the other side requires as great a condescension to our Brethren And if now the scales seem even then certainly the consideration of the Magistrate and Laws in being will be of weight enough to turn the balance and that Humility and Obedience our Religion teaches will prevail with us to leave it to publick Wisdom to decide between both Parties And then the result of all will be that instead of prescribing to the Magistrate what he shall determine or disputing what he hath concluded on we shall compose our minds and order our circumstances to the more easie and cheerful complyance therewith And call to mind the saying of Paulus Aemilius who when several of his Souldiers would be suggesting to him their several Models of management Vos gladios acuite bids them whet their swords and be ready to execute what should be commanded them but leave the management of affairs to him their General CHAP. VII Wherein Christian Liberty consists and that it doth not discharge us from Obedience to Laws ALL that we have hitherto discoursed of the Power of the Magistrate some think may be avoided by pleading the Magna Charta of Christian Liberty contained in the Gospel It will therefore be necessary in the next place to consider the true notion and extent of that That there is such a Charter is out of doubt the New Testament frequently making mention of it putting of us in mind of the gratitude we owe to him that purchased it for us of the price it cost him and requiring us to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free Gal. 5. 1. But what are the Contents of it is not so well agreed on and indeed it is too evident that few of those that contend so much for it and plead it upon all occasions know what it is or wherein it consists It was a smart Answer of a Spartan Captive who being exposed to sale in the Market and there askt as the manner was by one that came to buy Slaves quid sciret what he was good for what business he understood answered Scio quid sit liberum esse I know what belongs to freedom Had Christian Liberty been all along as well understood as talked of the Religion had obtained more Reputation the Church more Peace States and Kingdoms more Security and more Souls had gone to Heaven but for want of this men have committed as gross errors as that Tully complains of Clodius for That he set up Simulacrum Meretricis Tanagraeae The Image of a famous Harlot for that of Liberty The Gnosticks about the Apostles times pleaded Christian Liberty both on the behalf of their cowardly Revolts from Christianity in times of Persecutition and of their sensual Debaucheries as if the knowledge of the Truth gave a priviledge neither to profess nor practise it when either the one proved too incommodious to their Secular Interests or the other too disgustful to their sensual inclinations Others and they also in the first times of Christianity thought Christian Liberty had been a Civil Infranchisement and had extended so far as to cancell all bonds of peoples subjection to their Princes or of Servants to their Masters and hereupon like the pretence of zeal amongst the Jews in their degenerate times Christian Liberty was the Passport of fugitive servants and the pretext for Outrages and Rebellions And this made it necessary for the Apostles almost in all their Writings to press Obedience to Superiours A third sort of men have mistaken this Gospel Liberty to be a discharge from the obligation of the Moral Law and have been so prodigiously absurd as to take the Gospel to contain nothing else properly but a publication of Gods Promises or Decrees rather and to require only a bare assent to them or belief of them and that those Promises are absolute and without any condition of our obedience save only as that should reciprocally become us by way of gratitude not that justification or salvation depended upon it This is the Doctrine of the Antinomians or modern Libertines and is a perswasion fit to debauch the whole world were it not that few men can be so unreasonable as to believe it though they would But it is so contrary to the very name and nature of a Covenant which the Gospel is styled to be so expresly contrary to the whole design of Christian Doctrine and goes so cross to the very sense of every honest mind that I shall not spend any more time or words about it There is a fourth mistake which though I will not say it is equally dangerous with any of the former yet is mischievous enough and equally false That though the bonds of Civil Subjection are not quite dissolved by the Gospel yet that all Christians are discharged from the interpositions of the Magistrate in affairs of Religion and that there he ought no further to intermeddle than he can produce express warrant from Scripture for his particular Injunctions But if notwithstanding the Governour shall arrogate to himself a larger sphere of Authority and make any definitions in Religion or especially the matters of the first Table It is then and in that case not only lawful for a good Christian to refuse Obedience but that it is his duty so to do to withstand an Invasion of his Christian Liberty and an incorachment upon the Prerogative of God This is the mistake that is most rife amongst us and which hath given occasion to much of the unhappiness of this Age. It is not my work laboriously to confute this opinion nor do I think many words necessary in the case yet of the many absurd consequences let us note these following 1. This opinion makes all Civil Government the most ticklish and uncertain and the condition of Magistrates the most servile and precarious that can well be imagined forasmuch as there is scarcely any thing can fall under their care and cognizance or capable to be made matter of Law or Injunction but hath such affinity to or connexion with Religion as to be sufficient upon this principle to raise a dispute of Jurisdiction So that the case between the Civil Laws and Religion will be like the condition of affairs that often happens in those places where the Supremacy of the Pope and Court of Rome is received there is a perpetual contention about bounds and limits of Jurisdiction between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Courts for whilest the Civil Judge goes about to take cognizance of the cause the Ecclesiastical will it may be challenge the person as belonging to his Jurisdiction or if the person be Laick and alieni fort yet it will go hard but the cause shall be found to have some connexion with Religion and so the Ecclesiastical Court either directly or in ordine ad spiritualia draws all matters to it And not unlike was the state of affairs a long while together in the Kingdom and Church of Scotland by virtue of this very perswasion
