and Christians in the whole world besides It being in no Church or Countrey observed with that punctuality and in that Sabbatical manner as by those persons Whence it 's plain that such observation thereof could neither be derived from Christianity in general nor from Protestantism as such but meerly from a Jewish tincture these persons have received A fifth Instance shall be their Doctrine of Absolute Predestination Which though it be not peculiar to these men yet is so universally and ardently embraced by the men of that way as is scarce to be parallel'd And he that seeks the Source of so odd an Opinion can in my opinion pitch no where more probably than upon the absolute Decree of God to favour the posterity of Abraham for his sake It pleased God to bestow the good Land of Canaan upon the descendents of that good man and he resolved and declared he would do it without respect to their deserts now this is made a sufficient ground to conclude That accordingly as he disposed in this Temporal affair so he will proceed by the same way of Prerogative in determining the Eternal Doom of Men. I will add but one more which is their superstitious observation and interpretation of Prodigies To this a great number of this Party are so addicted that every unusual Accident every new Appearance in the World be it in Heaven above or in the Earth below is presently commented upon and applications made of the errand of it though for the most part with Folly as manifest as is the Uncharitableness yet with Confidence as if it were undoubtedly true that God governed the affairs of the World by as visible a Providence now as he did heretofore in the Land of Judaea and the remembrance of what he did then seems to be the only imaginable account of this conceit of theirs now Many other Instances might be given of this kind but I have made choice of these because they contain the principal Doctrines and most Characteristical Practices of the Non-conformists and these carrying so plainly the marks of Judaism upon them and being no otherwise accountable than upon those Principles I think I said not improperly when I called Judaism the second Cause of our Unhappiness since any man may easily see that such Notions and Principles as these are must needs indispose those that are leavened with them to Conformity to or perseverance in the Church of England 3. But if the weakness of Judgement or bad Instruction only obstructed the prosperity of this Church it were not very difficult to find a Remedy but alas the minds of a great number of men are under such Prejudices as have barricado'd them up and rendred them almost inaccessible and that I reckon as a third Cause of our Distractions Prejudice is so great an evil that it is able to render the best Discourses insignificant the most powerful Arguments and convictive evidence ineffectual this stops mens Ears against the voice of the Charmer charm he never so wisely This alone was able to seal up the Eyes of the Gentile World against the Sun of Righteousness when he shone upon them in his brightest glory and to confirm them in their blind Idolatries when the God that made Heaven and Earth gave the fullest discoveries of himself that it was fit for mankind to expect Upon the account of this the Jews rejected that Messias they had so long expected and gloried in before he came though he exactly answered all the Characters of Time Place Lineage Doctrine and Miracles that their own Writings had described him by Nay 't was Prejudice abused the honest minds of the Disciples themselves so that they could not for a long time believe those things Christ Jesus told them from the Scripture must come to pass only because they were against the grain of their Education and were cross to the perswasions they had received in common with the rest of the Jews No wonder then if the Church of England suffer under Prejudice amongst those that have not only seen it stigmatized with the odious marks of Popery and Superstition and had been drawn into a Solemn League and Covenant against it as if it had been an act of the highest Religion to defie and execrate it and so had both their Credits and their Consciences engaged against it But also had lived to see it proscribed for near twenty years by a prevailing Faction Few have that Generosity and strength of mind to bear up against the torrent of times or Confidence enough to oppose the impetuousness of common vogue and prevailing opinion There are not many have the sagacity to discern the true images of things through those thick mists that cunning Politicians cast about them It is very ordinary to take the condemnation of any Person or Party for a sufficient Proof of the Accusation and to think the Indictment proved if the Sentence be past with common consent It was enough both with the Jews and Gentiles against our Saviour that he was condemned as a Malefactor the Ignominy of his Cross was a greater Argument against him with the generality than the excellency of his Doctrine or Evidence of his Miracles was for him This Church was dealt with like the Great Lord Strafford run down by common Fame opprest by Necessity not by Law or Reason and made a Sacrifice to the inraged Multitude The Arguments against it were not weighed but numbered As that Great Lords Impeachment was of Accumulative Treason so was the Churches of Popery there was