Crime and Separation from the Communion of the Establish'd Church must be a with-drawing from the Synagogue of Satan If any Church-man shall presume to set forth the heinousness of this Sin or make so bold as to charge Dissenters with it they are taught to call it Railing and instead of reforming the Evil in their own Persons must agree together to run down the Preacher this is too well known in experience to need any proof for none ever reproved this Sin in them but they said he Railed and though it be Zeal and Duty in them to inveigh against the Faults of others yet 't is Malignity of Spirit and Hatred of the Power of Godliness to lay open their Miscarriages But are these Men all this while free from the guilt of this Sin which they are so unwilling to hear of No notoriously guilty of it for a causeless Separation from a true Church is by the Confession of their own Teachers acknowledged to be the Sin of Schism as they often declared in their Arguings against the Brownists of old and the Sectaries of later Days Now the Wisest of them generally own the Church of England to be a True Church and none of them with all their skill have ever shew'd any just cause for Separation from it and therefore breaking from the Worship and Communion of it cannot possibly be excused from Schism How then comes it to pass that their Teachers conceal this from them and not only suffer this guilt to lie upon them but lead and encourage them too in that evil which themselves condemn in others Why the plain Reason is to preserve and uphold the Party for should the People once know the nature and danger of Schism and be sensible how guilty they are of it the Dissenting Cause will fall to the ground and the whole business of the Conventicle be soon at an end and therefore to prevent that the People must be kept in ignorance of their Duty lest they should return to it and not be permitted to know the evil of Separation lest they should turn from it So that Ignorance too is the Mother of these Mens Devotion and they who speak so much of their great Light are merely led on and kept in Darkness But by what Arts do these Men thus hoodwink and blind the Eyes of the People Why To hinder them from the knowledge of Schism they keep them as much as possible from hearing any Discourses of it they permit them not to Read those Books that would discover to them the Evil of it If they hear of any Book written to that purpose or find it put into the hands of any of their Followers they caution them against it as a dangerous Piece and tending to subvert the Power of Godliness Thus do they keep their Followers in Ignorance by the same methods the Romish Priests do theirs If any of their Teachers publish any thing though never so mean to hide the Schism and harden their Followers in it they send it about in Triumph Posting in up like Quack Bills in Market-places and other places of resort thereby spreading it among the deluded Vulgar who are apt to magnifie the Performance to lessen the Sin But if notwithstanding their endeavours the Eyes of any begin to open and they come to see the Error of their ways great care is taken to put out that Light and to stifle such Convictions If by any means they smell out the danger of Schism they make them believe it to be only a Theological Scare-Crow whereby Men in Power would enforce their own Dictates But is breaking the Peace and Unity of the Church a mere Scare-Crow Is the dividing of Christ himself and rending in sunder the Communion of Saints which is the nature of Schism only a Bugbear to fright Fools and Children Certainly they can be no living Members of Christ's Body who are so insensible of these Convulsions But they tell them farther That the Papists charge us with the same guilt and brand us as much for Schismaticks as we do them But Is there the same reason Have not the Terms of their Communion been plainly proved to be Sinful and such as we cannot safely join in And hath this been ever proved of ours Nay Do not themselves own the contrary by their Occasional Communion with us And I hope there is some Difference between a voluntary departing from the Church and being driven from it But to keep them in their Schism they add That the Terms of Communion should be only Scriptural and Unexceptionable whereas Ours are Doubtful and such against which many have great Scruples and Exceptions But is there any thing how wisely soever order'd against which weak and wilful Persons may not entertain some Scruples May not cunning and designing Men raise a mist before the Eyes of the People and keep them from discerning the clearest Truths And must such artificial Doubts justle out a plain and necessary Duty I hope the Wisdom of Superiors may direct and over-rule in case of Doubts and their Authority may carry weight enough to weigh down such Scruples When they are beaten out of these Subterfuges they tell the People That Schism is a falling off from the Communion of the Catholick Church not of This or That particular Church so that they may continue Members of Christ's Church in general though they divide from the National or parish-Parish-Church where they live But is there any Communicating with the Catholick Church without being in Communion with some particular Church Can a Member belong to the Body that is not joined to any part of it No more can any be a Member of Christ's Body that is divided from that part of it where he lives So that if the Church of England be a sound Part of the Catholick Church as is generally owned by all sober Dissenters we cannot divide from it without dividing from the Whole and separating from the Catholick Church of Christ But farther to palliate and propagate their Schism they tell them That 't is no unjust Separation till it proceed so far as to deny the Faith and whilst they keep the Christian Faith they cannot justly be charged with Schism But is there no difference beteween Apostacy and Schism Is it not one thing to deny the Faith and another to forsake the Communion of the Church May not some be pretty sound and tenacious too of the Christian Faith and so be neither Hereticks nor Apostates who yet may Separate from the Worship and Communion of the Church and so be justly branded for Schismaticks Do not all the ancient Fathers in their Disputes with the Hereticks carefully distinguish between these Two May we not see some breaking the Unity and Communion of the Church who yet do not renounce there Creed or deny the Articles of the Christian Faith The confounding these Two hath not only confounded their Notions but brought great Confusion into the Church And yet at other times they would
Their pretence to Christian Liberty p. 106 Letter XIII Their pretence to better means of Edification p. 117 Letter XIV Their setting up and encouraging little private Schools of Philosophy p. 126 Postscript Their settling and maintaining a secret Correspondence among themselves with a Copy of one of their late Letters p. 135 The End of the CONTENTS LETTER I. SIR I Remember my Promise of giving you some account of the Artifices of Dissenters to support their Schism And though this Mystery of Iniquity hath some depths and intriegues that are out of the reach of a vulgar eye yet there are other Devices that lie more open and may be easily discern'd by an ordinary Observer And here the First thing that occurs to our view is their great zeal and diligence in making Proselytes in which they imitate if not outdo the zeal of the Pharisees Matt. 23.15 who compass sea and land to make a proselyte This unwearied diligence of the Pharisees is remark'd by our Saviour as an instance of their Hypocrisy And the Jewish Writers tell us how they used their utmost endeavours in hunting after Proselytes not for their good but their own gain that they might some way or other drain their Purses after they had drawn them into their Sect They spared no pains among all sorts of persons but especially among the Richer Widows whom by