An Enquiry into y e Causes of the present Separation from the Church of England Hic verus est cultus in quo mens colentis seipsam Deo immaculatam victimam sistit Lact. A Serious and Compassionate INQUIRY Into the Causes of the present Neglect and Contempt of the Protestant Religion AND CHURCH OF ENGLAND WITH Several seasonable Considerations offer'd to all English Protestants tending to perswade them to a Complyance with and Conformity to the Religion and Government of this Church as it is established by the Laws of the KINGDOM Tertual Scorpiac adv Gnostic Non in occasione frustrandi Martyrii jubet te Apostolus scil subjici Magistratibus sed in provocatione bene vivendi Sine ira studio quorum causas procul habeo Tacit. Ann. 1. London Printed by Robert White for Richard Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty at the Angel in Amen-Corner MDCLXXIV INstead of an Epistle to the Reader as the manner is I humbly submit the ensuing Discourse to the Censure of my Superiours in the Church of England and to the consideration of all the Non-conformists of whatsoever Sect or Denomination hoping the former will pardon the defects of it and that the latter may by Gods blessing reap some benefit by it THE CONTENTS THE INTRODUCTION Wherein the Antient Estate of Christianity in general is compared with the present and the Condition of the Reformed Religion in this Kingdom in the first times of it is compared with that of the present Age And the Change lamented PART I. An Enquiry into the Causes and Origin of the Separation from and Contempt of the English Reformed Church CHAP. I. Wherein are represented several things that are pretended but are not the true Causes of our distractions and dissatisfactions viz. 1. Corruption in Doctrine 2. The too near approach of this Church to the Roman 3. The Scandalousness of the Clergy All which are disproved pag. 1. CHAP. II. Of the more remote and less observed Causes of the infelicity of this Church such as 1. The Reign of Queen Mary and return of Popery under her in the Infancy of the Reformation 2. The bad provision for Ministers in Corporations c. 3. Frequent Wars 4. The liberty in Religion that Trade seems to require 5. The secret designs of Atheists and Papists p. 30. CHAP. III. Of the more immediate Causes of the Distractions of the Church of England such as 1. Rashness of popular Judgement 2. Judaism 3. Prejudice 4. Want of true Christian Zeal in the generality of its Members p. 56. PART II. Wherein several serious Considerations are propounded tending to perswade all English Protestants to comply with and conform to the Religion and Government of this Church as it is established by Law CHAP. I. A Reflection upon divers wayes or Methods for the Prevention and Cure of Church-Divisions p. 85. CHAP. II. Of the true notion of Schism the sin and mischievous consequents of it p. 105. CHAP. III. Of the nature and importance of those things that are scrupled or objected against in this Church and that they are such as may without sin be sacrificed to Peace and therefore cannot excuse us from sin in separating from the Church upon their account p. 121. CHAP. IV. The those that find fault with the Constitution of this Church will never be able to find out or agree upon a better p. 140. CHAP. V. That God layes very little stress upon Circumstantials in Religion p. 151. CHAP. VI. That the Magistrate hath Authority to determine such Externals of Religion as are the matters of our disputes and what deportment is due from Christians towards him p. 159. CHAP. VII Wherein Christian Liberty consists and that it doth not discharge us from Obedience to Laws p. 175. CHAP. VIII Of a Tender Conscience what it is and its Priviledges p. 190. CHAP. IX The great dishonour that disobedience to Laws and Magistrates and the distractions of Government do to any Profession of Religion whatsoever p. 212. CHAP. X. The danger by our Distractions and Divisions p. 223. The Conclusion p. 240. THE INTRODUCTION WHEREIN The Antient estate of Christianity in general is compared with the present and the Condition of the Reformed Religion in this Kingdom in the first times of it is compared with that of the present Age And the Change lamented WHosoever seriously considers the Certainty and Excellency of the Christian Religion in its own nature and withal observes with how just Veneration it was received with what Ardour imbraced with what Courage and Constancy maintained and practised then when all the Powers on Earth sought to suppress it when the Wit and Malice of the World was combined against it and when to be a Christian was the plain way to ruine and the loss of whatsoever uses to be dear to men in this world And shall compare herewith the present State of Christendome now since the offence of the Cross is ceased and the Faith of Christ as is become the Profession of Kings and Princes and besides all other either arguments of its truth or inducements to embrace it is confirmed by the successive Suffrages of so many Ages and the concurrent Votes of so great a part of Mankind He I say that shall take the little pains to make this Comparison cannot choose but be astonished at the contrary face of things and be ready to say with Linacer Aut hoc non est Evangelium aut nos non sumus Evangelici Either Christian Religion is not what it was or men are not what they were wont to be For besides the palpable Contradiction of the Lives of the generality of Christians now to the Rules of their Religion laid down in the Writings of the New Testament which is such as would make an indifferent man suspect that they believed those Books to contain absolute impossibilities or at least not the things that are necessary to salvation since so few take the Rule of their Lives or the Measures of their Actions thence Besides this I say he that shall observe how the Primitive Christians for several Ages after our Saviour are reported to have lived and how far short the latter Ages fall of those Examples will be tempted either to pronounce the Histories of those Times meer Romances or the Men of these Times to be any thing rather than what they call themselves Such a general Declension there hath been that the complaint of Tully concerning the Philosophers of his time may justly be applyed to the Christians of ours That they made disciplinam suam ostentationem scientiae non legem vitae non obtemperant sibi ipsis sed in eo peccant cujus profitentur scientiam That whereas Christian Religion was calculated for no other Meridian designed to no other purpose than the bettering and improving the Tempers and Lives of Men it is perverted rather to an Apology for our Loosness than applyed to the Cure of our Disorders I cannot please my self with so odious a
and Interest make men of such or such Opinions That this is the only way to make a Learned Clergy when they shall have a necessity upon them to be able to prove substantially whatever they expect should be received and in fine That the only way to make peaceable Subjects a rich Countrey and a happy Prince is to open a Pantheon to give Liberty to all Religions But two things would be considered of in this point First That whatsoever fine things are said of this or whatever collateral advantage may be reaped by it they are of no other force than to incline the Magistrate prudentially in some cases to use Indulgence for it never was nor will be proved that it is the express duty of a Christian Magistrate to tolerate all Opinions whatsoever for some are such as destroy all Religion which he is to protect others subvert all Civil Societie which he is to maintain Therefore it can never be his duty to carry an indifferent hand in Religion And though it be true that the Primitive Christians used such general expressions as are above-specified and Constantine made such a declaration yet both he and they limited and interpreted themselves afterwards And indeed it cannot be shewn de facto that any Government in the whole Christian World doth tolerate all Opinions whatsoever For should they do so it must be supposed that the Magistrate is to have no Conscience or Religion himself that other men may have no check in theirs whatever it be 2. But if it were true that the Magistrate might if he would indulge all Sects and Opinions and also were disposed so to do yet besides the Inconveniencies that would follow This very thing would be very