K. CHARLES I. ΕΙΚ. ΒΑΣΙΛ 27. To the Prince of Wales BEware of exasperating any Factions by the Crossness and Asperity of some Mens Passions Humours and private Opinions imployed by you grounded only upon Differences in lesser Matters which are but the Skirts and Suburbs of Religion Wherein a charitable Connivance and Christian Toleration often dissipates their Strength whom rougher Opposition fortifies THE Conformist's Third Plea FOR THE Nonconformists Argued from the King's Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs Grounded upon the approved Doctrine AND Confirmed by the Authorities of many Eminent Fathers and Writers of the Church of England By the Author of the two former PLEAS Lord Bishop of Cork's Protestant Peace-maker Pag. 128. To these who ask What need of more Vnion I return What need of more Holiness What need of Godliness Charity Justice Are these Christian Duties and is not Vnion and Peace as much so I am and must be in the mind that the Strength of the Protestant Cause both here at home and throughout Christendom lies in the Vnion of Protestants and the Glory Purity and Fower of Christianity in this World stands or falls with Protestantism LONDON Printed by J. D. for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXII A PREFACE to the Christian and Peaceable Reader that seeks the things that be of Christ A Zeal for Peace and Vnion hath overcome all Discouragements arising from many Causes and inspired me to a Boldness prevailing against much Fear even to publish the secret Workings of my Heart As long as the Church dare shew her Face my Notions are not afraid of the Light they can receive no Luster from my Name let them go forth in that Light and Power which the Father of Lights and the God of Peace hath given and shall give unto them and if they may but give any Light to discover the way of Peace let me not only ly in Obscurity which I love because fittest for me but be disgraced by them who speak all manner of Evil of me If I have not forsaken and betrayed the Truth I have not forsaken nor betrayed the Church and when you come to see the Weapons which I handle and the Leaders and Authorities which I follow in the following Treatise as well as the Cause for which I plead I hope you will be convinced that as far as I have pleaded for the Nonconformist Brethren I have not run from my Colours There is common Truth a large and spacious ground to take them in and to build up one and the same Fabrick upon it comfortable to all true Christians receptive of all the Family of God and impregnable against all their and our Enemies It is some Relief and Comfort to see many lift up their Feet i. e. come and view the Desolations of the Church of Christ among us to be affected with them and some in whom is an excellent Spirit are contriving to bring the separate Apartments under one Roof and within one Line and Wall And these do stand upon the Rock of Evangelical Principles when not supported by the Arm of Flesh But no sooner do Arbitrators move for a Reconciliation but others do all they can to thrust them from them without respect to their Persons or due Reverence to Truth and Reason He that interposeth in this Difference doth at the Peril of Opposition The R. Rev. Author of the first Naked Truth hath found this true though his Quality and Person were more than guest at yet the Episcopal Staff could not bear off the Lashes of several Junior Writers from the Back of Naked Truth But Truth be it never so naked can bear Blows and Lashes as it hath always born the Violence of Storms and Times Truth cannot long be confined within Doors but will appear in open view whatever its Entertainment be whether Scorns Contradictions Laughter and Mockery Abuses and Scourgings or Approbation and Honour The Appearance of such a Book as that Naked Truth at such a time was like a Comet it drew the Eyes of all that could to look upon it it was a Divine Manifestation of a Primitive Christian-Spirit of Love And certainly as that pious Endeavour hath encreased his Comforts so he hath not lost all his Labour for since that we have had more Overtures of Peace than we heard of in the many Years of Discord and Troubles from the Learned in the Church of England The Nonconformists have born all the Blame and Scorn and Sufferings of our Divisions and have offered as much towards Peace and Accommodation as was possible for them to offer But partly their Writings and the doleful State of Religion have drawn out some Wishes and Concessions from some Men of Eminency in the Church towards Peace and Accommodation And tho these as yet seem too little yet there is much to be gathered from them first as to their Propensity to Peace 2. The Influence which their Concessions may have upon austerer Tempers 3. Because they being satisfied in the Point of Conformity as to their own Practice do yet for a greater Good and Peace incline to a Comprimise The Learned Dean of St. Paul's hath with submission to Authority made some Proposals and I hope would yield to more if the Composure were put into his hand Even Dr. Sherlock who is currantly thought to have writen the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet Pag. 103. doth wish with all his Heart that some Expressions were altered to prevent any Scandal to the scrupulous or to the profane this he writes only for the Office of Burial of the Dead which he calls an excellent Office supposing the due Exercise of Church-Discipline to cast all notorious Sinners and Schismaticks out of the Communion of the Church which the Church supposeth to be done I am of his Mind Pag. 102. concerning the Excellency of that Office It is most comfortable to the Minister and most Comfort to all true Christians when we can use it upon good Evidences concerning the Dead But as the visiting of the Sick hath been too often to me the most uncomfortable Office of my Ministry so it hath been a great Addition of Sorrow to commit those Bodies to the Earth concerning whom I had no hope of their resting in Christ O what dejecting Stories could I write of too many but I forbear If he be so sensible of the ill use which may be made of that excellent Office and do so heartily wish that some Expressions were altered to prevent Scandal to the scrupulous and prophane methinks for the same Reasons he might wish more Alterations might be made in other things and Offices Most frank and generous are those Expressions of the Right Reverend and Pious Bishop of Cork Protestan-Peacemaker p. 29. We are ready to sacrifice all we can otherwise i.e. without Schism to the publick Peace and Safety what most of the Dissenters would be at no Liturgy no Episcopacy no Vniformity may not be cannot be without
that opposed it upon very different Ends They designed to shelter the Papists from the Execution of the Law and saw clearly that nothing would bring in Popery so well as a Toleration but to tolerate Popery bare-faced would have startled the Nation too much so it was necessary to hinder all the Propositions for Vnion seeing the keeping up the Differences was the best colour they could find for getting the Toleration to pass only as stackening the Laws against Dissenters whose Numbers and Wealth made it adviseable to have some regard to them and under this pretence Popery might have crept in more covered and less regarded so these Councils being more acceptable to some concealed Papists then in Power as has since appeared too evidently the whole Project for Comprehension was let fall and those who had set it afoot came to be looked on with an evil Eye as secret Favourers of Dissenters Vnderminers of the Church and every thing else that Jealousy and Distaste could cast on them I do not question but this excellent Historian hath given us a faithful account of the Reasons against Comprehension as he received them from those eminent Persons engaged in it or some that knew them and I will make bold to cast some Reflections upon them 1. On the one part some zealous Church-men who thought it below the Dignity of the Church to alter Laws c. But when it is more agreeable to their Spirit and Ends it is no Indignity to change moderate Laws into more severe nor to practise arbitrarily beyond Laws 2. They who rationally and conscienciously dissent are esteemed Schismaticks but retaining all other their Opinions and Principles and abating the rigor of their Dissent by conforming would they be of the Church or still esteemed Scismaticks By this Notion the Conformist qua talis is no Schismatick and the Nonconformist quatenus such is a Schismatick Conformity takes away all name of Schism But then the Question might be Whether the Nonconformist be a Stateschismatick or a Church-schismatick and whether he was a Schismatick when he treated about and petitioned for Peace and Union and what hath made him to be one since 3. They are afraid of Faction but do those Fears arise from a Catholick or a Factious Spirit Are there not factious Spirits in the Church that harbour factious Affections and utter factious Words contrary to true Charity 4. And what if other Parties might demand Concessions Either those Concessions were rational becoming the Wisdom Peaceableness and Grace of the Church or not methinks it 's a Royal Dignity in the Church to make reasonable Concessions if they are unreasonable unchristian impious and the like the Church may deny them with Honour But these Sons and Fathers represent the Church like a stately Lady that keeps Chamber and must not be spoken to 5. But really are there such among us as taking Offence might go over to the Church of Rome constant and true to her self How much do they owe to the Nonconformists for their Company and Communion How inclinable are they to Rome that are ready to depart upon small Concessions The Constancy of the Church of Rome is as inseparable a Property of hers as her Infallibility Methinks this is much to the Dishonour of many of our Church and much to the Honour of the Nonconformists that whatever they suffer there is no danger that they will turn Papists But weak Reasons have great force in them when they that are narrow in their Charity and powerful in Place have the Management of them 6. The World is too apt to be jealous but have not the Nonconformists some Reason to be jealous of this sort of zealous Clergy-men that there is some Agreement or Bargain between them and the Friends and Kinsmen of the Church of Rome that both shall agree to keep the Nonconformists out And is not the Church of Rome better conditioned and better natured than these zealous Clergy-men for there is not a Nonconformist but may be entertained among them without fear of encreasing a Faction 7. It is not a very doubtful thing whether our zealous Clergy-men are the best or the worst sort of our Clergy that argue so stisly against a legal Comprehension of the Orthodox Nonconformists with Reasons of so little weight or that are so little sensible of the Usefulness and Serviceableness of the Abilities of the Nonconformists to the great and crying need of Souls 8. This is a Vindication of the Nonconformists from bringing in of Popery for the way of getting into the Papists hath been the shutting out of them they hope to get by a Toleration There would be no colourable Reasons for a Toleration if it were not a pretended Favour to the Nonconformists Take away Nonconformity as much as you can and you take away the fairest pretence for a Toleration They that appear against the uniting of Protestants upon Catholick Terms serve the Popish Turn and Interest and are effectually ill Friends to the Protestant Interest and by Consequence our excluding Impositions do more real Hurt than Good to the Protestant Church of England 9. The dissenting Protestants may know who are their Friends and who their Enemies and what Potent Enemies they have they have the Zealous Clergy against them and the Politick Potent Papist 10. We see the little Confidence or Assurance we have of the Constancy of many that are in the Communion of the Church of England for if the receiving of the Protestant Dissenters upon Catholick Terms be hazardous of losing or of the revolt of them to the Church of Rome as the more constant and true to her self then what will become of them if Popery should so far obtain as to be able to give them Countenance and Favour for if they are so inclinable to revolt for the Condescentions of the Church in some things extra-essential to the Church upon shew of Inconstancy what would they be when our Church is like to be lost or supprest 11. Whether there is not a latent untrusty Party of schismatical Formalists in the Church that are Schismaticks depositivè for it seems they cannot bear the Reconciliation and Restitution of the ejected and if they are upon that in danger of apostatizing to the Church of Rome are they not in danger of becoming the rankest Schismaticks in the World by returning Members of an apostate schismatical Church the Mother of Schisms 12. By this among other Reasons I am convinced that it is the Duty of all sound and sincere Protestants of the Church of England to pray for and by all peaceable ways to endeavour the re-admission of all sound Protestant Dissenters and a Catholick Union of us all And I am convinced the learned Bishop Cosins saw the State of Religion when he declared in his last Testament that it was the great Duty of us all to unite And how much we are bound to acknowledg and with all due Honour to remember the Loyal and Christian Endeavours of our
