and Censures and I am very well content they have them provided they will or can discharge them But of the impossibility of that I am past doubt for though the Diocesses of our English Bishops be not so great as that of the Pope which the Dr. acknowledges to be too great and spacious yet I think they are too large for their management and that the duty incumbent on them with respect unto them is utterly impracticable Mount Athos Polion or Ossa are neither of them so great as the Globe of the earth yet they are all burthens utterly insupportable Whether the Dr. will allow this multiplication of Bishops or Suffragans rather that the name Bishop may not become too common and so become less venerable I cannot tell I find him in many places of his Book and in his Preface very jealous of the honour of our Reformation and positively resolved never to condemn the Constitution of this Church nor the lawfulness of the Ceremonies hitherunto practised in it vide Pref. p. 89. I have my self a very great esteem for the Reformation of this Church and a mighty honour for the great and incomparable Hero's that were the Reformers of it but 't is no disparagement to say they were but men though the greatest men nor is it any Reproach to the Reformation to say it was imperfect The Learned and Pious Dr. Burnet hath observed divers defects and imperfections in it and I know not how they can be denied and to speak the truth concerning it is not to reproach it And what if it should be said that among others 't was an imperfection in our Reformation that the number of Bishops was not increased so far as that they might be sufficient for the work and duty incumbent on them Can a Bishop inspect the Clergy in a Diocess of the present dimensions can he exercise the Censures of the Church upon all the culpable delinquents in it can he confirm all the Children in it can he ordain Priests for all the Parishes therein with that circumspection wariness and care which was observed by the primitive Bishops and which the honour of this Church the Christian Religion and the salvation of souls doth require Doth the Reverend Dr. think those things can be done by any the most diligent and industrious Bishop on earth I dare say he cannot think it possible and if he doth not think it possible I would enquire further of him whether he does not think it very necessary and desirable that all this work were put into more hands that they may be capable of performing it for till then I am much assured it can never be done however necessary or desirable it may be These things being said I will now add I shall never desire the Dr. to condemn the Constitution of this Church nor will I brlieve many of the Nonconformists desire him to do it but I would humbly desire him to put to his helping hand for the amendment and perfecting of it and to perfect and compleat it is not to condemn it 't is only to confess it a little short of that perfection that it may attain and what great work is perfect of a sudden at its birth into the world In brief Diocesan Episcopacy I like and that 's the Constitution of this Church and so doth Mr. B. for ought that I can see but I would fain have more Bishops not to controul Episcopal Power but to assist in the performance of Episcopal Duty Page 301. The Dr. undertakes to confute what Mr. B. had said viz. that wherever there is the true notion of a Church there must be a constitutive regent part i. e. a standing governing power which is an essential part of it and this he promises to do from Mr. B. himself How well he hath done it let the Reader judg by what the Author of the Peaceable Design hath replied to him upon this Subject But the Dr. infers from what Mr. B. had said of the necessity of a Regent Head to every Church as followeth And so Mr. B's Constitutive Regent part of a Church hath done the Pope a wonderful kindness and made a very plausible plea for his universal Pastorship But there are some men in the world who do not attend to the advantages they give to Popery so they may vent their spleen against the Church of England To which I answer Mr. B's Constitutive Regent part of a Church hath done the Pope no kindness at all for another visible Head may be assigned to the Catholick Church and that is the holy Jesus he is both the visible and invisible Head thereof he is unto it both a Head of government and a Head of influence he governs it by his Laws and by the influence of his Spirit and hath appointed inferiour officers for the government and direction of it according to his own institutions and though he be not seen by mortals here below yet he is visible and that is enough to constitute him the visible Head of the Catholick visible Church There are some Kingdoms that never see their Prince and in all Kingdoms multitudes of Subjects that never lay their eyes on him and yet he is never the less their Civil visible Head But there are some men in the world that will take very small occasions to signifie their displeasure against Mr. B. and what hath he done to deserve their lash and why must he be the Subject of these most twinging Satyrs they are the words of a late Author and what is the spleen that he vents against the Church of England that makes their choler to ferment and boyl 'T is true Mr. B. doth with a