Blood All the whole Earth is on Fire the Flame reaches up to Heaven let us labour to withdraw that Hellish Fewel which nourisheth this fearful Combustion Let every one pull away a Stick and not employ himself as an Incendiary As we honour the God of Peace whom we serve as we love the Prince of Peace in whom we believe as we tender the Success of the Gospel of Peace which we preach as we hope for the Comfort of the Spirit of Peace in our own Bosoms let us seek Peace where it is missing and follow it where it flies from us Thus that incomparable Prelate And here I cannot but take notice also of the Right Reverend and Moderate Archbishop Juxon whom King Charles the First selected for his Confessor at his Martyrdom when he honoured him with this Testimony and Name viz. That good Man One who writes his Life gives him this excellent Character That he was a great Benefactor to St. Paul's but greatest to the Church which his Eminence adorned and his Temper secured in those Times wherein Roughness enraged that Humour which Delay and Moderation broke In his Duty this good Man went along with Conscience in Government with Time and Law His Justice was as his Religion clear and uniform the Ornament of his Heart and the Honour of his Action neither was his Justice leavened with Rigor or Severity but sweetned with Clemency and Goodness He was never angry but for the Publick and not then so much at the Person as at the Offence So ambitious was he of that great Glory of Moderation that he kept it up in spite of the Times Malignity So that tho the most thought the worse of Dr. Juxon for the Bishop's sake yet the best thought the better of the Bishop for Dr. Juxon's sake And the pacifick Temper of Arch-Bishop Sheldon is excellently discovered in a Sermon of his preached before his Majesty 1660 and afterwards printed whose Sayings deserve to be written in Letters of Gold That 's the best and most Christian Memory saith he that as Caesar's forgets nothing but Injuries Let us all seriously and sadly look back consider and bemoan one another for what we have mutually done and suffered from each other Let us all be sorry and all mend perfectly forgiving what is past and returning to as great Kindness as ever that so by all good and mutual Offices we may make amends for our former Animosities Shall God saith this excellent Prelate so great so glorious after so high and many Provocations condescend to be at Peace with us And shall we poor Worms be at Enmity among our selves for Trifles to the hazard of the Comforts of this Life and the Hopes of a better Shall we retain the Memory of former Unkindness and make a publick Act of Oblivion which we expect a publick Lie without either Fear of God or Shame of the World Shall we change one War into another the open into a secret one Hostility into Treachery and by pretending Peace only smooth the way to Supplantation This is the most unmanly Thing in the World Bishop Roynolds of Norwich was a great Pattern of this Divine Vertue as may be seen in his incomparable Writings Not to go back so far as Archbishop Cranmer Ridley Hooper and Latimer who loved not their Lives unto Death Bp. Jewel Abbot Bilson Davenant Cooper Vsher Grindal Prideaux Downam Morton Archbishop Sands Bp. Saunderson Bp. Potter Bp. Carlton Bp. Brownrig Mr. Capel Mr. Palmer Mr. Crook Mr. Hudson Mr. Lawson Dr. Preston Mr. Fenner Mr. Bolton Mr. Wheatly Mr. Dent Mr. Dike Dr. Sibbs Mr. Stock Dr. Willet Dr. Stawghton Dr. Tho Taylor Dr. Fâ—atly Dr. Holdsworth Dr. Shute If you would see more of this moderate and true Catholick Temper read the Writings of Mr. Chillingworth Mr. Hales Mr. Jos. Mede Dr. Jer. Taylor late Bishop of Down and Conar Bishop Rust Dr. Hawton Dr. Lightfoot Dr. Worthington Dr. Glanvill the present Bishop of Hereford Bishop of Lincoln Bp of Cork Dr. Stillingfleet Dr. Tillotson Dr. Burnet Dr. Fowler the Protestant Reconciler with many more of the Clergy now living Here I might also recommend the excellent temperate Writings of some of the Laity viz. Judg Hales Esq Boyle Sir Charles Woolsly Mr. Polhill Mr. Will. Allein with the Author of the Samaritan and many others The Reverend Dr. Goodman in his excellent Epistle to his Sermon preached before the Lord-Mayor of London lately observes That our Animosities are arisen to that height that we have raked the Kennels of other Countries to find Names to stigmatize one another and tho we have many good Men amongst us yet who would be a Peace-maker when he shall be sure to be boxed on both sides like him that parts a Fray so that the common Friend shall be looked upon as a common Enemy by the angry Parties The Sum of all that has been said of a Moderate Church-man may be comprehended in the Character following Viz. He is one that loves his God and his Religion his King and his Country He shuns the dangerous Extremes and keeps the Mean of Christian Moderation neither causeth Schisms in the Church nor Factions in the State He is neither fond of needless Ritualities nor yet molested with groundless Scruples neither worships Images nor Imaginations but submits to the Customs of the Country tho not to the Iniquities of the Times By his abhorrence of all Sin he declares he thinks none venial and by the Regularity of his Conversation he shews he expects no Indulgence And as he doth not think by good Works to merit Heaven so he endeavours that he may not by bad ones deserve Hell He takes more pains to make good his Baptismal Covenant than to wrangle about the Mode of its Administration as if he were baptized with the Waters of Strife And he is more concerned to prove himself a good Christian than to prove who is Antichrist Nor doth be so contend about the Number of the Elect as to reprobate himself for want of Charity He thinks it very unseasonable to dispute about the Colour of a Garment when our Enemies are endeavouring to cloath us with the Scarlet Tincture of our own Blood He had rather use a set Form of Prayer than have the Service in an unknown Tongue and submit to the reverent Gesture of Kneeling than swallow the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Whether the chief Ecclesiastical Officer be called a Bishop or a Presbyter or the Communion-Board a Table or an Altar he is not so much concerned as to disturb the Peace of the Church about it He is a true Catholick Christian neither Papist nor Separatist and loves all good Men by what Names or Titles soever dignified or distinguished and ne're thinks the worse of an honest Man if Malice gives him an ill Name because he knows Men by their Fruits He doth not baptize his Religion with the Name of a Sect nor espouse the Quarrel of a Party Nor is he guilty of the Corinthian Vanity in crying up a Paul an Apollos or a Cephas but looks upon it as the great Design of Christianity to make Men good and knows where it hath not that effect it matters not much what Church such a Man is of because a