that nature have been matter of dispute in all Ages and in all Religions but about the Orders and Ceremonies this is the only thing to be resolved Whether the Church hath power to injoin an indifferent Ceremony But there is no such difference in the case The Question of things Indifferent hath been mistaken for the Grand Case of the Nonconformists for those points which are the main reason and matter of their inconformity are by them accounted not indifferent but unlawful and therefore not to be admitted in their practice till their Consciences be better satisfied And it is not irrational to think that serious doubtings may arise in sober minds about some parts of the injoyned Uniformity and particularly about those Ceremonies which seem to draw near to the significancy and moral efficacy of Sacraments and thereupon may appear to some not as meer circumstances but as parts of Divine Worship and their Consciences may be struck with Terror by the sense of God's Jealousie about any instituted Worship which Himself hath not prescribed Moreover these Orders and Ceremonies have been matters of dispute in all times since the beginning of Protestant Reformation But under the degenerate state of the Christian Churches by the great Apostacy of the later times there could be no occasion of disputing these things when Will-worship was generally exalted and the grossest Idolatries had prevailed I question the truth of that Assertion That the Dissenters cannot name one Church besides ours in which there was a Schism made for a Ceremony For a great Rent was made in the Christian Church throughout the World about a Ceremony or as small a matter to wit the time of celebrating the Feast of Easter But whensoever a Schism is made let them that cause it look to it and lay it to heart Wo to the world because of offences and wo to that man by whom the offence cometh But we still insist upon this Argument That these Rites being at the best but indifferent in the opinion of the Imposers the observation of them cannot in reason be esteemed of such importance to the substance of Religion as the different Opinions about the Articles aforesaid are And who knows not with what animosity and vehemence the Parties that are called Arminian and Antiarminian have fought against one another and what dreadful and destructive Consequences they pretend to draw from each others Opinions Now put case the more prevalent Party in the Church of England should go about to determine those Controversies on the one side or the other and truly they were sometimes determined by a Synod in His Majesty's Dominions namely by that of Dublin in the year 1615 also by the greatest Prelates and most eminent Doctors in England in the Lambeth-Articles and what hath been may again come to pass would not that side against whom the Decision passeth be ready to cry out of Oppression Yea how great a Rent would be made by it through the whole Fabrick of this Church Furthermore in Ceremonies publikely used and matters of open practice the Church of England hath thought good to indulge Dissents as in that of bowing toward the Altar or the East unless it be required by the local Statutes of particular Societies And in this the Sons of the Church do bear with one another according to the direction of the Canons made in the year 1640. Unto which may be added That the Mode of Worship in Cathedrals is much different from that in Parochial Churches Likewise some Ministers before their Sermon use a Prayer of their own conceiving others onely as the phrase is bid Prayer If these and other Varieties be no reproach to our Church will it reproach her to suffer one to Officiate with a Surpliss and another without it SECT XVI Men differently perswaded in the present Controversies may live together in Peace IT is no vain speculation to think we may have peace if men perswaded in their Consciences that the controverted Ceremonies are superstitious or at the best but Trifles and that the Liturgy and Ecclesiastical Polity need some Reformation should be joined with men far otherwise perswaded And the preserving of Peace in that case doth not suppose or require that all these differently perswaded men will be wise on both sides to content themselves with their own opinions But it supposeth the State and the chief Guides of the Church to be wise as it is always requisite they should be and that many of Reputation and Eminency on both sides will be prudent and temperate and examples of Moderation to others and not to suppose this is to disparage and debase our present Age but above all it supposeth the Publike Constitution so well stated and setled as to be able to curb the Imprudent and Unsober and to encourage the Modest and Well-advised Surely all Dissenters upon Conscience will not be prevailed with by the same Conscience to endeavour the propagation of their own way in these differences to the depression of others If some offer to disturb the Peace can no Rule of Government restrain them It is a deplorable case indeed if there be no remedy but for those that are favoured by the Higher Powers utterly to exclude and reject those that want the like favour and countenance At this day the Church of England by Her present Latitude or at least Connivence keeps peace among Her Sons of such different Perswasions as formerly stirred up great Dissentions in this Church Who is ignorant of the Contentions raised about the Arminian Controversies in the several Reigns of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the First But in the present Times the mutual forbearance on both sides but chiefly the Church's Prudence hath lay'd asleep those Controversies whereas if one side presuming upon its Power and Prevalency should go about as formerly to decry and depress the other and to advance and magnifie themselves and ingross the Preferments doubtless the like flames would break out again For there is a great dislike and abhorrency setled at the Heart-root of both these Parties