those of other Cities But thanks be to God there is no necessity of having recourse to such a violent Remedy the Laws of our Religion do both admit of and direct and govern Commerce and the reasonableness of our Christian Religion in general and of the English Reformation in particular is such as that it may be well hoped they may rather gain than lose Proselytes by being confronted with any other Institutions and allure considerate men to the embracing of them whilest some lighter and incogitant persons may be betrayed by their Curiosity All the Use therefore that I make of this Observation concerning Trade is That since there is some danger to Religion thereby all those that do not make a God of the World and take Gain for Godliness will think these three things following to be reasonable 1. That since it is plain the same Means will not preserve Uniformity in Religion nor conserve the Reverence and Happiness of the Church in a Nation vastly addicted to Foreign Commerce as would do where the more simple way of Agriculture was attended to as it was amongst the Spartans and this Nation formerly that therefore there may be such Laws provided and such care taken as that the one be not discouraged nor the other corrupted 2. That every man will not only take care to inform himself in the grounds of his own Profession of Religion but also have so much Charity towards the Governours of his own Countrey and this Church as to think them both as wise and as honest as in other places that by both these his Reason may be instructed and his Affections somewhat composed against every assault of Novelty from other mens Opinions or Practices 3. That at least we will not think it just to impute all the Distractions of mens Minds and Quarrels against the Church to the badness of its Constitution since this point of Trade hath such influence as we see both in the Nature of the thing and in the visible Effects of it 5. It must not be omitted that both Papist and Atheist though upon several grounds combine their Malice against this Church and use all their several Interests and Endeavours to render it as contemptible as they can For the former Manet altâ mente repôstum Judicium Paridis spretaeque injuria formae We know they remember the slur we gave then in our Reformation they are well aware that the decent Order the Dignity and antient Gravity of this Church reproves and shames the Pageantry of theirs They forget not how often the eminent Abilities of our Church-men have baffled theirs therefore they are to be reckoned upon as immortal Enemies They know nothing stands so much in the way of their Designs as the Church of England This hath the countenance of the Laws the support of Reason the favour of Antiquity the recommendation of Decency They therefore can easily frame themselves to a complaisance towards all other Sects because they despise them but here oderunt dum metuunt their fears and danger by this provoke their endeavours inflame their anger and suffer them not so much as to dissemble their spite against it It is well enough known how under the disguise of Quakers and other names they have undermined its reputation and given it what disturbance they can how by their Insinuations into some loose o◠weaker persons they seek to weaken is powers and draw off her numbers how they have furnished others with Arguments to impugn it and subaided all unquiet spirits against her They that scruple nothing themselves nor will suffer any to scruple any thing in their own Communion can teach people to be very nice and squeamish in the Church of England They that are altogether for a blind Obedience at home preach up tenderness of Conscience abroad and when an Implicite Faith will do well enough in Spain or Italy c. yet in England nothing must content men but Infallible Certainty and that in the most circumstantial and inconsiderable matters Then for the Atheists They conscious of the odiousness of their pretences though of late arrived at greater impudence than formerly think it not safe to laugh at all Religions at once though they equally abhor all Therefore lest they should ingage too many enemies at once they deal by Retail and expose to scorn the several Parties of Christians one after another But to be sure the better any Perswasion is the more industriously they set themselves to depress it as knowing well if they can bring that into Contempt they may be secure of the other which must one time or other fall of themselves by reason of the unsoundness of their Foundations Besides it seems something below them to set their wit against a Fanatick they must have higher game and their Jests go off more piquantly when they gratifie the popular envy by being level'd against that which hath a great stock of Reputation and the countenance of publick Laws These blind Beetles that rose out of filth and excrement and now buz about the world hope not only to cover their shame but to increase their Party daily by the divisions of Christians and therefore labour to inflame the Causes to provoke mens Passions and exasperate their minds one against another They scurilously traduce all that is serious and study Religion only to find out flaws in it And what they cannot do by manly Discourse they endeavour by Buffoonry In short It is their manner to dress the best Religion in the world in a phantastical and ridiculous habit that Boyes may laugh at it and weak people brought out of conceit with it and their Worships made merry with the Comedy Now since the Church of England is beset with all these Enemies and under the aforesaid Disadvantages it is no wonder if the felicity and success of it be not a little disturbed It was noted amongst the Felicities of old Rome as that which gave it the opportunity of growing up to so vast a Greatness That till it had by degrees subdued all its Neighbours and was now match for all the World it had never but one Enemy at once to encounter Whilest this Church in its first times had only those of the Church of Rome to confiict with it easily triumphed over them and maintained its Peace and Dignity at home but that now under the Circumstances I have represented in the five foregoing Particulars it bears up so well as it doth is an illustrions argument of its Strength and Soundness of Constitution and they are very severe and uncharitable persons that reckon its Enemies and Misfortunes in the number of its Vices or Faults CHAP. III. Of the more immediate Causes of the Distractions of the Church of England such as 1. Rashness of popular Judgement 2. Judaism 3. Prejudice 4. Want of true Christian Zeal in the generality of its Members COming now in this Chapter to enquire into the immediate Causes of the Evils we groan under I
there was just ground for our Recession for as I said it could not be sin to depart when it was so to continue And it is a very reasonable choice rather to be condemned by them of Singularity than to be damned for Company But now it is quite otherwise in the Church of England No man here parts with his Faith upon his Conformity no man is bound to give away his Reason and common Sense for quietness sake No man needs to hazard the Peace of a good and well instructed Conscience for the Peace of the Church No man is tempted to renounce his Integrity but may be as good and holy a man as he will and the more of that the better Church-man This Church keeps none of her Children in an uncomfortable estate of darkness but teaches the true knowledge of God and Christ sincerely and very advantageously She hath no half Communions nor debarrs any of her members of the priviledge and comfort of Christs Institutions She recommends the same Faith and the same Scriptures that all Protestants are agreed in The same God and only he is worshipped the same rules of holy Life are propounded as well as the same hopes and happiness expected By this brief representation the difference between the Church of Rome and the Protestants appears so wide and vast that they agree neither in their Creed nor Object of Worship nor Sacraments nor Rules of Life On the other side the agreements of Protestants with the Church of England is so full and perfect that they have not only the same God and Christ but the same object of Worship the same way of Devotion in a known Tongue the same Sacraments and same rule of life which certainly are all the great things that the Consciences of men are concerned in A man might therefore justly wonder these things being so what should make a breach and what place there is for contention or what can remain considerable enough to occasion the dissatisfaction to provoke the animosity to countenance that distance that is between us And I verily believe it would be hard for a stranger to this Church and Nation that understood the state of the case thus far to guess what should be the bone of contention amongst us I will now as well as I can both saithfully and briefly recite the matters of difference And I must needs confess if we number them only they are many But if we weigh them not only against the things we are agreed in but against peace and agreement it self I perswade my self they will be very light But