brave and generous courage rebuke what he thinks amiss in the gnvernours and government of the Church of England he speaks plainly and without respect of persons he flatters none nor fawns upon none but indifferently reproves whatever he thinks worthy of it in whomsoever it be And if this be to vent his spleen against the Church of England I think he hath very venerable patterns and examples for it both in the Old Testament and the New as this Learned Dr. very well knows If it should be said that Mr. B. reproves where there is no fault I answer I should much rejoice if this were true and I believe so would Mr. B. as well as I but he must shut his eyes against the mid-day light that thinks there is no fault in the Government of this Church or nothing worthy of the plainest and most keen reproofs therein 'T were very easie to name many things if a man delighted to rake in Sinks and Kennels I mean the proceedings in the Spiritual Courts Page 302. The Dr. tells us that Mr. B. had said in his Answer to his Sermon that he would fain learn of him what those rules and ties are which make a National Church whether divine or humane If it be a divine rule we says Mr. B. are of the National
weight as may be seen in his Preface From these words of Mr. A. the Dr. takes occasion to enquire what a rare advocate had this man been for the Novatians Donatists Luciferians or whatsoever Schismaticks rent the Church in pieces in former times And supposing St. Cyprian and St. Austin and other great opposers of the ancient Schisms to be met together he gathers from these words and the Principles of Separation that he lays down elsewhere in his Books how he would accost them Page 198 Then forms an elegant Oration for him supposing him haranguing it before them Page 198 199. And page 200. these expressions he puts in his mouth Why do you Austin and Cyprian and other Reverend Fathers cry out so often of the Sacrilegiousness of Schism We know no other Sacriledg but the Sacrilegious desertion of our Ministry in obedience to the Laws this is a Sacriledg we often talk of and tell the people it is far worse than robbing Church-plate considering what precious gifts we have These last words are I am afraid a prophane jeer and look more like words dropt from the pen of Ben. Johnson or Fletcher than that of Dr. St. Hath not God endued Mr. B. for 't is on him he reflects and other Nonconformists with precious gifts for 't is a Scripture-word and I 'le make bold to use it though I be thought to cant and can the Dr. deny it or doth it become his gravity to deride them If he must use his Sarcastick faculty I wish he would chuse some common objects to employ it on and not on things that are sacred and divine for such are the gifts wherewith Mr. B. and others of his Brethren are blessed of God and I believe the Dr. in his conscience can't deny it however he takes liberty to deride them And when I pray and where did Mr. B. or any of his brethren say they knew no Sacriledg but that of the Sacrilegious desertion of their Ministry Let this be proved or else it must be reputed a defamation But peradventure the Dr. will say That when men play the Orator they are not obliged to speak exact truth but where will he find any thing in Scripture to patronizâ— it He endeavours to justifie an ugly sarcasm that he made use of in his Sâ—rmon by these words of our Saviour I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance but I am not very certain they will serve his purpose for some men that the Dr. values as well as some that he despises give another interpretation of them as he very well knows but where he will find any to justifie this Catechrestical scoff I cannot tell but may be he may find or make one do it But why doth the Dr. add in obedience to the Laws Do all Laws oblige so far as for Ministers upon that account to desert their Office If so then may not only the three children go to the fiery Furnace and Daniel to the Lyons but all Protestant Preachers to the flames if they continue to exercise their Ministry against the prohibition of Popish Laws If not then 't is not Laws but the equity and justice of Laws that lays an obligation on them and that is the controversie between him and his Nonconformable Brethren in which I will not interpose But this is not the only place where the weight of the Drs. Arguments is little for want of distinction restriction and limitation And this is an infirmity and weakness of discourse that runs through a great part of his Book and which renders it invalid to his Adversaries and especially Mr. B. But the Dr. enquires Whether it be not a sin to break the Churches Communion p. 198. To which I answer Yes doubtless all unnecessary Separation is a sin and such I do esteem much of the present Separation in England But what then Are all that are Schismatical unworthy to live upon the earth Must they be prosecuted by Laws to Imprisonment Banishment and Death Is there no way of curing a wound in the arm or leg but by amputation Are not Drunkenness Adultery Lying and Swearing sins Yes surely 't will not be denied But must all these Criminals be injured proscribed and sent to the Indies This would be thought unreasonable And why persons of some Schismatical Principles provided the main of their doctrine be sound