before it lay under any ill character But that this Church doth not so syncretize with that of Rome as to make its Communion unsafe or sinful I suppose the following Considerations will give sufficient security to an unprejudiced mind In the mean time let me intreat him that hath entertained any suspicions of that kind against her to give an ingenuous Answer of these two or three Queries 1. If there be such a dangerous affinity betwixt the Church of England and the Romish how came it to pass that the blessed instruments of our Reformation such as A. Bishop Cranmer Ridley Latimer and others laid down their lives in testimony to this against that For if those of the Church of Rome could have been so barbarous as cruelly to murder those excellent persons for some slight Innovations or for differing from them in Circumstantials yet certainly such wise and good men would not have been so prodigal of their own blood nor weary of their lives as to cast them away upon Trifles It is probable at least therefore that those of the Church of Rome thought the English Reformation to be essentially different from them and it is more than probable that those holy men aforesaid thought so and did not offer to God the sacrifice of fools 2. Or how comes it to pass that all those of the Roman Communion withdraw themselves from ours and are commanded so to do by the Head of their Church under peril of damnation And on the other side the true Protestants of the Church of England think it their duty to absent themselves from the Roman Worship lest they should defile their Consciences with their Superstitions I say how comes this distance and apprehension of sin and danger reciprocally if the differences between them be inconsiderable 3. Whence comes it to pass that the Bigots of the Romish Church have more spite against our Church than against any Sect or Party whatsoever but that they take us not only for Enemies but the most mortal and formidable of all those they have to do with Or Lastly if both the Church and Church-men of England are not far enough removed from any participation with that of Rome how comes it to pass that they of all men most zealously and constantly upon all occasions stand in the gap and oppose the return of Popery into England when other men either slight the danger or are so fond of their own private sentiments as apparently to run the hazard of this for the sake of them Any reasonable man would think those men have not really such an abhorrence of Popery as they pretend and that there might easily be found terms of accommodation between them when he shall observe them more fond of every petty Opinion than concern'd for the publick Security against that common Enemy And that they will rather venture the danger of that breaking in upon them than forgo the least fancy or opinion nay will be instrumental in procuring a Toleration and suspension of the publick Laws for that which they are so jealous others should have any kindness for And for proof of this I call to witness the transactions of the last year when those very men that would be thought the Atlas's and only supporters of Protestant Religion and would give out as if their Zeal was the only Bulwark against Popery had by their separation from and enmity to this Church weakned the common interest and by their restless importunities and unlimited desires of liberty in a manner extorted a suspension of the Laws touching Religion Had not His Majesty and His Parliament timely foreseen the consequence and the whole Nation been awakned into an apprehension of the danger by the serious and constant admonitions of the Episcopal Clergy Popery might have come in like a Landflood upon us notwithstanding those quicksighted Watchmen that can spy Popery so far off I say had not the Church-men especially bestirred themselves and shewed both a better courage and zeal against Popery and also a better skill in that warfare than their Accusers the so much dreaded Enemy had ere this time been in fair hopes of attaining his desires This was a passage of so much glory to the true Church-men and so great and illustrious an instance of their integrity that I am in hope whilest it shall remain in memory Malice it self will be ashamed to lay any imputation of inclining to Popery either upon the Church or Church-men of England I shall not need to add to all this That there are as understanding men in Religion persons of as holy Lives and of as comfortable Consciences of this Churches Education as are any where to be found in the world besides Which three things together fully acquit any Church of participation with Popery For that degeneracy of Christianity is for nothing more truly hateful nor by nothing more discoverable than by its blind devotion principles of immorality and the bad security it gives to the Consciences of men which who so acquits any Church of as every considerate man must needs do this Church he shall after that very unreasonably leave any ill character upon her at least of that nature we now are speaking of 3. But there is a terrible Charge yet to come and that is against the Sufficiency but especially the Sanctity of the Clergy and Ministry of the Church of England as if they like the Sons of Eli 1 Sam. 2. 15. made men to abhor the offerings of the Lord. And this is made the pretence of resorting to Conventicles and forsaking the Church Now if this was as true as it is horribly false it might be an Objection perhaps fit for a Papist to make who is taught that the efficacy of all Divine Offices depends upon the intention and condition of him that administers But no Protestant without contradicting his own principles can make use of it to justifie his recession from the Church For if the efficacy of all Divine Ordinances depend upon the Divine Institution and the concurrence of Gods Grace with my use of them what can it prejudice me that he that administers is an evil or unlearned man so long as I prepare my self to receive benefit immediately from God in the use of the means appointed by him This therefore may serve for a malicious stone to cast at us from whom they are departed but no argument in the cause nor excuse for themselves Yet I confess nevertheless this way of arguing for we must be forced to call hard word by that name is of great prevalence with injudicious persons and able to prejudice them against the best Constitutions in the world For they not understanding the reason of things give reception and entertainment to any proposition in proportion to the opinion or reverence they have for the person that recommends it It is a known story how well the Spartans were aware of this and therefore if in their Council a man of a bad life had propounded