that I must leave to the judgement of the Reader The things themselves are these and such as these Whether such Prayers shall make up the body of the publick Liturgy as have been conceived by the Governours of the Church and used ever since the Reformation or such as shall pro re nata be occasionally indited by every private Minister Or which perhaps is much the same whether such words expressions and phrases shall be continued in the publick Service as are by long use grown familiar to and intelligible by vulgar people or such shall come in their room as are more modern and grateful to nicer Ears About the several postures of Standing Kneeling and Sitting and whether some one of these be more decorous and accommodate to some part of Gods Worship than another and which to which About observation of Dayes and Times as whether the Anniversaries of the Birth Death and Resurrection of our Saviour and other great passages of the Gospel be of use and fit to be observed And whether some special Time of Abstinence and Mortification in conformity to the Primitive Church may now be retained or not About Habits and Garments such as Gown Surplice c. whether the habit used in ministration in the time of King Edward be not now as lawful as any other About the Ceremony of the Cross in Baptism whether whilest it is declared not essential to Baptism it may not upon other considerations be used in that Sacrament Or lastly which I think is as important as any of the rest whether Subordinacy of the Clergy in the Episcopal way or Co-ordinacy and Parity in the Presbyterian be rather to be preferred Most of the Disputes we have amongst us are either upon these questions or reducible to these or at least of like nature with these Now how inconsiderable these things are in themselves and how fit to be made a Sacrifice to Peace I forbear to say till I have in the second place shewn as I promised that something must be forgone for it 2. It was a worthy and memorable saying of Erasmus Mihi sanè adeò invisa est discordia ut veritas etiam displiceat seditiosa He did not only suspect that Proposition was not true that was not also peaceable but he thought Peace not too dear at the price of some Truth And he that pretends so high a value for the latter as to have no esteem for the former neither understands the one nor the other Greg. Nazianz. puts this Question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That peace is not only the most beautiful flower in the Garden of Christianity but also the most soveraign and useful Though it be commonly dealt with as some famed beauty admired and courted but not espoused The Apostle when Rom. 12. 18. he so passionately exhorts If it be possible and as far as in you lyes have peace with all men surely did not mean that we should only accept of Peace when it is offered us for nothing or be quiet till we can pick a quarrel but that we should be at some cost to purchase it and part with something for it and deny our selves something which but upon that account we might lawfully have enjoyed It is true we may buy Gold too dear and so we must have done our Peace if we sought it at the hands of those Hucksters of the Church of Rome as I shewed before But that we cannot reasonably expect it for nothing in any Society in the World I think is demonstratively evident by this one consideration That there are scarcely any intellectual Menaechmi I mean hardly any two persons perfectly of the same apprehension or stature of understanding in the whole world So much difference there is in mens Constitutions such diversity of Education such variety of Interests and Customs and from hence so many kinds of Prejudices and various Conceptions of things that he that resolves to yield to no body can agree with no body and consequently cannot be happy in any Church or Society on this side of Heaven There indeed some think mens minds shall be all of one capacity but whatever be the truth in that particular I much doubt whether those persons will ever make up that society of the Church Triumphant that think themselves bound to disturb the state of the Church Militant unless all things
Comparison as the Case in hand would admit of nor will I trouble the Reader with long stories of the admirable Conversation of those early Christians which whoso will take the pains may find in Justin Martyr A thenagoras Tertullian Origen and others And he that is willing to decline that trouble may find nearer hand in the Collections of a judicious and faithful Writer in his Book called Primitive Christianity But it may not be unuseful to remark some few particulars Of old to be a Christian was to be all that is holy just and good to be adorned with all those Virtues that can render a man acceptable to God or lovely amongst men Whereever this Religion came it was a Principle of Purity in mens Hearts of Honesty in their Lives and of Peace in Kingdoms and Societies It raised mens minds to a Contemplation and Pursuit of another World and inabled them both to despise the present and to be a blessing to it It did not teach men to speak great swelling words but to live to do and to suffer admirably that the very Pagans their mortal Enemies were astonished at them and some of them gave them this testimony Hi sunt qui vivunt ut loquuntur loquuntur ut vivunt These are the men that are as good as their word and live as high and generously as others talk The Christian Faith was not then a meer trick of Wit nor a bone of Contention but a Principle of sincere Honesty which guided men into the knowledge of their Duty and inspired them with courage and resolution to perform it Give me saith Lactantius a fierce and contentious man and if he will but apply himself to the Grace and Institutions of the Gospel he shall become as mild as a Lamb Give me a Drunkard or a Lascivious person with this Doctrine I will make him chaste and sober Let a Covetous man hearken to this Doctrine and he shall presently dispense his money as charitably as before he raked it together fordidly Give me a timorous and cowardly person this Religion shall presently make him valiant and despise death and danger And so he goes on In those dayes Believing was not an excuse for Disobedience or a commutation for a holy Life but a foundation of Obedience to all the Laws of God and man Then all the Professors of Christianity bad one heart and one lip and then they built towards Heaven in a good sense but since distraction of Mind alienation of Affections and confusion of Language hath made a Babel of a Church There was then but one division of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were the only Sects the World was divided by all good men were of one way and evil men of another But now there are almost as many Opinions as Men as many Parties as Opinions and as many Religions as either Time was when men sacrificed their Lives in testimony to their Faith as frankly as since they have done to their Passions Revenge or Ambition Then was Charity counted as essential a part of Religion as Censoriousness is now with too many Brotherly love and mutual dearness was a characteristical Note of those then that now may be as well known by their distractions and animosities St. Gregory Nazianzen said of those Times That if one Christian took notice of the error sin or failing of another it was to bewail it to heal it to cover his shame and cure his wound and prevent a scandal to his Profession but he observed that after-times made triumphs of mens weakness and follies and men learnt to justifie their own wickedness by the miscarriages of their Brethren and that he that would prove himself of the highest form of Christians set himself down in the seat of the scorner Nothing was then thought too good or costly for the service of God or Religion Men would not content themselves to serve God with that which cost them nothing It was only Julian or such another that envyed the costly Vessels wherewith Christ was served Works of Piety and Mercy and Charity cost them as much as Luxury and Contention now a dayes When the Gentiles in Tertullian's time upbraided the Christians that they made choice of a Cheap Religion and renounced the Pagan Sacrifices because they would not undergo the charge of them and complained that the Frugality of the Christian Worship caused a decay of Trade for the Eastern Gumms and Spices that used to be spent in the service of the Gods and that by this means the Customs of the Emperors were also diminished To all this he makes this answer We Christians spend more in the relief of the poor than you Gentiles do upon your Gods And though we use not Gumms and Spices for Incense yet we as much promote Trade by the vast proportions of those commodities we spend in the imbalming our dead And lastly if it should happen that the Emperors Exchequer should lose any thing either by the temperance of our Lives or the nature of our Religion yet we make it up another way for we make conscience of paying him his just dues whereas you cheat and defraud him of more than the proportion of your expences above ours would amount to In those early times the Christian Assemblies drained and emptied the Roman