just as reasonable as to make an Engine to draw Mens Bodies into the same Dimensions We have no wild Liberty for Adamites to run about the Streets or Enthusiasts to disturb us in the time of Divine Service but the Church of England is secur'd in its Legal Establishments and a Liberty to Dissenters has received the Sanction of a Law Now that Maxim Salus populi suprema lex est appears in its Beauty being writ upon all the Actions of our King and not us'd by the People in Opposition to Monarchy Now the other Maxim Bono principi inservire est optima libertas is rightly applied being writ upon the Actions of the People both in and out of Parliament and not us'd by the King to enslave his People The Courage and Conduct of our King and the Wealth and Valour of the People have once more made Great Britain a happy Nation and the Arbiter of the Fate of Europe The Glory of His Majesty in procuring the late stupendious Peace and restoring to our Neighbours their Ravish'd Liberties is as much greater than that of Alexander Pompey Caesar or of any other of the Fam'd Conquerors as 't is more Glorious to hinder the World from being Conquer'd than to Conquer the World to save Mens Lives than to destroy them And what was said of the Romans who Restor'd Liberty to the Conquer'd Cities of Greece in the Days of Flaminius is more Emphatically true concerning His Majesty and his Loyal Subjects That at last there are a Prince and a People in the World born for the Safety of all others that crost Seas and made Wars at their own Costs and Peril to relieve the Oppressed to establish Laws and cause them to be observed and to maintain the Publick Security throughout the whole Earth But this is a Subject fit to fill a Volumn and not to be cram'd into a Parenthesis in a Preface and therefore I must hasten to what I principally intended And notwithstanding Matters in the State are so happily adjusted and Persecution ceases to be the Reproach of the Church yet we are still on very ill Terms among our selves in Matters of Religion and to make the following Discourse more intelligible as well as the Design of the Author I must a little consider the Grounds and Causes of our Divisions When by the Divine Mercy we had escapt out of the Tyranny of Rome and the Protestant Religion became the National Religion of England Ignorance was lamentably visible not only in the Laity but Clergy and whoever looks over the Lists of the Indocti Mediocriter Docti Docti into which Classes the Clergy were divided will plainly see the Necessity of the Forms of Prayer and Homilies so much complain'd of And as the Clergy's Ignorance made these things necessary so the First Reformers thought it their Wisdom to make the Transition from Popery to Protestant Religion as Vndiscernable as might be for this reason while they took away other Parts of the Clergy's Habits they left the Surplice that People might not miss the other Trinkets while they took away Transubstantiation they left the Posture of Kneeling which was much more sensible than the Doctrine while they took away the Adoration of the Cross they nevertheless continued it at Baptism though they threw off the Latin Service they kept a Liturgy in English while they Renounc'd the Authority of the Bishop of Rome they nevertheless continued the same Arch-Bishops and Bishops in the same Provinces and Sees This Conduct they hop'd wou'd have brought the Papists to Church and it had that effect for some time but after that the English Refugees who went hence in the Reign of Queen Mary returned from among the Learned and Pious Reformers abroad who had gone quite through the Work of Reformation perhaps a Step too far the Clergy of England fell into two Parties one Party were for finding out Means of Reconciliation with Rome and bringing the Pope to Terms The other Party were for Accommodating Matters and Forming an Union between the English Church and Foreign Protestant Churches but there having been much fewer Non-Conformists found among the Clergy upon the Change of Religion made by Queen Elizabeth in Substantials than that made by King Charles the Second in Circumstantials the Party which inclined to Rome were much the stronger and most prevalent at Court. And although the State of Rome was generally opposed yet the Church of Rome was much hanker'd after though most were against the Pope's Supremacy yet many were for allowing him to be Principium Unitatis On the other side the most Learned and Pious of the Clergy were for the other Union Accordingly those that enclin'd towards Rome were extreamly fond of the Ceremonies that their Coalition with the Holy See might be the more easie From using the Cross at Baptism they might easily proceed to its farther use from Kneeling at the Sacrament they might take an occasion of Believing Transubstantiation or letting it alone that they might easily slip on something more upon the Surplice they had hopes to prevail with Rome to allow the Liturgy in English and while they kept up the Difference of Order between Bishops and Presbyters they were capable not only of arriving at the Lordship of a Bishop and at the Grace of an Arch-bishop but upon the Coalition had a Prospect of the Eminency of a Cardinal and the Holiness of a Pope They were for allowing Sports on the Lord's Day and for Holidays and a Religion that Men might wear Genteely for Singing Prayers which makes little difference between Latin and English in Point of Edification especially in that Time when very few cou'd read They were fond of God-fathers and God-mothers Bowing at the Name of Jesus and to the Altar and setting the Communion-Table Altar-wise On the other side the Pious Puritan Bishops were for Union with the Protestants abroad who scrupled most of these things and were for that Reason for taking these things away or at least for leaving them indifferent They were indeed for the pure Primitive Episcopacy and I conceive had they seen the following Discourse would generally have Subscribed thereto And this is in Truth the Reason that so many are to this Day so extreamly fond of things which they themselves account to be indifferent in their own Nature and which others take to be sinful The Grotian and Cassandrian Design was the good work in hand so much applauded by Arch-bishop Laud and his Adherents and Followers and Oppos'd by the Arch-bishops Abbot and Usher the Bishops Hall Davenant and others And this is the true Difference between the High Church and Low Church as they are called to this Day And here I cann't without great and pungent sorrow lament the Misery of the Church of England for almost a whole Century By this Means Protestant Religion which lies in those things wherein both sides agree and even Morality it self hath been little regarded and Mens Zeal for the most part
hath been imployed in this Controversie 'T is better to be Papists than Presbyterians Put the Laws in Execution against Dissenters was the Cry on the one side and the Dissenters oft in fits dragg'd to the Court Spiritual and a Lay-Chancellor having said I Admonish you I Admonish you I Admonish you away they were sent to the Devil On the other side Conformity was aggravated to the utmost and condemned as Anti-Christian Some have run from the noise of a Reader in the Church saying They heard the Devil And others refus'd to hear a Reverend Devine in a Meeting-House because he had by License preach'd in a Church I confess such Follies were not common I mention them as prodigious Effects of Controversies about Indifferent Things but yet by Persecution on the one hand and Exasperation on the other both sides did generally depart from the true Spirit of Christianity And if the printed Discourses on both sides be well considered and an Impartial Inquisitor were in search for Christians by our Saviour's Character By this shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples Job 13.35 if ye love one another How few had he found worthy the Christian Name If any thing which I have offer'd in the Following Discourse may tend to Restore Christianity among us to its Primitive Purity and to hasten its Promis'd Peace in the Christian World it will increase my Thankfulness to Him who gave me Being But whatever the Success of these Sheets may be I 'm sure they take a very all way to oppose Persecution and to Restore the Christian Spirit who endeavour to overthrow the Fundamentals of Christianity The Arians were at first profest Enemies to Persecution but as soon as they had Power proved the greatest Persecutors And Men worse than they in their Principles will not be better in their Practices whatever Moderation they may pretend And although my Saviour hath taught me That I ought not to call for fire from Heaven on those that will not receive Him Luk. 9.55 2 Pet. 2.1 Yet seeing the Apostle Peter having Prophecy'd of such who should bring in damnable Heresies in denying the Lord that bought them adds That they shall bring upon themselves swift destruction 'T is certainly dangerous to put Power into the Hands of Men of such Principles lest they involve the Government in their own Ruin I aim at no Man by this Reflection and I desire to Excuse no Man whom the Character will fit especially if they agree with the full Description of those dangerous Men Prophecy'd of by the Apostle Peter who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness 2 Pet. 2.10 and despise government having eyes full of Adultery and that can't cease from sin who while they promise Men Liberty are themselves the servants of corruption Certainly 't is every Christian's Duty to take the Advice of the Apostle Jude who describing the same Men exhorts us to contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. The late Act therefore against Blaspheming does rather Promote than Disserve the Design of this Discourse And if this attempt may stir up the Spirits of others whose Parts and Qualifications are equal to such an Vndertaking to offer better Means to the same end In magnis voluisse sat est I shall greatly rejoice to be Confuted by Proposals of better Expedients For were the Peace of the Christian World Establisht on Foundation-Truths it would be with all the Sons of Peace without regard to their Lesser or Greater Eminency as it was with the Heavenly Host at their first Creation they will not envy each other their Degrees of Excellencies Job 38.7 but the Morning-Stars will sing together and all the Sons of God shout for Joy Books Printed for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultry A Free Discourse wherein the Doctrines which make for Tyranny are Display'd the Title of our Rightful and Lawful King William Vindicated and the Unreasonableness and Mischievous Tendency of the Odious Distinction of a King De Facto and De Jure Discover'd By the Honourable Sir Robert Howard Oct. An Effort against Biggotry and for Christian Catholicism By Henry Chandler Quarto Remarks on a late Discourse of William Lord Bishop of Derry concerning the Inventions of Men in the Worship of God With a Vindication of the Remarks from what is Objected against them in his Lordships Admonition By J. Boyse Octavo A Preservative against Deism shewing the Great Advantage of Revelation above Reason in the two great Points Pardon of Sin and a Future State of Happiness With an Appendix in Answer to a Letter of A. W. against Revealed Religion in the Oracles of Reason By Nath. Taylor Octavo Mr. Woodhouse Mr. Shower Mr. Williams Mr. Alsop and Mr. Calamy's Sermons Preach'd to the Societies for Reformation of Manners in the City of London Octavo Catholicism WITHOUT POPERY An ESSAY to Render the Church of England a Means and a Pattern of Union to the Christian World NO Arguments against the Protestant Religion have been Improved with equal success to those which are drawn from the Unity of the Roman Church and the Innumerable Divisions among Protestants and although each Point in Controversie between us and Rome hath been so discussed as to set the Truth of the Protestant Cause in the clearest Light yet the Popish Dragoons and the Protestant Divisions still pervert the World 'T is true that there is no Argument in Dragooning and I hope it will appear in a short time that there is as little in the other Topick yet the same Men who scarce know how to submit their Senses to Transubstantiation are by those very Senses induced to Popery while they see Divisions or feel Dragooning The last of these Popish Arguments is not to be Confuted by a Pen in its Practice and needs no Confutation in the Theory being not Defensible otherwise than by main force But the former requires most Serious Consideration not so much to evince that nothing can be concluded from those Divisions against the Truth of Protestant Religion as to take away the very Topick it self The great and substantial Division of England is taken to be into Church-Men and Dissenters and again Church-Men are subdivided into High Church and Low Church and many will be called Church-Men who are indeed of no Church and these last having nothing but the Name are not the Subjects of Christian Vnity But yet nevertheless through the Iniquity of the late Reigns the best mark of a Church-Man was never to come to Prayers and the most scandalous Life the surest Evidence of a true Son of the Church All Sober Men were called Presbyterians and no Man was supposed able to observe his Baptismal Vow and the Oath of Allegiance both together as if in this Sense it were impossible to serve God and Mammon This and some other things seem to have put the true Notion of the Church of England out of Mens
