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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44196	The judgment of the late Lord Chief Justice Sir Matthew Hale, of the nature of true religion, the causes of its corruption, and the churches calamity by mens additions and violences with the desired cure : in three discourses / written by himself at several times ... ; humbly dedicated to the honourable judges and learned lawyers ... by the faithful publisher, Richard Baxter ; to which is annexed the judgment of Sir Francis Bacon ... and somewhat of Dr. Isaack Barrows on the same subject.	Hale, Matthew, Sir, 1609-1676.; Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.; Barrow, Isaac, 1630-1677.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1684 (1684)	Wing H247; ESTC R11139	41,043	77

them are Holy and Good so yet if Saint John were to indite an Epistle to the Church of England as he did to them of Asia it would sure have the Clause Habeo adversus te pauca And he saith pag. 183. That there should be one Form of Discipline in all Churches and that imposed by necessity of a commandment and prescript out of the word of God It is a matter Volumes have been compiled of and therefore cannot receive a brief redargution I for my part do confess that in revolving the Scriptures I could never find any such thing but that God had left the like liberty to the Church Government to be varied according to the Time and Place and Accidents which nevertheless his high and Divine Providence doth Order and dispose For all Civil Governments are restrained from God unto the General Grounds of Justice and Manners But the Policies and Forms of them are left free So that Monarchies and Kingdoms Senates and Seigniories Popular States and Communalties are lawful and where they are planted ought to be maintained inviolate So likewise in Church matters the Substance of Doctrine is immutable And so are the General Rules of Government But for Rites and Ceremonies and for the particular Hierarchies Policies and Discipline of Churches they be left at large And therefore it is good that we return to the ancient bounds of Unity in the Church of God which was One Faith One Baptism and not One Hierarchy One Discipline And that we observe the League of Christians as it is penned by our Saviour which is in substance of Doctrine this He that is not withus is against us But in things Indifferent and of Circumstance this He that is not against us is with us In these things so as the General rule be observed That Christs flock be fed That there be a succession in Bishops and Ministers which are the Prophets of the New Testament That there be a due and reverent use of the Power of the Keyes That those that preach the Gospel live of the Gospel That all things tend to Edification That all things be done in order and with decency and the like The rest is left to Holy Wisdom and spiritual discretion of the Master-Builder and Inferior Builders in Christs Church As it is excellently alluded by that Father that noted that Christs Garment was without Seam and yet the Churches Garment was of divers Colours And setsdown as a rule In veste varietas sit scissura non sit Pag. 134. For the Government of Bishops I for my part not prejudging the Presidents of other reformed Churches do hold it warranted by the Word of God and by the Practice of the ancient Church in the better times and much more Convenient for Kingdoms than Parity of Ministers and Government by Synods But there be two Circumstances in the Administration of Bishops wherein I confess I could never be satisfyed The One The sole exercise of their Authority The other The Deputation of their Authority For the first The Bishop giveth Orders-alone Excommunicateth alone Judgeth alone This seemeth to be a thing almost without Example in good Government and therefore not unlikely to have crept in in the degenerate and corrupt time We see the greatest Kings and Monarchs have their Councils There is no Temporal Court in England of the higher sort where the Authority doth rest in one person The Kings-Bench the Common-pleas and the Exchequer are Benches of a certain Number of Judges The Chancellor of England hath the Assistance of twelve Masters of the Chancery c. The like is to be found in all well-govern'd Commonwealths abroad where the Jurisdiction is more dispersed As in the Court of Parliament of France and in other places No man will deny but the Acts that passe the Bishops Jurisdiction are of as great importance as those that pass the Civil Courts For mens Souls are more precious than their Bodies or Goods And so are their Good-names Bishops have their infirmities and have no exception from that general Malediction pronounced against all Men living Voe Soli nam si occident c. Nay we see that the first Warrant in Spiritual Causes is directed to a Number Dic Ecclesioe which is not so in Temporal Matters Ab initio non fuit sic For the second Point which is the Deputation of their Authority I see no perfect nor sure ground for that neither Being somewhat