and perfected it with a happy success even to the envy and admiration of the Christian world Certainly there hath not in any age in any part of the world in that space of time appeared such a race of Kings as our five Reformed Princes for all manly Kingly and Christian accomplishments neither hath there been a more Clergy-like Clergy than hath been under their Reigns We can esteem them to be no other than such as S. Paul Tit. 3. 10. notifies to be men subverted that 's desperate utterly perverted in understanding and will whom the Governour of the Church is to reject excommunicate him after two admonitions which if they work no good effect he is to reject with a severe censure take no pains to dispute with them any more hearken no more to their Replies and Objections faith Diod. they have by their contumacy and non-submission to their Governours put themselves into an helpless and hopeless condition they have excommunicated themselves without the Sentence of a Judge saith Dr. Ham there is no hopes of them and so leave them to the judgment of heaven as hath been accustomed What shall we say of half Conformists conforming Non-conformists who when they take the fit can come to Church and attend there by outward Conformity This will not clear them from the guilt of Schism bonum est ex integra causa and it 's to be feared there is hypocrisie in the case outward conformity may cheat the Law and mock men but it cannot be an holy living acceptable sacrifice to God because the good works of Faith must be done with a good and honest heart in sincerity and truth out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. and every duty must be done with respect to God's Commandment But do you see them come to Church Thanks to the King who will have Laws put in execution but when they come they come as Countrey-men do to Fairs and Markets some sooner some later and with the same reverence that they enter their Inn some not at the beginning or not till Sermon begin some go out in an hurly burly after the Sermon is ended this is contrary to the Act of Vniformity so that this coming to Church is neither Christian nor Legal Tea but many come early neither loll nor lubber nor hang down their heads like a bulrush as too many do but hold out to the last and demean themselves unless sometimes through inadvertency as the Law requireth This is confessed but for all that it will not denominate them true Members of the Church of England because many of them dispute scruple deny and undervalue the Authority of the Church rebell against its Governours Associate pack Juries in a design to ruine the Church and as opportunity serves take to a Conventicle hold correspondence with its professed enemies familiarly converse with the excommunicated by the Church and now and then commend them for their piety nay we are sure several of these late Conspiratours and Associatours were such as these all which acted directly contrary to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church and shall these pass for true Conformists who are but counterfeits do not the grossest Fanaticks reproach and upbraid us with them when they tell us tauntingly Take up your Church of England men you often declaim against us as Traitours and Rebels but who are such now Were not most of the Conspiratours such as observed and kept the Church They did so in part but we disown them because we look upon them as the most dangerous enemies to the Crown and the Church being most false to both by their juggling pretences to them both Church-Papists and Church-Puritans do undermine the Church whilst others profess an open hostility against it but a declared enemy without is not so dangerous as a pretended traiterous friend within But what esteem is to be given to new Converts Thanks to the King again my Lord Chief Justice and the Reverend Judges we have old Converts too if they prove not better than most of them have done we have no great reason to confide in them If the new be Converts indeed they are to be treated with all civility and by love without all dissimulation to be entertained and welcomed with the same rejoycings and caresses the Father ordered for his penitent Son to lay them on our shoulders as the Shepherd his stray Sheep because we have found what was lost yet this we cannot either with prudence or safety project till we have good security for their sincerity Let the old Converts be as forward and active for the service to the Crown and Church as they have been for the Ordinances of the Junto 's Keepers and Oliver as respective to the Episcopal Clergy as they were to the Presbyterian Trimmers c. then welcome good Friends if not adieu but for this we need not look into their hearts they may be known by their fruits and overt Acts Let the new bring forth fruits worthy of repentance promote the concerns of the Crown and Church as faithfully and strenuously as they have of the Faction of Conventiclers and Associatours let them come and welcome but if they cross or the King's service and dally in their duty good night to them