ye are mad and if the same or a like advantage may and will be taken from the indiscretion of every extempore Pretender there is the same reason why he should lay by his pretences and give way to a sound and sober Form of words The truth is a premeditated and an extempore Prayer have each of them their inconveniences the latter cannot be without them and the first if it be not done by a man of some judgment and experience he does usually endeavour onely to shew his parts as if his design were to recommend himself to the good opinion of God Almighty for a man of Eloquence and Wit the premeditated man does oftentimes talk so fulsomely as if his design were to cajole and cokes the great God of Heaven and Earth while the man of gifts and graces as he thinks himself does by ridiculous or rash expressions by mimical gestures and affected alterations of his voice by speaking sometimes so high as if he would prevail with him by clamor and sometimes so low as if he had a secret to communicate to his Maker openly affront and abuse him to his face and in the face of a numerous Assembly But both these Inconveniences are happily avoided by the wise provision which the Church has made If then the use of Forms of Prayer in the publick Assemblies of Christians be not onely lawfull in it self and justified by the practice of all ages before the Reformation but also manifestly tending to Edification and freed from very many and very great inconveniences to which extempore Addresses are exposed and therefore necessary to be allow'd And if though Forms of Prayer be necessary in the general yet this or that particular Form be not otherwise the Liturgy of all Churches and all Ages must be exactly the same Lastly If no Formulary of Divine Service can be introduced into the common use and practice of the Church but by the publick Sanction whether sacred or civil or both then we have here a plain instance of a lawfull humane Imposition in indifferent matters for though a Form of Prayer be necessary yet this or that Form is not from whence it follows beyond all possibility of contradiction that an humane Imposition in indifferent matters or a Determination of those indifferent things by the authority of men to one part of the indifference is not in it self unlawfull and whatsoever may be lawfully commanded is of necessity to be obey'd unless we will renounce all obedience whatsoever However thus much will certainly be granted by the most avow'd Assertors of the Separation that we have every one of us a right and power of determining our selves in those indifferent matters for otherwise the nature of their indifference is destroy'd and yet if thus much be but allow'd they will find themselves driven to an absolute necessity either to contradict themseves and to affirm contradictions in a breath to say that the same things are and are not indifferent at the same time or else they must bid adiew to their beloved Cause and give submission to the Authority of the Church For whatever natural Liberty men have in themselves when once they become members of a Society they are supposed to give it up to the legislative or governing power of that Society so far as is necessary to the peace and quiet of it for otherwise a Society and no Society would be exactly the same that is every man would still remain his own Master and at liberty to doe as much as ever he could before For example in that which Mr. Hobbs is pleased to call the State of Nature when a man is not a member of a Body politick but a distinct and perfectly independent person by himself he is naturally invested with a right and power of defending his person or his possession by force of Arms he may lawfully revenge his own injuries and he is the onely Judge when he is wronged or injur'd because without all this power he cannot live in the World or continue in that Being which God and Nature have given him But if having listed themselves by mutual covenant and agreement into a Body politick or Commonwealth for the mutual defence and preservation of every particular person and of the whole Society men shall notwithstanding after this assume the same liberty to themselves of personal Revenges and of being their own Judges in controverted cases without referring themselves to the decision of the Law which is the civil Umpire betwixt man and man it is manifest this Society cannot be of long continuance or rather so long as this Liberty is taken it can never be a Society properly so called from whence it follows plainly that it is necessary if men will be members of a Society that they give up this private power into the hands of the publick If therefore the Church be a Society truly and properly so called if it be that mystical Body of which Christ is the Head if the members of this Body cannot be knit and well compacted together without external rules of discipline and order in which the very nature of a Society consists if the publick Orders of the Church and every man's prescribing rules to himself be inconsistent together and if the observing no rule or method at all either in Divine Worship or civil conversation be rather like a man in Bedlam than a Denison of a sober Corporation if charity good-will and love if mutual helpfulness and reciprocal usefulness to one another if peace with God and peace with men and peace within our selves be the great design and business of the Christian life if a man cannot be at peace with God while he is at enmity with his neighbour if a man can neither love nor fear nor know nor worship God aright at the same time when his thoughts are taken up and filled with envy uncharitableness detraction and revenge if no man can be happy in himself when he is displeas'd and angry with other men if the controversies raised about matters confessedly indifferent have been when and where-ever they have happened a perpetual bane and disquiet to the Church if they alwaies heighten mens Passions against and alienate their affections from one another if they are alwaies attended with a disturbance of the publick peace and have de facto proceeded to the utter subversion both of Church and State if all these Animosities and Contensions would immediately cease by a quiet and dutifull submission to the Authority of the Church if by giving up this Power the Church as a Body politick or Society of men is actually dissolved a Society or Aggregate of several persons being no otherwise one than as they submit to the same Laws and are governed by the same external Rules of discipline and obedience if Place and Time notwithstanding they be indifferent in themselves as to this or that particular determination yet is it necessary in the general that they should be determined otherwise
us to be our Masters and Frogs were heard croaking in the Chambers of our Kings then you your selves will answer for me It was the tender Conscience dissolved into rebellious Pretences that carryed Order and Government before it and overflow'd all things with a resistless Stream it was a Cry against Discipline and Ceremonies and humane Institutions it was a Clamor for Liberty against Will-worship and the Ordinances of men it was a Spirit of Sedition a Thirst after Innovation an insatiable Humour of being dissatisfied with all the wholesome Establishments of Unity and Peace it was an Itch of new-modelling both Church and State it was a Pharisaical Pretence to farther Improvements of Purity and Holiness it was Discontent and Jealousie and godly Fear lin'd with Hypocrisie and Dissimulation that reduced our Beauty and Order into Ashes that laid the magnificent and comely Fabricks of the British Church and Empire the Amazement of themselves and the Envy of their neighbours equal with the ground and instead of one firm and well-compacted Building rais'd paper Tenements of crumbling Sects and Factions which instead of being able to support themselves betray'd us in a manner into that Security which we now enjoy While we forgetfull of those Miseries under which our Fathers and our selves have groan'd unthankfull for those Blessings which under the shade and protection of a wise and happy Government we receive ungratefull to Almighty God who out of that Chaos of Confusion has rear'd this new world of Establishment and Order displeas'd with the fatness of the Olive and the sweetness of the Figg-tree and quarrelling with the friendly and sociable Vine that cheareth God and Man are calling again for the Bramble to reign over