Laws of God and Man just as they suit his Interest and his Inclination to make the Scriptures a Nose of Wax and the King and Church meer Heads of Wood and since the reason of Obedience is because we think it truth which is Commanded and that they who Command are better able to Judge for us than we our selves as being by God appointed over us for that Design should they be mistaken in what they Command yet the Judge of all the Earth who cannot do wrong would be so far from punishing that he would reward such Obedience because done according to his Command Nor shall the other for Commanding because they did it with a good Design provided when it does appear to them to be of ill consequence they cease to impose it any longer which is the true reason why many things in the service of God have been altered and abolished upon several Occasions THIRDLY It will be objected That by this Rule all the Gallicane German and other Protestant Churches who live under a Government which owns and Commands the Romish Discipline and Church will hereby be made Schismaticks to those several National Churches of which they are Members and that hereby a necessity is laid upon us to return to the Obedience of the Church of Rome for if those Churches may dissent from their National Churches and yet hold the true Faith why may not we why should their Disobedience be Lawful and ours Damnable To this I answer First That the Difference between those Churches and the National Church in which they are does not consist in Matters of Circumstance or Ceremony but in Matters of Faith and though I will neither undertake the Defence of those Churches either in Doctrine or Discipline yet I suppose they separate from the Roman Communion upon the account of the Impositions of that Church in Points of Faith such as are the Popes Supremacy never owned in France even by the Catholiques the Doctrines of Infallibility the real Presence by Transubstantiation Merit of Works and Supererogation Invocation of Saints Purgatory Adoration of Images c. and the Roman Church who imposes these as Articles of Faith is her self Schismatical if not Heretical from the Catholique Apolique Church of all Ages and therefore to depart from her where she departs from Truth is no more Heresie or Schism than it would be to depart from the Law of Moses or the Jewish Communion in Circumcision c. or of Mahomet if those were imposed as Matters of Faith by that or any other Church for the Apostles Rule holds good to the End of the World for all Christians in Matters of Faith and Manners Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ 1 Cor. 11.1 And would the Romish Church Impose no more upon Christians as necessary to Salvation than is contained in those three famous Creeds of the Apostles Nice and St. Athanasius and what is clearly contained in Scripture which have ever been the Standards of the Catholique Faith I think every good Christian over whom they may challenge a Lawful Jurisdiction ought to joyn with them in Communion of Government and even those over whom they can rightly challenge none ought yet to agree with them in the Communion of Faith Nay should they command many Ceremonies in the Service of God more than they do yet those who live in the Jurisdiction of that Church ought to submit to them for the maintaining of Unity Peace and Charity and I doubt not but the Foreign Protestants at least in Charity I hope so if there were no other matters of Difference between them would easily be perswaded to submit to all the Points of Government Ceremony and much more I remember what a Famous French Minister said to this Purpose when he was told that some of the English Nonconformists refused Communion with the Church of England because they were Enjoyned to wear the Surplice and other Vestments I wish says he that the King of France would command me to perform my Function in a Fools Coat so little did he think the outside and dress of Religion to be of the Essence of it and so necessary did he judge Obedience as well as true Faith to the Peace Unity and Happiness of the Church BUT Secondly Many of those Protestants have Licence and Tolleration given them to Celebrate the Worship and Service of God according to their own Way and by that Dispensation they are free from the guilt of Disobedience to the Civil Magistrate and for the Obedience they owe to the Church of Rome I presume they are willing to give it with all their hearts if Rome Exacted no more in matters of Faith than God Almighty requires as necessary to Salvation BUT the Case is clearly different betwixt our Dissenters and the Foreign Protestants for our Differences are or at least are pretended to be about matters of Polity and the Manner of performance of the Offices of Religion and let the Nonconformists prove us but Guilty of destroying one Article of Faith or imposing any thing to be believed or done contrary to the Scriptures and let them dissent from us in Gods Name and till they can do that their Separation will be a horrid Schism and their Nonconformity a manifest Disobedience to the Laws of God and Men. And should the Foreign Churches refuse the Communion of the Church of Rome and disobey the Princes whose Subjects they are commanding them if there were no greater Differences than Matters of Ceremony and Circumstance I doubt not but their Separation and Disobedience would deserve the same Character BUT supposing the Supreme Power of those Countries should absolutely prohibit the Protestants the exercise of their Religion I think they ought to obey and fall to the Old Arms of the Primitive Christians Prayers and Tears and not to the new Methods of Manaces making Parties and endeavouring by force of Arms to obtain that from Authority by Violence and Compulsion which they cannot by Perswasion A Practice shameful to the Protestant Cause and for any thing I can see if they Judg of all by the Example of our Dissenters more likely to perswade all Princes to Extirpate them out of their Dominions for Seditious Schismaticks and Dangerous Rebells than to Tollerate them as Innocent and Religious Christians THIS was the Custom of the Ancient Christians who Conquered more by the Cross than the Persecutors by all their Cruelty who overcame by Suffering and not by Rebelling A remarkable Instance of which we have in the Army of Julian the Apostate who were obedient to him as their Temporal Soveraign so long as he liv'd but after he had jested out his impious Soul with a Vicistî Galilaee and that Jovinianus was chosen Emperor which he refused as being a Christian and thinking the whole Army Pagans they all cried out Et nos sumus Christiani We are all of us also Christians Here were men in Arms a Powerful Number of Veterane and Victorious Legions
Imprimatur Hic Liber cui Titulus The Project of Peace c. June 12. 1678. Guill Sill R. P. D. Henr. Episc Lond. à Sac. Dom. THE Project of Peace OR UNITY of FAITH AND GOVERNMENT The only Expedient to Procure PEACE BOTH Foreign and Domestique AND To PRESERVE these NATIONS From the DANGER OF Popery and Arbitrary Tyranny By the Author of the Countermine Is there no Balm in Gilead No Physician there Si penés singulos Jus Arbitrium erit Judicandi nihil certi constitui poterit quin potius vacillabit tota Religio Cal. Inst London Printed for Jonathan Edwin at the Sign of the Three Roses in Ludgate-street 1678. TO THE DISSENTERS FROM THE Church of ENGLAND OF WHAT NAMES or DISTINCTIONS SOEVER AS it is very Possible that nothing will be less Welcome to you than these Papers so contrary both to your Inclinations and what you believe your Interest So it may be nothing is less customary than Dedications of this Nature But since I neither propose to my self the Hopes of any Patrons Beneficence nor can submit to such unmanly Complyances as are usually the Effects of such Hopes and Expectations I have rather chosen to Address my self to you where even the Hope of a Charitable Reception is scarcely to be hoped for as the Reward of my Charity And where the Flattery of Swelling Hyperboles would prove as false and unsuccessful to me as to Millions who have made large promises to themselves of Recompences and Gratifications for that Gentiler way of Begging And of all the World it would be most Pernicious to You who have been too long accustomed to your own and the dangerous Flatteries of your Party There is nothing that is at all times more Welcome to the World than Peace Pacem te poscimus Omnes But most Men would be Conquerors and oblige the World by giving it upon their own Terms And there are but few who will be content to receive it as Christians upon God's Terms and Conditions Here I have endeavoured to Manifest the true Foundations of a solid and a lasting Peace Which are Faith Vnity Government and Obedience to the Laws of God and Men. A Peace capable of rendring the Vniverse Happy and any particular Society of Men prosperous here and Glorious hereafter in the Peaceful Regions of Joy and Immortality I am not ignorant of your Plea of Zeal and Sufferings But must the Church of England be allowed nothing for hers Has not She by your means been forced to drink the very dregs of your Animosity whilest like the Children of Edom in the day of her Calamity You cryed Down with her Psal 137.8 Down with her even to the ground Did you ever suffer such Persecution from Her as She has suffered from you Whose Zeal therefore or Afflictions must intitle them to the Character of the truer Church Would you Establish the Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth So would She only with this Difference that what you would effect by the Rude Method of Force and Violence the Power of the Sword She labours to do by the Power of Perswasion and the Spirit of Meekness as her Treatment of you now She is in Power so far from Retaliation or Revenge does abundantly testifie to the Shame of your former Cruelty and present Obstinacy and endeavours to compass and effect her Ruine Is She therefore Criminal for endeavouring that Lawfully which you would and do and as you perswade the World are bound in Conscience to do Per fas Nefas either Lawfully or Unlawfully it matters not is not the same Obligation of Conscience and far greater and a truer Conscience upon her And if one must be satisfied whose rather Hers which is True and properly Conscience or yours which is only your Private and uncertain Opinion clothed with that Venerable Name Your Way of Establishing this Worship has been notoriously guilty of Rebellion Disorders Confusion and many Evil Works The Civil State of Affairs has been ruin'd and overturn'd Houses have been made Desolate and left without Inhabitant Churches have been robbed defaced abused demolished Holy things set apart and dedicated to the Service of God and so made Holy have been prophaned The Church of England is innocent of any such Crimes The infamous Brand of Rebellion Sedition Tumults Sacriledg or Rapine were never burnt upon her hand She indeavours to prevent this for the Present and the Future by teaching all men their just Duty towards God and towards Man and obliges them to the Performance of it You call this Persecution and Hate her for it This may be Zeal in you but it is not according to the knowledg of God She imposes some Methods and certain Directions in their own Nature confessedly indifferent only in order and with no other Design than for Decency avoiding Confusion and to bring all Christians to maintain the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace You refuse these Means and therefore the Great End of Christian Religion and Religion it self You prefer your own Way and Means before Hers and by Obstructing Peace pretend that her Impositions are inconducive to those Excellent Ends when as in Truth it is not their want of Efficacious aptness but your want of Will and your traversing them by an obstinate Disobedience that frustrates their desired Effects You quarrel her Commands and call them Traditions of Men and Will-Worship when in reality yours is so And it is perfectly because you are not permitted to have your own Wills in the Worship of God that makes you Accuse Her of what you are most horribly guilty of your selves She appoints nothing but what is agreeable to the Will and Word of God and the Primitive Usage of the Church You term those Determinations Antichristian Popish Superstitious As if God Almighty whose Word and Rules She follows where he does not please your Humour or suit your Interest or Designs were Popishly inclined As if the Scriptures in declaring for Episcopacy were Antichristian As if the best and purest Ages of the Church and the whole Succession of Saints and Martyrs were Superstitious Because many of them Bishops and all of them Worshipping God at least as to the Main according to Her Way and Method Whereas it is you that are Popish while you endeavour to Obtrude upon us your own Infallibility It is you who are Antichristian who ruine the Foundation of all Christianity Faith Government a Catholique Church Obedience Charity and Unity It is you who are Superstitious if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a needless Fear of any thing in Religion be Superstition whilest you start at an Innocent Rite as if it were a Goblin And for fear of a Ceremony run from the Church as if it were hanted with Evil Spirits And though you strain as if you were afraid of being Choak't at these Gnats yet you can swallow the Camel of plain and barefac't Disobedience That goes smoothly over your Palate being gilded over
with the Title of Religion You call Rebellion Reformation Schism and Separation Godliness Division from the Church Communion and Union with God You put Darkness for Light and Worship the blackest Crimes and Vices in the habit of Vertue Piety and true Religon Thus whilest you spie the Moat in your Mothers Eyes and would pull that and them too out to make her see clearly you never consider the Beam that is in your own And whilest you Vehemently accuse others of Worshipping God in vain according to the Traditions of Men you never regard how you make the Commandments of God of no Effect by your Traditions Matt. 15.6 God says Honour the King and thou shalt not speak Evil of the Ruler of thy People Obey Magistrates c. Your Traditions say Dishonour him by Disobedience Insinuate Jealousies and evil Surmisings concerning him and his Government Your Actions are a thousand Tongues and every Tongue a Trumpet to Proclaim your thoughts And however with your Lips you may pretend to honour the King and with your Mouths to draw near to God your Heart is in reality far from both Your Will is your God the Idol of your Heart which you set up and Worship For what I pray is your way of Worship but Tradition from the Heads of your Party Is there ever a Word in Scripture for your long Extempore Prayers full not of Tolerabiles ineptiae with which Calvin charges our Liturgy but of Intollerable Tautologies vain Repetitions rash Expressions and indigested Matter Christ is Positive against them Use them not says he as the Heathens who think to be heard for their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their much speaking The Wise King who had Survey'd all the Vanities of the World makes this not only a Vanity Eccl. 5.1 2. but a dangerous Rashness and a Sacrifice of Fools And yet you use it commend and applaud it as the only way pleasing and acceptable to God Is the Scripture clear that there ought to be no Bishops in the Church Or that Lay-Elders who understand neither Sense nor it may be English and in some places who cannot write their Name should yet be impowered to Define and Determine in Matters of Faith Are you any where forbidden to wear a Surplice or to use the Sign of the Cross or to bury Christians in hope of Charity and Resurrection to Eternal Life Or to pray in set and appointed Words which is true praying by the Spirit when we pray with understanding also knowing what will be said If these be not Gods Commands or Prohibitions they are Yours and if they are not in Scripture as I am sure they are not they are not only the Commandments and Traditions of Men but of Men who have no Power to Command or Impose the most indifferent thing And yet you perswade all Men every where that they owe Obedience to these forgetting that God is to be Obeyed rather than Men and that he commands you to Obey those that have the Rule over you If you will be Followers of God as Dear Children you must if it be possible and as much as in you lies be Followers of Peace with all Men much more with your Superiors both in Church and State But this is very possible for you to do And that it is not only Possible but Honest and Necessary and your Duty the Ensuing Papers will plainly inform you To them therefore I refer you they were designed for you And if you will Esteem me your Enemy because I tell you the Truth without Flattery Interest or Partiality yet I had rather be so Esteemed than be so in Reality by Skinning over your Festred Gangreen with words smooth as Oyl Whereas in Truth it ought to be laid open to prevent the further Eating of the Canker And this is the only way that I know to approve my self to be Your most Affectionate And real Friend The Contents CHAP. I. The INTRODVCTION CHAP. II. OF the Obstacles of Truth and Peace The necessity of removing them before we can obtain the other The great value all men have for Truth and for Imposture under its Name The first Obstacle Self Interest of its prevalency upon Jews Pagans Mahumetans the Romish Church and all Dissenters p. 10 CHAP. III. Of the second Obstacle to Peace Truth and Vnity Prejudice and Prepossession of Mind The Nature and Effects of Prejudice Of Ceremonies The reason why hated Of the meaning of the word Ceremony Some Ceremonies absolutely necessary in all Religious Worship All not Popery which Papists do Of Education and Custom how they are the Foundation of Prejudices p. 25 CHAP. IV. Of Pride and Ambition most dangerous Obstacles of Truth and Peace because Vices of Temper and Inclination The Difficulty of subduing these sins of Complexion Religion made their usual disguise The danger of them manifested in a short Character of Oliver Cromwell Of the danger of these in Church-men The Methods of such Persons as are infected with them to advance themselves to dignity A way to discover such fiery spirits from the Peacable spirit of Christianity p. 40 CHAP. V. Of the necessity of Vnion That the only way to Establish Happiness in any Nation The Intent of Religion the Happiness of Mankind here in this Life as well as in a future state That the truest Religion which advances this great Intention for which God gave it Of the true Church Of degrees of Purity in Churches Of the Seven Churches of Asia Distinction and Coordination of National Churches proved Faith the Common Bond of Vnion in the Catholique Church Of the Independency of National Churches one from another in point of Limits and Jurisdiction How the Peace of the Church Vniversal is thereby preserved p. 64. CHAP. VI. Objections against the Independency or Co-ordination of National Churches Why it cannot be admitted in several Churches in the same Nation It takes away the Power and Soveraignty of the Prince It is the Ruin of the Society Of the Foreign Protestant Churches The reason of their Disunion from Rome matter of Faith not of Ceremony only or of Government p. 78. CHAP. VII Of Vnity in Government that it is the bond of a National Church as Vnity in Faith is of the Catholique The Practice of the Primitive Church Of the Difference about Easter The Opinion of Irenaeus Bishop of Lions about it A National Church an intire Polity of Christian Men. The Laws of the Church and State mutual and recipocral design the same End viz. the Happiness of the Society Disobedience to either is so to both All Society as well as Happiness destroyed by Disunion The necessity of Vnity in Government upon a Religious account No Charity without it and without Charity no Religion p. 96. CHAP. VIII Of the Power of the Keys by Excommunication and Absolution How render'd impracticable by Tollerating many Churches in the same Nation Of the Decay of Christian Piety That and the Growth of Errors must lye at the
dore of Separatists and Schismaticks who by frustrating this Power render it contemptible and set open the dore to all Impiety and Atheism p. 122. CHAP. IX Of the Necessity of Vnity in point of Government as well as Faith in a National Church upon the account of Civil Policy Such Vnity the Design of all Religion in Reference to Humane Society No Happiness without it Government appointed by God with an Intention to promote this Design and therefore Disobedience a damnable sin p. 149 CHAP. X. A further discovery of the Impolitickness of Disunion in point of Church Government No Domestique Peace to be hoped for without it but perpetual Quarrels under pretence of Religion and Conscience The Rise and Spring of Fears and Jealousies from the several Interests of Dissenters p. 165 CHAP. XI The mischief of Disunion in respect of Foreign Affairs It Weakens any Nation and Exposes them to the Arms of their Enemies Robs them of their Alliances and Confederations Interest and Mutual Support the Foundation of all Leagues Different Churches in the same Nation incline People to Democracy p. 190 CHAP. XII Of Tolleration Some Animadversions upon a Book intituled The Advocate of Conscience Liberty in reference to all Dissenters p. 203 CHAP. XIII A further Examination of the same Author in his particular Plea for the Papists A short View of and Answer to their Boasting to be our Apostles Of their Antiquity Succession Visions Miracles c. Of the Oath of Supremacy Of the Powder Treason or Fifth of November p. 229 CHAP. XIV Of the Difficulty of Vnderstanding the Modes of things sensible much more those of the Intellectual World The Vnreasonableness of Obtruding things not certain as De Fide Of Faith It must be such a Condition of Salvation as All may perform because All have a Title to the Common Salvation The Scriptures the only Rule of this Faith which is the necessary Condition of being saved Of the difference between a Rule and a Guide p. 248 CHAP. XV. Of Episcopacy Proved to be of Divine Institution and the Government appointed over the Church by the Holy Ghost The Testimony of Scripture Of Ignatius the Disciple of the beloved Apostle St. John From the constant Vse and Consent of the Church in all Ages Of Aerius the Reason of his Heresie All Hereticks against Government The Doctrine of Calvin of the necessity of some to determine Differences p. 276 CHAP. XVI Of the Judge of Controversies No Humane Authority the Judge of Faith God only Infallible That part of the Catholique Church which is Militant may Err. The difference between not Erring and the Impossibility of Erring The Rulers of the Church the Interpreters of Scripture In all things not absolutely of the Essence of Faith which nothing can be that is not Evident in Scripture either in plain Words or necessary Consequence All private men Excluded from Interpretation of Scripture p. 302 CHAP. XVII The CONCLVSION p. 317 The Project of PEACE CHAP. I. The INTRODUCTION THEY must certainly have little good Nature and far less Christian Charity who are not most sensibly afflicted for the miserable Distractions the deplorable Differences and unnatural Divisions which are among those who profess the glorious Religion of Christ Jesus That Heart must be more flinty than a Stoick's which does not bleed it self and supply the Eyes with Tears whilst Christians who by the Command of their Great but Meek and Tender Lord ought to be harmless as Doves and innocent as Lambs are transformed by preposterous Zeal and pious Pretences into Wolves and Tygres and with a fierce and savage fury mutually Worry and Devour one another nay even exceed the madness of those Brutes and devest themselves of all Humanity to put on this new Nature as they term it of Religion For Saevis inter se convenit Vrsis The Greenland Bears are kind one to another But to the shame of those who call themselves Christians but are of the Synagogue of Satan that Aboriginal Murderer men are not so modest as to be confined within the limits of making true the Horrid Adage Homo homini Lupus that one man is a Wolf to devour another but they proceed to the utmost extremity of Malice and Madness and become Homo homini Daemon Devils to damn one another not Anthropophagi or Canibals but Psychophagi feeding upon humane souls turning that innocent Wisdom of the Serpent which our Lord commands to preserve our selves into the restless Malice of the Old Serpent to destroy others Souls Bodies and Estates and to infuse the Mortal Poison of Adders which is under their Lips into the Souls of Credulous Men through their Ears and Eyes with the pretext of Piety and true Religion The Glorious Company of Saints and Martyrs now triumphant in Heaven went thither through a Red Sea of Blood but it was their own which was shed by the cruel hands of Heathenish Persecutors who did it ignorantly in Unbelief and with joy it was that they set their seal to the Testimony of Jesus and his Truth in their dearest blood Emptying their Veins that their Souls might be filled with a glorious Immortality But now Christians who all profess one Common Name and Faith think they do not set to their seal to that Truth unless they shed the blood of one another and that most commonly for differences in Opinion for Words Names Fancies and Conjectures at least if we may believe there is no more in the bottom which they conceal than there is in what they pretend openly for the ground of the Quarrel Oh Barbarous Christianity Oh Heathenish Impiety In the importunate Croud of such mournful thoughts and considerations of former Experience of our late Shipwrack and fear of future Events which the Noisy Tempest that seemed to threaten our Crazy and bruised Vessel suggested to my mind my Soul was overwhelmed with Grief and fear and ready to sink into Dispair both at the remembrance of the past and the terrible Consequences of that Inevitable Ruin which Truth it self has pronounced against a house and a Kingdom divided within and therefore against themselves and distracted by Intestin Discords THE prophetique Caution of the Apostle came presently into my mind Gal. 5.15 But if ye bite and devour one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another I saw me thought with Horror the too plain truth of it in those once Golden Candlesticks Vid. Mr. Smiths Travels to the Seven Churches of Asia the Seven Churches of Asia who by their Discords were laid in ashes and are the habitations of Owls and Dragons or far worse Inhabitants the sordid Worshippers of that Great Imposter Mahomet I could not stand upon the Brink of such an amasing Precipice without extreme Horror nor see the Cause so Evident without a dreadful apprehension of the Tragical Issue Which made me break out into the Passionate Wish of the afflicted Jeremy Oh that my Head were Waters Jer. 9.1 2. and mine
