THE unhappy breaches and differences among us in matters of Religion are at present the subject of universal Complaint; and though nothing be more talked of than an Union among Protestants against the common Enemies of our Liberties as we are English men, and of our Faith as we are Christians; yet, if we will believe mens Actions, rather than their Words, there is nothing that seems less heartily to de desired, or, if you will give me leave to speak a little plainer, for it is not now a time to mince the matter, with more solici­tous Care and Industry to be avoided.

For my part, I am not come hither to enflame those differences, and, if I were, 'tis twenty to one but I should lose my Errant, for they are so great already that perhaps they are incapable of being encreased.

But, if you will allow me that liberty which every man now pretends to as his birthright, that is, to spend my private opinion about the publick Concerns, I will put you in a way by which this blessed Union can onely be effected, and that is, by keeping up strictly to the Dis­cipline of the Church, and by doing all things decently, and in order.

We have, almost every day, many excellent Discourses delivered in the Pulpit, to persuade us to mutual Chari­ty and Forbearance with one another; and indeed this is in a manner the whole design of Christianity, to pro­duce in us those calm and peaceable dispositions of mind [Page 2] which are best fitted to make us happy in this life, and to prepare us for the blessedness of that other state, whose very nature consists in perfect Charity and perfect Peace. Wherefore Saint Paul tells us plainly, that without chari­ty, which is the very bond of Peace, and of all vertues, all our pretences to Religion, and all our attainments in it, our proficiencie in spiritual knowledge, and our super-errogation, if that were possible in good works, will sig­nifie just nothing at all; though I speak with the tongue of men and Angels, saith he, and have not charity, I am be­come as sounding brass, or a tinckling Cymbal; and though I have the gift of prophecie, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am no­thing; nay, though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. And if to the Testimo­ny of St. Paul you will add the greater Authority of our Saviour himself, he makes reciprocal Charity and Love to be the distinguishing mark and character of his Dis­ciples, By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another.

If therefore this Charity which is so essential to a Dis­ciple of Christ, that he cannot be so without it; if the Ʋnion of the spirit in the bond of peace can be preserved under differing denominations of different Sects and Par­ties, notwithstanding the different external forms and circumstances of Divine Worship; if all or any of those pious and learned Exhortations, which have been made to persuade you to this Christian temper, can have that good effect which is intended by them, notwithstanding the various forms of Church Government, and the di­versity of all other outward appendages and ceremonies of publick Worship; if we can fear God, and honour the King, and love one another, as well and as heartily in the [Page 3] midst of these differences, as if there were no such things to be found among us, then, by my consent, let all the Ecclesiastical Enclosures be laid open, and let every man worship God, so he do but worship him in spirit and in truth, and believe aright as to the fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith, according to his own particular humour and fancie; because by gratifying such an harm­less, though unaccountable humour, there can no incon­venience follow, but by disturbing and crossing it there may; and therefore the ends of Religion will be better served by a diversity in Worship, than by an uniformity of it.

But now, on the contrary, if it should prove true, as it will most certainly, if either Experience or Reason can be heard amongst us, that the onely way to Unity and Peace is by an Uniformity of Discipline and Obedience, as to the external circumstances of Divine Worship, then this great end, being so necessary as it is for the procu­ring us all that Happiness which either this World or the next can afford us, will justifie all the necessary means that can be used in order to the obtaining it.

Wherefore Uniformity being necessary as a means to Peace, and yet being impracticable unless the Church be supposed to be invested with a Power of prescribing the external modes and circumstances of Obedience, it fol­lows plainly, that the Church is actually invested with such a Power, and that all its members are bound to obey its Prescriptions.

For the Topick of Experience, it is not without some unwillingness that I mention it, much less do I think it proper at this time and place to lay open the wounds of our late unhappy times, or present you with a mournfull Scene of those Miseries and Distractions which neither can nor ought to be remembred without Amazement and Horrour.

But if you will, every one of you, retire into your own thoughts, and ask your selves the question, What it was that brought those dreadfull Calamities upon us, that involved three flourishing and powerfull Kingdoms in Bloud, and Slaughter, and Confusion, that made the Gods to dye like men, and fall like one of the Princes; while Slaves were set over us to be our Masters, and Frogs were heard croaking in the Chambers of our Kings; then you your selves will answer for me, It was the tender Conscience dissolved into rebellious Pretences, that car­ryed Order and Government before it, and overflow'd all things with a resistless Stream; it was a Cry against Disci­pline, and Ceremonies and humane Institutions; it was a Clamor for Liberty, against Will-worship and the Ordi­nances of men; it was a Spirit of Sedition, a Thirst after Innovation, an insatiable Humour of being dissatisfied with all the wholesome Establishments of Unity and Peace; it was an Itch of new-modelling both Church and State; it was a Pharisaical Pretence to farther Improve­ments of Purity and Holiness; it was Discontent, and Jealousie and godly Fear, lin'd with Hypocrisie and Dis­simulation, that reduced our Beauty and Order into Ashes, that laid the magnificent and comely Fabricks of the British Church and Empire, the Amazement of them­selves, and the Envy of their neighbours, equal with the ground; and, instead of one firm and well-compacted Buil­ding, rais'd paper Tenements of crumbling Sects and Fac­tions, which, instead of being able to support themselves, betray'd us in a manner into that Security which we now enjoy.

While we, forgetfull of those Miseries under which our Fathers and our selves have groan'd, unthankfull for those Blessings which, under the shade and protection of a wise and happy Government we receive, ungratefull to Al­mighty God, who out of that Chaos of Confusion has [Page 5] rear'd this new world of Establishment and Order, dis­pleas'd with the fatness of the Olive, and the sweetness of the Figg-tree, and quarrelling with the friendly and sociable Vine that cheareth God and Man, are calling again for the Bramble to reign over us, and for the Thornes and Briars to protect us; or like the Israelites in the Wilderness, sur­feited with Miracles, with Manna, and with Quailes, with the dew of Heaven, and with the fatness of the Earth; with liberty and ease and plenty; we are looking back for Sla­very from our old Taskmasters in the Land of Ham, and longing for the Garlick and the Onyons of Egypt.

But because an instance taken from our late Confusions, may but exasperate whenit should convince. Let us avoid the mention of that Crying Guilt, for which this Land of our Nativity has wept in tears of Bloud, and should for ever mourn in Sack-cloth, and humble her self before the Lord in Ashes; and let us trace the footsteps of Antiqui­ty, and search the Records of the more innocent and early Ages.

What was the reason in the Mosaick Dispensation, why all the external niceties of divine Worship, in their Feasts, and in their Sacrifices, and in their Lustrations were so carefully adjusted, by the particular designation and ap­pointment of God himself?

It is true indeed, that most of those Ceremonies were of a symbolicall nature, and were designed to shadow out unto the Jewes, either that purity, simplicity and innocence of mind which God expects from all his wor­shippers and servants; or else they were figurative and emblematicall Representations of the life and death and sufferings of the Messias, and of that more perfect Dis­pensation which was to be introduced into the World by him.

But yet notwithstanding, it must not be deny'd, that there are many Ceremonies to be found in the Law of Moses, [Page 6] which being equally commanded by God himself, were of equall obligation as to their performance, with any of the rest, of which no such Typicall account can be gi­ven. And therefore the reason of their Institution can only be this, That since every thing must of necessity be done with some Ceremony, in some Place, or Time, or Order, or Gesture, or Manner and Circumstance, or o­ther; it pleased God for the avoiding of Confusion, and for the preservation of an uniform and orderly way of Worship, which would otherwise be exposed to perpetual change, disturbance and alteration, to adjust and determine the particular circumstances of those indifferent matters, because considering the perverseness of some mens minds, and the diversity of their several fancies and humours, such changes and alterations could never happen without a considerable breach of Charity and Friendship among men; which must needs be a wonderfull Obstruction as well to the interest of the Civil State, as to all the religi­ous Performances and Duties, both as to their devotion in themselves, and as to their acceptance with Almighty God.

If therefore the nature of Mankind, be still the same under the Gospel that it was under the Law; if the rea­sons for the necessity of Uniformity be the same now that ever they were in former ages; if the method of this Uniformity be not adjusted by God himself under the Gospel, as it was under the Law; and if this Uniformity cannot be obtained unless the Church be invested with a right and power of prescribing the terms of it; than it follows plainly, as hath been already observed, that the Church must be invested with such a power, because else it would want the necessary means of its own unity and preservation, which every Society must be supposed by the Laws of nature and reason, to be invested with; and if the Church be invested with such a power, then all its Members are under an indispensable obligation to obey [Page 7] it, because that Power which may be lawfully disobey'd, is no Power at all: And this is sufficient to vindicate the exercise of Ecclesiastical Censures.

And if you demand further, Whether it be lawfull for the civil Sanction to interpose in behalf of the Church, to see that its Orders and Injunctions be duly and faithfully executed and obey'd, I answer that it is for this plain rea­son, because the Civil Power has a right of exacting all kinds of lawfull Obedience from its subjects; and this obe­dience if it were not Lawfull, could not be enjoyned by the Church it self.

But besides the express provisions of the Law of Moses it self, there were also several pretended traditions of Moses from Mount Sinai; there were likewise the deter­minations of their Wise men in controverted cases; the De­cisions of the Tannaim and the Amoraim; and of the Schools of Hillel and of Schammai, the two so much cele­brated, but disagreeing Founders of the Pharisaick Order. For which Traditions and Determinations of their famous Masters, the Jewes had usually as great if not greater Ve­neration than for the Law it self; and they were at length swell'd into so vast a bulk, that (like the Missals and the Rituals of the Romish Church at this day, which are so full of Ceremonies, burthensom in their number, frivolous and superstitious in their use) they ate out the very life and heart of true Religion; as our Saviour him­self in several places of his Gospel with no less Justice than severity complains.

The Heathen World had also their Sacred Offices prescribed by a certain Form as well before as under the Law: And the same is the case with the Mahome­tan and Pagan Idolaters at this day; which Ceremo­nies of theirs, though for their number they be intoller­able to a devout Soul, which cannot suffer it's self to be so far taken off from the more inward and substantial [Page 8] part of Religion, though in their nature they be mostly foo­lish, and in their use Superstitious, and in their design Idolatrous, as being directed to a false object; yet as well these as the Jewish Formalities do prove thus much by the common consent of Mankind, that an Uniformity in the outward circumstances of Divine Service, is necessary to the more due and solemn performance of Religious Wor­ship, and to the publique peace and quiet of the World.

What is the reason that at this day the French Persecu­tion against the reformed Religion and its Professors, ra­ges with so much violence and fury, thorough all the spatious Territories and Dominions of that mighty Mon­arch? Shall we think it is a Zeal for the Catholique Re­ligion, as they are pleased to call it, that is for a Fardle of absur'd, ridiculous and blasphemous Superstitions, that inspires so wise and powerfull a Prince, with so mean thoughts of Cruelty and Revenge? Shall we think he acts upon a principle of Conscience, who has sufficiently discover'd to the world by his insatiable thirst after Em­pire, which cannot be purchas'd without the price of Bloud, that he has no other principle of action than that of a boundless appetite of Rule and Greatness? Shall he be thought to act upon a principle of Duty and Religion, who makes destructive and depopulating Wars without giving a reason, and violates the faith of Peace by arbi­trary Dependances and unwarrantable Claimes? Who conquers more by the peremptory Decrees of his late erected Chambers, than by the conduct of his Generals, or by the numbers, discipline and valour of his Armies?

What therefore can be the true cause and motive, why he that glories in the blessed title of the Most Christian King, should yet notwithstanding, persecute Christianity it self? What else can be the true reason of all this Cruel­ty and seeming Madness, but that he wisely considers that the true way to Empire abroad, is by unity and [Page 9] peace at home, that a Kingdome divided against it self cannot stand; and that these differences of Religion, as they have done already in the experience of that Kingdome as well as ours, will some time or other prove the occasions of great disorders and commotions in the State?

And shall we not then make use of the same wisdome for the support of Christianity, which is with so much diligence and zeal made use of by others for its Extirpa­tion? For Popery is either no Christianity at all, or it is Christianity wrapt up and hid in such an heap of Cere­monies and Superstitions, that it can hardly be discerned.

Is it worth our while to contend about Ceremonies when we are losing the Substance? to squabble and fall out about indifferent things, when our Religion and our Li­berty, our temporall and eternall Interest lye at stake? If the things prescribed be indifferent and consequently law­full, why do we not show that they are so by complying with them? If the quarrells raised about indifferent mat­ters, do yet notwithstanding rise as high, as those which are agitated between the Papists and us about matters of a necessary and unalterable nature; why do we not ce­ment and compose these unhappy breaches, by adding Hu­mility to Obedience, and by submitting to every ordi­nance of man, so far as we may without any violation of the Laws of God or right reason?

All our publique feuds and animosities are comprehen­ded in our Religious Disputes, and if they were but once composed, we should be an happy Nation. The King would be glorious, and his People secure. We should be safe at home and formidable abroad. We should be in a condition to succor our Allyes, to relieve the distressed Protestants, to keep the ballance even betwixt our neighbour Princes, and to stop the progress of the Arms of France, which threaten to involve all Europe in Slavery and Superstition together. Whereas now all [Page 10] we are able to do, is to give protection for a while to persecuted Religion when it flies hither for shelter.

But what will become of us, when the same torrent of Ambition, having overflown what ever stood in its way, shall at length beat upon the Brittish Shore? Shall we suffer our selves to be devoured by our own intestine Divisions, when the Enemy from without is battering our Walls and throwing in his Bombes among us? or shall we not rather unite together for our common safety? and shall we not severely repent that we did not sooner do it before it was too late, that we did not take sweet counsell together and go into the house of God as friends?

Certainly this one consideration, if it were but pow­erfully and frequently impress'd upon our minds, must needs have a wonderfull influence upon us, and must even fright men, and compell them by arguments both of fear and love, into a thorough Reconcilement with the best of Churches, before it be too late, as well out of a principle of Interest as Duty; for besides the considera­tions of this World, it ought to afford matter of very sad reflexion to us, or at least to so many of us, as have been active either in causing or someting the Differences that are among us, that we must one day give a dreadfull account before the Judgment-seat of God, for a great part of that Bloud which has been spilt, and of those Spoiles, Rapines and Depredations, which have been made by the ambition or injustice of our Neighbours. We must be accountable for the oppression of our per­secuted Brethren beyond the Seas; and for ought we know, if these destructive Animosities be not soon com­posed, for the removall of the Candlestick from among our selves, and for the small extirpation of the Protestant Religion.

The Jewes had their Ritual, and the Christians their Liturgies or set forms of Divine Service, the one be­fore [Page 11] Christianity, and the other long before Popery, were known in the World.

And first, As to the Jewish Ritual, which cannot be deny'd to have been a thing of humane Institution, it was so little disapproved by our Saviour, or rather so highly approved, that he has been observed by Scaliger, and Bux­torf, and Camero, and Hugo Grotius, and other learned men, to have borrow'd most of those expressions which he makes use of in the Institution of the blessed Sacra­ment of his Body and Bloud from thence; and that Hymn which after the Celebration of that blessed Feast, he and his Disciples went out to sing together on the Mount of Olives, was by Paulus Burgensis a Converted Jew and a learned Bishop of the Christian Church, and out of him by Buxtorf, Drusius, and others, conjectured to be the same which the Jews are used to call the Hallel hagadol, being a Song of Praise and Thanksgiving, consisting of several Psalms, and used to be sung in consort at the Feast of the Passover and other solemn occasions.

