his divided People to be one among themselves and to keep them all in dependance upon Himself as the Procurer of their common safety The Prejudices that have been conceived and the Calumnies that have been raised against the Nonconformists gave occasion of resolving this Question Whether they be of a judgment and temper that makes them capable of being brought under the Magistrates Paternal Care and Conduct to such a stated Order as will comport with this Church and Kingdom This by the Answerer is termed a Dialect of Canting and is wilfully wrested into a Question of another nature Whether he had occasion given him to speak so scornfully let any judg that understand sober language But that they might appear uncapable of a Comprehension he sticks not to affirm That the Principles of Presbyterian Perswasion do not admit of any stability but may be drawn out to patronize the wildest Sects that are or have been And his main proof is taken from the bare word of Two of their Eminent Adversaries He might have remembred That the same Reproach is cast upon the Principles of Protestantism by Romish Writers One may well ask Where is the Truth and Candor of those men that write after this manner Consider the French Dutch Helvetian Churches how intire they keep themselves in Orthodox Unity from the Gangrene of Sects and Schisms The Church of Scotland whilst it was Presbyterian was inferior to none in the Unity of Doctrine and church-Church-Communion Did Prelacy ever effect the like Unity in the Church of England And shall the Sects that now are or lately were in this Nation be charged upon Presbytery that was never setled among us and against which the Sectaries had the greatest indignation Though that Way never obtained in England nor was favoured with the Magistrates vigorous aid yet it is very untrue that the first admirers and friends thereof grew sick of it and hissed for the other Sects to affront reproach and baffle it It is well known that it received those disgraces from another sort of men The asserting of this Government is far from the design of this or the former Treatise yet it may be lawful to vindicate it from unjust aspersions The Answerer is pleased to stile it No other but a Sect. I hope he doth not intend to make the Foreign Reformed Churches but so many Combinations of Sectaries If his meaning be that is no better than a Sect in England because another Government is established by Law let him tell us Whether Episcopacy would be a Sect if it should appear in those Countries where Presbytery is the Legal Government No less will follow if the Notion of Sect be extended so far as to fetch in whatsoever dissents from the Order by Law established SECT VII Of their Principles touching OBEDIENCE and GOVERNMENT ANother great Prejudice taken up against the Nonconformists is That they are inconsistent with any Regular Government And this Author reports that it is a common Maxime among the Dissenters That an Indifferent Thing becomes Vnlawful by being Commanded But let the World hear them speak for themselves out of their Account to His Majesty concerning the Review and Alteration of the Liturgy We humbly beseech Your Majesty to believe That we own no Principles of Faction or Disobedience nor patronize the Errors or Obstinacy of any It is granted us by all That nothing should be commanded us by man which is contrary to the Word of God That if it be and we know it we are bound not to perform it God being the Absolute Universal Sovereign That we must use all just means to discern the Will of God and whether the Commands of Men be contrary to it That if the Command be sinful and any through neglect of sufficient search should judg it Lawful his culpable Error excuseth not his doing it from being sin And therefore as a reasonable creature must needs have a judgment of discerning that he may rationally obey it so is he with the greatest care and diligence to exercise it in the greatest things even the obeying of God and the saving of his Soul And that where a strong probability of a great Sin and Danger lieth before us we must not rashly run on without search And that to go on against Conscience where it is mistaken is sin and danger to him that erreth And on the other side we are remembred that in things no way against the Law of God the Commands of our Governors must be obeyed but if they command what God forbids we must patiently submit to suffering and every soul must be subject to the Higher Powers for Conscience sake and not resist The Publike Judgment Civil or Ecclesiastical belongeth only to publike persons and not to any private man That no man must be be causlesly or pragmatically inquisitive into the reasons of his Superiors Commands nor by Pride and Self-conceitedness exalt his own understanding above its Worth and Office but all to be modestly and humbly self-suspicious That none must erroneously pretend to God's Law against the just Command of his Superiors nor pretend the doing of his duty to be a sin That he who suspecteth his Superiors Commands to be against Gods Laws must use all means for full information before he settle in a course of disobeying them And that he who indeed discovereth any thing commanded to be a sin though he must not do it must manage his Opinion with very great care and tenderness of the Publike Peace and the honour of his Governors These are our Principles If we are otherwise represented to Your Majesty we are mis-represented If we are accused of contradicting them we humbly crave that we may not be condemned before we be heard This is sound speech that cannot be reproved Wherefore if the Clemency of their Superiors shall remit those Injunctions that may wellbe dispensed with and unto which they cannot yeeld conformity for fear lest they sin against God their Principles will dispose them with an humble and thankful acquiescence to receive so great a Benefit SECT VIII Of placing them in the same rank for Crime and Guilt with the PAPISTS THE Answerer hath not feared to set the Papists and the Protestant Dissenters upon the same level in the guilt of Rebellion Cruelty and Turbulency For a high Charge having been made good against Popery That it disposeth Subjects to Rebellion That it persecutes all other Religions within its reach That wheresoever it finds encouragement it is restless till it bear down all or hath put all in disorder He comes and tells the World That the Nonconformists are no more innocent of the same Crimes Can men of sound minds and temperate spirits believe this And what greater advantage can be given the Popish Party then that a Protestant Writer should declare and publish that so great a part of Protestants are equally involved with them in those heinous Crimes with which the Protestants have always charged them And that such
