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A47911
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Remarks on the growth and progress of non-conformity
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L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing L1296; ESTC R7094
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33,007
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58
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Religion the violation of Duty Conscience Peace Order Laws Justice c. and compare it with the Persecution of the Greek Churches and he shall find that all the ravages of the Turks since the taking of Constantinople hath not so disfigured them in two hundred years as these Reformers did in six or seven years in their own native Country Such abomination of desolation is Presbyterian Reformation which Mr. Case says Armies fought for ParlJam nts consult for Ministers pray for and all good People long for And let no body pretend in this as Mr. Baxter doth about the Regicidy that it was a rude conquering Army For read who will their Souldiers Catechism their Zions Plea Christ on his Throne as also their Ordinance on August 28. 1643. and he shall see that all this was done by Authority from the Houses of ParlJam nt and in the fear of God by the advice of the Assembly of Divines 2. The extravagancy of their Reformation will further appear by considering the matter of it or the things to be reformed which are chiefly Episcopacy and the Liturgy 1. Episcopacy an Order which hath been proved abundantly to be founded on no other than Scripture and Apostolick practice Antiquity and Necessity necessary as woful experience hath verified to the support of the English Monarchy according to those words of King Charles the Martyr That he could scarce ever boast of one days felicity after he had once consented to the taking away the Bishops Votes in ParlJam nt Which I take notice of the rather since in a place of note in this Kingdom at the last Election of ParlJam nt in the year 1681. the Rabble of the Faction cried it No Bishops No Bishops the very same words and with the same kind of violence as Dr. Burgess's Myrmidons did before the ParlJam nt House doors in 1641. 2. The other thing to be reformed is the Liturgy whose Reformation from Popery was sealed by the bloud of Martyrs When it was first composed and used the People of England received it as a heavenly treasure sent down by God's great mercy to them All moderate men beyond Seas applauded the felicity of the Church of England in fashioning such an excellent Form for God's publick Worship And the Act of ParlJam nt that first confirmed the same declared it to be done by the special aid of the Holy Ghost as the words of the Act are and Mr. Fox the Author of the Book of Martyrs fears not to say that it was indicted by the Holy Ghost Yet this is that Liturgy which the peevish Professors of these stirring Times would have laid aside for Reformation sake that so as King Charles observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministers may be left to their liberty and private abilities in God's publick Service where no man can tell to what he may say Amen or what adventure he may make of seeming at least to consent to whatever errours and ridiculous indecencies bold and ignorant men list to vent in their Prayers and other Offices But 't is enough to satisfie any unprejudiced and judicious Reader of the unreasonableness of scrupling the Liturgy that will but consider well those frivolous flaws and exceptions which the great Non-conformity-Champion hath made against it as the best he could devise after the twenty years study he speaks of II. The second thing to be considered in their pretensions above other men in their greater Sanctimony and tenderness of Conscience which were it real as it is pretended I should tremble to think of charging them with the counterfeit and pretence of it onely But that which liables it to the suspicion of Counterfeit lies in these two things 1. The erroneousness of it which is so gross as to call the Design of overturning the Government no Treason the taking up Arms against the King no Rebellion dividing from the Communion of the Church no Schism appropriating to private uses the Church-plate and Revenues no Sacrilege and using the name of God to all this no Hypocrisie How can such thickness of errour consist with true Sanctity and tenderness of Conscience especially if we take tenderness of Conscience as that Party doth in the same latitude with a good Conscience for such a tenderness as to be afraid of sin and to decline the temptations occasions and appearances of evil 2. Their pretended tenderness of Conscience above others is to be suspected upon the account of its great partiality and defect wanting that uniformity which is required to its sincerity When a man shall scruple a Ceremony and yet neglect an Institution of Christ not dare to kneel at the Sacrament yet wholly neglect the Communion boggle at the use of a Ceremony yet openly avow the blackest of Crimes backbitings slanderings schism and sedition is this true tenderness of Conscience or is it not rather as one says a conscience of making no conscience at all But more particularly doth not the partiality and defect of their conscientiousness appear in their notorious uncharitableness and censoriousness rash censuring and condemning slandering and defaming all that differ from them especially Ministers But above all those that oppose their way if subtlety and malice can do it shall be sure to be rendred odious but the partiality and defect of their conscientiousness is most apparent in their old Gnostick Principle of disobedience to Magistrates Will any man believe that Practice to be conscientious or that Religion to be of God which so dishonours God and Christianity that so confronts God's Vicegerent and those in Authority under him which God commands obedience to upon pain of damnation and which as though foreseeing the pretence of Conscience for their disobedience doth so indispensably urge you must needs obey and for Conscience sake and that even Heathen Governours whereas the Governours i. e. the ParlJam nt in part that our Dissenters are to obey are of their own chusing and so the Laws are partly Laws of their own making as made by their own Representatives What they urge for their disobedience is so ludicrous and of so frequent and obvious confutation that 't is a shame to insist upon them But just to mention them as 1. That 't is better to obey God than Man which in the form of an Objection is nothing else but a factious slander intimating as though our Rulers enjoined any thing in disobedience to God 2. A second thing urged for their disobedience is that of Christian Liberty The same that the Gnosticks urged for their revolt from Christianity and which was used among the Jews as a Passport for fugitive Servants and a praetext to all Outrages and Rebellions and which the Gnosticks used to justifie their disobedience to Magistrates Whereas indeed this Christian liberty is a quite contrary thing viz. a discharge from the necessity of observing the Mosaical Law and Rites of Judaism and a power in utramque to do or leave undone things
