manifestly violated as namely if our Rulers think this makes for the decency of Religious Worship or such a thing may be expedient for the peoples information much more when they both concur and are signally discernable as most certain one or both of them are obvious in all our Ceremonies The Surplice besides the comeliness of the habit speaks Innocence and Purity The Ring besides the Ornament it 's worn for signifies the perpetuity and endlesness of the Conjugal Love The use of the Cross is explained by the Church her self and Kneeling vindicated from its corruption and abuse I know some make this the pretended ground of their exception whereby I go about to defend them namely for their being symbolical and significant which I look upon to be a great instance of their folly for their significancy is one part of their excellency without which the enjoyning of 'em were not however not so highly justifiable For as in humane Polity those Laws are unquestionably the best which are stampt with the marks of Authority and of great usefulness so no doubt in Religion those are the best Canons and Constitutions whereby men are not only contain'd in their Obedience but instructed in their Duty And though this be not so necessary to the constitution of any Law as that it should cease to oblige without it for the will of the Law-giver is the formal reason of our Obedience from which nothing can absolve us but an apparent contrariety to a superior will I say notwithstanding the necessity of Obedience in those cases the superinducing of this makes our Obedience more rational and easie and it makes those Laws look more Divine when like those of Heaven they are accommodated to the principles of Reason and advancement of our Interest And now from hence it will be no difficult matter to infer the necessity of our Conformity and Obedience to the Laws of our Church for besides that we are oblig'd by the same Rules in doing our duty as they are in commanding namely of decency in reference to Almighty God and the promoting of our own good 〈◊〉 far as our apprehensions concur with theirs There is besides another obligation incumbing upon us as I before hinted viz. that of the Apostle in Heb. 13.17 Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves i. e. the Episcopal Power how much more when it is twin'd and corroborated with the bands of Civil Authority All which considerations are complicated in our present case and so conclude the stronger for our Obedience And therefore altho my apprehensions were not throughly convinc'd of the decency and expedience of these things I stand obliged for all unless the thing appear very plainly to be sinful and unlawful not only to command for so a thing may be for want of the other reasons and yet be lawfully obey'd for this but it must be so in it self and to you or else we sin and the reason is evident because Obedience to Authority is an express Duty and to evacuate that there need to be as plain a Prohibition and not every fidling scruple and petit cavil that by men who are dispos'd to wrangle may be brought against any thing whatever Much less may we censure or condemn Authority upon this account forasmuch as we cannot without the greatest pride and vanity but confess that the Governors by reason of those advantages they have above us by their Learning Leisure Station and special assistance of God must needs see and know more than we do or can And if we believe this and if we do not we must be intolerably impudent where 's our Charity if we reproach them with tyrannical and unreasonable impositions The plain truth is Rulers are to govern by their own consciences and not yours or mine And therefore if your Conscience be opposite to his 't is your own Rule and the whole strength of the objection he must follow his Conscience Which besides the necessity of maintaining the reverence and authority of Laws would be well considered by such as are in Power whether it does not reflect a guilt upon them if they don't do it whatever they say or suffer who are the occasion on 't Mean while how little just ground is there for those so wide and contrary imputations that are falsly charg'd upon the Church of England Of Schism from the Papists and of Popery from the Phanaticks We had in vain complained of the Romish Superstitions and long groan'd under the Yoke of its Tyranny but never dream'd of a Separation till the terms of their Communion grew to that height that no Salvation could be expected therein or but very difficultly and 't was but time to seek a remedy when the Disease was become almost incurable Altho I must needs assert there wanted no such reason to have justified our Reformation which might very lawfully have been effected by the Right and Power of a National Church distinct and independing upon a Forein Jurisdiction but this made our proceedings fair and candid as well as just As to the charge of Popery on the other side 't is the silliest but most malicious slander that ever was thrown upon any Order of men We know they don't use to heed what ground Calumnies have so they will but serve their turn Which because 't is very certain the grandees of them do not 〈…〉 