THE SPIRIT OF The Church-Faction DETECTED In its Nature and Operations More Particularly in The Mystery of the Convocation-Book Lately Published and Exposed To the View and Censure of the World by the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury And in The Progress of the Faction And the Mischiefs thereof The late Civil War and our present Disappointments LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCI Lately publish'd by the same Author AN Admonition concerning a Publick FAST The Just Causes we have for it from the full Growth of Sin and the near Approaches of God's Judgments And the Manner of Performance to obtain the desired Effects thereof Which ought to be other than our Common Forms and with stricter Acts of Mortification than is usual amongst us An APPEAL to Heaven and Earth against the Christian Epicureans who have betrayed their KING and Countrey and Exposed them to the Judgments of GOD Drawn up in Questions Theological and Theologico-Political A CAVEAT to the READER IT is certain that Mankind is commonly very prone to that Folly of running out of one Extream into another And it is as certain and apparent that the Christians all over the World being divided into several different Parties are generally where they have any Zeal at all more zealous for their own particular Parties and for those things which are peculiar to them than for Christianity it self or the Great matters of it in which all agree and that accordingly they are generally more led and swayed by the Comments and Doctrines of their Teachers and leading men of their respective Parties and the Opinion they have of them than by the plain Text of the S. Scripture and the Authority thereof though they do not apprehend so much themselves All this might be proved by many Evidences of Fact but that would be too long for this place and besides it is needless For all acknowledge it to be so in all parties but their own which is sufficient Evidence as good as need be against all for their own Confession against themselves is not to be expected And all acknowledge it to be a Fault wherever it is This I note for Caution and to prevent that ill Vse which might be made of what I have here written for a good End viz. that the Church of England might be moved to Reform of her self what is amiss to cast out all Abuses and extirpate all those pestiferous Weeds and Roots of Faction and in case that God for her Negligence should a second time leave her to the Correction of any other Party that they may not again overshoot themselves and by inconsiderate heat instead of Reformation put all into Confusion or by Severity against their fellow Servants provoke the Judgments of their common Lord against themselves For all have their Faults and very considerable ones too and most have some Good almost peculiar to themselves which the rest either overlook or neglect if not oppose or obstinately refuse Even that very party which hath most Weeds of all may and if I be not deceived often doth produce such Fruit amongst those Weeds as can hardly be matcht by any of the other which must therefore have the more to answer for that under a better Culture they do not bring forth better and more mature and excellent Fruit. Had we been as carefull to retain and improve what was good and to restore and repair what was lost or decayed as we were to cast out all that was bad our Work had been more compleat and successfull But while Heat of Contention makes all Parties apt to take the matters in Controversie for the great Matters of Religion what are really the Great Matters of Religion are the less regarded by any and what are taken to be so but are not are prosecuted and pressed further than they ought to be by each respectively when they get the Advantage for it Such were the Superstitions and superfluous Rites whereby the genuine Simple and most Proper and Decent Christian Worship of God was in the Church of Rome corrupted and obscured like good Wheat in a Great heap of Tares and Chaff that many to avoid them have run into a contrary Superstition avoiding and neglecting even natural expressions of Reverence and Decency in it and little less than Prophaneness This justly moved some of our Bishops and Dr. Laud especially when he came into favour to labour as he saith That the External Worship of God so much slighted in many parts might be preserved and that with as much Decency and Uniformity as might be But it was pressed too far in unnecessary matters in a kind of arbitrary manner without an equal concern for the promotion of real and internal Piety nay with obstinate refusal and opposition of Reformation of other great Abuses in Discipline Non-Residence Pluralities c. and with Opposition even of some Means of the promotion of Religion the Observation of the Lords Day Lectures And the purchase of Impropriations as if it was the only thing necessary or it and absolute Subjection to the Will of the Prince under the Notion of Loyalty was the summe of all Religion And this again on the other side made it be looked upon as meer