Church as well as you if humane he enquires how consent in these makes a National Church and how they come to be of the National Church which do not consent in them and objects the differences among the Conformable Clergy in the exposition of some of the Articles of this Church To which the Dr. answers three things I shall take notice only of the last of them viz. There is no difference among us concerning the lawfulness of the orders of our Church and duty of submission to them if there be any other differences they are not material and I believe are no other than in the manner of explaining some things which may happen in the best society in the world without breaking the peace of it as about the difference of orders the sense of some passages in the Athanasian Creed the true explication of one or two Articles which are the things he i. e. Mr. B. mentions A multitude of such differences will never overthrow such a consent among us as to make us not to be members of the same National Church To the first lines of this Paragraph which concern the agreement of the Members of this Church in the lawfulness of its orders and the duty of submission to them I shall reply nothing To the rest I say I am perfectly of the Dr's opinion and were it reduced to practice it would heal the most of the divisions and put a period to most of the separations that have rent and torn this Church in pieces for many years Why might not the Dissenters among us have been permitted to have continued in the Ministry and in the Church though they differed in some things in their judgments from the Conformable Clergy Would it have broken the peace thereof any more than the various apprehensions that are at present among themselves They are not all of a mind in the five points some of them understand and believe them after the sense of Calvin and others after the sense of Arminius and I might mention many others wherein they differ among themselves but the thing is sufficiently known and there is no need of it And are the differences among the Conformists themselves reconcilable with peace and those wherein the Nonconformists differ from them though they be no greater than the other irreconcilable with it What strange partiality is this Conformists may differ in multitudes of things without breaking the peace of the Church but if those that are Dissenters differ from them in a few impertinent and uncertain things the peace of the Church is subverted and all things put into confusion thereby The Conformists doubt at least some of them whether Bishops and Presbyters do differ in order or in degree some are past all doubt concerning it and do affirm they differ in order and not barely in degree This breaks no peace The Nonconformists cannot find that Word of God whereby 't is certain that children indefinitely which are baptized dying before they commit actual siâ— are undoubtedly saved and they are not very sure that all children that are baptized are regenerate by the â—â—irit or that they may safely say of all that they bury that God of his great mercy hath taken to himself the soul of the deceased person and give him hearty thanks that it hath pleased him to deliver him out of the afflictions of this sinful world and these are such dreadful and formidable things that the Church cannot be safe if the Members or at least any of the Preachers in it dispute the truth of them and therefore out they must go and if they attempt to exercise their Ministerial Office after they are ejected they are immediately the most damnable Schismaticks that ever the world did know and Prisons Fines Confiscations Banishments and all that is evil is beneath their sin and trangression Why a difference of opinion in these things might not be consistent with peace as well as in others that are of as great and somewhat greater import at least in my apprehension I am not able to divine if nothing but Reason and Religion were to determine concerning them but if spight malice and revenge and some other of those Antichristian passions be called to counsel and permitted to judg of them 't is not difficult to give a reason of the differing natures of these differences why some are judged consistent with peace and others utterly inconsistent with it But enough of this paragraph I shall conclude with one supplication to all the Conformable Clergy in England on the behalf of the Dissenters and 't is this That they may be permitted to differ from them in things of no greater moment than those in which they differ among themselves If it be said 't is not in their power to permit it I answer Time was when it was very much in their power to have done it and I think they might do well to use some endeavours to retrieve it or at least give some evidence that they wish well to it This I think is no unreasonable request how it may be resented I know not 't is the love of this Church and the peace thereof that hath caused me to propose it and that shall satisfie my mind But having said this on the behalf of the Dissenters I must add a word or two on my own behalf and that is That a fair and passable sense may be and is put upon these passages mentioned from the Rubrick and Liturgy by the Conformable Clergy and amongst them by my self but what is that to those whose judgments and consciences will not permit them to put that sense upon them All mens minds are not cast in the same mould all cannot admit that latitude of sense and exposition in those and many other things that some men do and can without offence and neglect to their consciences and must they therefore be shut out of the Vineyard of the Lord and denied the liberty of working there Certainly this is a severe method of proceeding and hardly reconcilable with the Laws of Christianity The Learned Dr. in several places of his Book represents Mr. A. as unlearned unread and very weak in his reafoning and argumentations Page 174. he accuses him of childish trifling about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Canon and in the same page and that next to it he mislikes his explication of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leaving out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he observes from Grotius is not found in one Manuscript the sense whereof he thus expresses What we have attained let us walk up to the same and that Greek phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he says implies no more than minding that very thing viz. v. 14. pressing towards the mark and then adds But if he had pleased to have read on to Phil. 4.2 he would have found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie unanimity and St. Paul 1 Cor. 12.25 opposes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 th t there be