their subtle attractives they despoil'd of a great part of their Substance The Scripture hath recorded of them That they devoured widows houses Matt. 23.14 by their long Prayers which they made to serve as a long Grace to hallow and sanctify their Oppression In a word they fish'd for Proselytes every where and made a prey of all that they drew into their Net And herein they are equall'd if not exceeded by our Dissenting Brethren the art and industry used by them to this purpose being too well known to need any proof The chief things to be remark'd under this Head are 1st The Persons of whom these Proselytes consist 2dly Whence they are gathered And 3dly What they are Proselyted to For the Parties on whom this Game is plaid They are not any Persons of Education and Parts who can see through the disguise and discover the Imposture but the weak and illiterate Vulgar whose want of Judgment renders them the more easy and liable to seduction And here their great business is to flatter and humour the common People who are the sole Props and Members of the Conventicle being fearful and tender of displeasing them lest they should fly off and Dagon fall with them and therefore we are told by a wise Observer of their ways That the People are most truly the Guides and that the Pastors must follow them whom they pretend to Conduct which shews them to be rather Men-pleasers than the Servants of God But whence are these Proselytes taken Why out of the Parochial Established Churches for they can be taken no where else and we all know that the Conventicle is made up of a few straggling Sheep gathered out of other Flocks and drawn from the true Fold of the Catholick Church Now these Parochial Churches being by the Dissenters themselves acknowledged to be true Churches of Christ this can be no other than gathering Churches out of Churches a thing severely Condemn'd by the Puritans of old in the Brownists and by the Presbyterians of late in the Independents and other Sectaries If you will peruse the Presbyterian Writings and pirticularly the Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici the exactest Book that hath been written by them You will find this practice of gathering Churches out of Churches and setting up separate Meetings against an Established Church bitterly inveigh'd against as the Mother of Confusion the Nurse of Schism and the Step mother of Edification How comes the case then to be thus alter'd That gathering Churches out of Churches which was formerly a heinous Crime should now become not only a harmless thing but a necessary Duty And what was so fiercely disputed against as a grievous Faction should now be so earnestly contended for as if it were the faith once delivered to the saints What is it that hath made this change Is Vice of a sudden turn'd into Virtue Or hath the Mother of Confusion chang'd the Breed and brought forth a purer way of Worship and Devotion No the Mystery of it is That the Presbyterians upon the dissolution of the Government which they had in a great measure occasion'd fed themselves with hopes of being uppermost and laboured hard to bring the other Sects that grew up under them to the lure of their Discipline and then setting up Altar against Altar and gathering Churches out of Churches were vile and abominable things but finding themselves oppos'd and indeed overtop'd by the Independents and by the Re-establishment of the Church upon its ancient Foundation utterly defeated of all their hopes they began then to play the same game and lest they should be left in the lurch fell a gathering Disciples as fast as the other Sectaries And then all their own Arguments taken from Peace and Unity which were very strong whilst they made for Them of a sudden lost all their force when they were turned against them Most rare and well-grounded Divinity But what is it that these Industrious Men seek to make Proselytes to Is it to the embracing of Christianity or the practice of real Piety and Virtue No this were a very charitable and commendable Zeal indeed but 't is to a Party a Faction to a Schism or Separation from a true Church which they themselves have branded for the sink of Error and the inlet of all Confusion So that if the People would but open their Eyes they might easily see their Leaders acting against their own Principles and might condemn them out of their own mouths But what is the end or design of this great diligence in making Proselytes Why the plain design of it is the weakening the established Church by drawing the Members from it the strengthning their own Party by adding Followers to it and by degrees undermining the Government in Church and State to draw the Power and Interest of both into their own hands Great and noble designs indeed not for the publick Good but their own private Interest and Ambition And yet these apparently lie at the bottom of these endeavours Now this will lead us to consider the evil and danger of such Practices and that as well to the Parties Proselyted as those that Proselyte them St. Paul sharply rebuked this way of Proselyting or Party-taking among the Corinthians though they made some of the Apostles yea Christ himselfe to be one of the Heads of the Party While one saith I am of Paul another I am of Apollos another I am of Cephas another I am of Christ are ye not carnal and walk as men Yes as the worst sort of men for ye divide Kingdoms rend Churches and tear in pieces the very
persuade them That Schism is only a breach of Love and Charity within the Church and signifies no more than Divisions and Contentions among the Members of the same Church in crying up different Teachers as it happened in the Church of Corinth when one said I am of Paul another I am of Apollo c. and this say they begot those Sidings and Factions which the Apostle there calls and reproves by the Name of Schisms Well But if those lesser Differences and Sidings among the Members of the same Church be by the Apostle stiled Schisms and condemn'd as occasions of great Heats and Animosities How much more must those greater Variances of breaking Communion and setting up Separate Meetings and Ways of Worship against each other be condemn'd for such And how naturally these things tend to destroy Love and Charity is too plain by those flames of Contention which these sparks have already kindled But there is one thing more by which they mislead unwary People in this matter that must not be passed by and that is their making them believe That an Act of Parliament by granting a Toleration hath taken off the Schism and removed the guilt of it for we find the Ring-Leader of the Party venting this wild Notion Baxter's p. 32. viz. If the Supreme Authority loosen our Obligation to the Parish Meeting the Iniquity upon this account is not to be found and the Schism is gone lo here saith he a way opened for the Parliament if they please to rid both the trouble and scruple of Schism out of the Land But can they rid the Sin and Guilt of it too out of the Land If not 't is fit the Scruple and Trouble of it too should remain to keep Men from it the Peace and Unity of the Church is given in strict Charge by Christ and his Apostles to all the Members of it And is any Earthly Power able to loosen this Obligation Can Human Laws vacate the Authority and Obligation of Divine Laws If so we might invert the Apostle's Question and say 't is fitter to Obey men than God The Parliament indeed may take off the Temporal Penalties which themselves have annex'd to the Sin of Schism but the Guilt and Obligation to Eternal Punishment can be taken off by none but God only who hath laid it upon it And yet there is one way by which the Parliament may rid this evil out of the Land and that is by Removing Schismatical Teachers and Suppressing Seditious Conventicles And that way the Iniquity of it may not be found and the Schism may be gone I am Yours A. B. LETTER IX SIR I Shewed in my last the Dissenters artificial concealing the nature