easily he may and very many there are that do so as it never shall run out either at his Tongue 's or his Finger's end is no body's Enemy but his own is a regular Citizen and a good Subject living friendly with his Neighbours and in an uniform Obedience to his Superiors Whereas a Schismatick as he is such does also offend against Peace and Charity and cannot possibly keep his Schism unto himself but needs must hurt others with it because 't is publick in its own Nature and cannot be Schism unless it be so For he separates himself from the publick Worship affronts the Governors and scorns the Government of the Church cuts himself off from the Communion of the Body of Christ sets up Altar against Altar Dan and Bethel against Jerusalem and Sion sets up a Ministry of his own making against a Priesthood ordain'd by God abetts a Conventicle prohibited by God and Man against a Church set apart by the Laws of Both like Jeroboam downright whose Sin consisted in This especially that he made Israel to Sin Now an active Divider in and of the Church of God must needs be worse than any other who is but passively divided and cut off from her And to destroy a whole Society by subverting the whole Legislative power must needs be worse than to violate a particular Law And That which makes way for all the Haeresies in the world as well as for all the Immoralities of life which Schism does evidently do must needs be worse than any Haeresie which does onely make way for itself And so a Schismatick is the more impious and the more mischievous of the two Again a Schismatick is worse than a simple Haeretick as such not for this reason onely because a vitious Practice is naturally worse than a wrong Opinion though that is reason great enough but for this other reason also not so commonly observ'd as I wish it were because a Schismatick ipso facto is mostly an Haeretick into the Bargain For besides his renouncing the Ninth Article of the Creed that Form of sound words deliver'd to us by Christ's Apostles The holy Catholick Church and The Communion of Saints duly expounded and understood I say besides That He flatly despises and detests for 't is a little thing to say he disowns and disbelieves That principal Doctrin of the Gospel That Fundamental of Christianity That great Essential to All Religion that we must heartily submit to every Ordinance of Man and that as well for the Lord's sake as for our own nor onely for fear of Wrath but for Conscience sake § 5. Why I chuse to call This a principal Doctrin of the Gospel a Fundamental of Christianity and the great Essential to All Religion I seem to my self to have so many and great Reasons that if they were every-where urged and laid to heart especially by the Parties who are the least aware of them but most concern'd to take them in they might suffice to put an end to those numerous Schisms which now do threaten to put an end to our whole Religion The Doctrin of Obedience to humane Governours and Laws is certainly the aptest of any other next to that of our Obedience to God himself whereof this Doctrin is a most necessary part too to keep the unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace and to congregate into one Body the most disjoynted and scatter'd Members in Church and State A Doctrin laid for this purpose by God the Father from the Foundations of the World and that in the Law of the first Creation A Doctrin propagated by Moses as Taught of God to teach others A Doctrin perfected by Christ as by the Wisedom of the Father who pray'd his Followers might be one even as his Father and He were one Joh. 17. 11. which yet without Obedience to this very Doctrin can never be A Docctrin inculcated and inforced by God the Holy Ghost as by the Spirit of Love and Meekness of Peace and Vnion A Doctrin extended to All Authority upon Earth not onely Regal in the first place 1 Pet. 2. 13. but Ecclesiastical in the second Heb. 13. 17. To summe up all in a word There is not a Doctrin in all the Gospel either more earnestly or more assiduously either more plainly or more expresly prescribed to us and that under pain of Damnation too than that of our uniform Obedience to All that are over us in Authority I say to All not onely to the Best the Good and Gentle but as well to the worst and most froward Governours § 6. It is not onely most foolishly but most nefariously pretended that the Piety or Impiety the Religion or Irreligion of them that are over us in the Lord can either widen or contract our divine Obligation to strict Obedience For never was any incarnate Devil more incomparably impious than those Emperours of Rome Tiberius and Nero whom yet our Saviour and S. Paul commanded their Followers to obey and obey'd Themselves For Obedience to Magistrates being of Divine right strongly founded upon the Will and the Word of God and even a part of our Obedience to God Himself whilst it is paid to that Authority which God has commanded us to pay an Obedience to cannot possibly be due to the men as men or to the Good as they are Good but to the Magistrates or Masters reduplicativè as they are such 'T is due to the Governours as they are Governours and as the Ordinance of God let their Practices and Opinions be what they will § 7. 'T is true when our Governours are Vsurpers or being None do command us what God forbids There there lies an Exception to our Obedience due to God rather than Man But This Exception makes strongly for all I have hitherto said and that by virtue of the old Axiom Exceptio firmat Regulam in non exceptis So that by this Rule and Reason that when God and His Deputies do stand in competition for our Obedience God must have our whole Active and His Deputies our Passive Obedience onely It cannot but follow that when our Governours are rightfull and do onely command what God does no-where forbid or do onely forbid what God does no-where command us There we must obey God by obeying Man there being no other way of paying God our Obedience in such a case For There our Governours Command is the Command of God too There the very same Law which is immediately Humane is also mediately Divine Because we There are commanded by That Authority upon Earth which in the Old and New Testament God has commanded us to obey Nor is there any one Duty belonging to us as Men or Christians which God is pleas'd to make a stricter Provision for We are no more commanded to fear God than to honour the King nor are we more forbidden to worship Idols than to resist or disobey such as are over us in Authority § 8. This I do the
Laws than the Laws allow Him in his being lawless or no longer than they are usefull and pleasant to him as when they avenge him upon his Enemies protect him in his Liberty and assert him in his Estate deserves not those Benefits of Propriety and safety the Laws afford him Sixthly that as many as do avow themselves Protestants and yet divide from the Church of England do contribute a great deal more towards the bringing in of Popery than All the Emissaries of Rome could have done without them § 10. If we earnestly desire at least as much as in us lies to put an end to all Schisms and Separations to procure or promote the publick Peace of this Nation and in That the publick Safety by procuring and promoting Vniformity in Religion and a general Conformity to the Laws we live under we must be restless in convincing all the People we can converse with of these Six things Not onely by making them unable to deny but by making them able to assert the Truth of them and thereby to be Converters of other men We must never be at rest nor let Them be so until they are perfect in these Particulars Or if not in all yet especially in the chief As that though the Laws of God cannot possibly depend on the Laws of Men but vice versâ yet our Obedience to God's own Laws does depend on our Obedience to Those of Men. They onely differ by the Distinction of mediate and immediate And so they are Termini Convertibiles for the immediate Laws of Men are the mediate Laws of God And that by force of This Text never enough to be repeated and chew'd upon Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake And why for the Lord's sake if not because the Lord hath so appointed What God does mediately