from them both And if all other pretences for the continuance of a Schism were removed perhaps this founded in the difference of Opinion would be made a new one by our Dissenters for many of them reproach as they imagine some eminent Divines of the Church of England by imposing on them the name of Arminians Their Doctrines of Solifidianism Imputative Righteousness the Instruments of Justification c. though founded in mistakes and wrong acceptations of words were by many of them imbib'd and receiv'd with that confidence and assurance that they had not patience to hear them explain'd much less doubted of and if there were no Schisms occasioned by them in those times of their Reformation for it would puzzle even a good Ramist to Analyze the several subdivided Sects and their Opinions which that great confusion produc'd Yet how they aspers'd revil'd and persecuted one another upon that account is well known if not Mr. B. can inform any Man who desires it more fully 4. Not only difference of Opinion in matters of Religion but also in the Civil Government is sufficient to make a separation and division in the Church especially if any Authority in Ecclesiastical Affairs be assigned to the supreme Magistrate for that neither the Papists nor Presbyterians will allow him It hath been often observed that Rebellion in the State is usually attended with a Schism in the Church Jeroboam of old introduc'd Idolatry to continue his Revolt lest Union in one Religion and Communion in one Church should restore Loyalty in the Kingdom The Feuds betwixt particular Families arising from the ambitious Emulation of the Prince's favour The Faction between the Covenanters and the Anti-Covenanters in Scotland The Attempts of the Anabaptists in Germany and the Fifth Monarchy-men here in England to omit the most famous Faction between the Guelphes and Gibellines both Parties of the same Religion and other ancient and forreign Instances I shall give you one Example sufficient alone to prove my Assertion The Mountain Conventiclers in Scotland who having under pretence of Conscience separated themselves from the establish'd Episcopal Church and also subdivided themselves from the Presbyterian Dissenters followed select Teachers of their own which being prosecuted according to the Laws of that Country King Charles the Merciful indulged some of them and licensed them to Preach which when he had done and they accepted they who before could by no Authority Laws and Penalties be restrained from flocking to them in multitudes quite deserted them and refused to hear them Preach Such was their pretense of Conscience but indeed Zeal for the Covenant aversion to the King 's Monarchical Authority and Supremacy c. So that if there were not one Rite Ceremony Vestment Gesture c. if it were possible retained or used in our Church nor even the Liturgy it self nor any Constitutions and Canons in force Yet the Old Kirk and Common-wealth Principles beginning to be revived again and the Question being not as some short-sighted Clergy-men imagine about Rites Ceremonies Liturgy Vestments Constitutions and such like small and inconsiderable things but whether a King or Common-wealth if a King from whence shall his Power be derived how limited c There needs no more than that Opinion of the King's Supremacy and that Adherence and Loyalty to Monarchy which the Church of England was formerly renowned for to cause the Dissenters all which are against the King's Supremacy and many of them Men of Common-wealth Principles whose Fingers itch after the Crown and Church-Revenues to separate and continue their Schism from the Church the Quarrel being really and truly more Political than Religious and of this the War against and Execution of King Charles the First the Fanatick-Plot against the Life of King Charles the Second which perhaps they will say was the Action of but some few particular Persons and the Carriage Conversation Writings and Actings of the N. Cs. in general in those times ever since especially this and the last year the transactions lately in Scotland and their precipitate abolishing of the King's Supremacy there are sufficient evidences to any Man who is in his right Senses 5. Different persuasions concerning Ecclesiastical Discipline See◠〈◊〉 Enâ—â—â—â— Noâ—â—â— forâ—â—â— undâ—â—â— K. Câ— c. The Advocate of the Non-conformists as a reason of their Recusancy objects against Lay-Civilian's decreeing Persons to be excommunicated which he calls the exercising the Power of the Keys though this objection is absurdly urged by any Man who asserts the Presbyterian Model by Lay-governing Elders but the removal of this would do little to their satisfaction Neither would what the Author of the Healing Attempt proposes viz. In 〈◊〉 A condescending to settle the Power of Orders and Jurisdiction on Presbyters as well as Bishops according to the Learned Archbishop Usher 's Model c. satisfie them so long as there remain any Persons in our Church superior to them in degree the Power of Ordination and the exercise of Jurisdiction for that is not only inconsistent with their affected Parity but irreconcileable with that Vice gerency which they pretend as well as the Pope to derive from and hold under Christ as the Supreme Head of the Church Thus the Author of the Survey of Discipline tells them pag. 440 441. See 〈◊〉 Doâ—â—ame'â—â— fenceâ— the Sâ—â—â— c. 〈◊〉 6. p. 〈◊〉 They had said that your Discipline is the Kingdom of Christ wherein your Presbyters hold as it were Christ's Sceptre That the Question between the Bishops and You is about no less matter than this whether Jesus Christ shall be King or no c. Or more truly and plainly whether they shall be his Vice-Roys and as Popes over several Parishes Lord it over their Flocks As for Lay-Chancellors tho it is some deviation from the Primitive Times when Bishops with the assistance of their Colleges of Presbyters managed all Affairs yet the Christian Magistrate afterwards committing many Causes to Episcopal Audience Silvanus the Famous Bishop of Troas delegated them with approbation Soc. 〈◊〉 cap. 〈◊〉 to the hearing of Lay-Men However I believe all the Clergy and Lay-Men living in the Communion of the Church of England would be glad the Reverend Fathers of it by a personal execution of the Episcopal Office with their Cathedral College in all cases of Conscience Heresie Schism Crime and Scandal for their own sakes if not for their Church's would remove that Objection As for the Learned Archbishop Usher's Model every body knows it was not his judgment but invented as an expedient to prevent things from coming to the utmost extremities that it doth not settle any Power of Orders as is insinuated upon Presbyters or of Jurisdiction but what they have already and may exercise as to the substance of it by vertue of their Order our Rubricks confirm'd by Statute and our Canon besides that Model excludes the lately invented Lay-Elders and is as little reconcileable to the Congregational way into which most
Mischiefs to the Church 2. To the State 3. To Souls 4. To Piety 5. Mischiefs in promoting a mighty increase of Prophaneness and all kind of wickedness 6. Hindring a world of good 1. Pag. 11. Mischiefs to the Church Zeal for Mens devices begets in people a strange Levity of Mind makes them such triflers in Religion that they disregard the great Interests of God and his Church in the World They are not sensible of the desolations of Gods Churches in France Orange Piedmont the Palatinate Ireland c. It might be answer enough for me to say that all this is nothing to the purpose both because the Persecutions and Massacres in these several places were not made upon the account of external Ceremonies but partly upon a secular account and partly upon a religious where then Communion and Doctrines of the Church and not Ceremonies were controverted and because the Church of England doth not impose Ceremonies or Mens devices upon any under penalty of Persecution But I add that these instances disprove what they are brought to confirm for the desolations of God's Churches in France Piedmont c. are so far from proving that Zeal for mens devices begets in people a strange Levity of mind and makes them such triflers in Religion c. That they evince nothing or else the quite contrary that such as raise Persecutions upon the account of Religion are not Men of light Minds or Triflers in it or disregard the Interests of God and his Church though perhaps they prosecute them the wrong way and by undue Mothods for it is evident they if without sinister design pursue what they think to be God's and his Church's Interest more than their own The Kings of Spain weakened their Kingdoms and exhausted their Treasures by Banishing the Moors and erecting the Inquisition and the French King cannot be supposed to gain by the Flight of his Subjects their ceasing to trade and withdrawing their effects neither was it trifling they fled from Do you Sir who in the behalf of the Dissenters clamorous enough without assistance with open jaws set up the Cry of Persecution here in England and call the French King the Duke of Savoy their Armies Officers and Dragoons Triflers What the Church of England-men which this Pamphleteer abusively calls Zealots for these things did in reference to a Popish Successor was agreeable to their Principles both of Loyalty and Honesty They remembred that tho to do evil that good may ensue be a Doctrine received in the Church of Rome yet it is not so in the Church of England They well knew that an Act for Exclusion notwithstanding any Infallibility or Omnipotency a Parliament can pretend to would be still in it self unjust as contrary to the Laws of God and nature and to the Rules of Equity and common Reason void in it self as being contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the Land and the very Constitutions of the Monarchy and mischievous in its Events as that which would most certainly have involved these three Kingdoms in a most Bloody Civil War and perhaps have brought an Invasion from abroad in upon us to boot But behold the tender Conscience of our Dissenters they cry out of Persecution upon the Levying a small pecuniary mulct for the frequenting an unnecessary and seditious Conventicle in pursuance