13. amounts to this That the Apostle to prevent sin and especially the sin of Apostacy in others was willing to deny himself that Liberty which by the Law of Christ did truly belong to him and every good Christian will be ready to do the same where there is a just occasion for it But we must remember that our Liberty tho an excellent Privilege yet is not such an absolute good thing but it may be abused and evil spoken of and 't is Rom. 14. 16. as justly evil spoken of when it is abused to Schism and Sedition as when 't is abused to gratifie our fleshly Lusts and turned into wantonness But I am sure no good man no wise man will speak evil of my Liberty when 't is governed by a just Authority For I am not bound Amesius ubi supra to disobey the just Impositions of my Superiors i. e. I am not bound to omit my necessary Duty or to commit a sin because I am not bound to go to Hell to avoid Scandal Charity begins at home and there it obliges me to avoid sin in my self before I prevent it in another The Truth is the Reconciler is insnared in a Fallacy and out of great kindness he would draw in his Brethren for company The Fallacy is à dicto secundùm quid and tho it be not so perceivable in this yet in the other instance Rom. 14. 5 6. it would appear too gross to be swallowed for thus it would run It is not good to regard a day unto the Lord whereby my brother stumbleth or is offended or is made weak Rom. 14. 21. wherefore if a day make my Brother to offend I will never regard a day never perform any solemn worship to God lest I make my brother to offend In this parallel instance he must distinguish of the Apostles meaning or confess his own false reasoning But this Reconciler whilst he allows nothing to be Lawful but what is necessary and commanded he destroys Authority he destroys Liberty and in contradiction to his own Hypothesis he imposes a Duty I cannot call it but a Task which is impossible 1. He destroys Authority he sets up the fourteenth against the thirteenth to the Romans And the command of Subjection to the higher powers he controuls by that expostulation Who are thou that judgest another mans Servant In favour of the Dissenters weakness he brings a Writ of Error against the force of Lawful Impositions and to secure them in their Superstition he makes a Tender Conscience a Supersedeas to the Sacred Prerogative of Authority and the Sovereignty of Governors of which we shall deliver more hereafter 2. If he allows nothing to be Lawful but what is necessary and commanded he destroys Liberty For what is that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free not to speak of our freedom from sin and Satan was it not from the Ceremonial Law of Moses If we are delivered from the Law then from the distinction of things Common and Vnclean from things that were not accounted such if from that distinction then from the superstitious Opinions and scruples of men about things indifferent which are grounded upon that distinction But if we be not set at Liberty from mens superstitious Opinions and Scruples about things Indifferent then are we still under that distinction of things Common and Vnclean and that distinction brings us directly under the Jewish Yoak of Bondage And if so we are in a much worse condition than the Jews were our burden and thraldom greater for that which obliged them was only the Institution of God but we are inthral'd to the Caprichioes of men and not to the humour or squeamish Fancy of any single Person but of a Multitude who can pretend no Authority over us but their own will and pleasure which is a derogation to the Gospel and a subjection of our Christian Liberty to the Arbitrary whimseys of all weak and Fanatick Persons 3. And this will destroy our peace too For one man will think he may take up Arms against his Prince to defend his conceits and scruples which he calls his Religion for what has been done may be done again by men of the same Principles another will think he may not one man will think he may disobey his Church-Governors another will think he may not if no man may be allowed to judge in this case as I do not see how they can according to this Reconcilers sense and principles what will be the end of our Peace or what will become of such Dissentions One man thinks he may wear a Surplice why because Authority has enjoyned it Another thinks he may not why he has no reason for it but his own will and humour If he saith he refuseth it because God has not commanded it The other will reply he does it because God hath not forbidden it And herein he follows the Apostles own Rule He obeys God rather than Man For God commands him to obey those that are set over him but they tempt him to disobey our Guides and follow a Rabble who have no stamp at all of Authority to recommend them to our observance To go further If this Doctrine of the Reconciler were in force no man could be sure that he is at peace with God or his own Conscience For let the Apostle profess as he doth 2 Cor. 1. 