Heads and to make it obnoxious to the Romanists for its Invisibility And hence upon the Happy Revolution it was a Question between a very Eminent and Learned Prelate Vox Cleri P. 68. and the Prolocutor of the late Convocation What it was that distinguish'd the Church of England from other Protestant Churches The Bishop rightly affirming That the Church of England is an Equivocal Expression and was not distinguished from other Protestant Churches but by its Hierarchy and Revenues And the Prolocutor asserting That the Church of England was distinguished by its Doctrine as it stands in the Articles Liturgy and Homilies as well as by its Hierarchy And although since His Majestys happy Accession to the Throne His Pious and Princely Care of the Church hath fill'd the Archi-Episcopal and Episcopal Seats with Men of Consummate Piety Learning and Moderation whereby and by giving the Royal Assent to the Act for Indulgence He hath been our Deliverer from Tyranny in the Church as well as in the State yet it cannot be forgotten how during the Prevalency of the High Church Party in the late Reigns not Kneeling at the Sacrament not Baptizing with the Cross Hearing in Congregations which are Churches of Christ within the Definition given by the Articles of the Church were Prosecuted with the greatest Violence and Men cast out of the Church for those Reasons while Men of the most Profligate Lives Swore D n them they were for the Church of England and were admitted to the Sacrament without reserve That great Numbers of the sober Serious Subjects of England were kept out from that which was called the Church for Conscience sake and all the Prophane and Vicious let in that were willing to enter That those things that would make a Man Holy on Earth and prepare for Heaven yet would not let him into the Church and that he might be a beloved Member thereof who was not fit to live on the Earth and made most visible haste to the Devil These and the like considerations made me wonder that no Man had concerned himself to tell us plainly What the Church of England is And since the Cant of that Party is still The Church the Church I will like an Honest Lay-Christian that is not any way infected with Priest-Craft return a short Answer to the Question which may be at least of use to put some Body upon explaining it better The Articles of the Church to which all the Clergy have Subscribed and to most of which since His Majesty's happy Accession to the Throne the Dissenting Ministers have also subscrib'd expresly Teach us That the Visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of Faithful Men Article XIX in which the Pure Word of God is Preached and the Sacraments be duly Ministred according to Christ's Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same Now whether this Description be meant of the Universal Church or of a single Congregation 't is thence an easie Conclusion That the Church of England is that Part of the Universal Church which is Compos'd of all the Congregations of Faithful Men in England in which the Pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments duly Ministred according to Christ's Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same And if this Description be allowed 't is impossible to exclude the Presbyterian Independant and Antipaedobaptist Churches from being Part of the Church of England Of the Antipaedobaptist may be the greatest doubt because they deny Infants to be capable Subjects of Baptism but nevertheless that Error excludes them not out of this Description for to the Subjects they allow to be capable and of which their whole Communion consists the Sacraments are duly Administred according to Christ's Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same It is therefore a wonderful thing to hear Men on one side loudly declare in the Presence of God and the Congregation That they Believe the Holy Catholick Church and yet calling their Brethren that go under those several Denominations Phanaticks Hypocrites and other odious Names and Excommunicating them out of the Church And it is no less wonderful on the other side to hear some under those several Denominations accusing those that conform to the Establisht Ceremonies with Antichristianism and denying the Church of England to be a True Church when they themselves have Subscribed to that very Article and Five or Six and Thirty more of their Thirty Nine and are really Part of the same Church And this one Consideration Justifies the Practice of those who condemn the Imposition of unnecessary things by Communicating with the Moderate Dissenters and condemn the Separating Censorious and Schismatical Humour wherever sound amongst the Dissenters by Communicating with the Conformable Part of the Church And indeed it seems to be little considered by the Generality of Protestants how great the Agreement is between all the said Parties They have the same Rules of Faith Manners and Devotion for they own the same Scripture to be of Divine Authority and a perfect Rule of Faith and Life the same Creeds are Profest by them all the same Ten Commandments are acknowledged by them all as the Divine Law and they agree to our Saviours Exposition thereof and to all the Precepts and the Ordinances and Sacraments of the Christian Religion they have the same Object of Worship the same Mediator the Inspiration of the same Holy Spirit they have the same Objects of their Hopes and Fears they fly from the same Wrath and expect the same Glory Again these several Parties do condemn the Twelve new Articles of the Roman Faith all the Idolatries of the Mass Image-Worship Praying to Saints and Angels and for the Dead Monkery 1 Tim. 4.1 2. with all the Doctrines of Demons invented by the Hypocrisy of those Lyars nor do any of them retain any thing substantial in Doctrine or Practice introduc'd by the Apostacy of the Latter Times The Disagreement among them lies only about Imposing and Refusing Circumstances of Worship Observation of Days the Use of Habits and Gestures of Forms and Ceremonies and Unscriptural Forms of Church-Government and about Subscriptions and Oaths and Laws made to enforce Mens own Inventions All which I shall briefly touch when I have in the following Propositions endeavour'd to shew what are the true Terms of Union for the whole Christian World and how all the above-mention'd Parties may enjoy this their Unity in the Church of England When our Saviour condemn'd the Jewish Divorce he grounded his Sentence upon this Foundation From the Beginning it was not so and to discover the true Terms of Christian Unity we must look back to the Rise of Christian Religion CHRISTIANITY came into this World Pure and Free without the Jewish Yoak of beggarly Elements without the Heathen Niceties of painful Rights and Ceremonies It taught to Worship God in Spirit and Truth bound Men to no
when all the ends of the Earth shall fear him Psal 67.7 and his Name will never be Hallow'd to purpose Mat. 6.9 10. nor his Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven till this Kingdom of his be come Third Proposition The Methods which Men have taken to attain Peace have been various Conquerors have endeavour'd it by making Mankind Slaves and reducing the World under an Universal Monarchy Mark 9.38 Luke 9.49 54. The Apostles themselves began to be Tempted by the Antichristian Spirit and were for bringing all under their Master by Silencing first and then by Fire from Heaven Popes have attempted it The Reason of this is Plain if the Pope be Antichrist and his Reign extended to 1260 Years by pretending to Infallibility and Councils by making Canons Some Places have labour'd to attain it by an Inquisition and others by Penal-Laws concerning doubtful Matters of Speculation And of them all except the Apostles who were afterwards better Instructed we must conclude with the Apostle The way of Peace they have not known or at least not practised to walk therein Fourth Proposition Ever since the Fall of Man this Lower Creation hath been a Stage of War Gen. 3.15 the Seed of the Woman and of the Serpent have been in constant Action 1 John 3.8 Our Saviour came to Destroy the Works of the Devil Eph. 2.2 whilst the Spirit that works in the Children of Disobedience keeps up his Works with all Diligence and therefore there is no Peace saith God Isai 57.21 to the Wicked Peace without Holiness is impossible and the World seeks it in vain The Apostle Instructs us to follow Peace with all Men and Holiness Hebr. 12.14 and the Prophet assures us Isai 32.17 That the Work of Righteousness shall be Peace and the Effect of Righteousness Quietness and Assurance for ever And that when God hath wrought all our Works in us Isai 26.12 He will Ordain Peace for us Fifth Proposition It is therefore Impudent Folly for men to Apprehend that they can have Peace with one another while they are at open Enmity with God He that hath all Mens Hearts in His hand will manage them so that his own Word shall be Establish'd if Men will not join in the Practice of Things in the Theory of which they all agree they will be still the Instruments of Divine Vengeance on one another And therefore if Magistrates would labour for Peace they must lay the Foundation thereof in the Reformation of Manners and be very Cautious of making Laws about Matters of Speculation For our Saviour hath told us John 1.17 That if any will do his Will he shall know of the Doctrine the way to know more is to Practise what we do know Otherwise Sixth Proposition While Men Dispute with Vehemency and turn Divinity into the most Abstruse and Exquisite fine Notions they make Christianity unintelligible and distinguish all Religion out of the World They Impose on the Credulous confound mean Capacities divide Christians into Sects and every Sect Adores its own Distinguishing Character till if the Question be what Religion a Man is of 'T is Answer'd A PAPIST A CHVRCH OF ENGLAND MAN A PRESBYTERIAN AN INDEPENDENT AN ANTIPOEDO BAPTIST But no Man does and who can truly answer I 'm a Christian Seventh Proposition True Religion is the Bond of Union Isai 11.9 When the Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea Isai 2.4 Mich. 4.3 then Men shall beat their Swords into Plow-shares and their Spears into Pruning-hooks Then Nation shall not lift up Sword against Nation nor shall they learn War any more then nothing shall hurt or destroy in all God's Holy Mountain And since it is evident that although Actions are Belief is not within the Power and Reach of Humane Law and that the Generality of Mankind never will without a Miraculous Power and Extraordinary Revelation agree on the Matters so hotly Disputed even among Protestants 't is worth the while to consider what are the probable Means which the Scripture hath Reveal'd and which it is our Duty to Use for attaining an Universal Peace among Christians There is a Rock on which our Saviour promis'd to build his Church that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it So solemn a Promise requires a Serious Consideration for as the Papists taking it to be the Person of Peter and his Successors have by that Mistake concerning this Rock laid the Foundation of the Antichristian Kingdom so the Kingdom of CHRIST MEDIATOR is truly and surely built upon this Rock which our Saviour intends in that Promise and that is Matt. 16.18 That JESVS CHRIST IS THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD. Ye believe in God John 14.1 believe also in me was the Substance of our Saviour's Doctrine and the Apostles Creed I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God was Martha's Creed Mark 16.18 John 11.17 And he that Confesseth That Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh God dwelleth in him and he in God John 1.4 It is the end of Writing the Gospel and this saith the Apostle is the Word of Faith That if we confess with our Mouth the Lord Jesus John 20.31 Rom. 10.8 9. and believe in our Hearts that God hath raised him from the Dead we shall be saved And accordingly upon his Profession of the Creed Acts 8.37 I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God the Ethiopian Eunuch who before believed in God was Baptised and the words of Baptism instructed him as they do us in the Foundation of the Christian Church And before any other Creed was made the Effect of this Creed was Miraculous both with respect to the Holy Lives of those that profess'd it and the great Encrease of the Number of such Now what was sufficient in the first Ages was so to after-Ages and is so now 1 Cor. 3.11 For other Foundation can no Man lay than that which is laid already was a Truth in St. Paul's Time The Apostles Creed and the other Creeds subscribed to by the Church of England are not Additions to but Paraphrases of this Creed or Truths which necessarily follow from the Belief thereof and many of the Articles thereof were added in After-Ages in contradiction to the several Heresies which rose at several Times to the endangering that Foundation For Instance Iraeneus Adv. Haeres Lib. 1. cap. 19 20 21 22 23 c. all the Hereticks mention'd by Iraeneus wherewith the Devil vext the Church for the first Three Hundred Years were for a Plurality of Created Gods whom they held also to be Creators and for this reason it should seem were those Words MAKER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH added which were not in the Creed called the Apostles for many Years as appears in the Symbol recited by Marcellus Ancyranus in the Confession of Faith which he
