out of Heaven and a Key to let them in again 4. They that have been ejected by that 〈◊〉 find no evil consequences in their ejected state In the Primitive times it was therefore terrible because Christ abbetted his own Ordinance administred for his own Spiritual Ends in his own Regular way but now Men dare not trust Christ with his own Work but have supplied his vengeance with a Significavit a Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo delivering Men over to the Sheriff whom thereby they call the Devil by craft but otherwise the Excommunicated Person cats his Bread and drinks his Wine with a Chearful Heart because the Lord has accepted him 3. That so few frequent the Church is because they have either been scoffed or railed or beaten out of doors or barred out by Conditions not comporting with Scripture Rule and Warrant Men know that Christ must be their Judge to him they must give an account of their Souls and Worship in the Great Day and therefore they are willing to Worship God according to his Will revealed in his Sacred Word unless any can give them Counter-security to save harmless and indemnifie them before his dreadful Tribunal And if they must suffer for such resolved adherence to a Scriprure Religion they have only this humbly to reply Daveniam Imperator Tu Carcerem Ille Gehennam Christ threatens a Hell the Law only menaces a Goal 4. That the Liturgy was then counted a principal part of Gods Worship we cannot help We judge that none but God can make the least much less a principal part of Gods Worship God only knows which way he will be Worship'd with Acceptation And it is our grear Happiness that he has acquainted us with that Will of his in his Word to which we apply our selves for our Directory and are not sollicitous about Apocryphal Rubrics As to matters concerning Religion Nature Teacheth no further than the Obligation to the Duâ—…y but leaves the particular determination of the manner of Obedience to Divine Positive Laws So we are instructed from the Author of Origin Sacrae p. 171. 5. That it is now become the great point of Sanctity to scruple every thing was not spoken with that regard to Honesty and Truth as might have been expected from a Compassionate Enquirer They scruple being Holier than Christ has commanded them wiser in matters of Religious Worship than the Scriptures are able to make them They scruple giving up their Consciences to those whom they see no great reason to trust till better evidence be given how they regard their own They scruple all Retreats in Reformation and all Retrograde Motions towards Evangelical Perfection and Purity and they with our Enquirer would scruple a little more this overlashing That it 's an Essential part of some Mens Religion to be Censorious And a great point of Sanctity to scruple every thing Let him then continue to Lament the change and we will pray that God will make a more through change reducing Doctrine Worship Discipline to the Word of God the only Rule of Reformation PART I. CHAP. I. A Sober Enquiry into the Apocryphal Causes of Non-conformity pretended by the serious Enquirer St. Augustin and the Synod of Dort Vindicated the Articles of the Church of England Cleared The Learning Preaching and Conversations of the N. C. modestly justified against the scandalous Reflections of the pretended Compassionate Enquirer but without Recrimination AFter a very short Epistle or to speak Canonically that which stands instead of the Epistle to very little and a tedious Introduction to much less purpose the Enquirer falls full drive upon the Causes of the separation from the English Reformed Church In imitation of the French Embassadors Musicians who would needs give the Grand Seignior a fit of Mirth but were so cruelly tedious in tuning their Fiddles that the Sultans Patience was quite worn out and he could not be perswaded to hear the first Lesson Now the Causes are either Apocryphal and pretended or Canonical and Real and it 's a wonder to me when his Invention was once broached that he did not feign this for another Cause of separation that such Heterogeneous Causes should be bound up together in the same Volume and Covers For these Apocriphal Causes let it not beget another scruple in your Captious Heads whether they are pretended by Dissenters or only pretended by this Enquirer to be amongst their pretences for it will come all to one there being some collateral matters which it shall go hard but he will entice or force into the Discourse or else the Reader might have sung whâ—…p Barnaby and Retreated to his Recreations the longest Holy day in the Year 1. The very first of these pretended Causes is some Blame they lay upon the Doctrine of the Church and the main if not the only thing excepted against in this kind is That the Thirty Nine Articles are not so punctual in defining the Five Points debated in the Synod of Dort as they could wish Just as your common Hackney Versifiers or Water Poets make one Verse for the Reason and the other for the Rhime sake so was this Objection mounted against the Doctrine of the Church for the sake of his precious Answers wherein he will find or make as handsom an occasion as impertinency will admit to vilifie St. Austin and the Synod of Dort It will be extreamly difficult to give our Enquirer a satisfactory Answer in this Point Shall we say This is not the main thing in the Articles excepted against by Dissenters He will readily Reply However then you tâ—…itly grant that this is one of your little Cavils Shall we say This is not the Only thing they scruple he will return nimbly Then it seems you consess this to be one though not the only thing you Boggle at Really if I know how to content him I would do it and the best expedient that offers it self at present is this Answer 1. That the Church has other Doctrines not contained in the 39 Articles imposed on the Faith of Subscribers and perhaps the scruple may lie against them 2. That the 39 Articles contain other Doctrines besides those relating to the five Points debated 〈◊〉 the Synod of Dort as that of Art 20. The Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies And that of Art 34. Every Particular or National Church hath Authority to Ordain Change and Abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained only by Mans Authority And what now if the quarrel should lie against one of those And I am the rather induced to suspect they may hesitate in these particulars because I have heard some of them privately Speak and seen others publickly Print that though they can practise such things which being in their own Natures indifferent remain under all their concurrent Circumstances lawful yet they cannot find where the Church has any Commission to impose them They can assert and use their Christian Liberty and yet cannot subscribe to
the Doctrine of the Churches Power to take it away 3. That the most rigid Calvinists do not scruple Subscription to the Articles so far as they relate to the Quinquarticular Controversies and for a clear experiment herein for once let the Church make those Articles only the single Rail about the Communion Table and we shall soon see such Multitudes of Dissenters crowd into the Constitution that she will hardly find two Benefices a piece for them It 's my greater admiration that they who deny Particular Election Original sin the interest of Christs death in Reconciling God to us that they who assert Iustification by our own Works Freewill c. can subscribe them and indeed it seems they swallow'd them with some Reluctancy and are now reaching and straining with many a sowr face to Degorge not the Bait of the Benefice which is infinitely sweet but the Hook of the Article which is unmereifully sharp This pretended Pretence then might safely have been forborn but that the Lapwing thinks it advisable to raise a huge cry where 't is not that we may not search where really it is to make a clampering about the Non causes to divert our Fnquirers from the true and proper causes of Non-consormity Like the ingenious policy of the Thief that being arraigned for a Horse freely confessed the stealing of a Bridle but prudently concealed it was upon the Horses Head But says our Enquirer though this neither needs nor deserves an Answer yet I stall reply Two things to it That is he will give us Two needless Answers to One needless Objection 1. The summe of the former needless Answer is thus much Common Arts and Sciences which depend upon Humane Wit and Invention are capable of daily improvements but Christianity depending solely upon Divine Revelation can admit of no new discoveries The busie Wit of Man way perplex but it can never bring to light any New Thing for if we admit of any New Revelations we lose the Old and our Religion together we accuse our Saviour and his Aposiles as if they had not sufficiently revealed Gods Mind to the World and we incur St. Paul's Anathema which he denounces against him whosoever it shall be nay if an Angel from Heaven that shall Preach any other Doctrine than what had been received The Enquirer may call this a Needless Answer sor who shall hinder him from calling his own what he pleases but I assure him it contains a great deal of Needful Truth which had he like a good Husband improved the rest of his Book had been more needless than this Answer Needless we consess it to be as to the Objection which was it self needless but not so for his own Confutation for thus the Dissenters will come over him If neither Time nor the Wit of Man can make any New discoveries in Christianity then the Pope who like another Columbus or Americus has made Great and New discoveries in the Terra Incognita of Tradition and Ceremonies must either be a God or a Devil That the Liturgy was a principal part of Gods Worship he has told us in the Introduction that it was discovered from the beginning and not by later Adventurers he will be sore put to it to prove for all the Musty Fragments of St. Iames's Liturgy That it was not part of the Wisdom of Christ or his Apostles we are well enough satisfied That there was Wit and Invention in it we confess all the Question is whose Wit should have the glory of the Invention Again If to admit New Revelations be to lose the Old and our Religion together Let us make a short Quaery upon 't whether to admit of New Ordinances and Constitutions be not to lose the Old and our Religion together That is whether Gospel Institutions be not exclusive of new ones as well as Gospel Revelations and why we may not expect a new Credimus as well as a new Mandamus New Revelations as well as New Injunctions A New Prophet of the Church seems to me as necessary as a New King over the Church and a New High-Priest as needful as either And I proceed upon this Principle that the Law of Christ was as perfect as his Discoveries He has told us as fully and clearly what we should do as what we should believe He that may invade the Royal Office upon pretence there are not Laws enough for the Government of the Church may with equal appearance of Reason invade the Prophetick Office too upon pretence there are not Revelations now for its instruction And therefore the vigilant universal Pastor has found it as necessery to supply the defect of Revelations by his own Traditions as the nakedness of Worship by decent Ceremonies As Jesus Christ vindicated the Moral Law from the false Glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees so he superadded a Ceremoniâ—…l Law depending meerly upon his own fulness of Power and Authority now what right any can pretend to add new Particulars to his Ceremonial Law which they may not also pretend to add to his Meral Law I cannot Divine And therefore one of our Enquirers great Friends who had his Eyes in his Head and saw farther into these matters than his poor Neighbours was constrained to assert a power that had lain dormant somewhere of adding New Particulars to the Divine Law But further If New Revelations do accuse our Saviour and his Apostles as if they had not sufficiently revealed Gods Mind to the World Then new ways of teaching Gods Mind new invented Symbolical Ceremonies will accuse him and them of the same culpable failure in not discharging those Offices committed by God to a Mediator and by him to his Apostles And in short If we incur St. Paul's Anathema which he denounces against him that shall Preach any other Doctrine than what he has received Then they will do well to get out of the way of that Curse who Preach this Doctrine The Church has power to decree Rites and Ceremonies Unless they be sure they have received it from Christ for it s but ill venturing to stand in the way of an Angel with a drawn Sword more terrible than which is one of the Scriptures Anathema's Some will ask where and when and from whom the Church received that Doctrine which some Preach viz. A Power to impose Mystical and Symbolical Ceremonies as the Terms of Communion with a Churchâ—… but I shall only say that our compassionate Enquirer will need a most compassionate Reader upon these Two Accounts First that he makes an Objection for Dissenters which is their Answer And Secondly that he gives an Answer to that Objection which is their very Objection but yet we have not heard the Conclusion The Consequence says he of these Premises is That the elder any Doctrine of Christianity can be proved to be it must needs be truer and he that talks of a more clear Light of the latter Times and clearer discoveries in Religion talks as idly as he that
