may have something to do to keep Man humble upon this Hypothesis But whether of these Two Principles makes the nearer Approach to the Church of England I mean that Doctrine which is express'd in the thirty nine Articles let the 10. Art judge The Condition of Man is such after the Fall that he cannot turn nor prepare himself by his own Natural Strength to Faith and calling upon God wherefore we have no power to do good Works pleasant and acceptable to God without the Grace of God preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will Our Enquirer will tell us by and by p. 9. That there has been little or no alteration made in the Doctrine of this Church since the beginning of the Reformation And therefore I conclude that there has been no alteration made from an Anti-Arminian to an Arminian sense for that cannot be called little or no alteration Now that this 10 Art in the beginning of the Reformation in Edw. VI. Reign had an Anti-Arminian sense will be out of Question to him that remembers what Addition there was then made to it The Grace of Christ or the H. Ghost by him given doth take away the Stony Heart and giveth an Heart of Flesh and although those that have no will to good things he maketh them to will and those that would evil things he maketh them not to will yet nevertheless he forceth not the will Articles Printed by I. Day Anno 1553. Cum Privilegio If this then be the sense of the Article let him go practise at home and turn his Brains how to keep Man Humble and yet neither make him Stock nor Stone and when he has found out the Mystery send word to the Synod who I am assured never asserted higher than this amounts to But if this be not the sense of the Article at present though it was once so then it must follow that the Church has more than a little alter'd her Doctrine since the Reformation And then a worse thing than all this will follow for p 8. He allows That if this Church did approach too near Popery it would serve to justifie a Secession from it But says another if it approaches too near Arminianism it approaches too near Popery and therefore our Enquirer will warrant any Mans Secession from the Church without the least imputation of Schisme What a close connexion there is between those two errours we shall hear e're long and thither we refer the Reader when we have told him that the Church of England is certainly free from any Tincture of Arminianism and so far free from any spot of Popery only it concern'd the Enquirer to understand the consequences of his own scandalous Reflections I have done with his first Answer 2. I come now to his second The Artiâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Church do with such adâ—… prudence and wariness handle thesâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 paerticular respect was had to these Men and care taken that they might Abundare sensu suo I cannot imagine what greater Reproach he could throw upon these famous Articles and their worthy Compilers then to suggest that they were calculated for all Meridians and Latitudes As if the Church did imitate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Delphian Apollo whose Oracles wore Two Faces under one Heed and were penn'd like those Amphilogies that cheated Croesus and Pyrrâ—… into their distruction Or as if like Ianus they looked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 backwards and forwards and like the untouch'd Needle stood indifferently to be interpreted through the two and thirty Points of the Compass The Papists do never more maliciously reproach the Scriptures than when they call it a Lesbian Rule a Nose of Wax a Leaden Dagger a Pair of Scamans Trowzes a Movable Dyal you may make it what a Clock you please And yet they never arriv'd at that height of Blasphemy as to say it was Industriously so penn'd by the Amannenses of the Holy Ghost I dare not entertain so little Charity for an Assembly of Holy and Learned Men convened upon so solemn an occasion that they would play Legerde main and contrive us a Systeme of Divinity which should be 〈◊〉 pacis non veritatis The Conventicle of Trent indeed acted like themselves that is a pack of Juglers who when they were gravelled and knew not how to hush the noise and impâ—…rtunate Clamour of the bickering Factions the Craftiâ—…r Lâ—…ng Mâ—…n found out a Temper as they call'd it to skin over that Wouâ—…d which they could not heal and durst not search And what was the success of these Carnal Policies only this Both parties retained their differing opinions believed just as they did befâ—…re and when they fâ—…und how they had been cajouled the Conâ—… versiâ—…s which for a while had been smothered under the Ashes of a Blind Subscription broke out into a more violent flame The craft of this Politick Juncto that impartial Hâ—…storian Pietro Polaâ—… has opened to the World Hist. Conne of Trent p. 216. In the â—…ear 1546. says she In the end of the Session Dominicus a Soto principal of the Dominicans wrote Three Books of Nature and Grace wherein all his old Opinions were found Then comes Andreas Vega a great Man amongst the Franciscans and he â—…ites no less than Fifteen Books upon the 16 Points of the Decree that passed that Session and expounded all according to his own Opinions And yet their opinions were directly contrary to one another though both supposed to agree with the Decree of the Council So Righteous it is with God that they who design not their Confessions for an Instrument of Truth which is Gods End should not find them an Instrement of Peace which is all their End They that will separate Truth from Peace shall certainly miss both of Pâ—…ace and Truth The Title prefix'd to the Book of Articles does abundantly secure us of their Honesty The Catholick Doctrine believed and professed in the Church of England Now how shall we at all believe if we know not what to belâ—…eve And if the Trumpet gives an uncertain Sound 't is all one as if it were not Sounded That which is every thing and every where is nothing and no where That which has no determinate Sense has no Sense and that 's very near akin to Non-sense The Iews indeed have a Tradition that the Manna was what every Mans appetite could relish and such a Religion would these Men invent as should be most flexible where it ought not to bend and where it should yield there to be inâ—…exible Strange it is that Religion of all things in the World should be unfix'd and like Delos or O-Brazile float up and dâ—…n in various and uncertain Conjectures What Aristotle â—…'d to say of oâ—… of his Books That is was Editus non Editus and what was the just reproach of the Rhemists Testament that it câ—…e forth as some reporâ—… of a great Princes Sword with
a Padlock upon 't so stuffed with Pen and Ink-horn Terms that it was almost as intelligible in Latin the same contumely does our Enquirer pour out upon the Articles of the Church which were the most famous Testimony that then for many Years nay Ages had been given to the Truth of the Gospel I conclude then that he must be very immodest that can entertain a thought so unworthy the Learning Religion and sincetity of our first Reformers which were their greatest Ornaments as they were of their Times and the Articles the greatest glory of them both I know it 's an easie matter to draw up a Proposition so dubiously that the greatest Dissenters may subscribe it but what is the advantage of such dawbing Policy Peace or Unity of Judgment Some Men indeed have got a Worm in their Pates and they fancy this an expedient for these ends but there 's no such matter for the Subscribers in this Case do not bow their jugdments to the Articles but gently bend the Articles to their judgment It 's not the Bank that moves to the Boat but the Boat that moves to the Bank and each Party thinks it self the stronger because it can draw in the obsequious Articles to abet their opinioons When therefore he insinuates that they of the Calâ—…inistical perswasion in subscribing the Articles are forced to use Scholastick Subtleties to reconcile their opinions to them we entreat them to use Scholastick Subâ—…leties who are of the other judgment to reconcile the Articles to their opinions and they will find all too little unless they borrow a Point or two of Conscience first to resolve to subscribe and then defend it afterwards as well as they can And when he intimates that they were only some few Divines of this Church that used this expedient we know well that till the appearance of the late A. B. Laud the generality of this Church were of the Dort perswasion Arminianism has been openly declared Schism Arminius himself an Enemy to the Grace of God by our greatest and most Learned Princes and the greatest of our Church-Men have declared against it as a stranger and enemy to our Church But all this as I observ'd was brought in to vilifie the Synod of Dort and that eminently Learned and Holy Person St. Austin whose Credit whilst the Enquirer would wound he shall but like the Viper in the Fable Break his own Teeth and never hurt the impregnable Steel 2. A second pretended Objection against the Church is That it is not sufficiently purged from the Dross of Romish Superstitions It 's a marvelous advantage to him that challenges another to fight if he may prescribe and impose the Weapon this Authority has our Enquirer and some of his Camerades arrogated as peculiar to themselves that they may put what objections they please into the Mouths of Dissenters For though they cannot in the largest Charity acquit a Party neither considerable for Number or solid Learning which yet by noise and Pragmaticalness and some other Artifices have vested themselves with the Name of the Church yet they are ready to clear the Articles of the Church from Popery and Arminianism I intend those alone who would obtrude a meaning upon the Doctrine as if it impugned particular Election Original Sin and asserted Free-will Iustification by our own Works and the rest of those Points whereof some mention has been made In the first of Car. I. The House of Commons exhibited Articles against one Mr. Richard Mountague the 5th of which was thus And whereas in the 17th of the said Articles it is Resolved That God hath certainly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from Curse and Damnation those whom he hath chosen out of Mankind in Christ and to bring them by Christ to Everlasting salvation wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a Benefit be called according to Gods purpose working in due time they through Grace obey that calling they be justified freely walk Religiously in good works and at last by Gods mercy attain to Everlasting Felicity He the said Richard Mountague 〈◊〉 the said Book called The Appeal doth affirm and maintain that men justified may fall away from that state which once they had Thereby laâ—…ing a most malicious scandal upon the Church of England as if he did differ herein from the Reformed Churches in England and thâ—… Reformed Churches beyond the Seas and did Consent unto those pernicious Errours commonly called Arminianism which the late famous Q. Eliz. and K. James of happy memory did so piously and Religiously labour to suppress And farther they charge him That the scope and end of his Book was to give â—…ncouragement to Popery and to withdraw his Majesties Subjects frrom the True Religion establisht From whence we have gained this Point that that Doctrine which denies Perseverance in them that were once Justified doth abet Arminianism and therein draw near Popery But if these men might expound the Articles they would deny the one and abet the other and therefore do draw too near Popery Hereupon Dissenters have a warrant under his own Hand to withdraw from the Church for says he p. 8. If the charge of drawing too near the Church of Rome were true or if it were probable it would justifie their separation from it In 5 Caroli I. The House of Commons made this protestation Whosoever shall bring in Innovation of Religion or by Favour or Countenance seâ—…k to extend Popery or Arminianism or other Opinion disagreeing from the truth or Orthodox Church shall be Reputed a Capital Enemy to this Kingdom and Common-wealth And so close has the connexion between Popery and Arminianism ever been adjudged that the Jusuites who throughly understand their Interest and the most proper and suitable means to promote it hâ—…ve pâ—…ht upon This as the best expedient to introduce That for 〈◊〉 â—…s in that Triumphant Letter of theirs to their Rector at 〈◊〉 they express themselves Now we have planted that Soveraign Drug of Arminianism which will purge the Protestants of their Heresie and it flourishes and brings forth fruit in due season Whence we are taught both our Disease and our Remedy The Disease under which poor England laboured was Protestancy the Remedy was the Iesuites powder or a round Dose of Arminianism which is it seems a specifick purger of that Humour That the Divines of this Church did formerly maintain a just suspicion that the Opinions of Conditional Election and falling away totally from Grace were an In-let to Popery we need no other evidence then that Letter written by the University of Cambridge to their Chancellor upon the occasion of Barrets and Baro's preaching up such like novelties It was dated March 8. 1595. If say they passage be admitted to these Errours the whole Body of Popery will break in upon us by little and little to the overthrow of all Religion And therefore they humbly beseech his Lordships good Aid and Assistance for the suppressing
Ex Graecis Bonis fecit Latinas non Bonas This could not be the Reason to be sure No no says he They are commanded so to do by the Head of their Church There 's the Reason then what needed all this stir The command of a Superiour will hallow or at least excuse an erroneous Action As a Transcendent in our Church speaks and if this Doctrine would but pass we should have a sweet time on 't Our Superiours must impose and judge what 's Indifferent and Decent and we have the easiest life in the world nothing but to wink hard and lift up our Legs high enough and there 's no danger And yet the Papists learn'd not possibly all this Lesson of withdrawing from the Church of England from their own Superiours they might be taught the Doctrine neater home A. B. Laud being ask'd by a Lady Whether she might be Saved in the Romish Communion Answered readily Madam You may and the good Lady took his word and ventured it It 's possible it might be the same Lady that Dr. â—…uller Ch. Hist. B. 11. p. 217. tells us of She being ask'd by the same Prelate Why she had changed her Religion Answered Because I ever hated a Crowd And being desired to explain her meaning herein she replyed I perceived your Lordship it should have been Grace by her Ladyships favour and many others are hastning thither as fast as you can and therefore to prevent a press I went before you What design of Reconciliation with Rome and upon what terms Grotius carried on is pretty well known by this time of day That he had a Party here in England or expectations of one his own words testifie Aequis multis non displicuisse Grotil Propace Labores Nâ—…unt Lutetiae in omni Gallia multi multi in Poloniâ Germaniâ in Angliâ non pauci plaâ—…idi pacis Amantes Discus p. 16. There were I see by this a Company of Loving Sweet-natur'd Tractable Souls here in England that would have step'd half way over the Ditch to meet his Holiness Especially since Mr. Mountagues time who informs us That the Controverted Points between England and Rome are of a lower and inferiour Nature which a Man may be ignorant of without peril of his Soul and may resolve to oppose this or that without peril of perishing for ever That Images may be used for instruction of the Ignorant and excitation of Devotion And that the Church of Rome has ever continued form upon the same foundations of Sacraments and Doctrine instituted by God They are not single Instances of those who have not abhorred the Communion of Rome which I could give but I will spare the Living and cover the Dead Nor will I say that these or such as these were Papists yet methinks they did incline and warp desperately towards it there 's an odd Distinction we often meet with of a Sensus Compositus and a Sensus Divisus which may a little illuminate us Now because my Readers are not like to be any of the more deadly learned sort I will a little explain the Distinction to their Capacities by a very familiar though I confess a very homely Comparison It 's impossible say I that a Maggot should ever be a Fly That is in your Sensus Compositus or so long as it continues to be a Maggot because these have Two distinct forms and the one keeps the other out of possession whilst it hath a Nail or Tooth to scratch or bite But now it s not only possible but easie for this Fly to become a Maggot in Sensu Diviso that is for the Maggot to strip her self of her old shape and appear in another likeness I shall be modest in the Application and hope the Reader will not be immodest Such persons as I have mention'd could never be Papists whilst they adhered to the Doctrine of the Church of England but yet such were their disposednesses that way that the transition was easie to slide from such loose Principles into Popery and yet the Church the mean time might be Innocont 3. Quest. Whence comes it to pass that the Romish Church have more spight against our Church than against any Sect or Party whatsoever When it is once well proved that they have so it will be time enough to enquire why they have so but we must suppose one half of his discourse to be true that we may have leave to answer the other The spight of the Roman Faction against Protestancy as such has so eminently discovered it self under whatever denominations they have been differenced that none of them have cause to boast of it or be ambitious to tast further of it It were well improved if they who are Objects of their implacable spight could learn to love more and agree better amongst themselves The Papists think themselves excusable in persecuting all when 〈◊〉 Protestant so suriously persecutes another they know no Reason why they should love us better than we love our selves And truly against whom their spight is hottest is hard to judge If we compare the Cruelties of the Parisian Massacre â—…ith the Butcheries of the Irish Rebellion we shall find the true Reason why they flew more in Ireland than Paris was because there was more to be slain The Fire may go out for want of matter but I dare say never for want of a good Stomack to its Food In short their spight is there the greatest where they can shew it most as to one that 's very hungry the biggest Dish is ever the best The Papists judge of the Object of their hatred as one did of Tullies Orations The longest is to be sure the most Excellent And yet I conceive the Enquirer to be quite out in this matter The Papists may spight the Church of England upon the account of its fair and vast Revenues great Dignities marvellous Honours Wealth Splendour and whatever is desirable to the Eye because hereby the Church is able to vye with her and yet their malice upon the pure account of Religion may be greater against other lesser weaker parties whose Principles stand more directily in opposition to those of Rome I do not doubt but our Enquirer could bring better Arguments than these to prove the distance of Religion between the Two Societies for this I am sure is too weak unless it may appear that their spight is levelled against the Church meerly on account of those Principles wherein she differs from Dissenters 4. Quest. How comes it to pass that they of all Men most Zealously â—…and in the Gap to oppose the return of Popery That Gap at which Popery must enter if ever it enters into England is the Division between Protestants and if that Gap were well stop'd Popery might look â—…ver but would never leap over or break through the â—…dge This Gap of Divisions is made by the imposition of such things which in the Judgment of the Imposers are indifferent in their own Nature but
those of the first Magnitude If indeed all men were soundly cudgell'd into one eâ—…n way of profession and practise they whose design it is to sleep out their dayes in ease might enjoy themselves and their Acquists over Conscience with more soft and delicate touches of carnal contentment dreaming all the while that the world is their own yet still the minds of men would sit as uneasy under â—…h Rigours as he that pinches his body with too straight a 〈◊〉 onely to recommend himself to acceptation by the new and obteining fashion And as we observe an uneasy suit soon becomes an old suite so they that sit pinch't under a straight laced Religious forme do but grumble and make sowâ—… faceâ—… waiting the good hour when they may fairly and honestly diseâ—… themselves of an ungrateful cumber What Advantage this Inquirer may promise to himself from 〈◊〉 a way of writing I cannot Divine The best use I conceivâ—… 〈◊〉 made of it is to support the evil Consciences of the 〈◊〉 of their fury aâ—… such tolerable rates that they may not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 souls in pieces for persecution for Religion â—…s an 〈◊〉 so abhorrent to the common sight of Mankind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thougâ—… for a while perhaps it may contract a Lethargick dâ—…ness yet will awake and mutter and grumble 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ade a pandar to Coveteousness or malice a 〈◊〉 horse to base Revenge or to held a Candle to the Devil And when it shall begin to lowre and scold it 's no little gain that will make a sop for that barking Cerberus no small see will bribe it to hold its tongâ—…e But now in comes one of these plausible Declamations rending the principles of the Dissenters so silly their grounds so weak their lives so wicked their practises so ridiculous and yet of such treasonable and schismatical Tendencies which â—…uskes the clamour of Conscience and like the jogging of the Cradle rocks the pievish thing asleep again assoon as it begins to whimper Really Sir I cannot but exceedingly pitty and pray for a sort of persons of your own Quality who to their more refined Extract having added all the ornaments of posiâ—…e literature and those more graceful accomplishments fetcht 〈◊〉 by Travel and a frâ—… converse in the world besides that Honour which they have bravely won in the Field and creditably worn at home have yet their judgments so far imposed upon their spirits so imbitter'd by prejudices formed from misrepresentations as to become the instruments of other mens passions in executing those severities which their calmer thoughts and more sedate Advisements must needs Regret And though a true generosâ—… English Temper valiant but not cruel may confidently claime the Magnanimous Lyon Cui satis est prostrâ—…ss as the Embleme of Courage mixt with Clemency for his Crest yet some few of mâ—…re Rigid inclinations will depopulate and lay wast many a mile about them who when they behold an odd kind of Peace as the happy fruits of their cruelties applaud themselves for persons of deep judgment and great success â—…yling Desolation Universal quiet If you ask me why I have not underwritten my Name besides that you know it well enough without my subscription you may be pleas'd to Remember what you once told me That Though Truth needs no Maske she may want a helmet and seeing she desires no better do not grudge her the Covert of Darkness Innocency knows no guilt that should Dye her face with shame yet she apprehends danger which may make her Pale with fear Truth seeks no Corners as to the justice of her cause and yet she may seek a corner as to the injustice of her judge I am not conscious to my self of any evil Design but they who will call Preaching Prating will hardly scruple to call my Ears Hornes and I am not to be judge in the Case I am Confident you commiserate â—…ur hard fate and the unequal Termes our â—…ffing Antagonists impose upon us They chalenge us to a paper duel in the most provoking Language such as would set an edge upon the most obtuse coward If Modesty an ambition for peace or love of retiredness tempt us to decline the Combate we are then Posted up for Cowardise but if we awaken so much spirit as to take up the gauntlet and return the mildest Answere then Trusty R. gets it in the wind and immediately summons his Hamlets raises the whole posse Ecclesiae and Spiritual Militia upon us and strangles the helpless Infant in the Cradle A wary Answere may sometimes steal of the forme before it 's started then comes in Mr. Warden M. the common Hunt whistles out the whole pack of his infallible beagles pursues runs down catches the poor fugitive and then you know to seize a book is the most effectual way to Confute it If one in a thousand has the happy success to escape this Inquisition then the New Smectymnuan Divines or Convocation of the Coffee-house will reply upon it that they will if it was pend with becoming seriousness and gravity they have one Reply This is nothing but whining or Raving if the style be brisk't with a dash or so of facetiousness they have one word ready to Confute it This is Drollery Burlesque buffoonry A blank Imprimatur lay ready every week against poor Robin the doughty second of the Friendly debate and Ecclesiastical Polity creeps abroad and to all bis blasphemies obscaenities scurrilities ribaldries the priviledge underwrites This may be printed If Mr. Sh. goes big with some of his illegitimate Socinian foolcries A Chaplain waits at the door to midwife the brat into the World But if a piece comes out with little zeale for ceremonies though in vindication of the old Doctrine of the Ancient Church of England it expects nothing but Lydford Law first to be condemn'd and afterwards perhaps to be tryed Against all which I see no other remedy but silent complaints or it may be this short Rejoinder Tolle Legem fiat disputatio But I have already given you too much trouble what remains must be mine own to study to be Master of a calm serene submissive frame of heart which may enable me to suffer like a Christian for doing like a Christian And if after all I cannot escape the lash of virulent Tongues and violent hands yet at Least I may not fall under the severer stings of my own Conscience I shall not need to beg of you to give this Paper a Leasurely and impartial perusal 't is so Agreable to your own Nature and that strict Law which your own Wisdome has impos'd upon you Not to pass a final judgment upon any thing before you have duely weighed all things that as I cannot suspect you will decline your constant and fixed Method in my single Case so I can hardly prevail with my self to ask that as a favour which you in justice must needs grant I shall only beg the pardon of this interruption given to your important concernes and if
out of Heaven and a Key to let them in again 4. They that have been ejected by that 〈◊〉 find no evil consequences in their ejected state In the Primitive times it was therefore terrible because Christ abbetted his own Ordinance administred for his own Spiritual Ends in his own Regular way but now Men dare not trust Christ with his own Work but have supplied his vengeance with a Significavit a Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo delivering Men over to the Sheriff whom thereby they call the Devil by craft but otherwise the Excommunicated Person cats his Bread and drinks his Wine with a Chearful Heart because the Lord has accepted him 3. That so few frequent the Church is because they have either been scoffed or railed or beaten out of doors or barred out by Conditions not comporting with Scripture Rule and Warrant Men know that Christ must be their Judge to him they must give an account of their Souls and Worship in the Great Day and therefore they are willing to Worship God according to his Will revealed in his Sacred Word unless any can give them Counter-security to save harmless and indemnifie them before his dreadful Tribunal And if they must suffer for such resolved adherence to a Scriprure Religion they have only this humbly to reply Daveniam Imperator Tu Carcerem Ille Gehennam Christ threatens a Hell the Law only menaces a Goal 4. That the Liturgy was then counted a principal part of Gods Worship we cannot help We judge that none but God can make the least much less a principal part of Gods Worship God only knows which way he will be Worship'd with Acceptation And it is our grear Happiness that he has acquainted us with that Will of his in his Word to which we apply our selves for our Directory and are not sollicitous about Apocryphal Rubrics As to matters concerning Religion Nature Teacheth no further than the Obligation to the Duâ—…y but leaves the particular determination of the manner of Obedience to Divine Positive Laws So we are instructed from the Author of Origin Sacrae p. 171. 5. That it is now become the great point of Sanctity to scruple every thing was not spoken with that regard to Honesty and Truth as might have been expected from a Compassionate Enquirer They scruple being Holier than Christ has commanded them wiser in matters of Religious Worship than the Scriptures are able to make them They scruple giving up their Consciences to those whom they see no great reason to trust till better evidence be given how they regard their own They scruple all Retreats in Reformation and all Retrograde Motions towards Evangelical Perfection and Purity and they with our Enquirer would scruple a little more this overlashing That it 's an Essential part of some Mens Religion to be Censorious And a great point of Sanctity to scruple every thing Let him then continue to Lament the change and we will pray that God will make a more through change reducing Doctrine Worship Discipline to the Word of God the only Rule of Reformation PART I. CHAP. I. A Sober Enquiry into the Apocryphal Causes of Non-conformity pretended by the serious Enquirer St. Augustin and the Synod of Dort Vindicated the Articles of the Church of England Cleared The Learning Preaching and Conversations of the N. C. modestly justified against the scandalous Reflections of the pretended Compassionate Enquirer but without Recrimination AFter a very short Epistle or to speak Canonically that which stands instead of the Epistle to very little and a tedious Introduction to much less purpose the Enquirer falls full drive upon the Causes of the separation from the English Reformed Church In imitation of the French Embassadors Musicians who would needs give the Grand Seignior a fit of Mirth but were so cruelly tedious in tuning their Fiddles that the Sultans Patience was quite worn out and he could not be perswaded to hear the first Lesson Now the Causes are either Apocryphal and pretended or Canonical and Real and it 's a wonder to me when his Invention was once broached that he did not feign this for another Cause of separation that such Heterogeneous Causes should be bound up together in the same Volume and Covers For these Apocriphal Causes let it not beget another scruple in your Captious Heads whether they are pretended by Dissenters or only pretended by this Enquirer to be amongst their pretences for it will come all to one there being some collateral matters which it shall go hard but he will entice or force into the Discourse or else the Reader might have sung whâ—…p Barnaby and Retreated to his Recreations the longest Holy day in the Year 1. The very first of these pretended Causes is some Blame they lay upon the Doctrine of the Church and the main if not the only thing excepted against in this kind is That the Thirty Nine Articles are not so punctual in defining the Five Points debated in the Synod of Dort as they could wish Just as your common Hackney Versifiers or Water Poets make one Verse for the Reason and the other for the Rhime sake so was this Objection mounted against the Doctrine of the Church for the sake of his precious Answers wherein he will find or make as handsom an occasion as impertinency will admit to vilifie St. Austin and the Synod of Dort It will be extreamly difficult to give our Enquirer a satisfactory Answer in this Point Shall we say This is not the main thing in the Articles excepted against by Dissenters He will readily Reply However then you tâ—…itly grant that this is one of your little Cavils Shall we say This is not the Only thing they scruple he will return nimbly Then it seems you consess this to be one though not the only thing you Boggle at Really if I know how to content him I would do it and the best expedient that offers it self at present is this Answer 1. That the Church has other Doctrines not contained in the 39 Articles imposed on the Faith of Subscribers and perhaps the scruple may lie against them 2. That the 39 Articles contain other Doctrines besides those relating to the five Points debated 〈◊〉 the Synod of Dort as that of Art 20. The Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies And that of Art 34. Every Particular or National Church hath Authority to Ordain Change and Abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained only by Mans Authority And what now if the quarrel should lie against one of those And I am the rather induced to suspect they may hesitate in these particulars because I have heard some of them privately Speak and seen others publickly Print that though they can practise such things which being in their own Natures indifferent remain under all their concurrent Circumstances lawful yet they cannot find where the Church has any Commission to impose them They can assert and use their Christian Liberty and yet cannot subscribe to
the Irish Air and Soyl If then the substance of the Articles was owned it 's no matter whether the Jurisdiction of the Synod was owneâ—… for I rather think that the Synod of Dort owned the Doctrine of the Church of England than that the Church of England owned that Synods Iurisdiction I must here remember him of his own discourse in the Introduction and desire to know whether he abide by that Doctrine he once Preach'd to us That the Presence of the British Bishops in the Council of Arles was good proof of the Nations Piety Let him show how that Proof proceeds and it s very probable we shall be in a fair way to show him how the Presence of the English Delegates at the Synod of Dort might imply that the Church of England did compromise with it in the Points now in Question I confess I do not well understand the Mystery of one company of Mens making a Faith for another but yet I may plead from an equality of Reason that if the Non-conformists are bound up by the Decrees of a Convocation at London where they have no representatives the Church of England may be as well bound up by the Decrees of Dort where she had her representatives If it be said that this Church had no equal Number at Dort to make a full representation of her Body it may be answer'd that in the Convocation 1571. there was no such equal representation of the Clergy nor any at all of the People who have Souls to save and Consciences to Account for and ought not to be concluded in matters of Faith by what a Couple of Clerks shall agree to who are only chosen by the Parochial Ministers I never saw a good Argument to this day to prove that the people ought to Believe all that their Ministers Believe or that the Ministers are bound to hold all that their Representatives shall subscribe seeing it cannot be supposed that they give them so large a Commission and if they should it were actually void because they give away their Consciences which are none of their own How things are now I know not well but in former times a Convocation had been judged no equal representation either of the inferior Clergy or the Body of the People In the lower house of Convocation there have been in some Diocesses one Dean one Clerk for the Cathedral three or four Archdeacons and for the inferior Clergy of the whole Diocess only Two Clerks to Counterballance all the rest So that all things must of necessity be concluded according to the Temper and Interest of the Cathedrals and that I think was no equal representation but these things are inconsiderable He comes now to draw up a Charge against not the Iurisdiction but the Doctrine of that Synâ—… 1. They were such as knew not how God could be Iust unless he was cruel nor Great unless he Decreed to Damn the far greater part of Mankind A company of silly Souls I perceive they were and their Heads just of the same size with St. Austins But in my poor judgment they took the wrong end of the Staff for it had been much he harder task to make him Iust if he were first supposed Cruel but this is one of those Chymerical Consequences which the persons of this distemper and prejudice use when their Blood is up to fasten upon the Principles of the Calvinists It was an Ingenious Observation of the Author of Orig. Sacr. p. 10. where he assigns this as one cause of errour To question the soundness of Foundations for the Apparent Rottenness of the Superstructures For says he There is nothing more usual than for Men who exceedingly detest some absurd Consequence they see may be drawn from a Principle supposed to reject the Principle it self for the sake of that Consequence which it may be doth not necessarily flow from it but from the shortness of their own Reason doth only appear so to do And if it were possible to perswade these Censurers to so much humility as to suspect they may possibly not be infallible in drawing Conclusions from other Mens Principles all this heat might be over What the Synod of Dort asserts in this matter is thus much Ar. 15. Deus Homines quosdam ex liberrimo justissimo immutabili beneplacito dectevit in Communi Miseriâ in quam se suâ Culpâ praecipitârunt relinquere nec salvificà side conversione donare sed in vijssuis sub justo judicio relictos tandem non tantum propter infidelitatem sed etiam Caetera peccata omnia ad declarationem Justitiae damnare aeternum punire In which as there is nothing but what is Iust so there 's nothing at all that is Cruel 1. That Act of God which our Enquirer for the greater Grace will call a Decree to damn the far greatest part of Mankind the Synod calls a Reliction of some Men or a Decree to pass by some Men. Quosdam Homines decrevit Relinquere 2. They say not that God Decrees to damn Men absolutely but Propter infidelitatem caetera omnia peccata damnare to damn Men for their Infidelity and all their other sins which is neither injustice nor cruelty 3. They say indeed that God Decrees to leave some Men in the common Misery but withal t is such as whereunto they have thrown themselves through their own fault In communi miseriâ in quam se suâ Culpâ praecipitarunt 4. They say this is an Act of Iustice in God to leave them to lie in that common misery into which they had plunged temselves it is Iustissimo Beneplacito So that all the difficulty will be to resolve 1. Whether it be an Act of Cruelty in God to leave Man as he found him in Massá corruptá damnabili And 2. Whether it be an Act of Injustice in God to damn Men for their unbelief and other sins If neither of these it will be no difficult province to make it out How God may be just in damning Men for their sin and yet not cruâ—… leaving them in their sin I am aware that this whole Controversie at last must empty it self into that of Original sin And a difficulty it is that may require strong Heads to prove that will not bring humble Faith to believe how Men have plunged themselves into the common Misery wherein God leaves those some by their own default Culpâ suâ But the Church of England will be responsible for this difficulty who determines in her Ninth Article That in every Person born into the World it deserveth Gods wrath and damnation The pretence for this odious Imputation is nothing but a Fancy which forsooth these great Masters of Wit have agreed to call Reason That that which would be Cruelty and Injustice in Man must presently be so in God As thus Because it would be Cruelty and Inhumanity in me to see my Enemy or if it were but his Oxe or his Asse lie in a
