probable that they whose business it is to study those things must know them more certainly then I who have never had time nor convenience to study them But supposing they should deceive me as long as I am in this life I shall always be subject to errour and if I do follow these directions sure I am it is their fault and not mine if they lâ—ad me into errour for I have done what I could to prevent it and sure I am I cannot this way be led into Popery Infidelity and Atheism as I may be if I wholly commit my self to the sole guidance of my own reason since our Church hath so plainly guarded us against the Idolatry of Rome in its plain Homilies and against Infidelity and Atheism by her full and short Catechism and by allowing us the use of the Scriptures I dare confidently aver that there is no ways in the world left for us that are unlearned to keep us without a miracle from Heresie and Schism or Popery and Atheism but only by this method that I have now laid down If I am mistaken I shall be very thankful to any one that will shew me wherein If I am not mistaken I must desire our Author to give me leave to think that the Authority of the Church is a safer Guide to me then my own Reason and consequently that all his boast of safety is nothing else but meer impertinence and falshood Several things it is possible will be objected against this method which I have laid down for the safety of all private Gentlemen and men of ordinary capacity especially for common people which was this That every one should rely upon the Church of England and those Guides of Conscience which she hath authorized in all difficult cases and doubtful matters which surpass his own abilities to judge of Against this it may be objected First That this is ro run into the same implicit Faith which we condemn in the Romanists and put out our own eyes that we may see with other mens I answer Not at all for I allow every one the free use of the Scriptures and their own Reasons in all matters that are within the reach of their capacity and within their proper sphear of Action and for all others that are above them I have shewn them I am sure the safest guide I can possibly find If any body can produce a safer Iet them and they will do very good service to the publick Secondly It may be objected That by this Direction they that are Papists especially the common sort of them are in no possibility to be freed from the Roman Yoke and consequently must continue in Idolatry and therefore in most imminent peril of damnation I answer I gave not this direction to Papists or those that are without our Church For what have I to do to judge them that are without But to those who are or ought to be obedient Children of the most Christian and tender Mother the Church of England who is guilty of no corruption from the Primitive Christianity either in Doctrine or Worship who enjoyns the Belief of no new Articles of Faith nor no Idolatrous Worship nor commands any thing that is sinful to be obeyed the contrary to which the Church of Rome is most apparently guilty of Now I refer it to any man or to all mankind to judge which is the safest way for us of the Church of England whether to perswade all of our Communion to be governed by their own Reason and so to endanger the loss of the greatest part of them that are now free and must continue so so long as they continue in obedience to our Church from all fear of Popish Idolatry and thereby to expose them not onely to all false Religions but even to be of no Religion at all for fear of using such Arguments to secure them as might if used to ignorant Papists continue them in their Errours and obstruct their conversion to our Church of which we cannot have half so great a probability as there is of losing or at least hazarding their Souls who now are not nor never can be in any danger so long as they continue in obedience to their own Church or whether it is safer for them to be kept by Laws in the Communion of the Church of England and in obedience to her Injunctions in all honest and lawful things which is all that our Church requires even of the Clergy themselves Thirdly Another Objection may be this That possible it is our Church may in time as well as the Church of Rome which formerly was a Church as free from all corruption as ours is now degenerate into the very same Crimes which we now blame Rome for I answer That then our Church must be quite altered from what it is at present and I onely propose my Method of Safety to all illiterate Persons in Her present Communion and therefore am not at all concerned for future contingencies But if ever She should be changed from her Primitive Purity which God forbid then and not till then will this Objection deserve an Answer For if possibilities of Errour may render Separation allowable we must never be fixt in any Church till we can come to that which is triumphat in Heaven nay neither can any man be free from a possibility of Errour as long as he is here on Earth let him propose to himself what Guide he can And I dare appeal to any man that is rational whether he must not think that his own Reason may in all probability lead him into Errours much sooner then the Guides of the Church especially in such things as he is not a capable Judge of For surely every mans own Reason is much more subject to a possibility of Errors then an whole Church is to a possibility of a total change and alteration So that it must still remain much safer to rely upon the Church according to the Rule I have laid down then it is to rely wholly upon our own Reason 4. The last Objection I shall answer is this That if we that are illiterate must rely upon our Church in all things above our capacity that then we ought to have practised the same Rule when we were Members of the Church of Rome and consequently ought never to have separated from it and therefore that our Reformers were Schismaticks To this I answer That the Romish Doctrine of Transubstantiation and their Idolatry in worshipping the Host c. besides the Popes Usurpation upon our Regal Authority was so directly contradictory to the Word of God that he must needs see it that doth not wilfully shut his eyes Secondly Our Reformation was carried on not by Private Persons but by the Publick Power of the Nation and by all the wisest and most learned Men in it And consequently it could be no Schism it being granted upon so warrantable a Cause and done in so orderly a manner To conclude
