then laid aside she might not have lawfully so done or why the things so retained should have been accounted Popish The plain truth is this The Church of England meant to make use of her liberty and the lawful power she had as all the Churches of Christ have or ought to have of ordering Ecclesiastical affairs here yet to do it with so much prudence and moderation that the world might see by what was laid aside that she acknowledg'd no subjection to the See of Rome and by that was retained that she did not recede from the Church of Rome out of any spirit of contradiction but as necessitated thereunto for the maintenance of her just liberty The number of Ceremonies was also then very great they thereby burdensome and so the number thought fit to be lessened But for the Choice which should be kept and which not that was wholly in her power and at her discretion Whereof though she were not bound so to do yet hath she given a clear and satisfactory account in one of the Prefaces usually prefixed before the Book of Common Prayer § XVI Besides this of Popish they have bestowed also upon the Ceremonies the Epithet of Superstitious Which is a word likewise as the former of late very much extended and standeth in need of a boundary too and a definition as well as it But howsoever they do with the words I must set bounds to my discourse lest I weary the Reader The point of Superstition I have had occasion to touch upon more then once as I remember in some of these Sermons and proved that the Superstition lieth indeed at their dore not ours They forbid the things commanded by the Church under the Obligation of sin and that Obâ—igation arising not from their forbidding them but from the things themselves which they judge to be unlawful and thence impose upon all men a necessity of not using them which is Superstition Whereas the Church required obedience indeed to her commands and that also under the obligation of sin but that obligation arising not at all from the nature of the things themselves alwayes held and declared Indifferent but immediately from the authority of the Superiour commanding the thing and originally from the ordinance of God commanding Obedience to Superiours as already hath been said and this is not Superstition For further satisfaction therefore in this matter referring the Reader to the Sermons themselves I shall only by way of addition represent to the Objectors S. Pauls demeanor at Athens Where finding the City full of Idols or wholy given to Idolatry he doth not yet fall foul upon them nor exclaim against them in any reproachful manner no nor so much as call them Idolaters though they were such and that in a very high degree but tempering his speeches with all lenity and condescension he telleth them only of their Superstition and that in the calmest manner too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the comparative degree in such kind of speaking being usually taken for a diminnent terme How distant are they from his Example with whom every thing they mislike is presently an Idol Christmas day an Idol the Surplice an Idol the Cross after Baptism a great Idol the Common-Prayer-Book an abominable Idol When yet if the worst that can be said against them were granted the most it could amount to is but Superstition and till that be granted which must not be till it be well proved it is more childish then manly to cry out Superstition Superstition § XVII Their next is a Suspicion rather then Objection and that upon no very good ground But charity is easily suspicious nor without cause Wherein I have somewhat to say in behalf of my self and other my Brethren and somewhat by way of return to them For my self I had a desire I may truly say almost from my very childhood to understand as much as was possible for me the bottome of our Religion and particularly as it stood in relation both to the Papists and as they were then stiled Puritanes to inform my self rightly wherein consisted the true differences between them and the Church of England together with the grounds of those differences For I could even then observe which was no hard matter to do that the most of mankind took up their Religion upon trust as Custome or Education had framed them rather then choise It pleased God in his goodness to afford me some opportunities sutable to that my desire by means whereof and by his good blessing I attained to understand so much of the Romish Religion as not only to dislike it but to be able to give some rational account why I so do And I doubt not but these very Sermons were there nothing else to do it will sufficiently free me from the least suspicion of driving on any design for Rome As for those other regular sons of the Church of England that have appeared in this controversie on her behalf how improbable and so far forth uncharitable the suspicion is that they should be any way instrumental towards the promoting of the Papal interest may appear amongst other by these few considerations following 1. That those very persons who were under God the instruments of freeing us from the Roman yoke by casting Popery out of the Church and sundry of them martyred in the cause those very persons I say were great favourers of these now accounted Popish Ceremonies and the chief authors or procurers of the Constitutions made in that behalf Hae manus Trojam erigent II. That in all former times since the beginning of the Reformation our arch-Arch-Bishops and Bishops with their Chaplains and others of the Prelatical party many of them such as have written also in defense of the Church against the Puritanes were the principal I had almost said the only Champions to maintain the Cause of Religion against the Papists III. That even in these times of so great distraction and consequently thereunto of so great advantage to the factors for Rome none have stept into the gap