presume he found himself at very good leisure for he gives us good store of verses out of Spencer wherein he saith he describes the effect of the extirpation of Episcopacy upon the Presbyters themselves And I care not if I be so idle upon this Opportunity of thrusting some verses also upon the Reader which Dr More I hope will not take amiss seeing I borrow them out of his own Poem intituled The Life of the Soul and printed A. D. 1647. There in his 2d Canto he thus describes the Kings Chappel representing the Altar by a green Turf Stanza 58. the Tapers by Torchwort and the Pulpit and Cushion by an hollow Oak and moss Stanza 59. The Choristers on either side and Boreas for the Organ above Stanza 60. the Eagle or King in his lofty Cabinet at the west end Stanza 61. Then that he may not seem to forget the Bishops he brings in one of them for the Preacher in these lines 62 After a song loud chanted by that Quire Tun'd to the whistling of the hollow Wind Comes out a gay Pie in his rich attire The snowie white with the black sattin shin'd On 's head a silken Cap he wore ulin'd When he had hopped to the middle flore His bowing head right lowly he inclin'd As if some Deity he did adore And seemly gestures make courting the Heavenly Power 63 Thus cring'd he toward the East with shivering wings With eyes on the square sod devoutly bent Then with short flight up to the Oak he springs Where he thrice congied after his ascent With posture chang'd from th' East to th' Occident Thrice bow'd he down and eas'ly thrice he rose Bow'd down so low as if 't had been's intent On the green Moss to wipe his swarthy Nose Anon be chatters loud but why himself best knows By this stuff there will be no great question made but the Doctor was in reference to Episcopacy the very same in verse An. 1647. which he is in prose in that Section of his Preface An. 1660. But now he hastens as he saith to the 4th Objection and I will be at his heels Objection 4. He affirms that Church-discipline should comprehend onely the generally acknowledged Articles of the Christian faith and plain indispensable duties of life Which overthrows all authority concerning things Indifferent Pref. pag. 18. 19. To this he answers All that those passages contain which are here referred to touching this matter is in the 18â— h page in this paragraph That the main end of Church-government and Discipline is the countenancing and promoting the Christian life and an holy observation of such precepts of Christ as do not make men obnoxious to the secular Power by transgressing them to keep out also Idolatry and every Errour and superstitious Practise that tends to the supplanting or defeating the power of the Gospel and that therefore we ought rather to be solicitous about managing this Government to the right end then to disturb the peace of the Church by an overscrupulous examination of the exteriour frame thereof Before I follow him farther I must needs set a note upon what he begins to broach here The Churches power he saith is mainly intended to countenance and promote the observation of such of Christs Precepts as do not make men obnoxious to the secular power by transgressing them Hence it follows that such precepts even of Christ himself as do make men obnoxious to the secular power by transgressing them are no part of those precepts whose observation the Church is chiefly to countenance and promote by her power and Discipline In case therefore the Civil Magistrate being a Religious and Godly Prince laies his strict commands on his subjects to be diligent observers of both Tables and chiefly of the weightiest matters therein injoyning them to live in all Godliness Temperance Justice Charity Peaceableness and Obedience to that Government both civil and ecclesiastical with addition of sanctions of severe punishments on all profane drunken riotous filthy seditious factious livers Because these precepts of Christ for that so they are I hope the Doctor will grant must in this case always make men obnoxious to the secular power by transgressing them therefore the countenancing and promoting of an holy observation of such Godly Temperance Justice Charity Peaceableness and Obedience to Governours ecclesiastical and civil is no part of the main end of Church-government and Discipline What a strange discipline pleaseth this Man How much the more is the Church-discipline bound to countenance and promote the observation of those such Precepts of Christ which the Magistrate knowing to be the chief makes it his chief care also although by transgressing them the transgressours will be obnoxious to the secular power Besides why in promoting the observation of Christs Precept of fleeing and keeping out Idolatry which the Doctor in the next word instances as a part of the main end of Church-government may not by his leave that very Precept under Godly and religious Princes make men obnoxious to the secular Power by transgressing it And so he would and would not almost in the same breath have that a part of the main care of Church-governours And now I will attend him in his Dance He adds To keep out also all Idolatry and every Errour and superstitious practise that tends to the supplanting or defeating the power of the Gospel Be it so grant this a main end of Church-government I hereupon demand whether that Errour that infers Schisms