of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion Thirdly Whether the Administration of Publick Astairs may not be in the Hands of Persons who are not of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion nay of Men of opposite Principles without Confusion or tearing the Government in pieces between them and whether they may not notwithstanding draw together the same way for the Publick Good Fourthly Whether it is sit that the Corporation and Test Acts should be enfore'd or Repealed Fifthly Whether upon the whole Matter the Occasional Conformist may not be admitted into Publick Offices and Employments relating to the Government consistently with the Safety of the Established Government both in Church and State with the Wisdom of the English Nation and with the Practice of some wise Governments in the World And as to the first I answer that the Occasional Conformist is a sincere Member of the National Church who heartily approves of the Laws of the Land and chearfully pays Obedience to them and he and the Church-men are not of opposite Principles but of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion If the Church-man whom you suppose the only Person fit for an Office be one that troubles not himself about Religion but believes as the Church believes and does as he sees others do I neither can judge of his Principles nor his Perswasion in Matters of Religion but if he have espoused the Religion of the Church of England with consideration and can give a Reason of the Faith or Hope that is in him he knows that the Religion of this National Church is all to be found in the Bible He is taught by the sixth Article of that Church that Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any Man that it should be believ'd as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation The Reason given by the 8th Article why the three Creeds ought throughly to be received and believed is for that they may be proved by most certain Warrants of Holy Scripture And as to Creeds so as to Councils we are taught by the 21st Article that things Ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither Strength nor Authority only as it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture Now the Occasional Conformists are herein intirely of the same mind they agree intirely in the Creeds the Lord's Prayer the Ten Commandments as contained in the Decalogue and as explained by our Saviour In the two Sacraments and every Part and Article that any Protestant can have any Colour to call a part of Christianity But I have not Inclination nor can it be expected that I should particularize every Head and Point of Religion wherein they agree but should be glad to be informed by you of any Article of Religion or Point of Doctrine wherein they differ for no Man ever called Rites and Ceremonies of humane Institution Principles or Matters of Religion I must own that they are not fully satisfied in the large Sense of that Passage in the 20th Article That the Church hath Power to decree Rites and Ceremonies nor that as the 34th Article expresses it it is sufficient as to the Ceremonies that nothing be Ordained against God's Word if the Opposition of God's Word be intended a particular express Opposition but they are of opinion that to make any Rites or Ceremonies of Humane Institution necessary to Communion especially as is aforesaid to make them Terms of Separation from the rest of the Catholick Church is against God's Word but they are extricated out of this Difficulty by the last Clause of the 34th Article it being plain by long and pungent Experience that the Ordaining of such Rites and Ceremonies is not among the Things that have been done so edifying or if this should fail yet your said Oracle is express that the 39 Articles are required from no Layman a Licence for which no Occasional Conformist will thank him The Romanists by such Ordinance have indeed edified their Babel and from things not contrary have proceeded to ordain things destructive to Christianity and so in some Measure are all such Ordinances which differ as much from Religion as Christianity does from Priestcraft But to bring this Matter a little closer I hope to make it plain that not only the Occasional Conformist but the Presbyterian and the Independent are of the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion with the Church-man and not of opposite Principles and that nothing but gross Ignorance or a wilful blind Prejudice has kept Men of either Party from being convinc'd of this Truth And to make this evident I take leave to acquaint you with plain Matter of Fact You well know that in the late times the Assembly of Divines at Westminster as also the Kirk of Scotland agreed in a Catechism called the Assemblies shorter Catechism And this Catechism was also agreed to by the Synod of the Independent Divines met at the Savoy Now after the Restauration of King Charles the 2d and particularly some time before the Popish Plot a mighty Zeal appeared against that Catechism in the Men of your Party and if I mistake not this Catechism was publickly burnt at Oxford But it happened that one Mr. Thomas Adams formerly fellow of Brazen-Nose-Colledge in Oxford being convinc'd of the Truth of what I am endeavouring to prove he in the Year 1675 wrote a Discourse Entituled The Main Principles of Christian Religion in 107 short Articles or Aphorisms generally received as being proved from Scripture now further cleared and confirmed by the Consonant Doctrine Recorded in the Articles and Homilies of the Church of England under 4 Heads Of things to be Explained 1. Believed comprehended in the Creed 2. Done in the Ten Commandments 3. Practiced in the Gospel particularly two Sacraments 4. Prayed for in the Lord's Prayer Which Discourse was Licensed Sold well and received a Second Edition in 1677 which I have but alass it was at last discovered that the 107 Articles were the Answers to the 107 Questions of the Assemblies Shorter Catechism and that hated Book was thus disper'd under the Patronage of the Articles and Homilies of the Church of England And if you will please to peruse this Book I suppose you will need no other Proof that the Occasional Conformist Presbyterian Independent and the Church-man are not of opposite Principles but of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion and the Acceptation which that Discourse met with puts me in mind of a like Passage relating to the Sorbon to whom your Oracle above-mention'd desires that the Church of England may be united for when Abbas le Roy Publish'd a Discourse in France without naming the Author being a most Elegant and Pious Oration or Prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ for obtaining the Grace of a perfect Conversion the
Catholicism WITHOUT POPERY AN ESSAY To Render the Church of ENGLAND A Means and a Pattern of UNION TO THE Christian World LONDON Printed for I. Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultry 1699. Advertisement THE Reader is desired to take Notice of Two Things 1. That this Discourse is not Written by the Direction Assistance or Advice of any Person or Party whatsoever nor with the Privity of any in Authority but is the meer and only Result of the Author 's own Thoughts who makes it his Request that the Reader wou'd forget that it has an Author and take it as if it were produc'd by the casual falling together of the Letters of the Alphabet it being too common a thing for Men to slight Truth if they approve not of him that utters it and to indulge Error if recommended by the Author's Name And yet at the same time let the Reader be assur'd that the Author is not afraid that the World should know what he earnestly desires may be conceal'd for the Reason aforesaid 2. That for the same Reason divers Passages are made use of therein without referring to the Books whence they are taken there being in so learned an Age no great danger of Plagearism and in so divided and contentious an Age too much danger of the abovesaid Inconvenience THE PREFACE Christian Reader THE Substance of the following Discourse was Written above eight Years since and Presented in Manuscript to Her Late Majesty of ever Blessed Memory But Wars abroad made it unseasonable to attempt Peace in the Churches while the States of Europe were so hotly engag'd and had the Church of England render'd it self a Pattern of Peace yet the Nations about us were not at leisure to observe that Pattern The Divine Power Wisdom and Goodness assisting the Best of Kings hath Restor'd Peace to the Nations of Christendom among themselves And why may not Peace among the Churches of Christendom be expected by the same Means And because the Design of the following Discourse is to attempt it first at Home yet with an Eye to the Peace of the Christian World I will look back on the Past Age and consider the Cause of our Divisions both in Church and State Two Controversies have miserably divided this Nation for more than one Century I mean the Controversie between the Prerogative of the King and the Liberty of the Subject and the Controversie between a Strict Vniformity in Matters of Religion and a Lawless Liberty of Conscience And our Enemies of the Roman Communion have ever since the Reformation industriously kept alive both these Controversies in order to reduce us to our former Bondage to Rome They took the side of Prerogative and Strict Conformity till they had set these Kingdoms in a flame and broke in pieces the English Government both in Church and State They us'd the Pretence of Loyalty to Murder the Poor Protestants of Ireland and of Vniformity to drive many excellent Men out of the Church And when they had ruin'd Prerogative and the English Church by appearing for them They then fell in for Anarchy in the State and an extravagant Liberty of Conscience in the Church and broke us into Numberless Parties and Sects And while their Emissaries wrought diligently to build a sort of Babel among us they cast the Reproach thereof on the Protestant Religion Again when the Nation grew weary of Anarchy of changing Governments every Moon and springing new Churches almost as often and found a necessity of Restoring the English Constitution they returned to their old Methods of straining the Prerogative and destroying both our Civil and Religious Liberties by Arbitrary Power and on that side of the Controversie they continued till the late Happy Revolution They knew though we were forbid to say that both the late Kings were in their Interest and that the Prerogative would be certainly on their side that the Dispensing Power render'd all Laws already made against them useless and would consequently restore Popery by our Celebrated Magna Charta They knew that Modelling Corporations wou'd destroy Legislation for the time to come by making Parliaments like those in France Tools and Vassals to the