Christian world that their attestation hath ever since been reverenced and accepted in momentous matters of Religion such as the religious observation of the Lord's day the number and integrity of the Canonical Books of holy Scripture the Baptism of Infants c. Episcopacy at least stands upon the same grounds with these if these upon the true measures of Piety and Religion be not alterable neither is it The most learned of the Dissenters have been forced to use the same proofs for these which we do for Episcopacy when they have not done so they have been baffled in a good cause as hereafter may be exemplified The Conclusion then is to attempt a Reformation of Episcopacy by its extermination is contrary to the sure and standing Rules of Christianity CHAP. III. THIS is farther to be discussed in point of prudence whether the change or standing thereof will conduce more to the publick interest which may be dispatched by these observations SECT 1. They who to the diminution or abolition of Episcopacy have or would set up new models of Church Government are either the Erastians the Presbyterians the Independents or the Pontificians The three former were hatched since an 1510. the last was long of hammering but was never rightly cast till Julius the Second moulded it at Lateran and of a crackt piece made it whole Now every of these will prefer Episcopacy caeteris paribus before any of the other Platforms but their own espoused Darling which they would have all to accept because complying with and favouring their wordly designs and interests But ask seriously any of the more observing and understanding men which of the Claimers they would rather incline to provided they could not possibly procure their own to bear the sway they will fairly take to Episcopacy Num. 1. The Erastians will by no means joyn with the Pontificians because they challenge and usurp a power to take cognizance in causes merely Civil in ordine ad spiritualia Not with the Presbyterians because they also claim the same sub formalitate Scandali both of them maintain the power both of make and confirm Ecclesiastical Laws as originally and radically in their supreme Judicatures the Civil Magistrate is onely to execute them which he must doe upon their Significavit's and Writs of Requisition at his peril otherwise he shall be clogged with their Sentences of Excommunication Nor do they much fansie the Independents because they will not endure the Civil Magistrate to interpose in Church matters nor have the least stroke in externals of Religion As for the Bishops though it be a grievance that they sometimes meddle in matters of a mixt nature yet because they know that what they act in these cases is by authority derived from the Civil Magistrate according to the known standing Laws they esteem Episcopacy as the most safe and expedient form and so Bishops may stand for the present till they can by rebellion grasp again all Civil and Ecclesiastical power in their clutches Num. 2. Independents utterly dislike both Erastians and Pontificians and though they can associate with the Presbyterians at present yet they hold no good opinion of them In a Book entituled Saint John Baptist they heavily declaim against them saying They had established a Dagon in Christ's Throne had stinted the whole worship of God c. at last it came to this they had rather the French King yea the Great Turk should rule over them In a Book called The Arraignment of Persecution they declared If ever the Presbyterians rule in chief an higher persecuting spirit would be found in them than they had felt from the Bishops J. O. hath excellently decyphered these Num. 3. The Presbyterians grin at them all Beza is as angry at Erastus Socinus and Morellius as the Pope Mr. Henderson's tender Conscience started at the thought of them The Books are commonly to be had wherein they oft and sadly complained all that they could expect for their expences of Bloud and Treasure none of their own was to be recompensed with greater grievances and more dangerous licentiousness which is too true than they ever mourned for which is very false for most of them were colloguing compliers under the Government of King and Bishops At last they cried out Matters were come to that pass they had exchanged a bad Religion for none at all See Excom Excom p. 18. inde And Edwards his Gangrene Num. 4. The Papists of all men had the advantage but the more sober considering men among them have expressed That all their purchases of Proselytes were no compensation for those miseries they had sustained and still feared from the Junto's and that they were much more happy under the former Government which secured their civil Liberties and Birth-rights SECT 2. But let it be for once presumed that each of those Models had somewhat good yet withall recollect that the Constitution of this Church is of so excellent a mixture with the choicest ingredients that it will effect those great ends so much pretended by them more strongly and obligingly if it may attain its just value and respect For Num. 1. The Erastians are to be commended for their pretended care and endeavours that the power of the Civil Magistrate be not infringed by any Ecclesiastical Usurpation So far good if they were not possessed or rather pretend onely to be with fears and jealousies that this Church approved some principle to the diminution of the Civil Power which what it is none can with any colour of reason conjecture unless this be it that whilst she fully renders to Caesar the things that are Caesar's she is still cautious to reserve to God the things that are God's Erastus the first Founder of that Order had no prejudice against any thing determined in this Church upon that score if we respect either the motives which induced him to quarrel the Allobrogian Model or the Arguments he framed against it The Motives were 1. He had observed that Calvin had so cunningly contrived it that he and his assisting Ministers could upon every occasion overtop the Statesmen The artifice lay herein he took for a blind onely six Ministers but twelve Syndicks yet so that the Ministers were to continue for life but the Statesmen to be annually chosen whereby he conceived these changling Officers would be so wary as not to cross the standing Moderatours which so happened as he himself signified in his Epistle to Bulling Semper fuimus in ist a promiscua colluvie superiores We had always the better in that rifraff Junto 2. He knew those chosen Officers had neither age or experience nor judgment nor manners a full description of the late Lay-Elders to enable them to sustain so great an employment with credit and honour 3. He was provoked that a Malecontent English fugitive had liberty to discuss this Thesis viz. That in every well-ordered Church this Government was to be retained in which the Ministers with the concurrence of
of Smect is herein positive Their holding speaking of those who withdrew Communion from the Presbyterians and gathered themselves into separate Congregations one Head and one Faith doth not excuse them of downright Schism so long as they hold not one Body and one Baptism Serm. at Paul's Cross Febr. 18. 1646. The total sum is The Religion established by Law in this Church from which they separate is either the true Protestant Religion or not if not then none of the Transmarine Reformed Churches understand the Protestant Religion For all of them do own this as such and every of them will prefer this before any other but their own which most men are apt to overvalue If it is then the Abettors of a Protestant Religion and Interest different from and opposite to it do confound and destroy the Protestant Religion and interest and the Dissenters from it are not to be reputed Protestants but a singular schismatical Sect. SECT 3. Having proceeded thus far that there ought not be a Reformation of the present Establishment whether we respect the matters upon which this Innovation-work must depend or the persons for whose behoof it is proposed and designed on a sudden up stants a new Set of men misnomened the moderate or sober party who lately in the Kirk's censure were detestable Neuters These though no fast Friends to the cause yet are well-wishers to it as appears by the pleas they put up in its behalf the chiefest whereof is the rest are pitifull Umbrages There is no way left to prevent Popish Idolatry which they too truly affirm to come on apace by our divisions than by condescension to and compliance with the Dissenters But this smoaky shadow is soon dissolved and blown away 1. In point of prudence It is a madness to shift shoulders or in our Nothern Proverb to leap out of the Frying-pan into the Fire Dum stulti c. or in a storm at Sea to bear up from a Rock and run desperately upon a Sand where the Ship will be as certainly stranded and wrecked with the loss of the Mariners and Passengers It can be no part of prudence to precipitate our selves into those wasting destructive confusions and tragical desolations and miseries out of which by the all-wise providence of our good God we have so lately escaped to prevent a remote possible danger and to part with our religious and civil Liberties to gratifie a generation of Vipers and Hypocrites who will never be gained by any condescensions nor can be agreed with unless they have their insolent as well as trifling demands to an infinite process granted This is all one as to put my Coat a daying in another of our Northern Saws when I know he who seeks it will stand to no award unless I give it him 2. In Case Divinity we may not doe evil that good may come thereby a good intention will not hallow a bad action neither to decline one evil of sin may we hurry into another No Casuist ever resolved it was lawfull to commute one wickedness for another It cannot be Religion to prevent an imminent suspected danger by contracting and incurring the certain guilt of Schism and Sacrilege both which are as opposite to Christian piety especially when maintained with pertinacy This is known the ancient Christians equalized Schism with Idolatry which was then of highest figure and certain it is that Korah's Schism or perhaps Mutiny onely was more dreadfully avenged than the grossest Idolatry even Schismaticks themselves will confess it an heinous crime but to countenance or abett a Schism And if Mr. Calvin's judgment may be taken S. Paul Rom. 2. adjudged Sacrilege to be a sin of the same kind with Idolatry Now to separate from that Church which in the judgment of the most eminent Protestants is the best Reformed Catholick Church is Schism and to refuse to give God that external adoration which under the Gospel belongs to him is Sacrilege in both which respects the Dissenters being criminal they are found guilty by publick judgment both of Schism and Sacrilege SECT 4. The design of the premisses is not to exasperate them that is more than needs their rage and malice is at full Sea they are already so madded they will follow