more in the Conclusion than could be made out by the Premises and in the summ total than in the particulars of which it consisted for though no one point of Popery or Superstition could be proved against it yet it must be so upon the whole This being agreed the cry then is Crucifige destroy it root and branch And now was the Church seemingly dead and as I said before buried too for near twenty years but when by the wonderful Providence of God it was raised again as it was matter of equal Joy and wonder to all such as were not too far under the power of these Prejudices so it could not be expected otherwise but that weak and timerous persons should run from it as from a Ghost or Spectre To all which add That it was the corrupt Interest of some to deceive others into an ill opinion of it partly as being inraged that by the Churches unexpected Revival they lost its Inheritance which they had divided amongst themselves partly being conscious to themselves that by reason of their no more than vulgar abilities they could be fit to fill no extraordinary place in the Church and yet were not able to content themselves with any ordinary one and therefore chose to set up a Party against it and become Leaders of a Faction since they might not be Governours of a Church And when it is come to that pass that by this craft we get our
Livings like the Silver-smiths at Ephesus no wonder if Apostolical Doctrine and Government be cryed down and the Great Diana be cryed up The summ is this Some men were blindly led by their Education others by their Interest a third sort by their Reputation to make good what they had ingaged themselves and others in and these three things are able to form a great Party against the Church 4. The Fourth and Last Cause and I wish it be not the greatest of the Distractions and ill Estate of this Church is the want of true Christian Zeal and of a deep and serious sense of Piety in defect of which hath succeeded that wantonness curiosity novelty scrupulosity and contention we complain of What was it made the Primitive Church so unanimous that it was not crumbled into Parties nor mouldered away in Divisions nor quarrelled about Opinions nor separated one part from another upon occasion of little scruples How came it to pass as I observed in the Introduction to this Discourse that all good men were of one way and all evil men of another that those that travailed to the same City the heavenly Jerusalem kept the same Rode and parted not company It could not be that they should be without different apprehensions for mens Parts were no more alike nor their Educations more equal in those times than now There were then several Rites and Ceremonies that might have afforded matter of scruple if the Christians had been so disposed as well as now and I think both more in number and as lyable to exception as any thing now in use There was then bowing towards the East observation of Lent and other dayes distinction of Garments and innumerable other Observations in the early dayes of Tertullian and yet neither any Scripture brought to prove them nor any such proof thought necessary and yet they were observed without suspicion on one side or objection on the other Harum aliarum ejusmodi disciplinarum si legem expostules Scripturarum nullam invenies sed traditio praetenditur auctrix consuetudo conservatrix fides observatrix saith he in his Book De Corona militis St. Austin saith in his time the number and burden of Ceremonies was grown as great as under the Law of Moses and therefore wishes for a Reformation thereof in his Epistles to Januarius yet never thought these things a sufficient ground of Separation from the Church There was then some diversity of Expression in which the Governours and Pastors of several Churches delivered themselves yet did they not dispute themselves hereupon into Parties nor accuse one another of false Doctrine or either Side make the division of the Church the Evidence of its Orthodoxy or the Trophy of its Victory The true reason then of the different Event of the same Causes then and now seems to be this That in those dayes men were sincerely good and devout and set their hearts upon the main the huge Consequence and concern of which easily prevailed with those holy men to overlook their private satisfactions They were intent upon that wherein the Power of Godliness consisted and upon which the Salvation of Souls depended and so all that was secure they were not so superstitiously concerned for Rituals nor so unreasonably fond of Opinions as to play away the Peace of the Church and the Honour of Religion against trifles and meer tricks of wit and fancy They considered that they all had one God one Faith one Baptism one Lord Jesus Christ in which they all agreed and these great matters were able to unite them in lesser They Good men found enough to do to mortifie their Passions to their burdens of Affliction and Persecution to withstand the Temptations of the Devil and the contagion of evil Examples from the world and had not leisure for those little Disputes that now imploy the minds of men and vex the Church They spent their Heat and Zeal another way and so their Spirits were not easily inflammable with every petty Controversie But when men grow cold and indifferent about great things then they become servent about the lesser When they give over to mind