by taking away the strong supporters which have hitherto upheld it and erecting rotten or mouldering pillars in the place and all this benefit and advantage may be lost or prevented by his fond and unseasonable advertisement if the King and the Bishops have prudence enough to make good use of it by driving away or discountenancing such a perfidious and unskilful champion May they not from hence apprehend that as he came to them upon a sudden and unexpected so that he is upon thoughts of returning to the Church for which he hath so much care and entering into a kind of correspondence with his adversaries by giving good counsel how to behave himself better But how comes it to pass that this miserable Doctor who he yet seems to think may mean well to be so stupidly couzened and deceived that instead of complying with his engagement to defend the Church he hath betrayed her and the whole cause to all the Fanatick Sects which have separated from her and with most horrible cruelty sought her destruction and with her the ruine of Monarchy All this tragical demolishing of foundations consists in this that he allows all sober enquirers to be for themselves judges of the sence of Scripture in necessaries and judges likewise what points are necessary This saying of his hath betrayed the cause of his Church and left her in a most forlorn condition tottering upon foundations and principles which to Mr. Cressy's certain knowledge were not extant at least not known in England thirty years since Let it be in the first place observed and it is sure worthy to be observed that this most pernicious proposition which hath in such an instant brought the Church of England into such a tottering condition is not made use of nor so much as taken notice of by any of those enemies of hers the Presbyterians Anabaptists or Independents who have been so vigilant and industrious so many years to make her totter and yet now the work is so near done to their hands by a secret friend who is the more able to do them good by his not pretending any affection towards them neither of them will put their cause upon that proposition nor apply it to their own designs and therefore it is possible that it may not be altogether so dangerous to the Church as he would have it supposed to be and of which it is probable he would not have given notice if he had in truth thought it to be dangerous In the next place let us examine whether the Doctor himself cannot make another and better interpretation of his own words than his implacable enemy hath done all good Physicians compound their Antidotes according to the nature and malignity of the poyson that their patients have swallowed Now the poyson that Mr. Cressy and his lurking brethren usually bait their traps with and by which they catch most of their prey is Their confident denouncing damnation against those and all those who are not of their mind that is who are not received into the Church of Rome and not intirely submit to all her dictates That the Scripture consists in dumb letters which cannot declare its own meaning and therefore is liable to be misinterpreted by the wit of bold and presumptuous men as the founders of all Heresies have been and therefore they can only be safe who receive and conform themselves to that interpretation of Scripture that the Church in the custody of which it is deposited hath given and declared to be Orthodox That that Church is the Church of Rome where there constantly resides a Supreme Magistrate who in case any new opinions shall start up to the prejudic of Religion which have not been enough convinced by former definitions of the Church hath full authority committed to him by our Saviour to declare and determine what is agreeable or contrary to the sence of the Scripture since it cannot be supposed that our Saviour would constitute an officer and not indue him with all necessary faculties or not qualifie him sufficiently for the discharge of so great a trust and from hence they resolve that the greatest danger of damnation is not from the commission of those sins against which the spirit of God hath so plainly denounced it but in an obstinate presumption in contradicting the opinions or directions of the Catholick Church and refusing to submit to the authority of the Vicar of Christ who hath the unquestionable power to bind and to loose to pardon and to condemn sins having the Keys of Heaven and of Hell and therefore whilst they will depend upon him and put themselves under his protection they cannot but be safe This is the common poyson which these men carry about them to administer to those who they find most like to be deluded and in the composition of it there are some ingredients according to the humour of the compounder which cannot be according to the Catholick prescription since that Soveraign power of their Supreme Magistrate the Pope is not nor ever will be acknowledged to be an essential part of the Roman Catholick Religion Let us now see what Antidote the Doctor hath provided for the prevention or expulsion of this poyson to confirm men in their absolute confidence and dependence upon the Scripture the force and virtue whereof that poyson would enervate he says That it is repugnant to the nature of the design to the wisdom and goodness of God to give an infallible assurance to persons in writing his will for the benefit of mankind if those writings may not be understood by all persons who sincerely endeavour to know the meaning of them in all such things as are necessary for their Salvation and consequently there can be no necessity supposed of any infallible society of men either