It was with this Ingine that the mistaken Jews gave the first shock to Christian Religion in the Person of our Saviour and though they in reality confirm'd it by fulfilling the Prophecies concerning him in his Araignment Tryal Sufferings and Death yet was that an Effect of the Wise and over-ruling Providence and no part of their Intention their Design was their own Interest the preservation of their Power and the Safety of their State and Nation for when he had done as great a Miracle as it was possible Joh. 1.8.47 in raising Lazarus after he had been dead four days and that Martha told him Lord by this time he stinketh Nay after they themselves did acknowledge not only this but many Miracles to have been done by him yet Powerful Interest not only closed their Eyes against the bright beams of Divinity which broke forth through the Clouds of his Flesh and contemptible Condition against those Gracious Words which proceeded out of that mouth which spoak as never man spoak but hurried them on obstinately blindly and in all appearance maliciously to contrive compass and procure his ignominious Death for then gathered the Chief Priests and the Pharisees a Councel and said What do we for this Man doth many Miracles if we let him thus alone all Men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take away both our Place and Nation Upon which followed the Politick and beyond his sense Prophetick Determination of Caiaphas Te know nothing at all nor consider that it is Expedient for us it is our great Interest that one man should die and that the whole Nation perish not and from that Day forth they took Counsel together to put him to death And this Resolution grounded upon Interest they pursued with that Animosity and Violence that neither the Innocence nor Miracles of his Life the Justification of Pilate who openly pronounced him innocent and that he found in him no fault at all could prevail for his Release but that rather a Tumult was made and they cried out Away with him Away with him Crucifie him Crucifie him preferring a Thief and a Murderer to the Priviledge of their Custom of having one released at the Feast Nay even Pilate himself perhaps terrified with the dream of his Wife to have nothing to do with that Just man yet contrary to his avowed Judgment as appears in that 't is said he sought to release him yet was hurried down the swift torrent of Tumult and Interest to condemn the Innocent for no sooner had the Jews cried out If thou let this man go thou art no Friend to Caesar for whoso maketh himself a King speaketh against Caesar though he knew the Kingdom of Christ was not of this World and therefore stood not in Competition with Caesar for the Empire Yet when Pilate heard that saying he brought Jesus forth and sate down in the Judgment seat and though not without a scossing Reluctancy What shall I Crucifie your King he gave Sentence upon the Innocent and delivered him unto them to be Crucified in that Action shewing how much he was not a Friend to Caesar's Power but a slave to his own Interest in the Esteem of Caesar by whose favour he possessed the Government of Jary and and that he could rather violate the Laws of Equity and Justice disoblige his dearest Relations and slight the Importunities of his own Conscience than not worship this Idol of his own Interest A most notable Instance of the Power of Interest we have in that giddy Commotion which happen'd at Ephesus upon the account of the Gospel where though the crafty Silversmith made the people believe that all was Gold that glister'd and cunningly insinuated that he was the great Patron of their Ancient Religion which was in Danger to be lost and therefore laid that powerful Motive uppermost upon his Tongue yet Interest was at the bottom both of his Heart and Design For a certain man named Demetrius a Silversmith Acts. 19.24 which made silver shrines Medals bearing the stamp of Diana's Temple for Diana brought no small gain unto the Craftsmen whom he called together with the workmen of like Occupation and said unto them Ye know that by this Craft we have our Wealth This was the main Ground of the Quarrel that of Religion comes in only to give the better Colour to the Mutiny with a colateral Moreover Moreover you see that not alone at Ephesus but almost throughout all Asia this Paul hath perswaded and turned away much People saying that they be no Gods which are made with hands so that not only this our Craft is in danger to be set at nought there it was the shoe pinch't this was the principal Motive of his Discontent and his main argument against Christianity but also that the Temple of the great Goddess Diana should be dispised and her Magnificence should be destroyed whom Asia and all the World worshippeth And of the same stamp where those of whom St. Paul speaks 1 Tim. 6.5 who supposed Gain was Godliness Interest true Religion from whom he commands therefore to withdraw 'T is this Interest which seems to be the great obstacle to the Conversion of the Mahumetans and Pagans to the Faith of Christ and the Truth of the Gospel For though the Vulgar amongst them are by reason of their stupid Ignorance and Custom wrapt up in clouds of darkness and have not a Capacity of Understanding much elevated above that of Brutes yet doubtless those of better Condition even by their conversations with the Christians cannot but have better conceptions of things and however they may varnish over this Obstinacy to their ridiculous Faith and sordid Principles with the pretence of Zeal for the Law of their Great Prophet yet doubtless finding the security of their Absolute and Arbitrary Dominion and Tyranny over their Subjects receives an Establishment from this blind Obedience and powerful Ignorance that Consideration sways them against all the Reason and Arguments in the World NOR will the Reman Religion Escape the danger of this overpoise of Interest 'T is this which has hitherto been the Obstacle to all the Indeavours which have been used or proposed to reform both those grosser Errors which they have introduced into Faith and good Manners and those lesser profitable Follies which have crept into their Church by the back-stairs of Advantage Riches and Esteem For by laying it down as a certain Foundation of Faith and Divine Verity that the Pope is Supreme Head of the Church above the Scriptures above Councels the Infallible Rule and sole Judge of all Controversies they necessarily Captivate all the Laity with the chains of blind Obedience and implicite Faith and that necessary and even Meritorious Ignorance especially of the Scriptures which they commend and incourage together with the easie Exercise of Religion which is made Satisfactory Meritorious and Supererrogating without the Intention or even Understanding of the Mind the Mercinary way of
Expiating Guilt and Purchasing Heaven after all the Enjoyments of a sensual lascivious and debauched Life by Confession here and Masses bought to be said hereafter and at the worst the pains of Purgatory all which Doctrins bring in Treasure and Authority to the Priests and Church which generally shares with them in the purchase and permits them not to have lawful Heirs that so she may be their Executrix these and a multitude of the same Nature which are made matters of Faith and Sacraments in their Church essential to Salvation Fasten on the Manacles and make their Proselytes voluntarily entertain a slavery so agreable to their Wishes and Desires For who would not like a Religion which permits him to Enjoy all the Liberties of the World and the Flesh though renounced by his Baptismal Vow and yet puts him out of the danger of Hell and Damnation that allows him to serve his Mammon of Unrighteousness and yet expect a Reward from God whom he may at the same time serve though Christ says Nay to it and please with a few random Prayers repeated only with the labour of the Lips which at one Heaven according to their Quantity and are Efficacious by their Multiplicity who would not be a Papist who can believe that though he live all the Year like a Heathen in Sensuality and open Impiety yet if at Easter he make Confession to a Priest he shall thereby clear the score betwixt God and his Soul and be a good Catholique though he is no sooner parted from his Ghostly Father but he repeats the same Crimes or it may be worse and returns to the former Vomit and wallowing in the Mire perfectly upon the incouragement of the same Remedy who would not be such a Catholique when a few knocks upon his Breast shall be Contrition and some austerities and hardships practised upon the Body shall satisfie for the sin of his Soul and the most flagitious Offenders may hope for and be certain of Reconciliation to God and yet never be sensible of the severe Agonies of Spirit and the insupportable Wounds of Conscience the dreadful Horrors of a guilty Mind Is not this a soft and easie way to Heaven which makes the Way so broad and the Gate so wide which is set open by St. Peter's Keys that it is impossible any man should either Miss the one or not Enter the other who is not either so miserably Poor or so wretchedly Covetous or so great an Vnthrift or so destitute of Charitable Friends as not to be able to leave a small sum of Money for Masses and Dirges to reskue him from the Pains of Purgatory O dangerous Simony which sells Heaven and the Holy Ghost without which the other cannot be had for Money And if the Pope has such a Power to relieve the Quick and the Dead he is the most Uncharitable person to say no worse in the World who when for a word of his Mouth he can Save so many Souls from the Horrid Pains of Purgatory will not do it unless he be hired to it the Good Shepherd lays down his Life for the Flock but the Hireling will not spare his Breath to Cool the Flaming Tongues of those who suffer such Intollerable Pains unless he be paid for his AND if at any time the more Learned or Intelligent come to discover the pious Frauds the Great Severities which are made use of against them if they do but mutter against the Church the Fear of loosing their Lives or Estates and wearing the Infamous Brand of Hereticks is the Interest which seals their Lips in silence AND for the Clergy the High Honors to which they may arive and the dazeling Lustre of the Tripple Diadem shines so full upon their Eyes that it takes away their sight and the innumerable ways of obtaining Dignities Riches Esteem and Veneration with the Laity generally prove too strong Charms to be resisted by feeble Nature For who would turn a poor Protestant Priest when thereby he shall be so great a looser when thereby he shall part with all the fair Revenue of Masses for the Dead Money for Pardons Indulgences Licences Dispensations and the more than Almighty Priviledge and Miracle of making his Creator and transubstantiating a poor piece of Bread into the real body of the Son of God when he must renounce all hopes and pretensions to the Red Cap the Title of Eminency and the Princely state of S. E. R. Cardinal the next step to Vice Deus and the Supreme Honor of the Triple Miter and when in Exchange he must confine his Ambition to it may be a small Benefice and a great Charge in his vigilant Cure of Souls a heavy Burthen and it may be a light Gain and which if he does indeavour faithfully to discharge shall procure him in the room of Love Honour and Esteem Hatred Scorn Contempt and Reproaches And when the highest that can be hoped is but a Pastoral Staff and humble Mitre the Load and Envy of Government the Constant Care of the Churches and a certain Revenue of Malice for the little Temporal Honour and Estate which it may be is but just sufficient to maintain Charity and Hospitality those Honourable Characters as well as Expensive Duties of a Primitive Bishop I could heartily wish that even this Interest and the Revenue of the Church could not be objected against any Dissenters as a former Motive that induced them to Ruine her that so they might Rob her and that the same Spur did not still continue their Career in the same Design I know they will disown it and I wish we could believe them and our senses at the same time I wish the advantages they make of Tones Phrases long Prayers sanctified Looks and Religious Disobedience with which they please the Factious shelter the Seditious and agrandize themselves both in Riches and Reputation might not be objected against Dissenters as a greater Reason for their Nonconformity than any real Power of Conscience And they give a just occasion to suspect that they have not a Conscience void of offence towards God and Man who dare daily break the Laws of the one and the other and make no scruple to wound the Consciences of others both weak and strong under pretence of keeping their own from being wounded which is just so charitable as for me to wound another man and say it was in my own defence and lest he should have injur'd me So that it appears how great an influence Interest has upon the minds of Men to obstruct the Entertainment of Truth and that therefore in Order to obtain Peace and Vnity there is an absolute necessity that Men should lay aside the Clog of self Interest CHAP. III. IT is not Interest alone that obstructs the happy Vnion that ought to be amongst Christians and occasions those Divisions amongst them but there is also a necessity that Men should devest themselves of their prejudices and prepossessions of mind for these do always
of several distinct Churches who are all Members of that Mystical Body he walks among the Candlesticks he holds the Stars in his right hand The Angel of every distinct National Church is to be the mover of the Orb to guide it by the Light of Divine Truth spoken by the Spirit of the Churches the Temporal Power may be Supreme Head of the Church as they are a Society of Christian Men but neither the one nor the other can justly pretend a Power over the Angel of another Church or the Dominions of another Prince for that is the Prerogative of the Son of God who Unites them in his Right hand and who alone can challenge the Title of that Name of King of Kings and Lord of Lords NOR will this Independency of Churches one upon another which is only in point of Jurisdiction and Limits which was anciently practiced and commanded by the Decrees of Councels give the least disturbance to their Charity and Vnion so long as they maintain the same Universal Doctrine of Faith as to the substance and all acknowledge one Catholique Church and themselves Members of it Nay it is observable that this incroachment of the greater Churches upon the less and indeavouring to aggrandize themselves by imposing upon all other Churches a Soveraignty and Dominion never intended for Christian Religion and striving by force to oblige them to use their Rites and Ceremonies in indifferent Circumstantials and not only so but to receive all their Opinions as matters of Faith were the first occasion of the most remarkable Schisms and Divisions and the loss of Peace and Unity and still continue so to this very day Whereas did they all resolve to content themselves with their own Precincts and not indeavour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and act out of their own Provinces but would permit others to make use of such indifferent Rites as the Governours of the several Churches judge necessary and expedient in their respective Charges and if any Controversies should arise in Point of Doctrine resolve amicably to compose them by hearing what the Spirit saith to the Churches and how the Universal Church has already determined in the same or like Affairs according to the Rule of Scripture would they study more to propagate Peace and Vnity than Dominion and Soveraignty to increase Piety and Purity of Life more than outward agreement of Rites and Ceremonies the ancient Happiness of the Church in her first and Vnambitious Age when the Office of Government was the surest way to Martyrdom would in a great measure be restored to the Members of the Catholique Church and there would be that Vnity which is by God Commanded and by all good Christians not only to be desired but promoted to the uttermost of their Power Were it possible that this true and ancient Temper Modesty and Moderation of Primitive Christianity might obtain in the World the Names of distinction with the occasions of them would be taken away one would not be of Paul another of Apollos another of Cephas one a Romanist another a Calvinist Lutheran Hugonot or a Zuinglian but all would be of Christ but alas what hope so long as the Church of Rome will be Vniversal and will exclude all those who Refuse the tyranique Yoak of both her Declared and Implicit Faith and to be subject to her absolute Dominion not only from the Name of Churches and being Parts of the Church Universal but from the Communion of Saints from all hopes of the Resurrection of the just nay even from her Purgatory too which is very severe if there be such a place as admits of Hope for Sinners after Death and in a word from all possibility of the Life everlasting How disterent is this from the ancient Charity and Doctrine of St. Peter and St. Paul whom they believe the Founders of their Church for they incourage us to hope we may receive the Benefit of the Common Salvation Act. 10.35 for God is no respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him for with him there are no Distinctions neither Greek nor Jew Col. 3.11 to v. 16. Circumcision nor Vncircumcision Barbarian Scythian Bond nor Free but all are Christs who have put on as the Elect of God holy and beloved bowels of Mercy kindness humbleness of Mind meekness long-suffering forbearance one of another and forgiveness one towards another if there be differences as Christ also forgave us and above all things they who have put on Charity which is the bond of Perfection and whose Hearts are ruled by the Peace of God But in regard that this is to be dispair'd of and may well seem forreign to the Design of these Papers let us come to consider what Influence this ought to have upon us as to Vnity amongst our selves which without Excluding our Neighbours from our Charity though they do us from theirs and Heaven is the principal Intention of this Discourse CHAP. VI. HAVING shewn that the Peace and Vnity of the Catholick Church Militant upon Earth depends in a great Measure upon this Justice in preserving the Common Faith of Christ as the bond of Vnion not only among our selves but with that part of the Church which is now Triumphant in Heaven and in order thereunto in allowing every distinct and National Church their particular Bounds and Jurisdiction free from Incroachments and Invasion permitting them a freedom of Using such Rites and Customs in the Celebration of Divine Worship as the Governors of each respective Church shall judge to be nearest the Rule of Scripture the Constant Usage and Determination of the Catholique Church in the best Ages and of the best Men in all most conducive to the Great End of all Religion by promoting the Happiness of Mankind both here and hereafter before we proceed any further it will be requisite to answer what may and will be certainly objected by all Dissenters FOR if an Independency of Churches of Distinct Nations and Polities so long as they agree in matters of Faith may be permitted a distinct Jurisdiction different Rites and manner of Worship to the increase of Charity Peace and Unity why may not the same be likewise practised by several Churches in the same Nation To which I answer That as Vnity in point of Faith is the Bond of Vnion in the Vniversal Church so Obedience to the Supreme Government of any Nation is that which Vnites them into one Polity and distinguishes them from all other People who do not own that Subjection and Obedience And this Vnion of Obedience is also that which preserves and maintains them as well as Constitutes them a distinct Political Body from all other Nations Herein lies their Strength herein their Security their Safety and Happiness For as I may be Lawfully permitted to disobey the King of Spain or France nay and ought to do it in many Cases for the Interest of my Nation but cannot disobey my