unacceptable to the people of this Nation amongst whom there is so much sincerity and heartiness in Religion It might go down perhaps amongst such as have a great Indifferency and Lukewarmness in Religion with such people whose God is their Gain and whose Religion is their Trade or Interest But devout and serious people had rather suffer some hardship themselves upon the account of their Consciences than buy their own quiet at the price of Gods dishonour And whatever kindness they may have to some dissenters or fondness to some by-path themselves yet rather than open so wide a Gap as that Popery and Atheism it self should enter in by it they would deny themselves and think it the duty of all other good Christians to do so too 2. Comprehension whereby I suppose is meant the making the terms of Communion more free and easie an opening the arms of the Church to receive more into her bosome thereby to enlarge both the Society and Interest of the Church This is highly recommended by some good men as the most proper expedient for a Protestant Church in our condition as by means whereof it may be both better strengthened and secured against its Enemies abroad and enjoy Peace and Contentment at home And truly for my part if such a course please our Governours I have no mind to oppose any thing to it but only I desire it may be considered that there are many things that look very probably in the general notion and speculation and that would flatter one into a great opinion of them and expectation from them which when they come to be tryed they are no wayes answerable to Many difficulties occurr in the reducing things of this nature to practice that were not foreseen in the theory and nothing more common than for mens minds to deceive them or their constancy to fail them so as that they shall take no great pleasure in the enjoyment of that which they languisht with desire of whilest it was sweetned to them by the poinant sauces of hope and fear Besides this is not yet done nor do we know when it will be set about and it's pity the wounds of the Church should bleed so long as till that can be effected especially if there be any Balm in Gilead any way of binding them up in the mean time And there seems to me to remain no other but that of the third Consideration which is the course I have pitched upon to recommend in the following Chapters By which I mean nothing else but an Endeavour of better informing the minds of men in the nature of those things which are the matter of our disputes and occasions of our disturbances together with the unhappy consequences of sin and danger in persevering in our present case Which if it can be done we may hope to see the Church recover its antient felicity and peace and shall not need for cure of our distempers to resort either to such severities as are abhorrent to all Englishmen or to such arts as deform Christianity in general or to be alwayes changing and altering to the great dishonour of Protestant Religion in particular And this I do not despair may be obtained if those Protestants of this Church and Kingdom that at present differ from the Church in some particulars will impartially consider the following Propositions CHAP. II. Of the true notion of Schism the sin and mischievous consequents of it THough the Will of man deservedly bear the blame of his miscarriages as being neither under Fatal necessity nor subject to violence and compulsion but that it may suspend its own act till it be rightly informed yet I have so much charity to humane nature as to think that most of its irregularities proceed not meerly from stubborn perversion but mistake of the object And that therefore Mankind is very pittyable in its errors having not that clearness of perception nor presence of mind that higher and more immaterial Spirits have And perhaps upon this account it pleased the Divine Goodness to afford men that which he denyed to the fallen Angels secundam tabulam postnaufragium and to open to them a door of hope by repentance and retrival of their faults And accordingly I observe that those that cruelly murdered our Saviour he prayes for them in this form Father forgive them they know not what they do And that it was not only the silly multitude that was so overseen but also the wisest of his Persecutors St. Peter bears witness Acts 3. 17. I wot that ye did it ignorantly as also did your Rulers So that I am neither destitute of reason nor example for my charity if I think in the present case concerning the greatest part of those that are guilty of the distractions of this Church that did they rightly understand the nature of Schism and wherein it consists or the guilt and mischiefs that attend it they would easily be induced to change their course This therefore I shall first offer to consideration Touching the sin of dividing the Church that it is of the deepest dye and greatest guilt I suppose we shall easily agree for indeed no body can well doubt of that who considers what care our Saviour took to prevent it what pains he took
Conviction and Argument In short he that resolves never to change his opinion nor hopes to be wiser than he is either will be alwayes a fool or hath the fortune of such an one or both Now then he that seeing Reason to incline him to take new measures shall yet upon Secular considerations think fit not to own a change may have the reputation of a cunning man but never of an honest and shall lose more in the Judgement of wise men than he shall gain with the vulgar 2. Epecially let it be considered how much the honour of our Religion is of more value than our Personal reputation and how much that is concerned in the peaceable and obedient temper of all those that pretend to it and withal what it suffers in defect of this And surely a due sense of these things will have such weight with all those that are sincerely Christian as to depress and keep down the turgency of our phancy and vain glory It was an effectual course Haman took Esther 3. 8. and he had wit in his malice when he designing to ruine the whole Church of the Jews first undermines the reputation of their Profession delates their Religion as not fit for the protection of the Prince and that it contained Laws contrary to all people and that they would not obey the Kings Laws There is nothing casts so indeleble a blemish upon Religion as when the Professors of it are turbulent unperswadable ungovernable When that which should strengthen the hands of the Magistrate shall weaken them when that which should ease his care and save the labour of his Animadversions shall it self awaken and raise his Jealousie when that which should enact his Laws in the very Consciences of men shall pretend to abrogate or dispense with them when men shall smite and break the two Tables one against another and put other limitations and conditions upon Princes than God hath and pretend a revocation of the Broad Seal of Civil Authority by the Privy Signet of Religion whereever this is done that Prince or Magistrate had need be a very devout man indeed that casts a benign aspect upon that Profession which hath so malignant an influence upon his Government And all considering men will with great reason doubt whether that Religion be of God that gives such trouble to his Vicegerent and whether that will carry men to Heaven hereafter that makes tumults confusions and a Hell upon earth But I have said so much to this business heretofore when I considered the mischiefs of Schism that I shall need to say the less now Only let me observe That the more raised and elevated any Religion pretends to be the more it professes a Contempt of this world the more it speaks of Patience Contentation Humility and the more it glories in the hopes of another world still the more horribly absurd and contradictious will it be that this should give countenance to disobedience and disturbance of Government I have also noted before that it was the great advantage Christianity had for the planting it self in the world that it disturbed no setled Form made no noise or commotion but fell like the dew of Heaven upon a Fleece of Wooll Our Saviour himself was so careful of giving offence that he not only gave no jealousie to those in possession of the Government but also abridged his own Liberty rather than he would seem to retrench their Power St. Paul when he was accused by an eloquent Orator Tertullus Acts 24. 