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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45143	A modest and peaceable inquiry into the design and nature of some of those historical mistakes that are found in Dr. Stillingfleet's preface to his Unreasonableness of separation wherein the innocency of Protestant dissenters is cleared up and vindicated from the indecent censures of the doctor / by N. B.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.; Lobb, Stephen, d. 1699.	1681 (1681)	Wing H3694; ESTC R8947	41,612	54

A MODEST and PEACEABLE INQUIRY INTO THE DESIGN and NATURE OF Some of those Historical Mistakes That are found in Dr. Stillingfleet's PREFACE TO HIS Vnreasonableness of SEPARATION WHEREIN The Innocency of Protestant Dissenters is cleared up and Vindicated from the indecent Censures of the Doctor By N. B. Out of thine own mouth will judg thee Luk. 19.22 LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel 1681. To the REVEREND Dr. Stillingfleet SIR 'T IS well known unto you that the Ruin of England and of the Churches of Christ in it hath been ever since the First Reformation aimed at by the Papists whose rage hath not only appeared in the many little Plots that have been from time to time discover'd but even in their Rebellions and Insurrections in King Edward's days The Spanish Armado in Queen Elizabeth's The Gun-Powder Treason in King James c. and this l●te Hellish Conspiracy which was design'd for the utter Extirpation of the Protestant Religion and the Universal destruction of all the Professors thereof whether Episcopal or Dissenter For which reason this is no time to add fewel to the Fire of Protestant Dissentions Nor is it meet to insist on any matter of Indifference so far as thereby to hinder a firm and lasting Vnion among Protestants If the Dissenters can without offence to God and wrong to their own Consciences comply with the Terms impos'd by you for Vnion their non-compliance is a sin that in its tendencies advances Popery But if the Dissenter cannot conscientiously conform to your Impositions as they really cannot and you can without sin make such easie Overtures for Peace as may be grateful to Dissenters your refusing in this case to comply doth sufficiently evince You to be the Divider and Promoter of the Papacy The Dissenters being sincerely desirous to do the utmost they can without sin for Vnion you greatly injure them in representing them as Enemies thereunto 'T is true you cry up Vnion Vnion but you will not part with what you judg but a trifle for it You cry down Dissenters as enemies to Peace and Concord as Schismaticks Factions and Seditious as Friends to Popery exposing them to the greatest contempt and rage of your Considents as if their Consciences were but Humour their sense of Scripture but fancy their Sincerity in embracing the Protestant Religion but Hypocrisie their Zeal 〈◊〉 Reformation but a blasting it and their Opposition unto Popery a promoting it But is this fair and equal Doth such a Procedure become the Learning the Gravity and Religion of Dr. Stilling sleet Can you in your more cool deliberations reflect on all this with uninterrupted peace What without any rebukes or checks of Conscience SIR Can you consider how untrue as well as how severe the charge is with which you load your Dissenting Brethren or can you think on the many mistakes on which you ground your charge and yet believe that all this may return to your comfortable account another day Methinks there is a smart rebuke attending the method of your Procedure namely that in your reproaching the Dissenters as Promoters of the Papists designs you should unawares make a discovery of your self as such an one for certainly you have in your Preface yea and in your Book said enough for the advancing the Papisls Designs just as F. Thomas Maria Carasa who in his delineating the Excellencies of Pope Pius the Fifth did most exactly though unawares give the Pourtraiture of Antichrist for Dedicating some Theses unto this Pope he did it thus PAVLO V. VICE DEO c. some Novelles of which being sent unto Venice and elsewhere it was soon noised about the City that 't was the Picture of Antichrist for that the Inscription paVLo V. VICe Deo contain'd in the Numerical Letters the number of the Beast in the Revelation 666. Of which my Author Mr. Bedell in his Answer unto Mr. Wadsworth's Letter saith Whom could they blame but themselves by their approving of such an Inscription as unawares by the Providence of God should so plainly characterize Antichrist In like manner it may be said of you seeing in the management of your smart charge against Dissenters you have unawares if not designedly clos'd