distinct Answer to Dr. Stilling fleets most Rational and Elaborate Irenicum than any yet extant And the naming of this last Book will be enough to manifest that an owning of the Jus Divinum of Episcopacy is not necessary to Conformity Some who insist very much on this Jus Divinum run their Notion a great deal too far and their keeping such a stir as they do about Succession whereas I cannot find that any of the first Fathers did insist on any other Succession than a Succession in Faith will suggest to some men unrecoverable doubts concerning all our Ministry and the validity of all our Administrations There has been a great dispute concerning the possibility of personal assurance of Salvation This Doctrine of Succession will go a great way to determine the Question in the Negative And indeed it offers too great occasion if we allow the Notion to question the validity of most Ministrations in the world For supposing that some were anciently made Bishops by Presbyters as the most learned Arch-Bishop Vsher durst have undertook to have proved and for a belief of which we have a great deal of ground from what St. Hierom saith of the Bishops at Alexandria For these not receiving their power in a Regular way viz. not from those who had Authority and Commission to Communicate and give it all the Ordinations they did afterwards Celebrate will prove null according to this Principle and of how vast and wide an extent this might be or how long a time this spurious Communication of Orders did continue is too difficult a point for the most curious and exact Critick to resolve Nay for ought any one can tell some of the Ordinations which now go for currant might appear if they could be run up to those Ages to derive from some of those impotent and unauthorized Bishops 'T is a very hard task for people to undertake to prove to themselves the Administrations they partake of are valid by proving the valid Ordination of him who Ministers For it is not enough that one who is called a Bishop and was consecrated according to the Rules of a particular Church did ordain him who officiates but you must prove that that Bishop's Ordainers and so upwards till you come to them who were ordained by the Apostles had every one of them a True Regular Episcopal Ordination And it will be a very unsafe tho it may appear to be an easie way to perswade people to be satisfied with a belief that the Providence of God is obliged to maintain this Succession unblemisht in the world For he may do that and yet the greatest part of those Ordinations which are called Episcopal be notwithstanding Invalid because of some Mixture either further distant or nearer at hand But tho this Notion obtains very much in these days our great Church-men and those who were high enough for Episcopacy formerly had other thoughts and abhorred to strain their Opinions to countenance such Uncharitableness as this Notion doth include For when some were to be ordained Bishops for Scotland An. Dom. 1609. Dr. Andrews then Bishop of Ely proposed a Question concerning the Consecration of those Bishops Whether they must not first be Ordained Presbyters because they had not received Ordination from a Bishop But Dr. Bancroft Arch-Bishop of Canterbury maintain'd there was no need of it for the Ordination given by Presbyters when Bishops could not be had must be owned lawful And then the Bishop of Ely did acquiesce the other Bishops being of that Judgment That which I design to take notice of as the matter in dispute between us and the Dissenters is the Ceremonies we use and they do scruple And I must needs say I apprehend it a very great unhappiness that such Divisions should be amongst us and continue so long whilst occasioned by such things as are but trifling and frivolous when compared with the great things in which we agree Tho I plead for Moderation towards those who cannot come up to us in these things and that busie intemperate People who lye under no obligation to interpose and make themselves Acceslary to the causing of Fines and Mulcts or heavier Censures to be inflicted on their sober honest pious but scrupupulous Neighbours may not have any incouragement in their doing thus but may meet with those Checks and Reprimands as shall prove effectual to restrain them from that course yet I do heartily wish all could be fairly satisfied concerning the lawfulness of the several things which are now appointed But I think much may be said by Them who are satisfied concerning these things to shew the great reasonableness of compassion and tenderness towards them who do at present dissent Besides I perceive that by the serious and diligent use of those methods which are universally acknowledged most agreeable with a Christian Church and Ministry many of those for whom I plead may be prevailed with to a considerable Compliance in a little time For I have known several who have been wholly proselyted to our Church by the practical Sermons exemplary Lives and the rational serious Discourses of some of our Clergy and by the calm and meek Endeavours they have used to satisfie their Judgments and remove their Scruples And I do not doubt but if these and the like courses were every where duly observed and incouraged it would evidently appear there is not the thousandth part of that need to use more severe Methods which some apprehend there is But it is a great unhappiness we have so many who pretend to the Church of England who are her greatest disgrace and who will not allow we make any Proselytes to the Church unless we do prevail with them to sit ordinarily ten times as long in a Tavern or Alehouse as the longest Service appointed for any day in the year and a Sermon of near an hour long at the end of it will oblige them to stay at Church It would undoubtedly be a great honour to our Church if all who pretend to her would lay out the chief of their zeal for Real Religion and then labour to win on and proselyte those who do dissent in these lesser things by condescending and yielding what they may and treating them with meekness and love The very appearances of a calm temper have a Charm in them but the Effects of them in concurrence with other prudent Methods are most irresistible In sum it is better to be over-run and ruined in the ways of meekness than to conquer all the world by cruelty In the one we bear the Cross and suffer for Righteousness sake in the other we Triumph in the Garments of Antichrist died red with the blood of those who tho in Errors yet may be good Men in the main for ought we know Thus speaks the learned Dr. Burnet who in all his Writings discovers an eminently primitive Christian healing Spirit I might mention many things now I am taking notice of