look upon them as theirs when they hold their Publike Stations Unto all this may be added That the Ancient Nonconformists earnestly opposed the Separation of the Brownists and held communion with the Church of England in its Publike Worship And doubtless it is the Ministers Interest not to have their Subsistence by the Arbitrary Benevolence of the people and so to live in continual dependance upon their mutable dispositions for a Maintenance that is poor and low in comparison of the Publike Encouragements Hereby one may partly judg whether Learned and Prudent men be Nonconformists by the pleasure of their own will or the constraining-force of Conscience Now their Consciences may be relieved if they be not made personally to profess or practice any thing against the dictates thereof And retaining their own private judgments they may well hold to this Catholick Principle That in a Church acknowledged to be sound in Doctrine and in the Substance or main Parts of Divine Worship and not defective in any vital part of Christian Religion they are bound to bear with much which they take to be amiss in others Practice in which they do not personally bear a part themselves As concerning a Form of Church-Government and Rule of Discipline Men that understand their own Interest cannot for self-ends as they have been upbraided couet the Power of such a Discipline as inevitably procures envy and ill-will without any temporal profit or dignity And if the Higher Powers will not admit such a Form I deliver my own private judgment without prejudice to other mens this may tend to satisfie the Subjects Conscience That Ecclesiastical Government is necessarily more directed and ordered in the exercise thereof by the Determinations of the Civil Magistrate in places where the true Religion is maintained then where it is persecuted or disregarded And they that have received the Power must answer to God for it They that are discharged from it shall never account for that whereof they have been bereaved SECT XIX It behoves both the Comprehended and the Tolerated to prefer the common Interest of Religion and the setling of the Nation before their own particular Perswasions AS those Dissenters whose Consciences will permit will best comply with their own good by entring into the Establishment if a door be open for their access So they of Narrower Principles that cannot enter into it will be safest within the Limits of such Indulgence as Authority would vouchsafe to grant them with respect to the Common Good Men of all Perswasions should rather chuse to be limited by Publike Rules with mutual Confidence between their Governors and Themselves then to be left to the liberty of their own Affections upon terms uncertain and unsecure Besides the Concernment of their own Peace there is this great Perswasive That this Advice is a compliance with that state of things which will best satisfie and settle the Nation and maintain Reformed Religion against Popery and Christianity against Atheism and Infidelity True Englishmen and Lovers of their dear Countrey which is impaired and reproached by these breaches should yeeld as much to its Wealth and Honour as their Consciences can allow Loyal Subjects and good Patriots should consider what the Kingdom will bear and prefer such bounded Liberty of Comprehension and Indulgence as tends to Union before a loose though larger Liberty that will keep the Breaches open and the Minds of People unquiet and unsetled And it is not of little moment to mind this That the high Concerns of Conscience cannot be better secured then in the Peace and Safety of the excellent Constitution of this Kingdom For the Amplitude of Reformed Religion all true Protestants should promote an ample Establishmeâ—t thereof both for the incompassing of all that be sound in that Profession as also for the more capacious reception of those that may become Converts thereunto And not onely the encrease and glory thereof but its stability in these Dominions is promoted by such an ample Establishment Witness our great Defence against Popery by the common zeal of all Protestants of the several Perswasions for Protestancy in general By this concurrent Zeal the insolencies of the Papists have been repressed and their Confidences defeated Could the Protestant Conformists or Nonconformists either of them upon their own single account if one should exterminate or utterly disable the other be so well secured against Popery as now they are by their common Interest And to imagine by rigor to compel the depressed Party to incorporate with the Party advanced so that one should acquire the Strength of both would in the issue be found a great Error By such proceeding indeed a Party may be wounded and broken and rendred unserviceable to the common good but shall never be gained as an addition of Strength to those who have so handled them But an Accommodation would make both to be as one And seeing in their present divided state the concurrent Zeal of Both hath been so formidable as to dash the hopes of the Popish Party how much more in a state of Union might their Strength increase against their common Adversaries Wherefore the One should open the Way and the Other should readily come in upon just Terms This should be the rather minded on both sides because the Considerate Nonconformists will never promote their own Liberty by such ways and means as would bring in a Toleration of Popery yea they would rather help to bear up the present Ecclesiastical state then that Popery should break in by Anarchy or the Dissolution of all Church-Government Moreover an ample fixed state Ecclesiastical is necessary to uphold and encrease true Religion as well against Infidelity as against Popery The loose part of the World would turn to a weariness and contempt of Divine Institutions and Christianity it self would be much endangered in a state of Ataxy and unfixedness By what ordinary means hath the Doctrine and Institution of Christ been propagated and perpetuated in large Kingdoms and Nations and in the Universe but by incompassing under its external Rule and Order great Multitudes that may fall short of the Life and Power thereof And it doth not root and spread in any sort considerable in a Region where the external Order is set by the Rigid and Narrow Principles of a small Party and the general Multitude lyes open as wast ground for any to invade or occupy Let considerate men judg how much the ample state of a meer Orthodox Profession is to be preferred before Infidelity or Popery or any other Sect of the Christian Name that is Idolatrous or Heretical There be few Converts to the Power of Godliness from Infidelity or Popery or any Heresie but they are generally made out of the Mass of People of an Orthodox Profession If it be the will of God that one must suffer for the Cause of Religion it is more for the Honour of Christianity to suffer from Infidels then from Papists likewise it is more