2 Cor. 1. 12. 12. Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our Conversation in the World and more abundantly to you-wards The weak Brother can tell him his glorying is not good for he hath walked uncharitably he has done such things as were unnecessary and uncommanded whereby he stumbled and was offended and grieved and made weak and that hereby he had destroyed the work of God and a person for whom Christ died and made his good evil spoken of and tho there were neither any moral evil in the nature of the things he did nor any evil intention in his doing of them yet he had taken offence and in the event he was actually ruined by his practice as much as if he had designed it and therefore he must expect to bear his Judgement for it Can any man that understands his Interest in Christ and the Priviledges of the Gospel think himself concerned in such Scruples and Objections or disturb his inward peace upon that account 4. For this Doctrine that I must do nothing that is unnecessary and uncommanded for fear of Scandal puts a man upon a task which is impossible For suppose a Dissenter sees me for example wear a Surplice he tells me he is offended at it he is grieved and stumbled and made weak which perhaps he understands not the meaning of to give him the better satisfaction I consult the Reconciler as the great Oracle of Conscience in the case he tells me I must forbear the
hearts were not Won to embrace the Truth so that his gracious Dispensations served only to set an Edge upon their Malice to raise their Spleen to sharpen their Indignation and whet their Wits to find our Arguments to elude the Evidence of their Conviction The Priests and Pharisees held a Council against this Holy Jesus and their Debate resolved to a wicked Expostulation What do we For this man doth many Miracles Here was a clear Conviction but they preferred their Temporal Interest before the Truth and their own Salvation They resolve therefore If we let this man alone all Men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take away our Place and Nation Here they take up a Liberty of Prophesying which tho it sentenced Him but to a short Death yet it brought upon themselves a fatal Doom which was no less sad than irreversible Joh. 11. 47. c. I may add that Avarice and Filthy Lucre do many times Inhaunce the Prejudice and when men come to this point of Belief which is a desperate sign of Atheism that Gain is Godliness they are men of such Corrupt Minds that the Apostle seems to give them over as hopeless and uncurable He tells us of men Who take Pleasure in unrighteousness that are Lovers of their own selves and despisers of 2 Tim. 3. to the 8. those which are Good Covetous Boasters Proud Fierce and false Accusers Traytours Heady High-Minded Lovers of Pleasures more than Lovers of God having a Form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof These for all their fair Pretences and Diligence to seduce others He call's them Men of Corrupt Minds that resist the Truth and are Reprobates concerning the Faith What is it that makes the Schismaticks so ungovernable and so bold in teaching things which they ought not Is it not for filthy Lucres sake Dost Chrys. ad Tit. Cap. 1. Hom. 2. thou see sayes St. Chrysostom that every where the Love of Rule and the Appetite of Filthy Lucre is the cause that such men will not be subject to their Superiours These men are far from the Kingdom of Heaven in no present disposition to Embrace the Truth in the Love of it A sharp Reproof which may Melt others and make them Sound in the Faith Tit. 1. 13. will but exasperate such as these to greater Attempts of mischief In short when Prejudice and Self-conceit are the best Talent of their Knowledg when Popularity is their Devotion and Gain their Godliness when Hatred and Envy are the Zeal that whets them on in their pretences of Justice or Reformation that is in a word when men make their Consciences truckle to their Covetous or Ambitious Designs prefer their Interest in this World before the Institutions of Christ their Hopes of Heaven their minds are so Corrupt from the Simplicities that is in Christ that 't is High time for them to lay aside all such Prejudices and seek for better Information that there be no Schisms amongst us but that we be perfectly 1 Cor. 1. 10. Rom. 15. 6. 1. Tim. 2. 2. joyn'd together in the same mind in the same Judgment that we all speak the same thing that we may with one mind one mouth Glorifie God and lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and Honesty 8. The last Remark I shall make upon this Paragraph is this That generally the Schismatick is more confident of the State of his Party and their Interest in God's favour than the most eminent Servants of God Corah pronounceth without the least Hesitation or any Doubt at all saying All the Congregation are Holy every one of Them But Moses was astonished at his Confidence and said more modestly The Lord will Num. 16. 