parity of officers which if it could once be effected it would save a great deal of that unnecessary expence which is now thrown away as it should seem to no purpose upon the great field-officers and the commanders in chief whether of whole Regiments or greater parties To carry this comparison a little farther because the power of the Presbyters in our times is pretended to be swallowed up in that of the Bishop like the rods of the Magicians by the rod of Moses contrary as it seems to the practice of the primitive times we may observe that in the affairs of a private company it is but reasonable that the captain should advise with the rest of the commission-officers and not manage all things wholly by himself but yet the power of summoning and dissolving the assembly is still entirely in him and he hath a negative at least entirely to himself so that without his consent and concurrence nothing can be done as to all those things that are within the cognisance and sphere of his authority but if the commander in chief of the whole regiment were to consult with his officers for their common interest and safety it is most likely that he would advise onely with the captains of the respective companies and in a great council of war where so great a multitude would breed confusion there the private captains are not regarded neither but onely the â—hief officers and principal commanders of the greater parties in all which assemblies for discipline and good order sake the general must be supposed to have his negative and as the assembly is called by his authority so to have a power likewise of dissolving it as he pleases And this hath always been the custome in the Ecclesiastical model a Bishop in the ancient practice of the Church was used almost in all matters to advise and deliberate concerning the affairs of his diocese with his Presbyters about him and from thence it came to pass that the whole assembly or the place where they met is sometimes by the ancientest of the Greek fathers termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop being indeed if without using words which we do not understand we will frame to our selves an intelligible notion of the thing it self onely the chief or superintendent of the Presbyters having an inspection over them and over the whole diocese as they had over their particular charges but still the Bishop had his negative and consequently almost the whole power of administration in his own hands for otherwise than this I can by no means understand the language of St. Jerome who though in this he be so widely mistaken that he will not have this government to have been ordained in the church by Christ himself yet he confesses that it was as old as the contentions between Paul and Apollos and Cephas and that it was made use of as an expedient to restore the churches peace which I think to be a very apt translation of those words ut schismatum semina tollerentur but now what peace there could be or how this was a possible expedient of procuring it where the Bishop had not a negative voice in the assembly I confess I do not understand Again as no laws could be made without the episcopal Le veult and on the contrary all proceedings were stopt in every particular diocesan assembly by the negative saviseroit of the Bishop so as to those canons and constitutions that were enacted the Bishop was the person who was chiefly concerned to look after their performance and to punish their neglect and as no ecclesiastical sanction could be made without him so the executive power was in a manner entirely his he was to see that every pastour did his duty he was to censure and punish the delinquents against it and in a controversie arising whether this or that particular pastour had broken his canonical obedience or no or done any thing which was disagreeable to his function or his obligation the last diocesan appeal was to the Bishop and without granting him as much power as this comes to it is utterly impossible to make sense of the words of St Jerome in toto orbe decretum est ut unus de presbyteris electus superponeretur caeteris ad quem omnis Ecclesiae cura pertineret ut schismatum semina tollerentur for how the bishop could be said in every diocese to be set over the Presbyters how the care of the whole church or diocese could be said to be committed to him and that for this end to preserve the peace of the church or how that peace could be preserved without all this power which I have allotted to him fateor me scire juxta cum ignarissimis and if there be any man else that can explain it to me let him pass from hence forward for the Delian Diver or for the Delphick Apollo But though in this or that particular diocese the power of the Presbyters seems to have been somewhat greater than it is now-a-days and yet as I have proved it was not so considerable neither yet as the Bishop did advise with his Presbyters as to the affairs of his own diocese and perhaps did scarce doe any thing of moment without their concurrence and direction in it so in the Provincial Synods which were convened together for the more regular and uniform administration of several such diocesses together both as to matters of discipline and belief and much more in the general councils or oecumenical dyets of the whole Christian Church the whole affair was transacted by the Bishops and yet the canons and constitutions that were then agreed upon were obligatory to all the Presbyters within the jurisdiction of those Bishops of which the assembly consisted and these constitutions did without question determine the most important cases they applied a remedy to all the greater evils of the church and laid down all the most general and most concerning rules of discipline and obedience so that the conferences of the respective Bishops with their particular clergy so far as any thing new was established or enacted by them were onely about particular cases which could not be sufficiently foreseen or provided for by the larger assemblies and for the most part about matters of lesser moment But the Presbyters as small a share as they had in the government of the church for it appears upon more accounts than one to have been but very small yet being used upon so frequent occasions to advise with their Bishop and the Bishop not being used to determine any new matter or issue out any new order without their consent this was in process of time an occasion of the Presbyters aspiring after more power of their confronting and opposing their Bishop and taking upon them more than became them or than was for the peace of the Church which seems to have given occasion in part to Clemens his epistle to the Corinthians and to Ignatius his so frequent and
and undoubted truth of those principles which I have formerly laid down to be the square and measure of obligation and which being applied to any particular case will in every thing resolve what is true or false Plenius melius Chrysippo Crantore Principles that will obtain to the confusion of Popery enthusiasm and every evill work when the envy of this age is under ground and when the heads of two or three Metaphysical Opiniatours are cold whatever they may doe at present of which I am not solicitous but am content to take men and things as I find them with as little disturbance and trouble as I can to my self Et mihi res non me rebus submittere conor And as I have intimated already nature and experience cannot deceive us though antiquity may it does not follow because such a polity or such a form of Government was in use among the ancients whether in church or state that therefore the example of antiquity lays any manner of obligation upon us which is extrinsique to the reason of the thing but as Livy saith of History in general hoc illud est praecipuè in cognitione rerum salubre ac frugiferum omnis te exempli documenta in illustri posita monumento intueri inde tibi tuaeque Reip. quod imitere capias inde foedum inceptu foedum exitu quod vites I say what he saith of History in general the same is true of ecclesiastical history in particular and though it does not follow that the Episcopal government is therefore of necessity the best because antiquity submitted to it who possibly in this as well as many other things may very well be mistaken for the ancients were but men no more than we yet when the history of all the several ages of the Church shall not onely recommend this government to us by its perpetual and uninterrupted example but shall also inform us over and above how usefull and expedient this government hath always been to the preservation of the peace and unity of the Church and how fatal the disobedience of Presbyters to their Bishop hath been found by being the occasion of great calamities and disorders in it as well of old time as now of late in the experience of our own age and nation in this case antiquity backed by experience gives us all the assurance which it is possible for us to receive in a matter of this nature that the Episcopal constitution as being found by experience to be the most wholsome for the preservation of the Churches health and for the preventing all those maladies and diseases to which the body Ecclesiastick would otherwise be exposed is therefore unquestionably the best that can be thought of and hath besides a right of immemorial prescription the advantage of long experience which in matters of this nature is the most powerfull reason to recommend it to us It is with government in the body politick as it is with medicines in the natural the end of medicine is health and the end of government is obedience and peace and therefore though it does not follow because Hippocrates or Galen in a case proposed made such or such a recipe consisting of such ingredients and compounded in such proportions together that therefore the Physicians of our times whenever the same case occurs must of necessity prescribe after the same manner for we must examine not onely into the prescription it self but also into the success of it with respect to the patient we must compare patient and patient and then patient and prescription together we must allow for the difference of climate constitution and diet betwixt one patient and another and if when all these things have been considered such a course of physick or such a method of cure in such a case proposed shall be found to have been successfull in the time of those old Physicians and ever since here is an Empirical demonstration which cannot easily deceive us what we are to doe at this time of the day and in this case antiquity joined to success is a very powerfull argument in behalf of the prescription or the method given and look how much greater the antiquity is and how much more frequent the cases that have occurred and the good success that hath all along attended them have been so much the stronger is the argument which is drawn from antiquity in their behalf not so much for the sake of the antiquity it self as for the success and good fortune of the course that hath been taken Wherefore the end of physick being health as the end of government is good order and obedience and the fitness of means being to be measured by their suitableness to that end to which they are directed it is manifest that experience must determine the controversie in both cases and as that physick or that diet or that air is certainly the best which hath the most wholsome and salutary effects upon the natural body so is that sort of establishment or polity whether in Church or State undoubtedly the best which hath always been found to be most productive of peace most powerfully influential upon obedience and good order and the best fitted to prevent the inconveniences with which the want or absence of government would be attended Therefore the question is this what sort of government is that which is most for the Churches health and peace and safety is it a co-ordinate administration or will it be better for the obtaining of these ends that its government as it is in the body natural and in all other political bodies whatsoever do not consist of parts that are all of them of equal dignity or power but that one part be dependent upon another and that the whole be knit together by a steady and regular subordination Let us put the case in an army can that army be well governed all whose officers have equal power and dignity with one another or did not the rebels themselves in the late unhappy times when they raised an army and levied an unnatural war against their king did not they make this difference in the commissions which they gave that some were to be Generals others Major and Lieutenant Generals others commanders of Tertia's or Brigades Colonels of Regiments and so down to Captains Lieutenants and Ensigns now either this depended upon the nature of government in the general or it did not if it did as what is an army but an armed commonwealth or city submitting to certain rules of discipline and obedience within themselves then the nature of government is in both cases the same and consequently a subordination in the church militant is every whit as necessary for the preservation of its unity and peace as it was in the schism either militant or triumphant But if it do not depend upon the nature of government and society considered in the general then there is no reason why an army may not be managed by a
