenters in crying up Unity and decrying Divisions and how by that means they cunningly destroy the one and promote the other I proceed now to a Fifth Artifice of theirs to support their Schism and that is Their Censuring the Lives and Actions of those within the Church the better to commend theirs who Dissent from it And herein again they are the followers of the Pharisees a great part of whose Religion consisted in Censuring the Lives and Scorning the Persons of other Men. Our Saviour hath observed of them Matt. 7.3 that they were sharp and quick in espying a mote in their brother's eye when they could not discern a beam in their own They beheld the faults of others in a magnifying Glass which made them aggravate all their failings when all the while they could see nothing amiss in themselves and easily overlook'd their own Enormites A Learned Author hath observ'd of them That they had an Eye upon every Man's Life except their own and mightily concern'd themselves in others Behaviour they had a reproof for every Man's faults great or small but were still very favourable and indulgent to themselves And herein they are exactly imitated if not outdone by our Dissenters who delight in nothing more than censuring the Lives and condemning the Actions of other Men Is there any thing more obvious than this in all their Discourse and Conversation With what pleasure do they insist upon and aggravate other Mens failings Hurting their Neighbours Credit sometimes by open Calumnies which is the Arrow that flies by day and sometimes by secret Whispers which is the Pestilence that walketh in darkness and wounds without being seen How freely shall you hear them taxing the Actions and talking of the Miscarriages of other Folk How eloquent are they wont to be upon this Subject With what heat and concern With what seeming zeal and warmth does this reviling Language drop from them Yea Do they not place a great part of their Religion in censuring the Wickedness of the times crying out upon the Badness of Mens Lives and shaking their Empty Heads at the Naughtiness of their Ways Now you must not think that these bolts are shot at Them or that any of the Party are to be reckoned in the number of these Wicked ones no they are those Righteous Souls in Sodom who are vexed with the filthy Conversation of the Wicked and for whose sake the rest are spared 'T is the Churchmen and they that follow the Common-Prayer that are guilty of all these Enormities We find one of them telling us in Print That they who like this kind of Worship are generally Ignorant Prophane Superstitious Time-servers Fearful Unbelievers Haters of those that are Good Drunkards Adulterers c. Well said thou Accuser of the Brethren throw Dirt enough and to be sure some will stick In another place he adds That they are generally Persons much estranged from the Life of God and little acquainted with the Power of Godliness Alas Good Man he is griev'd at the heart to see the deadness and formality of such Worshippers Another of these Godly Brethren tells us That the Bishops are an Earthly Generation and savour not the things of God and that there is more of God and Religion in some one Congregation of a Silenc'd Minister than in all the Bishops Families in England Are not these Charitable and Clean-mouth'd Souls Or rather are not their Tongues set on Fire of Hell But what is the Design of all these rude Censures and Calumnies Why to draw the People from the Established Church and to persuade them to come out from such an unsanctified Crew and withal to invite them to the Conventicle where they will find better Company and join with the Assembly of the Saints How serviceable this Stratagem hath been to increase and keep up the Party is obvious to observe For This gratifies the natural Pride and Ambition of Mens Hearts who are willing to be thought better than other Men and are easily persuaded to hearken to and believe those that tell them so Again This gratifies the Spleen and Animosity that some have against their Neighbours thus to vent their malice in Censures and evil Reflections on their Life and Manners a Religion that allows and commends these things must be very grateful to Flesh and Blood and cannot want many Followers Moreover This cherishes in Men a mighty love and conceit of themselves making them think that they hate and abhor those sins themselves which they thus Censure and Condemn in others Besides all Men desire an easy Religion and would willingly go to Heaven the nearest and softest way that may be now what can be more easy than to Saint themselves by defaming others And who would not embrace a Religion that will indulge Men in their Vices if they do but declaim against them and censure them in other People Yea 't is a pleasing and delightful thing to some Persons to find faults in other Men for it gives a seeming satisfaction in their own innocence or at least
Worship of God or their not being tied up to any other Rules in these things but such as they in their great Wisdom shall think fit hence they persuade the People that to prescribe any thing in the Worship of God which he himself hath not Commanded is an invasion of his Prerogative and an infringement of Christian Liberty But hath God any where prescribed the particular Times Places Habits Gestures and other Circumstances of Divine Worship Hath he given any other than some general Rules for the more Decent and Orderly performance hereof No 't is certain he hath not why then the particular Determination of these Circumstances wherein this Decency and Order consists must be left to that Power which Christ hath set up in his Church For to leave every one to his own Liberty in these things is a Principle of Confusion and must bring all manner of Indecency and Disorder into the Service of God How then comes this to be called Christian Liberty Hath Christ any where Commanded or Allowed any such Liberty in his Chuch or exempted Christians from Obedience to Authority in such Lawful and Indifferent things No he hath given both his Precept and Example to the contrary for he was not only Obedient to the Roman Power in all Lawful things but paid all due Reverence and Obedience to the Authority of the Jewish Church he strictly observed the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jewish Service as well those of Human as Divine Appointment he kept to the Gesture used in Eating the Passover Matth. 