that many others are sensible what kind of thoughts some pretenders to our Church have of these things And this from the Reasons some active men gave why they would not yield to any alteration when that admirable Project of uniting us was on foot and was managed by those eminent and glorious Members of this Church Lord Keeper Bridgeman Sir Matthew Hale and Dr. Wilkins afterwards Bishop of Chester One reason why some zealous Clergymen would not yield was because many such Concessions might also shake those of our own Communion and tempt them to forsake us and go over to the Church of Rome pretending that we changed so often that they were thereby inclined to be of a Church that was constant and true to her self I am for my own part well enough satisfied of the lawfulness of the several things required but I see not any reason why I should be angry with others because the same Arguments which do Convince me have not the same influence on them There are several Arguments made use of to commend Conformity in these things and to prove the lawfulness of them as now in use but they have not all that force and power on me that some of them have And it may be those Arguments which sway most with me are not so prevalent with others as some of the rest which I cannot discern to be so concluding Now as it would be very absurd and ridiculous if I and another who are full Conformists should quarrel because we are not equally affected with the same Arguments so it would be very unreasonable according to that measure of light I enjoy if I should be testy with and fierce against another because he is not convinced in this unnecessary point by any of the Arguments I can alledge for it The Church has said a great deal to signifie her own sense of these things and to acquaint the world how innocent her design is in the use of them but seeing this declaration has not been of force to open some mens eyes or to remove their scruples 't is certain the removing some of the things themselves which are most insisted on and scrupled by Dissenters would more effectually convince them if Authority should see fit to try that Expedient how Indifferent she doth esteem them This brings to my Remembrance that Apologue Beza made use of after Grindal had acquainted him with the import of the Rubrick which was designed to prevent those ill Consequences Beza did suspect The Apologue was very much to this purpose A certain Nobleman having finished his House did suffer a very great stone he had no occasion for to lie before the house at this stone People did very often stumble when they walked that way in the dark which occasioned some Complaints the Nobleman would not suffer it to be taken away but ordered a Lanthorn should be hung over it This not effectually securing People from the inconveniences which happened by its lying there the Nobleman was at last intreated to remove both the stone and the Lanthorn by doing of which he would both ease himself of much Trouble and do the People good Service Having said thus much in general by way of Plea for Moderation towards some who do dissent from the Church of England I will add something more particularly being as it were loudly and earnestly called to it both by the Dorcetshires Grand Jury's presenting at the last Assizes holden at Sherburne my Sermon against Persecution and by the noise and stir some who would be thought Great Men do make about that Sermon in which I have said but little in Comparison of what may truly be said for some Dissenters For there I have only accidentally faln on that point and have engaged no further than to warn some hasty and inconsiderate people that they do not rashly and furiously engage in Prosecuting their Quiet Religious Honest and Peaceable Neighbours lest by ruining them on the account of some Differences they do not rightly understand they should at last be found guilty of such a Sin as cannot be expiated by the little sleight and frivolous pretences they are at present inclined to urge for their own Vindication What I will further say in this matter I intend to bring under these heads 1st I will say something of the matter in dispute between us and the Dissenters 2ly I will give both a general and particular account of the people I plead for 3ly I will very briefly answer those Objections I understand are ordinarily in these parts raised against my Sermon And here I shall have occasion to shew that the exercise of that Moderation I plead for will very well comport with True Conformity 1st I will say something of the matter in dispute betwixt us and the Dissenters I do not doubt but there are some who do except against the Form of our Church Government pleading a Jus Divinum for some other But I do not intend to meddle much in this Controversie for I never yet found any Argument pleaded by the several Pretenders that way that could fully satisfie and convince me of the Jus Divinum of any one particular Form of Church Government Very Learned and Pious men do disagree in this point yea they apply some of the best Arguments they can joyntly agree in for the evidencing