4º An. 1559. And yet the Law for all these places is the same The Law is uniform but the Practice multiform But if the use of the book both Rules and Things ordered by it be enjoined then it seems strange that the Words should be after the manner of the Church of England for suppose any should compose a Form of Worship begin with some apt Sentences of Scripture then go to an Exhortation to Confession but use another Confession and throughout observe the Rubrick but not the same number of Psalms nor the same Canticles and Lessons or one of the three or ancient Creeds and other Prayers whether this would not be tho not the same things yet after the manner of the Church of England as being after the same Order But take the words as before That no Exercise of Religion to above four and the Family shall be lawful except they use the Common-Prayer Then may some be apt to think that 1. Here is a Conformity allowed by this Act to overthrow and weaken that required by the Act of Uniformity I query If a Minister shall in any publick place so he be neither Parson Vicar or Stipendary read the Common-Prayer altho he do not subscribe nor declare Assent and Consent whether he may not lawfully preach to as large an Assembly as will hear him And so may not a Man that is a Nonconformist in respect of Subscription and Declaration lawfully preach as publickly as he can and so be a legal Nonconforming Conformist as honest Mr. C. called himself and whether this Act doth not strike at the Act of Uniformity 2. Doth it not cast an ill look upon all other Modes of Divine Worship as if no other Form were consistent with the Peace of the Kingdom but what is according to the Liturgy 3. That all that dissent from all things in the Liturgy are Persons to be suspected of the King except such as say or hear the Liturgy and for that Cause are not and by Consequence whether the Execution of it doth not clearly tend to divide between the King and his Subjects and between Subject and Subject yea to make them that are religious appear more formidable than the irreligious 4. And whether it is not to set up a manner of Worship composed by Men above the matter of Worship appointed by God for let the Worship as to the Matter and End and Principle be divine it is not tolerable except it be after that one Manner and Practice I 'll add no more Doubts and Prejudices but come to plain Argument They who ought to be encouraged and protected by the King of England as Supream Governour ought not to be punished ☜ But our Protestant Nonconformists ought to be encouraged and protected Therefore c. They who set up no false and Idolatrous Worship contrary to the Word of God that worship God according to his Word ought to be encouraged and protected by the King of England as Supream Governour and his Laws But such is their Worship in every part Therefore c. I 'll touch the Minor first and then go to the Proposition That Worship which agrees in the right Object of Scripture-matter according to Scripture and to divine Ends is true Worship but such is their Worship Therefore c. To multiply no more Syllogisms I prove the Proposition by the constant Uniform allowed Doctrine of the Church of England And to strike home at one blow thus I argue They who ought to be encouraged and protected and not punished according to the allowed Doctrine of the Church of England explaining the King's Supremacy ought not to be punished by any new or subsequent Law that doth not condemn that allowed Doctrine of the Church as this Act doth not But according to the allowed Doctrine of the Church of England explaining the King's Supremacy they and such as they are to be encouraged and protected Therefore c. This is the Proposition I am to prove the Major being clear Those Reverend Fathers of the Reformed Religion which disputed against the Pope's and proved the King's Supremacy did thus state and explain it Set forth by Hen. 8th Vid. Dr. Bur. 1 Vol. History of the Reform p. 142. in the necessary Erudition of a Christian Man To them specially and principally it pertaineth to defend the Faith of Christ and his Religion to conserve and maintain the true Doctrine of Christ and all such as be true Preachers and Setters-forth thereof and to abolish Abuses Heresies and Idolatries and to punish with Corporal Pains such as of Malice be the occasion of the same and sinally to over-see and cause that the said Bishops and Priests do execute their Pastoral Office truly and faithfully and specially in these Points which by Christ and his Apostles were given and committed to them and in case they shall be negligent in any part thereof or would not diligently execute the same to cause them to redouble and supply their Lack and if they obstinately withstand their Prince's kind Monition and will not amend their Faults then and in such Case to put others in their room and places And God hath also commanded the said Bishops to obey with all Humbleness and Reverence both Kings and Princes and Governours and all their Laws not being contrary to the Laws of God whatsoever they be and that not only propter Iram but also propter Conscientiam With this Doctrine all our best Writers of unquestionable Authority agree See Jewel's Apology Part 1. p. 15. Edit 1570. Apol. c. 11. Divis 3. cut down Groves break down Images coerce and chastise Negligence and Falshood of the Bishop pag. 715. Joshua also Ap. c. 11. Divis 6 8 9 10 11. c. 15. Divis 1 3. c. 17. Divis 1 2. The Reproof of Mr. Dorman with a Defence of the chief Government of Christian Princes by Dr. Alexander Nowel London 1566. p. 24. b. p. 131 143 161. b. Dr. Jo. Rainold's Conference with Hart c. 10. We never affirmed that Princes might cammand what God forbiddeth or prohibit what God commandeth Bishops have their Authority to preach and administer the Sacraments from Christ himself only the Prince giveth them publick Liberty without let or disturbance to do what Christ commandeth Princes suffer and incite them with Peace and Praise to do their Duties Princes may by their Laws prescribe the Christian Faith to be preached the right Service of God in Spirit and in Truth to be used the Sacraments to be administred according to the Lord's Institution Bilson of Subjection pag. 216 217 c. We say that Princes as publick Magistrates may give Freedom Protection and Assistance to the preaching of the Word ministring the Sacraments and right using of the Keys pag. 227 236 240 249. See Bishop Bridges of the Supremacy against Stapleton and Saunders p. 672 673. I 'll quote no more of him There is neither Idolatry in Worship nor Heresy in the Faith of the Nonconformists for which they
ought to be restrained nor Ungodliness and Dishonesty for which they should be punished any more than the best of Men But worshipping the true God in Christ by the Spirit according to his Word c. By the foregoing Doctrine they are to be encouraged and protected There is but one thing to their Prejudice their Disobedience to some Temporal Ecclesiastical Laws requiring Subscriptions c. Hear a little further the Doctrine of the Bishops and Doctors To devise Rites and Ceremonies for the Church is not the Prince's Vocation but to receive and allow such as the Scriptures and Canons commend and such as the Bishops and Pastors of the Place shall advise not infringing the Scriptures or Canons And for all other Ecclesiastical Things and Causes Princes be neither the Devisers non Directors of them but the Confirmers and Establishers of that which is good Bilson pag. 252. and Displacers and Avengers of that which is Evil The Ceremonies in divers particular Churches are of divers sorts and that without any Inconvenience at all so they all agree in those unchangeable Laws given by the Universal Head Christ The Reverend Dr. Nowel's Reproof of Dorman p. 25. See Homil. of Fasting second Part. How easy may the Bishops if they pleased take away the Causes of our decried Schism or without any Crime of Schism permit a Diversity to them that are governed by the unchangeable Law of Josus Christ and only differ from their particular and changeable Laws To conclude If the Faith of the Nonconformists be the Catholick Faith as it is in all and every Point and Article even the same which is professed in the Church of England contained in the Scriptures if they are good Men and honest Subjects Then we are taught and exhorted to pray that the King and all in Authority under him may have Wisdom Strength Justice Clemency and Zeal to God's Glory to God's Verity to Christian Souls and the Common-wealth Let us pray they may rightly use their Sword and Authority for the Maintenance and Defence of the Catholick Faith contained in the Holy Scriptures The 3d part of the Homily of Obedience p. 69. Lond. Edit 1673. and of their good and honest Subjects for the Fear and Punishment of the evil and vicious People Object But they transgress the Laws therefore are not good and honest Subjects break the Orders of the Church c. Answ Preaching and hearing the Catholick Faith is I hope no Transgression of the Laws if it be then you do in effect say the Laws are against Godliness and the Exercise of the Catholick Faith They are good and honest Subjects that pray for the King pay Tribute live in Godliness and Honesty therefore they are to be protected and encouraged which was the Proposition to be proved I suppose no Law ought to be construed or executed which in Construction and Execution is contrary to the Catholick Doctrine of the Church of England established by Law The Faith they profess is Catholick their Worship is according to the Scripture and they corrupt the People neither with Sedition or Disobedience The Conditions of Liberty which they refuse are no Article of Catholick Faith or Practice therefore they ought not to be punished according to the Doctrine of the Church of England The second Question is Whether the Nonconformist Protestants are not to be indulged and permitted The former Discourse answers this Question If they do not deserve to be punished but protected and encouraged then they ought to be permitted and indulged while they design and act nothing inconsistent with or contrary to the Duties of good honest peaceable Subjects 2. Permission and Indulgence is the lowest degree of Favour that can be shewed to Catholick Christians and Protestants in a Christian Protestant Kingdom 1. If more be due to the Profession of Christian Religion yea of the Protestant Religion Then a Permission or Indulgence is the least Respect and Favour due to it But more is due to it than Permission therefore that 's the least 2. If Permission was due to Godliness and Honesty from adverse Powers both Jewish and Heathen and if it be due to Reformed Christians in Popish Countries then it is much more due to Protestant Professors in Protestant Kingdoms and States But the former is true therefore much more the latter Of these in particular 1. The Jewish Powers ought to have permitted the preaching of the Gospel to our Saviour and his Apostles because it was of God and God hath Soverign Power in all the World to set up his Kingdom and Laws It was the Sin of the Jews to forbid the preaching of the Gospel it was a Duty in the Apostles to preach it even when forbidden If it was a Sin in the Jews to forbid it they ought certainly to permit it yea they ought to have received and obeyed it If it had been a Duty and no Sin in the Jews to forbid the preaching of Christ it had been a Sin in the Apostles notwithstanding and against that Prohibition to preach it But it was an Obedience to God the higher Power to preach it therefore they who forbad it ought to permit it yea much more it was their Duty to believe it 2. The same Reason will hold all the World over because Christian Religion is from God and teaches the Knowledg and Obedience and Worship of God and the way to Life therefore God may send it all over the World by Men called and sent by him without the Commission of the Powers of the World And if Men knew the Gift of God they ought to esteem it the greatest Mercy and manifestation of Grace that was ever shewed to the Sons of Men. Our Saviour commands his Apostles to go into all the World to preach the Gospel to every Creature It comes among them without their Knowledg and against their Wills Ought it to be received or not if not then God ought not to be obeyed according to his revealed Will which no Man dare affirm if it ought to be received it ought to be permitted and indulged with an overplus of Reverence and Honour Godliness and Honesty was to be priviledged and protected to be cherished ard not extinguished in Heathen Kingdoms 1 Tim. 2.2 They desired to lead quiet Lives free from Trouble and Persecution the use they were to make and did make of their Quietness was the Exercise of Godliness and Honesty To this end they were to pray for Kings and all in Authority And Kings and all in Authority may venture and not fear to give Protection and Security to all that pray for them and that live in Godliness and Honesty under them If protection and Quietness might be expected from Heathens much more from Christians 3. If Refermed Christians ought to be permitted in Popish Kingdoms and States then Christians professing the Reformation may be much more permitted in Protestant Kingdoms and States and by Consequence in this Kingdom Popish Kings and Rulers
Salvation our Baptismal Vow Hypocrites and Formalists are the first Rank of Dissenters and Schismaticks that conform not unto the Laws of Christ and Terms of Salvation 2. A conscientious walking after the Spirit Sensual Men that have not the Spirit are the notorious Separatists 3. A studious search into and keeping to the holy Gospel wherein we are taught as the way to Union 1. A setting up or rather acknowledgment of God as in all and above all 1 Cor. 3. 2. An Imitation of Jesus Christ Phil. 2.5 in Humbleness of Mind and Condescention 3. Unity of Mind in the Lord Phil. 4.2 1 Cor. 1.10 not contentious striving in Parties as if Christ were divided 4. By Charity which suffereth long is kind envieth not vaunteth not it self is not pussed up seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh none Evil rejoyceth not in Iniquity but rejoyceth in the Truth By these Divine Effects and Properties of Charity we may lay our Divisions upon the Head of Uncharitableness Charity keeps all together as in a Bond of Perfectness Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly Love in Honour preferring one another Rom. 12.10 Rejoyce with them that do rejoyce and weep with them that weep ver 15. 1 Cor. 12.25 26. 