different from the Examples and Rules of Government The Bishop exerciseth his Jurisdiction by his Chancellour and Commissary Official c. We see in all Laws in the world Offices of Confidence and Skill cannot be put over and exercised by Deputy except it be specially contained in the Original Grant And in that Case it is dutiful And for experience there was never any Chancellour of England made a Deputy There was never any Judge in any Court made a Deputy The Bishop is a Judge and of a high nature whence cometh it that he should depute Considering that all Trust and Confidence is personal and inherent and cannot nor ought not be transposed Surely in this again Ab initio non fuit fic But it is probable that Bishops when they gave themselves too much to the glory of the world and became Grandees in Kingdoms and great Counsellours to Princes then did they delegate their proper Jurisdictions as things of too inferior Nature for their Greatness And then after the similitude of Kings and Count Palatines they would have their Chancellours and Judges But the Example of Kings and Potentates giveth no good defence For the Reason why Kings administer by their Judges tho' themselves are supream Judges are two The One because the Offices of Kings are for the most part of Inheritance And it is a Rule in all Laws that offices of inheritance are rather matters that ground in Interest than in Confidence for as much as they may fall upon Women upon Infants upon Lunaticks and Idiots Persons uncapable to execute Judicature in person And therefore such Offices by all Laws might ever be exercised and administred by delegation The second reason is because of the Amplitude of their Jurisdictions c. There is a third reason tho' not much to the present purpose that Kings either in respect of the Common-wealth or of the Greatness of their own Patrimonies are usually Parties in Suites And then their Judges stand indifferent between them and their Subjects But in the Case of Bishops none of these Reasons hold For first their Office elective and for life and not patrimonial or hereditary An Office meerly of Confidence Science and Qualification c. See the rest Page 185 186. The Cap and Surplice since they be things in their Nature indifferent and yet by some held Superstitious and that the Question is between Science and Conscience it seemeth to fall within the compass of the Apostles Rule which is that the stronger do descend and yield to the weaker c. lege

Ministers Pag. 11. His preference of Episcopacy before all other Governments was his real Judgment But it was its Essentials and not all the Additionals that he meant For to my knowledge he would have been glad of the Primitive Model of Bishop Usher Who was his much valued friend In the 3d. Tract Pag. 17. the Scribe left an A for a word omitted and I durst not supply it by Conjecture Who the Authors are that he so much blameth specially the Dialogist few will doubt but I will not name because by the Report of his good Preaching and Life I cannot but hope that he Repenteth of it There is one S T. that in an Invective against the Protestant Reconciler a Book like this and against Dr. Stillingsleet insinuates that I am not to be believed in my Report elsewhere given of Judge Hales words that A new Act of Uniformity must heal England c. In these three Treatises this incredulous man may see much more than that which may expugne his Vnbelief And lest any accuse me of Forgery I hope to preserve the Manuscripts and doubt not but the Lady Hale or Mr. Stevens hath a Copy of them And because this Reverend Enemy to the Reconciler pleading for their Excommunication was a Son of a Reverend Nonconformist deceased and lived sometime with me at Kiderminster and frequently walkt with me and therefore may be thought to have known my incredibility I ask him why in all that time if he knew me to be a Lyar would he never once tell me of it I take Cursed be the Trimmers and Blessed are the Peace-makers for direct contraries And Christ to be Wiser and more credible than all the Enemies of Peace R. B. THE CONTENTS Of the first Discourse THE use of Religion By what means God made it so common p. 1. How perfected by Christ. p. 2. And why 1. To recover his honour to God 2. To bring man to Happiness 3. For the right Government of man p. 16. The few plain easy parts of Religion Comfortable Consectaries p. 4 5. How Religion is corrupted and changed in the World 1. By the subtilties of Scholastick Learned men p 5. 1. By their disputes about unnecessary and unknowable things Instances p. 6. 2. And of Lower yet uncertain points p. 7. How safe the Religious are without them p. 8. 3. Casuists corrupting Morals p. 9. 2. By turning Religion into Politick Contrivances for wealth and power Instance in Princes 2. Specially in the Roman Church p. 9. 3. Instance in Formes of Church Government and Ceremonies 1. Overvalued 2. Over opposed p. 12. 13. 14. 4. Disputes between Calvinists and Arminians of old about Easter c. p. 15. 5. Contention about trivial matters Divers Instances p. 16. 