us and for the Thornes and Briars to protect us or like the Israelites in the Wilderness surfeited with Miracles with Manna and with Quailes with the dew of Heaven and with the fatness of the Earth with liberty and ease and plenty we are looking back for Slavery from our old Taskmasters in the Land of Ham and longing for the Garlick and the Onyons of Egypt But because an instance taken from our late Confusions may but exasperate whenit should convince Let us avoid the mention of that Crying Guilt for which this Land of our Nativity has wept in tears of Bloud and should for ever mourn in Sack-cloth and humble her self before the Lord in Ashes and let us trace the footsteps of Antiquity and search the Records of the more innocent and early Ages What was the reason in the Mosaick Dispensation why all the external niceties of divine Worship in their Feasts and in their Sacrifices and in their Lustrations were so carefully adjusted by the particular designation and appointment of God himself It is true indeed that most of those Ceremonies were of a symbolicall nature and were designed to shadow out unto the Jewes either that purity simplicity and innocence of mind which God expects from all his worshippers and servants or else they were figurative and emblematicall Representations of the life and death and sufferings of the Messias and of that more perfect Dispensation which was to be introduced into the World by him But yet notwithstanding it must not be deny'd that there are many Ceremonies to be found in the Law of Moses which being equally commanded by God himself were of equall obligation as to their performance with any of the rest of which no such Typicall account can be given And therefore the reason of their Institution can only be this That since every thing must of necessity be done with some Ceremony in some Place or Time or Order or Gesture or Manner and Circumstance or other it pleased God for the avoiding of Confusion and for the preservation of an uniform and orderly way of Worship which would otherwise be exposed to perpetual change disturbance and alteration to adjust and determine the particular circumstances of those indifferent matters because considering the perverseness of some mens minds and the diversity of their several fancies and humours such changes and alterations could never happen without a considerable breach of Charity and Friendship among men which must needs be a wonderfull Obstruction as well to the interest of the Civil State as to all the religious Performances and Duties both as to their devotion in themselves and as to their acceptance with Almighty God If therefore the nature of Mankind be still the same under the Gospel that it was under the Law if the reasons for the necessity of Uniformity be the same now that ever they were in former ages if the method of this Uniformity be not adjusted by God himself under the Gospel as it was under the Law and if this Uniformity cannot be obtained unless the Church be invested with a right and power of prescribing the terms of it than it follows plainly as hath been already observed that the Church must be invested with such a power because else it would want the necessary means of its own unity and preservation which every Society must be supposed by the Laws of nature and reason to be invested with and if the Church be invested with such a power then all its Members are under an indispensable obligation to obey it because that Power which may be lawfully disobey'd is no Power at all And this is sufficient to vindicate the exercise of Ecclesiastical Censures And if you demand further Whether it be lawfull for the civil Sanction to interpose in behalf of the Church to see that its Orders and Injunctions be duly and faithfully executed and obey'd I answer that it is for this plain reason because the Civil Power has a right of exacting all kinds of lawfull Obedience from its subjects and this obedience if it were not Lawfull could not be enjoyned by the Church it self But besides the express provisions of the Law of Moses it self there were also several pretended traditions of Moses from Mount Sinai there were likewise the determinations of their Wise men in controverted cases the Decisions of the Tannaim and the Amoraim and of the Schools of Hillel and of Schammai the two so much celebrated but disagreeing Founders of the Pharisaick Order For which Traditions and Determinations of their famous Masters the Jewes had usually as great if not greater Veneration than for the Law it self and they were at length swell'd into so vast a bulk that like the Missals and the Rituals of the Romish Church at this day which are so full of Ceremonies burthensom in their number frivolous and superstitious in their use they ate out the very life and heart of true Religion as our Saviour himself in several places of his Gospel with no less Justice than severity complains The Heathen World had also their Sacred Offices prescribed by a certain Form as well before as under the Law And the same is the case with the Mahometan and Pagan Idolaters at this day which Ceremonies of theirs though for their
there can be no publick Worship of God lastly when men are met together in a religious Assembly if every man shall follow his own particular fancie if almost every single person shall be seen in a different posture and if this be more like to make men look upon one another than to attend to the Minister or to mind themselves if it be more like to excite laughter than devotion if it be a natural obstruction to the solemnity and seriousness of religious Worship if done by chance it be a sign of too great negligence and remisness and if done on set purpose it be a sign of conceitedness and spiritual pride while every man prefers his own way and despises that of another if it be a ground of censure and may be a cause of uncharitableness and by degrees of separation then is it plain upon all these accounts which I have mentioned because it would be better if it were so and because it is necessary that it should be so because the Church can neither preserve it self in reputation nor so much as in being because it is for its undoubted and its perpetual interest and because it is necessary to its preservation that it should be invested with an Authority of adjusting the most indifferent circumstances of Divine Worship without which the blessed ends of Unity and Peace can never be obtained I say it is plain from all this that the Church is actually invested with this Power and that Ecclesiastical Constitutions may for the same reason determine indifferent matters for which the Civil forbid Adultery and Murther namely because it is necessary to the publick Peace which reason if it be not sufficient the Civil Laws do all of them become immediately null and void as being founded upon no other basis but the consideration of the publick good but if it be a solid and substantial reason I would fain know if any of the Dissenters be at leisure to inform me why it may not equally extend to defend the necessity and consequently justice of Ecclesiastical whether Laws or Censures Especially if we consider that as the case of the Christian world now stands the same persons with the same interests prejudices and passions are members both of the Civil and Ecclesiastical State so that it is as impossible there should be a disturbance in the one in which the other shall be unconcerned as that the same man should be divided from himself and it is every whit as clear that either it is not lawfull to use all necessary means for the preservation of the Civil Peace or it is lawfull for the Church to concern her self in the determination of indifferent matters which Determinations and Constitutions of hers may be lawfully confirmed and ratified by the State If men could differ without falling-out something might be pretended in behalf of an innocent though unbecoming Liberty but since the greatest feuds and animosities do sometimes take their rise from the smallest beginnings since the religious differences are of all others the greatest and the most fatal to the publick Peace since there is nothing so infinitely scrupulous as an unreasonably tender Conscience and since there is no pretence so inconsiderable from whence either indigent or ambitious men will not take occasions to advance their secular designs under the specious covert of a Concern for Liberty or a Zeal for Religion it behoves those in publick