principal Duties of it such as fear love trust affiance of and in God are wholly omitted nor will they be reduced unto either of the heads which all Religion is here distributed unto For Gratitude unto God hath respect formally and directly to the benefits we our selves are made partakers of But these Duties are eternally necessary on the consideration of the nature of God himself antecedent unto the consideration of his communicating of himself unto us by his benefits Prayer proceeds from them and it is an odd Method to reduce the Cause under the head of its effect And Prayer it self is made at length not to be so much a Moral Vertue as somewhat instrumental to the vertues of Morality Secondly I cannot think we have here a compleat Representation of Christian Religion nor an induction of all its particulars because we have neither Supposition nor Assertion of Sin or a Redeemer or of any Duty with respect unto them Gratitude and Prayer I confess are two heads whereunto sundry Duties of Natural Religion without respect unto these things may be reduced But since the fall of Adam there was never any Religion in the world accepted with God that was not built and founded on the supposition of them and whose principal Duties towards God did not respect them To prescribe now unto us a Religion as it respects God without those Duties which arise from the consideration of sin and a Redeemer is to perswade us to throw away our Bibles Sin and the condition of all men on the account thereof their Duty in that condition what God requires of them with reference thereunto the way that God hath found out proposed and requires of us to make use of that we may be delivered from that condition with the duties necessary to that end do even constitute and make up that Religion which the Scripture teacheth us and which as it summarily expresseth it self consists in Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ neither of which nor scarce any thing that belongs unto them appears in this Scheme so that Thirdly The most important duties of Christian Religion are here not only omitted but excluded Where shall we find any place here to introduce Repentance and as belonging thereunto Conviction of Sin Humiliation Godly Sorrow Conversion it self to God For my part I will never be of that Religion where these duties towards God have no place Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ with all that is necessary to it preparatory for it included in it and consequentiall on it are in like manner cast out of the verge of Religious duties here schematized An endeavour to fly from the wrath to come to receive Jesus Christ to accept of the attonement to seek after the forgiveness of sins by him that we may cant a little and to give up our souls in universal Obedience to all his commands belong also to the duties of that Religion towards God which the Scripture prescribeth unto us but here they appear not in the least intimation of them No more do the duties which though generally included in the Law of loving God above all yet are prescribed and determined in the Gospel alone Such are self-denyal readiness to take up the Cross and the like Besides all the duties wherein our Christian conflict against our Spiritual Adversaries doth consist and in especial the whole of our duty towards God in the mortification of sin can be of no consideration there where no supposition of sin is made or allowed But there would be no end if all exceptions of this nature that readily offer themselves might here have admittance If this be the Religion of our Adversaries in these things if this be a perfect Scheme of its Duties towards God and induction of all its particulars let our Author insult over and reproach them whilst he pleaseth who blame it as insufficient without Grace and Godliness I would not be in the condition of them who trust their eternal concernments to meer Observance of it as knowing that there is no name under Heaven given unto men whereby they may be saved but only the name of Jesus Christ. It will be in vain pretended that it is not a description of Christian Religion but of Religion as Religion in general that is here attempted For besides that it is Christian Religion and that as used and practised by Christians which is alone under consideration and an Introduction of Religion here under any other notion would be grievously inconsistent and incoherent with the whole Discourse It is acknowledged by our Author in the progress of his Disputation as was before observed when he gives a Reason why Moral Vertue is stiled Grace which is peculiar and appropriate to Christian Religion alone Besides to talk now of a Religion in the World which either hath been or may be since the fall of Adam without respect unto sin is to build Castles in the air All the Religion that God now requires prescribes accepts that is or can be is the Religion of Sinners or of those who are such and of them as such though also under other qualifications On many accounts therefore this scheme of Religion or Religious Duties towards God is exceedingly insufficient and imperfect To lay it therefore as a Foundation whereon to stand and revile them who plead for a superaddition unto it of Grace and Godliness is an undertaking from whence no great success is to be expected I can easily supply another Scheme of Religion in the room of this which though it have not any such contexture of method nor is set out with such gaudy words as those which our Author hath at his disposal yet I am confident in the confession of all Christians shall give a better account than what is here offered unto us both of the Religion we profess and of the Duties that God requires therein and this taken out of one Epistle of St. Paul namely that to the Romans And I shall do it as things come to mind in the haste wherein I am writing He then gives us his Scheme to this purpose As First That all Men sinned in Adam came short of the Glory of God and rendred themselves liable to death and the whole curse of the Law Then that they do all as left to themselves accumulate their Original Sin and Transgression with a world of actual sins and provocations of God That against Men in this condition God testifies his wrath and displeasure both in his works and by his word Hence it necessarily follows that the first Duty of Man towards God is to be sensible of this condition of the guilt of sin with a fear of the wrath and judgement due to them Then he informs us that neither the Jews by the Law nor the Gentiles by the light of Nature could disentangle themselves from this state or do that which is pleasing unto God so as they might obtain forgiveness of Sin and acceptation with him
Tranquility for the future and maintaining love quietness and mutual usefulness at present amongst men Two ways are proposed to this purpose the one is to exercise mutual forbearance to each other whilst we are inevitably under the power of different perswasions in these things producing no practices that are either injurious unto private men in their rights or hurtful unto the State as to publick Peace endeavouring in the mean time by the evidence of Truth and a conversation suited unto it to win upon each other to a consent and Agreement in the things wherein we differ The other is by Severe Laws Penalties outward force as Imprisonments Mulcts Fines Banishments or Capital punishments to compell all men out of hand to an uniformity of practice whatever their judgements be to the contrary Now as the state of things is amongst us which of these wayes is most suitable to the Law of our Being and Creation the best Principles of the nature of man and those which have the most evident Resemblance of Divine Perfections the Gospel the Spirit and Letter of it with the mind of its Author our Lord Jesus Christ which is most conducing to attain the end aimed at in wayes of a natural and genuine complyance with the things themselves of Religion Conscience and Divine Worship is left unto the judgement of God and all good men In the mean time if men will make Declamations upon their own surmises jealousies and suspitions of things which are either so indeed that is really surmized or pretended to be so for some private interests or advantages of their own which no man can answer or remove if they may fancy at their pleasure Ghosts Goblins Fiends walking Sprights Seditions Drums Trumpets Armies Bears and Tigers Every difference in Religion be it never so small be the agreement amongst them that differ never so great be it the visible known open interest of them that dissent from what is established to live quietly and peaceably and to promote the good of the Commonwealth wherein they live do they profess that it is their duty their Principle their Faith and Doctrine to obey constantly their Rulers and Governours in all things not contrary to the mind of God and pretend no such commands of his as should interfere in the least with their power in order to publick tranquility do they offer all the security of their Adherence to such declared Principles as mankind is necessitated to be contented and satisfied with in things of their highest concernment do they avow an especial sense of the Obligation that is put upon them by their Rulers when they are protected in peace have they no concernment in any such Political Societies Combinations Interests as might alone give countenance unto any such disturbance all is one every different Opinion is Press-money and every Sect is an Army although they be all and every one of them Protestants of whom alone we do discourse Other answer therefore I shall not return unto this part of our Authors arguing than what he gave of old Ne admittam culpam ego meo sum promus pectori Suspicio est in pectore alieno sita Nam nunc ego te si surripuisse suspicer Jovi coronam de capite e capitolio Quod in culmine astat summo st non id feceris Atque id tamen mihi lubeat suspicarier Qui tu id prohibere me potes ne suspicer Only I may add that sundry of the Instances our Author makes use of are false and unduly alledged For what is here charged on differences in and about Religion in reference unto publick Tranquility might have been yea and was charged on Christian Religion for three hundred years and is so by many still on Protestancy as such and that it were a very easie and facile task to set out the pernicious evills of a compelled Agreement in the practice of Religion and those not fancied only or feigned but such as do follow it have followed it and will follow it in the world An enquiry in this Invective tending to evince its reasonableness is offered in pag. 158. namely Where there are divided Interests in Religion in the same Kingdom it is asked how shall the Prince behave himself towards them The answer thereunto is not I confess easie because it is not easie to be understood what is intended by divided Interests in Religion We will therefore lay that aside and consider what really is amongst us or may be according to what we understand by these expressions Suppose then that in the same profession of Protestant Religion some different way and Observances in the outward Worship of God should be allowed and the Persons concerned herein have no other cannot be proved to have any other interest with respect unto Religion but to fear God and honour the King it is a very easie thing to return an Answer to this enquiry For not entring into the profound Political Speculation of our Author about ballancing of Parties or siding with this or that Party where the differences themselves constitute no distinct Parties in reference to Civil Government and publick Tranquility let the Prince openly avow by the declaration of his judgement his constant practice his establishing of Legal Rights disposing of publick favours in places and preferments that way of Religion which himself owns and approves and let him indulge and protect others of the same Religion for the substance of it with what himself professeth in the quiet and peaceable exercise of their Consciences in the Worship of God keeping all Dissenters within the bounds allotted to them that none transgress them to the invasion of the Rights of others and he may have both the Reality and Glory of Religion Righteousness Justice and all other Royal Vertues which will render him like to him whose Vice-gerent he is and will undoubtedly reap the blessed fruits of them in the industry peaceableness and Loyalty of all his Subjects whatever There are sundry things in the close of this Chapter objected against such a course of proceedure but those such as are all of them resolved into a supposition that they who in any place or part of the world desire Liberty of Conscience for the Worship of God have indeed no Conscience at all For it is thereon supposed without further evidence that they will thence fall into all wicked and unconscientious practices I shall make as I said no reply to such surmises Christianity suffered under them for many Ages Protestancy hath done so in sundry places for many years And those who now may do so must as they did bear the effects of them as well as they are able Only I shall say First Whatever is of real inconvenience in this pretension on the supposition of Liberty of Conscience is no way removed by taking away all different practices unless ye could also obliterate all different perswasions out of the minds of men which although in one place tells us ought to
Testimonies of the writings given by divine inspiration We have here the full substance of what is pleaded for and might the Advice of this Noble Emperour be admitted we should have a readier way to expedite all our present Differences than as yet seems to be provided for us The great Basil speaks yet more expresly than Constantine the great lib. de confes fid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. It hath the manifest guilt of infidelity and pride to reject any thing that is written or to add or introduce any thing that is not written which is the summ of all that in this matter is contended for To the same purpose he discourseth Epist. 80. ad Eustath where moreover he rejects all pretences of Customs and usages of any sorts of men and will have all differences to be brought for their Determination to the Scripture Christstome in his Homily on Psalm 95. speaks the same sense saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who is it that promiseth these things Paul For we are not to say any thing without Testimony nor upon our meer Reasonings For if any thing be spoken without Scripture Testimony the mind of the hearers fluctuates now assenting anon hesitating sometimes rejecting what is spoken as frivolous sometimes receiving it as probable But where the Testimonies of the Divine Voice comes forth from the Scripture it confirmeth the word of the Speaker and the mind of the Hearer It is even so whilest things relating to Religion and the Worship of God are debated and disputed by the reasonings of men or on any other principles besides the express Authority of the Scriptures no certainty or full perswasion of mind can be attained about them Men under such actings are as Lucian in his Menippus says He was between the Disputations of the Philosophers sometimes he nodded one way sometimes another and seemed to give his assent backwards and forwards to express contradiction It is in the Testimony of the Scripture alone about the things of God that the Consciences of those that fear him can acquiesce and find satisfaction The same Author as in many other places so in his 13 Homily on the 2 Epist. to the Corinth expresly sends us to the Scripture to enquire after all things as that which is the exact Canon ballance and Rule of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Among the Latines Tertullian is express to the same purpose In his Book against Hermogenes Adoro said he plenitudinem Scripturum quae mihi factorem manifestat facta again Scriptum esse hoc doceat Hermogenis officina aut timeat rae illud adjicientibus aut detrahentibus destinatum I Adore the fulness of the Scripture And let Hermogenes prove what he saith to be written or fear the Woe denounced against them who add to or take from the Word And again in his Book de Carne Christi Non recipio quod extra Scriptuream de tuo infers I do not receive what you bring of your own without Scripture So also in his Book de Praescriptionibus Nobis nihil ex nostro arbitrio indulgere licet sed nec eligere quod aliquis de arbitrio suo induxerit Apostoles Domini habemus authores qui nec ipsi quicquam ex suo arbitrio quod inducerent elegerunt sed acceptam a Christo disciplain ani deliter Nationibus assignaverunt It is â— lawful for us in these things to indâ—â— unto our own choice nor to choose what â— one brings in of his choosing We have Apostles of our Lord for our Exampâ—â— who brought in nothing of their own minâ— or choice But having received the Disciplâ— of Christian Religion from Chrsit tâ—â— faithfully communicated it to the Nation â— Hierome is plain to the same purpose iâ— sundry places So Comment in 23 Mattâ— Quod de Scripturis authoritatem non habet eaâ—dem facilitate contemnitur qua probatur Thâ—â— which hath not Authority from the Scriptureâ— is as easily despised as asserted Comm. iâ— Hagg. cap. 1. Sed alia quae absque authoâ—â—ritate testimoniis scripturarum quasi traditione Apostolica sponte reperiunt atque confingunt percutit gladius Dei But those other things which without Authority or Testimony of the Scriptures they find out or faign of their own accord as of Apostolical Tradition the sword of God smites through It were easie to produce twenty other Testimonies out of the Ancient Writers of the church giving sufficient countenance to the Assertion contended about What account our Author gives of this Principle is now very briefly to be considered First therefore pag. 174 175. he reâ—es it as a pretence wild and humoursome â—ich men must be absurd if they believe â— impudent if they do not seeing it hath â—t the least shaddow or foundation either â—m Scripture or Reason though it be exâ—â—esly asserted either in its own terms or â—onfirmed by direct deductions in and â—om above forty places of Scripture â—nd so much for that part of the asâ—ault The next chargeth it with infinite follies â—nd mischiefs in those which allow it And 't is said that there can never be an end of alterations and disturbances in the Church whilest it is maintained The contrary whereof is true confirmed by Experience and Evidence of the thing it self The admittance of it would put an End to all disturbances For let any man judge whether if there be matters in difference as in all these things there are and ever were the bringing them to an issue and a setled stability be not likelier to be effected by all mean consenting unto one common Rule whereby they may be tryed and examined than that every party should be left at liberty to indulge to their own Affections and Imaginations about them And yet we are told p. 178. that all the pious Villanies that ever have disturbed the Christian World have sheltered themselves in this grand Maxime that Jesus Christ is the only Law-maker to his Church I confess I could heartily desire that such expressions might be forborn For let what pretence men please be given to them and colour put upon them they are full of scandal to Christian Religion The Mixime it self here traduced is as true as any part of the Gospel And it cannot be pretended that it is not the Maxime it self but the abuse of it as all the Principles of the Gospel through the Blindness and Lusts of men have been abused that is reflected on seeing the design of the whole Discourse is to evert the Maxime it self Now whatever Apprehensions our Author may have of his own Abilities I am satisfied that they are no way competent to disprove this Principle of the Gospel as will be evident on the first attempt he shall make to that purpose let him begin the tryal as soon as he pleaseth In the third Section we have an heap of instances raked together to confront the Principle in its proper sense before declared and vindicated in no one whereof it is at all concerned
