2. The full casting out and rejecting of all Will-worship and their attendant Abominations 3. A most glorious and dreadful breaking of all that rise in Opposition unto him never such Desolations So that we see nothing will ever satisfie their desires and demands unless all Gospel-Ordinances be reformed to their primitive power and purity according to the appointment and unto the acceptation of the Lord Iesus Or as the same Author expresses himself more fully in his Sermon of April 29. 1646. p. 29. The darling Errours of late years of the Bishops were all of them stones of the old Babel closing and coupling with that tremendous Fabrick which the Man of Sin had erected to dethrone Jesus Christ came out of the belly of that Trojan Horse that fatal Engine which was framed to betray the City of God They were Popish Errours such as whereof that Apostacy did consist which onely is to be looked upon as the great adverse State to the Kingdom of the Lord Christ. Heedless and headless Errours may breed disturbance enough unto the people of God but such as tend to a peace and association â—um Ecclesiâ malignantium tending to a total subversion of the sacred State are far more dangerous Now such were the Innovations of the late Hierarchists in Worship their Paintings Crossings Crucifixes Bowings Cringings Altars Tapers Wafers Organs Anthems Litany Rails Images Copes Vestments what were they but Roman Varnish an Italian Dress for our Devotion to draw on Conformity with that Enemy of the Lord Jesus In Doctrine the Divinity of Episcopacy a notable piece of Popery that Auricular Confession Free-will Predestination on Faith yea Works foreseen what Antichristian Doctrine is that too Limbus Patrum Justification by Works falling from Grace Authority of a Church which none knew what it was Canonical Obedience Holiness of Churches and the like innumerable what were they but helps to Sancta Clara to make all our Articles of Religion speak good Roman-Catholique How did their old Father of Rome refresh his spirit to see such Chariots as those provided to bring England again unto him This closing with Popery was the sting in the Errours of those days which caused pining if not death in the Episcopal Pot. § 15. Here is no shuffling nor any shifting pretences 't is plain dealing and plain English Antichrist and all its Adherents must be destroyed by Wars and horrid Desolations This is the way that the Lord Christ has chalkt out to his people both by his Promises and his Providences to introduce the purity and beauty of his Ordinances The Prelatists are Members of the Whore and the Beast and imitate the Antichristian Apostacy both from the Worship and the Doctrine of the Gospel nay the Vial of Popery is poured out upon the very Throne it self as it was when Charles the First sate in it And now what is the result of all this Gibberish but that the Saints when-ever Providence alarms or as he manageth the business opportunity invites them to the great and glorious Work of a more Thorough Godly Reformation may and ought to shake and subvert the establish't Government of the Nation that is combined with the Interest of Antichrist to set up their way of Gospel-worship or the purity and beauty of Christs Ordinances which is the onely thing urged and pleaded for by our Author You see Sir to bate him some worse Inferences what stout Patrons these Men are of the Indulgence they plead for when every Opinion that they judge erroneous must be branded for a Popish and Antichristian Errour when every slight Difference shall be resolved into Atheism and Blasphemy when a Scholastick Nicety about the unaccountable workings of Eternal Providence shall be made an eminent instance of Antichristian Apostacy and when to dissent from him in a thing of no greater importance then a Metaphysical Speculation shall amount to no less Charge then of betraying the Gospel of Christ and hewing at the very root of Christianity as he speaks of some Systematick Niceties that he is pleased to call Arminian Heterodoxes and whose Abettors he denounces with the Confidence of an Apostolical Authority uncapable of our Church-Communion Nay his Zeal against them did not confine it self to his own Native Country but extended its fervours as himself informs us to a Foreign Commonwealth and vented its heats against their Indulgence and plea for Toleration and a Liberty of prophesying beyond the Seas To what party of Dissenters is it that this tender-hearted Man would extend the favour of his Indulgence that resolves every petty dissent into an inexpiable Apostacy from the Gospel and has branded all parties with such foul names as render them unworthy the Compassion of the State and uncapable of the Communion of the Church 'T is true many Pamphlets he has publish't in behalf of Toleration and Liberty of Conscience but yet he still so orders the matter as to exclude all Men whatsoever from claiming any benefit or advantage from that pretence excepting onely the salvage and the frantick Sectaries of the Army And that is the whole mystery of his Good-Nature The Independents had vanquish't the Royalists and supplanted the Presbyterians and were perkt up into a Supremacy of Power and Interest But being unable either to secure or to support their Tyranny unless by the assistance of those Religious Miscreants who were the onely faithful Adherents to their Godly Interest they must sooth and treat them with all brotherly love and tenderness and all their Fanatick Frekes and horrid Blasphemies must be winkt at as pitiable Mistakes and Miscarriages of weak Brethren For if we exasperate them by giving check to their Exorbitances we lose our Friends and Confederates abate our Power and endanger our Interest and 't is more eligible for humble and self-denying Men to bear with all the wild and Fanatick Enormities in the World rather then part with the delicious sweets of Government and Sovereign Authority What other imaginable account can be given of this Mans Zeal for Toleration when he has so peremptorily stript all Parties of their right to it excepting onely those Sons of Anarchy and Confusion For not onely the Papists the Prelatists and the Arminians but even their dear Brethren of the Presbytery were transformed into Limbs of the Antichristian Lâ—viathan so that not to pursue this advantage too far you see the naked and undisguised Truth of these Mens Perswasions maugre all their demure Concessions and jugling Pretensions All the World are fallen short of the Truth of God but themselves and out of the Churches of their Pale there is none Orthodox no not one We have all revolted from the Kingdom of the Lord Christ to the Corruptions and Superstitious Idolatries of Antichrist and therefore we are all to be accounted and treated as Members of that Whore whom the Saints hate and shall make desolate and naked and shall eat her Flesh and suck her Blood This is the true state of
same design as they say Aristotle writ some of his Books onely to be understood by the Sons of Art and Mystery However by this Artifice they inveigle the silly and unwary People both to follow and admire them for when they are perswaded the outward Element of the Text is but the Cabinet to the Jewel and the precious Mystery they so manage the business as to possess them with an apprehension that no Key can open it but what is made at their own Forges And if any of us attempt to explain a Text by the Coherence of the Discourse by the Propriety of the Phrase and by the Idiom of the Language we are Moral Men and dull Literalists and utter strangers to the inwardness of the Spirit but 't is they that are the practical experimental Preachers and that see into the depths of the Mystery of the Covenant of Grace And by this means do they gain the advantage to obtrude upon the People whatever can neither be proved nor understood as Profound Divinity § 7. But whatsoever Truth Candor and Ingenuity there is in my Character of these Men of the Flock he knows how to revenge their wrongs by bold and confident Recriminations if Reproaches be the Weapon he understands his advantage and when Controversies come to be managed by mutual Accusations there they never want for Ammunition their Magazine is inexhaustible Thus our Author stands amazed that Heresie should complain of Schism Quis tulerit Gracchos c. Shall the Pot call the Pan Burnt And is it not strange that whilst one writes against Original Sin another preaches up Iustification by Works and scoffs at the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ to them that believe Yea whilst some can openly dispute against the Doctrine of the Trinity the Deity of Christ and the Holy Ghost Whilst Instances may be collected of some Mens impeaching all the Articles almost throughout there should be no reflection in the least on these things Some Mens guilt in this nature might rather mind them of pulling out the beam out of their own eyes then to act with such fury to pull out the eyes of others for the motes which they think they espy in them c. What a strain of Flattery is here There is questionless no Poison nor Calumny in these leering Suggestions it is an harmless Character and strikes at no Mans Reputation no doubt he nev'r intended to relieve himself and his Party from my foul Reproaches by false or fierce Recriminations nor to write any thing that might disadvantage me in my Reputation or Esteem But some Mens Tongues traduce by instinct and are so venomous that they cannot touch but they will poison your Reputation Their Throats are open Sepulchres and the poison of Asps is under their Lips and they cannot open their Mouths but out flie stings and blasting vapours So that I am now forced to confess my self a dull and trifling Satyrist that have charged them with nothing but their own avowed Principles and notorious Practices and never use tart Language but to express vile Things and go far about to convict them of their Guilt before I dare venture to lash and chastise them for their Folly and all my Satyrical Reflections are the natural Results and Inferences of some foregoing Reasonings But this Man strikes with more sure and deadly Blows he can stab with a doubtful Intimation and dispatch with an oblique Look 't is no matter for evidence of Argument and certainty of Fact this fending and proving is a tedious course 't is but dropping a Train of sly and malicious suspicions and that is enough to blow up your Reputation He knows all Men have a touch of Ill-nature and are apt enough to make the hardest surmises upon these ugly suggestions Nothing sets an handsomer Gloss upon a Lye then to shew it by these dark Lights and indirect Insinuations are the most artificial Schemes of Slandering they heighten and enrage Mens Curiosity and then leave it to their ill Humour to finish the Story and then it shall never be spoil'd for want of spiteful and ill contrived Suspicions And every Man has Wit enough to pick out the Categorical meaning of these oblique Reproaches and had he in direct terms charged me for impeaching the most Fundamental Articles of Christianity it had not been more familiar and intelligible English But as for my own part I am no more moved with the Charge then I am concern'd in the Crime I know none in the Church of England that publish any such false and Heretical Doctrines or if there be any that vent them in Corners and Conventicles I can onely say as one did that was treated as I am Let him be Anathema But the Ingenuity of these Men can dispose of other Mens Faith and Religion at their pleasure and they can with as much ease make Heretiques as they once could Witches and Malignants if a Neighbour incur their displeasure that is enough to make the Indictment and to be charged is enough to make it good Thus you know they dealt with the Ghost of the great Hugo Grotius one would needs have him a rank Socinian and another a thorough Papist though how he could be both can never be unriddled unless Hugo were one and Grotius the other though the evident reason why he might be either is no other then that he was no Calvinian and then he might be any thing what they pleased This way of aspersing has ever been the offensive Weapon of peevish and angry Disputers though never did any Man weild it with more Dexterity then our Author he never encountred Adversary that he did not transform either into Atheist or Papist or Socinian But it seems the Charge of Socinianism is become the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our Age and many Men suffer under its imputation though as it always happens in Cases of Slander I know none more clear from the Infection then those that have been most suspected and avoided for it Of which Injustice I can conceive no other imaginable account then some Mens proud imperious Confidence that have adopted their own unlearned Wranglings into the Articles of Religion and put as great a weight upon their own novel Doctrines as upon the plain and easie Propositions of Scripture Now if a sober Man discard their wild and unwarrantable additions 't is all one as if he renounced the Article it self They will not endure a contradiction nor suffer you to suspect the infallible certainty of their Resolutions and if you doubt or dispute the Ius Divinum of a Systematick Subtilty you make them impatient and they make you an Heretick If we are not confident that our blessed Saviour suffered the extremity of Hell-torments at the hour of his Passion even to the Horrours of Despair 't is with some positive people the same thing as if we called in question the Merits of his Death and Sufferings If we smile at the
