e. neither Commanded nor forbidden by God are therefore the proper matter for the Injunctions of the Magistrate Since we are Obliged to the things Commanded by God although the Magistrate do not Command yea though he doth Contradict and what God hath forbiden we are bound not to do though the Magistrate leave us to Our selves or Command the contrary and therefore a thing Indifferent is the most proper subject of the power of man therefore because it is so it cannot be concluded that it ought not to be enjoyn'd 2. If things long Disputed and Doubted may not be enjoyned then let them tell us what may for there is scarce any Truth which hath not had its Heresie contrary to it and therefore the Church may not enjoyn things necessary to Faith and Order which this Author in few lines before granted to her Besides Would not this Argument be as well urged by the Papists for their Cause hath been disputed even from the beginning of Luther's Reformation by several men of great Parts and Abilities that wanted not Pretensions to the Titles of Learned and Conscientious So also may the Socinians urge that the Points we hold against them have been Disputed almost from the beginning of the Reformation But yet the Author contends 't is not fit that the first should have a Toleration and I suppose he will be ashamed to pretend for the last But then he inquires What shall a man do that doubts of the things enjoyned seeing the Apostle saith He that doubts is damned if he eats because he eateth not of Faith To Doubt we answer doth suppose Arguments on both sides and in such case the Common Rule is the safest part is to be followed Now let all sober men judge whether it is not safer to keep the Peace and Unity of the Church which is so frequently and with so much Authority Commanded by Christ to be Obedient to the Higher Powers in those things which are proper matter for their Commands and wherein God himself hath determined nothing to Obey them that are over us in the Lord all which are clear and plain Duties then for a scruple or doubt of the Use of a thing that God hath left to humane Liberty which the Magistrate hath power to confine to cause Schisms in the Church Factions in the State Despise the Laws of Princes and the Government of the Church As for the Text of the Apostle He that doubts is c. It is an admonition given to the Jews that were become Christians that they should not do that in which the Church had not interposed her Authority by the Example of others which they themselves thought not lawful or did very much doubt whether it were so or no for he that did go against his own perswasion did condemn himself in that which his practice did seem to allow Therefore that Text doth not concern this Case at all The 2d attempt is That the Church not claiming an Infallibility cannot settle the Conscience by her sole Warrant but still leaves room for doubting and in prescribed Forms and Rites the Conscience that doth its office will interpose and concern it self c. I am willing to hope that the Discourser writ this in Ignorance and that he is not guilty of such portentous Malice that so he might destroy the Authority of the Church he did not fear to publish such an Opinion as would disturb all Government both in Families and in the State that would confound all Society and extirpate Feith and Justice from among the sons of men For if whosoever diselaims Infallibility cannot settle i. e. oblige for if it doth not signifie that it signifies nothing the Conscience Then neither the Laws of Kings nor the Commands of Fathers and Masters who disâ—â—â— Infallibility are to be obeyed for Conscience sake or in the Lord but only as the power of the Superiour is able to enforce Obedience or Punishment No man likewise is obliged in Conscience to perform his Vows Promises and Contracts because when he made them he was not Infallible and being not so he cannot settle his own Conscience but leaves room for doubting and if he doubts as he applyes the Apostles Text he is damned if he does perform and therefore it will not be safe to perform them Thus this Mine that is wrought to blow up the Churches Authority will bury all Government and Common Honesty in the ruines of it Such are the goodly Doctrines whereby these men keep their Party close unto them and make them boggle at whatsoever the Magistrate requires from them as terrors to their Conscience If the Author thinks he hath secured himself from the shame of the absurd Consequences of this Opinion by that clause Her sole Warrant he is unjust and unfaithfully represents her Doctrine as if she pretended to binde the Conscience by her own Authority which is very false For when We hold That humane Laws of things not unlawful do oblige the Consciences of men subject to the Law-givers We do not refer the Obligation which is a necessity of Obedience to the matter of those Laws for that being in its nature Indifferent cannot be Necessary But to those commands of God which enjoyns