to contest with Princes and Nobles and all ranks and degrees about their Immunities Priviledges Pre-eminencies to multiply Constitutions and Ceremonies for props to their own Greatness but not to promote the Spiritual Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in the hearts of people according to the life and power of Christianity The above-named Venetian Gentleman in his Narrative of the Popes Nuncio delivers this Maxime That the Court of Rome in perpetual pursuance of its old pretences is more sollicitous and laborious to reverse and destroy the Oath of Allegiance because it seems contrary to its temporall grandeur then to extirpate such Heresies as the Realm of England is infected with Even so such an Hierarchy will be more industrious and careful to establish and enlarge their own Power Dignity then to maintain and propagate Christs true Religion What are the weapons of the Warfare by which this Mystical State prevails Not such as are mighty through God working upon the conscience but pecuniary Mulcts and greater temporal penalties not to the wounding of the spirit but to the breaking of the outward estate By what wayes and methods must it be advanced The constant and practical preaching of the Word must be discountenanced Snares must be laid for the most zealous Ministers Sports and pastimes on the Sabbath dayes must be held forth with allowance and approbation Men of strict lives and serious in Religion must be reproached for Fanaticks By these means a people being first enthralled to ignorance superstition and profaness will be disposed unto blinde obedience and perfect spiritual bondage For in very deed the State here described will never stand safely among a people that are free serious searching and discerning in matters of Religion For this cause an Hierarchy of this nature hath a strong bias towards Popery Nay it must for its own safety approach as near it as the Nation can well bear The Reformed Religion doth not glory in the vast riches outward pomp and splendour of Ecclesiastical persons Wherefore when the grandeur of Prelates and pomp of Ceremonies is affected and admired the Church of Rome is sure to finde favour in the eyes of the Clergy The said Venetian reports That the Universities Bishops and Divines of this Realm dayly imbrace Catholick Opinions though they profess them not with open mouth for fear of the Puritans In this matter let them stand or fall by the evidence of their own writings Let it be well observed that the designes of suppressing Puritans and complying with Papists in this Nation had their beginning both at once and proceeded in equal paces And it hath appeared that the moderate Cassandrian Grotian Popery was no abomination to many Prelatists The Conciliators of our age have judged Papists and moderate Protestants as they call them very reconcileable but have cast the Calvinists or Puritans without the limits of the pacification Wherefore we cannot conceive that the excessive height of Prelacy I say not this of regulated Episcopacy to be the strongest Bulwark against Popery unless by Popery is meant no more then what the Trent Fathers except the Italians generally opposed to wit the stupendious exorbitant power of the Pope who pretends to be not only Supream but in effect sole Bishop of the Universe as reputing all other Bishops his meer subjects and delegates We confess Popery in this new and strict notion might be controlled by the height of Prelacy But according to a vulgar sence we take Popery in the height thereof for the Heresies and Idolatries and in the lower degree thereof for the gross errors and superstitions of the Church of Rome Section XXXII Moreover pure necessity in that state will constrain the Hierarchy to negotiate with Rome if they subvert and ruine the Presbyterians If in such a case they intend to uphold a Protestant State they understand not their own concernment The Bishops must either retreat to a moderate compliance with Presbyteriaus or advance to a reconciliation with Papists If they had a design to extirpate the Presbyterians and could accomplish it are they able afterwards alone and by themselves to bear up against the main force and to withstand all the wiles and methods of the popish Faction at home and abroad They mistake themselves if they think their unalterable adherents are so numerous and powerful In case they dissipate that other party which hath been always found most active vigorous and vigilant against Romish Encroachments what remains besides themselves and their zealots but a common dronish multitude that will do little for any religion or men of loose principles that would easily embrace Popery as a flesh-pleasing Religion When the common people are left to ignorance and prophaness for servile ends and purposes they are thoroughly prepared for Popery which is a gross sensual formal pompous way agreeable to the multitude whereas Fanaticism the other extreme takes but with a few in comparison because it hath something of pretended illuminations spiritual notions and raptures to which the common multitude is not propense If you ask how hath Prelacy held it out hitherto against Popery even from the first Reformation take notice that the Episcopal