when all the ends of the Earth shall fear him Psal 67.7 and his Name will never be Hallow'd to purpose Mat. 6.9 10. nor his Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven till this Kingdom of his be come Third Proposition The Methods which Men have taken to attain Peace have been various Conquerors have endeavour'd it by making Mankind Slaves and reducing the World under an Universal Monarchy Mark 9.38 Luke 9.49 54. The Apostles themselves began to be Tempted by the Antichristian Spirit and were for bringing all under their Master by Silencing first and then by Fire from Heaven Popes have attempted it The Reason of this is Plain if the Pope be Antichrist and his Reign extended to 1260 Years by pretending to Infallibility and Councils by making Canons Some Places have labour'd to attain it by an Inquisition and others by Penal-Laws concerning doubtful Matters of Speculation And of them all except the Apostles who were afterwards better Instructed we must conclude with the Apostle The way of Peace they have not known or at least not practised to walk therein Fourth Proposition Ever since the Fall of Man this Lower Creation hath been a Stage of War Gen. 3.15 the Seed of the Woman and of the Serpent have been in constant Action 1 John 3.8 Our Saviour came to Destroy the Works of the Devil Eph. 2.2 whilst the Spirit that works in the Children of Disobedience keeps up his Works with all Diligence and therefore there is no Peace saith God Isai 57.21 to the Wicked Peace without Holiness is impossible and the World seeks it in vain The Apostle Instructs us to follow Peace with all Men and Holiness Hebr. 12.14 and the Prophet assures us Isai 32.17 That the Work of Righteousness shall be Peace and the Effect of Righteousness Quietness and Assurance for ever And that when God hath wrought all our Works in us Isai 26.12 He will Ordain Peace for us Fifth Proposition It is therefore Impudent Folly for men to Apprehend that they can have Peace with one another while they are at open Enmity with God He that hath all Mens Hearts in His hand will manage them so that his own Word shall be Establish'd if Men will not join in the Practice of Things in the Theory of which they all agree they will be still the Instruments of Divine Vengeance on one another And therefore if Magistrates would labour for Peace they must lay the Foundation thereof in the Reformation of Manners and be very Cautious of making Laws about Matters of Speculation For our Saviour hath told us John 1.17 That if any will do his Will he shall know of the Doctrine the way to know more is to Practise what we do know Otherwise Sixth Proposition While Men Dispute with Vehemency and turn Divinity into the most Abstruse and Exquisite fine Notions they make Christianity unintelligible and distinguish all Religion out of the World They Impose on the Credulous confound mean Capacities divide Christians into Sects and every Sect Adores its own Distinguishing Character till if the Question be what Religion a Man is of 'T is Answer'd A PAPIST A CHVRCH OF ENGLAND MAN A PRESBYTERIAN AN INDEPENDENT AN ANTIPOEDO BAPTIST But no Man does and who can truly answer I 'm a Christian Seventh Proposition True Religion is the Bond of Union Isai 11.9 When the Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea Isai 2.4 Mich. 4.3 then Men shall beat their Swords into Plow-shares and their Spears into Pruning-hooks Then Nation shall not lift up Sword against Nation nor shall they learn War any more then nothing shall hurt or destroy in all God's Holy Mountain And since it is evident that although Actions are Belief is not within the Power and Reach of Humane Law and that the Generality of Mankind never will without a Miraculous Power and Extraordinary Revelation agree on the Matters so hotly Disputed even among Protestants 't is worth the while to consider what are the probable Means which the Scripture hath Reveal'd and which it is our Duty to Use for attaining an Universal Peace among Christians There is a Rock on which our Saviour promis'd to build his Church that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it So solemn a Promise requires a Serious Consideration for as the Papists taking it to be the Person of Peter and his Successors have by that Mistake concerning this Rock laid the Foundation of the Antichristian Kingdom so the Kingdom of CHRIST MEDIATOR is truly and surely built upon this Rock which our Saviour intends in that Promise and that is Matt. 16.18 That JESVS CHRIST IS THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD. Ye believe in God John 14.1 believe also in me was the Substance of our Saviour's Doctrine and the Apostles Creed I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God was Martha's Creed Mark 16.18 John 11.17 And he that Confesseth That Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh God dwelleth in him and he in God John 1.4 It is the end of Writing the Gospel and this saith the Apostle is the Word of Faith That if we confess with our Mouth the Lord Jesus John 20.31 Rom. 10.8 9. and believe in our Hearts that God hath raised him from the Dead we shall be saved And accordingly upon his Profession of the Creed Acts 8.37 I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God the Ethiopian Eunuch who before believed in God was Baptised and the words of Baptism instructed him as they do us in the Foundation of the Christian Church And before any other