against each others Opinions and a sutable occasion would soon draw it out to an open Contestation Now if the Church's Peace and Unity be already maintained in such seemingly dangerous diversity of Opinion among her Members and Officers and those not of the meanest rank why should her Prudence and Polity he suspected as insufficient to maintain Unity and Peace in the indulging of the differently perswaded in the now disputed Rites and Opinions SECT XVII Of DISSENTERS of Narrower Principles and of TOLERATION THE Latitude discoursed in the former Treatise is unjustly impeached as providing onely for the Presbyterians and relinquishing all other Dissenters for it comprehends within the Establishment those of all sorts that are of Principles congruous to stated Order in the Church so that no sort is excluded whose Principles make them capable And was this Capacity any where restrained to the Presbyterians Some Nonconformists are for
for the Honour of Reformed Religion to suffer from Papists then from Protestants And if it were at ones own choice One should much rather caeteris paribus suffer in defence of the main Truths of Christianity then for refusing a Ceremony or for any other part of Inconformity For this cause a Union is so desirable that these Bitternesses Reproaches and Scandals might cease from among us Lastly Whatsoever Enlargement we have granted by the Favour of our Lawful Superiors we have it in the best way and a Blessing is in it SECT XX. EPISCOPACY will gain more by Moderation then by Severity in these Differences THE Answerer enumerates many Reasons why a Form of Church-Government should meet with many Difficulties in its return after a proscription of Twenty years and concludes it must be a Generation or two not seven years that can wear out all those Difficulties On the other side he saith Presbytery languished almost as soon as it had a being c. I perceive Presbytery is a great Eye-sore Peradventure I may be reckoned a Presbyterian and to say the truth I am not ashamed of their company that are commonly called by that Name yet I have no pleasure in such Names of distinction I am of a Perswasion but not of a Party and whatsoever my Perswasion be it is Moderate Catholick and Pacifick Neither my Design nor my Principles engage me to maintain the Presbyterial Government Nevertheless I cannot but take notice with how little reason the intrinsick Strength of Prelacy or Weakness of Presbytery is argued from the duration of the one and the other in this Kingdom Had Presbytery the Strength of the Civil Power Or was it ever formed in England Was it not crush'd while it was an Embryo by the prevailing Potency of its Adversaries Look into those States where it hath been Established if you would judg aright concerning it On the other hand hath not Prelacy had all the Strength of Law and Power engaged in its defence by the Encouragements of Worldly Grandure for its Favourers and by Severities inflicted on its Impugners for above Fourscore years In which space of time none could appear against it without the hazard of utter undoing or great Suffering And though it were thus born up not for Seven years but almost a Century yet we do not find that it had worn out the Difficulties of those Times which were not so Many and Great as this Author reports its present Difficulties to be in its return after a proscription of Twenty years But there is a more excellent and surer Way which it is hoped may attain to a happier End in less time then a Generation or two If the Distemper of Minds were healed and Unchristian Enmities laid aside then Moderation being sincerely begun would hold on and make the Disagreeing Parties to be still more yeelding and mutually obliging those Provocations and Prejudices would then cease by which they have been mutually alienated and hurried into such Hostilities and they would not be tempted in their own Defence as they think to strengthen themselves by Evil Advantages If Episcopacy yeeld to a Moderate Course why should any prudent Dissenters go about to molest it For in so doing they would but perpetuate their own trouble and unquiet state seeing that diversities of Opinions and occasions of Discord are like to continue about Forms of Church-Government until Forms shall be no more On the other side Why should the Episcopal Clergy dread that Moderation that would render Episcopacy more generally inoffensive and acceptable and put some end to the hitherto uncessant struglings against it Are they jealous that the Structure of their Government may be weakned and at length dissolved They might rather apprehend it might gain Assistance and Reputation from many that now either by constraint and necessity or by provocation and prejudice are made its Adversaries Who so searcheth to the root of the matter shall find That not so much the Species of Government nor the Forms that are used as weightier matters have been the chief stumbling-block and the occasions of the greatest disgust and aversation Neither the Episcopal Office nor Habit doth affright this sort of People from hearing a Bishop preach to their Edification The right and sure way to establish Episcopacy in a Land where Reformed Christianity is established is not to urge precise Conformity in Opinions and Orders and doubtful things of meer human determination but to encourage soundness in the Faith Ability and Industry in the proper Work of the Ministry and a Conversation becoming the Gospel and to discourage Pluralities Nonresidencies Licentiousness and Idleness in all sorts who serve not Christ but themselves in their Sacred Functions and whose End is onely to live in Pomp Wealth and Pleasure Will the Church-Governors say as it hath been answered they are bound up by the Laws and if Patrons present unworthy persons which have the Qualifications the Law requires the Bishops must not reject them nor can they turn them out at their pleasure but must give an account to the Laws To this I reply If the Admission