An ADVERTISEMENT to the Reader concerning the occasion of the ensuing Lines.  
A Sober and serious Person, lately departing this Life, left the Education of his Children to a Friend of his, of that Class called Presbyterians, Non-Conformists, or Dissenters, whereupon an High Ecclesiastic of the Episcopal way, pretending (it seems) some interest in the deceased, and in order to the vacating of that part of his desires, did in an open Court or Assembly declare, That he had rather see the Children in their Graves, than under the Care and Intuition of such a Person; which Words, as they gave no great content to many of the Hearers, so they administered the occasion to the following Essay; the Author hath much more to speak upon the same Subject, but this was intended only as a brief Stricture, to perstringe and curb that Intemperance, and exacerbation of spirit, which intervenes betwixt those, who are all called Protestants.   

A PLEA FOR MODERATION: OR, A Stricture UPON THE ecclesiastics OF Our Times.  Matth. 18.33. 
Shouldest not thou also have had Compassion on thy Fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee?  Philip. 4.5. 
Let your Moderation be known unto all Men, the Lord is at hand.  
LONDON, Printed for R. Janeway, in Queen's Head Alley in Pater-Noster-Row. 1681.   

A PLEA For Moderation, etc.  
MAny and great are the Vicissitudes of humane Affairs, the All wise Providence of the Almighty permitting changes and alterations here below, that the stupid, unbelieving, and Atheistical World might be convinced both of his Being, and also of his Power, That he is a God, and that he is a God, that judgeth in the Earth, Psalm 58. and the 11. casting down one and setting up another, even as it pleaseth him.  
Nations and People in Scriptural Language are compared unto Waters, the unstablest of all the Elements, which we know hath its Fluxes and Refluxes, its Ebb and Flow, sometimes Rolling towards the Shore in mighty Waves, sometimes receding therefrom, with the like roaring Billows, which seem to be swallowed up in their own Abyss.  
And it is to be observed, as conducive to our purpose, that the said Scriptural Metaphor and Allusion relates to mankind, principally in its Ecclesiastic Reference, as the Book of the Revelations (which is a Church History, wherein the similitude is eminently prosecuted) doth make appear, Revel. 17. and 15. The Waters which thou s●west, whereon the Whore sitteth, are People, and Multitudes, and Nations, and Tongues. And those iterated Monitions in that Book of the Apocalypse, no less than seven times in the second and third Chapter thereof; He that hath ears to hear, let him hear, etc. do afford us this useful observation, That ecclesiastics of all others, are most deaf and unheedful in things relating to their own fatality, and by reason of such inadvertency, are hurried on to such Precipices as tend to their Ruin, and therefore had need to be roused up by some awakening considerations, lest they should continue to tread in those steps which have led others, in the same Circumstances with themselves, to diminution and loss.  
Now the Reasons of this drowsy and careless temper in those, which should be Watchmen unto others, is rendered, Revel. 8. and 7. She saith in her heart, I sit as Queen and am no Widow, and shall see no sorrow. Present ease drowns all thoughts of future harms; the concerns of others under sufferings, do not otherwise affect the spirits of such men, than to make an Accession thereto by triumphing over them, and thereupon sending gifts one to another, as after a complete Conquest. Add hereunto, that the Ivy growing up by the Oak (1.) the Ecclesiastic Power supported by the secular, is secure of its own station, and looks down with di●●●ciency upon his undervalved Opponent.  
But humane Dignities, not grafted on a divine Stock, are not always long lived, neither can they give the present owners a just Ground and Title to the hopes of a perpetuated and uninterrupted possession; God reserves so much of the Government of the World in his own immediate hands, that high places have been found slippery, by those who have thought themselves most secure and established therein; and there is no greater prognostic of a declension at hand, than an high degree of confidence, Revel. 18.8. Therefore shall her Plagues come, etc.  
