Integrity may as well be deceived as Mr. Chilling worth was who once thought that our Religion of the Church of England was not a safe way to Salvation though he died of another and better Judgment And why may not others as Prudent Pious and Consciencious Men as he be deceived and misled into Popery by Men better skill'd and instructed in the Controversies than they are They are Christians still though crring ones and Members of the Catholick Church as well as we and can their errors in Judgment which are injurious to none but themselves forfeit their Civil Rights Or those in Practice except they be such as are destructive of humane Society Would not the Primitive Christians do you think have been well contented that their Emperors if they had been of the same Communion of Rome should with all of the same Communion have injoyed an uncensur'd use of their Religion and been ready to make Addresses of Thanks for the peaceable Enjoyment of their own Let the same mind be in you as was in them and that will adorn your Christian Profession We cannot but bewail it as our great Calamity and a just Punishment of the last Age's Disloyalty which most horridly Murder'd the best of Kings at Noon-day before the Gates of his own Royal Palace and banish'd his Royal Progeny and drove them into Foreign Parts to seek for that safety from others which their own Unnatural and Blood-thirsty Subjects would not afford them That our Gracious King was then tempted above measure and hath since joyn'd himself to the Roman Church and lives in the Practice of a different Worship from us But since God in his infinite Wisdom hath permitted it to be so it is our Duty to acquiesce therein and behave our selves towards him so as may be most consistent with his Honour and our Duty in the present Circumstances and that the rather because we may be well assured that our Gracious Sovereign had no Design nor Interest to serve in the changing of his Religion but an eternal one in the saving of his Soul To embrace a Religion when it was decry'd and kept down by Penal Laws is in the Judgment of Charity a great Argument of Sincerity and Christian Resolution when it was sâ—culi reatus the greatest National Crime of which he could have been guilty To embrace a Religion when it was every where spoken against out of Fashion and decry'd When a Man follows Christ to Hierusalem in Triumph he may be an Hypocrite but certainly if he follow him to Golgotha as he is going to the Cross you have reason to believe him a Sincere Disciple Our Gracious Sovereign's joyning himself at such a time to the Church of Rome when it brought his very Tule to the Crown in question and made his Life insecure and uneasie was an instance of his Gallant and Great Soul and much resembled on the part of the Person the courage of the First Christians who were well aware that in the very Prosession thereof they bid adieu to worldly interest and Tranquillity This beâ—ing apparently done out of no lower Principle than the Glory of God and the Salvation of his own Soul though not the Deed yet inslead of it the Sincere Will is favourably accepted with God and should be so with all good Men. Seeing it is an Observation of Lactantius and St. Augustin concerning a Religion Infinitely worse that Almighty God was pleased to take kind notice of the honest Meanings of those grosly mistaken Worshippers for though an Erroneous Conscience could not bind to the Act yet if after all possible due Enquiry it act Erroneously it doth not certainly bind to Punishment God winked at the days of Ignorance especially when accompanied with that Integrity of Heart of which God gives such an acquitting Character in the Case of King Abimelech and if this were not so it would go ill with the Men of the highest Intellectual and Moral Vertues who confess themselves to be as truly short of being perfectly free from all Sins of Ignorance as they are from those of Frailty When thus much hath been said concerning his Majesty's Religion it may be added That his Change proceeded not meerly from an easie Well-meaning but from Arguments however they be less weighty to us which had prevail'd with many Wise and Good Men and had an advantage perhaps in his Case from some Early Doubts hardly to be avoided in that Conversation into which the Rebels who had impudence enough to call themselves English Protestants had driven him as I before told you against whom and not against our Gracious Sovereign should the disrespects of all the True Sons of the Church of England be turn'd The King thinks us in the wrong and so pities and prays for us That God would bring us into the right Way and 't is a groundless and uncharitable Jealousie that he will ever hurt us because it would neither be for his Honour nor Happiness to make them miserable who have always been his best Fricâ—ds such mischiefs may be fear'd by some but will never be felt by any Let us rather depend upon God's wise and gracious Providence in the use of Lawful Means and put our Trust and Confidence in his Power and Goodness not doubting but he â—areth for us rather than be jealous of our King without Cause and so far as God sees it conduce to his Glory and our Good he will deliver us from all our Fears Let us commit