Creed was made the Effect of this Creed was Miraculous both with respect to the Holy Lives of those that profess'd it and the great Encrease of the Number of such Now what was sufficient in the first Ages was so to after-after-Ages and is so now 1 Cor. 3.11 For other Foundation can no Man lay than that which is laid already was a Truth in St. Paul's Time The Apostles Creed and the other Creeds subscribed to by the Church of England are not Additions to but Paraphrases of this Creed or Truths which necessarily follow from the Belief thereof and many of the Articles thereof were added in after-After-Ages in contradiction to the several Heresies which rose at several Times to the endangering that Foundation For Instance Iraeneus Adv. Haeres Lib. 1. cap. 19 20 21 22 23 c. all the Hereticks mention'd by Iraeneus wherewith the Devil vext the Church for the first Three Hundred Years were for a Plurality of Created Gods whom they held also to be Creators and for this reason it should seem were those Words MAKER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH added which were not in the Creed called the Apostles for many Years as appears in the Symbol recited by Marcellus Ancyranus in the Confession of Faith which he
Catholicism WITHOUT POPERY AN ESSAY To Render the Church of ENGLAND A Means and a Pattern of UNION TO THE Christian World LONDON Printed for I. Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultry 1699. Advertisement THE Reader is desired to take Notice of Two Things 1. That this Discourse is not Written by the Direction Assistance or Advice of any Person or Party whatsoever nor with the Privity of any in Authority but is the meer and only Result of the Author 's own Thoughts who makes it his Request that the Reader wou'd forget that it has an Author and take it as if it were produc'd by the casual falling together of the Letters of the Alphabet it being too common a thing for Men to slight Truth if they approve not of him that utters it and to indulge Error if recommended by the Author's Name And yet at the same time let the Reader be assur'd that the Author is not afraid that the World should know what he earnestly desires may be conceal'd for the Reason aforesaid 2. That for the same Reason divers Passages are made use of therein without referring to the Books whence they are taken there being in so learned an Age no great danger of Plagearism and in so divided and contentious an Age too much danger of the abovesaid Inconvenience THE PREFACE Christian Reader THE Substance of the following Discourse was Written above eight Years since and Presented in Manuscript to Her Late Majesty of ever Blessed Memory But Wars abroad made it unseasonable to attempt Peace in the Churches while the States of Europe were so hotly engag'd and had the Church of England render'd it self a Pattern of Peace yet the Nations about us were not at leisure to observe that Pattern The Divine Power Wisdom and Goodness assisting the Best of Kings hath Restor'd Peace to the Nations of Christendom among themselves And why may not Peace among the Churches of Christendom be expected by the same Means And because the Design of the following Discourse is to attempt it first at Home yet with an Eye to the Peace of the Christian World I will look back on the Past Age and consider the Cause of our Divisions both in Church and State Two Controversies have miserably divided this Nation for more than one Century I mean the Controversie between the Prerogative of the King and the Liberty of the Subject and the Controversie between a Strict Vniformity in Matters of Religion and a Lawless Liberty of Conscience And our Enemies of the Roman Communion have ever since the Reformation industriously kept alive both these Controversies in order to reduce us to our former Bondage to Rome They took the side of Prerogative and Strict Conformity till they had set these Kingdoms in a flame and broke in pieces the English Government both in Church and State They us'd the Pretence of Loyalty to Murder the Poor Protestants of Ireland and of Vniformity to drive many excellent Men out of the Church And when they had ruin'd Prerogative and the English Church by appearing for them They then fell in for Anarchy in the State and an extravagant Liberty of Conscience in the Church and broke us into Numberless Parties and Sects And while their Emissaries wrought diligently to build a sort of Babel among us they cast the Reproach thereof on the Protestant Religion Again when the Nation grew weary of Anarchy of changing Governments every Moon and springing new Churches almost as often and found a necessity of Restoring the English Constitution they returned to their old Methods of straining the Prerogative and destroying both our Civil and Religious Liberties by Arbitrary Power and on that side of the Controversie they continued till the late Happy Revolution They knew though we were forbid to say that both the late Kings were in their Interest and that the Prerogative would be certainly on their side that the Dispensing Power render'd all Laws already made against them useless and would consequently restore Popery by our Celebrated Magna Charta They knew that Modelling Corporations wou'd destroy Legislation for the time to come by making Parliaments like those in France Tools and Vassals to the Crown as the Council of Trent was to the Pope Thus Humane Wisdom seem'd to Promise them all