Authority as they tender the reputation of their own wisedom and justice or the quiet of the World to cut off all occasions of disturbance by seeing that all things be done decently and in order which rule of the Apostle's is founded upon the same reason upon which all Laws whether humane or divine are founded and from whence alone they can and do receive their obligation namely the common Interest of mankind and the particular Happiness of private persons it depends upon the same reason and the same necessity for which Injustice and Robbery are forbidden or upon which Industry Sobriety and usefull Arts are encouraged which is nothing else but the consideration of the publick Good which if it be as plainly concerned in this as in any other case this is sufficient to defend the Authority of the Church and to make its Sanctions in indifferent matters so long as they are steered by principles of undoubted Interest to be of perpetual force and obligation Those actions are properly said to be indifferent which may either be done or let alone without inconvenience or advantage to the publick or to the interest of any private person but if any prejudice or advantage will accrue then there is a plain reason why they should be done or omitted and consequently they cease to be indifferent and become necessary in proportion to the weight of those reasons upon which their performance or omission is founded So for example we will suppose it for the present indifferent in what posture we say our Prayers in a publick Congregation yet if we say them at all thus much is of absolute necessity that we say them in some posture or other but now if the Civil or Ecclesiastical Magistrate for the avoiding of Confusion and for the preventing of those Piques and Animosities which frequently happen among men about things of little or no value in themselves especially when Religion is concerned shall ordain that all men shall say their Prayers in one and the same posture and shall determine and assign what that particular posture shall be then here is a reason of Interest for the good of the World and for the quiet of that Society of which we are members why this posture should be used rather than any other and consequently this posture though indifferent before does now derive a necessity from that reason of State and interest upon which it's imposition is founded To be sure men of common sense and understanding if they have but common honesty joyned together with it will take their measures of obligation as to the lawfulness or unlawfulness of what is commanded from it's design and tendency to promote or obstruct the interest of the Publique and the happiness of particular Persons and if either the pretended or the real Scruples of any might be sufficient to stop the course of Law against the common interest there could be no such thing as Order or Government in the World There are many Laws enacted by the sublime Wisdome of the King and his three Estates in Parliament assembled which though they be for the interest of the whole Kingdome all things considered yet they manifestly tend to the Prejudice of particular persons but yet those very persons are as much obliged by these Laws as they who reap the benefit and advantage of them because the obligation of these Laws is to be taken from the fundamentall Constitution of all Societies that a greater Interest be preferred before a less and that when the publique advantage shall interfere with a
private the private must give place because otherwise the Society cannot be preserved how much more strictly therefore are we obliged by those Laws whose design and tendency being nothing else but to keep us all at unity and peace together are so plainly for the advantage of the Publique and of every particular Person And if notwithstanding the manifest Conducibleness of such an Uniform way of Worship to the publique Peace and the experience of those sad Effects which our Religious Differences have produced every private man shall yet after this take upon him to Judge of the Reasonableness or Expedience of what is Enacted by his Superiours and shall from thence proceed upon I know not what Pretences ridiculous in themselves and destructive of the publique Wellfare to withdraw his Obedience to their just Commands he may as well take upon him an infinite and boundless liberty of questioning the Reasonableness and Equity of all Laws whatsoever and either upon the same or more warrantable Exceptions for the expedience of no Law can be more evident than of that which enjoyns Uniformity in Divine Worship he may withdraw his Obedience from all kind of Government and Subjection whatsoever But here it is Objected That if there were nothing but the Civil Interest or the Interest of this World to be considered the experience of all Ages and Nations will sufficiently demonstrate that an Uniformity in Religious matters is the best Expedient that can be thought of to secure the publique Peace But alass we carry souls and Consciences about us and these are precious things there is an immortal Interest lyes at stake which it would be great folly and madness to part with upon any temporal consideration But to this I answer first in the general That the main design of Christianity being to promote Peace and Charity in this world as well as to procure us Eternal peace and happiness in the next and indeed the one in order to the other it follows plainly that Uniformity in Religious Worship as being a necessary means to Peace is in the general of Divine Institution though what the particular terms of that Uniformity shall be the Scripture has no where prescribed as in truth it could not do for a reason which I shall shew hereafter it remains therefore that the Church it self be in all Ages furnisht with a right and power of prescribing what those terms shall be and that all her members are obliged to a necessary Observance of them But here because I have made so frequent mention of the Church that I may avoid Ambiguity and leave as little room as may be for Exception before I go any further I will explain what I mean by that term and without descending to too much nicety the Church is one of these three things First it is the congregation of Christian People dispersed over the whole earth and agreeing together in the fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith which are either expresly or by direct and lawfull consequence revealed in the Scriptures of the New Testament to be of necessity to Salvation And in this sense it is not only unnecessary that there should be every where the same Rites and Ceremonies observed in the Church but it is in the nature of the thing impossible that there should because of necessity the several manners customes and other circumstances of several Nations will introduce a diversity of external Formalitie into Religious Worship which may be done without any breach of Charity or Friendship among men because there is no interest to be served by promoting Feuds and Animosities between them and it will be all one to the peace and happiness of this Kingdome what rites or usages soever the Greek or Armenian Churches shall embrace We do not much trouble our heads though by reason of their near Neighbourhood we have some reason to do it about the French saying Mass or adoring Reliques or Images or praying for Dead or worshipping the Host Nay you shall hardly ever see a man in a passion when he hears the Tragicall stories of those horrible persecutions against the professours of the Reformed Religion but though he may relieve and pity them so far as a small temporary Contribution will go yet in truth and reality he is not much concerned whereas at home we can make a shift to fall out about much smaller matters the reason is because we are not embarked in the same bottom with them and so being able to do neither good nor hurt by being angry or displeas'd we scarce ever trouble our selves But at home the pretences of Religion and Liberty which are always stirring when ever there is any prospect of publique Disorders likely to ensue upon them will never fail to excite the ambitious the discontented and the needy to embroyle the State out of principles either of Interest or Revenge while the passions of men that dayly converse together and are engaged by interest or prejudice or duty in the respective parties do but serve to blow the cole and improve the sparks of Animosity into a flame of War The