those Errours in time and not only of those Errours but of Gross Popery like by such means in time to Creep in amongst them as they found by late experience it dangerously begun I say not that the Articles of the Church encline to Popery nay they detest it but this I say that if they did encline to Arminianism they must to Popery If they do not why are they with allowance so misconstrued if they do then the secession of the Non-conformists is thereby justified Having therefore made this Objection for the Dissenters he will give them their Answer and prove the unreasonableness of this suggestion That the Church of England approaches too near the Superstitions of Rome 1. It s certain says he there hath been little or no Alteration made either in the Doctrine Discipline or Liturgy since the first Reformation Little or none Does he mean for the better or the worse To say there has liâ—…le or none been made for the better is a Commendation so cold that silence had been more an Honour than such praise The Reformation was begun as the times would bear A fair Copy was set for posterity to imitate never dreaming that their Rudiments should have been our utmost perfection That their first step should have been our Hercules Pillars and a Ne plus ultra to all future endeavours To say there has been little or no Alterâ—… made for the worse is a more modest way of Defamation but â—…enters have many things to say to this § 1 That there have been consâ—…ble Alterations made in the Articles themselves if not as they remain in Scriptis yet as they are publickly interpreted for we subscribe not to a heap of Letters and Syllables but to the sense and meaning of certain propositions as they are owned by the Church What the Church owns say they we can no otherwise understand then by those Writings which appear every day Licensed and approved by those of greatest Authority in the Church Now if we may judge of the meaning of the Articles by those Writings They are as much Altered as if Negatives had been changed into Affirmatives or Affirmatives into Negatives In former times they were generally subscribed because the most scrupulous were generally informed by those of most eminent place in the Church that the meaning was found but now say they we are informed otherwise we see our mistake the words have a different and contrary meaning and therefore we must be excused in subscription 2. They will say That what the Enquirer calls little or nothing is a very great something for it concerns us not so much what is put into the Liturgy or Rituals as what is made a Condition of Communion whiâ—…h the Church Now in the beginning of the Reformation though many things were in use yet few imposed as the necessary Terms of enjoying a station in that Society Things supposed indifferent were used as in different In the 13th of Q. Eliz. subscription is only required to Doctrinals and such Subscribers though not ordained by Prelates were admitted to officiate as Ministers of the Church of England But now subscription is peremptorily required to all and every thing contain'd in the Book of Commonprayer The Book of ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons wherein are considerable Doctrinal Additions and Alterations such as the different Orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons supposed to be distinct jure divino A Doctrine which A. B. Cranmer understood not as is evident from his M. S. exemplified in Dr. St. his Irenicum In the beginning of the Reformation Ceremonies were retained to win upon the people who were then generally Papists and doted upon old usages and not as the necessary conditions of Communion They were retained not to shut out of Dores the Protestants which is their present use but to invite in the Romanists which was their Original end but there 's nothing more common then for Institutions to degenerate and be perverted from the first Reasons of their usage and yet still to plead the Credit of their Originals Thus Indulgences and Remission of sins were first granted to all that would engage in the Holy War to recover the Sepulchre of Christ out of the hands of the Saracens but in process of time they were dispensed to them who would massacre the Waldenses and Albigenses and such as could not obey the Tyranny of the Romish saction Thus was the Inquisition first set up to discover the Hypocritical Moors in Spain but the edge of it since turned against the Protestants And thus were the Ceremonies perverted at first made a Key to let in the Papists and now made a Lock to shut out Protestants What a glorious work must it then be to abolish those Engines that seeing they are become weak to do Good they may be rendred as impotent to do mischief Imitating herein the Apostle who once circumcised Timothy to gain the weak Iews yet stoutly refused to Circumcise Titus least he should stumble the weak Gentiles 3. The Ceremonies its true crept into the Church pretty early yet they laid no weight no stress upon them It was decreed by the Councel of Sardica that none should be made a Bishop 〈◊〉 â—…e that had passed the Inferiour Orders and continued in them for some time and yet we see they insisted not upon such a Canon when it might prejudice the Church and exclude useful persons from the Ministry and therefore Nectarius was chosen Patriarch of Constantinople not only being a Lay-man but unbaptized As our Enquirer commends and admires the Churches Wisdom in forming her Doctrinal Articles that men of various perswasions might subscribe them so her tenderness and wisdom had been no less admirable had she recommended Ceremonies with such an Indifferency that they who were passionately sond of them might be humoured and they that protest they scruple them in Conscience towards God might fairly let them alone for it can be no dishonour to a Church to be as Lax in Ceremonies of humane constitution as in Doctrines of Divine Revelation 4. Dissenters say from good grounds that that which makes all an insupportable burden viz. That we must subscribe according to the clause of the 20th Article that The Church has power to decree Rites and Ceremonies is added since the Beginning of the Reformation And this they think heavier than all the Ceremoniâ—…s put together many could practice a thing supposing it indifferent in it self and having a real tendency to a greater good who can by no means subscribe that the Church has such a power to take away my liberty I have taken notice that in the Ancient Bibles of this Church the Contents of Psalm 149. ran thus The Prophet exhorteth to praise God for his Love to his Church and for his benefits But in the latter days we had got high ranting Language The Prophet exhorteth to praise God for his Love to his Church and for that power that he hath given to his Church over the
English Clergy which he intimates p. 39. That the motives and invitations of the most judicious Clergy to undertake the work viz. the charge os the flock is from the most liberal maintenance 7. Whether the healing of the Clergies Poverty will not cure them of their Laboriousness in Preaching and whether doubling the Revenues will not single the Sermons I have read of a poor Vicar that being taken notice of by the Bishop for an industrious Preacher to encourage him in his work he gave him a good bulkie Parsonage but observing that he began presently to slacken his pace and come to once a day he sends for him expostulates the Case with him why he should work less now he had more Wages to whom he answered ingenuously Parvâ—… lâ—…quuntur Curae ingentes sâ—…upent 8. Whether it was advisedly spoken by our Enquirer to compare a Ministers Condescension to his scrupulous people in the matter of Ceremonies to Esau's selling his Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage for if the Minister should happen to cut short his Common Service to gratifie his Patron in hopes of a Dinnâ—…r the worst he can make of it is that he fells a Mess of Pottage for a Sunday-Pudding And if a Ministers Birth-right consist in Rites and Ceremonies he that gives a Mess of Pottage for it will certainly buy it too dear 3. The third cause is the late Wars And for proof hereof he will desire the Reader to look no further back then the late Wars between this Kingdom and the States of the Low-Countries But why no further back we used to be lead back as far as the late Civil Wars but our Enquirer was better advised then his Reader perhaps is aware of It had not been safe to follow truth too near the Heels least it should have dasht out his Teeth But into what a perplexed Dilemma has he brought the Church of England If we have Peace with Holland and therewith Trade and Commerce then comes in all the new fangled Commodities Ceremonies and Rites of forreign growth exotick Customs jack-in-a-boxes If we have War with them then the Reins of Government are remiss and Non-conformity grows apace for that says he the Contempt of Religion is greater and the state of the Church worse at the end then the beginning of thâ—…se Wars Could we but onderstand the mystery that lurks under that word Religion and that Iâ—…rgon and Cypher the state of the Church we might easily return an Answer By Religion then understand Ceremony by the state of the Church understand its power to crush and ruine all that comply not with those Ceremonies and then it 's very true that Wars are a great Enemy to Religion Every thing is so far to be reputed evil as it crosses and so far good as it advances the Trade of Ceremonies and Impositions If Navigation and Merchandise be Essential to the flourishing state of the Nation yet if they stand in the way of Ceremonies damn them as Schismatical and Wars and Blood-shed and the beggering of the Nation if they would but promote Ceremonies were amongst the choicest desirables However the remedy is cheap and easie 'T is but parting with the Flag the Soveraignty of the Sea which our Enemies would have perswaded us were but a Cerâ—…mony the fishery the East-India Trade and perhaps two or three more such inconsiderable necessaries and we might have secured our Innocent Ceremonies and the Church-men swagger'd over the Consciences of Dissenters He that has a mind to interpose in a discourse of Wars may possibly get a broken Pate for his pains otherwise the Valour of the English Nation has so justified it self in our Naval Engagements that it needs not be ashamed to look back upon its behaviour but I shall only observe as I pass on these few things 1. That the Ecclesiastical Histories observe to our hand that the Wars between the Emperour and the Persians proved a means to check those persecutions which the Arians raised against the Orthodox And if the great Governour of the World will over-rule publick Calamities to render the condition of persecuted Christians tolerable we have the more reason to admire his powerful wisdom who out of so great an Evil could extract so great a Good 2. I must call to mind one of our Enquirers grave sentences ubi solitudinem feccrunt pacem vocant That which some men count Peace is nothing but havock and desolation Like some great Enclosers who having depopulated all about them and left nothing but the bare Ribs and naked Skeleton of sometimes flourishing Farms bless themselves that they are 〈◊〉 from the noise of the obstreperous Carters Thus when our Ecclesiastical projectors shall have ruined Trade routed the Conscientious and forced peaceable Dissenters into deserts beggar'd Corporations those Nests of Schism they may applaud themselves for profound States-men that they have wrought out their own Ease with the miseries of the People 3. Wars may reasonably contribute something to a just and well bounded Liberty of Conscience for how could a Prince expect his Subjects should hazard their lives in his righteous cause and quarrel and open their Purses wide to maintain the War when either they must lose them in his Service or if they return having survived apparent dangers be trampled upon at home by those who have all the while sat still at ease wrapt up in warm Furr and security There 's no great difference whether a man be slain by chain-shot or a single Bullet And yet a generous Spirit would accept is as moreEligible to meet a noble death in the Field fighting for his Prince and Countrey then to languish and pine away an inglorious Life in servitude under Ecclesiastical Impositions 4. If the effects of War were lamented as letting in Debauchery and Prophaneness tolerating immoralities antiquating the practice of Religion we should mourn with him that thus mourns But when we shall have an Oration of the Evils of the War and at last the great one is that it makes people not so fond of Ceremonies whereas Peace and Prosperity multiplies them it 's enough to make a people entertain thoughts less evil of the one and less honourable of the other for thus the Spartans made the lives of the People so intolerable in Peace that they might more readily engage in Wars abroad And indeed such mis-representations of the reasons of things have made the World desire like the Salamander â—…ar for its Element that they might not dwell in the hotter fire â—…f Persecution in a more moderate Climate called Peace for a Person of Honour that in defence of his Country has come up to the mouth of a Canon and come off with renown to be slain by an Ecclesiastical Canon would make him resent his fall with regret and dying bite the ground 4. The fourth and indeed the greatest cause of all these mischiefs is a pestilent evil known by the name of Trade This Kingdom of Great Britain is an Island