a holy Life and heavenly Conversation then they grow great Disputers and mightily scrupulous about a Ceremony When they cease to study their own hearts then they become censorious of other men then they have both the leisure and the confidence to raise Sarmises and Jealousies and to find fault with their Superiours In short then and not till then do the little Appendages of Religion grow great and mighty matters in mens esteem when the Essentials the great and weighty matters are become little and inconsiderable And that this is the Case with us in this Nation is too evident to require further proof and too lamentable a subject for any good Christian to take pleasure in dilating upon I conclude therefore in this Point lyes a great part of the Unhappiness of this Church and Kingdom PART II. Wherein several serious Considerations are propounded tending to perswade all English Protestants to comply with and conform to the Religion and Government of this Church as it is established by Law CHAP. 1. A Reflection upon divers Wayes or Methods for the Prevention and Cure of Church-Divisions HAving in the former Part of this Discourse diligently enquired into and faithfully recited the principal Causes of the discontents with and secession from this Church It would now ill beseem Christian Charity to rest here for God knows neither the Evils nor the Causes afford any pleasant speculation It was a bad state of things at Rome which the Historian reports in these words Nec morbos nec remedia pati possumus That they were come to so ill a pass that they could neither indure their Distempers nor admit of the Remedies But I perswade my self though the condition of our affairs be bad enough yet that it is not so deplorable as to discourage all Endeavours of a cure And in this hope I take the courage to propound the following considerations wherein if I be deceived and miss of my aim I shall notwithstanding have that of Quintilian to comfort my self withal Prohabilis est cupiditas honestorum vel tutioris est audaciae tentare ea quibus est paratior venia It hath not been the single Unhappiness of this Church alone to be molested with Disputes loaden with Objections and dishonoured by Separation Nor can it be hoped that where the business is Religion and the concern Eternal Life that men should incuriously swallow every thing without moving any question or stirring any dispute And therefore all Churches must of necessity more or less have conflicted with the same difficulties we complain of And consequently the disease being so common it cannot be but that many and divers Remedies have been tryed and made use of And out of that store we will in this Chapter make election of such as seem best to fit the condition of the Patient and
fall in with their own humour For every peaceable man sees he must either go out of the world or set it all in flames if he will not subdue his own passion and castigate his heat That he must suffer shipwrack in the tempestuous Seas of dispute and contentions if he will not both take in his sails and lighten the ship by casting over-board the fardles of his private phancies and opinions He that will require all other men should assent to what he thinks and will conceal nothing he is perswaded of and yet expect to live in peace must either have very little wit or extraordinary fortune And he that will bear nothing that God hath not expresly imposed upon him nor part with any thing he may lawfully keep nor offer any Sacrifice to those touchy Deities received Custome and vulgar Opinion must expect often to feel the effects of their rage and power In summ he that will sacrifice nothing to publick tranquillity must be sure to live in perpetual flames here whatsoever become of him hereafter The Apostle was not certainly of this stubborn humour who declares of himself that he became all things to all men that he might gain some To the Jews he became as a Jew to gain the Jews to them that were without Law as without Law to them that were weak he became as weak too 1 Cor. 9. 20. He was now no longer a starcht inflexible Pharisee but a complaisant Christian or as some perhaps would have called him a Latitudinarian Apostle When a whole Council of the Apostles at Jerusalem Acts 15. which is a passage I have often occasion to mention and well deserves to be studied by every peaceable Christian when I say they decreed that the Gentiles should abstain from things strangled and from blood they deprived them of a great part of their Christian Liberty meerly to conciliate the Jews to them and required that to be done for peace that no Law of God otherwise required at their hands St. Greg. Nazianzen affirms of St. Basil that he dissembled the Coessentiality of the Holy Spirit and delivered himself in ambiguous terms on that great point lest he should offend and lose the weak which neither would that holy man have done nor much less his especial Friend and admirer have told of him if either of them had thought it to have been too great a price for the purchase But we need no other and can have no greater instance in this case than our Saviour himself who when he came into the world complyed with the Rites and Customs he found and condescended to the very humours of that stubborn people amongst whom he was he used their phrase in all his discourses he observed their Feasts he made his own institutions of Baptism and the Lords Supper as consonant to their Customs as it was possible to the end that he might not disturb them with Novelty but ingratiate himself and his Doctrine by these complyances When a certain Tribute was demanded of him he first proves that he was not obliged to pay it yet lest he should offend them determines to pay it and works a Miracle to make Peter to do it Mat. 17. 