Party hath gone for Holiness of Life Men have been busie in making new Creeds and have forgotten to practise the old one And since the Empire hath been divided into East and West Churches have been at defiance and as opposite to each other as those points are In short the once famous Greek Churches are now over-run with so squalid a Barbarism that little but the Name of Christianity is left amongst them And the Roman Church whose Faith was famous and spoken of through all the world is now as infamous for Usurpation Superstition and Cruelty and so deformed with Pagan Rites and mundane Policies that Christianity is the least part of her What shall we take to be the reason of this general Defection Was it only Novelty and not its intrinsick Goodness and Reasonableness that commended this Religion to the World that the longer it lasts the less it signifies Or are the Principles of Christianity effete like the Causes of the Gentile Oracles as Plutarch discourses that all the motives of Virtue and Holiness have now so little influence upon mens tempers and lives Or is it true that was said of old Religio peperit divitias filia devoravit matrem since Churches have been endowed men have espoused only the Fortune and not the Faith Or is the true reason that of old Christianity was deeply rooted in the Hearts of men and brought forth the fruits of good works in their Lives whereas now it is only a barren notion in mens Heads and is productive of nothing but leaves of Opinion and Profession Then it was the employment of mens hearts in meditation of their knees in devotion of their hands in distribution and beneficence now it is become the entertainment of mens ears in hearing novelty of their tongues and lips in censuring and disputing But whatever the causes have been such is the condition of Religion generally in the Greek and Latin Churches and I doubt if we come nearer home we shall not find things much better This Island of Britain had the glory not only to be the native Countrey of Constantine the first Christian Emperour but a far Greater that under Lucius it received the Christian Faith first of any great Kingdom in the world Britannorum loca Romanis inaccessa Christo verò subdita saith Tertullian The Cross made a more effectual as well as a more happy Conquest here than all the Roman Powers could do And this Northern Climate was not only thus early enlightned with the beams of the Sun of Righteousness but had life and warmth proportionably An evidence whereof we have in that we find British Bishops at the Council of Arles which was held before the Nicene And at the time of the Nicene Council Britian was counted one of the Six Dioceses of the Western Empire And for the Zeal of the British Christians the Martyrdom of St. Albane Amphilochius and others are great and glorious instances But to descend to lower times The Inhabitants of this Island have not been more famous for Martial Prowess against their enemies hospitality to strangers and good nature towards all mankind which three things have been and I hope are still their peculiar glories than for sincere piety and devotion Polydore Virgil an Italian and Erasmus a Dutchman both of the Roman Communion and competent Witnesses do affirm That there was more true Devotion and sincerity of Religion in this Church and Kingdom of England than in any one place of the world besides What was said of Sparta that ibi senes sunt maximè senes might be applyed to this purpose that here Christians were so the most heartily and truly of any people in the world The Universal Pastor as he would be called I mean the Bishop of Rome observed the Sheep of England to bear such good Fleeces and so patiently to submit to the Shearer that he kept a watchful eye over this Flock and his vigilancy was rewarded with the Golden Fleece He and his Emissaries found such large hearts and devout minds here that we are inabled to understand the reason of their great concern for our going astray since and their earnest and unwearied endeavours to reduce us back again to that fold Yet what by being oftner shorn than fed and then not with the best Pastures neither what by the ill examples of others but especially of their Guides and what by length of time corruption overspread this Church too But then as it happens in bodies of a strong and vivacious Constitution when they chance by ill Diet or other accident to be stuft with Crudities and bad humours they Critically evacuate them by meer strength of Nature So this Church gave certain proof that it had sana principia and a true sense of the reality of Christianity that one of the first in Christendom it returned to it self and a just temperament by a Reformation And the Reformation of this Church which the Romanists for their own ends so much detest and some others unreasonably slight was as much the Emulation of other Nations as Glorious in it self For 1. It was the most orderly and best becoming Christianity it was not brought in with Tumult and Sedition as most Changes are but by Laws and the Supream Magistrate There was no noise of Axes and Hammers in this Building but the several parts of this Fabrick fell in together with a kind of Harmony as the Jews say of the Temple of Salomon 2. It was the most moderate and temperate as being the result of Deliberation and Reason not of blind Passion or an humour of Innovation Our Reformers did not purge out the good because formerly it had been abused as the humour of some men is to do but vindicated what was useful from the abuse they neither countenanced what was evil by the good was to be found nor rejected the good for the casual adherence of evil They did not abolish a venerable Order or Office in the Church for the ill manners of some that had born it but took care to put better men in the rooms of such They were not of opinion that the Church could not arrive at primitive purity unless it was reduced to primitive poverty nor because they found some Ceremonies then used that were superstitious and dangerous and thought too many were but densome therefore concluded all decency in the service of God was Popish And in short they did not depart farther from the Church of Rome by Reformation than she had departed from the Truth and her self by degeneracy and corruption By all which they demonstrated that the change they made was not for the sake of humour and faction but necessity and publick good The Church of Rome reproaches us with the sinister ends of the Prince and several of those that sate at the helm of this great affair But who knows not that it is the usual method of Almighty God to bring about his own designs and accomplish the greatest benefits to