Crown as the Council of Trent was to the Pope Thus Humane Wisdom seem'd to Promise them all Imaginable Success for the Church-Party being secur'd by the Doctrines of Passive-Obedience and Non-Resistance misunderstood the Dissenters Caress'd with an Illegal Toleration and the Papists among us Vnited to destroy us we were like Isaac bound and laid on the Altar had not our good Angel in the very Act of Sacrificing staid the Knife I do but touch these things as being Foreign to the Design of the Following Discourse yet I can't pass them without observing that Solid and Lasting Settlement both of Religion and Civil Liberty which we owe to His Majesty Two things the Nation had learn'd by sad Experience 1. By the Confusions and Distractions of the late Times they learn'd that a Common-Wealth would never do in England for though for a season that Government made a Figure in the World it soon dwindled into a single Person under another Name and at his Death consum'd away in Anarchy 2. By the late Reigns the Nation had learn'd that Arbitrary Power would never do in England though affected and attempted with all possible Application in both those Reigns What then could Humane Wisdom think fit to be done upon the Late Revolution but to settle and establish the English Government on its Ancient and Solid Foundations The most Renowned Politician observes That those Kingdoms and Governments stand longest that are oft renewed and brought back to their first Beginnings And though in the last Age we could not attain it we are now blest with the Old English Constitution The English Government exceeds all others in the World being a just Mixture of the Three Forms of Government Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy Monarchy justly boasts its Vnion Aristocracy its Grandeur and Democracy its Liberty Now the English Government has all the Advantages of these Governments without the Disadvantages of any it has Monarchy without Arbitrary Power Aristocracy without Faction and Democracy without Anarchy and hence we are blest with King Lords and Commons The Just Prerogative is Establish d the Invaded Liberties of the Kingdom are restor'd and the Incroachments of the Late Reigns condemn'd by Act of Parliament So that there is an end of the Controversie between the Prerogative of the King and the Liberty of the Subject and nothing but the most incurable Infidelity can be Proof against that Evidence of His Majesty's Love to the English Liberty which He hath given by permitting an Election for Parliament during his Absence and passing the Bill for Disbanding the Army The Controversie between a strict Settlement and a Boundless Liberty in Matters of Religion is also in some good measure compromised we have now no Spanish Inquisition to force Mens Faith and Consciences into the same Mould which is
delivered to Pope Julius with the Exposition of the Apostles Creed written by the Latine Doctors The Nicene and Athanasian Creeds were further Explications of this Creed in Opposition to Arrius who struck at the very Foundation even the Godhead of Christ And the Second Councill of Constantinople enlarged the Nicene Creed in the Article that concern'd the Holy Ghost in Opposition to Macedonius who denied the Godhead and Personality of the Holy Ghost and in the Articles concerning the Catholick Church and the Privileges belonging thereunto and when the Roman Church after the Days of Charles the Great had added the Article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son in Opposition to the Greek Church the Council of Trent it self hath recommended it to us Council Tredend Ses 3. As that Principle in which all that Profess the Faith of Christ do necessarily agree and the firm and only Foundation against which the Gates of Hell shall never prevail Thus out of their own Mouths may we judge those pretended Servants of our Saviour His Blessed Promise hath been perform'd to a Tittle his Church hath been preserved in spight of the Gates of Hell and the Rock hath been like the Foundations of the Earth unshaken by all Assaults of Hell of all that are there already and all that are hastning thither And it is to me a most Important Observation which is made by that Prophet and Apostle of this Latter Age Archbishop Vsher Usher's Sermon June 20. 1624. pag. 27. That whatsoever the Father of Lyes either hath Attempted or shall Attempt yet hath he neither hitherto Effected nor shall ever bring to pass hereafter that this Catholick Doctrine ratified by the common Assent of Christians always and every where should be Abolish'd but that in the thickest Mist rather of the most perplexing Troubles it still obtained Victory both in the Minds and in the open Confession of all Christians no ways overturn'd in the Foundation thereof and that in this Verity that one Church of CHRIST was preserv'd in the midst of the Tempest of the most cruel Winter or in the thickest Darkness of her Wainings And he further adds that if at this Day we should take a Survey of the several Professions of Christianity that have any large spread in any Part of the World as of the Religion of the Roman and of the Reform'd Churches in our Quarters of the Ethiopians and Egyptians in the South of the Grecians and other Christians in the Eastern Parts and should put by the Points wherein they differ one from another and gather into one Body the rest of the Articles wherein they all agree we should find that in those Propositions which without all Controversy are Universally received in the whole Christian World so much Truth is contain'd as being join'd with Holy Obedience may be sufficient to bring a Man to everlasting Salvation neither have we cause to doubt but that as many as do walk according to this Rule neither overthrowing that which they have builded by super inducing any Damnable Heresies thereupon nor otherwise Viciating their holy Faith with a lewd and wicked Conversation Peace shall be upon them and Mercy and upon the Israel of GOD. This is a Consideration of the greatest Weight and discovers the Foundation of Christian Vnity and of the Peace of the Universal Church And even J. W. in his Contest with the Right Reverend and Learned Doctor Stilling fleet Stilling Answ to sev Treatises 68.70 now Lord Bishop of Worcester proves the Vnity of the Roman Church by this Argument All those who Assent unto the Ancient Creeds are Undivided in Matters of Faith But all Roman Catholicks Assent unto the Ancient Creeds Ergo all Roman Catholicks are Undivided in Matters of Faith These says the Doctor are the most Healing Principles that have yet been thought of Fye for shame why should we and they of the Church of Rome quarrel thus long We are well agreed in all Matters of Faith which saith he I shall demonstratively prove from the Argument of J. W. drawn from his two last Propositions All who Assent to the Ancient Creeds are Undivided in Matters of Faith But both Papists and Protestants do Assent unto the Ancient Creeds Ergo They are Undivided in Matters of Faith and though this way of Arguing was only Ad hominem it is great Pity that the Major Proposition of the last Syllogism was not pronounced out of the Infallible Chair But certain it is That the Papists notwithstanding their great Boast of Vnity are much more Divided within themselves than any Protestants from each other for the Rent goes through the main Foundation of their Faith Their Church's INFALLIBILITY For where to place it they can by no means agree but as among that Party which calls it self the Church of England though some are Socinians Note If that Notion be true viz. That the Vaudois and Albigeois are the Two Witnesses 't is Demonstration that Hierarchy and Liturgy are no proper Terms of Union For although they have been pure Churches ever since the Apostles Days they have always been without both some Calvinists c. yet all agree in the Hierarchy and Common-Prayer So there are two things in which all Papists do agree viz. the Hierarchy under the Bishop of Rome and the Sacrifice of the Mass Upon these two Poles the Antichristian World stands firm though almost all others are controverted Fas est ab hoste doceri And therefore why may not the Governours of the Church of England fix upon those Terms of VNION wherein all Christians in the World are agreed which are few and plain and restore them to their Primitive Right of being the Foundation of the Peace and Unity of Christians Terms of Divine Institution will as certainly Unite the Christian World as Terms of Humane Institution have done the Antichristian And since it is not a Matter at present practicable to bring all sorts of Christians together to agree on those Terms it will be the Glory of the Church of England to set an Example which will be follow'd by all the Christian World There are in a Word some Truths which are the First Principles of the Oracles of God Heb. 5.12 and these are the Truths which ought to be the Terms of Union But I would not be misunderstood as if I thought no other Truths necessary for a Growing Christian There are the Principles of the Doctrine of CHRIST or as the Original the Word of the beginning of CHRIST which are necessary to Unite a Man to the Christian Church Heb. 6.1 and which are suited to the Unlearned as well as the Learned and ought to admit him into its Communion But there is also a going on to Perfection which becomes all Men that live in that Communion the degrees of which are various and the highest degrees most desirable but yet he that hath but two Talents ought not to be cast out of the Church
Vindicated And the Unreasonableness and Mischievous Tendency of the Odious Distinction of a King de Facto and de Jure Discover'd by the Honourable Sir Robert Howard 8 vo Mr. Addy's Stenographia Or the Art of Short-Writing Compleated in a far more Compendious Way than any yet Extant Octavo Also the Whole Bible in the same Short-Hand curiously Engraven on Copper-plates Cambridge Phrases for the Use of Schools by A. Robinson M. A. Octavo Orbis Imperantis Tabellae Geographico-Historico-Geneologico-Chronologicae Curiously Engraven on Copper-plates Remarks on a late Discourse of William Lord Bishop of Derry concerning the Inventions of Men in the Worship of God Also a Defence of the said Remarks against his Lordship's Admonition by J. Boyse 8 vo A Preservative against Deism Shewing the great Advantage of Revelation above Reason in the Two Great Points Pardon of Sin and a Future State of Happiness With an Appendix in Answer to a Letter of Mr. A. W. against Revealed Religion in the Oraracles of Reason by Mr. Nathanael Taylor 8 vo Mr. Woodhouse his Sermon preach'd to the Societies for Reformation of Manners in the City of London Octavo Mr. Calamy's Sermon to the same Societies Mr. Shower's Sermon to the same Societies 8 vo Mr. Williams's Sermon to the same Societies 8 vo Mr. Alsop's Sermon to the same Societies 8 vo Mr. Shower's Mourners Companion being Funeral Discourses on many Occasions In Two Volumes Octavo Mr. Shower's Sermons on Isaiah LV. 7 8 9. 8 vo A Plea for the late Accurate and Excellent Mr. Baxter and those that speak of the Sufferings of Christ as he does In Answer to Mr. Lobb's insinuated Charge of Socinianism against 'em in his late Appeal to the Bishops of Worcester and Dr. Edwards With a Preface directed to Persons of all Perswasions to call 'em from Frivolous and Over-eager Contentions about Word on all sides 8 vo A Funeral Sermon occasion'd by the Death of Mrs Jane Papillon late Wife of Thomas Papillon Esq preached July 24. 1698. and now publish'd at his Request by John Woodhouse 8 vo A Brief Concordance to the Holy Bible of the most Useful and Usual Places which one may have Occasion to seek for In a new Method by Samuel Clark M. A. Mr. Nathaniel Vincenes Funeral Sermon Preached by Mr. N. Taylor A Sermon Preached at a Publick Ordination in a Countrey Congregation by Mr. S. Clark London-Dispensatory reduc'd to the Practice of the London Physicians Wherein are contained the Medicines both Galenical and Chymical that are now in use Those out of use omitted and those in use and not in the Latin Copy here added By John Peachy of the Colledge of Physicians in London Mr. John Shower's Discourse of Tempting Christ His Discourse of Family Religion in 3 Letters His Life of Mr. Henry Gearing Mr. George Hammonds and Mr. Matthew Barker's Discourses of Family Worship Written at the Request of the United Ministers of London Mr. Gibbon's Sermon of Justification Comfort in Death a Funeral Sermon Preached upon the Death of Mr. Timothy Cruso late Pastor of a Church in London who Died Novemb. 26. 