Person may rest in the Bosom or external Communion of the Church yet too too often we have little or rather no hope that when he is departed hence he rests in Christ And therefore in our solemn Applications unto God to tell him we have a sure and certain hope of his rest in him and that he shall be raised unto eternal Life when we have no such hope or any tolerable Ground or probable Argument to believe it is to cause our Faith to act contrary to its own nature and to ascend higher than the Fountain of Scripture or Reason from whence it originally flows putting our Charity upon the rack and Conscience upon too great a stretch Besides Incouragement to the bad how many from hence flatter themselves into a Fool 's Paradice where they expect to eat of the Tree of Life though they have sed never so foul upon forbidden Fruit Crying Peace Peace though they have walkt according to the imagination of their own Hearts adding drunkenness to thirst For let a Person live in the Communion of the Church though he be as bad as ever was Caesar Borgia yet he shall have the same Charity extended towards him as if he had walkt before God in Truth and with a perfect Heart giving God thanks for his deliverance out of the Miseries of this Life as if he went immediately to Paradice to make an addition to the Spirits of just Men made perfect begging that God would accomplish the number of his Elect and hasten his Kingdom All which pro subjectâ materiâ are applicable to the Person of the defunct May it not be a just discouragement to Holiness of Life whilst the same Expectancies and Hopes by the publick Judgment of the church are declared concerning the worst Discouragement to the good as well as the best of Men Who from hence might infer and say What is the Almighty that we should serve him or what profit should we have if we pray unto him 21 Job 15. For the same end is to them both to the Good and to the Sinner so that I have cleansed my self in vain and washt mine Hands in Innocency when he that wallows in the Mire and that hath defiled his Garments shall yet sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven which is but consequential or the same to a rest in Christ and a Resurrection to eternal Life seeing then the same Office is to be applied to Persons of all sorts and circumstances we earnestly desire it may be so far reformed and modelled that the bad be not flattered the good offended nor the Consciences of such as minister justly scandalized And seeing that Mercy is a most acceptable Sacrifice to the Almighty why might not this whole Office excepting some decent Expression upon committing the Body to the Ground be performed within the Church where the Minister and People are secured from the Wind and Wet and other extremities of Weather to which they especially who are to attend bare headed are exposed whilst they continue sub Dio and remain in the Open Air. Obj. But the sight of the Grave for the Eye affects the Heart is apt to stamp deeper Impresses and produce an higher Sense of Mortality in the Minds of Men and therefore an alteration upon this account would be for the worse Res 1st And is not the dead Corps a Spectacle within doors as powerful and convincing as that without 2dly If the Priest's Lips will not preserve the Knowledge and maintain the Sense of our Estate and Circumstances 't will be in vain to seek it at the Grave's Mouth We have Moses and the Prophets if we will not hear them neither will we be convinced though one should arise out of the Grave from the Dead so that the reason of our request yet remains unshaken Of the Collects for the King the those in Authority NOR is our flattering of the living in the next place any whit a less Stone of stumbling or rock of offence than our fawning upon the Dead To prevent which how necessary is it for the Reverend Father of our Church into whose Hands the King hath now put a Fan throughly to purge our Floor I mean those Prayers and Collects appointed to be used for the King and those in Authority by the which be a Prince never so debaucht and profligate prophane and dissolute abandoning himself to all the Vices of the Age sublimating Evil to the highest pitch violating all the Laws of God and casting those Cords behind him yet as if the Majesty of his Person were an Elixir which turns all into God changing the nature of Vice into Vertue we are bound to acknowledge him that is greatest to be the best too nay as if the most idolatrous and false Religion could by the touch of a Scepter be legitimated or changed into an Evangelical Worship and reasonable Service We are bound as the Case stands whatever Religion the Prince professes be it roman or Mahometan yet to pray that God would keep and strengthen him in the true way of worshipping him when at that very time we believe and are perswaded it