Christian Faith for the greatest difficulty Austin the Monk found here was to bring the Inhabitants from the observation of Easter and some other Rites according to the manner of the Jewish and Eastern Churches to that of the Roman and Western and the doing it as the Story tells us cost the lives of twelve hundred Monks who it seems stubbornly opposed his Innovation Which by the way is a good argument that this Church owes not its first Christianity to the Church of Rome or this Monastick Apostle as they would perswade us since it is plain by this passage that he made our Ancestors only Romanists but found them Christians before and perhaps of a better and more generous race of Religion than that he ingraffed upon the old stock But I will make no use of this for perhaps we may find the rise of this Judaism nearer hand if we observe that the great Patriarchs of the Non-conformity such as Cartwright Ainsworth H. Broughton and others were great Students of the Rabbinical Writings and the main of their Learning lay that way and as by this sort of Study which was rare in those dayes they got the reputation of great Rabbies so perhaps they might not only by this means be bewitched with the Jewish fancies themselves but propagate their unhappy Sentiments through their followers to this generation But howsoever it came to pass the matter of Fact will appear undeniably true That a vein of Judaism runs through the whole Body of the dissenters from the Church of England Of which I will give some Instances And the first shall be their grand Hypothesis That nothing is lawful in the service of God but what is expresly prescribed in Scripture This is the Characteristical Doctrine of that Party and in confidence of the truth of which they cry out of us for uncommanded Rites and humane Inventions and little less than Idolatry Now whosoever well considers this Tenet will find it so irrational in it self so servile and destructive of all Christian Liberty and making so ill reflections upon the Goodness of God as I shall have occasion to shew hereafter that it is not to be imagined how it should enter into the minds of men much less find such entertainment and so zealous patronage amongst so many honest and devout men were it not that they studied the Old Testament better than the New and graffed their Christianity upon the stock of Judaism And the case must be after this manner They considering and observing how punctually God prescribed some very little matters touching the Temple and National Worship of the Jews in the Law of Moses carry this notion along with them to the New Testament and thence infer That Christ Jesus must needs have also as punctually determined all the Rituals of the Christian Worship Otherwise he is not faithful in his house as Moses was in his for that Scripture is brought to prove it That all absolutely Necessaries are so determined by our Saviour we readily grant them and that all those Rites that are prescribed by him are necessary to be observed we will yield them but that nothing is lawful but what is to be found so prescribed we utterly deny and they will never be able to prove Nor indeed would they ever have been led by any principle of reason to think of or expect such a thing had it not been by the aforesaid prejudice But having gotten that notion into their heads they will fancy the New Testament to comply with it or writhe it to their sense though with never so much violence Of affinity with the former is another Notion of theirs That all Princes and Law-givers are bound to conform the Municipal Laws of their several Dominions to the Institutions of Moses and where this is not done sc where Princes make other Decisions of Cases or appoint other Punishments than that Law allows they are in danger to have their Constitutions declared null and themselves irreligious This is a mistake as wide as the former highly injurious to Soveraign Princes and dangerous to Kingdoms and States in a great measure disannulling the publick Laws and stripping the Governours of all proper Legislative power But that which I consider now in this mistake is not the consequence and Effects but the rise and Causes of it which seems to be no other than the fondness the Jews had to their Laws and which they express in their Writings as if those Laws God gave them by Moses were not only best for them but best in themselves also The foundation of which Error is both detected and confuted by this consideration That God was not only the God but the temporal Prince of the Jews in a peculiar manner so as he is not of any other people in the world he calls himself their King appoints his Lieutenants and Vicegerents divides his Subjects their Inheritance gives them Laws takes up a Residence amongst them appoints their way of Address to him for Judgement and resolution of weighty and extraordinary Cases and reserves many Cases to himself and sometimes inflicts Punishments by his own hand Any man that considers these things well will never go about to make those Laws oblige other Nations or require necessarily all Princes to conform their Policies to that of Judaea till he can perswade himself that every Nation hath the peculiar Priviledge of the Jews and its Government to be a Theocracy A third Instance shall be their notion of Excommunication which they hold must be denounced by a Synod or Presbytery and the Prince as well as the people must be subject to the sentence And this against all Rules of Government the Prerogatives of Princes and the Peace of Kingdoms But because it was thus amongst the Jews or at least some of the Writers of that Nation say so whether true or false is not well considered therefore this is the only Gospel way I must by no means omit their Superstition about the Lords Day which must be called a Sabbath too though such name is no where given it either in the New Testament or in any antient Writer that I know of but contrariwise alwayes opposed to it But that 's the least matter The Lords Day with these men must have all the nicety of observation that the Jewish Sabbath had and which is yet worse such observation thereof made one of the principal parts of Religion And because God appointed the Sabbath amongst the Jews to be a sign between him and them and to distinguish them from all other people therefore in the New Testament the superstitious observation of the Lords Day must be the principal Character of a godly man He that considers well this matter can find no original of it but perfect Judaism introduced into Christianity And methinks any unprejudiced man should be convinced of this by this one observation That this kind of observation of the Lords Day distinguishes this sort of English Protestants from all other Protestants
