indifferent things when commanded by the Authority of the Magistrate are made necessary Answ The Interposal of Civil Authority in controverted Points of Divinity hath occasioned great Havock in the World the Magistrate is the Asylum which every Party when uppermost usually repairs to from the Pope to the Patriarch from the Patriarch to the Prelate from the Prelate to the Ecclesiasticks of inferiour Orders and Denominations In former days when the High Commission whose Judges were principally Ecclesiasticks was in force amongst us many Causes were out of Policy of the Clergy transmitted from thence into the Star-Chamber where the Temporal Lords were also Judges that so the Envy of their proceedings might be shared among the Secular Lords Though Church-men were in Ecclesiastical Causes the Chief Actors therein as appeared by the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who ushered in the Censures of Mr. Prynne Burton and Bastwick in a large and severe Speech made in that Court and in the present Plea Antiquum obtinent for the Truth is such Laws were made at the Instance of Ecclesiasticks and in their favour so that the Censures grounded thereupon are in effect their own but in another mode and diversification Let our present Ecclesiastical Governours declare that all Persecution for Conscience sake is an unlawful thing and let them improve their Interest in the Civil Magistrate for the abrogating of those Laws which countenance it and then it will appear at whose Doors the Severities complained of do lie theirs or the Magistrates I will not now dispute whether set and imposed Forms of Prayers called Liturgies be lawful yea or no This I shall say whatsoever some alledge for the Antiquity of them yet several of the Fathers of the Primitive Church sufficiently intimate to us that the Churches soon after the Apostles Days used the Personal Abilities of their Pastors in prayer without enjoyning any prescribed Forms Neither doth it appear as the Ministers authorised to review the Liturgy since His Majestie 's Restauration have observed in their due account that Christ ever appointed any such to an Office as to make prayers for other Pastors and Churches to offer up to God Page 24. and in p. 23. They say that the Common-Prayer in most of the Vulgar causeth a Relaxation of their Intention and Attention and a lazy taking up with a Corps or Image of Devotion even in the Service of the Lips while the Heart is little sensible of what is said The reason of which their Assertion may be fetcht from Page 23. of the said Discourse which take in their own Words Whatsoever can be expected duely to affect the Heart must keep the Intellect and all the Faculties awake in diligent Attention and Exercise and in the use of a Form which we have frequently heard and read the Faculties are not so necessitated and urged to Attention and serious Exercise as they be when from our understanding we set about the natural Work of Representing to others what we discern and feel Man's mind is naturally sloathful and will take its ease and remit its seriousness longer than it is drawn out by delight When we know before hand that we have no more to do but read a Prayer or Homily we shall ordinarily be in danger of letting our minds go another way and think of other matters and be senseless of the Work in hand Thus they Neither shall I enumerate the particular things excepted against in our prescribed Liturgy because the Primate of Ireland Arch-Bishop of York and other Episcopal Divines as well as others have had Meetings formerly for the Reformation of the Liturgy used in England before the late Civil Wars and drew up a Catalogue wherein the Cross in Baptisme was particularly laid aside of faults that needed mending yet to be seen in Print few of which have been amended in the Liturgy now in use I shall conclude all with that Objection of Conformists against their Dissenting Brethren That they are not now so considerable for Interest and other Respects as they were in Queen Elizabeth's Days and therefore justly slighted by them To which I answer 1. 'T was never accounted the part of a Wise and prudent General to despise and undervalue an Enemy though inferiour to him in number and other References Those who have done so have been convinced of their mistake and folly to their loss and shame 2. If those who have the Advantages of more liberal and ingenious Education by having all Stipends Exhibitions Allowances Salleries and other Helps running down to them alone in a Legal Channel such is the Case of Conformists do not surmount their ordinary Brethren who are deprived of those advantages certainly they would be very unexcusable both before God and Man 3. Neither is the Dissenting Party so inconsiderable on the mentioned accounts but that indifferent men can smile at the weakness of the Objection Who more assiduous in Labours than they Who more and greater searchers of Conscience in plain and profitable which is the best Preaching Who greater Examples of a pious and exemplary life I shall not instance in their Numbers because that of it self is no sufficient Argument We are not to follow a Multitude to do evil Vnus