And First We desire them to produce any settled part of the Christian Church that ever was without Episcopal Covernment till the time of Calvin it being then as hard to find any part of the Christian World without a Church as to find a Church without a Bishop This is so evident in the most early Antiquities of the Church that I believe our Dissenters begin to grow sick of the Controversie And if Blondell Salmasius and Daille whose great Parts Learning and indefatigable Industry could if any thing have made out the contrary have been forced to grant That Episcopacy obtained in the Church within a few Years after the Apostolick Age We are sure we can carry it higher even up to the Apostles themselves There are but Two passages that I know of in all Antiquity of any Note and both of them not till the latter end of the Fourth Century that may seem to question Episcopal Authority The One That famous and well known passage of St. Jerom which yet when improved to the utmost that it is capable of only intimates Episcopacy not to be of Apostolical Institution And very clear it is to those that are acquainted with St. Jeroms Writings that he often Wrote in hast and did not always weigh things at the Beam and forgot at one time what he had said at another that many expressions fell from him in the heat of Disputation according to the warmth and the eagerness of his Temper that he was particularly chafed into this Assertion by the fierce opposition of the Deacons at Rome who began to Usurp upon and over-top the Presbyters which tempted him to Magnifie and Extol their Place and Dignity as anciently equal to the Episcopal Office and as containing in it the common Rights and Privileges of Priesthood For at other times when he Wrote with cooler Thoughts about him he does plainly and frequently enough assert the Authority of Bishops over Presbyters and did himself constantly live in Communion with and Subjection to Bishops The other passage is that of Aerius who held indeed that a Bishop and a Presbyter differed nothing in Order Dignity or Power But he was lead into this Error meerly through Envy and Emulation being vext to see that his Companion Eustathius had gotten the Bishoprick of Sebastia which himself had aimed at This made him start aside and talk extravagantly but the Church immediately branded him for an Heretick and drave him and his followers out of all Churches and from all Cities and Villages And Epiphanius who was his Contemporary represents him as very little better then a Madman and adds that all Heresies that ever were from the beginning of the World had been hatched either by Pride or Vain Glory or Covetousness or Emulation or some such Evil Inclination But his Heresie it seems was not long-liv'd for we hear no more concerning this matter till the Reformation at Geneva Secondly We desire them to shew any Christian Church that did not constantly use Liturgies and Forms of Prayer in their Publick Offices and Administrations of Divine Worship I take it for granted that there were Forms of Publick Prayer in the Jewish Church and I make no doubt but that the use of such Forms was together with many other Synagogue-rites and Usages transferred into the Practice of the Christian Church and did actually obtain in the most early Ages in all Churches where there were not Miraculous Gifts and every where as soon as those Miraculous Gifts ceased it being very fit and proper and agreeable to Order and Decency that the Peoples Devotions should be thus Conducted and Governed in their Publick Ministrations Not to insist upon the Carmen or Hymn which even the Proconsul Pliny says the Christians upon a set Day were wont one among another to say to Christ as to their God Apparent footsteps of some Passages of their Ancient Liturgies are yet extant in the Writings of Origen and St. Cyprian And when Eusebius gives us an account how Religiously Constantine the Great ordered his Court That he was wont to take the Holy Bible into his Hands and carefully to Meditate upon it and afterwards to offer up Set or Composed Prayers together with his whole Royal Family he adds He did this after the manner or in imitation of the Church of God Nazianzen tells us of St. Basil That he composed Orders and Forms of Prayer and appointed decent Ornaments for the Altar And St. Basil himself reciting the manner of the Publick Service that was used in the Monastical Oratories of his Institution says That nothing was done therein but what was Consonant and Agreeable to all the Churches of God And the Council of Laodicea holden much about the Year 365 expresly provides that the same Liturgy or Form of Prayers should be always used both Morning and Evening That so it might not be lawful for every one that would to compose Prayers of his own Head and to repeat them in the Publick Assemblies as both Zonaras and Balsamon give the reason of that Canon Further then this we need not go the Case being henceforward evident beyond all Contradiction Thirdly Let them shew us any Church that did not always set a part and observe Festival Commemorations of the Saints besides the more solemn times for Celebrating the great Blessings of our Redeemer his Birth Day and Epiphany Easter in Memory of his Resurrection Pentecost or VVitsuntide for the Mission of the Holy Ghost they had Annual days for solemnizing the Memories of the Blessed Apostles they had their Memoriae and Natalitia Martyrum whereon they assembled every Year to offer up to God their Praises and Common Devotions and by Publick Panegyricks to do honour to the memory of those Saints and Martyrs who had suffered for or Sealed Religion with their Bloud Not to mention their Lent Fast and their Stationary Fasts on VVednesdays and Fridays which Epiphanius more then once expresly says were a Constitution of the Apostles But the less need be said on this head because few that have any Reverence for Antiquity will have the hardiness to oppose it Fourthly We desire them to produce any Church since the Apostles Times that had not its Rites and Ceremonies as many if not more in number and as liable to exception as those that are used in our Church at this Day nay there are few things if any at all required by our Constitution which were not in use in the best Ages of Christianity This were it my design I might demonstrate by an Induction of particulars but it is fully done by other Hands I shall therefore only as a Specimen instance in One and the rather because 't is so much boggled at viz. The Sign of the Cross in Baptism which we are sure was a Common and Customary Rite in the time of Tertullian and St. Cyprian the latter whereof says oft enough that being Regenerated that is Baptized they were Signed with the Sign
