again What if we forget or neglect the tender Consciences of our own Party and comply with yours What security can you or they give us that this shall satisfie them so as to ask no more when this is granted Or that a year hence their Disciples or their Successours shall rest satisfied with what is now desired or granted Really I cannot think any security can be given but that all this being granted yet any man of a melancholly or a malicious or a peevish or a santastical or a wanton Conscience or a Conscience that inclines to get reputation and court applause may call his own a tender Conscience and become seditious and restless if his tender Conscience be not complied with And so no end of their desires nor any more safety by granting what is desired I shall next endeavour to satisfie your desire or rather your challenge why I go so constantly to the Church Service and my answer shall be all in love and in sincerity I go to adore and worship my God who hath made me of nothing and preserved me from being worse than nothing And this Worship and Adoration I do pay him inwardly in my Soul and testifie it outwardly by my behaviour as namely by my Adoration in my forbearing to cover my head in that place dedicated to God and only to his Service and also by standing up at the profession of the Creed which contains the several Articles that I and all true Christians profess and believe and also by my standing up 〈◊〉 giving Glory to the Father the Son and to the Holy Ghost and confessing them to be Three Persous and but one God And secondly I go to Church to praise my God for my Creation and Redemption and for his many deliverances of me from the many dangers of my Body and more especially of my Soul in sending me Redemption by the death of his Son my Saviour and for the constant assistance of his Holy Spirit a part of which Praise I perform frequently in the Psalms which are daily read in the Publick Congregation And thirdly I go to Church publickly to confess and bewail my sins and to beg pardon for them for his merits who died to reconcile me and all Mankind unto God who is both his and my Father and as for the Words in which I beg this mercy they be the Letany and Collects of the Church composed by those learned and devout men whom you and I have tâ—usted to tell us which is and which is not the written Word of God and trusted also to translate those Scriptures into English And in these Collects you may note that I pray absolutely for pardon of sin and for grace to believe and serve God But I pray for health and peace and plenty conditionally even so far as they may tend to his Glory and the good of my Soul and not further And this confessing my sins and begging mercy and pardon for them I do in my adoring my God and by the humble posture of kneeling on my knees before Him And in this manner and by reverend sitting to hear some chosen parts of Gods Word read in the Publick Assembly I spend one hour of the Lords day every Forenoon and half so much time every Evening And since this uniform and devout custom of joyning together in Publick onfession and Praise and Prayer and Adoration of God and in one manner hath been neglected the power of Christianity and humble Piety is so much decayed that it ought not to be thought on but with sorrow and lameutation And I think especially by the Non-conformists And lattly for I am tedious beyond my intention whereas you and your Party would have the Bishops and Cathedral-Church Lands sold to supply the present necessities of the Nation I say first God prevent the Nation from such necessities as shall make them guilty of so many Curses as have been by the Doners of those Lands intailed with thole Lands upon those men that alienate them to any other use than for the use of those that shall serve at God's Altar to which end the Priests Portion was kept with Care and Conscience till the days of King Henry the Eighth who is noted to make the first breach of those Oaths that were always taken and kept by his Predecessors and taken by himself too to preserve the Church-Lands and it is noted that he was the first Violator of those many Laws made also to preserve them out of which Lands he took at the dissolution of the Abbies a part for himself exchanged a part with others that thirsted to thrive by the dissolution and gave the rest to be shar d amongst the Complying Nobility and other Families that then were in greatest power and favour with him concerning which if you desire a further information I refer you to a little Treatise written by the Learned Sir Henry Spelman called De non temerandis Ecclesiis and especial'y to the Preface before it in which you may find many sad Observations of the said King and find there also that more of the Nobility and those other Families and their Children that then shared the Church Lands came to die by the Sword of Justice and other eminent misfortunes in twenty years than had suffered in four hundred years before the dissolution and for a proof of which he refers you to the Parliament Rolls of the twenty-seventh of that King And to me it seems fit that the Observations of the ruine and misfortune of the other Families that were sharers of the Church-Lands made by that