to attest or explain those writings amongst Christians and this and no more than this is the sence of that which contains all that confusion which Mr. Cressy thinks must bring confusion upon his own Church as into that of the Roman and from thence the Doctor proceeds to shew how incompetent a Magistrate they have chosen to determine all differences in Religion which he proves by such arguments as are very natural for the proving thereof and for the answering avoiding whereof we shall be compelled anon to take notice of Mr. Cressy's admirable artifice and dexterity Now if the Doctor hath for want of skill in discerning consequences made choice of an improper medium to prove that which he hath a mind to prove God forbid that there should be such Tragical effects to attend that argumentation as the destruction of Church and State and it would be as unreasonable to condemn an argument that he who uses it thinks to his purpose because it was never used till within thirty Years One man says that the Scripture is so very difficult that no man can understand it without repairing to the advice of an adversary who will tell him the interpretation
lewd seditious Books are sold as that none such may be printed And if this kind advertisement of Mr. Cressy hath that operation upon the Magistrates of all sorts both the Printers and Sellers and it may be the Buyers of the multitude of Popish Books which are every day vented with as much freedom as the Book of Common-Prayer they of his own Religion will have new cause to celebrate his prudence and acknowledge the great advantage he hath brought to their cause by his pen as he hath to their persons by his modesty and his manners Mr. Cressy comes at last after very much passion and much more virulence against the poor Protestants than the Doctor hath expressed against the Roman Catholicks to a matter of importance indeed in which he believes which might have kept him from triumphing so soon he is absolute master of the field and that is to peace and unity which he says is more fit to be the subject and argument of writings composed by Ecclesiastical persons that is unity of faith and doctrine pag. 102. and in truth whoever is really an enemy even to that unity of faith and doctrine how hard soever to be attained must be an enemy to mankind but I must tell him too that the writings of Ecclesiastical persons have not hitherto in any age contributed to the production of that unity I mean such who have a pride petulancy of understanding obstinacy of will that will suffer nothing to be called peace and unity but a prostration of all other men to their dictates Mr. Cressy and his Ecclesiastical Friends affect and insolently prescribe a unity that is neither practicable nor desirable and there are other Ecclesiastical persons as humorous who are such enemies to unity that they think it not necessary to peace especially in Ecclesiastical matters that is in matters of Religion all men may think and speak and do what they please and upon the irrationality of these last the former impute all the folly and all the madness that would introduce the most uncontroulable confusion to those who observe order and discipline with more regularity and obedience than any of the pretenders will do It must not therefore be the Ecclesiastical persons who have given each other too ill words to be of one mind who can procure this unity of faith and doctrine that must constitute this peace but it must be the writings and actions of Magistrates who by the execution of those Laws and rules which the wisdom of the State for which they are made have provided for that purpose can infallibly establish that unity and peace that is necessary for it Magistrates who do not pretend any jurisdiction out of their own limits nor will suffer those who live within it to be disobedient much less to revile the Laws which are provided for the publick peace Where there are no Laws confusion is necessary and natural and where the Laws are not executed it is as unavoidable and in some degree necessary So that where unity is not as much provided for as is necessary for peace it is the Magistrates fault and not the fault of Ecclesiasticks who can only prosecute it by the ways prescribed by the Laws I say where unity is necessary for nothing is more mistaken or more misapplied than this precious word Unity Who doth not know or hath not had it frequently in his observation that men who have the same end affect several ways which lead to that end and he who goes the farthest way about may possibly come sooner to the end than he that believes he goes more directly to it However if he comes thither later he is liable to no other reproach than being laughed at for being longer upon the way than he needed to have been I knew two Gentlemen of good quality and fortunes one of which I think is still living who were very near neighbours in Berkshire and lived in that good correspondence and conversation as persons of quality and authority in their Country use to do they had both very frequent occasions to ride to London and the house of one of them was the confessed way of the other thither but the difference was whether from thence the nearest way was by Windsor or by Maidenhead and in that they were so great Opiniators that they still parted at the door and one took the one way and the other that which he conceived to be nearest and in twenty years they never made the journey together How light soever the instance seems to be it will be found fit enough to be applied to very many differences of opinion which by the excess of fancy on the one side and the defect