and Permission of unworthy Ministers comes to pass not by the Bishops Administration but by the defectiveness of the Laws why hath not their Zeal excited them in the space of so many years and several Princes Reigns to endeavour the obtaining of Laws effectual on that behalf as it hath to procure and make from time to time stricter and stricter Injunctions about Conformity and Ceremonies For we know no reason why as full and vigorous Laws may not be made against Ignorant Negligent and Scandalous Ministers as against Nonconformists Conscience Honour and Safety obligeth the Episcopal Clergy to turn the edg of their Discipline the right way and to shew its energy and vigor not about Ceremonies but the great and weighty matters of Christian Religion And I believe that many worthy Ministers of the Church of England are so perswaded Wherefore in the former Discourse I cast no evil reflection upon the Latitudinarians or any moderate persons nor represented them as conforming not sincerely and as becomes the Ministers of Christ. They may sincerely according to their Principles submit to these Impositions and yet not like the Imposing The expression of their lukewarmness in Conformity signified no more but this That they set a rate upon these Matters according to the value and that they bear but an indifferent respect to things that at the best are but indifferent It is objected against me That having provided a place of rest for my self and my Party in the stated Order I am little sollicitous for others I do here solemnly profess That I am chiefly sollicitous for the Tranquility and Rest of a troubled Nation As for my own Concernment my Deprivation is an Affliction to me and I would do any thing that were not sin to me to recover the liberty of my publike Service in the Church But if it cannot be I submit to His good pleasure by whose determinate Counsel all things are brought to pass and am contented to remain a Silenced Sufferer for Conscience towards God Yea I should much rejoice in such Enlargement of the Publike Rule as might give a safe entrance to others though I my self by some invincible strictness of Apprehension should remain excluded for I have no Faction to uphold and by others Gain I am nothing lessened And in my opinion it will be no dividing of the Nonconsormists or weakning of their Interest if a part of them might close with the Approved Order of the Nation enlarged to the latitude of their judgments when others of streighter judgments are left without Indeed if they were a Faction they might lose or lessen themselves hereby But Reformed Christianity is their Grand Interest and their main Cause lyes not in any avowed difference of Doctrines between them and the Episcopal Protestants nor in any Secular Advantages to hold to themselves in a divided state but in the Advancement of Gods Kingdom by the encrease of true Christian Faith and Piety The Answerer hath used many hard speeches against me and charged me with Malice in divers passages which I answer not in particular because the innocence and inoffensiveness of my words will clear it self and because I would not make this Discourse tedious by replying to things impertinent to the main scope It shall suffice me to add That I have written these things as knowing that the Judg standeth before the Dore. FINIS THE Contents Sect 1. OF the Foundation of our Peace already laid in the Religion of the Nation and the Structure thereof to be perfected by the Vnity of that Profession 2. The Good of the several Parties is best secured by Common Equity and the Good of the Vniversality 3. What may be esteemed a good Constitution of the State Ecclesiastical 4. The Comprehensiveness of the Establishment and the allowance of a just Latitude of Dissents is the best Remedy against Dissentions 5. Whether the present Dissentions are but so many Factions in the State 6. Whether the Nonconformists Principles tend to Sects and Schisms 7. Of their Principles touching Obedience and Government 8. Of placing them in the same rank for Crime and Guilt with the Papists 9. Whether their Inconformity be Conscientious or Wilful 10. Of their peaceable Inclinations and readiness to be satisfied 11. The propounded Latitude leaves out nothing necessary to secure the Churches Peace 12. Of acquiescence in the Commands of Superiors and the proper matter of their Injunctions 13. Of the alledged Reasons of the Ecclesiastical Injunctions in the beginning of the Reformation 14. The alledged Reasons why the Ceremonies are not to be taken away Examined 15 Of the diversity of Opinion and Practice already permitted in the Church of England 16. Men differently perswaded in the present Controversies may live together in peace 17. Of Dissenters of narrower Principles and of Toleration 18. It is the Interest of the Nonconformists to prefer Comprehension before Toleration where Conscience doth not gainsay 19. It behoves both the Comprehended and the Tolerated to prefer the common Interest of Religion and the setling of the Nation before their own particular Perswasions 20. Episcopacy will gain more by Moderation then by Severity in these Differences