bad Man can be saved in none He is one that is sober without Formality chearful without Levity prudent without Stratagem and religious without Affectation can be sociable without revelling angry without swearing and zealous without quarrelling One in whom Nature and Grace Piety and Prudence are so excellently poized that it may be a Question whether his Wisdom or Goodness be most evident because both are covered with a Vail of Humility He thinks he may lawfully hold Communion with any true Church of Christ where the Substance of Religion is sound maintaining neither Heresy in Doctrine nor Idolatry in Worship notwithstanding some different circumstantial Modes of Administration And he believes if Almighty God damn us all for such Things which streight-laced narrow-soul'd Christians damn one another none could be saved And therefore he had rather give an Account to a merciful God for too much Charity than for too great Censoriousness as well knowing he that is guilty of so great a Crime hath lost half the Religion of a Christian and hath exchanged one of the fairest Graces of a Saint for one of the blackest Characters of a Devil In a Word He is one that mends the Times more by his good Example than by his Clamours And when other Men by their secret Conspiracies scandalous Immoralities causless Divisions and venemous Pamphlets are plotting the Ruine of the Kingdom the Language of his Heart and Tongue is God save the King To the Reader before the Fifteen Sermons of Bishop Wilkins 1 King 12.16 Ergo. * Human Laws are general Rules for common Cases Leges ad ea quae ut plui imum accidunt applicari solent in Lege quae ratò See also Grot. de jure Belli l. 1. c. 4. §. 4. Phil. Dec. de Reg. Jur. See Mr. Bold's Plea for Moderation sadly and ingenuously speaking his own Experience p. 14. See Rubrick after the Communion * See Ridley's Injunction before qu ie Item That the Minister in the time of the Communion immediately after the Offertory to monish the Communicants Now is the time if you please to remember the poor Man's Chest.
can see into the bottom of your Inclination no doubt but you would suggest the Nonconformists to be big with Evil Purposes against Church and State and that we are in with them we can english your a secretis to be so but we will answer to any charge against us of any evil Conspiracy at any time 10. By their Self-designing c. Sir Moderation is the Temper we would attain to it is the Duty we study and our sincere Exercise and not Pretence But what are our Self-designs by Moderation and similibus Do we design to make Nonconforming Arch-bishops and Bishops and hope to be their Sons in Law their Chaplains or to rise with them You said we plowed cunningly carried it cunningly but now it is not as much as seemingly cunning we have not as much as one Ox in our Team but all Asses if this be our Design we shew our selves to be half-witted as well as Half-Conformists by this self-designing were we self-designing-Men we would write as you do we understand the way on 't but you know and take it And because Similitudes do illustrate he compares us to King Charle's Murderers c. You know you dare not name one Man alive of those you call Grindalizers for it will bear an Action too heavy for your Shoulders We had been sorry if the Papists had done such a Fact open-faced more sorry that any English-man under any Denomination whatsoever did contribute a Word to it or think a Thought of it And we are desirous to acquit all that can be acquitted from so scarlet a Sin and no more Who were in the Contrivance and Execution who disappeared and who appeared was best known to his Gracious Majesty Privy Council Parliament and Honourable Court that sat at Hicks's Hall upon the Trial of the Regicides Octob. 1660. And according to the degrees of Guilt we find some excepted and some prosecuted condemned and executed and if there had been but One that One had been too many And it would well become us to be as tender of Mens Honour as our merciful King and wise and just Judges were of the Lives Fortunes and Honour of Offenders If there be any sence in this Paragraph the sence of this short cut-throat Sentence would be this if there be any thing in it beside slander upon slander malice upon malice to make the odious Comparison perfect 1. The Dissenters are without distinction Presbyterian 2. All the Dissenters are Presbyterian Regicides or like them 3. There are some that contribute to the encouragement of these Dissenters and others are profess'd encouragers of them 4. Either one or both of these are like those Presbyterian Murderers of King Charles 5. Those had the villany to manage the Contrivance but the cunning to disappear in the Execution The Apodosis or reddition of this Comparison should be some such thing as this 1. The Grindalizers do either contribute to the encouragement or are profess'd encouragers of these disloyal ill-principled Dissenters But how By their moderation similibus But pray Sir in what capacity do we Church-Moles contribute to their encouragement In the capacity of Church-Moles in black Coats or in some other colour In the capacity of Subterraneous Moles throwing up the Mole-hills for the Dissenters to build Garrisons Forts and Castles upon or at least to build Meeting-places upon 2. These Grindalizers have only the villany to manage the Contrivance But good Sir of what To disappear in the Execution but still Sir of what Is it left to the Reader 's understanding and charity to make what he pleases of it Now here 's cunning and no cunning in the Church-Moles cunning to disappear and no cunning in disappearing for the cunning would be not to appear at all and then they could not disappear but to disappear and for this quick-sighted Friend to see them disappear is too open a disappearance The Comparison is lame but what is wanting in the Square of the Comparison is made perfect by his great love and kindness to us But Sir for all love be pleased to discover the Contrivance and then to follow the Disappearing till you make it to appear And further either you know the Contrivance or do not know it if you do and have been a false Contriver with us be honest and spare not if you have not let the Reader make his Consequence Either you know the Encouragers or the Contrivers or do not know them If you know them tell if you do not know them keep silence hereafter We Moles have Noses though we have no Eyes we smell your rank Uncharitableness though we cannot see your Art but we never yet did smell those Foxes that you pretend to unkennel and so in one respect we have neither Eyes nor Noses like yours and we hope we shall make better use of such Senses we have than you have done But whether your Comparisons hit or miss smite or smite not be sure to beat out this Conclusion That there are no Villains much more villanous than the new Sect of Grindalizers that 's the scope of all your