to spare and may part with some excrescences and never touch the Quid of Religion rather then they who own a Naked Religion without any Additaments and if any such be found Amongst them they are Content to surrender them up as a Sacrifice to peace 5. They who by their Authority are Qualified to make a through Reformation and such Abatements in supernumerary observations such fillings up of the Chasmes and vacuities as may not only Retrieve peace at Home but procure a General union with all the Reformed Churches abroad to the strengthning of the Protestant Religion weakning the hands of the Common Enemy rather then those poor people whose Circumstances are such that they cannot propose the Terms of peace to others and what Alterations they shall make in themselves will be insignificant to an universal settlement 6. They who have already given some specimens of their Condescensions to the Romanists by Removing some exasperating passages and it may be hoped and expected that they will take a few steps towards a Compliance with dissenting Protestants For as the Author of the Irenicum observes well p. 132. That which was laid as a bait for them the Papists was never intended as a Hook for those of our own Profession And therefore to conclude this Chapter I will take the freedom to Quote that Celebrated Son of the Church for a Theological Notion whom he has already quoted 〈◊〉 Philosophical one Dial. 5. p. 399. speaking of the Papacy as the Kingdom of Anti-Christs he has those Notable words Which we knowing so experimentally not to be Compassed by Needless Symbolizing with them in any thing I conceive our best policy is Studiously to Imitate them in nothing but for All indifferent things to think the worse of them for their using them As no person of Honour would willingly go in the known garb of Any Lewd and infamous person whatsoever we court them in they do but turn it to our scorn and Contempt and are the more hardned in their wickedness wherefore seeing that Needless Symbolizing with them does them no Good but Hurt we should Account our selves in all things indifferent perfectly free to satisfy and please in the most universal manner we can those of our own party nor Caring what opinions or Customs or outward formalities the Romanists or others have or may have had from the first Degeneracy of the Church which we ought to Account the more hidâ—…ously soiled by the Romanists using them but supporting our selves upon plain Scripture and solid Reason to use and profess such things at will be most Agreable to us All and make most for the safety and welfare of the Kingdom of Christ for this undoubtedly O Philopolis is the most firm and true Interest of Any Protestant Church or state whatsoever CHAP. IV. The vanity of the Enquirers Confidence noted in boasting that they who find fault with the Churches Constitution will never be able to find out or agree upon a better his Reasonings about this matter examined IT was a piece of the old Roman valâ—…ur to kill themselves for fear of being Killed and it 's a Considerable piece of the New Roman piety not to stir for fear of going out of the way to Resolve against Reformation upon some dangers which are fancied may attend Reformation That Church always apprehending or pretending to apprehend dreadful inconveniences in all changes though apparently for the better Before we can possibly know whether A better way may be found out we must first be Agreed what is a Good way Now All Goodness Consists in the due Conformity of a thing to it's Rule and Idaea by which it ought to be measured and it 's fitness to reach that end to which it is a Means And therefore the betterness of Any thing must be judged of by it's nearer Approach to that Rule and it 's greater proportionableness to the attainment of it's design If then we could find out A worship more Agreable to the Rule of worship or a Constitution more apt to reach the great intendments of Holiness and Peace such a worship such a Constitution will justify it self to be a better then any of it's Competitors which shall Deviate from that Rule or more uncertainly attain the Desired End 1 The first part of our task then will be to find out our Rule which when we have done we have nothing remaining but to apply that Rule to those Models which we would erect or having erected we would examine their Regularity And as they shall be found to approach nearer or depart farther from that Rule we may Confidently pronounce they are therefore by so much The better or the worse Now the only Rule of Reformation in our judgment is the Infallible word of God which we therefore judge sufficient and adaequat because they give this Testimony to their own Perfection And seeing we have now to do with those who own the Scriptures to assert nothing but Truth it will be evidence enough that they are such a Rule if they do but Assert that they are so It is indeed no new thing to hear them charged as Lame and defective such as must be pieced and eked out either with Immediate Revelations or Humane Traditions to render them a Compleat and perfect standard of our Faith and acceptable obedience To which we only oppose the Testimony of the Apostle 2. Tim. 3. 16. 17. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for Correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect thorowly furnisht unto all good works Concerning which sacred Rule I will use our Authors Confidence with I think better warrant That they who find fault with this Rule will never be able to find out or Agree upon a Better whereof the Endless mazes the perplexed labyrinths into which they have cast themselves who despising and forsaking this only Canon have delighted to find out by-paths is very clear but very sad demonstration for when they have tryed Traditions or gaped for revelations or depended on the Churches Authortiy and yet found no satisfaction they think to secure themselves and gratify theMagistrate with a New power who has already such burdens upon his shoulders that we have more need incessantly to sollicite the throne of grace on his behalf for wisdom Counsel strength to manage and bear them then fondly to think to do him a kindness by Imposing upon him a greater work which all others are weary of But this one Text which I have mention'd may abundantly satisfy us that there can be nothing requisite to equise and furnish out A Christian A Minister A Church for Duty and obedience but what is summarily therein ascribed to the written word § 1. That the Scriptures are of unquestionable Authority to Determine all those Controversies whereof they haveCognizance because they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divinely inspired which no person no Church no Convention of
Erasmus to be the true measure of the Preaching of those times And why may we not charitably suppose that the Romanists have furbisht up their rusty Preaching since the days of Erasmus as well as we have scowred up ours since the days of the Homilies 3. Arg. His fourth Argument is none of the strongest and yet worth all the rest put together which were but the vaunt-courriers to usher in this main one with more solemnity Compare says he but the Preachings generally in our Churches with those ordinarily in Conventicles you will find them unequally matcht Though we could be content they were modestly compared yet we can by no means allow this Enquirer to use his own false weights of comparing and generally such comparisons are odious Non-conformists do not affect strong lines nor are ambitious of the Gigantick Vein and Stile they study not measured sentences nor use the Compasses to every deceâ—…t period they had rather with their Austin have A wooden Key that will open the Lock then one of Gold which makes a fidling din in the Wards and yet confounds them None of them but do praise God for the Learning sound Judgement solid Preaching holy Lives which are to be found among the Conformable Clergy but can he rear his Triumphant Arches to their praises upon no other foundations then the ruines of other mens credits For my part I am always apt to suspect that persons credibility who thinks more to confirm it by two or three ratling Oaths And I never received it as an argument of her honesty that carries her tongue so loosely hung that she deals about most liberally Sâ—…rumpet and Whore but I see he is impatient till he compares them On the one side you have sound Theology strength of Argument gravity of Expression distinctness of Method on the other side nothing more frequent then puerile and flat oftentimes rude and sometimes blasphemous expressions similitudes instead of arguments and either Apish gestures or Tragical vâ—…ciferations instead of Eloquence Reader this Language is pure Cicero I assure thee Ex hac enim parte Pudor pugnat illinc petulantia hinc pietas illinc stupram hinc fides illinc frraudatio I am sorry our Enquirer dwells by so very bad Neighbours that his own mouth must be the very Trumpeter of his praises If the common Cryer could have been engaged for love or money to proclaim them no modest man would have done the drudgery But nemo patriam suam amavit quia magna est sed quia sua 'T is propriety that renders all things sweet and beautiful All this had been pardonable but I see some that love to be Ingeniosi in aliená famâ huge facetious upon other mens fames and perhaps never witty in a Twelve-month but when they write Satyr As all impartial Readers know one half of his Oratory to be false so it s to be feared they may suspect the other moyety not to be very true That 's all an honest man shall get by being in a Knaves company Truth has sometimes been set in the Stocks because it has been found under the same Roof with Falshood He that wishes well to his own due praises let him never desire they should be yoaked with anothers unjust reproach least the hearer knowing the one unrighteously slandered conclude that the other is as unjustly flattered For its an unquestionable maxime He that will be a Sycophant against one will be a Parasite to another Let our Enquirer then sweetly enjoy the ravishments of his pleasing Dreams I shall not awaken him with loud recriminations only softly whisper that of the Poet. Bella es novimus Puella verum est Et Dives Quis enim potest negare Sed dum te nimiùm Fabulla laudas Nec Dives nec Bella nec Puella es Mart. Ep. l. 1. 165. Yet there is one Salvo for their credits which all the Fraternity of Gentlemen-Raylers do use to bring themselves off and heal all again when at any time they have most unconscionably over-lasht and that is when they have pour'd out all the contempt and scorn have heap'd up all the slanders and reproaches that they can make or rake together then to make an Honourable Retreat and tell you they do confess there may be one or two that may be innocent God forbid says our Gentleman that I should charge all the Non-conformists with such Indecencies Nay I can tell him more then that God forbids him to charge any one with such Indecencies unless he had better proof of them And had he known any individual guilty of these crimes he should have personally charged that one that he might be brought to Repentance for his prophanation of Gods holy Name and not involve a whole party under the scandalous suspicion All the charity that these words necessarily contain is that they are All such save one Suppose another as charitable as himself should write after his Copy and when he had with much pleasant Scurrility and Drollery made the Devil sport with the Indecencies of Church-men should come off at last with this Epanorthosis God forbid I should charge all the Conformists with these extravagancies what would it argue but a more crafty and safe way of Hypocritical Calumny Thus I remember a Gentleman once in a frolick told his Companions They were all Fools but one and when a young Gallant of the knot more tender of his Reputation then it deserved and willing to venture more for it then 't was worth began to draw The other takes him aside and whispers him in the Ear How do you know but that I intended your self by that single exception And this little dust parted the fray Well I see he is sick till he comes to particulars Asaheâ—… would not take Abners civil warning some men seek mischief to themselves and all the Friends they have cannot stave them off from the Duel the more you hold a Coward the more eager he is to engage let the man alone pray let him alone and in the mean time I will fortifie my self with patience that no provocation of his may tempt me to a back blow under the fifth rib for how then should I lift up my face to my dear Brethren 1. Their Sermons are generally about Predestination About it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what a word was that for a wise man The Church of England in her 17th Article propounds the Doctrine of Predestination to be believed by us according to the Scriptures that which is the matter of Faith ought to be the subject of our Preachings 1 Cor. 4. 13. we believe and therefore we speak And yet I am confident that our Enquirer and his like preach more write more and make more noise about that serious point then the Non-conformists I presume I may have heard my share of their Sermons and yet I can assure the Reader I never heard that Doctrine professedly handled in my life I speak not this in their excuse or
which is no essential point of our Religion for Charity which is I am heartily sorry that Peace is not to be had upon easier terms But especially that Charity a Lady of so much Debonaireté that seeks not her own much less to rob another that 〈◊〉 not to look so Big and stand upon Terms should enflame the Reckoning It is not it cannot be Charity I know her Temper too well that requires Conscience or Truth should be sacrificed upon her Altar A true friend she is to Truth and no less to Peace and will wait on her usque ad Aras and no further No! It 's the Tyrian Idol Meloch that old Canibal and bloodsucker that delights in Humane Carnage For thus we read in Q. Curtius that when they were in a great straight Sacrum quod quidem Diis minime Cordi esse Crediderim jam multis saeculis intermissum repetendi quidem Autores erant Which we may accommodate in the Translation thus Some there were that perswaded the State to Revive an old and obsolete Statute which since the time of Ancient Persecutions had lyen Dâ—…rmant and to sacrifice Freemen to the Common safety but for my part though you count me a Heathen Writer I can never believe according to those notions I have of the Gods that such Cruelties were ever acceptable to their Deities I would have Peace upon any terms that are Reasonable but to part with all that in Religion which he shall say is no essential part of it is a very hard Chapter We may chop off a mans Legs Arms put out his Eyes cut off his Nose and yet though thus miserably dismembered and mangled in his Integrals his essential parts Body and Soul remain Thus he may cut off even what he pleases of Religion all Worship all Sacraments all Discipline and leave us but Faith Hope and Charity there 's as much as is essential to our Salvation and then dispose of the rest To this or some other or no purporse at all he quotes us Greg. Nazianzen Who asks us this Question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What 's far more beautiful then our own Reason And he Answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nay I will add the most profitable too We were made to believe page 126. That no man in England is bound to give away his Reason for quietness sake But now four pages further Peace is far more beautiful and useful then our own Reason How shall we reconcile these cross Capers Why Qui bene distinguit bene respondet Then he was commending the Moderation of the Church of England in opposition to Rome How that Imperious Lady that sits on the seven hills Hectors the World out of their Reason and common Sense and then Reason was more precious then Peace but now he 's arguing the Non-conformists into obedience and then Peace is more precious then Reason To the same purpose he gives us that excellent counsel of the Apostle 12 Rom. 18. If it be possible as much as in you lyes live peaceably with all men Admirable advice it is God grant us grace to take it And truly the Non-conformists can live peaceably with all the World if they might be let alone but it s not in their power to prescribe Terms to others but to receive them Leges à victoribus dari à victis Accipi said Caesar If then reasonable Terms be offered us we will accept and love them If unreasonable we will refuse and love them If we be taken into the circle of their Charity we will love them if we be excluded yet still we love them Amabo si Nolis Amabo si Nolim ipse We will love whether they will accept our love and thank us for it or no Nay we will love them whether our own exasperating sufferings will perswade us or no that is we will follow them with a Christian affection in spight of their teeths and of our own But this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to live converse peaceably perhaps may be Impossible and the Apostle we see will not tye us up to Impossibles Now sinful Conditions create a Moral impossibility for id tantum possumus quod jure possumus I confess it cost me a Smile when I read his improvement of the Apostles exhortation Surely says he he did not mean we should only accept of Peace when it s offered us for nothing or be quiet till we can pick a quarrel but that we should be at some cost to purchase it and part with something for it The old something still Why we are willing to part with all our outward Concerns we will give skin upon skin will neither Gods Terms nor the Devils please him Only we would not part with our Consciences instructed from the Scriptures the Soveraingty of Christ the Perfection of the Written Word and is all this Nothing But still he 's at it again We must deny our selves something upon that account Why we will take an Oath in the presence of Almighty God to lead quiet and peaceable Lives as become good Subjects in all godliness and honesty Will that serve to purchase our Peace No! It must be something else which before he acquaints us with he will first prove the necessity of it and thus he Reasons There are hardly says he page 1. 1. any two persons perfectly of the same apprehensions or stature of understanding in the whole World So much difference there is in mens Constitutions such diversity of Education such variety of Interests and Customs and from hence so many prejudices and various Conceptions of things that he that resolves to yeeld to no body can Agree with no body What now is to be done in this perplexed Case Must we take our Constitutions in pieces I doubt we shall never put them right together again or must we have no Peace till all the propensities and inclinations rooted and riveted in our Beings Natures Temperaments besides that second Nature growing out of Custome be stormed The Terms of Peace will be next to desperate this way What then must the prevailing party commit a Rape upon the intellectuals of the depressed Minority and Marry them afterwards to make them amends Yet still there is a Tower called Assent and Consent can never be forced by assault What then must the lesser number openly profess themselves Convinced and make Recantations before they have cause for 't Alas this is but to Proselyte a few Hypocrites who are not worth the whistling Or must we tarry till we come to Heaven where we shall be of one mind Oh our Enquirer is not satisfied in that point to Plerophory some thinâ—… so indeed but he wisely keeps his faith to himself What course must we then steer Why we must castigate our heats take in our sailes lighten the ship and offer sacrifice to the touchy Deities of received Custome and Vulgar Opinion with all the fine stuff you heard before But surely there 's an easier cheaper more honourable
