the indisposition of the Time and the tenderness of some mens Consciences had contracted I wonder at the confidence of that Assertion in the Answer That it is sufficiently known That none of the present Nonconformists did in the least measure agree in the use of those little things and though desired by the King to read so much of the Liturgy as themselves had not exception against and so could have no pretence from Conscience For it is well known that some of them did in compliance with the Kings desire read part of the Liturgy in their Churches As for others that did not perhaps for the prevention of scandal they might use their liberty of forbearance till some Reformation were obtained The truth is the Concessions on this side have been abused to the reproach and disadvantage of the depressed Party and from their readiness to yeild so far as they can for the common peace sake a perverse inference is made That they might yeild throughout if Humor and Faction did not rule them Is there any Justice or Charity in such dealing May not men of upright Consciences and peaceable Inclinations forbear the insisting upon some things to them very desirable and give place to some things not approved by them as the best in that kind if so be they might obtain their Peace and Liberty by Indulgence granted them in other things wherein Conscience binds them up that they cannot yeild Moreover some Concessions made by particular men of very Catholick spirits in the earnest pursuit of Peace have been wrack'd and wrested to a sense beyond their true import and then they that so handle them triumph in their own conceit over them as if they had given up the whole Cause Certasnly they are ill employed who from their Brethrens yeelding offers raise Opposition against them and endeavour to set them further off SECT XI The propounded Latitude leaves out nothing necessary to secure the Church's Peace TO set forth the propounded Latitude in the particular Limits thereof is not agreeable to a Discourse of this nature For it were presumptuous both in reference to Superiors and to the Party concerned in it And it is unnecessary for Prejudices being removed and the Conveniency of a greater Latitude being acknowledged the particular Boundaries thereof will easily be descried And indeed the generals that are expressed are a sufficient indication thereunto His Majesty's Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs hath mentioned particular Concessions on both sides and that Harmony of Affections therein He calls excellent Foundations to build upon The Moderation and Indulgence there specified would do the work I mean not so as if all Dissenters would instantly be thereby brought in but that our wide breach would presently be healed in great part and be in the surest way for a total and absolute healing and so much would be gained at present as might be able to conquer the remaining Difficulties The former Discourse had this position That the Ends of Church-Discipline do not require a Constitution of narrower bounds then things necessary to Faith and Life and Godly Order in the Church The Answerer saith That this Establishment is not enough for a Settlement because it doth not secure the Peace And to shew the insufficiency thereof he giveth two instances of Discord between the Parties First about the Persons to whose care the great things of Christianity should be intrusted to see them conveyed unto Posterity whether they shall be a Single Person or a Consistory or each single Congregation Secondly About the means of conveying those things the Worship of God and the Circumstances thereof From hence he draws this Conclusion Therefore to preserve Peace among her Members the Church had need to determine more then the great things of Christianity and to injoyn more then what is barely necessary to Faith and Order Verily it may much amuse one to think what that thing should be in the Ecclesiastical Polity which is not necessary to Christian Faith and Life and godly Order in the Church and yet necessary to secure the Church's Peace And if the aforesaid Instances of discord between the Church of England and the Dissenters are not necessary to Faith or Order what reason can be rendred of the inexorable Imposition thereof upon dissenting or doubting Consciences Can it be necessary to the Church's Peace to exclude or deprive men for such Differences in which neither Faith nor Order are concerned Or is this the Answerer's meaning That the Church's Peace consists in the exclusion of the Nonconformists and that the necessary use of some Injunctions stands in keeping them out so that not their Conformity but their Exclusion is the thing therby intended The Comprehension doth not suppose as it is mis-reported That Presbytery should be permitted or encouraged All intermedling with the Form of Church-Government was declined only the prescribed Uniformity was considered Besides for the exact Presbyterial Form to be comprehended in Episcopacy is contradictory yet that something of Presbytery should be included in it is not repugnant And such a Comprehension is approved in His Majesty's aforesaid Declaration Likewise King CHARLES the