which may be managed with a strong bit and bridle as you please This is the sense of Mr. A's words in his Preface and what hurt is there in them Do not all Protestants speak the same language And is it not better that men eâ—r in some things than that they put out their eyes and see with those of other men blindly following their conduct and submitting and assenting to all their Impositions But the Dr. will say Is Separation by reason of the levity of mens minds only a small or petty inconvenience In answer whereunto I would distinguish of Separation There is a Separation that proceeds upon reasons apparently true and such is the Separation of Protestants from the Church of Rome and this is a great and necessary duty There is a Separation that proceeds upon probable reasons which sometimes are not cogent nor conclusive and yet they may be such as honest and upright minded men may not be able to free themselves from being entangled and fettered by them This is an inconvenience and whether it be great or small I know not how 't will be avoided in this state of weakness and imperfection but by remedies worse than the disease But that which to my apprehension seems the best way of avoiding it is Let nothing be made necessary to Communion in Churches but a few plain necessary things and this would certainly put an end to the most of those Divisions and Separations that have and do vex the Christian Churches and the Church of England especially and particularly But there is a Separation that proceeds upon reasons apparently false such is the Separation of the Socinians from the Reformed Churches and such is the Separation of many in the Church of England This is intollerable and by all prudent and Christian means and endeavours to be repressed By Separation here I mean not barely refusing Communion but setting up new Churches in opposition to those they have forsaken But it may be enquired further Whether Separation upon probable weak and unconcluding reasons be not sinful I answer Yes but what if it be there is some difference in sins as most men believe and I see no great reason to doubt of it and 't is my opinion that neither all Sinners nor all Schismaticks that are truly such must be sent to the Mines or to the Galleys In brief God will make a difference between Sinners at the day of Judgment and I do believe that the Governours of Churches both Civil and Ecclesiastical should make some difference between them here In the mean time I would not be thought either to excuse or encourage unjustifiable Separations I would that the sinfulness of such Separation should be laid open with all its just aggravations and that all just means be used by the Ministers of the Gospel to prevent and hinder it yea and something by the Magistrate too but if Separation cannot be prevented I mean such as proceeds upon probable but not concluding reasons by those endeavours it must be endured an inconvenience being more eligible than a mischief and many things are and must be suffered in all societies that are not nor ought not to be approved Such was divorce in the Jewish Commonwealth and some things else in that and other societies of men If it be said that the Church of England doth not impose any thing upon its members by meer authority as the Church of Rome doth nor doth it force them to resign their reason to naked will and pleasure nor command belief of those notorious falshoods which that imperious and Apostate Synagogue of Satan doth I answer 't is readily granted and we bless God for it that this Church doth impose nothing that is apparently and grosly false it commands no Idolatrous Worship no opinions contrary to the common sense of mankind no invocation of Saints Prayers for the dead no Pilgrimages to Shrines no ridiculous or sottish Superstitions but though it impose nothing grosly false foolish or Superstitious yet some men think and I know not how to confute them that it imposes some things dubious uncertain and unnecessary from which the Clergy cannot dissent but thereby they shut themselves out of their office and become uncapable of exercising their Ministry with the countenance and protection of the Laws And if the Laity doubt the truth of any of its Impositions and do publish their doubts and will be pertinacious in the defence of them they are liable to excommunication and all that is consequent unto it and in these things this Church is peremptory and admits of no indulgence Subscribe or Preach not the Gospel speak nothing to the disparagement of any thing in the Doctrine Discipline or Liturgy or you shall be excommunicated and given up to the Devil Thus it speaks and this is its Language I do easily grant that this Church pretends not to Infallibility as the Church of Rome doth but in whatsoever it determines it avows it self not mistaken or deceived And what is the difference in effect between a Church that assumes to it self the title and approbation of Infallible and a Church that says I am not mistaken in my Determinations and Impositions Suppose two persons one a Nestorian the other an Eutichian the one proposes in certain Articles his Doctrine so as confounds Christs Natures and withal tells you he is Infallible and you must subscribe to and acknowledg the truth of it or prepare your self for the Axe or the Gallows the other proposes his Doctrine so as he