were all in their Graves as well as dead and rotten And if those Decent Ceremonies had a Decent Buâ—…ial it were an Honour as great as those of a Nobler Extract 〈◊〉 Divine Ceremonies had bestowed on them I would seriously enquire of our serious Enquirer 1. If some Ceremonies were Abolished because they were superstitious and therefore dangerous why all the rest were not served with the same sawce that were equally or more superstitious and therefore more dangerous I think it 's demonstrable that all the superstition that ever stuck to Holy Water Cream Salt Spittle Oyl was â—…nnocency to that horrid abuse of the Sign of the Cross. But 2. 〈◊〉 the Superstitions of the remaining Ceremonies were capable of separation from them why might not a little Oyl and Elbowgreace have been bestowed on the rest and their Lives saved 〈◊〉 seems most of the Ceremonies were knock'd o th' head because they would not go to the charge of Rearing them 3. If many Ceremonies were a Burden whether were not half of that many half as great a Burden and so pro rato And if so where was the Churches Commission to impose any unnecessary Burden upon the Necks of Disciples 4. If some of the old superstitious Ceremonies when well scraped and wiped were lest for Decency and Comeliness in the Worship why where not the rest scummer'd up that the Worship might be more Decent For iâ—… Two or Three Innocent Ceremonies will add a Decency Two or Three hundred will have burnish'd it to such a Lustre as must have either ravish'd or blinded the Eyes of all Beholders 5. Who shall insallibly assure us just how few will be no Burden and the imposing of them no sin and yâ—…t â—…ne more shall make them all burdensome and so the imposition of them to become sinful Or just how many to an Unite will render the Worship Decent and the adding of one more render all Deformed If the Church then why might not the Church of Rome in her days have Determined the Question Especially seeing that of all pretenders she alone challenges an infallibility which is the most considerable thing in this Case when the Church must carry her hand even and cut by a thred between Decency and Indecency A Burden and no Burden 6. If the Church has a power to impose a load though a lesser load has she a power to communicate strength though it be but little strength to bear that little Especially seeing the Burden here must not lie on the Back but the Heart not on the Shoulders but the Conscience She that pleads an Authority to Institute can she produce a power to Bless what she Institutes to any Spiritual End This encouragement we have from Christ whose perogative it is to impose that he will give Grace to bear what he imposes and thereby make his Yoke casie and his Burden light Qui mihi est Oneris Author idem erit Adâ—…inistrationis Adâ—…tor said Leo And so Austin Da quod jubes jube quod vis If any Church could incline the Heart towards her Testimonies or give a Heart to keep her Statutes Iudgments and Commandments and do them or make her Commandments not grievous Let her multiply Ceremonies till she is weary and spare not Let her use her Discretion and we shall use nothing but Submission But this dead weight sinks our Spirits quite 7. Whether is not such an assuming power exceeding dangerous in its Consequences for upon this Principle the Church may impose a round thousand of Ceremonies if she will say and think them decent and the Crow thinks all her young ones White and all are sond of the Brats of their Brains as well as the Issue of their Bodies yes and Ten Thousand more if she will but decree they are not burdensome which she is the less a Competent Judge of because Superiours who command do not feel that load which Inseriâ—…urs who must obey do groan under So much of the Moderation of the Reformation 3. The English Reformation was the most perfect and compleat in its kind The perfection and compleatness of a Reformation is to be taken from its Agreement with its Rule and Idea which say we is thâ—… Word of God and to this we do unmovably adhere till we have good security that they have found out a better All Perfection with us is but Defection and all compleatness Fancy which is not measured by that Rule It will therefore be the great Glory of the English Reformation to acquit it self well in this point wherein our Enquirer will endeavour our satisfaction 1. For Doctrine This Church retains says he the most Ancient Doctrine and soundest Confession of I aith founded upon the H. Scripture That the 〈◊〉 Scriptures are the foundation of Faith we gladly hear some intimation of and shall lay up the concession against another time whether the Church has attended to this Rule in her Doctrinals belongs to another Discourse 2. For Government He tells us The English Reformation retains the most Primitive Church-Government These things are wisely and warily penn'd thought I A Scripture Creed and a Primitive Church-Government Confession sounded on H. Scriptures and Government founded on a word called Primitive why shhould we not have a Confession sounded on something else than Scripture as well as a Government Or why not a Church-Government founded on the Scripture as well as the Doctrine So that he has provided well for the Doctrine but for the Government it may sinck or swim for any Relief it can expect from our Enquirer except a hard word will do it Primitive Antiquity is one of those Stulta Amuleta quae Controversiâ—… collo appendunturut Armilla Maleficarum Potent Charms and Pompous Enchantments not to Cure but Conjure down a Controversie for since 〈◊〉 may be taken in a Latitude of three 〈◊〉 five or 〈◊〉 time of need six hundred years after Christ it would be very hard if any Crotchet Humour and Fancy had not set up for it self in that time which shall be enough to entitle it to the Warrantie of the Primitive times Let him therefore prove it Scriptural and so jure Divino and he has said more to me than if he had run up its Pedigree through a Dozen or more Centuries But is not this short word The most Primitive Church-Government a foundation too narrow for that High Boast p. 2. That our Church is of a sound and healthful Constitution I think I have sufficiently though briefly manifested in the Introduction Briefly and suffciently The Two most desirable Qualifications in Argument and Evidence that may be And surely it must de brief enough which is comprehended in this one Sentence The English Reformation retains the most Primitive Church-Government but whether it be sufficient or no let the Reader look to that 3. For the Liturgy That is as he thinks the Best accommodate to reconcile and unite Mens Devotions And how well it has answered its end and the
out of Heaven and a Key to let them in again 4. They that have been ejected by that 〈◊〉 find no evil consequences in their ejected state In the Primitive times it was therefore terrible because Christ abbetted his own Ordinance administred for his own Spiritual Ends in his own Regular way but now Men dare not trust Christ with his own Work but have supplied his vengeance with a Significavit a Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo delivering Men over to the Sheriff whom thereby they call the Devil by craft but otherwise the Excommunicated Person cats his Bread and drinks his Wine with a Chearful Heart because the Lord has accepted him 3. That so few frequent the Church is because they have either been scoffed or railed or beaten out of doors or barred out by Conditions not comporting with Scripture Rule and Warrant Men know that Christ must be their Judge to him they must give an account of their Souls and Worship in the Great Day and therefore they are willing to Worship God according to his Will revealed in his Sacred Word unless any can give them Counter-security to save harmless and indemnifie them before his dreadful Tribunal And if they must suffer for such resolved adherence to a Scriprure Religion they have only this humbly to reply Daveniam Imperator Tu Carcerem Ille Gehennam Christ threatens a Hell the Law only menaces a Goal 4. That the Liturgy was then counted a principal part of Gods Worship we cannot help We judge that none but God can make the least much less a principal part of Gods Worship God only knows which way he will be Worship'd with Acceptation And it is our grear Happiness that he has acquainted us with that Will of his in his Word to which we apply our selves for our Directory and are not sollicitous about Apocryphal Rubrics As to matters concerning Religion Nature Teacheth no further than the Obligation to the Duâ—…y but leaves the particular determination of the manner of Obedience to Divine Positive Laws So we are instructed from the Author of Origin Sacrae p. 171. 5. That it is now become the great point of Sanctity to scruple every thing was not spoken with that regard to Honesty and Truth as might have been expected from a Compassionate Enquirer They scruple being Holier than Christ has commanded them wiser in matters of Religious Worship than the Scriptures are able to make them They scruple giving up their Consciences to those whom they see no great reason to trust till better evidence be given how they regard their own They scruple all Retreats in Reformation and all Retrograde Motions towards Evangelical Perfection and Purity and they with our Enquirer would scruple a little more this overlashing That it 's an Essential part of some Mens Religion to be Censorious And a great point of Sanctity to scruple every thing Let him then continue to Lament the change and we will pray that God will make a more through change reducing Doctrine Worship Discipline to the Word of God the only Rule of Reformation PART I. CHAP. I. A Sober Enquiry into the Apocryphal Causes of Non-conformity pretended by the serious Enquirer St. Augustin and the Synod of Dort Vindicated the Articles of the Church of England Cleared The Learning Preaching and Conversations of the N. C. modestly justified against the scandalous Reflections of the pretended Compassionate Enquirer but without Recrimination AFter a very short Epistle or to speak Canonically that which stands instead of the Epistle to very little and a tedious Introduction to much less purpose the Enquirer falls full drive upon the Causes of the separation from the English Reformed Church In imitation of the French Embassadors Musicians who would needs give the Grand Seignior a fit of Mirth but were so cruelly tedious in tuning their Fiddles that the Sultans Patience was quite worn out and he could not be perswaded to hear the first Lesson Now the Causes are either Apocryphal and pretended or Canonical and Real and it 's a wonder to me when his Invention was once broached that he did not feign this for another Cause of separation that such Heterogeneous Causes should be bound up together in the same Volume and Covers For these Apocriphal Causes let it not beget another scruple in your Captious Heads whether they are pretended by Dissenters or only pretended by this Enquirer to be amongst their pretences for it will come all to one there being some collateral matters which it shall go hard but he will entice or force into the Discourse or else the Reader might have sung whâ—…p Barnaby and Retreated to his Recreations the longest Holy day in the Year 1. The very first of these pretended Causes is some Blame they lay upon the Doctrine of the Church and the main if not the only thing excepted against in this kind is That the Thirty Nine Articles are not so punctual in defining the Five Points debated in the Synod of Dort as they could wish Just as your common Hackney Versifiers or Water Poets make one Verse for the Reason and the other for the Rhime sake so was this Objection mounted against the Doctrine of the Church for the sake of his precious Answers wherein he will find or make as handsom an occasion as impertinency will admit to vilifie St. Austin and the Synod of Dort It will be extreamly difficult to give our Enquirer a satisfactory Answer in this Point Shall we say This is not the main thing in the Articles excepted against by Dissenters He will readily Reply However then you tâ—…itly grant that this is one of your little Cavils Shall we say This is not the Only thing they scruple he will return nimbly Then it seems you consess this to be one though not the only thing you Boggle at Really if I know how to content him I would do it and the best expedient that offers it self at present is this Answer 1. That the Church has other Doctrines not contained in the 39 Articles imposed on the Faith of Subscribers and perhaps the scruple may lie against them 2. That the 39 Articles contain other Doctrines besides those relating to the five Points debated 〈◊〉 the Synod of Dort as that of Art 20. The Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies And that of Art 34. Every Particular or National Church hath Authority to Ordain Change and Abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained only by Mans Authority And what now if the quarrel should lie against one of those And I am the rather induced to suspect they may hesitate in these particulars because I have heard some of them privately Speak and seen others publickly Print that though they can practise such things which being in their own Natures indifferent remain under all their concurrent Circumstances lawful yet they cannot find where the Church has any Commission to impose them They can assert and use their Christian Liberty and yet cannot subscribe to
the Doctrine of the Churches Power to take it away 3. That the most rigid Calvinists do not scruple Subscription to the Articles so far as they relate to the Quinquarticular Controversies and for a clear experiment herein for once let the Church make those Articles only the single Rail about the Communion Table and we shall soon see such Multitudes of Dissenters crowd into the Constitution that she will hardly find two Benefices a piece for them It 's my greater admiration that they who deny Particular Election Original sin the interest of Christs death in Reconciling God to us that they who assert Iustification by our own Works Freewill c. can subscribe them and indeed it seems they swallow'd them with some Reluctancy and are now reaching and straining with many a sowr face to Degorge not the Bait of the Benefice which is infinitely sweet but the Hook of the Article which is unmereifully sharp This pretended Pretence then might safely have been forborn but that the Lapwing thinks it advisable to raise a huge cry where 't is not that we may not search where really it is to make a clampering about the Non causes to divert our Fnquirers from the true and proper causes of Non-consormity Like the ingenious policy of the Thief that being arraigned for a Horse freely confessed the stealing of a Bridle but prudently concealed it was upon the Horses Head But says our Enquirer though this neither needs nor deserves an Answer yet I stall reply Two things to it That is he will give us Two needless Answers to One needless Objection 1. The summe of the former needless Answer is thus much Common Arts and Sciences which depend upon Humane Wit and Invention are capable of daily improvements but Christianity depending solely upon Divine Revelation can admit of no new discoveries The busie Wit of Man way perplex but it can never bring to light any New Thing for if we admit of any New Revelations we lose the Old and our Religion together we accuse our Saviour and his Aposiles as if they had not sufficiently revealed Gods Mind to the World and we incur St. Paul's Anathema which he denounces against him whosoever it shall be nay if an Angel from Heaven that shall Preach any other Doctrine than what had been received The Enquirer may call this a Needless Answer sor who shall hinder him from calling his own what he pleases but I assure him it contains a great deal of Needful Truth which had he like a good Husband improved the rest of his Book had been more needless than this Answer Needless we consess it to be as to the Objection which was it self needless but not so for his own Confutation for thus the Dissenters will come over him If neither Time nor the Wit of Man can make any New discoveries in Christianity then the Pope who like another Columbus or Americus has made Great and New discoveries in the Terra Incognita of Tradition and Ceremonies must either be a God or a Devil That the Liturgy was a principal part of Gods Worship he has told us in the Introduction that it was discovered from the beginning and not by later Adventurers he will be sore put to it to prove for all the Musty Fragments of St. Iames's Liturgy That it was not part of the Wisdom of Christ or his Apostles we are well enough satisfied That there was Wit and Invention in it we confess all the Question is whose Wit should have the glory of the Invention Again If to admit New Revelations be to lose the Old and our Religion together Let us make a short Quaery upon 't whether to admit of New Ordinances and Constitutions be not to lose the Old and our Religion together