1697. by Matthew Mead. Mr. Samuel Slater's Earnest Call to Family Religion being the Substance of Eighteen Sermons Mr. William Scoffin's Help to true Spelling and Reading Or a very easie Method for the Teaching Children or elder Persons rightly to Spell and exactly to read English Monro's Institutio Grammaticae Clavis Grammatica Or the ready way to the Latin Tongue containing most plain Demonstrations for the regular translating English into Latine Mr. Hamond's Sermon at Mr. Steel's Funeral Mr. John Mason's little Catechism with little Verses and little Sayings for little Children Catholicism WITHOUT POPERY The Second Part. In a LETTER to Sir Humphrey Mackworth Occasioned By his late Discourse ENTITULED Peace at Home By John Hooke Serjeant at Law LONDON Printed for J. Robinson at the Golden Lyon in St. Paul's Church-Yard and J. Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey 1704. TO THE Christian Reader ABout the Year of our Lord 375 Themistius the Philosopher who was also Consul at that time told the Emperor Valens that there were 300 Opinions or Sects among the Philosophers far more than there were among the Christians and yet they never Persecuted one another This he said to dispose that Emperor who was a Persecuting Arian to be favourable to the Orthodox And soon after the Emperor Theodosius being incens'd by the Bishop of Rome against Flavianus Bishop of Antioch the good Bishop thus appli'd to tho Emperor as 't is reported by Theodoret Lib. 5. Cap. 23. O Emperor if any Man do blame my Faith as perverse or my Life as unworthy I am content to be Judged by my Adversaries but if the Disputation only be concerning Principality and eminent Places I will not contend with any Man but denude my self of all Superiority and commit the Chair of Antiochia to whom you like best Had the Spirit of this Philosopher and of this Partriarch prevailed in the Christian World how much Mischief and Misery had been prevented which fill the History of all Ages since that time 'T is now more than 20 Years since I became most deeply affected with the State of Christianity I oft stood in a Melancholly Amazement that since the Blessed Jesus had been in this World 1 Jo. 3.5.8 to take away Sin and destroy the Works of the Devil and altho' his Commission to his Apostles was to disciple all Nations 28. Mat. 19. yet at the distance of above 1640 Years not one fourth part of the World should bear the Christian Name That deducting from that part the Churches that lie in gross Ignorance or gross Idolatry and among the Reform'd Churches the Persecutors the openly prophane the grosly ignorant such as deny the Fundamentals of Christianity and the Ordinances of Christ who yet will be called Christians I was tempted to abuse that Passage of the Apostle 2 Gal. 21. Then Christ is dead in vain But it was not long before I had framed in my Thoughts a more pleasing Scene of Things which I fancied I saw in the Prophetick part of the Scripture and if I be mistaken I own my self exceedingly beholden to the Mistake having in the Years that are since past enjoyed many a comfortable Hour in the prospect of the approaching Glory of the Christian Church Thus when Men in a Storm discover a safe Harbor how chearfully do they cry all hands aloft how diligent is every one to do his utmost to recover the Port. I do not intend to trouble the Reader with any account of my Endeavours to promote what I so much much desire further than is necessary to justifie or at least to excuse setting my Name to the following Discourse I have been long perswaded that Christianity must recover it's Primitive Purity before it can obtain its promis'd Peace I don't mean its Primitive Poverty or Persecution but its Comformity to the Scriptures which are the only Means of Vnion and Peace and its
quasi tradita ab Apostolis asseruntur percutiuntur Gladio Dei Hier. in Agg. long after the 4th Century All those things which are asserted as delivered by the Apostles without the Testimony of the Scriptures are smitten with the Sword of God For it seems when Irenaeus and the other ancient Fathers had exposed all Vnrevealed Parts of Revealed Religion the Lovers of Priest-craft would have introduced some things as Revealed tho' not written but conveyed down by Tradition But I must not enlarge at least at this time on this Subject only having some Reason to know the Original of the Charter granted by the late Glorious King Willian Establishing a Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge I earnestly intreat the Reader to consider the Consequence of these Additions to Christianity with respect to that Design If I were now to apply my self to an Indian to instruct him in the Christian Religion I would appeal to his Experirience that Nature is corrupted and shew him the History thereof in the Scriplures 3 Gen. 5 Rom. 12.18 I would appeal to his Reason that Sin deserves Punishment and that Justice must be a Divine Attribute and shew him the same things in Scripture 34 Ex. 7. 45 Is 21. 3 Rom. 26. I would appeal to his Reason and shew him in Scripture what a loss Mankind was at to find out an Atonement that thousands of Rams and ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl would not suffice 6 Mic. 6.7 8. not the First-born the Fruit of the Body for the Sin of the Soul But that notwithstanding all that Man could do 49. Ps 7.8 the Redemption of the Soul was so precious that it must have ceas'd for ever Then I would shew him only by Revelation out of the Word of God That faithful saying and worthy of all Acceptation 1 Tim. 1.15 that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners and so proceed to Preach the Gospel to him and to instruct him out of the New Testament The suitableness of such a Propitiation for our Sins sufficient to satisfie Divine Justice and the Cravings of a wounded Spirit seeking Means to make Satisfaction thereto was in my Opinion the true Reason of the Progress of Christianity in the first Ages of the Church and will be so when rightly enforced to the yet Vuchristianiz'd Part of the World And the Man by this time would be very willing to believe those Scriptures to be the Word of God And the Proof thereof would be very agreeable to him Account of the Proceedings of the Society by Mr. Stubbs or as an Indian King lately exprest himself that there was a Saviour born for Mankind But when he had rejoyc'd in Christ Jesus and hugged his Bible and read in the end of it and elsewhere Deut. 4.2 22 Rev. 18.19 Prov. 30.6 the Curses pronounc'd against those that diminish from it or add to it and desired to be Baptized with what Face could I tell him that he must not be admitted to have any benefit thereby unless he will constantly submit to divers things not to be found there and that unless he did so he was both for God and Baal Wou'd he think it a decent thing to add to the Institutions of such a Redeemer But I will not enter into Particulars if the Design of the following Discourse do prevail these Matters will be considered by wiser Heads but by none who wish more the Glory of the Christian Church and particularly of that part of it in England than Your Christian Friend J. HOOKE CATHOLICISM WITHOUT POPERY SIR IN your Preface to your late Discourse Entituled Peace at Home you have rightly observed That the Controversie which is the Subject Matter of that Discourse ought not to be carried on with Heat and Passion but fairly debated with Reason and Moderation not by unknown Persons who may be Jesuits or Deists but by such as dare own their Principles and will endeavour to Reconcile our Differences and not inflame them I hope that an Acquaintance of some Years hath sufficiently convinc'd you that I am neither Jesuit nor Deist And I dare appeal to your Conscience whether I have not given you undeniable Evidence of an Affection to the Church of England and a desire not to keep up but to reconcile our Differences not to promote Parties and Factions but Peace and Unity not for the sake of any private End or Interest whatsoever but for the sake of Truth and for the general Good Thus far therefore I conceive my self to be such a Person as you wish your Answerer should be But because you and the Writers of your Party have taken the liberty to accuse Men of my Principles as Hypocrites as unfit to be Guardians of Children or Executors of Wills as dispensing with our Principles for the sake of an Office as setting up an Arbitrary Dispensing Power in our own Consciences as acting contrary to our Original Principles as if Occasional Conformity were such an Offence as in inconsistent with the Publick Safety and Occasional Conformists Persons sit to be rank'd with Papists Deists and Socinians I have thought it my Duty thus to acquaint you that I have also that other Qualification to become your Answerer That I dare own my Principles But alass to what End were your Applications made to Her Majesty on Occasion of the late Bill since by your own Confession the Fears and Jealousies of those who are Members of the Church of England and of those who dissent from it And the Matters in Controversie arising from those Fears seem in a fair way to be determined to the Satisfaction of all Parties by Her Majesties Gracious Speeches from the Throne That Her Majesty will always make it Her particular Care to encourage and maintain the Church as by Law Established and to maintain the Act of Toleration for the ease of Dissenters Give me leave to add alass to what end did you erect a Pompous Frontispiece before an Epistle Dedicatory a Preface a Discourse and a Postscript and all these on a Subject of which you seem to know no more than if you had lived in Turky or under the Great Mogul I mean the Principles of the Occasional Conformists for I had rather impute your unaccountable Mistakes concerning them to Ignorance than Insincerity And unless they be understood your Discourse in behalf of the Establish'd Government in Church and State of Uniformity Establish'd Religion and Establish'd Constitutions seems Calculated and may indifferently serve for the Meridian of Edenburg Geneva Paris Rome or Constantinople and with a small Variation of Names may be publish'd in behalf of the Constitutions in Church and State in all those places I take leave therefore to inform you That the Description of the Occasional Comformists is true which is given by the Author of a Letter to a Clergy-man concerning the Votes of the Bishops in the last Sessions who divides them into two sorts such as prefer the Worship of
the Church of England for a Constancy but hold the separate Congregations to be Lawful Churches and think themselves obliged in Conscience sometimes to Communicate with them tho' I had rather call such Occasional Dissenters and such as prefer the Worship of Dissenters for a Constancy but hold the Worship of the Church of England to be Lawful and think themselves obliged to testifie their Charity by Communicating sometimes with it who are properly Occasional Conformists I take leave also to inform you That both these sorts of Occasional Conformists do believe the Apostle's Creed and particularly the Holy Catholick Church or as the Nicene Creed has it They believe One Catholick and Apostolick Church They acknowledge the 19th Article of the Church of England That the Visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of Faithful Men in which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments be duly ministred according to Christ's Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same That neither sort of these Occasional Conformists find any such Article in any Creed as this I believe the High Church-Party of the Church of England And thus believing they thus Reason He that believes the Holy Catholick Church takes himself to be a Member of that Church and consequently believes it his Duty to refuse Communion with no Party of Christians whose Communion does not necessitate him to Sin and no Communion of Christians who are a Visible Church of Christ within the said Description given by the said 19th Article do necessitate him to Sin They make a great difference between the Use of a Ceremony or any indifferent thing about Religion and the Imposition thereof as necessary to Communion in the Ordinances of Christ and again another difference between the Imposition thereof by any particular Church or Division of Christians on those that Communicate with them and the Separation of that Division of Christians by such Ceremony or indifferent Thing from the rest of the Catholick Church The Use therefore of a certain Ceremony is what they do not scruple as wearing a Gown or Surplice Standing at the Creed Kneeling or Standing or Sitting at the Sacrament according to the Usage of