and when it has conveyed it self into all the Recesses of their Souls seised on all their Powers infected their best and purest Thoughts and swoln up even their Zeal into vanity and ostentation 't is a less wonder they should be so insensible of their distemper when this Vice works like other poisons it stupifies whilst it infects and what in Nature so difficult as to convince a man of this inward Leprosie 'T is not like common diseases that discover themselves by outward spots and blemishes but 't is a Plague that lodges in the heart and vital Powers and sooner destroys than it appears The proudest man on Earth is insensible of this Illusion and though he is ready to burst with his own inward swellings yet he defies and disclaims this hated vice with as much confidence as the meekest Saint in Heaven and all the world knows his folly except himself But above all Pride Spiritual Pride is the most dangerous and incurable 't is an Apoplexy that dazzles the Judgment infatuates the Mind and intercepts all the passages of light and conviction and confounds all pure and impartial Reasonings and disables men from making any ingenuous Reflections upon their own Actions it makes them confident in their own Impostures and self-illusions and bears them up against all Reproofs by Zeal and Conscience and Religion Their Faith their Zeal their Prayers their Fastings their constant Communion with God their diligent Attendance upon Ordinances their Love of the Lord Jesus their hatred of Antichrist or their spleen against the Pope are impregnable Fences against all Assaults and Answers to all Arguments They are so dotingly enamoured of themselves for these signs of Grace and characters of God's People that you may more easily induce them to suspect the Truth of all things than their own Godliness And nothing in Nature so impossible as that such strict and serious Professors such humble melting and broken-hearted Christians should in the issue prove no better than Proud and Pharisaick Hypocrites And though their Pride discover it self in their opinionative Confidence in their bitter Censoriousness in their impatience of Affronts and Reproofs in their Rage and Revenge against all that undervalue them in their haughty and disdainful Comparisons and in their inflexible Waywardness especially to the Will of Superiours and Commands of Authority And though these are the most natural Results and most obvious Symptoms of this inward Plague yet are they not able to discern such certain appearances of them in themselves because they are aforehand from other accounts so abundantly satisfied in their own Humility and Broken-heartedness and the strength of this conceit so blinds their minds that they cannot see the clearest and most palpable Indications of this Vice But they are all adorn'd with soft and gentle Titles and those excesses and irregularities that in an unregenerate man must have been accounted Eruptions of Pride and Passion are now to be ascribed to the warmness and vehemence of holy Zeal § 3. In brief sad is the condition of those men that abuse themselves with this naughty Godliness 't is this and not moral Goodness that is the greatest lett to Conversion not only because it seals men up in impenitence by false prejudices and bars up their minds against all thoughts of Reformation by perswading them they are good enough already But besides that it prevents the efficacy of the means of Grace it does withal what is more mischievous directly oppose and contradict them It rots and putrifies the soul in its whole constitution it gangrenes all its faculties it breeds a base and caitive temper of mind it introduces a direct contrariety to all worthy and ingenuous inclinations and delivers the man over to the power and possession of the blackest and most accursed sins 't is detraction 't is spite 't is rancour 't is a malicious contempt to all wise and honest Counsels 't is a wilful frowardness to all sober and rational convictions and in a word 't is all spiritual wickedness And for this Reason it was that I profess't to despair of any success upon this sort of men I was assured that as long as Pride over-ruled their Consciences all Reproofs would certainly exasperate but could never correct the Fanatique humour and therefore what hopes could I conceive to make any breach upon their prejudices whilst they were guarded by such a sturdy and unyielding Principle For if it be so difficult either to convince men of this Vice or whilst this remains of any other it were a vain thing to expect that all the Reasonings and Attempts of conviction in the world should ever make any impressions upon such unapproachable minds And as long as Professors will continue regardless and insensible of this leading sin I shall never hope to see them reformed to a more calm and more governable temper But if instead of amusing themselves with experiences and phantastick observations about the unaccountable workings of the Spirit of Grace about the difference between the Convictions of the Spirit and those of natural Conscience about the degrees and due measures of Humiliation with innumerable other wise conceits of their modern Theology if I say instead of attending to these dreams and crazy fancies they would be at leisure to observe the risings and workings of this deceitful vice to study its symptoms and indications and to keep a constant and habitual restraint upon its motions and attempts we should quickly see the lovely fruits and effects of true Religion in the world instead of the unruly blusters and juglings of Enthusiasm But till men will be induced in good earnest to set themselves with a parcicular concern against the Inclinations of this Lust and till they will be careful to lay humility at the bottom of all their goodness instead of their yielding to the power of truth conviction shall only enrage their malice and all the requital they shall give you for disabusing them shall be to abuse you with incivility and foul language And here Sir give me leave to present you with a short account of their deportment towards my self and all that ever yet opposed or endeavoured to undeceive them which you may peruse as a further Character of their modesty and good humour § 4. I. Reproach and contumely is their first reply to all Arguments and to revile the Author the first Confutation of his Book whoever dares to despise or discover their wretched delusions is immediately answer'd with volleys of slanders and Calumnies and utterly oppressed with multitude of lyes and detracting stories Their dissolute and unruly tongues are let loose to tear in pieces his good name What abusive Tales and Legends do they invent With what bold and audacious slanders do they assail his Innocence and with what crafty and oblique ways of detraction do they undermine his Reputation with what eagerness do they listen to any spiteful and mischievous report With what zeal do they spread and propagate and improve
Vanity of his Attempt who would demonstrate out of the Canticles that the Saints enjoy distinct Communion with the three Persons of the Trinity it exasperates some bold and confident Men that are fond of their own thin and crazy Conceits as much as if we should pervert the first Chapter of St. Iohn's Gospel And we scoff at Justification by Faith if we despise a Thousand vain and empty Speculations wherewith they have involved that Article As whether Faith justifies from any peculiar Excellency of its own nature or barely from the Divine Appointment whether it be an instrumental Cause of Justification or onely a Procatarctick Cause if instrumental whether an active or a passive Instrument if Procatarctick whether Procatarctick formal or Procatarctick objective with a multitude more of the like wise and important Enquiries that could never have enter'd into the most curious and whimsical Understanding had not some idle people loved to amuse themselves with inventing profound and curious Nothings and had not one Keckerman and some other dull Fellows been at leisure to write foolish Books of Logick and Metaphysicks whose Theorems must be blended with the Doctrines and Propositions of St. Paul and then Mens little Quarrels about this Motley-Divinity must make new Sects and Opinions in Religion and they must measure the Orthodoxy of their Faith by their subtilty in wrangling and their power in disputing by their skill and dexterity in Terms of Art and by their being able to understand the precise and Orthodox Notion of a Procatarctick Cause These are the useful and wonderful Profundities to which the disputing Men of this Age are such zealous Votaries they value their Learning by their skill in these dry and sapless Enquiries and their Agility in the Combats of Disputation and a Disputant with them signifies the same thing as a great Scholar To this purpose they furnish their Memories with abundance of notional Querks and Subtilties to keep up their pert and talkative Humour and spend all their time in learning Distinctions that may maintain and reconcile palpable Contradictions With what fetches of Wit will they distinguish themselves round about till they come at last to affirm what at first they denied And with what severity of Judgment will they spin out a long train of wary Aphorisms and subtile Propositions to prove that 't is Faith alone that justifies and yet so explain the Notion of justifying Faith as to make it