A serious and compassionate inquiry into the causes of the present neglect and contempt of the Protestant religion and Church of England with several seasonable considerations offer'd to all English Protestants, tending to perswade them to a complyance with and conformity to the religion and government of this church as it is established by the laws of the Kingdom.

CHAP. X.

The danger by our Distractions and Di∣visions.

IF neither the consideration of the sin of Schism, nor of the dishonour to our Re∣ligion by our divisions will prevail to unite us, yet perhaps the apprehension of Danger may.

It was observed of old, that the Conquest of this Island by the Romans was facilitated by the Intestine divisions of the Inhabitants, and said, dum singuli pugnant universi vin∣cuntur; whereas had they consulted in com∣mon, and made a joynt defence, they had doubtless either preserved their liberty, or at least sold it at a dearer rate. And we have too great cause to fear the Religions interests of this Nation now, may be endan∣gered upon the same point that the Civil

were lost then; I mean, that whilest we contend with one another, and with our Rulers about little things, we lose the main, and by the opportunity of our Divisions and Subdivisi∣ons, a common enemy break in upon us.

It is certain, that no advantage can more encourage the attempt or befriend the designs of our Adversaries, than the present conditi∣on of our affairs; and therefore unless we could be so fond as to perswade our selves we have no enemies, or so mad as to think them as secure and supine as our selves, it must be unreasonable presumption to think our selves safe in this distracted condition. But because it is observed of Englishmen, that they generally (as conscious to them∣selves of their own undaunted courage in en∣counting dangers) are less vigilant against the approaches of them, I shall therefore for a conclusion, rather hazard the being ac∣counted timorous my self, than that others should be secure and so surprized, and endea∣vour to unite the minds of all true Prote∣stants of this Kingdom, by representing the joynt danger by a threefold enemy ready to attacque them, viz. Atheism, Popery, Fana∣ticism.

1. Atheism. He that hath not observed the prodigious growth and progress of this Mon∣ster in this last Age, and what confidence it is arrived at above the proportion of for∣mer times, either hath lived to little purpose, having made no observation of what hath past by him, or is intolerably overweening to some private opinion.

Heretofore it was only the fool that said there was no God; but now this name Athe∣ist, speaks a Wit and a man of more than ordinary sagacity: And those that were ei∣ther so foolish or so abandoned of all reason and goodness as to doubt whether there was a God or no, yet were not so immodest as to profess their Infidelity, as the Psalmist ex∣presses it, they said in their heart there was no God, but made it not an Hypothesis or a profest Tenet. Time was, that only some hated villain, some man of abject-spirit and desperate fortunes was thought capable of such black impressions, and that nothing but the brawniness of mens consciences or the hopelesness of their condition could be∣tray them to but the suspicious of such a thing; and those that had any taint of it,

the light, and were only to be found in Gaols and Brothel-houses: Now the Atheist is become a Gallant, an Hector, and this uncircumcised Philistin appears armed, and defies the Armies of Israel. The general contempt that such men lay under was such, that heretofore they were not thought fit to live in a Common-wealth, but now they have gotten such heart as to think themselves the only fit persons to prescribe Laws and Models of Government.

It is not uneasie to unfold all the causes that have concurred to the unhappy growth of this extream evil; nor is it necessary that I should now undertake it: yet I pre∣sume I shall easily obtain the Readers par∣don if I gratifie my own and his curiosity so far as to make a little digression to ob∣serve the motion of so unusual and prodigi∣ous a Phaenomenon.

And in the first place it is an Observati∣on of the Lord Bacon's, That Superstition in the foregoing Age, usually becomes Atheism in the succeeding generation. And so it is like∣ly the seeds were sown in the late times, though the unhappy fruit appears but now.

For when witty men shall observe that the generality of those that pretend to the highest pitch of Religion, do either repre∣sent God Almighty so incredibly and contrary to the natural notions men have of him, or Religion so apishly and ridiculously (as is the Genius of Superstition to do) It will be very ready and easie to them to conclude, there is no reality either in the one or the other: Especially if those happen to make the ob∣servation, whose vicious and desperate courses have made it become their interest that there should be no such things. When men shall see the most absurd Propositions, and such as they are sure cannot be true, received with the same credulity, and recommended and contended for with the same zeal that the most certain and most essential points of Re∣ligion are or should be, what can be more na∣tural, than to think those things alike true, that are alike imbraced and have equal stress laid upon them? And then the result is plain, that seeing some are notoriously false, there∣fore it seems more than probable to them that the rest are so too. It is in this case as in the hearing of Civil Causes, when it appears to the Judges, that there is false play made use of and some suborned Witnesses brought to

give evidence, they are hereby prejudiced against the rest.

And (which is further considerable) it is very probable that those very men that were formerly sunk into the mire of the aforesaid Superstitions, may afterwards when they hap∣pen to emerge out of their delusions, make up a considerable part of the Atheists them∣selves. For by the same reason we gave be∣fore, these men finding themselves cheated and imposed upon even in these very points that they were as confident of, as of the Arti∣cles of the Creed, grow hence to suspect even them too, forasmuch as with them it hath no better foundation than the things that now are apparently false: And thus from too large and prodigious a Creed they come to have no Faith at all. When they discover that they believed many things with∣out ground, they think now they have ground to believe nothing, and from fierce and hot Bigots, become cold Scepticks and Atheists.

