be no schisms amongst you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment And what says he to the Romans Now the God of patience and consolation grant Rom. 15.5 6. that ye be like-minded one towards another after the example of Christ Jesus that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ And so it was from the beginning from the very first plantation of the Church they were of one heart and of one soul and united in one communion in all sacred Offices Acts 2.42 they continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers They held a strict communion with the Guides and Governours of the Church in the profession of the same Faith in the use of the same Sacraments and all other sacred Offices 'T is true the Apostle did foretell of false Apostles deceitful workers that would stir up schisms Acts 20.30 and bring in damnable heresies Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw Disciples after them But he does inveigh against them bitterly 1 Cor. 3.3 4. For ye are yet carnal for whereas there is among you envying and strife and factions are ye not carnal and walk as men for while one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollo are ye not carnal As the Apostle does condemn them so he prescribes an Antidote against them Rom. 16.17 Now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have received and avoid them Here we have our own sad malady divisions and offences and here we may find out certain cure if we will apply the remedy attentively to mark and carefully to avoid them But this goodly Projector tells us these Dissenters have some Grounds for their difference and 't were hard if they could find nothing to say for themselves but what is it Pag. 7. Mostly he says about Church Government and some Forms of Worship apprehended to be not so pure and Apostolical as could be desired And yet if we may give any credit to Church History this Government is at least as ancient as the plantation of Churches by the Apostles and these Forms of Worship having passed the test of sundry Disputes Debates and Conferences they are apprehended very pure and Apostolical by the most Pious Learned and Judicious and as such have received a Civil Sanction for their Establishment from the Supreme Authority whose Determinations if the Projector be to be believed are not to be superseded or controlled Pag. 2. But we have a more sure word of Prophecy whereto we should do well to take heed Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers And Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lord's sake And again Obey them that are your guides and have the rule over you and submit your selves Here is Apostolical and that is Divine Authority for it and that to be sure is uncontrollable And are there not Authentic Rules and Canons to direct this Authority Let us examine the Sacred Text. Amongst those Rules two are in effect Negative whereof the one seems more especially to concern such as are in Authority and the other such as are under the command of that Authority The Apostles and Pastors under the Gospel as well as the Prophets under that ancienter Dispensation were subject to like passions as other men And passion in some might be apt to sway them to rigour and severity and possibly they might be precipitant and impose something less convenient out of stifness and contention And on the other side Ambition might warp others to popularity and incline them to study how to gratifie the humour of the people to the prejudice of the Church for their own applause Hereupon the Holy Ghost by the Apostle lays down this Rule Phil. 2.3 Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory Again among such as are or should be under Obedience some are knowing brisk and witty apt to be full of objection or scruple men of this temper will be ready as this Projector is to dispute their duty when they should perform it Others more phlegmatic and dull of apprehension though not active and subtil enough to dispute yet may be froward and stubborn enough to murmur Hence the Holy Ghost by the hand of the same Apostle lays down another Rule Ib. ver 14. Do all things without murmurings or disputings And two other Rules this Apostle gives that are more positive and determine the business more directly 1 Cor. 10.31 Let all things be done to the glory of God this is the first and great Canon 1 Cor. 14.49 and the second is like unto it Let all things be done decently and in order Decently to procure Reverence and according to order to promote edification And on these two hang all the matter of Forms Rites and Ceremonies which relate to God's Worship And whether these Rules and Canons Apostolical be observ'd with due care prudence and moderation in our Establishment let the Reader consult Dr. Puller and Mr. Falkner Seeing then as was said by the honest Town-clerk of Ephesus that these things cannot be spoken against ye ought to be quiet and to do nothing rashly This Projector will have nothing else to do but either to evict the iniquity of those Rules and this Establishment which though oft attempted was never yet done to any degree of Conviction or Evidence or else to shew himself an humble Christian by his