Mischiefs to the Church 2. To the State 3. To Souls 4. To Piety 5. Mischiefs in promoting a mighty increase of Prophaneness and all kind of wickedness 6. Hindring a world of good 1. Pag. 11. Mischiefs to the Church Zeal for Mens devices begets in people a strange Levity of Mind makes them such triflers in Religion that they disregard the great Interests of God and his Church in the World They are not sensible of the desolations of Gods Churches in France Orange Piedmont the Palatinate Ireland c. It might be answer enough for me to say that all this is nothing to the purpose both because the Persecutions and Massacres in these several places were not made upon the account of external Ceremonies but partly upon a secular account and partly upon a religious where then Communion and Doctrines of the Church and not Ceremonies were controverted and because the Church of England doth not impose Ceremonies or Mens devices upon any under penalty of Persecution But I add that these instances disprove what they are brought to confirm for the desolations of God's Churches in France Piedmont c. are so far from proving that Zeal for mens devices begets in people a strange Levity of mind and makes them such triflers in Religion c. That they evince nothing or else the quite contrary that such as raise Persecutions upon the account of Religion are not Men of light Minds or Triflers in it or disregard the Interests of God and his Church though perhaps they prosecute them the wrong way and by undue Mothods for it is evident they if without sinister design pursue what they think to be God's and his Church's Interest more than their own The Kings of Spain weakened their Kingdoms and exhausted their Treasures by Banishing the Moors and erecting the Inquisition and the French King cannot be supposed to gain by the Flight of his Subjects their ceasing to trade and withdrawing their effects neither was it trifling they fled from Do you Sir who in the behalf of the Dissenters clamorous enough without assistance with open jaws set up the Cry of Persecution here in England and call the French King the Duke of Savoy their Armies Officers and Dragoons Triflers What the Church of England-men which this Pamphleteer abusively calls Zealots for these things did in reference to a Popish Successor was agreeable to their Principles both of Loyalty and Honesty They remembred that tho to do evil that good may ensue be a Doctrine received in the Church of Rome yet it is not so in the Church of England They well knew that an Act for Exclusion notwithstanding any Infallibility or Omnipotency a Parliament can pretend to would be still in it self unjust as contrary to the Laws of God and nature and to the Rules of Equity and common Reason void in it self as being contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the Land and the very Constitutions of the Monarchy and mischievous in its Events as that which would most certainly have involved these three Kingdoms in a most Bloody Civil War and perhaps have brought an Invasion from abroad in upon us to boot But behold the tender Conscience of our Dissenters they cry out of Persecution upon the Levying a small pecuniary mulct for the frequenting an unnecessary and seditious Conventicle in pursuance of divers Laws made by their own Representatives but would exclude an Hereditary Prince from his undoubted Right and Inheritance by a Law they were no ways authorized to make and involve three Nations at the least in a Bloody War and all the miseries attending it that so they might again swallow up the Crown Lands to maintain the Grandeur of their Hogan-Mogan-Ships in a new Common-Wealth and all this under pretence of the Preservation of the Laws Liberties and the Protestant Religion the name of which it is probable will grow as odious to after Ages as that of Popery is to us by reason of such who shroud all their ill designs and crimes under that usurped affected and abused Notion The Scripture is our only guide of Unity 〈◊〉 Uniformity is deformity and confusion when Men appoint other terms of Ministerial Service and Church-Communion than are prescribed in Gods Word If the Scripture is the only guide of Unity let our Author tell me why his Clients the Presbyterians Independents Quakers c. are not guided into Unity by it since they all have it and pretend to follow it and yet are far enough from Unity The Scripture it is true prescribes and commands Unity but never actually effected it without the interposition of Ecclesiastical Authority as in the Primitive Church Ecclesiastical and Civil as in the Reformation of our Church or Civil as in Spain by the Inquisition in France by Edicts c. That Uniformity is or can be deformity and confusion I shall think to be a contradiction till our Author shews how it can be reconciled Those terms of Communion which he intimates to be prescribed in Gods Word he would do well to shew us or tell us where we may find them if he can They would do more if clearly discovered and demonstrated towards the Union of our differences than a Thousand such railing Pamphlets and the Intrigues and Politick Desings contrived by Male-contents and as hotly pursued by such Tools as he for the involving us into the same miseries that followed upon the last Rebellion 2. 〈◊〉 3. Mischiefs to the State Zeal for Ceremonies begets in Men a contempt of Publick Rights and Boundaries This is a very strange discovery which our Author hath made but it is so incredible that he could not in reason have supposed that we should take it merely upon his Word Therefore he would have done well to have inform'd us farther how a Zeal for Ceremonies begets a contempt of Publick Rights whether by an Univocal or Equivocal Generation If any Man should argue thus This Man is zealous for Ceremonies therefore he contemns Publick Rights and Boundaries would not all Men wonder at the Inference The Consequence will better follow on the contrary side thus This Man disturbs the Peace and Order of the Church and makes no conscience of breaking the Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions and therefore it is probable that out of the same Principle of disobedience and humour of opposition he will contemn Publick Rights and Boundaries and all obligations of the Conscience to obedience set by the Civil Law also But our Author proceeds When they dote so much upon vanities in Worship as to inslave their Consciences and to despise their Christian liberty it is no wonder if they sell at any rate their own and others Civil Rights and Privileges Surely this is spoken of the Inhabitants of the Moon or some Utopian Countries for most Men here have as little Zeal and as much contempt or at least neglect of the daily Service of the Church as our Author supposes them to have of the Publick Rights and Boundaries