then any Church Governours can now justly Claim His Apostolical Commission to Plant and Water Churches which would have commanded Reverence to his Person and conciliated Authority to his Determinations and yet he either had no such power or durst not use it but took the Healing way tolerating things tolerable and pressing them mutually to Love and Peace under their various apprehensions about Mint Anise and Cummiâ—… But yet he thinks That the Reason why Primitive Christians whilst under persecution had one Heart and Mind was because they submitted their private Fancies to publick Safety Which is only the assigning of an Imaginary cause for a Real one Primitive Christians whilst surrounded with Adversaries were of one Heart and Mind in the main and the true Reason was because their dangers and pressing fears had not yet let in that Prelatical Imposing Spirit into the Guides of the Church which Ease and Liberty afterwards produced And though we dare not charge our Divisions upon Peace Plenty and Liberty which are great Mercies to a sinful people yet we would lay the Saddle upon the right Horse the blame at the right door 'T is not the injudiciousness of the People who are willing to be quiet and accept of rest upon tolerable terms but the obstinacy of Clergy-men who make their own Wills the reason of their Injunctions not considering that all mens Intellectuals are not of one size and height and yet as if Consciences were to be fooled with Mens Souls sported with they necessitate the People either to act against their Light or to fall under the severe lash of a Poenal Statute § 2. That these Evils broke out no sooner says he is due to the contentment generally took in their first Emerging out of the Darkness and Superstitions of Popery Very true they were so full of Admiration at what God had done for them that they considered not what further to ask God to do for them so transported that they were out of Egypt that they never considered how short the Wilderness was of the promised Land And hence he might have answered himself p. 13. If there be such a dangerous Affinity between the Church of England and Rome how came it to pass that Cranmer and Ridley c. laid down their Lives in testimony to this against that Rome was not built nor will it be destroyed in one day Our first Martyrs laid down their Lives in Testimony that Rome was guilty of dangerous Doctrines but not that we had nothing remaining that needed a Reformation 2. A second cause is That a great part of this Nation having been leavened with Iewish Superstitious or Traditions hath thereby been indisposed to an uniform reception of and Perseverance in the Reformation of Religion held forth by this Church When I first read the charge of Judaism brought in against the Dissenters I remembred what I had met with in the virulent Titles of some Lutheran Book Calvinus Iudaizans Calvinianorum Nesterianismus Calvine-papismus Noâ—…us Calvinistarum Deus to which we may add Calvine-Turcismus and some others I began to cast about in my thoughts for the reason of such an Imputation Have they set up an Image of the Aaronical Priesthood Have they their High-Prieâ—… their inferiour Priesâ—… and Levites attired in the Linen Ephod with all the Accoutrements of the Aaronical Wardrobe And that they may more exactly symbolize therewith have they provided for their Priests an Altar settled upon them a Levitical maintenance and to carry on the parallel have they erected Temples distinguisht by sacred Apartments Have they their Holy and most Holy place Chancelled in for the greater Reverence of the sacred Mysteries to secure them from the Approaches of the prophane and injudicious Rabble and have they all these enclosed within Holy Ground And the rather beacuse Dionysius assures us That the Christians in his time had solemn Temples like the Iews and the Chancel severed with special sanctifications from the rest of the Church whereas says he the Christians of the first Age made their Assemblies both in such private places and in such simplicity as the Apostles did I considered again whether the Non-conformists had not introduced a pompous padagâ—…gie of Ccremonies and imposed them upon the People whether they might not parhaps have instituted some Feasts and Holy-days upon an old Judaical account as of the Circumcision Purification or whether they had not appointed some Office or solemn special Service for Lustration of Women after Childbirth in correspondence with the Iewish Purifications of Women after their uncleanness whether they observed any sacred time Analogical to the Passover or had any Foot-steps of the ancient distinction of Meats into clean and unclean Or any thing that might give cause of suspicion that they had by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 revived Moses his extraordinary Quadragesimal Abstinence or whether they introduced Temple instrumental Musick whether loud sounding Cymbals or Organs having such good proof in Durantus his Rationale from that Text Let every thing that hath Breath praise the Lord And when I could find no track of reason for the charge upon these accounts I went to enquire of the Enquirer And it does appear by his talk that a more secret and mysterious Judaisme then all this has of old been rooted in this Nation that no Ecclesiastical Pick-axes have been able to extirpate it for says he the greatest difficulty that Austin the Monk found here was to bring the Inhabitants from the observation of Easter and some other Rites according to the manner of the Iewish and Eastern Churches to that of the Roman and Western and the doing it cost the lives of twelve hundred Monks who stubbornly opposed his Inovations This Austin was certainly a Formal Fop as ever this poor Nation was harassed with Two third parts of his whole Ministerial or Apostolical work was Ceremony for upon these conditions he propounded Peace to the Britains If you will in these three things obey me In celebrating Eastar in due time In Baptizing according to the manner of the Roman Church and in Preaching the Word to the Nation all other Ceremonies Fashions and Customs though they be contrary to ours yet we will willingly bear with them Was not this a person of great moderation But why not condescend in those two as well as all the rest Oh it s the Religious policy of Rome to reserve as much of Ceremony as like a Quit-rent will serve to Recognize the Papal Soveraignty and that point of Soveraignty alone will in due time fetch in the other To own that Churches power to impose ics Jurisdiction to award terms of Communion though but in one single instance is the delivery of a Twig and a Turf which give her Livery and Seisâ—…n of the Conscience in the name of the whole Man But if Austins Reformation was so Ceremonious in it self and so bloody in its effects which are if not inseparably yet commonly linked together If he could have
which the present necessity did restrain 4. Churches are not to feighn necessities and Imaginary Exigencies as an Engine of ambitious spirits to try conclusions upon mens Consciences or practise upon their â—…ameness and therefore the necessity ought to be such as carries its own evidence along with it There are many things which the Divine Authority had determined as to its â—…id and sort which yet are not so determined in the Inâ—…viduals now when a Church meets with any of these she must come to a determination for otherwise the Divine Commands cannot possibly be reduced into act nor our duty Exercised Thus he has commanded his Churches to assemble themselves together for publick worship he has appointed them Ordinances wherein to receive mercy and grace from him and Officers to administer the Ordinances in the Church the Church therefore is obliged to do whatsoever is necessary to the doing of her duty Thus Goâ—… having obliged them to worship they must come to an agreement about the place meerly because 't is impossible to meet no where But if the divine will hath not determined in specie man cannot under the most specious pretence of decency or adorning the worship institute any thing because it wants some head of a Divine Command to which to reduce it Thus God having given no Command to any Church to worship him under sensible formes and signes of Invisible Grace no Church has power to Institute any such and worship God by them For in this case Divine wisdome Love and Authority have demonstrated themselves and setled Enow to answer Gods Ends and ours If he had said as often as you baptize besides the washing with water which I have commanded you see that you make some figure over the face of the person to be baptized and not determined the figure whether Hexagonal pentagonal or the like the Church must come to a conclusion about some figure or the duty must for ever lye fallow But a General Command that all things be done decently and in â—…der will never introduce these Symbolical Ceremonies because the Command may be satisfied without them or any of them they are â—…ot necessary so much as by disjunction whatsoever is comprehended under a Divine precept is a necessary duty at least by disjunction Antecedent to any Command of any Church but these Ceremonies are not necessary in any sense antecedently to the Command of a Church and therefore are not comprehended under that General precept Let all things be done decently and in order And indeed if they were the sign of the Cross would be a necessary duty not only in oâ—… at Baptisme but in the Lords Supper in every prayer in alâ—… preaching in singing of Psalms and in every Religious Exercise seeing that precept enjoyns all things to be done decently and in order And we may presume that our Saviour with his Disciples and Apostles performed All divine service in the most decent congruous and edifying modes and yet they never practised that or any other Ceremony of that sort and therefore they are not comprehended under the Rule Nevertheless our Enquirer is resolved he will give us two Instances of this Truth that some things are necessary to the Constitution and administration of a particular Church that are not in themselves necessary absolutely considered And if he thinks it worth the while he may give us two hundred for we are perfectly unconcerned in them all 1 The first instance is in the Apostles times the abstaining from things strangled and blood was by the Council of Ierusalem adjudged and declared necessary to be observed by the Gentiles in order to an accommodation between them and the Iews and yet I suppose scarce any body thinks the observation of that Abstinence so Enjoyned necessary in it self Let us apply it either then the abstaining from Ceremonies must be adjudged necessary in order to an Accommodation between our Church and other Protestants or the obsâ—…rving of them be adjudged necessary in order to an accommodation between us and the Romanists which he would chuse I am not informed But let us Examine a little his great Instance § 1. It was adjudged and declared necessary to be observed saâ—… he Therefore say I it was enjoyned because first necessary and not made necessary by the Injunction The thing was not unnecessary before the Synâ—…dal Letters nor the Council at liberty to have determined the contrary unless an accommodation between Jew and Gentile was a thing unnecessary 15. Acts 28. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon yoâ—… no greater burden then those necessary things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now let him try his skill to conclude a power to impose things unnecessary from this fact of theirs who only imposed things necessary § 2. That a Council had the Immediate assistance of the Holy Ghost and might more safely adventure upon such an Imposition then any particular or National Church who as they have no promise cannot in faith expect any such extraordinary direction and we hope that no Church will assume equal power to impose unless they could produce equal authority for their power in which the Consciences of Christians might securely acquiesce It would be strange language from a Synod It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no other burdens then these necessary things that yet observe all Ceremonies of our appointment § 3. The people might reasonably conform to that decree which had their own Antecedent consent and the more patiently bear the burden which was not imposed upon them without themselves for this Canon was not only sent to the Churches by the order of the Apostles and Elders and the whole Church v. 22. but what ever obligatory power there was in it from man It ran in the name of the Apostles Elders and Brethren But alas the Case is otherwise with the poor Churches in reference to impositions of late Ages who know no more what Impositions shall be laid upon their Consciences then the poor horse is acquainted whither his Master intends to ride him § 4. This was a Decree not to burden them but to case and relieve them not to pinch the Gentiles but to discharge them of those servile loads which some Judaizing Converts would have imposed on them we read v. 1. That certain came down from Iudea which taught the brethren and said Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses ye cannot be saved And when Paul and Barnabas opposed this Tyranny yet such was their Zeal for their old Ceremonies that they reinforced their scatter'd squadrons from certain of the Sect of the Pharisees who believed v. 5. saying That it was necessary to Circumcise them and Command them to keep the Law of Moses At last the Case comes before the Council and they determine against these Judaizing Bigots That their blind Zeal should not be the measure of what was necessary or unnecessary and yet not to