It cannot justly be denied, but that Party of ecclesiastics amongst us, which goes under the Name of Presbyterian, had a very great Influence on the Restoration of His Majesty; the Episcopal Clergy (unless in their wishes and desires) contributing but little thereunto, and indeed they were incapacitated to add much, as being outed by the then Powers; and besides, were no high Favourites of the People. And whether their actings, since their Restitution have been for the 〈…〉 as and affections time will show. Now that such a considerable body and so highly demeriting in so grand an Affair, should have the Garland plucked from their head; and instead of a privilege meet with a vilification, and a disappointment of so deep a dye, as in offect to be accounted the sole Troublers of our Israel; in respect of God, all men must be silent and admire his Providence, bue in reference to the men, who are the Instruments of such returns, I will not say, where is your Gratitude? but where is your Common Reason and Understanding? certainly you must have vented your passions at a greater distance, if your Adversaries (for so they seem to be accounted) had not called you home to their own doors.  
But to take matters as they are at present, whether the Church should be governed by a Superintendent Paramount, call him by what name you will, Patriarch, Bishop, etc. or else by an Assembly of Elders? is not the dispute of our Age one, it was born before us, and is likely to last, when our days are ended; there are Great names on both sides, magno se judice quisquè tuetur.  
'Tis not my present design to launch out into the grand Controversy, but if what I say can be influential: to a just and equal Moderation, and may tend to allay the too much hear, animosity, and acerbity of Spirit, amongst Church men, I have my end.  
I look upon Interest, Self-love and Desire of revenge to be the great Make-bates, and disuniters of those who should an agree in one common Design for the saving of Souls; by Interest, I mean a carnal and worldly one, such as grows upon the unregenerate stock of a vindicative mind, and hath its place in all men, as far as they are inwardly unrenewed.  
'Tis fresh in the memoties of some; Who were the Instruments of their Abasement, and that Such should have any privilege under their restored Government, what reason? This is the Voice of interested self, and by this means the Potsherds of the Earth, dash one against another, till both (as may be feared) come to be broken.  
These differences are the more unhappy, because the Matters in dispute are not Doctrinal, nor belonging to the Essentials of Religion, but confessedly grounded on humane Ordinances and Constitutions, which may or may not be, as the Governor of the World shall think fit. Why then should such havoc be made on occasion of such foreign and adventitious things, which concern not the Vitals of Religion. In the strict exercises of true Piety and holiness, men cannot be too exact, but in supper added Inventions, though enjoined by humane Laws, a man may be righteous over much. And unless this Tenent be granted by Protestants of all persuasions, we shall hardly be able to strike out those Weapons out of the hands of the Papists, which they brandish against us in these Controversies.  
For on what foot, I pray do all their Chrisoms, Cringing, Vestments, Cross, Copes, and other their superstitious Implements and practices stand, but upon Church Constitution and Privilege? in favour whereof, they are also backed with municipal Laws; take away that foundation, and they all fall to the ground. That portion of Scripture which is usually alleged in their defence; Let all things be done decently and in order, hath been so squeezed by malign and distorted interpretations, that little of its own juice is left therein: For whereas the Apostle enjoins the due and decent observation of those Rules and Orders in the Worship of God, which he himself, being divinely inspired thereunto, had before set down; Each party unwarrantably assuming Apostolical Power, makes it a Buckler to defend its own Authority, in enacting such Church Canons, as they themselves shall please, and in challenging obedience to those Canons, so enacted.  
But because our high ecclesiastics do propound the Reformation made in Queen Elizabeth's days, and the procedures thereupon, to be a Rule for their severities in our times; I shall crave leave to mind them of a pair of Instances of four Learned men, the Heads of their several Parties at that time; the consideration of which might somewhat abate the heat of opposition against Dissenting Brethren.  
First, The one is of Arch Bishop Whitguift, and Mr. Thomas Cartwright.  
Secondly, The other of Mr. Richard Hooker, and Mr. Walter Travers, Chaplain to the Lord Treasurer Burghly, all four eminent in their respective References. Whitguift and Hooker for the Ecclesiastical Government (as then Established) and the imposed Ceremonies; Cartwright, and Travers against them.  