is false A Staff which â—n the late Reign was made use of to bastinado those that prayed by the Liturgy Our Enemies urging that either their way of worship was true or else our Service false and hypocritical If Princes were like Miâ—as changing the Nature of every thing they touch or had the same Power which Bellarmine avers to be in the Pope viz. of making Vertue to be Vice and Vice Vertue Evil to be Good and Darkness to be Light than we might account Slavery to be Liberty and that tender Mercy which is Cruelty We need not scruple to call him Gracious and most Religious Sovereign though he hath abandoned the Sense and Practice of Religion and Vertue nor scruple to call him Rex Christianissimus who is vix Christianus But till these Paradoxes can be proved and justified it is desired by such as be true Sons of the Church that the Liturgy may in this respect be altered and such of its Collects as oblige us to give flattering Titles unto Man may be so revised and amended that if we lived under a Julian or Domitian they might not upon the least account be scrupled nor can we ever expect a fitter Juncture to work this Reformation in than when we are under the Conduct of such Sovereign Princes who are not only willing to condescend to all things which can with any colour of Reason and Conscience be desired of them but also no pretence or conciousness of guilt that is upon them or scruple in us do in the least enforce or influence our request of having such Expressions taken out of our Liturgy as should hinder us in lifting up our Hands without wrath or doubting such as should render us Sychophants towards Men or Hypocrites towards God in our most divine and solemn Approaches unto the Throne of
at least in this our day see the things that concern the Peace and Welfare of our Church and State 'T is not possible for any who is a true living Member or either Body to be so past feeling as to find no regret or simpathy when he sees either of them reel and stagger to and fro like a drunken Man What Member of the Bâ—dy can be in health when the whole Head is sick and Heart faint But thanks be to God we have made one step in order to a Cure that we can see the Rock of Offence from whence these Distempers are hewen and the Hole of the Pit from whence they are digged We can tell what those Bryars and Thorns are and who hath planted them which have not only rent our Garments but rolled them in Blood too And that for no other cause than that they were not all of a colâ—ur But is there no Balm in our Gilead Is there no Physician of that value there that can bind up our Wounds and mollifie them with Ointment 22 Rev. 2. Undoubtedly we have viz. a Prince who hath made Propositions like to the Leaves of the Tree of Life which are for the healing of the Nations Who that he might compleat our deliverance having saved us from the Hand of our Enemies that we might serve God without fear is designing to reconcile us to our selves that having abolisht the Enmity 2 Eph. 15. even the Law of Commandments contained in Ecclesiastical Ordinances we might have Peace We have Bishops now not like those Egyptian Task-masters that when the People cryed to them for ease were sent back with a Reproach viz. Te are idle ye are idle away to your Burthens But such as are kind and compassionate Fathers and Pastors of the Flock who considering its weakness will not over drive it Yea like the wisdom from above they are gentle and easie to be intreated to lose every Burthen and to let the oppressed go free Binding up the broken-hearted knocking off those Shackles which have so long gauled the Consciences Declaration from Breda Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs Another in the 1 Year 1672. c. and hold Captive the Souls of Men. For which purposes how often have Promises been made Tempers found Projects offered and proposed which by the prevailing Interest of Men highly addicted to the Form of our Worship have been stifled and supprest And who are always in so high a stickle and stifle to disappoint and cassate all the fairest Purposes and Propositions whenever they are made in order to a firm Settlement and lasting Peace Nor will consent to part with one Hair though the whole Head be sick c. and though we should admit it to be true that nothing hath been injoined in the Worship of God but what might be lawfully submitted to yet it hath been a very unruly Truth and which we have found so hard to manage that like a restiffe Jade it hath cast the Riders and dangerously struck them when they were out of the Saddle It was a Reverend Bishop's Opinion in this case That better is a quiet Error Bishop Hall's Peace-maker than an unruly Truth And Erasmus was so great a Lover of Peace that he could not fancy a troublesome and tumultuous Truth Mihi saith he adeo invisa est discordia ut