greatest prevarications his small abilities made him capable of It is true his Pamphlet being stuff'd with false Principles railing Invectives and scurrilous Reflections and wanting proper Motives to persuade or solid Arguments to convince can be supposed to operate only upon Persons of a deluded fancy prepossess'd intellect and infirm judgment and if he designed it for such as it is probable he did it may not altogether in respect of them be without some though evil effects However by the writing of it in such a manner he hath given very great occasion to others to think either that he for filthy lucres sake conformed to the Church Constitutions as by Law Established not following what proved most excellent to his judgment but what was most grateful to his desires because most agreeable to his Interests and Circumstances and that he declared his Assent and Consent outwardly to what he did not inwardly approve of and that with such a reluctancy against the Sentiments of his mind as could not be durable and therefore they have now made a violent eruption to the contradiction of his actions and the discovery of his Hypocrisie or that if being indifferent he did not disallow of what he did that now when he thought some alterations would be made in our Liturgy Canons c. with the same indifferency in things of Conscience and Zeal for Interest he strove to be one of the first to condemn what before he swore subscrib'd or declared his Assent and Consent unto and frequently used undecently and as I hope vainly thinking that being esteemed a Borderer upon Fanaticism though by such an odious contradiction of himself he should therefore be thought the better qualified for and nearer to preferment as if Hypocrisie Levity or Prevarications were the most eminent endowments and such as would most effectually recommend him thereunto Our Church in her being persecuted both on the one hand by Popish Hereticks and on the other by Fanatick Schismaticks hath often been said to be like to her Lord in that he was Crucified between two Thieves and now our Author if his Subscription be really true hath made Her resemble Him in another of his Sufferings viz. in being betrayed by a pretended Disciple and that as it is thought and to be feared in hopes of what his Predecessor more expresly covenanted for viz. a Money-reward Lastly upon the same supposition he hath given the World a notorious instance how necessary it is to continue the Impositions Constitutions Subscriptions c. enjoyned by our Church which he so much and so leudly declaims against for if neither the ingenuity of his Education the Dictates of his Conscience the Precepts of Holy Scripture the Canons and Constitutions of the Church nor his own Oaths Subscriptions Declarations and daily Practice could govern his prejudice malice or sinister designs how imprudent would it be either to remove those fences or lessen that security or cancel those obligations which the Piety and Prudence of our Superiors have placed for the preservation of our Church and so by a contemptible prostitution of them to the crafty pretensions of our insincere Adversaries expose our selves to no purpose but that of an insolent ridicule from the pride of a designing Enemy Our Author whosoever he is especially if what the Subscription to the Pamphlet intimates for his base and malicious prevarications hath evidently incurred the Excommunication ipso facto decreed in Canon 6. the Prosecution of him by virtue of which and the judicial inflicting of that or some other Ecclesiastical censure in salutem animae morum correctionem is a thing by the Constitutions of our Church committed to his Ordinary to whose care and discretion I recommend him Some farther Considerations of a Re-Union of Dissenters with the Church of England 1st IT is to be considered that the Dissenters could not without both a tacite reprehension of themselves and a supposition of our being very good natur'd and easie to be imposed upon have desired from the Church of England so much as a Toleration of their Publick Profession because the giving of it is contrary to both their own judgment and practice Mr. Calvin the Author of the Presbyterians from whom they derive both name and thing as also his Successor Theod. Beza taught and practis'd the Peâ—secutions of others differing from them in matters of Religion as the Papists do under the notion of Hereticks Of the same Opinion generally are all that Sect as appears not only by the Writings of those two already nam'd but by those of the Divines of Bearne Tigure Schaffhuse Basil c. by the Decree of the Synod of Dort against the Remonstrants and their Brethren here in England wrote against a Toleration of any differing from themselves from Sion College to the Assembly at Westminster An. 1645. And for matter of practice the burning of Servetus and their other transactions of Affairs at Geneva the long actual Persecution of the Remonstrants by the Contra-Remonstrants in Holland And the Carriage of that Party here when they had usurp'd Power in the Year 1642 c. was such towards the Clergy and others of the Church of England as would in all Justice Reason and