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. IV.

That those that find fault with the Consti∣tution of this Church, will never be able to find out or agree upon a better.

IT was seasonable advice which a Mem∣ber of the Long Parliament is said to have propounded then when all were for pul∣ling down, and Desolation was called Re∣formation; That they should do well to let the old Building stand till they had Materials in readiness, and were agreed upon a model of a Fabrick to be set up in the stead of what they destroyed. And not unlike was the Gloss of the Lord Bacon upon the words of the Prophet Jeremy, Chap. 6. 16. Stand up∣on the wayes and inquire for the good way, &c. that is, saith he, Inquire for a better way, but stand upon the old wayes till you have discovered it. And agreeably Mr. Selden, Accuratius circumspiciendae viae omnes, de semitis antiquis consulendum, quae vero sit optima seligenda. And these sayings are not

more valuable for their weight or elegancy, nor for the reputation of their Authors, than considerable in our case. We confess gene∣rally the old way of the Church of England to be right for the main, but certain Circum∣stantials are uneasie to some of us, and they, till those are redrest, will proceed no fur∣ther. But it's reasonable then we should be able to agree upon and produce a better Model, lest instead of having a new Church, we have no Church at all.

For, First, It can never be thought by wise men that such a Society as a Church, can be conserved without some Rites or other, for∣asmuch as no petty Corporation or Compa∣ny can; nor that God can be worshipped without all Circumstance, at least by men, that have Bodies, and are bound to glorifie him with their Bodies as well as Souls.

2. It is as plain, that neither any Society can continue, or any publick Worship be per∣formed, if all Ceremonies and circumstances, such as of time, place, persons and the like, be left indefinite and undetermined; for who shall know whom to obey, whom to hear, where to assemble, or where to meet, if these be not defined?

2. If therefore there must be some deter∣mination in Circumstantials, it must be made either by God or Man; And whether God hath made any such determination in the case we will now consider; and the rather because this is made a popular Theme to de∣claim upon against the Church, and jus di∣vinum is boldly instamped upon those Models that have been designed to supplant it.

Indeed in the Old Testament, so far as con∣cerned the Temple at Jerusalem and the Worship there to be performed, God was very particular in his directions. And we (blind as we are) may discern plain rea∣son for so doing; because both the one and the other, I mean the Temple and the Wor∣ship to be performed thereat, were Mystical and Figurative, and designed by Typical re∣presentations to lead that people into some apprehension of those things that were not then plainly revealed, but were afterwards to be exhibited in the times of the Gospel. Now if it had been lawful for the Jews to have innovated or made alterations in those things whereof they understood not the rea∣sons, they must of necessity have mis-guided themselves, and God had lost the principal end of those institutions. For since (as I

said) they had no sufficient and clear know∣ledge of the things typified, the change in the Rites, (which people (so in the dark) were likely to make,) must of necessity have led them further beside the mark God aimed at; as a Copy the more removes it is from the Original draught, is likely to have less of the Life: and so the effect would have been, that by those alterations they would not have left themselves so much as the shadow to guide them to the knowledge of the substance or body.

But in their Synagogue Worship it is very observable, that they had no such limits set them, nor no such punctual directions given them by Divine Revelation, but were whol∣ly Governed by Prudence and the general reasons of Religion; insomuch that neither the very building of Synagogues, nor any part of the Worship there performed, had any Di∣vine Law concerning it, in all the Old Te∣stament: nor indeed was it needful there should, here being nothing Symbolical (as in the former) but natural Religion, which the notions they had of God, and the com∣mon sense of Mankind was sufficient to guide them in. Or at least, if those common Rules should fall short in any respect, yet by any error of that kind, they could not de∣prive

themselves of any farther advantage or discovery God intended them, as in the Temple worship they might.

Now thus it is in the Gospel; The Chri∣stian Religion being a plain, easie, intelli∣gible and rational way of serving God, it was not necessary that our Saviour or his Apostles should curiously order, or minute∣ly describe what Rites and Circumstances should be used in it, but might safely enough leave those to prudence and expediency; the general reason of so plain and natural a Re∣ligion, being sufficient to secure the Church against any capital mistake. And therefore he that reads the Gospel without coloured Spectacles, will find that our Saviour made it his business to expound the Law, to vindi∣cate it from the corrupt glosses of the Jews, to prescribe men the Rules of true Holiness and Righteousness, to raise them to a noble and generous pitch, and set them an excel∣lent Copy of the Divine Life, and to encou∣rage their endeavours after it, by revealing and demonstrating the Judgement to come, and the rewards in another world; and ne∣ver went about the composure of Laws either of Civil or Ecclesiastical Policy. And for his Apostles, they preached the Gospel of the Kingdom, and gave certain directions

suited to the conditions of the times and places and people respectively, but never composed a standing Ritual for all after∣times; which will be put beyond all dispute by this one Observation, That several things instituted by the Apostles in the Primitive Churches, and given in command in their Sacred Writings, their Epistles, were intend∣ded and so construed to be obliging only so long as circumstances should stand as then they did, and no longer. Of this nature were the Feasts of Love, the Holy Kiss, the Order of Deaconesses; which things with several other are no where, that I know of, now ob∣served, nor is any man scrupled about the abrogation of them. Which is a plain evi∣dence, that the generality of Christians (where passion and prejudice do not mis-guide them) acknowledge it to have been no de∣sign of the Apostles to have strictly obliged men to a certain form of Rituals.