to live in the practise of all Christs institutions if we cannot enjoy them in one place upon Christs Terms his Command and tenderness to our own souls oblige us to seek out where we may enjoy them better cheap § 4. He that cannot perform all that the Laws require of him may forbeâ—… judging them that do the man of a Tender Conscience finds it enough to judge his own actions This is a most excellent Rule and Dissenters desire no more liberty Let them but judge of their own actions and they leave all others to stand or fall to their own Masters And it seems hard if they may not be indulged this priviledge since the silliest Creature that ever was is presumed to have so much wit as to come out of a shâ—…wr of Rain rather then to be wet to the skin § 5. The truly tender Conscience that is the Fool all this while will freely part with money nay of all the men in the world there 's none so free as he for a Fool and his money are soon parted Well! But if he cannot conform to the Laws he can pay the penalty I promise you that 's a great Question whether he can or no. Where nothing's to be had the King must lose his Right But if this be the grand qualification of a Tender Conscience to be made a Begger I wonder what his Priviledge can be unless it be to succeed old Clause the King of Beggers For his satisfaction if the penalty be moderate such as I can pay without ruine to my self and family though I be not satisfyed in the justice of it yet herein I may lawfully depart from my own Right and shall esteem it a great mercy if my coyn may compound for my Conscience 3 Readers you have heard the qualifications of a Tender Conscience be but now Masters of so much Patience as to sit out the Priviledges and that last Scene will make you ample satisfaction â—… Every private Christian is bound in Charity and compassion towards such a Man to deny himself of some part of his Liberty to gain him that is in those things that are matter of no Law where you have first a Bit and then a knock or the fair Concession and the wary Revocation § 1. The Concâ—…ssion Every private Christian is bound in Charity to such a Man to part with some of his Liberty to gain him wherein there are several things to be advised upon 1. The subject of the Proposition Every private Person 2. The nature of the obligation Bound in Charity and compassion 3. The matter of the duty To deny himself of some part of his Liberty 4. The end to gain him In few or none of which particulars can I arrive at any clear satisfaction 1. Every private Person And are not all publick Persons bound by the Law of God to walk charitably not to destroy souls I doubt we forget that God is here the Legislator with whom is no respect of Persons Charity is the fulfilling of the Moral Law And if any Person be so publick as not to be obliged by it we must leave those Commands Thou shalt do no Murther Thou shalt not commit Adultery to exercise the small fry and hamper the vulgar The Apostle Paul was a publick Person and one as well qualified to discern and impose things indifferent as any that have made the fairest pretences that way and yet he Professes with more then ordinary servency 1. Cor. 8. 13. That he will eat no flesh whilst the world stands least he should make his Brother to offend And who shall venture to make that the matter of an Ecclesiastical Canon which the Apostle durst not venture to practise They that assume a greater Authority had need give greater proof of greater Charity And yet greater was the importance of Flesh to the Health and life of Paul then a Ceremoâ—… can possibly be to the peace of the Church For. 1. Flesh is Disjunctively necessary to the health and life of Man that is either flesh or some other food but neither this nor that humane Ceremony is necessary either to the glory of God the peace of the Church or Decency and order in the worship The Church has served God decently lived peaceably and glorified God eminently without them and in his time may do so again 2. Flesh was a thing perfectly indifferent in it self and owned so by all that were well instructed in their Manumission from the Mosaical servitude but the more we are faithfully instructed in the Doctrine of Christian Liberty the more are we satisfied that we are at Liberty from all other Ceremonies of men as well as from those that were once of Divine Institution 2 Bound in Compassion and Charity I am not well satisfied that a Debt of meer Compassion or free Charity is all we owe our Brother in this case However we owe our God a Debt of Iustice It 's he that says Destroy not him with thy mâ—…at for whom Christ dyed 14. Rom. 15. And that there is no comparison between the Law that enjoins Ceremonies and that Law that commands us not to offend our Brother I thus prove 1. The Law that forbids scandal is Negative but the Law that commands Ceremonies is but Affirmative Now Gods own affirmative precepts may have their outward acts suspended in some cases for some time but Negatives admit of no relaxation He that says thou shalt not do says thou shalt never do unless dispensed with by a power aequal to his that gave the Prohibition 2. The Command of not scandalizing is purely moral the heart and life of the sixth Commandement For he that says thou shalt not Kill primarily intends I shall not destroy the soul but the Command of Ceremonies but positive And positives ought to give place to Morals If there be any Truth in that Doctrine of the Enquirers That Godlays little stress upon Circumstantials that his own positive Laws give place to the Moral Law much more ought Mans Ceremonial Law give place to Gods Moral Law Thou shalt not Kill 3. The Command of not giving offence because Moral is therefore perpetual but the Command of Ceremonies Temporary and may be momentany for the Church of England 34. Art Asserts a power in every National Church not only to ordain but to change and abolish Ceremonies 4. The Command of not scandalizing the weak not destroying the soul is in Materiâ Necessarâ—… the thing it self is good in it self and for it self though no positive Command had interposed in the case but Ceremonies have no other Goodness but what is breath'd into them by the breath of Man which if it were measured by the good effects would be found very little 5. The Command not to offend is unquestionably obligatory but that Command for Ceremonies is at best questionable whether it be so much as lawful 6. The Command to avoid offence has a direct and natural tendency to beget and preserve Amity and unity amongst
Christians but the Command of Ceremonies apparently has occasion'd Divisions between Protestants and Papists between Protestants themselves between those of the same Nations and all Humane Terms of Church-communion necessarily produce the same bitter fruit 7. The power of ordering the smallest matter in the Church must conform to the Soveraign end of edification 2. Cor. 13. 10. The power which the Lord hath given me for edification and not Destruction But no power may suspend my duty of pleasing my Brother to his edification 8. Supposing the worst That it 's only a Debt of Charity which my Brother may challenge of me not to scandalize him and a Debt of justice to Obey the Magistrate in this very case yet the Miniâ—…s of justice ought to vail to the Magnalia of Charity As the Command of a Father in lower instances ought to yeeld to the preservation of my Neighbours life 3 Some would except against the matter of his concession to deny himself in some part of his Liberty what a small some that may be none knows perhaps there 's no part of his Liberty which that duty may not Command 4 I except lastly against his propounded end to please and gain him as not adaequal to that which the Command has in it's eye To scandalize or give offence may be taken either in a primary sense and so it denotes a culpable giving occasion to a Brother to sin or in a lower and secondary sense for the angering and displeasing of a Brother This distinction well observed would unravel much confusion which pesters our discourses 1. If we compare the displeasing of a private person with that of a publick the latter is more sinful and much more dangerous for the wrath of a King is like the roaring of a Lyon 2. To occasion culpably a publick person to sin is more heinous then to occasion the sin of a private person because the sins of those in eminent places have such a fatal influence upon the peoples pollution and the procurement of Gods displeasure 3. But if we compare a scandal in the primary sense with one in the secondary then it 's no measuring cast whether it be more eligible to displease the one or destroy the other Nor can there be sin in displeasing one when I cannot otherwise please but by destroying the other for though my own folly may possibly so ensnare me yet God never puts me under such Circumstances that I shall be necessitated to sin § 2. You have heard his fair concession now take his Limitation along with you That is says he in those things that are matters of no Law but left free and undeterminate there the Rule of the Apostle takes place 15. Rom. 1. 2. We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves And let every one of us please his Neighbour for his good to edification and we will add 14. Rom 13. Let no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his Brothers way v. 15. Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ dyed v. 19. Let us follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edify another v. 20. for meat Destroy not the work of God This is the last retreat of these Gentlemen Hether they retrire as to their Triary and strong Reserves You ought to bear the infirmities of the weak to edify him heavenwards not to murder his soul till a Law be made to the contrary you are bound in Charity and compassion to such a one till you receive further Orders and then you must be savage and barbarous But his Reasons follow 1. Reason because we may not do evil that good may come The sinews of which Reason lye in a supposition that to omit a Ceremony is an evil thing compared with the saving of a soul. This General Rule may be applied that other way we must not do evil that Good may come and therefore may not draw a poor Brother into sin that some good may come by it and the rather if we consider what good comes by it As the saving my self a pecuniary mulct or Recognizing the Magistrates power to Command which may be done and is so in many ways wherein the scandal of another is not concern'd And if I should transgress a Ceremony or so for the saving of a soul we may Lawfully presume upon the general will of the Legislator that no positive Command of his should be so rigorously insisted on when it would destroy a greater good 2. Reason We must not break the Laws of God or man â—…ut of an humour of complaisance to a Brother Ans To discharge a weighty duty to avoid the scandalizing of a Brother to walk charitably which the Enquirer p. 137. when he had occasion to magnify Charity tells us is an essential part of Religion ought not to be put of with a frothy Droll as if it were nothing but the humour of Complaisance The Apostle whose head understood the speculation and whose heart entertained the love of this Doctrine much better then himself has taught us other things That to sin against the Brethren is to sin against Christ 1 Cor. 8. 12. 'T is to destroy with our meats indifferent things him for whom Christ dyed 14. Rom. 15. And if these be matters of humour and complaisance and we should venture a Ceremony for them it would be but to stake one Complement against another 3. Reason In those times says he the Magistrate being Pagan took no care of the Church nor had passed any Laws concerning the management of the Christian Religion And so Christians had a great deal of scope and room for mutual condescension But the case is quite otherwise when there 's a Law in being c. Really the Pagan Magistrate was very much overseen unless perhaps he knew nothing less or more of his Authority over things indifferent and then the Apostles must needs be to blame who never inform'd him of that Power over the Church wherewith Christ had eâ—…rusted him And above all St. Paul was utterly inexcusable having so inviting an opportunity to do it in Being so long at Rome having friends in â—…aesars Household and this in Quinquiâ—…nnio Neronis when the Lion was treatable and approachable Besides this must have obliged him to entertain better thoughts of Christians and Christianity and engaged him to protect and defend it when it lay so entirely at his devoir The Enquirer instructed us p. 144. that such a Society as a Church could never be conserved without some Rites or other nor any publick Worship be performed if all Ceremonies and Circumstances such as of time place persons and the like be left indefinite and undetermined He has told us since that the power of Determining and Defining these things ly's in our Governours who understand the Civil Policy p. 151. And now he tells us That in those primitive times the Magistrate had passed no Laws
were all in their Graves as well as dead and rotten And if those Decent Ceremonies had a Decent Buâ—…ial it were an Honour as great as those of a Nobler Extract 〈◊〉 Divine Ceremonies had bestowed on them I would seriously enquire of our serious Enquirer 1. If some Ceremonies were Abolished because they were superstitious and therefore dangerous why all the rest were not served with the same sawce that were equally or more superstitious and therefore more dangerous I think it 's demonstrable that all the superstition that ever stuck to Holy Water Cream Salt Spittle Oyl was â—…nnocency to that horrid abuse of the Sign of the Cross. But 2. 〈◊〉 the Superstitions of the remaining Ceremonies were capable of separation from them why might not a little Oyl and Elbowgreace have been bestowed on the rest and their Lives saved 〈◊〉 seems most of the Ceremonies were knock'd o th' head because they would not go to the charge of Rearing them 3. If many Ceremonies were a Burden whether were not half of that many half as great a Burden and so pro rato And if so where was the Churches Commission to impose any unnecessary Burden upon the Necks of Disciples 4. If some of the old superstitious Ceremonies when well scraped and wiped were lest for Decency and Comeliness in the Worship why where not the rest scummer'd up that the Worship might be more Decent For iâ—… Two or Three Innocent Ceremonies will add a Decency Two or Three hundred will have burnish'd it to such a Lustre as must have either ravish'd or blinded the Eyes of all Beholders 5. Who shall insallibly assure us just how few will be no Burden and the imposing of them no sin and yâ—…t â—…ne more shall make them all burdensome and so the imposition of them to become sinful Or just how many to an Unite will render the Worship Decent and the adding of one more render all Deformed If the Church then why might not the Church of Rome in her days have Determined the Question Especially seeing that of all pretenders she alone challenges an infallibility which is the most considerable thing in this Case when the Church must carry her hand even and cut by a thred between Decency and Indecency A Burden and no Burden 6. If the Church has a power to impose a load though a lesser load has she a power to communicate strength though it be but little strength to bear that little Especially seeing the Burden here must not lie on the Back but the Heart not on the Shoulders but the Conscience She that pleads an Authority to Institute can she produce a power to Bless what she Institutes to any Spiritual End This encouragement we have from Christ whose perogative it is to impose that he will give Grace to bear what he imposes and thereby make his Yoke casie and his Burden light Qui mihi est Oneris Author idem erit Adâ—…inistrationis Adâ—…tor said Leo And so Austin Da quod jubes jube quod vis If any Church could incline the Heart towards her Testimonies or give a Heart to keep her Statutes Iudgments and Commandments and do them or make her Commandments not grievous Let her multiply Ceremonies till she is weary and spare not Let her use her Discretion and we shall use nothing but Submission But this dead weight sinks our Spirits quite 7. Whether is not such an assuming power exceeding dangerous in its