a one should tell them That it will seem unequal to deny a Toleration to them and grant it unto others that are here pleaded for which is in effect to say They have as good reason to expect an Indulgence from this State as others that maintain the Doctrine of the Church of England yea such as communicate in her publike Worship Is there no better way of exalting Prelacy and disgracing its supposed Adversaries then by this Reproach and Damage done to the whole Protestant Profession Yea he so far extenuates the guilt of Papists and brings it down so low as to make it common to all other Sects In which one would think he should have been more wary who in one place stretcheth the notion of Sect so far as to make its reason to lye in being different from the Established Form of Church Government Now for matter of practice he imputes the same guilt to all other Sects And if the Papists saith he have any Doctrines which countenance those Practises that is to be accounted as the issue of their insolency in their own greatness And he implies That it is onely the want of strength that other Sects are not so bad as they for such kind of Doctrine as well as Practice Such passages falling from a Protestants Pen may do the Papists better service than their late Apology But why doth he say If the Papists have any such Doctrines Doth he not know they have The Church of England was assured of it when concerning the Adherents of Rome she used this expression in a publike form of Prayer Whose Religion is Rebellion and whose Faith is Faction We wish their eyes were open who cannot see more permanent and effectual causes of the aforesaid Crimes peculiar to that Religion and rooted in the Principles thereof The evidence hereof given in the former Discourse is not needful to be rehersed in this place This Author as others that oppose the wayes of Amity and Peace loves to grate upon a string that sounds harsh To renew the remembrance of the late Warr. Those distracted Times are the great Storehouse and Armory out of which such men do fetch their Weapons of offence and the great Strong-hold unto which they always retreat when they are vanquished by the force of Reason and then they think they are safe though therein they contradict the true intent of the Act of Oblivion Some of those that now so importunately urge the Injury and Tyranny of those Times did then sufâ—iciently comply with Usurpers and left Episcopacy to sink or swim and did partake of the chiefest Favours and Preferments that were then conferred And on the other hand such as they upbraid and are now Sufferers did as little comply with those that subverted the Government and did as zealously appear for the rescue of our late Sovereign and for the restitution of His present Majesty as any sort of men in the Realm But to intermeddle in the Differences of those Times and to repeat Odious Matters and to use Recriminations that will disturb the minds of men and tend to a perpetual Mischief is aliene from and opposite unto my Pacifick Endeavours As for his charging the Nonconformists with certain Doctrines and Positions by him there mentioned which I know none that maintains and other Accusations and Reports relating to the time of the Warr the Truth or Falshood the Equity or Iniquity the Candor or Disingenuity of his Testimony in those things is left to the judgment of the Righteous God and of Impartial Men. SECT IX Whether their Inconformity be Conscientious or Wilful ANother part of the Proceeding is very Unrighteous and Presumptuous The Dissenting Ministers appeal to God That they dare not Conform for Conscience sake This Author hence inferrs The force of the Argument is There is a Necessity of Toleration because they Will not conform Is a Cannot for Conscience sake of no more force than a bare Will not But who best knows their hearts themselves or their Adversaries He would make the world believe that not Conscience but Obstinacy and Faction is the cause of their holding out and that the greatest part were trapann'd into Nonconformity That trifling story of their being trapann'd is not worthy of serious discourse It is so evident as not to be denied That about the time the Act of Uniformity was to be put in practice there were motions and overtures of Indulgence from the King and some of the great Officers of State who were known to have high affection and esteem for the Church of England yet did approve and promote those Overtures as the best Expedient for the setling of this Church and Kingdom But to let that pass Can men of Understanding and Candor think that so many serious persons who as well as others may be thought to love themselves their Families and Relations should continue such egregiously obstinate Fools as to refuse the Comforts of their Temporal Being for a Humor and remain in a state of Deprivation into which they had been meerly trapann'd As for the objected unprofitableness of their returning how doth it appear What hinders their Capacity of gaining Benefices yea and Dignities if they could Conform Why should they not find as good acceptation as others in their Preaching and Conversation It may be they would enter too fast for the good liking of some into those Preferments who therefore would set such Barrs against them as they should not be able to break thorough SECT X. Of their peaceable Inclinations and readiness to be satisfied IN the late Times of Usurpation there were apparent predispositions in this sort of men to Peace and Concord The longing desire and expectation that was in them as much as in any others of a National Settlement and