spared their blood they could well have spared his Ceremonies But was this Austin so great a Saint that he must be quoted for the famous Reformer of Judaisme or were those Martyrs of Bangor such wicked Jews that the Non-conformists should be their Spawn No This Austin made our Ancestors only Romanists he found them Christians before and perhaps of a better and more generous race of Religion then that he engrafted upon the old Stock Then it seems that Christians however Iudaizing in one instance may be of a Nobler temperature then an old doting Ceremony-monger that for a meer Caprice would mingle their Blood with their Sacrifices But how does the Example come home to the purpose Austin was mad upon his Ceremonies The Britains were tenacious of their Easter wherein are Dissenters concern'd in their quarrels who neither dogmatize with the Quartodecimanes or Quinto-decimanes Let the one plead Traditions from Papias and St Iohn with the Eastern the other pretend the Pope and St. Peter with the Western Christians we can be contend they should scuffle it out about Goats-Wool or Moon-shine in the Water Our Enquirer nevertheless will give us an Anatomy of Non-conformity and lay open their principles to view that it shall appear that a vein of Iudaismâ—… runs through the whole Body of Dissenters 1. The first Vein is Their great Hypothesis is That nothing is lawful in the Service of God but what is expresly prescribed in the Scripture Which proposition needs many limitations before the Dissenters will Father it and when it is so limited they will challenge him to prove that there 's the least Capillary of Judaism in it And 1. If by Nothing he understand no meer Circumstance as of general time place he may know what they have told the World a thousand times they hold many such things lawful which are not prescribed particularly in the Scripture but if by Nothing he will understand no Ceremony being an outward and visible sign of inward and invisible Grace they do assert that no such thing is lawful in Worship but what is prescribed in the Scripture 2. If by in the Service of God he mean only an action accompanying Gods Worship not of Religious Application but such as is common to civil and ordinary affairs they deny it any principle of theirs that nothing may be done in time of Worship by the Worshippers that is not commanded by the Scriptures But if by in the Service of God be meant so in it that it is part of it they own it to be their avowed Judgement that nothing is lawful in the Service of God as a part of worship which is not commanded by God himself 3. If by expresly commanded be intended what is literally and Syllabi cally so they disown it as any Hypothesis of theirs But if by expresly commanded be intended what is either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by just consequence derived thence they are ready to justifie it without fear of Judaizing That nothing no outward visible sign of inward and invisible Grace is lawful in the Service of God as a part of that Service which is not expresly or by just and clear consequence prescribed in the Scripture not excluding whatever help from the Light of Nature to give us a fuller prospect into the Mind of God in his Word Nor ought this to be stigmatized as a principle peculiar to the Iews but common to them with all other true Worshippers of God from the beginning of the World To impose a part of Worship is not only an Imposition upon Man but upon God The Imposer does not only compel Man to offer but God to Accept what is offered for seeing the End of All Worship is Acceptation with him whom we Worship this End must influence our whole Worship And this is supposed by the Church of England who prays or invites to pray for true Repentance and the Holy Spirit that those things may please him which we do at this present Now it 's neither our own Fancies nor the Will of Men but the Word of God that is a Competent Declaration of what will please our Creatour Dissenters plead further That the same God that Iealous God who Commanded the Iews not to add to Gods Commands commanded it upon Reasons common to all Mankind It was well urged against the Iews by the Learned Author of Orig Sacr. p. 214. That the meaning of that strict Prohibition Deut. 12. 32. was no other then that Men should not of their own Heads offer to find out new ways of Worship as Jeroboâ—…m did but that Gods Revelation of his own Will in all its different degres was to be the Adequate Rule of the way and â—…rts of his own Worship And I would fain know of the Jews whether their own severe and strict prohibition of things not at all forbidden in the Law of God came not near the adding to Gods Law Again God having given no rule to direct us in excogitating and imposing new Worship it 's impossible but we should mistake or if we should hit now and then upon some happy contrivance we must thank his blind Goddess fortune rather then the fruitfulness of our own Understandings And this loose principle would make the World a Pantheon or encumber it with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and would multiply Religions according to the multitudes of the Churches as they of old multiplied their Idols according to the number of their Cities They do also still believe from Heb. 3. That Christ was faithful to him that appointed him the Lord of the Church in making all necessary provisions for the encreasing confirming and perfecting their Graces for their Comfort Edification and all spiritual necessities without any new Additional Contrivances for those ends Nay they say yet further that as these new ways and parts of Worship do impeach Christs faithfulness in discharge of his trust so they do invade his Regal Office too in making new Laws to bind the Conscience An usurpation which no Earthly Prince would endure For when a Prince has Establisht his Laws though he supposes that the Inferiour Magistrates must have time and place to execute them in which are left at liberty according as emergency in particular cases shall invite to determine them yet he allows them to make no new Laws upon pretence of necessity to execute the old ones nor to institute new Observances under colour of more effectual managing old Customs And it seems reasonable that the People should not practise what Ministers may not Preach nor the Church impose what it cannot command in Christs Name but it can only use Christs Name to urge whatsoever he has commanded them nay the Enquirer when perhaps he did not think of after mischief told us p. 4. That we incur St. Pauls Anathema which he denounces against him whosoever he be nay â—…f an Angel from Heaven that shall Preach any other Doctrine then what hath been received And if the Church has
were all in their Graves as well as dead and rotten And if those Decent Ceremonies had a Decent Buâ—…ial it were an Honour as great as those of a Nobler Extract 〈◊〉 Divine Ceremonies had bestowed on them I would seriously enquire of our serious Enquirer 1. If some Ceremonies were Abolished because they were superstitious and therefore dangerous why all the rest were not served with the same sawce that were equally or more superstitious and therefore more dangerous I think it 's demonstrable that all the superstition that ever stuck to Holy Water Cream Salt Spittle Oyl was â—…nnocency to that horrid abuse of the Sign of the Cross. But 2. 〈◊〉 the Superstitions of the remaining Ceremonies were capable of separation from them why might not a little Oyl and Elbowgreace have been bestowed on the rest and their Lives saved 〈◊〉 seems most of the Ceremonies were knock'd o th' head because they would not go to the charge of Rearing them 3. If many Ceremonies were a Burden whether were not half of that many half as great a Burden and so pro rato And if so where was the Churches Commission to impose any unnecessary Burden upon the Necks of Disciples 4. If some of the old superstitious Ceremonies when well scraped and wiped were lest for Decency and Comeliness in the Worship why where not the rest scummer'd up that the Worship might be more Decent For iâ—… Two or Three Innocent Ceremonies will add a Decency Two or Three hundred will have burnish'd it to such a Lustre as must have either ravish'd or blinded the Eyes of all Beholders 5. Who shall insallibly assure us just how few will be no Burden and the imposing of them no sin and yâ—…t â—…ne more shall make them all burdensome and so the imposition of them to become sinful Or just how many to an Unite will render the Worship Decent and the adding of one more render all Deformed If the Church then why might not the Church of Rome in her days have Determined the Question Especially seeing that of all pretenders she alone challenges an infallibility which is the most considerable thing in this Case when the Church must carry her hand even and cut by a thred between Decency and Indecency A Burden and no Burden 6. If the Church has a power to impose a load though a lesser load has she a power to communicate strength though it be but little strength to bear that little Especially seeing the Burden here must not lie on the Back but the Heart not on the Shoulders but the Conscience She that pleads an Authority to Institute can she produce a power to Bless what she Institutes to any Spiritual End This encouragement we have from Christ whose perogative it is to impose that he will give Grace to bear what he imposes and thereby make his Yoke casie and his Burden light Qui mihi est Oneris Author idem erit Adâ—…inistrationis Adâ—…tor said Leo And so Austin Da quod jubes jube quod vis If any Church could incline the Heart towards her Testimonies or give a Heart to keep her Statutes Iudgments and Commandments and do them or make her Commandments not grievous Let her multiply Ceremonies till she is weary and spare not Let her use her Discretion and we shall use nothing but Submission But this dead weight sinks our Spirits quite 7. Whether is not such an assuming power exceeding dangerous in its Consequences for upon this Principle the Church may impose a round thousand of Ceremonies if she will say and think them decent and the Crow thinks all her young ones White and all are sond of the Brats of their Brains as well as the Issue of their Bodies yes and Ten Thousand more if she will but decree they are not burdensome which she is the less a Competent Judge of because Superiours who command do not feel that load which Inseriâ—…urs who must obey do groan under So much of the Moderation of the Reformation 3. The English Reformation was the most perfect and compleat in its kind The perfection and compleatness of a Reformation is to be taken from its Agreement with its Rule and Idea which say we is thâ—… Word of God and to this we do unmovably adhere till we have good security that they have found out a better All Perfection with us is but Defection and all compleatness Fancy which is not measured by that Rule It will therefore be the great Glory of the English Reformation to acquit it self well in this point wherein our Enquirer will endeavour our satisfaction 1. For Doctrine This Church retains says he the most Ancient Doctrine and soundest Confession of I aith founded upon the H. Scripture That the 〈◊〉 Scriptures are the foundation of Faith we gladly hear some intimation of and shall lay up the concession against another time whether the Church has attended to this Rule in her Doctrinals belongs to another Discourse 2. For Government He tells us The English Reformation retains the most Primitive Church-Government These things are wisely and warily penn'd thought I A Scripture Creed and a Primitive Church-Government Confession sounded on H. Scriptures and Government founded on a word called Primitive why shhould we not have a Confession sounded on something else than Scripture as well as a Government Or why not a Church-Government founded on the Scripture as well as the Doctrine So that he has provided well for the Doctrine but for the Government it may sinck or swim for any Relief it can expect from our Enquirer except a hard word will do it Primitive Antiquity is one of those Stulta Amuleta quae Controversiâ—… collo appendunturut Armilla Maleficarum Potent Charms and Pompous Enchantments not to Cure but Conjure down a Controversie for since 〈◊〉 may be taken in a Latitude of three 〈◊〉 five or 〈◊〉 time of need six hundred years after Christ it would be very hard if any Crotchet Humour and Fancy had not set up for it self in that time which shall be enough to entitle it to the Warrantie of the Primitive times Let him therefore prove it Scriptural and so jure Divino and he has said more to me than if he had run up its Pedigree through a Dozen or more Centuries But is not this short word The most Primitive Church-Government a foundation too narrow for that High Boast p. 2. That our Church is of a sound and healthful Constitution I think I have sufficiently though briefly manifested in the Introduction Briefly and suffciently The Two most desirable Qualifications in Argument and Evidence that may be And surely it must de brief enough which is comprehended in this one Sentence The English Reformation retains the most Primitive Church-Government but whether it be sufficient or no let the Reader look to that 3. For the Liturgy That is as he thinks the Best accommodate to reconcile and unite Mens Devotions And how well it has answered its end and the
