holy Scriptures To which I answer That we have nothing establish'd in our Church but what God hath set up by general directions and a just authority nor have we any thing in use and practice amongst us but what is in the root and ground of it as old as the Apostles nor is any thing imposed upon Ministers or People but what hath such sufficient footing and warrant in the Holy Scriptures That the Church hath power to institute external Rites prescribe Forms to make Canons and Constitutions to assist her Children and regulate their Practice in the publick Worship and Service of God is not onely the unanimous Confession of all Protestant Churches of any creditable denomination but is exactly consonant to the mind of God revealed to us in his holy Scriptures where he gives the Church a charge to do all things to edification and to his glory To this end he enjoyns her to perform all her holy Offices decently and in goad order This is God's express command in general but his Word hath no where determined the particulars wherein that decency or order does or shall consist it follows therefore undeniably that the Word of God or the Holy Scriptures do suppose or establish a Power in the Church to institute Rules prescribe Forms and make Canons to that purpose For a clearer Demonstration hereof let us seriously reflect upon these Considerations 1. That Christ and his Apostles intended Unity and to obtain and preserve that Unity they enjoyned Order and Uniformity in the Churches Christ's intent is evident in his ardent Prayer that his Disciples might a Joh. 17. be one and made perfect in one And we may read the great Apostle's aim in his earnest conjuring them b Eph. 4.1 to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace c Rom. 16.17 For there is one body and one spirit one Lord and one Faith one Baptism one Hope of our calling And elsewhere he is no less vehement Now I beseech you Brethren 1 Cor. 4.17 mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them That Order and Vniformity are enjoyned to preserve this Vnity is no less evident d 1 Cor. 14.40 Let all things be done decently and in order Order is the Parent of Decency and to observe the same Rule is to follow Order Hence the Apostle exhorts the Philippians e Phil. 3.16 Let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same things And this is the onely way to keep out Schism whereupon he useth this Observation to the Corinthians f 1 Cor. 1.10 Now I beseech you Brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions amongst you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment And he tells us to what end he requires this viz. That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God Rom. 15.6 even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ And upon this account their Order in the Church of Coloss was a Prospect of so much pleasure to him Col. 2.5 For though I am absent in the flesh yet am I with you in the spirit joying and beholding your order and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ For when men begin to break order they presently grow loose in their Faith both to God and Man 2. Consider that the Apostles at their first Preaching of the Gospel did not presently establish that Order which the state of the Church did afterward require The Church was to be gathered first and afterwards Orders prescribed how it should be governed This is evident not onely from those Decrees made in the first Council at Jerusalem but from the express resolution of S. Paul Acts 15. 1 Cor. 11.34 the rest will I set in order when I come 3. Consider that the Apostle expected such a Settlement should be made by such as were intrusted with the Government of the Church This is clear from his advice and command to Titus For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting or left undone From whence two things may be inferr'd irrefragably 1. That at his first Preaching of the Gospel S. Paul left some things undone which in his own judgment were afterwards fit to be done 2. That he expected the performance thereof from the care of Titus 4. Consider that the Apostle gives certain general rules or Canons to direct the Governours of the Church Instit l. 3. c. 19. sect 15. in making such Establishments such are these Let all things be done to the glory of God Let all things be done to edification Let all things be done decently and in order Hereupon Mr. Calvin does acknowledge such Ecclesiastical Constitutions to be lawful as consonant to the Word of God And Beza accounts them celestial and divine in respect of their foundation and end which is that general decorum commanded to be observed in God's Worship 5. Consider that the Apostle left it to the Judgment of Church-Governours to determine the particulars to be established in such cases For this cause left I thee Titus Titus 1.5 a single person and at least a Bishop in Crete that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting David Solomon and Jehosaphat Hezekiah Josiah and all godly Princes made Laws for the Church of God and were approved yea the Laws and Decrees of Nebuchadnezar of Cyrus and Darius were for the benefit of it And God hath promised that Kings shall be nursing fathers and Queens nursing mothers to the Church And it was truly and worthily said in Queen Elizabeths time by that Author before mentioned That Princes especially serve Christ even in making Laws for Christ L. Drios p. 162 Now let us lay these Principles together 1 That the solemn Worship