to see happy dayes and the Congregations and Consciences of Gods people will reap the happy fruits thereof mens exulcerated minds and spirits will in a short time be healed the common adversaries and underminers of our Church and the glory of it will be fully disappointed Governors and Governed in their several stations and places well contented and rejoyced the Churches interests of Doctrine Discipline Unity and Peace well strengthened and secured and the mouths of all true Protestants both abroad and at home filled with acclamations of joy and gladness and praises also to God for such an happy reconciliation with their constant prayers to Heaven not forgetting the Instruments thereof for its prolongation and continuance till Christ the Head of his Church come to Judgment CHAP. VI. Obj. NOw if any should object and answer this would be a good way if matters could be thus brought about but it is sooner said than done Answ It will be so in Heaven and why some offers should not be made towards making us more happy in the Blessing of Reconciliation and peace as well as more holy in the Acts and Duties of Sanctification I see not Holiness will not be perfect till we come to heaven and yet means are used to make persons better and more mortified to the world by preaching praying good Examples Education and Endeavours and why may not the same means be used in relation to Christian Concord and Charity And though we cannot be perfect in this world yet we should be perfecting Holiness Peace Mortification and Reconciliation in the fear of God Secondly Neither is such a thing impossible to be done here in this world quoad naturam rei though I must confess while every party retain their prejudice passions unkind remembrances of wrongs and thoughts of revenge it is utterly impossible it would therefore do well that every one in their places Superiors and Inferiors would study and endeavour after those things that make for peace which is most certainly jure divino whatsoever things be or be not Where there are commands given and promises made upon the observance of such commands there is no impossibility implied or included It is a vain thing to oppose against any of the Ten Commandments an impossibility in them to be observed now peace and living in peace and charity one with another is commanded Re. 14.19 Let us therefore follow the things that make for peace and things wherewith one may edifie another 2 Cor. 13.11 Finally Brethren be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you Heb. 12.14 Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. And that it is practicable we see it daily men can possess their souls in peace keep their Families and Corporations in peace and other Churches live in peace and why may not ours do so too Considering the great contentment and comfort we shall all reap by it another day it is no great wisdome for any of us that have much and great work to do and but a little time to live that have Sickness Death Judgment Eternity upon the matter all at hand to ruffle and discompose our selves and others by our heats and unkindness to make our own passage rough and stormy out of this world into another and leave all in anger heats and disorder behind us when we are gone all which might have been happily prevented by our innocent and amicable condescentions one unto another Let us not by any means leave the Family of God the Church of Christ and the Houshold of Faith in strife and contention if we can any way help it either by deed or will before we die Sat infelicibus armis pugnatum Sat communibus adversariis occasionis commoditatis ad nostrum exitium exhibitum sat imo nimis affectibus indultum malis It is high time to be wise and good natured one unto another to forgive what God hath forgiven to dispense with such things as are dispensable for the attainment of such sure and staple blessings as are indispensably necessary and essential to the life and being of our Church and Religion This and much more may be said but that such an one as I am must not prescribe rules of Government and Jurisdiction to my Superiors and Betters Obj. But must the Laws of the Land vail to every schismatical factious and private mans opinion Answ No by no means But I pray let us not in fury and spleen nickmine such for being so as are upright in their hearts and consciences and plain and open in their outward actions for Truth and peace and do as perfectly abhor Schism and Faction and any thing of that complexion and more too than any of their violent and virulent accusers and dare say further that they should neither sleep nor die peaceably if they were not as good Subjects to the King and it may be better and as true in their principles and Consciences to the Doctrine and Interests of the Church of England as any or most of those that make the loudest declamations against Schisme and Faction and the most uncharitable and unchristian reflections upon their poor Brethren But it may do well that the true notion of Schisme and Faction were truly stated and such as were truly such were admonished corrected and restrained and not the nocent