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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30026	De Christiana libertate, or, Liberty of conscience upon it's [sic] true and proper grounds asserted & vindicated and the mischief of impositions amongst the people called Quakers made manifest : in two parts : the first proving that no prince nor state ought by force to compel men to any part of the doctrine, worship, or discipline of the Gospel, by a nameless, yet an approved author [i.e. Sir Charles Wolseley], &c. : the second shewing the inconsistency betwixt the church-government erected by G. Fox, &c., and that in the primitive times ... : to which is added, A word of advice to the Pencilvanians / by Francis Bugg.	Bugg, Francis, 1640-1724?; Wolseley, Charles, Sir, 1630?-1714. Liberty of conscience upon its true and proper grounds asserted and vindicated.; Wolseley, Charles, Sir, 1630?-1714. Liberty of conscience the magistrates interest.	1682 (1682)	Wing B5370; ESTC R14734	148,791	384

Practices a man may discern without a pair of Spectacles ERROUR and SUPERSTITION coming in apace LIMPING upon their old crooked Crutches of IMPLICIT FAITH and BLIND OBEDIENCE And least you should not know how to answer these Queries I will answer them in the Words of our own Principles that so you may the better behold your Revoltings and perceive your Innovations and take notice of your Apostatizing from your Primitive Principles But if my Answer please you not then let me see by one Answer of your own what you can say for your selves Query I. Whether to Impose any thing upon another Mans Conscience either to do or practice be not a doing otherwise to others than we would they should do unto us and so Antichristian See the Second and Third Chapter about Marriages Answ Yea For so says R. Hubberthorn in his Works p. 188. where he tenders seven Reasons why no Impositions ought to be upon any Mans Conscience by any but the Lord. And says he To Impose any thing upon another Mans Conscience either to do or Practice is not A doing to others as they would be dealt by and therefore is contrary to Christs Doctrine which say I is ANTICHRISTIAN Query II. Whether such Societies as do not govern themselves according to their Primitive Principles but erect new Orders and new Models of Government New Ceremonies and new ways of Sentencing Judging and Condemning the Innocent Recording and Excommunicating such as cannot yield Conformity and Uniformity thereunto do not more resemble Tyranny than Order Nay Is it not Antichristian Answ Yea For all Societies are to Govern themselves according to their Institutions and First Principle of Union where there is violence upon this Part Tyranny and not Order is Introduced Now since Perswasion and Conviction begun all true Christian Societies ALL Christian-Societies MVST uphold themselves upon the same Free Bottom or they turn Antichristian Query III. Whether to restrain People from the free Exercise of their Consciences or to compel People to act against their Faith and Perswasion in Matters Spiritual be not Popish and a Practice of the Church of ROME Address to Prot. pag. 149. 150. Answ Yea For the Apostle in his Day said Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own Mind or Conscience And did not go about to force People to Conform to such Things as they were not perswaded of in their own Consciences But the Church of Rome doth not admit that every one should Walk or Act as they are Perswaded in their own Conscience See Josiah Coal's Whore Vnvailed p. 71. 72. Query IV. If so Whether it be not Wisdom to beware of this Trojan Horse of this Practice which so much resembles Rome who commonly lay more Stress upon their own Ceremonies and written Traditions Orders and Institutions than upon the holy Scriptures or the Primitive Christians Example Answ Yea I beseech you Protestants by the Mercies of God and Love of Jesus Christ Ratified to you in his most precious Blood Fly Rome at Home have a care of this Presumption carry it not too high lay not Stress where God hath laid none Neither use his Royal Stamp to Authorise your Apprehensions in the Main of his Institutions Address to Prot. p. 77. Query V. Whether the holy Scriptures be not of more Authority than our written Traditions and Orders And whether it be not as commendable now to search the Scriptures to see whether our Orders Traditions and Ceremony be agreeable to them as it was formerly for the Bereans who by the Scripture examined Pauls Testimony Seeing some of you call them the Professors Weapons and will not suffer them to be alledged in our Quarterly-Meetings Answ Yea For it cannot be denyed But that the great Foundation of our Protestant Religion is the Divine Authority of the Scriptures from without us and the Testimony and Illumination of the holy Spirit within us Vpon this Foot the First Reformers stood and made and maintained their Separation from Rome with good Cause therefore it is the general consent of all Sound Protestant Writers That neither Traditions Counsels nor Cannons of any Visible Church much less the Edicts of any Civil Sessions or Jurisdiction but the Scripture ONLY Interpreted by the Holy Spirit in us give the final Determination in Matters of Religion and that Only in the Conscience of Every Christian to himself which Protestation made by the First Publick Reformers against the Imperial Edicts of Charles the Fifth Imposing Church Traditions without Scripture Authority Mark you Order Makers the same Cause moves to the same thing gave first beginning to the Name Protestant and with that Name hath ever been received this Doctrine which prefers the Divine Authority of the Scriptures and Spirit to that of the Church and her Traditions Address to Prot. p. 148. Query VI. Whether it be not a Popish Tenet to cry down Wisdom and to say That Wisdom will destroy us as 't is usually with you to say for the Papists care not how foolish the Common People are nor