A SERIOUS EXHORTATION With some Important Advices Relating to the late Cases about CONFORMITY Recommended to the Present Dissenters From the CHURCH of ENGLAND LONDON Printed by T. Moore J. Ashburne for Fincham Gardiner at the White-Horse in Ludgate-street 1683. A Serious EXHORTATION With some Important Advices c. Recommended to the Dissenters from the Church of England THE offering friendly Advice and Counsel especially in great and important Cases is tho often a Thankless yet a very Charitable Office a thing agreeable to the best Inclinations of Humane Nature and highly conducive to the Necessities of Men and consequently needs no Apology to introduce it We live 't is true in an ill-Natured and Censorious Age wherein 't is rare to find any one who will not take with the Left-hand what 's offered to them with the Right But I am not discouraged from this Attempt by the Pievishness and Frowardness of many that differ from us Remembering that all Honest Undertakings and such I am sure this is are under the more peculiar Conduct and Blessing of the Divine Providence which can and will succeed and prosper them to an happy Issue if Mens own Obstinacy and Perverseness do not put a Bar in the way to hinder it I do therefore beseech our Dissenting-Brethren with all the earnestness that becomes a matter of so much Importance and with all the Kindness and Tenderness that becomes a Christian that they would suffer the Word of Exhortation and duly Weigh and Consider the Requests and Advices that are here plainly laid before them which I hope will be found such as carry their own Light and Evidence along with them I. And First We beg of them to believe That they may be mistaken about those matters which are alledged as the Causes of their Separation This one would think were as needless as 't is a modest and reasonable Request For did ever any Man the Bishop of Rome excepted lay claim to Infallibility Do not the Woful Infirmities of Humane Nature The Weakness and Short-sightedness of our Understandings The Daily Experience of our selves and the lamentable Failures we observe in others sufficiently convince us how prone we are to Error and Mistake But tho this be granted and owned on all hands yet in practice we frequently find Men Acting by other Measures For how many are there that in the most Controverted Cases bear up themselves with as much Confidence and Assurance Censure others with as Magisterial a Boldness Condemn the things Enjoined by our Church with as positive and peremptory a Determination as if they were infallibly sure that they are in the Right and all others in the Wrong that differ from them The early prepossession of a contrary Opinion the powerful prejudices of Education an implicite and unexamined Belief of what their Guides and Leaders teach them have a strange force upon the Minds of Men so that in effect they no more doubt of the Truth and Goodness of the Cause they are engaged in then they question the Articles of their Creed Wherefore I do once and again intreat them that laying aside all Pride Partiality and Self-conceit they would not think more highly of themselves and of their own way then they ought to think especially remembering that the matters contended about are confessedly Disputable and that they cannot be Ignorant that the Case seems otherwise to others who may at least be allowed to be as wise Men and as competent Judges as themselves Truth makes the easiest entrance into modest and humble Minds the Meek will he guide in Judgment the Meek will he teach his Way The Spirit of God never rests upon a Proud Man II. Secondly We beg of them that they would seriously and impartially Weigh and Consider as well what is said on the one side as on the other This is a peice of Justice that every one ows to Truth and which indeed every Man ows to himself that is not willing to be deceived To take up with Prejudices which Education or long Custom have instilled into him or wherein any other Arts or Methods have engaged him without strictly enquiring whether those Prejudices stand upon a firm Foundation is to see only on one side to bind up ones self in the Judgment or Opinion of any Man that is not Divinely-inspired and Infallible or pertinaciously to adhere to any Party of Men how plausible and specious soever their pretences may be without examining their Grounds and endeavoring to know what is said against them is to choose a Persuasion at a peradventure and 't is great odds whether such a one be in the right In all Enquiries after Truth we ought to keep an Ear open for one side of the Controversie as well as the other and not to think we have done enough till without Favour or Prejudice and to the best of our Understandings we have heard tryed and judged the Reasons brought as well for as against it And till this be done I see not with what pretence of Reason Men can talk so much of their Scruples or plead for Favour on the account of their Dissatisfactions Consciences truly tender are willing and desirous to embrace all opportunities of