and innocent loyal and disloyal hand over-head punished and branded together promiscuously and without any discrimination Scarce any one would suffer such work to be in their own Families that upon the surmises and whispers of a company of pick-thanks and bad men that are not content with the places they are in but have a mind to rise by slanders and murdering other mens reputations and give way that such children as are in reality respective and dutiful to their Fathers and Superiors should be suspected suspended ejected and disinherited because they had neither parts nor wit nor strength nor faces alike And if it would please our Superiors to make trial and if they find not those who are accounted little less than guilty of Heresie and Sedition both loyal and peaceable and also sound in the Faith according to the Doctrine of the Church of England then let them bring the wheel over them again and doom them to perpetual silence and obscurity as persons invincibly obstinate and incapable either of encouragement or entertainment And if the courteous Reader please let us a little consider what Learned men say of Schism Schismatici dicuntur inquit Aquinas quia propria sponte intentione ab unitate Ecclesiae se separant Aquin. 22.2 qu. 39. Now how this can be said of them who take their censure and seclusion from the Ministry with all meekness and mansuetude and intend to live and die in communion with the Church of England either as Ministers or Members let the world judge As S. Jerome tells us ep 62.
their relation to and communion with the Church of England or not which indeed is ridiculous and contradictious For the truth is they seem such as I am acquainted with to be so far from desiring to know whether they may go against their principles or not that they would not though they might have a particular dispensation for it but desire to comport themselves as they have hitherto done towards their Mother the Church of England with all duty and good manners and to have their actions at the offers of their duty pass without offence or mis-representation CHAP. II. THerefore the Question in my opinion ought to be this Whether the Presbyterians considering their great endeavours and desires to enjoy a Legal Indulgence and Comprehension by the Law of the Land as to some Scholastick and disputable points betwixt them and their Superiors Fathers and Brethren which are not essential to the government of Church and State the government whereof many of them upon their Oaths have obliged themselves not to alter and not being yet able to proeure it and having given sufficient testimony of their Sobriety and Peaceableness these ten years last past may not at this time accept of His Majesties Indulgence in His Declaration without offence or self-contradiction For the clearing whereof it is necessary to premise these things 1. That the interest of the Church of England both as to the being and well-being of it ought to be promoted and encouraged by all the Members and Ministers thereof and all safe means and wayes as speedily and as effectually undertaken as may be for the advancement thereof considering her danger from Papists and Phanaticks which offer to swallow up all the one by an Infallible Supremacy the other by an Infallible Spirit and both vain and counterfeit 2. Those persons which you call Presbyterians which have been secluded from their Ministry these years past by the Act of Uniformity are not conscious to themselves of any inward principle of Opinion or Disaffection contrary to the Church of England and that many of them in all Counties have so behaved themselves by attending upon the worship of God as it is now establish'd in publick that the Ministers of their several parishes may and will testifie with them of the decency and inoffensiveness of their carriage and attendance hitherto though it may be some others where there have been no Churches or Ministers scandalous and unprofitable may have adventured sometimes to have preached in private for the Service of such a destitute people and for some maintenance too happily for themselves and Families which otherwise might have starved the manner of their Education unfitting them for manual Labour and all this without any affront to the Laws or enervation of the strength and Doctrine of the Churches to which they severally belong therefore are not altogether unfit to be comprehended in any Act Statute License or Indulgence which may further the settlement and tranquility of the Church 3. And if so it is not unsafe but profitable at all times to strengthen its interest and multiply and encourage such Ministers and Members as are ready in their Consciences and by their study diligence and peaceableness to do as much good as they can since Turks Papists and they of the separation are all for the encrease of their number and the Church in the primitive times looked upon it as its Glory that there were added to it daily such as should be saved and Jews Gentiles and discontented persons were then converted and after their Conversion Ordination and Usefulness in the Church were encouraged