agree better with some Constitutions than more substantial food and better Instructions Let the Dissenters crave as long as they will I hope the Church can deny as stifly as they crave unreasonably And I am perfectly of our Author's mind though he had not Dr. Beveridge's Authority for it That to alter the Episcopal Government to take the Power of Ordination from Bishops and place it in the hands of Prsbyters to take away a well ordered Liturgy and bring in extemporary Prayers for publick worship to give every Minister a Jurisdiction and Power of Excommunication and many other things without which some grave Dissenters will not be comprehended is more than the Learned Doctor or any Doctor in England will grant or desire to be granted to them But surely our grave Author knows that the best and wisest if not the gravest Dissenters who are for a National Church whose Interest is most considerable and whose Credit has done the most to keep up Non-conformity that these will be comprehended with something less than what he speaks of and I doe not doubt but the bringing in of those into the Communion of the Church would tend greatly to strengthen its Interest and the Interest of the whole Protestant Religion and to break that lamentable Schism and Separation which weakens both and gives our Popish Adversaries the greatest Advantage against us and which I hope they and we are both weary of If there are some Dissenters so wild that they can never be folded nor brought into any settled Flock or Communion though I would not have them hunted and run down like wild Beasts and therefore I am not altogether so much against the Toleration as our Author is yet I think it would have done more good had the Comprehension took place before it that so the Church might have gathered first before the Separation and not have been left to glean after that has made its full harvest But our Author I perceive is as much afraid at one time that the Dissenters should come in as he is at another that they would not And what says he p. 10. if some leading Presbyterians be by our Alterations let into the Church and advanced to such Preferments as they hope for what security have we that they will not promote Divisions in the Church more dangerous than the Schism they made by Separation from us A secret Enemy within the walls of a well fortified City is more dangerous than an open Foe in the Field How then is this consistent not onely with our Author's Opinion but most serious Protestation in another place p. 26. I do here protest that were it not that the Dissenters have given us an Assurance that though these and many other Alterations should be made it would give them no satisfaction nor bring them into our Communion I would use all the Interest I have for such Alterations and for that end also part with many of the Ceremonies I should think there were a contradiction in these two places and that they would sall out were they not some Pages from one another but surely all things are not right in our Author's Head who has two such different thoughts at the same time but perhaps 't is but a mere struggle between the flesh and the spirit if they should be let in and get Preferments they might keep him and others out and if they would come in the good of it is so visible upon many accounts that a man's reason cannot but desire it and promote it so that there is a natural tenderness and moderation on one side of his head which I suppose is the softest towards Dissenters but on the other side there is a most stiff hatred and aversion to them but which of these shall take place when there is occasion must depend very much upon the Influence of the Moon and the Aspect of the Planets I consess I am not for letting in Enemies into the Church but surely by coming in they become Friends and cease to be Enemies for then they owne the Churches Communion and submit to its Authority and instead of standing out they come in and joyn with it now if any will do this I know no Church is so well fortified as to keep them out nor is there any way to distinguish such secret enemies from its secret friends but 't is a Secret some men have to find out distinctions and make differences between those of the same Communion which is very pernicious and mischievous whoever comes up to the Churches terms of Communion and to full Conformity with it are by no means to be counted secret enemies when if this does not shew them to be open friends every man may as well be suspected to be a secret enemy But if these Dissenters when they are taken into the bosom of the Church should like treacherous Vipers endeavour to sting their Mother or gnaw through her Bowels and attempt all they can to doe mischief to her how shall they be able to effect this and what way shall they accomplish it Will they set up Conventicles in their own Parishes and draw away people from the Communion of the Church of which themselves are Ministers or will they preach or write against those Ceremonies or other things to which they have publickly conformed it would be strange if they should doe this but perhaps they may doe it another way They may be chosen Convocation-men and so have opportunity to oppose and confront the Bishops and though they should pretend great reverence