Resolution are ready to kiss the Hand that would bring them better information and are not wont to neglect much less thrust from them the means that might ease them of their Doubts and Scruples We justly blame it in them of the Church of Rome that in a manner they resign up their Underdstanings to their Guids and Confessors and are not suffered to be truly acquainted with the Protestant Principles and the Grounds and Reasons of the Reformation nor to Read any of the Books that are written for their Conviction without a special and peculiar Licence Whether our Brethren of the Separation be under any such Spiritual Discipline I know not sure I am it looks very odly that so many of them are no more concerned to understand the true State of the Church of England and the Nature and Reasons of her Constitutions that so few of them care to Confer with those that are able to Instruct them but Cry out They are satisfied already nay some of them to my knowledg when desired to propose their Scruples in order to the giving them satisfaction have plainly and absolutely refused to do it Little reason there is to believe that such Persons have ever Read and Examined what the Church of England has to say for her self Are there not many that not only Scruple but Rail at the Book of Common-Prayer that yet never heard it nor perhaps ever read it in all their Lives And if this be not to speak Evil of what they know not I cannot tell what is How many incomparable Books have been heretofore written in defence of our Church her Rights and Usages that yet generally lie by the Walls little known and less read by those that so much Cry out against her And at
of Christ that they were Signed on their Foreheads who were thought worthy to be admitted into the fellowship of our Lords Religion And St. Basil plainly puts it amongst those Ancient Customs of the Church which had been derived from the Apostles Nay Tertullian assures us that they used it in the most common Actions of Life that upon every motion at their going out and coming in at their going to Bath or to Bed or to Meals or whatever their Occasions called them to they were wont to make the Sign of the Cross on their Fore-heads and therefore 't is no wonder that they should never omit it in the most Solemn Act of their being initiated into the Christian Faith And now let our Dissenting-Brethren seriously reflect whether the Constant and Uniform Practice of the Church in all times be not a mighty Testimony against their Separating from us upon the account of those things which were used in the wisest best and happiest Ages of the Gospel and when their Separation upon this account can in point of Example pretend not to much more then a Hundred Years Countenance and Authority to Support and Shelter it And yet it has not that neither for I could easily shew that most if not all the Usages of our Church are either practised in Foreign Churches or at least allowed of by the most Learned and Eminent Divines of the Reformation whose Testimonies to this purpose are particularly enumerated and ranked under their proper Heads by Mr. Sprint in his Cassander Anglicanus which they that are curious may Consult VI. Sixthly We beg that those who by their Conformity have declared that they can close with our Communion would still continue in the Communion of our Church This is a Request so reasonable that I hope it cannot fairly be denied Whatever Dissatisfactions others may alledg to keep them at a distance from us these Men can have nothing to pretend having actually shewed that they can do it For I am not willing to think that herein such Men acted against their Consciences or did it meerly to secure a gainful Office or a place of Trust or to escape the Lash and Penalty of the Law These are Ends so very Vile and Sordid so Horrible a prostitution of the Holy Sacrament the most Venerable Mystery of our Religion so deliberate a way of Sinning even in the most Solemn Acts of Worship that I can hardly suspect any should be guilty of it but Men of Profligate and Atheistical Minds who have put off all Sence of God and Banished all Reverence of Religion I would fain believe that when any of our Brethren receive the Sacrament with us they are fully persuaded of the lawfulness of it and that the Principle that brings them thither is the Conscience of their Duty But then I know not how to Answer it why the same Principle that brings them thither at one time should not bring them also at another and that we should never have their company at that Solemn and Sacred Ordinance but when the fear of some Temporal Punishment or the prospect of some Secular Advantage prompts them to it 'T is commonly blamed in those of the Romish Church that they can dispense with Oaths and receive Sacraments to serve a turn and to advance the Interest of their Cause But God forbid that so heavy a Charge should ever lie at the Doors of Protestants and especially those who would be thought most to abhor Popish Practices and who would take it ill to be accounted not to make as much if not more Conscience of their ways then other Men. Now I beseech our Dissenting or rather Inconstant Brethren to reason a little if our Communion be sinful why did they enter into it if it be lawful why do they forsake it is it not that which the Commands of Authority have tied upon us and whose Commands we are bound to submit to not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake Are not the Peace and Unity of the Church things that ought greatly to sway with all Sober Humble and Considering Christians Does not the Apostle say that if it be possible and as much as in us lies we are to live Peaceably with all Men And shall Peace be broken only in the Church where it ought to be kept most entire And that by those who acknowledg it to be possible and within their power Are they satisfied in their Consciences to join in Communion