17. Mens overdoing for these lamented p. 16. 17. How different Religion is from all these mens Additions The Causes of these Errors 1. The weaknesses of some Conscientious Persons deserving Compassion tenderness and Love rather than severity or Contempt p. 22. 2. Some to get preferment and favour with great men 3. Some for Gain 4. Most from over-fondness of their own inventions 5. An affectation of Discrimination and singularity by outward Badges p. 24. c. The Contents of the Second Discourse THE principle of Religion small yet pregnant and productive p. 1. Religion is best in its SIMPLICITY and PURITY But hard to be kept from corruption by Additions p. 2. What these corrupting Additions are 1. Reducing it to gratify sense A common corruption p. 3. 2. Additions from mens accidental inclinations Instances 1. Philosophers mix their Natural Philosophy with it 2. Behmen makes it Chimical 3. Socinians subject it to their Reason 4. Some Physicians mix corporal Constitution 5. Metaphisical men make it unintelligible by Subtilties p. 4. 6. Politicians and States-men and Papists Hierarchy make it but an Engine of Policie p. 5. 7. Politick Discontented men manage it to get a Party against the State p. 6. The violent Zeal of such Corrupters Papists Reformed Episcopal Clergy Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists c. p. 7. Instances doctrinal p. 8 3. Lawful Additions sinfully managed Reasons to prove them convenient p. 9. Cautions to be used in them 1. That they be not numerous 2. Nor superstitious 3. Decent not Powpous 4. Not continued for their antiquity when they become unseasonable or hurtful 5. Not urged with rigour and too much severity against Conscentious refusers An objection of the urgers answered 6. Still remember that Religion is quite another thing p. 12. What is true Religion and who are religious and who not p. 13. The Contents of the third Discourse WHat the Christian Religion is and what men true Christians are p. 1. But many Additions in all ages have been made to it by divers sorts for divers designes and ends Some by the authority of great Names some by insensible gradations some by supposed Congruity some as for Order and Decency some for discrimination of Parties some for Political Ends emergent occasions Civil or Ecclesiastical Sanctions c. And the greatest Fervor and Animosity of men commonly laid out on these additions by some for them by others against them The unhappy Consequents p. 4. 1. Diversion from the true nature and use of Religion by Zeal for entire Conformity to these additions or against them 2. And so the Fervour of mens Spirits let out the wrong way p. 5. 3. Hence come Schisms and Factions and Personal Animosities discriminations Censoriousness estrangedness by ill advancing these opinions and little things 4. The Bond of Charity broken Severity Persecution Implacableness endeavouring to supplant and disgrace Dissenters worse scorns reproach and vilifying than between Christians and Turks p. 6 5. Increase of Atheisme and Contempt of all Religion while preachers go so much against their Doctrine As if Religion wereof no more Moment and of no better Effect than these Additions p. 8. The causes of this sad distemper 1. Self-love and fondness for that which is our own 2. Pride and Reputation 3. Plain and Pure Religion unsutable to mens Curiosity and appetite 4. They must have somewhat that is pleasing p. 9. 5 Contrariety and Jealousy of men herein concerned Specially between Power and Conscience Both plead Gods name and neither will yield p. 10. 6. Specially not dealing meekly and in Love with one another But by Passion Violence and Bitterness rendring each other odious scoffing catching Arts misinterpreting each other Disingenuous quotations c. p. 11. These are contrary to Christianity p. 12. The sad proof 1. From such as Martin Mar-prelate c. on one side and Epithets of Antichristian Babylonish Idolatrous given to Bishops and Liturgie 2. On the other side Ministers should cashiere these black Auxiliaries or else profess that it is not Christs Cause that they plead but their own p. 13. A sharp reproof of some late Writers against Dissenters specially the Dialogist as heinously abusing Scripture and Religion far worse than Ben. Johnsons prophane Play The

sin with presumption can drink excessively swear vainly or falsly commit Adultery Lye Cozen Cheat break his Promises live loosely though he practise every Ceremony never so curiously or as stubbornly oppose them though he cry down Bishops or cry down Presbytery though he be re-baptized every day or though he disclaim against it as Heresie though he Fast all the Lent or Feasts out of pretence of avoiding Superstition yet notwithstanding these and a thousand more external Conformities or zealous Oppositions of them he wants the Life of Religion PART III. OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION The Superstructions upon it and Animosities about them THe Christian Religion and Doctrine was by the Goodness and Wisdom of God designed to be the common Means and Method to bring Mankind