of what they assert with great strength to their own different ways Nay the Learned'st who have appeared for the Jus Divinum of Episcopacy have in their agreeing on this Notion suspected each others Arguments and have therefore found out different Hypotheses on which they would superstruct this common Notion and prove it undeniably to the world And indeed the ways they have taken to clear and confirm this Notion are some of them directly destructive of others Saint Hierom's Account of Original of Episcopacy does in the Judgment of very learned men carry a great deal of probability with it And the Learned Dr. Hammond has scarce given a full absolute and satisfactory Answer to all that Blondel offers in vindication of that Notion No nor does Mr. Maurice's reflecting on some litte instance in St Hierom to invalidate his Notion render it so ridiculous and uncooth as he seems to fancy But allowing Dr Hammonds notion it quite throws the Priesthood out of doors and makes the middle Order a meer Humane Invention and so degrades the Priests more than those did who occasioned St Hierom's advancing them as some think too high and making them to differ very little from Bishops The truly eminent Dr. Burnet who is equally famous for his Universal Learning as for his excellent and extraordinary Historick Talent and who above most Writers is solid and victorious in his Reasonings does in my apprehension offer the most plausible account for the Jus Divinum of Episcopacy But I think I shall scarce ever be made an absolute Proselyte to that Doctrine till I see a more clear full and
A Plea for Moderation TOWARDS DISSENTERS Occasioned by The Grand-Juries Presenting the SERMON AGAINST PERSECUTION at the last Assizes holden at Sherburn in Dorset-shire To which is Added An Answer to the Objections commonly made against that SERMON By SAMVEL BOLDE Author of the SERMON against PERSECUTION If a Man walking in the Spirit and Falshood do lie saying I will Prophesie unto thee of Wine and of Strong Drink he shall even be the Prophet of this People Mic. 2. 11. They build up Zion with Blood and Jerusalem with Iniquity Mic. 3. 10. Qui pacem concordiam in Ecclesia vult esse oportet eum rerum necessariarum confessione contentum esse Jac. Acont Strat. l. 7. LONDON Printed for R. Janeway in Queens-Head-Alley in Pater-Noster-Row 1682. A Plea for Moderation TOWARDS DISSENTERS c. AMongst the many Stratagems Satan has invented and made use of to hinder the progress of True Christianity his engaging some Pretenders to it to appear extreamly concern'd and zealous about Vnnecessary Rites and Ceremonies has not been the least fatal For by advancing this Point he hath induced many carnal vicious and sensual men to embrace this Profession with as it is very probable a particular design to supplant its Power It is undeniably evident that the Primitive strict Discipline of the Church with relation to Manners did decay answerably to the proportion of warmth and zeal men were allowed to lay out about little Indifferences And when the Church was so far corrupted as to busie her self mainly with making and executing such Decrees and Orders as did only relate to some external and unnecessary Circumstances she did apparently decline the vigorous prosecuting those things in which Religion doth indeed consist And I am perswaded one of the Principal things which hath hindred good men from an universal concurrence in observing the same Orders about Indifferent things is their observing that by this means that strictness of practice and holiness of conversation which should most of all be minded was in a great measure neglected and almost decry'd as a needless singularity and preciseness It is certain this did open a very wide door for those to enter into the Communion of the Church and prevailed very much for the continuing of them in that Communion and for the having of them incouraged and carest whose vicious courses made Christianity evil spoken of by Strangers and who according to the Ancient Rules and Canons of the Church should have had the Censures of the Church inflicted on them to the casting them out of her Communion not any more to be admitted without giving extraordinary evidences and demonstration of their being brought to better minds And this sort of People having thus insinuated themselves into the Church did soon obtain so great an interest as to alter the very Design Intention and Vse of those Instances which were appointed by Christ Himself They procured such Restrictions to be laid on Peoples communicating in Divine Ordinances that whereas before none were to communicate but such as had in the course of their lives given good evidence that they feared God and worked Righteousness now none must communicate but only those who would observe such Outward Orders Humane Constitutions and Vnnecessary Rites And whereas anciently the Censures of the Church especially Excommunication was not inflicted on any unless they were stubborn opposers of the Christian Faith or were guilty of some great Immorality in their Practice they had now brought the Christian Religion to consist mainly in two Points viz. Dignity and Outward Rites and consequently the Censures of the Church were inflicted principally for peoples not being implicitely and blindly obedient There was now nothing known to be disorderly walking but not observing appointed Rites nor no Disobedience but when people would not own their Authority in every thing they injoyn'd And then men might be as vicious as they pleas'd swear and be drunk and commit all manner of lewdness and yet be admirable Zealous Christians because they were for the Church But if a man were ever so pious strict chast and every way truly Religious yet if he would not pay them every Groat they did unjustly demand or would not observe every Ceremony they did injoyn they presently summon'd him and if he would not then yield