Men preach such as they print with Publick Allowance and therefore they ought to provide better for their Souls elsewhere Especially they say That the Doctrine of Justification is Articulus stantis vel cadentis Ecclesiae an Article with which the Church falls or stands This Article say they in the Parish where we live is quite demolish'd by the Doctrine of Justification by Works We are bound therefore to provide for our safety and depart and when We are once out We will advise upon another Church not which is tolerable but which is most eligible and in all things nearest the Word p. 161 Sect. 5. They plead That there 's no Obligation upon them to own the Churches Power to impose new Terms of Communion unless the Church can prove her Power from Christ. It 's not for them to disprove it it lies upon her to prove it and to prove it substantially too or else it will be hard to prove it their duty to own it p. 181 Sect. 6. They say The World is pestered with Disputes about Worship about Religion and therefore since All cannot be in the right they are willing to go the safest Way and worship God according to his Word If the things disputed be lawful to be done let them be so they are sure it is lawful to let them alone And they think there 's no great hazard in keeping to Scripture Rule nor can believe that Christ will send any to Hell because they did not worship God in an external Mode more neat and spruce them God commanded p. 190 Sect. 7. They pretend That the things impos'd are parts of Worship which none can create but God nor will God accept of any but such as are of his own creating and whether they be Integral or Essential parts They do not know but in the Worship of God they find them standing upon even ground with those that are certainly Divine or at least as high as Man can lift them p. 196 Sect. 8. They do not find that God ever commanded the things imposed either in General in Special or their Singulars If God has commanded a duty to be done the Church must find a place to do it in But though the Church must find a place for the Duty a time for the Duty she may not find new Duty for the Time and Place p. 216 Sect. 9. They are the more cautious of all Ceremonies because the Old Church of England in her Homilies Serm. 3. of Good Works tells us That such hath been the corrupt Inclination of Man superstitiously given to make new Honouring of God of his own head and then to have more Affection and Devotion to keep that than to search out God's holy Commandments and do them p. 247 Sect. 10. They say They have read over all the Books that have been written in Justification of those things and they find their Arguments so weak their Reasons so frivolous that setting aside Rhetorick and Railing there 's nothing in them but what had been either Answered by others or is contradicted by themselves which hardens them in their Errour who are gone astray into the right Way p. 254 Sect. 11. They say It 's their Duty to endeavour a Reformation according to the Word which if others will not they cannot help it and hope they will not be angry with the Willing p. 262 A Fresh Inquiry Into the PLEA of the NON-CONFORMISTS c. SECT I. THey plead that some things are imposed upon their Faith tendred to subscription as Articles of Faith which are either false or at least they have not yet been so happy as to discover the truth of them In Article 20. they are required to subscribe this Doctrine The Church hath Power to decree Rites and Ceremonies Which Clause of the Article as we fear it hath been by some indirect means shuffled into the Article it not being found in the Authentick Articles of Edw. 6. so it proves also that the Terms of Communion have been enlarged since the first Times of the Reformation The Answer The Articles of the Church of England are not imposed under Oath nor required to be received with a like affection and piety as the holy Scriptures are nor to be believed as Articles of Faith further then they can approve themselves to be contained in the Holy Scriptures For the Sixth of those Articles declares thus Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of the Faith or be thought requisite and necessary to salvation The moderation of the Church of England herein is evinced in another Treatise viz. The Proselyte of Rome called back c. p. 7. to the 10. There is no Protestant Church of any creditable denomination more moderate and ingenious in this point then ours is To keep them from Sects and Corruptions and tie them up close to the Doctrine of the Augustan Confession we find it decreed among the Lutherans Nemo quicunque sit That no man whatsoever shall be admitted to any Office or Ministry in their Churches Schools or otherwise nor shall any such be tolerated therein unless they shall approve and receive such a body of Doctrine as there mentioned and shall persevere therein and neither by word nor deed oppose the same And it is further decreed and established That if any shall be but suspected as contradicting those Doctrines and the unanimous consent therein if they refuse to be better instructed and give no place to the Fatherly admonitions of others their Superiours they shall be removed from their Offices or Employments or else their names shall be signified that due execution of punishment may proceed against them as persons refractory and contumacious And 't is their practice too upon occasion to make their Ministers and Professors to renounce such opinions as are declared to be erroneous sub jurisjurandi sacramento even under the Sacrament of a solemn Oath And the Calvinists are no less strict in this point The Proxies or Deputies to be sent from the Provinces to the National Synod as is expressed in the Form of the Letters written à Synodo Victoriacensi in Brittain are tied to this Solemn Engagement Promittimus coram Deo c. that is We do promise before God that we will submit our selves to all things which shall be agreed and decreed by your holy Assembly and will execute the same with all our power because we are persuaded that God presides over it and that he will direct you by his Holy Spirit according to the rule of his Word into all truth and equity Here we have a promise of submission made before God by a kind of implicit Faith and blind Obedience to the Decrees of a Synod of Calvinists before the Convention of it And this is grounded upon a Divine persuasion else with what confidence can they
of the Church and he says He tells those Hebrews that their ingratitude would bring those Governours grief and trouble ut significet to signifie that we cannot be troublesom or disobedient to our Pastours Sine propriae salutis jacturâ without the loss of our own Salvation And Gerhard is very full to the like purpose The word signifies to submit themselves by a most exact and obsequious Subjection And he adds for all the Protestants of their Party That there is none of them denys but Bishops are to be obeyed in their Office and not only when they Preach the Divine Law but when they press such Ecclesiastical Constitutions as are introduced for order and decency And altho' these do not immediately and of themselves bind the Conscience yet in the general they do bind by reason of that general Precept to obey such as have Rule over us And that this is not a whit against the Liberty of Conscience we have Mr. Calvin's Suffrage who thus sums up our Christian Liberty In summa est libera servitus serva libertas Our Christianity is a free service and a servile freedom Nam sicuti servos Dei esse nos Oportet ut hoc bono fruamur for as we ought to be God's Servants that we may enjoy this benefit so Moderation is required in the use of it After this manner saith he liberae quidem sunt conscientiae our Consciences indeed are free sed hoc non obstat quin Deo serviamus qui etiam nos hominibus subjicit but notwithstanding this we must serve God who hath also made us subject unto Men Thus Calvin Thus much of Christ's yoak which is not our bondage but our privilege and ought to be our choice as it is our duty The yoak of Bondage is two-fold 1. That of Moses's Law 2. That of Satan's Tyranny 1. Satan's yoak is a yoak of Tyranny for He is the Prince of the Power of the air the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience Eph. 2. 2. This yoak is made up of the Pomps and Vanities of the wicked world the Superstition and Idolatry with all the unclean and filthy practices which did attend them wherewith the Devil had inthrall'd the Heathen world These Galathians for a long time had had their Necks under this yoak but were now set at liberty by the light of the Gospel yet were there a sort of false Apostles who for their own ease advantage made it their business to entangle them in another yoak which they had not been accustom'd to the yoak of Circumcision and the Law of Moses and therefore he saith be not entangled again in a yoak of bondage quia si vos fideles jam circumcidimini idem est quod ad Idola Converti quibus antea serviebatis saith Bruno for if you who are Believers should now be circumcised 't is the same thing as if you should be turned unto the Idols you served before To iterum non eandem servitutis speciem sed simpliciter generalitèr iteratam servitutem significat quasi dicat Nolite iterum servire ut pridem Idolis ita nunc umbris merosis Ceremoniis saith G. Calixtus This word Again does not signifie the same kind of bondage but simply and generally an iterated or repeated bondage as if he had said be not now again in bondage to shadows and burdensome Ceremonies as you had been formerly to dumb Idols You are actually freed from one heavy yoak be not intangled in another be not insnared and inthrall'd so as to seek your ease your pardon your salvation in another which is of no more validity to that effect than the former which Christ hath therefore equally freed you from But what is all this to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England He that will undertake from the Doctrine of St. Paul to impeach the Practice of the Church of England in commanding the observance of Rites and Ceremonies and thereby restraining the use of our Christian Liberty in things indifferent must make good these two Propositions 1. That St. Paul has set up Christian Liberty above the Authority of the Church For in all things wherein the Church hath not interposed her Authority to determine our Practice we have the use of our Christian Liberty as much and as fully as we can desire But that St. Paul hath set up Christian Liberty above the Authority of the Church can never be made good as long as the Epistles to the Corinthians to Timothy Titus are extant held Canonical 2. He must prove That in the use of those Rites and Ceremonies which the Dissenters impugn we do renounce our Christianity are faln from Grace That therein wé have fellowship with Devils and that Christ shall profit us nothing but we must eternally perish in our practice For those things which the Apostle inveighs against He forbids upon this account as is most evident from all those Texts of Scripture wherein he does professedly and peremptorily handle this Matter But I do challenge the Prudence and Justice as well as the Charity of him who dares say if you wear a Surplice if you sign with the Cross if ye kneel at the Sacrament ye renounce your Christianity and are faln from Grace ye have fellowship with Devils and Christ shall profit you nothing but ye must eternally perish in that Practice To conclude this Section I must put the Dissenting Brethren in mind That the charge or injunction they insist upon Gal. 5. 1. was not written against the Church but against a Superstitious Faction which opposed Apostolical Authority And if they look upon the Superstition and Tyranny of the Church of Rome as a yoak of bondage then by a Parity of Reason They are highly concern'd in the charge upon that account For they do oppose that very Authority by which Christ hath once made them free from that yoak Which Authority doth still with the like Zeal and Courage call upon them also to stand fast in that Liberty But if they will continue to give the Emissaries of that Church advantage by their unreasonable Separations to creep into their Conventicles and make Proselytes with them which I can see no way to be avoided but by their Cordial return to the Communion of the Church of England the Scandal and burden must lye at their doors if we be again entangled The Dissenters Fourth Section They plead that they ought not to hazard their Souls in one Congregation if they may more hopefully secure them in another for that their Souls are their greatest concernment in this World and the next Now say they there 's no question but men preach such as they print with publick allowance and therefore they ought to provide better for their Souls elsewhere Especially they say That the Doctrine of Justification is Articulus stantis vel cadentis Ecclesiae an Article with which the Church falls or stands This Article say they in
first establishment of Christianity And as that very Learned and Judicious Divine hath determined There are certainly many occasions for a Christian to have recourse to God for his Grace upon Protestation of his Christianity which is the condition upon which all Grace of God becomes due when there is neither time nor opportunity to recollect his mind unto a formal address by praying unto God All which this Ceremony the Sign of the Cross fitly signifieth I shall conclude this with a matter of Fact The Practice and Behaviour of a Member of the Greek Church at the time of his Martyrdom a few years since sent to me by a very Worthy Learned and Ingenuous Person who was upon the place at Constantinople One thing saith he I cannot but take notice of that all the way this deplorable Creature was hurried backwards and forwards to the Cady and the Kaima Cam and afterwards to execution when either he could not speak through weakness of body or else could not be heard among the thronging Multitude He in a manner continually made the Sign of the Cross upon his Breast to testifie to the World by this dumb Rhetorick his undaunted resolution of being and dying a true Christian. I confess it made me with great pleasure reflect upon that ancient Rite used by our Church in Baptism I mean the sign of the Cross. It may be that to men who never lived abroad amongst Vnbelievers nor considered the state of the Primitive Church in which this Practice first prevailed it may seem a very useless and empty Ceremony to make this Sign upon an Infants Forehead at his reception into Christ's Flock much more for a man in Publick to do it upon his own Breast but for my own part I shall rather for ever esteem it as an Vniversal Character of a Christian forasmuch as it is sufficient to signifie throughout the whole World when no other Language is mutually understood that the Person so sign'd is own'd or owns himself to be a Member of Christ's Mystical Body And therefore many of the Primitive Christians were branded with a Cross and the Walls of their Cities and Castles and Houses as we see some yet remaining in many places to this very day bore this Mark upon them only as a note of distinction at first though the Superstition indeed of succeeding Ages much altered the Original intent of it The Christian Slaves and other miserable and indigent Believers who up and down the Streets beg our Charity when all Language is insignificant or perhaps their Tongues are cut out will declare their profession to us by this only sign And we have several times travelled abroad in Turkish habits and happening into a Christian Village we have found the People at first very fearful and averse from giving us any entertainment but assuring them by this sign that we were of their own Belief we have been immediately admitted and kindly treated And without any further Instances I have found this outward token alone in these Countries to be a sufficient Shibboleth to distinguish a Christian from an Infidel Now though perhaps in your Parts of Christendom a Christian of riper years may never have a real occasion of making profession of his Faith by this Outward Character yet I think our Church doth extreamly well in retaining so much as she doth of this Ancient Custome I mean in Crossing at least the Persons that are Newly baptized since the words which she useth in that Office sufficiently expound the meaning of the first Institutors of this Ceremony to wit it signifies that as they should manfully maintain the inward and Spiritual fight against Sin and the Devil and all Pomps and Vanities under the inward Banner of a stedfast and lively Faith in Christ so they should not be asham'd publickly even by this Outward Sign to confess the same Faith to the World and all the Powers thereof when and wheresoever they should have occasion for it Thus far I am gratified by my Worthy Friend's Letter We see then that the use of this Symbol in All the Christian Church has alwaies been accounted a Real Protestation of the Christian Faith and consequently they have understood and practised it as comprehended under the General Command of Confession which contradicts the Hypothesis of these Dissenters The Dissenters Ninth Section THey are the more cautious of all Ceremonies because the Old Church of England in her Homilies Serm. 3. of Good Works tells us That such hath been the corrupt inclination of Man superstitiously given to make new honouring of God of his own Head and then to have more affection and devotion to keep that than to search out God's Holy Commandments and do them The Answer 1. That which was the Old Church of England we desire may be the Old Church of England still But Martin Luther observed a sort of men in his time who were all for Novelties He was very fearful he saies of changing Old things for New ones in respect of the weak but especially Propter leves illos fastidiosos Spiritus in regard of those light and fastidious Spirits qui ceu sues immundae sine fide sine mente irruunt solâ Novitate gaudent atque statim ut Novitas esse desiit nauseant Who like unclean Swine without Faith without Sense rush upon Novelty and delight in nothing else and as soon as ever it ceaseth to be a Novelty it becomes nauseous to them If these Dissenters had any veneration for the Old Church of England they would not be so importune and fierce as their Party are for Innovations For what is it but a New Church which they attempt to set up New Laws New Liturgy New Form of Ordination New Ministry New Governours New Government New Discipline All New 2. That these Dissenters are more like to be given to Superstition than the Church of England for the more Scrupulous are ever the more Superstitious as Matthisius observes of those weak ones Rom. 14. Tanquam Evangelicae libertatis nescios superstitiosos They were ignorant of the liberty of the Gospel and Superstitious And though Mr. Perkins as was noted above says that discourse of St. Paul was intended peculiarly for those times not for ours who should and might understand as well our liberty as our duty a little better than those raw Converts yet these men fill their heads with the like Scruples and imitate their Superstition For what does Superstition signifie but an immoderate fear Quo se anxiè torquent superstitiosi homines dum sibi fabricant inanes scrupulos as Mr. Calvin hath it in Act. 17. 22. An immoderate Fear wherewith Superstitious men do sadly torment themselves while they frame vain scruples to themselves And a Superstitious man is defined to be a Person affected with a vain and superfluous fear of God Qui metuit ibi Deum offendere ubi non offenditur One that fears to offend God in that wherein