Livings like the Silver-smiths at Ephesus no wonder if Apostolical Doctrine and Government be cryed down and the Great Diana be cryed up The summ is this Some men were blindly led by their Education others by their Interest a third sort by their Reputation to make good what they had ingaged themselves and others in and these three things are able to form a great Party against the Church 4. The Fourth and Last Cause and I wish it be not the greatest of the Distractions and ill Estate of this Church is the want of true Christian Zeal and of a deep and serious sense of Piety in defect of which hath succeeded that wantonness curiosity novelty scrupulosity and contention we complain of What was it made the Primitive Church so unanimous that it was not crumbled into Parties nor mouldered away in Divisions nor quarrelled about Opinions nor separated one part from another upon occasion of little scruples How came it to pass as I observed in the Introduction to this Discourse that all good men were of one way and all evil men of another that those that travailed to the same City the heavenly Jerusalem kept the same Rode and parted not company It could not be that they should be without different apprehensions for mens Parts were no more alike nor their Educations more equal in those times than now There were then several Rites and Ceremonies that might have afforded matter of scruple if the Christians had been so disposed as well as now and I think both more in number and as lyable to exception as any thing now in use There was then bowing towards the East observation of Lent and other dayes distinction of Garments and innumerable other Observations in the early dayes of Tertullian and yet neither any Scripture brought to prove them nor any such proof thought necessary and yet they were observed without suspicion on one side or objection on the other Harum aliarum ejusmodi disciplinarum si legem expostules Scripturarum nullam invenies sed traditio praetenditur auctrix consuetudo conservatrix fides observatrix saith he in his Book De Corona militis St. Austin saith in his time the number and burden of Ceremonies was grown as great as under the Law of Moses and therefore wishes for a Reformation thereof in his Epistles to Januarius yet never thought these things a sufficient ground of Separation from the Church There was then some diversity of Expression in which the Governours and Pastors of several Churches delivered themselves yet did they not dispute themselves hereupon into Parties nor accuse one another of false Doctrine or either Side make the division of the Church the Evidence of its Orthodoxy or the Trophy of its Victory The true reason then of the different Event of the same Causes then and now seems to be this That in those dayes men were sincerely good and devout and set their hearts upon the main the huge Consequence and concern of which easily prevailed with those holy men to overlook their private satisfactions They were intent upon that wherein the Power of Godliness consisted and upon which the Salvation of Souls depended and so all that was secure they were not so superstitiously concerned for Rituals nor so unreasonably fond of Opinions as to play away the Peace of the Church and the Honour of Religion against trifles and meer tricks of wit and fancy They considered that they all had one God one Faith one Baptism one Lord Jesus Christ in which they all agreed and these great matters were able to unite them in lesser They Good men found enough to do to mortifie their Passions to their burdens of Affliction and Persecution to withstand the Temptations of the Devil and the contagion of evil Examples from the world and had not leisure for those little Disputes that now imploy the minds of men and vex the Church They spent their Heat and Zeal another way and so their Spirits were not easily inflammable with every petty Controversie But when men grow cold and indifferent about great things then they become servent about the lesser When they give over to mind a holy Life and heavenly Conversation then they grow great Disputers and mightily scrupulous about a Ceremony When they cease to study their own hearts then they become censorious of other men then they have both the leisure and the confidence to raise Sarmises and Jealousies and to find fault with their Superiours In short then and not till then do the little Appendages of Religion grow great and mighty matters in mens esteem when the Essentials the great and weighty matters are become little and inconsiderable And that this is the Case with us in this Nation is too evident to require further proof and too lamentable a subject for any good Christian to take pleasure in dilating upon I conclude therefore in this Point lyes a great part of the Unhappiness of this Church and Kingdom PART II. Wherein several serious Considerations are propounded tending to perswade all English Protestants to comply with and conform to the Religion and Government of this Church as it is established by Law CHAP. 1. A Reflection upon divers Wayes or Methods for the Prevention and Cure of Church-Divisions HAving in the former Part of this Discourse diligently enquired into and faithfully recited the principal Causes of the discontents with and secession from this Church It would now ill beseem Christian Charity to rest here for God knows neither the Evils nor the Causes afford any pleasant speculation It was a bad state of things at Rome which the Historian reports in these words Nec morbos nec remedia pati possumus That they were come to so ill a pass that they could neither indure their Distempers nor admit of the Remedies But I perswade my self though the condition of our affairs be bad enough yet that it is not so deplorable as to discourage all Endeavours of a cure And in this hope I take the courage to propound the following considerations wherein if I be deceived and miss of my aim I shall notwithstanding have that of Quintilian to comfort my self withal Prohabilis est cupiditas honestorum vel tutioris est audaciae tentare ea quibus est paratior venia It hath not been the single Unhappiness of this Church alone to be molested with Disputes loaden with Objections and dishonoured by Separation Nor can it be hoped that where the business is Religion and the concern Eternal Life that men should incuriously swallow every thing without moving any question or stirring any dispute And therefore all Churches must of necessity more or less have conflicted with the same difficulties we complain of And consequently the disease being so common it cannot be but that many and divers Remedies have been tryed and made use of And out of that store we will in this Chapter make election of such as seem best to fit the condition of the Patient and
