For 't is Holiness they hate more than Nonconformity The rage and cruelty of our furious Bigots was lately grown bigger and taller than ever they had quite trampled under foot the Dissenters and began a wild Cariere against Piety and Sobriety in their own Body they spared neither Nobles nor Gentlemen nor Clergy all good men in their communion had been ground to powder if the ascent of the late King to the Throne had not put a stop to their madness The Church may be improved in Piety by that storm but it is no thanks to those furious debauchees When God le ts loose evil men upon his Flock it is not to gratifie their ravenous lust but to make his sheep love his fold and keep to the pastures which he appoints them Persecutors are Gods scullions to scour his vessels of Honour for the Kingdom of Glory The removal of Ceremonies will take away the vizour with which Formalists Hypocrites Wicked and Prophane men do cover themselves When Religion is stript of these things and nothing injoyned but what is plainly commanded by God they only will be counted Pious who live according to the Doctrine of the Gospel Drunkards Swearers Whoremongers and such like will be known to be what they are a meer herd of Bruits The aim of Pastors it is hoped will then be to promote a spiritual worship that in all the duties of piety the hearts of the people may be engaged The souls sincere return and resignation to God in every service is the top-stone of holiness God being a Spirit we cannot converse with him but by our Spirits To worship God in the spirit c. as it is most agreeable to the nature of the Divine Majesty Corbet's Kingdom of God Pag. 21. which is worshipped and best fitted to glorifie him as God indeed so it is also most efficacious to make the worshippers more knowing in Religion more holy and heavenly in Spirit and Conversation and every way more perfect in things pertaining to life and Godliness Ministers will have something else to do than to preach against Non-conformists we may expect that their great design will then be to endeavour to promote the Glory of God to convince men of a future state to advance holiness sobriety peace and useful diligence in the world These things will come home to the faculties of considering men and they will think that their Teachers are in good earnest when they are Zealous for things wherein the interest of their own souls is concerned Bishop Patrick gives excellent advice to Minssters in two Particulars Divine Arithmetick pag. 72. 73. I. Let us be much in private prayer Our time is short as well as other mens and many times shorter though our account be greater therefore let us spend much time with God as we endeavour to spend it all for him Let not a croud of thoughts in our Studies nor a croud of company thrust God away from our Souls but let them frequently retire unto him as the fountain of all light and good Prayer before our studies is the Key to unlock the secrets of God and prayer afterward is the turning of the Key to lock them safe into our hearts Prayer sharpens our appetite after truth and when we have found it it sets an edge upon the truth and makes it more cutting and penetrating into the heart II Let us look to our ends in our work Without this our labour would be in vain Let us believe our selves what we speak and then we should mind the Glory of God and not our selves Alas what is the applause of men when we are gone but like a sound in a dead mans ear And what is it when we are alive but an empty breath that is lost sooner than got and is got oftentimes by idleness sooner than taking pains c. Let the good of men therefore and the Glory of God be the mark at which we aim And the Lord in Heaven hear our Prayers and bless our Preaching If all our Clergy by what Titles or Dignities soever distinguished did truly follow this advice there would be no Zealots among us for Impositions the destroyers of Piety and Charity V. Mischiefs in promoting a mighty increase of prophaneness and all kind of wickedness The Zealots for mens devices have little regarded what evils corrupted Church and State if the honour of these toys was supported They have been so mindful of maintaining these things that by their neglect they have suffered if not worse a flood of prophaneness and other wickedness to break in upon us I. Prophaneness in the outragious contempt of holy things There is scarce any thing in Religion that hath escaped the scorn and reproach of blind Zealots The Ordinance of Preaching the Lords day the Scripture our Holy Religion and Jesus Christ himself all have been struck at The Ordinance of Preaching The constant serious diligent performing of this would spread knowledge amongst the people to the prejudice of human Impositions in Divine Worship They would see what light things they are in the service of God Preaching hath therefore been struck at under pretence of promoting Prayer as the chief work of a Minister Dr. Holdsworth takes notice of it and on the contrary maintains at large this Thesis Prae dicatio verbi Dei opus est ordine primum maxime proprium Praelect Theolog. in Mat. 13.52 Lect. 3. pag. 19. longe praecipuum inter omnia Curae Pastoralis exercitia ad quod sua studia animum se totum imprimis maximè saepissimè appellere debeat c. Yet some have been so fierce against preaching Gods Word that Lectures have been diligently suppressed Prayers have been much advanced above Preaching as that which might be spared if the others were read Let us hear another Dr. concerning this abuse and the Practice of the Church in the primitive times Dr. Stilling Iren. pag. 333. Men that were imployed in the Church then did not consult for their Ease or Honour and thought it not enough for them to sit still and bid others work but they were of Pauls mind necessity was laid upon them yea wo was unto them if they Preached not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.16 Publick Prayers were not then looked on as the more Principal end of Christian Assemblies than Preaching c. Were the Apostles Commissioned by Christ to go Pray or Preach and what is it wherein the Ministers of the Gospel succeed the Apostles Is it in the office of Praying or Preaching c. Are Ministers in their Ordination sent forth to be readers of Publick Prayers or to be dispensers of Gods Holy Word pag. 334. c. This is one of the unhappy consequences which follows mens judging of the service of God rather by the Practices of the Church when it came to enjoy ease and plenty than by the ways and Practices of the first and purest Apostolical times c. People need
