understand a great number of the Ministers and other Members of this Church were driven into other Countries for refuge and shelter from the Storm I hope their finding refuge and shelter was no part of their misery but is was seasonably remembred for if the Ministers and other Confessors of this Church found such Cordial Entertainment amongst the Reformed Churches beyond the Sea if ever the like sad providence should send them hither they may expect to meet with proportionable welcome and not be remitted with their Beards half shaved and their Coats dock't with a Paper pinned at their Backs intimating that they are Fugitives Schismaticks and Rebels But still Quid hoc ad Iphicli Boves what is all this to the matter oh now it comes There they were tempted with Novelty and distracted with variety of Customs and Riâ—…es before they were well instructed in the reasons or habituated in the practise of their own And hereupon they brought home with them forreign fashions The meaning is this Reader Religion travailed too young and raw and drunk in the Ceremonies of the Reformed Churches and she cannot be dis-infected to this day A little matter will blow this dust out of the Readers Eyes and let him see the egregious trifling of this Harangue § 1. He supposes that those exiled Confessors did but chop or Barter one Ceremony for another as suppose they carried out with them The Cross they exchanged it for Cream or if they went out in the Surplice they returned home in the Friers Coule As if the Competition had been between two Ceremonies which as Candidates vyed which should be most for Edification and the Adorning Religion whereas they who improved their afflicted state to the best advantage left their Ceremonies behind them and brought no other home in their rooms Alas to what end should they bring more to England this had been to carry Coals to New-Castle or to what end steal from the Reformed Churches which had been meerly to rob the Spittle § 2. Those Holy Men made not the forreign Churches the Rule or Reason of their Reformation in Worship but their help to lead them to the Common Rule of Reformation They that were reduced to Primitive poverty might be allowed to emulate Primitive purity It was no wanton humour but a sence of Duty begotten by awaken'd Conscience rouz'd up by their affliction which brought them to a self-denying compliance with the Institutions of Christ It would break the proud heart of them that live in Ease and Triumph to imitate their patience and resolution whose return to Gospel-simplicity they can so pleasantly deride § 3. It s a scandalous reproach which he throws upon the English Reformation as if it lay in Rites and Ceremonies and such kind of inventions Before says he they were well inâ—…red to the English Reformation they became enamoured of the Rites of other Churches The Reformation lay not in preserving Rites and Ceremonies but in purging them away so far purged so far reformed you may call the Scar upon the Face it 's Healing if you please but I will rather chuse to call it a foot-step or relique of the old former wound nor will I call the dust behind the door part of the Houses cleanliness and yet I dare not impose let others call them as they please this is evident That those things wherein the Reformation consisted were opposed by the Papists but the Ceremonies were not opposed by the Papists therefore our Reformation consisted not in Ceremonies § 4. No less is the reproach cast upon those famous Exiles that they were enamoured of the Rites of other Churches we read indeed 2 Kings 16. 10. 11. That King Ahaz in his Journey to Damascus saw an Altar there which pleased his Humour and he sent to Urijah the Priest the fashion of the Altar and the pattern of it according to all the workmanship of it and he like a tractable good-natur'd man that would not offend the King for a small matter built an Alter according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus but our banished worthies imitated not the Example it was not the opposing one Ceremony to another but the opposition of all Ceremonies which was their Glory But our Enquirer is resolved they shall be in an Errour and which looks something like Charity he will convince them of it too 1. Their first weakness was That they considered not whether those other Rites were better so long as they were newer and fresher A groundless charge new or old fresh or stale was nothing to them it was Ceremonies as such which they rejected And if he can evince that the present Dissenters have derived from the Transmarine Churches any Rite or Ceremony which is not of Divine Institution they are not so enamoured of it but they will presently deliver it up into his hands to be dealt with at discretion 2 Another failing was that they observed not That there are oftentimes reasons to make one form necessary in one place or people and not in another when its possible they may be both indifferent They observed without his information that the circumstances of time and place in general were indifferent but they observed not that new invented Rites were necessary in any time or place to present the grace and duty of the Gospel They knew well that all Christs Ordinances were Decently to be Administred and they knew as well that there was no need to institute New Rites or Ceremonies to create a decency to conciliate a respect or reverence to any of Christs Ordinances If we must have New Rites to render Christs Ceremonies decent and comely then we must have New Rites also invented to render those Humane Ceremonies decent and comely and so infinitely forwards others to make those latter decent and comely because we cannot imagine the wisest man on Earth able to contrive a more perfect Ceremony then Christ has done And thus we must have a Lace to make the Garment decent and then an Edging to make the Lace decent and then we shall make Religion a Suit as fantastick as that Princes who fitted it with Loop-holes like Arguâ—… his Eyes and then hung a Needle at every Loop-hole to make all decent I have heard of a Taylour from France no doubt that was sent for to take measure of and make a Corde robe for the Moon she was then very slender as being in Conjunction with the Sun and when at the Fortnights end he brought her home her Gown she was grown so Corpulent that it would not meet by a Third part of her Circumference The poor man was sadly ashamed blamed his Spectacles and with more Circumspection takes measure of her Ladyship and when he came to try her Stayes she was grown so slender that she looked like a shrimp in a Lobsters Symarr Now the Moon is the Church which according to the measures which our modish Fashion-mongers take of her must at every Change and Full appear
Ex Graecis Bonis fecit Latinas non Bonas This could not be the Reason to be sure No no says he They are commanded so to do by the Head of their Church There 's the Reason then what needed all this stir The command of a Superiour will hallow or at least excuse an erroneous Action As a Transcendent in our Church speaks and if this Doctrine would but pass we should have a sweet time on 't Our Superiours must impose and judge what 's Indifferent and Decent and we have the easiest life in the world nothing but to wink hard and lift up our Legs high enough and there 's no danger And yet the Papists learn'd not possibly all this Lesson of withdrawing from the Church of England from their own Superiours they might be taught the Doctrine neater home A. B. Laud being ask'd by a Lady Whether she might be Saved in the Romish Communion Answered readily Madam You may and the good Lady took his word and ventured it It 's possible it might be the same Lady that Dr. â—…uller Ch. Hist. B. 11. p. 217. tells us of She being ask'd by the same Prelate Why she had changed her Religion Answered Because I ever hated a Crowd And being desired to explain her meaning herein she replyed I perceived your Lordship it should have been Grace by her Ladyships favour and many others are hastning thither as fast as you can and therefore to prevent a press I went before you What design of Reconciliation with Rome and upon what terms Grotius carried on is pretty well known by this time of day That he had a Party here in England or expectations of one his own words testifie Aequis multis non displicuisse Grotil Propace Labores Nâ—…unt Lutetiae in omni Gallia multi multi in Poloniâ Germaniâ in Angliâ non pauci plaâ—…idi pacis Amantes Discus p. 16. There were I see by this a Company of Loving Sweet-natur'd Tractable Souls here in England that would have step'd half way over the Ditch to meet his Holiness Especially since Mr. Mountagues time who informs us That the Controverted Points between England and Rome are of a lower and inferiour Nature which a Man may be ignorant of without peril of his Soul and may resolve to oppose this or that without peril of perishing for ever That Images may be used for instruction of the Ignorant and excitation of Devotion And that the Church of Rome has ever continued form upon the same foundations of Sacraments and Doctrine instituted by God They are not single Instances of those who have not abhorred the Communion of Rome which I could give but I will spare the Living and cover the Dead Nor will I say that these or such as these were Papists yet methinks they did incline and warp desperately towards it there 's an odd Distinction we often meet with of a Sensus Compositus and a Sensus Divisus which may a little illuminate us Now because my Readers are not like to be any of the more deadly learned sort I will a little explain the Distinction to their Capacities by a very familiar though I confess a very homely Comparison It 's impossible say I that a Maggot should ever be a Fly That is in your Sensus Compositus or so long as it continues to be a Maggot because these have Two distinct forms and the one keeps the other out of possession whilst it hath a Nail or Tooth to scratch or bite But now it s not only possible but easie for this Fly to become a Maggot in Sensu Diviso that is for the Maggot to strip her self of her old shape and appear in another likeness I shall be modest in the Application and hope the Reader will not be immodest Such persons as I have mention'd could never be Papists whilst they adhered to the Doctrine of the Church of England but yet such were their disposednesses that way that the transition was easie to slide from such loose Principles into Popery and yet the Church the mean time might be Innocont 3. Quest. Whence comes it to pass that the Romish Church have more spight against our Church than against any Sect or Party whatsoever When it is once well proved that they have so it will be time enough to enquire why they have so but we must suppose one half of his discourse to be true that we may have leave to answer the other The spight of the Roman Faction against Protestancy as such has so eminently discovered it self under whatever denominations they have been differenced that none of them have cause to boast of it or be ambitious to tast further of it It were well improved if they who are Objects of their implacable spight could learn to love more and agree better amongst themselves The Papists think themselves excusable in persecuting all when 〈◊〉 Protestant so suriously persecutes another they know no Reason why they should love us better than we love our selves And truly against whom their spight is hottest is hard to judge If we compare the Cruelties of the Parisian Massacre â—…ith the Butcheries of the Irish Rebellion we shall find the true Reason why they flew more in Ireland than Paris was because there was more to be slain The Fire may go out for want of matter but I dare say never for want of a good Stomack to its Food In short their spight is there the greatest where they can shew it most as to one that 's very hungry the biggest Dish is ever the best The Papists judge of the Object of their hatred as one did of Tullies Orations The longest is to be sure the most Excellent And yet I conceive the Enquirer to be quite out in this matter The Papists may spight the Church of England upon the account of its fair and vast Revenues great Dignities marvellous Honours Wealth Splendour and whatever is desirable to the Eye because hereby the Church is able to vye with her and yet their malice upon the pure account of Religion may be greater against other lesser weaker parties whose Principles stand more directily in opposition to those of Rome I do not doubt but our Enquirer could bring better Arguments than these to prove the distance of Religion between the Two Societies for this I am sure is too weak unless it may appear that their spight is levelled against the Church meerly on account of those Principles wherein she differs from Dissenters 4. Quest. How comes it to pass that they of all Men most Zealously â—…and in the Gap to oppose the return of Popery That Gap at which Popery must enter if ever it enters into England is the Division between Protestants and if that Gap were well stop'd Popery might look â—…ver but would never leap over or break through the â—…dge This Gap of Divisions is made by the imposition of such things which in the Judgment of the Imposers are indifferent in their own Nature but
unchain the Devil and let him loose upon the Englisâ—… Protestants to exercise their Graces and correct their Follies he gave some of them Christian Courage to abide by the tryals to others of them Christian Wisdom to secure themselves by flighâ—… Had all fled the Truth had wanted Witnesses at home for the present had all stay'd the Truth had wanted Successors for the future they that fled found the Care of God attending them and the Mercy of God as a Harbinger going before them to provide them first a Room in the Hearts and then in the Houses of their Brethren Where being emanâ—…ipated from the prejudices of Inâ—…eterate Custom got from under the Dâ—…resse of Imposing Power humbled by afflictions and made more willing to bear the Yoke of Christ and finding the Reforming Churches a tolerable Counterpane of the New Testament Worship many of them not consulting with Flesh and Blood came off from Ceremonies content to Worship God with the same Measure of Decency prescribed and practised by Christ and his Apostles When therefore he tells us that those Fxiles received a Tincture of those other Rites before they had well imbibed or sufficiently understood the Reasons of the Church of England He says no more thaâ—… that the Rationale of the Liturgie and the Compassionate Enquiry were not then written for where else to find the Reasons of the Church for imposing Ceremonies I am yet to seek 2. A second Cause of this evil effect is The bad and incompetent provision made for a learned and able Ministry in the Corporations and generality of the great Parishes in England But before this Incompetency can possibly be remedied it must be known what is a Competency for a Learned Minister for some that are Learned enough are also Able to spend five times more than the people are worth or can spare Two things are here considerable which have exercised our Enquirers politick Head-piece The Grievance and the Redress of the Grievance 1. For the Grievance The multitude of Opinions that deform and trouble the Church are generally hatch'd and nursed in the Corporations and Market Towns Nay not only the dissatisfaction with the Rites and Ceremonies but the conâ—…ulsions and confusions of the State took their Origin from the bad Humours of thâ—…se greater Societies But how easily might all this mischief have been remedied had he pursued his own Primitive Rule of Reformation viz. Modelled the Rites and Government of the Church to the Humours and Customs of the People But his meaning was That Reformation should be accommodated to the Humours of the Villages where the people mind nothing of Religion as he thinks but not of the Market Towns where they are intent upon New Fashions But the Reader must look on these as the lesser sports of his Wit and the dilations of a pregnant Fancy for the true Reason of all the dissatisfaction about those Rites has been the want of good ground for them in the Word of God and the main cause of the troubles that have ensued thereupon has been the unreasonable and unseasonable imposition of them upon the Consciences of Men. But our Enquirer is otherwise minded and he imputes these Conâ—…ns and Confusions § 1. To the Fullness and Luxury of these great Towns Well! have a little patience till he can procure his Proclamation against Trade and to shut up the Shops and that will most effectually take down their Greace and humble their haughty Stomacks and they will grow tame and manageable But then another difficulty will arise how they should maintain a Learned and able Ministry and allow him such a Revenue as he shall confess to be a Competency but is not this inconvenience to be found in the Country Towns and Villages No! They are for the most part quiet and peaceably comply with establish'd Orders for they are tired with hard labour and never trouble themselves noâ—… others but apply themselves to Till the ground and earn their Breat with the sweat of their Brows Let them have liberty to be poor and pay their Tithes and they concern themselves little in Religion or the saving of their Souls they go by the old Rule Si Mundus vult vadere sicut vult Mundus debet vadere sicut vult These Creatures indeed will make fit materials for Uniformity to work upon you may put the Bridle in their Mouths and clap the Saddle on their Backs and ride them till they are broken winded and foundred and they will neither wince nor complain and yet there are some sowr Lads and knotty pieces amongst these too that will not budge a foot nor yield an Ace further than Conscience informed from the Word of God shall command them § 2. In these great Towns they have leasure to excogitate Novelties and Spirit and confidence to abet them and here there is great concourse of people where Notions are more easily started and Parties sooner formed for the defence of them Where the dividing Notions have been most started I cannot infallibly tell but I am sure the richest Corporations find themselves something else to do than to excogitate Ceremonies or other Novelties and whether Convocations have always sat in the great Towns or little Villages is easily determined § 3. The misery of all is That in these great Towns where was most need of the most liberal maintenance so pittiful a Pittance is left to the Curate or Minister that he can scarce afford himself Books to study nor perhaps Bread to eat without too servile a dependance upon the benevolence of his Richer Neighbours by which means either his Spirit is broken with Adversity or the dignity of his Office obscured or he tempted to a sordid â—…nnivance at or complyance with their follies and so like Esau sells his Birthright for 〈◊〉 Mess of Pottage The bottom of the Grievance in plain terms is this If the Clergy could but once procure a Revenue settled hard and faâ—…t upon them to their minds which what it is neither we nor perhaps themselves ever knew had they but more Wealth to support their Grandeur out of the hard labour of the poor drudging Moyls that tug hard night and day to get Bread had they but Midas his Option or Fortunatus his wishing 〈◊〉 that every thing they touch'd might be Gold they would then make the Bleâ—…-aprons Lacquey it and trot to the Courts by their Horse sides and it does them good but to imagine how they would firk their lazy Hides and curry the sâ—…abbed Humour of Non-conformity out of them Thus much of the Malady the Remedy follows 2. The Remedy of this insupportable Grievance in short is this That a Law be made that all Corporations Market Towns and great Parishes provide a Maintenance for the Vicars in proportion to London for till some such course be taken it will be in vain to expect that the Church of England or the best Laws of Religion should either obtain just Venâ—…ration or due Effect So far
year But if we speak with the Vulgar and take this Dignity for some external glory shining out in secular Lusire which is that currant signification which Custom the Master of the Mint has stampt upon It I doubt she will hold up her Head and not be dasht out of Countenance she can prodâ—… her purpuratos patres her Cardinals Princes fellows her Dignitaries she can produce you her Acolytes dancing attendance upon her Decans her Deacons footing it after her Priests her inferiour Clergy boâ—…ing before her mitred Prelates and alâ—… these orderly Reverencing their Metropolitan but then she boasts unmeasurably that she has an Ecclesiastical Head to be the Center of Union to all those so that whether you run up the scale from the poor Ostiary to the Exorcist and so upwards or down the Scale from the supream infallible Noddle moving all the inferiour Wyers she will brazen it out and never hang down her Head 3. The An ient Gravity of our Church reproves theirs I am sorry for the Honour of our Church which I truly Reverence that this Gentleman in vying with Rome should pitch upon those particulars wherein if we do excel and carry the day it will be no such Victory as to challenge a Triumph and yet such is the dubiousness of the case that perhaps we may lose the day I do not yet hear that Rome has disclaimed Antiquity to be one of the marks of the true Church and know something of her presumption in applying into her self Let any Antiquity short of Scripture Epocha be fixt upon and she will make a sorry shift to scramble through many a tiresome Century and scuffle to come as near the Apostolical days as some others Both sides I think have play'd at the game of Drop-father so long till they are weary and forced to confess that some things now in usage were unknown to the Fathers and many things practised by the Fathers which we have silently suffered to grow obsolete by desuetude I look upon these things as matters of course and form to look big and set the best foot before for if ever we confute Rome with an Army of hard words Decency Order Antiquity Gravity they must be such as the Word of God has made so It must be a Decency warranted by God himself either from the Light of Nature or Scripture an Order of Christs Establishment a Gravity exemplified from the Apostles and an Antiquity which was from the Beginning and when Scripture is once made sole Umpire in the Quarrel As the Church of England will certainly run the Papist out of all distance so the Non-conformist will begin to put in his stake and perhaps win the Plate § 2. If you ask how the Church of Rome undermines our Church he answers 1. She furnishes other parties with Arguments against it It were much easier to evince that the Euquirer has rather borrowed his Arguments from Rome then Rome lent one to the Non-conformists I think there 's not one Arrow he can shoot against them but I can shew him where 't was borrow'd or shotten from a Jesuites Quiver where was that Argument taken from Axes Halters Pillories Galleys Prisons Consiscations as some express it or as he more concisely Executing the Laws borrow'd but from Rome The Scripture knows it not the better sort of Heathens abhorr'd it Protestants disown it Papists only glory in it Uterejure tuo Caesar sectamque Lutheri Ense Rotâ Ponto Funibus igne Neca And whence was that argument for Active unlimited Obedience to all things commanded by the Church borrowed for though it becomes no mouth so well as his that can boast of Infallibility yet still we are pressed with the same Argument and in the last resort Publick Conscience must carry it I am sorry this imprudent person should give any one occasion to say further that some of us at home have furnisht Rome with Arguments against the Reformation Arguments from the Scripture Rome has none from the nature of the thing not one but some have put into their Hands a left-handed Dagger which does mischief enough it 's called Argumentum ad Hominem Thus when we are earnest with them to throw away their Oil and Cream they bid us throw away our Cross If we desire her to reform her Cowles and Copes she calls to us to reform our Surplice When we in a friendly way caution them not to feed upon the Devils flesh they answer As good eat his flesh as the Broth he was boiled in 2. She is all for blind Obedience at home but preaches up tenderness of Conscience abroad And what the difference is between blind Obedience and Obedience meerly on the account of the Command I would willingly learn And if any can shew us a better reason for the things commanded and enjoyned then that we shall return him thanks If I might now borrow the Enquirers place so long as whilst I propounded a few Enquiries I would immediately resign to him his Province § 1. If the enmity between the two Churches be so great as is pretended what was the reason that so many Stars of the first magnitude in this Orb were in Conjunction with the Dragons Tail why were they so ready to yield him his Western Patriarchate and all within the first four hundred years which will at once bring England under his Subjection though I much question whether the Grand Seignior will have so much good nature as to resign him the Eastern Patriarchate so easily § 2. If the Church of Rome be this Churches Enemy is she not then concerned to get more Churches to be her Friends It 's a wild Humour of some Church-men that they will disoblige all the world provoking every ones hand against themselves whilst their hand is against every one If Rome be an Enemy she is a potent malicious subtle and United Enemy and it concerns a Church not to be divided at home when her Enemies are united abroad and to combine with the forreign Protestants in Love were an excellent way to prevent the Combinations of Romes hatred § 3. It would be enquired If Rome be such an Enemy what should be that which provokes her wrath and indignation what that should be that makes the envious Snakes wherewith Antichrists head is periwigg'd to hiss and spit out their Venom Does she Storm and Rage because we have retained two or three of her fine Ceremonies that cannot be the Origin of her spight They are those things wherein the Church of England and Non-conformists are mutually agreed that Rome opposes this Church in and they are those things wherein this Church symbolizes with Rome wherein she differs most from the Non-conformists When the Heathens triumphed in the great feats of their Maximus Tyrius and Apollonius Tyanaeus the Christians answered That whatever good effect their Religion ever had upon the Lives of Men was owing to those Principles and Truths which it had in Common with Christianity Thus will Dissenters plead
