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
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
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
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