Clergy did not go about to exterminate the Puritans before their latter times and then he that had half an eye could discern the notable advance and the confident expectations of the Popish faction Section XXXIII Do any persons conceive a Reconciliation with Rome hopeful or possible upon moderate tearms as they suppose namely the permission of the marriage of Priests the Popes Dispensation for the Oaths of Allegiance and Supermacy so far as it concerns the Kings temporal power the administring of the Communion in both kinds and the Liturgy officiated in the English Tongue Let them observe that Panzani the Popes Nuncio in England declared privately to his intimate friend that the Pope would never admit any man to govern here as Bishop meaning over the Catholicks that should favour the Oath of Allegiance And the reason hereof is evident because it is a thing contrary to the maxims of Rome Moreover in that little History of the said Nuncio there is a passage which being well considered doth evince that the Courts of England and Rome are irreconcileable unless England become intirely papal That Author saith That this Realm is so perversly addicted to maintain its own resolute opinion of excluding the Popes authority that this hath been the cause why the Catholicks who for the first twelve years conformed themselves unto the Politie introduced into the Church of England have since separated from it and to testifie their uniting to the Pope have refused to frequent the Protestant Churches and have therby framed one party in that State Let a fair accord in the general be supposed yet the sole point of the Popes Supremacy shal dash the whole agreement We know that Jesuitism is the predominant humour in the Papacy and nothing can be done without their influence and therefore we cannot
kneeling and lifting up of the hands and eyes in prayer as also those meer Circumstances of Decency and Order the omission whereof would make the service of God either undecent or less decent As they worship God in the spirit according to the simplicity of Gospel Institutions so they rejoyce in Christ Jesus having no confidence in a legal Righteousness but desire to be found in him who is made unto us Righteousness by gracious Imputation Yet withall they affirm constantly that good works of piety towards God and of Justice and Charity towards men are necessary to salvation Their Doctrine bears full conformity with that of the Reformed Churches held forth in their publiek Confessions and particularly with that of the Church of England in the nine and thirty Articles only one or two passages peradventure excepted so far as they may import the asserting of Prelacy and humane Mysticall Ceremonies They insist much on the necessity of Regeneration and therein lay the groundwork for the practise of godliness They press upon themselves and others the severe exercise not of a Popish outside formall but a spirituall and reall mortification and self-denial according to the power of Christianity They are strict observers of the Lords day and constant in Family prayer They abstain from oaths yea petty oaths and the irreverent usage of Gods name in common discourse and in a word they are sober just and circumspect in their whole behaviour Such is the temper and constitution of this party which in its full latitude lies in the middle between those that affect a Ceremoniall Worship and the height of Hierarchical Government on the one hand and those that reject an ordained Ministery and setled Church order and regular Unity on the other hand Section VI. Within these extensive limits the Presbyterian party contains several thousands of learned godly orthodox Ministers being diligent and profitable Preachers of the Word and exemplary in their Conversation among whom there are not a few that excell in Polemical and Practical Divinity also of the judicious sober serious part of the people in whose affections his Majesty is most concerned they are not the lesser number By means of a practical Ministery this way like the Leaven in the Gospel parable hath spread and seasoned the more considerate and teachable sort in all parts of the Kingdom and especially in the more civilized places as Cities and Towns For indeed such as are of this minde and this way do make Religion their business and imitate the Bereans commended nobleness resolving not to take up Religion upon trust but to search the Scriptures daily whether those things which they hear are so that they may judiciously embrace the truth Adde hereunto that one of his Majesties Kingdoms is Presbyterian Certainly such a people may claim a portion in their Gracious Soveraign and surely he doth not he will not in any wise refuse them Section VII The men of this perswasion are not lukewarm but true Zealots Nevertheless they have no Fellowship with the spirit of Enthusiastical and Anabaptistical Fancy and Frenzy They are no Fanaticks although they begin to be by some abused under that name but they are persons of known learning prudence piety and gravity in great numbers besides of inferiour rank a vaste multitude of knowing serious honest people None of all which are led blindfold by Tradition or Implicite Faith or do run headlong into