have in the first place shewed you the happy and florid state of our Church with the amiable effects and fruits thereof which like a wholsome and fruitful tree whose leaves and fruits are for the healing of our whole Nation So my next work according to my propos'd method is to shew you how your Church of England as you call it comes short of and deviates from ours First Therefore my Son although yours be Episcopal which so far is well yet you differ from us in your Head and you see what little alterations made in Heads whether Ecclesiastical Civil or Natural begets great changes and alterations in all Bodies appertaining thereto To instance first in Ecclesiastick Bodies do not you observe that in the Romish Church the Head thereof viz. the Pope doth by his pretended Succession in Peter's Chair to be Christs Vicar upon Earth and as such assumes to himself that title competible to no man but to our Lord Jesus Christ who as God and Man is the true Head of his Church of Infallibility which Headship and Infallibility thereof what influence hath it not I pray upon the whole and how much I would ask doth that make their Church to differ not only from the Primitive Church of God but also from all others in the world We shall say nothing by reflection upon your Church as it stands related to its head leaving the suitableness of such a Head to such a Body and the symmetry of the proportions thereof to your own consideration And as to Civil do not you observe what alterations Tyrants those monstrous heads make in their body Politick And lastly as to the body Natural what influence Cephalick diseases have upon the whole Body is evident in Paralytick Apoplectick and Convulsive maladies what these slight touches upon things may hint to you I shall leave to your further and more leisure consideration 2ly How much your Church of England differs from ours of Bensalia by admitting Scholastick Disputations and verbal janglings your Universities and many books of Controversie put forth by them and their dissenting Brethren doth testifie with what effects they have had your late intestine broils Civil Wars yea and present animosities doth too much declare and we fear if not seasonably prevented may eat out the very marrow and pith of Christianity even love unity and peace from amongst you 3ly So much differs your Church from ours wherein yours are guilty of offending their weak brethren by strictly imposing upon them many indifferent Ceremonies neither agreeable to Scripture Reason nor the natural Genius of your people and thereby of making them sin by forcing to a separation and splitting of themselves into Parties Churches or Congregations of their own is too evident in the sophisms and factions of Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists Quakers c. of all which divisions how much your Episcopal Church what through your stiff adhering to some dispensible Ceremonies and through some other causes yet to be toucht upon has been and is the Patron let your speedy pouring in of oyl into the wounds of your offended and dissatisfied brethren be by the effects the Judg. Do your Bishops and their Substitutes by friendly visits prayer and tender demeanor endeavour the satisfying the scruples of Conscience in their dissenting Brethren Do they by abating or cutting off their bill of Ceremonies at halves which they may well enough afford to do and by opening wide their Church doors make way to take in those they have formerly so peevishly thrust out And lastly do they by their good lives pious example and other requisite suitable means study the reclaiming of their dissatisfied Brethren 4ly So much doth your Church differ and deviate from ours by how much you endulge and keep up those Courts of vexation call'd by you improperly enough Spiritual Courts Your Citations Excommunications Capias's Absolutions all to get money with we except what we hear of you know nothing of An Excommunicated person of your Church may so byassed are you by gain buy it off with money which in our Church without repentance is impossible to be done and when done it 's without charge to the offender Can your Bishops and their Vicegerents through a sound judgment in Spiritual things that differ distinguish aright between these three sorts of persons viz. 1. Those who are Hypochondriack and thereby fall into different notions 2. Those who for ostentation sake and to make themselves popular designedly blazon their new and lately coyn'd opinions diametrically opposite to the fundamental Principles of Christianity or Gospel of Christ And 3ly such as truly out of a Conscientious zeal establish and confirm some Doctrines and Disciplines different from the received ones Do they not only know I say how rightly to distinguish these but also by proper expedients how to reduce them to their proper Classis and bring them to rights again Do they not only know of which they cannot well be ignorant but do they likewise study to make it practical and are they solicitous to satisfie your peoples scruples without putting them to a peny charge 5ly Yours differ from ours in your Visitations and that first your Bishops rarely visit in person as we do 2ly Your Bishops Deputies search more into the faults and lapses of the people than into the errors debaucheries and bad exemplary lives of their Pastors and Teachers which is quite the contrary to what we do And how much care