Worship of God or their not being tied up to any other Rules in these things but such as they in their great Wisdom shall think fit hence they persuade the People that to prescribe any thing in the Worship of God which he himself hath not Commanded is an invasion of his Prerogative and an infringement of Christian Liberty But hath God any where prescribed the particular Times Places Habits Gestures and other Circumstances of Divine Worship Hath he given any other than some general Rules for the more Decent and Orderly performance hereof No 't is certain he hath not why then the particular Determination of these Circumstances wherein this Decency and Order consists must be left to that Power which Christ hath set up in his Church For to leave every one to his own Liberty in these things is a Principle of Confusion and must bring all manner of Indecency and Disorder into the Service of God How then comes this to be called Christian Liberty Hath Christ any where Commanded or Allowed any such Liberty in his Chuch or exempted Christians from Obedience to Authority in such Lawful and Indifferent things No he hath given both his Precept and Example to the contrary for he was not only Obedient to the Roman Power in all Lawful things but paid all due Reverence and Obedience to the Authority of the Jewish Church he strictly observed the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jewish Service as well those of Human as Divine Appointment he kept to the Gesture used in Eating the Passover Matth. 26.20 and punctually Conformed to all the Ceremonies of the Synagogue-Worship So that 't is prevaricating with God as well as deceiving the People to tell them that Christ hath dispensed with all Laws made for the external Order and Decency of Publick Worship and given them a Liberty to behave themselves in it as they please But does not the Apostle tell us of a liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free willing us to stand fast in it and not to be entangled again in the yoke of bondage Gal. 5.1 Yes but that was a Liberty from the numerous and burthensome Rites and Ceremonies of Moses's Law which for the number and uneasiness of them are by St. Peter justly stiled a Yoke and such a one too as neither they nor their forefathers were able to bear Acts 15.10 for their Temples daily flow'd with the Blood of their Flocks and Herds their Altars smoak'd with the most costly Incense and Perfumes in a word they were prescribed to almost in all the Punctilio's of Human Life and few or no things were left indifferent to them Now these things being for the most part Typical and only shadows of good things to come were all to be done away when the Substance came accordingly at Christ's Coming all these Shadows vanished like darkness at the approach of the Sun and the cloudy Types of the Law were dispelled by the Brightness of his Coming Now a freedom from those cumbersom Rites and Ceremonies of the Old Law is the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and to return to the Observance of them is to be entangled again in the yoke of Bondage But what is this to Governors applying the general Rules of Scripture about the Order and Decency of God's Worship to particular Laws about it Here the Ceremonies enjoined are not Typical as the Jewish were nor is the observing of them a virtual denying that Christ is come in the Flesh as the continuance of the Jewish Rites would be but are Appointed only for the more comely Worshipping of God manifest in the flesh and the more solemn Praifing of God the Father for that inestimable Blessing To observe such wholesome Orders made for this end is so far from infringing our Christian Liberty that it would be a great Infringement of it to do otherwise For First This would infringe the Liberty that Christ hath left with Governours of Ordering such Indifferent things this is the main if not the only Branch of their Ecclesiastical Power for the Substantials of Divine Worship are already Appointed by Christ and the Spirit of God hath left some general Rules for the more orderly Performance of it but the particular Rules of Order and Decency being no where Prescribed these are left to the determination of our Governors whom we are required to obey for the Lord's sake and to deny them this is to divest them of all Power in Church-matters yea this will leave a less Liberty to Ecclesiastical Governors under the Gospel than the Governors of the Jewish Church were invested with who yet were bound up and determined in far more particulars than ours now are Again To take off our Obedience in these Indifferent things is to infringe the Liberty of the People who must be thereby deprived of a better way of serving God and likewise subject them to the Punishment and Displeasure of the Magistrate for Disobeying him in things that are within his Power to Command But wherein then lies our Christian Liberty if Governors may Impose what they think fit upon us Why the Governors Liberty consists in this That they are not tied up to any particular Modes or Circumstances of Divine Worship but may establish in Indifferent