a blind obedience to their Order they forthwith gave him to the Devil Men tho extreamly vicious yet having not worn away all sense of Religion are willing to strike in with that way which has most publick countenance especially if they perceive that some Outward Formalities are by that part most Rigidly insisted on and that by shewing a great zeal for these things they may both satisfie for their other Immoralities and be reputed according to common Vogue Religious to a High Degree And no wonder then if such as these do in any Age give out themselves for the only Sons of the Church when they find the observation of these outward Ceremonies is very consistent with the Lusts and Vices they are most fond of and that much profit will accrue by prosecuting others who are not satisfied in these things and whose exemplary lives are a reproach and shame to them Men being very loath to put themselves to the trouble of a Holy life are very ready to embrace any thing which may but dispence with that and if but listing themselves under such a Party may but shelter them under a disguise of Religion none more ready than such to be known by distinguishing Names none more zealous in the defence of every Tittle and Punctilio that lies most remote from those essential Duties wherein the Kingdom of God consists viz. Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost But that Church is undoubtedly under very unhappy Circumstances which cannot have any owned for her Children who will not imitate the worst of men in their groundless zeal their inhumane barbarity and their detestable and most enormous Immoralities And as I have hitherto been speaking of what has been done in former Ages so I will adventure to say at present concerning pretenders to the Church of England if there be any who go under this Character who would willingly bring this Church under the same unhappy Circumstances I have before mentioned they are the greatest Enemies she can possibly have As Satan has proved too successful formerly in endeavouring to fill the Church with wicked superstitious men so he has done himself great service by instigating people to force others to comply in the use of needless Rites by great and pressing Penalties For this hath proved a very powerful Expedient to advance two of those Designs he doth principally endeavour to have furthered in the world 1. It yields a very plausible pretence under which wicked men may vent their wrath and envy and malice For tho these Bigots talk of the Church and Religion yet they give too much evidence in their carriage that what they do is the Fruit of that
those who cannot bear things which others account lawful we might indeed be restored to a true primitive lustre far sooner than by furbishing up some antiquated Ceremonies which can derive their Pedigree no higher than from some ancient Custom and Tradition God will one day convince men that the Union of the Church lies more in the unity of Faith and Affection than in uniformity of doubtful Rites and Ceremonies It is a very great instance of the deplorable Degeneracy of this Age that there are so many professed Enemies to all Moderation towards them who have different Apprehensions concerning the Indifferent Appendages to our Publick Worship Nay their zeal against this Moderation transports them into such indecencies they will not only have it expunged the number of Christian Virtues but they dare decry all who own and plead for it as the worst of men Instead of Observing that Rule given by the Apostle Let your Moderation a virtue inclining us to such a kind of benign and equitable temper in our conversing with one another whereby we may endeavour to preserve concord and amity in our treating concerning those things about which we differ we known unto all men they seem to read it backward and do in their practice publish to the world they be resolved to let their Rage and Fury be known to all men But the Hurt would not be so great if they would only publish their wilde and untameable Temper under a Private name and not strive to injure and bespatter the Church of England by pretending her Patronage Moderation is not only a Christian Duty but a peculiar Ornament to any Church which doth espouse and practise it And therefore those who do labour to represent the Church of England under another Character by pretending to her in their fierce and outragious carriages do as much as they can to baptise her Antichristian and under a pretence of justifying themselves in their worst Demeanor do strip her of one of the greatest Excellencies and chiefest Ornaments the Christian Church doth enjoy and can glory in The ordinary matters in dispute between us and other Protestants are not of that Moment we should be so zealous and passionate about them Christian love and charity must not be lost and thrown away for such things Indeed where these are in any considerable Degree they will do very much to allay and quench those Heats into which passionate and inconsiderate people are too apt to be unduly hurried We have at this time greater things which call for our zeal and concern to be imployd about And the dangers we are in of losing them should mightily operate on us and make us cautious lest by any unsuitable carriage we should be any way instrumental to make that breach wider through which Popery is apparently labouring to thrust her self in amongst us The great and weighty matters of Religion the very Fundamentals of Christianity are now assaulted by the Papists And if they can get but a little more advantage we shall be in danger of having new Articles added to our Creed and new Sacraments administred in our Churches And therefore whilst in danger of having such Innovations obtruded on us we cannot have any time on leisure if heartily concerned for our Religion and our Souls to fall out and quarrel with one another about Old Rites and Ceremonies It is very sad to consider with what heat our present Differences are managed on every hand and that which doth very much Hurt is that debauch'd and lewd people are suffered to blow up our Divisions into much greater flames and distances than they would rise to if only learned and serious and pious men had the manageing of them What! is it not high time to agree amongst our selves now that Hannibal is at our Gates shall we give no hopes of an union amongst our selves till being Sacrifices to our Enemies Fury we meet on both sides in Popish Flames to witness to the same Religion Such blustering boisterous Tempers as are all for the great River Euphrates which runs with a torrent and a mighty noise and refuse the still waters of Shiloah which run soft and gently as the Prophet speaks Isa 8. 