of divers Laws made by their own Representatives but would exclude an Hereditary Prince from his undoubted Right and Inheritance by a Law they were no ways authorized to make and involve three Nations at the least in a Bloody War and all the miseries attending it that so they might again swallow up the Crown Lands to maintain the Grandeur of their Hogan-Mogan-Ships in a new Common-Wealth and all this under pretence of the Preservation of the Laws Liberties and the Protestant Religion the name of which it is probable will grow as odious to after Ages as that of Popery is to us by reason of such who shroud all their ill designs and crimes under that usurped affected and abused Notion The Scripture is our only guide of Unity 〈◊〉 Uniformity is deformity and confusion when Men appoint other terms of Ministerial Service and Church-Communion than are prescribed in Gods Word If the Scripture is the only guide of Unity let our Author tell me why his Clients the Presbyterians Independents Quakers c. are not guided into Unity by it since they all have it and pretend to follow it and yet are far enough from Unity The Scripture it is true prescribes and commands Unity but never actually effected it without the interposition of Ecclesiastical Authority as in the Primitive Church Ecclesiastical and Civil as in the Reformation of our Church or Civil as in Spain by the Inquisition in France by Edicts c. That Uniformity is or can be deformity and confusion I shall think to be a contradiction till our Author shews how it can be reconciled Those terms of Communion which he intimates to be prescribed in Gods Word he would do well to shew us or tell us where we may find them if he can They would do more if clearly discovered and demonstrated towards the Union of our differences than a Thousand such railing Pamphlets and the Intrigues and Politick Desings contrived by Male-contents and as hotly pursued by such Tools as he for the involving us into the same miseries that followed upon the last Rebellion 2. 〈◊〉 3. Mischiefs to the State Zeal for Ceremonies begets in Men a contempt of Publick Rights and Boundaries This is a very strange discovery which our Author hath made but it is so incredible that he could not in reason have supposed that we should take it merely upon his Word Therefore he would have done well to have inform'd us farther how a Zeal for Ceremonies begets a contempt of Publick Rights whether by an Univocal or Equivocal Generation If any Man should argue thus This Man is zealous for Ceremonies therefore he contemns Publick Rights and Boundaries would not all Men wonder at the Inference The Consequence will better follow on the contrary side thus This Man disturbs the Peace and Order of the Church and makes no conscience of breaking the Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions and therefore it is probable that out of the same Principle of disobedience and humour of opposition he will contemn Publick Rights and Boundaries and all obligations of the Conscience to obedience set by the Civil Law also But our Author proceeds When they dote so much upon vanities in Worship as to inslave their Consciences and to despise their Christian liberty it is no wonder if they sell at any rate their own and others Civil Rights and Privileges Surely this is spoken of the Inhabitants of the Moon or some Utopian Countries for most Men here have as little Zeal and as much contempt or at least neglect of the daily Service of the Church as our Author supposes them to have of the Publick Rights and Boundaries
To joyn in the Publick Worship of the Establish'd Church though it be supposed there are Ceremonies and what he hath no less maliciously than falsly insinuated vanities in it would not be to despise our Christian liberty but to make use of it Whereas he who scruples it either is weak and thinks he hath no liberty in that case or which is worse is sullen and will not use it But suppose Men despise their Christian Liberty though I understand not how the Members of the Church of England can be said to do so will they sell therefore their Civil Rights and Privileges at any Rate I wonder our Author is not ashamed of such gross non sequitur's As for any indirect means which may be supposed to have been used in Juries Elections Corporations c. I think the Dissenters both in modesty and justice ought to have held their tongues as having by far exceeded the Conformists for as far as I could ever see hear read observe or learn they were much more diligent and industrious used more indirect courses and underwent greater fatigues to uphold and carry on a Faction against the Government and Laws than these some whereof being not so designing they usually drew over to their Party were either to maintain the Right or countermine their attempts The best course which can be taken to recover God's blessing the Church's Union and the Kingdom 's Peace Riches Wealth Strength and Reputation is not the Parliaments or rather some few turbulent Spirits strugling as our Author says with the Prince nor the maintaining an unquiet and never to be satisfied Faction to confront the Government or extort Privileges or Liberties from the King by the diminution of his Prerogative the glorying in the Doctrin of Resistance under the pretence of Preservation of the Protestant Religion and the Laws or the encouraging of Dissenters to make the Schism greater for these do but make one Party jealous of another and neglect the Publick Good to oppose each other but a true practical Piety towards God a Loyalty and quiet Subjection to the Prince and a permission of him to manage his own Province a Charity and mutual Love and Unity without interessing our selves in much less hating and separating from one another for our respective private Opinions and an industrious following every one his own lawful Vocation and Employment 3. Mischief to Souls Pag. 1◠For trifles there hath been exercised a mad Tyranny over Mens faculties This is that which cannot be made good for all Men have and since the times of Popery every Man had liberty by the Laws of England to be of any Judgment or Opinion he should think most probable and freedom for his faculties and the exercise of them where they could claim any right to do so in their own Houses and Families nor if a Friend Stranger Traveller or a Neighbor or two happened to be present was there any danger or penalty thereby incurr'd But that every Man under pretence of Conscience should therefore have liberty for all his outward actions and be allowed for his own private advantage to make publick Harangues to disturb the Peace and seduce his Neighbors by the propagation of a Schism dangerous to both Church and State is that which doth not follow even the Dissenters themselves when they had power in their Hands being Judges as appears by their carriage to the Clergy of the Church of England in the late times That a pretence of Conscience where nothing evidently sinful in it self is positively enjoyned will not justifie a Man in Schism or exempt him from Penal Laws as having a Right by the Law of Nature to be tolerated therein I shall imagine my self to have proved till I see farther The little things imposed are a means of depriving the Church of the Service of many useful Ministers that are apt to teach 〈◊〉 16. and would be glad to give the Bread of Life to those Souls that are by the Drones left in the broad way to destruction The Church of England wants not Ministers that are apt to teach but in some places Persons that will be taught and in others maintenance for the Teachers No place where there is a competent visible subsistence needs to want a Preacher Our Universities can supply another Kigndom In the mean time this needs none of their assistance if the Usurping Ministers and Encroaching Pastors would return the straying Sheep home to their own rightful Pastors and proper Folds whence designedly they have drawn them for their own advantage they would thereby do better Service to God his Church the Kingdom their own and the seduced and deluded Mens Souls than possibly they can any other way If any are Drones let them be amended or removed they may well be spared Ibid. Christ commands his Ministers to Preach and qualifies them for that Service Christ commands none to Preach but those which he calls by his Church and he who intrudes into the Sacred Office without an Ordinary Mission unless he demonstrates by Miracles an extraordinary one can shew no tolerable reason why he should not be esteemed and used as either an Euthusiast or Impostor neither can any qualifications though exceeding those of other Men which yet never have been found in them be reasonably laid in the balance with the Peace Order and Unity of the Church and the Love and Charity of the Neighborhood Our Author says in Page 17th The Ruin of Souls may be for want of the Labours of those able Ministers whom we exclude for toys I know none are excluded but such who exclude themselves and the more shame for them if they will be so humoursome and pettish as to shut out themselves because they cannot in every thing have their Wills and the more trivial the things objected are the more evident it is that somewhat else besides and more than Conscience which is pretended is the true cause of their Non Conformity But yet I can see no such great danger of the ruin of Souls more than now there is if they were as silent as they are clamorous Salvation in another sense than that in which it is usually taken being the common end of at least a great part of that noise and disturbance which is made by that Party and I heartily wish that their Hearers laying aside that blind zeal out-side Piety and unreasonable opposition to the Government both of Church and State in which they please themselves and whereby they are distinguish'd from other Men they would by the regular Piety Loyalty Peace Humility Obedience and Charity of their Lives convince the World of the excellency and sincerity of their Teachers 〈◊〉 18. 4. Mischiefs to Piety The most Learned Divines and the Wisest States-men in the World are but bunglers when they take upon them to add unto Gods Worship what he hath not appointed If our Author either could or would tell us what Worship God hath particularly appointed