command by his several Deputies his Moses and his Aaron his Zerubbabel and his Joshua and all his succeeding Legislators in Church and State He does as really and as truly and as bindingly command as what He immediately commands by a Voice from Heaven In so much that the Distinction of mediate and immediate does no ways alter the Obligation or make God's Law either more or less His. Now though the Doctrine of Obedience unto the mediate Commands of God is very learnedly and piously and frequently preach'd in many Places yet it has not universally its wish'd effect because not preach'd as a Fundamental as essential to our Religion and as of absolute Necessity to the Salvation of the Soul The Doctrine cannot be press'd enough until 't is press'd in This Notion For Liberty is so sweet and Obligation so distastfull to most mens Palates that they will never make Conscience of being punctually Obedient to human Ordinances and Laws whilst they are flatter'd that their Souls may be sav'd without it § 11. Touching the several Ways and Means whereby This Work is to be done I am plainly of This opinion That though it may be well done from out the Pulpit in such profitable Discourses as we commonly call Sermons yet very much better it may be done out of the Pew in the more primitive way of Preaching and the more profitable I think which is Catechizing But best of all by private Conference wherein we deal with our Dissenters one by one and give them the reasonable Advantage which in the publick they cannot have of alledging all they can for their Separation and of objecting all they can against our Church from which they separate and by consequence against the 33 Acts of Parliament by which our Liturgy and Church do remain establish'd For This Advantage given to Them by a Private Conference gives Vs also the Advantage of giving clear and full Answers to their Objections Which if we do to their Satisfaction we shall gain them back to God and to His Spouse our Dear Mother The Church of England This we certainly shall do if their Error is but of Weakness and so consistent with an honest well meaning Spirit whereas if of Wilfulness Pride and Stomach Then indeed they are possess'd with such a Deaf and Dumb Spirit as of which without a Miracle we are not able to dispossess them And so we may lawfully give them over as incurable Patients on whom All Remedies are cast away As we may lawfully cease to cast that which is holy unto Dogs For in good Earnest of the two I do esteem it a lesser Miracle to make the Blind man to see or the Deaf to hear than either the Wilfull to believe or the Obstinate to submit to the clearest Reason The onely Charity left for Such is to deliver them up to Satan I will not say for the Destruction but Humiliation of the Flesh that so if by any means possible their Spirits may be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus § 12. If what I have said is not sufficient to reach the end I aim at I will try what success I may happen to obtain by a shorter Method The Method of Marcus Aemilius Scaurus a very Noble Roman of known Integrity Who being accused before the People in a very long Oration by Varius Sucronensis an envious Knave defended himself in a very short one or to say truly in None at all For disdaining to contend with his base Enemy in words He onely ask'd the Roman People this Question Which of the Two ye men of Rome think ye the worthier of your Belief Varius Sucronensis who does confidently affirm Aemilius Scaurus to be Guilty or Aemilius Scaurus rather who does protest that he is Innocent Upon which words alone the Person accused was acquitted and the Envious Accuser severely censur'd In a manner not unlike I shall onely say Here. The great Apostle S. Peter as the Holy Ghost's Penman bids us all submit our selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake Whether to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as sent by Him But certain men of these Times crept in unawares who despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities who think themselves of more knowledge and greater Authority than S. Peter do as absolutely forbid as S. Peter bids us They will not have us submit to any Ordinance of Man either Subordinate or Supreme But they will have us for the Lord's sake to recalcitrate rather and kick at every Ordinance of Man as incroaching too much on our Christian Liberty Now if I ask which of the Two S. Peter or His Enemies we ought to follow or obey very confident I am ye will say S. Peter These I think are words enough to have been us'd at This Time upon the grounds I have to hope that No more are needfull A CAVEAT Touching the Danger of REFUSING THOSE CAVEATS Our LORD hath given us in His GOSPEL HEB. 12. 25. See that ye Refuse not Him that speaketh For if They escaped not who refused Him that spake on Earth much more shall not We escape if we turn away from
were I to labour for my life against the Inroads or Growths of Popery and in prevention of the Conspiracies which come from Rome I would make it my whole Indeavour both by Menaces and Perswasions by Terrors and Intreaties by sense of Interest and Honour and Shame it self by all the Means I could use and all the Arguments I could urge to convince and convert our English Protestant Dissenters and make them All meet as One in the Church of England If 't is Their Master-piece to divide us it should be Ours to be united And Now if Ever Else in vain do we strive to confute their Errors though we do it never so well whilst torn in pieces among our selves we commit the grossest Error in point of Policy and Prudence to be imagin'd It should therefore in my opinion be the Ambition of us All who are heartily the Sons of the Church of England to prevail from All Topicks with Protestant Sectaries amongst us who do agree with us already in the publick Profession of being Protestants and being equally averse to the Church of Rome to lay aside their Animosities if not to bury them for ever in the same Church-yard to acquiese in one Government by Law establish'd to submit their single Judgments to the united ones of their Superiours to sacrifice Private Discontents to Publick Interest and to be as a City which is at unity in it self to consider that as the Laws would be otherwise than they are if their Governours were as They so if They were as their Governours the Laws would still be as they are by their own Contrivance to keep in mind that as of Mortals who are but Men on this side heaven He is reckon'd to be the Best who has fewest Faults not He who has none in a State of Frailty so of all Governments upon Earth That ought to pass for the most Perfect as well in respect of its legislative as of its executive Administrations which is subject unto the fewest and most supportable Imperfections Add to This the Consideration how many Rebellions and Conjurations rais'd by Christians so called against their Governours have brought The Profession into an Hatred with Jews and Gentiles ever since and tempted many even at home into This passionate Imprecation Sint Animae nostrae cum Philosophis Nor can we say who were the worse of men pretending to Christianity They who did execute what they intended on the 30 of January or They who Intended onely to execute on the 5 of November the barbarous Murther and Subversion of King and Kingdom And if our present Dissenters such I mean of their Number as mean the Best would but impartially consider or sufficiently compare as well the Principles and the Parties as the Projects Themselves which Those Two Days have made so signal I cannot chuse but believe They would abominate them alike or the Later perhaps the more for the Infamy Then brought on the English Name I know not whether I shall be able but I am willing to do them Service by undeceiving and disabusing them in All the Caveats which ensue Being as hopefull our Common Enemies will in Time make us Friends as I am sure our Common Dangers ought to make us all intent on our Common Safety This they will and must do in case we will but permit our selves either in Piety or in Prudence to be provoked by our Enemies to Aemulation For if All sorts of Papists even the Sorbonists and the Jesuits the Dominicans and the