should be taken for the purging and expunging all scandalous Ministers in order to the health peace unity and welfare of the several Churches we preside the difference betwixt our Church-State where such care is taken and yours by the due consideration of matters now under discourse will easily determine 6ly Ours differ from yours particularly in relation to the dignity and function of the highest Ministers of the Church and that first as to dignity yours are Lords ours not yours make sure of a Kingdom here ours are as sure as they but with this difference ours is to come and only foresee it by faith yours have it present which requires not much faith for that which is of faith is not seen Therefore perhaps yours may think themselves on the surer side of the bush however as to that Kingdom of Christ we are willing to live by faith in view of it and do not envy yours their present temporal Kingdom 2ly As to the function we the Bishops of Bensalia always preach in our own persons which few of yours do but by proxy as we have the state of your Church represented to us contradict me in matters of fact if you can being willing in every respect by our care to shew our selves Episcopi Overseers Bishops indeed and Pastors over our belpved flocks one sheep in which flock we value more than a thousand if there were so many dispensible Ceremonies 7ly Compulsion in matters of Religion makes yours to differ from ours for you compell and drive by force as much as
at all take no Tobacco nor drink I between meals unless very thirsty whereby I enjoy my health I bless God very well And although our Physicions be without doubt the best in the world as having the best Medicines that nature and art can afford what of their own preparation in their Laboratory and what is handed down to them from the Sophy those Adepti and Masters of the greatest Hermetick Secrets yet for my own part I had much rather enjoy my health wherein I can by an orderly diet and temperance preserve it than be sick to make trial of their skill I commended the Bishops prudence in that matter and wisht his president was exemplary to our European Countries Why saith he you have excellent good Physicians amongst you Yes Sir said I but for all that we are somewhat of your mind have no great stomack to be sick if we can help it At which the Bishop smil'd When Dinner was over the Bishop rose up and return'd thanks himself A while after Dinner the Bishop betook himself into a withdrawing-room and ordered one of his servants to whisper in my ear his desire of my leaving the company to discourse a while in private with him mean while had taken care the company should be entertain'd with discourse by the Doctor and some other persons Come Sir saith he you may perhaps think somewhat strange of me for my pleasantness and cheerfulness at Dinner I am usually so to help the digestion of my meat for I think it quickens and invigorates the ferment if I may borrow a word or two with you in your noble faculty the ferment of the stomack oyls the wheels of the digestion procures the most laudable nutritive juices helps forward the circulation of the blood and all this the better in order to health But now I am willing to be very serious with you for I have some weighty things to acquaint you with which when you return into your own Country may perhaps if our King and his Sophi do permit you the liberty of publishing thereof be of great use to your people who as we are inform'd are so much divided in their judgments and opinions about matters of Religion we have the state of your Church-affairs we think truly represented to us and wherein I shall err through any mistake shall beg the favour at your hands to set me right My method shall be first to shew you the rectitude and uniformity of ours and the genuine consequences thereof viz. peace unity Christian charity and the exercises of other heavenly Graces Next how much yours comes short and deviates from ours then shall shew you the reasons and last if we have time shall propose some expedients in order to the healing your clashing differences towards the ratifying a Christian union amongst you First as to ours it is Episcopal which rightly understood we have great reason to conclude from Scripture and other Testimonies to be truly Apostolical and according to Divine institution which with the Presbytery and other Substitutes together with their modes of connexion to the people are sufficient to the constitution of our Church We have no universal Bishop or Pope but only own Christ Jesus to be the supreme Head of our Church Our Council of Bishops with some of the Elders or Presbytery do determine all our differences both as to Doctrine and Discipline 2. And for the continuation and promotion of our unity and peace we avoid all Scholastick disputations and verbal janglings as much as possible as seeing it by the doleful effects thereof throughout Europe to be the bane of Christianity the mother of dissention animosities contention and discord yea the very parent of all the enmity and war found amongst those whom charity would enforce us to call Christians whose lives and well-meanings more than the similarness of their opinions must speak them Christians or they will difficultly be found having by such contentions even rent the seamless coat of Christ the very badg of their Christianity viz. Love Peace and Unity We by a Law prohibit all