divides Christs Person but pretends not to be Infallible but says his Doctrine is true and he is not mistaken in it and 't is at your pleasure and in your choice either to subscribe it or prepare your self for the Mines of Peru and the Indies The Application is obvious and every one can make it without my manuduction or direction But let me not be said to defame this Church I have said already that it imposes nothing grosly and apparently false but only some things unnecessary and uncertain I will add here the penalties imposed upon those that refuse to own and acknowledg or do defame its determinations are not so severe nor sanguinary as in the Roman Church nor peradventure so certainly and severely executed but whether the peremptory imposing things doubtful controverted useless and unnecessary upon the legal and established penalties be not tyrannical and imperious would deserve a little consideration Why must all Ministers be obliged to subscribe to all things in the 39. Articles Liturgy and Book of Ordination as containing nothing contrary to the Word of God Why must they subscribe the 20th Article concerning the power of the Church to ordain Rites and Ceremonies Why must they assent to the 8th Article where 't is said that the Athanasian Creed ought throughly to be received and believed why must the salvation of Infants being baptized and dying before the commission of actual sin be acknowledged as certain by the Word
weight as may be seen in his Preface From these words of Mr. A. the Dr. takes occasion to enquire what a rare advocate had this man been for the Novatians Donatists Luciferians or whatsoever Schismaticks rent the Church in pieces in former times And supposing St. Cyprian and St. Austin and other great opposers of the ancient Schisms to be met together he gathers from these words and the Principles of Separation that he lays down elsewhere in his Books how he would accost them Page 198 Then forms an elegant Oration for him supposing him haranguing it before them Page 198 199. And page 200. these expressions he puts in his mouth Why do you Austin and Cyprian and other Reverend Fathers cry out so often of the Sacrilegiousness of Schism We know no other Sacriledg but the Sacrilegious desertion of our Ministry in obedience to the Laws this is a Sacriledg we often talk of and tell the people it is far worse than robbing Church-plate considering what precious gifts we have These last words are I am afraid a prophane jeer and look more like words dropt from the pen of Ben. Johnson or Fletcher than that of Dr. St. Hath not God endued Mr. B. for 't is on him he reflects and other Nonconformists with precious gifts for 't is a Scripture-word and I 'le make bold to use it though I be thought to cant and can the Dr. deny it or doth it become his gravity to deride them If he must use his Sarcastick faculty I wish he would chuse some common objects to employ it on and not on things that are sacred and divine for such are the gifts wherewith Mr. B. and others of his Brethren are blessed of God and I believe the Dr. in his conscience can't deny it however he takes liberty to deride them And when I pray and where did Mr. B. or any of his brethren say they knew no Sacriledg but that of the Sacrilegious desertion of their Ministry Let this be proved or else it must be reputed a defamation But peradventure the Dr. will say That when men play the Orator they are not obliged to speak exact truth but where will he find any thing in Scripture to patronizâ— it He endeavours to justifie an ugly sarcasm that he made use of in his Sâ—rmon by these words of our Saviour I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance but I am not very certain they will serve his purpose for some men that the Dr. values as well as some that he despises give another interpretation of them as he very well knows but where he will find any to justifie this Catechrestical scoff I cannot tell but may be he may find or make one do it But why doth the Dr. add in obedience to the Laws Do all Laws oblige so far as for Ministers upon that account to desert their Office If so then may not only the three children go to the fiery Furnace and Daniel to the Lyons but all Protestant Preachers to the flames if they continue to exercise their Ministry against the prohibition of Popish Laws If not then 't is not Laws but the equity and justice of Laws that lays an obligation on them and that is the controversie between him and his Nonconformable Brethren in which I will not interpose But this is not the only place where the weight of the Drs. Arguments is little for want of distinction restriction and limitation And this is an infirmity and weakness of discourse that runs through a great part of his Book and which renders it invalid to his Adversaries and especially Mr. B. But the Dr. enquires Whether it be not a sin to break the Churches Communion p. 198. To which I answer Yes doubtless all unnecessary Separation is a sin and such I do esteem much of the present Separation in England But what then Are all that are Schismatical unworthy to live upon the earth Must they be prosecuted by Laws to Imprisonment Banishment and Death Is there no way of curing a wound in the arm or leg but by amputation Are not Drunkenness Adultery Lying and Swearing sins Yes surely 't will not be denied But must all these