Arguments that are brought in the Apology for Indulgenee and to vindicate it from the Exceptions made to it in a second Discourse of Religion is the businesse of this present Treatise SECT 2. An Answer to the Book called the Peace-Offering That Indulgence is not justified by the Law of Nature THe Book called the Peace-Offering bears the name of several Protestants but what sort or party of Protestants it leaves us to conjecture Some passages in it perswade us that they are Independents but they being so comprehensive a Sect of those strictly so called and of the other who crowd under that name as Anabaptists Socinians Antinomians c. We are still in the dark what sort of men they are therefore we can take no notice of that great kindness they show to themselves in being free in their own commendations Nor will we of their Principles they being various according to the several Sects and still changeable by the Increase or wane of the light they pretend unto To gratify them also we shall wave the objecting to them how great a part of the late Troubles of this Nation flowed from their Counsels and Designes and wish that they were buried in an eternal Oblivion never to rise up to the reproach of Christianity and Protestantism and not be remembred but to a Caution of being abused by the same Arts and of falling again into the like Miseries The only thing therefore we shall take notice of in this Plea for Indulgence shall be to examine the reasons and arguments they bring to prove that All outward violence and severity upon the account of Dissensions For the differences of these men from the present establishment are not bare Dissents in Religion is destitute of any firme Foundation in Scripture and Reason Their first Argument they will have to be from the Law of Nature which to raise a dust and amuse the less wary Reader is drawn out to a needless length and cloathed with an affected obscurity for to what purpose was it to have been tedious in proving what all grant that Every single person to prevent mischiefs destructive to a Community is to forego his particular conveniences if they be in things in his own power Nor was a long discourse necessary to shew that a Community is not to require of its members things not in their power since no sober man ever dreamt that any thing impossible could be the subject of a Law But when they assume That mens Apprehensions of things Spiritual and supernatural such they mean as have no alliance to the ingrafted light of nature are not absolutely in their own power from thence conclude that those Apprehensions and the exercises of Conscience towards God upon them cannot be the subjects of the Laws of civil Societies they endeavor to impose upon us several fallacies particularly these two 1 Their argument supposes that the Laws are made against mens Apprehensions Whereas the Apprehensions of men are not the subject of the Laws but their Practises answerable or not answerable to the Apprehensions 2. Their Conclusion contains more then was in the Premises for their arguments had only aimed to prove that mens Apprehensions of things Spiritual were not in their power So that their Diversity was unavoidable but when they conclude they joyn with these apprehensions the Exercise of their Conscience of which there was not one word in the premises And as their way of arguing is fallacious so are the propositions themselves not true for 1. This proposition that Mens Apprehensions of things Spiritual and supernatural do not depend on the Liberty of their wills nor are in their own power As thus crudely proposed is false For all those to whom the Gospel is preached if they do not apprehend the truth their not apprehension is 1 imputed unto them as their sin and wilfull transgression For it is said of them that their Hearts were waxed fat and their Ears are dull of hearing and their Eyes have they closed They are said to resist the Holy Ghost That they received not the love of the truth c. But this could not be charged upon them had it not been in their power to apprehend those Spiritual things when preached unto them 2 They are punished for it for it is said that God for this cause sent them strong delusions that they might believe a lye and the sentence of Damnation is passed upon them That they all might be damned who believed not the truth But it is injurious to the Divine Goodness to say that he damns men for that which was notin their Power to avoid And that he should send them strong delusions to believe a Lye when it was not in their power to apprehend the Truth And if it be in the power of men to apprehend the truth having the Doctrine of Christ preached to them then it is not impossible to have the same apprehensions because the Truth is One and the Same and varies not in it self and so the Apprehensions must be all the same in their nature i. e. in a conformity to the thing apprehended although there may be difference as to the degrees It may be indeed more clear in one then another one may apprehend all the parts see further into the consequences