more readily nor appeared in the face of the Enemy more openly nor maintained the Fight with more stoutness and gallantry then the Episcopal Divines have done as their late learned writings testifie Yea and some of them such as beside their other sufferings have layen as deep under the suspicion of being Popishly-affected as any other of their Brethren whosoever IIII. That by the endeavours of these Episcopal Divines some that were bred Papists have been gained to our Church others that began to waver confirmed and setled in their old Religion and some that were fallen from us recovered and reduced notwithstanding all the disadvantages of these confused times and of each of these I am able to produce some instance But I profess sincerely as in the presence of God and before the world that I have not known at least I cannot call to remembrance to much as one single example of
help ready with their Tongues Pens and Sufferings to maintain and justifie the Lawful use of the same do yet so far yield to the sway of the times and are perswaded they may with a good Conscience so do as to forbear the use thereof in the publick worship till it shall seem good to those that are in place of authority either to restore them to their former state as it is well hoped when they shall have duly considered the evil consequents of that Vote they will or at leastwise and in the mean time to leave them arbitrary for men according to their several different judgments to use or not to use which seemeth but reasonable the like favour and liberty in other kinds having been long allowed to almost all other sorts of men though of never so distant perswasions one from another Lastly That all Laws made concerning Ceremonies or other indifferent things whether Civil or Ecclesiastical are mutable and as they were at first made by humane authority so may they from time to time be by humane authority abrogated and repealed And then and thenceforth they lose their obligation whereby the necessity of yeelding obedience thereunto wholy ceaseth and determineth and the things thereby commanded or prohibited return to their primitive and natural indifferency even in their Vse also and in respect of us This is clearly our Opinion and men may easily so understand us if they will § XIIII But their Opinion is that the things enjoyned are Popish and Superstitious and consequently unlawful to be used And this they render as the reason of their non-conformity And the Reason were certainly good if the Opinion were true For the Popishness first unless we should sue out a writ definibus regundis it will be hard to finde out a way how to bring this Controversie to an issue much less to an end the terme hath been so strangely extended and the limits thereof if yet it have any so uncertain If they would be intreated to set bounds to what they mean by Popish and Popery by giving us a certain definition of it we should the sooner either come to some agreement or at least understand our selves and one another the better wherein and how far we disagreed In the mean time it is to me a wonder that if reason would not heretofore yet the sad experience of the ill consequents so visible of late time should not have taught them all this while to consider what infinite advantage they give to the Romish party to work upon weak and wavering souls by damning so many things under the name of Popery which may to their understandings be sufficiently evidenced Some to have been used by the antient Christians long before Popery was hatched or but in the egge and All to have nothing of Superstition or Popery in them unless every thing that is used in the Church of Rome become thereby Popish and Superstitious Nor what great advantage they give to our newer Sectaries to extend the name yet farther Who by the help of their New-Lights can discern Popery not only in the Ceremonies formerly under debate but even in the Churches and Pulpits wherein they used to preach against Popery and the Bells wherewith they used to call the people together to hear them These are by some of them cryed down as Popish with other things very many which their Presbyterian brethren doe yet both allow and practise though how long they will so doe is uncertain if they go on with the work of Reformation they have begun with as quick dispatch and at the rate they have done these last two seaven years The having of Godfathers at baptism Churching of women Prayers at the burial of the dead children asking their Parents blessing c. which whilome were held innocent are now by very many thrown aside as raggs of Popery Nay are not some gone so farre already as to cast into the same heap not only the ancient hymne Gloria Patri for the repeating whereof alone some have been deprived of all their livelyhoods and the Apostles Creed but even the use of the Lords Prayer it selfe And what will ye do in the end thereof And what would you have us do in the mean time when you call hard upon us to leave Popery and yet would never do us the favour to let us know what it is It were good therefore both for your own sakes that you may not rove in infinitum and in compassion to us that you would give us a perfect boundary of what is Popery now with some prognostication or Ephemerides annexed if you please whereby to calculate what will be Popery seven years hence § XV. But to be serious and not to indulge my selfe too much merriment in so sad a business I believe all those men will be found much mistaken who either measure the Protestant Religion by an opposition to Popery or account all Popery that is taught or practised in the Church of Rome Our godly Fore-fathers to whom under God we owe the purity of our Religion and some of which laid down their lives for the defense of the same were sure of another minde if we may from what they did judge what they thought They had no purpose nor had