Imaginable Success for the Church-Party being secur'd by the Doctrines of Passive-Obedience and Non-Resistance misunderstood the Dissenters Caress'd with an Illegal Toleration and the Papists among us Vnited to destroy us we were like Isaac bound and laid on the Altar had not our good Angel in the very Act of Sacrificing staid the Knife I do but touch these things as being Foreign to the Design of the Following Discourse yet I can't pass them without observing that Solid and Lasting Settlement both of Religion and Civil Liberty which we owe to His Majesty Two things the Nation had learn'd by sad Experience 1. By the Confusions and Distractions of the late Times they learn'd that a Common-Wealth would never do in England for though for a season that Government made a Figure in the World it soon dwindled into a single Person under another Name and at his Death consum'd away in Anarchy 2. By the late Reigns the Nation had learn'd that Arbitrary Power would never do in England though affected and attempted with all possible Application in both those Reigns What then could Humane Wisdom think fit to be done upon the Late Revolution but to settle and establish the English Government on its Ancient and Solid Foundations The most Renowned Politician observes That those Kingdoms and Governments stand longest that are oft renewed and brought back to their first Beginnings And though in the last Age we could not attain it we are now blest with the Old English Constitution The English Government exceeds all others in the World being a just Mixture of the Three Forms of Government Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy Monarchy justly boasts its Vnion Aristocracy its Grandeur and Democracy its Liberty Now the English Government has all the Advantages of these Governments without the Disadvantages of any it has Monarchy without Arbitrary Power Aristocracy without Faction and Democracy without Anarchy and hence we are blest with King Lords and Commons The Just Prerogative is Establish d the Invaded Liberties of the Kingdom are restor'd and the Incroachments of the Late Reigns condemn'd by Act of Parliament So that there is an end of the Controversie between the Prerogative of the King and the Liberty of the Subject and nothing but the most incurable Infidelity can be Proof against that Evidence of His Majesty's Love to the English Liberty which He hath given by permitting an Election for Parliament during his Absence and passing the Bill for Disbanding the Army The Controversie between a strict Settlement and a Boundless Liberty in Matters of Religion is also in some good measure compromised we have now no Spanish Inquisition to force Mens Faith and Consciences into the same Mould which is
hath been imployed in this Controversie 'T is better to be Papists than Presbyterians Put the Laws in Execution against Dissenters was the Cry on the one side and the Dissenters oft in fits dragg'd to the Court Spiritual and a Lay-Chancellor having said I Admonish you I Admonish you I Admonish you away they were sent to the Devil On the other side Conformity was aggravated to the utmost and condemned as Anti-Christian Some have run from the noise of a Reader in the Church saying They heard the Devil And others refus'd to hear a Reverend Devine in a Meeting-House because he had by License preach'd in a Church I confess such Follies were not common I mention them as prodigious Effects of Controversies about Indifferent Things but yet by Persecution on the one hand and Exasperation on the other both sides did generally depart from the true Spirit of Christianity And if the printed Discourses on both sides be well considered and an Impartial Inquisitor were in search for Christians by our Saviour's Character By this shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples Job 13.35 if ye love one another How few had he found worthy the Christian Name If any thing which I have offer'd in the Following Discourse may tend to Restore Christianity among us to its Primitive Purity and to hasten its Promis'd Peace in the Christian World it will increase my Thankfulness to Him who gave me Being But whatever the Success of these Sheets may be I 'm sure they take a very all way to oppose Persecution and to Restore the Christian Spirit who endeavour to overthrow the Fundamentals of Christianity The Arians were at first profest Enemies to Persecution but as soon as they had Power proved the greatest Persecutors And Men worse than they in their Principles will not be better in their Practices whatever Moderation they may pretend And although my Saviour hath taught me That I ought not to call for fire from Heaven on those that will not receive Him Luk. 9.55 2 Pet. 2.1 Yet seeing the Apostle Peter having Prophecy'd of such who should bring in damnable Heresies in denying the Lord that bought them adds That they shall bring upon themselves swift destruction 'T is certainly dangerous to put Power into the Hands of Men of such Principles lest they involve the Government in their own Ruin I aim at no Man by this Reflection and I desire to Excuse no Man whom the Character will fit especially if they agree with the full Description of those dangerous Men Prophecy'd of by the Apostle Peter who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness 2 Pet. 2.10 and despise government having eyes full of Adultery and that can't cease from sin who while they promise Men Liberty