27. What shall we say to all this Are these Instances only to trace out an example of condescension in Magistrates and Governours to their Inferiours or are they not most certainly as Land-marks to all of what degree or condition soever to direct them how to steer their course and behave themselves in order to Peace Let me appeal to the Consciences of men Is it not plain from hence that although I be perswaded such a certain Rite is less commendable in it self yet if it appear to be an instrument of Accommodation that it is therefore in that case best upon that account And that such things as are indifferent or have no essential goodness of their own become not indifferent but good as they are useful or necessary to that end Or if I am perswaded that such an opinion is more true than that which is publickly received so long as the main Doctrine of Christianity is not in dispute I may not for all this conceal it rather than disturb the Church This was the counsel of the famous Constantine for the preventing and silencing disputes at the Council of Nice though the things in controversie there were of a higher nature than ours are But if any man be not satisfied with the Judgement of so great and good a Prince let him go and learn what that of St. Paul Rom. 14. 22. means Hast thou faith have it to thy self and that before God In short therefore it will be no hypocritical tergiversation no wrong either to our Religion or to our Consciences if when the case shall so require we change any phrase of speech how fit soever in our apprehension for one less fit but more acceptable and current any Rite or Ceremony that we have a great kindness for for one more grateful to others and that we may comply with the Laws in being so they be not palpably contrary to the Scriptures or common reason though we think better might be made in their room And that according to the saying of the Lord Bacon we may take counsel of the elder times what is best but of the present times for what as fittest And in a word that we part with all that which is no essential point of our Religion for Charity which is 3. Let us now for a Conclusion of this Chapter reflect back upon the aforementioned Catalogue of things in difference and see if they will not all appear to be of such a nature as we have hitherto supposed them that is such as may be fit to become a Peace-offering and sacrificed to the Magistrate the Laws and the Church And that we shall be easily able to resolve of by the help of these five following Remarques 1. That the things now scrupled in this Church are such as were heretofore submitted to by the most Leading men of those that now hereupon depart from it and if those things were in themselves lawful then they cannot change their nature by time and become unlawful now It will not be replyed That then they made no conscience of what they did lest it should be suspected they do but pretend it now for he that confesses a guilt of the same kind strengthens the suspicion of that whereof he is accused But if it be said they did it Ignorantly then and now having more light cannot outface it To this it will be as easie to answer That the ingagements of Interest and Prejudice are as lyable to be suspected now as Ignorance heretofore especially if we consider that there was no appearance of any extraordinary light breaking in when our troubles and divisions broke out but as soon as opportunity offered and occasion invited that is when Laws were laid asleep and Authority taken up with other cares then presently without further deliberation
that Decree in complyance with them whereby they abridged the Gentiles of the exercise of a considerable part of their Christian Liberty in meer condescension to the Jews but after such time as the Jews might have been sufficiently instructed but remained incurable and obstinate then this Indulgence grew into desuetude and the Gentiles resumed their due liberty From the same consideration was it that St. Paul as I also observed before practised Circumcision in the case of Timothy which he otherwise declared useless and dangerous And again upon the same grounds did the Apostolical Canons enjoyn the observation of the Jewish Sabbath as well as the Lords Day and several other things were both acted by private Christians and decreed by the Authority of Councils in favour of the Jews till they appeared no longer pittiably weak and ignorant but contumacious and intractable And as the Elder Christians did by the Jews so seems the Great Constantine to have done by the Pagans He considered that those that had beèn all their life-time kept in the darkness of Gentilism could not presently bear so great a light as Christianity Therefore though he zealously recommended it yet he did not presently make it penal not to be a Christian but for a time gave every one leave to be of what Religion he would to choose his own God and his own way of Worship In the mean time care was taken that