Franciscans the Professors of the Gallican and Spanish Churches however differing in Opinions and burning in Hatreds of one another do yet agree against the Protestants and in the same Church of Rome as much as Caiphas a Jew and Pontius Pilate a Gentile did Both agree against Jesus Christ what can hinder All sorts of Protestants All the English ones especially however divided in some Opinions and Disaffections to one another as much perhaps as even the Molinists and the Jansenists Themselves from meeting together and agreeing in the same Church of England whose Reformation is made Authentick by the Highest Authority under Heaven Especially when their Agreement is a most Necessary Preservative of those Four things which are dearest to them their Religion their Liberties their Livelihoods and their Lives What can hinder them from converting the most Inhumane Combination or our blood-thirsty Enemies into an Excellent Security against it self or from making our remaining and yet present Dangers become the most Instrumental to our Escape There is a trite and stale objection against the King and the Bishops and against all Inferiour Men of the Church of England that they are Popishly affected if not a kind of Cassandrian Papists And This Objection or Calumny how weak soever has yet been strong enough to be mischievous unto a world of well-meaning but weaker Brethren although it has ever been confuted by all the Barbarous Combinations and Diabolical Conspiracies against the Fathers and the Sons of the Church of England from the Days of Queen Elizabeth to These we live in For if there is in any of us such a Tincture of Popery or of Papistical Inclination as the Jesuited Papists have taught our Jesuited Protestants to say and publish why should the Emissaries of Rome be more industriously intent upon our Destruction for being men of the Church of England than upon the Extirpation of all other Protestants in the World Is it not because the Church of England is still the Ornament and the Apology the Support and the Protection of All the Protestant Churches beyond Sea throughout the World Is it not that foreign Protestants cannot be rooted out with Ease or but persecuted with Safety whilst there is a Church of England to stand as a Rampire in the Way between Them and Ruin Whereas destroy or extinguish the Church of England and All the Reformed Churches abroad will fall to Ruin of Themselves If Real Miracles are not ceased as some say they are and some that they are not The Church of England's Preservation and of late more than ever is the best Argument I can think of whereby to prove the Continuance of them O that our Separatists were wise that they understood This that they would but consider That Hand from Heaven by which the chief Protestant King and the chief Protestant Kingdom of all the World and the chief Protestant Church which is the Security of the Rest are yet alive at This Day to own and Honour their Deliverer and to be practically thankfull for their Deliverance One thing more I have to say in This Monition to the Reader concerning both the Nature and the Liberty of a Man's Conscience which He who offers to invade and so to violate does attempt to make a Breach on the Gates of Heaven As the Emperor Maximilian thought good to word it Only 't is every Man's Concernment to learn exactly what it is wherein the Nature of a Man's Conscience and the just
Villanies in the World without exception He is not season'd by the Holy but the Vnclean Spirit let his Orthodoxie of judgement as to some Fundamentals be what it can An honest Heathen is not so bad as a Christian Knave Thirdly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Vnity and Love And therefore if any sort of men shall take upon them to be Reformers by making Schism by dissolving the Bond of Peace wherein the Vnity of the Spirit is to be kept and shall crumble Religion into as many small Parcells as the Caprices of Idle men shall have the liberty to suggest especially if they shall labour to separate Subjects from their Sovereign by absolving them from their Oaths of Christian Obedience and Fidelity or by instructing them to swear with a Design to be forsworn They are miss-led by That Spirit whose Name is Legion even the Spirit of Division That old and cunning Serpent which deceiveth the whole World Fourthly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Meekness and of Order And therefore if any despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities and in pretense of being the Meek ones who are by right of Promise to inherit the Earth demurely tread upon Crowns and Crosiers and love to be levelling with their Feet whatsoever according to God's special Providence does overtop them by Head and Shoulders especially if they presume to place the single Bishop of Rome above General Councils invest him with a Power to excommunicate Kings and subvert whole Kingdoms and make the People hope to Merit by the most prodigious Murthers They must be led by That Spirit which is called The Angel of the Bottomless Pit Abaddon and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Destroyer even the Spirit which is still working in the Children of Disobedience Fiftly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Sincerity induing All whom He inhabits with an absolute Simplicity and Singleness of Heart And therefore They who do hold up their Left hand to God but their Right against their Governours having Godliness in their Profession but practical Atheism in their Lives hating Idols from the Teeth outwards but loving Sacriledge from the Heart crying down Superstition but preaching up the Creature-comforts flowing from Plunder which they call Providence declaring with zeal against the Prelates but ever voting up the Papacy of their Superintendents declaiming much against the Sectaries who are not of their Denomination but breaking down the Hedge of Discipline whereby the Herds are to be kept from God's Inclosure especially They who have invented the Art of Aequivocating and Cheating the Art of Swearing any thing safely by mental Exceptions and Reservations the Art of Couzenage by the Contract they call Mohatra and the like must needs be acted by that Spirit whom the Scripture has expressed by the Father of Lies even the Spirit of Hypocrisie That black Prince of Darkness which transforms himself with ease into an Angel of light Sixtly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Knowledge and Wisedom and Vnderstanding And therefore if any man cites Scripture against the whole Tenor and Stream of Scripture and wanders into the wrong way even by That very Word which does direct him into the Right one especially if he levells the Canon of Scripture with the Apocrypha and makes the Pure Word of God to truckle humbly under Tradition whereby it becomes of none effect if men so learned and so acute and so sagacious as the Jesuites after all the heinous things they have done and taught are so far from discerning what Spirit they are of that they utterly mistake an Evil Spirit for a Good one a Spirit from Hell for one from Heaven the Spirit which reigns in the Court of Rome for the Spirit which guides in the Church of England if they can think it the Top of Piety to advance the Lord Jesus quite against the Lord Christ and make the Christian Religion the greatest Transgression of Itself which moves the Jansenists to call them The Antichristian Society if they can take it for the Comble of Christian Merit and Perfection to espouse and put in practice this Turkish Maxime that Religion is to be propagated where 't is possible by the Sword They must needs be possess'd by the Spirit of Slumber the Spirit of dead Sleep the God of this World which blindeth the mind for so the Devil is once call'd 2 Cor. 4. 4. What I have thus drawn out at length our Blessed Lord does wind up into This short Bottom Matth. 7. 