that Party of Christians with whom they Communicate Again They don't scruple the like Ceremony tho' they be imposed by the Government on any National Church or Party of Christians so as they be not made Parties to the Imposition or compelled to declare their Approbation thereof by Word or Practise It is their Judgment That all Religion is Natural or Revealed That there is no Revealed Religion nor any part of it which is not found in the Word of God That nothing ought to be imposed amongst Christians as a Term of Communion which has not its Warrant from thence according to the Sense of the Primitive Church and the whole Protestant Church at the first Reformation And they think it absurd to talk of Unrevealed Parts of Revealed Religion It is therefore their Opinion that if any Party of Christians make a Law That whoever communicates with them must use such or such an Unscriptural Posture or Ceremony and must not have Communion with any other Christians who use not the same altho ' true Churches according to the said 19th Article of the Church of England and this under the Penalty of being starved or any other severe Penalty they take that Party of Christians to be such as the Psalmist speaks of Psal 94.21 who frame Mischief by a Law They think that such Party of Christians do thereby set up an unaccountable Schism in the Catholick Church and separate themselves from it by setting up their Posts by God's and their own Thresholds by his and their making a Wall between him and them so that the Schism lies at their Door and not at theirs who in Contradiction to such a Law continue Members of the Catholick Church They are of Opinion that the Roman Catholicks are justly charged with the greatest Schism that ever was in the Christian World because they separate themselves from the Catholick Church by their new Articles of Faith and Notorious Idolatries which they impose as Terms of Communion but they pretending that the things which they impose are necessary and to be comply'd with on Peril of Damnation are not therefore so Self-condemned as that Party would be who should by such a Law concerning things indifferent separate themselves from all the rest of the Catholick Church The Occasional Conformist therefore by his Communicating with the Church of England declares That he takes it to be a sound Part of the Catholick Church and his Communion with it is Communion with the Catholick Church and not with a Party He Communicates with it because he Agrees with it in all the Essentials of Christianity tho' he Approves not of its Impositions And his Communion with other Protestants is Communion with the Catholick Church of which he takes them also to be a sound Part. By the first he declares himself an Enemy to Separation by the second to unnecessary Impositions by both a Catholick Christian And he is the more confirmed in this Practice because of the plain Tendency of the Unscriptural Terms of Communion which the High Church-Party would establish to a Re-union with Popery as is obvious to any Person who shall seriously consider them And for satisfaction therein I would refer you to avoid Repetition to the Preface of a little Discourse entituled Catholocism without Popery where this Matter is particularly Considered And the Notions therein advanc'd have been effectually Justified by the Oracle of your Party the Author of the Case of the Regale Pontisicat a Book written directly against her Majesty's Supremacy and which has received a Second Edition which asserts That the Dissenter will neither take nor give quarter will neither propose nor accept any Terms of Reconciliation Page 255. and cannot for that unless only for that Reason be angry at the High-Party's seeking or offering Reconciliation with others who may be better disposed and that the whole and only difference between that Party and the Church of Rome Page 244. and which hinders Communion is the Extents of the Pope's Supremacy which the Galliean Church have thrown off as well as they But that all the difference between the Popish French Church and the Church of England are so far Reconcilable as not to hinder Communion And proposes in the First Edition a Treaty between our Convocation and the General Assembly of the Galliean Bishops and Clergy and complains in the Margin of the Second Edition pag. 263. That the English Convocation not being suffered to sit while that of France lasted rendered any Treaty betwixt them impracticable And pag. 179. proposes it plainly as a means to this blessed End that a Bill should pass to render all those that go to Meetings uncapable of any Place of Trust or Profit in the Government And that this must be the
the true Interest of their Native Countrey nor any Duty or Gratitude to Her Majesty I must beg further time for Consideration I must also take time for further Thought or desire further Information what those Truths are which in your Preface you say you do with Deference and Respect to the House of Lords and in a decent and respectful manner endeavour to Establish for as to your two main Pillars other Hands have sufficiently shewed that they are far from being Pillars of Truth I am also with great Submission much surprized to be told Page 6. that the same Arguments were made use of against this Bill which were formerly insisted on for Repealing all the Test-Laws whatsoever for many of the Great and Wise Men in the Kingdom and more especially in Shropshire Herefordshire and thereabouts do well remember that the way to Peace at Home was with much Eloquence declared to be by Repealing those Laws when to Repeal them was manifestly to serve a Popish Interest and with no less Assurance when the late Bill was promoted when the same End would have been served tho' by quite contrary Means so that one at least of those Arguments would have been very acceptable to me who have always thought that the Reasons for Repealing those Laws in a Popish Reign were of the same Size with those that are urged for rendring those Laws more strict and severe in the Reign of a Protestant Queen Concerning this Matter therefore Preface to Peace at Home there are some Mistakes and Misapprehensions I doubt that do still prevail with some Persons and seem to call for a further Explanation of it And perhaps that the same Arguments were used for both these Purposes would be as considerable a Truth if it were made out as any other of the Truths endeavoured to be establish'd by your Discourse But tho' I was against Repealing the Test in a Popish Reign I Publish'd some Reasons for Repealing some part of it in a Protestant Reign which I have added to this Letter No. 1. for your Consideration That the Bill affected only those particular Dissenters who thought fit to Conform for an Office but would not Conform for the Unity of the Church is another of your Truths which needs to be establish'd because on the contrary it seems to affect my Occasional Conformist or rather Occasional Dissenter nay to be principally levell'd at him who conforms meerly for the Unity of the Church and not for an Office who endeavours to preserve the Unity of the Catholick Church from being rent as often as a Whimsey shall take any Sett of Men to be adding their own Inventions to Christianity and then to call themselves the Church to make a parcel of Ceremonies Articles of Communion whereas the 39 Articles of the Church are not so if you believe your Oracle One Truth indeed you have taught us out of the Preamble of the intended Bill against Occasional Conformity viz. That nothing is more contrary to the Profession of the Christian Religion and particularly to the Doctrine of the Church of England than Persecution for Conscience sake only It was therefore it seems to be Enacted to this effect That whosoever being in a Publick Office would not join himself to the High Church Party so as never more to Communicate with any other part of the Christian World altho' he believed the Holy Catholick Churah and endeavoured to shew his Faith by his Works should forfeit his Office and a Fine of 100 l. to the Prosecutor c. Now if the Man did Communicate with other good Christians out of Conscience as is abovesaid would not this be Persecution for Conscience only And pray Sir was not the danger of Establishing the aforesaid Truth the true Reason why that Truth was left out of the Preamble in the Second Edition of that Bill And this Question I ask you with the greater Freedom tho' with great Submission because this Truth being once in the Preamble of that Bill is used by you as an Answer to the Objection That they who think the being present at a Meeting to be so high a Crime can hardly think that Toleration of such Meetings ought to continue which by Reason of the said Truth being in the said Preamble you argue to be an hard not to say unwarrantable and uncharitable Censure on the Representatives of the People I don't say Sir That going to a Meeting is now by the Toleration Act Establish'd or made part of our Constitution thereby But I say that if the Creed be part of our Constitution if the Articles of the Church be another part and the Meeting be within the Description of the said 19th Article going to it is Established both by Law and Gospel But I apply to your Questions which I am willing to take as the chief Points and to expect a good Issue not from the Weakness but Strength of the Reader 's Judgment First Whether it be consistent with the Safety of the Established Government either in Church or State with the Wisdom of the English Nation with the Practice of any Wise Government in the World or with the true Intent and Meaning of the Corporation and Test Acts to admit any Person whatsoever into Publick Offices and Imployments relating to the Government either in Countries or Corporations who are not sincere Members of the National Church and who do not heartily approve of the Laws of the Land and chearfully pay Obedience to them Secondly And whether it is better to have the Administration of Publick Affairs in the Hands of Persons of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion or to have a mixture and confusion of Men of opposite Principles in one and the same Administration or in other words whether it is better to have all the Publick Officers draw together the same way for the Publick Good or to have some drawing one way and some another and thereby tearing the Government between them in pieces That is in short and in effect whether it is fit that the Corporation and Test Acts should be Enforced or Repealed Now that I may keep to the Subject Matter of the Debate I must take leave to divide these Questions into several Heads because they seem to me too perplex'd as they are stated and therefore seeing the Subject Matter is Occasional Conformity or Occasional Nonconformity First Let us consider whether the Occasional Conformist or rather the Occasional Dissenter be not a sincere Member of the National Church who heartily approves of the Laws of the Land and chearfully pays Obedience to them and whether he and the Churchman be of opposite Principles or of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion Secondly Whether if the Occasional Bill had passed it had secured the Government from such who are not sincere Members of the National Church nor heartily approve of the Laws of the Land nor chearfully pay Obedience to them but are of opposite Principles and not