Conscience stop their Mouthes from all complaints against her for ever at least till the Burthen laid on them by Law becomes heavier than what they impos'd on her by Illegal Force to omit the unjustice violence robberies barbarities tumults and insurrections done committed and raised in Scotland under pretence of Religion are sufficient Evidences That their Younger Brethren the Independents are of the same Principle their attempts here 〈…〉 their Persecution of the Quakers their making it penal for any Man to abstain from his work or to observe the Christians grand Festival called Christmas-day and their other Laws relating to Religion c. in New-England are Testimonies too convincing to leave a place for doubting The Anabaptists by their Extravagancies committed under pretence of Conscience and Religion have discredited themselves in Germany c. And might no doubt if numerous enough be dangerous elsewhere The Fifth-Monarchy-Men though but an handful shewed in this City what we might have expected from them had their number enabled them to prosecute their designs The Quakers are yet in their Minority both as to Age and Number how they will behave themselves if they live to attain both or whether they will then continue in their seeming innocence is not yet known Hereby it appears I hope sufficiently that the Dissenters in general are against a Toleration of other Religions and therefore can have no Plea for it founded in Conscience Right or Debt Yet so far is the disposition of the Church of England from any Persecution of the Dissenters though justifiable both by their own Principles and Practices and the equal Rule of retaliation for Religion as our scurrilous and malicious Author insinuates falsly and brings a railing accusation against her that she hath at least
great a change if due regard be had to those who are very well satisfyed that all things should continue as they are to be huddled up in hast by a few Persons the Affair is weighty enough to consult both the Universities and all the Clergy in England which may easily be done in the space of one Year at their several Visitations Late experience may convince us how inconvenient it is to impose the Sentiments of some few Persons in particular things to be generally approved of consented to and joyned in by the whole National Church Let all our Reverend Pious Pa◠〈…〉 and Learned Church-Men weigh well the manifold considerations that oblige them by all means to endeavour that the the advancement of the Protestant Interest at home and abroad For so his Argument if it be one should run Otherwise we must suppose K. William came not to preserve the Government of Church and State our Laws and Religion but to alter both and to make new Laws and Establish another Religion and our parting with them now will shew that either he never came to preserve them or that we give him little thanks for so doing For suppose a Gentleman's House on Fire and his Friend coming to his assistance should make it his chief care to save a Cabinet wherein he knew his Gold Jewels and chief Writings concerning his Estate were kept and should with the utmost difficulty and danger effect it and the Gentleman who own'd it should when brought to him take it and cast it into the Thames would not his Friend think himself ungratefully rewarded for his service and his care pains and hazard ill bestowed in the Preservation of that which when in danger the Owner pretended to value above all things â—bid but when preserved threw away Let it not give offence if I say that we shall be ungrateful towards Dissenters It seems our Author had run about half a Page in full cariere before he could stop but now remembring himself to have been guilty of an expression improper unwarrantable and offensive in joyning the Dissenters with Christ our Sovereign â—bid he strives to justifie or excuse it saying They were steady for the Preservation of the Church of England in the day of our distress against the taking away of the Test and Penal Laws by which they had smarted so much This expression almost makes me doubt whether I have not hitherto mistaken the design of his Pamphlet in judging it to be intended for an Harangue made in favour of the Dissenters against that Church which he pretends to be ingaged in for it is so far from truth in a literal sense that I know not how to understand it but as an Ironical upbraiding them with and exposing them for their carriage in those days However if the filling the Gazettes for so many Months with Addresses and in them the giving thanks for Liberty of Conscience granted by a dispensing Power designed in favour of the Papists and their weakning of the Church of England by their running back again into Conventicles upon that account if their promising in some Addresses implicitely to choose such Representatives as should comply with his Majesties desire in others explicitely to choose such as should take off the Penal Laws and Test then they were so â—bid if not then the contrary He adds There were more of our own Communion than of theirs that revolted from us and turned against the Laws This account differs from mine therefore I will not allow it but demand a Poll and will not believe him nor be determined without it and a Scrutiny upon it â—bid And now they have an Indulgence by Law they are contented with the liberty of serving God according to their Conscience and trouble not the Government with Petitions for more I am afraid that is too good News to be true for by all that I have read of them in History Chronology c. by their Intriguing for the Election of Members as formerly in all other so now in this Parliament and by all that I could see hear or observe to this day induced thereunto I do not believe they are or in this World ever will be quiet if our Author believed they were contented why did he trouble himself they need not his impertinent Advocacy nor will thank him for it Doth he think to draw them out of their Conventicles where they are now