consequence of all which is That there may be differences in the universal Church consisting of many Kingdomes and Provinces without dissention and that all that whatever it is which is requisite to the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace may be consistent enough with differences in smaller matters but that in the same Kingdome or Dominion this can never be But secondly By the Church we may understand a National Congregation of Christian People divided into many partitions or particular assemblies united together by an unity of Faith and Discipline and Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction and this is that which I affirm to be necessary in every Kingdome or State that would avoid all occasions of publique Tumults and Disorders and would be as happy either as themselves can wish or as Christianity designs to make them And therefore this is that unity which is by every Good Christian good Citizen or good Subject above all things which this world can afford the most earnestly to be desired for the obtaining of which he is to submit to every thing that shall be required of him and he is to abstain from every thing which is forbidden him if all things considered it may lawfully be done or avoided Thirdly In compliance with those of the Congregationall way I am content to allow a third sense of the word Church to be a particular and independent Congregation governed by Laws and measures of its own and acknowledging no Jurisdiction Forreign to it self and this is a Form of Church Government which in a Christian Kingdome or Common-wealth I affirm to be naturally unlawfull And here there are two cases to be considered First Either the whole body of the People is divided into such particular and independent Congregations or there is a nationall Establishment from which these particular Congregations have separated themselves The first of these is Babel
in Effigie the very Emblem and Landskip of Confusion subject to inconveniences that cannot be thought of till they are felt and capable of such infinite sub-divisions as will at length reduce the comely Form of Government by so many particular interests and factions into a State of publick Hostility and Rapine for the reason why men separate from one another is always out of some reall or some pretended dislike which dislikes by actuall separation are so far from being composed that they are manifestly improved and heightned by it and from hence arise so many several Interests as there are Sects or denominations of Parties in a Common-wealth For it is natural to all men to desire to gain Proselytes to their own Opinion for men to love themselves and those of their own way and to think of other men who are not enroll'd in the same list with themselves if not with a reall hatred yet with a less esteem and a comparative Aversation which whenever a Ball of Interest is thrown between them will be improved into all the sad effects of the most desperate Malice and Revenge But here to make all sure as I go along I must repeat again That by Independent Congregations I mean such as own no Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction externall to themselves from whence it is easie to perceive that every such Congregation may be a new Sect and Party by it self as it was in a manner in the late Times when the Sects were spawned in such incredible abundance that the Alphabet began to complain of want of Letters to furnish so many different and disagreeing Parties with names Neither is it to be supposed that so many several Factions notwithstanding their differences in matters of Religion shall yet conspire in an uniform Obedience to the Civil Power because to be uppermost is that which they all desire and since the very same persons are members of the Commonwealth and of a particular Sect or Party it is ridiculous to hope that the State can ever be quiet till all these parties can agree together to be of the same mind which is to make them cease to be what they are In the United Provinces where the greatest Liberty is given and taken of any other Territory in the Christian World the peace of the publick could not be secured if it were not for the Overballance of the Calvinisticall Party above the rest for the Calvinists as Sir William Temple in his Observations upon the United Provinces takes notice p. 204. make up the body of the People and are possessed of all the publick Churches in the Dominions of the State as well as of the onely Ministers or Pastours who are maintained by the publick who have no other Salaries than what they receive from the State upon whom they wholly depend and for that reason they will be sure to preach obedience and submission to the People But yet notwithstanding this so great has the power and interest of the Louvestane or Arminian Party alwaies been that it has been the occasion of great revolutions among them and as it was probably one of the main causes of their so sudden fall from the height of envy into the lowest region of pity and despair within the compass of a very few years so it is to be feared that in not many more the animosities between a Calvinist and whoever differs from him being irreconcileable and everlasting it will prove the ruin of that once powerfull but now declining State Neither was there any thing in the late unhappy times next to the Title of an incomparable Prince to whom the Sceptre of these Kingdoms did of right belong and the Affections of a loyal Party which all the republican Cruelties were not able to extinguish that contributed so much to put a period to the Usurpation which was never establish'd upon any certain bottom as the bandying of the several Factions against one another which made it both necessary for the Usurpers to support their power by the Sword and that Sword it self not being all of it of the same metal and the Army that was to wield it being it self canton'd into Sects and Factions they began at length not to understand one anothers language but were forced to leave working any longer and to desist from building that Babel of Religion cemented with bloud instead of mortar which is inconsistent with the quiet of the Earth and by which men in vain expect to climbe to Heaven It is a prodigious thing for a man to consider what irreconcileable feuds the smallest differences in Religion have created and still the smaller those differences are the higher usually are those animosities that are produced by them as if it were the nature and genius of mankind to make up in passion what they want in reason as the Turks and Persians though agreeing in all other parts of the Mahometan Superstition yet about a very small Punctilio they are at mortal jars with one another and being so near neighbours as they are they never want an opportunity of expressing their resentments by the frequent and bloudy Wars betwixt those two formidable Empires The Calvinists pursue the Lutherans and Arminians who on their own parts are not wanting to retaliate the kindness with every whit as great if not greater hatred than those who do toto coelo errare the Popish I mean the Mahometan and the Pagan World nay so apt are men to fall out with one another that the most inconsiderable niceties of difference that can be conceived when they are used as marks of distinction when men shall obstinately persist in such discriminations and when they shall place an opinion or affectation in them will produce in them a dislike and aversation for one another and let the difference be never so small yet it will alwaies be true to the World's end that Birds of a feather will flock together so many distinctions as there are bating those distinctions which Trade and Functions and the Necessities of humane life have made for the mutual support and maintenance of each other so many several Parties and Factions you shall have in that Common-wealth or Kingdom where those distinctions are found Though in this case it will alwaies happen that the smaller Fishes will associate and unite together against the Leviathan or prevailing Party that overballances the rest but when that King of the Waters is destroy'd they will then begin to prey upon one another and contend which of them shall ingross the Dominion of the Seas which is the case of all the Republican Factions against the Church of England at this day though as well reason as former sad experience may instruct us when they have obtained their end if ever they do obtain it which God forbid what miserable work they will make of it among themselves It is to be confess'd indeed that there are abroad very great heats and contentions to be found which are not of such dangerous consequence to