how much in Ignorance it being as they say the Mother of Devotion they educate them provided thir Ministers and Jesuits be very expert and able to defend their way of Worship and heap of Ceremonies And when do any that Write or Dispute to defend our Way of Worship write and speak like Fools except they can neither write nor speak otherwise and why do you cry out against Wisdom upon every occasion as if Ignarance were become our only Darling Answ For to admire what Men do not know and to make it a Principle not to enquire is the last Mark of Folly in the Believers and of Imposture in the Imposers To be short a Christian Implyes a Man and a Man implyes Conscience and Vnderstanding but he that hath no Conscience nor Vnderstanding as he hath not who hath delivered them up to the Will of another men is no Man and therefore no Christian Upon this Principle Men must be made Fools in Order to believe Shall Folly which is the Shame if not the Curse of a man be the Perfection of a Christian. Address to Prot. pag. 187. Query VII Is it not great Deceit and Illusion first to make Rules or Cannons to walk by and when any refuse Obedience to them and cannot for Conscience sake Conform to them then to Senctence Judge and Record such out of the Unity and yet to the World pretend and that in Print that we do no such Thing I say Is not this great Decoit and Delusion Answ Yea That our Friends says W. P. meaning us the People called Quakers Require any men to practice what they are not convinced of I utterly renounce in their Name and that at an Infamous Slander Alexander the Copper-Smith page 10. Query VIII Whether Antichristian Practices Popish Principles Contempt of Scriptures Folly Ignorance and Partiality Practising one thing and Pretending another be Corruptions or no If yea then whether or no a private Man ought not

have no other effect but their Suffering Secondly All standers-by the generality of a Nation looking on must needs be dissatisfied to see a plain honest man upright and punctual in all his dealings amongst men punished meerly for his Conscience to God and because he will not comply to save himself which nothing but his Conscience can lead him to and by parting with which he may at any time purchase his quiet in such a case common Ingenuity begets pity for him if not Proselites to him and great dislike of the course taken with him Thirdly Though it be a secret yet 't is a very sure and certain way of bringing National Judgments upon a People no doubt God takes great notice of the punishing men meerly because they are true to him for so every man is that is true to his Conscience though it be erroneous Upon no other account was it that Paul justified himself before the High-Priest in saying He had walked before God in all good Conscience to that time His meaning was He had gone according to his light as a thing pleasing to God though otherwise as to the matter his Conscience was erroneous and his Judgment mis-informed And he tells us afterwards That he obtained Mercy from God because what he did against the Church was done Ignorantly and in pursuance of the best Light he then had The punishing men meerly for following the pure dictates of Conscience is no doubt the true cause of many National miseries And a State should be careful to avoid this as they would preserve their own safety welfare If we look into that which naturally occasioneth several Opinions in Religion 't is that which a Prince should for his own Interest highly encourage and that is Knowledge for no doubt as Knowledge encreaseth it expatiates it self into variety of Thoughts and Principles and as it enlargeth all other Sciences so Religion Knowledge is the Glory of a Nation and that by which all matters of concern to it as War Trade Policy and every thing else is highly enlarged 'T is the high Honour of a Prince to govern a Wise and a Knowing People as well as a Great People 'T is an impotent piece of Policy and equally destructive to all publick Interest to say Subjects must be kept ignorant as to say They must be kept poor They are Maximes only fitted for a Tyrant and such who only govern for themselves and calculate all Interests at they concenter in their own and by so doing make themselves their own Idols Nothing damps all Noble Undertakings amongst men of Conscience like Imposition in Religion it makes them hang down their Heads it makes them heartless in their Callings If they are denied freedom in Religion men of Conscience will care little for any thing else Solomon tells us A wounded Spirit no man can bear He that carries a taint of trouble in his mind about these things is impotent in every thing 't is Liberty in Religion that breeds the noble and generous minds Let a man know his duty to God and have freedom to perform it and that man will have Wisdom Courage above any man Imposing Religion upon men has never other effect than either to lull men asleep into implicit ignorance and so make them as sottish and useless Members of a State as they are of the Church or else where it meets with Knowledge and Integrity sinks men under the greatest grief and provokes them to the greatest dissatisfaction If we look amongst our selves who be they that desire favour in this particular And who be they that will be gratified and engaged by it but every where men of Religious Principles And are they not generally the sober and serious men that bring good to a Nation Are not they in all Callings and Trades generally most industrious and thriving Are not they most saving in their Expences and every way either in War or Peace most useful and serviceable 'T is debauched loose expensive people that over-live their Estates and neglect their Callings that help to pull a State down such men will be sure to Conform to any thing that secures them in present Luxury 'T is the Sober Serious Religious sort of men that every way make a Nation prosperous to discontent such and to put them into one common