veritas etiam displiceat seditiosa Which may admit a more favourable Construction when it respects only the Outworks of Religion Our Controversies saith Dr. Potter are none of them in the Substance of Faith but only in disputable opinions not clearly defined in Scripture Charity mistaken p 185. Why then should such things be made Terms of Communion and mere Circumstances of Divine Worship which may or may not be observed and yet the Ordinances of God duly administred For instance in the case of Private Baptism the Child may be I think I may say according to the Rubrick ought to be baptized without Sponsors and not to be signed with the sign of the Cross and yet the Child is declared by the Rubrick to be sufficiently baptized without either and requires none to make any doubt of it And therefore King James's Project which he sent to Cardinal Perroon might highly conduce to an accommodation were we but so happy as to apply it viz. That we should sever (a) Istam distinctionem serenissimus Rex tanti putat esse momenti adminuendas Controversiâ—is que hodie Ecclesiam dei tantopere Exercent necessary from unnecessary things That as to the first which he saith are not many we should agree and leave the rest to liberty In non necessariis libertati Christianae detur locus This he thought was the shortest (b) Nullam breviorem ad incundam concordiam viam fore c. cut to Peace as may be seen more at large in the Epistle wrote by Causabon to the Cardinal at the King's Command upon this Subject Yet so great and mistaken too hath the Zeal of Men been concerning the Rites of Religion that we have herd that whole Churches have bandied at and censured one and other for things of no great moment such were the Saturday-Fast and Celebration of Easter Erasmus in his Epistle before Irenaeus his works commends that Father for his earnest Desire and Love of Peace and for blaming the Bishop of Rome for his (c) Non de catholico dogmate sid de ritu vel ritus potius tempore Not for any Catholick Doctrine but for Ceremony c. So Petavius cutting off many Churches from his Communion because they did not agree with the Western Church in the Celebration of Easter and Observation of Fasts Ecclesiasticae Concordiae tam fuit studiosus ut cum Victor Romanus Pontifex multas Ecclesias amputasset à Communione quod in Celebratione diei Paschalis in Observatione jejuniorum morem obtinerent à Romanâ consuetudine diversum Magna libertate Victorem reprehenderit Now that things of this nature are the Scene in which our present Disputes lie there 's no Man ignorant To moderate which his Majesty hath interposed his Wisdom and Authority But though he hath charmed wisely yet our Adders have too much Sting and too little Ear to listen to those things which concern the Peace and Welfare of our Church From whence have sprung our great Zeal and Stickle in Parliamentary Elections to pick up Men of those tenacious Principles that would sooner part with an Article out of their Creed Eras Epiâ— od â—ernbard Trid. Episâ— than the least Rite or Ceremony out of the Rubrick The Answer which the Arch-bishop with the rest of the Bishops presented to the late King was That it was no want of Tenderness to Dissenters that they could not comply with the Declaration for Liberty but that they only waited till it should be considered in Parliament and Convocation The first hath very kindly and with Justice to former Promises granted them their Liberty To the
Weather Mountains want too much That being past a Mole-hill now they grutch Witness that great regret some of them have express against that Kindness and Favour which they King and two succeeding Parliaments have beyond denial evideneed to our Dissenting Protestant Brethren who with Fury bite the Chain which restrains them from falling foul upon their former Prey Besides their unreasonable stickle to prevent the least Abatement in Matters which respect the Ceremonial part of our Worship A Conformity to which goes with them for the whole Duty of a Minister Obedience to Government a very good and Gospel Doctrine was the constant Theme of the Pulpit but our high men have done with it as the Priest did with the Sword of Goliah wound it up in the Ephod and laid it behind the Altar Though when time was our whole Duty was placed in a wild Notion and extravagant Pretence to Loyalty No Man being esteemed Loyal or a Lover of his Prince who did not so far doat as to follow the Measures and promote the Designs of turning the best tempered Government in the World into a Despotick and Arbitrary Rule These wife Master-builders had raised the Fabrick of Sovereign Power to that â—mmense Height and extravagant Projecture as no way agreed with the just Methods of any civil Architecture putting in the mean time the Mischief of the Project far from themselves Supposing that if it