Worship of God to be necessarily and for a continuance observed among them but what they had express Warrant and Authority and command of our Lord Christ for Counsel they gave in particular cases that depended upon present emergencies Directions for the regular and due observation of Institutions and the Application of general Rules in particular practice They also taught a due and sanctified use of Civil customes and the proper use of Moral or Natural Symbols But to impose any Religious Rites on the constant practice of the Church in the Worship of God making them necessary to be alwaies observed by that imposition they did not once attempt to do or assume power for it to themselves Yea when upon an important difficulty and to prevent a ruining scandal they were enforced to declare their judgement to the Churches in some points wherein they were to abridge the practice of their Christian liberty for a season they would do it only in things made necessary by the state of things then among the Churches in reference to the great end of edification whereby all practices are to be regulated before the declaration of their judgement for the restriction mentioned Acts 15. So remote were they from assuming unto themselves a Dominion over the Religion Consciences or faith of the Disciples of Christ or requiring any thing in the constant Worship of the Church but what was according to the Will Appointment and Command of their Lord and Master Little countenance therefore is our Author like to obtain unto his sentiments from the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament or the Example either of the Jews or Christians mentioned in them The Instances he gives from the Church of the Jewes or that may be given are either Civil Observances as the feast of Purim or Moral conveniencies directed by general Rules as the building of Synagogues or customary signes suited to the nature of things as wearing of Sackcloth or such as have no proof of their being approved As the feast of Dedication and some monethly Fasts taken up in the Captivity from none of which any objection can be taken against the position before laid down Those from the Church of the new Testament had either a perpetual binding institution from the Authority of Christ as the Lords day Sabbath or contain only a direction to use Civil Customes and Observances in an holy and sanctified manner as the Love Feasts and Kiss of Charity or such as were never heard of in the New Testament at all as the observation of Lent and Easter He that out of these instances can draw a warranty for the power of the Civil Magistrate over Religion and the Consciences of men to institnte new duties in Religion when he pleaseth so these do not countenance Vice nor disgrace the Deity which all his Christian Subjects shall be bound in conscience to observe or otherwise make good any of those particulat conclusions that therefore Christ is not the ouly Law giver to his Church or that Divinâ— Revelation is not the adequate rule of Divinâ— Worship or that men may add any thing to the Worship of God to be observed in it constantly and indispensiely by the whole Church will manifest himself to have an Excellency in Argumentation beyond what I have ever yet met withal A removal of the Argument taken from the perfection of the Scripture and its sufficiency to instruct us in the whole Counsel and Will of God concerning his Worship and our Obedience unto him is nextly attempted but with no Engines but what have been discovered to be insufficient to that purpose an hundred times It is alledged That what the Scripture commands in the Worship of God is to be observed that what it forbids is to be avoided Which if really acknowledged and a concernment of the Consciences of men be granted therein is sufficiently destructive of the principal Design of our Author But moreover I say that it commands and foâ—â—bids things by general Rules as well by particular Precepts and Inhibition and that if what is so commanded be dâ—served and what is so forbidden be avoided there is a direct-Rule remaining in for the whole worship of God But this is said here to be of substanâ—â— duties but not of external circumstance and if it be so even of substantial dutâ—â— it perfectly overthrows all that our Authoâ— hath been pleading in the three first Chaâ—ters of his Discourse For external circumstances of what nature those are whâ—â— are disposable by humane Authority anâ— Prudence hath been now often declare and needs not here to be repeated The summ of his Apprehensions in thâ— matter about the perfection and sufficiâ—ency of the Scripture in reference to thâ— Worship of God our Author gives us pag. 189. Anything saith he is lawful thâ—â— is in the Worship of God that is noâ— made unlawful by some prohibition for things become evil not upon the scors of there being not commanded but upon that of their being forbidden And what the Scripture forbids not it allows and what it allows is not unlawful and what is not unlawful may lawfully be done This tale I confess we have been told many and many a time but it hath been as often answered that the whole of It as to any thing of reasoning is captious and sophistical Once more therefore what is commanded in the Worship of God is lawful yea is our duty to observe All particular Instances of this sort that are to have actual place in the Worship of God were easily enumerated and so expresly commanded And why among sundry things that might equally belong thereunto one should be commanded and another left at liberty without any Institution no man can divine Of particular things not to be observed there is not the same reason It is morally impossible that all instances of mens Inventions all that they can find out to introduce into the Worship of God at any time in any Age and please themselves therein should be before hand enumerated and prohibited in their particular instances And if because they are not so forbidden they may lawfully be introduced into Divine Worship and imposed upon the practices of men ten thousand things may be made lawful and be so imposed But the truth is although a particular prohibition be needful to render a thing evil in it self a general prohibition is enough to render any thing unlawful in the Worship of God So we grant that what is not forbidden is lawful but withal say that every thing is forbidden that should be esteemed as any part of Divine Worship that is not commanded and if it were not yet for want of such a command or Divine Institution it can have neither use nor efficacy with respect to the end of all Religious Worship Our Author speaks with his wonted confidence in this matter yea it seems to rise to its highest pitch as also doth his contempt of his Adversaries or whatever is or may be offered by
TRUTH AND INNOCENCE VINDICATED IN A SURVEY OF A DISCOURSE Concerning Ecclesiastical Polity And the Authority of the Civil Magistrate over the Consciences of Subjects in Matters of Religion Non Partum studiis agimur sed sumsimus arma Consiliis innimica tuis Discordia Vaecors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clemens Alexand. London Printed 1669. REVIEW OF THE PREFACE AMong the many Disadvantages which those who plead in any sense for Liberty of Conscience are exposed unto it is not the least that in their arguings and Pleas they are enforced to admit a Supposition That those whom they plead for are indeed really mistaken in their Apprehensions about the matters concerning which they yet desire to be indulged in their practice For unless they will give place to such a supposition or if they will rigidly contend that what they plead in the behalf of is absolutely the Truth and that obedience thereunto is the direct Will and Command of God there remains no proper field for the Debate about Indulgence to be mannaged in For things acknowledged to be such are not capable of an Indulgence properly so called because the utmost Liberty that is necessary unto them is their Right and Due in strict Justice and Law Men therefore in such Discourses speak not to the nature of the things themselves but to the Apprehensions of them with whom they have to do But yet against this Disadvantage every Party which plead for themselves are relieved by that secret reserve that they have in the perswasion of the Truth and Goodness of what they profess and desire to be indulged in the practice of And this also as occasion doth offer it self and in the defence of themselves from the charge of their Adversaries they openly contend and avow Neither was it judged formerly that there was any way to deprive them of this Reserve and Relief but by a direct and particular Debate of the matters specially in difference carried on unto their Conviction by evidence of Truth managed from the Common Principles of it But after Tryal made this way to convince men of their errors and mistakes who stand in need of Indulgence with respect unto the outward Administration of the powers that they are under is found as it should seem tedious unreasonable and ineffectual A new way therefore to this purpose is fixed on and it is earnestly pleaded That there needs no other Argument or Medium to prove men to be mistaken in their Apprehensions and to miscarry in their practice of Religious duties than that at any time or in any place they stand in need of Indulgence To Dissent at all adventures is a crime and he whom others persecute tacitly at least confesseth himself guilty For it is said That the Law of the Magistrate being the sole Rule of Obedience in Religious Worship their Non-complyance with any Law by him established evidencing it self in their desire of Exemption is a sufficient conviction yea a self-acknowledgement not only of their Errors and Mistakes in what they apprehend of their Duty in these things and of their Miscarriages in what they practise but also that themselves are persons Turbulent and Seditious in withdrawing Obedience from the Laws which are justly imposed on them With what Restrictions and Limitations or whether with any or no these Assertions are maintained we shall afterward enquire The Management of this Plea if I greatly mistake him not is one of the principal Designs of the Author of that Discourse a brief Survey whereof is here proposed The Principle which he proceeds herein upon himself it seems knew to be Novel and Uncouth and therefore thought it incumbent on him that both the manner of its handling and the other Principles that he judged meet to associate with it or annex unto it should be of the same kind and complexion This Design hath at length produced us this Discourse which of what use it may prove to the Church of God what tendency it may have to retrive or promote Love and Peace among Christians I know not This I know that it hath filled many persons of all sorts with manifold surprizals and some with amazement I have therefore on sundry Considerations prevailed with my self much against my inclinations for the sake of Truth and Peace to spend a few hours in the examination of the principal parts and seeming pillars of the whole Fabrick And this I was in my own mind the more easily indueed unto because there is no concernment either of the Church or State in the things here under debate unless it be that they should be vindicated from having any concern in the things and opinions here pleaded and argued For as to the present Church if the Principles and reasonings here maintained and managed are agreeable unto her Sentiments and allowed by her yet there can be no offence given in their Examination because she hath no where yet declared them so to be And the truth is if they are once owned and espoused by her to the ends for which they are asserted as the Christians of old triumphed in the thoughts of him who first engaged in wayes of violence against them among the Nations in the world so the Non-Conformists will have no small relief to their minds in their sufferings when they understand these to be the avowed Principles and Grounds on which they are to be persecuted and destroyed And for the power of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction belonging to the Kings of this Nation as it hath been claimed and exercised by them in all ages since the establishment of Christian Religion among us as it is declared in the Laws Statutes and Customs of the Kingdom and prescribed unto an Acknowledgement in the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy it and steddiness of expression which we shall be farther accustomed unto But in what here he avers of himself he seems to have the advantage of our Lord Jesus Christ who upon less provocations than he hath undertaken the consideration of for the Pharisees with whom he had to deal were Gentlemen be tells us unto those with whom himself hath to do as he saith fell into an hot fit of Zeal yea into an height of Impatience which made him act with a seeming fury and transport of passion pag. 7. And if that be indeed his temper which he commends in himself he seems to me to be obliged for it unto his Constitution and Complexion as he speaks and not to his Age seeing his juvenile expressions and confidence will not allow us to think that he suffers under any defervescency of spirit by his years The Philosopher tells us that old men in matters dubious and weighty are not over-forward to be Positive but ready to cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perhaps and it may be so and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they have experience of the uncertainty of things in this world As indeed those who know what entanglements all humane Affairs are attended withal what appearing
Causes and probable Reasons are to be considered and examined about them and how all rational determinations are guided and influenced by unforeseen emergencies and occasions will not be over-forward to pronounce absolutely and peremptorily about the disposal of important affairs But as the same Author informs us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Young men suppose that they know all things and are vehement in their Asseverations from which frame proceed all those Dogmatical Assertions of what is Politick and Impolitick in Princes of what will establish or ruine Governments with the contempt of the Conceptions of others about things conducing to publick peace and tranquility which so frequently occur in our Author This makes him smile at as serious Consultations for the furtherance of the welfare and prosperity of this Nation as it may be in any age or juncture of time have been upon the Wheel Preface p. 48. These Considerations made it seem to me that in an ordinary course he hath time enough before him to improve the notions he hath here blessed the World with a discovery of if upon second thoughts he be equally enamoured of them unto what now he seems to be I could indeed have desired that he had given us a more clear account of that Religion which in his judgement he doth most approve His commendation of the Church of England sufficiently manifesteth his interest to lye therein and that in pursuit of his own principles he doth outwardly observe the Institutions and prescriptions of it But the Scheme he hath given us of Religion or Religious duties wherein there is mention neither of Sin nor a Redeemer without which no man can entertain any one true notion of Christian Religion would rather bespeak him a Philosopher than a Christian. It is not unlikely but that he will pretend he was treating of Religion as Religion in general without an Application of it to this or that in particular but to speak of Religion as it is among men in this world or ever was since the fall of Adam without a supposition of sin and the way of a relief from the Event of it mentioned is to talk of Chimaera's things that neither are ever were or will be On the other hand the profit and advantage of his Design falls clearly on the Papal Interest For whereas it is framed and contrived for the advantage security and unquestionableness of absolute Complyers with the present Possessors of Power it is evident that in the States of Europe the advantage lyes incomparably on that hand But these things are not our Concernment The design which he manageth in his Discourse the subject matter of it the manner how he treats those with whom he hath to do and deports himself therein are by himself exposed to the judgement of all and are here to be taken into some Examination Now because we have in his Preface a perfect Representation of the things last mentioned throughout the whole I shall in the first place take a general view and Prospect of it And here I must have regard to the Judgement of others I confess for my own part I do not find my self at all concerned in those Invectives tart and upbraiding Expressions those sharp and twinging Satyrs against his Adversaries which he avoweth or rather