of judgment of the other are blown up into a magnitude that dazles the eyes of too many spectators and for the determination of the rest there wants not a submission and obedience to authority the difference only is where that authority is placed to which obedience ought to be paid We of the Church of England hold ours to be due to the King the Church and the Law Mr. Cressy would have us pay it to the Pope which we cannot submit to not because he is fallible but because he is not a Magistrate who hath any jurisdiction over us In matters that concern Religion we resort to the Articles of the Church which we are obliged to conform to He would have us observe the Canons of the Council of Trent which we are forbidden to do and he as an English Catholick is not bound to upon which we shall enlarge hereafter and this election to believe that the Church of England which flourishes at least as much in learned and pious men as any Church of the world can better direct English-men in the way to Heaven than the Church of Rome is the greatest use we make of our reason which is not like to deceive What that union is that was intended certainly by our Saviour when he left his Church established under spiritual Governours will best appear by the rules he prescribed and the directions he gave in order thereunto which we may lawfully believe he never intended for such a unity as Mr. Cressy and his friends dream of and that he foresaw the same could never be and depended more upon what was necessary towards it upon the civil Magistrates than upon the Ecclesiastical power He prescribed the essential principles himself of that Religion which he intended should be established and left persons trusted by him who not only knew his mind but knew all things which are necessary to be known for the accomplishment of it And no temporal or spiritual authority under Heaven hath power to alter any thing that was setled by him or his Apostles who were the only Commentators intrusted by him to explain whatsoever might seem doubtful in what himself had said and they performed their parts with that plainness in what is necessary that there remains no difficulty to men
the infancy of the Church and did no great harm No doubt S. Paul wished that all who were to preach Christ had had the same thoughts and had used the same words and had had the same affection towards each other which unity would much have advanced the propagation of Christianity but he knew that was impossible and that different apprehensions and different conceptions must be always attended with difference of expressions whilst the birth and life and death and resurrection of Christ was taught though they who preached him had their own passions and prejudices towards each other he was still glad that the number of the Christians were increased There may be much good done in the world without taking its rise purely from Conscience and only to please others or to imitate others and the like may be done to anger and to cross and contradict other men and though the Authors of that good have lost their reward yet there is matter of rejoycing still that good is done It is very well worth our reflexion how little pains our Saviour took who well foresaw what disputations would arise concerning Religion to the end of the world to explain any doctrinal points or indeed to institute any thing of speculative doctrine in his Sermon upon the Mount which comprehends all Christianity but to resolve all into practice and his Apostles though they met with a world of questions and disputes and in the highest points of the mystery of Religion were very short in their answers and determination and left no room for any contention in the understanding upon any matter of faith it depending purely upon believing what was past and done and of which they received unquestionable evidence but in the application of this faith to practice they were large in their discourses and clear to remove all doubts they had observed into how many Schisms and Sects the Church of the Iews had run by their several interpretations of the Law and the Prophets of both which they had all equal veneration and from both gathered arguments enough to found an animosity against each other that vented it self in all the acts of uncharitableness and denunciation of Hell-fire to their opponents and they did all they could that the Gospel and the professors thereof might not be exposed to the like mischiefs by the same disputations Men might set their wits on work to raise doubts and scruples and improve them to what degree they please by the subtilty of their own invention they were difficulties of their own making not finding Christ and his Apostles left their Declarations of what we are to believe and what we are to do so clearly stated that we cannot dangerously mistake and so much the more clearly by informing us what we are not to believe and what we are not to do by the obligations of Christianity and as they did no doubt foresee the weakness and the wilfulness of the succeeding times and that men would make use of the Scriptures themselves to the prejudice of Religion they took care that they might know that there is much in them above their understanding and that they should govern themselves by what is easie plain to be understood therein and above all that they should not presume to censure and judge those who differ from them in their opinions because Christ hath reserved all those differences to be determined by himself and except it were inflicting Ecclesiastical censures upon corruption of manners and transgressing against Christian duties