with us and will they not do it for the sake of the Church of God Or will they refuse to do what is lawful and as the Case stands necessary in order to Peace only because Authority Commands it and has made it their Duty Oh Sirs I beseech you by all that 's Dear and Sacred to assist and help us and not strengthen the Hands of those who by a Causeless and Unjustifiable Separation endeavour to rend and destroy the best Church in thr whole Christian World VII Seventhly We beg of them that they would Consider what Sad and Deplorable Mischiefs have ensued upon bearing down the Constitution of the Church of England This is matter of Fact and whereof many yet alive were made sensible by Woful Experience Omitting what may seem of a little more remote Consideration the Blood and Treasure the Spoils and Ravages of the late War the Enslaving and Oppressing all Ranks of Men and what is above all the Murder of an excellent and incomparable Prince I shall instance in a few particulars which were the more immediate Effects of it And First No sooner was the Church of England thrown down but what Monstrous Swarms of Errours and Heresies broke in upon us both for Number and Impiety beyond whatever had been heard of in the Church of God And here I need go no further then the sad Account which Mr. Edwards has given us in the several parts of his Gangraena He was an Eminent Minister of the Presbyterian Party One who as he tells the Parliament had out of Choice and Judgment from the very beginning Embarqued himself with Wife Children and Estate and all that was dear to him in the same Ship with them to sink and perish or to come safe to Land with them and that in the most doubtful and difficult Times not only in the beginning of the War and Troubles in a Malignant place among Courtiers where he had Pleaded their Cause Justified their Wars and Satisfied many that Scrupled but when their Affairs were at lowest had been most Zealous for them Preaching Praying stirring up the People to stand for them and had both gone out in Person and lent Mony to them He held Correspondence with considerable Persons in all parts of the Nation and was careful to have the best Intelligence from all Quarters and professes to lay down the Opinions and Errours which he mentions in terminis and in their own Words and Phrases Syllabically and as near as might be Now amongst infinite
other things he tells us 't was then commonly maintaind That the Scriptures cannot be said to be the Word of God and are no more to be Credited then the Writings of Men being not a Divine but Humane Tradition that God has a Hand in and is the Author of the Sinfulness of his People not of the Actions alone but of the very Pravity which is in them that all Lies come forth out of his Mouth that the Prince of the Air that Rules in the Children of Disobedience is God that in the Unity of the God-head there is not a Trinity of Persons but that it is a Popish Tradition that the Doctrine of Repentance is a Soul-destroying Doctrine and that Children are not bound to Obey their Parents at all if they be Ungodly that the Soul of Man is Mortal as the Soul of a Beast that there is no Resurrection at all of the Bodies of Men nor Heaven nor Hell after this Life I instance only in these as a Tast not that they are all or the Hundred part no nor the worst there being other Blasphemies and Impieties which my Pen trembles to Relate Secondly The Liturgy of our Church being discharged and thrown out and every one left to his own liberty 't is scarce possible to believe what wild and prodigious Extravagancies were upon all occasions used in Holy things not in Preaching only but especially in Prayer the most immediate Act of Worship and Address to God It is an affront to the Majesty of Religious Worship that there should be any thing in it Childish and Trivial Absurd and Frivosous that its Sacred Mysteries should be exposed to Contempt and Scandal by that Levity and Distraction that Heat and Boldness those Weaknesses and Indiscretions those Loose Raw and Incongruous Effusions which in most Congregations of those Times did too commonly attend it But the things I intend to Instance in are of a far worse colour and complexion for whose Ears would it not make to tingle to hear Men in the Pulpit telling God That if he did not finish the good Work which he had begun in the Reformation of the Church he would shew himself to be the God of Confusion and such a One as by cunning Stratagems had contrived the Destruction of his own Children That God would Bless the King and Mollifie his hard Heart that delights in Blood for that he was fallen from Faith in God and become an Enemy to his Church let thine Hand we pray thee O Lord our God be upon him and upon his Fathers House but not upon thy People that they should be Plagued O God O God many are the Hands lift up against us but there is one God it is thou thy self O Father who dost us more Mischief then they all We know O Lord that Abraham made a Covenant Moses and David made a Covenant and our Saviour made a Covenant but thy Parliaments Covenant is the greatest of all Covenants I presume the Devout and Serious Reader desires no more of such intolerably Profane and Lewd Stuff as this is They that are curious of more may find it besides others in The short Uiew of the late Troubles in England where Times Places and Persons are particularly named Thirdly The Fences of Order and Discipline in the Church of England being broken down what a horrid Inundation of all manner of Vice and Wickedness did immediately over-flow the Land The Assembly at Westminster Petitioned the Parliament That some Severe Course might be taken against Fornication Adultery and Incest which say they do greatly abound especially of late by reason of Impunity And Mr. Edwards speaking of the whole Tribe of Sectaries tells us He was confident that for this many Hundred