due conformity and to call upon such as he has misled to follow his good Example And then we shall have no more marks no more names or titles of division but being perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment we shall peaceably accord in the same practice and then every man shall sit down quietly under his own Vine and follow his own Imployment There will be no more noise of Sequestrations or Suspensions no more leading into prison no more Church Censures no more complaining in our streets The King will receive his full due of Customs and Contributions you and I shall not stand in need of the Charity of a Forein Hand we shall become good Samaritans to one another And as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy and on the Israel of God To draw to a Conclusion When the Royal Prophet describes an Insurrection and Conspiracy against the King of Saints exalted unto his Throne upon the holy Hill of Sion which is the Church after he has check'd the insolency of the Adversaries by a chiding Expostulation he descends to a gentle Admonition directed to such as wear and manage the Supreme Authority Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye that are Judges of the earth Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce unto
A Seasonable Corrective TO THE ONE PROJECT FOR THE GOOD OF ENGLAND INTENDED For God's Glory and the Good of Souls AND Dedicated to the KING and his Great Council Psal 119.85 Narraverunt mihi superbi fabulationes sed non ut Lex tua LONDON Printed by A. G. and J. P. for Robert Clavel at the Peacock in S. Paul's Churchyard 1680. A Seasonable Corrective TO THE One Project For the GOOD of ENGLAND AFter so many Contrivances as have been on foot to ruin us I am glad to see One Project come forth that pretends to the Good of England But what is' t Our Civil Vnion this Projector saith is our Civil Safety A plausible Assertion I confess but like the Prophet's slight wall 't is dawb'd with untemper'd morter Ezek. 13.10 For as it stands naked in this design without Religion or Divine Assistance it comes very short of solid Truth For Prov. 16.5 though hand joyn in hand the arrogant in heart shall not go unpunished Were we exempt from the Jurisdiction of Heaven I might have some inclination to believe his Proposition But when God is suppos'd to preside over a Society Irreligion and Profaneness maugre Civil Vnion will violate that People's Sanctuary and provoke Divine Justice first to chastise and without Repentance to proceed at last with them to extirpation This Projector therefore observes very well at the entrance upon his Design that Religion is the noblest end of man's life and the best bond of human society which a man would think should therefore be our greatest Interest But the mischief of it is he says Men do err in the meaning of that excellent Word and therefore he will have nothing to do with it in his Project And yet to put it off rather than settle it he tells us the Scripture interprets it to be loving God above all and our Neighbours as our selves But this Projector should have look'd a little further upon the Text and then he would have found it added that on these two hang all the Law and the Prophets And these without all question will bring in a Church Interest And the Lord both of the Law and the Prophets from whom this Projector borrowed that Periphrasis of Religion gives his Disciples in charge to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's And this certainly provides for our Religion as well as for our Civil Interest But whatever is said by Christ and his Apostles this grand Projector is to seek for his Religion and would have us to be so too For as yet he says 't is too early in the day to fix such a Religion upon which mankind will readily agree as a common Basis for Civil Society With this Projector we see Religion is made nothing else but Reason of State which Christianity has no alliance to nor was it understood by Christ and his Apostles And even at this time a day this Projector can resolve it into nothing but Opinion and Form whereby Human Society comes to be shaken and Civil Government to suffer a Revolution But Quis tulerit Graccos Does not this Projector herein deliver his own practice and the practice of his dissenting Brethren whom no Model or Moderation no Reformation or Settlement can satisfie but having abandoned the Communion of that Church into which they were baptized upon a Phantasie to new Opinions without form or solid ground they project to unhinge the State and to undermine the Government that they may have the more liberty to seek a new Religion if they could tell what in the rubbish of the old Insomuch as when we reflect upon the unbridled Rage about the name of Religion without the power and practice we cannot but conclude that really they have none at all This therefore is no Concern of this Projector Whatever becomes of God's glory and the state of immortal souls the sacred Institutions of the Gospel and the Ordinances of Divine Worship this Gallio cares for none of these things He can love God invisibly and if His Divine Majesty please to have no command in force but what may stand with his good liking he