Controversies saving that indeed they all agree in uno tertio the Supremacy of the Pope Therefore we say Medice cura teipsum Let us see all their own Difficulties decided and Disputes ended and then and to be sure not till then shall we be encouraged to make use of the Remedy 3. Thirdly They have another Remedy which I must needs confess hath done strange things and been very successful amongst themselves and I will transcribe the Receipt of it out of an ingenious Book called Europae speculum pag. 34. of the Edition at the Hague 1629. in these words The particular wayes they hold to ravish all affections and fit each humour are well nigh infinite there being not any thing either sacred or prophane no virtue nor vice almost nothing of how contrary condition soever which they make not in some sort to serve that turn that each phancy may be satisfied Whatever wealth can sway with the lovers or voluntary poverty with the despisers of the world what honour with the ambitious what obediene with the humble what great employment with stirring and active spirits what perpetual quiet with heavy and restive bodies what content the pleasant nature can take in pastimes and jollity what contrariwise the austere mind in discipline and rigour what love either chastity can raise in the pure or voluptuousness in the dissolute c. What change of vows with the rash or of estate with the unconstant what pardons with the faulty or supplyes with the defective what miracles with the credulous or visions with the phantastical what gorgeousness of shews with the vulgar and simple what multitude of Ceremonies with the superstitious what prayers with the devout And in summ whatsoever can prevail with any man either for himself to pursue or to love and reverence in another the same is found with them On the one side of the steet a Cloyster of Virgins on the other a Stye of Courtezans with publick toleration This day all in Masks with loosness and foolery to morrow all in Processions whipping themselves till the blood follow To conclude Never State never Government in the world so strangely compacted of infinite contrarieties all tending to the entertainment of the several humours of men Now no wonder that this course should keep them generally contented since it is in effect an universal Toleration a permitting men to be and do what they list so they cast but some garb of Religion or other over it In the United Provinces it is commonly said There is an allowance of all Opinions but the truth is no more but this That that State being made up of a combination of several Free Cities he that finds not his Opinion countenanced in one City so much as he desires may retire to another where it is publickly profest So in the Church of Rome he that likes not the debaucheries of the Court may enjoy severities in a Monastery he that is offended with one Order may make choice of another a man may be a good Catholick as they call it without being a good Christian he may perfectly accommodate his own humour if he have but the wit to make a right choice for himself he need not be at the Self-denyal to conform his humour to his Profession but may fit his inclination with a way of Religion if he have not prevented himself by an imprudent election He may almost do any thing provided as Erasmus observes He let but two things alone which are the only dangerous points that is to say that he meddle not with the Popes Crown nor the Monks Bellies But we of this Church are not of opinion that such a Tenet as this is is worth the prostitution of Religion and the debauching of mens minds and Consciences and have too much simplicity and sincerity of Devotion to make use of this Remedy to put an end to our Distractions 4. Fourthly But the great and infallible Remedy is yet to come and is that which others express by several words Axes Halters Racks Fire and Faggot but they by one word that signifies as much as all those viz. the Holy Inquisition This is that Engine that stretches all mens Intellectuals to the proportion of the Priests or cuts them off to the publick Standard this decides all Controversies silences all Disputes resolves all Scruples and makes perfect Peace where-ever it comes But Though we grant all this yet will not this down with Englishmen For besides that our Gospel is not like what they say of the Laws of Draco written in blood nor have we any Rubrick to kill men for quietness sake besides this I say the Genius of this Nation is both too couragious and too compassionate to be this way Governed No people in the world are less moved by the apprehension of death and danger than they and no people are more tender of the Lives of others than they For generally these two Virtues are inseparable and the most generous tempers are commonly the most merciful The English will be led like Men but not driven like Beasts They have great minds that will be moved by example and wrought upon by kindness and melted by good nature but will sooner suffer themselves to be broken in pieces than that cruelty shall force them or fear and danger prevail over them It is generally observable here that no Laws so soon grow in desuetude and are rendered unpracticable as those that are too severe It is counted a butcherly way of Chirurgerie with us for every slight wound to cut off the member And the exercise of so much Cruelty upon the account of Religion by those Blood-letters in Queen Maries time hath thanks be to God made that Profession detestable to this day and it looked so ill in the Romanists that we shall never be perswaded to practise it our selves Therefore none of the Romanists Expedients will work the Cure we desire in this Church Let us see then what other courses there are to be taken and there remain yet these three to be considered of 1. Universal Toleration 2. Comprehension 3. Instruction and Consideration 1. Universal Toleration This is highly commended by some as the most Christian Remedy to let all grow together till the harvest We are told That it was it made the Primitive Church so happy and we may observe that this the Christians pleaded for under persecuting Emperours affirming That it was every mans natural right to serve what God and use what Religion he thought good This the Great Constantine declared at his first entrance upon the Empire and they say that every Prince is bound to do so too Besides it is affirmed that this is the best way of propagating Truth and giving it Reputation and making its Triumphs conspicuous by setting it upon even ground and giving it no advantage in the encounter of Error And that the minds of men will be as open to truth as falshood when they are delivered from the prejudice That it is Power