Theatres and the multitude thronged into the Church as earnestly as now they crowd out Coimus in coetum ut ad deum quasi manu factâ precationibus ambiamus orantes said the forementioned Tertullian The confluence to the publick Worship was in those dayes so great and the consent of heart and voice so universal that St. Jerome said The Hallelujahs of the Church was like the noise of many Waters and the Amen like Thunder Heaven and Earth then answered each other in a glorious Antiphone and made up one blessed Chorus There was joy in Heaven and peace on Earth The Hymn sung by the Angel at our Saviours Nativity was verified in those first Ages of his Religion Glory to God on High on Earth peace and Good-will amongst men The Holy men of those times that approached our Saviour had as it were some Rayes of his Divinity shed upon them and their faces shone like Moses's when he came down from the Holy Mount A Christian Church was a Colledge of holy and good men and the Glory of God filled the place where they assembled and Fire came down from Heaven too but not to set the World in combustion but to exhale and lift up the Odours of pious and devout Prayers But since those times Zeal hath decayed as if it had not been the intrinsick Excellency of Religion but the fires of Pagan Persecution that kindled that heat in the breasts of Christians And the Church so divided and broken in pieces as if it was not one Lord one Faith one Baptism that united them but a common enemy Dry Opinions have been taken for Faith and Zeal of a
Party hath gone for Holiness of Life Men have been busie in making new Creeds and have forgotten to practise the old one And since the Empire hath been divided into East and West Churches have been at defiance and as opposite to each other as those points are In short the once famous Greek Churches are now over-run with so squalid a Barbarism that little but the Name of Christianity is left amongst them And the Roman Church whose Faith was famous and spoken of through all the world is now as infamous for Usurpation Superstition and Cruelty and so deformed with Pagan Rites and mundane Policies that Christianity is the least part of her What shall we take to be the reason of this general Defection Was it only Novelty and not its intrinsick Goodness and Reasonableness that commended this Religion to the World that the longer it lasts the less it signifies Or are the Principles of Christianity effete like the Causes of the Gentile Oracles as Plutarch discourses that all the motives of Virtue and Holiness have now so little influence upon mens tempers and lives Or is it true that was said of old Religio peperit divitias filia devoravit matrem since Churches have been endowed men have espoused only the Fortune and not the Faith Or is the true reason that of old Christianity was deeply rooted in the Hearts of men and brought forth the fruits of good works in their Lives whereas now it is only a barren notion in mens Heads and is productive of nothing but leaves of Opinion and Profession Then it was the employment of mens hearts in meditation of their knees in devotion of their hands in distribution and beneficence now it is become the entertainment of mens ears in hearing novelty of their tongues and lips in censuring and disputing But whatever the causes have been such is the condition of Religion generally in the Greek and Latin Churches and I doubt if we come nearer home we shall not find things much better This Island of Britain had the glory not only to be the native Countrey of Constantine the first Christian Emperour but a far Greater that under Lucius it received the Christian Faith first of any great Kingdom in the world Britannorum loca Romanis inaccessa Christo verò subdita saith Tertullian The Cross made a more effectual as well as a more happy Conquest here than all the Roman Powers could do And this Northern Climate was not only thus early enlightned with the beams of the Sun of Righteousness but had life and warmth proportionably An evidence whereof we have in that we find British Bishops at the Council of Arles which was held before the Nicene And at the time of the Nicene Council Britian was counted one of the Six Dioceses of the Western Empire And for the Zeal of the British Christians the Martyrdom of St. Albane Amphilochius and others are great and glorious instances But to descend to lower times The Inhabitants of this Island have not been more famous for Martial Prowess against their enemies hospitality to strangers and good nature towards all mankind which three things have been and I hope are still their peculiar glories than for sincere piety and devotion Polydore Virgil an Italian and Erasmus a Dutchman both of the Roman Communion and competent Witnesses do affirm That there was more true Devotion and sincerity of Religion in this Church and Kingdom of England than in any one place of the world besides What was said of Sparta that ibi senes sunt maximè senes might be applyed to this purpose that here Christians were so the most heartily and truly of any people in the world The Universal Pastor as he would be called I mean the Bishop of Rome observed the Sheep of England to bear such good Fleeces and so patiently to submit to the Shearer that he kept a watchful eye over this Flock and his vigilancy was rewarded with the Golden Fleece He and his Emissaries found such large hearts and devout minds here that we are inabled to understand the reason of their great concern for our going astray since and their earnest and unwearied endeavours to reduce us back again to that fold Yet what by being oftner shorn than fed and then not with the best Pastures neither what by the ill examples of others but especially of their Guides and what by length of time corruption overspread this Church too But then as it happens in bodies of a strong and vivacious Constitution when they chance by ill Diet or other accident to be stuft with Crudities and bad humours they Critically evacuate them by meer strength of Nature So this Church gave certain proof that it had sana principia and a true sense of the reality of Christianity that one of the first in Christendom it returned to it self and a just temperament by a Reformation And the Reformation of this Church which the Romanists for their own ends so much detest and some others unreasonably slight was as much the Emulation of other Nations as Glorious in it self For 1. It was the most orderly and best becoming Christianity it was not brought in with Tumult and Sedition as most Changes are but by Laws and the Supream Magistrate There was no noise of Axes and Hammers in this Building but the several parts of this Fabrick fell in together with a kind of Harmony as the Jews say of the Temple of Salomon 2. It was the most moderate and temperate as being the result of Deliberation and Reason not of blind Passion or an humour of Innovation Our Reformers did not purge out the good because formerly it had been abused as the humour of some men is to do but vindicated what was useful from the abuse they neither countenanced what was evil by the good was to be found nor rejected the good for the casual adherence of evil They did not abolish a venerable Order or Office in the Church for the ill manners of some that had born it but took care to put better men in the rooms of such They were not of opinion that the Church could not arrive at primitive purity unless it was reduced to primitive poverty nor because they found some Ceremonies then used that were superstitious and dangerous and thought too many were but densome therefore concluded all decency in the service of God was Popish And in short they did not depart farther from the Church of Rome by Reformation than she had departed from the Truth and her self by degeneracy and corruption By all which they demonstrated that the change they made was not for the sake of humour and faction but necessity and publick good The Church of Rome reproaches us with the sinister ends of the Prince and several of those that sate at the helm of this great affair But who knows not that it is the usual method of Almighty God to bring about his own designs and accomplish the greatest benefits to