First in His Discourse touching the Differences between Himself and the Two Houses in this point declares that He is not against the managing of the Episcopal Presidency in one man by the joint Counsel and Consent of many Presbyters but that He had offered to restore it as a fit means to avoid those errors and corruptions and partialities which are incident to any one man also to avoid Tyranny which becomes no Christians least of all Church-men But neither this nor the former Treatise interposeth in this Matter but leaves it to the Wisdom of our Superiors The desired Latitude leaves not the Concernments of Church or State to the Ingenuity of Men nor casts out any Injunctions that are means of Peace and Unity yea or of that necessary Decency which the Apostle requires only of Rites and Opinions long disputed it would take in no more then needs must and not meerly because they have been long disputed but because they are also of little value and here confessed not to be necessary to Faith and Order yet are matters of endless Controversie in this Church and occasions of great separation from it It being asserted That the indisputable Truths of Faith and the indispensable Duties of Life are the main Object of Church-Discipline the Answerer demands What are those indisputable Truths since there is scarce any Truth of Faith that hath not been disputed against What manner of arguing is this Because All Truths have been disputed doth it follow that there are no indisputable Truths That is called Indisputable that cannot reasonably or justly be disputed though men of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the Faith will call the greatest Truths in question and resist the clearest Evidence When the Apostle mentions matters of doubtful disputations he implies there be matters that are indubitable SECT XII Of
a one should tell them That it will seem unequal to deny a Toleration to them and grant it unto others that are here pleaded for which is in effect to say They have as good reason to expect an Indulgence from this State as others that maintain the Doctrine of the Church of England yea such as communicate in her publike Worship Is there no better way of exalting Prelacy and disgracing its supposed Adversaries then by this Reproach and Damage done to the whole Protestant Profession Yea he so far extenuates the guilt of Papists and brings it down so low as to make it common to all other Sects In which one would think he should have been more wary who in one place stretcheth the notion of Sect so far as to make its reason to lye in being different from the Established Form of Church Government Now for matter of practice he imputes the same guilt to all other Sects And if the Papists saith he have any Doctrines which countenance those Practises that is to be accounted as the issue of their insolency in their own greatness And he implies That it is onely the want of strength that other Sects are not so bad as they for such kind of Doctrine as well as Practice Such passages falling from a Protestants Pen may do the Papists better service than their late Apology But why doth he say If the Papists have any such Doctrines Doth he not know they have The Church of England was assured of it when concerning the Adherents of Rome she used this expression in a publike form of Prayer Whose Religion is Rebellion and whose Faith is Faction We wish their eyes were open who cannot see more permanent and effectual causes of the aforesaid Crimes peculiar to that Religion and rooted in the Principles thereof The evidence hereof given in the former Discourse is not needful to be rehersed in this place This Author as others that oppose the wayes of Amity and Peace loves to grate upon a string that sounds harsh To renew the remembrance of the late Warr. Those distracted Times are the great Storehouse and Armory out of which such men do fetch their Weapons of offence and the great Strong-hold unto which they always retreat when they are vanquished by the force of Reason and then they think they are safe though therein they contradict the true intent of the Act of Oblivion Some of those that now so importunately urge the Injury and Tyranny of those Times did then sufâ—iciently comply with Usurpers and left Episcopacy to sink or swim and did partake of the chiefest Favours and Preferments that were then conferred And on the other hand such as they upbraid and are now Sufferers did as little comply with those that subverted the Government and did as zealously appear for the rescue of our late Sovereign and for the restitution of His present Majesty as any sort of men in the Realm But to intermeddle in the Differences of those Times and to repeat Odious Matters and to use Recriminations that will disturb the minds of men and tend to a perpetual Mischief is aliene from and opposite unto my Pacifick Endeavours As for his charging the Nonconformists with certain Doctrines and Positions by him there mentioned which I know none that maintains and other Accusations and Reports relating to the time of the Warr the Truth or Falshood the Equity or Iniquity the Candor or Disingenuity of his Testimony in those things is left to