pure heart and good Conscience which commands Peace and forbids all Disorder and Disobedience which are destructive of it in the Church of God BUT to make this apparent so as that no Evasion may be found let us consider that Vnity of Faith is not sufficient to maintain Charity in a National Church unless there be also Vnity in point of Government for where men Live together imbodied in one political Society and are therefore daily conversant together it is impossible but they will discourse about the Modes as well as the Essence of Religion and supposing that all People had free Liberty to chuse after what manner they would serve and Worship God no doubt is to be made but every man would prefer his own choice both of Opinion and Practice before that of others and Esteem it most agreable to the Will of God and most conducive to the great Design of all Religion the Eternal Salvation of Mens Souls This undue preference of their own Way as it would naturally incline them to make as many Proselytes as possibly they could a Duty they would judge themselves necessarily and indispensably obliged to perform so would it necessarily put them not only upon defending and maintaining their own Way but of lessening and it may be debasing and vilifying all others in comparison of it Nor would others be less eager in searching out and Exposing their Errors and Defects thereby to Establish themselves and their Way of Worship in the good Opinion of their Followers to which Revenge for affront and indignity offer'd to what they Esteem most Sacred would contribute not a little so that all Religion would come to consist in frivolous and endless Disputes and Differences what kind of Breath what Tones Words Habits Gestures or Postures God Almighty is best pleased with and instead of that Charity which covers a multiude of Faults that would be the best which had the least and was best able to discover the Infirmities of all others and would seem to consist not so much in its own Excellencies or Perfections as by discovering the defects of those who did oppose it Nor would these foolish differences terminate in meer Words and Wrangles but proceed by degrees to the highest Animosities and Extremities of Hatred and such a hatred as inspires Men with the devilish Principles of indeavouring to Extirpate Root and Branch with Fire and Sword all those who differ from them it may be but in the Punctillo's of outward Ceremonies and they who shall appear most Zealous in Executing this blind and furious Rage shall be accounted most godly and Religious Murder shall be called Justice Wrong Violence and Oppression Punishments justly inflicted upon the Wicked Sacriledge shall pass for Piety and the most horrid and slagitious Enormities shall be dedicated to the Glory of God and be reputed acceptable service to him being done or however pretended with the design of propagating the Gospel rooting out Superstition False Doctrine and Heresie O meek and blessed Jesus thou innocent Lamb of God who takest away the Sins of the World is this the Religion which with thy precious blood was planted in the World and watred with the blood of so many of thy holy Saints and Martyrs Assuredly God is not in such terrible Hurricanes Whirlwinds and Earthquakes Tempests or Fires as rend the Mountains 1 Kings 19.11 12. and break the Rocks in pieces as shake and put all the Foundations of the World out of Course and consume all before them No no it is in the small still voice the calm and soft voice of Peace and Meekness that God and true Religion are to be found Alas it is not in this mans pompous breath nor that mans Eloquent Harangue that God is delighted it is not the rude and undecent Religion of him who despises all Ceremonies in the Worship of God who will not bend his knee or uncover his head for fear of he knows not what Idolatry Nor is it the over superstitious and courtly service of him who makes all his Religion groan under the Load of splendid Ceremonies that God is pleased with he has no more satisfaction in these Exterior demeanors than as the Psalmist says Psal 147.10 11. in the strength of an horse or in the legs of a man but the Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his Mercy And all these outward Demonstrations of our Worship are only valuable according to their inward intention of promoting the main Design for which he intended them which is Peace Unity and Concord among the Sons of Men. NOW this blessed Peace this happy Vnity and this Christian Concord are not to be hoped for in any National Church but by submitting to such common Expedients in the Celebration of the Publique Worship of Almighty God as by putting an End to these Differences may lay asleep all these occasions of Divisions Disputes and vain janglings and may therefore cut off the root and occasion of Quarrels about the How God shall be served And this Power must either be granted to be in the Governors of the Church and Nation or otherways all falls to Confusion For if it be not in the Church then have not any Dissenters that Power over their Churches and therefore they go about an unlawful Action and are bold Usurpers over the Christian Liberty of their Brethren whilest they go about to Establish any Government in their Congregations if it be in the Church then either that Authority is in the Church of England or She is not a true Church Let them prove that and we will fairly and quietly yield them the Cause But if the Church of England be a true Church and a true Church have such a Power then ought all who are in that Community and Nation to be obedient to her Determinations because they are within the Verge of her Jurisdiction and they who are disobedient are guilty of the breach of Vnity and Charity and Enemies to Peace and if the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews be of any Credit they who do not follow Peace with all Men as well as Holyness and much more then with that Church which brought them forth and has nurst them in her tender Arms shall never see God And into what a desperate condition then have they reduced themselves who for want of this Charity Peace and Unity run themselves and their Disciples into the danger of being Excluded notwithstanding all their Holyness from the Glorious presence of God which in plain English is Eternal Damnation AH poor Church of England how justly mayest thou take up the Mournful complaint of God Almighty by his Prophet Isaiah Hear ô Heavens Esay 1.2 and give ear ô Earth I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me O miserable and deceived People How vainly do you Establish your hopes of Eternal Happiness upon principles of Dissention Who are made believe no way so secure to
place but they mocked the Messengers of God and despised his Words and misused his Prophets until the Wrath of God arose against them and there was no remedy Then did the overflowing scourges come rolling upon them Fire and Sword and Captivity Desolation and utter Subversion God of his infinite Mercy have compassion upon his People and his dwelling Place and turn the hearts of the Despisers and disobedient to the Wisdom of the Just that we may not despise our selves and Nation into such a Dismal and inevitable Ruin CHAP. IX THUS have I shewn the Necessity that there is in every National Church of Unity in point of Government as well as Faith upon a Religious account Let us now come to Examine what Necessity there is upon a Politique account as we are united together into one Community of Men as well as a Society of Christians WE must consider therefore that Religion was designed to improve even our Interest in this World to the best advantage of Living and that to put on Christianity we are not to put off Humanity or by learning Obedience to God to forget what we owe to our Neighbour or our King The Eternal Prince of Peace as well as Truth came to Preach Peace unto All not to Embroyl the World or unsettle the Thrones of Princes but to Establish them for the Throne is Established by Righteousness Pro. 16.12 That glorious Heir of all things rejected the offer of all the Kingdoms of the Earth and positively affirms That his Kingdom is not of this World and therefore when he took upon him Humane Nature he own'd himself a Subject of the Roman Empire and not only paid the Tribute for himself and Saint Peter but Commands all men to do the same and the great Design of the Gospel which he came to Preach was to make all men better in their feveral Estates and Capacities of Life better men and therefore better Subjects to Princes This was the particular Care of the Church to inspire the Converts to Christianity with these Principles of Duty and Obedience so necessary to the Peace and Happiness of the World So St. Paul commands Ro. 13.1 Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers Thus St. Peter Teaches and Commands 1 Pet. 2.13 14 15. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of Evil doers and for the praise of them that do well for this is the Will of God that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men This being then one main Design of Christian Religion let us see of what Necessity Vnity in point of Government in the Church is in order to it and what influence it has upon the Political Government of a Christian State THE Root of all our Miseries Divisions and Disorders is That men take this for a Principle That they may be Disobedient to Lawful Authority without danger of Damnation and so far has the mischief of this fretting Gangrene spread it self that many People esteem it a part of their Religion to disobey the Civil Power and think it is impossible for them to be saved should they be obedient to its Commands which they think are inconsistent with the Commands of God This Error must proceed either from Malice or Mistake I will be so charitable as to suppose not from the first and therefore looking upon it as the Child of Ignorance I will endeavour to state the Case truly that so the Understanding of Men being informed by Truth they may either be reformed or left without Excuse THE great Design of the infinitely glorious good and Wise Creator being the Happiness of Mankind he therefore proportioned a Method for the obtaining of it and Man being Created with a double Capacity of Injoying Happiness both here and hereafter therefore did that Excellent Wisdom appoint Religion as the Way and Means for attaining both and for the accomplishment of those Noble and Excellent Ends it is furnished with Rules and Precepts which bear a double Respect to this double Capacity one part Conducts us to God and future Happiness in the External fruition of his grorious Presence in Heaven and the other Leads us to the Happiness of this Mortal State by the Politicl Rules of Living Well with a mutual respect not only to our own but the happiness of one another by the lawful and moderate Use and Enjoyment of the inferior Creation which God therefore made that he might shew his Glory his Wisdom his Power and his Goodness to the Sons of Men. So that the sum of all Religion in order to obtain this Happiness both here and hereafter is to believe aright and to Live Well and both these are so Essentially necessary to Salvation that the one will not obtain it without the other for the Devils believe Jam. 2.19 though it makes them tremble To believe aright we must refer our selves to those Divine Truths which God has from Heaven revealed to us concerning himself and our Duty the short sums of which Faith the Church has collected out of the Sacred Writings in the three Famous Creeds of the Apostles St. Athanasius and the Councel of Nice To Live well it is required that a man submits to all those practical Precepts and Rules of Life which God has commanded in his Will revealed in his holy Word by Justice Temperance Prudence Chastity Obedience c. and for the attainment of Happiness by these Rules in this present Life God has not left Men in a wild parity like Brutes but has by the Wisdom of his Providence divided the World into superior and inferior Degrees of Men Subjects and Soveraigns intrusting one to Rule and Govern and commanding the other to Obey and for this he has left many Positive Commands too well known and too numerous to be here repeated THESE Powers thus Ordained of God and armed with his Sword to execute Vengeance on them that do evil are vested with Authority to make such Decrees Laws and Sanctions as in their Wisdom they shall Judg conducive to the Happiness of the People committed to their Charge that so they may be a Terror to evil Works and encouragers of them that are Good And to them prosecuting this great and good Design and to those Laws which do promote it all men are bound to submit not only for wrath Rom. 13.5 but for Conscience sake And it is impossible any man should be saved who lives in a wilful Disobedience and that Power and those Commands and the Reason is because all such Disobedience is a sin against God himself against his Positive Will and Command and I think there is no person who will be so hardy as to maintain in Words however they may do it in Actions that Salvation is to be had or hoped for by such as live in manifest
men who keep up these Principles of Disunion which have such a desperate influence upon the Civil Affairs and endeavour to Ruine the State by setting up Religion and whose restless and unwearied Industry leaves no stone unmoved Nay who will move Heaven and Earth to accomplish their Design This has been observed to be the Genius of Dissenters in former Times and it is to be feared the Humor has not left them Esay 57.20 21. For they are like the troubled Sea which cannot rest but is continually casting up mire and dirt Foaming and Raging and Raving like that unstable and unruly Element to enlarge its floating and turbulent Empire by incroaching upon the Terra Firma the Peaceable Earth and one may but too truly add the Words of the Prophet There is no Peace saith my God to the Wicked Rom. 3.13 14 15 16 17 18. For their Throat is an open Sepulchre with their Tongues they use Deceipt the Poyson of Asps is under their Lips Their mouth is full of Bitterness their feet are swift to shed Blood Destruction and Misery are in their ways And the way of Peace have they not known For their Practices declare it publiquely what ever they pretend either of Innocence or Sanctity That there is no fear of God before their eyes THERE being no Differences as before was observed which do so absolutely Alienate the minds of Men as those about Religion as they are most irreconcilable therefore they are most dangerous not only to the Essence of Religion but to the Civil affairs of State for if we be divided and distracted what matters it how or by what Means The effects of these Dissentions will have the same influence upon the Publique Affairs whether they come from Religion or Ambition Either will ruine us but the former more certainly and with greater Artifice Because more insinuating and plausible in outward appearance For men who have any sense of Religion cannot but look upon it as the great concern of their Lives and the care of their Posterity to whom they desire to transmit it as well as their Estates And though it is in Charity to be hoped that many Dissenters are not aware of this dangerous Rock which lies under Water and that they have no such Ill designs yet they cannot be ignorant from former Expeence that there may be such among them now as have been formerly and that Popular and Ambitious Spirits have made use of their Zeal and Credulity to abuse them and the whole Nation into Misery and Slavery under the pretence of Liberty And that such Men will never want either Shelter or opportunity under those pretences of Religion to embroyl us among our selves or betray us to a Forrein Power so long as this Disunion continues and these Differences are incouraged maintained and daily propagated among us THIS is a season when these things would be seriously Considered by all Dissenters and if it shall appear a real Truth that this Industry in stead of promoting true Religion must promote our Ruine they ought voluntarily to Unite and return to the Obedience of the King and Church For otherways their Actions will confess what their Tongues deny and that this Reformation is in Reality the Subversion of the Government which they intend FOR what is it possible to believe or think of such Persons as with treacherous Joab 2 Sam. 20.29 call us Brethren enquire of our Health and with the right hand salute that with the left they may stab us as he did the incautelous Amasa with our own Sword under the fifth Rib. Can they be esteemed Friends to their Countrey or the Protestant Religion who through their Dissentions discredit the one and disable the other from defending it is this the way to secure us from Arbitrary Government to make the Princes Government perpetually unsafe and uneasy and almost impracticable without it by forcing him for the guard of the Sceptre to wear a Sword and then exclaim against him for doing that which they have necessitated him to do or to leave his Crown and Life and that of his Loyal Subjects to the mercy of the Sword of Rebellion Can it be probable that this should be an Expedient to preserve us from the Roman Religion to furnish them with Arguments against us that we deny the Catholique Faith in the Communion of Saints and to give them this advantage against us to say and truly that we have neither Vnity nor Charity Or can any man in his Wits believe that the best way to Establish Peace among our selves is to maintain perpetual Principles of Quarrels and Contentions Or that we are like to defend our selves from powerful Enemies abroad Enemies by a Hereditary Animosity and Enemies upon the account of Religion by worrying one another at Home No no as soon shall the Plague become an Amulet to preserve us from Contagion as soon shall Impotent men be cured by cutting their Nerves in pieces as soon shall men see clearly by putting out their Eyes and all that ever can be imagined that is not only improbable but utterly impossible come to pass as that this or any other Nation should be happy without Vnity not only in point of the Civil but Ecclesiastical Government or that Mens minds should be easy whilest the Spring of Jealousies is kept open among us and the fountain of Charity is stopt up or that we should be safe from Forrein Enemies when no man can tell who is his Friend at Home NOR in short can it be hoped that Truth and Peace should flourish in our Days when Private Opinion shall be preferred before the Catholique Faith and the practice of the Church in all Ages 1 Tim. 6.4 when Eternal Wranglings about Words and Questions whereof cometh Envy Strife Railings and Evil Surmisings shall be the great Accomplishment of Christian Religion and shall banish all Love and Charity from the minds and lives of Men. What can be the end of these Mischiefs So long as Obstinacy in our private Judgments shall be accounted a more Essential part of Religion than Obedience to Lawful Authority but what the Apostle long since by way of Caution predicted to the Church of the Galatians Gal. 5.13 14 15. Brethren ye have been called unto Liberty only abuse not your Liberty for an occasion to the Flesh but by Love serve one another for all the Law is fulfilled in one Word even in this Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self But if they bite and devour one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another Which fearful Prophecy so truly verisied and fulfilled upon that and the rest of the Asian Churches God of his infinite Goodness and Mercy avert from us by bestowing upon us this Vnity of the Spirit which is the Bond of Peace and which is certainly the true Spirit of Christian Religion and the only way to obtain that peace of God which passeth all Vnderstanding which will fill the
Soul with peace of Conscience here the World with happiness and all those who follow it with Eternal Joy unspeakable and full of Glory in Heaven CHAP. XII THUS far I have indeavoured to follow Truth by manifesting that Vnity in Faith and Vnity in Government in a National Church are absolutely necessary both to the salvation of Mens Souls and to the Happiness Peace and Security of any People in their Politique Capacities As there can be nothing in the World more desirable so there is nothing that all good Men ought more sincerely to indeavour to promote Blessed are the Peace-makers says the Eternal Prince of Peace for they shall be called the Children of God who is the God of Peace and the Author of the Gospel of Peace Let us therefore in Order to it in the next place see what Expedients have been propounded to restore this Peace to this Church and Nation IT has been already manifested that Vnity in point of Faith is the Bond of the Catholique Vnion among all distinct Churches which are Members of the Catholique or Universal Church but this Faith must Work by Love Gal. 5.6 It has been also shewn that though this Vnity of Faith which works so by Love as that though distinct Nations and Churches disagree about Ceremonies and Circumstances of Religion yet they may all agree in the substance of Faith yet that it is impossible this should be in the same Nation and that therefore Vniformity of Government in the Church is absolutely necessary to maintain Charity and Vnity And though this might be sufficient to shew the Unreasonableness of Tolleration of different Forms of Divine Worship under the same Magistrate yet since there is such a Cry among all Dissenters both Papists and others for Tolleration and Liberty of Conscience as an Expedient both Politique Religious and Necessary let me be permitted freely to speak my impartial sense concerning it THOUGH all Parties whose private Opinion makes them Dissent from the Establisht Government both in Church and State must of necessity be desirous of a Tolleration yet I find the Papists and the Presbyterians are they who appear most solicitous for it and yet of all others they seem least to deserve it For no man ought in reason to demand that for himself which he would not think it lawful to grant to any other if in his Circumstances Now Experience has given us Demonstration of the violent Tempers of both these and there is not a Possibility of doubting but if either the Papist or Presbyter were in Power they would not allow any Tolleration or Indulgence to other Dissenters but the one would Establish the Scepter of the Pope and the other of Christ as they call their New Government with the most unlimited Soveraignty both over the Faith and Actions of All Princes as well as Peasants and since they would compel all People by the utmost Severities and Rigours of Penal Laws to Carry the Yoak which they would Impose upon them what reason can they have to Expect for themselves what they would deny all others for their Practice has made it evident to the lowest Understanding that they who have so little Charity for their Brethren in the Common Christianity as to damn them without remedy to the bottomless Abyss of Hell for dissenting from them in any one point which they have decreed to be De Fide will look upon it as an Effect of Compassion rather than Cruelty to convert them and save their Souls though with the loss of their Lives Liberties and Estates or if that cannot be effected to confound them to Extirpate and destroy them lest they should lead others by their Doctrines or Example to Damnation WHEREAS in truth and reality nothing but Blasphemy Atheism and such Immoralities as are destructive of Humane Society render men obnoxious to Temporal Punishments Insidelity or not believing aright being Crimes or Defects rather of the Understanding fall no further under humane Cognizance or Penal Laws than by their Consequences and Effects they may or do prejudice those Laws and the Common End of Society and therefore they are reserved for the Punishment of a future state and the Church can proceed no further than to Exclude them from her Communion but not out of the Possession of their Lives or Estates which God Almighty as the Common Father of Mankind thinks fit to permit them to Enjoy making his Sun to shine upon the Just and Unjust with an equal influence and benignity BUT since a Papist has undertaken the Common Cause of all Dissenters The Advocate of Conscience Liberty c. and it may be has said as much for them as the subject will bear and more in behalf of his own Party than any other Dissenters can pretend to for themselves Papists having the specious plea of Prescription as the Religion of our Ancestors the ancient Form of Government in the Church and the Ancient Faith had they permitted it to continue so Intire and Undefiled unmixed with their Apochrypha and Tradiditions I will indeavour to answer what is most material in his Discourse in order to discovering the Weakness of his Plea not concerning my self with the sincerity of his Intention which though appearing for all is only Designed for the benefit of his own Party IN the first place therefore I desire that Notice may be taken how he states the Question in the Prooemium of his Book Note saith he by Persecution Imposition and Restraint we only mean the strict requiring to believe this to be true and that to be false c. and upon refusal to Swear or Conform to incur the Penalties Enacted in such Cases but by these Terms we do not mean any Coercive Let or Hindrance into publique Meetings By Liberty of Conscience we understand only a meer Liberty of Mind in believing or disbelieving this or that Doctrine so far as may refer only to religious matters in a private way of Worship which are not destructive to the Nature and Grounds of Christian Faith nor tending to matters of an External Judicature in abetting any Contrivances or disturbance to common Peace or Civility As to the First of these I would gladly be shewn when or where the Government did ever in this sense persecute in any thing which is purely the subject of Faith without relating to Practice or the Consequences of such Faith or where any person for refusing to Believe or Swear or Conform to any thing which did not insluence the Civil Affairs of State was ever punished was ever any man fined imprisoned or banished because he would not swear to believe any Theological Point as of Free Will Merit of Works c. which had no relation to Political Affairs there cannot be one Precedent found in all the Records of all our Courts of Judicature though we can shew many out of that Legend as he calls Bishop Fox's Martyrology who were put to death without any other Crime than that they