That is whether Gospel Institutions be not exclusive of new ones as well as Gospel Revelations and why we may not expect a new Credimus as well as a new Mandamus New Revelations as well as New Injunctions A New Prophet of the Church seems to me as necessary as a New King over the Church and a New High-Priest as needful as either And I proceed upon this Principle that the Law of Christ was as perfect as his Discoveries He has told us as fully and clearly what we should do as what we should believe He that may invade the Royal Office upon pretence there are not Laws enough for the Government of the Church may with equal appearance of Reason invade the Prophetick Office too upon pretence there are not Revelations now for its instruction And therefore the vigilant universal Pastor has found it as necessery to supply the defect of Revelations by his own Traditions as the nakedness of Worship by decent Ceremonies As Jesus Christ vindicated the Moral Law from the false Glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees so he superadded a Ceremoniâ—…l Law depending meerly upon his own fulness of Power and Authority now what right any can pretend to add new Particulars to his Ceremonial Law which they may not also pretend to add to his Meral Law I cannot Divine And therefore one of our Enquirers great Friends who had his Eyes in his Head and saw farther into these matters than his poor Neighbours was constrained to assert a power that had lain dormant somewhere of adding New Particulars to the Divine Law But further If New Revelations do accuse our Saviour and his Apostles as if they had not sufficiently revealed Gods Mind to the World Then new ways of teaching Gods Mind new invented Symbolical Ceremonies will accuse him and them of the same culpable failure in not discharging those Offices committed by God to a Mediator and by him to his Apostles And in short If we incur St. Paul's Anathema which he denounces against him that shall Preach any other Doctrine than what he has received Then they will do well to get out of the way of that Curse who Preach this Doctrine The Church has power to decree Rites and Ceremonies Unless they be sure they have received it from Christ for it s but ill venturing to stand in the way of an Angel with a drawn Sword more terrible than which is one of the Scriptures Anathema's Some will ask where and when and from whom the Church received that Doctrine which some Preach viz. A Power to impose Mystical and Symbolical Ceremonies as the Terms of Communion with a Churchâ—… but I shall only say that our compassionate Enquirer will need a most compassionate Reader upon these Two Accounts First that he makes an Objection for Dissenters which is their Answer And Secondly that he gives an Answer to that Objection which is their very Objection but yet we have not heard the Conclusion The Consequence says he of these Premises is That the elder any Doctrine of Christianity can be proved to be it must needs be truer and he that talks of a more clear Light of the latter Times and clearer discoveries in Religion talks as idly as he that
be destroyed till they be dress'd up in a Malefactors Cloaths And it seems as much for their Enemies Advantage to make them seem wicked as 't is for theirs to be really Holy It had been a more Important Enquiry than any he has yet made whence such an exulcerated Spirit should proceed The Gospel is a Message of Peace from the God of Peace by the Prince of Peace to the Sons of Peace which Gospel breaths nothing but healing Counsels drops down the Balmy Dews of Gentleness Meckness Patience Long-suffering Charity and if I might borrow an â—…ld Maxime at second hand from him Aut hoc non est Evangelium aut nos non sumus Evangelici Either Charity is not Gospel or our Enquirer is an Infidel It 's a grave Axiome in the Law That his Cause ought more to be favoured who only seeks to avoid wrong than his that seeks to get Gain The Dissenters humbly plead the Benefit of it They grudge them not their Preferments and Accumulated Dignities they neither envy nor seek their Great things They only deprecate Ruine till they shall deserve it It 's only from a Prison not for a Palace that they Petition When others have got the Two Swords the Secular and the Spiritual they only crave the protection of the Defensive Shield And think they may with some Reason demand of them who Deifie the freedom of Humane Will that they may be indulged in the freedom of their Consciences regulated by the Word of God CHAP. II. Of the more Remote Causes of the infelicities of this Church The Persecution under Q. Mary The bad provisions for Ministers in Corporations Frequent Wars The mischiefs of Trade and Travel The Designs of Atheists and Papists enquired into with what influence they may have had upon the present separation from the Church of England WHen Adrian VI. was pressed by the clamorous Importunity of the German Princes to Reform the Clergy he answered very gravely That a Reformation was necessary yet the danger of Reforming all at once was so dreadful that he resolved to proceed step by step Some Wise Men smiled at the cautious Advisement of his Holiness and said They hoped he would not break his shins for hast but deliberately make a hundred years at least between every step The same prudence which this politick Pope used in his advance towards a Reformation our wary Enquirer uses in his approaches towards the Causes of Separation Hitherto we have been entertained with certain Romantick Imaginary Causes and now he will give us a gentile Treat with the Real ones But of thâ—…se some are more remote others near hand these come by the running Post those by Tom Long the Carriet Thus your Poching Fellows when they have found the Hare sitting go round about and about the Bush till they have screwed themselves into a convenient Distance and then give poor Pusâ—… Club Law and knock her dead upon the Form 1. Now the first of these Remote Causes is That it was the misfortune and is the great disadvantage of this Church that it was not well confirmed and swadled in its Infancy it conflicted with Serpents in its Cradle and underwent a severe persecution What he understands by that old Blind Heathenish Beldame Fortune I cannot tell The Scriptures have taught us to believe That the Hairs of our Head are all numbred and therefore much more the Heads of the Martyrs That a Sparrow falls not to the ground without the Providence of our Heavenly Father Much less the Blood of the Saints which is more precious in his sight than many Sparrows But this is only a Shibboleth which serves for a Certificate that he is no friend to the immutable Counsels of God However this early persecution must needs have a considerable influence upon the Churches present weakness for thus Mephibosheths Nurse making more hast than good speed in her fright and flight threw down her Nursery and he became lame to his dying day It was therefore politickly done of Licurgus thinks the Enquirer when he had framed the Body of the Spartan Laws to pretend an occasion to Travel and having first taken an Oath of the People that they should make no alteration in that Government either in Church or State till his return he resolvedly never returns again If the old Masters of Ceremonies could have perswaded the people to some such subscription that they would never alter their Inventions till their return and then had sentenced themselves to a voluntary perpetual Exile it had been a successful piece of self denial to cheat a Nation into Uniformity no less honourable to themselves than grateful to thousands But thus the Case stood with the Church in its Infancy King Edward VI. dying Immaturely too soon says the Enquirer too late says Dr. Heylin Q. Mary succeeded him in the Throne and so the Church was put upon difficulties and trials before its Limbs and Ioints were settled and confirmed Persecution has hitherto been esteemed one of the Churches best friends whereof it has been often afraid but never hurt Such was the constant experience of the Primitive Christians Exquifiâ—…ior quaque crudelitas illecebra magis est secta plures efficimur quoties metimur sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesia The cruelties of Enemies does but more encrease the Number the oftner the Church is mowed down the thicker it comes up and there 's no Seed thrives so well as that which is steeped in the Blood of Martyrs That which Christians lose by the wind of persecution is only their Chaff that which the fire of Tribulation preys upon is only their Dross The Marian Fiers did the Church this one good turn that it melted down much of that imposing Spirit and Lordly Temper which reigned in some Church-men over their dissenting Brethren which Bishop Ridley confessed at the Stake That Tree which is of Gods Planting takes deeper Root by shaking and if it loses any Ceremonious Leaves let them go the Tree will bear better and sweeter Fruit with out them Could Persecutors have seen how much good the Wise God would extract out of their evil they would never have aggravated their own damnation to be the instruments of the Christians Salvation But malice is so quicksighted to do mischief that it 's Blind in the reasons of doing it and makes such hast to her end that she stumbles in the means Thus Nero's fingers itcht to be burning of Rome but that he knew it would arise a more glorious Phoenix out of its own Ashes which could the Devil himself consider he would never be content Tribulos metere dum nobis spinas serit to sow us Thorns and reap himself a crop of Thistles All this while we are waiting to see how he will make it out that This early Persecution did any real hurt to our Infant Church And after some Preambles and Introductions he will doubtless come home to the point And first By reason of this Persecution you must
year But if we speak with the Vulgar and take this Dignity for some external glory shining out in secular Lusire which is that currant signification which Custom the Master of the Mint has stampt upon It I doubt she will hold up her Head and not be dasht out of Countenance she can prodâ—… her purpuratos patres her Cardinals Princes fellows her Dignitaries she can produce you her Acolytes dancing attendance upon her Decans her Deacons footing it after her Priests her inferiour Clergy boâ—…ing before her mitred Prelates and alâ—… these orderly Reverencing their Metropolitan but then she boasts unmeasurably that she has an Ecclesiastical Head to be the Center of Union to all those so that whether you run up the scale from the poor Ostiary to the Exorcist and so upwards or down the Scale from the supream infallible Noddle moving all the inferiour Wyers she will brazen it out and never hang down her Head 3. The An ient Gravity of our Church reproves theirs I am sorry for the Honour of our Church which I truly Reverence that this Gentleman in vying with Rome should pitch upon those particulars wherein if we do excel and carry the day it will be no such Victory as to challenge a Triumph and yet such is the dubiousness of the case that perhaps we may lose the day I do not yet hear that Rome has disclaimed Antiquity to be one of the marks of the true Church and know something of her presumption in applying into her self Let any Antiquity short of Scripture Epocha be fixt upon and she will make a sorry shift to scramble through many a tiresome Century and scuffle to come as near the Apostolical days as some others Both sides I think have play'd at the game of Drop-father so long till they are weary and forced to confess that some things now in usage were unknown to the Fathers and many things practised by the Fathers which we have silently suffered to grow obsolete by desuetude I look upon these things as matters of course and form to look big and set the best foot before for if ever we confute Rome with an Army of hard words Decency Order Antiquity Gravity they must be such as the Word of God has made so It must be a Decency warranted by God himself either from the Light of Nature or Scripture an Order of Christs Establishment a Gravity exemplified from the Apostles and an Antiquity which was from the Beginning and when Scripture is once made sole Umpire in the Quarrel As the Church of England will certainly run the Papist out of all distance so the Non-conformist will begin to put in his stake and perhaps win the Plate § 2. If you ask how the Church of Rome undermines our Church he answers 1. She furnishes other parties with Arguments against it It were much easier to evince that the Euquirer has rather borrowed his Arguments from Rome then Rome lent one to the Non-conformists I think there 's not one Arrow he can shoot against them but I can shew him where 't was borrow'd or shotten from a Jesuites Quiver where was that Argument taken from Axes Halters Pillories Galleys Prisons Consiscations as some express it or as he more concisely Executing the Laws borrow'd but from Rome The Scripture knows it not the better sort of Heathens abhorr'd it Protestants disown it Papists only glory in it Uterejure tuo Caesar sectamque Lutheri Ense Rotâ Ponto Funibus igne Neca And whence was that argument for Active unlimited Obedience to all things commanded by the Church borrowed for though it becomes no mouth so well as his that can boast of Infallibility yet still we are pressed with the same Argument and in the last resort Publick Conscience must carry it I am sorry this imprudent person should give any one occasion to say further that some of us at home have furnisht Rome with Arguments against the Reformation Arguments from the Scripture Rome has none from the nature of the thing not one but some have put into their Hands a left-handed Dagger which does mischief enough it 's called Argumentum ad Hominem Thus when we are earnest with them to throw away their Oil and Cream they bid us throw away our Cross If we desire her to reform her Cowles and Copes she calls to us to reform our Surplice When we in a friendly way caution them not to feed upon the Devils flesh they answer As good eat his flesh as the Broth he was boiled in 2. She is all for blind Obedience at home but preaches up tenderness of Conscience abroad And what the difference is between blind Obedience and Obedience meerly on the account of the Command I would willingly learn And if any can shew us a better reason for the things commanded and enjoyned then that we shall return him thanks If I might now borrow the Enquirers place so long as whilst I propounded a few Enquiries I would immediately resign to him his Province § 1. If the enmity between the two Churches be so great as is pretended what was the reason that so many Stars of the first magnitude in this Orb were in Conjunction with the Dragons Tail why were they so ready to yield him his Western Patriarchate and all within the first four hundred years which will at once bring England under his Subjection though I much question whether the Grand Seignior will have so much good nature as to resign him the Eastern Patriarchate so easily § 2. If the Church of Rome be this Churches Enemy is she not then concerned to get more Churches to be her Friends It 's a wild Humour of some Church-men that they will disoblige all the world provoking every ones hand against themselves whilst their hand is against every one If Rome be an Enemy she is a potent malicious subtle and United Enemy and it concerns a Church not to be divided at home when her Enemies are united abroad and to combine with the forreign Protestants in Love were an excellent way to prevent the Combinations of Romes hatred § 3. It would be enquired If Rome be such an Enemy what should be that which provokes her wrath and indignation what that should be that makes the envious Snakes wherewith Antichrists head is periwigg'd to hiss and spit out their Venom Does she Storm and Rage because we have retained two or three of her fine Ceremonies that cannot be the Origin of her spight They are those things wherein the Church of England and Non-conformists are mutually agreed that Rome opposes this Church in and they are those things wherein this Church symbolizes with Rome wherein she differs most from the Non-conformists When the Heathens triumphed in the great feats of their Maximus Tyrius and Apollonius Tyanaeus the Christians answered That whatever good effect their Religion ever had upon the Lives of Men was owing to those Principles and Truths which it had in Common with Christianity Thus will Dissenters plead
