judge me righteously and you cannot be judged by any man and God only can judge you You are Gods to me c. were so extreamly sweet to some of the Bishops palats that they believ'd it and could never think of them afterwards but their teeth waâ—…ered and they ruminated so long on them that Constantine's Successors came too late to repent it But now the Bishops having mist of their great end of quarrelling one with another betake themselves though somwhat aukwardly to business And it is necessary to mind that as shortly as possible for the understanding of it I give a curiory account of Alexander and Arrius with some few others that were the most interessed in that general and first great revolution of Ecclesiastical affairs since the dayes of the Apostles This Alexander was the Bishop of Alexandria and appears to have been a pious old Man but not equally prudent nor in Divine things of the most capable nor in conducting the affairs of the Church very dextrous but he was the Bishop This Character that I have given of him I am the more confirmed in from some passages that follow and all of them pertinent to the matter before me They were used Sozom l. 2. c. 16. at Alexandria to keep yearly a solemn Festival to the memory of Peter one of their former Bishops upon the same day he suffered Martyrdom which Alexander having Celebrated at the Church with publick Devotion was sitting after at home expecting some guests to dine with him Sozom. l. 2. c. 16. As he was alone and looking towards the Sea side he saw a priâ—…y way of the Boys upon the beach at an old Recreation imitating it seems the Rites of the Church and office of the Bishops and was much delighted with the sighâ—…â—…s long as it appear'd an innocent and harmless representation but when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them at last how they acted the very administration of the Sacreâ—… Mysteries he was much troubled and sending for some of the chief of his Clergy caused the Boys to be taken and brought before him He asked them particularly what kind of sport they had been at and what the words and what the actions were that they had used in it After their fear had hindred them a while from answering and now they were afraid of being silent they conâ—…essed that a Lad of of their play-fellows one Athanasius had baptized some of them that were not yet initiated in those Sacred Mysteries Whereupon Alexander inquired the more accurately what the Bishop of the game had said and what he did to the boyes he had baptized what they also had answered or learned from him At last when Alexander perceiv'd by them that his Pawn Bishop had made all his removes right and that the whole Ecclesiastical Order and Rites had been duely observed in their interlude he by the advice of his Priests about him approved of that Moâ—…k Baptism and determined that the boys being once in the simplicity of their minds dipped in the Divine Grace ought not to be Re-baptized but he perfected it with the remaining Mysteries which it is only lawful for the Priests to administer And then he delivered Athanasius and the rest of the boyes that had acted the parts of Presbyters and Deacons to their Parents calling God to witness that they should be educated in the Ministery of the Church that they might pass their lives in that calling which they had chosen by imitation But as for Athanasius in a short while after Alexander took him to live with him and be his Secretary having caused him to be carefully educated in the Schools of the best Grammarians and â—…hetoricians and he grew in the opinion of all that spoke with him a discreet and eloquent person and will give occasion to be more then once mentioned again in this Discourse I have translated this in a manner word for word from the Author This good natured old Bishop Alexander that was so far from Anathemising that he did not so much as whip the boyes for profanation of the Sacrament against the Discipline of the Church but without more doing leâ—… them for ought I see at liberty to regenerate as many more Lads upon the next Holyday as they thought convenient He Socr. l c. 3. being a man that lived an easy and gentle life had one day called his Friests and the rest of his Clergy together and fell on Philosophying divinely among them but somthing more subtly and curiously though I dare say he meant no harm then was usual concerning the Holy Trinâ—…ty Among the rest one Arrius a Priest too of Alexandria was there present a Man who is described to be a good Disputant and others add the Capital accusation of those times that he had a mind to have been a Bishop and bore a great pique at Alexander for he having been preferr'd before him to the See of Alexandria but more are silent of any such matter and Soz m l. 1. c. 14. saith he was in a great esteem with his Bishop But Arrius Socr. l. 1. c. 3. hearing her discourse about the Holy Trinity and the Unity in the Trinity conceiv'd that as the Bishop stated it he