Warranty nor any other wise Man Whatever so long as he is able to judge whether God or Man is first to be obeyed It would be a very weak Plea for a Subject to plead the Command of an Inferior Officer in the Commonwealth in excuse of a Treasonable or Seditious Action before the Supreme Magistrate in bar of his Sentence and shall we give that to the King of Heaven which we think unreasonable to offer to our Prince and venture to make more bold with God than Man Obj. But we are leavened with Prejudice which we suckt in with our Milk and were tainted with from our Cradles our Palates are vitiated and pre-occupied so that we cannot taste nor see the Beauty Excellency and Decency which are the real Properties of the Rites and Ceremonies c. commanded by our Church Res This is to beg the Question and to condemn without proof But suppose it to be Truth yet a kind and indulgent Parent will not oblige a willing and obedient Child to feed upon a Dish tho it be both wholesome and toothsome too if his Palate cannot relish it nor Stomach digest it But would rather leave it to the choice of such as come to Table to take or refuse it Were but the same Charity used now which St. Paul recommended to the Brethren nay which our own Church hath propounded to be observed in some parts of Conformity our Work were ended and the ensuing Plea rendred useless and superseded I mean that of the Convocation held in the Year 1640. speaking of the Custom of Bowing in Token of Reverence of God * The like Liberty is left as to Bowing at the Name of Jesus when we come in the Place of Publick Worship saith thus In the practice or admission of this Rite we desire that the Rule of Charity prescribed by the Apostle may be observed which is that they who use this Rite despise not those who use it not and they who use it not condemn not them who use it And I cannot understand why the same Latitude or Charity might not be granted in the other scrupled parts of Conformity Let 's hear what that Excellent and Learned Man Mr. Chillingworth hath spoken to our purpose viz. Thanksgiving reading of Scriptures Prayer Confession in the plainest and simplest manner were matter enough to furnish out a Lyturgy though nothing either of private Opinion or of Church Pomp Garments or prescribed Gestures of Imagery of Musick of Matter concerning the Dead of many Superfluities which creep into the Church under the Name of Order and Decency did interpose it self Now tho we should admit that many may be over-born by too great prejudices against things of this nature yet I wish it might by our Superiours be considered how far notwithstanding they may be indulged and favoured whilst they own the Doctrine of the Church and are very unwilling to make a breach in its Communion In all the Controversies of Protestants saith the last-named Author there is a seeming Conflict of Reason with Reason Scripture with Scripture Authority with Authority which how it can consist with a manifest revealing of the Truth of either side I cannot well understand Besides tho we grant that Scripture Reason and Authority were all on one side and the appearances on the other side all answerable yet if we consider the strange power that Education and Prejudices instilled by it have over excellent Understandings we may well imagine that many Truths which in themselves are revealed plain enough are yet to such or such a Man prepossest with contrary Opinions not revealed plainly Neither doubt I but God who knows whereof we are made and what Passions we are subject to will Compassionate such Infirmities and not enter into Judgment with us for those things which all things considered are unavoidable May our Mother the Church imitate our Father which is in Heaven in the like Charitable Consideration and Allowance I thank God I never had any Addiction or Inclination to the Romish Faith or Religion yet have had so much Charity for the Professors of it as not to think they have generally sinned wilfully against their Knowledge and Belief of the Truth Yet 't is hardly possible to have plainer Scripture or clearer Reason than are pleadable against many Propositions and Parts of it For instance how contrary to Divine Institution on which the Sacraments are founded practice of the Apostles and usage of the Primitive Church is their half Communion and denial of the Cup to the Laity Our Saviour giving command to the Disciples not only to eat but to drink also of the Cup of Blessing Obj. But they were Ministers of the Church and so not to be accounted as Lay-men Res If they were yet they were ministri non conficientes and so according to their own practice were not to have received the Communion but in one kind for were here never so many of the Clergy present at that Sacrament he only that Consecrates receives in both kinds all the rest but in one What need I instance in St. Paul's Celebration of it in the Church of Corinth who delivering of the same according as he had received it from our Saviour advised them not only to eat of that Bread but also to drink of that Cup. Otherwise the unworthy Receivers tho they might have eat yet could not have drunk Damnation to themselves which he cautions them against What need I instance in their Celebration of the Publick Service in a Tongue the People don't understand a thing beyond the compass of the Churches Authority and Power which is only given them for Edification and not for Destruction Whether it was revealed to the Apostle what Errors would creep into the Church in the succeeding Ages of it I know not yet I am sure if they were he could not have spoke * 1 Cor. 14. more pertinently argued more closely or disputed more rationally against that unaccountable practice and rule of their Church And yet so strong and strange are those prepossessions and prejudices with which their early and constant Education in that Communion hath tinctured them that they know not how to receive the plain meaning and unavoidable sence as we would think of that Divine portion of Scripture But how vastly different is their Case and ours Since the Scene of our Dispute lyes only in the Suburbs or Outworks of Religion The Question not being concerning the Ark or the Altar the Tabernacle or the Temple but rather whether the Snuffers and the Snuffing-dishes the Forks and the Spoons be of pure Gold or not Which not only renders our mistakes if they be such in themselves more venial but with our Superiors more pardonable yet notwithstanding we are obliged to observance in the smallest things under the greatest and most severe penalties the Church can inflict viz. Suspension Deprivation Excommunication interdicting the Fellowship and Communion of the Saints and denying the Evangelical Passover
secured them from those scorching Beams which lay too hot too heavy upon them They answered their desires kindly and spake good words to them by which they have obliged them to be their * On the conâ—rary the â—rench Proâ—erb proves â—ften true viz. â—ubant d'eniâ—is que dâ—sâ—aves as if â—nmity were â—e certain â—roduct of â—lavery Votaries and Friends for ever They have taken care that there be no decay not leading into Captivity no complaining in our Streets nor oppression in our Gates for Conscience sake †Isa 21.6 8 9. Now the Wolf may dwell with the Lamb the Leopard may lye down with the Kid c. the sucking Child may play on the hole of the Asp and the weaned Child shall put his hand on the Cockatrice den They shall no more burt nor destroy in all our holy mountain But yet we cannot go to the House of God in Company not there take sweet Counsel together How happy were it if the Partition-wall were broken down or so wide a Door made in it that we might go in and out and find rest to our Souls that every thing were cut off which troubles the Church and which are as Goads in the Side and Thorns in the Eye of Conscience Obj. 'T is not Conscience but Ignorance and that wilful too when after the plain and plentiful Informations we have received we continue pertinacious refusing instruction and hating knowledge by which we are justly fore-closed both as to pardon and pity Qui vult decipi decipiatur Res A wilful obstinacy is a sin of a Scarlet Dye and Crimson Tincture If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth Heb. 10.26 there remains no more Sacrifice or Atonement for sin the highest Resentments both of God and Man are very just Retributions for so unpardonable a guilt But as the stain is deep so as to the nature of it 't is so recluse and (e) Crimes which make a Man an Heretick in questions not simply Fundamental are Actions so Internal and Spiritual that cognizance can seldom be taken of them Lib. of Prophe 286. p. cryptical that many times God only knows whether those we accuse be guilty or not And to condemn a Man for that which is scarce to be understood but by the Confession of the Party upon some slight or presumptive Evidence is to conclude more than the premises will prove which is both Illegal and Illogical Besides Arguments may in themselves be convincing and powerful yet through the weakness of our Faculties we may not discover the Evidence they carry along with them Shall we blame the Person for his mistake who tells us That he sees Men walk like Trees because the Object is in a due position the medium well disposed and fully inlightned when the indisposition of the Organs and weakness of the visive Faculty is the true cause of the misrepresentation This is a Parable but the design of it lies so fleet that we need not dive for to understand it Perhaps some will say In this thou reproachest us also But I hope I have said nothing to give offence to any just or good Man and for others jacta mihi est alea. But if any thing have dropt from my Pen in any part of this Discourse which had better have been forborn I shall not despise a Reproof Let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindness an excellent Oyl which shall not break my head In the mean time I can satisfy my self with the integrity of my aim as having spoke what I esteem to be Truth intending nothing but forbearance of those who are weak binding up the Broken-hearted promoting the Peace Union and Interest of the Church of Christ I beseech you forgive me these wrongs Quest But were it not then the wisest and safest Course for such as are not so quick-sighted to be led by those who can see further and discern better than themselves Res 'T is great wisdom for men to observe the Conduct of our Spiritual Guides to obey those that have the rule over them in the Lord and submit St. Cyprian (f) Quod sacerdoti Dei non obtemperatur Cyp. Epist CorFor Faeli And in the ensuing Tract you 'll find with what Zeal St. Ignatius presseth the people to be obedient to their Bishops and Presbyters ascribes the Schisms of the Church to a disrespect of their Governments We have been too ready to say to those whom God hath set over us who have curam regimen Ecclesiae ye take too much upon you seeing all the Congregation are holy every one of them Yet Man is not like a Bruit Beast which hath no understanding I am not of (g) Quand il S'agit de la religion que la seule regle infallible â— laquelle on doit S attacher est P autorité de P Eglise pour laquelle on doit une obeysance aveugle sans restriction his Mind who saith That the only infallible Rule to which we must adhere is the Authority of the Church to which we ought to pay a blind Obedience without reserve but if we wink so hard and shut our Eyes so close it will be hard to see or know how to chuse a Guide or when we have chosen him to follow him Must we give up the Care and Conduct of our Souls to we know not who Né disputer jamais de mysteres poincts de la religion mais simplement croire recevoir observer ceque l' Eglise enseigne ordonne Char. de Sagesse We must no dispute the Mysteries and â—oints of Religion but must simply believe receive and observe that which the Church Declares and Ordains or may we look before we leap If so then we must first examine the Doctrine which is taught us before we can own or follow the guidance of that Church or the Ministers of it tho they pretend to have a rule and dominion over us St. Paul commended the Bareans for examining the Doctrines taught by him and Silas and for seeing whether they were so or not And counselled none to follow him any further than he follow'd Christ and that if be or an Angel from heaven taught any other Doctrine than what they had received they should be accursed Should we take every thing for granted which they who pretend to be the only true and Catholick Church and to have the greatest Power and Authority upon Earth have delivered to the Saints as matter of Faith there must be some other Gospel than what we have received somewhere immured or shut up in some Wall in some secret place like the Law in Josiah's time not yet come to light In the mean time let us follow the light of that Gospel we have received and by a judgment of discretion try whatever is injoyn'd us For as many as walk by this Rule Peace shall be upon them A Man 's own private Reason and Judgment is that