swoln his Fancy with admiring at the boldness of such lewd Assertions he at last bursts forth into an impetuous fit of preaching against them But seeing he has so lamentably mistaken his Text he may talk his Lungs and his heart out and never talk to the purpose and therefore let him take his full Career of Impertinency it concerns not me either to stop or follow him only this let me tell him for his comfort that I have there proved and here defie him and all the World to disprove it that whoever shall contradict that proposition as I have laid it down viz. that in all doubtful and disputable Cases of a publick Concernment Subjects are not to attend to the Results of their own private Judgment but to acquiesce entirely in the determinations of publick Authority whoever I say shall contradict this is an enemy to the peace of mankind and a Traitor to all Societies in the World For Government is a word that signifies nothing if it be not a Power to determine and appoint what it judges most useful and expedient for the Concerns and Interests of the Common-wealth and if you will cancel this Authority of the publick Judgment whatever you may call it 't is really nothing but Anarchy And this is the last and unavoidable Issue of all their Pretences For as to their general Pleas for Indulgence they still press for an entire and absolute exemption of Conscience from all the Commands of Authority and in effect vest it in a Power Paramount to the supremacy of Princes so that in case of Competition its Dictates must over-rule all their Laws and therefore no Government shall ever be able to pass an Obligation upon it but by its own consent and this if any thing is perfect Anarchy every man is entirely left to the guidance of his own discretion and is as much at liberty whether he will or will not obey as if he were absolutely free from all Superiority and Jurisdiction And then as to their particular Exceptions their scruples are so nice and delicate so peevish and splenetick so giddy and phantastick so impossible to be prevented of redressed that no form of setlement can ever be contrived upon which they will not beat with equal fury for they are indifferently applicable to all Cases and their strength depends not at all upon the Reasons of things but the Humours of men And if the offence of a weak Brother or the scruple of a Tender Conscience are sufficient exceptions against the Power and Efficacy of Laws then farewell all the Reverence and Authority of Government for setle things with never so much Exactness it will be impossible upon these Principles to avoid these Cavils as long as there are either Fools or Knaves in the World And do but observe the untenable weakness of all their Pretences apart and how they shuffle from their general Demands to their particular exceptions and then when they are pursued to their defence how they rowl back to their general Demands and so dance perpetually in a manifest circle of shifting and disingenuous Cavil and you need no farther proof to satisfie you of the Intolerable Impertinency of their Clamours and unexemplified Peevishness of the Men. CHAP. VII The Contents THat some Men from a Belief of the Imposture of all Religions argue for the Liberty of all farther clear'd and justified That some Sects of Men are strongly inclined to Sedition proved by their Practices and Principles Our Authors intolerable Confidence in denying his own Principles especially that that to pursue Success though in Villany and Rebellion is to follow Providence This proved by various Instances out of the Writings of J. O. The Arguments whereby they drew in Providence and the Rabble were 1. By applying old Prophesies to present Transactions 2. By believing God is obliged to do the same things for his People now that he ever did for his People in all former Ages 3. By believing Providence is in good earnest for them though it is in all appearance against them 4. By flat Presumption and down-right Enthusiasm That the Interest of Religion was pretended as a cause of our late Civil Wars proved at large against our Author from the Declarations of Lords and Commons and the Sermons of J. O. The Nonconformists are bound to give us assurance of their Repentance before they may presume to offer us any security of their Allegiance Their Plea for Toleration because Protestants invalid An Account of the Reformation of the Church of England both as to Doctrine and Discipline The manifest Apostacy of the Nonconformists from both The Reformation in most places over-run and destroyed by Calvinism Our Adversaries Notion of Protestancy is nothing else than a Zeal for the Calvinian Rigours Religion is not onely the best but a necessary disguise for Rebellion Men cannot gain an opportunity of committing any more enormous Wickednesses but under shews and pretences of Piety The danger and vanity of balancing different Parties of Religion The Civil Wars of France an eminent instance of this An account of the Original of all peevish and ill-natured Religion The Nonconformists loose way of discoursing of Conscience as if it were a Principle of Action distinct from the Man himself Conscience is nothing but the Soul or Mind of Man Nothing in Humane Nature beside Conscience is capable of subjection to Humane Laws Conscience is not its own Rule nor of it self any Plea of Exemption from Obedience If it be abused by evil Principles nothing more mischievous Vulgar Conscience the most mistaken Guid in the World In the common People 't is for the most part either Ignorance or Pride or Superstition or Peevishness or Enthusiasm The Conclusion § 1. OUr Authors Adventures in this Chapter are such ordinary and possible things that now to reherse Enterprizes so lank of prodigy after all these wonders were to darken the lustre and abate the admiration of his former Performances Many faint Essays we may observe of his ancient Courage and Confidence but alas Deeds of a greater strain and more stupendious Prowess are kept for Holy-day Atchievments Now and then we may meet with a lowd and rapping Falsification but every Page does not entertain our wonder with Forgeries of a Garagantuan bulk and boldness Once indeed we are inform'd how I discourse that the use and exercise of Conscience will certainly overthrow all Government and fill the World with confusion yet however the old Calumnies are not continually ratling in our Ears as That the Civil Magistrate is vested in an absolute and immediate Soveraignty over Conscience in all Affairs of Religion in so much that whatever the precise truth of the thing may be he has power to order and appoint what Religion his Subjects shall profess and observe That Conscience has nothing to do beyond the inward Thoughts of Mens Minds and That as to all their outward Actions the Commands of Authority over-rule all its Obligations c.
And as for the under-Sects and farther improved Schismaticks that have since sprung out of the Corruptions of Presbytery our Controversie with them is not between Protestants and Protestants but between Protestants and Anabaptists a sort of people as to this particular worse than Papists whom nothing will satisfie but absolute Anarchy and Confusion in the Church and by consequence in the State for in a Christian Commonwealth they are but one and the same Society which as I have proved over and over and our Author sometimes confesses nothing can avoid but an Ecclesiastical Supremacy or coercive Jurisdiction in matters of Religion The hearty and serious acknowledgment whereof is the true Shibboleth and distinguishing mark of the right English Protestant This is the pride and the glory of the Church of England that she was never tainted with Sedition and Disloyalty and in the management of her Reformation never out run the Laws but always moved under the Conduct of Sovereign Authority It grieved our Prelates to behold the Dignity of the Throne prostituted to a Foreign Tyranny and when chiefly by their counsel and assistance our Princes had disingaged themselves of their ancient Fetters they proceeded to engage and encourage them in the Reformation of the Christian Faith to its ancient purity and with the advice of their Ecclesiastical Senate to establish Rites and Ceremonies of Worship by their own Authority So that there is not a Monarchy in the world that might be so well guarded as the Crown of England by its Orthodox Clergy were they allowed that Power and Reputation that is due to the Interest and Dignity of their Function not only because they hold so entirely from his Majesty and are so immediately dependant upon his favour for their Preferment but chiefly because there is not any sort of Men in the World possessed with so deep a sense of Loyalty 't is become their Nature and their Genius 't is the only thing that creates them so many Enemies exposes them to so much Opposition and divides them from all other Parties and Professions What is it that so much enrages the Roman Clergy but that we will not suffer his Holiness to usurp upon the Rights of Princes And when these Janizaries invade and assault their Thrones and attempt to seat their great Master in the Imperial Primacy 't is we and only we that have ever stept in and beat back all their approaches with shame and dishonour And whatever provisions might have been made against the Encroachments of Rome upon the Crown of England they would have been lamentably weak without the aids and assistances of Religion because 't is that alone that is pretended in their Opposition and its very pretences where they prevail are so strong and powerful that they easily bear down all the Arts of Civil Policy and Government Nothing but Religion can encounter Religion And how easie had it been for Rome considering its Power Interest Cunning and Activity to have either inslaved our Princes to their Tyranny or annoyed them with eternal Broils and Seditions had not the English Clergy bestirred themselves to counterwork all their Mines and to possess the peoples minds with an impregnable sense of Loyalty And this whatever is pretended is the real ground of the breach between us viz. The Interest and Grandeur of the Court of Rome And would we but grant them back that Sovereignty they once exercised over the Kings and Kingdom of England they would never stand so much upon any Controversies about Doctrinal Articles and would willingly permit us to enjoy all our other fancies and perswasions knowing that if they can but regain their absolute Dominion over us they shall soon be able to model our Opinions to their Interest And what was it that so exasperated the Disciplinarians but when these pert Gentlemen would have been perking up into their Spiritual Throne and in imitation of their Kirk-brethren Nosing the Power of Kings both in and out of the Pulpit they pluckt down such pitiful Pretenders with scorn and dishonour exposed their folly and ignorance to the publick Correction and let the world see they were more worthy of a Pillory than a Throne But these bold Youths have at length in pursuance of their designs run themselves beyond their Pretensions and lost their Cause among the Disorders and Confusions of their own procuring out of which have sprung new swarms of Sects and Schisms that were born and bred in Rebellion and were never known to the World by any other visible marks than their Opposition to the Royal Interest Yet have these Men the face to challenge their Right of Liberty and Indulgence and to rail at us for not granting it though the things for which they demand it are nothing but principles of Sedition and Disloyalty The World knows what pranks and practices they have committed with the confidence and under the protection of Religion and they have never given us the least signs and tokens of repentance and that alone is an infallible symptom of their impenitence for were they sincere Converts the World should be sure to know their resentments so that we have all the reason in the World to believe them no Changelings and then would it not be admirable policy to trust Men of such implacable Spirits and Principles to the present setlement of things For if we have no ground but to suppose them Enemies to the Publick Peace we certainly have no Motive or Obligation to treat them as Friends but rather to use them as People that thirst after a Change and aim at nothing more than our ruine Tenderness and Indulgence to such Men were to nourish Vipers in our own bowels and the most sottish neglect of our own quiet and security and we should deserve to perish with the dishonour of Sardanapalus And howsoever their Ring-leaders may whine and cant to the people grievous complaints of our present Oppressions and Persecutions yet would they inwardly scorn us as weak and silly Men that understand not the height of our Interest if we should be prevail'd with to bestow any milder usage upon such irreconcileable Enemies And 't is not impossible but that the Mercy of the Government may have been a great temptation to their insolence and perhaps had some of them been more roughly handled they had been less disobliged They think Lenity and Compassion to an implacable Enemy an effect of weakness and would never forgive themselves should they not use all means to suppress all known and resolved Opposition to their own Interest And therefore as many of these Men as have been Objects of Royal Mercy if they expect to obtain any farther favour to their Party they would do well to give us some publick and competent assurance of their renouncing their former principles of Sedition as to Civil Government Though not a Man continuing in their Communion has ever as yet given the World any satisfaction of this kind and certainly they can never