and guilt of Schism and their feeding the People with false Notions of it to continue and increase their Party I proceed now to Another Artifice to this end and that is their mistaking or misinterpreting sundry Passages of Holy Scripture whereby they wrest it from the true sense and draw it in to serve their own purpose And herein again they are the Followers of the Pharisees who by their false Glosses and perverse Interpretations made void the Law of God Of this many Instances may be given and that you may be the better satisfied of this Device I shall single out a few And the first I shall mention of these shall be that of Deut. 4.2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you From this Scripture they infer That the Church of England hath made several Additions to the Word of God and so turn the fault of the Schism upon her by clogging its Communion whith such uncommanded Conditions Now the plain sense of those Words is this Ye shall not Transgress the Commandments of God by doing any thing contrary to them which is to add to them or by omitting any thing required by them which is to diminish from them Now let the Wisest of them shew any one thing Appointed by the Church that is forbidden by the Word of God or omitting any thing required by it and then we shall own the Charge but if they cannot do this which had been done long since if it could have been done at all they must excuse us if we take them not only for false Expositors of the Holy Scriptures but false Accusers of the Holy Church The Additions there forbidden are to the Substance of God's Word by making other and more Precepts and Prohibitions than that hath made and adding new substantial Parts of Divine Worship but cannot with any congruity of sense be extended to the Circumstantials of it as Time Place Habit Gesture and the like which though not particularly determined in Holy Scripture are yet necessarily implied in the general Rules of Order Decency and Edification required in it And yet these Men will never leave asking that Question Isa 1.13 Who hath required these things at your hands Though the nature of the Thing the general Rules of God's Word and the Power set up by Christ in his Church to which we owe Obedience have expresly required these things from us Yea these rare Expositors have unwittingly fallen into that very Evil themselves which they condemn in others by making more things Unlawfull than God's Word hath made so and Forbidding many things which are no where Forbidden by it which is a plain Addition to the Substance of Religion But those words of Jeremy say these Men Jer. 7.31.19.5 They built the high places of Tophet to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire which I commanded them not neither came it into my heart lay the stress of the Provocation not upon doing what God had Forbidden but in doing what he had not Commanded them But how often must these Men be told and by some of their own Party too that the meaning of those words which I commanded them not is the same with what I had forbidden them for so the thing there referred to expresly was viz. their offering their children unto Moloch Yea that Phrase which I commanded them not is in the Old Testament generally applied to what God had Forbidden They offered strange fire which the Lord commanded not Levit. 10.1 that is which he had forbidden them They worshipped other Gods which I have not commanded i.e. which I have forbidden So that to make it necessary to have an express Command for every Circumstance of Divine Worship and to charge the doing any thing in it without such a Command for an Addition to God's Word is it self a plain Addition to it where no such thing is either mentioned or required Yea the mistake hereof hath been so frequently and so fully laid open that they must be past all shame that have the face to mention it any more Another Text perverted by these Artists is that of Joshua 7.13 where
The Mystery of Phanaticism OR THE ARTIFICES OF DISSENTERS To Support their SCHISM Together with the Evil and Danger of them Set forth in several Letters to a FRIEND Wherein is made appear That nothing but the Subtilty and Cunning of their Teachers doth now hinder the People from Conformity By a Divine of the Church of England 2 Cor. 2.11 We are not ignorant of their Devices The SECOND EDITION Corrected LONDON Printed for T. Leigh at the Peacock in Fleetstreet and R. Knaplock at the Angel and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1698. THE PREFACE THE DISSENTING Cause being in a great measure deserted in Point of Argument is now merely upheld by Artifice and what it wants of Reason and Truth is supplied by Subtilty and Cunning And because the Discovery hereof may help to undeceive and open the Eyes of some well-meaning but unwary People it may not be altogether an unprofitable Task to lay open these Devices that they may the better see how they are gull'd and be the more aware of the Imposture Truth we know is willing to be seen with open Face and hath that Native Beauty and Lustre that needs no Paint or Varnish to recommend it But Error hath so foul and ugly a Complexion that makes it need and covet a Vizor to hide its Deformity and can only be set forth by False and Artificial Colours We read of some mens Works that they cannot bear the Light and therefore come not to it lest their deeds should be reproved Joh. 3.20 Such as these do but act a Part in Religion and only play the Zealous and Devout and are indeed to be shunn'd and detested of all Men as the worst of Impostors for they at once mock God and deceive the People and prostitute the Best Things to the worst and vilest Purposes And that too many such there are our unhappy Age can sadly testifie For may we not daily see the Sons of Craft acting under various Disguises and wheedling the People with their Pious Frauds Do they not work upon the Weakness of some the Wilfulness of others and the Discontents of all to serve their own Ends upon them And like Spiritual Mountebanks cry up their Infallible Medicines for the Cure of Souls merely to draw in and deceive the unthinking Multitude They are sufficiently acquainted both with the Ignorance and the Headiness of the Vulgar and apply themselves to them accordingly following that known Rule Si populus vult decipi decipiatur With this untemper'd Mortar do the Architects of Schism build their Babel laying Hay and Stubble upon the Foundation of Christianity which they at the same time undermine by their Hollowness and Hypocrisie Our Blessed Saviour forewarned his Followers of such false Teachers that should come to them in sheeps cloathing Mat. 7.15 that is with soft and smooth Pretences but inwardly were ravening wolves dividing the Flock that they may the more easily devour them and making a Prey of them whom they pretend to feed These he afterward describ'd by their divided Dialect Matt. 24.23 26 one saying Lo here is Christ and another there And when things come to this pass that one saith Behold he is in the field another he is in the secret chambers a third in the Conventicle 't is time to hearken to our Saviour's Advice Believe them not and go not after them The Apostle likewise foretold of such Seducers that would arise in the latter days Acts. 20.29 30 speaking perverse things to draw disciples after them Describing them sometimes by their despising dominions Jude v. 8. 