their course if not stopped by an high hand with or without any external provocations but to discover their aims at present which is to make us forget their former actings and to hope well of them for the future and over and above to evidence they are justly compared to the worst of Papists the Jesuites For Num. 1. Their avowed principles and actings are originally Jesuitical such as their dispensing with Oaths lawfully taken their industrious suppression of Kingly authority their Doctrine of propagating by some of them and by others of defending Religion by the sword against lawfull authority They have taken upon themselves as so many Popes to command or prohibit matters of Doctrine and Discipline merely ex imperio voluntatis by an arbitrary power They have sworn and vowed to maintain an ambulatory cause never to be convinced of an errour or to confess that ever they were in the wrong and their Herd and Partizans have associated and engaged to believe all the Declarations to observe all the crackt Ordinances to preserve all the claimed Rights and usurped Privileges of the Caballers and to stand by and assist these their Representatives and worthy Patriots with their lives and fortunes right or wrong in a blind obedience all which are as bad and some of them worse than any Jesuitical Vows Num. 2. Such pernicious methods as they have sometimes openly pursued and at all times are closely pursuing makes a ready way for Popery first visibly by dividing and distracting the Church and obstructing and frustrating all methods of Union and secondly more covertly it being utterly unaccountable for the Church to yield especially considering that nothing will satisfie them unless they be acknowledged the godly conscientious Party whereby they keep up their reputation with the Rabble who upon that supposition will be ready to joyn with them in any of their confounding designs and all their former detestable actings be pronounced just and warrantable and their traiterous War against the King be declared lawfull but supposing that in these or some of these they should be gratified yet that will not serve the turn unless Schism be settled by Law which if once it be the Papists will gain this advantage our Religion is unstable feverish and in Mr. Baxter's expression vertiginous This is obvious our Church and Religion will not be so defensible against the Papists as it is by preserving and supporting its present Settlement Num. 3. It is evident the present Dissenters walk in the same track the former Rebels had trodden out which they are unwilling to have recounted to them because they have still a desire to follow it Those made sharp reflexions on the Government multiplying the errours which were mostly feigned
been a great noise and bustle for a better in the chief Materials and Superstructures thereof It is confessed Doctrine Worship and Government are the Essentials of a regularly constituted Church each of which hath been impugned traduced and defamed The Doctrine hath been least debated though too much the Worship hath been more scrupled and with great heats opposed the Government most of all canvassed and bandied against Upon which accompt this being most contemned by all Sectaries and least respected by many who retain a kindness for the Doctrine and Worship is first to be reflected on where it will not be amiss before that be considered to premise something in general relating to all and every of the contested particulars CHAP. I. Sect. 1. MAny things conducing to the well-being of a regularly formalized Church may be and are in their kind alterable which yet as Mr. Calvin observes nec subinde nec temerè nec levibus de causis should not be altered Considered precisely in themselves they may but if the reasons of their Constitution be regarded they are practicè moraliter unchangeable These terms are borrowed from a great Jesuit yet made use of by several reformed Divines in several important instances and approved by them for this reason because the first reason of their origination is moral and perpetual Those of this nature being not merely occasional temporary Proviso's which often vary either upon some sudden unexpected emergent or for the avoidance of some greater evil but were ordained for the great end of Christian Society and in the ordination founded on the general rules of the Gospel Whereupon with the Greeks they passed as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divine Constitutions for their serviceableness to the great Concerns of publick Religion with the Latins as Divina Magisteria Divinae Dispositiones Divinae Sanctiones quae publicâ Lege celebrantur quas universa Ecclesia suscipit Mr. Calvin saith of them Sic sunt humanae ut simul sunt divinae which if I understand aright hath this clear sense They are humane in their composition but divine in their foundation and reason of their Constitution Sect. 2. To attempt a second Reformation will be a great reproach to our first Reformers who confessedly were men of great learning piety and zeal For if they failed in their undertaking either through ignorance oscitancy or interest it will be readily concluded they designed onely a Change and endeavoured an innovation which at once blasts their reputation and justifies all the imputations of their Romish Adversaries who impeached them of novelty and Schism And if we set upon a new refined Reformation as their former charge will hardly be evaded so with difficulty will we solve their latter Objections viz. Protestants have no Principles or which is as bad are so given to change they will not stand to their principles whereas if we maintain the Reformation to be onely a Reduction of affairs to the primitive Apostolical and Catholick order and state we do not onely thereby render a second Reformation unpracticable but also invalidate all the Romish contumelies and calumnies This was the avowed profession of our first Reformers they would onely retrieve the Primitive Christianity and settle this Church according to the Catholick Pattern concluding all other methods of Reformation to be irrational and schismatical Bishop Jewel in his famous Apology p. 176 177. fully declares it Accessimus quantum potuimus asserting the whole and every main part to be Apostolical and consonant to the judgment and practice of the ancient Catholick Bishops and Fathers This Apology not onely Peter Martyr in his Epistle prefixed to it but also the learned Divines of Tigur Bullinger Gualther Wolphius c. have so highly approved that they resolved no Book extant in the Protestant cause was comparable to it Other eminent Transmarine Divines might be mentioned yea a Jesuit in his Pamphlet against Mr. Chillingworth hath confessed that of all other courses in the Reformation that which the English followed was the most effectual for the establishment of our Religion against the Romish Church The more shame for a presumptuous Ignoramus publickly to remonstrate We might as easily persuade the modish Ladies of Court and City to Queen Elizabeth's Ruffs as to gain him and his rabble to be content with her Settlement of Religion Sect. 3. This Church being thus Reformed and restored to its primitive strength and splendour to move for a second Reformation dissonant therefrom is in effect to renounce the Communion of the Primitive Catholick Church with which all successive Churches ought to hold as near as possibly they can a perfect correspondence and where this cannot be obtained by reason of some cross circumstances to reflect upon it as an infelicity The reason hereof is obvious for the primitive and successive Churches are but one Body having the same dependencies upon and relation to the one Lord one Faith and one Baptism and the Catholick visible Church and every regularly constituted particular Church is an organized Body having several Members for several Offices all which conspire for unity that there be no Schism in the Body which certainly would happen if successive Churches observe not the same Laws and retain not the same Government which the primitive maintained For that which maketh the Church one is the unity of these and that which distinguisheth one Body or Society from another is the diversity of Laws and Government and so long as the same Laws and the same Government are in force the Body is still the same Now as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever so is his Church which at first was embodied into an indeterminable Society For the Scripture assures us the Church is a Body and that Body whereof Christ is the Head Col. 1. 18 24. Eph. 4. 11 12 15 16. which we profess to be Catholick not onely in respect of persons and place but also of time The Catholicism whereof not onely includeth variety of places and multitudes of men but is to be extended to universality of succession Now evident it is that all Bodies Corporate whether aggregate such as the Church is or sole by their succession are immortal as long as they retain the same fundamental Laws and remain under the first settled Government If therefore we condescend to a new Reformation distinct from the first Settlement or opposite thereto we design a schismatical separation from the primitive Catholick Church if we put it in execution we fall under the same condemnation we sentence against the Romanists this being the common Protestant Apology We have departed from Rome no farther than she hath from the ancient Church and her self and if there were no other reason for this our secession as there is viz. That we embraced Christianity before S. Peter planted a Church there and when the Western apartment was set out by the Fathers this of ours had the honour of being one of the Seven