design of its Institution I shall say the less because others will say the more some say it has distracted more Devotions than ever it united And others That it has accommodated them as much as could be expected from a Humane Contrivance that had no more of Christs Authority for its institution and therefore could expect no more of his Blessing for the success That this or any other Liturgy was an Expedient appointed by Christ to unite Mens Devotions he may explain and attempt the proof of at his best leisure But that Christ has not been wanting to his Church in leaving her the proper and sufficient means for the advancing of Devotions and uniting affections we are satisfied and so fully contented that we shall seek no further That Protestants in the days of Edw. VI. â—…d Rejoyce in the Liturgie Dissenters will not deny An English Liturgie left free was better than a Latin Mass Half a Loaf was much better than no Bread To them who had been in such Daâ—…kness and Bondage any Light any Liberty were most grateful The first Original of Liturgies as is express'd in the Preface to our own was that the whole Bible should be read over or the greatest part of it once every Year intending thereby that the Clergie and especially such as were Ministers of the Congregation should by often reading and meditation of Gods Word be sâ—…rred up to Godliness themselves And further that the People by daily hearing of the Holy Scriptures read in the Church should continually profit more in the Knowledge of God But these many Years past this Godly and Decent Order of the Ancient Fathers â—…ath beenâ—… so alter'd bâ—…oken neglected by planting in unceâ—â—ain 〈◊〉 Legendâ—… Responds Verses vain Repetitions Commemorations and â—â—nodâ—…ls that c. And moreover whereas St Paul would have such Language spoken to the People in the Church as they might understand and have profit by hearing the same The Service 〈◊〉 this Church of England hath been read in Latin to the People which they understood not so that they have heard with their Ears only and their Heart Spirit and Mind have not been edified thereby From hence we are evidently taught First that the true Original of Liturgies was only an Order for the Methodical Reading of the Scriptures for the benefit of an ignorant Clergy and sottish People and Secondly that that wherein the Reformers gloried to have out-done Popery and edified the People was that they had procured them their Woâ—…hip in a Language understood When therefore I hear these Popular Harangues How happy this Church and Nation was in Edw. VI. days In what Glory and Majesty the Prince Reigned in what Peace and Concord the Subjects lived how Devout and Pious an Age that was I am ready to think that as the Graves of Patients do hide the faults of Physicians so the follies and vanities of those days are buried in their own graves too for Dr. Heylin had almost perswaded me That the death of that Prince was none of the Infelicities of the Church of England But our Enquirer has set him right again and his days were the Golden Age of Reformation his Reign the Glorious Pattern of Peace and Concord and so shall continue till the next occasion those Men have to reproach the Reformation and then Edw. VI. days shall be an Infelicity again and as great a prejudice to Religion as ever So easie it is for a cunning Orator with his orient Colours to fill up the wrinkles of a furrow'd Face and again to deform the most Beauteous Complexion just as it pleases Master Painter The total summe of all is thus much The Primitive times were Glorious for Piety in Polydore Virgil's days and those of Popery there was a great deal of Sincere Devotion In the beginning of the Reformation affairs were in an excellent posture but now all 's degenerated and a Lukewarm Neutrality and Lazy Indifferency has over-spread the Face and crept over the Heart of Religion And what should be the matter What is the Reason of this sad change Why Men are not so fond of Ceremonies as they used to be and People have resolved against the building of Churches and endowing them But let us hear him Lament the change All Zeal then cold Indifferency now Then all Harmony now all Discord Then the Society of the Church was so venerable that to be cast out by Excommunication was as dreadful as to be Thunder-smitten But now it 's become a matter of some Mens Ambition to be cast out Then few or none but frequented the Church now the Church is become the Conventicle and the Cinventicle the Church as to frequency Then the Liturgie and publick Prayers were counted a principal part of Gods Worship now they aâ—… nothing without a Sermon Then there were few things that were scrupled but now it s become the great point of Sanctity to scruple every thing It will be time for me and the Reader to take our leave of this learned Introduction when we have observed and returned a few things 1. That the true Reason why there is more Discord now than at that time is because there are more difficult terms of Peace and Concord Several things were then in use which were not imposed Many were permitted to discharge their Ministerial Functions without subscription to the new terms and conditions of Communion It was pretty well in Queen Elizabeths Reign before A. 〈◊〉 Whitguift could strain Conformity to it's height and yet they are now screwed much higher Restore Indifferent things to their Ancient Liberty and we shall soon arrive at our Ancient Amity 2. That Excommunication has so much lost its former Authority upon the Conscience and become so like a Brutum Fulmen is to be imputed to these Reasons 1. Because that Thunderbolt is darted out for meer trifles some have been delivered over to Satan for a Groat Now it 's a sure Maxime That nothing will bring a Law sooner into disuse and contempt than the Disproportion of the penalty to the Offence It will be difficult to perswade weak understandings that that can be of God which has but one sort of punishment for all sorts of Crimes and the same Rigour for Vertues as for Vices To be delivered up for a Penny exposes to the same inconvenience as if it were a Pound and it shall fare as ill with him that scruples at a Ceremony as with him that commits Whoredom and some say the former has more evil in it than the latter though you throw in Drunkenness Swearing and half a dozen more such into the reckoning 2. It has been made an Engine to gratifie some Mens Passions and exonerate their Spleen upon the Innocent and nothing renders Iupiters Thunder more despicable than when the wretched Salmoneus shall dare to imitate it 3. It has been so frequently practised in pecuniary matters that Men discern it not to be a Spiritual Weapon Money has been a Lock to shut Men
out of Heaven and a Key to let them in again 4. They that have been ejected by that 〈◊〉 find no evil consequences in their ejected state In the Primitive times it was therefore terrible because Christ abbetted his own Ordinance administred for his own Spiritual Ends in his own Regular way but now Men dare not trust Christ with his own Work but have supplied his vengeance with a Significavit a Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo delivering Men over to the Sheriff whom thereby they call the Devil by craft but otherwise the Excommunicated Person cats his Bread and drinks his Wine with a Chearful Heart because the Lord has accepted him 3. That so few frequent the Church is because they have either been scoffed or railed or beaten out of doors or barred out by Conditions not comporting with Scripture Rule and Warrant Men know that Christ must be their Judge to him they must give an account of their Souls and Worship in the Great Day and therefore they are willing to Worship God according to his Will revealed in his Sacred Word unless any can give them Counter-security to save harmless and indemnifie them before his dreadful Tribunal And if they must suffer for such resolved adherence to a Scriprure Religion they have only this humbly to reply Daveniam Imperator Tu Carcerem Ille Gehennam Christ threatens a Hell the Law only menaces a Goal 4. That the Liturgy was then counted a principal part of Gods Worship we cannot help We judge that none but God can make the least much less a principal part of Gods Worship God only knows which way he will be Worship'd with Acceptation And it is our grear Happiness that he has acquainted us with that Will of his in his Word to which we apply our selves for our Directory and are not sollicitous about Apocryphal Rubrics As to matters concerning Religion Nature Teacheth no further than the Obligation to the Duâ—…y but leaves the particular determination of the manner of Obedience to Divine Positive Laws So we are instructed from the Author of Origin Sacrae p. 171. 