may perhaps do him the civility to obey it For all the Interest he pleads for is onely a pursuit of his own phancy under pretence of Civil Safety but without any regard to Religion or God's glory and that is in reference to God without any regard to truth and justice He treats of Government in abstraction for he tells us nothing of the subject wherein 't is vested that he leaves perhaps to the hazard of catch as catch may But to make amends for this he tells us Pag. 2. his Government must have a Supreme Authority in it self to determin and not to be superseded or controlled by any other Powers for then it would not be a Government but a Subjection which is a plain contradiction But if there be such a Government among us though he does not actually supersede yet he does vigorously attempt to controll it and so in practice he contradicts his own Principle The good of the whole he says meaning all the parts and members of Society is the Civil Interest of the whole and that Civil Interest is the foundation and rise the reason and end of Civil Government But if by the good of the whole he means nothing else but the quiet possession of Civil Rights I must deny that to be the first original and sole end of Civil Government Government as it derives from Heaven so doubtless it is obliged to make Heaven its last and highest end from whence it has its first rise and authoritative foundation So it was in all Governments which own'd God for their Author and amongst all People who believe the Immortality of the Soul and the being of another world And if this Projector reckons Souls to be any part of that whole he speaks of then the good of Souls must be a part of that Interest which the Government is concerned to take care of And if so I shall conclude with him that the maintenance of this Interest entire is the preservation of Government And if men take themselves to be so much obliged when they are secur'd in their Civil Rights sure they must be mad men if they be not hugely more endear'd when they are secur'd in their Interest for Salvation and Life Eternal 'T is granted to this Projector that the Government is not obliged to protect such as are enemies to its constitution and safety nor to protect such as have a veneration for any other Jurisdiction or Power as superiour to it self whether Forein or Domestic makes no difference in the case but this that there is the more danger to be feared from an Enemy that is lodged in our own bowels For it is not enough to disclaim the Pope's Supremacy if they have a project in reserve to set up a Supremacy of their own and instead of being
Protestants in opposition to the Popish Edicts of Charles the Fifth of Germany they take the name and title of Protestant in opposition to the wholesom Laws of Charles the Second of England 'T is granted likewise to be the Interest of all Protestants to unite against the forein Authority of the Pope but a Negative Vnion will signifie little to our security against the Power of it For such an Vnion we have with Turks Jews and Heathens who have an equal aversion to Popery with our selves But with this negative Union we see there may be and is a positive division and that Aphorism of our Saviour is still in force in spight of all such pretended negative Unions A Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand To keep up ours therefore there is a necessity of a compliance towards a firmer Union And if such as are thorowly addicted to this Church take fire at your aversions to it 't is out of a pious design to melt you into so much Christian Charity as may dispose you to run into one Communion that their Forces and yours united may be the stronger and the more effectual to oppose the common Enemy But that men who are espoused to the Church of England should at the same time be devoted to the Church of Rome or act a part for it Nothing but a stupid and affected Ignorance or a spiteful Malice could suggest For before they can do this they must be abandoned of their Reason and Common Sense too and yet thinking men cannot but look upon them as the most if I may not say the onely invincible Champions of this Orthodox Church against all Attempts of the Forein Power of Rome and this they find themselves obliged unto upon grounds irrefragable that is their certain knowledge that in giving way to the Popish Faction they should betray their Conscience and all their Interests together That the Church of Rome aims at the restauration of her Empire over us is no news to us To this end 't is visible she bestirs her self to inflame the Reckoning amongst Protestants But if it be her Artifice to personate the Dissenter as we see it is and not the true Conformist as the best Expedient she has left to compass her tyrannous and ambitious ends it must needs be of great importance with all Dissenters if conscientious to let fall their private Animosities against us and close with the Interest of this Church to frustrate the designs of Rome which their division helps to carry on Pag. 6. whereas their uniting in the common Interest would secure the Government from all danger of Subversion by rendering it too formidable for the Attempt This being the Case let us turn