But besides all this, the Religion God in∣stituted amongst the Jews, was only fitted to that people, and appropriate to that place and Countrey, and intended to oblige no bo∣dy else. It was contrived on purpose to di∣stinguish them from all other people in the world, and therefore is called by the Apostle the middle wall of partition,

Eph. 2. 14. And to the end that such sepa∣ration and distance might last, the boundaries of their Rituals must be immoveable. But the Christian Religion was to throw down all Inclosures, to unite all the world under one Head, and make of all Nations one people, and therefore must be left with that freedome as to Circumstantials, as that all Nations, notwithstanding their several Limits, divers Customs and Forms of Government, might be capable of receiving it. For as our Sa∣viour tells us, his Kingdom was not of this world, so he never intended that his Religi∣on should alter the Bounds, or change the Customes, or disturb the Governments of people; but only principle the hearts of men with true holiness and goodness, and so leave them to their distinct Policies. And indeed it was one of the singular advantages of the Christian Religion, and that which made it fit to be the Catholick Religion (that is, of all times, Countreys and people) That the external Policy of it being undetermined, it reconciled it self to the condition and state of things where it came, as well as recom∣mended it self to the minds of men by its rea∣sonableness and goodness. Hereto agrees the known saying of Optatus Millevitanus, Respublica non est in Ecclesia, sed Ecclesia est in Republica, That the Church being con∣tained

in the Civil Society, conforms it self as to Externals, to that which contains it.

Upon all which it is exceedingly evident, That it is very unreasonable to expect, that every Ceremony made use of by Christians should be found prescribed in the Scripture or proved thence, and therefore those that expect to find such definitions in the New Testament, do (as they do too often in other cases, as I have noted heretofore) bring an Old Testament Spirit to the writings of the New, and Jewish prejudices to the Christian Doctrine. And those that can be so fond as to perswade themselves they can find such prescriptions there, it is hard to say whether humour or weakness doth more be∣tray it self in such pretence; for they catch hold of such weak twigs as no body would do, but in desperation of other help, and they plead such obscure passages, as it is a wonder if prejudice it self can be contented with them. And in short, they can as little agree amongst themselves either in the proofs or the things to be proved, as they do with us.

4. If then there must be some determina∣tion of Circumstance or no Society, and God hath made no such determination, what

remains, but that men must? And then who fitter than our Governours who best understand the Civil Policy, and what will suit therewith, and with the customs and inclinations of the people under their Charge? And when such determination is made, what should hinder us from obedi∣ence and conformity thereto, especially when the particulars so determined, (as they are not enjoyned by Scripture, so) are not con∣trary to it, or forbidden by it?

I conclude therefore, Whosoever shall go about to disturb a setled Order, concluded on by good 〈◊〉〈◊〉 men, reverenced and admired by others, incorporated into the Laws of the Land, rivetted by Custome, and that hath now given proof of it self by above an hundred years experience, for the sake of new and unpracticable Notions, shall little consult the real advantage of the present Generation, and less their own repu∣tation for discretion with Posterity.

This occasion brings to my mind, the fa∣mous Story of Pacuvius Calavius of Capua: The people were all in a rage against their Senate; and would needs in a hurry have them all deposed, and have used other out∣rages to their persons. This wise Plebeian

shuts up the Senators all together, and puts a Guard upon them, and then coming to the people, tells them, all was in their power now, advises them to determine their several faces according to their de∣merits one by one. This they very readi∣ly hearkened to. But as they past a Doom upon any one, he approves the Sentence, but before the execution perswades them, to bethink themselves of another and bet∣ter man to be in his Room, since a Senate they could not be without. But here the business stuck, as he had foreseen it would, the people who agreed unanimously against the old Senator, could by no means accord who should succeed, one named this person and another that, but whosoever was named by one party, was rejected by another; that in conclusion, as great a pique as they had conceived against the old Senate, for want of agreement in better men to fill their places, they were constrained to continue them in. I only make this application of the Story, That it is easie and obvious to find fault with things present, but not so to find better for the future. And till that can be done, 'tis neither just to call any thing evil that is the best of its kind, nor done like wise men, to quarrel with a Church

for some infirmities which we know the worst of by long experience, lest thereby we come to have either none at all, or such an one as may give us cause sadly to re∣pent our choice.