themselves it can have no other design but 〈◊〉 They know and are assur'd what by that aversation in the Kingdom against Popery and by the inconsiderable numbers of Papists comparatively for I wish with my soul their numbers were not so great for if ever the Government be subverted which God forbid the Power must necessarily devolve among their party And there is no way to do this but by rendering those of the Church of England odious to the Mobile and there is no way to do that so effectually as to call them Papists And he that does not see this has more credit for an evidence that may possibly deceive than for a demonstration that can not Well and what are the pretences of this Clamor some of them belong to the being of the Church as the distinctions of Orders Some to its flourishing and well-being as the honorary additions of Power and maintenance some to the places of Divine Worship their relative holiness and appropriate discriminations and some to the modes of Worship as habits and gestures And is it enough to make a man a Papist for believing a Bishop to be above a Priest or assert the Bishops Peerage or the sacredness of Churches and decency of a Surplice and is that all the reason too because we observe these things among them Jesu What do men pretend to by the same reason I would prove a Turk a Protestant and a Protestant a Devil The truth is they better deserve to suffer under the reproach themselves for besides their agreeing with the Church of Rome in those very Doctrines wherein we do protest against her and them as denying the Kings Supremacy Excommunicating Deposing and Murdering of Princes founding Dominion in Grace and the like besides this let any body judg whether they do not serve the Church of Rome hereby For if when I look below the Church of England I see nothing but distraction and confusion no Priest no Sacrament whereof a man may very well doubt and if there be no more hurt in Popery than Lawn Sleeves a Cross or a Surplice who that lov'd his soul would not who ought not to be a Papist Thanks be to God we profess a Religion infinitely better than either of them however envied and persecuted by both A Religion I would choose as a man 't is so pious and rational A Religion I would choose as a Believer so safely does it direct men to Heaven A Religion I would choose as a Prince or Magistrate as the best instrument of Government in the world that ties mens souls to obedience And which only by its Loyalty would make a Princes Guards useless This is the Religion we profess I hope to God we shall all continue to live and die in it and if we would but live up to it is able to make us good Governors good Subjects good Christians and in the end glorious Saints Which God make us for Jesus sake to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be Glory and Honor Amen FINIS
will be Observed To Improve this to our Purpose What 's the near as to the higher ends of Government to burn a Fellow in the Hand for sttealing of a Sheep or a Calfe Or Truss up a poor Wretch for Committing of Burglary to the great damage of wakeing the Child and loosing a Chese There are enormities of another kind but more dangerous issue then these which are very much in your power to redress In curbing such as go about to Debauch the Minds of His Majesties good Subjects with Atheism and Faction thereby robbing him of his greatest Treasure and best security of his Government and our Peace their Affections and Consciences Such as Preach Seditiously and can't tell how to pray for the King without Libelling of him Such as dare not only Disobey but Confront Laws who not only act contrary to the Government but endeavour to Subvert it Who not only break their Superiours Injunctions but as our Saviour says of the Pharisees whose Successors they are in mischief and hypocrisie teach others to do so too And for this reason I think they ought to be punish'd and punish'd worse too Let me adde then Common Drunkards Open Whoremasters and Prophane Swearers I make no Apology for them because as my Lord Verulam has well Observ'd and he was no great friend to the Churches Exaltation as in the body Natural we dread a Wound that makes a Solutio Continui worse than Botches and Ulcers that are more painful and offensive so in the Parallel these Mens Principles lead to Schism and Rebellion and we have pretty well known their Practises which are the Solutio Continui in Church and State whereas the other are indeed against the Dignity of the Crown and Honour of Religion and do by a long Consequence weaken and by degrees dispose both Church and State to Ruine but not like Drums and Trumpets If it were only for their peevish stubbornness they deserve Punishment perhaps more than worse Offenders in another kind because the Laws do not so much Consider the Nature of an Offence in it self as its evil tendency to the Publick which because it is more and more often indangered by persons under that Guise than any other they therefore ought to proceed more severely against them than Offences in the estimation of Religion of a far more hainous Nature And for the Mobile's being scandaliz'd hereat concludes no more with me but that their