A CONFERENCE BETWEEN A BENSALIAN Bishop and an ENGLISH Doctor CONCERNING Church-Government Shewing the difference betwixt that of BENSALIA AND THE Church of England Together with a LETTER FROM THE Bishop of Bensalia to the Archbishop of Canterbury in order to the healing of our Church-differences Being part of the History of a Terra Incognita lately discover'd in a Voyage by the North-East to China LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst and Joseph Collier and are to be Sold at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside and at the Bible on London Bridg M. DC LXXXI The Conference between a Bensalian Bishop and an English Doctor concerning Church-Government c. I Was cast upon that happy Country of Bensalia amongst other Discourses I had with several persons of note and eminency in their respective faculties and functions as I was one day in Conference with an ingenious and worthy Physician whose acquaintance I had contracted comes a Messenger with a Letter from the Bishop of Bensalia to the Doctor the main scope of which was That whereas he perceiv'd that those English strangers were so highly favour'd as to have that Indulgence granted by the King and Council to inquire into and make their remarks upon the Laws Government Customs c. of their happy Country more than ever was yet permitted to any strangers before Therefore was desirous to discourse us so urg'd him to bring us along and particularly the English Physician on the day following to dine with him At which news I was not a little glad that I might have such an opportunity unsought for yet desired by me of conversing with one of those wise grave Seniors I askt the Doctor if the Bishop of that great place being the Metropolis of the Country was a Lord he answered No For they lookt upon Christs Kingdom not to be of this world or at least that that Kingdom of his which is to be attended with grandure is not yet come I queried further with what state he was attended Not saith he as the Lord Bishops are in England yet hath a plentiful allowance and servants sufficient to attend but in no great pomp or splendour For saith he they judg in themselves that they are here to partake of the Humiliation of Christ that so they may the better be fitted for their Exaltation with him in his glorious Kingdom when it shall come But adds he further I suppose the Bishop may take liberty himself further to discourse these things to you Only take notice which he perhaps may not acquaint you with lest he be thought guilty of ostentation that he and other Bishops of this happy Country are very hospitable and charitable I was going to say to strangers but that we have so few that as to that matter not worth naming however to the poor I mean not to beggars for we have none in all our Country come to any of our doors but to the poorer sort of Families who live about them and to the binding poor mens children Apprentice and putting others of them to School although care is most-what taken of them by publick stocks to maintain publick Schools Work-houses or Manufactories which are constantly supply'd at the charge of the King and his Sophy However in every respect wherein they are in a capacity of shewing charitable acts they are not at all wanting Yea it 's part of their study how they may find out occasions for charitable offices and for their piety and exemplary lives are had in great estimation and reverenc'd by all men The next day the Doctor call'd of us according to his kind offer and took us in his Coach to the Bishops house who expecting us was in readiness for our reception where being by one of his servants brought into the Hall the Bishop came and with a comely grave countenance yet somewhat smiling saluted us and told us we were kindly welcome as should be shewn with all cheerfulness according to his ability After some previous discourse the Dinner came up I observ'd the Bishop had no Chaplain for he in person with a great deal of seriousness crav'd a blessing before meat At Dinner the Bishop was pretty pleasant with us askt us about many of our Customs in England and concerning our King what age he was I told him as far as I knew that he was about 46 or 47 years I began taking an occasion from the Bishops naming him to magnifie and extol our King for the greatest Prince in the world You mean quoth the Bishop in Europe But take heed of Bensalia as you will better know when you come to see our King and the grandeur of his State which with that of Solomon's house and the Sophy in relation to whom he is stiled Preses Sophora is the most magnificent in the world not excepting the world Europe He asked with a cheerful countenance what children our King had I replied very modestly I was not so well vers'd in our Court-affairs as to be able to give him any account thereof only I have heard some say he had none so beg'd his excuse in answering to that or other questions of that kind whereupon smilingly he began some other matter of discourse And amongst the rest askt me if many of our Clergy-men were not Good-fellows as you in your own Dialect saith he improperly enough call such I told him if any surely they were more than should be and more than became the gravity of that worthy function Come saith the Bishop you are very modest I commend you for your cautiousness in speaking any