either to learn of me or to instruct me better and therefore such an one deserves to be treated not as an enemy but as a brother not tetrically morosely injuriously but candidly charitably christianly Yet because experience teacheth us that the ignorance infirmity and incapacity of most people is such that they cannot easily find out of themselves the Truths of God which are the grounds of true Religion yea some are so lazy and indifferent as to neglect all means which might help them yea and many are either so peevish or proud as they are impatient not to be singular or not to lead Disciples after them in Religion the highest ambition being that of Hereticks which seeks to domineere over mens souls and consciences for these and other weighty reasons both in civil and religious regards Christian Religion ought not in any Christian Church-polity or Nation to be left so loose and dissolute as to have no hedge or wall to the vineyard no limits or restraints set to the petulancy of those who under the name of liberty study to be malicious licentious abhorring any thing solid strict or setled in Religion either as to themselves or others counting all those as enemies to their factious designs and interests who enjoyn them to live in any godly order Hence these Oecumenicall censors and universall criticks as boldly and easily reproch revile contemn injure as they please all those Christians and Churches too who humbly conform to that profession of Religion though never so Christian and Reformed which is once established in any Nation or Church by publick consent and sanction upon the most mature deliberation and impartiall advise in order to Gods glory and the common good of that society If these dissolute fancies of Christian liberty should be followed or indulged to people by such Magistrates and Ministers as own that Religion certainly no society of men would be more unsociable more sordid more shamefull or more miserable Common people will be starved or poysoned if they be left to feed themselves they will be as so many ragged regiments if they be left as the Israelites to pick up Religion like straw where they can find it Therefore all piety policy and charity commands that in every Nation professing the faith of Jesus Christ as the only true Religion there should be as there was in Engl. some such wise and grand establishment as should be the publick measure or standard of Religion both as to Doctrine Worship Government This in all uprightness ought to be set before people not onely propounded and commended to them but so far commanded and enjoyned by authority as none should neglect it or vary from it without giving account much less should any man publickly scorn and contemn it or the Ministers and dispensers of it by writing speech or action to the scandall of the whole Church and Nation yea to the scandall of the very name of Jesus Christ and his holy Institution which ought to be as Tertullian rarely expresseth it received with godly fear and reverence entertained with solicitous diligence maintained with honourable munificence contained within the bounds of charitable union and humble subjection such as no way permits any private fancy upon any pretensions whatsoever rudely and publickly to oppose or despise it But because it is possible that some truths of Religion may be unseen and so omitted by the most publick diligence and some may afterward be discovered by private industry and devotion which ought not to be prejudged smothered or concealed if they have the character of Gods will revealed in his written Word whose true meaning is the fixed measure and unalterable rule of all true Religion to prevent the suppressing or detaining of any Truth which may be really offered to any Church or Christians beyond what is publickly owned and established also to avoyd the petulant and insolent obtruding whatever novelty any mans fancy listeth to set up upon his own private account variating frō or contrary to the publick establishment nothing were more necessary and happy than to have in every Nationall Church which hath agreed with one heart one mind one spirit and one mouth to serve the Lord Jesus according to the pattern of primitive piety and wisdome persons of eminent learning piety prudence and integrity publickly chosen and appointed to be the constant Conservators of Religion whose office it should be to try and examine all new opinions publickly propounded no man should print or preach any thing different from the publick standard and establishment of Religion untill he had first humbly propounded to that venerable council in writing his opinion together with his reasons why he adds to or differs from the publick profession If these grand Conservators of Religion who ought to be the choisest persons in the Church and Nation both for ability gravity and honesty do at their solemn and set meetings once or twice every year allow the propounders reasons and opinions he may then publicate his judgement by preaching disputing writing or printing But if they do not he shall then keep his opinion to himself in the bounds of private conference onely for his better satisfaction but in no way publicate it to the scandall or perturbation of what is setled in Religion Here every man may enjoy his ingenuous liberty as to private dissenting without any blame or penalty which he shall incurre and undergo in case he do so broach any thing without leave as a rude Innovator and proud disturber Private and modest dissentings among Christians safely may and charitably ought to be born with all Christian meeknesse and wisdome but certainly it would be the very pest and gangrene of all true Religion also the moth and canker of all civil as well as Ecclesiastick peace to tolerate every mans ignorance rudeness and pragmaticalness to innovate and act what they please in Religion Though Christians may be otherwaies sound and hearty yet they may have an itch of novelty popularity vain-glory It would make mad work in Religion if every man under the notion of Christian liberty should be permitted not onely to scratch himself as he listeth but to infect others by every pestilent contagion yea to make what riotous havock he pleaseth of the publick peace and order It were a miserable childishnesse in any nation professing Christianity to be ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of saving and necessary truths to be still tossed to and fro with winds of doctrine and never cast anchor upon sure and safe grounds which are easily found if men aimed at piety as well as policy and regarded Christs interest or his Churches more than their own private and secular advantages which was once happily done by Gods blessing in the Church of England to so great an exactness and completeness of Religion that nothing for necessity decency or majesty was to be added or desired by sober Christians nor could much be added for
desire may be extended to themselves The contentions and confusions in Religion must needs be endlesse if they be left to the naturall passions of most men Then they may find happy conclusions when those that are Rulers and Teachers of others and so not onely more learned but more prudent unpassionate and composed as Magistrates and Ministers ought to be beyond any men when I say these men do apply the utmost of their Piety Power Parts Zeal and Discretion by fit meanes to compose all controversies among themselves which will then soon decay and dye among the common people The Spirits and reputation of Ministers are commonly the chiefe sparks and bellowes that first kindle and after increase to publick flames the fires of dissentions and disaffections both among themselves and the people once extinguish or moderate these enormous heates among Ministers there will be no such conflagrations of Religion among ordinary people which have of late been more like the black and confused eructations of mount Aetna than the sweet and holy fires of mount Sion or the flames and perfumes of Gods Altar and Temple Which that I might be some meanes to restore to this Church and Nation I have thus made my amicable humble and Christian addresse as to all good men so chiefly to all my Brethren and Fathers of the Ministry in England who are persons of any competent abilities and considerable worth as to the duty and dignity of that great and holy that dreadfull Angelick Divine employment I confesse I cannot but passionately deplore as other mens so my own solitude for these many yeares by reason of that uncorrespondency as to any fraternall meeting with any of them in any publick way being hereby deprived of that great Comfort Improvement Joy and benefit which might be had by those excellent abilities and graces which are in many of them It is great pitty good and able Ministers should be longer severed whose brotherly union and frequent convenings in orderly and publick meetings would not onely set a greater edge and brightness on their studies and parts which alone and confined onely to Country-auditors and associates grow rusty flat and dull but they would highly advance the progresse of the Reformed Religion both in profession and power giving hereby a mighty check as to the encrease of profaneness atheism so of Popery and superstition mightily conducing also to the generall peace of the Nation by allaying those unchristian feuds and uncivill heates which every where so much at present affect infect and disaffect the minds both of Ministers and people But these meetings of Ministers must be authoritative not arbitrary not