must be fully satisfied as to this point that there can be no excuse for Atheists Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewn it to them For the invisible things of him are clearly seen from the Creation of the world by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead From whence the Apostle concludes so that they are left without excuse But it is no matter with our Author what the Apostle saith For his Guide i. e. his Reason tells him that Jews Turks Heathens and Atheists are in an equal possibility of salvation with the unerring Christian. Now I may appeal even to this Author himself whether I have done him any wrong in comparing his Book with Fiat Lux since it is so plainly apparent by his words that his Design is if not the same much worse then the Design of that Book For who would have gone about to defend such a Question in a tract so exactly fitted for the reading of the common people that had not a Design to wheadle them into an indifferency in all matters of Religion and even to Atheism it self But surely if they have any consideration left in them this very discourse would be enough to make them mistrustful and fearful of such a Guide which may be so easily mistaken as this of Humane Reason and when it is mistaken does so easily lead them into the most damnable of Errours even into the contempt of all Religion But now we see by this Author what kind of Animals they are who are Factors for Rome and a Toleration and by what excellent means they carry on their Design viz. by first perswading men â—o Atheism by an indifferency in all Religion From whence I cannot but take an occasion to remind our Dissenters how much they promote Popery and destroy Christianity by joyning with the Papists and the debauchees of our Nation in promoting a toleration and our Governours that if they think of keeping their Necks from the Roman Yoke they must then maintain the established Religion of the Church in its true Christian practise and Primitive Discipline For how much Atheism and an Universal neglect of all Religion hath encreased since our Laws have been laid to sleep he must be stark blind that doth not see To our Author I shall onely add this That I am sorry with all my heart that a person of his parts and Reason should give any occasion to be thought a Favourer of Atheism For who can think that he is not very much a well-willer to Atheists who endeavours to prove that they are in an equal possibility of salvation with the unerring Christian It may be he may think to shift off this just suspition of Atheism by the help of his Parenthesis viz. if there be any such For who can suspect him to be an Atheist or a Favourer of them who scarce supposeth that there can be any such men as Atheists in the world But we know every Animal will most strive to defend that part which is sore and will winch and kick when any thing comes near it The Fifth Object which our Author would shake off is that of Schism Which saith he is the ordinary railing word in all Controversies and a slander c. Is there then good Sir no such thing as Schism because that word is often abused and misapplied you might if you had pleas'd as well have said there is no such thing as Humane Reason because your Book hath abused and misapplied those words to countenance your Errours Are all Schismaticks to be excused because some have been slander'd with that Title As well may all Thieves and Murderers be excused because some have been slandered and falsly accused of those Crimes It will be then necessary to know who Schismaticks are and the danger they run themselves and draw others into and then we shall see what an absolute necessity there is to put a stop to them both for their own good and the good of the Church The First this Gentleman tells us himself p. 37. They are truly guilty of Schism the word it self bearing witness against them who break the precious Unity of the Christian Church They therefore that break the Unity of the Christian Church either by enjoyning new Articles of Faith or things sinful in their practise contrary to the Doctrine and Practise of the Universal Church in its Primitive purity are guilty of Schism as the Romanists are who amongst the rest which are many more enjoyn the Beleif of Transubstantiation as an Article of Faith which was never heard of in the Christian Church for many hundred years and the worshipping the Host as the consequence of that Doctrine together with Prayers to Saints and the half Communion c. which are practices no less sinful and novel then the former Doctrine Secondly They are Schismaticks who separate from that particular Christian Church into which they were baptized when it commands nothing that is sinful in it self as all those are who separate from the Church of England For they can never excuse themselves from Schism unless they can prove which I challenge them to do if they can that our Church enjoyns them any thing that is a sin but neither would this excuse them from communicating with her in things lawful that are commanded by both their temporal as well as their spiritual Governours Now that Schism is a very heinous sin is most evident because it is a breach of all those commands of the Gospel that enjoyn us Peace and Unity then which I scarce know any more frequently repeated in the New Testament and it will be most evident from the words of St. Paul 1 Cor. 3. 