Our future danger from the continuance of Ceremonies and that in respect of the account we must give to our Judge Our Author it seems would have the World believe that we have many or at least some very dangerous Ceremonies in the Church of England whereas except kneeling and standing are such as I have already observ'd and his tautologies have often forc'd me to repeat there are no Ceremonies enjoyned to be observed by the Congregation in our Publick Worship and all the Ceremonies the Clergy are appointed by our Church to use in all her Publick Offices joyntly taken if Ceremonies are taken in that sense in which they include not Baptism and the Holy Communion exceed not three and those three are so inoffensive in themselves and innocent in their signification that none of the Dissenters could ever yet prove them unlawful and our Author who hath shewn malice enough by his railing thought fit to pass over that Topick in silence retained for so good ends and purposes and tend so much and evidently to Devotion Decency Order and Uniformity the Piety and Wisdom of our Reformers in reserving them and only them out of such a Multitude deserve not only to be commended but admired neither is it to be supposed that those Holy Men most of which either dyed or suffered Banishment in the Cause would clog and burthen that Doctrin and Reformation with evil or unprofitable Ceremonies which they were forced to espouse with the utmost peril of their Lives and Fortunes How will you at that day lift up your Faces before your Master and your Judge when he shall demand of you what is become of those his Lambs 〈…〉 which you drove into the Wilderness by needless Impositions Instead of other answer to this Question I shall ask another How will you O ye dissenting and seducing Teachers at that day lift up your Faces before your Master and your Judge when he shall demand of you what is become of those his Lambs which you have enticed and enveigled away from their own proper Pastors and Folds into the Wilderness by your needless oppositions to things lawful and indifferent by your perverse separation from a decent Establish'd Order and by your scandalous Schism from my true Church and making mischievous divisions in it Româ— 17 â—â— upon the specious pretence of Conscience when the true inward Motives were pride sensuality and interest and the effects have been prejudices censures malice railings seditions rebellions c To conclude notwithstanding all those dreadful denunciations of vengeance that our Author useth to affright our Clergy or the Members of our Church I doubt not but that it will be far more tolerable both for our Reformers who continued our present Rites and Ceremonies and the Clergy who since did and yet do use them in the Day of Judgment than for those who out of Pride and Interest oppose them upon their account make an unnecessary Separation from the Church or like our Author seditiously and schismatically libel the Government and Church to encrease the Enemies and endanger the Peace of both Some Considerations on the Author 1. HAD not our Author by an ambiguous if not fictious Subscription obtruded himself upon the World for a Clergy-man of the Church of England I should as well as others for ever as I did a long time have let his Pamphlet lye neglected upon the Booksellers Shop windows as being what the Title Page shews it a fardle of malice and railing prejudice and passion for such usually are the Pamphlets of our Adversaries and therefore fitter to be answered by silence and contempt than any other way If we take liberty to wave the Subscription and judg of the Author by his work he seems to be really though disguised a Jesuit or at least a Regular of some other Order in the Romish Church Commissioned as an Emissary and sent hither to disturb our Peace and this we may the more readily believe if we remember That the Church of Rome esteeming the Church of England because so like the Primitive both in Doctrine and Discipline and the only Church able to convince her of her corruptions and novelties her greatest and most invincible Enemy which since her Champions could neither by their Pens confute 〈…〉 nor by their Swords destroy they made it their business to weaken by divisions pursuant to which proposed Method long since in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign they set patterns to the Dissenters to make long extemporary Prayers to decry set Forms rail against our Liturgy Ceremonies the pretended corruptions of our Church and Popery it self for which good service one Faithful Comyn 〈…〉 in particular was rewarded by the then Pope with 2000 Ducats On the same errand were many other Jesuits sent over into these Kingdoms in the Reign of King Charles I. which how well they succeeded is but too well known And our Author following the same labour it is but rational to suppose him set on work by the same Master carrying on the same design and expecting the same issue and hoping for the same or the like reward 2. Or since the Pamphlet contains weak or rather no Arguments but instead thereof strong calumnies its Style is Fanatick-cant intermixt with down-right scurrilous railing and is with no less impertinence than conceited confidence proposed to the Convocation we may suppose our Author to be some small retailer of the Geneva-Discipline and Government who having read a Systeme or two where that Model is laid down as Orthodox Divinity is therewith so captivated and possessed with it that all others must be censured condemn'd and abolish'd to make room for it and being fully persuaded of the truth of those notions he judges every thing lawful or unlawful as it suits or disagrees with them neither will the subscription though in unusual terms By P. M. a Minister of the Church of England make it much less probable for Presbyterians besides an envy to the Episcopal Order because it is superior to their own and Antimonarchical Principles may have learned of their elder Brethren the Jesuits the useful art of Equivocation by virtue whereof our Author if he believes his own words in pag. 36. Our Brethren meaning the Dissenting holders forth have according to the Act of Indulgence subscribed our Doctrine and thereby are incorporated into the Church of England perhaps may think it in some sense to be reconcilable to truth and to this conjecture the use of that affected word Minister which as in use formerly in the Jewish Synagogue 〈◊〉 20. signified him who kept the Book and prompted the Reader according to its derivation a Servant and in the Christian Church a Deacon or Alms Keeper adds a great probability 3. But if our Author be really such as he designs to be thought a Clergy-man in the Church of England though a Minister or Deacon in the lowest Station he hath degenerated yet lower and become guilty of the