as much instruction as ever and so much the more in that they are apt to think now the name of Christians will carry them to Heaven c. Men must be beat off from more things which they are apt to trust to for Salvation now than in those times men could not think so much then that diligence in Publick Assemblies and attendance at Publick Prayers was the main Religion Few would profess Christianity in those times but such as were resolved beforehand rather to let go their lives than their Profession but the more Profess it now without understanding the terms of Salvation by it pag. 335. the greater necessity of Preaching to instruct men in it The Lords day hath met with many and great Enemies among the Ritualists This is a gracious injunction and gift of infinite Wisdom and Goodness necessary for us to rescue our Souls from Levity of mind carnal affections and worldly cares and to feed nourish and strengthen them with Spiritual Meditations and Heavenly Joys They that seriously endeavour to converse with God and their own Souls know the truth hereof But Formalists are ignorant of the Divine life to them the Sabbath is a burden Amo. 8.5 they say When will it be gone Pleading some years since with a grave Ceremonious Don of our Church for the sanctifying of the Lords day by spending it in Religious exercises he was so far from understanding me that his return was Shall a man be a whole day on the rack Such a mystery is the Spiritual life to a man that spends his Zeal on Rites and Ceremonies To ease such animal men from the rack a book for sports on the Lords day was injoined Ministers to read in the time of Divine Service Here we may wonder at the Fantastical humour of a sort of men they persecuted the people for working in their lawful callings on the Festival days and silenced conscientious Ministers for not reading a book for sports on Gods Day It was pretended in that sportful book that the superstitious observation of the Lords day did render his Majesties Subjects unfit for his Service in the Wars But what kind of Fighters those sportmongers on Gods day were the event shewed not long after Jer. 44.21 Did not the Lord remember them and came it not into his mind The Lords day duly observed is a mighty instrument for the promoting the Life of Godliness in the Souls of Christians The serious observation of this begets in people another Spirit than is in Christians of other Reformed Churches They are much more above the carnal World than most of them and than any that slight that day in our own The Scripture hath its share of contempt from Ceremonialists of the truth hereof the Impositions of Rome are a full proof We need not go so far For other Imposers are guilty of the same in a lower degree while they injoyn on Ministers and People terms of Communion not warranted by the Word of God And this is the worse because when Scripture is urged foolish preciseness and impertinency hath been charged on them that have pleaded against such unscriptural Impositions Our holy Religion hath been mightily exposed to the scorn of evil men when they see pretenders to it spend all their zeal on little things Force and Rigorous Impositions make men suspect the weight of the thing it self Dr. Stilling Iren. Pref. pag. 11. when such force is used to make it enter When people are very earnest for trifles as if the whole weight of Religion depended on them some may be tempted to suspect that all is but a cheat a trick of cunning Churchmen to form people to serve their purposes especially when one that hath written books for Conformity shall say that is the best Body of Divinity that enables a man to keep a Coach and six Horses Our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who hath suffered so much for sinners suffers again by the mockery of Ceremonies without the heart All the pomp of them is to him a Crown of Thorns if persecutors for them wound the weak consciences of his members One may conform to the use of the transient sign of the Cross and Scoff at the knowledge of Christ a book so called Parker of Religion and Loyalty Par. I. Pag. 28 29. Lon. 1684. ridicules the Title it bears Another is much more bold takes upon him to dethrone the King of Kings and set him at the footstool of Crowned dust It is but a crude expression not to call it prophane because it is so common by customary mistake to affirm that Kings are Supream Governours under Christ They are and ever were so under God but so as to be Superiour to Christ as Christ is head of his Church within their Dominions II. Mischiefs in promoting an increase of all kind of wickedness The most immoral men if they did pretend zeal for Ceremonies and were furious against Dissenters did pass for good Christians and true sons of the Church This false measure hath hardened abundance in their evil ways mightily cherished and increased vice in the Land Conformity to Ceremonies hath been a Cloak that hath covered the most filthy abominations The continuance of them in the Worship of God will be a gratification of the worst Christians and a grief to the best A Ceremonious service is apt to corrupt people with sensuality It is easy to the flesh not crossing any of its interests Holiness requires the subjection of the thoughts and imaginations of the heart unto Christ that we should be pure in thought word and deed But a ceremonial worship is only a bodily exercise which tho it profiteth little as the Apostle saith yet it serves to silence natural conscience and to represent men to imposing Governours as good members of the Church This is all that sensual men look for and if they obtain this they let loose the reins to all excess of riot How much did sensuality increase when it was connived at if not incouraged and tender conscience as the only bug-bear was every where hunted with a full cry People are regardless of the power of Christianity when they find that their Superiors are contented with a conformity to the externals of it The most vicious people cry The Temple of the Lord the Church of England to cover their Immoralities Away then with these mighty Engines of mischief Let us all chiefly mind and pursue those things which tend most to the promoting the work of Regeneration in the world If this course be taken Hypocrites will lose their advantages of seeming religious by zeal for those things wherein Religion doth not consist Corbets Kingdom of God Pa. 74. and carnal designs and interests that now rend the Churches and trouble all things would be defeated and abandoned Of all things that should most be regarded which qualifieth for heaven Mat. 5.8 that is holiness Without it there is no entring into that glorious Kingdom