And that God Almighty has actually approved those indifferent circumstances in Divine Worship which have not been of his own appointment, being either not con­tained in the Law of Moses, or no where commanded in Scripture, and in use long before the Law was delivered; I will here prove by two other Instances, which I the ra­ther mention, because they are omitted by the learned and judicious Writer of the Libertas Ecclesiastica; and because they are no where, that I know of, taken notice of to this purpose.

The first shall be taken from that passage in the Psalms, Early in the morning will I direct my prayer un­to thee, and will look up, in which words, the Psalmist, addressing himself immediately to God Almighty, ex­presses the Posture in which he would poure out his Prayers before him, by looking up towards Heaven; [Page 12] now, because we cannot imagine he would have made this Vow of looking up to God in Prayer, if he thought it would have been displeasing to him, and if, on the other hand, it can be proved that this was the general custom of that Countrey in all their Prayers and Suppli­cations; then we have here an Instance of an indifferent Posture in Prayer, which the general custom of Judaea had by degrees brought into the authority and reputati­on of a Law, which yet was no where instituted by any Divine Command; but that this was the general practice is plain from the Roman Authors, who tax them upon this account with worshipping the Clouds and the Host of Heaven. So Juvenal,

Which places, though they be otherwise interpreted by Mr. Selden and other Learned men, and the reading of the latter of them questioned by Doctor Isaac Vossius, in his Notes upon Pomponius Mela, yet I conceive the first place dos sufficiently vindicate the reading of the latter; and the Interpretation of Mr. Selden, instead of destroy­ing, will rather help and encourage that which I have gi­ven; for the reason why the ancient Jews called God by the name of Shamajim, or Heaven, was the same with that, for which they looked heaven-wards when ever they pray'd unto him, namely, because they thought the more peculiar and beatifick presence of the Divinity to be there; and this is the first Instance.

The second shall be taken from those words of God to Moses, Exod. 3. 5. Draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for which he subjoins this reason, [Page 13] for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground: now though it is true that. Moses was bound upon the least sig­nification of the Divine Pleasure to obey it, yet this would have been no reason of his Obedience had there not been such a custome in the World before that time; which, not having the least foot-step of a Divine Com­mand, was probably owing meerly to humane institution, but yet we see was approved by God himself.

This Custome prevailed also under the Law; though in the Law it self it be no where enjoyned, in all their so­lemn Feasts, as appears from this, that the Jews are com­manded to eat the Passover with their shoes on; which would have been a needless Command, if in their other Festivals they had not used to put them off; which was therefore done, because every meal among the Jews, but more especially their solemn Feasts, was in the nature of a Feast upon a Sacrifice, as I could prove more largely if it would not be a digression; and therefore, being a­bout an act of religious Worship, they were used to put their shoes off, as the custom of those Countries was in like cases.

For this reason the Turks at this day do alwaies goe barefoot into their Moschs: and it was a Precept of Py­thagoras recorded by Iamblichus, in his Life, [...], sacrifice and worship God with your shoes off. The Romans also did the same at their Feasts, as is evident from several places of Martial and others. Joshua is likewise commanded, by the Angel of the Lord, to doe as Moses had done before him, Josh. 5. 15. Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy; and Joshua did so. Marinus relates of Proclus, that he, being about to worship God, made use of this Cere­mony in the performance of his Devotions, [...].

And, because the Servants, as I conceive, were used to attend their Masters to Divine Service, as Naaman the Syrian was used to goe along with his Master to the Temple of Rimmon, and there to take off their shoes or sandals for them; from thence is that proverbial Speech of John the Baptist concerning our Saviour, whose Fore­runner and Harbinger he was, Joh. 1. 27. He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to unloose. Lastly, in allusion to this custom is that passage of Juvenal, in his sixth Satyr,

So that here we have two plain Instances of Instituti­ons in matters of an indifferent nature approved by God, but commanded onely by men, for an immemorial cu­stom whose original or legislative sanction cannot be tra­ced, and perhaps it never had any, but crept in by de­grees, is as much an humane Institution as a possitive Command, of whose Author we can give never so clear an account, as the Common Law of England, is every whit as much of humane institution as the Statute; and those Tenures which hold onely by Custom or Prescrip­tion are to all intents and purposes as good as those which have Deeds and Charters to produce.

Wherefore, if Custom may be comply'd with in these cases, then so may any other humane Institution, and if Custom may not, then is it unlawfull for us to goe to our Devotions at those times when our Neighbours and Coun­try-men are used to frequent them, because this is an Im­position upon our Liberty, which is not ty'd up either to place or time any more than to any other indifferent circumstance of action.

But if the places and times of Divine Worship may be lawfully determined by the Authority of the Church, (and if they may not, then the Church has no power to see that God be worshipped at all, for he must be worshipped at some place or time or other,) then I see no reason why the same Authority may not equally ex­tend to all other indifferent circumstances of action.

As for the use of Liturgies and Set-forms of Prayer in the Christian Church, there is nothing more plain than that, as far as we can trace Antiquity, they have been constantly used, several of the ancient Liturgies are at this day extant among us; and the Service both of the Church of Rome, and our's, is in a great measure taken from thence: nay, so ancient and in such constant use have they alwaies been in the Christian Church, that we have unquestionable Instances of them: in the Apostolical times themselves, as hath been learnedly observed by a Dr. Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph. Reverend Prelate of our own from Justin Mar­tyr, in his second Apology, who calls the Pray­ers of the Christians in his time, [...], Common Prayers: and from Pliny, in an Epistle to Trajan, very often cited by Learned men in defence of the Christians of the primitive times, who, being examined by him con­cerning their Manners and Religion, affirmabant hanc fu­isse summam vel culpae suae vel erroris, quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire: carménque Christo, quast Deo, dicere, sécum invicem, &c. The Learned Prelate, whom I have newly mentioned, understands this place of Verses answering one another by turns, as we speak the reading Psalms; and I know not, saith he, how he cou'd better express it. And indeed this must be allow'd to be a very proper, and a no less acute and ingenious In­terpretation; for the Psalms themselves were many of them nothing else but Hymns of Praise and Thanksgi­ving which were composed for the Service of the Temple, [Page 16] and this ancient way of worshipping God by Hymns, as well in the heathen World as among Jews and Christians, is evident from the Hymns of Homer, Orpheus, Callima­chus, and others among the Greeks; from Hymns of a like nature to be met with in the Interludes of the anci­ent Dramatick Poesie, in the Odes of Horace, and in the Writings of Statius, Catullus, and others: And in allusi­on to this it is that the same Pliny saies, in a Complyment to Trajan, Animadverto etiam deos ipsos non tam accuratis adorantium precibus quàm innocentiâ & sanctitate laetari: gratiorémque existimari qui delubris eorum puram castám­que mentem quàm qui meditatum carnem intulerit.

Among the Christians, to be sure, the singing of Psalms and Hymns in honour of God and Christ, and for the mu­tual benefit and edification of one another, was alwaies looked upon as a special Duty, and we have several pla­ces of Scripture which do not onely vouch and justifie, but also enjoyn this Practice.

If therefore Hymns and Psalms, in which many are to bear their parts, cannot possibly be sung but by a Form; if they must be composed before they can be sung; if this be a true and proper exercise of Devotion and Divine Worship; if Praise and Thanksgiving be essential parts of Prayer, as is manifest from that Petition in our Saviour's own Form, Hallowed be thy Name; nay, if it be the most exalted and sublime exercise of a devout mind; and if all this may be done, and in many cases must be done by a Set-form; then, why may not the same be true of all o­ther parts of Prayer? and, why may we not from hence conclude, that a Form of Prayer, as it is alwaies lawfull, so it is in some cases necessary to be used? it is necessary, because Psalms and Hymns cannot be sung without it; and it is necessary, because in some cases we are enjoyned to sing Psalms or Hymns by the express command of Scripture.

And here, before I pass by farther, let me ask our dis­senting Brethren one Question, they in their Congregati­ons are used to sing together the Psalms of David con­verted into English Rhimes, some of them of one man's composing, and some of another; now, though the words of the Psalms themselves, especially as they are in the original, were divinely inspired, and therefore they may pretend, though it be a Form, yet it is not a Form of humane Institution; yet the words of him that puts them into Meeter are not David's words, any more than a Paraphrase and the Text are the same: the same sense may be expressed in different words, and those different words are so many different forms to them that reade them; from whence it is manifest that they do not pray by David's Form which was inspired, but by the Transla­tor's, which is of humane Institution; and why then do they declaim so loudly against a Form of Prayer? Why they will tell us, the Scripture has no where enjoyned it; but I have proved the contrary, and they themselves confute their own Pretences by their Practice.

But, suppose the Scripture did not enjoyn it, what then? if we must neither pray with a Form nor without, unless the Scripture bid us doe one or the other, then we must not pray at all; for the Scripture does not any where command either of these, unless it be in the use of the Lord's Prayer; and yet at the same time enjoyns us to pray without ceasing.

But these Gentlemen, if they were half so good Philo­sophers as they are bad Divines, would have understood before now, that all Prayer is a Form, and that without a Form it is impossible to pray at all: for the sense at the bottom of all Prayer is the same; it is either a devout ac­knowledgment and admiration of the Divine Excellence and Perfection, or it is a thanksgiving for his Mercies, or an humbling our selves before him for our Sins, or [Page 18] entring into new engagements and resolutions of a new Life, by offering up the Sacrifice of a broken and a con­trite Heart; or lastly, it is a deprecating those Judg­ments which hang over our heads for our Sins, and an entreating his Goodness for those Blessings which the ne­cessities of our nature, or the circumstances of our for­tune and condition do require; and let these things be expressed with never so much variation of phrase, yet it is not that variation in which the true nature of the Pray­er consists; but it is the sense which is at the bottom, which is alwaies the same, as a tune is the same, though it be pricked down by never such variety of marks, and a sentence the same, express'd by several cyphers.

It is not the words that God regards, but it is the in­ward Ardency and Devotion of the mind, which may be the same with a Form as without it; nay, in truth, it may be greater with a Form than it can be without it, because then he that officiates, not being to seek for what he is to say, and his fancie and invention, not being per­petually upon the rack, his mind is the more intent and fixt upon the Object of his Devotion, and upon a sober and considerate reflexion upon those things which make up the entire theme and subject of his Prayer: he is not apt to dishonour God, nor to expose himself and Religion to contempt by rash and inconsiderate expressions uttered in the heat of a distempered and inconsiderate Zeal, which we find by experience, I speak without reflecting upon any particular person, many of our non-conforming Bre­thren doe, as well in their Prayers as Sermons, for want of duly considering what they have to say before-hand, which shows plainly what extream Presumption and Fol­ly they are guilty of, when they pretend to utter such contemptible stuff by the assistence of the Spirit.

It is true indeed, there was in the first ages of the Church such a thing as the Gift of utterance, but it was [Page 19] when men of mean parts and education were sent forth to preach the Gospel by our Saviour himself, who with out this could not have delivered themselves as became the Embassadors of so great a King; it was at a time when the World could not be converted without Mira­cles, when the Fears of Death and Torments and Perse­cution would have put all their natural faculties to silence, had they not been assisted and encouraged by an extraor­dinary influence of Divine Grace from above: It was at a time when they were to be carry'd before Magi­strates and Rulers, to give an account of themselves and of that Gospel which they preached; and then it was necessary indeed, that a particular assistence of the Di­vine Spirit should overpower the fears of death, and re­move all apprehensions of danger out of their way, and that the words which they were to speak should be gi­ven them and put into their mouths at that very instant, lest otherwise, for want of ability or courage, they should expose and betray themselves and the Gospel.

But at this time of day there is no necessity of any such supernatural assistence; and that it is not actually afforded appears partly from the experience which we have of those that pretend to it, and partly from this that Saint Paul expresly tells us, that the Gift of Prophe­cie, of Tongues, and of Knowledge were in time to fail; and if they be not failed already, as well as those other miraculous Powers of Healing Diseases, and of Casting out Devils, we have little or no reason to believe that ever they will; besides, that the Gift of Tongues being manifestly ceased, and these three being mentioned toge­ther, we have abundant reason to conclude, that those of Prophecie and Knowledge are ceased together with it.

But after all, we have no Promise in Scripture, that God, though by his Spirit he will furnish us with affec­tion and zeal to the end of the World, will ever put the [Page 20] very expressions into our mouths; the Spirit it self hel­peth our infirmities, saith Saint Paul, speaking of this ve­ry business of Prayer, but it is not with a Gift of utte­rance, but with Groans that cannot be uttered: let our words be what they will, so our hearts be but right, God is well pleased.

It is true indeed, such is the nature of style, that the same sense clothed in different expressions, shall either extort respect or laughter; the reason is, because all speech is either proper or metaphorical; in proper speech, where the words are the real and immediate marks of the things they express, there we are affected with the sentence according to the opinion we have of those things which are contained under it; but in metaphorical, we are differently affected, as the Metaphors are taken from things of a contemptible or a serious and usefull na­ture.

Now nothing is more plain than that in religious Dis­courses, whether in Prayer or Sermon, nothing ought to be said after such a manner as to move laughter or con­tempt instead of exciting Devotion and serious attention; but whether this end be more likely to be attained by an extempore or well-considered and premeditated Prayer, let any man of common sense and understanding judge.

And though such rash and inconsiderate expressions may be well enough approved where they are uttered a­mong people that are affected by noise rather than by sober and judicious expressions, by a sound and whole­some Form of words, yet it ought to be considered, one would think, how unbecoming such things are to the gravity of one that pretends to teach and instruct the [Page 21] World, or to the Majesty of that Person whose Character he sustains; what scandal it gives to understanding men, and what advantages to the prosane: and lastly, how un­suitable it is to the design of Religion, which is to make men happy by creating in them a calm and sedate tem­per; not so much to move their Passions as to inform their Judgments, and to prepare them for Happiness by wisedom and instruction.

But if there be any who, by the strength of natu­ral parts, by the quickness of their fancie, or the vo­lubility of their tongues, by long custom, or acquired habits, by art and study, by ringing the changes and by shuffling the same expressions at several times into a se­veral order and method, shall from thence seem either to themselves or others to be possessed of this Gift of Prayer, yet they are in truth and reallity very much mistaken, and it will appear they are so, in that they generally use these, whether talents or acquirements, or artifices and devices of theirs, rather in a way of ostentation than use, by spinning out their Devotions to an unusual length, and by endeavouring to captivate the ears and hearts of incon­siderate people by that much speaking which our Savi­viour condemns.

Thus it appears plainly that a sober and well-conside­red Form of Prayer is a manifest advantage both to the Speaker and the Hearer, and to the latter it is an advan­tage in a respect which I have not yet mentioned.