Lords Day hath met with many and great Enemies among the Ritualists Pag. 〈…〉 I know of no Men in the Church of England that are Enemies to the Lord's Day and if any such there are they never learn'd it from their Mother It sufficeth to my purpose that nothing is constituted or used in our Church to hinder or discountenance the most pious and religious observation of it but so far on the contrary that our publick Worship is appointed to be every where observed on it Neither am I or any other in her Communion I suppose against the most strict and Christian observation of the whole day which is reconcileable to the necessities and infirmities of this life provided always that it be not accounted nor used as a Jewish Sabbath nor observed by way of obedience to the fourth Commandment of the Decalogue The Scripture hath its share of contempt from Ceremonialists Pag 〈…〉 of the truth hereof the Impositions of Rome are a full proof What are the Impositions of the Church of Rome to us Who is bound to justifie all things in use in that Church Let our Author if he be at leisure and so please try his hand with them and see what Defence they will make As to us either let Men write to the purpose or not trouble themselves abuse the ignorant and harden the prejudic'd or tell us particularly which are those Impositions which are Terms of Communion and which are Scriptural and unscriptural or otherwise he and such like who make precarious suppositions and from thence deduce Inferences as much inconsequent must expect to hear that their pretended preciseness is childish and the wresting alledged places of Scripture from their genuine senses to their own purposes is no other than impertinency which is no reflection on the sacred Scripture but on those superstitious and scrupulous Persons who desiring to seem more holy than others raise doubts under pretences of Conscience and to appear more wise and understanding in the Scriptures as if they could see those things there which no Man could ever do before quote them tho improper to prove what they design 2. 〈…〉 4. Mischiefs in promoting an increase of all kind of wickedness What our Author says upon this Head is of a piece with the rest of his Pamphlet magisterial assertions without Proof or Reason precarious suppositions and idle beggings of the Question intermix'd with scurrilous reflections is stuff'd with bitter Railings 〈…〉 These are part of his words The most immoral Men if they did pretend zeal for Ceremonies and were furious against Dissenters did pass for good Christians and true Sons of the Church I might as well viz. with no less truth and reason say that amongst the Dissenters The most immoral Men if they did pretend zeal against Ceremonies and were furious against Conformists did pass for good Christians in their own phrase true Professors and the seriously Godly and in the Dialect arriv'd here the last year sound Protestants and with at least equal pretence subjoin his words 〈…〉 This false measure hath hardened abundance in their evil ways mightily cherish'd and increas'd Vice in the Land If he is not satisfied with this way of answering let him alter his way of writing when he can make good his words I shall easily do mine He adds Conformity to Ceremonies hath been a Cloak that hath covered the most filthy Abominations Had this been true Dissenters would never have been so numerous The changing one word putting Opposition for Conformity and reading it thus Opposition to Ceremonies hath been a Cloak that hath covered the most filthy Abominations will make the Sentence much truer and this Assertion of mine needs no other proof than the allowance of what he insinuates plainly enough in these words A Ceremonial War hath been once fatal to Clergy men 〈…〉 7. 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 2 to be true They assure us That the Rebellion against King Charles the First was raised to oppose Ceremonies and elswhere to the same purpose the words are plain and admit of no other interpretation I therefore challenge him to give the like instance or proof of Conformity to Ceremonies being a Cloak to cover the most filthy Abominations 〈…〉 which if he doth he shall carry his Cause 6. Hindring a world of Good It cannot be proved that Ceremonies in Worship ever did any good 〈◊〉 25. We in the Church of England as I have said have no Ceremonies in use or enjoined in our publick Worship unless kneeling at Prayers and standing at the Creed and Gospel he called Ceremonies and if they be they may do so much good as to testifie our inward humility and devotion in the one our resolution to stand by maintain and defend the other and our Communion with the Primitive and divers Modern Christian Churches in both and this if Men were not contentious though short might be a satisfactory account of two ancient and Catholick and even in themselves decent Postures What good more would our Author have of them They hinder Reformation Love and Communion of Churches 1. They hinder Reformation In the Reformation of the Church of England from the Novelties and corruptions in Doctrines and Practices tending to Idolatry Superstition and Schism from the Primitive and Catholick Church of Christ great care was taken to prevent the Papists still continuing in the Communion of the Church of Rome from accusing us of injustice and perverseness in abolishing any thing which was innocent and decent in it self made venerable by Antiquity and Catholick by the use of the Universal Church or merely because they used it which prudent and Christian moderation as it was designed to justifie our Reformation from the imputation of Schism or unnecessary separation and prevent the giving a scandal to them or throwing a stumbling-block before them which might hinder their coming over to our Communion So it was attended with so good success that it became more generally and universally received through this Kingdom than in those places where it was brought in by force and accompany'd with Tumults and Rebellions as in Scotland Switzerland the Low-Countries c. Insomuch that had not that politick King of Spain Philip II. prevail'd with the Pope by his Bull to prohibit the Roman Catholicks here in Queen Elizabeth's time to frequent our Churches it is with great probability conjectur'd that her happy Reign would so far have out liv'd Popery as that it would no more have been openly professed in this Kingdom And agreeably hereunto I remember a Clergy-man of my Acquaintance who liv'd some years in Ireland affirmed in my hearing that if Kneeling at the Sacrament the use of Godfathers and the Sign of the Cross at Baptism were abolished in Ireland it would breed such a prejudice in the Irish a People very tenacious of their first Principles against the Protestant Religion that they would very hardly be brought over to it and that one of the
I who make no pretensions that way shall not though perhaps I might with a greater probability contradict him but rather wish that he and many others whose ambition it hath been to be thought wiser than more modest Men had been more sparing both in the interpretations of Prophecies in such a manner and in uttering their own Imaginations and Whimsies in such terms as have encouraged some unjudicious and credulous Persons by the like phanciful application of the fulfilling of them to themselves to attempt strange things to the disturbance of our Church's and the Kingdoms Peace the Emotions of the Anabaptists in Germany long since and the Fifth-Monarchy-men in England in the time of King Charles the Second are such evident instances hereof that I need name no more I could be heartily glad that that expression of his to them 〈◊〉 31. It depends much on your pious Counsels to calm the storms that rage in some Men's minds to heal our breaches c. were true tho for a far better more generous and Christian end than that which he adds To make us a terrour to our Enemies and wish that our Author to prove it would give us an instance of the Efficacy of their pious Counsels by the future calmness of the storm that so lately rages in his own Mind and in his Disciples 5. 〈◊〉 35. The danger that threatens us in the continuance of Ceremonies in the Worship of God We are threatened with a double danger present and future 1. Our present danger this may be set forth in three Particulars 1. The continuance of these things will bring upon us the contempt and hatred of the People It was well enough because plainly and honestly confess'd and the motive allow'd sufficient for the writing of a Play which the Comedian acknowledges in his Prologue Poeta cum primùm animum ad scribendum appulit Id sibi negotî credidit solùm dari Populo ut placerent quas fecisset fabulas But it ill becomes a Divine to plead for any alterations in the worship of God by arguments drawn from worldly Interests and Advantages even the favour of a Prince much less of a Populace one single Reason deduced from the Peace and Union of the Church were it to be this way attained as it never will after the greatest condescensions alterations and abolitions our Author or a more furious Phanatick if any such there be can propose in the balances of the Sanctuary which only are to be used by the Church would infinitely outweigh all such considerations And I may add that the continuance of these things is so far from the bringing upon us the hatred and contempt of the People that on the contrary the abolishing of them would most certainly and upon far juster grounds do it as being Persons of levity and inconstancy in our religious Worship and making it truckle to our worldly Interests and designs men that have not hitherto been in earnest with God or the World who prostitute their Consciences to the pleasure of others and are contented for advancement to make themselves ridiculous by giving the Lye to all their publick Professions Declarations Subscriptions Defences Vindications and use of our Church-Customs and Constitutions The Dissenters doubt of the lawfulness of our terms of Communion and therefore cannot yield to us 〈…〉 but we may with ease and innocence condescend to them in quitting Impositions not appointed by God What our Author means by terms of Communion and Impositions