26.20 and punctually Conformed to all the Ceremonies of the Synagogue-Worship So that 't is prevaricating with God as well as deceiving the People to tell them that Christ hath dispensed with all Laws made for the external Order and Decency of Publick Worship and given them a Liberty to behave themselves in it as they please But does not the Apostle tell us of a liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free willing us to stand fast in it and not to be entangled again in the yoke of bondage Gal. 5.1 Yes but that was a Liberty from the numerous and burthensome Rites and Ceremonies of Moses's Law which for the number and uneasiness of them are by St. Peter justly stiled a Yoke and such a one too as neither they nor their forefathers were able to bear Acts 15.10 for their Temples daily flow'd with the Blood of their Flocks and Herds their Altars smoak'd with the most costly Incense and Perfumes in a word they were prescribed to almost in all the Punctilio's of Human Life and few or no things were left indifferent to them Now these things being for the most part Typical and only shadows of good things to come were all to be done away when the Substance came accordingly at Christ's Coming all these Shadows vanished like darkness at the approach of the Sun and the cloudy Types of the Law were dispelled by the Brightness of his Coming Now a freedom from those cumbersom Rites and Ceremonies of the Old Law is the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and to return to the Observance of them is to be entangled again in the yoke of Bondage But what is this to Governors applying the general Rules of Scripture about the Order and Decency of God's Worship to particular Laws about it Here the Ceremonies enjoined are not Typical as the Jewish were nor is the observing of them a virtual denying that Christ is come in the Flesh as the continuance of the Jewish Rites would be but are Appointed only for the more comely Worshipping of God manifest in the flesh and the more solemn Praifing of God the Father for that inestimable Blessing To observe such wholesome Orders made for this end is so far from infringing our Christian Liberty that it would be a great Infringement of it to do otherwise For First This would infringe the Liberty that Christ hath left with Governours of Ordering such Indifferent things this is the main if not the only Branch of their Ecclesiastical Power for the Substantials of Divine Worship are already Appointed by Christ and the Spirit of God hath left some general Rules for the more orderly Performance of it but the particular Rules of Order and Decency being no where Prescribed these are left to the determination of our Governors whom we are required to obey for the Lord's sake and to deny them this is to divest them of all Power in Church-matters yea this will leave a less Liberty to Ecclesiastical Governors under the Gospel than the Governors of the Jewish Church were invested with who yet were bound up and determined in far more particulars than ours now are Again To take off our Obedience in these Indifferent things is to infringe the Liberty of the People who must be thereby deprived of a better way of serving God and likewise subject them to the Punishment and Displeasure of the Magistrate for Disobeying him in things that are within his Power to Command But wherein then lies our Christian Liberty if Governors may Impose what they think fit upon us Why the Governors Liberty consists in this That they are not tied up to any particular Modes or Circumstances of Divine Worship but may establish in Indifferent things what they judge most expedient for Order and Comeliness The Peoples Liberty lies in this That they do not look upon or use the things contained in such Injunctions as Essential Parts of Divine Worship or Matters necessary to Salvation but merely for Discipline and Orders sake they retain still the Liberty of the Judgment about the Nature of the things though the Use of them be for wise and publick Reasons restrain'd Whereas such a Liberty as sets Men free from all Laws and good Orders of this kind is a wild and extravagant Fancy and lets them loose to all Disorder this is to use our Liberty as a Cloak of Maliciousness and to make it a Pretence or Covering for all Licentiousness But what is the Design of this false Pretence to Christian Liberty Why 't is to give the People Liberty to break the Laws at Pleasure and leave them to the Guidance of their own Humours without Controul by this means they teach them to leave the Church and go to Conventicles to assert their Christian Liberty and to encourage them therein they pervert for them two or three Texts of Scripture as that of our Saviour Call no man master upon earth Matth. 23.10 which is a Caution against receiving the corrupt Doctrines and Traditions of the Pharisees is by them Interpreted for rejecting the Lawful Commands of our Superiors That of the Apostle Be not ye the servants of men 1 Cor. 7.23 which forbids the enslaving the Conscience to the Imperious Dictates of False Teachers is so expounded as to take off all the Obligation of good Orders St. Peter's Lording it over God's heritage 1 Pet. 5.3 they interpret of the Tyranny of the Bishops and thereby take off their