5. That it is now become the great point of Sanctity to scruple every thing was not spoken with that regard to Honesty and Truth as might have been expected from a Compassionate Enquirer They scruple being Holier than Christ has commanded them wiser in matters of Religious Worship than the Scriptures are able to make them They scruple giving up their Consciences to those whom they see no great reason to trust till better evidence be given how they regard their own They scruple all Retreats in Reformation and all Retrograde Motions towards Evangelical Perfection and Purity and they with our Enquirer would scruple a little more this overlashing That it 's an Essential part of some Mens Religion to be Censorious And a great point of Sanctity to scruple every thing Let him then continue to Lament the change and we will pray that God will make a more through change reducing Doctrine Worship Discipline to the Word of God the only Rule of Reformation PART I. CHAP. I. A Sober Enquiry into the Apocryphal Causes of Non-conformity pretended by the serious Enquirer St. Augustin and the Synod of Dort Vindicated the Articles of the Church of England Cleared The Learning Preaching and Conversations of the N. C. modestly justified against the scandalous Reflections of the pretended Compassionate Enquirer but without Recrimination AFter a very short Epistle or to speak Canonically that which stands instead of the Epistle to very little and a tedious Introduction to much less purpose the Enquirer falls full drive upon the Causes of the separation from the English Reformed Church In imitation of the French Embassadors Musicians who would needs give the Grand Seignior a fit of Mirth but were so cruelly tedious in tuning their Fiddles that the Sultans Patience was quite worn out and he could not be perswaded to hear the first Lesson Now the Causes are either Apocryphal and pretended or Canonical and Real and it 's a wonder to me when his Invention was once broached that he did not feign this for another Cause of separation that such Heterogeneous Causes should be bound up together in the same Volume and Covers For these Apocriphal Causes let it not beget another scruple in your Captious Heads whether they are pretended by Dissenters or only pretended by this Enquirer to be amongst their pretences for it will come all to one there being some collateral matters which it shall go hard but he will entice or force into the Discourse or else the Reader might have sung whâ—…p Barnaby and Retreated to his Recreations the longest Holy day in the Year 1. The very first of these pretended Causes is some Blame they lay upon the Doctrine of the Church and the main if not the only thing excepted against in this kind is That the Thirty Nine Articles are not so punctual in defining the Five Points debated in the Synod of Dort as they could wish Just as your common Hackney Versifiers or Water Poets make one Verse for the Reason and the other for the Rhime sake so was this Objection mounted against the Doctrine of the Church for the sake of his precious Answers wherein he will find or make as handsom an occasion as impertinency will admit to vilifie St. Austin and the Synod of Dort It will be extreamly difficult to give our Enquirer a satisfactory Answer in this Point Shall we say This is not the main thing in the Articles excepted against by Dissenters He will readily Reply However then you tâ—…itly grant that this is one of your little Cavils Shall we say This is not the Only thing they scruple he will return nimbly Then it seems you consess this to be one though not the only thing you Boggle at Really if I know how to content him I would do it and the best expedient that offers it self at present is this Answer 1. That the Church has other Doctrines not contained in the 39 Articles imposed on the Faith of Subscribers and perhaps the scruple may lie against them 2. That the 39 Articles contain other Doctrines besides those relating to the five Points debated 〈◊〉 the Synod of Dort as that of Art 20. The Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies And that of Art 34. Every Particular or National Church hath Authority to Ordain Change and Abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained only by Mans Authority And what now if the quarrel should lie against one of those And I am the rather induced to suspect they may hesitate in these particulars because I have heard some of them privately Speak and seen others publickly Print that though they can practise such things which being in their own Natures indifferent remain under all their concurrent Circumstances lawful yet they cannot find where the Church has any Commission to impose them They can assert and use their Christian Liberty and yet cannot subscribe to
should affirm he could discern things better at a miles distance than a Man that hath as good an Eye as himself and yet stood close by the Object This is that Needless Conclus on drawn out of his Needless Premises and having discovered the weakness of the former I might leave him at his leasure to deny his own Conclusion but yet I shall give him some Items about that also And 1. It 's a crude unconcocted No. ion that the elder any Doctrine of Christianity is the truer it is For it was a Truth that Christ was Born before it was that he was Crucified and yet the former Article that he was Born of the Virgin Mary is no truer than that he was Crucified Dead and Buried The Truth of the Doctrine depends not upon it Antiquity or Seniority but upon the infallibility of the Revealer quo ad â—…os and upon the close connexion of the Terms in it self whether a Truth was revealed by Christ or his Apostles immediately inspired all are of equal Truth in themselves and equal Authority as to us that is the lateness of the Revelation will breed no difference 2. The Enquirer might have informed himself that there is a double Light an Objective and Subjective Light The former is the discovery of the Thing it self the latter is the enlightning of the Faculty It 's true there is there can be no New Objective Light rationally expected In this sense all New Lights are but Old Darknesses but yet there may be more Subjective Light or a greater discovery made to us of what God has discovered in his Word The Papists lock'd up our Bibles in the Latin Tongue and kept the Key of Knowledge in their Pockets God by his Gracious Providence in the Resormation has taken off the Embargo and restraint that was upon Knowledge and great Light is sprung in amongst us we say not God has put more Books or Chapters or Verses into the Bibles but that he has given us more light in our Minds he has not Revealed New Truths but given us advantage to discover the Old Thus the Learned Stillingf somewhere expresses himself The common way of the Spirits illuminating the Minds of Believers is by enlightning the Faculty not by proposition of New Objects A Man then may talk of more Light in these latter Times and yet not talk idly if by more Light he intends no more than a clearer understanding of Gods Mind and Will revealed in his Word and a Man may talk of more Light in these latter Times and talk very idly If thereby he means more Revelations of Gods Mind and Will to supply the defects of the Scripture but yet none talk so idly as the Rhetorical Men whose Premises speak against New Objective Light and their conclusion against New Subjective Light If Subjective Light be not capable of growth if it does not recipere magis minus Let him give me a Reason why the Churches Articles of 1571. do clear up the Doctrine more darkly and imperfectly laid down in the days of Edward VI. Refined Silver is more clear than the same Mettal in the Oare and yet there is no more Mettal But if it be capable of growth and increase what an idle flourish is his Similitude of a Mans seeing better at a distance than he that stands close by the Object For if we have got no surther Light into the Scriptures by all the Advantages which Merciful Providence has surnish'd us with above the darker Times of Popery they were very ill bestowed upon us and he that would repay him in his own Coyn might tell him That a Man may possibly stand too near the Object as wel as too far off and a Dwarf upon a Gyants Shoulders may see further than the Gyant himself What he has hitherto philosophiz'd upon has been little to our Edification nor had we been troubled with this first Messe but for the sake of that which is now to be served up in the second Course and that is a piece of Revenge that he will take upon St. Augustin and the Synod of Dort ¶ 1. And first here 's a heavy charge drawn up against one Augustin of whom I presume the Reader may have heard at one time or other some mention made Now this Augustin or rather Austin for his Name as well as his Fame suffers a Syncope has been formerly a person in great danger of incurring that Curse denounced against those of whom all Men speak well till of late some Charitable Divines loath to let a Poor Man lie in Purgatory from Age to Age when a few bad words would release him took some pity on him And one of his best Friends in this Nation is this Compassionate Enquirer who informs us That no Father or Writer Greek or Latin before this Austins time agreed in Doctrine with the Synod of Dort which is so notoriously plain that it cannot be deny'd And if he agrees therewith yet it 's certain that in so doing he disagrees as much with himself as with us of our Church That he was indeed a Devout Man but his Piety was far more commendable than his Reason and that being hard put to it by the Manichees on the one hand and the Pelagians on the other he was not able to extricate himself and that he was rather forced into his opinion than made choice of it He that shall thus confidently dare to censure that worthy Father must be presumed to have read over his Voluminous Writings with all those of the Ancient Writers before him both Greek and Latin to a Man to a Sentence which might sufficiently have proclaimed his Learning and recommended him to a Patron one would think though he had never reproached that Father himself Many a poor Hungry Man have I known in my little time that has scribled one piece after another railing at the Pope which yet never turned to such Account as half a score Lines smartly penn'd against this great Sinner Austin And yet sor all these Insinuations of Industry in Reading and Acuteness of piercing Wit in hunting and tracing the Poor Man through all the windings and turnings of his self-perplexing Contradictions it 's our meer good Nature if we will believe that ever he saw any more than the back side of St. Austins Works for indeed all this may be no more than an ingenious Pataphrase of their great Grotius who thuâ—… spends his Judgment upon him Discuss p. 97. Ut dicam quod sentio puto Augustinum adeo non cum prioribus ne secum quidem per omnia posse conciliari Ita contranitendi studio se in illas Ambages induxit ut non invenerit quà se extriearet Paucis Scripturae Adductus Locis quae facilè commodam interpretationem recipiunt aliis locis pluribus clarioribus per quae Deus significatur omnium salutem velle interpretationes det violentas nunc has nunc illas incertus quò se vertat ut dicam