Consequences for upon this Principle the Church may impose a round thousand of Ceremonies if she will say and think them decent and the Crow thinks all her young ones White and all are sond of the Brats of their Brains as well as the Issue of their Bodies yes and Ten Thousand more if she will but decree they are not burdensome which she is the less a Competent Judge of because Superiours who command do not feel that load which Inseriâ—…urs who must obey do groan under So much of the Moderation of the Reformation 3. The English Reformation was the most perfect and compleat in its kind The perfection and compleatness of a Reformation is to be taken from its Agreement with its Rule and Idea which say we is thâ—… Word of God and to this we do unmovably adhere till we have good security that they have found out a better All Perfection with us is but Defection and all compleatness Fancy which is not measured by that Rule It will therefore be the great Glory of the English Reformation to acquit it self well in this point wherein our Enquirer will endeavour our satisfaction 1. For Doctrine This Church retains says he the most Ancient Doctrine and soundest Confession of I aith founded upon the H. Scripture That the 〈◊〉 Scriptures are the foundation of Faith we gladly hear some intimation of and shall lay up the concession against another time whether the Church has attended to this Rule in her Doctrinals belongs to another Discourse 2. For Government He tells us The English Reformation retains the most Primitive Church-Government These things are wisely and warily penn'd thought I A Scripture Creed and a Primitive Church-Government Confession sounded on H. Scriptures and Government founded on a word called Primitive why shhould we not have a Confession sounded on something else than Scripture as well as a Government Or why not a Church-Government founded on the Scripture as well as the Doctrine So that he has provided well for the Doctrine but for the Government it may sinck or swim for any Relief it can expect from our Enquirer except a hard word will do it Primitive Antiquity is one of those Stulta Amuleta quae Controversiâ—… collo appendunturut Armilla Maleficarum Potent Charms and Pompous Enchantments not to Cure but Conjure down a Controversie for since 〈◊〉 may be taken in a Latitude of three 〈◊〉 five or 〈◊〉 time of need six hundred years after Christ it would be very hard if any Crotchet Humour and Fancy had not set up for it self in that time which shall be enough to entitle it to the Warrantie of the Primitive times Let him therefore prove it Scriptural and so jure Divino and he has said more to me than if he had run up its Pedigree through a Dozen or more Centuries But is not this short word The most Primitive Church-Government a foundation too narrow for that High Boast p. 2. That our Church is of a sound and healthful Constitution I think I have sufficiently though briefly manifested in the Introduction Briefly and suffciently The Two most desirable Qualifications in Argument and Evidence that may be And surely it must de brief enough which is comprehended in this one Sentence The English Reformation retains the most Primitive Church-Government but whether it be sufficient or no let the Reader look to that 3. For the Liturgy That is as he thinks the Best accommodate to reconcile and unite Mens Devotions And how well it has answered its end and the
received any such command to invent and impose Ceremonies she can tell us where others may read it as well as her self And to conclude at present they say That this one Principle granted That the Church may impose upon her Members whatever is not expresly forbidden does either put the Body of Christians under a more heavy Yoke then that of the Iews or else torment them with fears that they may be so And indeed supposing this exorbitant power to impose parts of Worship or Ceremonies or any of these things in Debate the condition of the Iews was much more desirable in this respect then that of Christians For § 1. Their Law-giver was Iehova who had an absolute and unlimited power over them and they that are Gods Creatures will not grudge to be his Servitors He was Lord paramount of Worship and Conscience and might he not be allowed to do what he would with his own He is the God of the Spirits of all Flesh and shall they not live in subjection to him who expect to live in a Kingdom with him Since there is a necessity of obedience it sweetens it unspeakably that it 's both Interest and Priviledge to obey and that he who requires obedience is their God a God whose Will is the Rule of Righteousness and therefore the most satisfactory Reason of his Commands and his Creatures Duty And Implicit Obedience is then Honourable when God calls for it § 2. As their Law giver had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Authority to Command so he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a power to influence the weakest Elements He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and had absolute Sovereignty and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of Almighty power which was a double encouragement to the observers of his precepts For 1. He was hereby able to secure the Obedient in his Service upon which Account Christ claims the Legislative Power over Conscience â—…am 4. 12. There is one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy 2. By this Power he could render efficacious these Rudiments which in themselves were but beggerly Ordinances and produce by them Spiritual and Supernatural effects And I am 〈◊〉 the rather to think that God has not committed the â—…ral Power of instituting much less the Sovereign Power of imposing Religious Ceremonies and Observances because he has not communicated that other Power to bless their own appointments â—…or invigorate them with success God may well be allowed to Command what he pleases seeing be can and will bless whatsoever he Commands § 3. Their Law-giver was Faithful one to whom they might securely commit their Consciences one with whom they might â—…ith the greatest satisfaction of Heart commit their Souls He â—…hat has a sole right to any thing will be faithful in keeping it because 't is his own and who may better be entrusted with the Guardianship of Worship and all Religion then their Owner But though we ought not to be Censorious yet we may and ought to exercise some prudence and caution to whom we resign our selves in matters of Religion though the best of Men not knowing how they may use us but well knowing that we may more easily Captivate ourselves to the Will of an Imposer then being once enthralled vindicate our selves into our Christian Liberty Or if for no other Reason yet for this because they are but Men. § 4. The Jewish Yoke was a determinate Yoke It was Onus but Determinatum A Burden but a stinted Burden It 's no small alleviation to the Labourers toyl when he knows his work to the Traveller that he knows his Journeys end The fews had their work before them but upon the Modern Principle The burden of Christians is Indefinite which is but a better word for Infinite The Truth is in these Humane Impositions we see the beginning but no Man knows the end of them it 's a Nemo scit Our load must be bounded with no other Limits then a Churches Will and that Will perhaps bounded with no other then its Power since it 's Canoniz'd for good Divinity That the Church may impose whatever is Decent and that the Church is Iudge of what is Decent though who the Church is is not so certain § 5. Their Law-giver was one of known and approved Tenderness who either apportioned his work to their strength or their strength to his work he fitted the Yoke to their Neck and their Neck to the Yoke The main thing that renders Christs own Yoke so easie his Burden so light is that as his Authority imposes so his strength supporta Men may lay heavy burdens on our Shoulders but where there is most need cannot touch them with one of their Fingers § 6. Their Law-giver was one who in all his Impositions consulted their own good and benefit as wel as exercised his own Authority The Iews wrought hard indeed but their work had much of wages in 't The design of their Mystical Rites and Ceremonies directed them to a Saviour Legal Administrations well order'd were Gospel Priviledges Before Christ came Ceremonies were Illustrantia such as discovered the Person Nature Office and Grace of the Messiah a Candle is better then no Light but to us they are all Obscurantia such as darken the state of Christianity As before the Sun-rising the Prodromous Clouds whose edges are fringed with Gold comfort us with the hopes of an approaching greater Light which when the Sun is up do but darken the Horizon Thus did Ceremonies illustrate Christ at the Annuntiation but obscure him at his Advent It will be needless further to Vindicate the Dissenters I shall leave them to the Enquirers Patronage who by the same Reason that he justifies the Church of England from Popery will I hope clear the Non-conformists from Judaism p. 12. All says he is not to be accounted Popery which is held or practised by the Church of Rome Nor say I is all to be accounted Judaism which was either the principle or practise of the Iewish Church p. 13. Nor is it reasonable to say such a thing is received from the Church of Rome because it is there to be found unless it be found no where else And as little Reason to say the Dissenters have received this Principle from the Jews That no Worship is lawful for that is their Principle but what is prescribed by the Scripture unless it were found no where else But this was a Principle so clear in the Light of Nature that Numa the great Ritualist of Heathen Rome durst not hope that ever his Ceremonies would ever obâ—…ein amongst a people that had Fyes in their Heads unless he had or pretended to have a Conference with his Goddess Aegeria Thus the Palladium of Troy that Mystick Ceremony in which the Fate of their City was wrap'd up is supposed to have come down from Minerva the famous Image in Diana's Temple ' Acts 19. 35. is supposed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fallen from Jupiter and
's true Diotrephes his fingâ—…rs it â—…hed to be tampering but the Beloved Disciple that lay in his Masters Bosom who was privy to his meek and gracious Temper and knew how displeasing such imperiousness was to him gave an early and timous rebuke to the Attempts and Essays of Praelatical Arrogancy and indeed he could not but remember and was concern'd in it how smartly Christ had snibb'd Aspiring Church-men That there was so much Tranquility therefore amongst the Primitive Christians was not that they were without differing apprehensions for mens parts were no more alike nor thâ—…ir Educations more equal then now But because there was a Spirit of Condescension to and mutual forbearance one of another The strong either in Knowledge or Authority did not trample upon the weak There was then some diversity of Eupressions in which the Pastors of several Churches delivered themselves for there were neither Homilies nor Liâ—…urgies yet they did not dispute themselves into parties because they made not their own Sentiment the Test of Orthodoxy nor their private Faith the publick standard and measure to which all Christians should be tyed to subscribe They allowed a latitude in things not fundamental nor had learned the modern Artifice of Fettering Consciences in the Chains of Assent and Consent to the Dogmats of a prevailing party In those days meâ—… were sincerely good and devout and set their Hearts upon the Main the huge consequence and concern of which easily prevailed with those Holy men to over-look other mens private Opinions They were intent upon that wherein the power of Godliness consisted and upon which thâ—… Salvation of Souls depended and so all that was secure they were not so superstitiously concerned for Rituals either to practice them much less to impose them They would not stake the Churches Peace against Ceremonies and then play it away rather then not be Gamesters They considered that they had all one God one Faith one Baptism one Lord Iesus Christ and never insisted upon one Posture one Gesture one Garment one Ceremony They Good men found enough to do to mortifie their Passions to bear their Burdens of Afflictions and Persecution to withstand the temptations of the Devil and the contagion of evil Examples And had no strength to spare nor superfluous time to wast to Conn the Theory of Ceremonies and practice new devices But when men grow cold and indifferent about great things then they become â—…ervent about the lesser when they give over to mind a holy life and heavenly Conversation then they grow fierce Disputants for and rigid Exacters of the sulâ—… Tale of Ceremonies Thus when the Scribes and Pharise 〈◊〉 became so violent for the necessity of washing hands they little regarded the cleansing of their Hearts They that will make things indifferent to become necessary the next news you hear of them is that they make things necessary to become indifferent when men cease to study their own hearts they become very studious how to vex and torment other mens for then they have both leisure and confidence enough to trample upon their inferiours Then it shall be a greater sin for a Monk to lay aside his Cowle then his Chastity and to be a scrupulous Non-conformist to the Laws of Men then a scandalous Non-conformist to the Laws of God In short that I may say the same thing over again which I have twenty times already said and that I may convince the Reader that I have read Erasmus de opiâ—… vâ—…orum as well as his famous piece of the Art of Preaching Then and not till then do the little Appendices of Religion grow great and mighty matters in mens esteem when the Essentials the great and weighty matters are become little and inconsiderable which I had had little need to have mentioned but for the sake of those Elegant and Modish words Appendices and Essentials which in an Eloquent Oration ought not to have been forgotten Dixi That there are Distractions in the Nation Divisions amongst Christian Brethren and a separation from the present Church of England in various degrees is evident The Industry of our Enquirer in Tracing out the Causes of them has been very commendable though his success has not been answerable Had he pleased to approve himself a skilful and impartial as well as a serious Enquirer he had certainly directed us to one cause more which for want of Ariadnes Threed in the Anfractuous windings of this Labyrinth he has quite lost himself and his Travels Honest Gerson of old has notified it to the non-observing World and from him I shall recommend it to the Reader There can be saith he no General Reformation without the Abolitions of sundry Canons and Statutes which neither are nor reasonably can be observed in these times which do nothing but ensnare the Consciences of men to their endless Perdition no tongue is able to express what evil what danger and confusion the neglect and contempt of the Holy Scripture which doubtless is sufficient for the Government of the Church else Christ had been an imperfect Law-giver and the following of Humane Inventions hath brought into the Church Serm. in die circ part 1. 