precarious but subpenall otherwise the restiveness laziness wantonness and factiousness of some will mar all either forbearing all meetings or perturbing them if they be not kept in some awe as well as order by their betters and superiours If I knew any Motives more prevalent any words more pathetick any charmes of love more effectuall any grounds of piety or polity more pregnant if Writing Preaching Praying Beseeching if any Words any Teares any Sighs might work upon Ministers of all sides to bring them to this blessed accord to publick friendly and fraternall meetings to grave orderly and comely conventions which would be of great use as well as honor to them I should in nothing be more prodigall of my time spirits and paines Then would Ministers be able to redeeme their Persons their Office their Orders their Sacred Authority their Religion from vulgar contempt from mechanick arrogancy from those base prostitutions and levellings to which those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 terrae filii sons of the earth vile and mâ—ane men have of late yeares debased as the holy Ministry so all heavenly Mysteries then would that rust and rusticity that plebeian Spirit and ungenerous temper which possesseth many Ministers out of feare and flattery be removed then would that scurfe and mosse that barrenness and canker which is now upon Christian and Reformed Religion be taken away and that floridness with fruitfulnesse that beauty with holinesse be restored which Tertullian so excellently sets forth among Primitive and persecuted Christians in their assemblies In which were highly conspicuous a reverentiall fear of God a modest and mutuall regard to each other a most intentive diligence to duties a most solicitous care of themselves and others a most prepared and deliberate communicating in holy things carried on by the most deserving eminency of some and the most religious subordination or consciencious subjection of others all parts of the Church and Clergy were happily united and God was all in all his glory the centre his love the circle or band of all their aimes and actions their hearts and thoughts The venerable piety and almost Divine Majesty of such conventions wherein Bishops Ministers and people were of one heart and one mind in the Lord advanced the reverence of their censures monitions reproofes abstentions and excommunications to so great a regard and just dread that no good Christian great or small disdained the authority of the Bishop or slighted the judgement of the Clergy which judged and declared the mind of the whole Church because according to the mind of the Lord Christ and of God himself Then was it that lapsed and scandalous sinners were soonest brought to be penitents in so humble yet comfortable a manner that as St. Jerom saith of Fabiola and St. Ambrose of others They furrowed their faces with sorrowes and plowed their cheeks with teares they paved the Churches with their prostrate bodies which were so penitently pallid and deplorable that they seemed only living corpses and breathing carkases So few Christians did then entertain their sins with smiles or laugh at those Teachers that reproved them or schismatically separate from those Orthodox Bishops with the Clergy that justly censured them as obnoxious to Gods judgements and unworthy of Christian Communion till they amended no man or woman ever lived or died in peace of conscience whose soul was justly wounded with these arrowes the censures of the Church they either drank up their sensuall and proud Spirits and brought them to repentance or they sank them into a desperate state both of obstinate sin and eternall horror Such holy and happy Assemblies of Ministers consisting of authoritative Bishops and orderly Presbyters were farre more to their honor and comfort more befitting their breeding and learning their labours and industry their parts and worth their sacred function and dignity than to be pittifully scared and over-awed by Country-Committees and a new sort of Tryars where grave Ministers are oft catechised chastised and contemned by such men as are some of them at least of very moderate that I say not meane abilities except their estates be instead of all reason and Religion all learning worth and wisdome very incompetent judges God knowes of the Doctrine and Manners of Ministers unlesse in matters of civill misdemeanors for which there
are higher courts and abler judges appointed to heare and determine matters according to law with more honor and lesse partiality than Ministers can expect from such men as are very sorry Magistrates and worse Ministers This is a certaine maxime the cheapnesse and despicablenesse of Ministers ariseth chiefly from their mutuall divisions and dissociations Their union and harmony will be their Honor Safety and Happinesse I pray God shew us all and guide us in the waies of his and our own peace And in earnest it is high time for us as Ministers of Christ and as sober men to give over our popular Projects and pragmatick activities our secular policies and state agitations by which we have all gained far lesse than if we had onely intended the Crosse of Christ and imitated the patience as of our great Master so of the best of our predecessors not to concerne our selves so much in Crownes and Soveraignties in Kingdomes and Commonweales in Parlaments and Armies in Killing and Slaying our brethren upon Christs score as in saving our own and others souls What was of old falsely and odiously objected hath of late been too much verified in many of us You take too much upon you O you Sons of Levi both in sacred and civill affaires Let us learne to rule our own passions to obey actively in all lawfull and honest things our superiours and passively in others Leave it to God to rule this as all States and Kingdomes by what hands heads and hearts he pleaseth Let us in all times do all things rather in a Ministeriall then military fashion Honestly Humbly Meekly Charitably Unanimously and the God of peace will be with us in this private and publick posture we shall better beare the frownes or favours either of Princes or people who will never be our friends if we be our own enemies CHAP. XIV HAving done my duty to those that are of my own profession as Ministers how ever they differ at present in the derivation of their orders and exercise of their Ministeriall Authority my next addresse must be to those persons whose influence sociall or solitary personall or Parlamentary either is or may be most effectuall by their Counsels or Commands by their proposals or power to recover the Purity Order Unity and Stability of Religion in this Nation It is not fit for me to presume to suggest to persons so much above me in prudence and experience as well as power and reputation any thing that lookes like counsel or advise I know Superiours are prone to take those suggestions for affronts from inferiours as if they thought themselves wiser than those that rule them But yet our humble petitions have acceptance with Godâ— himself not as suggestions to his wisdome but submissions to his will and supplications of his goodnesse No Christian Empire was ever so imperious as to disdaine the prayers of any that craved their favour and assistance in just and faire waies And since I find few Ministers of any party will begin or joyne with me in such a request to those that are our Superiours better I presume to supplicate alone than that no man of any calling should importune the Soveraignty Nobility and Gentry of this Nation in a businesse of so great and publick concern before the mischief spread too farre and the cure be desperate which will then be when there shall be few sound minds honest hearts and whole parts left in the Land all or most being infected with Ignorance Irreligion Atheisme Profanenesse Popery or indifferency the inevitable effects that will follow the divisions distractions and debasings of the Clergy both among themselves and the common people To you therefore that are the highest and greatest the honorablest and richest the wisest and strongest the most noble and generous the most knowing and ingenuous persons do I with all humble importunity recommend this reall Cause of God and of Christ our Saviour the cause of the Christian and Reformed Religion the cause of this Church and Nation the cause of your own and your posterities welfare Is it not high time after so many tossings and Tragedies in which this Church and its Ministers have had so great a share at last to speak comfortably to Sion to tell her that her warfare is accomplished to take off the filthy garments wherewith her Ministers of all sorts have been clothed to cover their shame to bury their mutuall reproaches to restore the honor and authority of their calling to encourage and improve in waies of publick conspicuity and harmony those excellent abilities which are in many of them which divided and at distance from each other are either quite lost or perverted to maintaine popular parties and factions against each other Many Ministers have been and are silenced being thereby driven to extreme poverty most are dispersed and despised not onely by vulgar insolencies but by mutuall animosities jealousies distances and defiances Few of us have that Christian courage and constancy by which the Primitive Bishops and Presbyters as an united Clergy were still preserved entire among themselves when most persecuted by enemies we are so divided that we are justly dejected and easily destroyed Many of us have by our follies forfeited