and they are immediately picking New Faults to be Redress'd They that at first only request Indulgence will when strong enough demand it In short Give the Non-conformists an Inch and they 'll take an Ell. But in the same Preface should it ever so happen hereafter that any King of England should be prevail'd with to deliver up the Church That is to say to dispence with the Penal Laws and TEST for the TEST notwithstanding the Reasons against it must be included in this long Parenthesis because the Church fram'd it he had as good at the same Time resign up his Crown And thus you see the Danger of the Present Government through the Non-conformity to the Arch-Deacon 's Ecclesiastical Polity There is another Reason why His Majesty was graciously pleas'd to Think Force in Matters of meer Religion directly contrary to the Interest of Government and that is Spoyling of TRADE Trade cries the Arch-Deacon Trade No. Let Grass grow about the Custom-House rather than abate one Tittle of my Ecclesiastical Polity For in his Preface to his Ecclesiast Pol. Pag. 49. 'T is notorious says he that there is not any sort of People so inclinable to Seditious Practices as the Trading Part of a Nation and their Pride and Arrogance naturally increases with the Improvement of their Stock And if we reflect upon our late Miserable Distractions 't is easie to observe how the Quarrel was hatcht in Trade Men's Shops and cherisht by the Zeal of Prentices By the way this is plausible Nonsense all over But he goes on Pag. 50. 'T is a very odd and preposterous Piece of Policy to design the enriching this sort of People while their Heads are distemper'd with Religious Lunacies And Pag. 51. He is a very silly Man and understands nothing of the Follies Passions and Inclinations of Human Nature who sees not there is no Creature so ungovernable as a Wealthy Phanatick And therefore Pag. 48. I confess I cannot but smile when I observe how some that would be thought wonderful grave and solemn Statesmen labour with mighty Projects of setting up this and that Manufacture in their several respective Towns and Corporations and how eagerly they pursue these Petty Attempts beyond the Great Affairs of a more Publick Concernment Meaning the dreadful and terrible Execution of the Penal Laws and how wisely they neglect the Settlement of a whole Nation for the Benefit of a Village or Burrough Very pleasant Ecclesiastical Polity No Man must eat or drink or maintain his Family The grand Relation of Human Necessities depending one upon another must stand still to oblige the Arch-Deacon 's Ecclesiastical Polity Here 's a Quietus est for above the Third Part of the Nation None but those that can swallow a Surplice and adore the Parochial Levite must weave Camlets at Norwich make Bays at Colchester Spurrs at Rippon Nayls at Brommigeham or Saddles at Burford For why There is not any sort of People so Seditious as the Trading Part of the Nation So that supposing the Greater Part of the Trading Part of the Nation be as the Arch-Deacon calls them Phanaticks and Nonconformists that is Men Conscientiously scrupuling the Ceremonies of the Church of England they must either be Scourg'd into better Manners with Bryars and Thorns or else the Nation must be laid waste and desolate For to tell you true as good have no People as those that will not pay Tithes 't is no matter for the KING's Duties nor how the Nation may be otherwise weakn'd and expos'd There is yet behind one more Reason urg'd in the Declaration and that is this That Force in Matters of meer Religion never obtain'd the End for which it was imploy'd wherein His Majesty declares Himself the more Confirm'd by the Reflections He had made upon the Conduct of the Four last Reigns Now here 's the utter Subversion of the Arch-Deacon 's Ecclesiastical Policy All meer Labour in vain abundance of Ranting Raving Reviling expressions insomuch that the Arch-Angel was more civil to the Devil than the Arch-Deacon to the Dissenters and yet all to no purpose He has been at a great deal of pains in setting up Pillories and Whipping-Posts in all Parts and Corners of the Kingdom and now he may e'ne go and pull 'em down again What are now become of all his Politick Let but 's In his Preface to Bishop Bramhall 's Vindication Let but the Government think it seasonable at any time to Reprieve them meaning the Dissenters from the Severity of the Laws and they immediately start up into that Confidence as to imagine themselves the only Darlings of State. Let but the Publick Rods be removed from their Backs and they are presently full of Expectations to have them put into their own hands If they are not always Scourg'd and Chastis'd