to their Chief End namely to know and to serve and obey and glorifie and everlastingly to enjoy Almighty God the Chiefest Good And to that end it was given out with all the Plainness and Perspicuity with all Evidence and certainty a Doctrine and Religion containing Precepts of all Holiness and Purity of all Righteousness and Honesty of all Longanimity Benignity and Gentleness Sweetness Meekness and Charity of all Moderation and Patience of all Sobriety and Temperance in brief it is a Religion that is admirably and sufficiently constituted to make a man what indeed he should be Pious towards God Just and Beneficent towards Men and temperate in himself fitted for a life of Piety Honesty Justice and Goodness and Happiness heareafter Such is the Christian Religion and such the men must be that are truly conformable to it and if any man professing Christianity be not such a man it is because he comes so much short of his due Conformity to Christian Religion and the most excellent Doctrine and Precepts thereof The Profession of this Religion is that which is and for many Ages hath been commonly made by a very considerable part of the known World as the only true Religion given to the world by Almighty God through his Son Jesus Christ wherein and whereby they may expect everlasting Salvation But yet together with this Christian Religion the Prosessors thereof have in several Ages and Places chosen to themselves various adventitious accidental Superstructions Adtions Opinions Modes and Practices which they have as it were incorporated into the Christian Religion by them professed or appendicated unto it And these Superstructions or Appendixes of Christian Religion have been introduced and entertained by various Means and by various Designs and to various Ends Some by the Authority of great Names Some by insenfible graditions or long customs some by a supposed congruity or incongruity some for Order or Decency Some for Discrimination of Rarties Some for Political Ends appearing in themselves or secretly carryed on some upon emergent occasions either continuing or now ceasing Some by Civil some by Ecclesiastical Sanctions Some by traditional Observations either continued or interrupted and revived Some for Ornament Some for Vse Some as supposed necessary consequents upon the Christian Doctrine Some to be quasi septa munimenta doctrinoe religionis Evangelicoe as the Jewish Traditions were supposed to be the Sepimenta Legis Some for one end and some for another And although these are not truly and essentially parts of the Christian Religion yet as the humours in the body are some good some noxious some innocent though they are no part of the true vital blood yet they mingle with it and run along in it so these Superstructions and Occasions and Additions have in various Ages Successions and Places mingled with the true radical vital Doctrine and Religion of Christ in mens Opinions and Practices and Professions And yet it is visible to any man that will but attentively observe the Courses of men professing Christian Religion that the greatest fervour and animosity of the Professors of Christian Religion is not so much with respect to the subftantials of Christian Religion either in things to be believed or practised as touching these Additions and Superstructions some as fervently contending for them as if the life of Christianity consisted in them some as bitterly and severely contesting against them as if the life and soul of Christian Religion were not possibly consisting with them And by these means these unhappy Consequences follow 1. That whereas the main of Christian Religion consists in the true belief of the Gospel of Christ Jesus and the Practice of those Christian Virtues that he lest unto his Disciples and Followers both by his Example and Precept namely love of God Holiness and Purity of life Humility and Lowliness of mind Patience Meekness Gentleness Charity a low and easy Value of the World Contentation of Mind submission to the Will of God Dependance upon him Resignation unto him and other excellent Evangelical Virtues that perfect and rectifie the Soul and fit it for an humble Communion with Almighty God in this life and a blessed fruition of his Presence in the life to come the Christian Religion is not so much placed in these as in an entire Conformity to Modes and Circumstances or an extream Aversion from them And according to the various Interests or Inclinations of Parties those are made the Magnalia of Christian Religion and such as give the only Character or Discriminative Indication of the Christian Religion 2. And consequently all the greatest part of that stress and fervour of mind which should be employed in those great weighty Substantials of Christianity runs out and spends it self in those little Collaterals and Superstructions and Additaments some placing the greatest earnestness and intention contension of mind to have them and some placing the intension and fervour of their mind to be without them not unlike those old Contentions between the Eastern and