over to a new Party Dissention it self amongst Protestants weakneth their Interest and that which weakens one side strengthens another And many men entangled in Controversy and wearied with endless wrangling are too apt for mere ease and quiet sake to cast themselves in servile manner into the Arms of pretended Infallibility Our Dissentions have already introduced too much of that which is the very spirit of Iesuitism the doing of Evil that pretended Good may come of it the serving of a Cause by any means whether they be just or unjust Some Dissenters do accidently prepare the way for Romish Religion by running into an other extream upon pretence of avoiding Popery by decrying the Church of England as Antichristian and Popish and by condemning that as Popish which is Christian and decent As Episcopacy Liturgy Observation of the Nativity of Christ and other Festivals Reverence of bodily Gesture particularly in receiving the Holy Communion Preservation of places and things set apart for Holy uses with reverend care By this means they bring Popery into Reputation Men will be apt to say if such a Body as the Church of England be Popish it is fit we set down and consider of it for surely they are not so inclined without weighty Reasons If the Clergy of it be inclined to that Religion the Introduction of which together with great numbers of the Popish-Clergy will diminish their preferment it must be the Power of Truth which moveth them against their worldly Interest They will continue their Argument and say further if such good things as these abovementioned be Romish and it be lawful to judge of the whole by the parts of it which are before us surely that which is Popish is also Primitive and Evangelical That which we have examin'd is good and that which we have not may probably be of the same kind Secondly the History of our late Revolutions sheweth that Popery will not be smother'd in the Ruines of the Church of England but rather be advanced upon them It made great Progress in the late Times insomuch that the Dissenters do remove the Odium of the late King 's execrable Murther from themselves and lay it upon the Iesuites thereby tacitly acknowledging that they had so great a power over some of them as to make them to become their Instruments for the cutting of the Lord 's Anointed For if they will not allow Cromwell and Ireton and some others of that Order to have been Dissenters properly so called yet certainly they must not deny that Name to Mr. Peters Mr. Iohn Goodwin and many like to them who appeared publickly in that very black and insolent wickedness How far it is true that the Jesuits influenc'd those Counsels I do not now examine nor do's my Talent lie in Mysteries of State But that in the late Revolutions Popery was not rooted out no Man can remain ignorant who is of competent Age and has not perfectly lost the use of his memory though he has made the most negligent Observations Robert Mentit de Salmonet a Scotchman and a Secular Priest in actual exercise of Communion with the Church of Rome hath publickly taken notice of the many Priests slain at Edge-Hill and of two Companies of Walloons and other Catholicks as he is pleased to style them in the Service of the States It hath been commonly said that Gifford the Jesuite appeared openly in the Year 47 amongst the Agitators and that his Pen was used in the Paper drawn up at a Committee in the Army and call'd the Agreement of the People K. Charles the Martyr speaketh of such things as notorious in one of his printed Declarations All Men know said he the great number of Papists which serve in their Army Commanders and others In the Year 49 Those in the House were acquainted with divers Papers taken in a French Man's Trunk at Rye discovering a Popish Design to be set on foot in England with Commissions from the Bishop of Chalcedon by Authority of the Church of Rome to Popish Priests and others for settling the Discipline of the Romish Church in England and Scotland Mr. Edwards reports from Mr. Mills a Common-Council-man who was so informed by a knowing Papist that the Romanists did generally shelter themselves under the Vizor of Independency It is certain that a College of Jesuits was established at Come in the Year 52. And in a Paper found there mention was made of 155 reconcil'd that year to the Church of Rome Oliver himself used these words in a Declaration publish'd by the Advice of his Council It is not only Commonly observed but there remains with Us somewhat of Proof that Iesuites have been found among some discontented Parties in this Nation who are observed to quarrel and fall out with every Form or Administration in the Church or State Dr. Bayly the Romanist openly courted Oliver as the present hopes of Rome and with a Flattery as gross as the Jingle was ridiculous call'd him Oliva Vera And one of his Physitians hath said of him that he was once negotiating with the Romanists for Toleration but brake off the bargain partly because they came not up to his price and partly because he feared it would be offensive to the People It is also publickly told us that an Agreement was made in 49 even with Owen ô Neal that bloody Romanist and that he in pursuance of the Interest of the State so called raised the Siege of London-derry A great door was opened to Romish Emissaries when the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy were by publick Order taken away For they were Tests of Romanism Likewise the Doctrine of the unlawfulness of an Oath revived in those days by Roger Williams Samuel Gorton and others helped equivocating Papists to an evasion as I fear it may do at this day among the Quakers So we may be induced to believe by comparing present with former Transactions For we are infomed that in the Reign of King Iames Thomas Newton pretended to have had a Vision of the Virgin Mary who said to him Newton See thou do not take the Oath of Allegiance And being of this publickly examined at the Commission-Table and asked how he knew it to be the Virgin Mary which appeared He answer'd I knew it was she for she appeared unto me in the form of her Assumption It was the Church of England which in our late Troubles principally fortify'd and entrench'd the true Protestant Religion against the Assaults of Rome This Church was still in being though in Adversity She had strong Vitals and did not die notwithstanding there was some Distemper in her Estate There was still a Constitution where Primitive order and decencie might be found and in which Men of Sobriety might be fixed And great numbers of the Church-men by their constant adherence to their Principles under publick contempt and heavy pressure gained daily on the People and convinced