had reason to suspect he was introducing afresh into the Church the Heresy of Sabellius the African who Fateâ—…atur unum esse Deum eta in unam essentiam Trinitatem adducebat ut assereret in nullam esse vere subjectam proprietatem personis sed nomina maturi pro eo atque usus poscant ut nunc de illo ut patre nunc ut filio nunc ut spiritu sancto disseratur and thereupon it seems Arrius argued warmly for that opinion which was directly contrary to the Africane driving the Bishop from one to a second from a second to a third seeming absurdity which I studiously avoid the relation of that in all these things I may not give occasion for Mens understandings to work by their memories and propogate the same errors by the same means they were first occasion'd But hereby Arrius was himself blamed as the maintainer of those absurdities which he affixed to the Bishops opinion as is usual in the heat and wrangle of Disputation Whereas Truth for the most part lyes in the middle but men ordinarily seek for it in the extremities Nor can I wonder that those ages were so fertile in what they called Heresies when being given to meddling with the Mysteries of Religion further then humane apprehension or divine revelation did or could lead them some of the Bishops were so ignorant and gross but others so speculative acute and refining in their conceptions that there being moreover a good faâ—…t Bishoprick to boot in the case it is rather admirable to me how all the Clergy from one end to tother could escape from being or being accounted Hereticks Alexander hereupon Soz. l. 1. c. 140. instead of stilling by more prudent Methods this new Controversy took doubtless with a very good intention a course
easing all Protestant dissenters from Penalties had he vouch'd for the Convocation his Belief or his probability might have been of more value But what has he to do yet they have a singular itch to it with Parliament business or how can so thin a scull comprehend or divine the results of the Wisdom of the Nation Unless he can as in the Epilogue Legion his name a People in a Man And instead of Sir Fopling Flutter he Mr. Smirke Be Knight oth'-Shire and represent them all Who knows indeed but he may by some new and extraordinary Writ have been summon'd upon the Emergency of this Book to Represent in his peculiar person the whole Representative Yet by his leave though he be so he ought not to Undertake before he be Assembled I know indeed he may have had some late Precedents for it and for some years continuance from men too of his own Profession And if therefore he should Undertake and to give a good Tax for it Yet what security can he have himself but that there may rise such a Contest between the Lords and Commons within him that before they can agree about this Judicial Proceeding against the Book it may be thought fit to Prorogue him The Crimes indeed are hainous and if the Man and Book be guilty may when time comes furnish special matter for an Impeachment That he has made a breach upon their Glorious Act of Unniformity Violated their Act their most necessary Act the Animadverter hath reason by this time to say so against Printing without a License and I suppose he reserves anotherfor aggravation in due time the Act against seditious Conventicles For these three are all of a piece and yet are the several Pieces of the Animadverters Armour and are indeed no less nor no more then necessary For considering how empty of late the Church Magazines have been of that Spiritual Armour which the Apostle found sufficient against the assaults of whatsoever enemy even of Satan what could men in all humane reason do less then to furnish such of the Clergy as wanted with these Weapons of another Warfare But although these Acts were the true effects of the Prudence and Piety of that season yet it is possible but who can provide for all cases that if there have not already there may arise thereby in a short time some notable inconvenience For suppose that Truth should one day or other come to be Truth and every man a Lyer I mean of the humor of this Parliamentum Indoctum this single Representativer this Animadverter you see there is no more to be said as the Case stands at present but Executioner do your Office Nor therefore can it ever enter into my mind as to that Act particularly of Printing that the Law-givers could thereby intend to allow any man a promiscuous Licenciousness and Monopoly of Printing Pernicious Discourses tending to sow and increase dissension thorow the Land of which there is but too large a crop already as neither of Prohibiting Books dictated by Christian meekness and charity for the promoting of Truth and Peace among us and reconciling our Differences no nor even of such as are writ to take out the Blots of Printing-Inke and wipe off the Aspersions which divers of the Licensed Clergy cast upon mens private Reputations and yet this is the use to which the Law is somtimes applyed And this Animadverter who could