THE Case of PERSECUTION Charg'd on the Church of England Consider'd and Discharg'd In order to Her JUSTIFICATION AND A Desired Vnion of Protestant Dissenters The Parliament made good Laws The Papists out of a Pretended Reverence to Tender Consciences hindred the Execution of them and some Leading Dissenters to say no more had private Incouragement to set up a mighty Cry of Persecution to cast all the Odium on a Persecuting Church and Diocesan Canoneers Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet p. 68. But Wisdom is justified of her Children Matth. xi xix Licensed and Entred according to Order LONDON Printed by Freeman Collins and are to be Sold by Richard Baldwin in the Old-Bailey MDCLXXXIX TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD JONATHAN Lord Bishop OF EXON May it please your Lordship THIS slender Present comes as a grateful Expression of that great Satisfaction and Joy with which your Clergy were filled when your Lordship was installed our Diocesan Your Lordship's Client according to his mean Abilities hath lately endeavoured after our Saviour's Method to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and now he assays to give unto God and his Church the things that are God's The Offering I confess is little and lean but coming as a Dove with an Olive Branch to that Ark which hath been long tossed with succeeding Waves bringing Tidings of the Abatement of that Deluge which had overflown the Church and Nation and that the frightful Noise of Persecution doth now cease in our Land I hope it may be taken into that Ark by your Lordships Hand The Widows Mite which she cast into the Treasury was graciously accepted by our blessed Saviour and indeed it is only your Lordships Approbation can give a Value to this Mite as the Royal Stamp doth to those Metals which have no Intrinsick value in themselves My endeavour is by a few Arguments to silence those Murmurings Fears and Jealousies that the Church of England will be as they slanderously report it hath been a Persecuting Church and this would be as needless if we had to do with reasonable Men and real Protestants as to prove that the Martyr'd Bishops in Queen Mary's days who also were our first Reformers were Persecutors and destroyers of that Religion which they planted by their Doctrine and watered with their Bloud in every corner of their Kingdom and which hitherto as a fruitful Vine hath brought forth such Fruit as hath honoured GOD and Man. But what need is there to draw a Line Judges 9.11 when we have the Works of Apelles before us The more then Heroick Deeds of your self and those ever memorable Bishops your Colleagues of whom our English World was not worthy have struck dead all such Objectors who as one Man stood up as Phinees did and by Petitioning or as the other Translation hath it by executing of Judgment Psal 106. v. 30. And by laying not only your Dignities and Honours but your Lives and Fortunes in the Gap gave a check and diversion to those Plagues of Popery and Slavery which with so much otherwise Irresistible Violence were breaking in upon us And how can those Bishops be any longer accounted Persecutors or unworthy of the Miter who were such prepared Candidates for a Crown of Martyrdom for themselves and so resolved Assertros of the liberty of the Gospel and the Kingdom of God and our Saviour for their Protestant Brethren But as Suetonius c. 74. says of Julius Caesar That he thought it not enough that his Wife was without a Fault but that she ought to be clear from all Suspicion of a Fault Oportet uxorem Caesaris non solum crimine verum omni Criminis suspicione carere His present Majesty after mature Consideration hath now consummated the Vnion of our Established Church with his Royal Person which he long since espoused by its Proxy and lively Effigies His Royal Consort and which hath hitherto to his good liking behaved her self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an unspotted Virgin for thus hath our Royal Sovereign solemnly declared in the most August Assembly of the Nation That he is resolved to support that Church whose Loyalty he doubted not would enable him to Answer their just Expectation and that it should be always his particular Care and as soon as conveniently it might be he would call a Convocation So that now there is as little cause of Suspicion left that the Established Church should be a Persecuting as that it can be a Popish Church or that we shall have meerly a Parliamentary Religion as the Papists say as that we shall have a Popish Religion as some Dissenters fear It is too apparent that the Church was singled out as a Sacrifice and devoted by the Papists to Destruction and for Protection as a Dove Persecuted by the Romish Eagle she hath taken Sanctuary in the Bosom of our present Soveraign and who can think that under the Influence and Conduct of so propitious and benign a Protestant Prince that Dove should be transubstantiated into a Serpent Nor can her greatest Enemy suppose her to be so void of all Reason and Religion as to forget those Vows which she made in that day of her Distress which our Divisions made so Dark and Tempestuous of her ready Inclination to a happy Vnion in which our Strength and Security against our common Adversaries doth consist And the God of Peace who only can do it make us all that dwell in one House to be of one Mind to know and do the things that belong to our Peace before they are hid from our Eyes I beg your Lordships Patience to hear a great Truth which will never shame its Owner We were at first hurried at so great a distance from one another crumbled into so many Sects and Factions and have been for almost Fifty Years together running into irremediable Separations by the Whips and Spurs of those furious Drivers and Riders our common Enemies the Papists whose secret but now sensible Lashes and they must needs go whom the Devil transformed into an Angel of Light doth drive have forced us to run into such Confusion and Corruption as none but he that raiseth the Dead could repair the decayed Careasses of our Church and State. And very Glorious would those Bodies have appeared at that Resurrection were it not for some wrangling Sadduces who would rather maintain an Annihilation than grant a Resurrection for whose Confutation it was necessary for such as were concerned on the behalf of the Church to assert her Doctrine and their own Innocency under the late Revolutions when therefore for the Re-establishment of the Church a Commission was granted to some of different Perswasions to consult thereupon the Spirit of the Covenant did so stir in some Dissenters as to move them to insist upon a necessity of Reformation of Episcopacy and Liturgy of Doctrine and Worship to which the Advocates for the Church could not yield to the Satisfaction of their Adversaries unless they had