not appointed by God who can tell he having no where told us but while he intimates the former to be unlawful and the latter to be so innocently easily and advantageously parted with he doth but beg the Question If it were enough to say the Dissenters doubt of the lawfulness of our Church Customs and Constitutions and therefore cannot yield to us by equal reason it may be sufficient to return we doubt of the lawfulness of parting with them and therefore cannot yield to them However when our Author and his Clients the Dissenters shall shew unto us what and which are by us made terms of Communion and are unlawful as also which are the Impositions that are and are not appointed by God and when he and they are come to an agreement amongst themselves and give us security to be all concluded by it then I dare engage the Church of England will joyn with them and do what they would have done in the mean time it is not rational to talk of an Union since no Man knows what will please them The Bishop of Salisbury's Exhortation is very good but I think it should more properly have been directed to the Dissenters for it is in their Power only to heal the wounds and close the Schisms they have to say no worse unnecessarily made by their own voluntary separation from us but in ours it is not tho we should give away our Ceremonies our Liturgy our Churches our Consciences and our Lives Our Brethren have according to the Act of Indulgence subscribed our Doctrine 〈…〉 and are thereby incorporated into the Church of England Except I see the Subscriptions of our Author's Brethren or at the least receive it from far better Testimony than his Pamphlet I shall not believe that they have subscribed the Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England for I never remember such an instance of their Obedience to Authority and it is difficult to leave an old ill custom but if it be true then they have thereby approved of our Ordinations Creeds and consequentially of our Ceremonies also yet are they not thereby incorporated into the Church of England for incorporation into a Church doth not depend upon believing or testifying that belief by subscription of some few Principles in Religion which perhaps may so be elected and composed that Papists Lutherans Calvinists Arminians Independents c. which hold not mutual communion amongst themselves may subscribe them but in being baptized in it as to Infants and in living in actual Communion in the Word Sacraments Prayers and other Publick Offices with it as to the adult and faithful Suppose they did all subscribe the whole 39 Articles and agree with us in the substantials of our Religion 1 〈◊〉 3 〈◊〉 which are only worth contending for is it not a plain Argument of their pride carnality and disobedience that they will make a Schism and separate from our Communion upon the account of order and decency and the use of such things as they themselves cannot say are unlawful Who and what Party used to obstruct Affairs in Parliament he needs no Information who can remember the Reign of King Charles II. But to charge some Clergy-men and Priest ridden Gentlemen with the obstructing the Affairs of Parliament hindering the Relief of Derry c. can be looked upon nothing less than a malicious slander till he names the Men and proves the thing if he can do either or both of them let him
Our future danger from the continuance of Ceremonies and that in respect of the account we must give to our Judge Our Author it seems would have the World believe that we have many or at least some very dangerous Ceremonies in the Church of England whereas except kneeling and standing are such as I have already observ'd and his tautologies have often forc'd me to repeat there are no Ceremonies enjoyned to be observed by the Congregation in our Publick Worship and all the Ceremonies the Clergy are appointed by our Church to use in all her Publick Offices joyntly taken if Ceremonies are taken in that sense in which they include not Baptism and the Holy Communion exceed not three and those three are so inoffensive in themselves and innocent in their signification that none of the Dissenters could ever yet prove them unlawful and our Author who hath shewn malice enough by his railing thought fit to pass over that Topick in silence retained for so good ends and purposes and tend so much and evidently to Devotion Decency Order and Uniformity the Piety and Wisdom of our Reformers in reserving them and only them out of such a Multitude deserve not only to be commended but admired neither is it to be supposed that those Holy Men most of which either dyed or suffered Banishment in the Cause would clog and burthen that Doctrin and Reformation with evil or unprofitable Ceremonies which they were forced to espouse with the utmost peril of their Lives and Fortunes How will you at that day lift up your Faces before your Master and your Judge when he shall demand of you what is become of those his Lambs 〈…〉 which you drove into the Wilderness by needless Impositions Instead of other answer to this Question I shall ask another How will you O ye dissenting and seducing Teachers at that day lift up your Faces before your Master and your Judge when he shall demand of you what is become of those his Lambs which you have enticed and enveigled away from their own proper Pastors and Folds into the Wilderness by your needless oppositions to things lawful and indifferent by your perverse separation from a decent Establish'd Order and by your scandalous Schism from my true Church and making mischievous divisions in it Româ— 17 â—â— upon the specious pretence of Conscience when the true inward Motives were pride sensuality and interest and the effects have been prejudices censures malice railings seditions rebellions c To conclude notwithstanding all those dreadful denunciations of vengeance that our Author useth to affright our Clergy or the Members of our Church I doubt not but that it will be far more tolerable both for our Reformers who continued our present Rites and Ceremonies and the Clergy who since did and yet do use them in the Day of Judgment than for those who out of Pride and Interest oppose them upon their account make an unnecessary Separation from the Church or like our Author seditiously and schismatically libel the Government and Church to encrease the Enemies and endanger the Peace of both Some Considerations on the Author 1. HAD not our Author by an ambiguous if not fictious Subscription obtruded himself upon the World for a Clergy-man of the Church of England I should as well as others for ever as I did a long time have let his Pamphlet lye neglected upon the Booksellers Shop windows as being what the Title Page shews it a fardle of malice and railing prejudice and passion for such usually are the Pamphlets of our Adversaries and therefore fitter to be answered by silence and contempt than any other way If we take liberty to wave the Subscription and judg of the Author by his work he seems to be really though disguised a Jesuit or at least a Regular of some other Order in the Romish Church Commissioned as an Emissary and sent hither to disturb our Peace and this we may the more readily believe if we remember That the Church of Rome esteeming the Church of England because so like the Primitive both in Doctrine and Discipline and the only Church able to convince her of her corruptions and novelties her greatest and most invincible Enemy which since her Champions could neither by their Pens confute 〈…〉 nor by their Swords destroy they made it their business to weaken by divisions pursuant to which proposed Method long since in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign they set patterns to the Dissenters to make long extemporary Prayers to decry set Forms rail against our Liturgy Ceremonies the pretended corruptions of our Church and Popery it self for which good service one Faithful Comyn 〈…〉 in particular was rewarded by the then Pope with 2000 Ducats On the same errand were many other Jesuits sent over into these Kingdoms in the Reign of King Charles I. which how well they succeeded is but too well known And our Author following the same labour it is but rational to suppose him set on work by the same Master carrying on the same design and expecting the same issue and hoping for the same or the like reward 2. Or since the Pamphlet contains weak or rather no Arguments but instead thereof strong calumnies its Style is Fanatick-cant intermixt with down-right scurrilous railing and is with no less impertinence than conceited confidence proposed to the Convocation we may suppose our Author to be some small retailer of the Geneva-Discipline and Government who having read a Systeme or two where that Model is laid down as Orthodox Divinity is therewith so captivated and possessed with it that all others must be censured condemn'd and abolish'd to make room for it and being fully persuaded of the truth of those notions he judges every thing lawful or unlawful as it suits or disagrees with them neither will the subscription though in unusual terms By P. M. a Minister of the Church of England make it much less probable for Presbyterians besides an envy to the Episcopal Order because it is superior to their own and Antimonarchical Principles may have learned of their elder Brethren the Jesuits the useful art of Equivocation by virtue whereof our Author if he believes his own words in pag. 36. Our Brethren meaning the Dissenting holders forth have according to the Act of Indulgence subscribed our Doctrine and thereby are incorporated into the Church of England perhaps may think it in some sense to be reconcilable to truth and to this conjecture the use of that affected word Minister which as in use formerly in the Jewish Synagogue 〈◊〉 20. signified him who kept the Book and prompted the Reader according to its derivation a Servant and in the Christian Church a Deacon or Alms Keeper adds a great probability 3. But if our Author be really such as he designs to be thought a Clergy-man in the Church of England though a Minister or Deacon in the lowest Station he hath degenerated yet lower and become guilty of the