to whom they are prescribed they look upon as yokes that are not to be born and will be sure to break them as if they were so To which it is to be added that where so many are concerned in the dispatch of an affair besides the feuds and contentions which different humours interests and designs would create it would occasion infinite delays and difficulties in their proceedings which would often times prove fatal to their designs and utterly disappoint the end of their coming together And what hath been said of the whole Clergy's meeting in one or in the two several and distinct convocations of Canterbury and York the same inconveniences would in proportion attend the diocesan assemblies if any such were practised wherein the Bishop had no greater power than onely to be as it were the Chairman or Prolocutour of the Synod but could not move one foot himself without the consent of a majority of the members of which it was composed especially in so populous a diocese as Your Lordship's is where the power and interest of a factious Clergy-man may be of such dismal consequence to the peace of the church but such is Your Lordship's paternal condescention mixt with an exact judgment and profound wisedom that You have found out an happy temperament betwixt the authority of the Bishop on the one hand and the dangerous power of the Presbyters on the other by admitting your Clergy to so frequent conferences and familiar debates concerning the common interest of the church and the respective good and advantage of their particular charges yet so as not to admit them to a liberty of controlling their Bishop or invest them with a power which may be employed to bad purposes as well as be made usefull and serviceable to good ones of which though at present there can be no danger in a diocese so well stored with men equally conspicuous for integrity prudence and learning for loyalty to the King and obedience to their Bishop and love to one another and care of their particular charges and flocks yet that may be pernicious and destructive in its example which is not so in it self and power when it is once given to the best of men is not so easily taken away from worse that may happen to succeed them as it may be employed to purposes very contrary and opposite to those for which it was intended otherwise there is no question but it is the indispensible duty of every Bishop to maintain a constant intercourse and correspondence with his Clergy that he may the better understand as well them as the diocese which he is to govern and may be the better enabled to make a judgment of both and accordingly to proportion the expedients of publick peace and safety with a wise and skilfull hand and that he may conciliate that love and reverence to his person by the affability and obliging sweetness of his conversation without which all power is tyranny and force and will not onely be resisted but overcome Wherefore I pray God that the church may always be blest as long as time shall endure with such faithfull vigilant and prudent Bishops as Your Lordship and with so pious learned and obedient a Clergy as that in which this diocese in particular and the whole nation in general is at present happy But what it is that they mean who would extend the power of the Presbyters with relation to their Bishop any farther than this or who declaim so loudly for the peoples right in the election of their pastours I cannot possibly conceive unless it be that they do seriously design and purposely intend to bring us all into confusion which it is not much to be doubted but there are some that do or that being engaged in an interest they are ashamed to retract their errour and therefore grasp at all arguments how weak soever to defend it which it is very natural for mankind to doe or lastly that they are not so wise men as they would be thought to be and that they do not see into the pernicious consequences of so mischievous a doctrine which stands condemned by the unalterable decrees of nature and by the fundamental maximes upon which cities are built and by which humane society is supported I should be sorry to perceive my self thus insensibly engaged in so long a disquisition concerning the natural grounds upon which the episcopal government relies very much contrary to my first intention which was far from any thought of treating so distinctly and as it were ex professo at this time upon this subject did I not hope to doe some service to the church by giving an account of my sentiments upon it and were I not possessed with a very great inward assurance that this way of procedure in the matter under debate that is by an appeal to the Principles of nature and to the fundamental maximes of society whether it be civil or ecclesiastical or of what kind soever is that which is liable to the least exception and is by consequence the most certain and infallible expedient of bringing those with whom we have to doe to a sense of their duty and an acknowledgment of their mistake which if it could be done it would be happy for us all and therefore with Your Lordship's good leave I will proceed to what remains referring my self humbly to the things that have been or shall be spoken upon a question of so great importance to intercede with Your Lordship and all that shall reade this Preface in my behalf if by my too great length I have offended Wherefore to improve the comparison of an army that is an armed city or society yet a little farther for it is not yet stretched out to its full length since it appears so plainly by the consent of all ages and by the constant practice of the world that such a body of men cannot be managed by a parity of officers the next thing to be considered is whether the imparity or superiority of one officer over another be consistent with an equality of salary or revenue and for this we have the same universal experience and consent that the pay of the greater officers is proportionably larger according to their respective dignity and place and the same is to be seen in civil as well as military employments that the great officers of state the Judges of the law and ministers of publick justice according to their respective dignity and superiority over one another so are the pensions and advantages annext to their employments for the most part proportionably greater and if the church so far as concerns the general nature of a society be the same and do as naturally require an imparity of officers as either the civil or military subordination so do the several imparities of dignity and power as unavoidably call for an inequality of revenue the reason of which in all the three cases is this that mankind are used
therefore it is highly just and reasonable to suppose that God generally proceeds with men by other measures and to be sure to sin on upon that supposition that God will pardon us at the last cast is in it self so bold a sin so intolerable a presumption so great a provocation that setting aside those sins which are consequent upon it this alone would be enough to sink us into the bottomless pit from whence there is no possible redemption to be expected It being therefore so clear of what importance and usefulness the Clergy or Priesthood in all nations is to the creating in men a peaceable disposition a vertuous and obedient temper of mind for the happiness of all and of every particular person it must be granted likewise that it is moreover necessary that all humane care and provision should be made that they may not fall out or squabble among themselves either about matters of discipline or doctrine because this will lessen their authority and consequently their use and service among the people the question therefore is to whom it is best that the exercise of this discipline should be committed whether to a Lay Judge or an Ecclesiastical and I answer as I have answered already that it is best this jurisdiction be intrusted with the latter of these because men do more easily obey their superiours in their own order besides that the jurisdiction being placed in Lay hands the Clergy have no prospect but of perpetual subjection without ever hoping to be governours themselves and this damps their spirits and diminishes their authority and chokes that honest and laudable ambition which is at once a cause of wisdom and vertue in themselves and of obedience to those that are in authority over them But then secondly a second reason why it is undoubtedly best for the Clergy to be governed by Superiours of their own Order is that as the persons to be governed do more easily obey them so those that are to govern when they are of the same order and have lived formerly in the same condition and circumstances of life with those that are to obey have the greater sense of what is reasonable and just to be expected from them they will not in probability behave themselves like rigid taskmasters but equitable supervisours and are the more likely in all their constitutions and in all their censures to put themselves into the place of their dependents and to consider that as being their own case again which hath been so once already they have something in them which is very like that which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or natural affection to the persons of those over whom they are placed and for the honour and credit of the profession and the others in requital do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they express their resentment of this Paternal tenderness and love by such an obedience reverence and profound respect as becomes those who have the relation of Sons in that which the Canon Law calls though in another sense the Spiritual cognation and certainly so much care on both sides on the one not to enjoyn any thing but what is reasonable and fit to be done what is for the interest of the obeisant parties and of that of the profession and on the other not to disobey any thing that is so must needs make very much for the Honour and Reputation of the Clergy and if such an Order of men be of any use for the service of the world To which two considerations there is likewise a third to be added which though in it self very obvious I did not think of before and that is that Clergy men that is men that both by their Education and Profession have devoted themselves to the service of the Church are certainly the best and the most proper Judges of Ecclesiastical whether things or persons and by the same reason that all the civil Guilds or Fraternities in a Corporation have Masters and Assistants out of their own number to whom the chief conduct and administration of the affairs of such a Society does belong by the same reason that in a Parliament a Committee for Trade shall call in Tradesmen and Artificers to their assistance to take their opinions in the matters under debate of which they are naturally supposed to be the most competent Judges by the same reason that a Lawyer invested with the power and Character of a Judge sits to hear and determine controversies upon the Bench not a Musician an Astronomer a Grammarian a Chymist an Architect a Divine or at least not because of any of these endowments or qualifications with which he may be over and above adorned but because of his skill and ability in the profession of the Law by the same reason certainly and upon the same Maxim because credendum est artifici in sua arte a Clergy man must needs be the most proper Judge in matters that are of Ecclesiastical cognizance and concern if we will but grant this easie supposition that Divinity is more than an empty name and that it does require a proportion of pains and study as well as other professions do There are three Powers or Offices in every Ecclesiastical Society the full exercise and administration of which does without all question naturally and rightfully devolve upon the Clergy and not upon all the Clergy neither but onely upon the Governours or Bishops of it The first is the power of Ordination The second of Visitation or inspection from whence they have the name of Bishops or Overseers And the third of Excommunication For the first it would be impossible to prevent innumerable Heresies and Schisms in the Church if every Presbyter had the full power of Ordination in his hands but it ought to satisfie the Presbyter in this case that he is not totally excluded but that he is called in as an assistant to the Bishop and that the Ordination is performed according to the genuine practice of antiquity by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery as well as by that of the Ordaining Bishop himself For the third if every passionate Clergy man out of private ends or out of a rash and ungovernable temper might Excommunicate and devote upon every light occasion it would at once bring the Ecclesiastical censures to contempt and be a means of infinite mischiefs and confusions in the Church And for the second it depends upon the first for as they say in Law ejusdem est condere interpretari so by the same reason the power of Visitation or inspection must be seated in the same hands in which the Ordination is placed the design and intent of it being onely this to examine whether every respective Curate or Incumbent do answer the end and meaning of his Ordination And for the more authoritative and effectual administration of so great a charge it is requisite that the Port and Dignity of the Bishop above the inferiour Clergy may hold