and Service of God cannot be performed without Circumstances for of necessity Circumstances must cloath every action under the Sun 2. That these Circumstances are to be observed according to the rules of decency and order and that these rules are to be adjudged and determined by such as are invested with Authority to that effect it will follow unavoidably that all Subjects and Members of the Church are obliged in Conscience to obey such Determinations and Establishments For 't is most certain where some are impowered to command others are enjoyned to obey else the Power given to Superiours were given to no effect Vbi supra Hereupon Mr. Beza does acknowledge though these Ecclesiastical Constitutions be humane and mutable and do not bind the Conscience properly and of themselves yet if they be just and honest we are obliged to observe them as they contribute to the edification of the Church and that we may avoid scandal Nor want we a better Authority than that of Mr. Beza the
down speedily and Children are able to demonstrate this by their petty Experiments The first Reformers he confesses cast out abundance of filth and rubbish and what should be done more I hope there are none so ill advised as to overturn the Fabrick of the Church and grub up her foundation He says they could not finish the work nor add the top stone to the Reformation but I pray what hindered them did they want skill or wisdom zeal or courage authority or power I suppose there is no man so shameless as to affirm they wanted any thing needful to an advisable Reformation He faith indeed such was the iniquity of the Times the rage of their Enemies and the Opposition they met with they could not do it But reflecting upon the Proceedings of that Work we find that none gave them more trouble from time to time than these dissenting Brethren To take offence at every thing which is in use and practice in the Church of Rome and for that very reason onely Because it is so is very childish and ridiculous and for this I appeal to all the Lutherans with the most Learned and Judicious of the Reformed Churches The Learned Author in Queen Elizabeths Reign La Deios p. 113. so often mentioned told those Dissenters of that Age It is certain that a great part of the publick prayers in that Book which the Romans use was practised in the Church before the Beast came into that Chair and oftentimes God's people have either taken or resumed those things to God's Worship which have been abused by Idolatry The spoils of Egypt and Jericho the Vessels of the Temple abused by the Babylonians were again applied to God's Service If we used any thing wherein the Pope sheweth himself to be the Beast as his worshipping of dead Saints and Images and the Mass and such like then we might be said to bear his Image or his Mark but in the Prayers that we have there is no part no limb no claw of that Beast Some men I know to serve their own ends and some for want of better information are apt to take up that old thredbare method so fit to delude the hearts of the simple people They are ready to charge others with an inclination to Popery who stand at a further distance from it than themselves and upon much better grounds not as rash Zelots but as prudent Christians not out of design to secure their Estates but out of Conscience to save their Souls Yet we must not run so far from Rome as the manner of some is as to leave the Holy Scriptures the Apostolical Constitutions and the whole practice of the primitive Church with our common Faith the Creed and Sacraments behind us The Lines that are drawn to the greatest distance from this centre have the least strength in them L. Deios p. 114 'T is very well said of the Author even now commended The people of God must not fashion themselves like the Canaanites nor the Heathen about them in any thing wherein they are Idolatrous and Impious but in that they have as men God's people may be like them As they are Papists we will not be like the Romans but as they are Christians we may be like them We must not use the Bible nor the Name of God or Christ nor Baptism if we will have nothing that they have This was sound Protestant Doctrine in the happy days of that Queen of ever blessed Memory Consonant hereunto the most eminent Protestant Divines both at home and in forein Churches do unanimously profess to detest and renounce nothing of the Church of Rome but her Errors her Corruptions her Contagions her Idolatry Superstition and Tyranny And albeit these her Pollutions would not permit them to communicate with her in the outward exercises of Religion so contaminated yet they profess they never altered their purpose of persevering in the faith and practice of those things which are good in her And for this I appeal to Bishop Jewel in his a Latin 12. pag. 88. c. Apology and to Dr. Andrew Rivet in his b In Quarto tom 1. tract 2. q. 2. p. 289. Cathol Orthodoxus and to the Learned H. Zanchy in his c Cap. 24. sect 19. in p. 157. Faith concerning matters of Religion written when he was 70 years of age Sir when all is done the onely Judges of publick Constitutions are our Governours invested with Authority to that effect And I must tell you freely never were matters more throughly sifted and examined for six score years together than these Church matters never more care and pains taken than to adapt and fit them to the Sâ—lemnities of God's Worship See her Act for Uniformity at the end It was the care of Queen Elizabeth and her Commissioners to ordain