of themselves were necessitated to make a Directory for the worship of God and to endeavour the settlement of a Classical Presbytery for the due Execution of such Laws as should be necessary for the establishment of their Confused Church and the Independents or Congregational Men where they bear the Sway as in New England are forced to settle certain rules of government in their Churches nay the Quakers themselves are not without some Methods of Policy in their Conventicles All these agreeing as far as possible with those fond and Sceptical principles the several Factions have studied to advance and to do thus in the sense of all those I have instanc'd in is to do what tends in their several ways to Edification and indeed this course seems agreeable to Natural Prudence tho' we had no Divine Command for it This then being a Method so universally agreed to it seems very obvious that a breach made upon it must necessarily tend to the dissolution of that Society wheresoever it is admitted and yet a nicety or tenderness of Conscience as it is abusively called is as good a Plea for allowance of such a breach in one Church or Religious Society as in another He who has scruples against the Jewish Church-Laws may have scruples too against Mahometism against Popery against Presbytery Independency nay against all the Religion in the World if a pretence to such a tenderness and scrupulosity be enough to loose every Bond and to break every Yoak and it must needs procure Contempt to the best and purest Religion if it be not thought worth the while to oblige men by all just ways to those Laws whereby it is guided and established When Sects and Heresies were permitted among the Jews notwithstanding the Fundamental Constitutions of their Church the solid Doctrines of Truth delivered to them by the Divinely inspired Prophets dwindled away into nice and useless Speculations obscure glosses and uncertain and Heretical Traditions Sincere Piety gave place to the transitory flashes of Hypocrisie and Intestine Broils and Divisions in the Heat of which God's Honour was forgotten contributed largely to the utter ruine and subversion of their Nation which was indeed no wonder Vengeance commonly taking place where Faith is banish'd and so low was that grown among them that a poor Proselyted Centurion exprest more of Faith to our Saviour than he could find in Israel Matth. 8.10 And since the time that the Followers of Mahomet gave way to new Prophets and Expositors of the Originals of their Profession their zeal is extremely abated and much of that debauchery and irreligion which the very Alcoran forbad has gotten ground and favour among them and the Papacy has lost as much almost of its power and Interest in these parts of the World by the relaxation of its Discipline and Indulgence to Contradictory Doctrines and Practices as it has gain'd by all its Legendary Miracles and new-fangled Arts and Stratagems assisted with the extraordinary activity of its most zealous Agents and Emissaries Thus Puritanism in our Fore-fathers days through its ineffectual attempts to settle the Holy Discipline prepared the way to Brownism and separation a little loosening the Golden Reins of Government in the Church of England gave entrance and encrease to super-Puritanical Presbytery and that not being sufficiently guarded by Directories and Ordinances introduced Independency Quakerism Familism Libertinism and all the Sects and Heresies and more than ever the Christian World had been acquainted with before When Humane Politiques first took place and men united themselves into regular Bodies it was presently found that the wisest and most rational Laws could not restrain the extravagancies of the multitude unless some penalties were annexed and a Power setled in some particular persons to execute those penalties upon offenders the same was prov'd true in Religious affairs also for though the ground and reason of all commanded or forbidden was never so plain and notorious yet Corrupt Man was ungovernable by pure Reason and wisdom so that some punishments were as necessary among Ecclesiastical as among Civil Criminals and this necessity has always made a necessary Connexion between the Temporal and Spiritual Laws that one might be Assistant to the other that Religion might oblige men obedience to the Civil Powers and Corporal punishments compel them to submission to the Church Thus God himself in the Jewish Government joyns the Judge and the Priest together Deut. 17.8 13. If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment between blood and blood between plea and plea being matters of Controversy within the gates then thou shalt arise and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse thou shalt come unto the Priests the Levites and unto the Judge that shall be in those days and enquire and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment and the Man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the Priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God or unto the Judge even that man shall dye and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel and when the Law was compleated by Moses we are told that he wrote this Law and delivered it unto the Priests the Sons of Levi which bare the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord and to all the Elders i. e. the Princes and Civil governors of Israel Deut. 31.9 so making the Priests and the Princes joynt Commissioners in the encouraging moral vertue and devotion and in