Concord l. 6. c. 4. sect Igitur observes Indeed in the Latin Church Presbyters did lay on hands with the Bishop at the Ordination of a Presbyter yet this was observed not for its validity but for its solemnity and attestation For the African Fathers who ordered it ascribed the entire power to the Bishop Cod. Afric c. 55. 80. and even at Rome besore S. John's death Presbyters were settled in several Parishes by Enaristus Caron p. 44. and therefore we may believe before that the same was done in earlier converted Churches Mr. Toung in his Notes on S. Clem. 1. Ep. ad Cor. out of a Book which Mr. Petty brought from Greece hath this Sentence S. Peter was in Britain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 settled Churches by laying hands on Bishops Priests and Deacons It will not be amiss to superadd how far the Waldenses concurred in judgment upon this case with the Church of England which we find Parsons third part of the Three Conversions of England cap. 3. p. 44. who relates from Vrspurg Trithem Antomin and others that they onely approved three Ecclesiastical Orders at which his tender Conscience was moved viz. That of Deaconship Priesthood and Bishops which is very probable for the Fratres Bohemi to continue a succession of Bishops sent twelve men to the Waldenses in Austria to be ordained Bishops by their Bishops which was accordingly done and Corranus a Spaniard one of the Waldenses flying thence into England was retained a Preacher at the Temple and dedicated a Dialogue to the Lawyers there an 1574. in the close whereof he maketh a confession of his Faith where he declares his judgment herein I hold saith he there be divers Orders of Ministers in the Church of God viz. Some are Deacons some Priests some Bishops to whom the instruction of the People and the care of Religion is committed This we are sure of S. Bernard complains heavily many Bishops were of their Communion This was the primitive Establishment Conc. Cart. 3. and 4. Chal. Act. 1. for which reason Nazian in Vita Basil enforms us that he rose to his Bishoprick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the order and rule of spiritual ascent one degree after another So S. Hier. writes of Nepot in Ep. Fit Clericus per solitos gradus c. Num. 7. If S. Augustine's known and generally approved rule be admitted then the Order of Bishops is truly Apostolical because maintained in all Apostolical Chruches before any general Council had determined it And Tert. his Sorites will make it good which was that is truest which is first that is first which was from the beginning that was from the beginning which was from the Apostles that was from the Apostles which was inviolably and religiously observed in all Apostolical Churches Calvin speaks fairly to the case and so doth Beza too if their words may be taken who have tricks to eat them in the former saith the Bishops of the ancient Church made many Canons with that circumspection they had nothing almost contrary to the word of God in their whole Oeconomy l. 4. Instit c. 1. sect 14. but more fully thus they did not frame any other form of Government in the Church than that which God prescribed in his word The latter averreth what was then done was done optimo Zelo if so then they did it from warranty either from the Scripture or universal Tradition S. Hierome himself once said it was an Apostolical Tradition and when he said it was a Custome he proved it a good one because ordered for a good end as a safe remedy against Schism and an Apostolical Custome because taken in the Apostles times when one said I am of Paul c. which happened an 58. The disparity of Bishops and Priests was so religiously maintained in the primitive Church that the Fathers in the Council of Chalc. Act. 1. adjudged it sacrilege to bring down a Bishop to the degree of a Presbyter and the Doctrine of parity was condemned as flat Heresie in Aerius because he positively affirmed that there was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. one Order one Honour one Dignity in the Priesthood Dr. Crack Defens Eccl. Anglic. contra Arch. Spal p. 242 243. Bishops then as they were settled in matricibus Ecclesiis the Apostolical mother Churches so have been continued in all successive Ages without any considerable opposition for 1500 years which is so strong and cogent an argument to some who have not been over-fond of Episcopacy they have resolved it unanswerable since the Order hath been canvassed by some yet is still retained either in the Name or Thing in all the Eastern and Southern Churches generally in the Western and Northern reformed and others unless in two or three petty Associations in comparison of the rest where by reason of some cross circumstances it cannot be obtained though highly approved and much affected by most of their learned men never disowned or abominated by any but those whose zeal for the good Old Cause is immoderate S. Augustine's expression insolentissima insania insolent madness Num. 8. If these Structures be built upon the Foundation of the Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner Stone the Fabrick is as firm as Mount Sion which may not be removed For if the Apostles did settle Bishops in their several Plantations and these such as the Prelatists plead for then that is the one necessary Government to be retained in the Church For the Apostles being inspired by the Holy Ghost they did then act and order the Church according to his directions Amesius himself resolves what is Apostolical Stands by Divine Right his words are Med. Theol l. 2. c. 15. n. 28. The Apostles were acted by the Divine Spirit no less in their Institutions than in the very Doctrine of the Gospel propounded by word or writing This he delivers to assert the Divine Authority and unalterableness of the Lord's day and will therefore hold here For if Episcopacy stand in the Church by the same authority that the Lord's day doth which Dr. Hammond hath fully proved then it hath the same Divine Authority for its Establishment This King James saw and so Premonition p. 44. is very positive That Bishops ought to be in the Church I always maintained as an Apostolical Order and so the Ordinance of God The Dissenters who allow of Church Government as such have often declared what concerns the rule of Government in the Church by Officers appointed by Christ is unchangeable Now that the Bishops are those Officers hath been evidenced from Scripture Rules and Precedents and confirmed by the suffrage of a cloud of Witnesses who as they accord in their Testimonies so were faithfull unto death some whereof were the chosen Witnesses of Christ's Resurrection some were immediate Successours to those ordained by the Apostles others of the highest reputation in the Church for testifiers of Catholick Tradition all of them had and still have such credit in the
the Elderships should have the power of excommunicating all offenders even Princes themselves Hereupon in a just indignation he expressed his abhorrence of this bold seditious Proposition yet with great indiscretion he causelesly vented his wrath against Excommunication as it was a Church Discipline His Arguments improved by his Followers are these He supposed Excommunication did totally cut off the excommunicated from the internal and invisible Communion of the Church whereupon his Followers argued If the power of Excommunication be in the Church Officers then it lies in their power to save or damn men But his supposition is false and the inference of his Followers is wild as one and the most learned of them hath observed for he saith finis hujusmodi disciplinae c. The end of this discipline not final Sentence was is so still that the censured being deprived of the spiritual privileges of the Church they might be humbled to salvation This is the whole truth and nothing but the truth for its onely a barr from the external visible Society of Believers not to exclude men from heaven but to encline them to put themselves in a capacity to be received again into the peace of the Church for the enjoyment of those great privileges of holy commerce which all men religiously affected earnestly desire and value A method of Discipline which Christ and his Apostles thought proper to reduce and reclaim sinners It is medicinal in Saint Augustine's expression To. 9. Serm. de Poeniten med if that Tract be his ordained and applied for edification not destruction if for destruction it is for that of the Flesh that the Spirit might be saved 1 Cor. 5. 15. or it s a Chastisement the censured are thereby chastised of the Lord that they should not be condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11. 32. which Chastisement is not sweet or joyous for the present but grievous yet yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby Heb. 12. 11. 2. Excommunication say they is a censure inferring a civil Penalty therefore if the Church makes use of it she enlargeth her Phylacteries by an encroachment on the civil Power But where do those wrathfull Objectours find this or how can they prove it It was always reckoned in the Catalogue of spiritual gifts practised by the Church for spiritual ends and uses and exercised upon the members of the Church qua tales in that capacity onely if upon contempt hereof a civil Penalty was incurred this proceeded not from the quality and nature of the censure but from the authority of the civil Magistrate who so far respected the Church that he made provisions against the contempt of her Discipline That which the Church aims at is either to reduce the offender or to warn others or to discharge her duty in discountenancing and disowning dangerous prevailing Heresies Schisms and Scandals all which are of spiritual concernment and cognizance 3. The Bishops claim this power by Divine Right and why not Forsooth this is contrary to the Oath of Supremacy and sets up two Supremes in one Kingdom This is an high Charge I am persuaded if the great Turk was acquainted with this noble Argument he would in a rage destroy all the poor Christian Bishops in his Empire or else he would scorn and deride it as it justly deserveth For the Argument runs thus Ministers by a Divine Right challenge a power to baptize Proselytes communicate Christians and doe other offices belonging to their Functions Therefore they set up two Supremes in one Kingdom or thus The Scripture declareth the Holy Ghost made them Overseers to feed the Church of God sure they may pretend to Divine Right who derive their title from the Holy Ghost Therefore the Scripture contradicteth that Supremacy which it establisheth But in sober sadness did none of the first Christian Emperours or after Kings understand their Religion and Prerogative did they ever declare the Imperial and Episcopal power were incompatible were they all so blind they could not espie this so obvious an inconsistency or did any of our own great Councils before that of 40. ever make such a determination As for our own Kingdom we may without disparagement to their great wisedoms compare many of our Kings with the ablest of any or all of them King Henry the Eighth was a wise Prince one that would not bate an Ace of his Sovereignty yet he never scrupled at the Divine Right of Episcopacy Q. Elizabeth was as jealous of her Prerogative and as zealous for it as the highest and most masculine Spirit yet she reverenced and maintained the Order The greatest for Learning and Judgment the Father and the Son were as Prelatical as the Prelatists What King James his opinion was of Episcopacy is before related what it was concerning his Supremacy which he cogently asserted he thus expressed Premonition p. 108. It consists not in making Articles of Faith but in commanding obedience be given to the word of God in reforming Religion according to his prescribed will in assisting the spiritual Power this is to be noted with the temporal Sword in procuring due obedience to the Church mark this too in judging and cutting off all frivolous Questions and Schisms as Constantine did and finally in making a decorum to be observed in all things and establishing Order in all indifferent things King Charles the First of blessed memory hath above and beyond all others resolved the case in his answer to Henderson's Papers in his Reply to the Answer of the Isle of Wight Divines Rel. Car. fol. 691. and in his final Answer fol. 709. Sir Henry Spelman in his large History of Titles p. 157. thus stated it God hath committed the Tabernacle to Levi as well as the Kingdom to Judah and though Judah hath power over Levi as touching the outward Government even of the Temple it self yet Judah meddled not with the Oracle and the holy Ministery but received the will of God from the mouth of the Priest This is evident God for the promoting of Piety and Justice among men hath ordained two distinct Powers the Regal and the Sacerdotal which in the times of the Patriarchs were formally united and inseparably followed the first born of the male kind in every Family This he seemed to alter in the persons of Moses and Aaron investing Moses the younger Brother with the Regality Aaron the elder in the Priesthood both these received their Commissions from God Num. 16. Every power is the Ordinance of God but the Regal as Supreme the Sacerdotal as Subordinate which subordination is not essential or causal but moral by virtue of God's Constitution and accidental for Order's sake Certainly God who gives all power can order a subordination of powers derived from him the one to be superiour the other inferiour and God was pleased to dispose the distribution of those under the Mosaical dispensation that as the Priests were not to usurp the Regal for Abimelech was