things what they judge most expedient for Order and Comeliness The Peoples Liberty lies in this That they do not look upon or use the things contained in such Injunctions as Essential Parts of Divine Worship or Matters necessary to Salvation but merely for Discipline and Orders sake they retain still the Liberty of the Judgment about the Nature of the things though the Use of them be for wise and publick Reasons restrain'd Whereas such a Liberty as sets Men free from all Laws and good Orders of this kind is a wild and extravagant Fancy and lets them loose to all Disorder this is to use our Liberty as a Cloak of Maliciousness and to make it a Pretence or Covering for all Licentiousness But what is the Design of this false Pretence to Christian Liberty Why 't is to give the People Liberty to break the Laws at Pleasure and leave them to the Guidance of their own Humours without Controul by this means they teach them to leave the Church and go to Conventicles to assert their Christian Liberty and to encourage them therein they pervert for them two or three Texts of Scripture as that of our Saviour Call no man master upon earth Matth. 23.10 which is a Caution against receiving the corrupt Doctrines and Traditions of the Pharisees is by them Interpreted for rejecting the Lawful Commands of our Superiors That of the Apostle Be not ye the servants of men 1 Cor. 7.23 which forbids the enslaving the Conscience to the Imperious Dictates of False Teachers is so expounded as to take off all the Obligation of good Orders St. Peter's Lording it over God's heritage 1 Pet. 5.3 they interpret of the Tyranny of the Bishops and thereby take off their
the Necessity and Usefulness of Human Learning to qualifie for the Ministry and therefore fearing lest their Conventicles might fall through the gross Ignorance of those that must uphold them something must be taken care of this way to fit them for this great Work at least some smattering of Learning must be had or pretended to to give some Countenance to the Cause And indeed a little of it with a great deal of Confidence will go a great way to deceive the Vulgar They know moreover that the present Heads of the Party are all mortal and going off the Stage and therefore lest the Faction should die with them care must be taken to raise up more to preserve the Succession and derive the Imposture to future Ages Besides the breeding up of these Emissaries affords no small Gain to the present Crafts-men and the Leaders are like to get more by their Learning than the People to whom they are sent who are in danger to be mis-led by them and merely beguil'd by their vain Philosophy Thus do they erect private Seminaries against the most renowned Universities merely to qualifie them to keep up private Conventicles against the best establish'd Church in the Christian World Which is a very serviceable Stratagem to uphold the Party and propagate the Schism But for the better understanding of this Device let us enquire into the Masters and Scholars of these separate Academies together with the Learning profess'd and taught in them And First For the Heads and Masters in these Seminaries They are busie not only in sowing Divisions themselves but in planting of Tares and watering of Weeds that may spring up when they are gone to infest the Church and choak the good Seed of sound Doctrine preach'd in it A Noble Employment indeed and worthy the Ambassadors of Christ to be Teachers of Schism and Promoters of Faction and not to be content only to divide the Church and rend the Body of Christ for their own time but to breed up others to succeed them in this great Work and raise a new Race of Disturbers for the Edification of Posterity They are unwilling the Church should be ever settled in Unity and Peace and therefore are hard at work to propagate Dissentions to instill their Sophistry into their Disciples and to lay a foundation for Discord on future times But if any of these grand Teachers of Philosophy in private Schools have been Graduates in the Universities as we are told some of them are How shall we excuse them from Perjury in violating the Oaths taken by them to the contrary And if any of them have been Episcopally Ordain'd according to the Rites and Orders of the Church of England as 't is well known some of them have been What can they say for acting thus contrary to the Declarations and Subscriptions required in it and training up others in Nonconformity and opposition to it I think it will not be a miss for these Men to consider whether that tenderness of Conscience they so much pretend to can consist with the Violation of those Engagements or whether it be not either the Weakness of their Heads or the Falseness of their Hearts that gives them so easy a Dispensation from observing of them As for the Scholars thus train'd up by them they are plainly nurs'd up in a Schism and not only taught to go themselves but lead others in the ways of Separation whereby they are bred up Enemies to the Government both in Church and State mis-led from the ways of truth and Peace and so unhappily directed out of the way that