her In order to which I will therefore briefly and plainly describe the true notion of Schism In hopes that when men shall understand wherein the guilt of it lyes they will avoid the evil as well as abominate the consequence Schism is a voluntary departure or separation of ones self without just cause given from that Christian Church whereof he was once a member or Schism is a breach of that Communion wherein a man might have continued without sin First I call it a Departure or Separation from the Society of the Church to distinguish it from other sins which though they are breaches of the Laws of our Religion and consequently of the Church yet are not a renunciation of the Society For as there may be a sickly infirm nay an ulcerous member and yet a member of the body So there may be such a person who for his wickedness deserves well to be cast out of the Church as being a scandal and dishonour to it yet neither separating himself nor being cast out of the Society remains still a member of it Now what it is that imports a mans separation of himself or departure from the Church we shall easily understand for it is no more but this When a man shall either expresly declare that he doth renounce such a Society or shall refuse to joyn in the acts and exercises of Religion used by such a Society and to submit to its Authority So he separates that refuses Baptism the Lord Supper or to submit unto the Censures of a Church and sufficiently declares that he owns himself no longer of it Secondly I call it a Voluntary Separation to distinguish sin from punishment or Schism from Excommunication For though the last makes a man no member of a Church yet it is supposed involuntary and he doth not make himself so Thirdly I call it a departure from a particular Church of Christ or from a part of the visible Church to distinguish it from Apostasie which is a casting off of the whole Religion the name and profession of Christianity and not only the particular Society but the Schismatick is he that retaining the Religion in general or at least a pretence of it changes his Society associates himself with or makes up some other body in opposition to that whereof he formerly was Fourthly I add those words whereof he was a member because Schism imports division and making two of that which was but one before And so Turks Pagans Jews cannot be called Schismaticks having never been of the Church These things I suppose are all generally agreed of The only difficulty is in that which I subjoyn in these words an unnecessary separation or without just cause or to separate from that Society wherein I may continue without sin And here we meet with opposition on both sides some defining too strictly and others extending too far the causes of Separation Of the first sort are the Zealots of the Church of Rome who scarcely allow any thing as a sufficient cause of Separation for being conscious of so many and great Corruptions in their Church they know they can scarce allow any thing as a just cause of Separation that will not be in danger to be used against themselves and justifie the recession of all Protestants from them But on the other side some Protestants make the causes of Separation as many and as light as the Jews did of Divorce almost for any matter whatsoever Josephus put away his Wife as himself tells us because she was not mannerly enough another his because he saw a handsomer than she a third his because she drest not his dinner well As these Jews did by their Wives so do many Christians by the Church One likes not her dress another thinks her too costly in her ornaments a third phansies some German beauty or other that he hath seen in his travails and all to make way for new Amours upon very slender pretences repudiate their former choice But as our Saviour when the Case was put found out a middle way betwixt allowing Divorce for no cause at all and for every cause so ought it to be done in this business of Schism To hit this mark therefore I say that then and then only is there just cause of Separation when Perseverance in the Communion of such a Church cannot be without sin that is when she shall impose such Laws and terms of Society as cannot be submitted to without apparent breach of the Divine Law And upon this foundation I doubt not but we shall quit our selves well on both sides that is both justifie our Recession from the Church of Rome and demonstrate the unwarrantableness of this Separation of the Protestants of this Kingdom from the Communion of the Church of England For it 's plain on the one hand that it cannot be sin to separate when it is sin to communicate since no Laws of men can abrogate or dissolve the obligation of the express Laws of God And on the other it is as plain that Schism being so great a sin and of so extream bad consequence that which must acquit me of the guilt of it in my separation can be nothing less than equal danger on the other hand and that when I may persevere without sin it must of necessity be a sin to separate upon inferiour dislikes This methinks is so plain that I wonder any doubt should be admitted of in the case Notwithstanding because I observe some men think to wash their hands of the imputation of Schism upon other terms as namely Although a Church shall not require or impose such conditions of Communion as are expresly sinful yet if she shall require indifferent unnecessary or at most suspected things that in this case there is enough to excuse the person that shall separate from a participation of this sin And also because this opinion bears it self up by the great name of Mr. Hales as his declared judgement in a little Tract of Schism now very much in the hands of men I will therefore for the clearing of this matter say these three things 1. I willingly acknowledge that such a Church as shall studiously or carelesly clog her Communion with unnecessary burdensome and suspected conditions is very highly to blame yet is it neither burdensomness nor every light suspicion of sin but a plain necessity or certainty of sin in complyance that can justifie my Separation forasmuch as I cannot be discharged from a plain duty but by an equal plainness of the sin And for this phrase suspected it is so loose and uncertain that there is no hold of it men will easily suspect what they have no mind to and Suspicion having this priviledge we shall quickly evacute every uneasie duty and instead of guiding our selves by Gods Word and sound reasoning we shall give our selves up to the conduct of Passion Melancholy and Secular Interest 2. If the non-necessity of some of the terms of Communion be a warrant of
separation then there can be no such sin as Schism at all forasmuch as there never was nor probably ever will be such a Church as required nothing of those in her Communion but things strictly and absolutely necessary as I have shewed partly in the Introduction and could easily make appear at large through all Ages And then may the Author of the Tract about Schism securely as he doth somewhat too lightly call it only a Theological Scarcrow 3. It will be manifest to any considering person that some things are necessary to the Constitution and Administration of a particular Church that are not in themselves necessary absolutely considered And of this I will give two instances The first in the Apostles times The abstaining from things strangled and blood was by the Council at Jerusalem adjudged and declared necessary to be observed by the Gentiles in order to an accomodation betwixt them and the Jews of which I shall say more hereafter and yet I suppose scarce any body thinks the observation of that abstinence so enjoyned necessary in it self The second instance shall be Church-Government Whatever disputes there are about the several Forms of it as whether it ought to be Monarchical or Aristocratical Episcopal or Consistorial and whatever zeal for opinion may transport men to say in favour of either of them yet I suppose few or none will affirm that either of these Forms is absolutely necessary for if one be of absolute necessity the other must be absolutely unlawful and not only so but then also those that do not receive that absolutely necessary Form can be no Churches for that Society which is defective in absolutely necessaries can be no Christian Church Notwithstanding it is not only lawful to determine and define this unnecessary point but it is necessary to the constitution of every particular Church that it be defined one way or other I mean so far as concerns that Church for if this be left indifferent in this particular Church as perhaps it is in it self in the general it is manifest there can be no Superiour nor Inferiour no Governour nor governed no Order and consequently a meer Rout and no Church Therefore some things not necessary in themselves not only may but must be defined in a particular Church and consequently it will be no just exception against a Church nor excuse from Schism if we separate from that Communion because such definitions are made in it