of England and such Rulers as Defend and Support it are all of them Lying Perjured and Intolerable Persecutors As for his Colleague Mr. Hickringle I shall need to say no more than this That the Design of his Book against Ceremony-Mongers is sufficiently shewn by his other Book against the TEST and Penal Laws as if the Injunction of them were a Persecution for the removal of which Groundless Scandal the following Treatise is now Published The Preface SINCE it hath pleased Almighty GOD in his tender Compassion to a Sinful Nation to set over us a King and Queen who do naturally take Care for us and as industriously seek to Unite and Preserve as the late King did to Divide and Destroy us We should no longer think of shewing our Zeal for Christ as James and John did by calling for Fire from Heaven to consume all such as follow not us and our Opinion but as useful Members under such an able Head Unite into one Body that we may withstand the furious Attempts of our Common Adversaries who incessantly seek to improve the Seeds of Discord which they have sown amongst us for our utter Extirpation And that I may remove and prevent the Prejudices which such as have hitherto Separated from the Established Worship have conceived against the Governours of the Church under Regal Authority I shall here desire them to consider what Condescentions and Concessions they have been always ready to make for the Ease of all Tender Consciences and to which they are ready to Agree when-ever the Supreme Power shall commit the Consideration of those things to the Parliament and Convocation His Majesty Charles the Second in a Declaration from Breda promised a Liberty to Tender Consciences and that no Man should be disquieted or called in question for Differences of Opinion in Matters of Religion which did not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and that he should be ready to consent to such an Act of Parliament as upon mature Deliberation should be offered to him for granting such an Indulgence After which he sets forth his Declaration to all his loving Subjects of the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs Dated at White-hall the 25th of October 1660 which certainly was sufficient to satisfie all sober Protestants He grants a Commission to some Persons of the Presbyterian as well as of the Episcopal Perswasion but what little Effect all these things wrought towards a Reconciliation and by whose Fault will thus appear In his Majesty's Declaration he desired the Dissenters to Read as much of the Common-Prayers as they had no just Exceptions against yet though some had declared they could Use the greatest part of it I never heard that any of them did comply with so reasonable a Desire of his Majesty but instead thereof they Petition for a Reformation both of Doctrine and Discipline and that Commissioners might be appointed to Compile a New Form or Reform the Old. And though the King denied the making of a New having expressed his esteem of the Old in his Declaration Octob. 25. yet Mr. B. or some others drew up another Liturgy in eight Days time which they confessed had many Imperfections yet they call it their more Correct Nepenthe and Protest before God and Men against the Dose of Opium i.e. the Liturgy recommended by the King and Parliament as that which tended to the Cure of their Disease by Extinguishing of Life and to Unite them in a Dead Religion and tell the Bishops If these be all the Amendments and Abatements you will admit you sell your Innocency and the Churches Peace for nothing And in the due Account and Petition they reflect as severely upon his Majesty saying We must needs believe that when his Majesty took our Consent to a Liturgy to be a Foundation that would infer our Concord you i. e. your Majesty meant not that we should have no Concord but by consenting to this Liturgy without any considerable Alterations And in the close of the second Paper they tell the King If they should lose the opportunity of their desired Reconciliation it astonisheth them to foresee what doleful Effects our Divisions would produce As Basil said to Valens so they p. 117. of their Reply If you will receive the true Faith thy Son shall live which when he refused he said The Will of God be done with thy Son So we say too if you will put on Charity and promote the Churches Peace God will Honour you but if you will do contrary the Will of the Lord be done with your Honours And as to the Laws in a Prognostication set out 1661 p. 12 13. they talk of new Impositions Subscriptions and Oaths Words and Actions which they believe to be against the Word of God this reflects on the Legislators Dr. Stillingfleet observed of the first Plea for Peace That it lookt as if it had been designed on purpose to represent the Clergy of our Church as a company of Notorious Lying and Perjured Villains And that Author in his Answer to the Doctor 's Sermon p. 73. chargeth him with pleading for Presumption Prophanation Usurpation Uncharitableness and Schism And in the Preface of the Second Defence That the Doctor 's Book is made up of 1. Untrue Accusations 2. Untrue Historical Citations 3. Fallatious Reasonings That Learned Doctor had propounded several Concessions to be made for the Ease of Dissenters not without the Consent and Direction of his Superiours as I have been informed all which Mr. B. rejects saying That the Benefit would redound sibi suis not reaching our Necessities p. 21. of the Second Defence I cannot omit what an ingenious Person writes in his Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet which may serve to retort this Reflection p. 68. I will tell Mr. B. a Secret which I have heard but hope he will not put me to prove it That the Parliament made good Laws the Papists out of pretended Reverence to Tender Consciences hindred the Excution of them and some Leading Fanaticks to say no more had private Incouragement to set up a mighty Cry of Persecution to cast all the Odium on a Persecuting Church and Diocesan Canoneers In the Year 1681 was printed an Apology for the Non-conformist Ministers to justifie their Preaching contrary to Law the Book is directed to the Right Reverend Bishops of London Lincoln Hereford Carlile St. David's and Peterborough and others of their Moderation which he calls our best Bishops But with what Reverence and Moderation doth the Author Treat them P. 233. We Humbly lay these Petitions at your Feet and beseech you for the Souls of many Hundred Thousands that you who call yourselves Fathers and Pastors of the Church will not deny them the Bread of Life We beseech you to come out of your Palaces and be familiar with the People and dwell in some Country Village as we have done that you may not see many Hundred Thousands Damned by your means and you have nothing