they any warrant to set up a new Religion but to reform the Old by purging it from those Innovations which in tract of time some sooner some later had mingled with it and corrupted it both in the Doctrine and Worship According to this purpose they produced without constraint or precipitancy freely and advisedly as in peaceable times and brought their intentions to a happy end as by the result thereof contained in the Articles and Liturgy of our Church and the Prefaces thereunto doth fully appear From hence chiefly as I conceive we are to take our best scantling whereby to judge what is and what is not to be esteemed Popery All those Doctrines then held by the modern Church of Rome which are either contrary to the written word of God or but super-added thereunto as necessary points of Faith to be of all Christians believed under pain of damnation and all those Superstitions used in the worship of God which either are unlawful as being contrary to the Word or being not contrary and therefore abritrary and indifferent are made Essentials and imposed as necessary parts of Worship these are as I take it the things whereunto the name of Popery doth properly and peculiarly belong But as for the Ceremonies used in the Church of Rome which the Church of England at the Reformation thought fit to retain not as Essentiall or necessary parts of Gods service but only as accidental and mutable circumstances attending the same for order comeliness and edifications sake how these should deserve the name of Popish I so little understand that I profess I do not yet see any reason why if the Church had then thought fit to have retained some other of those which were
vouchsafed us his holy word to instruct us what we are to believe and to do either as Men or as Christians We are now furnished with as perfect absolute and sufficient a Rule both of Faith and Manners as our condition in this life is capable of And it is our duty accordingly to resign our selves wholy to be guided by that Word yet making use of our Reason withall in subordination and with submission thereunto as a perfect Rule both of Faith and Life This being clearly so and the Scripture by consent of both parties acknowledged to be the perfect Rule of what we are to believe as well as of what we are to do I earnestly desire our Brethren to consider what should hinder a Christian man from doing any thing that by the meer use of his Reason alone he may rightly judge to be lawful and expedient though it be not commanded or exampled in the Scriptures so as it be not contrary thereunto more then from believing any thing that by the like use of his Reason alone he may rightly judge to be true or credible though the same be not revealed or contained in the Scripture nor is contrary thereunto I do without scruple believe a Mathematical or Philosophical truth or a probable historical relation when I read it or hear it and I believe an honest man upon his word in what he affirmeth or promiseth though none of all these things be contained in the Scripture and thus to believe was never yet by any man that I know of thought derogatory to the sufficiency of Scripture as it is a perfect Rule of Faith Why I may not in like manner wear such or such a garment use such or such a gesture or do any other indifferent thing not forbidden in Scripture as occasions shall require without scruple or why thus to do should be thought derogatory to the sufficiency of scripture as it is a perfect Rule of Manners I confess I have not the wit to understand Since there seemeth to be the like reason of both let them either condemne both or acquit both or else inform us better by shewing us a clear and satisfactory reason of difference between the one and the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the main hinge upon which the whole dispute turneth and whereunto all other differences are but appendages The true belief and right understanding of this great Article concerning the Scriptures sufficiency being to my apprehension the most proper Characteristical note of the right English Protestant as he standeth in the middle between and distinguished from the Papist on the one hand and the sometimes styled Puritan on the other I know not how he can be a Papist that truly believeth it or he a Puritan that rightly understandeth it § XXII Having thus answered the several Objections aforesaid wherewith it may be some that stand freer from prejudice then their fellows will be satisfied if any shall yet aske me why I plead still so hard for Ceremonies now they are laid down and so no use either of them or of any discourse concerning them I have this to say First I saw my selfe somewhat concerned to prevent if I could the mis-censuring of these Sermons in sundry of which the Questions that concern Ceremonies are either purposely handled or occasionally touched upon which could not be done without vindicating the Ceremonies themselves as the subject matter thereof Secondly hereby they that were active in throwing them down may be brought to take a little more into their consideration then possibly they have yet done upon what grounds they were thereunto moved and how sound those grounds were that if it shall appear they were then in an Error and they consider withall what disorder confusion and libertinisme hath ensued upon that change they may be sensible of it and amend But Thirdly whatsoever become of the Ceremonies which are mutable things the two Doctrines insisted on concerning them the one touching the Power that Governors have to enjoyn them the other touching the Duty that lyeth upon Inferiours to observe them when they are enjoyned being Truths are therefore alwayes the same and change not It is no absurdity even at mid-winter when there is never a flower upon the bough to say yet Rosa est flos Lastly a time may come when either the same Ceremonies