Prayer and Singing with their own solemn Promise to use the Liturgy and no other Form I leave to their own Consciences to determine Nay it is further considerable that where they are agreed to practise alike 't is upon such very different Principles and so destructive of each other that from hence 't is notoriously evident how powerful a worldly Interest is to make contrary Principles sweetly conspire to its own support Let the several opposite Principles upon which the Hierarchy is built be our Instance the poor simple vulgar and many of a better sort that would be thought Champions for the Church take it for granted that all the Learned Men on their side do firmly believe our English Episcopacy to be Jure Divino and in this they think them most unanimous But alass they little imagine how very differently and inconsistently sometimes their great Doctors and those that wear Lawn Sleeves all at once shall argue in its defence Give me leave Sir to name two or three several Opinions on this very Head 1. SOME Church-men tell us that a Bishop and a Presbiter were all one in the Scripture-times and that the Bishops afterwards made the Distinct order of Presbiters or Priests as they are now call'd This I humbly conceive you will say was a great piece of Boldness and certainly it can be call'd no less for any Men to make a New subordinate Office in the Church without Authority from the Great Bishop of our Souls the Lord JESUS CHRIST 2. OTHERS of the same Church and those the most before Laud's time us'd to say that by Divine Institution there were no Bishops over Presbiters but Prebiters to avoid Divisions set up one among themselves above the rest and gave him the Title of Bishop by way of eminency But this sort of Episcopacy is a little too low and mean for our modern Prelates to content themselves with 3. MANY of this high Church think that Diocesan Episcopacy is jure divino and that an uninterrupted Succession of such Bishops is absolutely necessary to the being of a Church and to the Validity of every Ministers Ordination TO these I might add no small names among them who differ from their Brethren in this that they would have the Universal Church govern'd by a Colledge of Bishops by Letters Missive or in Council and the Pope as prime Patriarch to be the Principium Unitatis Are not these very hopeful Churchmen think you and don 't they put us in the ready way to Catholick Unity Roman Catholick I mean 4. THERE are yet OTHERS of this very Church who think that there is not any particular form of Church-government of divine Institution but that in the Communion or Subordination of Churches we can only follow the general Rules of Scripture and the common Principles that belong to the Conservation of Societies This Sort of all others contributes most effectually to the destruction of that common conceit that our Diocesan Episcopacy is of divine Right And of these some ascribe more to the power of Magistrates in this point and some more to the Agreement of Churches among themselves Yet all these must and do subscribe but God knows how to one and the same Position that it is evident to all that have diligently read the Scriptures and the Antient Fathers that Bishops Priests and Deacons have been three distinct Offices ever since the Apostles Times I would to God the whole Levitical Tribe of this divided Communion would seriously lay to heart this one thing But at present I spare our Prelate any further Trouble of this kind and the rather because I am confident by this time you are fully convinc'd and will with me readily conclude That this goodly Church of England which notwithstanding all its Boasts of Unity and Uniformity do's next to the Popish abound with the most Schisms and Separations of any in the world is the least qualify'd and has the poorest Title of any that ever pretended to be the Standard and Center of Union to all other Churches whatsoever And in this Faith I subscribe my self SIR Yours c. FINIS First Discourse against Atheism ☞ Preface p. 11. Preface p. 11 Vide Dr. Burnets Dialogues ☞ Second Discourse against Socinians ☞ Witness opposing the Bill of Exclusion E of Essex Ld. Russel Col. Sydney c. Third Discourse against Papists Vide p. 286 287. Fourth Discourse against Dissenters Doctrine Church Government Vide 4 5 7. Canons Vide 9 10 11 Canons Worship Vide Troubles of Francksort ☜ ☞ ☜ ☞ ☜ Dr. Hammond c. Mr. Dodwell c. Bps. Gunning Bramhal c. Dr. Stillingfleet c. ☜ ☞
NOTES Upon the Lord Bishop of Salisbury's Four late DISCOURSES To the CLERGY of his Diocess PARTICULARLY Upon the Last relating to the DISSENTERS In a LETTER to a Friend Right Prelating is busie Labouring and not Lording Bishop Latimer's Sermon of the Plough Wherefore lift up your Heads Brethren and look about with your Eyes spye what things are to be Reformd in the Church of England Is it so hard is it so great a matter for you to see many Abuses in the Clergy many in the Layety His Sermon before the Convocation LONDON Printed in Usum Sarum MDCXCV ERRATA Page 1. line 2. blot out the p. 7. l. 17. for acted upon read acted by p. 31 l. 7. in some of the sheets the words in metre should be put in after psalms NOTES c. SIR I Thank you for Obliging me with the sight of my Lord Sarum's four late Discourses to the the Clergy of his Diocess the last of which your self must needs own the worst tim'd and the worst linkt of any thing in the World For what reason his Lordship was pleas'd to reflect upon the Dissenters as Separatists at this time of day when by Act of Parliament they enjoy tho' not Equal Advantages an Equal Establishment with his own Constitution I will not pretend to determine Nor perhaps can he himself give any better Account of his tacking a Discourse against them to the rest than that the same Spirit of Contention which his Lordship hath before now discover'd had in that Moment an Unconquerable Ascendancy over him His Lordship it must be confess'd writes with one singular