of things then others yet still the apprehension may be the same in essence if men will lay down their prejudices part with their lusts repudiate their carnal interests and cast off the tyranny of custome That which they offer for a proof is full of ambiguity as if they were afraid to be understood For when they say that the Will of God in things Supernatural and Spiritual cannot be known but by Revelation from himself We do not know whether they eanm that General Revelation which is made unto us from him the Scriptures or a Particular Revelation to every single person if they mean this latter they should have proved it And when they say that Divine Revelation can not be apprehended or assented unto but according to the nature and measure of that Light which God is pleased to communicate unto them to whom such Revelation is made We are again at a loss for they do not prove that there is a Light different from the Revelation of God for the truth which God reveals is the light it self which like the light of the Sun makes it self as well as other things to be seen When they say this light doth not equally effect the minds of men We grant it but yet we cannot as they do deny that it is possible it should do so for although there be divers wayes and means of Communicating the Truth Yet however God may give to all them to whom the Word is Preached sufficient means to Apprehend and acknowledge his Truths And although there be different Dispositions of them to whom the Word is proposed Yet those dispositions whereby men resist and will not apprehend the Truth are from themselves and
seek the Lord and where they might most assuredly receive the Word of Life Which distractions it was not possible for them to avoid if the Christians were divided into several parties 2. Towards those of the World who though they would not believe and so should not be concerned in the truth of Christians yet they must be in the Quiet and Peace of them For experience shews that when Divisions and Contentions turmoild the Church the State and even the mixt company of unbelievers soon found themselves under many miseries while the contending parties mutually armed to a destruction of their Opposites Thirdly These commands of Christ and this compassion to mankinde do oblige every man to endeavour to preserve that unity by all wayes proper for them in their several Callings And therefore Christian Kings may and ought to do it in their way which is by just Laws and the Church by wise and pious Injunctions and all are to avoid and mark them that cause Divisions among them to restrain their furious and carnal heats in prosecuting their own private apprehensions to the reproach of Religion and Disturbance of Mankind Fourthly Such wayes to preserve Peace can never be to the destruction of those who in sincerity desire to Love and obey Christ although they should mistake in their apprehensions of some few things c. For 1. It is not true which these writers say that such persons are concluded under an unavoidable mistake and being not so they will in sincerity indeavour after a full and clear information in those things that are pleaded to be according to the mind of Christ 2. All such persons will in that Christian humility which the Spirit of Christ works not oppose their private apprehensions to the judgment and practise of that Church of God from which they have received the Doctrine of Salvation and therefore will not think of themselves above what they ought to think but think soberly according as God hath dealt to them the measure of faith And being thus lowly in their own eyes knowing themselves lyable to mistakes and errors they will not be so fond of their own apprehensions as for their sakes to bring a scandal upon the Church of God and set the World in Flames Besides 3. having a desire to Obey God they will be careful to testify their obedience in a manifest and undeniable Duty as is the Peace and Unity of Christians and obedience to Governours and not think to justify the breach of that with the observance of what their singular and private apprehensions represent especially being secur'd that the Church from whom they differ do retain all things necessary to salvation as these men do profess they agree with the Church of England in all things of that degree Therefore such persons are secur'd enough from those severities which are necessary to preserve the Peace of a Church and Nation And such sincere humble enquirers after Truth and those that walk up to what they have already attained are the only persons dear to Christ Not every one that cries Lord Lord that pretend to preach and prophesie in his name for he himself hath told us that he shall reject the pleas of many such to his indulgence And indeed should every one that is so kinde to himself as to publish to the World that he in sincerity desires to obey and love Christ be believed upon his own word and have an indulgence for his differing practises the greatest Impostors that ever appear'd among Christians must be permitted to practise their