imply and include in it all other parts of the Condition of the New Covenant i. e. Good Works and those that are able Divines can write whole Volumes of Problems and Disputations to make out this important Mystery That Faith alone justifies i. e. as 't is not alone And now if you compare the vanity of the Opinions with the talkative Humour of the Opiniators you will cease to wonder at their rude Carriage toward persons that profess to pursue more useful and less difficult Studies they are brim-full of talk and no Man that pretends to Learning can come in their way but they immediately engage him in Disputation and if he with some Railery expose their learned and studied Ignorance and confute the silliness of their Systematick Notions 't is a bold affront to the Orthodox Faith and he drolls upon the most Fundamental Articles of Divinity for they lay no less weight upon their own Subtilties and singular Conceits then on the plain and practical Precepts of the Gospel so that you cannot sweep away their Cobwebs but down drops the whole Fabrick of Religion Neither does this pragmatical Humour run onely among the Pretenders to Learning but the Infection spreads among the People every sage Trades-man sets up for a deep and an able Divine and talks as confidently of Predestination as if he had served his Apprenticeship to a Dutch Professour Every zealous Shop-keeper understands the management of Ecclesiastical Discipline as well as the Nicene Fathers and a Jury of Button-sellers shall determine a Controversie of Faith with more assurance then a General Council These of all others are the fiercest and most implacable Assertors because their Zeal is proportion'd to their Ignorance and therefore you cannot make your self pleasant with their pert and conceited Pedantry and 't is a piece of Railery that is hardly to be forborn but you draw upon your self whole Volleys of Anathema's and hard Names they can endure any Indignity rather then an affront to their Clerkship and you may with more safety play with a Spaniard's Beard then sport with their grave Ignorance That is an Insolence that can never pass unrevenged but your Reputation is immediately stabbed with some ugly word or poisoned with some malicious Report and it becomes the great business of their Zeal to brand you with foul imputations and in all places and upon all occasions to blazon abroad your gross Errours and your horrid Blasphemies This short Character of their Humour may serve for a satisfactory account of their dirty and disingenuous Demeanour towards such persons as pretend to so much knowledge as to despise the Ignorance of their Learning I design it not for an Apology either for my self or any of my Friends I know none so poor-spirited as to stand in awe of such petty Arts the most pertinent Reply to such a poor and beggarly Malice is Neglect and Disdain though in truth such Wretches as stick not upon every slight occasion to sacrifice not onely our Good-Names but our Livelyhoods for that is our Case to their own Childish Picks deserve to be answered by the Pillory and the Whipping-Post § 8. Many other ugly Insinuations he has as if I were prompted to this Undertaking by lewd and naughty Intentions or as if he knew some Stories that he can but out of Tenderness and Civility to my Reputation will not vent I will not so much assist his Malice as to transcribe all his white-liver'd Suggestions to this purpose but whether in this way of proceeding he has discover'd more Boldness or more Imprudence is hard to determine when he knows himself to lie under such vast disadvantages at this Weapon by lying open to so many stabbing and inevitable Hits But this is one of their Topicks and comes in by the Rules of their Method and Ingenuity and all the Defenders and Champions of the Church of England have ever been thus accosted by their civil and unpassionate Adversaries And never did any Man give them a smart and severe Blow but immediately they threatned to tell Tales And where Men have not the advantage of Truth Calumny is their best and surest Weapon For though its Wounds do not always fester yet they usually leave a scar behind them at least he gains the Advantage of his Enemy that gives him the diversion to wipe off Reproaches and all Apologies in defence of a Man 's own Innocence leave behind them through the common Ill-nature of Mankind some ill-contrived suspicion of Guilt in the Minds of Men. And therefore I
of this nature I will undertake in his behalf he shall make them publick satisfaction But when Aristophanes is exemplified to make good the surmise that is plausible and taking with the Common People for they imagine all who write Greek and Latin to be grave and serious Men and therefore if Aristophanes could by the smartness of his Drolling and Satyrical Wit cast Contempt upon the brightest Example of Vertue that ever appear'd in the Heathen World why may not the Author of the Friendly Debate by the same Arts and Advantages expose Nonconformists and the Profession of the Gospel for they are always ventured in the same Bottom to the same popular Scorn and Abuse But any one that is acquainted with the Genius of the Grecian Comedy in general and with the Humour of Aristophanes in particular will be ashamed to compare such wild Satyrs and extravagant Farces with the Friendly Debate That Poet never defign'd any appearance of Truth he represents not Socrates his Opinions nor confutes them by sober and Philosophick Reasonings he intended nothing but onely to abuse him by Buffoonry and Apish Tricks and the most taking piece of Wit in the whole Farce was to bring the grave Philosopher upon the Stage dancing in a Sieve But as for the Friendly Debate if it has represented any of them ridiculous it has onely painted them in their own real Colours There is no Poetick Invention nor Comical Extravagance and it takes no advantage but from Truth and Reason so that if he make any of their Opinions appear ridiculous he does it not by the unluckiness of his Wit as Aristophanes did but by the strength of his Arguments Our Author adds indeed to strengthen this faint Exception That 't is a facile thing to take the wisest Man living after he is lime-twigged with Ink and Paper and gagg'd with a Quill so that he can neither move nor speak to clap a Fools Coat on his back and turn him out to be laughed at in the streets This is lofty and Comical but yet neither true nor witty For the wisest Men will never be lime-twigged with Ink and Paper nor gagg themselves with Quills or if they should be so rash and unadvised yet I see not how the strong Metaphor can restrain them either from opening their Mouths or moving their Hands For the plain English of all this lofty rumbling of Lime-twigs and Gaggs is no more then to be in Print and how can that hinder any Man from justifying his own Writings For if Men Publish Sense all the World can never make them ridiculous if Non-sense they make themselves so And no Gaggs nor Lime-twigs can disable them from defending their Books against any Adversary but either a bad Cause or an ill Management or what is their case both so that if they are lime-twigged with Ink and Paper 't is with Rods of their own laying and if they are exposed in a Fools Coat 't is with one of their own making § 13. His last Remark upon the case of Socrates is extraordinary when he insinuates as if the Crime for which he suffered was Nonconformity to and Separation from the National Church of Athens as if he were the Proto-Martyr of Independency And the People are wonderfully taken with these sly and oblique Strokes and as wofully impertinent as this is they admire it for a notable Essay of Wit And yet if this trifling were of any importance the advantage would run vastly on our side so easie is it to make it appear that Socrates suffered not so much as a Nonconformist as an Enemy to Fanaticks and that his Offence was no other then an Endeavour to perswade the Men of Athens that Grace and Vertue were the same thing The Story is briefly this All the former Ages of Greece were led rather by a giddy and ignorant Enthusiasm then the sober Dictates of a wary and well-advised Reason And though some of the more ancient Vertuosi seem'd to have made some handsome use of their intellectual Faculties in Physiological Enquiries yet as for matters of Religion they either altogether neglected their Speculations or treated of them with as much wildness and vanity as their Poets who pretended to derive their Theological Theories from Enthusiasm and Prophetick Frenzies imagining Reason and Devotion to be things incompetent and that Religion consisted barely in Enthusiastick Raptures and Prophetick Heats and therefore they depended more upon the Information of their Dreams and Fancies then their consistent and waking Faculties and the best Visionist was the ablest Divine Their most celebrated Professors of Divinity who pretended to the more inward practical and experimental Mysteries of Religion were a sort of silly fanatick and illiterate Poets who being Men of giddy and over-heated Imaginations pretended to derive all their Knowledge as others do their Ignorance from Inspirations and Divine Illapses and thereby so entirely engross't the Profession of Divinity that they gain'd an absolute Soveraignty over the Faith not onely of the rude and Vulgar sort of Mankind but also of the Sages and Professors of Wisdom the Philosophers themselves