they should go But what are the Arts and Methods of instruction made use of in these Seminaries to this purpose Why First They are taught all the little Scruples and Cavils that have been raised against the Liturgy and Discipline of the Church to beget in them the greater aversion from both Next They are furnished with Seditious Books written against them to heighten and increase this aversion Then they are taught not only to prefer but to learn the Art of Extemporary Effusions in Prayer the great Idol and Support of all separate Meetings to this end they are sometimes put upon the practice and trying their skill in this Excercise with Directions to assist their Invention and help their Fluency After this they are taught to modulate the Tone of the Voice sometimes raising it to such a key or degree of Vehemence at other times falling to such a Cadence as may best take and work upon the fancies of the People These and such like Arts apt to deceive are the great things that are taught in these Seminaries Devices never heard of or learn'd in any well-established Church and utterly destructive of all Order and Sobriety in Religion But what is it that moves the Dissenters thus to draw from the Two Famous Universities of this Land and to set up and encourage these private Nurseries against them Why First They know that the Education and good Literature of those Places breed up Youth in a due Conformity to the Discipline and good Orders of the Church and all that are admitted to them are by Oaths and all manner of Obligation tied to a firm adherence and observance of them the wise Instructions and Examples of those Places train them up in the way that they should go which keeps them ever after from departing from it So that they whose design it is to promote and propagate Divisions must keep as many as they can from those places where they are so well taught and arm'd against them Those Famous Seminaries of Learning and sound Religion have ever brought forth the stoutest Champions to defend the Truth and confute the Errors of all times 't is no wonder if Hereticks and Schismaticks bear no good will to those Places and Persons that so expose and frustrate their evil Designs But the better to countenance these private Schools the upholders of them endeavour to fasten the blackest Calumnies upon our Renowned Seats of Learning and Education though for their Order and Discipline together with all other advantages and encouragements of good Literature they far excel all the Universities in the World and are therefore resorted to and admired by all Strangers yet these Sons of Slander seek not only to lessen but to blacken them too by their foul and Unjust Aspersions they delight to talk of the Vices and Looseness of those Places and call those Schools of the Prophets by no better name than Schools of Lewdness and Debauchery which is done meerly to beget an ill Opinion of them and to exalt their little Nurseries of Schism and Sedition above them Thus do they serve the Universities as they do the Church throwing all the dirt they can upon them the better to serve their own ends on both Now the mischeif of this Device may be easily guess'd from its pernicious influence both in Church and State for if the Happiness of a Nation depends upon
Impenitence Which is much lamented by SIR Yours A. B. LETTER III. SIR I Find by your last that you are sufficiently sensible what great service the pretence of greater Light and Knowledge hath done the Dissenters and that you plainly see the falshood and malignity of that Artifice I proceed now to a second and that is a pretence to greater Strictness and Sanctity than other Men and herein they are the successors of the Pharisees who beside the exacter Knowledge of the Law pretended to the exactest Observance and Obedience to it hence we find them stil'd the strictest sect of their Religion Acts 26.5 and are said to teach and act according to the perfect manner of the law Acts 22.3 Our Saviour himself brings in one of them boasting of his greater Piety and taking the boldness to tell God Almighty in his Prayers That he was not as other men extortioners unjust adulterers or the like Luk. 18.11 12. but had led a stricter life and practic'd a higher sort of Righteousness than other Folk and lest God and the world should doubt of the truth of it he proceeds to many particulars viz. That he was frequent in his fasts punctual in his tythes liberal in his alms-deeds c. And elsewhere we read of other parts of the Pharisees Righteousness That they were strict observers of the Sabbath careful of their Company for fear of being defil'd by them long and loud in their Prayers that they enlarg'd their Philacteries and garnish'd the Tombs of the Prophets as if they detested the Cruelty of their Forefathers in putting them to Death with many other instances recorded by the Four Evangelists How well they are imitated by Dissenters in making a fair and plausible shew of greater Holiness a very slender Observation may inform us for you may easily observe them to look more Demurely talk more Religiously and seem to Pray more Devoutly