repressing irregularity and disobedience and though the sentence of Excommunication denounced only by the Pastors and Governours of the Church be really the most dreadful of all others yet so much quicker generally is Man's sense of bodily than of spiritual pain or danger that the Temporal Magistrate is frequently forced for the keeping Men in the better aw to make the Execution of National Laws the best evidence of the inconveniences attending of the Anathema's of the Church those who are willing enough to quit for ever God's service being very loath to lose the smallest temporal Revenue or Privelege This mutual Assistance which Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws give to one another has at all times been found of so good effect for the keeping Men in due bounds of sobriety and obedience that so soon as there were any Christian Princes they presently set the Seal of their Authority to the Canons and Rules made by Church Governors for the use of Christians So the Imperial constitutions gave security to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction that men might know there was a Coersive Authority invested in their spiritual Superiors and that such a one as from which there could lye no advantageous appeal and on the other Hand Church Censures gave a strong confirmation to Imperial Sanctions evidencing the Consistency of Supreme Dominion and the power of Sword with the fundamentals of Christianity from which to the great satisfaction of temporal Princes it must notoriously appear that no Insurrection Conspiracy
Rebellion or the like could be commenced for Conscience-sake but that Conscience indeed under the Conduct of the Divine Law would oblige men to fidelity and subjection to their Rulers not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward and hence it is that tho' there be a power inherent in the Fathers of this Church of ours and that deriv'd from Christ himself by which they may Anathematize Sinners and suspend unworthy persons from Church Communion or admit Converts to it yet their Government is made the more easie and successful by having the favour of our National Statutes the Common Laws of the Realm by which while they meddle only with such things as are under their Cognisance they are protected from the malice and Revenge of Atheistical and unreasonable men Had the Apostles been blest with the same Assistance it is no doubt but the Gospel might have made at least more seeming Converts to it the power of working Miracles the striking of guilty persons dead with a word as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira did indeed in some measure supply that want and yet even then much more in the time of the next Successors whosoever thought himself not honour'd according to his merit could make a defection from the Church and contrive and propagate Heresies to ruine that Church if possible which had rejected them of which Simon Magus was a remarkable instance or if any were excommunicated for the foulest Crimes they could but turn Heathens again and in revenge use their interest to raise a persecution against or to blaspheme Christianity and all this without any fear of being punish'd by the Civil Magistrate But tho' men had then those ways of evading punishment for the present that subtilty was no alleviation but an aggravation of their Sin and though upon a Church-Censure denounc'd against them they flew in the face of their Censurers in confidence of their impunity those first and Master-builders of the Church were not so frighted from their duties well knowing that tho' they escaped here they would find the dreadful weight of a justly inflicted Anathema hereafter But from a transgression of these Rules of Church Polity innumerable Sins take their original the precepts of Christianity are severe and mortifying and corrupt men are loath to be compell'd to take such pains for Heaven which makes them oppose and vilify such Sanctions with the utmost vigour and resolve frequently never to submit to them unless upon their own terms which gives ground for separation So the bruitish Gnosticks of old cavill'd at the imperfection and impunity of Church Discipline even in the Apostles time and under pretence of greater Holiness and knowledge receded from the faithful Believers and what seminaries of filth and impiety their Conventicles prov'd upon it Church History sufficiently informs us Upon the same reasons have all those Schisms in the several Ages of the Church been made when the severity of Discipline pinch'd them they have cried out for want of it and under that pretext have made a shift to live without any at all Nor can we in this present Age upon the strickest Enquiry find more loosness falshood selfishness or uncharitableness among any people whatsoever than among those who upon pretence of Conscience make fractures in the Church of God nor can that pretence extenuate the Sin of Separation unless one Sin be the best Argument to excuse another by or an Error in Opinion the best plea for an Error in Practice and the Doctrine and Discipline of our Church being both built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone it can appear strange to none if they respect one another and concur to the building up and confirming men in their most holy Faith nor can any wonder at our Churches censuring those persons who can no way prove any Divine Command evacuated by her Laws nor shew any thing derogatory in its Constitution from the Honour of God and that reverence