the State-Party For All of them to expect to be united in one Uniform Body is to hope not only against the Grounds of Hope but of Possibility For the Parties are very many and very differing or rather very contrary and they cannot frame amongst them any common Scheme in which their Assents can be united What Communion for Example sake can the Presbyterians have with Arians Socinians Anabaptists Fifth-Monarchy-Men Sensual Millenaries Behmenists Familists Seekers Antinomians Ranters Sabbatarians Quakers Muggletonians Sweet-Singers These may associate in a Caravan but cannot joyn in the Communion of a Church Such a Church would be like the Family of Errour and her Daughters described in Mr. Spencer's Fairy-Queen of which none were alike unless in this that they were all deform'd And how shall the Christians of this present Church be disposed of to their just satisfaction They will never Incorporate with such a Medly of Religion and they are such both for their Quality and their number as not to be beneath a very serious Consideration For the Prevalent Party there seemeth to be both Reason and Experience against their hopes of Establishing themselves as a National Church These Reasons amongst others have moved me to entertain this Persuasive concerning them First Such a Party not maintaining Episcopal Government which hath obtained here from the Times of the Britaine 's who in the Apostolical Age received the Christian Religion and which is so agreeable to the Scheme of the Monarchy It is not probable that they shall easily procure an exchange of it for a newer Model by the general consent of Church or State I may add the Body of the People of England whose Genius renders them tenacious of their Antient Customs Again All the Parties amongst us have of late declared for Mutual Forbearance They cannot therefore be consistent with themselves if they frame such a National Constitution by which any Man who Dissents from it shall be otherwise dealt with then by personal Conference which also he must have liberty not to admit if he be persuaded it is not fit or safe for him And such a Body without any other nerves for its strength and motion for the Encouragement of those who are Members of it and the Discouragement of those who refuse its Communion will not long hold together Nor hath it means in it sufficient for the Ends to which it is designed And indeed by this means the Spiritual Power of Excommunication will be rendred of none Effect For what Punishment what Shame what Check will it be to Cross and Perverse Men if being shut out of the National Church they may with open Arms and with Applause due to real Converts be received into this or the other particular Congregation as it best suiteth with their good likeing Furthermore It is commonly said that since the Presbyterians have gathered Churches out of Churches there are not many true and proper Disciplinarians in England If it be so then Independency is amongst Dissenters the prevalent side and I know not how a National Church can be made up of Separate Independent Churches for each Congregation is a Church by it self and hath besides the general Covenant of Baptism a particular Church-Covenant and therefore it is difficult to imagine how all of them can be by any Coherence of the Parts united into one intire Society But be it supposed that the Disciplinarians are of all Parties the most numerous and prevalent yet Experience sheweth how hard a Work it is for all of them to form themselves into a Church of England In the late times of Publick disquiet they had great Power they had in humane appearance fair and promising Opportunities and yet there grew up at their Roots another Party which in Conclusion over-dropped them and brought their Interest into a sensible decay it being the nature of every Faction upon Victory obtain'd over their Common Adversary to subdivide In the Year 1640 The Commons had a debate about a new form of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction And they agreed that every Shire should be a several Diocess That there should be constituted in each Shire a Presbytery of Twelve Divines with a President as a Bishop over them That this President with the Assistance of some of the Presbyters should Ordain Suspend Deprive Degrade Excommunicate That there should be a Diocesan Synod once a Year and each third Year a National Synod A while after it was voted by them that to have a Presbytery in the Church was according to the Word of God Many other Steps were made in favour of the Discipline The Common-Prayer-Book was removed an Assembly of Divines was Established Their Directory was introduced they were united in the Bond of a solemn League and Covenant There was sent up from the County of Lancaster a Petition signed with 12000 Hands for the settling of Classes in those parts A Petition of the like importance was framed by divers of the Common-Council of London They seemed nigh the gaining of their Point yet they widely missed of it There was in the Assembly it self a ferment of Dissension Mr. Sympson and some others favoured an Independent Mr. Selden and some of his Admirers an Erastian Interest There was a Party in the Nation who were then called Dissenting Brethren and to these the Directory was as offensive as the Canons and Liturgy had been to those of the Discipline They drew up Reasons against the Directory of Church Government by Presbyters They afterwards Printed an open Remonstrance against Presbytery of which the Assembly complain'd to the House as of a Scandalous Libel And there were those who Reproach'd the Presbyterians in the same Phrases in which they had given vent to their displeasure against the Liturgy of the Church of England The Ministers of Lancashire complain'd concerning them That they had compared the Covenant to the Alcoran of the Turks and Mass of the Papists and Service-book of the Prelates As likewise that they said it was a Brazen-Serpent fit to be broken in pieces and ground to Powder rather then that Men should fall down and Worship it Amongst the Disciplinarians some were confident of Success One of them for he was not then gone over to the Part of the Independents expressed his assurance in these most unbecoming Words before the Commons It will said he bring such a Blot on God as He shall never wipe out if your poor Prayers should be turn'd into your own bosomes that Prayer for Reformation A Speech not fit to have been repeated if it were not necessary to learn Sobriety of Wisdom from the Remembrances of Extravagance in former Times Others acknowledg'd their hopes but did not dissemble their Fears Six years ago said a person eminent amongst them after this Parliament had sate a while it was generally believ'd that the Woman the Church was fallen into her Travel but she continues still in pain Insomuch as they begin to think she hath
