trick on 't These men can baffle Truth in what fashion and to what degree you please as also advance a Falsitie how far you will to probabile verisimile and upon a good occasion to absolute demonstration From their Repositories men of ambitious and working Pates have been furnished with Tools and Instruments of all sorts and sizes to form and fashion file and vary Doctrines and Opinions suitable to the design and work in hand Here are Moulds fitly prepared to cast any Schism or Heresie in and in short all Enginery and Artillery that the Church militant too much in this sence can possibly want upon any occasion they can readily produce out of their Polemick Magazines With what sly and subtle Artifices these men have infected Christianity or furnished others with means and methods of doing so is beyond my power to declare yet I doubt not but the spring and head of our many modern Sects and Schisms might in some measure be traced up to these Fountains The Romanists I am sure are very sensible of the great advantages their monstrous Tenets receive from hence they observe it seldome to fail at a dead lift by its assistance they often confound the simple and not seldom amuse even the more knowing However they can make a safe retreat hither when beaten out of the field and their boldest Champions to avoid the danger of a close pursuit muce nimbly and sculk in the subterfuges of this thorny wilderness It comes in my head here to say though 't is not much to the purpose you 'll think but that 's all one and yet you may perceive it bears some squint relation to this discourse too I have often admired why Aristotles Philosophy should be to so great a degree the chief darling of so many Learned and Reverend men among us They deduce all things from his Text reduce all to him as the infallible Test of universal truth I am but a very mean Judge I confess but yet I know there are some things in him very weak and shallow many palpable Errours and notorious falsities and in what he is most Excellent the same hath been long ago and is now found in two or three other Languages without any the least dependance on the Philosopher and this in a far greater degree of perfection too But alas the choisest truths and best Observations in Italian French Latin or English relish not near so well nor have they half the poynancy as when served up with Grecian garnish after the Attick Mode I had sometime since an occasional discourse with a good and Learned man who upon quoting some saying of Aristotles immediately with emphatick admiration subjoyns The very same saith he with that of the Apostle I have quite forgot the words but 't was some moral doctrinal Precept I remember which a thousand men might have spoken as well as the Philosopher such Propositions being we all know the impresses and common notions of Rational Nature but Aristotle spoke Greek too and therefore imitated the Apostle a twofold way Who would have thought that old Homer should ever have arrived to so much Honour and Excellency as Evangelizans imports that late good man and excellent Grecian was in so high a degree his admirer that thinking he deserved better preferment than the first of the first rank of Poets he would needs place him among the Gospellers too We are all apt to admire then dote upon and at length Idolize this or that part of Learning that hath mostly engaged our Time Labour and Study The reason is obvious because in that we can play a game to advantage with any Antagonist So natural even to the best of men is Vain-glory. Not but that I am a great admirer of Learning and adore it at an awful distance almost to Superstition Learning I say not in hypothetick fancies dry empty Notions and fruitless researches but in solid practical Truths reductive to the service of God and the innocent profits and pleasures of Humane Life The rest may be the diversion and accomplishment of such as enjoy Wealth Ease and Vacancy but for my part I declare I had rather feel the warmth of the Sun when I am very cold than know whether Ptolomie Tycho or Copernicus come nearest the truth For when Wise and Learned men are poor and hungry which God knows too often happens I observe that they study more to find out a good Dinner than the Longitude and to Compass a round sum of Money rather than to square the Circle I observe too that young men fledg'd and flown from their nest of Notions in the University when they come abroad quickly find that Mathematical Demonstrations and Logical Axioms are the same neither genere specie nor numero with Meat Drink and Clothes this engages them to a study of that which bears a nearer relation to self-preservation and they for the most part take the old road of Mankind to purchase honest profit and the Comforts of life without much consulting their old Acquaintances Aristotle Plato Descartes or the like For as a Modern Satyrist saith well in that Forcing our Nature never yet did good We must fall back to our old flesh and blood This puts me in minde of the real disgrace and detriment our Church suffers by reason of the superfluous number of young Divines some with slender parts and mean Abilities others without Experience and Conduct and in these latter a rude mass of barren unadjusted Notions gives such an unsavory dash and ridiculous odd kind of Air to their discourse and deportment as always minds me of what Charron saith Faire De la Sagesse Liv. 3. Chap. 13. quelque chose en Clerk c'est le faire en Sot But the worst is that many are without Employment suitable to the great Character they bear how slightly soever esteemed of in our degenerate days From each of these many great mischiefs and inconveniences follow How many are forced to take shelter as 1 Sam. 2. 