2 Tim. 3.6 and speaking evil of dignities At other times more plainly pointing at them by their creeping into houses and leading captive silly women laden with divers lusts thus beguiling the Weaker Sex who being lead more by their Passions than Reason are more easily seduc'd by them And therefore we are exhorted Rom. 16.17 To mark them that cause divisions and avoid them for they serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and with good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple And as Christ and his Apostles have thus forewarned us of false Teachers who by their subtle Insinuations would if it were possible deceive the very elect so have they foretold the Giddiness and Instability of some among the People who would hearken too much to their false Insinuations and be easily deluded by them These are described by their Vnwillingness to hear and endure sound doctrine 1 Tim. 4.3 and heaping to themselves teachers having itching ears by which means they would turn from the truth and be turned unto Fables Both these Predictions are unhappily fulfilled in our Days which affords too many sad Instances both of the cunning Craftiness of some who lie in wait to deceive and the too great Easiness and Willingness of others to be deceived by them So that we are certainly fallen into those perilous Times in which the Apostle foretold that men should be lovers of themselves 2 Tim. 3.1 2 c. traytors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof of whom he wills all wise men to beware and to turn from them Indeed there hath been no Age since the Apostles wholly free from Schismaticks and Impostors but perhaps none ever afforded such Swarms of them as our unhappy days in which like the Flies of Egypt they are still buzzing in the ears of the people and like the Frogs croaking in all corners of the Land It will not therefore be amiss to expose to Publick View the Frauds and Fallacies of false Teachers to lay open the Evil and Danger of them that if we cannot wholly cure the Schism we may preserve as many as possible from the Contagion of it Farewell The CONTENTS Letter I. THeir great Zeal in making Proselytes Page 1 Letter II. Their pretence to greater Light and Knowledge than other men p. 11 Letter III. Their pretence to greater Strictness and Sanctity than other men p. 22 Letter IV. Their pretence to Purer Ordinances and a more Spiritual way of Worship p. 32 Letter V. Of their crying up Peace and Vnity tho' all their Actions tend to destroy and undermine them p. 42 Letter VI. Their Censuring the Lives and Actions of those within the Church the better to commend theirs who Dissent from it p. 51 Letter VII Of their calling the wise Injunctions of our Superiors by the odious Name of Impositions p. 62 Letter VIII Of their keeping the People in Ignorance of the Nature and Danger of Schism p. 70 Letter IX Of their Misinterpreting and Wresting the Scriptures to serve their own purpose p. 81 Letter X. Their confining the Offices of Kindness and Charity to those of their own Sect p. 89 Letter XI Their working upon the Weakness the Wilfulness and Discontents of the People to serve their own Ends upon them p. 97 Letter XII
all Christians as the Bane and Pest of any Church and Kingdom And now I think this Artifice is pretty well detected and a vulgar Eye may plainly see the evil and danger of it for if heaping up different Teachers be not a breach of Unity and drawing Men from an Established Church be not causing Divisions I know not what is Does not the Apostle blame the divided dialect of the Corinthians when one said I am of Paul another I am of Apollo and another I am of Cephas c. though they proceeded not so far as to break Communion And if the bare crying up different Teachers in the same Church be there branded for Schism How much wider must the breach be when they withdraw from the Communion of it and set up separate Meetings and different ways of Worship in opposition to it This is plainly the case of our Dissenters and if St. Paul rebuk'd those lesser Schisms and Divisions of preferring some Teachers before others within in the Church as signs of Carnality and degrees of Apostacy how much greater must the fault be to make a Schism from the Church by dividing from the Worship and Communion of it Neither is the danger hereof less apparent than the Sin for this hath a pernicious influence not only on the persons thus seduced from it who are thereby rent and torn from the Body of Christ and harden'd in a dangerous and deadly Schism but on the whole Church whose Peace and Unity is thereby broken and being depriv'd of many of its Members is thereby weaken'd and laid open to the Assaults of its greatest Enemies These and many more are the sad effects of this Device and must be charg'd on those Craftsmen who talk much of Peace and Unity the better to supplant both and declaim against Divisions merely to promote and propagate them I am SIR Yours A. B. LETTER VI. SIR I Shew'd in my last the Craft of Dissenters in crying up Unity and decrying Divisions and how by that means they cunningly destroy the one and promote the other I proceed now to a Fifth Artifice of theirs to support their Schism and that is Their Censuring the Lives and Actions of those within the Church the better to commend theirs who Dissent from it And herein again they are the followers of the Pharisees a great part of whose Religion consisted in Censuring the Lives and Scorning the Persons of other Men. Our Saviour hath observed of them Matt. 7.3 that they were sharp and quick in espying a mote in their brother's eye when they could not discern a beam in their own They beheld the faults of others in a magnifying Glass which made them aggravate all their failings when all the while they could see nothing amiss in themselves and easily overlook'd their own Enormites A Learned Author hath observ'd of them That they had an Eye upon every Man's Life except their own and mightily concern'd themselves in others Behaviour they had a reproof for every Man's faults great or small but were still very favourable and indulgent to themselves And herein they are exactly imitated if not outdone by our Dissenters who delight in nothing more than censuring the Lives and condemning the Actions of other Men Is there any thing more obvious than this in all their Discourse and Conversation With what pleasure do they insist upon and aggravate other Mens failings Hurting their Neighbours Credit sometimes by open Calumnies which is the Arrow that flies by day and sometimes by secret Whispers which is the Pestilence that walketh in darkness and wounds without being seen How freely shall you hear them taxing the Actions and talking of the Miscarriages of other Folk How eloquent are they wont to be upon this Subject With what heat and concern With what seeming zeal and warmth does this reviling Language drop from them Yea Do they not place a great part of their Religion in censuring the Wickedness of the times crying out upon the Badness of Mens Lives and shaking their Empty Heads at the Naughtiness of their Ways Now you must not think that these bolts are shot at Them or that any of the Party are to be reckoned in the number of these Wicked ones no they are those Righteous Souls in Sodom who are vexed with the filthy Conversation of the Wicked and for whose sake the rest are spared 'T is the Churchmen and they that follow the Common-Prayer that are guilty of all these Enormities We find one of them telling us in Print That they who like this kind of Worship are generally Ignorant Prophane Superstitious Time-servers Fearful Unbelievers Haters of those that are Good Drunkards Adulterers c. Well said thou Accuser of the Brethren throw Dirt enough and to be sure some will stick In another place he adds That they are generally Persons much estranged from the Life of God and little acquainted with the Power of Godliness Alas Good Man he is griev'd at the heart to see the deadness and formality of such Worshippers Another of these Godly Brethren tells us That the Bishops are an Earthly Generation and savour not the things of God and that there is more of God and Religion in some one Congregation of a Silenc'd Minister than in all the Bishops Families in England Are not these Charitable and Clean-mouth'd Souls Or rather are not their Tongues set on Fire of Hell But what is the Design of all these rude Censures and Calumnies Why to draw the People from the Established Church and to persuade them to come out from such an unsanctified Crew and