us to be subject to the higher powers To obey them that are over us in the Lord. For those commands do of themselves and directly enforce a Necessity of Obedience to whatsoever humane Laws are not in themselves unlawful upon the penalty of God's displeasure For the Truth of which as it is easie to prove were it not to render the Discourse too long by interweaving Incidental Controversies so do we appeal to the Judgment of all sober Divines whatsoever We have for it the Testimony of Mr. Calvin the Founder of the Presbyterian Government and the Greatest Ornament that ever they had who though he disputes against Humane Constitutions yet meeting with the Objection raised from that Text We must be subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake Answers by Distinguishing betwixt the Genus and Species For saith he although the particular Laws in themselves Cal. Institut l. 4 c. 10. sect 5. do not touch the Conscience yet are we Obliged by that General Command of God which commends unto us the Authority of Magistrates which is as much as we desire for if the Authority of Magistrates do either Directly or Indirectly in General or Particular by it self or by vertue of Gods Command bind the Conscience then must it needs be false which this Author saith that In prescribed Forms and Rites of Religion the Conscience that doth its office will interpose and concern it self c. For that Conscience which is guided by the fear of God will know its Office is to submit for God's Commands sake to what those that are over us in the Lord do carefully prescribe In the next place he brings in the Testimony of Woful Experience crying out No more of such Injunctions than needs must
and those men of corrupt minds who were given to perverse Disputings He commands Titus To avoid foolish Questions and contentions Tit. 3.9 10. and strivings about the Law for they are unprofitable and vain and to reject a man that is an Heretick He commands the Church of the Romans to receive the weak in faith Rom. 14.1 but not to doubtful Disputations and yet the things which were among them disputed seem to be of greater moment pretended as much to Conscience as the Dissentions among us do and he gives this rule to every Christian how he ought to manage his differing opinions of things in which the Kingdom of God is not Hast thou faith Ib. ver 22. have it to thy self before God a man was not to publish his opinions however perswaded in his Conscience to the hinderance of Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost all which Dissentions doe certainly hinder This was the Apostolical course to remove Dissentions that pretend to Conscience which if they be tolerated must needs increase for the Itch of disputing Opiniastrete desire of victory and applause and the encrease of Congregations which are Infirmities that stick close to the flesh even of Conscientious men will maintain if not multiply the Dissentions And if they are maintained What security can there be to the Church and State that their effects will not be as violent and destructive For it is a vain speculation to think that men who differ upon Principles of Conscience will not by the some Conscience be prevailed upon to endeavour the Propagation and enlargement of their way and if they do so it must be with the depression of others who equally contend for the same with them and then whatsoever Ambition Anger or Revenge can find as means for it shall be sure to put in practise on both sides But if Dissentions as hath been proved have for the most part no other Original than Lusts both in the Authors and Followers Can we hope that Carnal desires will grow modest by being Tolerated and languish under a Permission That men will then certainly grow good when they may without fear of the Magistrate be evil And that then they will learn peace when they have an Indemnity for being contentions and quarrelsome Lusts are hardly retrench'd even by severe Laws but they will certainly grow wanton and be more cursedly fertile in all their wicked effects when a Law licenses them SECT 10. Instances of Dissentions increased by a Toleration THus therefore whatsoever the Causes of Dissentions are it is plain that a Toleration of them neither lessens nor softens them but this being to be a matter of Fact the best judgment we can form of a thing that is to come is to consider how the same thing was in times past and if we consider the Instances of a Toleration in former Ages we shall soon perceive what we are like to hope for from it if now it should be put in practice The first Instance shall be that Toleration of Julian the Apostate who though at the beginning of his Usurpation to delude the Christians to an acquiescence under his Empire he did profess Christianity and observed their Solemnities yet when Constantius was dead then he openly applyed himself to set up the Idolatry of the Gentiles And that he might do this with ease and without fear of the Christians by his Edicts he