thing against your own Country-men I thankt him for so good an opinion he had of me Come saith he you may speak out here drollingly telling me we were out of their hearing For we know saith he the state of your affairs both as to what relates to your Court Clergy as other grand affairs as well as you can tell us only I am willing for discourse sake to ask questions and to be a little further satisfy'd in the truth of what we already have received I told him seeing it was so I could neither add nor diminish to or from the vertue or viciousness of our own people As to the latter I could not but confess that the more I convers'd with the Bensalians and became acquainted with their Laws Customs Demeanors justness in Traffick civility in behaviour and other worthy Endowments the more I dislik'd yea blusht at our own It 's quoth the Bishop the part of every honest vertuous good man to own honesty and vertue and goodness where ever he finds it and that without respect or any byas to Countries or persons but where it s nakedly apparent Although there was plenty of dishes of meat well ordered yet the Bishop eats generally but of two or three at the most You see saith the Bishop I have a good stomack I thank God to my meat I can eat heartily once a day at evening some small repast no Breakfast
as thinking from our Lord and his Disciples example that it was not of Divine institution which therefore we for their satisfaction forbear We impose no bowing at the Name of Jesus but bowing at the Altar we wholly prohibit lest we should in any measure admit of or connive at the Idolatry of Popery against whom we generally have a natural and inbred aversness Yea in all dispensible Ceremonies we set the doors of our Church so wide open that all who otherwise would be dissenters and in fine would in spite of us have Churches and Congregations of their own willingly come in and once in most willingly would go forth 7ly We compel or force none in matters of Religion as judging it to be a voluntary free action of the Soul in the exercise of things that relate to Heaven and happiness as well knowing that if we should constrain people to acts of Worship we could at the best unless it was from a free act of their souls but make hypocrites of them as to which we think the prophane person who has nothing of religious actions more acceptable in the sight of God than such deceitful hypocrites who only make Religion a stoking-horse for their worldly advantages 8ly We the Bishops study to avoid all height of honours for our King would have made us Lords but we beg'd of him that favour as not to confer such high dignities upon us and that because we being men of like frailty and passions with others were afraid lest that height of honour should ensnare us make us forget God turn dronish and careless shepherds which we declare our selves to have so great zeal for the honour and glory of God and good of the souls of our dear children or people as we would not have any thing of that nature happen for the gaining all the world or worldly honours lest neglecting our flock we should impose on them other dronish leud scandalous teachers whereby the flock would be scattered and they seek or make other shepherds of their own so quite break off and relinquish our Church which breaches we dread as also judging such high honours not suitable to the poor humble Ministers of Christ in this our Pilgrimage through the wilderness to the land of peace who are here to partake with him in the state of Humiliation as we expect and hope to share with him in his state of Exaltation at the coming of his Kingdom which very Kingdom we have always before us as near approaching the glory of which so dazles our eyes as that it darkens these transient scenes of temporal honours eclipses the beauty thereof and makes them only seem to us like a finer sort of Pageantry which makes us careless of them as also lest we should be in danger of Lording it over Gods heritage and thereby should give cause of dividing and rending the seamless coat of our beloved Lord and Master And now my Son I must acquaint you with one thing which strikes not so universally with the Genius of your people of England as with ours of Bensalia and that is concerning Musick in Churches First therefore as a foundation to what I have to say and to make it less strange to you I must tell youthat harmony whether vocal or instrumenal strikes in so naturally with the Genius of our people as what through their education and custom and perhaps a private instinct peculiar to Countries of which we can give no account Musick or Musical harmony seems to be so congeneal to them as nothing more every boy and girl in one sort or other is train'd up with it even Mechanicks are not ignorant of the grounds of Musick Vulcans at their Forges Glassmen at their Furnaces Shepherds and Shepherdesses in their Tents c. upon frequent occasions strike up into Musical consort and smite your ears with pleasant harmony In the very Groves and shady places we have instruments of Musick almost like Organs or Pedats which are set into motion by the air or wind and so contriv'd that without any hands guiding them they strike into pleasant tunes the very birds are so sorted as they make vocal consort Wisd 17. 