5. By Self-denial This is the individual Property and Effect of true Faith and Love and by Consequence the necessary Qualification of a Disciple By this we seek God's Glory and not our own pray that God's Kingdom may come and his Will be done as if we had no Interest nor Concernment in this World but the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom nor Work to do but to do his Will Except we deny our selves we cannot condescend not seek the good of all but please our selves we cannot have a Care of one another as of our selves we shall not seek the things that be of Christ but our own This Factious this Schimatical Self must be denied or we can never be healed nor grow in one 6. If we would unite we must not aggravate Divisions nor multiply Schisms in our own Fancies Opinions and uncharitable Affections looking upon diversity of Opinions as hideous Errors upon Errors as damnable judging others as Deceivers and deceived and admiring our selves as if priviledged with a little Infallibility censuring our Brethren reviling reproaching suppressing and persecuting of them Our Union lies in a Point it is in the Head And they were counted Schismaticks who separated from the Catholick Church by Cyprian ad magnum c. August c. in the Essentials of Christianity of Faith and Worship and in Amen as the Sum of our Prayers An so Schism pernitious Schism lies in a narrower Compass than most Men I will not say would have it but than most do lay it in Schism is a Breach of Union but then it is a Breach of that Union which ought to be among Christians from the Nature and Laws of Christianity But according to some the weaker side is always the Schismatical And so I come to the last Head to shew wherein Schism lies or what Schism is It hath many Branches and Degrees but I 'll take the most authentick Notion of it from the prime Doctors and Fathers of the Church of England by which I dare say our Protestant Dissenters will be tried and judged Hear the Canon and let it be the Reed to measure our Schism by we may stand to their Rule who made our Canons Anno 1603. Can. ix The Title is Authors of Schisms in the Church of England censured Whosoever shall hereafter separate themselves from the Communion of Saints as it is approved by the Apostles Rules in the Church of England and combine themselves together in a new Brotherhood accounting the Christians who are conformable to the Doctrine Government Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England to be prophane and unmeet for them to joyn with in Christian Profession let them be excommunicated and not restored but by the Arch-bishop after their Repentance and publick Revocation of such their wicked Errors Here 's the Nature of eulpable Separation opened 1. It is a Separation from the Communion of Saints 2. Communion of Sains approved by the Apostles Rules 3. Combination in a new Brotherhood 4. The Reason of such Separation and Combination accounting the Christians who are conformable c. to be profane and unmeet for them to joyn with in Christian Profession The Nonconformists both of Denominations Presbyterian and Congregational do declare 1. That they believe and hold Communion of Saints 2. That the Apostle's Rules are the Rules of that Communion 3. That conforming Ministers and Christians are true Churches a true and excellent part of the Catholick Church 4. That they separate not from any Christians because they are or that are Christians conformable to the Doctrine c. There is not a conformable Christian in England or in the whole World but they that are sincere Christians among them do and must hold Communion with them in the Christian Profession The Reason of their Combinations is because of some Injunctions required of them alien from the Apostles Rules as we are Christians and keep to the Apostles Rules they do not judg us to be unmeet for Christian Profession with them As this is clear from the declared Doctrines of the Nonconformists so it is clear in the Practice of many of them as more than my self can testify who have had of them communicate in Prayer Preaching and Sacraments with us There may be some who ignorantly weakly and passionately upon Prejudice and Unacquaintance may be too far estranged from us but as many of these as are Christians dare not withdraw from Christian-Communion with us or judg us unmeet for Christian Profession with them these are to be pittied and rectified but if they believe with the Heart and confess with the Mouth Jesus Christ the Schism is verbal and oral but not fundamental and in the Heart A Man may be shy of another Man's Company through Unacquaintance and Suspition but if he will not keep the same Pace or the same Track in the way to Heaven I 'll own him for a Fellow-Traveller if I see him go on in the beaten Path of Christianity tho not hand in hand with me If he suspect me for a Robber I 'll assure him of my Honesty if I can that we have the Comfort of good Company There are not so many that declare themselves bound for Heaven that I must cut off them that do because we have some Jars and Disputations upon our Journey Let us learn Moderation from the highest Fathers of the Church in their days and learn this Canonical Notion of a Schismatick A Schismatick from the Church is He that separates from the Communion of Saints according to the Apostles Rules as from Christians unmeet for Christian Profession because they conform i. e. as from no Christians but prophane because they conform to the Doctrine Government and Ceremonies of the Church of England
Schism p. 32. The only Steps by which we can mutually move to Peace I with all submission conceive to be these 1. That we all would seriously study Self-denial and that with a peculiar Eye and regard to Accommodation one perhaps of Popularity another of a particular Humor another of somewhat else All of whatsoever good Conscience tells us is less valuable than common Vnion p. 33. But notwithstanding what I have said of the Excellency both of the Common-Prayers and of Cathedral Performances I do conceive the Alteration of an Expression or here and there of a whole Prayer or two by Law or dispensing with some Ceremonies in loco I do not conceive such Relaxation as this would break the Harmony and Beauty of our Worship or disturb the Vnion and Peace of our Church There are some Collects and perhaps some Rubricks too which with all duty and submission I humbly conceive might be altered for the better pag. 118 119. This honourable Embassador of Peace speaks home and from his heart and shall for ever sit high in the esteem of all the Sons of Peace Here are Proposals conditional indeed with the consent of Authority as they should be that will certainly be imbraced by Dissenters But now if the Church should condescend if I may call that a Condescension which is done for Christ as far as it can without Schism and the Dissenters as far as they can with a good Conscience What shall be done if they cannot come up to a full and perfect closure Shall the Dissenter have no benefit by his Consent to the great things and the greatest number of things in which they agree already shall he be not only excluded but punished altho he continue peaceable in his Dissent In such a case here is an apparent Necessity of mutual Forbearance in Love and of the Bond of Peace to keep in the Vnity of the Spirit And here I cannot without a great respect to another Conformist of Worth and Quality as I am informed repeat the Words which are like a healing Plaister to a heart bruised between our grating Differences The way to make National Religion most National is by comprehending all the Differences that can be reconciled with true Religion while they that dissent in some things receive one another with a good peaceable holy and publick Temper of Mind as the great Argument and Inducement of which we should all pray for the Acceptance of the holy Service of all that call on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Apostle distinguishes Christians but immediately unites them again both theirs and ours they and we whatever smaller Distinctions make the They and the We are both one in our Lord Jesus Christ We ought to pray for the common Benefit of all so united though not bound up in the same common Form with us for a gracious Audience and Reception of their and our Worship of God that so the Spirit of Love and Vnion in the main may convey all our Services into one before God where indeed if they are as he requires they meet stript of all their outward Circumstances Form and Ceremony Faith and Obedience being alone able to mount thither with them And Services so raised can by no means be spared for small Differences in a National Religious Interest for the Angels of all such behold the Face of our Father in Heaven Thus that excellent Person The whole Duty of Nations p. 61. who writes himself a Minister of the Catholick Church as it is National in England The same Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation breaths forth in peaceable Discourses of true Protestant Christian Gentlemen of excellent Learning and hearty Concernment for their and our Religion taking several ways The Learned Sir Thomas Overbury hath proposed many Questions of great Weight and discoursed upon them piously and smartly Sir John Mallet hath drawn up the Contents that might be Heads of useful and necessary Discourses for Gentleness towards Protestant Dissenters tho he himself and Family come duely to Church-Service and Sacraments Letter to the Author of the Guide to the English Juries printed after it and use some of the Common-Prayers in his Family The Author of the Appendix to Mr. Hunt's Argument hath discovered a good Will to Peace and Accommodation But most fully and of set-purpose a very learned and true Christian Gentleman that holds constant Communion with the Church of England hath turned aside answering the Title of his Book like a good Samaritan to help up a bleeding Church and powr a Composition of choice Preparations to heal her Wounds But alas have not and do not our Sins separate between us and our God Oh! how are they increased that make that Separation O! how hot are they against a Separation that is both curable and tolerable in comparison of theirs If their Assemblies if their Exercises were called seditious and Twenty Pounds upon the Houses of their Assemblies and but 5 s. upon every one that communicates in their Sins it would be more pleasing to God and more for the Establishment and Prosperity of the Kingdom than their Prosecutions of Dissenters in point of Ceremony many of these consult keep their Meetings sedulously concur unanimously and lay Spies in wait to apprehend the Preachers of the Word of Salvation These breath out Threatnings and what they will do But if this chanee to fall into any of their Hands I will present one warning more and a notable Example to them William Lantgrave of Hasse Casp Peucer Historia Carcerum Part 2. pag. 773. made Intercession with Augustus the Elector of Saxony for Dr. Peucer Prisoner a long time for his dissent in the Vbiquitarian Controversy The Elector promised his release if Anne his Duchess would be willing and desired him to try her first she replied according to her Obstinacy If she lived he should not be released Which Answer of hers the Lantgrave and other wise Men did thus interpret That the Dutchess should shortly dy that Peucer by her Death might be released and so it proved according to their Interpretation she died saith Dr. Peucer in that very moment in which I dreamed in my Sleep of a great and noble Funeral and a Bell ringing and as the Bell-rope brake that Verse of the Psalm came into my Mind Our Soul is escaped as a Bird out of the Snare of the Fowler the Snare is broken and we are escaped And among what Prodigies she died is known to all I am confident if the Persecutors of our peaceable and religious Nonconformists were studious to prepare for Death they would forbear this Work and as it is dreadful for any of them to dy in their Sins unrepented of and to dy in this Sin so let them take heed that some of the greatest of them do not fall by an apparent Hand of God I do profess if I had any Friend engaged in this horrid Work I would perswade him if possible to forbear
build upon another and a new Foundation though by them called old But Protestants agree in the same Foundations of Religion obey the same Civil Government in the same Person and same Fundamental and Civil Laws and yet some are separated for Sacrifice the Lot is cast upon them and great Rewards allowed to any that will do the Work Our Parliaments from 1673 to the last would have prevented this Ruine but for their sakes and their own Parliament is here taken Synecdochically they are now like to suffer Our last Parliaments were chosen with less Expence Debauchery Tumult or Faction than any we have known in our days Some had not been long in the House but they were driven out of their former Prejudices and Prepossessions by the clear and convincing Reasons and Debates of the House They were generally Men of the noblest Estates in their several Counties but acting as if they had nothing private or domestick and applying themselves to the Preservation of the King 's Sacred Person and of the Reformed Protestant Religion to which they are obliged by Obligations of an even lasting Effect Since their Dissolutions they cannot but be sensible how their Proceedings are confured and exposed and many either of them or of such as approved of them are put out of Commission and many that are most disaffected to them are either continued or fill up the Vacancies and these proceed upon contrary Reasons and Motives and run into contrary Methods What they would have composed and healed these do taking the opportunity of a long Vacancy of Parliament discompose with a greater Severity than at any time before And the Sufferings of the Nonconformists do clear the Members of Parliament from being Nonconformists or Fanaticks for if they were they should meet with the like Treatment and Usage and so the Sufferings of the Nonconformists serve as a Vindication of the Parliament from the censure of being such themselves All those noble and worthy Patriots are now the unsatisfied Spectators of an excessive Trouble and Charge if not irrecoverable Ruine of thousands of peaceable Subjects by which the King will never be enriched nor the Church united The inferior Rank are affected according to their differing measures of Reason and Sense of Religion and the publick Good The more Understanding and discerning enquire into the Cause of this Mischief which is the dissent of the Nonconformist's Judgment from some unnecessary and variable Impositions c. when ever the Government plenseth may be taken away without derogation of Power or loss of any Fundamental in Religion either of Belief or Practice or danger to the Government or Peace They cannot but say these matters of Dissention need not be They believe their own Senses they have neither seen nor heard of any Sedition or Tumult or Plot contrived among the Protestant Dissenters They know them to be Men of Abilities Piety Righteousness and Peace and have waded through the deep Waters of many Afflictions without sinking or drowning or overthrowing the Ship in which too many drive a Merchandize bring in Wealth and others fish for Men to save them from the bottomless Pit If they are unacquainted with the Nonconformist Preachers they are acquainted with their Hearers and know their Principles and Conversation and if they are not better they are no worse than other Men and cannot but be grieved that they lie at the Mercy of many that have no Vertue to commend them They that love Godliness and Righteousness in any in whom they believe or hope it is that are glad for the increase of Knowledg or Godliness by what Instrument soever and endeavour to be merciful as their heavenly Father is merciful are not and cannot be pleased with those Proceedings of ruining Men for Conscience These