invented Remonst Dec. 41. This was smartly urged against them by E. M. a long imprisoned Malignant an 1647. p. 3. of his Address I cannot said he submit to any new Government either in Church or Kingdom because all our late Parliaments and the Long Parliament most of all have still professed great severity and made strict inquisition against all men that should intend practise or endeavour any alteration of Religion or innovation in Doctrine or Worship as a capital offence But for all their solemn protestations to the contrary the Root and Branch design went on and when it was first set on foot Petitions were presented to prevent and stifle it The total of Subscribers in onely seven Counties and those none of the greatest amounted to 482 Lords and Knights 1740 Esquires and Gentlemen 44559 Freeholders and 631 Ministers number enough to shew how generally well affected the people of best rank and quality were for this Government but their reasons are rather to be weighed which were these by drawing them methodically 1. They desire they may left in that state the Apostles settled and left in the Church in that the three Ages of Martyrs were governed by in that the thirteen Ages since have always gloried in proving themselves by their succession of Bishops members of the Catholick Church A Government as certainly Apostolical as the observation of the Lord's day or distinction of Books Canonical from Apocryphal or that such Books were written by such Evangelists c. This they thus farther prosecuted either Christ left his Church without a lasting Government which we fear to say lest it might seem to accuse the wisedom of the father and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in not providing for his Family which we believe he did from Saint Luke's Testimony Luk. 12. 42. and if he lest no Rulers he left no Pastour Ruler and Pastour in Scripture being all one in person office and expression And if he did not leave such as we desire viz. Bishops the Church which we fear also to suppose hath been Apostate from her Lord for 1500 years she having no other but these for Rulers for that whole space of time Or else Christ did leave a lasting Government if so then every motion and attempt of alteration is Antichristian 2. Most of the reformed Churches have Bishops all that have any Protestant Princes with Sovereignty have them the rest which have them not highly approve and value the Order and heartily affect and wish it 3. The Removal of Bishops will be a great Scandal 1. To the weak who if they be really such and withall well-meaning suspect all innovations as some design upon their Consciences to ensnare them which makes them to suspect and dislike our whole Religion as we have found by sad experience yea the grievous Scandal of our Religion as unstable hath caused many to revolt from it 2. To the strongest who are not to be offended for this reason because they are not apt to be scandalized with umbrages and impertinences but real inconveniences and mischiefs 4. The unspeakable advantages given to our Enemies of Rome by this change which in the event proved so 5. The sad effects and consequences which we foresee and in part feel 1. Which we foresee We desire said they the continuance of this Government for that strange fears possess our hearts that Schisms Factions and Seditions will overwhelm us order peace and unity will be far removed from us reformation and suppression of wickedness and vice as is pretended will be totally cashiered and extinguished nor will ever take place or effect among us For we suspect and believe the sudden mutation of a Government so long settled and so well known cannot with any proportionable utility recompence the disturbances and disorders which it may work by novelty therefore we cannot without trembling and perplexity of mind entertain a thought of a change and of innovation in a matter of so high concernment For if the design go on we shall be reduced to such a desperate condition that we shall not know how to settle our selves or form our obedience in such distractions and sometimes repugnancies of commands as will unavoidably ensue 2. What they then felt in part since this Government is traduced and despised the Houses of God are profaned the Ministers of Christ contemned the Liturgy depraved that absolute model the Lord's Prayer vilified the Sacraments in some places unduly administred in others profanely neglected Marriages illegally solemnized Burials uncharitably performed and the very fundamentals of our Religion by the publication of a new Creed teaching the abrogation of the moral Law All the Religion we can hope for must be a movable Creed repealable by privileges and to be made suitable to the designs of any prevailing Faction whereby God is provoked his sacred Majesty dishonoured the Consciences of the people disquieted the Ministery disheartned and the Enemies of the Church emboldned in their enterprizes 6. We cannot hearken to such a change because for many years we have found the comfort and benefit of Episcopacy which as it hath been eminently serviceable to this Kingdom so it is most compliable with the civil Government into the Fabrick whereof it is incorporate that we must conclude it as the most pious so the most safe and prudent Wherefore to call it a Vassalage and intolerable burthen and thereupon to endeavour its removal relisheth not of piety prudence justice or charity This we are the rather induced to present both because our Fathers have told us of the great convenience and moderation of this Government and we have felt the comfortable experience thereof Certain it is this Kingdom is much indebted to the Bishops for their piety wisedom zeal and sufferings which we trust shall never be forgotten Thus far they It may not be amiss to subjoyn the later opinion of a great name with the Erastians who once indeed had declared before he was no such fool as to be a Puritan yet it is well known how c. but at last was forced to express his great esteem of Catholick Order The words are reported Fair Warning Part. 2. p. 4. and thus are set out It is a wonderfull thing that c. after that passage he gives his opinion I should much fear that our most excellent Religion so miserably confounded by its distracted followers would one day give place to the two grand mischiefs of the world Popery and Profaneness against which there are no other remedies besides the mercifull assistence of heaven than sound Doctrine settled severe Discipline established a decent and holy Worship secured and a grand establishment enjoyned which may fence in truth and virtue and keep out errour and sin whereby the Orthodox good part of the Nation may be known and encouraged as the Heterodox may be discovered and awed SECT 4. The little good which can be expected from Presbyterianism and Independency is that the Professours of the one Sect
pretend great zeal against Ignorance and Sin and the other is aggrieved at promiscuous Communions though both of them by their barkings and bawlings against this Church and the Discipline and Government thereof have and do still obstruct the methods which she hath provided as remedies against those maladies Now that those Offices which she hath determined for those ends are proper and very instrumental through the assistence of the Divine grace which accompanies and inanimates them to devoutly affected Christians most effectual thereto they will be necessitated to acknowledge by observing the Order prescribed which lies thus Every Infant is to be solemnly matriculated into the Church by holy Baptism these baptized in a competent time are to be catechised in the principles of Christian Religion and then to be confirmed by the Bishop and are required to give attention to the reading and preaching of the word of God Being thus prepared they are admittable to the great mystery of the holy Eucharist and for neglect of these means the offenders are liable to the censures of the Church That these methods are Scriptural and Apostolical most of the Dissenters acknowledge some of them indeed scruple at Confirmation but Calvin conceives it to be originally Apostolical with whom more than a whole Jury of reformed Divines have given in their Verdict Mr. Baxter thinketh it would quiet the wrangle about the formality of a Church Covenant and Membership Mr. Brinsley of Yarmouth was of opinion it would remove all the fears and jealousies of vain Disputers Calvin is positive this office was performed by the Bishop from the beginning and Mr. Dallee commends that of S. Hier. Episcopus c. in Dial. inter Orth. and Lucef In this I blame the Presbyterians and Independents because at present they hang together by the tails but for all the fair copies of their Countenances if their wished and laboured for turn come their faces will look several ways If the Presbyterians get the start and keep their ground for a while they will soon proclaim the Independents to be Babylonians If the Independents once more out-wit the Presbyterians and turn them out of power and trust then the Independents will face about and tell them roundly they are Egyptians SECT 5. As for the Papists the best they can brag on is their unity of which they rant highly that they and they onely have found out the true way to it this is a mere bravado to which a wise and learned person made heretofore this return viz. Let me see the Jesuits and Seculars reconciled in England a Dominican and Jesuit in Doctrinal Papistry French and Italians in state Papistry then