not gone her full time and earnestly desire she may because they fear nothing more then an abortive Reformation Others did openly confess that their hopes were not answer'd and that the State of Religion was much declined The Ministers of the Province of London used upon this occasion these passionate words Instead of a Reformation we may say with Sighs what our Enemies said of us heretofore with scorn we have a Deformation in Religion Those Independents who adher'd to that part of the House which joyned with the Army prevailed for a Season but they also were disturb'd by those who went under the Names of Lilburnists Levellers Agitators Then likewise Gerard Wynstanley publish'd the Principles of Quakerism discoursing or rather repeating the Dreams of his Imagination in such Expressions as these If you look for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ you must know that the Spirit within the Flesh is the Jesus Christ. Every Man hath the light of the Father within himself which is the Mighty Man Christ Iesus Then Enthusiasm excited in part by the common pretence of an extraordinary Light revealed as of a suddain in those days in England brake forth into open distraction Then Ioseph Salmon a present Member of the Army publish'd his Blasphemies and defended his Immoralities He justify'd himself and those of his way saying That it was God who did Swear in Them and that it was their Liberty to keep Company with Women for their Lust. Wyke his Disciple kissed a Soldier three times and said I breath the Spirit of God into thee Salmon himself printed a Pamphlet call'd a Rout in which he set forth his villainous self as the Christ of God saying I am willing to become Sin for you though the Lord in me knows no Sin We love to sweat drops of Bloud under all mens offences We shall see of the Travel of our Souls Enthusiasm tho' not in this rankness of it was now openly favour'd by Cromwell himself who together with six Soldiers prayed and preached at Whitehal His own temper was warmed with fits of Enthusiasm And he confess'd it to a Person of Condition from whom I receiv'd it as did others yet living that he pray'd according to extraordinary Impulse And that not feeling such Impulse which he call'd Supernatural he did forbear to pray oftentimes for several days together In Process of time his House of Commons and he himself were publickly disturb'd by that wild Spirit in the raising of which they had been so unhappily instrumental A Quaker came to the door of the House and drew his Sword and cut those nigh him and said He was inspir'd by the Holy Spirit to kill every Man who sate in that Convention And he himself was not only conspir'd against by those who call'd themselves the Free and Well-affected people of England but openly bespattered by the Ink of the Quakers in several Pamphlets and by their Clamours affronted in his own Chappel where before his face they gave bold interruption to his Preachers Other Historical Memorials might be here produced relating to the hopeful Rise and mighty Progress and equal Declension of the Disciplinarian Party But in such cases I choose rather to take of my Pen then to lean too hard upon it Yet the nature of my Argument did necessarily lead me to the former Remarks and if useful Truth smarts let Guilt suffer a Cure and not kick against the Charitable Reporter In Sum the longer the Church of England was dissettled the greater daily grew the confusion and the division of Sects was multiplyed not unlike to that of Winds in the Marriners Compass in which Artists have increas'd the Partitions from four to two and thirty Insomuch that the very Distractions which were among us did in some measure prepare the way for the return of the King and the Restitution of the Church men finding no other common Bottom on which the Interests of Religion and civil Peace might be established Now if the Dissenters could not then when so fair Opportunities were in their hands carry on their cause to any tolerable Settlement much less may they now hope to do it For there are now many hinderances which did not then lie cross their way First The Platform of Discipline so highly applauded so earnestly contended for during the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King Iames hath now been in part tryed and the presence of it to omit other Reasons hath abated the Reverence some had for it Secondly There is not at this time such an Union amongst Dissenters as appeared at the beginning of our late Troubles The number of those Dissenters who were not for the Discipline was then very inconsiderable But in a few years they brake as it were into Fractions of Fractions Insomuch that the Ministers of the Province of London expressed the Estate of things in the Year 47 on this manner Instead of Vnity and Vniformity in Matters of Religion we are torn in pieces with Distractions Schisms Separations Divisions and Subdivisions Thirdly Those who then favoured the Discipline are much departed from their former Scheme of Government inclining to Independency which they once denyed to be God's Ordinance and pleading for Toleration which they once called The last and strongest hold of Satan Fourthly At the beginning of our Disturbances many Men of Quality and such who had a Zeal of God favour'd the Settlement of the Discipline in the simplicity of their hearts They had not then seen any Revolutions they had not discovered the secret Springs of publick Motions nor the vile Interests of many men which lay concealed under the disguise of Pure Religion They saw what all Men may see in all times abuses in Church and State and the very name of Reformation was sweet to them Now notwithstanding the sincere zeal and the power of these Men the Discipline could not long be carried on much less could it be perfected by them There is therefore at this time a much greater Improbability of Success in the like design For many considerable men Piously inclin'd have seen their error and will not be a second time engaged And they will not say of our late changes as the Protector did That they were the Revolutions of God and not humane designs That they were the Revolutions of Christ upon whose Shoulders the Government was stayed They are not of the same mind with him who told the Commons That if they acted Faith then the Records of those Times on their side should bear thus to all Posterity the Book of the Wars and Counsels of God Also since those days through the laxation of Discipline during the licence of the War the discovery of great and black Hypocrisies the multiplication of Parties and Opinions the publishing of many lewd and irreligious books from Unlicens'd Presses Atheism hath made very formidable Advances And they say that some undisguised Sceptics and