Advantage which the poor Noncons must never expect he hath the Civil Government for his Security and free Liberty to vent whatever he pleases tho' 't is true He must have a care how he Misrepresents the Foundations of our Government his frequent remembring a Vote of Parliament and Mr. Johnson's most ingenious Notes on a Pastoral Letter with what the Common Hangman was once employ'd about in his Lordships Service will be of admirable Use to him in this Case But in Spiritual Matters he may e'en talk all that is in his Heart and whatever else he finds agreeable to his Interest for being himself a Spiritual Lord one of the six and twenty Lights of the Nation and a chief among the Guides of the Church he may hold himself safe from any Contradiction especially Now he knows the Press is entirely at the devotion of his own Party and they must very much expose themselves who would get in but one Word against a whole Volume of his Lordships Tho' methinks an Ecclesiastical Peer of all others should be of too generous a Temper either to call the more Names because he wears a Protection or to take any Advantage against his Brother of lower degree that mildly jogging him by his Lawn Sleeves may happen to tell him An 't please you my Good Lord in this thing I humbly conceive you were not a little overseen A great Champion it must be confess'd the Prelatical Church hath in this Salisbury Bishop and no doubt both He and the Cause he pleads will flourish Eternally if the Greatness of their Circumstances can but deter all others as it doth their own Underlings from questioning their Pastoral Oracles What success Our Prelate will have against his other Antagonists I will not Divine but the Dissenters I make no question will hold themselves oblig'd to him for the Episcopal Confirmation which his weak Management of his own hath given to their Cause to the Goodness of which this must be imputed unless this Right Reverend Author hath incurr'd the same Unhappy Fate from which the great Livy himself was not wholly exempt that the Last part of his Works should be a sufficient Disgrace to all the rest These four Discourses coming out together in a body afford us a Notable Specimen of his Lordships Abilities but the Learned World hath been long acquainted with his many Productions and hath already given them an Universal Applause yet I am apt to believe they have not at any time seen a more pregnant Instance of his Cunning and Dexterity than appears in his uniting these last Compositions into one Volume where most Invidiously and with a strange kind of Impartiality the Atheist leads the Van and the Dissenter brings up the Rear It will be no just Cause of Offence I hope to this Noble Prelate or his Party if in our own Vindication we take the Liberty to requite his Lordships Kindness with a few just and serious Reflections on each Subject of his several Discourses and I shall choose Sir to begin with that against the Atheists First then let us Enquire What is it hath given the greatest Occasion to the Rise and Progress of Atheism in the English Nation Is it not that Men have made Religion and the Sacred Function of the Ministry truckle to the Gratification of their Lusts especially their Avarice Pride and Sensuality But a few will be Convinced that there is any solid Foundation for that Belief which they see made use of to such vile and sinister Ends Many are mistaken if the extravagant Grandeur of Prelates and other Church Dignitaries hath not exceedingly contributed to diffuse this horrible Contagion It would make a Man sick to hear our Prelate declaim against the Poverty of the Inferior Clergy as a Crying Grievance and a Scorn put upon the Gospel when those that enjoy some Thousands a Year among whom I do not say his Lordship is one shall yet behold their Poor Brethren who Minister in Spiritual things so slenderly supply'd in Temporals that nothing but extream Necessity can induce them to serve in such Cures who are put to wrestle still with the same Necessity especially if they have Families that grow upon them Nor is it less ridiculous and Criminal in our Prelate to tantalize them with Hopes of Relief by New Methods whilst the true Cause and Remedy are so obvious and yet so much slighted and in effect renounced Our Law-makers I am of Opinion will be so kind to try how far a more equal partition of the Ecclesiastical Revenue will go towards the supply of the poor Clergy before they lay any more Burdens upon the People on that account There will be no want of Atheists so long as Church-men are thus desperately enamour'd of Great Benefices and so Careless of their Cures while they heap one Steeple upon another 'till their Heads grow giddy and they can scarce look low enough to Converse with their Inferior Brethren They may Preach up Humility and Mortification long enough in their cold formal florid Discourses before they perswade one Atheist that themselves are convinc'd of its Necessity while they Vye in Fullness and Gaiety not with the Gentry only but with the Nobility too How should Atheism but thrive in a Land where Men can Declare and Swear and Preach ay and print Dialogues too for such a kind of