Distractions and the greatest uncharitableness be not a principal way of defeating the power of the Gospel If it be then those Governours who manage the Church-government so as to oppose strictly and stoutly suppress that Errour that infers schisms c. do manage it sutably to a main end thereof But the Errour of the Brethren who winch and kick against Church-government most sadly hath of late and always will in some degree hereafter after infer Schisms c. Therefore strictly to oppose and stoutly to suppress that Errour sutes a main end of the Church-government How miserably impertinent then are the Doctors last words Therefore we ought rather to be solicitous about managing the Government to the right end then disturb the peace of the Church by an overscrupulous examination of the outward form thereof The Right End of Church-government is the preservation of unity in the Church and is Unity or the Peace of the Church disturbed by any though the exactest examination even of the outward form thereof Let the Doctor examine it as much as he will the more the better for had he duly examin'd it he would have shewed more manners towards it But the sport is the Doctor here supposes himself to be one of those that manage the Church-government We ought saith he rather to be solicitous about Managing the Government to the right end c. and therefore whatsoever blame he casts upon the management he casts upon himself 'T is true when he is in
his Tub he thinks himself fit to direct the whole Christian Church and sutably inscribes the 19th Chapter of the 6th Book of his Mystery Advertisements to the Guides of Christendom but though he be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God be thanked he is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 none of those whom it concerns to manage the Government for this belongs to the Bishops not to him or to the People Which being notorious and clear doth the Doctor fear that these Governours themselves will so overscrupulously examine the outward form of the Government as to disturb thereby the Peace of the Church Logi He proceeds And again in the same page at the end in this parag reaching also into the following page That the first and chief point is to make a right choice of the Object of this Church-discipline which is to comprehend nothing but what is sound and purely Apostolical that is The indisputable Truths of our Religion such as we are sure to be the minde of Christ and his Apostles namely The generally acknowledged Articles of the Christian faith and plain and indispensable Duties of life For these are such as deserve to be held up with all possible care and strictness Other things so gently recommended that no conscientious Man may be pinched thereby If the Reader here ask The first and chief point of what he may guess if he can for the Doctor tells him not either here or in his Preface He cannot reasonably mean The first and chief point of Church-discipline for the Object of that Discipline must be made choise of and fixed by the Authour of that Discipline before the Discipline it self can be exercised and is therefore in the nature of the thing precedent to the Discipline it self Yet what else he should mean who can divine But what if he asks also Who should make the right choise of the object of Church-discipline I see not upon the Doctors grounds what possible Answer he could give without first supposing That the Church was for some time without Government and Discipline and in that time was to deliberate what Object to choose for till she had an Object of Government resolved on she could have no Government Indeed by the obvious sense of the Doctors words one would think that when he wrote them the choise of this Object was not made or not made aright But whether the Doctor knows or will know so much or no the Christian Church never stood at a gaze or muse touching the Object and the right Object of her Government and Discipline Yet let us hear from this Oracle what that Object must be he saith It must comprehend nothing but what is sound and purely c. i. e. The generally acknowledged Articles of the Christian Faith and plain indispensable Duties of life What he means by Articles of Faith generally acknowledged who can tell If he means such as were received by all Churches and Councils reputed sound Members of the Church Catholick he should have done well to have expressed it But he hath so ordered his words that if it may serve his turn at a pinch hereafter he can notwithstanding what he writes here wave or deny any such Articles when the Church shall require his Assent because some Hereticks or other have opposed them and so they were not Generally acknowledged As for indispensable duties of life which is the second part of his object it is but just to ask him what are such or how there can be any such for if as he lays for a Principle the main End of Church-Government and Discipline be the countenancing and promoting the Christian Life in an holy Observation of such Precepts of Christ as do not make men obnoxious to the secular Power by transgressing them Then in case a secular Princes Laws shall lay hold of a Christian by reason of any one or of all Christs Precepts the main end of the Church-Governours Office makes it not their duty to countenance and promote the Observation of any such of