of that Discourse to which he pretends an Answer And this hath brought forth a large Impertinency which takes up more than a third part of his Book For those whose Liberty He seeks to withstand are not touched with that which he writes at large of the nature of Dissentions with their Causes and Consequences and the Magistrates duty concerning them whether it be right or wrong setting aside the injurious application thereof And all that labour had been spared if he had put a difference between Dissention and Dissent words that are near in sound and perhaps sometimes promiscuously used but in their strict and proper sense far distant For Dissention is no sooner presented to the mind but it is apprehended as something either culpable and offensive or calamitous and unhappy But Dissent is of a better notion and is not necessarily on both sides either a Fault or a Grievance But if this Author means by Dissentions no more then dissents or differences of Opinion with what truth and justice can he charge them all as he doth with such execrable Causes and Effects Dissentions have been and may be remedied and their fuel being taken away those flames will be extinguished But diversity of Opinion seems in this state of Human Nature to be irremediable It is therefore hoped that the state of this Church and Kingdom is not so deplorable as to want a Settlement while these Dissents remain Moreover there are private dissents between particular men within the latitude of the Publike Rule and there are dissents that may be called Publike as being from the Publike Rule or some parts thereof Now the broader and more comprehensive the Rule is the fewer will be the Dissenters from it And the permission of private diversities of Opinion in a just Latitude within the Rule is the means to lessen Publike Dissents and consequently Dissentions much more And this was the main scope of the first Discourse The great importance of Vnity in the Church of Christ is acknowledged and contended for as much on this side as on the other Howbeit we do not believe that Christ our Head hath laid the Conservation and Unity of His Church upon unwritten and unnecessary Doctrines and little Opinions and Sacred Rites and Ceremonies of meer Human Tradition and Institution But He hath set out the Rule and Measure of Unity in such sort as that upon Dissents in those things the Members of this Society might not break into Schisms to a mutual condemnation and abhorrency The imposing of such things except in those Ages whose Blindness and Barbarism disposed them to stupidity and gross security in their Religion hath been ever found to break Unity and to destroy or much impair Charity Goodness Meekness and Patience which are Vital Parts and chief Excellencies of Christianity SECT V. Whether the present Dissentions are but so many Factions in the State ONE grand Objection is That the Dissentions among us are but so many several Factions in the State But meer dissents in Religion are no State-Factions at all but proceed from a more lasting Cause than particular Designs or any temporary Occasions even from the incurable Infirmity of our Nature And if it were granted That the Dissentions were State-Factions yet they are not so originally and radically but by accident Some may take advantage to raise and keep up Factions by them For this cause take out of the way the stumbling-block of needless rigors and then Dissentions will cease or languish and consequently the State Factions if there be any such that are kept up by them will come to nothing It is so evident that Toleration which came not in till after the breach between the Late King and Parliament did not open the avenues to our Miseries that one may wonder any should say it did But meet Indulgence to all sound Protestants is the likeliest means of stopping such avenues And if it be for the Interest of England to have no Factions the best way is to remove those burdens which like a partition-wall hath kept asunder the Professors of the same Religion Then the Masters of our Troubles whosoever they be cannot have that advantage by their Eminency in their Parties to drive on their Designs in the State Factious Spirits are disappointed when Honest Minds are satisfied and secured This Author relates the Aims of several Parties on this manner The Papists are for the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome some of the other Sects are for a Commonwealth others are for the Fift Monarchy But if the true state of the Nonconformists be well considered it will be found that in Them as well as any others the King and Kingdom is concerned and the good of Both promoted It is not with them as with the Popish Party who have such a severed Interest to themselves that the State is little concerned in it save onely to beware of its Incroachments But the Protestant Dissenters are such as do much of the Business of the Nation and have not their Interest apart but in strict conjunction with the whole Body-Politick Yea they have no possible means of ensuring their Interest but by Legal-Security obtained from the Higher Power and by comporting with the general tranquility both of the Church and State of England They cannot flye to the Refuge of any Foreign Prince or State as the Papists have done frequently they acknowledg no Foreign Jurisdiction which is a Principle of the Popish Faith but all their Stake lies at home and they can have no sure Hold that is aliene from the Happiness of the King and Kingdom An Impartial Observer cannot but discern this If it be lawful to name a thing so much to be abhorred as a Change of the Ancient Laws and Government they could not be happy nor do their Work by such an unhappy Change Experience witnesseth That their Interest is not for hasty and unstable Victory or unfixed Liberty but for a state of firm Consistence and Security and that they cannot hold their own but by the common Safety both of Prince and People The summ of this Matter is That a Party not onely comporting with the good Estate of this Realm but even subsisting by it and therefore firmly linked unto it should not be cast off SECT VI. Whether the NONCONFORMISTS Principles tend to Sects and Schisms SOme Reasons were offered to shew That Indulgence towards Dissenting Protestants did much concern the Peace and Happiness of this Realm And the Prudent will judg Arguments of that sort to be of the greatest weight in the Affairs of Government There is no need to reinforce the cogency of those Reasons The Adversary hath wrested them to an odious meaning contrary to their manifest true intent but whether he hath indeed evinced them to be of little or no moment or whether they stand in full force let judicious men consider The whole reasoning in that particular rests upon this Maxime That it is the SOVEREIGN's true Interest to make
a one should tell them That it will seem unequal to deny a Toleration to them and grant it unto others that are here pleaded for which is in effect to say They have as good reason to expect an Indulgence from this State as others that maintain the Doctrine of the Church of England yea such as communicate in her publike Worship Is there no better way of exalting Prelacy and disgracing its supposed Adversaries then by this Reproach and Damage done to the whole Protestant Profession Yea he so far extenuates the guilt of Papists and brings it down so low as to make it common to all other Sects In which one would think he should have been more wary who in one place stretcheth the notion of Sect so far as to make its reason to lye in being different from the Established Form of Church Government Now for matter of practice he imputes the same guilt to all other Sects And if the Papists saith he have any Doctrines which countenance those Practises that is to be accounted as the issue of their insolency in their own greatness And he implies That it is onely the want of strength that other Sects are not so bad as they for such kind of Doctrine as well as Practice Such passages falling from a Protestants Pen may do the Papists better service than their late Apology But why doth he say If the Papists have any such Doctrines Doth he not