with his Apostles that they might be throughly instructed and not differ in the delivery of his mind to the world and with what extraordinary ardour he prayed for them upon this very account John 17. 11. And the Apostles themselves answered their Masters care with their own diligence and circumspection He that observes how industrious they were to resist all beginnings of Schism in every Church to heal all breaches to take away all occasions of division to unite all hearts and reconcile all minds How they taught people to detest this distemper as the bane of Christianity charging them to use the greatest caution against it to mark and avoid all those men that inclined that way as persons of a contagious breath and infectious society What odious names they give it as Carnality the work of the flesh and of the Devil He I say that observes all this cannot but be apprehensive of the greatness of this sin But he that shall trace the sense of the Church a little farther will find the Primitive Christians hating it in such detestation that they thought it equal to the most notorious sins Idolatry Murder and Sacriledge St. Cyprian amongst the rest affirms it to be of so horrible a guilt that Martyrdom was not a sufficient expiation of it that to dye for Christ the Head would not wash out the stain of having divided the Church his Body And all this was no more than the case deserved for had the Christian Church been broken into Factions and Parties in those times as it hath been since it is not easie to imagine how it could have resisted the whole World that was united against it Or if yet it could have subsisted in its several divided Parties the mischief would have been little less for then those of after-times would have had the several Opinions and distinct and peculiar Sentiments of those divided Parties delivered down to them with equal heat and earnestness so that it would have proved impossible to have distinguisht the Truth of God from the Opinions of men and the common Faith from the Shiboleth and cognizances of the several Sects and Parties And for this cause it pleased God that his Church should rather in those early dayes be harassed with persecutions which made it unite it self the closer and paring off all superfluities keep to the necessary and essential Doctrines delivered to it than to be softened and made wanton by ease and so to corrupt the Simplicity of the Gospel Nor is the importance of Unity much less in these latter dayes of Christianity forasmuch as all Divisions in all times destroy that beauty and loveliness which would otherwise attract all mens admiration and affection Beauty properly is nothing but order and harmony of parts the excellency of any Fabrick consists not so much in the quality of the materials as in the curious method they are digested into and the good respect and correspondence one part hath with another It is not the sublimity of Christian Doctrine nor the gloriousness of the Hopes it propounds that will so recommend it to the opinion and esteem of Beholders as when it shall be said Ecce ut Christiani amant when they shall observe the love concord and unanimity amongst the professors of it And the want of this hardens the hearts of Jews and Turks and Pagans more against it than all the reasons and proofs we can give for it will soften them and instead of opening their ears and hearts to entertain it opens their mouths in contempt and blasphemy against it But besides the disadvantage Christianity is exposed to by its Divisions in respect of those that are without it suffers unspeakably within its own Territories For who will be perswaded patiently to hear attentively to consider or impartially to judge of the discourses of him against whom he hath an animosity Every thing the truer it is the more it is for its advantage to be calmly considered and by how much of the more importance it is by so much is he that would have his proposition successful bound in wisdome to take care that the minds of men be not by passion and prejudice indisposed to receive it Livy observes that prodigious Stories Lyes and Fables find best entertainment in troublesome times quia tutius finguntur facilius creduntur men are not then at leisure to consider strictly what is true and false and so truth loses its advantage-ground and error succeeds in it Our Saviour therefore chose to come into the world in a time of the most profound peace not only because such a season became the Prince of Peace but especially for this advantage of his Doctrine we are speaking of namely that he might find men in calm thoughts and at leisure to consider the reasonableness of his propositions For who can maturely weigh things when all is in hurry and tumult Who can discern exactly the difference of things when all is in motion Especially who is there that is willing either to do good to or to receive good from him against whom he hath an exulcerate mind In short then and to speak summarily From Schisms and Divisions amongst Christians comes that prejudice upon the minds of people that discourages the indeavours and frustrates the labours of the Ministers of Religion From thence come all the Suspicions Jealousies Whisperings Backbitings and all other instances of Uncharitableness These hinder the fervour of mens Prayers and abate the edge of their Devotions These evaporate the true Spirit and Life of Religion in impertinent Disputes so that men lose the substance whilest they contend for the shadow By these the sinews of all Society are dissolved for when the Church is disturbed it seldome rests here but the State is concerned too and Schism in the former proves Sedition in the latter And this consideration is able to provoke the Magistrate to keep a jealous eye upon the Church and Religion All these things are so true in themselves and withal so generally acknowledged by all Parties that a man might justly wonder how any Christian should be guilty of Schism which all so much abominate Were it not that we may observe too that some have found pleasure to get that Child they would by no means have laid at their own door Schism is so mishapen as well as ill-begotten a Brat that no body is willing to father it It was the early proof Solomon gave of his wisdom in discovering the true Mother of the living Child to which both the Litigants laid equal claim It is a matter of no less importance and some think of equal difficulty to make discovery who the distractions of the Church are justly to be imputed to But as that Wise Prince discerned the true Mother by the tenderness of her bowels towards the Infant so we perhaps may discover the true Children of the Church by their respect and tenderness and consequently the Schismaticks by their irreverence and unnaturalness towards