the Tables and take leave to ask the precise Dissenters of this Kingdom some few such Questions as this Projector puts to the Clergy of the Church of England mutatis mutandis Is Non-conformity to the Government and solemn Worsbip of God here established amongst us dearer to them than England 's Interest and the common cause of Protestancy Is their love to Church-division greater than to the Church it self and her Religion than to their native Countrey her Laws and Liberties Or lastly Whether in case they are sincere in their sorry Allegations for their Dissent which I confess ingenuously I am apt to suspect it is to be supposed that the present Non-conformists are better able of themselves to secure Protestancy and our Civil Interest against the Attempts of Rome than in conjunction with the Interest of the Church of England If they say Yes I would have them at the same time for the same reason give it under their hands that 't is a standing Rule in Arithmetick that one is more than six and that hitherto we have been all mistaken in the Art of Numbers Being brought to this pinch I conceive whatever they say they resolve to run the hazard of falling under the power and designs of Popery rather than suffer the present English Church to stand This is such a desperate piece of Bigotry to pay this Projector back in his own coyn as the Civil Government is highly concerned to discountenance for this dissipates the People impairs Trade foments Jealousies and endangers the Peace and Welfare of the whole And what should a Prince be more tender of than suffering the Civil Interest of a great People to be disturb'd and narrow'd for the humour of a dissenting peevish Party I might follow this great Projector through his whole Harangue and turn his whole Train of Artillery upon himself and beat off at least if not quite batter down all the Pretensions of the dissenting Brethren with it But I 'le spare them onely I cannot forbear to tell him that he does not carry himself so ingenuously as he should do towards that Sovereign Authority which he declares should not be superseded or controlled in what it does determine for when he has sharpened his Weapon and made it keen enough for Execution he turns the edge of it directly and purposely against the establish'd Law of that Sovereign Authority Whereas if he had dealt honestly like a good Subject according to his own Principles the Arguments which he draws from the danger of our divisions should have been press'd not upon the Church but the Non-conformists For 't is clear they are Dissenters to the Law or at least offer to supersede and controul the Government before they do actually divide themselves from our Communion And here I must tell this Confident Projector they do controul the Civil Government whose Act Will and Determination that Law is And to go a little further with him I shall grant him that the difference betwixt the Papist and the Protestant is not precisely Religious nor chiefly such 't is a Civil Empire and a Secular Interest consequent thereto which the Church of Rome aims at though they are cunning enough to palliate their Pretences with the specious but frivolous distinction of In ordine ad spiritualia And I think there are very few discerning persons guilty of that mistake which this Projector would seem to rectifie in that case But before he pretends to remove the other Mistake as he calls it let him attempt to do a miracle that is to remove mountains Betwixt Protestants we must understand those of the Church of England and their Dissenters there is no civil difference if we may take his word for it Those Dissenters are at a Ne plus ultra on the behalf of the English Government as well as themselves They neither acknowledge nor submit to any other Authority They hold the one common Civil Head and not onely acquiesce in the distribution of Justice by Law but embrace it as the best part of their Patrimony And I pray how long is' t since this Hercules has become so tame or weary as to set up his pillars with this Inscription Is King CHARLES that common Head and is he so In all Causes and over all Persons
his Accomplices Ye take too much upon you All the Congregation are holy Or had they been in any vogue when the Saviour of the World came with perfect Innocency attended with a miraculous power to beat down Satan's Kingdom they would have said as the Chief Priests and Pharisees did If we let him thus alone They shew'd their malice in his Condemnation and the Romans came to avenge his Innocency all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation But wisdom is justified of her children and to use this Projector 's own words No Ignorance can excuse such Zeal nor can wise men believe it to be the product of either Ignorance or Zeal but a trick to take down the Throne and weaken Soveraignty that themselves may with the less hazard gain possession of the Chair To this purpose he projects a Civil Government fit onely for an Utopia or an Isle of Pines where Religion is of no concern nor supposed to be any part of the People's Interest And if we can imagin a Society of men brought forth into the world without the help of Parents or the nursery of common