doubt not both of the purity and peace of their Consciences because 1. He allows no other Election then Gods determining absolutely of temporal Blessings p. 74. But the Church of England Art 17 having described a particular Election to Everlasting Life from Gods Everlasting purpose tells us That the godly consideration of Predestination and our Election in Christ is full of sweet pleasant and unspeakable comfort to Godly persons and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ. He then that disowns this Doctrine must needs want one main ground of a pure and comfortable Conscience 2. They who own Justification by works want another bottom of a comfortable Conscience So the Church of England Art 11. Wherefore that we are Iustified by Faith only is a most wholsome Doctrine and full of comfort All peace then is founded in Grace In Gods Grace as the Fountain whence it springs and in the Operations of Grace upon the Soul as the Evidences of that Grace in God and though men may bless themselves in Evil and flatter themselves when they find prosperous Iniquity yet if any one be a lyar a persecuter a hater of Godliness and Godly Men a slanderer c. God speaks no peace to him and therefore it s more adviseable to boast less of a comfortable Conscience and mind the things that belong to a comfortable Importance 3. The last pretended cause of the Dissenters withdrawing from the Church of England is A Charge against the sufficiency but especially the sanctity of the Clergy The Dissenters do gladly acknowledge that the Learning and Piety of very many of the Ministers of the Church of England is such as deserves an honourable place in their hearts that they have not such a valuation for some of our Enquirers co-partners they beg his excuse till they may see more cogent Reasons to alter their Judgements when they are in the Humour to take a few sorry Sophismes candied over with Rhetorick to be Learning or uncharitable censoriousness crusted over with smooth Hypocrisie to be Piety they see nothing to the contrary but they may enlarge their Charities That there are many of the present Establishment eminent for sound Learning and exemplary Holiness who exercise Christian tenderness towards those who dissenting in Conscience do suffer for Conscience is the rejoycing of their Souls under their great pressures And they know that the more Learned and Godly any person is the more humble he must needs be A little knowledge ferments aâ—… impotent heart and makes it intolerably arrogâ—…nt but he that knows much amongst other things must needs know that he that stands in need of mercy from God and therefore will more readily shew pitty to Man He that knows what a tender Conscience is at home will pitty and indulge it wherever he meets with it abroad He that knows much cannot presume all the world enjoys his measures of Light The Enquirer might therefore well have spared this odious and invidious discourse had he not found it necessary first to make a Man of Clouts and then execute it And yet his Victory cannot be great in trampling on those that lye on the ground and can be laid no lower but in their Graves for to Hell he cannot send them Two needless things he will say to this Objection for he is full Et si non aliqua noâ—…uisset 〈◊〉 esset 1. Supposing this Objection had been true yet it could not be made by any Protestant without contradicting his principles No why not Oh for the Papists are taught that the efficacy of all Divine offices depends upon the intention and condition of him that administers but Protestants are taught it seems otherwise that the efficacy of all Divine Ordinances dependâ—… upon the Divine Institution and the concurrence of Gods Grace wiâ—…h my use of them The Reader must give me leave to repeat my former caution which is always understood though not exprest that I deny not the sanctity of the English Clergy my only task is to examine the strength of his Arguments which are sometimes so weak as would tempt the less considerate to conclude that cannot be true which so bold 〈◊〉 undertaker cannot make out His answer to the Objection is â—…nly more weak then the Objection it self For. § 1 When he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Church of Rome sure the Protestant Dissenters must expect no Quarter The Papists do indeed hold That the efficacy of Sacraments depends upon the Intention of the Priest but that it depends on the Condition of the Priest as to Holiness they assert not I shall produce one evidence of many Tolet de instructione sacerdotis lib. 1. cap. 92. propounds this Question Quando licet à ministris malis accipere Sacramenta When or in what case is it lawful to receive the Sacraments from wicked Ministers And the very moving of the Question implies that at least at sometimes and in some cases its lawful but this will more fully appear from his Answers which he gives 1. Negatively A non-toleratis ab EcclesiaÌ„ non licet ullum Sacramentum accipere etiam necessitatis tempore It s not lawful to receive any Sacrament from those who are not tolerated by the Church no not in case of necessity Here is Doctrine to his own hearts content and wherein the Jesuite may assure himself of our Enquirers suffrage A Non-conformist amongst them may not Baptize or Administer the Supper though the Salvation or Damnation of never so many depended on it And yet when the Casuist thinks better on 't he will except Baptism and perhaps the other Sacraments in the Article and point of deathâ—… A ffirmatively A mâ—…lis ministris dum non sequatur aliquod grave scandatum possumus sacra recipere Nam Ecclesia ipsos tolerat ipsi taâ—…a administrâ—…ntes sibi solis nocent We may receive Sacraments from wicked Ministers such as he there describes provided no grievous scandal follow upon it for the Church tolerates such as these and when they administer the Ordinances they hurt none but themselves Nay he quotes Pope Nick. to back him Isti sunt sicut fax aâ—…censa quae alios illuminat se consumiâ—… unde aliis commodum exhibent sibi dispendium praebent mortis These evil Ministers are like a burning Torch which enlightens others though it wast it self and destroy themselves by that very means whereby they advantage others but at last he comes to this Ab his quibus ex officio incumbit sive sint parati sive non licet petere accipere Sacramenta five ex necessitate five non quia ille ex officio tenetur quandocunque petiero ministrare nec ego jus meum à mitto ex illius malitiâ We may demand and receive Sacraments from those whose duty it is to Administer whether they be prepared or not whether it be in a case of necessity or not Because suâ—…h a one is bound by virtue of his Office to minister when I demand
Erasmus to be the true measure of the Preaching of those times And why may we not charitably suppose that the Romanists have furbisht up their rusty Preaching since the days of Erasmus as well as we have scowred up ours since the days of the Homilies 3. Arg. His fourth Argument is none of the strongest and yet worth all the rest put together which were but the vaunt-courriers to usher in this main one with more solemnity Compare says he but the Preachings generally in our Churches with those ordinarily in Conventicles you will find them unequally matcht Though we could be content they were modestly compared yet we can by no means allow this Enquirer to use his own false weights of comparing and generally such comparisons are odious Non-conformists do not affect strong lines nor are ambitious of the Gigantick Vein and Stile they study not measured sentences nor use the Compasses to every deceâ—…t period they had rather with their Austin have A wooden Key that will open the Lock then one of Gold which makes a fidling din in the Wards and yet confounds them None of them but do praise God for the Learning sound Judgement solid Preaching holy Lives which are to be found among the Conformable Clergy but can he rear his Triumphant Arches to their praises upon no other foundations then the ruines of other mens credits For my part I am always apt to suspect that persons credibility who thinks more to confirm it by two or three ratling Oaths And I never received it as an argument of her honesty that carries her tongue so loosely hung that she deals about most liberally Sâ—…rumpet and Whore but I see he is impatient till he compares them On the one side you have sound Theology strength of Argument gravity of Expression distinctness of Method on the other side nothing more frequent then puerile and flat oftentimes rude and sometimes blasphemous expressions similitudes instead of arguments and either Apish gestures or Tragical vâ—…ciferations instead of Eloquence Reader this Language is pure Cicero I assure thee Ex hac enim parte Pudor pugnat illinc petulantia hinc pietas illinc stupram hinc fides illinc frraudatio I am sorry our Enquirer dwells by so very bad Neighbours that his own mouth must be the very Trumpeter of his praises If the common Cryer could have been engaged for love or money to proclaim them no modest man would have done the drudgery But nemo patriam suam amavit quia magna est sed quia sua 'T is propriety that renders all things sweet and beautiful All this had been pardonable but I see some that love to be Ingeniosi in aliená famâ huge facetious upon other mens fames and perhaps never witty in a Twelve-month but when they write Satyr As all impartial Readers know one half of his Oratory to be false so it s to be feared they may suspect the other moyety not to be very true That 's all an honest man shall get by being in a Knaves company Truth has sometimes been set in the Stocks because it has been found under the same Roof with Falshood He that wishes well to his own due praises let him never desire they should be yoaked with anothers unjust reproach least the hearer knowing the one unrighteously slandered conclude that the other is as unjustly flattered For its an unquestionable maxime He that will be a Sycophant against one will be a Parasite to another Let our Enquirer then sweetly enjoy the ravishments of his pleasing Dreams I shall not awaken him with loud recriminations only softly whisper that of the Poet. Bella es novimus Puella verum est Et Dives Quis enim potest negare Sed dum te nimiùm Fabulla laudas Nec Dives nec Bella nec Puella es Mart. Ep. l. 1. 165. Yet there is one Salvo for their credits which all the Fraternity of Gentlemen-Raylers do use to bring themselves off and heal all again when at any time they have most unconscionably over-lasht and that is when they have pour'd out all the contempt and scorn have heap'd up all the slanders and reproaches that they can make or rake together then to make an Honourable Retreat and tell you they do confess there may be one or two that may be innocent God forbid says our Gentleman that I should charge all the Non-conformists with such Indecencies Nay I can tell him more then that God forbids him to charge any one with such Indecencies unless he had better proof of them And had he known any individual guilty of these crimes he should have personally charged that one that he might be brought to Repentance for his prophanation of Gods holy Name and not involve a whole party under the scandalous suspicion All the charity that these words necessarily contain is that they are All such save one Suppose another as charitable as himself should write after his Copy and when he had with much pleasant Scurrility and Drollery made the Devil sport with the Indecencies of Church-men should come off at last with this Epanorthosis God forbid I should charge all the Conformists with these extravagancies what would it argue but a more crafty and safe way of Hypocritical Calumny Thus I remember a Gentleman once in a frolick told his Companions They were all Fools but one and when a young Gallant of the knot more tender of his Reputation then it deserved and willing to venture more for it then 't was worth began to draw The other takes him aside and whispers him in the Ear How do you know but that I intended your self by that single exception And this little dust parted the fray Well I see he is sick till he comes to particulars Asaheâ—… would not take Abners civil warning some men seek mischief to themselves and all the Friends they have cannot stave them off from the Duel the more you hold a Coward the more eager he is to engage let the man alone pray let him alone and in the mean time I will fortifie my self with patience that no provocation of his may tempt me to a back blow under the fifth rib for how then should I lift up my face to my dear Brethren 1. Their Sermons are generally about Predestination About it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what a word was that for a wise man The Church of England in her 17th Article propounds the Doctrine of Predestination to be believed by us according to the Scriptures that which is the matter of Faith ought to be the subject of our Preachings 1 Cor. 4. 13. we believe and therefore we speak And yet I am confident that our Enquirer and his like preach more write more and make more noise about that serious point then the Non-conformists I presume I may have heard my share of their Sermons and yet I can assure the Reader I never heard that Doctrine professedly handled in my life I speak not this in their excuse or
received any such command to invent and impose Ceremonies she can tell us where others may read it as well as her self And to conclude at present they say That this one Principle granted That the Church may impose upon her Members whatever is not expresly forbidden does either put the Body of Christians under a more heavy Yoke then that of the Iews or else torment them with fears that they may be so And indeed supposing this exorbitant power to impose parts of Worship or Ceremonies or any of these things in Debate the condition of the Iews was much more desirable in this respect then that of Christians For § 1. Their Law-giver was Iehova who had an absolute and unlimited power over them and they that are Gods Creatures will not grudge to be his Servitors He was Lord paramount of Worship and Conscience and might he not be allowed to do what he would with his own He is the God of the Spirits of all Flesh and shall they not live in subjection to him who expect to live in a Kingdom with him Since there is a necessity of obedience it sweetens it unspeakably that it 's both Interest and Priviledge to obey and that he who requires obedience is their God a God whose Will is the Rule of Righteousness and therefore the most satisfactory Reason of his Commands and his Creatures Duty And Implicit Obedience is then Honourable when God calls for it § 2. As their Law giver had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Authority to Command so he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a power to influence the weakest Elements He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and had absolute Sovereignty and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of Almighty power which was a double encouragement to the observers of his precepts For 1. He was hereby able to secure the Obedient in his Service upon which Account Christ claims the Legislative Power over Conscience â—…am 4. 12. There is one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy 2. By this Power he could render efficacious these Rudiments which in themselves were but beggerly Ordinances and produce by them Spiritual and Supernatural effects And I am 〈◊〉 the rather to think that God has not committed the â—…ral Power of instituting much less the Sovereign Power of imposing Religious Ceremonies and Observances because he has not communicated that other Power to bless their own appointments â—…or invigorate them with success God may well be allowed to Command what he pleases seeing be can and will bless whatsoever he Commands § 3. Their Law-giver was Faithful one to whom they might securely commit their Consciences one with whom they might â—…ith the greatest satisfaction of Heart commit their Souls He â—…hat has a sole right to any thing will be faithful in keeping it because 't is his own and who may better be entrusted with the Guardianship of Worship and all Religion then their Owner But though we ought not to be Censorious yet we may and ought to exercise some prudence and caution to whom we resign our selves in matters of Religion though the best of Men not knowing how they may use us but well knowing that we may more easily Captivate ourselves to the Will of an Imposer then being once enthralled vindicate our selves into our Christian Liberty Or if for no other Reason yet for this because they are but Men. § 4. The Jewish Yoke was a determinate Yoke It was Onus but Determinatum A Burden but a stinted Burden It 's no small alleviation to the Labourers toyl when he knows his work to the Traveller that he knows his Journeys end The fews had their work before them but upon the Modern Principle The burden of Christians is Indefinite which is but a better word for Infinite The Truth is in these Humane Impositions we see the beginning but no Man knows the end of them it 's a Nemo scit Our load must be bounded with no other Limits then a Churches Will and that Will perhaps bounded with no other then its Power since it 's Canoniz'd for good Divinity That the Church may impose whatever is Decent and that the Church is Iudge of what is Decent though who the Church is is not so certain § 5. Their Law-giver was one of known and approved Tenderness who either apportioned his work to their strength or their strength to his work he fitted the Yoke to their Neck and their Neck to the Yoke The main thing that renders Christs own Yoke so easie his Burden so light is that as his Authority imposes so his strength supporta Men may lay heavy burdens on our Shoulders but where there is most need cannot touch them with one of their Fingers § 6. Their Law-giver was one who in all his Impositions consulted their own good and benefit as wel as exercised his own Authority The Iews wrought hard indeed but their work had much of wages in 't The design of their Mystical Rites and Ceremonies directed them to a Saviour Legal Administrations well order'd were Gospel Priviledges Before Christ came Ceremonies were Illustrantia such as discovered the Person Nature Office and Grace of the Messiah a Candle is better then no Light but to us they are all Obscurantia such as darken the state of Christianity As before the Sun-rising the Prodromous Clouds whose edges are fringed with Gold comfort us with the hopes of an approaching greater Light which when the Sun is up do but darken the Horizon Thus did Ceremonies illustrate Christ at the Annuntiation but obscure him at his Advent It will be needless further to Vindicate the Dissenters I shall leave them to the Enquirers Patronage who by the same Reason that he justifies the Church of England from Popery will I hope clear the Non-conformists from Judaism p. 12. All says he is not to be accounted Popery which is held or practised by the Church of Rome Nor say I is all to be accounted Judaism which was either the principle or practise of the Iewish Church p. 13. Nor is it reasonable to say such a thing is received from the Church of Rome because it is there to be found unless it be found no where else And as little Reason to say the Dissenters have received this Principle from the Jews That no Worship is lawful for that is their Principle but what is prescribed by the Scripture unless it were found no where else But this was a Principle so clear in the Light of Nature that Numa the great Ritualist of Heathen Rome durst not hope that ever his Ceremonies would ever obâ—…ein amongst a people that had Fyes in their Heads unless he had or pretended to have a Conference with his Goddess Aegeria Thus the Palladium of Troy that Mystick Ceremony in which the Fate of their City was wrap'd up is supposed to have come down from Minerva the famous Image in Diana's Temple ' Acts 19. 35. is supposed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fallen from Jupiter and
he that separates but he that is the Cause of the separation is the Schismatick 4. That to require the execution of some unlawful or suspected act is a just cause of refusing Communion for not only in Reason but in Religion too that Maxime admits of no Release Cautissimi cujusque praeceptum quod dubitas ne feceris 5. That it hath been the common Disease of Christians from the beginning not to content themselves with that measure of Faith which God and Scriptures have expresly afforded but out of a vain desire to know more then is revealed they have attempted to devise things of which we have no Light neither from Reason nor Revelation neither have they rested here but upon pretence of Church Authority which is none or Tradition which for the most part is but â—…eigned they have peremptorily concluded and confidently imposed upon others a necessity of entertaining conclusions of that nature 6. To lâ—…ad our publick forms with the private fancies upon which we differ is the most Soveraign way to perpetuate Schism unto the worlds end Prayer Confession Thanksgiving Reading of Scriptures Administration of Sacraments in the plainest and the simplest manner were matter enough to furnish out a sufficient Liturgie though nothing either of private Opinion or of Church pomp of Garments or prescribed gestures of Imagery of Musick of matter concerning the Dead of many superfluities which creep into the Church under the name of Order and Decency did interpose it self To charge Churches and Liturgies with things unnecessary was the first beginning of all superstition 7. That no occasion hath produced more frequent more continuous more sanguineous Schisms then Episcopal Ambition hath done 8. That they do but Abuse themselves and others that would perswade us that Bishops by Christs institution have any superiority over other men further then that of Reverence or that any Bishop is superiour to another further then positive order agreed â—…pon amongst Christians hath prescribed 9. In times of manifest corruptions and persecutions wherein Religious assembling is dangerous Private Meetings howsoevr besides publick Order are not 〈◊〉 lawful but they are of necessity and duty All pious Assemblies 〈◊〉 times of Persecution and Corruption however practised are indeed 〈◊〉 rather Alone the lawful Congregations And publick Assemblies though according to form of Law are indeed nothing else but Riots and Convemticles if they be stained with Corruption and Superstition There is one person more whom since he has quoted Incognitâ—… for an excellent person I will the rather recommend to his consideration Irenic p. 109. where speaking of the private Christian he says He is bound to adhere to that Church which appears most to retain the Evangelical purity And p. 116. He is bound to break off from that Society which enjoyns a mixture of some Corruptions as to practise One word from Dr. Iackson chap. 14. of the Church where he acquits those of the Schism which withdraw fromâ—…hat Church which imposeth Rites and Customs that cross the Rule of Faith and Charity Bishop Bramhalls Testimony will pass for sterling p. 7 8. of Schism When there is a mutual division of two parts or members of the mystical Body of Christ one from the other yet both retaining Communion with the universal Church quamcunque partem amplexus fueris Schismaticus non Audies quippe quod universa Ecclesia neutram damnavit Which side soever you close with you shall not be reproacht for a Schismatick because the universal Church has condemned neither side And he plainly tells us p. 101. That it was not the erroneous Opinions of the Church of Rome but the obtruding them by Laws upon other Churches that warranted a separation Next we will hear a word from the Learned Lord Verulam 'T is a sign says he of exasperation to condemn the contrary part as a Sect yea and some indiscreet persons have been bold in open preaching to use dishonourable and derogatory speeches and censures of the Churches abroad and that so far as that some of our men as I have heard ordained in forreign parts have been pronounced no lawful Ministers And further let us remember that the ancient and true bounds of Unity are one Faith one Baptism and not one Ceremony one Policy and endeavour to comprehend that saying Differentia Rituum commendat unitatem Doctrinae Christs Coat was indeed without Seam yet the Churches Garment was of divers Colours Amongst all these we must not forget that noble and gallant Person the Lord Falkland A little search will find them He speaks of no little ones to have been the destruction of Unity under pretence of Uniformity to have brought in superstition and scandal under Titles of Reverence and Decency to have slacked the strictness of Unity which was between us and those of our own Religion beyond the Seaâ—… Sâ—…rates lib. 〈◊〉 cap. 21. tells us that in his time there could scarceâ—… be found two Churches that used the same forms of prayer In France the Ritual of Paris differ'd from that of Anjou and in England we had our Devotions secundum usum Sarum secundum usum Bangor and yet the one never reproacht the other for Sectaris or Schismaticks I am consident therefore to assert it That neither the Wit nor Malice of man can prove him a Schismatick who maintaining Evangelical Love towards and holding the substantial Doctrines owned by the Church of England shall either out of choice or necessity transplant himself from under the spreading shadow of a Goodly Cathedral to a Parochial Church and yet the one has its Organs Adoration towards the East and Altar Adoration at the Naming of Iesus with multitudes of Rites and Observances unknown to the Villages and far more differing from the Parochial Usages and Customs then the Worship of most Country Towns differ from that of the Non-conformists After all this I shall throw up the Authority of these great names and give him full scope for his Rational Abilities to prove his proposition when I have first noted those few things § 1. He requires an apparent breach of the Divine Law as the only thing that can excuse separation from the guilt of Schism but will not a real breach of the Divine Law serve the turn unless it be so apparent as he can desire I perswade my self God never yet spoke so loud that they who have barracadoed their Ears with prejudice will hear him nor ever yet wrote so plain that they will see his mind whose Eyes interest has sealed up And what if it be an apparent breach of the Divine Law in the sincere judgement of him that separates must he never discharge his Duty till he can perswade all the world to see theirs and pursue it § § Who shall be Iudge whether the Imposed Terms contain an apparent breach of the Divine Law and such as will justifie a separation Mr. Hales indeed tells us It 's a point of no great depth or difficulty but yet the true
Melius Inquirendum Or A SOBER INQUIRIE Into the Reasonings of the Serious Inquirie Wherein The Inquirers Cavils against the Principles his Calumnies against the Preachings and practises Of the NON-CONFORMISTS Are Examined and refelled And St. Augustine the Synod of Dort and the Articles of the Church of England in the Quinquarticular points vindicated Prov. 18. 17. He that is first in his own Cause seemeth just but his Neighbour cometh and searcheth him out Printed 1678. To the Ever and much honoured S. K. Esquire Worthy Sir I Received yours which brought along with it both its own welcome the assurance of your restered health and continued Love and also my own entertainment The serious and Compassionate Inquirie I have now perused it with as much seriousness as 't was written and return'd it with mere clemency then it deserves and must confess my self cast down so much the lower by my disappointments upon the Reading it by how much the flattering title had rais'd me higher to expect from thence mere healing counsels I have read of a Polish Embassador in Queen Hizabeths dayes who at his landing whisper'd it abroad that his Embassy was Peace but when admitted to his Audience threatned a war Her Majesty with invincible patience attended the winding up of his long-winded Oration and then cries out Heu quam decepta fui Legatum expectavi Heraldum accepi I expected a Dove with an Olive branch in his mouth and I tread upon a snake with a menacing sting in his Tail Iust such another treat has your Inquirer given me The Title raised me on tip-tocs to see at length that famous weapon-salve which might consolidate the Churches bleeding wounds but the Book presents me with a weapon ready drawn to render them more wide and more incurable You see Real passion will not long conceal it self under feigned compassion Nemo diu egit Hypocritam A feaverish preternatural heat in the body usually breaks out at the Lips The Crocodiles tears are but a â—…ort formal Grace over his Prey and yet his importunate stomack thinks his throat cut till it be done You are pleas'd indeed to recommend it to me as an Irenic and when I said it had rather the meen of a Military Tactick a friend of ours a little inclinable to be witty replied it was neither the one nor the other but an innocent Game at Ticktack It 's come in fashion again I perceive to Lard lean discourses with grave sentences and therefore that you may not think I am cap't let me remember you of Seneca Infeliciter aegrotat â—…ui plus periculi à medico quam à morbo That Patients case must needs be desperate whose Physitian is a greater plague then his discase And that Church must certainly languish quae nee morbum ferre potest nee remedium that can neither endure the Remedy nor the Malady It 's a sad cheise whether we will die of our wound or our plaister And therefore your great Pretenders might do well to forbear their slighter Applications which do but exasperate the Humour for the more we tamper with improper Means the less success must we expect from those that are proper and proportionable I beseech you Sir answere me with mere seriousness and compassion then this gentleman makes inquiries can you once imagine these Dissenters so irreconciliably sallen out with themselves as to maintein an utter 〈◊〉 to be disputed cut of a prison into Liberty to be argued cut of poverty into plenty out of imminent danger into a safe Retreat Can you really believe them at such deadly sead with their own case and Repose such sworn enemies to their own peace as to be more ambitious of Ruine then 〈◊〉 are of self preservation That they should Court their Miseries with the same passionate Caresses that other 〈◊〉 do their Mistresses that they should run over one anothers Heads for the first grasp of Destruction as if they rod post all upon the switch and spur for a presentation to a warm parsonage that what ever prâ—…mises of fair and honest conveniences are offered yet they are so absurdly obstinate as to hold the Conclusion of self-created vexation Believe it Sir I know you believe it the Non conformists are Men as well as their Neighbours as apprehensive of Trouble as desireus of tranquility They have their Interests and honest concerns too on this side Another world Their backs must be cloathed their families must cat or die and as pudicitiâ formà so conscientiaÌ„ integritate in foro nil emitur A good conscience is not current coyne in this worlds markets It will not purchase one dish of meat though with a good stomack it makes most Excellent sawce and will make the soule a noble feast â—…lone You ought not therefore you cannot entertain a thought sâ—… unreasonable so uncharitable That any thing short of sinning against God and thereby exposing themselves to his displeasure any thing on this side polluting their Consciences and so making their best friend their worst enemy could be a temptation strong enough to prevail with them to expose to apparent hazard what ever they enjoy of accommodation to render their Lives desirable You might perhaps please your self with a thought That the Rhethorick of this Discourse would proselyte one of whose intellectuals you had just cause to think nothing but mean and Contemptible And had I found his Reasons as Cogene as his Style is fluent his Arguments as hard as his words are soft you could not despair of success upon Him who is ever ready to offer himself to be practis'd upon at the satisfaction office But he that would do his work throughly upon an impartial Inquirer must use Arguments of steel as well as words of Oile And the Main thing I complain of in his Declamations is that whilst we surfeit upon Rhetorick we are chapfallen for 〈◊〉 of Reason and the hungry Reader sits picking his teeth like a Spanish Don after an insipid salade as if he had dined upon the oxe at Bartholomew fair If ever you saw the sign of the Porter and Dwarf you have seen the true scale of proportion between his Mellifluous Language and pittiful argumentation And I am resolved that no Importunity shall prevail with me to Accept A well-measured sentence or Laboured period for a Syllogism where two gingling words stand for the propositions And a decent comely Cadence for the Conclusion But this I will freely own that since there is a necessity which yet we know no Reason for that the Nonconformists be Reviled it s some Comfort to be rail'd at in good Language and to meet with Dirty Matter wrapt up in clean linnen And since you will needs have my judgment of the style and dress I shall only say thus much Cum omnis Arrogantia est molesta illa Ingenii Eloquentiae est longè molestissima All Arrogance is indeed nauseous but that of wit and Rhethorick in a polemical treatise is a downright
the truth of the Devotion and siâ—…ccrity of â—…he Religion of those of the same Communio but such and so Quâ—…lified were this Polydore Virgil and this Erasmus and therefore they must needs be supposed Testâ—…s 〈◊〉 compâ—…tent witnesses of the Truth of the Devotion and sincerity of the Religion of those of the same Communion and such at that time was the Church of England And the strength of the Argument depends upon some old stable Maximes which like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are never to be denied As that Ask his Fâ—…llow whether he be a Thief And Birds of a Feather are impartial in â—…lazoning one anothers Vices But yet if he will define Piety by Superstition and Religion by blind Zeal and Devotion by hood-wink'd Obedience Charity by a Merit-mongering Humour laying out it self in uncommanded Fopperies idle Self-Macerations Idolatrous Masses Fool-hardy Pilgrimages Dirges Trentalls Obits Requiâ—…ms and such like Trash and Trumpery I will not contend Let Erasmus and his fellow Polydore pass for irresragable Evidence and the Piety of those days out-shone that of their Contemporaries and Successors amongst the reformed Christians Quantum interignes Luna minores Well but yet the Universal Pastor observed the Sheep of England to bear such good Fleeces and so patiently to submit to the Shearer that he kept a Vigilant Eye over his Flocks and his Vigilancy was Rewarded with the Golden Fleece This indeed quite shames the present Age and dazles our Eyes with the Lustre of those Brightter Times And here we are â—…quainte with two Notable Secrets 1. That the Piety of the English Sheep thâ—…n lay very much in patiently submitting to the Sâ—…carer And surely were men but ingenuous to confess a known truth they could have no cause to reproach the present piety of the English Sheep upon that Account What they could desire more of the poor Sheep then the Fleece unless they would flâ—…a off the skin and eat the flesh I cannot imagine And that can be no profound policy in the Pastor for the Fleece of the living will give more then the skin of the dead It s much better Husbandry to strip them yearly of their Coats then once for all to cut their Throats and it has past for wholsome Doctrine in the days of Yore Boni pastoris est pâ—…cus Tondere non 〈◊〉 But 2. Another deep point is this That the vigilancy of the Pastor consists in looking strictly after the fleece of the Flock In which particular I know no reason why the vigilancy of former times should be so Idolatrously predicated above that of our own We are come at length to the times of the Reformation and whilst he engages in a just and sober commendation of them there 's nâ—…ne shall more chearfully keep pace with Him provided always he â—…allop not too fast and ride us quite out of Breath And the Glories of our English Reformation were as followeth 1. It was the most orderly not brought in with Tumult and Sedition as most changes are Let God alone have the glory of so great a mercy And such was this though indeed the Excellency of a Reformation lies not only or chiefly in the still and silent manner of its Introduction but in its Harmony with the Primitive Rule of Reformation which is to Reduce all things to their Divine Patterns and Originals Peace is mainly valuable for purity And the freedom from noises of Axes and Hammers in the building of Solomons Temple was that they might more severely attend to their Archetype Where God gives Reformers more peace he expects from them more purity And if they may work the safer he expects they should work the better It were great ingratitude to Goâ—… if we should account our Gospel cheap because it came to us so And as much vanity to boast how our Ancestors got it unless we can produce it as pure as they left it to us peaceable 2. It was the most Moderate and Temperate Moderation is a virtue very much commended by those who never intend to exercise it As an old griping Usurer commends his Coin so highly and loves it so dearly that he will not part with one penny The Reformation might be Moderate in a two sold Acceptation either first moderate in our departure from Error and Corruption or secondly Moderate and Temperate in our approaching to the word of God Now to resolve to be moderately reformed either of these ways ought not to be Recorded amongst the Glories of a Church There are few that would be moderately Rich moderately great they fear no excess that way all the danger is least we should be too immoderate and unreasonable in obeying Christs Commandments and conforming to the Apostoâ—…cal Churches The measure of our love to Christ is to love him without measure The degree of our Obedience is to obey in the highest Degree and the Bounds of our Conformity to the Gospel to set our selves no Bounds but what Christ has set us Gods Praise can suffer no Hyperbole his Love need fear no Paroxysme As he that presumes â—…e has Grace enough may do well to question whether he has any Grace so he that is so confident he is Reformed enough shall tempt others to suspect he is very little Reformed There 's more danger of being Lukewarm in Reforming than Scalding hot and though it be easie to be over righteous in imposing our own Inventions it will be impossible to be so in imitating Gods Prescriptions But amongst all the kinds of Moderation that were in the Reformation one small quantity more of Moderation towards their Brethren would have sweetned all and yet they say that wanted not at first but is since much decayed But the Moderation of the first Reformers appears § 1. In that they did not purge out the good because it had been formerly abused as the Humour of some is This indeed argued their singular prudence and discerning Spirit But yet there are some things not evil in themselves but made so by abuse which without imputation of Humorists they might have purged out And this was Hezekiah's Humour if it must be so called who made the Brazen Serpent a Nchushtan and scarcely that when once it had been abus'd to Idolatry which yet had more to plead for it self than those Good Things of which our Enquirer is so Tender I mean the Signature of an old Ius Divinum Whatever is good in it self or made so by Divine positive Law and shall afterwards be abused to superstitious ends and uses we must take some pains to scowr off the filth and file away the rust and to wash away the soil that it has contracted and to vindicate it to its Native Beauty and Integrity but for the Inventions of Men I know no such service we owe them to lie always scrubâ—…ing and scowring and rinsing and when all 's done their obstinate and inveterate Leprosie like that of Gehazi will never be fetch'd out And this was the Humour too of Bishop