Ignorance does not comprehend the Wisdom of our Laws And if what has been said seem to warp too much one way 't is not because I think better or worse of Phanaticism or Popery though to give the Devil his due we can't Charge them with such another Instance as the Late Kings Death which we could never have been quit with them for had not Oates in his Evidence made them a party in it The truth is they are as bad or worse but their Numbers and Advantages are not so great and the danger on this side was so Imminent that the very fear of the other had almost undone us And the Word Popery was like to have done us as it had done formerly as great or greater mischief then we could suffer by the thing And yet we think our selves as good Protestants as them that speak so little in so much against Popery i. e. If by Protestant we understand the Religion of the Church of England as it is by Law Established and not meerly an Anti-religion form'd in Contradiction to another If they mean such a Protestant I am none nor ever will be And 't is the thing Popery I am angry with whether I meet with it in Mariana or Buchanan Bellarmine or Knox. Of the two 't was more Creditable to disown the debt upon their death then to justifie the Rebellion as Kid and King did and the rest of them have since done upon the Gallows One thing me thinks looks intolerable from this sort of men they have not only the impudence to deny all this and some the folly to believe them innocent but they set up for the Patriots of our Liberty and the King 's best Friends and the great Bulwarks against Popery All true alike As to our Liberties If they mean the quiet enjoyment of those Rights and Properties the Kings of England have given to us by their Bounty and confirmed by their Laws when were they invaded when were they in Jeopardy but from them If they mean the putting us into a capacity of doing what we list and disobeying those Laws we do not like and disturbing the King's Peace it concerns His Majesty and those about him to look to that We well remember what fast Friends they were to the Old King for which I shall never be reconciled to them till they blush and repent But they atton'd for that by bringing in this I believe their Spleen against the Independent Party did contribute towards it But if they had been the only Instruments of his Restoration and had done it too upon the most Loyal and Generous Principles neither of which is true must that attone for all their Treasons past present and to come I for my part think them such Back Friends to the King and to Monarchy that I do not think either safe till they are disarm'd if not suppressed And as for Popery Alas They keep it out did ever any of them say or write any thing against it The Church of Rome thought fit to answer They wound the Pope they never levell'd their Arrows higher than the Church of England I 'll give you an Instance equivalent to a Demonstration When they had the Power in their own hands what new Laws or Provisions did they then make against Papists what Severities did they then execute upon them Their Zeal and Malice extended as far as to tear the Surplice rend the Prayer-Book break the Communion-Rails prophane the Altar hang the King's Party and famish sequester'd and outed Ministers but went no farther If I might guess the Heads of that Party are not governed by Conscience and Religion but by Covetousness and Ambition to rule Now what Booty will Popery afford them I believe all the Lands they have discovered yet will scarce pay one of the Prosecutors Debts But the Crown and Church-Lands would make a world of New Squires and Lords I would not be thought to speak this to abate any bodies Zeal against Popery Let Justice have its Course in the name of God but then let it be equally and impartially distributed If men Will be plotting against the King's Life and the Fundamental Establishments of the Government I value not what Religion they be of I can easily foresee a great many well meaning People will account all this as spoken against Godliness and good Men I don't much matter it for I may serve them more effectually by their dislike because I know 't is the easiest matter in the earth to wheadle the Multitude especially in Religion whom I therefore
LOYALTY AND CONFORMITY Asserted IN TWO SERMONS THE FIRST Preached the Seventh of August 1681. in the Abby Church of Bath THE SECOND Preached the Sixteenth of October 1681. at Badminton By Jos Pleydell Arch-Deacon of Chichester LONDON Printed for Joanna Brome at the Gun at the West-End of St. Paul's 1682. To the most Honourable Henry Lord Marquess of Worcester c. My Lord FOr the same Reason others usually pretend in choosing the Patronage of Great Men I should industriously decline your Lordships above all Mens I know viz. For those Extraordinary Abilities and great Judgment your Lordship's Master of I should never be able to excuse to my self the Vanity and Presumption of this Address to a person of far inferiour Characters to your Lordship had you not first discovered your inclinations to Accept it Then it became my Duty I must confess I never did value my self upon any thing so much as your Lordships favourable