CHAP. III. Of the nature and importance of those things that are scrupled or objected against in this Church and that they are such as may without sin be sacrificed to Peace and therefore cannot excuse us from sin in separating from the Church upon their account IT is the custome of those that have a mind to quarrel to aggravate and heighten the causes of discontent to the end that the ensuing mischief may not be imputed to the frowardness of their temper but to the greatness of the provocation And passion is such a Magnifying-glass as is able to extend a Mole-hill to a Mountain The way of Peace therefore is to take just measures of things and as upon the account of Truth we must not make the matters of our dispute less than they are so for the sake of both Truth and Peace we ought not to make them greater Wherefore if men would be perswaded to set aside passion and calmly consider the nature and just value of those things that we in this Church are divided upon we should then be so far from seeing reason to perpetuate our distance and animosities that we should on the contrary be seized with wonder and indignation that we have hitherto been imposed upon so far as to take those things for great deformities which upon mature consideration are really nothing worse than Moles which may be upon the most beautiful face To this purpose therefore having in the former Chapter represented the nature of Schism and the guilt and mischiefs attending it I proceed now to shew the unreasonableness of the temptations to it I mean the littleness and small importance of the Objections against this Church and that neither any of them single nor all of them together can countervail the blessing of Peace or the evil of Division In order hereto I will first shew that the causes of Dissensions amongst us are not like those upon which we separated from the Roman Communion 2. That something must be given for Peace by them that will have it 3. That all the scruples and objections against this Church are not too great a price to pay for it 1. Touching the first it is said by some in heat and passion That there is as much cause for secession from this Church now as there was from the Roman in the time of our Ancestors but with no more reason than if the arguments and discourses written against a notorious Tyrant and Usurper should be turned against a good and lawful Prince As will easily be manifest if we consider the just state of the case on either hand We could not continue in the Roman Church upon any better conditions than Nahash propounded to the men of Jabesh Gilead 1 Sam. 11. to put out our right Eyes that we might be fit for her blind devotion We must for the sake of Peace have denyed the Faith renounced our Reason and contradicted our very Senses That Church instead of instructing men in knowledge professes to nurse them up in ignorance in lieu of the Scriptures it gives them Traditions and instead of such things as were from the beginning and the faith once delivered to the Saints it prescribes those things that had their beginning from private interests and secular advantages They make seven Secraments five more than Christ ever intended for such and take away from the people the half of one of those he expresly instituted and enjoyned They teach men to pray to Saints instead of God and to use a Language in their Devotions which he that pronounces understands no more than the Saint he prayes to doth his Needs and Requests Nay they give divine honour to a piece of Bread and must swallow Idolatry in spite of their teeth herein little better than the Aegyptians who worshipt that for a God which they put into their Bellies They have taken away one of the Ten Commandments and have arts of evacuating allthe rest for they elude the necessity of a true and serious Repentance and subvert the principles of holy Life In short they have brought in Pageantry instead of Piety and Devotion effaced the true lineaments of Christianity and instead thereof recommended and obtruded upon the world the dictates of Ambition the artifices of Gain and a colluvies of almost all the Superstitions Errors and Corruptions of former Ages and this must be received and swallowed by all those that will continue in that Communion These things could not be submitted to without grievous Sin and manifest danger of Damnation therefore
Party hath gone for Holiness of Life Men have been busie in making new Creeds and have forgotten to practise the old one And since the Empire hath been divided into East and West Churches have been at defiance and as opposite to each other as those points are In short the once famous Greek Churches are now over-run with so squalid a Barbarism that little but the Name of Christianity is left amongst them And the Roman Church whose Faith was famous and spoken of through all the world is now as infamous for Usurpation Superstition and Cruelty and so deformed with Pagan Rites and mundane Policies that Christianity is the least part of her What shall we take to be the reason of this general Defection Was it only Novelty and not its intrinsick Goodness and Reasonableness that commended this Religion to the World that the longer it lasts the less it signifies Or are the Principles of Christianity effete like the Causes of the Gentile Oracles as Plutarch discourses that all the motives of Virtue and Holiness have now so little influence upon mens tempers and lives Or is it true that was said of old Religio peperit divitias filia devoravit matrem since Churches have been endowed men have espoused only the Fortune and not the Faith Or is the true reason that of old Christianity was deeply rooted in the Hearts of men and brought forth the fruits of good works in their Lives whereas now it is only a barren notion in mens Heads and is productive of nothing but leaves of Opinion and Profession Then it was the employment of mens hearts in meditation of their knees in devotion of their hands in distribution and beneficence now it is become the entertainment of mens ears in hearing novelty of their tongues and lips in censuring and disputing But whatever the causes have been such is the condition of Religion generally in the Greek and Latin Churches and I doubt if we come nearer home we shall not find things much better This Island of Britain had the glory not only to be the native Countrey of Constantine the first Christian Emperour but a far Greater that under Lucius it received the Christian Faith first of any great Kingdom in the world Britannorum loca Romanis inaccessa Christo verò subdita saith Tertullian The Cross made a more effectual as well as a more happy Conquest here than all the Roman Powers could do And this Northern Climate was not only thus early enlightned with the beams of the Sun of Righteousness but had life and warmth proportionably An evidence whereof we have in that we find British Bishops at the Council of Arles which was held before the Nicene And at the time of the Nicene Council Britian was counted one of the Six Dioceses of the Western Empire And for the Zeal of the British Christians the Martyrdom of St. Albane Amphilochius and others are great and glorious instances But to descend to lower times The Inhabitants of this Island have not been more famous for Martial Prowess against their enemies hospitality to strangers and good nature towards all mankind which three things have been and I hope are still their peculiar glories than for sincere piety and devotion Polydore Virgil an Italian and Erasmus a Dutchman both of the Roman Communion and competent Witnesses do affirm That there was more true Devotion and sincerity of Religion in this Church and Kingdom of England than in any one place of the world besides What was said of Sparta that ibi senes sunt maximè senes might be applyed to this purpose that here Christians were so the most heartily and truly of any people in the world The Universal Pastor as he would be called I mean the Bishop of Rome observed the Sheep of England to bear such good Fleeces and so patiently to submit to the Shearer that he kept a watchful eye over this Flock and his vigilancy was rewarded with the Golden Fleece He and his Emissaries found such large hearts and devout minds here that we are inabled to understand the reason of their great concern for our going astray since and their earnest and unwearied endeavours to reduce us back again to that fold Yet what by being oftner shorn than fed and then not with the best Pastures neither what by the ill examples of others but especially of their Guides and what by length of time corruption overspread this Church too But then as it happens in bodies of a strong and vivacious Constitution when they chance by ill Diet or other accident to be stuft with Crudities and bad humours they Critically evacuate them by meer strength of Nature So this Church gave certain proof that it had sana principia and a true sense of the reality of Christianity that one of the first in Christendom it returned to it self and a just temperament by