I shall allow them a little to vapour their oral and conclave Traditionists are hard at it in their confutations of each other their great heads of Unity Pope Sixtus and Clemens fell very foul one with another they cannot agree about the Supremacy of a Pope and a Council nor which of their four or five Churches is the infallible one the Popes and Councils have declared several ways upon the points which obviates their common shift viz. Their clashings and bickerings are but in scholastick opinions and niceties for then the definitions of Popes and Councils are no matters of Faith But here again they quarrel for some assert a Doctrine is heretical by its repugnancy to what is revealed by Christ others affirm a Doctrine is heretical because the Church hath declared so it s the former sort thus confutes If the Doctrine be heretical from the Churches declaration then the Church hath power to make Articles of Faith about which also there is a great bustle among them for some of them peremptorily deny the Church hath any power to make Articles of Faith but most of the Canonists and all the Popes Exchequer men affirm it so schismatically are they divided about their Church the Head thereof with the terms and objects of their pretended Unity when these are smartly objected to them their onely salvo is Their Rule would be a means to hold them in unity if it were followed Very good for the plain English of this is their Rule about which they so smartly wrangle and concerning which they could never yet agree will or may be a means of unity when they are agreed about it In opposition whereto we assert the Rule which we propose is not flexible like theirs but infallible viz. the sure word of God duly applied for the application whereof we take in the consentient judgment of the universal Church in matters of Faith and in points of practice the constant usage thereof these we stand to because if they be not the true means of unity the true Church of God which always relied on these and no other had never any If to this some Romanists give assent as some of them do they are so far English Episcopal Protestants From all which premised there is great reason and good warranty to conclude that under the Government of King and Bishops the Civil Power is most safely fixed mixt Communion Ignorance and Sin are most effectually provided against Unity and Obedience storngly guarded therefore whatsoever good or desirable can be expected from Erastianism Presbyterianism Independency or Popery is really experimented in Episcopacy and therefore this in true polity ought to be retained and supported the other modes are not to be admitted or entertained not the Erastians for they play at fast and loose with Kings and the Church they respect no Government present to which their submission is compliance not obedience Not the Presbyterians for they encroach upon and vilifie Kingly authority if they find a King they will if they dare shackle him or in our Northern expression houghband him Not the Independents for with them Kings are the Peoples Creatures and Trustees neither will they permit him with their good wills to intermeddle in Church Affairs Not the Pontificians for reasons given by the learned Doctor Stillingfleet and that honourable Person who seconded him It is therefore the clear interest of the Crown if it would have a Church National to govern by it ought to be Protestant Episcopal as a late ingenious Writer hath observed lest if it be held of the Pope Kirk or People in Capite it totter and fall That Probleme which Dr. Prideaux Ep. Ded. ad fasc Contro An suprematus Papalis sit potiùs Antichristianus quà m Presbyterianus aut Enthusiasticus may hence easily be resolved if we be not too palpably partial we must declare them all or none at all to be Tyrannical or Antichristian The best Argument ever yet produced to prove the Pope to be Antichrist is his bold challenge over all Kings and Monarchs to depose them and dispose of their Crowns and Dignities which if it be good it will hold as strongly against all other Sectaries for they are as truly the Limbs of Antichrist who preach and press Rebellion against their lawfull Sovereign and those commissionated by
pia fraus 2. The Zealots of the Sect honour an honest unpremeditated prayer with the title of Spiritual by way of propriety in opposition to set Forms for ordinary use pretending the Spirit immediately suggests the expressions Thus Ambrose in his experiences published with Licence from Herle once Prolocutor of their Assembly Angier Johnson and Waite Provincials in the Class in Lancashire upon a private Fast observed Jan. 6. 1642. held it forth The Lord gave some that exercised that day the very spirit and power of prayer to the ravishment of the hearers surely it was the Spirit spake in them which they resolved from Zach. 12. 10. Rom. 8. 26. This is a Jesuitical Cheat as it is reported by Maffeus elevante spiritu c. that the Spirit would raise Ignatius at his prayers four cubits from the earth 3. The great Sticklers for the good old Cause so highly extoll extempore conceptions that they own them as the best evidences of their Party and Piety first idolizing that which in some is mere natural in others an artificial habit of Enthusiasm as Casaubon hath evidenced c. 4. next idolizing the persons pretending to it who have been very monsters of men such as Achitophel who as the Rabbins relate prayed every day thrice and every time had a conceived Oration such as Basilides the great Duke of Muscovy and Oliver two most bloudy Villains and Tyrants such as the blasphemous Hacket here in England and the vile Wretch were in Scotland the horrid execrable Regicides and the whole litter of our late Mammon Rebels and Renegadoes SECT 5. It is confessed by the most knowing men of the Party that imposed stated Forms were in common practice in the Fourth Century which is an Argument they were so from the beginning For the Fathers of that Age being persons eminent for piety and sincerity in the Christian profession would not innovate and being also men of excellent accomplishments would easily have observed what was most proper for the discharge of their Function Had they believed that lowsie Fancy that the modification of publick Worship by personal abilities was the formal act of the ministerial Office as the cutting of Cloath into such a shape by his own skill is the formal ministration of a Taylor as an Anonymus p. 79. of his Survey mechanically held forth they doubtless would have made use of their great personal abilities in their publick administrations which confessedly they did not and it is certain they would not doe so because they conceived themselves obliged to retain the ancient Forms in veneration to those pious persons who composed and injoyned them for publick use The Third Council at Carthage c. 3. resolved Quascunque c. Whatsoever prayers any shall transcribe for themselves let them be taken out of a Copy before in use S. Basil de Sp. Sanct. c. 27. refers to the solemn words of prayer observed before his time in the benediction at the Eucharist Saint Chrys Hom. 2. in 2. ad Cor. exemplifies a Form which had long before been constituted in the Church In Ireland S. Patrick brought a Liturgy which he received from Germanus and Lupus originally taken from S. Mark Archbishop Vsher in his Discourse of the Religion professed by the ancient Irish affirmeth he had seen it set down in an ancient Fragment well nigh nine hundred years since remaining now in the Library of Sir Robert Cotton That every exception against those Liturgies of Saint James c. that they were supposititious is an argument that such there had been for if they were corrupted something was pure if somewhat was supposititious in them somewhat also was genuine One trifling objection against our Liturgy which serves to amuse the Vulgar is not to be neglected It is this The first Reformers industriously contrived the Common Prayer Book to endear the Papists to its use This in the judgment of wise men is to commend them Zanch. in Phil. 4. 8. thought the gratification of bad men in those things wherein we do not offend God to be a duty Amyral de Secess ab Eccl. Rom. p. 225. highly approves this course atque hic commemorare c. we are here to consider with what wisedom and moderation the French and Genevian Churches contrived their publick Forms of Prayer They are so far from handling any controversial matters therein that the Pontificians themselves scruple not to use them and which is scarce to be believed but that the matter of fact is notorious they have picked out of them certain Prayers which they have inserted into their Manuals for the use of the people in their native Language The objectors might have remembred that Book took with the Romanists for full ten years of Q. Elizabeth's Reign probably had longer but that their dear Friends the Puritans had disturbed the peace of the Church which gave the Pope an opportunity to dispatch his Emissaries and ever since both Parties have bandied against it The Consectaries of the premisses are stated Liturgy from Scripture with the practice of the primitive Christians and continued in the Catholick Church is the best service of God and our Liturgy being perfectly conformed thereto is to be retained It was then no vanity or presumption in Archbishop Cranmer to engage against all opposers thereof if he was permitted to take Peter Martyr with three or four more for his assistants he would prove there was nothing therein contained but what was agreeable with the holy Scriptures and primitive Antiquity Bishop Jewel had great reason to assert Accessimus c. We came as near as possibly we could to the Order used in the Apostles times Apol. par 5. c. 15. divis 8. and more fully par 6. c. 16. divis 1. We came as near as possible we could to the Church of the Apostles and of the old Catholick Bishops and Fathers and have directed according to their customs and ordinances not onely our Doctrine but also the Sacraments and form of Common Prayer so false and absurd is that fancy that our Liturgy is formed out of the Roman Missal that so far as it is Popish is nothing else but a bombast of corrupt additionals patched to it CHAP. V. THE next Charge against the Reformation is that Ceremonies are retained and enjoyned SECT 1. That circumstances may be determined the Assemblers have resolved Pref. to the Direc p. 7. viz. They endeavoured to hold forth such things as were of Divine Institution and to set forth other things according to the rules of Christian prudence agreeable to the general rules of God's word and some of these other things are Ceremonies for a determination of the posture of the Body in Divine Service is one which they pass when they order the people to sit at the Table and in the Office of Marriage they will and require the Man to take the Woman by the right hand c. which they accompt a Ceremony or else their immediately subsequent clause is non-sense viz.