an hot Iron As appears by the Epistle to the King from the Arch bishop of Cant. on whom all their Severities were fathered I shall rather saith he magnifie your Clemency that proceeded with those Offenders Burton Bastwick and Prin in a Court of Mercy as well as Justice It being the Opinion of some of their Judges that their Lives might have been exacted for their Offences And the Reason the Arch-bishop gave was because their malignant Principles were introductive of a Parity in the Church and State Heylin also would be thought to make it appear that they deserved Death Moderat Answ p. 187. which is agreeable to a Passage I have met with in a nameless Author or Tract though revised and published by publick Authority in Scotland Sundry of our prime Lords and Earls did present a Supplication to our King after his Coronation in Scotland I suppose wherein the Matter of the greatest Complaint was so far as ever we heard their challenging the Bishops with what they had done or were likely to do The Copy of this privy Supplication being privily conveyed by an unfriend some two or three Years after out of my Lord of Balmarinoch's Study or Chamber was a Ditty for which he was condemned to die for an Example to all other Noblemen to beware of the like rashness especially his fellow Supplicants who are all declared to have deserved by that fault the same Sentence of Death And the Sense the King had of it is expressed in the King 's large Declarat p. 13. viz. We were graciously pleased that the Fear and Example might teach all by the Punishment only of one of them to pass by many who undoubtedly had been included and involved by our Laws in the same Sentence if we had proceeded against them Large Declarat p. 13. Such was the Power and Influence they had with a Prince who was so great a Votary to the Innovators in Religion as to venture his Crown yea and lose it too in their quarrel But Death had been a favour to some of those Punishments which were inflicted upon this score as may be seen in the Relation of one single Instance among others of which Mr. Huntly in his Breviat gives us an account if true viz. Of a poor Devonshire Minister Mr. John Heyden who in a Sermon preacht at Norwich let fall some Passages against setting up of Images and bowing at the Name of Jesus was apprehended like a Traytor with the Constables Bills and Halberts and brought before Dr. Harsnet then Bishop manacled like a Felon and committed by him close Prisoner to the common Goal above thirteen Weeks where he was like to starve the Bishop having taken from him his Horse Papers c. from whence by a Pursuivant he was convey'd to London and kept two full Terms At last by the high Commission he was deprived of his Orders Thereafter the high Commissioners imprisoned him in the Gate-house common Dungeon and Canterbury sent him to be whipt in the common Bridewel and then kept him all the long extream cold Winter in a dark cold Dungeon without Fire or Candle chained to a Post in the midst of the Room with heavy Irons on his Hands and Feet allowing him only Bread and Water with a Pad of Straw to lie upon and since on his relief hath caused him to take an Oath and give Bond to Preach no more and to depart the Kingdom in three Weeks without returning which latter part of his Punishment being for Preaching after his first deprivation though no exception was taken at his Doctrine If these things be true as they stand related in a Book Revised and Published by an Ordinance of a general Assembly in Scotland It is high time to break off our past Sins by a speedy Repentance and to redeem our former Severities by acts of Kindness and Compassion towards our opprest and complaining Brethren By whom the Seeds of Arbitrary Government have been sown NOR hath the Zeal and Bigottry for the controverted Ceremonies been only a Nuisance in the Church and pestred the Consciences of Men but have also occasioned very great Mischiefs and Distractions in the State For when Men of this Stamp had once gained the Prince on their side and to espouse their Interest they have endeavoured to requite him by ascribing to him an absolute Power and illimited Authority over the Subject Though in the late Reign none winched sooner nor kickt higher at it when they themselves began to feel the dint of it overthrowing our Politick Constitution and best tempered Government under Heaven that they might erect the Throne to an immensurable height Hence it was that the Original of Sovereign Dominion was taught not to be ex Pacto but jure Divino That Non Resistance and Passive-Obedience were the only Orthodox and Catholick Doctrines so long as they imagined it would never come to their own turn to practice them Singâ—lis adempta est adversus principem quae naturalis dicitur juris defensio seu injuriae dipulsio Johan Wemius p. 21. That the very Law of Nature and of Self-preservation is a Crime in that case (a) Dr. Sherlock in his Case of Resistance of the Supreme Powers c. Determines thus That as well Inferior Magistrates as others imploy'd by a Popish or Tyrannical Prince in the most illegal and outragious Acts of Violence such as cutting Throats or the like are as irresistable as the Prince himself supposing they act by his Authority and must be submitted to under pain of eternal Damnation c. But perhaps as one lately was convinc'd by the sight of Bishop Overal's Book so they might be by Bilson's of subjection p. 520. His Words are these Neither will I rashly pronounce all that resist to be Rebels Cases may fall out even in Christian Kingdoms where People may plead their Right against the Prince and not be charged with Rebellion As for Example If a Prince should go about to subject his Kingdom to a Foreign Realm or change the Form of the Commonwealth from Impery to Tyranny or neglect the Laws establisht by common Consent of Prince and People to execute his own Pleasure in those and other Cases which might be named if the Nobles and Commons joyn together to defend their ancient and accustomed Liberty Regiment and Laws they may not well be accounted Rebels Ibid. By Supreme Powers ordained of God we do not mean the Prince's private Will against his Laws but his Precepts derived from his Laws and agreeing with his Laws which though it be wicked yet may not be resisted by any Subject with Violence armed But when Princes offer no Justice to their Subjects but violence and despise all Laws to practice their Lusts not any private Man may take the Sword to redress the Prince but if the Laws of the Land appoint the Nobles as next to the King to assist him in doing right and with-hold him from doing wrong then be they Licensed by
were these The Character of a Cathedral Corporation is still the same it was viz. A School for Compliments in Religion but a Scourge upon the Life and Practice of it They have been the Asylum of Superstition but Scalae gemoniae for true Piety c. This was a very smart Reflection upon those Societies but I hope our Superiors will so far take this into their Consideration as to render these Orders of Men such as they may become more servicâ—able to the Church less scandalous and offensive to those who seek occasion to cast Reproach upon them for the future and that the Glory of our Church may not shine forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with outward Pomp and Ostentation Multa Ostentatione but in a modest decent but especially devout Celebration of Divine Worship But this is too reachy and nice an Argument to insist much upon lest in the Prosecution of it I incur the Censure of being an Enemy to those regular Foundations Though I am perswaded there can be no surer way to ascertain their Funds than a Reformation of their pompous Service into a more Simple and Evangelical Form of Religion As also by subliming them to higher purposes and improving them to a far better account than they ever yet turned to in the Church It being hard to take off the ancient Grudge against them whilst so deep Revenues run waste whose Streams might refresh the City of God nor can I rationally fall under the Displeasure of any other of the Brethren seeing the design of this Plea is only to smooth the ways of Conformity and to make those Paths streight that the Church's Yoak may become more easie and burthen-light And can truly protest in the Words of a great Person Bellar recog as to the whole of this Discourse viz. Scripsi deo teste quod verum esse existimavi non gratiam hominum vel propriam utilitatem sed dei gloriam ecclesiae commodum respiciens That is I call God to witness that what I have wrote I account to be truth not respecting the Favour of Man or mine own Advantage but the Glory of God and Benefit of the Church But if after all I must receive Evil for Good I shall not think any new thing hath befallen me nor will my Case differ from that courteous Man's who helping his lame Dog over the Stile was for his kindness bit by the Fingers But from what Quarter can we expect the Reformation of a wicked and sinful World This no more than Promotion comes from the East nor from the West nor from the South it is God that pulls down one with his proud and high Looks and sets up or exalts the humble and meek 'T is he that puts a Bridle into the Mouth an Hook into the Nostrils of the greatest Leviathans and bores their Jaws through with a Thorne Nay he can change the most ungovernable Tempers and unruly Dispositions of Men. He it is that maketh the Lion to lie down with the Lamb eat Straw like the Ox He can say to the most proud and rampant Waves of Wickedness hitherto shall ye go and no further But why then doth not Righteousness cover the Land as the Waters cover the Sea Righteous art thou Oh Lord saith the Prophet yet let me argue with thee concerning thy Judgments Why doth the way of the Wicked prosper Were it not more for God's Honour to have Religion flourish over the Face of the whole Earth and prophaneness to have no place to flee to or fix the Sole of its Foot upon This indeed is a thing too deep for us a Phaenomenon we scarce know how to solve Were it not better that the false and lying Tongue were destroy'd and Perjury pluckt up by the Roots by which Justice and Truth have been perverted guiltless Persons murthered and innocent Blood spilt like Water upon the Ground Is it not strange to observe in the Reformation of Religion there should be so great a Sally out of Darkness into marvellous Light upon the first dwaning of that day and that notwithstanding the Prayers and Tears of such as have oppressed tender Consciences the utmost Endeavours of many wise and learned Fathers of the Church it could not for more than this hundred Years be carried on one step further towards Perfection This hath been the Lord's doing we know and 't is marvellous in our Eyes His Ways are unsearchable and his Paths are past finding out Not that we design to prescribe Methods to the Providence of God or Rules and Measures to his Wisdom in the Government of the Church yet we may pray that all things may be disposed so as they may best conduce to his own Glory the Purity Peace and Union of that Communion That having recovered its Light when it was so nigh a total and perpetual Eclipse it may shine forth with greater Glory and display brighter Beams of Light and Love than ever We may pray that God would bless his Majesty with perfect Victory and Success that he may set his Foot upon the Necks of his Enemies abroad as well as at home And that when he is settled with Peace round about he may then think of God's House how he may heal the Breaches and repair the Decays which Sin and Schism have made in the midst of it That he would please to renew the Powers and Faculties to such reverend Fathers of the Church if expired as are best qualified to sew up the rent in the Spouses Vail and so promote the Peace and Glory of our Church That he would please so far to interpose his Authority as in a legal way to procure such Ease and Liberty in the scrupled part of Conformity that the weary within the Church may be at rest As also so wide a Door to those who are without that if they will not enter it may be truly said that their exclusion is of themselves Obj. But why do we make so great a noise about little things Do we not know that small Alterations in Matters of Religion make great Distractions and occasion high Convulsions in the Church We pretend to desire and aim at the Peace and Welfare of our Jerusalem Why do we not then endeavour to promote it by a quiet Submission to its Orders and Decrees Res 1st They are indeed little things comparative to the Power and Authority of the Church to redress the Grievances of those who are weary and heavy laden 2dly Admit they be small yet 't is a very great Flame those little Sparks have kindled in the Breasts and Minds of many Pious and Conscientious Men A Mote is but a little thing 't is true but if got into the Eye of Conscience it causeth Rivers of Tears to run down by reason of it nor can the Apple of it ever cease As to our Duty of preventing Disturbance and preserving Peace and Union in the Church May our Indulgence be measured by our constant Endeavours to avoid the