did fall it might perhaps grind their Enemies to Powder but never dreamt of its tipping upon their own Heads as we have before observed Insomuch that whatever they heard which might awaken them to prevent their impending Ruine went for nothing but the ever-jealous Notions and muâ—â—nous Suggestions of disloyal and dissaffected Men. But when they began to feel the Massy weight of an overgrown Monarch with what Zeal did they stickle to put a Bridle into the Mouth and Hook into the Nostrils of that Leviathan whose Tusks had ript up the Belly of our Laws and Liberties upon whose Neck they had so lately thrown the Reigns of Government which the Prince whom God now hath blest us with hath delivered back again to the People Esteeming the Prerogative never better asserted than when the Rights and Properties of the Subject the great end of Government are kept inviolate and that Caesar can never have his due if the People be denied what 's theirs Being so great an Artist in governing as to carry a steddy Hand and keep the Ballance even for if too much weight be put into one Scale the other will kick up as our late King by a costly Experiment found true But as it pleased the Almighty to raise up a Moses to deliver us from the Brick-kilns and to break the Yoak from off the neck of our civil Liberties so we trust he will rescue us from the iron Furnaces too loosing every Burthen and letting our Consciences go free which have not been so much gauled with Points of Doctrine and Articles of Faith and Religion as with the rites and Ceremonies of it We so generally agree as to Matters of Faith that Dissenters in respect of that are so few as to their Number and as to their Quality so inconsiderable that they are not able to make any Schism or cause any disturbance amongst us Could we but find a Temper to accommodate these lesser things which by a Spirit of Meekness and Moderation Christian Charity and Forbearance might easily be effected we should have an end of Controversie Heats would cool Animosities would cease they 'd want Fuel to feed them and Matter to work upon The making Sides and Parties to elect Members for Parliament would be at an end which have so frequently fermented the Humours of the Body politick into lasting and dangerous Factions and Distempers Were but our Contests about the Form and Rites of Religion by some wise and prudent Concordate framed by our Governours determined and moderated we need not fear we should fall out about Matters of State being all agreed to bear out share in the Charge necessary for its Grandeur and Defence We should all sit under our Vines and Fig-tress leading a peaceable and quiet Life when once these Bones of Contention were taken out of the way and Apples of Strife which they say grow upon a Tree that 's neither good nor evil become forbidden Fruit. Besides we are not sturdy Beggars we ask not Talents but Shekels we only desire to wash and be clean from those additions to Divine Worship which we are afraid may defile our Consciences and not be so well pleasing to God Things which the Imposers tell us are Matters indifferent when abstracted from their Authority But suppose it should be an inconvenience to take them away yet sure so great a good as an universal Quiet would be sufficient to commute for no greater Nuisance But we are perswaded of the contrary from the Reasons we have alledged besides the Authorities of some of the greatest Prelates and Members of the Church of England viz. Hooper Bishop of Worcester Jewel Bishop of Salisbury Sands Arch-bishop of York Horne Bishop of Winchester Why should I again name Cranmer Ridley Grindal upon this subject who endeavoured to have the Habits of the Clergy as a Popish Relique cast out The Arch-bishop of St. Andrews speaking in his Sermon at the Assembly of Perth did acknowledge That the Conveniency of them was doubted by many but not without Cause c. Novations in a Church even in the smallest things are dangerous had it been in our Power to have disswaded or declined them most certainly we would c. Mr. Sprint also though a Conformist yet saith It may be granted that offence and hinderance to Edification do arise from these our Ceremonies He confesseth also That the best Divines wisht them to be abolished Which by her own Confession is in the Power of the Church to grant Which speaking in the Preface of the Common Prayer See 34. Art of Religion saith that the Ceremonies which remain may be for just Causes taken away altered or changed and gives good reason for it because they are in their own nature indifferent and so alterable The Words be these The particular Forms of Divine Worship and the Rites and Ceremonies appointed to be used therein being things in their own nature indifferent and alterable and so acknowledged It is but reasonable upon weighty and important Considerations according to the various Exigency of times and occasions such Changes and Alterations should be made therein as to those that are in place of Authority should from time to time seem either necessary or expedient accordingly we find that in the Reigns of several Princes of Blessed Memory since the Reformation the Church upon just and weighty Considerations her thereunto moving hath yielded to make such alterations in such Particulars as in their respective times were thought convenient c. As for weighty Causes sure we never had any more ponderous to incline the