6. Such are no friends to peace because 't is the latter which is the River whose streams must make glad the City of God Psal 46. 4. that is must promote the quiet and flourishing state of the church as a Reverend Prelate hath elegantly exprest it It is true and pure Christianity we must mainly discover our Zeal for and for other matters we must reduce them to their proper Sphere and place and allow them no more of our affection and Zeal than in their own nature they deserve and the Exigence of the Church doth call for Our Saviour lays no stress on any thing but Real Practical Religion he does rather Caution us against too much Zeal about Mint and Cummin lest this should eat up the heart and life and spirit of our Devotion than oblige us to a particular and eminent discovery to great and extraordinary warmth about those things in which Real Religion is not immediately concerned We find the Apostles upon mature deliberation and when they had the immediate assistance and guidance of the Spirit would lay no more on the Disciples than what was then Necessary And it would be no difficult thing to shew that they were not Rigid towards those who did omit and even refuse afterwards to observe some of those Injunctions they concluded necessary to be observed in that Juncture of Affairs when they made that Determination I know some do insist very much on this Question Whether the Apostles had not power to determine Indifferent Ceremonies so as to oblige the Church in her several Administrations to the use of some and to forbear the use of all others and whether if any Professors of Christianity should obstinately have refused to comply with those Orders the Apostles might not innocently and justly have Excommunicated them for their Contempt Such kind of Questions as these are very unnecessary and I am affraid those who are so frequent in proposing these things in Company as some in the world are have a design to trepan and insnare the unwary I will say no more to this Point at present than 1st First of all That I believe the Apostles had as much Authority and Power as any of those have who pretend to be their Successors 2ly That they had so great a measure of Divine Grace communicated of them as did effectually restrain them from using their Authority arbitrarily or in an inordinate and hurtful way 3ly They never made use of their Power that we read of about these indifferent and unnecessary points And therefore whether they would have proceeded to such Censures as some talk of if they had appointed any number of Rites and had not been obeyed is not evident enough to convince and satisfie inquisitive men The Question lies mainly here
Whether if they had exerted this Power without Divine Direction they would have resented every thing Imperious and Haughty men have in after Ages called Contempts with the same passion they have done 'T is plain they thought it if not more Christian yet more prudent to forbear laying Snairs in peoples way and chose rather to suspend the exercise of their Authority about these things than to make any unseasonable use of it and than vindicate it by so severe a course as their delivering men unto Satan did amount to 4ly I think it will be very difficult for any man to make it appear that for some hundreds of years after the Apostles the Christian Orthodox Church did ever require any thing more than common Christianity as a Term of Church-Communion Or that any Ceremony was for so long a time imposed on the Church This is not designed in the least to reflect on the Church of England or to expect against any of Her Orders it is designed only to shew 1. That neither Christianity in the general nor the Being of a particular Church is concerned in our Dispute and that therefore considering our present Circumstances there is no need of discovering such immoderate heat in this business as some men do manifest and expect that all who pretend to the Church should approve 2. That some of those who do dissent from us may have more plausible pretences for what they do than some who are inconsiderately furious against them do imagin But allowing that there may somtimes happen such cases that the Church may and ought to proceed to great severity with some offenders we cannot reasonably conclude hence that every difference about outward Rites and Ceremonies especially if managed with meekness and other Christian Virtues by those who do dissent must be treated and prosecuted in that manner This would be to make the Church transcribe that Quack's folly who perceiving a skilful Chyrurgeon had saved a mans life and done him great service by cutting off his Legg when desperately gangreen'd did advise one who was troubled with the Head-ach to have his Head cut off The same Medecine will not cure every Disease nor may the same Remedy be applied to every part Moderation in these lesser things is certainly very desirable it may do the Church great service And whilst we are not obliged by any Law to prosecute and ruine those who are not of our Judgment in these things either unnecessarily to turn Informers our selves or to