the honor of our function some of us by our secular policies and compliances have prostituted the sanctity of it to the fedities and insolencies of Lay-men We have digged those pits into which we are faln and filled those dungeons with mire in which we now stick It is a memoriall of everlasting honor to Ebedmelech the Ethiopian that he helped with great tendernesse and humanity to draw the Prophet Jeremy out of the dungeon where he was ready to perish England hath now for many yeares had many Prophets in dungeons of disgrace and darknesse yea all are sunk into the dirt and mire of obloquy and contempt on one side or other I beseech you be not tediously or anxiously inquisitive how we came there but apply of your goodnesse and noblenesse fit meanes to draw us out Let not the Christian and Reformed Ministry of this Church which was the most renowned in all the world without any doubt offence or envy I speak it let not this be like Elisha the scorne of fooles the mocking-stock of children the May-game of Papists the laughter of Atheists the object of fanatick petulancy and vulgar insolency the wonder and gaze of all forrainers the grief and astonishment of all sober men at home and abroad who for some yeares have beheld the factious and divided the disputed and despised state of Ministers the poor and pittiful shifts they have made to keep their heads above the waters not to be quite overwhelmed with Poverty Anarchy and Contempt while alone and solitary they signifie not much and joyntly or socially they are now nothing at all having no publick harmony or fraternall correspondency no concurrent counsel no Synodicall convention or Ecclesiasticall Authority being never summoned by
shining Truly I find the calmeness and gravity of sober mens judgements is prone to improve much by Age Experience Reading of the Ancients hereby working out that juvenile leaven and lee which is prone to puffe up and work over younger spirits and lesse decocted tempers in their first fervors and agitations Possibly the Archbishop and some other Bishops of his mind did rightly judge that the giving an enemy faire play by just safe and honorable concessions was not to yield the cause or conquest to him but the more to convince him of his weakness when no honest yieldings could help him any more than they did indamage the true cause or courage of his Antagonist For my part I think the Archbishop of Canterbury was neither Calvinist nor Lutheran nor Papist as to any side and partie but all so far as he saw they agreed with the Reformed Church of England either in fundamentalls or innocent and decent superstructures yet I believe he was so far a Protestant and of the Reformed Religion as he saw the Church of England did protest against the Errors Corruptions Usurpations and Superstitions of the Church of Rome or against the novel opinions and practises of any party whatsoever And certainly he did with as much Honor as Justice so far own the Authentick Authority Liberty and Majesty of the Church of England in its Reforming and Setling of its Religion that he did not think fit any private new Masters whatever should obtrude any Forraine or Domestick Dictates to her or force her to take her Copy of Religion from so petty a place as Geneva was or Francfort or Amsterdam or Wittenberg or Edenborough no nor from Augsburg or Arnheim nor any Forraine City or Town any more than from Trent or Rome none of which had any Dictatorian Authority over this great and famous Nation or Church of England further than they offered sober Counsels or suggested good Reasons or cleared true Religion by Scripture and confirmed it by good Antiquity as the best interpreter and decider of obscure places and dubious cases Nor did his Lordship esteem any thing as the voice of the Church of England which was not publickly agreed to and declared by King and Parlament according to the advice and determinate judgement of a Nationall Synod and lawfull Convocation convened and approved by the chief Magistrate which together made up the complete Representative the full sense and suffrage of the Church of England His Lordship no doubt thought it as indeed it is a most pedling partiall and mechanick way of Religion for any Church or Nation once well setled to be swayed and tossed to and fro by the private opinions of any men whatsoever never so godly contrary to Publick Nationall and Ecclesiasticall Constitutions which carried with them as infinitely more Authority so far more maturity prudence and impartiality of Counsel than was to be found or expected by any wise men in any single person or in any little juncto's of Assemblies or select Committees of Lay-men whatsoever And truly in this I am so wholly of his Lordships opinion that I think we haâ—e in nothing weakned and disparaged more our Religion as Reformed in England than by listning too much to and crying up beyond measure private Preachers or Professors be they what they will for their grace gifts or zeal who by popular insinuations here and there aime to set up with great confidence their own or other mens pious it may be I am sure presumptuous novelties against the solemn and publick Constitutions or determinations of such a Church as England was These these agitations and adherencies have undermined our Firmeness and Unity by insensible degrees What was Luther or Calvin or Zuinglius or Knox or Beza or Cartwright or Baines or Sparkes or Brightman not to disparage the worth which I believe was really in any of them or their Disciples to be put into the balance against the whole Church of England when it had once Reformed and setled it self to its content by joynt Counsel publick consent and supreme Authority Which hath had in all Ages and eminently since the Reformation both Bishops and other Ministers of its Communion no way singly inferiour to the best of those men and joyntly far beyond them all whose concurrent judgment and determination I would an hundred times sooner follow than all much more any one of those men yea possibly I could name some one man whom I might without injury prefer to any one of those fore-named persons such was Melanchthon abroad and such was our Bishop Jewel at home And indeed the Church of England had blessed be God so many such Jewels of her own that she needed not to borrow any little gems from any forreigners nor might any of them without very great Arrogancy Vanity and Imodesty as I conceive seek to strip her of her own Ornaments and impose theirs upon her or her Clergy Which high value it is probable as to his Mother the Church of England and her Constitutions was so potent in the Archbishop of Canterbury that as he thought it not fit to subject her to the insolency of the Church of Rome so nor to the impertinencies of any other Church or Doctor of far less name and repute in the Christian world No doubt his Lordship thought it not handsome in Mr. Calvin to be so far 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 censorious of the Church of England as to brand its devotion or Liturgy with his tolerabiles ineptiae who knew not the temper of the Nation requiring then not what was absolutely best but most conveniently good and such not onely the Liturgy was but those things which he calls tolerable toyes This charitable sense I suppose I may justly have of this very active and very unfortunate Prelate as he stood at a great distance from me and eminence above me against whom I confess I was prone in my greener years to receive many popular prejudices upon the common report and interpretation of his publick actions In one of which I was never satisfied as to the Piety or Policy of it that when his Lordship endeavoured to commend the Liturgy of England to the Church of Scotland which was a worthy design as to the uniformity of Devotion yet he should affect some such alterations as he might be sure like Coloquintida would make all distastful Such was that in the Prayer of Consecration and Distribution at the Lords Supper which was after the old form of Sarum and expunged by our Reformers as too much favouring Transubstantiation besides some other changes in that and other things of which possibly his Lordship could give a better reason than I can imagine or have yet heard Toward his decline I had occasion to come a little neerer to his Lordship where I wel remember that a few daies after his first confinement when he seemed not at all to despaire of his innocency or safety having