Mankind by making the sinister intentions of men co-operate towards them He made use of the unnatural cruelty of Joseph's brethren towards him to the preservation of the whole family of Jacob sending Joseph into Aegypt as an Harbinger and Nurse to provide for them in a famine And in respect hereof Joseph tells them it was not they but God sent him thither The Cruelty of Pharaoh who sought by severities to break and wear out the Israelites harden'd them and prepared them for all the difficulties they were afterwards to encounter The obstinacy and incredulity of the Jews proved to be the riches of the Gentiles The persecution of the Apostles at Jerusalem made way for the spreading of the Gospel into all other Countreys Instances of this kind are innumerable or if they were not yet were it very unsafe for those of the Church of Rome to make this objection lest they provoke us to say what cannot be either denyed or justified That the barbarous Tyrant and Usurper Phocas brought in the Universal Pastorship of the Bishop of Rome and that the most bloody and rapacious Princes have ordinarily been the great Patrons and Indowers of their Church thinking it seems to hallow their own Villanies and legitimate their unjust acquisitions by dividing the spoil with the Bishop and Church of Rome 3. The English Reformation was the most compleat and perfect in its kind as retaining the most antient Doctrine and soundest Confession of Faith founded upon the holy Scriptures and agreeable to the first General Councils the most Primitive Church-Government and a Liturgy the best accommodate to reconcile and unite mens Devotions Such a Liturgy as Mr. Fox the Author of the Martyrologie is not afraid to say was indited by the Holy Ghost but certainly had a great testimony in the unspeakable joy and contentment holy men took in it in King Edward the Sixths dayes their zeal for the maintenance of it longing for the restitution of it and sealing it with their blood in Queen Maries dayes and the universal triumphs and acclamations at the restoring of it in Queen Elizabeths Reign And admirable it is to consider how happy this Church and Nation then was in what Glory and Majesty the Prince reigned in what Peace and Concord the Subjects lived but especially it is remarkable how devout and pious an Age that was as is scarce perhaps to be parallel'd since the time that Christianity flourisht under Constantine the Great what reverence was then yielded to the Ministers of Religion What devotion to the publick worship How general an acquiescence of hearts and minds in it Which the greater it was the more just is our wonder and the more reasonable our inquiry what should be the Cause that in the same Church and amongst devout and honest-minded Englishmen such a zeal should terminate in so cold an indifferency as may now be observed or rather that such a blessed harmony should degenerate into so much discord as is now too discernable amongst us We read Ezra 3. that when the second Temple at Jerusalem was building the young men rejoyced at the reviving glory of their Nation and Religion but the old men that had beheld the far greater splendour and more stately Majesty of the former Temple built by Salomon they wept as contemplating how far this came short of that so that it was hard to say whether the shouts of the young men or the lamentations of the elder were the more loud And truly when we consider in how low a condition the Church of England was some few years since till it had a happy Resurrection with the return of our Gracious Soveraign will see cause to rejoyce and thank God that we are in no worse condition than we are But he that understands and considers what was the felicity of the first Age of our Reformation and compares it with the present condition of our affairs will have just cause to lament the difference For in those dayes so venerable was the Society of the Church that to be cast out of it by Excommunication was as dreadful as to be thunder-smitten that Sentence was like Proscription amongst the Romans which they counted a Civil death and dreaded as much as a Natural But now it is become a matter of Ambition with some and a piece of Glory And to be cast out of the Church is as good as Letters testimonial or recommendatory to other Assemblies There were few or none then that did not constantly frequent the Church now the Church is become the Conventicle in many places and the Conventicle the Church in respect of the fulness and frequency of the one and the unfrequentedness and destitution of the other Aristonicus came to a certain City in Greece where he observed many Temples but few Men that would hear him He therefore instead of the usual phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cryes out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hear O ye Stone-walls less hard than the hearts of men The Application is too easie in our case In that time we speak of the Liturgy and publick Prayers were counted a principal part of Gods worship now they are not only nothing without a Sermon but in danger to desecrate the Sermon too by their conjunction The Bible is scarce Canonical if it have the Prayers bound up in the same Cover and so extreamly offensive are they grown to some that they will rather totally neglect the publick Worship of God and never receive the Communion whilest they live than have to do with the Common Prayers Heretofore there were but few things scrupled in the establisht Religion and those were very few that made use of any such pretence or scruple but now it is become the great point of Sanctity to scruple every thing There was one indeed and he a great man that said there were tolerabiles ineptiae in our Liturgy and the most favourable return he met with was that he had his tolerabiles morositates Now the title of ineptiae is counted too mild an expression whatever suits not the present humour is either Jewish Popish or Superstitious This Change is sadly lamentable that good Laws should be thus trampled upon the best Church in the world thus despised and the best minded People thus abused Now my business is therefore in the first place to enquire from what Causes this hath come to pass PART I. An Enquiry into the Causes and Origin of the Separation from and Contempt of the English Reformed Church CHAP. I. Wherein are represented several things that are pretended but are not the true Causes of our distractions and dissatisfactions viz. 1. Corruption in Doctrine 2. The too near approach of this Church to the Roman 3. The Scandalousness of the Clergy All which are disproved WE have a Proverbial saying amongst us that Every one that is forty years old is either a Fool or a Physician But without a Proverb to justifie the undertaking there are but few that at
before it lay under any ill character But that this Church doth not so syncretize with that of Rome as to make its Communion unsafe or sinful I suppose the following Considerations will give sufficient security to an unprejudiced mind In the mean time let me intreat him that hath entertained any suspicions of that kind against her to give an ingenuous Answer of these two or three Queries 1. If there be such a dangerous affinity betwixt the Church of England and the Romish how came it to pass that the blessed instruments of our Reformation such as A. Bishop Cranmer Ridley Latimer and others laid down their lives in testimony to this against that For if those of the Church of Rome could have been so barbarous as cruelly to murder those excellent persons for some slight Innovations or for differing from them in Circumstantials yet certainly such wise and good men would not have been so prodigal of their own blood nor weary of their lives as to cast them away upon Trifles It is probable at least therefore that those of the Church of Rome thought the English Reformation to be essentially different from them and it is more than probable that those holy men aforesaid thought so and did not offer to God the sacrifice of fools 2. Or how comes it to pass that all those of the Roman Communion withdraw themselves from ours and are commanded so to do by the Head of their Church under peril of damnation And on the other side the true Protestants of the Church of England think it their duty to absent themselves from the Roman Worship lest they should defile their Consciences with their Superstitions I say how comes this distance and apprehension of sin and danger reciprocally if the differences between them be inconsiderable 3. Whence comes it to pass that the Bigots of the Romish Church have more spite against our Church than against any Sect or Party whatsoever but that they take us not only for Enemies but the most mortal and formidable of all those they have to do with Or Lastly if both the Church and Church-men of England are not far enough removed from any participation with that of Rome how comes it to pass that they of all men most zealously and constantly upon all occasions stand in the gap and oppose the return of Popery into England when other men either slight the danger or are so fond of their own private sentiments as apparently to run the hazard of this for the sake of them Any reasonable man would think those men have not really such an abhorrence of Popery as they pretend and that there might easily be found terms of accommodation between them when he shall observe them more fond of every petty Opinion than concern'd for the publick Security against that common Enemy And that they will rather venture the danger of that breaking in upon them than forgo the least fancy or opinion nay will be instrumental in procuring a Toleration and suspension of the publick Laws for that which they are so jealous others should have any kindness for And for proof of this I call to witness the transactions of the last year when those very men that would be thought the Atlas's and only supporters of Protestant Religion and would give out as if their Zeal was the only Bulwark against Popery had by their separation from and enmity to this Church weakned the common interest and by their restless importunities and unlimited