Estimation and should do it more if I thought the performance might answer or deserve it If in doing my self this Honour I have not disserv'd the cause therein Asserted nor your Lordship sink by it in the Veneration all Men had before of your exact judgment I have exceeded my own hopes My Lord I am your Lordships most humble and most obedient Servant Jos Pleydell LOYALTY CONFORMITY Asserted IN A SERMON ON Romans 13.4 For he beareth not the Sword in vain LET every Soul be subject to the higher Powers verse 1. saith this Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man saith another Apostle 1 Pet. 2.13 Here 's a couple of Tory Bishops for ye Base Sycophants and Court Flatterers who for fear or for hope would go to fill a Princes head with Ambitious and Arbitrary Principles Sneaking low Spirits that would say any thing to save their Necks and respit the Princes fury Or poor Wretches peradventure whose Lot placed them in such ill Circumstances How were they feign to Preach in compliance with the times and talk according to the Infant-state of the Churches Minority Surely had they liv'd in those more glorious times of Liberty that happened in this Inquisitive and Learned Age they would have Preached at another Rate I believe they might had they writ their Epistles with the same spirit wherewith the Modern Catholicks writ that we reformed from or the more Modern Protestants that have reformed from us But seriously Sirs these men Preached a great Truth and meant it in the plain sence they spoke it without any Equivocation about the Powers or Reservation as to the time and opportunity And this they did not to humor the times but to inform our Consciences and discharge their own Evâ—n for Conscience sake saith one And for the Lords sake saith the other The case of Subjection and Obedience is so trite a Theme not only in the worst sence that grieves me old and slighted but in a better sence I fancy pinches them viz. There has been said so much and so well upon that Subject by the Church of England men that they never could nor never will tell how to answer And if upon the former accompt it be more needfull to be urged and inculcated upon the latter I think it less till it be better answered than by noise and force But I decline it for another reason viz. the ineffectiveness of this sort of menaging these men who abound with the qualities of those good natured Children that do more for a blow than a word A Generation that grow Obdurate by Convictions Insolent by Kindness and whom nothing but the Execution of the Penal Laws could ever keep within their duty Indeed Lenity and Kindness are the best expedients where they will obtain but not with such Cattle the Psalmist speaks of in Psalm 59. that are always barking at their Superiors and grudging they are not satisfied This is no doubt most agreeable to the Prince for besides that a man must sink below humane Nature that can delight in oppression and blood and must be a Devil that makes Innocence and Obedience the Ground on 't It makes his Government the more secure and easie by freeing at once them of their hatred and him of his fear I if it meet with Loyalty and Obedience in the governed 't is a most happy Conjunction But to forgive men that have Rebelled once and to stand still and let them do it a second time is an odd way of securing the Government in the opinion of all that love it I would be glad the experience of these mens former Errours had made them change their Principles and that we might have but a just occasion to commend the Modesty and Ingenuity of the men of that way That their whole Character in the Sermon were a lye and the design of it needless That they would post merit the former act by their Repentance and by their amendment stand in no need of another This This is the method the Apostle does prescribe to divert the Princes Anger verse 3. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the Power do that which is Good The way to avoid the severity of their displeasure is to live in obedience to their Laws And thou shalt have praise of the same The end of that verse And those whom the Conscience of Religion and the Love of their Prince cannot make so Fear and the Penal Sanctions of the Law must be tryed with verse 4. If thou do that which is evil be afraid And as 't is their fault they don't do their duty so 't is the Princes if he does not punish them in neglecting Gods Trust and his own Right for he beareth not the Sword in vain Two things I have propounded to discourse to you from the words I have chosen The Power and Authority of the Civil Magistrate particularly in reference to the punishing of Offenders and His Duty and Office in the Regular discharge of that Trust and due Improvement of that Power Without the former all Government would be nothing but Violence and Vsurpation and without the latter Vain and Ridiculous The Rise and Origine The Expedience and Necessity And The Extent and Latitude of this Power In the first Place therefore as to its Rise and Origine for as in Science that is the best way of Demonstrating the Effects by the Cause or as in Nature all the perfections of a Plant are contained in its Seminal Principles in like manner if we can but discover and fix upon the first cause of the Magistrates Power we shall be easie able to trace it down to all the branches Settle but this Foundation and we need not fear all that stately Structure will remain secure against the Assaults and Batteries of the Plebeians and Hobbists both of which proceed upon one and the same Anarchical Principle making the People the Fountain of all Power In contradiction to both I do assert That all Dominion and Sovereignty is Original in God to whom our Subjection is the