dare be confident in very many instances that the blind lead the blind and that they are not sensible of those dismal inconveniences to which their Separation is naturally exposed but in what I have just now said I chiefly reflect upon the sad experience of former times which is sufficient to convince us what the genuine tendencie of these new models is and I do no more question that the same causes if suffered to operate with the same freedom will have the same effect than I do whether humane nature and humane passions be the same now that they were twenty or thirty years ago which Consideration if all well-meaning but misguided Christians would seriously lay to heart I cannot doubt but it would soon have a very wonderfull effect upon the Peace and Settlement of these distracted Kingdoms by persuading all that heartily wish the Prosperity of Sion and pray for the Peace of this our spiritual Jerusalem to leave their separate Assemblies and betake themselves into the bosom of the Church which cannot behold so much goodness and sincerity so miserably misled and gon astray without all the concern that is natural to a distressed forsaken Mother and stands alwaies ready with her arms wide open and with an entreating voice and mind to receive them into her most tender and passionate embraces Some sort of Unity as to external Discipline is necessary to the consistence even of those lesser bodies nay the Quakers themselves who are much the most exorbitant of all Parties to be found among us yet they differ from others and agree with one another in nothing more than in a certain Formality peculiar to themselves And how much more desirable would it be that all Parties laying aside their respective heats and animosities which under such diversity of outward forms they so dangerously foment and carry on against each other should unite together under one common rule in such a blessed band of Peace and Love as would remove all our Jealousies and prevent all our Fears and make every man in the Streets in an unknown Face to meet his Guide his Companion and his own familiar Friend This is my first Answer to the Objection taken from the pretence of a Tender Conscience That an Uniformity of one sort or other is of absolute necessity to the peace of the Church which Uniformity since it cannot be obtained unless men could all jump into the same mind of themselves and continue in it when they had done it follows unavoidably that there is and must always be in the Church a standing Authority from whence the Sanctions of Discipline and Order shall receive their obligation I come now to give a more particular Answer to the Objection proposed and in that I shall consider in the general what the terms of this Uniformity must be or rather what kind of terms they are to which all Christian People are obliged to submit It must be granted therefore That though an Uniformity in Religious Worship be that which is above all things in this World the most passionately to be desired yet this being only in order to that great End to which all our endeavours and counsels ought to be directed the Eternal happiness and salvation of our Souls no terms of Uniformity ought to be submitted to which are inconsistent with Salvation And that Church whatever she is let her pretences to Infallibility and Truth be never so great which imposes those either Opinions or Practices as the terms of Communion which are directly contrary to the word of God or to the light of Nature and the impartial dictates of right Reason is by no means to be communicated with any longer but we must immediately come out from Her and separate in our own defence lest we be made partakers of Her sins and of Her plagues and in this case it is she who is guilty of the Schism by necessitating a Separation not we who separate when we cannot avoid it As to matter of Doctrine I presume there is no man who calls himself a Protestant of what Denomination or Party soever he be who will charge our Church with any damnable Errour but on the contrary there are many of our Dissenting Brethren who when they are tax'd with the unpleasant imputation of propagating very absurd and very unreasonable Opinions are used to take Sanctuary in the Articles of the Church of England of whose Authority as to some points they will pretend themselves to be the only Assertors with what Justice I think I have in part discovered in some other Papers As to Ceremonies there are three Restrictions chiefly to be considered which if they be all carefully observed in the discipline of any Church there is no manner of pretence or ground for Separation upon a Ceremonial account and those three Restrictions are these which follow First They must not be too cumbersome and heavy by their number Secondly They must not be Superstitious in their use Thirdly They must not be Idolatrous in their direction First They must not be too cumbersome and heavy by their number for this is that which eats out the very heart and root of Religion and takes it off from being a Devotional exercise of the mind by turning it into outward Pomp and Show which can neither make us better men for the future nor appease the wrath of God or apply to us the merit and satisfaction of Christ for what is past This was that of which St. Austin in his time complained but yet he did not think it Lawfull to make any breach or disturbance in the Church upon this account but rather to take this occasion for the exercise of those two excellent vertues of Patience and Humility and expect the good time when this burthen should be remov'd by the same regular Authoriy that had impos'd it This was the case of the Mosaick Bondage especially as that Bondage was afterwards increased by the Pharisaical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by the traditionary Rites and Usages of the Jewish Church and this is at this day and was at the time of the Reformation and for many Ages before the case of the Roman Yoak from which the Wisdome and Piety of our Ancestours has with no less Justice than Necessity freed us and plac'd us in that state of Christian Liberty which does not consist of such an exemption from all Ceremonies as some men seem to desire which is absurd and impossible in the nature of the thing it self but in the choice of such as are best fitted to the ends for which all Ceremonies ought to be designed and have the greatest tendency to Edification There were other causes upon account of the Ceremonies imposed by the Church of Rome which might be sufficient to justify a Separation of which I shall speak in the two following Heads And though a National or Provincial Church have a Right and Power within it self of retrenching the superfluities of the Ceremonial part of their Divine
Lord the same was the first Altar that he built unto the Lord. Now the reason of that Command of his of rouling a Stone to the place where the Beasts were to be killed was this That they were to be laid athwart it with their Necks hanging down that so the blood might flow with the greater freedom out of the Orifice which was made and might fall upon the ground without defiling the Bodies of the Animals themselves as I have already taken notice in another Discourse upon a very different Occasion from this and in another Language The Jews continue Obstinate to this day in a Religious abstinence from Blood notwithstanding their Temple be demolished and they do not so much as pretend to any thing of Sacrifice till it be rebuilt and I know a Learned Jew with whom I had for some years a particular acquaintance who was so scrupulous in this point that he would never eat any kind of Flesh which he had not killed himself But before I pass any further I will take notice of one cause of Saint Paul's Condescention as to the business of Abstinence from Blood which I did not think of before And that is That besides what I have said of its Levitical Pollution which it seems they that were the Patrons of this Opinion did not apprehend to be abolished by the fulfilling of all those legall Sacrifices in and by the Sacrifice of Christ they considered further that God having appropriated the Blood to himself which Property and Right of his they did not conceive him ever to have relinquisht