by this Act of Indulgence lodg'd as safe as a Thief in a Mill to dance after his Pipe So that he might easily have apprehended that this attempt for them if he had no design of his own to serve in it whether it took effect or not must needs be made in vain The meetings of Dissenters are as legal as ours Iâ—â—â— As to the Laws of the Land which I doubt not are here referr'd to The Lawyers say Conventicles are against the Common Law and I suppose they are at least reductively and analogically contrary to Magna Charta I am sure they are contrary to many Statutes the Rubricks confirm'd by divers others and the Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons confirm'd by Royal Authority and consequently according to the whole body of our Laws are illegal and therefore I do not believe that one Statute of disputable Authority which only conditionally suspends the execution of some Penal Statutes yet unrepeal'd can make their Meetings as legal as ours He adds Ibâ—â— None are by the Law of God or Man obliged to hold Communion with as upon the present terms As for the Law of God I refer the Author and all his dissenting Clients to those places of holy Scripture where Unity Love Peace Order Decency Unanimity Brotherly-kindness Charity Uniformity Humility Gentleness Mildness Obedience c. are commanded and where Pride Malice Envy Hatred Carnality Self-conceit Turbulency Contention Disorder Disobedience Atheism Apostacy Heresie Schism Separation Divisions Scandals Offences c. are forbidden All these the Laws of the Land both Civil and Ecclesiastical and I might add the Law of Nature and if they availed any thing the Laws of Reason Justice and Charity oblige all persons Foreiners not naturalized onely excepted to hold Communion with us upon the present terms as long as we remain a true Christian visible and National Church and nothing which is imposed upon all persons communicating with us is demonstrated to be directly sinful Ibâ—â— And God may charge upon them viz. those who are for our Church its continuing as it now is and as his present Majesty hath often promised and once sworn to keep and maintain it as many have sworn never to endeavour any alteration in the Government of it and as our Author himself hath subscrib'd and declared his assent and consent to her Liturgies Articles c. all the blood that hath been shed from the foundation of the World from the blood of Abel unto the blood of those glorious Champions for our Religion and Laws Essex
Russel Sydney Cornish c. A strange piece of Theology fathering that upon the just and merciful God which a Magistrate or Judge of but common honesty would not have said of himself were it but for shame I challenge the Author whoever he is to give any tolerable sense of that Expression at the peril of his Reputation In the mean time I shall pass them over adding only in the behalf of the Religion Laws and justice of the Nation That the Earl of Essex's death is to be lamented but to be made no other use of till it be better known how it was compassed if he died by his own hand we ought not to judg him but leave him to stand or fall to his own Master if by the hands of others Why do not they who long since pretended the Murther was detected bring the Murtherers to Justice hanging is too good for them And of the Lord Russel Mr. Sidney Alderman Cornish c. I am not willing to say much perhaps they had hard measure and suffered summum jus but the title of Glorious Champions for our Religion and Laws I cannot allow them for I think they neither designed nor used the proper or lawful means or Methods to be so It cannot properly be said of any Man who after a legal Trial is condemned by a Court of Justice legally authorized to take cognizance of the Crime whereof he is accused that he was murthered no though he was malitiously sworn against and not guilty of the Crime for which he suffered for then the fault is in the Evidence and not in the Court Some Credit certainly is to be given to the justice of any Nation as such much more of a Nation where Christianity is profess'd and every Man concerned in it upon his Oath When the Papists accuse this Nation of persecution for Religion and Sanguinary Laws and boast of their Martyrs as they call them and say they died for the Catholick Faith and a good Conscience We produce their Trials our Records and Chronicles to prove that those very Jesuits and Seminary Priests of which they speak were attainted of High Treason or Felony and executed for the same and expect belief 2. 〈◊〉 ◠4 It is a vain thing to attempt the continuance of Ceremonies Wise Men when they are earnest in the prosecution of any Affair aim at some end that may recompense their diligence The Men of the Church of England desire to be wise unto Sobriety to be taught by the observation of elder times and their own Reason They know that since Men living here have Bodies as well as Souls some external Rites Habits and Gestures must be used in the publick Worship of God that such due regard being had to their lawfulness in themselves their expediency in respect of Communion with the Catholick Church scandal of any particular Church concerned and the edification of our own Church 〈◊〉 are determinable by the Civil and Ecclesiastical Authority of this Kingdom That the said Authority having interposed accordingly and prescribed these now in use as few ancient 〈◊〉 inoffensive tending most to Uniformity Decency and Devotion and consequently best answering all the forementioned purposes and established them by as good Laws as any are made in the Kingdom they are not yet convinced by any solid Reasons hitherto appearing much less by the virulent Railing rather than Arguments of this Author who hath demonstrated nothing so much as his prepossession and prejudice his unruly Passion and the large liberty he takes in abusing every body but his Clients the Dissenters that any change or alteration is necessary to be made in the present Service of our Church They are