Ambition Envy and Avarice of their pretendedly conscientious but really designing c. Enemies that the tottering Monarchy tho never so desirous because obliged in interest c. will not be able to rescue them from becoming their Prey What I have said by way of consideration or answer to any particular expression of our Author's Pamphlet or of the whole in general or of himself you are allowed to judge of as after an impartial reading of it you shall find cause If you shall imagine that any Passages I have used concerning Dissenters are too harsh my Apology is that all I have said concerning them is reconcileable with that charitable opinion I have always had viz. that many of them are good Men who yet are too credulous and with a Faith too implicite follow their designing Teachers not knowing the danger of their living in Schism That my accidental circumstances have occasioned me to know that sort of People very well and that I have taken great care not to do them any wrong by a Mis-representation but on the contrary in this imperfect Pourtraicture have been cautious and out of pure kindness have very sparingly used such proper colours as I knew would make the draught to the life for fear of making it too ruthful a Spectacle CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PUBLISHER's PREFACE TO THE READER WHETHER our Author 's pretended Friend the Publisher hath not by an imitation of his own prevarication instead of a real commendation mock'd him with an Irony when he called him a Man of Excellent Principles and Healing Temper let the Learned judg The tripartite reflection he makes upon the Clergy of the Lower House of Convocation as being Men of hot Thoughts crude Judgments and four Humours they may either take quietly amongst themselves if true or if otherwise answer as they please being of age to speak for themselves I should have pass'd it by had he not made another more general worse design'd and a more malicious one wherein he attributes the not proceedings of the said House and their not consenting to the pulling in pieces our Liturgy Articles Canons Act of Vniformity c. to the peevishness ignorance and dissaffectedness of some of the Clergy to the present Government and all this such is the Modesty and Conscience of the Man without any reason or proof but ushered in with a foolish and unmannerly Confidence I doubt not This Epistoler having a large Talent in Railing is not only very free in the exercise of it but is so rude and uncivil as to impose the Belief of his Calumnies upon his Readers and cause them to read the following Pamphlet with as much prejudice against the Clergy as it is written with malice against our Ceremonies and Church Constitutions He would no less falsly than malicioufly represent all those who are well satisfied with the Church to be dissatisfied with the Government Though how it can be inferred that those Clergy men that sincerely declared their Assent and Consent to the Book of Common-Prayer c. and are not willing that they should be abolished either in the whole or in part are therefore disaffected to the Present Government it is not very easie to apprehend How absurd is it to suppose every body who approves of the Church's Doctrine and Discipline to be disaffected to the Civil Government when the King hath declared his approbation of them and promised to protect the Church as now by Law Established and the Queen joyns with him in his Communion with it Must they not therefore according to our Publisher be disaffected to their own Government However though I believe this Publisher was not aware of it that supposition if true would cast a vile reflection on the late Revolution as being really in lieu of what was pretended the Preservation of that Government in the State which was agreeable to the Doctrines and Discipline of the Church the Introduction of another so opposite thereunto that he who adheres to his former Faith and Church Service must be therefore supposed to be disaffected to it And that all the Clergy and all others who in pursuance of our Statutes have sworn never to endeavour any alteration in the Government of Church or State must be supposed to be either perjured or disaffected to the Government The greatest part of the Clergy or rather all the Benefic'd Clergy in the Kingdom some few particular Persons only being excepted The Divines and others in the two Universities the Members of the House of Commons in the Late Convention and Present Parliament and almost all others thereunto obliged have given sufficient evidence of their affection to the Present Government by their taking the Oaths and yet it is rationally supposed that by far the greater part of all these as also of the Nobility and other Gentry in the Kingdom by reason of the present satisfaction of their Judgments their former Obligations the apprehensions of the many and great damages and inconveniencies which naturally follow all frequent changes in Religious matters and which accidentally would follow these and many other weighty Considerations are against such alterations in the Church-Service and Government as by Law established But some Men are too malicious and designing to be long quiet civil or satisfied