Athanasius contra totum Mundum Totus Mundus contra unum Athanasium is a known Adage in the Case of the Arians Only this is worthy to be observed that in the Memory of some now living when things ran in another Channel as to Ecclesiastical Government for I meddle not with the Civil then they do now but a few years yet then many Parishes in England began to be supplied with diligent Preachers though the present Form of our Church Government was not visible amongst us so that if ever King and Parliament in England should reduce things to the like circumstances who knows how many seven thousands may start up who are yet unknown to the Elijah's of Israel In Conclusion I think this with Truth and Modesty may be affirmed That the Labours of those called Non-Conformists are of great use and worthy to be retained in our English Church especially when so many designers are at Work to undermine and blow up the Protestant Reformed Religion to which the Party contended for is a great Bulwark For it is not our Ecclesiastical Discipline alone which can exclude Popery unless the clear and saving Doctrines of the Gospel be effectuary urged upon the Consciences of men for the establishing of their Hearts in the Truth against the Dark and Superstitious Positions of the Papal Church And in this Work Non-Conformists are usefully imployed and that out of a Principle and Love to Truth as far as men can judge because they proceed therein against many Discouragements Slanders Evil Reports and in the midst of many sufferings of their own all which fight against and might worst them if they were not divinely assisted from above FINIS
himself a Champion for the present Constitution of Church Government in England Mr. Travers was at the same time Lecturer there whose Doctrine did oftentimes thwart the others especially in matters relating to Discipline Secondly This Mr. Travers was well known to Beza and others of that Reformation to which he was addicted his Utterance was grateful Gesture plausible Matter profitable Method plain and his Style carried in it Indolem Pietatis a Genius of Grace flowing from his sanctified heart Thus a late Episcopal Protestant concerning him Fuller's Church History Book 9th The Truth is his Abilities were such that he was also sent for into Scotland as well as Mr. Cartwright to be one of the Professors of Divinity at St. Andrews And he was after made Provost of Trinity Colledge by Dublin being the second Provost thereof This man being as it is thought by Mr. Hooker's difference and complaint silenced by the Arch Bishop yet in the midst of the Paroxism betwixt them being demanded upon some Aspersion cast upon Mr. Hooker what he thought of it and him answered temperately that he believed Mr. Hooker to be a holy man And if holiness be the way to happiness in the full enjoyment of God 't is pity that those who walk in the same way should not all be allowed to do their Master's Work without silencing suspending or degrading one another And the rather because God hath formerly now doth and hereafter will appear and manifest himself in various dispensations to the Sons of men The true Unity is that in the Spirit as for compelled Uniformity to outward Modes and Formes of Worship it hath been the Apple of Contention for many Ages in the Church There were differences in the Aprehension of divine things amongst Christians even in the Apostles days from whence arose contrary practises in point of Worship To eat and not to eat to observe a day and not to observe a day Rom. 14.2 3 4 5 6. Yet both acted what they did to the Lord. Now what Rule doth the Apostle give in this Case doth he excite to external Uniformity by threats or punishments Nay his advice is rather to the Governours of the Church as well as private Christians to use a mutual forbearance one towards another who art thou that judgest another man's servant Intimating by that Increpation that as there is a proneness in man to set himself down in the Chair of Judgment from thence to censure his Dissenting Brethren so that temper is to be condemned and avoided To make that Advice or rather Reproof of the Apostle the more plain we may consider that God who is but one yet as he stands at the Head of several Dispensations he may be called many Masters in relation to those various and different Injunctions and Commands given unto his Servants under these several Administrations respectively Thus he may be said to be one Master to the Jew who in their Pedagogy were commanded to serve him in Types and Figures and another to the Christian Gentile who was enjoyned to a more Spiritual Worship in the Room of those Types Other Instances might be also given of Christians of several Forms who serve God according to their Light as their respective Master under each Class And in some sense it is for the Glory of the Grace of God to have it diversified into several appearances and to have faithful Entertainers thereof in each appearance acting sutably thereunto which will doubtless be accepted by him and is also most comfortable to themselves For the joy and acquiescence of a Christian in the Duties he performs doth not arise from his Uniformity and