Verb plural may have respect to divers precedent Nouns some whereof speak de rebus signis others de personis Now the Aegyptians for the conviction of whom God executed the Plagues before spoken of were not obedient to his word and so both Translations agree These and other Resolutions are so clear that I wonder how any Country-Minister much less one of the City should at this time of the day be ignorant of them but none so blind as he that will not see for it looks like a design in the Author to foment Prejudices and Mistakes in the Minds of young Men to keep up a Schism against the Church And so doth his next Plea p. 14. against the use of the Athanasian Creed whilst he restrains the Damnatory Sentences to one Article of the Creed which is to be referred to the whole for so says the Preface This is the Catholick Faith c. Moreover I think it not necessary to Salvation that every Man should believe that Article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father to the Son seeing there are several Articles in the Creed called the Apostles as we receive it now which in the most Primitive Times were not extant in that Creed for which consult Vossius Armagh and Dr. Pearson the late Bishop of Chester and therefore I cannot conceive that those Greek Churches were Hereticks and in a state of Damnation that held not the Filioque And to this purpose the Letter makes his second Quere Whether this be a fundamental Article of the Faith which except a Man believes he cannot be saved Seeing as he grants it is not made necessary by Athanasius himself nor was originally either in the Nicene truly so called or Athanasian Creed Nor is it so thought by our Church says the Letter which receiving the four first General Councils agrees with that of Ephesus which is the third which made a peremptory Decree against all Additions to be made thereafter to the Creed Concil Ephes Part 3. Art 6. Which shews that some Additions had been formerly made From whence says he it follows that nothing else was then accounted necessary to be believed but what was contained in the Nicene And so the Damnatory Sentences not appearing to be the Addition of Athanasius nor respecting any particular Article but what is fundamental and necessary to Salvation in the whole the young Man notwithstanding any thing that the Letter saith may Subscribe the Athanasian Creed with the Damnatory Sentences which are applicable only to such as obstinately deny the Fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith contained in that Creed And I desire the Author of this Objection to consider what occasion it hath given to the Antitrinitarians to proclaim their Blasphemies against the Blessed Trinity and consequently against the Christian Religion for a late Writer says That Athanasius was drunk when he wrote that Creed That it is setled by a Tyrannical Dominion and is a Superstition or Polity rather than true Religion That the Follies and Contradictions charged on the Doctrine of Transubstantiation are neither for Number Consequence or Greatness comparable to those implied in the Athanasian Creed And that the Trinity hath the same foundation with Transubstantiation and we must admit both or neither This Opinion of the Socinians hath been so confuted by our late Divines that I shall not repeat their Arguments so apt are our Adversaries of all sorts to improve the Objections of Dissenters into very dangerous and destructive Errors Page 15. This Country-Minister hath a very modest Request in behalf of himself and the Dissenters viz. That Presbytery may be restored to its ancient Priviledge and permitted to share in all Acts belonging to their Station What Acts those are he sufficiently intimates but doth not enumerate they must share in the Jurisdiction and Administration of Discipline in the issuing forth of Excommunications and in the power of Conferring Orders and this forsooth for the honour of the Bishops to take off whatever they may suffer by Misgovernment and I suppose they would quickly draw too much of that Odium upon themselves Wherefore as he doth so shall I leave these things to the mature consideration of the Convocation and how likely it is that the Church would not be the worse for these Alterations But concerning this he raiseth two Objections the first is Where are they that would come in upon these Concessions and Alterations And 2dly if they do come in what advantage this will be to the Church To the first he says 't is but to try and I say whatever the Church can grant and not be the worse for it hath been already tried and scornfully rejected though the Concessions were more than the Convocation can now with prudence and safety grant them for these will not stifle their clamours against the Church who have publickly declared that they expect greater things But in justice and integrity says the Letter these things ought to be granted for it was promised by their Bishops viz. that they wanted not due tenderness towards Dissenters but were willing to come to such a temper as should be thought fit when that matter should be considered and setled in Parliament and Convocation But as he says they promised it when it was not in their power and now the more is the pity it is not in their power to perform it but they promised no more than was fit to be granted i. e. upon great and important Reasons nor more than