Divine Command to the contrary And why then also may she not injoin Caelibacy or single Life as she shall esteem it convenient for there 's no command to the contrary as Aquinas observes Nemo ex praecepto tenetur nubere and I believe he spake truth for unless it be in some particular Cases no Man is oblig'd to Marry for then St. Paul would not have said He that marries does well but he that abstains does better And now whatever I have spoken upon this Argument I have done it in the Truth and Integrity of my Heart out of no design to embroil but rather to promote the Welfare and Peace of the Church as well as of the Consciences of private Men and thereby to extinguish those Flames which the Sparks of these controverted Rites have enkindled for Solomon saith If we take away the Wood the Fire will go out Nor have I Wyar-drawn the Truth or warpt the Rule of it to make it agree with Peace Non studendum est paci saith the Father in detrimentum verae Doctrinae But have endeavoured to take Measures from Scripture Reason and Charity But if now I should be mistaken and should have taken my mark amiss I am the more convinc'd of the necessity of Toleration and compliance in Matters which are of no greater Figure in Religion than what we have mentioned Because as Dr. Taylor saith Even then when a Man thinks he hath most reason to be confident he may easily be deceived But I shall leave all to the Judgment and Censure of those reverend and worthy Persons whom the King hath Commissioned to sit on such Matters and to review the Liturgy This was writ during their Authority Let the Righteous smite me and it shall be a kindness Though to those Ralleries with which Tracts of this nature are commonly entertained according to the direction of Mr. Hooker in his Ecclesiastical Polity I shall reply nothing because as the wise Man saith Fool 's rage and are confident But suppose the Matters alledged be not contrary to any Divine Precept yet they may be and are offensive and scandalous to good Christians though perhaps but weak in the Faith and is there not as much Charity and Forbearance to be shewed to such especially living peaceably though uneasie to themselves submitting to the Ordinances of Men for Conscience sake rather than make any Schism in the Church as hath been extended to some who have not only differed from it in Doctrine but wholly abandoned its Communion I shall instance in several Rasures which have been made in the Common Prayer by Arch-bishop Land least Matter of Scandal or Offence should be given to the Arminians and our dear Friends the Papists Hence we find that those Words used in the Morning Prayers for the King viz. Who art the Father of thine Elect and of their Seed were expunged which the Arch-bishop in his Speech in the Star-Chamber excuses as being done in his Predecessors time by the King's Command But this alters not the case in hand but as some have more than guessed that because the Words seemed too much to favour the Opinion of a particular assurance of Election and personal Adoption or Salvation which gave offence to some in the Church who had other Sentiments they were commanded to be rased Others also both within and without the Church who would not allow the Pope to be Antichrist were much offended with these Words in our Liturgy viz. Root out that Babilonish and Antichristian Sect which are changed into these Words viz Root out the Romish and Babilonish Sect Which the Arch-bishop saith he did by the King's Order that he might not offend but remove scandal from the Papists And do we not owe as much to the Members of our own Church Shall we shew such forbearance towards our most implacable Enemies Whilst we hang a Mill-stone about the Necks of our Brethren and Friends even when we are invited to remove the Stones of stumbling and Rocks of offence out of the way The same Arch-bishop declaring That it was of dangerous Consequence to avow that the Popish Religion was Rebellion though this Clause passed saith he in King Jame's time yet he made an Alteration by the King's Command and saw it Printed see the Star-Chamber Speech p. 34. So that the Liturgy it self hath not been a Noli me tangere in former days but have passed an expurgatory Index and forc'd to part with