and yet any fair offers of union and accommodation among our selves be so coldly embraced and entertained In the late times when our Parliaments struggled with Arbitrary Power for the preservation of our Religion and Laws tho' the noble Peers spoke never so good reason in matters of the greatest importance yet two or three Bishops always voted against them They were then called the dead weight If it be said that they were over-awed by Soveraign Command it is not so now The hinderers of our happiness our present sticklers for Ceremonies have all the encouragement in the World from the King Lords and Commons The eyes of the people are upon us expecting that we should act like good Pastors healing the breaches and labouring in our stations to secure the publick Peace If we now disappoint the just expectations of wise and good men of all ranks we may necessitate the Government to take other measures for the preservation of the Peace and the satisfaction of an awakened people The good temper wisdom diligence faithfulness and courage of Gods Servants have been useful to mankind But a carnal Faction of Christians being hurried by a mad zeal for little things have oppressed these benefactors stained the glory of the Nation beaten down the rents of lands discouraged diligence destroyed Trade and brought the most illustrious Island in the World to a low state Nothing can recover a languishing people Corbet Kingdom of God p. 123. but the reviving of true Piety Wherever it roots and spreads it makes no small part of the prudence courage industry and frugality and by consequence of the wealth and strength of a Nation There is no aggregation of men in the World wherein appears more of that which is good and profitable to men than is found where the influence of this profession becomes predominant whether in a Nation or Kingdom or City or Family The spirit of this profession being sober solid and serious is happy in disposing towards the attainment of much perfection in all profitable science pag. 145 and especially toward that which is most excellent and useful in humane affairs to wit solid and deep judgment In this respect the children of true Wisdom stand upon the vantage ground c. The continuance of Ceremonies may nurse up a generation of Vipers to act over again the same cruelties and to drive us back again into the miseries and confusions from which we are so lately delivered If God for our sins should give us up into their hands they will make sure work and leave nothing to be done by those that come after them A relapse in the state is as dangerous as in the body natural III. Mischief to Souls For trifles there hath been exercised a mad tyranny over mens faculties The Persecutors would not suffer people to act like rational creatures Tho in their consciences they doubt of the lawfulness of mens devices in the Worship of God yet they used all means to force them to a Conformity It is the highest usurpation to rob men of the Liberty of their judgments Dr. Stilling Iren. page 118 119. A man hath not power over his own much less can others have it If every private person must judge what is lawful and what not which is commanded as when all is said every man will be his own judge in this case in things concerning his own welfare then he is no further bound to obey than he judgeth the thing to be lawful which is commanded What hindereth Governours from removing those things which they own to be in their own nature Indifferent Is not the peace of weak Consciences infinitely to be preferred before unnecessary Impositions Blessed is he that considereth the Poor Psal 41.1 Surely much more blessed are they that compassionately consider the burdens and oppressions of grieved souls They that regard Conscience in themselves will value the interests of Conscience in others It is no commendation in Pastors to imitate the Egyptian Task-masters who made the lives of Gods people bitter through hard bondage all the service wherein they made them serve was with rigour Exod. 1.14 The Ministers of the Gospel of peace should not be rigorous towards their people Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour Lev. 25.43 but shalt fear thy God By the Antithesis it appears that where the fear of God is there will not be in Pastors rigour and severity towards their flocks for small matters Christ will have us shew our love to him in feeding his Lambs this must be done with fitting food impositions are Briers and Thorns our fierce Bigots would still teach their people as Gideon did the men of Succoth Judg. 8. with Briers and Thorns This is much more easy to Loyterers than the drudgery of Preaching which one called the Mechanical part of the Office of a Minister saying he would not much trouble himself with it The neglect of this in many places sheweth that there are more of his mind What a zeal is there in many for shadows And how are precious Souls carelesly left by them at random when they thus despise and neglect the Preaching of the Gospel which is the power of God unto Salvation The little things imposed are a means of depriving the Church of the service of many useful Ministers that are apt to teach and would be glad to give the bread of life to those Souls that are by drones left in the broad way to destruction The making unnecessary terms of Ministerial service which Christ never injoin'd is an Invasion of his Kingly Office Some have been zealous for Prerogative when it was heavier than the loins of all the Kings since the conquest but they make light of usurping the Rights of the King of Kings Christ commands his Ministers to Preach and qualifies them for that service No say some they shall not Preach except they will wear the surplice He bids them baptize No they shall not if they will not sign with the Cross St. Paul saith Woe is unto me if I Preach not the Gospel and Christ saith Feed my Lambs no it is no matter if you will not do it upon terms devised by us The want of these excluded Pastors weakens the hands of those pious Ministers that do conform The crying necessities of Souls will find work enough for us and them too if every one of us had the zeal and abilities of the Apostle Paul The humane measures for Ministers may chance to admit some bad men into the Church and is very likely to shut out abundance of able Pastors whose Consciences doubt of the lawfulness of complying with terms not injoined by Christ Instead of keeping out burning and shining lights we had need trim some of our own that give but a faint light if any at all We have some unsavoury Salt Mat. 5 13. it concerns us to remove it to its due place and admit that which hath too long been kept out