withal to invite them to the Conventicle where they will find better Company and join with the Assembly of the Saints How serviceable this Stratagem hath been to increase and keep up the Party is obvious to observe For This gratifies the natural Pride and Ambition of Mens Hearts who are willing to be thought better than other Men and are easily persuaded to hearken to and believe those that tell them so Again This gratifies the Spleen and Animosity that some have against their Neighbours thus to vent their malice in Censures and evil Reflections on their Life and Manners a Religion that allows and commends these things must be very grateful to Flesh and Blood and cannot want many Followers Moreover This cherishes in Men a mighty love and conceit of themselves making them think that they hate and abhor those sins themselves which they thus Censure and Condemn in others Besides all Men desire an easy Religion and would willingly go to Heaven the nearest and softest way that may be now what can be more easy than to Saint themselves by defaming others And who would not embrace a Religion that will indulge Men in their Vices if they do but declaim against them and censure them in other People Yea 't is a pleasing and delightful thing to some Persons to find faults in other Men for it gives a seeming satisfaction in their own innocence or at least
this is to preserve and propagate the Schism is very easy to imagine Again By this device the Dissenters can shift off all the blame of the Divisions from themselves and lay them at others doors which is indeed a great piece of Art and stands them in good stead for if they are charged with the danger and evil consequents of our unchristian Divisions and Separations they presently throw off all the guilt of them from themselves and lay it upon the Impositions they good men are in no fault but they who have made the yoke of Conformity intolerable by laying too much upon the backs of their weak Brethren and making the Burthen too heavy for their tender Consciences to bear by this Artifice they seek cunningly to discharge themselves of all the troubles and commotions in these Kingdoms which they put not upon their own stubbornness and disobedience to good Laws which is the true cause of them but upon their Governors for Imposing upon them and making the yoke of Government too heavy and hard to be born But what are those Laws which they fix this odious brand upon and call by the nick-name of Impositions Why they are the good Orders and Constitutions of the Church appointed only for the external Reverence and Decency of Divine Worship 't is the Liturgy and Discipline of the Church that must go under this infamous Character to keep their Followers from all due Submission and Obedience to them And as the first Enemies of Christianity arrayed the ancient Christians in Bear-Skins and Goat-Skins that they might be the more worried and baited by the Multitude so have the Architects of Schism put this vile Title on wholesome Orders to make them the more hated and abhorred by the People Hence we read That when King Charles the First out of a Pious Zeal for the Unity and Uniformity of all the Churches in his Dominions Ordered a Liturgy to be Composed and Used in the Church of Scotland which was no more than hath been practised in all Christian Churches and well enough became a Christian Prince to do What loud out-cries against Impositions were raised by some Turbulent and Factious Spirits in that Kingdom Who thereupon brake out in an unnatural War and Rebellion against their Lawfull Sovereign yea and had the Impudence too to charge all that Blood upon that Pious Prince which was wickedly shed by those Impious Traytors By which we plainly see the mischief of this Device And though abundantly enough hath been written by our own and Foreign Divines to take off this false Imputation yet the cry must still go on to continue and propagate the Schism But what is it that makes the Burthen of Impositions as they call them so heavy Why First 'T is the giving of Assent and Consent to all that is contain'd in and prescrib'd by the Book of Common-Prayer This they are continually buzzing in the Ears of the People though they are no way concern'd in it and so fright them from the Communion of the Church by their feigned and imaginary Scare-Crows for this is no where required of them and consequently there can be no reason of frighting them with this Bugbear but only to keep them from the publick Worship The Minister indeed who is to offer up the publick Prayers of the Church is required to give his Assent to them And can any thing be more reasonable than that he that is called to this Office should be satisfied in the Soundness of the publick Devotion Is it fit that any should Officiate this way who doubts of the Truth or Usefulness of the publick Service Must not this occasion great Coldness and Hypocrisie in the Worship of God If they think the serving of God by the Common-Prayer be a Service pleasing unto him Why can they not Assent and Consent to it If they do not How can they be fit to Officiate or indeed at any time to join in the Use of it So that this if well considered will be found rather a needless Cavil than a just Exception against the prescribed Worship But 2dly The Imposing This and no Other adds to the weight of the Impositions and makes the Burthen too heavy How so Is not a standing Liturgy containing all the Offices of Religion sufficient to all the ends of Piety and Devotion Are not Peace Unity and Order best preserved by one Uniform Established way of Worship Are Men imposed upon unless they are left free to what way of Worship they please which necessarily breeds Confusion and every Evil work Of this our own sad Experience may abundantly fatisfy us and withall plainly shew the fallacy of this Artifice Now the mischief of this Device is too visible both in Church and State for the crying out upon Impositions and branding good Laws with that odious Name hath kept many from all Obedience to them In short this hath bred a contempt of Authority and involv'd whole Kingdoms in Blood and Confusion But there is another branch of this Artifice and that is The stiling the just Penalties of wholsom Laws by the hareful Name of Persecution This is a plain consequent of the former for when Men think themselves imposed upon by publick Orders and Constitutions they will soon think themselves Persecuted when they are Punished for the breach of them hence we find the Dissenters often setting up the cry of Persecution by which they would have their Governors to be thought Tyrants and themselves the Saints that suffer under them yea they compare their Condition to that of the Primitive Christians and would make the World believe that when they are punished for the breach of Unity Peace and Order they are as much persecuted as those first Christians in all their Sufferings for the Truth of Christianity But this Artifice being already fully detected I shall add no more here but refer you to it I am SIR Yours A. B. LETTER VIII SIR YOU see the Mischief of calling things by wrong Names as stiling publick Laws by the Name of Impositions and the Penalties annex'd to the Breach of them by the Name of Persecution which hath made many too careless of the one and fearless of the other I come now to A Seventh Artifice of Dissenters and that is to keep the People in Ignorance of the Nature and Danger of Schism or else to feed them with wrong Notions and Conceits of it Indeed the Romish Priests are not more studious to conceal the Corruptions of their Church than these Men are to disguise the Errors of the Conventicle This is evident in the Matter of Schism for though it be one of the greatest Sins that can be committed being a tearing in pieces the Body of Christ and as far exceeds any other Vice as rending one Limb from another is worse than a Corrupt Humour yet the People must not know so much the guilt of it must be hid from their Eyes yea it must be look'd on rather as a Duty than a