all should have opportunity of understanding the truth if they would which when they had enjoyed for a competent time he then requires all the Roman Empire to imbrace Christianity This last instance I confess fits not the very matter we have in hand which is touching things in their own nature indifferent But it agrees with the general reason of proceeding which is sufficient to my purpose But now after all this if people will not be instructed but shall be so ridiculous as to pride themselves in their folly and glory to continue weak when they may be strong that is will affect Ignorance to countenance Disobedience I see no obligation upon the Magistrate either to forbear to make or execute such Laws as he apprehends for the good of his Government as I said before And so I hope I have cleared this point That though a Tender Conscience hath its Priviledges yet it hath not such a Prerogative as to null the Laws or suspend the Power of the Magistrate in the Sphere of Religion And therefore this pretence will be no longer an excuse for mens Non-conformity to the Laws and Church of England CHAP. IX The great dishonour that disobedience to Laws and Magistrates and the distractions of Government do to any Profession of Religion whatsoever HAving as I think sufficiently demonstrated the sin and mischiefs of Schism and evacuated all the excuses and palliations of it from the plea of Christian Liberty or the pretence of Tender Conscience I cannot see what should remain able to perpetuate our distractions unless it be a point of honour that some think themselves obliged to persevere because they have begun A humour like that Tull notes and taxes in the Stoicks That when Arguments failed them Constancy supplyed that defect and that they were not deserted of their Courage when they were destitute of Reason It is I confess too common with men to the intent that they may not seem to have had a bad and indefensible Cause at first they will indeavour to give it reputation by the courage and constancy of the Defendants whereby they hope to gain one of these points that either by Victory they shall have it adjudged to them or at least extort Honourable conditions to lay down Arms which is a kind of parting stakes Hereupon it is far more easie to convince men than to satisfie them because at last it comes to be a contention of Honour and Spirit and not a debate of Truth They say nothing subdues English Spirits but Cession and Condescension yield them a little and they will in Bravery and Generosity give you up all the rest but if you continue to contend they will fight not because it 's either hopeful or necessary neither because they can reasonably hope to obtain the victory nor because they must be ruined if they do not but because they cannot brook the dishonour of being vanquisht Honour is a kind of Gentile Conscience and tender like that too And I confess though it be a very virtuous yet it is no very easie thing to come about perfectly to change ones course and to proclaim ones self to have been in the wrong before to forgo a mans opinion and his reputation together wholly to yield up the cause we have long contended for without any conditions to salve our honour without abatement qualification or comprehension For though wise men will censure our obstinacy if we persist yet the multitude will reproach us with levity and cowardize if we retreat And though many a man could contentedly give up himself to the instruction of the few yet to be exposed to the contumelies of the vulgar is harsh and uneasie This consideration hath I acknowledge a great deal of Rhetorick and I doubt prevails with not a few in our present case I will therefore endeavour to shew the unreasonableness of it in these two points 1. I affirm That it is no real dishonour but a manly generosity and a Christian virtue to change our minds upon mature deliberation and the evidence of better reason Indeed to change we know not why or meerly because we are weary of old things is a vitious levity or upon new interests to espouse new perswasions is base and unworthy either of a Christian or a Man yet on the other side obstinately to maintain whatever we have asserted is as far from Christian stability and perseverance as it is from ingenuity That very temper which our Saviour requires in his Disciples and which is the preparatory disposition to the entertainment of Christianity especially consists in a simplicity of mind and an indifferency to comply with whatsoever shall best recommend it self to our faculties And whosoever is not of this disposition it was meerly by chance that he became a Christian or whatsoever opinions he hath better than any other man nothing is owing to his virtue but his fortune and he is not the better man but had the happier Education For since no man is infallible nor hath an intuitive knowledge of things he must either make himself a meer Machine to be filled and moved by others and receive without discrimination whatsoever is instilled into him by others that doth not think it becomes him to leave room for better reasons and further light in all such matters as we speak of and where Almighty God hath not once for all expresly delivered himself And those are not only the most ingenuous men but ordinarily the most useful also that are what they are not by Instinct and the prejudices of Education but by