desires of liberty in a manner extorted a suspension of the Laws touching Religion Had not His Majesty and His Parliament timely foreseen the consequence and the whole Nation been awakned into an apprehension of the danger by the serious and constant admonitions of the Episcopal Clergy Popery might have come in like a Landflood upon us notwithstanding those quicksighted Watchmen that can spy Popery so far off I say had not the Church-men especially bestirred themselves and shewed both a better courage and zeal against Popery and also a better skill in that warfare than their Accusers the so much dreaded Enemy had ere this time been in fair hopes of attaining his desires This was a passage of so much glory to the true Church-men and so great and illustrious an instance of their integrity that I am in hope whilest it shall remain in memory Malice it self will be ashamed to lay any imputation of inclining to Popery either upon the Church or Church-men of England I shall not need to add to all this That there are as understanding men in Religion persons of as holy Lives and of as comfortable Consciences of this Churches Education as are any where to be found in the world besides Which three things together fully acquit any Church of participation with Popery For that degeneracy of Christianity is for nothing more truly hateful nor by nothing more discoverable than by its blind devotion principles of immorality and the bad security it gives to the Consciences of men which who so acquits any Church of as every considerate man must needs do this Church he shall after that very unreasonably leave any ill character upon her at least of that nature we now are speaking of 3. But there is a terrible Charge yet to come and that is against the Sufficiency but especially the Sanctity of the Clergy and Ministry of the Church of England as if they like the Sons of Eli 1 Sam. 2. 15. made men to abhor the offerings of the Lord. And this is made the pretence of resorting to Conventicles and forsaking the Church Now if this was as true as it is horribly false it might be an Objection perhaps fit for a Papist to make who is taught that the efficacy of all Divine Offices depends upon the intention and condition of him that administers But no Protestant without contradicting his own principles can make use of it to justifie his recession from the Church For if the efficacy of all Divine Ordinances depend upon the Divine Institution and the concurrence of Gods Grace with my use of them what can it prejudice me that he that administers is an evil or unlearned man so long as I prepare my self to receive benefit immediately from God in the use of the means appointed by him This therefore may serve for a malicious stone to cast at us from whom they are departed but no argument in the cause nor excuse for themselves Yet I confess nevertheless this way of arguing for we must be forced to call hard word by that name is of great prevalence with injudicious persons and able to prejudice them against the best Constitutions in the world For they not understanding the reason of things give reception and entertainment to any proposition in proportion to the opinion or reverence they have for the person that recommends it It is a known story how well the Spartans were aware of this and therefore if in their Council a man of a bad life had propounded
the Church by ripping up the miscarriages of the other perswasions For besides that I have not so leaned Christ I have observed so much of the world that such uncharitable recriminations have not only made an Apology for the Atheism and Profaneness of the Age but afford a pleasant spectacle to all evil men to behold Divines coming upon the Stage like Gladiators and wounding and murdering one anothers reputation To which add that I verily hope the Lives of the generality at least of the Clergy of England are so unblameable and commendable in themselves that they need not the soil of other mens deformities to set them off or recommend them Yet I will say these two two things further in the case 1. If a man be a male-content with the Government and forsaking the Church resort to private Assemblies or if being a Clergy-man and continuing in the Church he shall debauch his Office and undermine the Church which he should uphold such a man may then debauch his Life too and yet have a very charitable construction amongst the generality of dissenters And on the other side if a man be of singular sanctity and the most holy conversation but withal zealous of the interest of the Church and his own duty in it this man shall have worse quarter and be more maligned by the fiery Zealots of other parties than one that is both of a more loose life and meaner abilities Whence it plainly appears that the bad lives of Clergy-men if it were true is but a pretext not the true cause of quarrel with the Church 2. If impertinent and phantastical talking of Religion be Religion if endless scrupulosity and straining at Gnats if censoriousness and rash judging our Betters and Superiours if melancholy sighing and complaining be true Christianity if going from Sermon to Sermon without allowing our selves time to mediate on what we hear or leisure to instruct our Families if these and such as these are the main points of true Godliness then I must confess the Sons of the Church of England are not generally the most holy men and the Non-conformists are But if a reverent sense of God and Conscience of keeping all his express Laws if Justice Mercy Contentment Humility Patience Peaceableness and Obedience to Governours be the principal ingredients of a good life as doubtless they are if we take our measures either from our Saviour the Apostles or Prophets Then I do not despair but the Church-men may be good Christians and of far more holy lives than their accusers notwithstanding all the contempt cast upon them For upon this Issue I dare challenge Malice it self to be able to fasten any brand of bad life upon the generality or body of the Clergy I know this Age is not without some of the brood of Cham who will take the impudence to uncover their Fathers nakedness and expose those deformities which they ought not only out of charity or reverence but wisdom also to conceal And it is not to be expected that such a body of men made of the same flesh and blood and solicited with the same temptations with other men should be altogether without spot or blemish yet I do really believe those are extream few of that number that justly deserve any scandalous character and also very inconsiderable in respect of the whole And he that shall for the miscarriages of a few reflect dishonour upon the Clergy in general shall do as unrighteously as he that shall take a downright honest man and omitting his many and great vertues and innumerable good actions only rake up and represent in an odious Catalogue all the follies of his youth and errors of his life By the which artifice the best man in the world much more the best Society of men may be rendred odious enough It is well enough known that the healthfullest body is not without some humours which if they were all drawn together into some one part or member would make an ill and dangerous spectacle but whilest they lye dispersed in the whole mass of blood where there is a vast predominancy of the good or else are lockt up in their private cells glandulae or other receptacles till they shall be critically evacuated do in the mean time little or nothing indanger or deform such a body I need not apply this to the case in hand To conclude therefore Were there but either so much Charity and Humanity as ought to be in Men and Christians or so much unprejudicacy as becomes wise and good men used in this matter we should instead of reproaching the failings or miscarriages of a few heartily thank God for that remarkable Holiness Humility and Charity that is yet alive and warm in the breasts of so many of the Divines of this Church in this cold and degenerate Age. And for the rest we should think of that saying of Tacitus Vitia erunt donec homines sed neque haec continua meliorum interventu pensantur CHAP. II. Of the more remote and less observed Causes of the infelicity of this Church such as 1. The Reign of Queen Mary and return of Popery under her in the Infancy of the Reformation 2. The bad provision for Ministers in Corporations c. 3. Frequent Wars 4. The liberty in Religion that Trade seems to require 5. The secret designs of Atheists and Papists HItherto I have only noted and refuted the Scandals and Contumelies cast upon this Church which how groundless and unreasonable soever they are yet do not a little mischief when they are whispered in corners and insinuated in Conventicles I might have reckoned up some more of the same nature and as easily have disproved them but they are either reducible to those we have touched or will fall under consideration in due time I now proceed from those Imaginary to inquire into and consider of the true and real Causes of the present disaffection to the English Reformation and they will be found to be of several kinds but I will not trouble my self curiously to distinguish them into exact Classes contenting my self faithfully to relate them and represent their peculiar malignant influences And in this Chapter I will bring into view these five following 1. It was the misfortune and is the great disadvantage of this Church that it was not well confirmed and swadled in its Infancy It is the observation of wise men that it greatly contributes to the duration and longevity of any Society to have a good time of Peace in its Minority and not to have been put upon difficulties and tryals till its limbs and joints were setled and confirmed that is till the people were competently inured to the Laws and the Constitutions by time digested into Customs and made natural to them The State of Sparta remained intire without any considerable change in its Constitution or Laws the longest of any Society we have read of And Lycurgus the Law-giver and Founder of that Common-wealth is thought to