general Composure did accelerate His Majesty's Peaceable Restauration Surely they were not so stupid as to imagine that great Turn of Affairs without the thoughts of their own yeilding and such as they hoped would be effectual with those of the other Perswasion Their early and ready Overtures of Reconciliation which are publikely made known will testifie their Moderation to the present and future Ages Their Offers of Acquiescing in Episcopacy Regulated and the Liturgy Reformed was on their part a good advance towards Union His Majesty hath given this Testimony of them in His Declaration When We were in Holland We were attended by many Grave and Learned Ministers from hence who were looked upon as the most able and principal Assertors of the Presbyterian Opinions with whom We had as much Conference as the multitude of Affairs which were then upon Vs would permit Vs to have and to Our great Satisfaction and Comfort found them persons full of Affection to Vs of Zeal for the Peace of the Church and State and neither Enemies as they had been given out to he to Episcopacy or Liturgy but modestly to desire such alterations as without shaking Foundations might best allay the present Distempers which
rightly comprehended this matter in His Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs where He saith We are the rather induced to take this upon Vs that is to give some determination to the matters in difference by finding upon a full Conference that we have had with the Learned men of several Perswasions That the Mischiefs under which both Church and State do at present suffer do not result from any formed Doctrine or Conclusion which either Party maintains or avows but from the Passion Appetite and Interest of particular persons which contract greater prejudice to each other by those Affections than would naturally arise from their Opinions It is apparent that the avowed Doctrines on either side could not set the Parties at this distance if their Spirits and Interests were reconciled SECT III. What may be esteemed a good Constitution of the State Ecclesiastical AS concerning the publike Order it imports exceedingly to discern and make a difference between things desirable but morally impossible or extreamly improbable and things necessary and attainable Perfect unanimity about matters of Religion and a harmony of Opinion in all Theological Truths is very desirable but it was never yet found in any Age of the World among those that owned the same Religion and consequently it cannot be necessary in all those that ought to be comprehended in the same Church or Religious Communion For which cause a precise Uniformity in matters of meer Opinion will hardly ever pass with general satisfaction Neither is it of that importance that some make it to be for Peace and Edification There is another thing not onely desirable but the indispensable duty of all particular persons which is Brotherly Love among all that receive the common Faith once given to the Saints This is of far greater consequence than the former and more largely attainable because it is a Catholick Disposition and the right Spirit of true Christianity and indeed the failing hereof is lamentable and reproachful Howbeit this excellent Christian Vertue is commonly much interrupted and impaired in many by prejudicate Opinions and depraved Affections and it must not be expected but that Animosities and Jealousies may remain between men of different Perswasions by reason of the corruption of man's nature and the infirmities of the best of men Aud therefore the foundation of a solid National Settlement must not and need not be laid in mens good dispositions and inclinations For although the distemper of many minds continue yet publike Order and steddy Government is in no wise impossible Things are necessary either as the End or the Means The things here considered that are necessary as the End are The Advancement of the Protestant Religion and the Kingdom of England the Tranquility of Church and State and the Security of all sound Protestants and good Subjects That which is necessary as the Means is the Publike Rule and Standard by which these blessed Ends may be obtained that notwithstanding the remainder of mens Perversness the common high Concerns of Reformed Religion and of this Kingdom be not disturbed impaired or cast back by the Altercations that may chance to arise between men of different private Opinions and different partial Interests The high Importance and Necessity of a stated Rule of such Force and Efficacy evinceth the possibility thereof For so Noble and Necessary Ends cannot be destitute of all possible Means leading thereunto Evil Dispositions and Manners are the rise of Good Laws And Law-makers that are subject to like passions with other men have the Wisdom to limit themselves and others for the Universal Good wherein the good of every Individual is secured The Publike Rule being to be framed to the proportion of the People that are to be setled under it the chief regard must be had to their fixed and unmovable Perswasions and Inclinations lest They should break the Rule or the Rule break them In a Nation whose Active Part is zealous of Religion and able to discern and addicted to discourse the Grounds thereof the Order of Things ought in the first place to be directed to the satisfying of the Just and Reasonable Demands of Conscience which being troubled is a restless thing and then to the outward Incouragements of Piety and Learning and withall to the bridling of Ambition Avarice Faction and all depraved Appetite It must be expected