the judgment of the Righteous God and of Impartial Men. SECT IX Whether their Inconformity be Conscientious or Wilful ANother part of the Proceeding is very Unrighteous and Presumptuous The Dissenting Ministers appeal to God That they dare not Conform for Conscience sake This Author hence inferrs The force of the Argument is There is a Necessity of Toleration because they Will not conform Is a Cannot for Conscience sake of no more force than a bare Will not But who best knows their hearts themselves or their Adversaries He would make the world believe that not Conscience but Obstinacy and Faction is the cause of their holding out and that the greatest part were trapann'd into Nonconformity That trifling story of their being trapann'd is not worthy of serious discourse It is so evident as not to be denied That about the time the Act of Uniformity was to be put in practice there were motions and overtures of Indulgence from the King and some of the great Officers of State who were known to have high affection and esteem for the Church of England yet did approve and promote those Overtures as the best Expedient for the setling of this Church and Kingdom But to let that pass Can men of Understanding and Candor think that so many serious persons who as well as others may be thought to love themselves their Families and Relations should continue such egregiously obstinate Fools as to refuse the Comforts of their Temporal Being for a Humor and remain in a state of Deprivation into which they had been meerly trapann'd As for the objected unprofitableness of their returning how doth it appear What hinders their Capacity of gaining Benefices yea and Dignities if they could Conform Why should they not find as good acceptation as others in their Preaching and Conversation It may be they would enter too fast for the good liking of some into those Preferments who therefore would set such Barrs against them as they should not be able to break thorough SECT X. Of their peaceable Inclinations and readiness to be satisfied IN the late Times of Usurpation there were apparent predispositions in this sort of men to Peace and Concord The longing desire and expectation that was in them as much as in any others of a National Settlement and general Composure did accelerate His Majesty's Peaceable Restauration Surely they were not so stupid as to imagine that great Turn of Affairs without the thoughts of their own yeilding and such as they hoped would be effectual with those of the other Perswasion Their early and ready Overtures of Reconciliation which are publikely made known will testifie their Moderation to the present and future Ages Their Offers of Acquiescing in Episcopacy Regulated and the Liturgy Reformed was on their part a good advance towards Union His Majesty hath given this Testimony of them in His Declaration When We were in Holland We were attended by many Grave and Learned Ministers from hence who were looked upon as the most able and principal Assertors of the Presbyterian Opinions with whom We had as much Conference as the multitude of Affairs which were then upon Vs would permit Vs to have and to Our great Satisfaction and Comfort found them persons full of Affection to Vs of Zeal for the Peace of the Church and State and neither Enemies as they had been given out to he to Episcopacy or Liturgy but modestly to desire such alterations as without shaking Foundations might best allay the present Distempers which
rightly comprehended this matter in His Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs where He saith We are the rather induced to take this upon Vs that is to give some determination to the matters in difference by finding upon a full Conference that we have had with the Learned men of several Perswasions That the Mischiefs under which both Church and State do at present suffer do not result from any formed Doctrine or Conclusion which either Party maintains or avows but from the Passion Appetite and Interest of particular persons which contract greater prejudice to each other by those Affections than would naturally arise from their Opinions It is apparent that the avowed Doctrines on either side could not set the Parties at this distance if their Spirits and Interests were reconciled SECT III. What may be esteemed a good Constitution of the State Ecclesiastical AS concerning the publike Order it imports exceedingly to discern and make a difference between things desirable but morally impossible or extreamly improbable and things necessary and attainable Perfect unanimity about matters of Religion and a harmony of Opinion in all Theological Truths is very desirable but it was never yet found in any Age of the World among those that owned the same Religion and consequently it cannot be necessary in all those that ought to be comprehended in the same Church or Religious Communion For which cause a precise Uniformity in matters of meer Opinion will hardly ever pass with general satisfaction Neither is it of that importance that some make it to be for Peace and Edification There is another thing not onely desirable but the indispensable duty of all particular persons which is Brotherly