Deo Ecclesiae Conscientiae Ergo OR A PLEA For Abatement in Matters of CONFORMITY To several Injunctions and Orders of the Church of England To which are added some Considerations of the Hypothesis of a King de Jure and de facto proving that King WILLIAM is King of England c. as well of Right as Fact and not by a bare Actual Possession of the Throne By IRÆNEVS Junior a Conforming Member of the Church of England 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 15.20 Scripsi deo teste quod verum esse existimavi non gratiam hominum vel utilitatem propriam sed Dei gloriam Ecclesiae commodum respiciens Bell. Recog LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1693. THE CONTENTS OF the Surplice and Habits Page 11 Of the Cross in Baptism Page 13 Of Kneeling at the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Page 15 Of the Liturgy or Church-service Page 18 Of the Lords Prayer and Doxology Page 26 Of Christ's descent into Hell Page 28 Of the Athanasian Creed Page 31 Of Regeneration by the Spirit Page 34 Of the Office of Burial of the Dead Page 36 Of the Collects for the King c. Page 39 Of Confirmation by the Bishop Page 40 Of Ecclesiastical Discipline Page 42 By whom the Seeds of Arbitrary Government have been sown Page 62 Of the Reformation of Manners Page 80 Advice to Dissenters Page 92 These Papers having for sometime been laid aside their publication being perhaps in a more proper-season accidentally prevented are yet at last come to light and born though out of due time By reason of which some few passages may occurr more pertinent to the time of their conception than of their birth which the Reader is desired to observe and allow for as also with his Pen to correct the following ERRATA IN the Preface page 6. in the last line for facis read facile p. 7. l. 41. r. shack p. 11. l. 10. add malum before the last est p. 9 l. 20. r. far 37. r. Governours p. 10. l. 33. for led r. misled p. 11. l. 29. r. Lictors l. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 16. l. 39. r. your tranquillity P. 1. l. 23. before evil add a greater p. 4. l. 33. r. suddenly p. 5. l. 27. before gain blot out the p. 6. l. 24. r. very p. 11. l. 18. r. nusance l. 24. r. string p. 12. l. 13. r. nusances p. 14. l. 34. blot out Cer and add it in the beginning of line 36. p. 16. last line r transubstantiation p. 17. l. 1. r. Hooker l. 10. r. Protest p. 20. margin r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 21. l. 2. r. organs l. 27. add was after up p. 23. r. scta in the margin p. 26. l. 19. r. Wire 24. r. offices p. 28. l. 22. r. tertium p. 31. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 32. add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 32. l. 8. r. convinced l. 32. r. Wire p. 33. l. 7. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 30. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 38. l. 26. r. paradise p. 40. l. 33. r. that p. 42. marg r. ecclesiae p. 46. l. 24. r. valorous p. 47. l. 38. r. Tiping p. 49. l. 1. r. Nusance l. 31. r. balance l. 40. r. Counsel p. 53. l. 14. r. lopping l. 25. r. another p. 59. l. 7. r. Wire p. 67. l. 6. r. sense p. 68. the Citation out of Aene Sylv must be read at the bottom of the 67. page after 1684 p. 69. l. 26. after digression adâ— inâ—â— p. 71. marg r. asserit p. 79. l. 27. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 80. l. 3. r. Nusancâ— l. 31. r. Cummin p. 81. at the end of the 28. l. add And p. 90. l. 4. r. Paradise p. 88. last l. r. Pretensed p. 93. l. 31. r. Opining p. 9â— l. 22. r. loth p. 95. l. 24. r. Anicetus l. 27. blot out it p. 96. l. 6. r. Counsel Some few other Escapes there are but not so material as to take any other notice of them THE PREFACE AS Truth is a most pleasing Object and grateful to the Understanding of Man so he must have a vitiated and depraved Palate who cannot taste and see how good the Churches peace is nor relish those means and measures which are conducive to so great and eminent an end For the attainment of which we may be encouraged to believe the ensuing Plea to be no unfit expedient upon the consideration of those Powers and Faculties which since the Late Revolution His present Majesty whom God preserve hath granted to so many Wise and Worthy Members of our Church to revise its Liturgy to inspect our Ecclesiastical Polity and to report such Alterations and Amendments as they should judge necessary for the Healing of our Breaches and uniting of Dissenting Protestants A project becoming the forecast of so Wise and Great a Prince who had so much good-will towards Men as to design Settlement and Peace of Earth But we have winkt too hard to see the things which concern them yea many there be of that intemperate Zeal and fiery Indignation wherewith they would devour their Adversaries as to tell us That tho our pretences be faced with Conscience yet they are lined with Schism and Sedition as true and yet deceivers these say they are such who set up for Peace whilst they mediate and forecast War in their Hearts talking of Union whilst they themselves break the Bond of Peace dissolve the Unity of the Spirit and deface the Uniformity of the Church Could these Men have procured Fire from Heaven the World by this time had been in a Flame Nor could our Doom have been any thing better than that to which the angry Disciples would have sentenced the Samaritanes yea executed upon them had not our Saviour restrained their Zeal and rebuked their Passion As to our secret Reservations or Hypocrisie we only desire our liberty till they can disprove our sincerity and to condemn us before is an hard Censure The advice St. Paul gives I think is worth the taking 1 Cor. 4.5 Judge nothing before the time till the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the Counsels of the hearts and then shall every man have praise of God As for the usual Raillery wherewith those who were weary and heavy laden have been treated we refer to him who will judge the false and slanderous Tongue That Ignorance and Malice are the Spirits by which our Wheels are acted is the frequent charge of Uncharitable and Conceited men who take their Tongues to be their own using both them and others with them at their pleasure But what are we better than our Father who met with no less despite nor ought we to make any worse returns than they We are fools for Christ saith St. Paul but ye are wise in Christ we are weak but ye are strong ye are honourable but we are despised
to all that esteem the Herbs soure which are appointed to be eaten with it In which case we may use the words of the Poet. Nimium seritatis in illo est Est aliud levius fulmen c. St. Austin thought it an unworthy thing to Censure or Condemn one another for those things which no way recommend us to God Indignum est ut propter ea quae nos Deo neque digniores neque indigniores possunt facere alii alios vel condemnemus vel judicemus 'T is very well observed by a Conforming Member of our Church That our Differences are not so great as to exclude the opposite Parties from being made Members of one (l) Dr. Potter asserts that no Man who believes the Creed and all the evident consequences of it sincerely and heartily cannot possibly if he also believes the Scripture be in any Error of simple Belief which is offensive to God nor therefore deserves to be deprived of his Life or to be cuâ— off from the Churches Communion or Hope of Salvation Church Militant and Joint-heirs of Glory in the Church Triumphant Obj. But the Crime is Contumacy against the Commands of our Rulers than which there can be no greater Sin and for which there ought to be assigned no less Punishment Res Is an awful regard of the Supreme Lawgiver a Contempt to Humane Power and Magistracy to which we give all just respect and deference where we suppose we may without intrenching upon the Divine authority which is Paramount to any Dominion upon Earth Were it a pure despight to authority it would appear in other things as well as these Ceremonies of Religion we give Fear to whom Fear Honour to whom Honour Tribute to whom Tribute is due nor can there be any occasion found against us unless it be concerning the Law of our God and if we do not pay an actual obedience to some of those Injunctions which we fear are Intrenching upon the Divine Sanctions we are not guilty of Contumacy or Disobedience to Magistracy unless by accident it being a thing which is neither designed nor without injury to weak Consciences to be avoided whilst we continue in the Communion of the Church not daring to make any Schism in it or separation from it As to the design of this undertaking I shall add nothing more but stand to the Mercy of every Man's Opinion To be sure it could not be Interest or Secular Advantage for I believe too many will think if it be (m) Pro laborum meorum proemio vix impetravi veâ—iam pardoned 't will be beyond its desert rewarded Tho the Church I am of Opinion may thank her Preferments for the extreme Zeal of many of her Votaries in the Case of Conformity The Roman Clergy had never stickled so earnestly to have advanced their Bishop above the Council if the latter could have given Dignities as well as the former The Whore of Babylon ne're wanted Pledgers whenever she drank to them out of her Golden Cup whatever Abominations 't was filled with But I am afraid I have transgressed the Rules of proportion in framing so wide a Gate to so straight a Fabrick spinning the Preface too much beyond the Staple Yea perhaps may have forestalled the Reader and in some things anticipated the ensuing Argument Yet cannot conclude till I have recommended it to those in Authority that they would consider such as are still pressed down under the same Burthens and forc'd to draw In an uneasie Yoke That they would put the Tears of their Complaint into their bottles and that they may be no longer like Water spilt upon the ground nor always driven to eat our Passover with bitter Herbs God delights not in grieving the Children of Men but makes his ways pleasantness and his paths peace Let us beseech you who have wisdom to judge of and power to redress our grievances by the Mercies of God in general and our late unparallel'd Deliverance in particular by which he hath saved us out of the hands of our Enemies that we might serve him without fear That you would imitate the Divine Providence in breaking every Yoke loosing every Burthen and letting the oppressed go free Permit me to speak with the words of the Prophet in his advice to the King Dan. 4.27 Wherefore let my counsel be acceptable to you break off your sins by repentance and your iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if it may be a lengthning out of the tranquility which is my Heart's Desire and Prayer to God both for Church and State A PLEA for Abatement in Matters of Conformity to several Injunctions and Orders of the Church of ENGLAND c. IF the many earnest and repeated Promises of Persons in extremity can lay an Obligation of Performance upon them to pay their Vows whenever they become solvend How many are there of no small Figure and Interest in our Church under no mean tie to find out an expedient and temper to heal those Breaches cement those Schisms which several bandied and controverted Rites and Ceremonies of the Church have unhappily occasioned How many Families in this Quarrel have been ruined How many Garments rolled in Blood not excepting his who sate upon the Throne What Blood and Treasure have been spilt and spent in their defence can be easier lamented than counted Nor is the Nature of them grown less prolifick or productive of Distractions amongst us they being almost the only bones which makes us snarle at yea bite and devour one another So zealous are we to maintain the Fence that is made about them that we neglect the main Bank which keeps out the most raging Waves of the Sea of Rome I mean Popery and Arbitrary Power the Cup we so lately drank of which at this time swells high and bears hard against us not only from Foreign Inundations of open Enemies but private overflowings of the Gall of some over-jealous Men amongst us As if it were evil to unite Dissenting protestants upon those just equitable and safe Principles which many Wise and Pious Bishops and other Conforming Members of the Church of England have propounded as fit Terms and Expedients for Union and Peace than to cause the Reformed Religion to run a most dangerous Risque and Adventure Suppose some of our Tackling should be rent and Sprucery sullied yet it were a Misfortune no way comparable to that of dashing the Ship against the rock And what Shipwrack the Storms which some Zealots among us are ever upon the least alteration of that Rigging though upon the justest Reasons raising may occasion God only knows if he that stills the Raging of the Sea does not quiet the Madness of the People Suppose the Decency and Order of our most exact and innocent Rituals to be ten times more than what really they are yet they can never commute for the hundredth part of that Blood and Treasure which have been expended in their Quarrel But shall we not
and Factions as to proceed with the greatest Censures and Severities one against another For which St. Irenaeus went up to Rome and sharply rebuked Victor for the Rigor of his Proceedings against the Eastern Churches as is already observed And how sharp a Thorn this retained Ceremony hath been among the rest the Tears and Complaints of our Brethren which have been poured out as a Flood have been sufficient Proofs And tho' t is true the Mercy and compassion of the King and two succeeding Parliaments have wip'd those Eyes dry which for many Years together scarce ever ceased Yet it cannot but press hard upon the Hearts and Consciences of many faithful Ministers of the Church upon the highest Pains and Penalties it can inflict to be forc'd to deny Children their Bread to expel and drive them away from the Lord's Table be their Conversations never so much agreeable to the Gospel merely for their Non-conformity to a Rite which Imposers themselves abstracted from their Authority allow to be indifferent Besides is there no regard to be had to many Conscientious Members in its Communion who being loath to make a rent in it have submitted to an uneasie Yoak And will you not gratifie your obedient Children who have lived uneasie to themselves rather than disoblige or disobey you whom God hath set over them Hark how a Beam out of our Timber and Stone out of our own Wall Councel us Have Patience with your weak Brother require no more of him than Christ required of his Disciples surely Christ would not have allowed any unfitting Posture condemned not that which Christ allowed Admit we be weak Naked Truth pâ—g 19. yet we are not wilful when you command us to go we go But why should our way be paved any longer with Thorns which is in your Power to strew with Roses Suppose we be weak yet you that are strong ought to bear the Infirmities of the Weak and not to offend those by your Authoritative Power for whom Christ died Was it not truly alledged in the second Paper presented to King Charles II. by the Divines then authorized to review and amend the Liturgy that kneeling in any Adoration at all in any Worship on any Lord's Day in the Year or on any Week-day between Easter and Penticost was not only disused but forbidden by General Councils Con. Nicen. 