That divers Obliquities and Deficiencies may remain and Troubles will arise but if that which is Wholesom and Good be so predominant as to Master the Evils though not to extinguish them it is to be esteemed a Good Constitution SECT IV. The Comprehensiveness of the Establishment and the Allowance of a just Latitude of Dissents is the best Remedy against Dissentions THere was lately published a Discourse for a due Latitude in Religion by Comprehension Toleration and Connivence directed to this End That the occasions of those Discords which divide the Members and distract the whole Body of the Protestant Profession might cease and that the common Concernments wherein the disagreeing Parties have a large joint Stock in things of greatest moment might be pursued This is encountred with an adverse Discourse which is here to be examined and the state and reason of the aforesaid Latitude is to be further cleared Toleration being commonly understood of the permission of different ways of Religion without the Line of the Approved Way A Discourse of Toleration doth not hit the Discourse of the Religion of England in the main thereof whose chief Design is the Extension of the Established Order and the Moderation therein required and then Toleration is treated of analogically with respect not only to common Charity but to the Safety of the setled Polity It is no less besides the mark to argue from the Mischiefs of a boundless and licentious Toleration against that which is Limited and well Managed and hath for the Subject thereof nothing that is intolerable But if under this Name be comprehended also the Permission of diversity of Opinion in the same Established Order let it be considered Whether any ample Polity can consist without such Permission For it is a thing utterly unknown and seems morally impossible for any numerous Society of Inquiring men to be of the same judgment in all points of Religion And though the Sons of the Church as they are called agree in those points wherein they all differ from the Nonconformists yet they differ among themselves in far weightier Matters and such as have caused great Schisms and have been the subjects of the Debates and Determinations of some Synods in the Reformed Churches Now if Charity among themselves and their appropriate Interest dispose them to this mutual forbearance a more extensive Charity and the common Interest of Reformed Christianity should incline them to a forbearance in those other matters There is yet a greater Error committed about the Subject of Toleration which the Answerer by mistake will have to be Dissentions in Religion but is nothing so in the design
look upon them as theirs when they hold their Publike Stations Unto all this may be added That the Ancient Nonconformists earnestly opposed the Separation of the Brownists and held communion with the Church of England in its Publike Worship And doubtless it is the Ministers Interest not to have their Subsistence by the Arbitrary Benevolence of the people and so to live in continual dependance upon their mutable dispositions for a Maintenance that is poor and low in comparison of the Publike Encouragements Hereby one may partly judg whether Learned and Prudent men be Nonconformists by the pleasure of their own will or the constraining-force of Conscience Now their Consciences may be relieved if they be not made personally to profess or practice any thing against the dictates thereof And retaining their own private judgments they may well hold to this Catholick Principle That in a Church acknowledged to be sound in Doctrine and in the Substance or main Parts of Divine Worship and not defective in any vital part of Christian Religion they are bound to bear with much which they take to be amiss in others Practice in which they do not personally bear a part themselves As concerning a Form of Church-Government and Rule of Discipline Men that understand their own Interest cannot for self-ends as they have been upbraided couet the Power of such a Discipline as inevitably procures envy and ill-will without any temporal profit or dignity And if the Higher Powers will not admit such a Form I deliver my own private judgment without prejudice to other mens this may tend to satisfie the Subjects Conscience That Ecclesiastical Government is necessarily more directed and ordered in the exercise thereof by the Determinations of the Civil Magistrate in places where the true Religion is maintained then where it is persecuted or disregarded And they that have received the Power must answer to God for it They that are discharged from it shall never account for that whereof they have been bereaved SECT XIX It behoves both the Comprehended and the Tolerated to prefer the common Interest of Religion and the setling of the Nation before their own particular Perswasions AS those Dissenters whose Consciences will permit will best comply with their own good by entring into the Establishment if a door be open for their access So they of Narrower Principles that cannot enter into it will be safest within the Limits of such Indulgence as Authority would vouchsafe to grant them with respect to the Common Good Men of all Perswasions should rather chuse to be limited by Publike Rules with mutual Confidence between their Governors and Themselves then to be left to the liberty of their own Affections upon terms uncertain and unsecure Besides the Concernment of their own Peace there is this great Perswasive That this Advice is a compliance with that state of things which will best satisfie and settle the Nation and maintain