with any Persons or things or in any circumstances It hath been the usual practice and policy of Fanatick Schismatical and Seditious Spirits appearing under the Vizor of Purity and Zeal to asperse and calumniate all Sober Sincere Honest and Loyal Persons the only preservers of our Monarchies and Church's Peace who would not concur with all the extravagant humors and sudden motions of the Mobile when actuated by the Jesuits Enthusiasts or intriguing Common-Wealths Men in order to disgrace them and advance themselves in the esteem of the Vulgar Thus in the Reigns of King Charles I. and II. to effect their designs they imposed on them the Names of the Popish Party Cavaliers Malignants Pensioners Court-Faction c. And now those of Popishly-affected disaffected to the Present Government Well-wishers to King James in the more civil and in the more factious and supposed odious terms Jacobites And this Machiavellian Principle of calumniating is so well learned and practised by our Dissenters that neither herein nor in equivocations pretences of Conscience Hypocrisie Oppositions to Monarchy breeding of mischiefs disturbances and divisions in Church and State shall the Jesuits need to be ashamed of the proficiency of their Scholars And this as many other evil Artifices recommends either the inclinations and ingenuity of the Learners or its easiness in being learn'd for not only the Author himself of this thundering zealous Pamphlet but even the Broker of it this small Publisher and confederate retailer hath arrived at that perfection in it that I am content to own my self little able or willing either to contend with him for the superiority herein or to retaliate CONSIDERATIONS On a Late PAMPHLET INTITULED The Vanity Mischief and Danger
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
Lords Day hath met with many and great Enemies among the Ritualists Pag. 〈…〉 I know of no Men in the Church of England that are Enemies to the Lord's Day and if any such there are they never learn'd it from their Mother It sufficeth to my purpose that nothing is constituted or used in our Church to hinder or discountenance the most pious and religious observation of it but so far on the contrary that our publick Worship is appointed to be every where observed on it Neither am I or any other in her Communion I suppose against the most strict and Christian observation of the whole day which is reconcileable to the necessities and infirmities of this life provided always that it be not accounted nor used as a Jewish Sabbath nor observed by way of obedience to the fourth Commandment of the Decalogue The Scripture hath its share of contempt from Ceremonialists Pag 〈…〉 of the truth hereof the Impositions of Rome are a full proof What are the Impositions of the Church of Rome to us Who is bound to justifie all things in use in that Church Let our Author if he be at leisure and so please try his hand with them and see what Defence they will make As to us either let Men write to the purpose or not trouble themselves abuse the ignorant and harden the prejudic'd or tell us particularly which are those Impositions which are Terms of Communion and which are Scriptural and unscriptural or otherwise he and such like who make precarious suppositions and from thence deduce Inferences as much inconsequent must expect to hear that their pretended preciseness is childish and the wresting alledged places of Scripture from their genuine senses to their own purposes is no other than impertinency which is no reflection on the sacred Scripture but on those superstitious and scrupulous Persons who desiring to seem more holy than others raise doubts under pretences of Conscience and to appear more wise and understanding in the Scriptures as if they could see those things there which no Man could ever do before quote them tho improper to prove what they design 2. 〈…〉 4. Mischiefs in promoting an increase of all kind of wickedness What our Author says upon this Head is of a piece with the rest of his Pamphlet magisterial assertions without Proof or Reason precarious suppositions and idle beggings of the Question intermix'd with scurrilous reflections is stuff'd with bitter Railings 〈…〉 These are part of his words The most immoral Men if they did pretend zeal for Ceremonies and were furious against Dissenters did pass for good Christians and true Sons of the Church I might as well viz. with no less truth and reason say that amongst the Dissenters The most immoral Men if they did pretend zeal against Ceremonies and were furious against Conformists did pass for good Christians in their own phrase true Professors and the seriously Godly and in the Dialect arriv'd here the last year sound Protestants and with at least equal pretence subjoin his words 〈…〉 This false measure hath hardened abundance in their evil ways mightily cherish'd and increas'd Vice in the Land If he is not satisfied with this way of answering let him alter his way of writing when he can make good his words I shall easily do mine He adds Conformity to Ceremonies hath been a Cloak that hath covered the most filthy Abominations Had this been true Dissenters would never have been so numerous The changing one word putting Opposition for Conformity and reading it thus Opposition to Ceremonies hath been a Cloak that hath covered the most filthy Abominations will make the Sentence much truer and this Assertion of mine needs no other proof than the allowance of what he insinuates plainly enough in these words A Ceremonial War hath been once fatal to Clergy men 〈…〉 7. 