observable that they had no such limits set them nor no such punctual directions given them by Divine Revelation but were wholly Governed by Prudence and the general reasons of Religion insomuch that neither the very building of Synagogues nor any part of the Worship there performed had any Divine Law concerning it in all the Old Testament nor indeed was it needful there should here being nothing Symbolical as in the former but natural Religion which the notions they had of God and the common sense of Mankind was sufficient to guide them in Or at least if those common Rules should fall short in any respect yet by any error of that kind they could not deprive themselves of any farther advantage or discovery God intended them as in the Temple worship they might Now thus it is in the Gospel The Christian Religion being a plain easie intelligible and rational way of serving God it was not necessary that our Saviour or his Apostles should curiously order or minutely describe what Rites and Circumstances should be used in it but might safely enough leave those to prudence and expediency the general reason of so plain and natural a Religion being sufficient to secure the Church against any capital mistake And therefore he that reads the Gospel without coloured Spectacles will find that our Saviour made it his business to expound the Law to vindicate it from the corrupt glosses of the Jews to prescribe men the Rules of true Holiness and Righteousness to raise them to a noble and generous pitch and set them an excellent Copy of the Divine Life and to encourage their endeavours after it by revealing and demonstrating the Judgement to come and the rewards in another world and never went about the composure of Laws either of Civil or Ecclesiastical Policy And for his Apostles they preached the Gospel of the Kingdom and gave certain directions suited to the conditions of the times and places and people respectively but never composed a standing Ritual for all after-times which will be put beyond all dispute by this one Observation That several things instituted by the Apostles in the Primitive Churches and given in command in their Sacred Writings their Epistles were intendded and so construed to be obliging only so long as circumstances should stand as then they did and no longer Of this nature were the Feasts of Love the Holy Kiss the Order of Deaconesses which things with several other are no where that I know of now observed nor is any man scrupled about the abrogation of them Which is a plain evidence that the generality of Christians where passion and prejudice do not mis-guide them acknowledge it to have been no design of the Apostles to have strictly obliged men to a certain form of Rituals But besides all this the Religion God instituted amongst the Jews was only fitted to that people and appropriate to that place and Countrey and intended to oblige no body else It was contrived on purpose to distinguish them from all other people in the world and therefore is called by the Apostle the middle wall of partition Eph. 2. 14. And to the end that such separation and distance might last the boundaries of their Rituals must be immoveable But the Christian Religion was to throw down all Inclosures to unite all the world under one Head and make of all Nations one people and therefore must be left with that freedome as to Circumstantials as that all Nations notwithstanding their several Limits divers Customs and Forms of Government might be capable of receiving it For as our Saviour tells us his Kingdom was not of this world so he never intended that his Religion should alter the Bounds or change the Customes or disturb the Governments of people but only principle the hearts of men with true holiness and goodness and so leave them to their distinct Policies And indeed it was one of the singular advantages of the Christian Religion and that which made it fit to be the Catholick Religion that is of all times Countreys and people That the external Policy of it being undetermined it reconciled it self to the condition and state of things where it came as well as recommended it self to the minds of men by its reasonableness and goodness Hereto agrees the known saying of Optatus Millevitanus Respublica non est in Ecclesia sed Ecclesia est in Republica That the Church being contained in the Civil Society conforms it self as to Externals to that which contains it Upon all which it is exceedingly evident That it is very unreasonable to expect that every Ceremony made use of by Christians should be found prescribed in the Scripture or proved thence and therefore those that expect to find such definitions in the New Testament do as they do too often in other cases as I have noted heretofore bring an Old Testament Spirit to the writings of the New and Jewish prejudices to the Christian Doctrine And those that can be so fond as to perswade themselves they can find such prescriptions there it is hard to say whether humour or weakness doth more betray it self in such pretence for they catch hold of such weak twigs as no body would do but in desperation of other help and they plead such obscure passages as it is a wonder if prejudice it self can be contented with them And in short they can as little agree amongst themselves either in the proofs or the things to be proved as they do with us 4. If then there must be some determination of Circumstance or no Society and God hath made no such determination what remains but that men must And then who fitter than our Governours who best understand the Civil Policy and what will suit therewith and with the customs and inclinations of the people under their Charge And when such determination is made what should hinder us from obedience and conformity thereto especially when the particulars so determined as they are not enjoyned by Scripture so are not contrary to it or forbidden by it I conclude therefore Whosoever shall go about to disturb a setled Order concluded on by good 〈◊〉 men reverenced and admired by others incorporated into the Laws of the Land rivetted by Custome and that hath now given proof of it self by above an hundred years experience for the sake of new and unpracticable Notions shall little consult the real advantage of the present Generation and less their own reputation for discretion with Posterity This occasion brings to my mind the famous Story of Pacuvius Calavius of Capua The people were all in a rage against their Senate and would needs in a hurry have them all deposed and have used other outrages to their persons This wise Plebeian shuts up the Senators all together and puts a Guard upon them and then coming to the people tells them all was in their power now advises them to determine their several faces according to their demerits one by one This they