Prov. 14.34 II. They hinder love among the people and between the people and their Ministers I. Love amongst the people is mightily hindred by the divisions and animosities caused by human Impositions If we look back on our miserable confusions and well consider how far our divisions contributed toward the bringing us into them we shall find that these Roman Nettles have not been less mischievous to us than the fiery Serpents were to the Israelites in the wilderness They were the Rod of God and directed them to the Brazen Serpent a Type of him who was to be the healer of the Nations Our Bigots are for continuing these tormentors amongst us but provide nothing to heal the wounds they make they will not as one said part with a rag to bind up the bleeding wounds of the Church The Sons of Zerviah cry The Church of England the Church of England and do most endanger it by labouring the preservation of these tools of dissention hindring our joining together in the Service of God with one heart and one Soul and uniting to defend the King and Kingdom against the common Enemy Love is the bond of perfection and would make us mighty against all that hate us if these Incendiaries did not raise jealousies of the Churches danger it may be with a design to maintain a faction among us to make an after-game for the late King If we review the method taken the design of and the use that hath been made of the re-establishment of Ceremonies we shall plainly see the wild fire that is in the present zeal of our hot-spurs Soon after the Restauration the enemies of Piety and Vertue resolved to continue the division between the two most potent Interests of the Protestants in England to further this a sham-plot was cast upon the Presbyterians in several Counties this was so improved in Parliament that Penal Laws were easily obtained to inslave and destroy the Dissenters And when those Laws did not sufficiently purge Pious Ministers out of the Church Clifford a Papist moved that they might be stab'd with an Oath which ran like Wild fire amongst the Pensioners and so the renunciation of the Covenant was enacted into a Law which turned out some that in their Judgments were for a Liturgy and Episcopal Government The gaining of this point was of so great importance to the designs of the Popish Cabal that the Parliaments could never obtain the removing of our differences by a Legal Indulgence When the Parliament voted that the prosecution of Dissenters was a grievance and dangerous to the Kingdom they were sent home to hear a Libel read against them in the Churches and the fire of persecution raged more than ever The Court would never part with these bombs that were made to Sacrifice both parties to the rage of the Popish Conspirators First The Dissenters were worried and wasted by the most violent Persecutions inflamed by the secret enemies of Religion and promoted by debauched and perjured Informers Then in the Church the most Pious and Sober members of it were prosecuted as disaffected to the Government The conspirators who were against a Legal indulgence could afford an Indulgence against Law and that was never thought of but when the Protestant Interest was to pay very dear for it There were but two Declarations of Indulgence One when the Dutch were to be rob'd of a vast treasure in their Smyrna Fleet and a War to be made for the destruction of the Protestant States of Holland the other was designed to choak the whole body of the Church of England Clergy who for not reading it in their Churches were to be Sacrificed to Moloch by Jefferies and his brethren of the Inquisition Our Bigots must have gone to pot with the rest if God had not inspired our Gracious Soveraign to expose himself between us and danger and yet some of these men do murmur at the happiness they enjoy by his goodness and courage Now if after we have been all thus well bang'd by these tools some will have them and they must not be abolish't pray let them be left indifferent Let him that would have a May-pole have one and he that would have none let him not be obliged to play with a post a post that hath almost beaten out his brains Love can never flourish in the Church if Impositions the matter of contention and divisions in it are continued The heart-burnings and Schisms caused by them are chargeable upon the imposers who will not suffer Christians to enjoy the Ordinances upon the terms appointed by our Lord. Ecclesiastical Superiors are as much concerned to take heed of Schismatical Impositions Corbet Kingdom of God Pag. 73. as the people are to shun Schismatical recusancy and disobedience II. They hinder love between Ministers and the People They beget a dislike in the Ministers of their Parishioners when they leave the publick Worship and this dislike grows to such a strangeness towards their Neighbours that they lose many opportunities of doing them good which they might do by a free and gentle correspondence with them They make the People to despise us when they see us to be fond of things which they know to be trifles And how can they love us when they have no value for us We live in a knowing age people see the vanity of those things on which some among us place all their zeal they know that by the divisions caused by them all our miseries and dangers were let in upon us and if we still stickle for them they will abhor us believing that we do not care if we bring them back again into all those calamitous confusions from which we are so lately delivered Let us not deceive our selves the interest of the Clergy of England doth not depend on the continuance of Ceremonies we shall gain much more upon the People by casting