and Christians in the whole world besides It being in no Church or Countrey observed with that punctuality and in that Sabbatical manner as by those persons Whence it 's plain that such observation thereof could neither be derived from Christianity in general nor from Protestantism as such but meerly from a Jewish tincture these persons have received A fifth Instance shall be their Doctrine of Absolute Predestination Which though it be not peculiar to these men yet is so universally and ardently embraced by the men of that way as is scarce to be parallel'd And he that seeks the Source of so odd an Opinion can in my opinion pitch no where more probably than upon the absolute Decree of God to favour the posterity of Abraham for his sake It pleased God to bestow the good Land of Canaan upon the descendents of that good man and he resolved and declared he would do it without respect to their deserts now this is made a sufficient ground to conclude That accordingly as he disposed in this Temporal affair so he will proceed by the same way of Prerogative in determining the Eternal Doom of Men. I will add but one more which is their superstitious observation and interpretation of Prodigies To this a great number of this Party are so addicted that every unusual Accident every new Appearance in the World be it in Heaven above or in the Earth below is presently commented upon and applications made of the errand of it though for the most part with Folly as manifest as is the Uncharitableness yet with Confidence as if it were undoubtedly true that God governed the affairs of the World by as visible a Providence now as he did heretofore in the Land of Judaea and the remembrance of what he did then seems to be the only imaginable account of this conceit of theirs now Many other Instances might be given of this kind but I have made choice of these because they contain the principal Doctrines and most Characteristical Practices of the Non-conformists and these carrying so plainly the marks of Judaism upon them and being no otherwise accountable than upon those Principles I think I said not improperly when I called Judaism the second Cause of our Unhappiness since any man may easily see that such Notions and Principles as these are must needs indispose those that are leavened with them to Conformity to or perseverance in the Church of England 3. But if the weakness of Judgement or bad Instruction only obstructed the prosperity of this Church it were not very difficult to find a Remedy but alas the minds of a great number of men are under such Prejudices as have barricado'd them up and rendred them almost inaccessible and that I reckon as a third Cause of our Distractions Prejudice is so great an evil that it is able to render the best Discourses insignificant the most powerful Arguments and convictive evidence ineffectual this stops mens Ears against the voice of the Charmer charm he never so wisely This alone was able to seal up the Eyes of the Gentile World against the Sun of Righteousness when he shone upon them in his brightest glory and to confirm them in their blind Idolatries when the God that made Heaven and Earth gave the fullest discoveries of himself that it was fit for mankind to expect Upon the account of this the Jews rejected that Messias they had so long expected and gloried in before he came though he exactly answered all the Characters of Time Place Lineage Doctrine and Miracles that their own Writings had described him by Nay 't was Prejudice abused the honest minds of the Disciples themselves so that they could not for a long time believe those things Christ Jesus told them from the Scripture must come to pass only because they were against the grain of their Education and were cross to the perswasions they had received in common with the rest of the Jews No wonder then if the Church of England suffer under Prejudice amongst those that have not only seen it stigmatized with the odious marks of Popery and Superstition and had been drawn into a Solemn League and Covenant against it as if it had been an act of the highest Religion to defie and execrate it and so had both their Credits and their Consciences engaged against it But also had lived to see it proscribed for near twenty years by a prevailing Faction Few have that Generosity and strength of mind to bear up against the torrent of times or Confidence enough to oppose the impetuousness of common vogue and prevailing opinion There are not many have the sagacity to discern the true images of things through those thick mists that cunning Politicians cast about them It is very ordinary to take the condemnation of any Person or Party for a sufficient Proof of the Accusation and to think the Indictment proved if the Sentence be past with common consent It was enough both with the Jews and Gentiles against our Saviour that he was condemned as a Malefactor the Ignominy of his Cross was a greater Argument against him with the generality than the excellency of his Doctrine or Evidence of his Miracles was for him This Church was dealt with like the Great Lord Strafford run down by common Fame opprest by Necessity not by Law or Reason and made a Sacrifice to the inraged Multitude The Arguments against it were not weighed but numbered As that Great Lords Impeachment was of Accumulative Treason so was the Churches of Popery there was more in the Conclusion than could be made out by the Premises and in the summ total than in the particulars of which it consisted for though no one point of Popery or Superstition could be proved against it yet it must be so upon the whole This being agreed the cry then is Crucifige destroy it root and branch And now was the Church seemingly dead and as I said before buried too for near twenty years but when by the wonderful Providence of God it was raised again as it was matter of equal Joy and wonder to all such as were not too far under the power of these Prejudices so it could not be expected otherwise but that weak and timerous persons should run from it as from a Ghost or Spectre To all which add That it was the corrupt Interest of some to deceive others into an ill opinion of it partly as being inraged that by the Churches unexpected Revival they lost its Inheritance which they had divided amongst themselves partly being conscious to themselves that by reason of their no more than vulgar abilities they could be fit to fill no extraordinary place in the Church and yet were not able to content themselves with any ordinary one and therefore chose to set up a Party against it and become Leaders of a Faction since they might not be Governours of a Church And when it is come to that pass that by this craft we get our
with his Apostles that they might be throughly instructed and not differ in the delivery of his mind to the world and with what extraordinary ardour he prayed for them upon this very account John 17. 