in horrid and desolate plantations I confesse things of this nature which being obsolete are urged afresh upon the publick practise of Christians in Religion ought as I conceive to have their revived and renewed Authority from the joynt Counsell pblick prudence and consent of the Nation else rigorous remedies even of disorders may prove worse than the supposed or reall diseases For many antiquated Ceremonies in Religion though they be not quite worne out yet as garments long agoe made and now out of fashion are rather to be kept as Monuments in the Wardrobe and Records of Religion than to be on the suddaine put upon mens backs and urged to be worne especially when they seem antique to the most and uncomely by their unwontedness to be commonly worne though the stuffe be never so good and the state of them not unhandsome Although all these might not amount to any thing that is properly Popery no more than a thousand shadowes can make one substance or body yet many did judge them as a cumulative kind of Popery which cloyes Religion with such a Masse of needless Ceremonies that it is like a tree too much over-growne with mosse even to a barrenness or like a garment not adorned and set off but wholly hidden incumbred and buried with a superfluity of lace which is either a great Prodigality or as great a Vanity and Affectation especially considering the matronely gravity which best becomes Christian and Reformed Religion as that sancy was of our Henry the Fifth who when he was Prince of Wales came one day to the Court and his Fathers presence with a suite all cut and embroidered with oilet-holes having a needle hanging out of every hole that he looked more like a Porcupine than a Prince But as that Prince afterward proved a very brave King very pious and valiant besides successfull which adds much to any Princes piety in the opinion of common people when he left his needless needles betook him to his Victorious Sword so it is probable this Bishop if he had received so grave an admonition as the wisdome and meekness of a Parlament could have given him and other Bishops of his mind would easily have amended any such luxuriancy of Ceremonious observations which if they would be a meanes to induce any judicious Papists to change their opinion as to these points of Doctrine which most divide us and them truly it were a very great uncharitableness in us not to comply very far with them in whatever the Church commands as innocent and decent ceremonies But sure they must be very silly birds and scarce worth the catching which will be taken onely with the chaffe of ceremonies or pictures in a case of Religion which so highly concernes their consciences and salvation so as to change their side upon these formalities untill their judgement in the maine matters of Doctrine be convinced and satisfied nor do I know how we can well lay such strong lime-twiggs among such chaffe as would hold any Papists firme to our party and perswasion Not that I would have them scared or scandalized the more against us for want of that reverence and decency which becomes us in the worship of God and in holy mysteries by the dictates of Reason as well as the Indulgences of Religion but considering that just and vast distance in some grand points between us and the Papists as to outward worship grounded upon inward perswasion and devotion I think it becomes the wisdome and wariness of Protestants according to the admirable temper and moderation of the Church of England in its Reformation as not to deny themselves the use of any things enjoyned as decent because Papists had abused them so not to affect by any particular modes to symbolize so far with them as may confirme them in any thing that we judge Superstitious or Idolatrous This made many sober men so much strangers to the Policy and Piety of those who so much urged to set the Lords Table Altar-wise to adorne it with the Crucifix and other pictures and to bow with adoration toward it Though these might be lawfull in the abstract yet sure not expedient in that state wherein the Reformed Profession stands opposite to the Papists superstitious veneration of a Creature transubstantiated to a God Though I have no conscience of duty toward an Idol so as to worship it but onely to the true God who is every where yet I think it best for me not to go into an Idols Temple there to worship the true God when I may do it other-where without any such appearance of evill or scandall to those that see me and know my principles against it But as to the true and real discriminations between the Religion of the Church of England and Popery in Doctrine I conceive the best dimensions of this Bishop are to be taken by those that are wholly strangers to him as I am by that notable Book which was lately published and dedicated to his Lordship by Dr. Cosins his well-known friend and successour than whom no man ever fell under greater popular jealousies for Popish yet no man it seems less deservedly as appeared when he came to the Test before the Committee of Lords who then cleered him as to Mr. Smarts accusations for Superstition and since that he hath further cleered himself no man more handsomly before the best Protestants in France where his long exile and sufferings have not so exasperated him as to make him yield any way to the Papists yea no man hath at home or abroad been a more stout Defender of the Protestant Religion as it was established in the Church of Engl. which the testimony of Mr. Daillé one of the Protestant Ministers at Charenton neer Paris fully and freely confirms telling all the world That they are either beasts or fanaticks who count Dr. Cosins a Papist from whom no man is really more removed which his very excellent History touching the Canon of the Scripture fully assures us being a grand and fundamental point in difference between the Papists and us wherein he having so irreparably battered and shaken their Apocryphal Babel by solidly proving the Church of Rome to be erroneous and pertinacious in that point all sober men will soon suspect her honesty fidelity and pretended infallibility in other things which do as little agree with the pristine Practice and judgement of the Catholick Church Truely it is pitty so great and able a vindicator of the Reformed Religion should longer suffer a pilgrimage among Papists being forced to dwell in Mesech and to have his habitation in the Tents of Kedar and not have leave to return in peace to his native Country of which he hath so well deserved in this learned undertaking which piece sure he would not have dedicated being so Antipapistical that it peels the very bark of the Church of Rome round to his friend the Bishop of Ely if he did not intend him a collateral security
dead and buried yet no Corruption no Dissolution no Dissipation can hinder the hand of omnipotent Goodnesse when he shall please to command a Resurrection even to dry bones and scattered dust Then may we hope that this salvation of the most High draweth neer to us when those that are in highest place for power and Counsell shall by impartiall advise both of States men and Church-men in Synods as well as Parlaments deliberate and determine such things as shall gratifie no one or more Factions or Parties but the community or publick with regard not so much to the present pregnant and pugnant interests which are not without passion prosecuted and urged as chiefly to the future blessings of their Country and Posterity which no Government as to the civil State will make long happy or peacefull unlesse they be combined in religious regards as Christians no lesse than as men For though Christians properly do not fight and contend yet the men and beasts will if their hearts and hands be not bound with mutuall Charity and Religious Harmony which are the surest bonds of Unity Perfection and Peace To let the concernments of this Church and the state of the Reformed Religion alone to leave them as now they stand or fall rather into daily Decaies Divisions Distractions mutuall animosities abhorrencies between Ministers and other Christians to let them take their course and work out themselves by an irreligious tolerancy and imprudent indifferency is as St. Basil the Great observes like the leaving of a desperate Consumption or a spreading Cancer or a venemous Gangrene or a contagious Plague to the cure of good nature and providence expecting what Time will do which is indeed a Catholicon that either cures or consumes mends or ends all things A method far short of that Prudence and Conscience which ought studiously and industriously to apply all those seasonable and apt meanes which both Reason and Religion Piety Charity Policy and Humanity do dictate to us and require of us which being in the power of our hands not to use them must needs be such a supine negligence and sottish lazinesse as neither becomes wise men nor good Christians savouring more of an earthy dulnesse and an Atheisticall indifferency than of any quick sense of Honor or Conscience in behalf of our God our Saviour our Religion our own or other mens soules In all which to be carelesse and stupid is the lesse veniall in us as men because in other things like Spiders we have a very quick sense and most acute resentment of any thing that in the least kind toucheth or threatneth our civil worldly and momentany concernments for Estate Honor or safety here we are vigilant to prevent speedy to consult diligent to endeavour desperate to adventure Which high activity in matters Momentany renders our coldnesse and lukewarmenesse in Religion most unexcusable before God and man being more afraid of an Enemy than an Heresie of civil Sedition than of Ecclesiastick Schisms of a sharp Sword than a damnable error more solicitous to save our Carcases than our Soules and to sleep in whole skins than to keep good Consciences pretending as some do that nothing is more Religious than to urge injoyne and require nothing in Religion that the highest Christian Liberty is an Indifferency or toleration left to all men toward all Religions especially if they do but pretend to any smack of Christianity I know that this indulging of an equall toleration to all parties and Sects in Christian Religion by which as Cocks in a pit they may fight it out till they have got the Mastery of each other hath a popular shew of Equanimity and tendernesse being much applauded by those that have had of late yeares the reall benefit of it though they are the most supercilious and severe suppressors of others who do but crave an equall and inoffensive share of freedom as to their Judgements Consciences and Religion yet if we look to the bottome of such indulgences