Comparisons But Sir if a Man were to thatch a House if he lay on like a Thatcher too great a Burden the Timber will fail him and either down comes Thatch upon the Thatcher or the Thatcher upon his Thatch Even so if a Man lay on great and heavy Comparisons upon crazy or rotten Spars and Timber down comes the Comparisons and the maker of them Build with better Timber before you venture to thatch and cover your Building with Comparisons If all these Lines were Non-sence we could laugh at his Childishness but containing Slander Jealousy and Malignity we will pray to be deliver'd from such Men and wish him a better Mind After a long-winded draught of Poison vomited upon us he takes breath in a shorter Sentence wherein we are dignified and distinguish'd with other Names and represented as little better than popish or peevish and what should the Scope of this Period be but that Mole-catchers and Mole-Traps be provided for us We thank him however for his great care of the Church whatever become of us But I go on And of this c. Now what should be the Substantive to this Article this is hard for us blind Moles to find It should be some Word or Sentence supplying the place of a Substantive of the singular Number but half-Conformists Church-Moles blind Principles undermining Practices the plural Number nor contribute a Verb cannot agree with it What then what shall it be Nonconformity Danger Dishonour open Enemy or what should be the Substantive or Antecedent to the Article or Demonstrative This But we will not stand upon This but follow him through his History as a Mole-catcher doth his Mole And refer all he hath said 1. To his Matters of Tale-telling instead of History 2. To his Application 1. And in this oppose Truth to his Falshood Altho we are not baptized in the Name of most
all times and upon all occasions of Difference and Contest to give clear and palpable Tokens of their Moderation to all Sorts and Conditions of Men. Still it appears that the Objects of Moderation are all sorts of Men and that the Subject Matter upon which it is exercised are Matters of Difference and Contest So he repeats his Notion again pag. 35. and again pag. 37. Now before I go further I desire the Reader to believe me that I approve of very much good Matter well-spoken and well-applied But I fear Prejudice and Partiality weighs too heavy upon his Bowle I do confess iâ— is a very good Notion and Doctrine that we should manage all our Differences with Temper But why should he single out this as the main if not whole of the Text which is but a good Behaviour in a particular Case and but one Instance of a general Duty seems not so clear Besides 't is like it is too narrow a Notion except a Christian have or may have some Matters of Controversy or Difference with all Men and that all Christians may have differing and contrary Opinions and Principles and each one is bound to maintain his own Side with Temper As he doth often repeat his own Sence of Moderation so he doth deliver a common but untrue Notion of Moderation in a Lay and Church-Capacity from p. 36 to p. 41. and then gives his Reasons against such a kind of Moderation as he is pleased to describe to pag. 48. It would be too tedious to examine all the Members and Parts of a moderate Man in a Lay-Capacity but what is most material First doth it become a moderate Man to be so positive as to say after an imaginary oratorical Description of a Lay moderate Man such as I and others never knew This saith the Preacher is no Fiction of mine no Creature of my Fancy but Matter of Fact visible to every Eye p. 37. That it is not difficult to prove such Men act against their Conscience for really a moderate Man in the common Notion if examined is but a softer Phrase for a Knave pag. 48. Upon this Character of a moderate Lay-man drawn pag. 36. I make some Observations and in the general observe That he takes some Parts and Vertues of a very honest Man to make a Knave of As 1. He is one who will frequent the Publick Churches 2. One who will seem devout at Divine Service and who doth to us and our Eye more than seem 3. One who talks much for Union and wishes for it but sees no Evil in Schism Whereas what can move him to wish for Union but the Good of Union and the Evil of Schism And I would fain know what Benefit any Knave can make of Union If he only talkt for Union and did not wish for it and if this might be known it were like a moderate Man in the softer Phrase but if he talks much of Union and wishes for it he talks and wishes like an honest Man 4. Suppose him to be one who thinks he doth God good Service and takes a good Course to promote Peace by frequenting unlawful Meetings and yet is clearly for the Religion established by Law Yet under favour 1. Suppose he may be mistaken in thinking so for all that he may be a very honest Man for honest Men are subject to Mistakes 2. If he mistake in the way to promote Peace for all that he may be very honest 3. If he thinks those Meetings which you call unlawful that is to say Meetings of Orthodox Preachers and Christians consistent with the Religion established by Law he may be a wise discerning honest Man and doth distinguish between the Religion and the mutable Appendages to which he never subscribed or declared being but a Lay-man But then Secondly Some Things are affixed to him which if true depends upon proof against some particular Men if any such there be which doth not affect more than those Individuals We know none that first work hard against the Church of England on the six Days and appear for her on the Sunday 2. Nor any that sees not harm in Schism but you may call that a Schism which is not 3. Nor any who are one with all Parties in designing against the Government 4. Nor that cry God forbid there should be any Alteration in it for there may be Alteration in it as in the natural Body from Youth to riper Age without its destruction or dissolution 5. Nor that look upon Bishops as necessary Evils for they who account them evil do not account them necessary 6. He may be a Son of the Church of England and yet chuse rather if he could that is if he lawfully could to be without the Ceremonies for the Church doth declare That those Ceremonies which remain upon just causes may be altered and changed in the Preface of Ceremonies why some be abolished Thirdly He delivers some Things positively which are dubious and therefore which may be untrue pag. 37. These are moderate Men in one sence i.e. they have a moderate Esteem of and a moderate Love for that Church in whose Communion they live and resolve to die so long as she is up but if she were down they could contentedly enough survive her Ruine and perhaps they might live the longer Now either this Picture of a moderate Lay Church-man is a Creature of his own Fancy or a real Being if a real Being and a true Man he is one of his own Acquaintance or not if not of his Acquaintance