Love among all that receive the common Faith once given to the Saints This is of far greater consequence than the former and more largely attainable because it is a Catholick Disposition and the right Spirit of true Christianity and indeed the failing hereof is lamentable and reproachful Howbeit this excellent Christian Vertue is commonly much interrupted and impaired in many by prejudicate Opinions and depraved Affections and it must not be expected but that Animosities and Jealousies may remain between men of different Perswasions by reason of the corruption of man's nature and the infirmities of the best of men Aud therefore the foundation of a solid National Settlement must not and need not be laid in mens good dispositions and inclinations For although the distemper of many minds continue yet publike Order and steddy Government is in no wise impossible Things are necessary either as the End or the Means The things here considered that are necessary as the End are The Advancement of the Protestant Religion and the Kingdom of England the Tranquility of Church and State and the Security of all sound Protestants and good Subjects That which is necessary as the Means is the Publike Rule and Standard by which these blessed Ends may be obtained that notwithstanding the remainder of mens Perversness the common high Concerns of Reformed Religion and of this Kingdom be not disturbed impaired or cast back by the Altercations that may chance to arise between men of different private Opinions and different partial Interests The high Importance and Necessity of a stated Rule of such Force and Efficacy evinceth the possibility thereof For so Noble and Necessary Ends cannot be destitute of all possible Means leading thereunto Evil Dispositions and Manners are the rise of Good Laws And Law-makers that are subject to like passions with other men have the Wisdom to limit themselves and others for the Universal Good wherein the good of every Individual is secured The Publike Rule being to be framed to the proportion of the People that are to be setled under it the chief regard must be had to their fixed and unmovable Perswasions and Inclinations lest They should break the Rule or the Rule break them In a Nation whose Active Part is zealous of Religion and able to discern and addicted to discourse the Grounds thereof the Order of Things ought in the first place to be directed to the satisfying of the Just and Reasonable Demands of Conscience which being troubled is a restless thing and then to the outward Incouragements of Piety and Learning and withall to the bridling of Ambition Avarice Faction and all depraved Appetite It must be expected That divers Obliquities and Deficiencies may remain and Troubles will arise but if that which is Wholesom and Good be so predominant as to Master the Evils though not to extinguish them it is to be esteemed a Good Constitution SECT IV. The Comprehensiveness of the Establishment and the Allowance of a just Latitude of Dissents is the best Remedy against Dissentions THere was lately published a Discourse for a due Latitude in Religion by Comprehension Toleration and Connivence directed to this End That the occasions of those Discords which divide the Members and distract the whole Body of the Protestant Profession might cease and that the common Concernments wherein the disagreeing Parties have a large joint Stock in things of greatest moment might be pursued This is encountred with an adverse Discourse which is here to be examined and the state and reason of the aforesaid Latitude is to be further cleared Toleration being commonly understood of the permission of different ways of Religion without the Line of the Approved Way A Discourse of Toleration doth not hit the Discourse of the Religion of England in the main thereof whose chief Design is the Extension of the Established Order and the Moderation therein required and then Toleration is treated of analogically with respect not only to common Charity but to the Safety of the setled Polity It is no less besides the mark to argue from the Mischiefs of a boundless and licentious Toleration against that which is Limited and well Managed and hath for the Subject thereof nothing that is intolerable But if under this Name be comprehended also the Permission of diversity of Opinion in the same Established Order let it be considered Whether any ample Polity can consist without such Permission For it is a thing utterly unknown and seems morally impossible for any numerous Society of Inquiring men to be of the same judgment in all points of Religion And though the Sons of the Church as they are called agree in those points wherein they all differ from the Nonconformists yet they differ among themselves in far weightier Matters and such as have caused great Schisms and have been the subjects of the Debates and Determinations of some Synods in the Reformed Churches Now if Charity among themselves and their appropriate Interest dispose them to this mutual forbearance a more extensive Charity and the common Interest of Reformed Christianity should incline them to a forbearance in those other matters There is yet a greater Error committed about the Subject of Toleration which the Answerer by mistake will have to be Dissentions in Religion but is nothing so in the design