God nor specially commanded N. B. by him to be observed by all is acceptable to God quatenus pendet c. as it is a duty of the Fifth Commandment The next is in l. 3. de consc c. 18. q. 1. n. 4. Actiones c. Actions which are neither commanded nor forbidden by God are not matters of obedience or disobedience considered abstractedly as will soon appear from him but are in their intrinsecal nature indifferent Now all we affirm in this case is that those actions which in their latitude and nature are indifferent are thereby free to be determined for practice and being once so determined by Superiours it is not indifferent for private persons to cross or thwart their determinations to doe or not to doe those indifferents because the determination to practice so far abates the indifferency of that middle indifferent thing which yet after the determination remains such in its kind If herein he doth not concur with us I mistake for he âdds The common nature of the thing is indifferent to good or evil as it is duly or unduly circumstantiated Now say I hence it follows that the practice according to conformity or non-conformity in the determination of that indifferent thing is respectively either good or bad good by their tendency to good that is if they promote the good of order and unity c. evil if we do not he goes on p. 191. such gestures are required in prayer which are expressive of singular humility as uncovering the head kneeling c. adding p. 124. at solemn prayer it is fit by the elevation of the hands and eyes to declare our faith and hope in our heavenly Father and by gestures and signs to express the inward motions whereupon he determins these indifferents may not simply absolutely and for perpetuity be commanded yet as they tend to good they ought and ought to be commanded by those who authoritate pollent are in chief authority Therefore in his opinion things indifferent in their nature are good from their application and settlement in good order and in reference to good ends which he farther says needs not to be always actual and explicit a virtual is sufficient and is as much as is generally required which obviates that cavil of Pyrgopal in his answer to Dr. Durel His third comes yet more home Med. Theol. l. 2. c. 14. n. 23. where he grants other circumstances as J. O. ordered with an and the like but with this difference J. O. terms them natural which he sticks not to call the common adjuncts of religious and civil acts but by others whom he censures not are called religious Rites or Ecclesiastical Ceremonies the neglect and contempt whereof is in some measure a kind of violation of the holiness of Religion and cannot be separated from it but in some manner we derogate from the majesty and dignity thereof Then he gives his full judgment of them n. 24. These are not particularly commanded in Scripture nay it s below the majesty thereof to prescribe them but they are left to moral prudence n. 27. These Constitutions thus determined are truly said by the best Divines to be partly divine and partly humane partly divine because in their highest and primary respect they depend on the will of God commanding them in general n. 24. partly humane because as to their particular observation they depend on humane prudence yet so that if there be no errour in their Constitution they are to be esteemed and accepted quasisimpliciter and as if they were simply and absolutely divine To recapitulate what he hath deter-mined in the point There are things indifferent in their common nature and kind these indifferents when by special determination through their tendency to good they are applied thereto are good Ecclesiastical Rites and Ceremonies when thus duly circumstantiated are in the account of those indifferents these Ceremonies should be significant expressive of reverence and humility of our faith and hope in God these significant expressions ought to be constituted these Constitutions are to be ordered by humane prudence this humane prudence is that of those who precide in chief these so ordered are religiously to be observed and to neglect or contemn them is to derogate from the majesty of religious Worship and to violate its holiness and lastly the observation of them is acceptable to God say Mr. Cawdry to the contrary what he can by virtue of the Fifth Commandment and so Amesius his Evidence is summed up SECT 7. Those three innocent as they are justly called Ceremonies retained and observed in our Church she prescribes for by long continued Custome For 1. The Priests should have a distinctive Habit is so generally ruled that it hath prevailed always in all places where any Religion hath been professed In the Patriarchal Ages the Priests had such Garments whereof Isaac is an instance Gen. 27. 15. vide Sis Poli Syn. in loc under the Law it is notorious Calvin proveth it from Zach. 13. 4. whereupon he approveth it in Matt. 23. 5. it is evident Christ had such a Garment and Eus l. 3. c. 25. relates S. John the Evangelist wore the Priest's Weed our Greg. notes p. 112. that in the Alcoran the Apostles are called El Havariuna the White men Viri Vestibus albis induti as it is translated because clothed in white Apparel It is probable they would imitate their Master who did wear a long Linen Coat Rev. 1. 13. this was as Martin Lex Tunica Sacerdotalis Linea so Bull. such as the Levitical Priests used Lev. 6. 10. and Lev. 16. 4. which the Priests of the Gospel when ordered ought to doe saith Marbach Professor of Divin in Strasbourgh which Gellasius in Geneva durst not deny vid. Syn. in loc and Peter Mart. hath evidenced the practice from good authority This was not then a Popish invention nor is now with the Papists one of their massing or consecrated Garments 2. The Sign of the Cross against which the Vir Doctissimus Parker in Videlius hath drawn a long Charge in Folio is for all his clatter both ancient and innocent Mr. Perkins demon Probl. p. 82. grants the permanent sign was accustomed about an 300. and the transient which is that in use with us was for the first 300 years after Christ practised in the common concerns of life as a significant Ceremony just for those ends we use after Baptism as is is specified in the Rubrick and Can. 30. Tertullian often mentions the usage so doth Saint Cyprian as in Ser. de Laps p. 217. Ed. Eras frons cum signo c. the signed forehead and Tract cont Dem. p. 149. qui renati signo c. who are baptized and signed S. Hier. Prol. in Job secundum 70. apologizeth for himself thus viz. What Aquila and the judaizing Hereticks Symachus and Theodotian may undertake that much more may I who am a Christian born of Christian Parents vexillum crucis c. carrying
the Laws may make use of certain Marks to discover them although it happens that those as praying and preaching be actions of Religion which are not therefore made the cause of their sufferings but those principles and actions which were the first occasions and motives of making those Laws for the performing Offices of Religion or of their function is not the motive of the Law or the reason of the penalty but merely the means to discover their persons not as the thing which makes them guilty but as the way of finding out the guilty Then the Puritans meeting and conventicling in despite of Law is a way to notifie their guilt and when they suffer for the performance of that which they call their Calling though as to many of them never called thereto either by God or man from and under him they suffer not for their praying and preaching but for their principles which they have maintained and will not yet retract and the actions which they practised and still would justifie neither is their praying and preaching the cause of their sufferings but are onely the means to discover the persons of those who are of such dangerous principles and inclined to act according to them 5. In a jealous time when many treasons have been acted and more are feared by bad principles the Government may justly proceed upon the trial of the principles to the conviction of the persons who own them without plain evidence of the particular guilt of the outward actions of Treasons For he that owns the principles of Treason wants onely an opportunity to act them and therefore in great dangers the not renouncing those principles may justly expose them to the Sentence of the Law By this the Puritans are concluded as well as the Jesuits for as these still adhere to the Papal Sentence so they to their former Resolutions who have acted as many sorts of Treasons as the wit of Lawyers could discover Master Baxter one of the Fanatick Chieftains cannot yet see he was mistaken in the main Cause nor dare venture to repent of it yet dare say he would not forbear the doing of the same thing if it were to doe again Holy Commonwealth p. 489. so saith their Foreman so say they all yet Amesius l. 4. de Consc c. 15. tells us plainly They who will not confess and recant publick wickednesses are still impenitent which if they be they are in a forwardness to react them when they dare But it is said They are at present harmless innocent Creatures so the Donatists when they could not doe mischief just as Thieves are honest when manacled boasted to their great humanity toward the Orthodox so did Petilian to whom S. Aug. l. 2. adversus Pet. c. 83. did thus reply Isto modo c. A Kite is a Dove when he cannot seise of a Dove Vbi enim c. For when I pray you did you spare us when you were able and when Rogatian a great Stickler for Toleration made the like bragg S. Aug. Ep. 48. ad Vincen answers Nulla bestia c. There is no beast reputed tame because it hath neither teeth nor talons to doe hurt withall you say you will not mischief us I rather think you cannot for how will you not doe what possibly you can seeing you cease not to be doing and plotting when you can doe nothing at all 6. In quiet times the Law being in force keeps persons of dangerous principles more in awe though it be not rigorously executed who will be very cautious of broaching and maintaining their principles and consequently have not so bad effect as when they have liberty to vent them The Fanaticks are herein more bold and insolent who presume though they have no liberty granted to assert their schismatical Fancies and enthusiastical Dotages witness Rich. Baxter's and J. O's Writings with many more that we cannot affirm the times are quiet and peaceable For peace is not onely exposed to external force and outrages which is the common acception but to the not having the same mind in love and accord which is the Scripture sense and it is a sweet concord of many Souls knit together in what is honest or good or subservient thereto while there remains bitter envyings animosities and driving on of contrary interests by clandestine contrivances the deadly feud continues when men treat and carry fair in common civilities one with another when they huckster and barter by the entercourse of commerce or trade yet their heads and hearts are at an irreconcileable distance this cannot in a Christian be called quietness it is rather secure injustice or uncharitable dissimulation 7. There can be no sufficient ground given for the total repeal of Laws first made upon good grounds