a Reformation And the Reformation of this Church which the Romanists for their own ends so much detest and some others unreasonably slight was as much the Emulation of other Nations as Glorious in it self For 1. It was the most orderly and best becoming Christianity it was not brought in with Tumult and Sedition as most Changes are but by Laws and the Supream Magistrate There was no noise of Axes and Hammers in this Building but the several parts of this Fabrick fell in together with a kind of Harmony as the Jews say of the Temple of Salomon 2. It was the most moderate and temperate as being the result of Deliberation and Reason not of blind Passion or an humour of Innovation Our Reformers did not purge out the good because formerly it had been abused as the humour of some men is to do but vindicated what was useful from the abuse they neither countenanced what was evil by the good was to be found nor rejected the good for the casual adherence of evil They did not abolish a venerable Order or Office in the Church for the ill manners of some that had born it but took care to put better men in the rooms of such They were not of opinion that the Church could not arrive at primitive purity unless it was reduced to primitive poverty nor because they found some Ceremonies then used that were superstitious and dangerous and thought too many were but densome therefore concluded all decency in the service of God was Popish And in short they did not depart farther from the Church of Rome by Reformation than she had departed from the Truth and her self by degeneracy and corruption By all which they demonstrated that the change they made was not for the sake of humour and faction but necessity and publick good The Church of Rome reproaches us with the sinister ends of the Prince and several of those that sate at the helm of this great affair But who knows not that it is the usual method of Almighty God to bring about his own designs and accomplish the greatest benefits to
Mankind by making the sinister intentions of men co-operate towards them He made use of the unnatural cruelty of Joseph's brethren towards him to the preservation of the whole family of Jacob sending Joseph into Aegypt as an Harbinger and Nurse to provide for them in a famine And in respect hereof Joseph tells them it was not they but God sent him thither The Cruelty of Pharaoh who sought by severities to break and wear out the Israelites harden'd them and prepared them for all the difficulties they were afterwards to encounter The obstinacy and incredulity of the Jews proved to be the riches of the Gentiles The persecution of the Apostles at Jerusalem made way for the spreading of the Gospel into all other Countreys Instances of this kind are innumerable or if they were not yet were it very unsafe for those of the Church of Rome to make this objection lest they provoke us to say what cannot be either denyed or justified That the barbarous Tyrant and Usurper Phocas brought in the Universal Pastorship of the Bishop of Rome and that the most bloody and rapacious Princes have ordinarily been the great Patrons and Indowers of their Church thinking it seems to hallow their own Villanies and legitimate their unjust acquisitions by dividing the spoil with the Bishop and Church of Rome 3. The English Reformation was the most compleat and perfect in its kind as retaining the most antient Doctrine and soundest Confession of Faith founded upon the holy Scriptures and agreeable to the first General Councils the most Primitive Church-Government and a Liturgy the best accommodate to reconcile and unite mens Devotions Such a Liturgy as Mr. Fox the Author of the Martyrologie is not afraid to say was indited by the Holy Ghost but certainly had a great testimony in the unspeakable joy and contentment holy men took in it in King Edward the Sixths dayes their zeal for the maintenance of it longing for the restitution of it and sealing it with their blood in Queen Maries dayes and the universal triumphs and acclamations at the restoring of it in Queen Elizabeths Reign And admirable it is to consider how happy this Church and Nation then was in what Glory and Majesty the Prince reigned in what Peace and Concord the Subjects lived but especially it is remarkable how devout and pious an Age that was as is scarce perhaps to be parallel'd since the time that Christianity flourisht under Constantine the Great what reverence was then yielded to the Ministers of Religion What devotion to the publick worship How general an acquiescence of hearts and minds in it Which the greater it was the more just is our wonder and the more reasonable our inquiry what should be the Cause that in the same Church and amongst devout and honest-minded Englishmen such a zeal should terminate in so cold an indifferency as may now be observed or rather that such a blessed harmony should degenerate into so much discord as is now too discernable amongst us We read Ezra 3. that when the second Temple at Jerusalem was building the young men rejoyced at the reviving glory of their Nation and Religion but the old men that had beheld the far greater splendour and more stately Majesty of the former Temple built by Salomon they wept as contemplating how far this came short of that so that it was hard to say whether the shouts of the young men or the lamentations of the elder were the more loud And truly when we consider in how low a condition the Church of England was some few years since till it had a happy Resurrection with the return of our Gracious Soveraign will see cause to rejoyce and thank God that we are in no worse condition than we are But he that understands and considers what was the felicity of the first Age of our Reformation and compares it with the present condition of our affairs will have just cause to lament the difference For in those dayes so venerable was the Society of the Church that to be cast out of it by Excommunication was as dreadful as to be thunder-smitten that Sentence was like Proscription amongst the Romans which they counted a Civil death and dreaded as much as a Natural But now it is become a matter of Ambition with some and a piece of Glory And to be cast out of the Church is as good as Letters testimonial or recommendatory to other Assemblies There were few or none then that did not constantly frequent the Church now the Church is become the Conventicle in many places and the Conventicle the Church in respect of the fulness and frequency of the one and the unfrequentedness and destitution of the other Aristonicus came to a certain City in Greece where he observed many Temples but few Men that would hear him He therefore instead of the usual phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cryes out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hear O ye Stone-walls less hard than the hearts of men The Application is too easie in our case In that time we speak of the Liturgy and publick Prayers were counted a principal part of Gods worship now they are not only nothing without a Sermon but in danger to desecrate the Sermon too by their conjunction The Bible is scarce Canonical if it have the Prayers bound up in the same Cover and so extreamly offensive are they grown to some that they will rather totally neglect the publick Worship of God and never receive the Communion whilest they live than have to do with the Common Prayers Heretofore there were but few things scrupled in the establisht Religion and those were very few that made use of any such pretence or scruple but now it is become the great point of Sanctity to scruple every thing There was one indeed and he a great man that said there were tolerabiles ineptiae in our Liturgy and the most favourable return he met with was that he had his tolerabiles morositates Now the title of ineptiae is counted too mild an expression whatever suits not the present humour is either Jewish Popish or Superstitious This Change is sadly lamentable that good Laws should be thus trampled upon the best Church in the world thus despised and the best minded People thus abused Now my business is therefore in the first place to enquire from what Causes this hath come to pass PART I. An Enquiry into the Causes and Origin of the Separation from and Contempt of the English Reformed Church CHAP. I. Wherein are represented several things that are pretended but are not the true Causes of our distractions and dissatisfactions viz. 1. Corruption in Doctrine 2. The too near approach of this Church to the Roman 3. The Scandalousness of the Clergy All which are disproved WE have a Proverbial saying amongst us that Every one that is forty years old is either a Fool or a Physician But without a Proverb to justifie the undertaking there are but few that at