5. as a mover of Sedition doth with equal eloquence disprove the charge and detest the Crime And that the generality of Christians were of the same temper and spirit Tertullian gives ample testimony Externi sumus vestra omnia implevimus urbes insulas castella municipia castra ipsa tribus decurias palatium senatum forum c. cui bello non idenei c. Apol. c. 37. We want saith he neither numbers nor Leaders nor Spirit to inable us for any attempt but that we have learnt to suffer ill and not to do it to obey and submit not to contend with our Rulers And Ammianus Marcellinus a Pagan Souldier in Julian's Army and therefore the more undeniable witness in the case gives this short description of the Christian Religion Nil nisi justum suadet lene It is saith he compounded of nothing but mildness and innocency It makes men just and honest it fills mens hearts with virtuous principles but not their heads with troublesome niceties It teaches men not to be troublers of the World but to go quietly and inoffensively through it with as little noise and provocation as is possible and so to arrive at eternal rest and peace in Heaven And as this is the known glory of Christianity in general so it was peculiarly of the English Reformation in particular as I shewed before It was brought in by the Prince not by the rout of people it was establisht orderly by Law did not force its way by popular tumult and was truly what it ought to be a revival of Primitive purity and simplicity And it is infinite pity that its glory should afterwards be stained by the insolence and impatience of those that pretend to it It is a great blot in the writings of Mr. Calvin that after he had discoursed rarely well of the power of Princes and the duty of Subjects in the last Chapter of his Institutions and the one and thirtieth Paragraph he undoes all again with an unhappy exception in these words de privatis hominibus semper loquor A passage of that ill aspect upon Government that it is suspected by some and not altogether without cause that most of the confusions of Kingdoms which have happened since and especially the troubles of this Nation have received incouragement if not taken rise from thence But whether that be so or no it is certain that it hath furnisht the Papists with a recrimination upon the Protestant Doctrine when we have charged theirs as blowing a Trumpet to Sedition and Rebellion And though the true Protestant Doctrine be as innocent as theirs is guilty in this kind yet if it can be objected against us that our Churches are alwayes infested with Divisions and the States under which we live imbroyled in troubles we have reason to be concerned forasmuch as we have no reason to expect that our Adversaries will be so just or charitable as to distinguish betwixt the faults of the Doctrine and the miscarriages of those that Profess it but will be sure to involve both in the dishonour For it cannot be but that either the Seed must be very bad that brings forth such Fruit or the Soil very corrupt that makes good Seed so degenerate that is either the Religion must be very faulty that fills men generally with so bad Principles or at least the Men must be extreamly evil that debauch good Doctrine And whether soever of these two things be concluded on as it
Christian Faith for the greatest difficulty Austin the Monk found here was to bring the Inhabitants from the observation of Easter and some other Rites according to the manner of the Jewish and Eastern Churches to that of the Roman and Western and the doing it as the Story tells us cost the lives of twelve hundred Monks who it seems stubbornly opposed his Innovation Which by the way is a good argument that this Church owes not its first Christianity to the Church of Rome or this Monastick Apostle as they would perswade us since it is plain by this passage that he made our Ancestors only Romanists but found them Christians before and perhaps of a better and more generous race of Religion than that he ingraffed upon the old stock But I will make no use of this for perhaps we may find the rise of this Judaism nearer hand if we observe that the great Patriarchs of the Non-conformity such as Cartwright Ainsworth H. Broughton and others were great Students of the Rabbinical Writings and the main of their Learning lay that way and as by this sort of Study which was rare in those dayes they got the reputation of great Rabbies so perhaps they might not only by this means be bewitched with the Jewish fancies themselves but propagate their unhappy Sentiments through their followers to this generation But howsoever it came to pass the matter of Fact will appear undeniably true That a vein of Judaism runs through the whole Body of the dissenters from the Church of England Of which I will give some Instances And the first shall be their grand Hypothesis That nothing is lawful in the service of God but what is expresly prescribed in Scripture This is the Characteristical Doctrine of that Party and in confidence of the truth of which they cry out of us for uncommanded Rites and humane Inventions and little less than Idolatry Now whosoever well considers this Tenet will find it so irrational in it self so servile and destructive of all Christian Liberty and making so ill reflections upon the Goodness of God as I shall have occasion to shew hereafter that it is not to be imagined how it should enter into the minds of men much less find such entertainment and so zealous patronage amongst so many honest and devout men were it not that they studied the Old Testament better than the New and graffed their Christianity upon the stock of Judaism And the case must be after this manner They considering and observing how punctually God prescribed some very little matters touching the Temple and National Worship of the Jews in the Law of Moses carry this notion along with them to the New Testament and thence infer That Christ Jesus must needs have also as punctually determined all the Rituals of the Christian Worship Otherwise he is not faithful in his house as Moses was in his for that Scripture is brought to prove it That all absolutely Necessaries are so determined by our Saviour we readily grant them and that all those Rites that are prescribed by him are necessary to be observed we will yield them but that nothing is lawful but what is to be found so prescribed we utterly deny and they will never be able to prove Nor indeed would they ever have been led by any principle of reason to think of or expect such a thing had it not been by the aforesaid prejudice But having gotten that notion into their heads they will fancy the New Testament to comply with it or writhe it to their sense though with never so much violence Of