arrived there and made a figure in that Government they refused Indulgence to the Anabaptists and Quakers and us'd them as to this day they do with great severity Those Commons who in the Year 47 made an Order For the giving of Indulgence to tender Consciences did at the same time make another Order That this Indulgence should not extend to tolerate such who used the Common-Prayer Some who do not well understand the Policy of the Dutch do believe it to be otherwise in those Netherlands But by their Constitution none have liberty to speak against any publick Error or Corruption on which the States shall stamp their Authority And Episcopius complain'd that the Calvinists would tolerate none whom they had power to punish There are now great numbers of his own Remonstrant Party who when any juncture of Affairs gives them encouragement are apt to contend for Superiority The Parties in their Sermons and Writings speak with bitter Zeal against each other And where the ordinary Conversation of Men of different Judgment is peaceable amongst them divers who mind Traffick more than Religion seem rather to be an Heterogeneous body frozen together by a cold indifference then a Society united by Christian Love In the Church of Rome the several Orders who at present mortally hate one another if they were not restrain'd by the force of the common Politie they would soon devour one another We are not without a remarkable Instance in this kind published by a Dominicans Bishop and a Capuchin Fryer Certain Dominicans had seated themselves nigh the River of Plate in Paraguay where there are Gold Mines in the Earth and Gold Sands in the Rivers Of this the Jesuits who have long ears had good intelligence They desired to go thither in order to the further instruction of the American-people and the education of Youth They obtained leave procured Letters of Credence were furnished with money for the Voyage After having gotten sure footing they soon removed the Dominicans and Spanish Laiety and established themselves Among the Socinians the great Asserters of Liberty in Religion both in thinking and speaking though they cannot impose because they have not yet been any where that I know of the prevailing Party yet they shew sometimes what Spirit they are of Gittichius was beyond all good manners troublesom to a Socinian of better temper I mean Ruarus* because he had chosen to fast one day in a week and had taken Friday for the day though without any fixed purpose Among the Quakers themselves whose Principle seems to be the Guidance of each man by his personal persuasion there want not signs of that fierce heat with which their Light is accompanied When some had form'd them into a Society and gotten the Governance into their hands they Excommunicated others they suffered them not to Marry or Bury in their manner who would not be guided by what they called the Light of the Body and the Light of Antient Friends George Fox declar'd he had Power to bind and loose whom he pleased and said in a great Assembly that he never lik'd the Word Liberty of Conscience and would have no Liberty given to Presbyterians Papists Independents and Baptists From the Subordinate End of the Dissenters I pass to the Principal and begin with the first part of it the removal of Popery A very good and commendable end And I heartily pray to God to prosper all Christians who persue it by fit and lawful ways But the Methods of Dissenters do not so well lead to it as those of the established Church Bare Reason maketh this manifest It may be also proved to us by Historical Inference This likewise is the Iudgment of the Papists themselves who take their measures from this Principle that they shall enter in through the Breaches of the Church of England First Common Reason sheweth that the Interruption which may be Dissension be given to this Church will rather weaken then improve the Protestant Interest both at home and abroad Abroad the Protestant Interest will suffer much in the overthrow of this Church For by such means a principal Wheel is taken out of the Frame of the Reformation Nay Signior Diodati was wont to praise it in a more excellent Metaphor and to call it the Eye of the Reformed Churches and it is plain to considering Men that the Church of England which had greater regard to the Primitive Pattern than some others of the Reformation can give a more full and unperplexed answer to all the Objections of the Romanists then some other Churches who are cramped in a few points unwarily admitted If therefore Dissentions put out this eye of the Protestant Churches the dark Doctrines and Traditions of Popery will the sooner spread themselves over Reformed Christendom At Home the Dissettlement of the Church of England will sooner introduce then root out Poperty I am constrain'd thus to judge by the following Considerations First The design of keeping out Popery by the Ruine of this Church is like the preposterous way of securing the Vineyard by pulling up of the Fence or of keeping out the Enemy by the removal of our Bullwark Under that name this Church is commonly spoken of and they do not flatter it who give it that Title It s Constitution is Christian and it is strong in its Nature and if such a Church hath not ability with God's assistance to resist the assaults of Romish Power much less have they who dissent from it And it is Fanaticism properly so called or Religious Frenzie to lay aside a more probable means and to trust that God will give to means which are much less probable supernatural aid and success God supporteth a good Cause by weak means if they are the only means he hath put into our power agaisnt a bad Cause though externally potent But he who in cases of emergence assisteth honest Impotence and Infirmity will never work Miracles in favour of Mens Presumptions and Indiscretions The Romanists are a mighty body of Men and though there are Intestine Fewds betwixt the Secular and Regular Clergy as likewise betwixt the several Orders yet they are all united into one common Politie and grafted into that one stock of the Papal Headship They are favoured in many places by great Men they have variety of Learning they pretend to great Antiquity to Miracles to Martyrs without number to extraordinary Charity and Mortification they have the Nerves of worldly Power that is banks of Money and a large Revenue They have a Scheme of Policy always in readiness there are great numbers of Emissaries posted in all places for the conveying of intelligence and the gaining of Proselytes they take upon them all shapes and are bred to all the worldly Arts of Insinuation There is given to their way in the Iargon of Mr. Coleman a very fit name of Trade Traffick Merchandize Against all this Craft and Strength what under God can