with such Principles and magnified such Arguments as prove advantageous to none but the Papal Interest whom can you blame but your self or how can you observe the nature of this unwary slip without some inward chick That you should expose your self in such circumstances without any provocation doth abundantly suprize and that in so many a particular instance beside what I have mention'd under the third head in the following Enquiry is considerable For 1. You say That 't is no improbable that the Jesuits were the first setters up of spiritual prayer you mean of its publick exercise or speak not to the purpose seeing 't is that the Dissenters plead for in their Debates with the Episcopal and 't is that by which they gain so much in the esteem of the people But this the Jesuits are against they agreeing with you in that they are only for the exercise of free Prayer in private and not in publick just as the famous Mr. Hooker who speaking of Private Prayer saith Hooker Eccles Poii● ●ib 5. pag. 223 225. Ed. ult That ' ●●s a duty perform'd by us as men and that we are at our own choice both for time and place and from according to the exigence of our own occasions in private But publick Prayer must be according to some prescribed form Which exactly agreeth with that of Bellarmine Azorius and Filliucius all Jesuits 2. You charge your Brethren as if they had oppos'd an Absolute or an Apostolical Antiquity because they believe not your Hierarchy to be such but you unawares have fallen in with Bellarmine in exalting such an Antiquity he pleads for supporting it with such arguments as are setcht out of the Jesuits Storehouse to the great dissatisfaction of the old Episcopal Protestants as I have shewn out of Mr. Chillingworth 3. You insist much on the Hierarchy as if it had been the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion but unawares have so far gratified the Jesuit as to be freed from their black Character of Heresie for 't is observ'd by some Episcopal Divines De Desper Calvin caus ● 11. that Cudsemius the Jesuit saith That the Calvinian Sect in England may either endure long or be suddenly chang'd in a trice in regard of the Catholick Order there in a perpetual line of their Bishops and the lawful succession of Pastors received from the Church for the Honour of which we use to call the English Calvinists i.e. the Episcopal by a milder term not Hereticks but Schismaticks 4. You represent the Dissenters as subservient to the Papal interest because they are not for uninstituted ceremonies yea you suggest as if a Ceremony had been in greater estimation with you than the peace of truly tender

Reformation made beyond the Seas 2. The Doctors discourse about the Antiquity of Episcopacy and the argument enforcing it must needs be of great weight with the Doctor it having been for divers years a furbishing in the Jesuits School and is the Diana of the Roman Church at this very time the great foundation and Basis of that tottering Superstructure this is their only Alpha and Omega their first and the last whence if the Reformed oppose their Hierarchy their Ceremonies their Inventions their Corruptions this is that unto which they slie tanquam ad Asylum viz. These things must be Apostolical because 't is impossible they should be introduced into the Church without any noise Really the Doctor hath done this argument the greatest honour imaginable but whether the Church of England are owing unto him for this piece of service I much doubt That this is † Bellar. de notis Eccles lib. 4. c. 5. In omni insigni mutatione Religionis semper ista sex demonstrari possunt Primo Auctor ejus II. Dogma aliquod novum III. Tempus quo caepit IV. Locus ubi caepit V. Quis eam oppugnaverit c. Nihil autem horum adversarii unquam de nostra Ecclesia post Apostolica tempora demonstrare potuerunt Nunquam ostenderunt quis eam oppugnaverint tamquam nuper ortam Hoc argumentum ab Antiquitate semper usi sunt veteres Patres contra Haereticos ad ostendendam veram Ecclesiam Bellarmine's Thunderbolt against the Hereticks consult him and you will find him exactly so To rehearse the many Arguments produced by the Reformed in beating down this Popish Errour would be endless whoever reads any learned Protestant cannot but be furnished with a multitude of Convincing Considerations that are urg'd against this Doctors Argument 1. Nothing being more apparent then that the Scriptures of the New Testament the Antientest Writings the Christian Church can produce as the infallible discovery of the first Constitution of Christian Churches how ancient soever Episcopacy or Ceremonies are if not to be found in the New Testament It is not the Ancient or first Constitution This is our Religion and whoever receeds from it doth but give too great advantage unto the Papist there being several Ceremonies in use among them whose Antiquity doth equalize that of any observ'd by our Church 2. 