Formality and a Project to prepare us for the readmission of Popery and so raised a greater Antipathy against it which at last cast all out but in its place brought in Indecency Prophaneness and Confusion But we have now a Choice of such Bishops as I hope will make a better use of what I have written and do their parts to make this Caution needless For the Readers better satisfaction concerning the near agreement of the Nature and Genius of our Church-Faction with that of the Church of Rome I recommend to his perusal and Consideration Dr. Barrow's Account of the Inconveniences of the Papal Pretences pag. 201. to pag. 214. Of the Popes Supremacy THE SPIRIT OF THE Church-Faction DETECTED c. I Have formerly taken notice of a certain Difference between the Church-Faction and the True Church of England and the ingenious Dr. H 〈…〉 hath larely acquainted the Honourable House of Commons and the World since in a Sermon now in Print with a notable and very true distinction between the Spirit of God and the Spirit of the Church of England which must be understood of the Church-Faction which arrogates to it self the Name of the Church of England as its Mother the Church of Rome doth the Name of the Catholick Church and with as good Right and Reason every whit Of this Faction I say it must be understood for the True Church of England owns no Spirit for its Guide but that of God And since he hath furnished us with so usefull and remarkable a Distinction to whom can we more properly have recourse to understand the Nature of this Spirit than to him who professeth himself possessed of it and besides is very free and apt upon all occasions to afford Experiments and plain Demonstrations of its natural
related to God as our selves and to keep our selves pure and unspotted of the World And accordingly his Apostles and Disciples those who had not the things of the World sought them not but were contented with Food and Rayment and that they often sought by their own labours and those who had more distributed what they had to such as wanted On the contrary Antichrist is described in the Scripture 1. With great Pomp State Grandure Power and Dominion 2. With much Subtilty and strong Delusions 3. With great Violence and Cruelty being drunk with the Blood of the Saints And if we well consider the Methods which have been used for the suppression of the Christian Religion through the Instigation of that Wicked Spirit which rules in the Hearts of all wicked Men and too often prevails in such as are not of his party if not well purified from carnal and terrene Affections and very vigilant and circumspect we shall find that the first was indeed by open Violence by the Jews and the Heathens But as soon as that appeared not to be sufficient for his purpose he made use of his Subtilty and transforming himself into an Angel of Light set to work by his Instruments to corrupt the simblicity of the Christian Doctrine with subtile Notions and under pretence of Zeal for the true Faith to raise Dissentions and divide the Christians into different parties and set them one against another And by this Means he prevailed mightily among the Greeks who were addicted to Speculation and Oratory But when his first Method of Force wholly failed him and the Roman Emperours became Christians neither had his second Method that effect among the Romans as it had with the Greeks they being more addicted to Pomp and Grandure and Dominion than to Notions and Speculations he presently attach'd them with those things which were more agreeable to their Disposition and instigated them to express their Zeal for the Church by conferring as much of this kind upon it as might be and their Bishops as greedily to catch at it This is that which St. Augustine and the Bishops of that famous Council in Africa noted and gravely and sharply reproved in the then Bishops of Rome that they introduced Typhum Seculi in Ecclesiam the Pomp and Grandure of the World into the Church And when they were once tainted and levened with this Poyson of the Spirit of the World they were easily instigated to the use of Force and Violence against any who never so justly opposed their Ambition as that Council did till at last they proceeded to Blood and all kind of Cruelty in after Ages And now for the Tendence and Subservience of these things of the World so much neglected by Christ and his true Disciples and so greedily sought after by others to which of the Ends before mentioned it is most and the Effects and Consequences of them upon Men 1. It is plain that they do for the most part strangely insinuate themselves into the Affections of those that acquire them insomuch that what is commonly said of one of them Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit may truly be said of all much would have more and the more men have the more they still crave and so easily observable every where that I need say no more 2. These Affections to the things of the World are apt continually to occupy and take up the Mind and to avert it or detain it from God its proper Object