Criminals be injured proscribed and sent to the Indies This would be thought unreasonable And why persons of some Schismatical Principles provided the main of their doctrine be sound and consistent with Christianity may not have as much favour as drunkards and other immoral men I know not But are there no other ways of reforming the Schismatical bumors of men but Gaols and Confiscations and other like Arguments Are there no methods of reclaiming Schismaticks but by Rods and Axes Are not personal instructions and kindness more agreeable to the nature of the Pastoral Office and the spirit of our Saviour whose servants we are and whose work we are to do in the world Methinks no man that hath read the New Testament should doubt of it and I do confess that I hate these Military methods of converting Dissenters and I never saw any good come of them I live in a Town where there are some Dissenters I have always treated them with kindness and have avoided to exasperate them either in my publick or private discourses and by this means they will come sometimes to hear me and will grant me to be a Minister of Jesus Christ whereas had I railed at them or prosecuted them at Law or encouraged others to do it they would never have come at me but accounted me a Limb of Antichrist and a Factor or Agent for the Devil And I must and do openly avow that 't is more easie to my mind to think that when they are absent from my Congregation they are serving God elsewhere than it would be to think they were some of them in prisons their Families wanting bread and others crying to God for vengeance on me as a persecutor and which is most easie to my mind living I doubt not will be so dying They are persons of holy lives and upright conversations at least some of them and I would not have a hand in persecuting and undoing them for all the Preferments this Church or this World affords Let me add thus much on the behalf of Mr. A. I do not believe that he either desires or pleads for universal Toleration or would defend all the ancient Schismaticks or that he would open his mouth on the behalf of Socinians Arrians Anti-Trinitarians Quakers or other like Sectarian Infidels all that he pleads for is liberty for peaceable and Christian Dissenters but I do think that the Reverend Dr. hath wrung from his words such a sense as he never intended or did once enter into his thoughts Pag. 273. The Dr. says I do not see but the objections made against the Discipline of this Church might be removed if the things allowed and required by the Rules thereof that is Confirmation of children by the Bishop when they are able to give an account of
Church as well as you if humane he enquires how consent in these makes a National Church and how they come to be of the National Church which do not consent in them and objects the differences among the Conformable Clergy in the exposition of some of the Articles of this Church To which the Dr. answers three things I shall take notice only of the last of them viz. There is no difference among us concerning the lawfulness of the orders of our Church and duty of submission to them if there be any other differences they are not material and I believe are no other than in the manner of explaining some things which may happen in the best society in the world without breaking the peace of it as about the difference of orders the sense of some passages in the Athanasian Creed the true explication of one or two Articles which are the things he i. e. Mr. B. mentions A multitude of such differences will never overthrow such a consent among us as to make us not to be members of the same National Church To the first lines of this Paragraph which concern the agreement of the Members of this Church in the lawfulness of its orders and the duty of submission to them I shall reply nothing To the rest I say I am perfectly of the Dr's opinion and were it reduced to practice it would heal the most of the divisions and put a period to most of the separations that have rent and torn this Church in pieces for many years Why might not the Dissenters among us have been permitted to have continued in the Ministry and in the Church though they differed in some things in their judgments from the Conformable Clergy Would it have broken the peace thereof any more than the various apprehensions that are at present among themselves They are not all of a mind in the five points some of them understand and believe them after the sense of Calvin and others after the sense of Arminius and I might mention many others wherein they differ among themselves but the thing is sufficiently known and there is no need of it And are the differences among the Conformists themselves reconcilable with peace and those wherein the Nonconformists differ from them though they be no greater than the other irreconcilable with it What strange partiality is this Conformists may differ in multitudes of things without breaking the peace of the Church but if those that are Dissenters differ from them in a few impertinent and uncertain things the peace of the Church is subverted and all things put into confusion thereby The Conformists doubt at least some of them whether Bishops and Presbyters do differ in order or in degree some are past all doubt concerning it and do affirm they differ in order and not barely in degree This