boasteth himself to have used If this unparalleld heap of Revilings Scoffings despightful Reproaches Sarcasms Scornful contemptuous Expressions false Criminations with frequent Intimations of Sanguinary affections towards them do please his Fancy and express his Morality to his own Satisfaction I shall never complain that he hath used his Liberty and do presume that he judgeth it not meet that it should be restrained It is far from my purpose to return him any Answer in the like manner to these things to do it opus est Mangone perito Qui Smithfieldenst polleat Eloquio Yet some Instances of Prodigious excesses in this Kind will in our Process be reflected on And it may be the Repetition of them may make an appearance unto some less considerate Readers of a little Harshness in some passages of this return But as nothing of that nature in the least is intended nothing that might provoke the Author in his own spirit were he capable of any hot impressions nothing to disadvantage him in his Reputation or esteem so what is spoken being duly weighed will be found to have nothing sharp or unpleasant in it but what is unavoidably infused into it from the discourse it self in its approach unto it to make a representation of it It is of more Concernment to consider with what frame and temper of Spirit he manageth his whole Cause and Debate and this is such as that a man who knows nothing of him but what he learns from this Discourse would suppose that he hath been some great Commander In Campis Gurgustidoniis Vbi Bombamachides Cluninstaridys archides Erat Imperator Summus Neptuni nepos Associate unto him who with his breath blew away and scattered all the Legions of his Enemies as the wind doth leaves in Autumn Such Confidence in himself and his own strength such contempt of all his Adversaries as persons Silly Ignorant Illiterate such boastings of his Atchievments with such a face and appearance of scorning all that shall rise up against him such expressions animi gladiatorii doth he march withall as no man sure will be willing to stand in his way unless he think himself to have lived at least quietly long enough Only some things there are which I cannot but admire in his undertaking and management of it as first that such a Man of Arms and Art as he is should harness himself with so much preparation and enter the Lists with so much pomp and glory to combat such pittiful poor baffled Ignoramus's as he hath chosen to contend withall especially conâ—idering that he knew he had them bound hand and foot and cast under his strokes at his pleasure Methinks it had more become him to have sought out some Giant in Reason and Learning that might have given him at least par animo periculum as Alexander said in his conflict with Porus a danger big enough to exercise his Courage though through mistake it should in the issue have proved but a Wind-mill Again I know not whence it is nor by what Rules of Errantry it may be warranted that being to conflict such pittiful trifles he should before he come near to touch them thunder out such terrible words and load them with so many reproaches and contemptuous Revilings as if he designed to scare them out of the Lists that there might be no tryal of his strength nor exercise of his skill But leaving him to his own choice and liberty in these matters I am yet perswaded that if he knew how little his Adversaries esteem themselves concerned in or worsted by his Revilings how small advantage he hath brought unto the cause managed by him with what severity of Censures that I say not Indignation
Tranquility in this world the great end of His Authority So he asserts also that there are things of God which are to be observed and practised even all and every one of his own commands in a neglect whereof on any pretence or account we give not unto God that which is His. And he doubted not but that these things these distinct respects to God and man were exceedingly well consistent and together directive to the same end of publick good Wherefore passing through the flourishes of this Frontispiece with the highest inconcernment we may enter the Fabrick it self where possibly we may find him declaring directly what it is that he asserts in this matter and contendeth for and this he doth pag. 10. And therefore it is the design of this Discourse by a fair and impartial Debate to compose all these differences and adjust all these quarrells and contentions and settle things upon their true and proper foundations first by proving it to be absolutely necessary to the peace and Government of the World that the Supream Magistrate of every Commonwealth should be vested with a power to govern and conduct the Consciences of Subjects in Affairs of Religion I am sure our Author will not be surprized if after he hath reported the whole Party whom he opposeth as a Company of silly foolish illiterate Persons one of them should so far acknowledge his own stupidity as to profess that after the Consideration of this Declaration of his Intention and mind he is yet to seek for the Direct and determinate sense of his Words and for the Principle that he designes the Confirmation of I doubt not but that the Magistrate hath all that power which is absolutely necessary for the preservation of publick Peace and Tranquility in the world But if men may be allowed to fancy what they please to be necessary unto that end and thence to make their own measures of that power which is to be ascribed unto Him no man knows what bounds will be fixed unto that Ocean wherein the Leviathans they have framed in their Imagination may sport themselves Some will perhaps think it necessary to this purpose that the Magistrate should have power to declare and determine whether there be a God or no whether if there be it be necessary He should be worshipped or no whether any Religion be needful in or usefull to the World and if there be then to determine what all subjects shall believe and practise from first to last in the whole of it And our Author hopes that some are of this mind Others may confine it to lesser things according as their own Interest doth call upon them so to do though they are not able to assign a clear distinction between what is subjected unto Him and what may plead an exemption from his Authority He indeed who is the Fountain and Original of all Power hath both assigned its proper end and fully suited it to the attainment thereof And if the noise of mens Lusts Passions and Interests were but a little silenced we should quickly hear the harmonious consenting voice of Humane nature it self declaring the just proportion that is between the Grant of power and its end and undeniably express it in all the instances of it For as the Principle of Rule and Subjection is natural to us concreated with us and indispensably necessary to Humane Society in all the distinctions it is capable of and Relations whence those Distinctions arise so Nature it self duly attended unto will not fail by the Reason of things to direct us unto all that is essential unto it and necessary unto its end Arbitrary Fictions of Ends of Government and what is necessary thereunto influenced by present Interest and arising from circumstances confined to one Place Time or Nation are not to be imposed on the Nature of Government it self which hath nothing belonging unto it but what inseparably accompanieth mankind as Sociable But to let this pass The Authority here particularly asserted is a Power in the supream Magistrate to govern and guide the Consciences of his Subjects in affairs of Religion Let any man duly consider these expressions and if he be satisfied by them as to the sense of the Controversie under debate I shall acknowledge that he is wiser than I which is very easie for any one to be What are the Affairs of Religion here intended all or some Whether in Religion or about it what are the Consciences of men and how exercised about these things what it is to govern and conduct them with what power by what means this may be done I am at a loss for ought that yet is here declared There is a Guidance Conduct yea Government of the Consciences of men by Instructions and Directions in a due proposal of rational and spiritual motives for those ends such as is that which is vested in and exercised by the Guides of the Church and that in subjection to and dependance on Christ alone as hath been hitherto apprehended though some now seem to have a mind to change their Master and to take up praesente Numine who may be of more Advantage to them That the Magistrate hath also power so to govern and conduct the Consciences of his Subjects in his way of Administration that is by ordering them to be taught instructed and guided in their duty I know none that doth deny So did Jehosophat 2 Chron. 17 7 8 9. But it seems to be a Government and Guidance of another nature that is here intended To deliver our selves therefore from the Deceit and Intanglement of these general expressions and that we may know what to speak unto we must seek for a Declaration of their sense and Importance from what is elsewhere in their pursuit affirmed and explained by their Author His general Assertion is as was observed that the Magistrate hath power over the Consciences of his Subjects in Religion as appears in the Title of his Book Here p. 10. that power is said to be to govern and conduct their Consciences in Religious Affairs pag. 13. that Religion is subject to his dominion as well as all other affairs of State pag. 27. it is a Soveraignty over mens Consciences in matters of Religion and this Universal Absolute and Uncontrollable Matters of Religion are as uncontrollably subject to the supream power as all other Civil Concerns He may if he please reserve the Exercise of the Priesthood to Himself p. 32. that is what now in Religion corresponds unto the ancient Priesthood as the Ordering Bishops and Priests Administring Sacraments and the like as the Papists in Q. Elizabeth 's time did commonly report in their usual manner that it was done by a Woman amongst us by a fiction of such principles as begin it seems now to be owned That if this power of the Government of Religion be not Universal and Unlimited it is useless p. 35. that this power is not derived from Christ nor any grant of
his but is antecedent to his coming or any power given unto Him or granted by Him pag. 40. Magistrates have a power to make that a particular of the Divine Law which God had not made so p. 80. and to introduce new duties in the most important parts of Religion So that there is a publick conscience which men are in things of a publick concern relating to the Worship of God to attend unto and not to their own And if there be any sin in the command he that imposed it shall answer for it and not I whose whole duty it is to obey p. 308. Hence the command of Authority will warrant obedience and obedience will hallow my actions and excuse me from sin ibid. Hence it follows that whatever the Magistrate commands in Religion his Authority doth so immediately affect the Consciences of men that they are bound to observe it on the pain of the greatest sin and punishment And he may appoint and command whatever he pleaseth in Religion that doth not either countenance Vice or disgrace the Deity p. 85. And many other expressions are there of the general Assertion before laid down This therefore seems to me and to the most impartial Considerations of this Discourse that I could bring unto it to be the Doctrine or Opinion proposed and advanced for the quieting and composing of the great tumults described in its entrance namely That the supream Magistrate in every Nation hath power to order and appoint what Religion his Subjects shall profess and observe or what he pleaseth in Religion as to the worship of God required in it provided that he enjoyneth nothing that countenanceth Vice or disgraceth the Deity and thereby binds their Consciences to profess and observe that which is by him so appointed and nothing else are they to observe making it their duty in Conscience so to do and the highest Crime or Sin to do any thing to the contrary and that whatever the precise Truth in these matters be or whatever be the apprehensions of their own Consciences concerning them Now if our Author can produce any Law Usage or Custome of this Kingdom any Statute or Act of Parliament any authentick Record any Acts or Declarations of our Kings any publickly authorised writing before or since the Reformation declaring asserting or otherwise approving the Power and Authority described to belong unto to be claimed or exercised by the Kings of this Nation I will faithfully promise him never to write one word against it although I am sure I shall never be of that mind And if I mistake not in a transient Reflection on these Principles compared with those which the Church of England hath formerly pleaded against them who opposed her Constitutions they are utterly by them cast out of all consideration and this one notion is advanced in the room of all the Foundations which for so many years her Defenders as wife and as Learned as this Author have been building upon But this is not my concernment to examine I shall leave it unto them whose it is and whose it will be made appear to be if we are again necessitated to engage in this dispute For the present be it granted that it is the duty and in the power of every supream Magistrate to Order and Determine what Religion what Way what Modes in Religion shall be allowed publickly owned and countenanced and by publick revenue maintained in his Dominions That is this is allowed with respect to all pretensions of other Soveraigns or of his own Subjects with respect unto God it is his Truth alone the Religion by him revealed and the Worship by him appointed that he can so allow or establish The Rule that holds in private persons with respect to the publick Magistrate holds in him with respect unto God Illud possumus quod jure possumus It is also agreed that no men no individual Person no Order or Society of men are either in their persons or any of their outward concerns exempted or may be so on the account of Religion from His Power and Jurisdiction nor any Causes that are lyable unto a legal political disposal and determination It is also freely acknowledged that whatever such a Magistrate doth determiâ—â— about the Observances of Religion under what penalties soever His Subjects are bound to observe what He doth so command and appoint unless by general or especial Rules their Consciences are obliged to a Dissent or contrary Observation by the Authority of God and His Word In this case they are to keep their Souls entire in their spiritual subjection unto God and quietly and peaceably to bear the troubles and inconveniencies which on the account thereof may befall them without the least withdrawing of their Obedience from the Magistrate And in this state of things as there is no Necessity or appearance of it that any man should be brought into such a condition as wherein Sin on the one hand or the other cannot be avoided so that state of things will probably occurr in the world as it hath done in all Ages hitherto that men may be necessitated to Sin or Suffer To winde up the state of this Controversie we say that antecedent to the Consideration of the power of the Magistrate and all the Influence that it hath upon men or their Consciences there is a superiour determination of what is true what false in Religion what right and what wrong in the Worship of God wherein the Guidance of the Consciences of men doth principally depend and whereinto it is ultimately resolved This gives an Obligation or Liberty unto them antecedent unto the imposition of the Magistrate of whose command and our actual Obedience unto them in these things it is the Rule and Measure And I think there is no Principle no common presumption of Nature nor dictate of Reason more evident known or confessed than this that whatever God commands Us in his Worship or otherwise that we are to do and whatever he forbids us that we are not to do be the things themselves in our eye great or small Neither is there any difference in these things with respect unto the Way or manner of the declaration of the Will of God Whether it be by innate common light or by Revelation all is one The Authority and Will of God in all is to be observed Yea a Command of God made known by Revelation the way which is most contended about may suspend as to any particular Instance the greatest command that we are obliged unto by the Law of Nature in reference unto one another as it did in the precept given to Abraham for the Sacrificing of his Son And we shall find our Author himself setting up the Supremacy of Conscience in opposition unto and competition with that of the Magistrate though with no great self-consistency ascribing the preheminence and prevalency in obligation unto that of Conscience and that in the principal and most important duties of Religion and