also What is your opinion of those learned men who think there is no determinate Government of the Church I do not like a walking Church but for this Mr. Alexander Henderson in his Second Paper thinks that is built on a sandy foundation which is not built upon the foundation of Christ and the Apostles and all they doe so who content themselves with the Constitutions of the Church and munificence of Princes I desire them to satisfie his late Majesty's Quaere How can it be made appear that our Saviour and his Apostles did so leave the Church at liberty as they might totally alter its Government at their pleasure I think if we once think of an ambulatory Church-Government at the next turn we must expect an ambulatory Creed Lastly Whereas we have had four successive excellent Princes to maintain the Reformation and many Parliaments too and one King with his Clergy thought it a necessary duty to reform this Church it s therefore the indispensable duty of their Subjects to conform not barely because it was established by their authority though that is necessarily required but also from the nature reasons excellency and goodness of the establishment it self which to evidence is the design of the following Treatise both in regard of it self and in comparison of other late Models both à priori and à posteriori which if I have sufficiently cleared to the satisfaction of any considering men who are willing to be convinced or confirmed I have done one part of a Christian Priest of the Reformed Catholick Church of England No Reformation OF THE Established Reformation EVER since the Reformation was happily compleated in this Kingdom there hath
Diocesan or Patriarchal Churches as well as Rome yet even this would justifie our Separation because it was our duty to reunite our selves to the Catholick Church all several Churches being but partes simulares homogeneal parts of the whole Whereupon it followeth that that Church which keeps closest to the primitive Catholick Pattern and holds the nearest alliance with it is the purest and that several Churches having such a relation to and dependence upon it neither particular persons nor particular Churches are to act as divided Bodies by themselves which is the ground of all Schism but are to teach and to be taught and to doe all other Christian duties as parts conjoyned to the whole and as Members of the same indeterminable Society Sect. 4. Suppose we should yield to another project of Reformation the issue will be confusion and desolation for if we may conclude their intentions from their former practices and present principles the design is to over-rule or abolish all their way was to strike at all root and branch and now they are for removing the Laws Their course of regulation is to rase the Walls of the City if they can if not to undermine them Down with the Church of England is the Popish Plot and the direct way to this is to divide it All the Papist Pot Cannons and Sophisms could never batter or shake our Jerusalem till some of the Citizens thereof made breaches in it Nay the Romanists never made an approach upon it till the Puritans had made an assault these gave the other both the opportunity and encouragement to attack it Tush say the Popelings let us levell this the Mushrome Sectaries will either fall in the ruines of it or else into our hands they have been very serviceable Tools to us in all our attempts and no doubt will be so on to the end if ever we effect it and then we know how to engage their tender Consciences let it but appear to them which we will not fail to doe they can gain by the barter they forsooth have a new light a new dispensation of Providence and they must wait on Providence and follow that light Sect. 5. What will the consequence of this work be if it go on Is it to remove what is established before we resolve where to fix This were certainly mad work to demolish old Structures before we have advised of the fashion of the new Perhaps a model is fansied but are all the Dissenters agreed about it When they had power too much and time too long to resolve on a settled way even then they neither would or could unite nor ever will or can This we are sure of none of the schismatical Parties can have their own ends unless all be taken away which crosseth their humours or interests and if this be done by violence or by Law not one of ten shall have his own ends which because they cannot obtain their feuds will be high till one party get the full mastery and then the Plot of Union is marred But who shall be taken into this motion to have the benefit of it If all nothing can follow but confusion without remedy and scandal beyond an Apology If one onely Party which yet is unknown what it is then the others if they dare will stand out and oppose it if not they will murmur and repine and thus expostulate Why should they be secluded Members debarred of the privilege of Comprehension This say they we can say for our selves we were drawn into the Lines of Communication by the persuasions and solicitations of their gratified