Christs Precepts And is not this in effect to make all the Precepts of Christ dispensable upon occasion Could the prime Visier now perswade the Emperors Subjects to imbrace this Doctrine it would much easier bring the grand Signiours designe to pass then all his Armies Now I can devise no imaginable Evasion for the Doctor but in that word the main end Whence perhaps he will pretend that one end though not the main of Church-Government is to promote the Observation of Christs Precepts whether they make men obnoxious to the secular Power or no. But will he dare to stick to this Will he profess that to promote the Observation of Christs Precepts is a petty end of Church-Government and by the by If he doth yet even this fetch will not clearly carry him off For First He makes a distinction of such of Christs Precepts as render men obnoxious to the secular Power from such as do not Secondly In respect of the later sort of Precepts he teacheth that it is the main end of Church-Government to promote their Observation Thirdly Therefore he necessarily leaves the former sort in a looser condition and dispensable by the Governours For certainly what is indispensable belongs to the main end of their Government But if they may take their liberty touching those costly and dangerous Precepts of Christ and be not indispensably bound to promote and press their Observation and that so they are not bound the Doctor signifies by his Distinction it follows that they may in this case dispense and leave the people to save their skins or purses by making bold with Christs Precepts Well but however the Doctor grants the ground of the Objection to be truly alledged onely he would perswade us that this overthrows not all Authority in things Indifferent For Sect. 7. he saith The premised passages administer matter for a due solution And then he adds That in saying the object of Church-Discipline is to comprehend nothing but what is sound and purely Apostolical viz. the generally acknowledged Articles of the Christian Faith and plain indispensable Duties of Life His meaning is That we should not make the lesser things and the more dispensable and such as are but of humane Institution and Determination the main object upon which Church-Discipline is exercised but the general acknowledged Articles of the Christian Faith and plain and indispensable Duties of Life such as we are exhorted to by Christ and his Apostles For this is really for the Glory of the Gospel the security of mens souls in the conduct of them to Heaven and also for their comfortable abode here upon earth Is not this pretty His Position was That the Object of Church-Government must comprehend nothing but the generally acknowledged Articles of Faith and indispensable Duties of Life Doth not this apparently exclude all things else Yet he professeth here that he meant onely That those should be the Principal and main Object So he said
One thing and if you will believe him he meant Another But that he meant not thus is evident enough by the words he added in that former Paragraph viz. Other things suppose the lesser and more dispensable as being of humane Institution are to be so gently recommended that no conscientious man may be pinched thereby Now if all things besides Articles of Faith and indispensable Duties of Life must onely be Recommended then must they not be Commanded and so they will prove no object of the Churches Discipline Nay the Doctor will have them Recommended yet but Gently doth not this look like an Act of Discipline and so as not to pinch conscientious men I know who will owe him immortal thanks for this Doctrine which if it be sound any Non-conformist may pretend Conscience and cry out of being Pinched and then he ought to have his liberty But the Doctor forgets not to interpret this passage also and in effect he tells us that by Gently Recommended his meaning was Commanded For thus he expounds these words Other things so gently recommended that conscientious men may not be pinched thereby that is to say That the like severity is not to be used in things that are not of so indispensable a nature And who doubts of this but to Recommend and Gently and so gently as no man may be pinched is I take it No severity at all nay no Discipline at all so far is it from being a like degree of severity to that which is used in points indispensable Nevertheless by Gently Recommending the Doctor meant a less degree of severe Discipline He hath most aenigmatick meanings Nor can I pass by those other words of his without a note For this viz. that the Articles of Faith and indispensable Duties of Life should be the object of Discipline is really for the glory of the Gospel the security of mens souls in the conduct of them to Heaven and also for their comfortable abode here on earth It seems then in the Doctors Judgement That the due observance of Ecclesiastick Laws in things indifferent is not really for the glory of the Gospel nor for security of mens souls in the way to Heaven Tell the people this and with what better Argument for Schism and Faction can you furnish them for why should they trouble themselves to submit to that which is not really for the Gospels glory nor their safe passage to Heaven Dr More teacheth them if they will but have wit enough to understand him right that their Disobedience to the Churches