Erasmus to be the true measure of the Preaching of those times And why may we not charitably suppose that the Romanists have furbisht up their rusty Preaching since the days of Erasmus as well as we have scowred up ours since the days of the Homilies 3. Arg. His fourth Argument is none of the strongest and yet worth all the rest put together which were but the vaunt-courriers to usher in this main one with more solemnity Compare says he but the Preachings generally in our Churches with those ordinarily in Conventicles you will find them unequally matcht Though we could be content they were modestly compared yet we can by no means allow this Enquirer to use his own false weights of comparing and generally such comparisons are odious Non-conformists do not affect strong lines nor are ambitious of the Gigantick Vein and Stile they study not measured sentences nor use the Compasses to every deceâ—…t period they had rather with their Austin have A wooden Key that will open the Lock then one of Gold which makes a fidling din in the Wards and yet confounds them None of them but do praise God for the Learning sound Judgement solid Preaching holy Lives which are to be found among the Conformable Clergy but can he rear his Triumphant Arches to their praises upon no other foundations then the ruines of other mens credits For my part I am always apt to suspect that persons credibility who thinks more to confirm it by two or three ratling Oaths And I never received it as an argument of her honesty that carries her tongue so loosely hung that she deals about most liberally Sâ—…rumpet and Whore but I see he is impatient till he compares them On the one side you have sound Theology strength of Argument gravity of Expression distinctness of Method on the other side nothing more frequent then puerile and flat oftentimes rude and sometimes blasphemous expressions similitudes instead of arguments and either Apish gestures or Tragical vâ—…ciferations instead of Eloquence Reader this Language is pure Cicero I assure thee Ex hac enim parte Pudor pugnat illinc petulantia hinc pietas illinc stupram hinc fides illinc frraudatio I am sorry our Enquirer dwells by so very bad Neighbours that his own mouth must be the very Trumpeter of his praises If the common Cryer could have been engaged for love or money to proclaim them no modest man would have done the drudgery But nemo patriam suam amavit quia magna est sed quia sua 'T is propriety that renders all things sweet and beautiful All this had been pardonable but I see some that love to be Ingeniosi in aliená famâ huge facetious upon other mens fames and perhaps never witty in a Twelve-month but when they write Satyr As all impartial Readers know one half of his Oratory to be false so it s to be feared they may suspect the other moyety not to be very true That 's all an honest man shall get by being in a Knaves company Truth has sometimes been set in the Stocks because it has been found under the same Roof with Falshood He that wishes well to his own due praises let him never desire they should be yoaked with anothers unjust reproach least the hearer knowing the one unrighteously slandered conclude that the other is as unjustly flattered For its an unquestionable maxime He that will be a Sycophant against one will be a Parasite to another Let our Enquirer then sweetly enjoy the ravishments of his pleasing Dreams I shall not awaken him with loud recriminations only softly whisper that of the Poet. Bella es novimus Puella verum est Et Dives Quis enim potest negare Sed dum te nimiùm Fabulla laudas Nec Dives nec Bella nec Puella es Mart. Ep. l. 1. 165. Yet there is one Salvo for their credits which all the Fraternity of Gentlemen-Raylers do use to bring themselves off and heal all again when at any time they have most unconscionably over-lasht and that is when they have pour'd out all the contempt and scorn have heap'd up all the slanders and reproaches that they can make or rake together then to make an Honourable Retreat and tell you they do confess there may be one or two that may be innocent God forbid says our Gentleman that I should charge all the Non-conformists with such Indecencies Nay I can tell him more then that God forbids him to charge any one with such Indecencies unless he had better proof of them And had he known any individual guilty of these crimes he should have personally charged that one that he might be brought to Repentance for his prophanation of Gods holy Name and not involve a whole party under the scandalous suspicion All the charity that these words necessarily contain is that they are All such save one Suppose another as charitable as himself should write after his Copy and when he had with much pleasant Scurrility and Drollery made the Devil sport with the Indecencies of Church-men should come off at last with this Epanorthosis God forbid I should charge all the Conformists with these extravagancies what would it argue but a more crafty and safe way of Hypocritical Calumny Thus I remember a Gentleman once in a frolick told his Companions They were all Fools but one and when a young Gallant of the knot more tender of his Reputation then it deserved and willing to venture more for it then 't was worth began to draw The other takes him aside and whispers him in the Ear How do you know but that I intended your self by that single exception And this little dust parted the fray Well I see he is sick till he comes to particulars Asaheâ—… would not take Abners civil warning some men seek mischief to themselves and all the Friends they have cannot stave them off from the Duel the more you hold a Coward the more eager he is to engage let the man alone pray let him alone and in the mean time I will fortifie my self with patience that no provocation of his may tempt me to a back blow under the fifth rib for how then should I lift up my face to my dear Brethren 1. Their Sermons are generally about Predestination About it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what a word was that for a wise man The Church of England in her 17th Article propounds the Doctrine of Predestination to be believed by us according to the Scriptures that which is the matter of Faith ought to be the subject of our Preachings 1 Cor. 4. 13. we believe and therefore we speak And yet I am confident that our Enquirer and his like preach more write more and make more noise about that serious point then the Non-conformists I presume I may have heard my share of their Sermons and yet I can assure the Reader I never heard that Doctrine professedly handled in my life I speak not this in their excuse or
year But if we speak with the Vulgar and take this Dignity for some external glory shining out in secular Lusire which is that currant signification which Custom the Master of the Mint has stampt upon It I doubt she will hold up her Head and not be dasht out of Countenance she can prodâ—… her purpuratos patres her Cardinals Princes fellows her Dignitaries she can produce you her Acolytes dancing attendance upon her Decans her Deacons footing it after her Priests her inferiour Clergy boâ—…ing before her mitred Prelates and alâ—… these orderly Reverencing their Metropolitan but then she boasts unmeasurably that she has an Ecclesiastical Head to be the Center of Union to all those so that whether you run up the scale from the poor Ostiary to the Exorcist and so upwards or down the Scale from the supream infallible Noddle moving all the inferiour Wyers she will brazen it out and never hang down her Head 3. The An ient Gravity of our Church reproves theirs I am sorry for the Honour of our Church which I truly Reverence that this Gentleman in vying with Rome should pitch upon those particulars wherein if we do excel and carry the day it will be no such Victory as to challenge a Triumph and yet such is the dubiousness of the case that perhaps we may lose the day I do not yet hear that Rome has disclaimed Antiquity to be one of the marks of the true Church and know something of her presumption in applying into her self Let any Antiquity short of Scripture Epocha be fixt upon and she will make a sorry shift to scramble through many a tiresome Century and scuffle to come as near the Apostolical days as some others Both sides I think have play'd at the game of Drop-father so long till they are weary and forced to confess that some things now in usage were unknown to the Fathers and many things practised by the Fathers which we have silently suffered to grow obsolete by desuetude I look upon these things as matters of course and form to look big and set the best foot before for if ever we confute Rome with an Army of hard words Decency Order Antiquity Gravity they must be such as the Word of God has made so It must be a Decency warranted by God himself either from the Light of Nature or Scripture an Order of Christs Establishment a Gravity exemplified from the Apostles and an Antiquity which was from the Beginning and when Scripture is once made sole Umpire in the Quarrel As the Church of England will certainly run the Papist out of all distance so the Non-conformist will begin to put in his stake and perhaps win the Plate § 2. If you ask how the Church of Rome undermines our Church he answers 1. She furnishes other parties with Arguments against it It were much easier to evince that the Euquirer has rather borrowed his Arguments from Rome then Rome lent one to the Non-conformists I think there 's not one Arrow he can shoot against them but I can shew him where 't was borrow'd or shotten from a Jesuites Quiver where was that Argument taken from Axes Halters Pillories Galleys Prisons Consiscations as some express it or as he more concisely Executing the Laws borrow'd but from Rome The Scripture knows it not the better sort of Heathens abhorr'd it Protestants disown it Papists only glory in it Uterejure tuo Caesar sectamque Lutheri Ense Rotâ Ponto Funibus igne Neca And whence was that argument for Active unlimited Obedience to all things commanded by the Church borrowed for though it becomes no mouth so well as his that can boast of Infallibility yet still we are pressed with the same Argument and in the last resort Publick Conscience must carry it I am sorry this imprudent person should give any one occasion to say further that some of us at home have furnisht Rome with Arguments against the Reformation Arguments from the Scripture Rome has none from the nature of the thing not one but some have put into their Hands a left-handed Dagger which does mischief enough it 's called Argumentum ad Hominem Thus when we are earnest with them to throw away their Oil and Cream they bid us throw away our Cross If we desire her to reform her Cowles and Copes she calls to us to reform our Surplice When we in a friendly way caution them not to feed upon the Devils flesh they answer As good eat his flesh as the Broth he was boiled in 2. She is all for blind Obedience at home but preaches up tenderness of Conscience abroad And what the difference is between blind Obedience and Obedience meerly on the account of the Command I would willingly learn And if any can shew us a better reason for the things commanded and enjoyned then that we shall return him thanks If I might now borrow the Enquirers place so long as whilst I propounded a few Enquiries I would immediately resign to him his Province § 1. If the enmity between the two Churches be so great as is pretended what was the reason that so many Stars of the first magnitude in this Orb were in Conjunction with the Dragons Tail why were they so ready to yield him his Western Patriarchate and all within the first four hundred years which will at once bring England under his Subjection though I much question whether the Grand Seignior will have so much good nature as to resign him the Eastern Patriarchate so easily § 2. If the Church of Rome be this Churches Enemy is she not then concerned to get more Churches to be her Friends It 's a wild Humour of some Church-men that they will disoblige all the world provoking every ones hand against themselves whilst their hand is against every one If Rome be an Enemy she is a potent malicious subtle and United Enemy and it concerns a Church not to be divided at home when her Enemies are united abroad and to combine with the forreign Protestants in Love were an excellent way to prevent the Combinations of Romes hatred § 3. It would be enquired If Rome be such an Enemy what should be that which provokes her wrath and indignation what that should be that makes the envious Snakes wherewith Antichrists head is periwigg'd to hiss and spit out their Venom Does she Storm and Rage because we have retained two or three of her fine Ceremonies that cannot be the Origin of her spight They are those things wherein the Church of England and Non-conformists are mutually agreed that Rome opposes this Church in and they are those things wherein this Church symbolizes with Rome wherein she differs most from the Non-conformists When the Heathens triumphed in the great feats of their Maximus Tyrius and Apollonius Tyanaeus the Christians answered That whatever good effect their Religion ever had upon the Lives of Men was owing to those Principles and Truths which it had in Common with Christianity Thus will Dissenters plead