Protestants oppose which is equal to the Power of the Church of England A Church Primitive learned pure and not embased with the mixtures of Enthusiasm or Superstition A Church which is able to detect the Forgeries and Impostures of Rome which hath not given advantage to her by running from her into any extream which is a National Body already formed a Body both Christian and Legal a Body which commendeth it self to the Civil Powers by the Loyalty of its Constitution a Body which hath in it great numbers of People judiciously devout and who are judged only to be few because they are not noysie but prudent though truly exemplary in their Religion And there is in the Church of England something more considerable then number for Union is stronger then Multitude Take the Character of this Church from Monsieur Daille a Man whose Circumstances were not likely to lead him in this matter into any partiality of judgment and who at that time was engag'd in a learned Controversy with one of our Divines The Character is this As to the Church of England purged from Forrein wicked Superstitious Worships and Errours either Impious or dangerous by the Rule of the Divine Scriptures approved by so many and such illustrious Martyrs abounding with Piety towards God and Charity towards Men and with most frequent examples of good works flourishing with an increase of most learned and wise men from the beginning of the Reformation to this time I have always had it in just esteem and till I die I shall continue in the same due Veneration of it And indeed it is to me a matter of astonishment that any men who have been beyond the Seas and made Observations upon other Churches and States should be displeased at Ours which so much excel them Now is it probable that such a Church as this is should have less strength in it for the resisting of Popery then an inferior number of divided Parties of which the most Sober and most Accomplish'd is neither so Primitive nor so learned nor so united nor so numerous nor so legal And against which it will be objected by the Romans that it is of Yesterday Amongst these Parties there are some who have not fully declared themselves And who knows whether they have not a Reserve for the Romish Religion against a favourable Opportunity though sometimes they speak of Rome as of Babylon I mean those People who are called Quakers who speak in general of their Light and in such doubtful manner that Inquisitive Men cannot yet understand from what quarter of the Heavens it shineth The Men of design amongst them may embrace any Religion and the melancholy will make a tolerable Order amongst the Romans and the Priests will find for them a second St. Bruno Again There are some who though they have declared themselves against Popery yet they have scarce any formed way of keeping it out For what hindreth a crafty Jesuite from gathering a particular Congregation out of many others and modelling of it by degrees according to his pleasure and what a gap do they leave open for Seducers who take out of the way all Legal Tests and admit Men who are Strangers to them to officiate amongst them upon bare pretence of Spiritual Illumination Furthermore the Romanists have more powerful ways of drawing Men from the Parties of the Dissenters then they have of enticing them from the Church of England for such Men too frequently go out from us through weakness of imagination for which the Church of Rome hath variety of Gratifications They will offer to the Severe such strictnesses as are not consistent with the general Laws of a National Church which being framed for Men of such various Conditions must have some Scope and Latitude though no licence in it and many of those who now joyn themselves to the Dissenting Parties would then chuse to be admitted as Members of this or the other Superstitious Fraternity And it is at least my private Conjecture that if the Revenue of the Religious Houses which were dissolved had been judiciously applyed to the service of Men either weak in mind or indisposed by temper or singular in their Inclination amongst the Reformed there might have been a Diversity here I mean such as there is in our present Colleges without a Schism Likewise they have Mental Prayer and as they call them Spiritual Eructations for those who contemn or scruple forms They ahve mystical Phrases for such who think they have a new Notion when they darken understanding with Words And accordingly the third part of the Rule of Perfection a very mystical Book written by Father Benet a Capuchin was in the Year 46 reprinted in London with a new Title and without the Name of the Author and it passed amongst some of the Parties for a Book containing very sublime Evangelical Truths And it pleased some Enthusiasts when they read in it That Christ's Passion was to be practis'd and beheld as it was in our selves rather than that which is considered at Jerusalem Also they use much gesture and great shew of Zeal in preaching and have singular ways of moving the zealous temper of the English from whence some of them in Rome it self had the Name of Knock-breasts given to them A Romish Preacher comes forth out of an obscure Cloyster into the Pulpit and appears all heavenly in the Exercise And having excited a warmth in their affection he retires again and does not mix with Conversation and is not observed as other Ministers by many eyes and the People never seeing him but in this Divine Figure look upon him as an Angel coming to them out of Heaven and then ascending thither again It may be observed also that the Romanists have greater shews of self-denial for the moving of English Pity then the Dissenters They have rough Cords mean Garments bare Feet Disciplines Whips Pretences of not touching Money or enjoying Property though some of these are often no other then Arts used by ordinary Beggars Again they have ways not only of humouring the infirmity but even the Foppishness of Humane Nature Processions and other Rites of the Romish Religion are so ordered as to be Games for Diversion and the Mass with Scenes pleaseth though it be not understood Dissenters do now think that Popery may be very easily subdued by their Arms But if Recluses were once crept out of their dark Cells as Serpents from under the deadly night-shade they would have cause to alter their Opinions and not to think too highly of themselves after a wilful removal of the Church of England which is sufficient under God for this Encounter This Church designs to make Men good by making them first Judicious as far as means can do it But some others desire to bring them to their side by catching of their Imaginations and by that way they can neither reform nor fix them Some new Device shall in time bring them