Ambition Envy and Avarice of their pretendedly conscientious but really designing c. Enemies that the tottering Monarchy tho never so desirous because obliged in interest c. will not be able to rescue them from becoming their Prey What I have said by way of consideration or answer to any particular expression of our Author's Pamphlet or of the whole in general or of himself you are allowed to judge of as after an impartial reading of it you shall find cause If you shall imagine that any Passages I have used concerning Dissenters are too harsh my Apology is that all I have said concerning them is reconcileable with that charitable opinion I have always had viz. that many of them are good Men who yet are too credulous and with a Faith too implicite follow their designing Teachers not knowing the danger of their living in Schism That my accidental circumstances have occasioned me to know that sort of People very well and that I have taken great care not to do them any wrong by a Mis-representation but on the contrary in this imperfect Pourtraicture have been cautious and out of pure kindness have very sparingly used such proper colours as I knew would make the draught to the life for fear of making it too ruthful a Spectacle CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PUBLISHER's PREFACE TO THE READER WHETHER our Author 's pretended Friend the Publisher hath not by an imitation of his own prevarication instead of a real commendation mock'd him with an Irony when he called him a Man of Excellent Principles and Healing Temper let the Learned judg The tripartite reflection he makes upon the Clergy of the Lower House of Convocation as being Men of hot Thoughts crude Judgments and four Humours they may either take quietly amongst themselves if true or if otherwise answer as they please being of age to speak for themselves I should have pass'd it by had he not made another more general worse design'd and a more malicious one wherein he attributes the not proceedings of the said House and their not consenting to the pulling in pieces our Liturgy Articles Canons Act of Vniformity c. to the peevishness ignorance and dissaffectedness of some of the Clergy to the present Government and all this such is the Modesty and Conscience of the Man without any reason or proof but ushered in with a foolish and unmannerly Confidence I doubt not This Epistoler having a large Talent in Railing is not only very free in the exercise of it but is so rude and uncivil as to impose the Belief of his Calumnies upon his Readers and cause them to read the following Pamphlet with as much prejudice against the Clergy as it is written with malice against our Ceremonies and Church Constitutions He would no less falsly than malicioufly represent all those who are well satisfied with the Church to be dissatisfied with the Government Though how it can be inferred that those Clergy men that sincerely declared their Assent and Consent to the Book of Common-Prayer c. and are not willing that they should be abolished either in the whole or in part are therefore disaffected to the Present Government it is not very easie to apprehend How absurd is it to suppose every body who approves of the Church's Doctrine and Discipline to be disaffected to the Civil Government when the King hath declared his approbation of them and promised to protect the Church as now by Law Established and the Queen joyns with him in his Communion with it Must they not therefore according to our Publisher be disaffected to their own Government However though I believe this Publisher was not aware of it that supposition if true would cast a vile reflection on the late Revolution as being really in lieu of what was pretended the Preservation of that Government in the State which was agreeable to the Doctrines and Discipline of the Church the Introduction of another so opposite thereunto that he who adheres to his former Faith and Church Service must be therefore supposed to be disaffected to it And that all the Clergy and all others who in pursuance of our Statutes have sworn never to endeavour any alteration in the Government of Church or State must be supposed to be either perjured or disaffected to the Government The greatest part of the Clergy or rather all the Benefic'd Clergy in the Kingdom some few particular Persons only being excepted The Divines and others in the two Universities the Members of the House of Commons in the Late Convention and Present Parliament and almost all others thereunto obliged have given sufficient evidence of their affection to the Present Government by their taking the Oaths and yet it is rationally supposed that by far the greater part of all these as also of the Nobility and other Gentry in the Kingdom by reason of the present satisfaction of their Judgments their former Obligations the apprehensions of the many and great damages and inconveniencies which naturally follow all frequent changes in Religious matters and which accidentally would follow these and many other weighty Considerations are against such alterations in the Church-Service and Government as by Law established But some Men are too malicious and designing to be long quiet civil or satisfied with any Persons or things or in any circumstances It hath been the usual practice and policy of Fanatick Schismatical and Seditious Spirits appearing under the Vizor of Purity and Zeal to asperse and calumniate all Sober Sincere Honest and Loyal Persons the only preservers of our Monarchies and Church's Peace who would not concur with all the extravagant humors and sudden motions of the Mobile when actuated by the Jesuits Enthusiasts or intriguing Common-Wealths Men in order to disgrace them and advance themselves in the esteem of the Vulgar Thus in the Reigns of King Charles I. and II. to effect their designs they imposed on them the Names of the Popish Party Cavaliers Malignants Pensioners Court-Faction c. And now those of Popishly-affected disaffected to the Present Government Well-wishers to King James in the more civil and in the more factious and supposed odious terms Jacobites And this Machiavellian Principle of calumniating is so well learned and practised by our Dissenters that neither herein nor in equivocations pretences of Conscience Hypocrisie Oppositions to Monarchy breeding of mischiefs disturbances and divisions in Church and State shall the Jesuits need to be ashamed of the proficiency of their Scholars And this as many other evil Artifices recommends either the inclinations and ingenuity of the Learners or its easiness in being learn'd for not only the Author himself of this thundering zealous Pamphlet but even the Broker of it this small Publisher and confederate retailer hath arrived at that perfection in it that I am content to own my self little able or willing either to contend with him for the superiority herein or to retaliate CONSIDERATIONS On a Late PAMPHLET INTITULED The Vanity Mischief and Danger
of continuing Ceremonies in the Worship of God Humbly proposed to the Present Convocation c. THat An English-man never knows when he is well is a Proverb which we use at home and wherewith we are reproach'd abroad and that too justly to be denyed applicable both to single Persons and conjunct Societies the tendency of Affairs in this Nation since the Year 1640. beyond all possibility of contradiction doth evince The Subjects of this Kingdom through the Grants of former Kings and by virtue of the good Laws by them enacted and made were better secured in their Rights Properties and Persons than any other Nation of the Universe Nor were they less happy as Christians living in the bosom of a Church whose Faith was Catholick Government Apostolical whose Publick Liturgy Constitutions and Canons in perfection excell'd those of any of the Reformed or any other then Visible Church whose Clergy were esteem'd the wonder of the World Hence the envy of the Roman and the admiration of the Reformed Churches Such was then the condition of the English Church and State that it was hard to imagine what could be thought wanting to compleat their happiness unless perhaps you will say their being sensible of it But not knowing when they were well they by God's just permission actuated by the Romish Emissaries who took advantage of the ambition and covetous Inclinations of some and of the discontented and restless Spirits of others involv'd the Nation in a most odious and unnatural Rebellion the Violences Cruelties and Murthers which accompany'd and the Oppressions Usurpations Tyrannies Plunderings and Miseries which follow'd it are too many to be numbred too woful to be rehearsed and such as any Man in his right Wits would for ever be caution'd by to avoid as the worst of evils any actions means or methods whereby the like may again be brought upon us And yet as if Men were led by destiny or guided by those ludicrous Spirits which our Author supposes play little tricks in disturb'd houses and others learned in those matters think set Men together by the ears as they do Cocks and Dogs for their own diversion they seem industriously to lay the Foundations of future troubles to return to 1640. and to be willing to react the same Tragedy and that before the Epilogue is ended and the Actors all gone off the Stage Hither tend most of our new Scriblers and their Pamphlets some devesting the King of all Inherent Sovereign Authority Supremacy and Prerogative c. Others representing our Monarchs of the last Race as the most Monstrous and Wicked Villains that ever liv'd and under the pretence of Secrets relating things not only incredible in themselves but if supposed yet impossible to be known to any but Pimps and Persons if any such there be of a more odious Character thereby endeavouring to possess the People with an ill opinion of the Persons of Kings in order to prepare them for the dissolution of the Monarchy Essays tending to the same purpose have been also made against the Church designing Men having unjustly slander'd her Divines as inclined to Popery and popishly affected till in King James's time to their no less glory than hazard they appeared the greatest if not the only Champions in the Cause of our Religion and the Laws and thereby made all future calumnies of that sort appear too unjust and malicious to be used How is it to