Archbishop Whitguift was known to be a great Zealot for the English Hierarchy, and Ceremonies, when he was in Cambridge, where the opposition betwixt him and Mr. Cartwright did begin; but after he was advanced to the Arch Bishopric of Canterbury, and to the Degree of all Privy Counsellor, he was armed with greater Power, to crush his Adversaries and Opponents. The Controversies managed betwixt him and Cartwright on the forementioned Heads, are sufficiently declared and canvased in the first and second Admonition to the then Parliament, made by Mr. Cartwright; in Whitguift's Answer thereunto; in Cartwright's Reply to that Answer, and Whitguift's rejoinder to that Reply, to which the Books being extant, the Reader is referred.  
2. Mr. Cartwright is charactered (very candidly) by a late Episcopal Divine to have been an excellent Scholar, pure Latinist, accurate Grecian, exact Hebrician. And soon after the same Author affirms of him, That no English Champion in that Age, did with more valour and success charge and rout the Romish Enemy in matter of Doctrine, Fuller's Church History Book ninth.  
And indeed he was of that Eminency abroad, that being in trouble here for his Conscience, King James was pleased to send a Letter Dated Edinburgh, June the 12th, 1591. (which is yet to be seen in Print) to Queen Elizabeth in his behalf; yea, the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, perceiving how he was molested here in England; desired him by their Letters (since also Printed) to come to them and be their Divinity Professor in that Place. Besides his Zeal for the Protestant Religion, and the Doctrinal Part thereof was so well known, that in the Judgement of Secretary Walsing ham, and of the then Heads of Houses in Cambridge, he was judged the fittest man, to answer the Rhemish Translation of the New Testament, which work (at the Instance of the Persons aforesaid, being undertaken by him) was at last brought near to a Conclusion; and remains in Print as a Monument of his Learned Activity and Pains against the Emissaries of the Roman Church. And though all those, who excited his Endeavours to that Work, knew how he stood affected to the Hierarchy, or Ecclesiastic Government in England; yet it seems his Non-concurrence therewith, was not, in their Eyes, a sufficient Argument to supersede his pains, in coping with our Romish Adversaries.  
'Tis true, he was so unsatisfied with the imposed Ceremonies in England, that when he was but Fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge, one day Preaching in the Chapel, he did so convincingly inveigh against the imposition of significant Ceremonies in the worshipping of God, that at the Afternoon's Prayer all the Students of that House, (except three) left off their Surplices, as superstitious things; Fuller's History of Cambridge.  
Though Mr. Cartwright was clothed with these Circumstances, yet after many Bicker, with the Archbishop, and some sufferings of his own, he was permitted at length, either by approbation or connivance, to exercise his Ministry peaceably about Warwick, being also there the Master of a Rich Hospital, with good accommodations belonging to that Preferment. And the Respects he received from the Archbishop, his ancient Antagonist, are gratefully taken notice of, by the then Earl of Leicester, in a Letter of his to the said Archbishop, beginning thus, My good Lord, I most hearty thank you, for your favourable and courteous usage of Mr. Cartwright. To which the Archbishop made this Return, My singular good Lord, Mr. Cartwright shall be welcome to me at all times, etc. Both the Letters are extant in Mr. Thomas Fuller's Church History.  
It were to be wished, that those who imitate this Archbishop in his Severities, would at length be softened into the like tenderness, and moderation. Neither was the Arch-Bishops Friendship limited to Cartwright's Person alone, but those of the same Sentiment with himself, did also participate thereof. Yea, when the City of Geneva some few years after was distressed by the Duke of Savoy, he was a great Instrument with the Prelates and Clergy to procure and send their seasonable Relief, though he knew their Form of Government to be different from that in England; a benevolence, which is very questionable, whether many of his Successors would have imitated, who rather behold Geneva as a Seminary of Malcontents against the Ecclesiastical Government of England; though indeed a late Episcopal Divine hath ingeniously crowned it with the Epithet of The Nursery of the Reformed Religion.  
2. The other Instance is in Mr. Richard Hooker, and Mr. Walter Travers, both very Eminent, though, compared with the former Couple, moving in a more inferior Orb.  