notwithstanding some minute differences in Disposition and Opinion And methinks the Church of England should not at any time look upon it for her honour and peace to narrow her own Interest and perplex her Followers with unnecessary Subscriptions Impositions or Altercations especially considering these Presbyterians are still so ready to stick by her living and dying notwithstanding all their discouragements and disappointments when as others fall in with her more for her Dividends than her Doctrine and if a man may see any thing in its causes will make it appear so if ever she should be in danger 4. Small and little considerations ought not for ever to keep the breach and wound open considering how these smaller matters were dispensed with not only in the Apostles times and by persons and superiours who were divinely inspired but also in after-Ages when differences arose about these little things and were very hot and high at the beginning yet were very fairly and prudently taken up when both sides had spent their heats as particularly in the business of Easter which Irenaeus though of Victor's mind did endeavour to compose by a fair and fraternal Indulgence non molliter Victorem ipsum reprehendebat as Eusebius tells us for being so fierce and imperious in a Custom of that nature And it is likely the Papists would allow many things which they peremptorily enough insisted upon in the beginning of the Reformation as Priests Marriages and the Sacrament in both kinds could they have the Church of England theirs as it was before And why our men should not do the like to their Brethren of whose peaceableness and soundness in the Faith they have had so good experience for the Churches increase and glory especially in minutioribus hisce I understand not why they should not be as tender of all her Members and Ministers and endeavour with as much prudence and indulgence to keep them together in a true Church as her ancient predecessors did and her Enemies and Underminers still do Yea considering withall that with some persons they do it daily and such things are connived at and indulged even amongst Conformists themselves one way they have in Cathedrals another in Parochial Churches some pray towards the East others do not so some bow others bow not why then should there not upon the same ground be the same dispensations in other reputed Indifferences That which hath been done may be done again in cadem materia Considering withal that the substantial peace and unity which this brings along with it and is now obstructed is really better than the external decency and order which the strict imposing of these â—nnâ—oâ—ssaries may promote And besides it is also said that even some of the very Doctrinal Articles of the Church of England themselves are so cautiously and temperately warded for peace sake that even they that have different sentiments and apprehensions thereof may and do subscribe them And if this Liberty may be given in Doctrine wherein the Subscribers dispute pro and con why may it not also in Ceremonies and Mods of Worship especially if the peace of the Church so require it I shall leave to my Betters to consider and determine 5. Though great expectations have been that more might have come in in all this time that the Church of England might have been more glorious in her Numbers
INDULGENCE Not to be Refused COMPREHENSION Humbly Desired THE CHURCHE'S PEACE Earnestly Endeavoured By PHILATHESEIRENES Let my Sentence come forth from thy Presence let thine Eyes behold the things that are equal Ps 17.3 LONDON Printed in the Year 1672. SInce His Majesties Happy Restauration wherein the Welfare and Unity of the Church of England was and is still much concerned it hath been thought reason of State and so Resolved upon that such Ministers as would not subscribe the Declaration and declare as in the Act of Uniformity in 1662. is required should not be capable of holding any Ecclesiastical Benefice nor permitted to preach Many Ministers thereupon have since that time laid aside the Exercise of their Ministry as not being clear in some disputable Points therein contained and prescribed yet very well resolved and in Conscience satisfied in all things necessary to the true Protestant Religion and their Allegiance and Obedience to His Majesty their most Rightful and Dread Soveraign and to the Being Peace and Order of the Church of England in whose Communion they intend to live and die And it doth very much refresh them in this ten years last silence and obscurity of theirs that they neither harbour any principles of Disloyalty or Schisme much less favoured any practice of Disunion or Disobedience but intend to be found in the way of their Duty to God and the King all their dayes And it doth not a little add to their contentment and comfort in their Afflictions That His Sacred Majesty hath not only Declared them Loyal and Peaceable but also endeavoured in His Speeches and Actions a Legal and Fitting Indulgence for them and now done something preparatory hereunto in His late Declaration For indeed the Act of Uniformity although by the Subscriptions and