received any such command to invent and impose Ceremonies she can tell us where others may read it as well as her self And to conclude at present they say That this one Principle granted That the Church may impose upon her Members whatever is not expresly forbidden does either put the Body of Christians under a more heavy Yoke then that of the Iews or else torment them with fears that they may be so And indeed supposing this exorbitant power to impose parts of Worship or Ceremonies or any of these things in Debate the condition of the Iews was much more desirable in this respect then that of Christians For § 1. Their Law-giver was Iehova who had an absolute and unlimited power over them and they that are Gods Creatures will not grudge to be his Servitors He was Lord paramount of Worship and Conscience and might he not be allowed to do what he would with his own He is the God of the Spirits of all Flesh and shall they not live in subjection to him who expect to live in a Kingdom with him Since there is a necessity of obedience it sweetens it unspeakably that it 's both Interest and Priviledge to obey and that he who requires obedience is their God a God whose Will is the Rule of Righteousness and therefore the most satisfactory Reason of his Commands and his Creatures Duty And Implicit Obedience is then Honourable when God calls for it § 2. As their Law giver had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Authority to Command so he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a power to influence the weakest Elements He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and had absolute Sovereignty and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of Almighty power which was a double encouragement to the observers of his precepts For 1. He was hereby able to secure the Obedient in his Service upon which Account Christ claims the Legislative Power over Conscience â—…am 4. 12. There is one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy 2. By this Power he could render efficacious these Rudiments which in themselves were but beggerly Ordinances and produce by them Spiritual and Supernatural effects And I am 〈◊〉 the rather to think that God has not committed the â—…ral Power of instituting much less the Sovereign Power of imposing Religious Ceremonies and Observances because he has not communicated that other Power to bless their own appointments â—…or invigorate them with success God may well be allowed to Command what he pleases seeing be can and will bless whatsoever he Commands § 3. Their Law-giver was Faithful one to whom they might securely commit their Consciences one with whom they might â—…ith the greatest satisfaction of Heart commit their Souls He â—…hat has a sole right to any thing will be faithful in keeping it because 't is his own and who may better be entrusted with the Guardianship of Worship and all Religion then their Owner But though we ought not to be Censorious yet we may and ought to exercise some prudence and caution to whom we resign our selves in matters of Religion though the best of Men not knowing how they may use us but well knowing that we may more easily Captivate ourselves to the Will of an Imposer then being once enthralled vindicate our selves into our Christian Liberty Or if for no other Reason yet for this because they are but Men. § 4. The Jewish Yoke was a determinate Yoke It was Onus but Determinatum A Burden but a stinted Burden It 's no small alleviation to the Labourers toyl when he knows his work to the Traveller that he knows his Journeys end The fews had their work before them but upon the Modern Principle The burden of Christians is Indefinite which is but a better word for Infinite The Truth is in these Humane Impositions we see the beginning but no Man knows the end of them it 's a Nemo scit Our load must be bounded with no other Limits then a Churches Will and that Will perhaps bounded with no other then its Power since it 's Canoniz'd for good Divinity That the Church may impose whatever is Decent and that the Church is Iudge of what is Decent though who the Church is is not so certain § 5. Their Law-giver was one of known and approved Tenderness who either apportioned his work to their strength or their strength to his work he fitted the Yoke to their Neck and their Neck to the Yoke The main thing that renders Christs own Yoke so easie his Burden so light is that as his Authority imposes so his strength supporta Men may lay heavy burdens on our Shoulders but where there is most need cannot touch them with one of their Fingers § 6. Their Law-giver was one who in all his Impositions consulted their own good and benefit as wel as exercised his own Authority The Iews wrought hard indeed but their work had much of wages in 't The design of their Mystical Rites and Ceremonies directed them to a Saviour Legal Administrations well order'd were Gospel Priviledges Before Christ came Ceremonies were Illustrantia such as discovered the Person Nature Office and Grace of the Messiah a Candle is better then no Light but to us they are all Obscurantia such as darken the state of Christianity As before the Sun-rising the Prodromous Clouds whose edges are fringed with Gold comfort us with the hopes of an approaching greater Light which when the Sun is up do but darken the Horizon Thus did Ceremonies illustrate Christ at the Annuntiation but obscure him at his Advent It will be needless further to Vindicate the Dissenters I shall leave them to the Enquirers Patronage who by the same Reason that he justifies the Church of England from Popery will I hope clear the Non-conformists from Judaism p. 12. All says he is not to be accounted Popery which is held or practised by the Church of Rome Nor say I is all to be accounted Judaism which was either the principle or practise of the Iewish Church p. 13. Nor is it reasonable to say such a thing is received from the Church of Rome because it is there to be found unless it be found no where else And as little Reason to say the Dissenters have received this Principle from the Jews That no Worship is lawful for that is their Principle but what is prescribed by the Scripture unless it were found no where else But this was a Principle so clear in the Light of Nature that Numa the great Ritualist of Heathen Rome durst not hope that ever his Ceremonies would ever obâ—…ein amongst a people that had Fyes in their Heads unless he had or pretended to have a Conference with his Goddess Aegeria Thus the Palladium of Troy that Mystick Ceremony in which the Fate of their City was wrap'd up is supposed to have come down from Minerva the famous Image in Diana's Temple ' Acts 19. 35. is supposed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fallen from Jupiter and
Glory and to confirm them in thâ—…r blind Idolatries when the God that made Heaven and Earth gave the fullest discoveries that it was fit for Mankind to expect Upon the Account of this the Jews rejected that Messias they had so long expected and gloried in before he came though he exactly answered all the Characters of Time Place Lineage Doctrine and Miracles that their own Writings had described him by No wonder then if the Non-consormists suffer under Prejudice amongst those that have not only seen their Doctrine stigmatized with the odious Marks of Judaism their Churches with the Brand of Schism their Persons with Treason and Rebellion but also had been formed into a Combination against them and so had both their Consciences and worldly Interest engaged against them and it For few have the generosity and strength of mind to bear up against the Torrent of Times or confidence enough to oppose the Impetuousness of common Vogue or prevailing Opinion There are not many that have the sagacity to discern the true Images of things through those thick Mists that cunning Politicians cast about them It 's very ordinary to take the Condemnation of any Person or Party for a sufficient Proof of the Accusation and to think the Indictment Proved It was enough both with the Jews and Gentiles against our Saviour that he was condemned as a Malefactor The Ignominy of his Cross was a greater Argument against him with the Generality then the excellency of his Doctrine or Evidence of his Miracles was for him The Arguments against Non-conformity were not weighed but numbred An Impeachment of Accumulative Disorder Schism Faction Judaism Popular Rashness and Disobedience to Magistrates was formed against them and still there was more in the Conclusion then â—…uld be made â—…ut by the Premises and in the Sum Total then in the Particulars of which it consisted for though no Point of all these could be proved against their Doctrine Worship or Discipline yet they must be so upon the whole This being Agreed the Cry is then Crucifige Destroy it Root and Branch To all which add that it was the corrupt interest of some to deceive others into an ill Opinion of the Reformation partly as being enraged that any sparks of Primitive Purity should be left unquenched which might burn up their vast hopes they had conceived of dividing the spoil amongst themselves Partly being conscious to themselves that by Reason of their no more then Declamatory Vulgar and Puerile Abilities improved from Apothegms and Proverbial Sentences they could not be fit to fill any considerable place in a Church Reformed according to the Scriptures nor yet to content themselves with a private station in a persecuted Society they therefore chose to fall in where they might be entertained as useful Tools and rewarded for their singular Talents of Reviling And when once it is come to that pass That by this Craft we get our Livings one two or three like the Silver-smiths of Ephesus no wonder if the Apostolical Doctrine and Government be cried down and the Great Diana of Pauls-conformity cried â—…p sooner then built The sum is this some men are blindly led by their Education and care taken that they never come to a view of the Dissenters principles others by Interest forced to espouse that Religion that has the fairest Dowry A third sort by their Reputation that they may not seem to have been in an Errour And when all these Causes shall as they too frequently do happily concur such an associated and complicated Temptation will form a prejudice strong enough to oppose the clearest Demonstrations and to stir up so much rancour and malignity as shall incessantly persecute mis-represented Truth I will add one word from the Learned Author of Orig. Sacr. and conclude It cannot be conceived That many out of Affectation of Novelty should declare themselves Christians in the Primitive times when so great hazards were run upon in the professing ofit Few soft spirited men and lovers of their own â—…ase but would have found out some fine distinctions and nice evasions to have reconciled themselves to the publick Laws and such things which the Primitive Christians so unanimously refused when tending to Idolatry and Prophaneness An ordinary Judgement will soon determine whether party may more plausibly complain of being pressed down with unreasonable prejudices They that will appear in the Quality of Dissenters must stem the violent Current of prevailing Example inveterate Custom whilst others have nothing to do but skull away with the Tide when it comes in with the Celeusma of Queenhithe westward hoe Lambeth hoe Dissenters must storm the Turn-pâ—…kes of Reproach Poverty and those more formidable ones of the displeasure of Friends and wrath of Superiours smoaking out in Imprisonment or other penalties besides the Ecclesiastical Charitiâ—…s of Excommunication The rest have nothing more to do but patiently and meekly submit to Preferments and Dignities And if they can but compass such a measure of self-denial as to renounce ruine and misery and rise to such a height of contentment as to be willing to enter upon Ease and Aâ—…luence the worst is over and their greatest prejudices conquered 4. The last cause of the Distractions and ill Estate of this Church is the want of true Christian Zeal and of a deep and serious sense of Piety And the Enquirer wishes that it be not the greatest as well as the last And so do I too for the want of Zeal for Gods Commands makes us so scalding hot for Humane Constitutions The want of such a Zeal for the Authority of Christ as a King makes us so bold to Invade his Office The want of Zeal for the Perfection of Scriptures makes us so Zealous for unscriptural Traditions The want of Zeal for the substance makes us so Zealous for Ceremonial shadows When all those Spirits that Holy ardour of Soul that flame of Affection which ought to be expended in the love of God and his Law is evaporated in Airy speculations contentions for and impositions of new Inventions This Cause is plainly in the number of those which like the Weathercock conform to every gust of Wind It is Communis juris and therefore the first occupancy creates a Title What was it made the Primitive Church so unanimâ—…s that it was not crumbled into parties nor mouldred away in Divisions nor quarrelled about Opinions nor separated one part from another upon occasion of little scruples but because the turbulent â—…pirit of Imposition was not yet raised nor ambitious domineering over the Faith and Consciences of the Brethren had not yet got any considerable Head It 's true there was a spice of this encroaching Humour found amongst the Iudaizing Christians who would needs obtrude their Ceremonies upon the Gentile Converts as necessary to Communion with the Church but the divinely inspired Apostles were ready at hand to check the growing Evil and vindicate the Churches from the serviâ—…ude â—…f beggarly Rudiments It
all his experiments and great shew of skill in healing he is wheeled about to that last and worst of Papal Remedies which some call Axes Halters Gibbets Racks Pillories Imprisonment others the Holy Inquisition which is just the plea of the Papists for all their Barbarities That if the People will not be perswaded they see no Reason why the Church should not deliver thâ—…â—…er to the secular powers to be burne for Hereticks CHAP. II. The Enquirers notion of Schism examined and as Applyed to the sober Non-conformists proved uncharitable unjust and false SChism is an Ecclesiastical Culverine which being overcharged and ill managed Recoyles and hurts the Canoneer He that undertakes to play this great Gun had need be very Curious and careful to spunge his Canon Well lest it fire at home Nothing has more naturally tempted the Imprudent to account nothing to be Schism then that some hasty angry men have made every thing so That causeless separation from a particular Church of Christ whereof we were once duly Members is a sin of a deep dye is owned by all that own the Gospel and have any tender regard tâ—… the prosperity of the Church or propagation of the Truth but yet we ought not to be so easily credulous as to believe every departure to be that heinous thing which passionate men in hot blood out of prejudice to the persons of others or a necessity to secure and establish their own Acquists over mâ—…ns Consciences are resolved to call so It was not therefore lightly but with great judgement that the learned Hales calls it one of those Theologiâ—…al 〈◊〉 with which they who use to uphold a party in Religion use to fright 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 making any enquiry into it are ready to Relinquish and oppoâ—… it if it appear either erroneous or suspicious St. Cyprian it seems affirms it to be of so horâ—…ble a Gâ—… thâ—… Martyrdom was not a sufficient Expiation of it And upon the like occasion he might have said as much of any other siâ—… for I have not learnt that Martyrdom was design'd to expiate our siâ—… but to bear witness to Gods Truths And the same Cyprian at another time will inform us that Plebs obsequens praeceptis Dominicis Deum metuens à peccatore praeposito separare se debet A people fearing God and Conscienciously obsequious to his Commands not only may but ought to separate it self from a scandalous and wicked Pastor And therefore we may secure our selves that such separation in his judgement is not That Schism which Martyrdom will not expiate The true reason why separation in the Scripture and purer Primitive times was esteemed a Crime so unpardonable was because the Church made no other Terms of enjoying her Communion then Christ had made That Superiours durst-not venture the Churches Peace upon such a sandy foundation as her own Inventions turned into Impositions for if the Terms of Communion be of Mans making the separation that enâ—…ues will be but a Schism of mans making too and whether a Church has first a power to make a sin and then to make it damnable I have some reason to question Let nothing be declared Schism but what the Scriptures haâ—… made so and we shall be content it be made as great a sin as he can reasonably desire Had not our Enquirer been carried down in the torrent of his own overflowing Eloquence till he had quite lost himself he might have answered himself from his own words p 109. For this cause says he it pleased God that his Church in those early days should rather be harassed with persecutions which made it unite it self the closer and paring off all superfluities keep to the necessary and essential Doctrines delivered to it then to be softned and made wanton by ease and so to corrupt the simplicity of the Gospel Let a Church then return to the simplicity of the Gospel Let her repent of that softness and wantonness of Spirit which by Ease she has contracted Let her pare off all superfluities and keep close to the necessary and essential Doctrines delivered to it and she shall find us as ready to write Philippics against Schism as him self though we want his Ciceronian quill and wordie excellencies Now though we are all convinced that Schism veri nominis is a most detestable Impiety yet to beget in us a greater aversation from it it may be profitable to listen to his reasonings which are so potent as will doubtless drain both the Conventicles and the Theatres § 1. None says he can doubt of this who considers what care our Saviour took to prevent it what pains he took with his Apostles that they might be throughly instructed and not differ in the delivery of his mind to the World We do with all humble thankfulness own the faithfulness of our Saviour in instructing and the Carefulness of the Apostles in following their instructions They delivered to the Churches as the whole Counsel of God Acts 20. 27. so only the Counsel of God 1 Cor. 11. 23. I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you And let but the Pastors of the Church imitate these patterns keep exactly to their instructions from the Lord Christ which we doubt not are proportionable to reach the ends of Unity and Peace else they had not been sufficiently instructed and either we shall have no separations or the case will be so plain the separation so evidently Schism â—…hat the Schismaticks shall not be able to obtend the least umbrage to cover their gross prevarication But when Embassadors throughly instructed in all the means to prevent that evil shall go beyond their Instructions and impose new unheard of Terms of Communion which never came into his heart to approve nor ever came out of his mouth to impose give me leave to say thus far they are not Embassadors and by consequence a Noncompliance with them therein cannot be interpreted any affront but faithfulness to him who entrusted them with those dispatches And if Christs instructions given to his Apostles to prevent this growing evil were insufficient I am affraid they will be but sorrily helpt out who have recourse to men for fuller instructâ—… § 2. To prove the greatness of this sin he observes and we thank him for the observation that the Apostles were industrious to resist all beginnings of Schism in every Church to heal all breaches to take away all occasions of Division to unite all hearts and reconcile all minds and to requite his kindness I will repay his observation with this other that they either are not the Apostles Successors in their healing Spirit or else have seen some weighty reason to depart from their judgement about the hainousness of that sin who instead of taking away the occasions of Divisions which they have given or removing the stumbling Blocks out of the way of Union which they have laid do give greater to and lay more obstacles before the Christian world § 3.