partly by Complacency in them and partly by Distractions about them 3. And this doth easily proceed to a kind of Trust and Confidence in them and Reliance upon them with Acquiescence and Repose whereby they become such a false bottom to it as I mentioned before an Idol instead of the Living God 4. And this must needs partly chill if not extinguish all true Devotion and Affection to God and cause a Narrowness of Soul as to any generous Acts for his Service or the common Good of Men and partly infatuate it with False Security and Presumption of the Favour of God grounded upon such External Blessings and a formal outside Religion according to its own Disposition 5. And then lastly All is soon compleated with that height of Pride Arrogance and Indignation and Severity against all who oppose or refuse to stoop and pay Reverence to so Worshipful a Being All which is directly contrary to the intire Subjection of the Creature to the Creator which is the very End of our living here upon Earth and of the Conduct of the Divine Spirit and insensibly leads into the State and subjects it to the Power of the Devils And for the Effect and Consequence thereof upon others the Ostentation of those who have some share of these things is apt to provoke the Emulation of those who have less and that instigates them first to Care and Pains to get as much as their Neighbours though otherwise they may perhaps have enough for themselves and their Families if they would but conform to it and so robs them of much precious Time and distracts their Minds from their proper Object by unnecessary Care for Superfluities and so also gives advantage to the Spirit of the World to insinuate the deeper into them And Secondly if honest Pains and honest Gains will not satisfie the Emulation it instigates further to indirect Means as Frauds Cheats Exactions Oppressions secret Stealth and open Robbery wherewith particular Persons are wronged and molested and many undone many Arts Projects and Practices of Covetous and Ambitious Officers Courtiers Statesmen and Princes whereby States and Governments and whole Nations are disturbed and often involved in great Troubles and most of that various Wickedness which we daily see punished with the untimely Death of so many Malefactors But besides those grosser Evils which are apparent to every ordinary Observation there is another more subtile Evil Consequence which falls heavy upon a great part of Mankind and so makes the Curse much worse than ever God made it It keeps down many Young and many honest industrious People that with all their Care Labour and Industry they are hardly able to get an honest Livelihood and Subsistence for their Families and makes Necessity a great Temptation to many These are great Evils under the Sun such as do greatly strengthen and increase the Kingdom of Darkness and such as the Christians of the Reformed Churches as we call them have much to answer for before God But it would require a longer Discourse than is fit for this place fully to explain them I shall therefore only add that the Great Instruments of this Mystery of Wickedness are the Great Men of the World the Stately Dames and all that either prosecute the things of the World with Greediness and without measure retain them without use or use them with Ostentation in Attire in immodest Fashions such as our Womens Fioccoes fitter for Fore-horses heads than for the Foreheads of
pleaseth that is without Law or that his Will should be a Law as the Roman Emperours was Quod Principi placuerit Lex esto He hath so much as the Common Agreement or the Constitution hath given him and no more the other States in all things else retaining their Natural Power and not only the Laws which he is sworn to observe confining him within bounds but the very Constitution which gives him his being And therefore if a Question arise in such a Constitution concerning any Right of King or People the Proof will ly on the part of the King to make good his Claim by the publick Agreement or Constitution and not on the part of the People who have a precedent Title viz. Jure Naturali and are subject to him in nothing but what he hath by the Constitution or Original Contract And such an intire Constitution being the Ordinance of God and the Authority residing in the whole and in each part Gods Authority the Authority of the whole is Irresistible and the Authority of each of the Parts equally Irresistible And therefore as whoever violates the Authority of the whole violates Gods Authority so whoever violates the Authority of either of the parts in that part violates the Authority of the whole and Gods Authority and may therefore be resisted though it be either of the Parts that doth it even the King himself For in that he doth not act by but contrary to Gods Authority and Resistance of the King in such case is no Resistance of his Authority for he had no such Authority to do what he doth but of a Tyrant or an Invader Aggressor or Usurper nor Rebellion but a Just Defence of the Government and Constitution of Gods Ordinance and Gods