of that Discourse to which he pretends an Answer And this hath brought forth a large Impertinency which takes up more than a third part of his Book For those whose Liberty He seeks to withstand are not touched with that which he writes at large of the nature of Dissentions with their Causes and Consequences and the Magistrates duty concerning them whether it be right or wrong setting aside the injurious application thereof And all that labour had been spared if he had put a difference between Dissention and Dissent words that are near in sound and perhaps sometimes promiscuously used but in their strict and proper sense far distant For Dissention is no sooner presented to the mind but it is apprehended as something either culpable and offensive or calamitous and unhappy But Dissent is of a better notion and is not necessarily on both sides either a Fault or a Grievance But if this Author means by Dissentions no more then dissents or differences of Opinion with what truth and justice can he charge them all as he doth with such execrable Causes and Effects Dissentions have been and may be remedied and their fuel being taken away those flames will be extinguished But diversity of Opinion seems in this state of Human Nature to be irremediable It is therefore hoped that the state of this Church and Kingdom is not so deplorable as to want a Settlement while these Dissents remain Moreover there are private dissents between particular men within the latitude of the Publike Rule and there are dissents that may be called Publike as being from the Publike Rule or some parts thereof Now the broader and more comprehensive the Rule is the fewer will be the Dissenters from it And the permission of private diversities of Opinion in a just Latitude within the Rule is the means to lessen Publike Dissents and consequently Dissentions much more And this was the main scope of the first Discourse The great importance of Vnity in the Church of Christ is acknowledged and contended for as much on this side as on the other Howbeit we do not believe that Christ our Head hath laid the Conservation and Unity of His Church upon unwritten and unnecessary Doctrines and little Opinions and Sacred Rites and Ceremonies of meer Human Tradition and Institution But He hath set out the Rule and Measure of Unity in such sort as that upon Dissents in those things the Members of this Society might not break into Schisms to a mutual condemnation and abhorrency The imposing of such things except in those Ages whose Blindness and Barbarism disposed them to stupidity and gross security in their Religion hath been ever found to break Unity and to destroy or much impair Charity Goodness Meekness and Patience which are Vital Parts and chief Excellencies of Christianity SECT V. Whether the present Dissentions are but so many Factions in the State ONE grand Objection is That the Dissentions among us are but so many several Factions in the State But meer dissents in Religion are no State-Factions at all but proceed from a more lasting Cause than particular Designs or any temporary Occasions even from the incurable Infirmity of our Nature And if it were granted That the Dissentions were State-Factions yet they are not so originally and radically but by accident Some may take advantage to raise and keep up Factions by them For this cause take out of the way the stumbling-block of needless rigors and then Dissentions will cease or languish and consequently the State Factions if there be any such that are kept up by them will come to nothing It is so evident that Toleration which came not in till after the breach between the Late King and Parliament did not open the avenues to our Miseries that one may wonder any should say it did But meet Indulgence to all sound Protestants is the likeliest means of stopping such avenues And if it be for the Interest of England to have no Factions the best way is to remove those burdens which like a partition-wall hath kept asunder the Professors of the same Religion Then the Masters of our Troubles whosoever they be cannot have that advantage by their Eminency in their Parties to drive on their Designs in the State Factious Spirits are disappointed when Honest Minds are satisfied and secured This Author relates the Aims of several Parties on this manner The Papists are for the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome some of the other Sects are for a Commonwealth others are for the Fift Monarchy But if the true state of the Nonconformists be well considered it will be found that in Them as well as any others the King and Kingdom is concerned and the good of Both promoted It is not with them as with the Popish Party who have such a severed Interest to themselves that the State is little concerned in it save onely to beware of its Incroachments But the Protestant Dissenters are such as do much of the Business of the Nation and have not their Interest apart but in strict conjunction with the whole Body-Politick Yea they have no possible means of ensuring their Interest but by Legal-Security obtained from the Higher Power and by comporting with the general tranquility both of the Church and State of England They cannot flye to the Refuge of any Foreign Prince or State as the Papists have done frequently they acknowledg no Foreign Jurisdiction which is a Principle of the Popish Faith but all their Stake lies at home and they can have no sure Hold that is aliene from the Happiness of the King and Kingdom An Impartial Observer cannot but discern this If it be lawful to name a thing so much to be abhorred as a Change of the Ancient Laws and Government they could not be happy nor do their Work by such an unhappy Change Experience witnesseth That their Interest is not for hasty and unstable Victory or unfixed Liberty but for a state of firm Consistence and Security and that they cannot hold their own but by the common Safety both of Prince and People The summ of this Matter is That a Party not onely comporting with the good Estate of this Realm but even subsisting by it and therefore firmly linked unto it should not be cast off SECT VI. Whether the NONCONFORMISTS Principles tend to Sects and Schisms SOme Reasons were offered to shew That Indulgence towards Dissenting Protestants did much concern the Peace and Happiness of this Realm And the Prudent will judg Arguments of that sort to be of the greatest weight in the Affairs of Government There is no need to reinforce the cogency of those Reasons The Adversary hath wrested them to an odious meaning contrary to their manifest true intent but whether he hath indeed evinced them to be of little or no moment or whether they stand in full force let judicious men consider The whole reasoning in that particular rests upon this Maxime That it is the SOVEREIGN's true Interest to make