Cheats and Impieties For the Gnosticks the Manichees Montanists Circumcelliones of old and those among us who are yet Red and polluted with the blood of their Lawful Soveraign that violated the known Laws of the Land of their nativity rob'd the Churches and invaded the just rights of every one within the compass of their lust and their power These I say would have perswaded the World and it may be were so mad as to believe themselves that they were the men that loved Christ when in their works they did deny him And yet 4. It cannot be said that the gradual destruction even of these men is intended by such Laws as do command nothing but what may be for the Security Peace and welfare of Christian Communities and it is an high slander of any Law-givers to say that they intended Punishment and not Obedience That instance of Christs reproof to his Disciples for being so forward to call Fire down from Heaven upon the neglectful Samaritans is altogether impertinent especially as they interpret those words You know not of what Spirits you are To be an unacquaintedness with their own Spirits imagining that for Zeal which was indeed self-Revenge So that in their Sense Christ reprov'd their revengeful Spirits Now it cannot be said of Laws made to restrain violations of Peace that they are the Dictates of Revenge since Revenge looks at acts past but Laws indeavour to prevent those to come SECT 4. No ground for Indulgences in the Practice of the Apostles THe third Argument is drawn from the practice of the Apostles whom we may well wonder that they should be suspected as Patrons for indulgence of Dissentions and Schisms in Religion Since we finde them describing the Authors of them as Monsters and Prodigies that dishonour the Generation they live in and fill the place wherein they appear with confusion and danger and threaten a Tempest at their first rising Therefore the Apostles dealt with them as such in their dayes For although they did not exercise on them Coertions Restaints and Corporal punishments as these Writers wisely observe because indeed they had no Temporal power yet they used their Ecclesiastical power and delivered them over to Satan which in those times was a giving them up to that Tormenter to be afflicted in their flesh a severer punishment then the Sword of the Magistrate can inflict Rom. 16.18 1 Tim. 6.4 They commanded the sound Christians to avoid them as contagious Pests and to cut them off as cankerd and infested members that would bring destruction to the whole body of the Church if a just severity prevented them not nay they call'd for Gods assistance to cut off these troublers of the Israel of God Gal. 5.12 I would they were even cut off that trouble you They also commended nothing more to the conversation of Christians then Peace and Unity to minde the same things to walk in one minde to follow after those things that made for Peace and Edification which are impossible to be attained in Dissentions It would be very strange therefore to imagine that they who do all this to Dissentions should yet give any ground for an Indulgence of them But yet these men have found out that St. Paul is for this forbearance Phil. 3.15 16. Which Text if they had faithfully set down would have discovered their Sophistry For the Apostle saith Let us therefore as many as be perfect
had spent their time of Exile in such forreign Churches as had followed the Platform of Geneva and those he reckons to be but five the Queens Professor in Oxford the Lady Margarets in Cambridge Whittingham Sampson and Hardiman Of which the two last were soon turn'd out again as incorrigible Non-Conformists the rest it seems did conform notwithstanding their Different Perswasions which was an evidence that they did not think the Ceremonies to be so contrary to a good Conscience that they were bound either to desert their Station in the Church and Ministry to Gods Glory or to disturb the Peace of Christs flock rather then observe those enjoyned Rites So also did those mentioned in the Letter to Mr. Hooker and therefore can be no Instances of Non-Conformity and of disturbing the Peace in the Church It is also true Calv. Ep. Angl. Francofurt Valde absurdum est inter fratres ob eandem fidem a patriâ Exules ac prosugos dissidium oriri and therefore no wrong done That the Party against Ceremonies caus'd the Troubles at Frankfort and brought a dishonour to the Reformation and Infamy on the Nation for Mr. Calvins Letter to them at Frankford charges these things upon them and this was Written Feb. 1.31 and Dr. Cox with his party who brought in the Liturgy came not thither till March 13. following therefore if Mr. Calvin wrote truth there were troubles among them before the Conformists came thither It is a strange Confidence this Author takes to deny That in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth 's Reign things were so settled in the Church of England to please each party in the abolishing some and the retaining other Ceremonies For the Compilers themselves who certainly deserve in Charity to be