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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

Council did distinguish between the Papists and Dissenters and thereby plainly discover that the Dissenters there were far from carrying on the Popish design as appears by their Letter sent to their Justices on the complaint of the Dissenters made to the Right Honourable Lords of Her Majesties Privy Council A Copy of which Letter sent from the Right Honourable the Lords of Her Majesties Council I will as I find it in a part of the Register insert AFter Our very hearty Commendations whereas we are informed that heretofore at your Assizes in your Circuit divers good Preachers and others Godly disposed have been indicted by colour of Law for things not so much against the matter and very meaning of the Law as in some shew swearving from the Letter thereof Namely for not using the Surpless resorting to Sermons in other Parishes for want at home leaving out some collects on the dayes of Preaching for using private Prayer in their houses and such like All which we suppose cometh to pass by the practice of some Informers not so well disposed in Religion as also of men returned upon great Inquest Many times such as be still in Ignorance cannot broke the Gospel and being in love with the Licence of former times cannot so well indure the present plain Teachers who by laying open their faults would draw them to a more precise and Gospel-like Life These are therefore to require you and heartily to pray you that in every sitting of your Circuit you sift and examine the affection of such Informers touching Religion and thereafter give ear to them As also to have a special regard That the Inquest at large may be Religions wise and Honest And if notwithstanding your diligence in this behalf such Jurours nevertheless creep in as by like information molest good men that yet your speech and whole proceedins against them at the Bar or elsewhere called before you may be according to their quality not watching them at bar or in the inditement with Rogues Fellons or Papists but rather giving apparent note in the Face of the Countrey what difference you hold betwixt Papists dissenting from us in the substance of Faith to God and Loyalty to our Prince and these other men which making some Conscience of these Ceremonies do yet diligently and soundly Preach true Religion and obedience to her Majesly maintaining the Common peace in themselves and in their Auditory so shall the Countrey thereby learn at the Assizes better to reverence the Gospel and love the Ministers and Professors thereof Thus promising our selves thus much at your hands we bid you heartily Farewell From c. Thus you have the sence of Q. Eli. Council and may have the like sence from our Parliament now These things being so let the Impartial Reader judge who it is that hath blasted the Reputation of the first Reformation Whether 1. Those that remained faithful to these Principles of the Martyrs and other Protestant sufferers in Q. Maries dayes or those that receeded from them 2. Those that hazarded the loss of their Liberties and Benefices for the sake of Protestant Principles or those that persecuted the Protestants when the debauched Papists were favoured by them 3. Those that would carry on the Reformation as far as Luther and Calvin and the generality of the first Reformers or those that gratified the Papists by putting a stop to so Gospel-like a procedure reviling Junius and Tremelius as German-Drunkards c. as some of the Episcopal Clergy did in Queen Elizabeths dayes 4. They who acknowledge the Church of Rome to be a true Church having a Ministry rightly i. e. Episcopally ordained when all the Reformed beyond the Seas are reproached for want of it or Those who concur with the Reformed 3. Argument The Dissenters oppose Episcopacy and Innocent Ceremonies notwithstanding their Antiquity 'T is asserted by the Dr. Pref p. 4 5. That when the People find the undoubted practices of the Ancient Church condemned as Popish and Antichristian by their Teachers they must conclude Popery to be of much greater Antiquity then really it is and when they can trace it so very near the Apostles times they will soon believe it setled by the Apostles themselves For it will be very hard to perswade any considering men that the Christian Church should degenerate so soon so unammously so universally as it must do if Episcopal Government and the use of some significant Ceremonies were any parts of that Apostacy Will it not seem strange to them that when some humane policies have preserved their first Constitution so long without any considerable Alteration that the Goverment instituted by Christ and settled by his Apostles should so soon after be changed into another kind and that so easily so insensibly that all the Christian Churches believed they had still the very same Government which the Apostles left e'm Which is a matter so incredible that those who can believe such a part of Popery should prevail so soon in the Christian Church may be brought upon the like Grounds to believe that many others did So mighty a prejudice doth the Principles of our Churches Enemies bring upon the cause of the Reformation I Answer There are these things to be distinctly considered 1. Whether the not embracing the Episcopacy doth any way advantage the Papist 2. Whether there is any such strength to be found in the Drs reasoning First From the Antiquity of Episcopacy And Secondly From the Argument produc'd to prove its Antiquity to wit the Improbability of introducing Episcopacy and Vninstituted Government into the Church without some noise and clamour I say Whether there is any such strength in these reasonings that none can oppose them without giving too great an advantage unto the Papist To the first Namely Whether the non-embracing Episcopacy doth any way advantage the Papist 1. From what hath been already said 'T is sufficiently proved that the non-embracing Episcopacy doth rather prejudice then profit the Papal interest for which Reason 2. When attempts have been made by Francise a Sancta Clara for the accommodating the differences between the Church of Rome and the Church of England he ever with indignation excepts against the Puritane as a people no way reconcileable to their Church yea when he proves it easie to heal the breach between them and the Episcopal Moreover 3. Whoever consults * Becan opus Tit. 10. Calvinistae in Scotia Anglia vocantur Puritani quia puram Calvini Doctrinam per omnia sequuntur Becanus the Jesuite will find how he seems to honour the Church of England by giving credit to the reports they make against the Puritans who are so called by the Jesuit because they embrace the pure Doctrine of Calvine to the end they may thereby from the mouths of some Protestants viz. of the Church of England condemn all the Reformed Churches abroad the Jesuits malice being the more inflam'd to see so many Dissenters in England that justifie the

