an ambulatory or menstruous Creed nor with an arbitrary monstrous superintendency voted and unvoted and revoted backward and forward according to the sense and interests of the Chairman and his crew in S. Stephen's Chapel Neither will we be satisfied or own a civil or common Law hotch-potch Church according to the device of the Counter-plot as the three Inventors gave it a Name one whereof is an outlawed Traitour the second a Church Trepanner the third a giddy Changeling For I demand Was the Church of England when Popish a true constituted Church according to its first settlement by Christ and his Apostles and subsequent example of the Primitive Church because it was so established by Law or not If it were we have done the Papists business they need not prove us we have proclaimed our selves Schismaticks in separating from a true constituted Church by Christ's and the Apostles order antecedently such before any humane Sanction if not then a legal settlement may be Antichristian which in that very respect stands in great need of a Reformation For as to attempt a Reformation of that which is founded on Divine Authority and stands by Divine Law is a contradiction to the indispensable and irrevocable will of the Founder so to reform what hath been introduced by mere humane authority without any warranty either general or special from a grant of our Law-giver is a pious Christian duty provided that in the management thereof nothing be done repugnant to any other Divine Law and our duty But let what can be suggested for the promotion of this new project it will be baffled by the two notorious Ringleaders of the Faction For if Mr. Baxter's onely true way of concord will not pass he and his Comrades will be as clamorous and stirring if they dare as ever J. O. is positive All lawfull things are not to be done for the Churches peace which quite undoes it Confessed it must be that several of the Partisans conceive a full union cannot be expected yet to comprehend and condescend to those who will occasionally and partially conform may go far towards a peace In good time can this be a way to true Christian peace when Mr. Baxter hath given us fair warning not to trust them plainly telling us Apol. for Nonconf p. 90. they are onely Instruments to undermine us and will turn against us as soon as they have opportunity Neither will their coming to Church as they delusorily and hypocritically call it clear them from the guilt of Schism because this Church being both founded and settled upon Divine Right in all its Superstructures there arises an obligation constantly and throughly to communicate with it and observe its Rules and Orders which not to doe is sinfull Separation and to abett or countenance those who doe not is to partake of their sin For it is not love devotion or duty which draws them but cunning interest and fear which drives them to this outward auckward conformity The best any can make of it it s an act of compliance cannot be an act of Christian allegiance and obedience to lawfull Superiours which is a work of Faith incorporate with the other good works of Faith issuing from the supernatural power of God's Word Spirit and Grace Certain it is that the men for whom this favour is moved do publickly and honestly declare which is next to a moral impossibility that they ever will that Kingly power is originally and immediately from God that Prelatical Episcopacy is a Divine Apostolical Institution that some circumstances and adjuncts in the external ministeries of Divine Worship not expresly prescribed by God may and ought to be adhibited therein for decency order and edification they are not to be trusted and if frequent experiences will not make us so wise as to neglect them and all such motions for them we are fit to be begged and once more undone We are yet again efforted with a troop of tantum nons who are still bleating for connivence forbearance and moderation which in effect is to solicite the Laws be outlawed though herein they would give better evidence of their moderation and modesty if they left that solely to the resolution of the Government Take these we must as we find them and we shall find them vary as the wind does they can blow hot and cold with one breath that trimming Proverb is their Rule There is no living at Rome and fighting with the Pope and let the Government sink or swim they will keep themselves out of harms-way If possible to make sure of this world they will have friends of all parties for which end they can at present swallow the Oath of Allegiance take the Test and upon another occasion vomit a fulsome Remonstrance Address or Association but by all means they will make infallible provisions for heaven in order whereto if they be in health they are for the Church and if in safe policy they may for a Conventicle too yea from the Church to a Conventicle and back again if sick they will not refuse the Offices of the Church but will admit them de bene esse yet for their transire and viaticum they must have a voluntary conceived prayer by a moderate Sneak who can play fast and loose with the Church Offices