howsoever otherwise Men of eminent Parts and Ingenuity resigning up their own Reasons to the Authority of these Fellows Whimsies and Inspirations Then comes Socrates and preaches down all their pretended Mysteries for raw and lamentable Impostures and endeavours to draw them off from the Pageantry of their Superstition to the habitual Practice of Vertuous Actions And to this purpose he teaches his Fellow-Citizens that they must gain an Interest in the favour of the Gods not by their diligent Attendance upon the Eleusinian Ordinances but by a Life of Vertue and Goodness and that Love Humility Meekness Obedience Chastity and Temperance are more acceptable to the Eternal Deity then all their Mysterious Solemnities in honour of the Mother of the Gods This alarms the Zealots and hot Spirits of the City and the Good Man is immediately cited before the Consistory of the Areopagitical Elders and is by them condemn'd as an Heretick to their Orthodox Faith for setting up Carnal Reason against the Spirit of God and for presuming to fathom the sacred Depths of their Eleusinian Mysteries with the Line of his short and shallow Understanding for how exorbitant soever they might appear to his Fleshly Reasonings they were derived from the Off-spring of the Gods and own'd by the most Practical and Spiritual Preachers of their Religion And though his private and depraved Reason might judge them the brutishest and most licentious Practices in the World for so they really were yet in spight of all their seeming Beastliness they were the highest strains of Godliness and Spiritual Devotion This was represented to the zealous and giddy Multitude and then the Cry is Crucifie him crucifie him And thus fell this great Man a Sacrifice to the Zeal and Fury of a Fanatick Rabble You see with what vain and succesless Attempts they fasten upon those Discourses and the truth is in so
positive Precepts because they are in themselves so essentially serviceable to the design of our Creation And therefore our Saviour came not into the world to give any new Precepts of moral goodness but only to retrive the old Rules of Nature from the evil Customs of the World and to reinforce their Obligation by endearing our duty with better Promises and urging our Obedience upon severer Penalties And as the Gospel is nothing but a Restitution of the Religion of Nature so are all its positive Commands and instituted duties either mediately or immediately subservient to that end Thus the Sacraments though they are matters of pure Institution yet are they of a subordinate Usefulness and design'd only for the greater advantage and Improvement of moral Righteousness For as the Gospel is the Restitution of the Law of Nature so are these outward Rites and Solemnities a great security of the Gospel they are solemn engagements and stipulations of obedience to all its Commands and are appointed to express and signifie our grateful sense of Gods goodness in the Redemption of the World and our serious Resolutions of performing the Conditions of this new Contract and Entercourse with mankind So that though they are duties of a prime importance in the Christian Religion 't is not because they are in themselves matters of any Essential Goodness but because of that peculiar Relation they have to the very being and the whole design of its Institution Forasmuch as he that establish'd this Covenant requires of all that are willing to own and submit to its Conditions to profess and avow their Assent to it by these Rites and Instruments of stipulation so that to refuse their Use is interpreted the same thing as to reject the whole Religion But if the entire Usefulness of these and any other instituted Mysteries consists in their great subserviency to the designs of the Gospel and if the great design of the Gospel consists in the Restitution of the Law of Nature and the advancement of all kinds of Moral Goodness then does it naturally resolve it self into that short Analysis I have given of Religion and whether we suppose the Apostasie of Mankind or suppose it not every thing that appertains to it will in the last issue of things prove either a part or an instrument of Moral Vertue § 3. But we must proceed to particulars In the first place Gratitude is a very imperfect description of Natural Religion for says he it has respect onely to Gods Benefits and not to his Nature and therefore omits all those Duties that are eternally necessary upon the Consideration of himself such as fear love trust affiance Perhaps this word may not in its rigorous acceptation express all the distinct parts and duties of Religion yet the Definition that I immediately subjoin'd to explain its meaning might abundantly have prevented this Cavil were not our Author resolved to draw his saw upon words viz. A thankful and humble temper of Mind arising from a sense of Gods Greatness in himself and his Goodness to us And the truth is I know not any one Term that so fully expresses that Duty and Homage we owe to God as this of Gratitude For by what other Name soever we may call it this will be its main and most Fundamental Ingredient and therefore 't is more pertinent to describe its Nature by that than by any other Property that is more remote and less material Because the Divine Bounty is the first Reason of our Obligation to Divine Worship in that natural Justice obliges every Man to a grateful and ingenuous sense of Favours and Benefits and therefore God being the sole Author of our Beings and our Happiness that ought without any farther regard to affect our Minds with worthy resentments of his love and kindness and this is all that which is properly exprest by the word Piety which in its genuine acceptation denotes a grateful and observant temper and behaviour towards Benefactors and for that cause it was made use of as the most proper Expression of that Duty that is owing from Children to Parents but because God by reason of the eminency of his Bounty more peculiarly deserves our Respect and Observation 't is in a more signal and remarkable sense appropriated to him so that Gratitude is the first property and radical Ingredient of Religion and all its other Acts and Offices are but secondary and consequential and that Veneration we give the Divine Majesty for the excellency of his Nature and Attributes follows that Gratitude we owe him for the Communication of his Bounty and Goodness 'T is this that brings us to a knowledge of all his other Endowments 't is this that endears his Nature to us and from this result all those Duties we owe him upon the account of his own Perfections and by that experience we have of his Bounty and by that knowledge we have of his other Attributes into which we are led by this experience come we to be obliged to trust and affiance in him so that Gratitude expresly implies all the Acts and Offices of Religion and though it chiefly denotes its prime and most essential Duty yet in that it fully expresses the Reason and Original Obligation of all other parts of Religious Worship But in the next place he reckons up Repentance Conversion Conviction of Sin Humiliation Godly Sorrow as deficient Graces in my Scheme and Duties peculiar to the Gospel Though as for Repentance what is it but an exchange of vicious customs of Life for an habitual course of Vertue I will allow it to be a new species of Duty in the Christian Religion when he can inform me what Men repent of beside their Vices and what they reform in their Repentance beside their Moral Iniquities it has neither end nor object but Moral Vertue and is onely another word peculiarly appropriated to signifie its first beginnings And as for Conversion the next deficient 't is co-incident with Repentance and he will find it no less difficult to discover any difference between them than between Grace and Vertue And as for the other remaining Graces of the Gospel Conviction Humiliation Godly Sorrow and he might as well have added Compunction Self-abhorrency Self-despair and threescore words more that are frequent in their mouths they are all but different Expressions of the same thing and are either parts or concomitant Circumstances of Repentance After so crude and careless a rate does this Man of Words pour forth his talk In the next rank comes in Self-denial a Readiness to bear the Cross and Mortification as new Laws of Religion But as for Self-denial 't is nothing else than to restrain our appetites within the limits of Nature and to sacrifice our brutish Pleasures to the interests of Vertue As for a Readiness to bear the Cross 't is nothing but a constant and generous Loyalty to the Doctrine of the Gospel and a Resolution to suffer any thing