daily in his own person he therefore takes Care that there should be some left behind him who might and Ephesus being one of the most Populous Cities of Asia in regard of the vast Concourse of People from all Parts to the Famous Temple of Diana and there being many Congregations of Christians there he having by the space of two years continued there so that all they who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus both Jews and Greeks he therefore sends for the Presbyters who resided in that City by virtue of his Apostolical Authority and there declares unto them that for the time to come they were to take that care of the Churches which he had done and that they might not do this of their own heads or fear to do it for want of a Lawful Calling and Ordination he declares the Will of God to them and that the Holy Ghost had appointed them to be Bishops So that they came indeed Presbyters to him but they went away Bishops from him and Bishops not of his own but the Holy Ghosts appointment IT is a Rule among Divines That where the Literal sense of Scripture is plain we are to follow that And that this is the plain Historical and Literal meaning of the Words without the least wresting or violence offer'd to them is most obvious and that by this Power of Episcopacy which the Holy Ghost added to their former of Presbytery they were to take the Care of the Government of the Church as well in Ruling as Instructing there are these Reasons FIRST When he sends for them he calls them Presbyters and not Bishops which if there had been no difference he might as well have done and supposing that the Holy Ghost must foresee that this Controversie would arise in the Church we cannot believe he would contribute to it by such an ambiguity but the contrary that they were only Presbyters as the Holy Ghost calls them first and then advanced to be Bishops by his appointment SECONDLY He puts the Government into their hands by resigning his own in regard he was to see them no more THIRDLY He directs them in their Office which he divides into three Particulars First Vers 28. To feed the Church of God which he had purchased with his own Blood to instruct them in the Faith and Doctrine of Christian Religion Secondly To watch against Errors and Heresies Vers 29 30 31. For I know this saith he that after my departing shall grievous Wolves enter in among you not sparing the Flock also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw Disciples after them therefore Watch. Now what signifies Vigilancy without Power and what Power have the Watchmen but to Admonish and Rebuke and at last to Excommunicate the Obstinate And let them shew me this Power ever Exercised in the Church by any besides a Bishop and let them take the Cause Thirdly To Exercise Hospitality to support the Poor and to remember the words of our Lord Jesus how he said It is more blessed to give than to receive According to another Precept of his in which he comprises them all For a Bishop must be blameless 1 Tim. 3.2 the husband of one wife vigilant sober of good behaviour given to hospitality apt to teach Lastly Here is no imperfect footstep of their Solemn Consecration for when he had ended his Message and Direction Vers 36. When he had thus spoken he kneeled down and prayed with them all AND to manifest that though every Bishop be a Presbyter yet every Presbyter is not a Bishop and that the Difference consists in Power and Rule which the Bishops have over the Presbyters as well as the rest of the People I doubt not to make most plain from Scripture and Antiquity For FIRST St. Paul says Expresly That it is one qualification of a Bishop 1 Tim. 4 5. He must be one that ruleth well his own house having his Children in subjection with all gravity for if a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the Church of God how shall he rule the house of God and find me but one Example in Scripture or ancient Church History where any one who was not a Bishop as well as a Presbyter ever Exercised this Jurisdiction of Ruling the Presbyters had indeed a Rule but with subordination to the Bishops 1 Tim. 5.17 18. Let the Presbyters that Rule well be counted worthy of double Honor especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine for anciently in the Church every Priest was not a Preacher as is plain not only from this place but from the Church History but that the Presbyters might not be Exalted beyond their Bounds to think this Rule equal to that of the Bishops over the Church he allays the Tumor in the very next words and shews the the difference the subordination and subjection which they owed to the Judicature of the Bishop as Timothy was there Against a Presbyter receive not an Accusation but before two or three Witnesses which is not spoken of Private Adomnition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless there be two or three Witnesses and them that sin Rebuke openly that others may fear To receive an Accusation plainly infers a superior Jurisdiction a power to hear Witnesses and according to their Depositions to rebuke openly is certainly an Effect of Authority And he follows the blow close giving him another Direction about Ordination Vers 21 22. that he should Lay hands suddainly on no man preferring one before another by Partiality So that here is a distinct Power of a Bishop from a Priest To lay on hands or Ordain to receive Accusations against Presbyters to Examine Witnesses and according to their Testimony to proceed to Judgment to give Sentence openly to Rebuke those that Sin even the Presbyters as well as others for if they may be accused and convened and found guilty of sin they also ought and may be rebuked and punished As to that place of the 5th Chap. Rebuke not an Elder it is apparently meant of those who are such by Years and not by Office Presbyters or Priests and to teach us that there is a respect due to the Reverend head Age as is plain from the words Rebuke not an Elder but intreat him as a Father and the younger Men as Brethren the Elder Women as Mothers and the younger as Sisters with all Purity This he further Explains in his Epistle to Titus Tit. 1.5 6 7. For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest set in Order the things that are wanting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appoint Constitute Presbyters in every City making them Bishops as I have appointed thee That Saint Paul left Presbyters there both in Age and Office no doubt can be made but yet something was wanting still and because he would not himself lay hands suddenly upon them and the Affairs of the Church
for Practice but to the Governors of the Church which all shall be bound to observe for the obtaining Peace and Vnity I have already proved who are those Governors who by the Appointment of the Holy Ghost are to Rule to feed the Flock of Christ to Watch over mens Souls as they that must give an Account to Rebuke Exhort with all long suffering but not with suffering always for if Seducers will persist in subverting houses and vain talking then by proceeding to stopping their Mouths that so they may study to approve themselves unto God Workmen that need not be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of Truth And the Temporal Power of the Civil Magistrate may assist the Spiritual to bring men to Peace Unity and Obedience to these their Guides and Governors by being a Terror to Evil doers and Encouragement to those who do well which is both the Will and the Word of God I know it will be Objected That these Intepreters of Scripture and Judges of Controversies may Err and be deceived Bishops may Err Counsels have Erred and therefore this leaves us still in an Uncertainty since it is possible that we may be misled by them and how shall we be certain they do not Err or we in following them and wherein is it Lawful to refuse to Obey them To this I answer That the Qualificatîon of such a Guide and Interpreter of Scripture as we are to expect is not such a one as cannot Err but such a one as does not Err for had God left us such a Guide besides his own Word and Will there would have been a state of Perfection attainable in this Life and by consequence an Immortality and no necessity of his Divine assistance to keep us by his mighty Power from falling through Faith unto Eternal Salvation such a Guide must have been a God Omniscient Omnipotent and Omnipresent which is as unreasonable to believe as to expect from any or all Mortal Men. And besides it is a vain and frivolous Objection for those who are under any Lawful Government to run into the most dangerous Errors and manifest breach of Gods Command by Schism and Disobedience to the Laws of Men for fear of imaginary danger of future Errors which if they shall really happen we have a plain and easy remedy against them if we know them to be such and that is in our own persons to protest against them and to refuse to Joyn with those that hold them and if we know them not to be so though we be in Error as who lives that does not Err they will do us no injury for it is obstinacy in Error and not bare Error of ignorant frailty that is damnable but we can have no Plea or Excuse to make to God Almighty for our Error of Separation breach of Vnity Peace Order Communion Division from a Church not yet convicted of any manifest Error either in Doctrine or Practice which is the Case between Dissenters and the Church of England And besides every Error in Circumstantials which does not destroy Faith or a good Life is not a sufficient and warrantable Cause for any private Man to throw off all Subjection to his Superiors for if it were there could be no such thing as a Catholique Church or Communion of Saints there being no particular Men or any Society of Men without Sins and by consequence not without Errors both in Doctrine and Practice BUT Secondly The Governours of the Church neither do nor can Err in point of Faith and Doctrine or Discipline and Government so long as they follow the Rule of the Scriptures in Cases plain and clear as before I shewed the Matters of Faith essentially necessary to Salvation are Nor so long as they Judge of such as are dubious according to their Catholiqueness in the Esteem of all Ages of the Church for no Error was ever Universal And though they may be mistaken yet do they not Err if in Interpretation of the more difficult and obscure places of Scripture they indeavour to Expound the meaning of them by others which are more clear and perspicuous following the received sense of them acknowledged so by the Vniversal Church so long as in those Interpretations there can be nothing repugnant to the Common Faith of Christians or prejudicial to Peace Charity and Practical Piety Neither can they Err as to the point of Discipline and the External Polity of the Church if in indifferent things in their own Natures and not Essentially necessary to Salvation they do not impose them as such if they follow the Direction of the General Rules of the Holy Canon that every thing be done with respect to Decency Order Edification for the avoiding Confusion and obtaining Peace Unity and Christian Love according to the Examples of the best Christians in former Ages in the Church and the Canons of such General Counsels as are not found manifestly Guilty of Partiality and Corruption in the long Train of Errors which the Indeavouring to Erect the Primacy into a Supremacy and the Supremacy into a Monarchy has brought into the Roman Church THIRDLY If the Governors of the Church Impose any thing contrary to Scripture Faith or Holy Life then do they forsake the Rule and it is Lawful and Necessary for every good Christian to forsake them for so is St. Paul's Rule 1 Cor. 11.1 Be ye followers of me as I am of God And praises them for observing the Commandments delivered to them by God But if they fall from the Faith as did the Gnosticks the Manichees the Arrians and many others we are not then to be Followers of them but Followers of God as Dear Children But if any Private man or many shall think because in some things which are contrary to their apprehension that therefore the Determinations are against Scripture and therefore their Obedience not due it is a mistake for they must be certain otherwise they are bound to be subject for if they be not certain and from the best Grounds and clear Evidences it is but their Opinion which cannot weigh enough in the Scale of Truth to warrant their Disobedience against the Publique Opinion of their Superiors but that such a Disobedience will be a certain Sin for if any or many mens Private Opininion which is private Interpretation may authorize them to renounce their Obedience to their Superiors there can never be any such thing as subjection in the World nor any Government and by good consequence No Vnion no Catholique Church and then no Faith and in short at last no such thing as Religion OTHERS will Object That hereby I seem to introduce Romish Infallibility and make our Bishops Lords of our Faith and that we had better submit to one Pope who is as free from Error as other Bishops To this I Answer That there is nothing more contrary to Sense or Truth than such an Objection For I do not make nor believe them Infallible but the Rule by
which they are to Govern which is the Word of the Infallible God who cannot lye or be deceived and I suppose that they may act contrary to this Rule and that presumes they are not Infallible but if they follow the Rule then I say they cannot Err and should the Pope do so all Christians over whom he may Challenge a lawful Jurisdiction as their Patriarch ought to submit to him But it is Evident that the Roman Church does Err and has Erred in many things forsaking the Rule setting up the Authority of the Pope to alter and change that Rule by introducing new Articles of Faith new Books of Scripture and old Traditions his own Canons Decretals and Councels for a Rule nay his own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Sentence and Determination for an Infallible Rule of Faith and Life which is as far from me to believe of our Bishops as to say or believe it of him NOR does this Jurisdiction of Bishops either take away that subordination which for convenience of Government is among them or intrench upon the Supremacy of the Civil Magistrate since his Supremacy consists in a Temporal Soveraignty and pretends not to any Pastoral Power but only such Kingly and Civil Authority in Cases Ecclesiastical as Constantine and several other Religious Emperors had and Exercised to whom even Popes as well as other Patriarchs yielded subjection as I can make appear out of the Epistles of Gregory the Great to Mauritius and the Ecclesiastical Historians in a hundred places And nothing is more plain than that Christ himself owned a Subjection as well as Commanded one to Cesar As for the Civil Magistrate and his Power I think nothing more Evident than the Duty all their Subjects whether Laicks or Ecclesiasticks owe them and that they have Prescription the Law of God Nature Nations and those of their own on their side for the Defence of their Titles to their Crowns and Scepters and that the Church and Faith is and ought to be their Particular Care as well as it is their Interest the quiet of the State ever depending in a great Measure upon the Peace of the Church and that they have a Coercive Power by virtue of which they may compel men to Obedience to the Laws both Civil and Ecclesiastical which in conformity to the Law of God are to promote the Peace Happiness Unity and Prosperity of their People Nor was this Doctrine ever deni'd till the Papacy growing great and the Empire declining began to think of a Temporal as well as a Spiritual Monarchy and to Unite St. Paul's Sword to St. Peter's Keys And till the Presbyterians reviving the Heresy of Aerius and his levelling Principle began to indeavour to set up their Spiritual Democracy in the Church in order to their Erecting it also in the State as the sad Probatum which they writ to their late deadly of the Solemn League and Covenant might convince us without the dangerous necessity of a second Experiment Ictus Piscator sapit The burnt Child dreads the fire and we have a great deal more reason to do so than to kindle it again and run our fingers into the Flame to try whether it will burn as hot now as formerly it did CHAP. XVII The CONCLVSION TO draw to a Conclusion I think it is evident from all that any person can in reason desire to give him Satisfaction That the Powers and Government in this Church and Nation are Lawful and of Gods appointment That Vnity in Faith and Obedience to their Government are the only Expedients to secure unto us Peace and Religion and that if these be our Desires the other are our Interest and ought to be our diligent indeavours and our constant Practice It is this Unity this Obedience that must make us Happy at home and Terrible abroad which are the only Ways to procure and Establish a lasting Peace both in our Souls in our State in our Church and with our Foreign Neighbours who may be obliged more by our formidable Vnity than by our feeble Arms or other Alliances I would gladly know therefore of Dissenters who and our sins are the great Obstructors of our Happiness Are you certain that the Government of Bishops is Unlawful and Antichristian Can you prove that any of the Commands of the Church or State are Unlawful contrary to plain Scripture and Publique Interpretation If you can you may pretend Conscience for your Disobedience but if you cannot and I am assured it is impossible how do you think you shall escape the dreadful and Revenging Power of the Judg of all men when he shall come in flaming Fire taking Vengeance on those that know not God and obey not his Gospel Flatter not your selves with the vain Opinion of your Sanctity Many shall say Lord have not we Prophesied in thy Name to whom he will answer Depart from me ye Workers of Iniquity for I know you not and well he may for he says Positively He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and him that sent me is not this Disobeying the Gospel The Holy Ghost says he has made Bishops you say they are Antichristian he sends them to Instruct you in the way of Righteousness and to Watch for your Souls you Watch for their Ruine their Lives Honors and Estates he commands you to Esteem them highly you despise them contemn and Vilifie them He commands you to Obey you not only refuse but teach that to Obey is Damnable He planted them among you to plant the Faith you vow and swear to Extirpate Root and Branch Go on and Prosper said the False Zedechiah with his Horns of Iron but Ahab fell Be not deceived you may Mock the Messengers of God but God is not to be Mocked if you sow the Wind your shall reap the Whirlwind the terrible Tempest of his Wrath and Indignation They that lay Snares for the Innocent shall be Ensnared in the Works of their own hands You believe you know God but in Works you deny him for as Saint John saith of himself and his fellow Apostles and of their successors as all lawful Bishops are and will be to the end of the World 1 Joh. 4.6 We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth us not Hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error The Holy Church of God in all Ages for God has a Church in all Ages according to his Promise acknowledg this to be the sense and Meaning of the Scripture which I have shewn how then will you avoid this guilt with which St. John charges you this spirit of Error which he assures us is to be known by this Character of not hearing those whom God hath sent ARE you certain that you are in the Right and that all the Saints and Martyrs Bishops and Confessors who believed thus lived and dyed in Antichristian Error Ignorance and Superstition strangers to these
light of Gospel Truth as they are pleased to call even these Prejudices and Mistakes though to the certain loss of Christian Charity and Vnity the great hazard of Temporal Peace and the ruine of Religion it self as I shall hereafter more fully make appear THIS dangerous Prejudice which does infect the minds of Men as it has its foundation in misunderstanding of things so it receives strength from two things which are almost as difficult to change and alter as the Course of Nature and they are Education and Custom Of the last the Holy Ghost speaks most plainly by the Prophet Jeremy Jer. 13.23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye do good who are accustomed or as the Hebrew word signifies taught to do evil learn to do well Of the other that of the Heathen Poet may pass for good Divinity having been confirmed to be truth by the Universal Testimony of all Ages Quô semèl est imbuta recens servabit Odorem Testa diu the first seasoning Principles and Prejudices which we receive in our Youth stick closely to us for a long time after The wise Philosopher tells us the Soul of Man is Rasa Tabula like a white sheet of Paper out of which therefore it must be more than Common Art that can so clear take out the first writing as to super-induce a new Copy fair and legible THIS is the true Reason why any person finds it so difficult to quit those Notions of Religion which have been Established in his Mind from his Early Infancy there is a Marvellous Agreement and Natural Kindness to those Opinions which we suck in with our Milk they are like Foster Brothers to whom it has been observed there is as strong an inclination as to the Natural we play and converse with them from our Cradles and as soon as we can go alone we take them by the hand we sleep with them in our bosoms and contract an insensible Friendship with them a pleasing Familiarity which takes off all deformities we love them and we like them and their very blackness is a Beauty as it is with the Affrican Nations to whom even that which we judge deformity appears more lovely than the most delicate Europaean Beauty What can be more impertinent and ridiculous than the Alchoran of that great Impostor Mahumed and yet a natural Turk born to those prejudices of Education and Custom believes him the greatest of the Prophets and the only friend of God And though he have a great veneration for Christ yet would he spit in your face and call you Hog the most disgraceful term they think they can affront a Christian with if you should contradict him or go about to convince him of his Errors by shewing the absurdities and impossibilities of what he calls his Religion WHAT can be more Barbarous and Savage than the Rites of the Pagan Idolaters and yet you may almost as soon remove a Mountain as one of them from what has been the Religion of his Ancestors and his ever since he knew any What can be more unreasonable than some of the Tenets of the Romish Church more ridiculous and antick than some parts of their greatest Solemnities more fabulously extravagant than some of their Legends and most of their Miracles and yet we see how tenacious not only most of the vulgar but even of the learned amongst them are that they will not retrench even the fopperies of their Faith as they call it to advance one step towards an Vnion with the whole Catholique Church of the past and present Ages but on the contrary by the Anathema's of the Convention of Trent have cut off all hope and possibility of such an accord by establishing the very Minutiae Quisquiliae the punctilio's and parings of their Religion as things necessary to be believed in order to salvation WHAT can be more hard and cruel than for those who profess to be of the Reformed Religion to run to the very extremities of ruining themselves by mutual Divisions and so far to weaken themselves and disparage their Religion by intestine Quarrels to open an easy way for Conquest to the Enemies both of our Religion and Countrey for some differences in Circumstances of Divine Worship And yet we see such is the strength of some mens prejudices and the education of others in the late unhappy times of our Misery and Distraction from which we were rescued by so many Miracles that they will rather venture upon the same tempestuous Sea again from whence we have so lately escaped shipwrack nay use all Arts and Arguments to push men headlong from the Shoar into the foaming Main again which they have but just recovered still wet and shivering rather than by a compliance with the modest commands of the wise Pilots their lawful Superiors even in the most indifferent things endeavour to repair the leaky vessel of the Church and State by advancing their peace and happiness by a blessed Vnion The glory of God and the salvation of mens souls which certainly are never to be promoted by variance hatred emulations seditions swellings and tumults are of no force or power in comparison of their Prejudices but they will in obedience to the tyranny of their education and custom persist in these practices fearing neither the Laws of God or men the transgression of which they call Zeal and their disobedience Religion but by their example teach others to do the same and confirm them in it NOR is Custom a less Tyrant over mens minds to the introducing of prejudice than Education For hereby men acquire habits which are a kind of second Nature And by long continuance are so rivetted into our good esteem that they are not to be put off without great difficulty how inconsiderable soever they are this is not more visible in any thing than the use and opinion which several Nations have of their several habits of Apparrel for to a mind unprepossed with custom all habits which are decent convenient and useful appear equal and indifferent yet does a Spaniard abhor the fashion of the French nor does the other use to be behind hand in his requital of the same nature A Turk believes a Turbant and a long vest the most ornamental dress in the World and wishes it as a great curse to his enemy to have the plague of a Christians hat And so it is with other Nations The Indian prefers his adressful nakedness before the cumbersome vestments of the Europaeans the stones in his Lips Nose and Ears he esteems better set than all the Artists in the World can do in Gold All these are purely the effects of a prejudiced Custom which makes People gaze even to rudeness and incivility upon Forreigners when they appear amongst us and with a ridiculous curiosity spy imaginary defects and deformities in the unaccustomed dresses of other Countries Nay even the antiquated fashions of our own though once the high