he paints him by the Ear by Report and not by the Eye of his own Knowledg Let him either reform him if he can or keep no Acquaintance with him If he be a real Man he speaks the Language of Abhorrers and Addressers who often promise to live and die for the Church as established by Law and they are concerned in the Character drawn one would think with too heavy a hand and Pencil made of too course Bristles for a moderate Man to use Fourthly A Moderate Man such as in some things he sets out in the Colours of a Knave wipes off the Dash and thinks he may with an honest Heart and Face in sincerity towards God Loyalty to the Government and Constancy to his Religion frequent the publick Churches and Conventicles too For first He is of the Judgment that God may be truly and acceptably worship'd under different Modes and Forms therefore he will frequent the publick Churches for which you cannot blame him and it may be go to Assemblies called Conventicles especially when he had the King's Indulgence 2. He believes there is a Communion of Saints not only in Faith and Affection but also in Worship and therefore if he cannot hold Communion with Orthodox Preachers in publick Churches he will make bold to enjoy it where he can which he thinks he may do without Sin because it is his Duty and knows no Reason or Law of God why he may not
Ministers Hands as I have heard hath been done shall the Minister strive and contend Object But you will say by Can. 38. If any Minister after Subsciption to the three Canonical Articles shall omit any of the Ceremonies he shall be suspended c. Answ. The Omission must be notorious before it can come to the Cognizance of the Court and wilful and contemptuous before it can be so notorious But we speak not of such a notorious omission but of what is occasional seldom and for greater Reason but of this more afterwards 2. In case the Minister or Curat be but a Deacon I doubt of his Power to use or make the sign of the Cross without an equitable Construction of the Law of which afterwards for in the Margin of the Office of publick Baptism it is said Here the Priest shall make the sign of the Cross in the Child's Forehead The Priest shall not the Curat or the Minister for then it had plainly reach'd to the Deacon as to the Priest but a Deacon is not a Priest in this Church A Deacon doth it only by Presumption Lastly To make the sign of the Cross is an Ecclesiastical Affirmative Precept a divine affirmitive Law binds not ad semper to every particular nunc or time why should we be more strictly bound to observe in publick an affirmative humane Precept than a divine Are we more strictly tied by the Laws of Men than of God It may by an Equity of Reason be allowed upon Occasions of some Necessity to omit an Ecclesiastical Precept as we through a gracious Indulgence omit a Divine Precept The third Crime of a Moderate Church-Man is that he will baptise without God-Fathers and God-Mothers in compliance with weak and tender Consciences I answer If there be any reason of Strength or Cogency for the Omission of such things as these it is as strong in the Case of weak and tender Consciences as in any if a Minister cannot omit any of these things with a sincere Tenderness and Indulgence to weak Consciences then he is obliged from doing a necessary Duty to the weak Brother And if we are so straightly bound to a rigid Conformity at all times so that we can in no case omit any thing for the sake of a tender weak Conscience Who can answer this Argument against Conformity That Conformity which doth oblige to refuse a necessary Duty to a weak Christian which the Law of Christ requires is a Conformity against the Law of Christ and by Consequence unlawful and null But such is the rigid Conformity as Men make it Ergo. In private Baptism they are not required In publick such as have not received the Communion may be refused and sometimes Parents can get no better and too often they are but Cyphers and stand only to keep up the Form But be they what they are instance in any publick Baptism performed without them if you can and the Peccant shall bare the Blame of it 4. The next Imputation is his giving the Sacrament kneeling sitting or standing I suppose the Reverend Preacher will strike out Kneeling out of the Bill when he reviews it I will take no Advantage of that Inadvertency but to the other Offence make a Return And here again we meet with a Ceremony which first is enjoyned the People 2. Some great Men have interpreted the Rubrick thus He shall deliver the Communion to the People kneeling not forbidding him to deliver it to them that kneel not 3. The words of the Canon 27 are lax Ministri cum Caenam Domini administrant neminem scienter ejusdem facient participem qui in Genua non fuerit inclinatus sub poenaâ Suspensionis The Communicant is not bound in express Terms to kneel in the very Act of receiving if he kneel in the time of the Communion it seems to be sufficient tho he do not in the Act of receiving the Bread and Wine The Canon saith not the Minister shall be suspended if he deliver the Sacrament to any one that doth not kneel in the very Act but qui in Genua non fuerint inclinatus If he kneel before or after he is not excluded nor the Minister punishable by the Canon whatever the Intention of it was But leaving these things to the Interpretation of Superiors Let any Minister be named that receives the Sacrament sitting or standing And if some Communicants do it is submitted whether a Minister in some cases ought not rather to venture upon his Ordinaries Indulgence then put away some Communicants for not kneeling for which he hath no Law to warrant him that I know 1. In case scruple of Conscience Prejudice or Fear the Christian who takes Scripture for his Rule finding the Gesture of the last Supper to be the same throughout as they sate at Meat he cannot distinguish of Predicaments of Quality and Situs as the learned Saunderson doth and the Circumstance of Place the upper Room was temporay and not imitable as the Gesture is whether a Communicant otherwise without Exception shall be excluded for adhering to the Gesture which he finds in our lawful Translation of the New Testament 2. What if a Father otherwise prepared and without Exception scruple Kneeling comes to receive the Communion of his own Son can the Son justify the rejection of his own Father from the Lord's Table Children obey your Parents is a Duty antecedent to Canonical Obedience and of the Law of Nature A Minister of a high Complexion did refuse his own Father and inform his Diocesan who was known to be strict enough for all the Ceremonies yet instead of expected Approbation he was soundly check'd for sinning against his Father For the rest of the Faults or treacherous Acts of Church-men I throw them into the Heap of Misinformations and to me things neither heard nor seen And that any do bury with an Exhortation