Andrews Serm. on Phil. 2. 20. Whatsoever is taken up at the Injunction of Man when it is drawn into Superstition comes under the Compass of the Brazen Serpent and is to be Abolished And the Catholick Moderator who was a greater Friend to Moderation than Reformation was partly of this Humour too When the occasion of a Humane Consâ—…itution â—…ases and the Abuses remain so great it 's no time to wink at them any longer To stand pecking at Abuses which have eaten themselves into the substance of an old Custom is like the endless labour of weeding Ivy out of an old rotten Wall the only way is to dig down the Wall it self Nay the great Legislator of the Iews commanded them utterly to abolish all the Instruments and Utensils of Idolatry and â—…ot to dally in Lopping and Pruning but to chop them up by the Roots Thus Lev. 18. 3. After the doing of the Land of Aegypt ye shall not do and after the doings of the Land of Canaan ye shall not do neither shall ye walk after their Ordinances ye shall do my Iudgments and keep my Ordinances And whether he will call this a Humour or no I know not But this I know R. Moses Bâ—…n Maimâ—…n with whom agreâ—… no small Names assures us that this was one Reason of many Negative Precepts given to the Iews as not to Round the Corners of their Beards not to wear a Garment of Linsey-woolsey nor to sew their Ground with divers Seeds not to eat the Fruit of their Trees for the three first Years c Namely that they might not Symbolize with the Idolatrous Nations Nay further if 〈◊〉 w a Humour the Church of England i not ashameâ—… was not ashamed to own her self of it in her discourse prefix'd to the Liturgy The most weighty cause of the Abolishment of certain Ceremonies was their Abuse She knew well that what was bred in the Bone would never be got out of the Flesh That which was naught in the Egge will never be good in the Bird. It 's not washing but burning that must cleanse the Garment spotted with the Flesh. And therefore she routed whole Legions of these Pompous Trinkets and had doubtless scattered the Reserves and brought up her practise to her own Rule had not some Tender Hearted Moderate Persons stood by wringing their Hands and weeping for Tammuz Oh deal gently deal gently with the poor distressed Ceremonies for their Fathers sake § 2. Another Specimen of their Moderation is That they did not Abolish a Venerable Order or Office in the Church for the ill manners of them that bore it What Venerable Order or Office this should be because he is not so open-hearted as to acquaint us I have something else to do with my Conjectures than to throw'em away upon such desperate uncertainties If it was an Order of Christs Institution the ill manners of those that bore it might well warrant the thrusting them out of the Office but not the Office out of the Church But if it could not justly plead his Authority no pretense of Usefulness to some Imaginary Ends of I know not what Unity and Order will conciliate to it the Honourable Epithete of Venerable or secure its station in the Church of Christ As Christ the only Law-giver of his Church has made abundant provision of Offices and Ordinances in his Church to suit and Answer all the Necessities of Believers so of Officers too to discharge those Offices and administer those Ordinances and there is no need of Mens over-officiousness to supply his pretended defects either in the one kind or in the other Indeed we pray that it would please the Lord of the Harvest to thrust in more Labourers for Number but not for Kind They who shall assume to themselves a power to create New Offices may by parity of Reason claim an Authority to Erect New Officers for it 's a thousand pities that any but Humane Officers should be put to the toyl to Celebrate Humane Ordâ—…nances or that any of Christs Ministers should be put â—…o the drudgery to administer any but Christs own Ordinances for indeed they have their hands full of work enjoyned them by their Lord and Master and can neither spare time noâ—… strength supernumerary to expend in superâ—…uous Exercises As Christ has annex'd no promise of his Presence to any but his own Servants so no promise of success to any but his own Services He that runs upon Christs Errand his Master will bear his Charges He that runs upon his own Head or the Heads of others for ought I know must bear his own It 's a scandalous impeachment of the unquestionable Love Christ always bore to his Church once to imagine that he has not either provided work enough for his Labourers or that he has not apportioned Labourers enow for his Work The same Reproach will it be to his absolute Sovereignty over the Church either to pretend to supply his defects and shortnesses or to institute Nâ—…w Officers and Offices which plainly imply it If it were only Vitium personâ—… the removing the scandalous had been a Plaister broad enough for the â—…ound buâ—… iâ—… it proves Viâ—…um Râ—…i you may purge all the Officers into their Graves before you can purge away the evil of the Office which like Tartar is so â—…aked and Crusted to the sides of the Vessel that till you knock off the Hoopes and take the Frame in pieces no Art of Man will free the Cask from a tang at least of the old mustiness § 3. They were not of Opinion that the Church could not arrive at Primitive Purity unlâ—…ss it were reduced to Primitive Poverty Purity and Poverty I must needs say do Rhime so sweetly that no wise Man would have lost the Melodious â—…hime of two such Harmonious words for a small matter But what if the Church never propounded the Primitive Purity for her Pattern If she did â—…he has run all the things in Controversie out of Distance yet this I will say That if ever the Church be reduced to Primitive Purity without some such humbling Providence and Refining Dispensation which purâ—…ed the Primitive Christians from their â—…ross or the effusion of such Measures of Grace Humility Self-denial Condescension as may Answer Primitive Poverty very wise Men and her very good Friends are much mistaken § 4. Their Moderation appears in this That though they found â—…ome Ceremonies then used that were superstitious and dangerous and thought too many burdensome yet concluded not all Decency in the Service of God was Popish It had been a Conclusion wild to â—…rensie to infer that all Decency was Popish because some Ceremonies were superstitious Nay though they all were so and had accordingly been 〈◊〉 But this had been a sober and moderate Conclusion That because all Popish Ceremonies were superstitious and dangerous the Worship of God might be Decent without them Gods Service was Decent before they were born and would be so again if they
design of its Institution I shall say the less because others will say the more some say it has distracted more Devotions than ever it united And others That it has accommodated them as much as could be expected from a Humane Contrivance that had no more of Christs Authority for its institution and therefore could expect no more of his Blessing for the success That this or any other Liturgy was an Expedient appointed by Christ to unite Mens Devotions he may explain and attempt the proof of at his best leisure But that Christ has not been wanting to his Church in leaving her the proper and sufficient means for the advancing of Devotions and uniting affections we are satisfied and so fully contented that we shall seek no further That Protestants in the days of Edw. VI. â—…d Rejoyce in the Liturgie Dissenters will not deny An English Liturgie left free was better than a Latin Mass Half a Loaf was much better than no Bread To them who had been in such Daâ—…kness and Bondage any Light any Liberty were most grateful The first Original of Liturgies as is express'd in the Preface to our own was that the whole Bible should be read over or the greatest part of it once every Year intending thereby that the Clergie and especially such as were Ministers of the Congregation should by often reading and meditation of Gods Word be sâ—…rred up to Godliness themselves And further that the People by daily hearing of the Holy Scriptures read in the Church should continually profit more in the Knowledge of God But these many Years past this Godly and Decent Order of the Ancient Fathers â—…ath beenâ—… so alter'd bâ—…oken neglected by planting in unceâ—â—ain 〈◊〉 Legendâ—… Responds Verses vain Repetitions Commemorations and â—â—nodâ—…ls that c. And moreover whereas St Paul would have such Language spoken to the People in the Church as they might understand and have profit by hearing the same The Service 〈◊〉 this Church of England hath been read in Latin to the People which they understood not so that they have heard with their Ears only and their Heart Spirit and Mind have not been edified thereby From hence we are evidently taught First that the true Original of Liturgies was only an Order for the Methodical Reading of the Scriptures for the benefit of an ignorant Clergy and sottish People and Secondly that that wherein the Reformers gloried to have out-done Popery and edified the People was that they had procured them their Woâ—…hip in a Language understood When therefore I hear these Popular Harangues How happy this Church and Nation was in Edw. VI. days In what Glory and Majesty the Prince Reigned in what Peace and Concord the Subjects lived how Devout and Pious an Age that was I am ready to think that as the Graves of Patients do hide the faults of Physicians so the follies and vanities of those days are buried in their own graves too for Dr. Heylin had almost perswaded me That the death of that Prince was none of the Infelicities of the Church of England But our Enquirer has set him right again and his days were the Golden Age of Reformation his Reign the Glorious Pattern of Peace and Concord and so shall continue till the next occasion those Men have to reproach the Reformation and then Edw. VI. days shall be an Infelicity again and as great a prejudice to Religion as ever So easie it is for a cunning Orator with his orient Colours to fill up the wrinkles of a furrow'd Face and again to deform the most Beauteous Complexion just as it pleases Master Painter The total summe of all is thus much The Primitive times were Glorious for Piety in Polydore Virgil's days and those of Popery there was a great deal of Sincere Devotion In the beginning of the Reformation affairs were in an excellent posture but now all 's degenerated and a Lukewarm Neutrality and Lazy Indifferency has over-spread the Face and crept over the Heart of Religion And what should be the matter What is the Reason of this sad change Why Men are not so fond of Ceremonies as they used to be and People have resolved against the building of Churches and endowing them But let us hear him Lament the change All Zeal then cold Indifferency now Then all Harmony now all Discord Then the Society of the Church was so venerable that to be cast out by Excommunication was as dreadful as to be Thunder-smitten But now it 's become a matter of some Mens Ambition to be cast out Then few or none but frequented the Church now the Church is become the Conventicle and the Cinventicle the Church as to frequency Then the Liturgie and publick Prayers were counted a principal part of Gods Worship now they aâ—… nothing without a Sermon Then there were few things that were scrupled but now it s become the great point of Sanctity to scruple every thing It will be time for me and the Reader to take our leave of this learned Introduction when we have observed and returned a few things 1. That the true Reason why there is more Discord now than at that time is because there are more difficult terms of Peace and Concord Several things were then in use which were not imposed Many were permitted to discharge their Ministerial Functions without subscription to the new terms and conditions of Communion It was pretty well in Queen Elizabeths Reign before A. 〈◊〉 Whitguift could strain Conformity to it's height and yet they are now screwed much higher Restore Indifferent things to their Ancient Liberty and we shall soon arrive at our Ancient Amity 2. That Excommunication has so much lost its former Authority upon the Conscience and become so like a Brutum Fulmen is to be imputed to these Reasons 1. Because that Thunderbolt is darted out for meer trifles some have been delivered over to Satan for a Groat Now it 's a sure Maxime That nothing will bring a Law sooner into disuse and contempt than the Disproportion of the penalty to the Offence It will be difficult to perswade weak understandings that that can be of God which has but one sort of punishment for all sorts of Crimes and the same Rigour for Vertues as for Vices To be delivered up for a Penny exposes to the same inconvenience as if it were a Pound and it shall fare as ill with him that scruples at a Ceremony as with him that commits Whoredom and some say the former has more evil in it than the latter though you throw in Drunkenness Swearing and half a dozen more such into the reckoning 2. It has been made an Engine to gratifie some Mens Passions and exonerate their Spleen upon the Innocent and nothing renders Iupiters Thunder more despicable than when the wretched Salmoneus shall dare to imitate it 3. It has been so frequently practised in pecuniary matters that Men discern it not to be a Spiritual Weapon Money has been a Lock to shut Men
forwards that it was the easiest thing in the world to trip up his heels such a Novice was this Austin all which I could easily believe when it shall be proved that he wrote the first and second Part of the serious Enquiry Really that Man must have amassed a vast stock of confidence that shall hope with one puff of contemptuous Breath to blow away that fair heap of Repute that that Fathers Name has gathered in so many Centuries and he must have an over-weening conceit of his own Rhetorick that can presume to perswade this Learned Age that he was so insignificant a Ceremony so great a Trifler The Papists with incredible zeal have struggled for him the Protestants have tooth and nail wrestled to draw him into their Tents all parties have ambitiously courted his suffrage at last comes one Hugh Grâ—…ot and our Enquirer and they cashier him as an inconsiderable fellow not worth the whistling But Luther had this great Stone thrown at his Head by Bellarmine And the Learned Dr. Field thus puts by the Blow On the Church Book 3. Ch. 42. Luther says he was as worthy a Divine as the World had any in those Times or in many Ages before and that for clearing sundry Points of greatest moment in our Christian Profession much obscured and entangled before with the intricate disputes of the Schoolmen all succeeding Ages shall be bound to Honour his Happy Memory That herein he proceeded by degrees and in his latter Writings disliked that which in his former he did approve is not so strange a thing Did not Austin the greatest of all the Fathers and the worthiest Divine the Church of God ever had since the Apostles time write a whole Book of Retractations Did we not carefully observe what things he wrote whilst a Presbyter and what when made a Bishop What before he enter'd into the Conflict with Pelagius and what afterwards Did he not formerly attribute the Election of those that were chosen to Eternal Life to the fore-sight of Faith which afterwards he disclaimed as a meer Pelagian conceit And would it not vex a Man of our Enquirers Humour that Austin the Presbyter should be more Orthodox than Austin the Bishop The Truth is St. Austin disagrees no more with himself than it became a Wise Man who by long studying the Scriptures and the Primitive Fathers had gained a more concocted and well digested Knowledge of Religion his Retractations were never laid in his Dish but interwoven amongst those Excellencies which Crowned his Learned Head before Now. A piece of such self-denial it was that a proud heart could not bear unless more politick Considerations turned the scale This last Age has few Instances of such an Ingenuity as will confess it self Truths Prisoner though it abounds with too many that surrender themselves Captives to base Lusts and worldly Interest Their own Grotius professes he was progressive and very prone to dislike what a little before he was well pleased with and the Reasons of his Change were evident to all the World § 3. A third Branch of this Charge is That St. Austin disagrees with the Church of England There are indeed a knot of Gentlemen that in spight of Right and Truth are resolved to be the Church of England and with these St. Austin and the Ancient Fathers have no very good correspondence nor are they ambitious of it But that the Ancient Church of England had very high thoughts of Austins Judgment is from hence evident that she quotes his opinion in one at least of the Articles of her Faith and justifies her Authority from his Doctrine Art 29. But yet if the Church should be a weary of him as I am confident she never will and has no further service to command him 't is but transmitting him with Letters of safe Conduct into Holland where the Divines of the Synod of Dort's perswasion will give him better Quarter and a most Cordial welcome and there 's no harm done § 4. Another Branch of this tedious Charge is That he was a Devout Good Man but whose Piety was far more commendable than his Reason Fuit utilis ad monita danda piae vitae ad Scripturas interpretandas satis infoelix That is The Man was a well meaning Zealot One that according to his dim light meant honestly but he never had wit enough to write Obscaene Annotations upon the Canticles he poor Man was little versed in Anacreons Ribaldry nor had much studied Ovid de Arte Amaendi he was a meer stranger to Catullus and Martial and therefore must needs be Satis nay Nimis ad interpretandas Scripturas infâ—…lix The most wretched unhappy Creature that ever bungled at a Text of Scripture It was never my unhappiness but once to hear the learned A. B. Usher reproach'd and it was by a Grave divine of the same Temper and upon the same Account That the Primate was indeed an Honest Man but one of no depth of Iudgment We need not search far for a Reason why these Men cry down Austins Reason In short 't is but to be reveng'd on him for crying down theirs for there 's a certain Maleporrsaway thing as blind as a Beetle and as giddy as a Goose which they have Nick-named Reason and this Austin decries with some severity Thus the Learned Iuell against Harding Art 4. Diris 17. observes That Austin speaking of the Scripture judging Mysteries by Reason faith thus Haec consuetudo periculosa est per Scripturas Divinas enim multo tutius Ambulatur And again Si Ratio contra Divinarum Scripturarum authoritatem redditur quamvis acuta sit fallit verisimilitudine vera enim esse non potest If Reason be brought against the Authority of the Scriptures though it may seem â—…xte and witty yet 't is but fallacious under the shadow of Truth for 't is impossible it should be True And for this he quotes Ad Marcâ—…llinum Ep. 7. And let the Reader have a special care of the Quotation for the Ecclesiastical Politicians sake But that our Austin was no such Shallow-brain'd-fellow no such half-witted-piece as those Divines judge it their Interest to represent him I shall call in the Testimony of Ierome one whose Learning and Judgment may at least counterballance those of the Enquirer I have always says he to Austin Reverenced thy Holiness Increase in Vertue Thou art Famous through the World Catholicks Reverence thee as the Re-builder of the Ancient Faith And I promise you he must be no Blockhead that shall be able to Redintegrate the Ruinous Doctrine of the Christian Church But I shall knock all dead with an infallible and therefore irrefragable Testimony 't is no less I assure you than that of Coelestinus Bishop of Rome We have always accounted Austin a Man of Holy Memory for his Life and Merits of our Communion whom we have long since remembred to have been of so great Knowledge that he was amongst the best Masters It would be impertinent
to tell you how Panlinus Bishop of Nela calls him the great Light set upon the Candlestick of the Church or how Prosper gives him the Character of a very sharp Wit clear in his Disputations Catholick in his Expositions of the Faith But to what purpose should we control him with inferior Evidences after that of a Pope or to what end Subpoena our little Witnesses after these Grandees For surely he that will break Austins Pate will not fear to dash out Prospers Brains § 5. Another Branch of this endless Indictment is That being hard put to it by the Manichees on the one hand and the Pelagians on the other he was not able to extricate himself Se in illas Ambages induxit ut non invenerit qua se extricaret You see I hope that if ever we should want an able Head to translate Grotius into English our Enquirer is the Man Never was poor Man so bewildred so sadly intangled in the Bryers as this Austin between the Manichâ—…an fatal Necessity and the Pelagian Contingency one while he 's just a splitting upon the Seylla of Free-will and whilst he goes a Point or two too near the wind he 's ready to be swallow'd up of the desperate Gulf of Stoical Necessity I shall say no more let the Reader seriously peruse St. Austins Works and when he has done study this Enquirers Volumes and by that time he may be satisfied whether all his Rhetorick and Confidence will make him a competent Judge of St. Austins Learning § 6. His Conclusion of his Charge is That he was rather forced into his Opinions than made choice of them Hâ—… whose Tongue is his own may employ it how he pleases but this slander carries its Consutation as well as its Confidence in its Forehead 'T is as if we should conclude That Men become Enemies because they have shed one anothers Blood whereas most think they wound and shed one anothers Blood because they were first Enemies It was the Zeal of this Learned and Holy Person for the cause of God that put him upon Study that drew him out in the open Field against the open Enemies of the Grace of God who might otherwise have slept secure in a whole skin Dispute cleared up Truths to him but he was not forced from any or into any I shall conclude this Head with that of Bradwardine another famous Champion in the same Cause with Austin Eccè enim quod non nisi tactus dolore Cordis refero sicutâ—…lim contra unum Dei Prophetam octingenti quinquag inta Prophetae Real similâ—…s reperti sunt quibus innumerabilis populus adhaerebat Ita hodiè in hâc causâ Quot O Domine hodiè cum Pelagio pro libero Arbitrio contra gratuitam gratiam tuam pugnant contra Paulum Pugilem gratiae specialem Exurge ergo Domine sustine protege robora consolare seis enim quod nusquam virtute mei sed tuâ consisus tantillus aggredior tantam causam Behold which I cannot mention without griâ—…f of Heart as of old against one Prophet of God eight hundred and fifty of the Prophets of Baal and such like were found to whom a great multitude of People did adhere so in this Cause How many O Lord at this day contend for Freewill with Pelagius against thy free Grace and against St. Paul that Famous Champion of Grace Arise therefore O Lord uphold defend strengthen comfort me for thou knowest that not trusting to my own strength but thine so weak a Combatant has engaged in so great a Cause ¶ 2. His second assault is against the Synod of Dort A Task as needless as the Answer itself and such as will not quit for cost for having already routed Austin this poor Synod must fall in course with him and be buried under his Ruines That it was a Dutch Synod I cannot deny Dort is and always was in the Province of Holland and therefore to pare off as much needless Controversie as may be let him Triumph in our Concession and make his best on 't The Synod of Dort was a Dutch Synod That England was not within the Iurisdiction of Dort I shall easily admit Nay I can be contend that it be exempâ—…ed from the Popes Westâ—…rn Patriarchate if Grotius B. Branâ—…hal and some others would agree to it The Question then is How far the Church of England was or is concerned in at Agreement with or obliged by the Decrees thereof That King Iames sent thither several of his most Learned and Eminent Divines premunited with an Instrument and ther by impowred to sit hear debate conclude upon those Arduous Points that should be brought before them I think is not denied but by those who deny there ever was any such Synod That they did according to their Instructions go thither sit there debate upon and at last subscribe to the determinations of that Convention is also out of dispute If their subscription did not formerly oblige the Nation yet it evidently proves what was the Iudgment of the Nation Nor do I think it had been for the Honour of this Church to have been of that Religion because those Delegates had subscribed but they therefore subscribed because they were in their own Judgments conformable to that of the Church of the Religion and Judgment of the Council There had been formerly one Barâ—… in the University of Cambridge who delivered himself some what broadly in favour of the Arminian Novelties Hereupon the Heads of that University sent up Dr. Whitaker and Dr. Tyndall to A. B. Whitguift that by the interposition of his Authority those errours might be crush'd in the Egge which were but New-laid as yet and not hatch'd in the bosom of this Church The Zealous Prelate presently convenes some of the most Judicious Divines of his Province and Nov. 10. 1595. by their Advice draws up the Lambeth Articles coming up to if not going beyond the Dordrectan Creed Forthwith he transmits these Articles to his Brother of the other Province the A. B. of York who receives and approves them So that now we have the Primate of England and the Primate of All England owning more than virtually the Decrees of that Synod and surely two such persons so learned as having been both of them Professors of Divinity in the University and of so great Power in the Church must be presumed if any to understand the true meaning of the 39 Articles in the Five Controverted Points After all this King Iames allows the inserting them into the Articles of the Church of Ireland and it were some what difficult to believe that a Prince so wise and learned would allow that Doctrine for Orthodox in one of his Kingdoms which was reputed Heretical in the other unless we will say they were erroneous at home but purged themselves like French-Wines at Sea by crossing St. Georges Channel or that the malignity or latent poison of them was suck'd out by the sanative Complexion of
those Errours in time and not only of those Errours but of Gross Popery like by such means in time to Creep in amongst them as they found by late experience it dangerously begun I say not that the Articles of the Church encline to Popery nay they detest it but this I say that if they did encline to Arminianism they must to Popery If they do not why are they with allowance so misconstrued if they do then the secession of the Non-conformists is thereby justified Having therefore made this Objection for the Dissenters he will give them their Answer and prove the unreasonableness of this suggestion That the Church of England approaches too near the Superstitions of Rome 1. It s certain says he there hath been little or no Alteration made either in the Doctrine Discipline or Liturgy since the first Reformation Little or none Does he mean for the better or the worse To say there has liâ—…le or none been made for the better is a Commendation so cold that silence had been more an Honour than such praise The Reformation was begun as the times would bear A fair Copy was set for posterity to imitate never dreaming that their Rudiments should have been our utmost perfection That their first step should have been our Hercules Pillars and a Ne plus ultra to all future endeavours To say there has been little or no Alterâ—… made for the worse is a more modest way of Defamation but â—…enters have many things to say to this § 1 That there have been consâ—…ble Alterations made in the Articles themselves if not as they remain in Scriptis yet as they are publickly interpreted for we subscribe not to a heap of Letters and Syllables but to the sense and meaning of certain propositions as they are owned by the Church What the Church owns say they we can no otherwise understand then by those Writings which appear every day Licensed and approved by those of greatest Authority in the Church Now if we may judge of the meaning of the Articles by those Writings They are as much Altered as if Negatives had been changed into Affirmatives or Affirmatives into Negatives In former times they were generally subscribed because the most scrupulous were generally informed by those of most eminent place in the Church that the meaning was found but now say they we are informed otherwise we see our mistake the words have a different and contrary meaning and therefore we must be excused in subscription 2. They will say That what the Enquirer calls little or nothing is a very great something for it concerns us not so much what is put into the Liturgy or Rituals as what is made a Condition of Communion whiâ—…h the Church Now in the beginning of the Reformation though many things were in use yet few imposed as the necessary Terms of enjoying a station in that Society Things supposed indifferent were used as in different In the 13th of Q. Eliz. subscription is only required to Doctrinals and such Subscribers though not ordained by Prelates were admitted to officiate as Ministers of the Church of England But now subscription is peremptorily required to all and every thing contain'd in the Book of Commonprayer The Book of ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons wherein are considerable Doctrinal Additions and Alterations such as the different Orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons supposed to be distinct jure divino A Doctrine which A. B. Cranmer understood not as is evident from his M. S. exemplified in Dr. St. his Irenicum In the beginning of the Reformation Ceremonies were retained to win upon the people who were then generally Papists and doted upon old usages and not as the necessary conditions of Communion They were retained not to shut out of Dores the Protestants which is their present use but to invite in the Romanists which was their Original end but there 's nothing more common then for Institutions to degenerate and be perverted from the first Reasons of their usage and yet still to plead the Credit of their Originals Thus Indulgences and Remission of sins were first granted to all that would engage in the Holy War to recover the Sepulchre of Christ out of the hands of the Saracens but in process of time they were dispensed to them who would massacre the Waldenses and Albigenses and such as could not obey the Tyranny of the Romish saction Thus was the Inquisition first set up to discover the Hypocritical Moors in Spain but the edge of it since turned against the Protestants And thus were the Ceremonies perverted at first made a Key to let in the Papists and now made a Lock to shut out Protestants What a glorious work must it then be to abolish those Engines that seeing they are become weak to do Good they may be rendred as impotent to do mischief Imitating herein the Apostle who once circumcised Timothy to gain the weak Iews yet stoutly refused to Circumcise Titus least he should stumble the weak Gentiles 3. The Ceremonies its true crept into the Church pretty early yet they laid no weight no stress upon them It was decreed by the Councel of Sardica that none should be made a Bishop 〈◊〉 â—…e that had passed the Inferiour Orders and continued in them for some time and yet we see they insisted not upon such a Canon when it might prejudice the Church and exclude useful persons from the Ministry and therefore Nectarius was chosen Patriarch of Constantinople not only being a Lay-man but unbaptized As our Enquirer commends and admires the Churches Wisdom in forming her Doctrinal Articles that men of various perswasions might subscribe them so her tenderness and wisdom had been no less admirable had she recommended Ceremonies with such an Indifferency that they who were passionately sond of them might be humoured and they that protest they scruple them in Conscience towards God might fairly let them alone for it can be no dishonour to a Church to be as Lax in Ceremonies of humane constitution as in Doctrines of Divine Revelation 4. Dissenters say from good grounds that that which makes all an insupportable burden viz. That we must subscribe according to the clause of the 20th Article that The Church has power to decree Rites and Ceremonies is added since the Beginning of the Reformation And this they think heavier than all the Ceremoniâ—…s put together many could practice a thing supposing it indifferent in it self and having a real tendency to a greater good who can by no means subscribe that the Church has such a power to take away my liberty I have taken notice that in the Ancient Bibles of this Church the Contents of Psalm 149. ran thus The Prophet exhorteth to praise God for his Love to his Church and for his benefits But in the latter days we had got high ranting Language The Prophet exhorteth to praise God for his Love to his Church and for that power that he hath given to his Church over the