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 2 to be true They assure us That the Rebellion against King Charles the First was raised to oppose Ceremonies and elswhere to the same purpose the words are plain and admit of no other interpretation I therefore challenge him to give the like instance or proof of Conformity to Ceremonies being a Cloak to cover the most filthy Abominations 〈…〉 which if he doth he shall carry his Cause 6. Hindring a world of Good It cannot be proved that Ceremonies in Worship ever did any good 〈◊〉 25. We in the Church of England as I have said have no Ceremonies in use or enjoined in our publick Worship unless kneeling at Prayers and standing at the Creed and Gospel he called Ceremonies and if they be they may do so much good as to testifie our inward humility and devotion in the one our resolution to stand by maintain and defend the other and our Communion with the Primitive and divers Modern Christian Churches in both and this if Men were not contentious though short might be a satisfactory account of two ancient and Catholick and even in themselves decent Postures What good more would our Author have of them They hinder Reformation Love and Communion of Churches 1. They hinder Reformation In the Reformation of the Church of England from the Novelties and corruptions in Doctrines and Practices tending to Idolatry Superstition and Schism from the Primitive and Catholick Church of Christ great care was taken to prevent the Papists still continuing in the Communion of the Church of Rome from accusing us of injustice and perverseness in abolishing any thing which was innocent and decent in it self made venerable by Antiquity and Catholick by the use of the Universal Church or merely because they used it which prudent and Christian moderation as it was designed to justifie our Reformation from the imputation of Schism or unnecessary separation and prevent the giving a scandal to them or throwing a stumbling-block before them which might hinder their coming over to our Communion So it was attended with so good success that it became more generally and universally received through this Kingdom than in those places where it was brought in by force and accompany'd with Tumults and Rebellions as in Scotland Switzerland the Low-Countries c. Insomuch that had not that politick King of Spain Philip II. prevail'd with the Pope by his Bull to prohibit the Roman Catholicks here in Queen Elizabeth's time to frequent our Churches it is with great probability conjectur'd that her happy Reign would so far have out liv'd Popery as that it would no more have been openly professed in this Kingdom And agreeably hereunto I remember a Clergy-man of my Acquaintance who liv'd some years in Ireland affirmed in my hearing that if Kneeling at the Sacrament the use of Godfathers and the Sign of the Cross at Baptism were abolished in Ireland it would breed such a prejudice in the Irish a People very tenacious of their first Principles against the Protestant Religion that they would very hardly be brought over to it and that one of the
I who make no pretensions that way shall not though perhaps I might with a greater probability contradict him but rather wish that he and many others whose ambition it hath been to be thought wiser than more modest Men had been more sparing both in the interpretations of Prophecies in such a manner and in uttering their own Imaginations and Whimsies in such terms as have encouraged some unjudicious and credulous Persons by the like phanciful application of the fulfilling of them to themselves to attempt strange things to the disturbance of our Church's and the Kingdoms Peace the Emotions of the Anabaptists in Germany long since and the Fifth-Monarchy-men in England in the time of King Charles the Second are such evident instances hereof that I need name no more I could be heartily glad that that expression of his to them 〈◊〉 31. It depends much on your pious Counsels to calm the storms that rage in some Men's minds to heal our breaches c. were true tho for a far better more generous and Christian end than that which he adds To make us a terrour to our Enemies and wish that our Author to prove it would give us an instance of the Efficacy of their pious Counsels by the future calmness of the storm that so lately rages in his own Mind and in his Disciples 5. 〈◊〉 35. The danger that threatens us in the continuance of Ceremonies in the Worship of God We are threatened with a double danger present and future 1. Our present danger this may be set forth in three Particulars 1. The continuance of these things will bring upon us the contempt and hatred of the People It was well enough because plainly and honestly confess'd and the motive allow'd sufficient for the writing of a Play which the Comedian acknowledges in his Prologue Poeta cum primùm animum ad scribendum appulit Id sibi negotî credidit solùm dari Populo ut placerent quas fecisset fabulas But it ill becomes a Divine to plead for any alterations in the worship of God by arguments drawn from worldly Interests and Advantages even the favour of a Prince much less of a Populace one single Reason deduced from the Peace and Union of the Church were it to be this way attained as it never will after the greatest condescensions alterations and abolitions our Author or a more furious Phanatick if any such there be can propose in the balances of the Sanctuary which only are to be used by the Church would infinitely outweigh all such considerations And I may add that the continuance of these things is so far from the bringing upon us the hatred and contempt of the People that on the contrary the abolishing of them would most certainly and upon far juster grounds do it as being Persons of levity and inconstancy in our religious Worship and making it truckle to our worldly Interests and designs men that have not hitherto been in earnest with God or the World who prostitute their Consciences to the pleasure of others and are contented for advancement to make themselves ridiculous by giving the Lye to all their publick Professions Declarations Subscriptions Defences Vindications and use of our Church-Customs and Constitutions The Dissenters doubt of the lawfulness of our terms of Communion and therefore cannot yield to us 〈…〉 but we may with ease and innocence condescend to them in quitting Impositions not appointed by God What our Author means by terms of Communion and Impositions not