when the Dort Opinions were very predominant amongst many Divines of this Church they used it may be a little more scholastick subtilty to reconcile their own Opinions with these Articles but never condemned the latter for the sake of the former And at this day divers good men are in the service of this Church that are in their private Judgements of the Dort perswasion and yet never thought their subscription to these Articles did any violence to their Consciences or Judgements therefore this can be no cause of our Troubles nor ground of Separation from the Church A second pretence against this Church is that it is not sufficiently purged from the dross of Popish Superstitions that it comes too near the Church of Rome and so the Communion of it is dangerous Popery is an odious Name in this Nation and God be thanked that it is so for it deserves no less But as Constantine when he condemned the Arrians and decreed their Books should be burnt appointed that they should be called Porphyrians a Name sufficiently detested by the generality of Christians So those men that have a mind to reproach the Church know no more effectual way of affixing an Ignominy upon it than by laying the imputation of Popery to it And indeed if the Charge were as true as it is false or if it were as probable as it is malicious it would not only serve to exasperate the Vulgar against the Church but to justifie their Secession from it But it is hard to say whether the unreasonableness or the uncharitableness be greater in this suggestion For 1. It is certain there hath been little or no alteration made in either the Doctrine Discipline or Liturgy since the first Reformation and therefore if either of them incline too much that way they did so from the beginning Now that which I inquire into is what should be the causes of the late revolt and separation from this Church or what should make that discernable change in mens affections towards it from what was in the former Age And he that tells me it was Popishly constituted at first gives indeed a reason if it was true why this Reformation should not have been entertained at first but doth not assign a cause why those should depart from it now that had imbraced it with so much zeal formerly He therefore that would speak home to this case must shew that this Church hath lost its first love and hath warped towards the old corruptions from which it was once purged But this is so far from being possible to be shewn that it is certain on the contrary that all the change that hath been made of late years hath been meerly in complyance with and condescension to those that object this against it and a man would reasonably expect they would easily pardon such Innovations But in truth the main quarrel is that we are not alwayes reforming but keep to the old Matron-like Dress the Queen Elizabeth fashion If the Governours of the Church would comply with the curiosity of this wanton Age our Religion would quickly have the fortune of Apelles's picture according to the known story He to deride the conceited folly of the Age exposes to publick view a Master-piece of his work And as it usually happens that every body pretends to skill in reforming by the incouragement of the Proverb that saith facile est inventu addere scarcely any person that past by but spent their verdict upon the picture All commend it in the general yet to give some special instance of their skill every one finds some fault or other One would have had more Shadow another less one commends the Eye but blames a Lip c. The subtil Artist observes all and still as any passenger had shot his bolt alters the picture accordingly The result was that at last by so many Reformations it became so deformed and monstrous a piece that not only wiser men but these vulgar Reformers themselves wondered at it and could now discern nothing worthy so famed an Artist He on the other hand to right himself produces another Piece of the same Beauty and Art which he had hitherto kept up by him and had escaped their censure and upbraids them thus Hanc ego feci istam populus This latter is my work the other is a monster of your own making This is our case Christian Religion was by holy and wise men our Reformers devested of those gaudy and meretricious accoutrements the Romanists had drest her up in and habited according to primitive simplicity but this would not please every body every Sect and Party would have something or other added or altered according to their several phancies and Hypotheses which if it should be allowed the opinions of men are so contrary one to another as well as to truth the true lineaments of Christianity would quite be lost Upon this consideration hath not this Church been very fond of alterations But to all this it is likely it will be replyed That now we have more light and discover blemishes and deformities which though they were before yet we could not discern when our selves came out of the dark Den of Popery At first like the man under cure of his blindness Mark 8. 24. we saw men as trees walking we discovered only some more palpable errors but now we discern though lesser yet not tolerable deformities 2. To this therefore I answer in the second place That it is certain all is not to be esteemed Popery that is held or practised by the Church of Rome and it cannot be our duty as I have said before to depart further from her than she hath departed from the truth for then it would be our duty to forsake Christianity it self in detestation of Popery To reform is not surely to cast away every thing that was in use before unless Barbarism be the only through Reformation The Historian observes of those that spoil Provinces and ransack Kingdoms ubi solitudinem fecere pacem appellant when they had converted a flourishing Countrey into a desolate wilderness they called this a profound peace But sure to reform is not to destroy and lay waste but to amend Unless therefore it can be proved against the Church of England that she holds or practises any thing false or sinful it will little avail them that object against her and as little be any blemish to her constitution that in some things she concurs with the Roman Nor is it reasonable to say such a thing is received from the Church of Rome meerly because there it is to be found unless it be to be found no where else for though it be true that many things are the same in both Churches in as much as it is impossible they should be Churches of Christ at all else yet it is as true that those things wherein they agree are such and no other as were received generally by all Christian Churches and by the Roman
before it lay under any ill character But that this Church doth not so syncretize with that of Rome as to make its Communion unsafe or sinful I suppose the following Considerations will give sufficient security to an unprejudiced mind In the mean time let me intreat him that hath entertained any suspicions of that kind against her to give an ingenuous Answer of these two or three Queries 1. If there be such a dangerous affinity betwixt the Church of England and the Romish how came it to pass that the blessed instruments of our Reformation such as A. Bishop Cranmer Ridley Latimer and others laid down their lives in testimony to this against that For if those of the Church of Rome could have been so barbarous as cruelly to murder those excellent persons for some slight Innovations or for differing from them in Circumstantials yet certainly such wise and good men would not have been so prodigal of their own blood nor weary of their lives as to cast them away upon Trifles It is probable at least therefore that those of the Church of Rome thought the English Reformation to be essentially different from them and it is more than probable that those holy men aforesaid thought so and did not offer to God the sacrifice of fools 2. Or how comes it to pass that all those of the Roman Communion withdraw themselves from ours and are commanded so to do by the Head of their Church under peril of damnation And on the other side the true Protestants of the Church of England think it their duty to absent themselves from the Roman Worship lest they should defile their Consciences with their Superstitions I say how comes this distance and apprehension of sin and danger reciprocally if the differences between them be inconsiderable 3. Whence comes it to pass that the Bigots of the Romish Church have more spite against our Church than against any Sect or Party whatsoever but that they take us not only for Enemies but the most mortal and formidable of all those they have to do with Or Lastly if both the Church and Church-men of England are not far enough removed from any participation with that of Rome how comes it to pass that they of all men most zealously and constantly upon all occasions stand in the gap and oppose the return of Popery into England when other men either slight the danger or are so fond of their own private sentiments as apparently to run the hazard of this for the sake of them Any reasonable man would think those men have not really such an abhorrence of Popery as they pretend and that there might easily be found terms of accommodation between them when he shall observe them more fond of every petty Opinion than concern'd for the