what should be thought fit by a Parliament and Convocation to which it is still referred 2dly He inquires what benefit this will be to the Church To which I answer None at all if as he says when kept out they are Enemies and when let in they will be no Friends but when they have more power and opportunity they may do more mischief S. M. E. C. T. Y. M. N. W. S. were in the Church in 1641 and did it more hurt than those that were kept out and there are still such among us as are not of us whose Names would make up as terrible a word as that of Smectymnuus but I forbear to call Names His third General is That there are such things in our Church as may be altered for the better Ans Thus some Men have attempted to mend the Magnificat but finding they could not do that they resolved to lay it aside And many an unskilful Architect hath under taken to repair a good old Fabrick and make it better but by pulling down Beam after Beam and after a lesser Stone a greater till the whole Fabrick hath been like to fall and then what perhaps was designed at first he perswades the Owners that there is a necessity wholly to destroy the old and erect a new one upon better foundations And thus the Country-Minister thinks he hath cleared the Point and may come in for a share in the imployment and benefit And first he ingageth to make easie and
short work of it and would not have his Country-Brethren to be obliged to their daily labour in the Service of the Church but to be left free to attend it how and when they please to perform one part of the Service at one time and another at another and to be left to their own discretion and not tied up to Forms and to do what is commanded them Thus he pleads for himself and fellow-labourers whom he thinks fit to share with the Master-builders and to that end he thus mis-represents them p. 20. That they are ready to impose such burthens on others as they will not touch with themselves That they only walk from a warm House to a Cathedral and for half an hour turn over a Service-book hear a Sermon and return to a warm Room and good Fare and know not what it is to do the Service of a Cure perhaps all their life This would be very edifying Doctrine in a Conventicle but not so acceptable when a Country-Minister shall preach it to a Convocation which consists of the select Clergy of the Land who are for the most part obliged to the Service of God in Cathedrals or in their own Churches and moreover to all those Services which the Country-Minister is bound to do And which is as difficult a work as any of the other to Oversee those Labourers least they do more hurt than good by their Idleness Ignorance or Immorality for too many such there be who if they were kept to their daily duty might be restrained from many inconveniencies which are more prejudicial to their Lives than the appointed Service of God would be And doubtless the Convocation will not be of the Country-Minister's mind p. 21. That he should be left to his discretion to read one part of the Service one day and another another and in the Afternoon to leave out the first Lesson or the like leaving out on Sunday the Communion-Service and shortning the Liturgy at the Lord's-Prayer For which he gives this reason That it was composed peculiarly with respect to a State of Persecution For which cause it ought rather to be continued for he asks the Question p. 27. Are we without danger and if not have we less danger to fear now when we are divided than when united But why must the Communion-Service be left out when the Primitive Church did communicate at their daily Assemblies And it is the Peoples fault that the Communion is not Administred every Sunday in the Parish-Churches as well as in the Cathedrals so that the reading that Service minds the People of their backwardness to partake of so great a Blessing and both minds and prepares them for it But I see not to what end these Offices should be shortned except it be to yield to the Country-Minister's extemporary Prayers and tedious Sermons which if left to his discretion would doubtless be the consequence And his desire That the first Lesson or the like may be left out in the Afternoon that Men may fodder their Cattel when I suppose the turning of the Afternoons Sermon into Catechizing may better answer that end and be more profitable to the People both young and old and it is more agreeable to Order and this course would neither hamper their Consciences nor expose them to the rash Censures of those whom he calls their not over-laborious Brethren Which Epithet some such Country-Ministers as himself may deserve p. 19. he would have some of the Convocation sent down to some Country-Parishes to ease the poor Ministers by reading Prayers and Preaching c. As if the Members of the Convocation never did perform the intire Service of the Church in Praying and Preaching The Country-Minister might consider that a great part of them have travelled some a hundred some near two hundred Miles to meet in Convocation to consult for the common benefit of the Clergy and sit sometime near the whole day in a cold place in the depth of Winter And some Country-Ministers now of the Convocation do now see in what great ease and plenty the City-Ministers live who have their Readers and Lecturers and frequent Supplies and sometimes tarry in the Vestry till Prayers be ended and have great