may be restored or others substituted in their rooms and then there may be use again of such reasons and answers as have been pleaded in their defense For I doubt not but those that shall from time to time have the power to order Ecclesiastical affairs if disorders or inconveniencies shall continue to grow after the rate and proportion they have done for some years past will see a necessity of reducing things into some better degree of Decency and Vniformity then now they are Which it is not imaginable how it should be done without some Constitutions to be made concerning Indifferent things to be used in the publick worship and some care had withall to see the Constitutions obeyed Otherwise the greatest part of the Nation will be exposed to the very great danger without the extraordinary mercy of God preventing of quite losing their Religion Look but upon many of our Gentry what they are already grown to from what they were within the compasse of a few years and then Ex pede Herculem by that guess what a few years more may do Do we not see some and those not a few that have strong natural parts but little sence of Religion turned little better then professed Atheists And othersome nor those a few that have good affections but weak and unsetled judgments or which is still but the same weakness an over-weening opinion of their own understandings either quite turned or upon the point of turning Papists These be sad things God knoweth and we all know not visibly imputable to any thing so much as to those distractions confusions and uncertainties that in point of Religion have broken in upon us since the late changes that have happened among us in Church-affairs What it will grow to in the end God onely knoweth I can but guesse § XXIII The Reverend Arch-Bishop Whitgift and the learned Hooker men of great judgment and famous in their times did long since foresee and accordingly declared their fear that if ever Puritanism should prevail among us it would soon draw in Anabaptism after it At this Cartwright and other the advocates for the Disciplinarian interest in those dayes seemed to take great offence as if those fears were rather pretended to derive an odium upon them then that there was otherwise any just cause for the same protesting ever their utter dislike of Anabaptism and how free they were from the least thought of introducing it But this was onely their own mistake or rather Jealousie For those godly men were neither so unadvised nor so uncharitable as to become Judges of other mens thoughts or intentions
And such is this duty of Thanksgiving appointed by God as the ordinary meanes and proper instrument to procure that word of blessing from him When we have performed this sincerely and faithfully our hearts may then with a most cheerfull but yet humble confidence say Amen So be it in full assurance that GOD will joyn his Fiat to ours Crown our Amen with his and to our So be it of Faith and Hope adde his of Power and Command blessing his Creatures unto us when we blesse him for them and sanctifying their use to our comfort when we magnifie his goodnesse for the receipt You see therefore how as unseparable and undivided companions the Apostle joyneth these two together the one as the Cause the other as the Meanes of the Creatures sanctification It is sanctified by the word of God and Prayer By the Word of Gods powerfull decree as the sole efficient and sufficient Cause and by the Prayer of Thanksgiving for such Prayer he meaneth as either hath Thanksgiving joyned with it or else is a part of Thanksgiving or Thanksging a part of it by Prayer I say and Thanksgiving as the proper Meanes to obtain it This is the blessed effect of Thanksgiving as it is an Act of Religion And thus you have heard two grand Reasons concluding the necessity of Thanskgiving unto God in the receiving and using of his good Creatures The one considering it as an Act of Iustice because it is in the only acceptable discharge of that obligation of debt wherein we stand bound unto God for the free use of so many good Creatures The Other considering it is an Act of Religion because it is the most proper and convenient means to procure from the mouth of God a word of Blessing to sanctifie the Creatures to the uses of our lives to the comfort of our consciences This Thanksgiving being an Act both of Iustice Religion whensoever we either receive or use any good Creature of GOD without this we are unjust in the Receipt and in the Use prophane It is now high time we should from the premises infer something for our farther use and Edification And the first Inference may be shall I say for Triall or may I not rather say for Conviction since we shall learn thereby not so much to examine our Thankfulness how true it is as to discover our unthankfulness how foule it is And how should that discovery cast us down to a deep condemnation of our selves for so much both Unjustice and Prophaneness when we shall find our selves guilty of so many failings in the performance of such a necessary Duty both of Iustice and Religion But we cannot abide to hear on this ear We unthankfull to God far be that from us we scarce ever speak of any thing we have or have done or suffered but we send this clause after it I thank God for it And how are we unthankfull seeing we do thus It is a true saying which one saith Thanking of God is a thing all men doe and yet none doe as they should It is often in udo but seldome in imo it swimmeth often upon the tip of our tongues but seldome sinketh into the bottome of our hearts I thank God for it is as many use it rather a By-word than a Thanksgiving so far from being an acceptable service to God and a magnifying of his name that it is rather it self a grievous sin and a taking of his holy name in vain But if we will consider duely and aright not so much how near we draw unto God with