36. Tutours or Chaplains in ill-affected Families where their Stipend being often Arbitrary and their dependance almost necessary they are obliged to do their work after what fashion they please in whose hands their Salary and livelihood wholly depends And when they have served the turn they were first entertained for here or perhaps for some little peevish Caprice of the Godly old Lady they are forced to march off with a cold Compliment But if in this devout Family they have gotten some proficiencie in Extempore praying prating pretty well without the Book and the like they are excellently appointed to be received into some blind Assembly or petty Conventicle at least as Probationers and so on c. Others again cross the Channel presuming forsooth that they may see fashions on free-cost with Omnia mea mecum porto but when Cold and Hunger pinches and the Philosophick Portmantle comes to be examined not one rag or single stiver is to be found amongst all Bias's
not more generally embraced and admired is because the purity of its Doctrine the sobriety of its Devotion the moderation of its Discipline the largeness of its Charity are not more impartially and calmly examined more generally understood Our Church in its Spiritual State as you are Christians is most conformable to the rules of Christ to the Apostolick practice to the Primitive Institutions In its rational State as you are Men its Doctrines are very agreeable to the reason of Mankind its Precepts most becoming the purest and strictest Laws of Nature Vertue and Morality In its Political State as ye are Englishmen its Interest is inseparable from that of our Nation and Government We are therefore so far from being jealous of your most curious exact search into the Practice and Principles of our Church that we desire it nay we most earnestly beseech it We are in no danger from Mens most subtle inquiry into it we may be from their utter carelesness and indifferency towards it We are not against any Mans seeing Spiritual Truths onely we would not have the blind presume to teach others to see We would not have Men think they see when they do not which is the most certain way for them never to see at all we would have you know as much as you can onely we would have you believe that both you and we may know much more than we do we intreat you to strive to know all in a right way by sober Dr. Sprats Sermon at Whitehall before His Majesty degrees for right purposes uses and ends I will here be bold to subjoin by way of Corollary to the fore-going excellent words It hath puzled my nearest and nicest Inquisition and plunged my closest scrutiny in deep amazement when I have considered that so many of our Countrymen should out of an odd peevish humour and most unaccountable Caprice forsake that sober decent way of Worship which the Established Law presses which their gracious King and Governour himself strictly observes together with the Loyal Nobility and Gentry and the Reverend and Learned Clergy of this Land that they should I say leave these good these great these wise Examples contrary to the obedient humble temper of Christians contrary to the prudence and interest of rational men and contrary to the honest good nature of true Englishmen And all this out of a blind and ignorant complyance to the Insinuating hypocritical perswasions of a few leading prejudiced Presbyters For true scruple of Conscience cannot be said to urge them to this Non-conformity not one of five hundred understanding the intrinsick state of the Question or the true nature of the Controverted point any more than they do Arabick But granting that they could plead Christian Scruple how far would even that fall short of Justification seeing that the Commands to Obedience are so absolute so plain so positive and the reasons for Non-conformity even at best so obscure so weak so dubious In a word the Faith of our Separatists is as blind and implicite as that of the Papists the design of their Doctrines as Subtle Sensual and Secular But to return to the Romanists that the trick should pass upon the common Herd of the Ignorant and Credulous is not at all strange nor that the well-contriv'd Imposture should go down pretty cleverly with the middle sort of Mankind is it much to be wondred at but that so notorious so bold so sawcie a cheat should engage the Wise and Noble nay Kings and Princes to a complyance