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I say, that for the governors of our church to be ready, after all this, to yield up the received constitutions of it, either to the infirmity, or importunity, or the plausible exceptions (as their advocates are pleased to term them) of our clamorous dissenters, is so far from being a part either of the piety or prudence of those governors, (as the same advocates insinuate,) that it is the fear of many, both pious and prudent too, that in the end it is like to prove no other than the letting a thief into the house, only to avoid the noise and trouble of his rapping at the door.

And thus much for the first thing proposed, which was, to examine and consider the pretences alleged by dissenters for our quitting or yielding up any of the constitutions of our church. I come now to the

Second general thing, which is, to shew what are naturally like to be the consequences of such a yieldance.

In order to which, I shall consider these two things:

1. What the temper and disposition of those men, who press for such compliances with them, used to be. And,

2. What the effect and consequence of such compliances has been heretofore. And,

1. For the temper of the men; this certainly should be considered; and if it ought to give any force to their demands, it ought to be extremely peaceable and impartial. But are there any qualities incident to the nature of man, which these persons are farther from? For do they treat the governors of the church with any other appellation but that of "Baal's priests, formalists, dumb dogs, proud popish prelates, haters of God and good men," and the like? I say, is not this their usual dialect? And can we imagine that the spirit of Christianity can suggest such language and expressions? Is it possible, that where true religion governs in the heart, it should thus utter itself at the mouth? And to shew yet farther, that this temper can manifest itself by actions as well as words, did not those who now plead conscience against law, in the year forty-one, persecute, plunder, kill, and murder those who pleaded and followed conscience according to law? And can any one assure the government that they will not, under the same circumstances, do the same things again?

And for their impartiality, did they ever grant allowance or toleration to any who were dissenters from them? The Presbyterian would grant none, and he has given the world so much under his own hand, in those many vehement books wrote by him on this subject; one of which, I well remember long since, was by a kind of sanctified quibble entitled, "Intolerable Toleration," a pamphlet mean enough, and of little note in the world, but as it served to shew the temper of the

presbyterian, and how utterly averse he was to the indulging of any of a different per suasion from himself. And when his younger brother the Independent, the abler and more thriving sectarian of the two, had tripped up his heels "in the Lord," (a word then much in fashion,) and so brought in his indepen dency, with a kind of toleration along with it; yet still prelacy, no less than papacy itself, stood expressly excepted from any benefit, favour, or toleration, from the one party or the other; that is to say, both of them were ready to tolerate Turks, Jews, infidels, (and even all who will but acknowledge one God,) rather than those of the communion of the church of England. This has been the way and temper of the persons whom we have to deal with. And now is it not pity but the whole government, civil and ecclesiastical, should bend and veil to such patterns of humility and self-denial, and forthwith abrogate and destroy all its laws, only because there is a faction disposed to break through and trample upon them? A faction which nothing can win, nothing oblige, and which will be sure to requite such a favour once done them, by turning it to the utmost reproach and ruin (if possible) of those who did it. And thus having given some short account of the temper and disposition of these men, I come now in the

Second place, to consider, what the effect and consequence of such compliances and relaxations has been heretofore. And for this I appeal to the judgment, reading, and expe rience of all who have in any measure applied themselves to the observation of men and things, whether they ever yet found that any, who pressed for indulgences and forbearances, did it with a real intent to acquiesce, and take up in those forbearances once granted them, without proceeding any farther? None, I am sure, ever yet did, but used them only as an art or instrument to get into power, and to make every concession a step to a farther demand; since every grant renders the person to whom it is made so much the more considerable, and dangerous to be denied, when he shall take the boldness to ask more. To grant is generally to give ground. And such persons ask some things only, in order to get others without asking; for no encroachers upon, or enemies to any public constitution, ask all at first. Sedition itself is modest in the beginning, and no more than toleration may be petitioned for, when in the issue nothing less than empire and dominion is designed.

The nature of man acts the same way, whether in matters civil or ecclesiastical. And can we so soon forget the methods by which that violent faction grew upon the throne between the years forty and sixty? Did not the facility and goodness of King Charles I.

imbolden their impudence, instead of satisfying their desires? Was not every condescension, every concession, every remission of his own right so far from allaying the fury of their greedy appetites, that, like a breakfast, it rather called up the stomach, and fitted it the more for a dinner? Did not craving still grow upon granting, till nothing remained to be asked on one side, or given on the other, but the life of the giver?