Dungeon of imputed Faction and actual Persecution will never be found any right measure of a true National Interest Several things with great Evidence seem to plead for Moderation and Indulgence here in England First The Number and Quantity of those concerned as well as the Quality is such that it can be no way prudent to discontent them upon that which will no way compensate the inconvenience there can be no good Policy to leave so many men mixed every where even in the highest places of the Nation under dissatisfaction without the least effect but the reproach of imprudence in doing it and to put a disgraceful distinguishing Character upon them as men unfaithful to the State only because they cannot comply with some Ceremonies as the case is general amongst us and worship God just in the publick way a thing of no more intrinsick concern to the State than to have all men of the same Opinion in a disputed point of Philosophy and a thing of as equal likelihood to be attain'd A Subject that gives the same Testimony of his Fidelity to his Prince that others do and behaves himself in all civil Concerns as a faithful and profitable Member of the Common-wealth and yet is looked upon as a publick enemy and made the object of publick anger because he cannot in every Circumstance comply with the publick Religion is without doubt very severely and impolitically dealt with As every Subject hath an Interest in his natural Prince so hath the Prince in every Subject and should be like the true Mother that would by no means divide the Child To take such a course is to furnish out a party ready for whoever first makes a disturbance nay it s to tempt men so to do by seeing a party so prepared Let Liberty of Conscience be once fitly given and the Root of all mens hopes and pretensions that desire publick mischief is pulled up and the King will be the greatest and the most beloved Prince that ever yet sate upon the Throne Secondly We shall never have a flourishing Trade without it 1st Because the pressure in these things falls generally more upon the Trading sort of men than any in the Nation we may see it in the great City and in all Coporations It makes many give over Trading and retire It makes others remove into Holland and other Forreign parts as it did heretofore from Norwich to the irrecoverable prejudice of our Cloathing-Trade upon the like occasion And it certainly prevents all Protestant Strangers to come to live and trade amongst us It puts great Advantages into the hands of the Hollander every way who have not a better

limited Form to walk by as it seems as if it was designed by the Projector thereof by the Event for we had so long disputed against the Holy Scripture being a Rule that we never thought that instead thereof we had been introducing a Rule of our own making neither did we once conceive it to be the product of a London Consult as afterwards we found it was when it came to be imposed as a Rule to be indispensably obeyed under the Penalty of being Recorded out of the Unity But when J. A. came to be concerned in taking a Wife and perceiving the ill tendency such Records might produce in after times and being willing to maintain Christian-Liberty and like the Apostle would not be brought under the Power of any thing that might prove a Yoke to his Brethren he would neither touch nor tast nor in the least conform to it whereupon many Contests arose and strong Debates about it some crying out That he must own his Condemnation for not Marrying according to the Order of Friends others said nay but what Evil hath he done What Commandment of God or Precept of Christ hath he broken others said If we let him alone others will take Example by him and then the Orders will not be regarded And amidst these Controversies it was put to the Vote Whether he should be condemned by publick Sensure or not Whereupon Samuel Cater and about nineteen Friends more they being the major part Voted That he should be recorded out of the Vnity Which accordingly was done a Copy whereof followeth c. At a Quarterly-Meeting in Hadenham the 4th day of the 7th Month Anno 1678. We at this Quarterly Meeting having the Business of John Ansloe his taking his VVife contrary to the Order of Friends brought before us and Friends having several times spoke to him about it and he not giving Friends satisfaction we do testifie that we have no Union with him in this his so doing This unrighteous and unchristian Precedure was testified against at the same time by Edward Love Thomas Wright Francis Bugg Phillip Taylor and some few others which told them That all Vnrighteousness was Sin and Sin was the Transgression of the Law and if they could make it appear that he had committed Sin in disobeying their Order we were ready to hear them Edward Love told them they had exceeded the Deeds of the Wicked But notwithstanding they being the Major part and the Poll over they resolved to pass that Sentence on him above recited although they then did confess that they had nothing against him save his not taking his Wife according to the Order of Friends Whereupon soon after Francis Bugg wrote a Letter to Samuel Cater a Copy whereof here followeth Viz. Friend I Having since our last Quarterly-Meeting weighed and pondered the Recording of J. A. and upon a deliberate Consideration thereof do find it not Apostolical nor agreeable with our Profession at least in my Apprehension but that it rather seems to be the Product or Fruit of that Spirit which doth Apostatize and draw back into the old compelling Path where Dominion is exercised over the Faith and Perswasion of others which is not a Doing to others as we would that others should do unto us It is true I do think that publishing our Intentions of Marriage is very meet and for my part if it were my concern I know not but that I should do it as desired But that mine or any other Man or Mens approbation herein should be an absolute Rule for others under the Penalty