20. Ye shall know them by their Fruits But the Fruits of That Spirit that is of God are reckon'd up by S. Paul to be such as These Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Meekness Goodness and the like And therefore They who in stead of loving Enemies do persecute and oppress the mystical Members of the same Body whereof Christ is the Head who lay the Cross of Christ Jesus on Christian Shoulders robbing one of a Living another of a Liberty a third of a Life and this for no other Crime than being constantly Conscientious and very real Friends to All because the Flatterers of None though able to injure or to oblige them must needs be managed by That carnal and unclean Spirit which makes them so fruitfull and so abounding in the works of the Flesh such as Hatred Variance Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies and the like § 8. Now if All these Particulars be laid together in our minds I suppose we have a Touchstone to Try the Spirits of Pretenders whether or no they are of God and such a Touchstone as needs not it self another Touchstone to be Try'd by But because the best Touchstone is nothing worth to such as know not how to use it we shall doe well to take notice of one Rule more in the using of it For considering how many Vices do too much border and confine upon several Vertues and how many Lies are more plausible to flesh and bloud than many Truths and hardly any thing can be so false but may have Colours and Probabilities to set it off being neatly laid on by men ingeniously wicked and that a multitude of Ignaro's do often swallow the grossest Errours presented to them in the Disguise of the greatest Truths by not distinguishing Words as they ought from Things and blending one thing with another and taking them down all at once without any masticating or chewing I say for This reason we must not pass our last Judgement upon Pretenders to the Spirit untill we have made our selves acquainted as well with their Habits as with their Acts as well with the main or general current of their Lives as with the meer conduct and carryings on of their Designs with the Means they make use of as well as with the End they pretend to aim at with the Building which is erected as well
Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting Destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power by every thing that is dreadfull or dear unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we declare we denounce we command you Brethren that if ye observe any Professor of the Christian Religion who for that reason onely is call'd a Brother to forsake his proper Calling his Place and Station and to meddle as a Buisybody in other mens Matters v. 11. and so to cast off all Obedience to the Rules of Direction which we have given especially if ye observe him to leap from the Shop into the Pulpit or out of the Church into a Synagogue consisting of the most factious and disorderly Opiniators who under colour of serving God despise the Ordinances of Men ye presently Note him and mark him out as a Disorderly Walker as a Disturber of Society as a Disseminator of Discords the very Bane of all Religion and the Discredit of Christianity most unworthy to be admitted to any Commerce or Conversation with regular Christians but to be shunn'd like any Leper and to be cast out of your Company as if he had a Plague-sore v. 14. Thus I paraphrase the Text as I find it relating to the Context and by comparing our Apostle's with our Saviour's own Rule For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Brother walking disorderly in this present verse does seem to be the same unruly and irregular Person who is expressed by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thess 5. 14. Which being a Military expression and of peculiar use in Tacticks does properly signifie a Souldier who runs away from his Colours quits the Service he undertook and ingaged in denies obedience to his Commander not onely to his Lieutenant but Captain-General that is to say without a Metaphor depraves the Doctrin disturbs the Disciplin disowns the Government of the Church By any one of which Three he is disorderly in his Walking however they are commonly all Three in one § 2. Now when a Brother that is a Christian at least in Profession and Pretense is so disorderly in his Walking as that he will not hear the Church but is a Contemner of Authority and Publick Order He is by the Rule of our Blessed Saviour to be look'd upon and dealt with just as Heathen-men and Publicans were look'd upon and dealt with amongst the Jews We must avoid him as a prophane and an impious person as one who is void of all Religion and as it were without God in the World Thus we must brand and stigmatize him for two good Reasons and pious Ends first that himself may be asham'd and being asham'd may be converted 2 Thess 3. 14. next that others also may fear to doe and suffer by his Example § 3. That This was the meaning of our Lord Matth. 18. 17. seems to me very evident from Two especially of his Apostles I mean the most learned and most beloved They tell us Both that when a Brother is become contumacious and not reclaimable either by private or by publick Admonitions we must not onely not religiously but not so much as civilly entertain commerce with him We must not eat with such a Brother or keep him company must not receive him into our Houses or bid him God speed And there is reason for this Severity which S. Paul and S. John have thus injoyn'd us For can there be any thing more apposite more pertinent or proper than to deny them our Company in private Houses who disdain to afford us their own in God's Why should we eat and drink with Them either at Their or Our Tables who are therefore too unworthy because they think they are too Good to eat and drink in our company at the Table of the Lord Why should we any-where go with Them who will not go with Vs to Heaven and hate the means of Salvation so far forth as we injoy them Is it any way consistent either with Charity or Reason that we should bid a man God speed in the ways of Corah or affect his Society who hates our Religion and our God No he is rather says our Apostle to be put away from us and from among us as a foul pestilential accursed thing and even deliver'd up to Satan by the Censures of the Church although it be to this charitable and wholsome end that he may learn not to blaspheme that he may learn to be conformable to Rules and Rulers and so that his Spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus § 4. 'T is true that All vicious persons are disorderly Walkers who walk as far as they are able from the strait Path of God's Commandments and from All that are Scandalous we are commanded to withdraw For so saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 5. 11. I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is call'd a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such a one no not to eat No not in one of your private Houses much less in the Sacrament and House of God But I do not here speak nor does S. Paul touching absolute Apostates who do renounce and fall away from the whole Faith of Christ and the very Profession of Christianity because They are not so much as call'd or accompted Brethren Nor do I speak of Jews or Heathens who because they are avow'd and open Enemies of Christ may with much the more safety or rather with much the less danger be traffick'd with And accordingly S. Paul has excepted Them in the very next verse before my Text and the next verse after But I speak of gross Sinners on whom the name of Christ is call'd And amongst Them in special manner I aim at two sorts of men who are called Brethren and so like Judas downright do betray the whole Cause of Christianity with a Kiss I mean the Haeretick for one who breaks the Unity of the Church in point of Doctrin by denying one or more of her Fundamentals I mean the Schismatick for another who breaks the Unity of the Church in point of Disciplin by doing as much as in him lies to overthrow her very Government Laws and Order The First of These we must reject and withdraw our selves from in case he shall not reform himself after a couple of Admonitions Tit. 3. 10. Much more the Second as the more Scandalous and the more mischievous and the more impious of the two And being by much the most irregular of all disorderly Walkers my Text intends he is the fitter to be the Subject of my Discourse at this Time For an Haeretick as he is such does onely offend against Faith and Truth and keeping his Errour to himself as very