that it put him in mind of his Apostplical Function which was to be a Fisher of Men but coming to be possessed of the Triple Crown the Net was no longer seen and being by an intimate Consident demanded what was the Reason that since he wore the Annulum Piscatoris the Papal Signet of St. Peter the Fisherman he had now left off his Net He pleasantly reply'd That now he had got what he had so long been fishing for Thus did our English Massaniello by the pretence of Sanctity and Non-conformity by the help of long Prayers and a longer Sword by the promises of Liberty of Conscience Liberty of the Subject propagation of Truth and giving the Gospel a free course that it might run and be Glorified by the help of new Gospel Lights and Revelations which shone in his Army by these Arts did he advance himself to the most unlimitted Power over Laws Liberty Life Estate and Religion to that degree that a look from him like Plinies Basilisk was death even to his fellow Snakes and as if with Mithridates he had liv'd upon Poyson his very breath was Mortal not only to the Royal Party but to those who had sometime been of his own and even to bodies Politick the Conventions which he call'd Parliaments one of which Assemblies I remember exceeding the Limits he had set them a free debate being then no Priviledg of Parliament he swore by the Living God a venial sin in so great a Saint he would dissolve them and immediately sent Collonel Pride the constant Friend of his Ambition with the Janizaries of his houshold to put the bow-string of his Authority about the neck of the House which with the resignation of a Turkish Bashaw with Suchis the will of my Lord bowed the head to the execution and departed that Life without a Murmur against his Highness Artic. 3. of the Instrument that he should not dissolve a Parliament till it had sate 5 Months this begun Sept. 3. and was dissolved Jan. 10th 1654. or the lest complaint of breach of Priviledg or his Oath to the Instrument of Government that he should not dissolve them in five Months or his intrenching upon the Liberties of a Free-born People Tantum potuit Religio Suadere Malorum THIS is a sufficient Caution to all People not to trust their Lives Liberties Priviledges or Religion to the Protection of such Prayers and Pretenders to Piety Zeal Reformation and Sanctity I know such instances are rare and Ambition does not usually prove so fortunate but this it never fails of to make the Lives of those with whom it dwells uneasie to themselves and others and if it happens among men of the Church it certainly occasions great Commotions the breach of Peace and loss of Vnity And if we search the Records of Church history we shall find that most of the Schisms and Heresies which have occasioned those Great Disorders drew their Original from the Pride and Ambition of the discontented Clergy for nothing is more natural than for such Persons where want of Temper renders them most unfit for Government in the Church to be most desirous of it and to believe they best deserve it if they fail in their Expectations which it is more than probable they will being measured by the Standard of the Sober and Judicious and not by their own flattery of themselves presently they fall into discontent and endeavour to obtain that Esteem and Authority by unlawful Methods which they could not arrive at in the regular modest and peaceable ways of Order and obedience This discontent pushes them violently forward to be revenged of those who by not advancing them they think depress them or by advancing others they believe despise and disparage them and at the same time they endeavour to satisfie their Ambition and Revenge by Exalting themselves Now there are no Arts which they can more successfully use to accomplish their design than these which follow FIRST to appear more strict holy devout and righteous than those whom they call their Enemies who shall therefore be thought ill themselves for not advancing those who appear so good And by this means they shall certainly be so esteemed by such who look no further and indeed cannot discover the Depth of their hearts or the secret malice that lodges so closely there This presently creates them a Name and wins them a Party who celebrate their Fame sing Hosannas in their Praise Espouse them their Interest and their Quarrel SECONDLY That they may appear more than common and difference their Party from the rest thereby to keep them to themselves they must broach some new Doctrine or revive some old one there must be an Altar erected and though it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet will there never want some who will ignorantly Worship the stranger God and entertain the Travelling Deity then must the old Rites and manner of Worship be exploded to make room for the New and though a man may truly say of them as our Saviour of the Wine the old is better than the new so unsettled unfermented and full of mutinous Spirits that it flies and froths and and foams breaks the old Bottles into which it is put yet will even this Wine upon the fret please some Capricious Palates better than the Old THIRDLY Then all those who oppose them must be exclaimed against and cryed down Especially their lawful Superiors and Governors as formal out-of-fashion-Christians all endeavours must be used to rendred them contemptible and Odious And all this must be done out of pure Zeal to Truth when in reality it is out of pure Revenge and for no other Design than that these Ambitious Spirits may satisfie their Pride by obtaining that Preheminence by fraud and force which they can never hope for by any other ways THIS is the true procedure of Pride and Ambition and which leads directly into the Red Sea of Blood I wish most heartily that all sober and considerative Persons who dissent from the Church of England and even those who are principally guilty of our Divisions would enter into a serious Examination whether there be not some of the furious Spirit which our Saviour Rebukes in his Disciples James and John Luke 9.54 55. which puts them upon Desiring fire from Heaven upon such as will not recieve them and since they cannot obtain that makes them throw about their own wild-fire to set the Church and Common-wealth into a Blaze And to help the Discovery I will give them some Indications of such a Spirit though lurking never so cunningly under the Cloak of Zeal and Piety AND first therefore Disobedience to Lawful Authority and all the ways which manifest that Disobedience whether Words or Actions are certain Symptoms of the Pride of Mens Hearts and the secret Ambition of their Minds for whosoever disobeys his Superior does at the same time despise him and whosoever despises any person in Authority does it because he is confident
and yet had they not so much as a Rebellious thought of Establishing Religion by force or violence CHAP. VII BY what has been said it appears that the Foundation of all Charity among Christians is built upon Vnity in Faith which is the necessary bond of the Catholique Church which is the Company of all faithful People which are have been or shall be in all Ages and Places of the World and that Vnity in Government as well as Faith is the Bond of Peace and Obedience a Duty therefore which all men owe to their Lawful Superiors as the Necessary Ligature of a National Church which being a Political Society of Religious Men does therefore require a Political Government in Religious as well as Civil affairs THE not well considering of this Difference between a National and the Catholique Church seems to be the chief Ground of the Quarrels among Christians for the Catholique Church being the Spiritual Body of Christ is United in it self and to him by the Spiritual Bond of the Catholique Faith which Faith may be kept Whole and Undefiled though there be great Differences in External Rites and Ceremonies For all Ceremonies are not fit for all Places as for Example Submerging of the person Baptized may do very well in the warm Climates but would be very hazardous in the more Northern Regions of Muscovy Rushia c. Thus we see it was adjudged in that Great Controversie about the Celebration of Easter between the Eastern and the Western Churches For when Anicetus Bishop of Rome and Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna differ'd in their Opinion about it they came to this amicable Determination that each Church should celebrate it according to their own Custom for which they gave this Reason Quia non oportet propter Caeremoniarum dissonantiam rumpere Fidei Consonantiam Ecclesiae Concordiam The Peace and Concord of the Church in the Harmony of Faith ought not to be broken for a disagreement in matters of Ceremony And because this Difference made a great Noise in the Church for many years â—â—d in regard it Confirms my Position of Vnity of Faith being the Bond of the Catholick Church and Vnity of Government as well as Faith that of a National Church I will relate the History of it in short as it is Recorded by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History Euseb lib. 5. c. 24 25 26. Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus and a great many of the Asian Bishops alledging the Practice and ancient Custom of St. John the beloved Disciple of our Lord who was himself Bishop of Ephesus Polycarp and several others observed Easter upon any day of the Week according to the Custom of the Jews The Christians of the Western Church observed it as we do upon the Sunday being the day of his Resurrection Upon this Victor Bishop of Rome pronounces them Excommunicate and separates from their Communion Irenoeus Bishop in Lions shews Victor his Error and that for Ceremonies and Circumstances the Vnity of the Church ought not to be broken which he manifests by the Diversity of several Churches in observing the time of Fasting before Easter some only one day some two some more to forty and yet for all this says that Excellent Father they were at Vnity one with another and as yet retain it for this Variety of Fasting commendeth the Vnity of Faith and thereupon writing to Victor he acquaints him that Anicetus Pius Hyginus Telesephorus and Xystus his Predecessors though not observing the same Custom with the Bishops of Asia yet nevertheless were at Vnity with them and sent the Eucharist unto the Brethren of other Churches that observed a Contrary Custom shewing him also how Polycarpus did not endeavour to alter the Judgment of Anicetus but told him that he ought to observe the ancient Custom of his Predecessors Upon which for the reason before-mentioned they friendly received the Holy Eucharist together the Symbol of their Vnity in Faith and parted from each other in Peace and all such adds he as held contrary Customs and Observations throughout the Vniversal Church held fast the Bond of Love and Vnity no Church endeavouring to impose upon the Liberty of others in point of Circumstances so long as they all held the Catholique Faith as the only necessary bond of Vnion in the Catholique Church and Vnity of Government as the Bond of Vnion in the several Distinct and National Churches whereof the Universal is composed and which therefore it appears had Originally a Jurisdiction among themselves over which neither Rome nor any other had a Power So that is clear that several National Churches may lawfully differ in External Rites of Government from the Catholique without the danger of Schism But now in a National Church there is a necessity of Vnity and Obedience to the Determinations of those who are the Lawful Governors of it and all Disobedience there is a Schism in regard the Peace of that Church the Order and Charity of it without this must be destroyed and therefore there is a Necessity of this Vnity in point of Government in any National Church Now every Distinct Nation as before was said being a separate Society of men Distinguished from the rest of the World by a different Government and their Obedience to it as well as by their Place of Habitation there is a Necessity that Religion should conduce all it can to the preservation of that Political Frame upon which the Well-being and Happiness of the Society depends For the Civil and Religious concerns are so mutually interwoven that no man can be a Good Citizen who is an ill Christian or an ill Christian who is Bonus Civis a good Publiquewealths-man and these do mutually support one another true Religion Improving this Interest of all Men by making the Civil part of the Polity a Duty of Religion among Christians whereas among Heathen it was only a duty of Interest and Policy For even in this sense we may truly say as our Saviour of himself Matt. 5.17 that Christian Religion came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it to conform Humane Laws to the Rule of Divine Equity Truth and Justice and for this reason our Lord himself gave that Universal Precept to Render to Caesar his Due which also he confirmed by his Practice paying him Tribute even with a Miracle NOR do we ever find the Primitive Spirit of Christianity opposing any humane Laws or Power unless they were such as directly struck at the Root of Faith and a holy Life such as were the severe Edicts of the Persecuting Emperors to compel them to renounce and Blaspheme Christ to adore the Pagan Gods or to offer Incense to the Statues of the Emperors Nay when they were treated with more than inhumanity they never had recourse to Violence or attempted to justle the Temporal Power out of the Throne or force it to a compliance with their Wills but suffered patiently even when as Tertullian Apologizes for them they were
grown so numerous that if they should by a Common consent have deserted the Empire they would have left Desolation behind them THIS being therefore granted That our Obedience to the Laws of the Polity or Nation wherein we live so long as they command nothing contrary to the Divine Law is a part of our Christian Religion as may be easily made appear from Reason Scripture and the Practice of the best and purest Ages of Primitive Christianity even in such Constitutions as concern the Government of the Church as well as the Temporal Affairs of State which was done with great happiness to both in the Reigns of Constantine the Great and many other Christian Emperors I will therefore proceed upon this Position to shew that in Order to the happy Condition both of Civil and Religious Affairs there is an absolute Necessity of Vnity and Vniformity of Government Ecclesiastical in a National Church THIS Necessity is grounded both in the Prudence of the Lawful Policy and Religious Wisdom I will begin with the Religious Necessity WE must therefore consider the Essence the Nature the Design and the Intention of the Gospel in that part of it which differences it from all other Religions both Pagan Jewish and Mahumetan for the Intention of that must be our Great Design if we will be true Followers of Christ and not in Words profess we own him but in Actions deny him and his Royal Priesthood over us NOW the very Essence of Christian Religion consists in Love or Charity this is the New Commandment and the fulfilling of the Old and herein it is that Christianity differs from and Excells all other Religions The Heathens knew no more of this than their Interest obliged them to and therefore all those of Different Nations Manners or Religions were esteemed Barbarians and Enemies and accordingly treated and had not God Almighty permitted the Regiment of the World to be Absolute and Tyrannical this want of Charity one to another would certainly have thrown them into perpetual Civil Wars and Confusion amongst themselves there being then no Rein upon Ambitious Spirits but Fear of the Arbitrary Power and Will of their Princes which was the Supreme Law by which they Rul'd their Subjects And even the Law of Moses according to the corrupt gloss of the Scribes and Pharisees said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy Matt. 5.43 and according to the letter of it Exacted Life for Life Eye for Eye Tooth for Tooth But when the Eternal Son of the Blessed came into the World both to Redeem it and Renew it to Exalt men who were sunk into a Degeneracy below the Beasts that Perish and to make them partakers of the Divine Nature he teaches another Doctrine very harsh to Flesh and Blood but such as would in reality make them resemble God their Heavenly Father He teaches them to Love their Enemies to Bless them that Curse us to do good to them that hate us to Pray for them that despightfully Vse us and Persecute us by which Methods we shall come to be the true Children of the true God whose Glorious Sun riseth upon the Evil and the Good Matt. 5.44 45. and whose fruitful Showers fall upon the Just and the Vnjust This Love he makes the Foundation of Religion which he was to introduce into the World proceeding from the infinite Love of God to Mankind from the God of Love and therefore he tells us that the whole Law is comprised in these two Commandments Matt. 22.37 38 39 40. to Love God and our Neighbour And therefore he does so often repeat that which he calls the New Commandment Joh. 13.34 35. A new Commandment I give unto you That ye Love one another as I have Loved you that ye also Love one another by this shall all men know that you are my Disciples if ye have Love one for another And what he taught he also confirmed by his Example In that he died for us when we were Enemies NOW the Command being Vniversal to all those who are the Disciples of Christ they who hate another because they differ or dissent from them in some things which Christ having left indifferent has therefore left to the Wisdom of those with whom he intrusted the Government of the Church to determine as they shall Judge most conducive to this great Design of Charity cannot be the true Disciples of Christ 1 Joh. 4.40 for If any man say I love God and hate his Brother he is a Lyar. And therefore the holy Apostles and particularly the beloved Disciple St. John lays such weight upon this Duty and so frequently commands it that his three Epistles are scarce any thing else but a repetition of that Command and the reasons for it which brings into mind what I have somewhere read of that Apostle that in his extreme old age residing at Ephesus and governing the Churches of the lesser Asia when he was not able to perform the Offices of the Church yet he would be carried in his chair to the Assembly of Christians where he would several times repeat this Sentence My little Children love one another and being demanded the reason of this short but Excellent Sermon he made answer to this Effect because It did comprise the sum of all Religion and that Charity would cover a multitude of other faults And therefore St. Paul doubts not to give it the preheminence above the two other principal Graces 1 Cor. 13.13 Now says he abideth Faith Hope and Charity but the greatest of these is Charity For when Hope shall be compleated by possession and Faith changed into Fruition then shall Charity be most triumphant as being the Life of Heaven and the pleasing imployment of a glorious Eternity And certainly it is this love unseigned both towards God and towards our Brethren that is so of the Essence of Religion that without both these it is but a meer Impostor for no person can truely fear God who does not smcerely love him and no man loves God sincerely who does not love his Brother also 1 Tim. 5.1 For the End of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience and Faith Vnfeined NOW taking this for a Foundation which no good Christian can deny I proceed to shew that it is absolutely impossible to maintain this Charity without Vnity both of Faith and Government in a National Church and to make it evident I should need no stronger Argument than what the holy Apostle St. Paul subjoyns in the words following those of his last repeated From which says he some having swerved have turned aside to vain Jangling Here is the source of all the Churches Miseries this vain jangling has ever been the occasion of all those Dissentions and Divisions those mischievous Quarrels which have not confined themselves to Words but have proceeded to the Outrages of Blows and Blood it is want of Charity and that
attain Salvation as Disobedience to the Government of the Church your Mother Who lose all Charity the substance of Religion for the Watry shadow that appears in the smooth but treacherous face of the specious words of Reformation and greater degrees of Purity not considering in the mean time that these are all the best of them but outward Forms of Godliness common to the Good and Bad but that Charity and Obedience in order to Brotherly Vnity are the Power and the Life the Soul and very Essence of all true Religion With these Religion may be false but without the other it can never be true Esay 5.21 Wo unto them says the Prophet that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight And what can be more Evident than that these People must be so to the highest degrees of Folly and Frenzy who expose the Peace and Well-fare of the Church to ruine and Distruction in complaisance to their private ill-grounded Opinions in mere matters of Indifferency who neglect a certain Duty for a Doubtful Supposition and have less Esteem for Charity than a Scruple or a Fancy who by their obstinate Practice so contrary to all Antiquity and so wholly new and therefore Vncertain set themselves in the Throne of Wisdom and Prudence much above all the Learned Pious and glorious Governors of the Church Saints and Martyrs which have been in all Ages since the Son of God laid the Foundation of it with his precious Blood Nay even above the Son of God himself who not only left that Government in his Church as shall be shewn hereafter but by the Miraculous continuance and preservation of that Government has manifested that he does approve it and that he has upheld it by his mighty Power and Wisdom LET Dissenters therefore shew us perspicuously when there was any other Government in the Church than that of Bishops Let them shew us when ever the Church was without a Publique Liturgy since that composed by St. James When ever Christians were without Priests to attend the Altar Heb. 13.10 of which they who serve the Jewish Tabernacle have no right to Eat or that these were of the Peoples chusing and not Ordained by Bishops to their Sacred Function Let them shew us where ever any person was permitted to Entertain the People with a long Extempore Prayer more to the displaying his own Abilities than to edify them more to disparage others who cannot who dare not if they can be so bold with the Dreadful Majesty of Heaven than to bring them into Charity with such Persons whose considerative Modesty stands amazed at the thoughts of the Divine Omnipotence as having been taught by the Holy Spirit Eccles 5.1 2. That God is in Heaven and we on Earth and therefore our words ought to be few and that it is a foolish Presumption to think we can please him by breaking his commands by being rash with our Mouths and hasty with our hearts to utter any thing before God for they who do so consider not that they give the sacrifice of Fools Rom. 3.8 and do Evil which an Apostle tells us we must not at any Rate be guilty of not though we may reasonably hope for a good Effect from evil Actions whose Damnation he there says is just LET them shew us these things either positively commanded of God or prohibited Universally practised by the Church or condemned or otherways let them confess that they are wiser than the Generations of their Fore-fathers in Christ wiser than the Apostles and all the holy Martyrs who with their Blood Sealed and Delivered the Truth of these things down to us And if they will call these Practices Antichristian Superstitious and Unlawful if they will tear off the Ornaments of their Mother nay and Murther her too because she will not consent to betray her self and her trust to their Novel Wisdom if they will more barbaroufly than the Roman Souldiers rend the seamless Coat of Christ to patch up another of their own Inventions we must pity them and pray for them in the Language of our blessed Jesus Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luk. 23.34 and yet even that Charity does not deprive us of using all Lawful ways and means to defend our selves from their injurious incroachments nor is it meant that our Charity ought to be so defenceless as voluntarily to Expose us to their Injustice and Cruelty And that glorious Law which commands us to love and pray for our Enemies does not oblige us to offer our throats a Sacrifice to their Swords nor are we bound to be so kind to them as to be Cruel to our selves I could heartily wish the sad Effects of the Decay of Christian Charity among us were only the Cloudy apparitions of my own fears and imaginations Airy Combats and Meteors of the Mind But alas we may but too sorrowfully invert the saying of the Royal Prophet Psal 44.7 We have heard with our Ears and our Fathers have told us nay miserable people that we are we have seen with our Eyes these afflicting Truths For no sooner was the Church of England stept out of the Errors and Darkness of Rome but the Devil the great Incendiary of the World envious of our Happiness begun to sow the Tares of Dissention among us I will not repeat the Names of those Authors of our Misery but I desire all Dissenters of what Names soever to consider what have been the Effects of these Differences which for this 80 years they have with such Hereditary Violence and Animosity maintained against the Church of England What is it that has banish't all Charity from the Minds and Lives of Men What is it that has made all those Heats Strifes and Divisions those bitter Railings that Hatred Emulation and at last Separation from the Communion of Saints which is one Article of our Faith between people of different Opinions What is it therefore that has sacrificed Faith to Opinion From what Fountain flow'd all those fearful streams of blood which so lately staind our yet blushing Fields Scaffolds nay our very Temples and Altars From what Coast blew those Whirlwinds of Rebellion and Sedition not privy but publique Conspiracy which threw down all Crowns and Mitres Churches and Palaces every thing Sacred and Civil which occasion'd the ruine of so many Millions of Souls Bodies and Estates This Cloud which was at first no bigger than a Mans hand which afterwards cover'd the face of the Heavens with Storms and Tempests Thunder and Lightning like the dismal Plague of Egypt Fire mingled with Hail was nothing but the dislike which some persons had that their sense was not made the standard of Religion and because contrary to their good liking some Ceremonies were thought fit to be retained in the Church as being of great Antiquity of Excellent Use and necessity which they would have had totally abolished THESE men whose Tempers were warmer