18. So that the whistling winds the melodious noise of birds among the spreading branches the pleasing fall of waters and the rebounding Eccho from the hollowing mountains c. too tedious now to relate all sound aloud yea eccho forth and that sweetly too the natural bent of our peoples Genius to Musical harmony Which considered and what was wonderfully done to the destruction of that terrible army of the Moabites and Ammonites which came against Jehoshaphat King of Judah even by singing and praising God we have upon record in the Sacred Chronicles Book 2. Chap. 20. v. 22. We were willing for their further satisfaction and to make Religion in its acts of Devotion not burdensome and offensive but to be perform'd with alacrity and cheerfulness to appoint some choice musick in our Churches Which musick is not perform'd by a company of leud vain Quiristers Boys and Singing-men who sing for money as your Ballad-singers do such as you foster up to the great discredit of your Church-musick in England and other places of Europe which are indeed a great disgracc to so heavenly an ornament in the Church But most of our people even children from a dozen years of age are able not only to set in but also to go along in harmony with the Musick Which they do my Son with such seriousness and gravity as that it seems to be the most sweet and harmonious thing in the world They are so ravisht with that harmony as they seem to be wrapt up in it even beyond all outward things who thus in Psalms Hymns and spiritual Songs praise and magnifie God with such sweetness and wholeness of heart and such praises to God are sounded forth in so great innocency of spirit and sweetness of voice as surely nothing is more delectable next to the Beatisick Quire of Angels and heavenly spirits in the full Coelestial Chorus Whose greatest work in height above Is only with joy to sing and love Then he paus'd a little as if upon the uttering thereof he had been wrap up into a heavenly sweet extasie His Spirit for a while seem'd to retire And he was gone to th' Heavenly Quire At his return I was afraid Reverend Father said I by any question to interrupt you at the first so serious and at the last so sweet discourse but that your pause and heavenly rapture gave me an opportunity to take you up as you were falling or retiring to the pledg your body left behind and to acquaint you that your wholesome and sweet Doctrine together with the harmony of your Discipline has begot an ardent affection in my soul towards your so happy and concording Church so assimilating and symphonizing with the Divine Angelical Chorus Ah quoth the Bishop my soul was wrapt among That heavenly host who sweetly sing
the Song Of Moses and the Lamb. And indeed our mental people as we call them viz. such as are spiritually minded and given up to high contemplation of the mercies wisdom and wonders of the most high God are sometimes in such sweet concording harmony even wrapt up well nigh into extasies and have much ado to contain their divinely symbolizing souls within the narrow confines of their bodies But to return We suffer no Jesuits or other Papist-Priests whatsoever to come amongst us as well knowing how spreading and contagious their leven is and has been to those Kingdoms and Countries where it hath been admitted Yea it cannot easily slip out of our memories what danger we had like to have been in both as to our Church and State upon admission of an unknown Jesuit who being in a Merchants Ship driven upon our Coasts was suffered to dwell amongst us and in a very little time he had so poysoned near a score of our people with his venomous leaven which like a contagious ferment had got footing among us and if that joint of our body-Politick had not been seasonably cut off the Gangreen would in no great time have endangered the whole body But by the prudence of our King and Sophi we the Bishops not a little contributing the grand Jesuit was apprehended and all his proselytes who upon good proof being found to be such were sentenced to the Staffee and thence for Islands near America Only this liberty was granted to those of our own inhabitants that as many of them as would return to their own mother-Church and reclaim that of Rome was to be received again which most of them accepted The rest with the Jesuit was speedily ordered for the Staffee And because it happened at a time that Ships were not shortly to go off therefore to prevent further delay a Ship on purpose was appointed to go away with them and because they would not have other places which are much peopled hazarded by them gave command to set them upon some Island remote from America For although quoth the Bishop your Laws are so severe in England as to punish with death Jesuits that are so prov'd to be which yet how duly executed you know best yet ours doth not sentence any man whatsoever to death for his opinion in Religion We think that Law of death to persons of different Religions not to be agreeable to the judgment custom or president of the Primitive Church of God therefore we avoid it Thus my Son I have in short shew'd you the state of our thrice happy Church and Government thereof only before I conclude this head it will not be impertinent to touch a little further upon the nature or manner of our Church For the Church I have been speaking of is made up of living stones well knit and cemented together in every of which