The Prince or the State could enact nothing almost but the Kirk-men found themselves grieved and Religion concerned and Excommunication is denounced The Kirk on the other side make their Decrees and the Civil Power declares them null and grants Prohibitions c. He that will satisfie himself of the truth of these things and thereby convince himself of the mischief of the Principle we are speaking of let him read the Judicious History of the Church of Scotland written by the Most Reverend Arch-Bishop Spot swood And he shall find that this unhappy notion raised and maintained for many years a bellum limitaneum and that it is like the Marches or bateable ground betwixt two bordering Potentates a Scene of contention and a field of blood Whereas did we agree of certain Limits and make the Magistrates Power and Province extend to all that which God hath not taken in by express Law both Gods Glory and the Magistrates Authority would be kept entire and there would be neither cause nor room for Controversie 2. This opinion at once condemns all the States and Kingdoms in the whole world of Impiety and Irreligion forasmuch as there neither is nor ever hath been any such constitution as hath not had some Laws of Religion that could not be deduced particularly from the Scriptures And so he that is of this perswasion and will be true to it is bound in Conscience to be a Rebel where-ever he lives 3. It is an unreasonable Fear a meer Melancholy Jealousie and express Superstition instead of Religion to suspect that either the Magistrate can offend in making or the people in obeying such Laws as though they are not expresly warranted yet are no where forbidden by the Scripture For it is a supposition that a man may be a Sinner when yet he breaks no Law contrary to the express words of St. John 1 Ep. 3. 4. who defineth Sin to be a transgression of a Law And as is the usual Genius of all Superstition it mis-represents God as cruel and tyrannical that can condemn men ex post sacto for doing of that against which there was no Law in being But 4. Which is most observable this Doctrine instead of asserting Christian Liberty in truth subverts it and layes far more severe bonds upon the Consciences of men than the very Law of Moses did That was a yoke say the Apostles Acts 15. 10. which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear upon this account especially because it injoyned a great number of little Observances which by their multitude were hard to be remembred by their nicety difficult to be observed and by their meer positive nature and having no essential goodness in themselves had less power upon the Consciences of men to awaken their care and diligence about them It is manifest that Law contained no precept that was in it self impossible to be performed but because it is hard for the mind of man to attend to many things at once especially if also the things in which his care and obedience is required be such as are not enacted in his Conscience and when he can see no other reason of or advantage by his obedience but meerly his obedience therefore was that Law called impossible Now if a man were bound by the Gospel to avoid all those particulars that were commanded by Moses it is plain the servitude and the difficulty would be the same but if not only so but he be also bound to avoid all that which the Scripture is silent in his obligation is infinite and his servitude intolerable For Positives are determinate and definite and so fall more easily within our care and attention but Negatives are infinite and therefore such a yoke must be properly impossible These mistakes therefore being removed The true Notion of Christian Liberty will best be understood if we consider That in the times of the Old Testament the visible Church of God was inclosed within a narrow pale and none could be members of it without submission to Circumscision and the other Rites of Judaism Whence it came to pass that at the first publication of the Gospel it was a riddle and an astonishment to the very Apostles themselves that the Gentiles were to be taken into it And when the effecting this was taken in hand Acts 15. 1. the Jewish Christians stood upon their priviledge and would not admit the Gentile Converts into Society nor become of one body with them unless they would be circumcised and keep the Law Hereupon a Council is called and there the Apostles find out a temper and middle way for both parts to meet in for the present which was that the Gentile Converts should submit to the terms of Proselytism at large or the precepts given to the Sons of Noah as some understand the passage or as is indubitable that they should comply with the Jews in these three things of abstaining from fornication from things strangled and from blood And on the other side the Jewish Converts should abate of their rigor and not require of the Gentiles the strict terms of compleat Judaism At which decision the Gentile Christians were transported with Joy rejoyced at the consolation v. 31. For as I said till then none could be of the same body with the Jews in respect of visible Church Society without Circumcision and universal submission to the Law of Moses This therefore was an expedient for the present till the Jews should be by degrees better instructed in the liberty of that Christian Religion they had lately received But when the Gospel was fully published then the aforesaid Inclosure is laid open and all Nations invited into the Society of the Church upon equal terms neither party being bound to those nice Laws of Moses nor any other but those plain and reasonable ones contained in the Gospel and such other not contradictory to them as publick Wisdom Peace and Charity should dictate and recommend And to this purpose is the observation of Eusebius in his Praepaeratio Evangelica That Christianity is nothing else but the old Patriarchal Religion revived a restitution of that Primitive simplicity and liberty that was before the Law of Moses and that now there lyes no more bonds upon the Consciences of Christians than did upon the Antient Patriarchs saving those improvements our Saviour hath made upon the Law of Nature and those few positive Institutions of his expresly set down in the Gospel And that men obeying these are at liberty to conform to whatsoever common Reason and equity or publick Authority shall impose And this discourse of Eusebius is in effect the same with that of the Apostle Rom. 4. and Gal. 3. especially v. 19. where he puts this question Wherefore then served the Law he answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was added c. it was a kind of interim or like a parenthesis which when it shall be left out the former and latter parts joyn together again without any interruption