our lips as how far our hearts are from him when we say so we shall see what small reason we have upon such a slender lip-labour to think our selves discharged either of the bond of thankfulness or from the sin of unthankfulness Quid verba audiam facta cum videam Though we say I thank God a thousand and a thousand times over yet if in our Deeds we bewray foul unthankfulness unto him it is but Protestatio contraria facto and we doe thereby but make our selves the greater and deeper lyers Every sin is spacious and diffused and spreadeth into a number of branches this of Ingratitude not least Yet we will do our best to reduce all that multitude to some few principal branches There are required unto true Thankfulness three things Recognition Estimation Retribution He that hath received a benefit from another he ought first faithfully to acknowledge it secondly to value it worthily thirdly to endeavour really to requite it And who so faileth in any of these is so far as he faileth unthankfull more or less And do not some of us fail in all and doe not all of us fail in some of these For our more assured whether Examination or Conviction let us a little consider how we have and do behave our selves in each of the three respects In every of which we will instance but in two kinds and so we shall have six degrees of Ingratitude still holding our selves as close as we can to the present point concerning our Thankfulness or Vnthankfulness as it respecteth the use we have of and the benefit we have from the good Creatures of God And first we fail in our Recognition and in the due acknowledgement of Gods blessings And therein first and let that be the first degree of our unthankfulness in letting so many blessings of his slip by us without any regard or so much as notice taken of them Whereas knowledge must ever go before acknowledgement and Apprehension before Confession There is a twofold Confession to be made unto God the one of our sinnes the other of his goodness That belongeth to Repentance this to Thankfulness Both of them consist in an Acknowledgement and in both the acknowledgement is most faithfull when it is most punctual and in both we come to make default for want of taking such particular information as we ought and might In our Repentance we content our selves commonly with a general Confession of our sins or at the most possibly sometimes make acknowledgment of some one or a few grosser falls which gall our Consciences or which the world cryeth shame of and if we doe that we think we have made an exellent Confession So in our Thanksgivings ordinarily we content our selves with a general acknowledgement of Gods goodness and mercies to us or sometimes possibly recount some one or a few notable and eminent favours such as most affect us or whereof the world taketh notice and this is all we do But we do indeed in both these deal unfaithfully with God and with our own souls If we desire to shew our selves truly penitent we should take knowledge so far as possibly we could of all our sins small and great at least the several species and kinds of them for the inviduals are infinite and bring them all before GOD in the Confession of Repentance And if we desired to shew
and dyed in Idolatry and so are damned And if they were saved in their faith why may not the same faith save us and why will not you also be of that religion that brought them to Heaven A motive more plausible than strong the Vanity whereof our present Observation duly considered and rightly applyed fully discovereth We have much reason to conceive good hope of the salvation of many of our Fore-fathers who led away with the common superstitions of those blinde times might yet by those general truths which by the mercy of God were preserved amid the foulest overspreadings of Popery agreeable to the Word of God though clogged with an addition of many superstitions and Antichristian inventions withal be brought to true Faith in the Son of God unfeigned Repentance from dead works and a sincere desire and endeavour of new and holy Obedience This was the Religion that brought them to Heaven even Faith and Repentance and Obedience This is the true and the Old and Catholique Religion and this is our Religion in which we hope to finde salvation and if ever any of you that miscal your selves Catholiques come to Heaven it is this Religion must carry you thither If together with this true Religion of Faith Repentance and Obedience they embraced also your additions as their blinde guides then led them prayed to our Lady kneeled to an Image crept to a Cross flocked to a Mass as you now do these were their spots and their blemishes these were their hay and their stubble these were their Errors and their Ignorances And I doubt not but as S. Paul for his blasphemies and persecutions so they obtained mercy for these sins because they did them ignorantly in misbelief And upon the same ground we have cause also to hope charitably of many thousand poor souls in Italy Spain and other parts of the Christian World at this day that by the same blessed means they may obtain mercy and salvation in the end although in the mean time through ignorance they defile themselves with much foul Idolatry and many gross Superstitions But the Ignorance that excuseth from sin is Ignorantia facti according to that hath been already declared whereas theirs was Ignorantia juris which excuseth not And besides as they lived in the practise of that worship which we call Idolatry so they dyed in the same without repentance and so their case is not the same with Saint Pauls who saw those his sins and sorrowed for them and forsook them But how can Idolaters living and dying so without repentance be saved It is answered that ignorance in point of fact so conditioned as hath been shewed doth so excuse à toto that an Action proceeding thence though it have a