the care of our Religion Lives and Estates to him And indeed Where is our Faith if we will not trust him with the defence of it but seek to prop it up and support it by base and unwarrantable Arts as if every thing were lawful that tends to keep out Popery This will cast such a Reproach and Insamy upon our Religion as can never be wip'd off it will open the Mouths and sharpen the Pens of our Enemies shall we take more Liberty to our selves than we will allow the King What safety can our Sovereign expect if he cannot be allow'd the free Exercise of his own Religion without his Subjects repining What Reputation can he have abroad or what Reverence at home Is this to provide things honest in the sight of all Men Will this put to Silence the Ignorance of Foolish Men to turn our Religion into a Cloak of Maliciousness to prove our selves Wolves in Sheeps Clothing Cannot we abhor Idols without flying into his Face who is the Image of God upon Earth Is this to keep Innocence and to take heed to the thing that that is Right Is not this rather the ready course to create in him and all the World besides an ill Opinion of us and our Religion We may be just and dutiful to the King without being unfaithful to God and if we be so our Religion will not only keep its Ground but make new Conquest and spread it self further in the World nor shall any Policy of Men or Devils
AN ANSWER OF A MINISTER OF THE Church of England TO A Seasonable and Important QUESTION Proposed to him by a Loyal and Religious Member of the present House of COMMONS VIZ. What Respect ought the True Sons of the Church of England in point of Conscience and Christian Prudence to bear to the Religion of that Church whereof the King is a Member If it be possible and as much as in you lies live peaceably with all Men. Rom. xii 18. LONDON Printed for J. L. and are to be Sold by most Booksellers in London and Westminster 1687. ANSWER OF A MINISTER OF THE CHURCH of ENGLAND To a Seasonable and Important Question propos'd to him by a Loyal and Religious Member of the present House of COMMONS SIR THE Support and Security of the Government as now by Law establish'd both in Church and State is so publick a good that all good Christians and Subjects within these Kingdoms are oblig'd to open their Veins and Purses for it and à fortiori to open their Mouths and put their Pens to Paper for it in a time of Trial. And since you are pleas'd to condescend so far as to ask my poor private Judgment as if you meant to rely upon it in a Case of such publick Importance I will save you and my self the trouble of any Apology and trust to your Candor and my own good Intentions in setting down what I judge to be your's and my duty in all sincerity which God knows I have done and leave to him and you the pardoning of my Errors which I hope you will at least cover from being any common Nuisance to others or any private Damage to my self You are alwaies pleas'd to allow me as much freedom in Writing as in Thinking and therefore I do the more freely pour my indigested Thoughts into your Bosom as well to ease my own Mind as to understand what your's will be of the whole matter for I am sensible That the Commands you have laid upon me are rather directed to try my Obedience than to supply want of Information in any Point which concerns your Duty to God or the King And therefore I must rather expose my own real Desects than not endeavour to supply your imaginary ones who will be alwaies as much as I can though not so much as I ought to be your Servant They who least consider hazzard in the doing of their duty fare best still Mens Tongues are their own nor is it in your power or mine to prescribe what shall be spoken for or against us by them who make all Men Papists who are not Schismaticks nor will they ever believe us far enough from Rome unless we will bear them Company to Geneva But we have not so learned Christ We have been taught how to govern our selves both towards Papal and Popular Supremacy and to give unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and to God the things that are Gods What I now speak in this Paper is I am sure to a wise Man Judge you what I say Now first Sir give me leave to premise That a Case of Conscience and a Case of Prudence are not alwaies the same Case and therefore would require more than one Resolution they seem to differ just as much as what is Lawful and what is Expedient Terms that often meet together may eidem competere but are not convertible and very often cannot de eodem affirmari Some things that are lawful may not be expedient and some things have of late years as you well remember been thought expedient as the Black-Bill of Exclusion which you and I knew to be unlawful and tho the calling it Christian Prudence do distinguish it from that and such-like Vnchristian Projects of some State-Politicians and suppose it only conversant about things lawful yet still there is a difference between what I ought and must as bound in Conscience to do that I may approve my self an honest Man and a good Subject and what I may or should do at this juncture to prove my self a discreet and prudent Man If I do not the former I Sin both against God and the King if not the latter I do not Sin mortally