and consistent with Christianity may not have as much favour as drunkards and other immoral men I know not But are there no other ways of reforming the Schismatical bumors of men but Gaols and Confiscations and other like Arguments Are there no methods of reclaiming Schismaticks but by Rods and Axes Are not personal instructions and kindness more agreeable to the nature of the Pastoral Office and the spirit of our Saviour whose servants we are and whose work we are to do in the world Methinks no man that hath read the New Testament should doubt of it and I do confess that I hate these Military methods of converting Dissenters and I never saw any good come of them I live in a Town where there are some Dissenters I have always treated them with kindness and have avoided to exasperate them either in my publick or private discourses and by this means they will come sometimes to hear me and will grant me to be a Minister of Jesus Christ whereas had I railed at them or prosecuted them at Law or encouraged others to do it they would never have come at me but accounted me a Limb of Antichrist and a Factor or Agent for the Devil And I must and do openly avow that 't is more easie to my mind to think that when they are absent from my Congregation they are serving God elsewhere than it would be to think they were some of them in prisons their Families wanting bread and others crying to God for vengeance on me as a persecutor and which is most easie to my mind living I doubt not will be so dying They are persons of holy lives and upright conversations at least some of them and I would not have a hand in persecuting and undoing them for all the Preferments this Church or this World affords Let me add thus much on the behalf of Mr. A. I do not believe that he either desires or pleads for universal Toleration or would defend all the ancient Schismaticks or that he would open his mouth on the behalf of Socinians Arrians Anti-Trinitarians Quakers or other like Sectarian Infidels all that he pleads for is liberty for peaceable and Christian Dissenters but I do think that the Reverend Dr. hath wrung from his words such a sense as he never intended or did once enter into his thoughts Pag. 273. The Dr. says I do not see but the objections made against the Discipline of this Church might be removed if the things allowed and required by the Rules thereof that is Confirmation of children by the Bishop when they are able to give an account of
Church as well as you if humane he enquires how consent in these makes a National Church and how they come to be of the National Church which do not consent in them and objects the differences among the Conformable Clergy in the exposition of some of the Articles of this Church To which the Dr. answers three things I shall take notice only of the last of them viz. There is no difference among us concerning the lawfulness of the orders of our Church and duty of submission to them if there be any other differences they are not material and I believe are no other than in the manner of explaining some things which may happen in the best society in the world without breaking the peace of it as about the difference of orders the sense of some passages in the Athanasian Creed the true explication of one or two Articles which are the things he i. e. Mr. B. mentions A multitude of such differences will never overthrow such a consent among us as to make us not to be members of the same National Church To the first lines of this Paragraph which concern the agreement of the Members of this Church in the lawfulness of its orders and the duty of submission to them I shall reply nothing To the rest I say I am perfectly of the Dr's opinion and were it reduced to practice it would heal the most of the divisions and put a period to most of the separations that have rent and torn this Church in pieces for many years Why might not the Dissenters among us have been permitted to have continued in the Ministry and in the Church though they differed in some things in their judgments from the Conformable Clergy Would it have broken the peace thereof any more than the various apprehensions that are at present among themselves They are not all of a mind in the five points some of them understand and believe them after the sense of Calvin and others after the sense of Arminius and I might mention many others wherein they differ among themselves but the thing is sufficiently known and there is no need of it And are the differences among the Conformists themselves reconcilable with peace and those wherein the Nonconformists differ from them though they be no greater than the other irreconcilable with it What strange partiality is this Conformists may differ in multitudes of things without breaking the peace of the Church but if those that are Dissenters differ from them in a few impertinent and uncertain things the peace of the Church is subverted and all things put into confusion thereby The Conformists doubt at least some of them whether Bishops and Presbyters do differ in order or in degree some are past all doubt concerning it and do affirm they differ in order and not barely in degree This breaks no peace The Nonconformists cannot find that Word of God whereby 't is certain that children indefinitely which are