at all though I speak with the tongue of men and Angels saith he and have not charity I am become as sounding brass or a tinckling Cymbal and though I have the gift of prophecie and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity I am nothing nay though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth me nothing And if to the Testimony of St. Paul you will add the greater Authority of our Saviour himself he makes reciprocal Charity and Love to be the distinguishing mark and character of his Disciples By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another If therefore this Charity which is so essential to a Disciple of Christ that he cannot be so without it if the Vnion of the spirit in the bond of peace can be preserved under differing denominations of different Sects and Parties notwithstanding the different external forms and circumstances of Divine Worship if all or any of those pious and learned Exhortations which have been made to persuade you to this Christian temper can have that good effect which is intended by them notwithstanding the various forms of Church Government and the diversity of all other outward appendages and ceremonies of publick Worship if we can fear God and honour the King and love one another as well and as heartily in the midst of these differences as if there were no such things to be found among us then by my consent let all the Ecclesiastical Enclosures be laid open and let every man worship God so he do but worship him in spirit and in truth and believe aright as to the fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith according to his own particular humour and fancie because by gratifying such an harmless though unaccountable humour there can no inconvenience follow but by disturbing and crossing it there may and therefore the ends of Religion will be better served by a diversity in Worship than by an uniformity of it But now on the contrary if it should prove true as it will most certainly if either Experience or Reason can be heard amongst us that the onely way to Unity and Peace is by an Uniformity of Discipline and Obedience as to the external circumstances of Divine Worship then this great end being so necessary as it is for the procuring us all that Happiness which either this World or the next can afford us will justifie all the necessary means that can be used in order to the obtaining it Wherefore Uniformity being necessary as a means to Peace and yet being impracticable unless the Church be supposed to be invested with a Power of prescribing the external modes and circumstances of Obedience it follows plainly that the Church is actually invested with such a Power and that all its members are bound to obey its Prescriptions For the Topick of Experience it is not without some unwillingness that I mention it much less do I think it proper at this time and place to lay open the wounds of our late unhappy times or present you with a mournfull Scene of those Miseries and Distractions which neither can nor ought to be remembred without Amazement and Horrour But if you will every one of you retire into your own thoughts and ask your selves the question What it was that brought those dreadfull Calamities upon us that involved three flourishing and powerfull Kingdoms in Bloud and Slaughter and Confusion that made the Gods to dye like men and fall like one of the Princes while Slaves were set over us to be our Masters and Frogs were heard croaking in the Chambers of our Kings then you your selves will answer for me It was the tender Conscience dissolved into rebellious Pretences that carryed Order and Government before it and overflow'd all things with a resistless Stream it was a Cry against Discipline and Ceremonies and humane Institutions it was a Clamor for Liberty against Will-worship and the Ordinances of men it was a Spirit of Sedition a Thirst after Innovation an insatiable Humour of being dissatisfied with all the wholesome Establishments of Unity and Peace it was an Itch of new-modelling both Church and State it was a Pharisaical Pretence to farther Improvements of Purity and Holiness it was Discontent and Jealousie and godly Fear lin'd with Hypocrisie and Dissimulation that reduced our Beauty and Order into Ashes that laid the magnificent and comely Fabricks of the British Church and Empire the Amazement of themselves and the Envy of their neighbours equal with the ground and instead of one firm and well-compacted Building rais'd paper Tenements of crumbling Sects and Factions which instead of being able to support themselves betray'd us in a manner into that Security which we now enjoy While we forgetfull of those Miseries under which our Fathers and our selves have groan'd unthankfull for those Blessings which under the shade and protection of a wise and happy Government we receive ungratefull to Almighty God who out of that Chaos of Confusion has rear'd this new world of Establishment and Order displeas'd with the fatness of the Olive and the sweetness of the Figg-tree and quarrelling with the friendly and sociable Vine that cheareth God and Man are calling again for the Bramble to reign over us and for the Thornes and Briars to protect us or like the Israelites in the Wilderness surfeited with Miracles with Manna and with Quailes with the dew of Heaven and with the fatness of the Earth with liberty and ease and plenty we are looking back for Slavery from our old Taskmasters in the Land of Ham and longing for the Garlick and the Onyons of Egypt But because an instance taken from our late Confusions may but exasperate whenit should convince Let us avoid the mention of that Crying Guilt for which this Land of our Nativity has wept in tears of Bloud and should for ever mourn in Sack-cloth and humble her self before the Lord in Ashes and let us trace the footsteps of Antiquity and search the Records of the more innocent and early Ages What was the reason in the Mosaick Dispensation why all the external niceties of divine Worship in their Feasts and in their Sacrifices and in their Lustrations were so carefully adjusted by the particular designation and appointment of God himself It is true indeed that most of those Ceremonies were of a symbolicall nature and were designed to shadow out unto the Jewes either that purity simplicity and innocence of mind which God expects from all his worshippers and servants or else they were figurative and emblematicall Representations of the life and death and sufferings of the Messias and of that more perfect Dispensation which was to be introduced into the World by him But yet notwithstanding it must not be deny'd that there are many Ceremonies to be found in the Law of Moses
which being equally commanded by God himself were of equall obligation as to their performance with any of the rest of which no such Typicall account can be given And therefore the reason of their Institution can only be this That since every thing must of necessity be done with some Ceremony in some Place or Time or Order or Gesture or Manner and Circumstance or other it pleased God for the avoiding of Confusion and for the preservation of an uniform and orderly way of Worship which would otherwise be exposed to perpetual change disturbance and alteration to adjust and determine the particular circumstances of those indifferent matters because considering the perverseness of some mens minds and the diversity of their several fancies and humours such changes and alterations could never happen without a considerable breach of Charity and Friendship among men which must needs be a wonderfull Obstruction as well to the interest of the Civil State as to all the religious Performances and Duties both as to their devotion in themselves and as to their acceptance with Almighty God If therefore the nature of Mankind be still the same under the Gospel that it was under the Law if the reasons for the necessity of Uniformity be the same now that ever they were in former ages if the method of this Uniformity be not adjusted by God himself under the Gospel as it was under the Law and if this Uniformity cannot be obtained unless the Church be invested with a right and power of prescribing the terms of it than it follows plainly as hath been already observed that the Church must be invested with such a power because else it would want the necessary means of its own unity and preservation which every Society must be supposed by the Laws of nature and reason to be invested with and if the Church be invested with such a power then all its Members are under an indispensable obligation to obey it because that Power which may be lawfully disobey'd is no Power at all And this is sufficient to vindicate the exercise of Ecclesiastical Censures And if you demand further Whether it be lawfull for the civil Sanction to interpose in behalf of the Church to see that its Orders and Injunctions be duly and faithfully executed and obey'd I answer that it is for this plain reason because the Civil Power has a right of exacting all kinds of lawfull Obedience from its subjects and this obedience if it were not Lawfull could not be enjoyned by the Church it self But besides the express provisions of the Law of Moses it self there were also several pretended traditions of Moses from Mount Sinai there were likewise the determinations of their Wise men in controverted cases the Decisions of the Tannaim and the Amoraim and of the Schools of Hillel and of Schammai the two so much celebrated but disagreeing Founders of the Pharisaick Order For which Traditions and Determinations of their famous Masters the Jewes had usually as great if not greater Veneration than for the Law it self and they were at length swell'd into so vast a bulk that like the Missals and the Rituals of the Romish Church at this day which are so full of Ceremonies burthensom in their number frivolous and superstitious in their use they ate out the very life and heart of true Religion as our Saviour himself in several places of his Gospel with no less Justice than severity complains The Heathen World had also their Sacred Offices prescribed by a certain Form as well before as under the Law And the same is the case with the Mahometan and Pagan Idolaters at this day which Ceremonies of theirs though for their number they be intollerable to a devout Soul which cannot suffer it's self to be so far taken off from the more inward and substantial part of Religion though in their nature they be mostly foolish and in their use Superstitious and in their design Idolatrous as being directed to a false object yet as well these as the Jewish Formalities do prove thus much by the common consent of Mankind that an Uniformity in the outward circumstances of Divine Service is necessary to the more due and solemn performance of Religious Worship and to the publique peace and quiet of the World What is the reason that at this day the French Persecution against the reformed Religion and its Professors rages with so much violence and fury thorough all the spatious Territories and Dominions of that mighty Monarch Shall we think it is a Zeal for the Catholique Religion as they are pleased to call it that is for a Fardle of absur'd ridiculous and blasphemous Superstitions that inspires so wise and powerfull a Prince with so mean thoughts of Cruelty and Revenge Shall we think he acts upon a principle of Conscience who has sufficiently discover'd to the world by his insatiable thirst after Empire which cannot be purchas'd without the price of Bloud that he has no other principle of action than that of a boundless appetite of Rule and Greatness Shall he be thought to act upon a principle of Duty and Religion who makes destructive and depopulating Wars without giving a reason and violates the faith of Peace by arbitrary Dependances and unwarrantable Claimes Who conquers more by the peremptory Decrees of his late erected Chambers than by the conduct of his Generals or by the numbers discipline and valour of his Armies What therefore can be the true cause and motive why he that glories in the blessed title of the Most Christian King should yet notwithstanding persecute Christianity it self What else can be the true reason of all this Cruelty and seeming Madness but that he wisely considers that the true way to Empire abroad is by unity and peace at home that a Kingdome divided against it self cannot stand and that these differences of Religion as they have done already in the experience of that Kingdome as well as ours will some time or other prove the occasions of great disorders and commotions in the State And shall we not then make use of the same wisdome for the support of Christianity which is with so much diligence and zeal made use of by others for its Extirpation For Popery is either no Christianity at all or it is Christianity wrapt up and hid in such an heap of Ceremonies and Superstitions that it can hardly be discerned Is it worth our while to contend about Ceremonies when we are losing the Substance to squabble and fall out about indifferent things when our Religion and our Liberty our temporall and eternall Interest lye at stake If the things prescribed be indifferent and consequently lawfull why do we not show that they are so by complying with them If the quarrells raised about indifferent matters do yet notwithstanding rise as high as those which are agitated between the Papists and us about matters of a necessary and unalterable nature why do we not cement and compose these unhappy breaches by