they looked upon it as a kind of Sacrilege to seed upon Blood and therefore abstained from it upon the same Pious principle upon which they would have abstained from Robbing of Hospitals or Colleges or from Pilfering the Ornaments of Churches and seizing the Revenues of the Ecclesiastical State a sort of Piety so necessary to the honour of God and to the prosperity and happiness of the Church that it ought by no means to be discouraged though in a mistaken Instance much more if Saint Paul himself foresaw which we cannot tell but he might that Sacrilegious humour of the Saints which our times have experienced when the Church was swallowed up at one Morsel and the Kingdome at another when all that was Sacred and Devoted to the service of Almighty God was converted to profane uses by Thieves and Robbers in the disguise of Saints with as little reason as that for which Dionysius of Syracuse divested Apollo of his Golden Ornaments upon Pretence that they were too heavy and too hot for Summer and that in Winter they would not keep him warm We see therefore that it was not a bare Infirmity without any colour or pretext of Reason that was dispensed with in these cases for such Dispensations if they be once allowed there can be no end but Confusion and the utter Subversion of all manner of Government and Order We see upon what reasons and prejudices these Scruples were founded and how necessary it was at that time to Comply with them We see likewise that they were not matters of small Weight and Moment they were not things looked upon on both sides to be of an indifferent nature they were not Controversiae de Nugis Siculis Gerris Germanis de foliis Farfari aut Naevii Butubatis de umbrâ Asini aut de lanâ Caprinâ they were not matters of meer Ceremony and Show matters of External Discipline and Form that exercised the tenderness and infirmity of those times Those Babes in Christ that were but newly initiated into the Christian Faith and had as yet tasted only the sincere milk of the Word without adventuring upon stronger meats were yet better fed and better taught than to quarrel about Indifferent Matters or to Controul their Governours in things of Publique Decency and Order But the instances of their Scrupulosity were founded in such things as they looked upon to be in themselves Offences of the highest nature against the express Commands of God against the honour of his Name against the entire and incommunicable respect which is due from all Creatures both in Heaven and Earth to his Adorable Majesty and Greatness and against the indispensable duties of natural Reason and Religion in which though they were never so much mistaken yet these were Scruples not of small Concernment but of the highest Consequence and Importance and St. Paul did therefore comply with the Infirmity and with the mistakes of those Good Men not barely to gratify a squeemish Fancy which is out of love with things for no reason and without any end but lest by opposing Prejudices so deeply rooted in matters of so extraordinary a nature as these were they might be tempted to an Apostacy from the Christian Faith which did impose burthens upon them which their Consciences not being yet sufficiently informed of the true extent of that liberty which Christ had purchas'd for them could not possibly bear for this reason it was Saint Paul's rule to become all things to all men that he might save the more and he despensed with them in some cases out of meer necessity that his Brother for whom Christ dyed might not be destroyed by Relapsing to Judaism on the one hand or Idolatry on the other As our Learned Mr. Thorndike and out of him the Accurate and Industrious Doctor Falkner have observed And this latter case of Idolatry was therefore the more tenderly to be regarded because the Authour to the Hebrews speaking of this very business tells us c. 6. v. 4 5 6. It is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly Gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the World to come if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance seeing they Crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame And St. John in his first Epistle c. 5. v. 16. tells us there is a sin unto death I do not say that he that is our Brother shall pray for it that is there is great danger that his Prayers will never be heard in behalf of such a person and what that Sin is he afterwards explains v. 21. Little Children keep your selves from Idols And this is likewise very suitable to the practice of the Church in the Primitive times who upon any such Relapse to Idolatry were not used to receive the Apostate though giving all imaginable demonstrations of Repentance into the bosom of that Church which he had forsaken by Sacramental Absolution sometimes at the very instant of Death and sometimes not till then as is manifest from the case of Serapio and others However since Peace is the thing above all others the most to be prized and valued and with the greatest passion and earnestness to be desired since no kind of discipline or external Form is any further
necessary or so much as lawful than it shall be found to Contribute to this blessed end since Rites and Ceremonies establisht in the Church are in themselves of a changeable nature and since our Church her self hath openly and expresly declar'd that she is no longer desirous to retain all or any of them than they shall be found expedient for Edification I should not be against closing with any Proposition let it be almost what it will by which a lasting Peace and Settlement might be obtained And because I think there are but three ways to be thought of in order to this end The first of which is a Toleration of those that differ from us in their several differences and distinctions The second an Alteration of those Customs and Usages which are excepted against for others in their stead And the third an Abatement or Abolition of those Ceremonies which are scrupled without any Reparation by the Substitution of others in their room Therefore I shall speak very briefly to each of these particulars And first A Toleration as it is commonly understood is a Liberty from the Government for every man to say and do as he pleases in Religious matters for Conscience sake or upon account of a tender Conscience which cannot submit it self to the publique Rule and such a Toleration as this is I affirm to be directly and positively unlawfull because it cuts the sinews of Government in pieces and lets the Rains loose to all manner of misrule and disorder For the truth of which I need only appeal to the Experience of former times when by such an unbounded Toleration the Kingdome was put into such a floating and uncertain Posture that we had almost as many alterations in Government as there were Sects and Parties that were to obey The Presbyterians when time was having shaken off the Episcopal Yoak as they were pleased if not to think yet at least to pretend it to be were as much for Uniformity as other men and urged the very same Arguments with great Judgment and Reason against the Independency which may now with irresistable Force be retorted upon themselves as the Most Reverend and Incomparably Learned the Excellent Dean of Saint Pauls a singular Ornament and strong Support of the English Church and State against their Enemies of both kinds hath very Wisely and like himself Observed Nay to what excess of Riot a Toleration in its utmost Latitude will proceed the extravagancies either in Opinion or Practice or both of the Antinomians the Seekers the Quakers the Ranters the Sweet-Singers and the Family of Love are a sufficient witness most of whose Opinions as they proceed only from Ignorance or Melancholy or a worse cause a Life ill spent or a desire to spend it amiss for the future so the Debaucheries and the Obscenities of some of these Sects which I have named under a pretence of I know not what Liberty are so great and so horrid that I should not have believed it if I had received it from any other information than that of some who pretended with abundance of asseveration and in a Company not easily to be imposed upon to speak their own certain knowledge and who I have great reason to believe would not goe about to deceive either me or any other man whatsoever Or if it be thought too grating to reflect with so great and which is still worse so just and so deserved a Severity upon the Miscarriages of our own Age upon Religious Pretences you may