It was some Ages before the Church expressed any great severity upon differences in opinions and used such circumspection in the expressions upon their determinations as rather pleased all persons concerned than strictly defined the matter in controversie The Primitive Church never prescribed any other rule to themselves to judge by than the sacred Scriptures by consent of which they made all their definitions and determinations and as no man yet at least with any countenance of authority hath pretended to understand the intire meaning of any one of the Prophets so it was some time a long time before the Revelation of S. Iohn was received into the Canon of the Church for the difficulty of it and whosoever hath since undertaken to understand it hath received more censure than approbation from pious and learned men nor have they attained to credit enough to be believed Seek not out the things that are too hard for thee neither search the things that are above thy strength is very good counsel and proportioned to mens different faculties and understandings he that is stronger than I may search for things that are too hard for me and there is no harm in that search but I who am weaker am in no degree obliged to make that search nor shall fare the worse because I am so weak The Dialogue between the Angel and the Prophet Esdras may be very good Divinity thoughs it be contained in the Apocrypha He that dwelleth above the Heavens may only understand the things that are above the heighth of the Heavens The more thou searchest the more thou shalt marvel for the world hasteth fast to pass away and it cannot comprehend the things that are promised to the righteous in time to come Let us endeavour to do the things which we are plainly enjoyned to do and which we can very well comprehend at least let us forbear doing any thing which we are as plainly forbidden to do and we shall in due time obtain those things which for the present we cannot comprehend It hath been an artifice introduced to perplex mankind and to work upon the conscience by amusing and puzling the understanding to perswade men to believe that there is but one Church and one Religion in which men may be saved that by their confident averring themselves to be that Church and of that Religion others may be prevailed with to be of their party and they who with most passion abhor their presumption and so withdraw from their Communion adhere to the same unreasonable conclusion and will not suffer them to be a Church at all or capable of salvation and form their own Church upon those principles only which most contradict the other whereas there is room enough in Heaven for them all and we may charitably and reasonably believe that many of all Christian Churches will come thither and that too many of every one of them will be excluded from thence There is indeed as was said before but one faith which no authority upon Earth can change or suspend or dispence with but Religion which is the uniting or the being united of pious men in the profession of that Faith may be exercised in several and different forms and ways and with several ceremonies according to the constitutions and rules of the several Countries and Kingdoms where it is practised and there are so many Churches united in one and the same faith and methinks the very stile
Church from the corruption of Doctrine and contentions and contradictions in the practice of Religion as any exorbitancies in state is so far from being soveraign that he holds upon the matter the little authority he hath in other things but precariò of him who hath the exercise of the other jurisdiction And as this mischief and confusion is very demonstrable to all men who understand the foundation and rules of Policy and Government so the benefits which accrew from this distinction are not discernable by the eyes of reason or of faith Temporal Princes and Kings cannot have authority to change Religion nor are qualified to perform the Offices and functions of Religion that 's true Nor hath any Ecclesiastical and Spiritual power authority to change Religion The Pope whom some Men call the Church nor a General Council which no doubt is the most natural representative of the Universal Church doth not pretend that they can change Religion Our Saviour left our Religion intire and the Apostles left all things so plain which he directed that no power under Heaven can add to or take from that body of Religion which they commended to all Christians nor can it be more reasonably imagined that God will suffer any Christian state to make such an alteration than that the Universal Church shall fall away from being Christian but if Christianity were deposited with one Church-man or any body of Church-men we have too much reason to apprehend what would become of it by the progress Arianisme once and other Heresies too made in the World by possessing many great and learned Men even of the Fathers themselves So that we may say that the purity of Christian Religion hath been in truth preserved by the piety of Princes with the advice and assistance of their National and Ecclesiastical Councils more than by any spiritual authority Religion it self then must not cannot be changed but the advancement of it the information in it the exercise and practice by which it is best to be made manifest cannot be so well provided for as by that supreme soveraign authority to which God hath intrusted the peace and prosperity of a Nation which best knows how to establish such formes and ceremonies and circumstances in what pertains to Religion as are most agreeable to the nature and inclination