biat to the insatiable avarice of successfull treason yet the courage constancy and integrity of the one will even by the greatest adversaries themselves be remembred with honour and spoken of with signs of inward veneration when the pusillanimity and faintness of the other who can be friends to no body but themselves shall bring an unavoidable contempt upon their persons and make them reflect upon themselves with shame as well as be slighted and disesteem'd by others But of all men in the world a Clergy-man that is of so cold a composition is certainly the least excusable because he is under the greatest obligation to confess God and his truth openly before men he is not to gratifie any party by a tame compliance to the prejudice of the publick nor to purchase his own peace with the loss of that of the Church which can onely be maintained by wholesom discipline and an establisht order and therefore of such an one it is still more true what follows immediately of the unsavory salt that he is the most contemptible and whatever high opinion he may have of his own wisedom and prudence the most really despicable creature in the world he is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out with disgrace and to be trodden under foot of men And therefore whatever becomes of my pretensions concerning which I am not immoderately solicitous but refer my self wholly to the wise disposal and goodness of almighty God I shall be very glad if those Gentlemen in whom the Title shall appear to be shall pitch upon one that is at least no M tonian that is no Deserter for it would be very incongruous in those of this fraternity especially to chuse an insipid Priest when God himself would not accept of a Sacrifice that was not salted And let the result of that assair be as it will yet I shall always be very proud as I am very thankfull for it of the great favour and kindness Your Lordship hath been pleased to doe me by appointing me to officiate at that Parish during the sequestration of the living and allowing me so fair a competence out of the profits of it May it please Your Lordship I am not insensible how much I trespass upon your great affairs by so prolix an address but yet I am humbly of opinion that I have said nothing which the necessity of this occasion and of my circumstances did not almost indispensably oblige me to doe and now having given Your Lordship an account of my self as Cato was used to say Etiam otii rationem reddendam esse and to whom am I more accountable than to Your Lordship my Diocesan a Person to whom I am so very much obliged and one that hath the most undoubted right to exact an account of me having acquainted Your Lordship as faithfully as I can with the true reasons that moved me to defer the edition of this busie trifle that hath made so great a noise so long as well as to defer it no longer but to publish it at this juncture of time there are two things still remaining for which I do humbly beg a little more of Your Lordship's patience while I insist with all imaginable brevity upon them the one concerns chiefly an objection which the friends of the present establishment may raise and the other is an exception which I know for certain its enemies will make The friends of the Church perhaps will object against me that my discourse being chiefly levelled as it is all along against the Independency whose name is Legion being a thousand different Heresies and Sects under one title and denomination this may be interpreted as a supposed allowance of the Presbyterian model but as for that I think I have already satisfied the world what my opinion is at the latter end of my discourse concerning the Laws of Nature and if I were to give a definition or rather a description of Presbytery it should be this that it is a device of ambitious and unruly Presbyters broken loose from the government of their Bishop and which though it be not indepency it self yet it is certainly the mother of it for the same restless and unquiet humour which could not submit it self to the Episcopal constitution will incline them in their Synods and Ecclesiastical assemblies to contend for superiority over one another for where all are equal and there is no tye of obedience from the one to the other nor any common visitour or inspectour indued with a power of discipline over them all there it is natural for men that have passions and designs about them to squabble there it will unavoidably come to pass that many will take it ill if they be not chiefly regarded and if their opinion or determination be not the law and rule of the assembly every man will be forward to speak and desirous to govern but loath to hear and unwilling to obey The consequence of which will be that it will occasion parties and factions while some take part with one and some with another and this cuts the reins of discipline in sunder and does as naturally terminate in Schism and Separation as the day is concluded by the night or as fair and foul weather succeed one another besides that when men have once tasted the forbidden fruit of disobedience which it is so natural for all mankind to hanker after they seldom or never end where they begin but go on farther and farther in pernicious attempts upon the good order and government of the world till they have brought all things into absolute confusion A subordination and dependence of one part upon another is as necessary in one sort of government as another for though the Ecclesiastical and civil Society be in some sense distinct from one another yet in a Christian Commonwealth they consist both of them of the same persons and the nature of a society is in both cases the same wherefore because the State and the Church the body politick and the body ecclesiastick are both of them made up of the same members because every man hath both a civil and an ecclesiastical capacity it is impossible there should be any disorder in the Church which will not sensibly affect the state and the division of a Commonwealth or Kingdom into infinite sects and parties is a dissolution of the civil body as well as of the sacred and every thing that hath a tendency to such a dissolution is in its proportion pernicious and consequently unlawfull So that if there were nothing more in the Episcopal government than what St. Jerome the great but very much mistaken patron of the Presbytery hath allowed namely that the ancient government of the Church was by a parity of Presbyters though no body knows when or where nor is it possible to assign any age or place when and where it was not govern'd by Bishops but that in process of time this parity proving inconvenient by being the
so passionate exhortations to the Presbyters to pay that duty and obedience which they owed to their Bishop as the messenger of God and the vicegerent of Christ in that particular diocese wherein he was placed but when all these endeavours of good and holy men proved ineffectual as all exhortation is ineffectual with the generality of mankind where there is not a power sufficient to force obedience it seemed good at last to the wisedom of the Church to remove the occasions of such evils for the future by enlarging the power of the Bishop and to curb the insolence of the Presbytery by removing its cause which was their meeting together with him in the diocesan convocation upon any occasional emergence that might happen but yet the Bishop was not by this means rendred absolute neither but there lay an appeal from him to the Metropolitan or Patriarch to a provincial or oecumenical dyet and to the standing canons and constitutions of the church which it was not in his power to violate or alter and in which all the great lines of obedience were contained And this alteration in the government of the church depended upon the same reason with the disanulling popular elections either of Bishops or particular pastours which being found by long and wofull experience to be the occasion of perpetual tumult and disorder in the church the fruitfull parent of everlasting feuds animosities and factions to the unspeakable detriment both of church and state was in process of time partly disused of it self by the peoples being weary of so troublesome a right and partly by the interposition of imperial rescripts and by the authority of the civil laws of our own and other nations It was very natural in the beginnings of the church to allow some what more to the Presbyters in consultation with their Bishop and to the people in the choice of both than was consistent with the policy of after-times because Pueris dant crustula blandi Doctores elementa velint ut discere prima when churches and ecclesiastical societies were first to be gathered men were to be allured by privileges and to be enticed by power a thing of which all mankind are naturally very fond as well as to be convinced by arguments to espouse the cause and interest of Christianity but when the religion of Christ had taken deep root in the world when the temptations of honour and preferment and the dangers of persecution from the Pagan powers were now utterly removed and extinguished and when at the same time the world being turned Christian the dangers and inconveniences of popular elections increased with the number of the electours and the Presbytery by reason of their number began to be formidable to the Bishop as well as troublesome and tumultuous among one another which must of necessity have been the occasion of very great calamities and very sad as well as frequent revolutions if a timely stop were not put this made it necessary upon the same principle of convenience to abrogate this power upon which it seems first to have been introduced if indeed it were introduced upon any reason at all but onely a gradual and insensible encroachment in both cases and upon the supinity in or neglect of the governours of the church who did not possibly foresee those horrid inconveniences with which this way of management would afterwards be attended For my part I am so firmly of opinion that the great design of religion is charity good-will and peace that I take it to be a certain argument of an institution or custome essentially bad when it is directly calculated for the disturbance of the world and whatever becomes of the antiquity of the business which is used to afford matter of specious discourse on both sides of the question in several important cases and particularly in these which I have so lately mentioned yet if it could be proved that antiquity and interest were fallen out with one another it is in this case but reasonable to consider that the longer we and our fore-fathers have laboured under the painfull and prejudicial consequences of errour the more it would behove us to think of a reformation which if it be not allowed to be a good argument in behalf of truth the Protestant Religion will be utterly unable to defend it self and we should consider likewise that even in point of antiquity nature and the standing interest of the world are much ancienter things than any the oldest custome can pretend to be and therefore if antiquity be the measure by which we are resolved to proceed it will follow that nature and interest must prescribe to custome and not custome to them Nay if it could be never so demonstrably proved that our Saviour did by his example or by his institution recommend to posterity the presbyterian modell or the congregational way though it can hardly be supposed that he who was God as well as man could be guilty of so great a mistake in the true art and mystery of government yet these being found afterwards by experience to be very inconsistent with the great end of the Gospel which is charity and peace it is manifest that the means having onely a relative or conditional nature and being to be either used or rejected in proportion to their fitness or unsuitableness to their end the end of the Gospel which is peace would have obliged posterity to alter that institution though of Christ himself which was found by experience to be inconsistent with it or rather since the declared design of our Saviour's coming into the world was to reconcile God to men and men to one another and since the causeless feuds and animosities of men do set them at enmity with God as well as among themselves since they extinguish that calm serene and charitable spirit without which neither our persons nor our sacrifices can be accepted since it is impossible in the language of St. John to love God whom we have not seen unless we can also love our brother whom we have seen this would have been a plain argument when he preached peace and yet established such a form of government as had a direct or a comparative tendency to confusion one of which is the case of the Independent churches and the other of the Presbyterian form with relation to the more perfect and compleat establishment of the Episcopal subordination I say it would have been a plain argument either that he had war in his heart notwithstanding that his words were smoother than oyle and that though he talked of peace yet he designed contention or else if he were sincere in what he did that he did not understand the message he came about and in either of those cases he must be acknowledged to be a gross impostour when he pretended to be sent from God for God sends no man to disturb the world unless it be for our sins as other great plagues and calamities are inflicted but