Result of our Being and from which it does immediately and inseparably arise which cannot be said of any earthly Potentate whatsoever to whom notwithstanding their respective Subjects owe a Natural Inviolable Allegiance Yet it is not the Immediate Consequence of our Being which were to assign them a Supremacy equal to Heaven and Independing upon God himself All Pretentions therefore of Superiority and Dominion must plead their derivation from him or else they manifectly intrude upon his Prerogative and Usurp his Throne And this is plainly asserted in the first verse of this Chapter every power saith the Apostle i. e. which is rightly ordained and Constituted for that 's the difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of God nor is it invalidated by St. Peter calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a humane Ordinance so called either to denote the Laws and Ordinances by them made or to determine it expresly and particularly to the heathen Magistrate as Dr. Hammond has noted upon the Eighth Chapter to the Romans Or else it belongs only to the particular form of Administration of Government which no body Contends for their Divine Right Though the Monarchical bid thus far towards it to the intimation of Nature and Example of God Nor is this any Diminution of the Magistrates Authority to make it thus derivative but rather its security For by this reason no sooner shall God intimate and discover such delegation of any part of his Power and Sovereignty over us to them but we become Subject upon the account of Religion i. e. All our Obedience to the Civil Magistrate is a part of our duty and but a mediate Expression of our Homage and Allegiance to God himself Now the wayes by which God is pleased to signifie this delegation of his Power are either by the Light of Nature as that Children should Obey their Parents or by Revelation as in the Founding of the Kingdomes of Israel and Judah or by his Ordinary Providence in directing the Civil Administrations of the World For now know I and am as determinable hereby that I ought to obey this person who is thus Regularly Constituted according to the Municipal Laws of this Land as if he were miraculously advanced thereto or immediately reveal'd to be so Which account of Government is the most Sacred and Inviolable that can be If you please now let us Examine the other Hypothesis according to Mr. Hobs's Principle And First What ground has he to lay that wild and extravagant supposition of his state of Nature to avoid which inconveniency Men entred into Society and Government Admitting God had made a very great number of persons at first this might have given some Colour to such a fancy But we are assur'd the Creation was begun in a single person and afterwards to be propagated in such a way that all Men in the World must necessarily be born in some subjection antecedent to their consent and choice Besides what unworthy Conceptions must we have of the divine Goodness in making it the Author of such a Nature by which every Man was endued with such Rights and Principles to mischief and hurt every body else This State Heresie makes Princes very unsecure For besides the debasing their Authority for they 're indebted to their Subjects for their Power and beholding to them for their Crownes it does also leave their Subjects and that 's the use they make of this Doctrine aright of Recovering their Liberty when they are able and Rebelling when ever they can have a fit opportunity For it Self Love and Preservation be the ground and measure of my parting with my Liberty then when these require or no longer bind my Compact's void and my Grant retracted 'T is true the due stateing of selfe Love and Preservation would somewhat mend the matter For I doubt not to say that so understood it may be as good a Rule and Measure of my Actions as any whatever but if we extend it no farther than Life and Members Princes have a very ill bargain on 't for their Subjects may Lawfully Rebel when they can And for this Cause his writings deserve to be burnt by the hand of the Common-hangman for if his Leviathan can but make men Atheists his Principles of Government will justifie and authorize if not make 'em Rebels Rebellion there can be no such thing there may be want of Success which men may be hang'd for like Lacedemonian Theft No! but if he prove a Tyrant and by Mal-administration forfeit the trust we repos'd in him this may alter the case It may In whose Opinion in the Opinion of Mariana or Knox Hobbs or Bradshaw i. e. In the Judgment of Papists Sectaries Atheists and Rebells and then also they must judge of the