Reformed Religion against Popery and Christianity against Atheism and Infidelity True Englishmen and Lovers of their dear Countrey which is impaired and reproached by these breaches should yeeld as much to its Wealth and Honour as their Consciences can allow Loyal Subjects and good Patriots should consider what the Kingdom will bear and prefer such bounded Liberty of Comprehension and Indulgence as tends to Union before a loose though larger Liberty that will keep the Breaches open and the Minds of People unquiet and unsetled And it is not of little moment to mind this That the high Concerns of Conscience cannot be better secured then in the Peace and Safety of the excellent Constitution of this Kingdom For the Amplitude of Reformed Religion all true Protestants should promote an ample Establishmeâ—t thereof both for the incompassing of all that be sound in that Profession as also for the more capacious reception of those that may become Converts thereunto And not onely the encrease and glory thereof but its stability in these Dominions is promoted by such an ample Establishment Witness our great Defence against Popery by the common zeal of all Protestants of the several Perswasions for Protestancy in general By this concurrent Zeal the insolencies of the Papists have been repressed and their Confidences defeated Could the Protestant Conformists or Nonconformists either of them upon their own single account if one should exterminate or utterly disable the other be so well secured against Popery as now they are by their common Interest And to imagine by rigor to compel the depressed Party to incorporate with the Party advanced so that one should acquire the Strength of both would in the issue be found a great Error By such proceeding indeed a Party may be wounded and broken and rendred unserviceable to the common good but shall never be gained as an addition of Strength to those who have so handled them But an Accommodation would make both to be as one And seeing in their present divided state the concurrent Zeal of Both hath been so formidable as to dash the hopes of the Popish Party how much more in a state of Union might their Strength increase against their common Adversaries Wherefore the One should open the Way and the Other should readily come in upon just Terms This should be the rather minded on both sides because the Considerate Nonconformists will never promote their own Liberty by such ways and means as would bring in a Toleration of Popery yea they would rather help to bear up the present Ecclesiastical state then that Popery should break in by Anarchy or the Dissolution of all Church-Government Moreover an ample fixed state Ecclesiastical is necessary to uphold and encrease true Religion as well against Infidelity as against Popery The loose part of the World would turn to a weariness and contempt of Divine Institutions and Christianity it self would be much endangered in a state of Ataxy and unfixedness By what ordinary means hath the Doctrine and Institution of Christ been propagated and perpetuated in large Kingdoms and Nations and in the Universe but by incompassing under its external Rule and Order great Multitudes that may fall short of the Life and Power thereof And it doth not root and spread in any sort considerable in a Region where the external Order is set by the Rigid and Narrow Principles of a small Party and the general Multitude lyes open as wast ground for any to invade or occupy Let considerate men judg how much the ample state of a meer Orthodox Profession is to be preferred before Infidelity or Popery or any other Sect of the Christian Name that is Idolatrous or Heretical There be few Converts to the Power of Godliness from Infidelity or Popery or any Heresie but they are generally made out of the Mass of People of an Orthodox Profession If it be the will of God that one must suffer for the Cause of Religion it is more for the Honour of Christianity to suffer from Infidels then from Papists likewise it is more
A Second Discourse OF THE RELIGION OF ENGLAND Further Asserting That REFORMED CHRISTIANITY Setled in its Due Latitude is the Stability and Advancement of this KINGDOM Wherein is included An ANSWER to a late Book ENTITVLED A Discourse of TOLERATION LONDON Printed in the Year 1668. A Second DISCOURSE OF THE RELIGION of ENGLAND SECT I. Of the Foundation of our Peace already laid in the Religion of the Nation and the Structure thereof to be perfected by the Vnity of that Profession COncerning Religion in this Kingdom there have been and still are great thoughts of heart and the troubled state thereof hath much disturbed the Minds of Men and the whole course of Human Affairs Doubtless Religion it self is not in fault which in its right and sound state being an Institution holy just and good must needs be of great efficacy to compose and quiet our minds and to heal and settle the Nations But that which in it self is Excellent is by the Errors and Corruptions of men made subject to much vanity And the Adversary of Mankind being not able to raze out the deep impressions thereof that are in our Nature hath made it his Master-piece so to corrupt or discompose it as to disorder the Passions of Men and the Affairs of the World about it Concerning the Cure of these Distempers and the Redress of the Evils thence arising there is no cause of Despair or Despondency if Men cease from their high Provocations and God from his righteous Indignation The most effectual means of Reconciliation between the Disagreeing Parties is For all of them to be reconciled to God Then would that