gave a publick liberty to all and every Sâ—ct of the Galilaeans for so he called the Christians To what purpose Ammianus Marcellinus who was one of his Courtiers and Officers and of his own Religion tells us for he saith * Am. lib 22. Dissidentes Christianorum antistites cum plebe discissa in palatium intromissos monebat ut civilibus discordiis consopitis quisque nullo vetante Religioni suae Serviret intrepidus Quod agebat ideo obstinatè ut dissensiones augente licentiâ non timeret unanimantem postea plebâ—m nullas infestas hominibus bestias ut sunt sibi serales plerique Christianorum expertus He did this with so much the more Industry that Toleration and Licence increasing their Dissentions he need not for the time to come fear that People would agree together he having had experience that no Beasts are more savage to men than most of the Dissenting Christians are to one another How far he attained his end the murder of Georgius the Arrian at Alexandria the Tumults about Athanasius and the suffering of the Orthodox there the Insolencies of the Donatists in Africk the commotions at Antioch and the frequent Apostacies are sufficient Evidences of the mischiefs of his Toleration yet he when he gave it pretended Kindness and Peace for he admonished them to lay aside their Civil Discords and that every one without fear or contradiction from any should observe his own Religion It is no great credit for Toleration that this man's practise is proposed for a pattern by the Author of a Proposition for Peace and Happiness Page 15. who to abuse the Age to an inclination of Imitating him calls him Wise and Brave though with an allay of Cursed and Apostate Which is no great wonder since every Sect commends those of their own Judgment and it appears that that Author is not acquainted with the History of that Usurper for if he had he must have censured him for a vain and light-headed person and must have known that the Toleration he granted and not his Contempt of Christians did them the greatest mischief Another Instance is that of the Donatists the Authors of which were before spoken of This Schism began at the Conclusion of Diocletian's Persecution about the year of our Lord 306. For the space of six years after they imployed all their arts to root themselves by spreading abroad Calumnies of Caecilianus in all the Churches of Africk and by confirming in frequent Synods their Sentences against him and all that did adhere unto him But when Constantine began to shew his greater care of Christianity and granting several Priviledges to the several Churches did likewise among the rest take care of the African and commanded Anulinus the Pro-Consul that he should exempt the Clergie of the Catholick Church there of which Caecilianus had the care from all Publick and Civil burdens or Services and had also in his own Letters to Caecilianus commended unto him the dispensing of his Charity to the poor of Africk this honour done to him enraged the envy of the Schismaticks They thereupon exhibit to Anulinus a Book of Articles against Caecilianus which they desired might be transmitted to Constantine and not content with that send some of theirs to prosecute the charge This being matter of great trouble to that good Emperour he refers the cause to several Bishops and afterwards calls a Council at Arles in all which the Donatists were condemned and Caecilianus quitted This Judgment so far provoked them that they sleight the Sentences of the Referrees and
fears no disturbance from those who are Wise and have their senses exercised to discern Good and Evil all her troubles arise from the Ignorant and Half-witted Since she proposes the Scriptures to every Reader She cannot be judged to be averse from those that search it and that are inquisitive to approve things that are excellent But indeed she does as the Apostle abhor those that are ever learning and yet never come to the Knowledge of the Truth In Sect. XIII he would perswade us that what he had said is no Threatning to Rulers nor Intimation to Rebellion for he saith Why may not Governors be minded by Subjects of the State of their People as it is indeed without any hint or thought of Rebellion It is true they may if so be they mind the Governors themselves and with that Submission as is due to Magistrates if the Subjects are not Partisans and so mind their own Interest to the Injury of the Publick if they be such as may be presumed to have a clear Understanding of the Nature of the People their Grievances and of proper Remedies But miserable must the condition of Governors be if every private person who will have the impudence to abuse their time and patience must be of their Council If they must bear with the Remonstrances of every Factious Party and must admit those Rules and Arguments of Equity and Safety which they have modelled for their own advantage If this be admitted the Thrones of Princes are level'd with the dust and Parliaments shall have but a precurious