affinity with the former is another Notion of theirs That all Princes and Law-givers are bound to conform the Municipal Laws of their several Dominions to the Institutions of Moses and where this is not done sc where Princes make other Decisions of Cases or appoint other Punishments than that Law allows they are in danger to have their Constitutions declared null and themselves irreligious This is a mistake as wide as the former highly injurious to Soveraign Princes and dangerous to Kingdoms and States in a great measure disannulling the publick Laws and stripping the Governours of all proper Legislative power But that which I consider now in this mistake is not the consequence and Effects but the rise and Causes of it which seems to be no other than the fondness the Jews had to their Laws and which they express in their Writings as if those Laws God gave them by Moses were not only best for them but best in themselves also The foundation of which Error is both detected and confuted by this consideration That God was not only the God but the temporal Prince of the Jews in a peculiar manner so as he is not of any other people in the world he calls himself their King appoints his Lieutenants and Vicegerents divides his Subjects their Inheritance gives them Laws takes up a Residence amongst them appoints their way of Address to him for Judgement and resolution of weighty and extraordinary Cases and reserves many Cases to himself and sometimes inflicts Punishments by his own hand Any man that considers these things well will never go about to make those Laws oblige other Nations or require necessarily all Princes to conform their Policies to that of Judaea till he can perswade himself that every Nation hath the peculiar Priviledge of the Jews and its Government to be a Theocracy A third Instance shall be their notion of Excommunication which they hold must be denounced by a Synod or Presbytery and the Prince as well as the people must be subject to the sentence And this against all Rules of Government the Prerogatives of Princes and the Peace of Kingdoms But because it was thus amongst the Jews or at least some of the Writers of that Nation say so whether true or false is not well considered therefore this is the only Gospel way I must by no means omit their Superstition about the Lords Day which must be called a Sabbath too though such name is no where given it either in the New Testament or in any antient Writer that I know of but contrariwise alwayes opposed to it But that 's the least matter The Lords Day with these men must have all the nicety of observation that the Jewish Sabbath had and which is yet worse such observation thereof made one of the principal parts of Religion And because God appointed the Sabbath amongst the Jews to be a sign between him and them and to distinguish them from all other people therefore in the New Testament the superstitious observation of the Lords Day must be the principal Character of a godly man He that considers well this matter can find no original of it but perfect Judaism introduced into Christianity And methinks any unprejudiced man should be convinced of this by this one observation That this kind of observation of the Lords Day distinguishes this sort of English Protestants from all other Protestants
Livings like the Silver-smiths at Ephesus no wonder if Apostolical Doctrine and Government be cryed down and the Great Diana be cryed up The summ is this Some men were blindly led by their Education others by their Interest a third sort by their Reputation to make good what they had ingaged themselves and others in and these three things are able to form a great Party against the Church 4. The Fourth and Last Cause and I wish it be not the greatest of the Distractions and ill Estate of this Church is the want of true Christian Zeal and of a deep and serious sense of Piety in defect of which hath succeeded that wantonness curiosity novelty scrupulosity and contention we complain of What was it made the Primitive Church so unanimous that it was not crumbled into Parties nor mouldered away in Divisions nor quarrelled about Opinions nor separated one part from another upon occasion of little scruples How came it to pass as I observed in the Introduction to this Discourse that all good men were of one way and all evil men of another that those that travailed to the same City the heavenly Jerusalem kept the same Rode and parted not company It could not be that they should be without different apprehensions for mens Parts were no more alike nor their Educations more equal in those times than now There were then several Rites and Ceremonies that might have afforded matter of scruple if the Christians had been so disposed as well as now and I think both more in number and as lyable to exception as any thing now in use There was then bowing towards the East observation of Lent and other dayes distinction of Garments and innumerable other Observations in the early dayes of Tertullian and yet neither any Scripture brought to prove them nor any such proof thought necessary and yet they were observed without suspicion on one side or objection on the other Harum aliarum ejusmodi disciplinarum si legem expostules Scripturarum nullam invenies sed traditio praetenditur auctrix consuetudo conservatrix fides observatrix saith he in his Book De Corona militis St. Austin saith in his time the number and burden of Ceremonies was grown as great as under the Law of Moses and therefore wishes for a Reformation thereof in his Epistles to Januarius yet never thought these things a sufficient ground of Separation from the Church There was then some diversity of Expression in which the Governours and Pastors of several Churches delivered themselves yet did they not dispute themselves hereupon into Parties nor accuse one another of false Doctrine or either Side make the division of the Church the Evidence of its Orthodoxy or the Trophy of its Victory The true reason then of the different Event of the same Causes then and now seems to be this That in those dayes men were sincerely good and devout and set their hearts upon the main the huge Consequence and concern of which easily prevailed with those holy men to overlook their private satisfactions They were intent upon that wherein the Power of Godliness consisted and upon which the Salvation of Souls depended and so all that was secure they were not so superstitiously concerned for Rituals nor so unreasonably fond of Opinions as to play away the Peace of the Church and the Honour of Religion against trifles and meer tricks of wit and fancy They considered that they all had one God one Faith one Baptism one Lord Jesus Christ in which they all agreed and these great matters were able to unite them in lesser They Good men found enough to do to mortifie their Passions to their burdens of Affliction and Persecution to withstand the Temptations of the Devil and the contagion of evil Examples from the world and had not leisure for those little Disputes that now imploy the minds of men and vex the Church They spent their Heat and Zeal another way and so their Spirits were not easily inflammable with every petty Controversie But when men grow cold and indifferent about great things then they become servent about the lesser When they give over to mind a holy Life and heavenly Conversation then they grow great Disputers and mightily scrupulous about a Ceremony When they cease to study their own hearts then they become censorious of other men then they have both the leisure and the