as gratifie mens endlesse Novelties Varieties Vanities and Extravagancies in Religion we shall find they have little of true Charity lesse of true Piety and least of all of true Policy either in Magistrates or Ministers whose duty I humbly conceive is not so much to build their own severall nests and to feather them with their private fancies where to lay and hatch up their various opinions but they should all agree to build Gods house to advance that common salvation according to the Catholick Order and Example of Christs Church They should speedily faithfully and impartially set themselves to settle and maintaine by all fit meanes such a way of true Religion as to its publick Profession solemn Ministration and paternall Government as shall be found by the joynt Wisdom and Piety of the Nation in Learned Synods impartially convened and in free Parlaments peaceably disposed to be most consonant to Gods word as to the substance of duties and to Primitive Custome as to the manner or Circumstances of them A work certainly not more necessary than easie if mens hearts were as upright as they are able with Gods blessing to attaine so good a designe Nor would men faile to be warme and diligent in it if they had a true perception either of the great advantages which attend the Unity of any Nation in Religion or of the mischiefes publick and private which follow their distractions while every one out of a childish and inordinate delectation is indulging their own private humors and opinions to the injury and neglect of the publick I see that in Terrors of fire shipwreck or inundation even devout people will fly from their Prayers Sermons and Sacraments to secure themselves or their neighbours with how much more zeal and earnestness should wise men dispense a little with their private interests secular Counsells and civil agitations and sometimes apply to the reliefes and securities of Religion if they did apprehend and lay to heart the pernicious consequences which are inseparable from the Divisions and Distractions of Religion whereof I have given in the Second Book so many and so miserable instances If the work were but once well begun it would be half done lesser disputes would fall of themselves if once as to the maine of Doctrine Worship Discipline and Church-Government sober men were agreed if the maine sores of Pride Passion Prejudice and Presumption were well searched and clensed Charity like a precious balsame would soon work out close and heale all uncomfortable jealousies and distances among good Christians However some publick standard owned established for the setled Truth and Order of the Reformed Religion on all sides would by casting Anchor as it were give some good stay at present beyond what the particular Confessions of several parties are like to do such as I see both Presbyterian Associations and Independent Congregations daily bring forth and so will every new form do till we all agree in something uniform as to
Foxes and wild Boars of Romish Power and Policy to enter in and not onely secretly but openly as occasion shall serve to destroy all the remaining stock of the true Protestants and Professors of the Reformed Religion who at first soberly protesting against Popish Errours and Deformities afterwards praying in-vain for a joynt and just Reformation did at last reform themselves after the rule of Gods Word interpreted by the Catholick Practise of purest Antiquity What without a miracle can hinder the Papall prevalency in England when once sound Doctrine is shaken corrupted despised when Scriptures are wrested by every private interpreter when the ancient Creeds and Symbols the Lords Prayer and Ten Commandements all wholsome forms of sound Doctrine and Devotion the Articles and Liturgy of such a Church together with the first famous Councils all are slighted vilified despised and abhorred by such English-men as pretend to be great Reformers when neither pristine Respect nor Support Credit nor Countenance Maintenance nor Reverence shall be left either to the Reformed Religion or the Ministry of it without which they will hardly be carried on beyond the fate of Pharaohs Chariots when their wheeles were taken off which is to be overwhelmed and drowned in the Romish red Sea which will certainly overflow all when once England is become not onely a dunghill and Tophet of Hereticall filth and Schismaticall fire but an Aceldama or field of blood by mutuall Animosities and civil Dissentions arising from the variations and confusions of Religions All which as the Roman Eagle now foresees and so followes the camp of Sectaries as Vultures and Birds of prey are wont to doe Armies so no man not blinded with private passions and present interest is so simple as not to know that it will in time terribly seize upon the blind dying or dead carkase of this Church and Nation whose expiration will be very visible when the Purity Order and Unity of Religion the Respect Support and Authority of the Ministry is vanished and banished out of England by the neglect of some the Malice Madnesse and Ingratitude of others your most unhappy Countrey-men Then shall the Israel of England return to the Egypt of Rome then shall the beauty of our Sion be captive to the bondage of Babylons either Superstition or Persecution from both which I beseech God to deliver us As an Omen of the future fate how many persons of fair Estates others of good parts and hopefull Learning are already shrewdly warped and inclined to the Church of Rome and either actually reconciled or in a great readinesse to embrace that Communion which excommunicates all Greek and Latine Churches Eastern Western and African Christians which will not submit to its Dominion and Superstition chiefly moved hereto because they know not what to make of or expect from the Religion and Reformation of the Church of England which they see so many zealous to reproch and ruine so few concerned to relieve restore or pity As for the return of you my noble Countrey-men and your Posterity to the Roman Subjection and Superstition I doubt not but many of you most of you all of you that are persons of judicious and consciencious Piety doe heartily deprecate it and would seriously avoid it to the best of your skill and power as indeed you have great cause both in Prudence and Conscience in Piety and Policy yet I believe none of you can flatter your selves that the next Century shall defend the Reformed Religion in England from Romish Pretensions Perswasions and Prevalencies as the last hath done while the Dignity Order and Authority of the Ministry the Government of excellent Bishops the Majesty and Unity of this reformed Church and its Religion were all maintained by the unanimous vote consent and power of all Estates Nay the Dilemma and distressed choice of Religion is now reduced to this that many peaceable and well-minded Christians having been so long harrassed bitten and worried with novell Factions and pretended Reformations would rather chuse that their Posterity if they may but have the excuse of ignorance in the main controversies to plead for Gods mercy in their joining to that Communion which hath so strong a relish of Egyptian Leeks and Onions of Idolatry and Superstition besides unchristian Arrogancy and intolerable Ambition that their Posterity I say should return to the Roman party which hath something among them setled orderly and uniform becoming Religion than to have them ever turning and tortured upon Ixions wheel catching in vain at fancifull Reformations as Tantalus at the deceitfull waters rolling with infinite paines and hazard the Reformed Religion like Sisyphus his stone sometime asserting it by Law and Power otherwhile exposing it to popular Liberty and Loosenesse than to have them tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine with the Fedities Blasphemies Animosities Anarchies Dangers and Confusions attending fanatick Fancies quotidian Reformations which like botches or boiles from surfeited and unwholsome bodies do daily break out among those Christians who have no rule of Religion but their own humours and no bounds of their Reformations but their own Interests the first makes them ridiculous the second pernicious to all sober Christians Whereas the Roman Church however tainted with rank Errours and dangerous Corruptions in Doctrine and Manners which forbid us under our present convictions to have in those things any visible sacred communion with them though we have a great charity and pity for them Charity in what they still retain good Pity in what they have erred from the Rule and Example of Christ and his Catholick Church yet it cannot be denied without a brutish blindnesse and injurious slander which onely serves to gratifie the grosse Antipathies of the gaping vulgar that the Church of Rome among its Tares and Cockle its Weeds and Thornes hath many wholsome Herbs and holy Plants growing much more of Reason and Religion of good Learning and sober Industry of Order and Polity of Morality and Constancy of Christian Candor and Civility of common Honesty and Humanity becoming grave men and Christians by which to invite after-Ages and your Posterity to adhere to it and them rather then to be everlastingly exposed to the profane bablings endless janglings miserable manglings childing confusions Atheisticall indifferencies and sacrilegious furies of some later spirits which are equally greedy and giddy making both a play and a prey of Religion who have nothing in them comparable to the Papall party to deserve your or your Posterities admiration or imitation but rather their greatest caution and prevention for you will finde what not I onely but sad experience of others may tell you that the sithes and pitch-forks of these petty Sects and plebeian Factions will be as sharp and heavy as the Papists Swords and Faggots heretofore were both to your religious and civil Happinesse CHAP. XXIX FOr however the feeblenesse and paucity of lesser Sects and Factions in Religion in some places their mutuall