Mr. Hooker was a Preacher at the Temple, well known by his Book of Ecclesiastical Policy, wherein he hath showed himself a Champion, for the present Constitution of Church Government in England. Mr. Travers was, at the same time Lecturer there, whose Doctrine did oftentimes thwart the others, especially in matters relating to Discipline.  
Secondly, This Mr. Travers was well known to Beza, and others of that Reformation, to which he was addicted; his Utterance was grateful, Gesture plausible, Matter profitable, Method plain, and his Style carried in it Indolem Pietatis, a Genius of Grace flowing from his sanctified heart. Thus a late Episcopal Protestant concerning him, Fuller's Church History, Book 9th.  
The Truth is, his Abilities were such, that he was also sent for into Scotland, as well as Mr. Cartwright, to be one of the Professors of Divinity at St. Andrews; And he was after made Provost of Trinity College by Dublin, being the second Provost thereof. This man being as it is thought by Mr. Hooker's difference and complaint silenced by the Arch Bishop; yet in the midst of the Paroxysm betwixt them, being demanded, upon some Aspersion cast upon Mr. Hooker, what he thought of it and him? answered temperately, that he believed Mr. Hooker to be a holy man. And if holiness be the way to happiness in the full enjoyment of God, 'tis pity that those, who walk in the same way, should not all be allowed to do their Master's Work, without silencing, suspending, or degrading one another.  
And the rather, because God hath formerly, now doth, and hereafter will appear, and manifest himself in various dispensations to the Sons of men. The true Unity is that in the Spirit, as for compelled Uniformity to outward Modes and Forms of Worship, it hath been the Apple of Contention for many Ages in the Church.  
There were differences in the Apprehension of divine things amongst Christians, even in the Apostles days, from whence arose contrary practices in point of Worship; To eat, and not to eat, to observe a day, and not to observe a day, Rom. 14.2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Yet both acted what they did to the Lord. Now what Rule doth the Apostle give in this Case? doth he excite to external Uniformity by threats or punishments? Nay, his advice is rather to the Governors of the Church, as well as private Christians, to use a mutual forbearance one towards another, who art thou that judgest another man's servant? Intimating by that Increpation, that as there is a proneness in man to set himself down in the Chair of Judgement, from thence to censure his Dissenting Brethren, so that temper is to be condemned and avoided.  
To make that Advice, or rather Reproof of the Apostle, the more plain, we may consider, that God, who is but one, yet as he stands at the Head of several Dispensations, he may be called many Masters, in relation to those various and different Injunctions and Commands given unto his Servants, under these several Administrations respectively.  
Thus he may be said, to be one Master to the Jew, who, in their Pedagogy, were commanded to serve him in Types and Figures; and another to the Christian Gentile, who was enjoined to a more Spiritual Worship in the Room of those Types. Other Instances might be also given of Christians of several Forms, who serve God according to their Light, as their respective Master under each Class. And in some sense it is for the Glory of the Grace of God, to have it diversified into several appearances, and to have faithful Entertainers thereof in each appearance, acting suitably thereunto, which will doubtless be accepted by him, and is also most comfortable to themselves. For the joy and acquiescence of a Christian, in the Duties he performs, doth not arise from his Uniformity and compliance with others therein, but from the inward satisfaction and complacency, which he hath in his own mind, according to that, Rom. 14. and ult. Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin.  