Years there had not been a Party that hath pretended to so much Holiness Strictness power of Godliness tenderness of Conscience above all other Men as this Party hath done that hath been guilty of so great Sins horrible Wickedness provoking Abominations as they are with much more both there and elsewhere to the same purpose and the Charge very often made good by particular Instances So that indeed Hell seemed to have broke loose and to have Invaded all Quarters in despite of their Covenant and all the little Schemes of their so much Magnified Reformation The Covenant Cries God grant not against you for Reformation of the Kingdom the Extirpation of Heresies Schisms Profaneness c. and these Impieties abound as if we had taken a Covenant to maintain them and since it was taken these Sins which we have Covenanted against have more abounded then in the space of Ten Times so many Years before as Mr. Jenkin tells the Lords in Parliament And that all that I have mentioned which yet is infinitely short of what might be said was the effect of the Ruin of the Church of England and let in by the Method they took for Reformation we have from their own confessions We says Mr. Edwards in these Four last Years have over-passed the Deeds of the Prelates and justified the Bishops in whose time never so many nor so great Errours were heard of much less such Blasphemies or Confusions we have worse things among us then ever were in all the Bishops Days more corrupt Doctrines and unheard of Practices then in Eighty Years before I am persuaded if Seven Years ago the Bishops and their Chaplains had but Preached Printed Licensed dispersed up and down in City and Country openly a Quarter of these Errours Heresies Blasphemies which have been all these ways vented by the Sectaries the People would have risen up and stoned them and pulled down their Houses and forced them to forbear such Doctrines O how is the Seene changed within these few Years and not long after he tells us that These are Risen Increased Reign and Prevail so far under a Parliament Sitting not under the Bishops Corrupt-Clergy Court-party but under a Parliament And in his Epistle to the Lords and Commons before the first part of his Gangraena he tells them That the Errours Heresies Blaspemies and Practices of the Sectaries of this Time had been Broached and Acted within these Four last Years in England and that in your Quarters and in the places under your Government and Power for which I tremble to think least the whole Kingdom should be in Gods Black Bill that together with their Reformation come in a Deformation and worse things were come upon them then ever they had before they had put down the Book of Common-Prayer but there were many amongst them that had put down the Scriptures flighting yea Blaspheming them he tells them they had cast out the Bishops and their Officers and they had many that had cast down to the ground all Ministers in all the Reformed Churches they had cast out Ceremonies in the Sacraments and they had many that had cast out the Sacraments themselves with many more sad complaints which he there makes
To sum up all in the words of my Author In this Catalogue the Reader may see great Errors and yet may turn himself again and behold greater namely damnable Heresies and yet turn himself again and read Horrid Blasphemies and a third time and read Horrible Disorders Confusions strange and unheard of Practices not only against the Light of Scripture but Nature as in Women's Preaching in Stealing away Men's Wives and Children from Husbands and Parents in Baptizing Women Naked in the Presence and Sight of Men c. And thus we see by what means it was that the Nation came to be Pestred with Opinions and Practices Impious beyond the Example of Former Ages and such as were not once named among the Gentiles to the Infinite Prejudice and dishonour both of our Religion and our Nation It being the Observation which an Ingenious Forreigner who resided at London in those times made upon this occasion one of the Fruits says He of this Blessed Parliament and of these two Sectaries Presbyterians and Independents is that they have made more Jewes and Atheists then I think there is in all Europe besides I doubt not but that the greatest part of our Dissenters do from their Souls Detest the Heresies Blasphemies and Wickednesses that have been mentioned but then the Consideration ought to oblige them to double their diligence to prevent the like dismall Effects for the time to come and not to open the Gap again at which they must necessarily flow in upon us By what has been done they may see what a Blessed Reformation they may expect by the Ruin of this Church for the thing that hath been is that which shall be the same causes set on foot by the same Principles will Eternally produce the same Effects and though Men at first may mean never so well yet Temptations will insensibly grow upon them and Accidents happen which in the Progress will carry them Infinitely beyond the Line of their first Intentions and engage them in Courses out of which when they come to discern their Errour it may be too late for them to Retire In the beginning of the long Parliament I make no question but the far greatest part of them met together with very honest and good Intentions and designed no more then to Correct some little Irregularities which they apprehended to be in Church or State But wee see how these very Persons were carried from one passage to another and in time transported to those very things which at first they had so vehemently protested and declared against till at length Horrid Enormities came to be acted by and under them which no age can Paralel which ought to be a Sufficient Caution to all how they shake the least Stone that belongs to the Foundation least by picking out one after another the whole House tumble about their Ears when it is