3 5 shew who are his and who is Holy and will cause him to come near unto him When St. Paul commends the Weak Rom. 14. 3. Jew who had embraced the Gospel to the care and kindness of those who are better instructed because God had received him He speaks out of the Judgment of Charity But really God receives none upon their own Partial Terms or Factious Principles He receives only such as Resign themselves up intirely to his Will that is to the Conduct of his Church according to his Laws and Institutions Thus he received Saul when he said Lord what wilt thou have me to do the Lord received him but committed Acts 9. 6. him to the Care of his Church and Ministry saying Arise and go into the City and it shall be told thee what thou must do Thus as I said every true Convert in Preparation of Mind and full Purpose of Heart resigns himself up to the Conduct of Christ's Church according to his Holy Laws and Institutions But for the Sectary who refuses the Conduct of the Church we have no Warrant to assure us that God hath Acts 4. 7. John 10. received Him for such as he receives he receives into his Church All that are his Sheep he brings into this Fold T it 3. 10 11 To this purpose upon those Words of the Apostle A man that is a Sectary reject In Loc. Com. Ioc. 8. De 9 aeret N. 6. Joannes Crocius a Calvenist writeth thus Etsi ex vera Ecclesia prodit Haereticus non tamen est ex Deo Although the Sectary comes out from the True Church yet he is not of God The Reason is irrefragrable because he is to be rejected For whatsoever is to be rejected is not of God God is Truth and the Author of Truth but not of Sects and Heresies They went out from us sayes 1 John 2. 19 St. John but they were not of us And now I think it high time to speak Plainly He that makes himself an Enemy to his Prince And so do such as are Seditious and he that makes himself an Enemy to the Church And so do such as are Schismatical they make themselves unfit for any Trust and in that respect They are to be despised And as to the Schismatical part we may observe it to be St. Pauls practice in all his Epistles wherein he takes notice of such Sectaries as did infest the Church Rom. 16. 17 18. 2 Cor. 10. 11. cap. Gal. 1. 7. ch 4. 17 18. ch 5. 10 12. Philip. 3. 2 3. Coloss 2. 8 16 18. c. 1 Tim. 6. 3 4 5. Tit 1. 10 11. St. Pet. also Epist 2. c. 2. throughout like wise St. John 1 Epist c. 2. 18 19. and St. Jude does the like the 11 12 13. ver of his Epistle 2dly saies the Reconciler Thus to condemn and Judge our Brother seems Pag. 118. inconsistent with the Properties and Rules of Charity For Charity saith the Apostle Hopeth all things and Believeth all things and therefore must oblige us to hope and to believe well of our Brother's Actions till we have Demonstration of the contrary not condemn Him without certain grounds Charity thinketh no evil
of them of themselves apt enough to be troublesome and a Question put into their Heads and a power of Judging into their hands is a putting it to their choice whether you shall be troubled by them this week or the next for much longer you cannot escape LVI Every Minister ought to be carefull that he never expound Scriptures in Publick contrary to the known sense of the Catholick Church and particularly How far the Reconciler has praevaricated herein let the Reader judge of the Churches of England and Ireland nor introduce any Doctrine against any of the four first General Councils For these as they are measures of Truth so also of Necessity LIV. In your Sermons and Discourses Of whom speaketh the Prophet this Our Reconciler pleads for a change of Gestures Habits and Expressions and these make up the Subject of his Plea of Religion use Primitive known and accustomed words and affect not new Phantastical or Schismatical terms Let the Sunday Festival be called the Lords day and pretend no fears from the Common use of words amongst Christians For they that make a business of the Words of Common use and Reform Religion by introducing a new Word intend to make a Change but no amendment they spend themselves in trifles like the barren Turf that sends forth no Medicinable herbs but store of Mushrooms and they give a demonstration that they are either impertinent people or else of a querulous nature and that they are ready to disturb the Church if they could find Occasion LXI Let every Preacher in his Parish Does our Reconciler doe this take care to explicate to his People the Mysteries of the Great Festivals as of Christmass Easter Ascention-day Whrt-Sunday Trinity-Sunday the Annuntiation of the Blessed Virgin Mary because these Feasts containing in