material inconformity unto the Law of God is yet not formally a sin But I do not so excuse the Idolatry of our Fore-fathers as if it were not in it self a sin and that without repentance damnable But yet their Ignorance being such as it was nourished by Education Custom Tradition the Tyranny of their leaders the Fashion of the times not without some shew also of Piety and Devotion and themselves withall having such slender means of better knowledge though it cannot wholly excuse them from sin without repentance damnable yet it much lesseneth and qualifieth the sinfulness of their Idolatry arguing that their continuance therein was more from other prejudices than from a wilful contempt of Gods holy Word and Will And as for their Repentance it is as certain that as many of them as are saved did repent of their Idolatries as it is certain no Idolater nor other sinner can be saved without Repentance But then there is a double difference to be observed between Repentance for Ignorances and for known sins The one is that known sins must be confessed and repented of and pardon asked for them in particular every one singly by it self I mean for the kindes though not ever for the individuals every kinde by it self at least where God alloweth time and leisure to the Penitent to call himself to a punctual examination of his life past and doth not by sudden death or by some disease that taketh away the use of reason deprive him of opportunity to do that Whereas for Ignorances it is enough to wrap them up all together in a general and implicite confession and to crave pardon for them by the lump as David doth in the 19. Psalm Who can understand all his Errors Lord cleanse thou me from my secret sins The other difference is that known sins are not truly repented of but where they are forsaken and it is but an hypocritical semblance of penance without the truth of the thing where is no care either endeavour of reformation But ignorances may be faithfully repented of and yet still continued in The reason because they may be repented of in the general and in the lump without special knowledge that they are sins but without such special knowledge they cannot be reformed Some of our fore-fathers then might not only live in Popish Idolatry but even dye in an Idolatrous act breathing out their last with their lips at a Crucifix and an Ave-Mary in their thoughts and yet have truly repented though but in the general and in the croud of their unknown sins even of those very sins and have at the same instant true Faith in Jesus Christ and other Graces accompanying salvation But why then may not I will some Popeling say continue as I am and yet come to heaven as well as they continued what they were and yet went to heaven If I be an Idolater it is out of my Errour and Ignorance and if that general Prayer unto God at the last to forgive me all my Ignorances will serve the turn I may run the same course I do without danger or fear God will be merciful to me for what I do ignorantly Not to preclude all possibility of mercy from thee or from any sinner Consider yet there is a great difference between their state and thine between thine ignorance and theirs They had but a very small enjoyance of the light of Gods Word hid from them under two bushels for sureness under the bushel of a tyrannous Clergy that if any man should be able to understand the books he might not have them and under the bushel of an unknown tongue that if any man should chance to get the books he might not understand them Whereas to thee the light is holden forth and set on a Candlestick the books open the language plain legible and familiar They had eyes but saw not because the light was kept from and the land was dark about them as the darkness of Egypt But thou livest as in a Goshen where the light encompasseth thee in on all sides where there are burning and shining lamps in every corner of the land Yet is thy blindeness greater for who so blinde as he that will
like as differences betwixt them and those they call Formalists would they not have it thought that they have a Brotherhood and profession of their own freer and purer from Superstition and Idolatry than others have that are not of the same stamp and doing so why may they not be called Puritanes The name I know is sometimes fastened upon those that deserve it not Rascall people will call any man that beareth but the face of honesty a Puritane but why should that hinder others from placing it where it is rightly due To their second Grievance I answer Publique means by Conferences Disputations and otherwise have been often used and private men not seldome afforded the favour of respite and liberty to bring in their allegations And I think it can be hardly or but rarely instanced that ever Deprivation hath been used but where fatherly Admonitions have first been used and time given to the Delinquents to consider of it and inform themselves better This course usually hath been taken though every private particular man hath no reason to expect it The Reverend Fathers of our Church we may well think amid so much other imployment cannot be so unthrifty of their good houres as to lavish them out in hearing contentious persons eandem cuntilenam sing the same note a hundred times over and require farther satisfaction after so many publick and unanswerable satisfactions already given Yet have the Bishops and other Church-Governernours out of their religious zeal for the peace of Gods Church been so far from despising our Brethren herein that they have dispensed sometimes with their other weighty occasions and taken paines to answer their reasons and confute their exceptions satisfie all their doubts and discover the weaknesse of all their grounds in the points questioned And as to their third Grievance First for my own part I make no doubt neither dare I be so uncharitable as