credited in what they say concerning their own motives and Sentiments do after they had declared the different opinions of men about Ceremonies say It was thought expedient not so much to have respect how to please and satisfy either of these parties that is singly or gratify their humours as how to please God and to profit them both Therefore they intended to Profit each party which in the Apostles sense is to please our Neighbour to Edification And that none might be offended whom Good reason might satisfy They rendred Causes why some Ceremonies were put away and some retained Against so evident a Testimony he replies that the Ceremonies then abolished were offensive to all Protestants Whereas the compilers themselves say that there were some among those whom they would profit that did think it a great matter of Conscience to depart from a piece of the least of their accustomed Ceremonies Thus this Author hath failed in his attempt to take off the reasons of necessity for the first enjoyning of the Ceremonies He is no more successfull against the Necessity of the Continuance For when it had been said that They who are for the Church are unwilling to have the Ceremonies taken away He replies such as delight in them may enjoy and use their Liberty but let them not lay stumbling blocks before others or intangle the Conscience or hinder those of a contrary Perswasion from the Ministry and from teaching c. This is easily said but he should have also proved it practicable For Instance If in one and the same Parish the Minister be against Ceremonies and the people for them how shall each of these enjoy and use their Liberties What contentions and variances must needs arise If you say the People may make use of a Minister of the same Judgment with themselves 1 They cannot do it for all Offices 2 This must lay a constant ground of alienation and so of Quarrelling betwixt People and Minister and betwixt the Ministers themselves How can this Writer forget that this was a frequent Case in the late troubles almost in all Parishes This therefore is to multiply divisions that at last must overthrow all And there is no considering Person but sees a necessity that all Ministers should be bound to the same Rule Another reason for continuing the Ceremonies was because it would be in vain to comply with them who will never be satisfied To this he answers With what soberness can this be said when hitherto the Dissenters were never tryed with any Relaxation c. But with what truth can he say they were never tryed When they had a Relaxation at the Kings first coming home and it was left to them to conform in what they could have no scruple of Conscience yet this did not satisfy them But he had said before That some of them did comply with the Kings desire Yet he doth not tell us who or how many and in deed when this was objected to their Friends that laboured for an Indulgence for them they could not give an account of any considerable number that did so Others he saith did not perhaps for the prevention of Scandal And we say perhaps The same Perhaps to prevent a Scandal among their own Party whose Spirits they have imbittered with an hatred of the Church of England may still prevail upon them to be-unsatisfied So that the Honour of the Church and State must be prostituted by repealing their Laws and Injunctions to the Fortuitous pleasure of them that do not conform Besides this Author will not give us the bounds of his desired Latitude nor assure us where that Party will stand How far we must go to satisfy all the several Sects and how many will be gained all these things are requisite to assure us that they intend to be satisfyed It was also said that the Imputations of Idolatry Superstition and Antichristianism to the things enjoyned perswade us not easily to part with them as being so guilty These Calumnies have been engraven with Swords and written in blood and to renounce what we believe to be innocent as criminal is plainly to declare that we have no love to the Truth that we tacitly condemn what we approve and we should likewise Calumniate all those whose Communion we pretend to the former Church who did observe them as indifferent The Discourser does not deny that these Calumnies have been raised nor doth he condemn the slanderers but he sayes Shall their value be so exhanced as to be thought of more worth then the Unity of the Church To which we answer That though we account the Church's Unity to be of an infinite Value above them yet we cannot promise our selves to procure her Unity by a thing that is not just in it self that is by justifying false imputations in taking away what we and other Christians have thought clear and praise-worthy The expedient which he hath proposed for salving the Churches honour by her declaring that she remits her injunctions in compliance with weak consciences Will be an envidence of her very great weakness unless those Weak Consciences declare also that she hath not been Idolatrous Superstitious or Antichristian in her former enjoyning of them and that the