the necessary points of Christian faith and practice and Certificate be made thereof by the Minister of the Parish were duly practised and might attain to as great purity as is ever pretended to by the separate Congregations who now find so much fault for our want of discipline I wish with all my heart the Rules of the Church were reduced to practice which I am sure they never can nor will be whilst the Diocesses in England are of the present dimensions He that thinks any Bishop can confirm all the children in his Diocess doth but dream were he never so desirous of it and diligent in it 't were impracticable and the neglect and impracticableness of this thing is one great reason of the ignorance and wickedness of our Parishes and Congregations and thus 't is like to be till Diocesses be lessened and the number of Bishops encreased and some effectual care taken that children be instructed and confirmed Page 275. The Dr. asserts a power in the Presbyters of this Church to reject and deny the holy Sacrament to the scandalously wicked provided he give notice of it to the Ordinary within fourteen days and for this produces the Rubrick before the Communion I grant what the Rubrick allows but is not the Minister like to have a sine time of it if he must be bound to inform and prosecute all at Law that are scandalous and unfit to come to the holy Table The Dr. knows that all above the age of sixteen are bound to take the Sacrament three times a year by the Orders of this Church and in some great Parishes the number of the scandalous and wicked is so great that if the Minister be bound to prosecute all whom he accounts himself obliged in conscience to refuse the life of a Kennel-raker were more elegible than his for he must spend his time in perpetual travel and attendance upon Courts which is a very sine Employment for a man of piety and conscience and that desires to spend his time in his study and teaching and instructing the people committed to his care But the Dr. enquires What would you have every particular Pastor have an unaccountable power Or would you not have them bound to justifie what they do and prosecute the person for those faults for which they exclude him from the Communion I answer 1. I think it were not amiss if the excluded person were obliged to complain if he thought himself wronged and the Ministers were excused from doing the Office of an Apparitor but this I insist not on Therefore I add I plead not for an unaccountable power in particular Pastors but for such a power as they may account for which I am sure they can never do for this in great parishes and where the Diocesses are so large and wide and there is no man that will give himself the liberty to think can deny it The number of the scandalous is so great the distance from the Bishops Court in many places so far the tediousness and corruption of the Officers so abominable that it is a thing utterly impracticable 'T is impossible that any man can justifie himself in refusing to prosecute according to Canon all the scandalous that he may justly reject In brief either to talk or think of exercising Discipline or reforming this Church till we have more Bishops or Suffragans and other things altered which might be done if our Superiors pleased without altering the Constitution is to build Castles in the air and to dream of Rocks to set them on among the clouds of heaven Page 278. The Dr. quotes these words of Mr. B. If a Minister doth publickly admonish a person by name not censured by the Ordinary the Lawyers tell him he may have his Action against him To which he replies What need this publick admonition Doth the nature of Church-discipline lye in that To which I answer No man ever dreamt that the whole nature of Church-discipline consisted in publick admonition by name There are several intermediate acts of Discipline Publick admonition by name is not to be attempted till others have been essayed and tryed in vain And this publick admonition after the fruitless use of that which is private is that which Mr. B. says cannot legally be performed by the Presbyters of this Church But the Dr. makes a second Reply to those words of Mr. B. If a restraint be laid on Ministers by Law the question then comes to this Whether the obligation to admonish publickly an offender or to deny him the Sacrament if he will come to it be so great as to bear him out in the violation of a Law made by publick Authority with a design to preserve our Religion To which I answer I do not think that Ministers are obliged to admonish publickly all offenders after the unsuccessful tryal of private means and endeavours though no Law forbad it Pearls are not to be cast before Swine If the person or persons be such as will mischief wound or kill the Minister that should so admonish him or them I think he is not obliged to do it but whether out of that case and others of like nature a Minister may not be obliged to do it is another question yea though the Law should forbid it And 't is another question whether he be obliged to give such a person the holy Sacrament though the Law should command it Mans Laws are not valid against Gods If God obliges Ministers to publick admonition of scandalous and incorrigible offenders and to refuse them a participation in the holy mysteries of our Religion no man can take off the obligation Page 281. The Dr. says The due exercise of discipline is a work of so much prudence and difficulty that the greatest Zealots for it have not thought it fit to be trusted in the hands of every Parochial Minister and his particular Congregation and for this he quotes Calvin and Beza To which I answer I believe there are very few Parish-priests in England that are ambitious of having the exercise of discipline committed to their care and conduct and indeed very many of them have neither piety or prudence sufficient for the management of it But withall I must add I should be very sorry and some are very worthy of blame if it be so if most Parish-Ministers be not as capable of it as Chancellors Commissaries Officials and Surrogates who are the people that exercise what Discipline is exercised in this Church and 't is sufficiently known that many of them are persons of none of the greatest understandings the best prudence the tenderest consciences or the severest lives which yet are qualifications hugely necessary in persons that manage the Discipline of the Church In brief I condemn not the prudence of the Church of England in not committing the exercise of Discipline to every Parish-Minister but then I would humbly move that we might have Bishops enough to do it The Dr. appropriates to Bishops Government Ordination