compliance with others therein but from the inward satisfaction and complacency which he hath in his own mind according to that Rom. 14. and ult Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin If in such Cases all things be acted meerly by Power there was a time when Christianity it self as to man was on the weaker side Let us not justifie the Sanguinary Cruelty of Heathen Persecutors by insisting on the same Methods meer force is but a brutish Argument and not sanctified by God for such a Divine Use I mean in Gospel times as the conviction of Sinners or the reducing those which are gone astray Convince your Brethren if you can by Scriptural Argument and Reason but press them not to act contrary to their own Perswasions which were to sin against Conscience which is God's Vicegerent in the Soul and whose Dictates are to be complied with whatsoever some men command or others suffer to the contrary I know the Note of singularity and Schisme is usually imputed to Dissenting Brethren by their Contrariants To which I say the same Brand hath been inured by Popish Writers on Luther and all our first Reformers and may also be affixed but unjustly on the Beginners and Promoters of all Reformations in the World where Custom hath made some corrupt practises Epidemical Whereas it rather concerns Church Governours to enquire whether the things excepted against come not within the Notion of sinful Usages and so fit to be abolished And if upon Enquiry they should be found to be but indifferent and controverted things yet the Words of Mr. Hales late of Eaton an Eminent and Learned Divine of the Episcopal perswasion do evince that the limiting Church-Communion to things of doubtful Disputation hath been in all Ages the Ground of Schism and Seperation Take his Mind in his own Expressions which are very weighty and considerable To load our Publick Forms saith he with the Private Fancies upon which we differ is the most sovereign way to perpetuate Schism to the Worlds End Prayer Confession Thanksgiving Reading of the Scriptures and Administration of the Sacraments in the plainest and simplest manner were matter enough to furnish a sufficient Liturgy though nothing either of Private Opinion or of Church Pomp of Garments or prescribed Gestures of Imagery of Musick of Matter concerning the Dead of many Superfluities which creep into the Church under the Name of Order and Decency did interpose it self To charge Churches and Liturgies with things unnecessary was the first beginning of all Superstition And when scruple of Conscience began or was pretended then Schism began to break in If the special Guides and Fathers of the Church would be a little sparing of incumbring Churches with Superfluities or not over-rigid either in reviving obsolete Customs or imposing new there would be far less cause of Schism Superstition and all the inconveniencies were likely to ensue would be but this they should in so doing yield a little to the imbecillity of their Inferiours a thing which St. Paul would never have refused to do Mean while whatsoever false or suspected Opinions are made a piece of Church Liturgy He that seperates is not the Schismatick for it is alike unlawful to make profession of known or suspected Falshood as to put in practise unlawful or suspected Actions Thus far He. Object But you will say
of Religion but confessedly grounded on humane Ordinances and Constitutions which may or may not be as the Governour of the World shall think fit Why then should such havock be made on occasion of such forreign and adventitious things which concern not the Vitals of Religion In the strict exercises of true Piety and holiness men cannot be too exact but in super added Inventions though enjoyned by humane Laws a man may be righteous over much And unless this Tenent be granted by Protestants of all perswasions we shall hardly be able to strike out those Weapons out of the hands of the Papists which they brandish against us in these Controversies For on what foot I pray do all their Chrisoms Cringings Vestments Crossings Copes and other their superstitious Implements and practises stand but upon Church Constitution and Priviledge in favour whereof they are also backed with municipal Laws take away that foundation and they all fall to the ground That portion of Scripture which is usually alledged in their defence Let all things be done decently and in order hath been so squeezed by malign and distorted interpretations that little of its own juice is left therein For whereas the Apostle enjoyns the due and decent observation of those Rules and Orders in the Worship of God which he himself being divinely inspired thereunto had before set down Each party unwarrantably assuming Apostolical Power makes it a Buckler to defend its own Authority in enacting such Church Canons as they themselves shall please and in challenging obedience to those Canons so enacted But because our high Ecclesiasticks do propound the Reformation made in Queen Elizabeth's days and the procedures thereupon to be a Rule for their severities in our times I shall crave leave to mind them of a pair of Instances of four Learned men the Heads of their several