suppress a Vice or any Immorality in themselves then this difference ought to be so far from being reputed a Crime that it becomes Necessary and ought to be Encouraged and they that put a scandal on it are very much to blame And it must be allowed that men may dispute things in utramque partem affirm and deny the same thing innocently enough so the good intention be secured and it be to edification and make no infraction on Charity But the things that become Criminal are those sort of differences which every side and party of Christians are but too guilty of and which concerns them all to amend and that is Forcing an Interpretation on Scripture contrary to the natural and genuine sense thereof and that with a design to countenance their own Interest or Party And what the Papists Object is but too true though they have the least reason to complain that every one Interprets the Scripture to his Side and Party and so do they to Theirs and that the divisions of Protestants have been principally occasioned by every on 's having the use of the Scriptures which admitting to be true since these differences are unavoidable and naturally Innocent in themselves and only accidentally evil and much better at the worst than forced Agreements one would think they should have no further to Object Since further if the use of good things should be denied and prohibited on the score of their abuse and accidental Inconveniencies a just pretence might be brought in for all the Irregularities in the World. Now since the Essentials and Circumstantials in Religion are agreed on since it has been made to appear that every one may understand so much of Religion and the Scriptures as is necessary for his Salvation since 't is impossible men should not differ and disagree as also in most things not to be deceived one would think these things should make men modest and peaceable and hinder the ill effect of any dissention that might happen among them But men are willing to admit and indulge one another a difference of Thought and Understanding in most of their Secular Concerns but grow impatient and are unwilling to admit any difference of Sentiments in the matters of Religion and to their dealing on this account most of the Confusions and Distractions of Christendom owe their Original and after the Unreasonableness Injustice and Folly of the thing has been made to appear to the World one would think they should cease their mad and ineffectual proceedings For it has been made to appear to the World That Conscience ought not to be constrained that a Corporal Punishment ought not to be inflicted for a Spiritual Fault that men ought not to Punish where they have no power to Command that they cannot command the belief of a thing unless they give a sufficient Reason and that that can only be sufficient when the party is convinced and that is not in their power to know unless by the party acknowledged that matters intellectual are not discerned by a Secular Power that to punish men for differing in Opinion is as unreasonable as to punish them for having different Faces that no Humane Authority is either sufficient for cognizance or determination or competent for infliction of punishment in such matters that the Terms of Schismatick and Heretick are only Scare-crows and signifie next to nothing that no man is a Schismatick but he that departs from a good Life that fears not God nor loves his Neighbour and that no man is a Heretick or ought to be punished as such but he that teaches ill Life or takes up an ill Opinion contrary to Fundamentals on a bad account viz. on the Score of Pride Ambition Interest Malice or any other Sinister End which will be very difficult to be known that 't is impossible for men not to differ that 't is not necessary they should agres that all Sorts and Parties of Christians have been deceived that amidst so great difficulties 't is impossible they should not be deceived that Punishments ought to be proportioned to their Crimes that Spiritual Faults ought only to have Spiritual Punishments that a certain Punishment ought not to be inflicted for an uncertain Fault that most Spiritual Faults are uncertain that if a man was punished or killed he was certainly punished or killed but that it was not so certain he was in a Fault that Conclusions ought not to be stronger than their Premises that no man ought to be Judge in his own Case that Reason Discourse and Agreements are the only Proper Methods and Instruments to Convince Men and no other that if others of an Heterogenial stamp were used they might make Hypocrites but no Proselites and that they were never accompanied with success that the generality of men are disposed to live quietâ—y that Oppression Tyranny and Penal Laws are occasion of most of the Disturbances in Christendom that fallible men ought not to call their Opinions Articles of Faith that they ought not over-hastily to interest their Maker in their uncertain Cause that God's Glory doth consist with the Good of Men and may be maintained without their Destruction Further it hath been made evidently to appear against them that say We have a Law That Law cannot make a Truth that Truth is as old as the Eternal Veracity and suffers no Degrees for what was yesterday will be true to day to morrow and to the End of the World And therefore to force People to be of their