they are carried on and kept in Ignorance of a great part of their Duty The great Duties of Unity Peace and Order in the Church of Christ can never be fairly explained or inculcated in those places where their very Meetings are a contradiction to them The heinous nature and guilt of Schism must not be laid open since all their Conventicles are founded upon it The tender point of Divisions so sharply rebuked by the Apostle must not be touch'd upon there where so many love or live by them And now let any impartial Man judge where we are like to find the best means of Edification either in the publick Assemblies of the Church where the whole mind and will of God is truly and faithfully Revealed or in the Separate Meetings of Sectaries where the bare upholding of them tempts them to so much Falsification But where then lies the Fallacy or Mistake in this Matter Why the People are imposed upon by false Notions of Edification For First Some take the fond Opinions and affected Phrases of a Party for the best means of Edification Thus if they hear any discoursing of Election and Reprobation in which they commonly canonize themselves and roprobate others if they saucily pry into and pass their Judgment in those secret things that belong to God and withal misinterpret the reveal'd things that belong to them they think themselves mightily edified though they know nothing aright in those matters Again if they hear them talking of Rolling upon Jesus Christ and Lying flat upon the Promises with other such Mystical and Phrase-Divinity they prick up their Ears and are wonderfully pleas'd with the unintelligible Jargon If they happen to go to the Church and hear the plain Sense of the Gospel laid open and the true Notions of Justification Regeneration Conversion and Salvation explain'd to them they think themselves unedified because they are not amus'd with some fine Conceits about these things The truth is the less they understand the more they are edified which makes them go to the Church with prejudice where they are entertain'd with found Doctrine and the sober Notions of Religion and to delight only in the Mystical and Vain Talk of the Conventicle whereby they mistake the true means of Edification Again 2ly They mistake the false Heats of Fancy for the true Warmth of the Heart and think they have profited by a Sermon merely because they were pleas'd This is a frequent and fatal Delusion for false Teachers commonly work upon the Passions of their Hearers without a right informing their Judgment and so make them think themselves edified when they are all the while merely deluded To this end a melting Tone solemn Looks vehement Actions are made use of and having by these Arts warm'd their Imaginations make them believe they are fired with a true Zeal and so strangely edified as if they felt some extraordinary Impulses of the Holy Ghost stirring within them when all the while 't is no other than the Motion of the Animal Spirits occasioned by the Heats of Fancy and are chiefly owing to their Bodily Temper Now to cry up these for Edification and going on to Perfection is as one hath observ'd to betray the People into the power of every Impostor who hath the knack to raise these Heats and make them pass for Reason and Conviction of Mind These mortify no Sin nor improve any Virtue and so make men neither wiser nor better than they were before but rather more fickle and inconstant and apt to be carried about with every Wind of Doctrine Whereas true Edification helps men to grow in Grace and Knowledge and leaves more firm and lasting Impressions of Virtue upon the Soul Moreover this pretence to better means of Edification sets the common People a judging between better and best of which by reason of their Ignorance and Instability they are incompetent Judges Indeed there is so much of Humour and Fancy in mens Comparisons between Teachers that lays them open to Great Mistakes and Inconveniences about it it fills the best-meaning Persons among them with endless Scruples whom to chuse and where to go and is a Principle of great Giddiness and Instability Yea the mischeif of it is to great to have any Licence or Countenance given to it in any well-constituted Church for it breaks the Order Peace and good Government of it and naturally creates Division and great Distractions it sets people a gadding after new Inventions and necessarily brings on the Guilt of Schism So that this pretence confutes it self and proves a great hindrance to the Edification it pretends to He that constantly attends the Prayers and Instructions of his Parochial Guide shall learn and profit more than he that hunts about for better means of Edification A rolling Stone we say never gets Moss And he that runs after and heaps to himself Teachers may have his itching Ears tickled but seldom hath either his Heart renew'd or his Life reform'd by such means Again by keeping close to a settled Pastor men may have all the Parts and Duties of Religion one time or other explain'd and applied to them and this will tend more to true Edification than the Oratory of loose and general Discourses which for the most part only enters into one Ear and goes out at the other Besides this running after new Teachers is a great Discouragement to a Faithful Pastor to see himself forsaken of his Flock and find them following Wolves in Sheeps cloathing This tends at once to hinder the Preparations of the Minister and the Proficiency of the People who might have better Sermons and profit more by them if they would more frequently attend them In a word This wanton Humour of leaving their own Minister to go where they can profit best hath been severely condemn'd by the Party that now cherish it in their Followers Mr. Edwards in his Gangraena mentions it as one of the great Errors of the Times in which he liv'd And both Presbyterians and Independents have inveigh'd against it as a Principle of great Looseness and Vanity as may be made appear if need be I am SIR Yours A. B. LETTER XIV SIR THE last Artifice of Dissenters that I shall mention is Their setting up and encouraging little private Schools of Philosophy to prepare and qualifie Persons for the holding of Conventicles The Design of this Stratagem is to keep up a Succession of Factious Teachers and to propagate the Schism to future Generations There are some Sects indeed that take no Care about the Education or Commission of their Holders-forth but leave this Office entirely to the Natural Endowments and Volubility of Gifted Brethren But there are others and particularly the Presbyterians who being many of them bred up in the Universities themselves and thereby knowing something of the Method and Benefit of that Education erect private Schools wherein they do something to the like though for the most part to very little purpose They are sensible of