Parties at that time the consideration of which might somewhat abate the heat of opposition against Dissenting Brethren First The one is of Arch Bishop Whitguift and Mr. Thomas Cartwright Secondly The other of Mr. Richard Hooker and Mr. Walter Travers Chaplain to the Lord Treasurer Burghly all four eminent in their respective References Whitguift and Hooker for the Ecclesiastical Government as then Established and the imposed Ceremonies Cartwright and Travers against them Arch-Bishop Whitguift was known to be a great Zealot for the English Hierarchy and Ceremonies when he was in Cambridge where the opposition betwixt him and Mr. Cartwright did begin but after he was advanced to the Arch Bishoprick of Canterbury and to the Degree of al Privy Councellour he was armed with greater Power to crush his Adversaries and Opponents The Controversies managed betwixt him and Cartwright on the forementioned Heads are sufficiently declared and canvased in the first and second Admonition to the then Parliament made by Mr. Cartwright in Whitguift's Answer thereunto in Cartwright's Reply to that Answer and Whitguift's Rejoynder to that Reply to which the Books being extant the Reader is referred 2. Mr. Cartwright is charactered very candidly by a late Episcopal Divine to have been an excellent Scholar pure Latinist accurate Grecian exact Hebrician And soon after the same Author affirms of him That no English Champion in that Age did with more valour and success charge and rout the Romish Enemy in matter of Doctrine Fuller's Church History Book ninth And indeed he was of that Eminency abroad that being in trouble here for his Conscience King James was pleased to send a Letter Dated Edenburgh June the 12th 1591. which is yet to be seen in Print to Queen Elizabeth in his behalf yea the University of St. Andrews in Scotland perceiving how he was molested here in England desired him by their Letters since also Printed to come to them and be their Divinity Professor in that Place Besides his Zeal for the Protestant Religion and the Doctrinal Part thereof was so well known that in the Judgment of Secretary Walsing ham and of the then Heads of Houses in Cambridge he was judged the fittest man to answer the Rhemish Translation of the New Testament which work at the Instance of the Persons aforesaid being undertaken by him was at last brought near to a Conclusion and remains in Print as a Monument of his Learned Activity and Pains against the Emissaries of the Roman Church And though all those who excited his Endeavours to that Work knew how he stood affected to the Hierarchy or Ecclesiastick Government in England yet it seems his Non-concurrence therewith was not in their Eyes a sufficient Argument to supersede his pains in coping with our Romish Adversaries 'T is true he was so unsatisfied with the imposed Ceremonies in England that when he was but Fellow of Trinity Colledg in Cambridge one day Preaching in the Chappel he did so convincingly inveigh against the imposition of significant Ceremonies in the worshipping of God that at the Afternoon's Prayer all the Students of that House except three left off their Surplices as superstitious things Fuller's History of Cambridge Though Mr. Cartwright was cloathed with these Circumstances yet after many Bickerings with the Arch-Bishop and some sufferings of his own he was permitted at length either by approbation or connivance to exercise his Ministry peaceably about Warwick being also there the Master of a Rich Hospital with good accommodations belonging to that Preferment And the Respects he received from the Arch-Bishop his ancient Antagonist are gratefully taken notice of by the then Earl of Leicester in a Letter of his to the said Arch-Bishop beginning thus My good Lord I most heartily thank you for your favourable and courteous usage of Mr. Cartwright To which the Arch-Bishop made this Return My singular good Lord Mr. Cartwright shall be welcome to me at all times c. Both the Letters are extant in Mr. Thomas Fuller's Church History It were to be wished that those who imitate this Arch-Bishop in his Severities would at length be softned into the like tenderness and moderation Neither was the Arch-Bishops Friendship limited to Cartwright's Person alone but those of the same Sentiment with himself did also participate thereof Yea when the City of Geneva some few years after was distressed by the Duke of Savoy he was a great Instrument with the Prelates and Clergy to procure and send their seasonable Relief though he knew their Form of Government to be different from that in England a benevolence which is very questionable whether many of his Successors would have imitated who rather behold Geneva as a Seminary of Male-contents against the Ecclesiastical Government of England though indeed a late Episcopal Divine hath ingeniously crowned it with the Epithite of The Nursery of the Reformed Religion 2. The other Instance is in Mr. Richard Hooker and Mr. Walter Travers both very Eminent though compared with the former Couple moving in a more inferiour Orbe Mr. Hooker was a Preacher at the Temple well known by his Book of Ecclesiastical Policy wherein he hath shewed