this precise qualm over our Enquirers heart that he is so skittish at the word Sabbath because forsooth it 's not given the Day in the New Testament They have some singular priviledge and prerogative surely that may institute what Officers what Offices they please though neither Name nor Thing be found there nor print nor mark of the least Foot-step when the poor Non-conformists may not use indifferently an innocent word which signifies no more in it self then he will acknowledge to be found there But how is this a point of Judaism or how one of the nearer causes of separation If it be we may confidently say we have imbibed both from the Liturgy of the Church which teaches the Minister to rehearse the Fourth Commandment Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it Holy and then enjoins us all to pray Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law but if this Word this Dactrine be of such pernicious a contagion as to insect us with Judaism and Non-conformity we have need of another miserere â—…i Deus for keeping it That this name Sabbath applyed to the Christian Holy-day of Rest is found in Ancient Writers I shall not urge Ignat. Epist. ad Magnes Let every one of us keep the Sabbath spiritually not in bodily case only but in the study of the Law Not the Author of the Sermons de Tempore none of Austins for any mans word will go further then his for so we rightly sanctifie the Lords Sabbath as the Lord hath said In it thou shalt do no manner of work but this I shall say that he that denies it to be a Day of Holy Rest it 's no great matter what he calls it And he that owns it such must be most rediculously obstinate that denies it may properly be so called 2 We come to the dispute De Re. And first he charges the N. C. That the Lords-day amongst them must have all the Nicety of Observation that the Iewish Sabbath had and which is yet worse such Observation thereof is made one of the principal parts of Religion What the Non-conformists hold and practise in this point is so well known from their Writings and Conversations that no man can possibly slander them but he must do it against his Conscience which had the Enquirer attended to it would have tought him other Language what was the practice of the best Christians who lived up in any good measure to the Holiness of their Profession that is the practice of the Non-conformists and wherein they come short have cause to be humbled in the sight of God If any Indâ—…viduals have added any Jewish Austeriâ—…ies or invented any Superstitious severities to make the day a Legal Yoke we wish they may be no more favouraâ—…ly dealt with then those other Additions that have been made to Religion For the publick Service of the day I shall give the Reader a piece of Clemens Rom. lib. 2. cap. 59. On the Lords-day frequent more carefully the Temple of the Lord that ye may praise God who made all things by Iesus Christ whom he sent unto us and suffered him to dye for us and raised him from the dead for what can excuse him with God who meets not to hear the saving Word of God concerning the Resurrection On which day we pray thrice standing remembring him who after three days rose again For the private observation of the day the same Author lib. 5. cap. 9. thus We admonish you Brethren and Fellow-Servants that you fly vain words and filthiness pleasant jests 〈◊〉 for on the Lords days which are our days of Rejoicings we do not permit you to do or speak any thing not savoury for the Scripture sâ—…h serve the Lord with fear St. Hierom commends the Aegyptian Monks that they designed the Lords days wholly to Prayer and reading the Holy Scriptures The Author of the Sermons De tempore This day is called the Lords-day that in it abstaining from all earthly works and worldly pleasures we should only give our selves to the service of the Lord Let us therefore Brethren observe the Lords day and sanctifie it as it was commanded them of old concerning the Sabbath If our Enquirer had the trimming up of this Author he had dressed him up for a Marane a baptized Jew Chrysost. on Gen. 2. God from the beginning did insinuate unto us this instruction to set apart and separate one whole day in the Circle of every Week for spiritual exercises And in Homil. 5. on Math. Let us prescribe this as an unmoveable Law to our selves to our Wives and Children to set aside one day of the Week and that wholly to hearing and laying up of things heard Isidore Hispalensis The Apostles therefore ordained the Lords-day to be kept with Religious Solemnities because in it our Redeemer rose from the Dead which was therefore called the Lords-day that resting on the same from all Earthly â—…ts and temptations of the World we might intend Gods holy Worship giving this day due Honour for the hope of the Resurrection we have therein But because our Enquirer admires the Piety of former Ages in this our Britain I shall come a little home and see what were the publick Constitutions of our own Nation Leg. Inae cap. 〈◊〉 An. 692. Si servus operetur die Dominied per praecepâ—… domine sui sit liber Dominus emendet 308. ad Witam siâ—…servus sine testimonio Domini sui operetur Corium perdat i. e. vapulet si liber operetur ipso die sine iussu Domini sui perdat libertatem If a Servant work on the Lords-day at his Masters Command let him be free and his Master be fined thirty shillings If a Servant without his Masters Order do any work let him be whipped If a freed Man work on that day without the Command of his Master let him lose his Freedom Concil Bergham cap. 10. An. 697. Si in vesperâ praecedente Diem solis postquam sol occubuit autin vesperâ praecedente Diem Lunae post occasum solis servus ex mandato Domini sui opus aliquod servile egerit Dominus factum octaginta solidis Luito If a Servant on the Evening before Sunday after Sun-set or on the Evening before Monday after Sunset shall do any servile work by Order of his Master let his Master pay for his fault 4 pounds c. 11. If a Servant on those days shall travel let him pay to his Master siâ—… shillings or be whipped c. 12. If a Free-man be guilty of the same offence let him be liable to the Pillory Excerpt Egb. Archiepiscopi Eborac An. Chr. 750 c. 36. God the Creatour of all things made Man on the sixth d'ay and upon the Sabbath he rested from all his Labours and sanctified the Sabbath for the future signification of the sufferings of Christ and his rest in the Grave He did not rest because he was weary who made all things without Labour whose Omnipotency cannot be wearied and
enquired whether it have not a greater Tincture of Judaism to enjoin other days for Holy-days which have no fâ—…ting in Gods word then to spend the Lords-day in pursuit of those things which concern our Everlasting peace which is clearly warranted thereby B. Andrews urges this against Trask The Apostles kept their Meetings on that day on that day they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. held their sacred Synaxes their solemn Assemblies to preach to pray to celebrate the Lords Supper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lords Supper on the Lords-day for these two words only the Day and the Supper have the Epithete of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scripture to shew that its alike in both 5. A Fifth Instance of their Judaical Principle is their Doctrine of Absolute Predestination This Doctrine has perplext the Enquirer beyond measure he would mention it every where willingly but knows not where to mention it pertinently It was lately one of the Pretended or Apochryphal and now it s become a Real and Canonical nay a near and immediate Cause or at least the just sixth part of a Cause of separation I shall for once suppose that all the Non-conformists are Sublapsarians Now let him show me that Article or Doctrine to which this Church requires subscription relating to the Decrees of God to which a Sublapsarian cannot freely subscribe The 17 Art of the Church speaks without question her fense in this matter Predestination to life is the Everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the World was laid he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ ouâ—… of Mankind and to bring them by Christ to Everlasting Salvation It were more for this Gentlemans comfort and credit to write a serious and Compassionate Enquiry into the Pretended and Real the Remote and near Causes of his own conformity to that Doctrine which he so pleasantly derides And with what Engines Machines Screws and Pulleys he could hale his Conscience to a Subscription The old Device was good Lingud juratus sum mente juravi nihil It 's a happy freedom of Spirit a blessed enlargement of mind to subscribe any thing and believe nothing Two things there are which ought to have been cleared first that the Doctrine of predestination is a Iewish Principle secondly that it 's a Cause or a piece of a Cause of Non-conformity For the former he makes it out thus He that seeks the source of so odd an Opinion can in my â—…ind pitch no where more probably then upon the absolute Decree of God to favour the Posterity of Abraham for his sake Alas Poor Man And had the Church of England thinks he no more wit then to talk of an Everlasting Purpose before the foundation of the World of a constant Decree to deliver from Curse and Damnation some that he had chosen out of Mankind and bring them to Everlasâ—…ing Salvation from such a Ridiculous Ground But the difficulty was how to make this a piece of Judaism and when Men set themselves insuperable Tasks they must rub through them as they are able The Second will yet be more difficult For many Conformists have been and are Sublapsarians and some Non-conformists Subter-Sublapsarians And the Enquirer told us p. 7. That the Articles of the Doctrine of our Church do with such admirable prudence and wariness handle these Points the Five Points as if particular respect was had to these Men and care taken that they might Abundare sensu suo So necessary it was our Author should confute his own Contradictious Cavils Well! Whether this Church the Iewish Church the Non-conformists or any or all or none of them be of this opinion yet it is a most monstrous one For says he The N. T. has often assured â—…s that at the great day God will judge the World in Righteousness and that without respect of Persons he will render to every one according to his Works Wonderful And are the Sublapsarians all this while to seek how God may be righteous in the Great Day if he Derceed to give Grace to some Men which he never owed them and left others to perish under the Fruits of their own Apostacy and unbelief 6. The last Instance is their superstitious observation and interpretation of Prodigies The Works of God are all Admirable those of Creation Glorious those of Providence Mysterious we have reason to Revere his Greatness in all that he doth them his Wisdom in all in that he can his Goodness in that he will make them Bow to subserve his own Counsels and Purposes in working together for good in them that love him To fetch our Creed from that Book of Providence we allow not it 's well if we can make Gods use of them to awaken a sleepy World to Repentance The greatest Prodigy that has startled me of late has been a Story that many tell us That in several places in the Nation the Graves have been seen to Open and many old Hereticks to have risen and walk'd and talk'd and preach'd and printed Books whom we verily believed to have been as dead and rotten as their Heresies Thus I remember Lirinensis calls Coelestius Prodigiosum Pelagij Discipulum That Prodigious Scholar of Pelagius Something was useful to have been said about Prodigies and it must come in here or no where and therefore let it pass for a Iewish Opinion and a sixth part of one whole Cause of Non-conformity 3 He reckons Preâ—…udice amongst the causes of our distractions and let it passe for a third There is a sound sense in which our Enquirers Notions may be very true could we be but so happy as to hit out Tertullian complained sadly of those insuperable prejudices against the Christian Religion under which they all groâ—…ed Non sâ—…lus aliquod in Causa est sed Nomen It was the Name of a Christian that was their greatest Crime Bonus Vir Cajus Sâ—…jus tantum quod Christianus A poor Woman amongst the Ignorant Devoto's of Rome was instructed by her Ghostâ—…y Father that the Hugonots were all Monsters It hapned that one of her Neighbours spying a Protestant passing by told her That Man is a Hugonot It 's imposible replyed she He looks as like a Man as ever I saw one in my life Thus are Dissenters by prejudice and partiality sentenced and executed in the peremptory Judgements of Many before their Cause is heard or thy admitted to a fair Defence and Tryal I shall therefore spare my common place Book and reserve my stores for more important occasions and at present borrow our Enquirers more refined Collections for they will serve any Mans turn to evince that prejudice is a Cause not why there are so many Non-conformists but that there are no more This Prejudice alone was able to Seal up the Eyes of the Gentile World against the Sun of Righteousness when he shone upon them in his brightest