they will grow Sawcy and must by all means become Cronies to Kings and Princes Many other Passages might have been Collected out of his several Bitter if they may not be said to be Scurrilous Invectives against the Dissenters but here are sufficient to make it apparently Manifest that the Author of the Ecclesiastical Polity was as great a Dissenter from the mild and tender Maxims of his Majesty's Government and his constant Sense and Opinion of a long time professed and declared upon several Occasions in Matters of Religion as the Dissenters were dissatisfied with the Rigid Severity of the Church of England or at least with the Principles of his Ecclesiastical Polity Which makes it seem questionable whether a Person who has brandish'd his Pen with that Virulency against the Dissenters in general and His Majesty's Royal Opinion and the Mature Results of his most serious Deliberations may be a proper Champion against the Test For most certainly there has been much more said already and much more to the purpose than he has produced On the other side he has most Dogmatically avouch'd That if ever the Boisterous and unreasonable Opposition as he calls it of the Nonconformists to the Church of England be Re-erected it must be upon its Ruins And that if ever the Roman Catholicks get any Ground or Advantage of the Church of England they will be bound to make their Acknowledgments to the Puritans and the Strength of their Assistance Whence he draws his Conclusion That it would be a pleasant Spectacle that is to say A ridiculous over-sight in Government to see either the Classical or Congregational Discipline establish'd by Authority Moreover in the 721. Pag. of the Vindication of his Eccles. Pol. He appeals to all Men whether Liberty of Conscience be any better than a License for Anarchy and Confusion Pag. 238. He says That to grant Subjects a lawless and uncontroul'd Liberty of Conscience in all Matters and Pretences of Religion is to dissolve one half of the Government into perfect Anarchy and yield up the Constitution of all Publick Affairs to the Humor of every wild Enthusiast And Pag. 553. you find it thus written
SAM L d. B p. of OXON His Celebrated REASONS FOR ABROGATING THE TEST And NOTIONS of IDOLATRY ANSWERED BY SAMUEL Arch-Deacon of Canterbury The Third Edition It 's better to Indulge Mens Vices and Debaucheries than their Consciences Sam. Park Eccles. Pol. Pag. 54. LONDON Printed in the Year 1688. THere is nothing hereby intended to impugn the Abrogation of the TEST May His Majesty's Sacred Will and Pleasure be fulfill'd and may the Rights of the English Peerage remain Inviolable But there seems to have been an absolute Necessity for the AUTHOR of the Reasons for Abrogating the TEST to have Repeal'd his most bitter Invectives against the Nonconformists and his Tempestuous Indignation against Dissenters in general so diametrically opposite to the Serene and Pious Desires and Resolutions of His Majesty to make His Subjects happy and unite them to Him as well by Inclination as Duty and to have shew'd his Compliance to His Majesty in all His most Laudable and Generous Designs before he had singl'd out that particular Point of the TEST meerly to hook in a Plea for Transubstantiation and his own New modell'd Notions of Idolatry But let Others whom it may concern dispute those Controversies The present Question is Whether his Lordship of Oxon have Retracted his Discouses of Ecclesiastical Polity or at least those Passages in them which run so apparently counter to His Majesty's Gracious Declaration for Liberty of Conscience Otherwise he may seem to have calculated his Writings for the various Meridians of State and his Arguments will not bear that Weight which tho' the same yet coming from Another Person they would have done NOW there cannot be a more certain Touch-stone of Truth of the Bishop's or Arch-Deacon's which you please for they are both the same Person 's Ecclesiastical Polity than the Declaration it self Only out of his Christian Charity the Arch-Deacon has Peopled the Kingdom with such a dreadful Canaille all but those of the Church of England that Astonishment it self might wonder well were his unconscionable Epithetes to be allow'd that so Gracious so Indulgent so Soft and Calm a Declaration should come forth in Kindness to such a Rabble For Those whom His Majesty calls His Good Subjects the Arch-Deacon continually strigmatizes with the foul Epithetes of Iugglers Dissemblers Wicked Rebellious Hypocrites Sons of Strife and Singularity and most notorious Hereticks And upon this Supposition as the Foundation of his Pile that the Generality of the People of England are such for he excepts