the exercise of that Right and Power in every Christian Common-wealth ought to depend upon the Authority of the Supream Civil Magistrate Wherefore that Learned and Ingenious S. P. in The Case of the Church of England p. 264 265. hath very well observed That the Bottom we build upon is this That the Church own'd by the Law of England is the very same that was establisht by the Law of Christ. For unless we suppose that the Church was Originally settled by our Saviour with Divine Authority we deny his Supremacy over his own Church and unless we suppose that the Supream Government of the Kingdom has power to abet and ratifie our Saviours establishment by Civil Laws we deny his Majesties Supremacy over his Christian Subjects and therefore both together must be taken into the right State and Constitution of the Church of England There are some Rites and Ceremonies whose Original cannot be trac'd out having bin in use in the Church of God at all times and places These are supposed with great Reason to have been derived from the Apostles themselves for such an Vniversal practice could not be introduced but by a Common and Vniversal Authority as an Vniversal effect must have a Cause of no less efficacy to produce it Now for any Particular Church to attempt a Change of such Rites and Ceremonies is as if a Quarter Sessions in a private Corporation should take upon them to dissolve or over-rule what has been regularly done and settled in a Full Parliament 3. We should consider whether there be any need of such Reformation as they endeavour There are some Rites and Ceremonies which no Person no Particular Church should presume to alter because the Vnity and Vniformity of the Catholick Church is preserved hereby and if we will possess our selves to continue in her Communion we must observe them upon the account of our Conformity to her practice But other particular Rites and Ceremonies are left to the prudence of Particular Churches to exercise their Power and Liberty with respect to the Manners and Temper of the People But That there is no Necessity of Reformation of the Publick Doctrine of the Church of England hath been made good against Doctor Burges by the Right Reverend Learned and Judicious Doctor Pearson now Lord Bishop of Chester And that there is no Need of such a Reformation of the Publick 1. Doctrine 2. Worship 3. Rites and Ceremonies 4. Church Government 5. Discipline as is pretended hath been proved by H. S. D. D. 1660. But we shall not take it for granted tho we know no Answer returned to these and several other Learned Men who have wrote in Justification of the Church of England to that effect but give our proof for it That Church which is already Reform'd and establisht according to the Word as far as a state of Frailty and Humane Prudence will admit That Church hath no need of further Reformation But such is the Church of England I would not be mistaken For I know there ought to be a proficiency in Grace and Holiness and the practice of all Christian Vertues till we arrive at such a Degree of Perfection as this Mortal condition is capable of But for a further Reformation of Doctrine or Government of Liturgy Rites and Ceremonies or of Laws and Canons if what are already enacted were duly inforced and executed we have no need of it It is duly observed by that Worthy Person even now mentioned That if every defect from Christs Institution should forfeit the Rights of a Christian Church there never was as we may find by the Apostles account of the Churches in their times nor ever will be such a thing as a Church in the World For in this life it is not to be expected that any thing should be absolutely perfect the very nature of Christianity supposes Imperfection and accepts of Integrity and as long as with sincere Affections men adhere to the Principles of the Church they are within the Promise of the Grace of God That the Church of England is not Reformed up to those Principles who can make good the Charge against her Where was the failure Did not our Reformers use sufficient Means 1 Did they not search the Scriptures according to the Rule of our Blessed Saviour Did they not understand the sense and latitude of the Scriptures Had they not an eye to the Rules of Decency and Order to God's Glory and the Edification of the Church 2 Did they not consult Antiquity according to Divine Direction Job 8. 8 10. Jer. 6. 16. 3 Did they not use a Moral Diligence to search into the nature of things for their full satisfaction 4 Did they not make this Inquiry after the Truth with a Christian Simplicity and Godly Sincerity We appeal to the Searcher of Hearts to witness this and to their own Learned and Judicious Writings to assert the other 5 Had they not as full Authority both Ecclesiastical and Civil as was needful to establish that Reformation And 6 and Lastly Have we not had God's Blessing while we Conform'd obediently to it to assure us he was well-pleased with that Establishment King James tells us in his Proclamation even now mentioned We had no reason to presume that things were so far amiss as was pretended because we had seen the Kingdom under that Form of Religion which by Law was established in the days of the late Queen of Famous Memory blessed with a Peace and Prosperity both extraordinary and of many years continuance a strong Evidence that God was therewith well-pleased But 't is an ill sign of a growing Reformation when the times afford us as they have done a long while so many Evil men and Seducers who wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived 2 Tim. 3. 13. A Reformation of Manners and Practice we acknowledge highly needful but for Ecclesiastical Orders and Constitutions about the Worship and Service of God there wants nothing but a hearty Observation to improve them 4. It is to be considered with great attention Whether such as are in Authority and are satisfied that there is no need of Reformation should alter Legal Constitutions to gratifie whether the Humor or Importunity of Dissenters In the management hereof I shall consult no Passion or Interest nor be swayed by any prejudice resolving only to give the sense of other Protestants and I shall begin with the Lutherans 'T is the Resolution of David Rungius After a faithful account given of the free use of things indifferent such as will not submit to a just Authority nothing is to be done in their favour but as Persons persisting in their purpose out of Hypocrisie or Stubborness out of a love of Contention or some other Mental distemper they are sharply to be reproved Brochmand another eminent Man of that Party saith Some respect is to be had of the Weak in order to their Information but to such as are obstinately Superstitious
THE VERDICT UPON THE Dissenters Plea Occasioned by Their MELIVS INQVIRENDVM To which is added A LETTER from Geneva to the Assembly of Divines Printed by His late Majesties Special Command with some Notes upon the Margent under His own Royal and Sacred Hand ALSO A POSTSCRIPT touching the Union of Protestants LONDON Printed for Robert Clavel at the Peacock in St. Paul 's Church-Yard 1681. THE INTRODUCTION TO A Person of HONOVR ASSoon as a tedious Distemper would give leave I have returned you the Inquisition taken at your Command upon the Melius Inquirendum which you sent me To deliver my Opinion freely as you have Conjur'd me The Author seems to have very little of that Tender Conscience which he pleads sor If we may take our Measures from him who is a Judge beyond exception such as will strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel scruple at a Ceremony and play the Wanton with deadly sin Schism and Rebellion who with the Scribes and Pharisees of old will make no difficulty to sacrifice the Fifth Commandement to their own superstitious Phansies These are Men of no Conscience Matt. 23. 24. with Chapter 15. 5 6 7. This Author makes himself an Advocate for the Dissenting Party and he manages their Cause with as much artifice and advantage as his Confidence Wit or Malice can afford He takes upon him all shapes and insinuates himself by Fables Metaphors and Similitudes He is often Scurrilous and sometimes worse He drolls quibbles and makes sport for Men of no Religion the Tribe into which he seems to be adopted and this is the farce of his Discourse as if he were not serious or the Subject he treats of not worth a sober Thought This begets a vehement Suspicion His design is not to satisfie the Judicious but to impose upon the Weakness of the Common Reader and by tickling his Imagination to delude his Understanding To follow him step by step is no part of my concern let the Compassionate Enquirer who trod out the way for him look to that if he thinks fit But to make short work He hath reduced All the Dissenters insist upon to Eleven Sections And if this their Advocate understands their Principles their whole Cause and Plea being so concisely sum'd up and comprised within the compass of less than four Pages in Octavo I shall attentively consider it to give you and my self the better satissaction And herein I shall neither Cant nor Rail nor Rhetoricate but with such Arms and Weapons as the Holy Scriptures the light of Reason and the Writings of Learned Men especially those of the Protestant Churches have provided I shall presently approach the Trenches of these profest and implacable Adversaries of this most Primitive and excellent Church of England MELIVS INQVIRENDVM Page 163 164 165 166. What Dissenters usually insist upon for their Justification I shall reduce to these Heads Section 1. THey plead That some things are imposed upon their Faith tendered to subscription as Articles of Faith which are either false or at best they have not yet been so happy as to discover the truth of them In Art 20. They are required to subscribe this Doctrine The Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies which clause of the Article as we fear it has been by some indirect means shuffled into the Article it not being found in the Authentick Articles of Edward 6. so it proves also that the Terms of Communion have been enlarged since the First times of the Reformation p. 1 They Object also against the Doctrine in the Rubrick That it is certain from the Word of God that Children baptized and dying before the commission of Actual Sins are undoubtedly saved The Scripture the Protestant Churches nor any sound Reason have yet given them any tolerable satisfaction of the truth of the Doctrine about the Opus operatum of Sacraments That Doctrine laid down in the Catechism That Children do perform Faith and Repentance by their Sureties is also as great a stumbling to our Faith and we cannot get over it How the Adult should Believe and Repent for Minors or Infants Believe and Repent by Proxie I omit many others Sect. 2. They plead That they are not satisfied in the use of any Mystical Ceremonies in God's Worship and particularly they judge the use of the Cross in Baptism to be sinful A Sacrament of Divine Institution according to the definition of the Church in her Catechism is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible Grace given to us ordained by Christ himself as a means whereby we receive the same and a Pledge to assure us thereof Where we have 1. The Matter of a Sacrament An outward and visible sign of an inward and Spiritual Grace 2. The Author of a Divine Sacrament Christ himself 3. The End of it to be a means to convey the thing signified and a Pledge to assure us of it Hence it 's evident that it 's simply impossible that any Church should institute a Divine Sacrament because they cannot give it a Causality to those Graces it is instituted to signifie Nevertheless it 's possible for Men to institute Humane Sacraments which shall have the Matter of a Sacrament that is An outward visible sign of an inward Spiritual Grace and they may pretend to ascribe an Effect to it also To stir up to excite or increase Grace and Devotion And yet because it wants the Right Efficient Cause it 's no lawful Sacrament though it be an humane Sacrament Such an Institution say they is the Sign of the Cross. An outward visible sign of an inward Spiritual Grace ordained by Men as a means to effect whatever Man can work by his Ordinance Here is the matter without Divine Signature which is the thing they condemn it for p. 49. Sect. 3. They plead That since Communion with the Church is suspended and denied but upon such terms as take away Christian Liberty in part and by consequence leave all the rest at Mercy they dare not accept of Communion upon those Terms There are some things which in the General God has left free and indifferent to do or not do yet at some times and in some Cases it may be my great sin if I should do some of them as when it would wound the Conscience and destroy the Soul of a weak Christian. If now I shall engage my self to the Church That I will never omit such an Indifferent thing and the Soul of that weak Christian should call to me to omit it I have tied my hands by Engagements I cannot help him though it would save his or a Thousand Souls out of Hell because I have given away my freedom to the Church p. 60. Sect. 4. They plead That they ought not to hazard their Souls in one Congregation if they may more hopefully secure them in another for that their Souls are their greatest concernment in this World and the next Now say they there 's no question but
promise before God That God would preside amongst them and direct them into all truth and equity The Church of England requires no such subjection As to the twentieth Article They object first against the Substance and secondly against the Superfoetation of it since the time of Edward VI. 1. That the Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies This they say is false or at least a truth which hitherto they have not been able to discover This is a bold Charge against the Church of England That she obtrudes a falshood to be subscribed But doth it not argue an affected blindness in these Dissenters that they will not see the Churches Power or else a malicious obstinacy that they will not acknowledge it But To clear the Article it will not be amiss to declare what we mean by Church and what is intended by Rites and Ceremonies which we assert the Church hath power to Decree and establish As to Rites and Ceremonies David Rungius for the Lutherans tells us That the necessity of Order and Decency which the Apostle injoins doth require that there should be some Ceremonies in the Church and among the Calvinists it is the peremptory assertion of Zanchy That the Church of God on Earth never did or ever can want Ceremonies cum sine Ceremoniis c. because the Faithful can neither grow up into one body nor perform any publick Worship to Almighty God without them Hereupon Grotius has very well observed That the Christian Church as established by Christ and propagated by his Apostles and their Successors is a Body joined together not onely in Opinions as the Sects of the Philosophers nor in Rites and Ceremonies only as the Pagans of old nor in Government onely as the People of Poland sed in tribus his vinculis colligatum but a Body bound up together in all these three Bonds of Union To this effect others have observed that there are two sorts of Laws prescribed to the Church of God some concern the very essence life and substance of Christianity and the necessary Acts and Duties of Faith Hope and Charity And these are the primary the principal and fundamental Laws of Christs Kingdoms these are of Christs own Institution and appointment and for any Church to pretend to a power herein is Vsurpation In reference to these Laws and Ordinances the Church hath but the Office of an Ark to preserve and keep them and of a Pillar to support and declare them to the World Other Laws are secondary and suppletory having respect to the circumstances of those principal Acts and Duties and tending to the more facile and commodious observation of them These Laws may be called positive and inservient for that reason and the whole Legislative power of the Church consists in making Laws of this inferiour nature To this purpose Zanchy observes a twofold Power given to