where there is not sufficient security given that all those for whom these were intended have renounced those principles which were the first occasion of making them because the reason thereof still continues while no good security is given or if any be tendered 't is delusory untill the greatest satisfaction be given as to their sincerity which can hardly be supposed if their Oaths and protestations cannot be safely trusted This is home to the Papists but justly applicable to the Puritans who are so far from giving good security that they give counter-security in the worst sense obstinately persisting in their schismatical Separation from the Church whereof they are Members and in their defiance to the Laws of the Kingdom For either they utterly refuse a submission to the first declaration whereby they declare they will give no security or else collogue with it taking it propter lucrum cessans or damnum emergens which is clearly to give no full satisfaction as to their Sincerity because this they doe not in obedience to authority but to drive on an interest These therefore are not safely to be trusted and as they juggle with this so with the Second either refusing to engage not to destroy the King and his Government or Jesuitizing upon all the Clauses thereof as may appear fully from these following remarks The first period is It is not lawfull upon any pretence to take up Arms against the King c. The Reservation is as the case now stands for that he will not part with the Militia or as long as the King is in a condition to defend himself and protect his Subjects which they will by all means endeavour to render impossible for him to doe if not we have no obligation to be subject For we have been taught and are persuaded that subjection and protection are relatives and therefore where protection is not afforded nor can be expected subjection is no duty The second is I do abhor that traiterous Position of taking up Arms by his Authority against his Person The secret evasion to this is yea till we receive a farther light or providence otherwise determine or the Patriots vote to the contrary Godly Mr. Jenkins rightly stated the
our Church be not left without security by Law against so violent and dangerous a party For we have little reason to believe that they who bid defiance to our present Laws and make sport with Proclamations will be persuaded by gentler means to obey others Both the adverse parties are violent and dangerous and in the other particulars equally criminal 11. No true Son of the Church will envy the quiet and security of innocent and peaceable men when there is assurance that by favour received they will not grow more unquiet but we cannot take too great care to prevent the restless designs of those who aim at nothing more than the undermining and blowing up of our established Church This the Puritans have done razing down the foundations thereof even to the ground and all those who refuse to subscribe and give satisfaction as to their sincerity are labouring with might and main to demolish it again And not it onely but even to destroy Monarchy and extirpate not onely the Priestly but the Kingly Office For so long as the nineteen Propositions the Votes of Non-addresses and the Association appear against them this can be no Calumny Nay their aims go higher than to the blowing up of our established Church even to the overthrow of all Religion For to my apprehension there is as great a difference between the Popish and Puritanical designs as between the persecution of Dioclesian and Julian the former killed the Priests and Christian Professours but the latter plotted and endeavoured the destruction of the Priesthood and Christianity it self Seeing therefore what Archbishop Whitgift foretold Mr. Fox foresaw Queen Elizabeth declared and King James hath observed of this Sect is fully made out in every period of time since they prodigiously appeared it were good to follow King Charles the First his Counsel Never to trust them Postscript IT is known the foregoing Discourse was prepared seven years ago if any inquisitive person would be satisfied why it was not exposed to the publick then and why now let him know it would have been judged unseasonable then when most mens heads and hearts were full of thoughts about the Popish Plot which doubtless had wickedness enough in the design and inward reserves Some would have said it was uncharitable because it swells with hard words as they are commonly phrased which would have been as hardly censured by those who favour or endeavour to palliate the unrighteous dealings of those who have hardned their hearts against all convictions and reprooss It will be hard for these men to prove that it is sin to call a Traitour a Traitour a Schismatick a Schismatick a Hypocrite a Hypocrite though it be impossible to prove all that are so called to be such indeed S. Paul hath told us there were Traitours in his days 2 Tim. 3. 6. whose folly should be manifest to all men v. 9. and that after they would wax worse and worse v. 13. Now if this great Apostle thought such should be detected to their ignominy a good reason should be assigned why our Dissenters and Republicans with their herd of Politico's who have been Traitours to all intents and purposes if ever there have been any such in any age or quarter of the world should not be branded with that title they have demerited The same holy Apostle termed those of the Concision Dogs Phil. 3. 2. because they rent the Church in pieces by their Separation and may not we bestow the same figure on the Schismaticks of this Church who cease not to snarl and bark and when they dare bite and devour the men worthy that is with them in this distinguishing note the King and Bishops with all truly loyal Subjects What S. Aug. l. 3. adv Pet. c. 83. said of their great Grandsires the Donatists we can say of them When did they spare being able to hurt us and to the Rogationists Ep. 48. You will do possibly what you can for our ruin seeing you cease not to be doing when you can doe nothing at all But I humbly conceive fairer pleas and pretences may be made for the Separatists of the Circumcision than can be contrived for the present Dissenters and I believe those Scribes and Pharisees whom S. John Baptist called a generation of Vipers were not a brood of so venemous Creatures as the generality of these be Our Lord and Saviour bids his Disciples beware of false Prophets as of ravening Wolves but these will never be known so as to be marked and avoided as S. Paul exhorts unless some marks be set upon them now who should doe this but they who are charged to discover the Wolves and as Watchmen and Shepherds to give notice of their approach especially when they appear in their assumed counterfeit harmless habit Indeed great zeal is pretended to keep out the Roman Wolf and some over-wise projectours seem to think the surest way to effect this is to let in other grievous Wolves make an Union joyn in an Association and in a defensive and offensive League with them who have once driven this Church into a Wilderness when all Israel were scattered upon the hills as Sheep that had no Shepherd But others much more wise and truly moderate than they did believe that would make a ready way for the Conclave Wolf to catch his prey whereof if he missed we should under pretence of stopping one gap set open an hundred gates to misery and confusion by bringing in a vast number of damnable Heresies and an unaccountable Schism It may be remembred that not long since as the vogue went there was a design to unite the Roman and Reformed Churches which though it was much more honourable and piously Christian than this so lately upon the stocks and as it is to be reasonably supposed still endeavoured by double-minded and unstable men who are given to change and by absurd and unreasonable men who count gain godliness yet this way was by the troublers of Israel cried down as a politick fetch and contrivance for the reduction of Popery notwithstanding their great Bell-weather Mr. Baxter had declared that that desire of reconciliation with Rome was with such additions as might bear a tolerable sense and for his part he was persuaded the Papists were as much afraid of King Charles well fare him for this and the Grotian design as of any thing that of a long time had been hatched against them But whatsoever may be said either against or for that the late balderdash project must not take For we are resolved to stand in defence of our Divine Monarchy nor will not be contented with a titular Isle of Wight King who may bear the name but God knows who should go away with the authority Neither can we part with our Apostolical Catholick Episcopacy to take a day it will not be of much longer standing of truce with those who have forfeited their Faith with God the King and the Church nor will we be pleased with
an ambulatory or menstruous Creed nor with an arbitrary monstrous superintendency voted and unvoted and revoted backward and forward according to the sense and interests of the Chairman and his crew in S. Stephen's Chapel Neither will we be satisfied or own a civil or common Law hotch-potch Church according to the device of the Counter-plot as the three Inventors gave it a Name one whereof is an outlawed Traitour the second a Church Trepanner the third a giddy Changeling For I demand Was the Church of England when Popish a true constituted Church according to its first settlement by Christ and his Apostles and subsequent example of the Primitive Church because it was so established by Law or not If it were we have done the Papists business they need not prove us we have proclaimed our selves Schismaticks in separating from a true constituted Church by Christ's and the Apostles order antecedently such before any humane Sanction if not then a legal settlement may be Antichristian which in that very respect stands in great need of a Reformation For as to attempt a Reformation of that which is founded on Divine Authority and stands by Divine Law is a contradiction to the indispensable and irrevocable will of the Founder so to reform what hath been introduced by mere humane authority without any warranty either general or special from a grant of our Law-giver is a pious Christian duty provided that in the management thereof nothing be done repugnant to any other Divine Law and our duty But let what can be suggested for the promotion of this new project it will be baffled by the two notorious Ringleaders of the Faction For if Mr. Baxter's onely true way of concord will not pass he and his Comrades will be as clamorous and stirring if they dare as ever J. O. is positive All lawfull things are not to be done for the Churches peace which quite undoes it Confessed it must be that several of the Partisans conceive a full union cannot be expected yet to comprehend and condescend to those who will occasionally and partially conform may go far towards a peace In good time can this be a way to true Christian peace when Mr. Baxter hath given us fair warning not to trust them plainly telling us Apol. for Nonconf p. 90. they are onely Instruments to undermine us and will turn against us as soon as they have opportunity Neither will