'T is that which has ever been lamented and by all moderate persons complained of That unnecessary Impositions have been made the indispensible conditions of Church-Communion without precept or precedent from the Word of God To this cause had he reduced all our Divisions he said more in those few plain words then in all those well coucht periods wherewith he has adorned his Discourse and darkened Counsel As the matter of Law arises out of the matter of Fact so the Justice of the Non-conformists Cause appears from the terms that are put upon them in order to Communion If the Terms be unjust it will justifie their Cause If they have sinfully managed their Cause its goodness will not justifie their Persons what Dissenters usually insist upon for their Justification I shall reduce to these Heads § 1. They plead that some things are imposed upon their Faith tendered to Subscription as Articles of Faith which are either false or at best they have not yet been soo happy as to discover the truth of them In Art 20. They are required to subscribe this Doctrine The Church hath power to Decree Rites and Ceremonies which Clause of the Article as we fear it has been by some indirect means shuffled into the Article it not being found in the Authentick Articles of Edw. 6. so it proves also that the Terms of Communion have been enlarged since the first times of the Reformation They object also against that Doctrine in the Rubrick That it is certain from the Word of God That Children Baptized and dying before the Commission of actual sins are undoubtedly saved The Scripture the Protestant Churches nor any sound Reason have yet given them any tolerable satisfaction of the Truth of the Doctrine about the Opus operatum of Sacraments That Doctrine laid down in the
spur up and quicken the lazy Priests and Levites to their duty and yet no power to create them a duty He had power to punish Church-men to restrain the exorbitances of the Clergy and for Male-administration to cashiere them nay to order the High-priest himself if he proved factious seditious or Rebellious and endeavoured any Alteration of the Theocracy either in Church or State but he had no power to make New administrations He had a power to restore the corrupted worship to it's primitive integrity but he had no power to institute Worship and therefore it 's more then Ridiculous to Argue from a Power to such a power § 2. He pretended to prove That the Magistrate in Determining these circumstantials did not exceed his Commission and his medium is from the Iewish Magistrate Now his proper diâ—… and easy way to have evinced that the Iewish Magistrate had this power had been to have exemplifyed the Commission it self and not stand trifling with Matter of fact to prove Matter of right especially seeing that the Commission is upon Record and many doubts in Law will arise from the fact as whether what was done was done jure and if jure then Quo jure Now for the Commission from him by whom Kings reign it was ready drawn of old only a blanck left to insert the Name of that particular Person whom God immediately or by â—…cession should chuse 17. Deut. 18. 19. 20. It shall be when he 〈◊〉 upon the Throne of the Kingdom that he shall write him a Copy of this Law in a book out of that which is before the Priests and Levites and it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this Law and those statutes to do them that his heart be not lifted up above his Brethren that he turn not aside from the Commandement to the right hand or to the left to the end he may prolong his days in the Kingdom he and his children in the midst of Israel from whence 't is evident that though the Israelites were for some time in their minority govern'd by Judges yet when their Nation should grow up to it's greatest perfection God would then bestow upon them â—…he most perfect form of Government viz. Monarchy and in the most perfect manner continue it viz. by succession not impeaching his own prerogative to alter either the form or the time but with a Negative upon any or all the people so is it as plain that God fyes up his Prince to Govern by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Deuteronomy à Copy of the Laws and statutes Morel and positive without turning to the right hand or the left in excess or defect mangling or mending Gods Laws Allowing to himself still a power to vary but not to them save by his Direction § 3. This great proof for the Magistrates power over the Circumstantials of Religion is fetcht from the Magistrates power iâ—… the Iewish Commonwealth He that is so severe upon the Nonconformists that they are Iudaizers if they argue but a fortiori from Moses to Christ now takes his greatest proof from David to the Christian King and though it be scandalous for them to Reason from that Topick in Doctrinals yet is safe and honourable for himself to Reason thence in Politicals and Ceremonials his instances come now to be considered § 1. David as I shewed before altered somethings and instituted others in the Temple worship That 's his instance And David as I proved before altered nothing instituted nothing without special Direction from God that 's my answer which special warrant when it shall be produced for any Alterations of or Additions to Christs institutions under the Gospel they shall by me be most Cordially embraced § 2. Hezekiah says he without a Scripture for it broke the Brazeâ—… Serpent to pieces though it was a Symbolical Ceremony of Gods own Iustitution Oh but if Hezekiah had set up one brazâ—… Serpent as a Symbolical Ceremony without Gods institution it had been more to his purpose then if he had broken a hundred Let him take these few things along with him and then make the best he can of his instance 1. If Hezekiah needed no Scripture warrant to destroy an old Antiquated Institution of God because it had been and still was abused to Idolatry much more may a Christian Prince without further Scripture warrant abolish such Symbolical Ceremonies as being originally the meer inventions of men have been and still are abused to the most fowle Idolatry and grossest superstition that ever was in the world 2. Let the Enquirer recollect himself a little He undertook to prove that Princes have power to set up Ceremonies and his instance proves only thus much that they have power to pluck them down 3. Hezekiah needed no Scripture to empower him to destroy the brazen Serpent because it was then no institution of God It had been once indeed a temporary appointment of God but the ceasing of the End was the Determination of the use when it 's sacred Relation ceased it was of no more value in Gods account when Hezekiah broke it then so much Brass 'T is not true therefore that Hezekiah broke in pieces the brazen Serpent though it was but though it had been forâ—…rly an institution of God He did not make it but declare it to be Nchushtan an old Relique made a New Idol and now served as it deserved 4. I do not understand that the brazen Serpent was a Symbolical Ceremony what grace what duty did it signify A type it was to direct their faith to Christ fot that time to expect the healing of their souls from him but the visible service was only to heal their bodies stung with the firy Serpents 3. John 14. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up 5. Hezekiah had Scriptures more then one not only to enable but Command him to do it He needed no new Authority but new wisdom to Apply alâ—…s old general Command to a particular case If the Enquirer could but shew as much Scriputre warrant for the setting up one Ceremony as Hezekiah had for destroying a thousand Idols he would think himself a jolly fellow I might urge his Authority from the second Commandement where God declares himself a jealous God in the Matter of instituted worship and how many following generations might smart for the prevarication in that particular he well knew There might have been a Drachm of the brazen Serpent as well as an Ounce of the Golden Calf in their subsequent calamities if he that was Custos utriâ—…sque Tabulae and now had not his name for nothing had not testifyed against that abomination But I shall crave leave to Remember him of the incomparable Huge who upon this fact of Hezekiah thus Egregium Documentum Regibus at quamvis
clear places has put all this out of dispute who were most severe in their obedience under the most severe persecutions Thus Tertullian in Apolog. Cap. 30. Nos pro salute Imperatorum Deum invocamus Precantes sumus pro omnibus Imperatoribus vitam illis prolixam imperium securum domum tutam exercitus fortes Senatum fidelem populum probum orbem quietum quaecunque hominis Caesaris vota sunt We pray to God for the safety of our Emperour that God would give them a long life a peaceable Government that he would preserve the Royal Family that he would vouchsafe them a faithful Council a Loyal People a quiet world valiant Armies and what soever their own wishes can desâ—…re Thus Dionysius in his Apology for the Christians in the persecution under verus Nos unum Deum colimus veneramur omnium fabricatorem huic etiam sine intermissione pro eorum regno ut firmum stabile Maneat preces adhibemus We worship says he and adore only one God the Creatour of All things and to him we powr out our prayers night and day that the Government of our Emperours may abide firm and unshaken They that would plead Christianus sum I cannot conform would as sincerely say Christianus sum I dare not resist There is then no Question but that we are all upon pain of eternal damnation bound to obey the Civil Magistrate and all that are sent by him in all civil things which are not demonstrably sinful according to the Municipal Laws but the Question will meet us again though we avoid it How farr their power extends in matters of Immediate worship and things directly within the verge of Conscience wherein possibly I can yeeld as farr as another though I would proceed upon better grounds then the Enquirer has layd down which now I come te examine § 1. The New Testament says he no where excepts the case of Religion Answer 1. No where excepts it Ay but where dâ—…s â—…he New or Old express and include it I was in hopes thaâ—… according to his promise he would have proved that the Magistrate exceeds not his Commission in determining the thinâ—… under debate and he puts us of with this They are not excepted out of his commission He that Acts by Commission must have his powers authorized by his Commission Suppose a Prince should issue out a Commission to certain Delegates to hear and Determine all Differences relating to the Forrest and they shall intermeddle with affaires that are out of the Purlieus will it be thought enough to say These places are not excluded their Commission 2. Nor do I except the case of Religion out of the Magistrates Commission but only Humbly enquire of the Enquirer how farr the Commission extends in Religious matters To this he gives us an Answer I mean so farr as Circumstantials and those things which God himself hath not defined But this will either destroy all again or not mend the matters one jot for 1. I no where find that God has excepted Substantials more then Circumstantials out of his Commission In what respect the one is included the other is so and in what respect the one is excluded the other is so that is both are included for his preservation and both excluded as to his alteration of adding to or subtracting from them If a Commission be produced that the Magistrate shall guide me in all acceptable external instituted Worship excepting the substantials thereof I have enough for exceptio in non exceptis firmat Regulam The exception of substantials would more strongly include the Circumstantials And therefore I am affraid he will not produce a Commission that excepts substantials Let it be substance or Circumstance let men invent what Terms or Names they please If in the outward exercise of Religion Christians shall disturbe the peace they shall know and find that the Magistrate has a coercive power that will reach them and all their outward Actions for the assecurating that peace wherewith God has entrusted him To give Almes is an Act a substantial Act of Religion yet if any Pharisaical spirit shall sound his Trumpet to draw a concourse of people after him and thus turn the trumpet of Religion into a trumpet of Rebellion if he shall make Sacramentum pictatis vinculum iniquitatis He and his Act come within the Magistrates Commission And yet it extends not to Alter an Act of Religion but to suppress a Design of faction and sedition 2. Such an exception as he fancies in the Magistrates Commission as it no where appears so would it be purely nugatory did it appear unless we had withal some infallible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to discriminate the Circumstantials from the substantials Otherwise either he might encroach upon the substantials under the Notion of Circumstantials or a refractary people would be alwayes crossing and thwarting his determinations under pretence that the substantials were invaded when he was only modelling and ordering the Innocent Circumstantials And thus as the sea and the land are alwayes eating into each others Liberties or as in some Nations where prerogative and propriety are not equally ballanced the one is beating up the others Quarters perpetually so would there be an unappeasable warr between these Substantials and Circumstantials which like the Marches between two Kingdoms of no firm correspondence would be ever subject to the longer and sharper sword But Christ has not left these concerns at such a loose end § 2. He argues thus If they have not power in such matters of Religion as we speak of it 's manifest they have no Magistracy or legislative power at all in Religion I will deal freely with our Enquirer for ought I know to the contrary they have this power and a farr greater power in the Matters of Religion wâ—…hreof he speaks for I do not yet understand what those Matters of Religion are whereof he speaks but to answer as well as I can conjecture at his intentions 1. I know not what a Legislative power in Religion means in the hands of any but the Lord Iesus Christ. The Scripture has told us 4. Jam. 12. That there is one Law-giver who is able to save or to destroy He that can eternally save upon obedience or eternally damn upon disobedience may securely challenge a legislative power over the Church It 's certain from hence that Christ is the only Law-giver to his Church in some sense and in what sense that should be but that he alone can impose matters of immediate worship upon the Conscience I cannot tell He that denies Christ to be the only Legislator at this day may with equal Reason deny him to be the only Iudge in the Great Day and it 's not worth the while for a few Ceremonies to loose one of the Articles of our Creed Hetherto a General Council has been thought to have the Highest visible power on earth to make Laws for the Church and yet the Church of