Fact too and we know what Justice to expect from such as Judge of Law and Fact both will you believe your Eyes instead of other Arguments look back but to Forty eight and you see the best King in the World Murthered by this very Engine Whereas the accompt I gave of it and which is agreeable to Scripture and the Church of England viz. that all obedience is due to God a part whereof God has required us to pay unto them in his name So that our obedience is not properly unto them but unto God as it does advance their Authoriey next to his so it renders it as sacred as that to himself and this is what we are taught in the Collect after the Decalogue where we are told that the King is Gods Minister and has his Authority the other makes him the Peoples Tool and that therefore we ought to obey him in God and for God By which means they are so secured though not in an unlimited Obedience which is another Malmsbury Chimoera yet from any manner of Resistance that 't is impossible there should be a Rebellion while the Principles of the Church of England are Rever'd and Owned Let us in the second place consider the Reason and Expediency of the thing that there should be such a Power and Government There is a plain and Absolute necessity of it without which there would soon follow what he has falsly made Precedent to Government A state of nature or Vniversal Hostility by which he understands an Original Right innate to us whereby we were inclined and authorized to do as much Mischief and Villany as we can If we would fancy a state of Nature preceding to Government we ought with more reason to suppose some Golden Age wherein all men lived peaceably one with another without doing wrong or injury to each other If such a state had been there would have been no need of Government as to the use of the Sword For order there must have been and some kind of Superiority and Subordination But now in this state of Corruption wherein men not by any Natural Right as he hath falsly imagined but by a vicious and inordinate
Licentiousness are become so prone and apt to do all those violences to which an unbridled Lust would lead them if there were no power antecedaneous to this state which must necessarily accuse Providence and destroy the essential difference between Good and Emil it would undeniably follow that men would be necessitated to enter into Societies to secure and preserve themselves But for which Atheists and Villains would live under the obedience of no other Laws and Rules but their own Wills and Lusts and the effects of want of Government would light most severe upon Good and Vertuous Persons For if I am tyed up by the aw of an invisible Power from doing wrong to any body and every one that lists may do me what wrong they please which would be the case of every good man in respect of every evil man under such an Universal Anarchy I say my condition must needs be very miserable for which reason it no less concerns wicked men also in respect of themselves to be secur'd from each other And this is one special Instance of Providence whereby it Rules the Beasts of the People as one Translation of the Psalms calls them such that is as are not awed by the sence of an invisible Power that regard no inward Ties and Obligations of Conscience but are acted and swayed like Bruits by the impressions of sensual Objects but the strongest Hold that Government has of us is by those secret and invisible tyes by which it bounds upon our Consciences for when all the other Respects and Conveniencies of Government fail this cannot It may be my advantage and I may have an opportunity to Rebel what should hinder me The Publick Good That 's no Rule of my Practice for in that respect what he said of any Peace we may say of any Government be it the most Tyrannical upon the Earth it is a far less evil than Anarchy But now take in the sence of my Duty and Obedience to God that will do it effectually If I make Conscience of being subject as I ought from which no circumstances of our Condition or any accidents or occurrences whatsoever can dissolve us so far as to resist i. e. unless which we are assured he never will God himself should revoke his Grant and alter the Princes Patent There remains one thing more for the establishing of the Civill Magistrates authority and that is to consider the Extent and Latitude of this power wherewith God hath Invested them Bishop Taylor 's Ductor Dubitant lib. 3. ch 3. Rule 1. And we must distinguish between Potestas Imperantis licita and legitima what a Prince may Lawfully i. e. Warrantably do and what he may do Legitimately i. e. Vnaccomptably to any but Almighty God In the Conjunction of both these consists the whole of their Supremacy In the stateing whereof my Design is not to set bounds and limits to the Exercise and Administration of their Power but to remove those restrictions and encroachments the Enemies of the King and the Church have made upon it The Church of England gives unto all Sovereign Princes the Supremacy in their respective Dominions as well over Spiritual as Temporal Persons and in Sacred as well as Civil Causes which we account not as an Act of Grace or any base flattering of