publick Security against that common Enemy And that they will rather venture the danger of that breaking in upon them than forgo the least fancy or opinion nay will be instrumental in procuring a Toleration and suspension of the publick Laws for that which they are so jealous others should have any kindness for And for proof of this I call to witness the transactions of the last year when those very men that would be thought the Atlas's and only supporters of Protestant Religion and would give out as if their Zeal was the only Bulwark against Popery had by their separation from and enmity to this Church weakned the common interest and by their restless importunities and unlimited desires of liberty in a manner extorted a suspension of the Laws touching Religion Had not His Majesty and His Parliament timely foreseen the consequence and the whole Nation been awakned into an apprehension of the danger by the serious and constant admonitions of the Episcopal Clergy Popery might have come in like a Landflood upon us notwithstanding those quicksighted Watchmen that can spy Popery so far off I say had not the Church-men especially bestirred themselves and shewed both a better courage and zeal against Popery and also a better skill in that warfare than their Accusers the so much dreaded Enemy had ere this time been in fair hopes of attaining his desires This was a passage of so much glory to the true Church-men and so great and illustrious an instance of their integrity that I am in hope whilest it shall remain in memory Malice it self will be ashamed to lay any imputation of inclining to Popery either upon the Church or Church-men of England I shall not need to add to all this That there are as understanding men in Religion persons of as holy Lives and of as comfortable Consciences of this Churches Education as are any where to be found in the world besides Which three things together fully acquit any Church of participation with Popery For that degeneracy of Christianity is for nothing more truly hateful nor by nothing more discoverable than by its blind devotion principles of immorality and the bad security it gives to the Consciences of men which who so acquits any Church of as every considerate man must needs do this Church he shall after that very unreasonably leave any ill character upon her at least of that nature we now are speaking of 3. But there is a terrible Charge yet to come and that is against the Sufficiency but especially the Sanctity of the Clergy and Ministry of the Church of England as if they like the Sons of Eli 1 Sam. 2. 15. made men to abhor the offerings of the Lord. And this is made the pretence of resorting to Conventicles and forsaking the Church Now if this was as true as it is horribly false it might be an Objection perhaps fit for a Papist to make who is taught that the efficacy of all Divine Offices depends upon the intention and condition of him that administers But no Protestant without contradicting his own principles can make use of it to justifie his recession from the Church For if the efficacy of all Divine Ordinances depend upon the Divine Institution and the concurrence of Gods Grace with my use of them what can it prejudice me that he that administers is an evil or unlearned man so long as I prepare my self to receive benefit immediately from God in the use of the means appointed by him This therefore may serve for a malicious stone to cast at us from whom they are departed but no argument in the cause nor excuse for themselves Yet I confess nevertheless this way of arguing for we must be forced to call hard word by that name is of great prevalence with injudicious persons and able to prejudice them against the best Constitutions in the world For they not understanding the reason of things give reception and entertainment to any proposition in proportion to the opinion or reverence they have for the person that recommends it It is a known story how well the Spartans were aware of this and therefore if in their Council a man of a bad life had propounded
those of other Cities But thanks be to God there is no necessity of having recourse to such a violent Remedy the Laws of our Religion do both admit of and direct and govern Commerce and the reasonableness of our Christian Religion in general and of the English Reformation in particular is such as that it may be well hoped they may rather gain than lose Proselytes by being confronted with any other Institutions and allure considerate men to the embracing of them whilest some lighter and incogitant persons may be betrayed by their Curiosity All the Use therefore that I make of this Observation concerning Trade is That since there is some danger to Religion thereby all those that do not make a God of the World and take Gain for Godliness will think these three things following to be reasonable 1. That since it is plain the same Means will not preserve Uniformity in Religion nor conserve the Reverence and Happiness of the Church in a Nation vastly addicted to Foreign Commerce as would do where the more simple way of Agriculture was attended to as it was amongst the Spartans and this Nation formerly that therefore there may be such Laws provided and such care taken as that the one be not discouraged nor the other corrupted 2. That every man will not only take care to inform himself in the grounds of his own Profession of Religion but also have so much Charity towards the Governours of his own Countrey and this Church as to think them both as wise and as honest as in other places that by both these his Reason may be instructed and his Affections somewhat composed against every assault of Novelty from other mens Opinions or Practices 3. That at least we will not think it just to impute all the Distractions of mens Minds and Quarrels against the Church to the badness of its Constitution since this point of Trade hath such influence as we see both in the Nature of the thing and in the visible Effects of it 5. It must not be omitted that both Papist and Atheist though upon several grounds combine their Malice against this Church and use all their several Interests and Endeavours to render it as contemptible as they can For the former Manet altâ mente repôstum Judicium Paridis spretaeque injuria formae We know they remember the slur we gave then in our Reformation they are well aware that the decent Order the Dignity and antient Gravity of this Church reproves and shames the Pageantry of theirs They forget not how often the eminent Abilities of our Church-men have baffled theirs therefore they are to be reckoned upon as immortal Enemies They know nothing stands so much in the way of their Designs as the Church of England This hath the countenance of the Laws the support of Reason the favour of Antiquity the recommendation of Decency They therefore can easily frame themselves to a complaisance towards all other Sects because they despise them but here oderunt dum metuunt their fears and danger by this provoke their endeavours inflame their anger and suffer them not so much as to dissemble their spite against it It is well enough known how under the disguise of Quakers and other names they have undermined its reputation and given it what disturbance they can how by their Insinuations into some loose o◠weaker persons they seek to weaken is powers and draw off her numbers how they have furnished others with Arguments to impugn it and subaided all unquiet spirits against her They that scruple nothing themselves nor will suffer any to scruple any thing in their own Communion can teach people to be very nice and squeamish in the Church of England They that are altogether for a blind Obedience at home preach up tenderness of Conscience abroad and when an Implicite Faith will do well enough in Spain or Italy c. yet in England nothing must content men but Infallible Certainty and that in the most circumstantial and inconsiderable matters Then for the Atheists They conscious of the odiousness of their pretences though of late arrived at greater impudence than formerly think it not safe to laugh at all Religions at once though they equally abhor all Therefore lest they should ingage too many enemies at once they deal by Retail and expose to scorn the several Parties of Christians one after another But to be sure the better any Perswasion is the more industriously they set themselves to depress it as knowing well if they can bring that into Contempt they may be secure of the other which must one time or other fall of themselves by reason of the unsoundness of their Foundations Besides it seems something below them to set their wit against a Fanatick they must have higher game and their Jests go off more piquantly when they gratifie the popular envy by being level'd against that which hath a great stock of Reputation and the countenance of publick Laws These blind Beetles that rose out of filth and excrement and now buz about the world hope not only to cover their shame but to increase their Party daily by the divisions of