's true Diotrephes his fingâ—…rs it â—…hed to be tampering but the Beloved Disciple that lay in his Masters Bosom who was privy to his meek and gracious Temper and knew how displeasing such imperiousness was to him gave an early and timous rebuke to the Attempts and Essays of Praelatical Arrogancy and indeed he could not but remember and was concern'd in it how smartly Christ had snibb'd Aspiring Church-men That there was so much Tranquility therefore amongst the Primitive Christians was not that they were without differing apprehensions for mens parts were no more alike nor thâ—…ir Educations more equal then now But because there was a Spirit of Condescension to and mutual forbearance one of another The strong either in Knowledge or Authority did not trample upon the weak There was then some diversity of Eupressions in which the Pastors of several Churches delivered themselves for there were neither Homilies nor Liâ—…urgies yet they did not dispute themselves into parties because they made not their own Sentiment the Test of Orthodoxy nor their private Faith the publick standard and measure to which all Christians should be tyed to subscribe They allowed a latitude in things not fundamental nor had learned the modern Artifice of Fettering Consciences in the Chains of Assent and Consent to the Dogmats of a prevailing party In those days meâ—… were sincerely good and devout and set their Hearts upon the Main the huge consequence and concern of which easily prevailed with those Holy men to over-look other mens private Opinions They were intent upon that wherein the power of Godliness consisted and upon which thâ—… Salvation of Souls depended and so all that was secure they were not so superstitiously concerned for Rituals either to practice them much less to impose them They would not stake the Churches Peace against Ceremonies and then play it away rather then not be Gamesters They considered that they had all one God one Faith one Baptism one Lord Iesus Christ and never insisted upon one Posture one Gesture one Garment one Ceremony They Good men found enough to do to mortifie their Passions to bear their Burdens of Afflictions and Persecution to withstand the temptations of the Devil and the contagion of evil Examples And had no strength to spare nor superfluous time to wast to Conn the Theory of Ceremonies and practice new devices But when men grow cold and indifferent about great things then they become â—…ervent about the lesser when they give over to mind a holy life and heavenly Conversation then they grow fierce Disputants for and rigid Exacters of the sulâ—… Tale of Ceremonies Thus when the Scribes and Pharise 〈◊〉 became so violent for the necessity of washing hands they little regarded the cleansing of their Hearts They that will make things indifferent to become necessary the next news you hear of them is that they make things necessary to become indifferent when men cease to study their own hearts they become very studious how to vex and torment other mens for then they have both leisure and confidence enough to trample upon their inferiours Then it shall be a greater sin for a Monk to lay aside his Cowle then his Chastity and to be a scrupulous Non-conformist to the Laws of Men then a scandalous Non-conformist to the Laws of God In short that I may say the same thing over again which I have twenty times already said and that I may convince the Reader that I have read Erasmus de opiâ—… vâ—…orum as well as his famous piece of the Art of Preaching Then and not till then do the little Appendices of Religion grow great and mighty matters in mens esteem when the Essentials the great and weighty matters are become little and inconsiderable which I had had little need to have mentioned but for the sake of those Elegant and Modish words Appendices and Essentials which in an Eloquent Oration ought not to have been forgotten Dixi That there are Distractions in the Nation Divisions amongst Christian Brethren and a separation from the present Church of England in various degrees is evident The Industry of our Enquirer in Tracing out the Causes of them has been very commendable though his success has not been answerable Had he pleased to approve himself a skilful and impartial as well as a serious Enquirer he had certainly directed us to one cause more which for want of Ariadnes Threed in the Anfractuous windings of this Labyrinth he has quite lost himself and his Travels Honest Gerson of old has notified it to the non-observing World and from him I shall recommend it to the Reader There can be saith he no General Reformation without the Abolitions of sundry Canons and Statutes which neither are nor reasonably can be observed in these times which do nothing but ensnare the Consciences of men to their endless Perdition no tongue is able to express what evil what danger and confusion the neglect and contempt of the Holy Scripture which doubtless is sufficient for the Government of the Church else Christ had been an imperfect Law-giver and the following of Humane Inventions hath brought into the Church Serm. in die circ part 1. 'T is that which has ever been lamented and by all moderate persons complained of That unnecessary Impositions have been made the indispensible conditions of Church-Communion without precept or precedent from the Word of God To this cause had he reduced all our Divisions he said more in those few plain words then in all those well coucht periods wherewith he has adorned his Discourse and darkened Counsel As the matter of Law arises out of the matter of Fact so the Justice of the Non-conformists Cause appears from the terms that are put upon them in order to Communion If the Terms be unjust it will justifie their Cause If they have sinfully managed their Cause its goodness will not justifie their Persons what Dissenters usually insist upon for their Justification I shall reduce to these Heads § 1. They plead that some things are imposed upon their Faith tendered to Subscription as Articles of Faith which are either false or at best they have not yet been soo happy as to discover the truth of them In Art 20. They are required to subscribe this Doctrine The Church hath power to Decree Rites and Ceremonies which Clause of the Article as we fear it has been by some indirect means shuffled into the Article it not being found in the Authentick Articles of Edw. 6. so it proves also that the Terms of Communion have been enlarged since the first times of the Reformation They object also against that Doctrine in the Rubrick That it is certain from the Word of God That Children Baptized and dying before the Commission of actual sins are undoubtedly saved The Scripture the Protestant Churches nor any sound Reason have yet given them any tolerable satisfaction of the Truth of the Doctrine about the Opus operatum of Sacraments That Doctrine laid down in the
Catechism That Children do perform Faith and Repentance by their sureties is also as great a stumbling to our Faith and we cannot get over it How the Adult should believe and repent for Minors or Infants Believe and Repent by Proxie I omit many others § 2. They plead that they are not satisfied in the use of any Mystical Ceremonies in Gods Worship and particularly they judge the use of the Cross in Baptism to be sinful A Sacrament of Divine Institution according to the definition of the Church in her Catechism is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible Grace given unto us ordained by Christ himself as a means whereby we receive the same and a pledge to assure us thereof where we have 1. The matter of a Sacrament An outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual Grace 2. The Author of a Divine Sacrament Christ himself 3. The End of it to be a means to convey the thing signified and a pledge to assure us of it Hence it 's evident that it 's simply impossible that any Church should institute a Divine Sacrament because they cannot give it a Causality to those Graces it is instituted to signifie Nevertheless it 's possible for Men to institute Humane Sacraments which shall have the Matter of a Sacrament That is an outward Visible Sign of an inward Spiritual Grace and they may pretend to ascribe an effect to it also to stir up to excite or encrease Grace and Devotion And yet because it wants the right efficient Cause it 's no lawful Sacrament though it be an Humane Sacrament Such an institution say they is the Sign of the Cross. An outward Visible Sign of an inward Spiritual Grace Ordained by Men as a means to effect whatever Man can work by his Ordinance Here is the matter without Divine Signature which is the thing they condemn it for 3. They plead that since Communion with the Church is suspended and denyed but upon such Terms as take away Christian Liberty in part and by consequence leave all the rest at Mercy they dare not accept of Communion upon those Terms There are some things which God has in the general left free and indifferent to do or not do yet at some times and in some Cases it may be my great sin if I should do some of them as when it would wound the Conscience and destroy the Soul of a weak Christian If now I shall engage my self to the Church that I will never omit such an indifferent thing and the Soul of that weak Christian should call to me to omit it I have tyed my Hands by engagement I cannot help him though it would save his or a thousand Souls out of Hell because I have given away my freedom to the Church 4. They plead that they ought not to hazard their Souls in one Congregation if they may more hopefully secure them in another for that their Souls are their greatest concernment in this World and the next Now say they there 's no Question but Men Preach such as they Print with pubiick allowance and therefore they ought to provide better for their Souls elsewhere Especially they say That the Doctrine of Justification is Articulus stantis vel cadentis Ecclesiae an Article with which the Church falls or stands This Article say they in the Parish where we live is quite demolish'd by the Doctrine of Iustification by Works