Thus it was with the state; and I would fain hear any solid reason to prove that it 'will not fare alike with the church. For how has the papacy grown to that enormous height, and assumed such an extravagant power over sovereign princes, but by taking advantage from their own grants and favours to that rapacious and ungrateful see? which still took occasion from thence to raise itself gradually to farther and farther pretensions; till courtesy quickly passed into claim; and what was got by petition, was held by prerogative; so that at length insolence, grown big and bold with success, knew no bounds, but trampled upon the neck of emperors, controlled the sceptre with the crosier, and in the face of the world openly avowed a superiority and pre-eminence over crowned heads. Thus grew the papacy, and by the same ways will also grow other sects; for there is a papacy in every sect or faction; they all design the very same height or greatness, though the pope alone hitherto has had the wit and fortune to compass it.

And thus having shewn what have been the effects of such concessions heretofore, as well as described the temper of the persons who now press for them; I suppose it will not be very difficult for us to judge, what are like to be the future effects and consequences of the same amongst ourselves. Concerning which I shall lay down this assertion, That what effects and consequences any thing has had formerly and usually, and what in its own nature it tends to, and is apt to produce, it is infinitely sottish and irrational to imagine or suppose that it will not produce and cause in the world for the future. And I believe hardly any nation or government, but ours, would suffer the same cheat to be trumped upon it twice immediately together. Every society in the world stands in the strength of certain laws, customs, and received usages, uniting the several parts of it into one body; and accordingly the parting with any one of those laws or customs is a real dissolution of the continuity, and consequently a partial destruction of the whole. It certainly shakes and weakens all the fabric; and weakness is but destruction begun; it tends to it, and naturally ends in it.

But to pass from argumentations founded upon the general nature of things, to the same made evident to sense by particular instances;

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let us here first of all suppose our dissenters to be dealt with upon terms of comprehension, (as they call it,) and took into the communion of the church without submitting to the present conditions of its communion, or any necessary obligation to obey the established rules of it, then these things must follow: first, that men shall come into the national ministry of the church of England full of the Scotch covenant, and all those rebellious principles fresh and keen upon their spirits, which raised and carried on the late fatal war. Then will it also follow, that in the same diocese, and sometimes in the very same town, some shall use the surplice, and some shall not; and each shall have their parties prosecuting one another with the bitterest hatreds and animosities. Some in the same church, and at the same time, shall receive the sacrament kneeling, some standing, and others possibly sitting; some shall use the cross in baptism, and others shall not only not use it themselves, but shall also inveigh and preach against those who do. Some shall read this part of the Common Prayer, some that, and some perhaps none at all. And where (as in cathedrals) they cannot avoid the having it read by others, they shall come into the church when it is done, and stepping up into the pulpit, (with great gravity no doubt,) shall conceive a long, crude, extemporary prayer, in reproach of all the prayers which the church, with such admirable prudence and devotion, had been making before. Nay, in the same cathedral you shall see one prebendary in a surplice, another in a long cloak, another in a short coat, or jacket; and in the performance of the public service some standing up at the Creed, the Gloria Patri, and the reading of the Gospel; and others sitting, and perhaps laughing, and winking upon their fellow schismatics, in scoff of those who practise these decent orders of the church. And from hence the mischief shall pass from priest to people, dividing them also into irreconcileable parties and factions; so that some shall come to church when such an one preaches, and absent themselves when another does. I will not hear this formalist, says one; and I will not hear that schismatic, (with better reason,) says another. But in the meanwhile the church, by these horrible disorders, is torn in pieces, and the common enemies of it, the papists, and some (who hate it as much) gratified. These, I say, are some of the certain, unavoidable effects of comprehension; nor indeed could any other or better, be expected by those who knew, that their surest way to ruin the church would be to get into the preferments of it. So that I dare avouch, that to bring in comprehension, is nothing else but, in plain terms, to establish a schism in the church by law, and so bring a plague into

the very bowels of it, which is more than sufficiently endangered already, by having one in its neighbourhood; a plague which shall eat out the very heart and soul, and consume the vitals and spirits of it, and this to such a degree, that in the compass of a few years it shall scarce have any visible being or subsistence, or so much as the face of a national church to be known by.