then consult the Annals of Antiquity and then Epiphanius and Irenaeus will tell you if you consult them that there was no Crime so horrid nor any unnatural Beastliness so detestable to humane Nature not yet corrupted and depraved by vitious habits which the Gnosticks the Basilidians and the Valentinians did not practise the instances of their execrable turpitude being so horrid and so filthy that I remember when I first read them which I did in the laborious Annals of the most learned Cardinal and Jesuite Caesar Baronius I could not believe he had quoted his Authours aright and when upon a more narrow search into the business I found he had not deceived me I was amazed and could scarce believe my own eyes and to this day am very loth to believe for the respect I bear to Mankind that they are true But if such Exorbitances in our Age or any other be the effects of Liberty whether tolerated by others or assumed upon what Pretences soever to our selves then certainly since humane Nature is alwaies the same and being allow'd the same scope will alwaies be guilty of the same or like Enormities which by the prevalence of bad example and by the addition of impunity to temptation will alwaies increase instead of taking up within a dutifull compass of Sobriety and Moderation such an unbounded Liberty as this ought alwaies by the utmost Severity of publick Justice to be repress'd and punished and restrained Neither must we be so vain to pretend because such Enormities are not now usually practised among those that pretend to an higher degree of Saintship than their Neighbours that therefore they never will for we must not take our measures from the present state of things but we are to consider what would follow upon the Dissolution of the Government to which these separate Congregations have a clear and a natural tendency in themselves and then we will suppose if you please that such Libertines as these if upon such infinite Pretences they do not separate themselves shall be expelled the respective Congregations to which they belong but there being no publick Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction who shall hinder them from associating into a Confederacy with one another to which all that live as if there were no God or have a desire to live as if there were no Government in the World will immediately unite themselves and betake themselves thither for Protection as to a Sanctuary of Liberty and Riot To say that such things will never happen is as much as to say they never did for whatever has been may be again when humane Nature which is alwaies the same shall be joyned to the same unhappy circumstances of Affairs To say that these things though they should happen will never be of any dangerous consequence to the publick because the common Interest of Mankind will alwaies keep a prevailing Party in better order is to set bounds to a bad example and to the corruption of manners which is impossible and besides to proceed upon this presumption without taking that course which is in its own nature the best fitted to prevent any such publick mischief which can onely be done by a regular and orderly Discipline is to lean so much upon humane probabilities and upon our selves that it is an high provocation to Almighty God to withdraw his Grace without which it is impossible for any of us to persevere in a constant and steady course of Vertue But we will
account of his friendship and good nature the Lustfull plead a perpetual inclination as a natural call to enjoyment the Covetous man is desirous of the character of Provident and Frugal and the Ambitious would be thought a man of a lofty and heroique mind but nothing is so great a plea for Libertinism and Licentiousness of all sorts whatsoever as when it is made an Instance of Christian Liberty and a Freedom from the Yoak of Ordinances to which none but Jews and Formalists and the tame Vassals of the dead Letter are subject There is no question to be made but there are very bad People to be found in all Parties let the Pretences to Religion be what they will but it is not my business at present to upbraid any with their sinfull practices so they do not own the Principles from whence those practices proceed But what shall we think of the Gnosticks of old time that made adulterous and incestuous mixtures and promiscuous coitions a part of their Religion or of the Family of Love that doe the same or of the Sweet singers that drink Ale and puff Tobacco to excess in their very religious Assemblies or of the Reformers of this last Age that thought they did God good service by robbing his Church and persecuting his Servants to death and banishment and confiscation of goods or of the received Maxim of those blessed times Dominium fundatur in gratia that is The longest Sword has the best Title or of the Fifth monarchists of England of the incredible Impudence and Villanie of the religious Incendiaries in Scotland of the Zealots among the Jews the exact Patterns of the Zealots of our daies of whom Josephus relates such prodigious Stories of Theudas or Theodosius and his Followers and of Judas of Galilee or Judas Gaulonites and his Accomplices in the Acts of the Apostles all which under several religious Pretences have in time past or doe at present endeavour to set up for themselves and shake off the Yoak of obedience to their lawfull Superiours to their leige Lords and rightfull Masters What sort of People in the World are so arbitrary as these who yet are the loudest Declamours not onely against Arbitrary Power but against all Power but their own The Papists themselves are not more bloudy than they nor any of the persecuting Emperours more powerfully acted and possess'd by a Spirit of bitterness and persecution To conclude Did not the Levellers preach Community of goods according to the primitive example though the reason of that practice be now utterly ceas'd and to reduce the natural state of things when all things lay in common before either Industry or Arts began and what is this but a more religious method of Picking of Pockets and Breaking open Houses and Robbing upon the High-way What was it but a new Invention of those pilfering Saints to give Thieves and Robbers like themselves a right to the glorious Title and Reward of Martyrdom Now if all these Mischiefs and Inconveniences are owing perfectly to separate Congregations and to mens embodying themselves into particular Ecclesiastical Societies distinct from the publick Discipline and Rule if such Opinions and Practices cannot better be promoted than by independent methods nor otherwise or at least better be prevented than by an uniform and regular Discipline of the Church then is it abundantly manifest that such separate Congregations as tending plainly to the disturbance of the World are unlawfull that they may and that they ought to be suppressed and that all the Favourers and Abettors of such unlawfull Assemblies are Promoters Aiders Comforters and Assisters of Rebellion and Disobedience both against God and Man Neither is it at all material in this case that many of those who frequent these separate Assemblies nay to give them their due the infinitely greatest part of them are not conscious to themselves of any such bad Design but they doe it onely out of a religious prejudice which they have conceived against the Establishment of the Church of England and out of an opinion which they have of the greater Sanctity of their Teachers and Purity of those Ordinances of which they are made partakers by their ministration out of a real and an hearty zeal for God although that zeal be not according to knowledge yet we are not to consider so much what it is they design as what the natural tendencie of all Separation is which because by experience it is found to bring so great and so horrid inconveniences and mischiefs upon the World unless it be timely restrained it may and it must of necessity have very bad effects and this is enough to make men guilty of the consequences of their Separation though at first they did not intend them He that commits a fault through want of consideration is not altogether so guilty as he that knowing it to be a fault does yet notwithstanding commit it on set purpose but yet he is guilty in his proportion and degree as well as the other because it was his duty to consider better and still the more easie it is too for a man to inform himself and what is or can be more manifest than the Prejudice