fit Protestant or Papist and indeed any School-Boy that has a Theme or Declamation to compose That the Causes of separation from the Church of Rome were pregnant every way clear and evident we do therefore agree And that the Reasons of separation from the Church of England are not so great but then neither is the separation so great for as we agree in the fundamental Articles of Religion so we may quickly agree in all the rest when some of a more fiery temper will let their Mother Alone to exercise to all her Children such an Indulgence as is agreeable to their various Measures of light in lesser concerns But says our Author It 's quite otherwise in the Church of England For. 1. No man here parts with his faith upon Conformity But I am afraid they must part with it or they will hardly be accepted Their faith is that the Lord Christ is the only Lawgiver of his Church that the Scriptures are the adequate and Commensurate Rule of all Religious Worship and if they do not part with thus much of their faith they must live in a Contradiction to it but perhaps he may understand their faith better then they themselves 2. No man is bound to give away his Reason for Quietness sake Then I know who was mistaken p. 64. who tells us That since the peace of the Church often depends upon such points as Salvation does not and since in many of those every man is not a Competent judge but must either be in danger of being deceived himself and of troubling others or of necessity must trust some body else wiser then himself she recommends in such a case as the safer way for such private persons to comply with publick determinations And we may assure our selves of our Enquirers good nature in this particular who condemnes Virgilius for asserting the Antipodes though it were demonstrably true and the contrary impossible And then I am afraid we must sacrifice our Reason to Peace and rather subscribe like Brutes then run the risque of being perscuted like Men. 3. A man may be as holy and good as he will The goodness and holiness of a Christian lyes very much in using Holy Means for Holy Ends Gods Holy Ordinances in order to Holiness in the Habit and Complexion of the Soul He that may not use the means of Holiness when he will may not be as Holy as he will but as Holy as he can without them He that will use all the means of God in order to that great end it may possibly cost him more then he would willingly lose for any cause but that of righteousness Methought it was an odd sight t'other day to see a Grave Divine in his Canonical Habit marching With a Brace of Informers piping hot on either Hand the one like the Gizzard the other the Liver stuck under the wings of his Sacerdotal Habiliments from one of his Rectories to the other to give Disturbance to a Company of poor Innocent people that would have been a little more holy if they might when this is reformed I 'le believe that the more of Holiness appears the better Churchmen we are reputed 4. This Church keeps none of her Children in an uncomfortable estate of darkness for we must know that there 's a twofold estate of darkness a comfortable and an uncomfortable estate Now the Comfortable estate of darkness lyes in trusting others submitting our private to the publick wisdom this is that blessed state whereinto he would wish his best friends But the unconfortable state is that Remedy which is Practised in Spain and Italy for the Cure of Church Divisions An excellent Remedy it is but it comes too late to do any good here The difference between them was observed before either to be born blind or made blind to have no Conscience or prohibited to exercise it to have no eyes or not to use them and in my private opinion there 's no great comfort in either of them 5. She debars none of her Members of the comfort and priviledges of Christs Institutions Some that have struggled with a doubting Conscience have attested the contrary but however she may possibly debar some of those priviledges and comforts that would have been her Members because they dare not give the price she rates those priviledges and comforts at 6. She recommends the same Faith the same Siriptures that the Protestants are agreed in Yes but then she recommends those Ceremonies to boot in which Protestants neither are nor ever will be agreed in We do therefore seriously triumph that the Church of England with the Protestants are also fully and perfectly agreed that they have not only the same God and Christ but the same Object of Worship too though I know not wherein God and the object of worship differ the same way of Devotion in a known Tongue the same Sacraments the same Rule of Life which are all the great things wherein the Consciences of men are concerned To which I shall need to say no more but that we in the General profess our owning of all these and yet our differences be very considerable but let our Consciences be concerned about no other no other Sacraments no other Rule of Life no other Devotion and what is necessary to reduce all these into practice and I can assure him Dissenters will flock a pace into the bosome of the Church He promises us now that he will faithfully and briefly recite the matters in difference And I confess for brevity he has performed his promise well enough but for his fidelity the Dissentets sadly complain of him I shall therefore crave the liberty to use a little more prolixity and I shall endeavour to compensate it with much more fidelity to reciting the material points wherein we differ As § 1. Whether a Minister ordained according to the appointment of the Gospel to the exercise of the whole Ministerial work may without sin consent that a main part of his Office be statedly and totally taken out of his hands and his work Cantoned at the will of another § 2. Whether any Church has power from Christ to appoint in and over it self or Members any Officers specially distinct from those Christ hath ordained § 3. Whether any Church hath authority from Christ to institute any other Ordinances of fixed and constant use in the Church then Christ hath instituted § 4. Whether it be an apparent invasion of and open reproach to the Regal Office of Christ for any Society of his to institute either new Officers or new Offices for the Govorning and Administring that Society which the head hath not allowed § 5. Whether it be not the duty of every particular Church to conform all the worship and administration of Religion to the Laws of their Institution and that whatever is not so Conformed be not a Corruption which ought to be Reformed by those Laws § 6. Whether if a Church shall peremtorily refuse to remove such
wou'd set himself to decry the Piety of that other World Let him Copy out the Treachery of Iudas exaggerate the Apostacy of Demas the Heretical pravity of Hymenâ—…us and Philâ—…us let him enlarge upon the Ambition of Diotrephes the Blasphemies of Cerinthus the Debaucheries of the Nicolaitans and above all be sure to plie the Villanies of the Gnostieks with warm Cloaths and what a frightful Mâ—…dusa would that Age appear if drawn to the life by those Exemplars Suppose once more that our Orator had an itch to imploy his mercenary Pen to scrape acquaintance with some tempting preferment to reconcile his lines to the Genius of the present Age and imploy his Talents where he shall not lose his oyl and pains Let him with Apelles take up on trust the particular Excellencies of the most exemplary Christians let him borrow the single beauties of meekness patience humility charity faith self-denyal constancy that like the Sporades lie dispersed and scattered up and down the world let him A masse all the individual worthinesses that are not yet banisht to Heaven and unite all these in one Table and such a draught perhaps shall not need to be ashamed to shew its face before the most exact pieces of proportion that are reserved in the Archives of Antiquity And to speak a plain truth if one tenth part of what these men ascribe to their great Patrons in their Dedicatory Epistles were true I could easily evince that there are very few who have the disposal of fat Advowsons but are more Illustrious Saints than any of the Primitive Fathers and perhaps we shall not need to except the Twelve Apostles As he would scandalously reproach the stable fixed Providence of God that should conclude Nature to be almost worn off her legs her Powers enfeebled her Spirits dâ—…bilitated from the precotious deaths of those who dig their graves with their teeth and with the sheers of Luxury and Riot cut the thread of their lives before Reason would say it was half spun out to its just length so would he no less maliciously blaspheme the steady Reiglement and superintendency of the only Head and Governour of the Church with the efficacious influences of the H. Spirit upon the Souls of true Christians who from Hypocrisie the mother and her daughter Apostacy of those who Court Religion for her Dowry shall conclude against the power of Godliness in those Christians which is very conspicuous to all who are not concern'd in point of self-preservation and self-justification to decry real Holiness according to the Primitive Pattern whilst they would be thought the great Adorers of the Primitive Times A practice well-becoming the Legions of Beelzebub or the trainedbands of Accaron whose delight it is with the importunate Flie to fix upon the galled parts exasperating sores with their venomous probosâ—…es which would heal of themselves whilst prejudice will not suffer them to take notice of the entire and sounder parts What Arguments our Enquirer hath furnisht A theism with to wound Religion which he would pretend to heal I shall not need to observe they are a generation quick-sighted to espie and take their advantages without a Monitor But when I hear him Lâ—…ment the palpable contraâ—…ion of the liâ—…es of the Generality of Christians now to the Rules of their own Religion and that few 〈◊〉 the measures of their Actions or the Rule of their lives from the New Testament I expect to hear others ask why they should be more obliged to the Humility Self-denial Sobriety recommended in the Gospel than their Teachers who apparently conform themselves to the secular Grandeur and swelling Pomp of the most licentious times And if a plain Truth might be spoken without any ones taking snuff there can be no more Reason assigned why the People should be tyed up to the Rules of the N. T. in their Lives than Church-men are to make it the Rule and Rubrick of their Worsâ—…ip They who expect Primitive Submission must give Precedents of Primitive Moderation And if they will exact and challenge the Ancient Manners let us see in them the Ancient Examples In vain shall Mother Crab command her â—…aughter to creep forward if she confutes her instruction by creeping backward If then â—…ters be really so Retrograde and gone off from their true Centers yet it cannot become them to Condemn the World for being Wrong who resolve it shall never be Right He that complaâ—…s things are not as they were and yet Disputes that they ought to be as they are shall never dispute me into a Plerophory of his sincerity They that confess a want of the Ancient Discipline which yet they will not restore and complain at the same time of a Defect of the Ancient Piety which they pretend they cannot Remedy do but weep over the Vineyard which is laid wast whilst they either pluck up the â—…edge or refuse to repair the decayed Mounds and Fences or deplore an Inundation of Wickedness which is broken in upon us and yet stand by the Slâ—…ce and will not shut it down nor suffer others to do it because they have no â—…all to the Work All things in this lower World insensibly contract corruption and with a silent foot decline from their Original Integrity so that every day furnishes us with New Reasons to scowr off the encroaching Rust and restore them to their Primitive Brightness He that â—…ows against the Stream must incâ—…ssantly ply his Arms and Oats and work against the pressing importuniâ—…y of the Current or else shall find himself unawaâ—…es hurâ—…ied down the Stream Sic omnia â—…ato In pejus ruere ac retro subâ—…apsa referri Virg. It was a seasonable Question of a Great Person many years ago Why the Civil State should be purged and restored by good and whelsome Laws made every Third or Fourth Year in Parliament prâ—…iding Remedies as fast as Time breedeâ—…h Misâ—…s and contrariwise the Ecclesiaâ—…al State should still continue upon the Dregs of Time and receâ—… no alterations now for this five and forty years and more And I am sure its another five and forty years and upwards since that Complaint was made It will then be very seasonable to complain of Modern Corruption and cry up Primitive Devotion in these Men when they shall demonstrate a real willingness to reduce what is amiss into order to make what is crooked straight by the Primitive Rule of Reformation That the Conversations of those early Christians was Commendable I readily admit that there is a wretched Degeneracy in our days I sadly see yet give me leave to Note and Detest the Hâ—…pocrisie of those who build Sâ—…tely Monuments to and bestow Ranting Epitaphs upon the Deceased Piety of the Former and yet destroy or discourage the Remaining Piety of the present Age That pluck down the Living Temples of the Spirit that upon their Ruines they may build their own Palaces who first Stigmatize Primiâ—…e Holiness with the Modern Brand of Fanaticisme and then persecute it
and the same time Canonize Primitive Superstition for the Christian Religion and then Impose it But our Enquirer has mark'd out some of the peculiar Glories of those Elder Times and perhaps it may not be unpleasant to the Reader to run over with me some of their Excellencies 1 Of old to be a Christian was to be all that 's Holy Iust and Good c. When I read these juvenile Declamations in praise of Vertue I am ready to snatâ—…h the Answer out of his mouth who replyed in a Case not unlike Quis enim unquam vituperavit I wonder who ever spoke one word against it But it 's easy to strain a String till it breaks which being screwed up to its just Height would bear its part in the Harmony To be All that 's Holy All that 's Iust All that 's Good is the Glory of Him whom 't is our Duty to imitate our Folly to strive to equaliâ—…e In a limited sense 't is the Glory of those Blessed Ones who are Comprehensores to be really Holy truly Iust sincerely Good is pretty fair for those that pass under the Notion of Viatores But if this were the Character of Primitive Saintshipâ—… the Apostle Paul must not have worn a Red Letter in our Enquirers Calender who professes Philip 3 12. 13. That he had not already attained neithâ—…r was already perfect â—…or counted himself to have apprehended but yet he râ—…ched forth unto those things which were before he press'd towards the Maâ—… for the Price of the High Calling of God in Christ Iesus 2. Wherever Religion came it was a Principle of Purity in Mens â—…arts Honesty in their 〈◊〉 and Peace 〈◊〉 Kingdoms c. Wherever Religion came Why Religion may come either in the Declaration of it or in the Power and Cordial Acceptation of it And I presume this Enquirer will not assert That whâ—…er Religion came in the former sense it had those Blessed Effects in the Purest Primitive Times and I am confident he caâ—…ot deny that wherever it comes in the latter sense it produces those Happy Fruits even in the worst of Times But so easy it is to render trivial and common matter plausible to the Ear whilst we are cheated with a Charivary of Sounding Brass or the Ditty of a Tinckling Symbal 3. But then the Christian Faith was not a Trick of Wit In it self indeed it was not nor is so now yet Crafty Knaves would venture then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 2. 17. to dilure the Pure Wâ—…e of Gods Word with the Watry Mixtures of their own Inventions and we have those still that will be shewing such tricks of audaeious wit upon it now What therefore he Quotes from Lactantius any Man may venture to say and never hurt himself or spoil his credit Give me a firce and conâ—…entious Man and if he will but apply himself to thâ—… Grace and Institutions of the Gospel he shall become as mâ—…k as a â—…mb Let a covetous Person hearken to the Doctrine of the Gospel and he shall presently dispense his Money Nay for once I will say as bold a word as that comes to Give me the most inhumane and barbarous Persecutor that without scruple of Conscience â—…ats up Gods People like Bread and if he will but conform to the Doctrine of the Gospel he shall be forced to take out a new Lesson and turn over a New Leaf and of a Bloody Saul become a Paul profess or preach the same Jesus whom he has so â—…utragiously persecuted Give me that Church-man that seeks his Peoples Goods more than their Good he that heaps Ossa upon Pelios and Olympus upon both one Steeple upon another and a third upon the former as if he hoped either to Scale or Purchase Heaven to take it by Storm or Surrender and let him but attend and give up himself to those documents which he either Preaches or however Reads and he shall presently refund the Price of Souls and errogate upon the Members of Christ what he had once squeezed out of Spungy Consciences But the Heathens could boast as much as this comes to of their Moral Precepts Invidus Iracâ—…ndus acer vinâ—…sus Amator Nemo adâ—…ferus est ut non mitescere possit Si mode culinrae patientem commodet Aurem Horat. 4. Then the Professors of Christianity were all of one Heart and one Lip there was then but one Division of Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were the only Sects the World was divided by All Good Men were of one way and all Evil Men of another I have seriously considered for what juncture of Time this Eloquent Period was calculated and when those happy days did shine that might deserve so fair a Character And I conclude it must he some Pre-Adamitical State commencing with the Iulian Period or at lawest that of Paradise when we may probably conjecture That all Good Men were of one Mind because there was but one Man there But if the Enquirer would acknowledge it as a favour I would shew him how he might reconcile his Rhetorick to Truth which is not often feazible All Good Men were of one Way the Way of Holiness leading to Happiness And all Evil Men were of another Way the Way of Sin and Impenitency which leads to Misery But so it is still and thousands of Ages will never alter the Case But then to be of one Heart and Lip in the minuce Circumstances of Religion that I never heard All Men were nor never expect they will be so on this side absolute persection The Roman Church even in the Apostolical Times was not without its Heats and Animosities Some there were who being weak in the Faith discerned not their Christian Liberty but confined themselves to Salades and judged others that went beyond their Short Tedder as Libertines and Men of a Latitudinarian Conscience others who were strong and understood that Christ had emancipated them from the Yoke of Mosaical Ceremonies used their freedom and these despised the rest as a company of scrupulous Coxcembs What fierce bandyings and jostlings there were in the Church of Corinth whilst one Party hangs out the Eusâ—…gns of Paul another shelters it self under the Headship of Peter and perhaps a third not afraid to entitle the Prince of Peace to their Quarrels and draw in Christ himself to be the Head of a Faction And yet these were all Members of the same Church and whilst agreeing in the Substantials of Religion the Apostle durst not strike in with one Party to crush the other but maintains the Flame of Charity alive amidst the Sparks of their Contentions in things remote from the Foundation That great Promise that God would make his People of one Heart and one Lip is either not understood or not fulfilled or if fulfilled in some measure yet the more Glorious Accomplishment thereof reserved for Times and Persons of a more healing Temper and to be brought about by more proportionable means
upon pain of death If others be excluded by the Palizadoes of Ceremonies however meet Materials for such a Constitution never hope the Church should be a Holy Colledge but a Lazarhouse for they that are of no Religion will be of any Religion rather than be undone for being of none and they that are really of any Religion will endeavour to go to Heaven in better company And such were the beauties of the Prime-primitive Confessâ—…rs but now there is a sad Regeneracy and that the Rendâ—…r way not suspect I envy our Authors Abilities I shall give him a tast of his Excellencies in exposing the Modâ—…rn Piety 1. Now dry Opinions are taken for Faith Oh what a lucky hint had here been for one that was so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be ingenious For dry Opinions you know are very 〈◊〉 matter which will catch at the smallest Spark and therefore must needs set the whole World in a flame But 2. Men have been busy in making New Creeds and have forgotten to practise the Old Whence Note for your Learning and singular Eâ—…ification that though some mistake the Creed for a Prayer yet it will serve without sensible error for the Ten Commandments And yet perhaps praâ—…ng a Creed is not so easy a matter as he may imagine Let Men but believe their Credenda and practise the Agenda and they shall never be Reproach'd by me for not practising their Creed whether it be Old or New I am very consident the Innocent Reader takes it for granted that the Enquirer has all this while been comparing the Piety of Ancient days with that of the Present as iâ—… stands at home amongst our selves But he 's meerly guiled for all this gawdy Eloquence has been spent upon forrein Countries Such says he is the condition of the Greek and Latin Churches There 't is that they are so busy in making New Creeds that they have forgotten to practise the Old Just as if one of Iobs Messengers should cry out in the streets Fire Fire And on startled at the Alarm asks Where Where Oh at 〈◊〉 Escurâ—…al At the Escurial in Spain near Madrid Nay then we are well enough I was afraid it had been my next Neighbour Ucalegon and therefore I hope we may have time enough to remove our Goods But Reader be not too secure for the Sparks are already flown over into England If we come nearer home says he I doubt we shall not find things much better There is one piece of Iustice or Charity which I must here demand or beg of my Reader and ' ti this That if the Enquiter has a priviledge to suppose his Searfire beyond the Seas I may be allowed the priviledge to suppose that my poor Bucket was bestowed there also and that though the Tragedy of Mustapha was acted in London yet the Scene was laid at Constantinople That the Brittish Churches were so famous for Religion in the first Times of their Plantation I am right glad to hear and hope the News is true But the Evidence and the Consequence do both exceedingly trouble me The former is slender that if we touch it not very gingerly like the Apples of Sodom it will moulder into dust and the latter is so dangerous that it concerns him to handle it gently lest it prick his fingers And 1. for the Evidence If the presence of the British Bishops at the Council of Arles be his best proof it must proceed thus The British Bishops were present at the Council Their presence must presume their subscription to the Articles Their subscription must imply a virtual and implicit consent of the British Clergy and then the consent of the Clergy must involve the Approbation of all the Churches And lastly the Churches Approbation of the Articles must infer that they practised their Creed and that their Lives were so eminent for Holiness that they did as it were shine with some Rayes or Beams of Divinity And here is a Teame of connected inferences that if one fails the conclusion will be left in the Mire And therefore he has another proof to help it out at a standing pull At the Time of the Nicene Council Britain was accounted one of the Six Diocesses of the Western Empire And then no Rational Creature can desire clearer demonstration that they were eximiously Holy for if they were of any Diocess first or sixth it makes no great matter provided it be but of the Western Empire it will infallibly conclude their Piety though it had been more clear in my mind had it been a Diocess not of the Empire only but the Church And then 2. for the Consequence that seems very perilous for if the presence of the British Bishops at the Council at Arles implies their Subscription and that Subscription the consent of the Clergy the Clergies consent the Approbation of the People and that infers their Holiness Then say some the Presence of the English Divines at the Synod of Dort and their Subscription to the Articles will imply the consent of the Clergy and the consent of the Clergy the Approbation of the English Church and there 's no remedy for it that I can see If the presence of the one will evince the Kingdoms Sanctity the Presence and Subscription of the other will much stronger evince the Kingdoms Orthodoxy For Subscription is a good step beyond bare Presence and so our Premises are stronger And Sanctity is a good step beyond Truth in the Understanding and so our Conclusion is more modest We are now coming to lower Times to the Catholick Times of Popery And Religion holds very good still and runs â—…lear but there 's no help for it he must tilt it or it will run Dregs in the Reformation The Inhabitants of this Island says he have not been more famous for Martial Prowess than for Sincere Piety and Devotion For Polydore Virgil an Italian and Erasmus a Dutchman both of the Roman Communion and therefore be sure competent Witnesses affirm there was more true Devotion and Sincerity of Religion in this Church than in any one place of the World besides Auditum admissi Risum teneatis I have known a sober Horse break Bridle upon a far less provocation We will for once to gratifie this Enquirers longing suppose that there was more true Piety and sincere Devotion amongst the English Papisis than among the Albigenses and Waldâ—…nses than in 〈◊〉 or wherever else the Gospel had begun to dawne but that I 〈◊〉 Virâ—…il and Erasmus should be competent Witnesses and thâ—…refore competent Witnesses because of the Roman Communion does a little â—…tumble me and that because it has ever been as the 〈◊〉 so the Religious Practise of those in Communion with Rome to Magnifie those in Communion with Her and as much to depretiate the Holiness of all those that had once withdrawn themselves from her corruptions The Argument such as it is proceâ—…ds thus They that were of the Roman Communion must needâ—… be 〈◊〉 competent witnesses of