Men encouraged and taken into the Constitution Do we value a few Indifferent Ceremonies and some late Declarations and doubtful Expressions beyond the Satisfaction of Mens Consciences and the Peace and Stability of this Church As to this material Question I shall crave leave to deliver my Opinion freely and impartially and that I. With respect to the Case of the People the Terms of whose Union with us is acknowledged by our Brethren to be so much easier than their own But these are of two sorts 1. Some allow the use of the Liturgy but say they cannot joyn in Communion with us because the participation of the Sacraments hath such Rites and Ceremonies annexed to it which they think unlawful and therefore till these be removed or left indifferent they dare not joyn with us in Baptism or the Lord's Supper because in the one the Cross is used and in the other Kneeling is required As to these I answer 1. Upon the most diligent Search I could make into these things I find no good ground for any scruple of Conscience as to the use of these Ceremonies and as little as any as to the Sign of the Cross as it is used in our Church notwithstanding all the noise that hath been made about its being a New Sacrament and I know not what but of this at large in the following Treatise 2. I see no ground for the Peoples Separation from other Acts of Communion on the account of some Rites they suspect to be unlawful And especially when the use of such Rites is none of their own Act as the Cross in Baptism is not and when such an Explication is annexed concerning the intention of Kneeling at the Lord's Supper as is in the Rubrick after the Communion 3. Notwithstanding because the use of Sacraments in a Christian Church ought to be the most free from all Exceptions and they ought to be so Administred as rather to invite than discourage scrupulous Persons from joyning with them I do think it would be a part of Christian Wisdom and Condescention in the Governours of our Church to remove those Bars from a freedom in joyning in full Communion with us Which may be done either by wholly taking away the Sign of the Cross or if that may give offence to others by confining the use of it to the publick Administration of Baptism or by leaving it indifferent as the Parents desire it As to Kneeling at the Lord's Supper since some Posture is necessary and many Devout People scruple any other and the Primitive Church did in Ancient times receive it in the Posture of Adoration there is no reason to take this away even in Parochial Churches provided that those who scruple Kneeling do receive it with the least Offence to others and rather Standing than Sitting because the former is most agreeable to the practice of Antiquity and of our Neighbour-Reformed Churches As to the Surplice in Parochial Churches it is not of that consequence as to bear a Dispute one way or other and as to Cathedral Churches there is no necessity of Alteration But there is another thing which seems to be of late much scrupled in Baptism viz. The use of God fathers and God mothers Excluding the Parents Although I do not question but the Practice of our Church may be justified as I have done it towards the end of the following Treatise yet I see no necessity of adhering so strictly to the Cannon herein but that a little Alteration may prevent these Scruples either by permitting the Parents to joyn with the Sponsors or by the Parents publickly desiring the Sponsors to represent them in offering the Child to Baptism or which seems most agreeable to Reason that the Parents offer the Child to Baptism and then the Sponsors perform the Covenanting part representing the Child and the Charge after Baptism be given in common to the Parents and Sponsors These things being allowed I see no obstruction remaining as to a full Union of the Body of such Dissenters with us in all Acts of Divine Worship and Christian Communion as do not reject all Communion with us unlawful 2. But because there are many of those who are become zealous Protestants and plead much their Communion with us in Faith and Doctrine although they cannot joyn with us in Worship because they deny the Lawfulness of Liturgies and the right Constitution of our Churches Their case deserves some consideration whether and how far they are capable of being made serviceable to the common Interest and to the support of the Protestant Religion among us To their Case I answer First That a general unlimited Toleration to Dissenting Protestants will soon bring Confusion among us and in the end Popery as I have shewed already and a Suspension of all the Penal Laws that relate to Dissenters is the same thing with a boundless Toleration Secondly If any present Favours be granted to such in consideration of our Circumstances and to prevent their Conjunction with the Papists for a general Toleration for if ever the Papists obtain it it must be under their Name If I say such Favours be thought fit to be shewed them it ought to be with such Restrictions and Limitations as may prevent the Mischief which may easily follow upon it For all such Meetings are a perpetual Reproach to our Churches by their declaring That our Churches are no true Churches that our manner of Worship is unlawful and that our Church-Government is Antichristian and that on these accounts they separate from us and Worship God by themselves But if such an Indulgence be thought fit to be granted I humbly offer these things to Consideration 1. That none be permitted to enjoy the priviledge of it who do not declare That they do hold Communion with our Churches to be Unlawful For it seems unreasonable to allow it to others and will give Countenance to endless and causeless Separations 2. That all who enjoy it besides taking the Test against Popery do subscribe the Thirty Six Articles of our Faith because the pretence of this Liberty is joyning with us in Points of Faith and this may more probably prevent Papists getting in amongst them 3. That all such as enjoy it must declare the particular Congregations they are of and enter their Names before such Commissioners as shall be Authorized for that purpose that so this may be no pretence for Idle Loose and Prophane Persons never going to any Church at all 4. That both Preachers and Congregations be liable to severe Penalties if they use any bitter or reproachful words either in Sermons or Writings against the Established Constitution of our Churches because they desire only the freedom of their own Consciences and the using this Liberty will discover it is not Conscience but a turbulent factious Humour which makes them separate from our Communion 5. That all indulged Persons be particularly obliged to pay all legal Duties to the Parochial Churches lest meer Covetousness tempt
called and then preached against it To return then to our Argument If reading the Declaration in our Churches be in the nature of the action in the intention of the command in the opinion of the People an interpretative consent to it I think myself bound in conscience not to read it because I am bound in conscience not to approve it It it against the Constitution of the Church of England which is established by Law and to which I have subscribed and therefore am bound in conscience to teach nothing contrary to it while this Obligation lasts It is to teach an unlimited and universal Toleration which the Parliament in 72 declared illegal and which has been condemned by the Christian Church in all Ages It is to teach my People that they need never come to Church more but have my free leave as they have the King 's to go to a Conventicle or to Mass It is to teach the Dispensing Power which alters what has been formerly thought the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom which we dare not do till we have the Authority of Parliament for it It is to recommend to our People the choice of such Persons to sit in Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal Laws which most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation have declared their Judgments against It is to condemn all those great and worthy Patriots of their Country who forfeited the dearest thing in the World to them next a good Conscience viz. The favour of their Prince and a great many honourable and profitable Employments with it rather than consent to that Proposal of taking away the Test and Penal Laws which they apprehend destructive to the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and he who can in conscience do all this I think need scruple nothing For let us consider further what the effects and consequences of our reading the Declaration are like to be and I think they are matter of Conscience too when they are evident and apparent This will certainly render our Persons and Ministry infinitely contemptible which is against that Apostolick Canon Let no man despise thee Tit. 2.15 That is so to behave himself in his Ministerial Office as not to fall under contempt and therefore this obliges the Conscience not to make our selves ridiculous nor to render our Ministry our Counsels Exhortations Preaching Writing of no effect which is a thousand times worse than being silenced Our Sufferings will Preach more effectually to the People when we cannot Speak to them but he who for Fear or Cowardize or the Love of this World betrays his Church and Religion by undue compliances and will certainly be thought to do so may continue to Preach but to no purpose and when we have rendred our selves ridiculous and contemptible we shall then quickly fall and fall unpitied There is nothing will so effectually tend to the final ruin of the Church of England because our Reading the Declaration will discourage or provoke or misguide all the Friends the Church of England has can we blame any man for not preserving the Laws and the Religion of our Church and Nation when we our selves will venture nothing for it can we blame any man for consenting to Repeal the Test and Penal Laws when we recommend it to them by reading the Declaration have we not reason to expect that the Nobility and Gentry who have already suffered in this Cause when they hear themselves condemned for it in all the Churches of England will think it time to mend such a fault and reconcile themselves to their Prince and if our Church fall this way is there any reason to expect that it should ever rise again These Consequences are almost as evident as Demonstrations and let it be what it will in itself which I foresee will destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and Interest I think I ought to make as much conscience of doing it as of doing the most immoral action in nature To say that these mischievous consequences are not absolutely necessary and therefore do not affect the Conscience because we are not certain they will follow is a very mean Objection Moral Actions indeed have not such necessary consequences as natural causes have necessary effects because no moral causes act necessarily reading the Declaration will not as necessarily destroy the Church of England as Fire burns Wood but if the consequence be plain and evident the most likely thing that can happen if it be unreasonable to expect any other if it be what is plainly intended and designed either I must never have any regard to Moral Consequences of my Actions or if ever they are to be considered they are in this Case Why are the Nobility and Gentry so extreamly averse to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws Why do they forfeit the King's Favour and their Honourable Stations rather then comply with it If you say that this tends to destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion I ask whether this be the necessary consequence of it whether the King cannot keep his Promise to the Church of England if the Test and Penal Laws be Repealed We cannot say but this may be and yet the Nation does not think fit to try it and we commend those Great Men who deny it and if the same Questions were put to us we think we ought in Conscience to deny them our selves and are there not as high probabilities that our Reading the Declaration will promote the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws as that such a Repeal will ruine our Constitution and bring in Popery upon us Is it not as probable that such a compliance in us will disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry who have hitherto been firm to us as that when the Power of the Nation is put into Popish Hands by the Repeal of such Tests and Laws the Priests and Jesuits may find some Salvo for the King's Conscience and perswade him to forget his Promise to the Church of England and if the probable ill consequences of Repealing the Test and Penal Laws be a good reason not to comply with it I cannot see but that the probable ill consequences of Reading the Declaration is as good a reason not to read it The most material Objection is that the Dissenters whom we ought not to provoke will expound our not Reading it to be the effect of a persecuting Spirit Now I wonder men should lay any weight on this who will not allow the most probable consequences of our Actions to have any influence upon Conscience for if we must compare consequences to disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry by Reading it is likely to be much more fatal than to anger the Dissenters and it is more likely and there is much more reason for it that one should be offended than the other For the Dissenters who are wise and considering are sensible of the snare themselves
is because they are only pretended or if real they are unreasonable and invincible and he whose Ears are stopt up from hearing such plain and convincing Truths on which his Salvation doth depend his Soul is in a dangerous condition This Advice concerns especially those Leaders of the People which cause them to Err and by withdrawing them from their Folds and dividing them expose them to Destruction for whose blood the Great Bishop and Shepheard of our Souls will one day exact an Account from them which they should seriously consider how to give with Joy and not with endless Grief and Confusion for as the Prophet Ezekiel ch 33.6 If a people take a man of their coasts and set him for their watchman and that watchman see the sword coming and blow not the trumpet and the people be not warned if the sword come and take away any person from among them he is taken away in his iniquity but his bloud will I require at the watchmans hands When Quintilius Varus had unhappily lost some of the Roman Legions he could not be at rest thinking of a terrible Summons Quintili Vare redde Legiones And there is a more dreadful Account to be given of those Souls for whom Christ dyed before a more awful Assembly than any Roman Senate where the Secrets of all Hearts shall be revealed and the ends and designs and consequences of their Actions be made manifest and rewarded accordingly Persecution is indeed a very heinous Sin for if that Counsel or Way that is opposed and persecuted be of GOD the Opposers will be found Fighters against GOD they persecute Christ in his Members Saul Saul