their coming to Church as they delusorily and hypocritically call it clear them from the guilt of Schism because this Church being both founded and settled upon Divine Right in all its Superstructures there arises an obligation constantly and throughly to communicate with it and observe its Rules and Orders which not to doe is sinfull Separation and to abett or countenance those who doe not is to partake of their sin For it is not love devotion or duty which draws them but cunning interest and fear which drives them to this outward auckward conformity The best any can make of it it s an act of compliance cannot be an act of Christian allegiance and obedience to lawfull Superiours which is a work of Faith incorporate with the other good works of Faith issuing from the supernatural power of God's Word Spirit and Grace Certain it is that the men for whom this favour is moved do publickly and honestly declare which is next to a moral impossibility that they ever will that Kingly power is originally and immediately from God that Prelatical Episcopacy is a Divine Apostolical Institution that some circumstances and adjuncts in the external ministeries of Divine Worship not expresly prescribed by God may and ought to be adhibited therein for decency order and edification they are not to be trusted and if frequent experiences will not make us so wise as to neglect them and all such motions for them we are fit to be begged and once more undone We are yet again efforted with a troop of tantum nons who are still bleating for connivence forbearance and moderation which in effect is to solicite the Laws be outlawed though herein they would give better evidence of their moderation and modesty if they left that solely to the resolution of the Government Take these we must as we find them and we shall find them vary as the wind does they can blow hot and cold with one breath that trimming Proverb is their Rule There is no living at Rome and fighting with the Pope and let the Government sink or swim they will keep themselves out of harms-way If possible to make sure of this world they will have friends of all parties for which end they can at present swallow the Oath of Allegiance take the Test and upon another occasion vomit a fulsome Remonstrance Address or Association but by all means they will make infallible provisions for heaven in order whereto if they be in health they are for the Church and if in safe policy they may for a Conventicle too yea from the Church to a Conventicle and back again if sick they will not refuse the Offices of the Church but will admit them de bene esse yet for their transire and viaticum they must have a voluntary conceived prayer by a moderate Sneak who can play fast and loose with the Church Offices and to make sure work the Sacrament must be re-administred by one of the same batch or a zealous Holder-forth In my judgment these of all other Sects are the most dangerous because the more close and reserved we cannot say they are either flesh or fish nor discover whether they be Hawk or Buzzard they are animalia imperfectè mixta but this we know much mischief hath hapned by this false disguised and miscalled moderation to evidence which it will be requisite to exemplifie this in some all are too numerous and would be too bulky instances and to give in the opinion of two who in their times were reputed moderate learned men and excellent preachers 1. It hath been mischievous to the Church The Samosatenian Heresie was brought in under a mistaken charitable pretence to reconcile the Jewish and Christian Religion The Heresie of the Monothelites was set up on a design to moderate the Heresie of Eutyches The Eusebians propagated the Arian Heresie by their moderate endeavours to compose the difference betwixt them and the Catholicks Some Novatian Bishops to satisfie the scruple of a convert Jew thought fit to leave it though the matter of it was an approved practice as a thing indifferent which soon raised a Schism and this Schism in a short time begot another Theoph. Alex. favoured the Originists in hope to recover some at least from that Sect but S. Hier. told him roundly his moderation therein was very offensive to holy men because thereby he emboldned and strengthned the already over insolent and peevish Faction What Greg. Naz. got or rather lost by his easiness of temper is too large to relate and so it is of many more
c. as having many singular fine Wits among them whereas the Puritans have none but grossum Caputs so that if matters come to handling between Jesuits and them they are sure to be ridden like fools but had he lived from 41 till 80. he would have found they were as great Artists in the mysteries of iniquity as his Brethren the Jesuits or himself For they have a more Serpentine and subtile way in training up their Proselytes and Novices upon these three accounts 1. They initiate them with Fastings solemn Vows and Promises Sermons and Sacraments though thereby they prostitute all the Ordinances of God to enchant and bind them fast in the Confederacy 2. They then instruct them in the most refined mysteries of equivocating and mental reservation Ferguson Dr. Owen's Champion and Lob Mr. Baxter's Second shall vie Loyalty with any Jesuit and practise Treason as cleverly and out-doe them too in a Plot. Lewes the usurper of a Loyal Minister's Living at Totnam-high-Cross by a Farce educated his Scholars for he was a Schoolmaster to Gentlemens Sons as well as Preacher to the People in the art of King-killing by setting up an High-Court of Justice arraigning condemning and cutting off the head of a Shock-water-Dog Mr. Long 's Comp. Hist of Plots p. 186. so that after our Church and State-menders are moulded into a Faction the Jesuits may go to School to them to receive full instructions in the art they had learned them yet here is a trick the Jesuits never taught them which is to be so fool-hardy as to threaten the Government which both of late and heretofore they have done Cartwright's Prayer was Give us grace as one man to set our selves against the Bishops Penry in his Supplication threatned the very Parliament with bloud-shed if they did not reform Vdal in great confidence said Presbytery shall prevail and come in that way and by that means as shall make all their hearts to ake that shall withstand it all this last clause is extant in the Records of the Star-Chamber The Confessions and Subscriptions of Coppinger and Arthington are found in Dr. Cosins his Book entituled Conspiracy for a pretended Reformation From all which premisses it abundantly appears they are a traiterous turbulent hypocritical and singular Sect and therefore no true Christians no true Protestants 3. They teach their followers never to confess when examined by lawfull authority or if they do yet so auckwardly and ambiguously that nothing can be fairly concluded which they industriously doe to obstruct justice and so baffle the Law that it cannot have its due course against the vilest and rankest Mutineers This in one old instance new ones abound from Ful. Hist l. 9. p. 209. That Mr. Stone freely declared contrary it seems to the judgment of the main body of the Faction that silence unlawfull which justly causeth suspicion of evil as of Treason and Sedition See more in Bishop Bancroft's Survey which how frequently of late hath been practised is too notorious SECT 5. Seeing then the Puritan principles are as dangerous as the Jesuitical and their practices when prosperous as destructive no reason can be assigned by the received rules of common prudence why Puritans should enjoy the privileges of comprehension c. and the Papists debarred For common prudence will determine all under the same guilt should be liable to the same sentence of condemnation What the reasons of State may be to grant a toleration or privilege to one party and not to the other is not to be disputed or sawcily examined by inferiours or if the Government please to relax or repeal the Laws to both This is plain the higher power may with as good reason dispense with the execution of the Law as inferiour whether Charter or Commission Officers may wave and in a manner out-law them in favour of a party though thereby they run the hazard of perjury and perfidiousness All wise men as a great wise man hath observed desire to live under such a Government where the Prince with a good conscience may remit the rigour of the Laws as for those that are otherwise minded I wish them no other punishment but this that the penal Laws may be strictly executed upon them till they reform their judgment If therefore the arguments which are alledged for the standing of the Laws against Papists be good as I am persuaded they are then the same reasons will much more evince the Laws against Puritans should still be upheld which will the better appear if those arguments be produced and applied They are these 1. The question is whether Treason be not Treason because a man thinks himself bound in Conscience to commit it It is resolved in the affirmative This turns the Puritans pretence of Conscience in the like cases quite out of doors for no man's Conscience can alter the nature of things that that which is evil should become good because his Conscience that is his corrupted judgment tells him it is so or that which is good to become evil by a persuasion of Conscience that is because he is so instructed or conceited Now the Jesuits are as strait laced in their Consciences as the Puritans are thinking themselves as fast bound by the Popes Decrees and their own Vows as the Puritans do from their Swearings and Leaguings or from the Votes and Resolutions of their Demagogues 2. Whether Magistrates have not reason to make severe Laws when dangerous and destructive principles to Government are embraced as part of Religion It is affirmed Here the case is the same again both parties aver the lawfulness of resisting the civil Magistrate under colour of Religion both hold the same treasonable principles in substance and terms differing onely in the power to warrant them The Jesuits deriving it from the Pope the Puritans from the determinations of their Kirk Assemblies or their Patriots and this we know this Kingdom would never endure to be so far enslaved to the Pope as it was to that traiterous Crew Intestine broils confusions and usurpations are more destructive than the challenges and filchings of a Foreigner and our late glorious King said It was more honourable for a King to be invaded and almost destroyed by a foreign enemy than to be despised at home Bibl. Reg. p. 286. 3. Civil Magistrates have in them a natural inherent right and power to preserve the Government and punish those who disturb it or would overthrow it and therefore an authority to judge of those actions which are dangerous to it This hath been determined by the Civil Magistrate that the actions of both have been and are dangerous to the Government and over and above that the actions of the Puritans tend to the dishonour of God to the prejudice and ruine of the safety and peace both of Church and Kingdom witness the preambles to the first and second Acts of Uniformity and many more 4. Where there is a suspicion of a number of persons not easily discerned