persons so imbued want Power to break it § 13. Take we heed then in the next place of such Deceivers as sow the seeds of Discontent in their credulous Congregations by feeding the People with Apprehensions fears and jealousies of Superstition and Popery and impositions upon Religion by the Commandments of Men. This has been a sore Evil under the Sun ever since the Days of Queen Elizabeth by fictitious and pretended to make a Broad way for real Popery When a Protestant resolves to espouse a Schism a Separation from the most perfect of Protestant Churches in the World He must accuse her either of Popery or of Papistical Inclinations for fear of being found out by all to drive a Trade of Animosities either for Revenge or for filthy Lucre or for fear of being known to be Satan's chief Journy-man in being passionately amorous of breeding Hatreds and a Lover of Schism as it is Schism Neither Christ nor his Apostles were used otherwise or worse than the Church of England whose Accusations were adapted to their Enemies Ends which were onely to make them odious and thorowly fitted for Destruction as far from Truth or Probability as Truth can possibly be from Falshood Nor could it sure be more impossible that Christ himself blessed for ever should be a Conjurer or a Glutton who yet was accused of being Both than that His Spouse the Church of England should be Popishly affected whose first Reformers were put to Death for resisting Popery and whose Sons at this day are the Sole Persons that keep it out and whose Communion is detested by none so much as the Popish Party who are not wont to hate men for their kind affections A man would think that all Protestants should unite themselves with us because the Romanists will not A man would think that no Protestant should separate from us because the Romanists all do A man would think our common Enemies should make us Friends But when the Primitive Christians were to be baited and torn in pieces 't was but suitable for them to be put in Bears Skins too And 't is as suitable for our Church to be very well cloath'd with the worst of Calumnies by such as aim at her Ruin and are resolv'd on her Condemnation The many Divisions and Subdivisions of our Sectaries in England cannot be easily reckon'd up they are so numerous for there are hardly more Divisions amongst the Romanists themselves Every Sect is desirous to have the new-modelling or new-moulding of our Church and there is not one of them but has as much pretense for it as any other if not an equal right yet an equal want of right to be our Reformers They being equally void of and as equally Dissenters from all Authority abounding All equally in a preference of their own to Superiour Judgments equal Admirers of Themselves and as equally contemptuous of other men There is not an Anabaptist or Quaker not an Adamite or a Behemist no nor any other Sectary of whatsoever Denomination but thinks it hard and takes it ill we are not All of Their Opinion and do not conform to Their way of Worship Now what a Monster would our Church be if every one of these Sects had the shaping of her and how much worse would our Babel be than That which they call The Whore of Babylon What then is to be done or to be said in this case of our present Breaches They that are over us in Authority must tell us what is to be done But what is fittest to be said I suppose is This That such of our Englishmen as own themselves Protestants and yet divide from the Church of England do contribute a great deal more towards the bringing in of Popery than all the Emissaries of Rome could have done without them And if ever we live to see the Abomination of Desolation standing as heretofore in our holy Places it will enter in at That and at no other Door than what our Schisms and Separations have open'd to it Nothing but our Divisions can bring in Popery and I had almost said too that Nothing but our Vnion can keep it out But united we cannot be whilst they that have divided from us are so strangely subdivided among themselves unless it be by All Parties from every part of the Circumference concentring themselves in the Church of England And this the proudest of them may do not onely without a Blush but with the greatest honour and reputation to be imagin'd For what I pray is the Church of England but a most Renowned and National Church A National Church the most peaceably and the most regularly reformed of All the Churches The chief Reformed Church of Christendom which has publickly been Establish'd by Law and Canon The onely Protestant Church in Europe which has been able as well as willing to protect other Churches in their Distresses In a word The Church of England has ever conquer'd and confuted and if her fugitive Children do not unnaturally betray her will ever keep us all safe from the Church of Rome § 14. Take we heed in the Third place of such Deceivers as would have it thought a mark of the most reform'd to preach up an Exemption from human Laws such especially as relate to the externals of Religion and so a Licentiousness of Life for Christian Liberty ever pressing their Hearers to stand fast in it that is to be obstinate and sturdy Rebells As if the Liberty of a Christian wherein the Galatians were bid to stand fast were not at all a Manumission from the Bondage of Sin and from the Empire of Satan and from the Rigor of the Law as 't was given by Moses But a freedom from Christ and Christianity it self Not onely from the positive but from the Moral Law of Moses which is as well the Law of Nature and the Law of Christ too and which he tells us most expresly He came not to abrogate but on the contrary to fulfill and also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fill it up As if the Liberty of a Christian extended it self even to Libertinism it self rendring every man free to judge the Laws and Legislators and with a greater force of reason the learned Judges of the Land free to regulate the Laws by their several Humours which by the way is a thing impossible and flatly implies a Contradiction rather than to regulate their several Humours by the Laws which is not onely possible but so absolutely necessary that He who will not do this conform his private humour to publick Laws is fit to live in a Desert in the Company of Creatures which have no Law at all not in a Kingdom or Commonwealth not in a City or a Church where Human Laws under God's are the Life of Liberty and Propriety nor onely of Livelihood but Life it self Whosoever has been protected from any injuries of men by the Laws in force must needs confirm by his Experience the Truth of what I now
a witness and were partakers with their Fathers in the blood of the Prophets and so were far from being Followers of Peace and Holiness unless as Worldlings follow their Traffick for filthy Lucre dealing as Hucksters in Religion and Trading in Godliness as 't is an Instrument onely of Gain For they were call'd by our Saviour even then when at the Top of their painted holiness not onely Serpents and Vipers but Brands of Hell too such as could not escape Damnation Matth. 23. 