why persecutest thou me I am Jesus whom thou persecutest But here is another sort of Sinners as bad or worse than Persecutors namely false Prophets and Seducers which teach Doctrines contrary to those which CHRIST and his Apostles have taught these strike at the Head when the other aim onely at the Body The Persecutor for the most part acts as a professed Enemy according to the principles and prejudices wherein he hath been Educated and so acts ignorantly in Unbelief as St. Paul did and had they known they would not have Crucified the LORD of GLORY the others have been instructed in and professed the same Faith lived in the same Communion but being not sound in the Faith in time of Temptation fell away and seek to destroy what they themselves had built not onely forsaking the Assemblies themselves but raising Divisions in and making Separation from them setting up Altar against Altar raising a War within the bowels of the Church building Batteries and throwing Bombs to force out those that are within it And an open Enemy is not so culpable as a treacherous Friend that like Judas Cryeth haile Master and betrays him with a kiss These do not onely Crucifie him a fresh but put him to open shame as if he suffered as a Deceiver and Murtherer a Blasphemer of GOD and an Enemy to Caesar and herein doth more mischief than the ignorant and open Persecutor who perhaps acts as the Roman Souldiers in Obedience to their Chieftains and endeavours to destroy not a few Christians but Christianity it self And the Christian Religion hath often thrived under Persecution but hath alway been weakned and dispirited by Divisions and false Doctrines That one Schism of the Donatists in Africa destroyed more than all the Ten Persecutions did in those Churches The Persecutors sent many Christian Souls that lived in the Communion of Christ on Earth to enjoy it in Heaven the others sent many more to an Eternal Separation from the Head having first cut them off from the Body And wo be to them that shall be found guilty of so great Impiety That there shall be such false Prophets St. Peter foretold 2 Epistle 2.1 Acts 20.30 That there should arise such from among our own selves that should act as grievous Wolves not sparing the Flock speaking perverse things And our Saviour teacheth us That we may know them by their fruits and by their likeness to the false Prophets that were of old such as Jannes and Jambres Core Dathan and Abiram who rebelled against Moses and Aaron St. Jude describes them to be such as walked in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the errour of Balaam for reward Jude v. 11. That Bless where they should Curse and Curse where they should Bless Many yet living may remember the time when the Pulpits were imployed as so many Drums to sound an Alarm to War and the People prest by wrested Scripture to Arm themselves and ingage the worst of Men against the best of Princes We have no Portion in David nor any Inheritance in the Son of Jesse Every Man to his Tents O Israel And from Judges 5.23 heavy Curses denounced not against those that came not to help the Lords anointed against the mighty but the mighty against the Lord and his anointed It will grate the Ears of all that hear what was inferred by a great Boutifeu from that Text Anno 1641. Curse ye bitterly i. e. saith he not only Maledicere verbo but malefacere Re to execute indeed what they wish in words to deal with them as with Moabites executing the wrath of God upon them Cursed is every one that withholds his hands from bloud even the innocent bloud of women and children which was to be poured out like water in every street And cursed is he that doth it fraudulently as Saul did with the Amalakites spill some and save some meaning Agag the King. And lest Curses alone should not prevail he promiseth a Blessing also Blessed is the man that takes the little ones and dasheth them against the stones Good God to what barbarous Impieties do Carnal Lusts and Interests hurry on some Men against plain Scriptures against Knowledge and Conscience and to inspire deluded People by a false Zeal to slay their Brethren with a Rage that reacheth up to Heaven and think they do God as good Service in killing their Brethren as the Priests that slew the Beasts for Sacrifice Such Preachers as these are certainly the worst sort of Persecutors they persecute themselves as well as their Brethren For St. Jude 11. returns such Curses on their own Heads with a woe unto them and St. Peter says 2 Pet. 2. They shall bring upon themselves swift destruction And he propounds three Instances of the Judgments that hang over their Heads verse 4. If God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to hell notwithstanding the perfection of their natures then no pretence of purity will secure these if he destroyed the old world for abusing Noah a Preacher of Righteousness then neither shall their numbers exempt them if he turned the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into Ashes for an example to all that should live ungodly then how secure soever these men may seem they are not safe the Sun that shines on them in the morning may rain
nature of the thing he that Reads such a Declaration to his People teaches them by it For is not Reading Teaching Suppose then I do not consent to what I Read yet I consent to teach my People what I read and herein is the evil of it for it may be it were no fault to consent to the Declaration but if I consent to teach my People what I do not consent to the Declaration but if I consent to teach my People what I do not consent to myself I am sure that is a great one And he who can distinguish between consenting to read the Declaration and consenting to teach the People by the Declaration when reading the Declaration is teaching it has a very subtile distinguishing-Conscience Now if consenting to read the Declaration be a consent to teach it my People then the natural Interpretation of Reading the Declaration is That he who Reads it in such a solemn teaching-manner Approves it If this be not so I desire to know why I may not read an Homily for Transubstantiation or Invocation of Saints or the Worship of Images if the King sends me such good Catholic Homilies and commands me to read them And thus we may instruct our People in all the Points of Popery and recommend it to them with all the Sophistry and artificial Insinuations in obedience to the King with a very good Conscience because without our consent If it be said this would be a contradiction to the Doctrine of our Church by Law established so I take the Declaration to be And if we may read the Declaration contrary to Law because it does not imply our consent to it so we may Popish Homilies for the bare reading them will not imply our consent no more than the reading the Declaration does But whether I consent to the Doctrine or no it is certain I consent to teach my People this Doctrine and it is to be considered whether an honest Man can to this Thirdly I suppose no man will doubt but the King intends that our Reading the Declaration should signifie to the Nation our Consent and Approbation of it for the Declaration does not want Publishing for it is