be wished that our Enemies malice could have had an end But alass though they thus were forc'd to change the Object yet they have retained the Vice Nothing will please them they will never be quiet now our Rites and Ceremonies must be illegitimated our Liturgy circumcised our Subscriptions Constitutions and Canons all abolished to gratifie those who if all these things were done would be as little satisfy'd as now they are Our Author their Adversary betrays too much Passion before the things themselves and their consequences are well considered he is all upon the fret and out of all patience to be pulling down the whole Ancient and therefore venerable the well compact and firm Fabrick of the Church of England which having been of full proof against all the assaults of our Foreign Roman Foes must now be undermined by her domestick Enemies and what is yet more intolerable her own pretended Friends by an easie surrender of her outworks make her main strength less tenable and precipitate her ruin Our Author like a Man full of design or big with some conceit of his own or News heard from others breaks out and with abundance of concern and passion thus vents himself It is the wonder and grief of all good English Protestants Pag◠〈…〉 that such an unaccountable frenzie should possess and hurry some hot Clergy Men amongst us with a blind zeal against the good proposals of Peace prepared by the Kings Commissioners in the Jerusalem Chamber If by all good English Protestants he means the Men of the Church of England as by Law Established to whom that Name borrowed from the Lutherans who at Spire in the Year 1529. protested against the Corruptions and Usurpations of the Church of Rome whose Communion they then forsook more properly than to any other People in England belongs both because they are an Establish'd and Visible Church and because all Sectaries whatsoever among us hold more in common with the Papists than they do then his assertion is too general to be true Many and perhaps the most and wisest admire what an unaccountable frenzie should hurry some hot Church-Men amongst us with a blind Zeal against that Pious Good and above all extant the most Perfect Liturgy to which and all things therein contained and prescribed they have all once at the least declared as they then pretended their unfeigned assent and consent or against that Government in Church which as far as we can understand by the Scriptures was Instituted by our Saviour which the Ancients assure us was propagated together with the Christian Faith by the Apostles and their Successors and which the continual Succession of the Catholick Church of Christ for now more than 1600 Years hath delivered to us and those wholsome Constitutions which the Wisdom and Experience of the Learned and Grave Fathers of our own Church relation being had to those of elder times also have produced and the Civil Laws of the Land confirmed unto us As for His Majesties design in giving a Commission to some of our Reverend Fathers and Divines to prepare things for Peace and calling of a Convocation c. Who ever blamed it though as to the Method it must be supposed that the unseasonable precipitancy and preposterous Zeal of some in the Late House of Commons to gratifie their dissenting Friends by an Act of Toleration hath prevented even those few good Fruits which they who are acquainted with that sort of People expected from it but of this afterwards I shall here only add that this would be too
Russel Sydney Cornish c. A strange piece of Theology fathering that upon the just and merciful God which a Magistrate or Judge of but common honesty would not have said of himself were it but for shame I challenge the Author whoever he is to give any tolerable sense of that Expression at the peril of his Reputation In the mean time I shall pass them over adding only in the behalf of the Religion Laws and justice of the Nation That the Earl of Essex's death is to be lamented but to be made no other use of till it be better known how it was compassed if he died by his own hand we ought not to judg him but leave him to stand or fall to his own Master if by the hands of others Why do not they who long since pretended the Murther was detected bring the Murtherers to Justice hanging is too good for them And of the Lord Russel Mr. Sidney Alderman Cornish c. I am not willing to say much perhaps they had hard measure and suffered summum jus but the title of Glorious Champions for our Religion and Laws I cannot allow them for I think they neither designed nor used the proper or lawful means or Methods to be so It cannot properly be said of any Man who after a legal Trial is condemned by a Court of Justice legally authorized to take cognizance of the Crime whereof he is accused that he was murthered no though he was malitiously sworn against and not guilty of the Crime for which he suffered for then the fault is in the Evidence and not in the Court Some Credit certainly is to be given to the justice of any Nation as such much more of a Nation where Christianity is profess'd and every Man concerned in it upon his Oath When the Papists accuse this Nation of persecution for Religion and Sanguinary Laws and boast of their Martyrs as they call them and say they died for the Catholick Faith and a good Conscience We produce their Trials our Records and Chronicles to prove that those very Jesuits and Seminary Priests of which they speak were attainted of High Treason or Felony and executed for the same and expect belief 2. 〈◊〉 ◠4 It is a vain thing to attempt the continuance of Ceremonies Wise Men when they are earnest in the prosecution of any Affair aim at some end that may recompense their diligence The Men of the Church of England desire to be wise unto Sobriety to be taught by the observation of elder times and their own Reason They know that since Men living here have Bodies as well as Souls some external Rites Habits and Gestures must be used in the publick Worship of God that such due regard being had to their lawfulness in themselves their expediency in respect of Communion with the Catholick Church scandal of any particular Church concerned and the edification of our own Church 〈◊〉 are determinable by the Civil and Ecclesiastical Authority of this Kingdom That the said Authority having interposed accordingly and prescribed these now in use as few ancient 〈◊〉 inoffensive tending most to Uniformity Decency and Devotion and consequently best answering all the forementioned purposes and established them by as good Laws as any are made in the Kingdom they are not yet convinced by any solid Reasons hitherto appearing much less by the virulent Railing rather than Arguments of this Author who hath demonstrated nothing so much as his prepossession and prejudice his unruly Passion and the large liberty he takes in abusing every body but his Clients the Dissenters that any change or alteration is necessary to be made in the present Service of our Church They are already well aware that Innovations usually let in more and greater inconveniencies than they remove That proud peevish and ungovernable Spirits will object against every thing and be satisfied with nothing and that the designs interests and ambition of some the prejudice of education weakness of judgment and perversness of temper of others would make even a total abolition of Ceremonies as ineffectual for the producing of a reunion of the Dissenters to the Church as the attempts of others for the continuance of them As for the endeavours for a comprehension and the objections against it which our Author mentions it seems by the event that either the comprehension was judged not feasible or the objections of force enough to stop the endeavors after it And certainly the best way we have or can have to preserve the Members of our Church from turning Papists now the doors of liberty are set open to all Religions and Men may chuse which they please is to let them see that we have some regular constancy in our Worship and Devotion as well as the Papists for otherwise our giddiness and frequent changes in Religious Worship will confirm them in their belief that the being of an Infallible Judge is necessary since they may observe that we who reformed under pretence of a greater purity having forsaken that Principle of Unity can never be long at any certainty That the Doctrine Worship and Constitutions of our Church which our Martyrs maintained with the loss of their Lives in Q. Mary's Reign and we thought to be lately in so great danger were not so adhered to out of vain-glory or love of opposition but out of a well grounded choice proceeding from a conviction of Judgment and Testimony of Conscience and therefore we can as little be flattered out of them now as we could be frighten'd out of them then I might add that the strength of that objection being founded in the Laws and Rules of Justice Sincerity Charity and of not giving offence and laying a Stumbling-block before any of our Communion or theirs will never cease at least as long as any Papists remain in this or rather in the three Kingdoms neither will the appearance of Popery in its proper Colours take off the obligation but bind us not to retaliate injuries and to be careful that while we condemn them we do not run into the same or greater enormities I am afraid that our carriage of late Years will be no great inducement to them to come over to our Communion or otherwise to have any very good opinion of us or our Principles if they should judge of them by our Practices That passage which our Author quotes out of a Sermon 〈…〉 in these words God be thanked for it that there is an end put to all Persecution in matters of Conscience that the first and chief Right of humane nature 〈…〉 of following the dictates of Conscience in the Service of God is secured to all Men amongst us c. Wherein is included this Affirmative it is the first and chief Right of Humane Nature to follow the dictates of Conscience in the Service of God to the truth of which I cannot no not upon so great Authority give my Assent for if Humane Nature hath such a