beyond their own Power to support it I shall shut up this Head with a breif Recapitulation of some of those Inferences which Mr. Edwards makes from the State of those Loose and Licentious times we have been speaking of and then leave the Reader to judg whether they be not as Applicable to the present Circumstances under which we are He infers thus First we may hence see how dangerous it is to despise and let alone a small Party Secondly That it is more then time fully and Effectually to settle the Government and Discipline of the Church Thirdly What the Mischeif Evil and Danger of a Toleration and pretended Liberty of Conscience would be to this Kingdom and what it would Prove and Produce Fourthly That it Sufficiently Justifies in the Sight of the World those Ministers and People who are Zealous for setling Religion and cry out for Government who Preach Petition speak often one to another of these things Fifthly what a great Evil and Sin Seperation is from the Communion of the Reformed Churches and how highly displeasing to God for Men to make a Rent and Schism in the Church of God Sixthly That all such who have been deceived and drawn away under pretence of greater Purity Holiness c. and have any Fear and Awe of God and his Word be Exhorted to leave and forsake them and return to the Publick Assemblies and Communion of this and other Reformed Churches And God grant we may hearken to this Counsel and may seriously lay these things to heart VIII Eighthly We desire it may be considered what plain and apparent Advantages Separation gives to the Common Enemy of the Protestant Religion in these Nations The Church of England is notoriously known to have been the most strong and standing Bulwark of Protistancy ever since the Reformation for being Founded on Scripture-grounds and the Practice of True Genuine Primitive Antiquity and having been reformed by the most wise regular and justifiable Methods it stands like a Rock impregnable against all the Assaults which the Church of Rome makes upon it This has ingag'd them to Plant all their Batteries to beat it down as being the only Church considerable enough to stand in their way and when not able to effect it by any other Arts they have betaken themselves to the old Artifice of Ruining us by dividing us In Order hereunto they have upon all occasions strenuously promoted the Separation mixed themselves with our Dissenters put on every shape that they might the better follow the Common outcry against our Church as Popish and Antichristian spurring on the People to call for a more pure and spiritual way of Worship and to Clamour for Liberty and Toleration as wherein they well knew they themselves were like to have the greatest share And that having subverted all Order and beaten People out of all sober Principles they foresaw they must be necessitated at last to center in the Communion of the Romish Church This was a Trade they began betimes almost in the very Infancy of the Reformation Witness the Story of Faithful Commin a Dominican Fryer who passed under the notion of a Zealous Puritan and was much admired and followed by the People for his seeming Piety spiritual Gifts and Zeal against Popery But being apprehended Anno. 1567. and accused for an Impostor was examined at large before the Queen and her Council and put under Bail when finding the Climat was like to be too hot for him and having by a cheat brought off his Bail and told his deluded followers that he was acquitted by her Majesty and the Council and warned of God to go beyond the Seas to instruct the Protestants there and that he would come again and having assured them that Spiritual Prayer was the chief Testimony of a true Protestant and that the set Form of Prayer in England was but the Mass Translated and having with abundance of extempore-Prayers and Tears squeezed out of them a Collection of a Hundred and Thirty Pounds for his Journey besides private Gifts away he goes for Rome and acquaints Pope Pius Quintus
Superiors and speaking Evil of Dignities and this not only the Cry of the mean and common Sort but of their chiefest Leaders even to this Hour It being no hard matter but that I love not to exasperate to instance in several things that are no very good Arguments of that Obedient Patience which some of them so much pretend to It is far from my temper to delight in Cruelty much more to plead for Severity to be used towards Dissenting Brethren and therefore should have said nothing in this Argument were it not necessary to Vindicate the Government which upon these occasions I have so often heard Blamed and Censured I would these Persons who complain so much would consider a while how their Predecessors were dealt with in the times of the good Queen Elizabeth which will appear either from the Laws then made or from the Proceedings then had against them The Laws then made against them were chiefly these In the First of the Queen An Act for the Vniformity of Common-Prayer c. wherein among other Clauses and Penalties it is provided That if any Person shall in any Plays Songs Rhimes or by other open Words declare or speak any thing in the derogation depraving or despising the Book of Common-Prayer or any thing therein contained being thereof lawfully convicted he shall forfeit for the first Offence an Hundred for the second Four Hundred Marks for the Third all his goods and chattels and shall suffer Imprisonment during Life A Clause which had it been kept up in its due Life and Power our Liturgy and Divine Offices had been Treated with much more Respect and Reverence then I am sure they have met with especially of late In Her Fifth Year an Act was passed for the due Execution of the Writ de excommunicato capiendo amongst others particularly Levelled against such as refuse to receive the Holy Communion or to come to Divine Service as now commonly used in the Church of England with