33. Nor are there wanting amongst us Christians who are religiously carefull to sprinkle themselves with holy-water to say a chapletfull of Ave Maries to visit the Sepulchers of the Saints to cross their Foreheads and their Breasts and to salute ye every Morning in nomine Domini Nay some there are amongst us Protestants for 't is fit we should be just in our Observations who place a great deal of vertue in an exact coming to Church in daily reading so many Chapters in lifting up to heaven both hands and eyes in walking softly and looking sadly and hanging down the head now and then like a Bull-rush and so we may say they have attain'd to an handsom Outside of Religion that they are well-fashion'd Christians as addressing themselves to God with a Civil Carriage such as well behav'd Enemies do seldom fail of But so far from being Followers of Peace and Holiness that they want the very Body much more the Soul of Christianity whilst they will rather sow the Seeds of the most execrable Rebellion than comply vvith Superiours in things Indifferent vvhich cannot but be lawfull because Indifferent and not onely lawfull but binding too as soon as the signature of Authority is stamp'd upon Them Do These men think there is a God or a Devil a Corruption of the Body or Immortality of the Soul an Hour of Death or a Day of Judgment vvho vvill rather break Peace vvith all their Governours than submit to the use of a Publick Liturgy vvhich is not onely lawfull but transcendently good so long as establish'd by Law and Canon I vvish that all sorts of men vvho are immediately concerned in vvhat I say vvould but take this obvious Truth into their serious Consideration That as there vvere Things under the Law such as the Rite of Circumcision and Forbearing Swines Flesh vvhich however commanded by God himself vvere not commanded for being Good but vvere Therefore onely good because commanded so things Indifferent under the Gospel though they are not commanded for being Necessary do yet become Necessary by being commanded and are mediately commanded by God himself as far as commanded by That Authority which God hath commanded us to obey From whence it follows unavoidably That what may lawfully be done before commanded as soon as commanded cannot lawfully be omitted For Rebellion against the Second Table is as bad as Rebellion against the First And so they cannot be followers of Peace or Holiness who in a meer pretense of Holiness do hinder Peace An hearty Follower of Peace will follow the Things that make for Peace He will not be so much as a Non-conformist but press with earnestness after Vnity by Vniformity in the Church And if his Conscience hath any Scruples arising meerly from the weakness not from the wilfulness of the man he will infinitely rather forsake his City or his Country than stay in either to its Disturbance § 23. Such was the pious Exhortation of Clemens Romanus to the Corinthians which he also made good by his own Example Who says he is there among you of tender Bowels and Generosity let him sacrifice if he is such his private Interest to the publick And say If I am either the Author or the Fautor of any Difference I divest my self of All the Wealth and Honour which I injoy and inflict upon my self a most gratefull Exile Now that S. Clemens made good his Exhortation by his Example I am induced to affirm from this particular Consideration That I can find no better way to reconcile the several Authors who will have Clemens to be the Second and the Fourth Bishop of Rome than by saying with Epiphanius till we can find a better reason That Clemens laid down his Bishoprick during the Empire of Tiberius and took it up again in the Time of Nero. The first of which he did freely and the second by compulsion but Both in order to the Vnity and Peace of Christians Such was also the publick Spirit of the renowned Gregory Nazianzen who gladly threw the Archbishoprick of Canstantinople behind his Back for the composing of the strife that arose about it God forbid said he at parting to all the Prelates there met in the General Council that we vvhose Office 't is to teach and to bring Peace to others should scandalously break it amongst our selves Rather let Me forsake my Throne and be cast out of the City than not contribute all I can to the publick Peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Like to this spake S. Chrysostom in one of his Homilies to the People That if He were thought the Cause or the Occasion of their Divisions he would recede from his Arch-Bishoprick and be gon whither they pleas'd vvould suffer any thing rather than Schism which he protested he thought a Sin as great and damning even as Heresie and which rather than administer occasion to he would strip himself of the Rich and Splendid Preferment which he possess'd A Charity like That of the Prophet Jonas who for the quieting of the Tempest chose to be cast into the Sea And to preserve a whole Ship was easily content with a private Ruin Which Example of S. Chrysostom and other Fathers more Primitive every honest man will follow in these our Days if he is earnestly a follower of Peace and Holiness And this is one of the chiefest Touchstones whereby to difference a weak from a wilfull Brother They who do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pursue with eagerness the Things which do make for Peace do not serve God solidly in the Duties of the First and the Second Table in Piety and Probity in Godliness and Honesty in loving God with all their Hearts which is to serve him in Holiness and their Neighbour as themselves which is to follow Peace with all men and so they want the two Hinges on which the Door of Salvation does chiefly turn and whereupon does clearly hang All the Law and the Prophets § 24. I cannot follow Peace enough in the Discourse I am upon for the following of it till I observe how the Prosperity does most especially depend on the Peace of Christians and also say by what means as well as by whose Instrumentality we may attain to so much Peace and good Agreement amongst our selves as may redeem some of the Credit which we cannot but have lost by our foul Divisions There being no greater Stumbling-block either to Those that are without or within the Church than
the flight of our Comprehension And though evidently credible are not evidently True how True soever in Themselves They have evidence enough to require our Faith though not enough to beget our Knowledge Thus the Trinity in Vnity is as evident in it self as the Godhead is but not so evident unto us And humane Faith may be so strong as to exclude from the Agent all kind of doubting though not from All Objects a Possibility that they are false For nothing can exclude This but Knowledge properly so call'd to which a Certainty is as essential as Credibility is to Faith And the absolute impossibility that the Mysteries of God should admit of falshood ariseth onely from the Verity and Veracity of the Godhead not from the steadiness or the strength much less from the Nature of our Belief But there are other things in Religion which though they are not more True than the Trinity in Unity are yet for all that more Truly Known Thus the Evidence I have of God's Existence is so much greater than my Evidence of his being Three in one or the Scriptures being his Word that I am certain of the former because I know it and I doubt not of the later because I stedfastly believe it My Assurance of the one makes me infallible in my assent which I cannot say I am through my Confidence of the other unless I have it by a miraculous and immediate Illumination as fully as the Apostles their Gift of Tongues Thus the Ground of the Difference of the things spoken of in our Religion is the Difference of the Ground upon which they stand to wit a greater or lesser Evidence to our short sighted Souls not a greater or lesser Truth and Reality of their Beings For neither our Knowledge nor our Belief have any influence on the Things we Believe or Know. § 17. This Distinction being premis'd I proceed thus to argue and thereby to answer the Quaere made Every man's Vnderstanding is too too sawcy with his Will in pretending it is its Priviledge to give a judgement universally of Truth and Falshood an Error not the less grievous for its having been occasion'd by a very great Truth For though 't is the office of the Intellect in the Intellect's own Court to pass a verdict upon Things within its Cognizance yet in such Transcendentals as are very much without and above its verge or by a natural Right and Title beyond all humane Comprehension a good understanding will confess It must not determine but obey For to know things exactly does onely denominate us Learned but not Religious good Philosophers indeed but not good Men. The word Religion and the Thing being well consider'd as 't is by few and but seldom Its ratio formalis will be found not to stand in proud Knowledge but meek Obedience And in Obedience of the whole Man as well of the Soul as of the Body And in the Soul too we owe an absolute Obedience of all our Faculties to God of our Appetites our Wills our Vnderstandings Science and Religion do herein differ more especially that in the first our Understandings direct the Will but in the second they concur in submission with it in That our Reason may command as a proud Dictatrix but in This she must obey as a most Teachable Disciple And for This there is very great reason For 't is so natural to Religion to have its Mysteries or Objects peculiar to Faith alone that neither the Greeks nor the Barbarians could ever indure to be without them And if there are few Mechanick Arts which have not their Mysteries and Secrets unknown to All who are not Artists what an unnatural thing were it if the Mystery of Godliness God manifest in the Flesh or the Religion of the True God who is Incomprehensible should have nothing conteined in it beyond the fathom or flight of a finite reason What man knows the things of a man save the Spirit of man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2. 