Western Churches touching the time of the Paschal Observation one Party excommunicating the other for their dissent as if the whole weight and stress of the Christian Religion lay in those little Additaments 3. And hereupon there arise Schismes Factions and personal Animosities Discrimination of Parties Censoriousness and studied estrangings of Professors of Christianity oftentimes one Party declining those Practices which are good and commendable in the other to keep their distances the more irreconcilable and each Party espousing some odd Discriminating Habits Modes and sometimes also by Opinions in matters of Religion that may estrange and discriminate them each from the other and these Opinions though of little moment or consequence it may be whether true or false are advanced up into little less than Articles of Faith for the sake of this Discrimination when possibly they are of little moment whether they be assented unto or not of less certainty and have little or no influence or concern in the Substance of Christian Doctrine 4. And hereupon it oftentimes comes to pass that not only the common Bond of Charity and Christian Love is broken between the Professors of the same substantials in Christianity but there is

most ordinarily much more Severity and Persecution and Implacableness and Irreconcileableness more endeavours to undermine and supplant and disgrace Dissenters more scorns and vilifying and reproach and insolence one towards another in their vicissitudes of advantage than there is between Professors of Christianity and men of the most loose and profane lives between Orthodox and Heretiques nay between Christians and Turks or Infidels many times 5. And from this there ariseth a most fruitful and a most inevitable increase of Atheism and contempt of Religion in many of the Spectators of this Game among Professors of the Christian Religion and that upon these two Accounts Principally because when they hear each Party declare as they must if they declare truth in their Sermons and Writings that the Doctrine of Christianity injoynes Mutual Love Condescention Charity Gentleness Meekness and yet so little practised by Dissenting Parties men are apt to conclude that either these persons do not believe what they pretend to preach and publish or that the Doctrine of Christianity was a Notion and Speculation and never intended as a necessary Rule of Practice since the greatest Pretenders to the Religion of Christ practise so little of it 2. Because when men see that those little Superstructions and Additions are by the one side prosecuted and on the other side decryed with as much animosity fervour and severities as the most weighty and important Truths and Precepts of Evangelical Faith and Obedience Spectators and By-standers think that they are all of the same value and when they see that these things which every sober considerate man must needs conclude little and of no momont are rated at so great a value by the contesting Parties of each side Truths then are doubted of in relation to these It makes men call in question great matters when they see such small things pursued or declined with no less Fervour and Anunosity than if they were of the greatest And considering these unhappy Consequences of these fervours of minds touching these small Appendixes and Superstructions even more than about or concerning the very weighty things of the Gospel I have endeavoured to search out the Reason how this strong Distemper comes to pass and there seems to be these Causes thereof 1. Ordinarily a man is more fond of and concerned for something that is his own than for that which is of God as we are transported with a Love to our selves so we are transported with a love and admiration of what is our own and hence it is that the weightier and more important Duties injoined by Christ partake less of our zeal or courage or intension of mind than our own little Fantasies and Inventions 2. Pride Credit and Reputation are commonly ingaged in either Party in the things contested when they are once contested and these are violent and pressing Interests and Motions 3. The Plainest Truth and Purity of Religion is a thing that seldom pleaseth and suteth to the Curiosity and Appetite of Men they are always fond of something Annexed or Appendicated to Religion to make it pleasing to their Appetite A certain Sawce that may entertain their Fancy after which it may run and wherein it may please it self And these Sawcesto Religion are various and variously pleasing according to the Various Inclinations of Men Most ordinarily the Fancies of men affect some things Splendid and Sensible to be Superadded to Religion the Israelites would needs have gods that might go before them and in complyance with this Humour most of the Strange Modes and Gesticulations among the Heathens and most of the Superstitions Ceremonies and Rites among the Papists were invented Again sometimes the Humour of the People runs in the other Extreme either they will have nothing of Form or Order or all such Forms or Orders as are