this is to preserve and propagate the Schism is very easy to imagine Again By this device the Dissenters can shift off all the blame of the Divisions from themselves and lay them at others doors which is indeed a great piece of Art and stands them in good stead for if they are charged with the danger and evil consequents of our unchristian Divisions and Separations they presently throw off all the guilt of them from themselves and lay it upon the Impositions they good men are in no fault but they who have made the yoke of Conformity intolerable by laying too much upon the backs of their weak Brethren and making the Burthen too heavy for their tender Consciences to bear by this Artifice they seek cunningly to discharge themselves of all the troubles and commotions in these Kingdoms which they put not upon their own stubbornness and disobedience to good Laws which is the true cause of them but upon their Governors for Imposing upon them and making the yoke of Government too heavy and hard to be born But what are those Laws which they fix this odious brand upon and call by the nick-name of Impositions Why they are the good Orders and Constitutions of the Church appointed only for the external Reverence and Decency of Divine Worship 't is the Liturgy and Discipline of the Church that must go under this infamous Character to keep their Followers from all due Submission and Obedience to them And as the first Enemies of Christianity arrayed the ancient Christians in Bear-Skins and Goat-Skins that they might be the more worried and baited by the Multitude so have the Architects of Schism put this vile Title on wholesome Orders to make them the more hated and abhorred by the People Hence we read That when King Charles the First out of a Pious Zeal for the Unity and Uniformity of all the Churches in his Dominions Ordered a Liturgy to be Composed and Used in the Church of Scotland which was no more than hath been practised in all Christian Churches and well enough became a Christian Prince to do What loud out-cries against Impositions were raised by some Turbulent and Factious Spirits in that Kingdom Who thereupon brake out in an unnatural War and Rebellion against their Lawfull Sovereign yea and had the Impudence too to charge all that Blood upon that Pious Prince which was wickedly shed by those Impious Traytors By which we plainly see the mischief of this Device And though abundantly enough hath been written by our own and Foreign Divines to take off this false Imputation yet the cry must still go on to continue and propagate the Schism But what is it that makes the Burthen of Impositions as they call them so heavy Why First 'T is the giving of Assent and Consent to all that is contain'd in and prescrib'd by the Book of Common-Prayer This they are continually buzzing in the Ears of the People though they are no way concern'd in it and so fright them from the Communion of the Church by their feigned and imaginary Scare-Crows for this is no where required of them and consequently there can be no reason of frighting them with this Bugbear but only to keep them from the publick Worship The Minister indeed who is to offer up the publick Prayers of the Church is required to give his Assent to them And can any thing be more reasonable than that he that is called to this Office should be satisfied in the Soundness of the publick Devotion Is it fit that any should Officiate this way who doubts of the Truth or Usefulness of the publick Service Must not this occasion great Coldness and Hypocrisie in the Worship of God If they think the serving of God by the Common-Prayer be a Service pleasing unto him Why can they not Assent and Consent to it If they do not How can they be fit to Officiate or indeed at any time to join in the Use of it So that this if well considered will be found rather a needless Cavil than a just Exception against the prescribed Worship But 2dly The Imposing This and no Other adds to the weight of the Impositions and makes the Burthen too heavy How so Is not a standing Liturgy containing all the Offices of Religion sufficient to all the ends of Piety and Devotion Are not Peace Unity and Order best preserved by one Uniform Established way of Worship Are Men imposed upon unless they are left free to what way of Worship they please which necessarily breeds Confusion and every Evil work Of this our own sad Experience may abundantly fatisfy us and withall plainly shew the fallacy of this Artifice Now the mischief of this Device is too visible both in Church and State for the crying out upon Impositions and branding good Laws with that odious Name hath kept many from all Obedience to them In short this hath bred a contempt of Authority and involv'd whole Kingdoms in Blood and Confusion But there is another branch of this Artifice and that is The stiling the just Penalties of wholsom Laws by the hareful Name of Persecution This is a plain consequent of the former for when Men think themselves imposed upon by publick Orders and Constitutions they will soon think themselves Persecuted when they are Punished for the breach of them hence we find the Dissenters often setting up the cry of Persecution by which they would have their Governors to be thought Tyrants and themselves the Saints that suffer under them yea they compare their Condition to that of the Primitive Christians and would make the World believe that when they are punished for the breach of Unity Peace and Order they are as much persecuted as those first Christians in all their Sufferings for the Truth of Christianity But this Artifice being already fully detected I shall add no more here but refer you to it I am SIR Yours A. B. LETTER VIII SIR YOU see the Mischief of calling things by wrong Names as stiling publick Laws by the Name of Impositions and the Penalties annex'd to the Breach of them by the Name of Persecution which hath made many too careless of the one and fearless of the other I come now to A Seventh Artifice of Dissenters and that is to keep the People in Ignorance of the Nature and Danger of Schism or else to feed them with wrong Notions and Conceits of it Indeed the Romish Priests are not more studious to conceal the Corruptions of their Church than these Men are to disguise the Errors of the Conventicle This is evident in the Matter of Schism for though it be one of the greatest Sins that can be committed being a tearing in pieces the Body of Christ and as far exceeds any other Vice as rending one Limb from another is worse than a Corrupt Humour yet the People must not know so much the guilt of it must be hid from their Eyes yea it must be look'd on rather as a Duty than a