such Expressions and Clauses as have been adjudged scandalizing of and reflecting upon the Roman Party Nor ought we to be uncharitable to any yet shall we do good to all but those of our own Houshold of Faith and Religion Besides what doth the late unpararelled deliverance of our Church from that Ruine it was so lately at the brink of require of us But to do justly to walk humbly and to shew mercy to redeem its former Disciplinary Cruelties and severe Usages by which our Brethren of the same Faith and Reformed Religion have been formerly harassed and treated with My design is not to rifle the two last Reigns or Proceedings against the Non-Conformists for Instances or Arguments to prove our Assumption The Author of the Plea for the Non-Conformists hath given us a taste of that Cup which was bitterly wrung out among us Yet I hope I may look a little further back and show you that the later Severities acted upon our Brethren was by a Transmigration of that ancient Spirit of Cruelty which heretofore informed and ruled in the great Abettors of Conformity By which we shall not only see clearly the Wisdom and Love of God in putting it into the Hearts of our Governours to proclaim Liberty to the Captive and to let the Oppressed go free But also to nominate and appoint Persons of Understanding and consequently of an excellent Spirit to find out such a Temper that those Boutefeus which have formerly put us in a flame may be never able to officiate as Incendiaries amongst us for the future So extreamly Arbitrary were the Censures of the high Commission-Court and Star-Chamber that some have weighed them in the same Ballance against the (a) With the Papists there is a severe Inquisition and with us as 't is used a bitter high Commission Sir Edw. Dering Col. Speech Inquisition This I am sure that the Wisdom and Justice of our Nation thought fit to make a Law to abrogate them and remove them as the great Nuisances which pestered both our Church and State When Ecclesiastical Persons were brisk in inflicting corporal Punishments and pecuniary Mulcts and Amercements Persons of the most liberal Professions and Education have been treated like Rogues and Villains for no other Reasons than their writing and speaking against the most Arbitrary Proceedings and Innovations in Religion and Divine Worship Which were adjudged so enormous and flagitious that they were used kindly if they came off with their Ears cropt their Noses slit their Cheeks burnt and stigmatized with
were these The Character of a Cathedral Corporation is still the same it was viz. A School for Compliments in Religion but a Scourge upon the Life and Practice of it They have been the Asylum of Superstition but Scalae gemoniae for true Piety c. This was a very smart Reflection upon those Societies but I hope our Superiors will so far take this into their Consideration as to render these Orders of Men such as they may become more servicâ—able to the Church less scandalous and offensive to those who seek occasion to cast Reproach upon them for the future and that the Glory of our Church may not shine forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with outward Pomp and Ostentation Multa Ostentatione but in a modest decent but especially devout Celebration of Divine Worship But this is too reachy and nice an Argument to insist much upon lest in the Prosecution of it I incur the Censure of being an Enemy to those regular Foundations Though I am perswaded there can be no surer way to ascertain their Funds than a Reformation of their pompous Service into a more Simple and Evangelical Form of Religion As also by subliming them to higher purposes and improving them to a far better account than they ever yet turned to in the Church It being hard to take off the ancient Grudge against them whilst so deep Revenues run waste whose Streams might refresh the City of God nor can I rationally fall under the Displeasure of any other of the Brethren seeing the design of this Plea is only to smooth the ways of Conformity and to make those Paths streight that the Church's Yoak may become more easie and burthen-light And can truly protest in the Words of a great Person Bellar recog as to the whole of this Discourse viz. Scripsi deo teste quod verum esse existimavi non gratiam hominum vel propriam utilitatem sed dei gloriam ecclesiae commodum respiciens That is I call God to witness that what I have wrote I account to be truth not respecting the Favour of Man or mine own Advantage but the Glory of God and Benefit of the Church But if after all I must receive Evil for Good I shall not think any new thing hath befallen me nor will my Case differ from that courteous Man's who helping his lame Dog over the Stile was for his kindness bit by the Fingers But from what Quarter can we expect the Reformation of a wicked