inviolable refuge to protect themselves and their Rebellions And therefore 't is observable that in the late Ruptures of Christendom this Pretence was not pleaded by any Sects of men to this purpose but the English Puritans and the German Anabaptists two sorts of People that never knew what they would have beyond the subversion of the present setlement of things In which as they have been opposed by all other Parties so by none with greater vehemence and warmer zeal than the School of Calvin who quickly perceived by clear and sad experience that there was no possibility of setling Churches in the World but by setting bounds and restraints by particular Laws and Determinations to giddy and Enthusiastick Tempers Insomuch that the Church of Rome it self has scarce been more severe in making or executing Penal Laws against seditious Libertines than the Church of Geneva § 5. Neither is it altogether unworthy Remarque that this Mystery of Libertinism began to work in the days of the Apostles among the Gnostick Phanaticks Who forsooth under colour of their Christian Liberty must needs be free from all Laws and Government they knew no Superiour but the Lord Christ to him they owed Allegiance and Subjection and to him and to him alone they would pay it But as for the secular Powers of the World they were as they behaved themselves meer encroachments upon the Liberties of his Church This Pretence they made their warrant for disobedience and their cover for sedition and whenever the freak possess'd them to revile or resist the present Government still the word was Christian Liberty What shall we suffer these Heathen Princes to usurp upon our spiritual Priviledges Shall we tamely part with that that was purchased by our Saviours Bloud We have not so mean an opinion of his Favours as to throw them up at so cheap a Rate No we will maintain the price and purchase of his Bloud with the last drop of our own We will sacrifice our Lives and Fortunes to the Cause of God and the service of his Church and not betray its dearest Priviledges to the Tyranny of Infidels and Painims by our own dull and sheepish cowardize Now was not this peaceable doctrine think you likely enough to make wild work in the Roman Empire and had it prevailed in the World what an Inundation of mischiefs and confusions would it have let in upon Mankind It must have born down all setled Governments and buried all States and Common-wealths in Anarchy and eternal War And therefore 't is observable with what caution and industry the Apostles bestirred themselves to make up this dangerous breach by setting bounds and measures to this wild pretence and whenever they had occasion to discourse more largely concerning the doctrine of Christian Liberty they never forget as may be observed in all their Writings to state and confine it within its proper Limits but as they exhorted them to maintain it in opposition to the Peevishness of the Jews so they always charged them not to abuse it in defiance to the Rules of Government and the Power of lawful Superiours No this whole Affair is transacted between God and your own Consciences he has been pleased to take off those Fetters and obligations that were tied upon you by the Law of Moses that is your Liberty and be content with that Extend it not to the prejudice of your Governours 't is purely spiritual and has no Relation to your secular regards or to the Power of Princes And how ill soever they may behave themselves in the management of their Authority it may be an Encroachment upon your Civil but not upon your Christian Liberty If indeed the Proconsul of Iudea should publish an Edict that all Christians shall submit to Circumcision out of regard to the eternal Obligation of the Law of Moses that were a manifest violence to the freedom of the Gospel but whatever else he may command you so he pretend not any warrant of immediate divine Authority whatever abuse it may be of his own Power it is no abuse of your Liberty And therefore be advised to submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake for so is the Will of God that with well-doing ye may put to silence the Ignorance of foolish men That you may not give occasion to Authority to look upon your Religion as troublesome to Government and that you may clear its Reputation from those unjust aspersions that have been cast upon it by the folly and hypocrisie of some Pretenders so that your Governours observing your peaceable deportment they may be disabused of their vulgar mistakes and hereafter learn to distinguish true Christians from Iews and Hereticks You are free indeed but use not your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness do not shelter your peevishness and disobedience to lawful Superiours under colour of your Christian Liberty that is but a Knavish trick and a palpable piece of craft because this thing neither has nor can have any relation to matters of that nature 'T is a Liberty of Spirit between God and your own Souls and you may secure this benefit of his favour by the testimony of your own Consciences but turn not his indulgence into wantonness by being peevish and froward to the will of your Superiours under its pretence and protection And yet so strangely wayward and humorous are some Men that nothing can appease their Consciences in this demand but a full Liberty of Contradiction and they scarce think it worth the having or the contending for unless it may warrant and abet their opposition to Authority and therefore whatever that imposes upon their practice though but an harmless and indifferent Ceremony 't is intolerable as the Yoke of Moses and grievous as an Egyptian Bondage they groan and die under the burthen of a Straw and a Feather laid cross their wills breaks their Bones and their Hearts and lies like a Mountain of Lead upon their Consciences and what horrible skreams and out-cries do we hear of Antichristian Tyranny and Persecution Like some Creatures you may wot of that if they may not have their will in every trifle will roar and bellow like a stuck Ox. Men must be broke of this stomachful spirit as Children are of their sullenness by fasting and correction and if this truantly humour be not lash't and kept under with a severe hand there will be no keeping the Multitude in order and under Discipline for what pride so delicious to ill-natured and ill-bred People as to thwart and affront the will of Superiours Or what insolence so intolerable as that that bears up upon mistakes of Conscience and Religion And therefore nothing more imports Government than to rid it self of the annoyance of this precise and sanctified peevishness especially when 't is so notorious from the experience of all Ages that those Enthusiasts that are so squeamish as to keck at indifferent things have always had Estrich Consciences for the boldest Treasons
and Villanies And now our Author for want of new Invention falls to chewing the Cud upon an old Slander for from my account of Christian Liberty I concluded that all Internal Acts of the Mind of Man are exempt from the Empire of Humane Laws that the substance of Religious Worship is transacted by them and that its exteriour Significations are not absolutely necessary to its performance and therefore whatever restraints the Civil Magistrate might lay upon their outward Actions in reference to Divine Worship yet notwithstanding that they might perform all that is necessary to the discharge and the acceptance of the Duty How says our Author This is an open door to Atheism for he is still knocking at that upon every slight occasion for who would not think this to be his Intention Let Men keep their Minds and inward Thoughts and Apprehensions right for God and then they may practise outwardly in Religion what they please one thing one day another another be Papists and Protestants Arians and Homousians yea Mahometans and Christians I see this Man is resolved never to lose any advantage for want of confidence and if ill-natur'd Inferences can do his business who can withstand the Power of his Logick Who would not think this to be my intention say you I say Who would unless one that thinks himself able to face me out of my plain meaning and bear me down out of countenance and common sense Does the difference between Papists and Protestants Arians and Homousians Mahometans and Christians consist in Rites and Ceremonies of external Worship Who then beside your confidence from the indifferency of the outward forms and fashions of Worship would conclude the indifferency of all Religions Their real differences arise from something else and lie not in Rites and Ceremonies but in Principles of Faith and Rules of Life Bate these and we will never quarrel Turks or Papists for any of their outward signs and expressions of Divine Worship according to the Laws and Customs of their own Country provided they are not faulty upon one or both of the forementioned accounts that they tend to debauch Men either in their practices or their conceptions of the Deity and therefore to apply what was affirm'd onely of Ceremonies of Worship to Articles of Belief is such a way of dealing with Arguments as only becomes our Authors Logick and Ingenuity But upon this occasion let me mind him that publick and visible Worship is no such necessary and indispensable Duty but that it may in some circumstances be lawfully omitted for suppose this Man were in the Dominions of the Grand Signior he would not I presume think himself absolutely obliged in Conscience to set up open Meetings and Conventicles without leave of the Government but would for the security of his Life be content to enjoy his Religion to himself without climbing up to the top of a Mosque to proclaim their Prophet a lewd Jugler unless he were actually required to renounce the Christian Faith and turn Apostate to the Mahumetan Imposture And therefore I would willingly know why the same Liberty will not satisfie them here as to the Obligations of Conscience that they would be content with there there is no other reason assignable than that they will do more for Fear than for Obedience and this is undeniable evidence that 't is something