how was he then that auspicious mercifull and benign Prince the Prince of peace and the son of him that is the father of mercies in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed And for the same reason I affirm that all the declaimers of the separation whose lungs are employed in blowing the coals of strife and in dividing friends relations and countrymen from one another cannot possibly pretend a mission from heaven for what they doe unless they can first prove that the terms of communion in the church of England are unlawfull to be submitted to nay that they are utterly inconsistent with salvation but when they offer no manner of reason for so destructive a schism so pernicious to our peace at home and to our power and interest abroad but onely tell us with a splay mouth and a ridiculous tone that they cannot in conscience that is they will not comply for this reason is infinite and therefore ought not to be allowed without a more particular and satisfactory plea that such a thing is superstitious they cannot tell why and that they are for greater purity and greater edification that is for infinite schism separation and confusion for noise and non-sense and eternal dashing of one disagreeing party against another as if the breach of charity the destruction of good order and the subversion of government were the true methods of edification that is as if building up and pulling down were the same or as if they that have the meanest parts the least acquired learning the most confused sentiments and the most unintelligible notions which is plainly the case of the Nonconformists at this day were the best qualified for instructing the people or as if they that hate the government and persecute all that love it with a virulence not to be equall'd by any but themselves were fit to be entrusted with the doctrine of obedience and were to be permitted in a christian common wealth to have the conduct and governance of souls that have a civil capacity as well as a sacred and are obliged for God's sake to be subject to every lawfull ordiance of man and certainly either nothing is lawfull in this world or else humane impositions and Episcopal government are so when they are found by the experience of so many ages to be either of absolute necessity to the publick peace which is the case of the former or at least the best fitted to establish and secure it which is the true pinch of the controversie as to the latter Quis Coelum Terrae non misceat mare Coelo Or may it not be consistent even with the meekness of a Christian spirit to call for fire from heaven upon such bold miscreants that pretend a commission from it to unhinge the world and to set all manking together by the ears onely for the sake of two or three signisicant ceremonies and because they are significant that is because they tend to that which they plead so much for and talk so loudly concerning that is edification for otherwise what they signifie I cannot imagine and I entreat some of them to tell me And yet if these things were abated it is not to be hoped without a severe prosecution of the penal laws that ever the separation will cease together with them which under the disguise of religion is indeed nothing else but a Republican faction which the enemies of monarchy will be sure to cherish so long as they can or dare so that it is observable though they have been driven fourty times from one station to another and though they know not where to fix to entrench themselves safely against the assaults of truth though the pleas alter almost with the seasons of the year and with the returns of the day yet the separation it self continues still the same or hath rather been every day more obstinate and inveterate than the other till the laws began to rouse their drowsie heads and shew that they were not merely a dead and lifeless letter which it is natural for a Phanatick to despise Nay though there were not as there is in the bottom of Phanaticism a Republican design yet what terms of accommodation can possibly be expected when there are so many whose onely trade is schism and who get the very bread they eat by keeping up their party whose kitchins must be cold and bellies empty whenever that fatal day shall overtake them in which the Conventicles are not full and reeking with the unnatural steams of separation However such is the wise temperament and constitution of the church of England that it hath left the Presbyters no reason to complain inasmuch as they are not obliged by any Canon or Ecclesiastical sanction to which themselves have not given their free and full assent in convocation by their representatives at least if not in their own persons which is exactly the same sort of assent which the free subjects and free-holders of England give to those laws which are enacted in Parliament their consent being included in that of their Knight or Burgess and the major part of the representatives including the whole as reason and custome do require in all assemblies of this nature is at the same time interpreted as the act of the commons of England who are represented in the whole assembly But it is easie to see by the disorders that frequently happen in so small a number what confusion it would make if all the people or the free-holders of England were actually to have a vote in the passing of every law as by the disturbances which often-times happen in the Livery which is a smaller body in the Guild-hall of London it is obvious to any man at the first sight how much more intolerable the mischief would be if all the freemen were admitted to a right of suffrage from whence to avoid those confusions they are now excluded And the same tumults and disorders would no question happen if all the Clergy-men in England being in both orders were admitted to a liberty of voting in the convocation for Clergy-men have passions and designs too as well as other men and being supposed by their function to be of the wiser and learneder sort this naturally makes every man the more zealous to betray his ignorance when he cannot shew his wit or understanding he will be sure to make up in noise and bustle what he wants in knowledge and it will always happen in this case that the Bishops and the wisest and best men will be born down with the crowd of the inferiour Clergy who being men oftentimes of little maintenance and as little parts will as naturally comply and side with the humour of the people as it is natural for the people themselves in all nations as often as they can or dare to affront their governours and disobey the laws which however just and equitable in themselves and however well tempered and proportioned to the happiness of those
of the interest of the world and of the natural issues and results of humane actions as is requisite to qualifie them duely for the charge of being publick censors and perpetual supervisors over the belief and manners of their brethren but it oftentimes comes to pass that he who is the richest man in a Parish and by that means puts in most powerfully for a mongrell Presbyter is very far from being either the wisest or the honestest in that circuit and if he be of an insolent humour as many of that sort are when they get into power for want of study and liberal education besides the constitutional frailties which are common to all men if his temper be rather overweening than overwise and if he have gotten his estate by injustice and oppression I need not say what an excellent government we are like to have when men thus qualified are got into the saddle the thing speaks but too plainly and too loudly for it self so that this device though a very proper expedient till the inconveniences of it began to be experienced to cully in the vulgar to a complyance with this promising modell that seemed as if it were intended to make all men governours yet upon experiment it will always be found to be one of the true causes that will for ever render the Presbyterian government an odious and an intollerable thing It is absolutely impossible that any sort of society be it civil be it sacred or of what kind soever should subsist without some laws to govern it self by or without censures and punishments in case of disobedience and because the unity of the church depends very much upon that of the Clergy who are its officers among themselves therefore it is very natural for a man to ask this question Quis custodiet ipsos Custodes Who are they to whom the inspection or supravision of the Clergy themselves does most properly and rightfully belong or who are they to whom it is best and safest that the government and superintendencie of the Clergy should be committed in order to this end namely that the peace and unity of the church may be preserved And I answer that it is best it should be intrusted in the hands of such overseers as shall be chosen for that purpose out of their own number and that for two reasons First that all mankind do most easily most willingly and readily obey those of their own order and profession the reason is because all men have a passionate love for themselves which though they will not own at every turn yet we may discern it plainly by a fondness which they are subject to express for the most faint resemblances of themselves in others a tradesman or artificer setting other considerations which are nearer him aside hath a greater kindness for one of his own trade or company for a brother as he calls him of his craft and profession than another a mariner would chuse to be commanded by a captain like himself that hath been bred in a seafaring life and a souldier had rather serve under an old beaten officer that perhaps was once a common souldier like himself than under some novice or unexperienced youth who hath nothing but a great birth and fortune to recommend him nay he would take the severest discipline in good part from such an one when yet if the other should inflict the same severity for the same offence it might cause an embroilment and disorder in the army if they mutiny for want of pay the promise of such an one that he will look after it shall signifie more with them than if another had paid them down half their arrears they will follow him chearfully into the greatest dangers and though it be at himself that they have taken perhaps a very excusable and justifiable displeasure yet his bare presence and appearance among them shall have a wonderfull eloquence to perswade them to be quiet it is like old friends and lovers that are fallen out they are glad on both sides to accept of any offers of reconciliation because there is kindness at the bottom and they have a complacency in one another Upon the same account it is that men that are far from home are used to be mightily pleased when they meet with a countryman of theirs and much more with one of the same town or neighbourhood with themselves although it may be when they were at home they had no knowledge of him and let them be where they will yet if a man in his childhood have been but playfellow or schoolfellow if it so happen that he was born in the same parish or neighbourhood with another who is famous for any art or skill or is arrived to any great honour or preferment the man whenever he talks of it is almost as proud and as well pleased as if himself had been the very person that is so wise so skilfull or so great and if he himself had been to prefer one into the same dignity or high emploiment supposing that he had no greater interest to conduct his choice he would infallibly prefer his countryman or his townsman before any other competitour whatsoever merely because he is so and because of a certain imaginary resemblance and likeness with himself Thus men that are of kin to greatness do reap a pleasure and satisfaction from it though they have neither honour nor estate themselves and they who in a mean fortune are yet descended of an ancient and illustrious stock do take a pride in thinking fuimus Troes and for the likeness which they fancy betwixt themselves and their progenitours they attribute all their honours their actions their endowments their vertues their successes in some sort to themselves To conclude a Monk hath usually a passion for his own order a scholar hath the greatest kindness for those that are skilfull in his particular attainments for his own College his own University and every man hath a comparative fondness for every thing and person wherein either nature hath made or education painted the least imaginary resemblance of himself To which it is to be added that those honours and preferments which the governours of the body ecclesiastick being themselves members of the same body enjoy as they are very natural and very certain expedients of procuring reverence and esteem to their persons and by consequence of making them fitter for the end of government which is obedience so they are so far from being grudged or repined at by the inferiour Clergy that they do naturally rejoice in them and as they do in some sense enjoy those honours and those preferments for the reason of self-love and self-likeness which hath been lately mentioned so the consideration of them inspires them with gallant thoughts and vertuous designs to make themselves capable of the same rewards and dignities in time to come for it is certain that all great attainements in any kind whatsoever are owing to an honest and a