to tell you how Panlinus Bishop of Nela calls him the great Light set upon the Candlestick of the Church or how Prosper gives him the Character of a very sharp Wit clear in his Disputations Catholick in his Expositions of the Faith But to what purpose should we control him with inferior Evidences after that of a Pope or to what end Subpoena our little Witnesses after these Grandees For surely he that will break Austins Pate will not fear to dash out Prospers Brains § 5. Another Branch of this endless Indictment is That being hard put to it by the Manichees on the one hand and the Pelagians on the other he was not able to extricate himself Se in illas Ambages induxit ut non invenerit qua se extricaret You see I hope that if ever we should want an able Head to translate Grotius into English our Enquirer is the Man Never was poor Man so bewildred so sadly intangled in the Bryers as this Austin between the Manichâ—…an fatal Necessity and the Pelagian Contingency one while he 's just a splitting upon the Seylla of Free-will and whilst he goes a Point or two too near the wind he 's ready to be swallow'd up of the desperate Gulf of Stoical Necessity I shall say no more let the Reader seriously peruse St. Austins Works and when he has done study this Enquirers Volumes and by that time he may be satisfied whether all his Rhetorick and Confidence will make him a competent Judge of St. Austins Learning § 6. His Conclusion of his Charge is That he was rather forced into his Opinions than made choice of them Hâ—… whose Tongue is his own may employ it how he pleases but this slander carries its Consutation as well as its Confidence in its Forehead 'T is as if we should conclude That Men become Enemies because they have shed one anothers Blood whereas most think they wound and shed one anothers Blood because they were first Enemies It was the Zeal of this Learned and Holy Person for the cause of God that put him upon Study that drew him out in the open Field against the open Enemies of the Grace of God who might otherwise have slept secure in a whole skin Dispute cleared up Truths to him but he was not forced from any or into any I shall conclude this Head with that of Bradwardine another famous Champion in the same Cause with Austin Eccè enim quod non nisi tactus dolore Cordis refero sicutâ—…lim contra unum Dei Prophetam octingenti quinquag inta Prophetae Real similâ—…s reperti sunt quibus innumerabilis populus adhaerebat Ita hodiè in hâc causâ Quot O Domine hodiè cum Pelagio pro libero Arbitrio contra gratuitam gratiam tuam pugnant contra Paulum Pugilem gratiae specialem Exurge ergo Domine sustine protege robora consolare seis enim quod nusquam virtute mei sed tuâ consisus tantillus aggredior tantam causam Behold which I cannot mention without griâ—…f of Heart as of old against one Prophet of God eight hundred and fifty of the Prophets of Baal and such like were found to whom a great multitude of People did adhere so in this Cause How many O Lord at this day contend for Freewill with Pelagius against thy free Grace and against St. Paul that Famous Champion of Grace Arise therefore O Lord uphold defend strengthen comfort me for thou knowest that not trusting to my own strength but thine so weak a Combatant has engaged in so great a Cause ¶ 2. His second assault is against the Synod of Dort A Task as needless as the Answer itself and such as will not quit for cost for having already routed Austin this poor Synod must fall in course with him and be buried under his Ruines That it was a Dutch Synod I cannot deny Dort is and always was in the Province of Holland and therefore to pare off as much needless Controversie as may be let him Triumph in our Concession and make his best on 't The Synod of Dort was a Dutch Synod That England was not within the Iurisdiction of Dort I shall easily admit Nay I can be contend that it be exempâ—…ed from the Popes Westâ—…rn Patriarchate if Grotius B. Branâ—…hal and some others would agree to it The Question then is How far the Church of England was or is concerned in at Agreement with or obliged by the Decrees thereof That King Iames sent thither several of his most Learned and Eminent Divines premunited with an Instrument and ther by impowred to sit hear debate conclude upon those Arduous Points that should be brought before them I think is not denied but by those who deny there ever was any such Synod That they did according to their Instructions go thither sit there debate upon and at last subscribe to the determinations of that Convention is also out of dispute If their subscription did not formerly oblige the Nation yet it evidently proves what was the Iudgment of the Nation Nor do I think it had been for the Honour of this Church to have been of that Religion because those Delegates had subscribed but they therefore subscribed because they were in their own Judgments conformable to that of the Church of the Religion and Judgment of the Council There had been formerly one Barâ—… in the University of Cambridge who delivered himself some what broadly in favour of the Arminian Novelties Hereupon the Heads of that University sent up Dr. Whitaker and Dr. Tyndall to A. B. Whitguift that by the interposition of his Authority those errours might be crush'd in the Egge which were but New-laid as yet and not hatch'd in the bosom of this Church The Zealous Prelate presently convenes some of the most Judicious Divines of his Province and Nov. 10. 1595. by their Advice draws up the Lambeth Articles coming up to if not going beyond the Dordrectan Creed Forthwith he transmits these Articles to his Brother of the other Province the A. B. of York who receives and approves them So that now we have the Primate of England and the Primate of All England owning more than virtually the Decrees of that Synod and surely two such persons so learned as having been both of them Professors of Divinity in the University and of so great Power in the Church must be presumed if any to understand the true meaning of the 39 Articles in the Five Controverted Points After all this King Iames allows the inserting them into the Articles of the Church of Ireland and it were some what difficult to believe that a Prince so wise and learned would allow that Doctrine for Orthodox in one of his Kingdoms which was reputed Heretical in the other unless we will say they were erroneous at home but purged themselves like French-Wines at Sea by crossing St. Georges Channel or that the malignity or latent poison of them was suck'd out by the sanative Complexion of
a Padlock upon 't so stuffed with Pen and Ink-horn Terms that it was almost as intelligible in Latin the same contumely does our Enquirer pour out upon the Articles of the Church which were the most famous Testimony that then for many Years nay Ages had been given to the Truth of the Gospel I conclude then that he must be very immodest that can entertain a thought so unworthy the Learning Religion and sincetity of our first Reformers which were their greatest Ornaments as they were of their Times and the Articles the greatest glory of them both I know it 's an easie matter to draw up a Proposition so dubiously that the greatest Dissenters may subscribe it but what is the advantage of such dawbing Policy Peace or Unity of Judgment Some Men indeed have got a Worm in their Pates and they fancy this an expedient for these ends but there 's no such matter for the Subscribers in this Case do not bow their jugdments to the Articles but gently bend the Articles to their judgment It 's not the Bank that moves to the Boat but the Boat that moves to the Bank and each Party thinks it self the stronger because it can draw in the obsequious Articles to abet their opinioons When therefore he insinuates that they of the Calâ—…inistical perswasion in subscribing the Articles are forced to use Scholastick Subtleties to reconcile their opinions to them we entreat them to use Scholastick Subâ—…leties who are of the other judgment to reconcile the Articles to their opinions and they will find all too little unless they borrow a Point or two of Conscience first to resolve to subscribe and then defend it afterwards as well as they can And when he intimates that they were only some few Divines of this Church that used this expedient we know well that till the appearance of the late A. B. Laud the generality of this Church were of the Dort perswasion Arminianism has been openly declared Schism Arminius himself an Enemy to the Grace of God by our greatest and most Learned Princes and the greatest of our Church-Men have declared against it as a stranger and enemy to our Church But all this as I observ'd was brought in to vilifie the Synod of Dort and that eminently Learned and Holy Person St. Austin whose Credit whilst the Enquirer would wound he shall but like the Viper in the Fable Break his own Teeth and never hurt the impregnable Steel 2. A second pretended Objection against the Church is That it is not sufficiently purged from the Dross of Romish Superstitions It 's a marvelous advantage to him that challenges another to fight if he may prescribe and impose the Weapon this Authority has our Enquirer and some of his Camerades arrogated as peculiar to themselves that they may put what objections they please into the Mouths of Dissenters For though they cannot in the largest Charity acquit a Party neither considerable for Number or solid Learning which yet by noise and Pragmaticalness and some other Artifices have vested themselves with the Name of the Church yet they are ready to clear the Articles of the Church from Popery and Arminianism I intend those alone who would obtrude a meaning upon the Doctrine as if it impugned particular Election Original Sin and asserted Free-will Iustification by our own Works and the rest of those Points whereof some mention has been made In the first of Car. I. The House of Commons exhibited Articles against one Mr. Richard Mountague the 5th of which was thus And whereas in the 17th of the said Articles it is Resolved That God hath certainly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from Curse and Damnation those whom he hath chosen out of Mankind in Christ and to bring them by Christ to Everlasting salvation wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a Benefit be called according to Gods purpose working in due time they through Grace obey that calling they be justified freely walk Religiously in good works and at last by Gods mercy attain to Everlasting Felicity He the said Richard Mountague 〈◊〉 the said Book called The Appeal doth affirm and maintain that men justified may fall away from that state which once they had Thereby laâ—…ing a most malicious scandal upon the Church of England as if he did differ herein from the Reformed Churches in England and thâ—… Reformed Churches beyond the Seas and did Consent unto those pernicious Errours commonly called Arminianism which the late famous Q. Eliz. and K. James of happy memory did so piously and Religiously labour to suppress And farther they charge him That the scope and end of his Book was to give â—…ncouragement to Popery and to withdraw his Majesties Subjects frrom the True Religion establisht From whence we have gained this Point that that Doctrine which denies Perseverance in them that were once Justified doth abet Arminianism and therein draw near Popery But if these men might expound the Articles they would deny the one and abet the other and therefore do draw too near Popery Hereupon Dissenters have a warrant under his own Hand to withdraw from the Church for says he p. 8. If the charge of drawing too near the Church of Rome were true or if it were probable it would justifie their separation from it In 5 Caroli I. The House of Commons made this protestation Whosoever shall bring in Innovation of Religion or by Favour or Countenance seâ—…k to extend Popery or Arminianism or other Opinion disagreeing from the truth or Orthodox Church shall be Reputed a Capital Enemy to this Kingdom and Common-wealth And so close has the connexion between Popery and Arminianism ever been adjudged that the Jusuites who throughly understand their Interest and the most proper and suitable means to promote it hâ—…ve pâ—…ht upon This as the best expedient to introduce That for 〈◊〉 â—…s in that Triumphant Letter of theirs to their Rector at 〈◊〉 they express themselves Now we have planted that Soveraign Drug of Arminianism which will purge the Protestants of their Heresie and it flourishes and brings forth fruit in due season Whence we are taught both our Disease and our Remedy The Disease under which poor England laboured was Protestancy the Remedy was the Iesuites powder or a round Dose of Arminianism which is it seems a specifick purger of that Humour That the Divines of this Church did formerly maintain a just suspicion that the Opinions of Conditional Election and falling away totally from Grace were an In-let to Popery we need no other evidence then that Letter written by the University of Cambridge to their Chancellor upon the occasion of Barrets and Baro's preaching up such like novelties It was dated March 8. 1595. If say they passage be admitted to these Errours the whole Body of Popery will break in upon us by little and little to the overthrow of all Religion And therefore they humbly beseech his Lordships good Aid and Assistance for the suppressing
English Clergy which he intimates p. 39. That the motives and invitations of the most judicious Clergy to undertake the work viz. the charge os the flock is from the most liberal maintenance 7. Whether the healing of the Clergies Poverty will not cure them of their Laboriousness in Preaching and whether doubling the Revenues will not single the Sermons I have read of a poor Vicar that being taken notice of by the Bishop for an industrious Preacher to encourage him in his work he gave him a good bulkie Parsonage but observing that he began presently to slacken his pace and come to once a day he sends for him expostulates the Case with him why he should work less now he had more Wages to whom he answered ingenuously Parvâ—… lâ—…quuntur Curae ingentes sâ—…upent 8. Whether it was advisedly spoken by our Enquirer to compare a Ministers Condescension to his scrupulous people in the matter of Ceremonies to Esau's selling his Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage for if the Minister should happen to cut short his Common Service to gratifie his Patron in hopes of a Dinnâ—…r the worst he can make of it is that he fells a Mess of Pottage for a Sunday-Pudding And if a Ministers Birth-right consist in Rites and Ceremonies he that gives a Mess of Pottage for it will certainly buy it too dear 3. The third cause is the late Wars And for proof hereof he will desire the Reader to look no further back then the late Wars between this Kingdom and the States of the Low-Countries But why no further back we used to be lead back as far as the late Civil Wars but our Enquirer was better advised then his Reader perhaps is aware of It had not been safe to follow truth too near the Heels least it should have dasht out his Teeth But into what a perplexed Dilemma has he brought the Church of England If we have Peace with Holland and therewith Trade and Commerce then comes in all the new fangled Commodities Ceremonies and Rites of forreign growth exotick Customs jack-in-a-boxes If we have War with them then the Reins of Government are remiss and Non-conformity grows apace for that says he the Contempt of Religion is greater and the state of the Church worse at the end then the beginning of thâ—…se Wars Could we but onderstand the mystery that lurks under that word Religion and that Iâ—…rgon and Cypher the state of the Church we might easily return an Answer By Religion then understand Ceremony by the state of the Church understand its power to crush and ruine all that comply not with those Ceremonies and then it 's very true that Wars are a great Enemy to Religion Every thing is so far to be reputed evil as it crosses and so far good as it advances the Trade of Ceremonies and Impositions If Navigation and Merchandise be Essential to the flourishing state of the Nation yet if they stand in the way of Ceremonies damn them as Schismatical and Wars and Blood-shed and the beggering of the Nation if they would but promote Ceremonies were amongst the choicest desirables However the remedy is cheap and easie 'T is but parting with the Flag the Soveraignty of the Sea which our Enemies would have perswaded us were but a Cerâ—…mony the fishery the East-India Trade and perhaps two or three more such inconsiderable necessaries and we might have secured our Innocent Ceremonies and the Church-men swagger'd over the Consciences of Dissenters He that has a mind to interpose in a discourse of Wars may possibly get a broken Pate for his pains otherwise the Valour of the English Nation has so justified it self in our Naval Engagements that it needs not be ashamed to look back upon its behaviour but I shall only observe as I pass on these few things 1. That the Ecclesiastical Histories observe to our hand that the Wars between the Emperour and the Persians proved a means to check those persecutions which the Arians raised against the Orthodox And if the great Governour of the World will over-rule publick Calamities to render the condition of persecuted Christians tolerable we have the more reason to admire his powerful wisdom who out of so great an Evil could extract so great a Good 2. I must call to mind one of our Enquirers grave sentences ubi solitudinem feccrunt pacem vocant That which some men count Peace is nothing but havock and desolation Like some great Enclosers who having depopulated all about them and left nothing but the bare Ribs and naked Skeleton of sometimes flourishing Farms bless themselves that they are 〈◊〉 from the noise of the obstreperous Carters Thus when our Ecclesiastical projectors shall have ruined Trade routed the Conscientious and forced peaceable Dissenters into deserts beggar'd Corporations those Nests of Schism they may applaud themselves for profound States-men that they have wrought out their own Ease with the miseries of the People 3. Wars may reasonably contribute something to a just and well bounded Liberty of Conscience for how could a Prince expect his Subjects should hazard their lives in his righteous cause and quarrel and open their Purses wide to maintain the War when either they must lose them in his Service or if they return having survived apparent dangers be trampled upon at home by those who have all the while sat still at ease wrapt up in warm Furr and security There 's no great difference whether a man be slain by chain-shot or a single Bullet And yet a generous Spirit would accept is as moreEligible to meet a noble death in the Field fighting for his Prince and Countrey then to languish and pine away an inglorious Life in servitude under Ecclesiastical Impositions 4. If the effects of War were lamented as letting in Debauchery and Prophaneness tolerating immoralities antiquating the practice of Religion we should mourn with him that thus mourns But when we shall have an Oration of the Evils of the War and at last the great one is that it makes people not so fond of Ceremonies whereas Peace and Prosperity multiplies them it 's enough to make a people entertain thoughts less evil of the one and less honourable of the other for thus the Spartans made the lives of the People so intolerable in Peace that they might more readily engage in Wars abroad And indeed such mis-representations of the reasons of things have made the World desire like the Salamander â—…ar for its Element that they might not dwell in the hotter fire â—…f Persecution in a more moderate Climate called Peace for a Person of Honour that in defence of his Country has come up to the mouth of a Canon and come off with renown to be slain by an Ecclesiastical Canon would make him resent his fall with regret and dying bite the ground 4. The fourth and indeed the greatest cause of all these mischiefs is a pestilent evil known by the name of Trade This Kingdom of Great Britain is an Island