else and not Conscience as is pretended that lies at the bottom of all their present Schisms and Disturbances § 6. But now having given this brief account of the use of External Worship from the Nature and Properties of the thing it self I proceeded for a farther Confirmation of my former Assertions to an Historical Report to shew that God had in all Ages of the World left its management to the discretion of Men unless when to determine some particular forms hapned to be useful to some other purposes Where in the first place I instanced in the Religion of the old World and attempted to prove that Sacrifices which were the most ancient if not the onely Expressions of Divine Worship were purely of Humane Institution Now the first murmur our Author raises against this is That I should for the most part set off my Assertions at so high a rate and yet found them not onely upon uncertain Principles but upon such Paradoxes as are generally decried by Learned Men Such is this of the Original of Sacrifices here insisted on Certainly it would be present death for this Man to speak to the purpose he avoids and dreads all Pertinency as he would poison or Rats-bane For where do I lay any such mighty stress upon this Assertion In what great strains do I urge the necessity of its admittance To what purpose then does he upon this occasion upbraid me with the briskness and vehemence of any Expressions that were spoken upon other subjects and to other purposes I have indeed loaded some other Principles with their proper mischiefs and inconveniences I have shewn that the Pleas of the Nonconformists from the natural right of Mankind from the Obligations of scandal and from the pretences of a tender and unsatisfied Conscience for exemption from the Commands of lawful Authority tend to a direct and inevitable dissolution of all Governments and all Societies There the weightiness of the matter and the Argument required some suitable eagerness of expression but why should I be minded of those warm passages in this place The matter of this Enquiry is neither of that evidence nor that importance as to need or deserve any grandeur and vehemence of stile 'T is indeed pertinent but not at all necessary to the drift of my Discourse for without its assistance I am able to prove the Power of Christian Magistrates over the outward Concerns of Religious Worship in Christian Commonwealths Neither do I at all bottom my Discourse upon its admission but onely use it as an accessional reflection to my main Argument and cast it in as a particular instance to give check to the Adversaries confidence thereby to shew 't is not absolutely necessary as is pretended to the acceptableness of Religious Worship that it should be warranted by Divine Institution when 't is so contrary to experience for any thing that appears upon Record as to the Religion of the old World But seeing 't is a pretty subject let us a little farther examine whether the Assertion be not evident enough to bear all the weight I have laid upon it Many Learned Men have indeed stretch't their Parts to make out wise accounts of the Nature and Original of Sacrifices and because they were in the first Ages of the World the most remarkable perhaps the onely visible signs and expressions of Religious Worship nothing will satisfie their curiosity unless they may derive them either from the Obligation of the Law of Nature or some express Institution of God himself But when we come to weigh the Grounds and Principles of their Discourse we find
and a few idle Men CHAP. VI. The Contents OVr Authors perseverance in Cavil and Calumny His disingenuous way of shifting the proof and pursuit of their own Arguments All their Writers have ever begun and ended with Cartwright and either wrangle themselves into Conformity as he did or run themselves into perfect Enthusiasm and Phanatick Madness Their impertinent way of defending their own Objections when they should prove them Nothing can be charged of being a Part of divine Worship unless it pretends to divine Institution This mans stubbornness and invincible Resolution in Schism A speech to the Non-conformists to encourage them in their separation in the Language and out of the Writings of J. O. Their bold way of abusing the People and the Word of God by laying the same stress upon their own Fancies as upon the Fundamentals of the Gospel Our Authors Plea in their own behalf from the Prescription of one way of Worship in the Word of God the most effectual Argument against Toleration This Plea as managed by this Author is as directly levelled against all other Parties excepting only the Independents as against the Church of England 'T is the only Pretence of all Impostures and 't is serviceable to no other end The silliness and palpable disingenuity of our Authors Quotations out of the Fathers Their Fundamental Principle equally overthrows all manner of Church-setlement By his Principles and Good-will nothing is to be tolerated but Independency The Precedents alledged both out of the Old and New Testament in the former Treatise for the warrantableness of uncommanded Ceremonies cleared and vindicated Our Adversaries way of affrighting the Rabble with hard and sensless words The vanity of attending to these mens Proposals of mutual Condescension A farther Prosecution of my Challenge to the whole Party of Non-conformists to answer Mr. Hooker A notorious and intolerable Instance of our Authors disingenuity in falsifying the design of my Discourse § 1. THus far have I made good my ground against all this mans Talk and Confidence for there and there alone lies all his strength and should now proceed to an Examination of his Censures against the fifth Chapter of my former discourse For against the fourth he only drops his old Calumny viz. that what I have there discoursed against the absolute and uncontroulable Power of the Civil Magistrate as 't is stated in Mr. Hobs's Hypothesis of Government is destructive of my own Pretensions in the foregoing part of my discourse where as he is resolved to bear me down I have made humane Laws the sole and supreme Rule of Religious Worship insomuch that the Magistrate of every Nation hath Power to order and appoint what Religion his Subjects shall profess and observe and thereby binds their Consciences to profess and observe that which is by him so appointed and nothing else are they to observe making it their Duty in Conscience so to do and the highest Crime or sin to do any thing to the contrary and that whatever the precise Truth in these matters be c. The horrour of which bold Calumny I have already I hope competently enough discover'd and detested But 't is the choicest Topick of this mans Logick to falsifie Arguments and represent his own Inferences as his Adversaries Opinions and then load them with loud and lusty Conclusions And then they are Oracles and Demonstrations to the People that understand neither the Truth nor Consequences of things and therefore does he repeat this fundamental Forgery in all Places and upon all Occasions and 't is the only thing that gives strength and colour to all his other Trifles and Impertinencies upon this he at first founds all his Reasonings and into this he at last resolves them insomuch that his whole Book is but one huge Lye 400 Pages long And this Confidence takes so successfully with the believing Disciples that they will at all adventure lay wagers that all those Prodigious Untruths he has obtruded on me are my own positive and direct Assertions But having manfully quit himself in this Performance he baulks the whole discourse of this Chapter as being of no Concern to himself and his dear Brotherhood and so advances to the next where we might trace him through all his former Methods of Truth and Ingenuity but at present we will wave that Province and rather chuse first to discharge our selves of those froward Exceptions wherewith he labours to entangle and perplex the design of my sixth Chapter because the matters there debated are of a more close and immediate Affinity to the nature of those things that fell under our last Consideration and therefore seeing he has been pleased to break the Coherence of my method I conceive it will be a more perspicuous and useful way of proceeding to dispatch them both together especially when what remains to be there examined is either meer impertinence to the drift of my Discourse or relies meerly upon the Principles here already confuted For what he dictates in defence of their darling Principle that nothing ought to be practised in the Worship of God but what is prescribed in the Word of God is either such loose and general Tattle as whether it be true or false it does neither service nor disservice to our present Enquiry Or if there be any thing more close and direct to the Purpose it resolves it self entirely into the Dispute of the last Chapter in that he restrains the Universality of this Maxim to instituted and significant Ceremonies which being exempted upon this score he seems not unwilling to allow the Governours of the Church a Power of determining natural Circumstances for the ends of Order and Decency so that in the last Result of things all this Cluster of Trifles and Impertinencies grows upon the stock of the former Principle and therefore that being cut down root and branch this that depends so entirely upon it must by consequence fall and perish with it For which reason I had once resolved with my self wholly to omit its distinct Examination and only to put them upon the proof of this Principle as 't is here stated by our Author out of the written Word of God But because he here counterfeits more assurance and pretends more Accuracy and to speak in his own stile by the Longsomness of his Discourse and the number of his Propositions seems more elaborate than in all the former Parts of his survey and withal to avoid their Clamour and other mens suspicion of dealing with him as he has dealt with me in wholly baulking the last Chapter of my Discourse that was most pertinent and material to his Pretences I have at last resolved to undergo the Penance of a Reply and thus it follows § 2. In the first place then he flings down the Ball viz. that nothing ought to be establish'd in the Worship of God but what is authorized by some Precept or Example in the Word of God and then tells us If men would lay