of that Discourse to which he pretends an Answer And this hath brought forth a large Impertinency which takes up more than a third part of his Book For those whose Liberty He seeks to withstand are not touched with that which he writes at large of the nature of Dissentions with their Causes and Consequences and the Magistrates duty concerning them whether it be right or wrong setting aside the injurious application thereof And all that labour had been spared if he had put a difference between Dissention and Dissent words that are near in sound and perhaps sometimes promiscuously used but in their strict and proper sense far distant For Dissention is no sooner presented to the mind but it is apprehended as something either culpable and offensive or calamitous and unhappy But Dissent is of a better notion and is not necessarily on both sides either a Fault or a Grievance But if this Author means by Dissentions no more then dissents or differences of Opinion with what truth and justice can he charge them all as he doth with such execrable Causes and Effects Dissentions have been and may be remedied and their fuel being taken away those flames will be extinguished But diversity of Opinion seems in this state of Human Nature to be irremediable It is therefore hoped that the state of this Church and Kingdom is not so deplorable as to want a Settlement while these Dissents remain Moreover there are private dissents between particular men within the latitude of the Publike Rule and there are dissents that may be called Publike as being from the Publike Rule or some parts thereof Now the broader and more comprehensive the Rule is the fewer will be the Dissenters from it And the permission of private diversities of Opinion in a just Latitude within the Rule is the means to lessen Publike Dissents and consequently Dissentions much more And this was the main scope of the first Discourse The great importance of Vnity in the Church of Christ is acknowledged and contended for as much on this side as on the other Howbeit we do not believe that Christ our Head hath laid the Conservation and Unity of His Church upon unwritten and unnecessary Doctrines and little Opinions and Sacred Rites and Ceremonies of meer Human Tradition and Institution But He hath set out the Rule and Measure of Unity in such sort as that upon Dissents in those things the Members of this Society might not break into Schisms to a mutual condemnation and abhorrency The imposing of such things except in those Ages whose Blindness and Barbarism disposed them to stupidity and gross security in their Religion hath been ever found to break Unity and to destroy or much impair Charity Goodness Meekness and Patience which are Vital Parts and chief Excellencies of Christianity SECT V. Whether the present Dissentions are but so many Factions in the State ONE grand Objection is That the Dissentions among us are but so many several Factions in the State But meer dissents in Religion are no State-Factions at all but proceed from a more lasting Cause than particular Designs or any temporary Occasions even from the incurable Infirmity of our Nature And if it were granted That the Dissentions were State-Factions yet they are not so originally and radically but by accident Some may take advantage to raise and keep up Factions by them For this cause take out of the way the stumbling-block of needless rigors and then Dissentions will cease or languish and consequently the State Factions if there be any such that are kept up by them will come to nothing It is so evident that Toleration which came not in till after the breach between the Late King and Parliament did not open the avenues to our Miseries that one may wonder any should say it did But meet Indulgence to all sound Protestants is the likeliest means of stopping such avenues And if it be for the Interest of England to have no Factions the best way is to remove those burdens which like a partition-wall hath kept asunder the Professors of the same Religion Then the Masters of our Troubles whosoever they be cannot have that advantage by their Eminency in their Parties to drive on their Designs in the State Factious Spirits are disappointed when Honest Minds are satisfied and secured This Author relates the Aims of several Parties on this manner The Papists are for the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome some of the other Sects are for a Commonwealth others are for the Fift Monarchy But if the true state of the Nonconformists be well considered it will be found that in Them as well as any others the King and Kingdom is concerned and the good of Both promoted It is not with them as with the Popish Party who have such a severed Interest to themselves that the State is little concerned in it save onely to beware of its Incroachments But the Protestant Dissenters are such as do much of the Business of the Nation and have not their Interest apart but in strict conjunction with the whole Body-Politick Yea they have no possible means of ensuring their