confidence to raise Sarmises and Jealousies and to find fault with their Superiours In short then and not till then do the little Appendages of Religion grow great and mighty matters in mens esteem when the Essentials the great and weighty matters are become little and inconsiderable And that this is the Case with us in this Nation is too evident to require further proof and too lamentable a subject for any good Christian to take pleasure in dilating upon I conclude therefore in this Point lyes a great part of the Unhappiness of this Church and Kingdom PART II. Wherein several serious Considerations are propounded tending to perswade all English Protestants to comply with and conform to the Religion and Government of this Church as it is established by Law CHAP. 1. A Reflection upon divers Wayes or Methods for the Prevention and Cure of Church-Divisions HAving in the former Part of this Discourse diligently enquired into and faithfully recited the principal Causes of the discontents with and secession from this Church It would now ill beseem Christian Charity to rest here for God knows neither the Evils nor the Causes afford any pleasant speculation It was a bad state of things at Rome which the Historian reports in these words Nec morbos nec remedia pati possumus That they were come to so ill a pass that they could neither indure their Distempers nor admit of the Remedies But I perswade my self though the condition of our affairs be bad enough yet that it is not so deplorable as to discourage all Endeavours of a cure And in this hope I take the courage to propound the following considerations wherein if I be deceived and miss of my aim I shall notwithstanding have that of Quintilian to comfort my self withal Prohabilis est cupiditas honestorum vel tutioris est audaciae tentare ea quibus est paratior venia It hath not been the single Unhappiness of this Church alone to be molested with Disputes loaden with Objections and dishonoured by Separation Nor can it be hoped that where the business is Religion and the concern Eternal Life that men should incuriously swallow every thing without moving any question or stirring any dispute And therefore all Churches must of necessity more or less have conflicted with the same difficulties we complain of And consequently the disease being so common it cannot be but that many and divers Remedies have been tryed and made use of And out of that store we will in this Chapter make election of such as seem best to fit the condition of the Patient and
very readily hearkened to But as they past a Doom upon any one he approves the Sentence but before the execution perswades them to bethink themselves of another and better man to be in his Room since a Senate they could not be without But here the business stuck as he had foreseen it would the people who agreed unanimously against the old Senator could by no means accord who should succeed one named this person and another that but whosoever was named by one party was rejected by another that in conclusion as great a pique as they had conceived against the old Senate for want of agreement in better men to fill their places they were constrained to continue them in I only make this application of the Story That it is easie and obvious to find fault with things present but not so to find better for the future And till that can be done 't is neither just to call any thing evil that is the best of its kind nor done like wise men to quarrel with a Church for some infirmities which we know the worst of by long experience lest thereby we come to have either none at all or such an one as may give us cause sadly to repent our choice CHAP. V. That God layes very little stress upon Circumstantials in Religion TO make that which we have hitherto discoursed the more clear and convictive and to ease the minds of men of their scrupulosities and superstitious fears let it be considered in the next place That even then when God Almighty did with the most punctuality prescribe the Ceremonies and Circumstantials of Religion he never laid such stress upon them but that so long as the main of Religion was provided for and the substance of his Institutions observed Alterations might be and were made in those lesser matters without his offence And if this be made appear it will tend to beget in men better notions of God and better measures of Religion as well as dispose them to Conformity to the Church of England For they will have no reason to think of God as a captious Deity that watches advantages against his Creatures nor make Religion a piece of nice scrupulosity and consequently will neither swallow Camels nor strain at Gnats but serve God with the generosity of a free and a comfortable mind Now to this purpose it will not be unuseful to take notice of a distinction mentioned by Maimonides That the Jews acknowledge some things in their Law to be primae intentionis and some things secundae That there were some things God required for themselves as being intrinsecally good and that other things were only required for the sake of and in order to the former The first kind that were essentially good were also absolutely necessary and never could be otherwise such as we call moral Duties The latter kind were of so indifferent a nature as that not only they might not have been commanded but also having been commanded they may in some cases not be a Duty An instance whereof though the Jews were a great while before they understood it and soundly smarted for their Ignorance is that Maxim they have now generally received Periculum vitae dissolvit Sabbatum But the fullest instance of the kind is that which is remembred by Mr. Selden in his Book de jure Naturali Gentium lib. 2. cap. 10. That in case of sickness a Jew might not only eat such meats as were otherwise forbidden but say they for the recovery of his health or avoidance of any great danger he might break any Precept save only those Three great ones against Idolatry Murder and Incest But these things come not home to my purpose only I note them to shew that that superstitious people had some general notice that God did not so precisely animadvert in little matters so the great were minded That which I choose to insist upon for the evidencing of this Observation is the Passeover which was a great Sacrament instituted by God himself upon weighty reasons made a Statute for ever throughout their generations and the soul that observed it not was to be cut off from among his people Exod. 12. And in the eleventh verse of that Chapter the most minute circumstances are defined amongst other that they should eat the Passeover with staves in their hands shoos on their feet and their loins girt by which expressions is plainly intimated and accordingly they understood and practised that they should eat it in the posture of standing Nevertheless it is well known that when they were come into the Land of Canaan to setled habitations they eat it sitting or lying according to the usual custome of feasting in those Countreys And this change continued all along till the times of our Saviour without any reproof from God and our Saviour himself conforms to them herein and in the same posture eats the Passeover with his Disciples Now this is the rather observable because whenas the posture enjoyned by God was symbolical of the haste in which they went out of Aegypt They in the change aforesaid instituted a Ceremony which was symbolical too but quite of another matter namely of the rest and peace God had now given them in the good Land of Canaan And