wheedle or threaten others into such Courses is very unbecoming any who profess they have a desire to befriend the Protestant Religion in this day The Church of England is undoubtedly a very strong and would be if it were not for these violent and headstrong Bigots who indanger the ruining the Protestant Religion under a glorious name and pretence an Impregnable Bulwark against Popery But she is not so by her injoyning any Ceremonies in which point she and other Protestants do difler but in her close and immovable adhering to those Doctrines and Practices which are common to us with the generality of our sober and only scrupulous Dissenters and which are directly contrary to and destructive of Popery I dare affirm That if the Rites and Ceremonies now in use in the Church of England should be altered some changed and some laid wholly aside by the same Authority which did at first injoyn them the Church of England would still be as Impregnable a Bulwark against Popery as now she is And I am fully satisfied there is no man will deny this unless he be either a Real Papist or an Ignorant Superstitious Fool. Nor is this all that may be alledged why we should be cautious of dealing harshly with those who differ from us in these things and against whom we have nothing else to except For the very Consideration of the Fruit and Effect the continued imposing of these things has had on many should both abate our vehemence against Dissenters and make us generally more inclinable to desire that some Abatements might be legally made in these things for the satisfying of those who still remain unsatisfied There are two dreadful Events which have followed these Impositions 1. Many worthy pious and otherwise every way qualified Persons have been hindred from either entering or continuing in the Lords Vineyard to labour and work publickly there 2. The constant imposed use of these things hath almost unavoidably begot in the minds of ignorant and vulgar people a belief that they are indispensably necessary and undoubted parts of those Ordinances to which they are annexed I have known several who would as willingly have had their Children and Relations not baptized at all as not to have the Sign of the Cross added And this not because it is required by Authority but because as they have professedly and openly owned they thought the Baptism not good and valid without it Nay I have known when many Arguments would not satisfie people that private Baptism without the Cross and I know not how any man can justifie the use of the Cross in that case was sound and true Baptism tho they have professed they did believe the Child could not live half an hour And in such cases the Sign of the Cross is I think at least Contradictio in Adjecto And some of these were such I should scarce have believed had been so ignorant or superstitious if I had not had a particular knowledge of it And however both these Effects might happen directly contrary to the primary design in appointing them yet when these Fruits do apparently spring from thence whether naturally or only by accident they may be enough to make those who have the greatest zeal for the power of godliness desire that no more stress may be laid on these things than their own Nature will bear For notwithstanding all the caution the Church hath used to prevent these ill Effects by declaring her own design and the true use and importance of these things that has not been universally effectual to answer her Design Neither her Rubricks her Canons no nor the Admonitions of her Clergy have been so effectual to prevent mistakes and false conceptions about these things as the constant uninterrupted and Injoined use and practice of them has been to ingender and create them in some mens minds Nor is it altogether improbable but more minds would have been leavened with such false Notions as those mentioned before if these things had been universally submitted to and the contests and differences about them had not awakened people to consider them more distinctly and get themselves acquainted with the proper design and true use of them Nor have I only observed that some do misunderstand the Church in injoyning the use of these Ceremonies by the particular knowledge I have had of their laying too much stress on these things and looking on them as assential parts of Ordinances but I am inclined to think
do Dissent till you have effectually subdued them all and absolutely destroy'd both Root and Branch For if there should be a Publick Necessity to indulge them after they have been vigorously prosecuted for a time their numbers will undoubtedly be much greater than they were before And there is scarce an instance to be given of Moderate Dissenters being prosecuted with great warmth and unecessary Heat but in a little time after there has been some or other very notable Emergency which has rendred it very necessary to have them entertained with great Clemency and Gentleness 2. If you destroy them all with an indifferent undistinguishing hand you must keep a strict and constant watch over them after they are dead lest a greater Generation of the like sort do arise and spring out of their blood and ashes Nay you must be able to stop and stifle the Cry of their blood lest otherwise the Nation being so throughly drench'd with it the clamorous noise of that blood coming into Gods ears do provoke him to pour out such dreadful Vials on us as will make us at once to cease being a Church or People It is an excellent true and very useful Observation which Bishop Taylor made concerning Force and Extremity in matters of Religion viz. When Religion puts on Armour and God is not acknowledged by his New Testament Titles Religion may have in it the Power of the Sword but not the Power of Godliness and we may complain of this to God and amongst them who are afflicted but we have no remedy but what we must expect from the