If I pray in an unknown tongue, saith the Apostle, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitfull. 1 Cor. c. 14. v. 14. And again, v. 16. how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned, say Amen. From whence it fol­lows plainly, that in this age especially, when the mira­culous effusions of the Spirit are in a manner wholly cea­sed, those Prayers are the best to which we are best pre­pared to say, Amen; but those are manifestly Forms of [Page 22] Prayer; because in those we goe along with the Minister himself; nay, we understand beforehand what it is he is about to ask, and so are the better prepared to joyn with him, and to say, Amen, heartily, devoutly and prepared­ly to all his Petitions.

And the same Chapter will likewise furnish us with another argument against these extempore Effusions, when they are truly and properly, and not onely preten­dedly so, which is but to put a cheat upon the People; namely, that they are subject either to the heats of Enthu­siasm on the one hand, or to the coldness of Non plus and Drawling on the other; both of which expose Religion to contempt in the opinion, or at least in the practice of those whose design and interest it is to make it contemp­tible and cheap, and serves to alienate the affections of much wiser men than ever they are like to gain over to themselves.

If the whole Church be come together to speak with Tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned and Ʋnbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? and if the same or a like advantage may and will be taken from the indiscretion of every extempore Pretender, there is the same reason why he should lay by his pretences, and give way to a sound and sober Form of words.

The truth is a premeditated and an extempore Prayer have each of them their inconveniences, the latter can­not be without them; and the first, if it be not done by a man of some judgment and experience, he does usual­ly endeavour onely to shew his parts, as if his design were to recommend himself to the good opinion of God Almighty for a man of Eloquence and Wit: the preme­ditated man does oftentimes talk so fulsomely as if his design were to cajole and cokes the great God of Hea­ven and Earth; while the man of gifts and graces, as he thinks himself, does by ridiculous or rash expressi­ons, [Page 23] by mimical gestures and affected alterations of his voice, by speaking sometimes so high as if he would prevail with him by clamor, and sometimes so low as if he had a secret to communicate to his Maker, openly affront and abuse him to his face and in the face of a numerous Assembly.

But both these Inconveniences are happily avoided by the wise provision which the Church has made.

If then the use of Forms of Prayer in the publick As­semblies of Christians be not onely lawfull in it self, and justified by the practice of all ages before the Reformati­on, but also manifestly tending to Edification, and freed from very many and very great inconveniences to which extempore Addresses are exposed, and therefore necessa­ry to be allow'd.

And if though Forms of Prayer be necessary in the ge­neral, yet this or that particular Form be not, other­wise the Liturgy of all Churches and all Ages must be exactly the same.

Lastly, If no Formulary of Divine Service can be in­troduced into the common use and practice of the Church but by the publick Sanction, whether sacred, or civil, or both, then we have here a plain instance of a lawfull humane Imposition in indifferent matters; for though a Form of Prayer be necessary, yet this or that Form is not; from whence it follows, beyond all possibility of contradiction, that an humane Imposition in indifferent matters, or a Determination of those indifferent things by the authority of men to one part of the indifference is not in it self unlawfull, and whatsoever may be lawfully commanded is of necessity to be obey'd, unless we will renounce all obedience whatsoever.

However, thus much will certainly be granted by the most avow'd Assertors of the Separation, that we have every one of us a right and power of determining our [Page 24] selves in those indifferent matters; for otherwise the na­ture of their indifference is destroy'd; and yet if thus much be but allow'd, they will find themselves driven to an absolute necessity, either to contradict themseves, and to affirm contradictions in a breath, to say that the same things are and are not indifferent at the same time, or else they must bid adiew to their beloved Cause, and give submission to the Authority of the Church.

For whatever natural Liberty men have in themselves, when once they become members of a Society, they are supposed to give it up to the legislative or governing power of that Society so far as is necessary to the peace and quiet of it; for otherwise a Society and no Society would be exactly the same, that is, every man would still remain his own Master, and at liberty to doe as much as ever he could before.

For example, in that which Mr. Hobbs is pleased to call the State of Nature, when a man is not a member of a Body politick, but a distinct and perfectly indepen­dent person by himself, he is naturally invested with a right and power of defending his person or his possession by force of Arms, he may lawfully revenge his own in­juries, and he is the onely Judge when he is wronged or injur'd; because without all this power he cannot live in the World, or continue in that Being which God and Na­ture have given him.

But if having listed themselves by mutual covenant and agreement into a Body politick or Commonwealth, for the mutual defence and preservation of every particu­lar person and of the whole Society, men shall notwith­standing after this assume the same liberty to themselves of personal Revenges, and of being their own Judges in controverted cases, without referring themselves to the decision of the Law which is the civil Umpire betwixt man and man, it is manifest this Society cannot be of [Page 25] long continuance, or rather so long as this Liberty is taken it can never be a Society properly so called; from whence it follows plainly, that it is necessary, if men will be members of a Society, that they give up this private power into the hands of the publick.

If therefore the Church be a Society truly and proper­ly so called; if it be that mystical Body of which Christ is the Head; if the members of this Body cannot be knit and well compacted together without external rules of discipline and order, in which the very nature of a Soci­ety consists; if the publick Orders of the Church and e­very man's prescribing rules to himself be inconsistent together, and if the observing no rule or method at all either in Divine Worship or civil conversation be rather like a man in Bedlam than a Denison of a sober Corpo­ration; if charity, good-will and love; if mutual help­fulness and reciprocal usefulness to one another; if peace with God, and peace with men, and peace within our selves be the great design and business of the Christian life; if a man cannot be at peace with God while he is at enmity with his neighbour; if a man can neither love, nor fear, nor know, nor worship God aright at the same time when his thoughts are taken up and filled with en­vy, uncharitableness, detraction and revenge; if no man can be happy in himself when he is displeas'd and angry with other men; if the controversies raised about mat­ters confessedly indifferent have been, when and where­ever they have happened, a perpetual bane and disquiet to the Church; if they alwaies heighten mens Passions against and alienate their affections from one another; if they are alwaies attended with a disturbance of the pub­lick peace, and have de facto proceeded to the utter sub­version both of Church and State; if all these Animosi­ties and Contensions would immediately cease by a quiet and dutifull submission to the Authority of the Church; [Page 26] if by giving up this Power, the Church, as a Body poli­tick or Society of men is actually dissolved, a Society or Aggregate of several persons, being no otherwise one, than as they submit to the same Laws and are governed by the same external Rules of discipline and obedience; if Place and Time, notwithstanding they be indifferent in themselves as to this or that particular determination, yet is it necessary in the general that they should be de­termined, otherwise there can be no publick Worship of God: lastly, when men are met together in a religious Assembly; if every man shall follow his own particular fancie; if almost every single person shall be seen in a different posture; and if this be more like to make men look upon one another than to attend to the Minister or to mind themselves; if it be more like to excite laughter than devotion; if it be a natural obstruction to the solem­nity and seriousness of religious Worship; if, done by chance, it be a sign of too great negligence and remisness; and if, done on set purpose, it be a sign of conceitedness and spiritual pride, while every man prefers his own way, and despises that of another; if it be a ground of censure, and may be a cause of uncharitableness, and, by degrees, of separation; then is it plain, upon all these accounts which I have mentioned, because it would be better if it were so, and because it is necessary that it should be so; because the Church can neither preserve it self in reputa­tion nor so much as in being, because it is for its un­doubted and its perpetual interest, and because it is neces­sary to its preservation, that it should be invested with an Authority of adjusting the most indifferent circum­stances of Divine Worship; without which the blessed ends of Unity and Peace can never be obtained: I say, it is plain from all this, that the Church is actually inve­sted with this Power, and that Ecclesiastical Constituti­ons may for the same reason determine indifferent mat­ters, [Page 27] for which the Civil forbid Adultery and Murther, namely, because it is necessary to the publick Peace; which reason, if it be not sufficient, the Civil Laws do all of them become immediately null and void, as being founded upon no other basis but the consideration of the publick good; but if it be a solid and substantial reason, I would fain know, if any of the Dissenters be at leisure to inform me, why it may not equally extend to defend the necessity, and consequently justice of Ecclesiastical whether Laws or Censures.

Especially if we consider that, as the case of the Chri­stian world now stands, the same persons, with the same interests, prejudices and passions are members both of the Civil and Ecclesiastical State; so that it is as impossible there should be a disturbance in the one, in which the o­ther shall be unconcerned, as that the same man should be divided from himself; and it is every whit as clear, that either it is not lawfull to use all necessary means for the preservation of the Civil Peace, or it is lawfull for the Church to concern her self in the determination of in­different matters, which Determinations and Constituti­ons of hers may be lawfully confirmed and ratified by the State.

If men could differ without falling-out, something might be pretended in behalf of an innocent, though unbecoming Liberty, but since the greatest feuds and a­nimosities do sometimes take their rise from the smal­lest beginnings, since the religious differences are of all others the greatest, and the most fatal to the publick Peace, since there is nothing so infinitely scrupulous as an unreasonably tender Conscience, and since there is no pretence so inconsiderable, from whence either indigent or ambitious men will not take occasions to advance their secular designs under the specious covert of a Concern for Liberty, or a Zeal for Religion, it behoves those in pub­lick [Page 28] Authority, as they tender the reputation of their own wisedom and justice, or the quiet of the World, to cut off all occasions of disturbance, by seeing that all things be done decently and in order, which rule of the Apostle's is founded upon the same reason upon which all Laws whether humane or divine are founded, and from whence alone they can and do receive their obliga­tion, namely, the common Interest of mankind and the particular Happiness of private persons; it depends upon the same reason and the same necessity, for which Injustice and Robbery are forbidden, or upon which Industry, So­briety and usefull Arts are encouraged; which is nothing else but the consideration of the publick Good, which if it be as plainly concerned in this as in any other case, this is sufficient to defend the Authority of the Church, and to make its Sanctions in indifferent matters, so long as they are steered by principles of undoubted Interest, to be of perpetual force and obligation.

Those actions are properly said to be indifferent, which may either be done or let alone without inconvenience or advantage to the publick, or to the interest of any private person; but if any prejudice or advantage will accrue, then there is a plain reason why they should be done or omitted, and consequently they cease to be in­different, and become necessary in proportion to the weight of those reasons upon which their performance or omission is founded.

So, for example, we will suppose it for the present indifferent in what posture we say our Prayers in a pub­lick Congregation; yet if we say them at all, thus much is of absolute necessity, that we say them in some posture or other; but now if the Civil or Ecclesiastical Magi­strate, for the avoiding of Confusion, and for the preven­ting of those Piques and Animosities which frequently happen among men about things of little or no value in [Page 29] themselves, especially when Religion is concerned, shall ordain that all men shall say their Prayers in one and the same posture, and shall determine and assign what that particular posture shall be; then here is a reason of Interest for the good of the World, and for the quiet of that Society of which we are members, why this po­sture should be used rather than any other; and conse­quently this posture, though indifferent before, does now derive a necessity from that reason of State and inter­est upon which it's imposition is founded.

To be sure men of common sense and understanding, if they have but common honesty joyned together with it, will take their measures of obligation as to the law­fulness or unlawfulness of what is commanded, from it's design and tendency to promote or obstruct the interest of the Publique, and the happiness of particular Persons; and if either the pretended or the real Scruples of any might be sufficient to stop the course of Law against the common interest, there could be no such thing as Order or Government in the World.

There are many Laws enacted by the sublime Wisdome of the King and his three Estates in Parliament assembled, which though they be for the interest of the whole King­dome, all things considered; yet they manifestly tend to the Prejudice of particular persons, but yet those very persons are as much obliged by these Laws, as they who reap the benefit and advantage of them, because the obli­gation of these Laws is to be taken from the fundamentall Constitution of all Societies, that a greater Interest be preferred before a less, and that when the publique advan­tage shall interfere with a private, the private must give place, because otherwise the Society cannot be preserved; how much more strictly therefore are we obliged by those Laws whose design and tendency being nothing else, but to keep us all at unity and peace together, are so [Page 30] plainly for the advantage of the Publique and of every particular Person?

And if notwithstanding the manifest Conducibleness of such an Uniform way of Worship to the publique Peace, and the experience of those sad Effects which our Reli­gious Differences have produced, every private man shall yet after this take upon him to Judge of the Reason­ableness or Expedience of what is Enacted by his Supe­riours, and shall from thence proceed upon I know not what Pretences, ridiculous in themselves and destructive of the publique Wellfare, to withdraw his Obedience to their just Commands; he may as well take upon him an infinite and boundless liberty of questioning the Reason­ableness and Equity of all Laws whatsoever, and either upon the same or more warrantable Exceptions, for the expedience of no Law can be more evident than of that which enjoyns Uniformity in Divine Worship, he may withdraw his Obedience from all kind of Government and Subjection whatsoever.

But here it is Objected, That if there were nothing but the Civil Interest, or the Interest of this World to be considered, the experience of all Ages and Nations will sufficiently demonstrate, that an Uniformity in Religi­ous matters, is the best Expedient that can be thought of to secure the publique Peace. But alass! we carry souls and Consciences about us, and these are precious things; there is an immortal Interest lyes at stake, which it would be great folly and madness to part with upon any temporal consideration.

But to this I answer first in the general, That the main design of Christianity being to promote Peace and Charity in this world, as well as to procure us Eternal peace and happiness in the next; and indeed the one in order to the other, it follows plainly that Uniformity in Religious Worship, as being a necessary means to Peace, [Page 31] is in the general of Divine Institution, though what the particular terms of that Uniformity shall be, the Scrip­ture has no where prescribed; as in truth it could not do, for a reason which I shall shew hereafter: it remains therefore, that the Church it self be in all Ages furnisht with a right and power of prescribing what those terms shall be, and that all her members are obliged to a neces­sary Observance of them.

But here, because I have made so frequent mention of the Church, that I may avoid Ambiguity, and leave as little room as may be for Exception, before I go any fur­ther, I will explain what I mean by that term, and with­out descending to too much nicety, the Church is one of these three things.

First, it is the congregation of Christian People dis­persed over the whole earth, and agreeing together in the fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith, which are either expresly, or by direct and lawfull consequence, revealed in the Scriptures of the New Testament, to be of necessity to Salvation. And in this sense it is not only unnecessary that there should be every where the same Rites and Ceremonies observed in the Church, but it is in the nature of the thing impossible that there should, be­cause of necessity the several manners, customes, and other circumstances of several Nations, will introduce a diver­sity of external Formalitie into Religious Worship, which may be done without any breach of Charity or Friend­ship among men, because there is no interest to be served by promoting Feuds and Animosities between them; and it will be all one to the peace and happiness of this King­dome, what rites or usages soever the Greek or Armenian Churches shall embrace.

We do not much trouble our heads, though by reason of their near Neighbourhood we have some reason to do it, about the French saying Mass, or adoring Reliques, or Images, [Page 32] or praying for Dead, or worshipping the Host: Nay, you shall hardly ever see a man in a passion when he hears the Tragicall stories of those horrible persecutions against the professours of the Reformed Religion; but though he may relieve and pity them, so far as a small temporary Contribution will go, yet in truth and reality he is not much concerned; whereas at home we can make a shift to fall out about much smaller matters; the reason is, because we are not embarked in the same bottom with them, and so being able to do neither good nor hurt by being angry or displeas'd, we scarce ever trouble our selves. But at home the pretences of Religion and Liberty, which are always stirring when ever there is any prospect of pu­blique Disorders likely to ensue upon them, will never fail to excite the ambitious, the discontented, and the needy, to embroyle the State out of principles either of Interest or Revenge, while the passions of men that day­ly converse together, and are engaged by interest, or pre­judice, or duty in the respective parties, do but serve to blow the cole, and improve the sparks of Animosity into a flame of War.