to the whole If any person whose greater Abilities may manage the Service more to the glory of God be present his charitable prudence will instruct him to procure such assistance as may best promove the spiritual concernâ—… of those under his charge To shut up this point The powers here ascribed to a Master of a Family are such as do not reach the case in hand Determination of Chapters Prayers Times Postures Gestures Persons which were not before determined by the divine power will not make up one Mystical Ceremony and the Magistrate may have all this power and yet none such as will reach the case in hand That power which will serve to make a Primitive Directory will not serve to impose a Modern Liturgy All that can possibly be screwed out of these instances of Paternal Authority is no more then this that he may Determine between two or more Circumstances one of which is disjunctively necessary to the performance of a necessary duty but it will be hard when he comes to try it to infer a power to impose mystical Ceremonies which are no ways necessary to the performance of any duty no not by Disjunction I presume I have saved my Bail if I should give no further answer yet for his greater satisfaction I shall trouble the Reader with these few Considerables § 1 That the Governour of a Family being upon the place and having all present Circumstances within his prospect may more usefully determine upon all determinable Circumstances then a Magistrate for a whole Nation and the several Congregations therein whose Accidents are so various that they cannot possibly come under any uniform Determination suppose a strict Law were made at Paris that every particular Church in the Nation should commence their publick service on the Lords day precisely at nine a clock it is Mathematically certain that some would have done and got half through their dinners before others would be half way in their Devotions They in furthest Eastern Parts would have come to their Amen before those on the Calabrian Ocean would be at their Oremus because of the diversities of Meridians and Longitudes and yet all would be but nine a clock § 2. That the consequence from the Power of a Master of a Family to the Civil Magistrates power is not very clear for the Master of a Family is supposed to have Minors in his Family who cannot be safely trusted with the Determination of those Circumstances which must necessarily be determined but it would be a reproach to the Christian Religion that all the Bishops Pastors and Churches in a Nation could not find wit enough to determine what time of the day were most expedient to Assemble in The power of a Prince is farr more Noble then that of the Family Governour and yet by Reason of the incapacity and unfitness of the matter the bulkiness of the Aggregate the lesser power may possibly Determine upon some small Circumstances which the greater power is unfit to do To be Captain of a Man of Warr is more honourable then to Command a Skuller and yet this latter will tack about more nimbly then that cumbersome Argosie because the Vessel is more Manageable § 3. This uniformity which is so much driven at in all these arguments as the great Reason of the Necessity of universal Determination is a name much bandied in speculative discourses rather then a thing practicable if we may judge that not fecible which never yet was attained Let us look a little nearer home And first we find no Punctual uniformity between the two Provinces He that can sing Divine Service in the Province of York may without new instruction be utterly to seek in the Psalmodie of Canterbury look upon the same Province and compare the Parochial with the Cathedral service and there 's less uniformity still He that can â—…adge pretty well at a Country-Church is quite lost in the uncouth usages of the Minister Look into the Parochials and some have their Conformity superconformity statute Ceremonies and Canon Cerâ—…monies so that you would hardly judge them to be half-sisters take a step nearer and look in the same Parish-Church uniformity is not to be found there the Minister is not conformable to himself At one prayer he stands at another he kneels at one part of the publick Service he is all white and then that Colour is most decent by and by all Black and then that is most decent nor is there any uniformity between the Minister and the people â—…e at the Delivery of the consecrated Elements praying in a posture of standing and they in the Act of Receiving who pray not yet confined to Geniculation Nor is there less discrepancy between the several parts of worship for whereas the grand Plea for Ceremonies is a certain Decency which they conciliate to the service and their great usefulness to stirr up the dull minds of men yet only Baptism is adorned with the sign of the Cross and the rest left naked of so great an ornament and yet the Apostles Rule is let all things be done decently and we have as much need to have our dull minds quickned in the other Sacrament and all other pars of worship § 4. Lastly That power which belongs to the supream Civil Magistrate as such belongs to all and every supream Magistrate but this power of instituting imposing Ceremonies belongs not to every supream Magistrate therefore it belongs not to the supream Civil Magistrate as such that is it belongs to none The Reason of the Major Proposition is taken from that Common Axiome A 〈◊〉 ad omne valet consequentiâ—… The proof of the Minor is this That which belonged not to the supream Civil Magistrate for three hundred years after Christs time belongs not to all Civil Magistrates but this power of instituting and imposing Ceremonies belonged not to the Civil Magistrate for three hundred years after Christs time therefore it belonged not to all To enervate which Argument it must either be denyed that the Roman Emperours during that Period were supream Civil Magistrates which St. Paul opposes charging the Churches to obey them or asserted that they had a power to determine of the Circumstantials of the Christian Religion and prescribe what Ceremonies they saw good in the Evangelical worship 2 We now come to his second Thesis If the Magistrate may Determine these Matters then not only Christian Charity and humility but Common Prudence requires us to presume of the wisdom and reasonableness of his determinations and much more to obey them I shall say little but perhaps smile the more at the prettiness of the consequent It 's our duty to presume of the reasonableness but much more to obey those Determinations that is it 's much mâ—…re our duty to obey then to be Rational That we are to presume very highly of the wisdom of our Superiours acting within their proper Sphaere we readily admit For when God calls them to a work he
they should expect that Mercy they will not show or institute themselves in those Priviledges out of which they would eject all others I have heard that the famous B. Andrews Disputing with the great Cardinal Pâ—…ronne about these Matters urged very smartly That Man ought not to Add to Gods word lest he loose his part in the book of life The Politick Cardinal askes why then do you retain the Cross in Baptism The Bishop answered Because Authority enjoyns it And for the same Reason replyed the Cardinal we retain all the rest of the Ceremonies â—…hat Rejoynder the Bishop made I do not remember It 's the great duty and will be the unspeakable comfort of all in Authority to preserve the whole worship of Christ pure and undefiled and all the Worshippers of Christ in peace and security and when they have done this they seem to me to have discharged their Commission and may sue out their Quietus est and easily receive That huge well done good and faithful servant Thou hast been faithful in a few things I will make thee Ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. As for them who fear a Prince will have nothing to do since Necessaries are already Determined unlawful things prohibited if he may not Determine the Rest They are worse scared then hurt God has cut him out work enough in his precept and many times for the sins of a people â—…uts them out harder work by his providence and he is little beholden to those Over-officious 〈◊〉 who prompt him to grasp more employment whilst any lyes upon his hands The Christian Religion was perfect and absolute at all points as it came out of Christs Hands and if we make it no worse when 't is in ours he will never complain though we never make it better Alcibiades brings in the Athenians Complaining to the Oâ—…acle of Iupiter 〈◊〉 that their enemies the 〈◊〉 prâ—…vailed against them and yet say they we offer many and costly Sacrifices when they present the Gods with few cheape or none The Oracle answers and it might have become a better mouth That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The plain simple service of the Lacedemonians was more acceptable to the Gods then all the splendid pompous will-worship of the Athenians As the great God is exceedingly jealous in this particular so has he not leâ—…t himself without a witness in the Consciences of those who had no other Notices of Gods nature but what came in by the light of nature or some refracted beams of Revelation conveyed to them by Tradition The Pythagoreans taught this Doctrine that the Gods were to be worshipt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to their own good pleasure And it was one of the Platonical dictates That all Divine Worship must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 measured by the Acceptation and appointment of God The Conference which Numa Pompilius the great Roman Ritualist had or pretended to have with the Goddess Aegerâ—… instructs us that he confided little in his regal power without a divine 〈◊〉 to conciliate a due Reverence to those Ceremonies which having in them no moral goodness depended wholy upon a positive institution and that no Artifice will ever preserve a Religious Rite sacred and intemerate which is not stamped with a jus Divinum If indeed an Old fragment a trivial sentence or shred out of an heathen Author were to be the Canon of our Faith or the Rubric of our worship I could easily comply with this Enquirer who brings and 't is as fair a proof as any he brings a saying of Aemilius Paulus to his Souldiers Vos Gladios acute What you your swords and be ready to execute what shall be commanded you but leave the Management of affairs to your General If Christans do really owe that subjection in Religious matters to their Superiours which Private Soldiers owe their General in the field this Controversy is at an end and with it all instituted Religion in the world that deserves that excellent Name It may easily be applied Provide you knees to bow and backs to bear mouths to say what shall be put into them Hands to subscribe what shall be tendered to you and leave the Truth of Principles the composure of a worship the guidance of Conscience to wiser heads And he might have quoted us Caesars Commentaries to as much purpose where that great Commander upon the reluctancy of his Souldiers to engage sharpely chides them quod aut quam in partem aut quo Consilio 〈◊〉 siâ—…i 〈◊〉 aut cogitâ—…dum putarent Who durst once surmise â—…r enquire either whether or upon what design they were â—…rawn out And thus at last we shall be sped both of a Dirâ—…tory for worship and a Canon of Church-government and may with the Traditores of old deliver up our Bibles for wast paper unless we had rather imitate the famous Legiâ—… fulminatrix who knew how tâ—… whâ—…t their swords against the Common Enemy at the Command of the Emperour and yet to refuse a Religious Ceremony vouched by no other then humane Authority His fine sentence out of Cato is also hugely wide in this case Nulla lex sâ—…tis â—…mnibus commâ—…da id 〈◊〉 quâ—…ritur si majori Parti 〈◊〉 summâ—… prodest No Law sits aequally easy upon all mens shoulders the only considâ—…ation is whether it suit with the Generality and be useful in the main 'T is very true Law-makers cannot apportion out their Civil Constitutions to an Ounce or a Drachm but one scruple of Conscience weighs heavier then a Pound of temporal inconveniences If it be true that because in the laying of an Impost Custom or Eâ—…cise the Minor part of the civil Sâ—…ffragans must yeeld to the Major that therefore a Religion too must be chosen by the Poll and God compelled to accept of that or Nothing which the Majority of votes shall allot him Religion shall be sure in most parts of the world to be out-voted by Atheism Truth run down by Errour Holiness proscribed by impiety As Socrates in his time was a Fanatick Athanasius in his an Heretick and Christ himself amongst the high-trotting Scribes and Pharisees a Deceiver with such maximes as these has Christianity been prostituted to will and pleasure Regi aut civitati imperium habenti nihil injustum quod utile To a Prince or Commonwealth vested with soveraign Power nothing can be unjust that is profitable In summâ fortunâ id aequius quod validius In the highest estate that is ever most just that has obtained the upperhand And the Enquirer has approved himself a person qualified with Carneades his Excellencies Qui pro falso non minus quam pro vero vires eloquentiae potest intendere One that for time of need can strain his wit to set a fair Gloss upon a fowl matter and with as little trouble can expose a Truth as impose an Errour CHAP. VII Wherein Christian Liberty consists The Enquirers Reasonings examined and