breaks no peace The Nonconformists cannot find that Word of God whereby 't is certain that children indefinitely which are baptized dying before they commit actual siâ— are undoubtedly saved and they are not very sure that all children that are baptized are regenerate by the â—â—irit or that they may safely say of all that they bury that God of his great mercy hath taken to himself the soul of the deceased person and give him hearty thanks that it hath pleased him to deliver him out of the afflictions of this sinful world and these are such dreadful and formidable things that the Church cannot be safe if the Members or at least any of the Preachers in it dispute the truth of them and therefore out they must go and if they attempt to exercise their Ministerial Office after they are ejected they are immediately the most damnable Schismaticks that ever the world did know and Prisons Fines Confiscations Banishments and all that is evil is beneath their sin and trangression Why a difference of opinion in these things might not be consistent with peace as well as in others that are of as great and somewhat greater import at least in my apprehension I am not able to divine if nothing but Reason and Religion were to determine concerning them but if spight malice and revenge and some other of those Antichristian passions be called to counsel and permitted to judg of them 't is not difficult to give a reason of the differing natures of these differences why some are judged consistent with peace and others utterly inconsistent with it But enough of this paragraph I shall conclude with one supplication to all the Conformable Clergy in England on the behalf of the Dissenters and 't is this That they may be permitted to differ from them in things of no greater moment than those in which they differ among themselves If it be said 't is not in their power to permit it I answer Time was when it was very much in their power to have done it and I think they might do well to use some endeavours to retrieve it or at least give some evidence that they wish well to it This I think is no unreasonable request how it may be resented I know not 't is the love of this Church and the peace thereof that hath caused me to propose it and that shall satisfie my mind But having said this on the behalf of the Dissenters I must add a word or two on my own behalf and that is That a fair and passable sense may be and is put upon these passages mentioned from the Rubrick and Liturgy by the Conformable Clergy and amongst them by my self but what is that to those whose judgments and consciences will not permit them to put that sense upon them All mens minds are not cast in the same mould all cannot admit that latitude of sense and exposition in those and many other things that some men do and can without offence and neglect to their consciences and must they therefore be shut out of the Vineyard of the Lord and denied the liberty of working there Certainly this is a severe method of proceeding and hardly reconcilable with the Laws of Christianity The Learned Dr. in several places of his Book represents Mr. A. as unlearned unread and very weak in his reafoning and argumentations Page 174. he accuses him of childish trifling about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Canon and in the same page and that next to it he mislikes his explication of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leaving out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he observes from Grotius is not found in one Manuscript the sense whereof he thus expresses What we have attained let us walk up to the same and that Greek phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he says implies no more than minding that very thing viz. v. 14. pressing towards the mark and then adds But if he had pleased to have read on to Phil. 4.2 he would have found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie unanimity and St. Paul 1 Cor. 12.25 opposes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 th t there be
of God and why must they assent to and subscribe the lawfulness of the use of the Cross in Baptism with more that might be mentioned Are these things certain and so clear and obvious that an honest man can't doubt of them Are these things necessary Cannot a man be a Minister or a Christian that doth not nor cannot believe them This cannot or at least ought not to be imagined or affirmed why then doth the Church of England require Ministers to subscribe unto them and why must none of the Laity dispute the truth of them What reason can be alledged for it but it s own good will and pleasure I know no other that can be given of it thither it must be referred at last And whether this be not to exercise an Empire over the judgments and consciences of men and to command the surrender of their reason to naked will and pleasure I leave to consideration It hath the likeness and appearance of it and how the Church of England will fairly free themselves of it I do not yet discern I would be glad to see it done for the exercise of Empire over the consciences of men in uncertain and unnecessary things is a very evil and mischievous thing an Engine of the Devil by which I do believe he hath done more mischief in the Church of God than by all the Heathen persecutions and I know no end is served by it unless it