and is far from the humour of pretending Conscience to advance his Gain or excuse his Purse If such a man cannot conform to the Laws yet he can pay the penalty if he cannot go to Church he can pay his Tythes otherwise it is his Money he is tender of and not his Conscience his God is his Gain and his Profit his Conscience He that comes up to these five points of honesty may be heard in his plea of Tenderness and no man else And now I will in the last place shew what consideration is to be had of such a case and that in these three particulars 1. Every private Christian is bound in charity and compassion towards such a man to deny himself of some part of his liberty to please and to gain him That is in those things that are the matter of no Law but left free and undeterminate there the rule of the Apostle takes place Rom. 15. 1 2. We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves And let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification I say in such things as are not the matter of any Law for I may not do evil that good may come of it I must not break either the Laws of God or man out of an humour of complaisance to my Brother for this were as we say to rob Peter to pay Paul or to commit Theft or Sacriledge that I may give Alms. But in such things as both the Laws of God and man have left me at liberty and at my own dispose I may then justly and ought in charity to consider his weakness rather than use my own strength and ought not to walk over Rocks and Precipices where I know the infirmity of others is such that they cannot follow me For though my own strength would bear me up yet it were very charitable to descend from that height which I know others cannot climb up to without giddiness To do all that I may do without danger to my self and not at all to regard what othes can comply with or to use my own liberty to the offence of others is to be unchristian and uncharitable It is to surfeit of my own abundance when my Brother is in want And in this sense only are we to understand all these discourses of the Apostle about Scandal and Offence In those times the Magistrate being Pagan took no care of the Church nor had passed any Laws concerning the manage of the Christian Religion therefore whatsoever God had left free and undetermined was so still so that the Christians had a great deal of scope and room for mutual condescension and accordingly the Apostle exhorts them that in all that materia libera they should by love serve one another And with great equity for he that will provoke his Brother to sin by doing that which he himself can omit without sin is guilty of sin in so doing But the case is quite otherwise when there is a Law in being for if my Brother will be offended unless I break a Law to comply with him in that case Charity begins at home as we say I must look to my self first and if he take offence he doth take it where it is not given for I do but my duty And as I may and must give Alms of what is my own and what I can spare from my own occasions but am neither bound to deprive my self of necessaries that I may serve any mans needs nor much less to rob another of his right that I may furnish him that wants so the same Charity requires that in all those cases where no Law of God or man hath restrained my liberty I there consider the infirmity of a another rather than the pleasing of my self And that this is it which St. Paul meant in all those passages appears by consideration of the instance he gives in himself and wherewith he concludes the argument 1 Cor. 8. 13. Wherefore if meat make my Brother to offend I will eat no flesh while the world stands The eating of flesh was under no Law and consequently he should not offend if he forbore it therefore he resolves that he would abridge himself of his own liberty rather than offend another 2. It becomes the wisdom and compassion of a Christian Magistrate so far to consider the satisfaction of peoples Minds as well as the peace and safety of his Dominions as not to make those things the matter of his Laws which he foresees mens weakness will make them boggle at unless there be weighty reasons on the other hand to counterballance that consideration Such as that the things which some scruple are nevertheless necessary to Government or grateful to a greater or more considerable part of his Subjects If without these considerations he shall however constitute such Laws I will not say such Laws are therefore null for the weakness of people doth not take away his power but I will say they are unkind and ungracious But those considerations being supposed that is if such Constitutions as are apt to be scrupled by some be yet either necessary to Government or very grateful to the more considerable part of his Subjects he hath then no obligation upon him to consider the offence of a few but the good and safety of the whole Yet when those interests are secured there is great scope for his compassion and consequently it is the duty of a good Magistrate as of a good Shepherd to drive as the Cattle can go 3. If it shall be found necessary upon the considerations before intimated or any the like to make such things matter of Law that were before indifferent in themselves and which being so made are likely to be scrupled by those who ought to obey It becomes a Christian Magistrate who considers he governs Men and not Beasts to afford means of instruction to such weak and scrupulous persons and competent time for those instructions to take place and in the mean time to suspend rigorous executions For it is not in mens power to believe what they list much less what others would have them and it hath alwayes been found that force without instruction hath been prevalent only upon the worst of men and set the more conscientious farther off by prejudice But after such instruction afforded and time allowed if then such persons be not rightly informed and satisfied yet the Magistrate is unblameable for he commands but what is reasonable in it self and he hath done what lay in him that mens Judgements might be convinced and Conscience quieted It is very observable that in the Council held by the Apostles at Jerusalem Acts 15. of which I have sometimes made mention whilst there was hopes of gaining the Jews to Christianity and until they had time to be sufficiently instructed in it if they would for so long time the Apostles used them with great tenderness and as it appears made