for the Episcopal Order and Authority yet may slight and contemn it as much as open Fanaticks when it does not suit with their humour and like bug Diotrephes love to have the preheminence above it Now if I find they doe this and make a dangerous division in the Church by this means I shall think 'em a sort of Rebellious Presbyters that deserve to be turned out of the Church not as secret but open enemies to the Bishops and that they have forgot a passage or two in Ignatius's Epistles and therefore I shall be very much tempted to be of our Author's mind to have those read hereafter in our Churches for the edisication and reproof of such assuming Presbyters p. 26. I know but one Objection more that can be picked up out of your Author's fardle of important reasons against any Alterations for they lye there like small wares in a Pedler's pack neither sorted nor parcelled but confusedly jumbled together as I suppose they lye in his head but the onely remaining Objection that I can find and I am sure I have done him justice and given full strength to any thing that looked like a reason p. 6. is this That by making Alterations the Church will run the hazard of offending a greater number of more considerable persons than they are like to gratisie thereby And he gives it in as objected formerly against the Bill for Comprehension
him my thanks for instead of an Answer to them or would have done my best to have written a Panegyrick upon that Noble Motto Nolumus mutare Leges Angliae That after all is the onely mighty and irresistable Argument that remains to be answered in this matter but I wont undertake it since it has been done to my hands by all the Parliaments and all the Convocations in England ever since the Barons wars unless by the present Convocation which has done nothing whose mind we do not yet know and till we doe it may pass for an infallible Council for surely Vox Cleri is not the mouth of it nor is our Author to be taken as the Churches Representative or Procurator General or to be allowed so many Proxies as shall make up a House But though he calls his Book Vox Cleri yet Tuba Stentorophonica Balaam's Ass prophesying or the like Title might have been as significant and suited it as well Having seen what he has to say on one side I am now to consider what has been or may be offered on the other and what he has to say against them The Reasons for some Abatements and Alterations at this time are so plain and considerable so great and important as shows the manifest expediency if not necessity of doing it and our Author has so little to say against it though he was bound to say what he could that he has thereby done more to give up the cause and satisfie every impartial man about it than if he had industriously pleaded for it though I will not say as he does of one of the Letters that a man would think this Writer to have been hired to betray the cause by his weak and impertinent arguments for its Defence for I believe our Author does honestly what he can and I don't suspect any treachery at all in his writing unless it be between his Will and his Understanding and I doubt the one does a little trick and impose upon the other for were it not for his implacable aversion and ill-will to the Fanaticks and Latitudinarians I am very confident that his Reason is for Alterations and Abatements by the little he has to say to the contrary and to the obvious and important reasons for them and because he himself so often and so expresly declares for them in his good moods and lucid intervals The first objection which he makes to himself and which rose up in his own thoughts for 't is not in answer to any of the Letters is this p. 5. Herein we may please the King the Parliament and a great part of the dissenting Laity which if it be true is very considerable Now as to the latter the dissenting Laity I don't know what to say to the great ones and the Politico's among them who are for keeping up a Separate Party as a Civil Faction in the State whom they who are the Heads of it and would make but an inconsiderable figure without it can manage upon occasion and have it ready raised and formed for their designs and I doubt they will not be so well pleased to have this and therefore themselves lessened by lessening the strength and number of the Separation as I hope the best and most honest of the Dissenting Laity will who are more concerned for the sincere good of Religion than carrying on Designs and Intrigues who will no doubt follow and accompany their Leaders into the Church as they went out with them But this I hope will be so far from being an objection to our Author or any Church of England man against Alterations and a Comprehension that it must be a very strong Argument for it since 't is the Schism and Separation in the Church that keeps up those Parties and Factions in the State which help to disturb the civil peace and quiet of the Kingdom and has been the cause of the greatest confusions in it so that whoever is a lover of the Church or Kingdom must be desirous to have an end put to them as far as is possible that we may unite in one religious and civil Interest As to the pleasing the King and Parliament hereby that I think is not to be doubted since the Parliament addressed