and to make sure work the Sacrament must be re-administred by one of the same batch or a zealous Holder-forth In my judgment these of all other Sects are the most dangerous because the more close and reserved we cannot say they are either flesh or fish nor discover whether they be Hawk or Buzzard they are animalia imperfectè mixta but this we know much mischief hath hapned by this false disguised and miscalled moderation to evidence which it will be requisite to exemplifie this in some all are too numerous and would be too bulky instances and to give in the opinion of two who in their times were reputed moderate learned men and excellent preachers 1. It hath been mischievous to the Church The Samosatenian Heresie was brought in under a mistaken charitable pretence to reconcile the Jewish and Christian Religion The Heresie of the Monothelites was set up on a design to moderate the Heresie of Eutyches The Eusebians propagated the Arian Heresie by their moderate endeavours to compose the difference betwixt them and the Catholicks Some Novatian Bishops to satisfie the scruple of a convert Jew thought fit to leave it though the matter of it was an approved practice as a thing indifferent which soon raised a Schism and this Schism in a short time begot another Theoph. Alex. favoured the Originists in hope to recover some at least from that Sect but S. Hier. told him roundly his moderation therein was very offensive to holy men because thereby he emboldned and strengthned the already over insolent and peevish Faction What Greg. Naz. got or rather lost by his easiness of temper is too large to relate and so it is of many more
been a great noise and bustle for a better in the chief Materials and Superstructures thereof It is confessed Doctrine Worship and Government are the Essentials of a regularly constituted Church each of which hath been impugned traduced and defamed The Doctrine hath been least debated though too much the Worship hath been more scrupled and with great heats opposed the Government most of all canvassed and bandied against Upon which accompt this being most contemned by all Sectaries and least respected by many who retain a kindness for the Doctrine and Worship is first to be reflected on where it will not be amiss before that be considered to premise something in general relating to all and every of the contested particulars CHAP. I. Sect. 1. MAny things conducing to the well-being of a regularly formalized Church may be and are in their kind alterable which yet as Mr. Calvin observes nec subinde nec temerè nec levibus de causis should not be altered Considered precisely in themselves they may but if the reasons of their Constitution be regarded they are practicè moraliter unchangeable These terms are borrowed from a great Jesuit yet made use of by several reformed Divines in several important instances and approved by them for this reason because the first reason of their origination is moral and perpetual Those of this nature being not merely occasional temporary Proviso's which often vary either upon some sudden unexpected emergent or for the avoidance of some greater evil but were ordained for the great end of Christian Society and in the ordination founded on the general rules of the Gospel Whereupon with the Greeks they passed as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divine Constitutions for their serviceableness to the great Concerns of publick Religion with the Latins as Divina Magisteria Divinae Dispositiones Divinae Sanctiones quae publicâ Lege celebrantur quas universa Ecclesia suscipit Mr. Calvin saith of them Sic sunt humanae ut simul sunt divinae which if I understand aright hath this clear sense They are humane in their composition but divine in their foundation and reason of their Constitution Sect. 2. To attempt a second Reformation will be a great reproach to our first Reformers who confessedly were men of great learning piety and zeal For if they failed in their undertaking either through ignorance oscitancy or interest it will be readily concluded they designed onely a Change and endeavoured an innovation which at once blasts their reputation and justifies all the imputations of their Romish Adversaries who impeached them of novelty and Schism And if we set upon a new refined Reformation as their former charge will hardly be evaded so with difficulty will we solve their latter Objections viz. Protestants have no Principles or which is as bad are so given to change they will not stand to their principles whereas if we maintain the Reformation to be onely a Reduction of affairs to the primitive Apostolical and Catholick order and state we do not onely thereby render a second Reformation unpracticable but also invalidate all the Romish contumelies and calumnies This was the avowed profession of our first Reformers they would onely retrieve the Primitive Christianity and settle this Church according to the Catholick Pattern concluding all other methods of Reformation to be irrational and schismatical Bishop Jewel in his famous Apology p. 176 177. fully declares it Accessimus