none but Those of the Church of England he rears the Fabrick of his Ecclesiastical Polity wherein he had only this Misfortune to be of a quite contrary Opinion to His Prince and that his Draconicks were not Repeal'd before the Declaration came forth The Declaration expresses His Majesty's Earnest Desire to Establish His Government on such a Foundation as to make His Subjects happy and unite Them to Him as well by Inclination as Duty which He thinks can be done by no means so effectually as by Granting Them the Free Exercise of their Religion But the Arch-Deacon's Politicks are of another Strain For in his Preface to his Ecclesiastical Polity p. 12. he say That the Aim of his Discourse is by representing the Palpable Inconsistency of Phanatick Tempers and Principles with the Welfare and Security of Government to awaken Authority to beware of its worst and most dangerous Enemies and force them to Modesty and Obedience by Severity of Laws Pag. 52. of the same Preface If Princes says he would but consider how liable Mankind are to abuse themselves with serious and conscientious Villanies they would quickly see it to be absolutely necessary to the Peace and Happiness of their Kingdoms that there be set up a more severe Government over Men 's Consciences than over their Vices and Immoralities Pag. 54. of the same He boasts his having prov'd That Indulgence and Toleration is the most Absolute sort of Anarchy and that Princes may with less Hazard give Liberty to Men 's Vices and Debaucheries than to their Consciences But the Declaration is quite of another Temper VVe humhly thank Almighty God it is and hath of a long Time been Our constant Sense and Opinion which upon divers Occasions VVe have declared That Conscience ought not to be constrain'd nor People forc'd in Matters of meer Religion But this will not be admitted by the Arch-Deacon For says he Ecclesiast Pol. pag. 321. when Men's Consciences are so squemish that they will rise against the Customs and Injunctions of the Church She must scourge them into Order and chastize them for their troublesome Peevishness Pag. 324. Eccles. Polit. He pretnnds to have prov'd the Vnavoidable danger of Toleration and keeping Religious Differances that Religion must be govern'd by the same Rules as all other Transactions of Human Life and that nothing can do it but severe Laws nor they neither unless severely Executed Ecclesiast Pol Pag. 311. if Princes says he will suffer themselves to be checked in their Laws Spiritual by every Systematical Theologue they may as well bare to see themselves affronted in their Laws Civil by every Viliage-Attorney Pag. 284. But to indulge Ideots in their folly because they threaten Authority to be peevish and Scrupulous and to Infest the Government with a sullen and cross-grain'd Godliness an Artifice not much unlike the Tricks of forward Children is to suffer Ignorance to ride in Triumph and therefore such Humorsom Saints must be lash'd out of their Sullenness into Compliance and better Manners This as the Arch-Deacon calls it Preface to Brambal 's Vindication was one his Rhapsodies of hasty and huddled Thoughts Most Divine Words and most Seraphick Charity but the Arch-Deacon will have Tenderness of Conscience to be Pride Vanity and Insolence though all the Seven Champions should contradict him Pag. 273. He that pretends Conscience to vouch his Humour and his Insolence is a Villian and an Hypocrite and so far from deserving Pity especially from Authority than no Offenders can more need or provoke their Severity This may be True But where the Supream Government which must of necessity be Absolute Uncontroulable and Unlimited as well in matters of Religion c. more Sagaciously discerns beyond the Arch-Deacon 's that same Conscience to be neither Humouor nor Insolence nor will comprehend it under that Notion there it is to be hoped the Man is not a Villian nor an Hypocrite and so not liable to the Fury of Correction Pag. 271. And therefore if Princes will be Resolute they may easily make the most Stubborn Consciences bend to their Commands But if they will not they must subbmit Themselves and their Power to all the Follies and Passions of their Subjects Probatum est S. P. Pag. 270. Governours must look to the Publick and let Tender Consciences look to Themselves Laws must be of an unyielding and unflexible Temper and not soft and easie Things Princes must not be diffident in their Maxims of Policy