These Slanders that he has so often and so familiarly hurl'd at me upon all occasions are as big as Steeples and had they faln where they were aim'd had for ever quash't me to death and nothing But the censures he now spits are not discharged with that impetuous fury but that they may be received without danger of being kill'd and buried at once And the mistakes he invents are so vulgar and ordinary that they might have been contrived by Sancho his Scribe But thus it happens that the greatest Flowers of Chivalry have in their declining Age flag'd and wither'd and their last Performances have faln so much short of the Miracles of their first Atchievments that their new Conquests have not so much increas't the number as eclips't the glory of the old And that matchless Wight that in his youthful days scorn'd to accept of any Adventures unless upon Wind-mills Painim Giants and Infernal Necromancers yet when Age had slaked the rage of his blood and folly was content to spend his last Exploits upon Goat-herds Lackeys and Plow-men of his own Parish And such pitiful attempts are our Authors Remarks upon the passages of this Chapter so pitiful that they would sooner raise an Adversaries Compassion than Choler and are so far from the appearance of a just Reply that they will not amount to a competent Denial The whole drift of my Discourse is neglected my four Fundamental Assertions of which and their Proofs the main Body of the Chapter consists are slipped over only a few subordinate and dependant Propositions glanced at with slight mistakes and positive censures without so much as attempting to defeat any of my Arguments or in their stead to suggest any of his own 'T is such lank and slender talk and so apparently unequal to the small reason of the Discourse it would oppose that I should never have deign'd it a Rejoinder in my own defence but that it gives occasion to gratifie the Reader with some farther proofs of our Authors Candour and Ingenuity and some more not unuseful Considerations upon the matters of our present debate though what I have already remarked has evidence more than enough without the help of new Lights to scatter all his thin and vanishing Exceptions And should I represent to the Reader what material things he has gently passed over I must transcribe almost the whole Chapter And our Author himself seems so conscious of the meanness of his Exploits in this part of his Adventures that he concludes the whole Performance with a new Challenge and turns me over Coward as he is to a new Champion that has already poor Man been rebuked to purpose But let him take his Fortune I am resolved to keep my Man In the first place then he informs us this Chapter is inconsistent with it self and other parts of the Treatise but that is none of his Concernment No doubt of it he is only concern'd to defame and disparage other Mens Writings and not at all to make good his slanders and incivilities No Man that had not laid waste all sense of modesty and ingenuity would so easily sputter abroad his rude and abusive censures without thinking himself somewhat concern'd to justifie the matters of his charge though it were only to clear the Reputation of his good manners For all Men are apt enough to suspect ill-nature in detracting suggestions and therefore no discreet or civil Man would venture to dart them without apparent proof and would not accept the favour of being credited till he has produced evidence at least equal to the Indictment So that our Author would more consult the credit of his discretion if he would not be so free of his censures but when he is at leisure to warrant their truth There are vast multitudes of them scatter'd up and down in all parts of his Surveigh that I have purposely waved because they are so wretchedly insignificant This one friendly check upon this particular occasion may serve for a sufficient correction to all the rest That is the first impertinence the second for here they are very thick sown is this In the beginning of this Chapter I represented how a belief of the indifferency or rather Imposture of all Religion is of late become among some persons the most effectual and most fashionable Argument for Liberty of Conscience Away says our Author it is impossible this pretence could ever be made use of to that purpose It is suited directly to oppose and overthrow it for if there be no such thing as Religion in the World it is certainly a very foolish thing to have differences perpetuated amongst Men upon account of Conscience This he says because he is resolved to say something no matter whether to or beside the purpose For what is this to a Man that defies and laughs at the silliness of an upright Conscience and looks upon all Stories of Religion as the tales and tricks of covetous Priests contrived to awe the People and to inrich themselves He will say that 't is indeed a very foolish thing to perpetuate differences in the World about Conscience and Religion but seeing it is so full of softly and conscientious Fops that will be impatient for their own follies and Impostures what in this case is the best method to govern such zealous Sots Not by severity for 't is pity to punish silly People for their ignorance and credulity and 't is more generous to humour them in their several Frenzies and Fairy-imaginations and as long as they are willing to be abused with the belief of invisible Powers and the dread of Infernal Goblins that shall after death torment wicked and disloyal Subjects in burning Vaults below 't is unbecoming the wisdom of a Prince that understands the Juggle to vex or punish such weak and deluded people for any of their other fond and little conceits but rather to allow them the Liberty of gratifying their childish fancies with what phantasms shall most please affect their folly Now what Discourse can be more suited to the Principles of these young Cubs of the Leviathan than not to punish credulous and unreflecting People for being cheated and abused And therefore though they believe all the different Religions in the World to be in reality but so many different Impostures yet they may judge it the wisest course for Government to permit such differences as Fools are resolved to perpetuate rather than to exasperate their zealous madness by attempting to restrain their phantastick mistakes with violence and force of Penalties so that supposing these Mens perswasions nothing could be more agreeable to their small Politicks than this Principle of the indifferency of all Religions in behalf of Liberty of Conscience And of this our Author could not be ignorant both by what I had discoursed in that Paragraph and in several others but he was resolved to cavil and 't is his way as I have often told you to overlook Arguments and then
declared by what they have done and what they are desirous to do That the true state of the Cause and Quarrel is Religion in Reformation whereof they are so forward and zealous that there is nothing expressed in the Scots Declarations former or later which they have not seriously taken to heart and endeavoured to effect c. And in a Letter from the Assembly of Divines to them by order of the House of Commons they call it twice The Cause of Religion And the Assembly in answer to the Parliament desire it may be more and more cleared Religion to be the true state of the differences in England and to be uncessantly prosecuted first above all things giving no sleep to their eyes or slumber to their eye-lids until it be setled In their Declaration and Protestation to the whole World Octob. 22. 1642. They are fully convinced that the Kings Resolutions are so engaged to the Popish Party for the suppression and extirpation of the true Religion that all hopes of peace and protection are excluded that it is fully intended to give satisfaction to the Papists by alteration of Religion c. That great means are made to take up the differences betwixt some Princes of the Roman Religion that so they might unite their strength to the extirpation of the Protestant Cause wherein principally this Kingdom and the Kingdom of Scotland are concerned as making the greatest Body of the Reformed Religion in Christendom c. For all which Reasons we are resolved to enter into a Solemn Oath and Covenant with God to give up our Selves our Lives and Fortunes into his hands and that we will to the utmost of our Power and Judgment maintain his Truth and conform our selves to his Will And in the Declaration upon the Votes of no further Address to be made to the King by themselves or any one else Feb. 17. 