due to his Sacred Word nor find any impediment in its tendries to that Spirit and Truth requir'd in the worship of God and yet with an empty cry against it of Popery and Superstition to which It of all other Churches is the most irreconcileable Enemy divide themselves from its Communion labour night and day to enlarge that division encourage obstinacy in that practice from the Pulpit and from the Press by the blackest Calumnies the Devil can suggest against its Members Pastors and Governours as if it were of the essence of true Protestant Religion as well as that of the Jesuits to lye stoutly that somewhat may stick to their purpose St. Paul's practice was not such the Jewish worship and Doctrine was Corrupted indeed and he endeavoured to reform them according to the appointment of the Saviour but he represents them not worse than they were by fictitious Stories he sow'd no divisions among them nay we find not that among them he endeavour'd to perswade any to reject the Ceremonial Law of Moses though he would not admit of it among the Converted Gentiles nor against their Temple did he commit any offence whatsoever and if it be alledged that he preach'd against their Commands and in private the Objection answers it self they would not give way to Christs Doctrine therefore Paul and the rest of the Apostles must preach or the World must still have continued in Darkness but we preach Christ and him Crucified as well as the Objectors we hope to be sav'd by his Merits and Mediation as well as they we forbid them not to speak in the name of Christ when they are lawfully called to it but we forbid them to Preach up their own fancies and ill-grounded opinions to fill mens heads with useless idle and confounding scruples to instil a Pharisaical pride and uncharitableness in the minds of weak but well meaning Christians and here the Civil Power strikes in with the Prohibition and they incur the Penalties of the National Laws who employ themselves so those are to us as the Rabbins say the Masorah is to the Mosaic Law the Hedge and sence of our Church power which keep the wild Boars the Wolves and Foxes from breaking in upon us and happy sure are we to whom God has given such Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers who have that care to protect from growing and encroaching Enemies But Hinc illae Lacrymae hence all those tears those sad complaints of persecution were but the Cherubins and flaming Sword the Government and Laws remov'd from the gates of our Paradise How soon would our Enthusiastick and Tender-Conscienced Saints rush into all places of Power and Profit seize the Tree of Life it self and once more glut themselves with the Blood of the Slain But now alas the edge of that fatal Sword is turned upon them every way the Garden of God is not to be rooted up by them other Arts therefore must be tryed embroil the State
and Church disorders shall escape unpunishment and this hint brings me to the next degree of wickedness which the Apostle in the Text purges himself from i.e. From any offence committed against the Law of the Jews those Politics whereby their State was governed the natural Consequence of troubling and dividing the Church the Gnosticks the Spawn of Simon Magus were the first Hereticks that Broke the peace of the Church and the first pretenders to Christianity that appear'd in opposition to the Caesarean Laws engaging even in Rebellions contrary to that Doctrine they profest to own Nor did those zealots among the Jews who thought the rest of their own Nation too impure for their Society transgress less when they sent for the Edomites to assist them in ruining their Native Country and oppressing those who were better than themselves and how frequently the Edicts of Christian Emperours were slighted by the Arrians Eutychians Donatists and other Hereticks and Schismaticks we may learn from the most Authentick writers of Church History and indeed this Crime seems inevitable where the former is admitted since those who separate from others on account of purer administrations and so make a Schism in the Church must of necessity hold meetings of their own Associates to make a show of Divine worship and so break the Edicts of the State It is plain that Vnity in the Church and State both carrying on the same good design must needs be the most happy and desirable thing in the World but if every one be permitted to act according to this own apprehension in the one it must unquestionably produce confusion and have a fatal influence on the other Thus if a man be permitted to separate from the Church of God and to enjoy his own way quietly in that state of separation if he believe the end of Church Discipline and Laws generally to be the good of his Soul his better part he may reasonably conclude he may as well and upon as good grounds withdraw his obedience from the Laws temporal which only concern his Body his meaner part or his estate and Fortunes and this principle once entertain'd what the Consequences of it may be a very ordinary Capacity will soon discover So we see it has been questioned by Anabaptists Socinians and others whether it be lawful for a Christian to exercise the Authority of a Magistrate or to assume to himself though enabled by never so many humane Laws the power of Life and Death now what trouble such Sectaries and Hereticks have given to the Churches of Christendom we all know but may they not as justly question whether it be lawful for a Christian to submit to any such Authority as he concludes