Education a people without hope and without God in the world where there is no belief of Heaven or Hell but a persuasion that the Soul evaporates with the breath and is quite extinguish'd at the dissolution of the Body there haply the Civil Interest this Projector pleads for may stand alone upon its own bottom And yet at this time a day 't is very hard for us to believe it for we are taught 't is God that makes men to be of one mind whether in a House or in a Kingdom That God is in the midst of it therefore the holy city shall not be moved with Tumults Psal 48.3 because God is known in her Palaces for a refuge But unless the Lord doth first build and then watch it man's pains are to little purpose to secure it But this Projector is for a civil Vnion without the cement of Divine Providence and for a civil Safety without the guard of a Divine Protection Insomuch that when a man reflects seriously upon his Invectives against the Loyal Clergy and his making the Church not the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3.15 but an empty name he must needs find himself under a great temptation to believe that this Projector was designed to pull down the Church and advance Atheism But God is so great an Enemy to Atheism and Irreligion that if men will not know him otherwise he will make himself known to them by the execution of his Judgments And so great a Lover he is of such as are sincerely religious that S. Austin imputes the long prosperity of the Roman Empire to the sincerity of their Zeal though their Religion was erroneous And some have made the like Observation upon the Turkish Empire 'T is time for us therefore to be awakened when we are alarm'd by such Projectors and to inquire a little more strictly into our own belief Did the Son of God come down from Heaven and really suffer death upon the Cross to purchase himself a Church When he had done this with so much sweat and torments did he leave that Church exposed and an Orphan Did he not promise that Kings should be nursing fathers and Queens nursing mothers to it Did he not promise also that they should bring their glory and their honour into the Church with them Isa 60. and that the Nations should walk in the light thereof 'T is true Apoc. 21. Christ's Kingdom is not of this world but 't is in this world for all that And if the Church be in the Empire 't is as well the interest as the duty of that Empire to take care of it And if the Church be Christ's Kingdom as without all doubt it is to suffer that Kingdom to have no share in our Affairs no influence into the Conduct of our Conversation will certainly draw upon us the guilt of a Nolumus hunc regnare and make us to be look'd upon as Christ's enemies and then what will become of our Civil Safety But if God be taken into the Constitution as the Author of it if his Sovereign Power be acknowledged the foundation of our Government if his Wisdom and Providence be concern'd in the support of it then the Holy Oracle without doubt is to be confuted and we are to consider that in all reason we are obliged to serve him if we expect he should preserve us and we should consult his Honour that he may establish ours Does the honour then of the Civil Governour consist in the multitude of his People So does God's Does the safety of the Government consist in the Vnion Vnanimity and Regularity of that Multitude The preservation of God's solemn Worship and Service does so too If therefore we are so zealous for a Civil Vnion for the Honour of our Prince and Countrey why not as zealous for a Church Vnion for the Honour of our blessed God And if their Union onely in a Civil Interest makes a People so formidable and secure against the Attempts of a common enemy will not the addition of another Interest be a further addition to their strength and grandeur Doubtless their Vnion in a Religious Interest will much more endear them rivet them the closer and make them stand more firm and steddy against all Forein Opposition 'T is this will make our Jerusalem impregnable And this caused the Psalmist to celebrate the concord and communion of that Church and People with so much Ecstasie Psal 133.1 Joh. 17.24 Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity 'T is this occasion'd that ardent Prayer of our Saviour that his Disciples may be one and be made perfect in one This was the ground of the Apostle's Gratulation and Rejoycing for the Colossians c. 2.5 Their order and the stedfastness of their faith in Christ Yet our bold Projector does not so much as dream of such a Church Vnion as if it were impossible But is not such an Vnion and Vnity in a National Church possible I say in a National Church De Consecrat d. 4. cap. de trina mersione for of the Catholick Church that of Gregory is most certain In una fide nihil afficit sanctae Ecclesiae consuetudo diversa But for a particular Church of one denomination such Vnion and Vnity is under command and duty and therefore possible What saith the Apostle to the Ephesians Eph. 4.1 4. I the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace And what says he to the Corinthians Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 1.10 that ye all speak the same thing and that there