the Necessity and Usefulness of Human Learning to qualifie for the Ministry and therefore fearing lest their Conventicles might fall through the gross Ignorance of those that must uphold them something must be taken care of this way to fit them for this great Work at least some smattering of Learning must be had or pretended to to give some Countenance to the Cause And indeed a little of it with a great deal of Confidence will go a great way to deceive the Vulgar They know moreover that the present Heads of the Party are all mortal and going off the Stage and therefore lest the Faction should die with them care must be taken to raise up more to preserve the Succession and derive the Imposture to future Ages Besides the breeding up of these Emissaries affords no small Gain to the present Crafts-men and the Leaders are like to get more by their Learning than the People to whom they are sent who are in danger to be mis-led by them and merely beguil'd by their vain Philosophy Thus do they erect private Seminaries against the most renowned Universities merely to qualifie them to keep up private Conventicles against the best establish'd Church in the Christian World Which is a very serviceable Stratagem to uphold the Party and propagate the Schism But for the better understanding of this Device let us enquire into the Masters and Scholars of these separate Academies together with the Learning profess'd and taught in them And First For the Heads and Masters in these Seminaries They are busie not only in sowing Divisions themselves but in planting of Tares and watering of Weeds that may spring up when they are gone to infest the Church and choak the good Seed of sound Doctrine preach'd in it A Noble Employment indeed and worthy the Ambassadors of Christ to be Teachers of Schism and Promoters of Faction and not to be content only to divide the Church and rend the Body of Christ for their own time but to breed up others to succeed them in this great Work and raise a new Race of Disturbers for the Edification of Posterity They are unwilling the Church should be ever settled in Unity and Peace and therefore are hard at work to propagate Dissentions to instill their Sophistry into their Disciples and to lay a foundation for Discord on future times But if any of these grand Teachers of Philosophy in private Schools have been Graduates in the Universities as we are told some of them are How shall we excuse them from Perjury in violating the Oaths taken by them to the contrary And if any of them have been Episcopally Ordain'd according to the Rites and Orders of the Church of England as 't is well known some of them have been What can they say for acting thus contrary to the Declarations and Subscriptions required in it and training up others in Nonconformity and opposition to it I think it will not be a miss for these Men to consider whether that tenderness of Conscience they so much pretend to can consist with the Violation of those Engagements or whether it be not either the Weakness of their Heads or the Falseness of their Hearts that gives them so easy a Dispensation from observing of them As for the Scholars thus train'd up by them they are plainly nurs'd up in a Schism and not only taught to go themselves but lead others in the ways of Separation whereby they are bred up Enemies to the Government both in Church and State mis-led from the ways of truth and Peace and so unhappily directed out of the way that they should go But what are the Arts and Methods of instruction made use of in these Seminaries to this purpose Why First They are taught all the little Scruples and Cavils that have been raised against the Liturgy and Discipline of the Church to beget in them the greater aversion from both Next They are furnished with Seditious Books written against them to heighten and increase this aversion Then they are taught not only to prefer but to learn the Art of Extemporary Effusions in Prayer the great Idol and Support of all separate Meetings to this end they are sometimes put upon the practice and trying their skill in this Excercise with Directions to assist their Invention and help their Fluency After this they are taught to modulate the Tone of the Voice sometimes raising it to such a key or degree of Vehemence at other times falling to such a Cadence as may best take and work upon the fancies of the People These and such like Arts apt to deceive are the great things that are taught in these Seminaries Devices never heard of or learn'd in any well-established Church and utterly destructive of all Order and Sobriety in Religion But what is it that moves the Dissenters thus to draw from the Two Famous Universities of this Land and to set up and encourage these private Nurseries against them Why First They know that the Education and good Literature of those Places breed up Youth in a due Conformity to the Discipline and good Orders of the Church and all that are admitted to them are by Oaths and all manner of Obligation tied to a firm adherence and observance of them the wise Instructions and Examples of those Places train them up in the way that they should go which keeps them ever after from departing from it So that they whose design it is to promote and propagate Divisions must keep as many as they can from those places where they are so well taught and arm'd against them Those Famous Seminaries of Learning and sound Religion have ever brought forth the stoutest Champions to defend the Truth and confute the Errors of all times 't is no wonder if Hereticks and Schismaticks bear no good will to those Places and Persons that so expose and frustrate their evil Designs But the better to countenance these private Schools the upholders of them endeavour to fasten the blackest Calumnies upon our Renowned Seats of Learning and Education though for their Order and Discipline together with all other advantages and encouragements of good Literature they far excel all the Universities in the World and are therefore resorted to and admired by all Strangers yet these Sons of Slander seek not only to lessen but to blacken them too by their foul and Unjust Aspersions they delight to talk of the Vices and Looseness of those Places and call those Schools of the Prophets by no better name than Schools of Lewdness and Debauchery which is done meerly to beget an ill Opinion of them and to exalt their little Nurseries of Schism and Sedition above them Thus do they serve the Universities as they do the Church throwing all the dirt they can upon them the better to serve their own ends on both Now the mischeif of this Device may be easily guess'd from its pernicious influence both in Church and State for if the Happiness of a Nation depends upon
the good Education and Wisdom of its Members and the hopes of future times are founded upon the well Training up of those that live to them what unspeakable evils must ensue from these private nurseries of Ignorance and Disorder Which is a matter well worthy the Care and Wisdom of Superiors to prevent For Ever since the Foundation of the Church hath been shaken things in the State have been out of course and 't is in vain to hope for Settlement in the Latter whilst the Former remains loose and unsettled And therefore Christ's Vineyard should be fenc'd and guarded not only against the Wild Boar of the Forest that would lay it waste but against all the little Foxes that would undermine it To Conclude all May the Church of England ever Continue in the Purity of its Doctrine Worship and Discipline May the Two Famous Universities of this Kingdom still flourish to supply it with Able Faithful and Learned Pastors And may Both be so Favoured with the Providence of God and the Protection of Princes that the Gates of Hell may never prevail against Either Which are the hearty Wishes and Prayer of SIR Your Cordial Friend A. B. A POSTSCRIPT SIR THERE is another serviceable Device of Dissenters that must not be omitted and that is Their settling and maintaining a secret Correspondence between their Brethren in all Parts of this and the Neighbouring Kingdom whereby they communicate to each other the Designs of the Party and join in secret Methods and Confederacies to promote them By this they give and take-Measures in Electing Members for Parliament and preparing Addresses and Petitions to them hereby they learn and agree in the same Arts of weakening the Church and strengthening the Conventicle together with all other means of forming and advancing their Designs And these are the more dangerous because they are carried on in the dark and like invisible Darts wound without being seen as also because they are coloured over with a seeming Zeal for Religion and Reformation of Manners and carried on with Prayer and a great shew of Piety and Devotion These things are evident not only by many former Intrigues managed and promoted this way but more plainly by a late Letter written to a Nonconformist Teacher Superscribed thus To Mr. Saunders Minister of the Gospel in Oxford which by a mistake fell into the hands of another Person of the same Name a true Copy whereof is as followeth Newbury June 7. 