the World that they were not so Popish and Earthly-minded as popular clamour had represented them Also their learned Books and Conferences reduced some and establish'd many and we owe a part of the stability of Men in those times to God's blessing on the Writings of Arch-bishop Land Mr. Chillingworth Dr. Bromhall Dr. Cosins Dr. Hammond and others Last of all It is the Opinion of the Papists themselves that their Cause is promoted by our Dissensions and according to these measures of Judgment they govern their Councils This was the Opinion of the Iesuite Companella in his Discourse touching the Spanish Monarchy written about the Year 1600 and in 54 publish'd at London in our Language Concerning the weakning of the English says that Jesuit there can no better way possibly be found out then by causing Divisions and Dissentions among themselves And as for their Religion it cannot be so easily extinguished and rooted out here unless there were some certain Schools set up in Flanders by means of which there should be scattered abroad the Seeds of Schism c. And whether these kinds of Seeds have not come from hence to us as well as those better ones of the Brabant-Husbandry remaineth not now any longer a question It was the Advice of the Iesuit Contzens To make as much use of the Divisions of Enemies as of the agreement of Friends After this manner it is that they manage themselves they endeavour to widen the Breach in order to the introducing of Popery into a divided Nation They will have hopes as long as we have Divisions They will believe whilst they see the humours are in conflict that the Body will be at last dissolved If they will hope for Resettlement as they declare they do upon such inconsiderable grounds as the Printing of a Monasticon or the Provincial of Lynwood amongst us though in the Quality of History rather then of Title or Law what will they not expect from our un-christian Distempers and from our forbearing of Communion with the establish'd Church as if it were the Synagogue of Satan By this Artifice it is that they gain Proselytes They expose the Protestants as a dis-united People They demand of injudicious Men how they can in Prudence joyn with those who are at variance among themselves Though at this time in the Church of England it self there is much more agreement then in the Church of Rome in which they say there are great numbers of more private Deists and Socinians and some we are certain who publish it to the World that the Primacy is Antichristian in which there are Solemn and Publick Assemblies who declare openly against one another in the great point of the Papal Supremacy and shew by so doing that in their Opinion their common head cannot certainly tell the nature of his Head-ship There remaineth to be considered the second more principal End the advancing Christian Religion in these Kingdoms to greater Purity and Perfection But neither in this is their expectation likely to be answer'd For First The means towards the settling of themselves is the Dissettlement of that which is well fixed And this is the way not to a greater purity in Religion but to the corruption of it For it removeth Charity which is the Spirit of the Christian Religion It letteth loose great numbers who cannot govern themselves it moveth Unbelievers Atheists and Idolaters to pour Contempt upon the Church of Christ and confirmeth them in their evil course It exposeth the Church as a Prey to the Common Enemy Thus the Divisions in Africa gave encouragement to the Arms of the barbarous Nations and those in the Aegyptian Churches made way for the Saracens And the Proposal of the maintenance of Charity and pure Religion by the overthrow of a tolerable Ecclesiastical Constitution is as improbable a Project as that of Flammock who in Henry the 7th's time prosed a Rebellion without a breach of the Peace And it is here to be considered that those who dissent from a National Church do generally make use of such Junctures as are apter to debase then refine Religion They often move for Alterations in the Church when there is a great heat and ferment in the State And in such Seasons the Form of a Church may be pulled in sunder but there is not temper enough and coolness of unbyass'd consideration to set it together to advantage Such times are the Junctures of State Dissenters and amongst them Revolutions generally begin though without the pretence of reforming Religion they are not carried on amongst the People For it will not serve their purpose to say plainly they are against the Government because the Government is against their Interests Now when well meaning Dissenters are in the hands of such worldly Power they will not be able to establish what they think is purest but that which pleaseth their secular Leaders A change in the Church naturally produceth some change in the State and in such changes who can secure the Event for the better The words of Bishop Andrews about the midst of the Reign of K Iames touch this Point and they doubtless are worth our observation When said he they have made the State present naught no Remedy we must have a better for it and so a change needs What Change Why Religion or the Church-Government or somewhat they know not what well stand a while ye shall change your Religion said they of this day the Gun-powder-Traytors and have one for it wherein to your comfort you shall not understand a word not you of the People what you either sing or pray and for variety you shall change a whole Communion for an half Now a blessed exchange were it not What say some others You shall change for a fine new Church-Government a Presbytery would do this better for you than an Hierarchy and perhaps not long after a Government of States then a Monarchy Meddle not with these Changers Now when a State is either disturb'd or dissolv'd men cannot foresee all the ill Consequences of it When the Vessel is stirr'd the Lees come up which lay before undiscerned in the Mass of the Liquor And so it is in Religion it is not fined but rather render'd less pure by motions in the Body Spiritual or Civil Then Politicians use conscientious Instruments no further then they serve a present purpose and for new Purposes they find new Instruments One of the Assembly of Divines discoursed on this manner at a publick Fast. Have not these Trumpets and these poor Pitchers had their share and a good share too in bringing down the Walls of Jericho and the Camp of Midian and have not they like the Story in Ezekiel if I may so express it Prophesy'd you up an Army The Witness of these things is in the whole Kingdom and a Witness of them is in your own Bosomes Yet the Preacher was very sensible at the same time that