are safest healed by lenitive purgations rather than cold applications outwardly Factions in Religion like Fistula's or running sores in foule bodies are in least pain and danger when they have some vent allowed them by which the venemous humours may leisurely spend themselves and those pestilent opinions which carry with them pernicious practices so drain away as most keeps them from recoyling upon the head heart or other noble parts All sudden skinning over or closing of the orifices by which those sharp humours are obstructed but not purged is very dangerous and diffusive of the mischief making the source of the malignity to flow higher if it be not drawn away by such gentle dieticks or healing applications as strengthning the sound parts assisting the weak and purging the disaffected enables them by little and little to cast out what ever was unsound in them and noxious to them Nothing makes the nestitutions of true but decayed and divided Religion more difficult in any Nation than those mutuall corruptions and passions those animosities and transports which disaffect both the People as Patients and many times the Magistrates and Ministers as Physitians And nothing renders that work more facile and feisable than that calmnesse moderation and temper which ought alwayes to be in Physitians whatever violent fits and distempers appear in the Patients Governours in Church and State must ever expect such distempers in peoples minds especially when they are touched upon the tender place of their Religion with which mens consciences seem so vehemently to sympathize that Reformers had need carefully to furnish themselves with such meeknesse of wisdome as is the best antidote for their own security and against the others malady Then there will be hopes of healing in Religion not when Toleration or indulgence is granted to all opinions and professions which list to christen themselves but when such a publick way of solid and sincere Religion both as to doctrine and practice is seriously debated duly prepared publiquely agreed upon and solemnly established as carryes with it most of cleare Scripture-precept and Saintly pattern in faith and manners in vertues and graces in duties and devotions in order and authority in honesty and charity with the greatest uprightnesse and impartiality towards God and man However Epidemick contagions may for a time be permitted something of necessary connivence that they may more freely breathe out themselves yet this great remedy and soveraign medicine in due time ought to be applyed which consists in the owning and establishing of such a Religion as hath in it whatever is holy necessary usefull comely and commendable in any of the pretending parties This once approved and fixed by grave counsell and publique advice of all Estates as the Standard of the publique profession and practice of Religion being also asserted and propagated by Preachers of most indisputable authority of pregnantest abilities and of most exemplary lives orderly and unanimously agreeing among themselves hereby meriting and enjoying the double honour of publique respect and maintenance these gentle rationall and wholsome methods of Religion will certainly in a few years by Gods blessing either drein or drive out by secret and gentle workings all those pestilent distempers in Religion which vulgar minds by a corrupted Liberty as by a licentious and foule diet have contracted to the great disorder and deformity of any Church or Nation professing Christianity For in a short time such as are truly consciencious by the fear of God and love of true Religion will cease to be either pertinacious or contentious or factious or inconstant when they are convinced of so excellent a way as they cannot but conclude to be safe since it is holy and true sober and setled comely and charitable Others that are meer Politicians in Religion either formall Pharisees or false hypocrites or fawning Parasites ready to change and comply with any party and perswasion in order to secular advantages even these will soon give over their factious agitations their pragmatick sticklings and popular sidings and shiftings in Religion when once they find which way the wind or stream of publique favour and civill interest doe drive The Mils of Factions in Religion will soon give over their motions when once they perceive no grist of Profit or stream of Preferment or breath of vulgar Applause is brought in to them There is no wonder to be made at those late sad and mad extravagancies which of later yeares have prevailed against the reformed Religion once setled in England while the Majesty and Honour of this Church and State the sanctity of our Lawes Civil and Ecclesiastick the solemnity of Gods publick worship and service the authority and maintenance of his Ministers have all been through our civil broyles and tumults unhappily exposed to infinite arrogancies spoiles contempts and insolencies even of common people while they saw so many prisons and bonds so many sequestrations and silencings so many deaths and dangers attend not onely the Bishops but the Presbyters the chief Preachers and prime Professors on all sides of that reformed Religion which was established in England No wonder if while the populacy see great Preachers and Professors cast so much dirt and spit in each others faces while they suspect that all piety honesty and Christian charity are made to truckle under State Policies and bend to worldly interests no wonder if the vulgar desperately leap into the Sea of confusion and faction out of that ship which they saw not onely so leaky and crazy that it was almost sunk but so set on fire that they despaired to quench it No wonder if they venture upon either inventing what new wayes of Religion they list to fancy or despising all wonted publick formes and professions since they think themselves not onely incouraged but in a sort exemplarily commanded and almost compelled to cast off with scorn that Reformed Profession of Christian Religion which had so great a Name of Wisdome Law Honour and Holinesse Glory and Happinesse as that had which was established in the Church of England never to be mended as to the main and substantials of Religion in Doctrine Worship Discipline Devotion and Government however in some circumstantials something might possibly be altered or added by the sober counsels of wife and peaceable men who had both ability and autority for such a work Whose great difficulty now is chiefly heightned by that popular froth and vanity those animosities and arrogancies those infinite variations and confusions with which vulgar fury and passions have deformed the face divided the body yea almost devoured every joynt and limb of Chiristan and reformed Religion in England 'T is true these will in time very much waste sink and vanish of themselves while one Faction justles crowds and confounds another the new ones as the night-mares insulting and overlaying the Elder But this is onely as the changing of a Captives Chaines this will but bring in religious rabbles or successions of confusions but no
wisely than to enjoy pompously superciliously luxuriously and idly others are brought almost to utter consumptions of Religion by their own Calentures and those Hectick fevers which have so long afflicted themselves and as contagious or spotted sicknesses infected others Some of all sides and sorts have suffered I am sure all are threatned because each party hath by their passionate transports rather studied to advance their private opinions parties and interests than the common and publick good of this Church and Nation mutuall sufferings which have taken from all sides the confidence of their innocency have so wrought upon all men of serious piety and honest purposes as by this fiery triall to purge them from their drosse of common infirmities and to refine them for some further service to this Church and State Nor do I doubt but as other wise and good men so particularly Ministers of parts and piety could they once amicably and authoritatively meet confer and correspond together would sincerely and cheerfully by Gods blessing agree upon some expedient to recover the truth order honour peace uniformity and authority of the Reformed Religion and its Ministry in this Church and Nation that neither they nor you nor your posterity may be ever thus possessed distorted torne and tormented with evill Spirits which sometimes cast us into the waters of cold and Atheisticall irreligions otherwhile into the fires of intemperate zealotry and contentions For so hath the Church of England passed through all the poetick racks and tortures which if not remedied will be the portion of your posterity one while rolling Sysiphus his restlesse stone of endlesse Reformation whose recoilings and relapsings sink the true Reformed Religion to lower deformities than ever it was in after this they must be put upon Ixions wheel tossed up and down with continuall circulations and giddinesse of Religion as every mans whimsicall braines list to turne it round whereas Religious orderly motions