take it ill in good earnest if we only deny them the Liberty and free Exercise of their Religion till they are willing to give us some security of their being governable § 12. The second part of Protestancy is the Reformation of Doctrine and here the design was to abolish the Corruptions and unwarrantable Innovations of the Church of Rome and to retrieve the pure and primitive Christianity It was not their aim to exchange Thomas Aquinas his Sums for Calvin's Institutions or Bodies of School-Divinity for Dutch Systems but to reduce Christianity to the prescript of the Word of God and the practice of the first and uncorrupted Ages of the Church to clear the Foundations of our Faith from all false and groundless Superstructures and once more recover into the Christian World a pure and Apostolical Religion And therefore the only Rule of our Churches Reformation were the Scriptures and four first general Councils She admits not of any upstart Doctrines and new Models of Orthodoxy but all the Articles of her Belief are ancient and Apostolical and if she her self should teach any other Propositions she protests against their being matters of Faith and of necessity to Salvation And for this reason she imposes not her own Articles as Articles of Faith but of Peace and Communion Nor does she censure other Churches for their different Confessions but allows them the Liberty she takes to establish more or less Conditions of Communion as the Governours of the Church shall deem most expedient for peace and unity And she only requires of such as are admitted to any Office Imployment in the Church subscription to them as certain Theological Verities not repugnant to the Word of God which she has particularly selected from among many other to be publickly taught and maintain'd within her Communion as necessary or highly conducive to the preservation of Truth and prevention of Schism and for this reason she passes no other censure upon the Impugners of her Articles than what she has provided against the Impugners of the Publick Liturgy Episcopal Government and the Rites Ceremonies of Worship because they are all intended to the same end the avoiding Disorders and Confusions These then are the conditional Articles of the Communion of the Church of England and they are necessary and excellent provisions for peace and unity For among all the Disputes and Divisions of Christendom it is but reasonable she should take security of those Mens Doctrines and Opinions whom she intrusts in publick Imployments to prevent her being embroil'd in perpetual Quarrels and Controversies So that Subscriptions to the Articles is required chiefly upon the same account as the Oath of Supremacy whose Penalty is That such who refuse it shall be excluded such places of Honour and Profit as they hold in the Church or Commonwealth And 't is very reasonable that Princes should be particularly secured of the Fidelity of those Subjects that they entrust with their publick Offices And thus all the punishment that the Church of England is willing to have inflicted upon Dissenters from her Articles is to deprive them of their Ecclesiastical Preferments as being unfit for Ecclesiastical Imployments For though she is not so careless of her own peace as to impower Men in the exercise of her publick Offices at all adventure so neither is she so rigorous as to make Inquisition into their private Thoughts And therefore we are not so harsh and unmerciful as somebody you wot of who would be thought a warm Bigot for Toleration and yet has sometime profest he would give his Vote to banish any Man the Kingdom that should refuse their Subscription But as for the absolute Articles of the Faith of the Church of England they are of a more ancient date they were not of her own contriving but such as she found establish't in the purest and most uncorrupted Ages of the Church and in the times nearest to the primitive and Apostolical simplicity That is the measure of her Faith and the standard of her Reformation here she fixes the bounds of her Belief and seals up the Symbol of her Creed to prevent the danger of endless Additions and Innovations But as for all other matters I say with the late Learned Archbishop as he discourses against Fisher If any Errour which might fall into this as any other Reformation can be found then I say and 't is most true Reformation especially in cases of Religion is so difficult a work and subject to so many Pretensions that 't is almost impossible but the Reformers should step too far or fall too short in some smaller things or other which in regard of the far greater benefit coming by the Reformation it self may well be passed over and born withal And withal by virtue of this Fundamental Maxim may in due time and manner be redrest By the wisdom and moderation of this Principle the Church secures her self against the Prescription of Errour So that if she should at any time hereafter discover any defect in any particular instance of her Laws and Constitutions and in a work so great so various and so difficult 't is not impossible as the Archbishop observes for the greatest caution and prudence to be overseen in some smaller things she has reserved a just power in her self to reform and amend it This in brief is a true and honest account of the Protestancy of the Church of England But so it hapned that beyond the Seas there arose another Generation of pert and forward Men the vehemence of whose Zeal and Passion transported them from extream to extream so that they immediately began to measure Truth not by its agreement with the Scriptures and the purest Ages of the Church but by its distance from the See of Rome and the Apostacy of latter times whereby it so came to pass that they did but barter Errours in stead of reforming Corruptions and in lieu of the old Popish Tenets only set up some of their own new-fangled conceits But above all the rest there sprung up a mighty Bramble on the South-bank of the Lake Lemane that such is the rankness of the Soil spred and flourish't with such a sudden growth that in a few days partly by the industry of its Agents abroad and partly by its own indefatigable pains and pragmaticalness it quite over run the whole Reformation and in a short time the right Protestant Cause was almost irrecoverably lost under the more prevailing Power and Interest of Calvinism That proud and busie Man had erected a new Chair of Infallibility and enthroned himself in it and had he been acknowledged their Supreme Pastour he could not have obtruded his Decrees in a more peremptory and definitive way upon the Reformed Churches Nothing can be rightly done in any Foreign Church or State but by his Counsels and Directions He must thrust himself in for the Master-workman where-ever they were hammering Reformation He must be privy to all the Counsels
that an useful one too yet so far is it from being the main drift much less the onely one as our Author intimates of those Composures that 't is least of any thing pursued and the Bulk of those Treatises is taken up with discovering as I before observed the feebleness of their beloved Notions the wildness of their Practices the unwarrantableness of their Schism the prevarication of their Pretences and the inconsistency of their Principles This was his Theme and had it been his Title his Performance would not onely have justified but exceeded his Undertaking But all this is obstinately overlook't and the whole business is every where represented by our Author as if all that Ink and Paper had been wasted onely to carp at uncouth Phrases and Expressions With such Confidence and Dexterity can these Men slight what they cannot answer But upon this occasion you may observe the Reasonableness of a Motion I made That Preachers might be obliged to speak Sense as well as Truth Because these Men cajole and amaze the simple Multitude with palpable Non-sense and when they pour forth a senseless Jargon of Kitchen-Metaphors and Rascal Similitudes the People admire the preciousness of the Mystery and they talk like Men encircled with Glories and dictate their Cant with the Raptures of an Angel and the Authority of an Apostle and 't is they onely that understand the secrets of the Gospel and the spirituality of the Covenant of Grace and this betrays them unavoidably into a Fanatick Enthusiasm fills their little Heads with wild Frenzies and infatuating Conceits and the whole business of Religion is transacted in their Imaginations And they take it for a special work of Conversion to be affected with precious Mr. Such-an-one's Doctrine and to profit under his Ministry i. e. to sigh at his Sermons and look demurely half an hour after And what can be more obvious to any Mans Observation then that all the Change that appears in most of their Converts is That their Tongues-ends are tipt with a new set of Phrases that they talk by roat and by chance and under this demureness of Language they shelter their old Vices of Envy Peevishness Arrogance Spight Hatred Malice and Covetousness These Infirmities are not any where so gross and visible as among Professors they are the surest Marks and most distinctive Characters of the Godly Party and 't is hugely rare to meet with any of these new-fangled Saints that does not discover the clearest and most irksom appearances of some or all these Vices Their natural sense of Religion is not onely appeased but abundantly satisfied with this phantastick Godliness and this staves them off from all farther Thoughts of a Thorough and Effectual Reformation And now upon this account it is that I proposed to have Preachers obliged to speak Sense as well as Truth but is not this an uncouth Motion says our Author seeing hitherto it has been supposed that every Proposition that is either true or false has a proper determinate Sense and if Sense it have not it can be neither And is not this Eristically spoken and as becomes a Man puissant in Polemick Squabble Who could have nickt me with such a subtilty but one that knows all his Advantages and is thoroughly experienced in all the shifts of Cavil But yet by his leave because every Proposition that is either true or false must have a determinate Sense is it therefore necessary that what has no determinate Sense must be either true or false If it be not then Men may speak Non-sense and yet speak neither and then what becomes of this pert and doubty Exception And when these Men do as much dis-service to Religion by Non-sense as by false Doctrine what can be more seasonably proposed then that they should be as well obliged to speak Sense as they are to speak Truth and as well punish't for Canting as for Heresie seeing as they manage it 't is as pernicious to the Peace of the Church and the Interest of Religion § 11. But our Author proceeds Some of the Things reflected on and carped at are such as those who have used or asserted them dare modestly challenge him in their defence to make good his Charge in a Personal Conference This is somewhat pitiful and methinks his high Spirit stoops below it self for there is no such submissive Confession of a publick Overthrow as to demand private Conferences 't is the Refuge of all baffled People and all the Triflers in the World may shelter themselves in this Sanctuary though they can never recover it unless by flight And I doubt not but Philagathus himself can brag among his Neighbours and Acquaintance that the Author of the Friendly Debate dares not accept this Challenge and that if he could but talk with him he could easily revenge himself to purpose aye that he could And though never was poor Man more piteously bruised and havock't yet by this lamentable Cordial he makes shift to asswage the pain of his Disaster and to support the spruntness of his Humour But alas this is plain crossing the Cudgels when they perceive themselves overmatch't they are ashamed to confess a baffle and yet not able to bear up against the briskness of their Assailant and therefore to abate the publickness of the disgrace they desire to finish the Combat in a private Corner and then though they are beaten they can boast the Victory and can crow and strut and triumph when they flie the Pit But Men that can speak Reason can certainly pen what they speak and therefore if they cannot defend themselves by Writing they can never be able to do it by Talking And if W. B. can prove by word of mouth his Hoops and his Wallâ—ps and his Vermin to be Gospel-Mysteries 't is no great pains to dictate the same words to a Brachygrapher But our Author tells us That the wisest man living when he is gagg'd with a Quill is not able to speak and yet he may write for all that for Gaggs tie not Mens hands and therefore I see not how 't is possible W. B. should better clear himself by word of mouth then by Ink and Paper There is no way imaginable but by eating his Gagg and recanting what he has written However the Author of the Debate is not at leisure to attend to the Impertinencies of every Talking Man His design was to discover their lamentable Follies and Impostures to the World let them clear themselves to the Publick and he is satisfied but upon his own account he neither needs nor desires satisfaction So that in short these Demands of Personal Conferences are but a more cleanly way of yielding the Cause for no Men will ever sit down under a publick baffle that know how to help themselves But if nothing will stop our Mouths our Author thinks he can easily threaten us into better manners For if they would retort upon us and give in a Charge against
the best of Kings onely to carry on the puny Concernments of their own narrow and accursed Interest But we must proceed and in the last place I am catechised to give an account of my Thoughts of David's self-abasements that far exceed any thing that Nonconformists are able to express Truly I think the passionateness of his Repentance was but proportion'd to the horrour of his Sin he lay under the fresh Convictions of the most horrid Villanies of Murder Adultery and Drunkenness and his guilt was enhansed with the most shameful and dishonourable Circumstances and whilst he continued in this dismal Condition what Cries and Accents could be too doleful to express the Bitterness of his Grief and Horrour If they are in the same plight and condemnation I will not then upbraid them for cloathing their acknowledgments with the blackest of his Expressions for they will then have sad occasion to sing their penitential Psalm elsewhere if they are not then to use such mournful Ditties in their familiar Addresses to Heaven falls under my former censure of trifling and fooling with the Almighty But to despise Men for the deepest humblings of their Souls before God can arise from no other Principle but an utter unacquaintance with the holiness of God the accuracy of the Law and the deceitfulness of my own Heart As for the deceitfulness of my own Heart I confess my self a stranger to it and am not at all desirous of its acquaintance for I hate nothing more then a false Bosom-Friend But however my Heart and my Self are of the same Church and the same Religion there is no Schism between us that I know of nor do I remember when we parted Communion And I think we ever had the same Thoughts Designs and Resolutions and therefore as long as I am careful to preserve my own Integrity let my Heart prove false and treacherous if it can the Hearts indeed of all Hypocrites and wicked Men are deceitful because they themselves are so but we shall never understand how an upright Man should keep an hypocritical Heart unless we can divide himself from himself So that when the People of God make frequent and piteous moans of the hypocrisie of their own Hearts unless still they fool and trifle there is no remedy but the People of God must pass by their own Confessions for rank and self-convicted Hypocrites for it was never known that any Man was better than his own Heart or that a perfidious Heart was found in the breast of an honest Man As for the Purity and Holiness of God I am affected with such reverential apprehensions of it that I would have Men approach his presence with an awful and religious distance and not always present themselves before him in such a foul and unclean pickle and so full