Interest but by Legal-Security obtained from the Higher Power and by comporting with the general tranquility both of the Church and State of England They cannot flye to the Refuge of any Foreign Prince or State as the Papists have done frequently they acknowledg no Foreign Jurisdiction which is a Principle of the Popish Faith but all their Stake lies at home and they can have no sure Hold that is aliene from the Happiness of the King and Kingdom An Impartial Observer cannot but discern this If it be lawful to name a thing so much to be abhorred as a Change of the Ancient Laws and Government they could not be happy nor do their Work by such an unhappy Change Experience witnesseth That their Interest is not for hasty and unstable Victory or unfixed Liberty but for a state of firm Consistence and Security and that they cannot hold their own but by the common Safety both of Prince and People The summ of this Matter is That a Party not onely comporting with the good Estate of this Realm but even subsisting by it and therefore firmly linked unto it should not be cast off SECT VI. Whether the NONCONFORMISTS Principles tend to Sects and Schisms SOme Reasons were offered to shew That Indulgence towards Dissenting Protestants did much concern the Peace and Happiness of this Realm And the Prudent will judg Arguments of that sort to be of the greatest weight in the Affairs of Government There is no need to reinforce the cogency of those Reasons The Adversary hath wrested them to an odious meaning contrary to their manifest true intent but whether he hath indeed evinced them to be of little or no moment or whether they stand in full force let judicious men consider The whole reasoning in that particular rests upon this Maxime That it is the SOVEREIGN's true Interest to make
acquiescence in the Commands of Superiors and the proper matter of their Injunctions IN the former Treatise this Argument was used The Church doth not claim an Infallibility therefore the cannot settle the Conscience by her sole Warrant but still leaves room for doubting The Answerer makes this to be either a piece of ignorance or of portentous malice and an Assertion that would disturb all Government both in Families and in the State that would confound all Society and extirpate Faith and Justice from among the sons of men But this his strange Inference rather is portentous That the Church cannot settle the Conscience by her sole Warrant is it not a Principle maintained by all Protestants in opposition to the Popish implicit Faith and blind Obedience But is this person consistent with himself For after he hath a while expatiated in his imaginary hideous Consequences he comes himself to deny that the Church bindeth the Conscience by her own Authority And yet it is a lesser thing to bind the Conscience than to settle it and leave no room for doubting For Conscience may be obliged when it is not setled And if the Church cannot oblige doubtless she cannot settle the Conscience by her sole Authority How then could a man of reason draw such hideous Inferences from that Position If I may give way to conjectures I suspect that he might take check at the word Infallibility by which I intend no more then Infallible Direction and I fear not to own this Assertion That whosoever have not Infallible Direction or the certain assistance of an Infallible Guide so as to be exempted from all error in what they propound for Belief or Practice cannot settle the Conscience by their sole warrant I still aver That in prescribed Forms and Rites of Religion the Conscience that doth its office will interpose and concern it self And it is matter of astonishment that a Learned Protestant should say this Position must needs be false For Conscience guided by the fear of God will use all just means to discern his Will and cannot resign it self to the dictates of men in the points of Divine Worship If the Judgment of Discerning which makes men differ from Brutes be to be exercised in any case it is chiefly requisite in these matters wherein the Glory of God and the Saving of the Soul is so much concerned It is granted That to maintain Peace and Unity in the Church and to be obedient to the Higher Powers in those things which are proper matter for their Commands are most strictly injoined Duties But the Injunctions here considered though to the Imposers they are but things Indifferent that is neither Commanded nor Forbidden of God in the Consciences of Dissenters are Unlawful To instance in some controverted Ceremonies They think that God hath determined against them though not in particular yet in the general Prohibition of all uncommanded Worship And they reply Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto men more then unto God judg ye To restrain that of the Apostle He that doubts is damned if he eat only to things wherein the Church hath not interposed her Authority is a false gloss and a begging of the Question What human Authority can warrant any one to put in practice an unlawful or suspected Action or to make profession of a known or suspected Falshood As concerning the Rights of Superiors it is the Church's Duty and Honour to teach and command