to the King for calling a Convocation and the King was pleased thereupon to call one for this very end and design and to grant a Commission as has been usual in the like case to prepare things in order to it so that 't is to be feared that some men who are no great friends to the present settlement and constitution and who are upon some account angry and discontented are at the bottom of all this heat and stiffness against Alterations and who make use of others as Tools to work and hammer out their Designs by or at least to keep up a noise and disturbance among us as if great numbers were dissatisfied because they themselves are so for private reasons These men are mighty zealous against the Churches making any Alterations in the Circumstantials of Religion till the Court makes some Alterations in the Substantial places of profit I know we complain on all sides of being made and used as Tools as if this were the Fate of Churchmen and Religion were only an Engine in their hands charged with the terrors of another world to doe Execution only in this Our Author wishes he could leave his Countrey Minister who wrote one of the Letters well in his wits to consider whether he be not used as a Tool to destroy the established Church p. 42. by some who think themselves mighty Politicians Nay he tells us That the Authors of the two Letters may be Papists who by such Arts seek to divide that they may destroy us Now this is the deepest Plot of the Papists if it be one that ever was laid to destroy and blow up the Church and if those who are for Alterations in order to unite Protestants and strengthen the Church are Tools in the hands of Papists or other Politicians to destroy it the Church is in a lamentable condition and must necessarily be destroyed both by its friends and its enemies too and by those ways which in all appearance tend most to preserve it and the Design is laid so secretly and to be wrought so strangely that 't is impossible to prevent it On the other side 't is plain and notorious matter of fact that some Great Discontented Lay-men though not so Great as they would be did manage several of our stiff men against Alterations It was not so much behind the Curtain but the hands were seen if not the wires which moved the Puppets besides the dissatisfied Bishops and Clergy who have not taken the Oaths nor will own the present Government had more influence upon those who have sworn to the present King and Queen and most solemnly recognized them in the name of the Church of England than could be expected that men of such
p. 11. That as some might come in so others that were in our Communion might take offence by the Alterations and detest it and seeing our frequent changes in some things they might suppose that there is nothing certain among us and from the many disputes about our Liturgy proceed to question our Articles and at last fall off to the Church of Rome which they saw more constant to their Principles Now they must have a very mean opinion of the Churches Prudence and give very little deference to her Authority that shall be offended at her making such Alterations in things that she always declared are in their own nature indifferent and alterable and which she has reserved to her self a power to alter according to the exigency of times and occasions and upon such prudential reasons as she shall think fit of which she is alone the most proper Judge for as our Authour says The People ought not to prescribe to the Church in such things but the Church to them They must therefore be no very dutifull and obedient Sons of the Church who shall not be satisfied with such Alterations as she shall think fit to make for the ends of peace and concord and the allaying those heats and divisions that are among us They must have a very wrong and superstitious opinion of the outward Rites and Ceremonies and Circumstantials of Religion who lay so much weight and stress upon them as to think that there is any great matter in them besides their subserviency to outward order and decency or that they are so necessary to those that the Divine Worship may not be performed as acceptably and reverently without some of them as with them It is to be feared that such weak persons have not been sufficiently instructed in the nature of things Indifferent when they are so zealous for those above the weightier matters of Peace and Charity to which they ought always to give way If some zealous or designing men have drawn ignorant and well meaning persons into a greater opinion and admiration of themselves by ceremonious formalities and overdoings by unprescribed bowings and cringes by prostrations at the Eucharist and the like inventions of their own they have used the same ways that other Fanaticks have done to fill up their Congregations with gathering out of other Churches by shews of greater piety and devotion and have hereby broken the settled orders of the Church and opened a gap for all the follies of an indiscreet zeal and forward superstition whereby some pious but not wise men have in all ages brought innumerable fopperies and singularities into the Church to the great mischief of Religion But surely a Church that thinks it not necessary to bring men to a Religion by any such superstitious