pious and learned Knight since the said twenty years which he left written are not also made publick but possibly they may pare too near the quick and are therefore yet forborn I will say nothing of Queen Elizabeth but for King James I will say he did neither follow King Henry's nor her President and his Childrens Children sit this day upon his Throne And for his Son Charles the First who is justly called the Martyr for the Church He had also well considered the Oaths taken by all his Ancestors and by Himself too at his Coronation to preserve the Lands and rights of the Church and therefore in his Book of Penitential Meditations and Vows made in his sad Solitude and Imprisonment at Holmby you may in that Chapter of the Covenant there find that at that time when he apprehended Himself in danger of death yet that this was then his Resolution The principal end of some men in this Covenant is the abasing of Episcopacy into Presbytery and of robbing the church of its Lands and Revenues But I thank God as no man lay more open to the sacrilegious temptation of usurping them which issuing chiefly from the Crown are held of it and can legally revert only to the Crown with my consent so I have always had such a perfect abborrence of it in my Soul that I never found the least inclination to such sacrilegious reformings
Communion To which the Fathers reply was A man may live in an inficted City and not have the Plague My Judgment and publick Practice in Religion are both so well known here and at Rome and both to my danger and damage that I may continue in it with more safety than others And separation may be a sin in me who Judge the unity of the Church in which I was baptized and confirmed and the peace of the State in which I was born to be preforred before my private opinion interest or satisfaction and I think to commit a Schisin and separate from that Church would make me guilty of the sin of a Scandal justly given and therefore live in it and die in it I must though it be the impurest of Christian Churches But let him that now is not of it never be of that Church which is so far departed from the Primitive purity and now maintained only by splendour and the maxims and practice of polity If you doubt the truth of this relation I will give you unquestionable confirmation of it at our next meeting It has been longer than I intended and I beg your pardon and beg you also to consider with what inconsiderable zeal you and your Party rush into Schism and give just cause of Scandal by opposing Government and affronting that Church in which you were born and baptized and I hope confirmed by a Bishop I think the doing so requires your sad and serious consideration For if there be such sins as Schism and Scandal and if there were not they could not have names in Scripture then give me leave to tell you I cannot but wonder that you and the scruple-mongers of your Party should rush into them without any tenderness or scruple of Conscience And here let me tell you the Church of England which you oppose enjoyns nothing contrary to Gods Word and hath summed up in her Creeds and Catechism what is necessary for every Christian to know and to do And can you that are a Shop-keeper or private man think that you are fit to teach and judge the Church or the Church fit to teach and judge you Or can you think the safety or peace of the State or Church in which you live should depend upon the scruples and mistakes of a party of the Common People whose indiscreet and active zeal makes them like the restless Scribes and Pharisees Mat. 13. 15 who compass Sea and Land to get Parties to be of their opinions and by that means beget confusion in both No doubtless Common reason will not allow of this belief for a liberty to preach and persuade to your dangerous Principles would enflame the too hot and furious zeal of so many of your Party and beget so many more restless and dangerous contentions that there could be neither quiet or safety in a Nation but by keeping a standing Army which I know you detest and from the cause of which God deliver us I have told you often that Samuel says 1 Sam. 15. 23. Rebellion is like the sin of Witchcraft and I cannot tell you too often that Schism is too like that mysterious sin for when the fire of Schism and Rebellion is kindled no man knows where it will end Consider this and remember that St. Jude accounts them that make Sects to be fleshly and not to have the Spirit of God which too many of your Fraternity pretend to And now after so long seriousness give me liberty to be so pleasant as to tell you a Tale by which I intend not to provoke you but to explain my meaning There was a North-Country man that came young and poor to London to seek that which he call'd his fortune and it proved to be an Hostler in an Inn of good note in that City in which condition he continued some years and by diligence and frugality get and saved so much money that in time he became the Master of that Inn. And not long after his arrival to that happiness he sent for three of his Neeces one to serve him in his Kitchin and the other two did serve for some years in a like condition in other houses 'till mine Host their Unkle died who at his death left to