Dignities in the Church besides their rich Parishes in the City Having pleaded for the shortning of the Liturgy he pleads p. 22. for the prolonging of it by adding an Office to receive Penitents after an Apostacy and in case of notorious Scandal this may concern the Country-Minister 2. For receiving persons Absolved after Excommunication this as he desires is left to the discretion of the Priest that Officiates 3. An Office for the Prisoners which is provided for by the Bishops who generally appoint able Men for that charitable Office So that all this notwithstanding he concludes in the words of Dr. Featly c. concerning the Liturgy as it stood before the 600 Amendments in 1661. That the Book of Common-Prayer is the most compleat perfect and exact Liturgy in the Christian World and such as a Godly Man may with a good Conscience use and not only lawfully but comfortably joyn in Wherefore it having already received so many Amendments there should be some important Reasons given why it should admit of more for his May-be's are no Arguments It may-be some things are obscure and too doubtfully express'd It may be in its Phraseology liable to misapplication It may be too fanciful And all these May-be's may not be if the most exceptionable Expressions in the whole Liturgy be allowed as the Preface to it says such just and favourable construction as in common equity ought to be allowed to all humane Writings Page 23. Our Author comes to enquire more nicely into it but whether more wisely let the Reader judge He instanceth first in what he thinks obscure As in the Prayer for the Clergy Who alone workest great Marvels send down c. of which Who dares deny saith Dr. Comber that the assistance granted to the Ministers for the conversion of sinners are as marvellous as was the Creation of Light out of Darkness or the Resurrection from the Dead see Ephes 1.19 So in the Collect for Trinity Sunday Who hath given us Grace in the Power of the Divine Majesty to Worship the Vnity This is not obscure to any that acknowledgeth the Trinity which is to be worshipped in the Unity of Divine Majesty As when in the Litany we pray O holy blessed and glorious Trinity three Persons and one God In the Preface at the Communion for Trinity Sunday that which we believe of the Glory of the Father the same we believe of the Glory of the Son and of the Holy Ghost without any difference or inequality viz. as to the Godhead Christ having said I and my Father are one And the Church in all Ages hath professed the same belief in the Father Son and Holy Ghost and ascribes the same Glory to each of them in the Tresagion In the Prayer
very shame the Convocation thought it necessary to make them But our Author finding all his arguings to be lost as in p 28. he betakes himself to a sham-plot against those that are not for Alterations as if because they said or rather he for them That they were not seasonable they had said the Parliament was illegal the Government precarious and the Laws no Laws it becomes not a Country-Minister to be a Minister of Satan in falsly accusing his Brethren who have all owned the present Authority and Laws and he that blames the want of Connexion in our Collects should have been more cautious then first to raise an Objection of his own and then infer from it such impertinent conclusions as may be mischievous to others But what think you says he if this Government sink I think our causless dissentions will be one of the greatest causes Who sunk the Government under the Royal Martyr Who had well nigh sunk it a second time under the late King to whom such multitude of Dissenters addressed Thanks for Suspending the Laws and promised to obey him without reserve we have had experience enough who they were that could after all their Pleas for Liberty part with their Consciences to save their Lives though with the loss of their Religion Laws and Liberty so as their Brethren might perish a little before them When therefore he would perswade us that we may have a new Law for the intended Establishment I think no Man will be perswaded to run such a risque for having many good Laws already for our Established Worship we may conclude that as to certainty the old are better Having thus treated the Members of the Convocation he takes his Farewel of them leaving them to their Couch and Consideration intimating that they are all become mighty Politicians or Tools for them that are so Who have been made and used as Tools by the late unhappy Politicians is as evident as any matter of fact can be and I wish I could leave this Country-Minister well in his Wits to consider whether he be not used as a Tool to destroy the Established Church by some who think themselves mighty Politicians Some REMARKS on a LETTER from a Member of the Convocation NO sooner had I finished my Remarks on the Letter of the Country Minister to a Member of the Convocation but I were encounter'd with another from a Member of the Convocation to his Friend in which I feared my Opinion would have been oppugned not only by a greater Authority but by sharper Arguments than any I had yet met with But having viewed his Weapons I found that they were flourished and glittered with a Rhetorical style yet they wanted that Logical strength that might enforce them This encouraged me to take my Pen in hand again and to enter the List against this Master of the