sufficiently known already but our Reading it in our Churches must serve instead of Addresses of Thanks which the Clergy generally refused though it was only to Thank the King for his Gracious Promises renewed to the Church of England in the his Declaration which was much more innocent than to publish the Declaration itself in our Churches This would perswade one that the King thinks our reading the Declaration to signifie our Consent and that the People will think it to be so And he that can satisfie Conscience to do an action without consent which the nature of the Thing the design and intention of the Command and the Sence of the People expound to be a Consent may I think as well satisfie himself with Equivocations and mental Reservations There are two things to be answered to this which must be considered I. That the People understand our Minds and see that this is matter of Force upon us and meer Obedience to the King. To which I answer 1. Possibly the People do understand that the matter of the Declaration is against our Principles But is this any excuse that we read that and by reading recommend that to them which is against our own Consciences and Judgments Reading the Declaration would be no Fault at all but our Duty when the King commands it did we approve of the matter of it but to consent to teach our People such Doctrines as we think contrary to the Laws of God or the Laws of the Land does not lessen but aggravate the Fault and People must be very good natured to think this an Excuse 2. It is not likely that all the People will be of a mind in this matter some may excuse it others and those it may be the most the best and the wisest men will condemn us for it and then how shall we justifie our selves against their Censures when the World will be divided in their Opinions the plain way is certainly the best to do what we can justifie our selves and then let men judge as they please No men in England will be pleased with our Reading the Declaration but those who hope to make great advantage of it against us and against our Church and Religion others will severely condemn us for it and censure us as false to our Religion and as Betrayers both of Church and State and besides that it does not become a Minister of Religion to do any thing which in the opinion of the most charitable men can only be excused for what needs an excuse is either a fault or looks very like one besides this I say I will not trust mens Charity those who have suffered themselves in this Cause will not excuse us for fear of suffering those who are inclined to excuse us now will not do so when they consider the thing better and come to feel the ill consequences of it when our Enemies open their eyes and tell them what our Reading the Declaration signified which they will then tell us we ought to have seen before though they were not bound to see it for we are to guide and instruct them not they us II. Others therefore think that when we read the Declaration we should publickly profess that it is not our own judgment but that we only read it in obedience to the King and then our reading it cannot imply our consent to it Now this is only Protestation contra factum which all People will laugh at and scorn us for for such a solemn reading it in the time of Divine Service when all men ought to be most grave and serious and far from dissembling with God or Men does in the nature of the thing imply our approbation and should we declare the contrary when we read it what shall we say to those who ask us Why then do you read it But let those who have a mind to try this way which for my part I take to be a greater and more unjustifiable provocation of the King than not to read it and I suppose those who do not read it will be thought plainer and honester men and will escape as well as those who read it and protest against it and yet nothing less than an express Protestation will salve this matter for only to say they read it meerly in obedience to the King does not express their dissent it signifies indeed that they would not have read it if the King had not commanded it but these words do not signifie that they disapprove of the Declaration when their reading it though only in obedience to the King signifies their approbation of it as much as actions can signifie a consent let us call to mind how it fared with those in King Charles the First 's Reign who read the Book of Sports as it was
and not a wilful neglect The Chancellor replies That his Lordship ought to have known the Law and however that the King ought to be obeyed To which the Bishop replied That if a Prince required a Judge to execute a Command not agreeable to Law it was his Duty Rescribere reclamare principi which he did by the Lord President and that he had done in effect what the King commanded advising the Doctor to forbear Preaching in his Diocess After this with some difficulty his Councel were admitted to plead who justified the Bishop's Answer and then the Bishop offered That if through mistake he had erred in any Circumstance he was ready to beg his Majesty's Pardon and to make any reparation he was able But in short at his next appearing he had his Sentence read viz. That Henry Lord Bishop of London being conven'd before the Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Affairs for his Disobedience and other Contempts and being fully heard was by them declared deemed and pronounced Suspended from the Function and Execution of his Episcopal Office. In this one Noble Bishop the whole Hierarchy of England were struck at and his Sentence but a Prologue to the Tragedy intended the next Scene of which was this On the Ninth of February Dr. Peachel Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge receiv'd a Mandate under the King's Signet Manual to admit one Father Francis a Benedictine Monk Master of Arts without taking the usual Oaths which the Vice-Chancellor by the unanimous Consent of the University refused perceiving their Priviledges and Properties to be in danger and upon their offering the Oaths to Father Francis and his refusing to take them they denied him that Degree whereupon the Vice-Chancellor was summoned by a Messenger to appear before the Commissioners in person and the Senate by their Deputies Upon their appearance the Vice-Chancellor was asked Why he had not obeyed the King's Command in admitting Father Francis To which they gave their Answer in Writing Shewing That by several Acts of Parliament viz. 1º 5º Eliz. by which it was ordained No Man should be promoted to any Degree without taking an Oath to acknowledge the King's Supremacy c. And 3º 9º Jacobi primi it was enacted That the Oath of Allegiance should be taken and administred by the Vice-Chancellor and all the Principals of Houses and by every Person that should be promoted to any Degree for the preservation of the Doctrine of the Church of England and the King's Prerogative which Oaths the said Francis refused And they pleaded also That the admission to a Degree was not of Ecclesiastical but Temporal Cognizance And that by a Statute 16 Charles II. No Court should be erected having like Power Jurisdiction and Authority as the High Commission Court