away by degrees and all Religion be held in scorn and contempt Fourthly If several contrary Parties be established by way of sufferance no progress is likely to be made towards the perfecting of Religion For the suffering of divers Errors is not the way to the reforming of them One Principle only can be true and the blending of such as are contrary with it createth the greatest of ties a mixture of that which is profane with that which is sacred Fifthly Many Dissenters are not likely to erect a Model by which Christianity may be improved amongst us because they lay aside Rules of discretion and rely not on God's assistance in the use of good means but depend wholly upon immediate illumination without the aids of Prudence And some of the more sober amongst them have inclined too much towards this extream In Reformation said one in his Sermon before the Commons do not make reason your Rule nor Line you go by It is the line of all the Papists The second Covenant doth forbid not only Reason but all Divine Reason that is not contain'd by Institution in the Worship of God God's Worship hath no ground in any reason but God's Will Sixthly There are already provided in this Church more probable means for the promoting of pure Religion then those which have been proposed by all or any of the Dissenting Parties It is true each Church is capable of improvement by the change of obsolete Words Phrases and Customs by the addition of Forms upon new Occasions by adjusting discreetly some Circumstantials of External Order But to change the Present Model for any other that has yet been offered to publick consideration is to make a very injudicious bargain There are in it all the necessaries to Faith and Godliness there is preserved Primitive Discipline Decency and Order And under the means of it there are great numbers grown up into such an improvement of Judicious Knowledge and useful prudent serious Piety that it requireth a Laborious Scrutiny to find Parallels to them in any Nation under the Heavens I do not take pleasure in distastful Comparisons Yet I ought not sure to pass by with unthankful negligence that excellent Spirit which God hath raised up among the Writers and Preachers of this Church their labours being so instrumental towards the right information of the Judgment and the amendment of the Lives of unprejudic'd Hearers It must be confessed that there is some trifling on all sides And it will be so whilst Men are Men. But there is now blessed be God as little of it in the Church of England as in any Age. And the very few who do it appear plainly to be what they are Phantasticks and Actors rather then Preachers But amongst the Parties the folly and weakness puts on a more venerable pretence and they give vent to it with studied shews of mighty seriousness and deliver it solemnly as the immediate dictate of God's Holy Spirit And I cannot call to mind one Minister in this Church who would for instance sake have deliberately used these words of Mr. Rutherford in a solemn audience and after his solemn manner God permits Sins and such Sins that there may be room in the Play for pardoning Grace It seemeth also not unfit for me to take notice that the Changes formerly made in Church-matters in England by Dissenters were not so conducive in their nature to the edifying of the Body of Christ as the things illegally removed The Doctrine of God's Secret decrees taught in their Catechisms was a stronger and more improper kind of meat then that with which the Church of England had fed her Children Ordination by a Bishop accompany'd with Presbyters was more certain and satisfactory then that by Presbyters without a Bishop There was not that sobriety in many of the present and unstudied Effusions which appeared in every of those publick Forms which were considered and fixed And it sounded more decently for example sake to pray in the Churches words and say from Fornication Good Lord deliver us then to use those of an eminent Dissenter Lord un-lust us Nor did the long continued Prayers help Men so much against Distraction as those shorter ones with Breaks and Pauses in the Liturgy and the great and continued length of them introduced by consent sitting at Prayer Neither did it tend less to edification to repeat the Creed standing then to leave it quite out of the Directory for publick Worship Neither was it an advantage to Christian Piety to change the gesture of kneeling in the Eucharist when the Sacred Elements were given together with Prayer for that less reverend one of sitting Of sitting especially with the Hatt on as the most uncomely practice of some was the People being taught to cover the Head whilst the Minister was to remain bare amongst them Nor was the civil Pledge of the Ring in Marriage bettered by the invention of some Pastors who as is storied of them took a Ring of some Women-converts upon their admittance into their Church Neither was the Alteration of the Form of giving the Holy Elements an amendment For the Minister was directed to the use of these words Take yee eat yee this is the Body of Chirst which is broken for you This Cup is the New Testament in the blood of Christ which is shed for the Remission of the Sins of many The words denoting Christ's present Crucifixion either actually or in the future certainty of it give countenance to the Romish Sacrifice of the Mass though I verily believe they were not so intended Nor did the forbidding the Observation of Christ's Nativity and other Holy-days add one Hairs bredth to the Piety of the Nation but on the other hand it took away at least from the common People one ready means of fixing in their Memories the most useful History of the Christian Religion It is easy enough even for Men who are Dwarfs in the Politicks in such sort to alter a constitution as to make it more pleasing for a time to themselves during their Passion and the novelty of the Model in their Fancy not yet disturbed by some unforeseen mischief or 〈◊〉 but 't is extream difficult upon the whole matter to make a true and lasting Improvement there being so many parts in the frame to be mutually fitted and such variety of Cases in Humane Affairs I pray from my Heart for the bettering but I dread the tinkering of Government The Conclusion IF then Dissenters are not likely to obtain their Ends of Establishing themselves of rooting out of Popery and promoting pure Religion by overthrowing the Church of England the Inference is natural they ought both in Prudence and Christianity to endeavour after Vnion with it They will it may be say to me can Men be persuaded two contrary ways Can they both Assent and Dissent And whilst they secretly Dissent would you force them into an Hypocritical Compliance I Answer thus