Consciences of Men This is no little Addition 5. They will tell him that the number of Non-conformists was considerable from the very Infancy of the Reformation though it could not be expected that their names should be inserted in the Church Calender amongst the Confessors and that Non-conformity has run a line parallel with the National Reformation to this day But says our Enquirer The main quarrel is that we are not Always Reforming No that 's not the main nor any Quarrel that Dissenters have with them Let but Reformation be made in what is necessary and as often as is necessary and I know none disposed to Quarrel It were better never to be sick than to have a Remedy yet upon supposition of a Disease in my mind there 's nothing like an approved Medicine It 's more desirable not to make Shipwrack than to escape by a â—…lank yet when a wrack is made he deserves to sink that despises a subsidiary Plank If it were possible for Churches not to contract corruption I know no need because no use of Reformation Some Men hate Reformation as the Bear hates the Stake They pretend that the Reformation of the Church will discompose the State But the best way to preserve the Iron is to scowr away the Rust A dirty Face may be Wash'd and yet the skin never rub'd off and the House swept and never thrown out of the Windows They plead again That no Reformation can be made but what will notably diminish the Revenues Grandeur and Credit of the Church And this Objection has more real weight in it than all the rest This is the Capital grievance Hinc illae Lachrymae But does it not argue ae Saleable and Mercenary Soul that would Barter away Purity for Pluralities The most severe Reformation would leave too much if any thing for such an Objector what ever have been the specious Pretences this has been the real obstruction of an effectual Reformation Kings and Parliaments have always been inclinable towards a Redress of Exorbitances but the Covetousness and Pride of Churchmen have ever impeded their Pious endeavours A Parliament in Queen Eliz. Reign as we read in Dr. â—…llers Ch. History was bringing in a Bill against Pluralities and A. B. Whitguift sends a Letter to her Majesty signifying they were all undone Horse and Foot 〈◊〉 it passed Observe how he deplores the miserable state of the Church The woful and distressed estate whereinto we are like to fall forceth us with grief of heart in most Humble manner to â—…ave your Majesties most Soveraign Protection Why what â—…s the â—…ter were they making a Law against Preaching No! or against Common-Prayer By no means what ailes then the distressed Man why We therefore not as Directors but as Humble Remembrancers beseech your Highnesses favourable beholding of our present state and what it will be in time if the Bill against Pluralities should take place No question it must be utter extirpation of the Christian Religion Thus in another Letter to the same Queen he complains with Lamentations that would soften a heart of Marble That they have brought in a Bill giving liberty to marry at all times of the year without restraint well but if men be obnoxious to the evil all times of the year why should they not use the Remedy that God has appointed all times of the year The Apostle who tells us It s better to marry then burn did not except any time of the year But why may not a Parliament make a Law as well as the Ecclesiastical Court give a License that it shall be Lawful to marry at any time of the year Ay but the Parliament will make the Law for nothing whereas those other will have Money for their Liceâ—…ses But he proceeds It s Contrary to the old Canons continually observed by us Why but is it not Contrary to the old Canons to take Money for a License Yes but It tendeth to the slander of the Church as having hitherto maintained an Errour And now you have the bottom of the Bag All Reformation must touch the Clergy either in their Credits or Profits and it were better never to put a hand to that work then to touch either of those with a little finger 2. His second Answer is All is not to be esteemed Popery that is held by the Church of Rome we are not to depart further from her then she has departed from the Truth and those things wherein they Agree are such and no other as were generally received by All Christiaen Churches and by the Roman before it lay under any iâ—… character Many things might be returned but I shall say little only 1. As all is not to be accounted Popery which is held by the Church of Rome so neither is all to be accounted Schism which hot men in their passions and prejudices will call so Let that be now accounted Popery which in the beginning of the Reformation by the most eminent Divines of this Nation was so accounted and he will hear no more I presume of that Argument 2. I would be satisfied whether Rome departed from the Truth Simplicity and Complexion of the Evangelical Worship when she loaded the Church with such multitudes of unnecessary Ceremonies and Superstitions If not why did the Church of England depart from her in Any if so why did she not depart in All 3. Why should we be so tender of departing from an Abominable Strumpet were it not more Christian to say we will depart from the Reformed Churches abroad no further then they have departed from the Truth and then the Argument will be ingenuously strong rather to part with Ceremonies that we may Syncretize with Protestants then retain them that we may hold fair Quarter with Papists 4. It cannot be made appear that those things wherein the Agreement yet abides were generally received by all Christian Churches Kneeling at the Sacrament was not received in the Church till Rome came under an ill and most odious Character Many Centuries after the Apostles knew it not and when it was first entertain'd it was accommodated to the grand Idol of Transubstantiation But our Enquirer has a mind to be Resolved in a few Questions for his own private satisfaction 1. Qu. If there be such a dangerous affinity between the Church of England and the Romish how came it to pass that the blessed Instruments of our Reformation A. B. Cranmer and others laid down their lives in Testimony to this against that I meddle nor with his dangerous Affinities nor Câ—…nsanguinities nor whether they come within the Prohibited Degrees or no what I am concern'd in is his argument which may receive this short Answer They laid down their lives in testimony against those Errours wherein they differ'd and not against those wherein they might be agreed They might possibly agree in many and yet differ in so many as might cost them their Lives There was difference enough to justifie their opposition and yet
there might be Agreement enough to justifie a modest complaint I once heard a person upon his Arraignment for Burglary plead strongly that he had served his Majesty faithfully in his Wars the judge I remember took him up somewhat too short Friend you are not Indicted for your Loyalty but for breaking a House The Non-conformist agree with the Church of England in more and more material points then England can be supposed to Agree with Rome and yet all his smooth and oylie Oratory will not perswade the Dissenters that they suffer not from their Brethren The difference between the Church of England and Rome is very considerable it is Essential it constitutes them two distinct Societies and such as cannot Coalesce without fundamental alterations in the one and yet there might possibly remain some things which might speak too near an Approach I should be loath to be misunderstood and do question more my own infelicity to cloath my Conceptions with apposite expressions then the Acuteness of the Reader and therefore I shall give him this general Advertisement to prevent mistakes I am not concerned to Assert that this Church Approaches too near that of Rome but modestly examining whether the Enquirer has â—…roved his Negative that she does not and therefore does not because Cranmer Ridley c. laid down their lives in Testimony against Romish Corruptions I deny not the Consequent but the Consequence Not that this Church maintains a due distance from Rome but that it appears true upon this Reason because the bloody Papists put many of her Ancient Fathers and Zealous Children to death of whose weakness I am the more confident being assured by good History That they have most barbarously persecuted and murdered those who differ'd from them in some single Point whilst they held communion with them in all the rest The Church of England I say it again is departed from Rome but yet it may be true § 1. That some amongst us have laid such foundations as being regularly and proportionably advanc'd in their superstructures will either re-introduce that Abomination or condemn Cranmers separation In the grand Debate p 92 93. The Reverend and Learned Divines lay down these Rules 1. That God has given not only a Power but a Command â—…lso of Imposing whatsoever shall be truly Decent and becoming his Worship 2. That not Inferiours but Superiours must judge what iâ—… truly Convenient and Decent Now allow but the Pope and â—…is Consistory these favourable Concessions and it cannot reasonably be deny'd them by those who claim them and all their Injunctions will be justified and Cranmer with his Brethren found Will-sufferers who charg'd their persecutors to be Will-worshippers The Pope commands us to worship an Image nor terminating our Adoration therein but letting it slide nimbly through that Medium to the Adorable Object which it represents and all this as August and Decent and a great exciter of Devotion a mighty mover of Pious Affections I suppose my self to be one of those Inferiours who scruple the lawfulness of this practise He who is my supposed Superiour asks me whether I do not own it my Duty to Worship God I plainly own the Affirmative but I am not satisfied in the Mode of Adoration He answers readily The Modes of Worship are but indifferent Circumstances in their use very Decent and commanded too by those who have power to Impose and Iudge what is truly Decent I Rejoyn again This is very strange Doâ—…trine I have drunk in other apprehensions from my Mothers Milk But he stops my Mouth and turns me to the very Page where some of our most eminent Divines of late years do plead on their behalf what he pleads on his But further he Commands Holy Oyl Holy Water Consecrated Salt Crâ—…m Spittle Insuffâ—…ations Exorcisms with abundance of â—…ine Dâ—…es to be used in or with or in order to Baptism The inferiour scruples these as meâ—…t fooleries too childish and light to be used in Gods Worship But the Superiour takes you up You are not Competent Judges it belongs to him to Impose and Judge what is Deâ—… and such he has judged these and as such imposed them and your work is not Disputation but Obedience When B. Boâ—…ner heard thâ—… in â—…r Reformaâ—…ion we had reserved some of the old Ceremonies he answered with a smile They haâ—…e begun to Tast of our Brâ—… and in time they 'l eat of our Beef The old Crafty Fox knew well that where there was a Nest Egge left the Priest and Friers would Lay to it the whole Racemation of their Superstitions They that take away a practise and do not renounce the Principle upon which 't is built do but lop off some of the more Luxuriant Branches whilst the Tree is alive or turn his Holiness out of doors and yet give him the Key in 's Pocket to return at his leasure or pleasure And he might be too hasty that said The English forced the Pope out of dâ—…rs so hastily that he had not time to take his Garmenâ—… with him I confess I have been puzled what Answer to give to a Cavilling Popish Priest when he asks so pertly why the Priest may not put his Fingers in the Childs Ears in Token that it shall hearken diligently to the Word of God why not put Salt upon the Childs Tongue methinks I see how the poor wretch screws and twist up its Mouth in Token that its Speech shall be seasoned with Salt as well as make an Airy Cross over its Fore-head in Token that it shall confess a Crucified Christ If we will give scope to our wanton extravagant fancies and set our pregnant inventions on work we might easily excogitate a thousand such pretty ingenious knacks as might bear some Imaginary Allusion to some Spiritual Grace or Duty but amongst them all I wonder no lucky Fancy never stumbled upon 't to put a Decent Banner with St. Georges â—…ss upon 't into the Childs Hand in Token that it should manfull and not like a Child fight under Christs Banner 2. Quest. How comes it to pass that all those of the Roman Communion withdraw themselves from ours and all true Protestants think it their Duty to absent themselves from their Worship Physitians do carefully observe the Indications of Nature and therefore observing that our Enquirers mind stands strongly inclined to a little pleasantness why should we check the Humour How comes it to pass Truly I neither know that it does come to pass nor why it comes to pass I am certain I have read or heard that for the first 12. years of Queen Eliz. the Papists came to Church and if they have knock'd off since and why they have knock'd off I wait for an Answer from this Enquirer King Edw. VI in his Proclamation to the Devenshire Rebels tells them That if the Mass were good in Latin it could not be bad by being Translated into English It could not be objected as 't was against the Commedian
in the Judgment of the Dissenters sinful in their use and exercise The Dissenters say they cannot stop the Breach unless they make a wider in their own Consciences If now they who seem so Zealously to stand in the Gap to keep out Popery would come out of the Gap and make it up which else will let in Popery we shall thank them more foâ—… making up one than standing in and keeping open a thousand I know very well that many Men do oppose the Introduction of Popery and there 's cause for 't There 's a Popery that would take away their Wives and some fear it and others hope it upon that account There is a Popery that would subject them to a forrein Metropolitan and make them trot to Rome upon every â—…leevless errand that would let strangers like Locusts and Caterpillers into the Land to eat up every green Herb that would drain the Thames into Tyber and derive all the Blood and Spirits of the Nation into another Channel Caesar had rather be Primus in Villâ quam Secundus in RomaÌ„ Every one may sooner hope to learn A B C than to arrive so far as P A distance then there is and yet the opposition against Popery may not prove the distance so great but there may be too great an Agreement The State of Venice did once expel the Iesuits and yet they expelled not Popery the French were long before they entertained the Decrees of Trent yet still they were Popish I quote them for no more than this that its evident there may be fierce opposition upon some particular accounts when yet there may be a great Harmony upon other accounts Many oppose a Popery coming Top and Top Gallant that yet would compound for a Popery upon handsome Terms This last Question has strangely transported him into a most passionate Panegyrick in commendation of some Church-men for some rare exploit or other which by all the circumstances must be the procuring The late Proclamation against Dissenters An Act so glorious that no Age shall ever wear out its memory This is it which challenges from posterity Statues of Corinthian Brass and will embalm their memories to all succeeding Generations He had lately exposed the Ignorance of those simple Men of Dort that they knâ—…w not how to make God just unless they made him cruel too And what was their reproach must now be these Mens Glory That they know not how to make the Magistrate Great unless they make him Cruel nor Glorious unless they destroy a considerable part of Mankind Methinks Church-men should not be so ambitious to survive their own Funerals by such Epitaphs Here lye they who first taught Religion to be unmerciful This high Encomium is attended in the rear with a severe charge against the Dissenters That they were instrumental in procuring a toleration and suspension of the Laws for Popery It is true Consciencious Dissenters desire not the execution of sanguinary Laws upon Papists merely for their Religion there are proper ways enow to obviate the cursed tendencies of their principles without dishonouring our own Nor ought the modest desire of a sober liberty for the exercise of their own Consciences to be interpreted an endeavour for a Toleration of Popery They ever hoped that Governours know the difference between Dissenting Protestants who agree with the Church of England in the Essentials of Christianity and Recusants who substantially differ and the wisdom of his gracious Majesty in his Declaration for Indulgence made a clear distinction between them though some wise Church-men could not see it Protestants however differing in some things from the present establishment yet have no forreign Interest no transmarine dependences They own no Exotick Head that may Alienate their affections from their natural Prince and leige Lord their private peace and happiness is wrapt up in the general Happiness of the King and Kingdom Any eye but that of Envy might have discovered a sensible difference between these parties That Protestant Dissenters were instrumental to procure such a Toleration for Popery is therefore a slander so unworthy that none would have forged but they who never baulk an Officious untruth when it may subserve their main design to render the Non-conformists Odious that so the instruments of their destruction may not be fetter'd with the reluctancy of their restif Consciences But we envy not them the Glory since they aspire after it of reducing their Brethren to primitive poverty because they endeavour primitive purity let them enjoy the Glory that no humble under-woods can grow under the shadow of their spreading Branches let them take the glory of the Gardiners shears which snips off every aspiring Twig that would mount towards Gospel simplicity above its fellows such is the glory of an old A king Tooth that is in insupportable pain till it may either chew the flesh of the Consciencious or come under the Discipline of De la Rocâ—…'s instrument For when His Majesties Grace had for a while 〈◊〉 them to the Rack-staves they were ready to break the Bridle till they could come at the Manger Let it be a Quaere then whether it be more probable to Cure or encrease the old suspicions of some mens inclinations to Popery That they could never be at â—…ase whilst their Protestant Brethren had any in their native Countrey I shall not need to add to all this says he That there are as understanding men in Religion persons of as holy Lives and of as comfortable Consciences of this Churches Education as are any where to be found in the world besides They who are Masters or however owners of such comfortable Consciences do surely know what it costs to get what care it requires to keep and what torment it is to lose a comfortable Conscience He that shall swear a thousand times by the Great Osyris that he has a comfortable Conscience and yet shall thrust other men upon the turn-pikes of sin and force them to act against their light that shall rail at or persecute them for worshipping God according to their convictions of Duty from the Word of God must give me leave to be Incredulous and earnestly desire him to find out some Solifidian That can believe the Moon to be made of a green Cheese Let him farther consider § 1. That it s not the main considerable in Conscience that it be Comfortable but that it be so upon solid grounds The Apostle Peter 1 Ep. 3. 15. commands us to be ready to render a reason of the hope tha is in us If the reason of our hope comfort and confidence be not as strong as the building is high the Towring Edifice will tumble down upon our own heads It behoves us to be as solicitous about the spring of our Comforts as the sweetness of the streams And I am the more earnest with this Enquirer to look after the comfortableness of his own Conscience for as for the Religious and Orthodox Divines of this Church I
a Minister for such are the low thoughts Men have of their Souls that they will intrust them with the most raw and unexperienc'd Novice Hitherto his discourse has proceeded upon a supposition that the Charge had been true yet the Inference he thinks would have been false but now he comes roundly to the denial of the Charge and a laborious confutation of it to no purpose 2. Combined wit and malice says our Enquirer shall not be able to fix any scandal upon the Body of the English Clergy I hope they never shall Nor have I met with any so absurd and disingenuous as for the sake of some though many individuals to cast an aspersion upon a whole Society excepting those who have least Reason If the Body of the Clergy be Innocent all the Combinations of wit and malice shall not be able to Eclipse their unspotted Innocency that it shall break more gloriously through those envious Clouds which had obscured its brightness and if they be Peccant all the combined Wit and Rhetorick in the World wil not wipe away the guilt and filth it must be Repentance and Reformation that can only be their Compurgators 1. First then concerning their Learning a thing that has been hitherto indisputable and may continue so still if the weakness of this Gentlemans proofs do not render the truth of the proposition suspected But hear his Arguments 1. If the Preaching of the present Age be not better than that of the former I would fain know the Reason why the Homilies are in no greater Reputation And so would I too In those Ancient Sermons there are Two things especially remarkable the Phrase or Cloathing and the matter or substance of them 'T is true Time and the growing refinings of the English Language have superannuated the former but why the latter should also become obsolete I would as fain know a Reason as himself and that from himself who is best able to account for his own Actions I assure him I would not exchange the Old Truth for New Phrases and Modern Elegancy I had rather see Plain Truth in her sober homely garb than gawdy error spruced up with all the fineries of the Scene and Stage The weakness of the former Clergy was the great Reason that introduced both Liturgies and Homilies And if the present Clergy are grown so strong that they can despise one of their Crutches perhaps in time they may go alone without both Those Cogent Reasons pretended for the necessity of the one will hold as strongly for the other 't is full as easie to disseminate Heresies to vent crude raw undigested Non-sense in the Pulpit as the Desk When I hear any of our Enquirers Sermons I shall summon up my best Reason to make a judgment whether he has so infinitely â—…ut-dene the Ancient Homilies as he pretends In the mean time I fear the Language is not so much polished and tricked up as the Doctrine is defiled nor have they shamed the Homilies so much in briskness òf Fancy quaintness of Words and smoothness of Cadencies as the Homilies have shamed them in plainness and soundness of Truth I would mind our Author of the last words of the second part of the Homily of Salvation and though he may mend the Phrase I doubt he will hardly mend the Doctrine So that our Faith in Christ as it were saith thus unto us It is not I that tako away your sins but it is Christ only and to him I send you for that purpose forsaking therein all your good Vertues Words Thoughts and Works and only putting your trust in Christ. In the Homily of the Place and time of Prayer the Church praises God for purging our Churches from Piping Chanting as wherewith God is so sore displeased and the House of Prayer defiled Hence perhaps some would conclude that the true Reason why we have forsaken the use is because we have forsaken the Doctrine of the Homilies 2. Arg. All Protestants abroad admire the English way of Preaching insomuch as some forrein Congregations 〈◊〉 I am credibly informed that was wisely inserted dâ—…ray the charges of the Travels of their Pastors into England that they may return to them instructed in thâ—… Method of the English Preaching For the Logick of this Paragraph I shall not so much as examine it All Protestants admire English â—…reaching for some Congregations send to be instructed â—…n't There 's the all and some of this Argument Again Protestants admire English Preaching ergo they admire the Conformists Preaching for All Dissenters preach in an unknown tongue Again they send them hither to be instructed in the method of English Preaching all the excellency then lies in the method which is to Preach without Doctrine Reason and Use And now methinks I hear a Pastor of a Congregation in Holland returning home with a flea in his Ear and giâ—…ing an account of the expence of his time and charges Beloved we have been sadly mistaken all this while for our Synod of Dort was a pack of silly ignorant fellows that knew not how to make God Iust unless they made him Cruel or Man humble unless they made him a Stock or a Stone As for us we are informed that we are not true Ministers of Iesus Christ as wanting a thing I think they call it Episcopal Ordination and if any of us should become Ministers there we must be re-ordained though a Priest from Rome shall not need it and therefore by consequence your Baptism is a nullity all our Ministerial acts void and of none effect your Churches are not true Churches your Reformation was began in Rebellion continued in Schism and thus I have got my labour for my pains and naught for my labour 3. Arg. The Preaching of the Church of England is beyond that of Rome Yes so it may be and yet none of the best neither what sleighty Topicks are these from whence to evince the excellency of English Preaching Commend me to read one Sermon in the works of the Learned B. Reynolds and it storms the incredulous sooner then a hundred of these Ridicules put together But how does it appear that the English transcends the Romish Preaching pray mark the proof why Erasmus wrote a Book of the Art of Preaching and full of the follies and rediculous passages in Popish Sermons Most Meridian Conviction Has not I. E. written a Book also full of the follies and ridiculous passages in English Sermons Pray then set the Hares head against the Goose Giblets Ah! but Erasmus his Book is as full as his very good and so is his as full as Erasmus's Really when the Act comes out against Metaphors I hope there will be a clause in 't that no Rhetorician shall ever again use an Argument As he would be injurious to the Truth that should take the sollies gathered up in this modern Author for the measure of present Preaching so shall he be equally vain that shall make those impertinencies gleaned up by
commendation no 't is their just Reproof and were I meet to give them their due I would speedily come out of their debt what shall the great Truths of the Gospel the Articles of the Church of England the famous St. Austin be trampled in the Dirt by the Foot of Insolence and shall a pretence of I know not what modesty unwillingness to offend them that are resolved to be offended stop your mouths Reverend Sirs It s high time to awake and plead the cause of God least he give you up to reproach and contumely because you have left his truth so If the Reader be so curious as to enquire wherein lies the great evil of Preaching about Predestination he may know that there is a Preaching about id est Pro and there is a Preaching about id est Con To Preach about it when it signify's for it that indeed is scandalous and dangerous but to Preach about it when it signifies against it that indeed is laudable for it s well known that when the Arminian faction got a little Heart in the rising days of A. B. Laud the Abeâ—…ters of those novelties procured a Proclamation that none should meddle about those controversies pretending they were nice School-points unfit for vulgar Ears but presently the Arminians fell pell-mell upon fiery Declamations against them 2. They Preach about Union with God and Christ. About it still I doubt not but this Gentleman could be willing the Dissenters had free liberty to Preach again provided they Preacht about just nothing If the Church-doors were unlockt the Pulpit-doors set wide open and their Mouths sealed up and a Padlock hung upon their Bibles the case would be much the same But to speak freely if they did Preach about it at the rates that many write about it reducing all to a Politick Union e'ne Nail up their Pulpits and set the Arrow-head upon the doors of their Meetings 'T is then no such heinous crime to Preach about it you may Preach about and about and about the Bush again provided you never come near it or doff it off with an Airy nothing Ay but the N. C. confess this Union to be unintelligible and they help to make it so There are many great Truths in the Gospel which in their heigths and depths in their utmost improvements we cannot comprehend yet such a knowledge of them is attainable as may whet the edge of our Appetite after more and in the mean time direct us in our Duties towards God and Man the perfect opening of which mysteries is reserved for Heaven when we shall see face to face and know as we are also known He that will throw away every Object of Knowledge which he cannot 〈◊〉 must throw away the two great Volumes of Scripture and Nature The Doctrine of the Trinity is certainly owned in the 39 Articles and yet what ever Key the great engrossers of reason have got to that Tremendous Mystery in my Judgement there 's an unintelligible depth in it for which Faith must lie at the stake and the veracity of God be responsible Our Union with God and Christ have been cleared up from the Scriptures to stay the Stomacks and give some present satisfaction to the Holy Ardency of True Believers and yet though the thing in its own Nature be Cognoscible yet so glorious are the Priviledges that flow from it such the Mercies which issue out in Eternal Life that we freely confess our Ignorance Eye has not seen nor Ear heard nor has it enter'd into the Heart of Man such poor Men as we are to conceive all those Comforts which lie in the bosom of that Relation and which God has laid up in store for those that are in Covenant with him Whatever is Received must be so according to the capacity of the Recipient we do not thinck that the Ocean can be put into narrow mouth'd Vessels when God shall raise our Faculties and enlarge our Capacities that we can hold more he will give more and therefore leaving the sublime speculative Gnosticks to their own fancies we shall bless God for what we know and humbly aspire after greater Measures of Divine Light 3. They preach of the sweetness beauty and loveliness of Christs Person They do so and are willing to be Criminal if this be a Crime our Enquirer bewails the want of love amongst Christians and if he were as sollicitous to enquire into the Reasons of that defect he would find this to be a main one that the loveliness of Christ is so much depreciated He that cannot love Christ cannot possibly love a Christian since that for which every Christian as such is Amiable must be that he partakes of those Graces for which Christ is Amiable It 's an Humane Love that only eys our own Image but a Divine Grace that loves the Image of a Saviour But these things were not reproach in those days when Ignatius upon every mention of Christ stiled him his Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Love is Crucified But that the Preaching of Christâ—… Loveliness stirs up sensual Passions is a note of blasphemy aboâ—… Ela not to be parallel'd but by the Friendly Debate whose Dunghill our Enquirer has first Raked and then Epitomiz'd And thus much shall suffice at present to have descanted upon the Ignorance of the Non-conformists Preaching Now wipe your Eyes and you shall read a Specimen of his own I have seen a Picture of such artificial contrivance that as we enter'd the Room it presented to us the ridiculous prospect of the Cat and the Fiddle we had not traversed a few paces to the other side but it was by a strange Metamorphosis become a very Beautiful Lady Curiosity drew me nearer to view the Mystery of this dubious Piece and it soon discovered it self a trivial Essay of Mechanisme Thus when we enter'd upon this Subject the Enquirer gave us the Non-conformist and his Preaching in Ridicule now turn you twice about and in a trice the Scene is changed and you shall have the lively Pourtraiture of a Rational Divine in all his Pontificalibus And here first we meet with Discourses of God his Nature and Attributes Which if some of them found not so they have left unintelligible Such a Nature as they have contrived such Attributes as they are graciously pleased to assign to him so that Tertullians complaint is not more frequently than justly repeated God shall not be God but upon such Terms as Man shall prescribe And then of the Reasons of Religion Yes no doubt you are the Men and all Wisdom shall die with you What a sad Case had Religion been in if these Eminent Men had not been raised up to set Religion upon its proper Basis and unsettle it from the feeble foundations upon which former Ages had erected it But then they give us Arguments for contentment under persecution perhaps such as would make a Man weary of his life and almost Petition to be Hang'd And of
this over-charged slander may not recoil and hurt the Enquirer But though he be very uncharitable I shall endeavour to give the most charitable construction of his words that they will bear And therefore observe That though he be engaged not to render evil for evil yet he never promised not to render evil for good § 2. If being a Clergy-man says he and continuing in the Church he shall debauch his Office and undermine the Church which he should uphold such an man also may then debauch his life too and yet have a very charitable construction among the generality of Dissenters What must Enemies expect from this Man who has no mercy an his Friends There are many Holy and Learned persons now within the Bosom of the Church who having considered the terms of enjoying the more publick exercise of their Ministry have overcome the difficulties of Subscription and do yet retain their former Orthodoxy and sobriety of Conversation These perâ—…ons knowing what Conscience is do exercise great tenderness towards it in their Brethren who cannot get over their rubs and obstacles and these if I mistake not are the Glory of the Church of England for purity of Doctrine and piety of Conversation for all true Learning and useful knowledge Against these persons The Enquirer has a desperate stitch as those that undermine the Church which they should uphold that is if they condescend never so little to a tender Conscience in one of those little institutions which themselves cal indifferent the whole Church must presently fall about their Ears but if the Church were built upon Christ the Rock and not upon the Wool-packs of Ceremonies such condescension would never undermine it These are taxed also with debauching their Office And indeed if the Office of Ministers be to become Informers If Preaching the Gospel be nothing but to make a Pâ—…ther about Ceremonies I hope they will debauch it still but that any of these do debaucâ—… their Lives and are thereupon more acceptable to Dissenters is a loâ—…d falshood only to let us understand how wel he has learned Christ. § 3. If a man says he be of the most Holy Conversation but Zealous for the Interest of the Church this man shall have worsâ—… Quarter from the fiery Zealots of other parties then one of a more loose life and meaner abilities Let no man reply If a man be of a loose Convâ—…rsation and but Zealous of the Grandeur and for the Ceremonies of the Church this man shall have fairer quarter and more encouraging preferments from the fiery Bigots of Conformity then one of a severe life and greater ministerial Abilitits To interpret this mystâ—…ry we must inform our selves what is the Churchâ—…s true Interest as it is a Church It s very easie to mistake in stating the True interest of any Society and if we mistake there its impossible we should be regular in the means of pursuing it An errour in the first concoction is never rectified in the second The true Interest of every true Church of Christ is to promote Holiness and Conformity to his Commands engaging thereby his presence and protection and a Spirit of Love and Peace amongst its members though under some variety of apprehension in Adiaphorous matters The mistake is to advance a Churches secular Grandeur external splendour and worldly pomp which every true Christian in his Baptism has renounced toâ—…ether with all the works of the Devil and the lusts of the flesh If ever a Church shall be so far mistaken as to judge worldly Glory its true interest I know not why it may not also mistake the works of the Devil and the lusts of the flesh to be its true Intereâ—…t also A Conforming Minister who despising that false understands and pursues this true Interest is truly dear to all the Non-conformists but for those who are so deluded as to think it lies in destroying and ruining all that are not satisfied with their Canons and Constitutions however aliene and forreign to the temper of the Gospel they confess they are no great admirers of them whatever appearance of Holiness they may make If the Interest of a Faction shall lie in sending poâ—… Christians to the Alms-house of New-gate and the Hospital of Bedlam and will give no Quarter to the most Holy and Religious if they fail in two or three Niceties I must needs say I see no reason why such should adorn themselves with the plumes of Gravity and Devotion to render their Inhumanity more plausible 2. But he has somewhat further to say then all this If impertinent and fantastical talking of Religion endless scrupulosities censorious and rash judging our Superiours Melancholy sighing going from Sermon to Sermon without allowing our selves time to meditate on what we hear or to instruct our Families be the main Points of Religion then the Non-conformists are Holy Men. And now I hope the Reader is abundantly satisfied that the Enquirer has otherwise Learned Christ than to render Evil for Evil that he dares not furnish Atheism and Prophaness with an Apologie That he makes a Conscience of affording a spectacle to evil Men That he dares not for a World dress Religion in a Phantastical Habit. that Boys may laugh at it This is his Constantines Robe which he casts over scandalous Commissions Serious Discourses about the concerns of the World to come about our own death and the day of Judgment is Phantastical talking Tenderness of Conscience Holy fear of sinning against God is endless scrupulosity Modest refusal to practise every thing commanded though Reason Judgement Scripture Reclaim is Censuring and Rash Iudgment of Superiours Godly sorrw must be melancholly sighing attending upon Gods Word Preached shall be running from Sermon to Sermon And a downright falshood added to close up the whole That they neither allow themselves time to meditate of what they have heard nor to instruct their Families And yet if they shall dare to practise this last with a few of their weaker Neighbours that drop in to hear a Sermon repeated they shall be lyable to the Law and punished as Seditious Conventiclers and railed at as Schismatiâ—…ks When all is said and done Machiavils old Rule is a Sacred Maxime with these sort of Men Fortiter calumniare aliquid adharebit Throw Dirt enough and some ont ' will stick Wild-fire flies further than the Water that should Quench it A Reproach will run where a just Vindication will not creep Had the Providence of God allotted the Non-conformists their abode any where but amongst those whose Interest it is to render them Odious they might have pass'd for good Christians It would be difficult to hire Men to be Instruments of Cruelty if they were not first perswaded that they are Ministers of Iustice and the only way to perswade that is to represent Dissenters as the off-scowring of all things not fit to live a day The best way to take away the life is to render it abominable None can handsomly