and publish such Rites and Ceremonies as were most for the advancement of God's glory the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christ's holy Mysteries and Sacraments And truly I am of opinion that her Royal Highness and her Commissioners were as wise as pious and as learned as our Dissenters They cried out of things as Popish and Antichristian in those days Pag. 154. as these do in ours And that Author so often mentioned did rarely encouter them at that time and we need no other Confutation Now then saith he how shall we know whetehr a thing be Popish and Antichristian or no By the Names That cannot be Names of their own nature be indifferent the Things contained in the Names as they are used of us might be examined And how shall we find whether they be Popish and Antichristian If they serve to promote Popery then are they Popish then are they Antichristian But if none of these things which they except against help to maintain Idolatry or the Pope's Supremacy or mens Traditions against the written Word or Free Will against the Grace of Christ or mens Merits against Justification by Faith or the Idol and Sacrifice of the Mass or Pilgrimages or Purgatory or Prayer for the Dead or Auricular Confession whereby the Priest keeps the Lock and Key of the Penitent's Conscience and makes it his Spy to discover his secret Inclinations and the his Press-master to engage him to execute any design of mischief or Satisfactions for sins by Penance or Indulgences or the keeping of the Word of God from the people in any unknown Tongue or the like if they do not maintain vice or unjustice nor Heresie amongst us but are directed to root out Popery to keep us in the true faith to advance the Word of God to establish our Justification by Faith to further Repentance and good works to punish sin to define that which is equal and right to keep the common peace of the Church Then are they not Popish seeing they are bent and exercised to the ruin of Popery But they are Christian and holy and appertaining to the Church of Christ
nevertheless where a certain Order is appointed and received touching such things for the Edification of the Church it is our Judgment that there Unity in such matters ought to be retained and the Orders of the Church ought not to be disturbed according to the rule of the Apostle Let all things be done decently and in order to the edification of the Church Concerning which things we do wonderfully approve and embrace those two Epistles of S. Austin viz. 118. 119. to Januarius after 70 years of age when the heat of his Disputes and Controversial Labours were at an end This was the Faith and Religion which that Learned man professed and died in And whatsoever alteration we can project I am confident 't will generally give more offence than satisfaction and wise men in forein parts will be apt to value us the less for such our levity However with Free States and Princes which are Protestants we may enjoy a firm union by a mutual confederation as is usually done upon all other occasions without any change of Laws Rites Forms or local Constitution on either part And 3. will other sorts of Protestants be so easily persuaded to suffer their deliberate Constitutions to be disputed and contradicted Let us take our measures herein from our late Assembly of Divines whose Advice and Resolution to the then Parliament was this The Advice of the Assembly concerning a Confession of Faith ch 20. sect 4. They who upon pretence of Christian Liberty shall oppose any lawful Power or the lawful exercise of it whether it be Civil or Ecclesiastical resist the Ordinance of God and for their publishing such Opinions or maintaining of such Practices as are contrary to the Light of Nature or to the known Principles of Christianity whether concerning Faith Worship or Conversation or to the Power of Godliness whereof we may be sure they intended to be the Judges or such erroneous Opinions or Practices as either in their own nature or in the manner of publishing or maintaining them are destructive to the external peace and order which Christ hath established in the Church that is by their Presbyterian Model they may lawfully be call'd to account and proceeded against by the Censures of the Church and by the Power of the Civil Magistrate But let us leave the Protestants of forein Churches and keep our eyes at home and here we cannot but observe to our great grief that the Sects and Factions are many and various and which of them should we design our kindness for For Presbyterians or Independents Anabaptists Quakers or Socinians Where ever you resolve to pitch I believe you will have but a little to gratifie the humour of some Party which you can never oblige For it is not to be imagined that our Governours will ever part with so much as has been impetuously required for then we shall lay a colourable ground to justifie their Solemn League and Covenant with all those horrid Mischiefs which ensued upon it and we shall most certainly deform the Church and unhinge the Government which may be of a worse consequence than a temporary Toleration If you grant but little they will conclude they have given the Church a defeat therein and will triumph in it yet this will be too weak a Charm to make them acquiesce and be at peace with us For this sort of men as well as others are observed to be so restless in their humour that instead of studying to be quiet and to do their own business they are always labouring to be uppermost and