Religion because Established by Law is a great piece of Vanity and Nonsense That neither Fathers Councils no Individual Man or Company of Men no Power or Force upon Earth are able to make a Truth or an Article of Faith. No all they are able to do is by way of Promulgation Declaration or Explanation of Truth but nothing by way of Creation they may illustrate indeed and make Truth appear to be so but they cannot neither add or diminish What was Truth and agreeable to God's Will was so before they undertook the Disquisition or before they came into the World and will be so when they are extinct and gone out of it notwithstanding all their endeavours for or against it Again Nothing is more Certain than that Men are Men and Uncertain that they are and have been proved fallible That General Councils have erred and contradicted one another on Record that Fathers have been mistaken that what has been may be again and therefore that all respectively may be used with reverence and respects as occasion may require as the best Humane Guides and Directors but always with deference and an eye to their Fallibility that their Opinions ought not to be pressed as Articles of Faith nor their Determinations have the weight of Mathematical Demonstrations Methinks these Considerations should make men look a little amicably on one another and a little come to themselves But I find they do not and may be the Scence is laid too
Jerusalem indeed was the place appointed and particular Rites and Ceremonies were enjoyned and made obligatory but now those times are past all Rites Types and Ceremonies are abolished and other Times are come that God must be Worshipped after another manner I observe you mind Times and Places and particular Methods too much and have foolish and unprofitable Contentions for the same and mind Sincerity too little therefore I assign and appoint you no particular Place Method or Time But be sure when ever you Worship God let it be sincerely and heartily let it be in Spirit and in Truth and you shall then be accepted Now men have strange Contentions about the Truth of the Way of God's Worship but do but grope in the dark since no way is appointed I do not say they do amiss if they mean well but the Truth of the Action I reckon is the principal thing by how much more easie it is to be performed and more earnestly of God required for he saith Son give me thy Heart And 't is an easie thing for any man to know whether he is in Earnest whether he is Sincere Hearty and Real in what he doth whether he Loves or Fears or truly Worships God or no whether the Affections of the Soul accompany his Actions and that he is no Hypocrite This I say is easie for any man of the meanest Capacity to tell But then whether the Circumstantials of our Worship be in a true Way is not so easily found out for the Reasons aforementioned and the great Difficulties therein And if after Diligence used since no particular way is appointed we mistake in choosing instances of Respect to our Maker our mistakes are Invincible and we shall never be answerable for them But if we be 't is only to him Our Lord and not to One Another And therefore 't is the most unreasonable thing imaginable for men to judge one another in these points much more to impose their respective Fancies and Models with insufferable Penalties one upon another when they can have so little Assurance they are in the Right But while I am endeavouring to Cool and Qualifie the Mad World by Reasons and Arguments detecting theiir Mistakes and exposing to View the Unnecessary Occasions of their Differences and Unreasonableness of their Destructive Contentions I am presently Mr. Wakes Text at St. Laurence and Mercers Chappel Interrupted with a Text of Scripture lakely Preached in the City and that is Contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints What says some would you not have us contend for the Faith Would you not have us earnest for our Religion and for the Truth I reply Yes by any means And this Text doth encourage you to contend not only for the True Faith and True Religion but also for That Faith and That Religion which you believe to be so for that is the same to you as the True and no difference can or ought to be made And then this Text if not duly tempered and moderated is sufficient to set all Christendom together by the Ears for every Party and Sect think their own way of Religion and Faith to be Primitive Apostolical and True and by consequence have a Commission from this Text to contend earnestly for it And some have acted so earnestly and depend so much on the goodness of their Cause and trueness of their Faith that they have Plundered Imprisoned nay Killed and Murdered their fellow Christians to testifie to the World their Earnestness and that they were in Earnest but in my Opinion they had much better been in Jest than so Extravagantly Earnest Therefore this Earnestness must be limited so that it be not Prejudicial to our selves or Destructive to others It ought to be managed with the greatest Cautiousness Prudence and Discretion and by no other Instruments but those of Perswasion and Ratiocination Now lest People should be so much in earnest again as formerly the Wise Judicious and Loving Father of our Countrey would put Bounds to such destructive Earnestness which hath made such Devastations among his People