unlawful and an usurpation and if they may not submit to Laws and if they may not be compell'd by punishments extending to Life and Limb to that submission the Legislative power must be of small value it being a mere Scare-crow at which none but Fools can tremble I am ready as any Man to Believe that were all men as sincerely Religious as they ought to be Laws without penalties or bare directions from their Superiors would be enough to govern them by but the World is acquainted with no such perfection and therefore that burthen which men by Sins have brought upon themselves they must submit to and as self-preservation will engage a man who has several enemies to secure himself from their attempts by all means imaginable the same reason obliges Princes and other Publick persons who are the constant objects of Envious and Ambitious Spirits to fortify themselves by the best Laws and those by the best Alliances they can find out Now tho' Heathen Princes out of a distrust of that Religion with whose Principles they were utterly unacquainted were afraid to expect security from their own Christian Subjects and therefore rather chose foreign Confederacies and Leagues whereby they might be able to depress those whom they always suspected tho' unjustly ready for a Rebellion Yet Christian Princes have insisted on contrary Methods and have endeavoured by Unity and mutual Confidence in their Subjects to secure themselves against Foreigners for which end they have advanced uniformity in sacred Worship as well knowing that Nothing can create a more complete Love and Union among men than a close agreement in the weightiest actions of this life and this agreement at home once well setled a Confederacy abroad against their own Subjects if they be Christians indeed is altogether needless But this Vniformity must be establish'd and impos'd by Law for we sind sew Subjects so submissive to their Rulers as for their bare desire to agree to any such thing and by this means it comes to pass that Church Vniformity cannot be interrupted but Civil Constitutions must be broken at the same time that a Schism cannot commence in the Church but it will produce a faction in the State every one concluding it their Interest to cry up those of their own opinion and they if in power making a retribution of encouragement and protection While the Constituent Members of the Church and State are but Men Subject to mistakes and Errors it can be no hard matter for malicious Wits to find several imperfections in both The most pious and wise among Church-Governours and State-Politicians may take wrong measures of things and ordain sometimes such things as though Lawful may upon tryal be found inconvenient or though their Ordinances may be proper for the present Juncture of Affairs yet they may be impracticable afterwards So the Canons of the Apostles concerning abstinence from things strangled and from blood though absolutely necessary to prevent giving Scandal to the Believing Jews at that time and though Dictated by the Holy Ghost yet when the reason of that Canon ceas'd was soon antiquated and laid aside by the Churches in General So we in this Kingdom have had several Statutes made only upon probation for a term of years which expired as they were found profitable or otherwise they were renewed or repeal'd now this argues an acknowledgment of imperfection on both sides but is no reason for the disobedience of private persons on either It is the Apostles command Heb. 13.17 Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give Account that they may do it with Joy and not with grief and it is a command back'd with the same authority 1 Pet. 2.13 14 15. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake Whether it be to the King as Supreme or to Governours as those that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers but for the praise of them that do well for so is the will of God that with well doing we may put to silence the Ignorance of foolish Men. Now these commands being of the same Authority and force being both absolute and illimited and respecting both our Temporal and Spiritual Governors
a part of our Religion to be subject to the higher Powers not only for wrath but for Conscience-sake and rather to bear the Effects of all those suspitions Jealous heads can entertain of their designs against our Profession than to lift up rebellious Swords against the Gods of the Earth our Lawful Superiors It is generally supposed that Princes and Governors have a severe eye upon all Innovators and that they cannot contentedly endure those who are of a different Religion from themselves but that one time or other they will revenge that affront put upon them by dissenters This supposition is laid hold on by Ill men Enemies to the Church and State for first they study to draw others off under a pretence of some great deficiency from the publick National Profession then they encourage to a perseverance in their separation then perswade them they have by so doing exasperated the Civil Magistrate beyond hopes of reconciliation and last to add Sin to Sin teach them to rise against their Lords and to extort that liberty of Conscience they cry out for from their Superiors by force of Arms and whereas well meaning persons may possibly scruple to lift up their Hands against the Lords Anointed Knox and Buchanan and others of that Leven have given out a relaxing Doctrine That Princes for just causes may be deposed That the People have the same power over the King