and disposition of a people A conformity in humours and in manners is a great introduction to conformity in Religion and will not suffer the pride and affectation and singularity of any man to contradict the order established This Soveraign Authority knows best how to preserve Peace in which the being of a Nation consists and how to reform errors which are grown and prevent those which are growing by such ways as may not disturb that peace and such errours as are grown too obstinate are too deep rooted to be pulled up without shaking the whole peace of the Kingdom he will let alone drawing by degrees such nourishment from it as most cherishes it until a fitter season for the intire cure of it No Reformation is worth the charge of a Civil War Nor was it a light reproach which Seneca charged upon Sylla Qui patriam durioribus remediis quam pericula erant sanavit The Remedy was worse than the Disease and God knows Christianity hath paid very dear for the too hasty and passionate application of remedies to very confessed diseases when the disease was not ripe for the remedy nor the remedy proportioned to the disease State surgery cannot be used with too much caution nor are the wounds and sores of it cured at once or with one kind of medicine but the lenitives and corrosives must be applied successively and if the first will do it there cannot be too little used of the latter No sore is so ill cured as that which is hastily cured There is no necessity nor convenience that the outward exercise and forms of Religion be the same in all climates and in all Countries Nay it is very necessary that it be different according to the natures and customes of the people It would be very incongruous where genuflexion is neither the posture of reverence or devotion to introduce a command for kneeling and there are many particulars worthy of the same consideration They do equally mistake who believe that the out-works of Religion must be equally with the same passion guarded and preserved as the walks themselves that no form or ceremony or circumstance in Religion may not be altered or parted with more than the faith it self and they who would be always mending and altering and reforming according to every model description they meet with as a thing indifferent and only to please the fancies of men where there is no indifference there may be alterations made by and according to the wisdom of the Government and as the good Order and peace of the Nation requires and with the same gravity and deliberation as all other mutations and provisions are made but there must be out-works still and such as may secure the walls from rude approaches every fanciful Engineer must not demolish the out-works upon pretence they are too high or too irregular nor must the decency of the prospect so much transport others as not to suffer the least alteration in them though thereby the walls would be the better garded No one Classis of men will dispassionately weigh all necessary consideration in this matter but that authority which must provide for the publick peace is the most competent provider for this branch of it It is no irreverence to the purest times to believe that in the first plantation of Christian Religion I speak not of infusion of Christian Religion into the Apostles and the inspiration by the Holy Ghost but of the plantation of it by the Apostles and those who succeeded them by the strength of their reason and the powerful effects of their lives and actions the same method and order and application was used and observed as is in other Plantations The Sun and the Soil are first consulted and husbandry practised accordingly in the sowing of Seeds or setting of Plants and that husbandry altered and improved according to seasons and upon observation and experience what is most like to advance the Plantation If ever the Spaniard loses the West Indies which it is probable enough he will do it will be by his positive and rigorous adhering to the same rules which were most prudently established by Philip the Second upon the first conquest of that Empire and under which the Infant Plantation prospered exceedingly and not admitting any such material alterations since as would produce more benefit and advantage now than the other did then and which time and the people will make if the policy of the Government do not first introduce it and then it is very hazardous that the presumption of doing it will shake off that authority that should have done it It may be observed in the
his Second Iourney afterwards to Ierusalem in which he takes care that they might not think that he had any Superiour there To whom we gave place by subjection no not for an hour He proceeds then in the same jealousie to make a comparison with St. Peter He that wrought effectually in Peter to the Apostleship of the Circumcision the same was mighty in me towards the Gentiles effectually in Peter mighty in Paul a word of an equal energy and lest all this might be looked upon as speaking behind his back after he had mentioned the respect he had received from the other Apostles from Iames and Cephas and Iohn he tells them that when Peter came to him he withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed and the manner of his expostulation with him seems very rough as with a man that stood upon the same level with him not as with the sole Vicar of Christ If thou being a Iew livest after the manner of the Gentiles and not as do the Iews why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Iews Whosoever seriously reflects upon the tampering that had been with the Galathians to lessen their