4. For there the Apostle saith that Schismaticks are carnal For saith he while one saith I am of Paul another I am of Apollos are ye not carnal By which interrogation he doth most strongly affirm it and make themselves the Judges in that Case against themselves From whence we may thus argue That if the Apostle saith that the Corinthians were carnal for dividing themselves into Factions and espousing particular Names and Parties though they chose no other persons then himself and Cepbas and Apollos then those that divide the Church into Parties and espouse particular Names and Persons in opposition to the Church of God into which they were baptized and set up a Church within a Church and particular ways of publick worship contradictory to those that are enjoyn'd by that Church of which they are Members without any just cause of separation from her are guilty of carnality by the judgment of the Apostle St. Paul whatsoever their pretensions are of piety in themselves or of powerfulness and godliness in their Teachers And the greatness of the sin of these persons doth appear in that the Apostle calls them carnal since the same Apostle Rom 8. 6 7. makes any canal sin to be mortal and damnable For to be carnally
humility in us to hold to nothing at all but to be like a wave of the Sea tossed with every wind of Doctrine I appeal to any man living whether he doth not think him more humble who submits to the Judgment of his Magistrates in all indifferent things which is all that the Church of England requires then he that is dogmatical in his own opinions about them and onely rests satisfied according to our Authors meek and humble Doctrine in the sole dictates of his own Humane Reason And now who does not admire our Authors great humility in vouchsafing an Answer to this Argument But these are the common Objections Now follows the extraordinary one objected by extraordinary Mr. Hobbs He that pleaseth may read it p. 46. for I am not at leisure to transcribe it The Seventh Object is that of T. H. The sum of which is this That because all publick Worship of God consists in outward significations of our honour of him different ways of Worship must needs be scandalous to others in making them think that we dishonour God in stead of honouring him But this Gentleman dissents from him What pity it is that two such extraordinary Friends should fall out But let us see the Reason why he will contradict his old Master and this it is For the same Argument would as well hold against the diverse ways of Worship in several Commonwealths as in the same because none would be spectators of the Worship but such as believe it Honourable for were there an hundred several Religions in the same City still their Religious Congregations would be made up of none but those of the same Opinion I shall undertake to defend T. H. in his Assertion not for any extraordinary opinion I have of the Man or his Argument but because I believe he speaks truth in it and therefore I think it hard that he which speaketh truth so very seldom should be run down with meer words or metaphors when he doth but chiefly because our Author through him strikes at the injunctions of our Church and our Uniform and decent Ceremonies in the worship of God But do you think Sir that men of the same City would be as much strangers to the Religions of their next neighbours as they are to those of forraign Nations Certainly I should think that it was much easier for them to go a few steps to satisfie their curiosity then to cross the seas for it and would not their trade and interest one amongst another in the same town more oblige them to a religious interview then when they were at some hundreds of miles distance and had little or no concerns that should draw them thither Most probable it is that to carry on a trade with all sorts of men some would so far comply with all sorts of Religions to go to all their publick Assemblies since they might do it without giving themselves the trouble of going further then the limits of their own walls So that the case is much different which our Author would make the very same But our Author hath more Arguments then one and more Answers too or else he was in a poor case He adds That those that are for a toleration of all ways of worship in the same Common-wealth would not think any of those ways which differed from their own to be dishonourable to God But I beseech you Sir did they all tell you so or how do you know it by instinct or new light But Sir if they had I know no body is bound to believe them any more then your self For I dare be so confident as to assert that there is scarce any Sect in all England unless they be Atheists that do in their hearts allow of a toleration of all ways of worship in this Kingdome Hath not this been made appear by all our grand Separatists do the Papists allow it where they have power did the Presbyterian or the Independant allow any such thing when they were uppermost and have not the Quakers themselves set up a discipline amongst them which whosoever will not