extremely opposite to what others use and place their delight and complacency therein And by this means oftentimes it comes to pass that men are carried with greater earnestness and vehemence after those Placentia the entertainments of their fancies than to the true Substance of Religion it self 4. Oftentimes it comes to pass that there are two very jealous Concerns and impatient of any Corrival that are ingaged each against other in these different and dissenting Practices relating to Collaterals in Religion On the one side Power and Authority is very tender of its own Interest and jealous of a Competitor or Rival On the other side Conscience and Perswasion either of the Necessity or Vnlawfulness of any thing is very jealous or fearful and suspicious of any thing that might injure it And whether the Conscience be mistaken or not yet so long as its Perswasion that is entertained sub ratione conscientioe prevails this jealousie will still prevail in the mind and it many times falls out that Authority on the one hand is impatient or at least jealous of Opposition and Conscience on the other hand restless and unquiet 5. And the difficulty is so much the greater because each seems to derive their obliging Authority from God the Magistrate recognizing God Almighty as the Fountain Root and Foundation of his Power and the Conscience supposed to be the Vicegerent of God in the Soul 6. But that which admirably keeps up these differences is that men on each side deal not one with another calmly mildly or upon the Reasons of the things or upon a true way of Reasoning Debating and Arguing of things or prudent Considerations that might invite yielding on the one side or accommodations of the other but each Party takes in all those Contributions Assistances and Advantages that commonly accompany the worst of Contentions For instance 1. Extremity of Passion and Indignation 2. Violence and Bitterness of Writings and Speeches 3. Each Party rendring the other as odious and ridiculous as is possible 4. Scoffing jearing and personal reflections 5. Artifices and Designs each to catch and undermine the other 6. An industrious and willing mis-interpretation of each others Words Writings and Actions and raising them to odious Inferences and Consequences beyond what they were meant or really and truly bear 7. Disingenuous Quotations out of each other without those ordinary Remedies that might be allowed by comparing of other parts of their Writings These and the like Auxiliaries are on each part taken into these Velitations between Christians and in relation to things contended for or against in these Differences whereas the whole tenour of the Doctrine of Christianity as it was delivered by Christ and his Apostles decries nothing more than Anger Wrath Malice Railing Evil-speaking Back biting Slanders Reproches Names and Epithets of Scorns Craft and Subtilty yet all these black Legions are called used and imployed in the management of that Cause which each Party pretends to be the Cause of Christ as if Fiends and Furies and Legions of Devils were thought fit Auxiliaries on each Party wherein both pretend the interest of Christ Jesus And that this is so let any

those Opinions or Perswasions when they must thereby in effect subscribe to such Epithetes and Appellations before all the world and of all things in the world men can with the least patience bear reflection upon their intellectuals and are most irreconcilable to them that traduce or abuse them therein 2. It greatly disadvantageth the Cause as well as the Persons of those that use this method amongst sober indifferent Observers who will be ready to conclude them a parcel of people transported by passions weak and prejudicated and look upon such a Cause as is maintained by railing scoffing raillery and unproved Calumnies as weak and standing in need of such rudenesses to support and maintain it 3. It exposeth Religion it self to the derision of Atheists and confirms them in their Atheisms and gains them too many Proselytes and that principally upon these Reasons 1. Because they find that Clergy-men do tell them in the Pulpits that Christ himself and his Appostles condemned railing scandalous Appellation as Raca and Fool Evil-speaking foolish-jeasting Mocking Reviling This they tell men and they tell them truly and yet these very men that call themselves Ministers of Christ Messengers of the Gospel of Peace take that admirable liberty of reproaching scoffing and deriding one another in their publick Pamphlets and Discourses that can scarce be exampled among the most invective Ranks of Persons whose trade it is to be Satyrical and render people ridiculous Nay so far hath this Excellent manage prevail'd among Clergy-men that their Scoffs and Reproaches are not levelled at the Persons or Personal Defects of Dissenters but rather than want supports for their Party will have ugly flings at Religion it self at Scripture expressions and when men see such a course of Practice among the Preachers and Clergy-men they are ready to conclude that surely they