the Church one definite and determined quatenus scilicet determinata praescripta habet mandata ultra quae non licet progredi Inasmuch as it hath Commands determined and prescribed which it ought not to transgress And such is the Power which the Church hath in preaching the Word administring the Sacraments c. The other Power of the Church is indefinite and more ample whereby according to the circumstances of time and place and as shall seem most expedient She may appoint many things of their own nature indifferent that may make for good Order Decency and Edification Sub Ceremoniarum nomine complecti quicquid externe geritur ad cultum divinum celebrandum religionisve causa peragitur saith Joan Bunderius Under the name of Ceremonies is comprehended all that is outwardly acted in the celebration of Gods Worship or performed for Religion sake But this definition takes in all Gods external Worship even the Holy Sacraments are Ceremonies in this sense and notion Whereas the Rites and Ceremonies we treat of have their Scene in a lower Sphere among things indifferent Such are The Time of Publick Worship not onely as to the ordinary proportion but likewise as to extraordinary occasions for Fasts and Festivals The Persons in their several stations and parts of the Ministration The Place with all the Furniture of Books Utensils and Ornaments thereto belonging The Forms of all particular Offices and Administrations The Ministerial Habit and the Gestures both of Priest and People respectively in the performance of Divine Service with all Observances Actions and Circumstances of Deportment pro hîc nunc in Religious Assemblies which may be judged more commodious to procure Reverence and Devotion or to add Solemnity to Gods Publick Worship and Service These in the general are called Rites and Ceremonies and as to the Specification and particulars of them they are in the Churches power and are left to the prudence and care of Governours to determine and set in order But we meet with Complaints in many Holy men and learned Authors That the Church of God hath been made a Theatre of Ceremonies many of which are unintelligible and some of them opposite to the Word of God and yet in these men place their righteousness and holiness and in these consist the whole Practice of their Piety These Ceremonies are made matters of Merit and of Merchandice too Remission of Sins and other Spiritual Effects are attributed to them they are made so essentially necessary as if Christ could not save us nor be served at all without them The Grievances which have afflicted godly minds upon this account do arise 1. From the number and multiplicity of these Ceremonies 2. From their Futility and Lightness 3. From the necessity and value that hath been put upon them And lastly From the use and end that hath been assigned them And indeed they are not onely vain as our Saviour calls them but pernitious when through the high esteem men have for them 1. They do depretiate Gods Word and Ordinances 2. When they incumber and justle â—ut Gods substantial Worship and Service 3. When men rely upon them in an expectancy of grace and life from them as if the use of these could supply the want of Reformation and amendment That we may not split upon this Rock we have certain marks given us by the great Apostle to steer our Course and Practice by and those marks are four The Ceremonies ordained must be 1. Expedient 2. Decent 3. Significant 4. Prescribed by Authority 1. They must be expedient and that requires two things 1. That they be few and easie 2. That they be safe and inoffensive 1. They must be few and easie because we are not under the Law but under Grace and Christs Yoke is easie his Burden light Whereupon he hath knit together the Society of Christian People novi populi by Sacraments in number few in their observation easie and in their significancy most excellent saith S. Augustine who therefore towards the end of his 119. Epist. complains that
the Religion which the Mercy of God had made free was so oppressed with servile burdens through the presumption of men that the condition of the Jews was much more tolerable than that of Christians Multitudo Ceremoniarum suffocat potius opera Spiritus a multitude of Ceremonies doth rather choak the fruits of the Spirit than refresh them saith Catharinus for they are like the leaves upon a Tree quae si nimis densa sunt succum fructibus suffuâ—antur ut nequeant maturare if they be too thick they steal away the Juice from the Fruit that it cannot ripen Many times by their multiplicity and the burden of them they do both obscure and hinder Gods substantial Worship Ritibus operosis distenti praecepta Dei minus curare solent saith Grotius such as are busied in troublesome Rites and Ceremonies care so much the less for Gods commands But this objection lies not against the Church of England whose Rites and Ceremonies in a strict sense are but two or three and very easie We must remember therefore that Religion is not therefore to be stript naked because hypocritical Professors will dote upon her outward Ornaments to the neglect of her substantial Worship To such we must say as our Saviour did to the Scribes and Pharisees in a like case These things ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone As these Rites and Ceremonies must be few and easie so 2. They must be safe and inoffensive and the Apostles rule of expediency was given more especially upon this account The Jews and Gentiles respectively had their federal Rites characteristical and distinctive notes of their several Religions These were now upon the promulgation of the Gospel become matters of indifferency in their own nature yet very inexpedient to be continued For the use and practice of them had been apt to harden the Jews and Gentiles and make them more obstinate in their several Professions and to tempt Christian Converts either to Judaize or to think it innocent enough to conform to the Custom and Religion of the Gentiles It was a Rite among the Gentiles to eat of things offered to their Idols in their Idols Temple and thereby to testifie their communion with such Idols Now though the Apostle did account an Idol nothing and to eat of things offered to Idols a matter of indifferency yet he told them it was highly inexpedient for Christians to use those Rites for the Practice would tempt others to think they did it in honour to the Idol that they were friends to that way of Worship that there was no harm in it and that they had more Gods than one and that the God they profest especially to believe in did not disallow what they saw these his pretended servants did not abhor and so this practice might be apt to inthral some and insnare others into Idolatry Hereupon St. Austin resolves touching the Conversion of Pagans Si quaeritis c. If you inquire how Pagans may be won how inlightned and brought to salvation forsake their Solemnities forsake their trifling and superstitious Ceremonies that if they will not consent to our truth they may be ashamed of their own falshood Zanchy hath very well observed that though we are obliged by the Law of Nature to worship God with external worship yet it is not lawful to worship him as the Jews were commanded to worship him because their sacred Ceremonies were appointed for their Discipline onely till Christs coming So that he who should reduce them again to practice should deny Christs coming and renounce his Christianity So that in matter of Rites and Ceremonies in the Practice of Religion that injunction of the Apostle binds inviolably Give no offence to the Jew by hardening him in his persuasion nor to the Gentile by tempting him to play the Jew nor to the Church of God by seeming to communicate in their Worship either with Jew or Gentile 2. These Rites and Ceremonies must be decent And for the Rule of decency the Apostle directs us to have recourse to Nature or common Custom 1 Cor. 11 13 14. This direction was of some necessity to confront the Custom of the Gentiles who had Rites in their Religious Worship which were dishonest They worshiped Devils to whom they offered themselves for Slaves and their Children for Sacrifices They had a God of Turpitude Baal Peor and many of their Rites were such as are not to be named among Christians v. Bonfrer ad Exod. 32. 6. especially ad Numb 25. 3. The men put on womens apparel and the women such as used to be worn by men and this was in honour of the Deities they took upon them to worship This induced the Apostle to call so earnestly for all things that are honest and decent among Believers especially at their Religious Assemblies and in the performance of Gods Publick Worship And that is the sum of his Discourse 1 Cor. 11. Wherein saith Bullinger there is nothing else delivered quam Publica quaedam honestas ut decorem modum in vestitu totoque corporis habitu servemus maxime in coetu ecclesiastico in quem colligimur ut humiliemur ut peccata nostra deploremus ut verbum vitae veritatis audiamus utque puris precibus fide ac veritate ipsum numen demereamur quibus rebus quam non conveniat luxus superbia nemo est qui non videt The Apostles discourse saith he is of publick Honesty that we should observe a Decorum in our Vests and the whole disposition of the Body and especially in Church Assemblies where we meet together that we may be humbled that we may bewail our sins that we may hear the Word of Life and by pure devotion in Faith and Verity win the favour of God And there is no man but sees that Pride Luxury and all Undecencies are very opposite to that effect But 2. Decency implies more then common Honesty The Rites we use in Gods Worship must be grave and solemn suitable as well to the Majesty we adore as to the Offices we perform in his Service 1. David and Solomon his Son have given us an instance as to the Place of Gods Worship When his People were in the Briars God was well content to dwell in the Bush But when they were setled in Peace and a flourishing prosperity then a stately Temple was to be prepared for his Solemn and Publick Worship The house which I build must be great wonderful and exceeding magnifical And why For great is our God above all Gods Hereupon it follows with great reason God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the Saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him Psal. 89. 7. Wherefore he urgeth Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness Psal. 29. 2. And
whether the aversion he has to the present Constitution and Orders of this Church does not proceed from some one or more of these grounds viz. either from want of Humility and Modesty in Himself or from want of Love and Reverence to the Governours or from want of a due examination of the nature ends and usefulness of the things establish't or from want of Candour and Ingenuity in putting a fair construction on them For the very same Rites and Ceremonies which we have in the Church of England are in use in all the Lutheran Churches with many others And although the Churches under Calvin's denomination have not all that are practised amongst us yet none are more strict than they in the Observation of such as they have establisht For Obedience to Authority is certainly the duty of God's Servants St. Peter calls it well-doing 1 Pet. 2. 13 15 16. and makes it as well a branch of God's Will as an exercise of our Christian Liberty For as Mr. Perkin's on Gal. 4. 28. has very well observed This is perfect Liberty when man's will is conformable to the Will of God Nor does any Church think her Liberty impeach't by such Impositions For the use and excellency of my Christian Liberty lyes in this that it teaches me to be just and dutiful without constraint and so 't is no burden to me I can comply with the Commands of my Superiors and carry my Liberty along with me And all the while I hold to the generous Resolution of the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. 12. All things are lawful for me but I will not be brought under the Power of any Knowing the Dominion I have over such indifferent things I will gratifie my weak Brother as far as I am able treat and instruct him with all ingenuity and freedom in the use of them And if my Superiours shall think fit to retrench the Practice of my freedom in some particular Instances that the world may see I am not under the sullen Spirit of fear and bondage but acted by a free Gospel-Spirit the Spirit of Power of Love and of a sound mind I will conform my self to their Commands with so much ease cheerfulness and satisfaction that it shall not look like a force or restraint upon me but as an exercise of my Liberty being very well assured for whose sake and upon what account and Principles I do it And 6. When I consider that things indifferent may be well or ill used as Mr. Perkins has observed and every Man's Experience can tell him I cannot but think my self happy in the Churches appointment for when she has determined my choice by her Injunctions to stand or kneel for example if I perform it with alacrity and reverence as I should do I find a satisfaction in my Humility and Obedience and I am the more obliged to my Superiours for the good use of my Liberty which I might have used amiss and for making that which was but indifferent of its own Nature to become of good advantage to me by her Authority And yet such is my Christian freedom even in the use of these things that while I practice them I am not at a loss either for my liberty or my duty I am not in bondage either to fear a Curse or to hope for Merit or to seek for ease of Conscience or Salvation in them The Dissenter goes on thus If I shall engage my self to the Church that I will never omit such an indifferent thing and the Soul of a weak Christian should call to me to omit it I have tied my hands by engagement I cannot help him though it would save his or a thousand Souls out of Hell because I have given away my freedom to the Church Answer That all Clergymen are engaged to the Churches in which they are appointed to Administer is no new thing no matter at all of wonder For how else can the Church be secure of their fidelity How can she trust them with the Sacred Office This therefore is the practice of every Church of any creditable Denomination But when Men get into a vain of Scrupling they can seldom or never find the way out of it One scruple begets another like circles in a troubled water Mr. Calvin has pursued this Observation rarely well in his Institutions to which I refer the Reader He concludes when some superstitious opinion has cast a scruple into our heads things that are pure in their own Nature become contaminated and unclean to us and we can make use of nothing that God allows us without perturbation and disquiet of mind When a man begins to scruple at the Cross soon after the Wedding Ring will pinch the Finger the Surplice will become an eye-sore or a burden and bowing the Knee to our Heavenly Father at the Sacrament will be thought so hard a task we shall not be willing to buckle to it Nay if we suffer our selves to be haunted with these fears a Religious Oath a Honorary Title a Civil Salutation will be a Bug-bear to our jealous minds 'T is the duty of a Ghostly Father or Spiritual Guid not to foment but to dissipate and expel such Scruples And though they have voluntarily tyed up their hands for the Satisfaction of the Church yet their tongues are let loose enough Do they therefore lay open the Nature of things indifferent Do they declare that they may be used or let alone without Sin till Authority does interpose about them Do they acquaint the People with the Power wherewith the Church is invested by the King of Saints and instruct them in their duty to that their Spiritual Mother as the Spouse of Christ Do they represent the excellency and reward of obedience to Superiors according to the Fifth Commandment and back their Discourses with their example to lead them unto Conformity These things they ought to have done whatever they have left undone Those Good Women of the Church of Corinth might have scrupled at St. Paul's injunction of the Vail and silence in the Church They might have objected that it went against the grain of a tender Conscience and their Christian Liberty to submit to such impositions which were nothing else but some of the old Traditions amongst the Jewish Rabbins They might have alleadged that Christ had made them free that they had Innocency as well as Confidence enough to lift up their faces before Angels and that for Sion's sake they could not hold their peace Whatever the Women did we know there was among them a sort of bold Men who thought they had good warrant to controul the Apostles Orders 1 Co. 14. And how does the Apostle encounter them but by an allegation of God's gentle Nature and the temperament of the Church according to it God is not the God of Confusion but of Peace as in all Churches and the impulse of his Spirit does not push men on to Contention but to love and unity and are