Spirit of Perversness which by the Divine Displeasure hath been mingled in the midst of us be controled and vanquished and Offences and Prejudices being removed we might discern the Way of Peace God forbid that Sentence should pass upon this Generation Destruction and misery is in their paths and the way of peace they have not known Next under the Divine Favour and Blessing our Help standeth in the Wisdom and Piety of our SOVEREIGN and His PARLIAMENT But this Grand Affair is acknowledged to be full of difficulties caused by the Passions Prejudices and Interests of the several Parties Nevertheless the Prudence and Patience of those that sit at the Helm of Government is able to Master it For the Ground-work of Peace is laid to their hands in the Religion of the Nation and the Impartial may descry the opportunity of such a Settlement as may accommodate all those Parties in which the Nation 's Peace is bound up The true Interest of Soveraignty is the self-same with that of the Universality or whole Body of the Kingdom and this is founded in such a Common-Good as belongs to all sorts of men by whom the Publike Weal consists And where there are and inevitably will be different Perswasions among them the Wisdom of the Government is to contract and lessen their differences as much as it is possible but howsoever to prevent or heal divisions and to hold them united among themselves in the common Benefit and all of them necessarily dependant upon the State This is a firm Basis of the perpetual stability of Empire as also of the Subjects Tranquility and Prosperity and the present Discourse rests upon this Principle as its sure Foundation Now in this Realm the joint Stock of those several Parties for matter of Religion is REFORMED CHRISTIANITY for which they are all jealous even unto discomposure upon any Encroachments of the Popish Party Wherefore it is the Wisdom of this Government to remove or lessen the Differences and to cure the Divisions which now disturb and divide the Protestants and to hold them united among themselves and all of them in firm dependance upon this State and consequently to give them all their due encouragement not indeed in loose and irregular wayes but in a ruled Order consistent with stable Polity and agreeable to the Government of this Kingdom The Ground-work being already laid in the Protestant Religion which is the general and grand Interest of this Nation the Structure and Fabrick of the Unity and Peace of this Realm is more or less perfected as the Unity of this Profession and the Peace and Concord of its Professors is more or less acquired And now this great Question lyes before us Whether the Vnity of Religion be obtained by requiring a Conformity of Judgment and Practice in matters of perpetual difference from the beginning of the Reformation unto this very day or by permitting a latitude of Opinion and Practice in those points and that not infinite and inordinate but limited by the Publike Rule SECT II. The Good of the several Parties is best secured by common Equity and the good of the Vniversality HOw happy might the disposition of Human Affairs be if that were acknowledged in mens Practice which is most clear and obvious to Human Understanding That things of common Equity and regard to all sorts who are necessarily included in the Publike State be preferred by each particular Party before great Advantages to themselves apart with disregard of all others For all particular Interests which are uncorrupt and will hold firm are imbarked in the Interest of the Universality and must sink or swim therewith Whereupon not onely the Commonwealth but the more appropriate Concernments of men are better secured for continuance by this Moderation and common Equity There lye before us the Protestant Religion which is the true Primitive Christianity and the Ancient Equal and Happy Constitution of the Government of this Kingdom The Conservation and Advancement of both These are infinitely more valuable than the prevalence of Parties by all true Protestants and true English men A publike Spirit is that which is truly pious and generous But over and above this Noble and Christian Consideration this also should be very prevalent That those Two great things before named in which all do share and by which all subsist are the Basis even of the more private and contracted Benefits of the several Parties and by disturbing these they weaken their own hold and disturb their own safety Those that hate Moderation and follow Extremes on either hand consider not the true state of England It is an unhappy Error when divided Parties who when all is done in their divided state can be but Parties and not the Whole shall so act in their turns as if they took themselves to be the whole Body of the Nation or equivalent thereunto And it is a calamitous aversness when such as must live together either as Friends or Enemies shall refuse lawful and safe terms of mutual agreement As for Conscience and its high Concernments if it be guided by that Wisdom which is from above which is first pure then peaceable it puts in no caution against the healing of this breach For Order and Peace may be obtained upon terms not repugnant to the Principles of either Party His Majesty's Wisdom hath