the highest Governour that the King hath over any one Man That the Commons of any Kingdom may lawfully require of their King to have true Preachers of which the same Commons must be the ultimate Judges and if he be negligent then they the Commons themselves may justly provide them maintain them defend them against all that persecute them and may detain the profits of Church-Livings from those Preachers whom they approve not of all Laws Ordinances Statutes to the contrary notwithstanding And now where these or the like Doctrines obtain credit where so much power is put into the hands of the People what Church can be at Vnity long within it self what Laws of any effect or Validity what Governors can be secure from the violence of the giddy-headed changeable and easily deluded Populace Had the Apostles and other the first Preachers of the Gospel advanced such odious Doctrines as these they would soon have brought the World about their Ears and Pliny would have found something else to have informed the Emperor Trajan about than their Honest mutual Engagements their early Prayers and inordinate Superstition nor would Providence have been concerned in defence of an armed Gospel such discoveries were reserved to the news lights of our times who else would have had nothing to have recommended themselves to the World by One main reason of St. Paul's speaking so much against divisions and breaches in the Church of Christ was that by unity and peace among themselves Christians might become the less obnoxious to the State For since it pleased God sometimes even under Heathen Kings and Emperors to give the Churches peace on every side and the uninterrupted protection of the Laws he would not have them by Schisms among themselves drive one another to a necessity of trespassing upon those Laws they were Protected by nor to exasperate the higher Powers so far as to reduce themselves to the sad choice of Perfecution or Rebellion He had given them a better example by his own Carriage toward the Jews when he could truly plead for himself against them that neither against the Law of the Jews nor against the Temple nor against Cesar had he offended any thing at all and happy had we in this Nation been had those great pretenders to Holiness and Reformation who caus'd all our woes and miseries some years since follow'd this great Apostle's pattern but the Act of Parliament for the observation of this Day informs us of the impossibility of such a thing It tells us They were a party of wretched Men desperately wicked and hardned in their impiety who having first plotted and contrived the ruine of this Excellent Monarchy and with it of the true Reformed Religion which had been long protected by it and flourished under it found it necessary in order to the Carrying on their traiterous and pernicious Designs to throw down all the bulwarks and fences of Law and to subvert the very Being and Constitution of Parliament that so they might at last make their way open for any farther Attempts upon the sacred Person of his Majesty himself they then began at the destruction of the Church proceeded to subversion of the Laws ended in an Horrid Rebellion and the Barbarous murder of their Sovereign Many perhaps in those black days had no prospect of those damnable Consequences learn from thence then the folly of those who dare engage themselves in separating and Schismatical Courses how God in them punishes one sin by another commonly till their damnation is irremediable but who could have suspected such Cruel Wolves under their Sheeps cloathing who could have believed such plausible pretences had veil'd such devilish Treachery and Hypocrisie or indeed who could but suspect them if their first motions were but rationally ballanced This Nation nor any of its Neighbours were ever blest with a Prince of more Prudence Goodness or Exemplary Piety than Charles the first of glorious Memory No Church since the time of our Saviour and his Apostles themselves was ever reformed to a higher or more Apostolical Purity in Doctrine or Discipline No greater or more faithful Lights shone in the whole Christian world at that time than the Fathers of our Church the Priests attending at God's sacred Altar Our National felicity our plenty riches prosperity were the Envy and Wonder of all the Nations round about us Now when men begin to cry out for Reformation in such a juncture of Affairs as this it looks like earnest seeking for a reason of Quarrelling it argues a Capricious and discontented Humour to complain without cause and a foul Stomach to nauseate the descending Manna the food of blessed Angels When the Malicious Heads of the Age had Caball'd together to render the Government as obnoxious as possible when they had made all the bitter reflexions imaginable upon the Prelates of the Church the Counsellors of the State and the King himself their Head when they had search'd the very Cabinet of their Prince and expos'd his most reserv'd Secrets to the View of the World even then all their Charges were prov'd by the clearest reasons to be nothing but Slanders Calumnies Lyes and the most gross absurdities that united Hell could ever invent How often then were the traiterous Swords of his sworn Subjects lifted up against the sacred life of their gracious Sovereign and yet at that very time In what charming terms did that Gentle Prince woe his stubborn and obdurate Rebels but seriously to weigh and examine the truth of things before it was too late in how pathetic terms did he set