are themselves the servants of corruption Certainly 't is every Christian's Duty to take the Advice of the Apostle Jude who describing the same Men exhorts us to contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. The late Act therefore against Blaspheming does rather Promote than Disserve the Design of this Discourse And if this attempt may stir up the Spirits of others whose Parts and Qualifications are equal to such an Vndertaking to offer better Means to the same end In magnis voluisse sat est I shall greatly rejoice to be Confuted by Proposals of better Expedients For were the Peace of the Christian World Establisht on Foundation-Truths it would be with all the Sons of Peace without regard to their Lesser or Greater Eminency as it was with the Heavenly Host at their first Creation they will not envy each other their Degrees of Excellencies Job 38.7 but the Morning-Stars will sing together and all the Sons of God shout for Joy Books Printed for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultry A Free Discourse wherein the Doctrines which make for Tyranny are Display'd the Title of our Rightful and Lawful King William Vindicated and the Unreasonableness and Mischievous Tendency of the Odious Distinction of a King De Facto and De Jure Discover'd By the Honourable Sir Robert Howard Oct. An Effort against Biggotry and for Christian Catholicism By Henry Chandler Quarto Remarks on a late Discourse of William Lord Bishop of Derry concerning the Inventions of Men in the Worship of God With a Vindication of the Remarks from what is Objected against them in his Lordships Admonition By J. Boyse Octavo A Preservative against Deism shewing the Great Advantage of Revelation above Reason in the two great Points Pardon of Sin and a Future State of Happiness With an Appendix in Answer to a Letter of A. W. against Revealed Religion in the Oracles of Reason By Nath. Taylor Octavo Mr. Woodhouse Mr. Shower Mr. Williams Mr. Alsop and Mr. Calamy's Sermons Preach'd to the Societies for Reformation of Manners in the City of London Octavo Catholicism WITHOUT POPERY An ESSAY to Render the Church of England a Means and a Pattern of Union to the Christian World NO Arguments against the Protestant Religion have been Improved with equal success to those which are drawn from the Unity of the Roman Church and the Innumerable Divisions among Protestants and although each Point in Controversie between us and Rome hath been so discussed as to set the Truth of the Protestant Cause in the clearest Light yet the Popish Dragoons and the Protestant Divisions still pervert the World 'T is true that there is no Argument in Dragooning and I hope it will appear in a short time that there is as little in the other Topick yet the same Men who scarce know how to submit their Senses to Transubstantiation are by those very Senses induced to Popery while they see Divisions or feel Dragooning The last of these Popish Arguments is not to be Confuted by a Pen in its Practice and needs no Confutation in the Theory being not Defensible otherwise than by main force But the former requires most Serious Consideration not so much to evince that nothing can be concluded from those Divisions against the Truth of Protestant Religion as to take away the very Topick it self The great and substantial Division of England is taken to be into Church-Men and Dissenters and again Church-Men are subdivided into High Church and Low Church and many will be called Church-Men who are indeed of no Church and these last having nothing but the Name are not the Subjects of Christian Vnity But yet nevertheless through the Iniquity of the late Reigns the best mark of a Church-Man was never to come to Prayers and the most scandalous Life the surest Evidence of a true Son of the Church All Sober Men were called Presbyterians and no Man was supposed able to observe his Baptismal Vow and the Oath of Allegiance both together as if in this Sense it were impossible to serve God and Mammon This and some other things seem to have put the true Notion of the Church of England out of Mens
of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion Thirdly Whether the Administration of Publick Astairs may not be in the Hands of Persons who are not of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion nay of Men of opposite Principles without Confusion or tearing the Government in pieces between them and whether they may not notwithstanding draw together the same way for the Publick Good Fourthly Whether it is sit that the Corporation and Test Acts should be enfore'd or Repealed Fifthly Whether upon the whole Matter the Occasional Conformist may not be admitted into Publick Offices and Employments relating to the Government consistently with the Safety of the Established Government both in Church and State with the Wisdom of the English Nation and with the Practice of some wise Governments in the World And as to the first I answer that the Occasional Conformist is a sincere Member of the National Church who heartily approves of the Laws of the Land and chearfully pays Obedience to them and he and the Church-men are not of opposite Principles but of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion If the Church-man whom you suppose the only Person fit for an Office be one that troubles not himself about Religion but believes as the Church believes and does as he sees others do I neither can judge of