all this alteration made upon prudential considerations and the reason of the thing without any warrant from God for their direction or check for the change Let us take another Instance Though God had so carefully described the Circumstances of the Temple-worship as I have shewed before and the especial reasons of so doing yet we find David distributing the Priests into Orders for the conveniency of their Ministration which might have been called an Innovation in Religion but besides that he institutes instrumental Musick to be used in the Worship of God without any Commission from God that appears And yet this novelty also was so far from incurring any reprehension that it was thenceforward constantly retained and made use of I might for the fuller Evidence of this notion observe That though God had with great solemnity instituted Sacrifices as the means of propitiating his Divine Majesty towards sinful men and had with great accuracy prescribed the Laws thereof yet he puts a great slight upon all of that nature as a thing he regarded not in comparison with the substantial points of Virtue and Obedience Particularly Psal 50. v. 8. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices c. v. 14. Offer to God the sacrifices of righteousness As if he had said Let me have these latter and I shall not much complain for defect of the former But especially Micah 6. 7. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or ten thousands of rivers of Oyl c. but he hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God For a full explication of all which and
several other passages of Scripture to the same purpose that Aphorism so frequently made use of by our Saviour upon several occasions will be very considerable I will have mercy and not sacrifice Particularly Matth. 12. when the Pharisees who were mighty curious of little things censured the Disciples of our Lord for violating the Sabbath in their rubbing the Ears of Corn as they went through the Fields and were hungry on that day our Saviour answers That David did also break one of the Ceremonial Precepts in eating the Shewbread and v. 7. tells them If they had known what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice they would not have condemned the innocent Where though it be sure enough that God did not repeal his Law of Sacrificing by enjoyning Mercy yet it is sufficiently intimated that God doth not only preser Moral acts before Ceremonial but also doth make great allowances limitations and exceptions in the one case and not in the other For it is as if our Saviour had said Had you Censorious Pharisees understood either God or Religion as ye might and ought to have done ye would have known that so long as there is not contumacy and contempt in the neglect of those rituals but the excuse of a just necessity or the rational consideration of a greater good to preponderate the omission God doth not impute it for a sin And if this was the case and condition of things in the Old Testament where God seemed so punctual in his Prescriptions so rigorous in his Animadversions and where the danger of erring capitally from the design of those institutions by the least deviation from the line of Divine Revelation was so great as I have shewed before Then certainly in the New Testament where the Divine Wisdom hath exprest far less concern for such little points may the minds of men be secure from such superstitious fears But I will give one Instance out of the New Testament also When Circumcision was abolished the distinction betwixt Jew and Gentile being taken away and all Believers become the children of Abraham And when the Apostle St. Paul had vehemently declaimed against the necessity and proclaimed the danger of Circumcision as is obvious to any one that reads his Epistles yet this same Apostle Acts 16. 1. circumcises Timothy to the intent that thereby he might render himself and his Ministry more acceptable to the Jews In which carriage of his he hath beyond all exception demonstrated to us that all Ceremonial appendages are perfectly subordinate and ought to yield to the designs of Peace Charity and Edification as the greater good I will conclude this Point with what the Apostle concludes his Discourse about eating or not eating of meats sacrificed to Idols Rom. 14. which created as much dispute and scruple amongst weak Christians then as Ceremonies do now V. 17. he sayes The Kingdom of God that is the Gospel is not meat and drink that is consists not or layes little stress upon those nice and perplexing matters but in righteousness peace and joy all the weight is laid upon the more substantial observances of a righteous and holy life and a peaceable spirit and conversation And adds a proof v. 18. For he that in these things serveth Christ is approved of God and accepted of men CHAP. VI. That the Magistrate hath Authority to determine such Externals of Religion as are the matters of our disputes and what deportment is due from Christians towards him HAving shewed in the former Chapters That God hath neither made any exact definition of Religious Circumstances nor is very curious about them further than to secure the great things of Christianity It follows that then either those lesser must be determined by men or not at all It will therefore now be seasonable to inquire what Authority and Interest the Magistrate hath in this affair And although there want not those that Chameleon like live upon the air of vulgar applause and get themselves a reputation of extraordinary zeal by daring to censure the actions and asperse the persons of Magistrates and with such persons he that shall vindicate the just Rights and Authority of his Superiours shall hardly escape the reproach of flattery and time-serving yet being conscious both of the truth and importance of what I am to say and of the sincerity of my intentions in so doing I will deliver my self freely in these two points 1. That the Magistrate exceeds not his Commission when he interposes for the determination of the Circumstantials of Religion 2. That common Prudence Christian Charity and Humility do all require of us to presume of the wisdom and reasonableness of such his determinations The result of which two things will be that it is much more our duty peaceably to comply with and obey them 1. The former of these hath been so fully and substantially proved by the incomparable Hugo Grotius in a just discourse and by a late eminent Divine of this Church that it is enough to refer the Reader to them yet because some person may perhaps read these Papers that will not take the pains or hath not opportunity to read those larger Discourses that yet would better compensate his labour I will therefore say these three things 1. It is certain the Magistrate had once a power in the Circumstantials of Religion and that in the Old Testament David as I have shewed before altered some things and instituted others even in the Temple-service it self Hezekiah without a Scripture for it broke the brazen Serpent to pieces though it was a symbolical Ceremony of Gods own institution but besides this he caused the Passeover to be kept by all Judah and Israel on the second Moneth though it was not according to divine institution but done by the advice of his Council upon pious and prudential considerations 2 Chron. 30. 5. He appointed also the Levites to kill the Passeover v. 17. which by Gods appointment was to have been performed by the people themselves And Chap. 29. v. 34. he prefers the Levites to assist the Priests in killing the other Sacrifices which never before they were admitted to Many other instances might be brought out of the Old Testament to this purpose but these sufficiently make it appear that the best Princes did not think they exceeded their own bounds or intrenched upon God when they prudently ordered such particulars and they are so far from having any blot laid upon their memories for these things that they are recorded to their immortal honour Now since Magistrates had once such a power how came they to lose it or be divested of it Is it that God is more curious and jealous of every punctilio in his Worship now than he was heretofore That would be the most absurd supposition in the world as we have sufficiently demonstrated And he that without evident proof shall go about to deny them what Christianity found them in possession of shall do very bad