Authority or fawning upon the Crown but 't is the expression of a just Debt and a bare Recognition of what is their undoubted Right giving them neither more nor less than what they always did enjoy except where the Popish Vsurpation or the Presbyterian Reformation have invaded it But most fierce Opposition hath this Doctrine met with from the Bigots of both those Parties the Guelphes and the Gibellines from Rome and from Scotland from St. Peter and St. Andrew the Papist and the Presbyterian who have hardly left any branch of their Supremacy unassaulted and unquestioned but either by Rebellious and Traiterous practices or by Monstrous and Damnable Positions have endeavoured to rend it from the Crown It has not scap'd quite in temporals For how is he Supream if he be Minor Vniversis if he may be resisted in the Tyrannical and Exorbitant use of his Power if he may be Depos'd Murdered which we may reckon under the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strange and monstrous Doctrines 13 Heb. 9. 1 Tim. 4.1 or rather under his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doctrines of Devils Though I know the Learned Mede has another Notion of that place But especially they quarrel about the Potestas licita in Ecclesiasticis which the Romish Party and their Adherents will by no means endure either in reference to Persons or Things but subject them to their Decrees and Ecclesiastical Constitutions nay they are not only bound to a Personal but to a kind of Politick Obedience i. e. To enjoyn Obedience thereto from their Subjects and punish such as refuse or else they must be Excommunicated and their Subjects absolv'd Concerning which I shall only say in the Words of a very Reverend Prelate Kings and Princes are ty'd to obey the Laws of the Church by Religion but not by Power or Church-Censures and that is only in things which concern their essential Duty and not in the contingent External and Political Concerns of Religion which their Assent alone can pass into a Law So likewise for the Presbyterians for they are like Samson's Foxes their Faces are contrary to each other but they are ty'd fast together in the same mischeivous Design of putting the Church and Kingdom into Combustion and a Flame Nor is it possible to find any Difference between them herein but Pope for Synod and Synod for Pope They take upon them to appoint Fasts indict Synods decree Constitutions without and against Royal Assent and what they do of this kind he shall be concluded under too as well in his Politick as Personal Capacity For that 's the Meaning of his being Custos utriusque Tabulae he must see that all his Subjects in their several Orders obey and conform to their Injunctions and if he do's not he must be Admonished Excommunicated Depos'd The thing is too Notorious to Instance in passages of this kind in the many Writers of either side Betwixt both these I fancy Monarchy like St. Peter 12 Acts 6. lying bound between two Souldiers ready to be executed and were it not that the Constant and Steady Loyalty of the Church of Enland-Men like the Guardian-Angel there mentioned did from time to time rescue and preserve it you would soon see Monarchy in its Grave And therefore I admire at their Wisdom that could tell a Reason why the Prosecutors of one Side should be the Saviours and Deliverers of our Nation and those of the other the Grievance If Rebellious Principles and Practices be the ground of their Zeal and the reason of their prosecuting men wherein do's the adding of Presbyterian qualifie either unless Number and Interest make an Enemy less dangerous I confess
that is to say in opposition to Superstition in the second and prophaneness in the third All which concerned the particular and single worship of individual persons There wanted therefore a Law to appoint and govern the publick and solemn worship of Communities and Societies For of either of these truths I think there can arise but very little doubt viz. first that all men are obliged to worship and serve God not only in their particular capacity but also as members of some Church and Congregation And secondly That there is not any direct provision for this in any of the three preceding Laws which were sufficient and complete for the other Wherefore God Almighty took care to secure and direct that part of his Worship by a new Law wherein we have instructions not only how to behave our selves but how to govern our families and dependents So that if you take away the publickness and other things pertaining to the decency and solemnity of Religion you take away almost or altogether all that is directly and prâ—perly intended in the fourth Commandment and without this we leave the first Table uncomplete and but an imperfect digest of Divine Worship For say that God be to be worship'd truly and spiritually outwardly and corporally appropriate and discriminately there wants to be added publickly and solemnly And altho time be the only circumstance therein seemingly aimed at yet the Jews Rule who make it the head and measure of all Ceremonies and by the necessity of the thing we must include and comprize under the law of times places also and persons and