ought to have as their due bounds and circumference of truth so their fixed centre of Christian unity and publick communion both which would in no long time by Gods blessing be regained in England if some mens private policies and sinister projects did not as wedges still hinder the closing and agreement of honest and impartiall men in such waies as would restore Religion to its just honor Authority and consistence from the enjoying of which after all the specious pretences made on all sides we are still as far remote as Tantalus was from eating those fruits or drinking those waters which onely deluded but never satisfied his famished soul Yet many good grapes and some faire clusters are still left upon this battered vine of the Church of England in which I hope may be a blessing which neither the little foxes of peevish Schismaticks have much bitten nor the greater bores of Romish seducers have wholly subverted Many well-meaning people and not a few Preachers too who formerly had their Midsummer-fits and shorter Lunacies as to their religion are now so sober in their senses and well recovered to their right wits that having once tried that vanity and vexation that froth and futility of Spirit which attends all factious inquietudes and exotick innovations obtruded upon a well setled Church they are resolved ever hereafter to avoid and abhorre them as being no better than specious poysons delicate delusions spirituall debaucheries and religious lucuries which growing from plethorick tempers in mens soules especially where they are high fed with duties do easily tempt them that are lesse cautious and moderate both to wandrings and wantonnesse in Religion first to simple fornications and at last to grosse and foule adulteries to which men otherwise of commendable strictnesse and purposes are easily betrayed if as Dinah they give way to the temptations of novelty curiosity popularity and ambitious vanity in Religion there where it hath been well and worthily setled by publique counsell and joynt consent yea and hath been happily enjoyed for many Ages with almost miraculous I am sure very marvellous prosperities so as it was beyond all dispute here in the Church of England The inconsiderate ruflings and disorderings of whose religious constitution many men of all sorts are now ready to recant and expiate if by any honest endeavours they may recover the order unity beauty authority and stability of Religion in this Nation To whose Ecclesiastick communion I perceive many heretofore more warme than wise more credulous than considerate are now cordially returned as to their judgements and consciences to which no doubt their conversation would willingly conforme if once they could see any ensigne of religious uniformity authoritatively set up in England Many Ministers would willingly recant and return from their violent and vulgar transports if they could but have a protection for their foreheads or a skreen to hide that shame and discountenance which they feare hangs over them for their levity from the common-peoples censures and scorns Not a few Ministers sometimes orderly and regular enough would fain get free from those popular lime-twigs which have too long held them if they did not feare to lose some of their feathers either as to their reputation or maintenance who flying from that good sense which was heretofore set in the Church of England for their defence would needs light on that bare hedge for their refuge and perch which proves to most of them no better than the beggars bush fuller of gins and snares than of berries or food O how glad would hundreds of popular preachers and preaching people be to be commanded by superiours to make not verball but reall retractations of their errors seductions surprises schismes and apostasies that so their variablenesse in Religion might seem to arise not from their private innate levities but from either fatall or soveraigne necessities which are alwaies good salvo's and go for current excuses among common people either to plead for their extravagancies or to justifie their changes especially when they are reduced to the better Many Ministers of Presbyterian and Independent practises rather than perswasions or principles now together with their followers who formerly were highly a-gog even when they were yet in their downe pin-feathered and scarce fledge in those fine speculations and rare projects which they had fancied for erecting new models of Church-work after the formes of Consistories and Elderships Classes and congregations of Corporal Spiritualties Spirituall Corporations which were to be reared out of the ruinous nay out of the most intire parts of the Reformed Church of England which was by them to be wholly ruined though it were by the Lawes of God and man by constitutions Ecclesiasticall and Civill both wisely formed and happily fixed in the Primitive and Catholick form of order and dependency yet even these men and Ministers of destruction not edification with their late Chappels of Little-Ease would I am confident be now very glad to be handsomely sheltered under the protection of some such Episcopall
the Lords prayer and the ten Commandements to all which I suppose they all are ready privately to say Amen How sad a prospect is it to see those men who professe such zeal for Church Government and good Discipline to be so little governed or correspondent in any wise communion and discreet subordination among themselves And all this while every plausible preacher is ambitious rather to ordain and governe others after his own fancy than to be ordained and governed as a Minister after the Apostolicall pattern and that one ancient forme which was universally owned and uniformly used in Christs Church both for the ordination and subordination of Ministers CHAP. IX IN order therefore to invite all able Orthodox and honest Ministers to some Christian correspondency and fraternall accord it will not be amisse for me to present both to your equanimous wisdome O worthy Gentlemen and to your piety what I humbly conceive the best Medium to be used in so great and good a work which must be tenderly and impartially carried on by a serious discovery and discerning First what is really good usefull and commendable in any party that this may be allowed and preserved agreed to and embraced by all Secondly what either is or seems defective or superfluous evill or inconvenient scandalous or dangerous on any side that this may be either pared off and removed since it may be well spared or else in reason and Religion in piety and charity so qualified and moderated as may comply with what is truely good and usefull for the publick on all sides First then to begin with Episcopacy not as it enjoyes or loseth the benefits of secular favour in estate honour or jurisdiction which are not essentiall to it any more than cloths are to the man but as it appeares in its Apostolick primacy of Order in its Catholick centre of Unity in its chief power for Ordination and Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction which it ever enjoyed among good Christians though it were never so poore and abased by civill powers as it was in Primitive times of persecution for 300. yeares The reall good of true Episcopacy which undoubtedly hath the clearest best and most ancient title to ordination Church-Government according to the custome and prescription of all Ages for 1500. years is Decency Order Unity Authority Stability Paternall Presidency Grave Government with subordination of younger to the elder and inferiours to superiours agreeable to the rules of right reason and the measures of the best polities military civill and religious Here are the aptest remedies and conservatives against Schismes the fittest mediums for Catholick Councils for correspondencies conventions and Communion of Churches not in popular rabbles and heady multitudes but in their chief Presidents and representatives In this is best kept up as an Uniformity of particular Churches so a Catholick Conformity to the Church universall when Primitive purest and most persecuted which without any peradventure did follow the Apostolick prescription and pattern in all things of so universall use and reception Upon the head of Episcopacy as upon the hill of Hermon hath the dew of heaven the blessings of God as in temporall enjoyments so in all spirituall gifts and graces most plentifully faln and from that to all the lower valleys and inferiour parts of the Church To this it is that all the most learned moderate and wise men in all the Christian world of what ever party or side they are in other things whether Latine or Greek Lutheran or Calvinian Protestant or Papist all agree in this that Episcopacy is the ancientest and aptest the wisest and noblest the onely Apostolick and Catholick consequently the best and compleatest of Governments in the Church containing in its right constitution and use all the pretended excellencies of all other Governments and something more than any of them as the crown and perfection of all The evills defects and dangers incident to Episcopacy and rising not from the function or imployment but from the persons of Bishops are pride ambition secular height and idle pomp a supercilious despiciency and Lordly tyrannizing over other Ministers and the flocks of Christ under their inspection arrogating a power to do all things imperiously arbitrarily and alone without any due regard either to that charitable satisfaction which was anciently given to Christian people or to that fraternall