1. Can. 20. Con. Trull c. Why should you our Fathers provoke your willing Children to wrath Violating the Rules of Charity by your Decrees for Conformity We are weak 't is true but many strong I mean wise and learned Men are of the same Mind and Meaning with us Nay several of the Reformed Churches have abolish'd this Rite for that they thought it did Olere Papismum smelling too rank of their Idolatrous Worship And least this Flye should affect or infect their whole Box of Ointment have cast it out Besides though in process of time this Ceremony hath been admitted yet from the beginning it was not so Christ and his Apostles used not this Posture but that which was usual at their common Meals and yet no doubt he gave this Holy Sacrament and they received it in a most reverend and decent way 'T is not probable that the Church of Corinth and other * Socrates observes that the Egyptians adjoyning to Alexandria and Inhabitants of Thebais after they had banqueted and filled themselves with sundry Delicacies in the Evening after Service did use to Communicate Primitive Christians who celebrated this Sacrament together with their Love-Feasts did alter their Posture no more than our Saviour and his Apostles who while they did eat took Bread Didoclavius in his Altare Damascenum Pag. 784. maintains that no Testimony can be produced to prove that Kneeling was before the time of Honorius 3d. And some others have observed that bowing the Knees before the Host came not into the Church before Transubstantation (a) Bish Hall tells us of a dispute he had with a Sorbonist who took occasion by our kneeling at the Receipt of the Eucharist to perswade the Company that we owned Transubstantiation Mr. Hopper (b) I may be allowed to say of Mr. Hooker as Mr. Chillingworth speaks of him viz. Though he was an excellent Man yet he was but a Man p. 309. The Religion of Botest in his Ecclesiastical Polity speaks little upon this Argument and yet that little is by some thought too much as too much reflecting upon our Saviour's Administration of the Holy Sacrament to his Disciples not in a kneeling Posture This Bellarmine acknowledges in his Answer to Calvin's Objection Lib. de Eucharist 4to Cap. 30. Non poterant semper prostraticum Christo agere praesertim in Caenâ domini quando recumbere cum illis necesse erat Stella saith also Distribuit panem discumbentibus mundi Salvator If I mistake the Author of the Ecclesiastical Polity let the Reader judge His Word are these If we did there present our selves to make some shew or dumb resemblance of a Spiritual Feast it may be that sitting were the better Ceremony Our Saviour did not nor his Apostles present themselves only to make some shew or dumb resemblance of a Spiritual Feast yet undoubtedly they adjudged the Posture they used at Meals the fittest and not kneeling for sure they chose that they judged to be most decent and fit Our Lord saith the same Author did that which custom and long usage had made fit We that which fitness and great decency had made usual I should have thought our Saviour's Practice might have as well prescribed to fitness and great decency as to custom and long usage especially considering it was an Ordinance not so old as yesterday but at that very time instituted But to let all this pass kneeling was a Rite dispensed with by the Interim of Charles II. who for the Establishing of the Churches Peace and composing the Minds of Men gave a Determination of several Matters in difference this Ceremony being one among the rest Which Dispensation though stiled an Interim might have continued for ever had me King pleased that is till such a time as he in his Declaration mentions viz. Vntil such a Synod be called as might without Passion or Prejudice give a further Assistance towards a perfect Union of Affections as well as Submission to Authority Providing that none be denied the Sacrament for not using the Posture of Kneeling To desire then what hath been so largely promised by the Supreme Magistrate with great Advice and for wise Ends argues us neither sturdy Beggars nor unreasonable in our Requests And though I have and do without scruple submit to the Order of our Church in this respect yet for the sake of those that cannot I heartily wish an Indulgence might be granted or Temper found to extinguish those Flames which so small a Spark hath enkindled causing the Daughter of our Sion so often to be clad in Sack-cloth and to sit in Ashes In
considerable and excellent a part of Holy Writ Aliqui sunt saith Aquinas qui non intelligunt quid cantatur 22 d. Q. 91. But suppose them read and not sung yet when they are read alternately one Verse by the Minister the other by the People the latter Verse will be no better than an inarticulate sound and confused noise to those who are unlearned and cannot read or to them who have not their Books at hand to go along with the Congregation as may be easily experimented in our London Congregations where this Form of Reading is commonly if not universally observed Another Custom or Manner of performing Divine Service which must not be omitted at least in Cathedrals is reading the second Service at the Altar A thing which to some seems out of the Churches Power to injoin which can only use it in commanding things proper to Edification For whilst the People sit in the lower part of the Quire they may hear the noise of the Minister's Voice who is reading the Service at the Altar but no distinction of sound as hath been often experimented And I 'd fain know whether the Practice of the Roman Church by performing their Service in an unknown Tongue or secret Whispers of a Priest can less tend to Edification or Instruction then to render it unintelligible by removing beyond the Ken or Compass of the Ear or by causing it to be uttered by the confused noise of a mixed Multitude Which I leave to those who are of highest esteem in the Church to judge of As also to take into their Consideration how far a Reformation of our Publick Service may be adviseable and necessary in regard to the Form of it in this and some other respects 2dly The next thing I have to offer is as to the Length and Burthen of it a Task which neither we nor our Forefathers were ever able to bear Were this grievance redrest that occasion of Scandal cast upon the Rulers and Dignitaries of the Church might be removed the Complaints of the weary and heavy laden Ministers of the Church silenced who may in the mean time be tempted perhaps to speak unadvisedly with their Lips and say Must we still like Issachar couch down under this heavy Burthen whilst such as impose it will scarce touch it with a tip of their own Fingers to ease others or to perform it for themselves Dicit enim Greg. habetur in decretis distinc 92. Can. insecta Romana Ecclesia constituo ut in sede hâc scil Romanâ Ecclesia sacri altaris ministri cantare non debeant Aquinus tells us that Gregory would have none who were ordained to Preach the Gospel to be imployed in the Office of Singing being as that Angelical Doctor observes a Work beneath them When we see the Masters of our Assemblies engage the meanest among 〈◊〉 Priests in the Celebration of the Divine Service of the Church by Reading or Singing of it we may conclude they think it either too mean or too hard for themselves As to the first there 's none of us have reason to think any Work of the Lord beneath them We can labour as in the Fire work in the Furnaces and Brick-kilns with great delight if we may thereby prepare for building the Lord's Temple (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Supra modum supra vires gravati sumus 2. Cor. 1.8 But our Task-masters have doubled the Tale of our Brick to that degree that though we work hard yet unless our Strength were the Strength of Stones we never can accomplish our Task and whoever shall fall short the Law hath provided it shall be made up with Stripes which will make deep furrows upon the Backs of those that shall happen to fall under the dintor Lash of it This Grievance in some Cities and Corporations by the Wealth and Kindness of the People hath been much provided against clubbing their Purses and providing Readers to discharge their Ministers of the Burthen of the Desk As knowing that they on whom necessity is laid and Woes denounced against them if they Preach not the Gospel will find work enough in the Pulpit But this were an unreasonable expectancy in Country Villages where the number of the People is small and their substance less Where in many places two or three Cures will scarce do more than afford Necessaries for an ordinary Subsistance or Livelihood nor provide larger Supplies than could answer the reasonable Desires of that contented Man viz. Sit mihi mensa tripes concha puri salis toga quae defenderit frigus licet crassa queat Yet so vast and opulent are the Revenues of the Church that as there needs no other Arguments to prove the incomparable Charity and Bounty of our Ancestors So also a Sufficiency yea a Redundancy for the Support of the Office and Work of the Ministry But so disproportionate hath the distribution of them been that whilst some have lived delicately and fared deliciously every day others can scarce find a Competency to furnish their Tables with daily Bread And is it not a Grievance that the most difficult and constant Labour should meet with the least Encouragement 'T is scarce credible to relate to what Sums the Acruments and Perquisites of the Bishopricks in England did amount to upon their Restoration with Charles II. Had not immense Treasures descended into their Coffers the many extravagant Works of State and Magnificence Vain-glory some think Acts of Piety and Charity could never have exhausted such unaccountable Sums as are by Dr. C. computed out of them He tells us that Dr. Juxon Arch-bishop of Canterbury gave or expended in Building Repairing Redemption of Captives c. 48000 l. Sterling besides 16000 l. abated to the Tenants Gilbert Sheldon Bishop of London afterwards Arch-bishop of Canterbury gave and bestowed in such like expences besides his common Disbursements and what he left to his Heirs and Executors 40000 l. Brian Duppa late Bishop of Winchester in such like Charges together with the Abatements of Fines to his Tenants 46000 l. Dr. Fruen Arch-bishop of York 15000 l. Dr. Cousins Bishop of Durham 44000 l. Dr. Warner Bishop of Rochester 30000 l. Besides the Building of a Colledge for poor Clergy-mens Widows which cost 7200 l. which was besides endowed by him with ample Provisions besides 50 l. per Annum Rent-charge for maintaining of a Chaplain Nor were the Deans and Chapters less liberal in proportion Insomuch that the several Sums when put together amount to no less than 443000 l. besides the Monies they spent in their Splendid way of living together with their Equipage and Retinue not to mention their personal and real Estates they left behind them to agrandize their Posterities and to make their Names great But whilst the Prelates wallowed in their overgrown Wealth how many laborious Ministers lay swelkt and macerated with the Heat and Burthen imposed upon them in the Worship of God Their Task being over
Flesh and Incarnation of our Saviour viz. That Christ is one not by Conversion of the Codhead into Flesh but by taking the Manhood into God one altogether not by confusion of Substance It ought to be considered concerning Athanasius's Creed how many People understand it not Lib. of Proph. p. 54. I confess saith that Author I cannot see the moderate Sentence and gentleness of Charity in this Preface and Conclusion as then was in the Nicene Creed nothing there but damnation and perishing everlastingly unless the Article of the Trinity be believed as it is there with Curiosity and minute Particulars explained Ibid. pag. 54. but by unity of Person And that this c. is the Catholick Faith which except a Man believe he cannot be saved Which Propositions should they be repeated to many a simple and yet sincere Christian they would seem little less to them than Sampson's Ridle and shall we deny Salvation to those who have not an explicite Faith of those things they understand not If Water ascends higher than the Fountain from whence it springs the Motion must be ascribed to force If Faith should ascend beyond Knowledge if such may be called Faith 't is no better than force or fancy to compel that to be confessed with the Mouth which is not believed with the Heart because it never entred into the Head Doth it not therefore concern the Fathers of the Church to consider now that they have a Price put into their Hands whether this be not to make the Gate of Heaven narrower than God hath made it which is already so streight that alas there be too few that find it Of Regeneration by the Spirit ANother thing which might justly deserve the Notice of our Reverend Brethren and Fathers of the Church is the Doctrine of Regeneration by the Spirit which I take to be an act of Grace upon the Heart (a) Unto whom now I send thee to open their Eyes and to turn them from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God c. Acts 26.17 renewing that Image which was drawn in Righteousness and true Holiness But alas How have we effac'd it and sought out many Inventions in the Croud of which we lost our Integrity God had at first imbarkt our Innocency in a Vessel sufficiently built to have secured the Cargo and finally to have brought the Soul safe to its desirable Port I mean Heaven he having put on board with it that which might with due watchfulness and care have secured it viz. A posse non peccandi But hapning where two Seas met I mean Satan's Policy and Man's Frailty or facile Disposition being too gentle and easie to be intreated by his Temptations he suffered Shipwrack of a good Conscience losing that which the whole World was not competent to redeem For alas What can be given in exchange for the Soul But God would not suffer the Sea to swallow such a Prize and therefore when he saw Man labouring for Life in the midst of those mighty Waves those Waters of Iniquity he cast out a Plank Post naufragium tabulam by which he came safe to Land he set up this Bankrupt again with a fresh Stock putting him into a Capacity and State of Salvation by a redeemer but upon such Terms and Conditions as he thought fit to appoint and prescribe viz. That unless we believe we should not be saved except we be regenerate and born again we should not enter into the Kingdom of God But as the Wind blows where it listeth so the Spirit works these Graces when and where it pleaseth observing the Rule and Method he hath pleased to prescribe to himself viz. As he hath chosen us in Christ Jesus And therefore we cannot affirm that wherever the Means is used that