devices but by more true and rational methods of a sober and discreet Piety and needs not to make use of any such tricks and pious frauds to impose upon the folly and weakness of its Votaries nor has any paltry and by ends to be served by such Religious Cheats should put a timely stop to all such ceremonial excesses and honestly teach all its Members that Religion lies not in any such shews or forms of Godliness but in sober and manly devotion and in a vertuous and good life Now when men have such a true notion of Religion which the Church ought always to give them and to correct all mistakes to the contrary there will be no great danger that they should be much offended at the loss or alteration of a few Rites or Ceremonies which are no more of the Essence of Religion than our Cloaths are of the Essence of a Man who so long as he is decently habited according to the custom of the Countrey he may leave it to the Governours thereof to change the mode as they think fit But above all folks commend me to those in our Communion who our Author tells us may take such offence at our Alterations as to desert us and fall off to the Church of Rome p. 11. These do well understand and have been well instructed in the Religion of the Church of England who can make no difference between baptizing with the Cross as a signal of Christianity and adoring it as an object of worship between kneeling at the Sacrament and worshipping the Host but however this is a terrible danger if by bringing some ost from Fanaticism we shall be likely to make others Papists which is ten times worse let us therefore see what reason our Author may have to fear this Why seeing our frequent changes in some things they may suppose that there is nothing certain among us and from the many disputes about our Liturgy proceed to question our Articles and at last fall off to the Church of Rome which they saw more constant to their Principles If they are for such a constant Church as shall never make any Alterations then indeed they must be for an Infallible one and none bids at that but the Church of Rome but yet still she has made very often great changes and alterations in her Liturgies and Ceremonies and often corrected and reformed her Breviaries and Missals so that if this shall shake and startle a man and by seeing so many alterations about those things in their Church he shall suppose there is nothing more certain in that than in ours I hope he will quickly come back again like a fool as he went He must be a Member of no Church i' th' world nor ever could have been since the beginning of Christianity who will desert and leave it for this reason because it has made frequent Alterations in its Liturgy and Ceremonies and if a man will be so fickle and sceptical as by seeing frequent changes in such things to suppose there is nothing certain among us and from some disputes about Liturgies question the Articles of a Church and at last fall to what is more constant in its Principles he must e'en fall off from all Churches and from all Religion and for the same reason from all living under Laws and Government for there are disputes and alterations about those and from eating and drinking too for all men are not agreed in the same meat and drink or way of dressing it nor have always thought fit to stick to one way of Brewing or Cookery Thus I have fairly examined our Author's Arguments against making Alterations and where there was any seeming weight in them I have fully considered it where they were weak and ridiculous I have made bold to expose them for the Book was put out and fell into my hands in a time of merryment and I was very curious to see what some folks could say for themselves I assure him had he or his Neighbours in the Countrey shewed any good reasons why they are so stiff against Alterations that could have convinced me that they were prejudicial to Religion or disserviceable to the Church I would have sent
different Apprehensions and acting by such different measures should at this time have had I am very sorry for their Suspension but 't is strange they should hereby have more Authority over their Clergy than they had before in a matter of greater moment and greater difficulty and 't is equal wonder to me that some men who are so stiff in other things should so soon forget their Promises and others hardly remember their Oaths That the King and Parliament will be greatly displeased with the Clergy unless they consent to some Alterations and Abatements in order to a legal Comprehension is as much to be feared as 't is certainly known that a Convocation was first desired and then summoned for this very purpose as appears by the Address of the House of Commons the King 's Writ and Commission and his Letter to the Convocation by which their minds are sufficiently known and declared for the doing the thing in general though they left the particular manner of doing it to the Clergy themselves Now the King and Parliament are to be allowed very proper Judges of the expediency and fitness or prudential necessity of this and therefore of advising and directing it as the Clergy are the fittest to execute and accomplish it since 't is a matter of a Religious and Ecclesiastical nature that belongs properly to them Now then