98. Reverend Sir IHad a Letter last Week by the Direction of the Committee of Ministers and Gentlemen appointed at London for settling a Correspondence of the Protestant Dissenting Ministers and Congregations throughout this Kingdom for the Advancement of the Interest of Religion and Reformation of Manners with the Articles there agreed upon in order thereunto and a desire to Communicate them speedily to the Brethren in these Parts that if possible a general Meeting might be had this Summer in London Pursuant whereunto 't is desired that you would not fail to come your self and bring with you one Prudent Person of your Congregation chosen for that end according to the Method resolv'd on at London to meet several of your Brethren and the Members of their respective Congregations here at Newbury on Wednesday the 22d Instant to consider of the said Proposals which shall be laid before you and the proper Method to obtain so desirable an end You are desired to be here on Tuesday in the Evening that we may enter on our work on Wednesday Morning resolving God willing to spend some time in Prayer before we begin I am SIR Your Affectionate Brother and Servant in the Lord William Taylor FINIS
gives them the reputation of their own freedom from them In short this declaiming against Vice and lamenting the Iniquity of the times gains them the reputation of being thought more Prous than other men and serves all those secular ends they propound in it Our Saviour tells us of the Pharisees that they had their reward that is they gain'd the Applause of the world and the Wealth of others which were the things they aim'd at in their seeming Zeal and this is such a plausible and profitable piece of Religion that it will be sure to have many Disciples But is it any part of true Religion to censure the Lives and Actions of others Or have they that use to do so fewer faults and more Religion than their Neighbours No in no wise For First This is so far from being any part of Religion that 't is none at all yea 't is quite contrary to and destructive of it for Charity is the life of Christianity and the bond of perfectness without which he that liveth is counted dead before God Now Charity you know covereth a multitude of sins and is so far from Censuring that it Excuses what it may the failings of others and rather hides than discloses another's nakedness He that wants this may indeed have the shew and appearance but hath nothing of the substance and reality of true Religion for that makes us to keep at home and reform our own Lives not send us abroad to pry into and condemn the Lives of others and certainly if we can lay no claim to Charity we have nothing to shew for the truth and sincerity of our Christianity Again 2dly They that are so forward to Judge and Censure others are commonly so far from being better that they are worse than other Men their want of Charity ranks them among the greatest of Sinners we find the Pharisees who were Proud Boasters of themselves and likewise rigid Censurers of others were by our Saviour condemn'd for the vilest Hypocrites they laid heavy burdens on others which they themselves would not touch with the least of their finger And 't is still the practice of their Followers to Commend themselves by Disparaging of others and to raise the Trophies of their own Honour upon the Spoils and Ruins of their Neighbours Yea this practice is frequently made a Cloak not only to cover but to act under it the greatest Villanies He that designs to undermine or put a Cheat upon his Neighbour shall inveigh bitterly against the Iniquity of the times and complain much of the Lives and Manners of other Men and by that means seeks to gain the Credit of a Saint that he may the better act the part of an Impostor They that have a mind to advance themselves or to intrude into places of Power and Profit shall inveigh against the Persons and find fault with the Actions of those that are employed in them and by this Art shall oft-times Prefer themselves to the Hindering or Dispossessing of better Men. Now this will lead us to consider the evil and danger of this Artifice for beside the many and great Injuries that are hereby done to Mankind 't is usurping the Throne of God and intruding into his Tribunal Who made thee a Judge May be ask'd of all such insolent Censurers of other Men who intrude into this Office without any Commission Judge nothing before the time saith the Apostle so that these Men forestal the Day of Judgment and take God's work out of his Hands who thus presume to sit in Judgment upon their Brethren and pronounce Sentence in things that belong not to them Who art thou saith the same Apostle that judgest another man's servant to his own master he stands or falleth So that this is a high affront and indignity offered to God thus to Arraign the Actions of our Fellow-Creatures and without any Authority to Condemn and pass Sentence upon his Servants And as the guilt hereof is great so is the danger of it no less for the Justice of God cannot suffer such an insolent invasion of his Authority to go unpunished Thinkest thou O man that judgest another that thou shalt escape the judgment of God No they shall have judgment without mercy who shew no mercy and their damnation is just who are so ready upon all occasions to Condemn their Brethren Our Blessed Saviour's Advice is Judge not that ye be not judged for with what judgement ye judge ye shall be judged and with what measure ye mete shall be measured to you again Let him that is innocent cast the first stone and if we cannot justify our selves we should not be so forward to condemn others Therefore thou art inexcusable O man that judgest for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self I shall conclude this Artifice with that Advice given to the Pharisees Thou Hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thy own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy Brothers eye I am SIR Yours A.B. LETTER VII SIR FInding that you have well considered the Last I proceed now to a Sixth Artifice of our Dissenters and that is to stile the Lawful and Wise Injunctions of our Superiors by the odious name of Impositions a term importing more of fraud and double-dealing than truth and justice in them This comes saith one to justify the Impositions as if it were a crime to vindicate publick Orders and Constitutions and to speak up for them were to be an abetter of Fraud and an encourager of Imposture If we tell them of the unreasonableness of Separation they fly upon us with the mischief of Impositions and rather than own themselves Schismaticks will make their Governors Impostors But what is the design of putting this ill name upon good Laws Why the plain design is to keep the People from complying with them and to hinder all Conformity and Obedience to them Should they suffer them to pass under the ancient stile of Laws Ordinances or Injunctions they might put in a just claim to an Observance of them and the People be thereby tempted to yield due Reverence and Obedience to them and therefore to prevent this which would be the Ruin of their Cause they must give them a bad name which they know is the ready way to make them despis'd Nonconformity being a breach of wholsome Orders and Establishments is wholly supported by Disobedience to them and therefore they must not be called Laws or Statutes lest the guilt of breaking them should awaken their Consciences and stare too much in their Face but they must be branded with the black Character of Impositions that they may with the better colour and greater safety shake off the Observance of them This will serve to keep the People from the Church where they are made to believe that they are only impos'd upon and keep them to the Conventicle where they are told they are more fairly and truly dealt with And how useful