and Rest such as our Author excellently displayes in all their hideous colours and appearances and which are really pernicious to Humane Policy and Society Were it not much better that all these inconveniencies had been prevented in the first Instance by taking care that the Faith Thoughts Perswasions and Judgements of all Subjects about the things of God should be absolutely bound up unto the declared conceptions of their Rulers in these matters Let it not be pretended that this is impossible and contrary to the natural liberty of the minds of men as rational creatures guiding and determining themselves according to their own reason of things and understandings For do but fix the declared Will of the Ruler in the room and place of Divine Revelation which is no hard matter to do which some actually do universally and our Author as to a great share and proportion and the obligation sought after to prevent all Inconvencies in Government falls as full and directly upon the minds thoughts and judgements of men as upon any of their outward Actions And this for the substance of it is now pleaded for seeing it is pretended that in all things dubious where men cannot satisfie themselves that it is the Will of God that they should do a thing or no the Declaration of the Magistrate determines not only their Practice but their Judgement also and gives them that full perswasion of their minds which is indispensably required unto their acting in such things and that faith which frees them from sin For he that doubteth is damned if he eat But it will be said that there will be no need hereof For let men think and judge what they please whilst they are convinced and satisfied that it is their duty not to practise any thing outwardly in Religion but what is prescribed by their Rulers it is not possible that any publick evil should ensue upon their mental conceptions only We observed before that the condition described is exceedingly uneasie which I suppose will not be denyed by men who have seriously considered what it is either to judge or practise any thing that lyes before them with reference unto the judgment of God And that which should tye men up to rest perpetually in such a restless state is as it seems a meer conviction of their duty They ought to be and are supposed to be convinced that it is their duty to maintain the liberty of their minds and judgements but to submit in their outward practice universally to the Laws of men that are over them And this sense and conviction of duty is a sufficient security unto publick tranquility in all that contrariety and opposition of Sentiments unto Established Religion and Forms of Worship that may be imagined But if this be so why will not the same conviction and sense of duty restrain them who do peaceably exercise the Worship of God according to the Light and Dictates of their Consciences from any actings whatever that may tend to the disturbance of the Publick Peace Duty nakedly considered is even as such the greatest obligation on the minds of men and the great security of others in their Actings ariseth from theâ—c◠〈◊〉 more it is influenced and advantaged by outward considerations the less it is assaulted and opposed by things grievous and perplexing in the way of the Discharge of it the more efficacious will be its operations on the minds of men and the firmer will be the security unto others that thence ariseth Now these Advantages lye absolutely on the part of them who practise or are allowed so to do according to their own Light and Perswasion in the Worship of God wherein they are at rest and full satisfaction of mind and not on theirs who all their dayes are bound up to a perverse distorted posture of mind and soul in judging one thing to be best and most pleasing unto God and practising of the contrary Such an one is the man that of all others Rulers have need I think to be most jealous of For what security can be had of him who hath inured himself unto a continual contradiction between his Faith and his practice For my part I should either expect no other measure from him in any other thing nor ever judge that his profession and wayes of Actings are any sufficient Indications of his mind which takes away all security from mankind or fear that his Convictions of Light and Knowledge as he apprehends would at one time or other precipitate him into attempts of Irregularity and violence for his own relief Hic nigâ—r est hunc tu Romane caveto It will be said perhaps that we need not look farther for the Disturbance of publick peace from them who practise outwardly any thing in the Worship of God but what is prescribed established and enjoyned seeing that every such practice is such a disturbance it self I say this pretence is miserably ridiculous and contemptible and contrary to the common experience of mankind If this were so the whole World for 300 years lived in one continual disturbance and tumult upon the account of Christian Religion whose Professors constantly practised and performed that in the Worship of God which was so far from being established or approved by Publick Authority that it was proscribed and condemned under penalties of all sorts pecuniary corporal and sanguinary or capital But we see no such matter ensued nor the least disquietment unto the World but what was given unto it by the rage of bloody persecutors that introduced the first Convulsions into the Roman Empire which were never well quieted but ended in its dissolution The experience also of the present and next preceding Ages casts this frivolous exception out of consideration And as such a practice even against Legal Prohibitions though it be by the transgression of a penal Law is yet in it self and just consequence remote enough from any disturbance of Government unless we should suppose that every Non-observance of a penal Statute invalidates the Government of a Nation which were to fix it upon such a Foundation as will not afford it the steddiness of a Weathercok so being allowed by way of exemption it contains no invasion upon or intrusion into the rights of others but being accompanied with the Abridgement of the priviledges of none or the neglect of any duty required to the good of the Common-Wealth it is as consistent with and may be as conducing to publick good and Tranquility as any order of Religious things in the World as shall be elsewhere demonstrated It remains therefore that the only answer to this consideration is that men who plead for Indulgence and Liberty of Conscience in the Worship God according to his Word and the Light which He hath given them therein have indeed no conscience at all and so are not to be believed as to what they profess against sinister and evil Practises This Flaile I know no fence against but this only that they
it cannot be effected without the destruction and death of multitudes they also are not to be forborn Now how this ensues from the fore-mentioned Principle I know not For a supream Magistrate finding that the minds of very many of his Subjects are in their judgements and perswasions engaged in a dissent unto the Religion established by Him or somewhat in it or some part of it especially in things of practical worship though he should be perswaded that he hath so far a power over their Consciences as to command them to practise contrary to their judgement yet knowing their minds and Perswasions to be out of his reach and exempted from his Jurisdiction why may he not think it meet and conducing to publick tranquillity and all the ends of his government even the good of the whole Community committed to his charge rather to indulge them in the quiet and peaceable exercise of the Worship of God according to their own light than alwayes to bind them unto that unavoidable disquietment which will ensue upon the conflict in their minds between their judgements and their practices if he should oblige them as is desired Certainly as in truth and reality so according to this Principle he hath power so to do For to fancy him such a power over the Religion and Consciences of his Subjects as that he should be inevitably bound on all occurrences and in all conditions of affairs to impose upon them the necessary observation of one form of Worship is that which would quickly expose him to inextricable troubles And Instances of all sorts might be multiplyed to shew the ridiculous folly of such a Conception Nay it implies a perfect contradiction to what is disputed before For if he be obliged to settle and impose such a form on all it must be because there was a necessity of somewhat antecedent to his imposition whence his obligation to impose it did arise And on such a supposisition it is in vain to enquire after his Liberty or his power in these things seeing by his duty he is absolutely determined and whatever that be which doth so determine him and put an obligation upon him it doth indispensably do the same on his Subjects also which as it is known utterly excludes the Authority pleaded for This Principle therefore indeed asserts his liberty to do what he judgeth meet in these matters but contains nothing in it to oblige him to judge that it may not be meet and most conducing unto all the ends of his Government to indulge unto the Consciences of men peaceable especially if complying with him in all the Fundamentals of the Religion which himself professeth the liberty of Worshiping God according to what they apprehend of his own mind and Will And let an application of this Principle be made to the present state of this Nation wherein there are so great multitudes of persons peaceable and not unuseful unto publick good who dissent from the present establishment of outward Worship and have it not in their power either to change their judgements or to practise contrary unto them and as it is in the power of the supream Magistrate to indulge them in their own way so it will prove to be his Interest as he is the spring and center of of publick Peace and Prosperity Neither doth it appear that in this discourse our Author hath had any regard either to the real principles of the power of the Magistrate as stated in this Nation or to his own which are fictitious but yet such as ought to be obligatory to himself His principal Assertion is that the Supream Magistrate hath power to bind the Consciences of men in matters of Religion that is by Laws and Edicts to that purpose Now the highest and most obligatory way of the Supream Magistrates speaking in England is by Acts of Parliament It is therefore supposed that what is so declared in or about matters of Religion should be obligatory to the Conscience of this Author but yet quite otherwise p. 59. He sets himself to oppose and condemn a publick Law of the Land on no other ground than because it stood in his way and seemed incompliant with his principles For whereas the Law of 2 and 3 Ed. 6. which appointed two weekly dayes for Abstinence from flesh had been amongst other Reasons Prefaced with this That the Kings Subjects having now a more clear Light of the Gospel through the Infinite mercy of God such canting Language was then therein used and thereby the Kings Majesty perceiving that one meat of it self was not more holy than another c. yet considering that due Abstinence was a means to vertue and to subdue mens bodies to their souls and spirits c. And it being after found it should seem by a farther degree of Light that those Expressions meeting with the inveterate Opinions of some newly brought out of Popery had given countenance to them to teach or declare that something of Religion was placed therein thereon by the Law made 5 Elizab. adding another weekly day to be kept with the former for the same purpose the former clause was omitted and mention only made therein of the Civil and Politique Reasons inducing the Legislators thereunto and withall a Penalty of inflicting punishment on those who should affirm and maintain that there was any concernment of Conscience and Religion in that matter This provision hath so distasted our Author that forgetting it seems his own Design he reproaches it with the Title of Jejunium Cecilianum and thinks it so far from obliging his Conscience to acquiess in the Determination therein made that he will not allow it to give Law to his tongue or pen But vexet censura columbas it seems they are the Phanaticks only that are thus to be restrained Moreover on occasion hereof we might manifest how some other Laws of this Land do seem carefully to avoid that imposition on Conscience which against Law and Reason he pleadeth for For Instance in that of 21 Jacob. touching Usury and the Restraint of it unto the summ therein established it was provided that no words in this Act conteined shall be construed or expounded to allow the practise of Vsury in point of Religion and Conscience And why did not the supream Magistrate in that Law determine and bind the Consciences of men by a declaration of their duty in a point of Religion seeing whether way soever the determination had been made neither would immorality have been countenunced nor the Deity disgraced But plainly it is rather declared that he hath not Cogniâ—â—â—ce of such things with reference to the Consciences of men to oblige them or set them at liberty but only power to determine what may be practised in order to publick profit and peace And therefore the Law would neither bind nor set at liberty the Consciences of men in such cases which is a work for the supream Law-giver only Neither as it hath been before observed do
the Principles here asserted and contended for either express or represent the supremacy of the Kings of this Nation in matters Ecclesiastical as it is stated and determined by themselves in Parliament but rather so as to give great offence and scandal to the Religion here professed and advantage to the Adversaries thereof for after there appeared some ambiguity in those words of the Oath enacted 1 Eliz. of testifying the Queen to be supream Governour as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or Causes as in Temporal and many doubts and scruples ensued thereon as though there were assigned to her a power over the Consciences of her Subjects in spiritual things or that she had a power Her self to order and administer spiritual things In quinto Elizab. it is enacted by way of Explanation that the Oaths aforesaid shall be expounded in such form as is set forth in the Admonition annexed to the Queens Injunctions published in the first year of Her Reign where disclaiming the power of the Ministry of divine offices in the Church or the power of the Priesthood here by our Author affixed to the supream Magistrate her power and Authority is declared to be a Soveraignty over all manner of persons born within this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal so that no foraign power hath or ought to have any superiority over them And so is this supremacy stated in the Articles Anno 1562. namely an Authoâ—ity to Rule all Estates and Degrees committed to the charge of the supream Magistrate by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and to restrain the stubborn or evil-doers Of the things contended for by our Author the Authority of the Priesthood and power over the Consciences of men in matters of Religion there is not one word in our Laws but rather they are both of them rejected and condemned I have yet laid the least part of that Load upon this Principle which if it be farther pressed it must expect to be burdened withal and that from the Common Suffrage of Christians in all Ages But yet that I may not transgress against the design of this short and hasty Discourse I shall proceed no farther in the pursuit of it but take a little Survey of what is here pleaded in its defence Now this is undertaken and pursued in the first Chapter with the two next ensuing where an end is put to this Plea For if I understand any thing of his words and expressions our Author in the beginning of his fourth Chapter cuts down all those Gourds and Wild Vines that he had been planting in the three preceding for he not only grants but disputes also for an obligation on the Consciences of men antecedent and superiour unto all humane Laws and their obligation his words are as followeth pag. 115. It is not because Subjects are in any thing free from the Authority of the Supream Power on earth but because they are subject to a Superiour in Heaven and they are only then excused from the duty of Obedience to their Soveraign when they cannot give it without Rebellion against God So that it is not originally any Right of their own that exempts them from a subjection to the Soveraign Power in all things but it is purely Gods right of Governing his own Creatures that Magistrates then invade when they make Edicts to violate or controll his Laws and those who will take off from the Consciences of men all obligations antecedent to those of Humane Laws instead of making the Power of Princes Supream absolute and uncontrollable they utterly enervate all their Authority and set their Subjects at perfect Liberty from all their Commands I know no men that pretend to Exemption from the Obligation of Humane Laws but only on this Plea that God by his Law requires them to do otherwise and if this be so the Authority of such Laws as to the Consciences of men is superseded by the confession of this Author Allow therefore but the Principles here expressed namely that men have a Superiour Power over them in Heaven whose Laws and the Revelation of whose Will concerning them is the Supream Rule of their duty whence an Obligation is laid upon their Consciences of doing whatever is commanded or not doing what is forbidden by him which is superiour unto and actually supersedes all Humane Commands and Laws that interfere therewith and I see neither use of nor place for that Power of Magistrates over the Consciences of men which is so earnestly contended for And our Author also in his ensuing Discourse in that Chapter placeth all the security of Government in the Respect that the Consciences of men have to the Will and Command of God and which they profess to have which in all these Chapters he pleads to be a Principle of all Confusion But it is the first Chapter which alone we are now taking a view of The only Argument therein insisted on to to make good the Ascription unto the Magistrate of the power over Religion and the Consciences of men before described is the absolute and indispensable necessity of it unto publick Tranquility which is the principal and most important End of Government In the pursuit of this Argument sometimes yea often such expressions are used concerning the Magistrates power as in a tolerable Construction declare it to be what no man denyes nor will contend about But it is necessary that they be interpreted according to the Genius and tenor of the Opinion contended for and accordingly we will consider them This alone I say is that which is here pleaded or is given in as the subject of the ensuing Discourse But after all I think that he who shall set himself seriously to find out how any thing here spoken hath a direct and rational cogency towards the establishment of the conclusion before laid down will find himself engaged in no easie an undertakeing We were told I confess at the entrance so as that we may not complain of a surprizal that we must expect to have Invectives twisted with Arguments and some such thing seems here to be aimed at but if a Logical Chymist come and make a separation of the Elements of this Composition he will find if I mistake not an heap of the drossy Invective and scarce the least appearance of any argument Ore Instead of sober rational arguing crimina rasis Librat in Antithetis great Aggravations of mens miscarriages in the pursuit of the Dictates of their Consciences either real or feigned edged against and fiercely reflected upon those whom he makes his Adversaries and these the same for substance repeated over and over in a great variety of well placed words take up the greatest part of his Plea in this Chapter especially the beginning of it wherein alone the Controversie as by himself stated is concerned But if the Power and Authority over Religion and the Consciences of men here ascribed unto Supream Magistrates be so indispensably necessary to