of Vermin I know not a bolder affront to his Purity than to presume he will vouchsafe Communion with such polluted Souls 'T is high Presumption for an habitual Sinner continuing such to expect the forgiveness of his sins nothing can reconcile us to the favor of God but an effectual and a persevering Repentance this is an absolute and indispensable condition of every acceptable Prayer and therefore Men that acknowledge any habitual disobedience to the Laws of Christ put in a bar against their own Petitions and do not onely stave off the Divine Pity by being unfit Objects for it but provoke the Divine Displeasure by presuming of his Favour to such unworthy Wretches And when Men tell the Almighty in good earnest for otherwise they do but trifle with him still Lord we offend daily against all thy Commandments in Thought Word and Deed sinning against thee with an high hand and a bold forehead against Knowledge and against Conviction all the Thoughts of our Hearts are evil onely evil and that continually working all uncleanness with greediness drawing Iniquity with Cords of Vanity and Sin as it were with Cart-ropes c. What other Answer to their Prayers can such debauch't Wretches expect but the utmost Severity of Wrath and Indignation and the Doom of the worst of Hypocrites and Unbelievers § 17. But Ministers who are the Mouths of the Congregation to God may and ought to acknowledge not onely the Sins whereof themselves are personally guilty but those also which they judge may be upon any of the Congregation I shall not urge him with the rash examples of some of their godly Ministers of greatest Fame and Reputation for Piety that have proclaimed themselves not only to the present Age but to all Posterity proud and selfish and hypocritical and desperately and mortally wicked Certainly these must of necessity be either very naughty Saints or most horrible Dissemblers However I am sure such ratling Confessions cannot but have a sad and woful Influence upon the Lives of their popular Admirers For what can they more naturally conclude from thence that if precious Mr. that eminent Servant of Jesus Christ in the work of the Gospel be so full of sin and wickedness in how many more and greater Infirmities may I be indulged that am but a private and an ordinary Professor But to let this pass What unclean Congregations are those that have such foul Mouths Methinks it becomes not such pure People to have their Mouths always full of such uncleanly Confessions And whether it be true or false what I. O. informs us That 't is the Duty and Priviledge of sincere Believers to unlade their Vnbelief in the bosom of their God I know not but this I know that 't is an unmannerly and horrid prophaneness whenever they make their Addresses to the Almighty to disgorge themselves of the most filthy and abominable Loads of Sin in his Presence The Prayers of wicked Men or habitual Sinners as I told you before are an abomination to the Lord and he loaths nothing more then the boldness and presumption of their Addresses And therefore if they can suppose any in their Congregations guilty of those heinous Enormities they are wont so familiarly to confess yet they ought not to suppose them to have any share in the Publick Worship For when Men meet together to join in the Duties of Devotion none ought to be supposed Members of the Society but what are qualified for the performance of the Duty because all that others can contribute is not to be reckoned a part of Divine Worship and therefore Ministers ought onely to represent such Persons as are supposed capable of the Duty and all that are not so to disclaim their company and refuse their assistance as much as if they stood excommunicate from the Congregation for so they are as to all the real designs and purposes of Religious Worship However Publick Offices ought to be so contrived as to suit Publick Ends and to serve the Needs of the whole Body and therefore is the Confession of our Publick Liturgy expressed in such general Terms as may comprehend the Concerns and
and all other Determinations there is no possible way to avoid making the last Appeal to different Judgments because that is absolutely unavoidable in the natural Constitution of Humane Affairs And therefore I never attempted as some Men have done to devolve the entire Power of judging upon the Judgment of one Party but onely supposing our different Respects and Obligations to these different Judgments to propound the safest and most moderate Principles upon which to setle and accommodate the Government of Humane Affairs and to adjust all matters capable of debate between them by such fair Proposals and upon such reasonable Principles that if the Parties concern'd will be ingenuous in their respective Capacities will effectually enough secure the common Peace and Happiness of Mankind if they will not the Publick Miseries and Calamities that ensue upon the default of either Party will be proportion'd to the degrees of their respective Transgressions and against them 't is not in my power to provide unless I could devest the Minds of Men of all Liberty of Judgment and Freedom of Will for whilst they remain 't is at their own choice whether they will follow the best and wisest advice in the World § 9. Thus if Magistrates fail on their part and Enact any Laws in defiance of the certain and apparent Laws of God from thence arise the Calamities of Tyranny and Persecution and against this evil there is no remedy but Patience and Prayers Divine Providence is Superiour to the Power of Soveraign Princes and superintends their Government of the World and therefore to God alone must we address our Complaints for relief against Cruelty and Oppression and if he judge it convenient for the interests of his Church and the purposes of Religion he will so order the Circumstances of Things and the Management of Affairs as to rescue them out of their Streights and Exigences The Hearts and the Scepters of Kings are subject to his Almighty Wisdom and he so disposes them as to make them comply with the Decrees of his uncontroulable Will and therefore whatever inconveniences may befal Good Men through the Folly or the Wickedness of Governours they must be patiently endured as certain Issues and unsearchable Designs of Divine Providence and we have no recourse for Succour or Deliverance but to his infinite Mercy and Goodness this is our only Support and Sanctuary and who can desire greater Safety than to be under his immediate Care and Protection And therefore there is nothing more unbecoming the Faith and the Profession of a Christian than to betake himself to violent and irregular Courses against the Inconveniences of Government 't is a direct and open affront to the Superintendency of Providence that has reserved this Prerogative to it self 't is our Duty to obey cheerfully or to suffer patiently and to leave all other Events of Things to his All-comprehensive Wisdom Mankind must be subject to Government no Government can be effectual unless it be Supreme and Absolute and therefore God has been pleased to enjoin us a full and entire Subjection to our lawful Superiours and as for what may ensue thereon we must leave to his wise and unerring Disposal and then certainly we may rest secure of a good Issue of Things So that if the Magistrate erre in his Judgment of the extent of his Authority and act beyond the Bounds of his lawful Jurisdiction 't is not in the Power of Subjects to redress or to remove the Mischiefs that must ensue upon his Government they must discharge their Duty and submit to their Fate and as for the Reformation of any Publick Miscarriages they must leave it entirely to the Will and the Wisdom of the Soveraign Power So that the material thing of which Princes ought to be careful is that their Laws cross not with the express Laws of God and this they may easily avoid if they will be upright and ingenuous and this if they will do they may as easily avoid all the Mischiefs and Inconveniences that may befal Men of peaceable Spirits through their default But as 't is their Duty not to transgress their own Bounds so on the other side 't is as much their Interest to restrain their Subjects from transgressing theirs and not suffer them to remonstrate to the Equity of their Laws unless when they can plead a clear undoubted pre-engagement to an higher Authority and they must not prostitute the Interests of the Republique and the Reverence of Government to the Niceties of every curious Imagination or the Cavils of every peevish Humour There is no end of trifling and unreasonable Pretences if once the common People are permitted to put in their Exceptions against the Publick Laws and what a weak and impertinent thing were the Power of Princes if it might be over-ruled by the Folly of the Multitude And how bravely would the World be govern'd if the Authority and Obligation of Laws must be left arbitrary to the Opinion of every vain and foolish Fellow And therefore in such cases the Allegation of a tender Conscience confutes it self and 't is but a soft and plausible word to qualifie a stubborn and contentious Humour and did not something else bear Men up against the force of Authority a weak Conscience has not boldness enough to oppose its own Power and Judgment against the Will of Superiours and the Wisdom of Publick Laws 't is not so imperious and impatient in its Pretensions but 't is if it really is what it pretends to be of a yielding a modest and a governable Temper apt and easie to receive any competent Satisfaction willing to comply with the Necessities of Government and the Interests of Publick Order and therefore when Men are zealous and confident in their disobedience to Authority and are forward upon all occasions to take offence at the Publick Laws whatever they fancy to themselves or pretend to others 't is a proud a malapert and an insolent Humour that affects to affront Authority and to raise Trophees to its Zeal and Courage by controuling the Decrees of Princes and trampling upon the Laws of Discipline And therefore nothing more imports the Publick Peace than to take down such bold and daring Spirits and their high Stomachs must be broken before they can be made fit Subjects of Civil Societies and fit Members of Bodies Politick Disorder and Disturbance is the natural Result of their Complexion and they cannot forbear to fret and annoy Authority with every peevish and unreasonable Conceit So that the bare Pretence of Tenderness of Conscience in defiance to the Commands of Authority is at once a bold Attempt and an impregnable Principle of Sedition for unless Men have lost their due sense of reverence and submission to Government they will not pretend it and when they do if their Pretence be admitted they are but encouraged to continue refractory in their disobedience and to make all the Laws of Discipline and Publick Order yield up their
branch of Godliness and Duty of Religion signifies as much as all the rest that is nothing at all As for Spiritual Evangelical Obedience 't is but a canting Phrase if by it he intend any thing more than a sincere and habitual Conformity to the Moral Precepts of the Gospel Moral Obedience to the Gospel and Spiritual Evangelical Obedience are but coincident Expressions of the same thing And lastly as for the Tenour of the Covenant as they are wont to discourse of it it requires nothing but a bold Confidence setting up with Gods irrespective Decrees and trading in his absolute Promises For I. O. as well as W. B. informs us That the Promises comprehensive of the Covenant of Grace are absolute which as to all those that belong to that Covenant do hold out thus much of the Mind of God that they shall be certainly accomplished in and towards them all But who are they that belong to this Covenant He answers Every poor Soul that will venture to trust it self on these absosolute Promises Faith in the Promises and the Accomplishment of the Promises are inseparable He that believeth shall enjoy and this wholly shuts up the Spirit from any occasion of staggering O ye of little Faith wherefore do ye doubt Ah! lest our share be not in this Promise Poor Creatures there is but one way of keeping you off from it i. e. disputing it in your selves by unbelief So that the onely Condition he requires to vest Men in a right to these absolute Promises is nothing but meer Confidence Though there cannot be more horrid Non-sense in the World than that Faith or Boldness should be required as the Condition of absolute Promises yet it were as well if they were altogether absolute as demand no better Qualification for their accomplishment than a Bold Face And suitable to this it follows some Pages after that there neither is nor can be any other Ground or Reason of Doubtings but Unbelief It is not the greatness of Sin nor continuance in Sin nor backsliding into Sin that is the true cause of thy staggering whatever thou pretendest but solely from thy Vnbelief So that though a Man persevere in an habitual course of the greatest Wickednesses yet for all that he has an undeniable claim to all the Promises of the Gospel if he will at all-adventure resolve to be stomachful in his Conceit that they were particularly made and designed to himself Now if this be one as 't is the choicest one of the Mysteries of their New Godliness I leave it to you to judge whether it be possible to invent any Doctrine more apparently destructive of an Holy Life or repugnant to the Tenour of the New Covenant which is plainly nor more nor less than Gods Stipulation of Eternal Life upon no other Condition than of an habitual and uniform Obedience to the Gospel So that all these Spiritual Graces resolving themselves so easily either into Duties or Helps or Hindrances of Morality he has given us an abundant proof of their canting and imaginary Godliness when he produces these Instances as things of a more precious and spiritual Nature than Moral Vertues and yet unless they signifie them they signifie nothing § 6. But this is not all the main ground of my Charge against them for making an inconsistency between Grace and Vertue is That they make Moral Goodness the greatest Let to Conversion insomuch that in their Case-Divinity the Conversion of a morally Righteous Man is judged more hopeless than that of the vilest and most notorious Sinners Than which our Author affirms there is nothing more openly taught in the Gospel Than which I affirm there is no Blasphemy more grosly false and wicked For what viler and more dishonourable