Christ by his Spirit dwelleth and is thereby render'd a true Church Our people which convene and are linkt together in Church-fellowship are the Church not the place of Convention Which places of Convention or meeting-places we do not call Churches left we should lose the Primitive and true sense of that name but for distinction sake call them Convents or in short Covents which are built very conveniently for meeting but are no stately Fabricks nor is our Worship attended with any gaudry or any spiritual sort of pageantry wherefore we wave all Surplices Copes Tippets Caps c. lest our people being amus'd with the external should lose the internal acts of devotion lest too much busied in their heads their hearts should let go the main object Give me thy heart saith God not thy head or thy eye and lest they should let themselves too much forth into the outward they should leave nothing for God in the inward Yea in short lest our people whom we always watch over with a jealous eye by such spiritual shews in the external pageantry of Worship should be drawn aside only to an outside Religion and so should commit spiritual fornication which we dread to think on and therefore rather abate in Ceremonies than to have them supernumerary And as our Pastors Teachers c. avoid all pomp in the performance of all Religious duties so likewise our people come not together in such gaudy dress as we hear yours do who come rather as if they were to act their parts in a Play than to such solemn Worship in such pageantry of dress as would more become their appearance in either of the two Parks or a Masquerade than their prostrate approaches to the footstool of Grace more likely to beautifie a Comical scene than such a solemn Convention As to which even many of your professors who as more strict should see and forsake the folly of the former to their great shame are guilty herein Is it not so saith he to me I cannot answer I but confess Reverend Father to the truth hereof and am much asham'd of it Ah saith the Bishop how becoming and suitable to the profession of the Gospel is a modest garb our people accounting the Graces of the Spirit in a vertuous mind the chief ornaments And now my Son to acquaint you with the result and genuine effects of our so happy Church it is no less than love unity and peace and what can be expected more in any Church in the world The glory of God and good of Souls being the main aim and end of the Bishops Presbyters Pastors and Teachers set over the flock of Christ What love we have to each other and in what unity of heart and mind we are established you may in part read in every family you come and in every publick meeting and Congregation whether upon matters Civil or Divine For it 's a great part of the work of our Teachers we set over them at seasonable times to visit their people and in Christian love to quiet and compose the differences quarrels or private animosities amongst them by removing the causes and bringing them to a right understanding of each other studying by all mild and prudential means their reconciliation nipping their feuds and quarrels in their first bud so prevent their becoming publick As to the publick peace we enjoy no people Country nor Kingdom whatsoever can vye with us having now enjoyed great peace without any division fraction or schism either in Church or State for so many hundred years Tell me I challenge you what Country Nation Kingdom or States can glory of the like It 's true that of the States of Venice come the nearest to us of any known parts of the World having had their Government unvaried for about 1400 years which no Princes or Kingdoms in Europe can boast of But yet they maintain their peace and unity at home by their Wars abroad which very thing renders their peace the less peaceable whilst we have no enemies at home or abroad to annoy or disturb our peace And thus my Son as I
you well can But we compel not at all and yet our flock by such soft tender means as we treat them with is much larger yea more secured and fixt to us than yours by your severer method is or in probability ever can be For we chain them to us by our friendliness Christian charity and tender affection shewn to them upon all occasions by which we purchase more love from them than yours can ever do by all threats of Citations Excommunications Capias's and other vexatious browbeaâ—ing modes of treating them all which sets them more aloof off you and confirms them more in their several Classis of Separation Thus our Bishops good old and reverend Fathers are they are not only afraid lest the pomp of the world should steal away their hearts from God and they thereby should become dronish Shepherds who thence should not only not feed the flock of Christ but perhaps through idleness and the heaping up of worldly wealth might give way to that error as to endeavour to hinder others from feeding the flock whom God had fitted with endowments and gifts for that purpose but also are afraid lest by too stiff maintaining arbitrary and disputable Ceremonies they should give cause to the beginning of divisions in our happy and peaceable Church Now my Son what remains to be spoken according to my propos'd method is next to shew you the reasons hereof and lastly to propose some expedients in order to the healing your long contracted differences