Christians and therefore labour to inflame the Causes to provoke mens Passions and exasperate their minds one against another They scurilously traduce all that is serious and study Religion only to find out flaws in it And what they cannot do by manly Discourse they endeavour by Buffoonry In short It is their manner to dress the best Religion in the world in a phantastical and ridiculous habit that Boyes may laugh at it and weak people brought out of conceit with it and their Worships made merry with the Comedy Now since the Church of England is beset with all these Enemies and under the aforesaid Disadvantages it is no wonder if the felicity and success of it be not a little disturbed It was noted amongst the Felicities of old Rome as that which gave it the opportunity of growing up to so vast a Greatness That till it had by degrees subdued all its Neighbours and was now match for all the World it had never but one Enemy at once to encounter Whilest this Church in its first times had only those of the Church of Rome to confiict with it easily triumphed over them and maintained its Peace and Dignity at home but that now under the Circumstances I have represented in the five foregoing Particulars it bears up so well as it doth is an illustrions argument of its Strength and Soundness of Constitution and they are very severe and uncharitable persons that reckon its Enemies and Misfortunes in the number of its Vices or Faults CHAP. III. Of the more immediate Causes of the Distractions of the Church of England such as 1. Rashness of popular Judgement 2. Judaism 3. Prejudice 4. Want of true Christian Zeal in the generality of its Members COming now in this Chapter to enquire into the immediate Causes of the Evils we groan under I
and confound them those seem mighty-powerful-soul-saving-Preachers Who sees not that this must needs be a mighty disadvantage to the Church of England When Devotions shall be esteemed by their noise and not by their weight and Sermons tryed not by their light but heat But if to all this Truth and Falshood also and that in the most sublime points and which is more Expediency it self must be decided at Vulgar Tribunals so that there shall not be that Doctrine so profound or nice which every man will not take upon him to determine nor that Reason so subtle which the crassest minds shall not pretend to understand nor that Rule or Art of Government which shall not fall under vulgar cognizance if every mans Mind become the Standard and Touchstone of every Truth it is impossible upon the suppositions before laid but there must be dissentions disputes and distractions in such a Church and yet neither the Doctrine Discipline Liturgy nor Ministers thereof be to blame For unless the Reformers of such a Society be no wiser than the Vulgar and the Clergy and Governours and all Learned men have the same sentiments with the people unless I say all could be alike wise or alike weak where all will be alike Judges it is absolutely impossible it should be otherwise Those therefore of the Church of Rome have a cure for this They appropriate all Judgement to the Clergy and deal with the rest of Mankind as Sots and Ideots not permitting them to read the Scriptures in the Vulgar Tongue lest they should grow too wise to be governed nay they will not allow them to be masters of common sense but requre them to believe the most contradictory Propositions and make that an Article of Faith which a man may confute by his Fingers ends This is an admirable way to wean them from their own Understanding to unlearn them Disputes and to exercise them to believe in and obey their Rulers This way makes the people Sheep indeed but silly ones God-wot But the Church of England hath no such Antidote of Disputes and Divisions as this is She makes not her self the Mistris of mens Faith nor imposes upon their Understandings She teacheth that our Saviour hath delivered the Mind of God touching the points of necessary Belief or essential to Salvation fully and plainly to the capacity of every considering man that will use the means and in other lesser matters debatable amongst Christians she allows a judgement of Discretion Only since the Peace of the Church often depends upon such points as Salvation doth not and since in many of those every man is not a competent Judge but must either be in danger of being deceived himself and of troubling others or of necessity must trust some body else wiser than himself She recommends in such a case as the safer way for such private persons to comply with publick Determinations and in so advising she jointly consults the Peace of the Church and the quiet of mens Consciences So all that she challenges is a Reverence not a blind Obedience And if after all this some people will be foolish and proud and contentious she hath no further Remedy than to declare them guilty of Sin and Contumacy and that not sufficing to cast them out of her Communion But when all this is done men may be peevish and wilful and render the State of that Church unhappy whose Constitution is neither guilty of Tyranny nor Remisness Now if it shall be objected to this Discourse That this cause from the consideration of the Folly and Injudiciousness of men is too general and will equally extend to all other Reformed Churches as well as our own and especially that this might have brought forth all the Evil we complain of and impute to it in the former Age as well as now for as much as the generality of people were not much wiser then than now To this I answer in two points 1. If other Reformed Churches have not found the effects of Ignorance and Arrogance joyned together as well as we which doubtless they have done more or less it is not to be ascribed to the happiness of their Constitutions but to the unhappiness of their outward Circumstances Their Poverty Oppression Persecution or being surrounded with common Enemies hath probably prevailed upon them to lay aside or smother their private Opinions and to check their animosities more than our Gratitude to the Almighty for our Ease and Peace and Plenty and Liberty hath done upon us Who knoweth not that the Church of Corinth first needed the severe check of an Apostle for their wantonness and divisions that one was of Paul another of Apollos c. And who can give a more probable account of this their Luxuriancy than from the riches ease plenty and liberty of that City Or who hath not observed that whilest the Primitive Christians were in Adversity surrounded with Enemies and under Pagan persecuting Emperours so long they had one heart and mind they submitted their private phancies and peculiar sentiments to publick safety but the same constituted Churches quickly broke out into Quarrels and Factions as soon as a warm Sun of Prosperity shone upon them We have reason accordingly not to charge our unhappiness upon our Religion nor our troubles upon our Prosperity but to lay them at the right door of our Folly and Weakness 2. That these Evils broke not out in our Church sooner since the Seeds of them were sown long ago is due to the joy and contentment that men generally took at their first emerging out of the darkness and superstitions of the Church of Rome by the Reformation which was proportionable to the deliverance and so great that for a time it suffered them not to be very solicitous about little disputes or scrupulosities Like the people of Greece when the Romans at the Isthmian Games by a publick Herald pronounced them and their Countrey free they forgat the contentions they came together about and used to be infinitely taken with But when the novelty of this great Blessing was over Protestants forgat the great and intolerable burdens they had escaped and then began scrupulously to weigh every petty inconvenience and by the goodness of God not having a publick Enemy to unite them quarrel amongst themselves This therefore may be admitted as one cause of our unhappiness 2. That which I would assign as a second cause I know not well what name to give to it But for want of a better expression I will adventure to say That a great part of this Nation having been leavened with Jewish Superstition or Jewish Traditions hath thereby been indisposed to an uniform reception of and perseverance in the Reformation of Religion held forth by this Church How this sowre leaven should get in amongst us is not very easie to determine Some Stories would incline a man to think that it had been in the veins of this Countrey ever since it first received the