That whatever success this Church has had in its Ministry upon the Souls of Men is due to those fundamental Truths and Doctrines of the Christian Faith which she obtains in Common with the Reformed Churches On the other side The Roman Faction persecutes and undermines this Church upon grounds equal to all the Reformed Churches and this Church is angry at least with Dissenters for those matters wherein she seems to approach too near Roman corruption 2. We come now to the Atheists A Generation so abominable of whom we may yet say as was said of the Astrologers in old Rome Hec genus hominum semper vetabatur semper in urbe nostrâ retinebitur A people always banished yet never departed from the City such a Tribe are these Atheists Every one has a hard word for them yet many entertain them you shall not meet with a Man in a Thousand but will liberally tail atâ—… damned Machiavellian policy which yet according to the proportion of their little wit they strive to imitaâ—…e which tempt me to think thâ—… they hate not so much his Knavery as they â—…epine at their ownfâ—…lly and judge not his politicks so evil as they are vext thaâ—… they cannot equallize him That they Nibble at his principles because they cannot reach his Wit It is but a slender evidence that another is in the right because Atheists are so grosly wrong And yet to declaim against Atheism has these considerable Advantages First some think they may be securely Atheistical themselves if they can but flourish with a few ingenious Sentences against them and a witty Libel against such is a sufficient Purgation for him that has a Talent to expose the rest of Religion Secondly it 's a plausible Argument that that Religion must needs 〈◊〉 excellent that has the worst of Men for its Enemies and they must certainly be adjudged worthy persons who are so Zealous against such Impiety what Man of Charity would suspect Irreligion to wear the Cloak of fâ—…rvency against Atheism And yet it 's common to hear it hotly prosecuted in the Pulpit by some who come warm from that Sâ—…rvice to the practise of it I dare 〈◊〉 it to the judgement of the impartial world whether he be not a â—…in to a practical one who disputes for a God and then tears Men in pâ—…eces for worshippinâ—… â—…im according to the best Light they can get from Scripture anâ—…â—…ature And in 〈◊〉 a manner as wherâ—… 〈◊〉 they caâ—… find no 〈◊〉 but that 't is not their â—…on and pâ—…ly was their own toâ—… not many years since and prâ—…ly had â—…een so still had they not been purchased into a better There are Three Questions here to be resâ—…ved What Atheism is Whence it comes And wherein does it oppose the Church and contribute to a separation from it 1. What Atheism is and who is the Aâ—…st And this is as needfuâ—… an Enquiry aâ—… any of those 〈◊〉 wherewith hâ—… tormenced us in the â—…ast Chapter I assure the Reâ—…der It is a word of a Volatile Nature and Versatile Signification as any that gives us trouble with its double meaning In Germany an Atheist once signiâ—…ed a Person that medled with the Popâ—…s Mitâ—…r 〈◊〉 the Monks fat Bellies Epicâ—…s of old some think was 〈◊〉 with Atheism because he could not swallow Polyâ—…heisme â—…t home some conclude he must be an Atheist that sâ—…ruples the Ius Divinum of Tyâ—…hes And if he shall detein a Tyâ—… Pig he is a Sacrilegious Atheist to boot Formerly it border'd upon Atheiâ—…m to have denied the Divine Right of Episcopacy but I see one may question that now and yet be a Christian What then an Atheist is I shall leave to the Industry of this Enquirer 2. But from whence this Atheism should proceed is a Question that has been so fully Answered by a Learned and Honourable Pen of latâ—… I shall not need to repeat any thing Yet this is obvious That when Preachers Preach against Preaching their Auditors may easily stumble into a belief that what they Preach is not much material to be believ'd when they had rather it should not be Preach'd at all than not under their Formalities If ever I should hear a Tradesman bitterly inveigh against Trading that it never was a good World since there was so much Trading that we never had peace since we had Markets twice a week that there can be no peace or settlement expected so long as Men may lay out their Money and buy their Goods where they pleased let such a one be dealt with as severely as the Enemies of Trade can wish I shall not plead his Cause To this if we shall adde that when the World takes notice that they who are called the Men of God and are therefore supposed to know most of him to be most like him and to represent him 〈◊〉 their lives as a Holy Merciful Tender and Gracious God aâ—… they present him in their Doctrine shall yet with unwearied fury prosecute Men to Poverty Pâ—…ison and Grave meerly for noncomâ—…lyance in those things which themselves have invented they give great occasion to Atheistical inclinations to say in their Hearts As good believe no God as one so cruel and unmerciful as his own 〈◊〉 reprâ—…sent him to us 3. But the last is the most important Question How or wherein does Atheism under 〈◊〉 the Church or contribute to separation from it That Atheism does oppose all Religion as such was never doubted in that it takes away the great Principle pre-suppâ—…sed to all Religion That there is a God but how it does particularly oppose the Church of England so far as she differs from others is I conceive the present Question It is somewhat difficulâ—… to imagine that they who have put off Humanity should scruple to put on anâ—… gatâ—… of obtaining Conformity They who have renounced onâ—… God will easily own a Thousand Ceremonies what were it to them iâ—… all the Numerous Rites of Rome were introduced could they but get the sense of a Deity obliteraâ—…ed out of their Consciences that they might sin without the stings and twinges of an approaching Judgment which is the prefection they aim aâ—… Their Heaven has no God in it their Hell no Devil in it It must be a strange Imposition which an Atheistical Throat cannot swallow he that is of no Religion as I said can subscribe to any Religion to which those Principles are very cognate which are contrived to avoid persecution under all Forms and Constitutions How therefore they should be such grand Enemies to Conformity I wait to be resolved 1. The Atheists says he will not set thâ—…ir 〈◊〉 against a Fanatick they must have higher Game By this Argument our Enquirer has demonstrated himself to be no Atheist yet I would not have him trust much to it I suppose too they have found higher Game than Ceremonies when they open their black mouths against God himself 2. They inflame the Causes of Divisions provoke Mens Passions
then of the common People That it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Hydra with many Heads ann â—…er iâ—… noâ—…e of â—…hem 〈◊〉 Consliuâ—… vel Ratio vel 〈◊〉 vei Dâ—…gentia so saith â—…is Compâ—…re the great Roman Orator But I admire hâ—… thesâ—… Mâ—…n of Wit and Iudgement would live â—…f the People wâ—…om they so undervaluâ—… as not worthy to wipe their Shâ—… dâ—…d not Moil and Toil and Plow and Sowe and Spiâ—… that they might lie at ease arrayed like Solomon in â—…ll his Glory The method of our Enquirer in managing this business is this First he will 〈◊〉 to the purpose then a little nearer to the purpose and lâ—…t of all close home to the purpose 1. That which he says to the purpose is this When weakpersons judge of the Determinations and Counsels of wiser men and those that pierce no further then the meer surface of things pasâ—… a Veâ—…dict upon those whose Iudgements are profound and deep there â—…n no good issue be expected The Vulgar indeed do not wear the Head-pieces of States men nor the Helmets of Commanders they have no need for and therefore no â—…st of them they pretend to no Authority to inspect the secrets of State to dive into the Intrigues and Mysteries of Government but yet under correction they are a deâ—…ree removed from Beasts and pretend and plead a right to judge of their own Actions as they are accountable to the Divine Majesty They are not concern'd to enquire upon what reasons the Legislators shall bring in a Law but they are concern'd to enquire into the Lawfulness of the thing that they may give a more Humane chearful and rational Obedience Understand me in things especially relating to the immediate Service of God and their Acceptance with him therein In other things they can part â—…ith thâ—…r â—…n Right and though the Command should provâ—… unrighteous they may righteously submit but in matters of Religion they ought to be conducted by more manly Arguments Gods Worship is a Service reasonable and if I must not use my Reason there to judge of its lawfulness it had been an Advantage to be made what some would make us â—…rutes for as he that has lost his smell has this to comfort himself withal that as he enjoys not the satisfaction of the worlds perfâ—…mes so he is not tormented with its Stinks Thus though the Beasts have not the contentment of enâ—…anchised Reason so they are discharged the cumber and torment which necessarily arises from restraint put upon the dictates of Right Reason I shall never therefore reconcile the contradictions of those who cry up a Rational Clergy and yet at the same time revile a Rational Laity There was once one Virgilius Bishop of Saltzburgh that held an odd Opinion that there were Antipodes the Pope it seems suspecting some dreadful Heretical pravity to lurk under that uncouth Opinion convenes condemns executes him for a downright Heretick Our Enquirer protests He can by no means commend the Zeal of the Bishop It s like there was some of that popular rashness and iniudiciousâ—…ss in it but what would â—…e have had the poor honest man hâ—…e done Suâ—…scribe that twice two make fâ—…ve and 〈◊〉 or against â—…athematical Demonstration swear and dâ—…clare That the Globâ—… of the Earth has no Dismeter I grant â—…hat weak persons 〈◊〉 we are all so weak ought to suspect themselves and give very much to the Counsels and Reasâ—…ns of wiser men But to deny our Reason in its most easie velitations and familiâ—…r instances for fear of being Schismaticks or causing Distractions is but a Whimsey or a Wind-mill got into some mens Heads and as it came in so let it come out again at its leisure But this example of Virgilius was unto vardly applyed for if the good Bishop had on his side Demonstration against Papal dâ—…termination as it proves that thâ—… private reason may be more Orthodox then the publick so I dare refer it to any ordinary Bâ—…dy to judge whether in case any Distraâ—…tions or Separations had followed in the Church thereon the Pope or the Bishop had been the Culpable cause of thâ—…m The latter for asserting that which was simply impossible should be otherwise or the former for executing hiâ—… as an Heretick for not denying a demonstrablâ—… verity 2. But now he will come nearer to the purpose I assure him he had need for hitherto we have been a filthy way off It s an Obâ—…rvation not more ancienâ—… then true That the same thing seldom pleases the many and the few And a wise Observation it was whoever first observed it to the World I once heard a Grave 〈◊〉 in the Pulpit after all the Civil Prefaces of the Learning Piety and Orthodox of that Father quote St. Austin for such another Observation not more Ancient then true Omnes homines sunt pecâ—…atores All the Question here will be whether the many or the feâ—… are more probable to be in the Right Oh no doubt the few for the many are the People the Vulgar why then I refer it again whether popular Iudgement can be the Cause or Reason of Non-conformity when the many are infallibly of that Religion which the Law allows and encourages and the few ever of that way which is discouraged and persecuted But says he wise men generally take middle Counsels That was indeed a little nearer the purpose if not too near for hence the World will discern that many Church-men are none of the wisest who are all for high-flying or high-trotting Counsels But what are those middle Counsels He tells us in the Instance of Erasmus who was the Glory of his Time and Countrey for the sagacity of his Wit and simplicity of his Temper and he indeed hung in the middle between Popery and Protestantism or as some say between Heaven and Hell so that hence we learn another secret what are those middle Counsels which wise men would take if occasion served but then I doubt the many and not the few would entertain those middle Counsels I meet with this moderation the word at every Corner but moderation the thing is as greâ—…t a rarity as Candour moderation in Ceremonies that 's a Vice hence we hear of these famous Sermons Conformity according to canon justified and the new way of moderation reproved A Sermon preached at Exon ir the Cathedral of St. Peter At the Visitation of the Right Reverend Father in God Anthony This is that moderation our Enquirer attacques so briskly p. 25. charging the best of Clergy-men with debauching their Office and undermining the Church but now to be moderate like Erasmus between Canterbury and Rome that 's your commendable Temper And such a Religion did Calvin fear like the Interim of Germany the Articles of Hâ—…n 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Zeno the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Heracliâ—…s the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Constance Such a one as was too high for this World and too low for
he so rested from his Labours that he made no other Creatures then he made before He made no other Creatures afterwards but whatsoever he made he makes them every year to the end of all time He createth men in their Souls and Bodies living Creatures and Beasts without Souls The Soul of Man is given by God and he renews his Creatures as Christ saith in the Gospel My Father worketh hitherto and I work Christ suffered for us in the sixth Age of the World and on the sixth day and reformed lost Man by his Sufferings and the Miracles which he wrought He rested in the Sepulchre on the Sabbath-day and Sanctified the Lords-day by his Resurrection for the Lords-day is the first day of the New World and the day of the Resurrection of Christ and therefore it is Holy and we ought to be his spiritually keeping a Sabbath-day Sabbatum Sabbatizantes Leg. Presbyt Northumbr Mereaturam in Die solis exercere Curias allicubi celebrare prohibemus opus etiam quodlibet omnimodam vectionem sive in plaustris sive in equis sive in aliis oneribus ferendis Qui contra hoc deliquerit solvat We forbid any to Trade or keep open Courts on the Sunday and also all other work whatsoever and all manner of Carriages whether with Carts or Horses or in bearing any other Burdens he that transgresses this Decree shall pay nisi sit viator necessitate compulsus vel ob cibi inopiam aut ex causâ—… evitandi mimicos Except he be a Traveller compelled by necessity either by the want of Food or to avoid the Enemies Reader whether this be Judaism or no I shall leave to thy more sedate judgement but it is a mighty strong temptation rather to be one of those old Iews then one of the new Christians Leg. Eccles Canut An. Christi 1032. Die quidem Dominico mercata concelebrari Populive conventus Agi nisi stagitante necessitate planissimè vetamus Ipso Die sacrosancto praetereà à venationibus opere terreno prorsus omni Quisque abstineto We do absolutely forbid all Markets and Assemblies of the People to be kept on the Lords-day except in case of urgent necessity and moreover Let every one refrain from Hunting and from all other earthly business upon that sacred day A little now for diversion let us step over the Seas and look into the temper of the times under the Reign of Charles the Great Statuimus secundum quod Dominus in lege praecepit ut Opera Servilia diebus Dominicis non Agantur sicut bonae memoriae Genitor meus Pipinus in suis Synodallbus edictis mandavit i. e. Quod nec viri Ruralia opera exerceant nec in vineâ colendà nec in campo Arando vel foenum secando vel sepem ponendo vel in sylvis stirpare vel arbore caedere vel in Petris laborare nec comus construere nec hortum laborent nec ad placita conveniant nec venationem exerceant We ordain as also the Lord hath commanded in the Law that no servile works be done on the Lords-day As also our Father of happy memory in his Synodal Edicts hath commanded that is to say That Men neither exercise the labours of their Farms neither in dressing Vineyards nor in Plowing nor in Mowing Grass or in laying a Hedge or to grub up or cut down Trees or to labour in Quarries or to build a House or to order a Garden or to hold pleas or to practice Hunting Item foeminae opera Textilia non exerceant nec Capillent vestitús non consuant vel Acupictile faciant nec lanam Carpere nec linum battere nec publicè vestimenta lavare nec verveces tondere habeant licitum ut omnimodis Honor Requres diei Dominicae servetur Let not Women practice Weaving let them not take pains about their Hair nor mend their Cloaths nor work Needle-work or Point nor Card Wool nor Heckle Flax nor wash Cloaths openly nor Shear Sheep That the Honour and Rest of the Lords-day may by all means be secured Const. Carol. M. fol. 32 It will be time now to draw to a conclusion when I have noted § 1. It looks like a piece of great disingenuity to Bait Dissenters like Jews for the indifferent use of the word Sabbath because not found in the New Testament and at the same time to worry them with Barking words and Biting penalties for not practising upon that very day Humane Ceremonies which name and thing are perfectly strangers to the New Testament § 2. It seems so far from a next cause of Non-conformity Religiously to observe The Lords-day that it were rather an Allurement to Conformity when we observe the Church so strictly commands her Children in the Rubrick After every Commandment Kneeling to ask God mercy for their transgression of the same And if the Dissenters were of this Enquirers principles they must be obliged to be Non-conformists till the Liturgy in that particular should be Reformed § 3. It s highly disingenuous to upbraid them with the less strictness of some of the Reformed Churches abroad in this one point when they are not allow'd to vouch their principles and practices in twenty others § 4. It deserves a most serious Enquiry whether any Church did long maintain any splendour of Practical Religion that grew remiss and loose in the Consciencious Observation of the Lords-day § 5. Whether the strict and Religious attendance to the Worship of God on that Day be a cause of Non-conformity or no is uncertain but this is certain that the loose and formal observation of it has been a direct and immediate cause of that Atheism and Prophaneness and perhaps of those Iudgements which have broken in upon us § 6. It ought to be matter of serious Humiliation and Repentance both to the Conformists and Non-conformists that between them both they have suffered Piety to decline in their hands by a visible degeneracy from the strictness of former time in Sanctifying Gods name on his Holy-day § 7. It ought to be considered That they who of late times have written against the Divine Right of that day have yet spoken so honourably of and pleaded for the Holy use of the day as will justifie greater Reverence to the day then I fear the Non-conformists are guilty of The Learned Brerewood Tract 1. p. 47. I confess It is meet that Christians should on the Lords-day abandon all wordly affairs and dedicate it wholly to the Hunour of God The B. of Ely p. 255. Devout Christians who are so piously affected as that on the Lords-days and other Holy-days they do resolve to retire and sequester themselves from secular business and ordinary pleasures and delights to the end they may more freely attend the Service of Christ and Apply their Minds to Spiritual and Heavenly Meditations are to be commended and encouraged for the doing thereof is a work of Grace and Godliness and acceptable to God § 8. It would be
His third proof is taken from the loveliness of Unity It 's not says he the sublimity of Christian Doctrine nor the gloriousness of the Hopes it propounds that will so recommend it to the opinion and â—…steen of beholders as when it shall be said Ecce ut Christiani Amant when they shall observe the Love Concord and Unanimity amongst the Professors of it The Enquirer has here stumbled at unawares upon the formal reason of Schism or sinful separation which lies not in the variety of Opinions or differing practices modes or forms of Worship but in a want of true love and charity That which renders Christianity truly beautiful and amiable in the Eyes of Beholders is that it teaches the Professors thereof to love one another with a pure heart frvently though under different perswasions as to Modes of Divine Worship and Discipline That their hearts are larger to receive one anothers persons then their heads are to conceive one anothers notions But yet as he is a fond Lover that chuses his Wife by the Eye for the symmetry of her external frame or cloathing of wrought Gold rather then those virtues which adorn the Soul so he that chuses his Religion by Sense and not by Faith will make a most lamentable bargain He that falls in love with Christs Church upon External Allurements and Extrinsick Motives will either repent or quit his choice when she is persecuted her outward frame discomposed her order violated the Shepherd smitten and the Sheep scatter'd whereas he that espouses Religion for those invisible glories which she propounds and keeps in his steady eye the recompence of reward will adhere to his choice when she is most black and the Sun of Persecution has too familiarly looked upon her But I shall not need to trouble my self or the Reader with any more of these fine Arguments Schism is an evil whether he be angry at it or no. And separation may be good whether he be pleased or no All the Question will be that seeing there is an apparent separation found amongst us from the Political Church of England and supposing that there is sin one where or other where the guilt of it ought to lye The Enquirer has spoken a great deal of Truth in in a few words That some have found pleasure to get that Child which they would by no means have laid at their own doors A successful piece of Villany it is which sometimes passes for a virtue for the Fathers who have begot these Brats to expose them to be kept and maintained at the cost of the poor innocent Parish And if we might guess at the true Father by the Childs Physiognomy All the divisions which have so heavily charged the Churches having sprung from Ceremonies from needless Impositions from unnecessary Terms of Communion They who take such pleasure to beget thâ—… one may be presumed to have been the Grand-fathert of the other If yet there be any controversie depending whose the Child is The Enquirer recommends to us the Wisdom of Solomon for discovering the True Mother and because we know Partus sequitur ventum if we can once find out the Damm we shall make her confess the Sire It was the early proof says he Solomon gave of his Wisdom in discovering the true Mother of the living Child to which both the Litigants laid equal claim I confess his illustration proceeds hitherto but very oddly for there the quarrel was who should have the Child and be reputed the true Mother but with us all the controversie is who shall be discharg'd of it but all similitudes do not run of four Leggs and it 's very well if this will hop on one observe how he lays both ends of his discourse together As that wise Prince discovered the true Mother by the tenderness of her Bowels towards the Infant so we may perhaps discover the true Children of the Church by their respect and tenderness to her Ay just so no doubt Even as the Wheelbarrow rumbles over the Pebbles so a Thumb-rope of Sand will make an excellent 〈◊〉 for Fishers folly The comparison would run a little more naturally and regularly thus As the true Mother was discerned by the tenderness of her Bowels towards the Infant who would rather part with her right then that her bleeding Eye should ever see her Child divided so we may perhaps discover the true Mother of the Church by her condescending and relenting pity who would rather wave her claims and resign her right in some lesser instances then ever endure to see the body of Christ divided by a Schismatical Dichotomy And as the Harlot notwithstanding all her pretences bewrayed her self to the discerning eye of that Judicious Prince who could be content the Child should rather dye then she lose her moyety so will she evidence her self to be a Stepmother Church which peremptorily insists upon a pretended right to Impâ—…se at the Peril of the Churches Peace rather then by waving those pretences save the endangered Church from imminent destruction but some mens Allegories are never so excellent as when they are impertinent or non sense and I presume he found this Allusion in the Wisdom of Solomon in the Apocryphal Writings We are come at length to the Question what is the true notion of Schism A point that deserves to be handled with the greatest exactness for upon the True stating hereof the issue of the whole controversie depends His notion or definition of Schism is this Schism is a voluntary departure or separation of ones self without just cause given from that Christian Church whereof he was once a Member Or Schism is a breach of that Communion wherein a man might have continued without sin I shall not need to find faults or pick holes in this definition they will offer themselves as he opens the Terms only I observe 1 That it offends against one of the sacred Laws of Definition which ought to be most religiously and inviolably preserved Definitiones debent cum Definito reciprocari The Definition ought to be convertible with the thing defined And that this is not so is evident because there may be a Schism where there is no separation from External Communion There is a Schism in a Church as wel as from a Church The Churches Garment may be rent and yet not rent in two Thus the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. 18. When ye come together in the Church I hear there are Divisions amongst you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ch 12. v. 25. That there may be no Schism in the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Definition which is as narrow as his Charity and leaves out those who ought â—…o be taken in must necessarily be stark naught 2 This definition is very short in expressing that which is indeed the Poison and Venom the formal Reason of all Schismatical departure viz. the want of Charity and true Evangelical Love for he that departs from a Society yet loves the real Christians