Representation can Men make of the Doctrine of the Gospel than to make Vertue the greatest Prejudice to its Entertainment Is that Institution worthy the Divine Contrivance that is more befriended by Debauchery and Prophaneness than by sincere Obedience to the best and most essential Laws of Goodness Nothing can be more suitable to the Design and the Doctrine of the Gospel than the practice of Moral Vertues and is it not strange that it should be destructive of its own Ends and purposes and that Men should indispose themselves for the Discipline of Christianity by being adorn'd with its best and choicest Qualifications We never read of any Man that was hindred from embracing the Christian Faith by any of his Good Qualities Cornelius's Integrity in fearing God and working Righteousness was the onely thing that prepared and disposed him to Conversion and the young Gentleman in the Gospel wanted but one Moral Vertue to make him an entire Christian he was upon the Borders of the Kingdom of Heaven one step more would have placed him in it The onely thing that kept him out was Covetousness which though it may in some persons escape for an Infirmity was never yet rank't in the Catalogue of Moral Vertues The usefulness the purity the excellency of the Doctrine of the Gospel cannot but endear it to a Mind that is inclined to Goodness and to a Vertuous Soul the Beauty and Perfection of its Laws is its strongest and most effectual Obligation It was this that ravish't some of the first Fathers out of their state of Heathenism into the Bosom of the Church their Minds were prepared to embrace true Goodness by the study of Wisdom and Philosophy they were onely at a loss where to find it and therefore when they met with such a Divine Religion and that establish't upon such firm and undeniable Principles 't is scarce to be conceived with what transports of Joy and Zeal they run into its Profession In brief the Gospel is all that tends to the Glory of God to the Perfection of Humane Nature to the Relief of my Neighbor and to the Security and Happiness of Societies and all this it enforces under the severest Penalties and endears by the noblest Promises And now let any Man tell me which way 't is possible for Vertue to tempt aside from such an admirable and Godlike Institution How says our Author were not the Pharisees a People morally righteous and yet were they not at a farther distance from the Kingdom of God than Publicans and Harlots the vilest and most notorious Sinners because they trusted in their own Righteousness Yes yes they were right-worthy Moral Men bright and shining Examples of the great Vertues of Pride Peevishness Malice Revenge Injustice Covetousness Rapine Cruelty and Unmercifulness These were the Graces and the Ornaments of those precious and holy ones Go thy way for a woful Guesser no Man living beside thy self could ever have had the ill fortune to pitch upon the Scribes and Pharisees for Moral Philosophers And Sir were any of them now alive they would tell him to his teeth they are no more Moralists than himself Their Parts and Vertues lay another way They were a fasting and
careful to admit and practise nothing in the Worship of God unless it comes in his Name and with Thus saith the Lord Iesus You know how many in this Nation in the days not long since passed yea how many thousands left their Native Soils and went into a vast and howling Wilderness because they made it so in the utmost parts of the World to keep their Souls undefiled and chaste to their dear Lord Iesus as to this of his Worship and Institutions So that they scorn to pretend any less Authority than our Saviours own express Warrant for any thing wherein they differ and divide from the Church of England And this is a ruder and more insolent Affront to our Christian Liberty than the most confident Jew could ever have been guilty of for though he might endeavour to enslave us to his own Customs and Prejudices yet they are such as once bore the impression of Divine Authority whereas these Men would stamp the Authority of God upon their own Dreams and phantastick Conceits and vouch their humour and their ignorance with a Thus saith the Lord Iesus and so would bore the Ears and enslave the Understandings of all Christendom to their own folly and confidence And certainly there never were greater Tyrants and Usurpers in the Church of Christ than these exact and curious Judges of Divine Rights with what Confidence will they prescribe Truth to Mankind and adopt their own uncertain Problems and Scholastick Fooleries into the Fundamentals of Religion With what Assurance of Authority will they restrain all Mens Faith to the Standard of their own Apprehensions How briskly will they warrant this Opinion and explode that And how dogmatically will they assign the precise bounds of Orthodoxy All their Sentiments are the Decrees of the Medes and Persians all their Rules of Worship are Obligatory as Apostolical Canons all their Opinions are Oracles and had they sate in the Infallible Chairs of Rome or Geneva they could not have been more confident and peremptory in their Determinations But thus is the Church of England requited for her modesty and because she does not abuse the Consciences of Men to a rigid Observance of her Institutions under a false pretence of Divine Authority the gentle and moderate exercise of her own lawful Jurisdiction is by these Men branded with Tyranny and Usurpation whilst themselves in the mean while are not ashamed to obtrude their own Fancies and little Conceits upon their credulous Proselytes with the counterfeit Seal of Heaven and inslave their Consciences to their own imperious dictates by exhibiting forged Commissions from God himself and then the People dare not murmur against their unreasonable Impositions for that reverence they bear to that Authority which as they are told is imprinted on them But this has ever been the subtilty of these Men as it is of all Malefactors to rail most at their own Crimes and to avoid the suspicion of their own Guilt by deriving its imputation upon some of their innocent Neighbours But once more to return to our Authors Inference If then he means that the Church of England imposes her Ceremonial Institutions with an Opinion of their antecedent Necessity and so it is apparent he is willing enough to be understood 't is a bold Calumny if he means that they become consequentially necessary onely by virtue of their Institution 't is a woful impertinence and is no other infringment of our Liberty than what is inseparable from the Nature of Humane Laws And so all the Civil Laws of Commonwealths are apparently as chargeable with this sort of Usurpation as any of our Ecclesiastical Constitutions And therefore by the way I would willingly be satisfied that seeing the Judicial as well as the Ceremonial Law of Moses was annull'd and abrogated by the Establishment of the Christian Faith and seeing by consequence it was part of their Christian Liberty to be freed from its Obligatory Power what imaginable Reason can be assign'd why Authority should more invade the Rights of our Christian Liberty by establishing new Ecclesiastical Canons than by enacting new Civil Constitutions Or why the Common Law of England should not as much infringe that part of our Gospel-Priviledges whereby we are exempt from the Judicial Law as the Canons and Determinations of the Church do that other part whereby we are rescued from the Ceremonial To this Enquiry they will never be able to return any tolerable answer but by shifting the matter of their plea and then they forsake their hold of Christian Liberty and shelter themselves in a new Pretence Perhaps they may plead that God has reserved the Appointment of the way manner and circumstances of his own Worship to his own immediate Jurisdiction but has vested Civil Magistrates with a power to govern the secular Affairs of Common-wealths But then this is an open Flight from our present Engagement and now the thing pleaded in behalf of their Disobedience is not their Christian Liberty or their exemption from the Law of Moses but their Christian Duty or their subjection to the Law of Christ. Though when this Refuge comes to be attaqued it will be found more weak and defenceless than this that is already demolish'd and you may well expect wise work when they are urged to produce Testimonies of Scripture that restrain the Civil Magistrate from enacting Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions for the due government and performance of external Worship Here their Pleas are so horridly vain and ridiculous that in comparison of them the Celebrated Text of the Romanists super hanc Petram in behalf of the Infallibility of the Papal Chair is as Impertinent as it is Reason and Demonstration But after this I suppose we may have occasion to enquire elsewhere In the mean time 't is enough that we have beaten down this Paper Fort of Christian Liberty in which if men may be allowed to take sanctuary for their disobedience to the Churches Constitutions it will not only be a plausible Refuge for all Schismaticks and Male-contents but an eternal Annoyance to the Churches Peace and a perpetual Nursery of incurable Schisms and Divisions For all parts of outward Worship save only the two Sacraments being left undetermined in the Word of God and some particular determinations being absolutely necessary to prevent Disorder and Confusion and these being not capable of any force or obligatory Power and by consequence of any Usefulness to their proper End but by vertue of the Authority of the Civil Magistrate It follows unavoidably that if laying Restraints and Injunctions upon men in the outward Exercise of Publick Worship be a violation of their Christian Liberty that 't is absolutely impossible to make any effectual Provisions for the orderly and regular performance of the Worship of God or to provide any security against eternal Tumults and Seditions in the Church of God And whenever Phanatick spirits have a mind to be peevish and humoursom they have here a sacred and
for coming so near home and loves to keep aloof off from present Transactions A Man may talk confident Conjectures of things that hapned so many thousand years ago and tell fine Stories of Men that begot Sons and Daughters before the Flood But 't is dangerous to talk of the History and Constitution of Affairs in the present World a Man may possibly contradict known and undeniable experience and every Novice that is never so little acquainted with the present state of Forreign Churches will be able to check and shame our confidence And there are two unhappy Books of Mr. Durel that plainly demonstrate that we are a new Race of Men in the World that are not yet sufficiently polish't and civilized for Humane Society and such as whilst we continue fond of our wild and barbarous Principles must be banish't all establish't Churches and Commonwealths in Europe § 10. In the close of this Chapter I gave an account of the nature and use of significant Ceremonies that are the same thing with external Worship under a different Name outward Worship consisting in nothing else but signifying our inward thoughts and sentiments of Religion either by Words or Actions where I shewed that it might be indifferently exprest and performed by either and that Gestures of Reverence were of the same use in the Worship of God as solemn Praises and Acknowledgements and that to bow the Body at the mentioning the Name of Jesus was the same kind of honour to his Person as to celebrate his Name with Hymns and Thanksgivings and therefore that the Magistrates Prerogative of instituting significant Ceremonies amounted to nothing more than a Power of defining the import of words and by consequence that 't is no other Usurpation upon his Subjects Consciences than if he should take upon him to refine their Language and determine the proper signification of all Phrases imployed in Divine Worship as well as in Trades Arts and Sciences and therefore I could not but profess my admiration at the prodigious confidence and impertinence of those Men that could raise such hideous Noises and Out-cries against the Laws of a setled Church and State upon such slender grounds and pretences But here our Author quickly requites me with a counter-wonder That I cannot express my dissent from others in controverted Points of the meanest and lowest concernment but with crying out Prodigies Clamours Impertinencies and the like Expressions of astonishment in my self and contempt of others I might reserve some of these great words for more important occasions And the truth is these are not any matters of the greatest importance and were our Dispute meerly concern'd in their Speculation I could discourse as coolly and carelesly about them as about a Mechanical Hypothesis or a Metaphysical Notion and should not be more eagerly concern'd to resolve the truth of the Question than I am to determine the Principle of Individuation But when the establish't Government of a Nation shall be subverted by such nice and new-invented Subtilties when never any Church in the World was more rudely treated by her own Children than the Church of England by the Puritan Schismaticks when Men shall cry out Antichrist Popery and Superstition and all for the Idolatry of a significant Ceremony and when this clamorous Exception is so vain so groundless and impertinent is it not infinitely prodigious to see Men so confident and troublesom upon such slight and vanishing appearances What scurrilous Language do they continually pour forth against the Church of England What ignominious Titles do they fasten upon her Friends and Followers And with what disdain and insolence do they spit at her way of Worship and Devotion Into what woful and endless Schisms do they drive their Proselytes from her Communion What Disturbances do they create in the State and what Ruptures in the Church And how do they imbroil and discompose the peaceable setlement of a flourishing Kingdom and all this meerly out of hatred to the Popery and Paganism of a Symbolical Rite For ever since the Scepter of Jesus Christ as they stiled their Presbyterial Consistory has been wrested from them by force of Argument and ever since the divine Right of the holy Discipline has been so shamefully exploded and that time and experience have put a baffle upon the confidence of their old Pleas and Pretences all the out-cry has been against the unwarrantableness of instituted Ceremonies which after innumerable Trains