1647. the Lords and Commons make Religion one of the great Motives upon which they proceeded for say they the torture of our Bodies by most cruel Whippings slitting of Noses c. might be the sooner forgotten had not our Souls been Lorded over led captive into Superstition and Idolatry triumphed over by Oaths ex Officio Excommunications Ceremonious Articles new Canons Canon-Oaths c. p. 19. And in the last Paper to the Scotch Commissioners Feb. 24. 1648. they declare that the Army of the Houses of Parliament were raised for maintenance of the true Religion and that they invited them to come to their assistance and declared the true state of the Quarrel to be Religion and they earnestly desire the General Assembly to further and expedite the assistance desired from the Kingdom of Scotland upon this ground and motive that thereby they shall do great service to God and great honour may redound to themselves by becoming Instruments of a Glorious Reformation c. This was the stile of all their Papers from 42 to 48 till some of the Grandees of the Independent Faction had by their hypocritical Prayers malicious Preachings counterfeit Tears unmanly Whinings false Protestations and execrable Perjuries scrued themselves up into a Supremacy of Power and Interest and then they alter'd the stile of their Pretences with the change of their Affairs and suited their Remonstrances to their Fortunes and so stopt not at their old demands of Reformation and purity of Ordinances these Pretexts were too low for the greatness of their Attempts and Resolutions and were not sufficient to warrant the Murther of their lawful Sovereign and therefore it was necessary for them to take up with new Pleas suitable to the wickedness of their new Purposes and then nothing was big enough to Arreign or Condemn their Prince but the Charge of Treason and Tyranny and the Sentence of Death was passed and executed upon him as a publick Enemy to the Commonwealth So that though Pretences of Secular and Political Interest were necessary to cut off his Head yet it was purely Zeal and Reformation that brought him to the Block To these Declarations from the Press I might add their Declarations from the Pulpit their Preachers incessantly encouraging the People to fight against the King as the most acceptable service to God and the People accordingly fought against him because they were perswaded that he was a Papist and would bring in Popery that the Common-Prayer was the Mass in English Organs were Idolatry and Episcopacy Antichristian It was nothing but the purity of the Gospel to which they so cheerfully sacrificed their Thimbles and Bodkins And though here it were easie to collect vast Volumes there being scarce a Parliament-exercise for which the Preacher had the Thanks of the House in which some sands and sweat were not wasted in crying up the piety of their Intentions for the Reformation of Gospel-Ordinances But because this would prove a Work too Voluminous I will therefore put off my Reader and satisfie my Adversary too with two or three passages out of the inspired Homilies of I. O. in his several Dispensations In his Sermon preached before the Parliament April 29. 1646. he thus bespeaks them From the beginning of these Troubles Right Honourable you have held forth Religion and the Gospel as whose Preservation and Restauration was principally in your Aims and I presume malice it self is not able to discover any insincerity in this the fruits we behold proclaim to all the Conformity of your Words and Hearts Now the God of Heaven grant that the same mind be in you still in every particular Member of this Honourable Assembly in the whole Nation especially in the Magistracy and Ministry of it that we be not like the Boat-men look one way and row another cry Gospel and mean the other thing Lord Lord and advance our own ends that the Lord may not stir up the staff of his anger and the rod of his indignation against us as an hypocritical People And Feb. 28. 1649. he tells them again Gods Work whereunto ye are ingaged is the propagating of the Kingdom of Christ and the setting up of the Standard of the Gospel And Octob. 13. 1652. From the beginning of the Contests in this Nation when God had caused your Spirits to resolve that the Liberties Priviledges and Rights of this Nation wherewith you were intrusted should not by his assistance be wrested out of your hands by Violence Oppression and Injustice this he also put upon your hearts to vindicate and assert the Gospel of Jesus Christ his Ways and his Ordinances against all Opposition though you were but inquiring the way to Sion for then they were little better than Presbyterians with your faces thitherwardâ— God secretly entwining the Interest of Christ with yours wrapt up with you the whole Generation of them that seek his face and prosper'd your Affairs on that account And lastly Feb. 4. 1658. Give me leave to remember you as one that had opportunity to make Observations of the passages of Providence in those
And as for the under-Sects and farther improved Schismaticks that have since sprung out of the Corruptions of Presbytery our Controversie with them is not between Protestants and Protestants but between Protestants and Anabaptists a sort of people as to this particular worse than Papists whom nothing will satisfie but absolute Anarchy and Confusion in the Church and by consequence in the State for in a Christian Commonwealth they are but one and the same Society which as I have proved over and over and our Author sometimes confesses nothing can avoid but an Ecclesiastical Supremacy or coercive Jurisdiction in matters of Religion The hearty and serious acknowledgment whereof is the true Shibboleth and distinguishing mark of the right English Protestant This is the pride and the glory of the Church of England that she was never tainted with Sedition and Disloyalty and in the management of her Reformation never out run the Laws but always moved under the Conduct of Sovereign Authority It grieved our Prelates to behold the Dignity of the Throne prostituted to a Foreign Tyranny and when chiefly by their counsel and assistance our Princes had disingaged themselves of their ancient Fetters they proceeded to engage and encourage them in the Reformation of the Christian Faith to its ancient purity and with the advice of their Ecclesiastical Senate to establish Rites and Ceremonies of Worship by their own Authority So that there is not a Monarchy in the world that might be so well guarded as the Crown of England by its Orthodox Clergy were they allowed that Power and Reputation that is due to the Interest and Dignity of their Function not only because they hold so entirely from his Majesty and are so immediately dependant upon his favour for their Preferment but chiefly because there is not any sort of Men in the World possessed with so deep a sense of Loyalty 't is become their Nature and their Genius 't is the only thing that creates them so many Enemies exposes them to so much Opposition and divides them from all other Parties and Professions What is it that so much enrages the Roman Clergy but that we will not suffer his Holiness to usurp upon the Rights of Princes And when these Janizaries invade and assault their Thrones and attempt to seat their great Master in the Imperial Primacy 't is we and only we that have ever stept in and beat back all their approaches with shame and dishonour And whatever provisions might have been made against the Encroachments of Rome upon the Crown of England they would have been lamentably weak without the aids and assistances of Religion because 't is that alone that is pretended in their Opposition and its very pretences where they prevail are so strong and powerful that they easily bear down all the Arts of Civil Policy and Government Nothing but Religion can encounter Religion And how easie had it been for Rome considering its Power Interest Cunning and Activity to have either inslaved our Princes to their Tyranny or annoyed them with eternal Broils and Seditions had not the English Clergy bestirred themselves to counterwork all their Mines and to possess the peoples minds with an impregnable sense of Loyalty And this whatever is pretended is the real ground of the breach between us viz. The Interest and Grandeur of the Court of Rome And would we but grant them back that Sovereignty they once exercised over the Kings and Kingdom of England they would never stand so much upon any Controversies about Doctrinal Articles and would willingly permit us to enjoy all our other fancies and perswasions knowing that if they can but regain their absolute Dominion over us they shall soon be able to model our Opinions to their Interest And what was it that so exasperated the Disciplinarians but when these pert Gentlemen would have been perking up into their Spiritual Throne and in imitation of their Kirk-brethren Nosing the Power of Kings both in and out of the Pulpit they pluckt down such pitiful Pretenders with scorn and dishonour exposed their folly and ignorance to the publick Correction and let the world see they were more worthy of a Pillory than a Throne But these bold Youths have at length in pursuance of their designs run themselves beyond their Pretensions and lost their Cause among the Disorders and Confusions of their