Severe Penalties upon those that shall not yield up themselves to the same Writ Anno 13. passed an Act of general Pardon but it was with an Exception of all those that had committed any Offence against the Act for the Vniformity of Common-Prayer or were Publishers of Seditious Books or Disturbers of Divine Service Anno 23. By an Act to retain the Queen's Majesty's Subjects in their due Obedience it is provided That every Person above the Age of Sixteen years which shall not repair to some Church or usual place of Common-Prayer but forbear the same by the space of a Month shall for every such Month forfeit Twenty Pounde Which Act was again Confirmed and Ratified by another in the 29th Year of Her Reign with many Clauses and Provisions for the better Execution of it And by the Act of the 35th of Her Reign If any Person so forbearing shall willingly join in or be present at any Assemblies Conventicles and Meetings under colour or pretence of any Exercise of Religion contrary to the Laws of the Realm such Person being lawfully Convicted shall be Imprisoned without Bail or Mainprize until he Conform and if he do not that within Three Months he shall be obliged to Abjure the Realm and if refusing to Abjure or returning without Licence he shall be Adjudged a Fellon and Suffer as in case of Fellony without benefit of Clergy Such were Her Laws and such also were Her Proceedings against those who faultered in their Conformity or began to Innovate in the Discipline of the Church and these Proceedings as quick and smart as any can be said to be against the Dissenters of this time Do they complain of their Ministers being Silenced now so they were then being deprived of their Benifices and Church-Preferments for their Inconformity Thus Sampson was turned out of his Deanry of Christ-Church for refusing to Conform to the Orders and Ceremonies of the Church Cartwright the very Head of them Expelled the College and deprived of the Lady Margarets Lecture Travers turned out from Preaching at the Temple with many more Suspended from the Ministry by the Queens Authority and the approbation of the Bishops for not Subscribing to some new Rites and Ceremonies imposed upon them as appears from Beza's Letter to Bishop Grindal Anno 1566. Are any in Prison so they were then Benson Button Hallingham Cartwright Knewstubbs and many others some in the Marshalsey others in the White-Lion some in the Gatehouse others in the Counter or in the Clinke or in Bridewel or in Newgate Poor Men miserably handled with Revilings Deprivations Imprisonments Banishments if we may believe what themselves tell us both in the First and Second Admonition And what is yet far beyond any thing which God be thanked our Dissenters can pretend to complain of several of them lost their Lives Barrow and Greenwood were Executed for their Scandalous and Seditious Writings Penry and Vdall Indicted and Arraigned for Defaming the Queens Government in a Scandalous Book Written against the supposed Governours as they called them of the Church of England for which they were both Cast and Condemned to be Executed as Fellons but Arch-Bishop Whitgift interposing they were Reprieved and Vdall suffered to Die as he did soon after in his Bed The truth is the wise and wary Queen beheld Schism growing on apace and needed not to be told what ill Influence it was like to have both upon Church and State and therefore Resolved to carry a Streight Hand as well over Puritanism on the one side as Popery on the other and in order hereunto She charged Arch-Bishop Whitgift to be Vigilant and Careful to Reduce Ministers by their Subscription and Conformity to the setled Orders and Government Adding That she would have the Discipline of the Church of England formerly Established of all Men duly to be Observed without alteration of the least Ceremony But nothing more fully discovers her Judgment and Resolution in this matter then what She gave in Command to the Lord-Keeper-Puckering to tell the Parliament part of his Speech Transcribed and Published some Years since from the Original Copy under his own Hand Writeing by an Eminent Divine of this Church was as followeth And especially you are Commanded by Her Majesty to take heed that no Ear be given or Time afforded to the wearisome Sollicitations of those that commonly be called Puritanes wherewithal the late Parliaments have been exceedingly Importuned Which sort of Men whilst in the giddiness of their Spirits they labour and strive to advance a new Eldership they do nothing else but disturb the good repose of the Church and Common-wealth which is as well grounded for the Body of Religion it self and as well guided for the Discipline as any Realm that professeth the Truth And the same thing is already made good to the World by many of the Writings of Learned and Godly Men neither Answered nor Answerable by any of these new fangled Refiners And as the present case standeth it
may be doubted whether they or the Jesuits do offer more danger or be more speedily to be repressed For albeit the Jesuits do impoison the Hearts of Her Majesties Subjects under a pretext of Conscience to withdraw them from their Obedience due to Her Majesty yet do they the same but closely and only in privy Corners but these Men do both Publish in their Printed Books and Teach in all their Conventicles sundry Opinions not only dangerous to the well-setled Estate and Policy of the Realm but also much derogatory to Her Sacred Majesty and Her Crown as well by c. In all which things however in many other points they pretend to be at War with the Popish Jesuits yet by the Separation of themselves from the Unity of their Fellow-Subjects and by abusing the Sacred Authority and Majesty of their Prince they do both join and concur with the Jesuits in opening the Door and preparing the way to the Spanish Invasion that is Threatned against the Realm Thus far