her Children to do whatsoever Christ hath commanded And it is the chiefest Glory and most proper Work of the Magistrate who is Gods Minister and Vicegerent to be custos vindex utriusque Tabulae To incourage and inforce Obedience to the Divine Laws whether written in the Bible or imprinted in our Nature and in subserviency thereunto to have power to determine such things as are requisite in the general but in the particulars are left undetermined of God and are to be ordered by Human Prudence according to the Light of Nature and the general Rules of Gods Word But things indifferent in their nature and either offensive in their use or needless and superfluous are not worthy to be made the proper matter of his Commands It is a grave and weighty saying of a Learned man of whatsoever Perswasion he were If the special Guides and Pastors of the Church would be a little sparing of incumbring Churches with superfluities or not over-rigid either in reviving obsolete Customs or imposing new there would be far less cause of Schism and Superstition and all the inconvenience that were likely to ensue would be but this That in so doing they should yeeld a little to the imbecillity of their Inferiors a thing which St. Paul would never have refused to do SECT XIII Of the alledged Reasons of the Ecclesiastical Injunctions in the beginning of the Reformation THE Answerer relates at large the proceeding of this Church in the beginning of the Reformation The sum of the Relation is That there being Two sorts of men one that thought it a great matter of Conscience to depart from the least Ceremony they were so addicted to their old Customs the other so new-fangled that they would innovate all things and nothing would satisfie them but that which was new It was necessary for the Church to interpose for Peace sake and casting off neither Party to please each to their edification and also to injoyn some things to the common observance of all and therefore she took away the excessive multitude of Ceremonies as those that were dark and abused to Superstition and Covetousness but retained those few that were for Decency Discipline and apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to God We have good warrant to call in question the truth of his Narration in things of the greatest weight First It is not true that the Party that were for Ceremonies comprehended all those who staid at home and did not flye in the time of Queen Mary's Persecution For such as dissented from the Ceremonies in the time of that Persecution had their Assemblies for the Worship of God in this Land and indured among others in the Fiery Trial. And we can find but little zeal in the Martyrs of those days for this kind of Conformity Likewise it is not true that the Party that were against Ceremonies were but small as being but some few of those that fled beyond Sea There is clear evidence to the contrary An Historian zealous for Conformity even unto bitterness reports in his Ecclesia Restaurata That in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign many that were disaffected to Episcopacy and Ceremonies were raised to great Preferments Besides those that were in Ecclesiastical Dignities he observes That the Queens Professor at Oxford and the Margaret Professor in Cambridg were among the Nonconformists For the multitude of Dissenters in those dayes there is a notable testimony of a Friend of Prelacy in his Letter
to Mr. Richard Hooker about the writing of his Ecclesiastical Polity in these words It may be remembred that at the first the greatest part of the Learned in the Land were either eagerly affected or favourably inclined to that way the Books then written savoured for the most part of the Disciplinary stile it sounded every where in the Pulpits and in the common phrase of mens speech and the contrary Part began to fear they had taken a wrong course There is as little Truth and Justice in that report That the Party that were against Ceremonies caused the Troubles at Frankford and brought a Dishonor to the Reformation and Infamy upon our Nation The English Congregation at Frankford was setled after the Discipline of the Foreign Reformed Churches and enjoyed much Peace till certain eminent men zealous of the English Forms and Rites came among them and by a high hand brought in the Liturgy and brake them to pieces and forced away the Ministers and those Members that were in the first forming and setling of that Church Afterward they that remained and received the Liturgy continued not long in unity but in a short time an incurable and scandalous Schism brake out between the Pastor and almost the whole Congregation Lastly There is a great mistake in the main business of the Narrative in representing things as setled by the Church of England in the beginning of the Queen's Reign to please each Party in the abolishing of some and the retaining of other Ceremonies Whereas at the reviving the Reformation at that time the Ceremonies then abolished were offensive to all Protestants and nothing appears to be done in favour of the Anticeremonial Party about the points in difference But things were carried to a greater height against their