though I act foolishly which will prove the Case of very many whom it will be hard for you or me to make so Wise as they should be because they conceit themselves to be Wise enough already Prudence is not only a Moral but a Christian Vertue and such as is necessary to the constituting of all others Nec Religio ulla sine sapientia suscipienda est nec ulla sine Religione probanda sapientia Without Prudence our very Zeal for the Church of England would prove but a kind of pious Phrenesy For though our Intentions to preserve it were never so justifiable or commendable yet if we did not prudently choose appropriate means for the attainment of that Good End we should undermine the thing which we would have established and defeat our own Aims for a good Intention will never alter the Nature of an ill Action We must therefore have our Eyes in our Heads that we be not practis'd upon to our own or the Churches Ruine and be sure to judge of the things in question according to Truth and Charity Non ex eo quod est fallimur sed ex eo quod non est we are not cheated with Realities but with Disguises and Appearances of things with those counterfeit Shapes which our selves or others have given them Sapiens est cui res sapiunt ut sunt He is a Prudent Man to whom things savour and relish as they are Who can abstract the Ill that may be from the Good that appears to be and sever the Colour from the Thing Wise Men cannot be content to be abus'd with Vmbrages they will consider first what is just and honest and then what is sit decent and advantageous they will first argue the matter in point of Conscience what is lawful both for the Church's Interest and their own and then in point of Prudence what is Advisable that so in the Conclusion they may please both God and the King And accordingly I suppose the meaning of your inquiry to be What Respect the True Sons of the Church of England may salvâ Conscientiâ and therefore as things now stand must and ought in Prudence to bear to the Religion of that Church whereof the King is a Member Towards the stating and resolving of which Question 't will perhaps not be impertinent to mention what is meant by the King's Religion and who by the True Sons of the Church of England and what sort of Respect or Honour it may justly challenge from them at this time especially For when there is any though but little Difficulty or Ambiguity in the Terms it is sit they should be explained nor may one presume that they are generally understood aright because they are by some The Roman Catholick Religion is capable of magis
have not the Faith of the Church of England In a good Cause the fairest Language is most advantageous a modest and friendly Stile suits best with the Truth which like its Author usually resides not in the blustering Wind the shaking Earthquake or the rangeing Fire but in a soft and still Voice III Language is doubtless a very preposterous Method of Perswasion being likely to raise such Clouds of Passion as will obsâ—ure the clearest Arguments and render their force unperceptible to the provoked Reader or Hearer on which account I cannot but appland that saying of the Jews That we ought not to blaspheme any thing which others venerate for a God Railing therefore against Popery cannot produce any good Effect and at this time it may easily produce many bad ones among which none can be worse than the Contempt which it will throw upon the King himself on whom all III Language against his Religion does ultimately redound to the debasing of him in the esteem of his Subjects When the Powers of the World were Heathen the Christians in their Apologies do not presume to cxpose the Religion of their Emperors to Contempt but only with great Modesty and Deference to vindicate their own from the unjust Criminations of their Adversaries as may be seen in both the Apologies of Justin Martyr and of Tertullian And as I think it would be a Comandly deserting of a very good Cause if the Learned Men of our Church should suffer the busie Romanists to charge her with Schism Heresie or other Misrepresentation without appearing in her just and necessary Vindication and cannot but applaud some of the late modest and strenuous Apologies which their Provocations have extorted from the Press So I must confess that I cannot see any present Necessity of troubling our Pulpits with these Controversies the Mysteries of our Faith would be best held in a pure Conseience which is peaceable and by Practical Discourses we may best preserve our People from those Vices which only can provoke God to give them up to strong Delusions And if we perceive any of them warping towards Popery there will be more hopes of reducing and confirming than by personal Conferences applyed to their particular Scruples than by shooting at random at so great a distance in general Harangues which tends not so much to arm the Hearers against Popery as to possess them with an hatred of their Sovereign for professing it Since then we are bound in Duty to abâ—â—ain from every thing which without a Sin may be omitted that tends to the Dishonour and Contempt of him whom God and our Religion oblige us to honour I doubt not to conclude That as Railing against Popery was never lawful so Preaching