never have any rational confidence or pretence to the Press or Print but by an unlucky English saying men have or by the Text-Letters of his Imprimatur arraignes this worthy Author for Printing without Allowance as if it were a sin against the Eleventh Commandment Though a Samaritan perhaps may not practise Physick without a Licence yet must a Priest and a Levite alwayes pass by on the other side and if one of them in an Age pour Oyle and Wine into the Wounds of our Church instead of Tearing them Wider must he be Cited for it into the Spiritual Court and incurre all Penalties This high Charge made me the more curious to inquire particularly how that Book The Naked Truth was published which the Animadverter himself pretends to have got a sight of with some difficulty And I am credibly informed that the Author caused four hundred of them and no more to be Printed against the last Session but one of Parliament For nothing is more usual then to Print and present to them Proposals of Revenue Matters of Trade or any thing of Publick Convenience and sometimes Cases and Petitions and this which the Animadverter calls the Authors Dedication is his humble Petition to the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament And understanding the Parliament inclined to a Temper in Religion he prepar'd these for the Speakers of both Houses and as many of the Members as those could furnish But that the Parliament rising just as the Book was delivering out and before it could be presented the Author gave speedy order to suppress it till another Session Some covetous Printer in the mean time getting a Copy surreptitioufly Reprinted it and so it flew abroad without the Authors knowledge and against his direction So that it was not his but the Printers fault to have put so great an obligation upon the publick Yet because the Author has in his own Copyes out of his unspeakable Tenderness and Modesty begg'd pardon of the Lords and Commons in his Petition for transgressing their Act against Printing without a Licence this Indoctum Parliamentum mistaking the Petition as addressed to himself will not grant it but insults over the Author and upbraids him the rather as a desperate offender that sins on he saith goes on still in his wickedness and hath done it against his own Conscience Now truly if this were a sin it was a sin of the first Impression And the Author appears so constant to the Church of England and to its Liturgy in particular that having confessed four hundred times with an humble lowly penitent and obedient heart I doubt not but in assisting at Divine Service he hath frequently since that received Absolution It is something strange that to publish a good Book is a sin and an ill one a vertue and that while one comes out with Authority the other may not have a Dispensation So that we seem to have got an Expurgatory Press though not an Index and the most Religious Truth must be expung'd and suppressed in order to the false and secular interest of some of the Clergy So much wiser are they grown by process of time then the Obsolete Apostle that said We can do nothing against the Truth But this hath been of late years the practice of these single Representers of the Church of England to render those Peccadillioes against God as few and inconsiderable as may be but to make the sins against themselves as many as possible and these to be all hainous and unpardonable In so much that if we of the Laity
beyond their Reason To attempt any such Force though to the True Beliefe is to do Evil that Good may come of it But the Pastor ought first by plaine and sound Doctrine to stop the Mouths of Gainsayers When the Ministers have Preached and Prayed they have done all they can in order to mens Believing the rest must be left to the Justice or Mercy of God But if turbulent spirits broach New Doctrines Contrary to Scripture or not Clearly Contained in the Gospel and neither by Admonitions nor Intreaties will be stopt the Pastors may proceed to the Exeroise of the Keys Which if it were duely performed as in the Primitive Times and not by Lay Chancellors and their surrogates would be of great effect The Magistrate ought to siliâ—…ce and oppose such at preach what is Contrary to or not Clearly Contained in the Gospel and if they persevere in their perversuess he may use his power with Christian Moderation For his power reaches to Punish Evil Doers who Publiâ—… or Practise somthing to subvert the Fundamentals of Religion or to Disturbe the Peace of the State or to Injure their Neighbours but not to Punish Evil Believers But if the Magistrate shall conceive he hath power also to punish Evil Believers and on that pretence shall punish True Believers the Subject is bound to submit and bâ—…ar it to the loss of Goods Liberty or Life The Reader will excuse this one long Quotation for it will much shorten all that followes But now for which of these is it that 't is become a Duty to Expose him What is there here that seems