under his Eternal Wrath. With this Belief I content my self and firmly hold That God is not nor cannot be the Author of any Evil but on the contrary that he is the Author of all Good I believe that Mans Damnation is purely and Originally from his own wickedness and that his Eternal Destruction is not from any Decree of God which whosoever saies does at the same time affirm That God does Damn him for what he cannot possibly avoid On the other side I Beleive that no Man can save himself but that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only and sole Author and Cause of Salvation and that he alone purifies the corrupt Wills and Hearts of Men adapting and preparing them to receive his Grace and saving Truths through the Power and Influence of the Holy Spirit This is my Creed in this Point and here I rest not proposing it by way of Imposition on others but to shew that this moderate middle path which in my Judgment is Sound and Orthodox and would lead us to the desireable Mansions of Peace out of which our Pulpit-Wars have a long time kept us I doubt some Intemperate Zealots that would as soon part with their Eyes as their Notions will be grumbling at what I say as too favourable to one side or other But as I regard not unjust censure so I Challenge them to mend it Methinks if these general Truths and some such like be enough for the people to know they do the Church no good service that instead of Preaching Practical Duties will needs be frightening the Auditory with hidden Decrees absolute Reprobation and some such new made Thunder-Bolts able to scare 'em into Despair God Commanded his Gospel to be Preach'd to all the World that such as would receive it should be saved But these Men have got you a hidden Decree which Damns the greatest part of Mankind yet without the hand of any Heavenly Notary to testifie it And pray tell me what is it more or less than to mock the poor people to invite them to believe c. when 't is impossible for them savingly to do it if their Names be Registred in that black and irreversible Muster Roll. I do not design to reflect upon any nor do I List my self with those who follow Arminius or Calvin I am sorry to find extreams on both hands I would only beseech Dissenters to Preach necessary Truths and let the hidden Decrees of God alone with other unnecessary Notions which practice will undoubtedly be of great and useful Consequenc and will preventthe Bawling of such Authors as this is who I believe will not Quarrel with what I here write nor charge his horrible Consequences upon it and yet I am sure all Sober Dissenters are of this mind For I never yet met any of them but upon a sober debate as occasion offered it were obliged by fair Argument to own it And he that believes this believes enough as to this Point and more will but distract and confound the plain and honest Christian I have been the longer about this tolet this Author know that his charge of Heresie is stretcht unreasonably wide and I hope I have gain'd thus much by taking notice of this Pamphlet that upon a serious and unbyass'd perusal of this few Remarks any Reader of common Capacity will see a necessity of better Arguments then he uses And 't is hop'd that our Church will use that way of reducing Dissenters viz. Mild Christian Debates and Conferences Sober Brotherly Perswasions with hearty Prayers for each other which were the Church Weapons of the Primitive Christians not such Whirlwind and Thunder as some certain Renegado's yonder at Algier or thereabouts would Conjure up against a little scatter'd Fleet of their Quondam Friends I profess I cannot but wonder at the unparallel'd Confidence of this Pamphlet that blushes not to charge the greatest part of the Sectaries as its young zeal words it meaning Protestant Dissenters with making God the Author of wickedness in such terms as quoted before which is no less then to charge them with the blackest of Blasphemies Now the Laws of our Land have provided Condign punishment for that most Monstrous of Treasons against the King of Kings And the Author cannot acquit himself of Misprision if he gives not a Catalogue of such horrible Delinquents that the Law may punish them and that all Christians may shun them as the worst of Hereticks Let him produce that together with Legal Evidence and then fiat Justitia let new Tyburns be erected for them if the Legislative Authory thinks fit Reader I have almost done with this Pamphlet which I believe will Proselite only such as are under the Influence of something I shall not name Only give me leave to add a few Lines by way of observation upon the specimen the Author gives of the Wit and Policy of these giddy Sectaries as he calls them Would they have saies he p. 12. Arch-Bishops Bishops the best Clergy all the best Clergy of England Tythes Vniversities Parish Levy's Down This he Answers with a parcel of Gingling Yes Yes Yesses Then to fill up the Vacuities he insinuates that these same Sectaries would Elect Tinkers Taylors Watermen Shoomakers Coffee-men Hat-Dressers c. concluding with a