of being Recorded to Perpetuity I know no reason at all for 't is my Judgment That no Imposition ought to be upon Mens Consciences by any but the Lord for the Apostle in his Day said Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own Conscience and did not go about to force People to conform to such Things that they were not perswaded of in their own Consciences and whatsoever People or Church though they claim Infallibility that teach a contrary Doctrine unto this we have good reason to suspect it to he that hasty driving and over driving Spirit that would force a Faith where God hath not given it Even like the Church of Rome c. This is my Judgment and Opinion the which I am very free to communicate to thee or any one as not being ashamed thereof and if upon thy serious consideration thou seest Cause to race out the said Record lest it prove an ill President to Posterity as well as great Injustice to the Party concerned then I desire thee peaceably and quietly to joyn in the racing of it out again forasmuch as thou hadst a chief Hand in the obtaining of it through the Influence thou hadst upon the Meeting and doubtless caused them to err But if thou shalt stand to maintain it or justifie it then it will stand thee upon to appear at the next Quarterly-Meeting there to vindicate it by sound Arguments for many are offended at it and burthened with it and by the same Spirit that opposed the Papists Antichristian-Impositions it will be opposed and withstood And this I thought good to let thee know for divers Reasons partly because thou mayst consider of it and not be surprised and partly because thou mayst not do as several Bishops and Teachers have done who as soon as they have broached any Heresie as ever more they were the Original Cause thereof and kindled a flame amongst the People then they slank away and seldom or never manfully maintained the same as Socrates Scholastious Evsebius and Evagrius Scholasticus and divers other Historians make mention of in the Church-History Thus in a few Words I have cleared my Mind thus far and rest a Lover of all such as serve our Lord Jesus Christ purely for for his Name-Sake F. Bugg The 22d of the 9th Month 1678. But although Samuel had the recited Letter time enough yet he did not appear at the next Quarterly-Meeting but I being there did endeavour what I could to have raced it out as well as some other Friends but we could not then I desired that some one of them who was for its continuance would prove it Apostolical but none would adventure to take that Task upon them whereupon I entred my Protestation in Writing and several Friends put their Hands to it on the backside the substance of it followeth the which I left among them c. F. B. his Protestation FOrasmuch as that on the 4th of the 7th Month last past J. A. a Minicter of the Gospel was by S.C. and divers others they being the Major part by Vote adjudged and that in his absense Condemned and Recorded out of the Unity for not observing the prescribed Rule and Order of Friends in taking his Wife and none of you will adventure to prove the said Rule Apostolical nor the Proceedings against J. A. according to Gospel Order And thereupon I Francis Bugg do offer to prove

the said Record either openly by dispute or publickly by Writing to be contrary to Christs Doctrine and Example and contrary to the Apostles Doctrine and Example and contrary to the Doctrine and Example of Francis Howgil Richard Hubthorn and divers other Friends Testimonies in Print and not only so but Antichrictian and Romish and thereupon do hereby enter my Protestation against the said Record and every part thereof Witness my Hand the 4th of the 10th Month 1678. Francis Bugg All which desire of their proving their Proceedings Apostolical and debating the Matter both by me and others they denyed and utterly refused But I marvail the less since I now understand by the Preface to the Book of W. R. In Five Parts Entituled The Christian-Quaker Distinguished c. That it is the Advice of such an Eminent Man of Party with G. F. that we should not be reasoned with a notable way but methinks very Singular yea so Singular that there is no Profession of People that I know of now extant in England that will refuse to be reasoned with except only the Papists and they are so infallibly sure that upon that Foot they do not doubt nor scruple their Faith and Belief for they Believe as the Church Believes and G. W. says in his Apost Incendi c. p. 16. That the true Church is in the true Faith that is in God and we must either Believe thus as the True Church Believes or else it were but folly and Hypocrisy to profess our selves to be of the True Church Indeed the first part of George his Assertion is true for the Church of God which is made up of faithful Members amongst Episcopalians Presbyterians Independents and Baptists or under any other Denomination whatsoever in any County City Language or People that fear God and work Righteousness these all have their Faith in God but that those with respect to Degrees Growths or Measures do differ and are of different Perswasions in many Points and thereupon ought to bear and forbear Judging one another is manifest as also from the Practise of the Primitive Christians as W. R. and T.C. have fully manifested which not only thwarts G. W's Answer to the four Positions mentioned in the 15th and 16th pages of the said Book But the whole Rubrick Laws and Cannons Ecclesiastical of G. F. and other Innovators who are so infallibly sure of the way and that all that differ from them are in the wrong that as I said they have no will to reason things to debate things but too much like the Papists would have things taken upon trust Implicitely Believe as the Church Believes Practice as the Church Practices and in all Points yield obedience to her Decrees without any Examination Scruple or Doubt Or else why should that Abetter of the Cause of G. F. advise as followeth Viz. Let not