Anthority and no more then what these Demagogues will give them For this was plainly the practice of the late Times by which we were reduced to Anarchy and then bow'd down our necks to the yoke of Tyranny And now Let those who as he will have it are not transported with Passion judge what it is to tell the Discontented Party themselves as well as others in Print That they are an Intelligent Sober sort of men the Residences of no small part of the Nation 's frugality and Industry that with them Trading Civility and Good Conversation do cohabit and remove That they are momentous in the ballance of the Nation Numerous and every where spred That their Ministers are Examples to them of Constancy and Resolution That hitherto they have been successful against the Laws That if any meditate their total Extirpation as perchance some do yet they cannot do it without hazard of the Publick ruin or the loss of Trade and Wealth That the not gratifying of them hath brought a Decay already And that their Cause is good for it is for their Inquiries into Religion Let them judge I say whether to tell this to the People so that the Supream Governor it is probable may have no notice of it but in a Mutiny nor ever see these Rules of Safety and Equity till they be presented on the Swords of a Popular Rout whether this is to mind Governors of the State of the People or to prepare the People to mind their own State But he saith Should they whom he pleads for meditate Rebellion and War they were abandoned of their own Reason We say so to Nevertheless it is no such impossible thing but that a People may easily be praecipitated into ways of violence by such Popular Discourses as these are for the last War had not more specious pretences nor higher incouragements then are here represented And indeed they need not War for the Author doth insinuate another way more plausible and less hazardous and yet as effective for he saith There be sullen Mutinies that make no noise but may loosen all the Joynts and Ligaments of Policy But it will be an hard matter to justifie such a Mutiny from the guilt of Rebellion For that doth not consist only in taking up Arms but in a wilful refusal of Obedience which is the meaning of such sullen Mutinies And it is as contrary to the Commands of Christ as taking the Sword For he commands Obedience for Conscience sake and not only when the Magistrate is to be feared So that the Author while he endeavours to divert the Imputation of one Sort of Rebellion doth yet threaten another SECT 14. That to Moderate the Establish'd Order is neither Prudent nor Safe nor for the Peace of the Church IN Sect. XIV the Author proposes three Expedients to comprehend all Dissenters and saith That the Setling of a Nation may be made up of an Establishment a Limited Toleration a Discreet Connivence He is not so true to his own Discourse and his Reputation of a Judicious person as to tell us what he means by every one of these and how they shall be composed yet he is most kind to the Establishment as that which concerns himself and his own party and though he do not tell us what it is in particular or shall be yet in In Sect. XV. he tells us in General That the Established Order should be so broad that by its own force it may be chief and controle all Parties That it be compact to promote Sound Doctrine and godly Life and to keep out all wicked Error and practise And therefore must not have narrower bounds then things necessary to Christian Faith and Life and godly Order in the Church But we say this Establishment is not enough for a Settlement because it doth not secure the Peace and how can we settle but in that To this the Author questioneth Why should not the great things of Christianity in the hands of Wise Builders be a sufficient Foundation of Church-Unity and Concord We answer 1 that they are not For it is plain the Church of England and the Presbyterians are agreed in the great things of Christianity and yet there is no Concord betwixt them 2 They alone cannot be Because there may and does arise Dissentions about the Persons to whose care these great things shall be entrusted to see them conveyed to Posterity whether they shall be Single Persons or a Consistory or each single Congregation And men also may differ concerning the Means of Conveying these things the Worship of God and the Circumstances of it as we see they do Therefore to preserve Peace among her Members who if they Dissent cannot be brought to Unity but by the Determinations and Injunctions of their Lawful Superiour the Church hath need to determine more then the great things of Christianity and to enjoyn more then what is barely necessary to Faith and Order We say as well as he that Moderation and Charity are far more excellent than glorying in Opinions Formalities c. but we say also that Charity cannot be where there is not Peace The next argument is That some parts of enjoyned Uniformity are but Indifferent and have been long Disputed from Bishop Hooper 's time to the present Non-Conformist and if this be concluding they ought therefore not to be enjoyned To which we answer 1. that they being Indifferent i.