the End ex opere operato is certainly attained especially in such subjects as are altogether incapable of it as I take Infants to be of Regeneration upon the Administration of Baptism 3 Q. 71.2 Unless it be said of Regeneration as Aquinas saith concerning the Infant 's being Catechiz'd before it be Baptiz'd Accommodat eis Ecclesia aliorum cor ut credant aliorum aures ut audiant intellectum ut per alios instruantur But he that is regenerated by a Proxy will be saved so too But suppose they be renew'd yet this Operation or Work of the Spirit is much in the dark there are no visible Footsteps or Impressions left behind it by which we can trace the Goings of the Almighty no more than that of a Serpent upon a Rock a Bird in the Air or Ship in the Sea if there be any Work of God upon the Soul of the Infant 't is very cryptical 't is hid from our Eyes We may say as the Lord said to Job He hath made a Cloud the garment of it 38 Job 9. and thick darkness a swadling Band for it If any shall say that though the Child in such tender Age be not a capable subject of the Act yet it may be of the Habit Thus it is accounted a Rational Creature though it cannot for the present exert and shew forth the Faculties which are potentially in it But no sooner doth the Child grow up towards Years of Maturity but those Seminal and Radical Powers of their own accord pullulate and spring up into Act the Rose which seminally or potentially laid dormant in the Root of the Plant of its own accord buds and blossoms upon the approaching Heat and Influence of the Sun If the Habit of Regeneration were sown in Baptism would it not in the Spring of Youth begin to bud and blossom and bring forth Almonds I mean Acts sutable to the Nature of it Whereas we experimentally find no more averseness or reprobacy to that which is good in an unbaptized Person who never was baptismally regenerated nor received for God's own Child by Adoption than in one baptized according to the Ordinance of God and Appointment of the Church But supposing the Subject capable of this Divine Impression yet we do not see that God doth let his Seal or that they are sealed up to the Day of Redemption ex opere operato or actual Administration of Baptism For wherever the Work of Regeneration is wrought the Soul is renewed in all its Faculties such were some of you But ye are washed but ye are sanctified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God But all that are Baptismally washed are not sanctified and regenerate for we find in adult Persons that those who were filthy before continue to be so still Nay as to those very Persons who in the Judgment of Charity do not ponere obicem yet we cannot see any immediate Cause to return Thanks for its actual Regeneration by the Holy Spirit till we find some Demonstration or Evidence more than the bare opus operatum or Administration of the Baptismal Rite that the Person is entred into the Womb
Epistle to the Magness seems to advise the fame thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let all things be done the Bishop presiding as God's Vicegerent and the Presbyters sitting in Council representing the Apostles which seems to be much like the Wish of a more modern Divine whose Words are these Sane â—aec Ecclesiae administrandae ratio quam dixi in quâ Episcoporum porestas certos limiter habeat à synâ—do Coetu Presbyterorum circumscriptos est res magis optanda quam speranda Epist ad Verdae St. Ignatius in several of his Episâ—les frequently mentions a Subjection and Submission due to the Presbyters as well as to the Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the Teams he useth being sufficiently expressive of Jurisdicton and Authority I will give you a few Instances for the Proof of what I have assumed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Smyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let all follow the Bishop as Christ his Father and the Presbyters as the Apostles which as Vossius observes was the Opinion of Polycarpe His Words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is be subject to the Presbyters and Deacons as unto God and Christ Notae Voss 261. Ignatius in his Epistle to the Magnesians written from Smyrna speaking of Zotion whom he had kindly entertain'd commends him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because he was subject to the Bishop and Presbytery in the Grace of God and Law of Jesus Christ And in his Epistle to the Trallians though he faith they ought to take the Bishop along with them so they should also be subject to the Presbyters as to the Apostles of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad. Trall p. 156. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. But what need we hear more Evidences out of this ancient Father a for the time and I believe the Reader 's Patience would fail should I particularly recite what he hath said to this purpose in his other Epistles to the Brethren of Tarsus Antioch c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the People be subject to the Presbyters and Deacons The same Advice he gives to the Philippiâ—ns in his Letter to them as also in his Epistle to the Ephesians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad. Smyr If the Bishops and Presbyters are to be observed and followed as Christ obey'd his Father and as the Church was bound to be obedient to the Apostles then sure the sole Jurisdiction was not in the single Person of the Bishop It was strongly argued in the Council of Basil against Panormitane by Ludovicus Cardinal Arlotensis that there were most evident Testimonies for the Defence of Inferiors For the chief and principal of all Divines st Austine upon the Words of St. Matth. where Christ faith I will give thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven affirmeth that by those words the Judicial Power was not only given to Peter But also to the other Apostles and to the whole Church the Bishops and Priests The famous Dr. St. Jerome doth also agree with St. Austine whose Words are these upon the Epistle of Paul to Titus Before that difference was made in Religion by the Instigation of the Devil or that it was spoken among the People I bold of Paul I of Apollo and I of Cephas the Churches were governed by the common Consent and Council of the Priests for the Priest is the very same that a Bishop is And further he saith That Priests are of lesser Authority than Bishops rather by Custom than by the Dispensation of the Truth of God and that they ought to rule the Church together Mr. Lambert that learned man and constant Martyr in his Defence averred the same thing and that Priests were called Bishops being all one and no other but Bishops The Bishop of London and Duresme in their Letter to Cardinal Pool acknowledge the same thing urging the Authority of St. Jerome in his Epistle to Evagrius and in his Commentary upon Titus Sciant ergo Episcopi se magis ex Consuetudine quam dispensationis dominicae veritate Presbyteris esse majores And in both places prove that the Government of the Churches yea the Patriarchal Churches was by the common Consent and Agreement of the Clergy Acts and Monuments Vol. 2. p. 290. Impress 1684. But I shall refer my Reader and my self as to this Matter unto the Proposal made by Charles II. in his Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs 1660. p. 15 In short I think that excellent Project concerning Church-Government might very well deserve the Consideration of out Superiors especially if Presbyters might have Power granted not only to assist by their Advice but (c) Si judiciariam habent potestatem in Ecclesiâ Presbyteri quid eos prohibet vocem in conciliis habere terminativam Card. Arelat Aen. Sylv. p. 24. de gest Con. Basil Vote too which was strenuously pleaded for and learnedly defended to be the Right of Presbyters in the Council of Basil Acts and Monuments But if as to some doubtful Matters in Doctrine some scrupled Rites and Ceremonies in the Church which have occasioned not only many hot Disputations bitter Contests and the rolling many Garments in Blood our Consciences may be indulged let them take such to govern as they esteem best of in the Church may we but stow out Cargo right secure our Lading and avoid Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience let who will carry the Flag Only give me leave to say verily there hath been a Fault amongst us that whilst our Discipline hath been very quick-sighted in Matters of Conformity as to the smallest (a) We were once complained of in Parliament by a great Member of that Assembly in these Words The Vines have both Grapes and Leaves And Religious Acts both substance and Circumstance but the Gardener is much to blame who gives more charge to the Workmen of the Leaves than of the Fruit Sir Edward Dering Collect. Speech p. 33. Ceremonies it hath been comparatively dull in hearing and slow in espying the greatest Immoralities We have been ready to discern the More but have overlookt the Beam Tender of the Rubrick but less concerned for the Decalogue And so long as our Whoredoms do remain 't is impossible out Church should have Peace Let us be never so zealous for Conformity to the Canons and Rules of it for if God hath a Controversie with us the best Disputant will find the Contest hard and Victory impossible We may blame the Dissenters for our Schisms but I am sure we may thank our selves for them nay with grief and shame may we confess it that to such a pitch hath Prophaneness risen among us that it hath been a Scandal to be good and a Crime to be Religious Tea Truth faileth and he that departeth from Evil maketh himself a Prey or is accounted mad as the Margent reads it 59 Isa 15. Loyalty and Conformity were the whole Cry upon which Cardinal-Vertues for they have been deemed no less
Weather Mountains want too much That being past a Mole-hill now they grutch Witness that great regret some of them have express against that Kindness and Favour which they King and two succeeding Parliaments have beyond denial evideneed to our Dissenting Protestant Brethren who with Fury bite the Chain which restrains them from falling foul upon their former Prey Besides their unreasonable stickle to prevent the least Abatement in Matters which respect the Ceremonial part of our Worship A Conformity to which goes with them for the whole Duty of a Minister Obedience to Government a very good and Gospel Doctrine was the constant Theme of the Pulpit but our high men have done with it as the Priest did with the Sword of Goliah wound it up in the Ephod and laid it behind the Altar Though when time was our whole Duty was placed in a wild Notion and extravagant Pretence to Loyalty No Man being esteemed Loyal or a Lover of his Prince who did not so far doat as to follow the Measures and promote the Designs of turning the best tempered Government in the World into a Despotick and Arbitrary Rule These wife Master-builders had raised the Fabrick of Sovereign Power to that â—mmense Height and extravagant Projecture as no way agreed with the just Methods of any civil Architecture putting in the mean time the Mischief of the Project far from themselves Supposing that if it did fall it might perhaps grind their Enemies to Powder but never dreamt of its tipping upon their own Heads as we have before observed Insomuch that whatever they heard which might awaken them to prevent their impending Ruine went for nothing but the ever-jealous Notions and muâ—â—nous Suggestions of disloyal and dissaffected Men. But when they began to feel the Massy weight of an overgrown Monarch with what Zeal did they stickle to put a Bridle into the Mouth and Hook into the Nostrils of that Leviathan whose Tusks had ript up the Belly of our Laws and Liberties upon whose Neck they had so lately thrown the Reigns of Government which the Prince whom God now hath blest us with hath delivered back again to the People Esteeming the Prerogative never better asserted than when the Rights and Properties of the Subject the great end of Government are kept inviolate and that Caesar can never have his due if the People be denied what 's theirs Being so great an Artist in governing as to carry a steddy Hand and keep the Ballance even for if too much weight be put into one Scale the other will kick up as our late King by a costly Experiment found true But as it pleased the Almighty to raise up a Moses to deliver us from the Brick-kilns and to break the Yoak from off the neck of our civil Liberties so we trust he will rescue us from the iron Furnaces too loosing every Burthen and letting our Consciences go free which have not been so much gauled with Points of Doctrine and Articles of Faith and Religion as with the rites and Ceremonies of it We so generally agree as to Matters of Faith that Dissenters in respect of that are so few as to their Number and as to their Quality so inconsiderable that they are not able to make any Schism or cause any disturbance amongst us Could we but find a Temper to accommodate these lesser things which by a Spirit of Meekness and Moderation Christian Charity and Forbearance might easily be effected we should have an end of Controversie Heats would cool Animosities would cease they 'd want Fuel to feed them and Matter to work upon The making Sides and Parties to elect Members for Parliament would be at an end which have so frequently fermented the Humours of the Body politick into lasting and dangerous Factions and Distempers Were but our Contests about the Form and Rites of Religion by some wise and prudent Concordate framed by our Governours determined and moderated we need not fear we should fall out about Matters of State being all agreed to bear out share in the Charge necessary for its Grandeur and Defence We should all sit under our Vines and Fig-tress leading a peaceable and quiet Life when once these Bones of Contention were taken out of the way and Apples of Strife which they say grow upon a Tree that 's neither good nor evil become forbidden Fruit. Besides we are not sturdy Beggars we ask not Talents but Shekels we