we are bound therefore to provide for our safety and depart and when we are once out we will advise upon another Church not which is tolerable but which is most eligible and in all things nearest the Word 5. They plead that there 's no obligation upon them to own the Churches Power to impose new Terms of Communion unless the Church can prove her Power from Christ it 's not for them to disprove it it lies upon her to prove it and to prove it substantially too or else it will be hard to prove it their duty to own it 6. They say the World is pestered with Disputes about Worship about Religion and therefore since all cannot be in the right they are willing to go the safest way and Worship God according to his Word If the things disputed be lawful to be done let 'em be so they are sure its lawful to let 'em alone and they think there 's no great hazard in keeping to Scripture Rule nor can believe that Christ will send any to Hell because they did not Worship God in an External Mode more neat and spruce then God commanded 7. They pretend that the things imposed are parts of Worship which none can Create but God nor will God accept of any but such as are of his own Creating and whether they be Integral or Essential Parts they do not know but in the Worship of God they find them standing upon even ground with those that are certainly Divine or at least as high as Man can list them 8. They do not find that God ever commanded the things imposed either in general in special or their singulars If God has commanded a Duty to be done the Church must find a place to do it in but though the Church must find a place for the Duty a time for the Duty she may not find new Duty for the time and place 9. They are the more cautious of all Ceremonies because the old Church of England in her Homilies Serm. 3. Of Good Works tell us That such hath been the corrupt inclination of Man superstitiously given to make New Honcuring of God of his own Head and then to have more Affection and Devotion to keep that then to search out Gods Holy Commandments and do them 10. They say they have read over all the Books that have been written in justification of those things and they find their Arguments so weak their Reasons so futilous that setting aside Rhetotick and Railing there 's nothing in them but what had been either answered by others or is contradicted by themselves which hardnes them in their Errour who are gone astray into the right way 11. They say it 's their duty to endeavour a Reformation according to the Word which if others will not they cannot help it and hope they will not be angry with the willing PART II. CHAP. I. The several ways for prevention of Church-Divisions mentioned by the Enquirer considered The Papal Methods 1. Keeping the People in Ignorance 2. An infallible Iudge 3. Accommodating Religion to the Lusts of Men. Three other ways mentioned by the Enquirer 1. Teleration 2. Comprehension 3. Instruction AS that Person will highly merit of this present Age whose discerning eye shall discover and his charity propound to the world such rational expedients as may amicably compose our present differences upon terms comporting with the Consciencious principles of the contending parties so our fears of the success are justly greatned by the frequent disappointment of our hopes Confident Pretenders posting up their Bills in
Officers Offices Ordinances superadded to the Evangelical Law A person that shall separate from its Communion in those things wherein it refuses to reform may without breach of charity be called a Schismatick § 7. Whether a Christian may act against the superseding Dictate of his Conscience and may give it up to be ruled by an Imaginary publick Conscience § 8. Whether seeing we have the unerring word of God to guide us to be mislead by our Leaders is a good Countersecurity against the Judgment of God § 9. Whether it be lawful to break the least of Scripture Commandments to purchase our Quiet with men or secure our own Repose in the world § 10. Whether the command of my Superiour will justify me in Murthering the Soul of my weak Brother when I may avoid giving the scandal in things indifferent § 11. Whether can the command of a Superiour make that no sin but a duty but without that command had been no duty but sin § 12. Whether a Minister of the Gospel may submit to have his Prayers and Sermons Composed for him by others And whether he be a Minister at all who is not able in some measure to discharge both to Edification § 13. Whether a Christian may without sin wholly and perpetually suffer his Christian Liberty to be determined one way though under future Circumstances it may be the command or God for a season to determine it the other way § 14. Whether a Christian Willing to subscribe to all that Christ has propounded to him to believe and to engage solemnly to do all that Christ requires him to do and not contradicting such engagement by Conversation arguing him of praevalent Hypocrisy but having given good proof before men of his Holiness ought to be denyed Christian Communion § 15. Whether upon such tendries made and their refusal only because he will not submit to new Terms of Communion not approved by the Word of God he shall adjoyn himself to some other particular Church where the Doctrine of Christianity is purely Preached the Sacraments duely Administred and the Conditions of enjoying all these and other the Ordinances of Christ honourable and easie such Departure from the one and Conjunction with the other be that Schism noted in the Scripture § 16. Whether any Church hath power to advance indifferent things above their indifferent Natures and make them Holy in their use and relation appropriated to Gods immediate Worship and impose them as the Terms of exercising the Ministerial Office § 17. Whether any Church hath power to institute new dedicating and imitiating signs and symbols whereby persons are declared and professed to be visible Cristians § 18. Whether being clearly convinced by the Word of God that there are Corruptions in a particular Church whereof I am a Member I ought not to endeavour in my place and Station lawfully to reform them And if a prevailing number in that Church shall not only refuse to reform but require of me to renounce all such lawful endeavours upon pain and peril of casting out of Communion I may not wave the society of the corrupt Majority and adhere to the more sober and moderate party who will reform themselves 2 His second task is to prove that something must be foregone for peace The design of this loose Discourse may de reduced to this Argument Small matters though truths or duties are to be sacrificed to peace But the things that Dissenters stick and boggle at are such small matters therefore they ought to be sacrificed to peace To which I only say at present That I modestly deny both his Premisses and do hope he will as modestly deny the Conclusion And perhaps some Sawcy Fellow or other will take up the Argument and give it one turn Small matters that are indifferences ought to be sacrificed to peace but the things imposed upon Dissenters in the judgment of the Imposers are small indifferent things therefore they ought to be sacrificed to peace or thus Those things which we account little we ought not make necessary to peace union 〈◊〉 the things which are in difference are in our own account little therefore we ought not to make them necessary to peace and union Something then we would give for peace and more then we can modestly speak of If it were to be had for Money we should not think that Gold could buy Peace too dear though Truth may But may we humbly enquire of the Enquirer whether he have this Peace to sell And at what rates it may be purchased I have Carefully not to say Curiously perused his whole Discourse and I must confess to the Reader that I am so far from understanding how the Market goes that I suspect he knows not his own Mind Page 131. He tells us We must be at some cost to purchase it and part with something for it Well! but what is that something Will Petitions Supplications Prayers Humbling our selves at his Footstoole procure us Peace No! That something is nothing Men are not so mad as to part with such a rich Commodity as Peace for an old song of Petitions What is it then Oh! pag. 130. He told us from Erasmus That Peace was not too dear at the price of some Truth Very good Will then telling half a dozen round Lyes procure us our Peace or the renouncing half a score Scripture-truths or so Oh but we are commanded to buy the Truth not sell it Net to do evil that good may come And besides that Peace will never wear well nor last long that is purchased with the loss of Truth To war with God or skirmish the Scripture is no approved method to secure Peace amongst our selves Well then pag â—…32 He tells us We must subdue our passions and castigate our heats And I think we have had pretty good Coolers then we must take in our sailes lighten the ship cast overboard the Fardles of our private fancies and opinions And we are Content to cast overboard any thing that is purely our own only if any of the Rich Lading of Truth should be packt up in those Fardles we humbly pray that may be spared If our own private personal Concerns were only called for he should find the Non-conformists as one man saying sin autem Jonas ille ego sim projicite me in Mare ut tempestas desaeviat Pray throw us into the Sea only do not throw any concern of Christ nor Reformation after us Well! then he would have us offer something to those touchy Deities of Custom and Vulgar Opinion But really these are a Couple of such Insatiable Idols it were cheaper to starve them then feed them we may Maintain Bell and the Dragon at as easie rates What is it then we must part with for peace At last it comes out with much ado Loath to confess till just turning off the Ladder for these are his Last words under this head pag. 137. In a word that we part with all that