this Spirit be reasoned with Enter not into Proposals and Articles with it but feed it with Judgment that is Gods Decree Mark the Nature and Tendency of this Advice for should the Apostles have thus Preached to the Boreans What Liberty had been left for their Search and their further Examination nay Christ himself reasoned in the Synagogue of the Jews and the Apostles did the like nay when any Difference arose amongst themselves a free Debate was admitted which amongst us hath been both by Advice and Practice stiffly denyed as I shall yet more manifest Six Queries propounded by F. B. the 12th Month 1678. Some Qveries propounded to such amongst us as endeavour to impose a Uniformity and Conformity to such Rights and Ceremonies as have ho Foundation in Scripture and to such a Church Discipline as neither the Prophets Christ Jesus nor his Holy Apostles Primitive Christians Saints or Martyrs in any Age or Generation either Commanded or Practised and do expect your Answer according to Scripture for the Scripture testifies of Christ and of his Example and the Apostles who wrote Scripture had the Mind of Christ and his Mind is not variable so let your Answer accord with Scripture And whereas you pretend you are for Holy Orders and good Government in the Church maintain the same by Scripture Proof otherwise we shall look upon your Pretentions altogether vain and your plea no better than that which is commonly used by the Persecuting Papists and degenerated Protestants who when we bid them prove the Use of their Ceremonies and other Observations by plain Scripture they say They need not for the Apostle said Let things be done decently and in order And the Church seeing a Decency in the Vse of these Things She hath a Power committed to Her to impose them on Her Members and by Vertue of Her Authority She commands the strict Observation of them under pain of Her Displeasure and if any will not yield obedience to Her Decretal Orders when once approved on by a General-Council or Synodical-Assembly or question her Authority She hath a Power to Excommunicate and cut off such as Heriticks or Gain-sayers or Men of Opposite Spirits c. Thus says ROME and thus say the Episcopalians thus say all Imposers who have no Authority from Christ Jesus for their un-scriptural Traditions that it begins to be so with us is plain manifest and for a particular Instance view the Case of J. A. who was both judged and Condemned and Recorded out of the Unity at a Quarterly-Meeting or General Council held at Hadenham in the Isle of Ely the 4th of the 7th Month 1678. And in as much as you seem to make G. F. the Author of your Errours it stands him upon finally to reject and to bear a publick Testimony against your New Strange and Dangerous Innovations and Babylonish Inventions and to shew that he hath no Hand in the Introducing and promoting the same WHEREFORE answer these things following that so your Minds Intents and Purposes may be fully and clearly manifest and upon what Bottom you stand and who gave you your Power and whence you derive your Authority and in whose Name you compel a Conformity to your New Invenetd Orders and Rules under Pain of Condemnation QUERY I. Whether Christ Jesus the true God and Eternal Life in whom the Fulness of the Godhead dwelt Bodily be the Head of the True Church OR Whether George Fox who is but a Man unto whom the Spirit is given but by Measure be Head thereof Answer QUERY II. If you say that Christ is the Head thereof as I hope you will not dare to say otherwise then I further Query Whether Christ be not Lawgiver to his Church Answer QUERY III. If you say That Christ is and of right ought to be both Head and Lawgiver to his Church as I presume you will not say otherwise Then I further Query Whether we who profess our selves to be Disciples Followers of Christ ought not to follow and obey the Example Practice Precepts Commands Prescriptions and Exhortations of Christ Jesus our Lord and Master

we see you are for a Rule as much as any People only you must have a Rule of your own Making of your own Framing a Child of your own Brain must be your own Darling As for our Parts we profess Christ to be our Lawgiver and though we be for an Outward Rule yet it is such a Rule as Christ hath left us but you lay aside the Scriptures of Christ and his Apostles and use not so much as one Verse thereof to corroborate and strengthen your late Laws and Cannons withal and so make to your selves a Graven Image and an Exact Rule neither to permit nor suffer any to Marry except they will Conform and Square their Actions to your Rule Whereby we perceive you manifest Innovators not only by W. R. his Description of you but by the undeniable Testimony of F. H. whose Judgment was That those that set up other Traditions than the Apostle Delivered in point of Worship and Marriage is a Point of Worship it being Gods Ordinance by Word or Writing that they are INNOVATORRS Wherefore hear what the Professors may further say as a Word of Vse and Application G. Fox says The Worlds Touchstone is without them Professors say That G. F. and his Adherents their Touchstone is without them no Conformity to the Womens Meeting no Unity with them do but Conform Vnity Vnity Vnity G. F. says The World is Ruled by Outward Rules c. Professors say That G. F. and his Party are Ruled by Outward Rules at least they would Rule others by Outward Rules see ad and 3d. Chapter G. F. says The Worlds Guide is without them in the Traditions and Precepts of Men which lead from God Professors say That G. F. and his Party have their Guide without them in the Traditions of Men that lead from the Anointing within to Observations without c. G. F. Asks the Professors what Scripture they have for sprinkling Children and for the word Sacrament and if no Scripture then Whether it be not the Commands of Men taught for Doctrine Professors Ask G. F. what Scripture he had for Erecting Womens Meeitngs distinct from the Men once a