not to think but that many of them have honest and upright and sincere hearts to God-ward and are unfainedly zealous of Gods Truth and for Religion They that are such no doubt feel the comfort of it in their own soules and we see the fruits of it in their conversation and rejoyce at it But yet I cannot be so ignorant on the other side as not to know that the most sanctified and zealous men are men and subject to carnall and corrupt affections and may be so far swayed by them in their judgements as not to be able to discern without prejudice and partiality truth from errour Good men and Gods deare children may continue in some errour in Iudgement and consequently in a sinfull practise arising thence and live and dye in it as some of these men have done in disobedience to lawfull Authority and that unrepented of otherwise then as in the lump of their unknown sinnes It is not Honesty nor Sincerity that can priviledge men from either erring or sinning Neither ought the unreproved conversation of men countenance out their opinions or their practices against light of Divine Scripture and right Reason As we read Cyprians errour in old time and we see in our dayes not onely the suspected Tenets of Arminius but even the bold heresies of Faustus Socinus have spred much the more for the reverend opinion men had of their personall endowments and sanctity Secondly though Comparisons be ever harsh and most times odious yet since honesty and piety is alledged without disparagements be it spoken to the best of them there are as good and honest and religious and zealous men every way of them that willingly and cheerfully conform as of them that do not In the times of Popish persecution how many godly Bishops and conformable Ministers laid down their lives for the testimony of Gods Truth and for the maintenance of his Gospel And if it should please God in his just judgement as our sinnes and amongst others our Schismes and distractions most worthily deserved to put us once again to a fiery tryall which the same God for his goodnesse and mercy defend I make no question but many thousands of Conformers would by the grace of GOD resist unto blood embrace the Faggot and burn at a Stake in detestation of all Popish Antichristian Idolatry as readily and chearefully and constantly as the hottest and precisest and most scrupulous Non-Conformer But Thirdly let mens honesty and piety and gifts be what they can must not men of honesty and piety and gifts live under Lawes And what reason these or any other respects should exempt any man from the just censure of the Church in case he will not obey her Lawes and conform to her Ceremonies especially since such mens impunity would but encourage others to presume upon the like favour and experience teacheth us that no mens errours are so exemplary and pernicious as theirs who for their eminency of gifts or sanctity of life are most followed with popular applause and personall admiration We see their Grievances against us how unjust they are in the matter of Despising I would they did no more despise the Churches Authority than we do their infirmities But in the matter of judging see if we have not a just grievance against them As might be declared at large in many instances out of their printed Books and private Letters and common discourses I will but give you a taste because I know I grow tedious and I long to be at an end First they judge our Church as half Popish and Antichristian for retaining some Ceremonies used in Popery though we have purged them from their Superstitions and restored them to their Primitive use Their great admired opener of the Revelation maketh our Church the Linsey-Wolsey Laodicean Church neither hot nor cold And some of them have slovenly compared our late gracious Soveraigne Queen Elizabeth of most blessed memory to a sluttish houseWife that having swept the house yet left the dust and dirt behind the doores meaning thereby the Ceremonies If our Church were but half so ill as these men would make it I think every honest religious man should hold himself bound to separate from it at his most excellent Majesty hath observed the Brownists have done upon their very grounds accounting them as luke-warm for not quite separating as they do us for no further reforming Secondly they judge our Bishops and other Church-Governours as Limbes of Antichrist Locusts of the bottomlesse pit domineering Lords over Gods heritage usurpers of temporall jurisdiction Spirituall Tyrants over mens Consciences c. Seeking by all meanes to make the name of Lord-Bishop odious to the Gentry and Commons Witnesse their Mar-prelate and other infamous and scandalous Libels in that kind Having power in their hands if the Bishops should use more rigorous courses towards them then they have done could ye blame them Thirdly they judge those that subscribe and conform Machiavilian time-servers formall Gospellers State Divines men that know no conscience but Law
nor Religion but the Kings and such as would be as forward for the Masse as the Communion if the State should alter Fourthly all such Ministers as are not endowed with gifts for the Pulpit they damne as hirelings and not sheepherds calling them idol-Sheepherds betrayers of Christs flock intruders into the Ministery without a Calling dumbe Dogs and I know not how many names besides Yea although they be such as are diligent according to their measure of gifts to perform such duties as the Church requireth to present the prayers of the people to God to declare by reading the holy Bible and good Homilies for that purpose appointed the will of God to the people to instruct the younger sort in the points of Catechisme to visit and comfort the sick and afflicted and to administer reverently and orderly the holy Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper Fifthly they judge all such as interpose for the