a proportion to his rank and station and it is in vain in this case to urge the poverty of the first Apostles and Preachers of Christianity who supplied by Miracles and supernatural inflictions what they wanted of the natural causes of Authority and greatness among men not that I would be thought to plead for such an excessive Pomp as hath more of pride and vanity than real use but as it is ne-necessary to the ends of every well regulated Clergy that their condition in the general should be according to the admirable Mr. Cowley's wish Too low for Envy for Contempt too high So to answer the meaning of his institution it is necessary there should be a proportion of grandeur in the Bishop suitable to the weight and dignity of his charge and to the eminence of his place and order in the Church I shall conclude this matter with observing that Princes in all ages who certainly may be thought to understand Government as well as ever a busie Lay-elder of them all have always thought it safest for the quiet of their Dominions to govern by Bishops and I appeal to any one of common understanding supposing the Roman Empire to be still as great and flourishing as it was of old whether the unity of so great a Body would be more likely to be preserved by the government of Presbyteries pecking at one another and every moment in danger of crumbling into pieces or by the Episcopal subordination which makes the Church of God like a fair firm and well compacted building whose parts do all give beauty and strength to one another and I do farther put the case if we suppose all Christendom at this day to be governed by Presbyteries after the new-fangled Republican Model and having so potent a Monarch as the Turkish Sultan for their neighbour whether its strength however broken and disunited would be so firm and so well united as it is at this day to make head against him or so likely to hold out against the terrours or temptations of the Asiatick steel or gold These things are easie to be considered and computed by any man of sense and experience in the world and are if I am not very much mistaken a plain and unanswerable demonstration on the Episcopal side for certainly that Government which is the best calculated for the peace of the World is also the most agreeable to the Gospel of Christ that Government which is the most likely and proper to defend Christendom does best answer the ends of Christianity Not but that in the Episcopacy as in all Governments there may be inconveniences too because men are men and always will be men as long as the world endures but it is sufficient if it labour under fewer disadvantages than the Presbytery does or if it be the best Government that can be thought of to prevent the passions and designs of men from putting the world in a perpetual flame There have been feuds and animosities in ancient time among the Bishops but that is not the question but onely whether they would not have been greater and more frequent in proportion to their number in a National or Provincial Synod of the Presbyters as there are disturbances sometimes in a Parliament house but does it follow therefore that to prevent those inconveniences the whole Kingdom should meet together in a general Assembly to make Laws or would not the dangers and inconveniences be incomparably greater on this side than on the other Or may I not now fairly sum up the evidence in the words of that great Presbyterian St. Jerome in his Dialogue ad Luciferianos Ecclesiae salus in summi Sacerdotis dignitate pendet cui si non exors ab omnibus eminens detur potestas tot in Ecclesiis efficientur schismata quot Sacerdotes It remains still that as I promised I should give some account why I have appeared so zealous for the execution of the Laws against Dissenters but the reasonableness of that is now sufficiently seen by the happy success it hath had upon the affairs of a distracted Kingdom so that my answer is already made to my hands and I have nothing to add but my Prayers to God that the same Justice and Vigour may continue and my most humble Petition to your Lordship that you would pardon the presumption of this long address for the sake of its honest and well-meant intention from My Lord Your Lordships most humble dutifull and obliged Servant John Turner Advertisement to the Reader BEcause the Reader may be apt to be inquisitive how far the Sermon it self as it was Preached went therefore for his satisfaction it is thought fit to let him know that it reach'd as far as p. 23. at these words the wise provision which the Church hath made There were two or three particulars added which are not inserted being very brief and in a concluding form and therefore inconsistent with the additions that have been made Farewell 1. COR. 14. 40. Let all things be done decently and in order THE unhappy breaches and differences among us in matters of Religion are at present the subject of universal Complaint and though nothing be more talked of than an Union among Protestants against the common Enemies of our Liberties as we are English men and of our Faith as we are Christians yet if we will believe mens Actions rather than their Words there is nothing that seems less heartily to be desired or if you will give me leave to speak a little plainer for it is not now a time to mince the matter with more solicitous Care and Industry to be avoided For my part I am not come hither to enflame those differences and if I were 't is twenty to one but I should lose my Errant for they are so great already that perhaps they are incapable of being encreased But if you will allow me that liberty which every man now pretends to as his birthright that is to spend my private opinion about the publick Concerns I will put you in a way by which this blessed Union can onely be effected and that is by keeping up strictly to the Discipline of the Church and by doing all things decently and in order We have almost every day many excellent Discourses delivered in the Pulpit to persuade us to mutual Charity and Forbearance with one another and indeed this is in a manner the whole design of Christianity to produce in us those calm and peaceable dispositions of mind which are best fitted to make us happy in this life and to prepare us for the blessedness of that other state whose very nature consists in perfect Charity and perfect Peace Wherefore Saint Paul tells us plainly that without charity which is the very bond of Peace and of all vertues all our pretences to Religion and all our attainments in it our proficiencie in spiritual knowledge and our super-errogation if that were possible in good works will signifie just nothing
of that Society so far as is necessary to the peace and quiet of it for otherwise a Society and no Society would be exactly the same that is every man would still remain his own Master and at liberty to doe as much as ever he could before For example in that which Mr. Hobbs is pleased to call the State of Nature when a man is not a member of a Body politick but a distinct and perfectly independent person by himself he is naturally invested with a right and power of defending his person or his possession by force of Arms he may lawfully revenge his own injuries and he is the onely Judge when he is wronged or injur'd because without all this power he cannot live in the World or continue in that Being which God and Nature have given him But if having listed themselves by mutual covenant and agreement into a Body politick or Commonwealth for the mutual defence and preservation of every particular person and of the whole Society men shall notwithstanding after this assume the same liberty to themselves of personal Revenges and of being their own Judges in controverted cases without referring themselves to the decision of the Law which is the civil Umpire betwixt man and man it is manifest this Society cannot be of long continuance or rather so long as this Liberty is taken it can never be a Society properly so called from whence it follows plainly that it is necessary if men will be members of a Society that they give up this private power into the hands of the publick If therefore the Church be a Society truly and properly so called if it be that mystical Body of which Christ is the Head if the members of this Body cannot be knit and well compacted together without external rules of discipline and order in which the very nature of a Society consists if the publick Orders of the Church and every man's prescribing rules to himself be inconsistent together and if the observing no rule or method at all either in Divine Worship or civil conversation be rather like a man in Bedlam than a Denison of a sober Corporation if charity good-will and love if mutual helpfulness and reciprocal usefulness to one another if peace with God and peace with men and peace within our selves be the great design and business of the Christian life if a man cannot be at peace with God while he is at enmity with his neighbour if a man can neither love nor fear nor know nor worship God aright at the same time when his thoughts are taken up and filled with envy uncharitableness detraction and revenge if no man can be happy in himself when he is displeas'd and angry with other men if the controversies raised about matters confessedly indifferent have been when and where-ever they have happened a perpetual bane and disquiet to the Church if they alwaies heighten mens Passions against and alienate their affections from one another if they are alwaies attended with a disturbance of the publick peace and have de facto proceeded to the utter subversion both of Church and State if all these Animosities and Contensions would immediately cease by a quiet and dutifull submission to the Authority of the Church if by giving up this Power the Church as a Body politick or Society of men is actually dissolved a Society or Aggregate of several persons being no otherwise one than as they submit to the same Laws and are governed by the same external Rules of discipline and obedience if Place and Time notwithstanding they be indifferent in themselves as to this or that particular determination yet is it necessary in the general that they should be determined otherwise there can be no publick Worship of God lastly when men are met together in a religious Assembly if every man shall follow his own particular fancie if almost every single person shall be seen in a different posture and if this be more like to make men look upon one another than to attend to the Minister or to mind themselves if it be more like to excite laughter than devotion if it be a natural obstruction to the solemnity and seriousness of religious Worship if done by chance it be a sign of too great negligence and remisness and if done on set purpose it be a sign of conceitedness and spiritual pride while every man prefers his own way and despises that of another if it be a ground of censure and may be a cause of uncharitableness and by degrees of separation then is it plain upon all these accounts which I have mentioned because it would be better if it were so and because it is necessary that it should be so because the Church can neither preserve it self in reputation nor so much as in being because it is for its undoubted and its perpetual interest and because it is necessary to its preservation that it should be invested with an Authority of adjusting the most indifferent circumstances of Divine Worship without which the blessed ends of Unity and Peace can never be obtained I say it is plain from all this that the Church is actually invested with this Power and that Ecclesiastical Constitutions may for the same reason determine indifferent matters for which the Civil forbid Adultery and Murther namely because it is necessary to the publick Peace which reason if it be not sufficient the Civil Laws do all of them become immediately null and void as being founded upon no other basis but the consideration of the publick good but if it be a solid and substantial reason I would fain know if any of the Dissenters be at leisure to inform me why it may not equally extend to defend the necessity and consequently justice of Ecclesiastical whether Laws or Censures Especially if we consider that as the case of the Christian world now stands the same persons with the same interests prejudices and passions are members both of the Civil and Ecclesiastical State so that it is as impossible there should be a disturbance in the one in which the other shall be unconcerned as that the same man should be divided from himself and it is every whit as clear that either it is not lawfull to use all necessary means for the preservation of the Civil Peace or it is lawfull for the Church to concern her self in the determination of indifferent matters which Determinations and Constitutions of hers may be lawfully confirmed and ratified by the State If men could differ without falling-out something might be pretended in behalf of an innocent though unbecoming Liberty but since the greatest feuds and animosities do sometimes take their rise from the smallest beginnings since the religious differences are of all others the greatest and the most fatal to the publick Peace since there is nothing so infinitely scrupulous as an unreasonably tender Conscience and since there is no pretence so inconsiderable from whence either indigent or ambitious men will not take