choose Men to sit in Convocation c. The possibility of it if the King should be so ill advised as to give consent to it I shall not much dispute remembring that a Parliament in King Henry the Eighth's Reign surnamed the Almighty-Parliament and some since have de facto done such strange things in annulling transferring Titles Rights Claims Possessions and Inheritances c. without regard to Superiour Laws as argue Infallibility and Arbitrary Power except in the Persons of Popes and Kings to be neither absurd nor disallowable I shall only take leave to say that the Clergy are as competent Judges of the Parliament-men as the Knights and Burgesses of the Convocation-men that whatever alterations they may make de facto in our Liturgy or Ceremonies without the Clergy yet it is absolutely impossible to make an Union without them I need not add that such alterations would be a taking away that Liberty of Conscience from the establish'd Church which is given to all Dissenters for it is to be supposed that our Parliament-men if not infallible are yet wiser than at the suggestion of this Furioso to attempt the removing the ancient Land-marks and constitutions of the Nations Government such violent Convulsions of the Monarchy must needs both presage and produce a dissolution of it All the Art and Power in the World cannot make trifles in the Worship of God seem matters of importance to them that rellish heavenly things 〈…〉 6. The conformable Clergy and Laity of the Church of England knowing many things to be lawful and innocent and judged by our Superiours to tend to Order Decency and Devotion use them as such and cannot so properly be said to make them seem matters of importance as they who pretend Conscience for disobedience in the use of things no where prohibited and therefore indifferent and disturb all peace and Unity in the Church to introduce their own confusions and divisions 〈…〉 7. What Trumpery are Habits various Gestures and Postures to a Man that is swallowed up in the contemplation of the infinite Majesty of the Glorious God This Man is too wise as being wise above what is written A modest and well-bred Man would never have used such rude and vilifying terms of such things as the Almighty God was once pleased to appoint and command in his own Worship If any say those sacerdotal Habiliments and Levitical Impositions are not obligatory to us Christians I say no more are the Judicial Laws given by Moses and yet if any Man shall therefore say they are unjust absurd foolish or ridiculous I think God the Supreme Legislator is reflected on and concern'd in his Honour and the person so saying must be supposed immoral bold and prophane If our Author should be censured by this Paragraph he would be thought not only a Phanatique but an Enthusiast Would this contemplative Politico have the Priest officiating lose his Body as well as his Mind and Wits for otherwise he must of necessity use such Trumpery as Habits Gestures and Postures and if they in use are lawful as our Author saying nothing to the contrary must in all reason be supposed to allow why not those as well as others especially since they are few Grave Decent Ancient Naturalized and by Law established Innovations are always hurtful and sometimes dangerous always tend towards and sometimes precipitate dissolution 3. It is unreasonable to continue Ceremonies Ibid. After all the Wisdom and Power of Imposers can do the judgments of Men will differ And I can say with equal truth and reason After all that Abolishers can do Pag. 〈…〉 the judgments of Men will differ He proceeds It is as possible to make their Hair all of one colour their Bodies of the same proportion their Faces all alike as their Judgments to be the same in Rites and Ceremonies To which I may add or in any thing else Must nothing therefore be continued If every thing must be abolished concerning which Men have different Opinions not only Rites and Ceremonies but our Creeds and Sacraments nay our Houses and our Bibles which gave occasion to great diversities of Opinions and some Heresies must be abolished and burnt not only University Habits Notes of Degrees and Church Vestments but all manner of Clothes must be left off and if our Author's inference were pursued home it would abolish his own dear Corps As for that Rule Ibid. Nothing but what is necessary should be imposed as terms of Communion to understand it aright we must first enumerate those things which are enjoined the Members of the Church of England and they are That they should duly frequent their Parish-Church be present at and join in the Publick Prayers and Offices of the Church with reverence and attention hear the Church Homilies or other Sermons read or preach'd and receive the Holy Communion at the least thrice in a Year That they should bring their Children to the Font to be baptized to the Church to be Catechized and to the Bishop to be Confirm'd I know nothing else required of any person as necessary to their holding Lay-communion with it and these I think to be both few and such as are generally necessary to Salvation What is meant by Imposition of things as Terms of Communion when spoken if properly it may be so of persons here born and bred is not so easily understood It is true the Church assumes as her part a maternal care to instruct and educate her Children in her Bosom Whereas that Expression Imposition of things as Terms of Communion seems to relate properly either to Foreiners or Converts presupposing them Professors of some other Religion and She treating with them and offering them conditions of admittance to her Communion and this if such Foreiners are already received into the Catholick Church by Baptism with us is done by vertue of the Communion of Saints upon their freely uniting themselves with the Congregation of that Parish where they inhabit joying therewith in its Publick Worship and other Churches Offices and if duly qualified their participating of the Sacraments But if a person yet unbaptized and consequently no Christian being made a Convert desires to to be received into the Communion of this Church it is requisite that he make profession of the Christian Faith contained in the Apostles Creed desire and receive Baptism What else can be understood by Imposing Terms of Communion The Prescriptions Rules and Constitutions of the Church of England are all directed to those already in her Communion and suppose all Persons born in this Kingdom to be by Baptism made so But if by it is meant that nothing may be prescribed in a Church to be observed by the Members of it which is not necessary to Salvation I cannot believe it to be in that sense true for some things may be not only lawfully but also laudably used and established in a constituted Church which are not absolutely necessary to Salvation A Man
greatest prejudices they labour under in that Church upon that account is the abolishing of Confession to the Priest and of Publick and Catholick Church fasts However what our Author adds viz. Ibiâ— The Quarrels occasioned by them hinder the Progress of the Reformed Religion must be granted if it be understood that the many Divisions and variety of Sects amongst us is an Objection the Papists make against the translation of the Bible into the vulgar Tongue and their pretence for their not coming over into that Church which is already so full of subdivisions caused as they think by the forsaking of the visible Head of the Church here on Earth under whose conduct they therefore continue as the only means to preserve Unity and avoid confusion But this must not be charged upon the Church whose Moderation is designed as a preservative of Union but on those perverse and humoursom Persons whom nothing will satisfie there is nothing in use in our Church but he who condemns it must condemn with it the Catholick Church of Christ and he who dare do that is a man no ways fit to be gratified by the condescension of a Nation and the alteration of the most perfect Liturgy and the best Ecclesiastical Constitutions that any visible Church now known to us enjoys Pag◠〈…〉 All wise and good Men amongst the Clergy and People desire the taking away the Instruments of our Confusions The execution of this would extend farther than our Author intends it or for fear of his own Copy-hold would assent to Many Pharisaical Zealots by an opposite Superstition in whose number I place him injuriously accuse our innocent Ceremonies as the instruments of our confusions when indeed they are not as we shall shortly consider but Men which if they should be taken away or brought within the compass of the Apostle's wish 〈◊〉 5.12 the Conventicle-doors would be shut up and our Author himself dismiss'd Ceremonies have been Cloaks of Impiety and Maliciousness â—â—id if these are continued it will be exceeding difficult to purge out Vice which will shelter it self under them This Expression like the greatest part of his Pamphlet hath an abundance of prejudice and malice but no truth or shew of Reason for how is it possible that Ceremonies should be the Cloak of Impiety whenas if the Ceremonies be supposed to be numerous vain or not agreeable to the simplicity and spiritual sincerity of the Christian Religion for then only they become noxious they indeed become the parents of Superstition but can never as such be the Cloaks of Impiety because it is the opposite extreme Why may not that Man who kneels at his Prayers and stands at the repetition of the Creeds and Gospels as easily have his Vice purged out as he who sits at his Prayers and frequents a schismatical Meeting where they use no Creeds nor Gospels Or what strange Vice is it which can shelter it self more about a Man kneeling or standing in our Church than about one who sits in a Conventicle These are such gross absurd malicious and false insinuations and assertions of our Author's that I wonder he is not ashamed to propose them to a Convocation or even to undervalue himself by writing them or can in Conscience thus abuse the credulous Vulgar whose unaccountable prejudices are by such Artifices very easily improved into Malice and Schism Debauchery came in with Ceremonies 〈◊〉 28. we shall be happy if they fall together To make this good if we pass by the Brittish Churches our Author must grant that Debauchery came into England with Augustine commonly called St. Augustine sent hither by Gregory the Great