quantum potuimus asserting the whole and every main part to be Apostolical and consonant to the judgment and practice of the ancient Catholick Bishops and Fathers This Apology not onely Peter Martyr in his Epistle prefixed to it but also the learned Divines of Tigur Bullinger Gualther Wolphius c. have so highly approved that they resolved no Book extant in the Protestant cause was comparable to it Other eminent Transmarine Divines might be mentioned yea a Jesuit in his Pamphlet against Mr. Chillingworth hath confessed that of all other courses in the Reformation that which the English followed was the most effectual for the establishment of our Religion against the Romish Church The more shame for a presumptuous Ignoramus publickly to remonstrate We might as easily persuade the modish Ladies of Court and City to Queen Elizabeth's Ruffs as to gain him and his rabble to be content with her Settlement of Religion Sect. 3. This Church being thus Reformed and restored to its primitive strength and splendour to move for a second Reformation dissonant therefrom is in effect to renounce the Communion of the Primitive Catholick Church with which all successive Churches ought to hold as near as possibly they can a perfect correspondence and where this cannot be obtained by reason of some cross circumstances to reflect upon it as an infelicity The reason hereof is obvious for the primitive and successive Churches are but one Body having the same dependencies upon and relation to the one Lord one Faith and one Baptism and the Catholick visible Church and every regularly constituted particular Church is an organized Body having several Members for several Offices all which conspire for unity that there be no Schism in the Body which certainly would happen if successive Churches observe not the same Laws and retain not the same Government which the primitive maintained For that which maketh the Church one is the unity of these and that which distinguisheth one Body or Society from another is the diversity of Laws and Government and so long as the same Laws and the same Government are in force the Body is still the same Now as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever so is his Church which at first was embodied into an indeterminable Society For the Scripture assures us the Church is a Body and that Body whereof Christ is the Head Col. 1. 18 24. Eph. 4. 11 12 15 16. which we profess to be Catholick not onely in respect of persons and place but also of time The Catholicism whereof not onely includeth variety of places and multitudes of men but is to be extended to universality of succession Now evident it is that all Bodies Corporate whether aggregate such as the Church is or sole by their succession are immortal as long as they retain the same fundamental Laws and remain under the first settled Government If therefore we condescend to a new Reformation distinct from the first Settlement or opposite thereto we design a schismatical separation from the primitive Catholick Church if we put it in execution we fall under the same condemnation we sentence against the Romanists this being the common Protestant Apology We have departed from Rome no farther than she hath from the ancient Church and her self and if there were no other reason for this our secession as there is viz. That we embraced Christianity before S. Peter planted a Church there and when the Western apartment was set out by the Fathers this of ours had the honour of being one of the Seven
and perfected it with a happy success even to the envy and admiration of the Christian world Certainly there hath not in any age in any part of the world in that space of time appeared such a race of Kings as our five Reformed Princes for all manly Kingly and Christian accomplishments neither hath there been a more Clergy-like Clergy than hath been under their Reigns We can esteem them to be no other than such as S. Paul Tit. 3. 10. notifies to be men subverted that 's desperate utterly perverted in understanding and will whom the Governour of the Church is to reject excommunicate him after two admonitions which if they work no good effect he is to reject with a severe censure take no pains to dispute with them any more hearken no more to their Replies and Objections faith Diod. they have by their contumacy and non-submission to their Governours put themselves into an helpless and hopeless condition they have excommunicated themselves without the Sentence of a Judge saith Dr. Ham there is no hopes of them and so leave them to the judgment of heaven as hath been accustomed What shall we say of half Conformists conforming Non-conformists who when they take the fit can come to Church and attend there by outward Conformity This will not clear them from the guilt of Schism bonum est ex integra causa and it 's to be feared there is hypocrisie in the case outward conformity may cheat the Law and mock men but it cannot be an holy living acceptable sacrifice to God because the good works of Faith must be done with a good and honest heart in sincerity and truth