Fanatick Delusions but they give up themselves to the sole direction and authority of the holy Scriptures Wherefore impartial reason will conclude that they chose this way as with sincerity of affection so with gravity of Judgement and that the things themselves even the more disputable part thereof as that against the Hierarchy and Ceremonies as such as may frequently prevail with good and wise men in as much as they appear to those that have embraced them to have the Impress of Divine Authority and the Character of Evangelical Purity Section VIII For the reasons afore-going the infringement of due Liberty in these matters would perpetuate most unhappy Controversies in the Church from Age to Age. Let the former times come in and give Evidence As touching Ceremonies the Contest began early even in King Edward's Reign between Hooper and other Bishops The Consecration of Hooper Elect Bishop of Glocester being stayed because he refused to wear certain Garments used by Popish Bishops he obtained Letters from the King and from the Earl of Warwick to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and others that he might not be burthened with certain Rites and Ceremonies and an Oath commonly used in the Consecration of Bishops which were offensive to his Conscience Nevertheless he found but harsh dealing from his Fellow Bishops whereof some were afterwards his Fellow Martyrs and Ridley among others who afterwards thus wrote unto him when they were both Prisoners for the Gospel However in time past in certain Circumstances and By-matters of Religion your wisdom and my simplicity I grant hath a little jarred each of us following the abundance of his own sence and judgement Now be assured that even with my whole heart in the Bowels of Christ I love you in the truth and for the truths sake which abideth in us Some godly Martyrs in Queen Maries days disliked the Ceremonies and none of them died in the defence of Ceremonies Liturgie and Prelacy in opposition to all other Ecclesiasticall Government and Order It was the Protestant Verity which they witnessed and sealed in blood in opposition to Popery especially the prodigious opinion of Transubstantiation and the abomination of the Romish Mass or Sacrifice In the same bloody dayes certain English Protestants being fled for refuge into Germany and setled in Frankford were divided among themselves about the Service-book even with scandalous breach of Charity and in the issue the Congregation was sadly broken and dissipated The Gospel returning under Queen Elizabeth these differnces were revived and held up by Disputes Writings and Addresses to severall Parliaments and there were great thoughts of heart for these Divisions Nevertheless the differences remain uncompounded in process of time severe Canons were framed and with much rigour imposed and so continued Ministers were distinguished into Conformists and Non-Conformists and a multitude of painfull Preachers suffered deprivation for Non-Conformity Be it here observed that the persons known by the name of Non-Conformists were not Separatists but earnestly opposed the separation of the Brownists and held Communion with the Church in publick worship upon this pacifick principle that we may not separate from a true Church blemished with some corruptions and errors while we are not compelled to subscribe to those errors nor in our own practice to submit to those Corruptions Howbe it the greatest part of the Ministers named Puritans yieded Conformity to those controverted Rites and Formes that were by Law or Ganons established as to things burdensom not desirable in their nature supposed indifferent but in their use many ways
offensive and groaning more and more under that yoke of bondage as they coneeived they waited for deliverance and were in the main of one soul and spirit with the Non-Conformists And even then the way called Puritanism did not give but get ground But now the Tenents of this way are rooted more then ever and those things formerly imposed are now by many if not by the most of this way accounted not only burthensom but unlawfull And after a long time of search and practice the mindes of men are fixed in this opinion and are not like to be reduced to the practice of former times and therefore in al reason the imposing of such matters of controversie as by so many are held unlawfull and by those that have a zeal for them judged indifferent not necessary cannot procure the peace of Church and Kingdom Section IX That this numerous party will not vary from its self or vanish upon changes in Government or new Accidents doth hence appear in that it doth not rest upon any private temporary variable occasion but upon a cause perpetual and everlasting Those forementioned Principles of science and practice which give it its proper Being are of that firm and fixed nature that new contingencies will not alter them nor length of time wear them out They are the great things of God which have a great power over the spirit of man And they are imbraced by such as highly prize them not for temporal advantages whereof they have no appearance but for an internal excellency discerned in them as being necessary to the glory of God and the salvation