of Distinctions and Limitations about Natural and Customary and Topical Signs still spends it self against the Superstition of mystical and significant Rites so that the substance of this whole Contest is now at length resolved into this single Enquiry and upon this all their deeper and more subtle Men of Controversie spend all their Choler and Metaphysicks 'T is true they defend themselves with the Pleas of Scandal Tenderness of Conscience c. but when they use their Offensive Weapons they scarce annoy us with any other Objections than what are levell'd against the Churches Usurpation in taking upon her to appoint new Ceremonies and Institutions of Worship And therefore if ever I had reason to cry out Prodigies Clamours and Impertinencies it was upon this subject and this occasion when my Thoughts were warm with reflecting upon those mighty Troubles and Inconveniences under which these Men have brought the best establish't Church in the World by their unreasonable folly and curiosity For tell me Sir is it nothing to shake the Foundations and hazard the Overthrow of a setled Church Is it nothing to discompose the Publick Peace and Tranquillity of a setled State Is it nothing for Subjects to withdraw their assistance from their Prince and their Country Is it nothing to violate the Fundamental Laws of Love and Peace and Charity Is it nothing to rend the Body of a Church into numberless Schisms and Contentions Is it nothing to keep up implacable Feuds and Animosities among Members of the same Commonwealths Is it nothing to harden debauch't and ungodly Men against Religion it self by giving them too much reason to suspect it as a thing that is troublesom and mischievous to Government Is it nothing to encourage the designs of sacrilegious Wretches by giving them advantage under the disguise of Zeal and Purity to prey upon the Churches Antichristian Patrimony In a word Is it nothing to gore the Bowels of a Kingdom with everlasting Changes and Reformations and all this upon Pretences as thin as Sope-bubbles and as brittle as Glass-drops § 11. But let us take a brief Surveigh of their particular Reasonings and Exceptions and then our wonder at these Mens confidence will be so far from abating that it will swell into ecstasie and downright astonishment For first says our Author To say that the Magistrate has Power to institute visible signs of Gods honour to be observed in the outward Worship of God is upon the matter to say that he has Power to institute new Sacraments for so
except this single one I will in requital freely grant him all his other Nine if that will do him any service though for what use he intends them in our present Enquiry I confess I am not able to divine however I am not at all concern'd in them and therefore if he can make any advantage of their service much good may they do him And now having driven the Nail thus home with hard Notions out of the School-men he clincheth it with Testimonies out of the Fathers and if I will not be born down by strength of Reason no nor Confidence he resolves to sweep me away with the Torrent of Authority But though he argues very ill yet he quotes much worse For you know it has been an old and beaten Controversie between us and the Church of Rome whether the written Word of God be the adequate Rule of Faith and in this both sides have hotly engaged with all sorts of Weapons viz. Reason Scripture and the Opinion of the Ancients to which last purpose many Protestant Writers have collected a vast variety of express Assertions out of their VVritings in behalf of the Protestant Opinion Now some of these our Author gravely transcribes for my Confutation and what they plainly affirm'd of necessary Articles of Faith he confidently applies to Ceremonies of outward VVorship Out of what particular Author he made bold to borrow them they are so common and trivial it is impossible to determine you may meet them all together with some other Company out of which he has cunningly drawn these to escape discovery in Chamier tom 1. Lib. 10. where he maintains the perfection and sufficiency of the Canon of Scripture for a Rule of Faith And the passages themselves do so plainly limit their own sense to this subject that they are utterly uncapable of any other Application and if you can prevail with your self barely to run them over that without any farther trouble will satisfie you of their wretched and palpable Impertinency for my own part I have neither leisure nor patience to waste precious time and good Paper upon such woful Trash Let him take his liberty in his own wild Rangings whilst he roves aloof off from my Concerns and therefore I am resolved without regard to his unnecessary digressions to confine my discourse only to those things that pretend a direct and immediate attempt upon my former Treatise § 9. In the Prosecution of this Argument I shewed this Principle to be so perpetually pregnant with mischiefs and disturbances that 't is impossible any Church should establish any Rules of Decency or Laws of Discipline or any setled frame of things appertaining to the Offices of external Religion that it will not of necessity contradict and abrogate in that there never was nor ever can be any Form of Worship as to all Circumstances prescribed in the Word of God because that has actually determined no exteriour parts of Religion beyond the two Sacraments and therefore as long as men lie under the power of a Principle so equally false and troublesom they can never want what themselves may apprehend a just Pretence to warrant Disturbance and Disobedience So that we found by experience that when once it was let loose upon the Institutions of the Church of England it worried every thing that stood in its way and turn'd its fury alike upon every Party that pretended to peace and setlement it was merciless as some bodies rage and lust and spared nothing that Sacriledge could devour And as by this the Puritans assaulted and ruin'd the Church of England so when they subdivided among themselves and mouldred into new Churches and Factions it was still the Offensive Weapon of every aspiring Party with it the Independents vanquish'd the Presbyterians with it the Anabaptists attempted the Independents and with it all the little Under-sects set up against the Anabaptists and with it as soon as they were born like the Dragons Teeth they fell foul upon each other and had they crumbled into a thousand farther divisions and subdivisions for nothing so endless as Phanatick Innovations it would equally have served both for and against all because whatever particular Customs and Rules of Decency they should have agreed upon in the Worship of God it was apparently enough impossible they should ever vouch and warrant their Prescription out of the Word of God the Reason is evident because that has prescribed and determined none at all And therefore after the Liturgy it sent the Directory with Church musick it silenced Sternholds Rhimes with the Cross it cashier'd sprinkling in Baptism and when it had at least in design pluckt down Cathedral Churches it fell upon Steeple-houses And what could ever stop the fury of so endless and so unreasonable a Principle for when it had wandred as far as Tom of Odcomb through a numberless variety of Changes and Reformations it would ever have been at as great a distance from its intended End as the foolish Traveller when he had compassed the Top of Olympus was from touching the Sun For how should men with all their search and travel be ever able to discover that in the Word of God which the Word of God has no where discover'd in it self But 't is no matter for that our Author appeals to all mankind whether an issue and setled stability be not likelier to be effected by all mens consenting unto one common Rule whereby these differences may be tried and examined than that every Party should be left at Liberty to indulge to their own Affections and Imaginations about them In plain troth Sir I must take some severer course with this man if nothing else will reclaim him from this lazy Trade of Begging I had taken pains to prove both from the Nature of the Thing and the Experience of the World that this Principle carries disquiet and disturbance in its bare supposition because it stands upon demands impossible to be satisfied But this man without taking any notice of my Arguments replies like himself i. e. boldly and impertinently to my Assertion and gravely supposes there is or ought to be a common Rule established in the World whereby differences concerning outward Worship may be tried and examined which is the very thing in Question between us and all my Proofs to which this is intended for a satisfactory Answer are directly levell'd against the very supposition it self in that it invites and engages men to remonstrate to any setled Form of Worship upon such unreasonable grounds of Exception as it is impossible for any Church in the World either to avoid or to redress If indeed there were any such common Rule prescribed in the Gospel it would no doubt be a certain and admirable way to determine Controversies but in the mean while to suppose it against flat experience because we apprehend it convenient for our own Ends and Interests is just such another way of arguing as the Romanists insist upon to prove the
he never wants for confidence to deny or slight Assertions and when their Guard is removed 't is an easie matter to fall foul upon naked Truths § 2. As for what I have asserted and proved in the next Paragraph he readily subscribes it viz. That Conscience and Religion are the strongest bands of Laws and the best security of Government and therefore that they are its greatest Enemies that endeavour to weaken or evacuate their Obligations a wise attempt of some little and pedantick Pretenders to Policy But this little ingenuity in granting 'tis once possible that I can speak truth is forced and against the grain of Nature and therefore it immediately returns with the greater violence and the words next ensuing are as lewd and shameless a Calumny as any in the whole cluster of his falsified Stories viz. That what I have here discoursed in one Section though which he is so wise as to leave his Reader to conjecture is to prove that the use and exercise of Conscience will certainly overthrow all Government and fill the World with Confusion But here methinks I smell Brimstone and had I the Father of Untruths for my Adversary I could not have engaged at greater disadvantage For what Reply should a Man make to such a rank and essential Falshood After this rate there is no commencing a Dispute with this Man but in Courts of Justice and no confuting his Arguments but by Actions of Slander I confess this is the only Rapper I have observed in this Chapter but 't is like the last clap of Thunder that breaks with a more hideous thump and strikes with down-right astonishment However Innocence they say is as safe a protection against its blasting stroaks as an old Oak and therefore I can defie his bolts with as much assurance as Cyniscus in Lucian did Iupiter when he was secure his hands were tied by Fate so that our Author has my free consent to use these wretched Weapons as long as he pleases for there is no danger such bold Falsifications should ever hurt any thing but himself and his Cause In the two following Paragraphs to omit some slight and stragling Cavils I shewed that the dread of invisible Powers is not of it self sufficient to awe the common people into subjection but tends more probably to work tumults and seditions and this was largely and I presume competently proved by the ungovernableness of the principles and tempers of some Sects of Religion But he knows whom I reflect upon Like enough for guilt and a gall'd Horse are very quick of apprehension though here methinks he is too skittish and starts too soon under the lash of my general Reproof by his own particular Applications I confess I afterwards proceeded to the known Concernments of some parties of Men among us but in this Section 't is apparent I aimed only at the mischiefs of Superstition and Enthusiasm from the tendency of their own Nature in that as they were more incident to the common people than any other vice or folly so when they had once seized their Passions they were so far from laying restraints upon their exorbitant heats that they were the strongest and most irresistible Obligations to Tumult and Sedition But seeing our Author through the quickness of his sense flinches at the smart of my Reproof before the blow is given let him satisfie me in this Inquiry If there be no particular Inclinations in some Sects of Men to Insolence and Presumption against Princes whence it comes to pass that where-ever they have been entertained Subjects have been immediately inflamed and exasperated against their Princes and Princes have been forced upon stern and ungentle courses against their Subjects that the times have been broken with rebellious defections subversions of Churches and combustions of Religion that the History of the Age has been made up of nothing but Wars Conspiracies Insurrections Spoils Ravages Desolations of States Confusions of Governments and all the other mischiefs and miseries of Humane Life Whence it comes to pass that no Sects of Men have been more prodigal of ugly Language irreverent Expressions and lewd Titles to the Princes of Christendom Who was it that honour'd the Royal Family of France with the Title of a Bitch-Wolf and her Whelps Eusebius Philadelphus Who was it that stiled Mary Queen of England Proserpine No body but Mr. Calvin Who gave Mary Queen of Scots the Title of Iezabel Honest Iohn Knox. Who that of Medea Orthodox Mr. Beza To pass by innumerable other Titles of Honour and Civility bestowed by these meek and humble Men upon Sovereign Princes 't is enough that our Author may remember who it was that branded his present Majesty as a Tyrant full of Revenge a Man of Blood a Son of Tabeal Absalom and Sheba the Son of Bichri And lastly whence it comes to pass that this party of Men have been the Authors of more mischievous and seditious Libels against Princes than all Parties in Europe beside such as Buchanans Book de Iure Regni apud Scotos Vindiciae contra Tyrannos de Iure Magistratus in subditos Eusebius Philadelphus not to mention that numberless swarm of shameless Pamphlets that were produced in our late debauch't and corrupted times 'T is enough that they have broach't more seditious Aphorisms in an hundred years than had been before discover'd from the beginning of days And there is a larger Collection of Treason in Archbishop Bancroft's dangerous Positions the Evangelium Armatum and the late Discourse of Toleration discussed than can be gather'd out of the Histories and Records of all former Ages But from Practices we proceeded to such Principles as are not by any means to be endured in any Commonwealth because they carry in them an apparent tendency to the destruction of all Government and the dissolution of all Society The first is the Fundamental Pretence of all godly Sedition and is a direct and immediate affront to the Power of Princes viz. That if they refuse to reform Religion themselves 't is lawful for their godly Subjects to do it and that by violence and force of Arms. This has been the great Nuissance of reformed Christendom it over-run the Foreign Reformation with popular Tumults and Outrages and put the Boors and Rascal multitude every where in Arms against the Edicts of State All Preachers and Leaders of Sedition have combined their Faction by virtue of this Principle and all the sub-divided Sects that at present annoy the Publick Peace have unanimously agreed both in its belief and practice And all the other Aphorisms of disturbance that have been peculiar to each Party are but so many ways of reducing and applying this general Maxim to particular Interests But though our Author has with great care and curiosity transcribed all the other Assertions that I impleaded of Sedition yet this though it was the first and the greatest Principle in the Catalogue he industriously stifles and lops it off from the following