submit to is presently cast out of the Brotherhood so that we see our Author will find his own party very small when he comes to tell Noses unless he thinks he might find Atheists and Hypocrites enough amongst all or any of the other Parties For otherwise it is absolutely impossible that any man that is sincere in the choice of his Religion should not think that way of worship which is contrary to his to be less honourable to God then his own i. e. comparatively dishonourable to him For Instance I do sincerely choose to pray to God publickly on my knees because I do really believe that this is the most proper way of expressing before those men I converse withall that honour which I owe to God Almighty Now when I see others when they should worship God set on their tails like Dogs or wallow and loll and grunt and groan like Swine or stand up and wriggle and make ugly faces and grin and make mows like Apes or Baboons I must needs confess I cannot for my soul but think their way of Worship ridiculous and contrary to the due expressions of the reverence they owe to the infinite God of Heaven and Earth So that this Gentleman must suppose that all men in our Nation or the greatest part at least are meer Atheists or Hypocrites which no man but he that is one of these himself can possibly suppose or else that there must arise strange thoughts of one another from their contrarieties in the performance of their Publick Devotion and how soon these would break out into Disputes Contentions and Feuds and the Consequences of these Tumults and Seditions I leave it to any one to judge that is not prejudiced But if this Gentleman cannot carry his cause by Reason he knows another way still and that is Railing And therefore he sets full drive on the Clergy of the Church of England they being now exposed as the ancient Christians were amongst the Beasts in the Amphitheatres without any guard but their own generous courage and innocence he therefore ventures to give them the first Essay of his good natured and Gentile Doctrine by very civilly calling them by those most obliging titles of Ignorant or Malicious Physicians For that he speaks of them is evident because there are no other Spiritual Physicians which he there must mean but onely they that do publickly oppose his beloved toleration And is this all they have for their reward for setting themselves in the breach against that Flood of Popery and Atheism which is just ready to overflow our Nation Is not this rare encouragement to our Noblemen and Gentlemen to bestow a thousand or five hundred pounds in the Education of a Son to expose him when all is done to be abused by every Bussoon Is not our Nation come to a fair pass for Religion that though the most barbarous
was true which he can never prove that God would not punish us for our wilful errours yet since the consequence of errours doth naturally lead us into the most damnable sins it therefore behooveth us if we tender our eternal happiness to take care to preserve our selves from errour which may be not only of dangerous but of damnable consequence to us What then is the wisest way for the most of men to guard themselves from these dangers This is a question well worth our consideration if we think we have such souls in us as are endangered by errour to be eternally lost and miserable What then must the common people here amongst us the greatest part of which have scarce reason enough to demonstrate themselves to be men do to secure themselves I answer It is the safest way for them to relie upon the Church especially in all matters of indifferency and of unnecessary disputes and upon some of those Guides which the Church hath lawfully called and authorized in all cases of conscience For since as this Gentleman tells us many nay most of men and the wisest of men have erred though they have had all the advantages to improve their reasons that this world could afford them how should any ordinary man who is void of all helps but his own natural reason dare to rely upon it alone in business of so great concern as his eternal happiness or misery Especially since he doth not think it convenient to rely upon it in business of lesser concern viz. That of his health or estate Now I appeal to all men that in difficult cases do consult their Lawyer and Physician whether they do not think it safer to rely upon their judgements then to be governed only by themselves they must say they do so else they were mad to consult them and give them mony for nothing So that this Author hath the suffrage of all wise men against his opinion when he tells us that upon the account of safety we ought to commit our selves wholly to our own reason in the search of truth Nay I will refer it to himself and challenge him upon his reputation if he hath any left to tell me whether his own practise doth not contradict his opinion that is whether or n◠he consults his own reason and commits himself wholly to the guidance of it in cases that concern his life and estate or whether he is guided by the Doctor and the Barrister To this perhaps he will answer that he limits his discourse to the serch of Religious truths in which it is most safe for us to rely upon our own Reason But I pray you Sir why not then in all other can you shew me any cause of difference If you say because Religion is grounded upon probabilities I Answer so is Physick upon much more uncertainty then Religion and the Law is no less built upon uncertainties in many cases which have not been determined by presidents But suppose that religious matters are more intricate and obscure and less certain then other things since