believe not themselves what they preach to others therefore think they have a fair pretence not to believe them 2. But principally these great Animosities and Transports of dissenting Clergy-men confirms and promotes Atheisme upon this account that the things about which this wonderful hate is strucken between these Parties are such as both Parties agree to be none of the Fundamentals of the Religion professed by both but Accessaries and Accessions and such indeed as By-standers think are of very small moment and yet when men see so much heat and passion so much fervour and contention such reproaches and revilings such exasperations of Authority on either Party such mutual Prosecutions one of another that more could not possibly be done between Dissenters in those points which both agree to be Fundamental Atheistical spirits are apt to conclude that probably those points that both sides supposed to be of greater moment are ejusdem farinoe with those in Contest since they are not nor cannot be prosecuted with greater fervour than these which all men take to be small and inconsiderable and that it is Interest Vain-glory and Applause or some other Temporal Concern that gives this Fervour and Zeal in Matters of Religion more than the true Concerns of it self The Conclusion therefore is That men for their own sakes and for the sake and honour of the Christian Religion would use more Temperance Prudence and Moderation in Contests about Circumstantials Sir Francis Bacon Lord Verulam Viscount St. Albans and Lord Chancellor after in his Advertisement of the Controversies of the Church of England pag. 138. of his Works THe wrongs of them who are possessed of the Government of the Church towards the other may hardly be dissembled or excused They have charged them as tho' they denyed tribute to Coesar and withdrew from the Civil Magistrate the obedience which they have ever performed and taught I have oft transcribed Bishop Andrews Confident Assertion of the Loyalty of those then called Puritans against the Papists accusation in his Tortura Torti They have sorted and coupled them with the Family of Love whose Heresie they have labour'd to destroy and confute They have been swift of Credit to receive accusations against them from those that have quarrelled with them but for speaking against sin and Vice Their Accusations and Inquisitions have been strict Swearing men to Blanks and Generalities not included within compass of Matter certain Which the Party which is to take the Oath may Comprehend to be a thing captious and streinable Their urging Subscription to their own Articles is but Lacessere irritare morbos Ecclesiae Which otherwise would spend themselves Non Consensum quoerit sed dissidium qui quod factis proestatur in verbis exigit He seeketh not Unity but Division who exacteth that in words which we are content to yield in Action And it is true that there are some who I am perswaded will not easily offend by inconformity who notwithstanding make some Conscience to subscribe For they know this Note of Inconstancy and Defection from what they have long held shall dissable them to do that good which otherwise they might do For such is the weakness of many that their Ministry should be thereby discredited As for their easie silencing them in so great scarcity of Preachers it is to Punish the People and not Them Ought they not I mean the Bishops to keep one eye open to look upon the good that the men do but to fix them both upon the hurt that they suppose cometh by them Indeed such as are Intemperate and Incorrigible God forbid they should be permitted to preach But shall every inconsiderate word somtimes captiously watched and for the most part hardly enforced be as a forfeiture of their Voice and Gift in preaching As for sundry particular molestations I take no pleasure to recite them If a Minister shall be troubled for saying in Baptisme Do you believe for Dost thou believe If another shall be call'd in question for praying for her Majesty without the additions of her Stile Whereas the very Form of Prayer in the Common-prayer-book hath Thy servant Elizabeth and no more If a third shall be accused on these words uttered touching the Controversies Tollatur Lex ut fiat certamen whereby was meant that the prejudice of the Law removed eithers reasons should be equally compared of calling the people to Sedition and Mutiny as if he had said Away with the Law and try it out with Force If these and other like particulars be true which I have but by Rumor and cannot affirm it is to be lamented that they should labour among us with so little Comfort The wrath of man worketh not the Righteousness of God Thus far this conformable Learned Lawyer The said Lord Verulam in his Considerations for the better Pacification and Edification of the Church of England Pag. 180. c. of his Works He first answers the Objection that It is against good Policie to Innovate any thing in Church-matters And praising the Church addeth pag. 182. But for the Discipline and Orders of the Church as many and the Chief of