So that seeing an Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction of Pillories and Whipping-Posts Thorns and Bryars is absolutely necessary to prevent all Confusions arising from unrestrain'd Liberty it is better that Mankind should be sometimes exposed to the Miseries of Tyranny and Persecution than always Groan under the Intolerable Disorders of Anarchy or Reluctancy to Penal Statutes If then the Church of England be Establish'd upon such a firm Foundation that nothing can endanger it but Indulgence to the Dissenters 't is to be admir'd that a Man so knowing in Ecclesiastical Policy and so great a Friend to thâ— Church of England would open such a Gap as to plead for the Abrogation of the Test which the Church-Men of England fram'd and set-up as the only Bulwark to prevent her Dissolution So that to use his own Words 'T is very hardly Credible That a Person who has lately appear'd so Vigorously in her Cause should notwithstanding all his seeming Zeal and Earnestness be really iâ— good Earnest in his Pretences against the Test. For what signifies the Abrogating the Test if there be no way to shake the otherwise immovable Church of England but by making two Bridgeâ— of Dissenters one between Callice and Dover the other between Diepe and Rye for Popery to return into England For when he comes to thaâ— part of his Preface to Bishop Bramhall 's Vindication where he considers what likelyhood oâ— how much danger there is of the Return oâ— Popery into this Nation For my own part says heâ— I know none but the Nonconformist's boisterous an unreasonable Opposition to the Church of England If he think that the Abrogation of the Tâ—â—â— may be a means to unite the Papist and the Diâ—senter which he seems to intimate by saying That the Faction of the Dissenters may be made use of â—â— instruments Iourney-men Tools to dissolve and unravel the establish'd Frame of things and destroy the Church of England and so make an unobstructed Passage for the Return of Popery in Glory and Triumph then he has left his Cause in the Lurch and relinquish'd all his Ecclesiastical Polity at once As for the Papists he deals with them after such a rate that no Man living knows where to have him In his Preface to Bishop Bramhall 's Vindication he seems neither to Love nor Fear 'em For that as long as the Church of England stands in Power and Reputation it will easily beat back and baffle all the Attempts of Rome and its Adherents Their Plausible Reasons being evidently no more than little Tricks and Sophisms and seem intended by themselves rather to abuse the Simple than satisfie the Wise Their Innovations are so undeniable and the Design of the Church of England's Reformation so apparently Apostolical that those People must needs argue at a strange wild rate that will be demonstrating against Experience and Ocular Inspection So then the Reformation made by the Church of England in the Points of Transubstantiation Worship of Images Adoration of the Host and Invocation of Saints being Apostolical What must be thought of his Reasons against the Test Nay there is Nothing could preserve the Papists from being hiss'd out of the Pit but that they are extreamly Confident and most Readers sufficiently ignorant So that the Church of England may safely defie all their Opposition She does not stand upon such Trembling Foundations as to be thrust down with Bull-rush Spears and Oral Traditions with Labyrinths and Castles in the Air. But then his Heart misgives him again and he begins to fear the Return of Popery into the Nation should the Nonconformists joyn with the Papists And therefore at the End of his Preface he begs the Hearty Prayers of his Friend for the Peace and Prosperity of the Church of England for when That is gone farewel Frost 't will he hard to find out Another with which any that are either Honest or Wise will be over forward to joyn in Communion Notwithstanding all this upon better Consideration as it were in Compassion of the despis'd Weakness of the Church of Rome and her Adherents he undertakes to furnish Them with better Arguments of his own than any they have Themselves to vindicate Transubstantiation and clear them from Idolatry For which he strains an Argument deduc'd from the Cherubims that cover'd the Ark. And yet in his Defence of his Ecclesiastical Polity Pag. 285 286. he condemns both Turk and Pope together in a Breath the One for giving Divine Worship to a lewd Impostor the Other to a Senseless Piece of Matter And thus what by Vertue of Apparent Apostolical Reformation he call'd Before a Senseless Piece of Matter he has Now cover'd with the Cherubim 's Golden Wings and render'd Adorable by Scripture Warrant But Bene scribit qui bene intelligitur What he has Written he has Written FINIS Ecclesiast Polit pag. 241 242 273 319 187. Eccles. Pol. p. 27 28 36 c. Declar. P. 2. Preface to Bramhal 's Vindication Preface to Bishop Bramhall's Vindicat.