run into Principles and practices inconsistent with the safety of Humane Society and such as will lead them to Seditions and Tumults And hence if I understand him a matter I am continually jealous about from the loosness of his expressions though I am satisfied I constantly take his words in the words in the sense which is received of them by most intelligent persons he educeth all his reasonings and not from a meer dissent from the Magistrates Injuctions without the entertainment of such Principles or an engagement into such practices I cannot I say find the Arguments that arise from a meer supposition that men in some things relating to the worship of God will or do practise otherwise than the Magistrate commands which are used to prove the inconsistency of such a posture of things with publick Tranquility which yet alone was the Province our Author ought to have managed But there is another supposition added that where Conscience is in any thing left unto its own liberty to choose or refuse in the Worship of God there it will embrace sure enough such wicked debauched and seditious principles as shall dispose men unto commotions rebellions and all such evils as will actually evert all rule order and policy amongst men But now this supposition will not be granted him in reference unto them who profess to take up all their Profession of Religion from the command of God or the Revelation of his Will in the Scripture wherein all such Principles and Practices as those mentioned are utterly condemned and the whole Profession of Christianity being left for 300 years without the Rule Guidance and conduct of Conscience now contended for did not once give the least disturbance unto the Civil Governments of the World Disturbances indeed there were and dreadful Revolutions of Government in those dayes and places when and where the Professors of it lived but no concerns of Religion being then involved in or with the Civil Rights and Interests of men as the Professors of it had no Engagements in them so from those Alterations and Troubles no reflection could be made on their profession And the like Peace the like Innocency of Religion the like freedom from all possibility of such imputations as are now cast upon it occasioned meerly by its intertexture with the Affairs Rights and Laws of the Nations and the Interests of its professours as such therein will ensue when it shall be separated from that Relation wherein it stands to this world and left as the pure naked tendency of the souls of men to another and not before But what sayes our Author If for the present the minds of men happen to be tainted with such furious and boysterous conceptions of Religion as incline them to stubbornness and sedition and make them unmanageable to the laws of Government shall not a Prince be allowed to give check to such unruly and dangerous perswasions I answer That such Principles which being professed and avowed are in their own Nature and just Consequence destructive to publick peace and humane Society are all of them directly opposite to the Light of humane nature that common Reason and consent of Mankind wherein and whereon all Government is founded with the prime Fundamental Laws and dictates of the Scripture and so may and ought to be restrained in the practises of the persons that profess them and with reference unto them the Magistrate beareth not the sword in Vain For humane Society being inseparably consequent unto and and an effect of the Law of our Nature or concreated principles of it which hath subdued the whole race of Mankind in all times and places unto its observance Opinions perswasions principles opposite unto it or destructive of it manifesting themselves by any sufficient evidence or in overt Acts ought to be no more allowed than such as profess an Enmity to the Being and Providence of God himself For mens Inclinations indeed as in themselves considered there is no competent Judge of them amongst the Sons of men but as to all outward Actions that are of the tendency described they are under publick Inspection to be dealt withall according to their Demerit I shall only add that the Mormo here made use of is not now first composed or erected it hath for the substance of it been flourished by the Papists ever since the beginning of the Reformation Neither did they use to please themselves more in or to dance more merrily about any thing than this Calf Let private men have their Consciences exempted from a necessary obedience to the Prescriptions of the Church and they will quickly run into all pernicious fancies and perswasions It is known how this Scare-crow hath been cast to the ground and this Calf stamped to powder by Divines of the Church of England It is no pleasant thing I confess to see this plea revived now with respect to the Magistrates Authority and not the Popes for I fear that when it shall be manifested and that by the consent of all parties that there is no pleadable Argument to botom this pretension for the power of the Magistrate upon some rather then forego it will not be unwilling to recur to the fountain from whence it first sprang and admit the Popes plea as meet to be revived in this case And indeed if we must come at length for the security of publick peace to deprive all private persons of the Liberty of judging what is Right and Wrong in Religion in reference to their own practice or what is their duty towards God about his Worship and what is not there are innumerable advantages attending the design of devolving the absolute determination of these things upon the Pope above that of committing it to each supream Magistrate in his own Dominions For besides the plea of at least better security in his determinations than in that of any Magistrates if not his Infallibility which he hath so long talked of and so sturdily defended as to get it a great reputation in the world the delivering up of the Faith and Consciences of all men unto him will produce a seeming agreement at least of incomparably a larger extent then the remitting of all things of this nature to the pleasure of every supream Magistrate which may probably establish as many different Religions in the World as there are different Nations Kingdoms or Commonwealths That which alone remains seeming to give countenance to the Assertions before laid down is our Authors assignation of the Priesthood by natural Right unto the supream Magistrate which in no alteration of Religion he can be devested of but by vertue of some positive Law of God as it was for a season in the Mosaical Institution and Government But these things seem to be of no force For it never belonged to the Priesthood to govern or to rule the Consciences of men with an absolute uncontrollable power but only in their name and for them to administer the holy things which by
stand to reason the matter nor greatly cared for any testimonies of the Scripture but said it was at the Kings discretion to abrogate that which was in use and appoint new He said the King might forbid Priests Marriage the King might bar the people from the Cup in the Lords Supper the King might determine this or that in his Kingdom And why forsooth the King had Supream Power This Sacriledge hath taken hold on us whilst Princes think they cannot reign except they abolish all the Authority of the Church and be themselves supream Judges as well in Doctrine as in all Spiritual Regiment To which he subjoyns This was the sense which Calvin affirmed to be sacrilegious and blasphemous for Princes to profess themselves to be Supream Judges of Doctrine and Discipline and indeed it is the blasphemy which all godly hearts reject and abomine in the Bishop of Rome Neither did King Henry take any such thing on him for ought that we can learn but this was Gardiners Stratagem to convey the reproach and shame of the Six Articles from himself and his fellows that were the Authors of them and to cast it on the Kings Supream Power Had Calvin been told that Supream was first received to declare the Prince to be Superiour to the Prelates which exempted themselves from the Kings Authority by their Church Liberties and Immunities as well as to the Lay men of this Realm and not to be subject to the Pope the Word would never have offended him Thus far he and if these Controversies be any farther disputed it is probable the next defence of what is here pleaded will be in the express words of the Principal Prelates of this Realm since the Reformation until their Authority be peremptorily rejected Upon my first design to take a brief Survey of this Discourse I had not the least intention to undertake the examination of any particular Assertions or Reasonings that might fall under Controversie but meerly to examine the general Principles whereon it doth proceed But passing through these things Currente calamo I find my self engaged beyond my thoughts and resolutions I shall therefore here put an end to the consideration of this Chapter although I see sundry things as yet remaining in it that might immediately be discussed with case and advantage as shall be manifest if we are called again to a review of them I have neither desire nor design Serram reciprocare or to engage in any Controversial Discourses with this Author And I presume himself will not take it amiss that I do at present examine those Principles whose Novelty justifies a Disquisition into them and whose Tendency as applyed by him is pernicious and destructive to so many quiet and peaceable persons who dissent from him And yet I will not deny but that I have that Valuation and esteem for that sparkling of Wit Eloquence and sundry other Abilities of mind which appear in his Writing that if he would lay aside the manner of his treating those from whom he dissents with Revilings contemptuous Reproaches personal Reflections Sarcasms and Satyrical expressions and would candidly and perspicuously state any matter in difference I should think that what he hath to offer may deserve the consideration of them who have leisure for such a purpose If he be otherwise minded and resolve to proceed in the way and after the manner here engaged in as I shall in the close of this Discourse absolutely give him my Salve aeternumque vale so I hope he will never meet with any one who shall be willing to deal with him at his own weapons A Survey of the Second Chapter THE Summary of this Chapter must needs give the Reader a great expectation and the Chapter it self no less of satisfaction if what is in the one briefly proposed be in the other as firmly established For amongst other things a Scheme of Religion is promised reducing all its branches either to Moral Vertues or Instruments of Morality which being spoken of Christian Religion is as far as I know an undertaking new and peculiar unto this Author in whose mannagement all that read him must needs weigh and consider how dextrously he hath acquitted himself For as all men grant that Morality hath a great place in Religion so that all Religion is nothing but Morality many are now to learn The Villany of those Mens Religion that are wont to distinguish between Grace and Vertue that is Moral Vertue is nextly traduced and inveighed against I had rather I confess that he had affixed the term of Villany to the men themselves whom he intended to reflect on than to their Religion because as yet it seems to me that it will fall on Christianity and no other Real or pretended Religion that is or ever was in the world For if the Prosessors of it have in all Ages according to its avowed Principles never before contradicted made a distinction between Moral Vertues since these terms were known in the Church and Evangelical Graces if they do so at this day what Religion else can be here branded with this Infamous and horrible reproach I know not A farther enquiry into the Chapter it self may possibly give us farther satisfaction wherein we shall deal as impartially as we are able with a diligent watchfulness against all prejudicate Affections that we may discover what there is of Sense and Truth in the Discourse being ready to receive what ever shall be manifested to have an interest in them The Civil Magistrate we are also here informed amongst many other things that he may do may command any thing in the Worship of God that doth not tend to debauch Mens practices or to disgrace the Deity And that all subordinate Duties both of Morality and Religious Worship such as elsewhere we are told the Sacraments are are equally subject to the determination of Humane Authority These things and sundry others represented in this Summary being new yea some of them as far as I know unheard of amongst Christians untill within a few years last past any Reader may justifie himself in the expectation of full and demonstrative Arguments to be produced in their proof and confirmation What the issue will be some discovery may be made by the ensuing enquiry as was said into the body of the Chapter it self The design of this Chapter in general is to confirm the power of the Magistrate over Religion and the Consciences of men ascribed unto him in the former and to add unto it some enlargements not therein insisted on The Argument used to this purpose is taken from the power of the Magistrate over the Consciences of men in matters of morality or with respect unto moral Vertue whence it is supposed the conclusion is so evident unto his power over their Consciences in matters of Religious Worship that it strikes our Author with wonder and amazement that it should not be received an acknowledged Wherefore to further the conviction of all men in
and common Acceptation which strikes no small stroke in the regulating of the conceptions of the wisest Men about the signification of words nothing else is intended by Moral vertues or Duties of Morality but the observation of the Precepts of the second Table Nor is any thing else designed by those Divines who in their writings so frequently declare that it is not morality alone that will render men acceptable to God Others do extend these things further and fix the denomination of moral firstly upon the Law or Rule of all those Habits of the Mind and its Operations which afterwards thence they call moral Now this Moral Law is nothing but the Law of Nature or the Law of our Creation which the Apostle affirms to lye equally obligatory on all men even all the Gentiles themselves Rom. 2. 14 15. and whereof the Decalogue is summarily expressive This Moral Law is therefore the Law written in the hearts of all men by Nature which is resolved partly into the Nature of God himself which cannot but require most of the things of it from Rational Creatures partly into that state and condition of the nature of things and their mutual Relations wherein God was pleased to create and set them These things might be easily instanced and exemplified but that we must not too much divert from our present occasion And herein lyes the largest sense and Acceptation of the Law Moral and consequently of Moral Vertues which have their Form and Being from their Relation and conformity thereunto Let it be then that Moral Vertues consist in the universal observance of the requisites and Precepts of the law of our Creation and dependance on God thereby And this description as we shall see for the substance of it is allowed by our Author Now these Vertues or this conformity of our minds and actions unto the Law of our Creation may be in the light and reason of Christian Religion considered two wayes First as with respect unto the substance or Essence of the Duties themselves they may be performed by men in their own strength under the conduct of their own Reason without any special assistance from the Spirit or Sanctifying Grace of Christ. In this sense they still bare the name of Vertues and for the substance of them deserve so to do Good they are in themselves useful to Mankind and seldome in the Providence of God go without their reward in this World I grant I say that they may be obtained and acted without special assistance of Grace Evangelical though the wiser Heathens acknowledged something Divine in the communication of them to Men. Papinius speaks to that purpose Diva Jovis solio juxta comes undeper Orbem Rara dari TerrÃsque solet contingere virtus Seu Pater Omnipotens tribuit sive ipsa capaces Elegit penetrare Viros But old Homer put it absolutely in the will of his God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus we grant moral vertue to have been in the Heathen of old For this is that alone whereby they were distinguished amongst themselves And he that would exclude them all from any interest in moral vertue takes away all difference between Cato and Nero Aristides and Tiberius Titus and Domitian and overthrows all natural difference between good and evil which besides other abominations that it would plentifully spawn in the World would inevitably destroy all humane Society But now these moral vertues thus performed whatever our Author thinks are distinct from Grace may be without it and in their present description which is not imaginary but real are supposed so to be And if he pleases he may exercise himself in the longsome disputes of Bellarmin Gregory de Valentia and others to this purpose innumerable not to mention Reformed Divines lest they should be scornfully rejected as Systematical And this is enough I am sure to free their Religion from Villany who make a distinction between Moral Vertue and Grace And if our Author is otherwise minded and both believe that there is Grace Evangelical â—â—â—â—ever there is Moral Vertue or that Moral Vertues may be so obtained and exercised without the special assistance of Grace as to become a part of our Religion and accepted with God and will maintain his Opinion in Writing I will promise him if I live to return him an answer on one only condition which is that he will first answer what Augustine hath written against the Pelagians on this Subject Again these moral Vertues this observance of the Precepts of the Law of our Creation in a consonancy whereunto originally the Image of God in us did consist may now under the Gospel be considered as men are principled assisted and enabled to and in their performance by the Grace of God and as they are directed unto the especial end of living unto him in and by Jesus Christ. What is particularly required hereunto shall be afterwards declared Now in this sense no man living ever distinguished between Grace and Vertue any otherwise than the cause and the effect are to be or may be distinguished much less was any Person ever so Bruitish as to fancy an inconsistency between them For take Grace in one sense and it is the efficient cause of this Vertue or of these Vertues which are the effects of it and in another they are all Graces themselves For that which is wrought in us by Grace is Grace as that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit To this purpose something may be spoken concerning Grace also the other term whose ambiguity renders the Discourse under consideration somewhat intricate and perplexed Now as the former term of Moral Vertue owed its Original to the Schools of Philosophy and its use was borrowed from them So this of Grace is purely Scriptural and Evangelical The World knows nothing of it but what is declared in the Word of God especially in the Gospel for the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. All the Books of the Ancient Philosophers will not give us the least light into that notion of Grace which the Scripture declares unto us As then we allowed the sense of the former term given unto it by its first coyners and users so we cannot but think it equal that men be precisely tyed up in their conceptions about Grace unto what is delivered in the Scripture concerning it as having no other Rule either to frame them or judge of them And this We shall attend unto Not that I here design to treat of the nature of Gospel Grace in general but whereas all the Divines that ever I have read on these things whether Ancient or Modern and I have not troubled my self to consider whether they were Systematical ones only or otherwise qualified allow some distinctions of this term to be necessary for the right understanding of those passages of Scripture wherein it is made use of I shall mention that or those only which are