to Mr. Richard Hooker about the writing of his Ecclesiastical Polity in these words It may be remembred that at the first the greatest part of the Learned in the Land were either eagerly affected or favourably inclined to that way the Books then written savoured for the most part of the Disciplinary stile it sounded every where in the Pulpits and in the common phrase of mens speech and the contrary Part began to fear they had taken a wrong course There is as little Truth and Justice in that report That the Party that were against Ceremonies caused the Troubles at Frankford and brought a Dishonor to the Reformation and Infamy upon our Nation The English Congregation at Frankford was setled after the Discipline of the Foreign Reformed Churches and enjoyed much Peace till certain eminent men zealous of the English Forms and Rites came among them and by a high hand brought in the Liturgy and brake them to pieces and forced away the Ministers and those Members that were in the first forming and setling of that Church Afterward they that remained and received the Liturgy continued not long in unity but in a short time an incurable and scandalous Schism brake out between the Pastor and almost the whole Congregation Lastly There is a great mistake in the main business of the Narrative in representing things as setled by the Church of England in the beginning of the Queen's Reign to please each Party in the abolishing of some and the retaining of other Ceremonies Whereas at the reviving the Reformation at that time the Ceremonies then abolished were offensive to all Protestants and nothing appears to be done in favour of the Anticeremonial Party about the points in difference But things were carried to a greater height against their Way than in King Edward's time whose Reformation was thought to incline more to that which was afterwards called Puritanism For which cause the Historian before mentioned hath written That that King being ill principled his Death was no infelicity to the Church of England The truth of the matter is That in the first Times of the Queen whose Reign was to be sounded in the Protestant Religion the Wisdom of the State intended chiefly the bringing over of the whole Body of the People and to settle them in that Profession and therefore thought fit to make no more alteration from their old Forms then was necessary to be made Care was taken that no part of the Liturgy might be offensive to the Papists and they accordingly resorted to our Divine Service for the first Ten years Also the retaining of the Ceremonies was a matter of condescention to the Popish Party the State thereby testifying how far they would stoop to gain them by yeelding as far as they might in their own Way Now long Experience hath shewed That what was done with respect to the Peace of former Times and reconciling of Papists to Protestants is become an occasion of dividing Protestants from one another without hope of converting Papists SECT XIV The alledged Reasons why the Ceremonies are not to be taken away Examined DIvers Reasons are alledged to prove a continued necessity for these Ceremonies as Because they that are for the Church are unwilling to have them taken away To revoke them is to comply with those that will never be satisfied Imputations have been laid upon the Things injoyned as Antichristian Idolatrous Superstitious A Warr was undertook to remove them And it is a reproach to the Church whose Foundation is upon the Truth to be various Hereunto we make answer Whosoever delight in the use of the Ceremonies may enjoy their liberty but let it suffice them to use it without laying a stumbling-block before others or intangling their Consciences or hindring all of a contrary Perswasion from the Ministry from teaching School yea and from taking any Academical Degree With what soberness can it be said the Dissenters will never be satisfied when hitherto they were never tryed with any Relaxation or Indulgence although they have given evident proofs of their unfeigned desires of Accommodation They do indeed esteem the Ceremonies an excess in the Worship of God but suppose that some have been immoderate in disparaging those Rituals on the other hand shall their value be so inhansed as to be thought more worth then the Church's Unity and the exercise of mutual Charity among its Members May not the Church salve her Honour by declaring That in remitting these Injunctions she meerly yeelds to the infirmity of weak Consciences As St. Paul declared concerning abstaining from meats who had as much power to make a Canon as any sort or number of Ecclesiastical persons can now pretend unto As concerning the late Warr it is easier said then proved That it was undertaken to remove the Ceremonies and it was not so declared by those that managed it But if it were so indeed as it is here suggested let this Argument be well weighed A dreadful Warr that had a dismal issue was undertaken to remove certain Ceremonies that at the best are but indifferent therefore let them never be removed but still inforced to the uttermost upon Consciences that disallow them As for the reproach of the Church by the appearance of being various we conceive the controverted Ceremonies are no Foundation of the Church of England nor any substantial part of her Religion and do therefore hope that some Indulgence therein will not fix upon her any brand of Inconstancy It is objected That the Popish Priests would hereby take advantage It seems then that greater care must be taken that the Papists who are implacable Adversaries be not offended then that many thousand honestly minded Protestants should be relieved But the strangest Reason comes up last Dissentions about things indifferent have necessitated the Church to make these Injunctions That is say the things are but indifferent yet great dissentions have risen about them and are like to continue without end therefore the Church hath