have Liberty to misinform or tell a lie in representing Matters of Fact otherwise than they are Nor has Conscience any Liberty in the Third Office in determining the Case for then it should have Liberty to be an unjust judge to absolve or Condemn that is to pass Sentence contrary to the Evidence and Verdict 'T is true an evil Conscience may now make use of many shifts tergiverses and evasions but at the Grand Assize or time of Judgment God will beat it off from all its Subterfuges and starting holes He will rectifie and refine it and make it a faithful Suffragan to him in that exercise of his Jurisdiction For then the Synteresis call'd sometimes the inward man shall fully consent to the Law of God that it is Holy and Just and Good And for the breach of that Law which is Matter of Fact it will be a thousand witnesses And in the issue of the Trial it will subscribe to the Sentence of the Judge in a due acknowledgment of his Justice saying with the Angel out of the Altar Even so Lord God Almighty true and just are thy judgments Thus it will be at that great Day And now all the Liberty that a good Conscience has or can pretend to is a freedom from the Power of Satan and the Law of Sin from the rigour and yoak of Moses his Dispensation to do our duty to God and Man to work or forbear working without hesitation or scruple according to the Injunctions or Permissions of the Gospel The measures whereof we have already given some account of if I be not much mistaken to a reasonable Satisfaction Here if it be a digression it is very pardonable to take notice of a sort of busie men who seem to carry on a subtil Project and there are more than one o' foot under this disguise of Liberty of Conscience They make love to natural Religion choose her for their Mistress and cry up her Discipline to so great a height as if Christ and his Apostles came out of her School and the Moral of the Gospel were to be taken from the Philosophy of the Heathens I know very well we may borrow Jewels of the Egyptians provided we do not turn them into Idols or value them above the Gospel-Pearl which is truely Orient For the Apostle tells us of the Heathens that when they knew God they did not glorifie him as God That professing themselves to be wise they became fools for their foolish heart was darkned and they changed the Glory of the uncorruptible God not only into an Image made like to corruptible man but also to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things and worshipped and served the Creature more than the Creator In their Theology which was that wisdom which had God for the object They knew not God and generally their Morals were as Corrupt as their Divinity Hence the Apostle saith After that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1. 21. Yet this Natural Religion is laid down with much Art and embellished with great Commendations as an immoveable foundation for Liberty of Conscience And this Liberty of Conscience is by several Engineers set up to supplant the present Church of England And this done the Great Mysteries of our Faith and the Institutions of the Gospel will with little difficulty be depretiated at the first and at last utterly evacuated and exploded Then the Socinian System or Model of Divinity will pass for Currant and That by subtile Wits will easily by degrees be reconcil'd to the Alcoran And what will the issue be but this Men at the long run will be at a loss for their Religion They will see the Holy Sacraments laid aside if not trampled under foot as obsolete or Temporary Institutions the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity accounted a vain Speculation of doting Schoolmen the Incarnation of the Eternal Son of God an incomprehensible and unaccountable thing and an Omnipotent Redeemer with his satisfaction and pretious merits but an useless imagination And in fine what will all this amount to Pious and Sober persons will in time not only be awakened but offended at it and will think themselves highly concern'd also to search tho' it be among the much Rubbish of the Church of Rome to find out the Primitive Christianity This I confess will be the furthest way about but it will advance the Jesuits design as certainly as if it were accomplish't by a shorter Method Which would very well become the wisdom of our Governors to take into their most serious consideration But to return Our great Patrons of Liberty are wont to rely much upon that charge of the Apostle Gal. 5. 1. Stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not intangled again with the or in a yoak of bondage But what is that Liberty he writes of He is writing unto Gentiles And the Gentile world the creature which the Apostle mentions Rom. 8. 21. was to be delivered from the bondage of Corruption à jugo servitute corruptionis Peccaminosae from the yoak and bondage of a peccaminous or sinful corruption that is from the Bondage of their lusts and depraved affections under which they lay so long inthral'd into the noble Liberty of the Sons of God This is a Liberty not of the brain but of the heart Freedom from the Power of Sin to serve God which is to reign and that is the glorious Liberty of God's Children I shall run the way of thy Commandments when thou hast set my heart at Liberty Psal. 119. The Liberty the Apostle speaks of is opposed to a yoak but 't is not to be understood of every yoak for there is a yoak of Privilege as well as a yoak of bondage such is Christ's yoak and this yoak we are obliged to take upon us Mat. 11. 29 30. This yoak is his Law Mat. 28. 20. which consists of Two Tables and this yoak is made up of both The Commands and Ordinances of the Civil Magistrate are a part of this yoak and we must submit our necks to that 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. Rom. 13. 1. The Orders and Injunctions of the Church are another part of this yoak and we must put our Necks under that too or else we are to be look't upon as Publicans Heathens Mat. 18. 17. And that we may not be at a loss for the Church our Saviour has committed the Keys thereof to certain Select Persons that we may know who have the right and power to govern in his stead And to their Discipline we are to submit 1 Cor. 5. 4 5. And Chap. 14. 40. This is a yoak which we must not shake off Hebr. 13. 17 Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves Mr. Calvin does not doubt at all but the Apostle speaks of the Governours
the Parish where we live is quite demolisht by the Doctrine of Justification by Works we are bound therefore to provide for our safety and depart and when we are once out we will advise upon another Church not which is tolerable but which is most eligible and in all things neerest the word The Answer That the Soul is a very pretious thing whether we look into its Creation and Original or into the Purchase and Redemption of it we do readily acknowledge We should not hazard it for 't was God's great care and should be ours But we must take heed and we have a Proverb to admonish us that we do not leap out of the Frying-pan into the Fire For in this Case of Seperation we may fitly ask the Question What Authority have you for it and and who gave you that Authority Whatever your Corner-stone be we question whether your new erected Church will be built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Yet upon second thoughts we find you have something to say out of Scripture for your practice For we find you 1 John 19. They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us We find you again Acts 20. 30. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw Disciples after them And we find Predecessors of yours 2 Cor. 11 13. and part of your Character at least is to be seen in St Jude's Epistle Psal. 19. These be they who seperate themselves and whether Diotrephes was not the President of the New Colledge you should do well to consider for he had an aspiring spirit and was imperious and as our Author observes of him his fingers itch't to be tampering for he loved to have the preeminence and set himself to oppose Order and Apostolical Authority But there 's little satisfaction in following such examples That Schism is a work of the Flesh and excludes such as are guilty of it from the Kingdom of Heaven is the express Doctrine of the Apostle Gal. 5. 20. 'T is one of his Rules 2 Cor. 7. 24. Wherein a Man is called to the profession of Christianity whether in a state of Servitude or freedom therein to abide so as he may abide the Servant of God If my Christian Liberty dos not warrant or allow me to desert the service of Man to whom I am antecedently ingaged much less the service of the Church into whose Communion I was baptized and under whose Jurisdiction I was bred and born Quo pax concordia Vndique Constat inter Christianos homines quaedam dissimulanda sunt quaedam ferenda quaedà m benigniüs interpretanda Saith the Learned De la Cerda That Peace and Concord may be kept on every side among Christians some things are to be dissembled some things to be tollerated and some things to be favourably interpreted Where there is nothing injoyn'd to the peril of our Souls or the impeachment of our Salvation we are oblig'd to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of peace not to break the Communion of the Church but to observe the Orders and Decorum practised in it 'T is the Faith which the Learned Zanchy profess'd and published when he was 70 years of Age in the name of himself and Family Tho Defects and Errors are never to be dissembled yet Peace and Communion is to be held with all Societies as the true Churches of Christ in which the Foundation and Sum of Apostolical Doctrine is reteined and no manifest Idolatry admitted Episcopius who was no great admirer of Rites and Ceremonies says there can be no just cause of seperation from the Church but what seperates from Christ from God's Paternal favour and the Kingdom of Heaven And seeing there can no such thing be charged upon this Church 't is undoubtedly Schism to seperate from her Communion Hence the very worthy Dr. Falkner makes this solemn asseveration I account my self to have as plain evidence from the Laws of God and the constitution of the Christian Church that Schism and unnecessary seperation is a sin in the breach of Christian unity as that Adultery is a sin in breaking the bond of Wedlock And I account my self to be as certain that if ever there was any unwarrantable separation from any known Church since the Apostles time the separation from the Church of England is really such Since our Church is truly as free from any just exception◠in its Constitution Doctrine and Worship as any other since that time either was or is Thus that worthy Author But these Dissenters do alledge That the Doctrine of Justification is Articulus Stantis vel Cadentis Ecclesiae an Article with which the Church falls or stands And that in the Parish where they or some of them live this Article is quite demolisht by the Doctrine of Justification by Works But I must tell them that one Error broacht in one Parish ought not to make them desert the whole Establisht Church That Error tho grievous cannot be deadly to them that have all necessary truth laid before them if they do cordially embrace and profess the same The Error is only his who through the weakness of his Judgment cannot discern that the necessary truth is not overthrown by it But because they alledge a Print and publick allowance this reflects upon Authority and our Governors and therefore the Charge requires a more strict and punctual examination And here we must premise That Justification without Christ's Merits and Mediation or without Faith in his Blood dissolves the Church of Christ because there is salvation in no other Act. 4. 12. The Christian Church is built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone Eph. 2. 20. and other foundation can no man lay then that is laid which is Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. 3. 11. Fides est Caput initium Christianismi saith St. Austin Into this Olive-tree we are ingrafted and stand by Faith The Jews were broken off through unbelief But in Justification we find several persons concerned There is something attributed to God Something to Christ and something to Man himself 1. God is lookt upon as the Author and Efficient for who can forgive sins but God only I have blotted out as a thick Cloud thy transgressions Isai. 44. 22. and Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect It is God that jnstifieth 2. There is something attributed to Christ. We are to look upon him as the Meritorious Cause and Procurer of it He is said therefore to have loved us to have washed us from our sins in his own Blood Apoc. 1. 5. for by him we have received the Atonement Rom. 5. 11. and for his sake God hath forgiven us Ephesians
a damnable neglect or the fear of persecution or a perswasion of greater perfection falls soon into Schism and Apostacy and cannot perform that duty of Charity which he is obliged to by his Christianity Vult Deus adorari nos in verâ congregari charitate saith Oecolampadius God will be worshipped and will have us to be assembled in true charity Qui ab Ecclesia Dei se scindit non orat versus Hierusalem quando quidem illam non cupit reparatam a qua ipse seperatur He that cuts himself off from the Church does not pray with his face towards Jerusalem as the Prophet Daniel did because he does not desire that the Church should be repaired from which he is seperated Thus Oecolampadius These Dissenters may reform and purify the Church they are to advise about till they leave it naked not only of Rites and Ceremonies but also of useful Truth faederal Conditions and holy Duties as others have done and do still to this day Here Mr. Baxter shall vouch for me and I will instance in the great Article of Justification He charges not a small party with misunderstanding of the nature and use of Christ's Death and Obedience as he says thinking that Christ obeyed or satisfied by suffering or both as in our persons so that the Law takes it to all ends and uses as done by us our selves as when a man payeth his debt by his Delegate This opinion saith he if I understand it blots out Law and Gospel at one dash And he adds a little after That from that Doctrine this opinion follows That we are justified before we believe nay before we sin nay before we are born nay that it is an immanent Act in God and therefore eternal and that Infidels are justified as Infidels And a little after he says The beginning of these mens misery is usually pride of their supposed graces This leads them first to a seperation from their Brethren and contempt of their Guides next to Anabaptistry and at last they turn Antinomians and Libertines and are given up to a Spirit of Madness As Luther observ'd in his time eo feruntur Spiritu Satanae ut rideant doceri a nobis fidem charitatem They are carried with such a Spirit of Satan that they deride we should teach them Faith and Charity But to return to Mr. Baxter who goes on thus When men will so horribly abuse thSe on of God as to make him a friend to sin who hath done and suffered so much to destroy it and to make his blood the chiefest defensative of transgression and the price of a Lawless and Licentious life which was shed to demonstrate God's hatred of sin and to purge the Souls of men from its power and pollution c. It 's no wonder then as he concludes if God bears no longer but do appear against them from Heaven Excommunicate them and deliver them up to Satan the Spirit of Delusion It appears by the Confutation of that Physician that Mr. Baxter thought Dr. Lewis Moulin had taken too strong a Dose of that pernicious Doctrine And he tells us further that my Lord Brooks made this the Basis of all their Vanity Pride and Insolence They have the Spirit and so know more than all the Learned Pious Godly men in the World They have the Spirit they cannot sin they cannot err Adultery is but an Act of the Flesh but they are all Spirit and no Flesh. In this case if they be Traitors heady highminded c. Who will wonder What may they not be carried up to by the imagination of the Spirit That Lord as Mr. Baxter cites him goes on with their Character and concludes How can these things be spoken of Arminians Socinians or our Prelates These Dissenters should resolve the World whether these be the more eligible or only the tolerable party they communicate with in their separation from the Church of England But because they Appeal to the word to the word let them go That word tells us of Prelates and refers us to their Authority and sets forth their Faith and Practice for our Pattern Heb. 13. 7. 17. It tells us also of false Apostles deceitful workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ 2 Cor. 11. 13 14 15. But it charges us not to follow their pernitious ways And so I leave them The Dissenters Fifth Section THey plead that ther 's no Obligation upon them to own the Churches Power to impose New Terms of Communion unless the Church can prove her Power from Christ It 's not for them to disprove it it lies upon her to prove it and to prove it substantially too or else it will be hard to prove it their duty to own it The Answer 1. That Power which the Church had from the Apostles she had from Christ for the Apostles as was proved above had the mind of Christ if they did not deliver what they had received they were unfaithful And if they were unfaithful in this they might be unfaithful in all the rest and so our whole Christianity will be call'd in question 2. The Church hath not only made her Claim to a Power but has bin in actual Possession of it for more than 1600. years without interruption That Plea is enough for her to keep possession and many Rules of Law will Justify her in it 1. Melior est conditio possidentis He that is in possession has the best Title and 2. Cum Partium Jura sunt obscura favendum est Reo When the Rights of the Parties Litigant or Contesting are obscure and doubtful we are to favour the Defendant that is the Party whom the Actor or Accuser desires and labours to thrust out of Possession or lay a Guilt upon And the Law says further in dubio favendum est Superiori imperanti in doubtful Cases we are to favour the Commands of our Superiors That the Church is not Bonae Fidei Possessor and comes not honestly by her Title and Possession of this Power cannot by the Rules of Law or Equity be determined by the Melius Inquirendum of an Adversary The Actor Aggressor or Plaintiff must bring his Writ of Ejectment to try the Title and if these Dissenters have not yet been sufficiently bafled in this attempt let them at last offer us substantial Proofs to this effect and I dare promise them we shall not follow the example of this Author we will not be scurrilous not droll or quibble upon him about a substantial proof of circumstantial matters 3. This Power is not pretended to be such a plenitude of Power as they claim in the Church of Rome not a Power to all intents and purposes No not a Power to make any new Articles of Faith or institute any new Sacraments or parts of Divine Worship But only to make Orders touching Circumstances Rites and Ceremonies in the publick performance of God's service and the Administration of Discipline amongst the Members