The consequence of all which is, That there may be differences in the universal Church, consisting of many Kingdomes and Provinces without dissention; and that all that whatever it is, which is requisite to the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace, may be consistent en­ough with differences in smaller matters, but that in the same Kingdome or Dominion this can never be.

But secondly, By the Church we may understand a National Congregation of Christian People, divided into many partitions or particular assemblies united together by an unity of Faith, and Discipline, and Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction; and this is that which I affirm to be necessary in every Kingdome or State that would avoid all occasions of publique Tumults and Disorders, and would be as [Page 33] happy either as themselves can wish, or as Christianity designs to make them.

And therefore this is that unity which is by every Good Christian, good Citizen, or good Subject, above all things which this world can afford, the most earnestly to be desired: for the obtaining of which, he is to submit to every thing that shall be required of him, and he is to abstain from every thing which is forbidden him; if all things considered, it may lawfully be done or avoided.

Thirdly, In compliance with those of the Congrega­tionall way, I am content to allow a third sense of the word Church to be a particular and independent Congre­gation governed by Laws and measures of its own, and ac­knowledging no Jurisdiction Forreign to it self; and this is a Form of Church Government, which in a Christian Kingdome or Common-wealth, I affirm to be naturally un­lawfull: And here there are two cases to be considered.

First, Either the whole body of the People is divided into such particular and independent Congregations, or there is a nationall Establishment from which these particu­lar Congregations have separated themselves. The first of these is Babel in Effigie, the very Emblem and Land­skip of Confusion, subject to inconveniences that cannot be thought of till they are felt, and capable of such infi­nite sub-divisions as will at length reduce the comely Form of Government by so many particular interests and facti­ons into a State of publick Hostility and Rapine; for the reason why men separate from one another, is always out of some reall or some pretended dislike, which dis­likes by actuall separation, are so far from being compo­sed, that they are manifestly improved and heightned by it; and from hence arise so many several Interests as there are Sects or denominations of Parties in a Common­wealth.

For it is natural to all men to desire to gain Proselytes [Page 34] to their own Opinion, for men to love themselves and those of their own way, and to think of other men, who are not enroll'd in the same list with themselves, if not with a reall hatred, yet with a less esteem and a compa­rative Aversation, which whenever a Ball of Interest is thrown between them, will be improved into all the sad effects of the most desperate Malice and Revenge.

But here to make all sure as I go along, I must repeat again, That by Independent Congregations, I mean, such as own no Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction externall to them­selves; from whence it is easie to perceive that every such Congregation may be a new Sect and Party by it self; as it was in a manner in the late Times, when the Sects were spawned in such incredible abundance, that the Alphabet began to complain of want of Letters to furnish so many different and disagreeing Parties with names.

Neither is it to be supposed that so many several Factions, notwithstanding their differences in matters of Religion, shall yet conspire in an uniform Obedience to the Civil Power, because to be uppermost is that which they all desire; and since the very same persons are mem­bers of the Commonwealth, and of a particular Sect or Party, it is ridiculous to hope that the State can ever be quiet, till all these parties can agree together to be of the same mind; which is, to make them cease to be what they are.

In the United Provinces, where the greatest Liberty is given and taken of any other Territory in the Chri­stian World, the peace of the publick could not be se­cured, if it were not for the Overballance of the Calvi­nisticall Party above the rest; for the Calvinists, as Sir William Temple in his Observations upon the United Pro­vinces takes notice, p. 204. ‘make up the body of the People, and are possessed of all the publick Churches [Page 35] in the Dominions of the State as well as of the onely Ministers or Pastours, who are maintained by the publick, who have no other Salaries than what they receive from the State, upon whom they wholly de­pend;’ and for that reason they will be sure to preach obedience and submission to the People.

But yet notwithstanding this, so great has the power and interest of the Louvestane or Arminian Party alwaies been, that it has been the occasion of great revolutions among them; and as it was probably one of the main causes of their so sudden fall from the height of envy in­to the lowest region of pity and despair within the com­pass of a very few years, so it is to be feared that in not many more (the animosities between a Calvinist and whoever differs from him being irreconcileable and ever­lasting) it will prove the ruin of that once powerfull, but now declining State.

Neither was there any thing in the late unhappy times, next to the Title of an incomparable Prince, to whom the Sceptre of these Kingdoms did of right belong, and the Affections of a loyal Party, which all the republi­can Cruelties were not able to extinguish, that contri­buted so much to put a period to the Usurpation, which was never establish'd upon any certain bottom, as the bandying of the several Factions against one another; which made it both necessary for the Usurpers to support their power by the Sword, and that Sword it self not be­ing all of it of the same metal, and the Army that was to wield it, being it self canton'd into Sects and Factions, they began at length not to understand one anothers language, but were forced to leave working any lon­ger, and to desist from building that Babel of Religion, cemented with bloud instead of mortar, which is in­consistent with the quiet of the Earth, and by which men in vain expect to climbe to Heaven.

It is a prodigious thing for a man to consider what ir­reconcileable feuds the smallest differences in Religion have created, and still the smaller those differences are, the higher usually are those animosities that are produced by them, as if it were the nature and genius of man­kind to make up in passion what they want in reason; as the Turks and Persians, though agreeing in all other parts of the Mahometan Superstition, yet about a very small Punctilio they are at mortal jars with one another; and, being so near neighbours as they are, they never want an opportunity of expressing their resentments by the frequent and bloudy Wars betwixt those two formi­dable Empires.

The Calvinists pursue the Lutherans and Arminians, who on their own parts are not wanting to retaliate the kindness, with every whit as great if not greater hatred than those who do toto coelo errare, the Popish, I mean, the Mahometan and the Pagan World; nay, so apt are men to fall out with one another, that the most inconsi­derable niceties of difference that can be conceived, when they are used as marks of distinction, when men shall obstinately persist in such discriminations, and when they shall place an opinion or affectation in them, will pro­duce in them a dislike and aversation for one another; and, let the difference be never so small, yet it will al­waies be true to the World's end that, Birds of a feather will flock together; so many distinctions as there are, ba­ting those distinctions which Trade and Functions and the Necessities of humane life have made for the mutual sup­port and maintenance of each other, so many several Parties and Factions you shall have in that Common­wealth or Kingdom where those distinctions are found.

Though in this case it will alwaies happen, that the smaller Fishes will associate and unite together against the Leviathan or prevailing Party, that overballances the [Page 37] rest, but when that King of the Waters is destroy'd, they will then begin to prey upon one another, and contend which of them shall ingross the Dominion of the Seas, which is the case of all the Republican Factions against the Church of England at this day; though as well rea­son as former sad experience may instruct us, when they have obtained their end, if ever they do obtain it, which God forbid, what miserable work they will make of it among themselves.

It is to be confess'd indeed that there are abroad very great heats and contentions to be found, which are not of such dangerous consequence to the publick Peace, such as are those feuds, which will never be extinguish'd, betwixt the Seculars and the Regulars, and betwixt the regular Fraternities with one another; and, I believe, there are but very few monastick Societies will be found that are at peace within themselves; of which, and of the causes of it, which I have well considered, I could say more, if it would not be a digression; but whether it be that common obedience which they pay their Holy Fa­ther the Pope, which keeps them in somewhat better order, or, that being men of a single life, not encumbred with any secular interest or concern, their animosities cannot so easily embroile the State as those who have a greater interest in it, and who may with a better coun­tenance pursue secular designs than they can doe; or, whether it be that the Laiety think it not worth their while, any further than it is matter of common enter­tainment and discourse, to take any part in the quarrels of Beadesmen and of Beggars; or whether it be that their contentions are not of such a popular nature as to have an influence upon any but themselves who make them; or that the perpetual austerities of their respective rules, which are a constant emploiment to them, hin­der them from being capable of prosecuting any dango­rous [Page 38] design, with that address and diligence which is re­quisite to its success; or that all the heat of these conten­tions is spent, by men that know better how to use their tongues than swords, in complaints to the Pope, and in writing against and censuring one another; or, lastly, whether it be that their way of life in the retirement of their cloysters, and in the little formalitie of their cells, and convents renders them unexperienc'd in af­fairs, listless and unactive in business, and unfit to doe any great good or mischief in the World; or whatever the true reason be, there is no question but they are found by long experience, by giving an example of po­verty and contentment, and by the reputation of their sanctity and holyness of life to be rather an advantage than detriment to the places where they are suffered, and they make sufficient amends for their intestine divisions, by their being united together in the Papal Interest and in the support of the Romish Tyranny over the Conscien­ces of men.

But let the reason be what it will, it is certain that no reason can justifie the lawfullness of separate and indepen­dent Congregations in a Christian Commonwealth or Kingdome, which are in their own nature, and have been found so by experience, to be so destructive to the welfare and happiness of the World, which are so big with inconveniences not to be foreseen till they are felt, which are surrounded on every side with infinite and un­speakable dangers, to which no possible remedy can be apply'd, but by the removal of their necessary cause, and by destroying the Independencie it self, that I make no scruple to pronounce it as a self-evident Maxim, that an aggregate of separate and disunited Congregations, unac­countable to one another or to any superior temporal Head invested with a power of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Censure, is contrary to the Law of Nature, de­structive [Page 39] of the Peace of the World, and of the design of Christianity it self, which is to engage men in closer obligations of unity and friendship with one another, and therefore ought not to be tolerated in a Christian State no more than Atheism or Infidelity themselves; it being the extremity of Non-sense and religious Folly to allow that Charity, Good will and Peace are the indispensable duties of a Christian; nay, the characteristick indications of his being Christ's Disciple; that God is Love, and that whosoever loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot possibly love God whom he hath not seen; and yet, that that Form of Church Government is, I will not say of divine Institution, but of divine Permission, which is in its very nature and essential constitution so exactly fitted to bring the World into Confusion and Disorder.

And so I have done with the first Case, which suppo­ses the whole Body of a People to be parcell'd out into many distinct and independent Congregations. Give me leave now to speak a very little to the second, which pre­sumes onely a Separation of one or more Congregations from the Body of the National Church, setting up a new Authority of its own, and disowning the Jurisdiction of the publick: which second Case differs onely in propor­tion from the first, and will of necessity labour with all those ill consequences in its degree and measure with which the first is incumbred; and, it being much easier for small things to encrease than to begin, the consequen­ces at the long run will be exactly the same, if the Go­vernment, by a wise temperament of Care and Courage, do not put a timely stop to the progress of such ill bo­ding beginnings.

Into such separate Assemblies as these all the ill humors of the Body politick will naturally flow, thither the unfor­tunate, the discontented, the covetous and the ambitious [Page 40] will betake themselves, to seek revenge against reall or ima­ginary wrongs, to repair the decaies and ruines of a bro­ken fortune, to satisfie the craving circumstances of pover­ty and want, and to fill up the wide capacity of immo­dest, unreasonable and unjust desires at the expence of the publick welfare, security and quiet.

Neither are such Conventicles as these dangerous one­ly to the Civil Peace, by being the natural causes of em­broilment and disturbance, the very sinks and common­shores into which all bad humors disembogue themselves and find a welcome entertainment, while the simplicity of some suffers it self, under the specious pretences of an extraordinary zeal, to be misled and carry'd away cap­tive by the designing Hypocrisie of others; but, which is still worse, they have a no less pleasing aspect upon Religion it self, which either by the infinite pretences to greater purity, a most absurd and foolish cause of Separati­on, which knows no Law, and will admit no bounds, they refine so long till they have utterly lost it; or by a most impious and unreasonable claim to I know not what Gospel Liberty, they get at last to be Libertines indeed, and are placed as far above the reach of Ordinances as those Ordinances themselves, by their design and use for the preservation of Love and Unity in the Church, by their Divine institution and appointment, and by the su­pernatural Grace which is exhibited and convey'd by a due and worthy participation of them, are plac'd above the blasphemous contempt of such profane and dissolute Wretches.

But I would by no means be so far misunderstood, as if I were so uncharitable as to think that all, or so much as the greatest part of those that separate, doe it out of any bad design; for I am not onely morally certain of the contrary, as to the much greater number of the Peo­ple, but as to the Pastors themselves, if that be any cre­dit [Page 41] for them; I dare be confident, in very many instances, that the blind lead the blind, and that they are not sen­sible of those dismal inconveniences to which their Sepa­ration is naturally exposed; but in what I have just now said I chiefly reflect upon the sad experience of former times, which is sufficient to convince us, what the ge­nuine tendencie of these new models is; and I do no more question that the same causes, if suffered to operate with the same freedom, will have the same effect, than I do, whether humane nature and humane passions be the same now that they were twenty or thirty years ago; which Consideration if all well-meaning, but misguided Christians would seriously lay to heart, I cannot doubt but it would soon have a very wonderfull effect upon the Peace and Settlement of these distracted Kingdoms, by persuading all that heartily wish the Prosperity of Sion and pray for the Peace of this our spiritual Jerusalem, to leave their separate Assemblies, and betake themselves into the bosom of the Church, which cannot behold so much goodness and sincerity so miserably misled and gon astray without all the concern that is natural to a dis­tressed, forsaken Mother, and stands alwaies ready with her arms wide open, and with an entreating voice and mind to receive them into her most tender and passionate embraces.

Some sort of Unity as to external Discipline is neces­sary to the consistence even of those lesser bodies; nay, the Quakers themselves who are much the most exorbitant of all Parties to be found among us, yet they differ from others, and agree with one another in nothing more than in a certain Formality peculiar to themselves: And how much more desirable would it be, that all Parties, lay­ing aside their respective heats and animosities which under such diversity of outward forms they so dangerously foment and carry on against each other, should unite together [Page 42] under one common rule in such a blessed band of Peace and Love, as would remove all our Jealousies, and pre­vent all our Fears, and make every man in the Streets in an unknown Face, to meet his Guide, his Companion, and his own familiar Friend?

This is my first Answer to the Objection taken from the pretence of a Tender Conscience, That an Unifor­mity of one sort or other, is of absolute necessity to the peace of the Church; which Uniformity since it cannot be obtained, unless men could all jump into the same mind of themselves, and continue in it when they had done, it follows unavoidably that there is, and must al­ways be in the Church a standing Authority, from whence the Sanctions of Discipline and Order shall receive their obligation.

I come now to give a more particular Answer to the Objection proposed, and in that, I shall consider in the ge­neral what the terms of this Uniformity must be, or rather what kind of terms they are to which all Christian Peo­ple are obliged to submit.

It must be granted therefore, That though an Unifor­mity in Religious Worship be that which is above all things in this World the most passionately to be desired, yet this being only in order to that great End, to which all our endeavours and counsels ought to be directed, the Eternal happiness and salvation of our Souls; no terms of Uniformity ought to be submitted to which are incon­sistent with Salvation. And that Church, whatever she is, let her pretences to Infallibility and Truth, be never so great, which imposes those either Opinions or Practi­ces, as the terms of Communion, which are directly contrary to the word of God, or to the light of Nature and the impartial dictates of right Reason is by no means to be communicated with any longer; but we must im­mediately come out from Her and separate in our own de­fence, [Page 43] lest we be made partakers of Her sins and of Her plagues; and in this case it is she who is guilty of the Schism by necessitating a Separation, not we who sepa­rate when we cannot avoid it.

