Constitution suffers from men who are enemies upon a pretence of Conscience and Religion And here I might bring you a Catalogue of various Sects and Parties of men who though they cannot agree amongst themselves when they come to divide the Churches spoil yet all combine together to make the Church it self their spoil and in pursuit of this by what Names do they describe this excellent Church in their Prayers and Preachments but by the Whore of Babylon the Cruel Dragon that pours out flouds of poysonous water upon the Woman the Slayer of the Witnesses with many other of this Nature And her pious Prayers must be scorned under the Notion of dull and formal things fit for dark Times and for none to use but such as understand not the impressions of Gods good Spirit And her Reverend Prelates instead of the ancient and Primitive Appellation of Fathers must be branded with the Name of Step-Fathers instead of Pillars Caterpillars whose Houses are haunted and their Episcopal Chairs poysoned by the Spirit that bears rule in the Air. And for her Ceremonies they forsooth must be reported to be kept on foot on purpose to symbolize with and show our affections to the Church of Rome and this must be said with a great deal of confidence notwithstanding the men that suggest it know and are convinced at the same time that no men of any Profession whatever have thrust sharper Darts into the sides of that pretended Catholick Mother than the Sons of the Church have done And though I know this looks very disingenously and I think I had not wronged my Charity if I had said Dishonestly yet nothing is more common amongst men who study the Interest of a Party and are resolved to six themselves if possible in the Chair of Authority and Government The most useful Vertues must be made Vices and Worthy Actions that serve the Publick and argue a true Generosity of Mind in him that does them yet must be misconstrued and the Principles of the Actions censured and some Circumstance or other thrust into them whereby the Credit of them may be blasted Thus when Archbishop Land took care for preventing the subversion of the Church of England by the spreading of the Socinian Heresies in suppressing books of that nature Mr. Burton charges it as one of his Crimes upon him reproaching him for suppressing those Books for no other Reason but because they magnified the Authority of the Holy Scriptures A Censure as full of Spight and evil Nature as most I have met withal But thus it is and as far as I can see into Affairs and Tempers will be so long as some Designs are on foot and some sorts of Spirits are permitted Let us say what we will and enter into all manner of serious Protestations that we are no Papists neither aim at the Introduction of Popery in the least Let the Members of our Church write with never so much strength and weight against the Innovations of that Church nay let the Life of our Church be begun in the Death of many Worthies for their resolved and stedfast Opposition to that Church why yet that we are Papists or else inclinable thereunto being a pretty way to convey Prejudices into the Common People against us and to draw off their Affections to our Persons that thereby they may the more easily be allured from our Doctrine and Publick Administrations why to this good End and that the Glory of God may be magnified and the Power of his pure Ordinances demonstrated in the destruction of the Sons of Babylon we must be Papists and we must drink of the same Cup of Fornication that Mother of Harlots does and when we write against her 't is but a Copy of our countenances for in our hearts we are for Rome And after all this can any man wonder that a Church so batter'd at by Persons professing more than ordinary Sanctity and Holiness and expressing that Holiness by so many formal and taking ways by all that their Hands and Tongues their Faces and Gestures are capable of that a Church thus misrepresented and withal to persons of weak Judgments and yet strong conceits as God knows most of the common people are can we I say wonder that a Church surrounded and stormed by such Enemies as these lives not in its ancient Splendour in its just and due Esteem And what will be the end of permitting all this though I must confess I have many sad Reflections about it why that I leave to the Magistrates of the Kingdom who have great Estates to preserve and ancient Families to support and continue to consider of And thus having shown you the Damages this Church sustains by open Enemies we will now proceed to and take notice of the Injuries she suffers from false Friends And here also we find Two Sorts of Persons whom she hath no reason to be proud of 1. Some whom we will consider as Persons in their Political Capacity as Members of the Civil Body and Two ways the Church suffers by them 1. By their vicious Lives and Conversations especially if the men who lead these Lives be men of Power and Authority It is observed that among the Common People things though never so excellent in themselves though never so conducive to advantageous purposes yet they lose their esteem when men of profligate Lives have the Manage of them And though I have to assault my Betters with any rudeness and both my Function and Education oblige me to Decency both in my words and carriage yet give me leave to be a little plain with you that are our Country Patriots