of the Church To me it is incredible that Almighty God should appoint an Order of men to be the Guides of Souls and the Stewards of his Divine Mysteries and the means to bring them to Eternal bliss and yet not intrust them with sufficient Power for the due and worthy Administration of that Office 'T is the great charge laid upon Bishops to feed the flock of Christ Act. 20. 28. And in Scripture-sense this is to be done not only by Preaching the Gospel but also by wholsome Laws and Discipline Some means they must have to accomplish this end which can be no other then a Legislative Power And this is evident from Matt. 16. 19. What ever ye bind on Earth c. Which is understood not only of Absolution but of Excommunication and inflicting Censures And in those words of the Synod Act. 15. 28. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no other burden than these necessary things Hence it is manifest that the Apostles imposed a Law upon Believers which they were obliged to observe else they would never have called those things necessary and a burden And why did our blessed Lord establish Superiority and Subordination in his Church some Persons to Govern and others to Obey but to keep good Order and prevent Confusion and this is no less needful in ours then it was in the Apostles times This Power therefore is to be continued in the Church to the Worlds end Matthew 28. For a full and clear Demonstration hereof These several particulars have been proved in some other Papers 1. That Christ and his Apostles intended Vnity and to obtain and preserve that Vnity They enjoyn'd Order and Vniformity in Churches 2. That the Apostles at their first preaching of the Gospel did not presently establish that Order which the state of the Church did afterwards require 3. That the Apostles expected such a settlement should be made by such as were entrusted with the Government of the Church 4. That they gave certain general Rules or Canons to direct the Governours of the Church in making such establishmenrs 5. That they left it to the Judgment and prudence of Church-Governours to determine the particulars to be established in such cases Now let us lay these Principles together 1. That the solemn Worship and Service of God cannot be performed without some Rites and Ceremonies as was observed above from Zanchy Rungius and others 2. That these Rites and Ceremonies are to be observed according to the Rules of Decency and Order And 3. That these Rules are to be adjudged and determined by such as are invested with Authority to that effect From hence it will follow unavoidably that all Subjects and Members of the Church are obliged to obey such Laws and Establishments For 't is most certain where some are impower'd to Command others are injoyned to obey else the Power given to Superiors were Nugatory and given to no effect Whereas they mention New Terms of Communion I confess the word New to my self is somewhat scandalous I am no lover of Innovations in Religion tho the Addition of Collects and Forms of Prayer upon emergent occasions is both frequent and very usefull and alterations are allowable too when the change is of importance and does not argue Levity or give scandal As to Terms of Communion the expression may be equivocal For my part I would have nothing establisht in the Church of God but what has at least general Rules and Directions in Holy Scripture and a just Authority to warrant it And this has been very carefully observed in all the Rites and Ceremonies establisht in this Church of England For any man to imagine that these things make a new worship is a very great mistake Any thing added to Divine Institutions as essential or substantial and simply necessary does change the worship saith Zanchy and makes it another But what are added yet only as things indifferent Propter Ordinem Propter Decorum ad edificationem ea substantiam Sacramentorum eòque cultum non Mutârunt Such things added for Order for Decency and to edification they change not the substance of the Sacraments for example nor the nature of the worship Now if I understand what he means by his Terms of Communion I argue thus She that has a Power to appoint Rites and Ceremonies for edification Decency and Order she hath a Power to impose Terms of Communion But the Church has a Power to appoint Rites and Ceremonies for edification Decency and Order Therefore the Church hath Power to impose Terms of Communion Besides the Proofs already produced is not this evident in the Practice of all Churches Are the Terms of Communion numerically the same in the Greek and Latin Churches If we look into the constitution of the several Protestant Churches shall we not find variety of Customs Rites and Ceremonies among them This Discord we cannot but observe in the Harmony of Confessions whether we examine Cambridge Edition of 1586. or Geneva Edition 1654 and the Church of England declares her self in these words We think it conveient that every Countrey should use such Ceremonies as they shall think best to the setting forth of God's honour and glory and to the reducing of the People to a most perfect and godly living without Error or Superstition Are the Terms of Communion the same among the Lutherans and Calvinists The Lutherans reckon these things in the Catalogue of things indifferent 1. To place Historical Images or pictures in the Church for Ornament and Commonefaction 2. To use Stone-tables which they commonly call Altars in the Administration of the Lords Supper 3. To adapt a peculiar kind of Garment to the Minister in his publick administration of the holy Office 4. In the Administration of the Eucharist either to break and divide little Cakes or Wafers or else to make use of single small ones fit for distribution 5. In Baptism to use the Lessons of exorcismes and the sign of the Cross. 6. To sing the Sacred Hymns either in the German or Latin tongue with the voice or Musical Instruments Haec Similia c. These and such like things they who teach that they are simply necessary to be reteined or necessarily to be abolished they do offer violence to Christian liberty on both sides and are to be avoided as False-teachers desirous to inthrall us in the Yoake of humane Traditions Notwithstanding this their Declaration we cannot be admitted to their Communion unless we submit to the Terms of their establishment And is not the case the same among the Presbyterians Why were the Directory the Ordinance for Ordination of Ministers the form of Church-government for England and Ireland Their Confession of Faith and their advise for Catechisms were not all these designes to be imposed as Terms of Commmunion And I am sure they were new ones never heard of in the World till the years 1645.
47 and 48. and as I remember before the year 1650. They were quite out of request and laid in the dust And have not the Independents their peculiar Terms of Communion too And are not these new likewise The Synod of Charenton 1644. takes notice of their Error that they teach Vnamquamque Ecclesiam suis propriis Legibus ita gubernari debere c. That every Church ought so to be governed by its own Laws that in matters Eccclesiastical it be subject to no other nor depend upon any other nor is it bound to acknowledge the Authority of any Conference or Synods in reference to its own Government and Administration Of which Error that Synod of Charenton gives this Sentence Esse hanc Sectam tam Reipublicae quam Ecclesiae perniciosam absurdis quibuscunque insanisque Commentis viam aperire omnes iis medendi rationes tollere ac si illi sententiae locus esset Posse tot Religiones fingi quot Paraeciae privativè Conventus forent That is this Sect is pernicious both to Church and Common-wealth it opens a gap to all absurd and mad inventions whatsoever it takes away all the ways and means of healing them and if way should be given to that opinion there would be as many Religions as there are Parishes or private Meetings By this we see that the Protestants of France do not agree with the Independents of England about the Terms of Communion But in truth if the business be sifted to the very bottom the Question is not so much about the Power it self For these Dissenters suppose it in all their own expedients which they propose but really the question is What hands shall menage this Power The Laws of Christ and his Apostles of Church and State have placed the Power in few hands to make the Government the more Regular in it self the more safe to the King and the more easy to the Subject But these Dissenters would put it into every Parish Priest and so set up ten thousand Independent Jurisdictions in the Kingdom And such a Church as this is most Eligible in their Conceit The Dissenters Sixth Section THey say the World is pester'd with Disputes about Worship about Religion and therefore since all cannot be in the right they are willing to go the safest way and Worship God according to his word If the things disputed be lawful to be done let 'em be so they are sure it 's lawful to let 'em alone and they think there 's no great hazard in keeping to Scripture Rule nor can believe that Christ will send any to Hell because they did not worship God in an external Mode more neat and spruce than God Commanded Answer The World is pester'd with Disputes about Religion Hereupon some men resolve they 'le trouble themselves with none at all Wo be to them by whom this scandal is given I pray from whence come these Wars and Fightings amongst us The Reformation silenced them and setled Vniformity to establish Peace Some men are of restless Spirits and can never study to be quiet making it their business to disturbe the repose of Christendom And all the Disputes for these 40. years and we may say ever since the Reformation whether menaged by Pen or otherwise have been commenced and carried on against this Church of England by the Jesuits and Dissenters And upon what account this is done as to our Dissenting Brethren Mr. Baxter has told us long ago in these words Every one must needs reduce all others to his opinion as if his Judgment were the infallible Standard of Verity and so we have proved too proud and uncharitable while we would be Orthodox overmuch And a little after he gives good Advice if he had been stedfast enough to follow it I advise my Brethren to prepare their weapons against the Papists and Socinians and Antinomians above all other Sects and to associate speedily and carry on all their work in Vnity if ever they will succeed 2. 'T is sure all cannot be in the right 't is fit therefore we should take some pains to learn the safest way But self-conceit and the private Spirit are the worst Guides in the World He that is wise in his own eyes is very apt to put darkness for light and light for darkness Isai. 5. 20. The Holy Ghost has observ'd this to our hands and adviseth us therefore not to lean to our own understanding For as that devout man said He that is his own Scholar has a Fool to his Master The neerer the Fountain the clearer the Stream God calls upon us to tread the good Old way sends us to the Law and the Testimony But as he gave the word so he gave the Preachers too The Priests lips should preserve knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth In difficult matters God did refer earnest and cordial Inquirers to the sentence of such as were in Authority Deut. 1. 7 Our Saviour did not slight that Order wherein that Dispensation was on foot but lik'd it so well as he did many other of those Institutions that he transcribed it into his Gospel and adopted it into the practice of his Church They sit in Moses Chair c. Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves Heb. 13. 7 17. And if a Dic Ecclesiae be of so great Authority in our Saviours account to decide our civil differences much more those of a Spiritual and Religious nature as Schism and Heresie which belong more properly to her Cognizance 3. Whereas they say there 's no great hazard I say there 's none at all in worshipping God according to his word and keeping to Scripture-rule provided we rightly understand it For Luther observes there are two sorts of Prophets hinted at by Moses that should rise up against sound Doctrine One should come in the name of the Lord and bring the word of God and holy Scripture with them Such should be the Jews in Christ's time who alledged the Scripture against the Gospel for the Righteousness of the Law and such should be Hereticks after them c. Men will wrest the Scriptures to serve their own Hypothesis Is any thing more clear than the Scripture-rule for Governors that they set all things in order where it is not done to their hands and then to see that in the worship and service of God all things be done decently according to that Order And that these are the Commandments of God And the Scripture-rule for such as are under Authority is as plain as words can make it Heb. 13. 7 17. and yet if there were no such Scripture-rule common Reason would infer the Duty Where some are impowered to give Orders others are under an obligation to observe them Else Authority is Nugatory and ridiculous as has been observed formerly 4. If the things disputed be lawful to be done we are not of these Dissenters opinion that 't is lawful
he means the erection and dictating of it which may be done either by natural suggestion or by general and positive institution And then we must distinguish betwixt erection as I may call it and direction betwixt natural suggestion by which we understand the dictate or impression of the Law of nature and occasional Application betwixt general institution and particular determination The erection whether by natural suggestion or general institution may be from the wisdom and will of God and yet the direction as to occasional Application and particular determination may be referr'd to the Power and Wisdom of the Church this will appear in some Acts or Rites of external Worship Nonnullas Ceremonias diotat ipsa natura Nature her self does dictate some sort of Ceremonies for example to kneel down when we pray to smite the breast to lift up the eyes and hands to Heaven which are therefore common to the Heathen with all Sects saith Herinex And Zanchy proves that some external Rites used in God's worship are from the Law of Nature because they were common to Jew and Gentil He does instance in howing and kneeling when they worship God and in lifting their eyes up to Heaven when they said their prayers c. And he adds we can use no Ceremony wherein the Law of Nature has not some place Vsque adeo Natura nos ad Deum adorandum ac ritè honestèque ac pie colendum instigat So far does Nature incite us to adore and orderly and honestly and piously to worship God To give some instances bowing the head bowing the knee and bowing the body are external Rites or if you will Acts of external worship and so is prostration They are suggested to us even by the Law of Nature and injoyned by the Decalogue in general But in regard it cannot be performed all at once therefore the particular determination Pro hic nunc or the occasional Application of them to God's service is left to the Wisdom and Order of the Church In like manner the Confession of Christ is a Rite or an Act of God's external worship for there was never any Nation that did believe a God but would also declare that he was to be own'd and acknowledged But whether this confession and acknowledgment should be made viva voce by word of mouth or by subscription or by some Symbolical signe or gesture This is left to the prudence of such as are concern'd to determine it Thus much touching the Creating of worship as our Author calls it with such Rites as do attend and protest the truth and piety of it 2. The Acceptableness thereof follows Some things are acceptable to God as they are suggested by the Law of Nature which is from God and therefore cannot but be very pleasing to him Some things are acceptable as they are inservient to the exercise of internal Piety and so Alms and Beneficence are well pleasing to him Heb. 13. 16. And some things he is pleased with because they are inservient to the solemnity of publick worship and Ornamental to it Such was the holy Temple with the musical Instruments and all the magnificence of it The Lord loveth the Gates of Sion Psal. 87. 2. For Adiaphorae actionis possunt Deo placere saith Vrsin licet aliter quam cultus Dei proprie dictus Indifferent actions may please God tho not upon the same account but in a different manner from the worship of God properly so called God may therefore accept what he does not particularly or directly injoyn In the free-will Offerings under the Law tho God determined the Quid and the Quale yet he let the Quotum undetermined which nevertheless was acceptable to him And what shall we say of David's purpose to build the Temple which resolution he took up not as our Author says of some others Jure Prophètico for it was not the manner of Prophets to be mistaken in their intendments as David was in that case yet God accepted the Piety of his design tho he would not allow him the execution of it Another instance we have in the great Apostle Potuit B. Paulus ex Evangelio sibi victum quaerere quod maluit operari amplius erogabat saith St. Austin Blessed Paul might have lived of the Gospel That he chose rather to earn his own living he laid out himself so much the more And was not this acceptable to God Gratis Evangelium praedicare voluntaria quaedam est libertas eoque gloriam promeretur To preach the Gospel freely is a kind of ingenuous liberty and deserves glory saith the Theophylact And a little After Haud quaquam tantundem futurum est ut is mereatur c. He that preacheth the Gospel for reward can never deserve so much as shall be given to him who preacheth the Gospel freely I will instance but once more and that shall be in Mary Magdalen who commanded her either to wash Christ's feet with her tears or to wipe them with the hair of her head or to poure so costly a box of Ointment upon his head which according to Law might have been sold at a great rate and given to the poor Was she not accepted herein She had the Son of God to be her Advocate against the cavils of his own Disciples she received the comfort of a declarative Absolution and the honour to have her devotion celebrated whereever the Church should preach the Gospel These Dissenters say further whether the things imposed be Integral or Essential parts of worship they do not know but in the worship of God they find them standing upon even ground with those that are certainly Divine or at least as high as man can lift them That the Church does impose or command any parts of worship not of God's Creating is but their pretence and our Denyal Affirmanti incumbit Probatio The proof lies on their side and if they cannot make it good they are uncharitable and false Accusers What Ranke they hold in the esteem of the Church and Learned Protestants we may best learn from her and themselves This Church of England saith That without some Ceremonies it is not possible to keep any Order or quiet Discipline in the Church they were reserved therefore and establisht as well for a decent Order in the Church as because they pertain to edification What Rivet saith from Robert Loëus of the time consecrated to God's service may be applyed to all Ecclesiastical Rites and Ceremonies Moralis potius legis usui subservire quam vim naturam ejus continere nec tam propriè quidem virtutem aut Pietatem quam nervum virtutis vinculumque Pietatis dici He saith that it is rather subservient to the use of the Moral Law then that contein the force and nature of it neither can it so properly be called Virtue or Piety as the sinew of Virtue and the bond of Piety The titles