Livings like the Silver-smiths at Ephesus no wonder if Apostolical Doctrine and Government be cryed down and the Great Diana be cryed up The summ is this Some men were blindly led by their Education others by their Interest a third sort by their Reputation to make good what they had ingaged themselves and others in and these three things are able to form a great Party against the Church 4. The Fourth and Last Cause and I wish it be not the greatest of the Distractions and ill Estate of this Church is the want of true Christian Zeal and of a deep and serious sense of Piety in defect of which hath succeeded that wantonness curiosity novelty scrupulosity and contention we complain of What was it made the Primitive Church so unanimous that it was not crumbled into Parties nor mouldered away in Divisions nor quarrelled about Opinions nor separated one part from another upon occasion of little scruples How came it to pass as I observed in the Introduction to this Discourse that all good men were of one way and all evil men of another that those that travailed to the same City the heavenly Jerusalem kept the same Rode and parted not company It could not be that they should be without different apprehensions for mens Parts were no more alike nor their Educations more equal in those times than now There were then several Rites and Ceremonies that might have afforded matter of scruple if the Christians had been so disposed as well as now and I think both more in number and as lyable to exception as any thing now in use There was then bowing towards the East observation of Lent and other dayes distinction of Garments and innumerable other Observations in the early dayes of Tertullian and yet neither any Scripture brought to prove them nor any such proof thought necessary and yet they were observed without suspicion on one side or objection on the other Harum aliarum ejusmodi disciplinarum si legem expostules Scripturarum nullam invenies sed traditio praetenditur auctrix consuetudo conservatrix fides observatrix saith he in his Book De Corona militis St. Austin saith in his time the number and burden of Ceremonies was grown as great as under the Law of Moses and therefore wishes for a Reformation thereof in his Epistles to Januarius yet never thought these things a sufficient ground of Separation from the Church There was then some diversity of Expression in which the Governours and Pastors of several Churches delivered themselves yet did they not dispute themselves hereupon into Parties nor accuse one another of false Doctrine or either Side make the division of the Church the Evidence of its Orthodoxy or the Trophy of its Victory The true reason then of the different Event of the same Causes then and now seems to be this That in those dayes men were sincerely good and devout and set their hearts upon the main the huge Consequence and concern of which easily prevailed with those holy men to overlook their private satisfactions They were intent upon that wherein the Power of Godliness consisted and upon which the Salvation of Souls depended and so all that was secure they were not so superstitiously concerned for Rituals nor so unreasonably fond of Opinions as to play away the Peace of the Church and the Honour of Religion against trifles and meer tricks of wit and fancy They considered that they all had one God one Faith one Baptism one Lord Jesus Christ in which they all agreed and these great matters were able to unite them in lesser They Good men found enough to do to mortifie their Passions to their burdens of Affliction and Persecution to withstand the Temptations of the Devil and the contagion of evil Examples from the world and had not leisure for those little Disputes that now imploy the minds of men and vex the Church They spent their Heat and Zeal another way and so their Spirits were not easily inflammable with every petty Controversie But when men grow cold and indifferent about great things then they become servent about the lesser When they give over to mind a holy Life and heavenly Conversation then they grow great Disputers and mightily scrupulous about a Ceremony When they cease to study their own hearts then they become censorious of other men then they have both the leisure and the confidence to raise Sarmises and Jealousies and to find fault with their Superiours In short then and not till then do the little Appendages of Religion grow great and mighty matters in mens esteem when the Essentials the great and weighty matters are become little and inconsiderable And that this is the Case with us in this Nation is too evident to require further proof and too lamentable a subject for any good Christian to take pleasure in dilating upon I conclude therefore in this Point lyes a great part of the Unhappiness of this Church and Kingdom PART II. Wherein several serious Considerations are propounded tending to perswade all English Protestants to comply with and conform to the Religion and Government of this Church as it is established by Law CHAP. 1. A Reflection upon divers Wayes or Methods for the Prevention and Cure of Church-Divisions HAving in the former Part of this Discourse diligently enquired into and faithfully recited the principal Causes of the discontents with and secession from this Church It would now ill beseem Christian Charity to rest here for God knows neither the Evils nor the Causes afford any pleasant speculation It was a bad state of things at Rome which the Historian reports in these words Nec morbos nec remedia pati possumus That they were come to so ill a pass that they could neither indure their Distempers nor admit of the Remedies But I perswade my self though the condition of our affairs be bad enough yet that it is not so deplorable as to discourage all Endeavours of a cure And in this hope I take the courage to propound the following considerations wherein if I be deceived and miss of my aim I shall notwithstanding have that of Quintilian to comfort my self withal Prohabilis est cupiditas honestorum vel tutioris est audaciae tentare ea quibus est paratior venia It hath not been the single Unhappiness of this Church alone to be molested with Disputes loaden with Objections and dishonoured by Separation Nor can it be hoped that where the business is Religion and the concern Eternal Life that men should incuriously swallow every thing without moving any question or stirring any dispute And therefore all Churches must of necessity more or less have conflicted with the same difficulties we complain of And consequently the disease being so common it cannot be but that many and divers Remedies have been tryed and made use of And out of that store we will in this Chapter make election of such as seem best to fit the condition of the Patient and
and Interest make men of such or such Opinions That this is the only way to make a Learned Clergy when they shall have a necessity upon them to be able to prove substantially whatever they expect should be received and in fine That the only way to make peaceable Subjects a rich Countrey and a happy Prince is to open a Pantheon to give Liberty to all Religions But two things would be considered of in this point First That whatsoever fine things are said of this or whatever collateral advantage may be reaped by it they are of no other force than to incline the Magistrate prudentially in some cases to use Indulgence for it never was nor will be proved that it is the express duty of a Christian Magistrate to tolerate all Opinions whatsoever for some are such as destroy all Religion which he is to protect others subvert all Civil Societie which he is to maintain Therefore it can never be his duty to carry an indifferent hand in Religion And though it be true that the Primitive Christians used such general expressions as are above-specified and Constantine made such a declaration yet both he and they limited and interpreted themselves afterwards And indeed it cannot be shewn de facto that any Government in the whole Christian World doth tolerate all Opinions whatsoever For should they do so it must be supposed that the Magistrate is to have no Conscience or Religion himself that other men may have no check in theirs whatever it be 2. But if it were true that the Magistrate might if he would indulge all Sects and Opinions and also were disposed so to do yet besides the Inconveniencies that would follow This very thing would be very unacceptable to the people of this Nation amongst whom there is so much sincerity and heartiness in Religion It might go down perhaps amongst such as have a great Indifferency and Lukewarmness in Religion with such people whose God is their Gain and whose Religion is their Trade or Interest But devout and serious people had rather suffer some hardship themselves upon the account of their Consciences than buy their own quiet at the price of Gods dishonour And whatever kindness they may have to some dissenters or fondness to some by-path themselves yet rather than open so wide a Gap as that Popery and Atheism it self should enter in by it they would deny themselves and think it the duty of all other good Christians to do so too 2. Comprehension whereby I suppose is meant the making the terms of Communion more free and easie an opening the arms of the Church to receive more into her bosome thereby to enlarge both the Society and Interest of the Church This is highly recommended by some good men as the most proper expedient for a Protestant Church in our condition as by means whereof it may be both better strengthened and