Love Popery will grow says he out of our divisions thousands have been drawn to and confirmed in it by this means I am persuaded says he that all the arguments in Bellarmine and other Books have not done so much to make Papists in England as our Divisions and multiplied Sects And afterward who sees not how fair a game the Papists have to play by our divisions Archbishop Whitgist in his Letter to the Lord Treasurer and Dr. Oats in his Narrative and others speak it as upon their own personal knowledge that the Dissenters have been animated to Non-conformity by the Jesuits It hath been lately made out by a Peer of this Realm that their making a Court-party and a Country-party and fomenting fears and jealousies between both was an expedient agreed upon in France and sent over into England for the promoting of Popish Interests And in Queen Elizabeths time as soon as ever the Puritan had made the Schism over came Sanders and Harding into England and practised in that sort as proselyted many to the Church of Rome 4. They promote Popery by vilifying the Church and Church-men of England when in Queen Elizabeths time they traduced Archbishop Whitgift that great and pious Prelate calling him Beelzebub of Canterbury Pope of Lambeth bloudy opposer of Gods Saints Esau Antichristian Beast c. and the rest of the Bishops as Petty-Popes the Ordinance of the Devil paultry Prelates pestilent Usurpers in the Convocation they called them Clergy-masters of the Confocation-house Monsters of the Conspiration-house the Convocation house of Devils and Beelzebub of Canterbury the chief and when they called the inferiour Clergy Dolts and Drunkards Hogs and Dogs Wolves and Foxes Simoniacks and Usurpers c. See what advantage the Papists made of this Parsons in his Book of Three Conversions reports these Slanders and Calumnies for undoubted Truths Martin Mar-Prelate is said by Sir Edwin Sandys to pass in those days for unquestioned Credit in the Court of Rome and his authority much insisted on to disgrace the Protestant Religion Kellison a later one doth build as much on the credit of these Libellers to defame the Reformed Religion as if they had been inspired by some infallible Spirit And Mason tells it as a serious thing Appellant Episcopum Cantuariensem Pseudo-episcopum Principem Daemoniorum Caiapham Esaum Monstrosum c. Alios autem Episcopos Angliae degeneres perniciosos Usurpatores Lupos Episcopos Diaboli c. Now upon these considerations judge who will what reason these men have to charge the Church or Church-men of England as fautoring of Popery to amuse the People with fears and jealousies concerning it and to arrogate to themselves the reputation of the most zealous opposers of it and yet by exerting their zeal these three ways they have strengthened their Faction and promoted their interest in Church and State 4. Their Veneration to the Scriptures pretended above others Another way by which they increase their Party and Interest is the great veneration which they above others pretend to have for the Holy Scriptures their confident appeals to Scripture as Judge of their Controversie and constant retreat to it for defence of their Cause teaching their Followers even in matters of indifferency which the Scriptures are silent in and leave to humane prudence to swagger with the demand Where do you find in Scripture such precept or example And this to the more unwary and less knowing Professors is one thousand Arguments and as apt to take with them as any thing Now there are three things among others which do much liable this pretence to hypocrisie and delusion 1. Their gross perverting and misinterpreting of Scripture beyond what the Papists themselves do 2. The impracticableness and errour of demanding a Scripture-Text for the very externals of Gods worship 3. Their disregard and slâ—ght of those Scriptures though speaking never so plainly which contradict their errours and practices 1. Their perverting and misinterpreting of Scripture when Fathers and Councils Reason Antiquity and Scripture fail them then a good Gloss must serve for a Text vexing and urging the Holy Writ which the Apostle calls emphatically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. cogging the Die to make it speak what they list and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. crafty deceitful applying and expounding it Thus by Babylon they understand Episcopacy by beggarly Elements they mean Church-Ceremonies they justifie their out-rages against the late King and Nobility with a Bind your Kings with chains and your Nobles with fetters of iron they have commented Rebellion out of the very thirteenth of the Romans which enjoins Subjection and Loyalty upon pain of damnation and have fetcht Presbytery out of the first of Titus ver 5. which plainly exhibits the very essentials of Episcopacy The Murder of the late King they have out of Daniel's Dream and from the Beast and the little Horn in the Revelations and because the Apostle says Moses was faithful in all the house of God therefore there must be nothing in the externals of God's Worship but what you have a Text for for the like reason that that ignorant Popish Priest urged out of the Psalms Paveant illi non paveam ego to prove his Parishioners ought to pave the Chancel Look in the Geneva Bibles their Note on Rev. 9. 3. you will find that by the Locusts which came out of the Smoak they say is meant false Teachers worldly subtle Prelates Monks Friers Cardinals Patriarchs Archbishops Bishops Doctors Batchelors Masters to which is subjoined which forsake Christ to maintain false Doctrine where they bring all Archbishops Bishops and all that take University Degrees under the name of Locusts and rank them with Monks and Friars whom they beheld as no other than the limbs of Antichrist One would think that that Curse at the end of the Revelations should make them afraid so to wrack Scripture-Texts those God-breathed Oracles to make them obstetricate to their Impieties and confess such abominable falsities But thus it was ab origine The Donatists justified their separation with that 1 Cant. 7. Tell us where thou makest thy Flocks to rest at Noon Meridiem versus the French Translation is towards the South therefore they being Southern confine the Church of God to themselves and separate from the Orthodox Christian Churches And we know who it was that first practised this Art by the manner of his urging our Saviour with a Scriptum est in all his temptations Matth. 4. 2. A second thing that liables their pretended veneration for the Scriptures above other men to the suspicion of seducing is their frequent use of demanding Scripture-Texts for every thing in the Discipline and Orders of the Church denying Church-rulers the power of appointing Ceremonies Before I come to speak of the delusion of this pretence I would premise something concerning its errour which did not the constant practice of the Seduced require it were a shame