only desire to wash and be clean from those additions to Divine Worship which we are afraid may defile our Consciences and not be so well pleasing to God Things which the Imposers tell us are Matters indifferent when abstracted from their Authority But suppose it should be an inconvenience to take them away yet sure so great a good as an universal Quiet would be sufficient to commute for no greater Nuisance But we are perswaded of the contrary from the Reasons we have alledged besides the Authorities of some of the greatest Prelates and Members of the Church of England viz. Hooper Bishop of Worcester Jewel Bishop of Salisbury Sands Arch-bishop of York Horne Bishop of Winchester Why should I again name Cranmer Ridley Grindal upon this subject who endeavoured to have the Habits of the Clergy as a Popish Relique cast out The Arch-bishop of St. Andrews speaking in his Sermon at the Assembly of Perth did acknowledge That the Conveniency of them was doubted by many but not without Cause c. Novations in a Church even in the smallest things are dangerous had it been in our Power to have disswaded or declined them most certainly we would c. Mr. Sprint also though a Conformist yet saith It may be granted that offence and hinderance to Edification do arise from these our Ceremonies He confesseth also That the best Divines wisht them to be abolished Which by her own Confession is in the Power of the Church to grant Which speaking in the Preface of the Common Prayer See 34. Art of Religion saith that the Ceremonies which remain may be for just Causes taken away altered or changed and gives good reason for it because they are in their own nature indifferent and so alterable The Words be these The particular Forms of Divine Worship and the Rites and Ceremonies appointed to be used therein being things in their own nature indifferent and alterable and so acknowledged It is but reasonable upon weighty and important Considerations according to the various Exigency of times and occasions such Changes and Alterations should be made therein as to those that are in place of Authority should from time to time seem either necessary or expedient accordingly we find that in the Reigns of several Princes of Blessed Memory since the Reformation the Church upon just and weighty Considerations her thereunto moving hath yielded to make such alterations in such Particulars as in their respective times were thought convenient c. As for weighty Causes sure we never had any more ponderous to incline the
Ballance then what may now be put into it Will not the desire and design of our Prince to loose every Burthen and break every Yoak from the Neck of Mens Consciences move Will not the pious Zeal for Unity and Peace together with a just Regard and Compassion towards tender Consciences of the best and greatest of all I think I may say the Prelates and Governours of the Church move Will not the most desirable Compliance and Harmony with our Brethren of the Reformed Churches abroad an happy Concord and Communion with our Brethren at home move That we may be no longer at strife one with another that we may take sweet Council together and go to the House of God in company that all Bitterness and Wrath being laid aside the Lion may eat Straw with the Ox and lie down with the Lamb That it may be said of us owning the Christian Faith and Doctrine of the Church who were not a People in time past 1 Pet. 2.20 but now are become a People which had not obtained Mercy but now have obtained Mercy this would enlarge the Borders of the Church And why should we not admit those whom God doth not reject Who doth not make such small things as we suspend and deprive for terms of (o) Why should Men be more rigid than God Why should any Error exclude any Man from the Church's Communion which will not deprive him of eternal Salvation When I say in one Communion I mean in a common Profession of those Articles of Faith wherein all consent Chilling the Relig. of Protest p. 210. Communion with himself and yet in the mean time can without scruple hold Communion with Persons of vicious Habits and prophane Lifes If a Man dissent from us as to the Form of Religion we account it scandalous to converse with him whereas the Apostle's Rule is If a Man that is called a Brother be a Fornicator or Coveteous or an Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such an one no not to eat We cannot wholly abstain from converse with such Persons for then we must go out of the World but whether I should shun the Company of an honest and good Man tho' a Dissenter or of a wicked and prophane Person Epist dedic to the Liberty of Prophesying though a strict Conformist to the Rites of the Church he that is of least esteem may be able enough to judge I would fain know saith a late * Taylor Bishop why a vicious Habit is not as bad or worse than a false Opinion Why are we so zealous against those we call Hereticks and yet great Friends with Drunkards Fornicators and Swearers intemperate and idle Persons Besides as that worthy Person speaks Drunkenness saith he I am certain is a most damnable Sin c. But Sects are made and Opinions are called Heresies upon Interest Why should we then strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel If a Man swears by the Temple 't is nothing but if he swears by the Gold of the Temple he is a Doctor If a Man commits Fornication or Adultery 't is nothing we can hear pray with hug and converse with such an one though he defiles the Temple of the Lord But if he conforms not to the Ceremonial part of Divine Worship he dinges the Gold of the Temple he is a Debtor to the Law and he shall pay for it To these we say stand by for I am more holy that is more conformable than you boasting as St. Paul once did that they have profited in their Religion above their Equals in their own Nation 1 Gal. 14. being exceedingly zealous of the Tradition of their Fathers And thus whilst we plant our Canon rifle our Arsenals to beat down a shaken Leaf we make little or no assaults upon the strong holds of Sin These things we should have done and if we leave the other undone the Church will be further extended better seâ—led and our Zeal more profitably imploy'd And will not these things move us In our Reformation many things were retained by the Wisdom of our Reformers that offence might not be given to the Roman Church We retained the three Creeds many of their Feasts Fasts several of their Rites and Ceremonies Cross Surplice Kneeling at the Sacrament Form of their Worship insomuch that Edward the Sixth told his rebellious Subjects That the difference of their Service was that before it was performed in an unknown Tongue but now in a Language they understood Had the outward manner of Celebration been much different from the former the King would never have used such an Argument to appease them it would indeed have been to little purpose And what good hath all this Compliance wrought to what end hath all this waste of Charity been It hath hardned them in their Superstition and given them hopes that those who so far complied and symbolized with them might be prevailed with in time to return seeing they dressed still their Service with some of the Garlick and Onions they brought from thence Whatsoever then we have retained not to scandalize them let us now part with to gratifie our Protestant Dissenting Brethren which will not only oblige them and render their Separation indefensible but will justifie us before all the World and will prove an excellent Balm to cure the hurt of the Daughter of our People substantially And will not this move us I cannot forbear to mention what a late Author no Non-conformist hath pertinently alledged to this purpose his Words are these Becoming a Papist to the Papists that by all means they might gain some of the Papists For this reason in her Liturgy she hath kept her best Collects whatever was justifiable in her Litany and all their Creeds in her Rubrick many of her Feasts most of their Fasts and some other of their Ceremonies But since that time viz. the Bull from Rome we have gained none lost some whose narrower Souls could not swallow such things Now more than an hundred Years experience calleth upon the same Charity to tack about and steera contrary course It s a general Rule and practised by all good Physicians to observe whether their Prescriptions do more good or hurt nor could he be faithful either to his Patient or Profession that should obstinately stick to his first Orders in contradiction to Experience It hath pleased our gracious King to Authorize the Prelates and Representatives of our Church to practice the same Charity towards our distempered Church and State Would to God this Author had never wrote any thing more disagreeable to sound Doctrine and the things which belong to the Church's Peace than he hath in this But were your Souls in my Soul's stead I could heap up many more Arguments But all that I shall add is an earnest Reinforcement of our Request to you that have Power committed to you to heal the Breaches and redress the Grievances of the Church that
legibus ferendis iisque quae administrationis sunt publicae statuendis Comitia indicia sunt That is when the King hath new Laws to enact and Matters of publick concern to be treated on he may that is the King name the Persons whom he shall judge most fit to sit in Parliament But when they are convened the King hath no need of their Consent according to these State Divines to levy Taxes or raise Subsidies seeing the King hath a sufficient Right and Power in himself to dispose of the Subjects Goods as he shall judge fit so Weems affirms Omnia saith he quae in regno sunt fatemur regis esse id est qua paternus regni dominus adeoque quae postulat ipsius qua rex est aut publica regni conditio posse regem de singulorum bonis disponere p. 19. Bishop Montague also was of the same Mind as we observe Orig. p. 320. O. lg p. 320. Omni lege divinâ naturali vel Politicâ licitè semper reges Principes suis subditis tributa imposuerunt licite Coegerunt tum ad Patriae reipublicae defensionem tum ad ipsorum bonestam familiae prâ—curationem hanc doctrinam accurate tuetur Ecclesia Anglicana c. But that the King could levy Money of the Subjects without the consent of Lord's and Commons and Authority of the same is not the Judgment of the present Church of England Although though this hath been the cry of some former high Church-men who to tickle the King's Ear and fawn themselves into Preferment have preacht up the same Doctrine upon the strickest Penalties Thus Dr. Manwarring out of the Pulpit for the Edification of the Court I suppose more than the People L'Estrang's Annals p. 84. did declare That the King without common consent in Parliament could by his Command so far bind the Subject in Conscience to pay Taxes and Loans that they cannot refuse payment of them without peril of eternal Damnation And that the Authority of Parliament was not necessary to raise Aids and Subsidies But how mischievous such extravagant Insinuations and Councels proved both to Church and State the ensuing Miseries were too evident and undeniable Arguments Nor did the Authors and contrivers of them succeed any thing better than others who fell under the dint of them Malum enim Consilium consultori pessimum For whilst they thought to oblige and espouse the Sovereign Power to their Interest viz. To press and push on those Innovations in Religion which they had advised his Majesty were orderly and decent in the Church and to urge the establisht Conformity very offensive to tender Consciences with the utmost Rigor nay in two several Reigns they Councelled and procured Edicts to legitimate the Violation of the Sabbath-day by Sports and Pastimes several of them fell under the Dint and Censures of the Civil Power feeling the Effects and unhappy Influence of those Convulsions they had occasioned in the Bodies Ecclesiastick and Politick by regrating too far upon the Humors I mean the Liberties of the Subject both as Christians and Men. Have we not reason then to plead for an allay and temper of such Matters as are apt to occasion so dangerous a Ferment both in Church and State But I can't conclude here seeing by these wild and extravagant Notions concerning Royal Power I have been led aside and my Pen dipt in this Argument especially considering those vile and virulent Reflections made upon our late Revolution counting all no better than Rebels and Traytors who willingly offered themselves to rescue our Liberties and Religion from Popery and Arbitrary Government Nay the most that can be allowed our King by such as pretend upon second thoughts to be proselyted to his Service is that he must be acknowledged so rather of fact than right But if what hath been already said be not sufficient to vouch the Endeavours of the People in preserving the Fundamental Constitutions of the Commonwealth their Lives and Religion when they are in eminent and apparent hazard I shall fetch an Argument from a Royal Topick which I think may serve much to vindicate our late Transactions Had Queen Elizabeth King James King Charles judged the Defence which the Protestants made in France Flanders Germany c. of their Lives Religion and Liberties against the Kings of France Spain and Emperor an unjustifiable Rebellion they would never have assisted them with Men and Money Arms and Ammunition for their redress and rescue from those who by their Sovereign but ill managed Power had so far rent and ravisht them out of their Hands By which Assistances and Supports they though Princes themselves did not only approve their Undertakings in particular but allow and vindicate the like Practices in parallel Cases in general But if the Doctrine of Non-Resistance be true in the Sence it hath been preacht Neither Peers nor People Lords nor Commons must wag an Hand move a Foot but stand still and see the Salvation of God Let the Pillars of the Church be rifled the Foundations of Civil and Ecclesiastical Polity raced and destroy'd the original Contract of Government dissolved nothing is to be done but to depend upon Providence expecting a Miracle to be wrought for our deliverance Every act of our own in order to that end being adjudged Rebellion Were the Knife at our Throat according to the Rules of Passive-Obedience we must not put it by if an Angel from Heaven appears not to our rescue But never did Men make worse use of a Doctrine they had so stifly maintained when it came to their own turn to practice it They proved indeed Passive in their Obedience to the Commands of the late King few or none of them being very active to obey him in the time of his distress or to make use of the Doctrine of Non-Resistance but with respect to the Design of the P. of O. so that if we may be guided by what they did and not what they said we have enough to justifie not only our present Constitution but late Revolution also But I think we have much better Authority than this to alledge * Quarto ait idem Barclaius amitti regnum si rex verè hostili animo in totius populi exitium feratur quo concedo saith Grotius Lib. 2. Cass 4to do jure belli poc Hear what Barclay saith to which Grotius assents Scharphius Symph Prophet Apâ—â—â— tells us Vel is de quo agitur talis est qui Monarchiam â—â—idem Supremam habet sed certis Conditionibus limitatam in quas jurârit Est penes status ordines aut primores regni tyrannidem grassantem coercere sunt enim subditorum officia duplicia alia ordinaria pro ratione loci temporis vocationis in republ Alia extra-ordinaria secundum circumstantias varias quae nullâ certá lege possunt definiri Hâc exceptâ quod saluti reipub semper studendum sit Quaest 45. Cicero saith it