appointed by God who can tell he having no where told us but while he intimates the former to be unlawful and the latter to be so innocently easily and advantageously parted with he doth but beg the Question If it were enough to say the Dissenters doubt of the lawfulness of our Church Customs and Constitutions and therefore cannot yield to us by equal reason it may be sufficient to return we doubt of the lawfulness of parting with them and therefore cannot yield to them However when our Author and his Clients the Dissenters shall shew unto us what and which are by us made terms of Communion and are unlawful as also which are the Impositions that are and are not appointed by God and when he and they are come to an agreement amongst themselves and give us security to be all concluded by it then I dare engage the Church of England will joyn with them and do what they would have done in the mean time it is not rational to talk of an Union since no Man knows what will please them The Bishop of Salisbury's Exhortation is very good but I think it should more properly have been directed to the Dissenters for it is in their Power only to heal the wounds and close the Schisms they have to say no worse unnecessarily made by their own voluntary separation from us but in ours it is not tho we should give away our Ceremonies our Liturgy our Churches our Consciences and our Lives Our Brethren have according to the Act of Indulgence subscribed our Doctrine 〈…〉 and are thereby incorporated into the Church of England Except I see the Subscriptions of our Author's Brethren or at the least receive it from far better Testimony than his Pamphlet I shall not believe that they have subscribed the Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England for I never remember such an instance of their Obedience to Authority and it is difficult to leave an old ill custom but if it be true then they have thereby approved of our Ordinations Creeds and consequentially of our Ceremonies also yet are they not thereby incorporated into the Church of England for incorporation into a Church doth not depend upon believing or testifying that belief by subscription of some few Principles in Religion which perhaps may so be elected and composed that Papists Lutherans Calvinists Arminians Independents c. which hold not mutual communion amongst themselves may subscribe them but in being baptized in it as to Infants and in living in actual Communion in the Word Sacraments Prayers and other Publick Offices with it as to the adult and faithful Suppose they did all subscribe the whole 39 Articles and agree with us in the substantials of our Religion 1 〈◊〉 3 〈◊〉 which are only worth contending for is it not a plain Argument of their pride carnality and disobedience that they will make a Schism and separate from our Communion upon the account of order and decency and the use of such things as they themselves cannot say are unlawful Who and what Party used to obstruct Affairs in Parliament he needs no Information who can remember the Reign of King Charles II. But to charge some Clergy-men and Priest ridden Gentlemen with the obstructing the Affairs of Parliament hindering the Relief of Derry c. can be looked upon nothing less than a malicious slander till he names the Men and proves the thing if he can do either or both of them let him
he is welcome he will do good service he needs not fear the Law is on his Side Criminals ought to be brought to Justice and he may expect a Reward however he hath malice enough towards Clergy-men and perhaps for their sakes to the Priest ridden Gentlemen to discover them if he knew them and therefore unless he doth so what he says ought in all reason to be esteemed as a notorious Calumny and Libel and our Author to be dealt with accordingly Who brought Ireland and Scotland into their late and present condition is very well known 〈◊〉 6. All the pious sober and moderate Clergy-men are for a Union I believe they are so but all the Question is how we shall attain it an abundance of Men have undertaken to dictate to the Convocation many whereof have like the Cobler in the Proverb who went beyond his Last judged of things beyond the Verge of their knowledge and prescrib'd Methods both unreasonable and impracticable Our Author cannot be thought to have contributed to the cure but must be accounted amongst those unskilful Operators who instead of lessening and removing have only increas'd our Maladies and made them more incurable for in lieu of Wine and Oyl he hath brought Gall and Vinegar to pour into the Churches Wounds The account he gives of the rest of the Clergy is such as can be called no less than an heap of malicious false suggestions and slanderous railing accusations and deserves and admits of no particular answer If I should say of his magnify'd Clients the Dissenting Teachers some are whimsical Enthusiasts and not worthy our regard some are ignorant Dunces and incompetent Judges some are Proud and Hypocritical Pharisees and separate as their Predecessors amongst the Jews to be thought more holy than others that their Glory and Triumph consists in leading filly Women captive that instead of the Solid and Practical Doctrins taught in the Church of England they entertain their seduc'd and beguil'd Disciples with useless canting and unintelligible Phrases that their separation from our Communion was not so much out of Conscience as out of Pride Peevishness and Love of opposition to their Superiors in Church and State that they study more to avoid the scandal than the vice and differ from the most profane but as he who wears a Vizor from him who goes bare-fac'd that they all drive on a Carnal and Worldly Interest and do but maintain a Faction to be maintained by it I should do violence to my inclinations and intentions and write with almost as little civility and shew of good breeding but with far more truth and modesty than he hath done concerning the Clergy of the Established Church Our Author for fear his successive cajoling and railing should not prevail with the Church of England to part with those ancient Rites and laudable Customs wherein she holds Communion with the Primitive and Catholick Churches whereby she justifies her separation from the Roman and performs the solemn Worship of God with decency and uniformity in her own Publick Assemblies which her Pious and Prudent Reformers and Fathers recommending unto Authority are secured unto us by Laws and Constitutions and he in contempt calls Ceremonies proceeds now at length to threatnings to frighten her Members into a compliance and to this purpose he tells our Clergy-men that in the next Rebellion the People viz. the Dissenters will be severely reveng'd on them Pag. 