Month about the 10th hour of the Day to get a little Mony or Stock by them and there to sit until some are intended to Marry and then they are ready to hear them publish their Intentions And what Scripture he and his Adherents have to Record out of the Unity such as will not Conform to this Non-such way of Church-Government And if no Scripture then Whether it be not Mens Command taught for Doctrine Behold the Parellel Upon the whole Matter it may appear that our Testimony was against Imposition on Tender Consciences as R. H. with great Reason doth affirm and F. H. speak home to the purpose and very pertinent and G. F. too in his Gospel Liberty and Royal Law of Love c. But how he is gone from the same in practice is manifest both in what I have said and in what W. R. hath said in his Christian-Quaker disting c. To which I refer the Reader CHAP. V. Shews the Opinion of several of the Clergy both Bishops and Ministers to be against Impositions and the Imposers are the culpable Deviders and Authors of Schism HAving throughly proved and clearly manifected a Change in our Church-Government and shewed how our Cannons and Outward Rules have been Introduced I am now come to shew that the very moderate Bishops and others of the Clergy who are considerate in their way and not filled with Prejudice are against Impositions on Consciences which cannot Conform nor Submit before Conviction c. I will begin with Bishop Doveman who speaking on Col. 2.20 concerning Rites and Ceremonies this I took out of a Book in Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet Viz. If you be free from the Rites that God did prescribe then are you free from the Traditions of Men It is a most wicked thing they should Impose this Yoak upon you and you are most foolish to submit your Necks to it for God would not have abolished the Ceremonial Law Instituted by himself that a New one may be invented by Man Dr. Stillingfleet in his Iron p. 122. saith Certainly the Primitive Church that did not charge Mens Faith with such a Load of Articles as now in these latter Ages Men be charged with would much less burthen men With Imposing doubtful Practices upon them as the ground of Church-Communion Dr. Stillingfleets Iron 120. saith Let men turn and wind themselves which way they will by the very same Arguments that any will prove the Separation from the Church of Rome Lawful because She required unlawful Things as Conditions of her Communion it will be proved Lawful not to Conform to any suspected or unlawful Practice required by any Church Governour upon the same Terms If the thing so required be after serious and sober Inquiry Judged unwarrantable by a Man 's own Conscience and withal it would be further considered whether when our best Writers do lay the Imputation of Schism NOT on those that withdraw Communion but on them for requiring such Conditions of Communion c. whereby they do rather eject Men from their Communion than the others separate from them Arch-Bishop Land against Fisher as quoted by Dr. Stillingfleet in his Rational Account p. 324. 'T is too true says he indeed that there is a miserable Rent in the Church and I make no question but the best men do most bemoan it nor is he a Christian that would not have Vnity might he ahve it with Truth but I never said or thought that the Protestants made this Rent the Cause of Schisme is yours for you thrust us from you because we called for Truth and Redress of Abuses for a Schisme must need be theirs whose the Cause of it is c. The Bishop of Hereford in his Edition in Folio p. 10. earnestly Addresses himself to the Bishops thus My Reverend Fathers and Judges of the Church I with St. Paul Col. 3. BESEECH you put on Fatherly Bowels of Mercy Kindness Humbleness of Mind Meekness Long suffering towards your poor weak Children and so long as they hold fast the Body of Christ be not so rigorous with them for Shaddows if they submit to you in Substance have patience though they do not submit in Ceremonies and give me leave to tell you my poor Opinion This VIOLENT PRESSING OF CEREMONIES hath I humbly conceive been a great Hinderance from imbracing them Men fearing your Intentions to be far worse than really they are and therefore abhor them And p. 11. This Force urging Conformity in Worship hath caused great Division in Faith as well as in Charity for had you by abolishing some Ceremonies taken the weak Brethren c. Now I beseech you in the Fear of God set before your Eyes the dreadful Day of Judgment when Christ in his Tribunal of Justice shall require an account of every Word and Deed and shall thus question you

Here are several Souls who taking offence at your Ceremonies have forsaken my Church forsaken the Faith have run into Hell the Souls for which I shed my precious Blood why have you suffered this Nay Why have you occasioned this Will you answer It was to preserve our Ceremonies Will not Christ return unto you Are your Ceremonies more dear unto you than the Souls for which I dyed who hath required these Things at your Hands Will you for Ceremonies which you your selves confess to be indifferent no way necessary unto Salvation suffer your weak Brethren to perish for whom I dyed Have I not shewed you how David and his Souldiers were guiltless in eating the Shew-Bread which was not lawful but only for the Priest to eat David dispenced with a Ceremony commanded by God to satisfie the hunger of his People Will you not dispence with your own Ceremonies to satisfie the Souls of my People who are called by my Name and profess my Name though in weakness Or will you tell Christ They ought to suffer for their own Willfulness and Perverseness who will not submit to the Laws of the Church as they ought Will not Christ return Shall they perish for transgressing your Humane Laws which they ignorantly conclude Erronious and shall not you perish for transgressing my Divine Laws which you know to be Good and Holy Had I mercy on you and should you not have