But now from comprehension it may be natural and proper enough for us to pass to toleration. Concerning which latter, since it has had the fortune to get a law (or something like a law) made in its behalf, I think there cannot be a matter of greater moment or truer charity, than to inform men's consciences how far this new law will warrant them in their separation from the church. For the vulgar and less knowing part of the nation do verily reckon, that this, as an act of toleration, has utterly cancelled all former obligations, which did or might lie upon them, to join with the church in the public worship of God. But this is a very great and dangerous mistake, and may, if persisted in, cost them no less than their souls; for certain it is, that there are laws extant amongst us, enjoining conformity to, and communion with, the established church, as likewise obedience to the pastors thereof, legally set over it and the respective members of the same and consequently, that as long as the obligation of these laws continues, conformity to it must be a duty, and nonconformity a sin: and lastly, that the obligation of these laws does and must continue till the said laws are actually repealed; which as yet, I am sure, they are not, and I hope never will. Thus therefore stands our case. But what effect then, will some say, has this act for toleration? Why, truly, none at all, as to the nature and quality of the actions commanded or prohibited by the preceding positive laws of the church; but as to the penalties annexed to those laws against the violaters of them, these indeed are taken off and rescinded by this toleration, (or indulgence rather, for strictly it is no more.) So that it may, I confess, give temporal impunity to such as transgress upon this account, but for all that, it can never by so doing warrant the transgression itself; it may indeed indemnify the person, but cannot take away the guilt, which, resulting from the very nature of the action, is inseparable from it. Nor is it able to take off all sorts of penalties neither; forasmuch as those enacted by the divine law can never be remitted or abrogated by any human law or temporal authority whatsoever. And therefore our separatists will do well to consider, that the laws of our church, (admitting them to be but human laws, yet) so long as they neither require any thing false in belief nor immoral in practice, stand ratified by that

general law of God, commanding obedience to all lawful, though but civil and temporal authorities; and consequently oblige the conscience, in the strength of that general divine law, to an obedience to all that shall be enacted and enjoined by the said authorities. So that when God shall come to pass sentence upon men for their disobedience to the same, whether in this world or the next, I fear that no plea of toleration will be able to ward off the execution.

Most true it is, both from principles of philosophy and divinity, that the abrogation of the positive declared penalties of a law is no abrogation or repeal of the law itself. And accordingly upon this occasion I must declare, that penalties and rewards are not of the essence of a law, but extrinsic to it; nor does any law owe its obliging power to them, but solely to the sovereign will of the legislators: so that the taking away the penalties of any law does but leave the obliging power of the law as it was before; law being properly nothing else, but the will of the supreme power to the persons subject to it, concerning something to be done or not done, possessed or not possessed by, or any ways belonging to, the said persons. This, I affirm, comprehends the whole nature of a law precisely considered; and as for the annexion of punishments to the violation, or of rewards to the performance of it, they are not of the precise intrinsic nature and obligation of a law, but are added only as appendages to strengthen it, and procure a more certain awe to it and performance of it: forasmuch as man will be more likely not to transgress a law, being under the fear of a declared punishment for so doing, and to perform it upon a persuasion of a sure promised reward for such a performance, than if neither of these were added to it. Nevertheless, had God said to mankind, I command you to do this, and my will is that you forbear that, without expressing any reward for doing the former, or penalty for not doing the latter; it had been as duly and essentially a law, and the obligation thereof as real, as if the reward and penalty had been by an express sanction declared to either. And if any one should here object, How then could God punish for any neglect of his law, or reward for the doing of it, had there been no sanction of a punishment for the former, nor of reward for the latter? I answer, that the sovereignty and justice of God, together with the nature and merit of every action of the creature, will sufficiently account for this, without recurring to any positive sanction of penalties or rewards; it being unquestionably just with God (and natural conscience, with the rÒ YUWOTÒV TOÙ CEO, is sufficient to teach every man that it is so) to punish an action in the nature of it worthy of punishment, though he should not declare by any positive sanction