11. And truly if it were otherwise where were the Merit or the Mystery or the Necessity of Believing on which so great a stress in Scripture is every where laid by our Lord Himself We find in our Gospel these two rational Expressions The Obedience of Faith Rom. 16. 26. and the Law of Faith Rom. 3. 27. 'T is the Obedience of our Faith which is so pleasing unto God as that without This it is impossible for us to please Him Heb. 11. 6. If Faith it self were not Obedience unto That which is called the Law of Faith and to the Lawgiver himself who hath commanded us to Believe It would not be so meritorious or so rewardable in its Nature as now it is For herein chiefly does consist the excellent Nature of Religion and of all religious Worship and withall the rationability of the immensity of our Reward that 't is attended with Self-denial and a Resignedness of the All that is most excellent in our Souls unto the Will of that Object we thus adore Whereas if we absolutely Knew whatsoever by our Religion we are obliged to Acknowledge or were we obliged to acknowledge what we see or feel onely there could not be possibly such a Thing as real Virtue in our Assent when 't would be impossible not to assent to what we should distinctly Know and as impossible not to acknowledge what with our brutish and common Senses we see or feel Necessity and Vertue are incompatible in All but in God Himself And even in Him speaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they differ too Our Knowledge indeed may be call'd a Physical but not a religious or moral Virtue There are Virtues indeed which do lead to Knowledge and Knowledge truly so call'd does dispose to Virtues But naked Science is a meer Intellectual Habit wherein the Devils themselves excel and was never yet reckon'd an Ethick Virtue The reason of all which is plain and obvious For the Object of a Man's Knowledge does compel his assent whereas the Object of his Faith does but invite it To matters of Faith our Assent is due but to matters of Knowledge 't is unavoidable Our Knowledge shews onely we are intelligent in our nature but our Faith shews in us also the Grace of Meekness That indeed infers the Conspicuity of the Object but This which is more the Flexibility of the Will To sum up the difference in a word by light of knowledge it appears that we are a reasoning sort of Creatures but by the Obedience of our Faith that we are Religious ones § 18. From these Premises I infer we ought not to trouble our selves at all that we cannot fully Know so far forth as we can Believe For God has given us Knowledge enough if we live not up to it to greaten our future Condemnation and the knowledge which He denies us is not necessary at all to our future safety
Peace For however I may err it shall not be as an Haeretick and as a Schismatick much less It being the Glory of a Man's Faith to bow down his Reason to his Religion and the Dignity of his Religion to study Charity and Meekness and Obedience to his Superiours above some Truths I say therefore with Leo If I cannot explain what the Trinity is I will not presume to say there is not a Trinity And with Radulphus Flaviacensis If I cannot apprehend how One is Three in the propriety of their Persons and how the same Three are One in the Communion of their Substance I will not despise or gainsay but obey the Church I do not mean onely the English much less the Roman but I mean the Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church in which to believe is the Ninth Article of my Creed If this mystery of the Triune is as Ineffable as Inscrutable by Dust and Ashes which we are I will content my self with Damascius to sacrifice to him my Soul in Silence and adore him with Dionysius whether he is the Areopagite or not ut Nomine vacantem as being said to be without because above every Name Neither Jehovah in the singular nor Elohim in the plural nor Both together conjoyn'd can sufficiently illustrate This stupendous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Divines love to call it This Reciprocal Inhabitation of Three Subsistences in one another whereby the Vnity of the Godhead is rather perfected than destroy'd and remains Intire § 27. 'T is plain the word Persons is to be taken not so much in a Positive as in a Negative sense For that the Words of S. John These Three are One might be no longer misunderstood and misreported misexpounded and misapply'd as they were by several Haereticks before the First Nicene General Council And that Christians every where might speak as 't were with one Mouth in case they could not be every where of one mind It seemed good to That Council to ordain that the Word Persons should be apply'd in Discourse to the Three Witnesses in Heaven which are but One God Thereby intending not so properly to give us a real knowledge of the Mystery as to defend us from Error in it And above all other Errors from those of Haeresie and Schism Not so really to inform us what the Three in One are as to preserve us from Imagining that They are what they are Not. Not three parts in one whole either Integral or Essential Not three Qualities in one subject Not three Modes Not three Formalities Not three Names of one Thing In which Act of Vniformity as before I once call'd it and especially in reconciling the whole Greek Church unto The Latine Athanasius and Hosius were the most eminently Instrumental Now in the Business of Religion though not in That of meer Philosophy we are in all reason to yield assent to some High Things above our reason Else Religion were not Religion and God himself would not be God or Man at least would not be Man and Mystery would not be Mystery if God's knowledge of Himself as a Trinity in Vnity could possibly be common to Man with God It is therefore with Me a prevalent Argument of His Verity that His Nature is so vastly above the Sphere of my Comprehension Apprehensive of his Nature indeed I am but comprehensive of it I cannot be For whatsoever I can fathom I cannot absolutely Adore as seeing there are few of my fellow Creatures whose Natures I can say I do fully know If I make a Man of Wax or a Statue of Marble I cannot so truly transcend my Creature as my Creator does Me because between Me and That there is some proportion but between my God and Me there is none at all And if my Creature for want of Reason cannot apprehend Me much less for want of an Omniscience can I comprehend Him Thus though I cannot discern the Reason why in the Vnity of the Substance there is a Trinity of Subsistences which I admire yet why I cannot discern the Reason I can discern reason enough and which is every whit as well for a finite Reason I find it most reasonable that so it should be For exactly to know why we cannot know exactly the things above us is every whit as sufficient in order to our Faith as any kind of Demonstration can be in order unto our knowledge So far is any thing from reaching what is infinitely above or beyond it self that no Being but the Divine exactly knows its own Nature And even This our very Ignorance of God's entire Essence may lead us to the knowledge of his Existence For as my outward Eye sees but cannot See that it sees This later being the Work of a nobler Faculty within me or as a Brute does apprehend its proper objects but cannot apprehend at all How or Why it apprehends for want of a power to reflect on its Apprehension so a Man indued with reason although he knows many things throughly and also knows how he knows them yet How or Why or by What means he comes to know that he knows How