not at first sight very Christian very Rational But however it is all delivered in so Grave and Inoffensive manner that there was no temptation to alter the stile into Ridicule and Satyre But like some Carle the Animadverter may browze upon the Leaves or Peel the Barke but he has not teeth for the Solid nor can hurt the Tree but by accident Yet a man that sees not into the second but the Thirteenth Consequence that is one of the Disputers of this World and ought to be admitted to these Doubtfull Disputations from which he ironically by St. Pauls rule forsooth excludes the Author what is there that such an one so subtile so piercing cannot distingish upon and Controvert Truth it self ought to sacrifice to him that he would be propitious For if he appear on the other side it will go against her unavoidably In his 27. P. he is ravisht in Contemplation how Rarachose it is to see or hear a material Question in Theology defended in the University-Schools where one stands a Respondent enclos'd within the Compass of his Pen as Popilius the Roman Embassador made a Circle with his Wand about Antiochus and bid him give him a determinate answer before he went out of it a most apt and learned resemblance and which shews the Gentlemans good reading But it is I confess a noble spectacle and worthy of that Theater which the munificence of the present Arch-Bishop of Canterbury hath dedicated in one may it be too in the other of our Universities where no Apish Scaramuccio no Scenical Farces no Combat of Wild-Beasts among themselves or with men condemn'd is presented to the People but the modest Skirmish of Reason and which is usually perform'd so well that it turns to their great honour and of our whole Nation Provided the Chaire be well filled with an Orthodox Professor and who does not by Solaecismes in Latine or mistake of the Argument or Question render the thing ridiculous to the By-standers That the Pew be no less fitted with a Respondent able to sustaine and answer in all points the expectation of so Learned an Auditory That the Opponent likewise exceed not the terms of Civility nor Cavil where he should Argue and that the Questions debated be so discreetly chosen as there may be no danger by Controverting the Truth to unsettle the minds of the Youth ever after and innure them to a Disputable Notion about the most weighty points of our Re-Religon by which sort of subtilizing the Church hath in former Ages much suffered nor hath Ours in the Latter wholly escaped Now seeing the Exposer seemâ—… to delight so much as men use in what they excell in this Exercise he and I because we cannot have the conveniency of the Schools and Pew will play as well as we can in Paper at this new Game of Antiochus and Popilius I must for this time be the Roman Senator and he the Monarch of Asiaâ—… for by the Rules of the Play he always that hath writ the last Book is to be Antiochus until the other has done replying And I hope to gird him up to close withâ—… in his Circle that he shall appear very slender For I am sensible yet could not avoid it how much of the Readers and mine own time I have run out in examining his Levity but now I am glad to see my labour shorten for having thus plumed him of that puffe of Feathers with which he buoy'd himself up in the Aire and flew over our heads it will almost by the first Consequence be manifest in his Argument how little a Soul it is and Body that henceforward I am to deal with The Author having said that That which we commonly call the Apostles Creed is and was so received by the Primitive Church as the sum Total of Christian Faith necessary to Salvation Why not now Is the state of Salvation alter'd If it be Compleat what need other Articles The Exposer p. 2. answers There may have been needful heretofore not only other Articles but other Creeds for the further Explication of these Articles in the Apostles Creed and yet in those New Creeds not one New Article 'T is safely and cautiously said there May and not there Were other Articles and other Creeds needful But the whole Clause besides is so drawn up as if he affected the Academical glory of justifying a Paradox nor is it for the reputation of such Creeds whatever they be to be maintained by the like Methods But seeing he disdains to explicare further how there can be a New Creed and yet not one New Article I will presâ—… to understand him and then say that in such Creeds whatsoever Article does either explaine the Apostles Creed Contrary to or Beside the Scripture or does not containe the same Express Scriptural Authority which only makes this that is called the Apostles Creed to be Authentick that is a New Article to every man that cannot conceive the necessary Deduction But then he galls the Author The Apostles Creed is the sum of the Christian Faith True Yet I hope he will not think the Nicene the Constantinopolitan and the Athanasian Creed Superfluous and and unnecessary First it is not necessary to take all those Three in the Lump as the Exposer puts it for perhaps a man may think but one or but two of them to have been superfluous