fellowship of Christs sufferings and the returns of the God of Peace 6ly It was never known that any Indifferent Ceremonies were universally imposed in a knowing Age and the Judgments and Opinions of all good men did consent and agree to them Indeed I think there never was such an attempt made till Popery had got a great influence over the Christian world I am perswaded there never was an universal compliance in Imposed Indifferences till Popery had involved people in a more than Egyptian and almost inextricable Darkness Some do think it would be as commendable to oblige all men to have the same Face as to have in every respect the same judgment Indeed men would have just ground to wonder if a Law should be made requiring all men to be of one Bulke and Stature and forbidding them to eat and drink at least in Company if they fail to observe it But I am sure I have some where read of a certain Expedient that was sometimes made use of to make Dwarfs and breed them to be all of one Bigness It was not any such Stratagem as Procustes used to make his Friends and Visitants of one length viz. Cutting off their Heads if they were too long and racking them ought of joynt if they were too short This looks like the persecuting way made use of in some Forreign parts of the World when mens Judgments and Consciences do not answer the Politick Standard The way I speak of differs very much from this For it will let People grow till they be of a just size and then stops them that they shall not increase one jot 'T is couping them up at first and then Dieting them proportionably and never suffering them to stir out of their first enclosure till they have not only stuft it quite up but are quite past growing If you would have all men of the same mind in every thing relating to the Service and Worship of God and what men call so the most effectual Expedient will be to involve them in the same Gross Ignorance in which their Ancestors were held under the Romish yoke There is no way so likely to make men to entertain any thing without Scruple as keeping them in so much darkness they cannot see or making them so dull they cannot examine things People are never brought to a servile submission to all kind of Impositions till they have for some time been inured to an Implicite Faith and then you may obtrude on them what you please 7ly Very great and considerable Alterations have been made in our Rubricks our publick Service and our Articles in order to the bringing of the Papists to join with us in our Worship and to prevent our giving them so much as the colour of a pretence for their withdrawing from our Communion And if so much might be parted with to gratifie our worst and most implacable Enemies even them who differ from us in the very Substantials of Religion is it not highly Reasonable we should express some Moderation and Tenderness towards them who are in every thing of the same Religion with us and do only differ about some unnecessary Ceremonies But there are too many who pretend to this Church who discover they are of the mind that we cannot manifest too much Complacency in those who are avowedly of the Popish Perswasion nor appear inexorable enough towards our afflicted fellow Protestants How many are there who pretend to be Sons of the Church of England and yet dare openly declare they have a greater aversion to Protestant Dissenters than Popish Recusants What hopeful Church of England men will these be if the Sins of this Nation should rise so high as to provoke God to pour on us the Vials of his displeasure and to imbitter nay poison them all by adding the greatest of all other Plagues making us subject to a Popish Governor Dr. Heylin tells us there was great care taken for expunging all such Passages in the Book of Common Prayer c. as might give any scandal or offence to the Popish Party or be urged by them in excuse for their not coming to Church c. In the Litany that most excellent passage was expunged where we pray to be delivered from the Tyranny and all the detestable Enormities of the Bishops of Rome In the Communion-Service a whole Rubrick against the Popish Doctrine of the Sacrament was expunged And in the Original Copy of the 39 Articles there is a very considerable Addition to the 28th Article which doth expresly declare that no Christian ought either to believe or profess the Real and Corporal Presence of the Flesh and Blood of Christ in the Encharist giving a very strong and invincible Reason for it But because some alledged that such an express Definition against a Real Presence might drive from the Church many who were still of that Perswasion c. therefore those words were by common consent left out Is it not a very strange and unreasonable thing that some great Pretenders to the Church of England should think it Lawful and consistent with their pertaining to that Church to be familiar and converse ordinarily with nay Feast and it may be revel and be drunk with professed Papists and yet fail at and declaim against others who are much truer Conformists than themselves because they dare visit and have sober and neighbourly