As to matter of Doctrine, I presume there is no man who calls himself a Protestant, of what Denomination or Party soever he be, who will charge our Church with any damnable Errour; but on the contrary, there are many of our Dissenting Brethren, who, when they are tax'd with the unpleasant imputation of propagating very absurd and very unreasonable Opinions, are used to take Sanctuary in the Articles of the Church of England; of whose Authority, as to some points, they will pretend themselves to be the only Assertors, with what Justice, I think I have in part discovered in some other Papers.

As to Ceremonies there are three Restrictions chiefly to be considered, which if they be all carefully observed in the discipline of any Church, there is no manner of pretence or ground for Separation upon a Ceremonial ac­count; and those three Restrictions are these which fol­low. First, They must not be too cumbersome and hea­vy by their number. Secondly, They must not be Su­perstitious in their use. Thirdly, They must not be Ido­latrous in their direction.

First, They must not be too cumbersome and heavy by their number, for this is that which eats out the very heart and root of Religion, and takes it off from being a De­votional exercise of the mind, by turning it into outward Pomp and Show, which can neither make us better men for the future, nor appease the wrath of God, or apply to us the merit and satisfaction of Christ for what is past.

This was that of which St. Austin in his time complain­ed; but yet he did not think it Lawfull to make any breach or disturbance in the Church upon this account, but rather to take this occasion for the exercise of those [Page 44] two excellent vertues of Patience and Humility, and ex­pect the good time when this burthen should be remov'd by the same regular Authoriy that had impos'd it.

This was the case of the Mosaick Bondage, especially as that Bondage was afterwards increased by the Phari­saical [...], or by the traditionary Rites and U­sages of the Jewish Church; and this is at this day, and was at the time of the Reformation, and for many Ages before, the case of the Roman Yoak; from which the Wisdome and Piety of our Ancestours, has with no less Justice than Necessity freed us, and plac'd us in that state of Christian Liberty, which does not consist of such an ex­emption from all Ceremonies as some men seem to desire; which is absurd and impossible in the nature of the thing it self, but in the choice of such as are best fitted to the ends for which all Ceremonies ought to be designed, and have the greatest tendency to Edification.

There were other causes upon account of the Ceremo­nies imposed by the Church of Rome, which might be suf­ficient to justify a Separation, of which I shall speak in the two following Heads.

And though a National or Provincial Church have a Right and Power within it self of retrenching the su­perfluities of the Ceremonial part of their Divine Ser­vice, which may very well be done without any Schism or Separation from the body of the Church abroad, ei­ther on the one part or the other: Yet for private men to separate from the National Establishment, upon pre­tence that the Ceremonies are too burthensome or too many, is manifestly unlawfull. The reason is, because this will be lyable to the same Inconveniences, to which a separation upon pretence of greater Purity, is expos'd; and in both cases, if every private man shall be allow'd to judge for himself, and to proceed to a Separation in pursuance of that judgment, so infinite are the humours, [Page 45] the fancies, the prejudices, the perversities of some men; so fond are they of Novelty and Change, so apt to controul Authority, and so desirous to be govern'd only by their own Measures, that there can be no lasting Esta­blishment in the World, but the Discipline of the Church will be alwaies reeling like a Drunken Man, and driven to and fro like a Wave of the Sea, by every Capricious wind of Innovation.

We will suppose for the present, in favour of the Dis­senters, because they cannot prove it, that there are too many Ceremonies in our Church, yet I presume it will be granted that there are not above four or five, or half a dozen too many; or if you will, to make it a plump number, and to put the Objection into better shape, let them be half a score, which I believe upon an exact computation, will go a great way in the Ceremonies of the Church of England; and let all these be imposed as indispensable conditions of Communion: 'Tis pretty se­vere I confess, to lay so great a stress upon Indifferent Matters; but yet certainly no man in his wits will ever pretend that this is such an intollerable burthen, as that he must needs separate rather than comply; but if there be any that are so hardy to do it, though I will not dis­commend them for their courage, a vertue, of which in this contentious Age we have a great deal of need; yet in my opinion they deserve rather to be soundly Laught at, than seriously Confuted.

What hath been said of the Churches Power in re­trenching the number of her Ceremonies, the same is likewise true as to the Ceremonies themselves, that they may from time to time be altered and changed for others in their stead by the Authority of the Church, as shall seem most Expedient to that publique Wisdome for the great Purpose of Edification; but for every private per­son to challenge this Right to himself, is unlawfull, be­cause [Page 46] liable to the same inconveniences, with separating under colour of Ceremonious Superfluities, or of purer Ordinances and purer Worship, which are therefore just­ly to be suspected to proceed out of a bad design, because they never can have any end.

Saint Paul, in several places of his Epistles, expresses great tenderness for the infirmity of the weak Brother, but yet, if the Instances of such his condescention be exa­mined, they will be found to be of a quite different na­ture from those which make up the pretences of our daies, as consisting, first, in the eating of things sacri­ficed to Idols, which as looking like a participation of the table of Devils, and as being expresly prohibited by a tem­porary Canon of the Council of Jerusalem, must needs give very great offence and scandal to the Christians of those daies, who did not understand so well as Saint Paul did that an Idol was nothing, and that the consideration of the Food might well enough be prescinded from that of the Idol, and that therefore it was lawfull for one who was well grounded in the reason of things and might doe it without offence to any weaker than himself, to eat whatever was sold in the shambles.

From which last cited place of St. Paul we may observe a threefold difference in the practice of those times as to this Affair. First, There were some, and they the most perfect Christians, in which number St. Paul himself was, who would make no scruple of eating the Idolothyta, though they knew them to be such, so they might doe it without scandal to others. Secondly, There were others who could not justifie to themselves the eating of such food; but yet, by Saint Paul's permission, they would not be at the pains of a solicitous enquiry, but suffering them­selves to remain in ignorance would eat whatsoever was sold in the shambles, asking no question for conscience sake. Lastly, There were a third sort, more scrupulous [Page 47] than either of the former, who thought themselves bound not to eat any manner of meat but what they were sure had not been sacrific'd to Idols, and it is to these especi­ally that Saint Paul's condescention is with abundance of equity and justice made, because their scruple was foun­ded not in a Circumstance or Ceremony onely, but in a deep sense of Devotion, and in a jealousie for the Ho­nour of God and Religion.

The second Instance of this Tenderness of St. Paul's is taken from the Jewish Abstinence from things stran­gled and from bloud, which was not onely strictly en­joyned by the Ceremonial law, but also continued and confirmed by the same temporary Edict of the Jerusalem Synod; and what hath been said of Abstaining from Bloud, the same was true likewise of Circumcision, which in some cases was dispensed with even after Con­version to Christianity; this was the reason why Paul circumcised Timothy, because of the Jews in the 16th. of the Acts, and it is his advice in the first to the Corinthi­ans, c. 7. v. 18. Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised: is any called in uncircum­cision? let him not be circumcised. And then it follows, For Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the Commandments of God.

What is meant in this place by becoming uncircumci­sed is needless to my purpose at present to examin and scarce consistent with Modesty to explain.

But that which is more pertinent to my design at present to take notice of is this, that in both these in­stances of abstaining from Bloud and of Circumcision, the case is far different from the scruples of our daies; since it was not the squeamish aversation of a Ceremonie, but an obstinate adherence to the Ceremonial Law on which those scruples were founded, with which not­withstanding Saint Paul, as it were on purpose to show [Page 48] how little an enemie he was to Ceremonies was pleased for the time to dispense, although the retaining of those two Ceremonies in the Church, pursued into those conse­quencies of which they were not sensible, did in reality include in it a Denial of Christ and his Gospel.

For Circumcision, what was it but the Seal of that particular Covenant which God had entred into with A­braham and his Posterity? whereas now that enclosure was laid open and that partition wall was broken down; the renting of the vail in sunder at the instant of our Sa­viour's Passion was to signifie the final abolition, antiqua­tion and repealment of the Abrahamitical Covenant and Mosaick Law, the Holy of Holies was at that instant lay'd open, whereinto not onely the High-priest with Sacrifices once a year, but all mankind by virtue of that great propitiatory Sacrifice which was at that time offe­red up upon the Cross, without any other Sacrifice of their own than that of a broken spirit and a contrite heart might enter and be happy; and there was now rati­fied a New and better Covenant, established upon better Promises, whereinto not the Jews onely, but all men that would accept of the conditions of the Gospel, of what sort or quality or Nation soever they were, whe­ther Jew or Gentile, bond or free, Greek or Barbarian, had a free and welcome admittance; and it was in this sense onely that the Promise was litterally fulfilled to Abraham that his seed should be as the stars of heaven, and as the sands of the sea shore for number; that is, not the carnal, but the spiritual seed, which was much lar­ger than the other; Rom. 9. 6, 7, 8. For they are not all Israel which are of Israel: Neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called: That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed: And [Page 49] again, Gal. 3. 29. If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abra­ham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

The Abstinence from Bloud, though it be not so much a Jewish Institution, but was as old as the Creation it self, and continued all along in force till our Saviour's time; yet then its obligation, together with its reason, was to cease, the reason given in the Law, which was the same before it, being this; that God had given it upon the Al­tar, to be an attonement for the souls of men: it is mani­fest therefore, that when the Sacrifice and the Oblation ceased, as they actually did upon the suffering of the Messias, as to their efficacy and virtue, and as the Prophet Daniel had long before expresly prophesied it should doe; I say, when the Sacrifices were no longer allowed in which this legal Abstinence was founded, it is plain the Obligation to the Abstinence it self must cease together with it, because, sublatâ causâ tollitur effectus: that Cause upon which this Abstinence was en­joyned being now finally antiquated and abolish'd, the Effect of that Cause, which was this Abstinence from Bloud, must of necessity be supposed to be abrogated likewise.

But yet, I know not how it came to pass, not onely the converted Jews in the Apostolical times, but the pri­mitive Christians for many Ages together did generally abstain from Bloud, and this Abstinence has not wanted very learned Assertors even in our daies, Curcelleus has written a particular Diatriba or Dissertation, De esu san­guinis, wherein he defends this practice, with what suc­cess I leave others to determin, when they shall have con­sidered what I have here said; to which I will now adde, to strengthen the Demonstration, that that Text of Saint Paul's which I have already cited, whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake, may as well refer, and does as necessarily doe so, [Page 50] to a permission of Eating the [...], which we Translate, things Strangled, and to the Repealment of the prohi­bition of Blood; as to the Idolothyta, or things Offered up in Sacrifice upon the Table of Idols. For they could not eat whatsoever was sold in the Shambles, without eating many times such meat as was not killed with that exquisite Accuracy for the draining of the Blood which was peculiar to the Jews, and derived afterwards to the Christians from them.

A particular Instance of this exceeding Care and Sol­licitude of theirs, we have 1 Sam. 14. v. 32. And the peo­ple flew upon the Spoil, and took Sheep and Oxen and Calves, and slew them on the ground; and the people did eat them with the blood; that is, lying upon the ground the Blood could not so easily be drained out of the Ori­fice that was made; and besides, the Blood flowing about them, polluted the the ground where they lay, and defiled the Skins of the Beasts that were killed, which put the whole Animal in a state of Levitical Unclean­ness; and that which made the touching of Blood to con­tract a Defilement, was this, that by the Levitical San­ctions, the Blood was of an Expiatory nature, and was always Offered up by the express Command of God be­fore the door of the Tabernacle, as long as the Israelites sojourned in the Wilderness; and so being spilt by way of Expiation, it was supposed to be Defiled with the Guilt of the Owner and his Family, who were after­wards to partake of the Flesh, and therefore was Un­clean, as all Expiatory Sacrifices were; as is manifest, not only from the reason of the thing, Expiation being a Translation of Guilt, and Guilt the cause of Unclean­ness, but also from the Rites of the Sin, and the Trespass Offering; which in some cases were by reason of their un­cleanness to be burnt without the Camp, and the Skins of these Sacrifices did not belong to the Priest as in some other cases, because they were unclean.

Now though it is true that after the Children of Is­rael were settled in the Land of Canaan, this Custome of bringing all Animals to be slain at the door of the Ta­bernacle, was omitted, and indeed was utterly Imprac­ticable by reason of the great distance of many parts of Judea from the Temple and Tabernacle; yet notwith­standing, God did not by this lose that Right which he had appropriated to himself in the Blood, but it was in the nature of a tacit or supposed Sacrifice in behalf of the Owner, and those that partook with him of the Flesh, though it were not sprinkled by the Priest before the Lord, as the Law of Moses, if by reason of Distance it had not been impossible, would have required.

By this it appears how the Beasts that were killed in this place of Samuel, came to be defiled, and unlawfull to be eaten.

Let us now see which was the thing I first intended, what care was taken by Saul for the redress of this neg­lect, or at least to make some amends for it, v. 33, 34. Then they told Saul, saying, Behold the people sin against the Lord in that they eat with the blood. And he said, ye have transgressed, roul a great stone unto me this day. And Saul said, disperse your selves among the people, and say unto them, bring me hither every man his Ox, and eve­ry man his Sheep, and slay them here, and eat; and sin not against the Lord in eating with the Blood: And all the people brought every man his Ox with him that night, and slew them there. Nay, it is probable that the Blood was also sprinkled from the hands of the Priests; for it fol­lows in the next Verse. And Saul built an Altar unto the Lord, the same was the first Altar that he built unto the Lord.

Now the reason of that Command of his, of rouling a Stone to the place where the Beasts were to be killed, was this, That they were to be laid athwart it with their [Page 52] Necks hanging down, that so the blood might flow with the greater freedom out of the Orifice which was made, and might fall upon the ground without defiling the Bo­dies of the Animals themselves; as I have already taken notice in another Discourse upon a very different Occa­sion from this, and in another Language.

The Jews continue Obstinate to this day in a Religi­ous abstinence from Blood, notwithstanding their Tem­ple be demolished, and they do not so much as pretend to any thing of Sacrifice till it be rebuilt; and I know a Learned Jew, with whom I had for some years a parti­cular acquaintance, who was so scrupulous in this point, that he would never eat any kind of Flesh which he had not killed himself.

But before I pass any further, I will take notice of one cause of Saint Paul's Condescention, as to the business of Abstinence from Blood, which I did not think of before. And that is, That besides what I have said of its Levitical Pol­lution, which it seems they that were the Patrons of this Opinion, did not apprehend to be abolished by the ful­filling of all those legall Sacrifices in and by the Sacrifice of Christ; they considered further, that God having ap­propriated the Blood to himself; which Property and Right of his they did not conceive him ever to have relin­quisht, they looked upon it as a kind of Sacrilege to seed upon Blood; and therefore abstained from it upon the same Pious principle, upon which they would have abstained from Robbing of Hospitals or Colleges, or from Pilfering the Ornaments of Churches, and seizing the Revenues of the Ecclesiastical State; a sort of Piety so necessary to the honour of God, and to the prosperity and happiness of the Church, that it ought by no means to be discouraged, though in a mistaken Instance; much more if Saint Paul himself foresaw, which we cannot tell but he might, that Sacrilegious humour of the Saints [Page 53] which our times have experienced, when the Church was swallowed up at one Morsel, and the Kingdome at another; when all that was Sacred and Devoted to the service of Almighty God, was converted to profane uses by Thieves and Robbers in the disguise of Saints; with as little reason as that for which Dionysius of Syracuse di­vested Apollo of his Golden Ornaments, upon Pretence that they were too heavy and too hot for Summer, and that in Winter they would not keep him warm.