than other Men their seeming Zeal shall carry them many a Mile to a Conventicle when they may hear a better Sermon at home in their own Church yea and set them a Repeating Sermons too which were scarce worth the first Hearing and thereby incolcate some Doctrines that were much better doom'd to eternal silence and oblivion Thus do they seek to polish the outward Garb with a fair and plausible shew of Holiness withdrawing from others as Sinners and not only pretending but as to outward appearance practising too a greater Strictness Now how useful this Artifice is to uphold and increase a Party is easy to discern for the common People being led more by their Senses and Imagination than any sound Principles of Reason are often impos'd upon by the outside of Religion which many times makes a more flanting and pompous shew than the inward truth and reality of it which residing in the Heart lies more hid and undiscovered By this means the Pharisees got a wonderful interest and influence upon the minds of the People who by a shew of greater Religion so drew the Hearts after them that 't was Proverbial among them to say That if but Two went to Heaven the one would be a Scribe and the other a Pharisee And any ordinary Eye may see our Dissenters drawing Disciples and increasing their Parties by the same method But have these great pretenders all this while any more Religion than other Folk No they have more of the shew but not of the substance having a form of godliness as the Apostle foretold of them but denying the power thereof Our Blessed Saviour declar'd of the Pharisees That though they pretended to be better were yet worse than other men for though they had the confidence to thank God they were not extortioners yet he who knew them better than they did themselves tells them that they devour'd widows houses and within were full of extortion and excess their Prayers were all made for Vanity and Ostentation and their Alms but so many Baits to fish for Honour and the Applause of Men like whited Sepulchres they appeared fair and beautiful without but within were full of rottenness and corruption and though they Garnished the Sepulchres of the Prophets as if they hated the Wickedness of these that Killed them yet they put to Death the Son of God the great Propher that was to come and would have shed the blood of all that followed him So that all their Care and Zeal for the Memory of the Prophets was only to hide their Cruelty under a shew of Kindness and the garnish'd Tombs were but the painted Monuments of their own Hypocrisy In a word as they were solicitous about washing the outside of the Cup and Platter without mattering how foul and sluttish it was within so were they more careful to reform their Looks than their Lives and under a disguise of greater Sanctity contrived and acted the vilest Enormities And are not the like Policies and Practices too visible in our Modern Pharisees who under a mask of Zeal and Reformation have conceal'd and carri'd on very bad Designs Have they not a long time put fair Colours upon foul Actions And made Religion a stale and pander to the greatest Abominations But that Cloak which hath hitherto done them great service begins now to be worn out long use hath made it thredbare and their Hypocrisy appears through the thinness of the Covering Counterfeit Coin seldom keeps its credit long time wears off the Gilt and discovers the baseness of the Metal Such is the inconsistency of Falshood and Hypocrisy that it often betrays it self and when the paint and varnish is gone nothing appears but the deformity and then the Hypocrite like the Ass in the Fable stript of the Lion's Skin stands an object of contempt and scorn Thus it happened to the Pharisees at last for tho' they charm'd the People a-while and inveigled many into their Sect by a shew of Holiness yet the Mask at length fell off and they became vile and despicable to the whole Nation But what is the evil and Mischief of this Device Great every way For First This pretence of greater Holiness is oft-times an Instrument of much deceit and helps to carry on very evil designs thus if any have a mind to disturb or overturn the Government to move Sedition or alter the Laws and Constitutions Religion must be pretended and then a seeming Zeal for the publick Good and Reformation of Abuses shall go a great way to compass their ends If a Man would effectually Cheat his Neighbour or put the Dice upon him he pretends to Piety to hide the Juggle and under a cloak of Religion acts and covers the foulest Frauds If he would wreek his Malice or gratify his Spleen against any Person he puts on a shew of great Meekness looks Solemnly and pretends the greatest Love and Kindness and thereby secretly wounds and works his own Ends. Thus do Malice Pride Covetousness Revenge and other vile Enormities lurk under this disguise and are carried on under a specious