in your Churches As to the first of which you may if you observe take notice that I have most-what interwoven the reasons with the differences I have been acquainting you with And that in the main the reasons of your differences and divisions amongst your selves chiefly if not solely springs from the deviation of your Church of England from ours of Bensalia as you may easily and with much perspicuity see in the lately quoted seven Heads to which we have reduc'd the most remarkable differences and deviations of your Church from ours which is obvious to any one who reads them Which I shall here only in short recount viz. 1. In your Head 2. In your permission and indulgence of dubious Controversies and jangling Disputations 3. In your strict imposition of dispensible Ceremonies upon your weak and dissatisfied Brethren 4. By your upholding those vexatious Courts call'd Spiritual Courts that newly furbished Inquisition or Religious-house of Correction where your sinswindgers from money-mulcts got by Citations Excommunications c. raise their fortunes out of the ruins of your weak and distressed Brethren whom you should rather pity commiserate and receive into tender bowels of compassion 5. In your Visitations by your scourging the people rather than removing bad exemplary and therefore scandalous Ministers the great eye-sore of your people 6. In that your Bishops as to dignity are Lords and as to function rarely preach Lastly By your compulsion in matter of Religion In all which I say you differ and deviate from us and our Church-discipline And therefore no wonder that you have not enjoyed those expected fruits which we constantly possess of love unity and peace but rather have been imbroiled in Domestick dissentions animosities and intestine Wars the bane and reproach of Christianity For can you expect to gain the credit of being endowed with Christian charity while you shew so much of a spirit of enmity as to impose burdens upon weak Consciences and not condescend in matters dubious and therefore indifferent to the weaknesses of your dissatisfied Brethren And can you think to procure a happy unity amongst your selves which we always enjoy while in the forenamed Heads you take away the very basis and foundation thereof Lastly can you upon serious consideration perswade your selves that ever you shall possess peace while you vex disquiet and sit upon the skirts of your Brethren in matters indifferent wherein they ought in all Christian tenderness not only to be received but to be as well satisfied as your selves But I hast lest your company will wonder what is become of us therefore as to the last thing I propos'd to discourse viz. to propound some happy Expedient in order to the healing your clashing differences and towards the begetting a Christian charity and firm union amongst your discording Churches which because it would be too tedious now to insist upon as also would I fear too much intrench upon your Companies patience I shall therefore refer to its due place in a Letter which I intend if it shall be permitted by our King and Sophi to write to one of your arch-Arch-Bishops in England To conclude at present take notice my Son that I have not discours'd these matters to you without both the knowledg yea and advice of our King and his Sophi whose leave and consent we desire before we discourse any thing of this nature to strangers But in as much as you are my Son highly favour'd by them more than any stranger that ever yet came upon our happy Island I was I say not only permitted but indeed advised to make this relation of the state of our Church and to compare it with yours that thereby you may legibly view the difference Whether at your return from us you may have leave to publish this relation in your own Country in order to their good I know not as to which you are to wait our King with his Sophy's pleasure therein Only this on the by I may take leave to acquaint you with that none of your Country-men that we call to mind was ever before cast upon our coasts except one which was my Lord Verulam whose stay in the Country was so short as he took but a transient view and therefore gave but a slight and imperfect account thereof to the world Now in order to your more through information I have perform'd my charge and hope others according to their several incumbent tasks will do the like and if it shall be permitted to come abroad I pray God what I have said of ours may become exemplary to your distracted Churches in Europe especially to England that happy Country if they knew their own good to which place we seem with a joint consent I had almost said harmonically to wish well and to write the first copy after our original pattern which with a great deal of seriousness concluding the great God of Heaven for his beloved Sons sake bless unto you Amen Which done I made my Obeysance to the Bishop and humbly thank'd the Reverend Father for his great condescention love and familiarity in his late admirable discourse As I was coming forth of the withdrawing-room the Bishop thrust a heavy paper well lin'd with red into my hand What mean you Reverend Father said I the fee is rather due to you for you have given the advice while I have been your Auditor and our Church your Patient Come come saith the Bishop this is only a small pledg of the kindness and