Loyal than those who lost their Benefices in those days nay were imprisoned and in danger of losing their Lives too because of their avowed adhering to the King and cannot dispense with the same Oaths and some other Instances to redeem their Benefices others could to keep them 3ly Men of such extraordinary Charity Modesty and other eminent Virtues as Mr. Tho. Gouge was and others amongst them are There are very many amongst them we call Dissenters who are so eminent for the practice of the best and in this Age the most rare Virtues it will be no disparagement for at least some Conformists to propose them as Patterns to themselves and more particularly in the exercise of Moderation towards them who differ from us in Judgment even in such instances as we have a singular kindness for The Pious and Reverend Dr. Tillotson thinks Mr. Tho. Gouge before named worthy to be a pattern in this to men of all Perswasions His Words are these Allowing others to differ from him even in Opinions which were very dear to him and provided men did but fear God and work Righteousness he loved them heartily how distant soever from him in Judgement about things less Necessary In all which he is very worthy to be a pattern to men of all Perswasions whatsoever Now what Crime is it for a Conformist to plead for Moderation towards such men as these or for a Son of the Church of England to endeavour to give some check to the immoderate Heat and Peevishness of those furious and head-strong Bigots who by unnecessary ingaging themselves in prosecuting their Peaceable Religious Neighbours do indanger the weakening the Protestant Interest and the making the Church of England her self a Sacrifice to the Rage and Trophy of the Conquest of her most inveterate and indefatigable Enemies But however innocent and justly commendable the thing is in it self the practice of it does not appear so safe and to have such general Countenance as it deserves This is evident enough by the treatment the late Sermon against Persecution hath had amongst men of certain Characters But the World will in time be satisfied that Places and Garments do not make men better They may yield them greater opportunities than they had before to discover what they truly are Tie Ass was an Ass as well when he had the Lions skin on his back as when it was off Nay that Lions skin must be very large that can cover and hide the Asses ears Can the Ethiopian change his Skin or the Leopard his Spots then may ye who are accustomed to do evil learn to do good Notwithstanding such a stir is kept about the Sermon before named the Exceptions ordinarily alledged against it by the very Dons themselves are very pitiful and trifling ye I must acknowledg they do better become them whose faces would flatter the world into a belief they pretend to be men than Indictments and Deprivations which are now talked of do 3dly The Objections pretended against the Sermon are chiefly these two 1. How can I who am a Conformist and consequently satisfied of the Lawfulness of every thing required by the Church of England be against punishing them who will not comply with what I my self acknowledge Lawful and do practise 2ly That it is very unbecoming one who receives Profits from the Church of England and to use their own canting Phrase sucks the Churches Breasts to Apologize and plead for them who dissent from the Church Now any man who hath either eyes or any thing else in his Head may easily perceive these Exceptions are not so much against the Sermon as against my self And therefore I will take the less care in answering them For I think all such absurd and feeble Reflections are best confuted by a due contempt The first Objection is proposed by way of Query and asks How I who am a Conformist and consequently satisfied of the Lawfulness of every thing required by the Church of England can be against punishing them who will not comply with what I do acknowledg Lawful and do practise Ans 1st There may other more agreeable Methods be used to make Proselytes against which I never spake one word Solid Arguments strong Reasons and Authorities are more fit for confutation of an Error and satisfaction of Different Judgments When the Emperor took a Bishop in compleat Armour he sent the Armour to the Pope with this word Haecinae sunt vestes filii tui 2ly There is a great Difference betwixt a mans being satisfied of the Lawfulness of things so as to direct his own Practice in the use of them and his being convinced of the Necessity of them so as to be induced thereby to justify or approve the unnecessary head-strong and furious courses some prophane loose Fellows do take against them who are not equally satisfied with him by the Evidence he hath There is no Reason I should pull a mans eyes out of his head because he cannot see what I either do see or at least fancy I see 3ly The Greatest the Wisest and the Learnedst men this Church was ever blessed with have had the same thoughts that I have and did believe the Moderation I plead for very consistent with true Conformity We need not saith his present Majesty profess the high affection and esteem we have for the Church of England as it is Established by Law Nor do we think that Reverence in the least Degree diminished by our Condescentions not peremptorily to insist on some particulars of Ceremony which however introduced by the Piety and Order of former times may not be so agreeable to the present c. The Eminent Judge Hale at his entring on that Employment did oblige himself to observe this amongst many other Excellent Rules viz. That I be not too rigid in Matters purely conscientious where all the Harm is Diversity of Judgment And it is further said of him that Besides great Charities to the Nonconformists who were then as he thought too hardly used he took great care to cover them all he could from the Severities some designed against them and discouraged those who were inclined to stretch the Laws too much against them It is very well known that Dr. Wilkins late Bishop of Chester was a man of as prodigious Universal Learning and of as clear and solid a Judgment as any man the Christian world was ever adorned with And it is as well known that he was equally Famous for his Moderation towards Dissenters before he was made Bishop as for any of his other Extraordinary Accomplishments And after he ascended the Episcopal Seat he continued the same man he was before and made that Diocess as it is very well known there and in most other Places the most flourishing and truly Religious part I think I may truly say of all Christendom by the happy Influence under Divine Grace his eminent Moderation Zealous Piety and most Christian Government had in