disputes and controversies about Predestination viz. Election and Reprobation and other disputable Doctrines as observing them to be the mother of many animosities and contentions amongst brethren yea and well remarking that no History can give us any instance of persons converted to the true Christian faith thereby or of any already converted whose lives have thence been rended better But many Histories are fill'd with instances to the contrary I call to mind we had once a learned Philosopher happened to be cast ashore on our coasts who disputing with some of our Bishops they notwithstanding all their learned arguments although they might convince him which yet was hard to make him or any who stand out for victory confess yet they did not convert him till a zealous â—ishop less learned than the rest in great power and demonstration of the Spirit repeated to him the Creed and as I remember the Lords-prayer which done queries the man saying Philosopher dost thou now believe who by such power being conquered answer'd according to Naked Truth Yes I do believe and so became a Proselyte 3ly And because we would not offend our weak brethren we dispense with many Ceremonies which you of the Church of England as we are well informed are so stiff in defending as rather than you will abate any thing therein you will adventure the loss of hundreds yea perhaps thousands of the weaker brethren suffering them for the sake of some dispensible Ceremonies to depart from you by whole sholes to the great rending of the unity of your Church which by all means possible should have been preserved in the bonds of love and unity by your condescending to them in some things allowable both by Scripture and reason as well as from the different Genius of people both as to time and place As if the union of your brethren and consequently peace of your whole Church was not of more value to you than the stiff adhering to many indifferent and in cases aforesaid unnecessary Ceremonies If any amongst us be upon any occasion offended or dissatisfied we make it our business presently to pour in oyl and wine the Samaritan Balsom to heal up the wound using all the suppleing and soft means we can by friendly visits prayer and all tender demeanor to satisfie their scruples of Conscience and like good Physicians never leave them till they be made whole We beseech exhort admonish and rebuke according as necessity requires being instant with them in season and out of season And as Fathers for so in a spiritual sense we look upon our selves we are tender and affectionate to them using all fatherly admonition We by our tender bowels of compassion melt them down if they have the least grain of the Spirit of God in them and they know right well we make no prey of them but as Ministers and servants of Jesus Christ serve them in
the Song Of Moses and the Lamb. And indeed our mental people as we call them viz. such as are spiritually minded and given up to high contemplation of the mercies wisdom and wonders of the most high God are sometimes in such sweet concording harmony even wrapt up well nigh into extasies and have much ado to contain their divinely symbolizing souls within the narrow confines of their bodies But to return We suffer no Jesuits or other Papist-Priests whatsoever to come amongst us as well knowing how spreading and contagious their leven is and has been to those Kingdoms and Countries where it hath been admitted Yea it cannot easily slip out of our memories what danger we had like to have been in both as to our Church and State upon admission of an unknown Jesuit who being in a Merchants Ship driven upon our Coasts was suffered to dwell amongst us and in a very little time he had so poysoned near a score of our people with his venomous leaven which like a contagious ferment had got footing among us and if that joint of our body-Politick had not been seasonably cut off the Gangreen would in no great time have endangered the whole body But by the prudence of our King and Sophi we the Bishops not a little contributing the grand Jesuit was apprehended and all his proselytes who upon good proof being found to be such were sentenced to the Staffee and thence for Islands near America Only this liberty was granted to those of our own inhabitants that as many of them as would return to their own mother-Church and reclaim that of Rome was to be received again which most of them accepted The rest with the Jesuit was speedily ordered for the Staffee And because it happened at a time that Ships were not shortly to go off therefore to prevent further delay a Ship on purpose was appointed to go away with them and because they would not have other places which are much peopled hazarded by them gave command to set them upon some Island remote from America For although quoth the Bishop your Laws are so severe in England as to punish with death Jesuits that are so prov'd to be which yet how duly executed you know best yet ours doth not sentence any man whatsoever to death for his opinion in Religion We think that Law of death to persons of different Religions not to be agreeable to the judgment custom or president of the Primitive Church of God therefore we avoid it Thus my Son I have in short shew'd you the state of our thrice happy Church and Government thereof only before I conclude this head it will not be impertinent to touch a little further upon the nature