substantiae apud sanctos Patres ad consuetudinem Graeci Sermonis capi 'T is an happy thing I see to find our Church in good humour else she might have made more adoe about an Article of Faith as she does about much lesser matters 'T is not strange that the Exposer finds no greater difference or distinction between terms so distant seeing in the last Paragraph above he was so dull that he understood not What is What. But he most aptly concludes how Demosthenes once answered the Orator Aeschines who kept much adoe about an improper word The Fortunes of Greece do not depend upon it So trivial a thing it seems does the Exposer reckon it to have improper words obtruded upon Christians in a Creed without believing of which no man can be saved and whereupon the Eastern and Western Churches divided with so much concernment But how proper and ingenious a contrivance was it of the Author who is the very Cannon of Concinnity to bring in Demosthenes and Aeschines as being doubtless both of the Greek Church to decide the matter in Controversy of the Procession or Mission of the Holy Ghost between them and the West Antiochus whensoever you take the Pew again be sure you forget not Demosthenes and Aeschines For it will be to you as good as current Money which answers all things The Exposer though here so gentle yet in the very page before this was as dogged to as good men as the Greeks some of them the Papists Lutherans and Calvinists The Author he sayes may make as bold with them as he pleases for we are none of these I am not bound to make War in their vindication But if he should once Kyrie Elieson what would become of us Good Mother Church of England maintaine this humor thorow carrey it on but above all things make much of this thy Exposer give him any thing think nothing too good for him Happy the Church that hath and miserable that wants such a Champion But I must find some more expeditious way of dealing with him and walk faster for really I get cold The force of all that he â—…aith in the 8 and 9 pages is to represent the Author â—…idiculously and odiously as if upon his wishing that Constantine had commanded both parties Homoousian and Homoiosian to acquiece in the very Scripture Expressions without any addition whereby he is contident the Arrian He esie had soon expired he did by consequence cut Poe-dike to let in a Flood of Heresies upon the Fenns of Christianity But the words with which he cuts the Author down are Why this was the designe of the Arrians themselves that which they drove at Court that silence might be imposed on both Parties Well and 't was very honestly done of them and modestly and like Christians if the Controversie arose as men think about the Imposing of a Creed or Article coâ—…ncerning a Question so fine in Words so Gross which yet a man must Believe that without Believing it no man can be Saved though no humane understanding can comprehend the subject of the Question nor the Scripture Expressions as they conceived did reach it There is field enough for Faith in the Scriptures without laying out more to it and to resigne their Reason to be silenced in a Question stirred up by others that Peace might be established in the Church was Ingenuity in them and the contrary proceeding of the Church was the occasion of many other Heresies that else had never been heard of But the Exposer had said somthing if he could have divined that they would have used this silencing the disputes by Constantine as the Arminians so they were at that time called did the same in the Reigne of his late Majesty who procuring a command from him to prohibite all writing or preaching about those points having thereby gagged their Adversaries did let the Press and the Pulpit loose more then ever to propagate their own Doctrines That which the Exposer drops in the ardour of this Argument p. 9. How many terms in the Athanasian Creed which to seek for in the Apostles Creed or in the whole Bible were to as much purpose as it was for the old affected Ciceronian in Erasmus to labour and toile his Brains to turn that Creed into Ciceronian Latine Yet these are the terms in which the Catholick Church thought she spoke safely in these Divine matters is totidem verbis either to beg the Question or make a formal resignation of it And our Church howsoever else he may have oblidged her has reason to resent this indiscretion Why was she her self so indiscreet to admit such a Blab into her secrecies How if no man else ought to have known it It is an ill matter to put such things in mens minds who otherwise perhaps would never have thought of it 'T is enough to turn a mans stomach that is not in strong health not only against the Athanasian Creed but against all others for its sake He saith p. 8. Scoffingly that the Author is one of those whom St. Paul forbids to be admitted to any doubtful disputations But let