of his or their own seems to me like a Tale which the Observator printed many Years ago of a certain Venerable Bishop that baptized by the Directory after he was Bishop and the Liturgy established which was an errand Rogerism To conclude this and to pass to the Confirmation of his Positive Assertions I only add what I have reason to believe that a strict exacting of Rites and Ceremonies hath driven away many to the Nonconformists that had staid with us had they been indulged but in some scrupled Ceremony and since their departure from us do scruple a great deal more than they did at first And except our Governours apply themselves to some timely Mitigations it is impossible so to crop the Sprouts of Dissenters but new Shoots will grow out of the old Stocks which cannot be stock'd up without breaking up too much good Ground There are two things which the Reverend Preacher delivers with great Confidence and Assurance as binding us under Condemnation and stopping our Mouths which have not the Evidence he presumes they have wherein we are concerned 1. He declares our
several Obligations to a strict constant Conformity to Ceremonies and all and saith To make all sure and prevent all Evasions occasioned by nice Distinctions about the force and obligation of Human Laws He will shew that there is no room for Equity and Moderation in this case pag. 43 44. 2. Seeing we Ministers have by private Subscriptions and Promises by open Deelarations and solemn Oaths to our Diocesan obliged our selves to the constant use of the Ceremonies established by Law I infer That nothing less than strictness and exactness of Duty and a constant close Conformity is required at our Hands and that no Man can dispence with himself and relax the Law in this case p. 45. The Inference is drawn from four Premises 1. The Act of Uniformity p. 42. 2. The Declaration of Assent and Consent 3. The Oath of Canonical Obedience p. 43. And 4. To make all sure c. There is no room for Moderation in this case which he endearvours to prove p. 44 45. Because that which I first except against taking the Pages in order is the last of his Reasons for that Conclusion I shall invert my Order and speak to it last and so take up the second Point in difference in the first place And considering the Premises I say He cannot infer that Conclusion from them for there is more in his Inference than is in the Premises He infers as much as that we are indispensibly bound in all Times Places and on all Occasions to a close strict Conformity and that if we do not constantly observe it in all Points we have broken our Faith If so then what Conformist is not guilty in a high degree of sinning then who can conform Or who can and be blameness Is there such to be found at all times even in Cathedral Churches There are many Occasions for an honest wise conscientious Minister to shew Moderation not only such as our Brother allows to Dissenters in Words and Passion but in Fact or he sins more by a courteous refusal to yield than by a prudent occasional Compliance If not then moderate Men cannot conform but must abide without among Dissenters And our rigid Interpreters of the Laws do furnish them with an unanswerable Argument against Conformity viz. That Conformity which leaves no room for Moderation cannot be submitted to without Sin but such is this rigid Conformity The Proposition is proved because we as Christians and Ministers are bound to let our Moderation be known to all Men and this Moderation is not only a Moderation of good Language and abstinence from Passion but in Fact and Deed. But let us try the strength of the Premises and if they be removed or shaken his Inference and Superstructure will fall with all his Confidence And first let us see if such Words be contained in or drawn from our Subscription to the second Article of the 36 Canon wherein the Subscriber doth promise that he will use the Form prescribed in the said Book in publick Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and no other And no other shall be explained afterwards The Promise is a general Promise and because general is capable of a Latitude and that nothing less than Strictness and Exactness and a close constant Conformity is more than the Canon speaks an Addition to the Law which enjoyns the use of it and no other Form in Competition or Opposition to it That Inference from this Promise of using it is denied and cannot be admitted except the Law-givers declare that to be the meaning of it 2. The second Premise out of which that rigid Inference is drawn is the Declaration of Assent and Consent which is to the use of all things contained in and prescribed by the Book But the Words and Promise are not To the constant close strict use of all things at all times which is more than any Man can promise or perhaps any Man hath perform'd However the Inference is denied because it contains more than is expressed in that Declaration But then this ingenious Person doth confirm his Notion by bringing in the Intention or Scope of that Declaration which is to the intent that Vniformity in the Worship of God may be effected That I may not be mistaken I desire it may be noted we are now come from one Word to another viz. from a close strict exact Conformity to an Vniformity which is the design and scope of that close Conformity To this it is applied 1. The Act doth enjoyn an Uniformity by a Book named in it We declare our Assent to the use of that Book and he that puts that Sence of strict close constant use of all and every thing doth add to the Law and by a rigorous Interpretation of it is as far from an honest Moderation or Equity as he that doth transgress the Law Relaxatione nimia 2. This Uniformity may in a warrantable sense be taken in opposition to a Diversity of publick Forms or a Multiformity that this is not the sense of Knaves or the invention of Church-Moles and Vipers is plain by the Preface as it was called in the Common-Prayer-Book of K. Edw. the IV th and in our Book follows the new Preface Concerning the Service of the Church wherein are these words And whereas heretofore there hath been a great Diversity in saying and singing in Churches within this Realm some following Salisbury some Hereford and some the use of Bangor some of York some of Lincoln now from henceforth all the whole Realm shall have but one Use. If therefore we follow and use the same Book we observe the Vniformity required and explained in that Preface still continued in this present Book which is established by Law and by Consequence this is a publickly allowed and a legal Sence 3. If we take our Uniformity not only oppositivè to a Multiformity of ancient Forms and Uses but appositivè conformable to the Rubricks and Orders which are the Rule of our Uniformity we shall find the Uniformity to be in many Things but general and not particular Therefore the Uniformity required by Law is not a particular close strict Uniformity and by consequence a strict close constant Conformity taking Conformity in the same Sence as Uniformity is not required and therefore not to be inferred as if all Ministers always were obliged to do the same Things which is the Import of the Inference which I oppose And this I conceive will appear in two Instances 1. Of the Prayers and Hymns 2. Of the Ceremonies which the exact Conformist drives at First Sometimes you are directed to One or This in several Offices Now suppose the Minister of St. Ethelbert for instance shall say the Te Deum and his next Neighbours of St. Helen's and Bishopsgate or St. Mary Ax shall say Jubilate Deo the one use one Hymn or Prayer and the other another one should dip and the other sprinkle Where such Diversity is allowed they all conform but do not keep