Confessed Truth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interdum licet yet 't is as true prâ—…scribere falsum â—…unquam licet Though I may conceal a Truth sometimes I may never assert a falshood I may forbear to say there are Antipodes yet may I not say or subscribe or swear there are none and yet these are none of the essentials of our Religion Negative precepts bind us semper and ad semper that is there can be no case put wherein no time assign'd when it may be Lawful to deny or renounce the smallest Truth or violate the least of Gods commands by my practise 2. Though I may conceal my judgment or suspend my practise in some of these lesser matters yet when a sweet concurrence of inviting Circumstances shall call for my asserting that truth or practâ—…sing that duty I am then to assert the one and practise the other In some cases I may wave an Explicite Profession or open practise when such forbearance shall be compensated with a greater Good when a little Time shall pay the Truth and Gods Glory Interest and make amends for the lucrum Cessans and damnum emergens the Spiritual loss sustained or Spiritual advantage delayed 3. Though I may conceal or suspend as aforesaid yet I ought not to give away my Christian liberty nor commit any Act or Acts that may deâ—… my future claim or be pleaded in Bar to my right 4. When â—…he Consciences of Christians are notoriously hazarded by my silence or forbearance when I am in danger of betraying my Brother to Errour or hardening Another in his I have need of much wisdom and prudence how to speak and act but speak and Act I ought for it 's a most monstrous cheat to urge the Manner of a duty against the Duty it self As that because I ought to Act prudently that therefore I ought to sit still 5. I am much dissatisfied how it should follow from hence what he makes his conclusion That we may change any Rite or Ceremony that we have a great kindness for for one more grateful to others Nay if Any Ceremony I have in my worship not Commanded by Christ may do him a kindness I have no such kindness for it as to disoblige him nor shall he need to send me back one of his beloved ones in Exchange I shall never feel the want of it But now the Reader must be entreated to use his eyes The Assertion was that it is Lawful to Conceal my opinion when the main Doctrine of Christianity is not in dispute rathet then disturb the peace of the Church from whence he would wisely infer therefore we may practise Ceremonies which I am either fully satisfied are sinful or not fully satisfied that they are Lawful for this is the upshot That we may comply with the Laws in being so they be not palpably Contrary to the Scriptures or Common Reason It very amazing to me that I cannot conceal what I think true unless I must assert what I judge false nor bite in my sentiments about Anothers unlawful practise but I must practise with him I may suppress my judgment that such a thing is sinful and yet not dare to deliver my judgment that it is Lawful He that Commanded me not to judge my brother did not command me to Imitate him It must not be overlook't what an Emphasis he lays upon this word Palpably we may comply with the Laws so they be not Palpably contrary to the Scriptures And p. 11. It must be An Apparent breach of the divine law that gives just cause of separation And p. 118. Conditions of Communion that are not Expresly sinful and such wherein there is not a Plain necessity and Certainty of sin in Compliance are justified Sinful Terms will not justify separation unless they be Apparently Expresly so Nor will a sinful Command warrant my non-obedience unless it be Palpably such It must be some gross impiety which like the Egyptian darkness may be felt Thus if I be prohibited to partake of the Lords Supper oftner then once in three four or seven years I must pocket up the wrong because here 's no palpable apparent express violation of the law of God The Law says indeed As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup but has not determin'd how often As one of your Roman Casuists determines that we are not bound actually to love God above once in three years And Another thinks once in a Mans life will serve the turn provided we do not down-right Hate him because 〈◊〉 Command of Loving God is an affirmative praecept which binds indeed semper but not ad semper And if all the Rabble Rout of Popish Ceremonies were Commanded and five times as many more yet these will not justify non-obedience because forsooth they are not expresly forbidden by Name nor palpably contrary to any one Text of Scripture And to conclude the Reader shall now know at a word the Lowest price of Peace That we part with all that which is no essential point of our Religion for Charity which is This is the Lowest penny take it or Leave it try the world and mend your selves where you can But 1. It 's palpably ridiculous to oppose Charity to any point or part of Religion As if charity which is Commanded by the principles of our Religion should cross those principles Charity Commands a Religious person to stoop to all in his private concerns but requires not that Any Principle of Religion should stoop to it 2. It 's weakly supposed that it 's the Concern of Charity that we be of one uniform practise in the Minutes of Religion when her highest and noblest exercise is to Embrace those that differ from us in sinless practises For I cannot yet understand what Interest Evangelical Love has to reduce us to an uniformity in Rites and Ceremonies And do know that Protestants who differ in the lesser points of Religion as to principle and practise do yet maintain a more entire and cordial love amongst themselves then the Papists who are cudgelled by the Iron rod of the Inquisition into a precise Indentity in their little fopperies Did we never hear of two friends that could really love each other with the most endeared affections though their cloaths were not made by the same Taylor nor trim'd up with the same Ceremonies of Ribbonds and Lace Let the worshippers of Mahomet quarrel about their Green and Red Turbants yet Christian Kingdoms can hold firm peace and Inviolate Amity without Abolishing their respective Country Customs The Irish in one of our Kings Reigns could not be perswaded nor forced to leave their odd way of Plowing and threshing out their grain and yet that prudent Prince never sent Taâ—… amongst them with his Iron â—…ail to thresh them into a Compliance with more Decent and useful manners 3. This Distinction of the points of Religion into Accidental or Circumstantial Integral and essential or however else they please to Marshal it had need be
to spare and may part with some excrescences and never touch the Quid of Religion rather then they who own a Naked Religion without any Additaments and if any such be found Amongst them they are Content to surrender them up as a Sacrifice to peace 5. They who by their Authority are Qualified to make a through Reformation and such Abatements in supernumerary observations such fillings up of the Chasmes and vacuities as may not only Retrieve peace at Home but procure a General union with all the Reformed Churches abroad to the strengthning of the Protestant Religion weakning the hands of the Common Enemy rather then those poor people whose Circumstances are such that they cannot propose the Terms of peace to others and what Alterations they shall make in themselves will be insignificant to an universal settlement 6. They who have already given some specimens of their Condescensions to the Romanists by Removing some exasperating passages and it may be hoped and expected that they will take a few steps towards a Compliance with dissenting Protestants For as the Author of the Irenicum observes well p. 132. That which was laid as a bait for them the Papists was never intended as a Hook for those of our own Profession And therefore to conclude this Chapter I will take the freedom to Quote that Celebrated Son of the Church for a Theological Notion whom he has already quoted 〈◊〉 Philosophical one Dial. 5. p. 399. speaking of the Papacy as the Kingdom of Anti-Christs he has those Notable words Which we knowing so experimentally not to be Compassed by Needless Symbolizing with them in any thing I conceive our best policy is Studiously to Imitate them in nothing but for All indifferent things to think the worse of them for their using them As no person of Honour would willingly go in the known garb of Any Lewd and infamous person whatsoever we court them in they do but turn it to our scorn and Contempt and are the more hardned in their wickedness wherefore seeing that Needless Symbolizing with them does them no Good but Hurt we should Account our selves in all things indifferent perfectly free to satisfy and please in the most universal manner we can those of our own party nor Caring what opinions or Customs or outward formalities the Romanists or others have or may have had from the first Degeneracy of the Church which we ought to Account the more hidâ—…ously soiled by the Romanists using them but supporting our selves upon plain Scripture and solid Reason to use and profess such things at will be most Agreable to us All and make most for the safety and welfare of the Kingdom of Christ for this undoubtedly O Philopolis is the most firm and true Interest of Any Protestant Church or state whatsoever CHAP. IV. The vanity of the Enquirers Confidence noted in boasting that they who find fault with the Churches Constitution will never be able to find out or agree upon a better his Reasonings about this matter examined IT was a piece of the old Roman valâ—…ur to kill themselves for fear of being Killed and it 's a Considerable piece of the New Roman piety not to stir for fear of going out of the way to Resolve against Reformation upon some dangers which are fancied may attend Reformation That Church always apprehending or pretending to apprehend dreadful inconveniences in all changes though apparently for the better Before we can possibly know whether A better way may be found out we must first be Agreed what is a Good way Now All Goodness Consists in the due Conformity of a thing to it's Rule and Idaea by which it ought to be measured and it 's fitness to reach that end to which it is a Means And therefore the betterness of Any thing must be judged of by it's nearer Approach to that Rule and it 's greater proportionableness to the attainment of it's design If then we could find out A worship more Agreable to the Rule of worship or a Constitution more apt to reach the great intendments of Holiness and Peace such a worship such a Constitution will justify it self to be a better then any of it's Competitors which shall Deviate from that Rule or more uncertainly attain the Desired End 1 The first part of our task then will be to find out our Rule which when we have done we have nothing remaining but to apply that Rule to those Models which we would erect or having erected we would examine their Regularity And as they shall be found to approach nearer or depart farther from that Rule we may Confidently pronounce they are therefore by so much The better or the worse Now the only Rule of Reformation in our judgment is the Infallible word of God which we therefore judge sufficient and adaequat because they give this Testimony to their own Perfection And seeing we have now to do with those who own the Scriptures to assert nothing but Truth it will be evidence enough that they are such a Rule if they do but Assert that they are so It is indeed no new thing to hear them charged as Lame and defective such as must be pieced and eked out either with Immediate Revelations or Humane Traditions to render them a Compleat and perfect standard of our Faith and acceptable obedience To which we only oppose the Testimony of the Apostle 2. Tim. 3. 16. 17. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for Correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect thorowly furnisht unto all good works Concerning which sacred Rule I will use our Authors Confidence with I think better warrant That they who find fault with this Rule will never be able to find out or Agree upon a Better whereof the Endless mazes the perplexed labyrinths into which they have cast themselves who despising and forsaking this only Canon have delighted to find out by-paths is very clear but very sad demonstration for when they have tryed Traditions or gaped for revelations or depended on the Churches Authortiy and yet found no satisfaction they think to secure themselves and gratify theMagistrate with a New power who has already such burdens upon his shoulders that we have more need incessantly to sollicite the throne of grace on his behalf for wisdom Counsel strength to manage and bear them then fondly to think to do him a kindness by Imposing upon him a greater work which all others are weary of But this one Text which I have mention'd may abundantly satisfy us that there can be nothing requisite to equise and furnish out A Christian A Minister A Church for Duty and obedience but what is summarily therein ascribed to the written word § 1. That the Scriptures are of unquestionable Authority to Determine all those Controversies whereof they haveCognizance because they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divinely inspired which no person no Church no Convention of