them away They value us only for Piety Sobriety and Diligence and where there are such as the Prophet describes they flock to the Assemblies of Dissenters Isa 56 10 11 12. they value not their Conformity if they are Drones or do not Preach seriously and profitably Is it worth the while to continue the things that have driven multitudes from our Communion and deprived us of many advantages of being useful for the good of their Souls Let us lay aside all stumbling blocks and labour to the utmost of our power to promote sound knowledge in all our several Stations this will engage and fix the love of the People on us When the publick order throughly promotes the means of sound knowledge Corbet Kingdom of God Pag. 164. and encourageth real Godliness it satisfies the minds of them who justly expect in a Gospel Church and Ministry more than an outward Form even the manifestation of Truth and Spiritual Light Life and Power and it prevents their wandring to seek after it in the devious paths of Sectaries III. They hinder Communion of Churches We have
lift up its head again in this Land yet if we continue in the same course that provoked God to cast us into the late confusions he can find other plagues to inflict upon us We know not a heavier plague than Popery but he can send one that shall be more terrible and destructive In his Word he speaks mildly to rigorous Governours What mean ye that beat my people to pieces Isa 3.15 But he will thunder in his Judgments against them that break his flock to pieces scattering them from the Communion of his Church by unnecessary impositions Tho by the Act of Indulgence the instruments of Persecution are struck out of the hands of Persecutors yet we may be still guilty of Persecution if we continue those things that armed evil men against his people and do still drive his Lambs from their Pastures and the punishment of persecution may overtake us The black-horses the instruments of the execution of Gods anger Charnock Vol. 2. on Exod. 15.9 10. pag. 50. were sent towards Babylon where his people were in Captivity Zech. 6.6 Their's was only a bodily Captivity their consciences were free Are not Gods people now in Spiritual Captivity when they must not enjoy his Ordinances with us but upon terms they cannot conform to and he never appointed Have not we reason to expect that the black horses should be let loose to run swiftly and furiously upon us By endeavouring to continue our stubble we may be opposers of God in the great work that he seems to be doing for his Church the advancement of it to a purer and more glorious State It may be observed that generally a glorious state in the Church hath followed her greatest straits In Egypt when the task was doubled and straw denyed Deut. 4.34 Moses was sent and God delivered his people by signs and wonders and great terrours The Jews were without Urim and Thummin without the Spirit of Prophesy when Christ came in the flesh to work Redemption How low was the infant Church when Christ was in the Grave his disciples all scattered How black the hour and great the Power of Darkness when the Sun was darkened and the earth trembled This was followed with the accomplishment of the great Prophecy that Japhet should dwell in the Tents of Sem Gen 9.27 delivered by Noah about two thousand years before fulfilled in the raising of a Gentile Church The Church was more glorious after the Parisian Massacre the persecution in the Netherlands and the Marian Flames in England Hamans Plot to destroy all the Jews caused great mourning and Fasting Esth 4.3.8.16 and Weeping amongst them But the plotter is hanged on his own Gallows and the Jews had Light and Joy and honour We have reason to hope that after the late Plot for the Extirpation of the Northern Heresie and the great Extremity this Church was reduced to she shall now be more beautiful and glorious than ever if the peevishness of some doth not cause a delay of this happiness The sharpest pangs precede deliverance it was so when Christ came in the flesh Charnock Vol. 2. on Exod. 15.9 10. pag. 46. it will be so at every new rising of Christ in the Spirit If people did look before them and consider the Providence of God and tendency of things they would be more indifferent towards Indifferent things the Divine Power and Jealousie would cool their blind Zeal for such matters they would be afraid to oppose his work lest he send upon them that Woe that is denounced against them that presume to strive with their Maker It is a dangerous thing to be found fighters against God Isa 45.9 Gods Counsel must stand Fulfilling of Scripture Part. 3. considerations anent Popery p. ult Oh! At what a rate do these now run in the way of his wrath and vengeance and to be partakers of the same plagues with Antichrist who yet will not cease for giving their power to support that accursed and falling interest This is not at all to be accounted strange that men should walk contrary to God and oppose him there were always such as did set themselves against his work in the World and there are now Children of Belial all zealous for Ceremonies to a man that murmur against their own happiness bestowed upon them by God in bringing about the most wonderful revolution that ever was We have the less reason to admire this stubbornness in man because the Devil a subtle Spirit and knows that his opposing God will increase his future misery â—et he is so blinded with malice that he always wageth War against his Creator and Judge Charnock Vol. 2. on Ps 87.5 p. 26. It is an astonishment that the Devil after so long an experience should be such a fool as to engage in new attempts when he hath found so little Success in the former and hath had so many ages to witness the baffles he hath received what a fool is he to think that the defender of the Church should be conquered by a revolted angel that lies under an everlasting curse This should make us all to suspect our selves when we are warm for things that are not appointed by God and are stumbling-blocks to many pious Christians It is much better to fear to offend the weak than to run rashly on lest we be found to walk contrary unto God and provoke him to walk contrary unto us He hath many plagues for them that do so After many Judgments Lev. 26.18 he tells the Israelites that he will punish them seven times more for their sins And if they still walk contrary unto him he saith again I will bring seven times more Plagues upon you 21. according to your sins The like also v. 24. 