We see therefore that it was not a bare Infirmity with­out any colour or pretext of Reason that was dispensed with in these cases; for such Dispensations if they be once allowed, there can be no end but Confusion and the ut­ter Subversion of all manner of Government and Order. We see upon what reasons and prejudices these Scruples were founded, and how necessary it was at that time to Comply with them: We see likewise that they were not matters of small Weight and Moment, they were not things looked upon on both sides to be of an indifferent nature, they were not Controversiae de Nugis Siculis & Ger­ris Germanis, de foliis Farfari aut Naevii Butubatis, de umbrâ Asini, aut de lanâ Caprinâ, they were not matters of meer Ceremony and Show, matters of External Dis­cipline and Form, that exercised the tenderness and in­firmity of those times. Those Babes in Christ that were but newly initiated into the Christian Faith, and had as yet tasted only the sincere milk of the Word, without ad­venturing upon stronger meats, were yet better fed and better taught, than to quarrel about Indifferent Matters, or to Controul their Governours in things of Publique Decency and Order. But the instances of their Scrupu­losity, were founded in such things as they looked upon to be in themselves Offences of the highest nature against the express Commands of God, against the honour of his Name, against the entire and incommunicable respect [Page 54] which is due from all Creatures both in Heaven and Earth to his Adorable Majesty and Greatness, and against the indispensable duties of natural Reason and Religion; in which though they were never so much mistaken, yet these were Scruples not of small Concernment, but of the highest Consequence and Importance; and St. Paul did therefore comply with the Infirmity and with the mistakes of those Good Men, not barely to gratify a squeemish Fancy, which is out of love with things for no reason and without any end; but lest by opposing Pre­judices so deeply rooted in matters of so extraordinary a nature as these were, they might be tempted to an Apostacy from the Christian Faith, which did impose burthens upon them which their Consciences, not being yet sufficiently informed of the true extent of that liberty which Christ had purchas'd for them, could not possibly bear; for this reason, it was Saint Paul's rule to become all things to all men, that he might save the more; and he despensed with them in some cases out of meer necessity, that his Brother, for whom Christ dyed, might not be destroyed, by Relapsing to Judaism on the one hand, or Idolatry on the other: As our Learned Mr. Thorndike, and out of him the Accurate and Industri­ous Doctor Falkner, have observed. And this latter case of Idolatry was therefore the more tenderly to be re­garded, because the Authour to the Hebrews speaking of this very business, tells us, c. 6. v. 4, 5, 6. It is impossible for those who were once enlightned, and have tasted of the hea­venly Gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the World to come, if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they Crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. And St. John in his first Epistle c. 5. v. 16. tells us there is a sin unto death: I do not say that he, that is our Brother, shall [Page 55] pray for it; that is, there is great danger that his Prayers will never be heard in behalf of such a person; and what that Sin is he afterwards explains v. 21. Little Children keep your selves from Idols. And this is likewise very suit­able to the practice of the Church in the Primitive times, who upon any such Relapse to Idolatry, were not used to receive the Apostate, though giving all imaginable demonstrations of Repentance, into the bosom of that Church, which he had forsaken, by Sacramental Abso­lution, sometimes at the very instant of Death, and sometimes not till then; as is manifest from the case of Serapio, and others.

However, since Peace is the thing above all others, the most to be prized and valued, and with the greatest passion and earnestness to be desired; since no kind of disci­pline or external Form is any further necessary or so much as lawful than it shall be found to Contribute to this blessed end, since Rites and Ceremonies establisht in the Church, are in themselves of a changeable nature, and since our Church her self hath openly and expresly declar'd, that she is no longer desirous to retain all or any of them than they shall be found expedient for Edificati­on; I should not be against closing with any Proposition, let it be almost what it will, by which a lasting Peace and Settlement might be obtained.

And because I think there are but three ways to be thought of in order to this end. The first of which is a Toleration of those that differ from us in their several differences and distinctions. The second, an Alteration of those Customs and Usages which are excepted against for others in their stead. And the third, an Abatement or Abolition of those Ceremonies which are scrupled without any Reparation by the Substitution of others in their room: Therefore I shall speak very briefly to each of these particulars.

And first, A Toleration as it is commonly understood, is a Liberty from the Government for every man to say and do as he pleases in Religious matters for Conscience sake; or upon account of a tender Conscience which can­not submit it self to the publique Rule; and such a Tole­ration as this is, I affirm to be directly and positively un­lawfull, because it cuts the sinews of Government in pieces, and lets the Rains loose to all manner of misrule and disorder: For the truth of which I need only appeal to the Experience of former times, when by such an un­bounded Toleration, the Kingdome was put into such a floating and uncertain Posture, that we had almost as many alterations in Government, as there were Sects and Parties that were to obey.

The Presbyterians, when time was, having shaken off the Episcopal Yoak, as they were pleased, if not to think, yet at least to pretend it to be; were as much for Uni­formity as other men, and urged the very same Arguments with great Judgment and Reason, against the Indepen­dency, which may now with irresistable Force be retort­ed upon themselves; as the Most Reverend and Incom­parably Learned, the Excellent Dean of Saint Pauls, a singular Ornament and strong Support of the English Church and State against their Enemies of both kinds, hath very Wisely, and like himself, Observed.

Nay, to what excess of Riot a Toleration in its ut­most Latitude will proceed, the extravagancies either in Opinion or Practice, or both, of the Antinomians, the Seekers, the Quakers, the Ranters, the Sweet-Singers, and the Family of Love, are a sufficient witness; most of whose Opinions as they proceed only from Ignorance, or Melancholy, or a worse cause, a Life ill spent, or a de­sire to spend it amiss for the future; so the Debaucheries and the Obscenities of some of these Sects which I have named, under a pretence of I know not what Liberty, [Page 57] are so great and so horrid, that I should not have belie­ved it, if I had received it from any other information than that of some who pretended with abundance of as­severation, and in a Company not easily to be imposed upon to speak their own certain knowledge, and who, I have great reason to believe, would not goe about to de­ceive either me or any other man whatsoever.

Or if it be thought too grating to reflect with so great, and, which is still worse, so just and so deserved a Severity upon the Miscarriages of our own Age, upon Religious Pretences; you may then consult the Annals of Antiquity; and then Epiphanius and Irenaeus will tell you, if you consult them, that there was no Crime so horrid, nor any unnatural Beastliness so detestable to hu­mane Nature, not yet corrupted and depraved by vitious habits, which the Gnosticks, the Basilidians, and the Valentinians did not practise; the instances of their exe­crable turpitude being so horrid and so filthy, that I re­member when I first read them, which I did in the la­borious Annals of the most learned Cardinal and Jesuite, Caesar Baronius, I could not believe he had quoted his Authours aright; and when upon a more narrow search into the business I found he had not deceived me, I was amazed, and could scarce believe my own eyes, and to this day am very loth to believe, for the respect I bear to Mankind, that they are true.

But if such Exorbitances in our Age, or any other, be the effects of Liberty, whether tolerated by others, or assumed upon what Pretences soever to our selves, then certainly, since humane Nature is alwaies the same, and being allow'd the same scope, will alwaies be guilty of the same or like Enormities, which, by the prevalence of bad example, and by the addition of impunity to tem­ptation will alwaies increase, instead of taking up with­in a dutifull compass of Sobriety and Moderation, such [Page 58] an unbounded Liberty as this ought alwaies, by the ut­most Severity of publick Justice, to be repress'd, and pu­nished, and restrained.

Neither must we be so vain to pretend, because such Enormities are not now usually practised among those that pretend to an higher degree of Saintship than their Neighbours, that therefore they never will; for we must not take our measures from the present state of things, but we are to consider what would follow upon the Dis­solution of the Government, to which these separate Congregations have a clear and a natural tendency in themselves, and then we will suppose, if you please, that such Libertines as these, if upon such infinite Pretences they do not separate themselves, shall be expelled the re­spective Congregations to which they belong; but there being no publick Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, who shall hinder them from associating into a Confederacy with one another? to which all that live as if there were no God, or have a desire to live as if there were no Go­vernment in the World will immediately unite them­selves, and betake themselves thither for Protection, as to a Sanctuary of Liberty and Riot.

To say that such things will never happen is as much as to say they never did; for whatever has been may be again, when humane Nature which is alwaies the same shall be joyned to the same unhappy circumstances of Af­fairs.

To say that these things, though they should hap­pen, will never be of any dangerous consequence to the publick, because the common Interest of Mankind will alwaies keep a prevailing Party in better order, is to set bounds to a bad example, and to the corruption of man­ners which is impossible; and besides, to proceed upon this presumption, without taking that course which is in its own nature the best fitted to prevent any such pub­lick [Page 59] mischief, which can onely be done by a regular and orderly Discipline, is to lean so much upon humane pro­babilities and upon our selves, that it is an high provo­cation to Almighty God to withdraw his Grace, with­out which it is impossible for any of us to persevere in a constant and steady course of Vertue.

But we will suppose for once, let what Toleration will be granted, that things will never proceed to this extre­tremity; but it is still to be considered that all these se­parate Congregations are Imperium in Imperio, there be­ing in a manner so many several Societies as there are several and independent Congregations, without any foreign Appeal, or Judge in Ecclesiastical matters; for at this rate it shall be at the Liberty of every private Pa­stour to preach what Doctrine he pleases, be it never so much to the disturbance of the Government of the pub­lick, as some of them doe at this time take a most un­pardonable liberty in their Sermons: But if it be law­full for the Government to assume to it self a Judgment of what Doctrines tend most to the Establishment of its peace and safety, it is much more lawfull for it to con­cern it self in matters of Discipline, which are not in them­selves of so great moment, and which notwithstanding being left undetermin'd will have the same effects; which it is for the interest of the World they should be adjusted after an uniform manner, and in which the Gospel has left no rule, whereby we are to manage and govern our selves.

If the Government where we live shall impose such things upon our Belief and Practice as are inconsistent with Salvation, contrary to the duties of natural and re­vealed Religion, and repugnant to such Propositions of Belief as are expresly revealed in the Scriptures of the New Testament; then all we have to doe is, to suffer pati­ently, as our glorious Predecessors, the Apostles and the [Page 60] primitive Christians did, and we shall certainly have our reward in Heaven for so doing; but if we suffer one­ly for breaking the Rules of decency and order, which have been found by experience to be so necessary to the publick Peace, and which have no other tendencie, meaning or design, but in order to this end, unless we can alledge reasonably what I shall by and by insist upon, that there is Superstition or Idolatry involved in our obe­dience, this is not Persecution but Punishment, we suf­fer either like Fools or Madmen, or, what is worse than either of these, like Boutefeus, Incendiaries and Disturbers of the quiet of mankind, and must not expect either the Title or the Reward of Confessours or Martyrs.

I reckon there are three Causes especially of the pre­sent Non-conformity from the established Discipline of the Church of England.

The First is, The Ambition, or Necessity, or Discon­tent of some bad men who know very well what Ad­vantages may be made for the promotion of any ill De­signs by a Separation; neither is it any matter whether such persons be all of them actually listed in some sepa­rate Assembly, so they do but abet and favour those that are; but rather by paying a personal obedience to the Au­thority of the Church, which they would have not de­stroy'd, but enlarged, by breaking down that Wall of partition to which we have no right, because the Dissen­ters have built it upon their own ground, by endeavou­ring to let in the Trojan Horse of Fanaticism through the Breaches of the Church, by very specious, but very de­structive and pernicious Pretences of moderation and comprehension, and such other hard names, which can onely be understood by being felt; by a pretended ten­derness of dis-uniting Protestants, and yet at the same time uncharitably representing the best Defenders of the Reformation under the odious and invidious Characters [Page 61] of Papists or Popishly affected; by questioning the Juris­diction of the Bishops in temporal causes, that by that means they may weaken their Ecclesiastical Power, by striking at the King through the sides of his loyal and well-affected Clergy; and by doing all this and a great deal more out of a dissembled Zeal for Unity and Peace, and out of a passionate Concern for the Honour and Safe­ty of the King and Church, they doe abundantly more mischief than either the Dissenters themselves, or they who are the most unmanageable and indiscreet in the ex­pressions of a bitter and unchristian Animosity against them; because these, as being prejudiced and profess'd Parties, will not be heard so equally on both sides.

Secondly, a second Cause, though indeed in the or­der of causality it may well enough deserve the first place, of the Continuance of such an unnatural Separa­tion among us, notwithstanding there is so little or rather nothing at all to be said in justification of so prejudicial and so unwarrantable a Practice, is the Necessity or Re­venge of those who at the happy revolution of his Ma­jesty's return, like the rising of the Sun, with healing in his wings to heal the Sores of three divided Kingdoms, being ejected in great numbers out of those Livings and Benefices of which they were then possessed, being un­able to digg, unless it were in the Vineyard, and being ashamed to begg; being desirous to reak their Revenge upon the Government, which had ejected them one­ly for that reason, because it could not trust them, and because they would not obey it; being tainted with the Leaven of the good old Cause; being soundly sea­soned with Democratical and Demagogical Principles of which it is very hard for a thorough Common­wealth's man, especially when he is no Philosopher, to rid himself; being in some small hopes, as drowning men are when they catch at a Reed, of reaping a new [Page 62] Harvest out of the Church-lands and out of the Spoils of the Crown; being encouraged and abetted by men of like Principles and Practices and Circumstances with themselves, by good old Officers that had been in Com­mission, by Proprietours that had lost those Tenements and Hereditaments that never were their own, by in­considerate Women that are naturally fond of Saintship and Persecution, by Men that were Bigots to a Party, or Dependents upon an Interest, that wanted a Wife, or would oblige a Chapman, or insinuate themselves into a Last Will and Testament; by the Womens caressing their Husbands, and the Husbands persuading their Wives; by causes that cannot be justifi'd, and causes that must not be named, the black Fraternity of the short robe were at length so far emboldened, as, notwithstanding the Se­verity of those wholesome Laws, whose edge was rebated by the fatal Clemency of a too Gracious Prince, towards men that ought not to be trusted, and cannot be obliged, to own and justifie a Separation, which is now grown to that excessive height, that the Contention is no longer about Liberty, but Dominion; they break the Laws o­penly, without regard to Justice or to Shame, and to propagate a Succession of Law-breakers like themselves, they have ordained an Under-wood of Non-conforming Shrubs, who will in time grow up to be Cedars of Re­bellion, and come by the Priesthood much by the same right and title that Oliver came by the Protec­tourship, or Trincalo by his Dukedom: So that it is now with the Dissenters as it was with the Israelites in Jero­boam's time, they have their separate Assemblies and their distinct Altars, their Priests, not of the Levitical or Aaronical Tribe, much less of the more perfect Mel­chisedecian Order, but of the dreggs and refuse of the People, and Calves in abundance, the Idols of the Fac­tion, as far as from Dan to Bethel.