be to choak conscientious men for all men of conscience are not Latitudinarians nor like to be in my apprehension The sum of what I have said in these three last Paragraphs is this Mr. A. hath said some little and petty inconveniencies arising from the levity and inconstancy of mens minds is more eligible than the prostituting mens consciences and resigning them to the naked wills of men which is no more than most Protestants have said before him Separations are various some proceed upon reasons apparently true and these are a necessary duty some proceed upon reasons apparently false and these are greatly sinful and intollerable others proceed upon probable reasons which though specious and fair yet are not concluding these are not without sin yet must be endured an inconvenience being better than a mischief And this I conceive is the separation which the Dr. says Mr. A. makes very light of which yet I do not beileve unless it be comparatively and for the sake of which I do not think him worthy of the appellation of Advocate-general for Schismaticks The Church of England doth not pretend to be infallible but is as peremptory in its determinations as if it were It imposes nothing grosly false and against common sense and reason but it requires things unnecessary and uncertain with an unyielding rigour and this looks like tyranny and if the Church of England think it self defamed by that insinuation it may vindicate it self if it can To the Drs. insinuation that Mr. A is not much acquainted in the Writings of Cyprian and St. Austin and that he hath been more conversant in those of Mr. B. I might enquire where is the Proof and what evidence doth this Learned man produce for the confirmation of it I have looked his Book all over but I can find none nor do I imagine what hath given occasion to the Dr. to think so 't is true Mr. A doth not quote those Fathers in his Book but doth it follow from thence that he never read them There are many Books which the Excellent Dr. himself hath never quoted in any of his writings but he that should infer from thence that he never read them would certainly injure and traduce him But Mr. A. is a Dissenter and peradventure for that reason must be an unlearned and unread man whose reason must be as weak therefore as his reading is small and there must be no more argument in his discourse than there was of Wit or Brains in Andrelinus his Poems which to speak modestly is a scurrilous comparison and not becoming the Pen of the Reverend Dr. Mr. B. had said something in his Answer to the Drs. Sermon of the Peoples Power or right of choosing or at least consenting to the choice of their own Pastors whereupon he says that Mr. B. is very tragical upon this argument and keeps not within tollerable bounds of discretion in pleading the Peoples Right or Cause against Magistrates Patrons and Laws p. 307. And p. 329. he says Mr. B. is unsatisfied with any Laws that are made in this matter and in the same page he says that one would think by Mr. B 's Doctrine all Laws about Patronage are void in themselves and all Rights of Advouson in the King Noblemen Gentlemen and the Vniversities are meer usurpations and things utterly unlawful among Christians since he makes such a personal obligation to choose their own Pastors to lie on the People that they cannot transfer it by their own Act. To which I reply Mr. B. will be well enough satisfied if the People may have the liberty of consenting to the Pastor that by the Patron is presented to them and what is there of unreasonableness in such a design or proposal Blessed be God there are in England many worthy Gentlemen that take care of the disposal of their Livings and present sober and learned men unto them and in my observation such persons are usually acceptable to the People and they consent to them without objection or opposition but then it must be acknowledged that there are many others that take no care of the disposal of them some are Papists and give their Livings to the nomination of their Servants and they sell them to whomsoever will give most for them others are prophane Sensualists and such men will present vitious debauched persons Piety and a sober Conversation may preclude but will never commend a man to their presentation And what if for these reasons and more that might be mentioned the people had a consenting power permitted to them are the Rights of Patronage invaded or abdicated injured or destroyed thereby Hath not the Bishop power in some cases to refuse the Clerk that is presented to him for institution and is the Patrons right evacuated by it Surely no I never heard any such thing affirmed or pretended and if the Patrons right may be preserved with a power of just and reasonable dissent and consent in the Bishop it may be also preserved with the same power in the people Are not Patrons right preserved unless they may impose upon the people ignorant and scandalous Ministers that are neither able nor willing to Preach the Doctrines of Faith and Godliness are not their rights preserved unless they have the liberty of presenting whom they list and sending them such Preachers as instead of being ensamples to the flock in Piety Justice Charity and Sobriety shall be ensamples of Impiety Cruelty Injustice and Intemperance unto them If it should be said that such cannot procure Orders nor