Dissenters vindicated from that Insinuation that they pretend by their Christian Charter to be discharged from Obedience to Laws IT is a Priviledge that has too much of Absolute Soveraingty in it for the Opponent to impose what state of the Question he pleases upon the Respondent The Enquirer has therefore got the poor Non-conformists upon a sure lock if he can oblige them to maintain That Christian liberty discharges them from obedience to Laws There are indeed some Laws from whose obligation if Christian Liberty cannot discharge us it can do very little and there are other Laws from which if Christian Liberty should pretend to give a discharge it would assume too much To Discharge from obedience is to Ambiguous a Term to be put into this Question For. 1. Christian Liberty in some cases does not discharge us from obedience but prevents the obligation It does not dissolve the Bond but prevents the Binding 2. Christian Liberty may discharge from a Necessity of obedience in some cases which is the formal Reason of subjection to a Law and yet not discharge from the Lawfulness of doing that which is the Material part of the Law If a Law be made the Matter whereof is things purely indifferent in their Natures and these things appropriated to the immediate service of God Christian Liberty will not make it unlawful to do those things but it will still maintain it's ground that it 's Lawful not to do them The Province of this Liberty whereof we now treat lyes between those things which are necessary and sinful as it is frequently pleaded about the Magistrates power since things forbidden cannot Lawfully be done nor things Commanded Lawfully omitted in their proper seasons the Magistrate must either have a power in these middle concerns or he can have no Legislative power at all The same or some such thing I would affirm here whatever is sinful admits of no Release whatever is a duty admits of no indulgence and therefore Christian Liberty must have it's appartment in these Adiaphorous things or be quite shut out of doors Now seeing the Magistrates power lyes only in those things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as stand in a posture of neutrality and side in neither with good nor evil and seeing also that Christian Liberty has for it's Sphaere indifferent things these two powers must needs strike fire and their interests perpetually clash unless some expedient may be found out to reconcile their seeming enterfeering motions Indifferent things may fall under a twofold Consideration either as they are applied to or used in ordinary affairs of Humane life or as they are appropriated to divine Worship and preferred to serve in Religious affairs in the former respect they come unquestionably under the Magistrates Cognizance which our B. Saviour has put beyond the Die of Controversy by his exemplary practise 17. Math. 24. Where though he might have pleaded a peculiar Priviledge yet he rather chose to wave it and recommend to us a singular pattern of due subjection in this case then Christian Liberty ought not interpose In the other Consideration Christian Liberty puts in a claim and this also our Saviour has made indisputable by his example who though he would freely submit to a tax of twenty pence would not yeeld to their Ceremony of washing hands though it was not worth a farthing when Superstition had lifted it up above it's place And yet as sacred things in their external exercise may come under the inspection of the Civil Powers in order to the securing of Publick peace which is directly entrusted with him by the God of order and peace so may things in their own nature secular come under the Jurisdiction of Christian Liberty when they shall be advanced above their Pedegree and made either parts of Worship or Conditions to the enjoyment of Communion therein There are two sorts of Persons who as they are enemies to all Truth so they are but back-friends to Christian Liberty some there are who have made it such an Idol that they have sacrificed things sacred and civil to it's Deity and given it such a boundless Dominion as if like Quicksilver it were neither to be contained sâ—…is aut â—…lienis Terminis Against these I shall need to say the less because every one has a stone to throw at a cudgel to bestow upon them Others there are who have Adorned it with a Hogan Mogan Title and yet have cut asunder the senews of it's Authority and with these it 's a meer Name which either with Echâ—… evaporates into airâ—… or with Narcâ—…ssus dissolves into water But that there is such a Charter our Enquirer grants I suppose he has found it amongst some ancient Records if it be not forfeited for want of Renewing yet that it has some considerable immunities and priviledges he thus demonstrates 1. From the gratitude we owe to him that purchased it and therefore we may conclude that Christians stand seized of a good and indeseazable estate therein for it could hardly claim so much gratitude to be Tenants at the will of Mâ—…n 2. From the price it cost him which was no less then the precious blood of a Redeemer and surely that which could not be purchased with silver and gold should never be sold for the highest offer of things corruptible 3. From that strict injunction 5 Gal. 1. To stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and not to be entangled again with thâ—… yoke of bondage from whence the Apostle instructs us 1. That no force can wrest this sacred priviledge out of our hands without our own consent 't is our sin if our Charter be lost 2. That we are prohibited to submit our necks to any Religioâ—…s yoke as well as that from whence the Disciples were tâ—…en exempted for as good have the back broken with an old burthen as with a new one This Christian Liberty being so considerable in the purchase must be also of great usefulness in the Practise which that we may the better understand and improve I shall modestly give the Reader my thoughts in the ensuing propositions 1 Christian liberty consists not iâ—… a meer liberty of judgment because 1. This had been too mean 〈◊〉 purchase for the Blood of Christ to procure us that which never was never could be denied to any Creature that had a judgment For. 2. The â—…ews when under their most â—…le burdens had ever a liberty to judge the things imposed to be indifferent in their â—…wn Natures antecedent to the positive Law of God 3. Such a liberty the poor â—…ird in the cage may celebrate and fancy herself a citizeâ—… of the woods when she 's confined within the grates of her little Cloister such a one the prizoner may flatter himself with And it reminds me what I observed th' other day paâ—…ng in thâ—… streetâ—… this guilded Inscription invited my eye Pray Reâ—…ember the poor Freemen that are Prizâ—…ners in 〈◊〉 Poor Freemen indeed
Iezabels Policy was to make Naboth more then he desired to be that he might be really less then he deserved to be 1. King 21. 9. Proclaim a Fast and set Naboth on high among the people and set two men Sons of Belial to bear false witness against him saying Thou didst blaspheme God and the King then carry him out and stone him that he may dye This Conscience says he is thought to have not only a priviledge but a kind of praerogative to carry with it an exemption from all humane Laws but especially Ecclesiastical it pretends to be Gods peculiar and exempt from any inferiour Cognizance Nay it looks like a Dictatorian Authority and seems to be Legibus soluta This they would make us believe can limit the Magistrate null Laws forbid execution and which is more change the very nature of things and make that good and holy which was wicked and rebellious before This can Canonize any Opinion Legitimate any Action warrant any extravagancy in the person that owns it Whatsoever he thinks can be no Heresy and whatsoever he does can be no sin In which charge he has sprinkled here and there a word of Truth for he that would be believed in a great falshood must be sure to intersperse some little verities Conscience is a most Absolute Monarch indeed if it has all these praerogatives but this is the great praerogatives of his own Conscience to bear salfe witness against his Neighbour and if we may call things by their proper Names by unworthy scandalous insinuations sinister reflexions and false accusations against Dissenters to provoke the Magistrate to proscribe them as Out-Laws But I answer § 1. The highest Immunities I ever met with ascribed to Conscience are in Bishop Saunderson a most Zealous stickler for Ceremonies Serm. on 14. Rom 23. There cannot says he be imagined a higher contempt of God then for a Man to despise the power of his own Conscience which is the highest under Heaven as being Gods most immediate Deputy for the Ordering his life and ways 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Could the Heathen say Conscience is a God to all men which is somewhat a higher Note then the Enquirer makes the Dissenters sing that it pretends to be Gods peculiar and is exempt from any inferiour Cognizance § 2. It 's a most injurious charge if applied to Non-conformists that Conscience can alter the nature of things make that good which was wicked and Rebellious before c. All they say in this particular is with Aâ—…es Thes. de Consc 18. Tanto vis est Conscientiae ut actionem suâ naturâ mediam efficiat Bonam vel malam suâ naturâ Bonam reddat malam quamvis illam quae suâ naturâ mala est non possit convertere in Bonam So great is the power of Conscience that it can make an Action in it self indifferent to become either good or evil viz. to the Person and an Action in it's own Nature good to become evil Although it cannot make that which is in it's own Nature evil to become good Which Powers are clearly ascribed to Conscience by the Apostle 1. The power to make an indifferent or good action in it self to become evil to him that judgeth it to be evil and yet will venture upon it 14. Rom. 14. To him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean to him it is unclean 2. It 's power to make an indifferent thing good using it to Gods Glory with all other due circumstances is clear also from 1. Tit. 15. Unto the pure all things are pure But that it can alter the nature of things that it can make an action evil in it self to become good that it can null Laws are such powers as no Casuists have ever attributed to it but those whose Consciences carry an exemption from any necessity of speaking truth when 't is in order to the Advancement of their cause But it is too common for men to charge others with the wickedness of their own thoughts and hearts and what was once their own Old Crime to make other mens New Accusations § 2. As to the Power of Conscience to excuse Errour from Heresy we say that there may be a material Heresy which is not formally so what a Man judges to be a real Truth though possibly it may be a dangerous Errour yet unless there was Prava Dispositie as the cause of that Errour or something of Obstinacy in the will in Adhaering to it Errour and Heterodoxy it is but Heresy it cannot be that is it will not Denominate the Person a Heretick Thus the Learned and judicious Mr. Hales Heresy is an act of the will not of the Reason and is indeed a lye not a mistake for else how could that saying of Austin be true Errare possum haereticus esse nolo I may possibly mistake but am resolved never to be an Heretick That is by a tenacious and obstinate abetting any mistake after Conviction There are three things which we are obliged to wait upon our Enquirer in 1. Whilst he entertains us with his discourse what Conscience is 2. What a Tender Conscience is 3. What priviledges or exemptions it may claim to 1 What Conscience is Now says he if men loved plain English and to understand what they say it is plainly this and no more a man 's own mind or understanding under the distinct consideration of reflecting upon himself his own actions and duty He may call this plain English if he pleases define and describe his own Conscience how he will but we poor people are edified much what as with the Rhemists Parasceve Azymes and Paraclete who seeing there was no remedy but they must Translate were resolved that few should be the wiser for the translation There are somethings that look oddly in this Description § 1. It seems very improper to assign the mind or understanding for the Genus of Conscience For Conscience is not a faculty but an Act seated in a faculty Or the exercise of the faculty of the understanding putting the will upon operation Thus that fore-mentioned Bishop ibid. The will of Man which is the Fountain whence all our Actions immediately flow should conform it self to the judgment of the Practique understanding as to it 's immediate Rule and yeeld it self to be guided by it And indeed the Office of Conscience is not only to judge what is good or evil according to those Notices it has of God from the light of Nature and Scripture nor only to take Cognizance whether the will has obey'd those Dictates of the practique understanding but to be a monitor and Counsellor nay a Commander to the will to act according to it's Discoveries of good or evil This is good therefore I charge thee to do it and this is evil therefore I command thee to avoid it § 2. It seems very defective in that it tells us of the mind reflecting upon actions and yet mentions not with Reference to whose Authority