But Thirdly, a third Cause of that dangerous Non-conformity which prevails among us is, a certain sort of Opiniatrity, or Affectation, or Newfangleness which in all Ages usually possesses the ordinary sort of People, by which they are alwaies apt to quarrel an find fault with the present Establishment, let it be never so wholesome; and if it were not for this Cause, the other two Causes which I have mentioned would want a subject upon which to work: but certainly, if men would seriously consider with themselves how dangerous all Innovations in the general are, and how destructive oftentimes to the publick Peace; how little most of them are like to get by Innovation, and how much they may lose; how small and inconsiderable, how unreasonable and unwarrantable the present Differences are; how necessary it is there should be some Establishment, and how impossible that any should please all; and that this is but to perpetuate quarrels by the nicety of some and the design of others, from one generation to another without any measure, moderation or end, to the inexpressible and unconceivable disturbance of the World; they would not then think it worth their while to lose the Quiet of their own minds, their Charity for others, and the good opinion of others for them, to crumble into Sects and Parties, to embroil us in infinite and inextricable Difficulties at home, and to expose us to the unavoidable Dangers of a foreign yoak, and a foreign Religion from abroad; onely to gratifie the Designs of proud, or discontented, or necessitous men; to feed Contempt and Ignorance themselves, and to cloath Want of loyalty, learning, good nature and good manners.

It is true indeed, that the Wisdome of this World is Foolishness with God, and that the Wisdome of God is Foolishness with this World, and that they are opposite the one to the other; but then by the Wisdome of this [Page 64] World, is meant, that Carnal Mind that hath a greater consideration for a Temporal Interest, than for the Inter­est of Truth and Vertue; for the Commands of God, or the precepts of the Gospel; but that men that have little or no Learning of their own, and yet are unassist­ed by those extraordinary helps of Utterance and Super­natural Illumination with which the Apostolical times were furnished; men that are so far from understanding what Reason is, that they decry it; men that are steered wholly by considerations of Interest, by impulses of Passi­on, by an habit of Prejudice and a principle of Revenge; that these of all others should be thought the fittest to Instruct the People, and to have the care and conduct of such precious things as are the Souls of men committed to their Charge; that these should be thought worthy to be the instruments of our Confusion, who have nei­ther the wit nor the honesty to make us Happy, who design us no Good, and can do us none if they did design it; is a thing which I am very confident, will find no manner of countenance from Scripture, and is utterly unable to plead the least shadow of a Grant or Commission from above.

An unlimitted Toleration must of necessity be unlaw­full, if any thing be; because it contradicts the design for which all Laws are made, and that is nothing else but to secure the Peace and Quiet of the World; which must needs be very inconsistent with an unlimitted To­leration, by which nothing else is or can be meant, but a Liberty for every man to doe or say as he pleases, so he doe it upon a Religious account, or out of a Princi­ple of Conscience, of which himself is the only judge in this case: to say otherwise, being to constitute such a foreign Appeal, is altogether incompetible with such a toleration.

Now if it can be proved that the allowance of separate and independent Congregations, without any Jurisdicti­on in Ecclesiastical affairs, Foreign to themselves, is such an unlimitted Toleration in it self, and will prove so in its Effects; then I suppose it will be granted, that all such Separate Assemblies are unlawfull; and consequently, that a Toleration of them cannot be allowed by the Chief Magistrate, or by the Legislative Power, without a Dissolution of the Government, and a betraying of that Trust which is repos'd in them for the preservation of the publique Peace.

What if an Holder-forth in a Separate Assembly, shall teach his Auditours that they owe no subjection to any Earthly Prince, that Rebellion is expresly dispensed with in the Charter of the Saints; that Adultery, and Sacri­lege, and Theft, and Murther, themselves; though in the Wicked and the Unregenerate, they be horrid crimes; yet they are a part of the privilege of the Elect, that all sorts of swearing are in the Reprobate unlawfull; but that Perjury it self, in such as are sanctifi'd and made Partakers of that new Birth by which so many Monsters are brought into the World, may be not only Lawfull, but Pious and Commendable, and in some cases an in­dispensable Duty?

Shall the Government in this Case, Shall Civil or Ec­clesiastical Jurisdiction be allow'd to Interpose, by pu­nishing such Profligate and such Insolent Wretches, and by forbidding under severe Penalties the venting of any such Doctrines for the future, which tend so manifestly to withdraw his Majesty's leige People from their Obedience, and to the unspeakable perill and hazard of their immor­tal Souls? If thus much be not allow'd, then all things must run to Confusion; and if it be, then if the regula­lation of Discipline be found by experience to be as ne­cessary to the publique Well-fare, to the peace of the [Page 66] Kingdome, and to the preservation of Charity and Friend­ship among men; without which it is hardly possible there should be any such thing as true and acceptable Re­ligion: then certainly it does as much belong to, and is as necessary a part of Civil and Ecclesiastical Jurisdicti­on, as the other.

I know but two things that can possibly be urged against the irresistible force of so plain a Demonstration: I call it a Demonstration, because it will prove so when those Objections are considered. First, It may be pre­tended that there is no danger, such Doctrines will ever be preached. And secondly, That a Difference grounded meerly upon matters of Discipline, will never produce those bad Effects that are pretended.

In answer to the first, there are but two things to be said, the first is an Argument from Reason, the second from Experience. Reason tells us, and so does Experi­ence too, for they cannot well be separated in this case, that men are naturally subject to seek excuses first to palliate, and then arguments to defend those Vices to which they find themselves addicted, and of which they are known to be scandalously guilty, or which they would practise for the future without controul.

The Drunkard, he puts his excess to the account of his friendship and good nature; the Lustfull plead a per­petual inclination as a natural call to enjoyment; the Covetous man is desirous of the character of Provident and Frugal; and the Ambitious would be thought a man of a lofty and heroique mind; but nothing is so great a plea for Libertinism and Licentiousness of all sorts what­soever, as when it is made an Instance of Christian Liber­ty, and a Freedom from the Yoak of Ordinances; to which none but Jews and Formalists, and the tame Vas­sals of the dead Letter are subject.

There is no question to be made, but there are very bad People to be found in all Parties, let the Pretences to Religion be what they will; but it is not my business at present to upbraid any with their sinfull practices, so they do not own the Principles from whence those prac­tices proceed.

But what shall we think of the Gnosticks of old time, that made adulterous and incestuous mixtures, and pro­miscuous coitions a part of their Religion? or, of the Fa­mily of Love, that doe the same? or, of the Sweet singers, that drink Ale and puff Tobacco to excess in their very re­ligious Assemblies? or, of the Reformers of this last Age, that thought they did God good service by robbing his Church and persecuting his Servants to death, and banish­ment, and confiscation of goods? or, of the received Ma­xim of those blessed times, Dominium fundatur in gratia, that is, The longest Sword has the best Title? or, of the Fifth monarchists of England? of the incredible Impu­dence and Villanie of the religious Incendiaries in Scot­land? of the Zealots among the Jews, the exact Patterns of the Zealots of our daies, of whom Josephus relates such prodigious Stories? of Theudas or Theodosius and his Followers, and of Judas of Galilee or Judas Gauloni­tes and his Accomplices, in the Acts of the Apostles? all which, under several religious Pretences, have in time past, or doe at present endeavour to set up for themselves, and shake off the Yoak of obedience to their lawfull Su­periours, to their leige Lords and rightfull Masters. What sort of People in the World are so arbitrary as these, who yet are the loudest Declamours not onely against Arbitrary Power, but against all Power but their own? The Papists themselves are not more bloudy than they, nor any of the persecuting Emperours more power­fully acted and possess'd by a Spirit of bitterness and per­secution. To conclude; Did not the Levellers preach [Page 68] Community of goods, according to the primitive example, (though the reason of that practice be now utterly ceas'd) and to reduce the natural state of things, when all things lay in common, before either Industry or Arts began? and what is this but a more religious method of Picking of Pockets and Breaking open Houses and Rob­bing upon the High-way? What was it but a new Inven­tion of those pilfering Saints, to give Thieves and Rob­bers, like themselves, a right to the glorious Title and Reward of Martyrdom?

Now if all these Mischiefs and Inconveniences are ow­ing perfectly to separate Congregations, and to mens em­bodying themselves into particular Ecclesiastical Societies distinct from the publick Discipline and Rule; if such O­pinions and Practices cannot better be promoted than by independent methods, nor otherwise or at least better be prevented than by an uniform and regular Discipline of the Church; then is it abundantly manifest that such se­parate Congregations, as tending plainly to the disturbance of the World, are unlawfull; that they may, and that they ought to be suppressed; and that all the Favourers and Abettors of such unlawfull Assemblies, are Promoters, Aiders, Comforters and Assisters of Rebellion and Dis­obedience both against God and Man.

Neither is it at all material in this case, that many of those who frequent these separate Assemblies, nay, to give them their due, the infinitely greatest part of them, are not conscious to themselves of any such bad Design, but they doe it onely out of a religious prejudice which they have conceived against the Establishment of the Church of England, and out of an opinion which they have of the greater Sanctity of their Teachers, and Pu­rity of those Ordinances of which they are made parta­kers by their ministration, out of a real and an hearty zeal for God, although that zeal be not according to [Page 69] knowledge, yet we are not to consider so much what it is they design, as what the natural tendencie of all Se­paration is, which, because by experience it is found to bring so great and so horrid inconveniences and mis­chiefs upon the World, unless it be timely restrained, it may, and it must of necessity have very bad effects; and this is enough to make men guilty of the consequences of their Separation, though at first they did not intend them. He that commits a fault through want of consideration is not altogether so guilty as he that knowing it to be a fault, does yet notwithstanding commit it on set pur­pose; but yet he is guilty in his proportion and degree as well as the other, because it was his duty to consider better, and still the more easie it is too for a man to inform himself: (and what is or can be more manifest than the Prejudice arising from mens embodying them­selves into particular and independent Societies?) So much the greater is the guilt arising from the want of due heed and consideration, because a very little attention would have served the turne, when there is so much rea­son in the thing, and so much experience to improve that reason into all the certainty of demonstration.

But secondly, It will be said, That a bare difference in the externals of Religion, in matters of meer Disci­pline and Ceremonie, will not produce those bad effects that are pretended; and I wish with all my heart, that there were as much truth in this Exception as they that make it would have it seem to have; but, by Experience, which is the great Judge in this Controversie, to which we must apply our selves for the discovery of the truth, the contrary does but too manifestly appear. For what is it that has been the true source and fountain of all our publick Calamities, that has made so dreadfull and so terrible Convulsions both in Church and State, but an over-heated zeal against Ceremonies and publick Order, [Page 70] which sort of zeal, if it be tolerated, the strength and beauty of the Church is lost, by every man's pursuing fancies of his own, or siding with a new modell of a particular Party instead of joining in the regular and uni­form Worship of the publick, which is at once an in­stance of our Obedience to the Divine and Humane Laws, and a certain expedient of Unity and Peace with one a­nother; but if this zeal, instead of being tolerated, shall be restrained and opposed, then it immediately complains of Persecution, and would have its sufferings thought as meritorious for raising unreasonable, insatiable and eter­nal Scruples, as if the Cause of Christianity it self were at stake, as if it were the being of a God or the immor­tality of the Souls of men that were deny'd by us, and asserted onely by the Dissenters from the publick Order and Rule.

So that either way the inconvenience is in a manner equal, a Toleration has a manifest tendencie to the sub­version of the Government both in Church and State, and in that, there is no question to be made, but it will certainly end, when once it has been suffered to have its full scope and swinge; and yet a vigorous Prosecution of the Laws against the Disturbers of the Peace is branded with the odious name of Persecution, and they that suf­fer by it, for being Incendiaries, are termed Saints; and because it is natural for a distressed Cause to find a friend­ship and pity from the common People whether it be reasonable or no, Suffering being a very sensible and a very affecting thing when the Causes of those Sufferings are not so plain and obvious to every common under­standing, especially when blinded by prejudice or con­cern for the persons of those that suffer; from hence it comes to pass that a just and necessary Prosecution of the Laws, if it be not managed with abundance of temper and prudence, so as it may appear it is not done out of [Page 71] hatred to a Party, but out of a real tenderness to the common good, may sometimes prove the occasion of great and fatal disorders in a State, and may in its con­sequence be attended with all those confusions to which a boundless Toleration is exposed.

This was the great reason of the revolt of the Ʋnited Provinces from under the Spanish Yoak; who, if they had been treated with less severity, might probably by gentler methods have been reduced to Obedience; but by the Cruelty of the Spanish Governours and Souldiery who pursued them, especially under the Government of the Duke D' Alva, with all the symptoms of the most mortal hatred, they were so far alienated in their affec­tions from a Government that used them so ill, they had such a dread of those unheard of Cruelties and such a de­served aversation for that Religion that delights to propa­gate it self by Bloud, that, being assisted by the Hugo­nots from France, whose interest it was to stand by the Reformation, and by Supplies from England, which was glad at that time to find an opportunity to reduce the Spanish greatness to a juster ballance with the rest of the Eu­ropean Princes, they were at length perfectly severed from the body of the Spanish Empire, and united in a common Al­liance among themselves, for the mutual support and main­tenance of each other; which, though it gave begin­ning to the most powerfull Republick that has ever ap­peared since the Roman, yet, as a Republick in its na­ture and constitution is more exposed to the ambition or animositie of bad men than a Kingdom or Monarchie is or can well be, so in the midst of its greatness, it alwaies carried in its bowells the undoubted symptoms and cau­ses of its ruine, which it is to be feared, what with the Factions at home, and the daily encreasing Power of its enemies from abroad, is not far off at this time.

But yet though Cruelty be that for which all man­kind, but they that exercise it upon others, have a just and mortal aversation, yet a Prosecution of all Penal Laws cannot be called Cruelty, unless it be Cruelty to govern, or to use the necessary and the onely means to keep the World in order; all Punishment is Cruelty, or at least Injustice, which is inflicted in defence of a bad cause or a bad religion, but when the Penalties them­seves are not so severe as to deserve the name of Cruel, and when they are inflicted for the Preservation of a sound and orthodox Religion, which I persuade my self most of the Dissenters will acknowledge that of the Church of England to be; when they are inflicted for the preser­vation of Unity and Friendship among men, when this is the onely Expedient by which an universal Friendship and Charity can be maintained, by which the Govern­ment can be rendred safe in it self and easie to those that are to obey, by which we can be rendred quiet and se­cure at home, or considerable abroad, by which we can be put in the best capacity to resist an Enemy or to suc­cour an Ally, or to transmit the Profession of the Gospel in its native purity and beauty down to our own Chil­dren and to their posterity through all generations as long as time shall endure, whereas without this course we shall be subject to infinite changes and vicissitudes in our Secular and in our Ecclesiastical Concerns, and shall be more dangerously exposed, when our strength by a Toleration is disunited and broken in pieces, to the in­cursions of Idolatry, Superstition, Infidelity, Debauche­ry, Prophaneness, and of all manner of Evil whatsoever it be; this is sufficient to justifie a lawfull Power in the use of the onely means by which these Inconveniences may be avoided, and if it shall so happen, through the evil disposition of men, that a Prosecution of the Laws, which is the onely possible expedient of Peace and Safety, [Page 73] shall yet notwithstanding produce the same mischiefs and disorders which a Toleration would have done, yet in this case the Magistrate will have the satisfaction in his own Conscience and before God of having discharged his duty, and of not having betray'd that trust which is reposed in him; which in the other, as being a natural means to bring us all to confusion, I do not see how he can ever have or expect.