he by Her Majesties most Royal Pleasure and Wise Direction as he there speaks To which let me Add That the Speech took such effect that the Parliament passed the Act of 35th of Eliz. the Severest Act against Dissenters in the whole Body of our Laws And indeed so Jealous was the Queen of the least appearances of Innovation that Arch-Bishop Grindall only for giving too much encouragement to Prophesyings which were beheld as likely to prove Nurseries of Schism and Faction as indeed they did fell under Her Displeasure and was Sequestred from his Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction and though great intercession was made in his behalf yet could he never be restored to his Dying Day This was the State of things then and yet these were the Proceedings of those Days which our Dissenters at another time are wont so much to Magnifie and Extol nothing of late having been so much in their Mouth as the Wisdom and Prudence the Care and Diligence the Zeal and Piety of Good Queen Elizabeth I speak not this to cast any reflexion upon the Memory of that incomparable Princess whom we have all the reason in the World to own to have been the Glorious Instrument of Perfecting and Setling the Reformation in this Kingdom and whose Memory will be dear and pretious as long as the Protestant Name has a Being in England But I only take notice how extreamly partial People are and how apt to be prejudiced against the present Government under which they live and to be always Crying out That the former Days were better then these whereas supposing their Circumstances were really harder then they are and harder then those of the Puritans in former times yet they have no reason to accuse the Government of Rigor and Severity towards them if Three things be farther taken into Consideration First That the Dissenters of old especially the first Race of them were generally much more Modest and Peaceable then those of later times more Conformable to the Laws less Turbulent and Offensive to the Government when they could not Conform as Ministers they yet did as private Christians and quietly acquiesced in their Suspension or Deprivation and as one truly says of them When they could not be Active without Sinning as they judged they could be Passive without Murmuring They medled not with things without their Line nor mixt themselves with matters of State Declared That Kings have power by the Law of God to make such Ecclesiastical Laws as tend to the good Ordering of the Churches in their Dominions that the Churches ought not to be Disobedient to any of their Lavvs that if any thing vvere Commanded contrary to the VVord they ought not to resist the King therein but peaceably to forbear Disobedience and sue to him for Grace and Mercy and vvhere that cannot be obtained meekly to submit themselves to the punishment They generally came to Church and did not run into Separate Congregations nay writ stoutly and smartly against those who began then to attempt a Separation But whether our Modern Dissenters have observed the same Course and be of this Spirit and Temper let the World judg yea let themselves be Judges in the Case Secondly Sad Experience of the Evil Consequences of Schism and Separation have made it necessary for the Government to take all just and lawful ways for preventing the like for the time to come Men first began to be dissatisfied with the Rites and Orders of the Church then discontented that they were not presently gratified with an Alteration Discontent brought on Sedition Sedition Rebellion and Rebellion the Ruin of Church and State And what wonder if the Laws bear a little hard there where there are the same appearances and where there seem to be the same Tendencies and Inclinations to the same Dismal State of things Whoever considers by what ways the most flourishing Kingdom in the World and the best Church that ever was since the Primitive times were miserably Harrassed and Destroyed cannot think that those who sit at the Helm should be content to have them Ruined again by the same means especially after the King for several Years together has in vain tried by all the Methods of Favour and Indulgence to win upon them Thirdly Let those who now complain so much consider how little Favour themselves shewed to others when they were in Power how the Loyal and Episcopal Party were Plundered Sequestred Decimated Dungeoned Starved and often stunk to Death What Oaths and Covenants were Rigorously Imposed upon them what Restraints laid upon their Liberties both Civil and Ecclesiastical though all this while they had Law and Right standing for them In the Year 1645 an Ordinance of Parliament was Published That if any Person hereafter shall at any time use or cause to be used the Book of Common-Prayer in any Church or Publick place of Worship or in any private place or Family within the Kingdom every Person so offending should for the first Offence pay the sum of five for the second ten pounds and for the third should suffer one whole Years Imprisonment without Bail or Mainprize This one would think was very hard but there is something harder yet behind For Cromwell being got into the Throne Published a Declaration at that time Equivalent to a Law That no Person who had been sequestred for delinquency or had been in Arms against the parliament or adhered unto or had aberted or assisted the Forces raised against them should keep in their Houses or Families as Chaplains or Schoolmasters for the Education of their Children any sequestred or ejected Minister Fellow of a colledg or Schoolmaster nor permit any of their children to be taught by such upon pain of being proceeded against as was directed and that no person who had been sequestred or ejected for delinquency or scandal shall hereafter keep any School either publick or private nor preach in any publick place or at any private Meeting of any other