11. And the Apostles themselves answered their Masters care with their own diligence and circumspection He that observes how industrious they were to resist all beginnings of Schism in every Church to heal all breaches to take away all occasions of division to unite all hearts and reconcile all minds How they taught people to detest this distemper as the bane of Christianity charging them to use the greatest caution against it to mark and avoid all those men that inclined that way as persons of a contagious breath and infectious society What odious names they give it as Carnality the work of the flesh and of the Devil He I say that observes all this cannot but be apprehensive of the greatness of this sin But he that shall trace the sense of the Church a little farther will find the Primitive Christians hating it in such detestation that they thought it equal to the most notorious sins Idolatry Murder and Sacriledge St. Cyprian amongst the rest affirms it to be of so horrible a guilt that Martyrdom was not a sufficient expiation of it that to dye for Christ the Head would not wash out the stain of having divided the Church his Body And all this was no more than the case deserved for had the Christian Church been broken into Factions and Parties in those times as it hath been since it is not easie to imagine how it could have resisted the whole World that was united against it Or if yet it could have subsisted in its several divided Parties the mischief would have been little less for then those of after-times would have had the several Opinions and distinct and peculiar Sentiments of those divided Parties delivered down to them with equal heat and earnestness so that it would have proved impossible to have distinguisht the Truth of God from the Opinions of men and the common Faith from the Shiboleth and cognizances of the several Sects and Parties And for this cause it pleased God that his Church should rather in those early dayes be harassed with persecutions which made it unite it self the closer and paring off all superfluities keep to the necessary and essential Doctrines delivered to it than to be softened and made wanton by ease and so to corrupt the Simplicity of the Gospel Nor is the importance of Unity much less in these latter dayes of Christianity forasmuch as all Divisions in all times destroy that beauty and loveliness which would otherwise attract all mens admiration and affection Beauty properly is nothing but order and harmony of parts the excellency of any Fabrick consists not so much in the quality of the materials as in the curious method they are digested into and the good respect and correspondence one part hath with another It is not the sublimity of Christian Doctrine nor the gloriousness of the Hopes it propounds that will so recommend it to the opinion and esteem of Beholders as when it shall be said Ecce ut Christiani amant when they shall observe the love concord and unanimity amongst the professors of it And the want of this hardens the hearts of Jews and Turks and Pagans more against it than all the reasons and proofs we can give for it will soften them and instead of opening their ears and hearts to entertain it opens their mouths in contempt and blasphemy against it But besides the disadvantage Christianity is exposed to by its Divisions in respect of those that are without it suffers unspeakably within its own Territories For who will be perswaded patiently to hear attentively to consider or impartially to judge of the discourses of him against whom he hath an animosity Every thing the truer it is the more it is for its advantage to be calmly considered and by how much of the more importance it is by so much is he that would have his proposition successful bound in wisdome to take care that the minds of men be not by passion and prejudice indisposed to receive it Livy observes that prodigious Stories Lyes and Fables find best entertainment in troublesome times quia tutius finguntur facilius creduntur men are not then at leisure to consider strictly what is true and false and so truth loses its advantage-ground and error succeeds in it Our Saviour therefore chose to come into the world in a time of the most profound peace not only because such a season became the Prince of Peace but especially for this advantage of his Doctrine we are speaking of namely that he might find men in calm thoughts and at leisure to consider the reasonableness of his propositions For who can maturely weigh things when all is in hurry and tumult Who can discern exactly the difference of things when all is in motion Especially who is there that is willing either to do good to or to receive good from him against whom he hath an exulcerate mind In short then and to speak summarily From Schisms and Divisions amongst Christians comes that prejudice upon the minds of people that discourages the indeavours and frustrates the labours of the Ministers of Religion From thence come all the Suspicions Jealousies Whisperings Backbitings and all other instances of Uncharitableness These hinder the fervour of mens Prayers and abate the edge of their Devotions These evaporate the true Spirit and Life of Religion in impertinent Disputes so that men lose the substance whilest they contend for the shadow By these the sinews of all Society are dissolved for when the Church is disturbed it seldome rests here but the State is concerned too and Schism in the former proves Sedition in the latter And this consideration is able to provoke the Magistrate to keep a jealous eye upon the Church and Religion All these things are so true in themselves and withal so generally acknowledged by all Parties that a man might justly wonder how any Christian should be guilty of Schism which all so much abominate Were it not that we may observe too that some have found pleasure to get that Child they would by no means have laid at their own door Schism is so mishapen as well as ill-begotten a Brat that no body is willing to father it It was the early proof Solomon gave of his wisdom in discovering the true Mother of the living Child to which both the Litigants laid equal claim It is a matter of no less importance and some think of equal difficulty to make discovery who the distractions of the Church are justly to be imputed to But as that Wise Prince discerned the true Mother by the tenderness of her bowels towards the Infant so we perhaps may discover the true Children of the Church by their respect and tenderness and consequently the Schismaticks by their irreverence and unnaturalness towards
all these objections start up and new Models set up for themselves which if they had been the effect of light and knowledge must have proceeded gradually in proportion to that and increased by time and deliberation but this is so far from being the case that it is scarce if at all possible to find any objection that is not much elder than he that makes it 2. Thanks be to God some Non-conformists daily come over to the Church and those not of the meanest Character for ability or piety but let them bragg of any one if they can find him that hath since the resetlement of the Church at His Majesties Restauration apostatized to them Now they must be horribly uncharitable that can conclude either all those that continue in the Church Ignorant or those that return to it Hypocritical and if they do not judge so they confess the matters in difference to be not certainly evil but that prejudice hath made them seem so 3. That there are men of as clear Understanding as good Life and as comfortable Consciences in the Society of this Church as are any where else to be found and if so which Impudence it self hath not the face to deny then there is no capital error in its constitution since those three answer to the whole design of Christianity and it can never be that there should be danger that neither troubles the Conscience with fears nor displayes it self in a bad Life nor is discoverable by an honest heart and sound understanding 4. The things objected against this Church are but at most disputable matters because all wise and good men are not agreed upon them But that which is sub judice and yet under dispute cannot be called Evil till the dispute is ended and the decision made against it 5. And lastly the things scrupled in this Church are such as the like may be found and complained of in any Church of the whole world at least since the Apostles times Now if these things be true as I am confident they will appear upon impartial consideration then are the matters of our difference such as I have supposed namely of no greater value than that we may forgo our private opinion phancy and custome in and concerning them for the Peace of the Church And if we resolve not to unite our selves to the Church whilest there is any thing of this nature to discontent us it is too much to be feared that Peace will for ever be hid from our eyes But to prevent that let me here prevent my self in one thing that will fall in more opportunely hereafter viz. That since there is no grand matter of Religion concerned in the Controversies between us nor any violation of the Laws of God in our complying with the Laws of this Society and since either Mahomet must go the Mountain or the Mountain must come to Mahomet i. e. one side or other must yield we will be perswaded to think it reasonable that the Subject should submit to the Governour and Opinion give place to antient Custome and Novelty to the Laws in being CHAP. IV. That those that find fault with the Constitution of this Church will never be able to find out or agree upon a better IT was seasonable advice which a Member of the Long Parliament is said to have propounded then when all were for pulling down and Desolation was called Reformation That they should do well to let the old Building stand till they had Materials in readiness and were agreed upon a model of a Fabrick to be set up in the stead of what they destroyed And not unlike was the Gloss of the Lord Bacon upon the words of the Prophet Jeremy Chap. 6. 