Atheists have sometimes since the King's Return been much used in the Cause of our Dissenters Now if well meaning zeal could not establish the Discipline it is not likely to be promoted much less settled by the help of such hands of which the outsides are not washed by so much as an External form of Godliness The Second Branch of the first End of Dissenters seems more improbable then the first viz. The settling themselves as several distinct Parties giving undisturbed Toleration to each other This seems not probable upon many accounts First Some Dissenters believe some of the Parties to be incapable of Forbearance as maintaining Principles destructive of Christian Faith and Piety This Opinion they still have for instance sake of Antinomians Quakers and Muggletonians And they formerly declamed against the Toleration of divers others They publish'd here by Authority so called an Act of the Assembly at Edinburgh Against Erastians Independents and Liberty of Conscience bearing as they speak their publick Testimony against them not only as contrary to sound Doctrine but as more special Letts and Hinderances as well to the Scottish received Doctrine Discipline and Government as to the Work of Reformation and Uniformity in England and Ireland The Ministers of the Province within the County Palatine of Lancaster in their Harmonious Consent with the Ministers of the Province of London publish'd their Judgments in these zealous Words A Toleration would be a putting of a Sword into a Mad-man's hand An appointing a City of Refuge in Mens Consciences for the Devil to fly to A proclaiming Liberty to the Wolves to come into Christ's Fold to prey upon his Lambs A Toleration of Soul-murther the greatest murther of all others and for the establishing whereof damned Souls in Hell would accurse Men on Earth Neither would it be to provide for tender Consciences but to take away all Conscience If error be not forcibly kept under it will be Superior It seems they were not then of the later Perswasion of the Protector who said concerning the People of several Judgments in this Land That they were All the Flock of Christ and the Lambs of Christ though perhaps under many unruly Passions and Troubles of Spirit whereby they gave disquiet to themselves and others And that they were not so to God as to us Again There is no firmness or social influence in the nature of this Union It is the Union of a multitude who meet and disperse at pleasure and he who proposeth this way as the means to knit Men into Christian Communion is like a Projector who should design the keeping of the stones together in the strength of a firm and lasting House by for bearing the use of Cement The Union that lasteth is that of the Concord of Members in an Uniform Body Moreover It is to be consider'd that there are no Parties in this or any other Nation so exactly poised that they have equal Numbers and Interests There is always one of them which over-ballanceth the rest And one of the several ways must always be favoured as the Religion of the State And it is natural for the strongest side to attempt the subduing of the weaker And though this be not soon effected yet 'till one side getteth the mastery the Parties remain not as distinct Bodies settled in peace within themselves and towards each other but as Convulsions in the common body of the State Some think this Inclination to the swallowing up of all other Parties to be found almost only in the Romish Church But there is something of it to be discerned I will not say in all Churches seeing I well understand the good Temper of our own which suffered Bonner himself to live yet in all Factions and Parties though the inequality of Power makes it not seem to be alike in all of them The Catt hath the same inward Parts with the Lyon though they differ much in size And some such likeness they will find who dissect humane nature and Bodies civil There is this Disposition in Men whether they be the Politick or the Conscientious The External practice of all Parties is answerable to this inward Disposition There is this inward Disposition in men who espouse any Faction whether their Ends be designs of State or of Religion Parties who are not otherwise then in shew concerned for Religion will perpetually covet Power after Power And Parties who are serious and Conscientious in their way whatsoever it is will not remain in an indifference of tempers towards thosewho treadin contrary Paths and with whom they do not maintain Communion For therefore they with draw from them because they believe Communion with them to be unlawful Otherwise they have no Judgment in the price of Peace and Unity if they willingly part with it when they may without sin enjoy it and if they esteem their way sinful and believe those persons who remain without their pale to be so gone astray as without Repentance to be eternally lost Charity it self will urge them to use all means probable towards the reducing of them And they will be apt to think that the suffering of them in their Wandrings declares them to be contented with their Perdition The External Practice of all Parties do's shew plainly what is their inward Disposition All would do what is good in their own eyes but I do not perceive that any are willing to let others do so Where there is Power there is little Forbearance And the same men as their Conditions alter speak of Mercy or Iustice. Amongst those of the Party of Donatus whose Schism opened so dangerous a Wound in the Churches of Africa all pleaded earnestly for Forbearance whilst their Power was in its Minority Yet S. Austin remindeth one of them of a Practice contrary to their Profession whilst they turn'd against the Maximianists the edge of the Theodosian Laws and abus'd the Power which they had gotten under Iulian in oppressing as far as in them lay the Catholick Christians Amongst those of the Protestant Perswasion the Heads of the Discipline were plainly unwilling that any should have leave to make a separation from their body And one of them with a mixture of Grief and Expostulation thus discoursed before the Commons The Famous City of London is become an Amsterdam Separation from Our Churches is countenanc'd Toleration is cried up Authority lieth asleep Every one would have Power to rowse upit self and maintain his Cause And indeed it is and has been too often in Religion as it is and was in Philosophy Where the divers Sects do not contend meerly for the enlarging the bounds of Philosophical Arts in a sincere and solid inquiry but for the Translating the Empire of Opinion and settling it upon themselves The same men who pleaded for Forbearance in this Church and remov'd themselves into new-New-England as by themselves was said for the Liberty of thier Conscience or Persuasion when once they