they are carried on and kept in Ignorance of a great part of their Duty The great Duties of Unity Peace and Order in the Church of Christ can never be fairly explained or inculcated in those places where their very Meetings are a contradiction to them The heinous nature and guilt of Schism must not be laid open since all their Conventicles are founded upon it The tender point of Divisions so sharply rebuked by the Apostle must not be touch'd upon there where so many love or live by them And now let any impartial Man judge where we are like to find the best means of Edification either in the publick Assemblies of the Church where the whole mind and will of God is truly and faithfully Revealed or in the Separate Meetings of Sectaries where the bare upholding of them tempts them to so much Falsification But where then lies the Fallacy or Mistake in this Matter Why the People are imposed upon by false Notions of Edification For First Some take the fond Opinions and affected Phrases of a Party for the best means of Edification Thus if they hear any discoursing of Election and Reprobation in which they commonly canonize themselves and roprobate others if they saucily pry into and pass their Judgment in those secret things that belong to God and withal misinterpret the reveal'd things that belong to them they think themselves mightily edified though they know nothing aright in those matters Again if they hear them talking of Rolling upon Jesus Christ and Lying flat upon the Promises with other such Mystical and Phrase-Divinity they prick up their Ears and are wonderfully pleas'd with the unintelligible Jargon If they happen to go to the Church and hear the plain Sense of the Gospel laid open and the true Notions of Justification Regeneration Conversion and Salvation explain'd to them they think themselves unedified because they are not amus'd with some fine Conceits about these things The truth is the less they understand the more they are edified which makes them go to the Church with prejudice where they are entertain'd with found Doctrine and the sober Notions of Religion and to delight only in the Mystical and Vain Talk of the Conventicle whereby they mistake the true means of Edification Again 2ly They mistake the false Heats of Fancy for the true Warmth of the Heart and think they have profited by a Sermon merely because they were pleas'd This is a frequent and fatal Delusion for false Teachers commonly work upon the Passions of their Hearers without a right informing their Judgment and so make them think themselves edified when they are all the while merely deluded To this end a melting Tone solemn Looks vehement Actions are made use of and having by these Arts warm'd their Imaginations make them believe they are fired with a true Zeal and so strangely edified as if they felt some extraordinary Impulses of the Holy Ghost stirring within them when all the while 't is no other than the Motion of the Animal Spirits occasioned by the Heats of Fancy and are chiefly owing to their Bodily Temper Now to cry up these for Edification and going on to Perfection is as one hath observ'd to betray the People into the power of every Impostor who hath the knack to raise these Heats and make them pass for Reason and Conviction of Mind These mortify no Sin nor improve any Virtue and so make men neither wiser nor better than they were before but rather more fickle and inconstant and apt to be carried about with every Wind of Doctrine Whereas true Edification helps men to grow in Grace and Knowledge and leaves more firm and lasting Impressions of Virtue upon the Soul Moreover this pretence to better means of Edification sets the common People a judging between better and best of which by reason of their Ignorance and Instability they are incompetent Judges Indeed there is so much of Humour and Fancy in mens Comparisons between Teachers that lays them open to Great Mistakes and Inconveniences about it it fills the best-meaning Persons among them with endless Scruples whom to chuse and where to go and is a Principle of great Giddiness and Instability Yea the mischeif of it is to great to have any Licence or Countenance given to it in any well-constituted Church for it breaks the Order Peace and good Government of it and naturally creates Division and great Distractions it sets people a gadding after new Inventions and necessarily brings on the Guilt of Schism So that this pretence confutes it self and proves a great hindrance to the Edification it pretends to He that constantly attends the Prayers and Instructions of his Parochial Guide shall learn and profit more than he that hunts about for better means of Edification A rolling Stone we say never gets Moss And he that runs after and heaps to himself Teachers may have his itching Ears tickled but seldom hath either his Heart renew'd or his Life reform'd by such means Again by keeping close to a settled Pastor men may have all the Parts and Duties of Religion one time or other explain'd and applied to them and this will tend more to true Edification than the Oratory of loose and general Discourses which for the most part only enters into one Ear and goes out at the other Besides this running after new Teachers is a great Discouragement to a Faithful Pastor to see himself forsaken of his Flock and find them following