out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. and every duty must be done with respect to God's Commandment But do you see them come to Church Thanks to the King who will have Laws put in execution but when they come they come as Countrey-men do to Fairs and Markets some sooner some later and with the same reverence that they enter their Inn some not at the beginning or not till Sermon begin some go out in an hurly burly after the Sermon is ended this is contrary to the Act of Vniformity so that this coming to Church is neither Christian nor Legal Tea but many come early neither loll nor lubber nor hang down their heads like a bulrush as too many do but hold out to the last and demean themselves unless sometimes through inadvertency as the Law requireth This is confessed but for all that it will not denominate them true Members of the Church of England because many of them dispute scruple deny and undervalue the Authority of the Church rebell against its Governours Associate pack Juries in a design to ruine the Church and as opportunity serves take to a Conventicle hold correspondence with its professed enemies familiarly converse with the excommunicated by the Church and now and then commend them for their piety nay we are sure several of these late Conspiratours and Associatours were such as these all which acted directly contrary to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church and shall these pass for true Conformists who are but counterfeits do not the grossest Fanaticks reproach and upbraid us with them when they tell us tauntingly Take up your Church of England men you often declaim against us as Traitours and Rebels but who are such now Were not most of the Conspiratours such as observed and kept the Church They did so in part but we disown them because we look upon them as the most dangerous enemies to the Crown and the Church being most false to both by their juggling pretences to them both Church-Papists and Church-Puritans do undermine the Church whilst others profess an open hostility against it but a declared enemy without is not so dangerous as a pretended traiterous friend within But what esteem is to be given to new Converts Thanks to the King again my Lord Chief Justice and the Reverend Judges we have old Converts too if they prove not better than most of them have done we have no great reason to confide in them If the new be Converts indeed they are to be treated with all civility and by love without all dissimulation to be entertained and welcomed with the same rejoycings and caresses the Father ordered for his penitent Son to lay them on our shoulders as the Shepherd his stray Sheep because we have found what was lost yet this we cannot either with prudence or safety project till we have good security for their sincerity Let the old Converts be as forward and active for the service to the Crown and Church as they have been for the Ordinances of the Junto 's Keepers and Oliver as respective to the Episcopal Clergy as they were to the Presbyterian Trimmers c. then welcome good Friends if not adieu but for this we need not look into their hearts they may be known by their fruits and overt Acts Let the new bring forth fruits worthy of repentance promote the concerns of the Crown and Church as faithfully and strenuously as they have of the Faction of Conventiclers and Associatours let them come and welcome but if they cross or the King's service and dally in their duty good night to them also What is your opinion of those learned men who think there is no determinate Government of the Church I do not like a walking Church but for this Mr. Alexander Henderson in his Second Paper thinks that is built on a sandy foundation which is not built upon the foundation of Christ and the Apostles and all they doe so who content themselves with the Constitutions of the Church and munificence of Princes I desire them to satisfie his late Majesty's Quaere How can it be made appear that our Saviour and his Apostles did so leave the Church at liberty as they might totally alter its Government at their pleasure I think if we once think of an ambulatory Church-Government at the next turn we must expect an ambulatory Creed Lastly Whereas we have had four successive excellent Princes to maintain the Reformation and many Parliaments too and one King with his Clergy thought it a necessary duty to reform this Church it s therefore the indispensable duty of their Subjects to conform not barely because it was established by their authority though that is necessarily required but also from the nature reasons excellency and goodness of the establishment it self which to evidence is the design of the following Treatise both in regard of it self and in comparison of other late Models both à priori and à posteriori which if I have sufficiently cleared to the satisfaction of any considering men who are willing to be convinced or confirmed I have done one part of a Christian Priest of the Reformed Catholick Church of England No Reformation OF THE Established Reformation EVER since the Reformation was happily compleated in this Kingdom there hath