than by an uniform and regular Discipline of the Church then is it abundantly manifest that such â—eparate Congregations as tending plainly to the disturbance of the World are unlawfull that they may and that they ought to be suppressed and that all the Favourers and Abettors of such unlawfull Assemblies are Promoters Aiders Comforters and Assisters of Rebellion and Disobedience both against God and Man Neither is it at all material in this case that many of those who frequent these separate Assemblies nay to give them their due the infinitely greatest part of them are not conscious to themselves of any such bad Design but they doe it onely out of a religious prejudice which they have conceived against the Establishment of the Church of England and out of an opinion which they have of the greater Sanctity of their Teachers and Purity of those Ordinances of which they are made partakers by their ministration out of a real and an hearty zeal for God although that zeal be not accordâ—ng to knowledge yet we are not to consider so much what it is they design as what the natural tendencie of all Separation is which because by experience it is found to bring so great and so horrid inconveniences and mischiefs upon the World unless it be timely restrained it may and it must of necessity have very bad effects and this is enough to make men guilty of the consequences of their Separation though at first they did not intend them He that commits a fault through want of consideration is not altogether so guilty as he that knowing it to be a fault does yet notwithstanding commit it on set purpose but yet he is guilty in his proportion and degree as well as the other because it was his duty to consider better and still the more easie it is too for a man to inform himself and what is or can be more manifest than the Prejudice arising from mens embodying themselves into particular and independent Societies So much the greater is the guilt arising from the want of due heed and consideration because a very little attention would have served the turne when there is so much reason in the thing and so much experience to improve that reason into all the certainty of demonstration But secondly It will be said That a bare difference in the externals of Religion in matters of meer Discipline and Ceremonie will not produce those bad effects that are pretended and I wish with all my heart that there were as much truth in this Exception as they that make it would have it seem to have but by Experience which is the great Judge in this Controversie to which we must apply our selves for the discovery of the truth the contrary does but too manifestly appear For what is it that has been the true source and fountain of all our pablick Calamities that has made so dreadfull and so terrible Convulsions both in Church and State but an over-heated zeal against Ceremonies and publick Order which sort of zeal if it be tolerated the strength and beauty of the Church is lost by every man's pursuing fancies of his own or siding with a new modell of a particular Party instead of joining in the regular and uniform Worship of the publick which is at once an instance of our Obedience to the Divine and Humane Laws and a certain expedient of Unity and Peace with one another but if this zeal instead of being tolerated shall be restrained and opposed then it immediately complains of Persecution and would have its sufferings thought as meritorious for raising unreasonable insatiable and eternal Scruples as if the Cause of Christianity it self were at stake as if it were the being of a God or the immortality of the Souls of men that were deny'd by us and asserted onely by the Dissenters from the publick Order and Rule So that either way the inconvenience is in a manner equal a Toleration has a manifest tendencie to the subversion of the Government both in Church and State and in that there is no question to be made but it will certainly end when once it has been suffered to have its full scope and swinge and yet a vigorous Prosecution of the Laws against the Disturbers of the Peace is branded with the odious name of Persecution and they that suffer by it for being Incendiaries are termed Saints and because it is natural for a distressed Cause to find a friendship and pity from the common People whether it be reasonable or no Suffering being a very sensible and a very affecting thing when the Causes of those Sufferings are not so plain and obvious to every common understanding especially when blinded by prejudice or concern for the persons of those that suffer from hence it comes to pass that a just and necessary Prosecution of the Laws if it be not managed with abundance of temper and prudence so as it may appear it is not done out of hatred to a Party but out of a real tenderness to the common good may sometimes prove the occasion of great and fatal disorders in a State and may in its conâ—equence be attended with all those confusions to which a boundless Toleration is exposed This was the great reason of the revolt of the Vnited Provinces from under the Spanish Yoak who if they had been treated with less severity might probably by gentler methods have been reduced to Obedience but by the Cruelty of the Spanish Governours and Souldiery who pursued them especially under the Government of the Duke D'Alva with all the symptoms of the most mortal hatred they were so far alienated in their affections from a Government that used them so ill they had such a dread of those unheard of Cruelties and such a deserved aversation for that Religion that delights to propagate it self by Bloud that being assisted by the Hugonots from France whose interest it was to stand by the Reformation and by Supplies from England which was glad at that time to find an opportunity to reduce the Spanish greatness to a juster ballance with the rest of the European Princes they were at length perfectly severed from the body of the Spanish Empire and united in a common Alliance among themselves for the mutual support and main tenance of each other which though it gave beginning to the most powerfull Republick that has ever appeared since the Roman yet as a Republick in its nature and constitution is more exposed to the ambition or animositie of bad men than a Kingdom or Monarchie is or can well be so in the midst of its greatness it alwaies carried in its bowells the undoubted symptoms and causes of its ruine which it is to be feared what with the Factions at home and the daily encreasing Power of its enemies from abroad is not far off at this time But yet though Cruelty be that for which all mankind but they that exercise it upon others have a just and mortal aversation yet a
common sense is more plain nothing that happened either yesterday or to day more known than that Justin Martyr was imposed upon and that all his fellow suffragans were mistaken unless we will affirm that the Spirit of God was so and put all the mistakes and over-sights of the 70 Interpreters which after all that Isaac Vossius hath said in their defence were very many to the divine Spirit either imposing upon all mankind or being mistaken and deceived it self either of which is almost equally absurd and blasphemous to suppose because the first argues a pravity in his Will the second an imperfection in his Nature and by both the foundation of all certainty is destroyed it being the same thing with respect to our faculties which depend upon his skill and veracity for their truth whether he be capable of being deceived himself or be of such a fallacious and deceitfull nature that he will make no scruple of imposing upon us Sixthly It is to be considered that this was the constant practice of the most remote antiquity among all nations that the Mysteries of their Religion were usually locked up among the Priests and kept from the knowledge of the common people and they had either generally no writing at all but among the Priests and such as was to be found in the publick Records or in the sacred Volumes both of which were used to be kept in their Temples or if they had any yet it was a distinct character from that which the Priests and Hierophantoe used which was unknown to the ordinary sort of men so Porphyrie saith of Sanchuniathon that he took his History 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of the publick Records and sacred Volumes laid up in the Temples And Philo saith that he compared his History 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 With the hidden or concealed Monuments of the Ammonites which were lay'd up in their Temples for so I rather chuse to translate ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than as Bochartus doth of the Idols of the Sun which are called in Hebrew Chamanim for all men that understand any thing in these Grammatical affairs do know very well that ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a very Analagous word from ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie one of that people or nation and I conceive that in this place it can in strict Analogy signifie nothing else So also Diodorus Siculus speaking of the letters of the Aegyptians saith they had two sorts in use among them one which was the publique letter of the whole Nation the other peculiar to the Priests derived down to them successively from Father to Son and kept secret among themselves Laertius in the life of Democritus giving a Catalogue of the Books which he wrote among others mentions these two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the sacred Characters in Meroe and Babylon And lastly Theodoret in his Questions upon Genesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Groecian Temples there were certain peculiar characters which were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the letters or characters of the Priests where when Bochartus from whom I have borrowed these Citations would interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a larger sense for any Barbarous or Heathen Temples it is certain that this is precarious if it be not false and that the more strict interpretation by which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek is usually opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the more likely to be true From hence it is that the Greeks are used to call that secret learning which is kept among the Priests by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mysteries from the Hebrew Sathar latuit the Participle of which in Hophal is Mustar and from thence is the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applyed afterwards peculiarly by the Greek Fathers to the consecrated Elements of the Holy Eucharist for this reason because the Catechumens themselves and much more the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that were perfectly without the pale of the Church were not admitted to see or know any thing of the solemn administration of that holy Supper insomuch that in their Homilies or Sermons or other Discourses they never allowed themselves to talk plainly concerning it that the knowledge of those secrets might not by any means be imparted to any but such as were admitted into the most perfect order of Christians and were in the strictest degree of fellowship and communion with the Church Wherefore when ever they had occasion to touch upon any thing of those holy rites the knowledge of which was not permitted to any but the perfect Christian they were used to speak of it only in very general terms closing up their dark and general expressions with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the initiated or the perfect Christians understand what I mean and by the same Analogy with this to observe that also now it lies so fairly in my way the Turks at this day are used to call those who are Atheistically given or rather they are used to call themselves as arrogating a more extraordinary knowledge to themselves above their neighbours only for being more ignorant and stupid than they are the Musarim that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the profound or deep searchers into the nature of things for Sour in Hebrew is recessit and Mousar the Participle in Hophal is qui in recessu latet and Mousarin as I have said are the profound and deep Philosophers of the times as this sort of people usually account themselves and laugh at all that are piously or seriously disposed as a pack of silly superstitious mortals frighted by publick tales by clouts and scare-crows the crafty inventions of Priests and Politicians to keep the world in awe Lastly By the same Analogy it is that the Turks call themselves Mushlemen that is to say the faithfull the perfect or the elect for Shallem is perfectum beatum esse and from thence in Hophal Mushlam and by the addition of a Turkish termination Mushleman as from the Chalday Tirgem is the Turkish Drogerman for an Interpreter is a perfect or blessed man or a professor of the true Religion in which appellation the Mahometaus hug themselves as their fellow Predestinarians among us are used to do and learn to despise and hate the rest of Mankind Now if it be true as I have made it appear that this was the custom of all the ancient World to keep their sacred Volumes locked up in the Temples and concealed from the knowledge of the common people if this were the custom of the Ammonites and the Aegyptians both of them so near neighbours to the Israelites then these two things seem pretty plain First If you add this general custom to what hath been said before to prove that the common Jews had little or no acquaintance with their law I hope all this taken together will at