own procuring out of which have sprung new swarms of Sects and Schisms that were born and bred in Rebellion and were never known to the World by any other visible marks than their Opposition to the Royal Interest Yet have these Men the face to challenge their Right of Liberty and Indulgence and to rail at us for not granting it though the things for which they demand it are nothing but principles of Sedition and Disloyalty The World knows what pranks and practices they have committed with the confidence and under the protection of Religion and they have never given us the least signs and tokens of repentance and that alone is an infallible symptom of their impenitence for were they sincere Converts the World should be sure to know their resentments so that we have all the reason in the World to believe them no Changelings and then would it not be admirable policy to trust Men of such implacable Spirits and Principles to the present setlement of things For if we have no ground but to suppose them Enemies to the Publick Peace we certainly have no Motive or Obligation to treat them as Friends but rather to use them as People that thirst after a Change and aim at nothing more than our ruine Tenderness and Indulgence to such Men were to nourish Vipers in our own bowels and the most sottish neglect of our own quiet and security and we should deserve to perish with the dishonour of Sardanapalus And howsoever their Ring-leaders may whine and cant to the people grievous complaints of our present Oppressions and Persecutions yet would they inwardly scorn us as weak and silly Men that understand not the height of our Interest if we should be prevail'd with to bestow any milder usage upon such irreconcileable Enemies And 't is not impossible but that the Mercy of the Government may have been a great temptation to their insolence and perhaps had some of them been more roughly handled they had been less disobliged They think Lenity and Compassion to an implacable Enemy an effect of weakness and would never forgive themselves should they not use all means to suppress all known and resolved Opposition to their own Interest And therefore as many of these Men as have been Objects of Royal Mercy if they expect to obtain any farther favour to their Party they would do well to give us some publick and competent assurance of their renouncing their former principles of Sedition as to Civil Government Though not a Man continuing in their Communion has ever as yet given the World any satisfaction of this kind and certainly they can never
upon the Rights of Religion So that there is no other effectual Artifice to decoy Christian Subjects into Mutiny and Rebellion but the taking Pretences of Godliness and Reformation They are all agreed in the Belief of the necessity of subjection to their lawful Superiours in all things that concern their civil rights but where the Glory of God and Purity of his Worship lie at stake there they must whet and sharpen their Zeal in his Cause and not betray the true Religion by their neglect and stupidity And let but a few crafty men whisper abroad their suspicions of Popery or any other hated name and the Rabble are immediately alarm'd and they will raise a War and embroil the Nation against an Heretical Word And to this Purpose their Leaders are ever provided with such jugling and seditious Maxims as effectually over-rule all Oaths of Allegiance and all Obligations to Obedience as that all Good Subjects may with just Arms at least defend themselves if question'd or assaulted for the cause of Religion though when they send their Armies into the Field they are as well arm'd with Offensive Weapons as their Enemies and are furnish'd with Swords and Musquets to annoy them as well as Shields and Bucklers to defend themselves That the maintenance of pure Religion passes an Obligation upon their Consciences of force enough to evacuate all Oaths and Contracts whatsoever that may stand in the way of its advancement and then how naturally does this not only warrant but enforce their Resistance to their Lawful Prince in defence of the cause of God and to extort the Free exercise of Religion by force of Arms which if they should lay down at his Command that were to betray the Gospel to the Power of its profess'd and implacable Enemies by their own neglect and cowardize Not that they fight against the King himself God forbid their intention is nothing else then to rescue him out of the Power and Possession of evil Counsellors You must not believe them such disloyal Wretches as to rebel against his Sacred Majesty alas they design nothing but the discharge of their Duty and Allegiance and though they take up Arms against his Person yet 't is in defence of his Crown and they fight against him in his Personal Capacity only to serve him in his Political That in the management and Reformation of Religion there is no respect to be had to carnal and worldly Wisdom and therefore when the Propagation of the Gospel lies at stake 't is but a vain thing for men to tie themselves to the Laws of Policy and Discretion Civil Affairs are to be conducted by secular Artifices but matters of the Church are to be directed purely by the Will of God the Warrant of Scripture and the Guidance of Providence Now what exorbitances will not this wild principle excuse and qualifie In all their disorderly and irregular Proceedings they do but neglect the Rules of carnal Policy for the better carrying on of the work of the Lord where there is no place for moderation and complyance and nothing must satisfie or appease their Zeal but a full Ratification of all their demands Though these and infinite other as vulgar Artifices are as old as Rebellion it self and though wise men can easily wash off their false Colours yet the Common People will suffer themselves to be abused by them to the end of the World partly because they are rash and heady and apt to favour all Changes and Innovations partly because they are foolish and credulous and apt to believe all fair and plausible stories but mainly because they are proud and envious and apt to suspect the Actions of their Superiours So easie a thing is it for your crafty Achitophels to arm Faction with Zeal and to draw the Multitude into Tumults and Seditions under colour of Religion whilst themselves have their designs and projects apart and influence the great turns of Affairs for their own private Ends and so manage the zealous fools as to make them work Journey-work to their ambition and imploy seditious Preachers to Gospellize their Conspiracies and sanctifie their Rapines and Sacriledges to display the piety of their Intentions and cry up the Interest of a State-faction for the Cause of God and sound an Alarm to Rebellion with the Trumpet of the Sanctuary § 15. Thus to omit the known Arts of the Grandees and Junto-men in our late Confusions were the Confederate Lords of France that involved their Native Country in such a long and bloody War during the Reign of four or five Kings at first to seek for a plausible pretence to secure and justifie their Resolution of taking up Arms against their lawful Sovereign till the Admiral Coligny hit upon that unhappy counsel to make themselves Heads of the Hugonot Faction and then they had not only a strong party to assert but a fair pretence to warrant the Rebellion And the War that was first set on foot by the envy and ambition of some Male-contents in the State was prosecuted with greater rage and fury by Zeal for the true Religion In all their Manifests and Declarations they protested for nothing with so much seeming Resolution as their Demands of Liberty and Indulgence for tender Consciences And when either Party fortun'd to be worsted they re-inforced themselves and their Cause by Religious Leagues and Covenants and then the heady multitude flowed into the assistance of the different Factions according to their different Inclinations So that by degrees to use the words of the Historian the discords of great men were confounded with the dissentions of Religion and the Factions were no more called the discontented Princes and the Guisarts but more truly and by more significant Names one the Catholique and the other the Hugonot Party Factions which under colour of Piety administred such pernicious matter to all the following mischiefs and distractions Which how sad and how tedious they were I need not inform you only this both Parties being balanced and successively encouraged by the inconstancy of Government the change of Interests of State and the windings of an ambitious Woman the publick Broils and Disorders were kept up through so many Kings Reigns and might have been perpetuated till this day had not the equality quality of the Factions been broken and the power and interest of the Hugonot Party absolutely vanquish't So that though these two opposite Parties might if let alone to themselves have lived peaceably together in the same Commonwealth yet when headed and encouraged by great Men in the State they immediately became two fighting Armies and when they were once enraged against each other by Zeal and Religion it was not possible for all the Arts of Policy to allay the storm but by the utter ruine and overthrow of one of the contending Factions Dissembled Pacifications and plaister'd Reconcilements proved more bloody and mischievous in the event than the Prosecution of an open War This would have