and to entreat you all who by the good liking of our great Lord the King sit in higher Places than others to vindicate the Honour of our Church to recommend it to the choice and love of all within your Neighbourhood by your sober Lives and worthy Conversations It was an excellent Saying of an Honourable Person some years ago who when lying upon his death-bed did thus express himself That he had looked into all Forms and considered all Models of Discipline and Governmens and found none so agreeable both to the Apostolical Example and Primitive Practice as the Discipline and Government of the Church of England and that he found but one unanswerable Argument against it and that was the Lives of too many who profess an outward kindness to it Oh did our Magistrates comport themselves according to the Rules of the Holy Gospel did they countenance Godliness and Sobriety and punish all those notorious Impieties which are so obvious to the Common People and which where only the Laws of Nature have their Influence come under censure did they in their several Publick Meetings carry themselves with that Gravity which becomes their Places and which indeed their places if they would keep up the necessary Reputation of them call for at their hands Further did they encourage the Publick Preachers by their constant Attendance and
those Institutions whereby Religion is instilled into their minds p. 98 99. 12. The Church proved to suffer inconvenience from the imprudent way of executing Justice by many of our subordinate Magistrates upon the Offenders of her Laws p. 103 104 105 106. Lastly The Churches loss considered by those mean and scanty Provisions that are made for her Children in many places especially in Corporation Towns p. 107. Three Inconveniences arising hence 1. As thereby Clergy-men are dispirited p. 111. 2. Or else debauched p. 113. 3. Or else discontented p. 115. Conclusion p. 116. An address 1. To the Nobility and Gentry p. 117 118 119 120. 2. To the Nonconformists p. 122 usque finem A MODEST PLEA FOR THE CHURCH of ENGLAND John VI. 68. Then Simon Peter answered him Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life ALL Societies and incorporated Bodies Religious as well as Civil are preserved by Love and Union by being knit and keeping close together and whatsoever Principles they are that have any tendency to disperse and scatter to divide and separate men in their Judgments and Affections they ought to be shunned and abandoned as the underminers not only of mens peace and comfortable abode together but of their real safety and security and every man ought to fear the imbibing and sucking of them in as he does the most violent Poyson the least dram of which is enough to infect those vital parts which keep the body in good heart and plight For such principles they heat mens fancies and naturally make them proud and insolent and nothing can satisfie those who are commanded by them but Rule and Government Authority and Dominion and to curb and rein them in as to any thing they have placed their Passions on is to make them like the wild Bull entangled in a fast-knotted Net full of rage and fury overthrowing every thing with an impetuous violence that stands in their way to the enjoyment of their desire object and neither the Thrones of Princes nor the Stalls of Prelates shall escape their rude Tongues nor their ruder Hands but both the one and the other must be torn down on purpose to be a sacrifice to their Revenge and Lust to their Malice and evil Nature He that looks into History and by the advantage of his standing in the World can reflect upon the last thirty years Transactions in this Kingdom will quickly satisfie himself in this He will find by vertue of such Principles the best of Princes murthered and that which demonstrates the mischievous influence of these Principles indeed this horrid and unaccountable Action done with all the pretences of Law and Justice of Piety and Religion Further upon an easie search he will find the best of Churches framed with all advantages for the keeping up of the Purity of Religion and yet preserving that just honour and Grandeur that belongs both to its Service and its Officers this very Church first treated with scorn and reflected upon with the most bitter Sarcasmes and then robbed without the least Pity though I am sure with great Dishonesty with abundance of other spreading Evils which did these men take no more pleasure to act than I do to name they would not be so common in the world And therefore it being so it ought to be the care of every one of us to use our utmost diligence to discountenance and if possible to bury all those Principles from which we have experienced and do withal foresee so dreadful mischiefs and if we cannot do it by Arguments and Reason the force of which through Prejudice and interest is resisted why those with whom the execution of the Laws is entrusted the Civil Magistrates according to their Oaths ought to punish the Propagators and Spreaders of them And that they may be encouraged to so good a work and so very necessary at this time without which we must needs be involved in a certain if not speedy ruine these words are chosen to be treated upon at this time Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life The Sence of which words without any reflection upon the occasion of them in brief is this That