If in such Cases, all things be acted merely by Power, there was a time when Christianity itself, as to man was on the weaker side: Let us not justify the Sanguinary Cruelty of Heathen Persecutors, by insisting on the same Methods; mere force is but a brutish Argument, and not sanctified by God, for such a Divine Use (I mean in Gospel times) as the conviction of Sinners, or the reducing those, which are gone astray. Convince your Brethren, if you can by Scriptural Argument and Reason, but press them not to act contrary to their own Persuasions, which were to sin against Conscience, which is God's Vicegerent in the Soul, and whose Dictates are to be complied with, whatsoever some men command, or others suffer to the contrary. I know the Note of singularity and Schism is usually imputed to Dissenting Brethren by their Contrariants. To which I say, the same Brand hath been enured by Popish Writers on Luther, and all our first Reformers, and may also be affixed (but unjustly) on the Beginners and Promoters of all Reformations in the World, where Custom hath made some corrupt practices Epidemical. Whereas it rather concerns Church Governors to inquire, whether the things excepted against come not within the Notion of sinful Usages, and so fit to be abolished? And if upon Enquiry, they should be found to be but indifferent and controverted things, yet the Words of Mr. Hales late of Eton, an Eminent and Learned Divine of the Episcopal persuasion, do evince, that the limiting Church-Communion to things of doubtful Disputation hath been in all Ages the Ground of Schism and Separation. Take his Mind in his own Expressions, which are very weighty and considerable.  
To load our Public Forms (saith he) with the Private Fancies, upon which we differ, is the most sovereign way to perpetuate, Schism to the Worlds End. Prayer, Confession, Thanksgiving, Reading of the Scriptures, and Administration of the Sacraments, in the plainest and simplest manner, were matter enough to furnish a sufficient Liturgy, though nothing either of Private Opinion, or of Church Pomp, of Garments, or prescribed Gestures, of Imagery, of Music, of Matter concerning the Dead, of many Superfluities which creep into the Church, under the Name of Order and Decency, did interpose itself. To charge Churches and Liturgies with things unnecessary, was the first beginning of all Superstition; And when scruple of Conscience began, or was pretended, than Schism began to break in. If the special Guides and Fathers of the Church would be a little sparing of encumbering Churches with Superfluities, or not overrigid, either in reviving obsolete Customs or imposing new, there would be far less cause of Schism, Superstition; and all the inconveniencies were likely to ensue, would be but this, they should in so doing yield a little to the imbecility of their Inferiors, a thing which St. Paul would never have refused to do. Mean while, whatsoever false or suspected Opinions are made a piece of Church Liturgy; He that separates is not the Schismatic, for it is alike unlawful to make profession of known or suspected Falsehood, as to put in practice unlawful or suspected Actions. Thus far Herald  
Object. But you will say, indifferent things, when commanded by the Authority of the Magistrate, are made necessary.  
Answ. The Interposal of Civil Authority in controverted Points of Divinity, hath occasioned great Havoc in the World; the Magistrate is the Asylum, which every Party, when uppermost, usually repairs to, from the Pope to the Patriarch, from the Patriarch to the Prelate, from the Prelate to the ecclesiastics of inferior Orders and Denominations.  
In former days, when the High Commission (whose Judges were principally ecclesiastics) was in force amongst us, many Causes were out of Policy of the Clergy transmitted from thence, into the Star-Chamber, where the Temporal Lords were also Judges, that so the Envy of their proceed might be shared among the Secular Lords; Though Churchmen were, in Ecclesiastical Causes, the Chief Actors therein, as appeared by the late Archbishop of Canterbury, who ushered in the Censures of Mr. Prynne, Burton and Bastwick, in a large and severe Speech made in that Court, and in the present Plea, Antiquum obtinent: for the Truth is, such Laws were made at the Instance of ecclesiastics, and in their favour; so that the Censures grounded thereupon, are in effect their own, but in another mode and diversification. Let our present Ecclesiastical Governors declare, that all Persecution for Conscience sake is an unlawful thing, and let them improve their Interest in the Civil Magistrate, for the abrogating of those Laws which countenance it, and then it will appear, at whose Doors the Severities complained of do lie, theirs or the Magistrates?  