and sinful World This no more than Promotion comes from the East nor from the West nor from the South it is God that pulls down one with his proud and high Looks and sets up or exalts the humble and meek 'T is he that puts a Bridle into the Mouth an Hook into the Nostrils of the greatest Leviathans and bores their Jaws through with a Thorne Nay he can change the most ungovernable Tempers and unruly Dispositions of Men. He it is that maketh the Lion to lie down with the Lamb eat Straw like the Ox He can say to the most proud and rampant Waves of Wickedness hitherto shall ye go and no further But why then doth not Righteousness cover the Land as the Waters cover the Sea Righteous art thou Oh Lord saith the Prophet yet let me argue with thee concerning thy Judgments Why doth the way of the Wicked prosper Were it not more for God's Honour to have Religion flourish over the Face of the whole Earth and prophaneness to have no place to flee to or fix the Sole of its Foot upon This indeed is a thing too deep for us a Phaenomenon we scarce know how to solve Were it not better that the false and lying Tongue were destroy'd and Perjury pluckt up by the Roots by which Justice and Truth have been perverted guiltless Persons murthered and innocent Blood spilt like Water upon the Ground Is it not strange to observe in the Reformation of Religion there should be so great a Sally out of Darkness into marvellous Light upon the first dwaning of that day and that notwithstanding the Prayers and Tears of such as have oppressed tender Consciences the utmost Endeavours of many wise and learned Fathers of the Church it could not for more than this hundred Years be carried on one step further towards Perfection This hath been the Lord's doing we know and 't is marvellous in our Eyes His Ways are unsearchable and his Paths are past finding out Not that we design to prescribe Methods to the Providence of God or Rules and Measures to his Wisdom in the Government of the Church yet we may pray that all things may be disposed so as they may best conduce to his own Glory the Purity Peace and Union of that Communion That having recovered its Light when it was so nigh a total and perpetual Eclipse it may shine forth with greater Glory and display brighter Beams of Light and Love than ever We may pray that God would bless his Majesty with perfect Victory and Success that he may set his Foot upon the Necks of his Enemies abroad as well as at home And that when he is settled with Peace round about he may then think of God's House how he may heal the Breaches and repair the Decays which Sin and Schism have made in the midst of it That he would please to renew the Powers and Faculties to such reverend Fathers of the Church if expired as are best qualified to sew up the rent in the Spouses Vail and so promote the Peace and Glory of our Church That he would please so far to interpose his Authority as in a legal way to procure such Ease and Liberty in the scrupled part of Conformity that the weary within the Church may be at rest As also so wide a Door to those who are without that if they will not enter it may be truly said that their exclusion is of themselves Obj. But why do we make so great a noise about little things Do we not know that small Alterations in Matters of Religion make great Distractions and occasion high Convulsions in the Church We pretend to desire and aim at the Peace and Welfare of our Jerusalem Why do we not then endeavour to promote it by a quiet Submission to its Orders and Decrees Res 1st They are indeed little things comparative to the Power and Authority of the Church to redress the Grievances of those who are weary and heavy laden 2dly Admit they be small yet 't is a very great Flame those little Sparks have kindled in the Breasts and Minds of many Pious and Conscientious Men A Mote is but a little thing 't is true but if got into the Eye of Conscience it causeth Rivers of Tears to run down by reason of it nor can the Apple of it ever cease As to our Duty of preventing Disturbance and preserving Peace and Union in the Church May our Indulgence be measured by our constant Endeavours to avoid the