Assembly for I considered that though his Weapons were keen yet the Arm that wielded them was but weak and it was no great danger to wrest them out of his hands and imploy them against himself His great flourish was A Necessity an absolute Necessity of yielding to many Alterations in our Established Worship This I thought might prove durum telum for Necessity hath no Law especially when it is Absolute then like the Absolute power it bears down all before it This lookt somewhat formidably for I considered that Necessity had destroyed many great and good Men. It was said of that great Hero the Earl of Strafford Illum non tulit Lex verum necessitas non habens Legem And of a greater than he we have a Law viz. of the Jews making and by that Law Oportet mori to dye and dye he did because it was expedient also for the People But that there was an Absolute necessity that Judas should betray his Master I can no more believe than that there is a Necessity That he who is a Member of the Church of Christ and hath familiarly eaten of her Bread and born the Bag too should lift up his heels and kick at her I considered therefore what kind of Necessity this might be for our Opponent grants there is no necessity in respect of the Church her self that she should make Alterations Because saith he p. 1. nothing is more dangerous to Religion than frequently to make Alterations 2. Because an unsteadiness though in Circumstantials only which are always alterable may become an Argument against the whole the Multitude not being able to judge what is Circumstantial and what is Essential in our Worship what is in the Power of the Church to alter and what is not and are apt to call every Alteration though in things indifferent and by variation of times made totally insignificant to be a change of Religion it self and so concluding that we have no firm bottom become Apostates from us to Popery or Atheism And therefore he thinks the Church of England may be justified that it hath not been forward on every demand of the Dissenters to unhinge those of her Communion but hath to the utmost resisted all Alterations hoping by other less dangerous Methods to heal the Divisions that are among us By this I perceived the Absolute necessity would not much affect the Church yet I considered farther whether there were an Absolute necessity from any Precept that did oblige the Church to make Alterations in the external Parts or Rites of Worship and I found she had a Power by Precept to see that all things be done decently and according to her Order and Appointment and another Precept That the People should Obey those that had the Rule over them And accordingly the most Primitive Church of which we read Acts 2.45 Continued daily with one accord in the Temple and in the Apostle's Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayer Nor would St. Paul endure any Contention about Circumstantials contrary to the Custom of the Church 1 Cor. 11.16 Nor can I see this Absolute necessity in the things that are to be altered because they are confessed to be in their own nature indifferent and when they fall under a Precept of those whose proper work it is to injoyn them we cannot without Disobedience to our lawful Governors reject them Neither can this Necessity affect the Persons for whose sake the Alterations are desired because if there be nothing sinful in our Communion it is sinful to separate from it besides the Dissenters would take it ill of any Man that should say they cannot be saved in that way of Worship which they have chosen for themselves and then there is no Absolute necessity for the Church to alter her Constitutions to gain them to her Communion In a Church where Salvation is to be had we ought to abide notwithstanding some inconvenient circumstances whose Amendment is desirable Though there were great Disputes in the Primitive Church about the Place of Worship Circumcision and Meats and Days yet was there no Separation And
the constant Voice of the Church was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let ancient Customs prevail But here Absolute necessity is urged for Alterations because all other means have been tried and prove ineffectual to heal our Divisions To which I Answer 1. The Acts for Uniformity were much more effectual than any Alterations that the Church can justly make will be seeing the Dissenters have declared they will not be satisfied with the Alterations of our Ceremonies c. but expect greater matters than the Church can grant 2. Experience shews that they will not acquiesce in such Alterations as may be granted 3. Because it was not for want of success that Toleration was granted against the Act for Uniformity but because it was too successful and the Common Enemies of our Church perceiving the good effects of that Act which had well nigh reduced the whole Nation to an Uniformity with their joynt Interest procured a Toleration and it needs no proof That if the Act for Uniformity hath made one Dissenter Toleration and Alterations have made hundreds so that as there is no Necessitas praecepti neither is there Necessitas medâ—i to obtain the Ends which this Author proposeth And thus we have put off the first blow of this Absolute necessity and the second will be as easily warded for if there be no Absolute necessity to make any Alterations then 't is not absolutely necessary that