had but should be utterly void After some Debate the Chancellor pronounced the Vice-Chancellor deprived of his Office and suspended ab Officio Beneficio of his Headship of Magdalen Colledge and forbid him to meddle with any publick business in the University This is another instance of the King 's good will to the Church of England and his unalterable observing his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience And now the other Sister the University of Oxford must partake of the same favour where Dr. Walker a professed Papist is made Head of University Colledge and one Massey a Popish Proselite Dean of Christ-Church and Dr. Clerk President of Magdalen Colledge being dead one Mr. Farmer procured the King's Mandate to succeed him against whom they petitioned his Majesty as being a scandalous person and not qualified as their Statutes required and they proceeded in a regular way to Elect Dr. Hough their President who being presented to their Visitor was sworn and admitted but being told of the King's displeasure they complained of their Unhappiness to the Duke of Ormond their Chancellor and the Bishop of Winchester their Visitor that they were reduced to a necessity either of disobeying the King or wronging their Consciences And that after his Majesty's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience but Gallio cared for none of these things the Commissioners cite the Fellows or their Delegates to appear before them Their Delegates were Dr. Aldworth Dr. Fairfax Dr. Smith Mr. Hammond Mr. Dobson and Mr. Fairer who gave in their Plea to this effect That they were bound by their Oaths not to admit any to that Office but such as were Fellows of that or New-Colledge which Mr. Farmer was not That they were not to admit any but such did first swear to observe the Statutes of the Colledge That they were sworn not to admit any Dispensations by any Authority whatsoever and that they had Elected Dr. Hough who was qualified as the Statutes required Mr. Farmer on proofs of his Incapacity was laid aside and another Mandate sent for admission of the Bishop of Oxford And shortly after the King coming to Oxford ordered the Fellows to attend him at Christ-Church and then told them He had known them to be a stubborn and turbulent Colledge for Twenty Six Years taxed them with their Church of England Loyalty and bid them go home and know that he was their King and would be obeyed and such as refused to admit the Bishop of Oxford should feel the weight of his Displeasure But without dread of these Menaces and the intended Persecution they persisted to refuse the Bishop of Oxon against whom they had the like Objections as against Mr. Farmer the Bishop having Judas-like betrayed his Master that had preferred him to that Honour which he resolv'd to rise to viz. a Coach and Six Horses which was the Religion he resolv'd to adhere to but for these causes they were all expelled and made uncapable of any Preferment and all to make way for a Seminary of Papists For these breaches being made in the Walls and Towers of our Sion and there being an Army of Locusts in the Land which waited an opportunity to storm kill and take possession there being at the same time a Nuntio from Rome who was publickly feasted at the Guild-Hall London and an Ambassador at Rome a numerous Spawn of Jesuits and Fryars who were seen in their several Habits Schools Publick Houses appointed for them and Four Bishops appointed to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Ireland being secured in the hands of Papists Scotland over-awed by an Army and the Fleet and Tower of London in confiding hands the Popish Lords being the Cabinet Council and Peters the Jesuit chief Minister of State. What could be expected but a total overthrow of the Church and that the King's Age and Infirmities being considered that they should with all violence push on for our Destruction But God infatuated the Counsels of all these Achitophels and what they designed for our Ruine was by his gracious and wise Providence turned to our preservation For whereas the King to secure the Popish Interest and to establish his Proclamation for Liberty of Conscience to which the Prince and Princess of Orange could by
no means be drawn to give their consent the King was prevailed with to own a Suppositious Child as Heir to his Dominions that he might give a new life to the Popish and Fanatick Interests But this and his sense of the Protestant Cause which was then in a decaying condition stirred up the Spirit of our present King to vindicate the Cause of the English Church and his own and his Consort 's Title to the Crown and the Severity used to the Bishops and the Universities and the Affront done to the English Souldiers by bringing some thousands of Irish Cut-Throats and preferring them above the English did stem the Tide and immediately upon the Arrival of the Prince's Army there followed a great Revolt of the Nobility Souldiery and Gentry of the Land who marching towards London became formidable to the King who coming as far as Salisbury intending to fight the Prince found himself so deserted that he returned in great haste to London and considering into what streights his precipitant Counsels had brought him he sends for such Bishops as were in or near London to have their Advice in that critical Juncture which with all possible humility and integrity they did to this effect 1. That it was necessary for him to restore all things to the state wherein he found them when he came to the Crown by committing all Offices and Places of Government to such of the Nobility and Gentry as were qualified for them according to the Laws and by redressing and removing such Grievances as were generally complained of particularly that his Majesty would dissolve the Ecclesiastical Commission and promise to his People never to Erect any such Court for the future 2. That he would not only put an effectual stop to the issuing forth of any Dispensations but would call in and cancel all those which since his coming to the Crown had been obtained from him 3. That he would restore the Universities to their Legal State Statutes and Customs and particularly restore the Master of Magdalen Colledge in Cambridge and the ejected President and Fellows of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford to their Properties 4. And that he would not permit any Persons to enjoy any Preferments in either University but such as were qualified by the Statutes and Laws of the Land. 5. That he would suppress the Jesuits Schools opened in London or else-where and grant no more Licenses for such Schools as were against the Laws of the Land and his Majesties true interest 6. That he would send Inhibitions after the Four Romish Bishops who under the Title of Apostolick Vicars did presume to exercise within this Kingdom such Jurisdictions as are by the Laws of the Land invested in the Bishops of the Church of England 7. That he would not suffer any more Quo Warranto's to be sued out against any Corporations but restore to such as had been disturbed their ancient Charters Priviledges and Immunities and condemn all those illegal Regulations that had been made 8. That he would