〈◊〉 make sure work with them I suppose he means by cutting their Throats for that is as secure a way as any I know and totally extirpate them Whether our Author speaks these things experimentally from what some suffered in the late Rebellion or prophetically by vertue of his talent that way let the learned judge however we may see what manner of Spirit he and his Clients are of and how fit he is to be a Peace-maker and what manner of stuff he hath proposed to the Convocation he might well have called his Pamphlet the second part of the Healing Attempt As for those dreadful Comminations who can deny their being probable What passed between the Years 1635. and 1660. is sufficient to teach us that the usage of Presbyterians and Papists to those in their Power is much alike and that when they shall have the same or the like opportunities an indissolvible House of Commons to protect them and the Rabble to fight for them and their Brethren of Scotland to assist them they may expect the same or a worse Persecution for what fair Quarter can they look for when Kings are beheaded c. But in the mean time what would he have them to do to pull down their Churches themselves for fear the Dissenters should do it This is but for a Man to hang himself for fear of dying In the next National Deluge of Rebellion and Bloodshed which our Author Prophesies to be at hand and our Friends the Dissenters true Lovers of Peace desirers of Union and upholders of Monarchy in pursuance of their Solemn League and Covenant and for the establishment of their Godly Discipline shall bring upon us and therein overwhelm our Church and State they do not expect to escape nor are covetous to survive them and yet at present are not willing either to be the Authors of or to anticipate their own misery 2. Our danger of losing all our lately recovered Rights 〈…〉 if by our Divisions we should again let in the Common Enemy That our Church's parting with all her Liturgy Rites Ceremonies and what else our Author hath confidence enough to ask would not re-unite the Dissenters to the Establish'd Church I shall elsewhere endeavour to make apparent I shall therefore here only observe that in this time of danger all the Dissenters even the most Potent Interests as well as the lesser Sects would do well and wisely since better Motives will not prevail with them to re-unite themselves with the Church of England but to exhort the Church of England to go over to any of them is not so proper or decent The Agreement of the Church of England with Scripture and the Primitive and Catholick Church both in Doctrin and Government the moderation of her Reformation Her Apologies Defences and Vindications of her self and practices from the Calumnies of the Church of Rome and Separatists her Orthodoxness of Principles Regularity of Constitutions and Legal Establishments to which I might add the Personal obligations a great part of the Nation is under not to endeavour any alterations in the Government of either Church or State as by Law established all prohibit it and make it unequal and unreasonable And farther that if the Church of England will not for these and other reasons part with any Rite Ceremony laudable Custom or Constitutions till the Dissenters shall prove them unlawful or shew her better motives so to do yet there is therefore nothing the more danger of losing all our lately recovered Rights by letting in again the Common
Enemy unless we suppose the always peevish Fanaticks should now take the Pet because they are not humour'd in every thing and all turn Papists and going over into Ireland should doing in earnest what they in jest promised him stand by King James with their Lives and Fortunes As to our Author 's long excursion on the cruelties of the Papists it cannot be denyed even by him who would Advocate their Cause that they have used wrong unchristian and cruel Methods to preserve the Unity of their Church of which I hope they are now ashamed God forbid that the like should ever be used again or the same repeated Neither is it any more than truth that the Calvinists though they want their Opinion of merit to actuate them and that of the Damnation of all but those of their own Church to excuse them have yet so well improved the rest of their Principles and prosecuted them under a pretence of duty and the Obligations of Publick Conjurations with as great an industry as if they rival'd them and scorn'd to come short of their Example Popery under the Vizor of Zeal for the Extirpation of Heresie was the first Enemy the Reformed Church of England had to encounter and attempted to strangle it in it's Infancy but being overcome by the sincere practice of her Primitive Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance it vanish'd and left it in the possession of a most Glorious Victory which it enjoyed for a while but alass our seemingly vanquish'd Adversary by an equivocal Generation unfortunately became the Parent of a less affrightning but far more fatal Enemy Fanaticism not so professedly opposite to the Doctrine but in the event more destructive to the Polity Peace Order Decency Unity and Uniformity of our Church these two have both by open and secret Attempts successively made against her exercis'd our Churches Patience and persecuted her upon contrary accounts one