offices to the Religion he pretends such zeal for For it would be a small encouragement to Princes to entertain and countenance the Christian Religion if it was told them That the power which God had allowed them in the Old Testament was now found too exorbitant and therefore he had retrencht it in the Gospel Would it not mightily move Kings and Princes to become nursing Fathers to the Church to hear this Doctrine preached to them 2. The New Testament is frequent in asserting the power of Princes and Magistrates and requires all to be subject to them and obey them of what quality or condition soever and no where excepts the case of Religion therefore undoubtedly that is under their power so far I mean as Circumstantials and those things that God himself hath not defined For when God hath made them a general commission and made no exception of this kind who shall put it upon them If they have not power in such matters of Religion as we speak of it 's manifest they have no Magistracy or Legislative power in Religion at all And then one would have expected the Text should not have run absolutely and in general terms Let every soul be subject to the higher powers but with this limitation in things Civil only or at least that some other Scripture should have as plainly restrained them as this and other impowers them Which since it is no where done we wrong both our selves and them to abridge them herein Besides that when our Saviour tells us his Kingdom is not of this world he sufficiently intimates that it was neither necessary that he should and that consequently he had no intention to alter the forms of Government or revoke the Authority Governours were in possession of 3. It is generally acknowledged and accordingly practised that Fathers and Governours of Families have authority in matters of Religion within their own Families at least so far as the case in hand Who doubts but the Father or Head of a Family may prescribe what Chapters shall be read what Prayers used what Times shall be set apart for Devotion what Postures whether kneeling or standing and being uncovered who shall officiate in his Family and in what Habit with innumerable others of a like nature Do the children or servants use to require of him an express Scripture to authorize his Commands and to warrant their Conformity or else they will not obey And if he in his private capacity and narrow sphere hath this Authority with what colour of Reason or with what Modesty can every private man deny his Prince what he arrogates to himself One would reasonably think that as Civil Government arose out of Paternal it should by inheritance challenge that Authority it was born to and besides that as it hath a larger sphere and a greater concern so it should have due to it proportionably a greater latitude of Authority 2. If the Magistrate may determine those matters then not only Christian Charity and Humility but also common Prudence require us to presume of the Wisdom and Reasonableness of his Determinations and much more to obey them It is enough to warrant and require our Obedience that a thing is the command of our Superiour and not beyond the sphere of his Authority but if he have not only Law but Reason on his side too then it is both a sin and a shame to disobey Now Humility requiring that we think meanly and modestly of our own Reasons Charity that we judge favourably of anothers and Prudence that we think best of the Magistrates all these together make it our duty not only to obey but to do it with all chearfulness imaginable It is as great as it is a common mistake to think Charity and Compassion only due from Governours to their Inferiours in the frame and composure of their Laws for it is also as due from Inferiours towards them and that they reciprocally make a fair and candid interpretation of their Injunctions and that they indispose not themselves nor others to obedience by irreverent censures of the abilities and suspicions and jealousies of the ends and intentions of the Law-makers It was a Saying of Greg. Nazianzen well worthy of so wise and peceable a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That any man the more conscious he is to himself of his own honesty and invincible integrity so much the less prone he is to entertain sinister suspicions of the intentions of others Christian simplicity as it means no hurt so it doth not easily suspect any and humility and modesty require that men think others intend as wisely and as honestly as themselves Charity saith the Apostle hopeth all things believeth all things beareth all things But it is the Genius of an evil man to suspect every man means mischief because he doth so himself whereas a good man supposes every man intends well at least till the contrary appear because consulting his own breast he finds that he doth so For its natural for all men to take measures by themselves nor is it more reasonable that men should do as they would be done unto than it is common and usual for men to presume that of others which they are privy to in their own bosoms It was an ingenious Repartee that Tertullian made to the Pagans in his Apology They accused the Christians that in their nocturnal assemblies they took a little Child and sealed their confederacy by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the harmless Infant But saith he Since you only suspect and never saw this done either you could do such a horrid thing your selves and then you are monstrously unnatural or you could not and then you are as unreasonable to suspect that done by others which you do not think possible to be done by your selves There is nothing more frequent than for a silly man to suppose there are no other nor better reasons of things than what obviously appear because if there be other or better he cannot reach them On the contrary a wise man when the surface of things is weak and mean alwayes imagines there is some better foundation at the bottom because he knows that he himself would not be led by such weak confiderations as those are that appear If therefore we would approve our selves either humble or charitable or wise or good there is no better argument to demonstrate any of these by than the censures we make upon the actions and intentions of others And if any where it be of importance to give such a testimony of our selves and to proceed by such measures it is in the case of the Magistrate not only for the common equity but also upon the account of the dignity of his place as Gods Minister and the usefulness and necessity of his Office and Ministry Is it fit saith Elihu Chap. 34. 18. to be said unto Princes Ye are ungodly or to Rulers Ye are wicked Is it tolerable to repute our Governours Dolts