In the second place I suspect the lewd practices that have gone under the cloak and countenance of Religion, have had a

great hand in this mischief also. That not only the prodigious Faith, but the monstrous Life of some great pretenders to Religion hath made men scorn and abhorr the very notion of it. When not only mens ridi∣culous Follies, but also their Vices, their Pride, and Passion, and Rancour shall be father'd upon the Spirit of God (as we know when and where such things have been done) when men shall seek God for all the Villanies they are resolved to com∣mit, when they make long Prayers to de∣vour Widows houses, and proclaim a Fast that they may kill and take possession; when Religion shall be prostituted to all bad designs, and in nomine Domini incipit omne malum: when, I say, the most spe∣cious Profession is a cloke for the vilest Knavery; It cannot be much wondered if such men as I described before, be inclined by these things to think there is no reality in any of the discourses of God and Reli∣gion. For as, if a man were to observe whether the Sun was risen upon the Hemi∣sphere, he would direct his eyes to the tops of Mountains, expecting to see him display∣ing his beams first upon them that are near∣est Heaven: So a man would think if there

were any such thing as Religion and a sense of Divinity amongst men, it should be found amongst those that have alwayes God in their mouths, and such a Garb of Reli∣gion upon them. But if he find himself disappointed here, and that these men that pretend so high, have as great Sensualities, Passions, Covetousness, Malice as other men, he will despair of finding it any where, and conclude with Brutus, O virtus, quae∣sivi te ut rem, sed tantùm merum nomen es, that there is no such thing at all.

3. To the aforesaid Causes we may well add the perpetual Janglings and Disputes between Professors of Religion, as not on∣ly making Religion unlovely, but even cal∣ling it wholly into question. When so many shall tell us there is such a place and state as Heaven and a World to come, but every one tells us a several way thither; witty men who know that all cannot be true, but all may be false, think it not comporting with their discretion to take the pains of the journey, till the Guides shall be agreed of the way. The disagreement of the two rank Elders in their testimony against Susannah's chastity, whilest one said

the fault was done under one kind of Tree and the other under another, discovered her Innocency and their Hypocrisie.

It is true indeed, there may and must be diversities of apprehensions in several points of Christianity, whilest men are of different capacities, and this need not, nor if things be modestly carryed, will give any just ad∣vantage to the Atheist. But when every private opinion is made necessary to salvati∣on, and men pronounce damnation against one another upon every little diversity, when they make as many Religions as there are Opinions, and as many Wayes to Heaven, as there are Notions amongst men, it cannot be hoped, but that the cold Sceptick should be incouraged in his Neutrality.

4. But if to all these we consider with what rancour and malice the several Parties prosecute one another, what odious and de∣famatory Libels, and bitter Invectives they write one against another, wherein all the secret follies of each party are blazed and published, all the errors aggravated, all the Opinions racked to confess blasphemy in their owners and defenders; one party said

to make God a Tyrant, the other to deny his Wisdom, or Soveraignty; the one side accused of Idolatry, the other of Rebellion: he, I say, that considers how usual all this is, and how ready all those that have no good mind to Religion are to catch up the darts that each of the parties cast at each other, and make use of them against both, and with what seeming Reason they conclude, that the Confession of the Parties against each other, and their mutual Im∣peachments of each other should argue the guilt of both, and observes that all the de∣famatory Sermons and Libels that men write in heat and passion against each other, (wherein they charge folly, blasphemy and nonsense upon each other reciprocally) at last rebound or are retorted upon the wheel of Religion, cannot be altogether to seek of the rise of the Atheism of this Age. But whether these be the principal causes of the great appearance which Atheism makes in this Age above the proportion of other times, or whether there be other of a more latent and malignant influence, I shall not further enquire at present, since it is mani∣fest, that the matter of Fact is true, and that being so, the danger to Religion can∣not

be obscure. We have reason therefore better to govern our passions and lay aside our animosities for the future, and to unite our forces in an uniform order of Religion against this common enemy, lest the gravi∣ty and piety of this Nation end in Buffoon∣ry, and our best heat and spirits being spent upon one another, or against our Governours, the mortal symptome of a cold clammy stu∣pid Atheism succeed.

2. Popery, is another Hannibal ad portas, an enemy that watches but till our Divisi∣ons shall open the Gates to him. I hope I need not exaggerate the formidableness of Po∣pery to those that remember either eighteen thousand souls dispatcht out of the World by the hands of the common Hangman in about three years time in the Low Coun∣treyes under the Government of the Duke of Alva, or the French Massacre, or Queen Maries Reign in England, or the Gunpow∣der Treason. There was a clause in our Litany in Henry the Eighths and Edward the Sixths time, From the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and his detestable enormi∣ties, Good Lord deliver us; and upon what reasons soever it was since left out, it was

not certainly, because either their Errors are less enormous, or their Spirits less cruel; but God forbid, that because they at present hide their Teeth, we should think they can∣not or will not bite, for if we should be so good natur'd as to warm this Snake in our bosomes that now pretends to have neither power nor will to hurt us, I doubt we should quickly find it to resume its malice and poison together with its warmth and strength.