confidence in Paul and the gradations by which he endeavoured to reconfirm them in the same faith he had formerly taught them cannot but believe that the Apostle had therein a purpose to root out any such Opinion of priority out of their hearts especially when in no other place after this there appears the least mention of or appeal to St. Peter in the many errours and mis-interpretations of the words and actions of our Saviour and of them in the Life of the Apostles from whence many troubles and great disorders sprung and grew up amongst Christians of that Age. He shall do well to consider whether it be probable that St. Peter himself or any of his Successors did pretend a Precedency or Superiority over Saint Iohn the Evangelist who lived Twenty Years after Saint Peter and to let us know when the first Pope discovered his Supremacy over other Bishops and then we know well enough how it was introduced in Temporalities If Mr. Cressy and the rest of the enemies of the Church of England who will not allow any members of the same to have any hope without deserting their Mother of a place in Heaven and hardly admit them to be in their wits upon Earth would enter upon the disquisition of these particulars which are warily declined in all their Writings or very perfunctorily handled the foundation doctrine and discipline of that Church would be in a short time utterly overthrown and demolished or worthily vindicated and supported in the judgment of most learned and discerning men and there can be but two reasons why they should decline this method which they should the rather imbrace because all other have proved ineffectual and in near two hundred years the appeal to Fathers and Councils or Scripture it self hath not reconciled many persons in any one controverted particular but those two reasons so unwarrantable that they will never be owned will never suffer them to admit the method and pursue it closely The first is that if they should proceed in this ingenuous and substantial way they would be cut off from those common places in which they are only versed and by which they are supplied to urge all things which have been thought heretofore material to that matter and to reply to what is said of course but especially they will find themselves restrained from that multitude of ill words in which they so much delight of calling those they do not love and whose arguments they cannot answer Hereticks who are condemned already to Hell-fire and from asking the old stale question that hath been as often answered as asked Where was your Church before Luther and from their so often vain excursions upon the voluptuousness of Henry the Eighth whom they would fain perswade the world to be the Founder of the Church of England and all the reformation to have been devised by him Whereas if they would seriously study these material points the first whereof would go very far towards the facilitating the resolution upon the rest they might easily discern that no member of the Church of England by their own rules can be comprehended within any of their decrees for an Heretick which serves their turn only as an angry word to throw at any mans head whom they desire to make odious to all Roman Catholicks and they would be as easily convinced that we never had any thing to do with Luther that in all those quarrels and wars which were either occasioned by him or accompanied his doctrine there was not a man of the English Nation that was ever engaged and that it was long after his time not at all by his model that the Church of England without one sword drawn and in as peaceable and grave a manner as ever that Nation hath concurred in the making of any of those excellent Laws which distinguishes them from all the subjects of the world in the happiness they enjoy did reject those superstitions and inconveniences which they could not sooner free themselves from with those circumstances of justice and peace and the retaining whereof would have been more for the benefit and advantage of the Court of Rome than for the Church of England or the good of that Kingdom and as such alterations cannot be supposed to be made with so universal a consent but that many of all conditions adhered still to the exercise of their Religion with all the circumstances which they had been before accustomed unto and for which no body suffered in many years nor till by their treasonable acts and conspiracies they appeared dangerous to the State For King Henry the Eighth he had some personal contests with Clement the Seventh who was then Pope from whom he received such personal indignities as in the opinion of most of the Princes of that Age who had all out-grown the wardship of the Pope he could not but resent and vindicate himself from nor did he do it any other way than his most glorious Catholick Predecessors had always done upon far less injuries or provocations as Edward the First and Edward the Third and others whose Religion was never suspected often restrained him from exercising any authority or jurisdiction in England to which they well knew he had no other authority or right but what the Crown had granted him and forbid any of their Subjects to repair to Rome or to receive any Orders from thence which was upon the matter all that Henry the Eighth did and was no more than Lewis the Twelfth of France had done very few years before but was so far from being inclined or favouring to any reformation or alteration in Religion that he proceeded as long as he lived with the utmost severity against all who were but suspected to be averse from the Catholick Religion and caused many of them