'T is well known that if we had the fullest account of the Rise of Episcopacy and Ceremonies as to the time when the place where the Persons by whom they were introduced our Faith could not thereby be more Divine concerning these things than now it is for the Testimony would be but Humane grounding a Faith that is only so 3. We have a very short account of the transactions of the first 300 years the persecution of the Churches being so severe and bloody which is enough to evince because of the inconsistency of Episcopal grandeur with a persecuted state that neither Episcopacy nor pompous Ceremonies were then in their Glory Again 4. 'T is certain that those Errours creept in gradually the Iniquity being a Mystery that began even in the Apostles days and I remember that I have read in the Annals of Said Ibn. Batrick an Alexandrian Patriarch who lived about 200 years after the Turkish Hegyra that in Alexandria the Constitution gradually alter'd first from Presbyters to a Bishop and thence to a Pope though not to an Vniversal One. Is it not then sad that there must not be an urging Protestant arguments against the Antiquity c. pretended by the Papists but Popery is advantag'd What advantage is it to them to see the Temple of their Diana ruin'd their City of refuge demolished I beseech the Doctor to be serious in this weighty and momentous point and to deal freely openly and generously in this particular and declare unto the World what his apprehensions are of Dr. Potter sometimes Bishop of Carlile or rather of the Learned Mr. Chillingworth a Son of the Church of England whose excellent treatise entituled The Religion of Protestants a safe way to Salvation i● so applauded by Dr. Bayly sometime Vice-Chancellor of Oxjord as also by Dr. Prideaux and Dr. S. Fell or rather what would the Dr. rejoyn unto the Answer that is found in Mr. Ch●llingworth unto his great Argument about Antiquity and the Impossibility of an Errour 's becoming Vniversal in so short a time Though some Protestants confess saith Mr. C. to the Papists some of your Doctrines to be antient so long as it is evident even by the Confession of all sides that many Errors I instance in that of the Millenaries and the communicating of Infants were more Antient. Not any Antiquity therefore unless it be absolute and Primitive is a certain sign of true Doctrine For if the Church were obnoxious to corruption as we pretend it was who can possibly warrant us that part of this Corruption might not get in and prevail in the 5th or 4th or 3d. or 2d Age This notwithstanding what Dr. Stil doth suggest about the near approach unto the Apostles dayes especially seeing the Apostles assure us that the Mystery of Iniquity was working though more secretly even intheir times If any man ask how could it become Vniversal in so short a time Attend good Dr. to the answer for this is your own Question Let him tell me how the errour of the Millenaries and the Communicating of Infants became so soon Vniversal and then he shall acknowledge what was done in some was possible in others Thus we see how Dr. Stil to the end he may be even with the Dissenters relinquisheth the good old Protestant Principles unless this of Mr. Chillingworth approved of by Dr. Baily Dr. Prideaux and Dr. Fell and the generality of the Church of England be Popery Argument 4. 'Our Divisions give great advantage to the Papists and the ' Dissenters by their Separation have caus'd the Division To this I Reply I. That 't is most apparent that Divisions among Protestants have given the greatest advantages imaginable unto Popery as to this the Dr. and the Dissenters I verily believe are agreed But II. The great Quaery is who occasions or causeth these Divisions for 't is the Divider onely that is subservient to the Roman Interest which being so our enquiry must be Whether the Dr. c. or the Dissenters are the Dividers The Dr. suggests as if the Episcopal Clergy were most entirely resolv'd for Union but 't is the Dissenter that is the divider who is an Enemy to Union but a Friend to Schism and U●just Separations We were saith the Dr. in some hopes that Men so wise as the Non-conforming Ministers represent themselves to the World would in so Critical a time have made some steps or advances towards an Vnion with us Instead of this these we discoursed with seemed farther off than before For saith the Dr. God forbid that I should either design or do any thing which tended to obstruct so blessed a work as a