say that they ought not to separate but when non-separation is sinful but then they say that non-separation may be sinful upon other accounts then the apparent breach of the divineLaw made the terms of entring into or continuing in communion for say they it is our sin if a Church retains some corroptions in it which prejudice edification and she shall resolve never to make any alteration in her worship or discipline nor make any further progress towards a through Reformation not to provide for my self elsewhere and having opportunity I sin if I take not accept not the advantage which providence offers me and wherein the word warrants me And yet he wonders that any doubt should be admitted in this Case Let me advise him to beware of Excessive wonderment they say it will make a man as lean as a rake but what 's the Cause of his admiration Why some think to wash their hands of the Imputation of Schism upon other terms as namely if a Church shall not require such terms of Communion as are Expresly sinful yet if she shall require indifferent unnecessary or at most suspected things that in this case there is enough to Excuse the person that shall separate from a participation of this sin There are some no doubt of that judgment and when I have praelibated a few things he shall have his full blow at them § 1. That when they joyn issue upon this point 't is not because they are satisfyed that the things required unto Communion as the antecedent conditions of it or to be practised in communion as the mattor of it are indifferent in their use and application for they are ready to maintain it upon equal laws before equal Judges that they are sinful in their use antecedent to their imposition but the true reasons why they use this place are 1. Ex abundanti thinking that their very outworks are impregnable against his batteries 2. Out of respect to this Church which they highly honour and reverence her too much then to charge her flatly with sinful impositions and therefore do offer this state of the question and are hardly capable of so much incivility to so considerable a body and so great a part of the visible Catholick Church unless the importunity of some modest men did extort that answer from them 3. They doubt whether some Churchmen will be Masters of so much patience as to bear freedome though temperateness of speech which is absolutely necessary to the manadging the Controversy when thus stated and have reason to fear that some who provoke them to assert the sinfulness of the terms will make such an Assertion an unpardonable sin not to be expiated without if with Martyrdom § 2. When he states the question about things suspected to be sinful I hope he will give them the common civility to draw up their own plea in their own terms and to â—…xpâ—…ane what they mean by suspected things in the question because they are not compelled to maintain Every proposition which he in his well known charity shall obtrude upon them A practâ—…se thâ—…n may be taken upon suspicion of sinfulness two wayes first upon light slighty trivial grounds of suspicion which have no wâ—…ight with a serious and rational Considerer Or 2dly upon violent presumptions such as may sâ—…agger a person of good judgment and diligence and 't is these that they are willing to argue it with him whether if a Church shall impose such things as the terms of Communion with her as have or do or may puzzle judicious persons about their Lawfulness and cannot clear it up to their Consciences that they are Lawful yet they may not forbear Communion in this Case § 3. They desire the same justice in Explaning themselves about the term indifferent A thing may be indifferent in its own nature which is not so in its use as applyed to and practised in the Immediate worship and service of God If the things under debate be found upon diligent search to remain indifferent after they are vested with all their circumstances in Gods Worship they have no quarrel against them that I know of but if they be only indifferent in their own general nature they desire to be Excused if they dare not admit the consequence that therefore they must needs be so when used in Gods worship and then made the terms of Communion § 4. Unnecessary things may be either such as are absolutely unnecessary or such as are hypothetically so some things that are not absolutely and in themselves necessary yet may become necessary proâ—…ic nunc even antecedent to the interposition of the Churches Authority And Dissenters say that what ever the Church shall impose ought to be necessary either in it self or by concurrent Circumstances which when they shall conspire together may be by a Lawful Authority Enjoyned pro tempore that is so long as such necessity shall continue which when once removed the things ought to return into their former Classis of Indifferents § 5. When they deny the Churches power of imposing things Expresly sinful they deny also a power of imposing things sinful by just consequence They judge many things sinful which are not forbidden 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scriptures and many things duties which are not Litterally and Syllabically commanded in the Scriptures They say not that the sign of the Crosse was ever by name prohibited but they say there are undoubted maximes laid down in the word from which it will undeniably follow that in its present station in the Church it is sinful And now he may when he pleases speak his three things which if they be pertinent and proved as strongly as they are spoken confidently I am content 1. His first say consists of a Conceâ—…ion and an Assertion § 1. His Concession I willingly acknowledge that such a Church as shall studiously or carelesly clog her communion with unnecessary burdensom and suspected conditions is very highly to blame that is the sins but that it became not him to tell her so and then I will venture to say a few words also 1. If it be the Churches sin to command unnecessary burdensom suspect Conditions It cannot be my duty to obey A Church may possibly sin in the manner of her Command and yet I not sin in doing the matter of the Command but when the sins in the Enjoyning I cannot conceive how it should be my sin not to give obedience for I look upon my duty as the result of the Churches Authority and wherein she has no Authority it will be impossible to find a foundation upon which to build my duty All Offices of Justice arise from that relation wherein he that claims and he that yeelds subjection stand to each other And where there 's no relation there can be no relative duty now in this case before us where the Church has no power to command nay where she sins if she commands so far she is none
of my superior and therefore so far the relation is none and by consequence the duty just as much 2. If the Church be to blame highly nay very highly to blame that clogs her Communion with these burdensom things then we may presume she sins for who shall dare to assume so much freedom as to blame her unless she transgress the Law of her God If then she have sinned and transgressed some Law of God it must be some negative precept thou shalt not impose burdensoâ—… things for it is a principle our Enquirer will not sell for Gold That what ever is not forbidden is Lawful If then God had not forbidden her to impose such burdensom things she could not sin or be to blame in so doing according to his principles now say I the same God that has prohibited the Churches Imposition of has also prohibited my subjection to burdensom conditions And let this Gentleman produce his Scriptures for the one and I will drop texts with him for the other when he pleases Thus we are commanded 1 Cor. 7. 23. not to be the servants of men not only bought with a price and set free once but commanded to assert that freedom and 5. Gal. 1. to stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and not again to be entangled with the yoke of bondage Now if ever these Scriptures do us any service or be of any use it must be in this particular that I am obliged not to take a burden and cumber upon my soul at his hands who has no authority to impose it If then a Church shall clog her Communion with burdensom things she is to blame she sins and I am not bound to obey and therefore my departure can be no Schism I mean no Schism but one of mans creating 3. If a Church sin in clogging her Communion with things which without crime or fraud are suspected of sin upon such grounds as are allowed just and ponderous in other cases then it cannot be my sin to separate for the Church sins in commanding and I should sin against the authority of God in my conscience in doing what I really upon Strong presumptions judge to be sinful though it were not commanded And noâ—… one would think it could be no such meritorious work no act so acceptable to God to persevere in the Comunion of a Church when she sins in commanding and I sin in obeying suspecteâ—… conditions § 2. We come now to his Assertion notwithstanding all this which he has granted he will fetch it back again if it be possible and we shall gain nothing by any thing he gives us and there are also two parts of his Assertion 1. The negative part 'T is not burdensomness nor every light suspicion of sin that can justific any separation concerning the burdensomness we have spoken somewhat before yet a word or two about the suspicion 't is not a light or however not every light suspicion that is but like the dust of the ballance that will do it really it was cunningly fenced He expects perhaps that we should assert every light suspicion that weighs no more then a feather should be enough to justifie a separation Ay but there are violent presumption which they say in some cases are admitted for good evidence If I meet a person coming out of the house in a great rage with a bloody sword in his hand and Immediately I enter in and find a person lying in his blood I do assure you I shall not condemn my self for lightness of belief or casmess of entertaining suspicions if I suspect the man I met to have been the murder or light suspicions may be as easily shook of as fastened on and contemned as tendered but it becomes no wise man to act against these strong presumptions of sin which the Dissenters have of the imposed terms of Communion And it will appear they are such as may make a hardy resolute person stand and pause before he rushes upon the practise 1. They are sure that Christ is the perfect and therefore the only Lawgiver of his Church had he not been the former there had been no pretence he should be the later Now seeing these terms of Communion are Laws imposed upon the Church they seem to impeach his wisedome that he saw not the fittest terms for his Churches to hold Communion upon they do reproach his care that he has not left laws enough for his Church and they seem to invade his Authority without any warrant all which things are enough to raise a suspicion at least of good strength in a wisemans breast which none but a hardy spirit would act against 2. They are sure that some of these conditions have been occasioned by and used in and with and are suited and accommodated to the grossest Idolatry that ever was in the world and is at this day used to give countenance to it And they say they are sure that God did once hate Idolatry and so hate it as that he could not endure to be served in the vessels worshipt in the places not after the manner in the most minute circumstances that Idolatry was committed in and therefore we have Reason to suspect that the things required of us are displeasing to God our using of them has emboldened Idolaters and hardened them to go on without repentance in the way of so great abomination Nor have they been a Bridge as was hoped to bring them over to us but a Boat to waft us over to them they being more hardened by our retaining them and some of our own made more wavering thinking there can be no great difference between those Religions where there is so great a Symbolizing in outward modes and Ceremonies 3. They are sure that all uncommanded worship is forbidden worship and do think their time ill bestowed with him that shall deny it All worship being part of that Homage and service we owe to God it will be impossible to Guess what he will accept as such without revelation Now we are sure that the Enquirer owns the Liturgy to have been a principal part of worship and we are as sure that the Ceremonies are part of the Liturgy and that which is a part of a part is part of the whole nor can any man discern any difference between them and other things which are confessedly parts of worship and therefore they think they may with modesty say there 's ground enough for a violent suspicion of their sinfulness 2. The affirmative part of his Assertion follows It must be plain necessity or certainty of sin in complyance that can justifie any separation I should be glad to know what cortainty of sin he will allow to justifie a separation does he Expect a mathematical certainty or only a moral assurance If you ask an Arithmetician says I Martyr in his dialogue with Trypho how many twice two will make he will answer yoâ—… as often four and if I were asked a
Schism lay in nothing indeed but running away from a Church as the vulgar error carries it he had come a little nearer the mark but if we durst content our selves with the Scripture notion of Schism which includes those feuds heats intestine broiles those envyings malignities wherewith factious and bandying parties in the besome of a Church do persecute each other there might be as much Schism as almost the Divel could desire and yet no separation But let us hear his proof of the Consequence forasmuch says he as there never was nor probably ever will be such a Church as required nothing of those in her Communion but things strictly and absolutely necessary Ergo what why therefore if the non-necessity of some of the terms of Communion be a sufficient warrant of separation there can be no such thing as Schism pray forbear there is a medium as I take it between non-necessary and strictly and absolutely necessary I mean those things which being neither necessary in their own nature nor made so by any positive Law of God in particular yet by a concurrence of weighty circumstances serving under some General Command of God do become at that time and under those circumstances necessary and these are those things wherein many Churches I suppose all Churches have at one time or other Exercised their power now then though 't is true that if the non-absolute necessity of the Terms of Communion be a warrant of separation there would be no such thing as Schism at all by unwarrantable separation from a Church because perhaps there never was a Church that required nothing of those in her Communion but things absolutely necessary yet it may be true that the non-necessity of the Terms of Communion may be a good warrant for separation and yet there may be Schism enough in the world for captious froward Spirits will be cavilling at and dividing upon the account of those things which by a particular Church are required becoming necessary from circumstances but to inform him aright in this matter Non-conformists do affirm that what ever is made a condition of Communion ought to have some kind of necessity in it or with it antecedent to its imposition and being made such a condition still he is harping upon and has great mind to prove what we are not concern'd to deny but if he tempts to it perhaps I may deny it That there was never nor ever will be any such Church c. And because I would entertain the Reader with a little of our Enquirers merriments he shall hear his proof of the point 1. He tells us he has shewed us this partly in the Introâ—…uction and so pag. 2. For proof of the soundness of this Churchâ—… constitution he posts us over to the Introduction and wâ—…en we come to turn over this Introduction there 's an honest weâ—…lmeaning oration of something or other without proof 2. He could easily make it appear at large through all Ages weâ—…l then we will suspend our belief till his Magdâ—…burgensis come abroad 3. He will save himself and the Reader the labour of writing the Century's very good We are satisfied any way i' th world he shall find us the most reasonable people in the world if he will but abate us these unnecessary iâ—…positions But which way shall we spare our pains oh thus name one Church if you can that hath admitted of no other opinion or Rites but such as have been absolutely necessary And has this great montain teemed this little mouse He should have proved that never any Church in any age in any Country but had imposed things not absolutely necessary and he like a modest man that can be content