we should make them now For there is no necessity that we should expose our selves to that reproach which is endeavoured to be fixed on some of us of being Ecclesiastical Tinkers who undertaking to mend one hole do usually make two or three We have by standing our ground put to flight one formidable Enemy and is there an Absolute necessity that by giving ground we should bring our selves under the Power of another And such an Enemy as our Author says did once and therefore may be suspected of doing it again take shelter in the Camp of out Common Enemy and joyned with the Papists against us endangering the Church and State to utter turn p. 3. This methinks should blunt the edge of his Absolute necessity Page 3. The Author makes the excepted Passages in our Liturgy and the Ceremonies in our Worship the whole Origine of our Divisions As if the whole blame lay on the Church whereof be is an Eminent Minister As if the Ignorance of some Dissenters and the interest and Obstinacy or others that know more were in no manner culpable no not though they rail at our Ceremonies as Superstitious and our Bishops as Antichristian and Tyrannical and condemn not our Liturgy only but our Use of our Lord's-Prayer And our Author contrary to his hounden Duty administers incouragement to some of these while he reflection the Penal Laws and Church-censures which he says have 〈…〉 and increased the Mischiefs which they endeavoured to remove and that they were executed with an unjustifiable Severity Though if they had been legally executed against the Papist and such Dissenters as joyned with them it might have prevented that greater Severity which was exercised against some whole Colledges and the Seven Famous Bishops who were sent to the Tower in order to their and in them to the destruction of our Religion Laws and Liberties which by their Constancy they preserved to us however apt we are to despise them and deal with them as in Forty Two they were dealt with by the Scottish and Dissenters Malice What tho' there be some few that are really but causlesly offended at our Ceremonies must we for their sakes give offence to the Church of God we have found concerning the greatest part of the Dissenters that it is not their Cannot but their Will not that keeps them from our Communion and when their Interest and Advantage requires it they can Conform And what necessity is there that for the sake of a few ignorant or peevish and unsatisfiable persons that will not be pleased with all that we can do we should confirm them in their obstinacy by yielding and complying with their humors Who were not offended at the excepted passages of our Liturgy and Ceremonies onely but at Episcopacy at our Doctrine at the whole Liturgy and even at our Lord's Prayer which they disused The next for which he says there was a pressing necessity is the late Act for Toleration for which he gives these Reasons 1. Because the Dissenters were driven to take shelter in the Camp of our common Enemy and joyn with the Papists Or rather the Papists by the Toleration sheltred themselves under the Dissenters However it is a good confession of this Author and shews that they who strained at a Gnat could swallow Camels And though one Parliament passed an Act for Toleration yet another gave such Arguments against it as are not yet nor I believe can be answered which are lately Printed in a Tract entituled An Answer to the Letter for Toleration p. 28. Nor is it evident that by the Act for Toleration the Dissenters are put on as good a bottom of Legal Right as the Church is for it is well known by what means and for what end a Toleration hath been more than once obtained which Coleman's Letters do testifie and Toleration implies somewhat more culpable than the Established Government and never deserved the like protection having been often rejected And whereas he desires a reason from him that can give it Why we should not abate a few excepted passages in our Liturgy and two or three Ceremonies I Answ Because as hath been often said the giving up of these will give the Dissenters no satisfaction and because the Remedy hath been worse than the Disease i. e. the retaining of our Ceremonies and excepted passages never caused so much Impiety so many Sects and Errors as the laying them aside hath done the Twenty Years War from 40 to 60 and the Thirty Years Animosities last past had other Causes than what he very unbecoming a Member of the Church and as he calls himself one of the Convocation terms Trifles and p. 6. A Bone of Contention The Covenant shews what caused that War the destruction of Episcopacy Root and Branch the setting up of Presbytery the dividing of the Revenues of the Church among themselves c. When therefore he calls that unreasonable Rigor which enjoyned Uniformity in our Worship he reflects on the Act for Uniformity and the Canons of the Church to which he hath subscribed so that he and his Brethren are more like to lose their Reputation with the People tho' he would cast all the Odium upon us whom he expects and endeavours to make to be abhorred of the Nation as the Common Enemies of its Peace and be treated accordingly in every Parish where we live Did we contend against the Arrians says he p. 7. we would not yield them a Letter to end the whole Controversie And are not the Arrians coming in when the Athanasian Creed is so ridicul'd as