than their Charity and whose Zeal was much too heavy for their Judgment either not considering or not caring what must be the necessary consequences of these sparks of Dissention set their Lungs to work as well as their Wits to blow them up into a Flame pretending to the Vnwary that that Fire which was indeed of their own kindling was the only Gospel Light and that which by its future Effects has proved it self a Portentous Comet was the Day star from on high which was sent to visit them to lead them to Eternal Light under the Glorious Sun of Righteousness Had it burnt like the kind and wondrous lambent flame in Moses his bush without consuming it we might have been induced to believe that God was in the Fire But alas it was too ravenous to permit us to continue in that belief and the World has found by dear Experience that it was of the Extraction of that Fire St. James describes unto us Jam. 3.6.8 Behold says he how great a matter a little Fire kindleth and the Tongue is a Fire a World of Iniquity it sets on fire the whole Course of Nature and it is set on fire of Hell being an untamable little Animal an unruly Evil full of deadly Poison Especially when therewith we bless God even the Father and curse Men who are made after the similitude of God HOWEVER to justifie their Division and Dislike they did indeavour with might and main to pull down Babylon as they call'd not only Rome but the Reformation that being the odious name of whatever displeases them because it was not model'd according to that Platform which they therefore fancied because it was of their own devising Discourses full of Gall and Wormwood instead of Meekness and Humility flew like lightning from their Pens as well as Invectives and bitter Reproaches from their Mouths And to make some shew that they were not without Reason a new Frame of Church Government wholy unpresidented and never before practiced was minted at Geneva This glistering Medal as the coursest Medals will do when they come first off the Mint shone with such a dazeling lustre in the Eyes of those who Coïn'd it as the silver shrines of Diana did in the Opinion of Demetrius and presently I will not say positively for the same Reasons it gain'd as many and as tumultuous Worshippers who like the wild Ephesians cri'd up this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Thunderbolt newly dropt from the Clouds with as much Ernestness and as little Reason Where some crïed one thing Acts 19.32 and some another for the Assembly was confused as it always happens where any thing is managed by Tumult and Passion and the greater part knew not wherefore they were come together but some there were who did and they who did not yet were made believe they were as good as the best Yet was not even this Glorious and thorough Reformation though new run and cast so pure and perfect from all the dross of Superstition and Corruption but that some of quicker sight and sounder Judgment among themselves espied some Babylonish rust upon it and straight they began after the Example of Presbytery to make use of their Christian Liberty and to separate likewise the Pure from the Vile THUS was the Unfortunate Ichabod of Presbytery born amongst us with the Death of his Mother and the Dismal overthrow of the Holy Church 1 Sam. 4. The Glory departed from our Israel the Ark was lost and there was a great slaughter among the People Then arose whole swarms of Sects or rather Insects in Religion with guilded Wings but Scorpions Tayls painted Bodies but still poisonous Stings and as if Beelzebub the God of Flies and Ekron had been let loose among us nothing was heard but the confused buzzing of these differing Opinions who all pretended to gather Honey for the Hive but were in truth Sacrilegious Robbers agreeing in nothing but their mutual hatred and common design against the Church of England whose utter Extirpation was the mark of their United Conspiracy in order afterwards every one to Establish themselves not only upon hers but the Ruine of their differing Confederates THESE have been and I wish I could say they were not at present the sad natural and necessary Effects of breaking the Unity of Government in the outward Administration of the Service of God which crumbles a glorious Church into the Epicurean Atoms of Faction and Confusion till at last there remains little of it besides the Name and most certainly they who have once shaken hands with this Vnity must of necessity in a short time take their leave of Charity for these are the Twins of true Religion which live and dye together and when these are gone the tongues of Men and Angels the Faith of Miracles and the flaming Zeal of Martyrs are but sounding Brass and tinkling Cymbals they may make a little jingling noise of Religion but it is to be feared the louder they are the more Empty of the soul and substance of true Piety and Christianity So that those who do believe that Charity is so of the Essence of Religion as good Works are of Faith without which the one is as dead and vain as the other will easily be convinced both by Reason and Experience of the absolute Necessity that there is of Vnity in Point of Government to preserve that Charity alive since without this Vnity of Government to determine and give a Period to the Differences of several Opinions which shall be obtruded as Matters of Faith all Religion presently degenerates into vain and endless Disputes these produce Divisions Factions and Parties those run immediately into separation of Communion that leads men headlong to Animosities and Hatred and Hatred always ends in Confusion and every evil Work as St. James has well inform'd us Jam. 3.17 For says he the Wisdom which is from above is peaceable as well as pure full of Mercy and good Fruits and the fruit of Righteousness is sown in Peace of them that make Peace and all other Wisdom which banishes Charity with a pretence of Establishing Piety is Sensual Carnal Devilish Excellent recommendations of Reformation carried on without Nay against this Charity and Unity in the Goverment of a National Church CHAP. VIII THUS we see that Unity in Point of Government as well as Faith is absolutely necessary in a National Church to preserve it in Peace and Charity and that is in plain Terms to render it truly Christian and a part of the Catholique Church which we all profess to believe as an Article of our Faith We shall see in the next place how necessary this Vnity in point of Government is to maintain Christian Discipline in the World and how without it that great Power of the Keys which Christ gave to his Apostles and their Successors for the Government of his Church becomes impracticable and of no Use or Authority for suppressing Vice or Encouraging true Piety
for suffering this which they will call Persecution for Righteousuess sake Now from this way of Procedure these inconveniencies will necessarily follow FIRST The most Notorious Sinners shall be incouraged in their Impenitence and shall be perswaded that to be reconciled to God Almighty there is no necessity of Submission Repentance or Absolution from the Church which they have offended but rather they shall be inspired with principles of Hatred and Revenge against the Church from which they are Excommunicated and though they be denyed Salvation without Repentance in one Church yet they can go to another where they shall certainly meet with the Promise of it upon cheap and easie terms viz. those of Joyning with them in their way of Worship SECONDLY Hereby men come to have a mean and contemptible Opinion of this Power of the Church And value Excommunication from any Church no more than some idle Servants do to be turned out of their Masters Doors who will presently tell you that the World is wide enough and if one will not another will That there are more Services to be had So will this sort of People tell you there are more Churches and no question but where in any Nation this Principle is allowed there would be almost as many Churches as People and when once they are come to slight the Censure and the Church they will never so much as think of being released from the Dangerous Bond of Excommunication or to have their Sins remitted upon Earth by the power of that Church which they have offended THIRDLY Hereby others of the most Loose and Licencious Lives will be incouraged to continue impious and Irreligious though owning no Sect or Faction And coming by their Example to despise this Power of the true Church and to look upon Excommunication as a thing of no Danger they will value no Church but abandon themselves to all manner of Wickedness Irreligion and Atheism and provided they can but scape the danger of Humane Laws they will never trouble themselves about the Ecclesiastical FOURTHLY People will in a little time come to believe that the only Duty of the Minister consists in their abilities to Preach and Exhort and that to Admonish and Correct is no part of their Office and this being so easie a thing to be attain'd and many times Eloquence as before was observed being a Natural Talent Hereby Bold Illiterate Unexamined Unqualified Conceited and Pragmatical Opiniatres will invade the Sacred Function by which means Errors will abound new Heresies will spring up daily and old ones revive flourish and increase without control or contradiction the Holy Sacraments of the Eucharist and Baptism will be either neglected and laid aside or prophaned by unhallowed hands and in short those great Mischiefs which are so much feared must break in upon us either Atheism or superstitious will Worship the Commandments and Traditions of Wilful Ignorant and Erroneous Men and when once the Church is trampled under foot by so many Sects and Heresies Ignorance will daily get ground and that sets the Dore wide open either to the dreaded thing call'd Popery to Paganism or the Turkish Alchoran which comes with the fairest Pretence and the finest Dress to win their Favour I do heartily wish all this were spoken like the Prophecy of Jonah against the Ninivites what was such occasion of grief and discontent to him as to oblige him in a sullen humor to wish to dye would be to me the greatest Joy of my Life But Experience that fatal Mistress has taught us the truth of some of these Effects and may well give us terrible apprehensions of what we may expect For no sooner can an Offender fall under the deserved Censure of Excommunication or but in the danger of it but presently he turns Dissenter is received into the bosom of some Sect or Faction and then he bids Defiance to all the Power of the Church and fears nothing but the Secular Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo Nay I have my self heard some Persons boast of their being Excommunicated and pretend to receive it as a savour to be prohibited coming into the Church from these mens contempt and vilifying of this dreadful Sentence others who have no Religion have learned to despise it too nor is there any thing in it formidable to them besides the expence of their Money to the Lay-Officers of the Ecclesiastical Courts and when once men come to place all their Religion in fear of the Secular Power and have no other bridle upon their unruly Passions and Desires besides the Reins of Humane Punishments and the Laws of the Civil Magistrate it is not to be admired if they run headlong into Brutish Impiety and downright Atheism and they who are taught to believe and easily learn the Lesson both by Example and Precept that the Priest or Bishop has no more Power over their Souls than over their Bodies will not be long before they Despise both the Persons and their Office and when men are arrived at that for my part I look upon their condition to be next to Desperate for however they may please and flatter themselves in their Gay and Jolly humor of despising these contemptible Priests the affront is really done to God Almighty and I cannot see any great security in such Atheistical Drollery Hear ye Despisers and Tremble at what our Great Lord and Saviour says concerning the 70 Disciples whom he sent abroad to Preach the Gospel of the Kingdom Luk. 10.16 He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me and St. Paul is plain 1 Tim. 4.8 He that despiseth despiseth not Man but God WHAT can be the End of this but Misesery here and Eternal Damnation hereafter He that despised Moses Law died without Mercy Heb. 10.28 29. of how much sorer punishment then are they worthy who despise the Son of God which all those do who despise his Servants the Governors of the Church who are sent by him which if I do not prove let them go on and despise but if they are let them have a care of falling into the hands of a revenging God for it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God Heb. 12.28 for our God is a consuming fire This is certainly the utmost despight to the Spirit of Grace and the most unpardonable affront that can be offer'd to the Divine Clemency and against which there is no remedy A dismal Example of which we have in the Nation of the Jews That God who proclaims himself Merciful slow to anger of great Compassion and that repenteth him of Evil after he had born all their Iniquities and Rebellions could not bear with this 2 Chron. 36.15 16 c. For the Lord God of their Fathers sent to them his Messengers rising up betimes and sending them because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling
inexcusable by their own Judgment And if we do not prove the present Government Lawful and of Gods appintment both the Civil and Ecclesiastical Phillida solus habeto And till they have proved themselves Lawful Powers and the present Government Unlawful let them be obedient to its Decrees and Determinations as those Laws respect the good of the Civil Society if they will not as they respect the Religious CHAP. X. HAVING proceeded thus far in shewing the Design of the Outward Government of the Church to have a Political Respect as well as Temporal Laws to the happiness and well-being of Humane Society as well as a Religious Respect to future Felicity and that therefore upon this double account our Obedience is due to the Ecclesiastîcal Laws as well as the Temporal to which yet no Dissenters will own Disobedience to be Lawful because without Laws no Living and for the same reason therefore Obedience to both is a necessary part of Religion in the next place let us see how necessary therefore this Vnity in point of Government in the Church is upon this Political account in order to the happiness of the Society which is the End of all Laws and all Religion in this present state of Life AND this I conceive cannot better be done than by shewing the dangerous influence which Disunion in point of Government in the Church has upon the Civil Affairs of any Nation As true Religion makes men the best Subjects steddy in their Loyalty and Allegiance Faithful in their Trusts and Services industrious to promote the Common Good obedient to their Superiors kind to their Equals and humble to their Inferiors and always Religious observers of the Laws of God and Man So False Opinions when entertain'd for true Religion ever render Men the Worst And if there were nothing more in it yet would it be the great Interest of Princes to endeavour to propagate Christian Religion in its greatest Purity and to discountenance Errors Heresies Sects and Schisms as the best Expedient to secure themselves and Establish their Thrones upon the immoveable Basis and sure Foundation of the good Conscience of their Subjects For this surpasses all the Obligations of Laws all the Powers of Arms and all the Arts of Policy Laws without Conscience are like Sampsons green Wit hs which armed Interest and successful Ambition attended on with Fiery Zeal Jud. 16.9 will break to pieces as a thred of Tow when it touches the Flame The most Powerful Arms have no intail of Victory and though the Sword be a very good Guard for the Sceptre yet if the Sceptre turns into a Sword a thousand Instances will shew that it lays a slippery Foundation for a Crown which always stands most firm when set upon the Head of Princes by Love and Affection and not by the trembling hand of Fear The deepest Politicians are sometimes Men shallow and fordable subject to be deceived and their Counsels like Achitophels may be defeated and turned into Folly But Religion were it Universally practised Princes might disband those Auxiliary Succours of the Crown together with their Fears that raise them and might send their Jealousies those Envious Tormentors both of Crowns and Cottagers into perpetual Banishment For that teaches to smother Treason in the thought Eccles 10.20 and prevents the Necessity of Axes and Scaffolds Curse not the King not in thy thought is God's Command which they will not Transgress to gain the Empire of the World and lose their Souls Innocence is their Profession Peace their Study Integrity the joy of their Lives the delight of their Minds and the pleasure of their Deaths Not all the storms of Afflictions not all the shining Glories of the Vniverse can tempt them to throw off the White Mantle of unstained Innocence that Ermine of Religion Not all the tempting withcrafts of Dominion Riches Honour or Advantage can prevail with them to do the least Injury wilfully to their poorest Neighbour much less then to those Sacred Persons who are Gods on Earth and the true Christian if it were put to his choice had rather sit with Job cloathed with Ashes Miseries and Integrity upon the Dunghil of Poverty than be lifted from thence by the hand of Injustice or Violence to sit among Princes and wear the Dreaded Imperial Purple THIS is the happy Temper of Religion which teaches the Prince that Excellent Moderation to be so far from treading upon the Necks of his Subjects that he will not tread upon the Heels of their Properties or their Priviledges and in all his Laws to study their Interest as his own This teaches Subjects to study to be Quiet 1 Thess 4.11 and in stead of making Seditions Mutinies or Rebellions to make Devout and continual Supplications Prayers Intercessions 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3. and giving of Thanks for Kings and all that are in Authority that so they may lead a quiet and peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty For this they are taught is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour Nor will they venture to cut off the least Skirt of Prerogative the lawful Inheritance of their Prince to inlarge their own or take one Jewel out of his Crown to Adorn or Inrich themselves withall They will not Deplume the Royal Eagle of his to Feather their own Nests The thirst of Ambition which cannot be quenched with any thing but the Illustrious Blood of Soveraigns is an absolute Stranger to their very thoughts and they will rather sacrifice their own Lives and Fortunes than see his in Danger All their Desires are confined to a little here and their Ambition aspires lawfully after no other Crown but that of a Glorious Immortality Now to the obtaining of any tollerable Degrees of this Happy State as there is one God one Faith one Baptism so it is absolutely Necessary that in one Nation there be one Form of Government in the Church as well as State And that if it be not possible that all People should be of one Mind as to matters of Opinion yet that they should be of one Mind as to Obedience to Government in Church and State which is matter of Faith And it is but highly Reasonable that private Opinion should confine it self to private Breasts its proper Sphere and not be permitted to walk abroad to affront Authority and the publique Peace Interest and Happiness of a whole Nation no more than particular Gain is suffered to undo the Publick Stock DIFFERENCE in Opinion may well be Tollerated and indeed cannot be avoided but yet were men managed by Modesty though not Religion there need be no Mischief from it But to publish Private Opinion for Publique and necessary Truth and to endeavour to impose it upon others and upon Authority it self is a practice of the most pernicious Usurpation and Consequence in any Government For this Opposition of Opinions naturally produces a Disunion of Mind absolutely Destructive of Government which is to Unite all the Members