fulsom word Schism If they did not gather separate Congregations and set them up in Opposition to the Church they would be no Dissenters notwithstanding their different Sentiments as to the Points before mention'd for there are those in the Communion of the Church who may differ in Opinion about those things and may Reason and Argue them over with one another without any Breach of Charity or of the Unity of the Church which requires not that all Men should be exactly of the same Opinion in Matters of Discipline nor nof Faith but of one Communion this preserves the Unity of the Church Well said Wolf when you speak of the Church do but mean the Church in your Creed and fare-wel the Occasional Conformist for he does none of those ill things you complain of but is Sir Humphrey your very humble Servant and very fit for an Office Page 80. Occasional Conformity has no ill Consequence and is far from inferring of no Church and no Religion at all I acknowledge with that Author that setling the true Notion of the Church and the Priesthood as Instituted by Christ is really of Consequence and therefore in that little Discourse Entituled Catholocism without Popery I did earnestly request that it might be done for the Reasons therein mentioned Page 4.5 6. And there is the more Reason to desire it because else 't is hard to judge who are of opposite Principles and not of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion especially since the aforesaid Oracle alias High Church Wolf tells us that the 39 Articles are not so much as Articles of Communion Page 16. far less of Faith He tells us that they are required from no Lay-men or any other but the Clergy who are in Office That there may be an Uniformity in the Doctrine publickly Preach'd So then Uniformity in Matters that are neither Matters of Faith nor Communion Constitutes the Church or is the Church-man then the Hypocrite instead of the Occasional Conformist being obliged to Subscribe and Preach a Doctrine in the Name of God which he does not believe and are the Ceremonies and Humane Additions more considerable in the Constitution of the Church than the 39 Articles But in truth this Matter ought to be search'd to the bottom and I am led to it by the same Author who in the beginning of that Discourse observes that there is a Mistake about the word Moderation for that it appears by the Context Page 1. the Original Word means a Patient and chearful Suffering of Afflictions So that instead of 4. Phil. 5. Let your Moderation be known unto all Men being a Text against Persecution it seems 't is a Text that supposes Persecution I must say that I never met with any Body that argued Indifferency as to Religion from that Text but surely 't is violently screw'd to make it favour Persecution Page 1. But 't is observed that this word is found but once in all our Bible and the word Clergy is found no oftner Page 2. and yet what work have we about that Word Laymen are not obliged to the Articles of the Church but only the Clergy who are in Office but how if the Laymen be the Clergy that is I mean God's Clergy or Inheritance for the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at least in that Sense is found no where in the Bible but 1 Pet. 5.3 where St. Peter having styl'd himself a fellow Presbyter exhorts the Presbyters to their Duty to feed the Flock of God which was among them as Bishops thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy Lucre but of a ready Mind neither as being Lords over God's Clergy which we read Heritage but being Ensamples to the Flock Now this Epistle being Written about the Year of our Lord 64 't is remarkable that he who was an Apostle and a Partaker of the Miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost above 30 Years before calls himself a fellow Presbyter which for some Reason or other our Translation reads an Elder and Exhorts the Presbyters which we read Elders to Episcopize which we read taking the over-sight But the thing which I would here observe is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the late Learned Scholiast Gregory reads it out of Oecumenius is not the Priests but the People however the Priests afterwards came to engross the Name One thing I would therefore desire of the Priests that they would let us in again for a Share at least and not believe that they only are God's Clergy or Inheritance I wou'd also intreat them that they would not be the Church because tho' that word is used in the New Testament about one hundred times yet it is not once used for the Ministers without the People I know 't is pretended that the Gospel of St. Matthew where the word is twice found but no where else in any of the four Evangelists it must signifie the Ministers but not to enter now into that Controversie 't is strange that in the other 99 Places it should signifie no such thing and therefore since the People are 99 parts at least of the Church I would not have the Priests pass for the Church and if these two things be granted me I fancy we shall by and by come into a fair way of delivering the World from that Controversie about Episcopal and Presbyterian Government But I can't here omit to give you a short hint of what may perhahs be more fully discours'd elsewhere The Apostle Paul 2 Thes 2.3 Tells us that the Day of Judgment should not come till there had been an Apostacy or falling away and that Man of Sin be revealed and so goes on describing the Papacy most accurately But I must own that till I read Irenaeus that best piece of Primitive Christianity I never understood the meaning of that Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But that Primitive Father acquaints us that the Primitive Hereticks of whom Simon Magus was the Father Lib. 1. Cap. 30. invented a new sort of God's called Aeons of whom they imagin'd originally but four Lib. 1. Cap. 1. but were still adding new ones Lib. 2. Cap. 22. till they came to be 4380 according to the number of the hours of the Days of the Year and to carry on this Generation they began betimes to couple their Aeons as Man and Wife and one of the first couple wore Anthropos and Ecclesia Lib 1. Cap. 34. Vera Sanct Ecclesia so they called this same Goddess the Wife of Anthropos And his Anthropos they held to be above God Irenaeus Page 54 which exactly agrees with the Anthropus mentioned by the Apostle Paul in the aforecited Place And hence also we may gather who that Whore is that we read of in the Revelations even this same Wife of Anthropos which seems to me to be the Reason why in that whole Book after the third Chapter you never meet with
but otherwise let us not be bubled out of our Senses either by the Jus Divinum of Episcopacy or of Presbytery while by one is meant the English Hierarchy or the Seotch Church Government by the other Do not all Learned Men know that Pope Leo the Great who began his Popedom about the Year 440 in his 87th and 90th Epistles is express for a pular Election of Bishops And altho' Pope Symmachus in the latter end of the Fifth Century about the Year 498 endeavoured to exclude the People from the Election yet Pope Celestine the Second in the Year 1143 was the first Pope made without the Peoples Election even in the See of Rome where Priesteraft did most prevail And now in England the Dean and Chapter chose the Bishop in Pursuance of an Act of Parliament and by Authority from the Crown Hierom and Eutichius are express that in Alexandria from Mark their first Bishop one of the Presbyters was chosen to be Bishop by the rest So that the Presbyters could make a Bishop for we read of no Bishops that Ordained or Consecrated Him when so chosen which is the Practice in England The Learned Vsher acknowledges that the Presbyters Power which I plead for is taken from Him in England only by Law and may by Law be restored And yet because an Episcopacy was early in the Church the English Prelacy must be put upon us to be Jure Divino Take it as it is Jure Humano and I have not one word to say against it And 't is plain that notwithstanding the noise now made about the Jus Divinum of Bishops as a Superiour Order to Presbyters that was not the Sense of the Church at the Restauration of King Charles the Second for if it had the Lords Spiritual would never have agreed to the Stat. 12. Car. 2. Cap. 17. which restores Ministers Ordained by any Ecclesiastical Persons before the 25th of December then last past Alass Sir Christ himself and not the Apostles Ordained the Seventy Philip the Deacon sent Christianity into Abasinia where it still is by the Aethopian Eunuch who was no Bishop that I know of and yet they had Ordained Ministers before they received an Abuna or Archbishop from the Patriarch of Alexandria Let the Priests be Governed in all Countries as they are most Governable it hinders not but we may be all of the same and not of opposite Principles but of the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion I don't pretend to determine how far the Civil Power may enforce Reveal'd Religion but I hope all Christian Princes and States will take care that the Priests add not to or diminish from our Christianity in any Form and let them be Governed as they may but for God's sake let Discipline be restored and then 't is no great matter in what Form the Priests are managed Let every Minister who has the Cure of Souls be enabled to exercise Disciplinam Christi which I am sure is Jure Divino and perhaps the Reduction of Episcopacy to the Form of Synodical Government by Archbishop Vsher tho' not Jure Divine would be found so agreeable to Reason suitable to Primitive Practice and accomodate to the Ends of Discipline that a due Consideration thereof might in a while bring all Christian Churches into the same Form of Government without the Pretence of a Jus Divinum for it Let us have no Laws about the Matter of Reveal'd Religion but what are at least plainly justified by the Scripture and not be hampered by the Priests Additions in any Form and Discipline will be easie and without Difficulty But if the Parish Minister may not Excommunicate a Notorious Convicted Atheist Deist Blasphemer Idolater Prophane Swearer Sabbath-breaker Abuser of Parents Murderer Adulterer Thief Perjured Person Extortioner Barretor and such like but must complain to the Diocesan and an Appeal must lie to the Archbishop the same Reason may carry it to the Pope tho' our Laws justly prohibit it So in the other Form of Government if such a Criminal after Conviction by Law may appeal from his Pastor to the Sessions thence to the Presbytery thence to the Synod and thence to the General Assembly the same Reason will carry it to a General Council and I think there ought to be one Appeal more in such Cases viz. to the Day of Judgment Indeed if Priests may make us a Horse-load of Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical and load us with Ceremonies of which St. Augustine in his Second Epistle to Januarius complains that the Condition of the Jews was more tolerable than of the Church in his Time which was the 5th Century and the Transgression of every one of them shall be a new Sin there may be need of Appeals nor will it be sit to trust a single Person to teaze a Parish for not submitting to Priestcraft But the Laws of God are plain the Duties required by Christianity are well known and I am so far from Abridging the Ministers of the Gospel of their just Power that I think 't is a horrid shame that they have not more 'T is an excellent Passage cited out of Mr. Chillingworth by the late Author of a Discourse called the Principle of the Protestant Reformation I am fully assured that God doth not and therefore that Man ought not to require any more of any Man than this to Believe the Scripture to be God's word to endeavour to find the true Sense of it and to Live according to it The Bible the Bible I say the Bible only is the Religion of Protestants But though I agree with the Author page 5. That a Person by Baptism is not made a Member of any particular Church but only of the Christian Church Universal yet I conceive that he is wretchedly out when he insinuates That there is no Part of Primitive Church Communion which might not have been performed by a Woman as well as a Man and that a Woman 's Narrative would have been part of the Gospel Because that Bible tells me not that our Saviour had any She-Apostles or Evangelists Indeed Priscilla as well as Aquila did instruct Apollos but so may any good Woman instruct her Friend without being a Church-Officer And the Context of that Passage 1 Cor. 11.21 which he quotes seems to insinuate as if this Fancy of a Female Officer had got footing in the Church of Corinth but the Apostle tells us That the Head of the Woman is the Man ver 3. and that she ought to have Power or a Covering on her Head So far from being heard that she was not to be seen And in the next Chapter v. 28 29. he speaks of Church-Officers but of no She-Ones And again Chap 14. v. 34. He is plain in the Case Let the Woman keep Silence in the Church for it is not permitted to them to speak and so 1 Tim. 2.12 Again I think he is strangely out when he says page 11. That there is no absolute Necessity for