in order to that they are always studying new Objections against all establish'd Forms of Decency maugre all alterations intended for their satisfaction Sometimes they cry down the Rites and Ceremonies because they are dumb that is dark and unedifying but since the dumb beast has had her mouth opened to convince the madness of these Prophets See the Preface before the Common Prayer and Ceremonies c. they cry out against them for having too much Tongue that is for being too significant and useful And as another Instance of their Unquietness we may observe their watchfulness and artifice in perverting such charitable Discourses as are designed to draw them into the Communion of the Church to palliate their Dissent from it And how tender and scrupulous soever they make themselves at this day yet they will not let us forget that not very long since while they strained at the very same Gnats they could swallow Camels and thought it just to force others as much as in them lay to do the like Sir if these Practices have any affinity with the Definition of Infirmity or a weak Brother I must confess my self at a loss to understand what it is to be stiff wilful and unteachable In short by offering these Dissenters to yield them they know not what upon the Solicitation of we know not whom we shall expose our selves and our Religion to no purpose The Popish Party will upbraid us for our levity and perhaps in departing from the decent and harmless Rites and Usages of the Ancients long before Popery had a being we may give a scandal to such as have come over to us from their Communion And what are we like to get by it As far as I am able to discern we shall give ground to a profess'd Adversary and make a wilful breach upon our wholsom Laws and Discipline to make a new experiment For if it does not succeed well which none but God Almighty can foresee how shall we recover our ground again and who shall stand in the gap to make up the breach for us We are come at last to the Authority alleaged by that Apocryphal Anonymus in the first whereof I find a double mistake for first the Name of that Reverend Arch-Bishop was not Edward but Edwin Sands who died at York Aug. 8. 1588. The said Reverend Person when he was Vicechancellor of Cambridge at the Instigation of the Duke of Northumberland preached up the Title of Jane Grey for which he was imprisoned by Queen Mary Godwyn of Bishops Afterwards being set at liberty upon the Intercession of some Friends he went over into Germany and staid there till he was called back in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth From thence 't is probable he might bring over with him some Inclinations to the Models of Reformation which he had observed amongst some Protestants in those Countries But besides this mistake in the Name there is a greater in the Title Page and I am a little jealous it was wilful and advised for he represents it as the sentiment of the first Reformers when it was but the single Opinion of that Reverend Archbishop in or about the thirtieth year of that Queens Reign all the rest of the Governours as far as we are able to inform our selves were of another Judgment as their Successors generally have been ever since But let us hear the Bistop's own Words at least
great Apostle gives this charge Heb. 13.17 Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves If you demand how far this Submission does extend the Apostle has resolved that too to a reasonable satisfaction Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest such as are venerable for their gravity and comliness whatsoever things are just Georg. Calixt whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue and if there be any praise think on these things to do them I am very confident there is nothing enjoyned in this Church of England but what is very fairly comprehended within this Latitude of the Apostle But this Author goes on with confidence and tells his Reader that certainly it cannot be prejudicial to the Church to yield in those things which she her self calls indifferent and upon that score are at best according to his Irreverence but Chips in Porridge not worth contending for But in all matters of indifferency we say these Dissenters have the same liberty to comply with as we have to recede from the use and practice of them And herein we judge it most convenient and dutiful both for our selves and them to conform to the Law and Judgment of our Superiours The Apostle was sometime very tender and yielding in matters of indifferency to the infirmity of new Converts but it was in favour of such as had been prepossess'd by education and the appearance of a divine Law and but lately call'd off from the prejudice of such a Dispensation and this was before such time as Authority had thought fit to determine any thing in the case But this is not pleadable in Bar to a deliberate and legal Settlement of Rites and Orders for the Discipline and Practice of the Church in after Ages And I pray remember it was a thing indifferent which God himself was pleas'd to make choice of for the tryal and exercise of Man's Obedience The Law of Nature did not tie up the hands of our first Parents from the Tree of Knowledge it was but a positive Law which retrench'd their Liberty from the use and pleasure of it And I am afraid it is that forbidden fruit which hath set mens teeth on edge and makes them at this day so unapt to relish any restraint in matters of Indifferency For to let us see the great