Partizans and Comrades and though they say it have as much promoted the good Old Cause In this indeed we are all agreed we shall never enjoy Liberty of Conscience till we have power to kill and take possession neither likely to have Free Trade till without any respect to Law we can plunder and sequester Malignants and shall we who are fully accorded with them be laid aside If it be pretended the favoured will give good security for their good behaviour for the future whereof there is yet no evidence we are as free as they not doubting to affirm we are the more sober and peaceable in whom there is a more sweet and gratious spirit of love and zeal and have been more constant to their principles than they For we can prove many of them were active Conformists soon after proved persecuting Presbyterians then dough-baked Independents and now again have tacked about and are Cologueing Compliers However if some be received into favour and others rejected there is plain partiality in the case if all must be entertained a downright unaccountable Schism follows But to wave the Persons to be comprehended what Things must be granted them for an Union If onely a few unsatisfactory alterations be tendered the project is baffled we should be as far from Unity as now we are for then the clamour would be our burthens are a little mitigated but not removed our grievances are abated but not fully satisfied we must not leave an hoof behind us when we go out of Egypt If many and great alterations be submitted to then they triumph in their Conquests they had not onely Providence on their side but reason also and argument and then we shall hear of nothing in Pulpits Clubbs and Coffee-houses but stories of their mighty Acts that their Enemies are now under great convictions that they are the Godly conscientious Gods secret Ones and the good Old Cause must needs be God's Cause Having premised these Considerations let us next reflect upon the matters on which this motion of Reformation must proceed and first of that which is most opposed the Government CHAP. II. COncerning it the most proper method will be to discuss these following Propositions 1. That Church Government is necessary 2. That necessary Church Government ought to be one and the same throughout the Christian world at all times 3. That one Church Government is Episcopacy which hath prevailed ever since the first plantation of Christianity Sect. 1. Church Government is necessary for these reasons The Church is a Society which cannot subsist without it It is a Body whose parts are compacted each whereof hath its proper Office and Service it is that Body whereof Christ is the Head who therefore will provide for its preservation and peace by placing Governours over it which de facto he hath done 1 Cor. 12. 28. It is the House of God whereof Christ is the Lord who hath reserved this prerogative to himself to nominate and constitute the Stewards of his Houshold and Family as he did Luk. 12. 42. hence those commissionated by him are called the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God Therefore for any to exercise a power in his House who is not authorized by him or to reject those powers which he hath entrusted to provide for his Family and rule his House is a most sacrilegious invasion and
c. as having many singular fine Wits among them whereas the Puritans have none but grossum Caputs so that if matters come to handling between Jesuits and them they are sure to be ridden like fools but had he lived from 41 till 80. he would have found they were as great Artists in the mysteries of iniquity as his Brethren the Jesuits or himself For they have a more Serpentine and subtile way in training up their Proselytes and Novices upon these three accounts 1. They initiate them with Fastings solemn Vows and Promises Sermons and Sacraments though thereby they prostitute all the Ordinances of God to enchant and bind them fast in the Confederacy 2. They then instruct them in the most refined mysteries of equivocating and mental reservation Ferguson Dr. Owen's Champion and Lob Mr. Baxter's Second shall vie Loyalty with any Jesuit and practise Treason as cleverly and out-doe them too in a Plot. Lewes the usurper of a Loyal Minister's Living at Totnam-high-Cross by a Farce educated his Scholars for he was a Schoolmaster to Gentlemens Sons as well as Preacher to the People in the art of King-killing by setting up an High-Court of Justice arraigning condemning and cutting off the head of a Shock-water-Dog Mr. Long 's Comp. Hist of Plots p. 186. so that after our Church and State-menders are moulded into a Faction the Jesuits may go to School to them to receive full instructions in the art they had learned them yet here is a trick the Jesuits never taught them which is to be so fool-hardy as to threaten the Government which both of late and heretofore they have done Cartwright's Prayer was Give us grace as one man to set our selves against the Bishops Penry in his Supplication threatned the very Parliament with bloud-shed if they did not reform Vdal