against it farther than by the Canons and his Majesty 's own Gracious Directions we are obliged to do is at this time unseasonable and so far as it is prejudical to the Government utterly unlawful too We least of all fear the Seduction of those Members of our Church who practise strictly that excellent Religion which they and we profess The best Service then we can do to prevent the Growth of Popery will be to perswade Men all we can to become better Livers and better Subjects upon which account Practical Preachers will do the Church more Service than Polemical and the Government no Disservice nor the King no Dishonour 'T is below them who think themselves in the highest form of Christians to sit down in the seat of the scornful they are of their Father the Devil wheresoever such Changelings are found 'Pray' tell me and tell me no more nor no less than your own Consciences will tell you Is this Fooling the effect of that Faith which was once deliver'd to the Saints Or is it not rather a wounding of Christianity it self to the very Heart Who of this Rank if he were at Constantinople would make it his Business to tell the Great Turk that his Prophet Mahomet were an Impostor or as some Oppressed Greeks think him Antichrist or to ridicule the Alcoran And why will they make more bold with a Christian Prince and their Lawful Sovereign than with an Insided This certainly is a foul Offence and as much against a good Conscience as Christian Prudence Why are Men more inrag'd against those who agree with them in most things than with them who different from them in all Christ will not give his Spouse a Bill of Divorce upon every Error and Mistake much less should we deny her to be our Mother because she is not of our Mind this will justly bring our Christianity as well as our Prudence in Question These are not the Sons of the Church of England but the Standard-Bearers of Sedition who take no care to govern their Tongues nor Pens who have no regard to the King or his Ministers to Truth or Charity Justice or Honesty which whether they intend it or not hath a derect tendency to the defaming of our yet untainted Religion They who will not offer up a Peace-Offering to the Magistrate are none of our Communion and 't is to be hoped That the Fathers of our Church will correct those Ill nurtur'd Children who are of such surly peevish and insolent Tempers that others may not grow immodest by their uncontrol'd Extravagancies Authority must at any rate be redeemed from Contempt since the very Life of Government is Reputation and if you teach the Rabble to scorn the Religion of the Supreme Magistrate they will not continue long to reverence his Person or Authority If you will prove him to be an Idolater they will soon reply that St. John reckons such with Murderers Dogs Sorcerers and Whoremongers which love and make Lyes Rev. 22.15 And St. Paul ranks them with Sodomites and Thieves 1 Cor. 6 9 10. That they hate God Exod. 20.5 Desile the Sanctuary Ezekiel 5.11 Commit Adultery with Stocks and Stones Jer. 3.9 Isa 16.17 Worship Devils Rev. 9.20 and that as they shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven 1 Cor 6.10 so we are not to come among them Josh 23.7 but they are to be utterly destroy'd by Commission from God Exod. 22 20. that they are Sons of Belial whom we are to smite with the Edge of the Sword till they be utterly destroy'd Deut. 13.13 14 15. What is all this but Sedition under disguise of Zeal Let the Men look never so honestly they drive on an Interest against Peace and Charity and though Truth may be justified of her Children so it be done with Moderation and Judgment when Necessity compels us or Authority calls us to it yet they who can find no better treatment for their Auditors than to prove all Papists to be Idolaters as if they had no saving Truths to Preach them but such as are full of disgraceful sawcy and insolent Reflections upon their Prince which hath already cost this Nation so many Millions of Money and such Rivers of Blood to the shame of Christianity
they hold their Principle which is none of the best obtain all yield nothing so far are they from being arm'd with Epaminondas his brave heroick Resolution Totius orbis â—â—â—itias despicere prae patriae charitate to despise private Interests for Love of the publick Peace of Church and State This were such a Self-dental as would adorn a Christian and speak him truly Catholick and if Distempers in the Body Natural and Political are reduc'd by Physicians and Politicians not to what they should be but what they can be then let us not strive to advance our Christian Liberty above the Laws of Sobriety Charity and Government nor endeavour to serue any Peg so high in the Church as to make a discord in the State but endeavour calmly to perswade and convince Men by the Scriptures and Reason for though the Ministry and Service be ours yet the Dominion is his who bears the Sword and whose Friends must be ours or else we are not Chrict's nor our own We may keep our Consciences Tender but not so raw as to kick and wince at all which touches us or which we understand not Remember that of Lactantius Quae ubi aut qualis est Pietas nâ—mirum apud eos qui bella nesciunt qui concordiam cum omnibus servant qui