Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n
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A34955
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The vanity of the dissenters plea for their separation from the Church of England a sermon preached before the King at Windsor, September the 10th. 1682 / by Robert Creyghton ...
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Creighton, Robert, 1593-1672.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing C6876; ESTC R34843
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9,456
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30
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A SERMON Preached before the KING AT WINDSOR September the 10th 1682. By ROBERT CREYGHTON D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty Published by his Majesties Command LONDON Printed by J. Wallis for Benj. Tooke at the Ship in St. Pauls Church-yard 1682. 1 COR. 1. 10. Now I beseech you brethren by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all spake the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgement WHAT the great Apostle stoop so low as to beseech and so passionately too by the Name of our Lord and Saviour Christ Be the People never so impatient boyl and toss and roar like a raging Sea sure here 's Charm enough to strike the World immediately into a Calm Beseech 't is tantamount to a Command he beseeches by a Name that cannot but prevail a Name whom Storm and Tempest it self must Obey But beseech or command 't is all one the World is deaf to all such Charms to all such Commands Be joyn'd together in the same and in the same judgement and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too united in a beautiful Order and Symmetry of parts alass when will this be Epicurus his Atoms will as soon by cross interfering motions weave themselves into a beautiful System of a World as mens thoughts variously cross and running counter unite in one Discipline one Doctrine one Church We shall never see Peace so long as there are rough uneven tempers in the World as unfit for Societies as some rough unhew'n Stones or knotty crooked pieces of Timber unfit for Building There are certain tempers naturally sour enough to break through Mountains and Rocks like Hanibal's vinegar and to dissolve the firmest Foundations of Government and Order And there is especially a Pharisaical Leven sour enough to put whole Societies and Kingdoms into a perfect fermentation We shall never be all alike till the different humors of our several constitutions be quite spent and we are mouldred away in our Graves to rotten Bones and Skulls then and not till then exactly all alike with half noses hollow-ey'd and grinning as Lucian describes Skulls of Wise-men Mad-men Fools Cynicks Politicians Hero's Beggers blended together in Charnel Houses But especially in Religion men never yet wanted pretences to disagree Cain and Abel though Brothers agree not in the same kinds of Sacrifices Contention once intruded into Heaven amongst the Gods that 's Romance but 't is too true she hath more than once intruded into the Church a bold and troublesome Guest What and will Religion then Religion which is or should be the very Bond and Cement of Societies will that also crumble us to pieces Nay then there 's little hope of Unity in this World Our Corinthians divide upon pretences specious enough even of honouring some Apollos others Paul others Cephas The least pretence of dividing will serve the turn when men are resolved to be quarrelsome especially in Citties of great Trade such as Corinth was the Metropolis of Achaia Rich Populous and Proud where as they Traffick'd with Forreigners Goods for Goods So they seem to have barter'd Religion for Religion too the Seller basely prostituting his judgement to the Buyers either Heresie or Schism to set off Goods the better and to advance Trade Our Apostle St. Paul though by degrees he deals very plainly with these Corinthians yet at the beginning of his persuasive to Unity he deals with them with all the tenderness immaginable But what shall we do now our modern Shismaticks are grown so stiff and stubborn that 't is to little purpose to Entreat them Begg or Command Weep or Thunder 't is all one they are inexorable they are inflexible If the Mercy of God in settling Religion here upon so good grounds by so legal and warrantable methods according to the model of the Primimitive Church if the Bloud of our Late Dread Sovereign the Church of Englands Martyr if this King 's incomparable Clemency can prevail nothing all the Passion of our Sacred Oratour St. Paul is utterly cast away They have been gently dealt with these many years and they are but the more hardned in the Schism The warm Sunbeams will sometimes but harden that Clay which heavier Storms may soften and make pliable to the Government But I must remember the Apostles condescension I must remember his pitty and his good nature and with all the moderation I can endeavour to remove some of the prejudices they have taken up against this Church And I must be so far free with them as to charge them with the following Mistakes three especially the ground of all the rest A false Notion of Christian Liberty A false Notion of Tender Conscience A false Notion of the Nature and Measures of a Due Reformation First A false Notion of Christian Liberty The Church we apprehend hath a Liberty infeoffed in Her to determine this way or that in matters of Decency and Order If this be the Churches Prerogative conveyed to her by Scripture particularly that of the Apostle Let all things be done Decently and in Order it is certainly my Christian Liberty to Obey warranted and secured to me virtually by the same Scripture When I am satisfied in Conscience that the Church maintains the Faith sound in all the Doctrines she professes which to say truth are the proper Objects about which Conscience acts 't is my Priviledge to be govern'd by her in other matters of less moment which do not directly and immediately concern Conscience farther then as a general Rule of Charity obliges me to obey For as the Apostles leaving out particulars there is a general Warrant for the Church to Prescribe so is it a Warrant to me who am a member of an Orthodox Visible Church-branch of Christs Holy Catholick Church to submit to that which makes it a Visible Church I mean Government and Order So that the Schismatick is so far wide in his Notion of Liberty that if I refuse to obey I in a manner fell away my Christian birth-right and basely betray my own Liberty For tho' we have often heard much talk to little purpose of Christian Liberty yet as the Apostle uses the word Liberty we are able to understand no morethan this that Christians under the Gospel are redeemed from the bondage of the Law So that I am at perfect Liberty to be Govern'd by a Christian Church the Obligation to the Mosaick Law being cancell'd Else there would be a Visible Church-Government in general Terms settled upon the Apostles Successors without Obedience to that Government which is an absurd Chimera Now then if the Schismatick tell us his Conscience will not suffer him to submit where then is his Liberty of Conscience who put those Fetters upon his Conscience but himself what Cyclops made those Fetters where were they forged in what Vulcans Shop in what Aetna but in his own zealous over-heated brain Does the Scripture