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beforehand, that he would punish it; and in like manner he may freely reward any good action though he should never oblige himself by any precedent promise so to do. And upon this account it seems to me very remarkable, that in the ten commandments (which are so many particular laws of God) there are seven of the ten without either reward or penalty in the decalogue annexed to them; and no doubt, though God had never expressed either of them elsewhere in the writings of Moses, they had, notwithstanding, been as essentially laws, and as really obliging, as they were afterwards upon the clearest and most express declaration of the said rewards and penalties. And here, I confess, I look upon God's declaring the addition of penalties and rewards to his laws, rather as an effect of his goodness than of his strict justice; nothing, that I know of, obliging him thereunto upon that account. Not but that I acknowledge also, that such a declaration adds great strength to his laws; as to their prevalence upon men to observe them. But for all that, to prevail with men actually to do their duty, and to oblige them to it, are very different things, and proceed upon very different grounds. The laws of men, I own, are extremely lame and defective without these two great props to support them, and very hardly able (especially since the corruption of man's nature by sin) to compass the proper ends of laws upon men barely by the sense of precise duty. So that if there were no rewards or punishments proposed, there would hardly be any actual obedience. However, a law will still be truly and properly a law, so long as it obliges men, though it may be unable to bring them actually to obey it. As a cripple, though never so lame and weak, and even with his legs cut off too, is a man still, and as essentially, though not as integrally so, as he was before.

This I thought fit to discourse about the nature and obligation of laws, penalties, and rewards, upon this occasion. But to return to the high and mighty piece of policy_sublimate, (as I may call it,) toleration. I am far from grudging our dissenters the benefit of the law they have obtained, (if it be such,) and farther from soliciting a repeal of it; but being providentially engaged in the subject I am now upon, I cannot but, as a divine, discharge my conscience both to God and the world, by declaring what I judge, according to the best of my reason, will, and unavoidably must, be the consequences of a thing, which this church and kingdom, ever since they were a church and kingdom, have been wholly strangers to. And because such consequences, if drawn out to the utmost, would be innumerable, I shall only mention one instead of all the rest, as being certain, obvious, and undeniable; and that is, the vast

VOL. I.

increase of sects and heresies amongst us, which, where all restraint is taken off, must of necessity grow to the highest pitch that the devil himself can raise such a Babel to; so that there shall not be one bold ringleading knave or fool, who shall have the confidence to set up a new sect, but shall find proselytes enough to wear his name, and list themselves under his banner of which the Quakers* are a demonstration past all dispute. And then what a vast part of this poor deluded people must of necessity be drawn after these impostors! So that as number and novelty generally run down truth and paucity for a while; the church, and orthodox part of the nation in communion with it, will probably in a short space be overborne and swallowed up by the spreading mischief. And moreover, since it is impossible for government or society to subsist long, where there is no national bond or cement of religion to hold it together, it must quickly dissolve into confusion: and since confusion cannot last always, but that it must in the issue settle into something or other; that something here, no doubt, will and must be popery, popery infallibly and irresistibly: for the church of England being once suppressed, no other church or sect amongst us (for all besides it are no better) has any bottom or foundation, or indeed any tolerable pretence to set up and settle itself upon.

For

And that this fatal consequence thus drawn is neither false nor precarious, we may be assured from the papists themselves. did not their late agent,t who lost his life in their service, and whose letters are so well known, tell us in one of them, "that the way, by which he intended to have popery brought in, was by toleration: and that if an act for general liberty of conscience could be obtained, it would give the greatest blow to the protestant religion here, that ever it received from its birth?" And did he not also complain, "that all their disappointments, miseries, and hazards, were owing to that fatal revocation (as he calls it) of the king's declaration for liberty of conscience?" And lastly, does he not affirm, that all the advantages they expected to make, was by the help of the nonconformists, as presbyterians, independents, and other sects? (I transcribe his own words.) And shall we not here believe, that the papists themselves best knew what were the properest and most efficacious ways for the prosecuting their own interest? Nay, and did not King James II. with great ostentation as well as earnestness, often declare, that he would have a kind of magna charta, (forsooth,) or standing law for liberty of conscience, in this nation for ever? And can we believe, that his design was to keep out popery by * George Fox, an illiterate cobbler, first beginner and head

of them.

+ Coleman.