of men And consequently to these men it is not satisfactory at all adventures to be of the State-Religion or to believe as the Church believes Neither will they be dissolved or much weakned by the declining haply of some principall Ones who being bought off by preferment may turn prevaricators For notwithstanding such a falling off the inward spirit that actuates the whole body of them and knits them to each other will remain in full strength and vigour And though many others through weakness or mildness should stagger and give ground in the points of lesser moment and more controverted yet the root of the matter may remain in them and as to the main they may be still where they were But what are those great things for which this sort of men contend Surely they are no other then the lively opening of the pure Doctrine of the Gospel the upholding of all Divine Institutions particularly the strict observation of the Lords day a laborious and efficacious Ministry taking hold of the Conscience and reaching to the heart a godly Discipline correcting true and real scandals and disobedience in a word all the necessary and effectual means of unfained faith and holy life that the Kingdom of God may come in power And for these things sake they are alienated from the height of Prelacy and the pomp of Ceremonious Worship This was well known and provided against by the swaying part of the later Prelatists For in as much as they could not quell the Puritans by the rigid injunction of Conformity that they might give a blow at the root Lectures were suppressed afternoon Sermons on the Lords day prohibited under pretence of Catechizing which was only a bare rehearsal of the Form of Catechism for Children without explication or application of those principles a Book for sports and pastimes on Sundays enjoyned to be read by Ministers in their Parish Churches under penalty of deprivation sundry superstitious Innovations introduced a new Book of Canons composed and a new oath for upholding the Hierarchy inforced Far be it from me to impute these things to all that were in Judgment Episcopal for I am perswaded a great if not the greater part of them disallowed these Innovations Nevertheless those others that were most vehement active watchful vigorous did not by all the aforesaid means advance but rather weaken their Cause and lessen themselves in the esteem of observing men and the oppressed party increased in number and vigour It is therefore evident that this Interest for which we plead is not like a Meteor which after a while vanisheth away but is of a solid and firme consistence like a fixed Constellation And the injuries done unto it are not of that nature as to be acted once and for all and then to pass into the grave of oblivion but they are lasting pressures to a perpetual regret and grievance And should not these be done away especially when the occasions thereof wil be found not necessary but superfluous Section X. There remaineth yet some greater thing which strikes deep into this Enquiry which at the first glance perhaps may seem a fancy but by impartial judgement will be found a manifest and weighry truth namely that as this Interest will never vary from its self so it will never be extinguished while the State of England continues Protestant I do not now argue from Maximes of Faith and Religion as that the life and power of Christianity shall never fail that after the greatest havock of the true Church there will be a remnant a seed that shall spring up to a great increase after a little season but I have here entred upon a way of reason and let men of Reason judge Suppose that the Persons now in being of this strict profession were generally ruined and rooted out yet let but the Protestant Doctrine as it is by Law established in the Church of England be upheld and preached and it will raise up a genuine off-spring of this people whose way is no other then the life and power of that Doctrine as it is not onely received by tradition education example or any humane authority but also imprinted upon the spirit by a lively energy and operation And this I further say and testifie let but the free use of the Holy Bible be permitted to the common people and this generation of men will spring up afresh by the immortall seed of the Word For that pure spiritual and heavenly Doctrine pressing internal renovation or the new Birth and the way of holy singularity and circumspection and being written with such Authority and Majesty must needs beget though not in the most yet in may a disposition and practise in some sort thereunto conformable This is evident in reason if it be granted that the sacred Scriptures are apt to make deep and strong Impressions upon the minds of men And whosoever denies this as he is in point of Religion Atheistical so of Understanding bruitish For even those impious Politicians who in heart make no account of Religion yet will make shew of giving reverence to it because it is alwaies seen to have a mighty influence upon men of all ranks and degrees Wherefore upon the grounds aforesaid I hold it a matter of unquestionable Verity that the way in scorn called Puritanism will never utterly sink unto Protestantism it self shal fail