Bishop of Rome in the seventh Century for he brought more Ceremonies in with Christianity 〈◊〉 Testâ—â—y to 〈◊〉 Truth â—â—esus â—â—st and â—â—ur â—â—mn â—â—gue than are now in use in our Church but this I suppose he never thought of However that Debauchery hath no dependence on Ceremonies appears even from hence that in the late times of Rebellion wherein the Government both of Church and State being dissolved and there was no King every one did that which was right in his own Eyes all sorts of Vice Wickedness and Debauchery grew up to that strength and vigour that they have never since been rooted out of this Kingdom and though now we should part with all our Ceremonies which we would very gladly do upon condition we could banish all Debaucheries with them yet there are no hopes to effect it as long as Schisms are no Crimes and the pretended Puritans are indulged in the sins of the godly and that God sees no sin in his Elect c. is allowed for Orthodox Divinity 2. They hinder love among the People and between the People and their Ministers 1. Love amongst the People is mightily hindred by the divisions and animosities caused by human Impositions That human Impositions are the causes of our Divisions and Animosities is presupposed by our Author since he asserts it without proof but this is but begging of the Question we must not grant him that as a Postulatum I leave what I design to say on the true causes of the Schism till the last In the mean time that love amongst the People is hindred by our Divisions and Animosities is too apparent to be denied tho that ought in truth and justice to be charged upon the Dissenters as the evil effects of their unnecessary and wilful separation for Ours being supposed which they also grant a true Christian Church their Schism becomes unnecessary and therefore sinful and these Animosities are the fruits of that Schism and the pride of their Spirits heightened by their Teacher's industrious railings against our Church and her Constitutions thereby to gain Proselytes to themselves and retain them to their own advantage Soon after the Restauration the Enemies of Piety and Virtue resolved to continue the division between the two most potent Interests of the Protestants in England to further this a Sham-plot was cast upon the Presbyterians in several Counties this was so improved in Parliament that Penal Laws were easily obtained to inslave and destroy the Dissenters By the Enemies of Piety and Virtue whosoever our Author means if we will reconcile it to Truth can be understood none but the Dissenters because it lay only in their power either to renew and continue a Division which they did or to reunite themselves with the Church of England as they ought to have done and so to have prevented the Evils which it hath since produced It is no wonder our Author takes such Liberty to make undecent if true reflections upon some single Persons when he ventures to cast such a severe tho oblique one upon the whole Parliament as to insinuate them all to be imposed upon by a Sham-plot yet I would gladly know how he came by such skill in discerning of Spirits as to discover that to be a Sham-plot which was cast upon the Presbyterians
Laws of the Land have placed them and which they might and ought if any doubts and scruples had arose in their minds to have had recourse to and consulted And indeed the frequenters of Consenticles consisting of Petty-coat Proselytes the vulgar sort of Men who are illiterate ignorant and unstable and some few Men of better quality that sometimes grace those Meetings with a fair out-side and the attendance of a Coach and Lacquey whose infirmities and defects made it necessary or convenient for them to give up themselves fortunes and Religions to the conduct and choice of their Wives for all such Persons it is more fit and necessary to be well instructed in the Church Catechism by their own proper Pastors than to take upon them to judge of or determine controversies in Religion of which they are no more qualified to be Judges than blind Men of colours So that being no competent Judges of such matters they can have no right to plead that the conviction of their judgments that such and such things in our Church are unlawful is the cause of their separation because it presupposes them to have judged and determined in a case in which no Wise Man much less any Church or Synod ever allowed them to have any right so to do But the truth is some suck in Fanaticism with their Mothers Milk are initiated with the Principles of it in their Infancy continue under the prejudices of that education and inherit their Parents Schism and have no more reason for it than the ignorant Papists Jews and Mahometans have for their Religions Some are Dissenters upon Worldly accompts and for temporal advantages as the promotion and encrease of Trade gaining of Custom advance of Fortune conveniencies of Marriage pleasing of Relations friendship of Favourites c. Others are Persons of a fickle and unstable temper affect novelties and as if the Religion of our Parents Age and our Infancy as well as their Houses and our last Years Clothes were out of fashion and unsuitable for us think to recommend their judgments to the World by their singularity and new Choice and alledge the Apostles Precept of proving all things for their justification Others being Persons of strong passions but weak judgments are of a ductile temper and wrought upon by the whining tone affected cant fustian Language stuff and unintelligible Phrases of their Holders forth not discerning that all these are but the designed artifices and cunning craft whereby they lye in wait to deceive sacrifice to their own nets and enhaunse their Glory by leading silly Women Captive Others well inclin'd without any persuasion of the unlawfulness of any thing in our Church's Doctrin Discipline or Constitutions or so much as doubting of it hearing these Venders of the Geneva Discipline make such large boasts of more than ordinary purity of Worship strictness of Discipline and holiness of life as if they were entail'd upon that Sect since so Pharisaical a confidence without something to support it would be monstrous and absurd are apt to think that some parts of them are true and not aware that all this is done to draw the more Customers together and get the better Market for their spiritual Wares blindly give up themselves by a Faith more implicite and inexcusable than that in the Romish Church to be taught and guided by them Thus ordinary People being Men of great inadvertency and small judgment become their cheap and easie prey and as for the richer sort whose Wealth may be useful to the supporting of the cause they usually imitate the Method of the first deceiver and so make their Addresses that the Men are made Disciples by the mediation and assistance of their Wives I might add hereunto the evil arts those designing Persons use to decry others to recommend themselves such are their traducing both Persons and Things the envious detractions and calumnies the unjust aspersions and slanders which they used to insinuate and spread abroad amongst their hearers with a purpose to put them out of conceit with and make them disaffected to the Government of both Church and State in general and the Persons of our Governors and Clergy in particular hence arose that malice censoriousness want of Christian Charity and bitterness of Spirit which they are leaven'd withal more than and above other Men this makes them turbulent and unquiet disobedient to the Government and like S. J. strugling with it contriving caballing and plotting against it factious in the State Schismatical in the Church proud and peevish in their dispositions morose unsociable and unneighbourly to all but themselves and banishes that Christian Charity and Brotherly Kindness which would qualifie them more for a re-union with our Church and conduce more to it than our abolishing all our Rites Ceremonies Church constitutions and Customs can or ever will do for it is not any evil in them or any of them but the evil designs of Men that caused these unchristian breaches and divisions 3. If the Dissenters had really made their Schism upon the accompt of Conscience the same Principles of Conscience would have influenc'd their other actions as well as it and they would certainly have behaved themselves very differently from what they have done and have carried themselves humbly modestly quietly and obediently to the Monarchy as God's Ordinance as the Primitive Christians did to even the Heathen Emperors Pro-consuls and Governors But alass we find them of a quite contrary temper to omit what Men of the same Principles have done in Germany France Bohemia Holland Switzerland Geneva c. The Murmurings Tumults Covenanting Conspiracy Insurrection and open Rebellion of the Scots against King Charles I. and their Invasion of England being promoted both by the Instruments of Cardinal Richelieu who aimed at furthering the French Kings designs against the Hugonots and Flanders by diverting King Charles's Forces and Attempts design'd against France and by the Missionary Jesuits who to ruine the Church of England exclaimed against the King and his Government the Archbishop and evil Counsellors Arbitrary Power and Popery c. blew the coals fomented differences pretended grievances aggravated miscarriages exasperated Parties both here and there and excited the Fanatick Party here to encourage their Brethren in Scotland first by secret and then open assurances of their assistance to invade this Kingdom cannot be imputed to the obligations of their Consciences unless the Cardinal and Jesuits are allowed the Guides and Directors of them The two several open Rebellions raised in Scotland against King Charles II. the Fanatick Plot against his Life here the continued carriage of the Dissenters in general and of the Presbyterian Party tin particular since his Restauration their malicious and bitter Speeches against him and his Government in ordinary conversation and discourses the slanderous Libels railing Pamphlets written and dispersed by them their intriguing caballing and plotting their pragmatical and indirect interposing in all Publick Elections Places and Offices their perverse