errours in Religion are no less dangerous to our Souls then errours in Law and Physick are to our Estates and Lives if we believe we have any souls We ought then to be more carefull to consult our Guides of Conscience then we are to take advice of our Lawyer or Physician But experience and practise is the best teacher Let us now suppose every private person to be wholly committed to the guidance of his own reason according to this Author's Doctrine and let us see what safety he enjoys thereby For then supposing he meets with a cunning Gentleman from Rome that hath been brought up in all advantages of Learning and Education that should baffle his reason for the defence of Protestantism then if he will act rationally he must presently turn Papist and so vice versâ The same thing would also hold if he should be baffled by any Jesuit under the disguise of any other Sectary whatsoever for he must so often change his Religion as he meets with more crafty Disputants than himself By which means he might every hour have a several religion and change so often till at last he had quitted all religion and turn'd Atheist which we see to be the ordinary consequence of frequent changes Nay further suppose he meets with some subtle Jesuit in disguise whose business it is to convert men first to debauchery then to Atheism and so by degrees to Popery who should baffle all his reasons for the practice of vertue nay for the immortality of his Soul and for the being of God as it may well be suppos'd where there is so great a difference in the advantages of the persons What then will become of him if he commits himself only to the guidance of his own reason he must then presently commence Brute and believe that he hath no more soul then his horse or any other beast and that he shall die and perish like one of them nay he must turn Atheist and not only deny the Lord that bought him but that God that made him and so be left altogether without any excuse Is not this person now very safe think you under the guidance of his own reason If therefore it be safe for us to run into Popery Heresie and Atheism let us follow our own Reasons and wholly commit our selves to our own guidance if not Let us follow the Church of England and those guides which she hath set over us in all difficult cases of which we our selves can be no competent judges and when we are press'd with any argument for a change in our religion which we are not able to answer let us repair to our own lawful Minister or to some other that shall direct us for a satisfaction of our doubts and objections And though this may seem a Paradox in this Age of Schism and Faction yet the relying on the Church is the very same direction that St. Paul gives 2 Tim. 3. 15. where he calls the Church of God The pillar and ground of truth For if so then all that are Christians ought to rely upon this pillar and to build their faith upon that which is the ground of truth But I know he there means the Universal Church But you 'l say how should I who am an illiterate person or a private Gentleman and understand not the languages in which the Scriptures and other Church writings are pen'd know what the Doctrine of the Universal Church is for I am not able to search for the Christian Doctrine my self I answer Read the Scriptures in English and practise those things that are plain and easie in them and as for difficult disputes either let them quite alone or else consult in all difficulties the directions of your own Church the Church of England by those guides which she hath set over you But may not these deceive me too as well as my own Reason I Answer It is
that it might be impossible to make Religion a pretence of Rebellion and this directly leads me to the next Reason against our Author's Politicks viz Thirdly That there is no Religion under Heaven doth better I might say so well secure the publick Peace as ours of the Church of England For can any Religion be more peaceable then that which makes resistance to Magistrates in any case whatsoever to be a most damnable crime then that Doctrine that tends to the highest perfection of our Humane Natures that brings our bodies under the subjection of our souls and both under subjection to God that exalts our nature from being like the Beasts that perish and makes us partakers of the Divine nature by rooting our those lusts and vices that cause war and strife amongst us and by planting in us all those heavenly Graces that would secure the peace of the world and make us like unto God and fit to enjoy him to all Eternity that most conduceth to the good of all Mankind that establisheth peace unity and universal charity amongst all men that preserves the quiet of Families the tranquility of our Souls and the health of our bodies In sum can any Religion better promote the peace of our Nation then that which commands every man to do all the good he can to every man and proposeth infinite and eternal Rewards to those that obey it that forbids all manner of evil towards any man under pain of the greatest most inevitable and eternal torments and makes not the least allowance for the least of evils either in thought word or deed Have we not seen the peaceable effects of our Church and her Doctrine in the time of the late miserable wars amongst us For not one true Son of the Church of England could ever be forced by the fear of penalties or ever be allured by the hopes of Reward to take up Arms against his Sovereign Whereas there is no other sort of men in England but too many of them were guilty even of actual Rebellion being led into it even by the very Principles of their Religion Why then