know they have The Church of England was assured of it when concerning the Adherents of Rome she used this expression in a publike form of Prayer Whose Religion is Rebellion and whose Faith is Faction We wish their eyes were open who cannot see more permanent and effectual causes of the aforesaid Crimes peculiar to that Religion and rooted in the Principles thereof The evidence hereof given in the former Discourse is not needful to be rehersed in this place This Author as others that oppose the wayes of Amity and Peace loves to grate upon a string that sounds harsh To renew the remembrance of the late Warr. Those distracted Times are the great Storehouse and Armory out of which such men do fetch their Weapons of offence and the great Strong-hold unto which they always retreat when they are vanquished by the force of Reason and then they think they are safe though therein they contradict the true intent of the Act of Oblivion Some of those that now so importunately urge the Injury and Tyranny of those Times did then sufâ—iciently comply with Usurpers and left Episcopacy to sink or swim and did partake of the chiefest Favours and Preferments that were then conferred And on the other hand such as they upbraid and are now Sufferers did as little comply with those that subverted the Government and did as zealously appear for the rescue of our late Sovereign and for the restitution of His present Majesty as any sort of men in the Realm But to intermeddle in the Differences of those Times and to repeat Odious Matters and to use Recriminations that will disturb the minds of men and tend to a perpetual Mischief is aliene from and opposite unto my Pacifick Endeavours As for his charging the Nonconformists with certain Doctrines and Positions by him there mentioned which I know none that maintains and other Accusations and Reports relating to the time of the Warr the Truth or Falshood the Equity or Iniquity the Candor or Disingenuity of his Testimony in those things is left to the judgment of the Righteous God and of Impartial Men. SECT IX Whether their Inconformity be Conscientious or Wilful ANother part of the Proceeding is very Unrighteous and Presumptuous The Dissenting Ministers appeal to God That they dare not Conform for Conscience sake This Author hence inferrs The force of the Argument is There is a Necessity of Toleration because they Will not conform Is a Cannot for Conscience sake of no more force than a bare Will not But who best knows their hearts themselves or their Adversaries He would make the world believe that not Conscience but Obstinacy and Faction is the cause of their holding out and that the greatest part were trapann'd into Nonconformity That trifling story of their being trapann'd is not worthy of serious discourse It is so evident as not to be denied That about the time the Act of Uniformity was to be put in practice there were motions and overtures of Indulgence from the King and some of the great Officers of State who were known to have high affection and esteem for the Church of England yet did approve and promote those Overtures as the best Expedient for the setling of this Church and Kingdom But to let that pass Can men of Understanding and Candor think that so many serious persons who as well as others may be thought to love themselves their Families and Relations should continue such egregiously obstinate Fools as to refuse the Comforts of their Temporal Being for a Humor and remain in a state of Deprivation into which they had been meerly trapann'd As for the objected unprofitableness of their returning how doth it appear What hinders their Capacity of gaining Benefices yea and Dignities if they could Conform Why should they not find as good acceptation as others in their Preaching and Conversation It may be they would enter too fast for the good liking of some into those Preferments who therefore would set such Barrs against them as they should not be able to break thorough SECT X. Of their peaceable Inclinations and readiness to be satisfied IN the late Times of Usurpation there were apparent predispositions in this sort of men to Peace and Concord The longing desire and expectation that was in them as much as in any others of a National Settlement and general Composure did accelerate His Majesty's Peaceable Restauration Surely they were not so stupid as to imagine that great Turn of Affairs without the thoughts of their own yeilding and such as they hoped would be effectual with those of the other Perswasion Their early and ready Overtures of Reconciliation which are publikely made known will testifie their Moderation to the present and future Ages Their Offers of Acquiescing in Episcopacy Regulated and the Liturgy Reformed was on their part a good advance towards Union His Majesty hath given this Testimony of them in His Declaration When We were in Holland We were attended by many Grave and Learned Ministers from hence who were looked upon as the most able and principal Assertors of the Presbyterian Opinions with whom We had as much Conference as the multitude of Affairs which were then upon Vs would permit Vs to have and to Our great Satisfaction and Comfort found them persons full of Affection to Vs of Zeal for the Peace of the Church and State and neither Enemies as they had been given out to he to Episcopacy or Liturgy but modestly to desire such alterations as without shaking Foundations might best allay the present Distempers which
the indisposition of the Time and the tenderness of some mens Consciences had contracted I wonder at the confidence of that Assertion in the Answer That it is sufficiently known That none of the present Nonconformists did in the least measure agree in the use of those little things and though desired by the King to read so much of the Liturgy as themselves had not exception against and so could have no pretence from Conscience For it is well known that some of them did in compliance with the Kings desire read part of the Liturgy in their Churches As for others that did not perhaps for the prevention of scandal they might use their liberty of forbearance till some Reformation were obtained The truth is the Concessions on this side have been abused to the reproach and disadvantage of the depressed Party and from their readiness to yeild so far as they can for the common peace sake a perverse inference is made That they might yeild throughout if Humor and Faction did not rule them Is there any Justice or Charity in such dealing May not men of upright Consciences and peaceable Inclinations forbear the insisting upon some things to them very desirable and give place to some things not approved by them as the best in that kind if so be they might obtain their Peace and Liberty by Indulgence granted them in other things wherein Conscience binds them up that they cannot yeild Moreover some Concessions made by particular men of very Catholick spirits in the earnest pursuit of Peace have been wrack'd and wrested to a sense beyond their true import and then they that so handle them triumph in their own conceit over them as if they had given up the whole Cause Certasnly they are ill employed who from their Brethrens yeelding offers raise Opposition against them and endeavour to set them further off SECT XI The propounded Latitude