Firm and Lasting Vnion among Protestants would be But my business is to shew the Vnreasonableness of those Principles and Practises which hinder men from such an Vnion and lay a Foundation for perpetual and endless Separations For upon the Principles laid down by some of our Dissenting Brethren let the Constitution be made never so easie to themselves yet others may make use of their grounds and carry on the difference as high as ever Which will render all attempts of Union Vain and leave the same weapons ready to be taken up by others So far the Dr's Mistakes which in these few words are many For 1. The Dissenters are at this time as much for Union according to the Terms of the Gospel as any can reasonably desire 'T is for Vnion they breath and Pray and most industriously and sincerely endeavour being engag'd hereunto by Interest for as long as Divisions continue they are expos'd to the worst of Miseries 2. The Principles of Dissenters are most admirably suited for a firm and lasting Union with all such as will adhere to the Terms proposed in the Gospel 3. 'T is the Dr. that falls in with Bellarmine giving the Papists the greatest encouragment to an abiding by their persecuting Principles even when he dissents from the Church of England 4. 'T is the Dr. that hath done his utmost to obstruct a firm Vnion among Protestants That all this to the Satisfaction of the Judicious and impartial Reader may be evinced I will propose in short the true state of the Controversie so far as I apprehend it and then detect the Dr's Mistakes as to those but now mention'd particulars In giving the state of this Controversie I must intimate wherein there is an agreement and wherein the Difference doth lie 1. We are agreed in Doctrinals and in all the Substantials of true Religion 2. The Difference then is about lesser matters and the Case is this The Dissenters are fully convinced in their Consciences from the strongest and most powerful arguments That the Word of God contain'd in Scripture is the onely rule of the whole and of every part of true Religion And that what is not according to this Rule is no part of Protestant or of the true Christian Religion This great Principle occasions a twofold Controversie the one with the Papist onely the other with the Church of England also 1. With the Papist for by this Principle we are engag'd to reject whatever Doctrines they impose that are not agreeable to this Rule and consequently we reject their Doctrines about Purgatory Invocation of Saints Indulgencies c. because they cannot be found in Scripture Although there is no Text expresly forbidding these things yet since they are not to be found there either directly or by consequence we must lay 'em aside The Papists 't is true make a great bussle saying where is it asserted in Scripture no Purgatory c. We reply where is the affirmative to be found They say that our Religion as distinct from Theirs is compos'd of Negatives onely which have no foundation in Scripture We rejoyn by denying their Assertion concluding That the Scripture is a sufficient Rule for our Direction concerning all Religion and what is not found there is not to be embrac'd as a part of our Religion 2. With the Church of England Though we have not this Controversie as to Doctrinals yet about Worship and Church-Government we have The Dissenters being fully perswaded that so far as any Doctrine about Worship or Church-Government is made a part of our Religion it must be brought to the Rule of the Scripture whence if not according to it though not expresly forbidden yet 't is to be exploded As for Circumstances of Worship as Time and Place pro hic nunc c. they are no part of Worship c. but as touching such Ceremonies as are made a part of Divine Service let it be Surplice sign of the Cross or Salt and Spittle or the Chrisme we reject as not sound in Scripture It being the Principle of Dissenters to adhere to the Scriptures and to comply with every Scriptural Term of Union and with no more This being so if any part of their Service that respects no Divine Precept be proposd as a part of our Religion yea and as such a necessary part as to be the term of our Communion with them we are fully convinc'd That it is a sin and not to be complyed with unless we give up the whole Cause to the Papists For either the Scriptures are the whole and onely Rule of the whole and of every part of our Religion or not If not then let us return to Popery or where shall we go for a compleat Rule of Religion But if it be a comple●t Rule then whatever is introduced into our Religion as a part thereof and not agreeable to the Scriptures must be considered as what ought to be rejected whence either the things imposed on Dissenters and required as terms of our Communion with the Church are a part of the Religion of the Church or not If not if no part of their Religion why do they impose 'em on us as terms of Communion or what may we be fully of their Religion and assent and Consent to every part thereof and yet be uncapable of their Communion if so who are the Dividers I leave it to the Judgement of the VVise But if it be a part of their Religion 't is either agreeable to the Scripture Rule or not if not we cannot conscientiously comply with it for this is to make that a part of our Religion which God hath not but if according to the Scripture rule why do they not produce the Scriptural Considerations that are the Media by which they would prove so much or How comes it to pass that they are judg d but Indifferent things that are neither commanded nor forbidden whereas whatever is according to the Scripture must be according to the revealed VVill of God for the Scriptures do but contain the Revealed Will of God and therefore whatever is according to the Scripture must be according to some Command in Scripture since a Command is but the Revealed VVill of our great Legislator and if according to such a Command not Indifferent but if Indifferent not according to the Scripture and consequently no part of true Religion and therefore not to be proposed as a term of Union or if proposed as such it cannot without sin be complyed with The Church of England then imposing what in their judgment is but indifferent and consequently what cannot be a part of their Religion do impose as a term of our Communion with them what is in our Consciences sinful What must be done then for Peace and Union who must yield The Dissenters will part with every indifferent thing rather than break the Peace of the Church but the Clergy hath been hitherto unwilling to part with any One Indifferent thing Yea even now