and Censures and I am very well content they have them provided they will or can discharge them But of the impossibility of that I am past doubt for though the Diocesses of our English Bishops be not so great as that of the Pope which the Dr. acknowledges to be too great and spacious yet I think they are too large for their management and that the duty incumbent on them with respect unto them is utterly impracticable Mount Athos Polion or Ossa are neither of them so great as the Globe of the earth yet they are all burthens utterly insupportable Whether the Dr. will allow this multiplication of Bishops or Suffragans rather that the name Bishop may not become too common and so become less venerable I cannot tell I find him in many places of his Book and in his Preface very jealous of the honour of our Reformation and positively resolved never to condemn the Constitution of this Church nor the lawfulness of the Ceremonies hitherunto practised in it vide Pref. p. 89. I have my self a very great esteem for the Reformation of this Church and a mighty honour for the great and incomparable Hero's that were the Reformers of it but 't is no disparagement to say they were but men though the greatest men nor is it any Reproach to the Reformation to say it was imperfect The Learned and Pious Dr. Burnet hath observed divers defects and imperfections in it and I know not how they can be denied and to speak the truth concerning it is not to reproach it And what if it should be said that among others 't was an imperfection in our Reformation that the number of Bishops was not increased so far as that they might be sufficient for the work and duty incumbent on them Can a Bishop inspect the Clergy in a Diocess of the present dimensions can he exercise the Censures of the Church upon all the culpable delinquents in it can he confirm all the Children in it can he ordain Priests for all the Parishes therein with that circumspection wariness and care which was observed by the primitive Bishops and which the honour of this Church the Christian Religion and the salvation of souls doth require Doth the Reverend Dr. think those things can be done by any the most diligent and industrious Bishop on earth I dare say he cannot think it possible and if he doth not think it possible I would enquire further of him whether he does not think it very necessary and desirable that all this work were put into more hands that they may be capable of performing it for till then I am much assured it can never be done however necessary or desirable it may be These things being said I will now add I shall never desire the Dr. to condemn the Constitution of this Church nor will I brlieve many of the Nonconformists desire him to do it but I would humbly desire him to put to his helping hand for the amendment and perfecting of it and to perfect and compleat it is not to condemn it 't is only to confess it a little short of that perfection that it may attain and what great work is perfect of a sudden at its birth into the world In brief Diocesan Episcopacy I like and that 's the Constitution of this Church and so doth Mr. B. for ought that I can see but I would fain have more Bishops not to controul Episcopal Power but to assist in the performance of Episcopal Duty Page 301. The Dr. undertakes to confute what Mr. B. had said viz. that wherever there is the true notion of a Church there must be a constitutive regent part i. e. a standing governing power which is an essential part of it and this he promises to do from Mr. B. himself How well he hath done it let the Reader judg by what the Author of the Peaceable Design hath replied to him upon this Subject But the Dr. infers from what Mr. B. had said of the necessity of a Regent Head to every Church as followeth And so Mr. B's Constitutive Regent part of a Church hath done the Pope a wonderful kindness and made a very plausible plea for his universal Pastorship But there are some men in the world who do not attend to the advantages they give to Popery so they may vent their spleen against the Church of England To which I answer Mr. B's Constitutive Regent part of a Church hath done the Pope no kindness at all for another visible Head may be assigned to the Catholick Church and that is the holy Jesus he is both the visible and invisible Head thereof he is unto it both a Head of government and a Head of influence he governs it by his Laws and by the influence of his Spirit and hath appointed inferiour officers for the government and direction of it according to his own institutions and though he be not seen by mortals here below yet he is visible and that is enough to constitute him the visible Head of the Catholick visible Church There are some Kingdoms that never see their Prince and in all Kingdoms multitudes of Subjects that never lay their eyes on him and yet he is never the less their Civil visible Head But there are some men in the world that will take very small occasions to signifie their displeasure against Mr. B. and what hath he done to deserve their lash and why must he be the Subject of these most twinging Satyrs they are the words of a late Author and what is the spleen that he vents against the Church of England that makes their choler to ferment and boyl 'T is true Mr. B. doth with a brave and generous courage rebuke what he thinks amiss in the gnvernours and government of the Church of England he speaks plainly and without respect of persons he flatters none nor fawns upon none but indifferently reproves whatever he thinks worthy of it in whomsoever it be And if this be to vent his spleen against the Church of England I think he hath very venerable patterns and examples for it both in the Old Testament and the New as this Learned Dr. very well knows If it should be said that Mr. B. reproves where there is no fault I answer I should much rejoice if this were true and I believe so would Mr. B. as well as I but he must shut his eyes against the mid-day light that thinks there is no fault in the Government of this Church or nothing worthy of the plainest and most keen reproofs therein 'T were very easie to name many things if a man delighted to rake in Sinks and Kennels I mean the proceedings in the Spiritual Courts Page 302. The Dr. tells us that Mr. B. had said in his Answer to his Sermon that he would fain learn of him what those rules and ties are which make a National Church whether divine or humane If it be a divine rule we says Mr. B. are of the National