The Causes of Dissentions and Schisms in the Authors of them BUt besides this they are more odious in their causes whether we consider the first Authors of them or the Followers As for the Authors of them the Apostles set forth them to be persons led by such motives as did abandon all respect to Christ Rom. 16.18 that They served not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own Belly 2 Cor. 3.3 Gal. 5.20 Phil. 3.19 1 Tim. 1.19 They were called carnal Seditions and Heresies are reckoned amongst the works of the flesh They are said to be the enemies of the Cross of Christ whose God is their belly and whose glory is their shame The putting away of a good Conscience and making shipwrack of the Faith is their character Pride and covetousness are said to be their grand principles ib. c. 6.4 Tit. 3.11 Subversion and Sin is their state of Life S. Peter and S. Jude give them characters full of horror Thus in the â—ucceeding ages of the Church the Historians who give us an account of those Heresies and Schisms which arose in it do also tell us how great Monsters they were which did bring them forth and there was in every Sect many opinions and practices that rendered all Christians of whose number they pretended to be odious even to the Heathen The abominations of the Gnosticks are not to be named even by a sober Heathen for the vilest acts of uncleanness which would dishonour even a Stewes were taken up by them for Duties of Religion which shewed the causes of their dissentions to be exceeding hateful It would be tedious to survey all and give a particular account of the causes of every Sect. One instance will be sufficient and it shall be that of the Donatists a great and lasting dissention which had a complication of Wickednesses to bring it forth into the world It began at the Election and Ordination of Caecilianus Bishop of Carthage whereby the ambition of Botrus and Caelesius two Presbyters of the same Church and Competitors of the same Dignity being disappointed to depose him they conspire with other Presbyters to whom Mensurius the preceding Bishop had in the times of persecution delivered the Church-Plate to be kept private that it might not be a spoil to the Persecutors these men had refused to deliver to Caecilianus to whom at his Ordination the Inventory of Church Goods was given up the things committed to their trust and that they might ascertain the prey to themselves they laboured to draw the people from Communion with the Bishop This separation was forwarded by one Lucilla a rich woman who having been displeased with Caecilianus because when he was a Deacon he had admonished her to behave her self as the other Christians in the publick Worship she continued her passion to him now made a Bishop and by her gifts and promises corrupted others that they should depose Caecilianus and set up in his stead one Majorinus who lived in her house To strengthen this Separation they call to Carthage Secundus Bishop of Tigisita Primate of Numidia who together with other Numidian Bishops in a Council at Cirta had mutually convicted one the other to have been Traditores i.e. such who had delivered up the Holy Scriptures to be burnt by the Gentiles and so having pardoned one the other that they might not be questioned by the other Churches of Africk did willingly embrace this occasion of making and compleating a Schism at Carthage whereby also they might hide their Indulgences one to the other at home by their severity to others abroad removing from themselves the suspicion of that Crime which they condemned in others These men being entertained at Carthage by those whom Ambition Anger and Covetousness had made factious did condemn Caecilianus unheard as being ordained by Faelix Bishop of Aptungita who was accused to have been a Traditor and then set up Majorinus in his stead and so formed that Schism which for a long time troubled all Africk and polluted it with much blood This one instance is enough to shew how Dissentions in Religion may and sometimes do owe their Original to the lusts of men and that evil Affections though different and various may yet amass men together in the same Schism and that however we hear of nothing now as it was probable they did so then pretended for a dissent but Conscience Yet we know that men live and dye by the same rules and the same lusts in this age will work as they did of old in the same circumstances and whatsoever is of such an extract must needs be hateful SECT 4. The Causes of Dissentions in the Followers AS for the Followers of these Dissentions although it is possible many of them may be led aside in the simplicity of their souls by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness of such as lie in wait to deceive Ephes 4.14 yet we find the Scriptures often censure such of