secured against its Enemies abroad and enjoy Peace and Contentment at home And truly for my part if such a course please our Governours I have no mind to oppose any thing to it but only I desire it may be considered that there are many things that look very probably in the general notion and speculation and that would flatter one into a great opinion of them and expectation from them which when they come to be tryed they are no wayes answerable to Many difficulties occurr in the reducing things of this nature to practice that were not foreseen in the theory and nothing more common than for mens minds to deceive them or their constancy to fail them so as that they shall take no great pleasure in the enjoyment of that which they languisht with desire of whilest it was sweetned to them by the poinant sauces of hope and fear Besides this is not yet done nor do we know when it will be set about and it's pity the wounds of the Church should bleed so long as till that can be effected especially if there be any Balm in Gilead any way of binding them up in the mean time And there seems to me to remain no other but that of the third Consideration which is the course I have pitched upon to recommend in the following Chapters By which I mean nothing else but an Endeavour of better informing the minds of men in the nature of those things which are the matter of our disputes and occasions of our disturbances together with the unhappy consequences of sin and danger in persevering in our present case Which if it can be done we may hope to see the Church recover its antient felicity and peace and shall not need for cure of our distempers to resort either to such severities as are abhorrent to all Englishmen or to such arts as deform Christianity in general or to be alwayes changing and altering to the great dishonour of Protestant Religion in particular And this I do not despair may be obtained if those Protestants of this Church and Kingdom that at present differ from the Church in some particulars will impartially consider the following Propositions CHAP. II. Of the true notion of Schism the sin and mischievous consequents of it THough the Will of man deservedly bear the blame of his miscarriages as being neither under Fatal necessity nor subject to violence and compulsion but that it may suspend its own act till it be rightly informed yet I have so much charity to humane nature as to think that most of its irregularities proceed not meerly from stubborn perversion but mistake of the object And that therefore Mankind is very pittyable in its errors having not that clearness of perception nor presence of mind that higher and more immaterial Spirits have And perhaps upon this account it pleased the Divine Goodness to afford men that which he denyed to the fallen Angels secundam tabulam postnaufragium and to open to them a door of hope by repentance and retrival of their faults And accordingly I observe that those that cruelly murdered our Saviour he prayes for them in this form Father forgive them they know not what they do And that it was not only the silly multitude that was so overseen but also the wisest of his Persecutors St. Peter bears witness Acts 3. 17. I wot that ye did it ignorantly as also did your Rulers So that I am neither destitute of reason nor example for my charity if I think in the present case concerning the greatest part of those that are guilty of the distractions of this Church that did they rightly understand the nature of Schism and wherein it consists or the guilt and mischiefs that attend it they would easily be induced to change their course This therefore I shall first offer to consideration Touching the sin of dividing the Church that it is of the deepest dye and greatest guilt I suppose we shall easily agree for indeed no body can well doubt of that who considers what care our Saviour took to prevent it what pains he took
under no Government whatsoever but must be either Outlaws or absolute Princes To the end I say that we may prevail with them to deny themselves in some things for the publick good we should do well to give them example in our own self-denyal and abridging our own liberty in condescension to them in such things as are not the matter of Law And that we will not outrun the Laws to contradict and vex them but comply with them in what we may without sin This is that Charity and avoiding Scandal the Apostle so earnestly recommends of which I have spoken in the Considerations And the consequence is plain If it be their duty to restrain themselves in the use of that Liberty God hath left them in complyance with the Laws and Magistrate and for the sake of publick Peace and Order then it is our duty to restrain our selves in the use of that Liberty the Laws of God and Man have left us for the sake of the same Peace and in Charity to our Brethren Besides that nothing works upon mens ingenuity like Cession and Yielding and peculiarly with Englishmen as I have heretofore observed 3. That we use no provocation or exasperation towards Dissenters nor countenance those inconsiderable persons that have no other way to shew their Zeal to the Church but by reviling and vexing those that differ from it It were good all Governours of the Church did and I hope they do imitate Memnon the General for Darius against Alexander who when he found one of his Souldiers instead of Darts casting Scoffs at the Enemy tells him You are not entertained ut maledicas sed ut pugnes For besides that this carriage where ever it is is but counted a strong argument of a weak Cause it stirs up the mud of mens passions clouds their understandings and by representing men worse than they are tempts them to be worse than they would be And if I see I shall be alwayes nosed with my former Ignorance and folly I am deprived of one of the greatest encouragements to forsake it 4. Though I have as I hope sufficiently proved in the foregoing Discourse that there is no absolute necessity of making any abatement of the Legal terms of Communion with this Church forasmuch as nothing is required or imposed by the Constitution thereof but what may be submitted to without in And therefore I will not be guilty of the presumption to prescribe to my Superiours either one way or other in that matter Yet I humbly suggest that if any such thing shall be thought fit to be done out of condescension to the Non-conformists and to gain them to the Church it may be done freely and spontaneously nor as extorted either by their importunity or the necessity of affairs For whatsoever is gotten the latter way is not accounted yielded but won nec amicos parat nec inimicos tollit it passes no obligation upon men but rather incourages their importunity and confirms their obstinacy And there is nothing that wise men do or ought to resent more than the miscarriage of their favours since thereby they lose not only what they grant but their reputation too The Council of Trent therefore would hearken to no terms nor Propositions on the behalf of the Protestants lest they should by some few drops of Concession increase their thirst of more But had they had as much of the innocency of the Dove as of the subtilty of the Serpent or been as sincere as they were wise in their generation they should have prevented all importunities by a liberal Grant of what was fit and just and by such an act of Goodness and Charity they might either have wrought upon the ingenuity and moderated the heat of the other Party or at least having done what became them they should then have had good ground peremptorily to have refused whatsoever should have been arrogantly demanded But they as I have said wisely enough in their way considering that if they once came to acknowledge any thing due to the Protestants must be forced upon the same terms to yield them more than they were willing to part with and indeed little less than the whole resolved therefore to yield nothing at all But as the case of our Church is not like theirs so there is no necessity we should make use of the same Politicks for where there is nothing sinful in the Constitution nothing can be required to be abated but upon the terms of Prudence and Compassion and if it shall happen that those Arguments be thought fit to be heard it is great pitty in that case that the resolution should not be so carried as that it may be evident to all that those causes only had influence upon the effect If these things be considered by those that favour the Church and the foregoing Considerations be impartially weighed by the Protestant Dissenters from it I for my part shall conceive good hope that the Clergy of England shall recover its antient and due Veneration our Churches be better filled than the Conventicles a blessed Symphony in our publick Prayers and an Universal Peace Love and Good-will be restored in this divided and distracted Church and Nation Which God of his infinite Mercy grant c. FINIS Lib. 3. 26. cap. de false sap Orat. 1. Rom. 1. 8. Acts 8. 4. Mr. Calv. Ep. 118 119. 1 Cor. 3. 4. De unitati Eccles