are not so subtile as to lay any great Weight upon the Distinctions which some Men invent to excuse the Severity The more unknowing and unconcern'd are in a maze wondring what kind of People these Nonconformists are what kind of thing this Nonconformity is but they know or hear that the Men are given to pray hear Sermons sing Psalms and other pious Exercises and live if not better yet no worse than many that go to Church And of these many have so much Sense that they think and say surely it is hard to drive honest Men's Cattel seize their Goods break open Houses for doing well And as many as love Ease and the World take their Ease and follow that Religion which is encouraged with Preferment and a Freedom from Charge and Molestation Some Zealots against Nonconformists are incensed against them as against Pharisees that pray to devour all as against seditious Persons and secret Traitors that want nothing but Opportunity as against the Authors of all our Unsettlements and Miseries These are for the King and who is against him These are for the Law as now established and no alteration which is to tie up the Power of the King as much as the Parliament for it is as much his Prerogative to abrogate old Laws when necessary as to make new These are for the Church of England and against all that are against it and what 's that for the Bishops and the Nonconformists never did as much as petition to take them down or diminish their Revenues they are for preaching in Churches and so are Nonconformists if they might for Allegiance to the King so are the Nonconformists for the King's Supremacy so are the Nonconformists for Ceremonies and Orders of the Church here they begin to disagree And for these things can you persecute your Brethren These Zealots are as erroneous for these things as any others are against them The most of our Conforming-Protestant Laicks are bound to bear Offices higher or lower in Cities Towns Hundreds Parishes The superiour Magistrates may forbear to break open Meetings for Religious Exercises or set others on much more to animate the Rabble to pluck down their Meeting-Houses there is no Law for it that we the unskilful in the Laws know or hear of The inferior are under Command but these are meant of only lawful Commands and legal Warrants And here is now a very displeasing Tragedy to be seen Here are Informers very Strangers in the Countries which they plague and molest that swear against some Persons by hear-say whom they do not know and these are the great Ministers of Justice they do little less nay sometimes no less than expect the Justices should take their Information without Examination of them at their time at the very nick when they please and not when the Justice pleaseth These are the Masters of the Justices themselves who must serve them or forfeit 50 l. to them and 50 l. more to him that can get it Some Justices are forward and officious in carrying on this Work of Reformation and Union they issue forth Warrants upon them that meet upon the Parish Officers that are slack some give out Warrants to break open
Houses for distress some are cautious how they go so far The dissenting Subject keeps up close and upon his Market-day keeps his Shop shut as if he were broken or hid his head from Serjeants yea from worse Men than common Bailisss The Informer keeps the Street and hath whom he pleaseth at his command The Parish Officer is in a threefold Difficulty or Strait 1. The Justice of Peace fines him and threatens worse to him if he doth not make distress 2. It goes against his Nature and his Love to his Neighbour Friend Kinsman it goes against his Conscience to distrain the Goods and spoil the Trade and beggar innocent Children he cannot do it but if he do not he shall rue it himself he is sined and he is further threatned The Informer is now pro tempore his superior Officer he must execute his Warrants 3. He is in another Difficulty If he break into his Neighbour's House he is told he cannot justify it by Law by some sage Counsellors the owner of the House and Goods may sue him for breaking into his House He is told he hath but one Remedy when he is sued the Justice will stand by him and the Favour of the Court and Partiality of a Jury will be his Defender But really is not this an hard case that a Man must ruine others or be ruined and do these Actions look as if they did really rejoyce that they are ruled by Law when without Law or against Law he proceeds in hopes of Favour And what is all this for but to get Money for the chief Ruler the noble Informer the Shame and Scourge of his Country Gentlemen and Magistrates that have Wisdom to foresee and sense of what they see are disquieted in their Minds the Envious in hope of encreasing their own Trade are more modest than to approve it and they who are Scorners of Religion make merry at it And this is a true but imperfect face of the times and I divulge no Secrets II. The Sufferings of the Nonconformists have been coursely and darkly opened in the two former Pleas and will be more particularly set forth in what follows Their former Sufferings come upon them again and that with the Addition of more Weight and Violence many have by an indecent Art done what they can to shut up both his Majesties Eyes and Heart I call it indecent because we owe a greater Reverence to the King they have thanked him for his ruling by Law and declared their Adherence to the Church of England as established by Law As soon as they have done this they crave leave to execute the Laws upon Dissenters as if they would take the King at his Word and while the Gracious Declaration was fresh that there might be no room for wonted Mercy and Indulgence except he should recede from his Royal Word almost as soon as sent abroad They seem to oblige the Bishops and the Church by declaring for it as establish'd and thereby tied their Tongues and Pens from supplicating for their Protestant Brethren for if they do they will be interpreted to act contrary to themselves and their own Establishment and no doubt but many a fair Story is told them of I know not what invisible Machinations against them They must look on while a Course is taken which will reflect upon them and their Government as much if not more than a tolerated Nonconformity The more discreet and moderate sort of Magistrates are look'd upon as savouring of Parliamentary Notions either are left out of the Commissions of Lieuetenancy and Peace or act not at all or act by way of Mitigation of Rigor the most declaredly opposite to the Parliaments to Protestant Dissenters seem to act alone therefore the Law falls with multiplied Aggravations upon Preachers and People What was argued by way of Consequence in the second Plea proves now to be true as if it had been a Prophecy The Dissenters are fined for so many Meetings past That there are Fines upon the Officers of one little Market-Town for neglecting to break their Neighbours amounting to 200 l. and the Fines upon one Preacher and his Hearers come to about 1000 l. if they may be exactly levied What is the Case of Populous Places They suffer spiritually bodily really and relatively A Man cannot marry his Daughter to a Dissenting Protestant but he is like one that throws away her Portion a Man cannot put a Child apprentice to a Dissenting Protestant but he is in danger of losing his Money and his Son of losing his Trade by his Master 's not being able to follow it nor to hold many of them are in as bad a case as the Papists if the Laws were fully executed upon them for some Protestants are returned into the Exchequer and their Estates under Composition and the Parts that are left to them are liable to other Laws against them But if the Executioners of the Laws stop at the Composition there would be something left certain to them But the remaning two Parts are subject to these Laws the Oxford and five Mile Act and this against Conventicles and to the Ecclesiastical Courts besides they are obnoxious to Excommunications Significavits Writs de Excommunicatio capiendo to Banishment and Abjuration and Felony if they abjure not Some question whether that Act of Q. E. 35. be in force but several are brought in danger of it as if it were besides to all manner of Taxes and Payments They are more hardly used than Papists Some have paid 20 l. and 5 s. over and over But now their whole Estates will not satisfy the Demands of Informers and Warrants The only way that Men of Estates have is to become Tenants and Servants to secure them by making them over in Trust The Miseries of their Souls are not yet reckoned by me to prevent which they have ventured long by hearing such Ministers as they conceived most profitable But now for endeavouring to flee from the Wrath to come they are fallen under the Vengeance of cruel and merciless Informers and to save their Souls have brought Ruine upon their Estates III. And what is all this for It is for Nonconformity which may be considered two ways 1. Privatively not conforming 2. Positively being Nonconformists to the Laws of Uniformity preaching and holding Religious Exercises this is the Preachers Crime the Crime of the People is hearing or joyning with them in such Exercises of Religion as are without controversy necessary and profitable This and only this is the cause of all those many and great Sufferings of every kind which they have endured and under which no man can comfortably stand without Faith Self-denial Contentment and the Conscience of well-doing and the hope of Eternal Life the great Recompence of Reward And this being the Cause and the sole Cause of their Sufferings it is such as calls for Pity and great Tenderness and is no just Cause of their many Molestations and bitter Sufferings as I
intend to shew in my following Discourse as God shall help me IV. By whom and from whom and through whose means they are now again exposed to Sufferings I cannot shew the Spring of the Motion but any Man may see the Hands that strike and tell us what time of day it is I do very much doubt whether the most engaged Instruments do know whose Work they carry on this is my Charity but if they do I dare say what they cannot hear without either great displeasure horror or repentance But they are 1. Such as cannot take it ill to be called Addressers and Abhorrers but they as far as I can look about me and see particularly that have thanked the King for declaring his Resolutions of ruling by Law which if any of the Nonconformists had expressed a doubt or fear of had been a far greater Offence than their Nonconformity They have declared for the Protestant Religion as established by Law and yet punish them that profess the same and no other 2. And by Consequence they are such as have declared a dislike of the Proceedings of our late Parliaments and in that particular of endeavouring the uniting of Protestant Dissenters in which alone I am concerned to take notice of them and act directly contrary to the Vote of the House of Commons which resolved That it is the Opinion of this House Lunae 10 die Jan. 1680. that the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the penal Laws is at this time grievous to the Subject a weakning to the Protestant Interest an Encouragement of Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom And by the Rule of Opposition they must in their Opinions turn this Vote backward as if they thought that the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the present Laws is not grievous to the Subject is not a weakening of the Protestant Interest is not an encouragement of Popery nor dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom Certainly they must be supposed to hold this as contrary to the general and unanimous Judgment of the far greater Number for as Nemine Contradicente doth not contain every particular Man's Vote so it doth no less than imply a Consent or that to declare a Dissent is to no purpose there is no Division of the House upon it only if they do not hold this contrary to the House they must act both irrationally and desperately in this sense Altho the House of Commons declared their Opinion to be so yet I a Justice or I an inferiour Officer will prosecute the Protestant Dissenters or execute the Penal Laws upon them tho it be a weakening of the Protestant Interest altho it be an Encouragement to Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom Or if this Consequence from these Proceedings be too harsh and censorious I will mollify it as much as it is capable of a mollified Construction Let this be the Opinion of the Prosecutors now The Execution of the Penal Laws is not grievous to the Subject that is it is grievous but to some and not to all it is not grievous to the Subject because it is not grievous to them and then we shall have a Discrimination of Subjects to this sense They only who execute the Laws or approve of it are the only Subjects of the King or that the Dissenters can suffer Punishments and the Punishments not be grievous to them Or that the Dissenters are not Subjects but Rebels a sort of quiet Rebels certainly may we never see any other than such unarmed quiet Rebels Again they must think that the Execution of the Laws upon them is no weakning of the Protestant Interest that is to say they are no Protestants And now the meaning is plain that there are no Protestants amongst us but those that are of the Church-Government established by Law and are of it or submit to it or that read or joyn in the Liturgy or do all that the Law requires that is the Act of Uniformity and then a Question will arise Where was the Protestant Religion before 1662 or before the last Long-Parliament Or where is it like to be when these Protestants no-Protestant-Dissenters are cut off where it was before Luther If only the Conformists are the Protestants then what sort of them If only one sort of them then the Catholick Church of England may be not much bigger than some great Conventicle or great Parish They who make this Separation of Protestants are Separatists and Disciples the National Tutors and Instructors in such wholsome and profitable Doctrine both in Divinity and Politicks If Confirmity tota in toto c. makes the Protestant and be convertible with him it makes as good a Definition of a Protestant as of a Man by Accidents A Man is a rational Creature that wears curled Locks long Hair Hose and Shoos c. or of a Philosopher he is a Scholar that wears a Beard c. But to go on they may be thought to be of Opinion that to punish Dissenters is no Encouragement to Popery for when they have rooted them up then they will root up Popery as if they could not come at those great Oaks before they have cut up the Brush-wood Or lastly they do not think it dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom to suppress Dissenters 1. Because they know that the Dissenters when undone will not molest or disturb the Peace of the Kingdom Or else 2. Because they intend to make them so poor that they shall not be able to disturb the Peace Or 3. Because it is the only way of Peace But here again a Questionist sets upon me as I go peaceably on in my Discourse If the Dissenters are not dangerous to the Peace of Kingdom why are they disturb'd and their Meetings broken up as seditious Meetings 2. If they are dangerous and their Meetings feditious then whether are they more dangerous when they are pleased quiet and in Peace or when they are provoked When they enjoy Trades Liberty and Estates or when they are imprisoned and undone To conclude this Head If our zealous Prosecutors think as the House of Commons did in their foresaid Vote then why will they act contrary to that general Opinion or if they are of a contrary Opinion as I have said then follows 3. A third Branch of the Description of the Prosecutors They are such as do not yea cannot understand the State of the Kingdom and Religion so well as the House of Commons did 1. No one Man of them can understand the true State of the Kingdom as a Grand Assembly of our Representatives did 2. Nor all of them for when the Representatives of the Kingdom met they had such Informations given in and brought before them and saw what was invisible to others there was a Collection of Observations and the Eyes of most of the Kingdom moved in that great Body and their Debates and Reasonings were mature and full And tho a Vote have not the