2 L

this project? No, surely; for such as believe even transubstantiation itself cannot believe this. So that let all our separatists and dissenters know, that they are the pope's journeymen, to carry on his work, (and for ought I know, were but King James amongst us, might be treated, together with his nuncio, at Guildhall.) They are, I say, his tools, to do that for him which he cannot do for himself; (as a carpenter cannot be a hatchet, how effectually soever he may use it.) In a word, they are his harbingers and forerunners to prepare and make plain a way for him to come amongst us; and consequently they, even they, who are the loudest criers out against popery, are the surest and most industrious factors for it. For it is evident to the whole world, that it is their weakening of the church of England by their separation from it, and their insufferable virulent invectives against it, which makes old Renard the pope, with his wolves about him, presume, that he may attack it now (being thus weakened by our encouraged dissenters to his hands) with victory and success. The thief first breaks the hedge and mounds of the vineyard, to fetch away a few clusters; but the wild boar enters by the same breach, and makes havoc of all. But let us in the mean time with all Christian submission wait the good pleasure of Almighty God, and our governors, for one seven years, and by that time I question not but we shall see what this new project tends to, and is like to end in; while, at present, we have but too great reason to believe, that the chief design of some of the busiest contrivers, and most indefatigable promoters of it, was, and is, by such a promiscuous toleration of so many sects and heresies amongst us, to bring the church of England at length to need a toleration itself, and not to have it, when it needs it.

As to which truly primitive church, (whatsoever fate may attend it,) this may and must be said of it, that it is a church which claims nothing of secular power to itself, but, like a poor orphan exposed naked and friendless to the world, pretends to no other helps but the goodness of God, the piety of its principles, and the justness of its own cause, to maintain it a church not born into the world with teeth and talons, like popery and presbytery, but like a lamb, innocent, and defenceless, and silent, not only under the shearer, but under the butcher too; a church, which as it is obedient to the civil power, without any treacherous distinctions or reserves, so would be glad to have the countenance and protec*ion of that power in return for her hearty obedience to it; though after all, if it cannot be protected by it, it is yet resolved to be peaceable and quiet under it, and while it parts with every thing else, to hold fast its integrity.

And now if Almighty God should, for the nation's unworthy and ungrateful usage of so excellent a church, so pure and peaceable a religion, bereave us of it, by letting in upon us the tyranny and superstition of another, it is pity but it should come in its full force and power; and then, I hope, that such as have betrayed and enslaved their country will consider, that there is a temporal, as well as an ecclesiastical interest concerned in the case, and that there are lands to be converted, as well as heretics; and that those who pretend, that they can with a word speaking change the substance of some things, can with as much ease alter the property of others. God's will be done in all things; but if popery ever comes in by English hands, (as I see not how it can come in by any other,) I doubt not but it will fully pay the scores of those who brought it in. But,

3. I come now to the third and last general thing at first proposed, which was to shew, what influence and efficacy a strict adherence to the constitutions of the church, and an absolute refusal to part with any of them, is like to have upon the settlement of the church, and the purity of the gospel amongst us.

As for this I shall shew three ways, by which it tends effectually to procure such a settlement. As,

1. By being the grand and most sovereign means to cause and preserve unity in the church. The Psalmist mentions this as one of the noblest and greatest excellencies of the Jewish church, (Psalm exxii. 3,) that it “was built as a city which is at unity in itself." Unity gives strength, and strength duration. The papists abroad frequently tell the English, that if we could but once be united amongst | ourselves, we should be a formidable church indeed. And for this reason, there was none whom they so mortally hated (I speak upon certain information) as that late renowned archbishop and martyr, whose whole endeavour was to establish a settled uniformity in all the British churches; for his zeal and activity in which glorious attempt the presbyterians cut him off, according to the papists' heart's desire.

Now a resolution to keep all the constitutions of the church, the parts of its service, and the conditions of its communion entire, without lopping off any one of them, must needs unite all the ministers and members of it, while it engages them, as the apostle so passionately exhorts the Corinthians, (1 Cor. i. 10,) to "speak all the same thing." Not that I think that the apostle's meaning is, that all should speak the same thing in the very same words, (though I cannot disprove this neither, as to a considerable part of the divine service.) But this I affirm, that the using the same words (still allowing for the diversity of languages) is the readiest, the

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