therein and the Society it self so far as it is a Church of Christs institution only he loves his own Soul with a more intense love and accordingly makes the best provision for it he can and would rejoyce that others would accept of the same advantages ought not to be called a Schismatick but if they who pretend to a power to stamp what significations they please upon words will call him so the best is no Nick-names will prejudice him in the sight of that God who searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins As Heresie is opposed to the Faith so Schism is opposed to Love and Heresie and Schism are distinguisht by those things to which each of them is opposed 3. It 's faulty for its ambiguity because he tells us not what the Christian Church is from whence the departure must be made to denominate it Schismâ—…ical If he means a particular Congregation united under its proper Pastor according to the Laws of Christ it will prove it Schismatical to depart from a Church of Non-conformists If he understands a National Church he should do well to prove that such a Church is of Christs institution but I shall wave these and many more till he has discanted upon the particulars of his own Definition § 1. I call it says he a departure or separation from the Society of the Church to distinguish it from other sins which though they are breaches of the Laws of our Religion and consequently of the Church yet are not a renunciation of the Society There may be such a person who for his wickedness deserves to be â—…ast out of the Church as being a scandal and dishonour to it yet neither separating himself nor being cast out of the Society remains still a Member of it This is indeed too true And hence it is that many Churches are so over-run with scandalous Debauchez that there 's very little difference between the impaled Garden and the wide Wilderness And perhaps was there more of this Authorative separation there would be less of that prudential separation If rotten and gangreened Members were cut off the sound would not have that necessity to provide for their own security If the Contagion were not so Epidemical there were less need to seek out for better and more wholesome Airs when an Impudent Blasphemer who out-faces the Sun the Notoriety of whose Crime needs no Dilator shall yet quietly maintain his station in a Church whilst others for not coming up to a Ceremony shall be rejected though otherwise holy and inoffensive men may make Models and Idea's of Schism to save their Credits long enough before they will be much regarded § 2. I call it says he a voluntary separation to distinguish 〈◊〉 from punishment or Schism from Excommunication Yes but he ought to have called it Voluntary upon a higher account in opposition to such departure as is made with regret and reluctancy for when a sincere Christian has used all due means to inform himself of the Truth of such a principle or the lawfulness of such a practice as may be made the Conditions of Communion with that Society when he has asked advice of God in his word when he has pray'd with David that God would open his Eyes when he has conferred with the most judicious and impartial Christians when he has humbly and modestly represented to the Pastors and Governours of that Church the suspected Condition or the innovation crept into the Church and yet can neither procure Reformation of the abuse not toleration of his particular non-complyance nor yet find satisfaction of the lawfulness of such practice he may without guilt withdraw himself from that Society nor ought this to be charged upon him as a departure having in it any thing of sinful voluntariness when a Merchant throws his Lading over-board to preserve Life I grant that he may be said willingly to throw it away because his precious life preponderates and turns the Scale of the will yet none will condemn that poor Merchant of too little affection to his Merchandise Thus when a Christian can find no rest no satisfaction to his Conscience from those suspected Conditions which in the constant exercise of his Communion do recur and shall reâ—…ede from that Society joyning himself to another where with full satisfaction of spirit he may pursue his own Edification such a one ought not to be charged with a voluntary departure nor shall it be charged upon him as such in the judgement of him that shall judge the World § 3. I call it says he a departure from a particular Church or from a part of the visible Church to distinguish it from Apostacy which is a casting of the whole Religion the name and profession of Christianity But here his definition is very Crazie and ill joynted for it ought to be defined a departure from a particular Church of Christ to distinguish it from such a Constitution as is either no particular Church of Christs institution or none so far as the separation is made from it such a one as is not united under Christs Officers nor conjoyned by Christs Ligaments Christ has taken special care that there may be no Schism in the Body 1 Cor. 12-25 And for this end he has commanded a spirit of mutual forbearance and condescension he has mingled and temper'd the body together with such exact geometrical proportion that each of the parts may care for the other for this end also he has instituted some extraordinary Officers whose work and Office was to cease with the present exigency and occasion and the ordinary whose Office and Employment as the Reasons of them were to be perpetuaI Now if any Society of Men calling themselves a Church and in the main respects being really so retaining the great Doctrines of Christianity and such Ordinances whereby Salvation is attainable shall yet put it self under other Officers then Christ has appointed and practise other Ordinances then he has instituted and make Communion with her impracticable without submitting to such Officers such Ordinances separation from that Society can be no separation from a particular Church of Christ Because though they may be such a Church in the main yet so far as the separation is made they are not so And they deny Communion with them so far as they are a Church of Christ because of non-submission to them so far as they are noâ—… a Church of Christ. § 4. I add says he those words whereof he was once a Member because Schism imports division and making two of that which was but one before So that if an Act was made to divide some of our greater Parishes which are much larger then some of the Primitive Diocesses into Two under their distinct Pastors this must be a Schism according to this famous definition for here is 1. A voluntary departure 2. From a particular Church 3. whereof once they were all Members and wherein 4. they might all have continued without
perpetuate our Divisions nor intail quarrels upon innocent posterity who are not yet imbroyled in our Contentions upon the account of those things which the Church may well spare without any eclipse of her Glory part with without Impeachment of her Wisdom leave free without prejudice to the Worship or just offence to any to the unspeakable joy of all Cooler spirits besides the infinite satisfaction that would arise to our Brethren of the Reformed Religion beyond the Seas There are three things which the Enquirer has propounded to himself to Treat of in this Chapter 1 That the Causes of Dissentions amongst us are not like those upon which we seperated from the Roman Communion We acknowledge it with all cheerfulness Yet a man may die of many other Diseases besides the Plague We Rejoyce that the Church of England has such clear grounds to justify her departure And we wish we had fewer grounds to justify ours But here for the credit of his Discourse wherein we are all equally concerned with himself I could have wish't he had not prefaced it with so foul and gross a slander It is said by some that there is as much cause for Secession from this Church now as there was from the Roman in the time of our Ancestors I only demand so much Justice from the Reader as to suspend his belief till this judicious Imputation be made good and in the mean time return thus much in Answer § 1. There may be a just Cause where there is not an equal Cause of separation There may be a great latitude in the terms of Communion and yet all injustifiable and there may be great variety in the Reasons of separation and yet all may be warrantable Had the Popes Terms been much lower they had been much too high for our Ancestors to come up to And though the Terms of this Church are lower then those of Rome yet they are something too high for Dissenters who humbly plead that they have just cause for a peaceable Departure since they cannot peaceably Abide in the Society § 2. Upon our Enquirers Principles it had been as lawful for our Ancestors to have continued in Communion with the Roman as for Dissenters to conform to the present demands of this Church For let me have a clear Answer why their Private Wisdoms ought not to be sacrificed to the Publick Wisdom in Queen Maries Reign as our private wisdom resign to the publick under our present Circumstances For in this Case we consider not the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the Terms as they are in their Naked selves but where the final Decision shall rest whether they be lawful or unlawful Now the Enquirer tells us page 168. It s enough to warrant our obedience that the thing is the Command of the Superiour and not beyond the Sphere of his Authority But who can measure the Sphere of the Magistrates Authority unless we could take the just Diameter of it Again page 178. The Result of all will be that instead of prescribing to the Magistrate what he shall determine or disputing what he hath concluded on we shall compose our minds and order our circumstances for the more easy and cheerful compliance therewith What Rivers of precious Blood had this Doctrine saved had it been broached in Q. Maries dayes That men must not dispute what the Magistrate has concluded on And though he thinks to heal all this by saying page 166. That God has made the Magistrate a General Commission and made no exception of this kind meaning as far as Circumstantials and those things that God himself has not defined yet this will not salve the difficulty because 1. Who shall judge what is a Circumstantial and what a Substantial what an Integral part only and what an Essential part of Religion Where shall we lodge the determination ultimately what God has defined and not defined If the Magistrate Then our Ancestors are gone by the Common Law If the private person we are all in statu quo 2. God has no where disterminated Circumstantials from Substantials in the Magistrates Commission for though our Enquirer has excepted the one yet it is by his private Authority which binds not the Magistrate His Commission is Patent and therefore it may be read 13 Rom. 1. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers c. This Commission does no more except an Obedience then a Circumstance he that will put in the one may at pleasure insert the other and he that will except the one may and will except the other So that I conclude or at least see no reason why I may not that according to this Enquirers sentiments had providence allotted us our habitations under a Prince of the Roman Communion we might have practised all his Injunctions without warrant to plead our Consciences in Bar which Principle will bear a mans charges through all the Turks Dominions and make any man a free Citizen of Malmsbury when once Conscience is sacrificed to the Deity of Leviathan Every true Protestant will gladly read his Justification of this Churches departure from Rome And therefore though it be not much to the matter in hand I shall not grudge to go a little out of my way with him for his good company and profitable discourse 1. We could not says he continue in the Roman Church upon any better Conditions then Nahash propounded to the men of Jabesh Gilead to put out our Right eyes that we might be fit for their blind Devotion Whether the eye be put out that it cannot or hood-winckt that it may not see is no such considerable difference but we have the less need of a Private if there be a Publick eye that can see for us all and better discern the fit Terms of Communion And whether it be the right eye or the left or both that our Enquirer would pluck out of our heads I cannot tell for when we have considered with the best eyes we have whether it be our duty to withdraw from the present establishment in some things and the result of our most impartial inquiries concludes in the affirmative yet we are Schismaticks and all that is naught if then we may not see with our own eyes as good pluck them out They that fancy man to be but an Autamoton a well contrived piece of Mechanism have certainly fitted him to this Hypothesis For suppose him to be like a Clock which once put in motion will jog on the round and drudge through the Horary circle and perform you a twelve hours work in twelve hours time without attendance or other charge than a little Oyle and you may then set him to what hour you please And he shall as freely strike twelve at Sun-set as Mid-day 2. We must not here have renounced our Reason What if we had Our own private Reason is not worth so much as to contend with the publick And thanks be to God that our Governours are Counselled by their own Reasons
sends us this offer That since there is no Grand Master of Religion concerned in the Controversies between us nor any violation of the Laws of God in our Complying with the Laws of this Society and since Mahomet must either go to the Mountain or the Mountain must come to Mahomet i. e. one side or other must yeeld we will be perswaded to think it reasonable that the subject should submit to the Governour and opinion give place to ancient Custom and Novelty to the Laws in being This is his friendly Motion and one so Modest that we would be perswaded to think it reasonable If he had given us Reasonable arguments to be perswaded which that he has not I think is Evident from what has been already said with these further Considerations § 1. That his motion is grounded on a false suggestion That there 's no grand matter of Religion concern'd in the Controversie nor any Law of God violated by our Complyance for the Perfection of the Scriptures as the Rule of Faith worship and Church-Government is a Grand matter of Religion and greatly concern'd in this Dispute The soveraignty of Christ over his Church His compleat discharge of all his Offices His Kingly Office in Making Laws his Prophetical in revealing the whole mind of God is no small matter of Religion and greatly concern'd also in this dispute which Law-giver by his Express Law and Royal Edict has Commanded all his true Ministers 28. Math. 19. 20. To Disciple all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father Son and holy Ghost Traâ—…hing them to Observe whatsoever he has Commanded them Adding a gracious promise of his special asssisting presence in this work That he would be with them always unto the end of the world we think that the Terms of enjoying all the Ordinances of Christ is but Observing whatsoever Christ has Commanded which Law is apparently exprâ—…sly palpably violated to use his own expressions when any thing else or less or more is made the Condition of our admittance into the Kingdom of Christ. § 2. I know no Reason why any party should be the Immoveable Mountain that is too stiff in the hams to Come to Christ I have ever judged Christ him self to be that Mountain to which Mahomet and all Pretenders ought to move It was Noted as a piece of arrogant Moroseness in Austin the Monk that he would stir no more then a Mountain to meet the British Christians half way in an Amicable Association But if the Church will needs be the 〈◊〉 yet let her remember that Christ is set upon that Holy hill and if she will not Move in Deference to his Authority He that touches the Mountains and they smoak and makes the Hills to tremble can by his Almighty power send such an Earth-quake in her bowels as may cause her to yeeld to Reason § 3. Though Opinion and Custom may fight it out for me yet let the proudest Ancient Custom bow down to the institutions of Christ. It has ever been as a Common so a successful Peliey to clap hoary Periwigs upon juvenile innovations to conciliate some Reverence to their Antique Looks Errour has often a more wrinkled face then Truth but Truth alway's Carries the Graver aspect They that Imp their pin-feather'd inventions wich plumes borrowed from Time's wings do not Teach them to fly but flutter Antiquity is like Romulus his Assylum where all pursued Corruptions take sanctuary 'T is the grand Borrough and safe Retreat of superstition when fetretted out of her Lurking-holes of Counterseit Reason He can say very little for his opinion that cannot plead Antiquity Custom and such like Mormo's Thus the Aquarian Hereticks pleaded Custom to use water mingled with wine in the Eucharist whose folly Cyprian thus Censures Victi ratione opponunt consuetudinem quasi Consuetudo Major esset veritate Being beaten at the weapon of Reason they fetch out the old Rusty sword of Custom As if such aBilbao sword durst try its edge against the tryed scimitar of Truth such a roat does Tertullian give these childish pretences Consuetudo ab aliqua ignorantiâ vel simplicitate initiam sortita in usum per successionem Corroboratur it a adversus veritatem vindicatur sed Dominus Noster Jesus Christus veritatem se non Consueâ—…udinem cognominavit Haereses non tam Novitas quam veritas revineit quodcunque adversus veritatem sapit erit haeresis etiam vetus consuetudo A Custom of Base and dunghil Extract yet gaining some Repute by Long usage and prescribing for it's gentility time out of mind grows sawcy and Malapert against Truth it self But our Lord Iesus Christ called himself by the Title of Truth not of Custom The clearest conviction of Heresy is not by the leaden Lesbian Rule of Practise but by the Golden Rule of the Scriptures Errour is Errour still and will be so of plebeian Breâ—…d and Ignoble parentage though it has purchased a coat of Armes scrapes acquaintance with some Ancient families and would make it out that it came in with the Conquerour The Gibeonites Acted very subtlely when they came to Ioâ—…na with Old sacks upon their Asses and wine-bottles old and reut and bound up and â—…ld shooes and clonted upon their feet and all their provision dry and mouldy as if they had come from far when all this while they were but their Next Neighbours It 's a pretty sight doubtless to see the State which the great Czar of Muscovy uses upon publick Festivals and Entertainments The great Chamber all beset with grave Personages Adorned with Ermines and Gold from head to foot dazling the weak eyes of vulgar spectators and yet perhaps you shall find some of these Knezzes next day in their Blue Aprons who shall think it no Empeachment of their late Glories to sell you a penny worth of Pepper such a Masque we have presented to us of old Customs all gorgeously attired like the Antediluvian Patriarchs and when we come to examine them they are little better then to use our Authors expressions The Dictates of Ambition the Artifices of gain and a colluvies of almost all the superstitions errours and Corruptions of former Ages § 4. Since there must be a yeelding in order to peace then surely they have all the Right and Reason on their sides to have the Honour of the Condescension Who Consess that the Matters in difference are Indifferent in themselves such as where in no grand Matter of Religion is concerned rather then they who ate bound up by immoveable persuasions that they are sinful 2. They who are most Remote from the primitive simplicity and not they who have no higher Ambition then to perform all things which and as Christ has Commanded 3. They who have made the Additions which Cause the Divisions and not they who only take up their Religion as near as they can as they found it delivered and recommended to them by the unerring word of God 4. They who have enough
to spare and may part with some excrescences and never touch the Quid of Religion rather then they who own a Naked Religion without any Additaments and if any such be found Amongst them they are Content to surrender them up as a Sacrifice to peace 5. They who by their Authority are Qualified to make a through Reformation and such Abatements in supernumerary observations such fillings up of the Chasmes and vacuities as may not only Retrieve peace at Home but procure a General union with all the Reformed Churches abroad to the strengthning of the Protestant Religion weakning the hands of the Common Enemy rather then those poor people whose Circumstances are such that they cannot propose the Terms of peace to others and what Alterations they shall make in themselves will be insignificant to an universal settlement 6. They who have already given some specimens of their Condescensions to the Romanists by Removing some exasperating passages and it may be hoped and expected that they will take a few steps towards a Compliance with dissenting Protestants For as the Author of the Irenicum observes well p. 132. That which was laid as a bait for them the Papists was never intended as a Hook for those of our own Profession And therefore to conclude this Chapter I will take the freedom to Quote that Celebrated Son of the Church for a Theological Notion whom he has already quoted 〈◊〉 Philosophical one Dial. 5. p. 399. speaking of the Papacy as the Kingdom of Anti-Christs he has those Notable words Which we knowing so experimentally not to be Compassed by Needless Symbolizing with them in any thing I conceive our best policy is Studiously to Imitate them in nothing but for All indifferent things to think the worse of them for their using them As no person of Honour would willingly go in the known garb of Any Lewd and infamous person whatsoever we court them in they do but turn it to our scorn and Contempt and are the more hardned in their wickedness wherefore seeing that Needless Symbolizing with them does them no Good but Hurt we should Account our selves in all things indifferent perfectly free to satisfy and please in the most universal manner we can those of our own party nor Caring what opinions or Customs or outward formalities the Romanists or others have or may have had from the first Degeneracy of the Church which we ought to Account the more hidâ—…ously soiled by the Romanists using them but supporting our selves upon plain Scripture and solid Reason to use and profess such things at will be most Agreable to us All and make most for the safety and welfare of the Kingdom of Christ for this undoubtedly O Philopolis is the most firm and true Interest of Any Protestant Church or state whatsoever CHAP. IV. The vanity of the Enquirers Confidence noted in boasting that they who find fault with the Churches Constitution will never be able to find out or agree upon a better his Reasonings about this matter examined IT was a piece of the old Roman valâ—…ur to kill themselves for fear of being Killed and it 's a Considerable piece of the New Roman piety not to stir for fear of going out of the way to Resolve against Reformation upon some dangers which are fancied may attend Reformation That Church always apprehending or pretending to apprehend dreadful inconveniences in all changes though apparently for the better Before we can possibly know whether A better way may be found out we must first be Agreed what is a Good way Now All Goodness Consists in the due Conformity of a thing to it's Rule and Idaea by which it ought to be measured and it 's fitness to reach that end to which it is a Means And therefore the betterness of Any thing must be judged of by it's nearer Approach to that Rule and it 's greater proportionableness to the attainment of it's design If then we could find out A worship more Agreable to the Rule of worship or a Constitution more apt to reach the great intendments of Holiness and Peace such a worship such a Constitution will justify it self to be a better then any of it's Competitors which shall Deviate from that Rule or more uncertainly attain the Desired End 1 The first part of our task then will be to find out our Rule which when we have done we have nothing remaining but to apply that Rule to those Models which we would erect or having erected we would examine their Regularity And as they shall be found to approach nearer or depart farther from that Rule we may Confidently pronounce they are therefore by so much The better or the worse Now the only Rule of Reformation in our judgment is the Infallible word of God which we therefore judge sufficient and adaequat because they give this Testimony to their own Perfection And seeing we have now to do with those who own the Scriptures to assert nothing but Truth it will be evidence enough that they are such a Rule if they do but Assert that they are so It is indeed no new thing to hear them charged as Lame and defective such as must be pieced and eked out either with Immediate Revelations or Humane Traditions to render them a Compleat and perfect standard of our Faith and acceptable obedience To which we only oppose the Testimony of the Apostle 2. Tim. 3. 16. 17. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for Correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect thorowly furnisht unto all good works Concerning which sacred Rule I will use our Authors Confidence with I think better warrant That they who find fault with this Rule will never be able to find out or Agree upon a Better whereof the Endless mazes the perplexed labyrinths into which they have cast themselves who despising and forsaking this only Canon have delighted to find out by-paths is very clear but very sad demonstration for when they have tryed Traditions or gaped for revelations or depended on the Churches Authortiy and yet found no satisfaction they think to secure themselves and gratify theMagistrate with a New power who has already such burdens upon his shoulders that we have more need incessantly to sollicite the throne of grace on his behalf for wisdom Counsel strength to manage and bear them then fondly to think to do him a kindness by Imposing upon him a greater work which all others are weary of But this one Text which I have mention'd may abundantly satisfy us that there can be nothing requisite to equise and furnish out A Christian A Minister A Church for Duty and obedience but what is summarily therein ascribed to the written word § 1. That the Scriptures are of unquestionable Authority to Determine all those Controversies whereof they haveCognizance because they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divinely inspired which no person no Church no Convention of