been necessitated to impose them with great severity upon multitudes who esteem them unlawful and all for this end That dissentions may be removed We are astonished at this Argument from the Pen of a Learned man The truth is these alledged Reasons have more of Animosity in them then of Equity Charity or good Advice Indeed the Apostle saith Mark those that cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine that ye have received but he doth not so brand those that scruple unwritten Traditions and needless Ceremonies but adhere to the intire Doctrine of Christ and all Divine Institutions SECT XV. Of the diversity of Opinion and Practice already permitted in the Church of England THE Moderation of the Church of England in the Articles of Predestination Divine Grace and Free-will being urged against the rigorous imposition of the controverted Orders and Ceremonies this Answer is made That the case is not the same for that those points are so full of difficulty that they and questions of
for the Honour of Reformed Religion to suffer from Papists then from Protestants And if it were at ones own choice One should much rather caeteris paribus suffer in defence of the main Truths of Christianity then for refusing a Ceremony or for any other part of Inconformity For this cause a Union is so desirable that these Bitternesses Reproaches and Scandals might cease from among us Lastly Whatsoever Enlargement we have granted by the Favour of our Lawful Superiors we have it in the best way and a Blessing is in it SECT XX. EPISCOPACY will gain more by Moderation then by Severity in these Differences THE Answerer enumerates many Reasons why a Form of Church-Government should meet with many Difficulties in its return after a proscription of Twenty years and concludes it must be a Generation or two not seven years that can wear out all those Difficulties On the other side he saith Presbytery languished almost as soon as it had a being c. I perceive Presbytery is a great Eye-sore Peradventure I may be reckoned a Presbyterian and to say the truth I am not ashamed of their company that are commonly called by that Name yet I have no pleasure in such Names of distinction I am of a Perswasion but not of a Party and whatsoever my Perswasion be it is Moderate Catholick and Pacifick Neither my Design nor my Principles engage me to maintain the Presbyterial Government Nevertheless I cannot but take notice with how little reason the intrinsick Strength of Prelacy or Weakness of Presbytery is argued from the duration of the one and the other in this Kingdom Had Presbytery the Strength of the Civil Power Or was it ever formed in England Was it not crush'd while it was an Embryo by the prevailing Potency of its Adversaries Look into those States where it hath been Established if you would judg aright concerning it On the other hand hath not Prelacy had all the Strength of Law and Power engaged in its defence by the Encouragements of Worldly Grandure for its Favourers and by Severities inflicted on its Impugners for above Fourscore years In which space of time none could appear against it without the hazard of utter undoing or great Suffering And though it were thus born up not for Seven years but almost a Century yet we do not find that it had worn out the Difficulties of those Times which were not so Many and Great as this Author reports its present Difficulties to be in its return after a proscription of Twenty years But there is a more excellent and surer Way which it is hoped may attain to a happier End in less time then a Generation or two If the Distemper of Minds were healed and Unchristian Enmities laid aside then Moderation being sincerely begun would hold on and make the Disagreeing Parties to be still more yeelding and mutually obliging those Provocations and Prejudices would then cease by which they have been mutually alienated and hurried into such Hostilities and they would not be tempted in their own Defence as they think to strengthen themselves by Evil Advantages If Episcopacy yeeld to a Moderate Course why should any prudent Dissenters go about to molest it For in so doing they would but perpetuate their own trouble and unquiet state seeing that diversities of Opinions and occasions of Discord are like to continue about Forms of Church-Government until Forms shall be no more On the other side Why should the Episcopal Clergy dread that Moderation that would render Episcopacy more generally inoffensive and acceptable and put some end to the hitherto uncessant struglings against it Are they jealous that the Structure of their Government may be weakned and at length dissolved They might rather apprehend it might gain Assistance and Reputation from many that now either by constraint and necessity or by provocation and prejudice are made its Adversaries Who so searcheth to the root of the matter shall find That not so much the Species of Government nor the Forms that are used as weightier matters have been the chief stumbling-block and the occasions of the greatest disgust and aversation Neither the Episcopal Office nor Habit doth affright this sort of People from hearing a Bishop preach to their Edification The right and sure way to establish Episcopacy in a Land where Reformed Christianity is established is not to urge precise Conformity in Opinions and Orders and doubtful things of meer human determination but to encourage soundness in the Faith Ability and Industry in the proper Work of the Ministry and a Conversation becoming the Gospel and to discourage Pluralities Nonresidencies Licentiousness and Idleness in