fill up all the vacant Bishopricks in England and Ireland with Persons duly qualified and especially consider the See of York whose want of an Archbishop is very prejudicial to the whole Province 9. That he would act no more nor insist on the Dispensing Power but leave it to be debated and setled by Act of Parliament 10. That on the Restoration of Corporations he would issue Writs for a Free Parliament for redressing of Grievances in Church and State upon just and solid Foundations and to establish due Liberty of Conscience Lastly and above all That his Majesty would permit some of his Bishops to lay such Motives and Arguments before him as might by the Blessing of God bring back his Majesty to the Communion of the Church of England into whose Catholick Faith he had been Baptized in which he had been Educated and to which it was their earnest Prayer to Almighty God that his Majesty might be re-united Had these sober and pious Counsels been accepted then when the Bishop's Petition was rejected as a false malitious and seditious Libel the King might have been still setled on the Throne but he had past the Rubicon and was resolved to fight out his way for the establishing the Popish Religion against all opposition and being deserted by his English Forces hath resolutely cast himself on the French and Irish and what hath been done against the established Church there cannot amount to less than a Persecution And such a one must we have expected had not God's Almighty Arm bafled their Antichristian Designs Now if the Popish Party have been so hasty and violent in persecuting the Church as soon as they got Power into their hands notwithstanding all that kindness and moderation manifested to them to the great regret of the other Dissenters who thought themselves less gently dealt with I know not what more gentle usage the Church could expect from them who have so long and loudly cried out of Persecution and for Forty or Fifty Years together covenanted to root out Episcopacy and Liturgy and perpetuated that Obligation to the present Generation so that the bitter Spirit of the Smectymneunans seem to survive still in the present Dissenters who still maintain the Old Cause and if ever the Power should return to their hands as in the time of the Long Parliament would fly as high and fall on the same Game for a Lyon is no less a Lyon while he is restrained within a Den and loaden with Chains but grows usually more raging when let loose and Maledicus à malefico non distat nisi occasione Those ravenons Beasts that do rent a Man in Effigie do manifest what they would do in Corpore as the Donatists who first slew the Orthodox Gladio Oris did as they had opportunity destroy them Ore Gladii I think it will be a difficult Province for a very good Orator to perswade the Church of England that such Dissenters as have all along struck at the Root will be contented if a few Branches were cut off When the Winds and Storms rage the Husband-men will part with the Branches to preserve the Root I may part with a Coat or a Cloak to an importunate Brother but if he to enrich himself by making me poor continues craving till he strips me to the skin and leaves me naked I am not so much charitable to him as cruel to myself Had the Dissenters in 62 asked less they might have had more granted but when they crave all they deserve nothing if the same Leaven do begin to swell and ferment the Spirits of Men now as then we are commanded to be aware of them We had no sooner past a Fiery Tryal in the Twenty Years Persecution by the Dissenters but were under another Twenty Years Tryal under the Papists though it did not appear so visible and successful till of late And if the Papists should be asked who were the Persecutors in the first Twenty Years they must answer the Dissenters if we should ask the Dissenters whether the Papists or the Church of England were the persecuted Party in the last Twenty Years it must be answered the Papists were for though their frequent Attempts to destroy the Church proved abortive as there may be many traiterous Conspiracies against the Life of a Prince though he survive them all and bring the Conspirators to condign punishment as in the Powder-Plot Cain might have been called a Persecutor of Abel though he had not slain him and Ishmael's cruel mocking of his Brother is called a persecuting of him And if the same bitterness of Spirit do reign in the English as hath shewn itself in the Scottish Presbytery the Episcopal Party may well be jealous of them and few I suppose will be of the Opinion of W. J. That the Removal of our Ceremonies will be an equivalent compensation for the shedding of as much Blood and exhausting as much Treasure as was shed and exhausted in the late inhumane Civil War Where the Royal Martyr the Archbishop many Nobles innumerable Gentry and Commons were sacrificed for a Reformation of Ceremonies but I hope such fury will not possess the hearts of any Dissenters in this Age. To Conclude The Church is still through the wonderful Providence of God in the legal possession of her Rights she is neither Popishly affected nor of a persecuting Spirit or Power she hath learnt by her own Suffering for Conscience-sake how to pity such as are truly conscientious but if any man be contentious and will deny her that liberty which they challenge to themselves I shall only say with the Apostle 〈◊〉 hath been to those French Protestants 〈◊〉 have found 〈◊〉 a Sanctuary and do readily joyn in her Worship and Service and I suppose their Judgments are as solid and their 〈◊〉 as tender as any of our Dissenters who yet look on our Church as a â—eth-haven and a House of Bondage FINIS ADVERTISEMENTS 1. A Resolution of Certain Queries concerning Submission to the Present Government The Queries 1. Concerning the Orginal of Government 2. What is the Constitution of the Government of England 3. What Obligation lies on the King by the Coronation-Oath 4. What Obligation lies on the Subject by the Oaths of Supremacy c. 5. Whether if the King Violate his Oath and actually Destroys the Ends of it the Subjects are freed from their Obligation to him 6. Whether the King hath Renounced or Deserted the Government 7. Whether on such Desertion the People to preserve themselves from Confusion may admit another what Method is to be used in such Admission 8. Whether the Settlement now made is a Lawful Establishment and such as with a good Conscience may be Submitted to 2. A full Answer to all the Popular Objections that have yet appear'd for not taking the Oath of Allegiance to their present Majesties particularly offered to the Consideration of all such of the Divines of the Church of England and others as are yet unsatisfied Shewing both from Scripture and the Laws of the Land the Reasonableness thereof and the Ruining Consequences both to the Nation and Themselves if not complied with 3. The Historian Unmask'd Or Some Reflections on the late History of Passive Obedience Wherein the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance is truly Stated and Asserted By a Divine of the Church of England All Three Printed by Freeman Collins and are to be Sold by Richard Baldwin in the Old-Bailey 1689.