leaves out nothing necessary to secure the Church's Peace TO set forth the propounded Latitude in the particular Limits thereof is not agreeable to a Discourse of this nature For it were presumptuous both in reference to Superiors and to the Party concerned in it And it is unnecessary for Prejudices being removed and the Conveniency of a greater Latitude being acknowledged the particular Boundaries thereof will easily be descried And indeed the generals that are expressed are a sufficient indication thereunto His Majesty's Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs hath mentioned particular Concessions on both sides and that Harmony of Affections therein He calls excellent Foundations to build upon The Moderation and Indulgence there specified would do the work I mean not so as if all Dissenters would instantly be thereby brought in but that our wide breach would presently be healed in great part and be in the surest way for a total and absolute healing and so much would be gained at present as might be able to conquer the remaining Difficulties The former Discourse had this position That the Ends of Church-Discipline do not require a Constitution of narrower bounds then things necessary to Faith and Life and Godly Order in the Church The Answerer saith That this Establishment is not enough for a Settlement because it doth not secure the Peace And to shew the insufficiency thereof he giveth two instances of Discord between the Parties First about the Persons to whose care the great things of Christianity should be intrusted to see them conveyed unto Posterity whether they shall be a Single Person or a Consistory or each single Congregation Secondly About the means of conveying those things the Worship of God and the Circumstances thereof From hence he draws this Conclusion Therefore to preserve Peace among her Members the Church had need to determine more then the great things of Christianity and to injoyn more then what is barely necessary to Faith and Order Verily it may much amuse one to think what that thing should be in the Ecclesiastical Polity which is not necessary to Christian Faith and Life and godly Order in the Church and yet necessary to secure the Church's Peace And if the aforesaid Instances of discord between the Church of England and the Dissenters are not necessary to Faith or Order what reason can be rendred of the inexorable Imposition thereof upon dissenting or doubting Consciences Can it be necessary to the Church's Peace to exclude or deprive men for such Differences in which neither Faith nor Order are concerned Or is this the Answerer's meaning That the Church's Peace consists in the exclusion of the Nonconformists and that the necessary use of some Injunctions stands in keeping them out so that not their Conformity but their Exclusion is the thing therby intended The Comprehension doth not suppose as it is mis-reported That Presbytery should be permitted or encouraged All intermedling with the Form of Church-Government was declined only the prescribed Uniformity was considered Besides for the exact Presbyterial Form to be comprehended in Episcopacy is contradictory yet that something of Presbytery should be included in it is not repugnant And such a Comprehension is approved in His Majesty's aforesaid Declaration Likewise King CHARLES the First in His Discourse touching the Differences between Himself and the Two Houses in this point declares that He is not against the managing of the Episcopal Presidency in one man by the joint Counsel and Consent of many Presbyters but that He had offered to restore it as a fit means to avoid those errors and corruptions and partialities which are incident to any one man also to avoid Tyranny which becomes no Christians least of all Church-men But neither this nor the former Treatise interposeth in this Matter but leaves it to the Wisdom of our Superiors The desired Latitude leaves not the Concernments of Church or State to the Ingenuity of Men nor casts out any Injunctions that are means of Peace and Unity yea or of that necessary Decency which the Apostle requires only of Rites and Opinions long disputed it would take in no more then needs must and not meerly because they have been long disputed but because they are also of little value and here confessed not to be necessary to Faith and Order yet are matters of endless Controversie in this Church and occasions of great separation from it It being asserted That the indisputable Truths of Faith and the indispensable Duties of Life are the main Object of Church-Discipline the Answerer demands What are those indisputable Truths since there is scarce any Truth of Faith that hath not been disputed against What manner of arguing is this Because All Truths have been disputed doth it follow that there are no indisputable Truths That is called Indisputable that cannot reasonably or justly be disputed though men of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the Faith will call the greatest Truths in question and resist the clearest Evidence When the Apostle mentions matters of doubtful disputations he implies there be matters that are indubitable SECT XII Of
to Mr. Richard Hooker about the writing of his Ecclesiastical Polity in these words It may be remembred that at the first the greatest part of the Learned in the Land were either eagerly affected or favourably inclined to that way the Books then written savoured for the most part of the Disciplinary stile it sounded every where in the Pulpits and in the common phrase of mens speech and the contrary Part began to fear they had taken a wrong course There is as little Truth and Justice in that report That the Party that were against Ceremonies caused the Troubles at Frankford and brought a Dishonor to the Reformation and Infamy upon our Nation The English Congregation at Frankford was setled after the Discipline of the Foreign Reformed Churches and enjoyed much Peace till certain eminent men zealous of the English Forms and Rites came among them and by a high hand brought in the Liturgy and brake them to pieces and forced away the Ministers and those Members that were in the first forming and setling of that Church Afterward they that remained and received the Liturgy continued not long in unity but in a short time an incurable and scandalous Schism brake out between the Pastor and almost the whole Congregation Lastly There is a great mistake in the main business of the Narrative in representing things as setled by the Church of England in the beginning of the Queen's Reign to please each Party in the abolishing of some and the retaining of other Ceremonies Whereas at the reviving the Reformation at that time the Ceremonies then abolished were offensive to all Protestants and nothing appears to be done in favour of the Anticeremonial Party about the points in difference But things were carried to a greater height against their Way than in King Edward's time whose Reformation was thought to incline more to that which was afterwards called Puritanism For which cause the Historian before mentioned hath written That that King being ill principled his Death was no infelicity to the Church of England The truth of the matter is That in the first Times of the Queen whose Reign was to be sounded in the Protestant