all sorts who serve not Christ but themselves in their Sacred Functions and whose End is onely to live in Pomp Wealth and Pleasure Will the Church-Governors say as it hath been answered they are bound up by the Laws and if Patrons present unworthy persons which have the Qualifications the Law requires the Bishops must not reject them nor can they turn them out at their pleasure but must give an account to the Laws To this I reply If the Admission and Permission of unworthy Ministers comes to pass not by the Bishops Administration but by the defectiveness of the Laws why hath not their Zeal excited them in the space of so many years and several Princes Reigns to endeavour the obtaining of Laws effectual on that behalf as it hath to procure and make from time to time stricter and stricter Injunctions about Conformity and Ceremonies For we know no reason why as full and vigorous Laws may not be made against Ignorant Negligent and Scandalous Ministers as against Nonconformists Conscience Honour and Safety obligeth the Episcopal Clergy to turn the edg of their Discipline the right way and to shew its energy and vigor not about Ceremonies but the great and weighty matters of Christian Religion And I believe that many worthy Ministers of the Church of England are so perswaded Wherefore in the former Discourse I cast no evil reflection upon the Latitudinarians or any moderate persons nor represented them as conforming not sincerely and as becomes the Ministers of Christ. They may sincerely according to their Principles submit to these Impositions and yet not like the Imposing The expression of their lukewarmness in Conformity signified no more but this That they set a rate upon these Matters according to the value and that they bear but an indifferent respect to things that at the best are but indifferent It is objected against me That having provided a place of rest for my self and my Party in the stated Order I am little sollicitous for others I do here solemnly profess That I am chiefly sollicitous for the Tranquility and Rest of a troubled Nation As for my own Concernment my Deprivation is an Affliction to me and I would do any thing that were not sin to me to recover the liberty of my publike Service in the Church But if it cannot be I submit to His good pleasure by whose determinate Counsel all things are brought to pass and am contented to remain a Silenced Sufferer for Conscience towards God Yea I should much rejoice in such Enlargement of the Publike Rule as might give a safe entrance to others though I my self by some invincible strictness of Apprehension should remain excluded for I have no Faction to uphold and by others Gain I am nothing lessened And in my opinion it will be no dividing of the Nonconsormists or weakning of their Interest if a part of them might close with the Approved Order of the Nation enlarged to the latitude of their judgments when others of streighter judgments are left without Indeed if they were a Faction they might lose or lessen themselves hereby But Reformed Christianity is their Grand Interest and their main Cause lyes not in any avowed difference of Doctrines between them and the Episcopal Protestants nor in any Secular Advantages to hold to themselves in a divided state but in the Advancement of Gods Kingdom by the encrease of true Christian Faith and Piety The Answerer hath used many hard speeches against me and charged me with Malice in divers passages which I answer not in particular because the innocence and inoffensiveness of my words will clear it self and because I would not make this Discourse tedious by replying to things impertinent to the main scope It shall suffice me to add That I have written these things as knowing that the Judg standeth before the Dore. FINIS THE Contents Sect 1. OF the Foundation of our Peace already laid in the Religion of the Nation and the Structure thereof to be perfected by the Vnity of that Profession 2. The Good of the several Parties is best secured by Common Equity and the Good of the Vniversality 3. What may be esteemed a good Constitution of the State Ecclesiastical 4. The Comprehensiveness of the Establishment and the allowance of a just Latitude of Dissents is the best Remedy against Dissentions 5. Whether the present Dissentions are but so many Factions in the State 6. Whether the Nonconformists Principles tend to Sects and Schisms 7. Of their Principles touching Obedience and Government 8. Of placing them in the same rank for Crime and Guilt with the Papists 9. Whether their Inconformity be Conscientious or Wilful 10. Of their peaceable Inclinations and readiness to be satisfied 11. The propounded Latitude leaves out nothing necessary to secure the Churches Peace 12. Of acquiescence in the Commands of Superiors and the proper matter of their Injunctions 13. Of the alledged Reasons of the Ecclesiastical Injunctions in the beginning of the Reformation 14. The alledged Reasons why the Ceremonies are not to be taken away Examined 15 Of the diversity of Opinion and Practice already permitted in the Church of England 16. Men differently perswaded in the present Controversies may live together in peace 17. Of Dissenters of narrower Principles and of Toleration 18. It is the Interest of the Nonconformists to prefer Comprehension before Toleration where Conscience doth not gainsay 19. It behoves both the Comprehended and the Tolerated to prefer the common Interest of Religion and the setling of the Nation before their own particular Perswasions 20. Episcopacy will gain more by Moderation then by Severity in these Differences