already well aware that Innovations usually let in more and greater inconveniencies than they remove That proud peevish and ungovernable Spirits will object against every thing and be satisfied with nothing and that the designs interests and ambition of some the prejudice of education weakness of judgment and perversness of temper of others would make even a total abolition of Ceremonies as ineffectual for the producing of a reunion of the Dissenters to the Church as the attempts of others for the continuance of them As for the endeavours for a comprehension and the objections against it which our Author mentions it seems by the event that either the comprehension was judged not feasible or the objections of force enough to stop the endeavors after it And certainly the best way we have or can have to preserve the Members of our Church from turning Papists now the doors of liberty are set open to all Religions and Men may chuse which they please is to let them see that we have some regular constancy in our Worship and Devotion as well as the Papists for otherwise our giddiness and frequent changes in Religious Worship will confirm them in their belief that the being of an Infallible Judge is necessary since they may observe that we who reformed under pretence of a greater purity having forsaken that Principle of Unity can never be long at any certainty That the Doctrine Worship and Constitutions of our Church which our Martyrs maintained with the loss of their Lives in Q. Mary's Reign and we thought to be lately in so great danger were not so adhered to out of vain-glory or love of opposition but out of a well grounded choice proceeding from a conviction of Judgment and Testimony of Conscience and therefore we can as little be flattered out of them now as we could be frighten'd out of them then I might add that the strength of that objection being founded in the Laws and Rules of Justice Sincerity Charity and of not giving offence and laying a Stumbling-block before any of our Communion or theirs will never cease at least as long as any Papists remain in this or rather in the three Kingdoms neither will the appearance of Popery in its proper Colours take off the obligation but bind us not to retaliate injuries and to be careful that while we condemn them we do not run into the same or greater enormities I am afraid that our carriage of late Years will be no great inducement to them to come over to our Communion or otherwise to have any very good opinion of us or our Principles if they should judge of them by our Practices That passage which our Author quotes out of a Sermon 〈…〉 in these words God be thanked for it that there is an end put to all Persecution in matters of Conscience that the first and chief Right of humane nature 〈…〉 of following the dictates of Conscience in the Service of God is secured to all Men amongst us c. Wherein is included this Affirmative it is the first and chief Right of Humane Nature to follow the dictates of Conscience in the Service of God to the truth of which I cannot no not upon so great Authority give my Assent for if Humane Nature hath such a
from them both And if all other pretences for the continuance of a Schism were removed perhaps this founded in the difference of Opinion would be made a new one by our Dissenters for many of them reproach as they imagine some eminent Divines of the Church of England by imposing on them the name of Arminians Their Doctrines of Solifidianism Imputative Righteousness the Instruments of Justification c. though founded in mistakes and wrong acceptations of words were by many of them imbib'd and receiv'd with that confidence and assurance that they had not patience to hear them explain'd much less doubted of and if there were no Schisms occasioned by them in those times of their Reformation for it would puzzle even a good Ramist to Analyze the several subdivided Sects and their Opinions which that great confusion produc'd Yet how they aspers'd revil'd and persecuted one another upon that account is well known if not Mr. B. can inform any Man who desires it more fully 4. Not only difference of Opinion in matters of Religion but also in the Civil Government is sufficient to make a separation and division in the Church especially if any Authority in Ecclesiastical Affairs be assigned to the supreme Magistrate for that neither the Papists nor Presbyterians will allow him It hath been often observed that Rebellion in the State is usually attended with a Schism in the Church Jeroboam of old introduc'd Idolatry to continue his Revolt lest Union in one Religion and Communion in one Church should restore Loyalty in the Kingdom The Feuds betwixt particular Families arising from the ambitious Emulation of the Prince's favour The Faction between the Covenanters and the Anti-Covenanters in Scotland The Attempts of the Anabaptists in Germany and the Fifth Monarchy-men here in England to omit the most famous Faction between the Guelphes and Gibellines both Parties of the same Religion and other ancient and forreign Instances I shall give you one Example sufficient alone to prove my Assertion The Mountain Conventiclers in Scotland who having under pretence of Conscience separated themselves from the establish'd Episcopal Church and also subdivided themselves from the Presbyterian Dissenters followed select Teachers of their own which being prosecuted according to the Laws of that Country King Charles the Merciful indulged some of them and licensed them to Preach which when he had done and they accepted they who before could by no Authority Laws and Penalties be restrained from flocking to them in multitudes quite deserted them and refused to hear them Preach Such was their pretense of Conscience but indeed Zeal for the Covenant aversion to the King 's Monarchical Authority and Supremacy c. So that if there were not one Rite Ceremony Vestment Gesture c. if it were possible retained or used in our Church nor even the Liturgy it self nor