he knows he can never tell unless it be by inferring that it comes to him from a Superiour and Invisible Power which Power is God's § 28. By stating thus the whole Subject of the Godhead in general and of the Trinity in particular which I have singled out as one of the highest Mysteries in our Religion the least understood and the most stumbled at by such as set up meer Science against Religion and depretiate all Faith in respect of Knowledge I pay my Duty both to the Word and the Church of God To each of these as a Christian And as a Man to the Law of Nature I fully satisfie my Reason by weighing the Nature of Religion and so I make a strict Agreement between my Reason and my Faith Nor can I better Conclude and dismiss the whole Subject than in the sense of the devout and acute S. Bernard To inquire into This Mystery he speaks of a Critical Inquiry is a peevish Curiosity and as perilous as it is peevish To Believe it in humility as it is Worded by the Church which is the Pillar and Ground of Truth is a Pious Belief and a Safe Profession But to See it as it is and to know it as we are known is the final Consummation of Bliss and Glory Which God the Father of his Mercy dispose us for for the Merits of God the Son and through the powerfull Operation of God the Holy Ghost To whom be Honour and Adoration for evermore FINIS Neither will the supposed and I fear truly supposed greater Number of Atheists than either Papists or Sectaries be any hinderance to the Papists for finally prevailing See Dr. Sanderson 's long Preface to his Sermons in fol. § 23. The TABLE of particulars A ABstinence from the Kinds and the appearances of evil p. 238 239. to p. 272. from
the Multitude of the Sects which are seen amongst us For whilst 't is taken by them for granted and also confessed by our selves that True Religion can be but one 't is natural for them to infer That wheresoever there is Truth there must be Vnity at least in men of the same Profession Whereupon whilst they observe how the Professors of Christianity do stand divided amongst themselves and that in point of Opinion as well as Practice they easily slide into a Jealousie touching the Tenor and the Truth of the whole Profession Now the way to make Peace and remove the Scandal is not to conquer them into orthodoxy by dint of Argument alone though That indeed is one of our fittest Weapons as vvell because the greater part have not light enough to see a victorious Truth as because if they have they are not humble enough to own they have liv'd in Errour No the hopefullest way left for ought I am able to apprehend is not to mention Those Doctrines vvherein we find by Experience we always differ and to insist on those alone wherein we find by Experience we all agree A thing vvhich cannot be brought about by all the Subjects put together but perhaps with ease enough by the Kings of Christendom as vvell because they are but few and therefore the fitter to determin as because they are Supreme and of Power to execute § 25. For it happily falls out through the Evidence of Truth and the good Providence of God That though we differ in Superstructures yet we agree in the Foundation and Fundamentals of Christianity Which Fundamentals as they are Few and therefore easie to be remember'd so are they also very Plain and therefore easily understood and that by all sorts of People who are not flatly Fools or Mad-men As the wittiest or the most learned cannot need to know more so the most simple and illiterate cannot easily know less than what it is to fear God and to keep his Commandments which yet does grasp the whole Duty of Man as Man Again it is the whole Duty of Man as Christian to have a practical Knowledge of Jesus Christ and him Crucified And as the wisest man living needs not know any thing more so the most learned of the Apostles would not know any thing else Another Summary of Religion as to the practical part of it which is the main we have express'd in Three words both from a Prophet and an Apostle A Summary so short and yet so copious that as a man the most unskilfull cannot easily know less so the most learned and subtil Doctor is not bound to practise more than to do Justice and to love Mercy and to walk humbly with his God or to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World § 26. Now if 't is granted and agreed by every Sort of Real Christians That the Creed and the Commandments are comprehensive of the All that is Fundamental or of Necessity in Religion for Faith and Practice and if All under Authority will but allow it to be the privilege of such as are placed in Authority to judge of the Decency and the Order which S. Paul in the general and every Nation in particular thinks it a duty to observe in the publick Worship to wit the Place and the Time and the Manner of its performance which being but Accidents or Adjuncts or Externals of Religion should not be differ'd about by Them who fully agree in its Essentials It will be difficult to imagin how the Divisions and Separations which are so many and so wide as we see they are can be able to escape a most happy Closure A thing which the Preachers can but press and the best of the People can but pray for but the Rulers of the Earth can easily bring into Effect too if their Endeavours shall be as hearty as their Authority is divine and their Power cogent Which how can they possibly imploy unto a better end or use than is the binding up the Wounds of a bleeding Saviour who owns himself to be the Head of That mangl'd Body whereof the greatest men on Earth are but lofty Members Now the better to prevail with men of all Ranks both with Them who are in Authority and with Them who live under it I would present but Two things to their respective Considerations First That they who are in Authority ought not to urge the Accidentals and Externals in Religion with as much vehemence as they do the Essentials of it nor create too many Necessities in the use of things Indifferent where God himself has created none Next That the people under Authority ought not to lessen their Obedience to God in Man by still pretending their obligation of obeying God rather than Man An Axiom True indeed at all Times but yet at those times impertinent and urged quite out of Season when God does choose to be obey'd by our obedience to his Vicegerents Who if they have any right at all to make positive Laws must inevitably make them of Things Indifferent § 27. I press the former consideration with due submission to Authority and in behalf not of wilfull but of truly-weak Brethren because I conceive the Laws of Men can reach no farther than the Objects of outward Sense and therefore cannot punish Avarice Pride or Malice though they can and do Invasion Theft and Murther Nor wrong Opinions in Religion whilst they quietly lye sleeping or disturb nothing more than their Owner's Minds but onely as breaking forth of their Mouths and at last running out at their fingers ends I know the Sword is apt to terrifie but not instruct to change a Sectary's Confession but not his Creed and therefore the Maladies of the Spirit are to be Spiritually dealt with to work their Cure Not by the Gibbet or the Jayl but by the force of sound Doctrine and argumentative Conversation A man who wanders out of his way for want of light onely and not Sobriety overtaken not with Drink but with the Darkness of the Night deserves a Lantern for his Direction a great deal rather than a Rod. He would be thought a strange Organist who should not scruple to break his Pipes as oft as he finds them out of Tune Nor could our Magistrates think kindly of God himself should he recall them with a Thunderbolt as fast as he sees them going astray § 28. And as for such reasons as These I press the First Consideration so I discern as great reasons and such as make as much for Peace to resume the Second For though Ceremonies and Rites are onely Accidents in Religion yet Obedience to Authority cannot but pass for an Essential Because whatever God commands us by his Moses and his Aaron his Zerubbabel and his Jeshua his anointed Lieutenants both King and Priest he does as really and as truly and as authoritatively command us as what he commands us by a Voice or an Hand from Heaven And