so long as men can enjoy the clear Methods of Salvation and have all those necessary Means and Helps that the wants of their Souls require in order to eternal happiness so long as nothing is imposed upon them either in Belief or Practice that naturally tends to obstruct and hinder the progress of Holiness and Religion in mens Minds so long as men may under that Dispensation in which they were born and bred as easily nay sooner attain those divine Qualifications those excellent Dispositions those needful Graces and useful Vertues which the Gospel commands every mans endeavour after than they can under any other So long as the Society to which they are united is a true Society in which are all Administrations according to the injunction of him who is the Master of it why wither should we go from it in order to better and mend our selves Let us run into what Tents we please let us betake our selves to what numbers of men we can that magnifie themselves with the most glorious Titles and profess themselves the only Favourites and Intimadoes of the Holy Jesus why yet we can but attain to eternal Life and that I am sure to as good nay better purposes all things considered we may do where we are already and therefore Lord to whom shall we go for in that Church in which thou hast planted us and in that Church which thou hast for so many years watered with thy blessing we may have eternal Life and if men can honestly propound any other End in choosing either their Religion or their Opinions besides gaining this eternal Life why let them follow their own Fancies and be led by the wild fire of their own headlong imaginations And now I suppose by this time you may easily see into my Design which consists of these two things 1. To prove That we of this Church have all necessary Advantages for gaining of eternal Life and therefore have no just occasion to run away and separate from it 2. To inquire How it comes to pass that a Church in which we have all the Advantages for getting eternal Life should meet with such Contempt and Disregard should be in so sick and declining a Condition But before I enter upon either of these I must needs make this Protestation That I bless God I come not here to express mine own private Passions nor to act revenge for any particular injury I have received from those who by their Positions and their Practises do insinuate into the belief of the credulous World that we of this Church do shut men out of eternal Life No had it not been for an hearty zeal I have for the Church my Mother and for all your Interests as they are wrapt up in this Churches Happiness I could
A MODEST PLEA FOR THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND By Richard Hollingworth A. M. and Vicar of West-Ham near London Confusion in Religion will as certainly follow every mans turning Priest or Preacher as it will in the State where every one affects to rule as King King Charles the First his Life and Meditations Octavo page 275. LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty at the Angel in Amen-corner 1676. TO The Right Reverend Father in God HENRY Lord Bishop of LONDON My Lord IT is observed that the Enemies of our Church notwithstanding in the memory of many now alive they acted such things as were impious and diabolical and but some few years ago were beholden to an act of Pardon to secure to them their Lives and Estates yet are so fond of themselves and their Opinions still that they lift up their heads with their former confidence and print and preach themselves the only People of God in opposition to that great Body of men who do orderly comply with the Kingdoms Laws And withal are at this time using all artifices whatsoever to pull us up both root and branch once again So very thankful are they for all his Majesties gracious condescensions to them But seeing they are so resolved and nothing can oblige them I think every true Son of the Church ought to use the Talent God hath given him to obviate their designs and to discover those wily methods by which they pursue the Churches ruine which I am sure is a more justifiable undertaking than theirs let their pretences be never so specious and taking amongst the more rash and inconsiderate part of Mankind And from this Principle of Love and Honour to the Churches peace and safety does this little Book make bold to appear abroad and particularly to fly into your Lordships Arms as the most proper Sanctuary for protection and defence from all those rude assaults which our Adversaries are too well acquainted with the practice of which if your Lordship will be pleased to condescend to it shall everlastingly be acknowledged as one of the greatest Honours done to Your Lordships Faithful and Obedient Servant Richard Hollingworth Imprimatur Tho. Tomkyns Ex Ed. Lambethan Jan. 15. 