Religion the Wisdom of the State intended chiefly the bringing over of the whole Body of the People and to settle them in that Profession and therefore thought fit to make no more alteration from their old Forms then was necessary to be made Care was taken that no part of the Liturgy might be offensive to the Papists and they accordingly resorted to our Divine Service for the first Ten years Also the retaining of the Ceremonies was a matter of condescention to the Popish Party the State thereby testifying how far they would stoop to gain them by yeelding as far as they might in their own Way Now long Experience hath shewed That what was done with respect to the Peace of former Times and reconciling of Papists to Protestants is become an occasion of dividing Protestants from one another without hope of converting Papists SECT XIV The alledged Reasons why the Ceremonies are not to be taken away Examined DIvers Reasons are alledged to prove a continued necessity for these Ceremonies as Because they that are for the Church are unwilling to have them taken away To revoke them is to comply with those that will never be satisfied Imputations have been laid upon the Things injoyned as Antichristian Idolatrous Superstitious A Warr was undertook to remove them And it is a reproach to the Church whose Foundation is upon the Truth to be various Hereunto we make answer Whosoever delight in the use of the Ceremonies may enjoy their liberty but let it suffice them to use it without laying a stumbling-block before others or intangling their Consciences or hindring all of a contrary Perswasion from the Ministry from teaching School yea and from taking any Academical Degree With what soberness can it be said the Dissenters will never be satisfied when hitherto they were never tryed with any Relaxation or Indulgence although they have given evident proofs of their unfeigned desires of Accommodation They do indeed esteem the Ceremonies an excess in the Worship of God but suppose that some have been immoderate in disparaging those Rituals on the other hand shall their value be so inhansed as to be thought more worth then the Church's Unity and the exercise of mutual Charity among its Members May not the Church salve her Honour by declaring That in remitting these Injunctions she meerly yeelds to the infirmity of weak Consciences As St. Paul declared concerning abstaining from meats who had as much power to make a Canon as any sort or number of Ecclesiastical persons can now pretend unto As concerning the late Warr it is easier said then proved That it was undertaken to remove the Ceremonies and it was not so declared by those that managed it But if it were so indeed as it is here suggested let this Argument be well weighed A dreadful Warr that had a dismal issue was undertaken to remove certain Ceremonies that at the best are but indifferent therefore let them never be removed but still inforced to the uttermost upon Consciences that disallow them As for the reproach of the Church by the appearance of being various we conceive the controverted Ceremonies are no Foundation of the Church of England nor any substantial part of her Religion and do therefore hope that some Indulgence therein will not fix upon her any brand of Inconstancy It is objected That the Popish Priests would hereby take advantage It seems then that greater care must be taken that the Papists who are implacable Adversaries be not offended then that many thousand honestly minded Protestants should be relieved But the strangest Reason comes up last Dissentions about things indifferent have necessitated the Church to make these Injunctions That is say the things are but indifferent yet great dissentions have risen about them and are like to continue without end therefore the Church hath been necessitated to impose them with great severity upon multitudes who esteem them unlawful and all for this end That dissentions may be removed We are astonished at this Argument from the Pen of a Learned man The truth is these alledged Reasons have more of Animosity in them then of Equity Charity or good Advice Indeed the Apostle saith Mark those that cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine that ye have received but he doth not so brand those that scruple unwritten Traditions and needless Ceremonies but adhere to the intire Doctrine of Christ and all Divine Institutions SECT XV. Of the diversity of Opinion and Practice already permitted in the Church of England THE Moderation of the Church of England in the Articles of Predestination Divine Grace and Free-will being urged against the rigorous imposition of the controverted Orders and Ceremonies this Answer is made That the case is not the same for that those points are so full of difficulty that they and questions of
that nature have been matter of dispute in all Ages and in all Religions but about the Orders and Ceremonies this is the only thing to be resolved Whether the Church hath power to injoin an indifferent Ceremony But there is no such difference in the case The Question of things Indifferent hath been mistaken for the Grand Case of the Nonconformists for those points which are the main reason and matter of their inconformity are by them accounted not indifferent but unlawful and therefore not to be admitted in their practice till their Consciences be better satisfied And it is not irrational to think that serious doubtings may arise in sober minds about some parts of the injoyned Uniformity and particularly about those Ceremonies which seem to draw near to the significancy and moral efficacy of Sacraments and thereupon may appear to some not as meer circumstances but as parts of Divine Worship and their Consciences may be struck with Terror by the sense of God's Jealousie about any instituted Worship which Himself hath not prescribed Moreover these Orders and Ceremonies have been matters of dispute in all times since the beginning of Protestant Reformation But under the degenerate state of the Christian Churches by the great Apostacy of the later times there could be no occasion of disputing these things when Will-worship was generally exalted and the grossest Idolatries had prevailed I question the truth of that Assertion That the Dissenters cannot name one Church besides ours in which there was a Schism made for a Ceremony For a great Rent was made in the Christian Church throughout the World about a Ceremony or as small a matter to wit the time of celebrating the Feast of Easter But whensoever a Schism is made let them that cause it look to it and lay it to heart Wo to the world because of offences and wo to that man by whom the offence cometh But we still insist upon this Argument That these Rites being at the best but indifferent in the opinion of the Imposers the observation of them cannot in reason be esteemed of such importance to the substance of Religion as the different Opinions about the Articles aforesaid are And who knows not with what animosity and vehemence the Parties that are called Arminian and Antiarminian have fought against one another and what dreadful and destructive Consequences they pretend to draw from each others Opinions Now put case the more prevalent Party in the Church of England should go about to determine those Controversies on the one