them the great Fundamentals of our Faith will with most advantage convey the Mysteries to the People fix them in their Memories by the solemnity and circumstance of the day And Adv. 25. he tells them Men are to be permitted to their own Liberty to the Measures of the Laws and Conduct Let the Recon note this Dr. Jeremy Taylor Bishop of Down and Connor of their Governours To this let me add the Doctrine and Advice of that Plous and Learned Prelate to the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of Ireland Assembled in Parliament May the 8th 1661. In his Epistle Dedicatory he tells them thus Men pretend Conscience against They teach for Doctrine the Commands of men Obedience expresly against St. Pauls Doctrine teaching us to obey for Conscience sake but to disobey for Conscience in a thing Indifferent is never to be found in the Books of our Religion But Obedience is strong Meat and Nothing more easy then to obey will not down with weak Stomacks As if in the World any thing were easier than to obey For we see that the food of Children is Milk and Laws The Breast-Milk of their Nurses and the Commands of their Parents is all that Food and Government by which they are kept from Harm and Hunger and conducted to Life and Wisdom And therefore they that are weak Brethren of all things in the World have the least reason to pretend an excuse for Disobedience For nothing can secure them but the Wisdom of the Laws For they are like Children in Minority they cannot be trusted to their own conduct and therefore must live at the publick Charge and the wisdom of their Superiours is their Guide and their Security But saith he there are among us such tender Stomacks that cannot indure They strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel Milk but can very well digest Iron Consciences so tender that a Ceremony is greatly offensive but Rebellion is not A Sarplice drives them away as a Bird affrighted with a Man of Clouts But their Consciences can suffer them to despise Government and speak evill of Dignities and curse all that are not of their Opinion and disturb the peace of Kingdoms and commit Sacriledge and account Schism the Tender Conscience the pretence of the vilest men Character of Saints For tender conscience I shall not need to say that every man can easily pretend it for we have seen the Vilest part of mankind men that have done things so Horrid worse than which the Sun never saw yet pretend tender Consciences against Ecclesiastical Laws But I will suppose that they are really such that they in the simplicity of their hearts follow Absolom and in weakness hide If really weak yet not to be dispensed but instructed their heads in little Conventicles and places of separation for a trifle what would they have done for themselves If you make a Law of Order and in the Sanction put a clause of Favour for tender Consciences do not you invite every Subject to disobedience by Impunity and teach him to make his own excuse Is not such a Law a Law without an Obligation May not every man choose whether he will obey or no And if he pretends to disobey out of Conscience is not he that disobeys equally innocent with the Obedient altogether as just as not having done any thing without leave and yet much more Religious and Consciencious Quicunque vult is but an ill Preface to a Law and 't is a strange Obligation that makes no difference between him that obeys and him that refuses to obey But what course must be taken with tender Consciences shall the Execution of the Law be suspended as to all such Persons that will be all one with the Former for if the Execution be commanded to be suspended then the obligation of the Law by Command is taken away and then 't were better there were no Law made And indeed that is the pretention that 's the secret of the business they suppose the best way to prevent Disobedience Where there are no Laws there 's no Government is to take away all Laws It is a short way indeed There shall then be no disobedience but at the same time there shall be no Government But the Remedy is worse than the Disease and to take away all Wine and Strong Drink to prevent Drunkness would not be half so great a folly To think of removing the Disease by feeding the humour I confess it is a strange Cure to our present distempers I desire him who is of No Church breaks her Orders to gratify a Faction that Opinion besides the calling to mind the late sad effects of Schism to remember that no Church in Christendome ever did it It is neither the way of Peace nor of Government nor yet a proper Remedy for the Cure of a weak Conscience For the matter of Giving Offences Governours are not to be offended whoever be and the Disobedient rather than the Dutiful what Scandal is greater than that which Scandalizes the Laws And who is so carefully to be observed least he be offended as