it self which is to engage men in closer obligations of unity and friendship with one another and therefore ought not to be tolerated in a Christian State no more than Atheism or Infidelity themselves it being the extremity of Non-sense and religious Folly to allow that Charity Good-will and Peace are the indispensable duties of a Christian nay the characteristick indications of his being Christ's Disciple that God is Love and that whosoever loveth not his brother whom he hath seen cannot possibly love God whom be hath not seen and yet that that Form of Church Government is I will not say of divine Institution but of divine Permission which is in its very nature and essential constitution so exactly fitted to bring the World into Confusion and Disorder And so I have done with the first Case which supposes the whole Body of a People to be parcell'd out into many distinct and independent Congregations Give me leave now to speak a very little to the second which presumes onely a Separation of one or more Congregations from the Body of the National Church setting up a new Authority of its own and disowning the Jurisdiction of the publick which second Case differs onely in proportion from the first and will of necessity labour with all those ill consequences in its degree and measure with which the first is incumbred and it being much easier for small things to encrease than to begin the consequences at the long run will be exactly the same if the Government by a wise temperament of Care and Courage do not put a timely stop to the progress of such ill boding beginnings Into such separate Assemblies as these all the ill humorâ— of the Body politick will naturally flow thither the unfortunate the discontented the covetous and the ambitious will betake themselves to seek revenge against reall or imaginary wrongs to repair the decaies and ruines of a broken fortune to satisfie the craving circumstances of poverty and want and to fill up the wide capacity of immodest unreasonable and unjust desires at the expence of the publick welfare security and quiet Neither are such Conventicles as these dangerous onely to the Civil Peace by being the natural causes of embroilment and disturbance the very sinks and common-shores into which all bad humors disembogue themselves and find a welcome entertainment while the simplicity of some suffers it self under the specious pretences of an extraordinary zeal to be misled and carry'd away captive by the designing Hypocrisie of others but which is still worse they have a no less pleasing aspect upon Religion it self which either by the infinite pretences to greater purity a most absurd and foolish cause of Separation which knows no Law and will admit no bounds they refine so long till they have utterly lost it or by a most impious and unreasonable claim to I know not what Gospel Liberty they get at last to be Libertines indeed and are placed as far above the reach of Ordinances as those Ordinances themselves by their design and use for the preservation of Love and Unity in the Church by their Divine institution and appointment and by the supernatural Grace which is exhibited and convey'd by a due and worthy participation of them are plac'd above the blasphemous contempt of such profane and dissolute Wâ—etches But I would by no means be so far misunderstood as if I were so uncharitable as to think that all or so much as the greatest part of those that separate doe it out of any bad design for I am not onely morally certain of the contrary as to the much greater number of the People but as to the Pastors themselves if that be any credit for them I dare be confident in very many instances that the blind lead the blind and that they are not sensible of those dismal inconveniences to which their Separation is naturally exposed but in what I have just now said I chiefly reflect upon the sad experience of former times which is sufficient to convince us what the genuine tendencie of these new models is and I do no more question that the same causes if suffered to operate with the same freedom will have the same effect than I do whether humane nature and humane passions be the same now that they were twenty or thirty years ago which Consideration if all well-meaning but misguided Christians would seriously lay to heart I cannot doubt but it would soon have a very wonderfull effect upon the Peace and Settlement of these distracted Kingdoms by persuading all that heartily wish the Prosperity of Sion and pray for the Peace of this our spiritual Jerusalem to leave their separate Assemblies and betake themselves into the bosom of the Church which cannot behold so much goodness and sincerity so miserably misled and gon astray without all the concern that is natural to a distressed forsaken Mother and stands alwaies ready with her arms wide open and with an entreating voice and mind to receive them into her most tender and passionate embraces Some sort of Unity as to external Discipline is necessary to the consistence even of those lesser bodies nay the Quakers themselves who are much the most exorbitant of all Parties to be found among us yet they differ from others and agree with one another in nothing more than in a certain Formality peculiar to themselves And how much more desirable would it be that all Parties laying aside their respective heats and animosities which under such diversity of outward forms they so dangerously foment and carry on against each other should unite together under one common rule in such a blessed band of Peace and Love as would remove all our Jealousies and prevent all our Fears and make every man in the Streets in an unknown Face to meet his Guide his Companion and his own familiar Friend This is my first Answer to the Objection taken from the pretence of a Tender Conscience That an Uniformity of one sort or other is of absolute necessity to the peace of the Church which Uniformity since it cannot be obtained unless men could all jump into the same mind of themselves and continue in it when they had done it follows unavoidably that there is and must always be in the Church a standing Authority from whence the Sanctions of Discipline and Order shall receive their obligation I come now to give a more particular Answer to the Objection proposed and in that I shall consider in the general what the terms of this Uniformity must be or rather what kind of terms they are to which all Christian People are obliged to submit It must be granted therefore That though an Uniformity in Religious Worship be that which is above all things in this World the most passionately to be desired yet this being only in order to that great End to which all our endeavours and counsels ought to be directed the Eternal happiness and salvation of our Souls no terms of Uniformity ought
to be submitted to which are inconsistent with Salvation And that Church whatever she is let her pretences to Infallibility and Truth be never so great which imposes those either Opinions or Practices as the terms of Communion which are directly contrary to the word of God or to the light of Nature and the impartial dictates of right Reason is by no means to be communicated with any longer but we must immediately come out from Her and separate in our own desence lest we be made partakers of Her sins and of Her plagues and in this case it is she who is guilty of the Schism by necessitating a Separation not we who separate when we cannot avoid it As to matter of Doctrine I presume there is no man who calls himself a Protestant of what Denomination or Party soever he be who will charge our Church with any damnable Errour but on the contrary there are many of our Dissenting Brethren who when they are tax'd with the unpleasant imputation of propagating very absurd and very unreasonable Opinions are used to take Sanctuary in the Articles of the Church of England of whose Authority as to some points they will pretend themselves to be the only Assertors with what Justice I think I have in part discovered in some other Papers As to Ceremonies there are three Restrictions chiefly to be considered which if they be all carefully observed in the discipline of any Church there is no manner of pretence or ground for Separation upon a Ceremonial account and those three Restrictions are these which follow First They must not be too cumbersome and heavy by their number Secondly They must not be Superstitious in their use Thirdly They must not be Idolatrous in their direction First They must not be too cumbersome and heavy by their number for this is that which eats out the very heart and root of Religion and takes it off from being a Devotional exercise of the mind by turning it into outward Pomp and Show which can neither make us better men for the future nor appease the wrath of God or apply to us the merit and satisfaction of Christ for what is past This was that of which St. Austin in his time complained but yet he did not think it Lawfull to make any breach or distrubance in the Church upon this account but rather to take this occasion for the exercise of those two excellent vertues of Patience and Humility and expect the good time when this burthen should be remov'd by the same regular Authority that had impos'd it This was the case of the Mosaick Bondage especially as that Bondage was afterwards increased by the Pharisical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by the traditionary Rites and Usages of the Jewish Church and this is at this day and was at the time of the Reformation and for many Ages before the case of the Roman Yoak from which the Wisdome and Piety of our Ancestours has with no less Justice than Necessity freed us and plac'd us in that state of Christian Liberty which does not consist of such an exemption from all Ceremonies as some men seem to desire which is absurd and impossible in the nature of the thing it self but in the choice of such as are best fitted to the ends for which all Ceremonies ought to be designed and have the greatest tendency to Edification There were other causes upon account of the Ceremonies imposed by the Church of Rome which might be sufficient to justify a Separation of which I shall speak in the two following Heads And though a National or Provincial Church have a Right and Power within it self of retrenching the supersluities of the Ceremonial part of their Divine Service which may very well be done without any Schism or Separation from the body of the Church abroad either on the one part or the other Yet for private men to separate from the National Establishment upon pretence that the Ceremonies are too burthensome or too many is manifestly unlawfull The reason is because this will be lyable to the same Inconveniences to which a separation upon pretence of greater Purity is expos'd and in both cases if every private man shall be allow'd to judge for himself and to proceed to a Separation in pursuance of that judgment so infinite are the humours the sancies the prejudices the perversities of some men so fond are they of Novelty and Change so apt to controul Authority and so desirous to be govern'd only by their own Measures that there can be no lasting Establishment in the World but the Discipline of the Church will be alwaies reeling like a Drunken Man and driven to and fro like a Wave of the Sea by every Capricious wind of Innovation We will suppose for the present in favour of the Dissenters because they cannot prove it that there are too many Ceremonies in our Church yet I presume it will be granted that there are not above four or five or half a dozen too many or if you will to make it a plump number and to put the Objection into better shape let them be half a score which I believe upon an exact computation will go a great way in the Ceremonies of the Church of England and let all these be imposed as indispensable conditions of Communion 'T is pretty severe I confess to lay so great a stress upon Indifferent Matters but yet certainly no man in his wits will ever pretend that this is such an intollerable burthen as that he must needs separate rather than comply but if there be any that are so hardy to do it though I will not discommend them for their courage a vertue of which in this contentious Age we have a great deal of need yet in my opinion they deserve rather to be soundly Laught at than seriously Confuted What hath been said of the Churches Power in retrenching the number of her Ceremonies the same is likewise true as to the Ceremonies themselves that they may from time to time be altered and changed for others in their stead by the Authority of the Church as shall seem most Expedient to that publique Wisdome for the great Purpose of Edification but for every private person to challenge this Right to himself is unlawfull because liable to the same inconveniences with separating under colour of Ceremonious Superfluities or of purer Ordinances and purer Ordinances and purer Worship which are therefore justly to be suspected to proceed out of a bad design because they never can have any end Saint Paul in several places of his Epistles expresses great tenderness for the infirmity of the weak Brother but yet if the Instances of such his condescention be examined they will be sound to be of a quite different nature from those which make up the pretences of our daies as consisting first in the eating of things sacrificed to Idols which as looking like a participation of the table of Devils and as being expresly prohibited by a