1674. THE PREFACE TO THE READER Reader I Am not ignorant by what slights and methods such honest and well designed Books as this are answered it is but telling the credulous vulgar that the man that writ it is unacquainted with the power of Godliness that the seed of Cain will be envying the seed of Seth and the Children of the bond-woman insulting over those of the free and the work is done and the book laid aside as not good enough for waste paper That I may therefore prevent this give me leave to aver thus much in mine own behalf that the Christian Religion is a thing so admirably wise in its contrivance so great an Instance of Divine Power in its production and so amply demonstrative of a never to be parallel'd love and goodness it is so every way fitted to the needs and necessities nay to the delight and entertainment of the minds of men and accommodates it self to them so fully in every condition that should a thought at any time crowd and thrust it self into my soul that invites me to any neglect or contempt of it I must either forsake my Principles or else I must throw it out with all becoming wrath and indignation And I pray God I may no longer make any abode in this house of clay than I may one way or other be instrumental to recommend it to the choice and liking of all men within my knowledge and acquaintance And though I dare not confidently boast of my self yet so fully am I satisfyed of the truth and Divinity of its Author of the excellency of its Doctrines and Principles of the advantages that naturally as well as those by promise flow from a severe and honest from an impartial and universal practice of its Rules and Methods that I think I could for its Honour and its further obtaining in the World part with all that is near and dear to me And therefore should I think that any thing in this small Treatise did tend in the least to lessen its esteem and to expose so excellent a Systeme to the scorn and laughter or to the contempt and disdain of any person I would by my own hands revenge my self upon it for being guilty of so bainous a piece of wickedness and out of a just resentment of its unworthiness to appear in the world either sacrifice it to the flames or bury it among the filth and ordure of an unsavoury dunghill No so lovely a thing is this excellent Religion in my eyes and I assure you this loveliness does not appear to me from bare sensible impressions or warm touches upon my fancy but from rational convictions of mind and understanding that I cannot forbear admiring and honouring any person upon whose soul I see any stroaks or lines of Religion drawn and who by his carriage and behaviour evidences himself devoted to its Interest and Service Yea though these persons differ from me in Judgment or any particular opinion yet if the difference issues merely from the weakness of their minds or the necessary impositions of their first education and there appears no mixture of the stubbornness and obstinacy of a resolved will which gives the formality to sin I do declare that I can cohabit with them as Brethren treat them as Intimates and Familiars and serve them with the affection of a real and uninterested Friend And those men whom God hath received and no otherways can I judge of such whom I find in a Zealous pursuit of essential holiness and goodness and more cool and careless in promoting remote opinions and needless theories and speculations I dare not judge but hope to meet them at the last day and with them to enter into a possession of those Glories which Christ is gone to prepare for all his Faithful Followers And therefore if any person enquire how it comes to pass that I have exposed a Book to publick view wherein so many whom it may be they greatly esteem for holiness and strict walking are so much concerned and so severely reprehended I reply 'T is none of their holiness I reprove God forbid but those ungodly practices and unseasonable divisions which many of them themselves once eagerly complained and petitioned against and which I am confident will in the end be bitter to them And further I do aver that it is no particular man I exercise my zeal in the following discourse against but formed bodies and united Factions of men who in companies and numbers flock together and publickly break those Laws the preservation of the honour of which is so necessary to us in all our capacities and circumstances whatsoever And when the same Authority that hath bound and reined them in shall think good by Laws to let
them loose I have done and shall submit to the Will of my Superiours but till then I think the ill influence that this general disobedience hath upon the minds of the more ignorant sort of persons in other particulars besides that of rending the Church of England in pieces is enough to justifie and warrant my zeal and courage in such an undertaking And that I may vindicate my self from future aspersions and satisfie the unprejudiced part of the World that it was not bitterness of spirit but a true regard for the honour and reputation of the Protestant Religion that put me upon such meditations I will give you the particular Motives prompting me thereunto which when done I hope I shall find a candid acceptance and favourable opinion in all worthy and generous in all dispassionate and disinterested breasts First then I found the principles from which Nonconformity to the Church does flow and by which they seek to countenance the present Separation not only to be false in themselves but withal bad in their impressions and influences and that after by them people are unsetled and forced to a breach with the Church of England nothing can be proposed to them that proves a firm ground to set their feet upon But many I was going to say most of them run from one opinion to another and that with the very same Arguments and Reasons upon the score of which they parted from us And he that will not come to the publick Church because