pious Irony That the Christian World must be acquainted with this Honourable Reformation In the first place the Slander is Venemous and the Deportment of the Grave and Reverend Nonconformist Preachers since His Majesties happy Restauration confutes this wild Calumny Let him name those giddy Fools and let them be exposed for their silliness Else let him avoid the charge of turning a false Accuser of the Brethren if he can All that Protestant Dissenters desire is but a Liberty to serve their God according to their Light in Cottages or any where quietly without any Combination against the Government nor do they begrudge the Governours of the Church their Dignities or Revenues When they do otherwise let them be stigmatiz'd with a Witness for me for then they cease from being the Disciples of Christ whose Kingdom is not of this World Secondly If he has been a benefic'd Holder-forth amongst these Sectaries he might have nam'd his own Trade with the rest And should have Demonstrated which of those Mechanicks have aspired to such high Church Dignities without that the Tale signifies nothing There were Mechanick Preachers in the Primitive Times I am sure 't is well they escape this Gentlemans lash he deserves thanks for that Civility however Well but says the Pamphlet p. 13. for forty years they have made no Bank built no Free-Schools purchas'd no Church-Lands pay no Tythes wont consent to have all things common their Preachers go a Begging c. This I must confess is a frightful charge and able to scare their Preachers away from them if they only gape for a Benefice But the Author did not consider that this is a good Argument against his Insinuations of their Ambition for if
us for the full Granting that Indulgence What can be more Pious and Consonant to the Rules of the Gospel then what this Great Monarch here declares No Person is excepted from his Royal-Indulgence but such as disturb the Peace of the Kingdom Now if there be any such among the Dissenters let them be severely Punished But if there be none I cannot but wonder at the Cruelty and undutifulness of such as Prosecute their Peaceable and Innocent Fellow-Subjects against the mind of their Soveraign His Majesty has not only declared this so Favourable Indulgence but also by his own experience declares the unfruitfulness of Compulsion March 15th 1671. In these words Our Care and endeavours for the Preservation of the Rights and Interests of the Church have been sufficiently Manifested to the World by the whole Course of our Government since our Happy Restauration and by the many frequent ways of Coercion that we have used for the reducing all erring or Dissenting Persons and for Composing the unhappy Differences in matters of Religion which we found among our Subjects upon our Return But it being Evident by the sad Experience of Twelve years that there is very little Fruit of all those Forceable Courses we think our Self obliged to make use of that Supream Power in Ecclesiastical matters which is not only Inherent in us but hath been declared and Recognized to be so by several Statutes and Acts of Parliament c. That August part of the Legislative power the House of Commons Resolved Janu. 10. 1680 That it is the opinion of this House that the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal-Laws is at this time Grievous to the Subject a Weakening the Protestant Interest an Incouragement to Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom Besides this there was a Bill past both Houses at the last Parliament in Westminster for the Repeal of the 35 of Elizabeth but through some unhappy neglect it was not presented to his Majesty who doubtless would have past it Nevertheless by that and what 's mentioned before we may clearly infer that the King and Parliament judge that Compulsion of Conscience of Peaceable Protestant Dissenters is both unseasonable and unprofitable And if I have the whole Legislative Authority on my side viz. King Lords and Commons that is all England I may modestly presume that no Protestant will be angry at this Essay nor censure it of Arrogance it being so conformable to the Sentiments of the most Illustrious in the Nation I must confess that there are Laws in force against the Dissenters which we shall a little Discourse of hereafter and evidence plainly that the intention of the Legislators was to punish such as they supposed would be Seditious or dangerous to the Government and they that stretch these Laws to destroy so many Innocent Peaceable Members of the Common-Wealth do but Fight against God and pervert the meaning of the Lawgivers and can at long run expect no other Fruit of their officiousness then what is reap'd by such as are unmerciful to say no more at the great and general Tribunal Here you see those very Laws repealed in voto by them that made it and though that dots not disanull them yet let me tell you that for some particular Justices of the Peace meerly upon the Information of a sort of Creatures called Informers whose Character in a few words I 'le give you e're long to Execute the utmost yea more then the utmost Severity of the Laws against Dissenters in defiance of the sense of the Law-makers who did undoubtedly know what was best for us is no less then to oppose a private Opinion to a publick Deliberation and a private Spirit against a publick But I 'le proceed to my main business and refer the Opinion with a respect to this matter of as Great Statesmen as England ever knew to another place SECT II. HE that will Seriously consider how tenderly the Lord Jesus Recommends the precepts of mutual Love to all that profess his Name making it the very Character of his Followers Luk 13. 