Veneration they have for Authority when it is not vested in themselves they stick not to tell us plainly that what they have a moral liberty to do they will therefore refuse and contradict because commanded by Authority But if we duly weight how fatal the Transgression was in the first Instance of that nature me thinks it should make us dread the Issue lest besides what we have contracted from Adam's sin we should draw a further Guilt upon our selves by an untoward and unwarrantable imitation But this Pius Anonymus is very much mistaken in affirming it cannot be prejudicial to the Church to yield to those things which she herself calls indifferent seeing these Dissenters account them sinful for herein they willingly renounce their own liberty that they may prejudge ours and by this means they become uncharitable to us and dogmatize themselves into that very Superstition which the Apostle condemns amongst the Colossians Touch not taste not handle not Col. 2.2 That this squeamish refusal of things indifferent is Superstition we have good warrant from the nature a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. de superstitione of the thing as well as from the words of the Apostle for what is Superstition but a vain and anxious observation of things above the b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. common rule and standard as matters of Religion A superstitious man is a person affected with a vain and superfluous fear of God Qui metuit ibi Deum offendere ubi non offenditur saith Calvin One that fears to offend God in that wherein he is not offended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lexicon Jurid verbo superstitiosus And this may consist in Abstention and Omission as well as in any Addition whatsoever c Si quis contra mandatum Domini in solo pane celebraret esset surperstitio est enim haec privatio superslua Et licet omissio minas ponat in re quam esse debeat animus tamen sic omittendi plus ponit in voluntate quam per legem Religionis esse debeat Malderus de Just Relig. Tract 10. c. 7. dub 1. ad 4. For Superstition is a scrupulous excrescence of fear which grows respectively out of both sides of Religion if you please you may call it positive or negative The positive Superstition consists in a scrupulous observation or the doing of something which God hath not commanded or if once he had has now abolished Of this kind of Superstition mention is made by the Apostle in divers places and particularly Gal. 4.10 11. Ye observe days and moneths and times and years I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain The Observation of d Erat enim legalis Observantia jam olim pro tempore Religio deinde facta est Superstitio Ambr. Cathar ad Col. 2.18 Times Rites and Ceremonies matters of Indifferency in their own nature when obtruded upon us as part of God's Worship as matters of Religion and Merit as necessary to Salvation as Duties of Holiness and Righteousness as obligatory to Conscience of their own nature this is determined to be Superstition But when they are enjoyned to prevent e See the 20th of the Queen's Injunctions disorder and keep up a solemn gravity and decorum in the Performance of all Sacred Offices in God's Publick Worship and Service in this case they are no way allied to Superstition but depend upon the lawful Power and Authority of such as are intrusted with the Conduct of the Church This is the unanimous Acknowledgment of the most Learned Protestants Calvin Aretius Zanchy Davenant as may be observed in their respective Commentaries upon Col. 2.16 Gal. 4.10 to which I refer the Judicious Reader There is a second kind of Superstition which we may call f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. de superstit Negative consisting in a vain and scrupulous Omission Aversation and Abstinence from such things as God hath no where forbidden Thus the Reverend Bishop Sanderson concerning Sunday Dies Solis that some men are shy of the Name and condemn the use of it as profane heathenish and unlawful it proceeds he saith from g In the first of his 8 Cases Superstition But we have the Apostle's Instance Col. 2.20 If you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances and what are they but h Ne esitaveris G. Calixt Prohibitions and Negatives Touch not taste not handle not i Grot. ad Coloss
THE LATE PROPOSAL OF UNION AMONG PROTESTANTS Review'd and Rectifi'd BEING A VINDICATION of the most Reverend Father in God EDWIN Lord Arch-Bishop of York And the Reverend Dr. Tillotson Dean of Canterbury FROM The Misprisions of an Apocryphal Proposer With a full ANSWER to his PROPOSAL Presented to the PARLIAMENT Psal 129. 1. Saepe oppugnaverunt à juventute verùm non praevaluerunt Isa 51.32 Et qui adhuc vexant dicunt Inclinare transibimus LONDON Printed by A. Godbid and J. Playford for R. Clavel at the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1679. THE LATE PROPOSAL OF UNION AMONGST PROTESTANTS Presented to the PARLIAMENT Review'd and Rectifi'd SIR I Received your Letter and I have seriously perused the Address Humbly presented to the Parliament I like the Title very well A Proposal of Vnion amongst Protestants and the Design in general cannot but be commended but how well it is inforced from the last Will of the most Reverend Dr. Sands some time a Arch-Bishop of York and whether that is to be lookt upon as the Sentiment of the first Reformers will require a farther Examination In the interim as once for the Divisions of Reuben so now for those of England