because she will not and the other because she will use as is pretended a Ceremonious Worship O happy though unfortunate Church of England which for the best of Choices the Golden Meane of safety and moderation art thus persecuted on the Right Hand and on the Left by both the opposite Parties who like Herod and Pontius Pilate in their enmity to thy Lord agree in nothing but their continued Hostilities against thee I shall not recount the pretences made the means used by either of them for their so doing nor the event probably following but only note that Popery seeming to have made or at least designed the last assault Fanaticism may rationally be expected to make the next And that it may prove as much destructive as it is a foolish and unprofitable policy to run so far from the advances of one Enemy that we never stop till we are within the quarters of another Our Author might have remembred that Men of other Religions besides Popery can enter into Plots and Conspiracies strike at the Foundations of Government Resist Depose Assassinate and Murther Kings absolve Subjects from their Allegiance and dispense with the most horrid Wickednesses and consequently are as little to be trusted 3. Our danger in respect of God's Judgments which we may bring upon our Heads Though Popery should never be able to lift up its Head again in this Land yet if we continue in the same course that provoked God to cast us into the late confusions he can find other Plagues to inflict upon us I shall readily enough believe that Popery which seems to be withdrawn from us for a while is not that great Enemy this Church and State have now to conflict with and also that if the Men of this Nation will yet continue in their Sins and Follies which provoke Almighty God to wrath and subject us to his Punishments he can find other Plagues of the contrary extreme no less fatal to inflict upon us I wish we do not prevent his Judgments by finding out Plagues to afflict our selves and so become our own Executioners and Martyrs to our own lusts which God in anger and judgment suffers us to enjoy Are not Gods People now in Spiritual Captivity when they must not enjoy his Ordinances with us but upon terms they cannot conform to and he never appointed Our Author in his Fanatick Cant calls the Dissenters Gods People which must be understood either exclusively or eminently but they have no title to that Appellation in either sense But how is this reconcilable with what he hath told us before The Meetings of Dissenters are as Legal as ours and afterwards the Act of Indulgence sets all Men at liberty What then needs this whining and impertinent complaint of spiritual Captivity in times of too great liberty As for the Ordinances who ever hindred their enjoyment of them but they voluntarily refused to communicate with us made a perverse Schism and then complain of it and now they have what they wish'd for are no more satisfied than they were before are so unjust now when they have leave to use their own novel inventions and homely postures that they will not let us quietly enjoy our Ancient Catholick Decent and Legal Customs and so unreasonable that they will needs have us merely to humour them recede from our own approved and regular Constitutions and joyn in their Confusions and use their Customs though they are such as we cannot conform to and God never appointed If People did look before them and consider the Providence of God and tendency of things they would be more indifferent towards indifferent things Gods Providence is beyond our comprehension and his Precepts and not that should be the Rule of our Lives What our Author means by Peoples looking before them or the tendency of things I know not but think if Men would look behind them to the practice of the Primitive and Catholick Church for 1500 Years and not condemn all the Generations of God's Children certainly they would not separate from a Church which both in Doctrine and Discipline is so agreeable to the Primitive that they thereby do consequentially grant that there never was a Christian Church Visible in the World with which had they lived contemporary they would have held Communion or would look before them and consider whither these unreasonable and unnecessary Schisms tend and the lamentable mischiefs that will in time befall this unhappy Church and State as the effects and fruits thereof if they had either conscience or prudence they would cease making such violent and humoursom opposition against the Establish'd Order consult their own and the Churches Peace and be more wise and indifferent towards indifferent things As for Mr. Charnock's abusing of the Devil 〈…〉 in calling him Fool c. he being otherwise represented to us in Scripture perhaps it may be the result of his false Principles however I shall not much concern my self since it is impertinent to my purpose and I am no ways obliged to vindicate his reputation 2. 〈…〉
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
Laws of the Land have placed them and which they might and ought if any doubts and scruples had arose in their minds to have had recourse to and consulted And indeed the frequenters of Consenticles consisting of Petty-coat Proselytes the vulgar sort of Men who are illiterate ignorant and unstable and some few Men of better quality that sometimes grace those Meetings with a fair out-side and the attendance of a Coach and Lacquey whose infirmities and defects made it necessary or convenient for them to give up themselves fortunes and Religions to the conduct and choice of their Wives for all such Persons it is more fit and necessary to be well instructed in the Church Catechism by their own proper Pastors than to take upon them to judge of or determine controversies in Religion of which they are no more qualified to be Judges than blind Men of colours So that being no competent Judges of such matters they can have no right to plead that the conviction of their judgments that such and such things in our Church are unlawful