Articles of my Charge He cares not to have it observed because he neither dares justifie it nor will renounce it It has and may again by Providential Alterations do brave service for the separate Churches but 't is so apparently inconsistent with the establish't setlement of things that it can never safely be owned but when it may safely be used and therefore 't is more politick to let it lie dormant and unregarded till opportunity shall call it forth to Action And let us upbraid them never so much with its mischievous and noisom consequences 't is their wisest course still to counterfeit an artificial deafness and not to understand its meaning till they may own it to some more effectual purpose What other probable Reason can you imagine why he should so carefully pass it over in silence whilst he so faithfully relates all the other particulars of my Impeachments He cannot have forgotten how oft some body has proclaimed it from the Pulpit in a thousand dresses and varieties of Canting 't is the Result of all his Preachments in behalf of the Proceedings in the late Rebellion and what is more unhappy it has been all along publickly owned and pleaded by the Chiefs both of the Presbyterian and Independent Factions and never yet that I could hear or read of once disavowed by any and therefore though I charged it not upon any Party but only branded the Principle it self this advantage this man has gain'd to his Brethren by his rashness and presumption that it shall lie at their doors till they shall remonstrate to it by some publick Protestation § 3. The other Articles that I chose to specifie among many other were these three that Princes in case of Disobedience to the Presbytery may be excommunicated and by consequence deposed that Dominion is founded in Grace and that to pursue success though in Villany and Rebellion is to follow Providence But all the World says Modesty knows what it is that hath given him the advantage of providing a covering for these monstrous Fictions and an account thereof hath been given elsewhere And what now if those intended do not believe these things nor any one of them What if they do openly disavow every one of them as for ought I ever heard or know they do and as I do my self These monstrous Fictions so are all the Histories and Records in the World Were there never any Sects of men that placed a Power in the Presbytery to excommunicate Princes or that challenged an Exemption from the Commands of Authority upon the score of their Saintship or that taught Success to be a certain Argument of Divine Approbation Did you never hear of such Creatures as Presbyterians Anabaptists and Independents Were there never any such men in the World as Iohn Knox Iohn of Leyden and I. O? Or are all the Stories that are recorded of them fairy-tales and Romances If they are not these things are as far from being monstrous fictions as any thing upon Record in the four Gospels But an account of these things has been given elsewhere Perhaps so among the Antiquities of China or in Lucians true History And a wise and true account it is no doubt that shall undertake to prove there never were any People in the World that have abetted these Principles And 't is hugely sutable to his following Apology that if any may heretofore have owned them yet for ought he knows they have openly disavowed them But this is pure and burnish'd confidence to bear down certain and undeniable matters of Fact with a flat denial a peremptory Perhaps Did I ever imagine I should be put to prove there have been men in the World that have own'd and acted these Principles or to disprove the Reality of a publick Repentance never heard of This mans insufferable Perverseness would vanquish the Patience of an Arch-Angel he cares not what he says so the cause go forward and he would deny that Abraham begot Isaac if it stood in his way And if he should it would not be a greater Violence to Truth or Affront to Modesty than this Attempt to clear some men from the guilt of these Perswasions But still what if those intended do not believe these things Then good Sir Pertinent they are not intended I named no body but only enquired upon this supposition that if heretofore there has been or hereafter there should arise such a Race of men in the World whether the Belief of a Deity and the dread of Invisible Powers blended with such innocent Propositions were likely to secure their due Obedience and Respect to Authority or rather to drive them to attempts of disturbance and sedition when they thought themselves obliged under the most dreadful Penalties to act sutably to their Principles And therefore I intended none but those that either actually have been or possibly may be guilty without naming or specifying any particular Criminals Though indeed the matters of fact are so notorious that upon bare Intimation every man has knowledge and sagacity enough to discover the Offenders and they themselves are so conscious of the Notoreity of the Crime that as it happens in the Excuses of all Enormous Malefactors they cannot avoid to bewray their own guilt by their own Apologies unless this be sufficient to clear their Innocence and their Reputation that for ought any body knows they have publickly repented which if they had every body must certainly have known it Whatsoever disorders they have run into in pursuit of these Principles yet if the boldest and most scandalous offender in the whole Mutiny shall come forth and with a bare-faced confidence tell his Governours that perhaps and for ought he knows they have forsaken them they immediately become loyal and peaceable Subjects and must be supposed as white as Snow and as harmless as Doves But to particulars The first Article then falls directly upon the men of the holy Discipline who challenge to themselves an original and independent Jurisdiction over all Persons and in all matters of Ecclesiastical Concernment so that though they acknowledge themselves subject to the Power of Kings in civil and secular Affairs yet in the Government of the Church and conduct of Religion the temporal Power is subject to the spiritual and Princes must submit to the sovereign Decrees of the Presbytery and therefore in case of disobedience to their Authority they are as obnoxious as any of their Subjects to the Censure of the Church and the Sentence of Excommunication This in brief is the true Platform of the Discipline publickly owned by all its Patrons and Assertors and whoever does not vest the Classical Meetings with a Supremacy over Kings in Ecclesiastical Government is no true Disciplinarian when 't is the only design of the Discipline to put the Scepter of Jesus Christ into the hands of the Presbytery i e. to strip the secular Authority of all spiritual Jurisdiction and to settle it entirely upon spiritual
and as to this particular business of the Scots they speak thus When they i. e. Papists Clergy and other Enemies of Religion conceived the way sufficiently prepared they at last resolved to put on their Master-piece in Scotland where the same method had been followed and more boldly unmask themselves in imposing upon them a Popish Service-Book for well they knew the same Fate attended both Kingdoms and Religion could not be altered in one without the other God raised the Spirits in that Nation to oppose it with so much zeal and indignation that it kindled such a flame as no expedient could be found but a Parliament here to quench it i. e. By hiring and tempting them to a new Rebellion at the price of one hundred thousand Pound beside the reward of Pay and Plunder for the common Souldiers the promise of Church-Revenues for the chief Promoters of the service the sacrifice of the Archbishop of Canterbury to their malice and revenge and what was most likely to endear the Cause the Reformation of the Discipline and Worship of the Church of England by the Model of the Kirk of Scotland that absolute Pattern of a thorough godly Rebellion Again The Declaration of Lords and Commons March 2. orders this Kingdom to be put in a posture of defence by Sea and Land because there was a design by those in greatest Authority about the King for the altering of Religion That the Scottish War was fomented and the Irish Rebellion framed for that purpose That they had Advertisements from Venice and Paris and Rome that the King was to have four thousand men out of France and Spain which could be to no other end than to change his own Profession and the Publick Religion of the Kingdom In the 19 Propositions sent Iune 2. 1642. the eighth is this That your Majesty will be pleased to consent that such a Reformation be made of the Church-Government and Liturgy as both Houses of Parliament shall advise c. And the 17th That the King should enter into a more strict Alliance with the Protestant Princes and States for the defence of the Protestant Religion against the Attempts of the Pope and his Adherents And the Propositions made by Lords and Commons Iune 10. 1642. for bringing in Money and Plate to maintain Horse and Arms runs upon this ground first That Religion else will be destroyed and this is particularly recommended to all those that tender their Religion And when the King countermanded the Propositions they re-inforce them by the endearments of Religion And Tuesday 12 Iuly 1642. resolve it upon the Question That an Army be forthwith raised for its defence and preservation Their Declaration of Aug. 8. 1642. grounds its self upon this That the Kings Army was raised for the Oppression of the true Religion And therefore they give this account to the World for a satisfaction to all Men of the Justice of their proceedings and a warning to those who are involved in the same danger with them to let them see the necessity and duty which lies upon them to save themselves their Religion and Country Where they tell us at large and in great passion That Papists ambitious and discontented Clergy-men Delinquents and ill-affected persons of the Nobility and Gentry have conspired together and often attempted the alteration of Religion c. That all was subject to will and power that so mens minds being made poor and base and their Liberties lost and gone they might be ready to let go their Religion whensoever it should be resolved to alter it which was and still is the great design and all else made use of but as instrumentary and subservient to it And then after an horrible harangue about the King and Queens going away the Lord Digby's Letter the Members going to York c. They the Papists Prelates c. come to crown their work and put that in execution which was first in their intention that is the changing of Religion into Popery and Superstition The Scots in answer to a Declaration sent them by their Commissioners at London from the two Houses did Aug. 3. 1642. return another wherein they give God thanks for their former and present desires of a Reformation especially of Religion which is the glory and strength of a Kingdom c. Protest that their hearts were heavy and made sad that what is more dear and precious to them than what is dearest to them in the whole World the Reformation of Religion has moved so slowly To which they add that 't is indeed a work full of difficulties but God is greater than the World and when the supreme Providence giveth opportunity of the accepted time and the day of salvation no other work can prosper in the hands of his Servants if it be not apprehended and with all faithfulness improved This Kirk and Nation when the Lord gave them the calling considered not their own deadness nor staggered at the Promise of an hundred thousand Pound through unbelief but gave glory to God And who knoweth but the Lord hath now some Controversie with England which will not be removed till first and before all the Worship of his Name and the Government of his House be setled according to his own will when this desire shall come it shall be to England after so long desired hopes a tree of life And therefore they proceed to press earnestly for an Uniformity in both Kingdoms but it must be after their own model What hopes say they can there be of Unity in Religion in one Confession of Faith one form of Worship one Catechism till there be first one form of Ecclesiastical Government yea what hope can the Kingdom and Kirk of Scotland have of a durable Peace till Prelacy be pluckt up Root and Branch as a Plant which God hath not planted and from which no better Fruits can be expected than such sowre Grapes as this day set on edge the Kingdom of England In answer to this goodly Declaration the Lords and Commons desire it may be considered that that Party which has now incensed and armed his Majesty against us is the very same which not long since upon the very same design of rooting out the Reformed Religion did endeavour to begin the Tragedy in Scotland c. And having thanked the Assembly of the Church of Scotland for proposing those things which may unite the two Churches and Nations against Popery and all superstitious Sects and Innovations whatsoever do assure that they have thereupon resumed into their Consideration the matters concerning the Reformation of Church-Government and Discipline which say they we have often had in consultation and debate since the beginning of this Parliament and ever made it our chiefest aim though we have been powerfully opposed in the Prosecution and Accomplishment of it And in another Declaration to the Convention of Estates they remonstrate that the honourable Houses have fully