to a particular Uniformity But you 'll say Here 's no Omission of any Thing required True but let us modestly see if there be not some Omissions also allowed which will make a Difformity from the Use of our rigid Interpreters and whether the Composers of our Book have not been accessary to propagate or countenance a Sect of moderate Men in the Church Suppose a Man affirm that a strict close constant Use of the Letany be enjoined every Sunday Wednesday and Friday how will he prove it We think not clearly and convincingly by the Rubrick which is the Rule of our Uniformity which is this Here followeth the Letany or general Supplication to be sung or said after Morning-Prayer upon Sundays Wednesdays and Fridays and at other Times when it shall be commanded by the Ordinary Here the strict constant Use of the Letany is not enjoined upon every Sunday Wednesday and Friday but upon Sundays Wednesdays and Fridays If so much had been said for the Use of the Letany on those Days as there is for the Order of Morning-Prayer without it there might have been more light to direct us to the constant Use of it for after it it is said Here endeth tho Order of Morning-Prayer throughout the Year when yet three of these Prayers are to be omitted by another Rubrick when the Letany is said and yet Sundays Wednesdays and Fridays fall within the Year By the Rubrick for the reading one or more of the Collects after the Offertory it is left to the Discretion of the Minister to use one or more of those Collects He that useth one conforms as truly as he that useth more and yet there is no particular Uniformity except every Minister use the same and as many one as another A strict and close Conformity to a general Rule is one Thing and a strict and close Conformity to some Mens Practice is another The Compilers of our Book and Rubricks did it seems so word the Rubricks as to leave some Latitude of Interpretation and Practice either to the Discretion or various Occasions of Ministers and Circumstances of Time Condition of People or to the Prudence of the Ordinary to keep up his Power Yet notwithstanding this Apology the Letany is as frequently read by moderate Ministers as by them that do not affect that Title Secondly Let us see if such a constant and exact Conformity be required in the Use of Ceremonies Some Ceremonies are required of the Ministers and some of the People Those required of the Ministers are the wearing of the Surplice and the signing with the Cross I have spoken of the Ring in Marriage before and bowing at the Name of Jesus and towards the Altar are no-where required by Law 1. The omitting of a Ceremony is no such great Crime in the Judgment of the Reformers of this Church as this Reverend Preacher exclaims against in that Account of Ceremonies why some be abolished and some retained we read this moderate Passage And altho the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it self considered is but a small thing yet the wilful and contemptuous Transgression and breaking of common Order and Discipline is no small Offence before God We admit this and say that if sometimes we omit the Use of any of these Ceremonies suppose in compliance with tender Consciences or for some weighty reason we willingly do it but not wilfully and contemptuously and therefore occasional and sometimes necessary Omissions are but small Offences 2. Why may not a moderate Minister sometimes omit the wearing of the Surplice as well as the Brethren who seem to be the exact Patterns and Exemplars of Conformity omit the wearing of such Ornaments of the Church and Ministers thereof at all times of their Ministration such as Copes and Hoods as were in this Church of England by Authority of Parliament in the second Year of the Reign of King Edward the Sixth See the Rubrick or Section And here is to be noted c. after the Order for Morning and Evening-Prayer 3. Is not the Rubrick as positive for dipping the Child in Water warily and discreetly if the Godfathers and Godmothers shall certify that the Child may well endure it as for sprinkling and signing with the Cross And doth this ingenious and urgent Preacher demand such a Certificate from them that he may observe this Rubrick which saith And then naming it after them if they shall certify that the Child may well endure it he shall dip it c. How many Children hath he dipp'd in St. Ethelbert How often hath he demanded such a Certificate Suppose in the South Parts Infants were dipt and in the North sprinkled what would become of Uniformity in a more considerable Ceremony than any of the rest 4. Why may not the Cross be omitted sometimes to gratify a tender scrupulous weak Conscience without blame as well as the Omission of dipping Infants out of respect to bodily Weakness Is bodily Weakness in an Infant a better Reason than a Weakness or the Judgment of Conscience in a Parent Should the one be omitted and not the other Or shall we declare our selves more tender of hurting a weak Body than wounding a weak Soul 5. Uniformity takes in the Part and Duty of the People The Rubrick which is the Law doth often require that the People should kneel or supposeth that they kneel As for instance before the Confession Absolution Lord's Prayer We know it is impossible or inconvenient for most People in great and crouded Congregations and in narrow Pews and Allies to kneel in Prayer the greatest part if not all in the most conformable Churches stand Why may it not be as excusable sometimes in a Minister for great Causes to omit some one Ceremony as it is for the greatest Congregations always or most commonly to omit that Gesture of Reverence as positively required as any other And why may not a Minister as excusably deliver the Sacrament to a Receiver sitting or standing as pray the People sitting or standing when they are required to kneel at Prayer as strictly as at the Communion Some Persons are lame and cannot kneel shall a Minister refuse them And if some Impossibility Inconvenience or natural Infirmity shall make a Nonconformity blameless why may not a consciencious Infirmity or unconquerable Prejudice and Fear in the Consciencious render the Omission of a Ceremony unblameable or excusable And I desire it may be noted That I only shew there is room for Moderation and do not justify any Practice inconsistent with the Laws interpreted according to Equity By what is said I presume it either appears this Conclusion is too big for the Premises or it may appear doubtful whether an exact constant Duty such as he means c. be required by the Act. Let us now see is such an Inference can be drawn from his other Topick which is 3 dly Our Oath of Canonical Obedience The Oath of Canonical Obedience binds us to lawful and honest