should this Religion be removed from the minds of men would it promote peace to take away that which is the grand Foundation of it and to implant in the room of it principles of all kind of sedition and disobedience Would it preserve his sacred Majesty and our Laws to destroy that Church which is their greatest defence Is it forgotten already how true our late sad experience prov'd it No Church no King and no King no Laws May not our Church therefore justly say to those that would destroy her as our Saviour did to those that would have ston'd him for which of these good works tâ—at I have done amongst you would you now kill me This our Politician saw well enough and is forced to confess it in that he saith Unity in Religion would produce the same effect as that Principle which he propos'd But now let us consider that which is the main Design of his Book which he proposeth instead of the Church of England to maintain peace and quietness in our Nation Which we have p. 79. viz. That this should be made the main and general Ground of all Religions that every man should quietly enjoy his own I remember a Fable in AEsop to this purpose The Mice were in a grand consultation how to preserve themselves from their mortal Foes the Cats at length after a long and serious Debate one of them who like our Author thought himself a better Politician then all the rest very gravely gives them this wise advice That every Cat should wear a Bell about his Neck that so they might be warn'd of his coming by the Sound and might have time to provide for their safety This Advice no doubt was approv'd as very safe by all the company as this Gentlemans Proposal is by all his wise Admirers but at last one sawcy Mouse spoils all with onely asking this Question as a man might ask our Author viz. How this Advice should be put in Execution which made them all break up their Council-board with a loud laughter at the folly of their Counsellour whose great wisdom they did just before so much admire Against our Sir Pol's Advice besides the impossibility of the Proposal I may urge the General consent of all or most of the Nations in the whole world For let him or any man produce if he can any one Monarchy under Heaven in which the publick exercise of every mans particular Religion is allowed him where there is no standing Army to keep the people in obedience so that it is most evident that in every Nation either a standing Army or the establishment of an Unity in Religion is absolutely necessary for publick Peace and Safety Now whether it will be thought more convenient for the Peace of England to uphold the Church or to submit to the Long Sword I refer it to all English Gentlemen to judge If our Author shall say he means onely the private exercise of every man's Religion I answer that no Nation nor Church in the whole world allows a greater liberty in the private exercise of Religion then we have For is it not established by Act of Parliament that every man shall have liberty to exercise his own Religion not only with those of his own family but with five more strangers so that it is not for Religion but for the contempt of the Laws and for endangering by unlawful and numerous assemblies the peace and welfare of our nation that any one is or can be punished by our Laws This our Politician cannot be ignorant of and therefore he must mean not the private but the publick exercise of every mans Religion It may be this Gentleman is an experimental Philosopher and is therefore induced to try experiments in Religion and Politicks as well as in Naturals though he thereby hazards the safety of a whole Nation I will now as far as can be try it with him by granting him what he would have as to the last part of it for the first is altogether impossible and by letting him see the consequence of it in those Sects amongst us Suppose then that some men onely pretend Religion to gather parties together to set up a Common-wealth instead of the best Form of Government in the whole world which we now have established amongst us as it is to be feared most of our Phanaticks do especially the main leaders and abettors of them for though I will not say all dissenters from the Church are for a Commonwealth in the State yet this I believe our experience and observation may prove true that all Common-wealths-men are Schismaticks or at least favourers of Schism and Faction and great sticklers for a Toleration and are not these precious Youths think you to be tolerated in a Monarchy and would not it much conduce to the safety of the Monarchy to let them meet by
have already undeniably demonstrated What then remains but that that he doth ingenuously acknowledge he was in an errour and that he was led into it by an over-high conceit of his own parts me thinks it would be a far greater testimony of his ingenuity then any he has given if he would labour speedily to undeceive as far as he can his unwary Readers who have been too much venom'd by his poysonous and pernicious opinions by dealing honestly and plainly with them and by explaining himself in such sort as that we may have no longer just reason to suspect the whole design of his Book was directly intended against the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England and indeed to patronize all irreligion and Atheism This consideration I refer to the Gentleman 's own great humility and good nature though I must confess I have but little hopes that this advice will have any tolerable effect or influence upon him since he tells us that it is as great a Martyrdom to acknowledge an errour as it is to lay down ones life for the Truth and I am very