the great Sin of the Conformists that they did not do what they might have done when they had a Power for Composing the Differences amongst us And is it not the Sin of such as dissent not to do what they may and have done occasionally pro hic nunc to serve themselves and secure their Interest for the attaining an higher End and more eminent Purposes viz. healing the Breaches and curing that inveterate Distemper I mean the Schism which hath so often disturbed the Peace and raised Confusions in the Church Obj. How can we comply and correspond with such as hate us Can we walk together with those that never will agree with us 'T is true we are upbraided for standing out when at the same time they are glad and loath we should come in When it was complained of to a great Bishop in Charles the Il's time that it was to be feared that the Act of Uniformity would be drawn up so strict that not many of the Presbyterians would conform his answer was He was afraid they would Besides the Treatment of those who have submitted to it have been such as affords little invitation to others to come over into the Tents of the Church of England whilst they have been accounted and used by the Conformists as false Brethren who came in meerly to spy out their Liberty and betray their Church upon which account they are disrespected and slited nay many times despitefully used they watching for their halting and glad when they stumble that they may fall into their hands and be used by them at their pleasure But not one Hair from their Heads would they part with to render the Yoak of Conformity easie or gratifie those that have been tender of the Peace and Unity of the Church Res Do they hate you then observe the Royal Law and Rule of our Saviour love those that hate you Don't they love you Let me ask you Is there any Love lost on either side Is not the distance of Affection the same on both sides I am afraid 't is as far from Athens to Thebes as 't is from Thebes to Athens If we love only those that love us what reward have we Let us heap Coals of Fire upon their Heads 't is the onlâ— way to melt them and force them to say as Saul to David You are more Righteous than we As for such who for Conscience sake have made no breach but have held Communion with the Church and yet have notwithstanding been lookt a squint upon that ought not to discourage you nor turn away their Faces or make them to despair of some reasonable Relaxation in Matters of Comformity For the righteous Lord loves Righteousness his Countenance does behold the upright But perhaps the appointed time of our Vision is not yet come and therefore we will wait for it for it will come and not tarry In the mean time le ts go on and build God's House with as much care and diligence as we can whatever Discouragements we may meet with from the Tobiases and Sanballats that may rise up against us Let us bear the Indignation of the Lord because we have sinned against him for he will plead our Cause and execute Judgment for us Let us pray that he would turn the Faces of our Brethren towards us that we may live in Peace and Love together and the God of Love and Peace shall be with us But this is a Lamentation 19 Ezek. 14. and must be for a Lamentation that Fire is gone out of our Branches that we still quarrel and fall out by the way for Matters of no higher value and greater figure in Religion than some appendant Rites and retained Ceremonies of Worship nor can we without regret observe how wide a Cleft those smaller Wedges have occasioned when they have been fiercely driven in the Beams of our own Timber The Dispute and Conference which was betwixt Arcicetus Bishop of Rome and Polycarpe concerning divers Usages and Customs of their Churches particularly that great-make Bate the time of celebrating Easter it was so managed as not to make any distance betwixt them But though it was concluded each Church should retain and practice their own Rites and observe their own Customs yet they did not break off their Fellowship but received the Sacrament together and held a friendly Communion one with the other Whilst Pope Victor as Irenaeus relates more stifly insisting on and urging the Practices of the Roman See upon other Churches they became as remote and distant from each other as the East is from the West in affection as well as Situation There was also in Cyprian's time a great Question which much exercised the Primitive Church viz. Whether Hereticks ought to be rebaptized before they were admitted to Church-Fellowship to determine which St. Cyprian calls a Council at Carthage who together with the rest of his (a) Sententiae Episcoporum de haereticis baptizandis Opera Cypr. 339. Impress Basil 1521. Brethren gave their Opinions that they ought not to be admitted into the Church without being rebaptized yet with so much indulgence and allowance to others as not to judge or censure them but to hold Communion with such as were otherwise minded Super est ut de hâc re quid singuli sentiamus proferamus nemirem judicantes aut â jure Communionis aliquem si diversum senserit amovenâ—es And could we but once come to be guilty of that Error which the Primitive Christians were charged with viz. of loving one and other (b) Minutius Felix's Dialogue betwixt Octavius and Cecilius too well we might yet maintain an holy Correspondence and Fellowship each with other taking sweet Council together and going to 〈◊〉 House of God in Company notwithstanding any Religious Rites in debate amongst us FINIS