Things and to these within the Limits of our Ministerial Function only else our Obedience might extend even to wait at their Table or to the holding of their Stirrup both which and many other Things are lawful And therefore our Diocesans cannot call upon us to go beyond the Laws and by consequence that Liberty which the Law allows is our Right and Privilege We cannot see how we are tied to a more strict exact constant Conformity by this Oath than by the Laws and Rubricks of which we spake before Secondly he adds as an Enforcement of the Obligation That the Right Reverend Father the Lord Bishop of London hath laid his Commands upon us punctually to observe the Rites and Ceremonies To which I answer This Obligation lies upon none but him and others from whom that honourable Prelate hath required it What is all this to the Clergy of other Diocesses If that Right-Reverend Bishop hath exacted this other Diocesans have not required it And I could name some of great Name and Age who have expressed a greater Moderation in forbearing to require that punctual Observation of constant strict and exact Conformity as allowing some Scope in some Occurrences and Cases to Ministerial Discretion And now not finding his Inference in these three Premises let us see if we can find it in the fourth which binds all fast and sure 4 thly To make all sure c. I will saith he briefly shew that there is no Room for Equity and Moderation here in this Case And this he endeavours to prove 1. By the Notion of Moderation with respect to Laws 2. The Words of the Act of Uniformity 3. The Sence of the Law-givers that is First the Sence of his Majesty in his Declaration to stand by the Act of Uniformity Anno 1662. And 2. The Vote of the House of Commons Feb. 15. 1662. against Indulgence to Dissenters from the Act of Uniformity p. 44 45. To drive home the Nail and to make all sure that a moderate Man may not be able to stir from the Post of constant strict exact Duty He tells us There is no room for Equity or Moderation in this Case Then first did he leave his Text when he came to his Application in the Latitude of the Apostles sense which must needs be large because the Object All Men is a general Object The Text saith Let your Moderation be known to all Men. The Dissenters are a very numerous Part of the Nation some of the All Men. That which they desire is a Freedom or Abatement or Omission of some things required If we tell them with civil and respectful Language and with tenderness of Affection and Kindness you must conform to all things at all times invariably to the Law and that there is no Moderation to be exercised towards you I pray Sir 1. What kind of Law do you make this to be a Human Law forbidding a Duty to a Divine Law 2. What kind of Law-makers do you represent ours to be that made a Law forbidding the Exercise of a certain Christian Duty For now you know the Law being made it is out of the Law-givers Hand and Power till they in a legal Meeting please to anul it so that now you say as much as that there is a Law that shuts out Moderation such a Moderation as the case of Difference requires for Moderation of Affection and good Words doth not come home to the Dissenters Case which requires a Moderation in Fact and Exercise 3. What Encouragement is this for Dissenters to conform if by their Conformity they must shew no Moderation to the weak and doubting 4. Do not you furnish them with an unanswerable Argument against Conformity But Sir you produce our Subscription and Assent against us and is there no Moderation of Sence and Interpretation of it You may soon know that the Learned Mr. Chillingworth hath given a Sense of our Subscription to the Articles Preface Sect. 40. and it passed with the Approbation of the Vice-Chancellor and Professors of Divinity in Oxford The like is done by Arch-bishop Bramhall's Vindication of the Church of England p. 156. the first Edit And for the Book of Common-Prayer be pleased to cast an Eye upon the last Preface before the now enjoyned Book speaking of the former Book The Authors of it say they were fully perswaded in their Judgments that the Book doth not contain in it any thing contrary to the Word of God or sound Doctrine or which a godly Man may not with a good Conscience use and submit to or which is not fairly defensible against any that shall oppose the same if it shall be allowed such just and favourable Construction as in common Equity ought to be allowed to all human Writings especially such as are set forth by Authority and even to the best Translations of the holy Scripture it self Here is some Equity of Construction and Moderation in reference to the Book of Common-Prayer to which we assent supposing the same applicable to this which is spoken of the former which pretends to no higher Authority than that did And to use your own Words To make all sure you will see the Error of your dogmatical Assertion when you see it proved that Moderation and Equity must be allowed in this Case or else we are grosly abused by them that require Subscription to the Canon and cannot subscribe with Verity and Judgment We subscribe to the three Articles of Can. 36. In the second Article we say that the Book of Common-Prayer and of ordering and consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons contains nothing in it contrary to the Word of God and that it may be so used and promise to use that Form and no other in publick Prayers and Administration of the Sacraments Now that Canon is old as old as 1603 and refers to the Book of Common-Prayer then in use and not to this which in several Particulars differs from it We do not now subscribe to that Book as it stood then but to a Book lately changed in which are many things which were not in that If there be no Moderation or Equity of Interpretation of that Canon and by Consequence of our Subscription how can any Man subscribe and promise to use that Form and no other whereas we do not subscribe to that Book then in use to which the Canon relates but to that which is now in use We think now there is and must needs be an Equity and Moderation of Construction in this case 2. He saith in the present Case of Conformity there is nothing but what the Law-givers did foresee and provide against To prove this he repeats some words of the Act which say Nothing conduceth more to the Peace of the Nation Honour of Religion and Propagation thereof than an universal Agreement in the publick Worship of God and to that end in the next Paragraph of the Act it is enacted That all and singular Ministers in any place of publick