he would take their Weapons out of their Hands with which they have done so much Mischief But they like foolish Children are Peevish and Froward exert their Passions grow Angry are Sullen and Discontented run and make their Moan to their Mother whose too Indulgent Nature and Tender Heart is but too much Grieved to see her Children out of Humour and is almost ready to Sacrifice their future Happiness and Prosperity to their present Quiet and Contentment But what should be done in this Case is an Impertinent Question For the Discretion and Authority of the Father ought to prevail against the Over-fondness of the Indulgent Mother and the Peevishness of the Humoursome Children if they cry for Knives to cut them Candles to burn them or Food that is unwholesome for them they must be silenced and no notice taken of their Childish Demands So that after what has been said and proved Methinks 't is the most Unreasonable Undutiful and Shameful Opposition imaginable which some go about to make against his Majesty that when he endeavours to make an Establishment of a Toleration and offers to put it out of the Power of any one Party to Hurt or Disturb another and that by as good Humane Security as possibly can be contriv'd they should so Obstinately and Childishly reject it That when it has been made so plainly appear that Penal Laws and Tests have been the Ruine and do Ruine the Nation and will Ruine any Nation that maintain them That they are most Unreasonable Unjust and Uncharitable and yet Maintained and Continued Good God that men should be so Stupid What can this Argue but that Heaven has no kindness for such men But seeing their Obstinateness and Perverseness gives them over to Court their own Ruine and Destruction and say I May the Rods be continued on such Fools Backs since they are so fond of them For my part I think to be clapped up in a Goal to be Fined Plundred Wounded or Killed on the Score of meer Religion and for having different Thoughts and Apprehensions from other men is a Reproach to the Christian World and the most Brutish Irrational and Shamefullest thing imaginable and I think it every mans Duty to endeavour to Extirpate such a Wicked Principle For me to be punished for being a Man for belieing when there is Reason given or an Argument which seems to me to be Reason which is the same thing is a thing I can scarce think of with Patience I know to Countenance such Unjustifiable Actions there is a Black Charge advanced and that is Heretick Schismatick Turbulency of Spirit Unruly Enemies to Government Plotters Seditious Obstinate Ungrateful c. These are the common Topicks of Scandal which one Party charges the other with when they have got them under or have abused them They think to charge others with Faults is to make themselves Innocent
An Expedient for Peace PERSWADING An Agreement amongst CHRISTIANS c. READER I Saw the World in a Flame and among the rest have thrown in my Bucket to quench it Indeed I have been something in haste but where there is Fire in the case this must not be called a Fault but a Duty But I hope I have not made so much haste or been so ill guided as to mistake with some and to fill my Bucket with Oyl instead of Water I 'll assure thee I drew it from a very Charitable Fountain and am none of those that have either Respect to Persons or Parties But I think I need not make my Excuse for the ensuing Discourse for that would be to Apologize for doing my Duty All that I shall desire of thee is That before thou begin to read thou lay aside all those Common Enemies to Truth and Peace viz. Passion Prejudice Partiality c. or else we shall both of us lose our Labours RELIGION I will not say the True Religion as men manage it is become the grievance and burden of the Nation and is the proper Province of the State to take it into consideration When the Messias was born the Holy Angels Anthem was Glory to God in the Highest Peace on Earth Good Will towards Men but ill men and the Devil together have ordered things so that the same is inverted and may now be said D. shonour to God on High Confusion on Earth Ill Will towards Men The truth is men have been so madly extravagant in the things they call Religion and have made such tumults and stirs in this World about the things of another that notwithstanding I contend earnestly for a Toleration as the only remedy to heal them yet 't is not for a Toleration to do mischief and I can willingly subscribe after all I shall say in behalf thereof that no sort or party of men should be indulged in any of their Religions or Perswasions of what denomination soever but those that are ready and willing to give the State security for their Good Behaviour and Peaceable Living Now the concern of Religion is to make men happy here as well as hereafter and after all men's talk has but two Parts To love the Lord our God with all our Hearts c. And our Neighbour as our selves But men have been so mad that they have almost vacated both by over zealously and indiscreetly endeavouring to perform the first and have thought they could not love God enough unless they hated and destroyed their Neighbour That these things are but too true all Christendom by sad Experience can attest and in particular this unhappy Nation which like a Ship at Sea has been long a sinking The Captain indeed labours to save her having found out her