there are great thoughts of heart and who knows not that Peace is a Jewel of great price and to be purchased at any rate that may reasonably secure the possession of it This indeed is the Legacy which our dearest Lord hath left to his Disciples But alas many of the Legatees have renounced their part in it because they cannot be allowed to make their own will of his Church and Kingdom By Peace our Blessed Lord never intended a Conspiracy against the Rules of Decency and Order Peace with God and Conscience and amongst Brethren is the Fruit of Righteousness (a) Isa 32.17 Righteousness is the Foundation of Christ's Kingdom and Peace a Superstructure (b) Rom. 14.17 Now you know 't is the part of Righteousness to give every one their due the best Method therefore to be at Peace is to become just that is to become obedient and to pay our due respects to the Laws and to our Superiours The Author of one Project for the good of England tells us That good Laws and a just Execution of them and not Oaths are the natural and real Security of a Government I am very much of his mind herein For to relax the Reins of Government opens a door to Licentiousness and that is no good friend to Peace and Unity Besides if there can be such a thing as a Rope of Sand there may be a stupid quietness betwixt the parts but no solid useful strength which depends upon Command and Order as much as the attractive splendour and beauty of Societies This Sir is one Reason why the Jesuits so little value the shatter'd Parties of Protestants that they think them not worth a Consult or Plot in comparison of the Church of England Let Authority be own'd as sacred and the Laws be kept inviolable and these will prove the best Bulwark of our Peace and Union Protestants abroad are generally of this persuasion and if any of our own Communion be otherwise minded we are to look upon them as loose Stones that will never stand to support the Building but rather flinch and slip away to betray it as occasion serves These Dissenters complain of hard measure heavy burthens and oppressing yoaks as if their Persons were imprisoned under hatches their Estates torn from them under the Harrows of Sequestrators and their Wives and Children forced to dance a tedious attendance at Goldsmiths-Hall to make their Composition whereas in truth it is the great advantage some of them reap from thence which makes them still in love with their gainful Meetings against Authority This Apocryphal Anonymus tells us these Dissenters would do any thing for Peace only they dare not forsake Holiness neglect their Duty nor wound their Consciences by offending God Sir if there be not some foul tincture of Malice in these Insinuations yet are they no less unjust and scandalous than extravagant What Law what Canon what Rite or Practice injoin'd by the Constitutions of this Church or what Governour amongst us does oblige them to any such matter nay that does not charge and fortifie them to do the contrary As a learned man told those Dissenters in the days of Queen Elizabeth With us there is leave for all men to be good if they will by God's grace endeavour it * Laur. Deios That the Pope is that Antichrist pa. 147. Printed 1590. and Preached at St. Paul ' s-Cross Those desperate Plots that are on foot against this poor maligned Church we resent with no less horror than themselves But while the Pope and his Emissaries the Jesuits with their Vassals are at work to undermine the Foundation Why do these Dissenters make it their business to assault and batter the Walls and Terrets of it They attempt to blow it up and these seek to pull it down they endeavour to extinguish the Name and Essence and at the same time as cooperating to her ruin these labour at least to Eclipse the Glory of it The learned Author Ibid. p. 178. even now mentioned had good ground to conclude That if any thing will bring the Antichristian Yoak upon this Land again which God turn far from us it will be Dissention We readily grant that violent storms should drive the Sheep together burin such a season all sober men will think that the stragling sheep should run into the common Fold and not quarrel with their faithful Shepherd nor labour to pluck down that Fold which is their best shelter We know too without this naâ—â—less Informer That the Red of God should teach us peace and quietness and having been so many years in the Furnace of Affliction we should be so throughly melted as to run easily into one But whether it be more reasonable that the Church should run into their Conventicles which can never be united or their Conventicles into the bosom of the Church let wise men judge This Church of England has been as a Lilly amongst the Thorns and the dissenting Party has been the Rod of God's indignation to chastise her but tho the Rod be not cast into the Fire through the clemency of a gracious Sovereign vet she like Moses his Bush has been miraculously preserved in the midst of flames and the right hand of the Most High has been no less remarkable in her Enemies defeat than in her own happy restauration Nor is it unknown to the wisely considerative what Relentings she has had while they have persisted stubborn and inflexible Nevertheless this officious Advocate craves leave to beg on their behalf That what God hath not set up in the Church may he pull'd down and that rejected as an Innovation which is not as old as the Apostles and and nothing imposed upon Ministers or People but what hath footing and warraint in the