Perswasions bearing date March 25 in the thirteenth Year of his Reign We in the Accomplishment of our said Will and Intent do authorize you to advise upon and review the said Book of Common-Prayer comparing it with the most ancient Liturgies of the purest Times to take to your serious Consideration the several Directions Rules Forms of Prayer and things in the Book of Common-Prayer contained to advise consult upon and about the same and the several Objections and Exceptions which shall now be raised against the same and if occasion be to make such reasonable and necessary Alterations Corrections and Amendments therein as shall be agreed upon to be needful and expedient for the giving Satisfaction to tender Consciences c. The Bishops c. answer On the contrary we judg That if the Liturgy should be altered as is there required not only a Multitude but the Generality of the soberest and most Loyal Children of the Church of England would justly be offended since such an Alteration would be a virtual Concession that this Liturgy was an intolerable Burthen to tender Consciences a direct Cause of Schism a superstitious Usage upon which Pretences it is here desired to be altered which would at once justify all those who have obstinately separated from it as the only pious tender-conscienced Men and condemn all those that have adhered to it in conscience of their Duty and Loyalty with the loss and hazards of their Estates and Fortunes as Men superstitious schismatical and void of Religion and Conscience For these Reasons and those that follow we cannot consent to such an Alteration as is desired till these Pretences be proved And now it might easily appear to them what afterwards came to pass but let us observe 1. There is no doubt but some of them knew what his Majesties Proposal was for the Propagation of the Protestant Religion being his Chaplains and chief Ministers about him and some of them if I am not mis-informed made some Alterations and Amendments in the King's Declaration 2. They do manifest an Opinion of the Reforming Divines inconsistent with the Character which his Majesty gave of them as grave and learned Ministers and proceed with them according to a mean and uncharitable Opinion 3. If they saw no necessity of any Alterations 1. They dissented from the Judgment of as eminent Divines of the Church See First Plea p. 22 c. p. 32. as any in it 2. They do not agree among themselves for Mr. Thorndike one of them thought a Reformation was necessary to Union 3. They made some Alterations such as were pleasing to them though not satisfactory to others 4. They destroy the King's Supposition and the reason of his Proposal for the Propagation of the Protestant Religion Peace of the Church satisfying tender Consciences c. 4. If they were commissioned to advise c. then had it not been a great Satisfaction to the whole Church and an effectual way to silence the cavilling Opponents if they were but Cavillers 1. To have answered their Reply 2. to have petitioned his Majesty for a longer time to have heard them out but when eight Points were to be disputed they had only time for one of them being the last day of their Commission If I am mistaken in any of these things as I believe I am not I shall be glad to be corrected by a trie History of those Passages It was about giving the Sacrament to Persons that scruple kneeling about which there was a Division among themselves Some of them held that we are not to refuse to give it to them that kneel not but to give it to them that kneel the words of the Rubrick being The Minister shall take in both kinds himself and deliver it into the hands of the People kneeling as if the sense were we are to give the Sacrament into the hands of the People kneeling but are not forbid to give it to them that do not kneel Dr. G. Dr. P. and Dr. S. were for this lax Interpretation Now Lord Bishops of Ely Chester Norwich other Dr. M. now Bishop of Winchester was for the rigid sense that the People must kneel or we must not give it And Dr. P. now Dean of Salisbury offered to maintain against Mr. Baxter See Mr. B's Defence against Mr. Cheney pag. 38. that it was an Act of Mercy to those that scruple and refused to receive the Sacrament kneeling to deny them the Communion of the Church therein but the Commissioners of his own side restrained him 4. How little did some of them care for the King 's conjuring them to acquiesce in and submit to his Declaration Or tho his Majesty thought himself competent to propose a Remedy they thought him not or else they would have advised a little further having so great a charge from him giving him hopes of their Compliance and seeing the Peace and Settlement of the Church so much concerned in it and the House of Commons approving of it to whom they owned an Acknowledgment for their Service done for them they might have made their Memorial blessed to all Generations as Healers and Peace-makers And now it is plain that those who ruled most in those Councils exercised a kind of Soveraignty over the Reason of all others and waited for a Parliament and Convocation that should at once silence Objections and answer Petitions Since those Transactions the reforming Divines never had but one or two Opportunities of treating and composing our doleful Differences the Composers agreed but the House of Commons hearing of it voted against bringing in a Bill of Compreehension and the Reverend Dr. Burnet in the Life of the Great Sir Matthew Hale gives us the Reasons that prevailed at that time against it And if I may not be too tedious I will crave leave totranscribe his Lines Pag. 70 71 72 73. But two Parties appeared vigorously against this Design of Comprehension by Law the one was of some zealous Clergy-Men who thought it below the Dignity of the Church to alter Laws and change Settlements for the sake of some whom they esteemed Schismaticks they also believed it was better to keep them out of the Church than bring them into it since a Faction upon that would arise in the Church which they thought might be more dangerous than the Schism it self was Besides they said if some things were now to be changed in compliance with the Humor of a Party as soon as that was done another Party might demand other Concessions and there might be as good Reasons invented for these as for those many such Concessions might also shake those of our own Communion and tempt them to for sake us and go over to the Church of Rome pretending that we changed so often that they were thereby inclined to be of a Church that was constant and true to her self and these Reasons wrought on the far greater part of the House of Commons There were others
Ghost who was promised and sent by Jesus Christ 3. Being in some lower measure at first prepared and fitted for their Work the Holy Ghost is the prime and effectual Mover of them to exercise those Gifts which they have received in the Service of their Master in Heaven Jesus Christ And this that great and solemn Interrogatory which requires a sincere sensible solemn and serious Answer our Ordination doth put out of doubt Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost The ordering of Deacons to take upon you this Office c Answ I trust so 4. Being prepared and moved by the Holy Ghost they offer themselves unto and are called by some in a Church where a Church is constituted to exercise those Abilities received from Christ by the Holy Spirit for the Ends of the Gospel the Salvation of immortal Souls 5. All that the Bishops and Pastors of the Church are required to do or can do as Ordainers is to try their Fitness and Disposition and finding them fit to approve and separate them to the Office of the Ministry to declare them to have Authority to exhort them to Diligence and Faithfulness in their Office and to testify this to the Church 6. No Bishop or Pastors can justly refuse and justify the refusal before Jesus Christ to whom they must give an account of any Person duly qualified with necessary Qualifications for the Ministry for it is a Sin to refuse him whom Christ hath by his Spirit fitted for and excited to his Work by his Spirit 7. As long as their Gifts and Abilities are continued and the Holy Ghost doth continue his gracious Motions and Assistances so long these Ministers must continue in the Exercise and discharge of their Office for there is the same Reason to continue them as there was to admit them they continuing the same 8. Their fitness for the Work of the Ministry consisting in soundness of Knowledg and Faith aptness to teach gift of Utterance declared Resolutions and undertaking to teach and do what Christ hath commanded with Perseverance therein as a Guide and Example to the Flock are sufficient Conditions of admittance into the Ministry of the Gospel To do all things decently and in order and to Edification are necessary by the Law of Christ's Kingdom and not indifferent It may well be questioned whether any Man otherwise fitted for the Ministry should be refused because he refuseth to subscribe vow promise declare to any doubtful controverted Conditions of Admission or Continuance which are commonly invented by controversial contentious and imperious Men who do not only propose their Conceptions to others but make them a Standard and Measure to regulate other Mens Minds and Practices and not only so but think it meet that all shall be punished that disagree and dissent from them For the Confirmation of these things with the Authority of the Church of England Let us observe the Form of ordering Priests and Deacons The Preface saith The Bishop knowing either by himself or by sufficient Testimony any Person to be of vertuous Conversation and without Crime and after Examination and Trial finding him learned in the Latine Tongue and sufficiently instructed in Holy Scripture may admit him Deacon The Bishop saith to the Arch-Deacon Take heed that the Persons whom you present unto us be apt and meet for their Learning and Godly Conversation The Bishop examines them in the presence of all the People Do you trust you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this Office Do you think you are truly called according to the Will of our Lord Jesus Christ Do you unfeignedly believe all the Canonical Scripture of the Old and New Testament Then opening his Office he asks him Will you do this gladly and willingly Will you apply your Diligence to frame and fashion your own Lives and of your Families according to the Doctrine of Christ and be Examples of the Flock of Christ The other Question relates to the Government of this Church as Obedience to the Ordinary and his godly Admonitions which is a local Condition in order to their Admission under our Church-form of Government which is disputed by some of the Parties when any is presented to the Priest-hood The Bishop cautions the Arch-Deacon Take heed that the Persons whom you present unto us be apt and meet for their Learning and godly Conversation to exercise their Ministry duly to the honour of God and the edifying his Church I think them so to be Then shall the Bishop say unto the People Good People these are they whom we purpose God willing to receive this day unto the Holy Office of Priest-hood for after due Examination we find not to the contrary but that they be lawfully called to their Function and Ministry and that they be Persons meet for the same Note from this that Learning and Godly Conversation are the constituting Qualifications of a Man lawfully called to the Function of the Ministry In the Collect afterwards they pray God to replenish them with the Truth of his Doctrine adorn them with Innocency of Life that both by Word and good Example they may faithfully serve him in this Office c. Then follow the Epistle and Gospel after which the Oath of Supremacy is given and after that an Exhortation to remember their high Dignity and weight of their Charge i.e. to be Messengers Watchmen Stewards of the Lord to teach premonish feed provide for the Lord's Family to seek Christ's Sheep that are dispersed abroad and for his Children who are in the midst of this naughty World that they may be saved through Christ for ever Have always printed in your Memories how great a Treasure is committed to your Charge the Sheep of Christ Covetous Non-Residents and negligent Residents is hereby condemned and a personal Inspection required which some of our Brethren call Gossiping others Conventicling bought with his Death the Congregation which you serve is his Spouse and his Body And if it shall happen any Member of that Church take any hurt by your Negligence ye know the Greatness of the Fault and also the horrible Punishment that will ensue See that you never cease your Labour your Care and Diligence until you have done all that lieth in you to bring all under your Charge to Agreement in Faith and Ripeness of Age in Christ that there be no Error in Religion or Viciousness of Life ye ought to pray earnestly for his holy Spirit consider how studious you ought to be in reading and learning the Scriptures and framing your Manners and of yours according to the Scriptures and for this Cause ye ought to lay aside all worldly Cares and Studies we have good hope that you have clearly determined by God's Grace to give your selves wholly to this Office whereunto it hath pleased God to call you c. This is enough to prove their Fitness and their Call to the Ministry and such as are