be destroyed till they be dress'd up in a Malefactors Cloaths And it seems as much for their Enemies Advantage to make them seem wicked as 't is for theirs to be really Holy It had been a more Important Enquiry than any he has yet made whence such an exulcerated Spirit should proceed The Gospel is a Message of Peace from the God of Peace by the Prince of Peace to the Sons of Peace which Gospel breaths nothing but healing Counsels drops down the Balmy Dews of Gentleness Meckness Patience Long-suffering Charity and if I might borrow an â—…ld Maxime at second hand from him Aut hoc non est Evangelium aut nos non sumus Evangelici Either Charity is not Gospel or our Enquirer is an Infidel It 's a grave Axiome in the Law That his Cause ought more to be favoured who only seeks to avoid wrong than his that seeks to get Gain The Dissenters humbly plead the Benefit of it They grudge them not their Preferments and Accumulated Dignities they neither envy nor seek their Great things They only deprecate Ruine till they shall deserve it It 's only from a Prison not for a Palace that they Petition When others have got the Two Swords the Secular and the Spiritual they only crave the protection of the Defensive Shield And think they may with some Reason demand of them who Deifie the freedom of Humane Will that they may be indulged in the freedom of their Consciences regulated by the Word of God CHAP. II. Of the more Remote Causes of the infelicities of this Church The Persecution under Q. Mary The bad provisions for Ministers in Corporations Frequent Wars The mischiefs of Trade and Travel The Designs of Atheists and Papists enquired into with what influence they may have had upon the present separation from the Church of England WHen Adrian VI. was pressed by the clamorous Importunity of the German Princes to Reform the Clergy he answered very gravely That a Reformation was necessary yet the danger of Reforming all at once was so dreadful that he resolved to proceed step by step Some Wise Men smiled at the cautious Advisement of his Holiness and said They hoped he would not break his shins for hast but deliberately make a hundred years at least between every step The same prudence which this politick Pope used in his advance towards a Reformation our wary Enquirer uses in his approaches towards the Causes of Separation Hitherto we have been entertained with certain Romantick Imaginary Causes and now he will give us a gentile Treat with the Real ones But of thâ—…se some are more remote others near hand these come by the running Post those by Tom Long the Carriet Thus your Poching Fellows when they have found the Hare sitting go round about and about the Bush till they have screwed themselves into a convenient Distance and then give poor Pusâ—… Club Law and knock her dead upon the Form 1. Now the first of these Remote Causes is That it was the misfortune and is the great disadvantage of this Church that it was not well confirmed and swadled in its Infancy it conflicted with Serpents in its Cradle and underwent a severe persecution What he understands by that old Blind Heathenish Beldame Fortune I cannot tell The Scriptures have taught us to believe That the Hairs of our Head are all numbred and therefore much more the Heads of the Martyrs That a Sparrow falls not to the ground without the Providence of our Heavenly Father Much less the Blood of the Saints which is more precious in his sight than many Sparrows But this is only a Shibboleth which serves for a Certificate that he is no friend to the immutable Counsels of God However this early persecution must needs have a considerable influence upon the Churches present weakness for thus Mephibosheths Nurse making more hast than good speed in her fright and flight threw down her Nursery and he became lame to his dying day It was therefore politickly done of Licurgus thinks the Enquirer when he had framed the Body of the Spartan Laws to pretend an occasion to Travel and having first taken an Oath of the People that they should make no alteration in that Government either in Church or State till his return he resolvedly never returns again If the old Masters of Ceremonies could have perswaded the people to some such subscription that they would never alter their Inventions till their return and then had sentenced themselves to a voluntary perpetual Exile it had been a successful piece of self denial to cheat a Nation into Uniformity no less honourable to themselves than grateful to thousands But thus the Case stood with the Church in its Infancy King Edward VI. dying Immaturely too soon says the Enquirer too late says Dr. Heylin Q. Mary succeeded him in the Throne and so the Church was put upon difficulties and trials before its Limbs and Ioints were settled and confirmed Persecution has hitherto been esteemed one of the Churches best friends whereof it has been often afraid but never hurt Such was the constant experience of the Primitive Christians Exquifiâ—…ior quaque crudelitas illecebra magis est secta plures efficimur quoties metimur sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesia The cruelties of Enemies does but more encrease the Number the oftner the Church is mowed down the thicker it comes up and there 's no Seed thrives so well as that which is steeped in the Blood of Martyrs That which Christians lose by the wind of persecution is only their Chaff that which the fire of Tribulation preys upon is only their Dross The Marian Fiers did the Church this one good turn that it melted down much of that imposing Spirit and Lordly Temper which reigned in some Church-men over their dissenting Brethren which Bishop Ridley confessed at the Stake That Tree which is of Gods Planting takes deeper Root by shaking and if it loses any Ceremonious Leaves let them go the Tree will bear better and sweeter Fruit with out them Could Persecutors have seen how much good the Wise God would extract out of their evil they would never have aggravated their own damnation to be the instruments of the Christians Salvation But malice is so quicksighted to do mischief that it 's Blind in the reasons of doing it and makes such hast to her end that she stumbles in the means Thus Nero's fingers itcht to be burning of Rome but that he knew it would arise a more glorious Phoenix out of its own Ashes which could the Devil himself consider he would never be content Tribulos metere dum nobis spinas serit to sow us Thorns and reap himself a crop of Thistles All this while we are waiting to see how he will make it out that This early Persecution did any real hurt to our Infant Church And after some Preambles and Introductions he will doubtless come home to the point And first By reason of this Persecution you must
unchain the Devil and let him loose upon the Englisâ—… Protestants to exercise their Graces and correct their Follies he gave some of them Christian Courage to abide by the tryals to others of them Christian Wisdom to secure themselves by flighâ—… Had all fled the Truth had wanted Witnesses at home for the present had all stay'd the Truth had wanted Successors for the future they that fled found the Care of God attending them and the Mercy of God as a Harbinger going before them to provide them first a Room in the Hearts and then in the Houses of their Brethren Where being emanâ—…ipated from the prejudices of Inâ—…eterate Custom got from under the Dâ—…resse of Imposing Power humbled by afflictions and made more willing to bear the Yoke of Christ and finding the Reforming Churches a tolerable Counterpane of the New Testament Worship many of them not consulting with Flesh and Blood came off from Ceremonies content to Worship God with the same Measure of Decency prescribed and practised by Christ and his Apostles When therefore he tells us that those Fxiles received a Tincture of those other Rites before they had well imbibed or sufficiently understood the Reasons of the Church of England He says no more thaâ—… that the Rationale of the Liturgie and the Compassionate Enquiry were not then written for where else to find the Reasons of the Church for imposing Ceremonies I am yet to seek 2. A second Cause of this evil effect is The bad and incompetent provision made for a learned and able Ministry in the Corporations and generality of the great Parishes in England But before this Incompetency can possibly be remedied it must be known what is a Competency for a Learned Minister for some that are Learned enough are also Able to spend five times more than the people are worth or can spare Two things are here considerable which have exercised our Enquirers politick Head-piece The Grievance and the Redress of the Grievance 1. For the Grievance The multitude of Opinions that deform and trouble the Church are generally hatch'd and nursed in the Corporations and Market Towns Nay not only the dissatisfaction with the Rites and Ceremonies but the conâ—…ulsions and confusions of the State took their Origin from the bad Humours of thâ—…se greater Societies But how easily might all this mischief have been remedied had he pursued his own Primitive Rule of Reformation viz. Modelled the Rites and Government of the Church to the Humours and Customs of the People But his meaning was That Reformation should be accommodated to the Humours of the Villages where the people mind nothing of Religion as he thinks but not of the Market Towns where they are intent upon New Fashions But the Reader must look on these as the lesser sports of his Wit and the dilations of a pregnant Fancy for the true Reason of all the dissatisfaction about those Rites has been the want of good ground for them in the Word of God and the main cause of the troubles that have ensued thereupon has been the unreasonable and unseasonable imposition of them upon the Consciences of Men. But our Enquirer is otherwise minded and he imputes these Conâ—…ns and Confusions § 1. To the Fullness and Luxury of these great Towns Well! have a little patience till he can procure his Proclamation against Trade and to shut up the Shops and that will most effectually take down their Greace and humble their haughty Stomacks and they will grow tame and manageable But then another difficulty will arise how they should maintain a Learned and able Ministry and allow him such a Revenue as he shall confess to be a Competency but is not this inconvenience to be found in the Country Towns and Villages No! They are for the most part quiet and peaceably comply with establish'd Orders for they are tired with hard labour and never trouble themselves noâ—… others but apply themselves to Till the ground and earn their Breat with the sweat of their Brows Let them have liberty to be poor and pay their Tithes and they concern themselves little in Religion or the saving of their Souls they go by the old Rule Si Mundus vult vadere sicut vult Mundus debet vadere sicut vult These Creatures indeed will make fit materials for Uniformity to work upon you may put the Bridle in their Mouths and clap the Saddle on their Backs and ride them till they are broken winded and foundred and they will neither wince nor complain and yet there are some sowr Lads and knotty pieces amongst these too that will not budge a foot nor yield an Ace further than Conscience informed from the Word of God shall command them § 2. In these great Towns they have leasure to excogitate Novelties and Spirit and confidence to abet them and here there is great concourse of people where Notions are more easily started and Parties sooner formed for the defence of them Where the dividing Notions have been most started I cannot infallibly tell but I am sure the richest Corporations find themselves something else to do than to excogitate Ceremonies or other Novelties and whether Convocations have always sat in the great Towns or little Villages is easily determined § 3. The misery of all is That in these great Towns where was most need of the most liberal maintenance so pittiful a Pittance is left to the Curate or Minister that he can scarce afford himself Books to study nor perhaps Bread to eat without too servile a dependance upon the benevolence of his Richer Neighbours by which means either his Spirit is broken with Adversity or the dignity of his Office obscured or he tempted to a sordid â—…nnivance at or complyance with their follies and so like Esau sells his Birthright for 〈◊〉 Mess of Pottage The bottom of the Grievance in plain terms is this If the Clergy could but once procure a Revenue settled hard and faâ—…t upon them to their minds which what it is neither we nor perhaps themselves ever knew had they but more Wealth to support their Grandeur out of the hard labour of the poor drudging Moyls that tug hard night and day to get Bread had they but Midas his Option or Fortunatus his wishing 〈◊〉 that every thing they touch'd might be Gold they would then make the Bleâ—…-aprons Lacquey it and trot to the Courts by their Horse sides and it does them good but to imagine how they would firk their lazy Hides and curry the sâ—…abbed Humour of Non-conformity out of them Thus much of the Malady the Remedy follows 2. The Remedy of this insupportable Grievance in short is this That a Law be made that all Corporations Market Towns and great Parishes provide a Maintenance for the Vicars in proportion to London for till some such course be taken it will be in vain to expect that the Church of England or the best Laws of Religion should either obtain just Venâ—…ration or due Effect So far
English Clergy which he intimates p. 39. That the motives and invitations of the most judicious Clergy to undertake the work viz. the charge os the flock is from the most liberal maintenance 7. Whether the healing of the Clergies Poverty will not cure them of their Laboriousness in Preaching and whether doubling the Revenues will not single the Sermons I have read of a poor Vicar that being taken notice of by the Bishop for an industrious Preacher to encourage him in his work he gave him a good bulkie Parsonage but observing that he began presently to slacken his pace and come to once a day he sends for him expostulates the Case with him why he should work less now he had more Wages to whom he answered ingenuously Parvâ—… lâ—…quuntur Curae ingentes sâ—…upent 8. Whether it was advisedly spoken by our Enquirer to compare a Ministers Condescension to his scrupulous people in the matter of Ceremonies to Esau's selling his Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage for if the Minister should happen to cut short his Common Service to gratifie his Patron in hopes of a Dinnâ—…r the worst he can make of it is that he fells a Mess of Pottage for a Sunday-Pudding And if a Ministers Birth-right consist in Rites and Ceremonies he that gives a Mess of Pottage for it will certainly buy it too dear 3. The third cause is the late Wars And for proof hereof he will desire the Reader to look no further back then the late Wars between this Kingdom and the States of the Low-Countries But why no further back we used to be lead back as far as the late Civil Wars but our Enquirer was better advised then his Reader perhaps is aware of It had not been safe to follow truth too near the Heels least it should have dasht out his Teeth But into what a perplexed Dilemma has he brought the Church of England If we have Peace with Holland and therewith Trade and Commerce then comes in all the new fangled Commodities Ceremonies and Rites of forreign growth exotick Customs jack-in-a-boxes If we have War with them then the Reins of Government are remiss and Non-conformity grows apace for that says he the Contempt of Religion is greater and the state of the Church worse at the end then the beginning of thâ—…se Wars Could we but onderstand the mystery that lurks under that word Religion and that Iâ—…rgon and Cypher the state of the Church we might easily return an Answer By Religion then understand Ceremony by the state of the Church understand its power to crush and ruine all that comply not with those Ceremonies and then it 's very true that Wars are a great Enemy to Religion Every thing is so far to be reputed evil as it crosses and so far good as it advances the Trade of Ceremonies and Impositions If Navigation and Merchandise be Essential to the flourishing state of the Nation yet if they stand in the way of Ceremonies damn them as Schismatical and Wars and Blood-shed and the beggering of the Nation if they would but promote Ceremonies were amongst the choicest desirables However the remedy is cheap and easie 'T is but parting with the Flag the Soveraignty of the Sea which our Enemies would have perswaded us were but a Cerâ—…mony the fishery the East-India Trade and perhaps two or three more such inconsiderable necessaries and we might have secured our Innocent Ceremonies and the Church-men swagger'd over the Consciences of Dissenters He that has a mind to interpose in a discourse of Wars may possibly get a broken Pate for his pains otherwise the Valour of the English Nation has so justified it self in our Naval Engagements that it needs not be ashamed to look back upon its behaviour but I shall only observe as I pass on these few things 1. That the Ecclesiastical Histories observe to our hand that the Wars between the Emperour and the Persians proved a means to check those persecutions which the Arians raised against the Orthodox And if the great Governour of the World will over-rule publick Calamities to render the condition of persecuted Christians tolerable we have the more reason to admire his powerful wisdom who out of so great an Evil could extract so great a Good 2. I must call to mind one of our Enquirers grave sentences ubi solitudinem feccrunt pacem vocant That which some men count Peace is nothing but havock and desolation Like some great Enclosers who having depopulated all about them and left nothing but the bare Ribs and naked Skeleton of sometimes flourishing Farms bless themselves that they are 〈◊〉 from the noise of the obstreperous Carters Thus when our Ecclesiastical projectors shall have ruined Trade routed the Conscientious and forced peaceable Dissenters into deserts beggar'd Corporations those Nests of Schism they may applaud themselves for profound States-men that they have wrought out their own Ease with the miseries of the People 3. Wars may reasonably contribute something to a just and well bounded Liberty of Conscience for how could a Prince expect his Subjects should hazard their lives in his righteous cause and quarrel and open their Purses wide to maintain the War when either they must lose them in his Service or if they return having survived apparent dangers be trampled upon at home by those who have all the while sat still at ease wrapt up in warm Furr and security There 's no great difference whether a man be slain by chain-shot or a single Bullet And yet a generous Spirit would accept is as moreEligible to meet a noble death in the Field fighting for his Prince and Countrey then to languish and pine away an inglorious Life in servitude under Ecclesiastical Impositions 4. If the effects of War were lamented as letting in Debauchery and Prophaneness tolerating immoralities antiquating the practice of Religion we should mourn with him that thus mourns But when we shall have an Oration of the Evils of the War and at last the great one is that it makes people not so fond of Ceremonies whereas Peace and Prosperity multiplies them it 's enough to make a people entertain thoughts less evil of the one and less honourable of the other for thus the Spartans made the lives of the People so intolerable in Peace that they might more readily engage in Wars abroad And indeed such mis-representations of the reasons of things have made the World desire like the Salamander â—…ar for its Element that they might not dwell in the hotter fire â—…f Persecution in a more moderate Climate called Peace for a Person of Honour that in defence of his Country has come up to the mouth of a Canon and come off with renown to be slain by an Ecclesiastical Canon would make him resent his fall with regret and dying bite the ground 4. The fourth and indeed the greatest cause of all these mischiefs is a pestilent evil known by the name of Trade This Kingdom of Great Britain is an Island
year But if we speak with the Vulgar and take this Dignity for some external glory shining out in secular Lusire which is that currant signification which Custom the Master of the Mint has stampt upon It I doubt she will hold up her Head and not be dasht out of Countenance she can prodâ—… her purpuratos patres her Cardinals Princes fellows her Dignitaries she can produce you her Acolytes dancing attendance upon her Decans her Deacons footing it after her Priests her inferiour Clergy boâ—…ing before her mitred Prelates and alâ—… these orderly Reverencing their Metropolitan but then she boasts unmeasurably that she has an Ecclesiastical Head to be the Center of Union to all those so that whether you run up the scale from the poor Ostiary to the Exorcist and so upwards or down the Scale from the supream infallible Noddle moving all the inferiour Wyers she will brazen it out and never hang down her Head 3. The An ient Gravity of our Church reproves theirs I am sorry for the Honour of our Church which I truly Reverence that this Gentleman in vying with Rome should pitch upon those particulars wherein if we do excel and carry the day it will be no such Victory as to challenge a Triumph and yet such is the dubiousness of the case that perhaps we may lose the day I do not yet hear that Rome has disclaimed Antiquity to be one of the marks of the true Church and know something of her presumption in applying into her self Let any Antiquity short of Scripture Epocha be fixt upon and she will make a sorry shift to scramble through many a tiresome Century and scuffle to come as near the Apostolical days as some others Both sides I think have play'd at the game of Drop-father so long till they are weary and forced to confess that some things now in usage were unknown to the Fathers and many things practised by the Fathers which we have silently suffered to grow obsolete by desuetude I look upon these things as matters of course and form to look big and set the best foot before for if ever we confute Rome with an Army of hard words Decency Order Antiquity Gravity they must be such as the Word of God has made so It must be a Decency warranted by God himself either from the Light of Nature or Scripture an Order of Christs Establishment a Gravity exemplified from the Apostles and an Antiquity which was from the Beginning and when Scripture is once made sole Umpire in the Quarrel As the Church of England will certainly run the Papist out of all distance so the Non-conformist will begin to put in his stake and perhaps win the Plate § 2. If you ask how the Church of Rome undermines our Church he answers 1. She furnishes other parties with Arguments against it It were much easier to evince that the Euquirer has rather borrowed his Arguments from Rome then Rome lent one to the Non-conformists I think there 's not one Arrow he can shoot against them but I can shew him where 't was borrow'd or shotten from a Jesuites Quiver where was that Argument taken from Axes Halters Pillories Galleys Prisons Consiscations as some express it or as he more concisely Executing the Laws borrow'd but from Rome The Scripture knows it not the better sort of Heathens abhorr'd it Protestants disown it Papists only glory in it Uterejure tuo Caesar sectamque Lutheri Ense Rotâ Ponto Funibus igne Neca And whence was that argument for Active unlimited Obedience to all things commanded by the Church borrowed for though it becomes no mouth so well as his that can boast of Infallibility yet still we are pressed with the same Argument and in the last resort Publick Conscience must carry it I am sorry this imprudent person should give any one occasion to say further that some of us at home have furnisht Rome with Arguments against the Reformation Arguments from the Scripture Rome has none from the nature of the thing not one but some have put into their Hands a left-handed Dagger which does mischief enough it 's called Argumentum ad Hominem Thus when we are earnest with them to throw away their Oil and Cream they bid us throw away our Cross If we desire her to reform her Cowles and Copes she calls to us to reform our Surplice When we in a friendly way caution them not to feed upon the Devils flesh they answer As good eat his flesh as the Broth he was boiled in 2. She is all for blind Obedience at home but preaches up tenderness of Conscience abroad And what the difference is between blind Obedience and Obedience meerly on the account of the Command I would willingly learn And if any can shew us a better reason for the things commanded and enjoyned then that we shall return him thanks If I might now borrow the Enquirers place so long as whilst I propounded a few Enquiries I would immediately resign to him his Province § 1. If the enmity between the two Churches be so great as is pretended what was the reason that so many Stars of the first magnitude in this Orb were in Conjunction with the Dragons Tail why were they so ready to yield him his Western Patriarchate and all within the first four hundred years which will at once bring England under his Subjection though I much question whether the Grand Seignior will have so much good nature as to resign him the Eastern Patriarchate so easily § 2. If the Church of Rome be this Churches Enemy is she not then concerned to get more Churches to be her Friends It 's a wild Humour of some Church-men that they will disoblige all the world provoking every ones hand against themselves whilst their hand is against every one If Rome be an Enemy she is a potent malicious subtle and United Enemy and it concerns a Church not to be divided at home when her Enemies are united abroad and to combine with the forreign Protestants in Love were an excellent way to prevent the Combinations of Romes hatred § 3. It would be enquired If Rome be such an Enemy what should be that which provokes her wrath and indignation what that should be that makes the envious Snakes wherewith Antichrists head is periwigg'd to hiss and spit out their Venom Does she Storm and Rage because we have retained two or three of her fine Ceremonies that cannot be the Origin of her spight They are those things wherein the Church of England and Non-conformists are mutually agreed that Rome opposes this Church in and they are those things wherein this Church symbolizes with Rome wherein she differs most from the Non-conformists When the Heathens triumphed in the great feats of their Maximus Tyrius and Apollonius Tyanaeus the Christians answered That whatever good effect their Religion ever had upon the Lives of Men was owing to those Principles and Truths which it had in Common with Christianity Thus will Dissenters plead
That whatever success this Church has had in its Ministry upon the Souls of Men is due to those fundamental Truths and Doctrines of the Christian Faith which she obtains in Common with the Reformed Churches On the other side The Roman Faction persecutes and undermines this Church upon grounds equal to all the Reformed Churches and this Church is angry at least with Dissenters for those matters wherein she seems to approach too near Roman corruption 2. We come now to the Atheists A Generation so abominable of whom we may yet say as was said of the Astrologers in old Rome Hec genus hominum semper vetabatur semper in urbe nostrâ retinebitur A people always banished yet never departed from the City such a Tribe are these Atheists Every one has a hard word for them yet many entertain them you shall not meet with a Man in a Thousand but will liberally tail atâ—… damned Machiavellian policy which yet according to the proportion of their little wit they strive to imitaâ—…e which tempt me to think thâ—… they hate not so much his Knavery as they â—…epine at their ownfâ—…lly and judge not his politicks so evil as they are vext thaâ—… they cannot equallize him That they Nibble at his principles because they cannot reach his Wit It is but a slender evidence that another is in the right because Atheists are so grosly wrong And yet to declaim against Atheism has these considerable Advantages First some think they may be securely Atheistical themselves if they can but flourish with a few ingenious Sentences against them and a witty Libel against such is a sufficient Purgation for him that has a Talent to expose the rest of Religion Secondly it 's a plausible Argument that that Religion must needs 〈◊〉 excellent that has the worst of Men for its Enemies and they must certainly be adjudged worthy persons who are so Zealous against such Impiety what Man of Charity would suspect Irreligion to wear the Cloak of fâ—…rvency against Atheism And yet it 's common to hear it hotly prosecuted in the Pulpit by some who come warm from that Sâ—…rvice to the practise of it I dare 〈◊〉 it to the judgement of the impartial world whether he be not a â—…in to a practical one who disputes for a God and then tears Men in pâ—…eces for worshippinâ—… â—…im according to the best Light they can get from Scripture anâ—…â—…ature And in 〈◊〉 a manner as wherâ—… 〈◊〉 they caâ—… find no 〈◊〉 but that 't is not their â—…on and pâ—…ly was their own toâ—… not many years since and prâ—…ly had â—…een so still had they not been purchased into a better There are Three Questions here to be resâ—…ved What Atheism is Whence it comes And wherein does it oppose the Church and contribute to a separation from it 1. What Atheism is and who is the Aâ—…st And this is as needfuâ—… an Enquiry aâ—… any of those 〈◊〉 wherewith hâ—… tormenced us in the â—…ast Chapter I assure the Reâ—…der It is a word of a Volatile Nature and Versatile Signification as any that gives us trouble with its double meaning In Germany an Atheist once signiâ—…ed a Person that medled with the Popâ—…s Mitâ—…r 〈◊〉 the Monks fat Bellies Epicâ—…s of old some think was 〈◊〉 with Atheism because he could not swallow Polyâ—…heisme â—…t home some conclude he must be an Atheist that sâ—…ruples the Ius Divinum of Tyâ—…hes And if he shall detein a Tyâ—… Pig he is a Sacrilegious Atheist to boot Formerly it border'd upon Atheiâ—…m to have denied the Divine Right of Episcopacy but I see one may question that now and yet be a Christian What then an Atheist is I shall leave to the Industry of this Enquirer 2. But from whence this Atheism should proceed is a Question that has been so fully Answered by a Learned and Honourable Pen of latâ—… I shall not need to repeat any thing Yet this is obvious That when Preachers Preach against Preaching their Auditors may easily stumble into a belief that what they Preach is not much material to be believ'd when they had rather it should not be Preach'd at all than not under their Formalities If ever I should hear a Tradesman bitterly inveigh against Trading that it never was a good World since there was so much Trading that we never had peace since we had Markets twice a week that there can be no peace or settlement expected so long as Men may lay out their Money and buy their Goods where they pleased let such a one be dealt with as severely as the Enemies of Trade can wish I shall not plead his Cause To this if we shall adde that when the World takes notice that they who are called the Men of God and are therefore supposed to know most of him to be most like him and to represent him 〈◊〉 their lives as a Holy Merciful Tender and Gracious God aâ—… they present him in their Doctrine shall yet with unwearied fury prosecute Men to Poverty Pâ—…ison and Grave meerly for noncomâ—…lyance in those things which themselves have invented they give great occasion to Atheistical inclinations to say in their Hearts As good believe no God as one so cruel and unmerciful as his own 〈◊〉 reprâ—…sent him to us 3. But the last is the most important Question How or wherein does Atheism under 〈◊〉 the Church or contribute to separation from it That Atheism does oppose all Religion as such was never doubted in that it takes away the great Principle pre-suppâ—…sed to all Religion That there is a God but how it does particularly oppose the Church of England so far as she differs from others is I conceive the present Question It is somewhat difficulâ—… to imagine that they who have put off Humanity should scruple to put on anâ—… gatâ—… of obtaining Conformity They who have renounced onâ—… God will easily own a Thousand Ceremonies what were it to them iâ—… all the Numerous Rites of Rome were introduced could they but get the sense of a Deity obliteraâ—…ed out of their Consciences that they might sin without the stings and twinges of an approaching Judgment which is the prefection they aim aâ—… Their Heaven has no God in it their Hell no Devil in it It must be a strange Imposition which an Atheistical Throat cannot swallow he that is of no Religion as I said can subscribe to any Religion to which those Principles are very cognate which are contrived to avoid persecution under all Forms and Constitutions How therefore they should be such grand Enemies to Conformity I wait to be resolved 1. The Atheists says he will not set thâ—…ir 〈◊〉 against a Fanatick they must have higher Game By this Argument our Enquirer has demonstrated himself to be no Atheist yet I would not have him trust much to it I suppose too they have found higher Game than Ceremonies when they open their black mouths against God himself 2. They inflame the Causes of Divisions provoke Mens Passions
and exasperate Mens Minds one against another He has spoken more truth than perhaps he is aware of in these few words I have ever suspected and now have warrant to utter my suspicions that it is a spice of Atheism that exasperates Men against those who quietly and peaceably Worship God Blessed for ever 3. They scurrilously traduce all that 's serious and what they cannot do by Manly discourse they endeavour by Buffâ—…onry Thus these blind Bettles that rose out of filth and exâ—…rement Buz about the World And now I am sure where to find the whole Club of Atheists Amongst those Churchmen who blaspheme the Office of the Divine Spirit as a Noise and Buz Amongst those who openly scoffe at the Beauty Loveliness and Preciousnâ—…ss of a Redeemer Amongst them who have no better way to confute the satisfactoriness of Christs death then to make God like an Angry Man when his passion 's over and has glutted himself with revenge amongst them who can no otherwise describe the Zeal of Christ for his Fathers House then by the furies of a Iewish Zealot He has now dispatch'd the remote Causes of separation and if the Reader complains that amongst all these Causes he hears not a syllable of that grand Cause of all Divisions the needless imposing of things doubtful or sinful as the Terms of Union and Communion with the Church Let him have a little Patience he may find it in its proper place viz. amongst the nearer immediate direct and proper Causes of separation whither we now follow our Enquirer CHAP. III. Where the more immediate Causes of Distractions viz. Rashness of Popular Iudgement Iudaisme Prejudice want of true Zeal are considered and the Enquirer manifested to have been something ridiculous HItherto our Author has acted with good Applause the part of a Compassionate Enquirer he will now alter his Properties and play the other part of the Passionate Enquirer He has worn the Person of a Friend long enough and will now put on the severer Habit â—…f a Iudge and then he is resolved some body or other shall smart sort it though that belongs properly to the Lictor's or Beadle's Office There is only one small matter which he would bespeak and if he could procure it too of his Reader he need not doubt the happy issue and success of this Discourse and that is a certain Commodity which Men call Candour a very scarce and dear Commodity it is grown since the Writers of this Age Appealed from the Tribunal of their Iudicious and Learned to the Chancery of their Courteous and Candid Readers If any should be so Critical as to enquire what this Candour â—…s he may understand that it is a Native Whiteness of Judgement that has not yet received the Prejudicate Tincture of any Colour but retains its Indifferency and Neutrality to every Customer Such a Mind the Reader is desired to bring to the Perusing of this Chapter that he be neither Black nor Blew his affections devirginated neither with Ass. nor Diss. but a meer Rasa Tabula But how much of this Candour might pleasure him is a great Question for if a small Quantity would serve his occasions no more then may incline one to think he never expected a Bishoprick or more then a first-rate Benefice for writing this elaborate work I have just such a parcel of Candour lying by me that will exactly fit his turn But this will not do He has bespoke so much of his Reader That he will believe it is not any delight he takes to rake in the Wounds of his Brethren and fellow Christians that prompts him to this undertaking A Candour to believe all this It must be a stretching white-leather Candour indeed that will reach to the Belief of such Incredibles That he that makes Wounds does not deligâ—…t to rake in them that he that forges Crimes takes no pleasure in divulging them that he who reproaches his Brethren most passionately tenders their repute That he who would ruine Mens Bodies has such a Compassion for their Souls I confess I cannot furnish him wiâ—…h such a Lot of Candour but if I meet with Apella the Jew or any other Candid Wise-acres that have enough to spare he may possibly hear further Proceed we therefore to the next and immediate Causes of the Distractions of the Church of England 1. The first assigned Cause is popular rashness and injudiciousness Whom he should intend by the people that are so rash and injudicious I am at a great loss in my Conjectures One division of a Kingdom is into the Soveraign and his Leige People Now it must not be the People in this notion that are so hair-brain'd for that would include the Clergy Again the Subjects of a Kingdom may be divided into the Nobility and the Common People but neither under this notion must rashness and injudiciousness be charged upon the People for besides that this would still reflect upon the Inferiour Clergy it would also cast reproach upon the Peoples Representatives There is therefore another distinction of us all we are all either of the Clergy or the Laity that is in plain English the Populace or Vâ—…lgâ—… and there is good ground for this classical distinction not only because we hear of Sermons ad Clâ—…rum that is to those who are Gods Lot Portion and Inheritance and others ad Populum the common Herd and Drove of Animals but because we read of old such a division made by the Learned and Iudicious Pharisees Joh. 7. 49. Have any of the Rulers or Pharisees believed on him but This People that knâ—…ws not the Law is accursed And yet it will be thought scandalously harsh to fix the guilt of popular rashness and injudiciousness upon the people in this Acceptatiâ—… for under this denomination will come not only the Nobility and â—…try of a Nation but the Prince himself unless he should take on him the Office of the Priesthood We must therefore find out Another sort of People that must bear the burden of this reproach That which comes next to my thoughts and offers fairest to assail the difficulty is the distinction between the Conformists and the Non-conformists and thus we shall need to seek no further for this grand Cause of Non-conformity The Non-conformists are a Rabble-rout of rash and inâ—…udicious People And there needed not half so many words to assert it though twice as many will not prove it This Cause Of Popular rashness is like the Chamaeleon which they say accommodates iâ—…elf to the nearest Subject and will resemble all Colours save one only it 's not suscâ—…ptible of that which our Enquirâ—…r wants most Candour For the Dissenters complain of the inâ—…udiciousness of the People the rashness of their Censures how little they understand their principles how wrongfully they interpret their practices and 〈◊〉 at last it wheels about tâ—… 〈◊〉 a reason of Conformity There is no Theme upon which School boâ—…s are more frank in thâ—…ir 〈◊〉 invâ—…ctives