lusts also which give them over to the arts of those who lead them captive 2 Tim. 3.6 2 Tim. 4.3 2 Pet. 2.19 As an Averseness to the sound doctrine which contradicts their lusts an Affectation of Novelty having itching ears or of too much Liberty greater than will comport with the Discipline of the Truth An affectation of some more then ordinary knowledge thus the Apostle saith Col. 2.18.23 Jude 16. some were beguiled by things which had a shew of wisdom St. Jude saith that the Hereticks of his time did speak great swelling words by which he implyed the Gnosticks who did abuse the people with a strange noise of words that signified nothing but their followers imagined to have the secrets of wisdom And thus St. Augustine saith that he was a follower of the Manichees for 9 years together having sleighted the Religion his Parents had educated him in and that because they promised not to require any mans faith Aug. lib. de Vtilitate cred c. 1. unless they made the truth clear and evident and therefore this captivated him being young and when he was by reason of some knowledge in the disputes of the learned Garrulus and Superbus i.e. talkative and proud 2 Tim. 4.3 2 Pet. 2.19 Another cause may be a want of love to the Truth 2 Thes 2.10 Hence comes their Loathing all pains that are necessary for the searching after the Truth and from this a Compliance with those opinions that are importunately imposed upon them by their Relations Add to these the Envy at those whom the Providence or Spirit of God hath advanced either by more useful Graces or to more splendid conditions this was it which made much of that noise which was in the divided Church of Corinth Weakness in not differencing between the Lives and Professions of those that continue within the Church so Audius as Epiphanius saith began his schism and sometimes Injuries received from those that are for the Truth make morose and cholerick minds
are obnoxious to the malice and hatred of them against whom the Law is made Nay the Law-givers fall into Contempt the King and Parliament who should have the Reverence of the People reap nothing but scorn by their Laws which are not Executed For how apt are some to think that either they have no Judgement in making such Laws which they care not how they are observed or to be very Changeable and various apt to dislike that to morrow which is this days Sanction or that they have no Love to the Goodness which they command others to observe or that they want a Power to enforce what they enjoyn Which soever of these it is upon which the not executing of the Laws is imagined to follow it exposes the Law-givers and those that are for them to Contempt and they who are contemptible cannot be safe Now this being our Case that though Laws have been made for our Settlement yet they have not been executed it is no wonder that there is so little advancement towards it but on the other side it is strange that we are not in a much worse condition So that there can be no pretence for a Toleration because these Laws have done no good since they were not vigorously executed to that end In Sect. XII he labours to shew that The Extirpation of the Dissenters is both Difficult and Unprofitable This might have been wholly spared but that it is an Artifice of the Discourse to raise Fears in the Dissenters that they shall be proceeded against in some violent way of Terror and to raise Jealousies of the King and Parliament as if they meditated Blood and Cruelty Nothing of this nature can ever be charged upon the Church of England though provoked and incited by the cruelties on both sides those of the Papists and those of the Sectaries which were used to extirpate all her Assertors All that is indeavoured is to extirpate Dissentions and not Dissenters For 1 No man's Conscience is imposed upon but notwithstanding the late Acts he may enjoy his Opinion in his own house and with his friends if their number exceed not four 2. No man either Lay or Clergy hath any Subscription enjoyned him as a condition of Communion with us Only it is required of those who are to be entrusted with the Ministery in the Church That they disavow all Obligations and Opinions to break the Peace of the Nation and that they assent to the Vse of those things which are for the Unity of Christians in this Kingdom among themselves Which is no more then what the Law of Nature hath granted to every Society which the Church hath in all Ages practised and which our Adversaries themselves did use for the Presbyterians required a subscribing their Solemn League and the Independents had their Church-Covenant No liberty is denyed but that of divulging Scruples Doubts and Error to the offence of the weak they may have their perswasions to themselves before God Nor is the penalty so severe after the third Conviction as that which is inflicted on Remish Priests at their first deprehension which yet these men account just and clamoured against the late King as a Favourer of