is the cause of their separation because it presupposes them to have judged and determined in a case in which no Wise Man much less any Church or Synod ever allowed them to have any right so to do But the truth is some suck in Fanaticism with their Mothers Milk are initiated with the Principles of it in their Infancy continue under the prejudices of that education and inherit their Parents Schism and have no more reason for it than the ignorant Papists Jews and Mahometans have for their Religions Some are Dissenters upon Worldly accompts and for temporal advantages as the promotion and encrease of Trade gaining of Custom advance of Fortune conveniencies of Marriage pleasing of Relations friendship of Favourites c. Others are Persons of a fickle and unstable temper affect novelties and as if the Religion of our Parents Age and our Infancy as well as their Houses and our last Years Clothes were out of fashion and unsuitable for us think to recommend their judgments to the World by their singularity and new Choice and alledge the Apostles Precept of proving all things for their justification Others being Persons of strong passions but weak judgments are of a ductile temper and wrought upon by the whining tone affected cant fustian Language stuff and unintelligible Phrases of their Holders forth not discerning that all these are but the designed artifices and cunning craft whereby they lye in wait to deceive sacrifice to their own nets and enhaunse their Glory by leading silly Women Captive Others well inclin'd without any persuasion of the unlawfulness of any thing in our Church's Doctrin Discipline or Constitutions or so much as doubting of it hearing these Venders of the Geneva Discipline make such large boasts of more than ordinary purity of Worship strictness of Discipline and holiness of life as if they were entail'd upon that Sect since so Pharisaical a confidence without something to support it would be monstrous and absurd are apt to think that some parts of them are true and not aware that all this is done to draw the more Customers together and get the better Market for their spiritual Wares blindly give up themselves by a Faith more implicite and inexcusable than that in the Romish Church to be taught and guided by them Thus ordinary People being Men of great inadvertency and small judgment become their cheap and easie prey and as for the richer sort whose Wealth may be useful to the supporting of the cause they usually imitate the Method of the first deceiver and so make their Addresses that the Men are made Disciples by the mediation and assistance of their Wives I might add hereunto the evil arts those designing Persons use to decry others to recommend themselves such are their traducing both Persons and Things the envious detractions and calumnies the unjust aspersions and slanders which they used to insinuate and spread abroad amongst their hearers with a purpose to put them out of conceit with and make them disaffected to the Government of both Church and State in general and the Persons of our Governors and Clergy in particular hence arose that malice censoriousness want of Christian Charity and bitterness of Spirit which they are leaven'd withal more than and above other Men this makes them turbulent and unquiet disobedient to the Government and like S. J. strugling with it contriving caballing and plotting against it factious in the State Schismatical in the Church proud and peevish in their dispositions morose unsociable and unneighbourly to all but themselves and banishes that Christian Charity and Brotherly Kindness which would qualifie them more for a re-union with our Church and conduce more to it than our abolishing all our Rites Ceremonies Church constitutions and Customs can or ever will do for it is not any evil in them or any of them but the evil designs of Men that caused these unchristian breaches and divisions 3. If the Dissenters had really made their Schism upon the accompt of Conscience the same Principles of Conscience would have influenc'd their other actions as well as it and they would certainly have behaved themselves very differently from what they have done and have carried themselves humbly modestly quietly and obediently to the Monarchy as God's Ordinance as the Primitive Christians did to even the Heathen Emperors Pro-consuls and Governors But alass we find them of a quite contrary temper to omit what Men of the same Principles have done in Germany France Bohemia Holland Switzerland Geneva c. The Murmurings Tumults Covenanting Conspiracy Insurrection and open Rebellion of the Scots against King Charles I. and their Invasion of England being promoted both by the Instruments of Cardinal Richelieu who aimed at furthering the French Kings designs against the Hugonots and Flanders by diverting King Charles's Forces and Attempts design'd against France and by the Missionary Jesuits who to ruine the Church of England exclaimed against the King and his Government the Archbishop and evil Counsellors Arbitrary Power and Popery c. blew the coals fomented differences pretended grievances aggravated miscarriages exasperated Parties both here and there and excited the Fanatick Party here to encourage their Brethren in Scotland first by secret and then open assurances of their assistance to invade this Kingdom cannot be imputed to the obligations of their Consciences unless the Cardinal and Jesuits are allowed the Guides and Directors of them The two several open Rebellions raised in Scotland against King Charles II. the Fanatick Plot against his Life here the continued carriage of the Dissenters in general and of the Presbyterian Party tin particular since his Restauration their malicious and bitter Speeches against him and his Government in ordinary conversation and discourses the slanderous Libels railing Pamphlets written and dispersed by them their intriguing caballing and plotting their pragmatical and indirect interposing in all Publick Elections Places and Offices their perverse