35. By this shall all Men know that you are my Disciples if ye have Love one to another And how highly the Apostle Paul exalts the same Duty reduceing the whole Duty of a Christian to a single precept Gal. 5. 14. For all the Law is fulfilled in one word even in this Thou shalt Love thy Neighbour as thy self See Levit. 19. 18. Mat. 22. 39. Cannot but sufficiently wonder to see such as profess the Christian Religion Quarrel one with another upon the account of special and doubtful Circumstances respecting Divine Worship It is Lamentable to see how much the present Age differs from Primitive Christianity The Servants of the Living God in those times would rather have given their own Lives to perswade their Enemies to Piety then seek to undo their Brethren to force them to Hypocrisie Those Maximes that interfere with the Sacred Rules of the Gospel and threaten desolation to Men for what they cannot help are undoubtedly to be laid aside in a Christian Common-Wealth And I question not but that our Gracious King when he thinks fit to meet his People in Parliament will order a Regulation of these proceedings suitable to his Beneign and merciful temper before expressed In the mean time I humby crave leave to offer a few general Reasons against the present Prosecutions which my Zeal for Truth and the management of Church-Wars like Christians indeed extort from me It is notorious by Universal Experience that it is the perverse Nature of Man Niti in vetitum to long like Eve for what is forbidden A Malady derived by an uninterpreted succession from our first Parents Hence grew a necessity of Establishing Laws and Civil Sanctions the end of which are to restrain and Punish Transgressors who by the Intemperate Sallys of private or publich Ambition Revenge Lust or other Vice attempt or actually perpetrate any thing Injurious to their Fellow-Creatures These Laws are Calculated for the respective Meridians of several Nations and Governments and Levell'd against the prevailing vice of the place Ex malis moribus bonae leges natae sunt The pravity of Mans Nature caused a necessity of Laws as Distempers do of Physick And as the Office of the later is to preserve the Health and Cure the Diseases of the Body so the Office of the former is to preserve the Body Politick Neither of these are so limited but that the private or publick Physick may be altered according as the Symptoms of the Disease direct the Application And so we see that Parliaments without any disparagement to their Wisdoms Repeal Laws proper to the times they were Enacted in and make New as the Vicissitudes of the Publick Pulse stands in need of The wisest Men have changed Counsels and Resolves upon Second thoughts The very Popes themselves and General Councels have done it though the former Arrogate to themselves an Infallibility No meer Man is
like Divine School-Masters teaching their Spiritual Pupils and with servent Prayers recommending the success to God the Converter of Souls So that Catechising is no more than a Christian endeavour or expedient for the begetting of Faith not an aid and conduct of Faith as the Paper words it because the persons Catechis'd were supposed to be yet unconverted Besides to make formal Catechising a positive means of Salvation is to Damn all that have not the opportunity to Learn it by Heart and yet that there are many such in the World that are nevertheless saved is undoubtedly known to this Author who seems to make Christianity consist in External Forms and a Moral Deportment or Conversation 2. As to the Second viz. A good and well Composed Form of Prayer to discharge their Devotion It sounds so different from Praying with the Spirit and Vnderstanding that I cannot but marvel at it I do not at all blame such as use Forms of Prayer for they may for ought I know Pray with the Spirit likewise considering the Form prescribed by our Lord Jesus himself Matth. 