with a Competency proved only that there never was any Church but admitted such things is there no small critical difference between admitting in the use and practise somethings indifferent in an indifferent way and imposing requiring and enjoyning them as necessary Terms of Communion I will make a fair motion Let this Church admit of the use and practise of some things not absolutely necessary yet neither in their nature sinful nor for multitude burdensom nor for abuse suspected nor in their Instituted use Sacramental and yet not impose them as necessary Conditions of Communion and if there be less uniformity there will be a Thousand times more unity and true inward love Evangelical tenderness and fraâ—…nal forbearance to compensate a little outward decorum which perhaps is very Surprizing with women and children All this while I distrust not the Readers Aâ—…umen to see the Sophistry He would make it out there 's no Church which admits not some determinations not strictly and absolutely necessary and he would thence inferr that there 's no Church but what imposes such not absolutely necessary determinations and thence that if non-necessary Terms of Communion be a warrant of separation there can be no Schism in the world at all whereas there are such things as being neither unnecessary nor yet absolutely necessary may be â—…it matter of agreement in Christian Societies that they may be more stedily governed more peaceably and inoffensively manadged the Ordâ—… nances more methodically and orderly administred and the spiritual and eternal welfare of souls more effectually advanced 3 The third and last thing he will say is that somethings are necessary to tâ—…e Constitution and administration of a particular Church that are not in themselves necessary absolutely considered This he will say and who can help it why will he say it why doubtless as a medium to prove his conclusion or he had better have said nothing now that which he engaged to prove was this That things indifferent unnecessary c. Imposed as conditions of Communion are not enough to Excuse the person that separates from a participation of the sin of Schism the argument marcheâ—… in this order If somethings are necessary to the Constitution of a Church which are not absolutely necessary in themselves then the Imposition of unnecessary Terms of Communion is no Excuse for separation but the former is true Ergo so is the later or in short if some things be necessary then the Church may impose things not necessary quod erâ—…t demonstrandum He has been told over and over again that many things not necessary in themselves may become necessary prâ—… hic nunc but then they must be thus qualified before they can be fit matter of a Churches determination 1. They must be necessary one way or other Antecedently to the Churches determination 2. The necessity must extend as far as the determination For if they become necessary to one particular Church and not to another it will not oblige the other Church to come under the Imposition unless they come also under the necessity 3. That when the necessity evidently ceases the Imposition ought also to cease and the members of the Church may claim it of right to be relaxed of the burden and may reassume their former liberty
Best in it self And in what a Lamentable plight must a Learned Author be to gratify such Contrary demands Let him then Agree himself with himself whilst I examine his Reasonings Church government is Necessary in the General but this or that form of government in particular is not necessary not absolutely necessary therefore somethings not necessary in themselves are or may be necessary to the constitution or administration of a particular Church This if I greatly mistake not is the whole strength of this Period To which I answer in these particulars 1. That though the Scripture does not trouble us with Terms of Art Monarchical Aristocratical Democratical Yet at least all the Officers belonging to the Church of Christ are there specially determined And from the Nature of the Officers the species or particular form of the Government will of necessity emerge If the Officers of the particular Churches stand upon equal ground one with another the government which results from thence will be Aristocratical If there be an Imparity and subordination of the governors of one Church to another the government which results from thence will be Monarchical And if the Churches governed by their respective Pastors are not knit together by some Common bond the government will be denominated Congregational 2. Supposing that the government is only Commanded in the general but the particular form not determined yet this will never conclude that the Church may Impose such things as Terms of Communion which are noe Commanded in the general It can never follow that a Church may institute and impose Ceremonies for which there is no General warrant because it must agree upon a Government for which there is a General warrant Nor that she may Impose those things which are not necessary either to the Constitution or Administration of a Church because she must determine upon that which is necessary both to the constitution and administration of it 3. He pretends to prove that it is unlawful to separate upon the Account of unnecessary Conditions of Communion and he gives us an Instance in Episcopacy which yet his Margin affirms to Be best in it self and Apostolical for Antiquity from hence we are instructed That unnecessary conditions are such as are or may be Best in themselves And let him but produce such Terms of Communion as being unnecessary in themselves are yet best in themselves and I am confident there will be an end of this Controversy whereas therefore his Margine tells us That this is Argumentum ad Homines he says very true it is so to himself and his friends If Episcopal government be best in it self how will he thence conclude the Churches power to Impose indifferent things unnecessary things which are not best in themselves But if Episcopal government be indifferent and unnecessary in it self how is it best in it self and Apostolical for Antiquity An indifferent thing best in it self An unnecessary Apostolical constitution is a notion which founds very harshly in my ears and perhaps the most of our Readers But we are all tyred out with these paralogisms we have heard a great clamour of Schism Schism as the manner is and when we come to Enquire after that Reason we are returned with a nihil dicit or which is all one nothing to that purpose CHAP. III. Of the Nature of the things scrupled by Dissenters Shewing that there is no necessity to sacrifice either Conscience or Truth to Peace which may be purchased at lower Rates or else would be too dear IT was my Unhappiness to read of one who to an excellent Discourse of the influence of Adams Transgression upon the misery of mankind made this Blasphemous return What a stir is here about the eating of an Apple Much what of the same Temper was that Blustering Hector Pope Iulius the second Who being humbly advised by a Cardinal not to Rage so immoderately for a Peacock which it seems was stoln answered like himself God could be Angry and Plague the World ser a sorry Apple and shall not I much more for a delicate Peacock When our Enquirer would perswade us that the Things in Controversie are of small Importance Let me perswade him that no Disobedience to God or Treachery to our own Souls can be little to those who understand the Majesty of the one or the Worth of the other When the Compilers of our Liturgy shall plead on the behalf of the Ceremonies that though the keeping or ommitting of one in it self considered is but a small thing yet the wilful and contempinous transgresâ—… of a common Order and Discipline is no small offence before God I hope without offence we may affirm a little more of the least of Christs Precepts That little sins will find a great Hell It 's the solemn and Religious custom of those who would make their own pleasures the supream Reason of their own Commands and our Obedience first to flatter us that the matter is inconsiderable till we have submitted and then to threaten us with the sanction of those commands as no less then Eternal damnation when violated But if the making the Things in Dispute a Sacrifice would satisfie our Enquirer we are content they be immediately offered up as a Holocaust to the peace and unity of the Church in those flames they have kindled But he comes to explain himself 'T is not that the Ceremonies should become a Burnt-offering to Peace but that the Consciences of the Dissenters should be Sacrificed to the Ceremonies or which is more to his purpose their Persons Sacrificed to those Touchy Deities as he calls them of Custom and Vulgar Opinion Those sins which men count small are therefore great because their temptations are less pressing and so being more easily avoidable have less to plead in their excuse or Defence But an Imposing spirit alwayes turns the wrong end of the Perspective-glass which shrinks a Mountain into a Mole-hill and a Bulky-Minster with all its Cathedral Apurtenances into a Chappel of Ease where twenty Nobles per Annum will not Defray the Charges of a Ceremonious Conformity All things are Little or Great as they serve the present occasion Little when their Imposing is vindicated and Great when the Neglect of them comes to be punished Little or nothing till the yoke is fastened on and then weighty when once their Conscience is shakell'd with Canonical obedience The undoubted way therefore to settle a righteous and a durable peace is to take just Measures of things Not to keep one Bushel by which to mâ—…e out Imposâ—…tions and Another by which to deal out Censures neither on the account of Peace to Reneger any of Gods Truths nor by unnecessary Impositions to disturb the Churches quiet And if men could be perswaded to set aside Passion and those alluring baits to Empire over souls and calmly consider how mean at the best those things are upon which they lay the vast weight of our Concord they would see Reason not to
for had they been guided by the Counsels and Interests of such Divines we must have Renounced ours too long ago 3. That Church in lieu of the Scriptures gives them Traditions Nay do not wrong the Grave Tridentine Fathers it was but Pari pietatis affectâ—… veneramur The Church of England abhors indeed that Sacriledge in her 34 Article Whosoever through his private judgement willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to Gods word ought to be rebuked openly And I am confident the Roman Church will allow us openly to break any of hers when she shall confess them to be repugnant to the word of God 4. Instead of such things as were from the Beginning it prescribes those things that had their beginning from private Interest and secular Advantages It has been a piece of policy of our Duellers to escape the Laws to cross the Channel and fight it out upon Callice Sands If our Enquirer will go with me thither I would dispute it fairly with him whether the Terms of Communion be the same that were from the Beginning If the Church of Rome be warrantably deserred because her matters stand not in the Primitive posture They that can make the plea will expect the same priviledge The Learned Author of the Irenicum p. 121. assures us that it is contrary to the practice and moderation then used to deprive men of their Ministerial functions for not conforming in Habit Gestures and the like and he adds his pions wishes That God would vouchsafe to convince the Leaders of the Church of this Truth It will be less material therefore whether the things so â—…ifly insisted on had their beginning from private Interests and secular Advantages for if they were not from the beginning is 't little to us where they had their rise The Canons of 1640. leave bowing towards the Altar indifferent and prohibit Censuring and Iudging Extend but the same Moderation to all other things as far from the beginning as they and of â—…o greater Importance or confine them to Cathedrals as Organs once were where they that have little else to do are at more leasure for such operous services and we shall be secure as to Schism which the Enquirer will certainly yield to since he equalizes that sin to the most horrid crimes of Idolatry Murther and Sacriledge 5. They make seven Sacraments And at our Equirers Rates may make sevenscore What is a Divine Sacrament but an outward visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us ordained by Christ himself as a means whereby we receive the same and a pledge to assure us thereof And let him define a humane Sacrament more appositely if he can Then an outward visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace ordained by man himself as a means whereby we receive the same grace And wherein does a Mystical Ceremony come short of this Description whose declared end is To stir up the dull mind of man to the remenbramce of his duly to God by some notable and special signification whereby he may be edified Nor is there any thing wanting but the Royal assent the Divine stamp of Authority to make it a Sacrament as accomplisht at all points as those which are declared Generally necessary to salvation And if the Papalins erroneously judge their five ordained of God and we confess ours are not so all the difference is this That they are mistaken and act proportionably to their mistake and we see better and yet act disproportionably But the truth is many of their most Learned Writers freely own their five Sacraments to be no more then Ecclesiastical Traditions and Mystical Ceremonies such as the Sign of the Cross though to set them off to the eye they honour them with the August Title of Sacraments Thus Petrus a Soto Omnes illae Observationes sunt Traditiones Apostolicae quarum principium Author origo in Sacris Scripturis inveniri non potest Cujusmodi sunt Oblatio sacrificii Altaris unctio Chrismatis in vocatio Sanctorum Orationes pro defunctis totum Sacramentum Confirmationis ordinis Matrimonii Paenitentiae â—…nctionis extremae Merita Operum necessitas satisfactionis enumeratio peceatorum facienda sacerdoti We are to account all those Observations Apostolical Traditions whose Beginning Author and Origine are not found in the Holy Scriptures Such as are the Oblation of the sacrifice of the Altar the Anointing with Chrisme Invocation of Saints Prayers for the Dead The whole Sacrament of Confirmation of Orders of Matrimony of Penitance of extreme unction the merits of Good Works the necessity of satisfaction and Auricular confession 6. They have taken away one of the ten Commandments and have Arts of evacuating all the rest And why may they not evacuate the second as well as our Author the fourth Commandment All were equally promulgated in Mount Sinai all have the same Signature of Divine Authority and he that can make Schism equal to Idolatry may when he sees his time throw off the second as he has done the fourth for a piece of Judaical Superstition 7. They have brought in Pageantry instead of Piety and Devotion effaced the true lineaments of Christianity and instead thereof recommended and obtruded upon the world the dictates of Ambition the Artifices of gain He may safely talk his pleasure at this distance though it would not be so prudent to preach this Doctrine where the Popes great Horse sets his foot All the use I shall make of it is this little That if the introduction of Pageantry instead of Piety and Devotion be a good warrant to justifie our Separation from Rome Let them judge who have to do with it whether it were Fellony to remove a mans Quarters ten miles from some Cathedrals 8. Lastly says he these things could not be submitted to without grievous sin and manifest danger of Damnation No! now observe how the Romanist will belabour him with his own Cudgel p. 122. It s the custom of those that have a mind to quarrel to aggravate and heighten the Causes of discontent to the end that the ensuing mischief may not be imputed to the frowardness of their temper but to the greatness of the provocation And passion is such a magnifying glass as is able to extend a Mole-hill to a Mountain If men would be perswaded to lay aside their passions and calmly consider the nature of those things that they divided from the Catholick Church upon they would be so far from seeing Reason to perpetuate the Schism that they would on the contrary be seized with wonder and indignation that they have been imposed upon so far as to take those things for great deformities which upon mature Consideration are really nothing worse then Moles which may be upon the most beautiful face But the Reader will easily see that these are nothing but some ill gathered shreds out of your Formulâ—… Oratoriae or Clarks Transitions which will