Popery if it were not executed upon every one of them when they were taken By which it is evident that there is no intent to extirpate the Dissenters but the Dissentions which is not Difficult nor can be unprofitable Therefore I shall not trouble the Reader with that Author 's imaginary fears of Cruelty upon the Dissenters since there is no necessity for the use of it nor any grounds for such apprehensions And this the Discourser himself was conscious of for he brings it in with a Peradventure some think their total Extirpation to be the surest way and then disputes against Cruelty and rants with a threatning of beggery in Trading in case they should so be dealt with Was this done as becomes a moderate spirit and one fit for a Comprehension It is too apparent that there is much of a malicious Artifice in this Section For besides what hath been already shewed he is not content to call his own Party an intelligent sober peaceable sort of men the Residences of the no small part of the Nations Sobriety Frugality and Industry which is the guise of Schismaticks so to praise their own Party to the dishonour of others But he most malitiously implies that the Characters of the Prelatical are Drinking and Swearing For he saith many will swear and be drunk to declare they are none of them i.e. of the Presbyterians and other Dissenters Thus he hath publickly Printed what the other Ministers of the Faction do privately perswade the People that there are no Ministers or others of the Church of England but debauched persons and men of no tolerable converse To which slanderous accusation we will only say The Lord rebuke them The next peice of malice is that he implies which also is a reproach of the Government The languishing of Trade the fall of Rents the scarcity of Mony the Necessities and Difficulties of private Estates the general Complainings are from the not right stating and pursuing the Nations Interest which is as he Imagines Comprehension and Toleration As if a great Plague raging for one year in an heavier manner then ever before was known in the City the great Mart of all our Trading and another year in many of the Trading Ports Cities of the Nation A War for 3 years maintained against the most powerful Trading Nations in Europe and so consequently in the World The great destruction of an inestimable Treasure by thefire of London Besides the Arts which Phanaticks Common-wealths-men use to make our necessities greivous and our complaints more clamorous As if I say all these were no way effectual to our present Wants and Decayes but the People are still taught to cry the Bishops and the Clergie are the great Causes of our present miseries This is like that malice the Devil raised against the Primitive Christians when by his Priests he instructed the common rabble of the Gentiles that when there was any Publick Calamity if Tiber flowed too much or Nile too little then to cry out Christianos ad Leones i. e. the Christians must be cast to the Lions So now the Bishops must down and Sacriledge must repair what our Sins and Vanities have wasted Another peice of malice is in the Argument which he makes for his Adversaries to justifie their supposed cruelty But this sort of men saith he are Inquisitive and therefore troublesome to Rulers and thus having harnassed his Enemy he attaques him As if the Church of England did Envy her Children knowledge and that her Dominion was to be founded upon their Blindness All the Practices and Doctrine of the Church of England declare that she hath the same wish as Moses I Would God that all the Lord's People were Prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them For she
they do not perform it sincerely God will require an exact account of them But as to this they are much hindred by the Obstructions which Dissentions make and being distracted by the perversness of those that are without they cannot be quiet to look after those that are within the Church But the third Condition is the main thing the Author drives at The Setling the Church in a due Extent If the Extent here spoken of be to Comprehend all the Different Perswasions and Contrary Opinions this they cannot do it is contrary to the Duty which Bishops owe to God and Man to permit Errors and embrace a Communion with Darkness But if it be meant of an Extent and Comprehension of Persons that have laid aside those false Perswasions and will now contend together with Bishops to feed the Flock of Christ and to preserve the Unity of it This Bishops ought to do as their Interest and the Interest of the Gospel from which theirs cannot be separated And this the Bishops have done and are ready to do For all men know how willingly they have Instituted those to Livings who before had been the Enemies of their Order how they have invited into their Order and the Church Preferments those that have preached and writ against them and we want not any Examples that they have been sincere in their Tender for some have