Appointments thereof it hath taken in many Grave Learned and Worthy Persons yet others also are such taken in by it who are not so well conditioned in their Minds Morals and Affections to the true Interest of the Church of England as others that are now laid aside nor have they ever declared so much for Her in Her Straights and Obscurity as they have done who are not therein comprehended So that it hath not been an adaequate and sufficient Test and Standard of all mens integrity and peaceableness nor wrought any great cure upon our Divisions so as was expected but we are broken still to the great gratification of those that would invade or undermine the Church it self by their extream Opinions and Animosities And it may be upon these or such like Considerations some worthy Patriots in Parliament and some reverend Fathers have not been unwilling to allow the Non conformists such relaxations and that by Law as may be consistent with the Essentials of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England thanks to them for their respects and good remembrance of us But I must confess there have not been wanting also some Ecclesiastical Incendiaries and Boutefews who have endeavoured by their preaching and writing and otherwise to keep the Flame alost and the Wounds still fresh and bleeding to the ruine of many poor Ministers and their Families for ever and not without some inconvenience also to the Church and People of God to whose misguided zeal and hectical heat I shall offer nothing for the guiding of their actions and passions but the Church's present condition and refer them to their own Natural and Evangelical Affections if there be any bowels of Love Ingenuity or Charity to the Church and their Brethren who think themselves as good Subjects and as true Ministers and Members of Christ and as peaceable in their principles and practices as themselves And as for His Majesties Gracions Declaration March 1671. which many men according to their fears and hopes their interests and tempers their ill or good natures make various constructions of for Princes actions pass no more without animadversions than other mens what others say or think it seems to be a genuine and natural effect of that antipathy and enmity which is in His Majesties Disposition and Nature to all violent proceedings against those that have truly tender Consciences And if it reach further to others whose principles are not modest nor honest but grate upon the foundation and tend not to peace nor solid piety it is but a pleonasme or overflow of that great kindness which He alwayes intended and expressed about matters of Religion wherein He had rather overdo in things so agreeable to His own good temper than seem to leave any out of the compass and umbrage of His Favour and Indulgence the fault being theirs that know not how to govern themselves not His that knows wisely to attemper severity and sweetness and fitly to join them together in the Government of His People Since which Declaration there hath lately come forth a busie Paper the Title whereof is Toleration not to be abused Or A Serious Question debated and resolved Whether it be advisable especially for the Presbyterians either in Conscience or Prudence to take advantage from His Majesties late Declaration to deny or rebate their Communion with our Parochial Congregations and to gather themselves into distinct and separate Churches Which Question I suppose the Presbyterians will resolve in the Negative as well as the Proposer and I must also acquaint him that there hath been scarcely any thing that looks like an Argument in his whole Debate but hath been considered and ventilated with all respect and tenderness to the Church of England Nor indeed can it be in reason and duty imagined That His Sacred Majesty intending by this Declaration an Indulgence to tender Consciences should intend to leave out the greatest part of His Loyal and Obedient Subjects who are Dissenters much less intangle them in any way of Separation or Schisme contrary to their Consciences and the Churches peace which the Debater seems to intimate So that if this Book be intended in kindness to direct the Presbyterians in their way at present in things they could not else possibly have foreseen without the Debaters help or as a Mediator to move them to hold off a while till the Bishops make their way more clear by some Episcopal License for publick places in subservience to the Kings Declaration or till some Comprehension can be legally procured by Act of Parliament to make them stand recti in foro Regni Ecclesiae Conscientiae as well as other men Or if his end be really to advance the true Church of England and not to weaken it to declare the sobriety of the Presbyterian principles and practices and not to blazon their infirmities which they acknowledge to be many as well as other mens they have reason to thank him for his good intentions But not for stating the Question for them for it is in effect to enquire whether the Presbyterians may go according to their principles or not whether they may turn Independents or not whether they may leave