same Power and Authority to preach which they had c. If these Answers of the learned Defenders of the Protestant Cause are not true and catholick they are not good nor sufficient if they are good against the Papists they are strong for our Protestant dissenting-Preachers who if they be but Lay-men should be ordained but the very word Re-ordination doth imply an Ordination And Ordination is not to be repeated Praelection de Ecclesiâ c. 11. p. 283. altho it be disorderly and out of Course any more than Baptism in the Catholick Church saith the same Reverend Bishop Carlton I must keep my self to Generals for I do not know the particular Cases Scruples and Reasons of particular Persons Some have taken Episcopal Ordination that cannot conform that were ordained by Presbyters before those that have not scruple Re-ordination lest they should null their former and their Administrations and plead for themselves that they were innocent from the Exclusion of the Bishops And what if some songht Episcopal Ordination and were refused tho sufficiently recommended The most that were ordained were ordained by an Irish Bishop in London which needed not if all our English Bishops had been willing to ordain I could name one Bishop that did refuse to ordain that lived most conveniently for Access and the Ordination of that * An Irish Bishop Agadoensis was not Canonical nor free from just Offence But further even they who have the internal Call consisting of good Learning Knowledg in the Scriptures and are of a good exemplary Conversation and moved by the Spirit are not to be reckoned as Lay-men but next to Presbyters or Ministers according to the declared Judgment of great and eminent Protestants Arch-bishop Abbot added this Observation to the 9th Section of the second Chapter De Circumcisione Baptismo Questiones fox discussae c. perv Gâ—â— Abbatium pag. 109. Martin Bucer saith that some of the Lay men were admitted to read and interpret the Holy Scriptures in the Primitive and purer Church which they sometimes did perform in the presence of the Bishops and nameth Origen and others namely Such in whom the singular Gists of the Holy Spirit did appear that it might be manifest to the Rectors of the Churches that their Labour in instructing the People in the Mysteries of the Faith would not a little profit them And saith he If any Man add what the truly learned Hieron Zanchius speaks indefinitely when from the Practice of the purer Church they who were not in Holy Orders did preach the Gospel We answer There is a difference to be made between the simple Lay-man or the common sort to whom Power is given in the Romish Church to baptize and them who are instar Ministrorum Evangelic who are like the Ministers of the Gospel and who not only excel the common sort of Men for their Learning in holy things but are called by the special publick and common Decree of the Bishop and them that are over the Congregation publickly to interpret Scripture And these and not others the words of Bucor do note or point at c. Istos ego non audeo ad ordinariorum vulgarium Laicorum Conditiones revocare cum ad Presbyteros tam propè accedant I dare not bring down these to the Condition of ordinary and vulgar Lay-men that come so near to Presbyters or Ministers saith the learned Abbot of this sort there are scarce any to be found at this day saith he for the multitude of them that serve in Churches And whether Tertullian and Hierom speak of such as these that were permitted to baptize I leave to the Judgment of the Learned By these Testimonies we see how different the Judgment of too many of this present Age is from the Judgment and Candor of the most venerable Writers of former times Now Schismatick is but a common Name to distinguish the Nonconformists from the Church-men and one as in a fit of Kindness is far from charging them with Schism Defence of Dr. Stillingsleet pag. 69. if they would not leave the Church but conform as Lay-men as the Nonconformists did But did the old Nonconformists conform as Lay-men So I suppose we all conform but as Lay-men when we do not officiat as Ministers we answer as People answer and do no more than People do But I think the old Nonconformists did reckon themselves when they left their Livings as much and as truly Ministers as they did when they had their Livings and did preach publickly by Connivance as Ministers in most Counties Our present Nonconformists would thankfully accept the Favour which most of the old did enjoy till Conformity grew too hot even for many Conformists I need not name the Times nor the Planets that then bore Rule But who can forbear lamenting the Condition of our Brethren and of multitudes of precious Souls Is there any Man qualisied with a Competency of Learning that can say he is moved by the holy Ghost that leads a good Life that promiseth to give himself to the Work of God but shall be acknowledged by the Ordainer to be called of God even before he layeth on his Hands but if this very same Man shall afterwards scruple or refuse to assent to all and every thing c. he shall no longer be accounted by some Men as a Man called of God but must become again as a Lay-man or else he cannot escape being a Schismatick which is enough to tempt a Man to think that these make the Gift of Subscribing and the Faculty of assenting and consenting to other Mens Inventions to be the essentiating and constituting Qualification of a Minister without which tho he be never so well furnished with other Gifts he shall be accounted but a Lay-man and must do no more than a Lay-man or else there 's no avoiding the odious Crime of Schism And hence this Notion may arise like a Meteor in the Firmament of the Church to be gazed upon and afford matter of Observation if not of Prediction That Conformity to an Ordinance of Men doth effectually make a Minister of Jesus Christ in the Church of England and while he continneth in the same Mind he was in at 24. Years of Age all his life-time and be not prepared to submit to all after-Devices that may be added he shall fall from the Grace and Dignity of his Ordination and Ministry and return to his first simple Being of remotely disposed matter of meer Laity If it be said no for he being once ordained he is a Minister of the Universal Church Well that 's true but if he cannot conform to every Point then he cannot exercise his Ministry in this Church and then the Consequence is obvious such are the Conditions of the exercise of the Ministry in the Church of England at this day that a Minister of the Universal Church cannot exercise his Office no not in any Chappel of Easd in this Kingdom except he submit
confirming their Prayers and Thanks with saying Amen and other Divine Service than this they had none Pag. 636. We do not think that Basil or Chrysostom would take upon them to make a new Form of Church-Service if St. James the Apostle had done it before them From this Testimony it is clear that if Uniformity in one Form of Worship or Common-Prayer and Ceremonies be necessary for Church-Union then there was no Church-Union or Catholick-Communion in the Apostolical-Churches because there was no Form or Order of Divine Service set and prescribed But there was the most Christian and Catholick Communion in that Diversity therefore Catholick Union and Communion without one prescribed and set Form And hence the Dissenting Brethren have the Countenance of an ancient venerable Bishop of Winchester for them and to convince their Troublers for using a Worship different from the Liturgy of the Church of England Prophe-ying praying praising God are parts of God's Worship tho in differing Words and Method they are the same Divine Worship And who act nearest the Primitive Pattern of the Apostles and purest times they who worship God in Christ by the Spirit or they who will not suffer them Object But the Apostles and Teachers had the Guidance of the Spirit Answ They had but that Assistance which they had for performing the Worship of God was not extraordinary or peculiar to their Times because Gospel-Worship was to be performed in all After-ages of the Church Qâ—o in loco scil Jo. 20. ostendiâ— eum solum â—osse baptizare temissionem peccatorum dare qui habeat Spiâ—itum Sanctum Cyprian ad magnum and by Consequence the Assistance of the Spirit was to continue to all Ministers in succeeding Ages without whose Assistance we can do nothing And the Holy Spirit doth continue to give Gifts and Graces to his Ministers and People and if one Form were absolutely necessary for all Ages it is a wonder that the Apostles did not leave us one Form is but a mode and to be used or not used as is most for Edisication and they that use it not should not condemn them that use it and they who use it should not as I conceive judg them as Schismaticks that use it not but joyn one with another Object But it is a Disorder in the same Church and Government and not to be born it looks like a different Religion Answ The Romanists have often charged the Church of England with permitting different Religionsin the Nation But let the same learned Bishop answer for me In England the People Pag. 15. both strange and liege worship God the Father in Spirit and Truth according to the Gospel of his Son agreeing together in the Substance of one Faith and the right Order of Christ's Sacraments Only Strangers are suffered in their Churches to use their own Tongue and retain their own Ceremonies as be neither against Faith nor adverse to good Manners and therefore by St. Augustine's Judgment may go for indifferent and may be born in Christian Vnity without Offence or Confusion Oh! if this Doctrine were believed in our days the People of God might be said to rest at Noon And he was not singular In Doctrinâ Fidei Orthodoxae Professione discordia inter nos nulla saith the learned Crakenthorp of the Puritans Hac integrâ in Ritibus Defensione Eccles Angl. contra Spalat c. 43. p. 254. Disciplinsi discrimen ferendum utrique scimus Difference in Ceremonies and Discipline was tolerable in their Opinion but now intolerable The Champions of the Church of England in former days against the Papists were moderate when we know there was a different way of Discipline and Decency secretly practised If Doctrine be the direction of Practice to be moderate in Doctrine but severe in Practice and Execution is to put out the Candle and kindle a Fire to preach Charity but to shew no Mercy To draw towards a Conclusion Let us but truly judg of the elder Nonconformists with righteous Judgment 1. Before his Majestie 's wonderful Restauration in all Countries and Places where they lived and preached who did rebuke reprove exhort and fulfil all parts of Minsters more than they Who maintained Protestant Doctrines preached for Conviction Conversion Holiness and Righteouness more than they Who vindicated all Ordinances from some that pretended to live above them Others that denied the necessity and use of them and from the Profanation of sacred Things And who did more forwardly assist and concur to settle the Government upon ancient Foundations and in the Inheritor of the Royal Throne Who were more hated by impious Sects or that laboured more to convince and reduce them than they 2. At that time and since how highly were they placed in the King 's good Opinion as is fully expressed in his Royal Declaration 3. They did shew a Forwardness and Zeal to settle the Church denying their own private Opinions to lay down solid Foundations for a Comprehensive Church 4. When they quietly submitted to the Law of their Ejectment did they did any of them sow Sedition or ill Principles of Faction was their Exhortation of deceit or guile to incense their loving Auditors or oblige and conjure them to any thing inconsistent with the Gospel or unlike Men as going from the Pulpit to God's Tribunal to give him an Account of their Doctrine Faith manner of Life see any of their broken Notes and Farewell-Sermons printed much to their Disadvantage Testify against them who can 5. Except they had renounced their sacred Calling and silenced themselves who could have imployed their Labours with more inoffensiveness to Authority more Toil to themselves and more Profit to precious Souls and less Opposition to the publick than they did as will appear in Instances An honourable Member Sir H. C. Anno 1670 71 in full Parliament took notice of it that there were no Conventicles yes they took pains to preach when others were at rest in great Privacies and Solitudes And let 's be just who hath made any Observation of People and Assairs that will not say for one Schismatick we had had many had it not been for their great Industry and who for all that are Schismaticks but they See Mr. Allen Say to Archippus p. 23. scil your not p eaching will occasion Separation indeed c. It is not Thanks-worthy to keep poor weak Souls in the Faith and Truth except they turn Lay-men and all come up even to the Rails i. e. to the heighth 6. God and the King made their Assemblies so numerous and publick God by a tremendous course of Judgments yet remembring Mercy The King after 12 Years Experience of fruitless Severity sent out his Declaration of Indulgence Some of themselves have published the Providence of God but it is not worth the noting and they that are resolved on their way will not be hindred by making Observation even of the Works of God When God sent a dreadful Plague