or the Worship of God We are Commanded by Christ to Baptise now though it was not possible that it should be determined how often in what places at what houres with what Number of persons the Ordinance should be administred in Every Age and Country from its first institution to the End of the World yet its ' determin'd that they to whom of right it belongs to baptise at one hour or other in one place or other and so time and place are Determined by way of disjunction but there are some things which 't is not necessary to do the one or the other to the Compleat fulfilling and decent performance of the precept and therefore are not commanded by way of disjunction It would therefore be no such difficult labour to find out a better way for all the difficulty would lye in reforming Abuses removing Corruptions and reducing Christs Ordinances to their primitive institutions Hoc enim adversus omnes haereses valet Id esse verum quodcunque Prius id esse adulterum quodcunque posterius This is saith Tertullian the great Mawle of all heresies and I will add against all Corruptions that whatsoever was first is True whatsoever was introduced afterwards is a Corruption But though perhaps the Dissenters may possibly find out what is Better yet they will never Agree amongst themselves which is an old Politick put-off for Reformation The Levity of which Objection is easily discovered for § 1. We are all Agreed that the Scriptures are the only Rule of worship and they that are thus far Agreed are in a fair way towards perfect unity so far as 't is attainable in this state of Imperfection for though they may miss in the Application through the weakness of their judgment yet being secure that their Rule is good and sincerely endeavouring to come up to it and reform by it they cannot be fatally wide nor mortally differ All that are Agreed in their rule have this singular Advantage that they can debate their differences amicably upon common principles whereas they who differ in the Rule must needs differ in all the Rest they that divide in the Center must needs divide infinitely in their motions towards the Circumference and they that differ in the foundation must necessarily disagree in the superstructures § 2. All that Agree in the Rule have prepared minds immediately to Cassier whatever they shall once discover to be repugnant to that Rule and will easily part with any mistake as it shall be made out to them whereas they who set up false Rules of worship and yet suppose them to be true are as tenacious of whatever they find suitable to those erroneous Measures they have taken as if they were the most sacred Concerns of Religion § 3. They that own the same perfect and infallible Rule are thereby kept within such bounds of sound judgment warrantable obedience and Christian Moderation that they can maintain Communion with each other and both of them with the same one God one Lord one Spirit in the Ordinances of the Gospel though still differing in lesser matters whereas they who set up new Rules of worship exclude all others from their Communion but such as submit to their Novel Canons and Constitutions imposed as the Terms of that Communion § 4. They who embrace the word of God for their Rule do keep alive the fire of Evangelical Love towards each other notwithstanding the little diversities that are found amongst them when they who advance their own Pleasures for the Rule and Reason of obedience are engaged in a Zealous persecution of all those who comply not with their Concepts as is Evident in the Church of Rome at this day It will be delightful no doubt to the Reader to be Refresht with the Enquirers Rhetorick who has been tyred with my duller discourse and therefore I shall gratify him with his Reasonings It 's Reasonable says he we should be able to Agree upon and produce a better Model least in stead of having a New Church we have 〈◊〉 Church at All yes highly reasonable it is For Let him that reads now endeavour to understand the strength of his four Arguments 1. Such a Society as a Church can never be conserved without some Rites or other 2. Neither any Society can continue nor any publick Worship be performed if all Ceremonies and Circumstances such as of time place persons and the like be left indefinite and undetermined 3. If there must be some determination of Circumstantials it must be made either by God or man 4. If there must be some Determination of Circumstances or no Society and God hath made no such Determination what remains but that Men must And then who fitter then our Governours And what these four Learned arguments contribute to the proving his assertion That Dissenters will never be able to find or agree upon a better Constitution I hope the Learned do perceive for my own part such is my dulness I cannot discern it but let us Examine the Assertions as they lye in order 1 It can never be thought by wise men that such a Society as a Church can be Consâ—…rved without some Rites or other Rites Ceremonies Circumstances are the Terms under which all the collusion Lurks when he would flatter us into the humour to yeeld him a point or two then he speaks of nothing but Circumstances when he would Amuse us with an obscure Term then we hear of Nothing but Rites and when he would kill us with a Mortal Conclusion then out comes Ceremonies but I answer § 1. If a Church cannot be conserved without some Rites then let the Imposed Terms of Communion be only of such Rites without which the Church cannot be conserved and we will contend no longer If any Rite be so necessary to the being of a Church that its Constitution must moulder away into dust without it we are content that Rule be made a Term of Communion § 2. From hence then it will evidently appear that mystical Ceremonies such as the cross in Baptism the Surplice ought not to be imposed as the Terms of Communion because that without such Rites of humane appointment the Society of the Church may be conserved I would fain know how the Church was Conserved in the Early purer times of Christ and his Apostles They had not recourse to the Ladies Closet open'd They understood nothing of the Modern curious Arts of Conserving candying and preserving Religion in Ceremonious Syrrups and yet Religion kept sweet and Good They were some of his Holinesses Ladies of Honour that first taught the World out of a miraculous good will and tender pitty to the Church to conserve the two Sacraments of Christs institution in five more of their own invention because our Saviour had not prescribed enow to Conserve the Church from Dissolution § 3. This seems to be a little too high preferment for humane Ceremonies to make them Conserving Causes of the Church At Rome they have
determined by power from God ten thousand such may be determined and then our misery will be this that though our burden be intolerable yet we can have no cause to complain but with Issachar must patiently â—…ouch down under it 3. If Circumstances besides their Natural Adhesion to an Act have any Morality ascribed to them as if they render'd an act of Religion either better or worse none is vested with power to impose them nor any with a Liberty to use them Because we ought not to make Gods Worship worse and we are sure we cannot make it better then he has made it 4. In those cases where God has vested any with a power of determination it ought to be made clear that they who pretend to the power have a commission to show for it because liberty is a thing so precious that none ought to be deprived of it without good Reason and this is the Task which our Enquirer will in the last place undertake for us 4 If Circumstantials says he must be determined or no Society And God hath made no such determination what remains but that man must And then who fitter then our Governours who best understand the Civil Policy and what will suit therewith and with the Customs and inclinations of the people under their Charge In which notable Thesis two things call for examination his â—…ssertion and the Reason of it § 1. His assertion That none is fitter to Determine Circumâ—…antials then our Governours Where 1. We must suppose that he understands Civil Governours or else his Reason will bear no proportion to his assertion 2. Let it be observed that it 's no â—…eat or however no killing matter to the Non-conformists 〈◊〉 their Cause who it is that Determines meer Circumstanâ—…als for they are things of a higher Nature then these about which the Controversy is if some mens Interest would 〈◊〉 them see it 3. Seeing that the Determination of such â—…eer Circumstances in some cases is matter of meer trouble in some cases impossible for the Civil Magistrate to determine them I am confident they will not be displeased if Reason dischargâ—…s them of so useless a burden As time in General is a Circumstance concreated with every Humane Action so with every command and obligation to duty there is a Concreated Command and obligation to determine of some time wherein to discharge that duty And hence it must unavoidably follow That to whomsoever God has immediately and directly given a Command to worship his Great and holy Name to them he has immediately and directly at the same time ipso facto given a Concurrent Command to determine of all those circumstances which are necessary to the executing of that Command Thus if God has obliged every Individual person to Pray he has therewith commanded him to single cut and set apart some time wherein to put up his supplications to God Thus also If God has directly and immediately Commanded every particular Church to worship him jointly and publickly he has also by virtue of that Command enjoyn'd them to agree upon a time to celebrate and solemnize that worship Now this Command is so straightly bound upon the Consciences of all Churches that though none should determine for them nay though all should Determine against them yet are they under it's authority and must come to an issue about it unless they will draw the guilt of the neglect of worshipping God upon their souls with that wrath which is due to so great contempt of the Divine Law Now that every particular Church has a direct Command to worship God and by consequence to determine of those circumstances which are necessary to the worship is evident from this one Consideration that they all did so in obedience to the authority of Christ in his word whilst all Civil Governours were so far from Determining the Circumstances that they determined against the substance The Gracious God has now made some of the Kings of the earth Nursing-fathers to his Churches but yet we cannot believe that the Churches power is less under her Fathers then it was oâ—…der those Bloody Persecutors And if this power be lodged in the Civil Magistrate and he have no rule to Direct him about the when and where what a miserable case would the Churches be in if he should never determine these Circumstances without which the Churches can never worship God For thus proceeds his Argument No publick worship can be Performed without the Determination of some Circumstances as time for one and place for another But God has determined none of these Circumstances therefore unless some other Determination be made besides what God has made no publick worship can be performed Again If some other determination must be made besides what God has made then it must be made by man but some other determination must be made besides what God hath made therefore it must be made by man Again If a determination of circumstantials must be made by Man then by the Civil Magistrate But a determination must be made by man therefore by the Civil Magistrate from whence it will be easy to Argue That if a Magistrate will not determine of those circumstances which are necessary to the publick Worship of God there can be no publick worship but when the Magistrate is an enemy to the Christian Religion he will never determine of those circumstances which are necessary to the publick Worship of God Therefore when the Magistrate proves an enemy to the Christian Religion there can be no publick Worship of God Nay there ought to be none And it will hold against the Protestants worship where the Magistrate is a severe Romanist Now though it be true that the Command to Worship God publickly be directly and immediately given to the Church yet seeing every Church is in the Commonwealth as a part of it and that every soul therein ought to be subject to the higher powers and because the peace of a Nation is not a little concern'd in the prudent or disorderly management of publick assemblies and seeing that the chief Magistrate is the Vicegerent and great Minister of God to preserve the peace that this lower world may not be too like a Hell therefore has he a very great concern herein Ne quid Reâ—…ublica detrimenti capiat And therefore if any Church shall chuse such unseasonable times or places as may give just occasion of jealousy that some mischief is hatching against the Government he may prohibit them that suspected place time or other jealous Circumstance and command them to elect some more convenient and in offensive ones That so Religion may be cleared the Magistrates heart 〈◊〉 the peâ—… secured only it seems reasonable to assert 1. That the Magistrates power herein is but Indirect and in order to peace and that the Christian Church had such power to determine all such circumstances before ever Magistrates owned Christianity 2. That the Magistrates power seems not to extend
scrupulosities and discharge conscience from any Regard of the Authority of God in his positive Laws and institutions A work infinitely grateful and eternally obliging this prophane and Atheistical Generation who had rather keep ten of their own then one of Gods Ceremonies And with such Sophistry did the Archenemy prevail upon the less wary Minds of our first Parents Ye shall not surely dye The Command is meerly Positive no eternal Reason of evil in the thing And God Lays little very little stress upon Circumstantials secure but the main Let there be no Schism between you and never trouble your selves about these institutions which are but secunda intentionis And he is seconded notably by the Enquirer p. 161. All Ceremonial Appendages and such were the Trees of Life and Knowledge in Paradise Circumcision and the Passeover under the Law Baptism and the Lords Supper under the Gospel are perfectly subordinate and ought to yeeld to the designs of Peace Charity and edification And yet these poor deluded ones found to their cost that He who represented God As a Captious Deity as the Enquirer with great seriousness words it proved himself A Captious Devil and that it had been more their Intetest to have Credited Gods most severe threatnings then Satans most sugred promisos But if it be true That God lays so very little stress upon his own we need not Question but Men will lay at least as little upon their institutions If God be so indifferent and remiss we hope we shall not find them rigorous for seeing Magistrates are called Gods such as hear some considerable part of his Image and borrow of his Authority they will no doubt represent that God to us truly as he is A God of Mercy grace and pitty and not watch Advantages against their Creatures but so long as the Main of subjection is provided for and the substance of their Institutions observed Alterations may be made in lesser matters without their offence That the Servant is sometimes more severe then the Master we are taught from Gehazie's sin and may we never learn it from his Leprosy 2. Kin 5. 20 My Master hath spared Naaman this Syrian but as the Lord Liveth I will run after him and take somewhat of him And there was another Servant in the parable who laid a great stress upon a few Deniers when his Lord laid less upon many Talents And would have pluckt out his fellow servants throat for a sorry Circumstance when he had the face to beg Indulgence in the substance And we are sufficiently lesson'd that it 's better to address the Lord himself then the Steward ever since the Syrophenician met with such churlish treatment from the Disciples and so gracious a Reception from our B. Saviour such are some of our Church men who Lye baiting at and worrying of the Magistrate night and day to exact the rigour of Conformity and the penal Statutes as if all Religion were utterly lost unless their Circumstantials were preserved Sacred and inviolable whatever become of Gods Circumstantials The Title of this Chapter Modestly asserts only thus much that God lays very little stress upon Circumstantials But the continued Tenor of his discourse labours to make it out that he lays very little upon some of his own precepts the True and clear stating therefore of Circumstantials in the Question would be above half way towards its Answer Under the Mosaical Law God commanded that they should offer to him the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 juge Sacrificium or the Daily Burnt-offering and in this case the Coulour of the Beast provided it was otherwise rightly qualified was a meer Circumstance Such as God laid no stress upon and that Man had proved himself an Ardetious superstitious Busy-body that should curiously adhaere to any one Colour but for the Heighfer whose ashes were to make the water of separation there the colour was no Circumstance but made by Gods Command a substantial part of the service To be Rod was as much as to be a Heighfer for when circumstances have once pass't the Royal Assent and are stampt with a Divine seal they become substantials in instituted Worship The Question then ought to have been whether God have any regard to his own positive Laws or whether he be so indifferent about his own institutions that he lays little stress upon our obedience to them But this had been too broad English a little too uncivil for any that would carry fair correspondence with the Scriptures and therefore let it be mollified and stand as it does Whether God lay very little stress upon Circumstantials in Religion In deciding this Question he had done very ingenuously and fairly to have told us from whence we are to take the measures of that stress and weight which God lays upon these things which because it was not for his Interest yet may be much for the Readers I shall endeavour to clear up these two things first from whence we ought not and secondly from whence we ought to fetch these measures 1 From whence we ought not to take the measures of the stress which God lays on them 1 Then we ought not to judge that God has little regard to any of his Commands because the Matter of them abstracted from his Authority is little for we must not conceive that Christ sets little by Baptism because the Element is plain fair water or little by that other Sacrament because the Materials thereof are common Bread and Wine nor to set them of must we varnish them with pompous Pageantry as if any thing were necessary to Buoy up their Repute or beget an awful Reverence to his Institutions besides his Authority For 1. Though the things in themselves be small yet his Authority is great As God appears great in creating little things his power conspicuous in employing little instruments to Archieve great effects so is his Authority very glorious in enjoyning small observances 2. Though the Things be small yet God can bless them to great purposes 2. King 5. 11. Naaman was in a great Huff that the Prophet should prescribe so plain and mean a way for his Recovery he expected some Majestick procedure in the Cure that the Prophet should come out and stand and call on the Name of the Lord and strike his hand over the place This had been something like but to send him away ingloriously with all that train and bid him Go wash in Jordan seven times was not to be endured by a Person of his ranck and quality Are not Abana and Pharpar the Rivers of Damascus better then the waters of Israel may I not wash in them and be clean And he went away in a Rage But we are to judge that to be best which best reaches the End Healing Jordan then ineffectual Pharpar 3. If the things be small then the grace and mercy conveyed by them may be had at cheaper rates And shall it be objected to Gods Ordinances as their Reproach which
England has Determin'd Aâ—… 21. That they may err and have sometimes erred â—…en in things pertaining to God And therefore it will â—…e our safest and wisest course to leave the Legislative power in matters of Religion in the hands of Christ where God entrusted it and where we found it who can neither deoeive nor be deceived 2. There may be a Magistratical power about Religious matters where there is no Legislative power The Magistrate may have an Executive power to do all that God has commanded Him and see others do all that God has commanded them and yet no legislative power to alter or add to the Institutions of Christ what a vast Field has every supream Magistrate wherein he may place out all his zeal power and Authority and yet never touch â—…he Philactory or fringe of the Garment of Christ either by enlarging or pairing it away His power is very evident in the Moral Law bottom'd upon Eternal and immutable Reasons and to build it upon such dubious and precarious Hypotheses â—…r to overcharge it with unscriptural powers is but secretly to undermine it or crush it down with it 's own weight 3 His third Argument is this It 's generally acknowledged and accordingly practised that Fathers and Governours of Families have Authority in Matters of Religion within their own families at least so farr as the case in hand Nay pray forbear a little That they have an Authority in matters of Religion is indeed acknowledged and I wish it were more practised All I haesitate at is whether he has such a power as farr as the case in Hand The case in hand is or should be whether the Magistrate has power to determine such externals of Religion as he to blind the business thought meet to call Circumstantials and such a power as Dissenters acknowledge not so they practise not It were very hard if a Master of a Family should arrogate to himself such a power as to enjoyn his Wife Children Servants Relations Strangers to have a Pugil of salt layd upon their Tongues in token that they shall not be ashamed to have their speech seasoned with savoury discourse without submission to which Crotchet they shall either not be admitted into the family or if already admitted cast out of doors or however not permitted to hear a Chapter read or joyn in prayer all their days This would have been a little more to the case of which our Enquirers instances come exceeding short Who doubts says he but the Father or Head of a Family may prescribe what Chapters shall be read what Prayers used what times shall be set apart for Devotion what postures whether kneeling standing or being uncovered who shall officiate in his Family with innumerable others of a like Nature And if they be but of the like Nature they will never do us any harm Let 's look'em over however 1 What Chapters may be read Why truly if the Question be only which of the two or more of equal Authority He may be as fit as another but if the Competition were between two the one out of Scripture the other out of some Legendary Fabler that has stufft a Farce with Romanticks I Question much his power to Determine for God has at least Determined thus farr that in all our Worship of him we speak and read nothing but the Truth and he that teaches his Family ought to teach from or according to the Oracles of God 2. What Prayers used God will not accept a female from him that has a Male in his Flock As the Prince will not accept such a present much less will the great God who gives what he receives and therefore may justly expect the best No Master of a Family has Authority to offer prayers to God less good if God have furnish't him with better 3. What times shall be set apart for Devotion The setting apart of Common time for Family-Worship is a meer Circumstance which neither renders the Worship more or less acceptable to God as it is time And it is disjunctively commanded by Him who has commanded Masters of Families to continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving 4. Col. 1. 2. If God has commanded Worship he has also therewith commanded some time wherein to Worship A time must therefore necessarily be resolved on but 〈◊〉 good favour this is not to the case in hand And yet as large as the Masters power may be in this matter he must have regard to the General rules of the Gospel that All things be done for edification to advance the success of the Duty He may neither determine upon a Revolution too infrequent nor upon a continuance too short to slubber and huddle over the Ordinance in formal hast nor upon an unseasonable hour when his overworked and overwatched servants are ready to drop asleep when tyred Nature is ready to over-Master the souls gracious propensities towards Gods service And where he seems to have most power he has farr short of an Absolute power 4. For postures whether kneeling standing or being uncovered I never so much admired the difference between praedicamental situs habitus as to move a quarrel whether being uncovered was a posture or no yet I think these things are not capable of an universal fixed unalterable Law If one of these postures shall render any one in the Family uncapable of pursuing and reaching the ends of an Ordinance That Parent shall sin against God who rigidly exacts the most plausible posture or gesture and I suppose he has no Commission from God to sin against him If standing shall so disease a weak child that being in pain he cannot attend the present service If kneeling shall ordinarily expose another to drowziness If being uncover'd shall prejudice health and endanger life If any of these or any other shall distract the mind make the duty a Burden wear out the Body Masters of Families must know that their power is for edification and not destruction and God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice whatsoever an Imperious Master will have He that shall teach that Magistrates may dispense with the Circumstantials of Gods worship will sure never be so hardy as to teach that Masters of Families and Magistrates too ought not to dispense with their own institutions 5. In what Habit No Master of a Family has power to enjoyn any Religious Habits appropriated to divine service In the General 't is true Habit is necessary upon many accounts for health decency But Religious Habits are not so not put into the Charter of Domestick Power nor indeed capable of a Canon 5. Who shall Officiate in a Family The duty of Officiating in the Family is primarily incumbent upon himself I know no Reason he should claim the Authority who waves the duty If he will have the honour let him discharge the work of a Master of a Family nor may he Command his Child to pray that cannot pray with that usefulness to edification