modes as standing in equal relation to Gods Worship 2. Pass we next to the Evangelick Law and see what ground and authority we have for our assertion there I shall refer you but to one place which for the perspicuity and validity of it is irrefragable And that is that grand and Apostolical Canon in the first Epistle to the Corinthians Chap. 14. and last Verse Let all things be done decently and in order This is one of those two Rules or Laws by which the Governors of the Church are to be directed in the regulating and exercising of their Power The other is the good and benefit of those whom God has set 'em over Which rule you have enjoyned in the 15. Chapter to the Romans the 1. and 2. Verses Which two Rules have ends very differing though consisting well enough for the former seems to refer directly and immediately to God and his honor as the latter does to the Church and her benefit Now as 't is most evident that God Almighty took in both these under the Jewish Church appointing such Ceremonies as might prefigure the excellencies of our Redeemer and signifie the graces of Sanctification So likewise as appears by their multitude and riches he therein preserv'd and imply'd that decency which is requir'd in all Religion But because this way was subject to errors and mistakes God Almighty has not left us any longer to be govern'd by such measures as shadows and intimations but he has plainly declar'd not only his acceptance and allowance hereof but his will and pleasure to have it so by passing it into a direct Law So that to contend here about in thesi whether God ought to be worship'd decently and in order is neither more nor less than to controvert the Jurisdiction of Heaven and the authority of the Bible The only difficulty therefore must be touching the particular manner of expressing our decency of which certainly Reason Custom and the determinations of Authority must be constituted the fittest and most proper Judges and not the petulant fancy of such as are dispos'd to wrangle without which we do by an inevitable necessity render the Rule unpracticable for if either there be no Judg in such cases or which comes all to one if every body be permitted to be their own judges 't is impossible to conserve decency or order And look whatever inconveniencies may seemingly arise from this assertion of ours I am very sure there 's none that 's comparable to that disorder and confusion that would infallibly ensue and attend the want hereof And we soon saw the effects of such a Toleration for every body to do what seem'd right in their own eyes For when men came to be govern'd by their own Enthusiasms Good Lord what a Hotch-poch had men made of Religion And this no doubt would have been the consequence of it if that state of affairs had continued much longer we should have had so many till at length we had had no Religion name nor thing This mischief we did see in that time it did last they reduc'd Religion to that pass that it became generally distasted and the witty people of the Nation became Atheists and the inconsiderate turn'd Papists All which we ow'd to them who blunted the edg of Church Censures and stript Religion of her Ornaments and Ceremonies And these Modern Reformers had so refin'd Religion by their Spiritual Alchymy that we had almost lost it Suffer me to accommodate what has been said to the vindication of our Church in reference to her Ceremonious Institution The Ceremonies that are retained in the Church of England except those of the Sacraments which are of our Saviours own appointment and which he has made of immutable necessity are but very few and so admit of no pretence of cavil upon that account when by the multitude or intricacy of the Ceremonies the service is either clogg'd or obscur'd Which where it is is an abuse and ought to be reformed i. e. by those to whom of right it does belong and not by Schism Faction and Disobedience For I observe that never any Reformation that was managed by the populace whether in Church or State could possibly begin well or did ever end so And I account it a prime glory of ours that whatever tincture the springs might receive under-ground from the passions and interests of any it broke out at the Fountain of just Authority and then it descended like the streams of nature gentle and easie and not with the noise of a Cataract or the violence of an Inundation And for so much of it wherein Religion was immediately concern'd and was manag'd by the subordinate care and province of Church-men For the matter of the Revenues it belongs not to our present enquiry nor am I concern'd to solve the difficulties wherewith it 's press'd but for the other 't was impossible for men to have discover'd greater Characters of prudence and moderation in all those alterations they made both in Doctrine and Discipline It was not the least instance of their wisdom the retaining of those Ceremonies they did for the more orderly and decent administration of holy duties Those actions of our Governors must needs be justifiable in a high measure when both those ends or Rules which I laid down before are attended and secured tho either be sufficient if the other be not