fetter his Conscience shew where if it be truly Conscience he pretends he is bound to shew either that to obey or not to obey is made by some positive Rule of Scripture indifferent as Marrying or not Marrying is or that the thing he boggles at is either morally ill or ill because forbidden by a Law Shew the Law or I shall without breach of Charity tell him 'T is Humour not Conscience If he would have things of Decency and Order left as indifferent as Marrying or not Marrying he roves ex-travegantly wide from the Case For in the one case the thing is by a Law indifferent and so is what it is necessarily indispensably and unalterably indifferent in the other 't is left to the Churches Prudence to determine there the indifferency being the immediate effect of that Law here the Churches determination the immediate effect of this Law And therefore the Apostles General Rule is a warrant to Conscience to secure it from all superstitious fear of being defiled when the Church is obeyed in things not repugnant to any particular express Rule of Scripture Secondly A false Notion of Tender Conscience If the Conscience be tender 't is because there appears at least some ill But unless some Law or other convince me that a thing is sinful in truth I count I am in some danger of incurring a Sin if I make that Evil which is not Evil. For who gave me Authority to call that Evil which God Almighty hath not by some Law or other declared to be so 't is a piece of Pride and Presumption in me to call that Evil which is not and I extort from God a part of his Sovereignty in doing so There is as black a Woe denounced by the Prophet against him that calls Good Evil as against him that calls Evil Good And therefore whatever the Schismatick apprehends of Tender Conscience startling at the appearance of Evil Conscience is as much in danger of being defiled by calling that Evil which is not Evil as by calling that not Evil which is really Evil. Liberty of Conscience and tenderness of Conscience and I fear God and I am afraid of Sin and I confess my weakness my Conscience will not allow it These are the words sweet as honey whereby the Ringleaders of our Schismaticks do insinuate their Poyson by so sweet a breath do they convey a holy contagion through a whole Conventicle presently as they say pestilential distempers are spread the farther by sweet perfumes Tender Conscience Who can withstand the Charm And Acknowledge my weakness Who can resist the power of the invincible Argument The Tender Conscience 't is confessed naturally moves pity but then it must be the Tender Conscience of such who make it a Case of Conscience to hearken to Reason who will withal be tender least they have a Conscience too tender in punctilio's that really concern not Conscience immediately For otherwise there is a Tenderness of Conscience which is caused by a certain sour fretting grating humor that corrodes that sours like the Leven of the Pharisee I mean perfect Ill Nature which mixed with a few unlucky grains of intemperate Zeal frets and galls the very heart of the man and so he easily mistakes in truth his Sore for the tenderness of his Conscience May not their weakness deserve some Pitty too Yes Charity may cover my Brother's failings but that weakness will not be covered which resolves to break out into Rebellion the next opportunity Truth now and never till now do I passionately and heartily deprecate None can more wish to be undeceived than we to be deceived in what we say of those whose hands were they as strong as their heads weak would quickly satisfie the world what Principles they are of then you should see that same weak Conscience all in Armour strong enough to manage a Sword against their King in an Army of Rebells Some of their late Scribling Champions flourishing a little in Print to give their own Party satisfaction not us after some sine harangues of inconveniency burdens and remitting being by us pressed to come to the main point to tell us downright what in our Church is in it self unlawful and then prove it not a word they are not bound to give Reasons they are above the low dispensation Is this weakness 'T is Pride and inflexible stubborness To them Scotus and Aquinas are Sots Cardinals veil your Caps a Conventicle can furnish you with Doctors more Seraphick more Irrefragable The Phanatick that they say went to Convert the Pope doubtless outfaced the Old Chair at Rome with much more Infallibility than ever pretended to sit there For most of those that dissent from us are Infallibly sure they are in the right and by the way it may be noted that ever since the Church of England renounced the Popes Infallibility they have lest us and resolve to keep us company no longer These are the men whose uncontroulable Conscience is above all Law or but for one Law and that is that it should be passed into a Law that their Conscience shall be bound up by no Law shall Mahomet go to the Mountain or the Mountain come to Mahomet shall these Mens Conscience come to the Law or the Law to these Mens Conscience a Garment may be as soon sitted to the Moon as such a system of Laws fram'd as shall fit every Man's Conscience It Pinches here widen the Law now it Pinches as much there widen that too till at last the Laws grown so much too wide as that the man's Conscience having got noom enough to turn it self with freedome wholly shakes off all Law and that which at first pretended only to Liberty shall very fairly end in Licentiousness Thirdly A false Notion of the Nature and Measure of a Due Reformation There is such a thing certainly as an obligation lying upon all Churches in all Ages since the first Preaching of the Gospel to maintain a Unity in some measure with the Primitive Church and to regulate all our Reformations by the General Ruled and Laws of the most Ancient Church if we are in earnest when we profess We Believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church Now if the new models of the pretended Reformers of our Reformation should take place they would so pare away from the Church of England every thing almost that ever the Primitive Church used that being reduced to a thing so utterly unlike what the Christian Church was at first we should seem totally to have broken the Unity The not weighing this hath made us run so headlong from the Church of Rome that we scarce own that to be a Reformation which rejects not almost every thing that ever was in use in that Church right or wrong We retain no not one thing but what was before that Churches Apostacy either exactly the same or very near it in the most Ancient Church and to reform otherwise then this I crave leave to say is to break