to the whole If any person whose greater Abilities may manage the Service more to the glory of God be present his charitable prudence will instruct him to procure such assistance as may best promove the spiritual concernâ—… of those under his charge To shut up this point The powers here ascribed to a Master of a Family are such as do not reach the case in hand Determination of Chapters Prayers Times Postures Gestures Persons which were not before determined by the divine power will not make up one Mystical Ceremony and the Magistrate may have all this power and yet none such as will reach the case in hand That power which will serve to make a Primitive Directory will not serve to impose a Modern Liturgy All that can possibly be screwed out of these instances of Paternal Authority is no more then this that he may Determine between two or more Circumstances one of which is disjunctively necessary to the performance of a necessary duty but it will be hard when he comes to try it to infer a power to impose mystical Ceremonies which are no ways necessary to the performance of any duty no not by Disjunction I presume I have saved my Bail if I should give no further answer yet for his greater satisfaction I shall trouble the Reader with these few Considerables § 1 That the Governour of a Family being upon the place and having all present Circumstances within his prospect may more usefully determine upon all determinable Circumstances then a Magistrate for a whole Nation and the several Congregations therein whose Accidents are so various that they cannot possibly come under any uniform Determination suppose a strict Law were made at Paris that every particular Church in the Nation should commence their publick service on the Lords day precisely at nine a clock it is Mathematically certain that some would have done and got half through their dinners before others would be half way in their Devotions They in furthest Eastern Parts would have come to their Amen before those on the Calabrian Ocean would be at their Oremus because of the diversities of Meridians and Longitudes and yet all would be but nine a clock § 2. That the consequence from the Power of a Master of a Family to the Civil Magistrates power is not very clear for the Master of a Family is supposed to have Minors in his Family who cannot be safely trusted with the Determination of those Circumstances which must necessarily be determined but it would be a reproach to the Christian Religion that all the Bishops Pastors and Churches in a Nation could not find wit enough to determine what time of the day were most expedient to Assemble in The power of a Prince is farr more Noble then that of the Family Governour and yet by Reason of the incapacity and unfitness of the matter the bulkiness of the Aggregate the lesser power may possibly Determine upon some small Circumstances which the greater power is unfit to do To be Captain of a Man of Warr is more honourable then to Command a Skuller and yet this latter will tack about more nimbly then that cumbersome Argosie because the Vessel is more Manageable § 3. This uniformity which is so much driven at in all these arguments as the great Reason of the Necessity of universal Determination is a name much bandied in speculative discourses rather then a thing practicable if we may judge that not fecible which never yet was attained Let us look a little nearer home And first we find no Punctual uniformity between the two Provinces He that can sing Divine Service in the Province of York may without new instruction be utterly to seek in the Psalmodie of Canterbury look upon the same Province and compare the Parochial with the Cathedral service and there 's less uniformity still He that can â—…adge pretty well at a Country-Church is quite lost in the uncouth usages of the Minister Look into the Parochials and some have their Conformity superconformity statute Ceremonies and Canon Cerâ—…monies so that you would hardly judge them to be half-sisters take a step nearer and look in the same Parish-Church uniformity is not to be found there the Minister is not conformable to himself At one prayer he stands at another he kneels at one part of the publick Service he is all white and then that Colour is most decent by and by all Black and then that is most decent nor is there any uniformity between the Minister and the people â—…e at the Delivery of the consecrated Elements praying in a posture of standing and they in the Act of Receiving who pray not yet confined to Geniculation Nor is there less discrepancy between the several parts of worship for whereas the grand Plea for Ceremonies is a certain Decency which they conciliate to the service and their great usefulness to stirr up the dull minds of men yet only Baptism is adorned with the sign of the Cross and the rest left naked of so great an ornament and yet the Apostles Rule is let all things be done decently and we have as much need to have our dull minds quickned in the other Sacrament and all other pars of worship § 4. Lastly That power which belongs to the supream Civil Magistrate as such belongs to all and every supream Magistrate but this power of instituting imposing Ceremonies belongs not to every supream Magistrate therefore it belongs not to the supream Civil Magistrate as such that is it belongs to none The Reason of the Major Proposition is taken from that Common Axiome A 〈◊〉 ad omne valet consequentiâ—… The proof of the Minor is this That which belonged not to the supream Civil Magistrate for three hundred years after Christs time belongs not to all Civil Magistrates but this power of instituting and imposing Ceremonies belonged not to the Civil Magistrate for three hundred years after Christs time therefore it belonged not to all To enervate which Argument it must either be denyed that the Roman Emperours during that Period were supream Civil Magistrates which St. Paul opposes charging the Churches to obey them or asserted that they had a power to determine of the Circumstantials of the Christian Religion and prescribe what Ceremonies they saw good in the Evangelical worship 2 We now come to his second Thesis If the Magistrate may Determine these Matters then not only Christian Charity and humility but Common Prudence requires us to presume of the wisdom and reasonableness of his determinations and much more to obey them I shall say little but perhaps smile the more at the prettiness of the consequent It 's our duty to presume of the reasonableness but much more to obey those Determinations that is it 's much mâ—…re our duty to obey then to be Rational That we are to presume very highly of the wisdom of our Superiours acting within their proper Sphaere we readily admit For when God calls them to a work he
will bestow competent wisdom for the discharge of it but yet am I not to presume so unmeasurably of any ones wisdom as to resign up my Faith and Conscience with the disposal of Gods worship without more a do to it If God had given him Authority to determine these matters I should not have been concern'd to Question his wisdom Gods Command had superseded my little scruples and though he had miscarried in his prudential Decision I should have received the praise of subjection but till such Authority do appear I shall sâ—…t down on this side such prâ—…sumption though somewhat beyond despair If the Reader has any pitty left he may do charitably to bestow a little of it upon me that must be obliged to answer all the Sentences and Apothegms in wits-commonwealth and yet to this drudgery I shall patiently submit â—…ill I am quite tyred and then Resign this Province 1 It 's enough says he to warrant and require our obedient that the thing is the Command of our Superiour and not beyond the Sphâ—…re of his Authority That Religion is within the Magistratâ—… Sphâ—…re I have freely owned but not to all intents and purposes not to pluck up what God has planted not to plant what God has pluckt up Substantials and Circumstantials are all within his Sphaere but not to do what he pleased withal As all Persons with their Civil concerns are within the Magistrates Sphâ—…re their lives Liberties and estates all come under his cognizance and yet there are some great Lawyers and Loyal subjects who think they are not within his Sphâ—…re to dispose of them at pleasure so are all the conncerns of Religion within his Sphaere too to preserve not to destroy to propagate not to alter to encourage not to innovate in the worship of God for All power is for edification not destruction Every Christian has Religion within his sphaere that is he has a concern in it but no concern over and above it Tota Religio but not Totum Religionis as Totus Homo yet not Totum Hominis are within the reach of Magistracy He has a power to secure Religion Religion is therefore within his sphaere but he has none to make new Religion or a new part of Religion that therefore is out of his sphaere nor will it excuse me to God his word and my own conscience blindly to obey in every thing some whereof may be out of his sphaere because he has a power to command somethings which are within his sphaere The true Ancient Protestants of this Church with no less zeal then success defended the Princes Power and supremacy against all the claims of Rome and yet never ascribed such a power to him as might shackle Conscience and dispose of Religion at pleasure I shall give the Reader a tast from the learned Bishop Bilson who dedicates his book to Q Eliz and it came abroad Cum Privilegio Dial p. 533 534 535. c. The Discourse is between a Papist and a Protestant Philander If the Queen establish any Religion you are bound by your â—…ath to obey it whatsoever it be Theophilus We must not rebel not take Armes against the Prince as you affirm you may but with reverence and humility serve God before the Prince Phil. Then is not the Prince supream Theo. Why so ' Phil. Your selves are Superiour you will serve whom you list Theo. As though to serve God according to his will were to serve whom we list and not whom all Princes and others ought to serve Phil. But you will be Iudges when God is well served and when â—…t Theo. If you can excuse us before God when you mislead us we will serve whom you appoint us otherwise if every Man shall answer for himself good Reason he be Master of his own Conscience in that which toucheth him so near and no man can excuse him for Phil. This is to make every private man supream Iudge of Religion Theo. The poorest wretch that is may be supream Governour of his own heart Princes rule the Publick and external actions of their Countries but not the Consciences of men Phil. Would you have such Confusion suffered in the Church that every Man should follow what he list Theo. I would not have such presumption and wickedness brought into the Church that Christ and his Word should be subjected to the wills or voices of Mortal men For though the whole World should pronounce against him or it God will be true and all men shall be lyars Phil. No more would we Theo Why then restrain you Truth to the Assemblies and sentences of Popes and Praelates as though they must be gently entreated and fairly offer'd by Christ before he might attempt or expect to recover his own Phil. We would have things done orderly Theo. Call you that Order where Christ shall stand without doors till your Clergy shall consent to bring him in Phil. God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace Theo. It 's no Confusion for one Family yea for one Man to serve God though all the Families and men of the same Realm will not Ioshua said to the people If it seem evil to you to serve the Lord chuse you whom you will serve but I and my house will serve the Lord. Elias was left alone for any that he saw willing to serve God in Israel and yet abated not his Zeal Micheas alone opposed himself against 400. Prophets with what judicial Authority can you tell Amos neither spared Ieroboam the King not Amaziah the Priest and yet he was but a simple Heards-man and not so much as the Son of a Prophet Iohn Baptist had no Competent Jurisdiction over the Scribes and Pharisees that saâ—… in Moses his chair and yet he condemned them for a Generation of Vipers The Counsels where Peter Stephen Paul were convened accused and punisht lacked none of your Judicial formalities and yet the Apostles stoutly both resisted and condemned their Deliberative and Definitive sentences Phil. The Apostles Commission we know but yours we know not Theo. You cannot be Ignorant of ours if you know theirs so long as we preach the same Doctrine that they did we have the same power and Authority which they had keep your Competent Jurisdictions Judicial Cognitions and Legal Decisions to your self The Son of God first founded and still gathereth his Church by the mouths of his Preachers not by the summons of Consistories He that is sent to preach may not hold his tongue and tarry till my Lord the Pope and his Mitred Fathers can intend to meet and list to consent to the ruine as they think of their Dignities and Liberties Phil. Deshise you Counsels Theo. By no means so long as they be Counsels that is sober and free Conferences of Godly and learned Teachers but if they wax wanton against Christ and will not have the Truth received until they have consented we reject them as Conspiracies of the wicked which no Christian ought to
2. That he brake the jaâ—… of the wicked and plucke the spoile out of his Teeth Mastersâ—… of Restraint they are not to estrain Religion but irreligion and the insatiable thirst of thoe which nothing will Quench but the blood of their Brothern 〈◊〉 that which was earned with the sweat of their faces 5 Nor will it be a foolish Charity 〈◊〉 blind obedience to permit our selves to thâ—… 〈◊〉 of our 〈◊〉 in those little things 〈◊〉 speak of To permit and resign up our selves to the conduct of others in Religious matters absolutely is blind obedience whether a sober Enquirer will call them little or no. Though the things may be small the blindness of our obedience may be as great as if the things were greater Blindness consists not in the Object but in the Faculty but. 1. The things wodiscourse of if we discourse ad idem are no little but the great things of the Gospel Great I say if we either consider the greatness and danger of those Principles which they proceed upon or the greatness and dangerousness of those Consequences which they draw along with them a â—…ttle spark may kindle if neglected a great flame They suppose either that Christ had not all power committed to him in heaven and in carth or that he has given it away by some Dormant warrant and clandestine Commission or that he never exercised his Power to settle the Regiment of his Church or that his Edicts may be Rescinded and cassated by humane will And they draw along with them a train of Fatal consequences as that 't is possible the condition of Christs Church may be irremediably more servile then ever was that of the Jewish if Religion should fall into bad mens hands But no sin is little to him that knows what blood it cost to expiate it what sorrow it costs the true penitent to mourn for it and what pains it cost the true Christian to resist it 2. If the things be so little in the judgment of Imposers we hope we shall tast of their compassion in indulging such little things It shall be no little praise we should return to the great God no little returns of duty and exemplary obedience we should make to his Vicegerent that should permit us the indisserent use of indifferent things and suppose them so yet the faith of indifferent things is no indifferent thing But I observe That when our Enquirer would have Dissenters punisht for the Neglect of these things then they are not little then they become the greatest weightiest most important things in the world then Churches Government Religion cannot subsist without them as accidents cannot subsist without their substances so neither substances exist without their accidents but when he comes to drole us into compliance then they are little triffles the minutes punctilios of Religion 3. If to resign up our selves in matters of immediate worship without a warrant from God to any but God be not blind obedience 't is because we are blind and cannot see what blind obedience is We freely commit our selves to the Political conduct in all things temporal a ministerial Conduct we own in our Pastors and Teahers a Soveraign Conduct we would gladly reserve for Christ. We would willingly go any whether but to Hell do any thing but sin lose any thing but the peace of our Consciences and part with any thing but what is none of ours to dispose of rather then seem to tergiversate from the Commands of our Governours And as we confess the Magistrate stands upon higher grounds then we so we must and without displeasing our Superiours way say That Christ stands upon higher ground then he And when we shall come to stand before his Tribunal there to receive according to our works we shall all stand upon even ground as to any difference that external advantages in this present world shall then make 6 We have Reason to perswade our selves that we may as easily lye under prejudices as they and that we may be as much transported with Considerations of ease and liberty as they may probably be suspected to be with Ambition Ans It 's the duty of all to watch against those temptations to which welye most open from without and to watch over those corruptions to which we are most obnoxious from within we dare not think it probable that our Magistrates are transported with Ambition And we profess that we are not transported with any base lust or pittiful considerations to suspend active obedience till we discover such transport by its proper fruits But if we must still be represented by our sometimes Brethren but now Persecutors as misguided by prejudices we are sorry for it but cannot help it and must place these secret Aspersions in the number of those burdens which by frequent use grow familiar and less pinching and such as seeing they are not to be avoided wisdom dictates they ought to be contemned And yet we shall pray that our Magistrates like the highest Boughs of the goodliest trees being most fruitful may bow down themselves with abundance of precious fruits and drop some of it into the laps of their despised but loyal subjects 7 There are no less different capacities of mind then Constitutions of Body and as great difference in mens outward Circumstances as in either of the former The Magistrate will certainly thence judge that there ought to be as great a diversity and latitude in his Impositions He that has a larger swallow let him have a larger cann Let the best stomack have the largest trencher and since one stomack will bear what would oppress another why should one mans Conscience be compelled to digest what anothers can easily put over Either we must practise whilst we think not the same things which is a sordid piece of unworthy Hypocrisy and no credit to uniformity to congregate such Heterogeneous materials or else tormented because our Constitutions capacities consciences circumstances are not of one size which is not our fault for we had not the mingling of our temperatures nor the putting together of our frames or else which we hope they who are wiser then us all will judge most eligible that every one retaining his different sentiments which impede not Christianity or disturb the peace may be indulged in a practise peaceably managed suitable to those innocent variations And since our Enquirer has quoted an old story I shall only repeat his words and leave the Reader to his own thoughs for the application Those that would have the Laws fitted to their humour without respect to other Men do but imitate the Barbarous Custom of the Infamous Procrustes who is said to have either Rackt all those Persons that fell into his hands and stretcht them out to his own size if they were too short or cut them of to his own proportions if they were too long And really if any of the Dissenters be of that Imperious and Tyrannical temper I know not why