Way than in King Edward's time whose Reformation was thought to incline more to that which was afterwards called Puritanism For which cause the Historian before mentioned hath written That that King being ill principled his Death was no infelicity to the Church of England The truth of the matter is That in the first Times of the Queen whose Reign was to be sounded in the Protestant Religion the Wisdom of the State intended chiefly the bringing over of the whole Body of the People and to settle them in that Profession and therefore thought fit to make no more alteration from their old Forms then was necessary to be made Care was taken that no part of the Liturgy might be offensive to the Papists and they accordingly resorted to our Divine Service for the first Ten years Also the retaining of the Ceremonies was a matter of condescention to the Popish Party the State thereby testifying how far they would stoop to gain them by yeelding as far as they might in their own Way Now long Experience hath shewed That what was done with respect to the Peace of former Times and reconciling of Papists to Protestants is become an occasion of dividing Protestants from one another without hope of converting Papists SECT XIV The alledged Reasons why the Ceremonies are not to be taken away Examined DIvers Reasons are alledged to prove a continued necessity for these Ceremonies as Because they that are for the Church are unwilling to have them taken away To revoke them is to comply with those that will never be satisfied Imputations have been laid upon the Things injoyned as Antichristian Idolatrous Superstitious A Warr was undertook to remove them And it is a reproach to the Church whose Foundation is upon the Truth to be various Hereunto we make answer Whosoever delight in the use of the Ceremonies may enjoy their liberty but let it suffice them to use it without laying a stumbling-block before others or intangling their Consciences or hindring all of a contrary Perswasion from the Ministry from teaching School yea and from taking any Academical Degree With what soberness can it be said the Dissenters will never be satisfied when hitherto they were never tryed with any Relaxation or Indulgence although they have given evident proofs of their unfeigned desires of Accommodation They do indeed esteem the Ceremonies an excess in the Worship of God but suppose that some have been immoderate in disparaging those Rituals on the other hand shall their value be so inhansed as to be thought more worth then the Church's Unity and the exercise of mutual Charity among its Members May not the Church salve her Honour by declaring That in remitting these Injunctions she meerly yeelds to the infirmity of weak Consciences As St. Paul declared concerning abstaining from meats who had as much power to make a Canon as any sort or number of Ecclesiastical persons can now pretend unto As concerning the late Warr it is easier said then proved That it was undertaken to remove the Ceremonies and it was not so declared by those that managed it But if it were so indeed as it is here suggested let this Argument be well weighed A dreadful Warr that had a dismal issue was undertaken to remove certain Ceremonies that at the best are but indifferent therefore let them never be removed but still inforced to the uttermost upon Consciences that disallow them As for the reproach of the Church by the appearance of being various we conceive the controverted Ceremonies are no Foundation of the Church of England nor any substantial part of her Religion and do therefore hope that some Indulgence therein will not fix upon her any brand of Inconstancy It is objected That the Popish Priests would hereby take advantage It seems then that greater care must be taken that the Papists who are implacable Adversaries be not offended then that many thousand honestly minded Protestants should be relieved But the strangest Reason comes up last Dissentions about things indifferent have necessitated the Church to make these Injunctions That is say the things are but indifferent yet great dissentions have risen about them and are like to continue without end therefore the Church hath been necessitated to impose them with great severity upon multitudes who esteem them unlawful and all for this end That dissentions may be removed We are astonished at this Argument from the Pen of a Learned man The truth is these alledged Reasons have more of Animosity in them then of Equity Charity or good Advice Indeed the Apostle saith Mark those that cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine that ye have received but he doth not so brand those that scruple unwritten Traditions and needless Ceremonies but adhere to the intire Doctrine of Christ and all Divine Institutions SECT XV. Of the diversity of Opinion and Practice already permitted in the Church of England THE Moderation of the Church of England in the Articles of Predestination Divine Grace and Free-will being urged against the rigorous imposition of the controverted Orders and Ceremonies this Answer is made That the case is not the same for that those points are so full of difficulty that they and questions of