his Principles nor his Perswasion in Matters of Religion but if he have espoused the Religion of the Church of England with consideration and can give a Reason of the Faith or Hope that is in him he knows that the Religion of this National Church is all to be found in the Bible He is taught by the sixth Article of that Church that Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any Man that it should be believ'd as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation The Reason given by the 8th Article why the three Creeds ought throughly to be received and believed is for that they may be proved by most certain Warrants of Holy Scripture And as to Creeds so as to Councils we are taught by the 21st Article that things Ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither Strength nor Authority only as it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture Now the Occasional Conformists are herein intirely of the same mind they agree intirely in the Creeds the Lord's Prayer the Ten Commandments as contained in the Decalogue and as explained by our Saviour In the two Sacraments and every Part and Article that any Protestant can have any Colour to call a part of Christianity But I have not Inclination nor can it be expected that I should particularize every Head and Point of Religion wherein they agree but should be glad to be informed by you of any Article of Religion or Point of Doctrine wherein they differ for no Man ever called Rites and Ceremonies of humane Institution Principles or Matters of Religion I must own that they are not fully satisfied in the large Sense of that Passage in the 20th Article That the Church hath Power to decree Rites and Ceremonies nor that as the 34th Article expresses it it is sufficient as to the Ceremonies that nothing be Ordained against God's Word if the Opposition of God's Word be intended a particular express Opposition but they are of opinion that to make any Rites or Ceremonies of Humane Institution necessary to Communion especially as is aforesaid to make them Terms of Separation from the rest of the Catholick Church is against God's Word but they are extricated out of this Difficulty by the last Clause of the 34th Article it being plain by long and pungent Experience that the Ordaining of such Rites and Ceremonies is not among the Things that have been done so edifying or if this should fail yet your said Oracle is express that the 39 Articles are required from no Layman a Licence for which no Occasional Conformist will thank him The Romanists by such Ordinance have indeed edified their Babel and from things not contrary have proceeded to ordain things destructive to Christianity and so in some Measure are all such Ordinances which differ as much from Religion as Christianity does from Priestcraft But to bring this Matter a little closer I hope to make it plain that not only the Occasional Conformist but the Presbyterian and the Independent are of the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion with the Church-man and not of opposite Principles and that nothing but gross Ignorance or a wilful blind Prejudice has kept Men of either Party from being convinc'd of this Truth And to make this evident I take leave to acquaint you with plain Matter of Fact You well know that in the late times the Assembly of Divines at Westminster as also the Kirk of Scotland agreed in a Catechism called the Assemblies shorter Catechism And this Catechism was also agreed to by the Synod of the Independent Divines met at the Savoy Now after the Restauration of King Charles the 2d and particularly some time before the Popish Plot a mighty Zeal appeared against that Catechism in the Men of your Party and if I mistake not this Catechism was publickly burnt at Oxford But it happened that one Mr. Thomas Adams formerly fellow of Brazen-Nose-Colledge in Oxford being convinc'd of the Truth of what I am endeavouring to prove he in the Year 1675 wrote a Discourse Entituled The Main Principles of Christian Religion in 107 short Articles or Aphorisms generally received as being proved from Scripture now further cleared and confirmed by the Consonant Doctrine Recorded in the Articles and Homilies of the Church of England under 4 Heads Of things to be Explained 1. Believed comprehended in the Creed 2. Done in the Ten Commandments 3. Practiced in the Gospel particularly two Sacraments 4. Prayed for in the Lord's Prayer Which Discourse was Licensed Sold well and received a Second Edition in 1677 which I have but alass it was at last discovered that the 107 Articles were the Answers to the 107 Questions of the Assemblies Shorter Catechism and that hated Book was thus disper'd under the Patronage of the Articles and Homilies of the Church of England And if you will please to peruse this Book I suppose you will need no other Proof that the Occasional Conformist Presbyterian Independent and the Church-man are not of opposite Principles but of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion and the Acceptation which that Discourse met with puts me in mind of a like Passage relating to the Sorbon to whom your Oracle above-mention'd desires that the Church of England may be united for when Abbas le Roy Publish'd a Discourse in France without naming the Author being a most Elegant and Pious Oration or Prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ for obtaining the Grace of a perfect Conversion the