Christians but the Command of Ceremonies apparently has occasion'd Divisions between Protestants and Papists between Protestants themselves between those of the same Nations and all Humane Terms of Church-communion necessarily produce the same bitter fruit 7. The power of ordering the smallest matter in the Church must conform to the Soveraign end of edification 2. Cor. 13. 10. The power which the Lord hath given me for edification and not Destruction But no power may suspend my duty of pleasing my Brother to his edification 8. Supposing the worst That it 's only a Debt of Charity which my Brother may challenge of me not to scandalize him and a Debt of justice to Obey the Magistrate in this very case yet the Miniâ—…s of justice ought to vail to the Magnalia of Charity As the Command of a Father in lower instances ought to yeeld to the preservation of my Neighbours life 3 Some would except against the matter of his concession to deny himself in some part of his Liberty what a small some that may be none knows perhaps there 's no part of his Liberty which that duty may not Command 4 I except lastly against his propounded end to please and gain him as not adaequal to that which the Command has in it's eye To scandalize or give offence may be taken either in a primary sense and so it denotes a culpable giving occasion to a Brother to sin or in a lower and secondary sense for the angering and displeasing of a Brother This distinction well observed would unravel much confusion which pesters our discourses 1. If we compare the displeasing of a private person with that of a publick the latter is more sinful and much more dangerous for the wrath of a King is like the roaring of a Lyon 2. To occasion culpably a publick person to sin is more heinous then to occasion the sin of a private person because the sins of those in eminent places have such a fatal influence upon the peoples pollution and the procurement of Gods displeasure 3. But if we compare a scandal in the primary sense with one in the secondary then it 's no measuring cast whether it be more eligible to displease the one or destroy the other Nor can there be sin in displeasing one when I cannot otherwise please but by destroying the other for though my own folly may possibly so ensnare me yet God never puts me under such Circumstances that I shall be necessitated to sin § 2. You have heard his fair concession now take his Limitation along with you That is says he in those things that are matters of no Law but left free and undeterminate there the Rule of the Apostle takes place 15. Rom. 1. 2. We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves And let every one of us please his Neighbour for his good to edification and we will add 14. Rom 13. Let no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his Brothers way v. 15. Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ dyed v. 19. Let us follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edify another v. 20. for meat Destroy not the work of God This is the last retreat of these Gentlemen Hether they retrire as to their Triary and strong Reserves You ought to bear the infirmities of the weak to edify him heavenwards not to murder his soul till a Law be made to the contrary you are bound in Charity and compassion to such a one till you receive further Orders and then you must be savage and barbarous But his Reasons follow 1. Reason because we may not do evil that good may come The sinews of which Reason lye in a supposition that to omit a Ceremony is an evil thing compared with the saving of a soul. This General Rule may be applied that other way we must not do evil that Good may come and therefore may not draw a poor Brother into sin that some good may come by it and the rather if we consider what good comes by it As the saving my self a pecuniary mulct or Recognizing the Magistrates power to Command which may be done and is so in many ways wherein the scandal of another is not concern'd And if I should transgress a Ceremony or so for the saving of a soul we may Lawfully presume upon the general will of the Legislator that no positive Command of his should be so rigorously insisted on when it would destroy a greater good 2. Reason We must not break the Laws of God or man â—…ut of an humour of complaisance to a Brother Ans To discharge a weighty duty to avoid the scandalizing of a Brother to walk charitably which the Enquirer p. 137. when he had occasion to magnify Charity tells us is an essential part of Religion ought not to be put of with a frothy Droll as if it were nothing but the humour of Complaisance The Apostle whose head understood the speculation and whose heart entertained the love of this Doctrine much better then himself has taught us other things That to sin against the Brethren is to sin against Christ 1 Cor. 8. 12. 'T is to destroy with our meats indifferent things him for whom Christ dyed 14. Rom. 15. And if these be matters of humour and complaisance and we should venture a Ceremony for them it would be but to stake one Complement against another 3. Reason In those times says he the Magistrate being Pagan took no care of the Church nor had passed any Laws concerning the management of the Christian Religion And so Christians had a great deal of scope and room for mutual condescension But the case is quite otherwise when there 's a Law in being c. Really the Pagan Magistrate was very much overseen unless perhaps he knew nothing less or more of his Authority over things indifferent and then the Apostles must needs be to blame who never inform'd him of that Power over the Church wherewith Christ had eâ—…rusted him And above all St. Paul was utterly inexcusable having so inviting an opportunity to do it in Being so long at Rome having friends in â—…aesars Household and this in Quinquiâ—…nnio Neronis when the Lion was treatable and approachable Besides this must have obliged him to entertain better thoughts of Christians and Christianity and engaged him to protect and defend it when it lay so entirely at his devoir The Enquirer instructed us p. 144. that such a Society as a Church could never be conserved without some Rites or other nor any publick Worship be performed if all Ceremonies and Circumstances such as of time place persons and the like be left indefinite and undetermined He has told us since that the power of Determining and Defining these things ly's in our Governours who understand the Civil Policy p. 151. And now he tells us That in those primitive times the Magistrate had passed no Laws
concerning the manage of the Christian Religion so that it was impossible that either Church Government should be Lawfully administred or publick Worship duely performed because the Apostles were negligent in informing the Emperour of his power or he careless in performing his duty I wonder that amongst all the Apocryphal Epistles of Christ to Agâ—…arns or Paul to 〈◊〉 we meet with none of the Apostles to Nero. That whereas their Lord and Master had left them in great hast and either through the â—…urry of business had forgotten or littlenâ—…ss of the things had neglected to settle his Churches nor had passed any Laws concerning the manage of Religion for want of which politick constitutions they were in a lamentable confusion the worship of God lying at sixes and sevens the Government of the Church meeâ—… Anarchy none had power to Command none were obliged to obey every one did that which was rigâ—…t in his own eyes none had power to impose or compel the rest to submit to such Terms of Communion as were necessary besides those few and plain ones appointed by Christ himself And for as muâ—… as they were altogether by the â—…ars about indifferent things and they had no Rules in their Law-â—…ooks to determine these intricate matters They do therefore humbly beseech his Imperial Majesty that he would Review and Revise their Religion and add such other mystical Ceremonies significant of Gospel grace wherewith his well-known piety could not but be intimately acquainted and that he would take speedy and effectual care with these vexatioâ—…s Tender Consciences who scrupled eating of meats because once prohibited by the Law of Moses and straightly charge and Command that none should gratify them in â—…heir weakness and take such other and further order about their Religion as he in his Royal wisdom from time to time and at all times hereafter should judge meet and expedient And his Petitioners shall humbly Pray c. But to satisfy that Assertion I shall offer further these pariculars 1. It cannot appear that the Roman Emperours had any such Commission as is supposed to make that no duty which God had made a duty To make it no sin to give offence which otherwise had been a sin nor to add New Terms of Communion or to shut out of the Church those whom the fundamental Laws of Christ would receive 2. This principle of his Reflects most scandalously upon the greatest Temporal Mercy which God ever vouch safed his Churches I mean the Christian Magistrate for it implies that the condition of Christians was much more easy under the Pagan then under the Christian Magistrate Then says he the Christians had a great deal of scope and room for mutual condescension but now they are crowded up by restrictions Then the Worship of God was not clog'd with needless Ceremonies but now it 's incumbred with New Terms of Communion I might then have relieved a weak Conscience But the case is quite othâ—…wise says he now there 's a Law in being Then I might have used my liberty in indifferent things and only be restrained by Prudence and Charity but now I am debarred of it by the will of Authority This I say is a scandalous Reflexion For God has promised Christian Princes as Nursing Fathers to the Gospel-Church to secure and protect them and the Enquirer makes them Step-fathers tempting us to think that we have got no such great Bargain by the change 3. It 's clear that the Apostles had as much power to order the meer Circumstances of worship and Church-government as was needful to their exercise and actual performance or else all their determinations were sinful 2 The next priviledge of this tender Conscience is That it becomes the Magistrate so far to consider the satisfaction of peoples minds as well as the safety and peace of his Dominions as not to make those things the matter of his Laws which he forâ—…sees mens weakness will make them boggle at This is his Concession wherein he needed not have been so Timorous For when the Magistrate is settling the Civil peace of his Dominions he needs not concern himself whether the people will skew or no. But as if he had been affraid he had conceded too far he wisely limits the concession As unless there be weighty Reasons on the other hand to counterbalâ—…ance that consideration And they must be weighty Reasons indeed that will counterballance the edification and Salvation of weak yet sincere Christians that will counterballance the peace and safety of his Dominions Indifferent things will hardly weigh against these but what are those ponderous things that will make the scales even against these why 1. Such things which though some scruple are necessary to Government yes by all means when things necessary to Government are put in the ballance with the peace and safety of his Dominions they ought to turn the beam but this is freely granted that if mens scruples would overturn Government they must scruple on at their own peril But now we are ready to join issue with him upon this point That the things scrupled are neither necessary or any ways advantageous to the Being well-being or Glorious being of this or any Government The Roman Empire was in its greatest Glory at its highest pitch when the Apostles Baptized without the sign of the Cross and preacht without the Holy Garment The Christian Religion naked and plain as Christ left it had not the least evil or malignant influence upon the peace of that Empire Though it was the Policy of its enemies then to clap all the Commotions that arose upon other accounts upon the back of the Christian Doctrine It was the popular cry These are the men that have turned the world upside down And when the Judgments of God broke out upon them for their persecutions still to clamour Tollitâ—… Impios Christianos ad Leones Away with such Fellows 't is not sit they live a day Nay it 's evident that many Nations have prospered both in war and peace by land and sea who never knew the Ceremonies and none the better for them 2. Such things which are grateful to the greater or more considerable part of the subjects Those are such things which counterballance tender Consciences and the peace and safety of his Dominions I suspect the Enquirer to be a raw Statesmâ—…n as well as a crude Casuist what would he have a Prince destroy one half of his subjects to graetify the other half The Apostle has offered a rational expedient that the one may be gratified and yet the other not destroyed 14. Romans 3. â—…et not him that eateth despise him that eateth not And let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth They to whom Ceremonies are so grateful sawce may have their fill of them and must they needs compel squeaâ—…ish stomacks to feed on the same Dish The gratefulness of Ceremonies to some mens fancies is no solid Reason why a consâ—…rable though not the more
suffer a less cruel death then his Patron Pollio had doomed him to Augustus was surprized and upon enquiry into the matter understands that this Boy had accidentally broken some of his Masters Chrystal Glasses wherein he greatly delighted for which fact his furious Master had inhumanely condemned him to be thrown into a Pond there to be devoured by the Canibal Lampreys And this was the Reason of his so confident Application to the grace of Soveraign Majesty Augustus transported with the novelty of so Barbarous punishment commanded the rest of the Glasses to be broken and the Fish-pond to be filled up That there might either be no occasion for such passion or not the means to execute it Let therefore the Enquirer know who with his smooth Praelatical Charity has given up Dissenters to the Rods and Axes that they will Honour and obey the King under all those penalties which it shall please his wisdom to inflict And if they cannot be so serviceable in well-doing will endeavour to suffer for well-doing with a heart so submissive and a conversation so inoffensive that shall make their enemies more repine at the Glory of their sufferings then the eye-sore of their indulgence Nor yet dare they despair of the clemency of their Soveraign who having suffered hard things in his own sacred person has learnt to pitty them who do suffer But if this Compassionate Enquiry be all the instruction they must expect for their Satisfaction the Non-conformists may have Reason to say they are illfed and worse taught CHAP. IX Wherein the Enquirers insinuated Detractions are refelled some little Artifices discovered Calvin vindicated and the whole concluded DEtraction differs from Contumely just as Theft from Robbery by the Highway The Slaunderer is but a Pickpoket the Reviler a Padder the one can dexterously do the feat and carry of his prize with a cast of cleanly conveyance but the soulmouth'd Rayler attacques the repute of the innocent â—…i Armis and pleads his Commission to plunder The Serious Enquirer in some of his former Chapters has with downright Oblequy assaulted the credit of Dissenters but in this he proceeds more discreetly undermining their Reputations by oblique infinuations and indirect suggestions whereby he has gained this singular advantage that whilst he lays before the Malicious sufficient matter to seed and furnish their malice yet lyes close under the covert of this excuse that he affirms nothing positively at once taking from the aggrieved party all possibility of just defence and sheltring himself under the Politick plea of not being Dogmatical The design of all which as of his whole elaborate discourse he could not more fully instruct us in then in those few words of his pag. 221. It was an effectual course Haman took Esth. 3. 8. When he designing to ruine the whole Church of the Iews first undermines the Reputation of their Prosession delates their Religion as not fit for the Protection of the Prince and that it did contain Laws contrary to all people and that they would not obey the Kings Laws So solemn and sacred is that practise to love the Treason and hate the Traytor to imitate the Policy and yet decry the Politician But sure our Enquirer is quite out in one thing for though Haman's Policy was subtle yet it proved not effectual unless he account a pair of Gallows such great success and therefore I hope the Enquirer will accept it as a specimen of my Charity if I pray that he may never take an effectual course Examples indeed are numerous and obvious which prove that wicked Counsels have most perniciously recoiled upon their Authors and Phaleris in this one thing most just taught Perillus the sweetness of his own Brazen Bull by giving the Artificer the first handsale of his ingenicus contrivance Nec lex est justior ulla Quà m necis Artificâ—…s arte perire suâ § 1. Now his first insâ—…nuation is that the N. C. stand out only upon a Point of Honour I cannot see says he what should be able to perpetuate our Distractions unless it be a point of Honour that some men think themselves obliged to persevere because they have begun which sly Method of Detraction as it may safely be contemned by the innocent so as easily retorted by the confident for others perhaps cannot see what should be able to perpetuate their persecutions unless it be a point of Honour that some men think themselves obliged to persevere in their rigorous impositions because they have begun and had rather justify an errour then have it thought they have been in one so long It 's a most unrighteous procedure to charge any man with base and unworthy designs further then pregnant overtures will justify such a charge and yet A. B. Whitguift has given the world too great occasion for such a jealousy that it was a Point of honour that obstracted a Reformation when his great Argument to defeat the Pious intentions of the Parliament was that it would tend to the slaunder of the Church as having hetherto maintained an errour Nay I have read in the Grand Debate Sect. 6. That the Reverend Prelates authorized to Reform the Liturgy insist upon this as one Reason of their non-condescension to more alterations That it would be a virtual Concession that the Liturgy was an intolerable burden to tender Consciences But a few considerations would rout a Legion of such ungrounded suggestions As. 1. That the applause of inconsiderable persons must needs be very inconsiderable and that credit small which is gained amongst those who are of small credit in the World Ad 2ly That the temptation lyes visibly on the other side He that would drive a gainful Trade for Credit and Honour must settle his Factory where such Commodities are native and staple He may gape for Dignities and Honours till he is Chap fallen whose Conscience shall cast his lot amongst the Dissenters and when he has Angled all day may come home with a Diverbe I have fight fair and caught a Frog And. 3. Sure no wise man would purchase honourable scars with mortal wounds nor incur the displeasure of Armed power only to wear the Cognizance of foolish valour in Black and Blew 'T is a slender alleviation of those loads of reproach which they feel besides those greater severities which they may fear to wear a Feather in their Caps and the aiery plume of popular applause Nay 4. Let this Gentleman make it his own case and learn to judge more moderately Suppose it were enacted by Law That to practise the Ceremonies should be punisht with suspension ab officio beneficio would he upon a point of Honour espouse their quarrel or would the waxen wings of Fame support his courage under those penalties Why then should he judge that corruption colodge in the breast of another which he would not harbour in his own And yet I must needs say that the good name and moderate Repute of every Christian much
clear places has put all this out of dispute who were most severe in their obedience under the most severe persecutions Thus Tertullian in Apolog. Cap. 30. Nos pro salute Imperatorum Deum invocamus Precantes sumus pro omnibus Imperatoribus vitam illis prolixam imperium securum domum tutam exercitus fortes Senatum fidelem populum probum orbem quietum quaecunque hominis Caesaris vota sunt We pray to God for the safety of our Emperour that God would give them a long life a peaceable Government that he would preserve the Royal Family that he would vouchsafe them a faithful Council a Loyal People a quiet world valiant Armies and what soever their own wishes can desâ—…re Thus Dionysius in his Apology for the Christians in the persecution under verus Nos unum Deum colimus veneramur omnium fabricatorem huic etiam sine intermissione pro eorum regno ut firmum stabile Maneat preces adhibemus We worship says he and adore only one God the Creatour of All things and to him we powr out our prayers night and day that the Government of our Emperours may abide firm and unshaken They that would plead Christianus sum I cannot conform would as sincerely say Christianus sum I dare not resist There is then no Question but that we are all upon pain of eternal damnation bound to obey the Civil Magistrate and all that are sent by him in all civil things which are not demonstrably sinful according to the Municipal Laws but the Question will meet us again though we avoid it How farr their power extends in matters of Immediate worship and things directly within the verge of Conscience wherein possibly I can yeeld as farr as another though I would proceed upon better grounds then the Enquirer has layd down which now I come te examine § 1. The New Testament says he no where excepts the case of Religion Answer 1. No where excepts it Ay but where dâ—…s â—…he New or Old express and include it I was in hopes thaâ—… according to his promise he would have proved that the Magistrate exceeds not his Commission in determining the thinâ—… under debate and he puts us of with this They are not excepted out of his commission He that Acts by Commission must have his powers authorized by his Commission Suppose a Prince should issue out a Commission to certain Delegates to hear and Determine all Differences relating to the Forrest and they shall intermeddle with affaires that are out of the Purlieus will it be thought enough to say These places are not excluded their Commission 2. Nor do I except the case of Religion out of the Magistrates Commission but only Humbly enquire of the Enquirer how farr the Commission extends in Religious matters To this he gives us an Answer I mean so farr as Circumstantials and those things which God himself hath not defined But this will either destroy all again or not mend the matters one jot for 1. I no where find that God has excepted Substantials more then Circumstantials out of his Commission In what respect the one is included the other is so and in what respect the one is excluded the other is so that is both are included for his preservation and both excluded as to his alteration of adding to or subtracting from them If a Commission be produced that the Magistrate shall guide me in all acceptable external instituted Worship excepting the substantials thereof I have enough for exceptio in non exceptis firmat Regulam The exception of substantials would more strongly include the Circumstantials And therefore I am affraid he will not produce a Commission that excepts substantials Let it be substance or Circumstance let men invent what Terms or Names they please If in the outward exercise of Religion Christians shall disturbe the peace they shall know and find that the Magistrate has a coercive power that will reach them and all their outward Actions for the assecurating that peace wherewith God has entrusted him To give Almes is an Act a substantial Act of Religion yet if any Pharisaical spirit shall sound his Trumpet to draw a concourse of people after him and thus turn the trumpet of Religion into a trumpet of Rebellion if he shall make Sacramentum pictatis vinculum iniquitatis He and his Act come within the Magistrates Commission And yet it extends not to Alter an Act of Religion but to suppress a Design of faction and sedition 2. Such an exception as he fancies in the Magistrates Commission as it no where appears so would it be purely nugatory did it appear unless we had withal some infallible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to discriminate the Circumstantials from the substantials Otherwise either he might encroach upon the substantials under the Notion of Circumstantials or a refractary people would be alwayes crossing and thwarting his determinations under pretence that the substantials were invaded when he was only modelling and ordering the Innocent Circumstantials And thus as the sea and the land are alwayes eating into each others Liberties or as in some Nations where prerogative and propriety are not equally ballanced the one is beating up the others Quarters perpetually so would there be an unappeasable warr between these Substantials and Circumstantials which like the Marches between two Kingdoms of no firm correspondence would be ever subject to the longer and sharper sword But Christ has not left these concerns at such a loose end § 2. He argues thus If they have not power in such matters of Religion as we speak of it 's manifest they have no Magistracy or legislative power at all in Religion I will deal freely with our Enquirer for ought I know to the contrary they have this power and a farr greater power in the Matters of Religion wâ—…hreof he speaks for I do not yet understand what those Matters of Religion are whereof he speaks but to answer as well as I can conjecture at his intentions 1. I know not what a Legislative power in Religion means in the hands of any but the Lord Iesus Christ. The Scripture has told us 4. Jam. 12. That there is one Law-giver who is able to save or to destroy He that can eternally save upon obedience or eternally damn upon disobedience may securely challenge a legislative power over the Church It 's certain from hence that Christ is the only Law-giver to his Church in some sense and in what sense that should be but that he alone can impose matters of immediate worship upon the Conscience I cannot tell He that denies Christ to be the only Legislator at this day may with equal Reason deny him to be the only Iudge in the Great Day and it 's not worth the while for a few Ceremonies to loose one of the Articles of our Creed Hetherto a General Council has been thought to have the Highest visible power on earth to make Laws for the Church and yet the Church of