leaks and call to his men for affistance but they like madmen every one endeavour to secure something of her Cargoe not considering that when the Ship is gone all is gone and instead of assisting do unreasonably oppose him So that he must save them against their Wills or they will inevitably perish Indeed it is a lamentable thing to consider that that same Religion which was given by Heaven on purpose to the Sons of Men to make them happy should by an unhappy concurrence of evil Accidents make them miserable and I think to find out those evil Accidents 't is the duty of every Man especially of every Christian and therefore I will lay down my Observations thereof altho' I meet with the common fate of Reconcllers to have blows for my pains Then First I take notice men make a false Calculation of the Differences and Dissentions of men in points of Religion and call them criminal when they are not and endeavour to reconcile them when 't is impossible and put too great a value on Agreements that is when men do the same things together not regarding so much the Truth Unity and Sincerity of their Minds as the Company Presence and Congregation of their Bodies in one Place and performing a thing after the same manner All the World will acknowledge with me that what is impossible to be done is not necessary to be done Now as long as men have variety of Principles several Educations Constitutions Tempers Distempers Hopes Fears Degrees of Light and Degrees of Understanding several Capacities Offices and Imployments 't is impossible and therefore not necessary they should be all of one Mind And therefore he that attempts it does like him that claps his Shoulder to the Ground to stop an Earthquake that would stop the course of the Sun stem the raging Ocean or pull down the Pillars of the Earth 'T is foolish therefore to wish it or expect it and they that endeavour it do but vex and trouble the World and thinking to procure they but spoil all its Harmony which consists in so great variety of Discords It has been said by a learned Prelate that in the large interval of sixteen hundred and odd years so much juggling hath passed in Christendom That the Obscurity of some Questions the nicety of some Articles the intricacy of some Revelations the variety of Humane Vnderstandings the windings of Logick the tricks of Adversaries the subtilty of Sophisters the ingagement of Educations personal Affections the portentous number of Writers the infinity of Authorities the vastness of some Arguments as consisting in the Enumeration of many Particulars the uncertainty of others the several degrees of Probabilities the difficulty of Scriptures the invalidity of Probation of Tradition the opposition of all exterior Arguments to each other and their open Contestation the publick violence done to Authors and Records the private Arts and Supplantings the falsifyings and indâ—fatigable Industry of some to abuse all Vnderstandings and all Perswasions into their own Opinions These and a thousand more even all the difficulties of Things all the weaknesses of Man and all the Arts of the Devil have made it impossible for any man in so great variety of matter not to be deceiv'd And say I too have made it equally impossible for men to agree or be all of One Mind It hath been made plainly appear that Rites and Ceremonies that such and such Vestments such and 〈…〉 Ministers such Discipline Gevernment or way of Administration such Places or Times c. are things of an indifferent Nature and not of absolute Necessity to Men's Salvation nor belong to the Being or Essence of God's Church but are things alterable according to Contingencies and Emergencies to be retained or disallowed according to the custom of Places or Nations or as they are made plainly to appear to minister to the Ends of Peace and Charity for the Edification of God's Church and not Destruction And that the essential and fundamental qualifications that make a man a Christian and a true Member of Jesus Christ are Holiness Purity Piety Charity Belief in God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and our Warrant herein is what St.
Indiscreet Zeal their Weakness or Interest hath made them so obstinate and resolute and put them on such Shifts and Artifices that have made them come off worse Men I am sure worse Christians Since then it must be allowed me that 't is impossible the World should agree or be all of one Mind in matters of Religion and no means found competent to make them so to what end then do Men Dispute Do they think to Unite the Poles or reconcile Contradictions Indeed their Endeavours may be pitied because they mean well but not at all to be commended But to speak Truth they have seen the impossibility of their Attempt long ago and therefore laid their Heads together for an Expedient to salve all Hence came the concern of Infallibility a poor shift indeed which hath made all things worse than they were before and has been so often baffled and is such a ridiculous thing so much against the Experience of all Mankind that Laughing at it is the best way of Arguing And to my Apprehension the more Certain and Infallible Truth of the Impossibility of Agreement is a much better Expedient to charm the mad World into an Agreement than that of Infallibility For when after so much Experience and so many Attempts made Men find the