baptized dying before they commit actual siâ— are undoubtedly saved and they are not very sure that all children that are baptized are regenerate by the â—â—irit or that they may safely say of all that they bury that God of his great mercy hath taken to himself the soul of the deceased person and give him hearty thanks that it hath pleased him to deliver him out of the afflictions of this sinful world and these are such dreadful and formidable things that the Church cannot be safe if the Members or at least any of the Preachers in it dispute the truth of them and therefore out they must go and if they attempt to exercise their Ministerial Office after they are ejected they are immediately the most damnable Schismaticks that ever the world did know and Prisons Fines Confiscations Banishments and all that is evil is beneath their sin and trangression Why a difference of opinion in these things might not be consistent with peace as well as in others that are of as great and somewhat greater import at least in my apprehension I am not able to divine if nothing but Reason and Religion were to determine concerning them but if spight malice and revenge and some other of those Antichristian passions be called to counsel and permitted to judg of them 't is not difficult to give a reason of the differing natures of these differences why some are judged consistent with peace and others utterly inconsistent with it But enough of this paragraph I shall conclude with one supplication to all the Conformable Clergy in England on the behalf of the Dissenters and 't is this That they may be permitted to differ from them in things of no greater moment than those in which they differ among themselves If it be said 't is not in their power to permit it I answer Time was when it was very much in their power to have done it and I think they might do well to use some endeavours to retrieve it or at least give some evidence that they wish well to it This I think is no unreasonable request how it may be resented I know not 't is the love of this Church and the peace thereof that hath caused me to propose it and that shall satisfie my mind But having said this on the behalf of the Dissenters I must add a word or two on my own behalf and that is That a fair and passable sense may be and is put upon these passages mentioned from the Rubrick and Liturgy by the Conformable Clergy and amongst them by my self but what is that to those whose judgments and consciences will not permit them to put that sense upon them All mens minds are not cast in the same mould all cannot admit that latitude of sense and exposition in those and many other things that some men do and can without offence and neglect to their consciences and must they therefore be shut out of the Vineyard of the Lord and denied the liberty of working there Certainly this is a severe method of proceeding and hardly reconcilable with the Laws of Christianity The Learned Dr. in several places of his Book represents Mr. A. as unlearned unread and very weak in his reafoning and argumentations Page 174. he accuses him of childish trifling about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Canon and in the same page and that next to it he mislikes his explication of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leaving out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he observes from Grotius is not found in one Manuscript the sense whereof he thus expresses What we have attained let us walk up to the same and that Greek phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he says implies no more than minding that very thing viz. v. 14. pressing towards the mark and then adds But if he had pleased to have read on to Phil. 4.2 he would have found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie unanimity and St. Paul 1 Cor. 12.25 opposes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 th t there be
no schism in the body but that all the members should take care of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one for another and therefore the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is very aptly used against schisms and divisions and adds I should think that St. Chrysostom Theodoret and Theophilact all understood the importance of a Greek phrase as well as our Author and they all make no scruple to interpret it of the peace and concord of Christians And although Austin did not understand much Greek yet he knew the general sense of the Christian Church about this place and he particularly applies it to the peace of the Church in St Cyprian 's case By this tast now says the Dr. let any man judg of the depth of this man's Learning or rather the height of his confidence who dares to tâ—ll the world that the Universal stream and current of all Expositors is against my sense of this Text and for this universal stream besides Grotius who speaks exactly to the same sense with mine quotes only Tirinus and Zanchy and then cries in a word they all conspire against my interpretation And within a few lines he adds But had it not been fairer dealing in one word to have referred us to Mr. Pool's Synopsis for if he had looked into Zanchy himself he would have found how sharply he applied it against Dissenters in the Church And in p. 203. after