not this Oratory to be taken for Evidence before a just Tribunal Neither can we see such Propensity in so many Men to fall in love with Moderation that there is some need to paint her as an odious Creature to take them off The Charge against Moderate Men consists of many Articles to all which we make a short Defence 1. We have given Legal Security to our Governours in Church and State 2. We endeavour to perform all Duties without Offence 3. Our Moderation is our Conformity to Christ and his Gospel to the Doctrine of this Church 4. As the Law is our Rule so it is our Security and we rest under it 5. When we shall stand in need of Favour we will thankfully accept it but think it our Duty so to live and carry our selves as little as may be not to need it though we know Nullum Ingenium placuit sine Veniâ 6. We are Strangers to that part of History which preserves the Memory of Mischiefs or Ruine brought either to Kingdoms or Churches by Moderation or Moderate Men We are utter Strangers to any undermining Practices and if our Words be not taken we can endure a Trial and therefore know no reason for this giving notice to the Magistrate or the World to beware of Moderate Men. We never heard that sitting even ever overthrew the Boat But on the other hand we know what Moderate Men have done to settle compose reform to preserve States and Churches 7. Our Government is justly celebrated for its admirable Temper and Moderation Certainly Moderate Men are never like to overthrow that which comes so near their own Temper and if its Peace be ever disturbed or broken it cannot be by them who are Men of Peace as all Moderate Men are The most we can desire is a prudent Accommodation of some Laws to the present Age and the Necessities thereof as our fore-Fathers did to their Times upon no better Reasons for we know no standing Rules for Perpetuity but those of our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles SECT VII If there be any Vertue if any Praise we should study think upon acquire and exercise Moderation I shall not discuss whether Moderation be a single Vertue or a Cluster of Vertues whether it be a Grace adorning the Christian Court or rather a Queen that governs and imploys other Graces in their several Services and Offices We are sure that Mankind was first spared and afterwards restored and ever since governed by Divine Moderation Man's first Constitution was tempered by Moderation There was an Union or a Combination of Heaven and Earth of Spirit and Body to make him up compleat and perfect Man An excellent happy Creature Visible between the Creator and other Creatures in a middle state of Freedom and Obedience to his Maker and of Dominion over other Creatures lower than Angels in respect of his Earthly Extraction equal to Angels in respect of Holiness above Angels because of his Dominion and Authority to stamp what Name he pleased upon the Creatures And once more see the Moderation of the disposal Adam had the Name and subordinate Power but God retained the absolute Soveraignty God had the Right to bestow them Adam had the use of them because he had the need and was to have the Comfort of them Had he kept this Middle Station he had continued happy but aspiring to an Extream of Ambition he fell to an extream Condition of Poverty and Misery In this State Goodness and Forbearance did first forbear him God stays till the Cool of the day before fearful Adam heard his Voice that he might have time to study if he could find a Remedy or find some Shift or lye down at the Feet of Mercy which was not promised to him before Infinite Mercy did interpose between Holiness and Justice and the inexcusable Offender whose Excuse made his Case the fouler What course did God take to save him He went a middle way by a Mediator God and Man Grace shall save the Sinner and Righteousness lose nothing thereby The Law broken shall be perfectly fulfilled the Curse shall be born and taken away by him that bare it Every Man that is saved and called is put into a middle State of Grace in this Life he is advanced from a Slavery to a Sonship but a Son under Age. Now are we the Sons of God it doth not yet appear what we shall be And ever since Sin made the great and lamentable Alteration in the World by bringing in Death among us God hath governed it by a glorious perfectly Divine Moderation He governs commands and judgeth by a Law that is holy just and good and so his Ways are equal They are the best and happiest Men in the World both in themselves and to others that are renewed after his Image and act according to his Laws in imitation of him and they are they who are the most moderate that govern themselves and govern others or are governed by the Rules of Moderation A Moderation of Elements and Humours makes the best Constitution of Bodies Grace and Vertue gives the best Temper of Soul which keeps the mean between the Excess and Defect and in the State of Grace the Exercise of Grace is the shewing of our Moderation Christ to whom all things are committed of the Father rules his Church by it and all the Members of it are to shew it to all Men to them that are without and to them that are within This is like the Stifness and Flexibleness of the Nerves and Arteries the soft and smooth Ends of the Parts and Members of the Body where they joyn and meet In a word Moderation is the Ballance of the Ship and the Cement of the Building the just Proportion of the Mystical Body If the whole Body were an Eye where were the Hearing If the whole were Hearing where the Smelling c. But God hath so tempered the Body together that there should be no Schism in the Body 1 Cor. 12.17 24 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vno quodam temperamento inter se conjunxit adeoque conglutinavit Dr. Slater in loc All Christians are joyned together by one Temperament that there might be no Schism that 's God's design to prevent Division and casting out or cutting off of Members or any Carriage of Men of higher Gifts to offend and neglect the inferiour and weak And the words of the grave and excellent Musculus in 1 ad Corrinth c. 12. v. 25. are worthy a recital Significat ipsissimum esse Schisma Ecclesiae quandi membrae illius ab hac sum mutuâ solicitudine aliena quiquid tandem Verbis ac Ritibus profâ—tiantur For the Unity and Integrity of the Church saith that excellent Man doth not only consist in an outward Conformity of Religion and Ceremonies but also yea and more in the Consent Concord and Unity of the Mind of Spirit Detur autem è tot millibus Ecclesia una in quâ mutua ista Membrorum cura