the Exposer see whether it be not himself rather that is there spoken of And withall that he may make some more proper use of the place which he warily cites not I recommend it to him in order to his dispute about future Ceremonies 'T is the 14. Rom. v. 7. Where St. Paul calls them that contend for him the Weak Brother Weak in the Faith and such therefore the Apostle excludes from doubtful Disputations so that one gone so far in Ceremony as the Exposer had no License from him to Print Animadversions As to what he patches in p. 10. upon the matter of School-Divinity as if the Author poured contempt upon the Fathers I referre it to the Animadversions on the Chapter about preaching and should I forget I desire him to put me in mind of it And p. 11. and 12. where the Author having in his 2. and 3. p. said that None can force another to believe no more then to read where the Candle does not give good light and more very significantly to that purpose the Exposer flying giddily about it burns his wings with the very similitude of a Candle Sure if a man went out by night on Trauelling or Bat-fowling or Proctoring he might catch these Exposers by Dozens But the force of his Argument is p. 13. Whereas the Author says you can force no mans sight nor his Faith â—…he replyes If it be not in any mans truth to Discerne Fundamental Truths of which this Chapter treats when they are laid before his Eyes when there is a sufficient proposal then it is none of his fault Yet this is as weak as water For supposing a Fundamental Truth clearly demonstrated from Scripture though a man cannot force himself to believe it yet there is enough to render a man inexcusable to God God hath not been wanting one of the Exposers scraps
this proves nothing Neither does it For the dispute now betwixt the Author and his Adversary is whether it be possible to compel a man to believe This instance proves only that those Donatists were forced to come to Church Therefore there cannot be a more uncharitable and disingenuous thing invented then for the Exposer to upbraid him with such a retort for ought he knows they were Hypoorites the Author does say so so for ought we to know this Author is all this while a Jesuite and writes this Pamphlet only to imbroile us Protestants But he must make some sputter rather then be held to the terms of the Question and truly I perceive Antiochus is very weary and shifts like a Crane not to instance in a worse Bird first one foot and then another to rest on being tired to stand so long within so close a Circle For thirdly the Author answers Put the case their hearts were really changed as to matter of Belief 't is evident their hearts were very worldly still grovelling on earth not one step nearer Heaven He will not be candid without Compulsion but leaves out what follows and sure their heart was evil which was far mâ—…re moved for the quiet enjoyment of this worlds good then for the blessed enjoyment of Christ. In earnest I begin to think an Exposer is a Rational Creature For had he not on puâ—…pose left these last words out he could not have cryed A horrible 〈◊〉 saying We may forgive the Author any thing after this which is all the Answer he gives so charitable is the Exposer grown to the Donatists for every man that will come to Church is ipso facto with him a true Believer But it did in truth appear to have been so and there is not the least uncharitableness in this that the Author has said For by those Donatists own confession it was not any love to that which they now owned for the Truth to St. Austin not any Convicton of Conscience not so much as even 〈◊〉 inclination to obey the Magistrate but meer fine force and fear of Punishment that brought them to Church and whatsoever good came on 't was by accident Whether might not a man adde that their giving thanks for that force and so owning that Principle of Compulsion was a further evidence that their heart was naught still even while they were with St. Augustine I think a man might untill I be better informed But the Author having given a fourth answer that suppose they were now really brought over to the Truth of the Church of Belief and Religion by the Magistrates severity I express it thus that I may with the Exposer trifle about the Jews care yet St. Paul hath said God forbid we should do evil that good may come of it This is answer enough for a man of understanding For it is not lawful suppose for St. Austin himself to beguile any man even into Christianity unless as St. Paul perhaps 2 Cor. 12. 