impossibility of Agreement methinks they should at last agree that is they should yield themselves Vanquished see their Faults and Vanity of Contention be induced to be at Peace one with another cease their mutual Violence and Severity and Amicably turn all into mutual Love Compliance and Charity And when the Romanists boast of their Agreement and Infallibility and object it to the Protestants that they cannot agree I would have them tell them again that 't is impossible to agree nor is it necessary and that it is no Crime to disagree in their Sense Also that their Agreement however they may boast is no Agreement that the Fagots may as well be said to agree when they are bound up together or Sheep when drove up together and pounded in their Folds and that it is rather a Combination or any thing in the World more proper than an Agreement And let me ask the World the Question Where the Harm would be if Men Worship their Maker in their own way and have various and different Apprehensions of Things if all their respective Opinions and Sentiments be secured from having ill Effects on the Publick and from disturbing one another What is that to me if a Man think a Tree to be a Man or a Man to be a Beast if a Man so mis-thought and apprehended be secured from being baited or worried We are all to answer to one common Lord and Master He is to be our Judge if we have served him not right Indeed I look on it as my Duty to inform my Neighbour and instruct him if he be out of the way if I think my way the better and more pleasing to my Maker But then since I may be mistaken and out of the way and he in the right way my method with him ought to be no other than Reason and Discourse and that in the most moderate and discreet way I can For if I should do otherwise I may bring a greater Inconvenience on him than that I pretend to Regulate But again As to the innocency of Differences why should my Man be esteemed a Criminal or punished as such whose Desires and Intentions are to please his Maker as well as mine We see all Rivers little and great at last discharge themselves into the Ocean and all Divisions and Sects of Christians have the same End and Tendency and Terminate in the same Center viz. in endeavouring to Please to Glorifie and Honour their Maker Why therefore should the distinct Ways and Methods in Spirituals be more a Reproach than those in Temporals and Men not to be allowed to choose for themselves their Method in obtaining a Mansion in another World as well as securing a Possession in this Their own Souls lies at stake which if they have any apprehensions of must needs oblige them to be sincere But this interposing in other Mens Matters and being over-Officious I like not and they that force their own Inventions and Models of Worship on other Men under the specious pretences of Right and Truth do I am afraid force a Trade rather than Truth which stands in need of no Coercion And indeed there is such a mysterious Trade driven in the Concerns of Religion and so much Gain gotten by some particular Methods that 't is no wonder Men contended so earnestly for them And amongst other hindrances of true Hollness and Christian Affection and of the Establishment of Truth and Peace among us are the Dignities Honours and large Revenues of Spiritual Men And I beg some Gentlemens Pardon if I think amiss when I say I believe the Flames of Contention that are afoot and so much disturb Christendom would cease and abate were the Oily Substance of their fat Benefices a little diminished or taken away And that a great many Men would not think it worth their while to contend so about the invisible things of another World were there not a great deal to be gotten in this But in order to a Conclusion We may hope and wish Truth and Peace to flourish in the World but we never shall see it as long as Temporals are so mixt with Spirituals There will never be a prosperous or blessed Issue of such an unhallowed and unsanctified mixture But when there is a Divorce put to these and all Power of the Church be devolved on the State and the Men be chosen in another manner and their Allowances setled on them by the State and when Learning is better managed and reformed For the Poet saith but too true Whatsoever ill the State invades The Pulpit either forces or perswades Others may bring the Fewel to the Fire But they the Breath which makes the Flame aspire And that was but an unlucky sort of Comment which one made of those Words wrote over the Head of ouâ— Saviour by Pilate in Hebrew Greek and Latin That he should be perseeuted most by men skilfull in those Languages For 't is the Learned men are the Warriers and manage all our Contentions they would in a manner naturally Disband had they not such Leaders who have little else to do but to raise unnecessary Quarrels and set the World together by the Ears The other three parts of the World have little leasure and less will and abilities to maintain them I say when Learning is better managed and when a perfect and unalterable Toleration of all Perswasions in Religion is established then the Eternal God will bless the World with Truth and Peace but 't is only the last I mean Toleration which we at present may expect and that for the Reasons aforementioned as also for the unvaluable Benefits hereafter we shall certainly reap thereby For in particular What can