so mean and servile as heretofore especially this is a perfect Prodigie to me What depth of subtilty is implyed in the Doctrine of the Popes Supremacy and Infallibility the basis of implicite Faith indisputable obedience absolute dependance on the Church and Court of Rome What great and glorious Scenes of pomp pride and splendour are consequential to the necessity of making all deferences and humble appeals to his Holiness The Doctrine of Purgatory is a most excellent bait for a wealthy sinner on his death-bed how eagerly and zealously he exchanges his Bags for Masses that he may not be stopt at that hot stage but be immediately dispatch'd to the more agreeable warmth of Abraham's bosom Thus by a pretty kind of Platonick Chymistry the subtle Priest makes real Gold by an imaginary fictitious fire But above all to dive into and discover the Tempers and Inclinations Designs and Contrivances Actions and Passions nay the most retired Thoughts of Men and Women Auricular Confession is an unparallel'd device 'T is certainly the most impudent Incroachment and unnatural piece of Tyranny that was ever impos'd on Mankind I mean as 't is abused and disfigured by them from its first good designe and Institution I will now end these brief Remarks on the Romish Religion with one Trick more of theirs which appeared in the Death of Mr. Langhorne and the late Jesuits which hath afforded matter of much discourse to all and of no small wonder and amusement to some For my own part I verily believe that if the Depositions of the King's Witnesses as the Law always allows and supposes them to be so were not de facto true and evident if the Proceedings of the Court were not most impartial just and steady and by consequence the Parties brought in guilty by an honest and unbiassed Verdict if all this I say were not so then there is no Truth or Certainty under the Sun And therefore that Learned and Rational Men should at the point of Death fondly conceive that any Dispensation from Rome or their reciprocal Absolutions could possibly expiate the Guilt and Crime of a positive deliberate mortal sin I mean the stedfast Abjuration of true matter of Fact this is a Presumption of that Force and Contradiction to the Genius of Christianity and so contrary to the very Essentials and Fundamentals of Humane Nature that I know not what to resolve it into but a total dereliction of God Almighty or some latent Frenzy in those wretched Delinquents I have indeed heard some Learned Men urge the strong force of Education and Institution as a competent cause to rivet this Principle into the perswasions of the Romish Agents What e're it is it affords matter of mysterious difficulty to me and what Principle soever it owns certainly the resolute Effects it produces must needs belong to a very forcible Cause since we see this firm Obstinacy retains its Vigour in Attempts of the last danger and at the dreadful point of unavoidable Death too 'T is true that the Bishop and Spiritual Senate of Rome exhibit all the Machiavilian Maximes which they without exception call in to establish and advance their Secular and Ecclesiastick Politie under the specious stamp of Divine Authority and crown the most horrid Enterprizes and unnatural Villanies with the additional advantage of Merit this if firmly believed but there lies the difficulty must needs infuse as much Courage and Resolution as the Arabian
baggage Then they are forced to express their wants very politely in the universal Language and like Vagabond Polanders here they beg formâ pauperis Scholastici at some Convent or Monastery where as the case now stands the matter a hundred to one comes to a bargain they prove Converts and so having in time imbibed pernicious Principles as well as learned the art of putting them in practice fraught with mischievous Machinations and seditious designs they are delegated hither But I fear the Air of old England doth not reduce one of twenty at their arrival to such an happy reconversion as by especial Influence it did the good Dr. But a Maladie beyond all redress is the near dependance our Clergy have for the most part upon Lay-Patrons and Benefactours The servile awe and confusion that possesses the young Divine whilst he Preaches before them is altogether inconsistent with that modest boldness and temperate Assurance that ought of necessity to attend the Word whether we inform or reprove For if by chance our youth touch never so little upon what thwarts the private opinion or gauls any one irregular practice of his Patron though in never so general and distant a way he shall be sure of such a sowre look and correcting regard from his Worship at Dinner as shall quite dash the Countenance and turn the stomack of our new dignifié maugre the comfortable accession of the late Benefice In this Case I wish all men were as happy as my self in bearing relation to a most Orthodox Loyal and pious honourable good Gentleman c. To conclude all this our own Souldiers for want of due pay and encouragement turn often Renegadoes and by deserting us become