If any one shall be so hardy as to appre∣hend there is no danger of its return in this Nation, I pray God his foresight be as great as his courage; but he that considers the following Circumstances will think it advise∣able not to be over secure. For,

1. It is not with this party as with any other Sect whatsoever, these have a For∣reign Head and great interests abroad, the Pope and all the Popish Princes to unite, to direct, to animate and imploy them, which must needs render them very dange∣rous to any State that is inclined to middle counsels, that is, that doth not either ef∣fectually please them, or effectually disable

them. And upon this account the Turkish Sultan (who hath scarcely any need to learn reason of State from any body) uses the Latin Christians with greater caution and severity under his Dominion than the Greek, because he accounts the former al∣wayes dangerous upon account of their For∣reign Head and Alliance.

2. We cannot but observe how diligent they have been of late, how full of pro∣jects, and how erect their minds with ex∣pectation of some success. They hereto∣fore walked in Masquerade, disguised them∣selves sometimes in the habit of one Sect and sometimes of another; but of late they have had the confidence to lay off their disguise and play a more open game: And such are the numbers of their Emissaries, so desperate and daring are the Bigots of that party, and so close and crafty are their Insinuations, that we have little reason to think our selves out of danger, especially whilest we have such Divisions and Distractions amongst our selves as at once both incourage them to attempt upon us, and also furnish them with a very popular argument to use with soft∣minded and weakly principled Protestants to

draw them off from us, namely, the consi∣deration of the Divisions in our Church, and the perfect Unity in theirs.

For prevention of all which, there seems no way so effectual as that we learn, if not to submit our private quarrels to the publick Magistrate, yet to publick safety, lest whilest the Gamesters quarrell, those that sit by sweep the stakes. And certainly it's more adviseable to sacrifice our Opinions to our Safety, than our Religion and Liberty to our Humours and Opinions. And although blessed be God, we have now a Prince to whom the Protestant Religion came sealed with his Fathers Blood, and who in his own unhappy Exile had however this ad∣vantage to be well aware of the cheats and impostures, as well as the designs of that Faction: yet if ever it should be our for∣tune to have a Prince indifferent in Reli∣gion, and who preferred his own quiet be∣fore the Civil or Spiritual Interests of his people; the unreasonable petulancies we be∣tray, our untractableness by fair means, and our endless disputes and unnecessary scrupu∣losities would tempt such a Prince (grow∣ing weary of the burden of our unquietness,

and despairing otherwise of bringing us to obedience) to put us under the insolence of that hard-hearted Pharaoh, whose little Fin∣ger would prove heavier than the Loyns of all our present Governours, and set Aegyp∣tian Task-masters over us to break our Spi∣rits by bitter bondage; which Gods Mercy and our Wisdom for the future will I hope prevent.

But if we should escape both these dangers, yet our Divisions and Distractions continu∣ing, there is a third danger that I do not see how it is avoidable. And that is,

3. Fanaticism. For it is not imaginable, but that the Church growing into contempt, and Laws into daily neglect, that things can long stand at this pass, but some change or other must ensue; and if Popery come not in to chastize our follies, nor Atheism (that damp of the bottomless Pit) come over us and stifle all our life and warmth of Religion, but that we must (the aforesaid causes re∣maining and daily increasing) fall into a Religious Phrensie, or that raging Calen∣ture I last named. What that is, and what the insufferable mischiefs of it are, I need

not represent. It is, in short, instead of Church Government to have a Spiritual A∣narchy, where the hottest head is made the highest Governour; where Pride and Impu∣dence are the only qualifications of a Preach∣er; where Humour is called Conscience, and Novelty Religion. This, for ought I can see, is like to be our condition, if nei∣ther the Atheist nor Papist succeed in their projects. But if any man shall be so fond as to hope we shall not fall thus low, but may stay in Presbytery, I shall say but this, Let such person consider how few and incon∣siderable that party is, compared with the vast numbers of Quakers, Ranters, Fifth∣Monarchy-men, Anabaptists, Antinomians, &c. and how little acceptable the Presby∣terian way or interest is to any of those Fa∣ctions, and therefore how unlikly to be set up by their means: But especially let it be remembred that when that Party had the Ball at their soot, they were not able to keep it, but lost it and the Goal too, to those more numerous and adventurous Game∣sters. I therefore say again, I cannot appre∣hend, but that there must be a better union and complyance with the Church of En∣gland, or I do not see it possible, but we

must fall into one or other of the aforesaid dangers. And the calamity will then be so great which way soever we fall, that I pro∣test I think every honest minded Protestant ought to be inclined to bear with cheerful∣ness whatsoever burdens our Superiours can be suspected capable of imposing upon us, rather than make experiment of the danger.