Wolves in Sheeps cloathing This tends at once to hinder the Preparations of the Minister and the Proficiency of the People who might have better Sermons and profit more by them if they would more frequently attend them In a word This wanton Humour of leaving their own Minister to go where they can profit best hath been severely condemn'd by the Party that now cherish it in their Followers Mr. Edwards in his Gangraena mentions it as one of the great Errors of the Times in which he liv'd And both Presbyterians and Independents have inveigh'd against it as a Principle of great Looseness and Vanity as may be made appear if need be I am SIR Yours A. B. LETTER XIV SIR THE last Artifice of Dissenters that I shall mention is Their setting up and encouraging little private Schools of Philosophy to prepare and qualifie Persons for the holding of Conventicles The Design of this Stratagem is to keep up a Succession of Factious Teachers and to propagate the Schism to future Generations There are some Sects indeed that take no Care about the Education or Commission of their Holders-forth but leave this Office entirely to the Natural Endowments and Volubility of Gifted Brethren But there are others and particularly the Presbyterians who being many of them bred up in the Universities themselves and thereby knowing something of the Method and Benefit of that Education erect private Schools wherein they do something to the like though for the most part to very little purpose They are sensible of
the good Education and Wisdom of its Members and the hopes of future times are founded upon the well Training up of those that live to them what unspeakable evils must ensue from these private nurseries of Ignorance and Disorder Which is a matter well worthy the Care and Wisdom of Superiors to prevent For Ever since the Foundation of the Church hath been shaken things in the State have been out of course and 't is in vain to hope for Settlement in the Latter whilst the Former remains loose and unsettled And therefore Christ's Vineyard should be fenc'd and guarded not only against the Wild Boar of the Forest that would lay it waste but against all the little Foxes that would undermine it To Conclude all May the Church of England ever Continue in the Purity of its Doctrine Worship and Discipline May the Two Famous Universities of this Kingdom still flourish to supply it with Able Faithful and Learned Pastors And may Both be so Favoured with the Providence of God and the Protection of Princes that the Gates of Hell may never prevail against Either Which are the hearty Wishes and Prayer of SIR Your Cordial Friend A. B. A POSTSCRIPT SIR THERE is another serviceable Device of Dissenters that must not be omitted and that is Their settling and maintaining a secret Correspondence between their Brethren in all Parts of this and the Neighbouring Kingdom whereby they communicate to each other the Designs of the Party and join in secret Methods and Confederacies to promote them By this they give and take-Measures in Electing Members for Parliament and preparing Addresses and Petitions to them hereby they learn and agree in the same Arts of weakening the Church and strengthening the Conventicle together with all other means of forming and advancing their Designs And these are the more dangerous because they are carried on in the dark and like invisible Darts wound without being seen as also because they are coloured over with a seeming Zeal for Religion and Reformation of Manners and carried on with Prayer and a great shew of Piety and Devotion These things are evident not only by many former Intrigues managed and promoted this way but more plainly by a late Letter written to a Nonconformist Teacher Superscribed thus To Mr. Saunders Minister of the Gospel in Oxford which by a mistake fell into the hands of another Person of the same Name a true Copy whereof is as followeth Newbury June 7. 98. Reverend Sir IHad a Letter last Week by the Direction of the Committee of Ministers and Gentlemen appointed at London for settling a Correspondence of the Protestant Dissenting Ministers and Congregations throughout this Kingdom for the Advancement of the Interest of Religion and Reformation of Manners with the Articles there agreed upon in order thereunto and a desire to Communicate them speedily to the Brethren in these Parts that if possible a general Meeting might be had this Summer in London Pursuant whereunto 't is desired that you would not fail to come your self and bring with you one Prudent Person of your Congregation chosen for that end according to the Method resolv'd on at London to meet several of your Brethren and the Members of their respective Congregations here at Newbury on Wednesday the 22d Instant to consider of the said Proposals which shall be laid before you and the proper Method to obtain so desirable an end You are desired to be here on Tuesday in the Evening that we may enter on our work on Wednesday Morning resolving God willing to spend some time in Prayer before we begin I am SIR Your Affectionate Brother and Servant in the Lord William Taylor FINIS