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
Mankind by making the sinister intentions of men co-operate towards them He made use of the unnatural cruelty of Joseph's brethren towards him to the preservation of the whole family of Jacob sending Joseph into Aegypt as an Harbinger and Nurse to provide for them in a famine And in respect hereof Joseph tells them it was not they but God sent him thither The Cruelty of Pharaoh who sought by severities to break and wear out the Israelites harden'd them and prepared them for all the difficulties they were afterwards to encounter The obstinacy and incredulity of the Jews proved to be the riches of the Gentiles The persecution of the Apostles at Jerusalem made way for the spreading of the Gospel into all other Countreys Instances of this kind are innumerable or if they were not yet were it very unsafe for those of the Church of Rome to make this objection lest they provoke us to say what cannot be either denyed or justified That the barbarous Tyrant and Usurper Phocas brought in the Universal Pastorship of the Bishop of Rome and that the most bloody and rapacious Princes have ordinarily been the great Patrons and Indowers of their Church thinking it seems to hallow their own Villanies and legitimate their unjust acquisitions by dividing the spoil with the Bishop and Church of Rome 3. The English Reformation was the most compleat and perfect in its kind as retaining the most antient Doctrine and soundest Confession of Faith founded upon the holy Scriptures and agreeable to the first General Councils the most Primitive Church-Government and a Liturgy the best accommodate to reconcile and unite mens Devotions Such a Liturgy as Mr. Fox the Author of the Martyrologie is not afraid to say was indited by the Holy Ghost but certainly had a great testimony in the unspeakable joy and contentment holy men took in it in King Edward the Sixths dayes their zeal for the maintenance of it longing for the restitution of it and sealing it with their blood in Queen Maries dayes and the universal triumphs and acclamations at the restoring of it in Queen Elizabeths Reign And admirable it is to consider how happy this Church and Nation then was in what Glory and Majesty the Prince reigned in what Peace and Concord the Subjects lived but especially it is remarkable how devout and pious an Age that was as is scarce perhaps to be parallel'd since the time that Christianity flourisht under Constantine the Great what reverence was then yielded to the Ministers of Religion What devotion to the publick worship How general an acquiescence of hearts and minds in it Which the greater it was the more just is our wonder and the more reasonable our inquiry what should be the Cause that in the same Church and amongst devout and honest-minded Englishmen such a zeal should terminate in so cold an indifferency as may now be observed or rather that such a blessed harmony should degenerate into so much discord as is now too discernable amongst us We read Ezra 3. that when the second Temple at Jerusalem was building the young men rejoyced at the reviving glory of their Nation and Religion but the old men that had beheld the far greater splendour and more stately Majesty of the former Temple built by Salomon they wept as contemplating how far this came short of that so that it was hard to say whether the shouts of the young men or the lamentations of the elder were the more loud And truly when we consider in how low a condition the Church of England was some few years since till it had a happy Resurrection with the return of our Gracious Soveraign will see cause to rejoyce and thank God that we are in no worse condition than we are But he that understands and considers what was the felicity of the first Age of our Reformation and compares it with the present condition of our affairs will have just cause to lament the difference For in those dayes so venerable was the Society of the Church that to be cast out of it by Excommunication was as dreadful as to be thunder-smitten that Sentence was like Proscription amongst the Romans which they counted a Civil death and dreaded as much as a Natural But now it is become a matter of Ambition with some and a piece of Glory And to be cast out of the Church is as good as Letters testimonial or recommendatory to other Assemblies There were few or none then that did not constantly frequent the Church now the Church is become the Conventicle in many places and the Conventicle the Church in respect of the fulness and frequency of the one and the unfrequentedness and destitution of the other Aristonicus came to a certain City in Greece where he observed many Temples but few Men that would hear him He therefore instead of the usual phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cryes out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hear O ye Stone-walls less hard than the hearts of men The Application is too easie in our case In that time we speak of the Liturgy and publick Prayers were counted a principal part of Gods worship now they are not only nothing without a Sermon but in danger to desecrate the Sermon too by their conjunction The Bible is scarce Canonical if it have the Prayers bound up in the same Cover and so extreamly offensive are they grown to some that they will rather totally neglect the publick Worship of God and never receive the Communion whilest they live than have to do with the Common Prayers Heretofore there were but few things scrupled in the establisht Religion and those were very few that made use of any such pretence or scruple but now it is become the great point of Sanctity to scruple every thing There was one indeed and he a great man that said there were tolerabiles ineptiae in our Liturgy and the most favourable return he met with was that he had his tolerabiles morositates Now the title of ineptiae is counted too mild an expression whatever suits not the present humour is either Jewish Popish or Superstitious This Change is sadly lamentable that good Laws should be thus trampled upon the best Church in the world thus despised and the best minded People thus abused Now my business is therefore in the first place to enquire from what Causes this hath come to pass 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 WE have a Proverbial saying amongst us that Every one that is forty years old is either a Fool or a Physician But without a Proverb to justifie the undertaking there are but few that at