27. And if yet they walk contrary unto him he saith I will walk contrary unto you in fury and I even I 28. will chastise you seven times for your sins Here are 28 degrees of punishment which number he can mount much higher for the Chastisement of them who after manifold experience of our Confusions and miseries occasioned by quarrels about trifles will yet for them walk contrary unto him There have been innumerable Judgments executed in the world and Judgments recorded in the Word of God and there are also unwritten plagues reserved for his obstinate enemies Every Sickness Deut. 28.61 and every Plague which is not written in the Book of this Law them will the Lord bring upon thee until thou be destroyed But if after many methods of severity people will continue perverse Ezek. 38.18 Isa 4â— 3 Am. 4.11 12. his fury shall come up in his face he will take vengeance and will not meet them as a man but as a God Yet ye have not returned unto me saith the Lord. Therefore thus will I do unto Israel and because I will do this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel II. Our future danger from
the continuance of Ceremonies and that in respect of the account we must give to our Judge Honour Plenty and Ease may harden the hearts of some of us against tenderly considering the danger of Souls excluded from our Communion and thereby exposed as a prey to Sectaries but all the glory and pleasure of this world will be contemptible when the sign of the Son of man shall appear in heaven Mat 24 30. Acâ— 26.13 His glory at mid-day was unto Paul a light from heaven above the brightness of the Sun That sign may be such a glory filling the whole World with the brightness thereof every where seen by amazed mankind He who hath created the glorious body of the Sun which is 139 some say 166 times bigger than this Globe in which we live can spread a more Glorious Light over this point of earth or particle of dust for so it is if compared with the vast extent of the Heavens Whatever that sign shall be it is like it shall be visible to all not only to the righteous for their comfort but also to the wicked for their terrour Mat. 24.30 Gen. 49.5 It is said that all the tribes of the Earth shall then mourn They of the Tribe of Levi who are for instruments of Cruelty shall have their share in the mourning What trembling will seize upon them 1 Thes 1.16 17. when the mighty blast of Gods Trumpet shall awake all the Sleepers in the dust them that have not lodged six days in the Grave 1 Cor 15.52 and the Sleepers of 6000 years His power shall raise all the dead and change the living in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye An universal flame shall embrace the heavens and the earth the God of our proud and covetous Formalists melt the frozen World in the Laodicean State 2 Pet. 3.10 The Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Rev. 20.12 The dead small and great shall stand before God to be judged according to their works Then mocking Ishmaels that have scoffed at the pure in heart as Puritans Precise Fools and Melancholy dull Souls shall take the Fools cap unto themselves and they repenting Wisd 5 and groaning for anguish of Spirit shall say within themselves This was he whom we had sometimes in derision and a proverb of reproach We fools accounted his life madness and his end to be without honour How is he numbred among the Children of God and his Lot is among the Saints Some among us are angry with Calvin for calling humane rites tolerables ineptias Epist Anglis Franâ—â—ford p. 98. They will not at the great day be such unto rigorous Imposers who made them terms of Communion How will you at that day lift up your faces before your Master and your Judge when he shall demand of you What is become of those his Lambs which you drove into the Wilderness by needless Impositions He requires you to pray unto the Lord of the harvest that he would fend forth more labourers into his harvest and you keep away many worthy labourers from his work because they cannot comply with terms that he never appointed We may think it a light matter to offend weak Christians but it will not be always so Wo unto the World because of offences Mat. 18.7 For it must needs be that offences come but wo unto that man by whom the offence cometh Offences will hereafter be as heavy to the Imposers of humane inventions as they are now to the weak The punishment of them that offend one of Christs little ones will be more dreadful than being cast into the Sea with a milstone about the neck Luk. 17.2 If Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels shall be the lightest punishment inflicted on them that feed not the hungry and do not cloath the naked how deep will their lodging be in the lake of Fire and Brimstone who lay Stumbling-blocks before multitudes of Souls to their so great Scandal that they forsake the Ordinances of Jesus Christ how terrible will it be to be punished with everlasting destruction 2 Thes 1.9 from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power This will be heavier than many Milstones For all the works and Mountains in the world will be light in comparison of the weight of the wrath of the Lamb. The ravening Wolves that have worried Christs Flock the great Clerks that have troubled Church and State with their stiffness for very little things the mighty Nimrods that have desolated the earth shall in vain cry for a covering to the frighted and flying Mountains and the molten Rocks that could not save themselves from the power of the Judge who made the Heaven to depart as a scroll when it is rolled together Rev. 6.14 15 16 17. And the Kings of the Earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief Captains c. hid themselves in the Dens and in the Rocks of the Mountains and said to the Mountains and Rocks Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand FINIS