16. Stand upon the wayes and inquire for the good way c. that is saith he Inquire for a better way but stand upon the old wayes till you have discovered it And agreeably Mr. Selden Accuratius circumspiciendae viae omnes de semitis antiquis consulendum quae vero sit optima seligenda And these sayings are not more valuable for their weight or elegancy nor for the reputation of their Authors than considerable in our case We confess generally the old way of the Church of England to be right for the main but certain Circumstantials are uneasie to some of us and they till those are redrest will proceed no further But it 's reasonable then we should be able to agree upon and produce a better Model lest instead of having a new Church we have no Church at all For First It can never be thought by wise men that such a Society as a Church can be conserved without some Rites or other forasmuch as no petty Corporation or Company can nor that God can be worshipped without all Circumstance at least by men that have Bodies and are bound to glorifie him with their Bodies as well as Souls 2. It is as plain that neither any Society can continue or any publick Worship be performed if all Ceremonies and circumstances such as of time place persons and the like be left indefinite and undetermined for who shall know whom to obey whom to hear where to assemble or where to meet if these be not defined 2. If therefore there must be some determination in Circumstantials it must be made either by God or Man And whether God hath made any such determination in the case we will now consider and the rather because this is made a popular Theme to declaim upon against the Church and jus divinum is boldly instamped upon those Models that have been designed to supplant it Indeed in the Old Testament so far as concerned the Temple at Jerusalem and the Worship there to be performed God was very particular in his directions And we blind as we are may discern plain reason for so doing because both the one and the other I mean the Temple and the Worship to be performed thereat were Mystical and Figurative and designed by Typical representations to lead that people into some apprehension of those things that were not then plainly revealed but were afterwards to be exhibited in the times of the Gospel Now if it had been lawful for the Jews to have innovated or made alterations in those things whereof they understood not the reasons they must of necessity have mis-guided themselves and God had lost the principal end of those institutions For since as I said they had no sufficient and clear knowledge of the things typified the change in the Rites which people so in the dark were likely to make must of necessity have led them further beside the mark God aimed at as a Copy the more removes it is from the Original draught is likely to have less of the Life and so the effect would have been that by those alterations they would not have left themselves so much as the shadow to guide them to the knowledge of the substance or body But in their Synagogue Worship it is very
fall in with their own humour For every peaceable man sees he must either go out of the world or set it all in flames if he will not subdue his own passion and castigate his heat That he must suffer shipwrack in the tempestuous Seas of dispute and contentions if he will not both take in his sails and lighten the ship by casting over-board the fardles of his private phancies and opinions He that will require all other men should assent to what he thinks and will conceal nothing he is perswaded of and yet expect to live in peace must either have very little wit or extraordinary fortune And he that will bear nothing that God hath not expresly imposed upon him nor part with any thing he may lawfully keep nor offer any Sacrifice to those touchy Deities received Custome and vulgar Opinion must expect often to feel the effects of their rage and power In summ he that will sacrifice nothing to publick tranquillity must be sure to live in perpetual flames here whatsoever become of him hereafter The Apostle was not certainly of this stubborn humour who declares of himself that he became all things to all men that he might gain some To the Jews he became as a Jew to gain the Jews to them that were without Law as without Law to them that were weak he became as weak too 1 Cor. 9. 20. He was now no longer a starcht inflexible Pharisee but a complaisant Christian or as some perhaps would have called him a Latitudinarian Apostle When a whole Council of the Apostles at Jerusalem Acts 15. which is a passage I have often occasion to mention and well deserves to be studied by every peaceable Christian when I say they decreed that the Gentiles should abstain from things strangled and from blood they deprived them of a great part of their Christian Liberty meerly to conciliate the Jews to them and required that to be done for peace that no Law of God otherwise required at their hands St. Greg. Nazianzen affirms of St. Basil that he dissembled the Coessentiality of the Holy Spirit and delivered himself in ambiguous terms on that great point lest he should offend and lose the weak which neither would that holy man have done nor much less his especial Friend and admirer have told of him if either of them had thought it to have been too great a price for the purchase But we need no other and can have no greater instance in this case than our Saviour himself who when he came into the world complyed with the Rites and Customs he found and condescended to the very humours of that stubborn people amongst whom he was he used their phrase in all his discourses he observed their Feasts he made his own institutions of Baptism and the Lords Supper as consonant to their Customs as it was possible to the end that he might not disturb them with Novelty but ingratiate himself and his Doctrine by these complyances When a certain Tribute was demanded of him he first proves that he was not obliged to pay it yet lest he should offend them determines to pay it and works a Miracle to make Peter to do it Mat. 17. 27. What shall we say to all this Are these Instances only to trace out an example of condescension in Magistrates and Governours to their Inferiours or are they not most certainly as Land-marks to all of what degree or condition soever to direct them how to steer their course and behave themselves in order to Peace Let me appeal to the Consciences of men Is it not plain from hence that although I be perswaded such a certain Rite is less commendable in it self yet if it appear to be an instrument of Accommodation that it is therefore in that case best upon that account And that such things as are indifferent or have no essential goodness of their own become not indifferent but good as they are useful or necessary to that end Or if I am perswaded that such an opinion is more true than that which is publickly received so long as the main Doctrine of Christianity is not in dispute I may not for all this conceal it rather than disturb the Church This was the counsel of the famous Constantine for the preventing and silencing disputes at the Council of Nice though the things in controversie there were of a higher nature than ours are But if any man be not satisfied with the Judgement of so great and good a Prince let him go and learn what that of St. Paul Rom. 14. 22. means Hast thou faith have it to thy self and that before God In short therefore it will be no hypocritical tergiversation no wrong either to our Religion or to our Consciences if when the case shall so require we change any phrase of speech how fit soever in our apprehension for one less fit but more acceptable and current any Rite or Ceremony that we have a great kindness for for one more grateful to others and that we may comply with the Laws in being so they be not palpably contrary to the Scriptures or common reason though we think better might be made in their room And that according to the saying of the Lord Bacon we may take counsel of the elder times what is best but of the present times for what as fittest And in a word that we part with all that which is no essential point of our Religion for Charity which is 3. Let us now for a Conclusion of this Chapter reflect back upon the aforementioned Catalogue of things in difference and see if they will not all appear to be of such a nature as we have hitherto supposed them that is such as may be fit to become a Peace-offering and sacrificed to the Magistrate the Laws and the Church And that we shall be easily able to resolve of by the help of these five following Remarques 1. That the things now scrupled in this Church are such as were heretofore submitted to by the most Leading men of those that now hereupon depart from it and if those things were in themselves lawful then they cannot change their nature by time and become unlawful now It will not be replyed That then they made no conscience of what they did lest it should be suspected they do but pretend it now for he that confesses a guilt of the same kind strengthens the suspicion of that whereof he is accused But if it be said they did it Ignorantly then and now having more light cannot outface it To this it will be as easie to answer That the ingagements of Interest and Prejudice are as lyable to be suspected now as Ignorance heretofore especially if we consider that there was no appearance of any extraordinary light breaking in when our troubles and divisions broke out but as soon as opportunity offered and occasion invited that is when Laws were laid asleep and Authority taken up with other cares then presently without further deliberation