confident this Author hath no great maw to Martyrdom Wherefore I onely refer it to our Governors whether it is not necessary to make him do it Since therefore without Religion no Society can be preserved and since all confusion would follow all Religions and that of all the Religions in the whole World this of our Church of England is the most peaceable in its Doctrine and most moderate in its Discipline Let all that love the Peace of the Nation joyn in our mutual prayers and endeavours for the Peace and Unity of the Church But these endeavours are all vain saith our Sir Pol. for both Reason and Experience tells us that the hopes of Unity in Religion are impossible But I pray you Sir what Reason what Experience tells us so All the Reason that I know of is onely because your Worship would have it so Have we not such Laws as if they were executed would easily guard our Religion and prevent Schismaticks from making Parties and Factions in our Nation Did they not do it in Queen Elizabeths time and at the first return of his Sacred Majesty that now reigns and what should hinder but they might do it now were there but the same true English spirits to execute them Oh! but now the Sectaries are grown too humerous to be suppressed But what 's the reason of their encrease amongst us was it not because our Laws by a malevolent juncture of Affairs have been lately laid asleep and were never yet awakened by a due execution of them Shall we then because they are numerous let their numbers still encrease they must be suppressed at last or else all things must run into confusion And I onely desire our English Nobility and Gentry whose duty it is according to their oaths and his Majesties late Proclamations to see them executed to consider that if they will not suppress them by the execution of the Laws they will soon arrive at that heighth that the Long Sword must do it or else there shall be no Government at all in our Nation and when an Army hath once got into pay we know how hard it will be to get rid of it and how dangerous it will prove to the Liberty and Propriety of the Subject as well as to the Prerogatives of the Crown For a standing Army is much like Foreign Aids which if they are Victors most commonly prove worse to the Nation that they come to assist then the worst of their Enemies For they soon grow so insolent that the King himself must be subject to the Favourite Officer amongst the Souldiers and wear his Crown no longer then he pleaseth and all the Proprieties and Estates of the Subjects shall be held in a new kind of tennor in capite so that they may be disseized when our Lords of the Sword please and that not by any Law but onely plain force But neither is this true that they are so numerous as they seem to be but that they would as easily decrease by a brisk execution of our Laws as they did encrease by their neglect For the greatest part of our Conventiclers go to Meetings not out of any opinion in Religion but to carry on some trade or little interest and design or to vindicate the reputation of their former rebellious actions which Reasons would all soon cease if our Laws were vigorously executed For if we seriously take a view of our Nation we shall find that by our divisions men rather turn Atheists then Phanaticks and that out of pretence of going to private Meetings they onely take an occasion to be absent from the publick Congregations and to spend the Lords day either in sleeping at home or else in their daily employments in the Field or in what is worse in Ale houses in drunkenness and debauchery For I can speak it by my own sad experience that in a place which hath been an ancient Seat of Divisions ever since the late wars began where they see no probability that the Laws should be executed against them a third part at least if not one half of the Parish are in their practise absolute Atheists and worship God publickly no where at all These are the blessed and inevitable Effects of separation and of every ones enjoying his own Religion I shall say no more concerning the possibility of suppressing Divisions amongst us but onely propose these sew Questions First Whether if the Presbyterians were by some expedient comprehension joyned with the Church the Laws might not easily reclaim the rest Secondly Whether many are not dissenters because they would pretend Conscience for not paying Tythes and whether such a Law as should compel them to pay all Tythes and Dues to the Church would not reclaim many of them and hinder a great many more from running over to their party Thirdly Whether some better provision for Vicars in great Corporation-towns might not much secure the Unity of the Church by keeping the Clergy in a capacity to subsist without an absolute dependence upon the people For hereby they would be encouraged to defend the Church and its Institutions without fear of starving themselves and their Families and would be kept from poverty and necessity which brings a contempt not onely upon their persons but their professions and by consequence upon Religion it self Fourthly Whether the present and imminent danger of Popery and Atheism may not be thought a sufficient motive to the Presbyterians to joyn with the Church of England upon fair proposals of a reconciliation And whether it would not be convenient to make this the first Proposal that they should first agree amongst themselves concerning those things in which they would be dispens'd withall Fifthly Whether they that shall persist in a wilful separation after these Endeavours of Reconciliation shall not as justly deserve to be quite put out of the protection of all the