side or the other and truly they were sometimes determined by a Synod in His Majesty's Dominions namely by that of Dublin in the year 1615 also by the greatest Prelates and most eminent Doctors in England in the Lambeth-Articles and what hath been may again come to pass would not that side against whom the Decision passeth be ready to cry out of Oppression Yea how great a Rent would be made by it through the whole Fabrick of this Church Furthermore in Ceremonies publikely used and matters of open practice the Church of England hath thought good to indulge Dissents as in that of bowing toward the Altar or the East unless it be required by the local Statutes of particular Societies And in this the Sons of the Church do bear with one another according to the direction of the Canons made in the year 1640. Unto which may be added That the Mode of Worship in Cathedrals is much different from that in Parochial Churches Likewise some Ministers before their Sermon use a Prayer of their own conceiving others onely as the phrase is bid Prayer If these and other Varieties be no reproach to our Church will it reproach her to suffer one to Officiate with a Surpliss and another without it SECT XVI Men differently perswaded in the present Controversies may live together in Peace IT is no vain speculation to think we may have peace if men perswaded in their Consciences that the controverted Ceremonies are superstitious or at the best but Trifles and that the Liturgy and Ecclesiastical Polity need some Reformation should be joined with men far otherwise perswaded And the preserving of Peace in that case doth not suppose or require that all these differently perswaded men will be wise on both sides to content themselves with their own opinions But it supposeth the State and the chief Guides of the Church to be wise as it is always requisite they should be and that many of Reputation and Eminency on both sides will be prudent and temperate and examples of Moderation to others and not to suppose this is to disparage and debase our present Age but above all it supposeth the Publike Constitution so well stated and setled as to be able to curb the Imprudent and Unsober and to encourage the Modest and Well-advised Surely all Dissenters upon Conscience will not be prevailed with by the same Conscience to endeavour the propagation of their own way in these differences to the depression of others If some offer to disturb the Peace can no Rule of Government restrain them It is a deplorable case indeed if there be no remedy but for those that are favoured by the Higher Powers utterly to exclude and reject those that want the like favour and countenance At this day the Church of England by Her present Latitude or at least Connivence keeps peace among Her Sons of such different Perswasions as formerly stirred up great Dissentions in this Church Who is ignorant of the Contentions raised about the Arminian Controversies in the several Reigns of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the First But in the present Times the mutual forbearance on both sides but chiefly the Church's Prudence hath lay'd asleep those Controversies whereas if one side presuming upon its Power and Prevalency should go about as formerly to decry and depress the other and to advance and magnifie themselves and ingross the Preferments doubtless the like flames would break out again For there is a great dislike and abhorrency setled at the Heart-root of both these Parties against each others Opinions and a sutable occasion would soon draw it out to an open Contestation Now if the Church's Peace and Unity be already maintained in such seemingly dangerous diversity of Opinion among her Members and Officers and those not of the meanest rank why should her Prudence and Polity he suspected as insufficient to maintain Unity and Peace in the indulging of the differently perswaded in the now disputed Rites and Opinions SECT XVII Of DISSENTERS of Narrower Principles and of TOLERATION THE Latitude discoursed in the former Treatise is unjustly impeached as providing onely for the Presbyterians and relinquishing all other Dissenters for it comprehends within the Establishment those of all sorts that are of Principles congruous to stated Order in the Church so that no sort is excluded whose Principles make them capable And was this Capacity any where restrained to the Presbyterians Some Nonconformists are for
for the Honour of Reformed Religion to suffer from Papists then from Protestants And if it were at ones own choice One should much rather caeteris paribus suffer in defence of the main Truths of Christianity then for refusing a Ceremony or for any other part of Inconformity For this cause a Union is so desirable that these Bitternesses Reproaches and Scandals might cease from among us Lastly Whatsoever Enlargement we have granted by the Favour of our Lawful Superiors we have it in the best way and a Blessing is in it SECT XX. EPISCOPACY will gain more by Moderation then by Severity in these Differences THE Answerer enumerates many Reasons why a Form of Church-Government should meet with many Difficulties in its return after a proscription of Twenty years and concludes it must be a Generation or two not seven years that can wear out all those Difficulties On the other side he saith Presbytery languished almost as soon as it had a being c. I perceive Presbytery is a great Eye-sore Peradventure I may be reckoned a Presbyterian and to say the truth I am not ashamed of their company that are commonly called by that Name yet I have no pleasure in such Names of distinction I am of a Perswasion but not of a Party and whatsoever my Perswasion be it is Moderate Catholick and Pacifick Neither my Design nor my Principles engage me to maintain the Presbyterial Government Nevertheless I cannot but take notice with how little reason the intrinsick Strength of Prelacy or Weakness of Presbytery is argued from the duration of the one and the other in this Kingdom Had Presbytery the Strength of the Civil Power Or was it ever formed in England Was it not crush'd while it was an Embryo by the prevailing Potency of its Adversaries Look into those States where it hath been Established if you would judg aright concerning it On the other hand hath not Prelacy had all the Strength of Law and Power engaged in its defence by the Encouragements of Worldly Grandure for its Favourers and by Severities inflicted on its Impugners for above Fourscore years In which space of time none could appear against it without the hazard of utter undoing or great Suffering And though it were thus born up not for Seven years but almost a Century yet we do not find that it had worn out the Difficulties of those Times which were not so Many and Great as this Author reports its present Difficulties to be in its return after a proscription of Twenty years But there is a more excellent and surer Way which it is hoped may attain to a happier End in less time then a Generation or two If the Distemper of Minds were healed and Unchristian Enmities laid aside then Moderation being sincerely begun would hold on and make the Disagreeing Parties to be still more yeelding and mutually obliging those Provocations and Prejudices would then cease by which they have been mutually alienated and hurried