so unto the right apprehension of what is at present under Debate First therefore Grace in the Scripture is taken for the free Grace or favour of God towards sinners by Jesus Christ. By this he freely pardoneth them their sins Justifieth and accepteth them or makes them accepted in the Beloved This certainly is distinct from Moral Vertue Secondly It is taken for the effectual working of the Spirit of God in and upon the minds and souls of Believers thereby quickning them when they were dead in trespasses and sins Regenerating of them Creating a new heart in them implanting his Image upon them neither I presume will this be called Moral Vertue Thirdly For the actual supplies of Assistance and Ability given to Believers so to enable them unto every Duty in particular which in the Gospel is required of them for he works in them both to Will and to Do of his own good pleasure As yet the former distinction will appear necessary Fourthly For the effects wrought and produced by this Operation of God and his Grace in the hearts and minds of them that believe which are either habitual in the spiritual disposition of their minds or actual in their operations all which are called Grace It may be our Author will be apt to think that I Cant use Phrases or fulsome Metaphors But besides that I can confirm these distinctions and the necessity of them and the words wherein they are expressed from the Scriptures and Ancient Fathers I can give them him for the substance of them out of very Learned Divines whether Systematical or no I know not but this I know they were not long since Bishops of the Church of England We are now in the next place to inquire into the mind of our Author in these things for from his apprehensions about them he frames a mighty difference between himself and those whom he opposeth and from thence takes occasion and advantage afresh to revile and reproach them First Therefore he declares his judgement that the Moral Vertues which he treats of do consist in Mens observance of the Law of Nature of the Dictates of Reason and Precepts thereof Secondly That the Substance yea the whole of Religion consists in these Vertues or Duties So that by the observation of them Men may attain Everlasting Happiness Thirdly That there is no actual concurrence of present Grace enabling Men to perform these Duties or to exercise these Vertues but they are called Grace on another account Fourthly That his Adversaries are so far from making Vertue and Grace to be the same that they make them inconsistent And these things shall we take into a brief examination according as indeed they do deserve The first of them he plainly and more than once affirms nor shall I contend with him about it So he speaks pag. 68. The practice of Vertue consists in living suitably to the dictates of Reason and nature and this is the substance and main design of all the Laws of Religion to oblige mankind to behave themselves in all their actions as becomes creatures endowed with Reason and understanding and in wayes suitable to Rational beings to prepare and qualifie themselves for the State of Glory and immortality This is a plain description both of the Rule of moral Vertues and of the nature of them The Law of Reason and nature is the Rule and their own nature as acting or acted consists in a suitableness unto Rational Beings acting to prepare themselves for the state of immortality and Glory The first end of all vertue no doubt We need not therefore make any farther inquiry into this matter wherein we are agreed Secondly That the Substance yea the whole of Religion consists in these Moral Vertues he fully also declares pag. 69. Moral Vertue having the strongest and most necessary influence upon the end of all Religion viz. mans Happiness it is not only its most material and useful part but the ultimate end of all its other Duties though I know not how the practice of Vertue in this life can be the Vltimate End of other Duties and all true Religion can consist in nothing else but either the practice of Vertue it self or the use of those means and instruments that contribute unto it So also p. 70. All Duties of Devotion excepting only our returns of Gratitude are not essential parts of Religion but are only in order to it as they tend to the practice of Vertue and Moral Goodness and their goodness is derived upon them from the Moral Vertues to which they contribute and in the same proportion they are conducive to the ends of Vertue they are to be valued among the Ministeries of Religion So then the whole Duty of Man consists in being vertuous and all that is injoyned him beside is in order thereunto Hence We are told elsewhere that outward Worship is no part of Religion again pag. 76. All Religion must of necessity be resolved into Enthusiasm or Morality the former is meer imposture and therefore all that is true must be reduced to the latter But we need not insist on particulars seeing he promoteth this to confirmation by the best of Demonstrations i. e. an induction of all particulars which he calls a Scheme of Religion wherein yet if any thing necessary be left out or omitted this best of Demonstrations is quickly turned into one of the worst of Sophismes Therefore we have here no doubt a just and full Representation of all that belongs to Christian Religion and it is as follows pag. 69. The whole Duty of Man referrs either to his Creator or his Neighbour or Himself All that concerns the two last is confessedly of a moral nature and all that concerns the first consists either in Praising of God or Praying to him The former is a branch of the Vertue of Gratitude and is nothing but a thankful and Humble temper of mind arising from a sense of Gods greatness in Himself and his Goodness to us So that this part of Devotion issues from the same vertuous quality that is the Principle of all other resentments and expressions of Gratitude only those acts of it that are terminated on God as their Object are stiled Religious and therefore Gratitude and Devotion are not divers things but only differing names of the same thing Devotion being nothing else but the Vertue of Gratitude towards God The latter viz. Prayer is either put up in our own or other mens behalf if for others it is an act of that Vertue we call kindness or Charity if for our selves the things we pray for unless they be the comforts and enjoyments of this life are some or other vertuous qualities and therefore the proper and direct use of Prayer is to be instrumental to the Vertues of Morality It is of Christian Religion that this Author treats as is manifest from his ensuing Discourse and the Reason he gives why Moral Vertues are stiled Graces Now I must needs say that I look
on this of our Author as the rudest most imperfect and weakest Scheme of Christian Religion that ever yet I saw so far from comprising an induction of all particulars belonging to it that there is nothing in it that is constitutive of Christian Religion as such at all I wish he had given us a summary of the Credenda of it as he hath done of its Agenda that we might have had a prospect of the body of his Divinity The ten Commandments would in my mind have done twice as well on this present occasion with the addition of the Explication of them given us in the Church Cateehism But I am afraid that very Catechism may ere long be esteemed Phanatical also One I confess I have read of before who was of this Opinion that all Religion consisted in Morality alone But withall he was so Ingenious as to follow the conduct of his Judgement in this matter unto a full Renunciation of the Gospel which is certainly inconsistent with it This was one Martin Sidelius a Seilesian who gave the ensuing account of his Faith unto Faustus Socinus and his Society at Cracovia Caeterum ut sciatis cujus sim religionis quamvis id scripto meo quod habetis ostenderim tamen hic breviter repetam Et primum quidem doctrina de Messia seu Rege illo promisso ad meam religionem nihil pertinet nam Rex elle tantum Judaeis promissus erat sicut bona illa Canaan Sic etiam circumcisio sacrificia reliquae cerimoniae Mosis ad me non pertinent sed tantum populo Judaico promissa data mandata sunt Neque ista fuerunt cultus Dei apud Judaeos sed inserviebant cultui divino ad cultum deducebant Judaeos Verus autem cultus Dei quem meam religionem appello est Decalogus qui est aeterna Dei voluntas qui Decalogus ideo ad me pertinet quia etiam mihi à Deo datus est non quidem per vocems sonantem de coelo sicut populo Judaico at per creationem insita est menti meae quia autem insitus Decalogus per corruptionem naturae humanae pravis consuetudinibus aliqua ex parte obscuratus est ideo ad illustrandum cum adhibeo vocalem Decalogum qui vocalis Decalogus ideo etiam ad me ad omnes populos pertinet quia cum insito nobis Decalogo consentit imo idem ille Decalogus est Haec est mea sententia de Messia seu rege illo promisso haec est mea religio quam coram vobis ingenue profiteor Martin Seidelius Olavensis Silesius That is But that you may know of what Religion I am although it is expressed in that Writing which you have already yet I will here briefly repeat it And first of all the Doctrine of the Messiah or King that was promised doth not belong to my Religion for that King was promised to the Jews only as was the good Land of Câ—nâ—an So in like manner circumcision Sacrifices and the rest of the Ceremonies of Moses belong not to me but were promised given and granted unto the people of the Jews alone Neither were they the Worship of God among the Jews but were only subservient unto Divine Worship and lead the Jews unto it the same Opinion is maintained by our Author concerning all exterior Worship but the true Worship which I call my Religion is the Decalogue which is the Eternal and immutable Will of God And here also he hath the consent and concurrence of our Author which Decalogue doth therefore belong unto me because it is given by God to me also not indeed by a voice sounding from Heaven as he gave it to the people of the Jews but it is implanted in my mind by nature But because this implanted Decalogue by reason of the corruption of humane nature and through depraved Customs is in some measure obscured for the illustration of it I make use of the vocal Decalogue which therefore also belongs unto me and all people because it consenteth with the Decalogue written in our hearts yea is the same Law with it This is my opinion concerning the Messiah or the promised King and this is my Religion which I freely acknowledge before ye So he This is plain dealing He saw clearly that if all Religion and the Worship of God consisted in Morality only there was neither need nor use of Christ nor the Gospel And accordingly having no outward advantage by them discarded them But setting aside his bold renunciation of Christ as promised I see not any material difference between the Religion of this man and that now contended for The poor deluded souls among our selves who leaving the Scripture pretend that they are guided by the Light within them are upon the matter of the same Religion For that light being nothing but the Dictates of Reason and a natural Conscience it extends not it self beyond Morality which some of them understanding we know what thoughts and apprehensions they have had of Christ and of his Gospel and the Worship of God instituted therein For hence it is and not as our Author pretends with a strange incogitancy concerning them and the Gnosticks that they assert the Scripture to be the only Rule of Religious Worship that they are fallen into these fond imaginations And these are the effects which this Principle doth naturally lead unto I confess then that I do not agree with our Author in and about this Scheme of Christian Religion which I shall therefore first briefly put in my exceptions unto and then offer him another in lieu of it First Then this Scheme seems to represent Religion unto us as suited to the state of Innocency and that very imperfectly also For it is composed to answer the former assertions of confining Religion to Moral Vertues which are granted to consist in our conformity unto and expression of the Dictates of Reason and the Law of Nature Again the whole duty of man is said to refer either to his Creator or his Neighbour or himself Had it been said to God absolutely another interpretation might have been put upon the words But being restrained unto him as our Creator all Duties referring to our Redeemer are excluded or not included which certainly have some place in Christian Religion Our Obedience therein is the Obedience of Faith and must answer the special objects of it And we are taught in the Church Catechism to believe in God the Father who made us and all the world and in God the Son who redeemed us and all Mankind and in God the Holy Ghost who sanctifies us and all the Elect people of God Now these distinct acts of Faith have distinct acts of Obedience attending them whereas none here are admitted or at least required but those which fall under the first head It is also very imperfect as a description of natural Religion or the Duties of the Law of Nature For the
This bespeaks unto all the great Duty towards God of their acknowledgement unto him of their miserable and helpless condition with all those Affections and subordinate Duties wherewith it is attended In this state he declares that God himself in his Infinite Wisdome Goodness and Grace provided a Remedy a way of relief on which he hath put such an impression of his Glorious Excellencies as may stirr up the hearts of his Creatures to endeavour a return unto him from their Apostasie and that this remedy consists in his setting forth Jesus Christ to be a propitiation through Faith in his blood to declare his Righteousness for the forgiveness of Sin which he proposeth unto Men for their receiving and acceptance This renders it the greatest duty of mankind towards God to believe in the Son of God so set forth to seek after an Interest in him or being made partaker of him for this is the great work that God requires namely that we believe on him whom he hath sent Again he declares that God justifieth them who so believe pardoning their sins and imputing Righteousness unto them whereon innumerable Duties do depend even all the Obedience that Christ requires of us seeing in our believing in him we accept him to be our King to rule govern and conduct our souls to God And all these are Religious duties towards God He declares moreover that whereas Men are by Nature dead in trespasses and sins and stand in need of a new spiritual life to be born again that they may live unto God that God in Jesus Christ doth by his spirit quicken them and regenerate them and work in them a new principle of spiritual life whence it is their great Duty towards God in this Religion of St. Paul to comply with and to yield obedience unto all the wayes and methods that God is pleased to use in the accomplishment of this work upon them the especial Duties whereof are too many to be instanced in But he further manifests that notwithstanding the Regeneration of Men by the Spirit and their Conversion to God there yet continues in them a remainder of the Principle of corrupted nature which he calls the flesh and Indwelling Sin that is of it self wholly enmity against God and as far it abides in any inclines the heart and mind unto sin which is to be watched against and opposed And on this head he introduceth the great Religious Duty towards God of our spiritual conflict against sin and of the mortification of it wherein those that believe are to be exercised all the dayes of their lives and wherein their principal duty towards God doth consist and without which they can perform no other in a due manner Moreover he farther adds the great Gospel-Priviledge of the Communication of the Spirit of Christ unto Believers for their Sanctification Consolation and Edification with the Duties of Thankfulness towards God Joy and Rejoycing in him Cheerfulness under Tryals Afflictions and Persecutions and sundry others that on that account are required of us all Religious Duties towards God in the Religion by him proposed unto us Having laid these foundations and manifested how they all proceed from the Eternal Counsel and free Grace of God in which it is our Duty to admire adore and praise him he declareth how hereby and on the account of these things we are bound unto all Holiness Righteousness Godliness Honesty and Usefulness in this world in all Relations and Conditions whatsoever declaring our Duties in