By which Judgment the King's Title was condemned and the Crown translated from the House of Lancaster to York in which Line it continued till (a) The best Title saith my Lord Cooke of Hen. 7. to the Crown was by Elizabeth his Wife eldest Daughter of Edw. 4 yet before his Marriage the Crown was by Act of Parliament intailed to Hen. 7 and to the Heirs of his Body the Right of the Crown then being in the said Elizabeth eldest Daughter of Edw. 4. Instit 4. Part pag. 37. Hen. 7. who marrying the Heir of that House the Families were united and that fatal Controversie effectually ended But all this may perhaps be thought not only too great a Dâ—scent and Deviation from our first Undertaking but also too unâ—haritable a Reflection upon a Person who it may be not only acted sincerely and according to the Dictates of his Conscience in refusing but likewise hath observed the same Measures in submitting to swear Allegiance to K. William As to the first I know that Church and State are like the Body and the Soul very distinct and different in the Nature of them yet do very much affect and influence the Affairs and Concerns of each other That an absolute and illimited Power in the State have been planted and watered by the Principles and Practices of our great Sticklers for Hyper-conformity and Innovations in Religion hath been already proved by what they have transmitted to the World from the Press and Pulpit For whilst the Wind of Law hath been too scant for them to maintain their course in Ecclesiastical Matters they have endeavoured to tide it up by the Fluxes of Prerogative giving the same Advice that was once the Opinion of the Flatterers of Cyrus That though what he did was not justifiable by Law yet the Kings of Persia might to what they pleased As for the latter I thank God I was never troubled with the overflowing of the Gall It being a thing always contrary to my Inclination to have any Man exposed to the Censure of the Civil or Ecclesiastical Magistrate when any other Measures can be taken to prevent the Mischief of his Error And if our Consciences do not accuse us then may we have confidence towards God and towards Man too Though I could have wisht the Author's Justification had been maintained from some other Medium than that its lawful to swear Allegiance or Fidelity to a King de facto though he may want a civil Right to the Establishment of his Throne And for such who out of meer Conscience to their former Oath cannot do so much I wish them Salvo juri regni as much Indulgence as I could desire for those whose Consciences are gauled though the Cases be vastly different by the Yoak of Conformity in Matters of Religion To perswade which I can urge no better Arguments than what Charles II. alledges to this purpose and with which I shall conclude viz. We do conjùre all our loving Subjects to acquiesce and submit to this our Declaration concerning those Differences which have so much disquieted the Nation at home and have given so much offence to the Protestant Churches abroad and brought so much Reproach upon the Protestant Religion in general from the Enemies thereof Which are very great Truths witness the Complaints that have been made by those of the Reformed Churches without us viz. Of Calvin Zanchy c. And the Judgment of the Divines of Transilvania who have concluded concerning things of this nature thus viz. That if the Observation of indifferent Ceremonies cannot be maintained without the loss of Christian Charity those Ceremonies rather should be laid aside than Charity violated by maintaining them Nor have the Mischiess which have been occasioned by Differences about these Rites at home been a less Evidence of the Truth averred in that Royal Declaration I mean the Ruine of many poor Families Disgrace Poverty Enmity and irreconcilable Hatred which have been bred and brought forth by the late vigorous Prosecution of Dissenters for Conscience sake stretching the Laws straining nay perverting the Design and Intent of them that they might be the better furnished with Weapons of despite A Spirit which hath long since been complain'd of to actuate malicious and ill-disposed Men as may appear by a Letter which I have seen as copied out of the Register written by the Lords of the Council in the Reign of Q. Eliz. upon the like Subject in these Words AFter our hearty Commendations Whereas we are informed that heretofore at your Assizes in your Circuits divers good Preachers and others Godly disposed have been indicted by colour of Law for things not so much against the Matter and Meaning of the Law as in some shew swerving from the Letter thereof namely for not using the Surplice resorting to Sermons in other places for want at home leaving out same Collects on Days of Preaching for using private Parâ—er in their Houses and such like all which we suppose came to pass by the Practice of some Informers not so well disposed in Religion as also Men returned upon the great Inquest Many times such as be still in Ignorance cannot brooke the Gospel and being in â—eve with the License of former times cannot so well endure the present plain Teachers who by laying open their Faults would draw to a more precise and Gospel-like Life These are therefore to require you and heartily to pray you that in every sitting of your Circuit you sift and examine the Affection of such Informers touching Religion and thereafter give ear to them As also to have a special regard that the Inquest at large may be Religious wise and honest And if notwithstanding our diligence in such behalf such Jurors nevertheless creep in as by like Information molest good Men that yet your Speech and whole Proceedings against them at Bar or elsewhere before you may be according to their Quality not * Matching rather watching them at Bar or in the Indictment with Rogues Felons or Papists but rather giving apparent Note in the Face of the Country what difference you hold betwixt Papists dissenting from us in the Substance of Faith to God and Loyalty to our Prince and these other Men which making some Conscience of these Ceremonies do yet diligently and soundly Preach true Religion and Obedience to her Majesty maintaining the common Peace in themselves and their Auditory so shall the Country thereby learn at the Assizes better to reverence the Gospel and love the Ministers and Professors thereof Thus promising our selves thus much at your Hands we bid you heartily farewel From c. To prevent such Mischiefs or rather effectually to cure such Distempers for the time to come I know no better Remedy then what hath been prescribed by that Physician of very great value I mean the Project or Proposition of that incomparable and pious Man Sir Matthew Hale Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench viz. An Act of Comprehension to enlarge
that which must be the Rule of our Faith and Worship From the beginning these things were not so Now if our Religion agree with the Primitive Rule of Faith and Practice of the most ancient Church 't is I am sure before theirs which hath been often made appear by the best records of Antiquity and Evidences of Scripture So that we are at no loss to tell them where our Church was before Luther and Religion we profess though it was sometimes Subterranea and fore'd to hide it self in the Clefts of the Rocks our Duck if they will have it so was sometimes fain to dive being often hunted and pursued by the Romish Spaniels those insatiable Blood-hounds We can very well tell where our Religion was of old which is that which Christ planted and delivered to the Saints But alas like the Spouse fallen into ill hands which wounded her and took her Vail from her yea deflowred and defiled her But it hath pleased God to deliver her and save her and us too out of the hands of our Enemies that we might serve him more purely In short Christ was both the Author and Finisher of our Faith not Luther not Calvin though we are very much obliged to them for putting us in a way to cleanse the Vessels of our Sanctuary and scowre off the Rust they had contracted But if Antiquity be necessary to legitimate the Doctrine of Faith what was the Romish Faith I mean their new framed Articles in their first Edition Particularly that main Point of it viz. The Pope's Supremacy which the (a) Later Coun. Sess 11. Dat. Rom. 1516. 14 Cal. Jan. cum de necessitate salutis existat omnes Christi fideles Romano Pontifici subesse Scult Ann. 1516. Council of Lateran first cast and moulded into an Article of Faith making the Belief of it necessary to Salvation This was decreed in the very same Year that Luther began to assault Rome as Scultetus observes I chose to instance in this though divers other of their Doctrines have no great Plea to Antiquity because several of our late Converts have when time was laught us to scorn and thought us extreamly at their Mercy if they did not hiss us out of our place for placing a Supremacy in the Chief Magistrate What say they Must the Son be Head of the Mother the Child Superintendant to the Parent According to this Divinity they make the Blessed Virgin to have a Command over her Son As thou art a * Jure matris impera redemptori Mother command thy Son But this is a piece of Popery which seems destructive of it self for Christ to be sure was the undoubted Head of the Church and to have one higher than the highest and Power to command him is neither good Sense nor Divinity But I never designed to have entred upon any thing of this nature if the Clamours of such as turned Renegado's to our Church the Pinacles of whose Temples they were once over-zealous for had not occasioned it whom I am apt to believe could they have foreseen that their Temptations to have deserted the Church of England would have been so great and that their Reign after their Conversion to Rome would have proved so short would not have been such Zealots against those who in some things dissented from the first nor so dogmatical and pert in asserting the Supremacy of the latter Which Gregory the Great though Bishop of that See was so far from pretending to that he declared it was a Sign of Antichrist for any other to claim it When Boniface Sozimus and Celestine sent to the Council of (*) At which Synod St. Austine was present and subscribed with his own hand Carthage to make challenge of it alledging the Sixth Canon of the general Council of Nice the Fathers of that Synod sent him word that they having only a Latin Copy by them in which they found no such Canon took the pains to send to Antioch Alexandria and Constantinople to procure and consult the Greek Copies But found nothing in the least favouring their demands and therefore wrote to Celestine that seeing no such thing was to be found in the Acts of Nice they desired him for the time to come to acquiesce denouncing to him that they would not suffer any cause either great or small to be carried out of their Country by way of (a) The Milevitan Synod decreed the same thing appeal for which they had better Authority from the Council of Nice than the Bishops of Rome for their Supremacy which defined that all Matters should be determinable in the Province and decreed the Patriarchs should be chief within their Precincts viz. The Bishop of Antioch in the East the Bishop of Alexandria in Egypt and the Bishop of Rome about Rome He that reads the Epistles of Cyprian will find him no way favouring the Supremacy or universal Superintendency of the Roman Bishop nay in that ad Quintinum he argues expresly against it His Words are Nam nec Petrus quem primum dominus elegit super quem aedificavit Ecclesiam suam cum secum Paulus de circumcisione post modum discepsi aret vendicavit sebi aliquid insolenter aut arrogantèr assumpsit ut diceret se Primatum tenere obtemperari à novellis posteris sibi potius opportere Cypr. ad Quint. St. Peter did not saith he defend himself against St. Paul when he contended with him by alledging his Supremacy and that all succeeding Bishops were to bow before him and obey him (b) St. Austine and St. Jerome affirmed that the Rock of the Church was Christ or St. Peter's Confession But Stapleton saith they were mistaken Ferus the Monk did not think so who saith that fides Christiana veritas Evangelica firma in concussa est petra illa In Matth. Cardinal Cusanus makes all the Apostles equal in Power and Dignity But what need we any further Proof or Witnesses against our Adversaries whilst they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and may be condemned out of their own Mouths Fatentes habemus reos Did not Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester forswear and deny with an Oath the Supremacy of Rome and declare ex animo or ex mero motu freely and frankly that that Bishop had no Jurisdiction nor Power over the Church and Realm of England In pursuance and proof whereof he wrote his Book de Verâ Obedientiâ in which he defended the Supreme Power of Kings and his own Practice instancing in Solomon who according to his Father's appointment ordained the Offices of the Priests in their Ministries and Levites in their Orders To this he adds the Example of Hezekias 2 Chron. 29.5 6 c. Aron he saith obey'd Moses and Solomon gave Sentence against Abiathar the High Priest To this Book Edm. Bonner Bishop of London wrote an Epistle recommending the Work to the perusal of all that loved the Truth where he calls the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome
Powers and Commissions to many wise and worthy Members of it to review our Liturgy to inspect our Ecclesiastical Polity to remove the Stumbling-blocks and to take away the Rocks of offence to the uniting both in the same Communion and common Interest which 't is highly probable it might in time effect and may he never give over till he hath perfected the Work and cut it short in Righteousness How then can we but love him yea and most earnestly pray for him that God would bless him at home and abroad by Sea and Land in Peace and War that his Head may be covered in the Day of Battel that no Weapon form'd against him may prosper that he may put an Hook into the Nostrils and Bridle into the Mouth of that great Oppressor who would lay House to House Field to Field till there be no room left upon the Earth That he may return home with triumph when he shall have restored Liberty and procured Right to be done to the distressed Princes and States of Europe as he hath already done for the People of England to which all honest Men and true English Men will say Amen ADVICE TO THE DISSENTERS BUT before I lay my Pen down may I assume the liberty a little to argue and expostulate with you our Dissenting Brethren and Friends I bear you record you have a Zeal of God which I wish may never want the just Measures of Sincerity Truth and Knowledge But when I observe in you a total Separation and universal Departure from our Communion and yet not only to allow our Communion but further it in others yea in Matters of greatest scruple in some urgent cases practice it your selves it is a thing too hard for me I have known some who have suffered themselves to be deprived both of their Offices and Benefices by the Bartholomew Act yet have sent their Children to our Universities where the strictest Conformity is used and injoin'd the Members of those Societies yea have afterwards put them into the Priest's Office which for Conscience sake they could not submit to execute themselves Many have been elected into places of Magistracy and other Imployments and how stanch soever they have been before and after Yet to avoid the Dint and Penalty of the Law have given a yieldance to the Commands and Authority of the Church submitting to those Rites which at other times they scruple yea renounce But why do you condemn your selves in the things you can upon occasion admit Can you dispense with your Consciences to serve a turn Doth not this justifie the Practice of our Romish Adversaries who can license themselves to take Oaths to hold a Conformity with the Church or dissemble a Compliance to cheat their Rulers and avoid the Dint and Penalty of the Law If you can conform and hold Communion with the Church in Praying Heating and Receiving the Holy Sacrament c. for the Preservation of your selves Why not then for the Preservation of Peace and Unity in the Church I need not tell you how mischievous a thing Schism is or how deep a Stain and guilt it leaves behind it upon the Conscience Is it not a positive and plain Command to be subject to the higher Powers to submit to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake Vir bonus est quis Qui consulta patrum qui leges juraque servat Obj. So we do and will where we can do it with a good Conscience But would you have us offend God and rouse the sleeping Lion in our own Breasts which will tear us in pieces when there 's none can deliver us Res By no means but is it a Sin to do it at one time and none at another Does the Case alter with your Convenience and change with the Persons Is it lawful for the Children to obey where it is a Sin for the Parents to comply Brethren I beseech you judge righteous Judgment Why should you open the Mouths of your Adversaries and justifie their Reproaches viz. That your dissent is nothing but Faction and Humor a Spirit of Disobedience and Contradiction but nothing of Conscience whatever may be pretended as is by you sufficiently proved when you come to the pinch I do not speak this to reflect upon you but as my beloved Friends to warn you if God be God then follow him if Baal be God follow him The Case of Conscience and Matter before us will not turn colour with the Circumstances of your Condition Your Streights and Extremities do not make that lawful which your Liberty and Freedom make sinful I do not take the Case in hand to alter with our State or like a Dove's Neck to change colour according to its Site and Position The various Reflexion of Light may cause different Colours but Truth never varies its hue 't is ubique eadem and is it not an inexcusable thing to commit a deliberate sinful act meerly to secure our Stake and to preserve our worldly Interest We may hereby perhaps avoid Punishment from Men but how shall we escape God's righteous Judgments Obj. Would you then that we should never upon any occasion conform nor hold Communion with the Church Res I would never have you sin to avoid suffering and to act against the Judgment and Dictates though but of an opening Conscience is no less But perhaps I have driven this Nail too far and may become your Enemy for pressing this unpleasing Truth But if I have spoken ill bear witness against me and convince me of it let the Righteous smite me and it shall be a kindness If well Why should you be offended Ought you not to be consistant to your selves and Principles But I find some to have put a more favourable Gloss and Sense upon your occasional Conformity viz. that you do it not in opposition to your Judgments nor Dictates of your Consciences thereby to indemnifie your selves from the Penalty of the Law but that you could hold a more frequent perhaps constant Communion with the Church in her Holy Offices had you not an eminent Addiction to one sort and Aversness to aâ—â—ther sort or party of Men which seems to have as great an antipathy 〈◊〉 each other as Naturalists tells us there is in the Blood of a Bat and Swallow which will not mix tho' they be put into the same Vessel together were the inveterate Spleen and Animosities upon all accounts vented against Persons allaid I am confident there would be such Abatements on the one side and Compliances on the other that the Protestant Communion and Interest would be all of a piece and Schism no longer find a room to fix the Sole of her Foot upon But for this we must earnestly direct our Prayers to him who hath the hearts of all Men in his Hand and that turns them like the Rivers of Water to him that makes Men to be of one mind in an House It was the Observation of the Protestant Reconciler that it was
in England falsly pretenced and that it was most justly abrogated by the King Fas est ab hoste doceri that all other Bishops were in their Function equal to him and in their Provinces in many things above him More of this may be seen and the Supremacy of Rome learnedly and rationally disproved in a Letter writ to Cardinal Pool by Cuthert Tonstal Bishop of Duresme and John Stoksly Bishop of London Acts and Monuments Vol. 2. pag. 289. Edit 1684. Which Doctrine was so generally owned that it was subscribed by one and twenty Bishops eight Arch-Deacons seventeen Doctors of Divinity and of both Laws Obj. That was a forc'd put only to comply with the Genius of an Head-strong Prince and Humour of the time Res It hath been formerly promised that the Priests Lips should preserve Knowledge but now it seems they served for another purpose viz. to preserve their Bishopricks but the Scriptures they cited the Reasons they urged the Judgment and Sense of the Fathers they alledged are still the same in all Ages and Reigns whatever the Persons be that used them And why may we not as well believe these Men to speak truth when they did it to please their Prince and save their Livings as when they recanted it to recover them especially when we consider the Reason of their Arguments more than the design of them What they said and not why they spake it for though Men Camelion like may turn colour yet the Truth is of a better Stain than to fade at any time or upon any account The like Instance we have in the Case of the Pope's Supremacy above a general Council Aeneas Sylvius was once zealous to assert the Superiority to be in the latter and wrote the History of the Council of Basil in which he frequently proves the same But being promoted to the Papacy and changing his Name to Pius 2dus he changed his Opinion also recanting his former Positions and caused his (a) Retractationumque bullam edid it quam ad rectorem Scholam Coloniensem misit invulguri jussit toto orbe terrarum inquit Gasper Card. indisput adversus Protest Bull of Retractations to be published to the whole World Thus when the Gale of Preferment blew stiff this Weathercock soon turned head So zealous was he once for the Peace and Unity of the Church that he wrote to (b) See Acts and Monuments vol. 1. p. 807. Edit 1684. Gasper Schilck Chancelor of the Emperor that Princes might send their Orators and make Conventions whether the Pope approve of them or not But when he was Pope himself he quarrelled with Diotherus Arch-bishop of Mentz and Prince Elector because he would call the Electors together without his License Good God! if Truth be as shifting as these who highly pretend to it we may be at a greater loss than Pilate to know what it is or where to find it But whither have we run after these Dive-doppers who have the Confidence to expose and ridicule the Church which they pretended once to adore and that till Luther's days 't was a Duck under water But thank God we have lived to see them dived too and hope we shall never live to see them lift their Heads above water with the former Insult and Insolence like Spaniels to hunt and bark at that Duck which was once the only Phoenix with them and Bird of Paradice But I shall concern my self no further with them only give me leave to tell these Philosophers that 't is a known Experiment that if you cut a Leg or Limb from a Duck it in a little time corrupts into a Toad Mutato nomine de vobis fabula narratur You were once Limbs and Members of that Body under the Shadow of whose Wings you shrewded and sheltred your selves till by turning Apostates and Renegado's your decrying the Faith which once you profest you sufficiently evidenced what Poison of Asps was under your Lips and made it easie to guess from whence you were fallen and into what you were transformed Time was when the Church of England was all their cry a Dove whose Voice was sweet and Countenance was comely ready to pick and joll at every one who admired not her gay Feathers and guilded Plumes Then her Wings were covered with â—ilver and her Feathers with yellow Gold But so soon as her Wings were clipt and Feathers grew sick and was hunted like a Partridge in the Wilderness this glorious Bird was accounted no better than an Owl in the Desart at which they hist and hooted Now they renounce its Orders despise its Sacraments turn up their Noses at its Worship whilst those who were traduced by them for false Brethren and spurious Sons of the Church when all these things were in vogue with them did in the time of its peril and distress preach up and defend its Doctrine were frequent in the Administration of its Sacraments kept close to its Communion and stedfast to its Interest We hope therefore it being by the good Providence of God come again into its Kingdom and restored to all its Powers and Authority that they shall be remembred and not forgotten as Joseph was by the chief Buttler after his Restoration 40 Gen. 23. That their Yoak may be made more easie and burthen-light Nay they have not been only faithful to the Church but are true to the State too Time was when they were represented at Court as no Friends to Caesar and that it was not for the King's profit to suffer them But now their Crime is they are of excessive Loyalty and too fond of their Prince But can we love him too well who seeing the Nation sinking or in a violent Storm labouring for Life cast himself into those mighty Waters resolving either to sink with it or save it which he effectually did Who when the Breach was made in our Bank and the See of Rome I mean Popery breaking in a man upon us like Moses stood in the Gap stopt the Torrent drained the Church and hath made it once again terra firma Time was when Judgment ran down as Waters but they were very bitter and and Righteousness as a mighty Stream but like an overflowing Scourge bore down Justice and common Right before it for Judgment was turned into Gall and the Fruit of Righteousness into Wormwood which occasioned many bitter Cries and Complaints among us But now our Sion is redeemed with Judgment and her Converts with Righteousness Now we have no Youths from Doway or St. Omers to confront the Truth or support a Lye No awing of Judges packing of Juries or forcing of Verdicts We have found a Prince that seeks Judgment and relieves the oppressed and can we then be too fond can we love him too well Who by the Councel and Consent of Parliament hath eased our Protestant Brethren without the Church yea hath framed a Project to remove the Grievances of those which are within too having granted