arising from mens embodying themselves into particular and independent Societies So much the greater is the guilt arising from the want of due heed and consideration because a very little attention would have served the turne when there is so much reason in the thing and so much experience to improve that reason into all the certainty of demonstration But secondly It will be said That a bare difference in the externals of Religion in matters of meer Discipline and Ceremonie will not produce those bad effects that are pretended and I wish with all my heart that there were as much truth in this Exception as they that make it would have it seem to have but by Experience which is the great Judge in this Controversie to which we must apply our selves for the discovery of the truth the contrary does but too manifestly appear For what is it that has been the true source and fountain of all our publick Calamities that has made so dreadfull and so terrible Convulsions both in Church and State but an over-heated zeal against Ceremonies and publick Order which sort of zeal if it be tolerated the strength and beauty of the Church is lost by every man's pursuing fancies of his own or siding with a new modell of a particular Party instead of joining in the regular and uniform Worship of the publick which is at once an instance of our Obedience to the Divine and Humane Laws and a certain expedient of Unity and Peace with one another but if this zeal instead of being tolerated shall be restrained and opposed then it immediately complains of Persecution and would have its sufferings thought as meritorious for raising unreasonable insatiable and eternal Scruples as if the Cause of Christianity it self were at stake as if it were the
being of a God or the immortality of the Souls of men that were deny'd by us and asserted onely by the Dissenters from the publick Order and Rule So that either way the inconvenience is in a manner equal a Toleration has a manifest tendencie to the subversion of the Government both in Church and State and in that there is no question to be made but it will certainly end when once it has been suffered to have its full scope and swinge and yet a vigorous Prosecution of the Laws against the Disturbers of the Peace is branded with the odious name of Persecution and they that suffer by it for being Incendiaries are termed Saints and because it is natural for a distressed Cause to find a friendship and pity from the common People whether it be reasonable or no Suffering being a very sensible and a very affecting thing when the Causes of those Sufferings are not so plain and obvious to every common understanding especially when blinded by prejudice or concern for the persons of those that suffer from hence it comes to pass that a just and necessary Prosecution of the Laws if it be not managed with abundance of temper and prudence so as it may appear it is not done out of hatred to a Party but out of a real tenderness to the common good may sometimes prove the occasion of great and fatal disorders in a State and may in its consequence be attended with all those confusions to which a boundless Toleration is exposed This was the great reason of the revolt of the Vnited Provinces from under the Spanish Yoak who if they had been treated with less severity might probably by gentler methods have been reduced to Obedience but by the Cruelty of the Spanish Governours and Souldiery who pursued them especially under the Government of the Duke D' Alva with all the symptoms of the most mortal hatred they were so far alienated in their affections from a Government that used them so ill they had such a dread of those unheard of Cruelties and such a deserved aversation for that Religion that delights to propagate it self by Bloud that being assisted by the Hugonots from France whose interest it was to stand by the Reformation and by Supplies from England which was glad at that time to find an opportunity to reduce the Spanish greatness to a juster ballance with the rest of the European Princes they were at length perfectly severed from the body of the Spanish Empire and united in a common Alliance among themselves for the mutual support and maintenance of each other which though it gave beginning to the most powerfull Republick that has ever appeared since the Roman yet as a Republick in its nature and constitution is more exposed to the ambition or animositie of bad men than a Kingdom or Monarchie is or can well be so in the midst of its greatness it alwaies carried in its bowells the undoubted symptoms and causes of its ruine which it is to be feared what with the Factions at home and the daily encreasing Power of its enemies from abroad is not far off at this time But yet though Cruelty be that for which all mankind but they that exercise it upon others have a just and mortal aversation yet a Prosecution of all Penal Laws cannot be called Cruelty unless it be Cruelty to govern or to use the necessary and the onely means to keep the World in order all Punishment is Cruelty or at least Injustice which is inflicted in defence of a bad cause or a bad religion but when the Penalties themseves are not so severe as to deserve the name of Cruel and when they are inflicted for the Preservation of a sound and orthodox Religion which I persuade my self most of the Dissenters will acknowledge that of the Church of England to be when they are inflicted for the preservation of Unity and Friendship among men when this is the onely Expedient by which an universal Friendship and Charity can be maintained by which the Government can be rendred safe in it self and easie to those that are to obey by which we can be rendred quiet and secure at home or considerable abroad by which we can be put in the best capacity to resist an Enemy or to succour an Ally or to transmit the Profession of the Gospel in its native purity and beauty down to our own Children and to their posterity through all generations as long as time shall endure whereas without this course we shall be subject to infinite changes and vicissitudes in our Secular and in our Ecclesiastical Concerns and shall be more dangerously exposed when our strength by a Toleration is disunited and broken in pieces to the incursions of Idolatry Superstition Infidelity Debauchery Prophaneness and of all manner of Evil whatsoever it be this is sufficient to justifie a lawfull Power in the use of the onely means by which these Inconveniences may be avoided and if it shall so happen through the evil disposition of men that a Prosecution of the Laws which is the onely possible expedient of Peace and Safety shall yet notwithstanding produce the same mischiefs and disorders which a Toleration would have done yet in this case the Magistrate will have the satisfaction in his own Conscience and before God of having discharged his duty and of not having betray'd that trust which is reposed in him which in the other as being a natural means to bring us all to confusion I do not see how he can ever have or expect The Contentions about matters of Discipline are therefore manifestly of the highest importance because they occasion a Separation which is the fruitfull mother of all those fatal mischiefs both to Church and Kingdom that have been mentioned already and can never be too often repeated or too seriously reflected upon I would very willingly know of our Dissenters what they think themselves upon supposition that the whole Nation were divided and parcell'd out into separate and independent Congregations which is that which an unlimited Toleration would produce whether or no its strength wou'd be so firm and so compacted as it is now To say it would is to say that a divided interest can be as strong as that whose parts are never so well compacted and knit to one another and it is besides this absurdity in the reason of the thing to contradict the experience of our own Age and of all that have gone before it to maintain the lawfulness of such separate Congregations notwithstanding those many and dismal inconveniences to which they are exposed is to affirm that it is lawfull to endeavour the subversion of the Government which in this case will never be able to maintain it self without a standing Army no more than in the times of usurpation and it will be very hard if not impossible besides other incommodities and pressures to which this way of administration is exposed that instead of desending the Laws they shall