The Contentions about matters of Discipline are there­fore manifestly of the highest importance, because they occasion a Separation, which is the fruitfull mother of all those fatal mischiefs both to Church and Kingdom that have been mentioned already, and can never be too of­ten repeated, or too seriously reflected upon.

I would very willingly know of our Dissenters what they think themselves, upon supposition that the whole Nation were divided and parcell'd out into separate and independent Congregations, which is that which an un­limited Toleration would produce, whether or no its strength wou'd be so firm and so compacted as it is now? To say it would, is to say that a divided interest can be as strong as that whose parts are never so well compac­ted and knit to one another; and it is, besides this absurdi­ty in the reason of the thing, to contradict the experience of our own Age and of all that have gone before it; to maintain the lawfulness of such separate Congregations, notwithstanding those many and dismal inconveniences to which they are exposed, is to affirm, that it is lawfull to endeavour the subversion of the Government, which in this case will never be able to maintain it self with­out a standing Army, no more than in the times of usur­pation; and it will be very hard, if not impossible; be­sides other incommodities and pressures to which this way of administration is exposed: that instead of desen­ding the Laws, they shall not at some time or other sub­vert [Page 74] them, instead of making the Prince happy and his People secure, they shall not make both miserable, ob­noxious and dependent; instead of agreeing together for the maintenance of the common peace and safety, they shall not fall out among themselves, partaking of the e­pidemical giddiness of the People whom they pretend to serve, but are in reality their absolute Lords and Ma­sters, and burn up all the fences of Property and Right in the unnatural flames of an intestine War.

I demand farther, whether they can or do suppose, though God be thanked we are not yet brought to the utmost perfection of Tumult and Disorder, that the se­parating of so many particular Congregations is not a weakning of the Government, as well as the dividing the whole Nation into such independent Assemblies would be a subvertion of it? Certainly this depends in its pro­portion upon the same reason with the other, and there­fore cannot be deny'd; besides, that the present posture of affairs doth sufficiently prove it to be true, when our Heats and Dissentions about indifferent matters, as men are pleased to call them, have made us, from a Nation that was used to be the Umpire and the Arbiter of Eu­rope, to become so inconsiderable as we are abroad, and so uneasie and unsafe at home; besides, that by our Di­visions we encrease those dangers of Popery which we pretend to dread; while by an universal, but deserved cry against so detestable a Superstition, we are heaping coals of fire upon our own heads against the day of wrath and persecution if ever it prevail among us, and we provoke our Enemies with more zeal than prudence, unless we would join together, as we ought to do, in a common League to resist them: so that it still appears more and more evident, upon all considerations, that Uniformity is necessary to the publick safety; it is necessary to the honour and seemly appearance of the Government as well [Page 75] as to the happiness of it: it appears likewise that sepa­rate and independent Congregations are therefore unlaw­full, because where there is no common jurisdiction there can be no common rule of discipline and order: it appears that a Toleration of such independent Assem­blies, is a Toleration of uncharitableness and strise among men, and therefore as being directly and diametrically opposite to the very nature and temper of Christianity, it must of necessity be unlawfull: lastly it appears that humane impositions are lawfull, because this Unifor­mity, which is so necessary to the quiet of the World and to the making Christianity usefull to so good an end can­not possibly be obtained without them.

Separation, let it be for what cause or upon what pre­tence soever, does, as I have said already, imply a dislike, and does create an alienation of affection in the parties se­parating from one another, and therefore since a quarrel is much more easily fomented than begun; since it is hard in many cases for the best tempers to be reconciled to one another, but very easie by new provocations to add new fewel to the fire of discord, till it grow master­less without any hopes of quenching, therefore no such Separation ought ever to be made without necessary cau­ses; and such as make Communion in its own nature un­lawfull, because all other pretences are infinite, and at that rate there can be no end of Dissention among men; especially if we consider farther, what is not perhaps so usually regarded, or at least not mentioned among the reasons which prove a Separation unlawfull; men do not onely by this means divide from one another as to their religious concerns, but even in their temporal af­fairs they care not to deal or have to doe with one ano­ther; and thus they trade, and marry, and converse ge­nerally with the men of their own way, and are almost to all intents and purposes as many distinct Societies as [Page 76] there are parties or factions in that unhappy Church whose misfortune it is to be so miserably divided: the consideration of which cannot chuse but affright every man who has any regard either of his own peace, or to that of his Countrey, by presenting him with a dismal Scene of a Church divided and mangled into several dis­agreeing bodies, separated in all respects from one ano­ther, and as it were, drawn up in Battalia, and ex­pecting onely the Signal of opportunity or advantage on any side to begin a bloudy encounter; which they that complain so heavily of Persecution themselves (when they have so little reason, and when they at the same time persecute the Government and all that favour it with ca­lumny and detraction, which is a very grievous sort of per­secution) will certainly doe whenever it shall lie in their power. They having not onely given us a sufficient spice of their temper in the late times, to teach us not to trust them any more or any farther than needs must; but it is scarce longer ago than yesterday, that the tender Consciences were indulged so long till they grew too hard for the Government, and it is but too e­vident, by their words and actions in that critical junc­ture, that if they had gained their point, which was the subversion of the present establishment disguised un­der specious pretences of uniting Protestants, who can­not be united by any thing but a publick Form and Ritual of Divine Service; they would soon have shewn us what opinion they have of their pretended Diana Toleration, a Goddess never worshipt in the publick Temples, and a word that never sounds pleasantly, but to those that want the thing.

So that an universal Toleration of all parties and opini­ons being manifestly proved to be naturally unlawfull, to be attended with infinite inconvenience and mischief both to the publick and particular persons, of which [Page 77] the body politick it self is made up, as the whole is but an aggregate of several parts considered as one, and sum­med up together, there remains now nothing farther to be considered under the topick of concession, but that either we alter some ceremonies which have affor­ded matter or pretence of scruple for others in their stead, or that we do totally abolish whatever is excepted a­gainst, without any supplement or reparation: For the first of these, it is granted by such as shall desire it, that an imposition in the general is lawfull, otherwise it would be ridiculous to talk of substituting other Cere­monies in the stead of those that are abolish'd, when the very substitution it self is made an exception against them, it behoves those persons therefore who are desi­rous of such an alteration, since by the desire it self they do imply an acknowledgment, that a substitution, that is, a new imposition may lawfully be made, and by consequence that an imposition in the general consi­dered is not unlawfull; I say, it concerns them to shew some particular reason, besides the imposition, of their dislike of the Ceremonies which are already in use; for otherwise if we must alter them for no reason, we can have no certainty that this innovating humour will ever have an end, neither is it possible to make any o­ther construction of it, but that it proceeds out of a design to give an endless disturbance to the publick peace, notwithstanding it pretends to establish and secure it. And as for those, in the second place, that are for abo­lishing without a reparation, the case will be the same again; for either they are against those Ceremonies, which they would have abolished, merely for that rea­son because they are imposed, and then it is manifest they ought not to be heard, because this, like Sampson, with an honest perhaps, but yet a blind fury, and a mi­staken zeal pulls up the very Pillars of Government from [Page 78] their natural basis, and destroys the onely expedient un­der Heaven of publick safety, security and peace; it makes the very worship of God it self precarious and uncertain, and exposes it at every turn to the design of Knaves, the destructive zeal of Madmen and Enthusi­asts, the libertinism of Epicures and voluptuary persons, to the scorn of Atheists, and the contempt of all wise, considerate and sober men; there must therefore still be another reason assigned why the Ceremonies that are boggled at should be abolished, and those reasons can be none but one of those three that have been mentioned already, either they are too cumbersome by reason of their number, or they are superstitious in their use, or they are idolatrous in their direction.

The first of these particulars hath been already con­sidered; and as to the second, a Ceremony may be said to be superstitiously used, when we ascribe to it some Physical virtue or efficacy, or some supernatural effect which it hath not, or when we say that by or together with it, grace is conferred, as in the two Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper; but we do not affirm this of any of our Ceremonies, and our Church hath expresly declared that she intends nothing by them but onely peace, and decency, and edification; and for the use of the Cross in Baptism, which is the great thing scrupled under this head of Superstition, she does expresly declare that it doth not at all belong to the Es­sence of it, that the Baptism is compleat without and before it, that it is onely a declarative rite of the per­sons being listed under Christ's Banner, of our being de­dicated to his service, who for our sakes underwent so painfull and so ignominious a death, of our not being ashamed of that Cross which the Son of God himself underwent, and of our willingness, if occasion be, to take up our Cross and follow him through much [Page 79] tribulation and sufferings into the glory of the Father. So that here there are but two things to be conside­red, either this Rite is unlawfull because it hath been superstitiously abused by those in the Romish Commu­nion, and then upon the same account kneeling at our Prayers will be unlawfull, because the Papists kneel to the host, which yet, I presume, none of the Dissenters will be so hardy to say; or else, secondly, it will be said, as some of them do, that it is therefore unlawfull because it is a Ceremony of a symbolical or significative nature, which is very strange, as if a Ceremony could be unlawfull, onely for that reason, because it tends to e­dification, as it is the nature of a significant Ceremo­ny to do. And here indeed is a great and common mistake concerning indifferent things, as we do usually, but falsely call them; for though we do not say, that any one Ceremony hath any superstitious efficacy or virtue in it, or that it can never upon any consideration be changed or omitted, or that it is of absolute necessi­ty in order to salvation, yet this must be confessed at the last, that many things are not so indifferent, as they are usually esteemed.

It is very fit and consequently a duty, that the Cler­gy should go attired in black rather than in colours, that they should wear long robes rather than short, and ra­ther short hair than long, because it will always be, that the latter of these will in the minds of all men create a sense of levity, a disposition to contempt, an opinion of luxury and esseminate softness, whereas the former in the common interpretation of Mankind will always have a grave and a majestick appearance, they will re­flect authority, credit, and an opinion of sobriety and staidness upon him that wears them; and if the person be unlike what he appears, his habit which was design­ed among other things for a mark of distinction, will be [Page 80] the greater and the more deserved reproach to him. The Nonconformists themselves are so sensible of this, that they themselves wear black, for no good reason but what is symbolical, though they condemn that account of any thing we doe in us, and they wear long cloaks too, though Gowns and Cassocks they have nothing to doe with, and therefore they do still remain in a state of superstition and uncleanness, onely for that reason be­cause they are longer, that is, more grave, more be­coming, more authoritative, because they preach better and perswade more effectually than short ones.

The Surplice, a thing so much decryed and talked against by some, what is it to the Layety? or how come they so deeply to scruple it in others, who are not obliged to wear it themselves? if they scruple it for no reason but onely because they are not, that is, they will not be satisfied, a man can as little tell where such an unaccountable scrupulosity will end, as from whence it begins or upon what reason it is founded, when it is confessed to be founded upon no reason at all, besides that it is intolerable, that they that talk so much of liberty themselves, should not leave us at our liberty to act as our Oaths and as the Laws oblige us, when they can assign no reason why we should not, and when the dispute is about a matter in which they are not perso­nally concerned: if there be any reason why it is scru­pled it is onely because it is a symbolical thing which hath been already answered, besides that it stands per­fectly upon the same bottom with their own putting on clean cloaths and change of raiment on a Sunday, which that that day of the week is chose above all the rest to doe it in, it must be confessed to be done upon a reli­gious account and a symbolical reason, out of respect to that day, and to intimate that purity and innocence of mind which is expected from them in the worship of [Page 81] God. For the Communion Tables being railed in, and separated in that manner which it is from the rest of the Church, it is declared in the Canons of 1640. Ar­ticle 7. that it is onely to avoid that irreverence and profanation, which would otherwise bring a contempt upon all holy things, and upon the consecrated Ele­ments themselves.

It is rather necessary than otherwise that I should be uncovered at Church, as being at that time more espe­cially in the presence of God, and that I should kneel or stand rather than sit at my Prayers, because these are Natural postures of humility and reverence, and have been esteemed so in all Ages and Nations, where­as sitting, or leaning, or lying along do betoken a com­parative carelesness and disregard of God and of his worship, and will without question produce that bad effect upon the minds of men whereever they are put to practice; as on the contrary, a devout and submissive gesture and deportment of our selves at the times and [...]aces of religious worship is of real benefit and ad­vantage to our selves, and is of good example to o­thers, and for the edification of all; which things are so plain and so undoubted a justification of all signifi­cant Ceremonies, that I need say no more concerning them.

Lastly, there is no Ceremony in our Church, which is or is pretended to be Idolatrous in its direction, for as to the bowing towards the Altar or Communion-Table placed at the East end of the Church, it is left to every man's liberty by the Canons of 1640. to be­have himself in that matter as he pleases, so that here is nothing imposed, and yet because this hath been for­merly so highly censured, and perhaps with some more tolerable pretence, than any of the other exceptions that are made, I should not use it, since I am not enjoined, [Page 82] where it may give offence or be an occasion of scandal to the weak, but in Cathedral or Collegiate Churches, where the Congregations usually are better informed, there is no reason why it may not be done, for it is not pretended that we bow to any carved Image, or to the likeness of any living Creature whether in Heaven or Earth, which was the thing expresly forbidden by the second Commandment, that we worship the Railes or the Table it self, or at any time the consecrated Ele­ments upon it, which is likewise included in the mea­ning of that Commandment, all which our Church does expresly declare against, in as plain Language as words are capable of speaking: And in the second place it is to be considered, that the Israelites long before Chri­stianity was thought of, did always worship toward Jerusalem, that is, towards a certain quarter of the Heavens without any the least suspicion of Idolatry, and that for ought appears, onely by humane institution lastly, I hope it will not be denied that God is in all times and places a very true and proper object of ado­ration, and that there is no quarter of the Heavens, be­sides the symbolical reasons upon which this practice depends, towards which we may not worship him with­out Idolatry.

As for our kneeling at the Sacrament our Church hath sufficiently declared her self in this point, that she in­tends no worship but to God onely, to God the Father, who sent his onely begotten Son into the World to die for our sins; to God the Son, who is then spiritually received, and dies afresh for us in the merit, and virtue, and efficacy of his passion as often as we do worthily par­take of those holy mysteries, and to God the Holy Ghost, whose Grace is then implored and received by us.

Because the Papists worship their Breaden God, shall it therefore be unlawfull for us to kneel at our Prayers, [Page 83] to behave our selves humbly in the presence of the true and onely God, to acknowledge our offences, and re­pent us of our sins, and give thanks to God for his mer­cy, to pray that the Body and Bloud of our Lord Je­sus Christ may preserve our Body and Soul to everlasting life, and to take that holy Sacrament to our unspeaka­ble and eternal comfort, meekly kneeling upon our knees?

But it would be infinite to say all that might be said upon so copious a subject, in which I have all the way so plainly concurring with me, the voice of reason, of experience, and of the wisest and best men of these and all times ever since the Reformation, therefore I shall summ up all, as I began, with the words of the Apostle, Let all things be done decently and in order.