omnes homines pro sratribus diligunt qui â—ohibere iram sciunt omnemque animi furorem tranquillâ moderatione lenire Such an Evangelium armatum as some warm Disputants would make our Religion favour would better become John Goodwin to publish who was better skill'd in the methods of embroiling Three Kingdoms than any True Sons of the Church of England whose Laws are not like Draco's the Athenian written in Blood Her Heart is not so petresied as to rejoyce in Evil she abhors all living Bonefires she prays for the Conversion of her's and God's Enemies and delights in their Reformation but not in their Ruine her Commands are like her Saviour's with the Sceptre and not with the Sword unless it be of the Spirit which she never suffers to make way to Mens Consciences by cutting through their Flesh Let my Soul never come into such Bloody Councils at these The Greek Church approves not to this day the putting Hereticks to Death and we have great Reason to Bless God and the King that our Writt de Haeretico comburendo is taken away by Act of Parliament and may all other Sanguinary Laws perish and be abolish'd as well as that made in this or any Christian State against Men upon the score of Christian Religion if the most notorious Offenders against it be punished with a civil Death here and an eternal hereafter 't is sufficient Defendenda est Religio non occidendo sed moriendo Aut hoc non est Evangelium aut nos non sumus evangelici fraterna necessitudine cohaeremus quam qui non agnoscit injustus est Christianity binds us to purchase Peace at Interest rather than keep up a Party against it for there is such variety of Education Interest and Custom in the World that he who resolves to yield to no Body can agree with no Body Christ comply'd with the Rites and Customs he found in the World and condeseended to the very Humours of Stubborn People to ingratiate himself and his Doctrine And Erasmus hated discord so much that he lov'd not any Truth that might occasion it Mihi sane adeo invisa est discordia ut veritas eâ—iam displiceat seditiosa Nor can any desire to keep the Wounds of the Church or Kingdom open but such as would he better pleas'd to suck the blood of both and peaceable Princes have a happy time of it to serve the Humours of such Men and receive such Encouragements as they daily give them There was to be no destructive Beast in all God's Holy Mountain the Beasts of prey came down from Mount Seir and not from Mount Sion If the Counsels of any of the Enemies of our Church be of Men or Devils it will come to nought but if it be of God we cannot overthrow if least happily we be sound Fighters against God and if ever we hope upon good Grounds to ride on and prosper it must be because of our Truth and Right â—ousness and Meekness not of Humour and Petulancy for this is a time of healing and not of troubling the Waters There is nothing wanting to make us live quietly one by another though of several Judgments whilst we agree in the Fundamentals of Religion and loyalty but the subduing of our own inordinate Affections Did we take up the Cross to lay it upon other Mens Shoulders or do we fellow Christ as the Jews did to Crucisie him This is to love Christ and the King as Men do one another till they be brought to the Tryal Goodness is the best Note of the True Church and I hope will prove the inseparable Character of Ours for I am sure none are so affable to their Brethren on Earth as they that have their Conversation in Heaven If we will suffer it our Religion is ready to tye the Gordian-knot of Kindness between us and all who deserve the Name of Christians it will breed an harmony in the Affections of all the King's Subjects who receive it it will sublimate and spiritualize their Humanity and draw it off from all the Dreggs of Malice and Uncharitableness and teaches us to love the King for his Goodness as well as others to fear him for his Resolution The Samaritans held it an Abomination to come near a Man of a different Religion or Perswasion from them but we have not so learned Christ may there never any sâ—â—iâ—e be heard amongst us but who shall strive first and most to serve God and the King Unless you loath your present Manna and long for your old AEgyptian Leeks and Garlicks you will not make others look like Devils that you may look the more like Saints but you will join with the Church and the meanest of her Children and say a hearty Amen to this Prayer Domine da pacem in diebus nostris and spend your time in Prayers to the God of Peace that you may prevail to stisle and put out those Dissentions which the Divel has kindled among us and in Tears if you cannot so shall ye be sound in Peace by the Prince of Peace at his coming without spot and blameless and our Hierusalem be built up as a City at Unity in it self Sir I have not martial'd my Thoughts into such a method as I should and would have done if my time and other Accomplishments had born any proportion to your Expectations and the duty of such an undertaking but I hope I have said enough to make it plain to all the True and Well-meaning Sons of the Church of England that what I have press'd you and them to do and resolve by God's Assistance to practise my self Is 1 st A Duty we owe to Almighty God by