or manner of our Church For the Church I have been speaking of is made up of living stones well knit and cemented together in every of which Christ by his Spirit dwelleth and is thereby render'd a true Church Our people which convene and are linkt together in Church-fellowship are the Church not the place of Convention Which places of Convention or meeting-places we do not call Churches left we should lose the Primitive and true sense of that name but for distinction sake call them Convents or in short Covents which are built very conveniently for meeting but are no stately Fabricks nor is our Worship attended with any gaudry or any spiritual sort of pageantry wherefore we wave all Surplices Copes Tippets Caps c. lest our people being amus'd with the external should lose the internal acts of devotion lest too much busied in their heads their hearts should let go the main object Give me thy heart saith God not thy head or thy eye and lest they should let themselves too much forth into the outward they should leave nothing for God in the inward Yea in short lest our people whom we always watch over with a jealous eye by such spiritual shews in the external pageantry of Worship should be drawn aside only to an outside Religion and so should commit spiritual fornication which we dread to think on and therefore rather abate in Ceremonies than to have them supernumerary And as our Pastors Teachers c. avoid all pomp in the performance of all Religious duties so likewise our people come not together in such gaudy dress as we hear yours do who come rather as if they were to act their parts in a Play than to such solemn Worship in such pageantry of dress as would more become their appearance in either of the two Parks or a Masquerade than their prostrate approaches to the footstool of Grace more likely to beautifie a Comical scene than such a solemn Convention As to which even many of your professors who as more strict should see and forsake the folly of the former to their great shame are guilty herein Is it not so saith he to me I cannot answer I but confess Reverend Father to the truth hereof and am much asham'd of it Ah saith the Bishop how becoming and suitable to the profession of the Gospel is a modest garb our people accounting the Graces of the Spirit in a vertuous mind the chief ornaments And now my Son to acquaint you with the result and genuine effects of our so happy Church it is no less than love unity and peace and what can be expected more in any Church in the world The glory of God and good of Souls being the main aim and end of the Bishops Presbyters Pastors and Teachers set over the flock of Christ What love we have to each other and in what unity of heart and mind we are established you may in part read in every family you come and in every publick meeting and Congregation whether upon matters Civil or Divine For it 's a great part of the work of our Teachers we set over them at seasonable times to visit their people and in Christian love to quiet and compose the differences quarrels or private animosities amongst them by removing the causes and bringing them to a right understanding of each other studying by all mild and prudential means their reconciliation nipping their feuds and quarrels in their first bud so prevent their becoming publick As to the publick peace we enjoy no people Country nor Kingdom whatsoever can vye with us having now enjoyed great peace without any division fraction or schism either in Church or State for so many hundred years Tell me I challenge you what Country Nation Kingdom or States can glory of the like It 's true that of the States of Venice come the nearest to us of any known parts of the World having had their Government unvaried for about 1400 years which no Princes or Kingdoms in Europe can boast of But yet they maintain their peace and unity at home by their Wars abroad which very thing renders their peace the less peaceable whilst we have no enemies at home or abroad to annoy or disturb our peace And thus my Son as I
you well can But we compel not at all and yet our flock by such soft tender means as we treat them with is much larger yea more secured and fixt to us than yours by your severer method is or in probability ever can be For we chain them to us by our friendliness Christian charity and tender affection shewn to them upon all occasions by which we purchase more love from them than yours can ever do by all threats of Citations Excommunications Capias's and other vexatious browbeaâ—ing modes of treating them all which sets them more aloof off you and confirms them more in their several Classis of Separation Thus our Bishops good old and reverend Fathers are they are not only afraid lest the pomp of the world should steal away their hearts from God and they thereby should become dronish Shepherds who thence should not only not feed the flock of Christ but perhaps through idleness and the heaping up of worldly wealth might give way to that error as to endeavour to hinder others from feeding the flock whom God had fitted with endowments and gifts for that purpose but also are afraid lest by too stiff maintaining arbitrary and disputable Ceremonies they should give cause to the beginning of divisions in our happy and peaceable Church Now my Son what remains to be spoken according to my propos'd method is next to shew you the reasons hereof and lastly to propose