each of them a hundred pound to buy each of them a North-Country Husband and also to each of them ten pound to buy new Cloaths and bear their charges into the North to see their Mother The three Sisters resolved to go together and the day being appointed two of them bought very fantastical Cloaths and as gaudy Ribbands intending thereby to be noted and admired but the third was of a more frugal humour yet aimed at admiration too and said she would save her money wear her old Cloaths and yet be noted and get reputation at a cheaper rate For she would hold some singular new fantastical opinion in Religion and thereby get admirers and as many as they should and it proved so And doubtless this is the Ambition of many Women Shop-keepers and other of the Common People of very mean parts who would not be admired or noted if they did not trouble themselves and others by holding some odd impertinent singular opinions And tell me freely do not you think that silence would become our Cosin Mrs. B than to talk so much and so boldly against those Clergy-men and others that bow at the Altar she says to the Altar and use other like reverence in Churches where she and her Party are so familiar with God as to use none And concerning which let me tell you my thoughts and then leave you to judge Almighty God in the Second Commandment says he would have none to bow down or worship a graven Image Intimating as I suppose a Jealousie lest that reverence or worship which belongs only to him be ascribed or given to an Idol or Image But that reverence and worship does belong to him and was always paid to him is to me manifest by what the Prophet David says Psal. 5. I will in thy fear worship towards thy holy Temple And again I will praise thy name and worship towards thy holy Temple And again Psal. 132. 138. O let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord These and many more might be urged out of the Old Testament And in the New you may see it is a duty to worship God First St. Paul says Heb. 13. 10. We have an Altar And you may note Rev. 22. 9. where the Angel that had shewed St. John a Vision forbad him to fall down to him but bad him fall down and worship God And again Chap. 14. 7. Worship him that made heaven and earth I omit more Testimonies which might be multiplied and shall tell you next that Churches are sacred and not to be used prophancely For you may note that our Saviour did with a divine indignation whip the money-changers out of the Temple for polluting it and said His house should be
most learned of all Foreign Churches to be the most Orthodox and Apostolical both for Doctrine and Discipline of all those very many that have reformed from the corruptions of the Church of Rome And I think it is worthy your noting that those Bishops and Martyrs that assisted in this Reformation did not as Sir Henry Wotton said wisely think the farther they went from the Church of Rome the nearer they got to heaven for they might go too far but they did with prudent and deliberate consideration retain what was consistent with Gods Word and the practice of the most Apostolical Primitive and purest times as may appear by the many unanswerable reasons that have been given against both the Non-Conformists and Papists that have excepted against our Reformation The first for retaining too much and the latter for not enough For you ought to note that neither of them have ever writ against the Doctrine or Discipline of this Church but they have received answers to their damage And this being considered you ought to lay to heart the disturbance that many of you that pretend to tenderness of Conscience have formerly made and do still make in this Church and State even at this present time And you ought to consider that if this Church were overthrown the Church of Rome would make it their great advantage and therefore many of them do encourage and assit you in this present disturbance and for no other end And therefore look about you in time and do not say when it is too late You meant not to bring in Popery But remember I once told you there was a Lawyer that was so ignorant that he thought he spoke against his Clients Adversary when he spoke for him and meant it not And after such a manner you act for the Church of Rome For let me tell you that if ever Popery or a standing Army be set up in this Nation which God grant I may never see it is the indiscrect zeal and restless activity of you and your Party that will bring both in though you mean it not Let me ask you seriously Can you think the powerful man that is now become of the Romish Church did love you so much or like your Principles so well as to get a Suspension of the Laws against Conventicles because he liked your Opinions or your Practices when the power was in your hands in the time of the late mischievous Long Parliament 1640 Or can you think he or his Party did hold a Correspondence with some of the Chief of your Party for any other end but to assist in the ruine of the English Church no doubtless for they know and you ought to consider that if that were but down there were no visible bank to stop the stream of Popery And then farewel the liberty and care of tender Consciences There would be an end