best is they dissented from the Law without Impeachment of their Loyalty to the King for they would gladly have submitted to his Terms and could not obey the Law without any great Dishonour to the Legislative Power for they only dissent from a few Men who then could sway enow to do their Work They must not only do but they must subscribe Is that true of the same wise Lord Bacon Their urging Subscriptions to their own Articles is but lacessere irritare morbos Ecclesiae which otherwise would spend and crush themselves And it is true there are some which as I am perswaded will not easily offend by Inconformity who notwithstanding make some Conscience to subscribe For they know this note of Inconstancy Page 35. and Defection from what they have long held shall disable that Good which otherwise they would do When they have done this they must assent and consent c. Non consensum quaerit sed dissidium auget qui quod factis praestatur verbis exigit He seeketh not Union but Division which exacteth inwardly that which Men are content to yield in outward Action the same great Man still If some of the things themselves be small yet it is not a small thing that is required of us about them namely a Declaration and Subscription our unfeigned Assent c yea our quiet Submission to the use of them as tolerable sufficeth not as we apprehend Principles and Practices of the N.C. p. 13. c. saith the wise and holy Mr. Corbet I know all is sheltred under and fathered upon the Law but who invented who formed these things Had they the Catholick Spirit Wisdom Charity Authority of the whole Church in them to which all must yield Assent and to whom all must consent under peril they could not but know there were and would be Dissents and Disatisfactions they could not but know these Injunctions could not be so pleasing to the generality of the Kingdom and Church who had received the King's Declaration with such Applause and Gratulation And here may the fifteenth Query of the learned and judicious Sir Thomas Overbury come in Men are not Masters of their own Perswasions and can not change their Thoughts as they please He that believes any thing concerning Religion cannot turn as the Prince commands him or accommodate himself to the Law or his present Interests except he turn Atheist c. Reverend Dr. Purnet's Preface before the History of the Rights of Prince pag. 49. Whether to require Conformity in Practice where there is difference in Judgment be not to command a Man to act against Light and Conscience and consequently to sin and Query XXI c. 3. Whether it doth not imply that if a Man assent to all Articles of Faith to the Doctrine of the Apostles concerning the Authority of the Magistrate concerning Decency and Order and things indifferent and be otherwise fitted for preaching the Gospel and Administration of all Ordinances yet except he do assent and consent to all things required by some modern Bishops and Clergy-men it shall avail him nothing he shall be uncapable to officiate and whether these modern Church-men do not set up themselves above and exercise an Authority to dictate most absolute and higher than the Apostles did who were next to Christ himself 4. Suppose a Man be a lawfully ordained Minister i. e. by Bishops as many of the Nonconformists are or able and fit in respect of soundness of Faith Utterance Aptness to teach and be scrupulous of the Truth of some Proposition which is no Article of Faith or of some Ceremony and Modes of Practice is it not hard that for some Weakness of Understanding he cannot assent to what is formed by others not infallible that he should be uncapable of the Exercise of the Ministry and the Church deprived of his other Abilities for that Mistake Weakness or call it Error Our Saviour bore with his Disciples when he reproved them Are ye yet without Vndrstanding and did not turn them out 5. Whether Assent and Consent to some human Laws Rites and Ceremonies upon which neither Faith nor Unity depends be not hereby made more necessary for Exercise and Practice than the assenting to Articles of Faith or than preaching the Gospel or by consequence the Salvation of Immortal Souls It is true there is a vast difference in the nature of the things but as to Capacity and Incapacity to minister in the holy Office it is all one for a Man to refuse Assent and Consent to every thing as it is to an Article of the Creed 6. Or that Conformity to Order and the use of the Liturgy a monthly Sermon or a Homily is more for the Edification of the Church than diligent and constant preaching without a particular Assent to all every thing Which I will freely speak it can be affirmed by none but a Man that sets light by his own Salvation and never personally conversed with his own Flock or knows the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace or Eternal Life or the Practice of the Primitive Church Hitherto I have laboured to open the nature of the Cause of these Proceedings against our Protestant Brethren and it is their Nonconformity passive and active the first of which is a refusal of the modern Terms of Church-Freedom the second is a worshipping of God in Christ according to the Rule of the Holy Scripture as nearly as they can discern it and after the common either allowed or not disallowed manner of the Reformed Protestant Churches and particular this of England And in what they do they follow the same Rule and act from the same Principles which our first Reformers professed and their learned Defenders have maintained And three Questions shall take up the whole of what 's to follow 1. Whether they the Protestant Nonconformists justly deserve to be silenced suppressed and punished as they have been and are 2. Whether they are not at least to be permitted and indulged 3. Whether we ought not to unite and become one by removal or abating the things that divide and break us so that we may hold mutual and actual Communion in the same Exercises of Religion without fear of offending our Superiours thereby or any other So much hath not been spoken of the first Question in the Second Plea but that much more may be produced to encline if not draw the sensible Reader to the right side of the Question 1. It is clear that they are not deposed and prosecuted for such Crimes as were meritorious of Deposition in the Ancient Church by their Canons those Crimes were Fornication Perjury Theft Let a Bishop Presbyter or Deacon convicted of Fornication Perjury or Theft be deposed but with caution that he be not separated Canons called the Apostles Canons i. e. from the Communion of the Faithful as Balsamon expounds non segregetur adding a Reason for this Moderation that no Man be punished twice for the
same Fault as saith the Scripture Nah. 1.9 as the learned Mr. Beveredge in his Notes upon those Canons hath observed Is it likely these should be Canons of the Apostles contrary to 1 Cor. 5.11 Or if they be genuine and ancient how disagreeing is the modern Usage of the Nonconformists who are convicted of no such Crimes according to the ancient Canons but yet who are for their Nonconformity punished in several Courts and several times and ways Deposition is judged Punishment sufficient saith Zonaras so Aristenus for to subject to a double punishment omnino inhumanum est is altogether inhuman Other Canons command a Bishop Presbyter or Deacon to be deposed that beat offending Believers or Infidels that have done wrong Can. 27. If a Bishop Presbyter or Deacon obtain his Dignity with Money let him be deposed and he that ortained him Can. 29. If a Bishop have made use of Secular Princes to obtain a Church let him be deposed and excommunicated If a Presbyter contemning his own Bishop shall separate from him and set up an Altar without Cause or blameless either in respect of Religion or Justice let him be deposed Can. 31. But this is not the Case of our Nonconformists Duarenus reckons the deposing and ejecting Crimes to be 1. Simoniacal Ambition 2. Incontinency 3. Perjury 4. Manslaughter 5. Treason 6. Or besides these Crimes any legal Infamy But Panormitan admonisheth that they were not to observe the Severity of the ancient Canons because the Men of this Age are not like those ancient Men or Men of ancient Times Duaren de sacris Eccles-Ministris c. l. 8. c. 6. There are other Causes which touch not our Brethren but other Men much nearer 2. In what they do they proceed upon Principles common to all Christians and Protestant Churches in taking the Word of God for their Rule as a divine and perfect Rule The Christian Faith as they of the Church of Rome had explained it was a Submission to the Church The Reforming finding that this was the Spring of all their Errors and that which gave them Colour and Authority did on the other hand set up the Strength of their whole Cause on an explicit believing the Truth of Scriptures because of the Authority of God who had revealed them saith the Reverend Dr. Burnet History of the Refor Book 3. p. 286. It were easy to be copious on this Argument They who began the Reformation laboured in translating and publishing the Scriptures and would have all their Doctrines tried by them The Reverend Bilson bids the Papists Prove your Religion and Service which you stoutly and falsely term Catholick to be commanded by Christ or else Women and Children be they never so silly will collect by the manifest Words of our Saviour that their Promise in Baptism doth straitly bind them from believing your Errors and admitting your Masses until you shew good and effectual Warrant out of the Word of God that you do what Christ did and teach what he taught without adding or altering any jot For this is the Duty that Baptism requireth of us to believe no Teacher but one which is Christ to follow no Stranger to regard and obey no Lord or Law-maker in the Church but only the Son whom the Father appointed to be Master and Leader Subject part 1. foreing to Religion p. 18. and Ruler of the Gentiles This being a Principle common to all the Protestant Reformers they who hold it and no other repugnant to it or inconsistent with it Jewel's Apolog. c. 16. Divis 1 2. C. 17. Divis 1 2. every true Protestant must needs hold they ought not to be punished for walking after it And suppose any particular Man or Denomination of Men err in their Superstructures and Consequences yet whether that Error be not a tolerable Error and not a punishable Crime which is consistent with Piety and Charity may be left to the Judgment of every charitable Christian 3. According to this Rule and Principle they frame their Worship and model their Government and Discipline and they that keep to that though by different Schemes having their Flaws and Failings they cannot err a damnable Error and if not damnable it is want of Charity that will judg it intolerable And there are those General Rules and Directions which direct us as by a Patern they direct us to our End God's Glory and mutual Edification the outward manner Decency and Order and altho in particular Decencies and Rules of Order there may be a Diversity yet all agree about Order and the greatest Disagreement is in some Points of Decency which are but Accidents which are no Parts of Divine Worship as the Reverend Bishop Abbot writes The Means by Christ the Spring and Pranciple the holy Spirit the Matter Word and Sacraments Traditions p. 844 in Defence of Mr. Perkins and do properly and immediately respect Men. It is a hard Case to punish all Men that are not of the same Complexion or that cannot see alike clearly tho they walk with us in the same way of Faith and Holiness and Peace The Church of Christ never bred that Notion that Church-Unity and Communion doth consist in Accidents no more than Humane Nature in Complexion Shape Stature or of Children in Cloaths of the same Colour Fashion Length c. 4. And once again they are punished for Nonconformity and besides what hath been said elsewhere in particular besides the Consideration of the wicked Design Sedition Rebellion and Schism and the odious Pretence take the Law in the Strictest Sense of it and any Exercise of Religion in other manner than according to the Liturgy and Practice of the Church of England seems to be forbidden by it It seems to be unsafe for any to punish upon this Law and it is hard to be punished by it it signifies something but certainly what is very dubious For in the Liturgy i. e. Book of Common-Prayer there are two things only 1. Rules Directions and Orders called Rubricks 2. The Parts of the Worship and Ceremonies ordered prescribed and directed by them It seems the meaning of the Law is That no other Exercise of Religion shall be lawful without the Common-Prayer both Matter and Rites according to the Rubrick but then the Words of the Act agree not because the Practice of the Church in many Places is different from the manner of the Liturgy as others have proved by Instances The Practice of all Cathedrals may not be alike for ought I know The Practice of the Cathedral and Parish-Churches are not the same as all Men know nor of one Parish like another while so many go beyond the Rule the Practice of some Churches and Colledge-Chappels and some Chappels differ from others some reading all Psalms and Canticles and Chapters on Wednesdays and Fridays and others reading only some Prayers and the Litany * And this is according to the manner of the Church of England in Q Eliz. days Vid. Injunct