the Next such a one as whether or no it provided a Heaven in the other world would make a Purgatory of this Calvin was taught when to be Zealous and when Remiss to be Zealous in Gods cause and Remiss in his own which seems somewhat a better frame then theirs who are â—…re and â—…ow for their own inventions but as Cool as Patience it self in the concerning Truths of the Gospel To prove the moderation of our Church and that she cuts by a Thred or by Threds between both these extreams he produces an Argument both from Papists and Protestants Those of the Church of Rome cannot but confess all is good in our Liturgy Protestants on the other hand generally acknowledge the main to be good And so between them both give a glorious testimony to this Church as guilty of neither extreaâ—… There is nothing more Childish then to use an Argument which with the same ease may be retorted as used for those of the Roman Church condemn the Liturgy as defective in necessaries and fundamentals and Protestants complain of many Redundancies and Superfluities and so between them both they charge her as guilty of both the Extreams But I am afraid he has promised himself more respect from Rome then they will allow her If they will confess that all is good in the Liturgy now I am sure they would not have confest so much when it pray'd to be delivered from the Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable Enormities But if it hath been so well amended to gratifie the Papists give it one amendment more to gratifie the Protestants that they also may say There 's nothing but what is good in the Liturgy I have read that when the Embassadour of the Duke of Brandenburgh presented his Mandate in the Council of Trent he shewed his Masters good Affection to and Reverence of the Fathers of that Synod They answered very discreetly That the Council had heard his discourse with great content especially that part of it wherein the Elector doth submit himself to the Council and promiseth to observe the Decrees of it hoping that â—…is deeds will be answerable to his word But here as the Historian observes the Council pretended a promise of Ten Thousand when the bargain was but for Ten. The Embassador proffer'd Reâ—…erence and they accept of Obedience And thus the Fathers of the Council of Carthage giving an account to Innocent I. that they had condemned Câ—…lestius and Pelagius desired him to conform himself to their Declaration He commends them in his Answer that remembring the old Tradition and Ecclesiastical Discipline they had referred all to his Iudgement whence All ought to learn whom to Absolve and whom to Condemn An usual and pious allurement of the Church of Rome which yielding to the Infirmity of her Children maketh shew to believe that they have performed their Duty By the same Artifice would our Enquirer wheadle the Non-conformists into a good mood to acknowledge the Liturgie to be good in the main and that there are only some redundancies which they would have taken away 3. And now at last he will come home and close to the purpose That which I chiefly intend says he is that a great part of men have not their minds Elevated above the Horizon of their Bodies nor take an estimate of any thing but by its Impression upon their senses from whence say I it must needs follow That most men Judge of the Excellency of a Religion as it approves it self to their Carnal Interests and Ambitious Expectancies and if that will make to the purpose to prove that popular injudiciousness is a Cause of sâ—…paration from the Church let him make his best of it some think it proves the contrary Two things he will spend his Rhetorick upon as he goes along The Excellency of the Liturgy and the Excellency of his own Preaching which last we have had enough of to saâ—…iety if not to nauseousness very lately The Excellency of the Liturgy lies in being composed plainly gravely and modestly no Turgid or swelling words no novelty of Phrase or Method no Luxurianâ—…y of Wit or Fancy And might not this have passed for proof of the Excellency of the Homilies If the plain Composition the Gravity the Modesty of the Homilies innocent of all turgid or swelling expressions free from novelty of phrase or curiosity of mâ—…thod could not procure a reprieve but they are condemned to silence and instead of them we are all for Artificial Composures suggar'd phrase that will melt in the mouth And methâ—… such as brings Forreigners to England to be instructed in it Quaintness of Expression and Luxurianey of Wit and Fancy why then was not the Liturgy a little lickt over and trimm'd up more sprucely But if those Characters of Plainness Gravity Modesty humble Expressions Ordinary Language be the Glory of the Prayers why not of the Preaching also the old Homilies were too course Spun for modern Ears to hear the phrase too heavy and common the method cryptic and obscure but Preaching is now more finical and accommodated to the Itching Ears of well-bred Christians we are got into the mode of Lovedays Letters and Cassandra and Cleopatra as if God did not understand strong lines as well as the Ladies and as if we were not as much obliged to tell the People their duty as God our wants in small English Popular Rashness and Injudiciousness are great evils as it appeats but how to apply a proper and suitable Remedy to the evil is all the skill And first the Church of Rome says he have a Cure for this they appropriate all Iudgement to the Clergie and deal with the rest of Mankind as Sots and Idiots But the Church of England makâ—…s not her self the Mistress of Mens Faith or imposes upon their understandings she â—…eaches that our Saviour hath delivered the Mind of God touching the points of Necessary Belief plainly and in other lesser matters she allows a Iudgement of Discretion And will not this Iudgment of Discretion or Indiscretion become a cause of all those Divisions Separations and Schismes of which so loud a peal has been rung in our Ears And is not this a New Name for Popular Rashness and Injudiciousness Oh says he since the peace of the Church often depends upon such Points as Salvation does not and â—…nce in mâ—…ny of these every Man is not a Competent Iudge but must either be â—…n danger of being deceived himself or deceiving others or of necessiâ—…y 〈◊〉 trust some body wiser than himself she recommends as the safer way for such private persons to complâ—… wâ—… publick determinations and in so advising she jointly consults the Peace of the Chuâ—…ch and the Quiet of Mens Consciences These maâ—…ters seem very Artificially put togâ—…ther and the taking them asunder will discover their weakness 1. Let me have a solid Reason given why the Peace of the Church should be laid upon those things which Salvation depends not
then any Church Governours can now justly Claim His Apostolical Commission to Plant and Water Churches which would have commanded Reverence to his Person and conciliated Authority to his Determinations and yet he either had no such power or durst not use it but took the Healing way tolerating things tolerable and pressing them mutually to Love and Peace under their various apprehensions about Mint Anise and Cummiâ—… But yet he thinks That the Reason why Primitive Christians whilst under persecution had one Heart and Mind was because they submitted their private Fancies to publick Safety Which is only the assigning of an Imaginary cause for a Real one Primitive Christians whilst surrounded with Adversaries were of one Heart and Mind in the main and the true Reason was because their dangers and pressing fears had not yet let in that Prelatical Imposing Spirit into the Guides of the Church which Ease and Liberty afterwards produced And though we dare not charge our Divisions upon Peace Plenty and Liberty which are great Mercies to a sinful people yet we would lay the Saddle upon the right Horse the blame at the right door 'T is not the injudiciousness of the People who are willing to be quiet and accept of rest upon tolerable terms but the obstinacy of Clergy-men who make their own Wills the reason of their Injunctions not considering that all mens Intellectuals are not of one size and height and yet as if Consciences were to be fooled with Mens Souls sported with they necessitate the People either to act against their Light or to fall under the severe lash of a Poenal Statute § 2. That these Evils broke out no sooner says he is due to the contentment generally took in their first Emerging out of the Darkness and Superstitions of Popery Very true they were so full of Admiration at what God had done for them that they considered not what further to ask God to do for them so transported that they were out of Egypt that they never considered how short the Wilderness was of the promised Land And hence he might have answered himself p. 13. If there be such a dangerous Affinity between the Church of England and Rome how came it to pass that Cranmer and Ridley c. laid down their Lives in testimony to this against that Rome was not built nor will it be destroyed in one day Our first Martyrs laid down their Lives in Testimony that Rome was guilty of dangerous Doctrines but not that we had nothing remaining that needed a Reformation 2. A second cause is That a great part of this Nation having been leavened with Iewish Superstitious or Traditions hath thereby been indisposed to an uniform reception of and Perseverance in the Reformation of Religion held forth by this Church When I first read the charge of Judaism brought in against the Dissenters I remembred what I had met with in the virulent Titles of some Lutheran Book Calvinus Iudaizans Calvinianorum Nesterianismus Calvine-papismus Noâ—…us Calvinistarum Deus to which we may add Calvine-Turcismus and some others I began to cast about in my thoughts for the reason of such an Imputation Have they set up an Image of the Aaronical Priesthood Have they their High-Prieâ—… their inferiour Priesâ—… and Levites attired in the Linen Ephod with all the Accoutrements of the Aaronical Wardrobe And that they may more exactly symbolize therewith have they provided for their Priests an Altar settled upon them a Levitical maintenance and to carry on the parallel have they erected Temples distinguisht by sacred Apartments Have they their Holy and most Holy place Chancelled in for the greater Reverence of the sacred Mysteries to secure them from the Approaches of the prophane and injudicious Rabble and have they all these enclosed within Holy Ground And the rather beacuse Dionysius assures us That the Christians in his time had solemn Temples like the Iews and the Chancel severed with special sanctifications from the rest of the Church whereas says he the Christians of the first Age made their Assemblies both in such private places and in such simplicity as the Apostles did I considered again whether the Non-conformists had not introduced a pompous padagâ—…gie of Ccremonies and imposed them upon the People whether they might not parhaps have instituted some Feasts and Holy-days upon an old Judaical account as of the Circumcision Purification or whether they had not appointed some Office or solemn special Service for Lustration of Women after Childbirth in correspondence with the Iewish Purifications of Women after their uncleanness whether they observed any sacred time Analogical to the Passover or had any Foot-steps of the ancient distinction of Meats into clean and unclean Or any thing that might give cause of suspicion that they had by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 revived Moses his extraordinary Quadragesimal Abstinence or whether they introduced Temple instrumental Musick whether loud sounding Cymbals or Organs having such good proof in Durantus his Rationale from that Text Let every thing that hath Breath praise the Lord And when I could find no track of reason for the charge upon these accounts I went to enquire of the Enquirer And it does appear by his talk that a more secret and mysterious Judaisme then all this has of old been rooted in this Nation that no Ecclesiastical Pick-axes have been able to extirpate it for says he the greatest difficulty that Austin the Monk found here was to bring the Inhabitants from the observation of Easter and some other Rites according to the manner of the Iewish and Eastern Churches to that of the Roman and Western and the doing it cost the lives of twelve hundred Monks who stubbornly opposed his Inovations This Austin was certainly a Formal Fop as ever this poor Nation was harassed with Two third parts of his whole Ministerial or Apostolical work was Ceremony for upon these conditions he propounded Peace to the Britains If you will in these three things obey me In celebrating Eastar in due time In Baptizing according to the manner of the Roman Church and in Preaching the Word to the Nation all other Ceremonies Fashions and Customs though they be contrary to ours yet we will willingly bear with them Was not this a person of great moderation But why not condescend in those two as well as all the rest Oh it s the Religious policy of Rome to reserve as much of Ceremony as like a Quit-rent will serve to Recognize the Papal Soveraignty and that point of Soveraignty alone will in due time fetch in the other To own that Churches power to impose ics Jurisdiction to award terms of Communion though but in one single instance is the delivery of a Twig and a Turf which give her Livery and Seisâ—…n of the Conscience in the name of the whole Man But if Austins Reformation was so Ceremonious in it self and so bloody in its effects which are if not inseparably yet commonly linked together If he could have
spared their blood they could well have spared his Ceremonies But was this Austin so great a Saint that he must be quoted for the famous Reformer of Judaisme or were those Martyrs of Bangor such wicked Jews that the Non-conformists should be their Spawn No This Austin made our Ancestors only Romanists he found them Christians before and perhaps of a better and more generous race of Religion then that he engrafted upon the old Stock Then it seems that Christians however Iudaizing in one instance may be of a Nobler temperature then an old doting Ceremony-monger that for a meer Caprice would mingle their Blood with their Sacrifices But how does the Example come home to the purpose Austin was mad upon his Ceremonies The Britains were tenacious of their Easter wherein are Dissenters concern'd in their quarrels who neither dogmatize with the Quartodecimanes or Quinto-decimanes Let the one plead Traditions from Papias and St Iohn with the Eastern the other pretend the Pope and St. Peter with the Western Christians we can be contend they should scuffle it out about Goats-Wool or Moon-shine in the Water Our Enquirer nevertheless will give us an Anatomy of Non-conformity and lay open their principles to view that it shall appear that a vein of Iudaismâ—… runs through the whole Body of Dissenters 1. The first Vein is Their great Hypothesis is That nothing is lawful in the Service of God but what is expresly prescribed in the Scripture Which proposition needs many limitations before the Dissenters will Father it and when it is so limited they will challenge him to prove that there 's the least Capillary of Judaism in it And 1. If by Nothing he understand no meer Circumstance as of general time place he may know what they have told the World a thousand times they hold many such things lawful which are not prescribed particularly in the Scripture but if by Nothing he will understand no Ceremony being an outward and visible sign of inward and invisible Grace they do assert that no such thing is lawful in Worship but what is prescribed in the Scripture 2. If by in the Service of God he mean only an action accompanying Gods Worship not of Religious Application but such as is common to civil and ordinary affairs they deny it any principle of theirs that nothing may be done in time of Worship by the Worshippers that is not commanded by the Scriptures But if by in the Service of God be meant so in it that it is part of it they own it to be their avowed Judgement that nothing is lawful in the Service of God as a part of worship which is not commanded by God himself 3. If by expresly commanded be intended what is literally and Syllabi cally so they disown it as any Hypothesis of theirs But if by expresly commanded be intended what is either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by just consequence derived thence they are ready to justifie it without fear of Judaizing That nothing no outward visible sign of inward and invisible Grace is lawful in the Service of God as a part of that Service which is not expresly or by just and clear consequence prescribed in the Scripture not excluding whatever help from the Light of Nature to give us a fuller prospect into the Mind of God in his Word Nor ought this to be stigmatized as a principle peculiar to the Iews but common to them with all other true Worshippers of God from the beginning of the World To impose a part of Worship is not only an Imposition upon Man but upon God The Imposer does not only compel Man to offer but God to Accept what is offered for seeing the End of All Worship is Acceptation with him whom we Worship this End must influence our whole Worship And this is supposed by the Church of England who prays or invites to pray for true Repentance and the Holy Spirit that those things may please him which we do at this present Now it 's neither our own Fancies nor the Will of Men but the Word of God that is a Competent Declaration of what will please our Creatour Dissenters plead further That the same God that Iealous God who Commanded the Iews not to add to Gods Commands commanded it upon Reasons common to all Mankind It was well urged against the Iews by the Learned Author of Orig Sacr. p. 214. That the meaning of that strict Prohibition Deut. 12. 32. was no other then that Men should not of their own Heads offer to find out new ways of Worship as Jeroboâ—…m did but that Gods Revelation of his own Will in all its different degres was to be the Adequate Rule of the way and â—…rts of his own Worship And I would fain know of the Jews whether their own severe and strict prohibition of things not at all forbidden in the Law of God came not near the adding to Gods Law Again God having given no rule to direct us in excogitating and imposing new Worship it 's impossible but we should mistake or if we should hit now and then upon some happy contrivance we must thank his blind Goddess fortune rather then the fruitfulness of our own Understandings And this loose principle would make the World a Pantheon or encumber it with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and would multiply Religions according to the multitudes of the Churches as they of old multiplied their Idols according to the number of their Cities They do also still believe from Heb. 3. That Christ was faithful to him that appointed him the Lord of the Church in making all necessary provisions for the encreasing confirming and perfecting their Graces for their Comfort Edification and all spiritual necessities without any new Additional Contrivances for those ends Nay they say yet further that as these new ways and parts of Worship do impeach Christs faithfulness in discharge of his trust so they do invade his Regal Office too in making new Laws to bind the Conscience An usurpation which no Earthly Prince would endure For when a Prince has Establisht his Laws though he supposes that the Inferiour Magistrates must have time and place to execute them in which are left at liberty according as emergency in particular cases shall invite to determine them yet he allows them to make no new Laws upon pretence of necessity to execute the old ones nor to institute new Observances under colour of more effectual managing old Customs And it seems reasonable that the People should not practise what Ministers may not Preach nor the Church impose what it cannot command in Christs Name but it can only use Christs Name to urge whatsoever he has commanded them nay the Enquirer when perhaps he did not think of after mischief told us p. 4. That we incur St. Pauls Anathema which he denounces against him whosoever he be nay â—…f an Angel from Heaven that shall Preach any other Doctrine then what hath been received And if the Church has
enquired whether it have not a greater Tincture of Judaism to enjoin other days for Holy-days which have no fâ—…ting in Gods word then to spend the Lords-day in pursuit of those things which concern our Everlasting peace which is clearly warranted thereby B. Andrews urges this against Trask The Apostles kept their Meetings on that day on that day they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. held their sacred Synaxes their solemn Assemblies to preach to pray to celebrate the Lords Supper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lords Supper on the Lords-day for these two words only the Day and the Supper have the Epithete of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scripture to shew that its alike in both 5. A Fifth Instance of their Judaical Principle is their Doctrine of Absolute Predestination This Doctrine has perplext the Enquirer beyond measure he would mention it every where willingly but knows not where to mention it pertinently It was lately one of the Pretended or Apochryphal and now it s become a Real and Canonical nay a near and immediate Cause or at least the just sixth part of a Cause of separation I shall for once suppose that all the Non-conformists are Sublapsarians Now let him show me that Article or Doctrine to which this Church requires subscription relating to the Decrees of God to which a Sublapsarian cannot freely subscribe The 17 Art of the Church speaks without question her fense in this matter Predestination to life is the Everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the World was laid he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ ouâ—… of Mankind and to bring them by Christ to Everlasting Salvation It were more for this Gentlemans comfort and credit to write a serious and Compassionate Enquiry into the Pretended and Real the Remote and near Causes of his own conformity to that Doctrine which he so pleasantly derides And with what Engines Machines Screws and Pulleys he could hale his Conscience to a Subscription The old Device was good Lingud juratus sum mente juravi nihil It 's a happy freedom of Spirit a blessed enlargement of mind to subscribe any thing and believe nothing Two things there are which ought to have been cleared first that the Doctrine of predestination is a Iewish Principle secondly that it 's a Cause or a piece of a Cause of Non-conformity For the former he makes it out thus He that seeks the source of so odd an Opinion can in my â—…ind pitch no where more probably then upon the absolute Decree of God to favour the Posterity of Abraham for his sake Alas Poor Man And had the Church of England thinks he no more wit then to talk of an Everlasting Purpose before the foundation of the World of a constant Decree to deliver from Curse and Damnation some that he had chosen out of Mankind and bring them to Everlasâ—…ing Salvation from such a Ridiculous Ground But the difficulty was how to make this a piece of Judaism and when Men set themselves insuperable Tasks they must rub through them as they are able The Second will yet be more difficult For many Conformists have been and are Sublapsarians and some Non-conformists Subter-Sublapsarians And the Enquirer told us p. 7. That the Articles of the Doctrine of our Church do with such admirable prudence and wariness handle these Points the Five Points as if particular respect was had to these Men and care taken that they might Abundare sensu suo So necessary it was our Author should confute his own Contradictious Cavils Well! Whether this Church the Iewish Church the Non-conformists or any or all or none of them be of this opinion yet it is a most monstrous one For says he The N. T. has often assured â—…s that at the great day God will judge the World in Righteousness and that without respect of Persons he will render to every one according to his Works Wonderful And are the Sublapsarians all this while to seek how God may be righteous in the Great Day if he Derceed to give Grace to some Men which he never owed them and left others to perish under the Fruits of their own Apostacy and unbelief 6. The last Instance is their superstitious observation and interpretation of Prodigies The Works of God are all Admirable those of Creation Glorious those of Providence Mysterious we have reason to Revere his Greatness in all that he doth them his Wisdom in all in that he can his Goodness in that he will make them Bow to subserve his own Counsels and Purposes in working together for good in them that love him To fetch our Creed from that Book of Providence we allow not it 's well if we can make Gods use of them to awaken a sleepy World to Repentance The greatest Prodigy that has startled me of late has been a Story that many tell us That in several places in the Nation the Graves have been seen to Open and many old Hereticks to have risen and walk'd and talk'd and preach'd and printed Books whom we verily believed to have been as dead and rotten as their Heresies Thus I remember Lirinensis calls Coelestius Prodigiosum Pelagij Discipulum That Prodigious Scholar of Pelagius Something was useful to have been said about Prodigies and it must come in here or no where and therefore let it pass for a Iewish Opinion and a sixth part of one whole Cause of Non-conformity 3 He reckons Preâ—…udice amongst the causes of our distractions and let it passe for a third There is a sound sense in which our Enquirers Notions may be very true could we be but so happy as to hit out Tertullian complained sadly of those insuperable prejudices against the Christian Religion under which they all groâ—…ed Non sâ—…lus aliquod in Causa est sed Nomen It was the Name of a Christian that was their greatest Crime Bonus Vir Cajus Sâ—…jus tantum quod Christianus A poor Woman amongst the Ignorant Devoto's of Rome was instructed by her Ghostâ—…y Father that the Hugonots were all Monsters It hapned that one of her Neighbours spying a Protestant passing by told her That Man is a Hugonot It 's imposible replyed she He looks as like a Man as ever I saw one in my life Thus are Dissenters by prejudice and partiality sentenced and executed in the peremptory Judgements of Many before their Cause is heard or thy admitted to a fair Defence and Tryal I shall therefore spare my common place Book and reserve my stores for more important occasions and at present borrow our Enquirers more refined Collections for they will serve any Mans turn to evince that prejudice is a Cause not why there are so many Non-conformists but that there are no more This Prejudice alone was able to Seal up the Eyes of the Gentile World against the Sun of Righteousness when he shone upon them in his brightest
's true Diotrephes his fingâ—…rs it â—…hed to be tampering but the Beloved Disciple that lay in his Masters Bosom who was privy to his meek and gracious Temper and knew how displeasing such imperiousness was to him gave an early and timous rebuke to the Attempts and Essays of Praelatical Arrogancy and indeed he could not but remember and was concern'd in it how smartly Christ had snibb'd Aspiring Church-men That there was so much Tranquility therefore amongst the Primitive Christians was not that they were without differing apprehensions for mens parts were no more alike nor thâ—…ir Educations more equal then now But because there was a Spirit of Condescension to and mutual forbearance one of another The strong either in Knowledge or Authority did not trample upon the weak There was then some diversity of Eupressions in which the Pastors of several Churches delivered themselves for there were neither Homilies nor Liâ—…urgies yet they did not dispute themselves into parties because they made not their own Sentiment the Test of Orthodoxy nor their private Faith the publick standard and measure to which all Christians should be tyed to subscribe They allowed a latitude in things not fundamental nor had learned the modern Artifice of Fettering Consciences in the Chains of Assent and Consent to the Dogmats of a prevailing party In those days meâ—… were sincerely good and devout and set their Hearts upon the Main the huge consequence and concern of which easily prevailed with those Holy men to over-look other mens private Opinions They were intent upon that wherein the power of Godliness consisted and upon which thâ—… Salvation of Souls depended and so all that was secure they were not so superstitiously concerned for Rituals either to practice them much less to impose them They would not stake the Churches Peace against Ceremonies and then play it away rather then not be Gamesters They considered that they had all one God one Faith one Baptism one Lord Iesus Christ and never insisted upon one Posture one Gesture one Garment one Ceremony They Good men found enough to do to mortifie their Passions to bear their Burdens of Afflictions and Persecution to withstand the temptations of the Devil and the contagion of evil Examples And had no strength to spare nor superfluous time to wast to Conn the Theory of Ceremonies and practice new devices But when men grow cold and indifferent about great things then they become â—…ervent about the lesser when they give over to mind a holy life and heavenly Conversation then they grow fierce Disputants for and rigid Exacters of the sulâ—… Tale of Ceremonies Thus when the Scribes and Pharise 〈◊〉 became so violent for the necessity of washing hands they little regarded the cleansing of their Hearts They that will make things indifferent to become necessary the next news you hear of them is that they make things necessary to become indifferent when men cease to study their own hearts they become very studious how to vex and torment other mens for then they have both leisure and confidence enough to trample upon their inferiours Then it shall be a greater sin for a Monk to lay aside his Cowle then his Chastity and to be a scrupulous Non-conformist to the Laws of Men then a scandalous Non-conformist to the Laws of God In short that I may say the same thing over again which I have twenty times already said and that I may convince the Reader that I have read Erasmus de opiâ—… vâ—…orum as well as his famous piece of the Art of Preaching Then and not till then do the little Appendices of Religion grow great and mighty matters in mens esteem when the Essentials the great and weighty matters are become little and inconsiderable which I had had little need to have mentioned but for the sake of those Elegant and Modish words Appendices and Essentials which in an Eloquent Oration ought not to have been forgotten Dixi That there are Distractions in the Nation Divisions amongst Christian Brethren and a separation from the present Church of England in various degrees is evident The Industry of our Enquirer in Tracing out the Causes of them has been very commendable though his success has not been answerable Had he pleased to approve himself a skilful and impartial as well as a serious Enquirer he had certainly directed us to one cause more which for want of Ariadnes Threed in the Anfractuous windings of this Labyrinth he has quite lost himself and his Travels Honest Gerson of old has notified it to the non-observing World and from him I shall recommend it to the Reader There can be saith he no General Reformation without the Abolitions of sundry Canons and Statutes which neither are nor reasonably can be observed in these times which do nothing but ensnare the Consciences of men to their endless Perdition no tongue is able to express what evil what danger and confusion the neglect and contempt of the Holy Scripture which doubtless is sufficient for the Government of the Church else Christ had been an imperfect Law-giver and the following of Humane Inventions hath brought into the Church Serm. in die circ part 1. 'T is that which has ever been lamented and by all moderate persons complained of That unnecessary Impositions have been made the indispensible conditions of Church-Communion without precept or precedent from the Word of God To this cause had he reduced all our Divisions he said more in those few plain words then in all those well coucht periods wherewith he has adorned his Discourse and darkened Counsel As the matter of Law arises out of the matter of Fact so the Justice of the Non-conformists Cause appears from the terms that are put upon them in order to Communion If the Terms be unjust it will justifie their Cause If they have sinfully managed their Cause its goodness will not justifie their Persons what Dissenters usually insist upon for their Justification I shall reduce to these Heads § 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 soo 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 Edw. 6. so it proves also that the Terms of Communion have been enlarged since the first times of the Reformation They object also against that 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 § 2. They plead that they are not satisfied in the use of any Mystical Ceremonies in Gods 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 unto 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 encrease 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 3. They plead that since Communion with the Church is suspended and denyed 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 God has in the general 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 tyed 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 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 Men Preach such as they Print with pubiick 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 Iustification 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 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 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 'em be so they are sure its 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 then God commanded 7. They pretend that the things imposed 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 list them 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 9. They are the more cautious of all Ceremonies because the old Church of England in her Homilies Serm. 3. Of Good Works tell us That such hath been the corrupt inclination of Man superstitiously given to make New Honcuring of God of his own Head and then to have more Affection and Devotion to keep that then to search out Gods Holy Commandments and do them 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 futilous that setting aside Rhetotick and Railing there 's nothing in them but what had been either answered by others or is contradicted by themselves which hardnes them in their Errour who are gone astray into the right way 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 PART II. CHAP. I. The several ways for prevention of Church-Divisions mentioned by the Enquirer considered The Papal Methods 1. Keeping the People in Ignorance 2. An infallible Iudge 3. Accommodating Religion to the Lusts of Men. Three other ways mentioned by the Enquirer 1. Teleration 2. Comprehension 3. Instruction AS that Person will highly merit of this present Age whose discerning eye shall discover and his charity propound to the world such rational expedients as may amicably compose our present differences upon terms comporting with the Consciencious principles of the contending parties so our fears of the success are justly greatned by the frequent disappointment of our hopes Confident Pretenders posting up their Bills in