for them to be called together for this very purpose by the Desire of Parliament and the Command of the King and to tell 'em when they come that they think it not prudent but dangerous to meddle and doe any thing is as if the President and College of Physicians should advise that in such a case such an operation should be performed and send for the Surgeons of the Hall to doe it but they should tell 'em there was no need of it and they would not meddle Where though the latter are more fit to perform the Chyrurgical Operation yet the other are as good and proper Judges that it is fit and expedient or necessary to be done But our Authour seems to deny that this will be pleasing either to the King or Parliament for four or five great and substantial Reasons 1. As to the King his Majesty hath devolved that Province to the Convocation and Parliament as if the King were not pleased with any thing but what he does himself and did not commit several things to be done by others which are very pleasing to him He hath devolved the Province of reducing Ireland to Shomberg and his Army and yet no doubt but it will be very pleasing to him and he as much expects and has given Commission to doe the one as well as the other and the happiness of his Reign and the Peace of his Kingdom depend though not equally yet in great measure upon both The King devolves the Province of raising Money to the parliament and yet what is left to them and their Prudence to doe is very necessary in it self and very pleasing to the King 2. He hath declared his satisfaction as to the present Constitution Several of the Clergy have declared theirs too if I be not mistaken and something farther than the King has done or can doe unless he subscribe and take Orders and yet they would be mightily pleased with some Alterations for the good as they think of the Church and Religion and the Peace of the Kingdom not because they are dissatisfied with the present Constitution though they suppose some little things in it may be Altered and Amended as our Authour I believe is not dissatisfied with his dear Body and Carcass but yet is willing now and then to amend and repair it for the better 3. He doth confirm his declared judgment by his constant practice in communicating with the Church as established and frequent promises to favour and protect it The more reason hath the Church to oblige and gratifie him in what he desires and proposes and thereby engage him to be its more firm and hearty friend as well as requite him for what he hath already done for it 4. As to the Parliament they do generally live in the Communion of the Church Is living in the Communion of the Church then a certain Argument of being against Alterations Surely our Authour lives in a very gross Air and his Head wants a little clearing or he would not talk at this rate 5. Nothing can be obligatory but what shall be enacted by them whose consent we are not assured of i. e. by King and Parliament Was any thing ever obligatory as a Law of the Kingdom but what was so enacted Would he have the Convocation stay till it was so obligatory and so enacted by the Civil Power before they doe any thing or can we ever be more assured of their Consent to enact any thing than This I pass now to another Reason for making these Alterations and Abatements in order to a Comprehension and that being one of our own making it must be a great reproach to us to be against it at this time when we promised and declared for it in another I mean in the Bishops Petition to King James which was in the name of the whole Church and Clergy who made it their own by consenting to it and approving it viz. That they wanted not due tenderness to Dissenters but were willing to come to such a Temper as should be thought fit when the matter should be considered in Parliament and Convocation What was the meaning of that Was it to stand our ground and doe nothing at all but be very stiff against all Alterations for the sake of Dissenters No sure that was not the Tenderness nor the Temper they were willing to come to but they must mean by it the very same thing that I am pleading for and this our Authour owns they did when he heartily wishes those Bishops were in a condition to perform their promise even for the Dissenters sake (a) p. 41. and he denys not what his Adversary had said that he doubted not but they would agree to the Alterations that are desired and he acquiesces in the Judgment of another whom he writes against That if nothing unreasonable were designed it might then have passed and a firm establishment ensued for doubtless the calm tempers of those Reverend Fathers would mightily have influenced their Sons (b) p. 17. some of the hottest of which mightily wanted such a calm Influence But now what becomes then of all their and our Author 's wise and important Reasons against making Alterations as if the Church were to be destroyed thereby as if these Concessions were only losing of ground and gaining nothing thereby since none would come in upon them but would rather be encouraged to crave more and more till they had got all and would never be satisfied neither All these must be given up since they are all overruled by this promise and opinion of the Bishops for surely They are not Tools