16. Being crafty caught the Corinthians with guile by preaching the Gospel without being Burthensome to the People No man ought to cheat another though to the true beliefe Not by Interlining the Scripture Not by false Quotation of Scripture or of a Father Not by forging a Heathen Prophecy or altering an Author Not by false Syllogisme Not by telling a lye for God And if no Pety Fraud much less can a Pia Vis be allowed to compell them to Faith to compell them to a Creed seeing it were to do evil that grod may come of it much less to a Creed not perfectly Scriptural and instead of being inforced indeed weakned by compulsion seeing it is impossible to compel a man to believe and some Divines teach us to believe though I suspend that even God himself cannot or doth not Compel men to Believing But now it falls in naturally to me to be as good as my word to consider what the Exposer replyes to the Author's first answer concerinig the Donatists that our Case is of inforcing a Confession of Faith not concerning seditious Practises of which the Donatists were notoriously guilty in which Case he had shown before that the Civil Magistrate may proceed to Punishment Wherein the Author reasons with his usual justness and I though a very slender accession cannot but come into him For St. Paul in the 13. Chapter of the Romans laying out the Boundaries of the Duty of Christian subjects and the Magistrates Power saith Rulers are not ought not to be a terrour to good works but to evil and so forward but to the Christian people he saith they must be subject not only for wrath as those Donatists were afterwards but for Conscience sake And the subjection he defines is in doing good walking upâ—…ightly keeping the Moral Law Fearing Honouring and Paying Tribute to the Magistrate But not one word saith the Apostle of forbearing to Preach out of that Obedience saying in another place Necessity is laid upon one and woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel and that supposes too meeting and as little of Compelling to hear For in those times and a great while after there was no inforcing to Christianity It was very long before that came in fashion And writing on the suddain I do not well remember whether it did ever before the dayes of Picarro and Almagro the Apostles of the Indians yet upon recollection it was sooner But what saith the Exposer to this of the Donatists whom the Author allows only to have been punishable only for seditious Practises having before declared that for such as only refuse to conforme to the Churches established Doctrine and Discipline pardon him if he say really he cannot find any warrant or so much as any hint from the Gospel to use any Force to compel them and from Reason sure there is no motive to use force because as he shewed before Force can't make a man believe your Doctrine but only as an Hypocrite Profess what be believes not I expect that the Exposer in this place above all other which I guess was his greatest motive to this Imployment should ply and overlay him now with Reason but especially with Scripture let us hear how he answers I say only this p 5. for he speaks now of our Non-Conformists the very Act against them calls them Seditious Conventicles and openly to break so many known Laws of the Land after so many reinforcements is not this to be turbulent This now you must understand to be Reason and not Scripture That I suppose as the strongest is reserved for the Rear Truly as far as a man can comprehend by comparing that with other Acts of this Parliament they did only appoint that the Penalty of Sedition should ly against those that frequent such Meetings as in the Act against Irish Catel if it be not in it self a Nuisance no Law-givers can make it so Nor can any Legislators make that to be Sedition which is not Sedition in its
to that employment For his several times repeated wish that they might be forced to come to Church to give them a fair hearing and to bear their discourses truly I believe they know the Lion by the Claw there is a great part of Oratory consists in the choice of the Person that is to perswade men And a great Skill of whatsoever Orator is to perswade the Auditory first that he himself is an honest and a fair man And then he is like to make the more impression on them too if he be so prudent as to chuse an acceptable subject to speak on and manage it decently with fit arguments and good language None but the very rabble love to hear any thing scurrilous or railing especially if they should hear themselves rail'd on by him they would be ready to give him the due applause of Petronius his Orator with flâ—…ging the stones about his ears and then leaving him to be his own Auditory Now they have had so ample experiment of the Exposer as to all these points in his Defence against the Naked Truth that I doubt his perswasion to this comming to hear him or others will be of little force with them and nothing would oblige these Donatists to it but the utmost extremity nor then would they find themselves one step nearer heaven His Book is as good to them as a Sermon and no doubt he has preach'd as well as printed it and took more pains in it than ordinary did his best Must they will they think be compelled to make up the pomp of his Auditory Must they while the good Popish Fathers suffer'd those of Chiapa to come to Church with their 〈◊〉 pots to comfort their hearts be inforced to come to Church