Churches according to our especial interest in them towards Believers and towards all Men in the World in our several Relations in Obedience to Magistrates and all superiors in a word in universal observance of the whole will and all the commands of God Now whither any one will call this a Scheme or no or allow it to have any thing of Method in it or no I neither know nor care but am perswaded that it makes a better more plain and intelligible Representation of the Religious Duties towards God which Christian Religion requires of us unto all that suppose this whole Religion to depend on Divine Revelation than that of our Author But I find my self in a digression the end of this Discourse was only to manifest the Sentiments of our Author on the second head before laid down which I think are sufficiently evinced The third is That there is no actual work of present Grace either to sit the Persons of whom these Duties of Moral Vertues are required unto the performance of them or to work and effect them in them For although they are called Graces and the Graces of the Spirit in the Scripture yet that is upon another account as he declares himself pag. 72. All that the Scripture intends by the Graces of the Spirit are only Vertuous qualities of the Soul that are therefore stiled Graces because they are derived purely from God's free-Grace and Goodness in that in the first Ages of Christianity he was pleased out of his infinite concern for its propagation in a miraculous manner to inspire its Converts with all sorts of Vertue Vertuous Qualities of the soul is a very ambigious expression Take these Vertuous Qualities for a new principle of Spiritual life consisting in the habitual Disposition Inclination and Ability of mind unto the things required of us in the will of God or unto the Acts of Religious Obedience and it may express the Graces of the Spirit which yet are far enough from being so called upon the account here mentioned But these Vertuous Qualities are to be interpreted according to the tenour of the preceding Discourses that have already passed under Examination Let now our Author produce any one Writer of the Church of God from first to last of any repute or Acceptation from the day that the name of Christian was known in the World unto this wherein we live giving us this account why the fruits of the Spirit the Vertuous or Gracious qualities of the minds of Believers are called Graces that here he gives and I will give him my thanks publickly for his discovery For if this be the only Reason why any thing in Believers is called Grace why Vertues are Graces namely because God was pleased in the first Ages of Christianity miraculously to inspire its Converts with all sorts of Vertue then there is â—o Communication of Grace unto any no work of Grace in and upon any in an ordinary way through the Ministry of the Gospel in these latter Ages The whole Being and efficacy of Grace according to this notion is to be confined unto the miraculous Operations of God in Gospel concernments in the first Ages whence a denomination in the Scripture is cast upon our Vertues when obtained and exercised by and in our own strength Now this plainly overthrows the whole Gospel and contains a Pelagianisme that Pelagius himself never did nor durst avow Are these things then so indeed that God did from his free Grace and
World apostatized from the true only and proper object of all Religious Worship Worship yet they retained this Mode and Medium of it These Sacrifices we are told p. 101. did not owe their Original unto any Divine Institution but were made choice of by good men as a fit way of imitating the gratefull resentments of their minds The Argument alone as far as I can find fixed on to firm this Assertion is that those who teach the contrary and say that this Mode of Worship was commanded do say so without proof or evidence Our Author for the most part sets off his Assertions at no less rate than as such without whose admittance all Order and Government and almost every thing that is Good amongst mankind would be ruined and destroyed But he hath the unhappiness to found them ordinarily not only on Principles and Oâ—â—nions dubious and uncertain but on suâ—â— Paradoxes as have been by sober and learâ—â—ed men generally decried Such is this 〈◊〉 the Original of Sacrifices here insisted oâ— The Divines of the Church of Rome do gâ—â—nerally contend that Religion and Sacrificâ— are so related that the one cannot be withâ—out the other Hence they teach Goâ— would have required Sacriâ—ices in the Stâ— of Innocency had mankind continued therein And though the Instance be ill laid and not proved yet the general Rule applyed unto the Religion of Sinners is noâ— easily to be evicted For as in Christian Religion we have a Sacrifice that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to its Efficacy alwayes newly offered and living so before the Personal Offering of it in the body of Chirst there was no season or Age without a due Representation of it in Sacrifices Typical and of Mystical signification And although there be no express mention in the Scripture of their Institution for these are ancient things yet there is as good warrant for it as for Offering and burning Incense only with Sacred fire taken from the Altar which was of an Heavenly traduction for a neglect whereof the Priests were consumed with fire from before the Lord that is though an express command be not recorded for their Institution and Observation yet enough may be collected from the Scripture that they were of a Divine Extract and Original And if they were arbitrary Inventions of some men I desire to have a rational account given me of their Catholicism in the World and one Instance more of any thing not Natural or Divine that ever prevailed to such an absolute universal acceptance amongst Mankind It is not so safe I suppose to assign an arbitrary Original unto any thing that hath obtained an universal Consent and Suffrage lest men be thought to set their own houses on fire on purpose to consume their Neighbours Besides no tolerable colour can be given to the Assertion that they were the invention of good men The first notice we have of them is in those of Cain and Abel whereof one was a bad man and of the Evil One and yet must be looked on as the principal Inventor of Sacrifices if this fiction be allowed Some of the Antients indeed thought that Adam Sacrificed the Beasts to God whose Skins his first Garments were made of and if so he was very pregnant and sudden in his invention if he had no direction from God But more than all this bloody Sacrifices were Types of Christ from the Foundation of the World and Socinus himself who and his followers are the principal Assertors of this paradox grants that Christ is called the Lamb of God with respect unto the Sacrifices of old even before the Law As He is termed A Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World not only with respect unto the Efficacy of his Sacrifice but to the Typical Representation of it And he that shall deny that the Patriarchs in their Sacrifices had respect unto the promised Seed will endeavour the shaking of a Pillar of the Churches Creed Now I desire to know how men by their own Invention or Authority could assign such an end unto their Sacrifices if they were not of Divine Prescription if not designed of God thereunto Again the Apostle tells us Abel offered his Sacrifice by Faith Heb. 11. 4. And Faith hath respect unto the Testimony or God revealing commanding and promising to accept our duty Wherever any thing is done in Faith there an Assent is included to this that God is True Joh. 3. 33. And what it doth is thereby distinguished from Will-Worship that is resolved into the Commandments and Doctrines of men which whoso rest on make void the Commandment of God Matth. 15. 3 6. And the Faith of Abel as to its general Nature was the Evidence of things not seen and the Substance of things hoped for Heb. 11. 1. which in this matter it could not be if it had neither Divine Command nor Promise to rest upon It is evident therefore that Sacrifices were of a divine Original and the Instance in them to prove that the Outward Worship of God hath in all Ages been left unto the Prudence and Management of men is feeble and such as will give no countenance unto what it is produced in the Justification of And herewith the whole Discourse of our Author on this Subject falls to the ground where I shall at present let it lye though it might in sundry Particulars be easily crumbled into useless Asseverations and some express Contradictions In the close of this Chapter an Application is made of what hath been before argued or rather dictated unto a particular Controversie about significant Ceremonies I am not willing to engage in any Contests of that Nature seeing to the due handling of them a greater length of Discourse would be necessary than I think meet at present to draw forth this Survey unto Only seeing a very few words may serve to manifest the loosness of what is here Discoursed to that purpose I shall venter on the Patience of the Reader witâ— an addition of them We have therefore in the first place a Reflection on the prodigious Impertinency of the clamour against thâ— Institution of significant Ceremonies when iâ— is the only use of Ceremonies as all other outward Expressions of Religion to be Significanâ— I do somewhat admire at the Temper of this Author who cannot express his disserâ—â— from others in Controverted Points of the Meanest and Lowest concernment but with crying out Prodigies Clamours Impertinencies and the like Expressions of Astonishment in himself and Contempt of others He might reserve some of these great Words for more important occasions But yet I joyn with him thus faâ— in what he pleads that Ceremonies instituted in the Worship of God that art not significant are things very insignificant and such as deserve not the least contention about them He truly also in the next words tells us that all outward Worship is a sign of inward Honour It is so both in Civil things and Sacred All our Questionis How these
vest it with a power of countermanding the decrees of Princes if no more be intended by countermanding but a refusal to observe their decrees and yield Obedience to them in things against their Consciences which is all can be pretended if it fall not on this Author himself as in some cases it doth and which by the certain conduct of right reason must be extended to all wherein the Consciences of mâ—n are affected with the Authority of God yet it doth on all Christians in the World that I know of besides himself For adding to the Law of God it is not charged on any that they add to his commands as though they made their own divine or part of his word and law but only that they add in his Worship to the things commanded by him which being forbidden in the Scripture when they can free themselves from it I shall rejoyce but as yet see not how they can so do Nor are there any that I koâ—â— of who set up any prohibitions of their owâ— in or about the Worship of God or as thing thereunto pertaining as is unduly and unrighteously pretended There 〈◊〉 be indeed some things injoyned by meâ— which they do and must abstain from 〈◊〉 they would do from any other sin whateveâ— But their consciences are regulated by â— prohibitions but those of God himselâ—â— And things are prohibited and made sinfâ—â— unto them not only when in particular and by a specification of their instances they are forbidden but also when therâ— lye general prohibitions against them â— any account whatever Some men indeeâ— think that if a particular prohibition of any thing might be produced they would aâ— quiesce in it whilst they plead an exâ—emption of sundry things from being inâ—cluded in general prohibitions althougâ— they have the direct formal Reason attending them on which those prohibitionâ— are founded But it is to be feared thaâ— this also is but a pretence For let any thing be particularly forbidden yet iâ— mens interest and superstition induce them to observe or retain it they will find out distinctions to evade the prohibition and retain the practice What can be more directly forbidden than the making or useâ—â—g of graven Images in or about Religious Worship and yet we know how little â—ome men do acquiesce in that prohibiâ—â—on And it was the Observation of a â—earned Prelate of this Nation in his reâ—ection of the distinctions whereby they â—ndeavoured to countenance themselves in their Idolatry that the particular instances of things forbidden in the second Commandment are not principally intended â—ut the general Rule of not adding any thing in the Worship of God without his Institution Non imago saith he non simulachrum prohibetur sed non facies tibi What way therefore any thing becomes a sin unto any be it by a particular or general prohibition be it from the scandal that may attend its practice unto him it is a sin And it is a wild notion that when any persons abstain from the practice of that in the Worship of God which to them is sinful as so practised they add prohibitions of their own to the commands of God The same is to be said concerning Christian Liberty No man that I know of makes things indifferent to be sinful as is pretended nor can any man in his right wits do so For none can entertain contradictory notions of the same things at the same time as those are that the faâ—â— things are indifferent that is not sinâ—â—â— and sinful But this some say that this in their own nature indifferent that 〈◊〉 absolutely so may be yet relatively 〈◊〉 lawful because with respect unto that â—â—â—â—lation forbidden of God To set up Altar of old for a Civil memorial in a place was a thing indifferent but to 〈◊〉 up an Altar to offer Sacrifices on who the Tabernacle was not was a sin Itâ— indifferent for a man that understands thâ— Language to read the Scripture in Laâ—â—â— or in English but to read it in Latine uâ— a Congregation that understands it 〈◊〉 as a part of Gods Worship would be 〈◊〉 Nor doth our Christian Liberty consist alâ—â— in our judgement of the indifferency things in their own nature made necâ—â—â—sary to practice by commands as hath bâ— shewed And if it doth so the Jews hâ— that priviledge as much as Christians Aâ— they are easily offended who complainâ— that their Christian Liberty in the Pâ—â—ctice of what they think meet in the Wâ—â—ship of God is intrenched on by such leaving them to their pleasure because their Apprehension of the will of God the contrary cannot comply with them their practice The close of this Chapter is designed to the removal of an Objection pretended to be weighty and difficult but indeed made so meerly by the Novel Opinions advanced by this Author For laying aside all respect unto some uncouth Principles broached in this Discourse there is scarce a Christian Child of ten years old but can resolve the difficulty pretended and that according to the mind of God For it is supposed that the Magistrate may establish a Worship that is Idolatrous and Superstitious and an enquiry is made thereon what the subject shall do in that case why where lyes the difficulty why saith he in this case they must be either Rebels or Idolaters If they obey they sin against God if they disobey they sin against their Soveraign According to the Principles hither to received in Christian Religion any one would Reply and say no for it is certain that men must obey God and not contract the guilt of such horrible sins as Idolatry and Superstition but in so doing they are neither Rebels against their Ruler nor do sin against him It is true they must quieily and patiently submit to what they may suffer from him but they are in so doing guilty of no Rebellion nor sin against him Did ever any Christian yet so much as call it into question whether the Primitive Christians were Rebels and sinned against their Rulers because they would not obey those Edicts whereby they established Idolatrous Worship or did any one ever think that they had a difficult case of Conscience to resolve in that matter They were indeed accused by the Pagans as Rebels against the Emperours but no Christian every yet thought their case to have been doubtful But all this difficulty ariseth from the making of two Gods where there ought to be but one And this renders the case so perplexed that for my part I cannot see directly how it is determined by our Author Sometimes he speaks as though it were the duty of Subjects to comply with the establishment of Idolatry supposed as pag. 214 215. for with respect as I suppose it is to the case as by him stated that he sayes men must not withdraw their obedience and better submit unto the unreasonable impositions of Nero or Caligula than to hazard the dissolution of the State Sometimes he seems not to oblige them