Mercy on your Fellow Servants With the same measure you meet it shall be measured to you again I tremble to go further but most humbly beseech you for Christs sake endeavour to regain these strayed Sheep for which he shed his precious Blood and think it as great an Advantage as great an Honour to you as it was unto St Paul to BECOME ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN That you may gain some doubtless you will many though not all and the few standing off will be the more convinced and at long running wearied out and gained also I shall only add something out of Allsop in his Book Entituled The Mischief of Impositions and so conclude this Chapter Mischief of Impositions p. 9. For Paul in his Admonition to the Church at Rome lays all the blame of the Separation not upon them that Seperate but on those that gave Cause to the Separation Rom 16.17 I beseech you Brethren mark those that cause Divisions and Offences among you and avoid them Where he points to us these three Things First That they which cause Divisions are the culpable Dividers the Imposers must be responsable for the Evil Consequences of their Impositions Secondly That it is Lawful nay a Duty to divide from those that unwarrantably give such Cause of Division Thirdly That any Condition of Communion Imposed BESIDES as well as against the Doctrine received from the Apostles is a sufficient ground to condemn the Imposer to justifie such as reject such Conditions c. And Pag. 2. There is nothing more common than to press the Necessity of UNION and yet at the same time continue the necessary Causes of Division which sort of Rhetoricians might do well to consider That whil'st they disclaim most passionately against the evil of Separation they do but whip their own Crimes upon their own Backs and reproach themselves by railing at other Mens Faults in which popular Discourses we hear of nothing but the Prejudice Passion Interest of those who will not Obey but not a word I warrant you of their own Pride Rigour and Imperiousness in what they Command always studying and pretending Reasons why Matters ought to be wrong but never offering rational Expedients to set what is wrong to rights Mischief of Impositions p. 48. As it is the Duty of all Men to preserve the Churches Peace so 't is theirs especially who have got the Management of things in their Hands not to lay such dubious Terms in the way of Peace which they know many Conscientious Persons cannot get over but have ever stumbled at for it may be returned with ease It is impossible to preserve Peace if Men will make such ORDERS as they know others must break meerly for the Fancy they have taken up of a Primitive Platform Secondly If Peace be impossible to be had upon this account Who are in the Fault Dissenters can Maintain a Fraternal Charity towards them and their Churches who differ from them in Principle and Practice If Imposers cannot or will not discharge their Duty reciprocally we are not Responsable for their Passions we can love them whether they will or no though we cannot force them against their will to return that Love and Charity And Pag. 61. Query What must be done by Church-Governours if Men cannot come up to their Established Rules And thus much of the Answer is exceeding obvious First That they had better sit still and do nothing than rise up and do Mischief let them do no more Harm than Good and let them be doing Secondly That if they must needs have more work to do let them be sure they have a Commission from God to do it lest while they do what they ought not to have done and leave undone those Things they ought to have done they make their Sins of Commission greater than their Sins of Omission Thirdly They may do well among all their Doings to consider whether Conscience be not Gods peculiar and so not within their Precincts out of their Jurisdiction and not lyable to their Scitations Prossesses Summons and Visitations If they will Judge let them be sure they be Competent Judges if they will be buisie let them beware it be not in Alieno Foro. 4thly If they would know what they must do to others let them first put the Case what they would have done to themselves let them do no more at home than they would have done to them Supposing they were Protestants in Italy or Spain it is very useful now and then for great Men to put themselves into poor Mens Circumstances I do not perswade them to change Places with them but to put Cases And Pag. 11. You may as soon whip these huge great Boys out of all Religion as out of one Ceremony so fond so doting so peevish froward aukward such a whimpering such a whining such a puling and pouting for Ceremonies as if they had lost that famous Engine of the Nutcrack c. Thus much may serve to shew their Approbation of that Liberty of Conscience which is every Christians just Priviledge and their Abhorrency of Impositions and that the ground of Discord Emulation and Division is in the Imposers who are the real Schismaticks c. CHAP. VI. Shews the Judgment of antient Protestants and Martyrs against Forcing a Conformity to Mens Traditions not Grounded on Scripture Authority I now shall proceed to shew some Testimonies of antient Protestants and Martyrs against Imposition which with what the two last Chapters mention together with what is held forth by the First Part may be a sufficient