by him to have Snush thrust up their Noses to clear their Brains for them 'T is the onely way to continue and increase the Schâ—…sme But in good sober earnest 't is happy that some or other of this Few chances ever and a non to speak their minds out to shew us plainly what they would be at Being conscious of their own unworthiness and hating to be reformed it appears that they would establish the Christian Religion by a 〈◊〉 way and gather so much Force that it might be in their power and we lie at their mercy to change that Religion into Heathenisme Judaisme Turcisme any thing I speak with some emotion but not without good reason that I question whether which way soever the Church Revenues were applied such of them would not betake themselves to that side as nimbly as the Needle to the Load stone Have they not already ipso facto renounc'd their Christianity by avowing this Principle so contrary to the Gospel Why do not they Peter Hermite it and stir up our Prince to an Holy War abroad to propagate the Protestant Religion or at least our Discipline and Ceremonies and they take the Front of the Battel No 't is much better lurking in a fat Benefice here and to domineer in their own Parishes above their Spiritual Vassals and raise a kind of Civil War at home but that none will oppose them Why may they not as well as force men to Church eram the Holy Supper too down their Throsts have they not done something not much unlike it and drive them into the Rivers by thousands to be baptized or drowned And yet this after the King and Parliament by his their Gracious Indulgence have enacted a Liberty for Five beside their own Family to meet together in their Religious Worship and could not therefore in end at the same time to force them to go to Church with the utmost or any severity What can be the end of these things but to multiply Force with Force as one absurdity is the consequence of another till they may again have debased the Reason and Spirit of the Nation to make them fit for Ignorance and Bondage Is it not reason if they had care or respect to mens souls which they onely exercise it seems the cure of perhaps not that neither but evacuate one Residence by another to allow that men should address themselves to such Minister as they think best for their souls health Men are all infirm and indisposed in their spiritual condition What sick man but if a Physician were inforced upon him might in good prudence suspect it were to kill him or that if the next Heir and the Doctor could agree he would certainly do it I shall conclude this reasonable transport with remarking that although the Author did modestly challenge any man to shew him a warrant or colour or hint from Scripture to use Force to constrain men to the Established Doctrine and Worship and offer'd to maintain that nothing is more clear to be deduced or is more fully exprest in Scripture nor is more suitable to Natural Reason than that no man be forced in such Cases the Exposer took notice of it yet hath not produced one place of Scripture but onely made use of Force at an Invincible Reason so that upon supposal which none granted â—…m that all his Few do clearly demonstrate from Scripture what is at best therefore but deducible from Scripture she thinks it reasonable to oblige all men by force to come to all their Parishes And yet he himself who does I suppose it onely for the Cases sake believe the Scripture although he cannot produce one place of Scripture for using this force and though the Author has produced so many and urges the whole Scripture that such force is not to be used hath his brains nevertheless so confused or so obdurate that he cannot force himself to believe the Author but persists in his unchristian and unreasonable desire that men may be compelled and hereby deserves to be made an Example of his own Principle For herein he exceeds Pharaâ—…h who had ten sufficient Proposals and yet his heart was so hardned that he would not let Israel go out of Egypt but was proof against Miracles But He onely would imagine that the Israelites were idle and would therefore force them to make Brick without Straw but the Exposers heart and brains are so hardned that he will conceive all the Nonconformists to be obstinate fools or hypocrits and therefore will compel them all to go to all their Parish Churches and to make therefore Faith without Reason And hence it is not onely probable but demonstrable if they were compelled to go and hear him and the Few of his Party how well he or they would acquit themselves too in clearly demonstrating from Sciprture the Prime Articles of Faith as it is extended in all the Creeds of which it was treated in this Chapter that I have now done with and truly almost with those remaining For I had intended to have gone Chapter by Chapter affixing a distinct Title as he does to every one of them that men may believe he has animadverted thorowly without reading except that concerning the difference between