fit Protestant or Papist and indeed any School-Boy that has a Theme or Declamation to compose That the Causes of separation from the Church of Rome were pregnant every way clear and evident we do therefore agree And that the Reasons of separation from the Church of England are not so great but then neither is the separation so great for as we agree in the fundamental Articles of Religion so we may quickly agree in all the rest when some of a more fiery temper will let their Mother Alone to exercise to all her Children such an Indulgence as is agreeable to their various Measures of light in lesser concerns But says our Author It 's quite otherwise in the Church of England For. 1. No man here parts with his faith upon Conformity But I am afraid they must part with it or they will hardly be accepted Their faith is that the Lord Christ is the only Lawgiver of his Church that the Scriptures are the adequate and Commensurate Rule of all Religious Worship and if they do not part with thus much of their faith they must live in a Contradiction to it but perhaps he may understand their faith better then they themselves 2. No man is bound to give away his Reason for Quietness sake Then I know who was mistaken p. 64. who tells us That since the peace of the Church often depends upon such points as Salvation does not and since in many of those every man is not a Competent judge but must either be in danger of being deceived himself and of troubling others or of necessity must trust some body else wiser then himself she recommends in such a case as the safer way for such private persons to comply with publick determinations And we may assure our selves of our Enquirers good nature in this particular who condemnes Virgilius for asserting the Antipodes though it were demonstrably true and the contrary impossible And then I am afraid we must sacrifice our Reason to Peace and rather subscribe like Brutes then run the risque of being perscuted like Men. 3. A man may be as holy and good as he will The goodness and holiness of a Christian lyes very much in using Holy Means for Holy Ends Gods Holy Ordinances in order to Holiness in the Habit and Complexion of the Soul He that may not use the means of Holiness when he will may not be as Holy as he will but as Holy as he can without them He that will use all the means of God in order to that great end it may possibly cost him more then he would willingly lose for any cause but that of righteousness Methought it was an odd sight t'other day to see a Grave Divine in his Canonical Habit marching With a Brace of Informers piping hot on either Hand the one like the Gizzard the other the Liver stuck under the wings of his Sacerdotal Habiliments from one of his Rectories to the other to give Disturbance to a Company of poor Innocent people that would have been a little more holy if they might when this is reformed I 'le believe that the more of Holiness appears the better Churchmen we are reputed 4. This Church keeps none of her Children in an uncomfortable estate of darkness for we must know that there 's a twofold estate of darkness a comfortable and an uncomfortable estate Now the Comfortable estate of darkness lyes in trusting others submitting our private to the publick wisdom this is that blessed state whereinto he would wish his best friends But the unconfortable state is that Remedy which is Practised in Spain and Italy for the Cure of Church Divisions An excellent Remedy it is but it comes too late to do any good here The difference between them was observed before either to be born blind or made blind to have no Conscience or prohibited to exercise it to have no eyes or not to use them and in my private opinion there 's no great comfort in either of them 5. She debars none of her Members of the comfort and priviledges of Christs Institutions Some that have struggled with a doubting Conscience have attested the contrary but however she may possibly debar some of those priviledges and comforts that would have been her Members because they dare not give the price she rates those priviledges and comforts at 6. She recommends the same Faith the same Siriptures that the Protestants are agreed in Yes but then she recommends those Ceremonies to boot in which Protestants neither are nor ever will be agreed in We do therefore seriously triumph that the Church of England with the Protestants are also fully and perfectly agreed that they have not only the same God and Christ but the same Object of Worship too though I know not wherein God and the object of worship differ the same way of Devotion in a known Tongue the same Sacraments the same Rule of Life which are all the great things wherein the Consciences of men are concerned To which I shall need to say no more but that we in the General profess our owning of all these and yet our differences be very considerable but let our Consciences be concerned about no other no other Sacraments no other Rule of Life no other Devotion and what is necessary to reduce all these into practice and I can assure him Dissenters will flock a pace into the bosome of the Church He promises us now that he will faithfully and briefly recite the matters in difference And I confess for brevity he has performed his promise well enough but for his fidelity the Dissentets sadly complain of him I shall therefore crave the liberty to use a little more prolixity and I shall endeavour to compensate it with much more fidelity to reciting the material points wherein we differ As § 1. Whether a Minister ordained according to the appointment of the Gospel to the exercise of the whole Ministerial work may without sin consent that a main part of his Office be statedly and totally taken out of his hands and his work Cantoned at the will of another § 2. Whether any Church has power from Christ to appoint in and over it self or Members any Officers specially distinct from those Christ hath ordained § 3. Whether any Church hath authority from Christ to institute any other Ordinances of fixed and constant use in the Church then Christ hath instituted § 4. Whether it be an apparent invasion of and open reproach to the Regal Office of Christ for any Society of his to institute either new Officers or new Offices for the Govorning and Administring that Society which the head hath not allowed § 5. Whether it be not the duty of every particular Church to conform all the worship and administration of Religion to the Laws of their Institution and that whatever is not so Conformed be not a Corruption which ought to be Reformed by those Laws § 6. Whether if a Church shall peremtorily refuse to remove such
Officers Offices Ordinances superadded to the Evangelical Law A person that shall separate from its Communion in those things wherein it refuses to reform may without breach of charity be called a Schismatick § 7. Whether a Christian may act against the superseding Dictate of his Conscience and may give it up to be ruled by an Imaginary publick Conscience § 8. Whether seeing we have the unerring word of God to guide us to be mislead by our Leaders is a good Countersecurity against the Judgment of God § 9. Whether it be lawful to break the least of Scripture Commandments to purchase our Quiet with men or secure our own Repose in the world § 10. Whether the command of my Superiour will justify me in Murthering the Soul of my weak Brother when I may avoid giving the scandal in things indifferent § 11. Whether can the command of a Superiour make that no sin but a duty but without that command had been no duty but sin § 12. Whether a Minister of the Gospel may submit to have his Prayers and Sermons Composed for him by others And whether he be a Minister at all who is not able in some measure to discharge both to Edification § 13. Whether a Christian may without sin wholly and perpetually suffer his Christian Liberty to be determined one way though under future Circumstances it may be the command or God for a season to determine it the other way § 14. Whether a Christian Willing to subscribe to all that Christ has propounded to him to believe and to engage solemnly to do all that Christ requires him to do and not contradicting such engagement by Conversation arguing him of praevalent Hypocrisy but having given good proof before men of his Holiness ought to be denyed Christian Communion § 15. Whether upon such tendries made and their refusal only because he will not submit to new Terms of Communion not approved by the Word of God he shall adjoyn himself to some other particular Church where the Doctrine of Christianity is purely Preached the Sacraments duely Administred and the Conditions of enjoying all these and other the Ordinances of Christ honourable and easie such Departure from the one and Conjunction with the other be that Schism noted in the Scripture § 16. Whether any Church hath power to advance indifferent things above their indifferent Natures and make them Holy in their use and relation appropriated to Gods immediate Worship and impose them as the Terms of exercising the Ministerial Office § 17. Whether any Church hath power to institute new dedicating and imitiating signs and symbols whereby persons are declared and professed to be visible Cristians § 18. Whether being clearly convinced by the Word of God that there are Corruptions in a particular Church whereof I am a Member I ought not to endeavour in my place and Station lawfully to reform them And if a prevailing number in that Church shall not only refuse to reform but require of me to renounce all such lawful endeavours upon pain and peril of casting out of Communion I may not wave the society of the corrupt Majority and adhere to the more sober and moderate party who will reform themselves 2 His second task is to prove that something must be foregone for peace The design of this loose Discourse may de reduced to this Argument Small matters though truths or duties are to be sacrificed to peace But the things that Dissenters stick and boggle at are such small matters therefore they ought to be sacrificed to peace To which I only say at present That I modestly deny both his Premisses and do hope he will as modestly deny the Conclusion And perhaps some Sawcy Fellow or other will take up the Argument and give it one turn Small matters that are indifferences ought to be sacrificed to peace but the things imposed upon Dissenters in the judgment of the Imposers are small indifferent things therefore they ought to be sacrificed to peace or thus Those things which we account little we ought not make necessary to peace union 〈◊〉 the things which are in difference are in our own account little therefore we ought not to make them necessary to peace and union Something then we would give for peace and more then we can modestly speak of If it were to be had for Money we should not think that Gold could buy Peace too dear though Truth may But may we humbly enquire of the Enquirer whether he have this Peace to sell And at what rates it may be purchased I have Carefully not to say Curiously perused his whole Discourse and I must confess to the Reader that I am so far from understanding how the Market goes that I suspect he knows not his own Mind Page 131. He tells us We must be at some cost to purchase it and part with something for it Well! but what is that something Will Petitions Supplications Prayers Humbling our selves at his Footstoole procure us Peace No! That something is nothing Men are not so mad as to part with such a rich Commodity as Peace for an old song of Petitions What is it then Oh! pag. 130. He told us from Erasmus That Peace was not too dear at the price of some Truth Very good Will then telling half a dozen round Lyes procure us our Peace or the renouncing half a score Scripture-truths or so Oh but we are commanded to buy the Truth not sell it Net to do evil that good may come And besides that Peace will never wear well nor last long that is purchased with the loss of Truth To war with God or skirmish the Scripture is no approved method to secure Peace amongst our selves Well then pag â—…32 He tells us We must subdue our passions and castigate our heats And I think we have had pretty good Coolers then we must take in our sailes lighten the ship cast overboard the Fardles of our private fancies and opinions And we are Content to cast overboard any thing that is purely our own only if any of the Rich Lading of Truth should be packt up in those Fardles we humbly pray that may be spared If our own private personal Concerns were only called for he should find the Non-conformists as one man saying sin autem Jonas ille ego sim projicite me in Mare ut tempestas desaeviat Pray throw us into the Sea only do not throw any concern of Christ nor Reformation after us Well! then he would have us offer something to those touchy Deities of Custom and Vulgar Opinion But really these are a Couple of such Insatiable Idols it were cheaper to starve them then feed them we may Maintain Bell and the Dragon at as easie rates What is it then we must part with for peace At last it comes out with much ado Loath to confess till just turning off the Ladder for these are his Last words under this head pag. 137. In a word that we part with all that
Confessed Truth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interdum licet yet 't is as true prâ—…scribere falsum â—…unquam licet Though I may conceal a Truth sometimes I may never assert a falshood I may forbear to say there are Antipodes yet may I not say or subscribe or swear there are none and yet these are none of the essentials of our Religion Negative precepts bind us semper and ad semper that is there can be no case put wherein no time assign'd when it may be Lawful to deny or renounce the smallest Truth or violate the least of Gods commands by my practise 2. Though I may conceal my judgment or suspend my practise in some of these lesser matters yet when a sweet concurrence of inviting Circumstances shall call for my asserting that truth or practâ—…sing that duty I am then to assert the one and practise the other In some cases I may wave an Explicite Profession or open practise when such forbearance shall be compensated with a greater Good when a little Time shall pay the Truth and Gods Glory Interest and make amends for the lucrum Cessans and damnum emergens the Spiritual loss sustained or Spiritual advantage delayed 3. Though I may conceal or suspend as aforesaid yet I ought not to give away my Christian liberty nor commit any Act or Acts that may deâ—… my future claim or be pleaded in Bar to my right 4. When â—…he Consciences of Christians are notoriously hazarded by my silence or forbearance when I am in danger of betraying my Brother to Errour or hardening Another in his I have need of much wisdom and prudence how to speak and act but speak and Act I ought for it 's a most monstrous cheat to urge the Manner of a duty against the Duty it self As that because I ought to Act prudently that therefore I ought to sit still 5. I am much dissatisfied how it should follow from hence what he makes his conclusion That we may change any Rite or Ceremony that we have a great kindness for for one more grateful to others Nay if Any Ceremony I have in my worship not Commanded by Christ may do him a kindness I have no such kindness for it as to disoblige him nor shall he need to send me back one of his beloved ones in Exchange I shall never feel the want of it But now the Reader must be entreated to use his eyes The Assertion was that it is Lawful to Conceal my opinion when the main Doctrine of Christianity is not in dispute rathet then disturb the peace of the Church from whence he would wisely infer therefore we may practise Ceremonies which I am either fully satisfied are sinful or not fully satisfied that they are Lawful for this is the upshot That we may comply with the Laws in being so they be not palpably Contrary to the Scriptures or Common Reason It very amazing to me that I cannot conceal what I think true unless I must assert what I judge false nor bite in my sentiments about Anothers unlawful practise but I must practise with him I may suppress my judgment that such a thing is sinful and yet not dare to deliver my judgment that it is Lawful He that Commanded me not to judge my brother did not command me to Imitate him It must not be overlook't what an Emphasis he lays upon this word Palpably we may comply with the Laws so they be not Palpably contrary to the Scriptures And p. 11. It must be An Apparent breach of the divine law that gives just cause of separation And p. 118. Conditions of Communion that are not Expresly sinful and such wherein there is not a Plain necessity and Certainty of