into such Hostilities and they would not be tempted in their own Defence as they think to strengthen themselves by Evil Advantages If Episcopacy yeeld to a Moderate Course why should any prudent Dissenters go about to molest it For in so doing they would but perpetuate their own trouble and unquiet state seeing that diversities of Opinions and occasions of Discord are like to continue about Forms of Church-Government until Forms shall be no more On the other side Why should the Episcopal Clergy dread that Moderation that would render Episcopacy more generally inoffensive and acceptable and put some end to the hitherto uncessant struglings against it Are they jealous that the Structure of their Government may be weakned and at length dissolved They might rather apprehend it might gain Assistance and Reputation from many that now either by constraint and necessity or by provocation and prejudice are made its Adversaries Who so searcheth to the root of the matter shall find That not so much the Species of Government nor the Forms that are used as weightier matters have been the chief stumbling-block and the occasions of the greatest disgust and aversation Neither the Episcopal Office nor Habit doth affright this sort of People from hearing a Bishop preach to their Edification The right and sure way to establish Episcopacy in a Land where Reformed Christianity is established is not to urge precise Conformity in Opinions and Orders and doubtful things of meer human determination but to encourage soundness in the Faith Ability and Industry in the proper Work of the Ministry and a Conversation becoming the Gospel and to discourage Pluralities Nonresidencies Licentiousness and Idleness in all sorts who serve not Christ but themselves in their Sacred Functions and whose End is onely to live in Pomp Wealth and Pleasure Will the Church-Governors say as it hath been answered they are bound up by the Laws and if Patrons present unworthy persons which have the Qualifications the Law requires the Bishops must not reject them nor can they turn them out at their pleasure but must give an account to the Laws To this I reply If the Admission and Permission of unworthy Ministers comes to pass not by the Bishops Administration but by the defectiveness of the Laws why hath not their Zeal excited them in the space of so many years and several Princes Reigns to endeavour the obtaining of Laws effectual on that behalf as it hath to procure and make from time to time stricter and stricter Injunctions about Conformity and Ceremonies For we know no reason why as full and vigorous Laws may not be made against Ignorant Negligent and Scandalous Ministers as against Nonconformists Conscience Honour and Safety obligeth the Episcopal Clergy to turn the edg of their Discipline the right way and to shew its energy and vigor not about Ceremonies but the great and weighty matters of Christian Religion And I believe that many worthy Ministers of the Church of England are so perswaded Wherefore in the former Discourse I cast no evil reflection upon the Latitudinarians or any moderate persons nor represented them as conforming not sincerely and as becomes the Ministers of Christ. They may sincerely according to their Principles submit to these Impositions and yet not like the Imposing The expression of their lukewarmness in Conformity signified no more but this That they set a rate upon these Matters according to the value and that they bear but an indifferent respect to things that at the best are but indifferent It is objected against me That having provided a place of rest for my self and my Party in the stated Order I am little sollicitous for others I do here solemnly profess That I am chiefly sollicitous for the Tranquility and Rest of a troubled Nation As for my own Concernment my Deprivation is an Affliction to me and I would do any thing that were not sin to me to recover the liberty of my publike Service in the Church But if it cannot be I submit to His good pleasure by whose determinate Counsel all things are brought to pass and am contented to remain a Silenced Sufferer for Conscience towards God Yea I should much rejoice in such Enlargement of the Publike Rule as might give a safe entrance to others though I my self by some invincible strictness of Apprehension should remain excluded for I have no Faction to uphold and by others Gain I am nothing lessened And in my opinion it will be no dividing of the Nonconsormists or weakning of their Interest if a part of them might close with the Approved Order of the Nation enlarged to the latitude of their judgments when others of streighter judgments are left without Indeed if they were a Faction they might lose or lessen themselves hereby But Reformed Christianity is their Grand Interest and their main Cause lyes not in any avowed difference of Doctrines between them and the Episcopal Protestants nor in any Secular Advantages to hold to themselves in a divided state but in the Advancement of Gods Kingdom by the encrease of true Christian Faith and Piety The Answerer hath used many hard speeches against me and charged me with Malice in divers passages which I answer not in particular because the innocence and inoffensiveness of my words will clear it self and because I would not make this Discourse tedious by replying to things impertinent to the main scope It shall suffice me to add That I have written these things as knowing that the Judg standeth before the Dore. FINIS THE Contents Sect 1. OF the Foundation of our Peace already laid in the Religion of the Nation and the Structure thereof to be perfected by the Vnity of that Profession 2. The Good of the several Parties is best secured by Common Equity and the Good of the Vniversality 3. What may be esteemed a good Constitution of the State Ecclesiastical 4. The Comprehensiveness of the Establishment and the allowance of a just Latitude of Dissents is the best Remedy against Dissentions 5. Whether the present Dissentions are but so many Factions in the State 6. Whether the Nonconformists Principles tend to Sects and Schisms 7. Of their Principles touching Obedience and Government 8. Of placing them in the same rank for Crime and Guilt with the Papists 9. Whether their Inconformity be Conscientious or Wilful 10. Of their peaceable Inclinations and readiness to be satisfied 11. The propounded Latitude leaves out nothing necessary to secure the Churches Peace 12. Of acquiescence in the Commands of Superiors and the proper matter of their Injunctions 13. Of the alledged Reasons of the Ecclesiastical Injunctions in the beginning of the Reformation 14. The alledged Reasons why the Ceremonies are not to be taken away Examined 15 Of the diversity of Opinion and Practice already permitted in the Church of England 16. Men differently perswaded in the present Controversies may live together in peace 17. Of Dissenters of narrower Principles and of Toleration 18. It is the Interest of the Nonconformists to prefer Comprehension before Toleration where Conscience doth not gainsay 19. It behoves both the Comprehended and the Tolerated to prefer the common Interest of Religion and the setling of the Nation before their own particular Perswasions 20. Episcopacy will gain more by Moderation then by Severity in these Differences