some expedients in order to the healing your long contracted differences in your Churches As to the first of which you may if you observe take notice that I have most-what interwoven the reasons with the differences I have been acquainting you with And that in the main the reasons of your differences and divisions amongst your selves chiefly if not solely springs from the deviation of your Church of England from ours of Bensalia as you may easily and with much perspicuity see in the lately quoted seven Heads to which we have reduc'd the most remarkable differences and deviations of your Church from ours which is obvious to any one who reads them Which I shall here only in short recount viz. 1. In your Head 2. In your permission and indulgence of dubious Controversies and jangling Disputations 3. In your strict imposition of dispensible Ceremonies upon your weak and dissatisfied Brethren 4. By your upholding those vexatious Courts call'd Spiritual Courts that newly furbished Inquisition or Religious-house of Correction where your sinswindgers from money-mulcts got by Citations Excommunications c. raise their fortunes out of the ruins of your weak and distressed Brethren whom you should rather pity commiserate and receive into tender bowels of compassion 5. In your Visitations by your scourging the people rather than removing bad exemplary and therefore scandalous Ministers the great eye-sore of your people 6. In that your Bishops as to dignity are Lords and as to function rarely preach Lastly By your compulsion in matter of Religion In all which I say you differ and deviate from us and our Church-discipline And therefore no wonder that you have not enjoyed those expected fruits which we constantly possess of love unity and peace but rather have been imbroiled in Domestick dissentions animosities and intestine Wars the bane and reproach of Christianity For can you expect to gain the credit of being endowed with Christian charity while you shew so much of a spirit of enmity as to impose burdens upon weak Consciences and not condescend in matters dubious and therefore indifferent to the weaknesses of your dissatisfied Brethren And can you think to procure a happy unity amongst your selves which we always enjoy while in the forenamed Heads you take away the very basis and foundation thereof Lastly can you upon serious consideration perswade your selves that ever you shall possess peace while you vex disquiet and sit upon the skirts of your Brethren in matters indifferent wherein they ought in all Christian tenderness not only to be received but to be as well satisfied as your selves But I hast lest your company will wonder what is become of us therefore as to the last thing I propos'd to discourse viz. to propound some happy Expedient in order to the healing your clashing differences and towards the begetting a Christian charity and firm union amongst your discording Churches which because it would be too tedious now to insist upon as also would I fear too much intrench upon your Companies patience I shall therefore refer to its due place in a Letter which I intend if it shall be permitted by our King and Sophi to write to one of your Arch-Bishops in England To conclude at present take notice my Son that I have not discours'd these matters to you without both the knowledg yea and advice of our King and his Sophi whose leave and consent we desire before we discourse any thing of this nature to strangers But in as much as you are my Son highly favour'd by them more than any stranger that ever yet came upon our happy Island I was I say not only permitted but indeed advised to make this relation of the state of our Church and to compare it with yours that thereby you may legibly view the difference Whether at your return from us you may have leave to publish this relation in your own Country in order to their good I know not as to which you are to wait our King with his Sophy's pleasure therein Only this on the by I may take leave to acquaint you with that none of your Country-men that we call to mind was ever before cast upon our coasts except one which was my Lord Verulam whose stay in the Country was so short as he took but a transient view and therefore gave but a slight and imperfect account thereof to the world Now in order to your more through information I have perform'd my charge and hope others according to their several incumbent tasks will do the like and if it shall be permitted to come abroad I pray God what I have said of ours may become exemplary to your distracted Churches in Europe especially to England that happy Country if they knew their own good to which place we seem with a joint consent I had almost said harmonically to wish well and to write the first copy after our original pattern which with a great deal of seriousness concluding the great God of Heaven for his beloved Sons sake bless unto you Amen Which done I made my Obeysance to the Bishop and humbly thank'd the Reverend Father for his great condescention love and familiarity in his late admirable discourse As I was coming forth of the withdrawing-room the Bishop thrust a heavy paper well lin'd with red into my hand What mean you Reverend Father said I the fee is rather due to you for you have given the advice while I have been your Auditor and our Church your Patient Come come saith the Bishop this is only a small pledg of the kindness and