relief of the oppressed and the advancement of the Protestant Interest at home and abroad Let it not give offence if I say that we shall be ingrateful towards Dissenters They were steady for the preservation of the Church of England in the day of our distress against the taking away of the Test and the Penal Laws by which they had smarted so much There were more of our own Communion than of theirs that revolted from us and turned against the Laws And now they have an Indulgence by Law they are contented with the liberty of serving God according to their conscience and trouble not the Government with Petitions for more neither have they given any indication of envying us the honours and Profits we enjoy How shall we give an account to God and Man for all the evils that may be occasioned by our obstinacy Mankind may justly abhor us if we perversly shake the foundations of the Peace and Happiness of our Countrey for things of no value The word Schism hath been a long time by some of us flung about at random but now people will know on whom to charge it The meetings of the Dissenters are as legal as ours None are by the Law of God or man obliged to hold Communion with us upon the present terms If we by continuing them drive people from us the Schism will lodge at our doors and we shall be the Schismaticks They that for Rites labour to keep up our animosities justify the late violences Bishop Burnets Exhortation to Peace and Vnion Pag. 27. and make themselves guilty of all the Persecutions of former times Men may be still Persecutors tho' they are not able to persecute any longer according to our Saviours charging the guilt of intended sins on those who never acted them And God may charge upon them all the blood that hath been shed from the foundation of the World from the blood of Abel unto the blood of those glorious champions for our Religion and Laws Essex Russel Sidney Cornish c. Verily I say unto you it shall be required of this Generation Luk. 11.51 They who approved of and rejoiced in the murder of these men of honour may have their hands full of blood in the sight of God II. It is a vain thing to attempt the continuance of Ceremonies Wise men when they are earnest in the prosecution of any affair aim at some end that may recompence their diligence Now it is exceeding difficult to find out what end people propose to themselves in being zealous for the keeping up of these things When a comprehension was endeavoured by that incomparable Triumvirate of our Church the Lord Keeper Bridgman the Lord Chief Justice Hales and Bishop Wilkins it was objected the concessions would tempt those of our own Communion to forsake us and go over to the Church of Rome Whatever strength there was in that Objection then it signifies little now Popery having appear'd since in its true colours We need not fear the losing of any except them who corrupted the Victuals and put Garbage into the Vessels of Beer for the Navy who hindred the relief of Derry till many 1000s died for want and are the cause that no more of Ireland is recovered who by manifold treachenies have obstructed affairs of greatest moment in England and Scotland We may also lose some of the Devil Tavern club it were better for us to be rid of them than to be betrayed by them in Protestant vizors As for the debauches if many or all of them depart from us the loss will not be so great as the mischief they do us by pretending to be of our Communion Let them declare themselves Fanaticks Papists any thing rather than members of the Church of England Dr. Sharps Sermon before the Commons April 11. 1679. It would perhaps be more desireable to live in a mean low afflicted condition without such Company than to govern the World with it There is great danger now of losing multitudes to the Dissenters by the continuance of Ceremonies Your coercive power is gone I can heartily say with his Lordship Bishop Burnet God be thanked for it that there is an end put to all Persecution in matters of Conscience Exhort to Peace and Vnion p. 27. and that the first and chief Right of Humane Nature of following the dictates of Conscience in the service of God is secured to all men amongst us and that we are freed I hope for ever of all the remnants of the worst part of Popery that we had too long retained I mean the Spirit of Persecution The Act of Indulgence sets all men at liberty and it comes not long after a very fierce Persecution which will increase the number of Distenters more than ever The barbarity of that Persecution the wickedness of the instruments it being carried on by perjur'd Informers and debauched Juries the dangerous design of it to fright the Dissenters or by Excommunication to disable them from assisting the sober party of our Church in choosing good Members of Parliament and honest Officers in London and other Corporations for the Preservation of our Religion and Laws these and other aggravations of that cruel storm with the continuance of Ceremonies that then armed furies against us and our brethren will breed a mighty prejudice in people against us as a most odious and contemptible generation of men if after so many miseries and confusions we do for trifles expose all the Interests of our Countrey into the greatest dangers imaginable We can impose these things upon none but the Ministers and their Clarks An unseasonable peevishness for them will make many detest our foolish superstition and forsake our Assemblies There is no keeping up their honour except we blind the people which is now impossible For if we neglect Preaching seriously the Dissenters will do it for us and in 7 years their Preachers may be increased ten to one for what they are now Our own Clergy who have a Zeal for the glory of God and the good of Souls cannot avoid promoting the work Many of them submit not to Ceremonies out of choice but as a burden from which they would gladly be delivered If they did speak out it would be as Erasmus did of wealth non magis ambio opes quà m elumbis equus graves sarcinas They are to them but as the heavy load on the Carriers staggering Horse As Knowledge increaseth Zeal for Ceremonies will grow more and more ridiculous It is the hope of many good and learned men that the time is at hand when God will deliver his Church for ever from the darkness of the Kingdom of Antichrist and that the Nations will cast away all things that have been instruments of advancing his tyranny and superstition Surely that glorious day will open mens eyes I have faith to believe that England will not be blind when other nations see Dr. Stilling Iren. p. 121. God will one day convince men