counsell and concurrence which might and ought in reason to be had from learned and grave Presbyters or such Consistoryes of choise Ministers who possibly may for wisdome piety and ability be equall to the Bishop however they are inferiour in order and authority As the complete good of presidentiall and paternall Episcopacy deserves above all other formes to be esteemed desired and used in the Church so it may easily and happily be enjoyed if the personall faults and failings of Bishops be prevented and avoided which is no hard matter where Bishops are chosen as anciently they were by the suffrages of the Presbyters or Ministers of the Diocese either personally present or to avoid noise and tumult incident to many by their proxyes and representees chosen and sent from their severall distributions The Bishop thus chosen is easily kept within bounds of moderation if he do nothing of publick concerne validly and conclusively without the presence counsell and concurrence of his appointed Presbyters being further responsible for any misgovernment to such conventions of the Clergy as are meet to be his judges and are by the Laws appointed so to be Certainly these limits supports and ornaments of Episcopacy would easily restore it to and keep it in the compasse of its Primitive beauty honor and usefulnesse to the Church The good of Presbytery especially in conjunction with Episcopacy is grave and impartiall counsell serious discussion and well-advised deliberation arising from many learned and Godly men which is as the joynt and concurrent assistance of all the Clergy whose publick suffrages may carry all things Ecclesiastick as with lesse partiality so with more authority most satisfactorily to Ministers and people too yea and with lesse odium or envy upon any one man as Bishop or President in cases that seem lesse popular or in censures that are more heavy Beyond all this some men cry up Presbytery in its Aristocratick influence as the great Choak-peare of Antichrist as the best receipt in the world to make the Pope burst in pieces like the pitch and haire which Daniel mixed to split Bel and Dagon This this they say is the strongest sense against all tyranny usurpation and ambition in Church-men the great conservative not of an absolute parity but of those ancient priviledges which are due to all Ministers also of those liberties and indulgences which are the peoples darling while they see all Church-matters managed not by private and partiall monopolies but by publick and generall complacencies of all sober and good men at least the major part of them The evils of Presbytery in a parity or
the maine Rule End and Order of Religion This once done however there might still be some tossings and dis-satisfactions as to private mens opinions yet as to the maine interests of Religion as Christian and Reformed also as to the grand concernments of this Church in its Unity Honor Purity and just Priviledges these would by such Ligatures and limits of Truth and Love be much preserved from running into endlesse factions and sacrilegious confusions which cannot but tend to civil combustions and end at last in the Romish usurpation which as the Dam of Romulus never failes to make its prey of any Churches that are divided and any Christians that are scattered dis-satisfied or scandalized with their Religion by which meanes either our Thames will run to Tiber or Tiber will come to our Thames This will be the last result these the dregs and bottom of our Religious distractions and unsetlednesse if they be not wisely remedied Mean time for want of some such sober fixation and equall standard of Religion in its publick profession to which both Prince and people of all sorts might both wisely consent and conform First there cannot be that mutual Christian Charity and neighbourly Communion among subjects Next there cannot be that kindness or correspondence that Love and Fidelity between Prince and people which would be if they did say Amen to the same prayers and serve the same God in the same manner Civil disaffections do infallibly follow between Soveraignes and Subjects upon any Diversity in Religion as is evident not onely in Germany Poland France Ireland and Scotland where the greatest popular dis-satisfactions and asperities against their Princes were still raised by the jealousies which some people had of their Religion but also in England while Subjects suspected as if their Governors in Church and State did daily warp from that Religion which was Reformed and established in the Church of England from which at last it appeares none varied lesse than those that have been most destroyed none more than those whose jealousies and passions for Reformation have over-born them and this Church to as great deformities as there are novelties and to as many distractions as there are divisions which in Religion as wounds do not onely divide but deface the beauty of any body Naturall Civil and Ecclesiastick Nor can there be any publick discrepancies of Religion between Prince and people but either the Prince cries out of Faction Sedition and Rebellion against his subjects or subjects complain of Tyranny and Persecution as to their Princes injunctions at least of superstition as to his profession if it be with more ceremony or lesse solemnity than they fancy or are wonted to Yea we find by some mens interpretation of their Covenant the clause for allegiance thus limited in the preservation of true Religion that is say some as far as we think the King preserves what seemes to us true Religion so far we will be faithfull to him if he varies from that we may fall from him Besides these mischiefs which are either imminent or incumbent and indeed unavoidable where Prince and People are still left to chuse their several Religions amidst the Varieties and Uncertainties of different Modes and Forms of opposite Preachers Parties Professions and Churches such as now divide not onely England but all Christendom in time the Prince or chief Magistrate here in England or any Christian and Reformed Church may be either an Atheist as unsetled in any Religion because he sees so many or else he may be an Idolater an Arrian a Socinian a Papist an Anabaptist a Familist a Seeker a Quaker any thing or nothing as well as a Protestant or Professor of the true Reformed Religion which is never well Reformed if it be not well united and established no more than a diseased body is well cured or purged which is daily breaking out in boyles and botches And since experience shews us in England that many Subjects by the scandal of our Divisions are turned Atheists Papists Socinians Anabaptists Familists Seekers Ranters Quakers any thing yea nothing as to true Religion which consists in Piety Equanimity Charity the Love of God and our Neighbour what shall hinder those that hereafter may be in Soveraign power and exposed to many temptations to take the same freedom when they list and to profess Popery or any thing when Religion is left to their choice and Indifferency there being no publick Worship Catechize Articles or Canons to which all agree as the Card and Compass of Religion by which both Prince and People may safely and unanimously steer their course towards Heaven in a Christian consent and harmony much more punctual and explicit than that is of owning onely one God which the Turks do and one Lord Jesus Christ which all Hereticks and Schismaticks do Which sad fate of a Prince and People who are every day to seek and chuse or change their Religion cannot befall England without sore conflicts and many bloody bickerings the temper of the English being not so dull and flegmatick and over-awed as that which possesseth some Dutch-men and Almaines whose zeal for trade and gain besides their social drinking which begins and ends all their differences makes them more capable to endure different professions of Religion among them so far as they do not endanger the civil peace nor obstruct their blessed commerce yet even these Churches and States have some setled form and profession of Religion in Doctrine worship and discipline yea they in the Netherlands have a very handsom Liturgy and other publick boundaries or Symbols of their Religion from which when once their Magistrates perceived such variations to grow by the Remonstrants party as might shake their civil peace and the stability of their Church they did to their no small cost and pains stop the breach both by the Synod of Dort and the power of the Sword not permitting those whom the publick sense counted Innovators in Religion to enjoy any such freedom or toleration as might endanger any publick perturbations which would have grown easily from such parties as wanted not Learning Wit and Pretentions of Piety on each side to carry on their Opinions as far as their passions and interests listed which is to have Empire and Dominion not onely over all mens bodies but their souls too either by fair or foul means for no Opinion or Sect is content with the Trundle-bed or Footstool but affects the Throne and Scepter of State and of Religion that it may have a complete soveraignty over men which is never well managed by private mens petty activities and therefore best prevented by the publick Wisdom Moderation and Setledness which ought to be in every Nation State Kingdom or Commonwealth that owns it self as a Church of Christ who is but one Lord and hath taught all his Disciples but one Religion All sober and honest men whose fishing and harvest lyes not in our troubles do sufficiently see that Religion as Christian