in Conscience to practise according to the publick prescription but only pleads that the Magistrate may punish them if they do not and sain would have it thought that he may do so justly But these things are certain unto us in this matter and are so many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Christian Religion that if the supream Magistrate command any thing in the Worship of God that is Idolatrous we are not to practise it accordingly because we must obey God rather than men Nextly that in our refusal of complyance with the Magistrates commands we do neither rebel nor sin against him For God hath not doth not at any time shut us up in any condition unto a necessity of sinning Thirdly that in case the Magistrate shall think meet through his own mistakes and misapprehensions to punish destroy and burn them alive who shall not comply with his Edicts as did Nebuchadnezzar or as they did in England in times of Popery after all honest and Lawful private wayes of self-preservation used which we are obliged unto we are quietly and patiently to submit to the Will of God in our sufferings without opposing or resisting by force or stirring up seditions or tumults to the disturbance of publick peace But our Author hath elsewhere provided a full Solution of this difficulty Chap. 8. p. 308. Where he tells us that in cases and disputes of a publick concern Private men are not properly sui juris they have no power over thiâ— actions they are not to be directed by theiâ— own judgements or determined by their ouâ— wills but by the commands and determinaâ—â—ons of the publick Conscience And if theâ— be any sin in the command he that imposed iâ— shall answer for it and not I whose Duty it iâ— to obey The commands of Authority will warrant my Obedience my Obedience will hallâ—â— or at least excuse my action and so secure 〈◊〉 from sin if not from errour because I folleâ— the best guide and most probable direction 〈◊〉 am capable of and though I may mistake my integrity shall preserve my innocence and in all doubtfull and disputable cases it is better to err with Authority than to be in the right against it When he shall produce any oâ—â— Divine Writer Any of the Ancient Fathers any sober Schoolmen or Casuists any Learned modern Divines speaking at this rate or giving countenance unto this direction given to men for the regulating of their moral actions it shall be farther attended unto I know some such thing is muttered amongst the pleaders for blind Obedience upon Vowes voluntarily engaged into for that purpose But as it is acknowledged by themselves that by those Vowes they deprive themselves of that Right and Liberty which naturally belongs unto them as unto all other men wherein they place much of the merit of them so by others those Vowes themselves with all the pretended bruitish Obedience that proceeds from them are sufficiently evidenced to be an horrible Abomination and such as make a ready way for the perpetration of all villanies in the world to which purpose that kind of Obedience hath been principally made use of But these things are extreamly fond and not only as applyed unto the Worship of God repugnant to the Gospel but also in themselves to the Law of our Creation and that Moral dependance on God which is indispensible unto all individuals of mankind We are told in the Gospel that every one is to be fully perswaded in his own mind that whatever is not of faith is sin that we are not to be in such things the Servants of men that other mens leading of us amiss whoever they are will not excuse us for if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch and he that followeth is as sure to perish as he that leadeth The next Guids of the souls and Consciences of men are doubtless those who speak unto them in the name of God or Preachers of the Gospel Yet are all the Disciples of Christ frequently warned to take heed that they be not deceived by any under that pretence but diligently examining what is proposed unto them they discern in themselves what is good and evil Nor doth the great Apostle himself require us to be followers of him any further than he was a follower of Christ. They will find small relief who at the last day shall charge their sins on the commands of others whatever hope to the contrary they are put into by our Author Neither will it be any excuse that we have done according to the Precepts of men if we have done contrary to those of God Ephraim of old was broken in judgement because he willingly walked after the commandment Hos. 5. 14 But would not his Obedience hallow or at least excuse his action And would not the Authority of the King warrant his Obedience Or must Ephraim now answer for the sin and not be only that imposed the command But it seems that when Jeroboam sinned who at that time had this goodly Creature of the publick Conscience in keeping he made Israel sin also who obeyed him It is moreover a brave attempt to assert that Private men with respect to any of their Moral Actions are not properly sui juris have no power over their actions are not to be directed by their own judgements or determined by their own wills This is Circes Rod one stroke whereof turned men into Hoggs For to what purpose serve their Understandings their Judgements their Wills if not to guide and determine them in their Actions I think he would find hard work that should go about to perswade men to put out their own eyes or blind themselves that they might see all by one publick Eye And I am sure it is no less unreasonable to desire them to reject their own Wills Understandings and Judgements to be lead and determined by a publick Conscience considering especially that that publick Conscience it self is a meer Tragelaphus which never had Existence in Rerum natura Besides suppose men should be willing to accept of this condition of renouncing their own Understandings and Judgements from being their Guides as to their Moral actions I fear it will be found that indeed they are not able so to do Mens Understandings and their Consciences are placed in them by him who made them to rule in them and over their actions in his name and with respect unto their dependance on him And let men endeavour it whilest they please they shall never be able utterly to cast of this Yoke of God and destroy this order of things which by him inlaid in the Principles of all Rational Beings Men whilest they are meâ— in things that have a Moral Good or Eâ—â— in them or adhering to them must be guided and determined by their own Understandings whether they will or no. Aâ— if by any means they stisle the actings 〈◊〉 them at present they will not avoid the Judgement which according to
the Treatise we have had under consideration and it is that given by a King unto those that should pertake of the like Royal Authority with himself Psalm 2. 10 11 12. Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye Judges of the earth Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Kiss the Son left he be angry and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him And he who can inform me how they can render themselves more like unto God more acceptable unto him and more the Concern and Delight of mankind than by relieving peaceable and innocent persons from their Fears Cares and Solicitousness about undeserved evils or from the suffering of such things which no mortal man can convince them that they have merited to undergo or suffer he shall have my thanks for his discovery And what is it that we treat about What is it that a little Truce and Peace is desired unto and pleaded for What are the concerns of publick good therein Let a little sedate consideration be exercised about these things and the causelesness of all the Wrath we have been conversing withall will quickly appear That there is a sad degeneracy of Christianity in the world amongst the Professors of Christian Religion from the Rule Spirit Worship and Conversation of the first Christians who in all things observed and expressed the Nature Vertue and Power of the Gospel all must acknowledge and many do complain Whatever of this kind comes to pass and by what means soever it is the interest and design of them who are present gainers by it in the world to keep all things in the posture that yields them their advantage Hence upon every Appearance of an Alteration or Apprehension that any will desert the Wayes of Worship wherein they have been engaged they are cast into a storm of passion and outrage like Demetrius and the rest of the Silver-smiths pretending divisions present settlement ancient veneration and the like when their gain and advantage whether known or unknown to themselves is that which both influenceth them with such a frame of Spirit and animates them to actings suitable thereunto Thus in the Ages past there was so great and universal an Apostacy long before fore-told overspreading Christianity that by innumerable sober persons it was judged intolerable and that if men had any regard to the Gospel of Christ their own freedom in the world or everlasting blessedness there was a necessity of a Reformation and the reduction of the profession of Christian Religion unto some nearer conformity to the Primitive times and pattern Into this design sundry Kings Princes and whole Nations engaged themselves namely what lay in them and according to the sentiments of Truth they had received to reduce Religion unto its pristine Glory What Wrath Clamours Fury Indignation Revenge Malice this occasioned in them whose Subsistence Wealth Advantages Honour and Reputation all lay in preserving things in their state of defection and Apostacy is known to all the world Hence therefore arose bloody persecutions in all and fierce Wars in many Nations where this thing was attempted stirred up by the craft and cruelty of them who had mastered and managed the former declensions of Religion to their own use and advantage The guilt of which mischiefs and miseries unto mankind is by a late Writer amongst our selves contrary to all the monuments of times past and confessions of the Adversaries themselves endeavoured to be cast on the Reformers However a work of Reformation was carried on in the world and succeeded in many places in none more eminently than in this Nation wherein we live That the end aimed at which was professedly the Reduction of Religion to its antient Beauty and Glory in Truth and Worship is attained amongst us some perhaps do judge and absolutely acquiesce therein and for my part I wish we had more did so For be it spoken as I hope without offence on the part of others so without fear of giving it or having it taken on my own there are among many such evident Declensions from the first established Reformation towards the old or a new and it may be worse Apostacy such an apparent weariness of the principal Doctrines and practices which enlivened the Reformation as I cannot but be troubled at and wherewith many are offended For although I do own a dissent from some present establishments in the Church of England yet I have that honour for the first Reformers of it and Reformation it self that love to the Truth declared and established in it that respect to the Work and Grace of God in the conversion of the souls of thousands by the Ministry of the word in these Nations that I cannot but grieve continually to see the acknowledged Doctrines of it deserted its ancient principles and practices derided its pristine zeal despised by some who make advantage of its outward constitution inheriting the profits emoluments and wealth which the bounty of our Kings have endowed it withal but not its Spirit its Love its stedfastness in owning the Protestant Truth and Cause But to return for these things may better elsewhere be complained of seeing they relate only to particular persons That what is done in Reformation be established that any farther publick work of the same nature be attempted or the retrivement of what is done to its original condition and estate belongs to the determination of the Supream Magistrate and to that alone Private persons have no Call no Warrant to attempt any thing unto those purposes However many there are who dislike some Ecclestastical Constitutions and Modes of outward Worship which have been the matter of great contests from the first Reformation but much more dislike the degeneracy from the Spirit way and principles of the first Reformers before mentioned which in some at present they apprehend And therefore though many seem to be at a great distance from the present established Forms of the Church of England yet certainly all who are humble and peaceable when they shall see the Ministry of the Church as in former dayes in some measure acted rightly and zealously towards the known ends of it and such as are undeniably by all acknowledged namely the Conviction of the World the Conversion of Souls and Edification of them that do believe and the discipline of it exercised in a conformily at least to the Rule of the Discipline of the secular powers of the earth not to be a terrour to the good but to them that do evil and in these things a demonstration of the Meekness Humility Patience forbearance condescension to the weakness mistakes errings and wandrings of others which the Gospel doth as plainly and evidently require of us as it doth that we should believe in Jesus Christ will continually pray for its prosperity though they cannot themselves joyn with it in sundry of its practices and wayes In the
mean time I say such persons as these in themselves and for their own concerns do think it their duty not absolutely to take up in what hath been attained amongst us much less in what many are degenerated into but to endeavour the Reduction of their practice in the Worship of God to what was first appointed by Jesus Christ as being perswaded that he requires it of them and being convinced that in the unspeakable variety that is in humane constitutions Rest unto their Souls and Consciences is not otherwise to be obtained And if at the same time they endeavour not to reduce the Manner and Course of their Conversation to the same Rule and Example by which they would have their Worship of God regulated they are hypocrites Short enough no doubt they come in both of perfection but both they profess to aim equally at And herein alone can their Consciences find rest and peace In the doctrine of faith consented on in the first Reformation and declared in the allowed Writings of the Church of England they agree with others and wish with all their hearts they had more to agree withall Only they cannot come up to the practice of some things in the Worship of God which being confessedly of humane prescription their Obedience in them would lye in a perfect contradiction to their principal design before mentioned For those things being chosen out from a great multitude of things of the same nature invented by those whose Authority was rejected in the first Reformation or Reduction of Religion from its Catholick Apostacy they suppose cannot justly be imposed on them they are sure cannot be honestly received by them whilest they design to reduce themselves unto the primitive Rules and Examples of Obedience In this design they profess themselves ready to be ruled by and to yield subjection unto any Truth or Direction that can or may be given them from the Word of God or any Principles lawfully from thence educed How their conviction is at present attempted let the Book under consideration and some late unparallel'd and illegal Acts of Violence conformable to the spirit of it be a Testimony But in the management of their design they proceed on no other Principles than those of the Libetty of judgement of diâ—eretion or discerning they call it for the determining of themselves and their own practices in what they believe and prosess about Religion and the liberty of their Consciences from all humane impositions than were owned pleaded and contended for by the first Reformers and the most learned defenders of the Church of England in their disputations against the Papists those they will stand to and abide by yea than what are warranted by the Principles of our nature and constitution for no man practiseth any thing nor can practise it but according to his own will and choice Now in these things in their Principle or in their management of it it may be they are mistaken it may be they are in an errour or under many mistakes and errours But from their integrity they know themselves innocent even in their mistakes And it is in the nature of men to think strange of sedate violences that befall them without their demerit and of suffering by Law without any Guilt Their design of reducing themselves in Worship and Conversation to the primitive pattern they openly avow nor dare any directly condemn that design nor can they be convinced of insincerity in what they profess And shall they they be destroyed if they miss it in some matters of smaller concernment which whatever some may boast of is not hitherto tolerably proved Shall now their dissent in Religious Observances on this occasion and those and that about things mostly and chiefly if not only that appear neither name nor thing in the Scripture be judged a crime not to be expiated but by their ruine Are immoralities or vicious debaucheries rather to be tolerated or exempted from punishment than such a dissent What place of Scripture in the Old or New Testament which of the ancient Fathers of the Church do speak at this rate Opinions inconsistent with publick Tranquility with the general Rules of Moral Duties in all Relations and Conditians practices of any tendency in themselves to political disturbances are by none pleaded for Meer dissent it self with different Observances in the Outward Worship of God is by some pretended indeed to be a Civil disturbance It hath alwayes been so by some even by those whose own established wayes have been Superstitious and Idolatrous But wise men begin to smile when they hear private interest pleaded as publick good and the affections which it begets as the common Reason of things And these pretences have been by all parties at one time or another refuted and discarded Let the merit of the cause be stated and considered which is truly as above proposed and no other set aside Prejudices Animosities Advantages from things past and by-gone in political disorders and tumults wherein it hath no concern and it will quickly appear how little it is how much if possible less than nothing that is or can be pleaded for the countenancing of external severity in this case Doth it suite the Spirit of the Gospel or his commands to destroy good Wheat for standing as is supposed a little out of order who would not have men pluck up the tares but to let them stand quietly in the field untill Harvest Doth it answer his mind to destroy his Disciples who profess to love and obey him from the Earth who blamed his Disciples of old for desiring to destroy the Samaritans his Enemies with fire from Heaven We are told that he who was born after the flesh persecuted him who was born after the promise and a work becoming him it was And if men are sincere Disciples of Christ though they may fall into some mistakes and errours the outward persecuting of them on that account will be found to be of the works of the flesh It is certain that for those in particular who take upon them in any place or degree to be Ministers of the Gospel there are commands for meekness patience and forbearance given unto them And it is one of the greatest duties incumbent on them to express the Lord Jesus Christ in the frame of his mind and Spirit unto men and that eminently in his meekness and lowliness which he calls us all in an especial manner to learn of him A peculiar conformity also to the Gospel to the holy Law of Love self-denyal and condescention is required of them that they may not in their spirits wayes and actings make a false representation of him and that which they profess I know not therefore whence it is come to pass that this sort of men do principally if not only stir up Magistrates and Rulers to Laws Seventies Penalties Coercions Imprisonments and the like outward means of fierce and carnal power against those who in any thing dissent