he had made him Advocate-General for Schismaticks by an Oration put into his mouth and pronounced before St. Austin Cyprian and other great opposers of Schism thus he speaks Judg now Reader whether the Causes of the present Separation as they are laid down â—y my Adversary do not equally defend the Donatills in their Schism and his making so light of Schism doth not give encouragement to men to make more But I shall not send him so far back as Austin and Cyprian for better instruction in this matter but I shall send him to one whose Writings he is better acquainted with even Mr. Baxter And in page 304 the Dr. compares him with Andrelinus of whom Erasmus says That he was a good Poet but his Verses wanted one syllable and that was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in English brains and this because Mr. A. had said That National Churches destroy the being of other Churches under them which says the Dr. I utterly deny and there wants nothing but proof To all this I shall reply as followeth If Mr. A. do intermix any pleasantness in his discourse 't is presently condemned as trifling and he compared with Carmen and Porters If he give his Readers any divertisement by intermingling some Wit and Fancy with his Reasonings he is scurrilous and compared to Martin an Author I confess that I never had the misfortune to read but â—e is sufficiently famed for railing If he intersperse a little saltness among his Ratiocinations he is ungentile and a Buffoon which is the Title wherewith a Gentleman hath lately graced him in a Reply to his Book What shall Mr. A. do in this case and how shall he please these Gentlemen Would they have him turn fool to humour them and lay aside his Wit which makes his Writings the more savoury and grateful to do them a pleasure I do not find that those that have replied to him have laid any obligation upon him to do them such a kindness and I think he will be loath to purchase their favour and good will at so dear a rate But Mr. A. hath interpreted the Greek Phrases before mentioned otherwise than Chrysostome Theodoret Theoplylact and St. Austin and what then is he the only person that hath interpreted Texts of Scripture contrary to the opinion and judgments of those Fathers do not all Expositors almost do the same do not the Papists though otherwise obliged by the Decrees of the Council of Trent do it does not the admired Hugo Grotius do it and I dare say this excellent Dr. himself understands very many Texts of Scripture in other senses than the ancient Fathers did expound them Whether Mr A. have rightly interpreted the Texts in Controversie I will not determine but this I will say he may be a Learned man though he may have expounded them otherwise than St. Chrysostome St. Theodoret c. Whether the universal current of all Expositors be against the Dr's sense of his Text as Mr. A. affirms I know not for my Library is not furnished with all the Commentators in the world nor will I say that Mr. A. did look into lanchy himself and not transcribe what he quotes from Mr. Pooles Synopsis but this I think I may say that I see no convincing evidence that Mr. A. did not peruse that Author himself and transcribe the words from him and not from Mr. Pool and therefore I humbly conceive the Dr. hath affirmed or at least insinuated more than he hath proved viz. that Mr. A's quotations are transcribed from the Synopsis Criticorum and not from the Authors themselves But if Mr. A. must be a Pigmy in Learning what honour is it then for the very great and learned Dr. to beat and overcome him Let it be granted therefore for once that Mr. A. is not the most learned or best-read man in the world and that there are some yea many that have learned and read much more than he but what then he may be a Master of Reason and a man of some tolerable judgment not withstanding those defects or else many great men and some that are in great reputation for wisdom must be numbred among Dolts and sit in the Classis of Fools he may be able to understand the sense of a Text of Scripture and the dependance and connexion of it with the precedent and consequent Verses and the scope and design of the Author therein These things may be done by men of competent understanding and I think that will be granted to Mr. A. though they never read all the Books in the Bodleian Library or in some that are more meanly furnished and 't is some mens opinion that the greatest Readers are not always the most judicious men and that if some very worthy men had read less they might have understood more Hence I think I may infer that though Mr. A. should not have read St. Chrysostome c. nor many modern Commentators yet he may be capable of expounding a Text of Scripture with the probability of truth as well as those that have read them all And whereas it hath pleased the Learned Dr. to entitle him Advocate-General for Schismaticks I am not satisfied that Mr. A. hath given any just reason for it 'T is true he hath said that some little and petty inconveniences arising from the levity and volubility of mers minds is more eligible than the enslaving mens judgments and consciences and surrendring their reason to naked will and pleasure even as 't is better to have a rational soul though subject to mistakes than the soul of a brute