Authority But on the other side as such a Violation may be either by open Force or by Fraud secret Practice and Conspiracy so they who do it this way are as much Traytors against the Government as they are Rebels who do it the other though against the King himself And if the King in such a Constitution conspire with a part of the People to do this He and They become thereby a Trayterous Faction He violates Gods Ordinance his own Oath and in effect Abdicates his Government and may justly be deposed for his Trayterous Practice and They be punished as Betrayers of their Countrey and Traytors to the Government And God himself doth often punish such Abuses of his Authority especially in persons professing Religion even in this Life by his Providence with very severe and remarkable Judgments And such we may observe in the present business of the Convocation and the Consequences thereof from first to last as will further appear in what follows For From what hath been said I think it apparent that the Doctrine and Resolutions of this Convocation do as I said plainly confirm what they were designed to subvert and subvert what they were designed to erect or raise up which is an argument of a very strange Infatuation as if God had smitten them with Astonishment given them a Spirit of Slumber and mingled a perverse Spirit in the midst of them as he threatned to do in the Counsels of the Egyptians Isa 19. a thing not at all incredible or indeed to be questioned if we consider how wicked and perverse a work it was they were about which is likewise apparent and easie to be concluded from what hath been said that is in general as I said before a hidden Work of Dishonesty and a very Mystery of Iniquity but more particularly such a Conspiracy as I mentioned but now with divers Aggravating Circumstances For that Constitution there described is the very true and genuine English Constitution and one of the best in the World But the Principal Design of that Book as Dr. Sherlock hath rightly observed and is apparent to an ordinary Capacity and by consequence of that King and of the Principal Managers of that Convocation in it was to assert the Irresistible Authority of Soveraign Princes as he phraseth it that is such an Authority Jure Divino as makes them irresistible in any thing Which is utterly inconsistent with such a Constitution where the Supreme Authority is so divided among several Essential parts as with us the King the Lords and the Commons So that it was plainly a Conspiracy against the Government of their Country to enslave their Country and turn the Legal Government thereof into Tyranny against an Ancient settled Government of their Countrey and therefore according to their own Doctrine against the Ordinance of God and Gods Authority And their End in it was plainly for their own Advantage the very same with that of the Papists and generally of aspiring Courtiers They are all for Arbitrary Government not only in pretence to insinuate themselves into Favour but in reality because they find it more easie to deal with the single Person of a Prince and to deceive him with Flatteries and Insinuations than with so great a Body of Men as an English Parliament among whom it can hardly be expected but there will alwayes be some or other of Parts and Ability to discern and defeat their Projects before they can bring them to perfection and who will not be corrupted as Favourites often may And the Parliament in the Queens time had bin so often upon Reformation of Pluralities Non-residence and other matters as ungrateful to them as before to the Papacy that they even dreaded the thoughts of it And this was their Tentation and the Occasion of their engaging in such a Work in such a Manner And indeed the Manner of their managing this Work is no less observable being altogether agreeable to a Mystery of Iniquity viz. 1. Under False Pretences pretence of Religion and pretence of setting out the Dignity of our Saviour Christ by his Almighty Power and Universal Government of the World so like the Great Mystery that never was Daughter more like her Mother 2. With gross Sophistry and Fallacies craftily leading People into such Opinions as they cautiously forbear to affirm As Can. 2. concerning the Original of Civil Power to affirm That it was derived from the People they seem very formally to condemn as a great Error and yet they craftily intermix so many allayes that indeed they do not unless it be affirmed 1. As a Consequence of such Premises there mentioned as may be in some sort false 2. That it was first so derived 3. And not simply from the People but from the People and disordered Multitude And 4. it must also be coupled with this Negation and is not Gods Ordinance c. So that it seems a designed Artifice to deceive the People and mislead them into an Opinion which yet they themselves did not believe and had therefore secured their Evasion which might be confirmed from many other Instances of their Canons contrived and drawn up in such a fraudulent and fallacious form That of Can. 28. I have touched already