so many fresh supplies to our sworn Enemies the Pyrates of Rome and Geneva This advantage superadded to the force of the old Pique enables them not only to fight at distance but makes them so hardy as to board our torn and leaky vessel the poor Church of England and 't is all she can do with invincible courage to clear her decks of these furious Assailants I look upon the Romish Religion as the exactest piece of State-Policie and the best contrived Mysterie of infallible Rule and Dominion that ever yet appeared in the world I always considered it under this notion without any other regard or relation whatever Its subtletenets and deep Maximes speak it such its ways and methods to preserve and continue itself where 't is already planted and of propagating itself where not do plainly shew that the true design of it is merely Secular contrived wholly for Temporal ends and purposes of Dominion Avarice Lust and in a word of Universal Tyranny over the Souls and Bodies of Men and Women I verily believe its greatest and most Learned Ecclesiastick Assertours see and know the trick well enough though they keep the Mysterie as safe in the Conclave as the Trojans did the Palladium in Minerva's Temple No Cabalists of State could e're trepan With such firm subtlety as Rome's Divan saith one And thus the main System of their Religion being wholly relative to Political practicks no wonder that all our Disputes ablest Writings and truest Remonstrances against them do so little good They may indeed debar them from proselyting men so easily as before but the two Poles shall sooner meet than the strongest Truths and Demonstrations shall reduce one of the great Churchmen of Rome Alas the Case is quite of another nature nor do they themselves think it worth while to enter the Lists of publick Disputation or answer the repeated oppositions of our Learned Churchmen unless as our chief Dissenters it be to comply with the Expectations of their own Herd and then too the main design is not to argue impartially and solidly but still more and more to amuse and intangle the poor ignorant Admirers of An Answer to Dr. c. Si Pergama dextrâ defendi possent c. comes always in my mind when I consider that the present posture of affairs is rather worse than better and at the same time think on the Writings of Bishop Jewel Laud and those other Heroe's that did and said all that was possible almost to little purpose alas and pray what can we do more They will not so much as argue to satisfie any scruple of their own Disciples the device of Implicite Faith supersedes their trouble as to that And if by chance among them a gaul'd Conscience offer to kick though never so sorely pinch'd one sharp word or frown of the Inquisition silences the poor Soul better to their purpose than a thousand Syllogisms And thus these men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil How quite contrary to all this is the proceed of our Church how different is her Carriage how frequent earnest and tender are her applications to the Dissenting Brethren With what reluctancie and force to herself after all means fail are restraints and penalties gently apply'd as the Ratio ultima rerum which she is far from making the Inscription of loud and infallible Artillery And yet what Seditious Murmurs do these men return to her soft passionate Invitations What Innovations Changes do they not secretly attempt What evil Representations of Church and Government do they not scatter What shuffling peevish returns do they make to the Writings and Sermons of good and wise Men in vindication of regular Piety and true Loyalty And they are so bold too as to press Gods holy Word for the justification of all this obstinacy but 't is not the first time that Holy Scripture hath been the Argument when the destruction of the Allegatour hath proved the consequence 2 Pet. 3. 16. Our Church by applying the soft and gentle Remedies of Statutable punishments and legal Mulcts never intended to force gross blindness or impose the Tyranny of Implicite Faith on any man but rather the quite contrary she carefully and wisely considered that a little smarting might make the scales peel off from their Eyes by some little bitterness she designed no more harm to them than Tobias did to his Father by throwing Gall in his Eyes to make him see And here I 'll presume to insert the words of a Learned Reverend Gentleman now among us We saith he that are Ministers of the Church of England may be content nay we may really wish that all our Laity had as much true solid understanding in Religion as our Clergy We can get no advantage by your want of knowledge no more than you can do by ours We have no Spiritual Cheat with which to delude you for the representing of which we should stand in need either of darkness or of a false light We have nothing in our publick Profession which the wisest men the most pious Christians may not outwardly practice nothing in our Faith which they ought not inwardly to believe We know and are well assured that the onely reason why our Church is