heard with meekness and good attention Quam hoc utile necessarium sit in Causâ Religionis hic locus apertè ostendit How profitable and necessary this is in the Cause of Religion saith he this place does plainly manifest And that moderate Divine adds a little after Si viri boni jure jurando vel aliis idoneis rationibus se legitimè excusent recipienda est eorum excusatio If good men can purge themselves by Oath or by other meet ways their excuse is to be received There are some that will stubbornly maintain what they have once propounded Such men saith he are Authors of great mischief in Church and State Let not the Reader wonder that I insist so much upon these Authorities For has not the Church of England purged her self sufficiently by Argument against these Dissenters and entred her Protestation too to satisfy their jealousies Let us hear the Learned Pious and Judicious Bishop Dr. Sanderson Our Church God bethanked saith he is far from any such impious presumption viz. as that of the Pharisees and the Church of Rome and hath sufficiently declared her self by solemn Protestation enough to satisfy any ingenuous impartial Judgment that by requiring obedience to these Ceremonial Constitutions she hath no other purpose then to reduce her Children to an orderly Uniformity in the outward worship of God so far is she from seeking to draw any opinion either of Divine necessity upon the Constitution or of effectual holiness upon the Ceremony Thus Dr. Sanderson Our Dissenting Brethren should have been so Charitable as to have followed the steps of those Ten Tribes They should have declared their satisfaction upon the Churches Protestation and have blessed God that she is so perfectly clear of their suspition They should have been highly pleased that matters are so well this they should have done rather then to revile and cavil as they have done rather then to condemn and forsake her Communion upon their own jealousy to set up a new Altar and Altar against Altar condemn'd by all the Orthodox among the Antients They have indeed the jealousy rashness of those Tribes but not their ingenuity and condour And to shew their uncharitableness they bear the World in hand that we set up these Rites and Ceremonies as Parts of God's worship matters of necessity and design'd to insnare the Conscience But to mollify the Objection and Censure they say at last if these Rites and Ceremonies do not stand upon even ground with those things which are certainly Divine yet at least they stand as high as man can lift them But by their good leave they are mistaken in this suggestion too for they stand not so high as they are set up in the Church of Rome Aquam sale conspersam populis benedicimus ut eâ cuncti aspersi Sanctificentur ac purificentur As Alexander the First has it in an Epistle We bless Water and Salt for the People that all who are sprinkled therewith may be Sanctifyed and Purified They attribute Spiritual effects to their Ceremonies not only a power to cure Diseases to expel and drive away the Devil but to procure Grace to remit venial sins to Sanctify their Persons And they use Spiritual Acts of Consecration and solemn Benedictions to Hallow them to these effects Do the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England stand thus high For shame in cool blood they will not say it I suppose therefore the meaning is only this That they stand as high as of due right and lawfully we can lift them If this be their meaning tho there may be a malitious insinuation that we do something more then we ought yet really to do what of due right and lawfully we may do is no sin in us but 't is sin in them to break Communion and seperate from us upon that account Here we may observe the method and progress of Discord First they fancy and pretend a fault then they take the confidence Calumniari fortiter to make the Calumny as black as may be and to stick it upon us with as great an Odium as they can and when they have shewn their spite they mince the matter they were mistaken in their exaggeration we have done nothing but our Duty or at least what is warrantable in exalting God's solemn worship and service by lifting up the Appendages thereof to their due and decent station For other Protestant Churches do lift up their establisht Rites and Discipline as high as we and this is evident from the severity they design and inflict upon such as are refractory to the use and practice of them When such Rites and Laws about them are established the Church does not account the Observation of them so mean and vile as to be violated through contempt and with the scandal of others but such transgressors she looks upon as undecent and disorderly walkers and exerciseth her Authority to note to admonish to reprove and rebuke them and endeavours by all wholsom means to reduce them to a sound mind This is the Duty of the Church when it may be performed seasonably saith a Protestant Divine of great Learning and an acute Judgment And does not Mr. Calvin say the same I am sure it was his Practice And upon those words 1 Cor. 11. 16. If any man seems to be contentious he writes thus Tales sunt omnes qui bonos ritus utiles Convellunt nulla necessitate c. Such are all they who without any necessity root out good and profitable Rites and Ceremonies such as make controversies about matters of no difficulty such as no reason can satisfy such as will not endure to be reduced to Order such also are they who are unsociable and are carried away with a foolish affectation of novelties Such as these St. Paul will not vouchsafe to answer Because contention is a pernicious thing and ought to be banisht out of the Church Hereby as Calvin goes on he teacheth that refractory and contentious Persons are to be bridled by Authority rather then refuted by disputations c. And Grynaeus upon these words Colos. 2. 5. Joyning and beholding your Order refers Order to the whole Liturgy and Discipline of the Church and of such as walk disorderly as those mentioned 2 Thes. 3. 6. he saith Quoad ejus fieri potest in ordinem Disciplinae Ecclesiasticae severitate adhibitâ redigendi sunt They must be reduced to Order by the severe use of Church Discipline Haec ille The Dissenters Eighth Section THey do not find that God ever Commanded the things imposed either in general in special or the singulars of them If God has commanded a Duty to be done the Church must find a place to do it in but tho the Church must find a place for the Duty a time for the Duty she may not find New Duty for the time and place The Answer 1. To this I Answer That the Church can never fix upon
give light to his Profession and Practice Hic erat Confessionis casus saith our Synopsis Here was a Case of Confession and so saith Lyserus in his Aulâ Persicâ p. 57 c. Fidem suam egregiâ Confessione testatur saith Oecolampadius He testifies his Faith by an egregious Confession He enters into his house but he does not shut himself up for fear for if he had done so he would have shut his Windows but he set them open on purpose that such as watcht to betray him might have the clearer prospect of his Faith and Piety Notandum est saith Mr. Calvin It is to be noted that 't was not the inward Worship of God that was here in agitation but the outward Profession of it When he saw his Faith was put upon the trial and an experiment to be made of his Constancy he would not so much as dissemble or counterfeit a forgetfulness of his Religion and Piety And no doubt the holy Prophet opened his Windows that by this help saith he he might consult his own Infirmity and stir up himself to a greater Liveliness of Faith and ardour of devotion And from hence we should learn saith Mr. Calvin when we are sensible or jealous of our own infirmity or coldness to collect all the helps and advantages we can to awaken our care and correct that torpour and sluggishness whereof we find our selves conscious This was the Prophets design when he opened his Windows towards Jerusalem Hoc etiam symbolo He had also a mind to let his Family see by this Symbol or Mystical Ceremony the Constancy of his Faith and his stedfast hope of the promised Redemption This is the sense and Judgment of Mr. Calvin Where we cannot but observe that the Holy Prophet out of the fervent zeal of an inward Piety made use of a Symbolical sign before the Princes of the Empire to protest the truth and sincerity of his Faith and Worship And also here was no special Command or divine Institution for the Practice yet it gain'd an approbation from Heaven and such as was attested and seal'd by a Miraculous deliverance Now that the Sign of the Cross among the Ancients was a Real protestation of their Faith and like Daniel's opening of his Windows to let others see what Religion he profest we have the attestation of no less man that Mr. Perkins who saith Annis à Christo 300 That the first Three hundred years after Christ the Sign of the Cross was taken for an outward Profession of the Faith used in their common course of life or their ordinary actions And a little before he reports thus Veteres se Cruce contra Daemones muniêrunt The Fathers used to arm themselves against the Devil with the Sign of the Cross not that they ascrib'd any such Power to the Outward figure but because they would make shew and profest to others Suam fiduciam in Crucem their Trust in the Cross that is saith he in the Passion and Death of Christ by this solemn Ceremony and use it also as he goes on Quodam quasi Monitorio fidem excitare as an Item or Watch-word to awaken and stir up their Faith which Conquers the World and all Evils in it Here from this Holy man we may observe That this transient Sign of the Cross was in use from the beginning and in the purest which were also the persecuting times of Christianity and 't was used upon a double account 1 As a symbolical Profession of their Faith 2 As a ready Monitor to excite and quicken the exercise of it This twofold use of the Cross Mr. Perkins does not disallow though with all good Protestants he utterly condemns the worship of it Crux non fuit à veteribus adorata The Cross was never worshipt by the Ancients much less with Divine Worship They had only a veneration for it that is saith he they used it with reverence and for an attestation of their Faith and extoll'd it also as a sign of their undaunted Belief in Christ crucified before the Gentiles and this they did even then when the Gentiles threatned them with Torments Thus Mr. Perkins Non sine causa saith Venerable Bede out of St. Austin c. 'T was not without cause that Christ would have his own sign fixt upon our Forehead as the seat of Modesty that the Christian may not be asham'd at the reproach of Christ. And Soto Hac ratione c. For this reason the sign of the Cross is made upon the Forehead of the baptized that as the Church of England also hath it They may not be ashamed publickly to confess the Faith of Christ and him crucified De la Cerda and Hugo Cardinalis say the same thing upon the same Text Rom. 10. 10. And the Learned Gerhard tells us also That Christians to shew they were not asham'd of the Cross of Christ painted it upon the midst of their Foreheads and Cyril of Jerusalem long before him exhorts the Christians after this manner Let us not be asham'd of Christ crucified but with our fingers let us imprint the Sign of the Cross upon our Foreheads By these and a multitude of other Testimonies which might be produced 't is evident that the Sign of the Cross hath alwaies been lookt upon as a Real Confession of the Faith of Christ crucified and a symbolical Protestation of it so that we may sum up our Discourse in short after this manner Confession is an Act of external Worship under a General command of Christ which does bind Semper though not Ad semper and consequently the Duty is alwaies lawful though not alwaies in prudence practicable 2 That a General Command comprehends all particular Instances 3 That the Sign of the Cross is one Instance of Confession and so determined by the Authority and Practice of the Church From which premisses it will unavoidably follow that we are under an obligation to observe it And indeed there is sometimes a necessity for it for a confession by word of mouth or by subscription is neither practicable nor possible at all Times by all Persons in all Places Some have their Tongues cut out some are mute and speechless some are among Barbarians who understand not their Language Some other way therefore is to be pitcht upon and what should that be rather then what may reasonably be concluded from such intimations of Holy Writ as these Looking at Jesus who endured the Cross despising the shame And I have determined to know nothing but Christ and him crucified and God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and If any man will be my Disciple let him deny himself take up his Cross and follow me From which expressions granting a Real Confession of the Faith or a Symbolical Protestation of it to be requisite what could be more convenient than that which hath been in use as far as we are able to collect from the