Maurice Pag. 438. are certainly accountable for those who Perish by their Neglect of their proper Office but will not be Condemned for not doing the Office of a Presbyter to all the Particulars of his Diocess But pray what is the Office of a Presbyter if those Passages of Chrysostom do not describe it It were much better and Honester to say the Bishop is the President of the Presbytery and not the sole Pastor of the Diocess he may have the Care of Souls in one particular Parish but every Parish Presbyter is a Bishop of his Parish and as such those Passages of Chrysostom concern him and not the Diocesan who by the 71 Canon of the African Code is forbidden to leave his Cathedral Church and go to any other Church in his Diocess to reside there This would be Plain Dealing and a better Answer to the Charge of consulting the Bishops Honour more than the good of Souls than to tell the Story of the Cappadocian whose Blood poison'd a Viper that bit him Def. of Di. Epis Pag. 107. This had made Mr. Maurice in the right and Mr. Clarkson wholly in the wrong in this Matter For after all the Pains that Ingenious Independent has taken Diocesan-Episcopacy rightly Understood is too hard for him but taking the Diocesan as the Sole Pastor of a Diocess these Two Gentlemen do most manifestly Confute one another and neither of them in Truth are for the True Primitive Episcopacy That Chrysostom was Bishop of Constantinople in this Sence which I give of Primitive Episcopacy is very consistent with the aforesaid Passages and his Practice does no more Contradict his Doctrine then Dr. Vsher being the Arch-Bishop Ardmagh is an Argument that he did not Write the aforementioned Treatise Entituled the Reduction of Episcopacy c. I see no way of saving the Souls of either of Bishop or People without Discipline I see no Possibility of Discipline without allowing many Pastors in every Diocess too big for the Inspection of a single Pastor who have the Power of the Keys and I do not diminish here by the Diocesans Grandure unless it be Claimed by the Institution of Christ who has forbid such a Claim in the most Express Terms and told us his Kingdom is not of this World neither He nor His Apostles would meddle with Government and altho' I think the 13th Rom. which has been much urged for Arbitrary Power and unlimitted Submission to the worst of Rulers signifies no such thing especially being Written in Neros Quinquennium when his Reign was suitable to the Apostles Description of it in that Chapter Yet that and many such Texts shew that the Apostles thought not of any such Hierarchy of Divine Institution as the High Party pretend to it is not the Business of the Ministers of the Gospel to meddle with Government other than Pastoral at least till the Apostles shall sit on Thrones judging the 12 Tribes of Israel and when that will be God only knows But of this I am sure that there have been many Heretical Councils that the Councils of Rome held by Gregory the III. in the 8th Century consisting of 903 Bishops almost Thrice the Number of the Fathers at the Council of Nice Decreed the Worshipping of Images Excommunicated the Emperor Leo and deprived him of his Imperial Dignity for Opposing Images And whereas the Councils of Nice in the 4th Century appointed 3 Patriarchs one in Rome another in Alexandria and the Third in Antioch with Power to Convocate within their own Bounds particular Councils for timely suppressing of Heresies this was so far from suppressing them that many of those Patriarchs were most Notorious Hereticks and the great Promoters of Heresy Eulalius Euphronius Placitus Stephanus Leontius Spado Eudoxius all Patriarchs of Antioch were Arians in the very same Century So was Lucius Patriarch of Alexandria And tho' Julius Patriarch of Rome and most of his Successors in that Age were a Refuge to the Orthodox yer Siricius in that Age forbad Marriage to Priests and their affecting Supremacy was very Visible And Liberius one of them is given up by Bellarmine himself as an Arian and these Pretences at last issued in the Papal-Empire But yet in short I know no Reason why a Minister of the Gospel may not be made by the Civil Government a Lord of Parliament nor why a Lord of Parliament may not become a Minister of the Gospel It were no Disparagement to the Emperor to be an Embassador for Christ 2 Cor. 5.20 And I was pleased with a Story that I heard of a certain Clergy-Man on whom an Earldom descended who Wrote himself Minister of Jesus Christ and Earl of K. He that receiveth them receiveth Christ and he that receiveth Him receiveth Him that sent Him I have the same Expectations with the Author of the Case of the Regale that many of the Promises of the Glory of the Church must be fulfilled in this World that there are Original Fundamental and Divine Powers with which Christ has invested His Church that there is a Discipline which Christ has left in his Church and which is absolutely necessary with which Princes cannot Dispense and which they may not Over-rule that she has an Original Independance from all Kings and States who ought to be Subject to her Discipline if they Profess themselves Members of her that Censures are still in her Power and that she cannot Recede from them and that they would still have their Effect upon all truly Conscientious and restore the now well nigh lost Notions of a Church and Religion but then all these things must be found in the Bible and Men may as well make an Act to Burn the Bible Pres Pag. 23. as set Up for Rights Powers and Priviledges Jure Divino which are not to be found there He is certainly in the right Pag. 25. that nothing can be believed to be Religion by any People but what they think to be Divine and they can think nothing can be so that is in the Power of Man to alter or Transverse I look on every True Gospel Minister as representing the Person of Jesus Christ and Reverence Him as His Ambassador but I have his Instructions in my Hand and he must not expect that I shew any Regard to his Demands beyond those Instructions Suppose a Treaty of Peace between the Emperor and the Hungaeians now in Arms who Accept of the Terms offered them by His Imperial Majesty but Prince Eugene would have Two or Three of his own Fancies complyed with or no Peace should be would not the Hungarians think him very Impertinent and Saucy would not the Emperor think Himself ill Served by him and would not all the World think him stark Mad The Application is easie And here Sir I could particularly shew you that Anthropos and his Wife did gradually Rob the Laity of their Reason the Bible of their Senses by what Degrees Priest-crast grew and Christianity decayed but I must not Enlarge having been
much longer on this Head than I designed But I cannot Omit to give you a Copy of a Letter Written by Cardinal Woolsey to the Pope when we of the Laity began to shake our Ears and look about Us as you may find it Ld. Herb. Hist H. VIII No. 2. And now Sir Humphry what is there in all this that hinders but that you a High Church-Man and I an Occasional-Conformist or rather if you please an Occasional-Dissenter are not of Opposite Principles but of the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion Is there any particular Part of Religion in what I have Discourst under this Head in which Consideration you do not fully agree with me in all Respects Sure you cannot still think either English-Prelacy or Scotch-Presbytery Jure Divino tho' by the Civil Sanction they be justifyed in the respective Kingdoms where they are Established T' is a wonderful Thing considering for how many Ages Prelacy prevailed in the World and the many Forgeries of Pieces of Antiquities and the Indices Expurgatoriae that have been made that there are so many Things to be said against Jus Divinum out of Antiquity and on the other side 't is wonderful that if Presbyterian Government without a President Bishop had been Jure Divino that so Early as the Year 140. it should be Decreed over all the World to change it to Diocesan-Episcopacy which the Presbyterians indeavour to Prove out of St. Jerom and that in no Age since till of late the Jus Divinum of it should be Discovered And I believe it may be proved that the Albegois and Vaudois Churches which have been pure Churches from the Apostles Days have always allowed of President Bishops tho' not of Diocesans being sole Pastors of a Diocess Jure Divino But this Question is no matter of either Natural or Revealed Religion and therefore hinders me not to Conclude that you and I are not of Opposite Principles but of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion especially since we are both Members also of the National Church heartily Approve of the Laws of the Land and cheerfully pay Obedience to them tho' both you and I would be Glad to see them altered so as to restore Discipline to Establish the Church of England more firmly to make a better Provision for the small Vicarages and Curacys to Unite our Differences and heal our Breaches to Provide for Employing the Poor to Suppress Vice and Immorality more Effectually and to promote Christian Knowledge both at Home and Abroad 2. And having been too Prolix tho' far from Impoverishing the Subject of the first Question I shall be short in my Answer to the other and as to the Second Whether if the Occasional-Bill had past it had secured the Government from such who are not sincere Members of the National Church nor heartily approve of the Laws of the Land nor chearfully pay Obedience to them but are of Opposite Prinnciples and not of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion I will only say That 't is plain that altho' the Bill had passed Atheists Deists Socinians those that Value no Religion nor any Church if wise enough to avoid the late Act against Blasphemy Adulterers Common Swearers Extortioners and all those truly Scandalous Occasional-Conformists whose Lives shew that they neither heartily Approve of the Laws of God or of the Land and neither chearfully nor otherwise pay Obedience to them would be Capable of Publick Offices and Employments relating to the Government either in Countries or Corporations notwithstanding that Bill and would have been no way Affected by it a Person of Sober Life that had been in 5 or 6 Years 5 or 600 Times at Church and frequently received the Sacrament according to the Usage of the Church of England might have been removed out of an Office tho' he had also all that while laboured in doing Service to the Church as by Law Establish'd which will be of Everlasting Advantage to it and a Person of a Prosligate Life who had Publickly owned that he had not been at Church for as many Years might be Capable of a Wh. St. f. notwithstanding that Act but this is so Clear That it needs no Proof as to so much of this Question as relates to Religion and if you intend any other Laws the Defacto Men such as believe the Jus Divinum of Absolute Monarchy that take the Oaths to Her Majesty as an Ass eats Thistles that neither heartily Approve of the Laws of the Land abjuring the pretended James the III. and Establishing Her Majesty's Throne and the Protestant Succession nor the Law for Toleration nor chearfully pay Obedience to them would be all unaffected by this Bill surely the Promoters of it thought there was no Sin but going to a Protestant Meeting as one of the Characters in Timon of Athens thought there was no Sin but Murder Thirdly Whether the Administration of Publick Aflairs may not be in the Hands of Persons who are not of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion nay of Men of opposite Principles without Confusion or tearing the Government in pieces between them and whether they may not notwithstanding draw together the same way for the Publick Good Now certainly Calvinists and Arminians High-Church and Low-Church Sherlockians and Southians such as take the Articles of the Church to be Articles of Faith and such as take them only to be Articles of Peace such as are for the Occasional-Bill and such as are not such as hold the Pope to be Antichrist and such as do not are not of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion but of opposite Principles and yet Sir Humphrey you will not deny that they may be all employ'd without Confusion or tearing the Government in pieces between them and may notwithstanding draw together the same way for the Publick Good but the truth is this Queens Coronation Sermon p. 24. Mixing of Heaven Earth together as his Grace the Lord Arch-bishop of York expresses it When Men for difference of Opinion about the Methods of the publick Conduct break out into Parties and Factions sacrifice the Peace of the Kingdom to their own private Resentments and mingle Heaven and Earth for the supporting of a Side 'T is this which tears the Government in pieces It were indeed desirable that all the Subjects of England were good Christians for the sake of the Publick and of their own Souls for that Christianity gives the best Rules of Morality and the Name of Jesus Christ is the only Name under Heaven given among Men whereby they can be Saved Yet Faith is the Gift of God and Men may be of great Use in this World who may be very unhappy in the next It is a Notion long since exploded That Dominion is founded in Grace and Honesty Honour Skill and Imegrity may consist with a mistaken Belief as to revealed Religion and in this respect no Religion but the Popish or