His third proof is taken from the loveliness of Unity It 's not says he the sublimity of Christian Doctrine nor the gloriousness of the Hopes it propounds that will so recommend it to the opinion and â—…steen of beholders as when it shall be said Ecce ut Christiani Amant when they shall observe the Love Concord and Unanimity amongst the Professors of it The Enquirer has here stumbled at unawares upon the formal reason of Schism or sinful separation which lies not in the variety of Opinions or differing practices modes or forms of Worship but in a want of true love and charity That which renders Christianity truly beautiful and amiable in the Eyes of Beholders is that it teaches the Professors thereof to love one another with a pure heart frvently though under different perswasions as to Modes of Divine Worship and Discipline That their hearts are larger to receive one anothers persons then their heads are to conceive one anothers notions But yet as he is a fond Lover that chuses his Wife by the Eye for the symmetry of her external frame or cloathing of wrought Gold rather then those virtues which adorn the Soul so he that chuses his Religion by Sense and not by Faith will make a most lamentable bargain He that falls in love with Christs Church upon External Allurements and Extrinsick Motives will either repent or quit his choice when she is persecuted her outward frame discomposed her order violated the Shepherd smitten and the Sheep scatter'd whereas he that espouses Religion for those invisible glories which she propounds and keeps in his steady eye the recompence of reward will adhere to his choice when she is most black and the Sun of Persecution has too familiarly looked upon her But I shall not need to trouble my self or the Reader with any more of these fine Arguments Schism is an evil whether he be angry at it or no. And separation may be good whether he be pleased or no All the Question will be that seeing there is an apparent separation found amongst us from the Political Church of England and supposing that there is sin one where or other where the guilt of it ought to lye The Enquirer has spoken a great deal of Truth in in a few words That some have found pleasure to get that Child which they would by no means have laid at their own doors A successful piece of Villany it is which sometimes passes for a virtue for the Fathers who have begot these Brats to expose them to be kept and maintained at the cost of the poor innocent Parish And if we might guess at the true Father by the Childs Physiognomy All the divisions which have so heavily charged the Churches having sprung from Ceremonies from needless Impositions from unnecessary Terms of Communion They who take such pleasure to beget thâ—… one may be presumed to have been the Grand-fathert of the other If yet there be any controversie depending whose the Child is The Enquirer recommends to us the Wisdom of Solomon for discovering the True Mother and because we know Partus sequitur ventum if we can once find out the Damm we shall make her confess the Sire It was the early proof says he Solomon gave of his Wisdom in discovering the true Mother of the living Child to which both the Litigants laid equal claim I confess his illustration proceeds hitherto but very oddly for there the quarrel was who should have the Child and be reputed the true Mother but with us all the controversie is who shall be discharg'd of it but all similitudes do not run of four Leggs and it 's very well if this will hop on one observe how he lays both ends of his discourse together As that wise Prince discovered the true Mother by the tenderness of her Bowels towards the Infant so we may perhaps discover the true Children of the Church by their respect and tenderness to her Ay just so no doubt Even as the Wheelbarrow rumbles over the Pebbles so a Thumb-rope of Sand will make an excellent 〈◊〉 for Fishers folly The comparison would run a little more naturally and regularly thus As the true Mother was discerned by the tenderness of her Bowels towards the Infant who would rather part with her right then that her bleeding Eye should ever see her Child divided so we may perhaps discover the true Mother of the Church by her condescending and relenting pity who would rather wave her claims and resign her right in some lesser instances then ever endure to see the body of Christ divided by a Schismatical Dichotomy And as the Harlot notwithstanding all her pretences bewrayed her self to the discerning eye of that Judicious Prince who could be content the Child should rather dye then she lose her moyety so will she evidence her self to be a Stepmother Church which peremptorily insists upon a pretended right to Impâ—…se at the Peril of the Churches Peace rather then by waving those pretences save the endangered Church from imminent destruction but some mens Allegories are never so excellent as when they are impertinent or non sense and I presume he found this Allusion in the Wisdom of Solomon in the Apocryphal Writings We are come at length to the Question what is the true notion of Schism A point that deserves to be handled with the greatest exactness for upon the True stating hereof the issue of the whole controversie depends His notion or definition of Schism is this Schism is a voluntary departure or separation of ones self without just cause given from that Christian Church whereof he was once a Member Or Schism is a breach of that Communion wherein a man might have continued without sin I shall not need to find faults or pick holes in this definition they will offer themselves as he opens the Terms only I observe 1 That it offends against one of the sacred Laws of Definition which ought to be most religiously and inviolably preserved Definitiones debent cum Definito reciprocari The Definition ought to be convertible with the thing defined And that this is not so is evident because there may be a Schism where there is no separation from External Communion There is a Schism in a Church as wel as from a Church The Churches Garment may be rent and yet not rent in two Thus the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. 18. When ye come together in the Church I hear there are Divisions amongst you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ch 12. v. 25. That there may be no Schism in the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Definition which is as narrow as his Charity and leaves out those who ought â—…o be taken in must necessarily be stark naught 2 This definition is very short in expressing that which is indeed the Poison and Venom the formal Reason of all Schismatical departure viz. the want of Charity and true Evangelical Love for he that departs from a Society yet loves the real Christians
sin But the most considerable thing here will be how I became a Member of that Church from which the departure is supposed to be made for 1. To be forced into a Church will never make me such a Member but that I may re-assume my liberty and right when the force is removed Violence and Constraint unite me no otherwise to a Church then a great Beetle unites a Wedge to a Tree which though it may by main strength be driven into the Tree yet not being engrasâ—…ed into it no Union is created with it nor does it derive any nourishing juices from it 2. Baptism alone will not do it because as I conceive that Ordinance solemnly unites me only to the Catholick visible Church and not to a particular Congregation otherwise whenever the providence of God shall transplant me into another particular Church I must be re-baptized and so as often as I remove because as to that Church I am unbaptized 3. Nor will my being born and bred within national limits and precincts denominate me a Member of such National Church or Constitution because it passes for a Current Maxime That the Church is in the Common-wealth and therefore Church and Kingdom Church-member and Subject are not Terms of equal extent and demensions And besides there are many Congregations of Christians in this Nation not syncretizing with the National Policy who yet are not stigmatized with the Brand of Schismatical but without the least reproach of Schism Worship God and exercise Discipline according to their own private and peculiar Laws 4. Therefore to make me a Member of a particular Church there must be the concurrence of my own free choice which whether it ought to be signified by express and overâ—… Acts or that an implicite and tacâ—…te consent may not suffice is heâ—… no season to discourse § 5. But the only difficulty I am sure the grâ—…est is that which he subjoins in thâ—…se words An unnâ—…ssary separation or without just cause or to separate from that Society wherein I may continue without sin Two extreams there are it seems 1. Of The Zealoâ—…s of the Church of Rome who scarcely allow any thing as a sufficient cause of separation But I look on this as a very unjust surmise of the Romanists for their most rigid Zealots will in Theâ—… allow sinful conditions imposed for a just â—…round of sinless departure only they deny to individuals a judgement of discretion to determine each for himself of the sinfulness of the Condition And thus what they seem to give with the right hand they take away with the left And herein our Enquirer is as strait laced as they for though in the general he will prodigally allow us that sinful Impositions are a just plea for separation yet he has forestalled that concession all along with a fine contrivance That our private Wisdom must lower the Top-sale to the publick Thus p. 64. Since the peace of the Church often depends upon such points as Salvation does not and since in many of those every man is not a Competent judge but must either be in danger of being deceived himself and of troubling others one of necessity must trust some body else wiser then himself so that the matter according to this Gentlemans Hypothesis is just as long as 't is broad but that the Church of Rome speaks that with open Mouth which he delivers between the Teeth 2. The other supposed extream is that of some Protestants who make the Causes of separation as many and as light as the Iews did of Divorce almost for any matter whatsoever But as our Saviour when the case was put found out a middle way betwixt Divorce for no cause at all and for every cause so ought it to be done in this business of Schism Reader we are now in a hopeful way for the compromising all the Controversies that have vext our Northern Climate and to seal general Releases of all Actions and causes of Actions against each other from the beginning of the Reformation to the day of the Date of these presents for as we may charitably presume of all our Episcopal Brethren that they will stand to the final award of so great an undertaker as our Enquirer so I am confident I may engage for all the dissenting Brethren that they will abide by the Umpirage of Iesus Christ and that whatever expedient he used in deriding the grand Question about Divorce shall conclude them in all their Debates about Schism Now the final Decision of that affair we find Mat. 19. 8. where our Saviour considers not what could plead inveterate Custom or a gray headed practise to abet its pretensions he slights all the Arguments from laudable Examples and the Traditions of their Forefathers and runs up the practise to its Primitive Institution and tells them From the Beginning it was not so And indeed if a Transcript be blotted or blurr'd we presently have recourse to the Original and from thence redintegrate whatever the hungry worm or greedy Moth has deâ—…aced when the Streams are muddied and polluted we relieve our selves from the Spring where the Virgin and unpolluted waters flow clearest and sweetest without adulterate mixtures It was the cry in the Council of Nice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we cry the same one and all Let the terms of Comunion in the first plantation of the Gospel Church be produced and he that will not subscribe and submit to those Archetypes let him be branded for an obstinate Schismatick Now therefore if ever our Enquirer promises himself and us that he will Hit the mâ—…rk I say then and then only is there just cause of separation when perseverance in the Communion of such a Church cannot be without sin that is when she shall impose such Laws and Terms of Society as cannot be submitted to without apparent breach of the Divine Law Thus he says And if I should tell the Reader I say the contrary we should make a squabble on 't to render our selves ridiculous let it therefore neither be what I say nor what he says but what wiser men then us both say who may be presumed more impartial in their Judgements wherein they vindicate the Dissenters because they were or are eminent Members of this Church And first I will present him with the judgement of Mr. Hales a Person of whom the Church of England has great cause to boast Now amongst many other things to our purpose in his Treatise of Schism he acquaints us 1. That when either false or uncertain conclusions are obtruded for Truth or Acts either unlawful or ministring just scruple are required of us to be performed in these cases consent were Conspiracy and open Contestation is not Faction or Schism but due Christian Animosity 2. That nothing absolves men from the guilt of Schism but true and unpretended Conscience Therefore such a Conscience will absolve from the guilt of it 3. That where the Cause of Schism is necessary there not
solution of it carries fire in the Tail of it for it brings with it a piece of Doctrine which is seldom pleasing to Superiours But were it not that men hate chargeable Truth more then cheap Errour and love cheap Corruptions beyond costly Reformation there could be no great difficulty who should be judge in this case For 1. Who may more justly challange a Liberty to judge what is sin then he that must be damned if he do sin He that sins at another Command will hardly perswade him to be his substitute in the Condemnation nor will God accept him for the sinners proxy 2. If the Church must judge Then though her terms be the most apparent violations of the Divine Law yet there can never be any lawful separation unless we can Imagine her so modest as to confess a sin and yet at the same time so immodest as to impose it To acknowledge her Terms sinful and yet with the same breath to enjoyn them as necessary to Communion It will be pretended that the same Inconveniencies will follow the other way for if a particular person who withdraws must judge then let the Terms be perfectly innocent yet to be sure he will plead that they are sinful unless we can suppose him so modest as to confess himself a Schismatick and yet at the same time so immodest as to persevere in his Schism But I conceive that this arguing is very wide 1. Because every Mans Soul lies at stake and it cannot be imagined that he should either not study its Interest or that understanding it he should not endeavour to secure it I speak of such as are otherwise Consciencious for if he be a person vitious and proâ—…igate one eaten up of wickedness we ought not to flatter our selves with any great hopes of the impartiality of his determinations And if he have thus debauched his Conscience the Laws are open The Magistrate who has his power from the Moral Law has by the same Law sufficient Authority to coerce by punishments whatever Enormities are committed against it 2. We have no Reason to suppose any Man to be a Hypocrite in the matter of separation which is attended with so mamy dreadful penalties unless notorious evidence will warrant such a Judgement § 3. A rational suspicion of a breach of the Divine Law is enough in the Apostles judgement to justifie the suspension of my own Act and if it prove no other then a thing indifferent in it self yet such dissatisfaction will excuse from sin for so the Apostle Rom. 14. 5. Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind 14. To him that esteemeâ—…h any thing to be unclean to him it is unclean 23. He that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not of Faith for whatsoever is not of Faith is sin The Enquirer has all this while stood like the very picture of Modesty equally placed between the two exarâ—…ams of All separavation and no separation have but a little patience and you shall see how manfully he will behave himself against them both 1. For the poor Romanists he gives them a small pat with his Foot and they are silenced for ever It 's plain says he it can be no sin to separate when it 's a sin to Communicate Yes very plain it is but so say the Dissenters It can be no sin for us to separate when it 's a sin to communicate Ay but says he It was an apparent breach of the Divine Law upon which we separated from Rome Why so say the Dissenters It 's an apparent breach of the Divine Law upon which we separated from the Church of England Ay but will he say you ought to have trusted wiser men then your selves and not like the Antipodes to have run upon your heads Oh! but then comes in the Romanists and falls upon his bones You ought to have trusted wiser men then your selves your Superiours in the Church from whom you separated and not have ran upon your own heads Nay replies he but we have a judgement of Discretion and ought to be Masters of our own Reason so far as to take Cognizance of our own Acts Well! The Non-conformists catches that word by the end before it be well out of his Mouth We are for a judgement of Discretion too and ought so far to be Masters of our own Reasons as not to Act against them nothing can be returned that I can foresee but that it is not for such pitiful sneaks as the Dissenters to talk of Conscience and a judgement of discretion it s enough for the Gendarms of Reason to make use of that plea against Rome But I will leave him to squabble it out with the Romish Synagogue 2 He has quickly you see shaken them their foddering but these cumbersome Fanaticks stick as close to him as a Burr and therefore he must now give them a rattle It 's plain says he that Schism being so great a sin and of so extream bad Consequences that which must acquit me of the guilt of it in my separation can be nothing lesse then an equal danger on the other hand and that when I may persevere without sin it must of necessity be a sin to separate upon inferior dislikes This looks pretty well at first but for a few Inconveniences in the Argument 1. That he begs the whole Question at a Clap the question was wheâ—…her the Imposition of such Laws and Terms of Society as cannot be submitted to without apparent breach of the divine Law be the only just cause of separation He affirms it and for proof gives us this that Schism being so great a sin that which must acquit me of the Guilt of it in my separation must be equal danger of sinning wherein he supposeth that all separation is Schism where there is not equal danger of sinning that is of an apparent breach of the divine Law whith is but the question it self a little disgnised to make it more passable to the unwary Reader the truth is Schism is so great a sin that no danger of sinning whatsoever can acquit me of it for I do not know that any thing will compound for uncharitableness for pride for obstinacy but separation for the benefit of all Gods Ordinances that I may be edifyed and built up in the most holy faith but nothing of the nature of the abominable sin in it 2. Dissenters will answer that the danger of sinning is more clear and evident when I act against my Conscience then in separating peaceably and modestly from a particular Church for it cannot be lawful in any Case to act against my light but it may be lawful in some Cases to separate from a particular Church there is lesse danger of sin in breaking a humane constitution whitch 't is at least questionable whether man has power to enâ—…oyn then of violating the dictate of my own reason informed by all the means I can use from the word of God 3. Non-conformists
perpetuate our Divisions nor intail quarrels upon innocent posterity who are not yet imbroyled in our Contentions upon the account of those things which the Church may well spare without any eclipse of her Glory part with without Impeachment of her Wisdom leave free without prejudice to the Worship or just offence to any to the unspeakable joy of all Cooler spirits besides the infinite satisfaction that would arise to our Brethren of the Reformed Religion beyond the Seas There are three things which the Enquirer has propounded to himself to Treat of in this Chapter 1 That the Causes of Dissentions amongst us are not like those upon which we seperated from the Roman Communion We acknowledge it with all cheerfulness Yet a man may die of many other Diseases besides the Plague We Rejoyce that the Church of England has such clear grounds to justify her departure And we wish we had fewer grounds to justify ours But here for the credit of his Discourse wherein we are all equally concerned with himself I could have wish't he had not prefaced it with so foul and gross a slander It is said by some that there is as much cause for Secession from this Church now as there was from the Roman in the time of our Ancestors I only demand so much Justice from the Reader as to suspend his belief till this judicious Imputation be made good and in the mean time return thus much in Answer § 1. There may be a just Cause where there is not an equal Cause of separation There may be a great latitude in the terms of Communion and yet all injustifiable and there may be great variety in the Reasons of separation and yet all may be warrantable Had the Popes Terms been much lower they had been much too high for our Ancestors to come up to And though the Terms of this Church are lower then those of Rome yet they are something too high for Dissenters who humbly plead that they have just cause for a peaceable Departure since they cannot peaceably Abide in the Society § 2. Upon our Enquirers Principles it had been as lawful for our Ancestors to have continued in Communion with the Roman as for Dissenters to conform to the present demands of this Church For let me have a clear Answer why their Private Wisdoms ought not to be sacrificed to the Publick Wisdom in Queen Maries Reign as our private wisdom resign to the publick under our present Circumstances For in this Case we consider not the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the Terms as they are in their Naked selves but where the final Decision shall rest whether they be lawful or unlawful Now the Enquirer tells us page 168. It s enough to warrant our obedience that the thing is the Command of the Superiour and not beyond the Sphere of his Authority But who can measure the Sphere of the Magistrates Authority unless we could take the just Diameter of it Again page 178. The Result of all will be that instead of prescribing to the Magistrate what he shall determine or disputing what he hath concluded on we shall compose our minds and order our circumstances for the more easy and cheerful compliance therewith What Rivers of precious Blood had this Doctrine saved had it been broached in Q. Maries dayes That men must not dispute what the Magistrate has concluded on And though he thinks to heal all this by saying page 166. That God has made the Magistrate a General Commission and made no exception of this kind meaning as far as Circumstantials and those things that God himself has not defined yet this will not salve the difficulty because 1. Who shall judge what is a Circumstantial and what a Substantial what an Integral part only and what an Essential part of Religion Where shall we lodge the determination ultimately what God has defined and not defined If the Magistrate Then our Ancestors are gone by the Common Law If the private person we are all in statu quo 2. God has no where disterminated Circumstantials from Substantials in the Magistrates Commission for though our Enquirer has excepted the one yet it is by his private Authority which binds not the Magistrate His Commission is Patent and therefore it may be read 13 Rom. 1. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers c. This Commission does no more except an Obedience then a Circumstance he that will put in the one may at pleasure insert the other and he that will except the one may and will except the other So that I conclude or at least see no reason why I may not that according to this Enquirers sentiments had providence allotted us our habitations under a Prince of the Roman Communion we might have practised all his Injunctions without warrant to plead our Consciences in Bar which Principle will bear a mans charges through all the Turks Dominions and make any man a free Citizen of Malmsbury when once Conscience is sacrificed to the Deity of Leviathan Every true Protestant will gladly read his Justification of this Churches departure from Rome And therefore though it be not much to the matter in hand I shall not grudge to go a little out of my way with him for his good company and profitable discourse 1. We could not says he continue in the Roman Church upon any better Conditions then Nahash propounded to the men of Jabesh Gilead to put out our Right eyes that we might be fit for their blind Devotion Whether the eye be put out that it cannot or hood-winckt that it may not see is no such considerable difference but we have the less need of a Private if there be a Publick eye that can see for us all and better discern the fit Terms of Communion And whether it be the right eye or the left or both that our Enquirer would pluck out of our heads I cannot tell for when we have considered with the best eyes we have whether it be our duty to withdraw from the present establishment in some things and the result of our most impartial inquiries concludes in the affirmative yet we are Schismaticks and all that is naught if then we may not see with our own eyes as good pluck them out They that fancy man to be but an Autamoton a well contrived piece of Mechanism have certainly fitted him to this Hypothesis For suppose him to be like a Clock which once put in motion will jog on the round and drudge through the Horary circle and perform you a twelve hours work in twelve hours time without attendance or other charge than a little Oyle and you may then set him to what hour you please And he shall as freely strike twelve at Sun-set as Mid-day 2. We must not here have renounced our Reason What if we had Our own private Reason is not worth so much as to contend with the publick And thanks be to God that our Governours are Counselled by their own Reasons
for had they been guided by the Counsels and Interests of such Divines we must have Renounced ours too long ago 3. That Church in lieu of the Scriptures gives them Traditions Nay do not wrong the Grave Tridentine Fathers it was but Pari pietatis affectâ—… veneramur The Church of England abhors indeed that Sacriledge in her 34 Article Whosoever through his private judgement willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to Gods word ought to be rebuked openly And I am confident the Roman Church will allow us openly to break any of hers when she shall confess them to be repugnant to the word of God 4. Instead of such things as were from the Beginning it prescribes those things that had their beginning from private Interest and secular Advantages It has been a piece of policy of our Duellers to escape the Laws to cross the Channel and fight it out upon Callice Sands If our Enquirer will go with me thither I would dispute it fairly with him whether the Terms of Communion be the same that were from the Beginning If the Church of Rome be warrantably deserred because her matters stand not in the Primitive posture They that can make the plea will expect the same priviledge The Learned Author of the Irenicum p. 121. assures us that it is contrary to the practice and moderation then used to deprive men of their Ministerial functions for not conforming in Habit Gestures and the like and he adds his pions wishes That God would vouchsafe to convince the Leaders of the Church of this Truth It will be less material therefore whether the things so â—…ifly insisted on had their beginning from private Interests and secular Advantages for if they were not from the beginning is 't little to us where they had their rise The Canons of 1640. leave bowing towards the Altar indifferent and prohibit Censuring and Iudging Extend but the same Moderation to all other things as far from the beginning as they and of â—…o greater Importance or confine them to Cathedrals as Organs once were where they that have little else to do are at more leasure for such operous services and we shall be secure as to Schism which the Enquirer will certainly yield to since he equalizes that sin to the most horrid crimes of Idolatry Murther and Sacriledge 5. They make seven Sacraments And at our Equirers Rates may make sevenscore What is a Divine Sacrament but an outward visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us ordained by Christ himself as a means whereby we receive the same and a pledge to assure us thereof And let him define a humane Sacrament more appositely if he can Then an outward visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace ordained by man himself as a means whereby we receive the same grace And wherein does a Mystical Ceremony come short of this Description whose declared end is To stir up the dull mind of man to the remenbramce of his duly to God by some notable and special signification whereby he may be edified Nor is there any thing wanting but the Royal assent the Divine stamp of Authority to make it a Sacrament as accomplisht at all points as those which are declared Generally necessary to salvation And if the Papalins erroneously judge their five ordained of God and we confess ours are not so all the difference is this That they are mistaken and act proportionably to their mistake and we see better and yet act disproportionably But the truth is many of their most Learned Writers freely own their five Sacraments to be no more then Ecclesiastical Traditions and Mystical Ceremonies such as the Sign of the Cross though to set them off to the eye they honour them with the August Title of Sacraments Thus Petrus a Soto Omnes illae Observationes sunt Traditiones Apostolicae quarum principium Author origo in Sacris Scripturis inveniri non potest Cujusmodi sunt Oblatio sacrificii Altaris unctio Chrismatis in vocatio Sanctorum Orationes pro defunctis totum Sacramentum Confirmationis ordinis Matrimonii Paenitentiae â—…nctionis extremae Merita Operum necessitas satisfactionis enumeratio peceatorum facienda sacerdoti We are to account all those Observations Apostolical Traditions whose Beginning Author and Origine are not found in the Holy Scriptures Such as are the Oblation of the sacrifice of the Altar the Anointing with Chrisme Invocation of Saints Prayers for the Dead The whole Sacrament of Confirmation of Orders of Matrimony of Penitance of extreme unction the merits of Good Works the necessity of satisfaction and Auricular confession 6. They have taken away one of the ten Commandments and have Arts of evacuating all the rest And why may they not evacuate the second as well as our Author the fourth Commandment All were equally promulgated in Mount Sinai all have the same Signature of Divine Authority and he that can make Schism equal to Idolatry may when he sees his time throw off the second as he has done the fourth for a piece of Judaical Superstition 7. They have brought in Pageantry instead of Piety and Devotion effaced the true lineaments of Christianity and instead thereof recommended and obtruded upon the world the dictates of Ambition the Artifices of gain He may safely talk his pleasure at this distance though it would not be so prudent to preach this Doctrine where the Popes great Horse sets his foot All the use I shall make of it is this little That if the introduction of Pageantry instead of Piety and Devotion be a good warrant to justifie our Separation from Rome Let them judge who have to do with it whether it were Fellony to remove a mans Quarters ten miles from some Cathedrals 8. Lastly says he these things could not be submitted to without grievous sin and manifest danger of Damnation No! now observe how the Romanist will belabour him with his own Cudgel p. 122. It s the custom of those that have a mind to quarrel to aggravate and heighten the Causes of discontent to the end that the ensuing mischief may not be imputed to the frowardness of their temper but to the greatness of the provocation And passion is such a magnifying glass as is able to extend a Mole-hill to a Mountain If men would be perswaded to lay aside their passions and calmly consider the nature of those things that they divided from the Catholick Church upon they would be so far from seeing Reason to perpetuate the Schism that they would on the contrary be seized with wonder and indignation that they have been imposed upon so far as to take those things for great deformities which upon mature Consideration are really nothing worse then Moles which may be upon the most beautiful face But the Reader will easily see that these are nothing but some ill gathered shreds out of your Formulâ—… Oratoriae or Clarks Transitions which will
fit Protestant or Papist and indeed any School-Boy that has a Theme or Declamation to compose That the Causes of separation from the Church of Rome were pregnant every way clear and evident we do therefore agree And that the Reasons of separation from the Church of England are not so great but then neither is the separation so great for as we agree in the fundamental Articles of Religion so we may quickly agree in all the rest when some of a more fiery temper will let their Mother Alone to exercise to all her Children such an Indulgence as is agreeable to their various Measures of light in lesser concerns But says our Author It 's quite otherwise in the Church of England For. 1. No man here parts with his faith upon Conformity But I am afraid they must part with it or they will hardly be accepted Their faith is that the Lord Christ is the only Lawgiver of his Church that the Scriptures are the adequate and Commensurate Rule of all Religious Worship and if they do not part with thus much of their faith they must live in a Contradiction to it but perhaps he may understand their faith better then they themselves 2. No man is bound to give away his Reason for Quietness sake Then I know who was mistaken p. 64. who tells us That since the peace of the Church often depends upon such points as Salvation does not and since in many of those every man is not a Competent judge but must either be in danger of being deceived himself and of troubling others or of necessity must trust some body else wiser then himself she recommends in such a case as the safer way for such private persons to comply with publick determinations And we may assure our selves of our Enquirers good nature in this particular who condemnes Virgilius for asserting the Antipodes though it were demonstrably true and the contrary impossible And then I am afraid we must sacrifice our Reason to Peace and rather subscribe like Brutes then run the risque of being perscuted like Men. 3. A man may be as holy and good as he will The goodness and holiness of a Christian lyes very much in using Holy Means for Holy Ends Gods Holy Ordinances in order to Holiness in the Habit and Complexion of the Soul He that may not use the means of Holiness when he will may not be as Holy as he will but as Holy as he can without them He that will use all the means of God in order to that great end it may possibly cost him more then he would willingly lose for any cause but that of righteousness Methought it was an odd sight t'other day to see a Grave Divine in his Canonical Habit marching With a Brace of Informers piping hot on either Hand the one like the Gizzard the other the Liver stuck under the wings of his Sacerdotal Habiliments from one of his Rectories to the other to give Disturbance to a Company of poor Innocent people that would have been a little more holy if they might when this is reformed I 'le believe that the more of Holiness appears the better Churchmen we are reputed 4. This Church keeps none of her Children in an uncomfortable estate of darkness for we must know that there 's a twofold estate of darkness a comfortable and an uncomfortable estate Now the Comfortable estate of darkness lyes in trusting others submitting our private to the publick wisdom this is that blessed state whereinto he would wish his best friends But the unconfortable state is that Remedy which is Practised in Spain and Italy for the Cure of Church Divisions An excellent Remedy it is but it comes too late to do any good here The difference between them was observed before either to be born blind or made blind to have no Conscience or prohibited to exercise it to have no eyes or not to use them and in my private opinion there 's no great comfort in either of them 5. She debars none of her Members of the comfort and priviledges of Christs Institutions Some that have struggled with a doubting Conscience have attested the contrary but however she may possibly debar some of those priviledges and comforts that would have been her Members because they dare not give the price she rates those priviledges and comforts at 6. She recommends the same Faith the same Siriptures that the Protestants are agreed in Yes but then she recommends those Ceremonies to boot in which Protestants neither are nor ever will be agreed in We do therefore seriously triumph that the Church of England with the Protestants are also fully and perfectly agreed that they have not only the same God and Christ but the same Object of Worship too though I know not wherein God and the object of worship differ the same way of Devotion in a known Tongue the same Sacraments the same Rule of Life which are all the great things wherein the Consciences of men are concerned To which I shall need to say no more but that we in the General profess our owning of all these and yet our differences be very considerable but let our Consciences be concerned about no other no other Sacraments no other Rule of Life no other Devotion and what is necessary to reduce all these into practice and I can assure him Dissenters will flock a pace into the bosome of the Church He promises us now that he will faithfully and briefly recite the matters in difference And I confess for brevity he has performed his promise well enough but for his fidelity the Dissentets sadly complain of him I shall therefore crave the liberty to use a little more prolixity and I shall endeavour to compensate it with much more fidelity to reciting the material points wherein we differ As § 1. Whether a Minister ordained according to the appointment of the Gospel to the exercise of the whole Ministerial work may without sin consent that a main part of his Office be statedly and totally taken out of his hands and his work Cantoned at the will of another § 2. Whether any Church has power from Christ to appoint in and over it self or Members any Officers specially distinct from those Christ hath ordained § 3. Whether any Church hath authority from Christ to institute any other Ordinances of fixed and constant use in the Church then Christ hath instituted § 4. Whether it be an apparent invasion of and open reproach to the Regal Office of Christ for any Society of his to institute either new Officers or new Offices for the Govorning and Administring that Society which the head hath not allowed § 5. Whether it be not the duty of every particular Church to conform all the worship and administration of Religion to the Laws of their Institution and that whatever is not so Conformed be not a Corruption which ought to be Reformed by those Laws § 6. Whether if a Church shall peremtorily refuse to remove such