decree that the Order of Kings is of Divine Right the Ordinance of God founded in the prime Laws of Nature and clearly established by express Texts of Scripture That a Supream Power is given to this Order by God himself to command all and punish with the Temporal Sword all stubborn and wicked doers That the care of God's Church is committed to Kings in Scripture and her Government belongs in chief to Kings That the Power to call and dissolve Councils is the true Right of all Christian Kings That to avow in any of their Realms any Independant Coactive Power either Papal or Popular is to undermine their Regal Office That for Subjects to bear Arms against their King upon any pretence whatsoever is at least to resist the Powers which are ordained of God That Tribute Custom c. and all manner of support and supply is due to Kings from their Subjects by the Law of God Nature and Nations c. And they ordain this to be read by every Parson c. every quarter of the Year under pain of suspension and that no Ecclesiastical or Academical Person shall maintain or abett any Position in opposition or Impeachment of any part thereof under pain of Excommunication Now if this be true which they have decreed then have all Kings the same Power jure divino which cannot be restrain'd by any humane Constitution then are all those Constitutions of Government whereby a limited Power only is given to the King though settled by solemn Agreement and mutual Oaths for Observation and Performance thereof all void as to any Limitations as derogatory to the Law of God and the King may and must use his Power which he hath jure divino and then are all those who insist upon any Right by any such Laws which is inconsistent with that Plenitude of Royal Power jure divino factious and seditious and to be punished with the Temporal Sword as stubborn and wicked doers But if all Forms of Government when throughly settled have Gods Authority and the Powers that be in each be ordained of God if Publick Pacts and Agreements by which Governments are usually constituted and ratified are to be observed inviolably jure naturali and if Solemn Oaths by which Pacts and Agreements are usually confirmed and made as Sacred and Inviolable as may be are to be observed most religiously and jure divino then is their Doctrine false factious and seditious and tending to the Subversion or Disturbance of most Kingdoms in this Part of the World and of our own in particular and was therefore justly condemned by the next Parliament then is the Church of England in Convocation and her Doctrine no less fallible than the Church of Rome and then was that Faction the great Occasion of our late Civil Wars by misleading the Consciences of the King and of a great part of the People of great Abuses by Declarations and Clauses inconsistent with the Constitution of our Government obtruded into divers Acts of Parliament and of many illegal Arbitrary Acts in the Reigns since is still the occasion of our Civil Dissentions and Unsettlement and of much of our Disappointments under the present Government at this day and will continue so to be till either some good Counsel and Resolution put an end to it or it produce another Civil War For while Princes and some part of the People shall be perswaded upon pretended Principles of Religion that the Regal Power is Jure Divino above all Humane Laws and the rest know that it anciently hath been and to this day is very different all over the World in all Kingdoms according to their several Constitutions in some more absolute as the Eastern and the Roman Emperors in others very little as divers of the Northern and particularly the German from whom the English descended who acted in Council Authoritate suadendi magis quam Jubendi Potestate and that by the English Constitution it is limited and confined to the observance of Law in all parts of it this must be a perpetual Cause or Occasion of Dissensions which are apt to break out at last into Wars But if the Occasions of that Error being observed it be well considered that the Power of the Jewish Kings the Roman Emperors or any other is no Rule for the measure of our Government where the greatest Power of all is manifestly not in the King but remaining in the whole Body of King Lords and Commons That Expressions in some Acts of Parliament Articles of Religion or Canons used and intended meerly in Opposition to Papal Pretences ought not captiously to be extended to what was not intended or in question contrary to manifest Truth That Expressions in the Homilies out of Zeal against Conspiracies and Rebellions of Papists are of no Authority in Questions or Controversies of State nor Deerees of Universities when to serve a Faction or please those from whom they expect Preferment and That Ambition Self-interest and Flattery the usual Attendants of Princes Courts are always the promoters of such Pretences the Faction will soon be deserted by all honest men and then may we hope for a Happy Settlement which is the Design of this Paper and the sincere Desire of it's Author FINIS