Loyalty as when they are try'd they perfectly leave in the lurch to be redeemed by those that can find in their Hearts to submit to a suffering State which they might avoid at the same Easie but Unconscionable rate as these Men do It cannot but be a mighty strengthening to the Atheistical Party that some Men who Preach up Piety will not endure the strict exemplary Practise of it no not in others whether of their own or a different Communion much less in themselves but make it the subject of scorn and ridicule when they are out of the Pulpit Nor doth it want a share in this malignant influence that there are so many prints and footsteps yet visible of those more than Heathenish Barbarities which have been all along acted upon one sort of Christians upon their Protestant Dissenting Brethren From all this it is undenyably evident that the Faith Humility and Self-denyal of the Nonconformists in parting with their Livings and casting themselves entirely upon Providence their stedfastness in refusing the Oaths and Subscriptions by them judg'd unlawful their Sobriety and endeavouring to practice what they have preacht to others hath been a standing not to say the only Witness to this Generation That there is a GOD and that the Convictions of his Being and Government lye at the bottom of some Mens Actions Secondly Concerning his Discourse against the Socinians give us leave to observe what have been the fruits of the Church-mens over-valuing the Rational way of Preaching as if all Points were capable of being comprehended and explained by it to a demonstration It had been better in this respect if our Rational Divines had contented themselves in many Cases with the direct affirmations of the Scriptures and paid some more deference to the simple act of believing them for whilst every thing must be brought down to our Reason and levell'd to our Capacities they have conjur'd up the Evil Spirit of Socinianism which will exercise all their Skill to get down again It hath been the constant way of this Church to let in the worst of Evils upon the Nation as in the late Reigns Popery and Socinianism now in this and when they have made themselves and others abundance of Labour and grievously expos'd the Nation then if they have helped never so little to extinguish the Fire which but for themselves had never flam'd out nor consum'd so many worthy Patriots to set up their Crests and loudly to proclaim their own Atchievments and that too when their Victories are not so compleat nor the Enemy's Defeat so absolute as they themselves do represent And here Sir by the way I hope you will not forget to enquire in what Communion Atheists and Socinians do most abound And further I wish all to be caution'd against Arminianism by the prevalency of Socinian Errors for those who magnifie the Power of Man's Will and those that exalt his Understanding beyond the measures of Truth and Sobriety are not very far distant from each other Thirdly As for Popery we are sorry to see the Church of England so much symbolizing with it and so hard put to it to defend its self upon its own bottom our concern on this account will appear very just by making use of the Instance before us Here is a renown'd Prelatical Bishop discoursing vehemently against Infallibility and at the same time pleading with Might and Main for the power of the Church in imposing symbolical Ceremonies but can any thing be more absurd than that Men who confess themselves fallible and prove it too both by Word and Deed to the satisfaction of all the World should obtrude their Sentiments and Composures Forsooth as if they were as Infallible as his Holiness at Rome pretends to be or our blessed Saviour and his Apostles really were And is not this done to the height of Arrogance whilst all that will be benefic'd among them are forced indispensably To Declare Assent and Consent to all and every thing contain'd and prescrib'd in and by the Book of Common Prayer And all that have refus'd to comply with their Modes how much soever against their Consciences have been Prosecuted with the utmost Severity How laudable and consistent when compar'd with our Prelatical Platform is the Popish way of first asserting the Infallibility of the Church and then erecting a Court of Inquisition to defend it How will this or any other Prelate be able to overthrow our Popish Adversary's Arguments for Salt Oyl and Spittle when their Ceremonies stand upon the very same Foundation and will they nill they our Church-men shall be constrain'd to admit them whensoever their Good Lords and Masters shall think sit to follow the Romish Prelates in the Imposition of them The Truth on 't is when the Protestant Prelates have to do with the Papists they are forced to the Dissenters Arguments against themselves by magnifying the sufficiency of the Scripture Rule but when the same Men encounter the Dissenters because the Scripture-sufficiency is but an unpromising Topick and sure enough to fail them they shift Hands and wield the same Weapon against us which they will by no means allow the Papist viz The Power of the Church this is no very good sign of a good and defensible Cause but who can blame the Patrons of it that attends to the Straits and Necessitys to which they are sometime reduced not excepting the Bishop of Sarum himself And thus by degrees have we trac'd our Prelate down to his fourth Discourse wherein he is pleas'd to charge the Dissenters with the Guilt of a needless Separation we hope presently to make it appear that his Lordship is Guilty of a much more needless Clamour but that we may the better discover the unreasonableness of that whole Party which raises such a dust about Separation and how unjustly they appropriate to themselves the Title of the Church of England we shall in few words attempt an impartial stating of this Case The Church of England is a thred-bare term that may signifie many things of a very different Nature which therefore ought not to be huddl'd up under one Name without some little Explication and since our Author hath not thought it at all advantageous to his Cause to give us any for your clearer insight into the present Controversie you may please Sir to take the following just distinctions First The Church of England may very properly signifie that part of the Catholick Church of Christ which is resident in England In this Sense the Church of England is neither one Sect of Christians nor another among us but every Man that hath given up himself to God in Christ by Baptism or hath been warrantably devoted by others in his Infancy and leads a Christian Life is truly a Member of it From the Church of England in this sense we neither do nor can separate but upon such Grounds as would Separate us from the Body of