of that cajouling and flattery And next let me ask you this friendly question Do you think there is such a sin as Heresie And if you think there be let me ask you Whether he that holds Heretical Opinions should be suffered to go up and down to poyson and persuade others to his belief And if you believe he ought not so to do then I ask Whether Heresie can be known to be Heresie or prevented or punisht but by some power trusted in the hands of some Person or Persons whom the highest Power hath chosen and trusted to judg what is Heresie And then prevent or suppress and punish it And if you grant this which no man of reason will deny I hope you will grant Clergy-men whose time hath been spent in such studies as have enabled them to know truth and falshood are the fittest to Judg what is Heresie And if you grant this then these judges must have some name to distinguish them from others of the inferiour Clergy And if by a name of distinction I hope the known name of Bishop or Church Governour which is so frequently used in Scripture and the Writings of all the Fathers of the Church and so well known in this and all Nations will not be by you excepted against And this is told you in order to remembring you that in the time of the late Long Parliament 1640. the common Citizens had been so madded by the discourse and Sermons of the Nonconforming Ministers which pretended tenderness of Conscience that they being possest with a furious zeal went by troops to the Parliament at Westminster clamoured and assronted the Bishops as they went thither and cried out No Bishops no Bishops that is to say No Judges of Heresie or Schism No punishing of these which you call sins but we know are not We know what is truth and resolve to do what is good in our own eyes And by such clamours and the malicious misguided and active Zeal that then possest those people and a minor part of the Parliament then sitting The major and more prudent part of it were so affronted and threatned that they appeared not and in their absence the Bishops voted as useless as the said Zealous and Ignorant Common people had desir'd And now the hedge of Government and punishment being broken down Dell the Arch-Heretick Printed his Book against the Holy Ghost and that and so many such other Haeresies and Blasphemies were then Vented Printed and Justifified as I am neither willing to remember or name My good Cousin this was the effect of that ignorant zeal then and to this it tends now again And to this it will come if God be not so good to this sinful Nation as to make the Women the Shop-keepers and the middle-witted People of it Jest busie and more humble and lowly in their own eyes and to think that they are neither called nor are fit to meddle with and judge of the most hidden and mysterious points in Divinity and Government of the Church and State And instead of being Busie bodies which St. Peter accounts to be a sin 1 Pet. 4. 15. to follow that counsel which St. Paul gives to his Thessalonians To study to be quiet and to do their own business 2 Thes. 4. 11. I have told you how the major part of the Parliament and the Bishops were used by the minor part and those pretenders to Conscience that were of their Party Now give me leave to tell you how these zealous men having gotten into all power used the two Universities of this Nation and those of the Beneficed Clergy that would not violate those Oaths they had taken both when they took their degrees in the University and at their entring into Holy Orders at their being made Deacons and Priests As also their Oaths to the Bishop at their admission into their spiritual Livings and the care of Souls And first for the usage of the Universities Doubtless all rational and uninterested men cannot but think the Universities fittest to make or judge of all lawful or unlawful Oaths As also of obedience
to Governours But it was so far otherwise that very unlearned and very unfit men were sent to Visit judge and reform them And by them was also sent the Covenant and other Oaths to be taken without disputing to be taken even by all from the lowest Graduate to the highest in Order or Power or to lose their subsistence by being expelled both their Colledges and the University And this was executed with very great strictness and as much cruelty by these pretenders to tenderness of Conscience And in like manner were all conformable Beneficed Ministers used by a Committee of cruel and ignorant Triers who were to examine and judge of their Learning and their measures of Grace And if they were by them judged defective in either then they were unfit to hold their good Livings And by this means and their imposing the Covenant and other Oaths and their refusing to take them those good Livings became void and fit for those Tryers themselves or their Friends that had Learning and Grace and Gratitude too And they were quickly got into possession and the right Owners as quickly imprisoned for not taking the Covenant and other Oaths contrary both to their Consciences and the many Oaths they had formerly taken Solomon in his Book of Wisdom Chap. 2. makes the wickedness of the ungodly first to blind them and then he makes them to say Our power is the Law of