really received what was offer'd and we should have had more had not their followers hinder'd them by minding them of their own former Doctrines And in this our Bishops testified themselves to be of that Peaceable Temper of the Primitive Bishops For the Catholick Bishops Melchiades of Rome Aug. Ep. 162. and others of Africk offer'd to the Donatists that if they would joyn themselves to make up the Unity of the Church they would give them Communicatory Letters although they had been Ordained by the Donatist Bishops and that wheresoever there were two Bishops one of the Catholick Part the other of the Donatists yet he should be first Confirmed that was first Ordain'd which soever it was and that the other should be provided for elsewhere or else the survivor should succeed in the same Church And when the Donatists objected to the Catholicks that they coveted and took away their Livings St. Augustine answers Aug. Ep. 50. Would to God they would become Catholicks and then let them possess not only what they call their own but also whatsoever is ours in Peace and Charity with us This is a Latitude which the Church did allow and which the Bishops are now ready to admit The third Interest which is that of the Nobility and Gentry which in Sect. XXII he endeavours to reconcile to his Latitude which he thinks they may dislike as that which will render the Citizens and Commonalty and all sorts more Knowing and less Servile Here the Author goes upon two mistakes 1. That this Latitude will make men more Knowing which I have already shewed it will not do for instead of building up men in the Knowledge of Christ it will fill them with empty notions of their Way and Party so * Tertul. de Praesc c. 42 De verbi administratione quid dicum cum hoc sit negotium illis non ethnicos convertendi sed nostros evertendi Tertullian observed of the Hereticks of his time What shall I say of their Preaching when this is their business not to Convert Unbelievers but to subvert those in our Communion 2d Mistake is That the Nobility and Gentry do not like the Commonalty should be knowing This is the same Suspition he raised of the Clergy that they were afraid of the Diffusion of Knowledge and this is so unworthy an Humor that I cannot think Noblemen and Gentlemen inclinable to it But he fays that by being knowing they will be less Servile and less Obsequlous to the Wills of Great men The Laws of England secure every man from Servitude the poorest Cottager is a free-born Subject and therefore as the Nobility and Gentry cannot expect the slavery of Citizens and Commons so they cannot dislike their knowledge upon this only account that it makes them more free But this Author conceals the true Cause why this Latitude should be dreadful to the Nobility and Gentry which is that it will increase Factions and Dissentions in Religion and where they Raign there is not that Respect and Reverence given to Persons of Honour as is due to them Clem Rom. â—p ad Cor. For Clemens Romanus minding the Corinthians of the sad Effects of their Dissentions puts this as One The Base rose up against the Honourable and the Vile against the Noble And they may well remember how often they were affronted and slighted by mean Persons in the times of the late Toleration All that the Author saith upon this head is some Politick Observations but nothing to the purpose He concludes in Sect. XXIII With the General Security that comes by this Latitude in which he supposes the Common Peace may be setled in this Comprehensive way which he neither hath nor can prove nor will as he dreams the Necessity of Powers and proceedings extraordinary be taken away by it but rather encreased For no Nation doth tolerate Dissentions in Religion which hath not a Standing Army to restrain the Effects of it as appears in Histories of Antient times and in the Practices of modern Nations And therefore this is it which more needs those wayes and means as may trouble them who are tender of the Lawful Rights and Liberties of English men than the enforcing the Laws upon Dissenters which may be done by the Ordinary Civil Power We are not to be Frighted with what he saith That the Severities of Laws against Dissenters may at length come home to them or theirs who are for the Execution For we are to do whatsoever is found necessary for the Safety of the Church and State and leave the future Events to the Providence of the God of Peace We know that the more peaceable we are at Home the more Powerful we shall be abroad But we also know that Licensed Dissentions will always perswade our Neighbours that we are Weak It is well known how foreign Writers have observed Our Ruine might be easily wrought by the Puritans who did Dissent from the Publick Establishment They are not to be accounted Disturbers of the State nor of their own House who follow the Advice of the Wisest King To fear God and the King and not to meddle with these that are given to Change For their Calamity shall rise Suddenly FINIS