any Constitutions and Canons in force Yet the Old Kirk and Common-wealth Principles beginning to be revived again and the Question being not as some short-sighted Clergy-men imagine about Rites Ceremonies Liturgy Vestments Constitutions and such like small and inconsiderable things but whether a King or Common-wealth if a King from whence shall his Power be derived how limited c There needs no more than that Opinion of the King's Supremacy and that Adherence and Loyalty to Monarchy which the Church of England was formerly renowned for to cause the Dissenters all which are against the King's Supremacy and many of them Men of Common-wealth Principles whose Fingers itch after the Crown and Church-Revenues to separate and continue their Schism from the Church the Quarrel being really and truly more Political than Religious and of this the War against and Execution of King Charles the First the Fanatick-Plot against the Life of King Charles the Second which perhaps they will say was the Action of but some few particular Persons and the Carriage Conversation Writings and Actings of the N. Cs. in general in those times ever since especially this and the last year the transactions lately in Scotland and their precipitate abolishing of the King's Supremacy there are sufficient evidences to any Man who is in his right Senses 5. Different persuasions concerning Ecclesiastical Discipline See◠〈◊〉 Enâ—â—â—â— Noâ—â—â— forâ—â—â— undâ—â—â— K. Câ— c. The Advocate of the Non-conformists as a reason of their Recusancy objects against Lay-Civilian's decreeing Persons to be excommunicated which he calls the exercising the Power of the Keys though this objection is absurdly urged by any Man who asserts the Presbyterian Model by Lay-governing Elders but the removal of this would do little to their satisfaction Neither would what the Author of the Healing Attempt proposes viz. In 〈◊〉 A condescending to settle the Power of Orders and Jurisdiction on Presbyters as well as Bishops according to the Learned Archbishop Usher 's Model c. satisfie them so long as there remain any Persons in our Church superior to them in degree the Power of Ordination and the exercise of Jurisdiction for that is not only inconsistent with their affected Parity but irreconcileable with that Vice gerency which they pretend as well as the Pope to derive from and hold under Christ as the Supreme Head of the Church Thus the Author of the Survey of Discipline tells them pag. 440 441. See 〈◊〉 Doâ—â—ame'â—â— fenceâ— the Sâ—â—â— c. 〈◊〉 6. p. 〈◊〉 They had said that your Discipline is the Kingdom of Christ wherein your Presbyters hold as it were Christ's Sceptre That the Question between the Bishops and You is about no less matter than this whether Jesus Christ shall be King or no c. Or more truly and plainly whether they shall be his Vice-Roys and as Popes over several Parishes Lord it over their Flocks As for Lay-Chancellors tho it is some deviation from the Primitive Times when Bishops with the assistance of their Colleges of Presbyters managed all Affairs yet the Christian Magistrate afterwards committing many Causes to Episcopal Audience Silvanus the Famous Bishop of Troas delegated them with approbation Soc. 〈◊〉 cap. 〈◊〉 to the hearing of Lay-Men However I believe all the Clergy and Lay-Men living in the Communion of the Church of England would be glad the Reverend Fathers of it by a personal execution of the Episcopal Office with their Cathedral College in all cases of Conscience Heresie Schism Crime and Scandal for their own sakes if not for their Church's would remove that Objection As for the Learned Archbishop Usher's Model every body knows it was not his judgment but invented as an expedient to prevent things from coming to the utmost extremities that it doth not settle any Power of Orders as is insinuated upon Presbyters or of Jurisdiction but what they have already and may exercise as to the substance of it by vertue of their Order our Rubricks confirm'd by Statute and our Canon besides that Model excludes the lately invented Lay-Elders and is as little reconcileable to the Congregational way into which most
of our Modern Presbyterians seeing themselves supplanted by the Independents have degenerated as the Episcopacy by Law Established and therefore would be little satisfactory to the Dissenters or available to the effecting a re-union I might add that their insisting only upon Power of Orders and Jurisdiction the two chief Prerogatives and distinguishing Characters of Bishops no otherways necessary to the discharge of the Ministerial Function in a Parochial Congregation than as by our Church prescribed and by our Laws allowed and commanded is an evidence that it is not conscience which troubles them but the old contention which shall be greatest that their desire of the multiplication of Bishops or rather the Consecration of Chorepiscopi to the number of the quondam Rural Deans must be supposed to proceed from hopes of their advancement at least to some of those many small Sees or from some worse design As for the words of the Disciplinarian we may see by them how far the Presbyterian Principles when asserted in their proper Latitude will extend and that the Prosecution of them would abolish not only Canonical Ordination that Spiritual and Paternal Oversight of both Pastors and Flock which would tend to the Peace Unity and Good of the whole but also the Episcopal Order it self which immediately succeeded to the Administration of the Apostles and hath continued in the Government of the Primitive and Universal Church of Christ in all Ages from their Deaths till the last Century As it would be a very bold attempt to presume to abolish remove or weaken the Primitive and Catholick Government of the Church by Episcopacy which was evidently at least Jure Apostolico Established in the first Ages of it to introduce the novel humane invention of Presbytery So it would not be a little imprudent and unsafe in regard of State Government since