Evidence to the contrary therefore according to the Liberty purchased for us saith he we do retain these Ceremonies which are indifferent in themselves and no where forbidden by the Word of God And that the Nature of things indifferent may remain entire Christian Liberty safe and the Truth unshaken we are resolved not to yield no not so much as for one moment to the intemperance of our Adversaries who under a pretence of Zeal do nothing in matters of Religion but with tumult and an immoderate Asperity Thus the Learned Meisner on behalf of the Lutherans Yet I cannot omit another pregnant Evidence of their strictness in adhering to their establishment which we find in an Extract out of the National Synod held by the Churches of France at Charenton in September 1631. In the Chapter which contains their General Acts their Answer made to an Address of some of the Lutheran Perswasion Translated into English either by Mr. Samuel Hartlip or Mr. John Dury Printed 1641. runs in these very words viz. Touching the request made by the Province of Burgoigne that such of the Faithful as embrace the Augustane Confession might be permitted to Contract Marriages and bring their Children to be baptized in our Churches without abjuring the former Opinions which they hold contrary to the Belief of these Churches The Synod doth declare that seeing the Churches of the Confession of Ausburg do agree with the other Reformed Churches in the Principles and Fundamental Points of true Religion and that in their Discipline and Form of Divine Worship there is neither Idolatry nor Superstition Such of the Faithful of that Confession as shall with the Spirit of Charity and in a truly Peaceable way joyn themselves unto the Publick Assemblies of the Churches in this Kingdom and desire to Communicate with them may without the Abjuration aforesaid be admitted to the Holy Table Contract Marriages with the Faithful of our Confession and present themselves in the quality of God-Fathers to the Children which shall be baptized Upon their Promise given to the Consistory that they will never solicite them to Contradict or do any thing directly or indirectly against the Doctrine believed and professed in our Churches but shall content themselves with giving them Instruction only in things wherein we all agree The Note in the Geneva Bible at 1 Cor. 14. 38. is worth our observation The Church ought not to care for such as be stubbornly ignorant and will not abide to be taught but to go forward notwithstanding in those things which are right Nay in their Books of Discipline as was observed above they Decree That such as will not acquiesce in the Decision of their National Synod and expresly cast of their Errours shall be cut off from the Communion of the Church And this we find practised in Genevah with great severity for Goulartius and the rest of the Consistory deprived Rotarius one of their Ministers and thrust him out of their City and which is more they hunted him by their Letters out of a Town not far from thence which had entertain'd him for their Pastour And all this was done because he gave the Cup in his own Church with his own hand not permitting a Lay-man to deliver it This Fact of his was not the breach of any Ancient Canon of the Church but consonant to our Saviour's own Practice at the Institution of the Sacrament yet being against the Custome of that place they did thus sharply punish it And Mr. Calvin does seem to justifie such rigour upon a Rule of the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. 16. which affords him this Observation Authoritate magìs compescendos esse pervicaces rixandi cupidos quà m refellendos longis disputationibus that is Such as are stubborn and addicted to dispute and wrangle and refuse to sit down quietly by the Publick Determinations and Practice of the Church are not to be treated with Disputations but to be bridled by Authority And there 's AN END AN ANSWER Sent to the Ecclesiastical Assembly at LONDON By the Reverend Noble and Learned Man JOHN DEODATE THE Famous professor of Divinity And most vigilant Pastor of GENEVAH With some Marginal Notes by the late King Printed at Newcastle by Stephen Bulkley 1647. The Translators Preface To the Simple Seduced Reader Reader MAy the Father of Lights open thine Eyes to see over this Strangers shoulders and by this Impartial perspective what thou whilst kept down thus low by the new Masters and through thy Seducers false Mediums hast not hitherto been suffered to perceive it being till now purposely hid from thine Eyes Behold a meer Stranger that notwithstanding his manifold Obligations and personal ingagements to a contrary Discipline in the Church and different form of Government in the State yet overruled by the manifest Truth and Honesty of the Kings Cause breaks through all those Restraints of his Liberty as far as he may to tell the thus much plain English Truth Behold here Geneva's veneration and full vindication too of thine own Mother the Church of England as it stood under Episcopacy traduced here at home by her own spurious Brood for Superstitious Popish Antichristian what not And this Apology directed to the Assemblymen in answer to their Letter what ever it was Behold here again a clear Justification of the King vilified by his own for that for which strangers do admire him his Clemency his Inclinations to Peace his Acts of Grace c. Behold here the Root of Gall that which hath brought forth all these National Mischiefs the Popular Tumults and Conspiracies pointed at there as the only Evident Cause of the Kings Divorce from the Parliament See here by whom poor Ireland was deserted one thing also thou mayst here take notice of from these standers by That the Clergy in their own proper Sphere may be as fit and as honest and perhaps in some respect more able for the good speed of a Treaty than those that do slight them with utter preterition Last of all behold here the Loyal and Religious Subjects only Militia or his own proper Magazine to witt the known Laws of the Land that and Prayer and Submission are the only defensive weapons allowed here by this Master of Fence I say no more to thee save only that I do heartily pity thee and therefore I do still pray for thee and for all thy fellow-bondmen That God will bring into the way of Truth all such as have erred and deceived Amen Reverend Godly and worthy Sirs our Dear Brethren and Companions in the work of the Lord. IF proportionably to the grief we have conceived at your Letters wherein you have expressed the most sad face of your Affaires we had but as much Ability either by our Consolations to asswage your sorrows or by our Counsels to ease your Burthens or by any our Co-operation to help your Extremity we should think our selves very happy in so well corresponding with your Honourable and most
loving Compellation of us and right glad we should be thus to requite you with our best and effectual good Offices But alass as the scantness of our Capacity in this kind so the ignorance of the more inward causes of so many miseries and chiefly the perplex and dangerous Nature of the matters now in Agitation among you All these put together strike us quite dumb we are as men wholly at a stand able only in a kind of silent Astonishment or holy horrour to admire and to adore that finger of God which is now listed up over you all But since being by you so lovingly invited to it we must needs at last break off our silence we are reduced to an extraordinary suspense both of mind and of pens what to say first or last or indeed what to say at all And now in the end after long deliberation lest as Job's Friends we should transgress by precipitate or unseasonable discourse Behold our Hearts and Mouths top-full of the Senses and Expressions of our hearty Commisseration our Eyes running down with Tears of Compassion our Breasts even swol'n up with Sighs and Groans at your Calamities These are they God is our Witness that fill up the greatest part of our private Prayers of our publick Devotions Fastings and Humiliations In all which we are resolved to give the Father of mercies no rest untill your Tranquility being once more Ordained in Heaven God do extend peace upon Earth unto you all like a River and the fulness of his blessing like an overflowing stream Our Affaires yea the general interest of all the Reformed Churches are so closely involved in yours and so mutually depending thereon That your safety once procured assures us all of our own good Estates Therefore especially during this grevious Tempest which may seem to bring about again the heavy time of the saints great primitive tribulation we are in a manner compelled with trembling Hearts and Lips to pour out our Lamentations into the Ears of our most gratious and heavenly Father no longer now only preparing to contend by Fire as he once revealed it in a Vision to his Prophet Amos. 7. 4 5. but already for a long time really contending by Fire indeed And how then can we forbear from crying out O Lord forgive cease we beseech thee by whom shall Jacob arise for he is small and round about all in Flame by the Fire of thy burning Indignation From this our own Watch-Tower untoucht as yet by Divine Miracle We have beheld this furious Conflagration spreading it self all over We have seen the Grisoen-Italian Churches utterly defaced the Gospel in Bohemia its ancient seat wholly extirpated The Palatinate devoured The French Church as deprived of all humane supports and refuges like so many poor little Callow Birds alive indeed but only during pleasure The German Churches almost all over shaken yea more then half destroyed your own Ireland swallow'd up with an unexpected deluge of Assassines and Robbers one only thing was wanting to that huge heap of publick Calamity Namely that Florishing England the very Eye and Excellency of all the Churches Christ's own choice purchase and peculiar the Sanctuary of the afflicted the Arcenal of the faint-hearted the Magazine of the needy the Royal Standard of good hope should be so unlookt for an accident without any external Enemy or forrain Impression become in a manner it 's own Felo de se and make an end of it self with it's own cruel hands What a sad Spectacle is this to see that Church thus trodden under foot To see that glorious Fold of our Lord thus ransackt yea worried not by the wild Beasts of the Forest not torn in pieces by the merciless paws of the Lion or of the Wolfe but utterly dismembred by it's own unnatural Sheep enraged and exasperated one against another An horrid example this and till now never heard of among the Reformed Churches It seems heretofore like Christ's own true Sheep they were kept tame by the fear of God united by the same bond of Faith knit together by the apprehension of the common Enemy and so long they did both express and exercise holily and faithfully their mutual Charity Quiet and Vnity amongst themselves in all which they preserved themselves from the rage of the Wolfe by the Christian simplicity of their own good conditions by the Innocency of their pious lives by the sanctity of their Religion by the constant undauntedness of their holy Faith But now we are wholly struck with horror at the change of that glorious face of your Church whilst we hear at this distance the loud report of those deadly Wars that are now flaming up betwixt the King and his People to see at Daggers drawing indeed Brethren against Brethren Parents against their own Children Christ's Sheep pushing against and goaring their own fellows nay their own Sheepherds At all this we are utterly amazed and would scarce have believed That in the self-same pitched Field one and the same God and Father in the name of one and the same Mediator at one and the same time could be invocated for help on both sides to shed the Blood of those that for the Major-part had hitherto by so many clear Demonstrations in the whole equal course of their lives equal in their piety towards God equal in their love and loyalty towards their Country approved themselves such faithful and true Brethren one to another strange That these should now against their own Bowels turn all their warlike-power far better if imployed in the just punishments of their own treacherous Neighbours or towards the relief of their dearest Brethren so long bowing the back under the weight of their bondage and even at the last gasp for help What marvaile then if these your cruel distractions have awakened yea divided even to a variety the Judgments and Affections too of Christendom Neither do we our selves deny but that for a while we did somewhat stagger at and as it were fluctuate about it yet that demur of ours did neither proceed from prejudice against nor from partiality towards either side as not being called upon by either neither publickly nor privately till now of late in your reference unto us which we do reckon as no small piece of honour since in your esteem our Judgment may seem of so much weight as able to advance or ballance down either party both being of such extraordinary quality We have conteined our selves within the bounds of a conscionable Judgment and impartial Charity towards both parties for indeed ye are both Brethren We have neither way exceeded the compass of our own measure but still kept a meane as rejoycing on the one hand at those good things which we did hear were entertained with the general applause of all good men So on the other hand we could not but behold with grief those other sinister passages that in themselves did carry a more fatal appearance we were overjoyed at
a general Peace is especially when all humane helps fail to call in the Divine assistance which no man did ever try in vain By these good means that may be brought to pass what cannot be hoped for from Civil-War however the success prove that by a voluntary inclination of minds the wound shall be so fully closed up as that Love and Charity may in time perfectly be recovered The good opinion which you have conceived of us may suffer us to offer these Considerations unto you It might be immodesty in us to prescribe or to advise you any further But no Law of modesty can ever forbid us to wish and to vow and to beseech God for you yea to appeal unto God and to adjure you All in his name O then above all take a speedy and special care for a sure and sound Peace what ever it be 't is to be preferred before any Civil Broyls Beware lest the fortune of War smiling upon you draw you on and tempt you to commit your great affairs to the Ambiguous Chance of Victory then which nothing can happen more deadly yea pernicious unto the Common-wealth Roule away that huge scandal that lies so heavy upon the whole Christian World yea wash and wipe of that foul stain of black oppression charged especially upon the purest profession of the Gospel as if still it did in a kind of Antipathy or secret hatred oppose and oppugn all kingly power and Supreme Authority Mitigate and asswage the exulcerated and too too much provoked mind of your King and do not Compel him to Pinacles and Precipices Rather bear with some Blemishes and Corruptions from which no Empire could yet wholly be free no not in its most flourishing Estate Account not those Remedies the best that are abruptly applyed and accumulated but those rather that being taken in by Degrees may in time by little and little go down more easily end digest the better and so at last obtain a Confirmation And last of all by the Bowels and Mercy of Christ suffer your selves to be intreated that we may no longer see that wealth power and strength which God hath graciously bestowed upon you imployed yea utterly wasted in the fatal ruine of your own selves but rather let it be stretched out to the Relief and support of so many of your own most afflicted Brethren even panting after your own Peace May the God of Peace himself bear accepâ— and grant these our sincere Devotions may God defeat all the Plots disappoint all the Machinations of the Devil and of Antichrist May the same God restore your Kingdom and restore your Churches to that high state and pitch of Holiness and Glory in which on the Theatre of the universal Church they have hitherto excelled and out-shined all the Churches upon Earth As for us take in good part this our plain sense delivered freely unto you in a Brotherly Confidence pardon also and impute our delay of answer unto these weighty reasons The Roport was here very strong that you were now very fair for a Treaty of Peace Therefore we thought fit to expect what a day might bring forth so that all our words and all our affections too might overflow with meer gratulations and full expressions of our Joys But sorry we are that we have yet again been deceived with vain hopes And now that we may speedily recover and enjoy that happiness we both wish and pray with as much Devotion as becomes your dearest Brethren who Glory not a little in your good esteem of us That God will pour down upon you his richest Benedictions together with a large measure of his Wisdom and Spiritual strength Farewell and Prosper in the Lord FINIS Postscript SIR YOU have put me upon a fresh task and I must obey you The Projected Vnion among Protestants to tell you my Opinion is a thing most desireable and of the highest Consequence if possible to be accomplished But if we design an Union of all Protestants in General we must consider the Circumstances under which they ly 1. Some of them are under such Subjection and awe to Popish Princes 't is not safe for them to come into any Debate about the Means and Methods of it Where it may be done with freedom and safety it may be Prudent and Advisable to Consult the most Eminent Divines as well of the Lutheran as the Calvinian Churches And the Concurrent Judgment of such if to be obtain'd might Contribute more to the satisfaction of the truely Conscientious in Uniting the Protestant Interest than the gratifying of every Sect hand over head within our selves But I confess 't is almost out of doubt that the Sects which swarm among us of Anabaptists Socinians Antinomians Ranters Quakers Fift-Monarchists and which comprehends them all Independents would never pass the Muster with such Divines for any publick establishment or protection And can any wise man think fit we should loose or hazard our Character and Esteem abroad the honour of the most prudent and Regular Reformation to gratify such Sectaries as would certainly be exploded among all Protestants of any Creditable Denomination 2. Besides being a Maxim and Rule generally received among them That every particular Church hath power within it self to frame Canons and Constitutions and to settle Rites and Ceremonies for the exercise of Religion and Discipline among their own Members they may very well think it impertinent for them to interpose or to be call'd upon for their Advise and Judgment in this matter 3. Besides it is to be considered that we stand all ready upon the same bottom with other Protestant Churches only we are better built as they know very well both for Strength and Beauty in so much as that Noble and Learned Pastor of Genevah calls the Church of England the Arsenal of the Protestant Profession the Crown and Glory of all the Church of that Denomination Can there be any reason or good Policy to cut of the locks of this Spouse of Christ and Ecclipse her Glory To pull down the Pallisadoes and demolish the Fortifications of such a Fabrick To rob her of her Venerable Antiquity and Primitive Lustre And all this upon no other account than to gratify a restless and uneasy sort of People by falling under the same reproach with themselves of being addicted to nothing else but Lightness Change and Novelties 4. But we are to consider further That the Laws are the Bond of Union the Sinnews and Ligaments of all Bodies Politick and where these are had in Veneration and observed with due respect that People are as well United as Humane Policy can aim at Such as will not submit to such prudent and wholesome Constitutions do voluntarily shut themselves out of the Lines of Communication And when the door is open if they will not enter in to joyn with us they must stand expos'd upon their own Leggs and expect no defence from us whose Communion they do causelesly desert