the Preacher wears a Surplice c. which he can find no express command for from Scripture why within a short space he leaves the Assemblys of the Presbyterians because they own several things as to Church Government which do no ways correspond with the practice of the Apostles whose Churches they say were not subordinate to but independent upon one another And when it may be he hath linked himself with those of the Congregational way as they are pleased to phrase it why the same argument assaults him afresh and drives him into the tents of Munster and the man turns Anabaptist because he finds no explicite command for the administring that Sacrament to infants in all the new Testament And alack let him but with this principle read his Bible often and put such interpretations upon the several texts thereof as his weak judgment and overheated Fancy suggests to him and it is ten to one but his head turns round every Moun and that the man disturbs not only himself but all the Neighbourhood with his constant dissatisfactions Especially if he set out as usually all these men do with that other hopeful Principle that the Magistrate hath nothing to do in matters of Divine Worship and that his power is terminated within the compass of civil things Oh this makes them all Lords and Princes and puts a fulness of power into their hands to shape and fashion what Religion or model of Worship to themselves they please And by vertue of these too pernicious Principles we find some have run into all the absurdities and blasphemies of the Quakers and others have so tired themselves with continual seeking and importunate inquiries after the best way that at last from a downright weariness they have sate down and in great discontent have thrown off all regard to Religion and turned prophane scoffers at it as a thing designed on purpose to puzzle mens brains and disturb the World And when I say this I do not speak without sufficient evidence there are too many proofs of it in this Kingdom and he must be too little conversant either with men or Books that denies it And therefore upon this account I do heartily wish the Subjects of this Realm reduced to the principles of obedience to our excellent Church because I am perswaded that the time they consume in needless enquiries would be spent in fervent devotions in dutiful attendance upon all those Instruments and Methods of Instruction whereby they might learn to govern their lives in those several conditions they are in And certainly had not these foolish principles been started and thereby the minds of easy and more illiterate persons been amused and pestered with idle scruples certainly I say Religion had met with a more universal acceptance and chearful practice than now it does and we might suppose among the Common people what time they were at liberty from their necessary callings would have been spent in heavenly meditations in Zealous prayer or in instructing their Children and Servants in the Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Religion or in reading such good books as were designed not to feed the Fancy but to convince the Judgment and proportionably to raise the Affections to God and Christ to his holy Laws and excellent directions And though I know some men will except against all this I say and offer in apposition to it that many of the Members of their Sepurated Churches have continued so from their first admission without starting and that therefore this is no argument against their principles why to this I answer that mens continuance amongst them flows not from their Principles themselves which certainly betray men to all imaginable sickleness and uncertainty but from some other considerations as either from an extreme love and esteem for the Person who is their supposed Pastor or else from prudential considerations of those reproaches that such a slitting humour does expose them to or some other things of a worse nature which though I could yet I list not now to name And therefore I do entreat all those into whose hands this small Treatise shall come to consider well with themselves the danger of admitting such Principles into their belief for I am confident did most of those well meaning People who by vertue of these very Doctrines are drawn over to them understand how destructive they are to all Churches whatsoever how injurious to the Rights of Princes rebbing them of more than half their power and what additions they make by them to God's Laws imposing such things upon the belief and practice of others yea and under the notion of the unalterable Government of the Lord Christ as were not thought of for above fifteen hundred years together among the Churches of God in any part of the Wold further did they consider how these Principles that will be content with nothing but an absolute determined way of Worship from Scripture take away all power of tolerating or bearing with any man of a contrary Mind because after a fulness of perswasion that such a thing is the only way of Christ a man cannot think well of nor consequently suffer if he have a power in his hands any man to enjoy any opinion contrary thereunto because it is to give him leave to damn himself when it is in the others power very much to prevent it I say were these with many other considerations well understood by the Common people they would not I am perswaded run