of a Society into one common Body of which Unity is the Soul and whatsoever be the Cause of this Disunion the Effect is always an Alienation of Affections among those who differ one from another Now as there is nothing that makes so close a Vnion in the minds of Men as their concurrence in the same thoughts Judgment and Sentiments about any Matters especially those of Religion So there is nothing that makes so great and Irreconcilable Distances between People as their being and owning themselves of differing Judgments and Opinions For Religion is like a Common Centre in which all the Lines of mutual Kindness meet and are United together in an indivisible Point And we do more passionately love those who resemble us in our thoughts than in our outward Lineaments and Proportions and have a natural Aversion for those who are unlike us in our Thoughts And the reason is because this Discord robs us of the pleasure of Life which is Society and where the entertainment consists in mutual Jarrs and endless Disputings continual Contradictions of which all men are impatient the Conversation must needs be disagreeable for who ever contradicts another supposes himself more wise and the other foolish and where the knowledg of these differences is manifest even in their silent Interviews it defeats them of all the pleasure of Converse and Society and makes men uneasie in the very Company of those who are neither beloved by them nor love them as all men believe of those who oppose them and differ from them in their Judgments So that it is not to be expected they should be ready to do those good Offices one for another in order to the Common Good of the Society but rather all the Mischiefs and Injuries which they can as Enemies as all esteem those who are not United to them by Love and Kindness and how happy any Society is like to prove that is thus disjoynted in it self is not difficult to conjecture BUT these Animosities are extreamly heightened in regard there is always something more than bare Opinion in the Difference and that it is impossible totally to separate Interest from Religion and that therefore no man can look upon another as directly invading the one without obliquely designing against the other and what ever Passion men may have for their Religion they are inseparably married to their Interest the thred of that is twisted with the Stamina Vitae being indeed esteemed Essential both to the being well-being of the Body For it is not in Religion as it is in Philosophical Contests where how eager soever men may appear to defend a Paradox yet they are not Solicitous whether it be true or false for what matters it between two hot Combatants whether there be any Land in the Moon or not Since though there be they have no Mannors nor Lordships there and if there be not they are never the poorer of a Farthing BUT in the Quarrels of Religion there is always a Meum and Tuum and Men suspect not without good Reason that the difference of Opinion is but the Colour or Pretext it is Interest that is the first Mover and the Ultimate Design and this prevents all hope of Reconciliation till one party do either voluntarily or by constraint relinquish their pretences to the others Right for he who will invade the Possession of what another enjoys by endeavouring to be a Disseisor becomes an Enemy And there are few who arrive to that height of self-denial to hate themselves that they may love their Enemies or to expose themselves to the Inconveniences of cold Nakedness and Hunger which Nature abhors that they may feed and cloth their Enemies nor does Charity command it for though that Compassionate Grace look abroad for Objects of Pity yet she always begins her Work at home nor is any man obliged to pray for or love his Enemies so as not to provide for his own Family 1 Tim. 5.8 and by Charity to deny the Faith and be worse than an Infidel Such Saints are Martyrs of the Greek Calends And no person can Esteem such as endeavour to devest him either of Power Authority Estate or Possession Honor or Profit but as his particular Enemy and an Enemy to God and Religion which commands that no man should invade anothers Right in that great Command Thou shalt not Covet Now where there are several distinct Churches in the same Nation there being both Power and Maintenance annexed to the Office of the Clergy they will necessarily incroach one upon another and because what the one gains the other must loose the contrariety of Interests will widen the Difference between them even to the utmost Extremity of Hatred and Animosity and whilst every Church will labour to agrandize it self both in Riches and Power by lessening the Esteem Honour Power and Revenues of the other it will become a quarrel of Interest as well as Religion and let any person if he can Justifie a Principle that by maintaining Domestique Quarrels must be ruinous to Society and all the Peace and Happiness of the present state of Life under the fair pretence of Religion LET Dissenters tell us what they please and if their dislike of the Government in the Church is purely upon the account of Religion former Experience has made the World sufficiently sensible that the Dignity Power and Revenues of the Church were the greatest Crimes of the Government And that they who could not approve of those Honors Titles and Estates in Bishops and the dignified Clergy could yet very well digest both their Power and Revenues when they came by the Sacrilegious hands of Vsurping Powers to be conferr'd on themselves AND as these Quarrels will be most certain so they will be Endless and Eternal for admit once of many Forms of Church Government in the same Nation and no sooner shall one be uppermost but the Envy of the others and their fear lest they should be crush't or overshadowed by it will make all the lesser Churches conspire for their common Security and Interest to undermine and overthrow it And when they have by that joynt confederation Effected that then will the most Powerful of the Victorious Party step and Exalt it self into the Place and Power of the former which will procure it the Hatred of all the rest who will not fail by the same Arts and Methods to dismount that and Establish themselves by which means there will be no end of Factions Quarrels and Ambitions striving who shall be the Uppermost All this while Religion will be the Pretence but the State shall really suffer and it being as impossible to separate them as to punish the Christian and not the Man it must be under all the most violent Agitations and Tempests and at last suffer most certain Shipwrack THIS was the true state of our Case in England during our late Revolutions the Church and Religion were made to lead the Dance but according
to the Scotch Prophecy The State of England Paid the Piper for the Presbyterians in pretence Religious but in reality Envious of the great Power Honors and Estates of Episcopacy never lest till by Arts and Arms perswading the Credulous Vulgar that it was Popish and Antichristian and animating their Party in their Rebellion with promises of Heaven and the Churches Revenue for a Booty God Almighty was pleased for our sins to permit them to be so successful as to overthrow that Government after it had stood above a thousand years in England No sooner had Presbytery taken Possession of Naboth's Vinyard he being stoned and dead but they became as Odious to the Independents who with more cunning and Address and less trouble gently laid them aside as Babylonish too and notwithstanding all their Exclamations from the Pulpit and the Press both in their Prayers and Sermons they could not prevail either with God or Men to hear them or support their sinking Cause but their Companions mocked them as the Priests of Baal as Elijah did and as they had done those of the Church of England And had not the God of Mercy and Compassion pitied us in our Low Estate when we lay in the Dust by miraculously restoring our Soveraign to his Crown and with him the Church to her right no doubt but the Power and Revenue of the Church would have been a perpetual Prize and England the Bloody Theatre upon which every Church would have Acted their Part and indeavoured to have their turn of being Uppermost AND if we could suppose that the present Dissenters are only influenced by mistaken Zeal for the Glory of God the Purity of Religion and the Salvation of Mens Souls and not the Destruction of their Bodies and Estates with that of the Government Yet can they give us no assurances or if they can they will not that they or their Successors shall continue in the same Undesigning Innocence And since these are such specious and taking Pretences with the Deceivable and Easy Multitude who can promise but that Ambition may put on the Cloak of Malicionsness and call it Religious Reformation that cunningly Dissembled Pride may shelter it self under the shining habit of pretended Piety and Purity and that Covetousness the root of all Evil may not appear in the borrowed Robes of Sanctity These Impostors may easily furnish a furious Jehu with Masks and Vizzards of Religion to impose upon many innocent Jehonadabs and take them up with him into the Charriot of Rebellion whilst with the same Popular and Insinuating Courtship he shall salute them kindly 2 Kings 10.15 16. with Is thy heart right as my heart is with thine if it be give me thy hand Which with him they will be ready to do and to lend their assistance to the Confederation especially upon hopes of being advanced and taken up with him into the Charriot of Government and hurried away with the tempting invitation Come with me and see my Zeal for the Lord. Though all this Zeal was meerly Interest and Ambition to Establish the Crown to himself by the utter Extirpation of the House of Ahab and not one dram of true Religion as the sequel of the story made appear And how easy is it for Hypocrisie to put on any shape and to appear an innocent Lamb when in reality it is a ravening Wolf how easy for Ambitious Spirits to pretend the Glory of God whilst they only design their own to decry all Forms of Prayer and Godliness and appear Zealous promoters of the Power of Religion only to advance themselves to Greatness and Power and under pretence of gaining Souls to God to make a Gain of Godliness and by sacrificing all to their Covetousness to make Godliness great Gain how feasible is it for Men to set up the Standard of King Jesus and make a Stale of a fifth Monarchy and under the Scepter of Christ to invade the Scepter of his Anointed and to Usurp his Throne THESE are easy Suppositions of what may be the Dangerous Consequences of that Disunion in a Nation which proceeds from admitting various Forms of Church Government in the same Nation Nor are they bare Suppositions but real Truths and what has been done and lately done among us and what may therefore be done again If there are any Persons who will own the Lawfulness of such dangerous Consequences as drown a Christian Nation in Blood Misery and Confusion or can but rationally be supposed that they may indanger it let them adhere to the Principle of tollerating diverse Forms of Church Government which is the ready Way to reduce those Suppositions into these most pernicious Realities and if it be so as no doubt can be made let all Dissenters either acknowledge that these Opinions are the Common Pests of Humane Society as well as Religion and therefore abandon them and reunite with the Government from which they are broke loose or if they will persist in maintaining defending spreading and increasing these Inhumane Principles and Practice◠〈◊〉 the minds of Men both by their Doctrine and Example Let them not think us uncharitable if as all sober and truly Pious and Judicious men must an Estimate be made of them according to the future Consequences and not their present Appearances which for any thing can be known to the Contrary may be only double-guilt Hypocrisie Simulata Pietas duplex Iniquitas and that is in truth double-di'd Iniquity IF they did not foresee these Mischiefs they are now shewn them and if upon Notice and Warning given they do not indeavour to avoid them we cannot remain Masters of common sense but we must believe they intend them and if we do believe that we may very lawfully not only Pray against them for the Peace of Jerusalem 2. Thess 3.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from such men as are out of place disorderly and not deserving therefore any place in society Exod. 21.29 To be delivered from Vnreasonable Men but the Government may and ought to take care of it self and those under its Charge who are Obedient and truly Fear God and the King to secure them from such wicked Attempts In the Law of Moses which was given by Gods Command if an Ox were wont to push and the Owner had warning and did not take Care to prevent it he was to make good the Dammage either with his Life or his Estate if a man digged a Pit and any thing fell into it he was to make restitution let me infer with St. Paul Doth God take care of Oxen and shall no care be taken of Christians 1 Cor. 9.9 10. or saith he it altogether for our sakes for our sakes no doubt this is written that we may plough in hope and sow in hope and be made partakers of our hopes by reaping the quiet and peaceable fruits of Righteousness That these Principles have pusht against Government in times past is most notorious and one may truly say of them
as Rehum the Chancellor of Artaxerxes said falsly of the City of Jerusalem Ezr. 4.15 If search be made in the Book of Records of our Fathers we shall find and know that these Principles are Rebellious Principles and hurtful unto Kings and Provinces and that they have moved Sedition in former times Tragical Remembrances are still fresh how with their Horns of Iron they push't and wounded and murder'd the Church and State and how thousands of innocent souls fell into the Pit of Division which they had open'd Nay Lam. 4.20 The breath of our Nostrils the anointed of the Lord was taken in their Pits And if they will still be pushing and still make the Pit wider and deeper they cannot but know what they deserve both by the Law of God by the Law of Nature which teaches all Creatures self Preservation by the Law of Nations which designs the common good and happiness of Mankind and by the Law of our Land which is made to secure the Peace and Prosperity of the Society of which all such are unworthy Members or to speak truth rather the Diseases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than parts of the Body Politick both in Church and State BUT supposing the best that we can in admitting of different Forms of Church Government in the same Nation and that they should have no Seditious Intentions or Inclinations yet would it be impossible to Cure the Prince or the People of those mutual Fears and Jealousies the uneasie Companions of Mens minds which rob the one of the Pleasure of their Crowns and the other of the satisfaction of their Lives which must spring from this Fountain and which will load the Government with continual Cares and put it upon such immoderate Watchings as will scarce permit it to sleep and however will not suffer even the sleep of those who labour in it to be sweet unto them For we must either suppose the Supreme Governor to be of Gallio's Faith Act. 18.17 and that he cares for none of these things or which would be as kind to him that he is of the Grand Signiors Religion whom one may well place as the Italian Painter did one of our Kings between Moses Mahomet and Messiah Pasquil Hen. 8. with a Quò me vertam Nescio in his mouth or we must suppose him to joyn with some one of these Churches For should he to day go to the Cathedral and to morrow to the Conventicle one while to the Bull and Mouth to a silent Meeting another resort to the Anabaptists and so walk the round of Religions every one of these would doubt him not to be of their Church and by endeavouring to oblige all Religions he would be suspected to have no Religion at all and should he firmly adhere to any one he would thereby disoblige all the rest who would be Jealous that he did not love them that he only Tollerates them pro tempore for his convenience or to serve the Interest of his Affairs and that if he were settled and secured at home and abroad he would retrench their Liberty And by how much both he believed and they knew that their Mutual Safety and Security were inconsistent one with another by so much more their Fears and Jealousies of each other would encrease this would necessitate them to create him troubles and Difficulties in his Government at home and abroad that so the fear of greater Inconveniencies in opposing or suppressing them might make any attempts to secure himself that way dangerous and Impracticable that so by being unsecure for him they might secure themselves These Practices and underhand Artifices and Correspondencies with Forrein Powers to ballance his or give him Diversions must of necessity render any Prince Jealous of them for no Prince can be free from fears and jealousies who does not beleive himself secure and no Prince can think himself so who daily finds his Subjects using all Arts imaginable to traverse his Designs and asperse his Government by raising Fears and Jealousies of his Designs against their Religion or Liberty and continually perverting all Occurrences of State not only to Establish those suspicions in the minds of their own Party but to make use of them as Engines to draw in others to joyn and side with them by perswading them that if they do not All will be lost Priviledg Property and Religion will all be swallowed up by Prerogative And every several Sect having gain'd the Opinion among their Followers that theirs is the only true Religion they will believe without any difficulty that the Government which would debar them of that will make no Scruple of taking from them all they have And because none of this can be done with their consent therefore necessarily an Arbitrary Power must be introduced to effect it and when mens minds come to be infected with this Jaundice it turns every thing into the Colour of their Suspicion So that the Prince cannot raise any Arms for the Defence of his Crown against a Forrein Power but presently that is only a pretence and the real Design is to rule by the Sword he cannot demand any supplies of Money for the most pressing Occasions of the Publique Affairs but it will be denyed or delayed lest it should be misemploy'd to the erecting an Arbitrary Tyranny and thus whilest these Fears and Jealousies play the Tyrants over both the Prince is run upon one of these two Rocks either the necessity of Supplying and Supporting himself Arbitrarily with what they would not afford him Legally and which they ought to have done voluntarily or otherways to expose himself to the Contempt of his Neighbours and the Danger of their Arms and thereby of the Ruine and Subversion of the Government or else to the Usurpations of his own Subjects upon his Crown and Dignity THEN shall every man who is a true and a Loyal Friend to his Prince be esteemed a Traytor to his Countrey a wise or faithful Counsellor and therefore in his Princes favour shall be adjudged an Enemy to the People a Conspirator against their Priviledges and Religion And if these Jealousies have gain'd a Party so numerous as to be Confident or if they can perswade the Populace into an Ephesian Tumult for they know not what then shall the Lives of the Princes surest Friends be demanded as Sacrifices to Atone the Popular Frenzy and their Blood must quench and allay this fire of Jealousie It were well if this had only been our Case in the Noble Earl of Strafford and Arch-Bishop Lawd who fell the first Victims to this Idol of the Peoples fears which for all that grew afterwards into a Flame so raging that whole Rivers of Blood and even of that which made the Ax blush and will England for ever were not able to extinguish till it had burnt the most Glorious Government the Sun sees in all his travels into Rubbish and Ashes SOME seditious Pamphlets lately thrown abroad in the World and
dispersed at a common Charge would induce one to believe the Case were our own and particularly one intitled An account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government c. where the Writer does Greg. Naz. Or. 1. as Nazianzen says Arm himself to be Eloquent against the Truth abusing that the better to abuse others into a belief of the most Notorious Calumnies and Sarcasms against the Government the King and his Ministers the Judges and who not As if all conspiring to alter the Establisht Government both Civil and Ecclesiastical And is as Industrious as Malicious to set us all into a Flame To do this at a Season when we are under the apprehensions of a Forrein War for the defence of our selves and all Europe against the danger of a Neighbour too near not to be feared and grown too great to be suffered looks and certainly is a Design of the greatest Mischief and if the Authors are not Dissenters either from the Church of England or from all Religion as well as from the Court of England and the Interest of England the World is strangely mistaken the Sibboleth which lisps so demurely in every Page plainly shews that it was Penn'd by the Men of Ephraim who have a design to Quarrel with our Royal Jephtha their Deliverer by the unparallel'd Amnesty from the Ammonites of their former Delinquencies THESE are the proper effects of Jealousies and Misunderstandings between a Prince and his People the natural result not only of Diversity of Government in the Church Tollerated but permitted even by Connivence And what can be the end of Disunion between these two whom God has joyned together and no man ought to put asunder and who ought to live together in all the happy Caresses of a Conjugal Affection what can be expected from such a Divorce but a troublesome Raign to the Prince an uneasy Life to the People who must always be under the apprehensions of dismal Revolutions and unhappy Days and whilest neither of them esteems themselves secure they both become Miserable Whereas on the contrary Unity in the Government of the Church being as before was said Political as well as Religious will remove all these unnecessary Fears and Imaginary Dangers it will beget Love and a mutual Confidence in each other between a King and his Subjects which is the only happiness of the Crown as well as of the Nuptial State Of which one may say as the Poet. Faelices tèr ampliùs Quos irrupta tenet Copula Nec malis divulsa Querimonijs When there is no Murmuring or Complaining but the one Obeys with Pleasure what the other Commands with Love and love the one as much to be Commanded as the other to Command But alas this is so far from being hoped for so long as there is this Disunion in the Political Government of the Church as it would be if there were so in the Political Laws of the State it being as impossible to satisfie all Parties with the one as with the other and there being notwithstanding the same reason that those who are dissatisfied should yet yield Obedience as well to the one as to the other since they are both of the same Nature and levell'd at the same End FROM what has been said it is evident that a Disunion in the Political Government of the Church in the same Nation Lays the perpetual Foundation of Dreadful Changes and Revolutions in the Government of the State and by sowing Jealousies Fears and Discontents in the Minds of Men it gives continual Opportunities to the Ambitious Covetous Envious Proud and Discontented to run the Nation into Civil Broyls and Intestine Quarrels for which reason Solomon gives this necessary Caution to all those who will be the Disciples of true Wisdom My Son fear thou God and the King and meddle not with those who are given to change Which of necessity all Dissenters must be whilst they believe themselves the only People who Worship God in Spirit and Truth and therefore contrary to the manifest Design of the Gospel were they what they pretend or believe indeavour their own Establishment by force and violence the confusion and utter subversion of the Government which does oppose them and their pernicious Practices so dishonourable to Christian Religion and the Protestant Cause so destructive of Peace and Charity so contrary to the common good of all Society and the Happiness of Mankind in General and in particular to the safety and security the Settlement and Establishment of that Church and Nation of which they are Members and to which by the Rules of Religion they owe all Obedience CHAP. XI NOR will the Mischief of this Disunion in the Political Government in the Church confine it self at home or be contented with making us unhappy among our selves but will most certainly Expose any Nation to the Power and Attemps of Foreign Enemies for Vnity in any Government is like the state of Health in the Natural Body where the Muscles are firm and Robust the Nerves strong the Ligaments compacted the Joynts close the whole Strength intire and vigorous and every Member obedient to the Head whereas on the contrary want of Vnion renders the Body Politique crazy and infirm the Head may command the Hands or the Feet but they are out of joynt and cannot move or if they do it is with so much Pain or Trouble with such a Feebleness and Languor as is next to Impotence it self and when any People are in this Condition they become an Easy Prey as well as a great Temptation to any Foreign Power FOR first This render them contemptible to their Foreign Enemies for Men always make a Judgment of the strength of any Nation in proportion to their Vnity among themselves for what does it signifie though a Nation be never so Rich or Populous if they be not Vnanimous their Enemies must needs thus Argue with themselves What though this People abound in Money and swarm with Inhabitants so long as they are like a Rope of Sand it is a sign of the goodness of their Country as well as the Weakness of the Nation there will be the better booty and the cheaper Victory the Conquest will pay us well for our Pains and our Pains cannot be great to subdue a People who are already half Conquered by their Civil Dissentions we are not to go to dispute a bloody Conquest but a certain Victory Their mutual Fears have alienated the Affections of the People from their Prince and they who have been so Prodigal to waste all the stock of Loyalty which was left them as a Patrimony from their Ancestors will easily be tempted to sell the Reversion of their Allegiance to a new Soveraign Nor shall an Invader ever need to fear a Party who for ready Money in hand and large Promises of future Payments and Gratifications in whatever they demand which he may Pay he knows as he pleases will not either actually joyn with him or