ought to receive and obey the Truth and to believe no more than what Christ hath commanded to be believed and to worship God according to the Will of Christ Shall we say the Protestants in France do not hold the Faith nor worship God according to the Gospel then what are they who say so If they profess and believe the Truth they ought to be permitted that 's plain for the Truth 's sake and for the Lord's sake Doth Christian Love and Compassion prompt us to wish our persecuted Brethren in France enjoyed the Liberty of the true Religion there and if they should enjoy a Freedom there shall we deny a Liberty to Protestant Brethren here I can see no way to avoid a Justification of the barbarous Usage of Protestants there by them that prosecute Protestants here for far lesser Differences from our Establishments than theirs from the Papists Suppose an Embassador was sent to treat with the French King at this time of Prosecution of our Native Protestants for a Cessation of that cruel Persecution how readily might an Answer be made Why may not I suppress Hereticks when in England you suppress Protestants 4. A Diversity of Order and Manner of Discipline and Worship may be as well permitted without breach of Church-Unity in the same Nation as in divers Nations without breach of Christian and Catholick Unity If different Forms of Belief are allowed the matter being divine and the one more large and explicit than others why may not different Modes and Order of Discipline and Worship be allowed and permitted Our Worship is according to our Faith as we believe so we worship Notwithstanding our use of three Forms of Profession of our Faith we agree in one Faith so in different Forms of Worship we agree in one Evangelical Worship And our Reformers might with as great Reason have pitched upon one of the three Creeds and for Uniformity sake required Assent to that and the use of that and no other as our Modern Fathers pitch upon one Form of Worship and require our Assent and Use of that and no other For Uniformity in Faith is more necessary than Uniformity in Orders and Rites We use the Creed called the Apostles Athanasian and Nicen Creed Bishop Jewel hath written a larger Form in his Apology for the Church of England agreeing in Words with neither and in his Reply to Harding reckons up eight Forms composed by several Authors and Fathers Apol. 2d part 1. c. Divis 1. Diversity of Creeds fol. 38. Harding cavilling against his Declaration of our Faith as many in our days exclaim a-against Dissenters said In our Fathers days Christian People lived in perfect Vnity c. before Luther 's New Gospel But let us learn from our Reverend Father Jewel that Unity of Faith may agree with Diversity of Forms of Faith and by Consequence with Diversity of Forms of Worship Object But the Administration of God's Worship ought to be uniform in one Nation and variety of Rites in one National Church would Cause Division of Judgment and by Consequence Division of Affection and to tolerate divers ways of Administrations would be to tolerate matter of perpetual Discord and Schism Answ Besides what the learned and acute Sir Thomas Overbury answers to a part of the matter of this Objection pag. 106. and the Commissioners in the Savoy Account of Proceedings p. 8 9. I 'll return my Answer in two things 1. Without Controversy our Lord Jesus took care for the Preservation of Unity such a Unity as is necessary among his Disciples and yet took no such Course as these Men build all Unity upon 2. The Church of Corinth was doubtless a particular Church and according to the Sense of the Reverend Bishop Bilson quoted before there was no Form of Liturgy prescribed p. 619 620. To be short Multitudes of learned and able Men living in one Kingdom have diversity of Apprehensions and Notions of things as well as in divers Nations and except Uniformity of Words might produce an inward Uniformity of Conceptions it hath not that Influence upon Unity as some Men think by their too violent urging of it 3. I am for Uniformity according to General Rules not excluding Prudence which must judg what 's necessary what 's expedient what 's edifying or what not for to exclude Prudence is to limit Divine Providence to particular Rules Divine Providence proceeds from Soveraignty Prudence observes it and Conscience must obey it Saving the Dominion of Providence and the Exercise of Ministerial Prudence let 's be as uniform as we can This prudential Latitude is allowed to every Curate in the choice of Homilies in dividing them leaving a part for the After-noon and changing of Lessons reading one for another as shall be most for Edification in the Admonition to all Ecclesiastical Ministers before the second part of the Homily To conclude this Question I desire the violent and active and the violent and oppressive Disputants of these times to answer Whether they think that our Protestant-Dissenting-Brethren that preach the Faith and labour to convert and build up precious Souls are unworthy to enjoy Liberty to preach the Gospel or to enjoy their Estates or to live in any part of the World If not what ground have they for their ill Opinion What Christian Charity have they How do they conspire with Bloody Inquisitors and French Persecutors yea Irish Rebels and Inhuman Rooters out of Heresy But if not worthy to live among us retaining their Liberty of Conscience and Religion Whither shall they go Where are they like to sind more natural Affection than among their Native Country-men and Acquaintance Where shall they be more wel-come among the Papists among Infidels where Satan bears so much Rule or among Protestants abroad Alas where who can entertain them Would you banish them to Scotland Ireland there are too many already Whither would you have them go for they are bid begon if they 'll not conform by some where they may do good there 's work enough for them where ever they are Why may they not do good here among us To be short they who turn them out of their Hearts and Charity upon the same reason banish them out of the Land if not out of the World And what if they should say as their Ejectors do We had better live or be in any Land or Nation even among the Papists or Insidels than live among such as these Would it not sound worse than all that yet they have said And what a Division or Schism at the very root would that be if it grew to it Which it hath not done and I wish never may But we may see that Violence is a Wedg to make the most ghastly Schism that ever was seen in a Christian Church But rather than be guilty of so unpeaceable and uncharitable a Thought or Carriage capable of such a Construction which all Christians should as ill endure to lodg within them as the
Sacrament using his own Words and so it be delivered in four Forms who will doubt but he holds Communion sufficient to the Ends of the holy Sacrament And the Uniformity lies in Blessing and giving Thanks in taking Bread breaking it giving and taking it as a Token of the Body of Christ to the appointed End and so also the Cup as a Token of his Blood drinking it to the appointed End Uniformity of Words is not necessary to Church-Communion neither in Articles of Faith nor in Preaching nor in Prayer nor in Sacraments and yet Church-Communion is as necessary a Duty as associating of Churches and Assemblies it being truly the End of such Association and Assembling And yet no Man of sense will deny the great Advantages of Consent Agreement Similitude and Uniformity in all our Administrations as near as we can frame our Minds thereunto which will never come nearer than according to general Rules without Debates and Disputes as many if not more and of as great an Influence upon Peace as can arise from the Application and Construction of General Rules II. Let us remove and take away the Causes of Disunion and Division as much as possibly we can And first Those that are within us which may be reduced to Flesh and Self For whereas there is among you Envying Strife and Divisions are ye not carnal and walk as Men For while one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollo are ye not carnal 1 Cor. 3.3 4. Self is the Schismatick within us till we are converted from it we are separate from Christ and by Consequence are disunited from his Body and do not consent to the Terms of his Covenant and Salvation Self-conceit Pride and Loftiness Self-will Self-seeking and Self-love are the Springs of our bitter Waters of Strife and Separation that run into divers Channels or rather break the Banks and over-flow the Church 2. The outward Causes are besides the Co-operation of the World and Devil the rigorous exacting and enforcing of particular Conditions of Church-Liberty and Communion with such Forfeitures and Penalties as hinder the Progress of the Word of Life and the Salvation of Souls All our Wars have been before the Gates of the City since many have been turned out we say they shall not come in except they will subscribe to Terms and they say they cannot except they are taken away Both Sides must sound a Parlee and our Governours have the greatest and most imitable prevailing Example of the King of his Church Homily of Fasting â—â—st part p. 172 173. Edit Lond. 1673. and his Apostles Hear our Homily God's Church ought not neither may it be so tied to that or any other Order now made or hereafter to be made and devised by the Authority of Man but that it may lawfully for just Causes alter change or mittigate those Ecclesiastical Decrees and Orders yea recede wholly from them and break them when they tend either to Superstition or to Impiety when they draw People from God rather than work any Edisication in them and not in these Cases alone as you shall hear afterwards This Authority Christ used for the Order and Decree made by the Elders for washing oft-times tending to Superstition our Saviour changed into the Sacrament of Regeneration This Authority To mittigate Laws and Decrees Ecclesiastical the Apostles practised Acts 15. signifying they would not lay any other Burden upon them but these Necessaries Thus ye have heard that Christian Subjects are bound to obey even in Conscience sincere Laws which are not repugnant to the Laws God Ye have heard that Christ's Church is not so bound to observe any Order Law or Decree made by Man To prescribe a Form in Religion but that the Church hath full Power and Authority from God to change and alter the same when need shall require c. Was there ever greater need than now Love of Union Peace and Growth of Godliness Sence of imminent Danger and that Danger no less than Destruction hath moved the Right Reverend Bishop of Cork to print those pressing Divine Sermons and take his Testimony as carrying greater Authority than of private Men's of the necessity of Union speaking of the Protestants in Ireland We must unite or be destroyed First Serm. p. 29. And how far is Ireland from England Can the Protestant Church in Ireland be destroyed and England be safe Yea how much further is the Destruction from England than from Ireland may not England be destroyed first It is most likely for if England be destroyed Ireland cannot escape if Ireland be destroyed England will be endangered but may better withstand it than Ireland can The same discerning and sensible Bishop cannot conceive any Possibility of an Union of all honest-minded Men of different Persuasions amongst us that call themselves Protestants but by the coming of such several Dissenters into the establish'd Church Hence the Inference is not far to be fetched Second Serm. p. 61. That this Union can never be but by taking away the Bars and the Chains that keep the Dissenters from entering in Upon what Terms saith that Right Reverend and Excellent Person must we of the Establish'd Church come over to you that dissent or you come over to us We declare we cannot without Schism and then adds a most generous Expression of a large and catholick Spirit But are ready to sacrifice all we can otherwise to the Publick Peace and Safety Pag. 29 O that all were thus frank in their biddings for Peace and Union But Right Reverend Father Dissenting-Protestants and Independents will never press you so far as to come to them that is to be Presbyterians and Independents If you will do what you may without Schism and they do what ever can be done with a good Conscience the deadly Wound is in a hopeful way of cure Find out first what Unity is necessary for this imperfect State 2. Observe what Rules Christ gave by his Spirit and the Holy Apostles practised for Unity against Schism for Truth and Faith against Heresy for Government against Confusion for Order against Disorder for Decency against Indecency for Worship against Idolatry and Irreligion for Discipline against decay of Piety and for the soundness of its Members in a word for Admission into Communion and Priviledges for Edification Peace and Comfort And what more can be necessary for Unity and Peace of Christians in one Nation than what was sufficient for Christians in all Nations And then there will be neither Schism on one hand nor Dissent on the other That one Rule of the Apostle as far as we have attained let us walk by the same Rule would unite and heal us and do us more Service than all the Volumns of Canons besides And who can walk by the same Rule further than he hath attained The Means to be used for Union are 1. A sincere Observation of and consciencious Consent unto the Terms of our Christianity and
Agreeable with this is that Description of Schism given us by that clear and very learned Dr. Barnaby Potter Answer to Charity mistaken Sect. 3. p. 76. Whosoever professes himself to forsake the Communion of any one Member of the Body of Christ must confess himself consequently to forsake the whole And therefore her Communion we forsake not no more than the Body of Christ whereof we acknowledg the Church of Rome a Member tho corrupted And this clears us from the Imputation of Schism whose Property it is witness the Donatists and Luciferians to cut off from the Body of Christ and the hope of Salvation the Church from which it separates I must confess when the Jusuit-Knot frames an Argument from this Description of Schism the Rational Mr. Chillingworth denies the Syllogism saying it is all one as to prove that because a Man hath a Feaver therefore he hath the Plague and makes this to be but one Property of a Schism But be it so if this be a Vindication of the Protestants from being Schismaticks because of our Separation from Rome it will as clearly vindicate our Protestant Nonconformists from the charge of Schism from the Established Church for they do not cut off from the Body of Christ and hope of Salvation the Church of England Indeed the Separation with which they are charged is not from it as from a Church but as Separation in a Church fundamentally and essentially the same but differing in Accidents and Modes which must needs be the lowest kind of Difference and not comparable to that in Corinth which our Famous Dr. Rainolds De Lib. Apocryphis Praelect 1. calls only Schisma nascens for the Conformists and Nonconformists are all one in Christ none of the Nonconformists have been ever heard to divide and cry I am of Paul and I am of Apollo c. Our imposed Accidents are the dividing things among us And certainly if the Nonconformists do sin grievously in refusing Communion with us in them agreeing in all the Parts of Christian Catholick Communion with us It will be a remarkable Act of Charity and Goodness in our Governours to deliver them from so great a Sin by reducing the fore-quoted Doctrine of our Church in the Homily of Fasting into Practice for those be the things at which they stumble it will be a Charity to take them out of the way Or if they will not remove them then I 'll conclude it is hard to call them Schismaticks who are all one with us as far as we are all one with all Reformed and Christian Churches remembring the Words of the Learned Dr. Stillingfleet Pag. 359. in his Defence of Arch-bishop Land Before the imposing Humor came into particular Churches Schism was defined by the Fathers and others to be a voluntary Departure out of the Church yet that cannot in Reason be understood of any particular but the true Catholick Church FINIS ERRATA PAge 1. line 10. dele to me P. 4. l. 22 after c. add which P. 5. l. 21. after Bishops add 3 and dele And P. 8. l. 32. del that P. 9. l. 16. del only l. 37. r. Church-Order Ib. 1. for P. 10. r. of the National c. P. 11. l. 18. after Country add they are unfit P. 15. l. 4. r. 1660. P. 24. l 40. for they r. we P. 16. l. 4. r. dispositive l. 29. r. Anti-reforming P. 31. Marg. r. are for is P. 39. l. 40. r. is P. 40. l. 15. r. Preachers P. 57. l. 10. after Order add 2. The Preface and some other Sheets the Author did not revise therefore the Printer desires the Reader to correct or pardon what Errata he finds therein