a Discovery of Puritan-Papisme And after him David Owen wrote another 1610. which he stiles Herod and Pilate Reconciled or The Concord of Papist and Puritan for the Coertion Deposition and Killing of Kings To the Dutiful Subject in his Epistle he observes that The Puritan-Church-Policy and the Jesuitical Society began together The one in Geneva 1536. and the other in Rome 1537. and the last Chapter of his Book contains the General Consent of the Principal Puritans and Jesuites against Kings from the year 1536. until the year 1602. out of the most Authentick Authors I shall refer the Reader to the Book it self which if it be out of Print does very well deserve a new Impression 3. My Third Proof of this Assertion may be found in a late Book being A short view of our late Troubles Whereof any man that desires a full and impartial account of those affairs may please to Consult the Parallel in the Second Chapter Lastly We do affirm That these Dissenters and such as so eagerly abet them doe carry on that very design which they pretend to abhor with so great a detestation in the Jesuites And in order to the proof of this let me take leave to propound a question viz. Whether to abolish those Decent Rites and Customes which were generally in use in the Primitive and purest Ages of the Church and to grant a Toleration of all Religions or to allow Conventicles for the free and publick Worship of Protestant-Dissenters as they will needs call themselves be not an Argument of great Levity a dishonour to the Reformation a Scandal to our own and forreign Churches and a means as well to betray our own profession as to gratify the Common Enemy by Complying with such Methods as they have from time to time contrived and practised for the Subversion of the Church of England which through Divine Providence hath been so happily Reform'd and setled and so long preserv'd and prosper'd to the envy of some and the admiration of others of our Neighbours The Reason of this Quere is 1. Because it is the practice of the Popish Party to promote Change and Innovations among us and then to disparage our Religion upon the account of Novelty And by that Argument many times they prevail to make Proselites and to draw men from the Communion of our Church 2. Because they have made it their great business to purchase a Toleration and to this effect they have used all the Arts of Bribery and Crafty Insinuation 3. Because it is a matter of Fact and clearly evident that their Priests and Jesuites creep into Conventicles and frequently make use of such Meeting to pervert the Nation For all which we have sufficient evidence and that solemnly deposed upon the Corporal Oaths of the King's Witnesses First Mr. Smith doth Depose That Abbot Mountague told him The Popish Religion would very soon come into England and upon his demanding a Reason for it he was pleased to give him these two 1. That they did not doubt but to procure a Toleration of Religions by which they should bring it in without noise 2. That the Gentry which went abroad did observe the Novely of their own Religion and the Antiquity of theirs and the advantages that were to be had by it A Second Witness is Mr. Jenison who deposeth thus That Ireland and Jenison did Declare That for the Destruction of the Protestant Religion he means that establisht in the Church of England they hop't to procure a Toleration And the way was they said by procuring a Sum of Money to bribe the Parliament But suppose the Parliament will not be brib'd Why It is the same thing in effect whether we be brib'd by Papists or Cajol'd by Dissenters who have imbib'd their infusions whether we take Money or be insnar'd by insinuation if we deny a Toleration yet if we set open a Door to Conventicles we give them as fair an opportunity to do their business as if a Toleration were granted To this purpose the Evidence of Dr. Oates is very full and clear For speaking of the Popish design for the Reduction of England to the Popish Religion and Obedience among other means he tells us it was to be done By Seditious Preachers and Catechists set up sent out maintained and directed what to preach in their own and other private or publick Conventicles and Field-meetings And he Deposeth That Father Moore and Father Saunders alias Brown were sent into Scotland with instructions to carry themselves like Non-Conformist Ministers and to preach to the disaffected Scots the necessity of taking up the Sword for the defence of Liberty and Conscience These the Deponent saw dispatcht and ordered to go by Father Harcourt in the name of Thomas White Provincial He deposeth likewise That Richard Strange Provincial John Keins Basil Langworth John Fenwick and Mr. Harcourt Jesuites did write a treasonable Letter to one Father Swiman an Irish Jesuite at Madrid in the Kingdom of Spain in which was continued their plotting and Contriving a Rebellion in Scotland of the Presbyterians against the Episcopal Government In Order to which they had imploy'd one Mathew Wright and William Morgan and one Mr Ireland to go and preach under the notion of Presbyterians and give the disaffected Scots a true understanding of their sad state and condition in which they were by reason of his Episcopal Tyranny exercised over them and withall to tell them they had now a fair opportunity to vindicate their Liberty and Religion and that it could be done by no other way but by the Sword and that now the King was so addicted to his pleasure that he would and could take but little care in that concern That the Popish Plot is carried on by the Schismatick whom he calls the Jesuite in Masquerade is noted by Machiavil Redivivus p. 68. For saith he The Principal Contrivers of that Machination are now removed the Jesuites hang'd the Lords in the Tower and the Great Men secured from Action yet nevertheless the same bloody Tragedy is still acting and the cursed design carried on by the Popes other Engines and the Spirit of Antichrist is sifted from the Conclave to the Conventicle And this is further Evident from that late Plagiary who has stol'n Materials out of Parsons the Jesuite under the name of Doleman to shew that the Monarchy is rather Elective than Hereditary The design of that Book in Queen Elizabeth's time was to distract the People and make way for the Spanish Conquest and Inquisition And this Presbyterian Transcriber proves himself of the same Jesuitical Principles and with equal honesty pursues the same ends Usurpation and Slavery From which Testimonies it does undeniably follow That such as do attempt 1. Either to introduce a Toleration for the exercise of all Religions Or 2. To support Conventicles for the free and publick Worship of all Dissenters Or 3. To abolish those Decent Rites and Customes which were
generally in use in the Primitive and purest Ages of the Christian Church They are Factors for the Pope I do not say directly by Confederacy and an avowed Consent but yet really and in effect they do carry on the Plot and Design of the Church of Rome which is to remove the King out of their way that they may destroy the Protestant Church of England and introduce the Popish Religion and Tyranny in stead of it Having made it thus evident that these Dissenters hold the same dangerous Principles as to King and Government which are maintained by the Jesuites improve their Plots and carry on the same design of Subverting the Protestant Church of England I shall proceed with the Complaint of Liberty and Property against Arbitrary Government I would only desire the honest Reader to enquire who they were that first cryed out against Arbitrary Government or the designs of it in the Reign of King Charles the First It was the Protestant Dissenters and principally those then called Presbyterians Who was it that animated the People to take up Arms for Defence of Liberty and Property invaded only by themselves against the King The very same Who maintained continued and finished the War and the Tragedy of the King's Murder The same men though now they had gotten new Frocks and Vizards on and call'd themselves Independents or Congregational-Church-Men a Name that Comprehended all Sects and Opinions Who were they that banisht his present Majesty sought that life which could not have been preserved but by a Miracle Who composed and commanded Olivers standing Army Who commanded all the Garrisons Forts Castles Ships Who rul'd according to Will without and against Law Even the very same Men the the Godly Party of Congregational Protestant Dissenters Who are they that cry out now against the Government and talk of the great danger of Arbitrary Power Search the City examine the Countrey Ransack the Coffee-Houses frequent the Clubs If you hear any Person inveigh against the Government or Discourse of the fear of Arbitrary Designs you may pawn your life on 't you may find him in a Conventicle upon a Sunday if he pretends to any Religion or reading Hob's Divinity and Atheistical Principles at home It is an Old saying He that accuses another ought to be clear himself And therefore saith that Author for shame let the Congregational-Men leave clamouring about Persecution and Arbitrary Government of which they are so horribly guilty and for which they have so great an Accompt to make to Allmighty God And now let us appeal to the Common sense of all Mankind is it reasonable that a Prince should give establishment to any party that maintains Principles destructive to himself and his Government Sure no wise or Loyal Person can imagine it For if self-preservation be allowable in any Case without doubt of all men the Sovereign has the fairest Title to it I remember Mr. Ormerod near Four Score Years ago having made a Parallel betwixt the Papists and Dissenters of those times concludes his Address to them in these words And thus I leave you wishing first of all your Conformity if that cannot be had my next wish is that you were dealt withal as Philip of Macedon dealt with two of his Subjects in whom there was little hope of Grace he made one of them to run out of the Countrey and the other to drive him so his People were rid of both But this shall not be my Conclusion These Dissenters would have us comply with them But in what In the Change of Government and Discipline in the Church according to their Fancies in abolishing the Forms of God's Solemn Worship with the Rites of Decency and Order to promote the same We cannot in Prudency or Conscience gratify this their humour against the general Rules of Holy Scripture the light of Reason the Practice of the Primitive Church and the Common sense of the most Sober and Learned Protestants What then Would they have us comply with them against the Church of Rome and the practices of the Jesuites With all our hearts But we must remember the Jesuites have two Heads of Doctrine both destructive to the Principles of Christianity wherein we utterly dissent from them The first in reference to God's Worship and Service the second in reference to the King his Crown and Government We renounce the whole let them do so likewise else let them be lookt upon as Parcel-Jesuites for such they are unless they renounce not only such Doctrines as lead to Superstition and Idolatry but such also as lead to Sedition and Rebellion Let them say the Pope is Antichrist and let them say the same as the Apostle does 2 Thes. 2. 4. of every Adversary that resists the Lord 's Annointed that opposeth and exalteth himself above Kings and Potentates to whom the name of God is attributed In which sense we doubt not to say with St. John that even now are there many Antichrists Let them renounce those Popish and Jesuitical Principles which were Condemn'd for Treason in the Spencers even by Papists themselves let them renounce 1. That damnable Doctrine of taking up Arms by the Kings Authority to fight against his Person Which as is very well observed by a worthy person * was hatcht under the Romish Territories and made use of in the Holy League of France 2. That we may seize the Kings Revenues stop his Customes deny him all due supplies to support and preserve the honour and Peace of his Crown and Kingdoms as they did in 42. and bring him into necessity that we may reform his mind and gain our own ends of him Per Asperte as Lawyer 's phrase it that is by rigour or constreint 3. That if his Majesty will not repeal Laws and take off the wheels of Government and model it to our humour we may enter into Leagues and Associations without his consent and Govern in aid of him There are Jesuitical Doctrines and we desire they may joyn with us in a hearty Renunciation of them Let them also protest they will never attempt what the Jesuites are presumed to have plotted and contrived the Death of the King the Ruine of the Church with the Subversion of the establisht Laws and Government For ther 's little hopes of a hearty Union till men come to so much ingenuity and remorse as to acknowledge how far they have gon astray and declare their Change with a stedfast Resolution to return into the right way Let them therefore Submit to the Laws establisht and joyn with us in the performance of God's Publick and Solemn Worship Let them Subscribe and preach the Homilies against Rebellion and declare as we do in the midst of their respective Congregations their unfeigned Assent and Consent to them This will secure the King's Person the Protestant Religion and the Government established And whatever becomes of the Protestants abroad for want of supplies to enable the King to interpose
in poste signandus es omnesque Christiani signantur De Catechiz Rud. c. 20. Epilogue lib. 3. cap. 29. p. 342. See Tertul de Cornu Militis cap. 3. * Vexillum Crucis in fronte portans Hieron Apol. advers Ruffiâ— l. 2. r. 8. * In Formula Missae in pr. * Calv. Lexic Jurid verbo Superstitiosus See the Proposal rectified p. 5 6. †Ep. 118. Januario * Bullinger citing these words of St. Austin 1 Ep. ad Corinth 11. p. 146. Haec mirè quadrant nostro saeculo in his Margent †Calvin Instit. l. 4. c. 10. §. 11. Matt. 15. 6. * He speaks of all Hereticks Qui fulgore eloquentiae Secularis falsum Dogma componunt * De verâ Religione cap. 38. †Timore alià s tumore Jud. v. 13. Cajetan ib. * Printed before the Old Common Prayer but left out in the New one De Baptismo contra Donatist lib. 3 c. 12 V. Isai. 44. 20. Quisquis sibi in errore suo placet nec inquirit an rectum sit institutum suum is nunquam animam suam liberabit Calv. in Isai. 44. 20 In Ep. ad Gal. c. 2. p. 32. See Grotius Georg. Calixtus Dav. Dicson Jo. Calvin De Authorit Eccles. Lect. 22. in Benedict m. p. 352. * This Lecture was read when Authority prevailed * In Vesperiis Comitiorum July 10. 1637. * Treasons Mr. â—iâ—â—â— page 23. Epist. 118. †Before the Com. Prayer * Printed before the Old Common Prayer Book and fit to be reprinted Inst. 5. 20. 1 Pet. 4. 15. De legum Human. obligat Praelect 7. p. 289. * 2 Pet. 3. 18. The Case of the Church of England p. 268. * Ex Ep. ad Rom. Disput. 16. Thes. 43. †System Tom. 2. Artic. 40. cap. 1. §. 3. p. 514. * Colleg. Adiaphor Disput. 1. Thes. 60 c. * This was a special favour †This is their strictness See Dr. Deodates Notes on Rom. 1. 2. and elsewhere * This is a very large Testimony oâ— the flourishing Estate of the Church of England as it stood under it's Episcopal Government * Still that was under Episcopacy * Without Battel or Bloodshed * Such was Episcopacy in it's first Apostolical vigour of Discipline and Government the which as at the Synod of Dort this very man did both acknowledge unto Bishop Carleton to be the best form of Church Government and also did heartily wish for it in his own Church so doth he sufficiently commend the happy effects of it above page 5. in that full passage on his containing the superlative praises of the former flourishing Estate of the Church of England as before these troubles it stood under Episcâ—pacy The Restauration of which former good Estate is again by this Authâ—r at the latter end of this Epistle p. 12. earnestly wished and prayed for * Wo be to them that first began that war whose non-necessity yea Injustice strangers themselves can so far off so plainly perceive and condemn too * To Wit in a fair quiet Legal Parliamentary way not in a Martial way therefore he mentions not at all the power of Arms but only the power of the Laws * What would this Peace-maker have said if he had seen or heard of so many Royal Reiterated offers of Peace wherewith the Soveraign hath and still doth woo his stif-necked Subjects Certainly the more peaceable side hath always amongst good men had the reputation of the better side * This was very good Counsel from a stranger had the Subjects had the Grace to follow it in time then had there been an end of the Old-War and a happy prevention of a New War which except stopt by timely submission can portend nothing but the utter National ruine of Church and state which God in mercy Avert * Of Ireland * This full Testimony of the Excellent State of the Church of England stâ—ll as it heretoforâ— stood under Episcopacy out-speaks all the former and to this good Ejaculation from Genevah no right Protestant-Malignant but will heartily say Amen * Bp. Lany †Oliver Ormerod Puritano-Papismus p. 29. * Mr. Isaac Walton in the life of Hooker See a short view of the late troubles c. p. 13. 14. See a seasonabâ—e Address to both Houses P. 8. * November 17. * If the People in an Island are alarm'd that an Invasion is design'd and that only at one Port and they become so foolish as for the guard of that to neglect and expose all other they do but make the easier way for their enemies to land and overcome A seasonable Address to both Houses p. 9. Unreason of Separat Preface 36. c. Pag. 16. †Pag. 3. * Annals Engl. l. 3. p. 290. Staffords Trial p. 17 18. Ib. pag. 32. * His Narrative p. 67. n. 7. * Ib. pa. 29. n. 43. Pag. 1. n. 1. * A seasonable Address to both Houses of Parliament p. 8. * I have been credibly inform'd that the Priests and Jesuites in France were so inraged with Dr Cosins for wearing the Surplice at the burial of a Corps that he was in some danger of his life Page 1. and 2. * Deodati Sclater Dicson upon the place 1 John 2. 18. * Cooks Reports lib. 7. p. 11. * Dr Falkner of Christian Loyalty p. 356