it would undermine the Monarchy by the very same means and methods as Popery viz. by depriving the King of his Supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons by elevating the Presbytery above him by exalting every little Mas John to be a Popeling and investing him with the same absolute Authority in his Parish as the Pope of Rome challenges over the World by an exemption of the Presbyterian Teachers from the Civil Jurisdiction making their assembling of Synods to depend upon their own and not the Prince's pleasure and by the Preaching their Doctrins of the lawfulness and their obligations to propagate and defend their Religion and Kirk-Government by Arms will certainly by a gradual diminution of the King's Prerogative and Authority lessen his Power to that degree that whensoever they please to exert their democratical Principles and animate the Populace easily influenced under pretence of Conscience with the hopes of plunder into such an Insurrection as may reduce this Kingdom if not the three to the same or a worse condition than they were in in 1641. c. And thereby the Government of both Church and State be swallowed up in Anarchy and Confusion out of which if they become not a prey to some Puissant Foreign Enemy the vast expences of Blood and Treasure the Nation will be put to the many divisions and separate interests will be in it the contentions of the Schismaticks which shall be uppermost c. will hinder a re-establishment of Monarchy or a settlement of any form of Government more perfect than that which is most agreeable to the Presbyterian and Independent Discipline of a Democracy which amongst so fickle and unconstant People must needs be short-liv'd and during its continuance by reason of its own proper inconveniencies and inherent defects is but a degree above confusion III. The Schism which the Dissenters have made from the Church of England whatsoever may be pretended was not really made upon the account of any thing contained in our Liturgy any Ceremonies in use in our Publick Worship or any subscriptions enjoyn'd by our Laws as in themselves contrary to their Judgments in case of Conscience as appears because 1st None of the Dissenters have hitherto with any cogent Arguments proved any of them unlawful and therefore can have no reasonable cause or lawful Warrant to either make or continue a Schism if it be said They doubt of the lawfulness of some of them I answer That is not enough to excuse the Schism which unless it be to avoid the doing of that which is evidently sinful is always unlawful and criminal The Obligations to Order Peace Unity Charity and Communion with the Church of Christ to obedience to our Ecclesiastical Superiours their Constitutions and Canons and to our Civil Governors and their legal establishments in indifferent things and the circumstantials of Religion are derived from Divine Authority of an Eternal Nature and so far binding as not to admit of a Relaxation unless plain and notorious sin be positively commanded for otherwise to separate would be both to omit a certain duty for fear of being guilty of a possible mistake and to commit an evident and aggravated sin of many pernicious consequences to avoid the transgression of a single Precept either not existent or at least not evident Doubts under pretence of Conscience are usually made to shroud a perverse disobedient humour or some sinister design not willing to appear above-board Thus a Man being called to give an evidence which he knows will endanger his Friends Interest Liberty or Life not willing either to damnifie him or perjure himself as a mean expedient to prevent both he pretends that he did not hear the words or that he doth not remember them So here the Dissenter not being able to prove any thing contained in our Liturgy or the innocent and decent gestures of standing and kneeling observed in the use of it for nothing else is enjoyned the Congregation in our Publick Worship unlawful nor willing to own the true causes of his Schism pretends he doubts but the unhappiness of it is that in the former case the answer doth not avoid the perjury nor in the latter the doubts take away the Hypocrisie and guilt of Schism and are no more than mere evasions for there is nothing but hath or may be doubted or at least be pretended so to be and if every such pretence should be allowed nothing can be commanded nor no order decency or uniformity observed 2. The greatest part by far of the Dissenters are such as never examined or seriously considered our Liturgy Articles Rites Ceremonies Constitutions or Customs or any other of their Teachers pretences for their separation a considerable number of them are such as never saw nor heard them and are not qualified either to read or understand them and scarce any of them can say in their own defence that they have sought any satisfaction at home by reading impartially such Treatises as the Divines of our Church have written to explain defend and vindicate them or abroad from the several Pastors under whose care and charge Providence and the
most Orthodox and best constituted Church now Visible to the World And though the Dissenters in general thought it advantagious to their cause to pretend objections against the Liturgy Rites Ceremonies and Constitutions of the Church of England as being founded in Conscience and the most plausible because the Obligations of it depend upon the WIll of God the Supreme Law-giver and the insincerity of the pretence not easily demonstrable Yet since according to their own Principles sufficiently known such a Schism as theirs from our Church now is is sinful and a Toleration not to be allowed it must rationally be imputed to other Motives and Inducements for had they been Men of a modest temper peaceable disposition pious and regular lives they would have been very careful not to have given offence they would have submitted themselves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake They would never have separated