Churches peace and oppose their novelties as enemies to all goodnesse men of profane mindes haters of Religion despisers of the Word persecutors of the Brethren impes of Satan instruments of Hell and such as utterly abhorre all godly and Christian courses Sixthly and lastly for I irke to rake longer in this sink they bewray themselves to be manifest Iudges of all that are not of their stamp by singling out unto themselves and those that favour them certain proper Appellations of Brethren and Good-men and Professors as if none had Brotherhood in Christ none had interest in goodnesse none made Profession of the Gospel but themselves Whereas others have received the signe of their Profession in their foreheads after Baptisme which perhaps they did not whereas others daily stand up in the Congregation to make Profession of their Christian belief which it may be they do not or if those things be not materiall whereas others by the grace of God are as stedfastly resolved in their hearts if need should be to seale the truth of their profession with their blood as any of them can be But they will say these peremptory Censures are but the faults of some few all are not so hot and fiery There be others that are more temperate in their speeches and Moderate in their courses and desire onely they may be spared for their own particular but they preach not against any of these things nor intermeddle to make more stirres in the Church I answer first it were lamentable if this were not so If all were of that hot temper or distemper rather that many are they would quickly tire out themselves without spurring Fâ—r be it from us to judge mens hearts or to condemn men for that we know not by them Yet of some that carry themselves with tolerable moderation outwardly we have some cause to suspect that they do inwardly and in their hearts judge as deeply as the hottest spirited railers And we gather it from their forwardnesse at every turn and upon every slender occasion obliquely to gird and indirectly to glance at our Church and the discipline and the Ceremonies thereof as far as they well dare And if such men meddle no further we may reasonably think it is not for want of good will to do it but because they dare not Secondly though they preach not against these things in the publick Congregations yet in their private conventicles it is not unknown some do Though their Pulpits do not ring with it yet their Houses do though their ordinary Sermons ad populum be more modest yet their set conferences are sometimes but too free especially when they are required their opinions by those that invite them And what themselves for feare of Censure thus preach but in the eare their Lay-Disciples openly preach on the house-top Thirdly although both their Pulpits and Tables should be silent yet their Practice sufficiently preacheth their dislike And who knoweth not that a Reall and Exemplary seducement maketh the Author guilty as well as a Verball and Oratory Saint Peter did not preach Iudaisme but onely for offending the Jews forbare to eat with the Gentiles yet Saint Paul reproveth him for it to his face and interpreteth that fact of his as an effectuall and almost compulsive seducement Cogis Iudaizare Gal. 2. Why compellest thou the Gentiles to Iudaize Lastly it is to be considered whether it may be enough for a Pastor not to meddle with these things and whether he be not in conscience bound especially in case he live among a people distracted in opinions to declare himself expresly either for them or against them If they be utterly unlawfull and he know it so how is he not bound in conscience to reprove those that use them or require them otherwise he betrayeth the truth of God by his silence and suffereth men to go on in their superstition without rebuke But if he be sufficiently resolved of their lawfulnesse how is he not bound in Conscience to reprove those that refuse them or oppose them otherwise he betrayeth the peace of the Church by his silence and suffereth men to go on in their disobedience without rebuke Nay more every Minister that hath received pastorall charge hath twice or thrice if not oftner witnessed his allowance of all and singular the 39. Articles of the Church of England Once at his Ordination before the Bishop then at his Institution into his Benefice before his Ordinary and both these by Subscription under his hand and then after upon his Induction before his own Flock and that by verball Approbation By which Subscription and Approbation he hath not onely acknowledged in the Church the power of ordaining Rites and Ceremonies Artic. 20. but he hath after a sort also bound himself openly to rebuke such as willingly and purposely break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church as offenders against the common orders of the Church and wounders of the consciences of the weak brethren Artic. 34. He then that for any respect whatsoever is meal-mouth'd in these things wherein he is bound both in Conscience and by vertue of his own voluntary Act to speak freely neither is constant to his own hand and tongue nor is faithfull in Gods house as was Moses in discharging a good Conscience and revealing unto his people the whole Counsell of God Thus have I endeavoured having the opportunity of this place as I held my self both in Conscience and in regard of my Subscription bound to deliver my opinion freely so far as my Text gave occasion concerning the Ceremoniall Constitutions of our Church and therein laboured to free not onely the conformer from all unjust censures but even the non-conformer also so far as he hath reason to expect it from all scandalous despisings I beseech you pardon my length if I have been troublesome I had much to say and the matter was weighty and I desired to give some satisfaction in it to those that are contrary-minded and I have no purpose for