Laws is no real impediment of their salvation or of the Gospels glory Nay this is not all Do the people desire a comfortable abode on earth the same Doctor hath kindly signified to them that the like Disobedience is no real impediment to this neither And let him not pretend that I here wrest his words to an odious sense for if there be any sense at all in that part of his Argumentation I have done him no wrong If obedience to the Churches Laws be really for the Gospels glory the promotion of our salvation and our comfortable abode upon earth as in truth it is Then ought it to be held up with all possible care and strictness and to be a part of the main object of the Churches Discipline But the Doctor argues That the Articles of Faith and indispensable Duties of Life are onely that main object For this viz. that they onely should be the main object is saith he really for the glory of the Gospel c. which Reason of his is no Reason unless less he means That the other is not really so seeing if it were really so it might by his own very Reason be part of that main object In the same 7th Sect. he thus proceeds I think it is pretty plain already that I do not affirm that Church-Discipline should comprehend onely the generally acknowledged Articles of the Christian Faith and plain indispensable Duties of Life His words were That it is to comprehend Nothing but them These words are more then pretty plain and he cannot deny that so he wrote How pretty plain then is it which he saith here let any one judge who is capable of understanding a Contradiction But still he is confident that he did in his former Book establish and leave intire Church-Authority in things Indifferent Which saith he Sect. 8. No man could make any question of did he but compare one part of my Preface with another as that which occurs Sect. 13. at the close c. Had it been true That in some part of his Preface he doth establish that Authority or leave it intire which he will hardly prove yet the Objection was justly made for why may he in any part of his Book undermine or deny this Authority I could weary the Reader with instances where this Doctor writes repugnantly to himself Is it therefore justifiable in him to write what he lists in one place against the Church because in another place he doth or may seem to write for her What is this but to give his Mother a Bit and a Knock But in these Repugnancies his Proselytes know well enough which is indeed his meaning They are not to seek where he speaks what he would have them believe and where he speaks what may preserve him from being obnoxious to the secular Power Or if any of them be so dull as not to discover this and therefore may take offence the Doctor may full as rationally Apologize for himself to his offended Brethren out of one sort of passages in his Writings as he doth to his Reader here out of the other sort But let us see what he would have us here compare in his Preface viz. That which occurs Sect. 13. at the close thereof There shall be nothing held essential or fundamental but the indispensable Law of the Christian Life and that Doctrine that depends not upon the fallible Deductions of men but is plainly set down in the Scripture other things being left to the free Commendation of the Church ensnaring no mans Conscience nor Lording it over the Flock of Christ and still holding on in the next Section which certainly they do that call those things Antichristian that are not and thereby make more Fundamentals then Christ and his Apostles Which Errour is the very effence and substance of Antichristianism and of that grand Apostacy of the Church Having said this he falls into his wonted fit for he adds Can there be any thing more express and pertinent for the Vindication of the Power and Liberty of the Church in appointing things Indifferent then this Yes surely good Doctor there may All that you leave here to the Church touching things Indifferent is to Recommend them It had been more express and pertinent if you had left her Power to Command them But to see the unluckiness of it The Doctor here makes the Doctrine touching the Churches Authority in things Indifferent to
reason of the hope that is in them and to stop the mouths of gain-sayers but to tell them that it is for their advantage to be perswaded that for ought they know their Religion may be false is a certain way to make them for a while to believe no Religion and a probable way to render them secure and perfect Atheists for upon such a perswasion they are so far from being ingaged to live holily to pray fervently to wean themselves from the world c. as the Doctor would pretend that they are rather ingaged in the quite contrary And my reason is because all these and such like parts of piety are parts of that very Christian Religion which such men are perswaded may for ought they know be not Gods Absolute but his Permissive Command that is not True but False If it be replyed that such duties as those are taught us rather as we are Men then as we are Christians I mean by the law of Nature and right reason and that therefore our suspending our Belief of our Religion properly as Christian suspends not our Belief of being obliged to those Duties I answer First those Duties are all incorporated in the Gospel and more expressly taught us in Christs Law then in the lâ—… of Nature 