own Hand would neither Answer the Letter nor so much as Discourse me but when I had given them the Letter C. T. bad me be gone All which shews the Author to the Accuser his Pretentions to an Accommodation Condiscention to be fallacious Deceitful and Hypocritical Object BY this time some may be ready to object and say It is true these Things as Stated cannot be denyed but to have used a more private way might have been as convincing and not have ministred that occasion to such as are Enemies to all Religion as this way of Proceeding perhaps may especially since the Author of the Accuser says p. 127. We can the more easily concur and accord as to Circumstances and Outward Methods and in the Wisdom of God so condiscend one to another and accommodate Matters as not to divid about them Answ That I with many other have used private meanes for about the space of four years without any Redress nay not so much as a Christian Answer and that the Pretence of the Author of the Accuser to Condiscention and Accommodation is fallacious and false and a meer piece of feigned Hypocrisy to amuse his Reader and delude the World I shall make evidently appear before I pass this Chapter especially considering what meanes I used at our Quarterly-Meeting in the Case of J. A. made mention of in the third Chapter both by Letters and Queries First then see a Letter that eleven Friends belonging to our Meeting in Milden-Hall sent to our Quarterly Meeting who were so far from Condiscention Accommodation as that they refused to have it read amongst them but said We were all deluded A Copy whereof followeth To Friends at the Quarterly Meeting in Hadenham the 4th Mo. 80. Dear Friends THese Lines are to put you in Mind that many Friends belonging to our Meeting as well as in divers other Places are offended and burthened by reason of the continued Record against John Ansloe which exclude him what in you lye out of the Unity of Friends which is nothing less than Excommunication to the utmost of your Power whereby we are constrained to visit you in this manner entreating you to race out the said Record out of your Quarterly Book Indeed had J. A. denyed Marriage the very forbidding of which is a Doctrine of Devils you might justly have thrown him out for Marriage is Gods Ordinance But the Controversy is not here but about manifesting his Intention to Marry Behold the Crime as you account it and consider of it we beseech you for Peace sake and lay not such a Stress where Christ nor his Primitive Followers laid none And that thereunto you may be encouraged ponder the saying of W. P. in his Address to Prot. p. 77. I beseech you Protestants by the Mercies of God and Love of Jesus Christ ratified to you in his most precious Blood FLY ROME AT ROME Look to the Enemies of your own House have a care of this Presumption carry it not too high lay not Stress where God hath laid none The Impositions of such Opinions is the Priviledge of Hypocrites and the Snare of many honest Minds And p. 93. If we consider the Matter well I fear saith W. P. it will be found that the occasion of Disturbance in the Church of Christ hath in most Ages been found to lye on the Side of those who have had the greatest Sway in it And Pag. 94. If the Spiritual Guides and Fathers of the Church would be a little sparing of incumbring Churches with needless Supersluities there were far less danger of Schism and Superstition And Pag. 144. Nay Christ himself to whom all Power was given in Heaven and Earth submitted himself to the Test He did not require them to believe him because he would be believed he refers them to the Witness that God bore of him saying If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true He also sends them to the Scriptures but an Imposing Church bears witness of her self and will be both Party and Judge require Assent without Evidence and Faith without Proof therefore false But Christian Religion ought to be carryed on only by that way by which it was Introduced which was Perswasion If any Man will be my Disciple let him take up his Cross and follow me Pag. 146. For if I believe what the Church believes only beause She believes and not because I am convinced in my Vnderstanding of the Truth of what She believes my Faith is false though hers be true I say 't is not true to me I have no Evidence of it And Pag. 141. The Apostle became all unto all that he might win some but this is becoming all unto none to force all he therefore recomends the utmost Condiscention that can be lawful he stooped he became all unto all that is he stooped to all Capacities and humbled himself to those Degrees of Knowledge that Men had and valued that which was good in all These Allurements were all his Injunctions nay in this Case he makes it an Injunction to use no other Let us therefore saith he as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you you shall not be Imposed upon Stigmatized or Excommunicated for want of full satisfaction or because you do not consent before Conviction Thus far William Penn. Now let us a little animadvert upon this Noble Mans Words Lay no Stress saith he where God hath not laid Stress as if he should have said Friends God never laid any such Stress about publishing the Intent of Marriage Why then do you Have a care of this Presumption carry not things too high neither Smite Record nor Excommunicate one another about such Things which are at best but Mens Traditions and Impositions which may prove a Snare to the Honest and Conscientious but a seeming Priviledge to the conformable Hypocrite for you see that such as have the greatest Sway in the Church are evermore the cause of these Disturbances who pretending themselves Fathers and Spiritual Guides are not sparing of cumbring the Churches with needless Superfluities and such Orders as Christ never commanded nor his Apostles ever practised which had they been so useful as you pretend they be surely Christ and his Apostles would not have been so forgetful of Prescribing such Outward Observations nay but on the contrary they have told us in Holy Writ The Kingdom of Heaven comes not that way neither consists in such things You also may perceive that Christ was such an Example of Meekness and Self-denyal and so far and free from Force and Imposition that he only said If any Man will be my Discipie let him take up his Cross and follow me but an Imposing Church bears witness of her self and though She sets up such Orders as Christ never commanded yet She requires assent without Evidence and Faith without Proof for She will be both Party and Judge