upon the accompt of kneeling at Prayers and standing up at the repetition of the Creed and Gospel and yet these are all that are enjoyn'd the Congregation in our daily and weekly Publick Worship or of any indifferent Rite or Ceremony retained in our Church for the sake of Order Decency Unity Communion with the Primitive and Catholick Church and avoiding of scandal or of any other Rite Ceremony Vestment Gesture or Custom whatsoever not evidently sinful in it self and so rigorously enjoyn'd them that they must necessarily either make that particular Rite Ceremony Vestment Gesture or Custom their own by an actual participation in it and approbation of it or be excluded from Communion This last being the only case in which it can be lawful to separate from a national establish'd Church had it been observed all our Dissenters Quakers and other Enthusiasts only excepted notwithstanding any different Opinions about smaller matters would have continued in the Communion of our Church as we may observe the several Factions Parties and orders in the Church of Rome though disagreeing sufficiently amongst themselves in many things yet make no Separation from it By what hath been said I suppose it evident that this unhappy Schism was not caused by our use of the present Liturgy any Rites Ceremonies and Constitutions of our Church and consequently that any alteration of them whatsoever or even a total abolition of them would never put an end to it neither is there any other way to do it but one and that is by the alteration of Persons and not of things if the Dissenting Teachers for the Love of Souls and the Restoration of Peace to this miserably divided Church would be persuaded though but for a while to act counter to their seeming rather than real worldly Interests and exercise self-denial to unsay what they have unjustly to serve Sinister Interests said in imputing any thing of Popery or Superstition to any Ceremony or Custom in our Church teach their Disciples and prevail with them effectually to lay aside all that prepossession prejudice pride self-conceit malice superstition erroneous Opinions love of opposition untractableness and censoriousness which they have all this while industriously and designedly instill'd into them and leaven'd them with and to put on that humble innocent modest and docible temper which our Saviour speaks of in Children and recommends to us in imitation of them in the Gospel guide them to their own proper Folds whence they have injuriously for their Fleece sake and other their own ends seduced them and then either qualifie themselves to become their lawful Pastors or by their good Instructions and Examples learn them as in duty bounden to be content to be taught by them that are it may be done our Liturgy Rites c. remaining entire but without such a conscientious concurrence assistance and complyance though all of thâ—m should be altered as much as can be proposed or what is really designed by some abolished it will never be attained And though the Dissenting Teachers to silence their own and satisfie their Disciples Consciences when accusing them as guilty of Schism cast the blame on the Church of Englands Liturgy and Constitutions as the cause of it and it is probable that had they seen no preparation of attempts to remove those objections nor nothing proposed to the Convocation in order thereunto they would have continued to insist upon them with loud and repeated exclamations yet by their since present silence in that point by their inveighing against Episcopacy and other Laudable Church-Rites and Customs approved by all the Reformed Churches in their late Pamphlets and by their repetitions of their Usurp'd Schismatical and Invalid Ordinations in so plentiful a manner in the interim it appears plainly that notwithstanding their complaints they are really unwilling for fear of being put to the trouble of inventing new ones and so by the shifting of the Scenes too often the juggle should be in danger of being discovered that their old pretended grievances should be removed and that they never did sincerely intend to put an end to the Schism and hence it is that as I am credibly informed several of their Teachers have entred into new Combinations and Conspiracies never to re-unite themselves with the Church of England notwithstanding any endeavors or alterations any omissions or condescensions that should be made or granted to that purpose in their favour and to the same end if the Bodies of their Pamphlets correspond to their Titles several of them have lately written So that upon the whole matter he that shall consider the Original growth and propagation of the Schism will easily perceive that as hitherto some other Motives more than those of their Consciences and our Ceremonies caused the Dissenters to begin continue and increase it so now notwithstanding they continue to pretend the same objections their design is not seriously to put an end to it and strengthen the Church by a Re-union of themselves with it but to gain an opportunity of vain glorying and insulting over her interpreting all alterations though granted but as Free Benign and Paternal Condescensions as demonstrations and concessions that the Established Church hath been all this while in the wrong and they themselves in the right to expose contemn and deride their Folly Levity and Cowardise in deserving their own Principles and to undermine and reduce the Church to that weak and languishing condition in which it cannot long be preserved from utter ruine by taking away her Foundations Constitutions and Establishments which have till now supported Her as Impregnable against both the Papists and Themselves and thereby in time be able once more to grasp the Revenues of both Crown and Mitre and if their Potent Rivals the Independents interpose not too early and powerfully having destroyed both the Civil and Ecclesiastical Government to make themselves Peers in Church and State Quod tamen absit FINIS