sin in Compliance are justified Sinful Terms will not justify separation unless they be Apparently Expresly so Nor will a sinful Command warrant my non-obedience unless it be Palpably such It must be some gross impiety which like the Egyptian darkness may be felt Thus if I be prohibited to partake of the Lords Supper oftner then once in three four or seven years I must pocket up the wrong because here 's no palpable apparent express violation of the law of God The Law says indeed As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup but has not determin'd how often As one of your Roman Casuists determines that we are not bound actually to love God above once in three years And Another thinks once in a Mans life will serve the turn provided we do not down-right Hate him because 〈◊〉 Command of Loving God is an affirmative praecept which binds indeed semper but not ad semper And if all the Rabble Rout of Popish Ceremonies were Commanded and five times as many more yet these will not justify non-obedience because forsooth they are not expresly forbidden by Name nor palpably contrary to any one Text of Scripture And to conclude the Reader shall now know at a word the Lowest price of Peace That we part with all that which is no essential point of our Religion for Charity which is This is the Lowest penny take it or Leave it try the world and mend your selves where you can But 1. It 's palpably ridiculous to oppose Charity to any point or part of Religion As if charity which is Commanded by the principles of our Religion should cross those principles Charity Commands a Religious person to stoop to all in his private concerns but requires not that Any Principle of Religion should stoop to it 2. It 's weakly supposed that it 's the Concern of Charity that we be of one uniform practise in the Minutes of Religion when her highest and noblest exercise is to Embrace those that differ from us in sinless practises For I cannot yet understand what Interest Evangelical Love has to reduce us to an uniformity in Rites and Ceremonies And do know that Protestants who differ in the lesser points of Religion as to principle and practise do yet maintain a more entire and cordial love amongst themselves then the Papists who are cudgelled by the Iron rod of the Inquisition into a precise Indentity in their little fopperies Did we never hear of two friends that could really love each other with the most endeared affections though their cloaths were not made by the same Taylor nor trim'd up with the same Ceremonies of Ribbonds and Lace Let the worshippers of Mahomet quarrel about their Green and Red Turbants yet Christian Kingdoms can hold firm peace and Inviolate Amity without Abolishing their respective Country Customs The Irish in one of our Kings Reigns could not be perswaded nor forced to leave their odd way of Plowing and threshing out their grain and yet that prudent Prince never sent Taâ—… amongst them with his Iron â—…ail to thresh them into a Compliance with more Decent and useful manners 3. This Distinction of the points of Religion into Accidental or Circumstantial Integral and essential or however else they please to Marshal it had need be
men can with any Colourable pretext affirm of their Dictates Canons Decretals or Constitutions And that amongst many other Reasons because they were not indited in heat or passion were not Contrived to advance one party or to depress and crush another but were the Result of infinite wisdom impartially respecting Truth fuithfully acquaniting us with the mind and will ofGod without Adhering to any faction § 2. That there can be no concern of any Church or Officer in the Church or member of theChurch but the Scripture speaks fully to it As 1. If a Church will approve her self to be the pillar of Truth and expose to all her Members the Doctrine of the Gospel the Scripture is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profitable for Instruction or 2. has she occasion to Convince the Cavilling world and stop the Months of gainsayers The Scripture is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It Lays down the Truth and thereby discovers errour heresy false doctrine all Corruption in worship and manner It gives us what is straight and thereby enables us to judge what is Crooked or 3. Are there any Tares sprung up in the field of the Church sowen by the Enemy whilst Men Slept and men will sleep it is profitable also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Correction rectifying and redintegration of whatever is warped and declined from its Original It supplies and fills up the wide chasmes of defectives and pares of all excrescences and prunes of superfluities or 4. Must Christians be trained up under Gospel discipline and order that they may grow up in knowledge in every grace in mutual Love it 's useful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No paedagogy no Constitution no discipline to be compared with it § 3. That it is a Rule which must direct All the builders in Gods house in whatsoever Quality under whatsoever character they appear It 's profitable for the Man of God And indeed it only becomes The Man of sin he that is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lawless person who has a curbe for every mans Conscience but will not endure a snaffle upon his own to despise this Rule and cry up another § 4. The Absolute profection and compleatness of this Rule is also Asserted It 's able to make the Man of God perfect throwly furnish to all good works Notwithstanding this Perfection of the Scripture as a Rule it is always supposed that every one in his private or more publick capacity be Able to use and Apply the Rule As the square or Rule of the Architect however exact in it self yet presupposes him to have eyes to see and brains to Apply it to his work so the Scripture as a Law teaches Duty and whatever of well-pleasing obedience we can perform to God yet supposes us at least to be RationalCreatures that can apply that Law to our own particular Actions Whence these two things must necessarily follow 1. That it was not only Needless but Impossible that the Scripture should enumerate or determine upon the particular Natural Circumstances of general time place person when where who should worship God every day hour and minute to the End of the world for so the whole world would not have afforded sufficient stowage for Rubricks nor have been able to contain the volumns that must have been written for as the End and use of a Rule is not to each the Artificer when he shall begin to work but how he may do it like a Workman whenever he begins so neither was the Scripture design'd for a clock to tell us at what hour of the day we should commence the publick service of God but that when ever we begin or end we manage all according to this Rule 2. That when the Scripture has prescribed us all the parts of worship instituted the Administrators of worship given â—…les how to separate them to that Office and laid down general rules for the Regulating those Natural circumstances which could not particularly be determin'd as that they be done to Edification decently and in order And has withal commanded us to attend to this Rule and no other it has then Discharged the Office of a Rule and as a Rule is Compleat and perfect 2 Besides our Retrospect to our Rule we must also look forward to the End and Design of all Riligion and when that is once well fixt we shall have Another great Advantage to judge what worship is Better and what is worse Now the great End of all Religion and specially of Religious worship is the glorifying of God the pleasing of God And therefore whatever shall pretend to that Glorious Title and Dignity of being an Act of Religion a part of Religion and yet has no real Tendency to the Advancement of his Glory which it can never have without a due regard to the Rule ought to be Expunged out of the Catalogue of Lawful Acts or parts of worship And is so much the more abominable both to God and Man To God because it offers him a Sacrifice not subservient to his Praise and to Man because it deludes him with a pretence of recommending his person and service to God and yet leaves and exposes both to Gods abhorrence From what hath been said I might plead my self Competently qualified to gratify the Importunity of the Enquirer and answer the Question whether A Better frame of things might not possibly have been found out If whatsoever Agrees with the Rule is good then what is discrepant from the Rule is Evil If what makes a nearer approach to the Rule is better then what departs further of is worse but I look upon these kind of Questions as a vapouring party sent out to draw the unwary within the Clutches of an Ambuscado Whatever Constitution shall impeach the only true Rule of shortness and deficiency is less good then that which implies no such shortness or deficiency But there are some Constitutions on the world which impeach the only true Rule of shortness and deficiency and Therefore they are less good then those which impeach not the Rule of such Deficiency whatever Constitutions are made supposed useful for decency which are not Comprehended under the Rule do impeach that Rule of Deficiency but there are some Constitutions made supposed useful for decency which are not comprehended under the Rule and therefore there are some Constitutions which impeach the Rule of Deâ—…ncy Whatever is Comprehended under a Rule must at least be necessary by way of Disjunction but there are some Constitutions in the World which are not Necessary so much as by way of Disjunction therefore they are not Comprehended under the Rule There is not the smallest or most minute Circumstance which can cleave to any Religious Act or wherewith we can Lawfully cloath Gods Worship but it is by the Command of Christ made necessary at least disjunctively But there are some Constitutions which are not made necessary disjunctively and therefore they are such as wherewith we cannot Lawfully cloath Religion
Officers are evidence sufficient that he has made some Laws of Ecclesiastical nature and that he has been defective therein becomes not Christians to Assert 2 The Apostles says he ibid. gave certain directions suited to the Conditions of the times and places and people respectively but never composed a standing Ritual for all aftertimes Which will be put beyond all dispute by this one Observation That several things instituted by the Apostles in the primitive Churches and given in Command in their sacred writings were intended to be obliging only so long as Circumstances should stand as then they did and no longer Where we have two things that challenge Consideration § 1. His Doctrine That the Apostles game Certain Directions suited to the Conditions of the times places and persons respectively but never composed a standing Ritual To which I say 1. If by a standing Ritual he mean a Portuis a Liturgy a Mass-book a Ceremonious Rubric The Rules of the Pye or the like it 's very true and that which the Non-conformists do gladly accept the Confession of but if by a standing Ritual he understand fixed Laws suited to the Condition of the Church in all Ages under all the various dispensations of Gods providenâ—…s we deny it and expect his proof § 2. His evidence is this This 〈◊〉 observation will put 〈◊〉 beyond all dispute It 's a happy observation and deserves a Hecatombe for its invention that will silence all dispute in this matter but what is it That several things instituted by the Apostles in the primitive Churches and given in Command in their sacred writings their Epistles were intended and so Construed only to be obliging so long as Circumstances should stand as they did and no longer To which I answer 1. That there were indeed some temporary Ordinances such as were to expire with the Reason and occasion of their institution but then there was also sufficient evidence that it was the will of God that they should expire and cease such was that Command of Anointing with Oyl 5. Jam. 14. which was sealed and attested by an extraordinary concurrence of Gods power witnessed to by miraculous effects But God having now Broken that seal withdrawn the concurrence of his power we need no other evidence that it was only proper for the first planting of Christianity and is now long ago out of date 2. His one observation comes infinitely short of putting this question out of dispute with any wise man for what if several institutions were temporary will it follow that none were perpetual what if some were suited only to those times shall we thence conclude there were not enow suited to all aftertimes There were extraordinary Apostles are there therefore no ordinary Pastors and Teachers Or must a Nation be at all this vast charge to maintain Humane Creatures what if some Rites were momentany Are there not Sacraments in the right use where of Christ has promised to be with his Ministers to the end of the world such wherein we are to shew forth the Lords death till he come It 's as easy to say all this of Baptism and the Lords Supper that they were calculated only for the Meridian of those days and some are not ashamed to say it as of any other order or constitution of Christ by his Apostles whose temporary nature is not expressed or evidently implyed in the temporary Reason upon which it was built 3. The Epistles of the Apostle to the Corinthians as a Church shews what ought to be the order and Government of every Church The occasion of writing those Epistles might be and was peculiar to them and so was the occasion of writing all the rest but thâ—… Design is Common to All. Nor ought any one to dare to Distinguish betwixt temporary and perpetual institutions where the Scripture has not furnisht us with sufficient ground for such Distinction 4. As there never was a more pernicious and destructive design managed by the Prince of darkness then the Rejecting the Scriptures as the only Rule of Faith worship and all Religious obedience so the Mediums where by 't is carried on is the very same with that of this Enquirer There are an absurd Generation amongst â—…s in this Nation to whom if you Quote the Apostles Authority in his Epistle to the Corinthians For the standing and perpetual use of the Lords Supper will give you just such another Answer Wâ—… do you think 〈◊〉 dwell 〈◊〉 Câ—…th what is 〈◊〉 Eâ—…le to the Corinthians to us whâ—… are English men and so it seems unconcern'd Thus the Papists justify their half Communion Serenus Cressy Chap. 12. p. 137. in Answer to Dr. Peirce his Primitive Rule of Reformation we acknowledg says he Our Saviour instituted this mystery in both Kinds That the Apostles received it in both Kinds That St. Paul spâ—…aks as well of Drinking c. But the General Tradition of the Church at least from his Beginning will not permit us to yeeld that the Receiving in Both Kinds was esteem'd as necessary to the essence of the Communion or Inâ—…grity of the participation of Christs Body and Blood But let us see what service his select Instances will do him to prove his Doctrine Of this Nature says the Enquirer were the Feasts of Love the Holy Kiss the order of Deaconesses To which I return 1. The Feasts of Love and the Holy Kiss were not as all Institutions of the Apostles All that the Apostle determined about them was that supposing in their Civil Congresses and converses they salute each other they should be sure to avoid all levity wantonness all Appearance of evil for Religion teaches us not only to worship God but to Regulate our Civil Actions in subordination to the great ends of Holiness the adorning of the Gospel and thereby the glorifyinâ—… of our God and Saviour I say the same concerning the Feasts of Love The Apostle made it no Ordinance either temporary or perpetual but finding that such a civil Custom had obtained amongst them introduced we charitably believe for the maintaining of Amity amongst them and seeing it sadly to degenerate amongst the Corinthians He cautions them against gluttony drunkenness all excess and ryot to which such Feasts through the power of corruption in some and the Remainders of corruption in the best were obnoxious which is evident from 1 Cor. 11. 21. One is hungry another is drunken The Apostle Paul 1 Tim. 2. 8. Commands that Men pray every where Lifting up Holy hands Can any rational Creature Imagine that he has thereby made it a duty as oft as we pray to elevate our hands That was none of his design to that Age or the present But under a Ceremonial phrase he wraps up an Evangelical duty As if he had said Be sure you cleanse your hearts And if you do lift up your hands let them be no umbrage for unholy souls 2. Concerning Deaconesses I can find no such Order or Constitution of the Apostles It 's true