did not believe the Theological Point of Transubstantiation and when nothing else would do then the killing Question What say you to the Sacrament of the Altar was sure to turn them over to the Secular Power for Hereticks and it was not long before the Writ de Hereticis Comburendis brought them to their Funeral Pile But if any thing which men pretend to be matter of Faith be found by Experience dangerous to Society destructive of the Fundamentals of our Government may not we Lawfully indeavour to oblige those who own that Faith to give security that they do not believe it so as to be prejudicial to the Government such are the Doctrines of the Popes Supremacy and Power not only to Excommunicate but to Depose Princes and dispose of their Crowns that Equivocation even upon a solemn Oath is lawful a Position that Ruines all Religion and Fidelity and the very Reputation of Humane Nature And yet a Treatise I have seen written to this Purpose in the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's Reign and approved by Blackwell the Archpriest in these words Tractatus iste valdé doctus veré pius Catkolicus est c. Certissimé SS Scripturarum Patrum Doctorum Scholasticorum Canonistarum optimarum Rationum presidijs plenissimé firmat aequitatem aequivocationis Ideoque dignissimus est qui Typis propagatur ad consolationem afflictorum Catholicorum omnium piorum Instructionem This Treatise saith he is very Learned and truly Pious and Catholique Certainly therein the Equity of Equivocation is fully proved by the strongest Reasons out of Scriptures Fathers Doctors Schoolmen and Canonists and therefore is most Worthy to be Printed for the Comfort of afflicted Catholiques and the Instruction of all good People Must now the indeavouring to suppress the Authors of such Doctrine be Persecution for Conscience sake have these Opinions no Influence upon Humane Society As to the Second Note a Liberty of believing or disbelieving this or that Doctrine only in order to a private way of Worship c. Who ever denyed this Liberty Is there any Judg of thoughts of the heart besides God Is any man denyed to enjoy his private Opinion or can he be so long as it continues so But if People will Transgress these Limits and impose matters of private Opinion as matters of Faith in order to practice and such Opinions as ruine Charity disturb Peace unsettle Government must these too be Tollerated And such are the Opinions of Rome and Geneva And it is not a private but a publique Liberty which is denyed them a Liberty to Poyson Mens Loyalty and first Murder their Allegiance that they may with more ease Murder the Government A Liberty to banish Charity Peace and Vnity out of the Church to Establish true Religion without them So that if he would stick to his Demands he could no sooner ask than have such a Tolleration as is not in the Power of any Mortal Authority to abridge any man of and it is impossible for any person to suffer Persecution for his private Opinion for no man can be punished but for what is known to be his Opinion by his own Confession and when it comes to be so either by his words or Actions it ceases to be Private For suppose a man were a Mahometan but no person knew it besides himself who could tax him with it or punish him for it but if he will make his house a Mosque and endeavour to Convert others to the Alchoran to make a Party and to Erect the Crescents to pull down the Cross and the Crown would that be private or deserve Tolleration BUT to trace him he tells us p. 1. That no man has power over Conscience therefor Imposition and Violence are unlawful A very Logical Consequence No Prince has power to Punish therefore not to Tollerate neither God hath Exempted the Soul out of his Commission but not the Body Why does he then demand that which is not in their Power to Grant As for his Examples which he gives for Tolleration from Turks and Pagans they are but ill Presidents for Christians And for the Instance of Theodosius and Gratian if Socrates be to be credited it is a great Slander upon those two good Emperors Gratian indeed Secr. Ecc. Hist li. 5. c. 2. 10. at his first coming to the Crown gave Liberty that every Sect and Opinion should freely without Molestation frequent their wonted Assemblies except the Eunomians Photinians and Manichees But no sooner was he setled in the Empire God 1. Tit. 5. lege Omnes and had joyned Theodosius to him but they command that all Heresies should for ever keep Silence The same Prohibition Arcadus and Honorius continue and Augment Ibid. lege Cuncti Let all Hereticks say they understand that all places must be taken from them as well Churches as other places of Meeting as private Houses in which let them be debar'd from Service both by Night and by Day Ibid. leg Ariani and the Lord Deputy of the Province was to look to the Execution of this Law and if he permitted their Meetings either openly or secretly he was to fine for it 100 l. Theodosius the Younger whom Socrates compares to Moses for his Meekness and Excellent Nature yet with Valentinian his Cousin summing up in a Catalogue the Hereticks of that Time Commands that no where within the Roman Empire their Assemblies or Prayers should be permitted but that all Laws made to Prohibit their Meetings should be revived and made perpetual And this they did because they thought the Civil Power was obliged to Protect the Ecclesiastical and to maintain Peace in the Church of God and as our Advocate quotes the Wise Sir Francis Bacon for another purpose pag. 7. Because the Sword of Dissention ought not be put into the Peoples hands to nourish Seditions Treasons Conspiracies c. which were to dash the first Table against the second and to consider Men as Christians so as to forget they are Men which with the Gentlemans favour is not much to his advantage since these are all the Effects and necessary Consequences of Tolleration IT was the great Misfortune of the Poet Claudian that his Excellent Wit fell upon dry and barren Subjects the same ill Luck has this Writer in falling upon this Subject of Liberty of Conscience so contrary to his own and the Judgment of his Church that I shall use no other Arguments than his own Words and by turning his own Cannon upon his Castle in the Air I do not Question but to make him quit his Fortifications The Truth is I like his Title of Advocate for he proves himself one and acts the Advocate exactly making the best he can of a bad Cause but so great is Truth that it needs no other Advocate nor any better Arguments than even in speaking against her he is compelled to use for her Pag. 41. The ancient Original Fundamental Laws says he by which other Laws
may pag. 187. Vse such Expressions as to Avouch we verily think and are fully perswaded that the Pope hath no power c. unless he equivocates may he not solemnly Swear it too that he thinks and is so perswaded for no man is or can be desired to Swear more but if the truth were known they neither think nor are perswaded of this but the direct contrary HAD the Pope contented himself with the Jurisdiction of the Keys and not invaded the Temporal Sword for any thing I know there had never been occasion for this Oath or for Princes to draw out the Temporal Sword to do themselves and their Subjects Right according to the Advocates Original and Fundamental Law of Protection and Defence from the Unjust Usurpations of the Roman Mitre And what he pleads against this Oath pag. 191. will serve all the Seditious Rebels of the World For saith he Publique authority and safety riseth from the satisfaction of Mens Judgments to the Justice of proceedings Then it seems unless men be be satisfied with the proceedings of Authority it must fall if that be the Rise of it A fine Popular Principle to ruine all Authority But he proceeds Winning Respect and Love by that Equity in Government and Moderation which according to Gods ancient Laws is settled and known not by Arbitrariness of Will and meer Force which as to the Principle is Tyrannical be it never so temperate in the Exercise If all this be true then ought all Publique Justice and Coercive Power to be disbanded and banisht as Tyrannical Princes and Magistrates must learn to be excellent Logicians and Orators to perswade and win or else they will prove but slender States-Men Thieves Murderers Traitors and Rebels may be perswaded if they will to be Obedient but must not be Compelled for fear of Tyranny Well let him go The Advocate is but an indifferent Lawyer and a worse Subject if this be his Judgment as it is his Pleading I believe he will never be of the Kings Councel or Solicitor General though he be so for a Tolleration To his 3d. Objection That Papists suffer for Religion not Disobedience it is both False and Frivolous for never any Priest suffered quâ Priest but quâ Rebellious in maintaining a Doctrine contrary to the Scripture and the Peace of the Government And the Proviso of the 25 and 27 of Elïzabeth respects their Principles and their Practice and not their Priesthood And had the Apostles Preached any Doctrine tending to the disturbance of the Civil State of the World contrary to the Laws of Emperors for that End they would have suffered as St. Peter says As evil Doers 1 Pet. 4.15 busie Bodies in other mens matters and not as Martyrs To his 4th Objection Why Papists come not to our Churches They did come even after the Council of Trent till the Excommunication of Pius Quintus and therefore became Recusants not for Religion or Conscience but Supremacy And for King James his calling the Pope Patriarch of the West I cannot tell what he will advantage the Cause by that for he may be so and yet no more our Patriarch than of the Indies before they were discovered for neither the one nor the other are in Constantines Donation Nor indeed is that any where but in Vtopia And yet it may be he had never been denyed his Primacy if he could have been contented with it as the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury is with a Primacy over us in purely Spirituals without advancing it to a Supremacy over All. HE makes very light pag. 218. of the Gunpowder Treason and would be contented to have that buried in Oblivion which should have buried a whole Nation in Blood Horror and Confusion But by his Favour it will not pass so for even that Right Honorable and Noble Lord Henry Earl of Northampton whom pag. 222. he calls an Eminent Papist was it seems then Converted by the Certainty of the belief that he had that this was the Practice and not in Confession as he insinuates pag. 220. of Hall Garnet Greenwell and Gerrard and not of Salisbury of whom he says King James was used to call the 5th of November Cecil's Holiday For even this very Eminent Papist the Earl of Northampton who was no Friend to the Statesmen yet was so great a Friend of Truth that being one of the Commissioners for the Tryal of Garnet and his Complices in the Treason made there a most Excellent Speech wherein he Demonstrates fully clearly and most Eloquently the Haynousness and Certainty of the Crime and that Garnet Gerrard and Greenwell sent Sir Edward Baynham to carry the Message to the Pope not as Pope but as a Temporal Prince and that Garnet writ Letters to the Pope upon the Subject He further shews the Danger of such Doctrines Destructive to all Government and Religion and that the severest Punishments were justly due to such Litterally Incendiaries Which Speech Printed 1606 I have now by me and wonder why the Advocate should plead him a Papist Since he makes a Distinction there telling Garnet That some of his Society suffered in the late Queens time for presuming to Exercise a Jurisdiction in this Realm that neither Policy of State can admit nor Allegiance justify He calls Chicheley Chancellor to Henry the 5th a Prelate of their own and stiffly defends by Examples of our Ancestors who were neither Lutherans nor Hugonots as our Countrey men are called says he the Kings Right against the Roman Usurpation of Supremacy And if Princes adds he that were absolutely Catholiques were so suspicious of their Prerogative and cast such a watchful Eye upon the Popes Encroachments how much more Jealous ought true Subjects and Sworn Servants to be in our days careful of the Princes State who being susteined by another Root directed by the voice of other Pastors is as careful to Reform as his Ancestors to Conform while they sayled by another Compass and upon another Coast Sure this was not spoke like an Eminent Papist an Anti-Cecilian but an Eminent Protetestant tender of his Loyalty jealous of his Countries Peace Invaded by the dangerous Principles and Practices of Romanists as he calls them in another passage IN short Garnet at his Execution declared that whatsoever he had acknowledged in his Examination was true and there he did Confess that he was Privy to the Conspiracy by way of Advice upon Catesbyes Quere Whether for the good of the Church some Innocents might not perish with the Nocents and upon his Affirmative they proceeded I am as willing to be Charitable as the Advocate and think with King James that the generality of Catholiques did abhor such a Detestable Conspiracy no less than himself But what of all that It was not from any want of Industry in the Jesuits to corrupt their Loyalty and Allegiance or prevented by any Principles infused by the Roman Religion From any Writings of that Age which were full of nothing but Treason and Rebellion the
Divine Truths of Worshipping God which you pretend to have discovered If you are certain shew it us that we may be so too Truths of this Nature must be clear and shining Error is dark and obscure If you are not certain as it is impossible you should you are certainly Proud and Presumptuous to Despise Dominions and speak evil of Dignities which God has appointed in both Church and State And if it be certain that you are in Error and fight against God while you disturb the Peace of the World destroy Charity Peace and Concord by Hatred Strifes Seditions do you think that you shall ever see God to receive the Blessing of the Peace-Makers who shall be called the Children of God If Bishops be the true Shepherds as is Evident from Scripture Antiquity Oecumenical Councels and the Testimony of all those Martyrs the spirits of Just Men now made Perfect how will you answer the Chief Shepherd and Great Bishop of Souls at his appearing for climbing over into his Fold for Stealing and Killing and Destroying both the Sheep and the Shepherds How will you answer for all the Blood which has already been shed in the Quarrel to maintain your Vsurpations upon all things Civil and Sacred For all those Injuries Oppressions Spoiles Devastations and that Sacriledge which you have been the occasion of whilest you pretended by the Sword of Rebellion to Erect your Government Do you think that when God makes Inquisition for Blood Psal 9. that he will not remember the Complaint of the Poor the souls of so many Pious Innocents and their blood Cries like Abels but above all the blood of the Royal Martyr with those that St. John saw under the Altar crye aloud and of those who served at his Altar here Quousque Domine How long Lord Holy and true dost thou not Avenge our blood IN short either you must shew that the Government in Church and State are Unlawful and that your whole Charge against them is as true as it is Black or you are Calumniators You must prove yours a true Church or you are False Accusers of that which is you must shew that the Impositions are Unlawful or your Disobedience must be so and you will appear to be the Devils Factors and not Gods Ministers whilest you preach Religion to Destroy it and your Disobedience to indifferent things will be Damnable sin You will be accountable not only for your own Guilt but for that of all those who deceived by your Example and Doctrine Glory in what is the shame of Christianity thinking Reformation consists in Ruine and true Religion in open Rebellion and that to be a Friend of God it is requisite a man should be an Enemy to his Church IN the Name of God therefore consider seriously of these things If this be true Receive it and Repent if it be False shew it Where and in What for I profess my self as willing to embrace Truth from you as desire you should receive it from me Let not the vain shame of Revoking your Opinions the fear of losing the Esteem Flatteries and Benevolences of your Followers Mislead you Truth is an Excellent Companion though never so Naked It is better to Blush here than Burn Eternally Let not the hopes of the Churches Revenue animate you to Kill the Heir that the Inheritance may be yours Church Lands have not been Lucky to their Possessors Laqueus erit illi qui devorat Sacra says Solomon It is a Snare to devour Holy things They are Gods Portion you will bring a Snare upon your Souls and it may be upon your Necks which may spoyl the pleasure of those sweet Morsels And be assured that God will not forsake his Church for ever there are Praying Legions in that Glorious Army both in Heaven and Earth and more are they that are with us than they that are against us our Mountain may be full of Chariots and Horses of Fire though you see them not God will not suffer his Darling always to dwell among Lions or to lye under the Saws and Harrows of Iron She shall come up out of the Wilderness leaning upon her Beloved She shall look forth as the Morning fair as the Moon clear as the Sun and terrible as an Army with Banners Tanquam acies Ordinata with flying Colours in good Discipline and Comely Order take Heed lest whilest you think your selves upon Jacobs Ladder climbing up to Heaven that by sighting against this Army you do not prove your selves the Gates of Hell which shall not prevail against it but will against you If God arise for the Meek of the Earth his Enemies will be scattered and they that hate him shall flee before him but not be able to out fly his Vengeance Arise O Lord God thou and thy Ark into thy Resting-place let thy Priests be cloathed with Salvation and let thy Saints rejoyce in thy goodness And let all them that wish and pray for the Peace of Jerusalem Prosper and let all the People say Amen FINIS THe Author's Absence from the Press hath occasion'd the following Errata's which I hope the Candid Reader will Correct with what other Faults he finds Errata PAge 4. line 6. r. Impostor p 21. l. 7. for at one r. atone p. 27. l. 23. r. Cardinalis p. 31. l. 24. dele learn to do well p. 52. l. 9. r. Stratagem p. 65. l. 7 for there r. these p. 94. l. ult r. Menaces p. 128. l. 2. for Honor r. favour p. 133. l. 26. r. Imprudent p. 152. l. 22. for External r. Eternal p. 174 l. 31. for if â— that p. 226. l. 18. r. has not p. 287. l. 12. r. of Age. A Catalogue of some Books Printed for and Sold by Jonathan Edwin at the Three Roses in Ludgate-street THe Commentaries of C. Julius Caesar of his Wars in Gallia and the Civil Wars betwixt him and Pompey Translated into English with many excellent and judicious Observations thereupon as also the Art of our Modern Training or Tactick Practice by Clement Edmonds Esquire Remembrancer of the City of London Whereunto is adjoyned the Eighth Commentary of the Wars in Gallia with some short Observations upon it Together with the Life of Caesar and an account of his Medals Revised Corrected and Enlarged in Fol. The History of the Reigns of Henry the VII Henry the VIII Edward the VI. and Queen Mary the First Written by the Right Honourable Francis Lord Verulam Viscount St. Alban the other Three by the Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God Francis Godwyn Lord Bishop of Hereford in Fol. The Countess of Pembrokes Arcadia written by Sir Philip Sidney Knight the Thirteenth Edition with his Life and Death a brief Table of the principal Heads and some other new Additions in Fol. The French way of Excercising their Infantry as it is now used in the Armies of his Most Christian Majesty in Fol. sticht Parthenissa that most Fam'd Romance the Six Volumes compleat composed by the Right
and Religion LOUD and clamorous are the Complaints and Declamations against the vitiousness and Debauchery of the present Age and not without too evident Truth and Reason Impiety which was formerly used to wait for the twilight dare now walk bare fac't and stare upon the Sun St. Paul says of the modest Debauchees of his Age They that are drunken are drunken in the Night but now licentious men are become so impudent as to scorn to throw the Mantle of Darkness over their vitious Intemperance that they take a Pleasure and a Pride to Riot in the day time and to affront God and Men and even humane Nature it self by their prodigious and Publique Sins and Follies They who did ill formerly hated the light but now Men study to affront it and oblige that pure and innocent Blessing to become not only a Witness but an Assistant to their Brutish and shameless Disorders and would loose their greatest pleasure should they not expose themselves and their deeds of Darkness to the discovery of the Day ALL this is laid upon the Government of the Church which though it be as innocent as the light by which they are boldly acted yet must they conspire in the guilt of these horrid Crimes if we will believe Dissenters who blush not to lay this false Accusation to the Charge of the Government that thereby they may render it Criminal and Odious and themselves and Party Clear and Innocent when as in truth and reality the Guilt of these miscarriages will be found to lie at their own Doors and let them wipe their mouths never so demurely and say they have done no Evil Prov. 30.20 with Solomon's Common Woman let them wash their hands with Pilate and say they are guiltless I doubt not to make it appear to the contrary It is a bold Charge and I know they will start at it as much as the Disciples did when our Saviour told them That one of them should betray him and be as forward as they to Cry out Is it I Who we but what if it prove true and be made good against them I will indeavour it and yet with all the Christian Compassion that I am capable of for I have no design to Expose their Persons to hatred but to bring them to true Repentance by shewing them the Danger of those Ways which with the specious shew of Righteousness and Holiness deceive them into a Contempt of the terrible Authority of the Church and others by their Example into all Sensuality and Impiety THAT Christ left to the Governors of his Church the Power of the Keys is most Evident from his own plain and clear Words For when he was to leave this World he called his Apostles to him and Then said Jesus unto them again Joh. 20.23 Peace be unto you as my Father hath sent me even so send I you there is their Mission and Commission for their Function and Government and when he had said this Matth. 18.18 he breathed on them and saith unto them Receive ye the holy Ghost there is their Unction and Ordination their ability to perform the Duty and discharge the trust reposed in them Whos 's soever Sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained There is the Office and the Power which was put into their hands the Expedient by which they were to govern and Rule the Church of God And though the Romanists endeavour to Monopolize even in the literal and worst sence this great Power only to Saint Peter and his Successors as they pretend the Roman Bishops only are yet nothing is more clear than that our Saviour intended them all an Equal share and a Power to derive it to their Successors in all Churches to the End of the World His gracious Promise of being with them extending unto all Times Places and Persons who should succeed any of the Apostles as well as St. Peter The Church being built not only upon him but upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Christ Jesus being himself the Chief and Corner-stone in whom and by whom the whole glorious Fabrique is Vnited and Compleated THIS Power of the Keys of binding and loosing is the Power of Excommunication of Offenders and Absolution of Penitents and is indeed all the Power which Christ left with his Church and the only Jurisdiction which the Governors can exercise in and over it For all Corporal Punishments are properly and peculiarly vested by God himself in the power of the Temporal and Civil Magistrate who carries the Sword and is ordained of God for that very purpose and Design as St. Paul acquaints us Rom. 13. for he beareth not the Sword in vain but is the Minister of God a Revenger to Execute punishment upon him that doeth Evil. AN Instance of this terrible Sentence of Excommunication we have inflicted upon the Incestuous Corinthian and that with a great Formality 1 Cor. 5.5 This is my Determination saith the Apostle In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ when yeare gathered together and my Spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one to Satan as he tells us in another place that he had delivered Hymeneus and Alexander to Satan that they might learn not to Blaspheme By virtue of this dreadful Power it was that the Primitive Governors of the Church even when they had no assistance but all opposition from the Secular Powers yet kept the Flock of Christ in all Obedience Subjection good Order and Discipline Then were Christians Miracles of Charity Piety and Devotion to the wondring Pagans when they were obliged to those Duties by no Humane Laws when there were no fears of Prisons Tortures Confiscations or Banishment unless for being and owning themselves to be Christians but the only fear of Excommunication and being put out of thâ— Fellowship of the Saints here on Earth and denyed Entrance into the Congregation of the Faithful of being debarred from receiving the Holy Eucharist and joyning in the publique Service and Worship of God was more forcible to make them Holy Obedient and Vnanimous than all the Torments devised by Persecution were able â—o make them Prophane or Vitious For why They did believe that unless the Governors of the Church the Successors of the Apostles did remit their Sins on Earth they should not find remission in Heaven they therefore believed it because Christ the Eternal Truth had said it They did believe that unless they were United by Communion to the Holy Catholique Church they could never hope for the Remission of Sins the Resurrection of the Body unto Life Everlasting which is the most ancient Confession of the Christian Faith and which with great probability is supposed to be delivered by the Apostles to the Church as a short sum of Faith necessary to Salvation NOR were they more fearful of this formidable Sentence of Excommunication than desirous of the Absolution of