and govern all the Designs of the Princes of Christendom And his Mandates and Decretal Epistles must ever be flying about into all Parts and Provinces and when any doubt or difficulty arose away to Geneva to consult the Oracle that always return'd his Answers with the Confidence and Authority of an Apostle And thus did this hot and eager Man bear down all before him by the boldness of his Nature to attempt and indefatigable vehemence of his Spirit to prosecute what he had once attempted till he made himself at once both Pope and Emperour of the greatest part of the Reformed World All his Dictates were Articles of Faith and all his Censures Anathema's and every dissent from his least important and most unwarrantable Principles was Heresie and every Heresie capital and damnable All Schemes and Models of Truth were coin'd in his Name and warranted by his Authority it was his Decree that stampt them Orthodox and no Opinion that did not bear his Image and Superscription might pass for current Divinity And whoever was so hardy or so unhappy as to oppose himself to this bold and insolent Usurpation or but to demur upon the Infallibility of his Determinations he was immediately assaulted with Volleys of Anathema's and they pour'd upon him showres of Invectives and hated Names and he was shunn'd like Infection and dreaded as the Pest and Plague of the Reformed Communion and if they wanted power to persecute him with Fire and Faggot they would kill him with Noises and Anathema's And thus has this man and his followers intricated the way to Heaven with their own new Labyrinths and wild turnings trifling Questions and uncertain talkings they have smother'd and buried the Truths of God under the superstructures of their own foolish Inventions they have blended their own dreams and Visions with the Divine Oracles and then require the same Assent to their ill-spun Systems and Hypotheses as to the inspired Writings of St. Paul and obtrude pure non-sense and contradictious Blasphemies upon our Belief with as much rigour and boisterous zeal as the most indispensable Truths of the Gospel requiring as confident an Assent to the black Doctrine of irrespective Reprobation as to our Saviours Death and Resurrection and making it as necessary a point of Faith to believe that the Almighty thrust innumerable myriads of Souls into Being only to sport himself in their endless and unspeakable Tortures as that he sent his own Son into the world to dye for the Redemption of mankind Nay this they stick not to discard and disavow for its inconsistency with the Hypothesis of absolute Decrees This is the Fundamental Article of their Creed and all other points of Divinity must be so modell'd as to suit and accommodate themselves to this Foundation of their Faith And thus in most places did the design of Reformation degenerate into a furious Zeal for the Calvinian Rigours the seeds of which Doctrine have produced nothing but thorns and briars of Contention that have eaten out the life and power of true Religion and make men barren in every thing but discords and disputations The woful effects whereof are visible in most Foreign Churches where Piety is exchanged for Orthodoxy and Devotion for speculation where their Religion is a zeal for a Scheme of Opinions and their Learning an Ability to maintain them § 13. But in the setling or modelling of our Reformation by the Providence of God and our Governours this mans assistance was refused and his advice rejected they understood him too well to admit him into their Counsels and resolved to keep up close to their first design of reforming the Church to the Apostolical simplicity Though afterward this Doctrine took root here by the industry of some zealous youths that had been train'd up at the feet of that great Gamaliel and return'd home Seminary Priests of the Calvinian Theology This was the only errand and design of Whittingham Travers Cartwright and others and the only original of all the Schisms and disturbances that have ever since infested the Church of England was the unseasonable zeal of these men to reduce its Doctrine and Discipline to the platform of Geneva And though they were immediately check't in their attempt upon the Discipline that they thought good to assault with fierce and open Violence yet as for the leaven of their Doctrine they insensibly spred and conveyed it into the minds of their Disciples and it grew and prosper'd mightily in all places because as it was cultivated with much zeal and water'd with much preaching so was it not encountred with any publick opposition the Church not having declared it self positively in any thing but against the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome and as for all the other Disputes of Christendom she contrived the Articles of her Communion with that prudence and moderation as to take in all men of whatsoever different Perswasions in other matters into her bosom and protection She embraced Trojans and Tyrians with equal Favour and would not wed her self to the narrow Interests of a Party nor determine all the quarrels and differences of disputing men No she left them to the Liberty of their own Opinions only reserving to her self a power to quash and silence their Disputes for the ends of Peace and Government But this moderation was too cool for these warm and hot-headed men they thought it not enough for the honour of Mr. Calvin and therefore resolved to declare themselves expresly for him in defiance to all other Doctors and Heads of Parties But the Pulpits must make good this and they are resolved to make good the Pulpits and therefore they make them and the People to groan with nothing but the continual noise of Decrees and the depths of Election and Reprobation were always ratling and thundering in their ears The whole Circle of their preaching and practical Divinity was reduced to Calvin's Interpretation of the ninth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans And when they had scared and astonish'd the People into an admiration of these gloomy Mysteries nothing will satisfie their restless heads unless they may be voted the Doctrine of the Church and the cause of the Reformation And all the men of the first moderation must be branded for Apostates and the People let loose to rail at them as Papists or under some other hated name that they abhorr'd but did not understand And this is the Interpretation of our Authors malicious suggestion of his being aggrieved to observe such evident declerisions from the first establish't Reformation towards the old or a new and it may be worse Apostasie such an apparent weariness of the principal doctrines and practices which enlivened the Reformation i. e. A wicked schismatical Relapse to Popish Arminian Errors an Apostasie from the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches to worship the old Pelagian Idol Free-will with the new Goddess Contingency or an halting between Iehovah and Baal Christ and Antichrist admitting the Belgick
Semipelagians into the Communion of our Church and joyning with a Spanish Plot by opposing the Calvinists to reduce the people again to Popery all which are the Methods of Satan and the Designs of some who sit aloft in the Temple of God to hew at the very roots of Christianity As I. O. expresses himself in the Preface to his Display of Arminianism Yes no doubt it was the great design of our first Reformers to state as he has done the order and succession of eternal Decrees to reconcile a fatal and irresistible determination of our Actions with the Liberty of our Wills to account for the consistency of the Decree of irrespective Reprobation of the greatest part of mankind with the Truth and the Goodness of God when he so plainly protests he would not any should perish but that all should come to repentance and to set up a secret and reserved will in God in defiance to his revealed will and then make it consistent with the honour of his Attributes to profess one thing and at the same time resolve another It was no doubt their Zeal for these weighty and fundamental Truths that was the avowed cause of their Protestations against the Church of Rome and those great Prelates that first arose to that great Attempt chose to fall Martyrs to the cause only to justifie their own absolute Election and to prove the Impossibility of their Relapse from Grace And among Mr. Foxes wooden Cuts we find many Pictures of Martyrs for the supralapsarian way and the chain that tied them to the Stake was no doubt the noose of Election and the Label that hangs out at their mouths the decretal Sentence So that they that will not burn and broil for these Fundamental Articles of the Geneva Zeal are the Iulians and Apostates from the Protestant Faith the Popes or the Devils Instruments as our Author speaks to betray us to the old or a new and it may be a worse Apostasie Men may mince the matter and pretend only a dislike of the Doctrine of Reprobation but alas who knows not this to be the Serpents subtilty wherever she gets in her head she will wriggle in her whole body sting and all give but the least Admission to these Heterodoxies and the whole poison must be swallowed This Apostasie from the single Article of Reprobation unavoidably brings in the whole body of Popish-Arminian Errors And therefore whoever offends but in this particular is absolutely fall'n from the Catholick Faith and the Orthodox Doctrine of the Church of England and then he has pronounced his Doom and pronounced him uncapable of our Church-Communion Admirable Doctrine this for a Patron of Indulgence not to endure a Poor man that dares not dogmatize in the mysteries of Reprobation but to deliver him up without mercy or any sense of Compassion to the exterminating Censures and Anathema's of the Church and what was then more dreadful the Parliament too Thus you see what are the Articles of these mens Zeal and Orthodoxy and by what Doctrines and Principles they take their measure of Reformation making a Rigour in the Calvinian Tenets the only estimate of the Purity of Churches So that because we are willing to clear our Church from the Incumbrance and Incroachment of these innovations and are resolved not to trouble our selves with abetting the modern Controversies and Mushrome Sects of Christendom but to stick fast to the wisdom and moderation of the first design of returning to the antient and unblended Doctrines of Christianity And are therefore careful in our discourses and representations of Religion to avoid all new and unwarrantable mixtures and to represent the Truths of the Gospel with the same simplicity as we should have done before these Novelties were started in the World For this are we taxed by these Imperious Dogmatists of perfidious Designs to betray the Protestant Cause and to return back to the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome and the People must be alarm'd and confounded with hideous Outcries against Popery and Babylon Spanish Plots and Jesuitical Designs and then must they stand upon their Guard and nothing must asswage their Choler but an humble submission to their sturdy humour They must not attend to any Articles of Agreement or Overtures of Pacification and mutual Forbearance and unless we will declare our Assent and Consent to all the curious and perplex'd Opinions of their Sect they will hear of no other Conditions of Peace and there is no Remedy but we must part Communion They must as I. O. speaks proclaim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an holy War to such Enemies of Gods Providence This is hard measure but yet such as was strictly meted out without a grain of Allowance not only by the Rigid Presbyterians but the Indulgent Tryers those Patriots of our Christian Liberty those renowned subverters of Ecclesiastical Tyranny Now there can be nothing more mischievous or intolerable in any Church or Common-wealth then these peremptory Dictators of Truth and profest Masters of Polemick Skill they are so exact and curious in their own Speculations and impose them with that severity upon the Consent of Mankind and by consequence require such hard and impracticable Conditions of Agreement and Church-Communion as must unavoidably break any society of men into Factions and Parties For what so vain as to expect an Unity of Judgment in such a multitude of uncertain and undeterminable Opinions And therefore those men that stand with such an unyielding and inflexible stiffness upon the admittance of their own Conceits make all reconcilements impossible and all ruptures incurable Every little Opinion must make a great Schism and the bounds of Churches must be as nicely determined as the Points of a Dutch-Compass Their bodies of Orthodoxy are as vast and voluminous as Aquinas Sums and they have drawn infinite numbers of wanton and peevish Questions into the Articles of their Belief and now when they have swoln up their Faith to such a mighty bulk and refined it to such a delicate subtlety 't is unavoidable but that this must perpetuate Disputes and Divisions to all eternity And for this reason it is that these perverse and imperious Asserters are the most insufferable sort of men in any Christian Commonwealth in that they are such incorrigible enemies to peace and are so good for nothing else but to raise disturbances and contentions in the Church So that though we should suppose Liberty of Religion to be the common and natural Right of mankind yet these Persons apparently forfeit all their Claims and Pretences to it not only because their principles are directly repugnant to the quiet of States and Kingdoms but because they invade other mens rights and offer violence to their Neighbours just Liberties And so cast themselves into the condition of Out-laws and Banditi that once indeed had a natural Right of Protection from the Government under which they were born but if they will not submit to the