2. As I suspend my Belief of the truth of Christs Law so I may suspend my Belief of the truth of Natures Law and suppose that this as well as that is but Gods permissive command 3. Not to be immersed in the world is to be mortified to live holily or as he expressed it before to perfect holiness in the fear of God is to be intirely spiritualized And these are properly Christian Virtues Now touching them who are not Christians the Doctor affirms that the serious use of this his Principle viz. That for ought they know their Religion is false i. e. onely Gods permissive command is the next way to turn all men to Christianity Indeed to perswade them that for ought they know their present Religion may be false is a fair step towards their iâ—… quiring after the true But to perswade them so upon Dr More principle viz. That their Religion may be false though it be Gods command and though their consciences be convinced that it is his Command is not the way to Christianity but to Atheism or at least to an indifferency in Religion little better then Atheism For grant the Infidel this ground and by what arguments will you press him to turn Christian the best which Dr More can suggest are I guess those which he hinted in this Section i. e. The superlative holiness and unimitable miracles of Christ voices from heaven giving testimony to him his Resurrection his Ascension his being attested by prophesies at great distance To these or any the like the Infidels answer is ready viz. Dr More hath assured me that God may be the conveyer of a false perswasion why then should I not conclude that all these strange stories you tell me of Christ may also be false for why may not you or any men whatsoever deceive me as well as God Yea but if you will purifie your self and perfect holiness in the fear of God and use free and unprejudiced reason you shall by Gods assistance find those stories to be true To this likewise his answer is at hand How know I that all you now say is not a train to convey a false perswasion into me I cannot in any reason be more assured of your Veracity then I am of Gods and your pretended Veracity here may be nothing else but Policy But whereas you tell me I shall discover the truth by Gods assistance what am I the nearer or how can I trust to that staff if God himself may be the Authour of a false perswasion and if he no less then you may in this case for ought I know exercise his policy and not his veracity The second Argument therefore which I also take from Dr More in the mentioned place must be this That Christian Religion holds perfect congruity to the exactest reason and hath nothing in it repugnant thereto To this the Infidel may thus reply if God may deceive me exactest reason may deceive me Or if your God can deceive and reason not then shall reason be my God onely I would desire you to inform me where exact reason dwells and how I may come acquainted wit it If it be that which cannot deceive I am sure it dwells not in me for I dare not think my self priviledged with that veracity which you deny to God and how you can prove that it dwells in you is past my imagination Had you told me that God cannot deceive and that he hath set up the candle of reason in mans soul I should have counted the dictates of this reason to be infallible but seeing you teach me that God the prime fountain of all things whatsoever may convey into mans minde that which is false you leave me no certain bottom to build upon And therefore I had best even at a venture be content with the Religion I have hapned to be in whether right or wrong and not trouble my self about the needless entertaining of a new one which for ought I know or you either upon this your ground may prove a false perswasion And thus the oraculous Doctor hath cleared yea and fully cleared but we want some new Dictionary to teach us what clearing signifies his first particular Disquisition Sect. 15. he thus proceeds The second was whether it be competible to the nature of God to convey a false perswasion in things practical and which religiously and conscientiously oblige the party thus perswaded to act accordingly or abstain from acting This he decides affirmatively for he adds that Ahab was thus deceived by Gods effectual permission of that lying spirit that profer'd his service in that affair for the belief of that sure success which he thought was promised him from God was plainly of that nature as to oblige his conscience to fight the Lords battels against the uncircumcised Upon supposal of his former conclusion viz. that it is competible to Gods nature to convey a false perswasion into the the minde of his Creature which conclusion I hope I have made appear to be shamefully false I will grant him that such a perswasion doth conscientiously oblige the party perswaded to act c. But I have already proved that this was not Ahabs case and that it was not God but the Divel who deceived Ahab he must therefore give us some other instance and that he doth in the very next words Moreover that example of Gods conveying that perswasion into Abraham that he would have him to sacrifice his son is beyond all exception for it is manifest that Abraham was so perswaded by both what he did in the history and what is said of him Heb. 11. 17. By faith Abraham when he was tryed offer'd up Isaac accounting that God was able