6. But this is as clear as the Sun that neither in all the New Testament nor the First Three Hundred Years there can be produced any Record of known Credit that any stinted Forms were Imposed And good Reason for all the Children of God can represent their grievances to their Heavenly Father And though their Petitions are expressed in Lisping Notes or by the unutterable groans of the Spirit yet they are not for all that rejected any more than a loving Father would deny his hungry Child a piece of Bread because he cannot speak plain or uses not a Formal Address for it But for this Author to make a Form of Prayer necessary to Salvation is to Damn such as will not or do not make their Applications to the Mercy Seat in the stinted and Composed Conceptions of others which possibly may not reach their Case or as he calls it discharge their Devotion 3. As to the Third thing necessary to Salvation viz. To hear Learned and Good Men Preach to revive and quicken to Duty I say That to attend the Sacred Dispensations of the Word of Truth in order to growth in Grace and Spiritual Edification is a Christian Duty And that the Preacher ought to be Learned in the Scriptures and a Good Man that is of such Goodness as the utmost pressing after it can arrive at If the Author means by Learning and Goodness what may be meerly attainable by School Faculties and that which the Philosophers call Morality abstracted from the Influences of Converting and Evangelical Grace I must Dissent from him till he proves that Christianity and Morality are one and the same thing Or that Morality is that Grace by which we are saved through Faith If he proves that it will follow that the coming of Christ to Plant an Evangelical Religion in the World and by his Death to save Mankind was unnecessary because Salvation might have been attain'd by the Philosophy of Plato and the rest of the Heathen Moralists This Authors Divinity seems to look this way For his fourth thing necessary to Salvation is for Men to Square and Regulate their Lives by Moral Precepts or the Law of Nature To which I say That Christians ought to do not only this but more too so that Christian Duty terminates not here It is not confined to practical or speculative Morality which is only a Branch or Species of Christianity and is as much in degree below that Faith and Spiritual Grace that saves the Soul through the Efficacy of the Blood of Christ as the Body is below the Soul The one is exercised in Principles of Common Equity betwixt Man and Man comprehended in that saying Do as ye would be done unto The other is exercised in a Spiritual Commerce with the Divinity by Faith Prayer and other Gospel Graces which Natural Philosophy meerly consider'd as such can no more perform than a Man stark Blind can judge of Colours or Lazarus could get out of his Grave before the All quickning power of the Mediator rais'd him The Gospel represents such as were Naturally Alive to be Spiritually Dead And Philosophy without Grace is Character'd by the Apostle to be a vain seducing thing Before I touch upon the Reasons of this Authon in justification of Nonconformists taking the Sacrament after the manner of the Church of England give me leave to put in this Caution That I do not in what I write directly or indirectly dispute against the Lawfulness of the Administration of this Ordinance as us'd in the said Church but my Scope and Intention is to shew how unreasonable it is for this Author to represent the Nonconformists as such silly Sectaries because they hant so wide a Throat as he to swallow what they cannot Digest and consequently that such of them as Dissent out of pure Conscience though they suffer such Penalties as this Gentleman it seems does not care to be concern'd in are to be born withal whilst they behave themselves peaceably and dutifully towards the Civil Government And to give him a hint that if he be one of those wellineaning Dissenters that has Conversed well near 30 Years amongst them as he says p. 1. then either he saw their folly and groundless scrupulosity as he angerly calls it before the present juncture or not If he saw it before and would not make discovery of it in order to his full and firm Vnion as he Baptizes his Pamphlet how can he clear himself of Vnfaithfulness if not Hipocrisie in not beginning this Blessed Atchievement sooner that he might prevent the jealousie of the Government and the sufferings of so many Poor Families as he talks of But if he be but a new Proselite to the Church of England and is Converted on a suddain as on the one hand people will be apt to suspect him because he chuses a time of suffering to forsake his Old Brethren and think him a Temporizer so on the other hand he will be lookt upon as a Novice in Reformation and Old Experienc'd Men will hardly be perswaded to Learn their Religion from the little pedantick subtilties of such variable Dissenters who move with the State Compass These things I speak not from any prejudice against the Author whoever he be but to put him in mind in a Spirit of meakness that it would better become him rather to exercise Charity towards his forsaken Brethren if he has been a Dissenter and since he has freed himself from the lash of suffering that he would not add to their burthen at so Licentious a Rate as he does in this Pamphlet If they are in an Error let him leave them to God as they are willing to leave him quietly to the happiness of the secure Station he has chosen In p. 4. he begins his Proofs which the Judicious and Conscientious Nonconformist will look upon more subtil then solid All that I shall remark