righteousness And such was the Power and Law of these Tryers and such was their cruel usage of that Power as was too sadly testified by the great suffering of the Consormable Clergy Many whose great poverty and other sufferings were such and undergone with so much patience and so calm a fortitude for many had Wives and many Children that I protest I heard a very considerable Papist say in those times That if their Clergy would have suffered half so much in the days of King Edward the Sixth the Religion of the Protestants had never prevailed in England Which saying scemed to me very considerable And I think this to be considerable also That those Tryers and their Brethren of the several Committees came by degrees to distinghish themselves from others by calling themselves The Godly Party And by degrees came to such a confidence that they only were so that they made God to be as cruel and ill natured a God as they were men Not allowing him to save any but themselves and their Party But I will urge this no farther lest the truth I write seem too bitter But I return to what may seem more considerable and probably less provoking I do observe that your Party that scruple many small things scruple not at the great sin of Schism I think they do scarce consider or think there is such a sin And this is the more to be wondred at because in all the Reformed Churches in Foreign Nations they think otherwise and punish it And they think the Doctrine and Discipline and Publick Worship of God in our Church to be most Apostolical and most agreeable to the Word of God And many of them wish theirs were like to ours And for a testimony of this I refer you to a view of their several approbations of it as they be collected and summed up and lately published by Dr. Durell sometimes Preacher of the Reformed French Church in the Savoy in London And for one testimony that the sin of Schism ought to be better considered and carefully avoided by all people I shall in what follows give you a relation that may prove I am not singular in this opinion Wishing most affectionately that it may proveas useful as it is true and as I intend it In the late persecution of the Conformable Clergy there was Dr. Eleazer Duncon a Prebend I think of Ely or Durham a man of singular learning and of an unblemisht life but sequested he was and you may guess why This good man being sequested and so made useless as to the service of Gods Church publickly And being independent of the world as to Wife and Children and weary of beholding the ruine of so many sacred Structures the cruel usage contempt and poverty of the Conformable Clergy for many of them had Wives and Children resolved to spend some part of the remaining part of his life in travel And thereby to inform himself by conference and observation what the belief and publick Worship of God was both in the Greek and all the Latine Churches not only those that depend but those that be independent on the Church of Rome and he did so to his great satisfaction And after some years so spent in his return homeward which was in the year 1648. he took Venice in his way To which place he came indisposed as to his health and immediately fell into a dangerous Fever This good man was in his long Travel so noted for his learning and the sanctity of his life that the day after his arrival in Venice he was sent to by Father Fulgentio who had been the Pupil and was now the Successor to Father Paul in his Colledge of the Service Father Paul and Fulgentio are both so known and valued by all the learned of Italy and all other Christian Nations that they neither need my Character or Commendations to enquire his health and an offer of advice to procure it And in order to both he would wait on him next day if he pleased to allow it The last of which being thankfully accepted the Father did the next day at a scasonable hour make him a charitable visit And after a loving and quiet Conference the Father having treated him with words of Christian compassion offered him a supply of money if he needed and being ready to take his leave told the Doctor He and-his Colledge should pary for him both day and night Which good office the Doctor most humbly accepted of and after giving thanks added this Father your Charity is the more perfect in that you will do this Christian office for one that your Church accounts an Heretick To which the Father's reply was But I do not I look upon you as a true Catholick yea as a Confessor forced out of your Native Country for the profession of the most true Religion for I look upon the Church of England as I know it by your Liturgy Articles and Canons I know not your practice to be the most Apostolical Church in the whole World and the Church of Rome to be at this time the most impure After which ingenuous profession the Father observing the Doctor to grow faint and uneasie left him for that time but after the Doctors recovery and during his stay in Venice the Father and he had many free and friendly discourses of the same subject in one of which the Doctor said Father your Confession of the impurity of the Roman Church and the 18. of your own Objections lately shew'd to me against it require an Apology for your continuing in that