that the Union of the Church lies more in the Unity of Faith and Affection than in the Uniformity of doubtful Rites and Ceremonies It is the condescension of the Government that the desired Union is proposed to the Clergy the Legislative Power may do it without us The Lords the Knights of the Shires and the Burgesses know who are fit in their several Counties to be Counsellors of Peace and Healers of our Breaches and if we are unwilling to be Peace-makers they may if they please make a Law that the Members of both Houses shall in their several Counties choose three or four Divines to sit in Convocation to offer unto them what may settle the peace of our Church In the act of Indulgence the King Lords and Commons have acted like good Pastors that are careful of the Flock I wish our Convocation follow their good example If we will not do our parts we have no reason to think that the Nobles and Gentlemen will sacrifice all their Interests to our fondness of continuing snares among the people If a combustion should happen we shall in the issue lose more than is now desired A Ceremonial War hath been once fatal to Clergy-men another will strike home The Church would lose nothing tho all its Ceremonies were laid aside The beauty and excellency of it is not at all advanc'd by a luggage of Impositions They are no more an Ornament to the Church than the Chains of a Galley or Prison are Ornaments to the poor man that is laden with them The Church is the spouse of Christ her Glory consists in a conformity to him her Head and Bridegroom in holiness and love and not in such geere Rev. 17.1 2. as is common to the great Whore who hath made the inhabitants of the earth drunk with the wine of her fornication I dare affirm saith Mr. Bolde that if the Rites and Ceremonies now in use in the Church of England Plea for Moderation P. 11 12. should be altered some changed and some laid wholly aside by the same authority which did at first enjoyn them the Church of England would still be as impregnable a Bulwark against Popery as now she is And I am fully satisfied there is no man will deny this unless he be either a real Papist or an ignorant superstitious fool After all the endeavours of our Bigots neither these things nor they that labour to support them will ever be valued by them that are seriously pious in our own Communion All the art and power in the world cannot make trifles in the Worship of God seem matters of importance to them that rellish Heavenly things What Trumpery are Habits various Gestures and Postures to a man that is swallowed up in the contemplation of the infinite Majesty of the Glorious God or that is lost in the ravishing admiration of his goodness and love or that is sunk into the lowest abasements and self-abhorrence for his sins Such a soul may be loaded with human Inventions but he can never look upon them as ornaments or helps unto devotion On the contrary he may count himself mocked and reckon those imposed fooleries no better than the fools caps and coats which Persecutors did put on the Saints of God when they led them to the stake to be sacrificed in the flames They may be valued by formal dead Christians but the spiritually minded will look on them as toys fit only to adom Hypocrites III. It is unreasonable to continue Ceremonies After all that the Wisdom and Power of Imposers can do the judgments of men will differ It is as possible to make their Hair all of one Colour their Bodies of the same Proportion their Faces all alike as their Judgments to be the same in Rites and Ceremonies Instead of obtaining Uniformity by Impositions they break the Unity of the Spirit and crumble the Church into Parties and Sects Which may seem strange saith Dr. Stillingfleet the things that men can least bear with one another in are matters of Liberty Iren. Pag. 38. and those things men have divided most upon have been matters of Uniformity and wherein they have differed most have been pretended things of Indifferency Nothing but what is necessary should be imposed as Terms of Communion What possible reason can be given why such things should not be sufficient for Communion with a Church which are sufficient for Salvation Ib. Pref. 8. and certainly those things are sufficient for that which are laid down as the necessary duties of Christianity by our Lord and Saviour in his Word The practice of the Reformers of the Church from Popery is a good pattern for us to follow Ib. Pag. 121. 122. Such was the prudence and temper of the French Churches in the composing their publick Forms of Brayer that they were so far from inserting any thing controversial into them that the Papists themselves would use them and inserted them into their own Prayer book The same temper was used by our Reformers in the composing our Liturgy in reference to the Papists to whom they had then an especial eye c. And certainly those holy men who did seek by any means to draw in others at such a distance from their principles as the Papists were did never intend by what they did for that end to exclude any tender consciences from their Communion That which they laid as a bait for them was never intended by them as a hook for those of their own profession But the same reason which at that time made them yield so far to them would now have perswaded them to alter and lay aside those things which yield matter of offence to any of the same profession with themselves So far Dr. Still By the letters Dr. Eurnets Letters Pag. 46. c. he means of our reformers to Bullinger of which I read the Originals it appears that the Bishops preserved the ancient Habits rather in compliance with the Queens inclinations than out of any liking they had to them So far were they from liking them that they plainly exprest their dislike of them Jewel in a Let. Feb. 8. 1566. wishes that the Vestments together with all the other remnants of Popery might be thrown both out of their Churches and out of the minds of the people and laments the Queens fixedness to them So that she would suffer no change to be made And Jan. 1566. Sands writes to the same purpose Contenditur de vestibus Papisticis utendis vel non utendis dabit deus his quoque finem Horn Jul. 16. 1565. writes of the Act concerning Habits with great regret and expresses some hopes that it might be repealed next Session of Parliament if the Popish party did not hinder it and he seems to stand in doubt whether he should conform himself to it or not upon which he desires Bullingers advice And in many letters wrote on the Subject it is asserted that both Cranmer and Ridley intended