which is no essential point of our Religion for Charity which is I am heartily sorry that Peace is not to be had upon easier terms But especially that Charity a Lady of so much Debonaireté that seeks not her own much less to rob another that 〈◊〉 not to look so Big and stand upon Terms should enflame the Reckoning It is not it cannot be Charity I know her Temper too well that requires Conscience or Truth should be sacrificed upon her Altar A true friend she is to Truth and no less to Peace and will wait on her usque ad Aras and no further No! It 's the Tyrian Idol Meloch that old Canibal and bloodsucker that delights in Humane Carnage For thus we read in Q. Curtius that when they were in a great straight Sacrum quod quidem Diis minime Cordi esse Crediderim jam multis saeculis intermissum repetendi quidem Autores erant Which we may accommodate in the Translation thus Some there were that perswaded the State to Revive an old and obsolete Statute which since the time of Ancient Persecutions had lyen Dâ—…rmant and to sacrifice Freemen to the Common safety but for my part though you count me a Heathen Writer I can never believe according to those notions I have of the Gods that such Cruelties were ever acceptable to their Deities I would have Peace upon any terms that are Reasonable but to part with all that in Religion which he shall say is no essential part of it is a very hard Chapter We may chop off a mans Legs Arms put out his Eyes cut off his Nose and yet though thus miserably dismembered and mangled in his Integrals his essential parts Body and Soul remain Thus he may cut off even what he pleases of Religion all Worship all Sacraments all Discipline and leave us but Faith Hope and Charity there 's as much as is essential to our Salvation and then dispose of the rest To this or some other or no purporse at all he quotes us Greg. Nazianzen Who asks us this Question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What 's far more beautiful then our own Reason And he Answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nay I will add the most profitable too We were made to believe page 126. That no man in England is bound to give away his Reason for quietness sake But now four pages further Peace is far more beautiful and useful then our own Reason How shall we reconcile these cross Capers Why Qui bene distinguit bene respondet Then he was commending the Moderation of the Church of England in opposition to Rome How that Imperious Lady that sits on the seven hills Hectors the World out of their Reason and common Sense and then Reason was more precious then Peace but now he 's arguing the Non-conformists into obedience and then Peace is more precious then Reason To the same purpose he gives us that excellent counsel of the Apostle 12 Rom. 18. If it be possible as much as in you lyes live peaceably with all men Admirable advice it is God grant us grace to take it And truly the Non-conformists can live peaceably with all the World if they might be let alone but it s not in their power to prescribe Terms to others but to receive them Leges à victoribus dari à victis Accipi said Caesar If then reasonable Terms be offered us we will accept and love them If unreasonable we will refuse and love them If we be taken into the circle of their Charity we will love them if we be excluded yet still we love them Amabo si Nolis Amabo si Nolim ipse We will love whether they will accept our love and thank us for it or no Nay we will love them whether our own exasperating sufferings will perswade us or no that is we will follow them with a Christian affection in spight of their teeths and of our own But this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to live converse peaceably perhaps may be Impossible and the Apostle we see will not tye us up to Impossibles Now sinful Conditions create a Moral impossibility for id tantum possumus quod jure possumus I confess it cost me a Smile when I read his improvement of the Apostles exhortation Surely says he he did not mean we should only accept of Peace when it s offered us for nothing or be quiet till we can pick a quarrel but that we should be at some cost to purchase it and part with something for it The old something still Why we are willing to part with all our outward Concerns we will give skin upon skin will neither Gods Terms nor the Devils please him Only we would not part with our Consciences instructed from the Scriptures the Soveraingty of Christ the Perfection of the Written Word and is all this Nothing But still he 's at it again We must deny our selves something upon that account Why we will take an Oath in the presence of Almighty God to lead quiet and peaceable Lives as become good Subjects in all godliness and honesty Will that serve to purchase our Peace No! It must be something else which before he acquaints us with he will first prove the necessity of it and thus he Reasons There are hardly says he page 1. 1. any two persons perfectly of the same apprehensions or stature of understanding in the whole World So much difference there is in mens Constitutions such diversity of Education such variety of Interests and Customs and from hence so many prejudices and various Conceptions of things that he that resolves to yeeld to no body can Agree with no body What now is to be done in this perplexed Case Must we take our Constitutions in pieces I doubt we shall never put them right together again or must we have no Peace till all the propensities and inclinations rooted and riveted in our Beings Natures Temperaments besides that second Nature growing out of Custome be stormed The Terms of Peace will be next to desperate this way What then must the prevailing party commit a Rape upon the intellectuals of the depressed Minority and Marry them afterwards to make them amends Yet still there is a Tower called Assent and Consent can never be forced by assault What then must the lesser number openly profess themselves Convinced and make Recantations before they have cause for 't Alas this is but to Proselyte a few Hypocrites who are not worth the whistling Or must we tarry till we come to Heaven where we shall be of one mind Oh our Enquirer is not satisfied in that point to Plerophory some thinâ—… so indeed but he wisely keeps his faith to himself What course must we then steer Why we must castigate our heats take in our sailes lighten the ship and offer sacrifice to the touchy Deities of received Custome and Vulgar Opinion with all the fine stuff you heard before But surely there 's an easier cheaper more honourable
Monsieur de la Motte In his late Motives to his conversion p. 108. 109. D'oâ—… vient done disent ils qu'il y a si peu de personnes qui quitent la Religion Romaine que de ceux qui l'ont quitée pour embrasser la Protestante on en voit une grando partie qui y retonrnent qui font comme on dit leur Recantation Whence comes it say the Romanists that so few quit the Roman Religion and that of those who have forsaken it to embrace that of the Protestant we see many that Return back and as we say make their Recantation To which he gives this Answer Ie pourrois â—…lleguer mille Raisons particuliers pour lesquelles plusiturs illustres Protestans ont 〈◊〉 Religion en France quin'est plus à la mode dit on â—…n ce Païs-là â—…nt embrassé la Romaine je dis seulement en general ce qu'il est facile de remarquer dans les particulieres que â—…'est l'interest qui les ment les retient qui les fait changer quiles empeche de rechanger I could give a thousand particular Reasons for which some eminâ—…nt Protestants have â—…uited their Religion in France which say they is Now no longer the mode in our Country and have Embraced the Romain Faith But I only say this in general which is very easy to Observe in the particulars That it is meer Interest that Allures them first and then fixes them That makes them change and then hinders them from a Rechange The pension of a thousand Crowns as he goes on which they promise to a Minister in Case he will renounce his calling is a most violent temptation § 3. I could tell the Enquirer of those that have deserted their station in the Church of England and have given their Reasons for it and embraced a persecuted Reformation I could tell him of many young Schollers eminent for piety and learning who have rather chosen a retired estate and mean Condition then those allurements which would make many a mouth water at them But let every man stand or fall to his own Master I am not qualified to judge either way but this I will say that whosoever shall Reason the one way or other will find his Argument Inconclusive and I have known so much in my small Observation and known some men too well then either to be much Confirmed in my judgment by their presence or stagger'd by their Absence 3 There are men of as clear understanding as good life and as Comfortable consciences in the society of this Church as are any There else to be found And if I should say there are Persons of as clear understanding as good life end as Comfortable consciences in the society of the Non-conformists as are any where else to be found I should discover a vanity equal to that of the Enquirer I cannot be of every mans Religion that is of a much clearer understanding then my self unless I resolve to be of twenty Contradictory Religions at once Nor can I judge it my duty to Imitate every one of a holy life further then in his Holiness Nor of every mans way that pretends to a Comfortable Conscience in his way because I see some fitch in Comfort to their Consciences from the greatest provocations or grossest delusions Besides it 's no part of the clearness of mens understandings to be wiser then the Scriptures or to study Reasons why they ought to destroy all that are not of the same Intellectual stature with themselves Nor does it add to their Holiness that they can persecute others whose lives are Holy Nor to the solid Comsort of their Consciences that they endeavour to weaken the Comfort of other mens and I will further add that since my own Conscience can only directly witness to my self it can never be allowed Credence with Another if I deny it its proper work and Office in Another But we have met with this Braggadochian Pyrgopolinias before whether the Reader is referred if at least he shall judge so inconsiderable a Trifle to merit further Consideration 4 The things objected against this Church are but at most disputable Matters because all wise and good men are not Agreed upon them but that which is sub judice and yet under dispute cannot be called evil till the dispute is ended and the decision made against it To which I crave leave to Answer 1. That then some of the greatest and most important points in Religion must be called disputable seeing all wise men and some good men are not Agreed upon them 2. If the matters he still sub judice and cannot be called evil till the dispute be ended why are the Non-conformists Executed before condemnation for I hope he arrogates no such partial Tribunal to himself that the things in controversy shall be reputed undecided when he would justify the one and yet decided when he would Condemn the other 3. We say the things are already decided by Scripture long ago if that may be Judge and if any other Judge be set up the Condemned party will appeal thether as the Highest Court of Judgment in matters relating to Conscience and the Immediate worship of God where alone they ought to be Judged 5 The things scrupled in this Church are such as the like may be found and Complained of in any Church of the whole world at least since the Apostles times To which I say 1. That I have been too much beaten to the Game then to be Overborn by the Enquirers Daring Confidence and do smoothly deny the Matter of Fact Many particular Churches may be found at this day where Mystical Ceremonies are not found much less made the Terms of Communion But he has two wide Creep holes at which he will escape 1. That we choose wath National Church we will It seems then A particular Church and a National Church are Terms that Measure each other And thus if we instance in the Ancient Albigenses Waldenses or the present French Churches he may reject the issue because they are not National Churches And all the Churches for three hundred years after Christ because they were not National 2. He will undertake this taske If he may have the History and knowledg of that Church whatever it be or was since the Apostles times as we have of this I Commend his discretion 〈◊〉 knows it difficult to get the Church-History of other National Churches so full as we have of our own 2. If the Churches in the Apostles times had none of these things now scrupled we shall rather chuse and such choise is our Duty to Conform to their patterns then any junior and more green-headed Constitutions They are the Apostolical times and Churches of whose constitutions we have infallible Records which we propound for our Exemplars and he will be tryed by Any Others if we will bate him them for which we thank him I am now expecting a serious Proposition and he
any man I do as much as in me by alter the nature of indifferent things For things sinful can never be done Duties must always be performed in due time and place and indifferent things should be indifferently used as present Circumstances invite Prudence and Charity to determine but when once they are predetermined I can no more do an indifferent thing then if it had been sinful or no more omit an indifferent act then if it had been necessary 3. By such a fixed predetermination of my liberty I ascribe more to man in his positive precepts then to God in his affirmative moral precepts for the Acts of such Commands may be suspended pro hic Nunc when they obstruct some great Good but in this case I must act uniformly without respect to circumstances let thousands be offended stumbled wounded in Conscience and prejudiced against Religion And in short by such Resignation of my liberty in is't exercise I have reduced my self to that imaginary Liberty of Opinion that dreaming freedom which the Lollards enjoyed in their Tower and the poor Protest ants in Bonners Cole-hole 7 When Christian Charity commands me to forbear the use of the thing which otherwise is within the Charter of Christian Liberty to use and at the same time the Christian Magistrate shall command me to to practise that very thing by a fixed Law I humbly conceive that Christian Charity ought to restrain my Liberty not to act rather then the Commands of the Magistrate enforce me to act 1. Because the restraint which Charity puts upon me will soon determine and â—…pire but the Command of the Magistrate is perpetual 2. The restraint which Charity puts upon me is internal and so agreable to and consistent with the greatest Freedom and Liberty but the restraint put upon me by the Magistrate is external and compulsory which comports not with my inward liberty for if he deals meerly by his will and authority that suits not with my reason and therefore has in it the nature of force But if the Magistrate should deal by Argument then when a stronger appears to act according to his precept then that drawn from the good of my Neighbour by Charity Christian Liberty may be free and yet obey provided always that that argument be taken from the nature of the thing commanded and not from the naked commands 3. The weak Christian for whose sake Charity commands me to forbear acting is one that cannot prevent his own weakness his stumbling scruples and aptness to be wounded but he that commands me to act may prevent recal or suspend his own Edict in that which in it's own nature is indifferent And God has commanded me not to offend my weak Brother by the use of indifferent things but he has no where commanded the Magistrate to impose indifferent things which become not some way or other necessary 4. It seems a most horrid thing to interpret Scriptures at this rate That I should be commanded to walk Charitably till I am commanded to walk uncharitably And forbidden to destroy him for whom Christ dyed by my indifferent things till I am enjoyned to destroy him Not to wound weak consciences till I am commanded to wound them Thus shall Moral precepts be avoyded by humane positive Laws which cannot be superseded by the Divine positive Laws And if one may be thus enervated the whole Dâ—…calogue has no firm station And thou shalt not make to thy self a graven Image may be eluded by this till we are commanded by Authority and I am somewhat confident the foundation laid by the Enquirer will bear that superstructure It is therefore a most approbrious and invidious charge with which he begins this discourse All that we have hetherto discoursed about the power of the Magistrate some think may be avoided by pleading the Magna Charta of Christian Liberty for though it may be pleaded against some power that may possibly be assumed yet against none wherewith he stands ' endowed by the Law of Nature or Scripture nor indeed against any useful power for the attaining the great ends of Government publick peace and tranquillity The Church of England in her avowed Doctrine asserts that Christ has ordained in his Church two Sacraments generally necessary to Salvation now we conceive that having a Right as Christians to all the Ordinances of Christ necessary to Salvation ChristianLiberty may plead the enjoyment of all thoseOrdinances upon those naked Terms Christ has offâ—…r'd them to Mankind This is our Maegna Charta And if any shall encumber that Communion with new clogs provisoes restrictions and limitations we plead our Petition of Right which if it be denyed us our Christian Liberty is so far violated Nor do we deny the Magistrate a Power about our Christian Liberty If any shall turn this Liberty into licenciousness he may restrain them Nay he may restrain the Liberty it self where God has not praeengaged us to restrain it And he will eminently employ his power for Christ when he exerts it to assert and vindicate to all his loyal Subjects the free use of that great Charter And if encroaching violence shall make a forcible entry upon that priviledge whereof we are in quiet and peaceable possession we shall complain of the force to him who will remove it and reinvest us in our Christian freehold whereof Christ has made the purchase with his own blood Two things there are which the Enquirer has lustily promised us and therefore we may confidently expect from him first that he will give us the true notion and secondly the due extent of Christian Liberty and he has freed his name pretty well for first he has made it a meer notion and then layd an extent upon it that is he has seized it into his own hands upon pretence for the Magistrates use 1 And first for his true notion for none cry stinking Mackerel there are two things also very considerable the liberality of his Concessions and the Policy of his Retractations He makes us fair lange Deeds but with a secret Power of Revocation frustrates all so that when we come to cast up our accounts we must say with that Bewildred Clyent in the Comadian when he had advised with his brace of Advocates Probèfecistis incertior sum multò quam duâ—…m 1 For his Concessions they are truly noble and generous and such as would heal us all § 1. Concession p. 88. When the Gospel was fully published then the aforesaid enclosure is laid open and all Nations invited into the Sociâ—…ty of the Church upon equal Terms neither party being bound to those nice Laws of Moses nor to any other but those plain and reasonable ones contained in the Gospel This is certainly the great year of Iubilee And will he not deserve to be shut out for ever that shall refuse so free an invitaâ—…ion Is he a reasonable Creature that refuses the plain and reasonable Terms of Communion contained in the Gospel what a
to live in the practise of all Christs institutions if we cannot enjoy them in one place upon Christs Terms his Command and tenderness to our own souls oblige us to seek out where we may enjoy them better cheap § 4. He that cannot perform all that the Laws require of him may forbeâ—… judging them that do the man of a Tender Conscience finds it enough to judge his own actions This is a most excellent Rule and Dissenters desire no more liberty Let them but judge of their own actions and they leave all others to stand or fall to their own Masters And it seems hard if they may not be indulged this priviledge since the silliest Creature that ever was is presumed to have so much wit as to come out of a shâ—…wr of Rain rather then to be wet to the skin § 5. The truly tender Conscience that is the Fool all this while will freely part with money nay of all the men in the world there 's none so free as he for a Fool and his money are soon parted Well! But if he cannot conform to the Laws he can pay the penalty I promise you that 's a great Question whether he can or no. Where nothing's to be had the King must lose his Right But if this be the grand qualification of a Tender Conscience to be made a Begger I wonder what his Priviledge can be unless it be to succeed old Clause the King of Beggers For his satisfaction if the penalty be moderate such as I can pay without ruine to my self and family though I be not satisfyed in the justice of it yet herein I may lawfully depart from my own Right and shall esteem it a great mercy if my coyn may compound for my Conscience 3 Readers you have heard the qualifications of a Tender Conscience be but now Masters of so much Patience as to sit out the Priviledges and that last Scene will make you ample satisfaction â—… Every private Christian is bound in Charity and compassion towards such a Man to deny himself of some part of his Liberty to gain him that is in those things that are matter of no Law where you have first a Bit and then a knock or the fair Concession and the wary Revocation § 1. The Concâ—…ssion Every private Christian is bound in Charity to such a Man to part with some of his Liberty to gain him wherein there are several things to be advised upon 1. The subject of the Proposition Every private Person 2. The nature of the obligation Bound in Charity and compassion 3. The matter of the duty To deny himself of some part of his Liberty 4. The end to gain him In few or none of which particulars can I arrive at any clear satisfaction 1. Every private Person And are not all publick Persons bound by the Law of God to walk charitably not to destroy souls I doubt we forget that God is here the Legislator with whom is no respect of Persons Charity is the fulfilling of the Moral Law And if any Person be so publick as not to be obliged by it we must leave those Commands Thou shalt do no Murther Thou shalt not commit Adultery to exercise the small fry and hamper the vulgar The Apostle Paul was a publick Person and one as well qualified to discern and impose things indifferent as any that have made the fairest pretences that way and yet he Professes with more then ordinary servency 1. Cor. 8. 13. That he will eat no flesh whilst the world stands least he should make his Brother to offend And who shall venture to make that the matter of an Ecclesiastical Canon which the Apostle durst not venture to practise They that assume a greater Authority had need give greater proof of greater Charity And yet greater was the importance of Flesh to the Health and life of Paul then a Ceremoâ—… can possibly be to the peace of the Church For. 1. Flesh is Disjunctively necessary to the health and life of Man that is either flesh or some other food but neither this nor that humane Ceremony is necessary either to the glory of God the peace of the Church or Decency and order in the worship The Church has served God decently lived peaceably and glorified God eminently without them and in his time may do so again 2. Flesh was a thing perfectly indifferent in it self and owned so by all that were well instructed in their Manumission from the Mosaical servitude but the more we are faithfully instructed in the Doctrine of Christian Liberty the more are we satisfied that we are at Liberty from all other Ceremonies of men as well as from those that were once of Divine Institution 2 Bound in Compassion and Charity I am not well satisfied that a Debt of meer Compassion or free Charity is all we owe our Brother in this case However we owe our God a Debt of Iustice It 's he that says Destroy not him with thy mâ—…at for whom Christ dyed 14. Rom. 15. And that there is no comparison between the Law that enjoins Ceremonies and that Law that commands us not to offend our Brother I thus prove 1. The Law that forbids scandal is Negative but the Law that commands Ceremonies is but Affirmative Now Gods own affirmative precepts may have their outward acts suspended in some cases for some time but Negatives admit of no relaxation He that says thou shalt not do says thou shalt never do unless dispensed with by a power aequal to his that gave the Prohibition 2. The Command of not scandalizing is purely moral the heart and life of the sixth Commandement For he that says thou shalt not Kill primarily intends I shall not destroy the soul but the Command of Ceremonies but positive And positives ought to give place to Morals If there be any Truth in that Doctrine of the Enquirers That Godlays little stress upon Circumstantials that his own positive Laws give place to the Moral Law much more ought Mans Ceremonial Law give place to Gods Moral Law Thou shalt not Kill 3. The Command of not giving offence because Moral is therefore perpetual but the Command of Ceremonies Temporary and may be momentany for the Church of England 34. Art Asserts a power in every National Church not only to ordain but to change and abolish Ceremonies 4. The Command of not scandalizing the weak not destroying the soul is in Materiâ Necessarâ—… the thing it self is good in it self and for it self though no positive Command had interposed in the case but Ceremonies have no other Goodness but what is breath'd into them by the breath of Man which if it were measured by the good effects would be found very little 5. The Command not to offend is unquestionably obligatory but that Command for Ceremonies is at best questionable whether it be so much as lawful 6. The Command to avoid offence has a direct and natural tendency to beget and preserve Amity and unity amongst
clear places has put all this out of dispute who were most severe in their obedience under the most severe persecutions Thus Tertullian in Apolog. Cap. 30. Nos pro salute Imperatorum Deum invocamus Precantes sumus pro omnibus Imperatoribus vitam illis prolixam imperium securum domum tutam exercitus fortes Senatum fidelem populum probum orbem quietum quaecunque hominis Caesaris vota sunt We pray to God for the safety of our Emperour that God would give them a long life a peaceable Government that he would preserve the Royal Family that he would vouchsafe them a faithful Council a Loyal People a quiet world valiant Armies and what soever their own wishes can desâ—…re Thus Dionysius in his Apology for the Christians in the persecution under verus Nos unum Deum colimus veneramur omnium fabricatorem huic etiam sine intermissione pro eorum regno ut firmum stabile Maneat preces adhibemus We worship says he and adore only one God the Creatour of All things and to him we powr out our prayers night and day that the Government of our Emperours may abide firm and unshaken They that would plead Christianus sum I cannot conform would as sincerely say Christianus sum I dare not resist There is then no Question but that we are all upon pain of eternal damnation bound to obey the Civil Magistrate and all that are sent by him in all civil things which are not demonstrably sinful according to the Municipal Laws but the Question will meet us again though we avoid it How farr their power extends in matters of Immediate worship and things directly within the verge of Conscience wherein possibly I can yeeld as farr as another though I would proceed upon better grounds then the Enquirer has layd down which now I come te examine § 1. The New Testament says he no where excepts the case of Religion Answer 1. No where excepts it Ay but where dâ—…s â—…he New or Old express and include it I was in hopes thaâ—… according to his promise he would have proved that the Magistrate exceeds not his Commission in determining the thinâ—… under debate and he puts us of with this They are not excepted out of his commission He that Acts by Commission must have his powers authorized by his Commission Suppose a Prince should issue out a Commission to certain Delegates to hear and Determine all Differences relating to the Forrest and they shall intermeddle with affaires that are out of the Purlieus will it be thought enough to say These places are not excluded their Commission 2. Nor do I except the case of Religion out of the Magistrates Commission but only Humbly enquire of the Enquirer how farr the Commission extends in Religious matters To this he gives us an Answer I mean so farr as Circumstantials and those things which God himself hath not defined But this will either destroy all again or not mend the matters one jot for 1. I no where find that God has excepted Substantials more then Circumstantials out of his Commission In what respect the one is included the other is so and in what respect the one is excluded the other is so that is both are included for his preservation and both excluded as to his alteration of adding to or subtracting from them If a Commission be produced that the Magistrate shall guide me in all acceptable external instituted Worship excepting the substantials thereof I have enough for exceptio in non exceptis firmat Regulam The exception of substantials would more strongly include the Circumstantials And therefore I am affraid he will not produce a Commission that excepts substantials Let it be substance or Circumstance let men invent what Terms or Names they please If in the outward exercise of Religion Christians shall disturbe the peace they shall know and find that the Magistrate has a coercive power that will reach them and all their outward Actions for the assecurating that peace wherewith God has entrusted him To give Almes is an Act a substantial Act of Religion yet if any Pharisaical spirit shall sound his Trumpet to draw a concourse of people after him and thus turn the trumpet of Religion into a trumpet of Rebellion if he shall make Sacramentum pictatis vinculum iniquitatis He and his Act come within the Magistrates Commission And yet it extends not to Alter an Act of Religion but to suppress a Design of faction and sedition 2. Such an exception as he fancies in the Magistrates Commission as it no where appears so would it be purely nugatory did it appear unless we had withal some infallible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to discriminate the Circumstantials from the substantials Otherwise either he might encroach upon the substantials under the Notion of Circumstantials or a refractary people would be alwayes crossing and thwarting his determinations under pretence that the substantials were invaded when he was only modelling and ordering the Innocent Circumstantials And thus as the sea and the land are alwayes eating into each others Liberties or as in some Nations where prerogative and propriety are not equally ballanced the one is beating up the others Quarters perpetually so would there be an unappeasable warr between these Substantials and Circumstantials which like the Marches between two Kingdoms of no firm correspondence would be ever subject to the longer and sharper sword But Christ has not left these concerns at such a loose end § 2. He argues thus If they have not power in such matters of Religion as we speak of it 's manifest they have no Magistracy or legislative power at all in Religion I will deal freely with our Enquirer for ought I know to the contrary they have this power and a farr greater power in the Matters of Religion wâ—…hreof he speaks for I do not yet understand what those Matters of Religion are whereof he speaks but to answer as well as I can conjecture at his intentions 1. I know not what a Legislative power in Religion means in the hands of any but the Lord Iesus Christ. The Scripture has told us 4. Jam. 12. That there is one Law-giver who is able to save or to destroy He that can eternally save upon obedience or eternally damn upon disobedience may securely challenge a legislative power over the Church It 's certain from hence that Christ is the only Law-giver to his Church in some sense and in what sense that should be but that he alone can impose matters of immediate worship upon the Conscience I cannot tell He that denies Christ to be the only Legislator at this day may with equal Reason deny him to be the only Iudge in the Great Day and it 's not worth the while for a few Ceremonies to loose one of the Articles of our Creed Hetherto a General Council has been thought to have the Highest visible power on earth to make Laws for the Church and yet the Church of
England has Determin'd Aâ—… 21. That they may err and have sometimes erred â—…en in things pertaining to God And therefore it will â—…e our safest and wisest course to leave the Legislative power in matters of Religion in the hands of Christ where God entrusted it and where we found it who can neither deoeive nor be deceived 2. There may be a Magistratical power about Religious matters where there is no Legislative power The Magistrate may have an Executive power to do all that God has commanded Him and see others do all that God has commanded them and yet no legislative power to alter or add to the Institutions of Christ what a vast Field has every supream Magistrate wherein he may place out all his zeal power and Authority and yet never touch â—…he Philactory or fringe of the Garment of Christ either by enlarging or pairing it away His power is very evident in the Moral Law bottom'd upon Eternal and immutable Reasons and to build it upon such dubious and precarious Hypotheses â—…r to overcharge it with unscriptural powers is but secretly to undermine it or crush it down with it 's own weight 3 His third Argument is this It 's generally acknowledged and accordingly practised that Fathers and Governours of Families have Authority in Matters of Religion within their own families at least so farr as the case in hand Nay pray forbear a little That they have an Authority in matters of Religion is indeed acknowledged and I wish it were more practised All I haesitate at is whether he has such a power as farr as the case in Hand The case in hand is or should be whether the Magistrate has power to determine such externals of Religion as he to blind the business thought meet to call Circumstantials and such a power as Dissenters acknowledge not so they practise not It were very hard if a Master of a Family should arrogate to himself such a power as to enjoyn his Wife Children Servants Relations Strangers to have a Pugil of salt layd upon their Tongues in token that they shall not be ashamed to have their speech seasoned with savoury discourse without submission to which Crotchet they shall either not be admitted into the family or if already admitted cast out of doors or however not permitted to hear a Chapter read or joyn in prayer all their days This would have been a little more to the case of which our Enquirers instances come exceeding short Who doubts says he but the Father or Head of a Family may prescribe what Chapters shall be read what Prayers used what times shall be set apart for Devotion what postures whether kneeling standing or being uncovered who shall officiate in his Family with innumerable others of a like Nature And if they be but of the like Nature they will never do us any harm Let 's look'em over however 1 What Chapters may be read Why truly if the Question be only which of the two or more of equal Authority He may be as fit as another but if the Competition were between two the one out of Scripture the other out of some Legendary Fabler that has stufft a Farce with Romanticks I Question much his power to Determine for God has at least Determined thus farr that in all our Worship of him we speak and read nothing but the Truth and he that teaches his Family ought to teach from or according to the Oracles of God 2. What Prayers used God will not accept a female from him that has a Male in his Flock As the Prince will not accept such a present much less will the great God who gives what he receives and therefore may justly expect the best No Master of a Family has Authority to offer prayers to God less good if God have furnish't him with better 3. What times shall be set apart for Devotion The setting apart of Common time for Family-Worship is a meer Circumstance which neither renders the Worship more or less acceptable to God as it is time And it is disjunctively commanded by Him who has commanded Masters of Families to continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving 4. Col. 1. 2. If God has commanded Worship he has also therewith commanded some time wherein to Worship A time must therefore necessarily be resolved on but 〈◊〉 good favour this is not to the case in hand And yet as large as the Masters power may be in this matter he must have regard to the General rules of the Gospel that All things be done for edification to advance the success of the Duty He may neither determine upon a Revolution too infrequent nor upon a continuance too short to slubber and huddle over the Ordinance in formal hast nor upon an unseasonable hour when his overworked and overwatched servants are ready to drop asleep when tyred Nature is ready to over-Master the souls gracious propensities towards Gods service And where he seems to have most power he has farr short of an Absolute power 4. For postures whether kneeling standing or being uncovered I never so much admired the difference between praedicamental situs habitus as to move a quarrel whether being uncovered was a posture or no yet I think these things are not capable of an universal fixed unalterable Law If one of these postures shall render any one in the Family uncapable of pursuing and reaching the ends of an Ordinance That Parent shall sin against God who rigidly exacts the most plausible posture or gesture and I suppose he has no Commission from God to sin against him If standing shall so disease a weak child that being in pain he cannot attend the present service If kneeling shall ordinarily expose another to drowziness If being uncover'd shall prejudice health and endanger life If any of these or any other shall distract the mind make the duty a Burden wear out the Body Masters of Families must know that their power is for edification and not destruction and God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice whatsoever an Imperious Master will have He that shall teach that Magistrates may dispense with the Circumstantials of Gods worship will sure never be so hardy as to teach that Masters of Families and Magistrates too ought not to dispense with their own institutions 5. In what Habit No Master of a Family has power to enjoyn any Religious Habits appropriated to divine service In the General 't is true Habit is necessary upon many accounts for health decency But Religious Habits are not so not put into the Charter of Domestick Power nor indeed capable of a Canon 5. Who shall Officiate in a Family The duty of Officiating in the Family is primarily incumbent upon himself I know no Reason he should claim the Authority who waves the duty If he will have the honour let him discharge the work of a Master of a Family nor may he Command his Child to pray that cannot pray with that usefulness to edification