in great confidence said Presbytery shall prevail and come in that way and by that means as shall make all their hearts to ake that shall withstand it all this last clause is extant in the Records of the Star-Chamber The Confessions and Subscriptions of Coppinger and Arthington are found in Dr. Cosins his Book entituled Conspiracy for a pretended Reformation From all which premisses it abundantly appears they are a traiterous turbulent hypocritical and singular Sect and therefore no true Christians no true Protestants 3. They teach their followers never to confess when examined by lawfull authority or if they do yet so auckwardly and ambiguously that nothing can be fairly concluded which they industriously doe to obstruct justice and so baffle the Law that it cannot have its due course against the vilest and rankest Mutineers This in one old instance new ones abound from Ful. Hist l. 9. p. 209. That Mr. Stone freely declared contrary it seems to the judgment of the main body of the Faction that silence unlawfull which justly causeth suspicion of evil as of Treason and Sedition See more in Bishop Bancroft's Survey which how frequently of late hath been practised is too notorious SECT 5. Seeing then the Puritan principles are as dangerous as the Jesuitical and their practices when prosperous as destructive no reason can be assigned by the received rules of common prudence why Puritans should enjoy the privileges of comprehension c. and the Papists debarred For common prudence will determine all under the same guilt should be liable to the same sentence of condemnation What the reasons of State may be to grant a toleration or privilege to one party and not to the other is not to be disputed or sawcily examined by inferiours or if the Government please to relax or repeal the Laws to both This is plain the higher power may with as good reason dispense with the execution of the Law as inferiour whether Charter or Commission Officers may wave and in a manner out-law them in favour of a party though thereby they run the hazard of perjury and perfidiousness All wise men as a great wise man hath observed desire to live under such a Government where the Prince with a good conscience may remit the rigour of the Laws as for those that are otherwise minded I wish them no other punishment but this that the penal Laws may be strictly executed upon them till they reform their judgment If therefore the arguments which are alledged for the standing of the Laws against Papists be good as I am persuaded they are then the same reasons will much more evince the Laws against Puritans should still be upheld which will the better appear if those arguments be produced and applied They are these 1. The question is whether Treason be not Treason because a man thinks himself bound in Conscience to commit it It is resolved in the affirmative This turns the Puritans pretence of Conscience in the like cases quite out of doors for no man's Conscience can alter the nature of things that that which is evil should become good because his Conscience that is his corrupted judgment tells him it is so or that which is good to become evil by a persuasion of Conscience that is because he is so instructed or conceited Now the Jesuits are as strait laced in their Consciences as the Puritans are thinking themselves as fast bound by the Popes Decrees and their own Vows as the Puritans do from their Swearings and Leaguings or from the Votes and Resolutions of their Demagogues 2. Whether Magistrates have not reason to make severe Laws when dangerous and destructive principles to Government are embraced as part of Religion It is affirmed Here the case is the same again both parties aver the lawfulness of resisting the civil Magistrate under colour of Religion both hold the same treasonable principles in substance and terms differing onely in the power to warrant them The Jesuits deriving it from the Pope the Puritans from the determinations of their Kirk Assemblies or their Patriots and this we know this Kingdom would never endure to be so far enslaved to the Pope as it was to that traiterous Crew Intestine broils confusions and usurpations are more destructive than the challenges and filchings of a Foreigner and our late glorious King said It was more honourable for a King to be invaded and almost destroyed by a foreign enemy than to be despised at home Bibl. Reg. p. 286. 3. Civil Magistrates have in them a natural inherent right and power to preserve the Government and punish those who disturb it or would overthrow it and therefore an authority to judge of those actions which are dangerous to it This hath been determined by the Civil Magistrate that the actions of both have been and are dangerous to the Government and over and above that the actions of the Puritans tend to the dishonour of God to the prejudice and ruine of the safety and peace both of Church and Kingdom witness the preambles to the first and second Acts of Uniformity and many more 4. Where there is a suspicion of a number of persons not easily discerned