I will not now dispute whether set and imposed Forms of Prayers, called Liturgies, be lawful yea or no? This I shall say, whatsoever some allege for the Antiquity of them, yet several of the Fathers of the Primitive Church sufficiently intimate to us, that the Churches, soon after the Apostles Days, used the Personal Abilities of their Pastors in prayer, without enjoining any prescribed Forms. Neither doth it appear (as the Ministers authorised to review the Liturgy since His majesty's Restauration have observed in their due account) that Christ ever appointed any such to an Office, as to make prayers for other Pastors, and Churches to offer up to God, Page 24. and in p. 23. They say, that the Common-Prayer, in most of the Vulgar, causeth a Relaxation of their Intention, and Attention, and a lazy taking up with a Corpse or Image of Devotion, even in the Service of the Lips, while the Heart is little sensible, of what is said. The reason of which their Assertion may be fetched from Page 23. of the said Discourse, which take in their own Words. Whatsoever can be expected duly to affect the Heart, must keep the Intellect and all the Faculties awake in diligent Attention and Exercise, and in the use of a Form, which we have frequently heard and read, the Faculties are not so necessitated and urged to Attention and serious Exercise, as they be, when from our understanding, we set about the natural Work of Representing to others, what we discern and feel: Man's mind is naturally slothful, and will take its ease, and remit its seriousness, longer than it is drawn out by delight; When we know before hand that we have no more to do, but read a Prayer or Homily, we shall ordinarily be in danger of letting our minds go another way, and think of other matters, and be senseless of the Work in hand. Thus they.  
Neither shall I enumerate, the particular things, excepted against, in our prescribed Liturgy, because the Primate of Ireland, Archbishop of York, and other Episcopal Divines, as well as others, have had Meetings formerly for the Reformation of the Liturgy used in England, before the late Civil Wars, and drew up a Catalogue (wherein the Cross in Baptism, was particularly laid aside) of faults that needed mending, yet to be seen in Print, few of which have been amended in the Liturgy now in use.  
I shall conclude all with that Objection of Conformists against their Dissenting Brethren. That they are not now so considerable for Interest and other Respects, as they were in Queen Elizabeth's Days, and therefore justly slighted by them.  
To which I answer.  
1. 'Twas never accounted the part of a Wise and prudent General to despise and undervalue an Enemy, though inferior to him in number and other References: Those who have done so, have been convinced of their mistake and folly to their loss and shame.  
2. If those who have the Advantages of more liberal and ingenious Education, by having all Stipends, Exhibitions, Allowances, Salaries, and other Helps running down to them alone in a Legal Channel (such is the Case of Conformists) do not surmount their ordinary Brethren, who are deprived of those advantages, certainly they would be very unexcusable both before God and Man.  
3. Neither is the Dissenting Party so inconsiderable on the mentioned accounts, but that indifferent men can smile at the weakness of the Objection. Who more assiduous in Labours than they? Who more and greater searchers of Conscience in plain and profitable (which is the best) Preaching? Who greater Examples of a pious and exemplary life? I shall not instance in their Numbers, because that of itself is no sufficient Argument, We are not to follow a Multitude to do evil: Vnus Athanasius contra totum Mundum, & Totus Mundus contra unum Athanasium, is a known Adage in the Case of the Arians. Only this is worthy to be observed, that in the Memory of some now living, when things ran in another Channel, as to Ecclesiastical Government, for I meddle not with the Civil) than they do now, but a few years, yet then many Parishes in England began to be supplied with diligent Preachers, though the present Form of our Church Government was not visible amongst us: so that if ever King and Parliament in England should reduce things to the like circumstances, who knows how many seven thousands may start up, who are yet unknown to the Elijah's of Israel.  
In Conclusion, I think this with Truth and Modesty may be affirmed; That the Labours of those called Non-Conformists are of great use, and worthy to be retained in our English Church, especially when so many designers are at Work to undermine and blow up the Protestant Reform Religion, to which the Party contended for is a great Bulwark. For it is not our Ecclesiastical Discipline alone, which can exclude Popery, unless the clear and saving Doctrines of the Gospel be effectuary urged upon the Consciences of men, for the establishing of their Hearts in the Truth against the Dark and Superstitious Positions of the Papal Church. And in this Work Non-Conformists are usefully employed, and that out of a Principle and Love to Truth (as far as men can judge) because they proceed therein against many Discouragements, Slanders. Evil Reports, and in the midst of many sufferings of their own, all which fight against, and might worst them, if they were not divinely assisted from above.  
FINIS.